This Bread Will Change Your Life

After last weekend, in which I basically did nothing but shop for food and cook, I wanted an easy food week. Of course, I am terrible at time management, so while it was easier, I wouldn't say 4 hours in the kitchen is too easy. Why do my recipes always take longer to make than I think they will? Ah well. Husband was very understanding the last few weeks. I really wasn't in the mood for meat (Me not in the mood for meat? Imagine that!), so I went pretty meat-lite. Husband likes his meat, but he was kind of enough not to complain (of course, his mouth could have just been too full of pork bao), so this week I made a crap-ton of chicken. Here's what I made this week:

• Nutella and roasted hazelnut challah, courtesy of Steamy Kitchen. That's right, nevermind the 5.5 lbs of chicken I made, let's start with dessert. Because really, this bread is fan-frakking-tastic! I haven't had Nutella since I was in high school, and one look at that picture had me running to the store to buy some. This recipe is in two parts: the dough recipe, and the challah recipe. The dough recipe makes a whole lotta bread, probably about 2 large loaves worth. The challah recipe tells you to tear off a piece about the size of a grapefruit, which ended up a loaf of ~8-10 small slices. I liked this idea because now I have dough sitting in my fridge ready for a mid-week treat. This recipe was very easy, though extremely messy. Flour is your friend. And remember when you're letting the final loaf rest before baking, it's best to move it onto the baking sheet first. I let it rest on my cutting board, and the Nutella tried to escape on me! I think I'll make another loaf tonight (because Husband and I polished the first one off almost immediately), though this one we'll take in to work because while it tastes like a gift from the gods, it ain't calorie free. One note on the dough: after I mixed in the 7 cups of flour, the dough was still quite sticky, too sticky to knead with, had the recipe called for it. I figured I'd have to mix in more flour after its overnight rise, but to my surprise the next day it was completely workable. Just make sure to flour your hands.
• Chicken Mirabella, courtesy of Serious Eats. This is my one of my boss's favorite dishes. She goes on and on about the chicken mirabella she got a few times from one of those places that sells food already prepped, you just take it home and cook it. So when I found this recipe, I immediately sent it to her. She still hasn't tried it, but it was one of the first recipes that came to mind when I decided it was going to be a chicken week. I didn't use whole chickens. I ended up using 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I think I only ended up baking them for about 45 or 50 minutes, and that worked great. I also forgot to marinate them overnight, but they still got a good 8-9 hours of marinade time, so I think it was enough. Now I'm not a big fan of chicken, so you won't be hearing the words delicious or fantastic, but I'll say it turned out good. It's moist and flavorful. Should I make this again, which I think I will, I would add more olives, just because I love them. This recipe seems like it would be good for entertaining, a crowd pleaser.
• Whole wheat pasta with roasted red pepper sauce, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman. I had this on the side of the Chicken Mirabella. I'm not really satisfied with how these flavors went together, but I think the sauce still turned out good. I used half and half instead of cream and threw in some peas and asparagus for added veggies, and a ton of fresh basil because I had bought a whole big bunch at the store. Overall, I think it turned out a tad bland. It's still a good recipe, but it needs....something. Maybe some acid? I think I miss the acid that would come from a tomato sauce. Ah well, it's something to play around with.
• Chicken Scallopine, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman. If there's one way I like chicken, it's breaded and fried. Of course, I'll take covered in flour and cooked in a bit of butter if that's the best I can do. Again, I used half and half instead of cream. I think the sauce could have used the cream though. It was also a little bland. What I really should have done was let it cook off more. The recipe said to only let it cook off for a minute, but after a minute it was still very watery. I think 5-10 minutes would have yielded a nicer, more concentrated flavor. Ah well, next time. Also, I would about triple the mushrooms. I prefer a much higher mushroom to chicken ratio when I can help it. I also served this over some whole wheat pasta. Yum! Oh, also, I only used 4 chicken breasts instead of 6, but they were huge, so it probably ended up being the same amount. Hammering them out was a lot of noisy, noisy fun. My puppy did not approve.
• I was inspired to do a light salad on the side of the chicken scallopine based on this recipe. I cut up some cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, an orange bell pepper, and a cucumber. I added some very thinly sliced red onion and a ton of chopped fresh basil. I should have left it at that, but I decided to add some olive oil and raspberry vinegar. Even though I went light on it, I didn't like how the flavor turned out. I'm really not big into salad dressing, I just didn't realize how much until now. I offset the dressing flavor by adding some goat cheese. Goat cheese really does make everything better.

My favorite part of making the challah was Husband's reaction to both the Nutella and the finished bread. When I told him about the recipe he sounded pretty indifferent. He said it sounded pretty good, but he really didn't like Nutella by itself. I was flabbergasted, to say the least. How could my chocolate and nut-loving husband not like Nutella? What's not to like!? Well after I was done smearing gobs of Nutella into the challah, I started to lick off the spoon. I love Nutella, so there may have been some moaning involved. Husband came running to my noises of pleasure and demanded to be let in on the delicious action. I reminded him that he didn't like Nutella plain, and he said he was willing to give it another try. After I was able to wrestle the jar back from him (for after one lick of my spoon, he delved it back into the jar for more), I called BS on his lie! Of course he liked the Nutella, just as I knew he should have! He claims it doesn't taste like he remembers. I think his brain must have holes in it.

Next weekend I'm having a few friends over for a 4th of July BBQ. On the menu are hamburgers, hot dogs, bbq chicken, panzanella, roasted mustard potatoes, strawberry shortcake, and apple pie. Yum! Oh, I'm also going to try my hand at making my own hamburger/hotdog buns. Don't worry, I'm going to buy some at the store for backup. I'm hoping I'll have enough food left over to pick at during the week because after all that food, I really don't think I'll want to make any more the next day. Heh.

Dumpling Delight!

One thing I always order when at a Japanese restaurant is miso soup. I love miso, I love soup, so it's a match made in heaven. I had seen some discussions on miso soup on some blogs, but was confused by all the unfamiliar ingredients. What is dashi?! It's apparently the most important part of the soup: the broth. How do I get it? That unanswered question had kept me from trying to make my own miso soup for...well ok, only 6 months. But last week I found the answer! Dashi is made by heating up water with sea kelp (konbu) and these nasty fish flakes I don't want to know too much about (aka: bonito). Well those seemed like ingredients I might be able to actually find in a store. To be safe, I planned a trip to my local Asian food market. I'll admit I don't particularly like going to the Asian food market. It's 20 miles away, the parking lot is always full and the spaces are tiny. It's always crazy crowded inside, and the aisles are so narrow that two carts can barely pass by each other. And it smells like fish, which I find to be a very unappetizing smell (I avoid the fish counter at the grocery store too). So I figured if I was going to make the trip, I might as well find some other Asian dishes to make.

Somewhere along the way in my food blog perusing last week I came upon a recipe for pork bao. For those of you not hip to the lingo, pork bao, or Cha Siu Bao, are those steamed bbq pork dumplings you have at dim sum. Never had dim sum? Then you haven't lived! Go and eat some right now! I also found a recipe for some shrimp dumplings that are also something similar to what I've had at dim sum. And this week's Asian food theme was born.

