S'mores Pie

This is probably the easiest dessert you'll ever make in your life. Also, it's probably the best thing you could ever bring to a party.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
• ½ cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 7 ounces marshmallow fluff
• 4 whole (1.55 oz bars) Hershey's chocolate bars
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• ¼ cups chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9″ pie pan with baking spray.

2. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together until combined, then add egg and vanilla and stir them in. Stir in flour, graham cracker crumbs and baking powder.

3. Divide the dough in half. Press half the dough in the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pie pan. Evenly spread the marshmallow fluff over the bottom crust. Separate chocolate squares and place on top of the marshmallow fluff. Place 1 cup of marshmallows on top.

4. Using the remaining crust, pat sections of dough on top of and around all the marshmallows (they will still show through and that is perfect). Sprinkle with 1/4 cup chocolate chips, then bake 20 minutes until lightly browned.

5. Remove pan from oven and set it on a wire rack. Cool completely before cutting - honestly, you have to wait otherwise it'll be a huge mess. Also, you can make this ahead of time and then put it in the refrigerator overnight and just reheat it before you serve.

This recipe was adapted slightly from Tasty Kitchen Blog.

The Burger At Stanton Social

Every restaurant in this city has a burger on their menu - and about 80% of them are lackluster as hell. The one at Stanton Social, however, is nuts. And completely worth the ridiculous 45-minute-wait-even-when-you-have-a-reservation vibe at this place. The patty itself is a mixture of short rib, chuck, rib-eye and smoked bacon - and it's the bacon inside that puts it over the top and makes it memorable.I swear to you.

“Idea: use orange slices, instead of lemon or lime wedges, in water at home. Tastes amazing!”

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I've been wanting to try this out for such a long time - so it finally happened! And honestly? It tasted incredible. I adapted Chef John's recipe slightly, so if you'd like to give it a try yourself, please read on.

Ingredients

•  1 head cauliflower, cored and separated into florets
• 1/2 cup water
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 ounces fresh goat cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
• Whatever toppings, tomato sauce & cheese you'd prefer

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The before photo

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What the cauliflower pulp looks like

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What the crust looks like before the toppings

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The after photo

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Puree the cauliflower in a food processor until finely ground.
3. Cook ground cauliflower, water, minced garlic, salt, and pepper together in a skillet over medium-high heat until most of the water evaporates, 5 to 6 minutes. Then make sure to cool completely.
4. Transfer the cauliflower to the center of a clean dish towel. Wrap and squeeze tightly to remove all excess moisture. (If you want to do this in small batches, that might be smart since you'll get as much water out as you can that way.) You should have about 1 1/2 cups of cauliflower pulp.
5. Stir the cauliflower, goat cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, egg, and cayenne pepper together in a bowl to form a soft dough. Gather dough into a ball and place in the center of the prepared baking sheet. Press dough into circle about 1/4-inch thick.
6. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown and set, about 40 minutes. Cool and make sure to turn the crust over before topping the pizza and then placing in the oven once again for 15 minutes to bake the toppings into the pizza.

And one more amazing tip from Chef John about this recipe: if you're making this for other people, tell them that they're coming over to eat cauliflower. That way they're pleasantly surprised when it turns out to look (and totally taste) like pizza, with a cauliflower undertone. 

Häagen-Dazs Frozen Yogurt

No joke: these two flavours are better than any of their regular ice cream flavours. How does that make sense? No idea - ain't no physicist. They're insane tasting.

And I'm not endorsing them here as some sort of "better for you" choice when compared with ice cream. There's hella sugar in there and I'd bet that they're equally as bad as ice cream is for you. I'm really just here to tell you to try one (or both) of these immediately. I literally haven't bought any other flavour in the past... three years? Yeah. Maybe even four. MAYBE EVEN FIVE.

There's one other flavour in their frozen yogurt selection: vanilla raspberry. But don't get that one, it blows. The raspberry just ruins it, as raspberries usually tend to do.

Definitely try the vanilla or coffee, though. You'll thank you.

“Use coconut oil instead of butter when you make popcorn at home.”

Jamie Oliver to Open a Restaurant in Mississauga, ON

Of course Mississauga gets cooler when I leave it. OF COURSE.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver will open his second Canadian restaurant sometime this year in Square One. Jamie's Italian will feature "fresh, authentic dishes using seasonal ingredients in Chef Oliver's signature rustic style." Menu items will include artisan breads, pasta and pizza made fresh daily on-site, Italian mains and desserts, an antipasti station with cured meats and an open-concept kitchen. Jamie’s Italian originally launched in 2008 in Oxford, England and has expanded globally in Great Britain, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The brand is opening Canadian locations in partnership with King Street Food Company - a Canadian premiere restaurant group with well known Toronto brands under its belt, such as Buca Osteria and Enoteca, Bar Buca, Buca (Yorkville), The Saint Tavern and Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse.

Can't wait to try this place out.

“If you make smoothies at home and you haven’t incorporated frozen pineapple chunks, you’re missing out on life itself.”

“If you’re not measuring out how much maple syrup you use on your pancakes, you should be. It’s crazy easy to overindulge constantly.”

— #lizadvice

Eleven Madison Park Team Opening Fast Casual Spot

The owners behind Eleven Madison Park* (Daniel Humm and Will Guidara) have announced to the Wall Street Journal that their next project will be a "fast casual eatery called Made Nice, opening in the Flatiron at some point next year." Unlike a meal at their fancy-as-hell tasting menu-only restaurant (which goes for about $300 per person) the new eatery will offer meals in the $10 to $15 range (UMMM, that's insane/great). And there will definitely be hints of the mothership at Made Nice, which will have EMP sous chef Danny DiStefano in the kitchen. 

CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS.

*If you've not heard  of Eleven Madison Park, it's one of the highest rated restaurants in New York City and extensively out of my budget range BUT I intend to visit one day and report back to you on how amazing it was.