Chocolate Covered Brownie Hearts

I love gifting my friends with fun treats on Valentine's Day.  Just some small token of appreciation, wrapped up in cute paper with a thoughtful note.  Last year I must admit that I was a little overwhelmed with the blog launch + Super Bowl Party + Valentine's Day.  So in an effort to save time, I ended up buying pre-made chocolate covered heart brownies for my friends for Valentine's Day .  While they were certainly delicious, they were really expensive and way more than I should be spending on little Valentine's treats.  

In an effort to be a little more financially prudent this year, I have decided to make my own heart-shaped brownie bites.  These bites are delicious, easy to make, economical and so flipping cute!  Definitely a unique and delicious treat that almost any Valentine would love to receive. 

Ingredients

• Box of Brownie Mix (Recommend Ghirardelli Double Chocolate)
• 1 pkg White Chocolate Chips
• Red Food Coloring
• Nonstick Spray

**You will also need an assortment of heart shaped cookie cutters and a jelly roll pan

Instructions

1. Make the brownie mix per the instructions on the back of the packaging
2. Pour batter onto a jelly roll pan that has been lined with aluminum foil and greased with spray cooking oil (ex. PAM)
3. Bake for about 20 min at 325 degrees fahrenheit or until toothpick comes out clean
4. Once baked, remove from oven and flip onto a cooling rack removing aluminum foil carefully
5. Once cooled, transfer brownie sheet to a large cutting board
6. Use the heart shaped cookie cutters to create mini heart brownies and set aside
7. In a microwave safe bowl, melt white chocolate chips (stirring contents every 30 seconds until melted)
8. Add 3-5 drops of red food coloring to the melted chocolate and stir until desired pink color is achieved
9. Dip brownie hearts in melted pink chocolate and set on a cooling rack to harden
10. Serve and enjoy!

Vegetarian Chili Recipe

Often I find myself stressing over what to serve guests with dietary restrictions.  I want to make sure that they enjoy their meal just as much as those guests who are eating my regular menu, but in the same breath, I also don't want to create oodles of additional work for myself in an effort to accommodate an array of dietary needs.  My solution?  Vegetarian Chili!!  This recipe is the perfect Super Bowl dish to serve your gluten-free, vegetarian and/or vegan friends.  Heck, even meat eaters love this dish!  My recipe for vegetarian chili is super easy to make, very healthy, packed with flavor and inexpensive.  Here is how I made this delicious dish.

Ingredients

• 3 Tbs Olive Oil
• 6 Cloves Fresh Garlic (minced)
• 1-2 Yellow Onions (diced)
• 2 Red/Yellow/Orange Bell Peppers (Diced)
• 1-15oz can Black Beans (drained)
• 1-15oz can Kidney Beans (drained)
• 1-150z can Crushed Tomatoes
• 1/2c Vegetable Broth
• 1 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tbs Chili Powder
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Smokey Spanish Paprika
• 2 tsp Kosher Salt (plus more to taste)
• 1/4 tsp Fresh Cracked Pepper

Instructions

1. In a large sauce pan heat olive oil on medium high
2. One olive oil is hot, add minced garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes until just starting to turn brown
3. Add the diced onion and diced peppers, stir and allow to sweat down until onion begins to look translucent 
4. Add the broth, black beans, kidney beans, crushed tomatoes, vinegar, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, paprika and cumin
5. Stir until well combined, cover and simmer on low for 30-40 minutes
6. Add more salt and pepper to taste

How do I serve vegetarian chili? 

I love to serve this recipe with sides of both light sour cream and shredded cheese.  To bring this dish to the next level, I also like to include a side of freshly made gourmet cornbread and a really delicious glass of red wine (*Note- Napa Cellars Zinfandel pairs beautifully with this dish).

DIY Valentine's Day Garland

With Valentine's Day less than two weeks away, preparations for this day of romance have officially commenced!  I know that many disregard Valentine's Day as the "Hallmark Holiday," but I really enjoy having fun with this holiday.  Sure you should celebrate your significant other all year long, but it's still fun to have a day that's strictly devoted to love and romance.  

This Valentine's Day I have a few fun and festive projects planned, starting with the most basic and essential…decorating my bar cart!  I know this sounds a little ridiculous (and maybe it is), but I plan on serving up a very special champagne bar cart on Valentine's Day to enjoy with my husband before dinner.  There is nothing more romantic and elegant (in my opinion) than enjoying a delicious bottle of champagne together.  To get my bar cart holiday ready, I am going to start with the decorations.  Specifically, this adorable DIY Valentine's Day garland made out of colored paper.  It's easy to make and really adds a festive feel to any space.   

What you will need... 

