Cooking Considerations

Today I was driving home from a hearing listening to NPR. One the show they were interviewing different writers about their writing process and such. One question was why they write. One lady said she felt like she had to write because if she didn't then it would bunch up and she would eventually explode. That kind of how I feel about cooking.

This weekend was the first time since June that I've been able to just relax on Friday night and bake because I want to bake. Not because I feel like I should or just simply don't have time to bake. It was very relaxing. I made a pan of cookies and then V and I went on a walk. Then Saturday afternoon I finished the batch. Nothing like warm cookies straight out of the oven. Yummy.

This weekend we went on two long walks to break in my new walking shoes to get ready for Disney. Saturday we just went along a walking trail for two hours. Sunday we decided to go to the zoo to switch things up. That was about 3 hours. The zoo was much more enjoyable. I get too bored just walking for walking's sake to do it for a long time. The zoo was nice because there were actually things to look at and enjoy while walking. My shoes (Merrell) are super comfy but all that walking gave me a few blisters anyway. But they do a good job of helping me last a good bit longer before my back starts to really hurt which is nice. I think they will do well at Disney.

Here's the recipe for the cookies I made. The Saturday batch was still cold when I put them in the oven and I don't think the consistency is quite as good. It made them cook funny I think. So if you can bring them to room temperature before baking, it's worth it. I splurged and used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. Their semi sweet is pretty bitter and V likes milk chocolate whenever possible. So I indulge him every now and then.

Buttermilk Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Melt the butter.
In a large bowl, combine the melted butter with cocoa powder and whisk (I did this with my stand mixer and handy dandy scraping paddle). Whisk in sugar, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Gradually stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop dough in 1-inch balls into prepared baking sheet, leaving about two inches between cookies to allow for spread.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set around the edges. (I did ten because I like slightly undercooked cookies. When with chilled dough I should have done 11-12)

Enjoy!

Healthy Bites

V and I are going to Florida sometime in the next few months (not saying when so you freaky peeps don't come swimming in my pool while we are gone.) It's hot in Florida. We are more air conditioning people than heat people. If I liked to ski I would say we are snow people... but I don't. However, I do like sitting in comfy chairs drinking hot chocolate so V could ski and I could sit and cheer him on... but that's for another vacation.

Anyway, so, V and I are trying to spend more time outside (not in the pool... doesn't count) so the Florida heat doesn't make us melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. I'm not a morning person so that means we go on our walks in the evening. This is great and all, but it makes it really difficult to make dinner. We usually don't get back from our walks until 7:30-ish and by the time I shower and start on dinner it's at least 8. My baby sister constantly reminds me how important it is to stop eating at least two hours before bed time so this is messing up my schedule. So, now we are trying to find easy meals that don't take much time. This means lots of grilling for the most part. Which is yummy, but our grill is massive so it's kind of a waste of propane... but I'm not sure how it compares to the cost of heating up an oven and having it on for an hour. Probably evens out.

The other night I made a really tasty and health veggie dish to be my main and V's side to go with his grilled meat. It's from Amateur Gourmet and, as all of his recipes, it was amazing. I highly recommend it.

Zucchini and Almonds

However much zucchini you want - I did one big and two little

However many slivered almonds you want - I had a little 1/2 cup bag

Salt

Pepper

Julienne the zucchini. AG used his mandolin but I just did mine by hand. Have them fairly small so they cook quickly. Toast the almonds in a skillet (I used a non-stick skillet). After you can start to smell them toasting, add in the zucchini. Cook until warmed through (I think about 15 minutes. The almonds continue to toast during this time.) Add salt and pepper and serve. Enjoy!

Still here

July has been a whirlwind. V and I had guests for the first two weekends and then I've been home two of the last ten days. It's wonderful to have guests and see friends and family but four weekends in a row gets a little stressful. Especially since work has been really busy this month. So, sometimes when I'm stressed I like to look at my wedding pictures on my computer. Not for a long time but just skimming through them helps me zone out and get better situated. So, that's why I put a wedding pick up there.

