February 2012
6 posts
2 tags
Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies
When I changed jobs recently, I also had to change gyms. I’m now using the airforce base gym by work, a perk of working for the government. I like having to show an ID at the checkpoint on my way in (I feel like an agent or something) and I really like that it’s free. The drawback is that everyone there is super strong and intense. I feel like a loser lifting dinky little weights.
On Thursday,...
3 tags
Chocolate Truffle Tartlets
Well hurray for more chocolate in the month of Februray. No snow in the Northeast but plenty of rich chocolate desserts. I am happy to be co-hosting this week with the lovely Steph of a Whisk and a Spoon, Jessica of Cookbookhabit and Jaime of Good Eats n’ Sweet Treats.
These tartlets can also be baked as one large tart, which was good because I am not allowing myself to buy any more...
3 tags
Peaches & Dream Pie
Have you seen Doomsday Preppers yet? We’re a little obsessed. At first you watch these people storing up food, water, guns, fuel and think they’re crazy. Then you find yourself at BJs filling your cart with tons of pasta, rice, canned vegetables, and peanut butter. After returning home with my stores, I needed to make room which meant cycling out some of the older canned goods....
1 tag
Cocoa Almond Granola
Well, valentine’s came and past without any baking or blogging. My valentine doesn’t love sweets so I bought him a roast beef sandwich instead. V. Romantic.
I needed a bit of a break from baked goods anyways. After starting a new job last month, ive been off my exercise schedule and my waistline is a bit tight. Yogurt for breakfast, I find, is only tolerable with a bit of granola. I like to add...
2 tags
White Bread
Hooray for Tuesdays with Dorie 2.0! For those you not up on all of the internet baking nerdom, Tuesdays with Dorie was a group that baked its way through Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Once we finished that group (several years in the baking), we moved on to a new book, Baking with Julia. The book features recipes from many chefs who baked with Julia Child on her tv show.
...
2 tags
Peanut Butter Brownie Crispies
I’m a little late with superbowl recipes, but at least there are still a few hours before kick off. This recipe goes well beyond just football, but the combo of peanut butter cups, peanuts, chocolate, brownies and rice krispies sounded pretty pig out pig skin to me. To keep things easy, just use your favorite brownie recipe for the base (I used my go to recipe with lots of bittersweet...
January 2012
6 posts
1 tag
Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies
Just a slight twist on regular old chocolate chip cookies. I saw these on the pioneer woman (sidebar- I’m still not sure about her show. She’s just a little too rich and I’m a little too jealous). Anywho, she made these cookies super flat. I like flat cookies but I think they’re not as good after 1 or 2 days. So instead I gave these the NYT treatment- a little fridge...
1 tag
Blondies
I’ve tried several different blondie recipes over the last few years and wasn’t satisfied with any of them. I like a nice thick blondie, slightly under done in the middle. Every recipe I’ve tried was thin and not quite soft enough. No perfect bars to be found.
Ed actually made a dessert request for blondies, which is rare because he’s not a baked good guy. So, instead of enduring...
Honey Cinnamon Butter
Baking bread for the start of Tuesdays with Dorie 2.0? I’d recommend a little honey cinnamon butter to spread on top. I recently visited a new top chef alum restaurant in Boston. Fellow redheaded Tiffany opened a bbq joint called Sweet Cheeks. It was amazing. Good bbq in Boston? It was needed. The highlight was a basket of huge warm biscuits with honey butter for spreading. So good. Wish...
1 tag
Oatmeal Cream Pies
When my friend Katy and I were in our early 20s, we used to frequent a dive bar. If you got there early, you’d score one of 5 beer glasses while everyone else would be stuck with plastic cups. Needless to say, we’d stick around for a few hours showing off our fancy glasses. About half way through an evening we’d break to walk across the street to a 7/11 and pick up a snack....
2 tags
Roasted Potato Fennel Soup
Despite a warm weekend, I was still in the mood for soup. I started roasting the potatoes for this just as Ed started to come down with a cold. I think it is a perfect make you feel better soup. Tastes just like a baked potato, only better.
We ate the first round with just a little parmesan on top. I kept thinking how nice a little crumbled bacon on top would be. So, next round pictured with...
