Last week I was daydreaming about the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods. I randomly decided to make them just to see what they'd be like. They turned out awesome and I wanted to share them with my friends, family, and coworkers. I needed to bring a check from Jenna to Santo's house, and I figured I'd bring him some cookies as well. I told him I would leave the check and cookies in his mailbox. When I got to his house, this was waiting for me.
Such thoughtful gifts!
Along with the cookies, I left Santo this note:
To make a dramatic story short, there ended up being a war over cookies. I figured I might as well make things better by making an entire batch to bring with me to the Lowcountry Oyster Festival on Sunday. After all, we should
MAKE COOKIES NOT WAR!
Here is the recipe for the cookies, adapted from Cookie Madness :
Ingredients: 1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 cup milk chocolate chips
Procedure: Preheat oven to 360* F. Mix together pumpkin, egg, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Combine wet and dry ingredients until mixed well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonful onto a baking sheet and bake for 11-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely before putting them away.
These cookies are sooooooo soft. They're more like pumpkin muffin tops. I chose to use the milk chocolate chips over semi-sweet because I felt like it would be a better balance of sweet and spice.
The yummy and very versatile canned pumpkin:
It's not a typical cooking adventure unless I hurt myself:
Everything mixed together:
Ready to go in the oven:
DONE! :)
Note the thickness...and the blackberry blowing up in the background:
The second batch came out even better and I was excited to take them with me to the festival. Because Santo is such a good-looking guy, I brought him a whole bag of them. Here is a picture of us fatties indulging on more sweets:
And here's Jenna looooving my cookies on the way home:
Oyster shots!
Happy 1st of the month! Can you believe it's February already? February is National American Heart Month. Please make sure you are getting at least 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at a minimum of three times a week for a happy, healthy heart. Do it for your valentine!!
No, I definitely didn't have a mental breakdown, and I didn't shave my head--just burned it, but that's another story. The past two months have been very eventful for me, highlighted by the holidays, a break up, getting my cute butt back in the gym, and a fantastic vacation abroad with my ex! Yep, my ex! Totally fine. We had a blast and ate some incredible food that I'm excited to share with you! Hopefully in the near future I will attempt to recreate some of the dishes, too. It feels good to be back in the bloggy world and I'm super excited to start cooking & baking again. To get back into the groove of things, let's review some of the awesomeness that went into my mouth in Italy...
To give you a background, we flew out of Charleston to Atlanta, then to Paris, then to Florence. It was a looooooong night/day, yet still filled with food. Delta-style. I was impressed that they fed us twice on the 8 1/2 hour flight, and again on the flight from Paris to Florence. Once we got to Florence, we quickly learned that going to restaurants close to the city-center or to ones that have been "recommended" on travel sites was not the route for we foodies to take. The first two dinners felt like crap right out of the Olive Garden kitchen. Seriously. Once we ventured out, we discovered the more creative and authentic food. After spending 3 days in Florence, we took a train to Rome where we spent 7 days. Both cities were full of exciting foods. Here are some of my favorites:
First breakfast at our hotel in Florence:
Gnocchi with zucchini and fresh mint in a lemon butter sauce:
Spinach Souffle, Carrot Souffle, both topped with cheese:
Seared ostrich:
Panino with Prosciutto, Salami, Cheese, Balsamic Vinegar & Sundried Tomatoes:
Inside the panino:
Squash flower stuffed with ricotta, pineapple stuffed with ricotta and cinnamon, Ham with ricotta, roasted red pepper, salmon, all with tomatoes, mozzarella, and rocket:
Rigatoni w/ tomato sauce and rigatoni cacio e pepe with pancetta:
Pizza with ricotta, basil, ham:
Gelato!
Delicious breakfast treat with chocolate, raisins, dates, and pine nuts:
Arancino - a fried rice ball with meat, cheese, and peas:
More Cacio Pepe!!!
