TWD #66: Cooknie or Brownkie?

Um. I cheated.

I’ll just get that off my chest right now.

Ok here goes. *deep breath*

I only made the brownie part of the recipe and used frozen cookie dough from my freezer for the “chipster” part.

I know. I know. I’m a bad person. {hangs head in shame}

Does it help if I pinky-swear-promise that the next time I bake these (b/c there WILL be a next time) I’ll bake the cookie part too?

The thing is. I couldn’t bail on this week b/c my good friend, Beth of Supplicious is this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie hostess with the mostess. You can find the complete recipe on her blog. I’ve met her in real life and she’s just as sweet as she comes across from her blog. Me and Beth go way back. What’s it been, Beth? Like 2-3 years now? Remember when we were clueless brides. And now we’re equally clueless wives? HA! Wow. Time flies when you’re having fun…

What I learned this week:
I want need another KA mixer bowl. If I had another bowl I couldn’t use dirty dishes as an excuse to take shortcuts on multiple recipe desserts. (That’s almost believeable, eh? Do you think that would work on my husband?)

Chipster Topped Brownie [Cups]
Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

I used bittersweet and semisweet chocolate instead.

I halved the brownie recipe, weighed each frozen cookie dough about 0.5oz and got about 12 chipster cups. Baked for about 20 minutes.

When they first came out of the oven they looked so cute, like a cookie topped brownie, but as they cooled they kinda sunk. Boo!

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A+
Nothing but raves for every bite! But he did suggest the next time I make them to substitute peanut butter chips for the chocolate chips in the cookie part.

Wifey rating: A+
Cookie good. Brownie great. Chipster AH-MAZING! I’m thinking butterscotch chips next time. Yum!

Next week: Cinnamon Squares pages 210-211

Taste&Create: A Frugal Foodie’s Smoothie

Talk about waiting until the last minute. But better last minute than late, right?

I’m just not one of them early types. Early bird gets the worm never applies to me. I’m wormless. No matter how hard I try I am always fashionably late. Hmm… what’s considered fashionably late before you’re rudely late? These are things I ponder when I am running late. Because if I know where the line is I can at least to tip toe around it.

Obviously from the logo, I am talking about my second participation in Taste&Create event. My partner for this round is Alisa from One Frugal Foodie. I have to admit when I first browsed her blog I wasn’t sure how this would work. Let’s just say. I’m cupcakes and she’s health and fitness foodie living. Can you say opposites? But the first thing that popped out at my from her blog was a smoothie. A strawberry smoothie.

Now I’m a Californian. We’re all about Jamba Juice and Smoothies here.

Thanks for inspiring me this month, Alisa!

Strawberry “Julius” Smoothie
Recipe adapted from One Frugal Foodie

INGREDIENTS

2 Cups Strawberry Halves
1/2 Cup Water
3 Tbsp Honey or Agave Nectar or 1/4 Cup White Sugar (I used honey)
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch Salt (optional)
2 Cups Ice
1-1/2 Tbsp Egg Protein Powder (or about 16-18g of favorite protein powder) (I substituted with half-and-half)

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the strawberries, water, honey, vanilla, ice, and salt (if using) in your blender and blend it to a nice smoothie consistency. Add more water or ice as you see fit. Add in the protein powder and just give it a few quick pulses to blend it in.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: N/A

Wifey rating: A-
I think if you aren’t a sugar addict like me, you’ll enjoy the refreshing strawberry flavor with a hint of sweetness from the honey but for me I wanted to add more sugar. But that still didn’t stop me from drinking the whole thing.

Bunday Monday

(image source: Cute Overload)
Click image to enlarge

My favorite picture is on the first row, 5th picture from the left. That little white bunny is getting some major hang time! So cute!

What’s your favorite?

Happy Monday readers. ♥

Fiberlicious Pancakes in 3 minutes!

I’ve been sitting at my desk for the past 30 minutes trying to remember if I’ve ever made pancakes before. To be honest. I don’t think so! Usually if I crave pancakes I’ll go to IHOP or MickeyDs. (Hey don’t knock MickeyDs! I’m a sucker for their sausage egg mcmuffins while Hubs is a Mcgriddle man.) I don’t think it ever occurred to me to make my own. I think it’s because I am not a good “flipper”.

Have you see those chefs on Food Network that flip veggies in their sauteed pan? Yeah. Um. I can’t do that. {hangs head in shame} I try but I end up getting the veggies on the floor, stove, hair… Don’t ask me how it gets in my hair. Long story. Vegetable suicide and all that. It’s not a happy ending.

