Cookout-ed out!

   Hey guys! So, lately we've been having lots & lots of cookouts! & I must say, I am C O O K O U T - E D   O U T ! The first cookout I went to was up in Sunnapee at the "Dog House" reunion. They put this D E L I C I O U S special sauce on their burgers and/or dogs! I had "The Super" which was a hamburger with white american cheese, bacon, onions, and the S P E C I A L sauce. It was soooooo delicious, I must say.

   Also, we had just a regular cookout last night & today. I had a veggie burger & a cheeseburger. And as much as I love cookouts, they get old after a while! What are your favorite cookout items & recipes? I'd love to know!

   That's all for now! See ya later! <3

Hey A G A I N!

   Hello! So I know I just posted literally 15 minutes ago, but I went to check if I had the ingredients for a Coffee Milkshake & realized that I didn't. After a bit of sulking about the missing instant coffee & vanilla ice cream I rummaged through my freezer only to discover C O F F E E   I C E   C R E A M ! I was S O happy! This is an easy recipe I came up with, a little spin on the regular 'coffee ice cream & milk' combination.

Coffee Milkshake!
*Milkshake*
-About 3/4 cup to 1 cup of Coffee flavored ice cream (mine was 'Friendly's')
-about 1/2 cup of milk (maybe minus a teaspoon or two because I ended up pouring some out!)
-about a teaspoon or two of your favorite coffee creamer (mine was vanilla caramel flavored!)

*Directions*
1.Combine everything in a blender!

Super easy & delicious, E N J O Y !

Cookbook Review; One of my favorites!

   Hey everyone! Today I wanted to talk about one of my F A V O R I T E cookbooks! It's called Food Fest 365 & it's awesome! Here's what it looks like;

   In this cookbook, there is a theme for each & every day & a recipe to go along with it! It's S O fun to look through & find out what your favorite holiday's and/or you & your friends' birthdays recipe is! My birthday's (June 28th) theme is Tapioca day & the recipe is Thai Bubble Tea. I haven't actually gotten around to making many of the recipes (including this one!), but from the ones that I have tried, they are D E L I C I O U S ! The cheesecake is personally one of my favorites, it's super creamy & has that super yummy homemade taste! 

   Today's (July 27th) theme is Scotch day & the recipe is a drink called the 'Rob Roy'. Obviously I can't try this recipe out because I'm under aged but yesterday's recipe was a Coffee Milkshake & I'm S U P E R looking forward to trying that out! When I do, I'll be sure to blog about it! I'm not sure if I can post a recipe, due to copyright reasons...? But I'd love to tell you where you can get it! 

   That's all for now, I'll probably go see if I have the ingredients to make that milkshake! Goodbye! <3

Original Recipe!

   Hey guys! How is everyoneeee? My summer has been super super good ! So, today I wanted to share an original recipe with you guys! My mom & I came up with it one night on the spot because we were hungry! Haha, here's a picture & hope you enjoy! Even if you don't like one of the ingredients, you can subsitute other things in for them, but i think you should just try it out, my friend didn't like asparagus, but she L O V E D these, she makes them all the time for her family! '
(these are the measurements I like to use, you can vary them to how you'd like them to taste!)

Mushroom, Shrimp & Asparagus Ravioli (:
*Ravioli*
-1/2 cup of chopped shrimp
-1/2 cup of chopped asparagus
-1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
-about 1/4 cup of Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs. If you can't find Panko, just use regular [unseasoned] breadcrumbs.)
-about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
-1/2 to a full package of wonton wrappers
-salt & pepper to taste

*Sauce*
-about 2-3 cups of milk (maybe more, depending on how much sauce [or how thick] you want.)
-1/2 cup of parmesan cheese (either use the pre-shredded kind with the green cap or freshly grated! N O T the shaky stuff!)
-1/8 cup of finely chopped mushrooms
-salt & pepper to taste

*Directions*
I M P O R T A N T : Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Put chopped asparagus, mushrooms, and shrimp into a heated [about medium-high heat] pan, leave it in the pan until everything is cooked.
2. Add in enough Panko to bind everything so when you mix it, the mixture doesn't immediately seperate (about an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup).
3. Do the same for the Parmesan cheese.
4. Lay all the wonton wrappers in a line and wet your finger with water, wet down two sides (that share a corner) on all of them.
5. Place about a teaspoon of the mixture into the center of the wonton wrapper and fold into a triangle. Press the wet side onto the dry sides to form a seal.
6. Do this to all of the mixture.
7. Place all of the ravioli's onto a * G R E A S E D * baking sheet and place in the pre-heated oven for about 10-15 minutes, I would check them after about ten, and bake in 1-2 minute intervals after that.
8. Don't wash the pan that you made the filling in! Just use the 'pan drippings' to flavor your sauce! Pour the milk in & let it heat up.
9. Add in the mushrooms once your milk is hot. Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
10. Now add in the cheese & your salt & pepper. Let simmer for another 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
11. Serve ravioli with sauced over top, or dip.

Let me know how they turn out and/or if you liked them, and I'm open to A N Y suggestions on improving the recipe! My mom & I did put it on www.allrecipes.com (one of my favorite websites to find recipes!!) but I can never seem to find it when I search for it! Oh well!

Talk to you guys later!

Cake Decorating!

