What I have been up to...

Beer and brats to kick off Maifest in Amana!

Barbecue chicken stuffed taters. 

The first crop of the season-- some radishes, and baby rainbow chard. (and a reusable target bag... so pretty)

roasted zucchini and summer squash-- timmy's new favorite!

chicken parmesan burgers-- these were amazing!

strawberry rhubarb crumb bars. oh. my. god.

Blackberry Pecan Cream cheese Muffins

Blackberry? Pecan? Cream cheese? Muffin? Any one of those things would be delicious enough on its own, but all together? There are no words. I originally found this recipe for Raspberry cream cheese muffins on Cooking Light's website, and was  excited to have found a way to use up some of the leftover buttermilk that I had from the St. Paddy's day Irish Soda Bread. I was all set to use frozen raspberries, and then the happiest surprise of my life happened  (only a slight exaggeration) when I found FRESH blackberries on sale for $1.50 a pint at the grocery store. Glorious. So-- anyway, I swapped raspberries for blackberries, and walnuts for pecans, and then I ate like five of these beautiful little babies before they even cooled down. Ohhhh man, they were so good. So so so so good. Okay I'm done now. 

Weekly wrap-up 3/4/12- 3/10/12

Monday 3/5/12: Whole Wheat Pasta with Anchovy-Walnut Sauce

See, no anchovies in site.

I know a lot of people are utterly afraid of anchovies, and I honestly don't know why. Nothing is tastier than the oily salty yumminess that anchovies offer (though as a kid I had sardines as an afternoon snack, so perhaps I'm biased). Anyway, in this recipe, like most that include the feared fishy, you would never even know it contained something so "yucky" because it just melts down and adds lovely depth of flavor. However, it also adds an insane amount of saltiness, so beware! In fact, I might not even salt the pasta water if I made this again...



Wednesday 3/7/12: Barbecue Turkey Meatloaf

For Wednesday night dinner, I made a barbecue  turkey meatloaf that included homemade barbecue sauce (ketchup + vinegar + dijon + brown sugar + cayenne+ onion + garlic+ cumin) along with some other yummy stuff like parsley and oatmeal (to keep it nice and moist). The end result was pretty yummy but it looks gross. So, I'm not showing a photo. Oh, also I forgot to take a photo, so that is also part of the reason. Tim gobbled this down and claimed dibs on all of the leftovers too, so I guess it was a winner winner turkey meatloaf dinner!


Thursday 3/8/12: Spiced Quinoa

yum yum yummy

This recipe was recommended to me by my good friend Jamie last year when I was collecting heart healthy recipes for my friend Rachel. I was just searching through my pantry the other night and realized I happened to have all of the ingredients (except for pine nuts, darn) on hand, so I decided to try it. It was pretty good -- though if I were to make it again, I would increase the quinoa to chickpea/raisin ratio, and I would also add more spices, and maybe some fresh cilantro. The flavors were good, but I like to be really hit in the face with curry. I ate the leftovers cold as lunch a few days later and they were spectacular. So, next time I make this, I will probably serve it cold as a salad or side as well... It's a nice mix of sweet and savory and spicy, and  has amazing textures too. I bet it would be even more awesome with the pine nuts for some crunch



Saturday 3/10/12: (vegan) Cinnamon Cupcakes with (not vegan) Brown Sugar Butter Cream

cupcake art?

It was my turn for dessert on vampire night, and I decided to make cupcakes. For some reason cupcakes seemed like a big task. Even though they are somewhat plain in flavor, design, etc., the process seeemed so tedious! Plus, I have to follow recipes. What a drag. I much prefer chopping up fruit, throwing it in a crust, and just seeing what happens. Anyway, I was inspired by one of my favorite blogs (love and olive oil) to try out vegan baking. I was pleasantly surprised! The cupcakes had a great light and fluffy texture. They weren't too sweet either, which was nice. I didn't love the flavor of the butter cream, but I think it wasn't anything wrong with the recipe, it just tasted like my butter was old (it wasn't, so that was curious). I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top to disguise the flavor and it ended up fine.

Vegan Brownies (with Pumpkin!)

The thought of vegan baked goods frightens me. But, when I saw a vegan chef win Cupcake Wars (I can't stand this show yet my DVR is set to record it) a few months ago I was inspired.

Tonight I tried to bake vegan brownies. I used a recipe from All Recipes, but it called for an ungodly amount of oil (1 cup-- yuck!) so I changed it up a bit. The end result was okay.... the brownies are more cake like and less fudgy that I like, but taste pretty good. The pumpkin is barely noticeable, so in the future I might replace it with smooshed banana or apple sauce (and then I could cut down on the sugar as well!) Also, I might cut down the oil to even 1/4 cup and up the water and/or fruit component.