I love breakfast foods. Eggs, bagels, pancakes, waffles, omelets, bacon, sausage… But I don’t crave breakfast at the normal breakfast times from 6-9am. I usually find myself eating breakfast for dinner. Weird I know!

But after staring at a package of Fiber One pancake mix on my kitchen counter for the past several days (weeks?) that Hubs got as a free sample on one of his emergency “OMG I don’t have any more butter can get it for me pretty please honey??” grocery store runs for me, I decided it was time to make pancakes for breakfast at a normal breakfast eating time.

A little info about Fiber One pancakes. Packaging claims that pancakes are (1) 20% daily value of fiber (2) at least 10g whole grain per serving (3) excellent source of calcium (4) 0g trans fat…

BUT I have a feeling all that good healthy stuff gets cancelled out by the massive amounts of syrup that I add to my pancakes huh?

Oops.

{wiping Aunt Jemima syrup dribbling down my chin}

Recipe from Fiber One Pancake Mix

Makes about 4-6 pancakes

INGREDIENTS

Fiber One pancake mix
1 cup water (I used 3/4 cup for thicker pancakes)

INSTRUCTIONS

Spray skillet or griddle with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine pancake mix and water until well blended. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into greased skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until tops are bubbly and edges are dry. Flip and cook until bottoms are golden brown.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A-/B+
I didn’t tell him that they were Fiber One until after he mentioned that he liked the pancakes but it had a interesting aftertaste.

Wifey rating: A-
I liked them! They are a good alternative to get some fiber but obviously not as delicious as the Paula Deen-esque caloric versions out there.

Black & White Marbled Cheesecake

Alright already! I get it.

I made a mistake. I misquoted. Whatever you wanna call it.

I made this cheesecake (slight caramel variation) back in December for my baking group, Tuesdays with Dorie, and mentioned that my favorite cheesecake was actually from TGIFridays. If you don’t remember, let me jog your memory mkay? But what I didn’t know and what many readers since then have emailed me is that TGIFridays gets their cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. {smacks head}

Thanks TGIFridays. You just made me look like schmuck in front of my readers. Thanks for that. So I’m going on record now to say… my favorite cheesecake is from The Cheesecake Factory b/c TGIFridays is just the middle man.

Happy?

Whew! I’m glad to get that off my chest.

Now I can move on with my life.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made Dorie Greenspan’s cheesecake. Of all the recipes I’ve made from her book this is the one that gets requested over and over and over again. I am sure I’ll eventually try every variation in her book. I’ve been drooling over the orange version. Baker friends tell me it tastes like a creamsicle. Holy yum batman!

But for this one I decided to go classic chocolate and vanilla. I made this it for Mother’s Day. (Yeah yeah it’s been almost a week so sue me!) And I find it highly amusing that T’s mom requested a cake and T gave me this long convoluted explanation that a cheesecake has “cake” in the name so therefore I should make cheesecake for his mom’s request of “cake”. Basically the man is a sucker for this cheesecake.

I know you will be too.

Recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

Makes about 16 servings (or 8 PHAT slices!)

INGREDIENTS

For the crust
1-3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the crust—
Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

Combine the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Add graham cracker crumb mixture into buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake—
Put a kettle of water on to boil.

Working in a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

Add 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to 1/3 of the batter in a separate bowl. Pour all of the vanilla batter into the springform pan, dollop the top of the batter with the chocolate batter and use a table knife to swirl the chocolate batter with the vanilla batter.

I think I was suppose to dollop little amounts of chocolate all over but I was a little overzealous pouring it out and created one big blob! Oops! HAHA

Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster and remove the foil. (Be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil.) Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A+
He absolutely loves this cheesecake recipe and requests it for any and every occasion. He raved about the mix of chocolate and vanilla batters.

Wifey rating: A/A+
I love this cheesecake recipe. It’s my go-to recipe. I am a cheesecake purist though so I like pure vanilla cheesecake more than the marbled variation.

Other rating: A+
Nothing but raves from family and friends. Everyone loved the chocolate swirls!

TWD #64: Not to be confused with a Pop Tart

I use to love Pop Tarts when I was a little girl.

Looking back at it now I have a feeling it wasn’t the most balanced breakfast. Pastry dough, filled with chemically enhanced fruit jam filling and frosting that didn’t quite go to the edge of the rectangle. Might come with or without sprinkles. (But really who buys it sans sprinkles?)

I remember my mom use to cut off the edges that didn’t have frosting and eat those parts for me since I wouldn’t eat any bite that didn’t have frosting on it. Maybe that’s where my frosting neurosis comes from when I eat cake and cupcakes now, eh?