• Miso soup, courtesy of Serious Eats. This isn't really a recipe, more like an explanation of ingredients and general guidelines. At the very least, it's very informative! I ended up reading this through several times, and then writing my own recipe from it. I'll post that over the weekend, hopefully. The soup used a lot of scary ingredients, but it ended up being pretty simple, and very easy (minus the ringing of hot fishy broth through a cheese cloth, that was rather gross). I'll have to play around with the proportions. I think the miso soups I've had in most restaurants are still better than what I made, but I still thought it was yummy. I ended up buying two kinds of miso at the store, barley (because that's what the guy in the article used), and white because I needed white for another recipe. I tried both kinds in the soup and they tasted so similar I don't think it really mattered. The white miso looked closest to what I get in restaurants, so I assume that's what they use.
• Pork Bao, courtesy of Cdkitchen. This recipe required quite a few items from the Asian market of the condiment/sauce persuasion. Namely, sweet soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and oyster sauce. Other than the sweet soy sauce, which I had never heard of before (it's thicker and sweeter (obviously) than normal soy sauce), you can buy hoisin and oyster sauce at a regular grocery store. I figured, first, if I'm going all the way to the Asian market, I might as well get everything I can, and second, I've bought hoisin sauce at the grocery store before and it was disgusting. I don't know what the difference was between what I bought the first time, and what I bought this time, but what I bought this time tastes much better. Anyway, OMFG, these turned out fantastically delicious! The sauce was sweet, the buns were light and fluffy, and the pork was tender . My mouth is watering just remembering them. They are, sadly, already gone. One thing to understand about my husband, he eats pork bao like potato chips. He just pops them in his mouth whole and reaches for the next one while he's chewing. Seriously. It's hilarious. When we're at dim sum, he usually cleans out the lady's entire cart. He doesn't like having to wait for a second round. So needless to say, I had to do some major convincing (read: guilt tripping) to get these 24 buns to last 2 whole days. I was very proud of him. I actually got to eat one or two of them. Some tips on the buns: I used a steamer basket in a pot of water to steam the buns (4 buns at a time fit in mine, but I have a large one). This worked great, except the first round of buns stuck to the basket. The next round I sprayed some Pam first with the same result. Then I remembered pork bao at dim sum always have a bit of paper stuck to the bottom, so I tried cutting up squares of parchment paper to stick to the bottom of the bun while it steams. That worked like a charm, and they were perfect after that. Also, the recipe didn't specify, so I used pork rib meat. I was looking for something without a lot of fat.
• Chinese Chive Dumplings, courtesy of Use Real Butter. Tapioca starch and wheat starch were my Asian market items on this recipe. If you've ever made mochi or used Mochiko flour it has a similar texture to these starches. It's kind of like cornstarch. Kind of unpleasant to handle and it gets everywhere. Have I mentioned I need an apron? So I'm kind of a dummy and misread the recipe. I thought it said 1/4 cup wheat starch, not 1 1/4 cups, so I was surprised when my "dough" I was supposed to "knead" was still a liquid. I ended up just mixing in more starch (trading off between tapioca and wheat since it didn't specify) in 1/4 cup increments, until it stopped sticking to my fingers. It turned out fine, I think. I also couldn't find garlic chives, so I just used green onion. They turned out delicious! The dough had that wonderful gummy consistency I love so much. I usually make food to last the week, but these really didn't keep well. The next day the dough was tough and the flavor was gone (though popping them in the microwave helped a lot), so I would recommend a single meal with these. Also, I ran out of the shrimp filling after about 12 dumplings (the recipe is supposed to make 18), so I would recommend buying more shrimp, or doing what I did and find an alternate filling. I had ended up with extra red onion (more on that later) and savoy cabbage, so I minced the onion and sliced the cabbage very thing and sauteed them in vegetable oil until soft. I actually liked this filling better than the shrimp, though I think that's only because my shrimp were a little fishy tasting (I'm very picky about my fish being fresh which is why I mostly just eat sushi).
• Stuffed savoy cabbage, courtesy of Serious Eats. First off, I've never bought dried mushrooms before. I've always seen them in the store, but have only ever used fresh. Well this recipe called for dried porcini mushrooms. I figured, no biggie. I see that called for all the time in recipes, should be no problem. Wrong. None of the grocery stores I went to had any dried mushrooms at all. Why don't I just go live in a barn while I'm at it? One guy tried to give me fresh button mushrooms when I asked him where the dried mushrooms were located. The nerve! Thankfully Trader Joe's came to my rescue yet again with a mixed dried mushroom medley. It had porcini, oyster, and shitake mushrooms (and maybe some others I'm forgetting). I just picked out the oyster and figured it'd be good enough (and it was). I modified this recipe a bit to make it a little healthier. I used ground turkey instead of beef. I used brown rice instead of white. And I used whole wheat breadcrumbs instead of white (I just pulsed some slices of bread in my cuisinart). I couldn't tell the difference, or if anything, it gave the dish more flavor. My mom said she didn't think stuffed cabbage was very Asian, and I guess it's not, but the flavors will went pretty well, I think, with the other food. I'm not really a fan of ground turkey, and thankfully that flavor was completely masked by all the other great flavors going on. The tomatoes, the mushrooms, and the cabbage itself provided for some very flavorful mush. My favorite! One thing to note about this recipe, it doesn't use all of its onion! It calls for 1 heaping cup of minced onion, but the recipe itself only ever calls for 1/2 cup. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with the other half. I just left it out, and don't think it was even missed.
• Sweet summer corn and edamame salad with walnut-miso dressing, courtesy of Serious Eats. Oh man, this was good. This is one of those great recipes that takes minutes. If you used frozen corn, it would literally take as long as defrosting the veggies. I'd seen recipes that used mirin in the past, so I looked for it several times at several grocery stores and never found it. No problem, the Asian market had 10 different kinds. Of course, the next day, I found some at my local grocery store. Go figure. I must say, edamame is darn filling! The dressing was light and sweet and have I mentioned how much I love miso?

All successes this week, I think. Everything turned out so delicious, that it barely lasted! Good thing this is a short week at work because Husband polished off the last of the food for lunch today. I would make everything again. In fact, I found a recipe this week for sui mai. I'm thinking having some friends over sometime for some dim sum-type food would be a good way to go the next time. Of course, I'll have to triple of the pork bao recipe at least.

Baking Up A Storm

I admit, I might have gone a little overboard this week. And by "a little overboard", I mean I have totally been eating myself fat this week. I don't know what it is (hormones maybe?), but I just found so many recipes that sounded fantastic, I decided I had to make them all. So be prepared for quite a list this week. And I'm featuring some pictures finally. I am by no means a food photographer, but I do my best with what laziness I have to work with.

I wasn't really in the mood for meat this week. Between the pork two weeks ago and all the chicken last week, I needed a meat-cation. Surprisingly, so did Husband. He's a big meat and potatoes kind of guy, so I was surprised, but proud, when he said he wouldn't mind being sparing with the meat this week as well. So everything on my lis

t this week is vegetarian (well, there are eggs if you count that...I never know the rules), but just about everything has tofu or legumes or dairy incorporated in some way for added protein.

