Happy Birthday, Matt!

Completely delicious! 

Oh yes, a birthday marvel.  

For ages now, I've made cupcakes for Matt's birthday (and for others as well) and this year was no exception. I ask what he wants and he gives me a flavor profile, usually, and this year he asked for lavender and vanilla and macadamia nut. He was slightly more specific, but I know him and his tastes and knew exactly what to do. 'Cause that's how we roll, here. With understanding.

Now, macadmia nuts - as pricey as they are - come in bulk at Whole Foods and so I was able to get just a handful of them. My dad had given me loads of dried lavender when I was in Ohio last, so I had that, and so it was really just a simple matter of how I was going to do it without having that soapy-lavender taste that happens. Since only one person called them "bubble-bath-cakes" (although, they did say they were the most delicious "bubble-bath cakes I've ever had"), not to mention that people really killed these and the birthday boy himself apparently ate four of them...

A win!

And simple.

To make the lavender butter, simply take your dried lavender and use the flower bits, not the stems or sticks, and chuck it in a saucepan of melting butter. I did about two tablespoons, but maybe a little less would be fine. I used one stick of butter.

Mmmm...naturally dried lavender and delicious butter.

My father is so proud. 

Melt down, turn heat to super low, stir and make sure it doesn't burn while you cook it for ten to fifteen minutes. Strain. You can use cheese cloth or a seive or something - I had a tea strainer that was mug-sized, so I used that and pressed the lavender with a spoon to get all the butter out.

TA-DA! 

Lavender butter! 

Now.

- one stick of lavender butter, melted but cooled
- one cup of flour
- half cup of sugar
- one vanilla bean
- pinch of salt
- teaspoon baking powder
- two eggs
- splash of milk (if the batter doesn't come together)

Now. Mix all those together. I did the butter, vanilla, and sugar first. Beat until combined, then add the eggs and beat. Add the flour and baking powder and eggs and beat again. If not battery, add milk.

You should have a delicious batter! Taste it and see if it needs anything - more sugar or vanilla are the likely culprits.

Pour into baking cups in your muffin pan and cook at 350 F for about twenty-five minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the frosting

- one stick of softened butter
- splash vanilla
- chopped up macadamia nuts
- one and half  to two cups powdered sugar

 BEHOLD!  

Blend on high util the butter and powdered sugar is creamy, add vanilla and macadmia nuts. Blend. If too thin, add powdered sugar. Taste. Now. If it is too sweet, either add a little more butter and/or splash in some milk. If it is too buttery, add some powdered sugar.


When the cupcakes are cool, frost and give to pleased individuals.

Unbaked

Still delish.

And of course feel free to use adorable cupcake holders....

 

They really add something, if you ask me.

Then again. I'm always looking for cute ones. Even if I don't get a direct chance to use them!

Taquitos!

I'm not even kidding.

This is the only picture I was able to take, so it is by default the best.

I apologize. Picture something delicious.

THERE. That is now "how tasty my taquitos are". 

Effortless would almost be the word best used to describe this recipe, except for the fact that I accidentally left the broiler on and burnt up my first batch. This did not stop anyone from devouring them, though, which I took as a note of confidence as I made sure to guard over the next batch.

Um, about the broiler. It's how we pre-heat our oven. It isn't even on the list of things to fix about this place - rather, "awesome oven" is on the list for Things For Next Apartment. If I told you what else was on that list, you'd shake your heads, so instead I'll say: if you, too, have an oven like this - wanna start a support group?

Anyway.

I made these easy taquitos! There were both chicken and vegetarian (black refried beans, with extra veg) options. So simple. See how easy?

Ingredients:

- flour tortillas
- two chicken breasts
- one can of vegetarian refried black beans
- four cloves garlic
- diced onion
- diced tomato
- diced bell pepper
- salsa
- sour cream
- guacamole
- basil, salt, pepper, etc etc
- olive oil
- shredded cheese

You'll want to steam the chicken, so shake some basil, salt, and pepper over the breasts and then steam away. While your kitchen starts to smell amazing, heat up the beans in a pan, using a bit of oil, about half the garlic, and season as you wish. You'll just be cooking it up a bit so it is hot.

Shred the cooked-through chicken. Add garlic, a little salsa (a few tbs), some of the onion, and anything else you'd like. Now. Take a tortilla. Rub a little oil onto each side and then, fill the inside with some shredded chicken mixture and cheese. Roll up tightly then place in a baking dish (or on a cookie sheet). Repeat.

For the vegetarian ones, you'll want to put the bean mixture in the inside, with some onion and tomato and cheese, then roll up.

