Superbowl Snacks: Pizza Pockets

This Sunday marks the end of the great season we know as Football. Many of you might be awfully broken up about it. But this year I’m not for three reasons. 1. the Chargers failed so hard this year I want to pretend it never happened. 2. I just plain hate the Patriots and the NYGiants aren’t much better. Not-so-super-bowl in my book this year. and 3. UH baseball starts soon. Whoo!

   

   

But, regardless of how I wish both teams could just lose this year, I’m still going to watch and I’m still going to yell and shout and drink a bunch of beer and eat a bunch of food. We actually got invited to someone else’s house for the superbowl this year (which is kind of a big deal for us..), so I’m really excited to bring over some snacks. The first of which will be these pizza pockets.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Sorry guys, but I just can’t stop. There is basically no way that I can give you healthy food recipes just because it’s January. Maybe I’m cruel. I’m definitely unusual. But don’t think of this as punishment. Because what it actually is..is a little bit of heaven.

Do you like caramel? If you’re anything like me, you’ll forgo all other choices in the sees candy box and reach straight for the ones that are just a hunk of caramel covered in chocolate. (if you’re anything like me you know the shapes of every one of these..) I’m pretty much a caramel fiend. I’d choose it over hot fudge any day. And lately, I can’t escape seeing the words “salted caramel” and “salted butter caramel” everywhere I turn. There are recipes for it all over the internet, every ice cream company and candy place is taking advantage of its sudden popularity. Okay, it’s probably not that sudden but I’m usually behind the times, so it’s new to me. But I’m excited about it

       

So you can imagine how surprised I was to find out how easy it is to make. And how mind-blowingly delicious it is. I wish I had a better vocabulary to describe this to you. It takes less than 15 minutes to make, from start to in your mouth, and you’ll never want to eat another caramel again. Seriously. Please, do yourself a favor. Grab some heavy cream on your way home from work, and make this tonight.

Happy New Year: Spring Rolls

I must preface this post by letting you all know, I am not a professional spring roll -roller. Never have I made spring rolls before. Now, I have eaten plenty, that’s for sure. But never tried to make them myself. So I figured what better time to make Chinese Spring Rolls (also known as egg rolls) than Chinese New Year! And boy, do I sure wish I had made these sooner. 

Truth be told, they weren’t even hard to make. In fact, I might even call them downright easy. Well, sure some of mine looked like they had been squashed, or sat on, or just wilted, but I mean they tasted fine. And I think that Brett has found his calling, because his rolls were just so..rolly. Seriously all of the nice looking ones were ones he rolled. They do take a little bit of time to make, but not as much as I thought. We made Gyoza one time and those were much more difficult, so I was pleasantly surprised by these spring rolls. The best part is, the recipe makes a whole bunch and you can just freeze them up and then have spring rolls anytime you want! yessss..

chocolate peanut butter cupcakes

Hi everyone. I’ve been away awhile.. but I have a good excuse! sort of. Well, I went to Thailand. That’s a pretty good one, right? I mean, sure I got back a week and a half ago, but that’s a big time difference! I’m still…adjusting? Anyway I know it’s cruel to taunt you with these chocolate peanut butter cupcakes seeing as it’s January and everyone in the world has resolved to eat less of things that contain such goodness as chocolate and peanut butter, and here I go just shoving it in your face! Well. I made no such resolutions. So here’s to the rest of you who fail in such things like resolve. And restraint. And self control. And adherance to any sort of rules. You go and you make these cupcakes. And eat them. And bring them to work to eat in front of all your friends munching on carrot sticks. And enjoy your little January rebellion. 

Sugar Crisps: unveiling a family recipe

I missed the boat on Thanksgiving recipes; I don’t plan to do the same with Christmas. Now, in my family, there is one and only one sure sign that it is Christmas. No, it’s not the decorations (since those usually go up last minute and stay up far too long), or the Christmas Plates (which don’t come out until Christmas eve), or the music on the radio or the weather (hello, Southern California), no, it’s not any of those things. It’s much more simple. Sugar Crisps.

What are Sugar Crisps, you ask? Only the best and most delicious cookie you’ll ever eat. Unfortunately, you’ll only ever eat it on Christmas. I believe Angels actually partake in them around the holidays. And sadly for you, you’ve probably never had one (unless you are my family. or my friends) because this recipe has been closely guarded. Because Sugar Crisps are my grandma’s cookie. Did she invent them? For all intents and purposes, I’m going to say yes. Maybe it was her mother. Or maybe it was her grandmother. Or maybe it was an article in the paper or a recipe in a cookbook, I sure don’t know. All I know is we learned it from her, and that’s all you need to know.

