52 Recipes in 52 Weeks: Week 4 - Sweet Tooth

This week's recipe is a fun one! Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Shortbread Cookies! Yum!

I thought about typing the whole name of this week's recipe in the title, but it was way too long. Although, when I began this week's recipe, it was a little bit shorter. 

I was simply going to make cheesecake cookies. I found the recipe on (what else?) Pinterest...I swear. I really think there should be a support group for people like me. I get on Pinterest and, somehow, lose hours of my life. It's a little bit like getting stuck in the Target Time Warp; you just start meandering around looking at things you don't need/have no use for when, suddenly, you find yourself in the baby aisle holding a tiny pair of frilly socks (that you have absolutely no need for since you haven't even made it to your one-year anniversary and therefore, according to your husband, are not allowed to start thinking about babies) and you have no idea what time it is or how long you've been there. Target, like casinos, is devoid of windows and tricks you into thinking time isn't passing. That is how Pinterest has become for me. I will start, innocently enough, looking at what my friends have pinned. When I'm bored with that (sorry, y'all, but you repin the same stuff from each other all the time. Maybe I just need more friends), I'll start searching random categories. At some point in time, something will light the spark of creativity (or sometimes crazy) in my brain and I will begin searching for specific words. 

That's basically how I ended up finding this recipe. I have no idea what I started off looking for, but, after quite a few moments of indeterminate length, I decided I needed cream cheese cookies, which, ultimately, led to cheesecake cookies. 

The original recipe is yummy as is, but I really wanted something with chocolate. So I decided to add it. I'm not really sure if the original cookie was supposed to taste like a shortbread cookie or not, but that's what it felt like to me when I was all done. I also added some spices and might possibly have lost count of how many cups of flour I used, but this is what we ended up with:

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Shortbread Cookies*

*(forgive me for the large quantities, but I tripled the original recipe so that I would have enough to send to E's office, take to my office, send to our leasing office ladies, drop some off to our new-mom friend who was told to gain weight 2 weeks after her baby was born (I know, right?) and still have some to eat at home - more about that later)

2 1/4 cups Butter (unsalted and room temperature)
9 oz cream cheese (such a pain since they only come in 8 oz packages...7 oz left over...thoughts?)
2 cups sugar
3 tsp vanilla 
6 (or so) cups all-purpose flour
heaping dash of Allspice
dash of cinnamon 
pinch of salt
1 bag of mini chocolate chip morsels 
a bowl of graham cracker crumbs

In terms of work, these don't require all that much. They're time-consuming only because of the steps you take in the end. The actual mixing portion of this recipe is easy-peasy. 

You'll want to begin by combining your butter, sugar and cream cheese until the mixture is smooth like...butter...hm. It needs to be creamy. You know what it looks like. Then you'll add in your vanilla. 

Now it's flour time. Here's where I got a little squirrelly in my attention span. I kinda lost count of how many 1/2 cups of flour I added into my dough. Since I was doing them in 1/2 cup increments, it seemed like it was taking forever. When things take forever, I get bored and my mind wanders and I start to say things like "tequila" instead of counting (anyone now have the "tequila" song stuck in their head? Ba da dada dada da...Ba da dada dada da dum...Ba da dada dada da...Ba da dada dada da dum...Ba dada DA dum...Ba dada DA dum...Ba dada DA dum...Bada dada dada DUM...TEQUILA!) See what I mean? I get distracted. Point is, I lost count and might have added a little more or a little less than 6 cups. I stopped adding when I felt like they were thick but not too floury tasting. 

Then I added the spices. I didn't really measure them. I really just went by taste. I felt that the dough needed a little something, so I added a pinch of kosher salt at first. Still not quite there, so I threw in some Allspice (a good bit more of this than the salt, mind you...don't get me started on the awful experience I had with salt and cookies when I was 10 years old...worst cookies ever...I've been mindful of the salt ever since) and some cinnamon. Now we were cooking! 

Cue the chocolate chips! I know it sounds silly, but I chose mini ones because they're just cuter and I like the chocolate flavor but don't like how big morsels can feel, well...almost disruptive of the other flavors. Mini ones just seem to blend in better while satisfying my chocolate craving. While the mixer was doing it's thing, I turned the oven on to 375 and let it heat up. I also crushed up some graham crackers and put them in a bowl. Once the dough was ready, I put parchment paper on my cookie sheets and got to rolling. 