Bake for fifteen minutes at 350 F, or until the tops are crisp and golden-brown and the insides are hot and melty. If you want to broil briefly at the end to get a golden-brownier top, please do.

Serve with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and anything else you want. I imagine that "serve" usually involves plates.

Ours didn't make it farther from the baking dish than our mouths. OH THE LIFE.

Ultra Tasty Brownies

This is delicious. 

A terrible picture, but a delicious brownie.  

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

I'm not actually sure I know anyone named Molly. I know of Mollys. I used to work at Camp Molly Laumen (remember that, it'll come back). Molly Ringwald is pretty cool, although she is second fiddle to Ally Sheedy (sorry, Mol, but even being a fellow ginger can't save you here).This is off topic.

You know what I did, after three days of baking cookies? First, I reminded myself that it's ridiculous to make so many cookies just because I'm working out and then I thought that it didn't matter and so today I made brownies. Do you see the logic there, 'cause I do not.

This did not stop me from making brownies. Delicious brownies. More fudgey and chewy, not dry and ridiculous. It's a nearly perfect brownie. In fact, it might even be the lock-it-down brownie. Might. Only time will tell.

Time and my dress size, yikes, brownies. Delicious! I should find a CYT Recipe for them. Hm. Things to do.

Anyway, these are pretty delicious.

Ultra Delicious Brownies (this was adapted from Diamonds for Dessert) 

- 1 2/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 TBS milk
- 2 TSP vanilla
- 1/2 TSP baking soda
- handfuls of chocolate chips (optional)
- handful of butterscotch chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Prepare a baking dish by buttering a baking pan -I used a     pan, but if you want thinner brownies feel free to use a larger one.

Mix the sugar with the butter and beat, then add the egg and beat. Mix in the vanilla. Then mix in the cocoa powder, baking soda, and flour. Combine, add milk, mix, add the chips (or nuts or whatever) if using and stir stir stir.

Pour in the pan.

Bake for about twenty minutes or until a knife comes out slightly sticky. Slice or use cookie cutters or just get some forks and eat it out of the pan. Whichever.

My roommates LOVE it. As in, this pan didn't last a full twenty-four hours. So, that's a plus. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to cuddle with my cat and then work off these brownies.

Fresh bread! Is anything more delicious?

 Oh man, talk about a smell you wish your kitchen always had.

I find a lot of things, both in and out of the kitchen, to be rewarding. Doing the dishes is nice because at the end, you've accomplished something. I mopped the other night and felt amazing because it was just so CLEAN and smelled so NICE. That was because of the vinegar. Did your parents clean with vinegar? I think that's a difference between people who walk in a kitchen after a cleaning spree and go "smells awesome!" and people who don't.

Those of us who think it's nice remember the spray bottle of vinegar/water that was around for counter tops.

Anyway. I've been wanting to do something especially rewarding for a few days now - make bread! So I did just that today. I've probably mentioned that I've been working on getting over my yeast-fear and this really helped with that. I used Julia Child's white bread recipe because, well, it's Julia!

I tackled my task with a smile and later, multiple hours spent making jewelry later, I was pleased to have two delicious loaves of delicious warm bread in my kitchen. Between my roommates and I, we killed more than half the first loaf and some butter and milk. A bread dinner is a winner, in my book.

 

 This is why could never ever be on the Atkin's diet, even if it does forgive bacon.

Mmmm. Bacon.

Julia Child's White Bread

- 2 1/2 cups hot water
- 1 TBS active dry yeast
- 1 TBS sugar
- 7 cups flour
- pinch salt (one teaspoon if butter is unsalted)
- 7 TBS butter, softened (mine was salted, thus the pinch of salt rather than a teaspoon)


Now.

You'll want to pour a half cup of hot water in a bowl and add in the yeast and sugar, then mix until foamy (ish, mine never got super foamy) and then let sit for about five minutes. It'll look creamy but if you are really uncertain, it'll be okay. Mine turned out and I was a little nervous. I believe in you!

Now, mix the yeast mixture, the rest of the water, and 3 1/2 cups flour together. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, good for you! If you don't, well, pretend your arms are a dough hook. 'Cause for now? They are. Mix until blended, then add the rest of the flour. When it comes together, add the salt and then keep mixing until smooth and elastic.

Now, add one tablespoon of butter at a time and mix mix mix. It might come apart, but that's okay, it'll work out okay. I kneaded the hell out of this in the bowl and once all the butter was in and it was still nicely together, I kneaded it more on a floured surface until it was back to the smooth elasticity that it had been before. I lightly oiled the bowl and lovingly placed the bread in it, turned to have the whole thing oiled, and then covered with a cloth and left it on the counter for about forty-five minutes.

