14 Saturday Jan 2017
Posted in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Easy, Entertaining
I am very thankful that I married someone who has family in the south. There are certain things I would have no idea about, such as boiled peanuts, sweet tea, Alabama white sauce, and Chess Squares. Good gracious, Chess Squares. Quite possibly one of the easiest and most decadent recipes I’ve ever made. Continue reading
14 Wednesday Sep 2016
Tags
apple, apple butter, apple tree, apples, cinnamon, fall, slow cooker, sugar
This year, Lulu’s apple tree went crazy! We had tons of apples in the middle of the summer. They weren’t very big at first, but there were so many that we needed to do something about it. They were small and tart yet perfect and beautiful. Over the years, I have found Northwest gardening can be very strange…We got our fall apples super early yet my heirloom tomatoes didn’t seem to ripen until mid-September. Regardless of the unpredictability of our gardens, there is nothing quite like picking fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs from your yard and feeding your family with them.
For someone like me it’s hard not to just make apple cake and tortes and crisps and everything in between…but a lot of baking recipes don’t use enough fruit to get you through your bounty before things start taking a turn for the worse…so this was the year it was time to make apple butter.
I wanted to find an apple butter recipe that could go straight to the fridge or freezer, no hardcore canning skills required. Something easy like my mom’s strawberry freezer jam. The crazy part is this recipe was even easier! Throw apples, sugar, and some spices of your choice in a slow cooker. Turn on. Walk away. Maybe stir it every few hours if you are feeling crazy. The biggest effort you have to make is coring, peeling, and dicing your apples. If you have a spiralizer, your job just got way easier.
This recipe is very adaptable, depending on what kind of apples you use. You can choose to add more of less sugar depending on how tart your apples are, and no one is going to get mad if you decide to add some nutmeg or allspice to your mix. Right now we are spreading our apple butter on toast and mixing it into greek yogurt. I’ll update you with more ideas down the line!
Recipe
Slow Cooker Apple Butter
By Baked Northwest
Makes 4 (12 oz) containers of Apple Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Place the apples in a slow cooker. If you have a 6 quart slow cooker like me, it will be very full. Don’t worry – the apples will cook down by more than half. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt together in a bowl and pour mixture over the apples in the slow cooker. Mix well. Cover and cook on high for one hour.
Reduce the heat to low, stir mixture again, and cook for another 9 hours. This can be done overnight, but I found I liked being able to stir my apple butter every few hours during its low cook time, I think it made the mixture smoother in the end. At the end of about 9 hours the mixture should be thickened and dark brown. You should be able to stir the mixture and have a great consistency without having to use a blender or anything.
Turn off the slow cooker and spoon apple butter into sterile containers. Refrigerate or freeze. You should definitely give some to friends as well.
11 Sunday Sep 2016
This year I was determined to find *THE* zucchini bread recipe. One that used loads of zucchini (4 whole cups to be exact), could make 2 loaves but also translate into muffins (or in this case, mini loaf pans), and one that would be great either on its own or with fun extras like chocolate chips or nuts. The great news is I found my recipe…and I think I like it best plain and boring, all on its own.
After making this recipe several times I finally got around to taking pictures with a batch where I added chocolate chips. The great thing about this recipe is you can easily adapt it based on your current mood. It’s perfect on its own, but some great add-ins I tried were nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, and sesame seeds (all on different occasions, not in one batch). I found whole wheat flour gave it a little more substance but while flour was fine too.
Recipe
Go-To Zucchini Bread
By Baked Northwest
Makes 2 large loaves
Ingredients
Directions
A note on the shredded zucchini – I shred mine, and put it in an airtight container in the refrigerator overnight. This gets some of the moisture out but not too much. You can definitely use your shredded zucchini right away, I would just make sure to blot out the excess moisture with paper towels.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray 2 9×5 inch loaf pans or tins with cooking spray and set aside. Beat the butter and sugars in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the oil and vanilla and stir to combine.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and stir together. Add the zucchini, nuts, and any additional fillings you may be using and stir. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. They will only be a little over half full. Bake until the bread springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and slicing and serving. This bread freezes well and tastes better the next day!
