Donuts and Hot/Cold Chocolate

The weather has been chilly here lately and for some reason when it gets chilly out I am always craving sweets. (Okay, I crave sweets all the time, but more so when the weather is chilly. ) What is a better treat than Nutella hot or cold chocolate and donuts??

Let's start off with the Nutella hot chocolate first, shall we?

This is  pretty simple to make and sooo good. I got the recipe from Pinterest, but who ever came up with this must have taken it down because there is an error code when you click on the picture.  I have made this twice now- once hot and then cold.  It's Florida and you can't expect it to stay chilly for long and who wants to drink hot chocolate when it is hot out?

Here is what you will need for 1 serving:

• Nutella (2 spoon fulls)
•  a little over 1 cup of milk

First:

  Put the milk on the stove and turn the burner up to medium heat.

The first time I made it I put the Nutella and milk in the pot first and then put it on the burner, but the second time I added the Nutella to milk that was starting to get warm and discovered it blended together faster. 

Next: Add the scoops of Nutella. I did 2 spoon fulls for 1 cup of milk. So if you were to make to  2 servings of this you would use 2 cups of milk and 4 spoon fulls of Nutella.

 Then: Stir the Nutella and milk until they are blended and there are no lumpy bits.

When it starts to look frothy, take a whisk and stir through it. This is just to ensure that it is nice and smooth.
* I didn't do this the first time and when I was drinking my hot chocolate a Nutella lump kept floating to the top when I would take a sip. (Very Annoying!)*
At this point you may want to taste a bit. I did this and found it was a little to rich for my liking at added a smidge more milk.

Now:

 If you want to serve this hot, get out your favorite hot chocolate mugs and pour some in to each cup and enjoy!

If you want to serve this cold, take this off the burner and let cool for a bit. Then fill a cup almost to the top with ice and pour the mixture over the ice and enjoy!!

I am thinking this would also be good with whip cream vodka, but I haven't tried it.

On to the donuts!!!

Don't get me wrong, I have always been a fan of donuts, but when it came to a somewhat quick breakfast donuts were not my item of choice. I would usually prefer a bagel, toast, or a Poptart, but for some reason this school year I have been craving donuts!  Sometimes on Fridays, on my way to work, I will go a a little bit out of my way to pick myself up a donut at Publix.   This morning I was craving donuts, but was really not in the mood to get dressed and drive to the store to pick up some. I knew I didn't have any refrigerator biscuits that I could just pop open and fry up. So if I wasn't willing to go to the store and I REALLY wanted donuts they were getting made from scratch! So my desire to stay in my jammies won and I made the donuts from scratch. It really wasn't all that hard,  I had all the ingredients so I saved myself the trip and the money. :)

 Here is what you will need:

• 2 1/4 cup of Bisquick
• 2/3 cup of milk 
• Vegetable oil
•  cinnamon
• sugar
• water

Now here's how it is done:

Put the Bisquick and milk into a bowl and mix until it forms a soft dough. 

Then sprinkle out some Bisquick on a surface and lay your freshly made dough on it and kneed it about 10 times.

Then add some vegetable oil to a pan and put it on medium- medium-high heat. You want enough oil in the pan that about half the donut is submerged in oil.  

 While the oil is warming up, roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick.

 Next: Using a round cookie cutter or something round (top of  a glass) cut the dough in to circles. I was in the mood for some big donuts and, believe it or not, I don't have a round cookie cutter. I doubt I would have had one as big as I wanted anyway. So, I used a the top of a martini glass to cut out my donuts.

I just cut out as many circles as I could make with the dough I had rolled out. Then, I sat the circles off to the side, balled the dough back up again and rolled it out again until I couldn't make any more circles. The dough I had left over I rolled in to little balls and used as donut holes.

The donuts with the center cut out and  holes on the right!

 To cut out the center of my circles I used a water bottle cap.

 Once all the dough is all shaped and ready to fry I add them to  the pan of vegetable oil.

Once the donut looks like it is golden brown on the side in the oil, flip the donut over to brown the other side. About 1-2 minutes on each side- depending on the temperature of the oil.

While the donuts are frying up, on a plate, mix some cinnamon and sugar together. 

 Once done, place the donut on a plate covered with a paper towel so it will absorb some of the oil. 

Then stick the donut in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Move a round a bit and coat both sides. 

You can also make a sugar syrup-glaze, but be sure to watch it so that it doesn't cook too long and cause the sugar to burn. 

 I usually make the sugar glaze after I am done with the donuts so that I can keep an eye on it. 

Here's the how-to for a sugar glaze:

Put about 1 tbsp of sugar in a pot with 1 cup of water over low heat.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved. I then turn my heat up and let it start to bubble and begins to look syrupy.  Then I take it off the heat.  Using a spoon, I drizzle it over the donuts. I let the donuts rest a bit and soak up the sugar syrup.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry!!

A Happy Hubby

They always say the a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. When it comes to my hubby that couldn't be more true. Recently, I spread my cooking wings and gave my hand a try at cooking some of food that my husband considers comfort food. Being from the Philippians Chicken Adobo is a staple food. According to him,his family would eat Chicken Adobo once a week. Lucky for him, besides the fact that I like to make him happy, I also LOVE chicken Adobo.  So after looking on the internet I found a pretty simple recipe that I thought I would try out. I didn't make a lot of it, in case it was a bust and didn't taste anything like his or my expectations. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it was awesome and hubby was eating of my plate! I have made this once or twice since the first time I made it because it was so good and incredibly easy. Trust me this is a dish anyone would love!

Here is what you will need:

•   Chicken wingettes as many as you want to eat (or any meat pieces. I also used pieces of pork, but hubby says his family uses any pieces of meat they have handy. Adobo just refers to the sauce and way it is cooked.)
• 1 whole garlic chopped
• 1 tsp of black pepper
•  4-5 whole black pepper corns
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 1 cup of vinegar (white distilled)
• 1 cup of soy sauce ( my in-laws say Kikkonman is the best brand)
• 1 cup of Sprite
• 1 lemon cut in fours
• oil for sauteing 

   Now the steps to deliciousness:
Heat oil in a pot and chop garlic. Add chopped garlic to pot and saute/cook until lightly brown.

  Meanwhile, clean chicken, pat dry and rub with a lemon.

  Place chicken in the pot and cook 5-7 minutes until tenderized.
  Then add vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper, black pepper corns, and bay leaves to the pot and let simmer
  for about  25-30 minutes.
                

    After 25- 30 minutes add the Sprite and simmer for 5 more minutes. ( This is to take some of the bitterness out of dish).

  Mabuting pagkain (good eating in Tagalog)! Serve over rice and enjoy!

*recipe adapted from here