"Rise," I said to it sweetly, "so help me, you will rise."

Once it is doubled in size, come in and punch that sucker back down (sweetly).

I then lightly oiled my bread pan and another circle pan, in preperation.

I shaped a loaf out of one of them, rolling and folding and then pinching it together and putting the sealed bit at the bottom of the pan. Then I made a bunch of rolls out of the other and put them in the other pan.

Re-cover, re-abandon for about forty-five minutes until they have doubled. You can do as I did and whisk an egg white with some water ferociously for a moment and then brushing the tops of the loaves.

At this point, I was feeling pretty good.

But...would it continue to do as I wished?

(yes. yes it would.) 

Place in a 375 F oven for about 30-40 minutes. The tops will be so golden delicious and tapping the loaf will get you a sort of hollow-y sound. Sort of. I think. I get concerned.

Turn out of the pans and place on a cooling rack. Devour and enjoy! This is absolutely insanely delicious and I can NOT wait to do variations. Oh, yeast. I can't believe I spent so long being afraid of you!

 Oh bless my sweet sweet could-have-been-a-wife-in-the-fifties soul.

If wives in the fifites hit on the other housewives over the hydrangea bushes. 

Think they did? I like to think they did. 

The moral of the story here is clearly: don't fear the yeast! Embrace it! 

And eat bread. It's awesome. 

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me.

I could probably eat all of these just like this. 

Thankfully, I have more sense than this. 

Or, um, maybe I just ate too much cookie dough... 

There are probably one millionty billionty chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, making up a not-as-large-as-you'd-think chunk of the over all zillionty types of cookies that exist. Say what you will for the humble cookie, my favorite probably is the chocolate chip and so that is what I have been making lately. I made the traditional Toll House recipe. I made something that very closely resembles that recipe. I made the standard chocolate chip from my 1,001 cookie recipe cookbook.

My aunt got me this cookbook for Christmas this year. This thing could seriously keep a girl busy and, well, I do like to read it. I've even got a short list of things that I was especially "oh, gotta make that" about although it's slow to grow because I can't exactly write most of the book in. (or...can I?) I like cookies. Who doesn't?

Good thing I worked out so much this week, wow. Cookies.

Anyway. The recipe I'm giving you is not, by any means, the only one out there. It's not even the best one out there. But it is pretty tasty and it's what is in the picture, above. My advice? Make lots of them, figure out your favorite recipe, and repeat with a new style of cookie. Stop whenever you eat one and think "yep, okay, this is it, success!" because what matters here is your enjoyment of said cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
-  dash of salt
- 1 stick (half cup) of butter, softened
- 1/4 cup sugar, plus two tablespoons
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or try another spice of your choice!) (optional)
- 6 oz chocolate chips (or semi sweet chocolate, chopped) (or, um, what is left in the bag of chocolate chips that you've been eating for a few days....)

Preheat the oven to 375 F and butter your cookie sheet.

Mix the butter and sugar together until combined, then add in the egg and vanilla and combine again. Mix in the flour, salt, cinnamon, and the baking soda, then stir up nicely. Add chocolate. Mix mix mix. Taste, determine what is missing (if anything) and play with to your heart's content.

Place a spoonful of the dough on the cookie sheet and lightly press down a bit on the top. Repeat, keeping a little distance between the cookies (about an inch). Bake for about seven to ten minutes or until golden brown. Place on cooling rack.

When you don't think you'll burn your mouth, shove a cookie in it and drink delicious milk.

This is also a fabulous breakfast with coffee. By "fabulous" I mean "delicious", but there are healthier choices.

The Eggs Have It. It being a potpie.

 Oh, but don't I love me some panko.

 

I know what time it is and that time is Posting Time! Or two in the morning, take your pick. My primary reasons for posting right now: I am awake and while Lyra would prefer that I were sleeping (or so I would gather from watching her sprawl endearing on the bed and stare me down with half-shut eyes), it's a little toasty in here and part of that is the weather and part of that is the fact that I feel like I'm running a slight fever?

I started to say "baby fever" but then realized that may send the wrong message. Which I don't want to do.

Also, I just wrote and deleted a description of some amazing thrift store finds. Maybe I should add a partner blog to this that talks about my actual life-life. I'm not boring, just ask my therapist (ba DUM bum).

Would anyone be interested in that?