• I started off with some quick buttermilk biscuits, courtesy of Pinch My Salt. I had been craving buttermilk baked goods like nobodies business all last week, so I punted these out early. Thankfully, they are seriously simple and fast. It only made about 8 biscuits, so if you're planning a dinner party, you might want to double (or triple! yum!) the recipe. It ended up being the perfect amount for snacks for the weekend. A note on cake flour. I had never used cake flour before trying this recipe (I made these once before several months ago), and every time I went to a grocery store I would check out all the flours, looking for cake flour, and never finding any. Finally, I emailed Nicole, blogger extraordinaire, and asked where in the world she gets her cake flour. She was nice enough to email back and let me know it's in a red box (with a white swan) with the cake mixes and such. The next time I was at the grocery store I looked, and sure enough, there it was! I had been just a few feet off in my searches all those weeks! Just in case anyone else is as clueless as me out there, I thought I'd save you some trouble.
• I topped my mouth-watering biscuits with some plum and earl grey preserves, courtesy of The Kitchn (I've posted the recipe before, but dagnabit, I'll do it again!). I've been itching to make this again ever since plums started popping up at the grocery store. I love, love, love this recipe. It's easy and it tastes good on just about any carb-filled breakfast food you can think of. This batch turned out a bit tart because my lemon ended up yielding the juice of about three large lemons! Seriously, it was all over the place. So I also topped the biscuits with some orange blossom honey to off-set the tartness from the preserves. Alton Brown mentioned preferring orange blossom honey on an episode of Good Eats last week, so when I saw it at Whole Foods, I thought I'd splurge. And boy am I glad I did! It's the best honey ever! I can't stop eating it! It's good stuff.
• Next, I decided I would undertake my own bagels, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. My mom is of the philosophy "why make bagels when you can go to a bagel shop and buy them?" This is true, but I like to know what's in what I'm eating. I like the satisfaction of knowing I've made what I'm eating from scratch. I like to try and dirty every dish in my kitchen each weekend and make my husband wash them all. Ok, just kidding on that last note. Mostly, I just wanted to try it. I have to say, bagels are no challah. This recipe was hard. First off, it's a two day process. Keep in mind if you try this that most of the work is done the first day. The second day is just boiling and baking the bagels. Day 2 was easy, day 1 had me questioning my place in the world. It started with the sponge. I mixed the ingredients, covered the bowl like the recipe said, and waited for it to rise. No risening action followed. I was peeved. About an hour in I decided to move the plastic wrap from the top of the bowl to directly onto the sponge. That worked. Apparently the air between the top of the bowl and the actual ingredients was my problem. Psh! It never rose to twice its size, but it rose enough that I figured it was ok to move on to the next step. The next step was the kneading. Thanks to my trusty kitchenaid mixer, I had the ingredients incorporated and kneaded on the dough hook in no time. Then I tried the windowpane test and failed miserably. It pretty much went downhill from there. I kneaded in the machine, I kneaded by hand. I added flour, I kneaded some more. 30 minutes later, it was still failing the test and starting to get tough (the dough had continually felt tacky, which was why I was still adding flour). So I called it good enough and formed my bagels. I was bummed, and convinced they would turn out disgusting, so I was happily surprised when they easily passed the float test. Yay! They ended up coming out fine. Not fabulous. Not delish. Fine. They're good, but not ten times better than a bagel shop. I wonder if they would have turned out better if I hadn't gone wrong with my first rise in the beginning. I've have to try again sometime.
• Phew! That was a lot to say just about the bagel-making portion. I haven't even talked about the bagel-eating portion! I did veggie sandwiches with them this week. I spread some roasted red pepper and garlic hummus (see next bullet) on each side of the bagel. Then I added a little parsley (hey, I had it, so I figured I'd take the kitchen sink approach), some sliced tomato, very thinly sliced red onion (a little goes a long way for me), avocado, arugula, alfalfa sprouts (in moderation, I love this addition), and finally, some cheese. Oh my goodness it is veggie heaven! Sorry, I didn't manage to get a picture of the sandwich or even of a finished bagel. Whoops!
• Hummus, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. I saw this recipe last week, but since hummus doesn't really go with Mexican food, I had to wait a week. I decided to do roasted red pepper and roasted garlic in mine. I ended up adding about 3 medium red peppers and 2 whole heads of roasted garlic (though they were really small). It actually turned out...quite bland. I think I might have added too much water trying to get the consistency right. Also, I didn't really taste the tahini, so maybe some more was in order. I definitely want to try again. I don't think there's anything wrong with the recipe. It's very similar to a few others I've seen. I think I just need to tinker with it. I ended up buying some really nice dark and heavy whole wheat pita bread at Whole Foods. This hummus actually goes very well with it because the flavor from the bread makes up for lack of flavor in the hummus.
• When I tend towards a carb-heavy week, I'm always in the mood for soup to go with it. This time I tried lentil soup, courtesy of Alton Brown. A very simple and easy recipe, which was nice to go along with all the baking. I've never even heard of grains of paradise, so I left that spice out. I also wanted more veggies, so I ended up using 2 medium onions, about 2/3 of an entire bunch of celery, and about 2/3 of a bag of baby carrots. It also ended up a little bland, but Husband discovered that a little Cholula hot sauce cleared that problem right up. I added just a few drops (to my bowl, not the whole pot), and it ended up morphing the flavor into something completely delicious, though not at all hot. Go Husband!
• That's right I'm not even close to done. I still didn't think I had enough veggies in the mix (I eat a lot of vegetables), so I tried this recipe for grilled spinach and goat cheese stuffed portobello mushrooms, courtesy of Serious Eats. This one is a keeper.Another easy recipe. Just mix some frozen spinach (after thawing of course) and goat cheese, hollow out some portobellos, stuff 'em, and grill! I used my indoor grill pan, and it worked great. I ended up doubling the amount of spinach because 1) I wanted a higher vegetable to cheese ratio to make it healthier, and 2) because the portobellos I bought were definitely more medium/large than small and I didn't want to run out of filling. It was a good call because I had just enough filling. Also, as the recipe says, I used a goat cheese that's rolled in herbs. It gave it a really nice understated flavor. On my way home from work yesterday I was thinking about having one for dinner and I got the bright idea to add a fried egg on top. Oh man, these things are good on their own, but with a runny egg yolk on top... I think I need a moment alone.
• So this episode of Good Eats I mentioned was actually an episode on bars. Specifically, granola bars, protein bars, and rice crispy bars. Husband and I drooled through the entire episode and decided we had to try all three! Thus, the trip to Whole Food last weekend, which is actually about 25 miles away from where we live. All three recipes were super quick and easy. I think I was done with all three in about an hour. If you can catch the episode online or on the food network, I would definitely recommend it. He actually gives you the nutrional information for each of the bars, so you can see for yourself how fantastic they are for you. Or at least in the case of the more dessert-y bar, how not so bad for you.
• First was the granola bars. I went with shelled sunflower seeds because the thought of eating the shells weirds me out. Taste-wise the granola bars are delicious. I couldn't stop eating it. Unfortunately, they didn't stay in bar form so well. They pretty much crumbled into just regular granola straight out of the pan (and yes, I let it cool first). That's ok, because it's still just as good when you eat it with a spoon, but I was a little disappointed it didn't stay together. It's probably a problem with the proportions. Alton's recipe is by weight. I'm far too lazy to weigh out all the ingredients on a food scale. Do you see all that I had going on this weekend? So I followed his approximate measurements. If you measure, you'll probably get better results.
• Next, I made the protein bars. These are ingenius! They have soy protein powder and silken soft tofu for the protein, and peanut butter and dried fruit for the flavor. The tofu also provides a really nice creamy texture to the bar. The flour and eggs make it light and bread-like almost. When I say they have tofu, it seems to put people off, but really, tofu is a tasteless food. All I taste when I eat these is the peanut butter, fruit, and sugar. They are delicious and filling, though admittedly, not so great to look at.
• And lastly (I know, I thought it would never end too), the brown rice crispy bars. I've since discovered that my body rejects marshmallow in my system like a disease, but they're so tasty I've been eating them anyway. Flavor-wise, these are quite different from traditional rice crispy treats. The puffed brown rice is, of course, more pronounced than those tasteless rice krispies (not to mention the traditional treats are overloaded with sugar), but the dried fruit, almonds, and honey definitely keep it tasting sweet and dessert-y. At first, I didn't think they tasted all that great, but after I let them set longer (I tend to dig in sooner than I should...I'm a wee bit impatient), the flavors really came together into deliciousness. Now I can't stop eating them (and my body is hating me for it).
• Pictured from top left to bottom center: brown rice crispy bar, protein bar, granola bar:
  