• Stapler
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Red and Pink Printer Paper

Instructions

1. Stack 2 sheets of red paper and 2 sheets of pink paper together, ordering them either pink-red-red-pink or red-pink-pink-red
2. With a pencil and ruler, draw straight lines across the width of the paper on top of the stack, spacing the lines approximately 1 inch apart. 
3. Keeping the stack together, cut into strips 
4. Take one stack of strips and staple each end together, thus collating the 4 pieces together
5. Using scissors, cut the strip in half so that you have two 4 1/4" collated stacks
6. Take one mini stack (Stack #1), peel down the two exterior strips and staple them together at the base and set aside
7. Repeat step #6 with a second mini stack
8. Take Stack #1, bend the ends of the two interior strips inward, insert the tail of Stack #2 in-between the inverted ends from Stack #1 and staple together
9. Repeat this process until desired length is achieved.  Reference images for more explicit directions on how to assemble garland.  

**Next week I will be unveiling my Valentine's Day Edition Bar Cart on the blog!  So stay tuned!

Game Day Ideas

Today marks exactly one year since the launch of Redefining Domestics!  This time last year I was celebrating my blog launch, while simultaneously hosting a Superbowl party (whew!).  At the time I was so crazed with getting the final details of the blog and party ready, I wasn't able to share some of my festive game day party ideas with you all.  Today I wanted to take a look back at two great ideas for hosting a Super Bowl party.  These are really simple concepts that you can easily implement and will have you feeling game day ready come Sunday!

Game Day Cupcakes

1. Prepare Ina Garten's Coconut Cupcake Recipe (or similar) using these football-themed cupcake papers
2. In a bowl, dump one bag of flaked coconut and mix with 3-4 drops of green food coloring (until you reach desired level of green grass-like look
3. Apply green colored coconut to the tops of each frosted cupcake
4. Garnish with a single Game Day Toothpick Flag

Game Day Centerpiece

To create this centerpiece, I centered a vase filled with gorgeous (and very voluminous) hydrangeas towards the back of this round brass tray.  Then I arranged these adorable astroturf yard marker coasters in the center and filled in the side spaces with these party foam footballs.  

It's so much fun to have these photos to look back on and honestly I do marvel at all that I have done/accomplished in a year.  It's been a great first year with Redefining Domestics and I am really excited for all that is yet to come with my blog.  Thank you all for your unwavering support of the blog.  You all are my constant inspiration/driving force to keep on posting!

Winter Gin Sparkler

I have never been a huge fan of gin.  I don't know if it's something about the flavor or maybe it just tasted stronger than vodka, but there was something about it that never quite agreed with me.  Of course, now you're probably wondering why the heck I'm sitting here writing  a post about my new favorite gin cocktail recipe! 

WELL, let me just start by saying that my feelings about gin have completely transformed thanks to my recent discovery of One Eight Distilling.  One Eight is a local DC distillery specializing in Vodka, Gin and an array of whiskeys.  Every Saturday from 1-4pm, they open their doors to the public and offer free tastings of their liquors as well as a menu of specialty cocktails to purchase for $7.  In addition, they also offer free tours of their distillery.  

Naturally, as soon as I learned of their Saturday open house, I had to go and experience it for myself!  So my husband and I ventured over to the distillery a few weekends ago where we enjoyed the most delicious "Kumquat May" Cocktails (Ivy City Gin, Kumquat Syrup, Lime Juice and Bitter Lemon Soda) and took the fabulous distillery tour.  It was so much fun, the cocktails were absolutely delicious and definitely an activity that I would recommend to anyone in the DC area (age 21+ of course!).

So now onto my latest cocktail creation!  This is an easy to make cocktail, filled with delicious seasonal ingredients and of course my favorite local gin label!  Here's the scoop on how to make this flavorful and refreshing cocktail:

Ingredients

• High Quality Gin (I highly recommend trying Ivy City Gin)
• Grapefruit Juice
• 2 pkgs Fresh Rosemary 
• Sparkling Water (ex. Perrier)
• Fresh Ruby Red Grapefruit for Garnish
• 1c Sugar
• 1c Water

Rosemary-Infused Simple Syrup

1. In a small sauce pan combine 1 cup of water, 1 cup of Granulated Sugar, 3 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary and about 1/4 cup Chopped Fresh Rosemary
2. Heat on Medium-High until sugar is dissolved 
3. Reduced to a simmer for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool
4. Pour syrup through a sieve to remove all rosemary pieces 

To Make the Cocktail

1. Fill a low ball/double old fashioned glass with ice
2. Add 1-2 shots of Ivy City Gin
3. Add 1 Tbs Rosemary Simple Syrup
4. Fill the remainder of the glass with equal parts grapefruit juice and sparkling water
5. Garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary and slice of ruby red grapefruit that has been speared with a knotted cocktail pick
6. Serve and Enjoy!