2 tags
Blueberry Lemon Crumb Slabs
Ahhh! An All Recipes recipe! As much as I like to make fun of All Recipes (I love, among many things, the commenters who change everything in a recipe and then rate it low when it isn’t great), every once in awhile you can find a gem.
I owed a friend a birthday treat and he’s a pretty big fan of the blueberry so I settled on this recipe. I used frozen wild blueberries and lots of...
December 2011
9 posts
1 tag
Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs
I was always a little hesitant to try deviled eggs. It seems like a risk at a party. A bad deviled egg could be really bad. Or it could be one of these Caesar salad deviled eggs. Who would have though a deviled egg could have so much going on? garlic, panko, lemon, parmesan. So good. I brought these to a party and they were gone in just a few minutes.
My only hesitation in making them...
2 tags
Kid's Thumbprints
First, the cookies: Peanut buttery dough filled with jam or chocolate (chocolate was an easy choice for me). The dough is rolled in chopped peanuts for some crunchy goodness. I made them extra big so I could use my bigger than kid sized thumbs to make the imprint. So good, even after a week filled with treats. As fitting with my typical M.O., I ate one for breakfast. Dorie has the recipe...
2 tags
Thomas Keller's Oreos
I had such big plans for holiday baking. Then I decided it would be a good idea to double the number of spinning classes I taught this week and announce that I was leaving my full time job for a new position. That, and we were out of eggs. Once I finally hit the grocery store last night, I got to baking.
These homemade oreos were on the list for dinner with friends and there daughters last...
3 tags
Snickery Squares
I missed this TWD recipe the first go around but I had to go back and make it before the group wraps up. Why? Chocolate, caramel, peanut, shortbread. Satisfies the hunger inside you. Have one for breakfast and it will be your best morning ever.
The base is shortbread, and it was supposed to be pricked with a fork and baked. It was a little fussy with me so I gave it 15 minutes in the freezer...
3 tags
Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
Tracey did a great run down of holiday baking options and these cookies caught my eye. Chocolate peppermint bark on a base of shortbread. So easy and they look so great.
This is one of those recipes that I didn’t read all the way through before making it. I baked the shortbread, took it out of the oven and headed off to the dog park with my boy.
Came back to read that I should...
2 tags
Marshmallows
S’mores aren’t just for summer. They are also suitable when you find out that your student intern from China has never had a marshmallow in her life. This was something that needed to be corrected right away. So today, my coworker and I are serving the finest in marshmallow treats. She has the rice crispie treats covered. I made some graham crackers and marshmallows for...
3 tags
Honey Almond Tarts
Fresh figs could not be found (affordably, at least), so I went with the ruby red grapefruit option for these mini honey almond tarts. As you can see, I made a few additional changes from the orginal recipe.
A graham cracker crust, for ease really, and a drizzled chocolate topping. Then, a chocolate and grapefruit option. The last was my favorite. Tart grapefruit, nutty and earthy...
3 tags
World Peace & Peppermint Cookies
After a day spent trimming the tree, I baked up a few of these cookies and headed into Boston with friends. I snuck a few in my purse for us to enjoy while watching the new twilight movie (so bad, but so so good).
I started with Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies and added a few crushed up candy canes. The cookies were pretty perfect for the holidays. Deeply chocolate with a sweet...
1 tag
Cornflake Cookies
Momofuku! This cookie recipe is from the Momofuku cookbook and I used that name in place of swear words several times in the making of these cookies. When I tasted the dough (holy momofuku it was good!) When I baked the first round at the wrong temperature (momofuku!) Each round there after trying to get the cookies right (momfuku!) This is a tough recipe to bake. The dough needs to be...
November 2011
12 posts
1 tag
One Mini Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie
I was really feeling a little over baked by the time I got to making this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. I’ve made and eaten way to much of the sweet stuff in the past few days, which is saying a lot for me. Rather than skip the sour cream pumpkin pie, I opted for a mini version.
I just so happened to have a tiny amount of pie crust in the freezer- odds and ends from another...
3 tags
Bourbon Caramel Apple Pie
I don’t really make apple pies any more because I find them a little boring. When I saw the recipe on 20something cupcakes, however, I was actually curious. I like bourbon. I like caramel. I like a crunchy top instead of double pie crusts. So I added the recipe to my thanksgiving baking list.