    Hey guys! So, something I wanted to talk about was cake decorating! Woo! Ha, so I really actually like cake decorating, I think it's fun! I know I'm not the BEST at it, but I work towards being greeeeaaaaat! Haha. I just really like the idea of being able to make something (like candy, or other sweet food) look like a princess castle, or a butterfly's wings, or a golf course! Something simple like a rectangle cake can become something crazy! I just love it!

   So, I wanted to show some pictures of cakes that I've decorated before! One that I don't have a picture of was my favorite, but I'll do a brief description for you! It was a circle cake with white butter cream frosting, then my friend & I added a striped detail all across the cake using a 'Betty Crocker' tool that she had, we then piped a simple pink 5 petaled flower in the center, and placed about five or six little yellow decal balls making the center of the flower! It looked SO pretty, and i was sooooo proud! Now, onto the pictures!

   So, this cake was made my my friend & I when we were serving (our 'business' M&K Serving It Up, we serve & cater parties!) at my dad's 60th birthday party! It was a surprise & he's super into golf so me & my friend wanted to make a gold course cake for him! All of the flags had his 'golf buddies' names' on them & the tallest flag in the middle was for the hole. There is a sand pit made out of graham cracker crumbs and the taller grass is made out of green (we just used food coloring) coconut! My dad loved it & we were so proud and happy to give it to him! 

   This cake (it's actually a pie) was made about two years ago with the same friend as the golf cake. We teamed up against my older sister & her friend and had a cake competition. We were Team B & I believe this was a Chocolate Bar Pie (I think the recipe was from allrecipes.com, I'm not positive though!) We had so much fun decorating this & it was actually one of the first times I had decorated something! The base was just cool whip & the heart & lines were piped on in pink frosting. The brown filling of the heart is shaved chocolate! 

 This one is [obviously] not one of my favorites, it's so simple. But it is just a bunt cake covered in white vanilla frosting & sprinkles. My friend & I just made it for a family gather about two years ago. 

   This was the most recent cake I've made! Haha, my friend & I went a little crazy with decorating, but I found an old butterfly pan that I had & just HAD to make it, I mean, after all, my friend & I HAD spent the past 24 hours watching cake decorating videos (; We are silly teenage girls, so this isn't one of my BEST pieces, but it's one of my favorites, because I think the love & fun shows through! We covered the cake with a chocolate frosting & went nutso decorating with purple, lime green, orange, and yellow colored vanilla frosting & BUNCHES of candy, sprinkles, and yellow dot decals! 

   Hope you guys enjoyed this blog! If you have any super good (or not so good; or just silly) cakes you;ve made, feel free to comment ! I'd L O V E to see! <3 

   Bye for now!

Grilled Cheese & A Cookie!

In my quest to eat healthier I ended up discovering a new favorite [and healthier] way to make a grilled cheese! You eliminate soooo many calories by not using butter or oil !

Grilled Cheese-
~2 slices of bread (mine were only 100 calories each!)
~1 slice of orange american cheese (only 70 calories!!)

~Instead of loading on the butter on the bread [or oiling (and dirtying) a pan], simply take your slices of bread, and stick them in the toaster!
~When your toast comes out, place your slice of american cheese on it, and cut off the crusts (or keep them on, but I've found that when you cut them off, you save calories, the bread fits the shape of the cheese slice better and you're not left with any non-cheesy bread!).
~Simply press down on the sandwich with a spatula (or like device) to secure & melt the cheese.
~Lastly, pop your sandwich into the microwave for about 15 seconds to make sure the cheese melts!

I've found this recipe super satisfying, especially since I know I'm being healthier! I like to pair this with a chocolate chip cookie to cure my last bit of hungriness & my sweet tooth! The cookie [when using hannaford brand pre-made cookie dough roll] was surprisingly only 120 calories for every 1 & 1/2 inch cookie ball!

So, basically, I've had a satisfying lunch for a satisfying amount of calories! (290!!!)

One last tip, I suggest that you do something while you eat! Whether it be reading, blogging, writing, talking with a friend/family, or anything else! Studies show that it takes your body a full twenty minutes to register that it's full, so by doing something in between, you're buying time, and you eat less, while still being full !

That's all for now!

Hey look! I have a blog!

   Wowowow. Never in a million years would I think I'd have a blog ! But, here I am, blogging myself away to nothing!

   So for starters, you may want to know a bit about me; or maybe not, but whether you want to or not, here we go.

~My name is Kendra, but i prefer to go by The Little Chef*.
~I'm 15 years old.
~I'm only 4'9". (see where the 'little' comes from?)
~Cooking is my passion & I'd L O V E to be on the Food Network someday!

   So, that's about all you need to know for now. If you have any [non-creepy] questions, feel free to ask. Also, if you have any ways to help me get my blog out there, I'm up for suggestions.

   Hopefully, I'll be posting my favorite recipes (maybe with some Little Chef* spins on them) along with the joys I find in cooking ! Ha, way to make myself sound boring, eh ? In order to undo the nerdiness I've just caused myself, let me tell you a few of my other hobbies!

~I play flute & piccolo (flute at my lessons & piccolo in the marching band at my high school.)
~Facebook is pretty much my addiction.
~I L O V E to watch Elle & Blair on youtube, as well as iJustine.
~I love swimming & hanging out with my friends!
~I love to um, C O O K !

   That didn't really do much for me. now did it ? Well. I'm going to go explore this whole blogging world now. Good bye !