I will now be offerring homemade baked goods for sale in the shop!

Click here for the listing for lemon poppyseed bread.

Stay tuned for something new coming to the shop and blog in the new year!

Coffee cake for a work holiday party.

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

Well, the holiday season is upon us at last (she says three weeks into it).  Despite my lack of posting, I have indeed been cooking, baking, and decorating.  The week of Thanksgiving I hosted my annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving at my apartment.  Fifteen friends showed up, brought food and drinks, and we feasted spread out on my living room floor.  I made two corn souffles, two kinds of stuffing, corn bread, and gravy.

After that, I ushered in the Christmas season very slowly.  It is very unlike me to be this disinterested in Christmastime, but I only started baking and decorating this past Sunday.  The first order of baking business(I'll get to the decorating in a subsequent post) was to make a batch of caramel shortbread bars, cinnamon applesauce ornaments, and another round of peppermint sugar cookies.  I somehow managed to make all of these at the same time.

I picked up a jug of applesauce and several containers of cinnamon at the local Dollar Tree and decided to make scented ornaments for the tree like when I was a little girl.  I couldn't seem to make a clay-like consistency, so mine are a little misshapen.  I tried.  Towards the end, I just started making circles with holes in them because the cinnamon was burning my hands.

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup of applesauce
• 1 1/2 cup of cinnamon

1. Mix ingredients together until it forms a clay-like consistency.
2. Roll dough out flat and use cookie cutters to make shapes.
3. If using as ornaments to hang, use a pencil or toothpick to make a hole.
4. Leave out to dry for 3 or 4 days.

peppermint sugar cookies

I am alive and full of cookies.  I started right away on my cookie baking once I returned to my apartment after Thanksgiving.  This was the first round.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter, softened
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 c. all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. crushed candy canes or peppermint candies
• 5 tsp. warm water
• 3/4 c. confectioners' sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add egg and beat until blended. Stir in flour and salt, then the crushed candy.  Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into ball. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake cookies 8 to 10 minutes until firm. Cool on sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to finish cooling. 

Picture from We Are Not Martha

 

quick turkey gravy

 

Directions:

1. Add water.
2. Stir on stove.

roasted potatoes

I've always really loved potatoes, but for some reason I have always been really underwhelmed by roasting them.  They were never flavorful enough, or too mushy, or there wasn't enough cheese.  However, potatoes are relatively inexpensive and I thought that I would try a roasted potato recipe to go along with my slow-cooked pork loin from the entry below.  I was really determined to have a wholesome home-cooked meal.  I was also incredibly hungry, so I didn't take any photos.  The picture below is an extremely accurate representation of what my potatoes looked like before roasting.

Image from Lovin' From the Oven

One of the great things about cooking for myself is that I am completely in charge of how I prepare my food.  Sure, this is kind of a drawback sometimes like when I turn pancakes into burnt pucks or perhaps burn myself with flying grease but I'm feeling optimistic today.  So, you know what?  I don't like my potatoes mushy: cook them longer.  I don't like them bland: add more garlic and salt.  I got my love of cheese from my Dad: add more cheese.  Always add more cheese.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
Adapted from: Lovin' From the Oven


Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes, rinsed and diced
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 4-6 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 2-3 tsp shredded parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Pour the potatoes into a baking dish.
3. Drizzle olive oil on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle the rest of the seasonings on top. Use a large spoon to evenly coat all of the potatoes.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, making sure to move the pieces around every 15 minutes.

slow cooker pork loin

I am scared of both my slow cooker and large/expensive cuts of meat that I've never used before.  I was recently introduced to a chain of grocery stores (Market Basket) that I had previously avoided due to local horror stories and one ill-fated trip that ended up with me sewing my vagina shut and vowing (again) never to have children or to go anywhere where children are permitted to be present.  I was going to say "I don't know how you parents do it" but if my trip to the Somerville Market Basket is any indication, "do it" means "let your children roam free and screaming through a busy grocery store."  Also, I hate you.

But I digress.  I went to the Burlington Market Basket late one night and was escorted through the bakery section, eyes lit-up.  That there was enough to convince me to change my grocery store allegiance from Stop & Shop.  Imagine my delight when I found my long-lost favorite cereal just hanging out on the shelves waiting to be purchased.  Here, I will help you out so that you don't need to imagine: I immediately grabbed two boxes, clutched them to my chest, grabbed the arm of the person I was with, and possibly yelled "I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOR YEARS!"

Uh... but I digress again.  The moral of the story is that prices are very low here and it's worth the 15 minute drive versus the 5 minute walk to Stop & Shop.  I've been doing my weekly shopping here and recently purchased a five and a half pound pork loin on a whim.  $12 seemed like a very reasonable price for so much meat.  I often ignore the fact that I live alone when I grocery shop and go hog wild (ha ha) on things that are on sale.  I was smart this time and sawed that baby in two and froze half of it when I got home.

I decided to use my slow cooker that I got for Christmas last year (and have only used once, mostly out of fear) so I looked up a recipe.  I have modified the recipe for future cooking, as it didn't really come out perfect.  Also, there aren't too many pictures because meat is kind of gross looking.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin
Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:

• 2.5lb pork loin, not trimmed
• 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 cup water
• 3/4c red wine (I used pinot noir because that's all I had)
• 3tbsp minced garlic
• pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Put everything in the slow cooker.  Place the meat in fatty side up.
2. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.
3. Check after 3 hours.  If pork has reached 145 degrees, you may take out.  If not, cook until it has reached 145.

vanilla cinnamon circles

I have started using baked goods as a way to bribe people at work into getting things done.  I promised that I would bring in something today if all requirements were met by the end of the day on Friday.  The promise of food seems to kick people into action, and I poked through my cookbooks to find something to bring in.  I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks that had minimal ingredients, most of which I had already.  Vanilla cinnamon circles seemed simple and tasty.  All I needed to buy was unsalted butter.

