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By Emily, January 11, 2010 5:25 am

So…work is still kicking my butt.  I started a new (full time, rest of the year!) teaching job last  Monday and I had this fantasy that I was going to have more time for me (aka this blog, the gym, cooking cool recipes, hanging out with Brian, etc) than I did with my last position.  Keyword being fantasy.  I’m still getting my bearings and getting settled in the new job, so, posting schedule still sucks :)

Nevertheless, I’m chipping away at my New Years Resolutions.  Here I am, posting (again!).  Tuesday and Saturday we went to the gym (must be the beginning of January–that place was busy!)  And last Sunday I made soup –and biscuits, which fall under the category of “learning to make things I normally buy”.

The soup was really satisfying.  It’s really thick and using fresh produce made it even better.  Minestrone is one of those soups that’s easy to alter and update based on what you’ve got in the fridge…this is what I had or remembered to buy and it turned out great.  You know you need another soup recipe :)

Sticking with the above and previously mentioned goal of learning to make things instead of buying pre-made processed foods, I made biscuits to go with the soup.  In short: easy, fast, and really, really delicious.  We may never eat sliced bread with soup again.

Dill, Red onion and Cheese Drop Biscuits
from Everybody Likes Sandwiches
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup red onions, finely diced
1 Tablespoon dried dill
a hearty grind of black pepper
a large handful of old cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk or milk with 1 Tablespoon vinegar or yogurt with a bit of milk mixed in

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, red onions, dill, black pepper and cheese.
3. Stir in the milk and oil and mix lightly until combined.
4. Using a tablespoon, drop blobs of dough on a parchment covered or silpat lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes or until lightly golden. Makes about 6 – 9 (really delicious) biscuits.
5. Enjoy!

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By Emily, December 21, 2009 8:11 pm

I  think the past couple months of cooking and blogging way less than I’d prefer finally got to me because I baked a ridiculous amount of cookies this weekend.

For some reason, I decided a few weeks ago that it’d be cool to make cookies for our friends as Christmas gifts, instead of buying real gifts.  Plus it gives me an excuse to bake, without having to then eat all my creations.  I waited to begin cooking until this weekend, since we were waiting to give them out until today.

Saturday didn’t start out great.  I decided to make lace cookies using the recipe from The Internet Food Association.  They looked simple and didn’t require any weird ingredients.

Not such a great idea.

The cookies were in the oven for less than 5 minutes when I decided to peek at them.  As you can see, they were burnt to a pretty good crisp and our fire alarm decided to make sure everyone in the neighborhood knew.  Brian was up the street doing laundry and he could hear it.  Our downstairs neighbors called up the stairs to make sure there wasn’t an actual fire.

Yes, I pulled them out of the trash just so I could share a picture with you

After that super embarrassing moment, I decided not to make lace cookies.

From there, things got much better.  Below are the results (click the cookie names for the recipe):

Chocolate Chip (Tollhouse, of course)

Chocolate Nut Revels (I got the recipe from my mom, but this one is exactly the same)

Magic Cookie Bars (also from my mom, but the recipe’s online at allrecipes)

Cinnamon Sugar Rolls (Food Network Magazine)

Shortbread (Food Network Magazine)

Lime Sugar Cookies (from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook)

How I ended up with six kinds of cookies I’m not really sure…but it was fun trying out new and old recipes.  After all the cookies had cooled, Brian and I arranged them on plates:

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty impressed with myself.  And our friends and coworkers seemed pretty happy to receive them.  It almost makes me wish it was Christmas more often (though I’m sure I can find other excuses to bring treats in to work!)

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By Emily, November 15, 2009 5:04 pm

Saturday night I tried not one, but two, new recipes.  Insanity.  Anyway, here’s the rundown:

Spiced Chickpea & Lemon Soup

(via Serious Eats)

Brian and I really, really like chickpeas (I think it’s in response to my bean-less childhood).  And soup, of course.  This soup was pretty easy to make, too.  We pureed the soup in the food processor and it came it kind of grainy and weird.  Not so great.  Today, before lunch, we ran the rest of the soup through the blender and it came out much smoother and tastier.  Brian really liked it, but I’m still unconvinced.  Would I make it again?  Maybe, but I suspect there are better chickpea soups out there.