It's tedium time! I guess it may not be quite as tedious if you don't triple the recipe like I did, but it sure did seem like it. You're gonna start rollin', rollin', rollin'...keep those dough balls rollin'...

I am such a dork. Yeah, roll a whole bunch of dough balls and, when you've got enough to space out nicely on your cookie sheet, start covering them in the graham cracker crumbs. They don't spread out too much, so I easily fit 12-15 on each large cookie sheet.

Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes, or until they're puffed and lightly browned. 

Let cool completely before you try to eat them. They taste much better! 

Just ask Cali...

She looks innocent...

Apparently, while I was hanging out with Katie, the aforementioned friend who just had the sweetest little baby girl, Cali decided that I hadn't wrapped the "Shevan" portion of the cookies up tight enough. When I came home, I went into the kitchen to grab a cookie and found this: 

But she's not...bad dog!

Yeah...but it was on the floor. Out of 25-30 cookies, she had left us 4. I decided not to take these to work because, as you might have guessed, my coworkers aren't fond of dog slobber covered floor cookies.

At least I ate one before I left...

Oh, and to all of E's coworkers...you can blame Casey for hoarding the second round of cookies I dropped off on Friday. I told her to share. She apparently doesn't like the rest of you. :) 

And, in case you were wondering how the previously posted marshmallows work for indoor S'mores, here's a teaser: 

Maybe, if I feel like it, I'll tell you how I made these. They're not all that exciting, but they were tasty! 

If you're really lucky, I might even tell you how to make these super yummy S'mores Bars...

I might just keep this one to myself though...they're just too good!

52 Recipes in 52 Weeks: Week 3 - English Muffins

Ah, dear friends...this blog post is far overdue. Some of you might have seen on my facebook status last week that my blog decided to "pretend" it was saving my post without actually doing so. I discovered this only after I thought I had published and subsequently exited out of the post...as you can guess, my super long post about the yummy deliciousness I had so eloquently written had disappeared into the vast nothingness of the interwebs...

That is why, lovely readers, you will be denied the opportunity to read a post that can only be described as pure literary genius. I know it sounds like I'm leading up to a sorry excuse for why this post may lack in some way, but, I promise, it won't. I pledge to do my best to recreate the fantastic, witty blog I so sadly lost. 

That said, let's jump right on into the recipe for this week...or, actually, last week, I guess. 

As part of my "healthy eating initiative" that I wrote about in my "New Year, New Me" post, I have decided to attempt to create as many things from scratch as I can. I already tried the marshmallows (clearly, I have not put these "scratch" items in order of how commonly I will make or use them...I am picking at random here) and thoroughly enjoyed that whole process (especially the eating portion...yum!). This week, I decided I would like to try English Muffins. 

Why English Muffins, you ask? Well...it was my day off. I opened the pantry to get out my usual cereal (off-brand Special K Red Berries for the win! Woot!) only to discover that we were all out! I did not feel like going to the store or out to eat at that unholy hour of 10:00 am (besides which, by the time I got dressed, most breakfast menus would be gone! Pity...). I started thinking that I could make something...but what? Maybe it was the fact that I was watching Downton Abbey, but I had a HANKERING for some English Muffins. Now, mind you, we didn't actually have everything we needed to make these muffins, so I did actually end up having to go to the store later. In the mean time, I decided to eat some dark chocolate m&ms that were on the nightstand in the pantry. 

Because I didn't pay too much attention to the recipe I found originally, I ended up getting ingredients that were close, but not quite right. Good thing there is a huge database of knowledge about all things cooking, pet care, medical and otherwise: The INTERNET (also known as the thing I rely most heavily on for everything I do other than sleep. Actually...I have learned a lot from the internet about sleep habits). 

With my trusty tools, Google and Pinterest, by my side, I found the perfect recipe. Actually, I found a really nifty website called The Fresh Loaf. It has about a bajillion different bread recipes for me to try when I can create the time! For now, we'll just focus on the task at hand...

