Happy belated St. Patty's Day!

The night was young, and I am, not feeling that young anymore. Sorry, I got too tired last night! As you know, it was St. Patrick's Day yesterday (Happy St. Patrick's Day!) and I went dessert crazy -I think mostly from stress? So here is the load-down on the Irish goodies I made. Okay, so the first one I'm mentioning isn't Irish, but it's this lime-swirled icebox cookie, super soft and flat. They tasted much like sugar cookies. Then I made these lime popcorn balls that I made last year. So good. There is always someone who falls madly in love. Yesterday, it was made known when my friend told me that they will be the death of him. Haha -that good huh?

I also went and made this "irresistible" Irish soda bread. Turned out great! -except for the fact that I didn't grease the pan enough, so the bottom stuck and didn't follow the rest of the bread out. If it wasn't obvious enough, I didn't not bring that out to share on display. It was justdevoured on the D.L by the inmates :)

Because of that devastating experience, I had to quickly boost my feeling of self competency by making my favorite scone recipe, Irish scones. And as always, they made me happy.

Next up, I made something completely new. It was my new challenge. I had made, potato petite fours. Yup! You heard me. And because this recipe called for marzipan, what was I going to do? Make marzipan, of course!! Turns out marzipan is pretty easy to make! And boy, is that stuff divine! It totally makes the petite fours what they are. These little cake bites were AMAZING. Like they blew my socks off --if I were wearing socks. I even got a comment from someone who's a pretty frequent Europe traveler say that these little guys are possibly the best things she has ever tasted. Little heavenly bites. Wow. Huge compliment. To top that off, one of my fellow cooking foodie told me how these potato petite fours are very much my style. I didn't really know I had a style in my baking. And I am not sharing all these comments to boast or flatter myself, but to express my shock for how well these little guys turned out to be! Here I was, making them and saying how over baked and weird they looked. I even tried one of my extras that didn't get marzipaned and it didn't taste impressive. Well, all I have to say for myself is, I stand corrected.

For this particular event, for this particular occasion, I had, indeed, made a mini pub. This was my first attempt in doing such a thing. I was able to pull it off with it being alcohol free. Not tipsy or drunk free, mind you. There is, indeed, a difference, as it was proven last night.

There were jello shots, strawberry daiquiris, oxblood, and beer mix (honey mustard pretzels, pretzel sticks, five hot peanuts, and sesame sticks).

A special note: My baby brother's birthday was Friday! It's his first birthday spent out of the country. I sent him a package, but what I really wished was to make him a birthday cake :( I made black treacle scones on his birthday though. They smelled so, cozy. They have cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, they do wonders to the senses. And what could possibly make this breakfast any more amazing?! My fellow friend and housemate made ricotta cheese! From scratch! So imagine the wonders of a warm, spiced scone with fresh ricotta cheese smeared on with fresh, sweet strawberries to top it off. Yes, it was a breakfast to remember. Too bad my brother wasn't here to enjoy it on his birthday.

I really didn't want to post this, but, here it goes. I also made these one-bowl cheddar biscuits. Their surprisingly not as unhealthy as they sound (the cheddar part makes me think it's going to be super greasy). And maybe that's the reason they turned out looking the way they did.....

3.14159!

Happy Pi(e) Day!! So, lent makes things --challenging. I would normally make a sweet pie, but unfortunately Pi(e) Day is on a weekday. What does that mean? Well, say hello to deep dish chicken pot pie!

I've made pot pie before but it has always been kinda really made up. I just remember using a wheat, bready dough for the crusts and using powdered milk for the filling. This time I tried using a pie crust recipe I've used for pumpkin pies and a black berry pie. The only difference being that I cut the butter in half. It turned out pretty good. The crust was pretty dense, not loose, but still nice and flaky! Then for the filling I used chicken broth and milk. Oh yeah, and I used flour for thickening, not sure if I did that in the past. But if I may say so myself, the pot pie turned out rather good.

Good run, good food

So today after an early afternoon run, I really wanted to eat Bibimbap. It's a Korean dish that is kinda like fried rice where there are lots of things mixed into rice. So how it works is that you have your rice, then you add the vegetables (cooked/raw but usually cooked), some meat is optional but oh so good, kimchi (a staple Korean dish. Pretty much default for anything Korean), and a sunny-side-up egg. This is all topped off with sesame oil and sesame seeds. When all ingredients are placed in the bowl, everything is mixed together. The egg plays a HUGE roll in this dish. It makes it creamy!! Soooo good. Love Love Bibimbap.

De-stress!!