  

This Week's Theme: Mexican

Three things happened when I decided what food to make this week. First, I was feeling lazy and wanted to do something with the super cheap rotisserie chickens they sell at Costco. Second, I wanted to do enchiladas or something like that. And third, I discovered the Pioneer Woman. Somehow these things combined into a Mexican food theme for the week and some seriously healthy and delicious food. Allow me to elaborate...

• Mexican lasagna, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. This sounded way better than enchiladas. Can you blame me? I did some small things to make it a bit healthier. I used brown rice instead of white. I added black beans to the rice for a bit more protein. I used corn tortillas instead of flour. I used the rotisserie chicken from Costco instead of ground beef. And I used 2% shredded cheese because in this setting I really can't taste the difference. Also, I halved the recipe. This makes a lot of food. Be warned. Even after halving the recipe, I still used my biggest casserole dish and packed it down so tight that the thing weighs a ton. But very, very delish. Hanging on to the recipe for sure.
• "Spanish" green beans, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. I thought this veggie dish would go well with the lasagna. I used fresh green beans because I have a total aversion to canned vegetables (I have yet to see my mother buy canned vegetables, so it's how I was raised), and I just happened to have a huge bag of them from Costco. I also used turkey bacon because my husband and I actually prefer turkey bacon to regular (Can you imagine how inconvenient it would be if we didn't agree on this? Phew!). I know, we're crazy. But we're crazy together. The dish turned out...just ok, I'd say. I think it's mostly because of the canned tomatoes. They were a bit sour. Next time I'll try another brand of tomatoes, or maybe fresh ones if I'm feeling ambitious.
• Whiskey-glazed carrots, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. These are so completely wonderful and very easy. They're like candy! I wasn't planning on using a whole stick of butter, but I have a real aversion to going off recipe the first time I try it out. But I didn't end up reserving the sauce, so there's nowhere near an entire stick in the finished dish. Next time, I'll probably try half a stick and see how it goes. I'm not lessening the whiskey though. No, sir. Also, when making this, I think it would be a good idea to have some kind of bread on hand to sop up the extra sauce if you're not going to pour it over the carrots (I think that would make it too heavy, personally). I found out too late that I was actually completely out of bread!!! (Thanks for the heads up before we went to the grocery store, Husband!)
• And for dinner each night I've been cooking up some delicious and healthy quesadillas. Here's how I make them: I throw a whole wheat tortilla in a pan and sprinkle with 2% shredded cheese (I went with the Mexican blend this week). Ok, I more like dump it on, but it acts as the glue, a very important job! Then I add some of the shredded rotisserie chicken I had left over from the lasagna. On top of that, some sauteed bell pepper and red onion. That is the base of the quesadilla. Beyond that, you can spice it up however you want. The last few nights I experimented with adding enchilada sauce, jalapenos, and some of the leftover Mexican rice. Basically, besides the veggies, chicken, and cheese, anything goes. Once the tortilla is browned and the filling is warmed up, I fold it over, let it settle for a minute, then transfer it to my plate. Then I top it with fresh guacamole and pico de gallo (chopped tomato, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro with lime juice and salt). Voila! Quick, easy, healthy, and tasty.

It's been a real challenge keeping my portion sizes small this week. The quesadillas are so big that I was uncomfortably full after I ate one for dinner on Monday night. Last night I wizened up and ended up cutting about a third of a piece off before I sat down to eat. That way I wasn't too full, and now I have an afternoon snack for today.

I didn't end up baking anything, which I am now regretting. I have been seriously craving baked goods all week. I planned at the last minute (as in, after I had done my grocery shopping) to make cornbread, but I was out of milk (or even buttermilk! gasp!), so that was a no go. Not surprisingly, I am planning a big carb fest next week.

Converted

When I asked Husband years ago what his favorite kind of pie was (he's a cake guy), he said strawberry rhubarb.  I told him it was a good thing we were compatible in all things dark chocolate and raspberry related, because in pie tastes we couldn't be more different.  I told him I disliked rhubarb with every fiber of my being.  It's bitter in taste and chewy in texture.  Not things that belong anywhere near a dessert.

When I commented that the rhubarb in the grocery store actually looked quite good, he gave me his I-told-you-so face and suggested I try it.  I scoffed.  

Hi, my name is julo, and I was wrong.  Rhubarb is delicious.

But it was also nothing like I remembered eating in those disgusting strawberry rhubarb pies from my childhood.  I think the difference must be in preparation.  In other words, I ate me some nasty pie.

Of course, it's the fault of Deb at Smitten Kitchen, as usual.  She's been posting and posting about rhubarb and I finally caved and decided that, hey, if she likes it that much, I should give it one last try before I decide to banish to the will-not-eat list forever.

And in case you were wondering, yes, I'm still in my slaw mode.  I actually would have gone without a slaw this week (especially since the weather turned cold and rainy this weekend), but I wanted to make the pork wraps that I had made once before and were absolutely delish, and this slaw just went perfectly with it the last time.  I couldn't very well omit it this time!

Here's what I'm eating this week:

• Slow-cooked hoisin and ginger pork wraps, courtesy of The Kitchn.  I've made this recipe once before, and knew this one would be a repeat offender, big time.  It's ridiculously easy and super delicious.  I usually fear working with cuts of meat I have to ask specifically for at the meat counter (as in, there's no pork butt in the display case, they have to go and cut it for me especially), but that's the only uncomfortable part.  Well that, and having to actually ask for butt with a straight face.  Once I'm home with booty in hand, it's smooth sailing.  The one jar of hoisin sauce I've ever bought at a store I thought tasted pretty nasty, very salty and a hint of licorice.  Bleck.  I used this recipe, which is also linked on the pork recipe, to make my own hoisin sauce.  And man, oh man, was it tasty!  I'm not sure how close to real hoisin sauce it is...I didn't think it usually had peanut butter, but it was good, and that's what counts.
• Crunchy peanut slaw, also courtesy of The Kitchn, and also linked on the pork recipe.  That pork and this slaw go so well together.  Seriously.  Delish.  I bought some whole wheat wraps and Trader Joe's, steamed up some brown rice, and voila!  Pork wraps with slaw and brown rice.  Satisfying, tasty, and healthy.  That's what I'm all about.
• Big crumb coffee cake, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.  This is where the rhubarb came in.  This cake is wonderful.  It's light and sweet, but not too sweet, thanks to a touch of sour from the rhubarb.  Yum!  I highly recommend this one.
• I tried this whole wheat no-knead bread again (reminder that you have to register to view the recipe) because I'm stubborn and it was such a colossal failure last week.  I don't know if I had a bad batch of yeast or what.  This time I soaked the yeast in the water before I added both to the rest of the dry ingredients.  This time my dough rose.  It didn't rise a huge amount, but it at least hit the top of the loaf pan this time.  It's still pretty dense, but still good.