So, the recipe called for everything I had picked up/had lying around the apartment. Let's begin:

1/4 cup warm water 
1 tablespoon (1 package) active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or, in my case, bread flour...oops)
2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cup warm buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter
Cornmeal (for dusting)

You begin by preparing your yeast. You can use instant yeast if you have it on hand. I don't know why, but I always prefer to use the active dry yeast. It just seems to make things fluffier. I could be totally wrong about that, though, so don't quote me on it. Anyway, take your warm water and dissolve the sugar in it. Then add your yeast and let it do its thing. You'll notice it get all frothy on the top and the delicious yeast smell to begin to tantalize your senses. I love bread, by the way...

Ok. So, you're going to combine the salt and 2 cups of the flour while the yeast is frothing it up. I combined them in the bowl to my stand mixer so I could attempt to use it for bread making purposes for the very first time. You can use whatever bowl you want if you're not cool like me with my mixer. Side note: everyone should get married. That is how we got all of our cool stuff. If you don't want to get married, you should start yourself an "I'm NOT getting married registry" so that people know what you want for birthdays and stuff...

Anyway! Now you will add to this mixture the following items: egg, yeast mixture, warm milk or buttermilk and melted butter. Mix together using the paddle attachment on your mixer (or your lame hands and a spoon or fork if you must) until everything is creamy. Then begin adding the rest of your flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Only add enough until the dough is coming off the sides of the bowl and it looks like a big blob of yummy yeasty dough. 

I didn't "knead" this dough one bit...but I wanted it! ;)
Yes...I know I'm corny.

Then you can switch out your attachment to the hook for the KNEADING section! If you don't have a mixer, you can do it the old fashioned way. Knead it for a good while and then place it into a clean, oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit until doubled. This should take 90 minutes...or, roughly, the length of a really crappy Katherine Higel movie. 

Come on, dough...RISE UP!

Once doubled, you should throw some corn meal onto a clean, flat surface and roll the dough out. Be careful not to make it too thin or too thick. About 1/2 inch should do it. Use a biscuit cutter or cup to cut the dough into circles.

Here is where things get interesting in my world. When you get ready to put your muffins on the griddle or hot pan (by hot, I mean medium hot), do not, I repeat DO NOT, put butter on the griddle or skillet. You will not achieve the desired results if you do this. 

Yup...that's butter right there. Not a good decision.
You live, you learn, you get messed up muffins.
But you never make that mistake again!

Cook the muffins on each side for 5-10 minutes, or until the appropriate level of toasted brown has been reached. Another note: don't get distracted by that awful movie you were watching and forget to flip the muffins. No one likes a burned bun...no one. 

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
Of course, I'm only showing you the pretty ones...

Overall, this was a great learning experience. Some of them turned out great, while others...not so much. We enjoyed them, though! We'll see if I have the courage to try again and maybe tweak the recipe just a bit. Not a fail...but not a resounding success, either. 

Enjoy!

52 Recipes in 52 Weeks: Week 2

First off, I would like to apologize for the extreme delay in posting this. I guess it was really supposed to be last week's recipe and, while I did actually make it last week, I was a little behind in the creative writing department. 

Don't judge. It's been a busy week. 

Anyway, Week 2 in my New Year's Self-Challenge was a particularly fun one! 

I've seen a huge upswing in people making their own marshmallows and I have always wanted to try it myself, but haven't been that excited about making a huge sticky mess in our teeny tiny kitchen. I did a lot of research on this one though and found out that it's much easier than it would seem. And everyone ensured there would be no sticky mess. So, I womaned up and dove in. 

I found this delicious recipe, courtesy of MyBakingAddiction.com. Now, bear in mind, hers are much prettier and probably taste better, but, so far, no one has complained about their looks. Or taste, for that matter. 

I think I used a little more vanilla than I was supposed to, but they turned out really great! I will admit that I still like the bag kind, but homemade marshmallows are definitely better. I have yet to try them in S'mores or for anything other than eating by the bagful, but I'm excited to see how they taste with chocolate and graham cracker goodness surrounding them! 

I've also decided that I need to attempt bourbon marshmallows next. Anyway, enjoy! 

Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows

1/2 cup water
3 (.25 ounce) packages unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup water (yes, I'm aware it's on here twice...go with it!)
2/3 cup corn syrup
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon (or however much you feel like...) vanilla extract
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup powdered sugar

First off, you'll want to take that 1/2 cup of water and put it in your stand mixer and sprinkle the gelatin on top so that it can soak. I don't know how long it's supposed to soak or what consistency it's supposed to be before you combine the other ingredients to it, but I do know that it looked really weird and I had to stir in the gelatin a little so that all of it got soaked properly. 

While that's turning into really plain jello, take your 1/4 cup of water (see, told you it was necessary), corn syrup and sugar and pour them into a large saucepan. You'll want to stir this while it reaches the boiling point. Once it gets going, let it boil for one whole minute. 

Pour the super hot mixture into your gelatin glob and, with the whisk attachment on your mixer, turn that sucker on high. You're gonna let this do its thing for about 12 minutes, so set that timer and let's prepare your pan.

The original recipe said to use a 9 x 9 pan, and you totally can; I did. However, if you would like thinner marshmallows, you may use a 13 x 9 pan, which is what I wish I had done. No matter, they turned out great, but I would have enjoyed thinner ones. Anywhoski, take your pan and line it with plastic wrap. I actually got the metal pan wet first so that the wrap would stick, but if you have a ceramic or glass dish, you should be fine. Then, spray the mess out of that plastic wrap with a non-stick spray. Here's a tip: don't use the butter flavored one. Your marshmallows will have a slight yellow tint to them. Oops. 

When your timer brings you back to reality and you have whipped the mess out of the marshmallow mixture, it's time to add your vanilla. If you would like to preserve the crisp white look of your marshmallows, use clear vanilla (in addition to avoiding the previously mentioned yellow spray crap). If you want to try different flavors, feel free to substitute. I'm gonna do that with the bourbon next time. 

Mix it in, periodically scraping the sides of your bowl with a well-oiled spatula; you want to make sure the vanilla is all mixed in and mine kept splashing up on the sides and chillin' there. 

Once you've mixed it enough so that it forms stiff peaks (much like whipped cream but WAY thicker), you can pour it into your pan. With the aforementioned spatula, still well-oiled, pat it down so that it is flat, much like you do with rice krispie treats, but a lot less hard. 

Take another sheet of plastic wrap that has also been sprayed to death, cover your pan completely, and use your hand to pat it onto the surface of your marshmallows so that a seal is formed. 

And now we wait. 

For 4 hours.

Or overnight, if you started this at 10:30 at night and have to get up for work the next day...not that I did that or anything.

Once it has congealed sufficiently, oil up your knife or scissors and get cutting. You can use cookie cutters to make them into shapes. You can do whatever you want at this point...go bananas! 

You'll notice that the edges are sticky. You don't want that. Here's where your cornstarch and powdered sugar come in handy! Combine them in a bowl and, when you've got a completed marshmallow, plop it in the bowl and coat it. You don't want to put too much on it, because then it'll taste like cornstarch and powdered sugar instead of delicious vanilla, but you do want enough so that it's no longer sticky. Oh, another tip, don't be a dummy and place finished marshmallows in a bowl that wasn't dried off completely. You know what happens to marshmallows when they get wet? They dissolve into a gooey, slimy mess. 

And now you're done. :) Not so bad, huh? Enjoy! Yum! 

New Year, New Me, New Blog

Oh...what a weird and wonderful year 2012 was. I got married to the most amazing man and we started our lives together as husband and wife. Our puppy turned 2 and finally (thank god) calmed down enough be left alone in the house for more than 30 minutes without pooping somewhere. My kitten found a new home where she is free to frolic about and hunt those pesky rodents. I did a lot of baking, although not nearly as much as I wished. I discovered the WONDERS of the Kitchenaid stand mixer. Evan and I celebrated several weddings of our dear friends and family members and were so touched to be a part of Randi and Kristina's celebration! We really and truly feel like our world is changing and growing in only the best of ways!

New Years 2012-13
Amazing dinner, good friends and way too much champagne!

As amazing as last year was, I can only hope that 2013 has even more exciting things in store for us. That said, I have a few resolutions that I would like to share with you all:

Who wouldn't want to spend time with this face?! 