  

[hostess] Chocolate Cupcakes

*so I realize I missed the boat on the whole giant-food-holiday-called-thanksgiving and failed to post anything remotely holiday-like. So to make up for it, here are these:

I don’t have much to say about these. They’re just so dang good, you really just have to make them. Like, right now. It’s a Hostess Cupcake. One million times better. It’s chocolate and marshmellowy-frosting-goodness and thick loads of more chocolate and oh man. I think I’ll go have another.

  

          

I made cheez-its. seriously.

I mean, no joke. As in, this is not a joke. These things taste exactly like cheez-its. But don’t be like my mother. When I called her, literally bursting with joy at the cheezygoodness that was hommemade cheez-its in my mouth, she just laughed. She laughed and then said “what’s the point of that? can’t you just buy them?” Jeez, mother. I mean, cmon! I’m clearly so excited here!!

      

seriously though, before you say the same thing she did, check this out: they’re made with 100% whole wheat flour. chyeah!! that’s right!! whole-effing-wheat! (Didn’t I mention I’m having a little tryst with whole wheat at the moment? It’s awesome. I hope I never stop.) Also, I’m sure this is not the case in, uh, any other state in the US, but it is true in Hawaii: packaged foods are ding-dang expensive and coupons are few and far between. Seriously, a box of cheerio-s is like 7 bucks. ridic. I dunno if making these were really any cheaper, but man. They were delicious. Seriously. go try them. pronto. 

Mixed Berry Scones: You tricky, tricksters, you.

I have a new obsession. Before I tell you what it is, just promise me you won’t judge me for it. Promise me you won’t think I’m obnoxious. Or pretentious. Or overly concerned with health. Because trust me, I am none of those things. Okay. Ready? I am currently obsessed with…Whole Wheat Flour

  

I know, I know, it’s annoying sounding and it’s one of those trendy food things that people are doing and blah blah blah. BUT WAIT, you promised you wouldn’t judge! Let me let you in on a little secret: it’s awesome. Look, let’s be honest here, one look around my recipes and you’ll know I’m not a health freak. However, I am in public health now and I feel that this field comes with certain responsibilities. I’m not about to give up cupcakes or ice cream or fried food (or  a sausage mcmuffin when I’m hung over..) but I do find myself trying to get in some of those “daily recommended amounts” or whatever they’re called. Turns out, it’s not really all that difficult to eat healthy things if you just trick yourself. All you have to do is hide the healthy in something so delicious it can handle. 

While we’re being honest, lord knows I don’t eat enough whole grains. And seriously, do you? (If you do, you impress me. You can stop reading now because clearly you are better than me. and I want to be like you.) Cmon.. white bread? Dosen’t count. White rice? Doesn’t count. Pasta? Doesn’t count. Sucks, doesn’t it? But white bread and pasta and rice is so…good. Yum. So I have decided to share with you some of my tricks. I have been very, very tricky lately. I’ve made whole wheat just-about-everything and let me tell you the best part: I can’t even tell!!

Wait!! I know that you’ve heard this before! I know that you don’t believe me! But have I ever lied to you before?? I promise you, people, I’m not a liar! And I take my baked goods very, very seriously. If it tastes like healthy I just plain won’t eat it. Unless it’s slathered in butter or cream cheese. So when I say “you won’t even notice the whole wheat flour” or “it’ll taste exactly the same as regular flour” please, trust me. I really mean it. 

A quest for a Cookie

So, I know that every self-proclaimed baker in the world has a story about their personal search for the “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie”. (yes, in quotes and capitalized) And, boringly enough, I am no different. My journey started my junior year of college when I finally had my very own kitchen (which I shared with three other roommates and one stowaway). I just decided one day that that was the year I would perfect the chocolate chip cookie. That was the year that I would find the missing ingredient, the lost chip, the final pinch of something-or-other to make what no one had ever made before–the ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.

On a side note, can I just mention that fact that if you google “best chocolate chip cookies” or “ultimate chocolate chip cookies” you get over 5 million recipes claiming to be the greatest ever. How does that even work? Obviously, 4,999,999 of those recipes are lies. Right? Only one can actually be the best. And silly little naive Erin, with no baking experience whatsoever and no clue what it takes to make a chocolate chip cookie besides chocolate and sugar, decided to try her hand at it.

I don’t really think I ever succeeded. Well, I know that for awhile I thought I had. I developed my own recipe (yeah! that’s right! I made up my own recipe!) based on several  of those aforementioned recipes which called themselves The Best. But then, after a year or so, the cookies started not being the best anymore. They all started turning out flat and greasy and kind of bleh. Not that people didn’t enjoy eating them; every time I made them they practically dissapparated* off the table, but they certainly weren’t Ultimate.

  

Meet Rosie, and her cakes

We have expanded our family. No, we didn’t get a puppy, or a baby. We got a Rosie. Isn’t she pretty? 

Yep. That’s right. Our one-counter-5-cupboard kitchen just got a little more crowded. I bought a Kitchenaid. And she’s red. And she’s beautiful. And I named her Rosie. She lives on my counter; she kicked out the coffee, the coffee grinder, and several bottles of sunscreen that had previously been in her place. And I couldn’t be happier. 