I also wanted to mention, I just discovered the ready to eat beets they sell at Trader Joe's (yes, I know I mention that place a lot, but they've got some great stuff!) in the produce section.  They are fantastic!  They are already peeled and soft and ready to chop up over a goat cheese and arugala salad.   Bit thumbs up over here.

An Easy Week

I was feeling pretty uninspired this weekend, and just wanted to take it easy.  I've been run down with a cold for almost 10 days straight (it will not go away!!!), so that probably had something to do with it.  

I ended up just doing an easy Asian noodle dish with fried tofu (with chicken for Husband), a ton of veggies, and an easy peanut sauce.  Since I was doing just one dish this week, I took my time and julienned some carrots, zuccinni, and green onions.  I added some mushrooms, celery, garlic, and ginger too.  The sauce was just peanut butter, soy sauce, corn starch, and a little bit of seasame oil.  So easy, and so delicious!  I used fresh Asian noodles that you can buy in the produce section of the grocery store.  That really makes the difference in the dish for me.

Husband was whining for muffins all weekend, so Sunday afternoon I whipped up these oatmeal and blueberry muffins.    These muffins are really delicious, ridiculously easy to make, and surprisingly light.  I doubled up on the blueberries because I love me some blueberries!  I was surprised they lasted all the way until Wednesday.  The last time I made them Husband polished them off before 24 hours was up.  

I'd also like to try this other oatmeal blueberry muffin recipe.  This one cuts out the white flour and adds applesauce.  It sounds fantastic.  I literally am down to my last 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, so I'll have to try it out another time.  I'm really craving baked goods with oatmeal lately, so I might continue with oatmeal cookies or oatmeal banana bread or something.

I also tried my hand at more bread baking.  It didn't turn out so great, unfortunately.  I tried this whole wheat no-knead bread recipe (note: you have to register to view the recipe, but registering is free). My dough didn't rise to the occasion.  It was a total dud.  I was so bummed!  Husband insisted I bake it anyway, and it's a brick, but it's a delicious brick, I must say.  I want to try this again.  I'm wondering if I just had a bad packet of yeast.  Next time I'll try letting the yeast sit in the water for a few minutes to activate it.  Don't know if that'll work, I really know nothing about the science of bread-making.  But I'll give it a go because I want this recipe to work.

The Hot Weather is Here: It's Salad Time!

It's starting to get close to the time when I stay indoors everyday between the hours of noon and 6pm because it is just too hot outside.  Forget about trying to take Theo anywhere.  We went to the dog park at 1pm yesterday and it was already scorching.  I forgot to sunscreen my toes, and now they're a nice tomato color.  Oops!  With the weather as it is, I was not much in the mood for using the stove or over yesterday, and with all the great salad recipes I was seeing, I managed pretty well.

Before I get to this week's food, I should mention that I didn't post anything last week because I didn't cook last week.  I was out of town in St. Louis, so it was eating out every meal.  Poor Husband had to fend for himself.  He was definitely thinner when I got home.  Hehe.  I won't go into where I ate while I was out there, but I do want to mention roly poly.   I'd never heard of it before, but it's like a subway, but with wraps, and way more options.  It was delicious!  Why can't we get one in California get one within 60 miles of where I live? 

This week's cold food:

• Broccoli slaw, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.  I got broccoli pre-cut at Trader Joe's, so this only took minutes!  I substituted yogurt for about 1/3 of the mayo called for, just to be a little healthier, and I couldn't taste a difference.  I think I won't even use half a red onion next time I make this.  A little red onion goes a long way for me, so maybe just 1/3.  I'm curious to try the original recipe.  I do love me some rice wine and lemon juice.
• Corn, mango, and jicama salad with honey vinaigrette, courtesy of Pinch My Salt.  I've made this salad about three or four times now (one of my few repeats!).  I love it.  I've always thought mango and avocado go great together, and the jicama and corn provide a really nice crunch.  It's a little plain, but once you add the dressing it is phenomenal!  I couldn't wait until mangoes were in season, just so I could make this salad again.
• Chicken curry salad sandwiches.  I kind of got the recipe here, but it's really not much of a recipe (add obvious ingredients in whatever quantity you want, lol).  I added celery and currants (why do I dislike raisins but have no objection to currants?) to mine.  I forgot about the nuts, but I don't think they were needed.  Like the slaw, I substituted yogurt and a little sour cream (both low fat) for some of the mayo.  I always still use some mayo because I don't want it to taste like diet food, and there's nothing wrong with a little fat.  I probably used about a tablespoon of curry powder.  It definitely had a nice curry flavoring, but I think I could have added a lot more before it was too strong. I put the salad on some focaccia-type rolls from Trader Joe's, piled with arugula.  It was fantastic.
• Husband broke out his manly grilling skills and made some kabobs with bbq chicken, bell pepper, pineapple, onion, cherry tomatoes, and red potatoes.  Haven't tried those yet.

So far the week is shaping up to be delicious!

Food Journaling

The blog has been a bit light on crafting because I haven't crafted in forever.  Bad me!  I've been busy with other things.  I don't intend to stop crafting altogether, just an extended leave of absence.  I've really cut down on my tv time (the tivo is really piling up!) because I've been trying to get out more: going for long walks in the evening, jogging in the morning.  I've been cooking more seriously ever since we finished the kitchen remodel, and I've been giving lots of time to reading and playing with Theo.  Just no time in the day for anything else at the moment.  I'll get to it, eventually.

I have, however, been cooking and baking up a storm lately.  I was complaining to Husband yesterday that even though I make yummy food every week, I have yet to really repeat any of my recipes because I forget all about them once I make them.  He suggested I make a log of what I make, so I can look back on it for idea. He, of course, suggested my iphone, but I thought, hey, why not dust off the old blog?  So here we are.  I haven't been taking pictures, so it won't be as pretty as I would like, but I figure I can at least link to the recipes I make (and there are pictures if you follow the link).

So here we go.  Here is what I am eating this week:

• Black bean and roasted red pepper soup, courtesy of Closet Cooking.  I have a new found love for roasted peppers.  I had no idea they were so easy and delicious!  I go by these directions, but you can roast peppers a number of ways.  I am so glad it's pepper season!  I couldn't find poblano chilies (which is crazy because I checked three different stores and I live in Southern California!), so I just substituted more red peppers (I'll bet the stores are just dumb and marked them as ancho chilies.  I'll have to check on that.).  I was actually going to add jalapeno, but then I forgot to add it, oops!  It turned out pretty darn delicious!  I used an immersion blender and pureed it a bit because I wanted it to be more like soup and less like chili.  I also got a rotisserie chicken from Costco (only $5, who knew?), and shredded some of that in for some added protein.  I also topped it with avocado and some crumbled up tortilla chips.  Yum!  I want to also mention that this soup is totally healthy.  It's mostly veggies and some black beans, which are big on fiber, not on fat.  Just don't sprinkle too many chips.  Heh.
  
• Brussels sprouts with bacon and lemon, courtesy of Closet Cooking.  I've never been a fan of brussels sprouts, but I've also never quite hated them.  I figure if bacon doesn't make them delicious, nothing will.  It's still a little on the bitter side, but the lemon juice and bacon flavor help a lot with it.  I also used turkey bacon because it's healthier and equally tasty to me.  A little shallot tends to go a long way, so I bought a small one, but I actually thought it could have used a little more.  So go for a bigger one if you try this.  Overall, I think this is totally yummy.
• Warm butternut squash and chickpea salad, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.  I know I said I haven't really repeated a recipe, but I actually made this salad just last week.  It is so freaking good.  I had to go to Whole Foods to find tahini (the closest Whole Foods is 20 miles away...it's a travesty they don't have one closer!), but your local grocery store might have it in the peanut butter section, if it isn't lame like my grocery store is.  Also, Trader Joe's sells small packages of pre-cut butternut squash.  They're relatively inexpensive, and I really hate cutting butternut squash, so I just used 3 of those packages.  I wish I had tried this recipe in the fall when the ingredients were more in season.  Thanks to my sister for recommending it to me!
• Key lime meltaways, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen.  I saw a nice looking bag of key limes at the store last week that I just couldn't pass up.  I've made these once before (my first blog post even!), and they are still positively delicious.  They have been a favorite at work today.
• Blackberry cobbler, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.  They had a big container of blackberries at Costco for $2.99.  I couldn't pass it up.  I love blackberries.  They are my favorite fruit to bake with, so bake with them I did.  I decided on cobbler because they're easy and if you'll notice the list above, I was already pretty busy in the kitchen (also because I don't have a tart pan and pies are hard).  I looked for a recipe that had a picture that looked pretty close to the cobblers my mom made growing up, and this one looked pretty close.  I don't have self rising flour (I think keeping 3 different kinds of flour is my limit), but I checked online and found this conversion:

1 c. self rising flour = 1 c. all-purpose flour + 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder + 1/8 tsp. salt

It worked for me.  I also used a ton more blackberries than it called for because the container from Costco had about 4 cups worth.  I basically just kept adding blackberries until the pan couldn't hold any more (~ 3 1/2 cups).  Hey it's healthier with a higher fruit to dough ratio, right?  This turned out so delicious that Husband and I ate 2/3 of it yesterday afternoon.  Having a freshly baked dessert sitting on the counter while cooking is a dangerous, dangerous thing!

Husband was also kind enough to lend a hand and make a pizza (with mozzarella cheese, peperoni, and green bell peppers), but there's no fancy recipe for that.  We just buy the ready-made whole-wheat dough at Trader Joe's (it's so delish!), and top it with whatever.

So that's what I'm eating this week (plus my usual salad for dinner).  So far all of these recipes are definitely good enough to make again.

Heaven Is A Salad

I'm really not a big salad fan.  They're usually romaine or iceberg lettuce, neither of which have a lot of flavor.  And what usually goes in them is normally pretty boring to my palette.  Growing up salad was green leaf lettuce, carrots, tomato, cucumber, and sometimes walnuts and avocado with an Italian vinaigrette.  While this kind of salad is totally edible and pretty good, it's not delicious.  You know what salad is delicious?  The kind I made last week!

I was at Trader Joe's last week and saw some lovely arugula.  To my husband's credit, it was he who suggested making a salad with it when he saw me admiring it.  But what to put in it?  Well right across the aisle there were some lovely-looking dried cranberries.  And we had some toasted almonds at home, along with some turkey bacon that would be yummy on top.  And of course, what's a good, fancy salad without goat cheese?  We got a big brick of that too. 

It came out better than I could have hoped (sorry, no pictures were taken before my scarfing).  It was so simple, just a few ingredients, but I could not get enough!  The ingredients were just so flavorful and went so well together.  The arugula worked really nicely in it.  And no dressing!  I'm just not a fan of dressing, and really there was enough that stood out in the salad that I don't think it needed it.  The goat cheese provided a nice creamy texture to go along with the roughness of the arugula (I'm big on texture).  

A good dressing is heavenly, but I have yet to find a heavenly store-bought dressing.  Any recommendations?  Have you made a good salad lately?

The Holiday Season

The best thing about the holidays is definitely the food. I love spicy holiday flavors. I love the smell of Noble Fur trees. And I love the cozy feeling I get in my house. Last weekend I curled up on my comfy sofa under a warm blanket with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate. I decided to try mixing a little pumpkin pie spice in and it turned out so delicious! This is definitely something I'll be repeating.

Oh yeah, and I love drinking that holiday hot chocolate out of my favorite mug, from my favorite bookstore in Mendocino.

Halloween Dinner

I had a couple friends over on Halloween (yes, I am only just now, almost a month later, getting around to blogging about Halloween) for a low key dinner.  It was the first time we had hosted guests at our house since the remodel, so even though it was low key, it was still special.  I still had the cooking/baking itch, so I made quite a spread: cauliflower and roasted garlic soup, chicken Marsala, chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, and chocolate pumpkin cookies. (I also made red potatoes braised in white wine, but I didn't make it from a recipe.  It's easy!  Just saute potatoes, add wine, add a nice herb like rosemary, and simmer until done!) Phew!  It was a lot of work!  But everything turned out delicious.  I'll have to talk about the soup in another post because 1) it was a practice run for Thanksgiving next week, and 2) I apparently forgot to upload the pictures I took.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have to show for the chicken Marsala.  Our guests showed up as it was cooking and I was a bit rushed to get everything on the table.  I've also found I'm a bit self conscious about photographing my food in front of anyone other than my husband.  He already knows I'm crazy, and I know I don't have anyone else fooled to the contrary, but I don't like clueing them in on exactly how crazy I am.  Anyway, I will say that it was very different from the chicken Marsala my mom used to make growing up, and it sure was delicious.   It wasn't super saucy (something that is a must for me for chicken usually), so I was surprised at how flavorful it was.  I would definitely make this again either for everyday or for entertaining. 

My favorite thing about fall is by far the food.  I love squash, and I love pumpkin!  Soup, cookies, biscuits, muffins, pancakes, scones, lattes (I just found out that if I ask for the pumpkin latte at Starbucks with 2 pumps instead of 3 it is actually quite delicious!), etc.  You name it, I love it.  So for a Halloween dinner I wanted to make some of the recipes I had been eyeing for awhile, namely these chocolate-glazed pumpkin cookies, and the pumpkin muffins below.  

I have to say, these cookies were good, but not great.  They probably would have been better if I hadn't had the pumpkin muffins right beside them because they were way overshadowed by the deliciousness of my muffins.  Even so, they were too cake-y, not cookie-y enough.  Without the chocolate dripped on top they would have been bland I think.  But I did enjoy them the next Monday when I brought them into work to share.

I think the cookie I'm really looking for here is more of a sugar cookie with a slight hint of pumpkin.  Something I can roll out and use cookie cutters on, not a drop and bake kind of cookie.  Well I now have about 6 cans of pumpkin thanks to all the sales at the grocery stores, so I think I'll try and find a better recipe and give it another go!

These pumpkin muffins are just the bomb.  Fantastic.  I made them once last year around this time and Mouth has been bugging me to make them again ever since (and he just happened to be one of the house guests).  I use the large Ghirardelli chocolate chips they sell at the local grocery store, which I think makes the muffins a lot more tasty than normal sized chips. That separation of flavors just makes it taste better.  Also, I added a chip to the top of each muffin which turned out so melty and delicious I always saved that bite for last.  These muffins aren't super pumpkin-y.  It's just a hint.  A perfect hint.