I worried a bit about overcooking the apples as you saute them first and then bake the pie...
3 tags
Chocolate Pecan Pie Squares
I usually make a chocolate pecan pie for Thanksgiving but this year I decided to go with squares. For some reason, I thought these might be easier to cut and serve than pie. They weren’t. Perhaps I should have lined the dish so I could have easily lifted them out. Wish I had thought of that sooner.
The base is a shortbread type dough from barefoot contessa. Her pecan square recipe...
2 tags
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
My mom brought me a few treats this weekend including homemade cookies, those pumpkin spice almonds I’m currently addicted to, and a couple cans of pumpkin. Our doggy has been getting most of the pumpkin lately to help his upset tummy. He does not appreciate it. So I grabbed my new cans of pumpkin and set out to make some baked goods for humans to enjoy.
For these pumpkin swirl...
3 tags
Bittersweet German Chocolate Brownies
I’ve made Dorie Greenspan’s bittersweet brownies more times than I can remember. I love the deep chocolate flavor and I couldn’t resist making them again for this week’s recipe. This time I did a German chocolate take on the recipe to bring to my sister in law for her birthday. These are super gooey and difficult to cut but totally decadent and worth a little mess. ...
3 tags
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
For my day job, I work at a college (the Boston area has a few of those) and this past week, someone was organizing a bake sale to help out one of the students working in Afghanistan. The person organizing the bake sale said, “Elizabeth (They don’t call me Spike, it’s not v. professional), you like to bake, right?” Um yes, yes I do. Any excuse will do.
So I baked up...
2 tags
Individual Peanut Butter Cookie
This is dangerous. One super sized cookie.
I saw the recipe on Picky Palate and was reminded of living in Ireland with some of my girlfriends back in the early 2000s. We used to make ghetto cookies- no eggs, no baking soda- just mixing up butter, sugar, flour, and chocolate chips. We ate way too many of those in our tiny little apartment.
This is the slightly more involved version. I am...
Inappropriate cake inscriptions (link). Good... →
4 tags
Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie
This recipe always catches my eye when I flip through Baking from My Home to Yours. “Depths of Fall” is rather poetic, especially when baking in New England. When I went to make this week’s recipe, I realized I had never actually read through it before. I had imagined a single crust pureed squash pie, very much like pumpkin pie. This, however, is more like an apple pie,...
3 tags
Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and...
It was my friend Joe’s birthday last week and when I asked what baked good he would like, her responded “apple cupcakes with frosting and caramel drizzled on top”. Very specific and very brilliant.
I’d never made an apple cupcake before so I took my favorite apple cake (Smitten Kitchen’s apple cake) and modified to a cupcake. The cake itself is a little fragile...
2 tags
Buttercup Squash Bread
Think bread, not tea bread here. Instead of sweet dessert bread, this is more like a regular old sandwich loaf. And it doesn’t taste all that much of squash, but it is a lovely color and packed with extra vitamins. Really lovely for a nice hummus and veggie sandwich, PB & J, or morning toast. I usually just spend my time making fun of All Recipes crazy recipes and crazier reviews,...
2 tags
Honey Nut Scones
We are now up to two Tuesdays with Dorie recipes a week in an attempt to finish up the book. I didn’t get to far breton but I did bake up half of these honey nut scones (with half in the freezer for a cold morning sometime in the future). This week, like most, as I set out to make a TWD recipe I soon discovered I was missing a key ingredient. In this case, it was the honey. It is gross...
October 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Silky Cauliflower Soup
One head of cauliflower survived in the fridge while we were away in North Carolina for a wedding. On our return, I googled and quickly found this easy way to use it up. The soup is good, standard cauliflower soup. Nothing crazy here. Just a little parmesan cheese and cracked pepper needed to make it complete. Enjoyed on a rainy day with a side of sweet potato chipotle crackers from a...
2 tags
Dorie Recipes: A question and a Crazy Combination
I’ve only made one of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes this month and, with some Halloween baking in my future, I think I’ll only get to one more sometime this week. My question for you, bakers, is which of the three recipes should I make? Apple muffin cake, ginger jazzed brownies, or fig cake?? Thanks in advance for the recommendations!
Last week I did have a chance to make (and...
