Tag Archives: Food

small success

I attempted bagel making yesterday, and made the best discovery. I found the place in the house that dough likes the best! It only took 3 months of experimenting, but it likes it best on the floor in the bedroom by the laundry basket next to the window. Success!!

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BUT… I got caught up in how magnificent the dough was, and I totally forgot to oil or flour the pan when I let them do the second rise. So they stuck all over, they wouldn’t let go of my fingers, and most deflated trying to get them into the boiling water, so they came out a hot mess. I think the taste and texture really have potential though, so I will try again, with all the knowledge combined!bageldough2

ice cream sandwich

So while the rest of the people seem to be enjoying fall (?), it still seems pretty much like summer down here. But football season has started, and it did rain a little yesterday, so I have some hope that fall might start in the next 3 months.

Until then, we will embrace the ice cream weather. My latest batch was coffee ice cream, and I mixed tiny chocolate chips into it. Then I happened to make these very thin chocolate chip cookies. Stick the two together, and you have the perfect ice cream delivery system.

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These cookies are correctly engineered for ice cream sandwiches. They are thin and soft enough to bite into, but still strong enough to withstand the ice cream. They also seem extra porous, so they kinda soak up the ice cream without getting soggy.

I am getting pretty good at the homemade ice cream thing. The addition of mini chocolate chips is highly recommended.

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Perfect (end of) summer treat.

cake with chocolate frosting

I think since cakes are mostly for special occasions, we don’t get a whole lot of chances to practice making them. Just a birthday every so often. Cakes are unlike cookies in this way, since you can make cookies just because you don’t have any. Cake is not a ever-replenishing resource.

This cake was all the way homemade, and the special occasion was that I was at home and we were almost out of pie. It is a peanut butter cake, with a thick chocolate cream filling, with a generous heaping of chocolate butter frosting on top. Betty Crocker does not mess around with chocolate frosting. I am not a huge frosting person, but I could eat that stuff right off the spatula.

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second week of fresh 20

Last week we went with one of the spring menus from Fresh 20. A lot of the summer menus want use of a grill, so we went with a do-able spring menu instead. Although, we could probably just cook our food out on the front sidewalk in the burning evening sun, am I right? We were able to make all 5 dinners, since there were no business trips for the guy, yay!

Dinner one- pretty simple. Porkchops, farro, and kale. I have never had farro before, but I really liked it. Also, just learned that farro is a confusing grain.fresh20 2.1

Dinner two- predictable meat, grain, and veggie combo. Salmon, couscous, and asparagus. We got crazy and made watermelon balls! Cookbook can’t hold us back.fresh20 2.2

Dinner three- steak and kale salad with couscous. I was a little worried about the raw kale, but after the lemon juice and salt, I kind of roughed it up with a spoon, and it softened up pretty good. I had leftovers for lunch the next day that were also very satisfactory.fresh20 2.3

Dinner four- its 100+ degrees outside, but we still made some soup and quesadillas with leftover porkchops. We may have been sweating in the kitchen a bit, but it was worth it.fresh20 2.4

Dinner five- spinach strata with crumbled bread and goat cheese on top. We paired it with some sliced veggies, and even more melon balls! Also, my newest creation, apple sticks (apple slices cut into long skinny pieces). I think they will be all the rage soon. We had the leftover strata for breakfast the next morning, and it was still pretty tasty for being reheated eggs.fresh20 2.5

So week two went well! It is fun to try all the new types of foods, and it is definitely good to know what is yummy or quick to make for the future. We are also learning more about what flavors go better with different things, which is something I have never really put a lot of thought into. On to the next week!

banana cake with white butter frosting

One of our wedding cakes was a banana cake. Now, it may have tasted like the best cake ever simply because we shared a piece on our wedding day. But I tried to recreate it anyway!

There was shortening galore in the cake and frosting, because the outcome of this cake was serious business. I preformed a feat of magic in cutting a 13×9 cake in half, adding a layer of frosting and sliced bananas, and then successfully putting it back together.

SOOO GOOD! Not quite wedding cake, but I guess we can make do with this for now (in very small helpings).

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first week of fresh 20

Last week, we used one of the weekly menus from the Fresh 20 cookbook. We tried out one of the summer weeks, since we are in the middle of summer obvi.

Everything we made was pretty tasty. We generally eat fairly low carb and higher protein, so we made a couple modifications. We also only made 4 of the meals, since the guy was out of town one evening, and I just ate leftovers.

Dinner number one- turkey, salami, and cheese pita sandwich, with cut up veggies. Simple and classic, and super fast.

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Dinner two- pizza with polenta crust. This was a new experiment for me, and I think it turned out pretty good. I added some leftover salami to the pizza to add a little something extra.fresh20.2

Dinner three- salmon salad pita sandwiches and some berries. This was super yummy, and surprisingly little work. I bet this would be pretty good cold for lunch the next day too.fresh20.3

Our fourth dinner was stuffed turkey burgers, but we used lean beef instead, and omitted the bread. I failed to take a picture, probably because I was extra hungry that day.

We missed out on what looks like a deconstructed spring roll recipe, but we will try it next time, and probably add shrimp to it.

All in all, we enjoyed it very much! I sometimes worry about trying new recipes on weeknights, because they always seem to take longer than planned. But these were all actually pretty quick and easy. We are trying one of the spring menus this week. We’ll see how that goes!

How to catch a bee

  1. Go to a place outside to enjoy some good food with a great group of people like Easy Tiger, because bees will undoubtedly find you there. I recommend the corned beef sandwich and pretzels.
  2. Lull the bee that’s flying by your head into a false sense of security and bait it into flying into an empty drink glass to rest and re-hydrate.
  3. Slam a cup on top of it!
  4. Boom. Bee captured. And an example is set for all other bees who dare try and sting you.

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roasted brussels sprouts

We made roasted brussels sprouts the other day. Pat ourselves on the back, these are pretty yummy veggies.

We did the basic cover in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and stick them in a hot oven until they looked good enough to eat.

I am thinking of planting brussels sprouts in our (still imaginary) garden. They are some crazy looking plants. Delicious, but crazy.

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a new toy

I am really nerdy about grocery lists. I plan out our meals for the week and optimize our ingredients. Every week, I make our list and email it to my guy for approval and revisions. I think it is a skill that may come in handy someday, especially once we have a growing family.

I have been anxiously awaiting my new cookbook all week. I am really excited to take my hobby to the next level.

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dark chocolate pecan cookies

I got my hair cut yesterday. I have some wavy/curly/puffy hair, so they always blow it out all nice for me. BUT, it was raining when I left the salon, so it immediately got curly in some bits. Like washing your car, and then it rains. So anyway, COOKIES.

About wheat flour- the cookie dough doesn’t always taste the way you want, but the resulting cookie has a nice chew. Helps cut down on the cookie dough eating without compromising the results.

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I used this recipe here, and added dark chocolate chips and chopped up pecans (aka the only mix-ins we got at the moment). They flew off my desk at work.bigcookie3 bigcookie2