granola bars

Something I've been meaning to share...



I've been making home made granola bars and they are so yummy.  I like knowing exactly what is in them (and what's NOT in them).  It always seems a little easier to say yes to something sweet if it is made by Yours Truly. 



I use Ina's recipe.  Loosely.  You know, I put in what I have on hand and what my littles will like.  But mostly I copy Ina.  Because I love her.

(number 12)

hostess how to

Jake brought home a box of actual Hostess cupcakes and I hadn’t had one in about 20 years. (wow. That sounds crazy, but it’s true.) I eagerly took a big bite and they were dry and flavorless! How disappointing!

I googled recipes for these and here’s what I learned:

You make chocolate cupcakes.

You fill them with something creamy and white.

You put chocolate on the top.

Of course, last, you add the little swirl.


So here's how I made the perfect ones:

Chocolate cup cakes
I used the cake recipe from this post.

Creamy white filling
For the filling, I used Janelle’s buttercream recipe (so delicious!). But I took half and added a bunch of whipped cream (like one part buttercream and one part whipped cream) and folded it in to make it nice and light. (you get to save a bunch of buttercream frosting in the fridge and eat it as you please...on graham crackers and what not:)

Here’s the recipe:

Delicious Buttercream

1 c butter, room temp
2 t vanilla
1/3 c milk
2 T light corn syrup
6-8 c powdered sugar

place butter in large mixing bowl with vanilla, milk and corn syrup and mix together. With an electric mixer beat in 4 cups of the powdered sugar until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, one cup at a time until you reach the desired spreadable consistency.


After the cupcakes are completely cool, you fill them with a pastry bag and a larger pastry tip. I had never filled anything before my experiments with these, and it is quite simple and straight forward. Some of the recipes said to poke holes or cut out little bits of the cupcake, but I found all of that unnecessary—just stick the tip into the cupcake and squeeze some yumminess in. {the cupcake bloats as it get filled and it’s quite satisfying every time.}

Put chocolate on top
Then you frost them with ganache. I learned to make ganache by watching Ina. Over a double boiler add chocolate chips and heavy cream and stir until melted. (I’ve never measured because I like to pretend that I'm like Ina and I can just throw it all together by feeling my way through. It usually works out perfectly, but I just looked up a couple recipes for those who may be afraid of feeling it out and it looks like about 8 oz of chocolate chips and ½ cup of heavy cream. I usually add a tablespoon or two of light kayro syrup—it adds a little shine to it.)

Swirliness
Then you take a bit of the leftover buttercream and make a little swirl on the top with a small pastry tip.

Enjoy!

play with your food {yes, I included the cake balls in this post}

open-faced asparagus sandwich with parmesan cheese--this one is on my oatmeal bread, mmmm

A while back while I was taking pictures of my open faced asparagus sandwich {a nice, pleasant light lunch} my daughter made fun of me. “You always take pictures of your food,” she mocked me with giggles and rolls of the {beautiful chocolate} eyes.

That’s right. I take great pleasure in my food. {Play-sure}, that is. It looks pretty—like a little piece of art waiting to be enjoyed. It smells wonderful—the olfactory glands telling you, yes, this is good. Then you EAT it and it is sensory overload bringing the senses of smell, touch, taste, and sight together making the process of food delightful to me.

Plus the whole thing about food memory. Take the asparagus sandwich pictured above. I would have never thought to make and eat that, except that my sweet mother-in-law made it for me one happy spring morning. While going out to check out the garden, there are left over asparagus from the previous owner (which is very nice for me) and since there are only a few that pop up, I had been just breaking them off and munching them as I wandered happily around my yard in the springtime sun. One day they were cut lovingly with spry little garden savvy hands and chopped and cut and steamed and put over toast (with butter and a little bit of the water that it was steamed in spooned over the top). It was the loveliest spur of the moment meal with someone I loved. And she had had it prepared for her by someone she loved. And so it goes. Now when ever I have that meal it feels like spring.


i made the easter eggs from this tutorial

So. The cake balls. I thought I had blogged about that before, but whether I did or not, I will share the secrets of cake balls with you right here and now. {they are very yummy} My wicked awesome cousin made about a million of them and blogged about it and I reacted the same way you all did. “What are cake balls? How do you make them? I want to eat one today!” So I will send you to the place I learned about cake balls, *bakerella* and instead of making you read all the millions of comments, I will tell you what I learned the hard way…

*make a cake, any cake. Boxed, homemade, chocolate, yellow, any cake will do.
*let it cool completely and toss it into a big mixing bowl and crumble it all up. Seriously.
*put the frosting you would have frosted the cake with in the bowl and stir it up.
*it will stick together now and you form balls with it. Put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze them
*if you want to put them on sticks, do it now, but keep them in the freezer
*melt the chocolate.
*take the cake balls out about 5 at a time and dip. The reason this is important is that if they are not frozen-ish, the cake ball won’t hold together and will slide off the stick.
*if you’re going to sprinkle something cute on it, now is the time. Ideas: sprinkles, nuts, coconut…
*push the stick into a sheet of Styrofoam until the chocolate hardens
*enjoy them by looking at them, smelling them arranging them in some cute fashion, sharing them with people you love and of course by EATING them!

