The Wandering Continues

It's been almost an entire year since my last post, but I'm baaaaackkkk!

True to my blog's name and the intention of this blog, I have continued to wander and now find myself living in Denver, Colorado. I've spent the last 5 months settling in, but I think I'm ready again to start cooking and writing. My kitchen is looking a little barren until all of my stuff makes it out here from Oregon (Mom, I'm looking at you). In the mean time, we have received pots and pans o' plenty from our wedding registry which was enough to inspire something other than top ramen or quesadillas for dinner. Wish I was kidding.

Scrolling through Instagram the other day, my uncle's post caught my eye. For anyone that doesn't know, he is a vegan chef in Switzerland and just about every post of his I see makes me want to hop on a plane to Zurich to make sure everything tastes as great as it looks. Obviously it does. On Tuesday he posted mini pizzas. I've made many a pizza in my time, but my crust never turns out the way I want my crust to turn out, and I've always chalked that up to bad recipes. Definitely not user error. I asked for Jack's recipe because I knew if that didn't turn out, maybe it was time for me to just cool it with the pizzas. Thanks for the recipe Jack!

Fast forward about 3 hours later as I did my daily Pinterest check up and I saw a picture of cast iron pizza. Cast. Iron. Pizza....duh. It's just one of those things that makes sense. Already excited about my new crust recipe AND my new cast iron pan, this was fate.

On Wednesday night I converted the recipe from the metric system (jury's still out on whether I did that right or not...) Then I put it together and into the fridge for a slow rise. Friday night I took it out, let it sit on the counter for an hour and a half and then rolled it out. 

The bottle of olive oil is in the picture because thats what I used to roll it out since I don't have my rolling pin here yet. (Mom I'm still looking at you). It's also in the picture because it makes for a nice Italian scene. 

Into the oiled pan it goes. Cast iron pizza is great because you can roll the crust as far up the sides as you want and make deep dish pizza if you please. Or not if you're anti-Chicago. 

We opted for a not-so-deep dish variety. Nothing against Chicago, (except for the Cubs and the White Sox, and Blackhawks) we just didn't want deep dish pizza. Or at least I didn't, I guess I never consulted with Kyle. First I cooked it on the stove top for about 3 minutes to get the bottom crust nice and crispy. Then threw it into a 500 degree oven for 12 minutes.  

Boom. Crispy crust pizza. If you don't like pizza with crispy crust then first of all you're wrong, and second of all, you probably shouldn't follow these directions next time you make your pizza. It popped right out the pan and le dinnegh was served.

I will say that the crust absorbed quite a bit of the sauce, so next time I will add extra sauce before I bake it. Extra saucey + extra crispy = extra nice.

The Scientifcally Proven Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Last night I came across an article describing two things that are right up my alley: science and cookies. I spent my Friday night reading this article for almost an hour, intrigued by how different your chocolate chip cookies can turn out based on the alteration of each ingredient, the order the ingredients are added, the temperature of the dough, the temperature of the oven, the list goes on. I understand this is not everyone's ideal Friday night, but my options were limited so this was going to have to do the job. Probably would have been better suited for a Tuesday night though.

Now, I can't say I've ever met a cookie I didn't like - but I've only found about two that I really love, and I didn't make them. And when I tried to make them using the same recipe they didn't turn out the same. I guess I chalk that up to user error. The cool thing about this article I found was that I get to become sort of a designer. I decide the qualities that I want my perfect cookie to embody, and based on the cookie facts, I can create my absolute perfect cookie. Here is an example of a cookie fact that will hinder the outcome of your cookie:

"White sugar will give you thin and crisp cookies, while brown sugar will make them tall and moist"

This has to do with the acid in the brown sugar reacting with the baking soda causing the cookies to rise, compared to acid-less white sugar which causes no chemical reaction and thus no rising cookies. It's exciting stuff, I know.

If there is one thing I know, its what I want out of a cookie - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside - but not cakey, chewy, almost doughey, sweet with a good balance of salt, and craggy. If you don't know what craggy means, read the article, you will probably be surprised to find out you also like your cookies craggy. Coincidentally the writer of the article like his cookies exactly the same way, so he put in the work and 60 lbs of flour to finally come up with a recipe that fits the bill.

