One Stick of Butter

When I got home, after driving in entirely too much snow yesterday, I knew I would need to bake. I had a horrible realization that I might be out of butter. Luckily, I found one stick. When you need to bake and you only have one lonely stick of Cabot butter, you should obviously Google, “Dessert with one stick of butter.” I was able to find a recipe on King Arthur Flour. As someone who doesn’t like chocolate that much, I’m always a big fan of desserts with cinnamon as the main flavor.

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These are the suggested ingredients from King Arthur:
Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream or yogurt (I used reduced fat)

Topping
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Process:

  1. I made several changes. I used half brown sugar and half white. I also added a teaspoon or so of vanilla to the batter while creaming the eggs, butter, and sugar. For the topping, I ditched the nuts and again mixed half brown and half white sugar. (We liked things mixed around here, obviously!)
  2. The process is simple cream the sugar, butter, and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour cream until  well blended.
  3. Pour half of the batter in a 9×9 pan cover with half of the topping, repeat. Bake at 350.
  4. While the recipe says this should take 25 to 30 minutes, I had to leave mine in for about 45 minutes. I didn’t think it would ever finish baking. While it was baking, I whisked up 3 tablespoons of cream cheese, a few tablespoons of powdered sugar, and a bit of vanilla.

This tasted just like sweet, fluffy cinnamon rolls, which was perfect after our very savory dinner.

IMG_6977 It was so good, we had coffee cake again for breakfast. What good is a snow day if you can’t eat dessert for breakfast?

Delicious Weekend

After both of us being gone last weekend, we were ready for some time at home.

Friday I wanted to make a nice dinner for Jeremy. I swung by the grocery store on the way home and picked up some salmon. I glazed the salmon with soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, and pepper flakes, served fresh green beans and roasted red potatoes.

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I had a leftover chicken tender, sometimes I’m just really not feeling the salmon.

Saturday we started cleaning and organizing our attic. It is, without a doubt, a work in progress. There are so many things we need to either trash or take to Goodwill. After working for awhile, we went out for a walk to enjoy the nice warm day. 60 degrees in NH in November is a big treat.

When we got back Jeremy went for a bike ride and I got started on dinner and dessert.
From the time we finished my luxurious dinner entry for Project Food Buzz until yesterday we’ve been thinking about sage roasted pork. For dinner we had roast pork with mushroom gravy, sage stuffing, and parmesan broccoli.

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While I’m not a huge mushroom fan because of their texture, the flavor of the dried porcinis is so rich. We both might have had extra stuffing just to eat more gravy.

After watching Fanny’s Last Supper, the PBS documentary about Chris Kimball’s new book, I really wanted to make something from scratch.  While it was intimidating at first, I made cream puffs. They were so easy and would definitely be a great dessert if you were surprised with guests. If you’ve never tried them, you should. The recipe I used came from one of my favorite cook books Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book: Celebrating the Promise, 14th Limited Edition ‘>Better Homes and Garden.  This cookbook isn’t fancy, but it is so reliable. It is also always on my counter in my cookbook holder.

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I filled the puffs with vanilla pudding, which was made with soy milk. Per several websites, if you use soy milk for pudding use half of the milk for which the recipe calls.

After such a relaxing weekend, I’m dreading going back to work a bit. Hopefully, it will be a quick easy week though.

Chocolate, No Thanks

Usually I’m the odd woman out when anyone is discussing chocolate because I really just don’t like it that much. Occasionally, I’ll eat a a hand full of M&M’s, a Hershey’s kiss, and I do love a Caramello bar once in awhile, or  even some NoBake cookies. On the occasion when I do eat a Caramello bar, it’s usually in two sittings. So if it’s covered in a candy shell, peanut butter, mint, or caramel, I like it. While I harbor a small affection for milk choc0late, I hate, loathe, and despise dark chocolate or semi-sweet. There’s just something about that taste that I cannot tolerate.  I blame my mother for this and all the chocolate she ate while she was pregnant with me.

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Even though I don’t like chocolate, I know almost everyone around me does. I am not one to withhold baked love from others, so I often turn out chocolate chip cookies and brownies. I even have a favorite brownie recipe, not because I’ve ever tasted them but because they get the best reviews. For the last three years, all the brownies I’ve made have been from scratch. You only need a few ingredients that I always have on hand to make great brownies, and you only need one bowl.

While I’ve never tasted them, everyone loves them especially Jeremy.