17 Tuesday May 2016
This is the cookie recipe I have been waiting for. I knew it was out there, but I hadn’t had a double chocolate chip cookie since the days of the middle school snack bar. It’s a dangerously easy recipe that you can throw together before any party, picnic, or potluck. I am currently wondering if I will ever make another cookie or brownie recipe again, since these little babies are the best of both worlds.
Recipe
Double Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Trisha Yearwood
Makes about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
6 ounces chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, or dark are all good choices)
6 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fully combined, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix to combine. Add the vanilla and mix. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix. Add the white and chocolate chips; mix until just combined. Fold in the nuts, if using.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets once halfway through, until the cookies are set, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough.
24 Thursday Mar 2016
Posted in Chicken, Easy, Entertaining, Main Dish, Restaurants, Seattle, Weeknight Meals
Tags
Chicken, cream, curry, Indian Food, major grey chutney, Naan, Rice
This is one of the easiest recipes in our arsenal and a total favorite! I wouldn’t know about the amazingness that is Major Grey Chicken Curry if it weren’t for my friends Ursula and Megan. They introduced me to Shamiana restaurant in Kirkland years and years ago. While everything is good there, we all agree that the Major Grey Chicken is a standout. When I started working right near Shamiana and could hit up their lunch buffet, my obsession got even worse…and my work days got a lot less productive when I was coming back from a lunch buffet so full I could barely move. I had to try to keep my trips there to a minimum but it was hard on some days!
This recipe is super easy to make at home and is perfect served with some rice and naan. In the future I’ll probably add some veggies to this curry to make it a more well-rounded meal. The original recipe I found online calls for chicken breasts but I’m pretty sure the restaurant uses thighs. I also like to cook my chicken almost all of the way through before adding it back to the curry where some of the recipes had you add the chicken when it wasn’t cooked all the way through. You could really use any chicken for this dish, such as leftover rotisserie chicken, whatever you have on hand!
Recipe
Major Grey Chicken Curry
Inspired by Shamiana Restaurant in Kirkland, WA
Serves 6
Ingredients
Directions
17 Thursday Mar 2016
For St. Patrick’s Day, I took our favorite (and super easy) Rum Cake recipe and adapted it with Irish Whiskey and green pistachio pudding to give it a green hue. Say what you will about boxed cake mixes, but the addition of booze sure makes for a moist, rich, and tasty cake! I thought about trying one of those car bomb recipes with whiskey, beer, and irish cream, but the choice was easy when this cake was in the oven in about 10 minutes. When you have a cute baby two feet away it’s hard to concentrate on complicated recipes!
02 Tuesday Feb 2016
Tags
chocolate, Cornflakes, cranberries, cranberry, Crisps, orange, peanut butter, peanuts
Plan on every post on this blog starting with “When I was pregnant…” for awhile. Now that Quinn is out in the world and I’m feeling better, I want to try to post all the things I wanted to when I was too tired to do anything. You would think I would be saying that AFTER baby, but man, I’m convinced being pregnant was like having mono. No matter how little sleep I get I still feel better than the days I got home from work and could only manage eating a PB&J or cornflakes.
Speaking of cornflakes, I had a craving for a bowl of them when I was pregnant. That craving lasted for exactly one bowl. Of course, I bought the HUGE box of cornflakes. I don’t think any other cereal comes in a box so big. So…I’ve had some cornflakes I’ve been needing to do something with for way too long.
What’s the best thing to do with cereal? Make it into something even more unhealthy, of course! I had so many cornflakes I was able to make 2 batches of chocolate crisps inspired by Ina’s “English Chocolate Crisps.” For the first batch, chocolate, orange, and cranberry were perfect together. But then I realized that Chocolate and Peanut butter was kind of a no-brainer too. The process can get a little messy and each batch turns out slightly different. Above are the peanut crisps and below are the chocolate-orange crisps. I was able to get the orange ones into balls better and the peanut butter ones were a little harder to mold. Regardless of the messiness, these no-bake snacks are still super easy and worth it. It’s a great way to get a nice little hit of chocolate goodness without having too feel too guilty.