No-Time Bread

(via The Kitchn)

When 30 Bucks a Week mentioned The Kitchn’s No-Time Bread, which can be made in about an hour, I got really excited.  Brian and I have been talking about and putting off making “real” bread for quite some time now, but I always want something other than sandwich bread when we’re having soup (which is at least once a week).  I expected that No-Time Bread wasn’t going to taste as good as bread I spent all day baking, but really, it did.

The actual creation of the bread was a little touch and go…the dough seemed way more goopy than I thought it was supposed to be.  I failed to shape it into any sort of ball and basically poured the dough into our casserole dish.   I guess it was supposed to look like that though, because it turned out great.  Now I really want to make bread!  Until then, I’m so glad I have this easy, fast, yummy recipe on hand.

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By Emily, November 11, 2009 7:54 pm

So…theoretically, this is a blog about eating well, cooking things instead of buying them, avoiding preservatives and packaged foods and the like.  I appreciate all of those ideas and adhere to them whenever possible.

However, anyone who knows me knows that, in addition to good nutrition, I’m a stickler for making my sister happy.  Birthday presents, visits, random gifts.  If I can do it and my sister wants it, chances are she’s gonna get it from me.  Perhaps I spoil her.  But she’s my baby sister…my only baby sister.

So when I asked “the baby” what she wanted for her 22nd birthday, she requested her “favorite” cake.  Who am I to say no?  I made cupcakes instead of the recipe-suggested Bundt cake, because everyone knows cupcakes are more fun (and easier for my sister to eat and share at college).  However, Brian also needed something to bring to an event, so I made a cake for that too.  This was the beautiful result:

Tell me that doesn’t look good.

So, why is this cake my sister’s favorite?  Because it tastes amazing.  Several college students say so.  And even though it breaks a lot of my “rules” about what I should be eating, its nice to have the occasional treat (and I only had a couple cupcakes)  Why is it now my go-to chocolate cake recipe?  Because it’s amazingly easy to make, despite using packaged cake and pudding mix, plus 4 eggs and alcohol.

Need I say more?

Triple Chocolate Cake

1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 package instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
½ cup brewed coffee
½ cup dark rum
½ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

Beat all ingredients except chocolate chips together 2 minutes.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour into greased and floured 12 cup Bundt pan.  (I told you it was easy!!!!)

Bake at 350° for 55-60 mins for bundt cake.
18-22 minutes for cupcakes.

Cool 10 mins. Remove from pan, cool on wire rack.

Enjoy!

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By Emily, October 22, 2009 3:01 pm

As I’ve mentioned before, I love fall.  The weather, the food, the holidays.   And though growing up my family never ate pumpkin (or any other squash), I really like pumpkin.  The availability of Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Lattes gets me really excited.  When Brian and I were visiting my parents for Columbus Day we bought a bag of Pumpkin Pie flavored popcorn from Coastal Maine Popcorn Company (it was really good!!!)) In short, I really like pumpkin.

Of course, this is all despite the fact that, until a week ago, I had never cooked with it.

That changed because about a month ago, I saw a post on $5 Dinners about a shortage of canned pumpkin puree, due to last year’s bad weather.  The article had a whole bunch of comments from people who were having a hard time finding canned pumpkin in their local stores.  Naturally, I became concerned and began looking for canned pumpkin every time I was in a store.

A couple weeks ago, I was thrilled to see that Walmart had canned pumpkin! Not wanting to miss out, I bought six cans.  Since then, it seems the shortage is over (that was quick!).  Nevertheless, I have six cans of pumpkin puree.  Luckily, many other food blogs are posting great pumpkin recipes.  We’ve been eating pumpkin-y foods all week in our apartment and I’m not sure it’s going to let up anytime soon, especially since pumpkin now seems so easy to come by!  This is the first of several entries which will focus on my experiments with recipes that star pumpkin puree.

The first recipient of my bounty of pumpkin was Pioneer Woman’s Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins.  I figured, how could I go wrong with a Pioneer Woman recipe?

I was right, you can’t go wrong.  The muffins were really awesome.  Definitely moist.  I didn’t make the frosting because I’m lazy and cheap and not a big frosting person, but I’m sure it’s yummy too.  Oh, and I didn’t add the raisins.  One piece of advice: when she says “generously grease” the muffin tins, she means it.  I skipped it since I was using paper liners, but my muffins did stick to the liners a bit.  If you’re annoyed by the fact that the recipe calls for just over a cup for pumpkin, leaving you with about a 1/3 of a can, don’t worry.  Cook it up in a skillet with some nuts and brown sugar until warm and serve it as a side.  It’s pretty amazing.  Anyway, this muffin recipe is one of my new favorites and if you’re as into pumpkin as I am, you should check it out.

