Nuvrei's MAC BAR in the Pearl

                   

Nuvrei Pâtisserie & Cafe has decided to step up their game and provide Portland with it's very own MAC bar. I had the privilege of attending a launch party where I was able to sample croissants, macarons and bagels...all house made. I have only visited Nuvrei one other time and clearly, I have been missing out. The almond croissant I took with me barely made it out of the car. I mean really, a fresh croissant needs to be eaten on the spot. 

When I arrived, my mouth was welcomed with a buttery, warm croissant (yup...I had two) before I even had a chance to walk in the door. Oh yeah, why am I here again? The macarons...let me get back on track. Nuvrei has always had a great reputation for their perfect macarons and now they have a special  MAC BAR to feature all their incredible flavors. My favorite of the night was chai but I also sampled chestnut, hazelnut and white chocolate. Next time I visit, I want to try earl grey and espresso. Nothing like having dessert for dinner! My kind of night. 

This is great place to stop and cozy upThe Pearl District or if you are looking to give the gift of dessert, stop in for a dozen macarons. Oh and their coffee is from Heart Coffee Roasters, which is a bonus!

Nuvrei

404 NW 10th Avenue

Portland, Oregon

503.972.1700

open mon - sat 7am - 5pm | sun 8am - 5pm

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

So, I can't take credit for this yummy cookie recipe. Typically I find a couple different recipes I like and then make them my own, but since this was my first time baking red velvet cookies from scratch, I found one to follow almost exactly. The Cooking Classy blog is where I found these red velvet crinkle cookies and I am really happy with how this Valentine day treat turned out.

Now, the only changes I made to this recipe was substituting almond milk instead of regular milk, left out the white chocolate chips and I used a little bit more lemon juice since I had extra from the full lemon. 

I do recommend using all the food coloring to keep the cookies vibrant in color. If you don't have regular food coloring, icing color works too. I tested it since they offer icing color in several different shades at any craft stores. Last, do exactly what she recommends with cooling the dough and buttering your hands to roll into balls. In fact, I used canola oil on my hands and it worked great!  

Finally, make some cute Valentine tags, bag them up and deliver to your loved ones! 

             

Baked Pumpkin Donut Holes...better than muffins.

Thanks to a friend and the Two Peas & Their Pod blog, I have discovered a new favorite pumpkin recipe! To be honest, I haven't come across a pumpkin recipe that I didn't like, but this particular recipe is easy and delicious. It is a baked donut hole...with pumpkin! Technically, you could call it a muffin because you use a mini muffin pan, but it is so much more!

via two peas & their pod

The recipe calls for all the basic ingredients (most I already had in my kitchen) finished with a sweet coating of butter, cinnamon and sugar. The full recipe is here and it yields about 24-32 muffins.

One recommendation: if you plan on sharing this pumpkin goodness, I would either bake them the day you plan to share with friends or bake the night before and do the coating the next day. Otherwise, they get slightly soggy from the butter. Don't put them right in a sealed container like I did...let them cool on a wire rack.

So happy I found this great recipe! Happy fall baking!

Enjoy.

Chicken/Shrimp Kabobs and Chocolate Mousse

Alright so I am a couple weeks behind on this one...but I have to tell you about the awesome kabobs and chocolate mousse we made on Memorial Day. I lucked out for two reasons, one - I had the day off on Memorial Day and two - the weather was nice! You know what that means, time for barbecuing!

On the menu - chicken and shrimp Kabobs (with an array of veggies) and an easy easy chocolate mousse



We already had most the ingredients for the mousse and we had shrimp and pineapple already for the kabobs. But, we still needed a few more things so, my sister Kenzie and I headed to the store for the remaining ingredients:

Chicken (look for the $1.99 a lb chicken on sale at Albertsons)

Zucchini

Bell peppers

Sweet yellow onion

Red potatoes

Strawberries

Heavy whipping cream

A great baguette (which was gone before it hit the table...oops)

When we got home, we fired up the grill and cut up all the vegetables while we waited for it to heat up. Kabobs are fun because you can give everyone a couple skewers and they can customize their meal however they would like.

We then added the spices to the kabobs. You can do whatever you want (lemon pepper, salt, garlic powder, coriander...), but we used Dean Jacob's Seafood Rub for the shrimp and Poultry Rub for the chicken. A tasty melody of spices and each rub complemented the meat nicely.

*When you are grilling kabobs, remember that some items cook faster than others. We cooked the shrimp on separate skewers because they cook so much faster than the chicken and vegetables. Also, cut the potatoes smaller than your zucchini, onion, peppers etc...because they take a lot longer on the grill and you don't want undercooked potatoes.

While that was cooking, we starting to make our easy chocolate mousse. We found a recipe online that we used and I usually add or subtract ingredients, but this one was perfect the way it was and it took us 5 minutes to make:

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 c. strong hot coffee
1 tbsp. rum or Kahlua  (We used Kahlua)
2 eggs
1/2 pt. whipping cream

It looked so good, we doubled it...and thank goodness we did because it was gone in less than 24 hours!

So another successful dinner and I had leftovers to take to work which was even better. Now it is your turn, get cooking and enjoy!