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Brownies
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter melted
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup cocoa (heaping)
  • ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon (added essential ingredient)
  • The Key – toppings (mini-marshmallows, peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, Nutella, M&M’s) Accessorize your brownies

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 9 inch pan.
  2. Melt butter in your mixing bowl (only works if your bowl is ceramic not metal).
  3. Beat in sugar and vanilla, add eggs one at a time.
  4. Add dry ingredients mixing well.
  5. Spread into pan.
  6. Add your TOPPINGS!
  7. Bake for 2 0minutes. Less or more depending on if you like your brownies a little doughy or not.

Notes
This recipe is adapted from Old Fashioned Cookies Best Brownies recipe.

 

One Green Weekend

So far Jeremy and I have had a great weekend together. He hasn’t been working, which is rare and lovely, and I haven’t been spending oodles of time on the computer. Friday night we hung out and watched the last DVD of The Big Bang Theory season 1. This show really just cracks me up.

Yesterday we got up fairly early for a Saturday and headed out to Portsmouth to hit up the farmer’s market.  We have a small farmer’s market in our own town but I wanted organic seedlings. Of course there were other things purchased, a delicious wild blueberry muffin from a woman from Maine, pork sausage for Jeremy, maple leaf lettuce and green leaf lettuce. The lettuce was so fresh and green I was just eating it while we walked around.

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After getting our seedlings, we went to The Friendly Toast and split a burrito. I’ve raved about it before  here.  They’ve been nominated for America’s best breakfast on Good Morning America. I voted; I hope they win.

After eating we grabbed a gift card for a friend who was having a graduation party and came home to chill for a few minutes before heading back out again. Jeremy decided it was time to cut his hair. He started by cutting his hair into a bowl cut. I told him he should cut it into a Mohawk. At first it was just a joke, but once he cut it I really liked it. I told him he should keep it.  I didn’t really think he would do it; he’s pretty laid back and hates having any attention drawn to him, but I finally convinced him.

IMG_2222He decided to trim it down a bit. I hope he keeps his new doo for awhile. How many mathletes do you know with sweet Hawks?

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Today we are going to put in our garden. I knew we needed some good fuel, so after getting up and paying bills I made breakfast. Homemade biscuits, fresh eggs from a work friend’s very own farm, and some Al Fresco apple chicken sausage.  The biscuits were so delicious; I could easily have eaten five  if I had allowed myself.  I love making homemade biscuits and getting the dough between my fingers. I always add cinnamon because very few things smell as good as bread baking with cinnamon.

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Time to get this garden in. Have a great Sunday.

One Green Weekend

So far Jeremy and I have had a great weekend together. He hasn’t been working, which is rare and lovely, and I haven’t been spending oodles of time on the computer. Friday night we hung out and watched the last DVD of The Big Bang Theory season 1. This show really just cracks me up.

Yesterday we got up fairly early for a Saturday and headed out to Portsmouth to hit up the farmer’s market.  We have a small farmer’s market in our own town but I wanted organic seedlings. Of course there were other things purchased, a delicious wild blueberry muffin from a woman from Maine, pork sausage for Jeremy, maple leaf lettuce and green leaf lettuce. The lettuce was so fresh and green I was just eating it while we walked around.

IMG_2246

After getting our seedlings, we went to The Friendly Toast and split a burrito. I’ve raved about it before  here.  They’ve been nominated for America’s best breakfast on Good Morning America. I voted; I hope they win.

After eating we grabbed a gift card for a friend who was having a graduation party and came home to chill for a few minutes before heading back out again. Jeremy decided it was time to cut his hair. He started by cutting his hair into a bowl cut. I told him he should cut it into a Mohawk. At first it was just a joke, but once he cut it I really liked it. I told him he should keep it.  I didn’t really think he would do it; he’s pretty laid back and hates having any attention drawn to him, but I finally convinced him.

IMG_2222He decided to trim it down a bit. I hope he keeps his new doo for awhile. How many mathletes do you know with sweet Hawks?

IMG00061-20100515-1617

Today we are going to put in our garden. I knew we needed some good fuel, so after getting up and paying bills I made breakfast. Homemade biscuits, fresh eggs from a work friend’s very own farm, and some Al Fresco apple chicken sausage.  The biscuits were so delicious; I could easily have eaten five  if I had allowed myself.  I love making homemade biscuits and getting the dough between my fingers. I always add cinnamon because very few things smell as good as bread baking with cinnamon.

IMG_2234

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Time to get this garden in. Have a great Sunday.

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