Isn’t it crazy how word association can bring up random memories? I’m suppose to be talking about a different type of tart but here I am reminiscing about Pop Tarts. Alright. Let’s get back on track.

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie bakers’ assignment was a tart. Not just any tart. The Tartest Lemon Tart chosen by Babette of Babette Feasts. You can find the full recipe on her blog. I decided to half the sweet tart dough recipe and make 4 mini tarts. I am a sucker for mini desserts. Who wouldn’t be?

What I learned this week:
You *can* eat the whole lemon (minus seeds). I know that sounds like a strange proclamation but I honestly didn’t realize my bias until I made this tart.

[Creme Bruleed] Tartest Lemon Tart
Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

I read the recipe more than once to make sure I wasn’t suppose to juice or zest or peel the lemon. I was skeptical but trusted Dorie so I cut the lemon up and threw everything (minus seeds) in the food processor and crossed my fingers.

Add 1 egg+2 yolks and cornstarch

… heavy cream and melted butter. (Can you feel your arteries clogging?) Pureed until smooth.

See all the bubbles? I scared the beejesus out of my husband when I rapped the pitcher against the counter per Dorie’s instructions to get rid of the bubbles. Over and over again. Ooops. Next time I have to give warning.

I may have filled it a little too much b/c it bubbled over the side a bit. Oh well… I call it rustic. HA! I baked my mini tarts for about 25 minutes.

I decided to use the sweet tart dough minus the nuts b/c I had some dough in my freezer already. High five for lazy baking! I also skipped out on the creme fraiche b/c I didn’t want anything to interfere with lemon flavor. But of course when Dorie mentioned in her “Playing Around” section to add some sugar and brulee, I knew I’d be doing that too!

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A-
He liked it. Not his favorite but he ate his mini tart with no complaints. Ok maybe one. It was a little “too” tart for him.

Wifey rating: A
I love lemon anything. It was tart but I still loved it esp with the burned sugar on top! YUM!

Other rating: A
I brought the mini tarts over to my Mom’s house for Mother’s Day. I think I get my lemon love from her b/c she totally loved the tart too. My little brother also shared his raves as well.

Next week: Fresh Mango Bread page 45

Bunday Monday

{What the heck? Post publish FAIL. Thanks B for letting me know!}

This is Opie’s (RIP) first picture.

I adopted her Nov. 24, 2002 at 4 months old. She weighed about 8 lbs. That doesn’t sound small but she looks so tiny in this picture to me!

31DBBB #2: [Write a List Post]

Um yeah… I slack. Therefore I am.

I realize it’s been more than 1 day since my first 31 Days To Build A Better Blog post but ironically I have a list of excuses.

1. Prom
The Hubs is chaperoning his high school’s senior prom again this year and of course I needed a new outfit. Who knew it would take a few hours days to find one that said “I’m a young sexy teacher wife but more mama than hoochie.”

2. Dentist
I stressed for a whole week about getting my 3 (My dentist is a sadist!) wisdom teeth pulled. When I’m stressed I can’t blog. I have to be “in the mood” to blog. Is that just me? I can’t write if I am stressed, anxious, sad, mad. I have to find my happy place. (But of course dentist double booked and it got rescheduled so all that worrying has been postponed. Grreat.)

3. NBA playoffs
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it on my blog but I am a HUGE basketball fan. It’s a quality I am sure my husband adores except that we are a house divided. He’s a Laker fan whereas I say Celtics take a 2-peat. Needless to say when the game’s on we aren’t giving our attention to anything else except the TV, smack talk and snacking. Not necessarily in that order though.

4. Twitter
I’m officially obsessed. It’s a time sucker. I started off innocently enough. Just a tweet here and a tweet there but trust me. You don’t want it. It will consume you. First thing that pops into my head when I do anything now is: Is that twitter worthy?

5. Swine flu
List just didn’t feel complete without mentioning swine flu. I spent more time that I care to admit clicking these links >>

http://doihavepigflu.com *AND* http://doihaveswineflu.org

There you have it. List post. Check.

PS. If you wanna see how a list post is really done, definitely check out my girl, Rebecca’s blog: 7 Tips for No Fail Fried Chicken. (I’m not as cool as Rebecca but hopefully my list made you laugh? a little? huh? huh?)

PPS. Obviously I’ve decided to complete this new blog project in more than 31 days. More likely 62 days… maybe? (Tip #48986943 It’s always good to have an out.)