The biggest problem with being so busy on the weekends is that it's much harder to cook. I end up using the beginning of the week to catch up on things I should have done the last weekend and then end of the week to do things I should do on the coming weekend. So, unfortunately, cooking and grocery store runs tend to be the easiest thing to put aside. V has been really great about going to the store when I'm gone on grocery day (Sunday) but it's hard to make a good grocery list when I don't know what I'm going to make for the least.

I feel listless when I can't cook or bake for several days at a time. Every now and then it's a nice break not to cook, and I definitely do not cook every day. However, whenever I am unable to cook when I feel like cooking, it's almost unbearable. I feel bored and it makes me snack a lot more because I think I won't have a good meal if I don't make something. (though V cooks most weekends and does a very good job - that's usually what I consider my break from cooking... but I still bake on the weekends.) I'm hoping one weekend soon I will be able to have a big baking spree. Maybe I'll make iced sugar cookies or something similar. Not so much to eat them (though they will be eaten) but because it helps me destress from the week. For now, however, it's back to organizing the bills in the office from the last month.

Holiday! Celebrate!

I haven't been blogging lately. It's been a busy few weeks and it's not going to slow down for a few more. Luckily, most of the business will be very fun as well as being busy. This weekend Hannah and Gary came down from Chicago to play in the pool. We ate lots of yummy food too! The first night we had marinated squash, marinated kebabs, and grilled peaches and apricots with sweet cream ice cream. The grilled apricots were actually really really good. They kept their firmness but were warmed through. After taking them off the grill I sprinkled brown sugar over them and let them sit for a few minutes so the sugar got a little caramelized and a little syrupy so it was good to mix with the ice cream.

On Friday we had Jack Stack BBQ for lunch. Then for dinner we had burgers with sauteed onions and garlic in them. We also added one egg and a few dried breadcrumbs, worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and cayenne. I had hot dogs instead but V said they were really really good. I made tzatziki sauce for snack on throughout the weekend and it was a big hit. It's nice to have around because I used light yogurt and sour cream so it's a healthier alternative to premade dips but its still really satisfying.

Saturday we had steaks, I had an Italian sausage, grilled asparagus, and heirloom tomatoes and basil from the farmer's market. Ooh, so much yummy food!

Sunday I forgot to plan a meal and most of the restaurants were closed. Holiday on a Sunday is a bad combo for eating out. So, we got some D'Bronx pizza which was tasty as always. V got me a chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream for my birthday so it was pretty much a perfect day! It was great having Hannah and Gary over and now it's time to relax before our next guests. The pool is definitely a party pool.

Relaxation

Today, I refused to stain the deck. We decided to take the day off since we've been staining for the last 5 days straight. Thankfully we are so close to being finished! We have everything covered in at least one coat of stain. We just have to do a final coat on a little bit. And second coats are much easier than the first coat. So, I would guess about 3 more hours of work and we will be done! At least until it's time to strip it off and do the whole thing all over again. Next time though, we will only be doing a little bit each summer. This is just too much for one summer.

Tonight I made a vodka sauce I found on Epicurious. It's one of my go-to sauces because it's so easy. I accidentally added whole milk instead of cream though. It was definitely missing the velvety consistency it usually has.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 cloves garlic, peeled
Crushed hot red pepper
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil for finishing the sauce, if you like
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

Pour the tomatoes and their liquid into the work bowl of a food processor. Using quick on/off pulses, process the tomatoes just until they are finely chopped. (Longer processing will aerate the tomatoes, turning them pink.)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Whack the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and add them to the hot oil. Cook, shaking the skillet, until the garlic is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Lower the work bowl with the tomatoes close to the skillet and carefully — they will splatter — slide the tomatoes into the pan. Bring to a boil, season lightly with salt and generously with crushed red pepper, and boil 2 minutes. Pour in the vodka, lower the heat so the sauce is at a lively simmer, and simmer until the pasta is ready.