After I broke our cheap-o hand mixer trying to make frosting, I knew I was going to have to upgrade somehow. So I started doing some intensive research, because that’s what I do best. I’ve been researching and ogling over stand mixers for years, but knew I could never get one, at least not until I was a real “grown-up” because a) they’re expensive, b) they are big and require an actual kitchen and c) they’re not exactly easy to ship. Now, I am not a real grown-up. But, I did enough research to convince my mom, Brett and my pocket book, that for me, it would be worth it. Why? Because it would mean I could bake. Even. More. yessss.

spinach, bacon and deliciousness quiche

one word. yum. my mom bought Brett and I both cookbooks for christmas.. and this was one of our very first attempts from his book. The recipe is from the book BAKE! by Nick Maligieri. It’s a pretty awesome book, as it has tips and techniques for all the most common (and coincidentally, the most delicious) baked goods. I’m sure there will be more to come from this book… danishes.. tarts…cakes..mmm

I love pies and tarts and quiches but I usually utterly fail at rolling out the crust. Case in point, I made a pecan pie for Thanksgiving, and before I could put the filling in the partially-baked crust, I managed to dump the entire crust out of the pan and onto the kitchen counter. How? Who knows? Why? Because I’m me. and that’s the kind of thing I do. Luckily, I was alone in the house so no one had to endure my lame whimpering as I tried hopelessly to piece the crust back together.

rice pudding

oh. my. goodness.

that was pretty much the only words that came out of my mouth after I tasted this. I don’t even have anything else to say here. go recipe.

Better than Brats

So last week we bought these big fat sweet Italian sausages at the store, and we used a couple to make some tasty pastas, as would be expected. But I’m not always the hugest fan of those types of sausages. I like breakfast sausage… but not always dinner sausage.

It was getting to the point that we really had to use these sausages or they would go bad, as they had already been sitting open in the fridge for a couple days. So Brett got all fired up about sausage sandwiches for dinner.. and I merely said… oh… okay…

But don’t let my initial lack of unadulturated enthusiasm fool you, folks. Because these sammies turned out lip-smacking good. And the best part is? Hardly any effort required: only one pan, and stuff you probably already have in your fridge. Here’s how we did it.

chocolate truffles

Well, I’ll be honest. This wasn’t what I wanted to write about next. But my recent photos are on Brett’s computer and I am currently on my laptop and watching ghostbusters 2 on TV, and as our tv is also the monitor for his computer, clearly I am unable to get the pictures off of his computer right now. But I do feel its time for another dose of delicious. So, I searched my files and found these little beauties I made over Christmas. Let me tell you. They are good. Actually, I should have Brett tell you since he ate like seven of them in one sitting and they’re so rich I think I only ate like one… over all of break. But that’s besides the point. They’re delicious and easy AND…(hm. I clearly got excited about something else but it’s a very important part of the movie right now so I totally forgot what I was going to say… so I’ll go with…) FANTASTIC.

big fat breakfast

 

So. Saturday morning I woke up early and went to bootcamp.  Yes, that’s right. Bootcamp. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life. For a good twenty minutes at the beginning I really thought that I might keel over and die right there on the sand. And for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to continue doing this four days a week for a month. I start tonight. Dear lord, wish me luck.

But what came out of this was something really spectacular. I came home and ate a mountain of breakfast. Why?Because I deserved it. I worked out. Which I never do…and the bootcamp claims that you burn 800 calories in a mere 45 minutes, so I figured I had to eat about a thousand when I got home… you know.. just in case. I was ridiculously starving, and I couldn’t think entirely straight, I just knew I wanted a whole lot of food. So I tried to make something new (which, for me doesn’t always work) but this time it turned out pretty good. I honestly just threw together whatever I had. I would change a few things in the future, so I’m going to put the changes on here as well, so you can take your pick of versions.

“Easy-as-Pie” Berry..um.. pie.

Ok. I don’t actually understand the saying “easy as pie” because let’s be completely honest.. pie isn’t all that easy to make. I promise you every time I try i screw something up. Whether it’s accidentally dumping the half-baked crust out of the pan ,or cutting into what you think will be a pie only to realize it it actually pie soup, or the fact that way too many pies require oven+stove+oven time; I have never found pies particularly “easy”. But nonetheless, I love pie, and it’s one of my favorite things to (attempt) to make.

So I made this pie a couple of weeks ago and the only reason I made it was because I had leftover pie crust dough from my spinach and bacon quiche. I had to use this dough and I happened to have a giant costco-sized bag of frozen mixed berries in my freezer. So if you ever end up in the same predicament as me, here’s the perfect solution! And incidentally… this pie actually is easy to make!

pro bowl baby!