H-hello? (is it me you're looking for...?) 

On to the food! Which is why you are here, I presume. That and my sparkling wit. 

One of my cookbooks is Elinor Klivans' Potpies: Yumminess in a Dish. No, I know, it isn't the best title, but so many cookbooks fall prey to the fact that they don't have the best names.

For those interested. My cat has just climbed under my (new! well. new to me! my roommate sourced this from his home in the 'burbs, bless.) bed and is likely going to climb into the box spring BECAUSE SHE IS INSANE.

Back to Elinor! She also wrote a book about cupcakes, which I also own, and is full of delicious ideas. Now, I love me a potpie and while I have made several from this particular cookbook, I've managed to perfect my own person chicken (or veg!) potpie by this point and so use this for the less traditional ideas. One thing I have always meant to cook from this dish is the Comfort-Me-with-Eggs potpie.

The story she has about it says she was served this in Ohio (represent!) by the Overbey family. I thought her recipe seemed...more basic than I would have preferred, so I took the idea and ran with it. Because you know what? When I made this (the day after Easter) I genuinely needed a comfort dish.

April Fools Day is, apparently, still an excuse for people to break out their inner Mean Girls.

SO. Eggs! Plenty of hardboiled eggs lying around, it had just been Easter! Only one thing to do!

 Oh look! Brightly colored eggs!

Kitchenry's Comfort Me With Eggs Potpie (with major kudos to Ms. Klivans and, apparently, the Overbey's.)

Ingredients

- eight hardboiled eggs
- two cups milk
- butter! about two tablespoons
- one half of an onion, diced the hell up.
- a handful of mushrooms, sliced
- garlic, minced to minceytown. (I used three cloves.)
- 2-3 TBS of flour
- dash of salt
- pepper (or even lemon-pepper. god I love lemon-pepper.)
- basil (as much as you want!)
- paprika (a pinch)

ALSO

- panko! the original recipe suggests 1 1/4 cups, honestly I just put a nice amount in a bowl.
- 2 TSP paprika
- 3 TBS melted butter
- pinch of salt

THEN

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Peel your hardboiled eggs, then cut them in half and place them in the baking dish. I used my pleasing green dish, the original recipe suggests a six cup baking dish. I was fine. You can lay the eggs atop each other if you need, it's fine.

 Chopped and beautiful. 

Although at this point, I was a little like "what. are. you. DOING?"

In a saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until it is hot and steam starts to rise, but don't boil it. Turn off the heat and ignore while you continue.

In another saucepan, melt the butter with the onion and mushrooms for around two minutes. Season with basil. Stir in the flour and cook a bit (or you can, um, forget this part until you've already added the hot milk and then add it but this way is easier. trust me.) for another couple of minutes, then slowly pour the hot milk over it while wisking away like a devil. Season with some salt and pepper and the pinch paprika and any other seasons you'd like. Let thicken, which will take about two or three minutes, and then pour the sauce over the eggs in the baking dish.

Even in non-traditional potpies, the creamy delicious sauce is the turning point. 

It's like a promise to be delicious and comforting.

And a reminder that maybe you should eat a salad or go to the gym.

Y'know.

Now. Mix the panko, paprika, melted butter, dash salt, and any other seasoning if using in a dish to moisten all crumbs. Spoon over the filling and spread it out evenly.

Bake around a half hour, until the top is a deep golden color and it's all bubbly and delicious. Then serve the hell out this.

I'm thinking of adding cheese to the crust next time, since when I reheated mine I added cheese to the dish and died. Seriously, so tasty.

And you know what? Comforting. Which is the whole point of a potpie. 

Pictures! And captions! And a cat!

Panko Chicken. 

Panko is pretty much the best thing ever.

I'm not even kidding you.

It's just so delicious and comforting, no matter how you do it. 

 Creamy Lemony Chicken Pasta. With veggies. 

SPRING IN YOUR MOUTH.

 That's whipped cream with cacao nibs on it, like sprinkles, only better.

You know what's under that?

Delicious honey-vanilla ice cream and chocolate mint ice cream. 

Slightly melty.

You can also just call this "medicine" since that's basically what it was.

Lyra, playing Little Red Hen. 

"Mom, can I have a treat? I've been sleeping all day and I'm bushed."

Your lovely chef.

Who apologizes for not having a legit entry tonight. 

Work + Dealing With Cruel "Friends" + Other Issues = EXHAUSTED

Not too tired to cook, just too tired to post. So. Recipes (not shown above) coming soon! 

Delicious ones! 

xoxo

Beth & Lyra