Just before the pasta is done, fish the garlic cloves out of the sauce and pour in the cream. Serve over cooked pasta (I use penne for this sauce)

I also made the base for chocolate ice cream. I've got to let it cool so I'll be making it sometime later this week. It smells so good though!

Chocolate Ice Cream

from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

2 1/4 cups heavy cream

6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet because it's what I had in the cabinet)

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large saucepan, whisk the cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt together. Whisking frequently, heat until the mixture comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate melts completely, then add the milk and vanilla. (If the chocolate doesn't melt completely, you can pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 30 seconds, until smooth. I skipped this step because my chocolate melted without a problem.)

Chill the mixture thoroughly and then churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Nothing New

We haven't done much lately but more staining. I stained Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and V stained Saturday. Unfortunately, on Saturday it rained in the middle of the day before the stain had plenty of time to dry. This wasn't just a little spring storm, it was a torrential downpour! So, quite a bit of the area V stained was stripped so we have to go back over it tomorrow. But I think we might actually finish tomorrow! Or at least close enough that we could do the final bit one night after work.

Our neighbors just had a new baby. We don't really know them well but they seem friendly enough and I wanted to do something to let them know that even if we don't really talk to them it doesn't mean we are creepy people. I got a little basket at Target and little hippo rattle. At the time I didn't know whether they had a boy or a girl so I wanted to get them something gender neutral. It is surprisingly and annoyingly hard to find baby toys that aren't very clearly for either a boy or a girl. I was kind of shocked. I always hear people talk about how hard it is to try and give kids gender neutral toys when they are little but this was crazy. Everything is either pink or blue or says something about boy or girl. And once you get past that, everything is a brand! Either Disney or Dora or Handy Manny or whatever is popular now.

Anyway, in the basket I put brownies and snickerdoodle muffins. I found the recipe on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody's blog. She has lots of classics. These were really tasty. I'm not a big snickerdoodle person but V ate one and said it was tasty. The sugar on the outside got nice and crispy and yummy. I made them in mini-muffin tins instead of full-sized like Peabody did.

Snickerdoodle Muffins

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cream of tarter
¾ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 and ¼ cup sour cream
2 and ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar and 2 TBSP cinnamon mixed together for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar. Add in the vanilla. Add in the eggs one at a time

2.In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground nutmeg cream of tarter.
3.Add the flour mixture and the sour cream alternately to the wet mixture in the additions. Start with the flour and end with the flour.
4. Scoop out muffin batter one at a time and drop into bowl filled with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin around in the mixture until it is covered completely in cinnamon sugar. Place muffin into a greased muffin tin. If using mini-muffin tins bake for about 13-14 minutes. Let cool completely. Use a paring knife to loosen from the tin before removing.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

I think we need to find an outdoor air conditioner to go in the kitties' igloo. It's been pretty hot and humid around lately, we essentially didn't have a spring. Over the last few weeks since it has been so steamy the cats haven't really wanted to hang out in the igloo. We put their food in there in case it rains but other than to eat they don't go in there as much as before. Yesterday Inky was keeping me company while I was staining the deck and then poor thing was panting. I didn't even know cats did that! So I have decided we need to figure out a way to make a mini-air conditioner. Like, a dehumidifier combined with a humidifier so it could suck water in and then blow it out in a cool mist. Something along those lines.

It thunderstormed today so we didn't get any staining done. Yesterday we worked on the area by the hot tub again and now thankfully we only have to do the floor over there and then we will be finished with that part! Only two million more planks to stain. Anyway, since it was raining today was more of a lots of little projects sort of day. I we sanded and repainted a door that was messed up, planted our border bushes by the hot tub, and hung up the sail clover cover above the hot tub area. So that part is starting to look really cute. Too bad the hot tub is still broken so we can't appreciate it. But it's still nice to look at from the pool. And it's nice to have another area of the backyard finished.

Now we are watching Dr. Who and enjoying chocolate chip banana bread. Basically, take any banana bread recipe and add a cup of mini-chocolate chips. It's tasty stuff.