Cookies & Cocktails Plus Catching Up

It's been awhile again. I haven't been in much of a writing mood lately I guess. It's an overwhelming time of year - work is busy wrapping up for our holiday shutdown, busy trying to think of presents for everyone (and realizing Christmas is in less than two weeks!!), busy cooking, and busy spending time with friends. Those aren't bad things it's just sometimes it all gets piled on at once and stresses me out a little.

But enough of that - there are a few exciting recipes I have been wanting to share from the past few weeks! The first is for this salad - it pretty much has everything that is great in it: kale, pineapple, avocado, black beans, and peanuts. You can find the recipe here. I more or less just followed it.

I made the salad to go along with a West African Peanut Stew. My coworker sent me the recipe for this one and I'm not sure where they got it from, so I will share it with you here!

West African Peanut Stew
2 c. onion, chopped
1 T. vegetable oil
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1 t. powdered ginger
1 c. carrots, chopped
2 c. winter squash or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
5 c. vegetable stock
3/4 c. smooth peanut butter (I used chunky and omitted the chopped peanuts)
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. diced green onion
1 T. chopped peanuts

Sauté the onions over medium heat for 3 minutes.  Add the cayenne and ginger.  Add the carrots and squash.  Add the stock, cover and simmer about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  Puree with a hand blender if desired - I did only slightly, not until it was anywhere near smooth.  Add the peanut butter and sugar.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir until blended.  Serve topped with green onions and chopped peanuts.

The next recipe doesn't have a great photo to go along with it - sorry, I was hungry after this pre-P90X workout! More on that later. I had some leftover pumpkin from making cookies that I needed to use up, and I'd been curious about these pumpkin and squash mac and "cheese" recipes I'd been seeing lately. I loosely followed this recipe here, except I cheated a little and added ~1/2 cup of smoked Gouda since I had it leftover. I didn't have any sage (or at least I didn't want to go out in the dark and rain to pick some) so I used some thyme to season it. The sauce was a bit thick so I thinned it a little with some pasta water - I think I could have actually used a little more since it was still pretty thick. I thought this was delicious though - super creamy and flavorful and a bit healthier alternative to regular mac & cheese with all of the comfort.

I've been doing a lot of holiday baking and candy making recently too. Here's a few things I've tried out so far:

Spritz cookies (fun with the cookie press!)

 Homemade Peppermint Patties (first time I attempted tempering my own chocolate - mixed results but better than I feared!)

 Caramel Pecan Bars (I have about a million of these since I used the recipe from the large batch cookbook!)

 This past weekend we had out annual Cookies & Cocktails party - I love entertaining and this party is pretty simple since you're asking people to all contribute a holiday treat. We always have a ton of food and end up with not enough table space to even display everything! It's a nice chance to get all of our friends together to hang out and surprisingly I think almost everyone actually likes the dressing up part - it certainly makes it more festive! Check out how nice everyone looked! I think the guys win this year - they all looked very fancy.

We had a smaller turnout this year - December is a tough time to schedule events! It was great fun though and luckily my coworkers willingly ate every single leftover that I brought in today!

Hope you're all getting ready for the holidays without too much stress - if so, let me know how you're doing it please!

-C

Baking Season is Back!

This may or may not be a good thing. I do love baking but I actually think I may have a problem... sometimes I end up baking just to bake! My recent obsession with foodgawker has led to finding several new recipes, so this weekend I picked two to try out: White Spice Walnut Orange Cupcakes and Brie and Pear Tarts.

It's not often that I follow a recipe exactly, especially when it includes a seasoning that I don't think I like (such as cardamom) but I decided to give it a shot with these cupcakes. I don't often bake with eggs either, but I thought I'd really try to hold true to the recipe. To be honest? They were ok, but not fantastic. Sometimes I feel like I must be missing out on something great by not eating eggs in baked goods (i.e. typically eating vegan baked goods) but whenever I step outside of those restrictions I usually feel let down. Truthfully - I think eggless baking is just as good, and it creeps me out so much less!

The absolute best part of this recipe is the frosting though - it is absolutely delicious! Although I do recommend cutting the frosting recipe in half - I have no idea who would need so much frosting! I think I was pretty generous and I still had a bunch left with only half of the recipe! Next time I think I will just make vanilla cupcakes and use this frosting.

This Brie and Pear Tart was one of the first recipes I added to my favorites on foodgawker and I have been itching to make it ever since then. I don't have a real tart pan, so I decided to make two individual tarts with these ceramic dishes I have instead. I pretty much followed this recipe exactly too (other than changing the dimensions of the tart)! I used a basic butter pie dough (minus the sugar) for the crust, Willamette Valley Brie, and two different kinds of pears. I couldn't get mine to look as pretty as the picture in the recipe, but I think it turned out pretty well in the end! Next time I'd use a little less sugar (I skimped a little already with this recipe) and definitely more brie - the piece we bought was really kind of small for this recipe.

Hope I'm not alone in my baking inspiration now that the weather is colder! If you're in need of new recipe ideas I highly recommend foodgawker - such a fantastic way to browse!

-C

Blackberry Love

I'm a little late on this, but I figured I'd share nonetheless. One of my favorite things about the end of Summer is blackberries. A ripe blackberry may just be the best thing in the world. On the other hand - an unripe blackberry? Terrible! I was actually really disappointed with the blackberries that we received in our CSA box this year - they looked really nice, but truthfully they tasted awful.

