Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies July 3, 2009

Throw away all previous recipes for chocolate chip cookies. They are unnecessary after this easy to follow recipe from the one and only Alton Brown.

Ingredients

* 2 sticks unsalted butter
* 2 1/4 cups bread flour
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside. You don’t really NEED to sift, but if it floats your boat…

Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. I like to freeze it first, but not necessary – I think it makes a better cookie when you freeze it. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Starbucks Mocha Frappacinos from Scratch January 26, 2009

I just saved myself like $50 making these delicious things. I used Christmas Starbucks blend coffee and it just tastes just like the real thing. The texture wasn’t exact because I don’t have a commercial blender (who has one of those at home??), but it tastes so good it doesn’t matter. I was out of syrup and used cocoa powder instead and it still tasted GREAT!! Super YUM!

1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tbs sugar (or use equivalent in sweetener)
1/3 cup strong coffee
1 cup ice

Directions:

Combine all ingredients, except ice– in blender, whirl until sugar is dissolved– add ice and blend until smooth. If the consistency is too smooth, add some more ice.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes, and others January 26, 2009

So blueberry cream cheese cupcakes sounds good, right? Not if you use the recipe from Deceptively Delicious! It looks so disgusting – like a chunk of moldy bread. The taste is super bland and texture alien.

I also tried making the Chicken Nuggets and Mozz Sticks. The chicken nuggets were good and worth it, but they bake faster and better than frying. The Mozz Sticks recipe makes WAY too much breading and doesn’t taste that great. They were difficult to fry as well because they don’t stick together well. Here is a picture.

Mozz sticks on the right. Nuggets on the left.

Birthdays and Christmas and New Years January 1, 2009

Maddox’s 2nd birthday was Dec. 24th.  Here are some photos of him opening his presents.  On Christmas, he spent more time playing with the scotch tape than the large Tonka truck sitting next to him.

On New Years, I tried Alton Brown’s pancake mix one more time without trying to make it healthy with applesauce and junk.  It was the BEST pancake mix EVER.   William ate half of his chocolate chip pancake before I could get in a picture.  Yes, the photo  is only HALF the pancake and there are two stacked on top of each other.  Needless to say, we didn’t have much of a lunch later

My muffin eating his birthday muffin.  He loved the balloons.

We stayed home all day because we were just getting over the flu.  Maddox loved playing with his favorite toy of all time – the spices.

Why play with a big cool tonka truck when you have a whole roll of Scotch tape in your hands?

One of my past times… running around the house like crazy.

“Daaaaat!”

Pancake breakfast on New Years morning.

This is only half the pancake!

More D.D. – Avocado in Chocolate! January 1, 2009

My new favorite chocolate fondue.  It has avocado in it and mixed with the chocolate tastes GREAT.  You wouldn’t even know there was an avocado and some cauliflower mixed in!

I also made the potato soup with added carrots.  She must have used white carrots or something – because the picture looks nothing like what I made.  It tasted okay.  Nothing to write home about.

I also made the Applesauce Muffins.  They were tasty and healthy!  I think next time I’ll try using Apple Cinnamon oatmeal for the topping.

My Journey through Deceptively Delicious December 16, 2008

Brownies (with carrot and spinach)

Now – they aren’t REAL brownies.  But they do taste really really good.  I give it a thumbs up on taste.  However, and this is a big however, if you are picky about texture this is not the recipe for you.  The brownies are more cake-like.  They don’t bake flat, so you have to turn them upside down to hide their lumpiness.  But I don’t care – they still tasted darn good for 3 grams of fiber and only 133 calories!

semisweet chocolate

carrot puree and  spinach puree

brown sugar

cocoa powder

margarine

vanilla

large egg whites

flour, baking powder,  salt

If they are warm, the notes say you can taste the spinach a little bit.  But cool, you don’t taste it at all!

Tuna Salad (with cauliflower)

This was fantastic.  Great texture and taste.  I’m sure if you are a diehard about adding sweet relish like my hubby is, you could do that too.  But this was YUMMMMy.

tuna (water pack), drain

cauliflower puree

low fat mayo

stalks of celery, finely chop

chili powder, paprika, garlic powder

salt

pepper

Mix tuna, cauliflower and mayo.  Stir in celery and seasonings.

I’m trying the Creamy Potato Soup recipe next!

Yummy stuff for this weekend November 9, 2008

Cinnamon Muffin Melt Knock Offs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 large egg

3/4 milk

1/3 cup unsalted butter

For Rolling:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1  teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

2. Mix dry ingredients together, set aside. Beat egg and milk together in small bowl, set aside. Beat softened butter until light and fluffy.

3. Alternate adding in egg and flour mixtures, mixing after each addition.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each cup 2/3 full.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes, turn pan over onto a wire rack removing all muffins then turning them over with tops up. Let them cool enough so they may be handled.

6. Melt the remaining butter. Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

7. Once muffins have cooled dip all sides in melted butter then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on wire rack to finish cooling.

8. May be served warm or cool. Store in an airtight container.

Pumpkin Bread

• 2 cups sugar (I use 2 cups sugar when subbing applesauce for most of the oil as mentioned below.)
• 1 cup vegetable oil (I use 1/4 cup oil and 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 (16 ounce) can solid-pack pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon clove, ground
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice, ground
• 1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs.  Add pumpkin and mix well.  Combine dry ingredients; add to the pumpkin mixture alternately with water.  Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans.  Bake at 350 F for 60-70 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack; cool completely.

Halloween Pics November 4, 2008

Well, the first is the scariest picture of all.  I tried making Todd Wilbur’s copy of CPK’s Pea and Barley Soup.  It is delicious!  However, to get there I had to puree the pea soup at one point.  Since I don’t have a hand blender stick, the directions said I could use my food processor.  Well…. you know there is a “max liquid” line?  Crazy huh!

And here are the pictures of my baby bear!

Done with Christmas! November 3, 2008

I have almost all my shopping done AND have two cards made.  I wasn’t quite happy with the second one, so I made the first one.  Here they are!

Collages and Keepsakes October 16, 2008

Here are the first of my collages and keepsakes I made this week.  The white on white background doesn’t show the best here, but they are 8×10 prints: