I'm Back with Some Bread. Forgive?

Well, if I haven't completely let you down, maybe there's still an ounce of forgiveness inside of you for my lack-of-bloggingness.  It's not that I don't have things to blog about, au contraire (I studied Spanish, not French), I've just been so busy lazy about uploading photos.  Let's see if this new summer schedule will help me turn over a new leaf...again.

We'll start with something simple... a little loaf.  Now, I know you've seen my loaves before, so it's nothing new.  Still using my very favorite, easiest bread recipe with a few tweaks. This one has some rye flour (trying to clean out the cabinets) and caraway seeds (ditto), and I always add a bunch more salt.  But I swear, this method never lets me down.  Try it, you'll impress all your friends.  Or if not, impress yourself.

Thank you for your forgiveness. Everyone (my sister) was sick of looking at those lemons. Monica, you're welcome.

All Your Cookie Are Belong To Me

D is a big cookie guy - lucky for him, I like to bake! We got this cook book for our wedding, and it is awesome! I made the Chocolate Oatmeal Walnut cookies after dinner last night. They were HUGE!!

See?



Woops, See?


I did NOT need too many of these lying around the house, so I pre-portioned some scoops and froze them for another moment of desperation.


My favorite part was that we were almost out of chocolate chips (we had 1 of the 12 ounces required for the recipe) and so D and I were scouring the kitchen for chocolate bars. We were able to scrap together 9 more ounces of chocolate. Yay! It was plenty. And the cookies were chewy and amazing! I think the secret is the molasses, personally. But I do love me some molasses.

Here's the recipe, if you dare.

Thanks to Sandy & Vince for the book - we love it!

Crafting for Haiti

Well, I'm headed for Haiti this April with a group of doctors and nurses from work. I still can't believe it! I'm feeling a mixture of excitement and hesitation, but I have wanted to do something like this for a long time.

Anyhow, since we must pay our own way to Haiti, what do we nurses do to raise money? We bake! I throw a little crafting in there as well :)

I made a double-batch of my all-time favorite, fool-proof granola recipe and packaged it up! I used those cute little Paper Source labels and my favorite font.


I had some lip balm ingredients left over from some Christmas gifts I made. So I just melted them down, added a bit more peppermint oil, and put it in jars. This lip balm recipe ROCKS, by the way.


And that's really all that's in this lip balm - see? It rocks!

Here's hoping for a successful bake sale (and mission!)!

*If you wish to make a monetary contribution to our mission, drop me a line and I'll let you know how.

Tiny Pies

Look what I made today! Tiny hand pies!


We're having a potluck at work tomorrow, and since I had the day off, I made these tiny hand pies. And since I used Trader Joe's piecrusts and Trader Joe's cranberry apple pie filling (in a jar, such a cheater), they were super easy. A bit time consuming, but easy.

I wasted some of the dough making these crappy ones, which are too big and fell apart when I picked them up. We'll just have to "confiscate" these.


p.s. I also made this today for lunch - so good & so easy!

Oh, Yes I Did Just Make Crackers

I've been having a streak of bees in my bonnet. Every day it's been something different.

Today's bee: making crackers (of all things). Took ~20 minutes start-to-finish and I was able to make it in my tiny Cuisinart food processor. Bonus!



I made them with Parmesan, but maybe bleu or Gorgonzola would be good too!

If you're on a diet, don't make these. Yes, I'm on a wedding-dress diet, but I'm putting them away RIGHT NOW. Promise!

Recipe found here. Enjoy!

"Folksy Crack"

I've had a problem the last couple weeks... It looks a little something like this:


My friend called it "folksy crack," and that's exactly what it is. I made 3 batches last week, and probably ate 1.5 batches myself. The other 1.5, I had to give away, for the sake of my weight-loss efforts.

Got the recipe here, and so should you...if you can afford to have a vice.

Little Red Ramekins

I can't believe I haven't blogged about these yet. They're my newest favorite things!


I actually bought them at an antique store at the Marin Art & Garden Center (we're 99% sure we're getting married there!!). I have visions of baking little individual macaroni and cheeses with crunchy bread crumb topping. But for now, I mostly just eat yogurt and cereal from them.

I wish I had about 8 more of them, but I'm obsessive like that.

Birthday Cake Y'all

Look at this beautiful coconut cake my sister (and mother of 3) found time to make for little ol' me! She asked me what kind of cake I wanted, and the nice thing to say would have been, "funfetti" or "a betty crocker cake mix", but I didn't....bad Sara. But look at the cake!!


I can't figure out how to take a good photo in the darkish...so you get to look at my crappy photos. Trust me, this cake from Paula Deen was scrumptious, decadent, & beautiful. Wasn't that so nice of her? With all she has to do, she made me this cake. Aw, shucks, Monica.

And I have to show you this photo of my niece, Maile. Refuses to take a nap in her own bed, but boy, can this girl nap on the go. Here she is at Costco with a chip sample in her hand snoozing away. I wanted to just eat her up...

Pretty [Yucky] Cake

See my beautiful cake?

This was a dry, awful, cardboardy, took-one-bite-and-tossed-it-in-the-garbage cake. But boy was it cute. :)

31.5

D has a late December birthday that is always a bit difficult to A) celebrate properly and B) separate from Christmas. So, we decided that we would try a new tradition of celebrating his 1/2 birthday.

I made him a carrot cake using this recipe and it's pretty heavenly if I do say so myself. I also got him a mandoline (the slicing kind, not the musical kind). I can't wait to have potatoes au gratin and all things julienned!