Sometimes things do not go as planned.  I had a feeling that something would go wrong with these cookies.  The recipe just seemed too simple.  Too easy.  I purchased a 79cent bag of brownie mix as a backup just in case something happened.

I doubled the recipe because the dough only made 25 cookies.  Maybe that was my mistake?  Once I mixed up the dough, I could tell right away that something was going to be wrong about these cookies.  I continued to follow the directions to the best of my abilities, with the dough crumbling apart as I was trying to roll it into a ball.  I shoved it in the oven and hoped for the best.

I ended up not with 25 cookies, but with a cookie sheet sized crunchy mess.  My apartment smelled delicious, though.

And delicious brownies were had by all at work.

Vanilla Cinnamon Circles
adapted from: Indulgence: Cookies

• 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 c superfine sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 c flour
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp sugar (extra)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a medium-sized bowl using electric beaters until pale and fluffy, then stir in vanilla.  Sift in the flour and add the milk.  Stir with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough, gather into a ball and place on a sheet of parchment paper.
3. Press the dough out into a log shape, 10 inches long and 1 1/4 inches thick.  Roll in the paper and twist the ends to seal.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.
4. Cut the log into rounds 1/2 inch thick.  Sift the extra sugar and cinnamon onto a plate and roll each cookie in the sugar mixture, coating well.  Lay well apart on the sheets and bake for 20 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.  Allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Let's pretend they looked like this:

toffee cakes

With my extra day off this weekend, I decided to do some baking.  As I've already starting checking out Christmas craft/cookbooks from the library to find tasty recipes, I'm starting to amass more than I will realistically be able to bake between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  To avoid the Christmas cookie sweatshop that was my last Christmas season, I've started my baking now.  I've been bringing the extras to work with me to share with my coworkers (yes, I could eat 45 cookies but I probably shouldn't).  These didn't get me any rave email replies, but I thought they were pretty tasty.

Toffee Cakes
from: Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Comfort & Joy






Ingredients

•3/4 c butter

•1/3 c sugar

•1 tbsp milk

•2 tsp vanilla

•2 3/4 c flour

•1/2 c chocolate covered toffee pieces

For Chocolate Drizzle:

•  1/2 c chocolate chips

•  2 tsp butter

Directions

1. Beat butter and sugar together.  Add milk & vanilla, continue to beat.  Add flour slowly.  Stir in toffee pieces and mi dough with hands until flour blends.

2. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 325.  Shape dough into 1” balls.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly browned.

4. Combine chocolate & butter in a saucepan to melt.  Drizzle over cookies.

I attempted to drizzle chocolate over mine, but I ended up wasting almost an entire bag of chocolate chips on the endeavor.  Apparently if there is any moisture in your saucepan, your chocolate will seize up and turn into chocolate frosting.  Make sure you don't do that. 

friday finds

I spend a lot of time cruising the internet.  I thought I would try something new on Fridays and feature an interesting good, shop, or link that I've found since, I'm not going to lie, I don't make or bake things as often as I would like to keep the blog going with new content.

So this week, I'd like to feature Daydreeem Designs on Etsy.  The store is filled with beautiful hand-etched glass items.  Michael does a lot of work with natural designs like tree limbs, feathers, and snow.  I'm particularly drawn to these two styles of votive holders:

vanilla pumpkin bread

See you later, summer.  The weather has finally gotten cooler here in Boston and I celebrated the passing of summer by baking two loaves of pumpkin bread (one for me, one for my coworkers at the office).  I'm fairly indifferent towards pumpkin as a flavoring, but it seemed like something quick I could whip up that would leave my apartment warm and smelling good.  Both of these things are true.  The pudding keeps this bread extra moist, and adds a hint of vanilla flavoring.


Vanilla Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs 
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil 
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 2 cups sugar 
• 2 pkgs. (3 oz. each) cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix 
• 1 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add oil and pumpkin; beat until smooth. 
3. Combine remaining ingredients; gradually beat into pumpkin mixture. 
4. Pour batter into 2 greased 8 x 4 x 2" loaf pans for 75-80 minutes OR 5 greased 5 x 2.5 x 2" inch loaf pans for 50-55 minutes / until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5.  Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

and we're live!

The etsy shop has launched with 8 unique pillows for sale!

launch day

I can't believe that it's already October.  This past week was uncharacteristically busy, so I finished sewing the final pillow this morning.  I was hoping to take photographs outside, but the weather is not cooperating and has been raining since last night.  Despite the clouds, I managed to time it just right to get enough natural light in my living room.  Stay tuned for updates on listings in the shop!

autumn leaves garland

To take a break from sewing pillows this weekend, I decided to make an autumn leaf garland.  I found a tutorial on A Beautiful Mess and thought it would be something cute, simple, and inexpensive that I could whip up and include with any orders from my shop.  I think I am in denial about a lot of my crafting abilities (or lack thereof).  Ever since I was a child, anything involving the use of scissors has ended up a disaster.  I am just not a good cutter.  You will see no childhood handmade crafts hanging on the refrigerator in my parents' house.

I made a leaf template out of some cardboard that I had lying around, and even that didn't work very well.  I ended up with 10 misshapen felt leaves, but at this point, I was still feeling a little optimistic.  Sure, I am lousy at cutting things out, but leaves are all different shapes and sizes, right?  Right?

