{In the Kitchen} Pumpkin Spice Biscotti

For your holiday dunking pleasure, here's my recipe (adapted from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking)

Preheat oven to 350*

In medium bowl, mix:
2 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

In mixing bowl, beat on medium speed for 3 minutes:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
Beat in on low speed until blended:
1/2 cup melted (and cooled) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
Add dry ingredients and beat until combined. Dough is soft and very sticky.

Divide dough in half. On a sprayed baking sheet / parchment sheet covered baking sheet, shape each half into a 10"x3" log, 3" apart. Bake for 23 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300*.
On a cutting board, use a serrated knife and cut logs crosswise into 3/4" slices. Place them cut side down on baking sheet, 1/2" apart, and bake for another 17 minutes.
Remove from oven, cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then cool completely on wire racks.

Store in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!

{In the Kitchen} Homemade Brownie Mix

Rather than picking up a cheap mix from the grocery store, I finally made my own mix to have on hand.

Yum- super moist brownie. Least favorite words: portion control.

I looked online and started with one recipe, changed to another halfway through, and still made a couple more changes while baking. 

In an airtight container (or gallon ziplock bag), combine:

3 cups all purpose flour (i might sub 1/2 whole wheat next time)

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt (for baking I use LoSalt for reduced sodium)

3.5 cups white sugar

4 oz unsweetened cocoa powder (used my postage scale for measuring)

Mix well

When you're ready to bake brownies (hooray), preheat your oven to 350* and grease 8x8 (or your favorite brownie) pan

Mix:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 Tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla (or peppermint extract, yum!)

2.5 cups prepared brownie mix

Stir until combined, pour into prepared pan, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (25-30 minutes for me). Let cool.

Made tasty, fudgey brownies.

Next up, I'm going to try the mix with a can of black beans for "healthier" brownies, but I wanted to make sure the mix was good first. Will double the mix to keep in the pantry, though if I don't go through it in 3 months, it will live in the freezer with the fancy flours.

How do you like your brownies? Chocolate chips? Andes mint pieces? Nuts?

Cheers,
ashley 

Croquembouche, Part Two

For the dessert, today: fill the poufs, make caramel, and assemble. How hard can it be?

Filling poufs with custards. Fun watching some of them expand.

Croquembouche, Part One

For christmas eve this year, I thought it would be nice to attempt a fancy dessert. Something borderline insane for someone with 2 jobs, a house, 3 pets, a b.f., and regular holiday hosting duties.

A croquembouche will do nicely.

After reviewing a few recipes online, settled on this one. An astonishing number of eggs are required. I used 18. MADNESS. But it seemed basic enough. Never made a custard before, or caramel, but the poufs are easy. Usually i make gougeres (choux pastry plus gruyere) using "Aunt Martha's" recipe (similar to this one but w/o the herbs) and figured that I could have adapted it for the desserts, but stuck with the food network one for ease.)

So HERE WE GO.

Battle of the Scones

Last weekend I made the Pioneer Woman's Sweet Cinnamon Scones. They were good, but not the typical scones that I want.

Today I was looking for the Lavender-Lemon Scone recipe and found two to try.

Version A, from Je Mange la Ville

Tasty, but they didn't rise, and the dough was REALLY wet and difficult to work with.
(Dough was finger-licking good though.)

 Version B, from Epicurian Piranha

Also tasty, with a more scone-like texture. Dough was easier to work and shape.

Winner? Epicurian Piranha.
Can't wait for snack tomorrow. Tea and a scone. Heaven at 10am.

New Recipes!

You know that person who bookmarks or emails herself every recipe that looks yummy, and then just sits on them? Yeah, that's me.

But not today!! This morning when looking for something to cook for lunches this week, I looked in my "cooking" bookmark folder and pulled two to try!

The first - Cheese-free Stuffed Shells from vegetarian times. Super easy to make, pretty economical (extremely important these days), and from the little bit of filling i tasted, it should be good.
Now, instead of the traditional ricotta cheese, this recipe uses tofu. If that's not your thing  (I haven't told T what's in it, and i'm not going to until I hear "Lunch was really good!") then know that it doesn't taste bland. Really. With the added salt and spices, it really might as well be the ricotta- texture is the same.  (And, it's good for you!) 

