Awesome Gift!

I have a bunch of posts in the queue, but got a little sidetracked this past week as my new baby nephew was born! :). Newborn photos in the coming weeks will be posted on my other blog.

Anyway, I'm so happy to finally get to this post - Check out this super cool individual bar/brownie/cake pan that my mom bought me for Christmas [I'm sure Tim was loving acting like a pan model]! It is perfectly portioned for snacks, lunch, or dinner parties. To give it a whirl, I used my favorite blondie recipe.

Blondies (adapted from Cooking Light)
[note: you can change these up however you like, I often go the toffee route, but for this iteration, I used the larger size, bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips]

Ingredients
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt (or a pinch)
Cooking spray
1/4 - 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine sugar, butter, egg and vanilla with a whisk until uniform.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; stir just until moist. Fold in chocolate chips [note: if using toffee, I add some to mixture and some on top].

4. If using individual pan, coat lightly with cooking spray and add equal amounts of batter to each square. If using conventional pan, spread batter normally into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15-25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean [time varies significantly with individual pans].

Holiday Leftover

Don't hate me, but I have one more cookie to post. I never got to posting it during the holidays because, well, no excuse - you know how it is. I picked up a Rachael Ray magazine at the airport because of the glossy Christmas cookie section :) and ended up making these cookies for my holiday baskets this year.

But listen - they are really good! Peppermint Chocolate Cookies - definitely bookmark these for next year, or for now, if you like mint year-round. It is an excellent cookie: easy to make, you can top them with anything (doesn't have to be minty-flavored) and they lasted quite a few days so they are perfect for mailing or gift-giving.

For now, I'm only going to post a photograph and a link to the recipe , but when I get a second, I"ll re-write the recipe in case the link moves.

Try them for Valentine's Day with some cute pink M&M's on top!

Quick Dinner!

Hey everyone! I made a super quick and almost-Sandra Lee-like dinner (gasp!) last night. It was really easy and healthy so I thought I would post it because I'm sure a lot of you are like us and are in the "trying to get to the gym after work but still want a healthy, homemade dinner" category :).

So here you go - 4 ingredients, and super versatile so you can swap out for other items in your pantry!

Asian Noodle Bowls
Ingredients
Buckwheat soba noodles (see notes below)
Soy ginger broth (see notes below)
Small broccoli florets, steamed
Fresh or frozen raw shrimp
Five spice powder or other seasoning

Steps
1. You can really make as much or as little as you like, so adjust quantities for how much soup you think you can eat before getting started.

2. Season shrimp (cleaned and tails off) with five-spice powder. I usually use only a little because the flavor goes a long way, but I spilled some extra on them and it was fine. Just shake the shrimp around in the seasoning for a minute or two - I added some garlic powder as well. Feel free to use what you like. Saute shrimp over medium-high heat for 2 minutes or so per side (until pink). Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Heat up the broth. You can doctor it up a bit with some fresh garlic or ginger or scallions if you like or you can just pour out of the box and heat it up (like I did last night :)).

4. Prepare noodles according to package directions. If your directions are in an unfamiliar language, I would just boil up some water and drop the noodles in for a few minutes, until almost tender. If you leave them too long, they will get gummy so don't walk away! Drain and set aside.

5. Take out your bowls and add dry ingredients - noodles, broccoli and shrimp (you can either cut them into pieces or leave whole). When broth is hot, add to cover contents of bowl. You can garnish soup with some cilantro if you like or a drop or two of soy sauce. Enjoy!

Notes:

• Noodles: I bought them at an Asian grocery store (something like this), but I think they sell them at TJ's too; in a pinch, try some basmati rice or thin whole wheat pasta.
  
• Broth: From TJ's, but any Asian type broth would work, or miso soup, or maybe even some doctored-up light vegetable broth - I would add some fresh ginger and scallions. Make sure to check the salt content on the broth if that is something that you are concerned about - some of them are crazy high.
  
• A ton of different ingredients would work great in this soup - onions, carrots, edamame, fresh greens or bok choy, sliced mushrooms. Maybe you could use it to clean out your refrigerator.
  