I had purchased a skein of yarn and two tapestry needles that had big enough eyes to slip the yarn through.  Unfortunately, the needles themselves were not quite sharp enough to actually pierce through the felt, so I had to sit there with a mechanical pencil and poke holes through each leaf.  It was about this time that I decided that perhaps this particular craft was not going to be for me.  I'm fairly certain a second grader could have done a better job at this.

I hung it up in my apartment anyway, not wanting all that time and effort to go to waste.

halfway there!

I am halfway to my goal of 8 pillows for my October 1st shop launch with 9 days left.  Not bad, not bad.  I have some unexpected time off this week, so I'm hoping to get a good amount of sewing done in these next few days while I try not to go too stir crazy.  I haven't taken too many pictures of the process - part of me wants to just show them all at once.  Here's a very unglamorous webcam photo of me hard at work on my couch (next to a large stack of library books - typical):

I'm getting faster and faster at stitching and it kind of amazes me how quickly I took to all of this.  Getting disinterested quickly and abandoning projects is pretty much my M.O.  Just recently I gave up on knitting before I even started once I realized how much math was involved.  Ick.

I went this weekend and indulged in some unnecessary but helpful sewing goods.  I decided it would be a good idea to purchase a pin cushion, so I could stop sticking the needles in my couch while I sewed.  I also picked up a thimble so I could stop sticking them in my finger.  Does anyone know why pin cushions are so often in the shape of a tomato?

While home from work today (after hours of lying in bed reading magazines and eating English muffins) I pulled out my gear, sat in a warm patch of sunlight and finished a new style.  The varied nature the vintage doilies means that I can mix and match styles on the current size offering of pillow (16x16").  I decided to get a little adventurous and try two different sizes and colors on one.  I liked how it turned out, and it looks a lot different than the other pillows.

lemon picnic cake

Summer is winding down; temperatures have dropped dramatically literally overnight, leaves are starting to fall, and I am getting back into the cooking/baking mood.  This is good news for my blog; probably not so good news for my waistline.  I had just finished reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and it inspired me to make a lemon cake as one last hurrah for summertime.


This cake is more of an understated lemon cake rather than having in-your-face flavor like your average lemon box mix.  The batter only has a hint of lemon (creating more of a pound cake flavor) and most of the zing lives in the glaze.



Lemon Picnic Cake
recipe adapted from Mom

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, separated
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Separate egg whites into small bowl.  Beat egg whites at high speed, scraping bowl often, just until stiff peaks form, 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Combine the 2 cups sugar and 1 cup butter, beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg yolks, continue beating until creamy.   
3. Mix together the flour and baking powder, reduce speed to low and gradually adding flour mixture alternately with milk to butter mixture, until well blended. Add lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla.  
4. Continue beating until well mixed.  By hand gently, fold in the egg whites.   
5. Pour batter into greased and floured 12 cup bundt or 10 inch tube pan. Bake for 50-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

   

For glaze:

In a 1 quart saucepan stir together all glaze ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved, about 3-4 minutes.   With chopstick, poke holes in top of cake; pour glaze over cake, letting glaze seep down into the cake through the holes.  Cool 15 minutes, remove from pan.

Hello!  I am not very good at these introductory posts, but I suppose I can tell you a little about myself.  My name is Kelly Burgess, I am 25, and live in Arlington, Massachusetts.  I moved to a one bedroom apartment this summer after living in a studio for a year and now actually have room to decorate and put furniture.  I decided to start making pillows one day because I couldn't find any online that were my style and that would go with my new couch.  I don't find myself to be particularly crafty (most of my endeavors into the craft world get abandoned before they even get off the ground) but I always wish that I did something with my hands.  I would categorize myself as a photographer first and foremost, but I also make forays into web design, book making, and make feeble attempts at cooking.

I've been working hard this month trying to get everything ready.  I'm hoping to launch by the end of this month if everything goes according to plan.  I have a domain, set up the shop, and have the blog in place.  Supplies have been purchased and I'm on my way.

So here's a finished product and what you can expect once I get the shop up and running:

The first step was to clean the vintage doilies.  I let them soak for a while in my kitchen sink and now they are clean and don't smell like grandmas.

I've even started making tags to attach to the pillows for when I send them out.  I don't have a dedicated craft area yet, so I've been working at my coffee table.  I'm very excited to get this off the ground, so stay tuned for more updates.

blackberry cobbler

I had two goals for the summer: ride the swan boats in Boston Common, and make a pie.  To the surprise of no one, I have not accomplished either one of those goals.  I guess I technically have until September 23rd (the first day of autumn), but the outlook isn't good.  I see it being much more likely that I'll end up making an apple pie once apple picking season starts.  I've also been trying to go to the swan boats for the past five years and I just never quite make it there.  C'est la vie.

While my pie baking goal sucked a big one, I did manage to make a cobbler!  This was both the first cobbler I had ever made and the first cobbler I had ever eaten.  I know.

A couple of years ago I went to Maine with T. and his family.  On the way to their summer house (mmhm, I hate them, too) we stopped at a little roadside shack and purchased a blackberry pie from a little old lady.  I was in love.  I ate that pie for breakfast the next morning with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I've been dreaming of it ever since.

I decided that I'd try my hand at making something with blackberries while they were still on sale.  I purchased some, let them mold on my kitchen table, and then bought more.  All in all, this stupid cobbler cost me about $20.  I was determined.

Blackberry Cobbler
recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

Berry mixture:

• 4 cups blackberries, rinsed clean
• 1/2 cup sugar (less or more to taste, depends on how sweet the berries are and how sweet you would like your cobbler to be)
• 1 tsp lemon juice *
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch (for thickening)

* I found that it was much too sour with the lemon zest and lemon juice, so I would reduce the amount of lemon juice involved.

