happy new year!

it's the year of the rabbit, which is also my year! apparently the year is the time to catch your breath and calm your nerves. so relax!

maybe this will help:)

tres leches cake from pioneer woman! it is soooo delicious. i used skim milk (b/c what would i do w/ the excess whole milk?) and soaked it for 48 hours b/c our bday celebrating for the D was pushed back a bit. but seriously, she's not joking when she says you have to make/eat this cake.

happy new year! have some ddukgook

appley apple bread!

this bread is soooo good. and i'm saying this over a week after i made it b/c apparently having a final tomorrow means i'll do anything to avoid studying for it. so i'm finally getting around to posting up this recipe.

still working through the apples at home (the ones from catoctin mt. orchard). and this recipe is going to be made again (although i'm going to tweak it a bit to see if i can lower the sugar amount and still get that sugary goodness that is sweet and kind of crispy (but not in a bad way) yumminess.

Apple Bread (makes two loaves, and you'll want both!)

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 c applesauce (unsweetened)

1 Tbl vanilla extract

2 cups diced apples (i used four various medium apples)

extra sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on top of the bread

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two bread pans. 

Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl. In another bowl, beat eggs and add sugar and applesauce in a large bowl. Add vanilla and dry ingredients. Stir in apples. Dump into the pans (it will be a thick batter) and spread evenly. Liberally sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the loaves (this will give the bread some extra nice texture)

after my final tomorrow i'm going to try to play around w/ the ingredients a bit to find out if i can put less sugar in. i still need to make a real apple cake!

apple bites

something about studying makes me want to eat or bake, so as a reward for getting through my food science midterm (not that i did well...but that's besides the point) i decided to bake (the eating came during the studying!)

there are still so many apples in the house i knew i wanted to bake with apples and looking through my favorite blogs i saw a lot of delicious looking apple cake recipes (check out bakerella's and smittenkitchen's) but 2+ cups of sugar plus a cup of oil was daunting (maybe it was all the talk about eating healthy foods in class that's killing me) that i decided to fiddle with some muffin recipes and ended up with muffins chock full of apples = apple bites! i found this recipe online somewhere and tweaked it (i think it was for some diet program since it had points)

Apple Bites (makes 12)
1 1/4 c. skim milk
3/4 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
a little less than 1/4 c. honey (i didn't have a lot of honey left so this is why i used less)
2 Tbl plain yogurt
1 egg
3 medium apples, peeled and diced small (i used a granny, golden delicious and i think a mcintosh)
some cinnamon and brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a muffin pan. Toss the apple chunks in cinnamon and brown sugar, set aside. In a large bowl combine milk and cornmeal, let stand for 10 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Whisk honey, yogurt and egg into the cornmeal mixture. Stir in apple and flour mixture. Spoon into the pan and bake for about 15-20 minutes.

*next time i want to try soaking oats in the milk instead of cornmeal. i like the kind of grainy texture you get from cornmeal but i'm thinking oats would make this much more moist. the apple bites weren't very sweet (which is nice) and the nutty bites of walnut helped make it extra tasty.

pb rice krispy cake

happy birthday to M!

this is peanut butter rice krispy treats topped with a semi sweet chocolate shell and stacked on top of one another to make a different kind of birthday cake. you can never go wrong with rice krispies especially in my family. and adding peanut just makes it that much better!

pb rice krispy cake
1 cup corn syrup
about 2 cups peanut butter (i eyed this amount)
10 cups rice krispy cereal
2 bags minus about 7 marshmallows
about 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

butter an 11 x 13 pan or i buttered two spring form pans (and layer with buttered parchment paper for even easier removal). melt and boil the corn syrup and peanut butter. add the marshmallows and let them melt completely (i also tossed in a couple later to have little chunks of whole marshmallows). when it's all a melted gooey mix take the pot off the heat and mix in the cereal. once that's all mixed in, dump it into whatever pan(s) you're using and press down with a buttered spoon. once it's cool you can melt the chocolate chips and spread it over the whole thing and then let that cool until the chocolate rehardens.

happy new year!

made this for some friends from college when they came to visit.

this comes from smittenkitchen. it's a mushroom and blue cheese galette. the crust is store bought (sometimes it's just that much easier:) and used some large button mushrooms and some mushrooms i'm not quite sure the name of but they were good. the recipe is ridiculously straightforward and easy. happy 2011!

christmas and the end of holiday food (i hope)

the sisters and i were wishing that the holidays were split up more so the gluttony of food would be spread out throughout the year. but at least we're almost to the end of the holiday season. soon it'll be people packed into the gym in january and nothing to look forward to but summer. hope everyone had a wonderful christmas. ny got a nice blizzard so s2 got stuck here, hope everyone traveled safe and sound.

 xmas meal: scalloped potatoes (from the everything cookbook: not the most attractive thing when it's made, but very easy and yummy), french bread (from king arthur flour, also very easy to make and no knead!), mushrooms stuffed with brie, delish!), pepper crusted salmon with lemon and garlic, olive and rosemary bread (not sure where this is from, s4 made it), rum cake (self-explanatory deliciousness), buche de noel

the pioneer women cooks' rum cake is so so good. the pecans chopped on top and baked into the cake were delicious once the rum/butter/sugar glaze soaked into them. it was a bit difficult to stab the cake where the pecans were so next time pouring more of the syrup before the cake is flipped out of the bundt pan. it was also hilarious watching s2 pour an additional shot of rum onto her cake slice!

the mocha buche de noel is a bit more time consuming than the rum cake, but light and airy with a nice chocolate glaze that hardens when it dries. the added instant coffee really adds to the flavor.

happy xmas eve!

the cake bite thing is in full swing. had some crazy busy days since it was the holidays and i'm so glad s4 was here to help me out. don't forget to check out the new designs and orders. running your own business is definitely something that is different and interesting everyday- a lot of work but hopefully once i get all the kinks worked out it'll be smooth sailing.

the holidays = baked goods. which is not so good for my waistline but oh so fun to make! rice krispy treats are just so easy and pretty much anything can be added- chocolate chips, holiday stripes, sprinkles, etc. we also topped some shortbread cookies with white chocolate and then striped and added little green swirls. happy holidays!