Meat plate with potatoes: Veal, Lamb, Sausage, Sirloin:
Roman style artichoke:
Prosciutto stuffed with goat cheese, honey and balsamic drizzled on top with hazelnuts:
One of many cheese plates:
Calzone stuffed with ricotta and nutella with powdered sugar and cocoa on top:
Gelato - Pistachio & After 5:
Pear & Gorgonzola Souffle with Balsamic Vinegar:
Roasted lamb with rosemary potatoes & asparagus:
This is just some of the amazing food we ate. To drool some more, check out my Picasa albums here:
Italy was a huge learning experience for me. I was trying new foods, eating much more than usual, and definitely indulging in desserts several times a day. At first I was completely paranoid that I would come back 7 pounds heavier, but with all the strenuous walking we did, I didn't gain a pound! I have since realized that I don't have to be so strict about my diet as long as I am getting a significant amount of exercise in. We estimated walking 5-8 miles each day: all around the city, up and down hills, and lots of hiking and climbing. With the addition of regular exercise in my diet, I can eat A LOT! Since I've been home, I've joined a gym and have gone 5 times a week. My appetite has definitely increased, but I am not gaining any weight, and I love it! I feel like I've finally found a balance. I've always believed in enjoying myself time to time, but I can now eat even more healthy foods and indulge too! I feel so much stronger mentally and physically and I'm glad exercise has finally become an essential part of my life. What else did I learn? I LOVE THE UNITED STATES! I know this sounds so silly, but I got homesick after 8 days. I missed my family and friends, all my stuff at home, but mostly just being on a schedule! And duhh I missed my blog! xo, x
I can barely pronounce this soup, but I sure did learn how to shovel it into my mouth. I bought a box of Orzo because, well, it's so similar to my last name that it makes me smile. I knew I wanted to eat it.
Avgolemono is a Greek soup made with egg, lemon juice, and broth. It literally translates to "egg-lemon." Rice, pasta and strips of chicken or meat are cooked in the broth, then the egg-lemon mixture is slowly incorporated so that the egg does not boil.
Speaking of Greek things, I'm convinced Brandon is of Greek descent. I've always been fascinated with different nationalities' physical traits and being able to tell someone's heritage based on them. One day I actually told B I thought he was Greek and compared him to pictures of men I found by googling "Greek Men." Haha. Here are some examples of what I found:
Woooooooo. Especially #4. Rarrrrrr!
Kidding.
This Cooking Light recipe for Avgolemono was so awesome. We devoured it on Sunday night, had leftovers for lunch on Monday, and then I decided to make it again so we could eat it during the week. It's that good.
Side note: I bought this grater because 1. orange is cute, and 2. the attachment catches everything it grates. LIE! Look what happens!
I didn't realize I grated double the amount I needed, but I'm glad I did because it was a perfect amount for the soup. Besides using twice as much grated carrot and omitting added salt, I followed the recipe exactly.
This dinner was inspired by a bunch of random things I found in the fridge -- a bit of goat cheese, spinach, and leftover prosciutto from last week's pizza. So why not stuff chicken breasts with cheese and spinach then wrap them with prosciutto! Very simple and delicious. I split the chicken breasts in half and loaded them up with the herbed goat cheese:
Then lots of fresh spinach:
Then I wrapped each with 3-4 pieces of very thinly sliced prosciutto.
I baked them at 350* for about 22 minutes. Weird time, I know. I took them out at 20 and B tried to convince me they were done, but I wasn't so sure. We compromised by putting them for an additional 2 minutes. Perfect. On the side I made some Near East wheat couscous in the roasted garlic & olive oil flavor. That couscous is soooooo delicious and soft! We also had some steamed vegetables.
This was very simple to make and a great way to to incorporate the random ingredients I found. Happy Monday!