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar (I used more like 1 3/4 cups)
• 3/4 cup dutch cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup coffee
• 1/4 cup water
• handful of dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350, grease 9 x 13 pan. Combine dry ingredients and then whisk in wet ingredients. Spread half the batter in the pan, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and spread with other half. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy! 

Peach, Pecan, and Bourbon Crisp

So, at some point this summer I made an amazing peach (I told you I was obsessed) crisp. I don't remember at all what I made, but just that I put bourbon and brown sugar in with the peaches, and crushed pecans in the "crisp" portion. And it was delicious.

Peach Crumb Bars

Peach-mania 2011 continues. It wasn't enough to make peaches and cream pie, bourbon peach crisp, stone fruit pie, baked peach oatmeal, and a peach cherry upside down cake-- My favorite fruit of the summer has found its way into yet another dessert.

I was on dessert duty for this week's "vampire night" and I was not only inspired by the sweet taste of summer I call peaches, but by this recipe from Smitten Kitchen (originally from AllRecipes). Obviously I swapped out blueberries for fresh peaches, and I made some other changes to enhance the new flavors.


Crumb Crust:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks butter
1 egg

Fruit Filling:
6 peaches, cored and diced (peels on because I like the texture, and as previously mentioned, I am lazy)
6 TBSP corn starch
1/3 cup sugar
zest and juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 pan. Comine ingredients for crumb crust until crumbly (mine was like a mixture of pea-size lumps and grainy/sandy stuff). Press half of mixture into bottom of pan. Combine peaches with lemon juice and zest and toss with dry ingredients until coated. Distribute evenly over crust. Sprinkle remaining crumbly stuff over the top and pop in the oven for 45 minutes. Cool completely and then transfer to refrigerator. Once chilled, cut into pieces and enjoy!

These bars are buttery and crumbly (as advertised) and are sweet but not too sweet. I also love how the nutmeg enhances the natural sweetness and flavor of the peaches. I am pretty sure I could eat the whole pan!

Stone Fruit Mini-Pie

I may have a problem;  I cannot stop buying peaches. I could eat them three meals a day, but somehow I cannot eat them fast enough, which means I constantly have overripe peaches on hand and need something to do with them.

A few weeks ago, I had a few of these yummy fuzzy babies in my bowl, along with some plums (which I always buy and then never want to eat) so I threw together a mini-pie.

I had half a pie crust in my mini-pan, along with two diced peaches, a diced plum, two tablespoons of brown sugar, and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg (my other obsession).

Yum. Especially a la mode, but that's another story.

chocolate nanner bread

I have made this before and it was just as delicious this time. The perfect way to distract myself from the fact that my honey was stuck in a hurricane all weekend. It is quite possibly the best banana bread I've ever had, not just because it's chocolate or the fact that it's socially acceptable to eat it for breakfast even though tastes like cake, but because the consistency is to-die-for. Oh, and there's no butter in it so I trick myself into thinking it's "healthy!"

http://www.evilshenanigans.com/2011/03/chocolate-banana-bread/

There are no photos because I ate it too fast. :)

Cherry Peach Upside Down Cake

What do you get when you have two overripe peaches, a pint of cherries on the brink of moldiness,  and a box of yellow cake mix? A cherry peach upside down cake! Or maybe I'll call it something more pretentious like a "stone fruit inverted confection" to equalize the whole "cake mix" thing....

Anywho-- this baby was good. Despite using summer ingredients, the cake is spicy and almost fruit-cakey. It was super yummy and I am taking the rest of it to work to share (because I do not need to eat a whole cake! It's still swimsuit season for goodness sake!)

First, I melted 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar in the bottom of a 9 inch round springform pan. Then, I sprinkled in a tsp of nutmeg (might be a little heavy, but I loooove nutmeg) and a dash of cinnamon and my fruit which was all sliced up. I tossed it around so it was all coated in a caramel-y goodness. Then, I poured the cake mix over the top and baked for 45 minutes.

Flipped it over and voila! The ooey-gooey caramel on top leaves the cake glistening and moist and the aroma of fruit and nutmeg filled the air. YUM. This would be heaven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Easy peasy, and so yummy you will forget it came out of a box.

Peaches and Cream Pie

So, my memory card deleted and I have no photos of this but man oh man did it taste good. I made it for my "True Blood Supper Club" with friends Lisa and Mandy and we ate 3/4 of it in one sitting!