Cobbler topping:

• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Place berries, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and cornstarch in a 9x9 casserole dish. Stir to coat the berries evenly with the sugar. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons of sugar, the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender or fork (or even your fingers) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the egg and milk until the batter is just moistened.

Taking large spoonfuls, drop the batter mixture over the berries. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the berry mixture is bubbly and the topping is nicely browned.

oven-fried chicken tenders

It's been... a while.  I wish I could say that I've been cooking up a storm in my new kitchen, but cereal and pasta have been my good friends lately.  I finally dragged myself out of my non-eating stupor this month and decided I'd actually make dinner... a few weeks ago (I'm sorry).  I scoured my recipes for something quick, simple, and non-offensive.  I came up with oven fried chicken tenders.

This recipe once again called for panko-style bread crumbs and I finally bit the bullet and picked some up at the store.  I am glad that I did.  They stayed crispy where normal bread crumbs would have gotten soggy and gross.  I still haven't mastered the wet-hand, dry-hand method and ended up with club fingers while attempting to bread each chicken strip.

These turned out a little bland - I bought plain style bread crumbs and didn't add a great deal of seasoning.  I think that next time, I would add some herbs and spices to jazz things up a little bit.

Oven Fried Chicken Tenders
recipe from Taste & Tell

• 1.25 pounds chicken tenders or chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Line a baking sheet with foil, then put a baking rack on top.  Spray the baking rack with cooking spray.

In one shallow dish, place the flour.  In a second shallow dish, mix the egg and the water.  In a third shallow dish, place the panko bread crumbs, the Parmesan and salt and pepper.

Dip each chicken strip into the flour, then the egg mixture, then the bread crumb mixture.  Place on the cooling rack.  Spray lightly with cooking spray. (This is where the one dry hand and one wet hand method comes in handy...)

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until no longer pink and the coating is golden brown.

mint birthday cake

Well, I'm all moved in and as settled into my new apartment as I am going to get.  The kitchen is a lot bigger, but I haven't really taken much advantage of it since moving in.  I'm still eating mostly cereals and pastas because I am terrible.

I did, however, get my act together enough to whip up a special birthday cake.  The birthday boy in question is fond of chocolate and mint, so I scoured the internet to try to find a mint chocolate cake.  I never really found anything that was close to what I was looking for, so I combined several recipes into one to suit my needs.

I wasn't quite ready to try my hand at making a cake from scratch, so I went looking for a boxed chocolate cake mix.  I ended up with Devil's Food because stores don't seem to sell just "chocolate cake" mix any longer.  I think in the future, I would pick something that was more chocolatey, like chocolate fudge cake.

I followed the directions on the box and made two round nine inch layers.  During the mixing process, I added a tiny bit (maybe half a teaspoon) of peppermint extract because I was worried that the frosting wouldn't be minty enough, but this turned out to be unnecessary and I would actually advise against it, especially if using the devil's food flavored cake.  It wasn't bad tasting, I just think it would have been better and more subtle without the extra mint flavoring.

To go between the two layers, I made my own mint frosting.

Mint Frosting
- 1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons), softened
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 tablespoon water *

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and beat until whipped and fluffy.
* I found that 1 tablespoon of water was not nearly enough and butter/sugar was flying everywhere when I was using my hand mixer.  I poured in more water until it softened everything up and created a frosting-like consistency while I was blending.

After spreading that on top of the bottom layer, I placed the top layer on it and used a serrated knife to level the cake.  I chose just a plain chocolate frosting to go over the cake and then decorated it with some white piping.  It wasn't quite as tasty as a thin mint, but it was well-received and a good starting point if I wanted to improve upon the recipe in the future.

I ended up having to freeze a good portion of this cake.  I cut into slices, put each slice in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes or just long enough to harden the frosting, and then wrapped each slice first in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil before throwing them in a Zip-Lock bag.  Here's hoping it keeps well.

hiatus

I'm moving on the 11th.  Until then, it is highly unlikely that I will make any food. Come back after I'm all settled.

Bertucci's olive oil

My motivation to cook anything has hit an all-time low lately.  I haven't really been eating anything besides pasta for dinner.  With an impending move in the works, I will also have to start the process of eating whatever food I have left in my apartment so that I don't have to move it.  I foresee a lot of rice in my near future.

This weekend, I went to Bertucci's for dinner.  I will be feasting on the leftover pizza for the next few days (since I somehow ended up with almost an entire large pizza given to me... ahem) and found one of their free rolls in the box of pizza.  I, presumably like most people eating at Bertucci's, enjoy their rolls quite a bit.  Even more, I like the olive oil that they bring along with it.

Image from This Is Framingham

Over the past few years, I've purchased several brands of "garlic infused olive oil" in the hopes of recreating the experience at home.  Last night, I gave making my own a whirl to make the idea of eating a cold and slightly stale roll slightly more appealing.  Luckily (or perhaps unfortunately, as this does not make for a particularly entertaining read), mixing up an olive oil requires nothing that can burn or cut me.  It turned out surprisingly well and I think I'll be heading off to the grocery store during my lunch break this afternoon to pick up some rolls to go along with my rice for dinner.