It's been over a year since I found this recipe on Serious Eats. It seemed like such a warm and fuzzy cold weather meal. Too bad it was 76 degrees today. I've officially renamed November as Junevember because we are currently experiencing summery weather in South Carolina. Oh well, apples are in season and I'm determined to use them! Granny Smith apples aren't a favorite of mine or Brandon's, but I didn't want to screw around with this recipe. Certain apples are good for baking and some will explode! I don't need another cooking mishap. Burns all over my hands and arms are enough.
I used the Al Fresco chicken sausage again. It's so good.
I was worried that this recipe wouldn't have much flavor with cinnamon being the only added spice, but the sausage did the trick. Cooking the barley wasn't bad - it took about 25 minutes to completely absorb the chicken broth. The difficult part was scooping the barley mixture atop the apples without it falling all over the place. It kind of looked like a disaster going in the oven.
But it tasted really good! The barley was a bit chewy which went well with the sausage, and the cinnamon really paired well with the apples. I'm glad I chose chicken sausage because I was using chicken broth to cook the barley. If I made this recipe again, I would not scoop the barley over the apples before baking them. I'd just bake the apples separately, then plate it together.
In other news, I have a new obsession. I've always loved Stacy's pita chips -- Multigrain being my favorite flavor. I never thought the Cinnamon Sugar would be good because I couldn't imagine a pita chip being sweet. While at Nikki's house this weekend, I gave them a try.........woah woah woah I could not stop eating them! They go on sale at Publix tomorrow and I am stocking up! YES!
Soooooooo yesterday we went to B's mom's house for a lunch/dinner/linner.....dunch? Ok, that's enough. She made a roast with asparagus and RICE. I only spooned out a little bit of this rice because a. I don't need mom thinking I'm a savage and b. I do enough carb unloading in my mouth as it is. But once I put a spoonful of those white, fluffy grains in my mouth, I knew I had made the wrong decision. I grew eyes in the back of my head that faced the stove where more rice was sitting. I know, I know, it's just rice, but I am a carb queen, errr princess. It was so light and fluffy and reminded me of the rice I had in Hawaii. Of course I asked her how she made it, and she simply replied that she had used 2 cups of water instead of the recommended 1 1/2. Mom is a genius. More water --> more moisture --> softer rice. It's just science. So all day Monday I was thinking about RICE. RICE RICE RICE. The little Asian inside of me was begging me to find a recipe that involved rice so I could finally make it the right way. I found this Cooking Light recipe for Honey-Ginger Chicken Bites.
I adapted it a little and used the following ingredients:
2/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons of orange juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons water
sesame seeds
First I made a marinade with the first nine ingredients. Brandon cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces (or should I say *nuggets*?) and then added them to the marinade. The chicken marinaded in the fridge for about 30 minutes while I tried to whoop Brandon's *(&%@(W&%^(*^& at Wheel of Fortune.
I read on the bag of Jasmine rice that you're supposed to rinse the rice in water several times. Ummm what is that!? Apparently you need to rinse off residue from the milling process. Hmm. The only colander he had was one with holes that were way bigger than the rice. I panicked/whined/moaned to B that it wasn't going to come out right because we couldn't rinse it. His man response was to initially ignore me, forgetting that I am quite persistent. Then Boy Genius (clearly Mom Genius' son) told me to poke tiny holes in a ziploc bag and rinse the rice in it. Wow.
When the chicken was done marinading, I used a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the bag to cook for about 15-20 minutes at 425*.
While the chicken was cooking, I used the rest of the marinade to make a glaze. I put the marinade in the pan and brought it to a slow boil. In a cup, I mixed the cornstarch with the water, and then added that to the marinade to thicken it.
After a couple minutes, it thickened perfectly! I took the chicken out and drizzled the glaze over it, topped it with sesame seeds, then roasted it for just another minute or two.
Finally, I plopped the nuggets over the warm jasmine rice (that came out perfectly by the way) and we ate! The chicken was soooo good. I highly recommend this recipe!