I was inspired by this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I followed it pretty closely except:
- I cut peaches into sixths instead of quarters and I still thought they were a little bit too big.
- I made my own fake creme fraiche by whisking together whipping cream and sour cream (equal parts)... and I think I used more of it in the pie than was recommended and I served it on top of the pie later.
- I used a store bought crust *hangs head in shame* and I didn't parbake it ahead of time b/c I'm impatient

Store-bought crust or not, this was freaking delicious. It wasn't too sweet and the integrity of the perfect summer peach was really upheld. I probably could have eaten more, but 3/4 of the pie seemed like enough for one night. :)

"Light" Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I'm not the biggest cheesecake fan, but I am in a relationship with someone who is. While I had elaborate plans for a birthday cake for his big day (he turned 30 about two weeks ago!) I was paranoid my cake decorating skills would be that of a kindergartener so I made some back-up treats.

I saw a few different recipes on the interwebs lately that piqued my interest. First, was a recipe for oreo cheese(cup)cakes that used an oreo cookie as the crust. These seemed completely adorable, and almost looked like they'd taste good. I also saw a recipe for a greek yogurt cheesecake that made even my mouth water.

So... I kind of combined them.

a shot of the oreo "crust"

• 8 oz Neufchatel Cheese at room temp  (Does anyone in the world know how this is pronounced?)
• 1/2 cup sugar -- I used superfine because it is what I have on hand
• 1 rounded cup of Greek yogurt (I used fat free, but I bet it would be even better with 2% or full fat)
• 4 egg whites at room temp
• cinnamon and vanilla to taste (I used a dash of each)
• 16 reduced fat oreos in the bottom of cupcake cups
• 6 reduced fat oreos all smashed up. (I used the food processor but if I did it again I'd just put them in a baggie and break them. They ended up way too uneven in the good old FP. Half dust, half giant chunks...)

Preheat oven to 275. Whip egg whites until frothy and then whip in all other ingredients (except oreos). Then fold in the Oreo crumbs and fill the cupcake liners (with Oreos in the bottom)-- I filled exactly 16. Then bake for 22 minutes, allow to cool to room temperature on your counter and then put in the fridge before serving.

These were so delicious that I ended up making them again for book club! The second time I  used golden oreos and put sliced strawberries on top. The cupcakes are the perfect portion controlled size of cupcake, and they taste just enough like yogurt to make me very happy!

yum!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

A few weeks ago, strawberries were on sale at the store. So, like any rational person, I bought like six times more strawberries than I was capable of eating. At least I was smarter at home-- I washed, chopped, and froze all the little beauties that I knew I wouldn't eat before they went bad. So, I've been sitting here pondering what to make every since.

Enter-- rhubarb season. I wish I had rhubarb growing in my yard. I would be rhubarbing it up like crazy. But, I don't. Instead, I bought really overpriced rhubarb at the store and decided to bake strawberry-rhubarb crumble.

Oh, did I mention that I decided to bake this on a day which had record high heat in Iowa City? Nothing like a 91 degree day in early May that makes you want to turn on your oven (I am an idiot). Anywho-- I used this recipe from smitten kitchen. And... well... I didn't totally love it. The rhubarb never got sweet enough, and the topping tasted too baking powdery to me. I wish I had made rhubarb bread instead and found something else to do with my frozen berries (like a strawberry-banana smoothie, which I wish I had right now).

I'm going to pawn off the rest of the crumble to my step-dad who is definitely the rhubarb nut in the family. Maybe he will see some potential in the dish that I didn't (likely with the help of vanilla ice cream).

Update-- Roman liked it, and even I thought it was okay when accompanied by some ice cream. But still not the best thing I've ever eaten. 

Chocolate Cupcakes

**Note, I am two weeks behind in blogging, so this post is OLD.

I've been in the mood to bake like crazy lately. I think it was the birthday that got me craving chocolate cake. But more than anything, I just wanted to share goodies with friends at work. Of course, nobody wanted to touch my goodies (baked or otherwise) while I was sick, so I'm a week late in preparing any treats.

So, in hopes of having a happy Monday at work, I made some chocolate cupcakes today.

I'm bad at decorating so I just covered 'em in sprinkles!

Chocolate Cupcakes
***Okay, since I started this post on May 1st, and now it's May 17th, I don't remember where I got the cupcake recipe. But, it had a cup of buttermilk in it and man were the cupcakes delicious... though they dried out a bit after only one day!



Vanilla Frosting
"That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had"
Oh man. That REALLY WAS the best frosting I've ever had. Don't be scared of the flour goop-- it is incredible. It's light (in flavor, not in calories), and delicious, and despite people's comments on the Tasty Kitchen recipe, I found that the consistency stayed really great over time. The only thing I did differently is I used 1% milk, and I used superfine sugar. I actually hoarded the extra frosting and ate it on strawberries, graham crackers, and my finger (I'm not ashamed) until it was gone. YUM.

Chocolate (yep, chocolate) banana bread

I am not really sure what inspired me to start googling chocolate banana bread recipes, but I am certainly thankful I did because I am currently savoring my second slice of pure goodness. I saw a few recipes, but I opted for this one from Evil Shenanigans. I was first drawn to it because it didn't require me to take a trip to the grocery store, but I was also really intrigued by the addition of coffee.