Come to think of it, I may need to make another batch of muffins for next week’s breakfast…

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By Emily, September 28, 2009 7:53 am

Somehow my husband made it through the first 24 years of his life without going apple picking.  At least, that’s what he tells me.  I can’t imagine a fall without apple picking, so last weekend we had our first (but definitely not last!) apple picking date.  Now I’m in the midst of brainstorming all the apple recipes I can because we picked way more apples than we need!

This recipe is one of my favorites.  What is with me and baking lately?  Anyway, if you also picked way more apples than you need, remember: you can freeze this bread after you’ve baked it and defrost it later when you’re craving apples again!

Apple Bread

You’ll need:

For bread:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. vinegar
2 Tbsp. milk
1 3/4 cups apples
1/2 cup nuts (I prefer walnuts)
For topping:
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. butter

1.  Preheat oven to 350°

2.  Cream butter and sugar using a hand mixer or stand mixer

3.  Add the eggs to the mixture and beat well.

4.  Peel, pare and chop apples until you have 1 3/4 cups (I used 1 large Golden Delicious, but use as many of any kind of apple as it takes)

5. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.

6. Mix vinegar and milk in another bowl.  The mixture will curdle a bit!  Don’t worry, it’s supposed to.  If you have buttermilk on hand, you can use that instead.

7. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar alternately with the milk mixture.  Start and end with the dry ingredients.  (In other words, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  Mix.  Add 1/2 the milk mixture. Mix.  Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients.  Mix.  Add the rest of the milk mixture.  Mix.  Add the last of the dry ingredients.  Mix until fully combined.)

8.  Stir in apples and nuts and combine with a spoon or spatula, not your mixer.

9.  Pour batter into a greased loaf pan.

10.  Create the topping by combining the flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter (melted)

11.  Spread the topping over the batter (it doesn’t have to be perfect!

12.  Bake at 350° for about 1 hour, or until cooked through.

13.  Enjoy!

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By Emily, July 8, 2009 12:29 pm

How could I say no to “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” blueberries at the supermarket last week when I knew I had the perfect recipe for them?  My mom has the most delicious blueberry muffin recipe, and after waiting a couple days for her to email me the recipe (my recipe binder is with my in-laws in Connecticut with the rest of the stuff we couldn’t fit in our cars!), my Man also understands why we needed to buy blueberries last week.  Plus, it gave me the chance to use my new KitchenAid mixer!

Mom’s Blueberry Muffins

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½  teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup milk
2 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease & flour 12 muffin cups and grease tops of the tins between the cups.(Or, do what I do: Use baking cups instead.  It’s much, much easier)
2. Mix together flour, powder, and salt.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, beat butter a few minutes until fluffy. Beat in sugar until well blended. Beat in the eggs thoroughly; add the vanilla.
4. Stir in the flour mixture about half at a time, alternating with milk, half at a time. Stir in 2 cups of blueberries.
5. Spoon batter into prepared cups, filling them to the top. Sprinkle with the nutmeg sugar.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden. Let muffins cool about 30 minutes in pan before removing. (Or not…I’m pretty sure I didn’t…)
   
7. Enjoy!

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By Emily, February 9, 2009 10:05 pm

Despite last week’s baking near-miss, I gave it another shot this week.  If my students will eat half-cooked brownies, there’s probably not much I can do wrong.  Generally speaking, I don’t think baking is my thing; I’m not really into eating baked goods, so spending lots of time making them doesn’t make tons of sense to me.  But I feel like its a skill I should hone and I suspect high schoolers aren’t too into vegetarian pasta dishes as an after school snack.  I may as well practice on people who will enjoy whatever I create.

Once again, I got my weekly ego boost.  I could really get used to this.  I made really simple white cupcakes from my mother’s old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and it was really easy and went really well!  I did “cheat” and use canned frosting, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.  At least someone is raving about my food (I know high school boys eat anything…but they don’t always dish out compliments!)

In summary:  I can bake after all–from scratch even!  If I can do it, you can do it.  And I’m making cookies for our next meeting.