Totally unrelated to food.. but I got to go to the pro bowl this past Sunday! whooo! We only made it to half the game due to a complicated poor-scheduling-ship-was-late-illegal-trip-in-the-van-failed-hilarity-ensued fiasco… but still. It was my very first football game besides high school football and it was rather thrilling. I didn’t do any eating unless you count Stella… but I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

Too bad AFC lost…

steak and fries done right

Yesterday… was my first day of real bootcamp. Ok not like, army real bootcamp or anything. But fitness bootcamp nonetheless. And once again, I could have died. But you know what the worst part is? It’s not the fact that I can’t breathe for the whole hour, not the fact that I’m sore for days afterwards, not the fact that I have so little muscle in my arms I can’t do a single pull-up… no. The worst part is the fact that the little tiny adorable lady who is running the bootcamp is so freakin adorable. she’s tiny and cute and smiley and way too perky and way NOT sweaty enough and she does it all with you!! what’s that about! I don’t want to be told “c’mon guys! push yourselves! you can do it!” by someone who looks like that when I’m sitting there, tomato red in the face, literally sweating buckets, breathing as raggedly as if I was a 40-year smoker and wondering what would happen to me if I fell right off those pull-up bars.

Its brutal.

But the BEST part of working out intensely? I get to eat whatever I want afterwards! That is how it works, right? work out a little bit… eat a bunch…work out a bunch… eat even more? Well that’s how it’s gonna have to work for me, anyway.

zucchini tacos

ok so. after I graduated from college, my parents, older brother, boyfriend, and myself decided to run around my college “town” (one square mile of crammed-together-overpriced apartments, bars, liquor stores, and mexican food, all mere steps away from the beach) and.. for lack of a better (tactful) word… explore. Anyways. One of the last stops of the evening before my little brother begrudgingly picked us up to drive us back to our hotel was a little place called El Sitio. Now if anyone is ever in the Santa Babara Area; drive to Isla Vista and EAT  at El Sitio. If you love mexican food (real mexican food not taco bell or El Torito) you will not be dissappointed.

Most of us were pretty full already, but my mom wanted to try something called a zucchini taco. I had never heard of it, but she thought it sounded like the most delicious thing in the world. And as it turns out, it really was. She was kind enough to share with both me and Brett, and dear lord almighty, those tacos were delicious. Unfortunately, we weren’t able at that precise moment in time to figure out how they  made them, and we haven’t gotten to go back since.

To the carnival!

Is it a fair.. or is it a carnival? I really don’t know what the difference is. Apparently, though, there is one. According to Brett anyway. But I have yet to pin down what exactly the difference is between “carnival” and “fair”. I wonder if this will become an obsession until I can have a satisfactorily different definition for each, like the time I became obsessed with figuring out what the actual, definable difference is between a cupcake and a muffin.* Because in that case, there is clearly a difference, and it’s bigger than just frosting-no-frosting.

Well, even though I don’t know the difference, we went to a carnival/fair today!! (according to Brett this one was in fact, a carnival and NOT  a fair… and granted it was called the “Punahou Carnival” and not the “Punahou Fair”..whatever. same difference to me).  So what’s the best part of a fairnival? (I just made that word up! I like it…)

FOOD! Namely, fried food. Boy oh boy did we eat a lot of it! But it’s okay because we went to bootcamp this morning. So it all evens out… Right? Exactly.Um sos basically, we ate a lot. I mean.. really… really a lot.  So here are six things I discovered while I was there.

1. malasadas are the best version of fried dough. Except maybe nutella beingets. 

2. Deep fried twinkies are actually delicious. Maybe not sixteen tickets delicious, but still delicious. And yes, you can judge me for eating one. In fact, you probably should.

3. Not everyone can handle the tilt-a-whirl immediately following the deep fried twinkie. I can, but not everyone can. (he looks happy because this picture was before the ride started…)

4. Candied apples are far inferior to carmel apples. Tongue stained, teeth broken, lesson learned.

 

Homemade Granola

I really love granola. Don’t you? I mean, it’s so crunchy and yummy and delicious, especially with some yummy yummy yogurt and some fruit on top. But the bummer about it is.. it’s kind of expensive. And I can never find brands at the store that I like… unless they’re like one million dollars for a bag. Yes, I know, I exaggerate, but still! So I have embarked on a quest to create the perfect granola-at home.

The first time I made granola was over the summer and I’ve made it several times since then. Every time I’ve used a slightly different recipe (or no recipe at all..) and every time the granola has turned out differently, and never has it been perfect. It’s either too sticky and not crunchy, or crunchy but doesn’t cluster, or tastes funny and doesn’t cluster but at least it’s almost crunchy… or I don’t even know but it’s not my dream granola. Saturday I tried again. This time, the granola turned out as close to what I want as I’ve gotten so far. It’s still not perfect, because even though its nice and crunchy and the flavor is good… there aren’t really any clustery bits which is my favorite part of granola. But still, its a pretty decent recipe so I thought I’d share. Enjoy!!