I followed the recipe except I used probably double the cinnamon, and I'm not sure how many bananas I used. Whenever bananas get overripe in my kitchen, I peel them, throw them in a ziplock, and freeze them. The bunch I got out of the freezer tonight I had pre-mashed as well, so I guesstimated that there were three, but it may have been four. Also, either my oven or my loaf pan just does not do the best job sometimes, so I baked it probably twenty minutes longer than suggested.

What turned out was pretty incredible. The edges are crisp (probably because of my extended baking time) but not hard, the inside is incredibly moist, the chocolate is rich but the banana reminds you that you are being "healthy". I think this one is a keeper!!

St. Patrick's Day Extravaganza -- photos

Apple Shortbread Pie

My beautiful Irish Soda Bread

heaven?

A little fun

The Irish chef busy at work

a perfect partnership

The aftermath of a roast leg of lamb

Peas and onions roasted in pan drippings from the lamb

Timmy's piece de resistance, the Corned Beef!

Blackberry Apple Souffle

Tonight some of my girlfriends and I got together for one of our wonderful "True Blood Supper Club" nights.... which has slowly morphed into being called "Vampire Night" or even more informally "Eric Night" (for those of you who watch True Blood or read the Sookie Stackhouse novels, you will completely understand this.

We have a great system worked out-- one of us provides an entree, one provides salad, and one makes a dessert. Tonight, Lisa made a caprese salad, Mandy made incredible stuffed shells, and I was in charge of dessert. I found a recipe in an old cook book I have (Omelettes, Frittatas & Souffles) and just decided to go for it. The recipe was remarkably easy, fairly healthy, pretty delicious and SO BEAUTIFUL. So beautiful that I forgot to take a photo. So, I will need to make it again, obivously.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, cook two pints of blackberries, one finely diced apple (cored and peeled), and the zest and juice of one orange. Cook about ten minutes or until everything starts turning to mush.
3. The book says to push through a sieve into a bowl, but I didn't have one, so I just mashed it all up and put it in a bowl. Then I stirred in a quarter cup of caster sugar and let it cool for a bit. (I actually made this part ahead of time so I let it cool for several hours).
4. Get six ramekins out and put a spoon full of the berries the bottom of each. Save the rest for the egg whites.
5. Beat three egg whites on high until peaks form-- while beating, slowly add 1/2 cup of caster sugar.
6. Fold in berry mixture
7. Spoon into ramekins and bake for 10-15 minutes until it is puffing up and browned on top.

If I made this again, I might try experimenting with the flavors involved. This seemed fairly heavy on the orange flavor-- and while it was delicious, it was called a "blackberry apple" souffle with no mention of "orange". The point of the sieve would obviously be to remove seeds and variations in texture, but I didn't mind them. And honestly, this was one of the most beautiful desserts I've ever made. The top is golden brown and the puffed areas are the most gorgeous pinkish purple-- the dark fruit in the bottom of each dish bubbled around the sides providing even more contrast.

A perfect end to a perfect evening!

An Edible Valentine

Friday evening, I made this. And it was seriously delicious. I don't really love cheesecake usually, but I have a boyfriend who, when it comes to dessert, pretty much only likes cheesecake. Because I'm a nice girlfriend, I like to make him special cheesecakes for special occasions (what a sacrifice....) For my recipes I have gone to my favorite food blog (Smitten Kitchen) for inspiration. Last summer I made a caramel chocolate cheese(birthday)cake (which was fabulous by the way... I had seconds), and now for Valentine's Day I made a brownie mosaic cheesecake.

And let me tell you-- it was AMAZING. For one thing, it had (well, still has-- two people can't eat a whole cheesecake no matter how hard they try) a chocolate graham cracker crust, and for another thing, it had two cups of homemade brownie cubes inside which managed to make it into every bite. YUM.

I followed the Smitten Kitchen recipe almost to a T. I did the double crust, because usually a crust is my favorite part of cheesecake. Instead of chocolate teddy grahams, I just used chocolate graham crackers, and I also used Smart Balance buttery spread instead of real butter. For the brownies, I used bittersweet chocolate instead of unsweetened and then just added less sugar (like half as much or less). And for the cheesecake, I used two packages of regular cream cheese and one of fat free (next time I might even try two fat free to one full-fat). The only big change was that I didn't make the chocolate ganache frosting. I did melt down an ounce of bittersweet chocolate and made some hearts which I scattered over the top of the cake, but it didn't even need that. I think the extra ganache on top would have put it over the edge in terms of sweetness and richness. As it stands, it was just perfect.

A not-very-appetizing photo of a VERY-very-appetizing cake

Two thumbs up. Five stars. If we have to go up a pants size, so be it. What else can I say?