This process takes a while. Don’t try to procrastinate with this, you need to do it in steps, but it is worth it in the end. They are a big hit.

been craving

every day!

lettuce
toasted sesame seeds (lots!)
sunflower seeds (lots!)
craisins and/or dried blueberries
cucumber
green beans (raw)
avocado (mmmmm)
tuna
dressing (your fav)



if only it was helping me loose my pregnancy weight...

peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies

I'm kind of a peanut butter freak. The other day I had the hankering, so I made these. I was out of the chocolate chunks, so chips worked just fine. The trick is to underbake them. Here it is, straight from Ina Garten:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1/2 pound unsalted butter at room temperature

1-1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 extra-large eggs at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup good smooth peanut butter

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 pound good semisweet chocolate chunks



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.



In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and peanut butter, and mix. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the batter, mixing only until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks. Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using either a 1-3/4-inch ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands, flatten the dough lightly, then press the tines of a wet fork in both directions. Bake for exactly 17 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Do not overbake. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

brittip: I think her cookies must be huge--if you're not going to make huge cookies, take them out sooner than 17 minutes; my first batch was dry.

tomato basil frittata

I had some girlies over for brunch the other morning and Liz asked me to blog about the frittata. Today it is snowing and I’m a little frustrated about that, so this was a comforting distraction! Thanks for the motivation, Lizzo! Enjoy~



6 large eggs
½ cup cheese, grated (I used parmesan and mozzarella)
½ onion, chopped fine
2 {generous} tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 tomato, chopped
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil






if only you could smell this. mmmmmmmm


Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the eggs, cheese, salt and pepper. Stir in basil. Heat the oil in a 10 inch ovenproof nonstick skillet, and sauté the onion until it’s translucent. Add the egg mixture and gently scramble until mostly set. Add the tomato and mix it in gently, then put the skillet in the oven until the frittata is set. (this time varies depending on how much you cooked the eggs on the stovetop—you can touch the top with your finger and tell if it is set.) Run a spatula around the edge and loosen the frittata and put it on a serving plate. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.



hey, I was ready for spring! {insert pouty bottom lip here}

Cookie Time

My kids love those cookies from Sam's Club--you know those soft round sugar cookies with the pink frosting? Well, I decided to try to do a home made version. So I found this recipe on line and added some frosting and everyone acted like they had died and gone to heaven. These are better than the Sam's club version because they are so soft and light and have just enough sweetness but not too much. So, I thought I would share.




Old Time Soft Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Cream together the shortening and the sugar. Stir in the egg, buttermilk and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir to combine. Chill dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. If desired sprinkle tops of cookies with white sugar before baking.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 7 to 9 minutes or until set.

Creamy Frosting*

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Combine four and milk in medium sauce pan; stir over low heat until thickened. Cool. Beat butter in large bowl until creamy. Add powdered sugar; beat until fluffy. Blend in vanilla. Add flour mixture; beat until thick and smooth.

*I halved the recipe and added a few drops of red food coloring

Spinach Leek Soup Yumminess

It's time to share some recipe love. This may sound scary to some of you, but it is my very favorite soup ever. I took some pictures of the leeks after I chopped them because they're so pretty. Yes, I find food pretty.



5 Tablespoons butter
1 lb fresh spinach (or 1 small package frozen spinach)
4 lg leeks
6 Tablespoons flour
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
4 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz. cream cheese
2 cups plain yogurt
2 cups cooked ham, cut into cubes
4 egg yolks, beaten

chop the spinach and leeks (the white part of the leeks only); saute in the butter (I do this right in my soup pot). Sprinkle the flour over the top, stir. Add chicken broth and salt, cook until slightly thickened. Mash the cream cheese and add it and the rest of your ingredients. (I usually temper the yolks by adding a ladel of the hot soup to them before I add them to the soup.)