Garlic Olive Oil
I didn't measure anything, so all seasonings are to taste
- extra virgin olive oil
- garlic powder
- garlic salt (Whole Foods makes a really tasty one with sea salt)
- red pepper flakes
- Parmesan cheese

Place olive oil in a bowl.  Mix in the above ingredients.  I was surprised at how the olive oil took to the garlic powder.  A+.

betty crocker

I mostly save my cake eating for birthdays.  Occasionally, I will bake cupcakes.  I bought cake tins a few years ago and, like most of my kitchen gadgets, have only been used two or three times.  Mostly for birthdays and once for those Pillsbury cinnamon buns that come in the vacuum-sealed tube.  Like my favorite homemade coffee cake, I seem to only feel comfortable making and eating cake for some sort of holiday or celebration.  Sometimes, however, I just feel like eating a cake.


I am not yet as skilled (read: motivated) as to bake a cake from scratch and Betty Crocker cake mix was on sale at Target for $1.  I bought a gold cake mix and a tub of chocolate frosting (a departure from my usual buttercream/cream cheese frosting fixation).  I made a point not to buy the whipped frosting, as it is the same price for frosting that has been injected and whipped with air.  So far, everything is going smoothly.

Once home, I place the ingredients and all needed out on my butcher block.  I set out my cake pans and poured the cake batter into them.  So far, so good.  I run into a little trouble when I realize both cake tins can't fit completely flat in my miniature oven, but that's okay.  I make do.  My kitchen timer goes off and I take the pans out of the oven to cool.  Everything looks fine.  After a while, I remember that I have cake cooking and try to get them out of the pans.

I was fooled by Wilson's.  Non-stick nonsense.  I run a knife along the edges and assume the cakes will flop out like usual.  Instead, the cake does not budge.  I slide my hands gently under the cakes, prying them away from the bottom of the pans.  The first one crumbles, but I figure I will just stick that one at the bottom and we'll be none the wiser.  We'll just cover that bad boy in frosting.

I take the frosting from the shopping bag and am alarmed at how light the canister is.  I take a look at the label.  Whipped!  How did that happen?!  I angrily throw it in the microwave and smear it cover my broken cake bits.  Now comes the top layer.

 This doesn't go much better.  I think this picture pretty much sums it up:

I try to patch it up by using frosting as an adhesive.  It looks kind of okay at this point.  I go to cut a piece later in the evening and the entire thing crumbles to bits.

Just so this entry isn't so depressing; here's a completely normal looking cake that my sister made for my dad's birthday:

chicken

It should be pretty apparent by now that I am a fairly lazy individual.  I'd be totally satisfied eating frozen food every day and, frankly, I'm completely surprised that I'm still attempting to make my own food.  I had sort of assumed that this project would fall by the wayside shortly after I started it.  Sure, I haven't been the best at making a new recipe every week (or even making anything at all some weeks) but just the fact that I'm still going with this and have become more adventurous with food has been a source of pride for me.

That said, there are some things I just can't get behind.  Making your own mayonnaise, homemade bread (I am sure this is delicious but it seems like a lot of work.  You know what's good?  Bread from the store bakery.  It's only like $3 and costs me 0 hours of time.), and roasting your own chickens.

I love roasted chicken.  It was one of my favorite meals when I lived at my parents' house and it seemed like we had it once a week for a while.  I spent the first three years of living on my own without any roasted chicken in my life.  I had a roasting pan, but no drive to do anything with it.  I finally gave up and got rid of the roasting pan when I moved into my current apartment and it wasn't until last year that I realized that those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store are a god-send.  They are tasty, versatile, require minimal effort, and feed me for days.  This is made even sweeter by the fact that they are only $5 on Fridays at Stop & Shop.  Even so, a rotisserie chicken costs, what, $6-7?  You know what else costs $6-7?  A raw chicken that you then have to cook yourself.  I don't really get off on crafting the perfect rub of herb and spices for my chicken and so the "all natural" flavor works just fine.  It's flexible in the sense that I can then take pieces of that chicken and make many other dishes with it.

One of my favorite roasted chicken leftovers is chicken salad sandwiches.  I tend to err on the side of easy and bland when I make food, so I'm not even going to bother with a recipe.  I bought a nice baguette from the store, placed leftover chicken on it, slathered it with mayonnaise (I don't even mix it ahead of time now because I don't like how the mayonnaise soaks into the chicken over time) and topped it with a layer of almost but not quite wilted baby spinach.  It's easy enough that I can make it in my zombied before-work daze or throw it together for dinner quickly when I get home from work.

pancakes

I should know better.  All my talk of breakfast foods inspired me to make some pancakes last night.  Now, I grew up in a household where Bisquick was never used and we'd only settle for authentic buttermilk pancakes.  My dad would whip up the batter and my mom would heat up the electric griddle and they'd be thick and fluffy and wonderful.

Again, I am lazy and cheap.  I also don't really like buying buttermilk because I end up throwing most of it away after a few weeks because, sure, I can totally make some more biscuits/pancakes but I can't tell if it's gone bad because it smells so darn awful in the first place.  I originally went to the store to buy Bisquick for a recipe for imitation Red Lobster biscuits (yeah, that's right.) but ended up buying Jiffy mix because it was $2 cheaper and I'm taken in by its vintage-styled packaging and blue gingham tablecloth in the picture.  I love me some gingham.

I was quizzing my coworkers on what to make for dinner when I realized that I could make pancakes with this mix.  I really should know not to trust anything where every recipe on the back includes a few scoops of mix and a few cups of milk.  And that's it.  This same "recipe" could make me pancakes, waffles, biscuits, and the topping for some chicken casserole.  But I gave it a whirl anyway.

