Nuts for Christmas

I'm so clever.

This year I was really stuck on what to get my aunt and my nanny. So I defaulted to what I do best- food. My sister had made them both candied nuts in the past, so I figured that was a good place to start. My mom has a collection of recipes for this sort of thing, but I wanted to try something new. I settled on a recipe for lemon pepper nuts and cinnamon sugar nuts. I altered them both slightly and settled on these combinations:

Lemon Pepper on the left, Cinnamon Sugar on the right

My mom tends to have every nut under the sun on hand, which was real convenient for this recipe. I settled on this combination:

Peanuts, almonds, walnuts, and I even shelled a bunch of pistachios. 

To coat the nuts, I beat an egg white with a tablespoon of water until it was frothy. I'm not sure if I beat it quite long enough, but it seemed to work fine.

Next, I melted butter and brushed a cookie sheet with it. 

I preheated the oven to somewhere around 350 (I don't remember the exact temp, sorry!). I then set the timer for an hour and fifteen minutes. Yeah - that long. Every twenty minutes or so I checked them and moved them around so the sugar didn't burn and the nuts didn't combine into one sugary mess. After an hour and fifteen the cinnamon sugar were done.

The lemon pepper nuts took another twenty minutes or so. I think it had something to do with the lack of brown sugar. But eventually they came out nice and crispy:

My nanny and my aunt were both pretty happy to get them yesterday. I think I liked the lemon pepper ones the best. The cinnamon sugar ones weren't quite up to snuff, so I definitely think I'm going to keep trying different recipes

I also made my relatives some of this "Christmas Crack." too. Which I think went over the best. It was kind of a last minute thing so I didn't document it. It's often made with matzoh during Passover (ie. I've been familiar with it since I joined my best friend's Jewish family in the 7th grade). I definitely recommend it for any occasion.

I also have an old-school Betty Crocker cookie recipe on the way, so stay tuned, and Merry Christmas! 

Magic Mallow Bars

I've had a thing for rice crispie treats since I was a senior in high school. In those days we often added food coloring, or used different cereal (ie. cinnamon toast crunch). My friend's mom used to get mad when we made them, they're so irresistible. Since then, I've graduated to inhaling the cocoa puff treats our dining hall at Pitt used to make and adding everything to them from peanut butter to Nutella to marshmellow fluff. 

I read Avery's blog an awful lot, and when she posted this recipe for kitchen sink crispie treats, I knew it was for me. My friend Candice needed a gift for a co-worker, so I jumped at the chance to give these a try. 

The kitchen sink ingredients:

We chopped up the peanut butter cups. And neither Candice or I cut off a finger ;)

I've never made these before by microwaving the marshmallows (I've always melted the butter on the stove, then added the marshmallows). I think this way was easier though.

Puffed up 'mallows:

Then I just dumped everything in and mixed. It got real sticky, real fast, but that was expected. I poured the mixture into a 9 x 9 glass dish covered in tin foil and then sprayed with Pam, for easier removal. Then Candice melted more chocolate and we drizzled it over the treats. I had Christmas sprinkles from the dollar aisle at Target that seemed that the perfect final addition:

I didn't taste test them myself, but I heard they were gone pretty quickly. 

White Chocolate, Macadamia Nut, Caramel Cream Cookies

Finals week knocked me over, I'm not going to lie. It feels like it's been forever since I last posted! Cooking has been going down, both documented and undocumented. Nick and I have had some baking fests and Kyle and I baked up storms of Christmas cookies. More details on those to come, though. Today's post is about my first attempt at making Kyle and my favorite cookie, white chocolate macadamia nut.

I found this recipe via foodgawker (of course). I knew macadamia nuts were expensive, but daaayum. Totally worth it though. 

Unfortunately I haven't been the best at documenting lately. I've also been doing this completely by my ipod, so please excuse the even-more-than-usual-less-than-professional pictures. 

I ground up the nuts with my underused nut grinder. It made the pieces really small though, so I don't think I would use it again in the future. 

The recipe called for two teaspoons of milk, which I didn't have (I've been on an almond milk/banana smoothie kick lately, ie. I can't seem to keep milk in my apartment). Instead, I cut the butter by two tablespoons, and added a quarter cup of caramel cream.

The recipe for the cream came from this cookie recipe. Spoiler Alert: Kyle and I made these cookies last weekend, so I knew I couldn't go wrong adding it. It is the epitome of spatula-licking good. Note: if you're trying to make this cream yourself, I couldn't get the sugar to melt on it's own like the recipe says it will, so i added a little bit of cream earlier on. Clearly, it turned it just fine.Also, do NOT take your eyes off the pot once you turn it on high- it boils up almost immediately.

Dough:

It was awkwardly thin, so I popped it in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. Then it was perfect scooping consistency.

I was really pleased with how they turned out. I actually ate a bunch of them (if you've been keeping up with this blog, you'll know that I usually eat more of the dough/batter than I do of the finished product of anything I bake).

They were part of Kyle's Christmas present, and I think he was pleased as well :)

More recipes from the last few weeks to come!

Only the US would have a holiday devoted to eating

...But I am NOT complaining.

In addition to going to home for the longest period since May, I spend a lot of last week/ weekend making and eating some really delicious food. It began on Tuesday with this...

That's right. An inside-out, deep fried pizza, full of broccoli and onions. Courtosy of Kyle's hometown pizza shop. I'm not usually a big deep fried person, but I was in heaven with this. Yes, I did eat the entire thing. And no, I didn't regret one bite.

My family's thanksgiving feast was fabulous as usually. I didn't miss eating turkey at all really, and my Gram's famous stuffing recipe is conveniently vegetarian. By Saturday there were enough leftovers to justify make MORE food. My friend Mike and I whipped up a whole bunch of goodies. 