Husband was hoarding these like they were his precious.  He ate two before anyone showed up, ate two more that evening, and proceeded to finish the off the next two days.  I barely got any!  I ended up having to count out how many our guests and I had eaten so I could show him just how many he had gorged on.  "Eighteen muffins minus seven muffins means you ate eleven you piggy!"  It was hilarious on the last day listening to him whine to me "there are only two left!" 

Of course, one of the downsides of having a nice dinner on Halloween is the constant interuptions by trick or treaters, but I didn't mind so much.  I was sad I didn't get more...and at a more reasonable hour!  Why are your kids out at 9pm people?  Shouldn't you be walking them around when you get home from work at 6pm?  Shouldn't little Billy be tucked away in bed at that hour? *sigh* Kids today....

In other news, I just realized I don't even have one pumpkin anywhere close to completion and Thanksgiving is next week!  I'm going to be knitting all night! D:

I'm Back With Buttermilk

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post for like 2 weeks (it's only been 2 weeks, right?). Ok, maybe more like 3. Anyway, I ended up going out of town for one of those weeks. And I've been busy doing NaBloPoMo on my dog blog. Blah blah blah. Anyway, I'd like to get back to posted regularly, starting now.

I'll be posting more about what I've been cooking a little later. For now I'm just going to say how absolutely in love with buttermilk I am. I've been using it in everything! The buttermilk pancakes I made a few weeks ago were just to die for. I don't think I'll ever go back to Bisquick again. Pancakes from scratch really aren't that much more work. It's just measuring out a couple of extra ingredients. Who doesn't have time for that? Have you ever tried just putting a little buttermilk in your scrambled eggs instead of regular milk? It really adds something extra. I love it. And buttermilk biscuits? Well I haven't tried those yet. But I want to! I think buttermilk is going to be something I always have stocked in my fridge from now on.

What do you love buttermilk in?

Slaving Away

Sunday night I successfully attempted Indian food! Indian food is my kind of food. Namely, it's flavorful mush. My grandma always said that I didn't like meat because I didn't like to chew. My mother never let that comment go and still to this day maintains that I am an anti-chewer. I think I'm not a big fan of meat because it's flavor and texture trigger my gag reflex at times (at least it used to, I'm much better now). But I do have to admit that I am a lover of mushy but flavorful food. And you get to scoop your mush up with some delicious bread, rather than just a boring old fork. Another plus!



Anyway, this wasn't my first attempt. I previously made Deb's spicy lentil, potato, and pea samosas, which turned out fabulously. That recipe and this recipe had three things in common: they were both flavorful and delicious, they both were made from simple recipes with great instructions, and they both had so many steps that it took freaking forever to make. Seriously. I don't know where the time went! It is definitely not a throw everything into a pan and cook it recipe. First you have to cook the peas, then the onions, then let things simmer, etc. etc.



But it was well worth the wait. Yum! That just means that it's a weekend dish. In this case I made yellow dal and black eyed peas in goan curry. It's another Smitten Kitchen recipe. (I have recipes from other sources, I swear!) It wasn't a complicated recipe at all, quite the opposite actually. It just had a lot of steps. I recommend having a good magazine or tv close by for the times when everything is cooking and you're left standing around and waiting.

I was also feeling ambitious and also baked up some pizza dough with olive oil and roasted garlic on top to act as my dipping bread. I need to learn to make garlic naan as good as the Indian restaurant in my neighborhood. It's fantastic! I wasn't very happy with the pizza dough recipe, I think I'll try to find a better one. But it was still pretty darned good as a scooper. Here's the finished product:



When Husband tried this he said I was "dinner party ready". He later clarified, saying that since my cooking attempts had been so successful lately (as in, delicious!) I was ready for other people to come over and try my food (something I've always been nervous about for some reason). It was a wonderful compliment that will hopefully be followed up by some real dinner parties! If they ever finish remodeling my kitchen that is.

Also, a warning to all married cooks out there. I keep running out of food! I made a big pan of dal and a big pan of curry and in the blink of an eye it was gone! And we won't even mention my poor pizza dough. Why? My husband! He keeps eating up all my delicious food because, well, it's delicious! You may need to double some recipes if you've got a husband (or children) like mine in the vicinity.

The Famous Cake

Why is the famous Smitten Kitchen chocolate peanut butter cake famous? Well sure it was featured on the Martha Stewart Show, but it was well known to me and my friend far sooner than that. I think this is a case where fantastic food photography combined with the words chocolate, peanut butter, and cake just became something magical. I remember I was out with my friend a few weeks ago and she mentioned a recipe for a chocolate peanut butter cake she really wanted to try. "SMITTEN KITCHEN!" I shouted at her. "YES!" she yelled back. And we made a pact to make the cake together, which we finally got around to last weekend.

This cake takes a long time to make. Clear you schedule for the afternoon folks. Not only do you have to make 3 layers of cake, frosting, and glaze, but you have to chill the cake in all three of those steps. Bake the cake, then freeze it; Frost the cake then refrigerate it; Glaze the cake then refrigerate it some more. It took us four freaking hours!

I have to say, as much as it bums me out, I have some major issues with the recipe for this chocolate peanut butter cake.

• The recipe says to use 8 inch round cake pans. Now I'm new to baking so maybe someone can help me out. I went to two different stores (three if you count the grocery store), and as far as I can tell there is no such thing as 8 inch round cake pans. They're all 9 inches!
• The cake batter is super watery. We read the recipe over 3 times in disbelief because 1 1/2 cups of water just seemed like too much. The batter looked too watered down after only 1 cup, so we were nervous about that.
  
• The layers are way too thin. I would actually just do two layers. I get that you get more frosting for your buck with three small layers, but they were a pain to work with (do not skip the step of freezing the cake layers after they bake!)...but maybe that's just because I wasn't wild about the frosting (I'll get to that).
• The cake itself is...not that great. I was expecting something dark and rich based on the picture. Maybe it was photoshoped, but I followed the recipe to a T and what I got was a cake that was light (as in the color was not a rich dark brown at all) and not very flavorful. I felt my Schargenberger cocoa powder was wasted!
• The frosting is way too sweet and kind of nasty. The frosting alone has 5 frakking cups of sugar. The peanut butter makes it a bit heavy, which combined with the sickeningly sweet sugar content makes it a bit unpleasant.
• Frosting this cake was a total pain. Since it was so watery, it crumbled and fell apart at the slightest touch. I ended up just globbing on the frosting because I had better success that way, but I ran out of frosting pretty quickly. There were definitely pretty spots and not so pretty spots.

My tips:

1. As I said above, don't skip the steps to chill the cake at the various stages. It really makes a difference. It would have been impossible to work with the ultra thin cake layers if they had not been frozen first. In fact, only take out one layer at a time, otherwise the others will warm back up while you're frosting the first one.
2. Make this cake the day before you actually want to eat it. We tried the cake just an hour or two after we made it and the flavors just didn't seem to mesh as well as I would have liked. But when I tried another piece the next day I thought it tasted a lot better (though still way too sickeningly sweet).

One thing I will rave about is the chocolate glaze. It is freaking good. I wouldn't mind modifying this recipe in every way except the glaze. I would like to first off ditch the chocolate cake recipe in favor of my go-to chocolate cake recipe my sister gave me. Not sure who originated it, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting it, but this is my favorite chocolate cake recipe I've come across so far:

Amazon Chocolate Cake:

3 cups flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (mmmm...Schargenberger...)