Bittermelon Salad.

“Huh? What the heck is bittermelon?” I know that was the first thing that popped through at least 90% of your minds when you saw this. Don’t feel bad about it. Bittermelon is a very strange creature and its no wonder you’ve never heard of it. Half the chefs on Food Network’s “Chopped” the other day hadn’t either! And they’re professionals. I hadn’t ever heard of it until last year around this time when we spotted some at the farmer’s market and B nearly jumped for joy as he placed it in our already-overflowing bag. Don’t worry… I was just as confused as you. Probably even more confused, as I could see the thing. Check it out:

Weird, huh? Yeah, I know. But don’t let the alien-fruit-vegetable-looking-thing and the name (melon.. yum.. but bitter?..ew..) scare you! It’s actually not half bad! Well… it is a little weird. But if you happen to see bittermelon at the farmer’s market next time you’re there… pick it up! Try it! This recipe actually tastes kind of delicious once it’s all together.

Valentine’s whoopie

Apparently, whoopie pies are very in right now. Now me, being completely un-hip and un-cool  and un-aware.. I wasn’t aware of this. Go fig. But hey, I’m on it now, right? Making up for lost time.

The first time I ever had a whoopie pie was over this past Christmas when my mommy (yes, I still say mommy. Don’t judge.) bought me one at Corner Bakery. She told me they were the cool new thing. I said, hey, chocolate and frosting? Looks delicious, sign me up! But I was actually disappointed. I love sweets, probably too much… but this whoopie pie was too sweet. “Blasphemy! What? Too sweet! I’ve never heard of such a thing!” Yes, I know I was shocked too. But nonetheless, I could only eat half and pawned the rest on my unsuspecting brothers. So I wrote off whoopie pies and kind of forgot they existed.

Then in January (ok, I know that’s only like two weeks later, but I have the attention span of a gerbil so for me it was awhile.) I started seeing and hearing more and more about these alleged pies. My friend An had a post about them (you can see it here) And the recipe she used looked GOOD.  (don’t worry.. I asked permission before I blatantly copied her post..) Plus, red velvet.. I mean how can you go wrong??

Rat-a-tat..ooowheeee

That title sounded a lot cooler in my head. Its supposed to be cool. Like Ratatouille… but you know… cooler.

Fail.

Anyways. I feel like everyone has heard of ratatouille because of the movie, right? But have you ever had ratatouille?

Ok so it’s not that extravagant or difficult or rare of a dish, so you probably have. But it’s still very delicious either way soooo I thought I ought to talk about it. The first time I ever had ratatouille was when I was studying abroad in France, my friend’s homestay mom made it for us for dinner. Um.. YUM! She was also a little bit crazy (super nice, very sweet and a great cook.. but a little cookoo nonetheless) and so she forced that ratatouille down our throats until I was about to burst. Actually, I might have burst a little. And that’s saying something because I’m a pretty dang good eater.

vanilla bean cupcakes!

So. If whoopie pies are in, cupcakes are.. they’re like…they’re.. super in. Wow. Wish I could have come up with a better term for that. But seriously, cupcakes are the new cool thing. Food Network has an entire show about them: Cupcake Wars. Yes, you read that correctly. Cupcake Wars–as in battling batters as in dueling desserts as in combating cupcakes–that kind of cupcake wars. Plus you have “cupcakeries” popping up all over the place (seriously, a cupcakery? like..you only make cupcakes? really?? yeah. no joke apparently.) Personally, I don’t love cupcakes. I mean I don’t hate them and if presented with a cupcake of just about any flavor I’m sure I’ll devour it in as little as two bites. But cakes in general are not my favorite. I like ice cream. and gelato. and pie. and creme brulee. and there-are-so-many-desserts-other-than-cake-so-why-limit-yourself?

But I will admit. I do love the portability, the ease of use (and of baking for that matter), the individual-portions-so-I-don’t-have-to-share-my-dessert, and the fact that let’s face it, cupcakes are just dang cute. And who doesn’t love shoving their face full of cuteness? And since I’ve already discussed my sugar problem.. clearly I’ll make and/or eat anything whose ingredient list contains “sugar” in any of its various forms. So I’m jumping on the cupcake bandwagon. Guess that’s just my thing. I’m not a trendsetter, I’m merely a sheep. I follow. If everyone else was walking off cliffs, I suppose I’d do it too. (Actually that is entirely untrue. I am not a sheep. But all these cupcake pictures and recipes I’m seeing make me want to try my hand. I’m not a blind follower. I’m just easily swayed to try anything with sugar involved…)

Plus the whole point of this blog and of all of my experiments in the kitchen is to master some simple techniques and some delicious stuff. SO I have to master cupcakes, right? because I figure I have to master cupcakes before I can master cakes. I realize they probably aren’t all that related, and that cake and cupcake snobs of the world would chastise me for comparing the two. But, really? I don’t care. Cupcakes are mini cakes. If I want to make big cakes, I should start by making little cakes. or something like that.