The procedure for making these cookies is unlike any cookie recipe I've ever followed. I melted and browned the butter, creamed the sugar with the eggs, and chilled the dough over night. What kind of nonsense is that? When I want some cookies,  I don't want to think about it, let the idea rest over night, and finally have my cookies 24 hours later. But for the sake of this experiment, I went with it. Before I put the dough in the fridge I ate some of it, and it was good. I'm talking top 3 best cookie doughs I've ingested.

 

Fast forward to today and it was time to find out if these were really worth waiting overnight for. They baked at 325 degrees, because oven temperature really makes a difference in the shape of your cookie...so they claim. A cooler oven will produce a wider cookie, and a hotter oven will give you a more compact cookie. 325 is what I would call a happy medium.

I was satisfied with them based on appearance alone. If nothing else I now knew how to make a cookie that looked really good. Turns out they tasted great too. The most perfect cookie ever? Ehh I don't think so, but I almost think the perfect cookie is something made up in my head that no one will ever be able to accomplish. At least now I know a bunch of cookie science. 

Honestly though, it is a good read. If you're itching to make your perfect cookie, check out the article Here. From there, you will find the link to the recipe I used.

My grade: B+ - don't get me wrong, it was a great cookie, but it had too much pressure riding on it to be "THE COOKIE" and also I had to wait 24 hours for them and that's not okay.  

Back at it

After a 10 month hiatus, I think it's finally time I bring the blog back. Many a dinner, breakfast and cupcake have gone un-blogged, and it's time to put an end to that madness. I'd like to make promise that I'll keep this thing updated with new posts every week, but let's be honest, we all know that's not going to happen. If I can supply steady posts at least once a month then I'll be happy, and you should be too. 

Let's get to tonight's dinner. If I'm going to take 10 months off, then I figured I better come back with something strong. I can't just go MIA for almost an entire year and then show up and write about the bowl of cereal or kraft macaroni and cheese I had for dinner, and believe me, there have been plenty of those nights that no one is missing out on. Part of the problem is that I cook for myself, so when I'm faced with the decision of dirtying up the kitchen, scaling down portion sizes to serve one and then enjoying my food alone or pouring a bowl of cereal - the bowl of cereal is going to win 9 times out of 10. Maybe 7 times out of 10. I knew tonight's dinner was too good to eat by myself though. When in doubt, invite mom over. 

To take chicken up to a new level, you can stuff it or you can wrap it in bacon. Due to the fact that I need to come back out of the gates strong, I decided to do both. I give you, bacon wrapped chicken on steroids. (Side note: this chicken actually wasn't injected with steroids...according to the label.) 

First things first: butterfly the chicken. I've never actually owned a meat cleaver, so I bought one today, which led to an inappropriate comment by the cashier, that I'm still in shock over. I'll leave it at that. Once the chicken was pounded out, I caked on my stuffing which consisted of sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, water chestnuts, pine nuts, garlic, and seasonings. Oh, and Parmesan cheese because Parmesan cheese is good on everything. 

I wasn't shy with the filling. There is probably at least a half cup worth pressed on to each chicken breast. Then I rolled them up tightly. No need to use toothpicks to hold it together - that's what the bacon is for. All four pieces of bacon. Mo' bacon, mo' betta. 

Here are my little bundles of joy ready for the oven. 40 minutes at 375 loosely covered with foil, then 15-20 minutes longer without the foil. I gave it an extra 5 minutes under the broiler because in this case I like my bacon extra crispy. No one likes soggy bacon. I took them out of the oven and let them rest for about 10 minutes, which also allowed the bacon to crisp up a little more. I sliced them up and served it on top of a bed of lightly dressed arugula. I swear I'm not the food snob I just sounded like. 

And there you have it. If only I remembered ice cream at the store, this meal would have been complete. 

My grade: A - I got used to eating cereal and this was a big upgrade. Pretty easy, and no big mess to clean up. I'll use thinner bacon next time though. 

Mom grade: A+ - She said she "taught me well"...so I guess that means it was good? I bow to you, sensei. 

I Scream, You Scream

Well, finally things are heating up here in Salem and its about that time to bust out the flip flops and the rest of the summer wardrobe. This weekend it was about 85, which I thought was a perfect kickoff to ice cream making season. I've never taken part in ice cream making season, but after I just acquired the ice cream attachment to my kitchen aid from Kyle for my birthday, its time I join the rest of the ice cream artists out there. I plan to have a different flavor of ice cream on hand from now until September. I might repeat a few flavors though if I come across one that's just really doing it for me.

