Saturday, December 11, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
California!
What is your favorite spot in California to go 1.) During the day 2.) At night?
Continue reading...
Thursday, May 6, 2010
sorry its been so long. these will make up for it.
I apologize that it has been so long. I got busy with life. However, now it is finals week and I am procrastinating so I thought I should definitely share these. I made them for myself for my birthday last week, and they were delicious. Time consuming, but unbelievably worth it and amazing. Notice I said time consuming, not difficult. Clearly the recipe comes from the Queen herself, Martha Stewart. Okay, not the queen, but she may as well be. The recipe that I used can be found here.
You'll need:
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (4 ounces) heavy cream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
So you'll start with the ganache, or the filling. Put four ounces of the chocolate in a small, heatproof bowl. In a small plan over medium heat, you'll heat the cream until it begins to boil. Once it is boiling remove from heat and pour it over the chocolate, while hot. Let it stand for a minute or two, then mix it until smooth. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until it is SET. About an hour, probably longer. Use a 1-inch scoop to make balls of the set ganache, place on a parchment lined tray - not touching. Two important tid bits: MAKE SURE THE GANACHE IS SET. and normally I'm not one for parchment lining anything, too lazy, but we didnt this time and regretted it very quickly. Freeze these for at least an hour, but up to three days.
Once they've been in their an hour, the rest is easy and quick. Preheat the oven to 450, line a muffin/cupcake tin with your liners. Or what we definitely wished we had thought of earlier was using those free standing cupcake liners that you can put on a cookie sheet. We ended up crushing a few of ours taking them out of the tray at the end, so if you have some of the free standing ones around you should try those.
You're going to make the batter, which is surprisingly simple. In a medium (heat proof) boil set over a pan of simmering water, heat the remaining chocolate (eight ounces) with the butter until its melted. While thats melting, but still being occasionally stirred, mix together your eggs, the yolks, and sugar until its pale and thick (five minutes?). Quickly add this to the melted chocolate that has been removed from heat, and fold in until ALMOST completely incorporated. Sift flour and salt over mixture, lightly fold it in.
Divide this batter amound the liners, but filling only half way. Then add a ganache ball to each, and then fill with the rest of the batter. you can fill them basically to the top. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool lightly, cakes will fall, we aren't making souffles. Serve them warm. (I ended up with one left, and microwaved it for breakfast the next day [hey it was my birthday, don't judge] and it was still delicious.) I garnished mine with ice cream. It soothes the immense chocolate flavor. Enjoy!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
smookies?
Smore Cookie Bars. Seriously one of the best inventions in the world. A graham cracker flavored cookie, a layer of yummy melted milk chocolate, a fluffy layer of marshmallow goo, and another layer of cookie. Delicious. I've made them multiple times, and never have they failed to impress. Probably not wise to serve at a very fancy gathering, as they tend to get a little messy. But anywhere else, throw these easy cookie bars together and serve them warm. :) I found these here.
What You'll Need:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)(though one day, I am going to try this with whole marshmallows and see what happens)
Preheat your oven to 350, prepare your 8x8 pan...
So in a bowl, cream together the butter and both the kinds of sugar until it gets light. This whole "creaming" thing is another one of those "not if you live in a dorm" kind of luxuries, so I usually just melt the butter and mix it in and pretend I followed the directions. Then add the egg and vanilla, stir til combined, set aside.
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, crumbs, baking powder, salt). Once this is all together, throw it into the butter mixture. However, if, once again, either you're lazy or have limited supplies or what not the only real benefit of this step is combining the crumbs and the flour, so I usually just skip it and throw it all straight into the butter mixture because its less bowls to wash. But shhh, dont tell.
Next, you're gonna divide the cookie dough in half, and put one half of it into the bottom of your 8x8 pan and make an even layer. Then place the chocolate bars over them, they should probably fit perfectly but if not break and make it fit! Then spread the marshmallow fluff. Fun! Sticky! Yay! I've learned this works a lot more effectively when the marshmallow fluff is not cold. Next, the really fun and sticky part, putting the second layer of cookie on top of the marshmallow fluff... Good luck! According to the recipe, the easiest way is by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together. I usually just kind of go at it and hope it works.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until lightly browned and it smells wonderful. The recipe says cool completely, but I definitely prefer them warm. And with leftovers I usually just microwave them for a few seconds at a time to warm them up, and they stay delicious.
Enjoy!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Broccoli.
So the headline on this article caught my eye. I was like, really, who's to say THIS will be the best? But honestly, it was. It was absolutely delicious. I saw boys who I've never seen eat vegetables before eat it. It was soooo good. That hint of lemon with the amazing flavor of the cheese. SO GOOD. I could seriously eat this as my side dish every night. The recipe I got it off of didnt really have a straight up ingredient list, so I didn't really use exact amounts of anything, so I'll tell you my guestamites.
So what you'll need:
2-3 Bunches of Broccoli Crowns (or some bags of broccoli wokly)
4-5 Tbs Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Lemon
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Preheat oven to 425.
So you'll start by cutting your broccoli into florets if you didnt buy already cut up ones. Make sure that if you washed your broccoli that its totally dry, otherwise it will get all gross and burned. Put it in a bowl, toss with the olive oil and some salt and pepper (whatever you normally put on food should be fine, I didnt measure at all.) Spread them out on a cookie sheet. You can line it if you wish, but I didnt.
Pop this in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until its golden brown ish, but not burned.
Now, zest the lemon over the broccoli (I skipped this step, lemon zest annoys me), and then squeeze the lemon juice over all the broccoli. Make sure all the broccoli gets some love, as thats the best part. Then top with the cheese. Serve warm. ENJOY! Definitely definitely enjoy.
I want to try putting it back in the oven for a bit after I add the cheese, to melt it. If you want to try that, let me know how it turns out.
Hope you love them too!
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