I wasn't discouraged when the first pancake turned out to be a disaster.  If I know anything about cooking, it is that the first pancake is always a mess and you end up throwing it away.  So I kept going.  The batter tended to rise up instead of out, so the outsides would burn before the insides even started cooking.  I tried spreading out the batter in the frying pan, but towards the end, the batter had already started to thicken and rise in the bowl.  I ended up with 5 or 6 burnt/raw biscuit-like discs.  All the maple syrup in the world couldn't make this alright.

a tribute to breakfast cereal

I'd like to take a break from trying new recipes to talk about my old stand-by, cereal.  Cereal has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember.  All kinds of cereal.  Healthy cereal, hot cereal, cold cereal, sugary cereal, cereal with milk, and lately, even dry cereal.  I have trouble defining my favorite food, as I can't seem to eat anything I'm not in the mood for.  Cereal is really the only food that I can eat at literally any time of the day and is often the only thing I can stomach when I'm not feeling well.

On a whole, I'd say that breakfast foods are my favorite genre of food.  Let me indulge myself momentarily and make a list of breakfast foods that I love: french toast, waffles, hash browns, pancakes, muffins, danish, donuts, bagels, english muffins, crumpets, cinnamon buns, home fries, toast, yogurt, eggs, little sausages, croissants, pastries, and granola.  My idea of bliss is going on vacation and being welcomed by a free hotel breakfast buffet.  The problem is that I can't eat a lot of these things first thing in the morning.  If I actually eat french toast and eggs for breakfast, I end up feeling queasy, lethargic, and greasy for the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any breakfast for dinner buffets (perhaps this should be my new business Life Plan?).

But this is where cereal comes in.  I can stomach cereal in the morning.  It very rarely makes me feel sick (with the exception of some delicious vanilla granola from Trader Joe's that starts making me sick after I've been eating it for a few days) and can actually act as a buffer layer between waking up and all of those delicious but heavy food items I listed above.  Much to the dismay of my family and boyfriend, I can happily eat cereal for dinner and be totally satisfied.

I eat a bowl of cereal almost every morning for breakfast.  Lately, I've been really into Kashi's Go Lean Crunch.  Something about the hard stick-like texture is really appealing to me.  I recently had a brief rekindled love affair with Frosted Mini Wheats after developing a fondness for eating them raw and by the handful.  My favorite cereal is Rice Krispie Treats with the discontinued Sprinkle Spangles a close second (my heart/mouth ache for you, Sprinkle Spangles).

So this entry goes out to you, cereal.  Thanks for the good times.

Original photo from here.  Sorry for ruining it.

road cookies

It has only been relatively recently that I have realized that I have had a latent interest in using cooking to show affection.  I have never really had much interest in cooking or baking up until this past year (and even now I'm not entirely sure how much of this "interest" I have is based on anything other than having something to do), but being able to have some sort of tangible evidence of my affection and effort I have put into making something for someone else is satisfying.  Sharing my baking with others also has some other nice selfish benefits: I don't have to eat 72 cookies myself (and gain 400 pounds), I get to try new recipes I wouldn't otherwise make, and it gives me something to spend my ample free time on.

I wanted to make cookies that could be given as a gift and transported across many state lines.  The plan was to use my stand-by recipe for chocolate chip cookies adopted from my mother (using vanilla pudding mix in the dough to make them extra moist).  However, scheduling issues arose and it turned out that the cookies needed to be baked much sooner than I thought.  I came home on Thursday with the realization that I both did not have vanilla pudding and that my brown sugar was in the form of a brick and still I had not found out how to soften it without turning it into mush or bought new sugar.  I considered giving up and just buying cookies at the store.  The sentiment would still be the same, but it always feels cheap to me to cop out and not put forth the effort to actually make something for someone.

Google to the rescue.  I figured that it would be a lost cause, but I did a quick search for "chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar."  I wasn't expecting any results.  As far as I was concerned, brown sugar and butter were pretty much the foundation for chocolate chip cookies and anything else would be a poor substitute.  I warily printed out a recipe that called for honey instead of brown sugar and decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

So I did.  The dough formed and everything seemed to go fine, but the cookies spread out like crazy during baking.  I'm sure some more experienced baker would be able to point out something I could have added to make them more firm, but alas.  I used my spatula to break them into smaller cookies, all the while assuming I would have to throw away the entire batch.

Like most things I make, these things look pretty questionable but they taste fine.  The honey adds an interesting extra layer of flavor, and while I don't think that I'd make these every time, they are an excellent substitute for the more traditional brown sugar based cookies.

No Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Spark Recipes

Ingredients
•    2 1/2 cups all-purose flour

•    2 eggs

•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•    3/4 teaspoon salt

•    1 teaspoon baking soda

•    6 ounces chocolate chips (I used a combination of milk & semisweet)
•    1 cup white sugar

•    2 tablespoons honey

•    1 1/4 cups butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Cream the butter with the sugar and the honey.
Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour and baking soda.
Stir in chocolate chips.


Place teaspoon sized dough about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.


Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

grill, meet hamburger

Perhaps I was too hard on the personal grill in my last entry.  During a recent trip to the grocery store, I purchased some short-dated hamburger patties (I know.  You are saying to yourself "Now wait a minute, she's eating red meat?  And what is this that I'm reading about short-dated red meat?  Am I on the right blog?  Kelly?"  Do not worry, friends.  This purchase was influenced by the $2 off manager's coupon stuck to the packaging and the promise that I could always just freeze the patties instead of consuming them all in one night.)  The original plan was to cook them as I always had: thrown in a frying pan over medium heat until cooked on either side, and then cover and put over low heat until cooked thoroughly.  Once home, I thought I would give the grill another chance.  My burns have healed.  Maybe we could be friends.