I wanted to start out with something basic, as this is my first go at ice cream making. I thought that taking a recipe out of the instruction manual that came with the maker would be a good start because obviously those people know what they're doing. I opted for the plain vanilla - then I would add some fresh strawberries at the end for a nice little juicy surprise.

I wanted my ice cream to be the ultra-creamy variety, so I used a custard based recipe because I hear that's the best kind. If you were hoping for a vegan, fat free, sugar free version - this is not the recipe for you. And if you were looking for a vegan, fat free sugar free version, you have no business calling it ice cream. The recipe starts out with 8 egg yolks and a cup of sugar, blended together. Don't worry the eggs get pasteurized later, so I'm not making some kind of salmonella cream.

Here is where the eggs, sugar, heavy cream and half and half (I told you it wasn't low fat)  get heated until they are very hot but not quite boiling. As you can see, it is no where near ice cream at this point, just a bowl of liquid-y cream. This is where this ice cream becomes a two day process - because you are supposed to chill the base in the fridge for at least 8 hours and stick it in the ice cream maker the next day. However, we already know how I do things, and I decided that 3.5 hours in the fridge and an hour in the freezer was plenty long enough. It was chilled all the way through, so how much cooler was it going to get?

In the ice cream maker she goes, which had been in the freezer for a couple days, thus making up for the lack of time the base spent in the fridge. I spent a good 25 minutes mesmerized by this thing because it started turning to ice cream right before my eyes. Right around the 28 minute mark I threw in some strawberries that had been pulsed one or two times in the blender.

After 30 minutes was up I turned the mixer off. At that point the consistency was pretty thin, like soft serve that started to melt, but that it what is supposed to look like apparently. You just package it up and stick it back in the freezer for another hour or two to really firm up. That's about the time I gave in to this whole two day process thing and went to bed. When I woke up, I had ice cream for breakfast.

This wasn't bad at all for my first rodeo with ice cream. I want to try out some recipes for sure though just to see where this one really stacks up. Ice cream really is the perfect name for this stuff, I just would have liked this one to turn out a little less icy and a little more creamy.

My Rating: B - It's pretty good but I think I can find something I'm going to love even more

Roommate Rating: B - "The flavor was there but I wanted it to be a little more creamy." As did I.

Strawberry Short, Handheld, Portable Cakes

My lack of recent blogging is due partly to the fact that I haven't felt like firing up my broken computer to write a little blurb about something that didn't even turn out that good. However, it is mostly due to the fact that I haven't even made anything blog-worthy lately. My life has consisted of frozen pizzas, vegetable stir fry and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches lately. I mean, I guess I could have written about Digiorno vs Freschetta, but come on, no one wants to read that, and everyone knows Digiorno is better anyway. But, we had a potluck at work yesterday which prompted me to get to cooking and in turn, get to blogging. There were about 46 different salads that people had signed up to bring so I didn't want to make #47. We needed a dessert and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I found this recipe on...you guessed it...Pinterest for Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes. Here is the link to the original recipe. Strawberry Shortcake is my favorite dessert, so if I can make a portable, hand-held, potluck-friendly version, I'm all for it.

 

From this angle it looks like your everyday average cupcake with a strawberry stuck on top, but when you bite into it, that's when the magic happens. 

Not quite strawberry season, but close enough by my standards

 

 

You start by making a pretty regular cupcake batter, except for the large quantities of butter and flour and added baking powder. I guess its really not that regular - but its not quite a shortcake batter (dough?) either - we'll call it a mix between the two. It makes a thick batter that spoons easily into cupcake liners. Bake for 20 minutes and you're in business. Something I learned this go around: I need to invest in another cupcake tin so I don't have to wait 20 minutes, cool, wait 20 minutes, cool, wait 20 minutes until 36 cupcakes are done. 

Once the cupcakes are (finally) cooled, you hollow out the insides. because these babies are about to be stuffed. 

 

Pretty sure I shared this tip once before, but in case I haven't, an icing tip works really well for hollowing out cupcakes. Just shove it in, base side down, and start cranking it in a circle. When you pull it out, it pulls a ball of cake out with it. Then, you can take a tiny spoon, like your 1/8 teaspoon (what else do you really use that for anyway?) and scrape around the edges. You'll notice that some of my strawberries stick up a little higher than the cake but that's not a problem because it will get covered with frosting anyway. 