I'm not going to go through intricate detail since I'm a little strained for time (the number one thing I will not miss about college is finals). But here are some pictures and recipe links, enjoy!

Orange, Cumin, Vegetarian Chili

Betty Crocker Smores' Bars (with pumpkin spice marshmallows, peanuts, walnuts, and pecans!)

Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best of Fall in a Single Cookie

I don't know about you, but when I read/hear anything about the flavors "pumpkin," "ginger," or "molasses" I immediately think of the months October, November, and December. And what better way to celebrate the season (/ console myself that the weather is actually getting colder now) than to make a recipe to combines all three?

Eat, Me, Delicious had posted this recipe for Pumpkin, Ginger, Molasses Cookies last Monday. And with my first few hours of the week on Friday (yeah, it was one of those weeks) I knew I had to make them. I had a suspicion I knew someone who'd be all about helping me, so I invited Kyle over to help:

(Yep, I'm super lucky, and my boyfriend actually likes baking with me. Or he's a really good liar).

I had the ingredients on hand for the most part. I was a tablespoon short on the butter, so I just added two extra teaspoons of olive oil. 

It was pretty much your basic cookies recipe. I liked that it called for whole wheat flour from the beginning. I creamed the butter and sugar, and Kyle measured and mixed the flour and spices

I didn't realize the dough was supposed to be refrigerated for an hour before baking when we started, and I was kind of short on time (FeelGood was making sandwiches for The Original Magazine's Release Party - shameless plug, I know). Instead I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so and that seemed to do the trick. 

Next, we rolled balls of dough in sugar and put them on the baking sheet. Kyle gets most of the credit for this since I was running around cleaning and getting ready.

I think we ended up making them larger than we were supposed to. They took almost 20 minutes per batch (vs. 10-12 min) and we only got about 2.5 dozen (instead of 3.5). However, it did give us an excuse to eat them immediately when we took them out of the oven though! (Had to make sure they were done, right?)

The sugar baked into them more than the original recipe, or at least that's what I figure from the pictures. Either way- these were delicious! (and also fantastic with ice cream, if you're feeling adventurous). Christmas cookie season is quickly approaching and I can definitely say that this recipe will be repeated.

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

..and 15 minutes later it was gone.

That got your attention, right? It's not even an exaggeration. I brought this taco dip to a FeelGood pot luck we were having and within minutes if me setting it down, there were maybe a few chipful's left. For an added bonus, it took about 20 minutes of active work to make, and almost all of that was cutting veggies. AND it was just-about vegan (ie. it would have been vegan had I put out the extra dollars for dairy free sour cream). I bookmarked the recipe ages ago in my Google reader, but I was waiting for a good occasion to make it.

Ingredients:

FeelGood errands have me in The Strip District every Wednesday, so I was able to pick up refried beans from the Mexican Grocer and get discounted veggies from Stan's.

I really don't enjoy cutting veggies... so I did that first:

I didn't end up photographing the next few steps. It really just was a matter of spreading the layers. First, the beans, than the avocado, then the taco seasoned sour cream. I didn't end up using all the taco seasoning (didn't want to burn anyone's mouth), but I did add the 3 jalapenos (the recipe called for 2-3, I was living large).

Finally, I just popped it in the oven for a little over 25 minutes. Conveniently I was still getting ready, so it had a little time to cool before I carried it to my friends place.

And then we dug in. The picture was taken mid-destruction with my rather terrible phone camera, but you get the idea.

I'm sure the Trader Joe's Flaxseed tortilla chips helped a little too (seriously though- they're like crack). I also skipped the cilantro because I knew some of the people who'd be dying to try this (Alyssa) weren't fans. In the end I forgot about the parsley substitution as well, but clearly, neither was needed :)

Halloweekend

If there's one thing I've learned in the past four years of college, it's that there is no such thing as a calm Halloween weekend. Not in Pittsburgh, at any rate. This year was even more crazy since I had been away the weekend before (read: no Halloweekend prep time). In addition the normal levels of crazy (you know, the ones related to costume shopping, increasing one's alcohol tolerance, etc.), there was a whole lot of food to be cooked. 

I won't bore you with all the detailed cooking instructions like I usually do. Instead, here's some Halloween themed food porn. Enjoy!

(more to come about that last pic, Happy November!)

Win.

The same night of the butternut mac n chz almost-fail, Nick and I had incredible success making caramel corn. The recipe is part of this year’s 12 weeks of Christmas cookie’s on Baked Brie. I’ve been following these posts closely because cookies are my go-to thing to bake, and even though this wasn’t a cookie recipe, I knew I had to make it.

Minus the popcorn (because I’m really not a huge fan of it), every other ingredient I had on hand. We didn’t have quite enough vanilla, but the end result was so good I’m not sure it mattered a whole lot.

After popping the corn, we combined all of the ingredients except the vanilla and the baking soda:

Nick took care of melting the concoction over the stove, and adding the last two ingredients. Next, we poured over the popcorn.

Then we baked in the oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees in two very well sprayed dishes. And…voila!

Unfortunately I didn't realize how unfocused this picture was when I took it, but believe me, it looked gorgeous. By the time it had come out of the over, Don and Ryan had arrived, so the five of us went to town. We could not seem to get enough of it (def. made up for the mac!). Don even snapped a few pictures of our excessive excitement: 

I may have already gotten a request to remake this.

In the spirit of Halloween (/ any holiday ever really? I love the U.S.) there is a TON of festive baking going on in the very near future. Nick's hosting Halloween festivities, which of course translates to an excuse to bake. I made something tonight that smells delicious, but I have to wait for the taste-testers to let me know how it actually is. 

Happy Halloween!