Happy 31.5th (?) birthday, D!

While the Pan Was Still Out...

My dad makes this delicious orange cake by blending an entire orange in the food processor - rind, pith, and all. I had been wanting to try it myself in a cupcake version.

I thought I would try and fancy it up a bit by using blood oranges. So I present to you Blood Orange Cupcakes with Cardamom Vanilla Frosting:


I was surprised (and a little disappointed) to find that the ruby color of the orange cooked right out. In fact, it turned a little greenish! The cake has a strong, slightly bitter, orange flavor - and the cardamom frosting complements it perfectly (I used this same frosting recipe, but added a little ground cardamom).


This is what it looks like after I ate 1/2 of it for breakfast...in addition to my regularly scheduled breakfast.

I make sacrifices for my craft - I'm hardcore like that.

Homemade Energy Bars

It's an exciting day today because I just made my own energy bars! They taste a little Cliff Bar-esque, but not quite as moist or as sweet (a good thing).


I used this recipe from Sunset Magazine. And, per the usual, I didn't make the recipe as written (I'm a rebel like that). I used raisins instead of cranberries (it's what I had), pecans instead of peanuts, orange zest instead of lemon, and I used a few dates to supplement the figs. You could probably mix things up quite a bit - and even throw some chocolate chips in there for good measure.

For all you over-achieving soccer moms out there, I think you should probably make these for an after-game treat.. unless anyone on your team has a nut, dairy, wheat, or egg allergy or if they're under 1 year of age. Then they wouldn't be so good.

Get Out of My Kitchen!

Well, it was actually Trista's kitchen, and Gina did most of the cooking (both were fab-u-lous). Kate took all the photos, and I just showed up for world's most awesome 1950s housewive-themed 30th birthday brunch (yes, we're still celebrating, and I'm not complaining).

Thank you ladies for being so good to me!

Why I bake...

I really bake so I can lick the bowl. I've always been a big bowl-licker. I'll take cookie dough over the baked product any day. Brownie and bisquick are among my other bowl-licking favorites. Raw egg doesn't scare me. I know most people will think this is gross.

Ok, ok, I like the outcome too - especially when it looks as delicious as this loaf of banana bread. This is my Mom's recipe that I use and abuse.



I say abuse, because I don't think I've ever actually made the straight-forward version of this. I use whole wheat flour, use only 1/2 sugar, add chocolate chips, cut the butter in half, substitute with yogurt or low-fat sour cream, throw some wheat germ in there... It really never comes out the same, but you try for yourself:

Mom's Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. ripe banana, mashed
3 T sour milk
2 c. flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 c. nuts (optional)

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs (one at a time). Stir in mashed banana and sour milk (milk + lemon juice = sour milk). In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Combine dry and wet ingredients. Add nuts (or chocolate), if adding. Turn into greased loaf pan. Bake 350F for 1 hour.

Biscotti Bliss

This is one of my very favorite cook books. I go back to this one time and time again. The Triple Ginger Lovers is my favorite, but today I tweaked the Biscotti Aloha and made it into Orange Almond Coconut. Darren was disappointed that there was no chocolate, but who's to say we can't dip these bad boys in some bittersweet?

Wouldn't a couple dozen biscotti and this book together make a great gift for someone?

Hungarian Breakfast Cheesecake

When I was little, my mom was fabulously resourceful (well, she still is). I remember she would make a "breakfast cheesecake" with things we already had in the fridge (that were also probably expired or on their way out). I recreated the cheesecake with fresh ingredients (sorry, Mom) and it is as delicious as I remember...

Anyhow, I was searching the web for a similar recipe because I was just going off my memory, and I actually found something called a "Hungarian Cheesecake" - who knew? My mom, who has Hungarian roots, said her mom used to make it too. So, maybe there is such a thing!

Hungarian Breakfast Cheesecake:

For the crust, take 1 can of biscuits (the kind that poof) and into a pie plate, manipulate & spread the biscuits to make one continuous crust.

For the filling, mix together 2 cups cottage cheese, 1 small can crushed pineapple (drained), 4 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, about 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg.

Pour the filling into the crust, bake at 450 for 10 minutes, and then at 350 for an additional 35-45 minutes. Peek in on it - cover the crust with foil if it gets too dark. It's done when the center barely jiggles - it's OK if it cracks a little. Cool & serve chilled.

* You can puree your cottage cheese to make a smoother consistency. And I threw about 1/4 cup pumpkin puree in there as well. Maybe next time, I will add a little flour (maybe 2-3 T) to make it more solid.

Anyhow, it's delicious, pretty healthy, fast, and apparently traditional!

Turkey Reincarnation

Turkeys become enchiladas after thanksgiving 'round theses parts.  This is my very favorite enchilada recipe, from my Chevy's cookbook.  Sometimes I call them "The 10-Hour Enchiladas," but that's not really true... Use a Costco roasted chicken and save yourself some time.

No Need to Knead

They say, "Man cannot live on bread alone" (I think even Shakira says it in La Tortura) ...but, BOY, I sure could! Just slap a little butter on there and I am a happy girl.

I found this no-knead recipe that produces this AWESOME, easy specimen of a loaf. Crispy on the outside, scrumptiously spongy on the inside. This is just the beginning for me - I see olive loaves, baguettes, and rolls in my future! I'm telling you, anyone can make this bread - and everyone should.

If you need the recipe, just give a holler.