Eat. It is creamy and delicious!! Even the non-spinach-eaters love it.



edited to add:

I origionally put 1 1/2 cups of broth instead of 4 1/4 cups of broth and left out the water. oopsie-sorry! I just fixed it, but wanted to let anyone know who had printed it out or copied it so they could fix it...

Oatmeal Bread 101

I just taught this class the other night so I thought I'd share it with all you lovelys. My sweet mother-in-law had a bread stand for 14 years and this is the recipe of her best selling bread with tips by yours truely.



1 cup “toasty warm” water
4 packages/4 Tbs dry yeast
pinch of sugar

8 cups boiling water
4 cups oats

2 cups molasses
6-8 tsp salt
4 Tbs shortening*

White flour

*I usually substitute olive oil for the shortening and it works perfectly.

Now, I’ll take you through it step by step…

Make the oatmeal

brittip: I always start with the oatmeal, because it takes a while to cool off enough to add the yeast—if it is too hot, it will kill the little yeasties. Mix it in a large pot—this recipe makes 6 loaves; it is too much dough for most mixers, so you’ll do the mixing in the pot and the kneading on the counter.

While the oatmeal is cooling down, add the salt, molasses and shortening* and start the yeast mixture, let “proof,” and add to the oatmeal mixture.

brittip: I usually add the warm water and yeast to the measuring cup that the molasses was in and stir it up well. That will be plenty of sweet stuff to get the yeast working. {It will get foamy—once it starts, it goes pretty fast, because it is a large yeast/water ratio, so watch it closely.} The oatmeal pot should be warm to the touch, but not burn you when you add the yeast mixture.

Add enough flour to make a soft dough, pour out on floured board and knead until smooth and elastic.

brittip: Add a bunch of flour to the pot and start stirring it in with a wooden spoon. (I’ve never measured, but say its 4-5 cups or so.) It will get harder to stir and make a soft dough. At this point, turn it out onto a counter that has been generously floured (say 5 cups or so) and start kneading. It is a very sticky dough. Keep adding flour until it is the right texture.

Cover in bowl and let rise for 1 ½ - 2 hours. Punch down and rise until double again, then shape into loaf pans. Let rise until double again, about 45 minutes.

Brittip: This part takes a long time, but most of the time you don’t have to do anything—it’s just sitting there rising! Go run some errands or clean the house or do something fun!

Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Brittip: mine were turning out too dark, so I have been baking them at 375 for about 30 minutes and they have been turning out beautifully. When they are done, they have a hollow sound when you turn it out of the loaf pan and give it a tap. Place on cooling rack until cool enough to cut and devour.

• Brooke has an important post that brought tears to my eyes and is very close to my heart. Please read it here and consider making a difference however small it may be.
• There is a wedding here this weekend. Things are crazy around here, so I haven't and won't be around much. Jake's brother is marrying the love of his life, and if I were a boy, she might be the love of my life too. She is everything beautiful and feminine; strong and good; smart and competent

• Happy Birthday, Roger!

• We finished the tile in the mudroom. It was a lot of work! Our awesome friend Captain Rob helped us and now we're old pros. (translation: I watched him do all the hard work, then did a little bit myself. Jake got a little more practice than me, too) I love how it turned out!

• Rachel and I went to Stephenie Meyere's Q/A and book signing out here. It's the second time I've met her and she's incredibly nice and very generous. And pretty, too! We met some very fun people in line (three hours!!) and learned some interesting information. From Stephenie's mouth: Edward and Bella have a very fun and interesting relationship, but there's not enough room to write about the details with all the story lines going on; it gets edited out. Also, She compares an upcoming book (I couldn't figure out if it is Breaking Dawn or Midnight Sun) to Midsummer night's Dream.
• While I was taking a picture of one of my address books, I got a little visitor. He got a scream of surprise from me, and then leaped into the garden.

• The weather is beautiful and the garden looks especially nice for the middle of September in New England. (Thanks to the upcoming wedding, I took special care to water more frequently.)

it's a little too sunny for a realy nice garden picture, but you get the idea...

the vegi garden

• I told Jake to comment about the hammock and let you know about his research, but he's in the throws of wedding prep as well, so I just went out and looked at the brand: pawley's island
• Here's the German Pancake recipe everyone has been asking about:

1 T butter or so

6 to 8 eggs

1 c. flour

1 c. milk

dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375, and put the butter into a 9x13 baking dish and put it into the oven to warm it up and melt the butter while you're preparing the batter. Beat the eggs, flour and milk very well, until a bit foamy. Pour into the pan with melted butter and bake for 20 minutes or so. It will fluff while it's cooking, and you should leave it in until it's brown around the edges. When you take it out, it slowly deflates, so if you're serving others, it is best to present it straight from the oven--it's more dramatic that way:) You can serve it in many ways, the most simple being what is pictured below--butter and syrup. You can go all out with fancy syrups or jellys or fresh fruit and powdered sugar...

ps--as a favor the happy couple have asked me to take thier wedding pictures. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'll wing it--I'm getting nervous! Please send a little prayer out for me that somehow the pictures will capture the beauty of a wedding day! Thanks:) Have a great weekend!

