Barefoot Contessa Archives

Lemon and Mascarpone Gnocchi with Rosemary Brown Butter

April 14, 2014 by Cate 18 Comments

These soft and pillowy lemon and mascarpone gnocchi are tossed in a rosemary brown butter sauce. The flavor and texture are out of this world!

I am slightly obsessed with the Food Network and have been for years. Specifically with Ina Garten and Giada de Laurentiis. I think I have seen every single episode of both of their shows. I just love the food they make, and they also both have pretty awesome lives. I have spent many a Saturday morning living vicariously through their shows. So when Ina had Giada as a guest on her show, I pretty much freaked! I was so excited. I still have it saved on my TiVo – TheBetterHalf keeps trying to delete it but I won’t let him! And ever since the show aired (ages ago!) I have been thinking about these Lemon Mascarpone Gnocchi that they made together. I finally got around to making them, and they definitely lived up to expectations!

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Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting {Chez CateyLou’s 1st Birthday}

February 11, 2014 by Cate 72 Comments

Rich and moist chocolate cake is topped with the most amazing peanut butter buttercream frosting – a chocolate peanut butter lover’s dream cake!

Happy Birthday to Chez CateyLou! Our little blog is one year old today. I actually can’t believe it has been an entire year!! Time really flies. I have learned so much this past year – about photography, cooking, food styling, blogging, social media – the list goes on and on! A year ago I wasn’t even on Pinterest – now, it is our number one source of traffic to the blog. I didn’t even know what DSLR meant (ok I can’t lie – I just had to google what DSLR actually stands for) and now my fancy camera is one of my favorite possessions. I even named it, or her to be exact. Her name is Cécile – my French camera for my French blog name – and she has become a member of the family (and now you all know how weird I really am)!

But thank you for sticking with me and reading all of my posts. You, my dear readers, are the reason that this little blog is around and that I continue to work so hard at it each and every day. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And now it is time for cake. With peanut butter buttercream frosting. Oh yes.

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Birthday Brownie Pudding

November 27, 2013 by Cate 16 Comments

Happy birthday to me! Today we are celebrating at Chez CateyLou, because it is my birthday! And what better way to celebrate than with chocolate. I bake all the time (could you tell?) but I wanted to make something special for my birthday. So since it is my birthday and all about me, I decided to make myself Ina Garten’s Brownie Pudding.

I saw this on her show ages ago and made a mental note to try this recipe. However I kept putting it off because I knew it would be dangerous for me. All baked goods are dangerous, but at least cookies have some built in portion control. You can freeze some, give some away, and you know that once you’ve had three, you should probably stop. But a whole pan of molten chocolate brownie cake pudding? Well I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to stop eating it. So that’s why I decided to wait to make it until it was my birthday. Because no one can judge you if you eat an entire dessert if it is your birthday.

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Salted Caramel Brownies

September 4, 2013 by Cate 15 Comments

This week calls for brownies. The holiday weekend is over. Summer is over. The streets of NYC are packed again with everyone back to school and back to work. Yep, definitely need some brownies this week. And while we’re at it, might as well add a salted caramel drizzle on top. Just because. The week is looking up already.

This recipe is from the one and only Ina Garten. I’ve been dying to make these since I saw them on her show. The brownie is rich and fudgy, the caramel swirl is so sweet and buttery, and the flaked sea salt on top just ties the whole thing together. They are nothing short of amazing! I’m not sure why she calls specifically for Hershey’s chocolate chips in the recipe, but who am I to argue with Ina? I made TheBetterHalf go buy that exact brand for me, and in true NYC fashion it took him 3 grocery stores to find them. All in the name of brownies. The only change I made to the recipe is adding 2 teaspoons of instant coffee instead of the 1 ½ tablespoons that Ina calls for. Coffee brings out the chocolate flavor in baked goods but I didn’t want to actually taste coffee in my brownies, so I reduced the amount. Everything else was perfect – these brownies so good! …

Red Velvet Cupcakes

May 2, 2013 by Cate 13 Comments

I can’t believe it has taken me so long to make an Ina Garten recipe for the blog! I love the Barefoot Contessa. I dream about having her house in the Hamptons, but I’ll have to settle with watching it from my one bedroom in NYC and reading her cookbooks. I seriously want to make everything from her cookbooks. I decided on Red Velvet cupcakes because I know they are a crowd pleaser! I personally don’t understand the fuss about red velvet. They just never taste chocolatey enough to me! But I do love cream cheese frosting. And I can’t only bake things with peanut butter and chocolate, so Red Velvet it is! This is a great recipe too. The cupcakes are moist with a hint of chocolate flavor, and the cream cheese frosting on top is SO good. I must say though, as much as I love Ina, why does she bake with extra-large eggs? Every other baking recipe calls for large eggs! But I trust her, so I bought extra-large eggs just to make these. …

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