I sliced each patty in half to create 8 smaller patties instead of 4 behemoth patties.  Each sad-patty got wrapped in aluminum foil and tossed in a Ziploc bag to go in the freezer.  I'm really trying to master this cooking for one thing, and I think I might be on the right track.  It's taken me over 6 months to realize that if I cook an entire pound of meat at one time, then chances are that I will either tire of eating it or it will go bad before the week's end.  The short-dated hamburger represents saving money and not wasting so much food.

So I fired up the grill to just make one hamburger.  This would never be possible with a regular grill.  In fact, we rarely used the charcoal grill we had sitting on the porch last summer because I was often told that I didn't have enough to cook on it to make all the effort worth it.  Well, fine.  Jokes on you, because now I can have a hamburger whenever I want.

It was a success.  No burns were sustained, no grease flew anywhere, and a hamburger was done in mere moments.  I had a nice roll, some sliced red onions, a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup, and a bed of baby spinach for the hamburger to rest upon.  I've made a couple since then, relishing in the fact that I don't have to eat a hamburger for 5 days straight just because I bought a pound of meat.  Progress.

grilled chicken

The Christmas griddle was finally removed from its resting place under my butcher block and was used over the weekend.  I was originally going to do a another slow-cooker recipe this week, but I was feeling a little sorry (and guilty) for the Christmas gift that I have neglected for the past three months.  I read with trepidation the meager instructions it came with: turn on, wait for light to turn green, place food on grill, close top, remove food, eat.  I turned it on.

One of my favorite food stand-by's is Italian-dressing marinated grilled chicken.  Since I've moved away from home, I've had to satisfy myself with marinating the chicken and then baking it in the oven, which is certainly not as good as chicken fresh from the grill.  Since I am now in possession of my very own personal grill, I thought that Italian-marinated chicken would be an excellent inaugural choice.

As the grill warmed up, my kitchen was filled with the smell of melting plastic.  The instructions told me that this was normal and that I should just let the grill do its thing and the smell would dissipate over time (lie).  I retrieved my bag of marinated thin-sliced chicken breasts from the fridge and waited for the light on the grill to turn green, indicating that it was now safe to use.  It should also be known that the grill has three heating settings: low, medium, and high.  The instructions weren't clear about what setting would be ideal for my situation, so I chose "medium."  It seemed like the safest choice - not too hot, and hopefully warm enough to kill any salmonella.

I was feeling pretty confident at this point.  Once the grill had heated up, I grabbed a chicken breast and attempted to gently place it on the hot grill plates.  Here is where my confidence wavers and the story takes a dark turn.  I wasn't expecting grease to splatter so quickly from the meat onto my bare arms, but it did.  I leapt back from the grill after throwing the lid down on the chicken.  I was unclear as to how long I was supposed to leave the chicken to cook, so I approached carefully with one oven mitt on and a meat thermometer in the other hand.  Over time, I got very good at throwing the chicken down on the grill, slamming the lid closed, and leaping away while moaning in despair.

I sustained many burns that evening.

Italian Marinated Grilled Chicken

• Half bottle of Italian dressing.
• 1 lb chicken breasts (any size)
• Sandwich fixin's (ciabatta bread, baby spinach, mayonnaise, red onion in my case)

1. Marinate the chicken at least overnight in the Italian dressing.  I usually just throw it in a Ziploc bag and throw it in the fridge.
2. Cook chicken on grill.
3. Make sandwiches

pulled pork

Just in case you were all unaware, I am fairly lazy when it comes to cooking.  I enjoy eating a nice meal when I come home from work that includes both protein and fresh vegetables, maybe a nice warm crusty piece of Italian bread, but I do not want to put any effort forth to actually prepare said meal.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but in my fantastic imaginary life I come home and dinner is fresh from the oven and waiting for me when I get out of work.  I eat at the table every night with my boyfriend or a close friend and share funny anecdotes about our day at work (because surely those exist).

Reality:  I settle for frozen entrees (fancy name for TV dinners) - maybe some herbed chicken, mashed potatoes, and something resembling a vegetable.  What I waste in money I save in time.  Four to six minutes in the microwave and dinner is hot and ready to be eaten at my desk or in my bed while I watch old episodes of Gilmore Girls.  I've only eaten at the table 5 or so times and only when I have company.  Sometimes I even treat myself to a glass of Coke even though the caffeine makes my heart beat a little funny.  It's worth it.  I feel a little shamed buying these dinners at the store and even a little guilty after I eat them.  I feel like a failure at taking care of myself or completing even the most basics of tasks (feeding myself).  At least I take the food out of the plastic container and onto a plate.

I think my parents understand this, as they got me a slow cooker and a little personal griddle for Christmas.  Despite being comfortable using technology, something about kitchen gadgets makes me wary.  Every day when I come home from work, I take a look at the griddle and the slow cooker as I'm microwaving my food.  They look easy enough, but I'm scared.  It wasn't until earlier in the week that I finally decided to use the slow cooker.  It seemed easy enough on paper.  Put food in, turn cooker on, leave for work, return, eat.  I had visions of my apartment burning down while I left my food simmering away, the slow cooker overflowing everywhere, the food either being overcooked or undercooked when I returned.

I put away my fears and planned a pulled pork dinner.  I picked up pork and instructions for cooking from my Dad during a trip to Connecticut and began with trepidation.

