Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day


N and I couldn't be with our mothers today, but decided to make a special brunch anyway. Chocolate pancakes! We used pre-made pancake mix and cocoa powder, nothing fancy, and the first batch came out fine. But then I decided to add more chocolate (is anyone surprised?) and decided to add more water with it, which made the second batch kinda weird and flat, almost like cookies. N compensated by adding more mix to the third batch and they were okay, but we learned our lesson, which is to leave well enough alone! And also that we should probably start from scratch if we're going to experiment.











But, they were yummy anyway! We topped with low fat butter, powdered sugar and syrup and/or lemon juice


Happy Mother's Day to our faraway Moms! We're thinking of you today, and how your pancakes are always perfect.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Adventures with Butter

This weekend's recipe experiments were unintentionally butter-heavy, but that's almost never a bad thing in my book. First on the menu was a recipe shared by N.'s friend on Google Buzz for Egg-in-a-Hole Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. I was introduced to egg-in-a-hole by my classmate Michael while studying abroad in England, and I was instantly in love. The simplicity! The gratuitous butter! And the best part, cutting holes in bread with a drinking glass! But why oh why had I never thought of combining this masterpiece of breakfastry with a grilled cheese?? Below are photos of our toasty sandwich success. The only things I would change are toasting the bread a bit more before adding the egg, and peppering the egg while cooking. The little circles in the first photo are the bread circles which were made into tiny grilled cheese sandwiches for mid-cooking snacking. Yum.







My other attempted recipe did not go as well. Although it was edible, I'd like to try it again to see if what I think went wrong is what actually went wrong. I found a list of muffins, scones and biscuits on one of my favorite food blogs, The Kitchn, and one particular recipe jumped out at me because it had few ingredients and the steps seemed fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, I was trying to use up some leftover cake flour, and though I followed the box's directions for changing the measurement for use in non-cake flour recipes, something didn't quite work out. When it came time to move my biscuit strips into the pan, the batter was so wet and soupy that all I could was scoop it in as one big blob and try to re-cut strips before it went into the oven. The result was pretty much was I had been going for, basic buttery biscuits, but the texture was a little chewy. I'd like to try this one again with all-purpose flour and see if I can achieve true breadsticks.



Happy Sunday night! I hope you all had pleasant weekends and are ready to face another Monday.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Vegetarian Black Bean Espresso Chili

Now that I think of it, this recipe is actually vegan as long as you forgo the sour cream/cheese topping options...I'm not a vegan but if a recipe is tasty and avoids animal products, then why not?

Anyone that knows me knows that I complain about Chicago weather like it's my job, but one good thing about it is plenty of excuses to make chili, which is one of my all-time favorite foods. It's easy, makes your kitchen smell great, tastes awesome and can be healthy if you want it to be.

After rigorous searching through my gmail and google reader records, I still have no idea who shared this recipe or how I came across it, but for anyone who's interested in trying, it was published on Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Bean-and-Espresso-Chili-107639.

Whoever the sharer was, they recommended the recipe because it had the heartiness of meat-chili sans meat. I have to heartily agree, it was thick, filling and yummy. We paired with pretzel bread and a Sauvignon Blanc.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Snow Day!

I've heard some pretty good nicknames for our storm so far, Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, SNOMG (personal fave) and the local news front-runner, BLIZZARD 2011!!!! Personally I don't mind the snow, because I don't have to go to work today! And having grown up in California, this is my first snow day ever.

Here are some pics of my street:







In other news, our (my roommate and I) first foster kitty Eva


was adopted two weeks ago, and our new kitten Carnegie is settling in nicely.


Stay warm everyone!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A Belated Birthday Success

I finally got around to making N.'s birthday cake this weekend. It was supposed to be a surprise, but unforeseen circumstances prevented me from following through on my plans. Not to worry! It was worth the wait.

This was my first attempt making a cake from scratch and it turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I used the recipe found here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html

This was the bottom of the cake after coming out of the oven. Swirly! I have no idea why.


love


Yum!