The Art of Life

Sometimes if we’re looking for it, beauty happens just by living life in a thoughtful way. Do you know what I mean? There are times within the craziness that is life when things come together nicely and you have a little moment. I love those moments. I love beautiful things, whether it is a tangible something, or whether it is a beautiful moment. I find myself in search of beauty.

It happened a couple weeks ago when my kids and I went to the back yard and picked blueberries. I came in and made blueberry coffee cake at my Oldest’s request, and as I cut into it, complete joy overcame me. “Look at the beautiful treat these blueberries supplied us with,” I thought! We delightfully ate it warm with mugs full of ice cold milk and shared a moment together. A moment of beauty, which, when recognized, could be considered art.

It happened again today. There was basil growing among my flowers and tomatoes showing off in all of their bright red in the vegitable garden and there were hungry bodies to be fed. Although we were still smoky from our weekend in the White Mountains, I had the urge to start gathering and chopping. I may have experienced the art of the moment alone, for I was the one who has been weeding and watering and nurturing and noticing growth in my yard. But it happened, even if I was the only one to take notice. A moment of, “this is what life if about—nurturing growth and making it into something delicious.” An every-day moment—making food and eating it, but one of beauty; beauty because I noticed it.

It just so happens that both of the moments I described here are about food. Who knows, maybe most of my moments include food, but whether or not they do, I’d like to start recording some of them here. If you notice any art in your life this week, post about it with me—I’ll start posting The Art of Life on Sundays as a form of gratitude for my blessings.

And because Lucky Candice has specially requested recipes, I’ll include mine here:

Blueberry Coffee Cake (thanks, brooke)

¼ C. butter
¾ C. sugar
1 egg
2 C. flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ C. milk

cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Fold in flour mixture, alternating with milk. Fold in blueberries carefully.

Topping:

½ C. sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 C. flour
¼ C. soft butter

Bake in well greased pan; 350 for 40-45 minutes.

~~~

Tomato salad—pictured above
(Rough recipe, add whatever tastes good to you! Thanks, Jessica.)

Tomatoes
Cucumber
Croutons
Basil
Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Chop it all up, add seasonings to taste. The croutons soak up all the juices and get soft and mushy and delicious.

note: there is still time to enter the drawing if you are interested! I'm excited to pick a name :)

Sunday Scribblings {Town and Country}

When I was in high school I would have described myself as a city girl. My cousins even called us “city slickers” at one point which always made me chuckle. But now there’s no denying my country bumpkin ways. I’ve quite embraced the country life. I can’t get enough of the trees and grass and gardening. How pleasant that my three-year-old took a little nap on the hammock the other day with nothing around but a couple cats, a nice breeze and the sound of the birds. I prefer fresh squeezed lemonade rather than running to the local lemonade-selling-type-store (see? I don’t even know where city folk buy their lemonade!). Water, ice, lemons and sugar. When the blueberries are in season, then I add a little homemade blueberry syrup. How yummy is that?




You have to admit that it is rather nice to have a cake made from scratch with little flowers from the yard to add the finishing touch…or is it just the bumpkin in me?



more Sunday scribblings here

edited to add the recipe:
*decoder at the bottom

Chocolate Cake
1 3/4 c. flour
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. cocoa powder
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 eggs
1 c. hot chocolate
1 c. sour milk**
1/2 c. oil
1 t. vanilla

mix dry together. stir in liquids. beat til mixed thoroughly--will be thin. pour into greased and floured pans. bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. (when touched it should bounce back when it's done)

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

6 T. butter
2 2/3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/3 c. milk
1 t. vanilla

beat butter, blend in sugar and cocoa alternately with milk until smooth. add vanilla

*t=teaspoon
T=tablespoon
c=cup

**when a recipe calls for sour milk or buttermilk, I usually add around a tablespoon of vinegar to the milk, give it a little stir, and let it sit for a few minutes, then it's ready to add in.

I always double this recipe--I'm big on three layer cakes. Make sure to leave at least 1/2" empty in your cake pans or they'll drip and use the leftover batter to make some cup cakes.