 

Looks good, right? I subbed regular mozzarella cheese for their recommended fake cheddar "cheese"

So, that plus steamed broccoli is our lunch for the next 2 days. 

And then last week I somehow got on this blog that is so pretty...  And this was the recipe that I landed on. French Breakfast Puffs. Really simple, and quite tasty. I baked them for about 23 minutes. Nice and crumbly. Can't wait for breakfast* tomorrow.

*Breakfast is actually already made for the next 2 days, to ensure that we don't skip it. Scrambled egg, 1 slice of bacon (nitrate-free thank you very much), and some quartered mushrooms sauteed. Plus tea. Earl Grey (and never buy the Bigelow brand for Earl Grey. Buy Twinnings (yellow box). Trust me on this.)

Mega-Ultra* Cookie

I did it! Attempted macarons for the third time and they came out with the perfect texture!

Mega Ultra Cookie - the most perfect one of the bunch

Added matcha powder to the cookie batter and the filling is strawberry jam mixed with cream cheese (it's all i had). YUM!

*Mega Ultra Chicken from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. 

Cooking Fun

Last Sunday, my regular cooking day, I made:
baba ghanoush
Didn't have any lemon juice (shocking!) so used a wee bit of lime, but wow was it good. Best eggplant food I've had. Made a great afternoon snack for a couple workdays.

mac & cheese
Didn't have whole milk so used skim with a little whipping cream. Wasn't as creamy as I'd like but it was still really good. I'm a sucker for mac & cheese tho.

curried vegetable & chickpea stew
in the slow cooker, 4 hours
Didn't add the spinach but I thought it was really good. The addition of the coconut milk it what made it, I think.

banana bread
From a cookbook I have. It was a little dry (my fault) and not as banana-y as I would have liked, but I wanted to try a new recipe.

Today I won't be cooking much. Making rice for some curry dishes in the freezer, and prepping veggies for salads. Easy. Maybe I'll make more banana bread tho. If I get bored, maybe a carrot cake too.

Have another blog, a collection of recipes. Needs loads of updates, but it's searchable by ingredient, which makes me happy - http://curiosityinthekitchen.blogspot.com/

Staycation Day 1

So for my first day of the staycation...

Spent an hour or so in the print shop today, making blind-punched thank you notes.

They are listed on etsy now.

Watched a meh movie (Duets) on netflix and knitted some of a scarf- pink organic cotton yarn- chunky and textured.

Aiming for a somewhat narrow long fun scarf. Looking forward to fall...

Went to the Domain to The Steeping Room for tea and scones with Mom, then wandered through a few shops

Yummy scone with jam and clotted cream!
When the weather cools down, will definitely go back for a pot of hot tea and scones.

Put on Clueless for background giggles (sadly it made me feel old; dumb high school kids, man...) and marinated some chicken for dinner and tried some zucchini cakes- yum!! Serve that with some plain organic yogurt with a 3-finger pinch of curry powder...

Also saw the carrots in the fridge (blech, carrots. Really. Especially baby carrots- i can only eat 5 and then I feel the gag coming...) and decided Carrot Cake! I don't think I've ever made it from scratch before so... Found a recipe from a pretty reliable source.

Not the prettiest, but you know what? I don't care!
It's a cake from scratch, and it tastes like carrot cake, so there!

Had dinner with T (chicken, basmati rice, steamed brocolli, and a zucchini cake

Wouldn't tell T what was in the veggie mound until after he tasted it.
He does not like zucchini, but thought these were okay. Didn't care for the yogurt dipping sauce.

And went to Central Market in hopes of finding those citrus slices.

Success!

Someone who features letterpress studios, who I've been in contact with, has asked to feature us. Eeek! I'm not ready! But no time like the present, right? In the morning I'll do a few reprints, get them online, and *then* say "sure!"

Ho Ho Ho & Yum Yum Yum

Spent part of Sunday making a *huge* mess on the dining room, and some on the floor, making holiday cards! I hadn't found any in the stores that I liked, and thought it might be fun to use my crafty things and make my own this year. Sadly I had to go to Michaels and get a snowflake paper punch from Aunt Martha's line.
I also made scones in the morning. First time ever. They were made with white flour and wheat flour 1:2 and oatmeal, and a bit of brown sugar. Not your traditional tea room scones, but really good!