2 tsp baking sode

2 cups sugar

2 cups cold water

1/2 cup + 2 Tb corn or vegetable oil

1 Tb vanilla

2 Tb white vinegar or strained lemon juice

Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Sift. In separate bowl, mix together water, oil, vanilla, and vinegar/lemon juice. Whisk together wet and dry mixtures. Pour through strainer into a bowl, breaking up lumps and pressing them through. Mix again, and pour into 2 greased 9-inch round cake pans or one greased 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan. Tap the edge of the pan against the edge of the counter, or drop from 6 inches to floor several times to pop air bubbles. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

I'm thinking if I can figure out how to make a raspberry frosting (with way less sugar of course), and if I take the peanut butter out of the chocolate glaze, and I use the above cake recipe, this could be a pretty freaking sweet cake (er, that's sweet as in awesome, not sweet as in the opposite of sour).

All that said, I am so proud of myself for making this cake. This was definitely not a beginner's recipe, and I think I managed to execute the recipe pretty darn well! And Deb does give a lot of good tips, which I always appreciate. I think that's why I like food blogs so much better than cook books. There's always little tricks and nuances that never make it into the book, but are so essential to whatever your making coming out right.

Oh and one more tip: if you do decide to make this recipe, make sure you have a tall glass of milk on hand. Even if you don't like milk you're going to need it. 7 cups of sugar will do that to a person. Enjoy!

Afterthought: I tried another piece of the cake last night and I'm very undecided.  The first couple of bites are delicious, and then the flavors just seem to compound and that's when it gets too overwhelmingly sweet.  I think serving it cold makes a big difference.  I know that Deb suggested serving only very small pieces, and now I think I understand why.  It's not because it's so rich that people won't be able to handle more, it's because the first few bites taste delicious, so you might as well only serve a couple of bites.  

Just Like Grandma Used To Make

Last weekend at the farmers market I found some great looking swiss chard, so I decided to try this recipe for barley and lentil soup with swiss chard I had been eying for a few weeks.



Another nice and easy recipe (gimme a break, I'm just starting). It wasn't quite drop and simmer, but it was pretty close to that. I was actually surprised by how unbelievably delicious this soup was! It was close to the Progresso lentil soups I had all the time growing up, only ten times better of course. I just mean the flavors were similar...the lentils, the chard, and the spices.



But it was the barley that made this soup for me. I took a bite and instantly thought of my grandmother. Growing up she always had a pot of soup simmering on the stove. A few piece of beef here, a few carrots there. Her soups were always very hodge podge and always amazing. And they often had barley in them! She is the only person I've known who put barley in her soups, but really, it's a great addition. I loved eating this delicious soup and feeling like I had a connection back to my grandmother. I think she would have really liked this soup, but, you know, with some meat in it.

Holla At The Baker

One of my latest ambitions is to learn to bake my own bread. I freaking love bread. Pumpernickle, dark, sweet wheat, crusty sour dough. I love them all. So when I saw this recipe for challah on Smitten Kitchen, I was ecstatic.

Let me tell you not only was this recipe easy, the challah tasted so darn good I was ready to bake two loaves a day for the rest of my life. It is so easy, in fact, that I was able to make it completely by hand with no mixer (my kitchen-aid is packed away at the moment...darn remodel). Ok, stirring in 8 cups of flour, one cup at a time, by hand was a bit of a challenge, but I could use the muscle.

The house smelled like heaven the rest of the day. I personally like poppy seeds on my challah (thus the addition of them), but Husband wasn't a fan. I decided that next time I'll make a his and her loaf, one with poppy seeds and one without.

I brought a loaf into work the next day, hoping to share my first bread baking triumph. I am astounded that so many people don't know what challah is! My co-workers kept asking if I was saying "holla". No, no. None of that please. For those not in the jew-bread know, this is what challah is all about.

Once the bread was made, there was the question of what to eat on the bread. I had two things in mind. First I tried out this recipe for plum and earl grey preserves. I had never heard of mixing fruit and tea leaves, but the results were a-m-azing. Not too sweet...slighty flowery...I can't even describe the flavor but whoever thought of mixing these two things together was a genius. Again, this recipe was so easy that even I could do it no problem. And let me tell you...

...the preserves tasted great on a slice of the challah. Since both had just a hint of sweetness (rather than being sugar central), they went really nicely together. Now that the challah is all eaten up (boo!), I need to find an alternative bread source for finishing off these preserves. I'm thinking pancakes for breakfast this weekend!

The other spread I tried with the challah was some cinnamon honey butter I had left over from some biscuits I bought. I don't have to recipe for this one (though I'd like to experiment and make one up sometime in the near future), but I'm guessing that just mixing up some butter with cinnamon and honey will get the desired results. Anyway, this combination was really delicious too. I think the cinnamon overpowered the challah a little bit, but since the challah was a few days old and just shy of stale, it there wasn't as much flavor to mask.

I'm really excited that my first bread baking adventure went so well. I can't wait to try a new adventure soon!

We're Up And Running!

Well I finally did it. I updated I mean copied someone's blog template and tweaked it a little so I could call it my own blog template! I hope you all like it. I'll still make some tweaks along the way (especially with the blog header...that's temporary until I find something I like better), but I think it's good enough to put my name on. ;)

Ok, so why did I feel the crazy need to make a third blog? Well if you read my first blog you know that I had to set it to private, so blogging things like my knitting projects and cooking adventures really wasn't as fun. And if you read my second blog you know that there is only room for one star on that blog and his name is Theodore. I had been batting around this idea for months and I finally decided to just take the plunge.

I've been remodeling my kitchen for the last few months and let me tell you, nothing will encourage you to cook more than eating out every single meal for 3 months straight. I even got sick of Rubios for awhile, and that's staying something. Now that it's almost done I've been dabbling a bit with some of the recipes I've been drooling over since June. So while the title suggests that perhaps the first post of this blog should be about knitting, I'm going to be difficult and share with you my latest baking accomplishment: lime meltaway cookies!

The first few recipes I tried were definitely dominated by Deb from Smitten Kitchen. Simple recipes combined with fresh ingredients and gorgeous food photography kept me on the edge of my taste buds the last few weeks. Her keylime meltaways (pictured) recipe I highly recommend.

Like Deb's husband, I love limes. I didn't discover how much I liked them until I tried a squirt or two of fresh lime on my Rubio's fish taco especial years ago, but it's been a love affair ever since. So where before I may have thought "ew" upon seeing a recipe for baking with lime, now I see it and think "oh man that sounds like it could be delicious", and they were! They were buttery and sweet, but the lime flavor kept it from tasting too boring, too heavy, or too sweet. It added a bit of freshness to the cookies, which was good and bad. Good because it made the cookie taste light and was a great balance for the sweet sugar, and bad because it made me feel like I could eat twice and many.

This recipe was super easy. I didn't have any key limes, so I just used regular limes. I'd definitely be interested in trying this recipe again with the key limes to see how different the cookies turn out. And be sure not to over-bake! Mine were super crumbly, I think because I baked them a little too long, though it didn't seem to affect the flavor much. Also, I have to warn you, these cookies almost didn't make it in to the oven at all. Stay away from the dough! It is habit forming! The raw dough for these cookies is just about the yummiest thing I have ever tasted. Again, I blame the lime. Don't say that I didn't warn you!

PS: If you're interested, don't forget to follow my blog!