My sugar problem. (and a coffee cake recipe)

Brett said recently that we eat too many sweets.

Let me put this into context. We got a really good deal (86% off, anyone?) on these fitness classes, so we decided that working out intensely was the perfect way to get a jump-start on our new year’s resolution of being more active. (Ps. does anyone ever have a new years resolution that doesn’t involve working out? It’s no wonder we never stick to them…sweat sucks) So we both agreed that we should make some small adjustments to our diets in order to help us achieve our fitness goals. In other words, we are trying to be more healthy. “Don’t we pretty much eat healthy-ly though?” I said (in admittedly bad English) “Well…” he replied, “we eat a lot of sweets.” …

I was speechless. ‘what??‘ I thought. ‘too many..sweet..but…what?‘ I didn’t have a response. Sugar is probably my favorite thing. Um. Ever. Some people like salty things, some people like savory things, some people like spicy things. Me? Give me some sugar and I am a happy camper. Now if you mix that sugar with any combination of flour, butter and eggs… well then I’m just in heaven! So to me, saying that “we eat a lot of sweets” is like saying “we breathe too often.” Saying “we should cut down on desserts” is like saying “we should try to stop thinking.”  Seriously, unheard of. And quite impossible.

But after a few days of thinking about it (and looking in our kitchen which only has 2 food cupboards and realizing that almost one whole one was dedicated to sweets) I consented that.. “well… I guess we do kind of eat a lot of sweets..” I wasn’t ready to give them up. That’s blasphemy. I’ll never consent to that. But I did (eventually) agree that we should maybe not eat dessert every night…and at every lunch time. Ok, maybe I had a bit of a dependency problem. And perhaps a cavity or two. “Ok. You’re right. We should only eat dessert 3 nights a week. or maybe 4. but definitely not 7.”

I made a decision to cut down on the sugar intake.

Then the next day I decided I wanted to make a cinnamon crumb cake. (I couldn’t find a recipe I liked so I did a cinnamon coffee cake instead. Same flavors, so it did the trick)

It’s a breakfast cake! So it doesn’t count as dessert! hah! I beat my own system!

St Patty’s Homemade Pesto!

So. I  bought a food processor. And I made pesto. But I fail, because this was about a month ago. Let me explain. 

Though this blog is meant to be like an online journal of sorts documenting my attempts to cook and bake…I do not treat this as my journal (luckily for you, actually because I start my journals “dearest journal” and I end with “love, erin” and that could get awkward.) What that means is, I don’t update as frequently or up-to-dately as I would a journal. This is what I do:

I hoard photos on my camera and I stockpile posts of the things I’ve hoarded photos of, and when I have enough photos to merit uploading them, I throw them all on my computer and slowly publish the posts. Is that weird? I feel like it is. Because I read so many other food blogs (wanna know which ones? check that sidebar over there—>) and they all say things like “yesterday I made this” or “Wednesday, for so-and-so’s birthday” when it’s Friday. And I think.. hm. all mine are at least two weeks old…

Well whatever, the food is still good, right? Right. I feel I’ve justified myself by being honest. Therefore this trend will probably continue. Just so you are aware.

Coffee and Irish Cream Cupcakes

We were invited to a birthday party! (there’s an exclamation mark included because this doesn’t happen very often…don’t feel bad for us. we’re perfectly happy eating baked goods without an excuse. and by ourselves.)

I know that normally, you don’t bring baked goods to a birthday party. But this was a party for a one year old. And it was a potluck bbq type thing. So we decided to make cupcakes! And yes, we made coffee and irish cream cupcakes… for a one year old… for her birthday. We figured the grownups might want cupcakes too? It was Brett’s idea. The booze. In the cupcakes. I wanted to do cupcakes. But to be honest, it totally worked. Everyone said they were amazing and they started disappearing so fast I almost forgot to grab one to try! (But I got one, and I have to admit, they were pretty dang delicious.)

Camp food

Wow. It’s been awhile, huh? Sorry. Spring break happened then spring quarter started and I have 23 school days left until I  no longer have to be called by my last name. Ever. Again. Its..been..busy. Is what I’m trying to say. Which means I haven’t really been cooking much. I did make onion soup two nights ago but lord knows it’s going to take me forever to post that. So don’t get too excited. But do check back if that intrigues.

What I have been doing a lot of (besides working) is camping. Over spring break Brett and I went backpacking, and over Easter weekend we luxury camped. Meaning there was no 18 mile hike involved–no sweat and backaches and only dried food–just an hour drive, two coolers and a brand new tent. It was lovely. My favorite part of car camping (besides that I don’t have to carry everything on my back) is that certain things always happen while camping. There are always card games and bacon and eggs and bratwurst and smores. And all of this food always, always, tastes 100% better when you cooked it over coals and you’re eating it outside and then sleeping in a tent afterwards. or a hammock. either way. for some reason when there are no walls involved, when there is salt in the air and bugs biting your legs, food tastes so damn good.