Recipe
Chocolate Crisps, 2 Ways
Makes 2 dozen medium-sized crisps
Adapted from Ina Garten’s Make It Ahead
Chocolate-Orange Crisps
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the dark chocolate (if you aren’t using dark chocolate chips) and place into a double boiler. Add the bittersweet chocolate chips, the orange zest, and orange juice and stir until smooth. Alternately, you can place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stopping to stir until chocolate is melted.
Place the cornflakes and dried cranberries in a medium bowl and stir to incorporate the cranberries. Immediately fold in the melted chocolate with a rubber spatula, working quickly so the chocolate doesn’t harden.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Working with 2 large spoons or soup spoons, spoon mounds of chocolate onto the paper. This gets a little tricky since everything doesn’t quite stick together, but try to get the mounds clumped together. It’s messy, but the chocolate will harden in the fridge! Make about 2 dozen, 2-inch round crisps.
Refrigerate crisps until hardened, at least 1 hour.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Crisps
Ingredients
Directions
Place chocolate chips into a double boiler. Add the peanut butter and stir until smooth. Alternately, you can place the chocolate and peanut butter in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stopping to stir until chocolate is melted.
Place the cornflakes, dried cranberries, and peanuts in a medium bowl and stir to incorporate everything. Immediately fold in the melted chocolate and peanut butter mixture with a rubber spatula, working quickly so the chocolate doesn’t harden.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Working with 2 large spoons or soup spoons, spoon mounds of chocolate onto the paper. This gets a little tricky since everything doesn’t quite stick together, but try to get the mounds clumped together. It’s messy, but the chocolate will harden in the fridge! Make about 2 dozen, 2-inch round crisps.
Refrigerate crisps until hardened, at least 1 hour.
11 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Desserts, Easy, Entertaining
Tags
candied ginger, Crystallized Ginger, ginger, Icebox Cake, lemon, lemon curd, Marscarpone, raspberries, Refrigerator Cake, Trader Joe's, Wafer Cookies, whipped cream
I will repeatedly tell you that icebox cakes are one of the most versatile, easy, and impressive desserts you can make. All you need are thin wafter cookies, some sort of delicious filling, and a springform pan.
Proof that they are versatile: Chocolate Strawberry Icebox Cake and Peaches N’ Cream Icebox Cake
Proof they are easy: I am the new mother of a two month old and I managed to make this cake between feedings.
Proof they are impressive: It’s a cake you don’t have to bake…come on! It looks like a lot of work and it’s not. We served this to a party of 6 and everyone loved it! Continue reading
24 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Appetizers, Easy, Entertaining, Sauces
Tags
Chips, cream cheese, Dill Pickle, dip, Pickle, Pickles, sour cream
Here we go, a typical “pregnant lady” craving…Pickles. No, not with ice cream or anything bizarre, but transferred into a creamy dip to go with some salty chips. We’ve made this a few times and it’s always a winner, pregnant or not. For me, this rules over any onion dip I have ever tasted. And no one ever trash talks pickle breath, at least from my experience…
Recipe
Pickle Dip
Adapted from Smells Like Home
Makes about 2 cups
Ingredients
Directions
In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, sour cream, pickles, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce together. Add a couple tablespoons of pickle juice if the dip is too thick and continue to add a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add some fresh dill. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Serve with chips, crackers, veggies, whatever you like!
14 Tuesday Jul 2015
For my second plum project, I found a recipe for plum bread from the good ol’ 1001 Muffins Cookbook. I wanted this bread to be pretty hearty, so I added wheat bran, oats, and walnuts. This is a great breakfast bread that you can feel good about eating since it’s packed with some healthy stuff! It comes together super quick, making it a nice go-to for when you have my problem of a plum tree that won’t stop giving you fruit. Next up, I’ll be stepping into more decadent plum treats…
Recipe
Hearty Plum Bread
adapted from 1001 Muffins
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
Directions
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour and 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, blend together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, wheat bran, sugar, oats, and walnuts. In a medium bowl, beat the egg until foamy before beating in the buttermilk, butter, and plums. Combine the two mixtures, blending until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean and the top is a light golden color. REmove from the oven and cool the pan on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes before removing the loaf from the pan.