2 tags
Artichoke Dip
This weekend’s Patriots game was a wait-till-the-very-end-before-getting-the-win kind of game. Luckily, we had artichoke dip to distract everyone from the multiple QB sacks. Most of the artichoke dip recipes I’ve seen use a lot more cheese than this. However, I think this might be just the right amount so you can actually taste the artichokes. Otherwise, you might as well call it...
2 tags
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Well, I finally tracked down a few cans of pumpkin. So now I’ve pulled out my sweaters and resigned myself to the fact that Fall has set in. Although the two boys I live with like to keep the windows open like it’s still warm out. Brrr.
Pumpkin bread with chocolate chips is one of my favorite fall treats because it is sweet enough for dessert but neutral enough for breakfast as...
2 tags
Chicago Marathon & Biscuits
I was in Chicago this past weekend for the marathon and a whole lot of eating. The marathon was fun- absolutely huge (45,000 people!) and slightly overwhelming but I was happy with the way I ran (I beat the pregnant lady!) and the overall experience. Although, I’m not sure I’ll do a race that big any time soon- it was really difficult to catch a cab afterwards!
Pre race...
1 tag
Chicago
We’re heading to Chicago for the weekend. In addition to a little running, I’m planning on doing a bunch of eating. Any restaurant recommendations?
xx
Spike
2 tags
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
This was intended to be one of those make something out of nothing recipes. There isn’t a whole lot of food in the house and we’re headed to Chicago for the marathon at the end of the week so I didn’t want to buy much. I did have a few green peppers and jalapeno peppers from the garden, some shredded cheddar cheese and some milk to use up. I found Ina Garten’s Jalapeno...
September 2011
11 posts
1 tag
“This recipe was a disaster. I followed it to a T, cooked it for the same amount...”
– As read in an allrecipes review. I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t try baking anything a second time after allowing it to cool overnight. Rewarm, yes. Finishing the baking time, no.
3 tags
Flip Over Nectarine Cake
Despite reading very positive reviews from the TWD bakers, I wasn’t expecting much from this cake. The batter seemed thin yet it baked for quite awhile. I used nectarines instead of plums and wasn’t sure how they would work with cinnamon and almond extract. I also wanted to use up some buttermilk so I used that instead of whole milk. Despite the changes and low expectations, the...
1 tag
What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?
When I was in DC last week, I saw a great exhibit at the National Archives. Government food posters. Photography was not allowed, apparently, but I was informed of this only after capturing a few gems with my phone (and once it wasn’t allowed, I grabbed another image outside the building). My favorite was an old take on the food pyramid. You’ve probably seen the new plate diagram...
3 tags
Salt & Pepper Shortbread
I started this recipe a little too late last night, so here the shortbread sits in the fridge waiting to be cool enough to bake (see it there, right in front next to the only hot pepper my garden produced this year). I snuck a few bites of the cookie dough and it was fab- chocolaty, peppery and salty. Very refined indeed. Can’t wait to bake these up tonight! Thanks to Tia of Buttercream...
3 tags
Classic Brownies
Brownies are just about perfect any way you eat them. I love Dorie’s bittersweet brownies, and I love adding a little spice to brownies or even a swirl of dulce de leche. For this week’s “classic” brownie recipe, I decided to church them up a bit and make everything but the actual brownie batter not so classic. I baked the brownies in a long thin pan making one giant...
1 tag
“Wow, I am a chef of 13 years and cook for one of San Francisco top restaurant...”
– As read in an all recipes review. Guess what the recipe is for? Chain restaurant style hot wings. I don’t know whether to be upset with this chef or try the recipe.
2 tags
4 tags
Tomato Salad with Breadcrumbs
‘Tis tomato season in New England. All those tomatoes that have been green for a month are ripening at an alarming pace. I found this recipe on smitten kitchen and gave it a mini make over with what was in the cupboard: a sprinkle of some grey salt and herbs de provence mix I found at the williams and sonoma outlet instead of fresh garlic, balsamic vinagear instead of red wine. The...
3 tags
m&m Cookies
This weekend, my friends and I are having our college day cookout. A day once a year where we go back to college habits: drink beer, play games, eat lots of food. For college day desserts I made a PG version of goo balls and these m&m cookies.
I worked in a bakery through almost all of college and one of my jobs was making big batches of chocolate chip and m&m cookie dough. The...