Everyone has there own way of de-stressing, and I deprived myself from it this past week! Stupid? Yes. Very stupid. But I didn't think it was at the time. So yes, I had a very stressful week and I deprived myself from my de-stressor. What is my de-stressor, you might ask? BAKING.

Now, because of all this, I about exploded in baking mode yesterday! I wanted to bake everything! Haha Maybe I'm exaggerating, just kind of. Well, I at least baked to my hearts content. First, in getting into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, I baked this sweet deLIGHT called Sweet Irish Bread. It's a light quick bread that tastes so much like the wonderful pound cake Costco makes! --just no where near as greasy. I wonder, if I just switch out the flour for cake flour, would that do the trick? Man, this bread is my new love --what am I saying, I've got a lot of loves.... This bread tastes like something that would just melt in your mouth! It is SO GOOD!!

After baking that, I didn't feel quite like I was done baking. Do you know that feeling? Well, I think I know that feeling a bit too well. So, I decided, since it was the weekend, I was going to bake cookies. I had been wanting plain ol' chocolate chip cookies all week!! So I made a batch of my chocolate chip cookies and as always, they hit the spot. If I could, I probably would eat the whole batch of those cookies in one day! Easy peasy! And that's kinda saying something cause one batch makes like 4 dozen or so (okok, so they're like, 2 bites small, but still!).

I was experimenting and stuffed a few cookies with this sea salt caramel chocolate and Holland Mint. It's the only way I can try new candy, if it's in something.

Today, I came home to a lovely surprise. A friend had dropped off a bowl of cookies! I guess this lovely weather we are having is causing everyone to think.. cookie. Well, I won't complain :)

Beautiful weather -- just stay already!

Today is another wonderful Spring-like day. It was just that yesterday, it LOOKED like it was warm, but of course, it wasn't. I've been doing good with my lent: morning runs every day and no sugar additives (of any sort, not even natural sweeteners) including desserts (even if they are sugar free). But today, I must admit, is kind of hard. I've been asked to do a friend a favor. This friend of mine claims to not know how to bake desserts. Yeah, I understand some people simply just can't make toast, mac and cheese, etc. Like for example, I have a hard time toasting dinner rolls. Not always, but most of the time they come out burnt. Sad, I know. But to not be able to make dessert, of any kind? Is that really possible?

I made Heath cookies. Yup. Deadly. It was so hard and I had to keep reminding myself I can't! It didn't help that one of the cookies broke. Yeah.. pretty much torture. These cookies are gooey wonders!! --or so they look :/

Oreo Truffles?!

Yes, I have a confession to make. I am at fault for not knowing about Oreo Truffles until about two months ago. Well, I'm about to tell you that I had mended my ways and made these delightful bites this past weekend. Sunday to be exact, on my lent day of rest. So if you happen to find yourself uneducated on these Oreo Truffles like I was, consider yourself educated today. These truffles, or bites, are very simple. They contain Oreos and cream cheese, and just to make sure they are well combined, they are covered in white chocolate. Now, how can you go wrong with that?!

Butternut squash!

Yesterday I had some fun with my butternut squash. I made some butternut squash raviolis! It was a great combination of spices and cream that made the ravioli filling so delightful! Especially because of the chill in the weather we have been having. And what better way to have raviolis than with some oven baked bacon wrapped asparagus! Yum!! I don't understand how some people don't enjoy the wonders of asparagus. So good!

I had some left over butternut squash puree I had made from yesterday. Hm... that wasn't so hard for me to decide on what to do with it :) I made some more of that wonderful ravioli filling. When I made the raviolis yesterday, I realized that they were kinda big. If only I had halved the wrapper and then wrapped them. Well, it was a little too late this time too because I didn'trealize that until after I wrapped them all. Because they are fragile to handle because they are so big, I decided to cook them like potstickers. So that's what I did with them this time.

I have this thing that I've been working on for the past while, unofficially. I try to use up things that have been open/used/or just taking up space that could be used up. Yes. So today, I made a 5 layer dip: mashed black beans, avocado, "salsa"- tomato, yellow onion, lemon juice, lemon pepper, dried basil, and a tad of Mexican hot sauce, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Happy International Pancake Day!

It's a pancake kind of morning! With hot chocolate --please! It's been snowing since last night and I believe it's going to continue throughout the week. IHop does this free short-stack on International Pancake Day, but because of lent, I'm steering away. This morning I made a wonderful batch of fluffy pancakes with no added sweeteners of any sort. People can add their own sweet tooth fixes on their pancakes. As for hot chocolate, I'll just have to make my own from scratch, without any sweeteners.... or not have any at all :(

I love stacking pancakes!

I need to get me some real internet...

I had lost my internet connection for the past few days and therefore, not being able to blog. Well, I hope you were aware that Tuesday was Mardi Gras! Whether you celebrate the holiday because of your religion or celebrate it just to celebrate a holiday (like me), Mardi Gras is a fun holiday to look into. People celebrate the holiday differently all across the world, but here in the states, it is very popular in the south east. Because of that, most foods commonly eaten on that holiday are southern foods. Also, the history of Mardi Gras/fat Tuesday is to eat all the fats and sugars around the house in preparation for lent. Pancakes are traditionally made on this day because of that.

This year I didn’t make pancakes because there were still a good amount of muffins lying around the house. Also, King Cake is a traditional dessert to be eaten on this day. I made it last year, but I wanted to try making something new for this year. So, we had a mini Mardi Gras dinner party. And I mean, it was pretty low key, like, two dishes, low key. We made a huge pan of Jambalaya (chicken, chorizo, and shrimp) and beignets. How could you possibly go wrong with some man-catching beignets?! Haha.. oh how I love the movie The Princess and The Frog.

Wednesday was the start of lent and I wanted to do it again this year. Last year I didn’t eat anything with processed sugars (not including cane juice, honey, or things of that sort). This year I’m doing the same, abstaining from processed sugars, and also going running every day. I’m trying to train for a half marathon that is in May. So this will help me decide whether or not I will be capable of signing up for the race.

Also, this year, I found out that people celebrate lent differently. Some people go the whole 40 days strait with their goal, others give there self a weekend break, and then there are some that end the weekend before Easter. Last year, I think I did it the last way I mentioned. This year, I think I’m going to give myself the weekends off. I just feel a bit guilty, like I am one of those Christians that only go to church on Easter Sunday. Well, what am I saying?! I’m not doing lent for religious reasons! Haha.

Thursday was international chili day and so I made myself a chili salad! I didn’t have all the right ingredients for chili so I had to improvise. Here, let me share with you how odd I am when it comes to improvising… In my chili I had added the following ingredients: extra lean ground beef, garlic, tomato sauce, mushrooms, black beans, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red cayenne powder, fiesta lime seasoning blend, and salt. Interesting enough? I think I went a little overboard with the cayenne pepper because it was—spicy! I love spicy foods, but this was a bit much.

Friday, I made some sweet potato quinoa cakes and sweet potato dinner rolls with a friend. The quinoa cakes are vegan burgers full of healthy grains and savory seasonings! Quite colorful, don’t you think? The dinner rolls are so fluffy soft! If you really wanted, I guess you can make a very sweet potatoey sandwich! Yum!

Saturday, I went and gave myself a sugar high because it was the weekend! Lent break on weekends is looking pretty nice. So after my morning run (I guess I decided not to take a break on all of lent) I started prepping for my sugar endeavors. I took the left over beignet dough and made them into monkey bread in the evening! I didn’t realize there were several variations of the recipe and none of which seemed to be like the one I fell in love with. There was this one time that I had made monkey bread with a friend, and the way he made it was by melting sugar and butter and then pouring it on top of the individual balls of cinnamon sugar. I didn’t see any recipe like that so I kinda made it up. With my friend’s recipe, the monkey bread was super gooey soft on the inside and caramelized crisp perfection on the outsides. I have no idea how he did it.Okay, I do, I mean, I did. But I don’t remember! Mine turned out decent. People liked it a lot, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. It turned out with only the top (which is essentially the bottom –because you turn the cake upside down) and the only super gooey part was on the bottom(well, the top, when you flip it over).

Next time (when ever that will be) I’ll try using white sugar for the poured sauce. I think he doubled what I did for the sauce, but that’s a bit much for me, so I’ll just have to be content with the amount of gooeyness I have with my recipe. Needless to say, I just about devoured half of the pan of monkey bread…And I enjoyed ever single bite of it!

Sunday came around and I had left over strawberry puree that I had from my strawberry cake! Yeah, it’s been some time. So I happen to have a tab open on a recipe that could use this strawberry puree loven’. It’s this chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Of course, insteadofraspberries, I used strawberries. This recipe is not very cheesecake like, because of how few ingredients it uses. But it’s pretty simple and vegan (minus my crust… Oh yeah. And my cream cheese.). I changed it up a bit because, well, I decided to. I left out the coconut oil that was to go into the filling. Then I added this thin layer of Greek yogurt with more of my strawberry puree, on top of the filling. Then I added the chocolate swirl on the very top. It turned out ok. Not anything special really. Might not make it again.