Homemade Samoa Bars

 

What's the best type of Girl Scout Cookie? Caramel Delights, of course (previously Samoas). When I found this recipe, I knew it had my name written all over it. I actually made it during GS Cookie season with a box of caramel delights sitting in my pantry, but of course, now the homemade Samoas are gone, and the boxed cookies remain in their box!
Anyway, this recipe is great, and you don't have to hunt down any Girl Scouts to enjoy a delicious Caramel Delight (or many). I followed the recipe fully through, except I didn't toast the coconut, which seemed to be OK. The most time-consuming part is unwrapping all of the caramels, but it's not so bad if you eat a few along the way :)

Original recipe here

Vegan Quinoa and Black Beans

I have made this recipe a few times now, because it's really easy, and has all of my favorite ingredients: quinoa, black beans, corn, cilantro, lime juice, and garlic. It is also great with avocado on top - I've just found it difficult lately to get my avocados ripe at the same time that I'm making this recipe. Another reason this is one of my favorites is because most of the ingredients you can keep on-hand for a while and they tend to be ingredients that I have around for other recipes. Bottom line: this dish is easy and delicious, and perfect for making after a long day at work. 

Original recipe here

Avocado Frozen Yogurt

What better to do on a Saturday morning when your car is getting fixed? Make ice cream!!

My roommate has an ice cream maker, and I've been planning on using it for a while. I stumbled upon this avocado frozen yogurt recipe, and knew it was time to experiment.

Bottom line: this recipe incorporates a lot of lemon and lime, and certainly tastes more like lemon and lime than avocado. Also, it requires a lot of tools, so be prepared to do a lot of dishes.

The original recipe calls for vanilla extract, but does not tell you when to put it in. I think it's supposed to go in before the egg, because that is the order it is listed, but who knows. I added it.

I had a hard time finding whole milk yogurt, and ended up using Faje Total (greek yourt). I definitely did not have 1 tbsp of both lemon and lime zest, because I hate zesting, and I zested just one lemon and 1 lime. I'm also pretty sure that I let the egg curdle, because my mixture never coated the back of the spoon after 8 minutes and I turned the heat up on the stove top. I think this was okay since I strained it...

Anyway, all issues aside, the "frozen yogurt" (made with whole milk and whole milk yogurt) is certainly yummy. However, when it freezes completely, it gets rock hard, so it needs to be thawed for a bit before you can eat it. Try it, if you're up to the task!

Pumpkin Chili

I swear I don't only make desserts. One of my favorites dishes as of late has been Pumpkin Chili, which is fast and easy to make, and very healthy. The original recipe calls for turkey, but I am a pescetarian, and I replace the turkey with one can of black beans and one can of kidney beans. Also, the recipe calls for 1.5 tablespoons of chili powder, which is a ton, so I just use a bit of cayenne pepper and that tastes really good and adds a good amount of spice (this is also good without any chili/pepper at all). I usually just leave out the sour cream and just put cheese on top, but it is worth trying the cream as well!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup onion (chopped)
1 green bell pepper (chopped)
1 yellow bell pepper (chopped)
1 garlic clove (minced)
1 can black beans (drained)
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes (drained)
1 can pumpkin puree
a few dashes of cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 dash salt
shredded cheddar cheese (no need to measure, sprinkle on top)
(½ cup sour cream if you want it)


Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, yellow pepper, and garlic. Sauté until vegetables are tender. Stir in beans, tomatoes, and pumpkin puree.

Season with cayenne pepper (to taste), salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. When ready to serve top each bowl with cheddar cheese and sour cream (choose whatever toppings you like!).

Original recipe (with turkey)

Valentine Brownie Cut Out Cookies

Flash back to Valentine's Day. I wanted to make sugar cut out cookies around Christmas, but decided not to because my family received a batch from our neighbors, and we had more cookies in the house than we could eat in months (and one of us is gluten-free!). I also received a rolling pin and a pastry sheet for Christmas, and wanted to put them to use. Anyway, along came Valentine's Day, and another excuse for baking. I looked around at many different recipes, and finally stumbled upon this, deciding it was perfect for my chocolate-obsession and an opportunity to use my new tools.

I didn't have all of the ingredients for the royal icing with the cookie recipe and didn't feel like going to the grocery store, so I found one that was simple and that I had the ingredients for. I also had food coloring on hand (from Halloween, long story), which came in handy.

The cookie dough was really easy, but I left out the espresso powder since I didn't have any, and it didn't seem essential. The dough has to be refrigerated for about an hour, which I did not enjoy, but it was well worth the wait.

My roommate Kara has tons of cookie cutters, and I borrowed a few different heart shapes to use. It was pretty easy to roll the dough and cut the cookies, but the recipe does make a lot of cookies, so it took a while to get all of the cookies cut and baked (I enlisted some help from my boyfriend, Dave).

Now for the fun part: icing. I don't particularly enjoy icing things, but these cookies look much better when they are decorated. Maybe someday I can make icing like the photo with the recipe, but that was not an achievable goal for the day. So, I made the royal icing and separated it into three batches to make 3 different colors: white, pink, and red (I just used different amounts of red dye). I started by trying to cover each cookie in icing, but it was too runny and started dripping off most of the cookies. Dave had the bright idea of splattering the cookies with the icing - which ended up looking nice, and was really easy!

Bottom line: these cookies taste like brownies and cookies at the same time. They are phenomenal. Try them.

Original recipe here

Brown Sugar-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

I figure my first recipe entry should start on a good note. So, this is a flash back to a few months ago, but this is also one of my greatest baking accomplishments.

I found this recipe on the New York Times potluck page, and it sounded too delicious to pass up. I don’t love cake because I usually find it too dry, and don’t usually choose to bake cake or cupcakes. However, I couldn’t escape the cupcake craze.

So, one weekend last fall I ventured home (to the parents’ house) so I could use all of their fancy baking tools, mainly their KitchenAid mixer (I need to buy one of these soon, but don’t want to shell out the 200 bucks). I wasn’t very optimistic about these cupcakes, but they came out amazingly well. They were very rich, and even though they were so good, I couldn’t eat more than one in a sitting (a rare feeling for me!) So even though the recipe only makes 8 cupcakes, this was actually just enough for me and for sharing. 

Original recipe here

I love food.

(3/16/11) I am writing this first blog entry with no blog. I am anxious to get the process started, but cannot think of a name for said-blog. Arguably, the name of a blog can be the most important part, so I don’t want to rush it.

However, I do want to rush the writing process, as I have been pondering the creation of this blog for a few months now, and have many recipes that I would like to share. My thought is that this blog will start as mostly recipes that I am experimenting with, but see it morphing into more of an overall food blog, since I love food and love talking about it.

So, I will begin by sharing some recipes I have come to love over the past few months, and see where things progress from there. Please enjoy.