So This is just a post to say, you should all go camping. And make bacon and eggs. And smores. Because really, we all deserve smores once in awhile.

ps. I made a cake last month. It’ll be my next topic. I promise it’ll be soon.

(psst. I’ll be posting a bunch of pictures soon to a picasa web album. If you like pictures like these ones, check back for the link..)

hazelnut cake with chocolate ganache

I made this cake for my cousin’s birthday. Almost exactly one month ago. In March. (told you it takes me forever to post things..) That’s how lame I am. But it was delicious. And it was the very first time I’ve ever made a cake 100% from scratch. Some people find that strange, or pathetic even. I have no shame–I grew up on boxed cake and I still love a good funfetti every now and again. But part of this growing up business and part of this learning to cook business means I gotta bust out the flour and sugar and do it myself.

cranberry upside down YUM

do you love cranberries? I think I love cranberries. I’ve always been a fan of cranberry sauce, cranberry muffins, cranberry scones. Really that’s all the cranberry things I really remember eating a lot of. Then I found a recipe for cranberry upside down cake. And I realized I had every single ingredient it called for. In my house. already. (We bought a costco size bag of cranberries for thanksgiving and they were still in our freezer. and still delicious.) I didn’t have to buy anything. If that’s not enough of a reason to bake something, then I just don’t know what is.

So I made it. And I will probably make it again and again. The cake itself was just sweet enough to work with the super tart cranberries (especially if you slap a huge dollop of homemade whipped cream on top..mm..) and it was moist and yellow and yummy. I wish I were actually knowledgeable in food and food terms so that I could describe this cake “properly”. It was great. I feel like that’s enough.

      

vanilla bean cheesecake

Over the past two weeks, several exciting things have happened. 1. My parents came to visit me for the first time, which means I got to hang out at their hotel (which had a waterslide into the pool, by the way) and eat and drink for free for a whole week. 2. I got a job I really really wanted. STOKED! 3. It was my birthday.

So with so many things happening all at once, I obviously had to make something fantastic to celebrate. So I decided to try and conquer Cheesecake Factory’s Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. Now, if you’ve never had this particular cheesecake before, google where the closest Cheesecake factory is to you and order yourself a slice. Heck, order yourself a whole cake. It’s that good. (I do not work for Cheesecake Factory, nor was I paid in any way to say this.) That particular Vanilla Bean cheesecake is  hands down my favorite cheesecake in the whole world. And I love me some cheesecake.

Cupcakes for Uhmurica

It’s nearly the Fourth of July (in fact, in some parts of the country it already is fourth), a time for BBQs, raft races in the pool, sunburns, fireworks, and celebrating the good ol’ U.S. of A. So naturally, we’re having a BBQ in the park tomorrow with plenty of meat to grill.

And what better way end a celebratory BBQ than with American flag cupcakes? I mean, seriously, can you imagine anything more American than a kid with dirt on his knees, BBQ sauce all over his sunburned face, shoving his face full of a bite-sized-fully-artificially-colored-American-flag-adorned cupcake? Because I sure can’t. And, that will be Brett tomorrow, guaranteed.

Blueberry Muffins!

So, as I looked through the recipes page here, I realized something: the ratio of desserts to everything else on this site is extremely lopsided. So I looked through some of my most recent posts, and lo and behold, the last four were some type of cake. Hm, obsession much? Clearly, I have a sweet tooth and clearly, I am incapable of growing out of it. Not that I’ve tried very hard.

So, I figured I ought to do a post that wasn’t a dessert. But I couldn’t bring myself to go all the way. Sure, I’ve made some tasty dinners lately, but I’m sitting here watching law and order and I don’t feel like talking about gyoza or stuffed peppers. I’m sure I will eventually, but right now, I want to talk about muffins. Blueberry muffins.

Paella

Recently, I had reason to celebrate. Brett and I have been together for 3[!] years. Holy dang. I know that may not sound impressive to some of you (yes, I’m talking to you, parents-who-have-been-married-for-26-years), but for me? That’s a serious accomplishment. And since we’ve never bothered to celebrate any anniversaries before (in fact, we made up a date, but that’s normal right?) I thought we ought to at least recognize this one. So I decided to be fancy and nice and make dinner! [and possibly drink too much wine, I'm not telling.]

I had been wanting to make paella for-ev-errr and had a recipe bookmarked in my cookbook. So when searching through it to find something to make, lo and behold, the book fell open to the paella page! Perfect! I don’t know if I’ve ever had paella before this… but it sounded really good and looked a little fancy (I mean, it had shrimp and mussels.. can’t you call that a little fancy?) so decided to splurge on the saffron and go for it.