• Easy vegetarian dish too!

*Sorry for the dark picture! I shot this late last night and didn't have the energy to get the light quite right :).

The Annual Cake...

I'm not sure if I posted it last year, but I started a tradition last year (our first year married) to make Tim a fun homemade cake each year for his birthday. His birthday is in December so it can sometimes get lost in the holiday shuffle, but the last few years we have made it extra fun :) by going away for the weekend and having a family party with a super-cool cake.

It took me forever to figure out what I was going to make this year. I knew I wanted a layer cake and I wanted it to taste really good, but I also wanted something different from the standard buttercream frosting and cute decorations. So, first I went square. Then, instead of vanilla or chocolate, I did both. And finally, for the frosting, instead of buttercream, I went mascarpone. Oh yeah. You know that sounds good. And it was.

Here are the details:

1. Cake layers - I decided on a 3-layer cake, with 2 vanilla layers and 1 chocolate layer. I used this recipe for Golden Vanilla Cake from King Arthur which was so easy and really light and wonderful. For the chocolate layer, I went with the blog-popular Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe. It was good, but definitely not as good as the vanilla cake.
   
   
2. Frosting - so, originally, my idea was to make a tiramisu layer cake with a mascarpone cream on the inside and a light buttercream on the outside. I did make both frostings and fortunately for me, the buttercream recipe didn't make nearly enough and I didn't have time to make more so I went with a changed up version of the filling for the outside layer of frosting and it was so good! Recipe below.



3. Decorations: I went super simple on this as the square design of the cake made it look pretty nice to begin with. I added some cocoa powder to the top to give a tiramisu-type feel. I also added some bittersweet mini-chocolate chips to the top and the layers on the inside.

Mascarpone Cream Filling/Frosting Recipe (adapted from Smitten Kitchen, recipe from Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients:
1 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Few tablespoons of strong coffee
Whipped topping or whipped cream, about 1 cup or more

It could not be easier to make. Put the mascarpone into a medium bowl and whip with a whisk until creamy. Add sugar and mix until uniform. Add vanilla and coffee. When all is combined, fold in the whipped cream or whipped topping until you have the consistency and taste that you like. Use as filling or as frosting. If you are using it for filling, you might leave it a bit thicker and thin it out with whipped cream for frosting. The frosting should be refrigerated so its good to frost the cake and then chill the entire cake until serving.

I piped the same frosting onto mini-cupcakes for Christmas eve and regular cupcakes for a holiday party this past weekend. Super easy and a nice twist on regular cupcake/cake frosting.

Enjoy!

ps. I do have a few holiday things left to post, as I got a bit behind this year and maybe (just maybe) made my to-do list longer than anyone could ever complete. oops.

Need a quick gift?

Try this Apple-Cranberry Bread!

Super delicious and easy - I don't totally care for quick breads, but I really like this Apple-Cranberry Bread. I have been making it as mini-loaves for a few years and they are perfect as favors, or as a gift for neighbors or in gift baskets. Click here for the recipe!

A few quick notes on the recipe from me:

• Make sure to butter/flour the pan very well. There is a lot of fruit in this recipe and the cranberries especially, have a tendency to get stuck to the walls of the pan.


• Even better - bake in pans that you can give as part of the gift! Try a few of those mini-holiday ceramic loaf pans you see in the dollar or craft stores. Then you can wrap each and not worry about them coming out of the pan perfectly!


• The batter seems lumpy and thick, but it will turn out great. Make sure to smooth out the top of each mini-loaf before baking.


• I got about 4-6 loaves with each batch depending on the size of my pans.


• A good wrapping trick - if you need to give a gift in a pinch, use a ziploc/plastic bag and trim off the zipper/closure to make a cute treat bag. Tie it with whatever string you have laying around (I keep a ball of all-purpose brown twine that works great) and tie on one of these free gift tags (check out these, and these and these too!) and you are all set! You can also wrap with parchment paper and tie with a cute ribbon if you don't have any bags.