One Stick of Butter

Filed under Baking, Recipes by on 2 February 2011 at 11:06 am {6 comments}

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?

Some things take awhile. . .

Filed under Baking by on 5 April 2010 at 10:29 pm {2 comments}

This post will be picture heavy because I am plum tuckered out.

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Sunday was an amazing day weather wise. Jeremy and I ate lunch with friends.

Lunch was excellent. There were lots of veggies and only a few of them were covered in cheese. Major holiday success. After eating, we did a lot of this.

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It was hard to leave the sun, but eventually I started on a project. A co-worker is having a surprise baby shower, so I volunteered to bring cake. I hate the store bought cakes from the grocery store.  Baking cakes from scratch is fun, but usually for me it’s a multi-day process. This process involved an epic fail.

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This is what happens when you’re talking on the phone instead of thinking, “I should let this cool awhile before I violently shake it out of the pan.”

I recovered though and managed to bake two ten inch cakes. I was done at that point after baking three cakes. Tonight I made the icing and decorated. 

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IMG_1110  I hope she likes it. She used to fly in high school, so hopefully she’ll pick up on my theme.

Ahh Vacation

Filed under Baking, Sewing by on 23 February 2010 at 9:08 pm {2 comments}

The last few days have been crazy. Thursday I had to stay at school until 8. By the time I got home, I fell asleep within the hour. Friday, Jeremy and I had to get everything ready for our weekend trip to Virginia for my Nana’s birthday.  Saturday through Monday, we were in VA. This week is my February break from school, and it is a wonderful thing. I have a lot of things planned for this time (cooking, baking, sewing a new apron and of course laundry). I love being at home and doing all the things I enjoy.

After being offline for basically 5 days, I had a lot of blog reading to catch up on; so this morning I lounged in bed and had some reading time.  Once I finally decided to get up, I watched The View and ate leftover Thai for brunch. While I was enjoying The View, I created a meal plan for the week by pulling out multiple cook books. Being at home, means I can cook things that take a little longer.

  • Picci di Peppe w/Roasted Brussel sprouts and prosciutto (w/ a little help from Giada)
  • Veggie Pot Pie (Gourmet Today)
  • Veggie Burgers w/ Homemade buns
  • Boeuf Bourguignon (The Joy of Cooking)

Being able to just chill at home in the middle of the day is great. I finally ordered a new battery for my laptop. As I was calling Best Buy and watching Food Network, I heard Giada say “pepe.” I turned off my phone and paid attention.

The best meal I had in Italy last summer, was Pici de Pepe e Cacio. Basically, it’s a very specific type of Pasta (that I’ve yet to find in the States), pepper and hard cheese.

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I looked for a recipe when I got back and had trouble finding one but there it was on TV. I was so excited. While I was in Italy, I bought a bag of the Pici. It was dragged all over Italy and France, but made it back just fine.

I decided tonight was the night to eat it. Part of me was really sad to eat it, as I don’t know when I’ll be able to get more; you can basically only buy it in Siena.

I roasted some Brussels’ sprouts with Prosciutto and garlic. I picked up a loaf of rosemary and olive oil bread as well.

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It was a great meal.

I’ll be posting about the VA trip, and the wonderful barbecue I ate  at a restaurant in Richmond that beat Bobby Flay in a throw down.

It's Been Awhile. . .

Filed under Uncategorized by on 24 September 2009 at 12:34 am {one comment}

Work is finally getting into a flow, so hopefully I’ll be able to get back to more regular blogging. I really like blogging, which means I should do it more often.

Three things . . .

Thing  One

Work is going well, but some of my students are just wacky. Yesterday, one of my freshmen (with a 8 inch tall mohawk)  asked me if I wanted to see the skunk he had. I assumed he meant a picture and told him I would look at it after he did his work. He finished his work and asked if I would now look at his skunk. I said yes. He proceeded to pull out an actual skunk skin/coat/pelt; I don’t know what to call it. I was a little taken aback but have come to expect things like this. He said his dad had given it to him as a gift. He was really pretty happy about it and pretended like it was a puppet. There are crappy, crappy days at my job but things like make it pretty enjoyable sometimes.

Thing Two

Jeremy joined my gym. I guess that means that now it is our gym. Last fall and winter, I had a hard time getting to the gym. Time is so limited when we both get home that we wanted to be together.  Since we went to separate gyms, I usually ended up not going.  This fall has been  a lot better though. We’ve been working out frequently, and my jogging/running is definitely improving. It’s been fun to have someone to work out with. I’ve kept off all the weight that I lost in Europe. I would like to lose 10 more pounds.

Thing Three

Fall is here. Summer was short, but I still love fall. My friend Mindy is coming to visit the first weekend in October. We have a lot of great things planned: Apple Picking, Salem, MA, Books Sale. It should be great.

Fall also means baking. I made the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had. They are a bit blurry. Sorry.

100_1357I started with a recipe from the cookbook Hearts and Flour and of course changed it all around. The topping is the best part in my opinion, which was not in the recipe. A mix of oats and wheat germ, nutty and delicious.

Keep checking. I will be blogging more frequently. My goal is three times a week.

When you bake do you follow the recipe or just see it as a suggestion? Leave your thoughts.

Crazy for Oats

Filed under Uncategorized by on 13 September 2009 at 4:43 am {no comments}

The last few weeks I have been on an oats kick. I can’t get enough of them it seems. I’ve been eating oatmeal for breakfast several times a week. We even had oatmeal when we went camping. Two weeks ago, I made Peanut Butter Oatmeal No-bakes. They are one of my favorite cookies, not to mention the fact that they are so quick and easy.

On Wednesday, I stopped at a farm that I pass everyday on the way home from school. I picked up a few veggies and some apples. I ate one apple on the way home, and it was so tart I could hardly finish it. Apparently, it’s a bit early for apples. One good thing about fruit though is whether it’s too ripe or not ripe enough you can bake with it.

Jeremy’s mom has given me tons of cook books. I love cookbooks especially ones that are filled with contributed recipes i.e. church cookbooks. These are always filled with kid tested mom approved recipes.

Tonight I used this cookbook Applehood and Motherpie.

I took my too tart apples and turned them into a delicious Apple Crisp, with of course an oatmeal topping.

Jeremy ate his with a few dallops of vanilla ice cream on the side.

I am slowly accepting that fall is coming. New England didn’t really get much a summer this time around, so I am really not ready for snow. Hopefully, it will be a mild winter.

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