Turns out, my grocery store is not as well-stocked as I expected. I could find no chorizo, no saffron and no mussels. Hm. Issue. Okay, I figured, we have fresh fish that Brett just caught, we can use that instead of mussels (which I wasn’t entirely sure either of us liked anyway) and I can use portugese sausage instead of chorizo..but no saffron?! It seems like that would be kind of essential, right?!  After much searching and fretting and eyebrow scrunching and asking the workers oh-so-nicely-yet-with-a-slight-tone-of-desperation-and-urgency-and-yes-I-might-cry-if-you-don’t-have-saffron, I found both saffron and real chorizo. In the fancy section. Yeah, uh-huh that’s right, my grocery store has a separate section for fancy things. Why? Probably just so they can charge me more. But hey, I’m a sucker for fancy packaging so I bought. Mussels were still on the outs though, but I didn’t cry about it or anything. Really.

iced coffee = delicious.

I really like coffee. I have to be careful not to say the other “L” word though, because I know a lot of people who their coffee very, very seriously. And I am not one of those people. I did work at a coffee shop on-and-off for 3 years. But I’m not a coffee snob and I’m not a caffeine junkie either. I don’t sniff to find the subtle notes of vanilla, chocolate, the faint aroma of berries [or whatever]. I don’t fall into a stupor, or worse, erupt into a volcano of rage, if I’m deprived of my morning cup o’ joe. I don’t do espresso, I won’t drink it black, and I won’t look down my nose at you if you don’t either.

Nope, I’m the one at the milk station in the corner, pouring in the cream and loading up on sugar until your tooth aches just looking at me. That is, if I didn’t order the carmel-icious-vanilly-yummy-drink-with-extra-whipped-cream. But coffee snobs of the world: don’t look down your nose at me. Don’t judge me and tell me I don’t really like coffee if I load it with sugar, cream, caramel, chocolate, or whatever tickles my fancy that day. Because I do. I really, really do. So nanner-nanner-boo-boo. I’ll drink my coffee and my sugar too.

But it’s hot here. Have I mentioned that before? It’s very, very hot. Hot enough that a swim in the ocean at 7:00 in the morning is not an insane act of bravado, but rather, a cool, refreshing relief. All. Year. Long. So a scalding cup of coffee, as delicious as I agree it is, isn’t what I generally crave in the morning as I wake up sweating under my one sheet with my fan on in 80 degree weather at 6:30 am. Obviously, some genius already thought of a solution to this problem of hot-drinks-in-hot-weather, namely, ice. Duh. But seriously star-bean-peet-leaf? 3 bucks? To put some ice in your already-not-that-great coffee? No thanks. I’ve got a better idea.

Kickoff Sweet Treats

That’s right people, it’s finally here! Tomorrow is the start of the most wonderful season of all… FOOTBALL SEASON! Isn’t it lovely? Doesn’t it just make you smile? And this year is especially exciting for me, because for the first time in my life I have a college team to cheer for! The school I went to for undergrad didn’t have a football team (though we did have a kickass men’s soccer team..and very rowdy fans, of which I was obviously one) but now, I have a team of my very own! So tomorrow I will be tailgating for the first time ever before my first ever college game. I’m so excited!!

  

Football is such a fun sport to watch (once you understand the rules, otherwise it’s just fat guys hitting eachother, really) that it doesn’t matter where you watch it. Whether you’re at a bar, at the stadium, or just sitting on your own couch (or in my case, your bed because you don’t have room for a couch) it’s always fun. But there are a few essentials that are required to make any football-watching experience its best: 1. beer. 2. salty snacks (super loaded nachos are my personal favorite, but pizza, wings, chips, or anything else greasy and salty will do) 3. beer. and 4. something sweet. 

Angels and Cake

When my Grandma died, just under 3 years ago, I was literally on the other side of the globe and completely isolated from my family. I couldn’t go home to see her before she passed, and I couldn’t make it to her funeral. Luckily, Brett was visiting, and between him, a giant flower, the friends I had made there, and substantial amounts of ice cream, I got through it. I made a giant chocolate cake in remembrance of her, which I think she would have liked.

     

What I learned from that experience, is that losing the ones you love is extremely hard, but having family and friends that love you around can make it easier. My Grandpa passed away this past weekend. It was hard, and it’s still hard, to realize I’ll never see him sitting in his chair again, but I got to say goodbye to him, and I have a huge, amazing family, and the best friends the world has ever seen, so I know I’ll be okay eventually. I don’t know my Grandpa’s favorite kind of cake, so I don’t know what to make in his honor (Family: if you let me know what it is, I’ll make it pronto). But about a month ago for Brett’s birthday, I made angel food cake for the first time. And I feel it is an appropriate thing to share now. This cake is for you, G-Pa: I hope you’re eating some with real angels, and that G-Ma has a giant slice of double chocolate.