Oat Scones
my version of Williams-Sonoma's

oven 425*
Sheet of parchment paper on baking sheet
In a bowl, mix by hand 1/2 cup white flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour, (or just 1 cup white), 3/4 cup oatmeal, 1/3 cup wheat flour (supposed to be 1/3 cup oat bran, but i didn't have it), 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1 T baking powder and 1/2 t kosher salt.
Cut in 6 T butter until a coarse meal forms.
Add 2/3 cup half-and-half and stir until just moistened.
On lightly floured surface, dump bowl and form into a flat ball. Make about 1/2 inch thick, round, and cut into 6 wedges.
Brush each wedge with some half-and-half and sprinkle w/ cinnamon-and-sugar.
Place each wedge on parchment paper, 1 inch apart, and bake for about 16 minutes, or until golden brown.

Summer Party

We hosted a summer party last weekend. I didn't take any pictures but a friend did so hopefully, when I get a copy, a couple of those will be useable.

We served pigs n blankets, watermelon wedges and chunks, chips and queso, chicken and prosciutto skewers, edamame, and cupcake bites. The cupcake bites weren't very pretty but they were good. Didn't provide any beer so guests were encouraged to bring that, but we had the bar set up with some mixers, and some more 'natural' fizzy fruity drinks for the non-drinkers (or the mixers. Newman's Own Raspberry Kiwi drink was very good with vodka.)

The next party likely won't be until October. And I've got a good scary decoration idea.... heh.

Update: Here are a couple pictures from the party:

Palmiers

Made these for Mother's Day and will definitely make them again!

Busy, Busy Saturday

Lots on my To Do list today and I'm relieved to say that I got most of it done, and had still managed to have a fun day.  : )

Started painting the bathroom last night and finished it before noon today. 

Before & Afters:

  

  

Gave macarons another shot, this time adding raspberry jam to the ganache, pink food coloring to the cookies, and whipping the egg whites until they had stiffer peaks. Result: easier to pipe (way less runny), more solid/less fragile, and sadly, still no feet! Arg! Think I'll take a field trip to Whole Foods in the morning and see a) if they sell them and b) what the professionals' are like, since the only ones I've ever had are my own! 

    

Made my first sourdough bread. It just came out of the oven and smells great! Can't wait to try some. Plan on making some pesto to have with it tomorrow since I haven't killed the basil yet...

  

So, even though the day's flown by, it's been fun and productive. Bubble bath time!

Oh, and the hair is lighter. I temporarily colored it to a dark warm brown. And it's a couple inches shorter too. 

Baking Day

I scheduled a "personal day" off from work to chill out and get some baking done. I planned on making a bunch of dough to shape/cut and freeze until the time came when I needed freshly baked cookies, but when I went through my birthday cookbook (thank you, Derrick!) I picked new ones that probably wouldn't freeze well: Almond Macaron Sandwiches and Raspberry Jam Sandwich Cookies. I also prepped (dough is piped and frozen) Aunt Martha's gougeres and roasted some sweet potatoes for Kitchn Cure's Week 4 assignment.

My Macarons

More photos

Kitchn Cure Week 3

Last night I completed Week 3's assignment, cooking with things in your pantry and fridge. You're supposed to just throw some things together, being creative with what you've got. I had some ground turkey already thawed so cooked that, and added some leftover veg. broth I froze  few weeks ago, and some cajun mustard and spices. Cooked some brown rice and steamed broccoli. Turned out pretty good. Nice and salty, which I totally crave after a workout. 

This weekend (last week's assignment- I'm almost caught up!) I'm to roast a vegetable or meat. I'm going to make their Roasted Sweet Potato Sticks. We'll see how that goes. 

Taking tomorrow off- "baking day." Plan on restocking the freezer with gougeres and sugar cookies (because the doughs freeze really well after they're shaped so entertaining last minute is super easy) and if I'm feeling ambitious I may try to make cupcakes, from scratch! Never done that before, they've always been out of a box, and I'm trying to get away from that. 

Gougeres might be a nice snack to bring to next month's English Country Dancing...