PPPS. Happy Birthday to my Brother! and Happy Odd Day (5/7/09)! I always knew he was a little odd. His reply to the text message I sent this morning: I learned it from my sister. Dayum. Zinger. He learned that from me too.

TWD #63: Brought to you by the letter T

Are you getting Sesame Street flashbacks yet?

I don’t know about all the other TWD bakers, but it took me a few (million) times to spell t-i-r-a-m-i-s-u correctly. I kept wanting to add more i’s. Don’t ask me why though. My brain is just crazy sometimes. I blame my husband who kept interrupting me while writing this post about his belt, socks, shoes, wallet, cell phone… I swear. That man would lose his arse if it wasn’t attached.

I want to say that I’ve eaten tiramisu more than once but it’s not something that I seek out on the dessert menu. Usually it’s the cheesecake or crème brûlée that makes my mouth salivate and my pocketbook lighter. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to see this on the TWD baking schedule chosen by Megan of My Baking Adventures. (You can find the original recipe on her blog.)

Although it wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t change it up a little bit. *wink*

What I learned this week:
It *IS* possible to eat your weight in frosting. Just take my word for it. *burp*

Tiramisu [Cupcakes]
Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

I halved the recipe and got 10 cupcakes.

I baked my cupcakes for about 20 minutes.

I poked holes in each cupcake with a fork and spooned about 1-2 tsp of espresso syrup over. Let syrup soak in a little at a time before you add more or it will overflow.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A
He loves coffee so he raved about the espresso syrup in the cupcake but he wasn’t a huge fan of the frosting.

Wifey rating: A
I am not a big coffee person but that espresso syrup was FABULOUS and the frosting was good but I honestly liked it more before the whipped cream was folded in. (Of course I tasted it between steps! Doesn’t everyone?)

Next week: Tartest Lemon Tart page 336

Bunday Monday

“Talk to the cottontail because everything else aint listening.”

Say HI to my Newbie!

Another blog event, Clara?

What can I say. I’m addicted. Are you really surprised?

Adopt-A-Blogger (AAB) is an awesome event created by Kristen of Dine And Dish. Basically the long and short of it is: Experienced bloggers (1+ years) are matched up with Newbie bloggers (<1 year) to share tips, tricks, hints, advice etc etc for 3 months. Isn’t that the coolest idea? After reading about it, I knew I had to sign up! And to think I would never have known about it if one of my favorite cupcake-ers hadn’t twittered the gist in 140 characters or less. Social networking media rocks!

At first I wasn’t sure if I should sign up as an experienced blogger b/c I’ve only been blogging since December 2007 so I didn’t know how much knowledge I had to share. But in the end I hope that whatever knowledge I have acquired over the past 1-1/2 years can be helpful to another blogger.

Without further ado, my Newbie is…

Erin of Erin’s Food Files >> You can see her blog link in my sidebar too!

I can tell right away that we are gonna get along swell. She’s even made one of my cupcakes before. How’s that for a cowinkydink!? It was a crunkcake too. A blogger that loves cupcakes and booze. Can you say adoption made in blogger heaven? (Kristen, have you thought about a career at Match.com? LOL) The only thing that might be an issue between us is her love of country music and my… ahem… limited desire for it. But as long as she doesn’t suggest we try out for a country music trivia show together, I think we’ll be ok. *wink* Update: Sweet! I stand corrected. She DOES NOT like country music!

So be prepared. You might be reading more about Erin in the future.

In fact. I am sure of it.

31DBBB #1: [Write an Elevator Pitch]

(image source: MarieLouie)

I know what you’re gonna ask me first.

“What is 31DBBB?”

Patience grasshopper. I was just gonna get to that.

31DBBB stands for 31 Days to Build A Better Blog. It’s the brain child of blogger, Darren Rowse (twitter@problogger). In his own words:

The idea is simple. By the end of the 31 days you’ll have learned 31 aspects of blogging and put them into practice. It is designed not only to fill your head with knowledge ABOUT blogging but give you some concrete things to do to actually DO something with the knowledge.

Something about this whole idea intrigued me. I’ve done NaBloPoMo twice already and I guess I was ready for something new. But true to my procrastination form, I am writing this post with 1-1/2 hours before Day 1 ends and Day 2 begins. I thought about the task – Write An Elevator Pitch – all day though. Pinky swear! It’s not as easy as you think. But as the clock is slowly ticking by ever closer to 11:59PM, I gave it my best shot and came up with…

*deep breath*

A 20-something closer to 30-something foodie’s random life thoughts along with a few bunny pictures thrown in just for the heck of it.

So… whatcha think?