Pulled Pork
recipe from my Dad

Ingredients:

• Boston butt/pork shoulder (mine was 5.5lbs, cut in half so only 2.75 was cooked)
• Mesquite barbecue seasoning rub
• olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp of liquid smoke
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 jar barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

1. Prep the night before.  I had forgotten/fallen asleep and these steps happened at 1:30am.  I do not recommend that.  Cut up onion and place in the bottom of the slow cooker insert to keep the meat from touching the bottom.
2.  Pat dry pork and rub with a tiny bit of olive oil.  Afterward, rub with barbecue seasoning and place on top of onions.  Place insert in fridge overnight.
3.  In the morning, place insert into slow cooker and pour half a bottle of barbecue sauce and the 1-2 tablespoons of liquid smoke over the meat.
4.  Turn slow cooker on low and cook for 11 hours.
5.  Meat is done when it can be pulled apart easily with two forks.  You will wan to pull the pieces of meat apart and put them in a separate bowl.  Remove fat and discard with juices and onions.
6.  Add desired amount of extra barbecue sauce.  Serve alone or on a roll.

granola bars

I'm trying to be good*.  I could have made those sugar cookies I've been sitting on for a while, but I decided I'd try my hand at granola bars because those are healthy, right?  Chocolate chip granola bars?  I've had a jar of honey from my friend's farm sitting in my cupboard for several years now.  The internet tells me that honey doesn't ever go bad, and if I can't trust the internet, who can I trust?  Unfortunately, the honey had solidified into a crystal-ly mass in the mason jar.  The internet also tells me that if I soak the jar in boiling water it will return to its original form.

Photo from Jackie Norris

So I boil the jar in a medium-sized pot of water and attempt to mix the rest of the ingredients together while I wait.  All goes well until I hit the brown sugar and I remember that my brown sugar has also solidified into a hard mass.  For this, I have no internet tips.  I probably could have looked something up, but my hands were all sticky and washing them off proved to be too much effort.  So I decided to dampen the brown sugar block in water and then use a cheese grater to  break it apart.  This was a great idea in theory.  In practice, it basically turned into brown sugar goop.  Between the goop and the hot honey, these granola bars are a little on the, uh, chewy/moist side.

* No, I'm not.  I just ate pumpkin cheesecake directly out of the box with a fork.

Granola Bars
recipe from Jackie Norris

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 cup flour

3/4 cup chocolate chips (or dried fruit)

3/4 t. salt

1/2 cup honey

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup canola oil

2 t. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350. Either line a 9×13 pan with parchment or grease thoroughly. In a large bowl, mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, chocolate chips and salt. Add remaining ingredients, gently mixing it all together. Press the mixture into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

stuff

I haven't forgotten about this blog or the promise to cook more food.  But man oh man, 2011 has been rough so far.  Recently I've barely even had the energy to stand up for very long, let alone go get groceries or cook something.  It has felt like it's been one hit to my health after the other, leaving me sitting complaining in bed.  I've eaten a shameful amount of food that can be microwaved and for a brief stint I ate nothing but applesauce and Jello as it was the only thing I could swallow with my sore throat.  And oh, delivery.  Sweet sweet delivery.  Chinese food, cheeseburgers, and wraps delivered to my door in less than thirty minutes.  Bliss.

All I have wanted to do after getting out of the hospital on Saturday (after taking a much needed nap) is eat.  Sunday I was feeling a little better, and I actually decided to cook something.  It wasn't much of an undertaking, and most people find this kind of gross.  But it was exactly the simple/mildly hearty/iron-rich/comforting food that I needed.  I made Stuff.

Back when I lived at home, my mother would make stuffed peppers for dinner every now and then.  I haven't really been into peppers since I was a kid (insert story about how I'd grab fresh peppers from my grandfather's garden and just take a bite out of them here (with a brief stint a few years ago where I'd eat them sauteed, but that ended abruptly after a hit of the stomach bug one Easter)) so I would often just scoop out the insides of the stuffed peppers and eat that.  The insides were the Stuff.  After several years of this behavior, it came to my attention that I could just make Stuff whenever I wanted without having to go through all the effort of gutting peppers, stuffing then, cooking then, and throwing them away after.

Stuff has been the perfect food for when I'm feeling sort of peckish but want something filling and bland.  Because god, do I love bland food.

Kelly's Stuff
adapted from Mom's Stuffed Peppers

- 1lb ground beef
- 1 serving white rice
- ketchup/tomato sauce

1.  Brown ground beef on stove top in a skillet.  Drain excess water/fat when done.
2.  While browning, start cooking the rice.  I use generic minute rice because I'm lazy and poor.
3.  When both of the above are complete, mix the two together in a big bowl.
4.  Top with ketchup or tomato sauce to taste.
5.  Try not to eat it around anyone, as they will judge you.

banana bread

I've made a lot of lousy loaves of banana bread.  It took me several years to get a good recipe under my belt and I think that for a while I was afraid of bananas.  My early loaves were always too dry and then there was that unfortunate chunk of time where I stopped measuring everything and routinely added too much baking soda to all baked goods and wondered why my cookies and breads left my mouth tasting like burning.  Then there was that other unfortunate time where I thought I wanted to eat healthier and used nothing but whole wheat flour, bran, and applesauce to bake with.  In case you were wondering, everything I made during that time period tasted like sticks.

It turned out okay, though.  I buy bananas now for the sole purpose of letting them rot on my kitchen counter and throw them into the freezer for later.  I realized that adding more bananas would alleviate the dryness and using actual sugar wouldn't kill me (and neither would my impending diabetes, hopefully).  I don't even burn myself anymore!

Banana Bread
Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheal flour (old habits die hard)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (it is important to measure this)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 6-7 overripe bananas, mashed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten*. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

* At this point you can either keep the recipe as is, or add some nuts or chocolate chips.  I know this is starting to feel like a round of Cooking Mama.  Sorry.  This time around, I opted for one plain loaf and one chocolate chip loaf.