1. I will make more time for my husband. Working on the weekends and working almost an hour to an hour and a half away from home puts a strain on our relationship. Often I have come home exhausted and just wanting to curl up on the couch and fall asleep or bring work home with me. This year, I will come home and really be present with Evan. He deserves it and so do I. Since I cannot make more hours in the day, I will, instead, make sure that the time we spend together will be quality time.

2. I will bake more. I really enjoy baking. The act of taking common, plain ingredients and combining them, tweaking them, making them into something delicious and sweet...it makes me happy. I like refining my technique. I like trying new things. One day, maybe I can make a living doing these things I enjoy, but for now, I do it for me.

3. I will stop eating so many processed foods. Evan and I have talked about doing a juice fast since we saw the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" over 2 years ago. We haven't done it. Obviously. But last night, when I could not find any crackers to go with our cheese, I decided to see if I could make my own. I did. They weren't perfect, but they did the job. The best part was that I knew exactly what went into them and I didn't spend any money on them. Water crackers are ridiculously expensive and I have no clue how many preservatives on them. I am making it my goal to find healthier, homemade alternatives to the costly, preservative-filled things you find on the grocery store shelves. If anyone has any tips, please send them my way.

4. I will get better at documenting my adventures, both in and out of the kitchen. I enjoy beautiful presentations and will start taking better pictures of the methods I use and the final products. Ideally, I would like a better camera, but the one I want isn't cheap. Before I get that camera, however, I will learn more about composition and editing. There is no reason to buy an expensive camera until you can use it properly, in my opinion.

5. I will focus myself. No more letting the laundry pile up or waiting until neither one of us has underwear left. No more starting projects until I know I have all the supplies I need. I have a tendency to get overzealous about things and peter out before they are completed. How many contraptions have I bought only to use them once? Countless...I have a screen printing machine, letterpress machine, needlefelting supplies and all this other crap that is junking up my life. I've enjoyed it all (ok, except the letterpress attempts..but they didn't work out the way I wanted them to) but didn't NEED to do it. The needlefelting, while my most recent hobby, has been the most fun. Perhaps I'll keep that. But the rest, I will cleanse our house of. Which brings me to...

6. I will cleanse our house of unnecessary clutter. If I ever hope to gain control over my guest room, I need to rid it of those things I never use. I will sell this crap on craigslist. And I will not buy any new supplies until I've gotten rid of those things I don't need. I will also do this with...SHOES. You don't know the pain it causes me to say this, but I have several pairs of shoes that I haven't worn in years or have only worn once. I have a shoe problem. An addiction, some would say. I'm like Imelda, Queen of shoes and everything. I will not buy another pair of shoes until I've gotten rid of every pair of shoes I haven't worn in over a year. Anyone who wears size 7-7.5...get ready for an exquisite ebay/craigslist shoe exodus. I might go through a minor depression once all is said and done, but I believe I'll feel much better, as well.

7. Lastly, I am challenging myself to try one new recipe a week! Be it baking, dinner, dog treats, etc...I will make it, bake it, blog it. Simple as that. Have a recipe you want me to try? Let me know. 52 recipes. 52 weeks. Bring it on!

That is all the resolutions I can make for now. They're not small ones, but they're ones I need to do for myself. Wish me luck. Keep me accountable. It's on the internet now. No escaping it, right? Unless, of course, the only people reading this are my mom and my husband...eh, they'll do their part!

I will start off this Make it, Bake it, Blog it challenge with an appropriate recipe, I believe!

Champagne Cupcakes with Candied Strawberries

I found this recipe on pinterest. Of course.

Again, I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail on this recipe because it was a really long process. I'll tell you want I did wrong, though. Never use egg scramblers when a recipe calls for egg whites. These cupcakes were much too dense and chewy for my taste, but that was my fault. I should never answer the phone in the grocery store. I get distracted too easily as it is. I just grabbed the wrong thing. Also, I had to use frozen strawberries rather than fresh. This was good and bad. Good because they were much easier to slice and candy than fresh ones. Bad because I have no idea how many strawberries are in a pint and didn't find it necessary to look it up. Therefore, I don't have a clue if I measured correctly for the puree. They tasted good though. End of story.