 The frosting recipe for these is amazing. Its a whipped cream frosting with the addition of cream cheese to make it stand up. The great part is the cream cheese doesn't weigh it down at all, so it still tastes very light and not too sweet. Oh, and another thing I learned: Disposable pastry bags are SO worth the 20 cents per bag. I will never again stand over a sink washing out a stupid pastry bag.

These actually became probably my new favorite cupcake recipe. They look simple enough and they taste like gold, only they won't chip your tooth. We won't talk about the butter and cream content, but that's what makes them so good. 

My rating: A - I will cook them for a minute or so less next time because they ended up almost dry. If they were just a tad more moist then they would be an A+

Co-worker rating: A+ - I believe the phrase "these taste like a bite of Heaven" was used.

Samoa Wannabees

It's one of my favorite times of year. Yes, I love when the flowers start to bloom and the weather warms up, and yes, I love the start of baseball and softball season. But that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is Girl Scout cookie season.

 

Ever since I was little, I have loved Girl Scout cookies. I don't think there is a kind I don't like. I loved them so much that I joined the Girl Scout one year during cookie season only and then quit immediately after. I wasn't interested in learning how to tie ropes or build fires or whatever else it is they learn. I was there for the cookies. Over the years my favorites have shifted from one cookie to the next. Tagalongs are good, thin mints are even better, but the Samoas are in a league of their own. So when I found a recipe for homemade Samoas you can imagine my excitement. Access to the best cookies out there from my own kitchen, any time of year. 

The recipe was simple. It's a shortbread cookie base, topped with a mixture of melted caramels and toasted coconut, and then dipped and drizzled with dark chocolate (or in my case, milk chocolate). The result was nothing to be upset about. 

The caramel/coconut mixture was spot on. The only place this cookie really differed was in the shortbread department, as real Samoas are much thinner. There is also something about a ring shaped cookie that can't be beat. My mom loved the ones I gave her and my brother had the same critique about the cookie being too thick, but thought they still tasted good. It's hard to compete with the Girl Scouts - they know their cookies. I think I'll stick to the real thing when I can, but for Samoas in October, these will surely do the trick. 

Find the recipe for this, and many other blog entries under the "Recipes" tab at the top of the page. 

Buffalo Wild Flowers

It's President's Day, which means no school, which means no work. I realized it had a been awhile since my last blog and no better day to cook and write than today. I asked for suggestions and thanks to all of my twitter followers I got staggering zero responses! So I texted my sister who has about 25 different ideas stowed away that she wants me to blog about and sure enough she got back to me instantly - requesting buffalo cauliflower bites. Being the Pinterest addict that I have become, I saw these a couple of weeks ago and thought they looked interesting. They are like little boneless buffalo wings sans the chicken.  Any guy reading this may be wondering, what is the point? After all chicken is pretty much the star of buffalo wings. But for us girls, we are intrigued by this. Its all the taste of buffalo wings (well the idea of it anyway) with half of the calories. They are seriously easy to make and taste pretty awesome too!

First thing's first, get a head of cauliflower and chop it up into little bite sized pieces. I haven't worked with cauliflower all that much so I basically just treated it like broccoli. I cut off the stems and left the heads in various chicken-nugget-like sizes.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 C flour, 1 C water and 2 t garlic powder. This is the batter that you'll dip the cauliflower into. You'll notice it uses water rather than milk, keeping the fat and calories to a minimum. I didn't get a picture of this step because the dentist office called, but you just coat the cauliflower and put it on a greased cookie sheet. I used my silpats rather than greasing them and it worked great.

Bake them for 20 minutes at 450 degrees and they will look like this. Nothing special, just battered cauliflower. Take about 3/4 C buffalo sauce and 1 Tbsp  melted butter (these are the only fat calories I swear) and mix them together in a bowl. Thoroughly coat the cauliflower with the sauce and then put them back on the cookie sheet to bake for another 5 minutes.

Serve them with celery sticks and some ranch or blue cheese (the light version of course) and you can fool just about anyone into thinking its chicken. Until they take a bite out of it. Although it doesn't taste like chicken, they really don't taste bad at all. In fact they taste pretty dang good. You still get the crispy outer shell and the spicy buffalo taste without the guilt. Give them a try, chances are you will be pleasantly surprised!