I couldn't take the lack of delicious blackberries anymore, so Jonathan and I headed out to pick some of our own. Sometimes I really appreciate giant weeds taking over everything - at least when those weeds are blackberry bushes! We spent an hour or so picking out at a local wildlife reserve a few miles from here and ended up with a giant bowl.

Now I'm not the world's best pie maker - pies actually intimidate me a bit and it doesn't help that both my mom and grandma make some of the best pie crust ever. That's a lot to live up to. But I would do just about anything for a blackberry pie, so I gave it a shot anyway and it actually turned out pretty close to perfect if I do say so myself! I went with an all-butter crust (although I'd like to try a coconut oil crust sometime, I've heard good things) so that might have had something to do with the delicious factor. The only thing I would do differently next time is use more blackberries for the filling, but I can't really complain since it left me with plenty to make jam!

The pie wasn't actually runny either, even though this photo may make it look otherwise - I think that's just because I took the first piece out when it was still warm. The filling actually held its shape really well which made cutting pieces nice and easy!

Here is the recipe I used if you'd like to try a blackberry pie of your own!

Blackberry Pie
Crust:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
~1/4 cup cold water
Filling:
~6 cups rinsed blackberries (I think you could go for closer to 7, maybe 8)
1/2 cup sugar
Squeeze of fresh lemon
3 Tbs flour

To make the crust:
1. Pulse 2 cups of flour, the sugar, and salt in a food processor with the cold butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.
2. Add the remaining half cup of flour and pulse another couple of times.
3. Dump the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl and sprinkle with the cold water - use a spoon or clean hands to combine this into a dough that holds its shape.
4. Divide the dough into two equal halves.
5. Place one half on a sheet of parchment paper with a very small amount of flour - roll out carefully into a circle a few inches larger than your pan (this is where I usually get frustrated and decide I never want to make pie again - but stick with it, plus it doesn't have to look perfect anyway!).
6. Using the parchment paper to transport the crust, place it in the pan and carefully press the dough into the corners of the pan leaving the edges hanging over.
7. Repeat the rolling process with the second half of the dough.
8. Make the pie filling by combining all of the filling ingredients together - pour the filling into the prepared crust mounding it up in the center if it's a little too full (it will cook down).
9. Place the second crust over the top , trim off the edges, and then pinch the two crusts together making a decorative edge. Brush the top of the pie with butter and sprinkle with sugar - cut a decorative design in the top or just make a few slits to vent the steam.
10. Preheat oven to 425 - bake the pie for ~30 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 375, cover the pie with foil and continue to bake for another ~30 minutes.

Note: Make sure to keep a pan with a rim on the rack underneath the pie to catch drips - because it will drip and you don't want to set your oven on fire! Not that I've ever done that.... no really, I always catch it at the smoke detector alarm!  :)

**Crust recipe adapted from here, filling recipe adapted from here.**

Enjoy!!

Frozen Mocha Cheesecake

It's not really a secret that I have a sweet tooth. Even before I really discovered my love of cooking I was always a baker and when I was little and would go to my grandparents house during the day the answer to the question of what I would like for breakfast was always the same - pie. Despite my Grandpa's attempts at offering up things such as Filet Mignon (which for years I thought was something called Flaming Yon), I always just wanted pie - what can I say, my Grandma makes a really good crust!

Anyway - pie stories aside, this weekend I remembered one of my favorite desserts from my childhood - Frozen Mocha Cheesecake. This was not something I got often, it was not the kind of thing my mom would have ever made for us (we ate a lot of apple crisps and peach cakes - which are also delicious of course). This dessert was one that my best friend's mom made and it was definitely in the top ten of all time desserts for me, but being a kid the thought of getting the recipe never crossed my mind.

A quick Google search and every link I clicked on was roughly the same idea for the recipe, so I figured it couldn't be too far off! I more or less followed a recipe from Sugar Rush - here is my exact recipe:

Ingredients:
Crust:
24 Oreos (I used Reduced Fat Oreos)
1 Tbs. sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

Filling:
2 8-oz packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 14-oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup chocolate syrup
1 Tbs. instant espresso
1 Tbs. hot water
1 cup Cool Whip Free (not frozen)

To make the crust pulse the Oreos in a food processor until you have fine crumbs, then add in the sugar and butter and pulse a few more times. Pour the crumbs into a spring form pan (or a 9x13 baking dish - this is how it was served when I was a kid) and press them down with your hands or the bottom of a cup.

To make the filling start by whipping the cream cheese until light and fluffy (important to make sure the cream cheese is room temperature - I am really bad at the waiting part but you get lumps otherwise, especially with the reduced fat kind). Then slowly add the condensed milk and chocolate syrup, continue to mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides and add the espresso mixed with the hot water - mix again for another minute or two until well combined. Add in the cool whip and mix until just incorporated. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and freeze for several hours.

I'm not sure, but I bet this would be good even without the coffee if you're not a big coffee fan. The texture of this cheesecake is wonderful - slightly melted, creamy, but still firm. The low fat substitutions didn't detract from the flavor or texture at all - it was exactly how I remember it! And just think, now you can eat even more cheesecake! What could be bad about that!?

-C