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! 

Butternut Squash Mac n Cheese...wait what?

I’m obsessed with seasonal things. I’m pretty sure I got it from my mom (who takes pride in decorating the house for every little holiday). This year instead of placing my entire focus on pumpkin, I found myself foodgawkering butternut squash. Then I found this recipe for butternut squash mac n chz, on Angela’s delicious blog. I’ve made countless recipes from this blog, but sometimes the vegan substitutions intimidate me a little (I just don’t trust myself with cashews and nutritional yeast). So after some more foodgawering I came across this recipe and knew I had to try it.

Nick was a hundred percent on board. He came over my place Thursday night to make it with me. I bought a 5+ lb butternut squash from the strip (Note:  I think I got 8 cups of squash at least out of it… the recipe only called for 2). We used almond milk instead of regular milk because it’s what I had (Nick and Ryan were sure they could taste it, unfortunately. I hadn’t thought the difference would be that noticeable). The rest of the ingredients were things we had on hand:

Since the squash I got was so big, I roasted the part of it that I wasn't using for the recipe:.

Making the squash puree ended up being easier than roasting it. I managed not to cut a finger off cubing it, but I easily could have (so if you make this please be careful!). Then I boiled water, and tossed the pieces in until they were tender. Next, we tossed the it all in the magic bullet and pureed it. (Note: Don't forget to add the veggie broth before processing it- Nick kindly reminded me that I was on crack and added it himself- and the mixture got so much smoother).

Nick took care of the next few steps. He boiled the pasta (as you normally would) and set it aside. Then he combined the rest of the ingredients in the pot, adding the cheese last.

And finally we sat down to enjoy with Alyssa!

Unfortunately, it didn't taste quite as amazing as it looks. Like I mentioned earlier, the almond milk wasn't a great choice. We also didn't add quite enough salt. But with the help of some Parmesan cheese, we all finished our bowls. I'm excited to polish over the left overs this week, even if no one else was begging to take some home.

But, as my friends reminded me, not every recipe can be amazing. I may try to make it again in the future with some improvements. 

After we finished the mac, we moved on to bigger and better things! But that's for the next post so stay tuned!

Guest Post Dois!

The summer before last I got the opportunity to visit Brazil as part of a class I was taking. It was undoubtedly one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. The class was about sustainable engineering technologies, which Brazil happens at the forefront of. In addition to visiting various plants and factories, I had a whole lot of adventures- all of which gave me a huge appreciate for Brazilian culture. Part of that culture, of course, was food.

Our favorite snack/side/hangover food was easily Pao de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread). When my friend Ryan and I got back to the states, we were determined to find some here. I looked up a recipe, and found that it's made from tapioca flour. I spend more time in the baking aisle than average chick my age, and I had never seen/heard of it. Over the next few months I tried to get in the habit of glancing over the flour types in every grocery I went into (yes, I am that cool because no, I was not about to pay S&H and order it online). Eventually, I stumbled upon some at the East End Food Co-op. 

This is another one of those recipes that everyone seems to like. But I guess it's hard to go wrong with cheese and bread. Ryan made some the other day and meticulously documented so I could share it! He found a recipe from over here. This recipe is a little different than the one we've used in the past. The recipe here didn't top it - and it was a whole lot messier. The end result was still damn delicious though.

The recipe calls for vegetable oil, but since the olive oil was on hand he used that instead. He also added some chili powder for kicks (get it? ha..). 

This coming week is crazy, but I owe a few people baked goods so I won't be gone long.

Thanks for this week's post, Ryan!

'Tis the Season...

...for pumpkin things!

I've always adored pumpkin bread. It's my favorite part of fall. My mom used to make huge batches of it every year and freeze it so we'd have it for months. Last year I tried making her recipe myself...and got hooked to everything pumpkin. I was obsessed  until I made a really terrible pumpkin soup sometime in November. Since then I've more or less stayed away keeping myself busy with other food obsessions. But now that October is officially here (way too soon I might add - I don't understand why I need the heat on right now)- I'm ready to dive back in.

Last Friday Nick and I had a pumpkin cooking/ Bridesmades watching hangout and invited some friends to be taste testers. The first thing we made was, of course, Mom's pumpkin bread:

The funniest part about this was that I had written the recipe down wrong initially, and had to call my mom and have a long discussion about the missing ingredients were. We figured it out eventually. I tweeked her recipe a little, and replaced the cup of oil with applesauce and added white chocolate chips. The secret ingredient was whiskey (liquor store trip number three!).

The other tricky part was adjusting the cook time for casserole dishes instead of coffee tins. But the difference didn't turn out to be very much. 

The bread turned out beautifully. The chips fell to the bottom a little more than I would have liked, so I'd like to address that next time. I think I'm also going to try making muffins with the batter because the crust of this bread is easily the best part.

While this was cooking we watched Bridesmades, AND made this beautiful babies (we're superb multitaskers). The recipe was featured on foodgawker recently (which I may or may not have been browsing instead of taking notes in Calculus).

The ingredients were conveniently all things we had on hand:

It was a pretty straightforward mixing of ingredients. We added a little pumpkin spice since it was already hanging out in the kitchen. Next we made a little cinnimon/pumpkin spice/sugar to roll the balls of cookie dough in before putting them on the cookie sheet.

While they were in the oven we made the cream filling. We tweaked it a little and added spices and a few tablespoons of cream cheese

Nick has a mixer! :)

(We'll pretend I can actually see what I'm doing there). The final products, pre-assembly:

And, drum roll please....finally, pumpkin whoopie pies!!

So far every since taste tester has been a huge fan. I'm definitely tucking this recipe away to make again some time. It's not difficult at all for such a delicious result.

Throughout this whole process we noshed on pao de quejo (Brazilian cheese bread) courtesy of my friend Ryan. We got hooked on it when we visited Brazil last year. Guest post coming soon with more details on that!