What we've been up to...

So we've been a tad M-I-A for the past three or so weeks, and for that, I apologize. It's not that we haven't been busy... we've been cooking and baking plenty and Shawn's had plenty to rant about, but we've also been watching plenty of 90's movies and episodes of the X-files... so we've both been a little lazy, too. Can you blame us? I've been a little tired of the internet as of late, I must admit; so much less of my time is spent clicking away in front of the computer screen these days - apparently that's a good thing for me, but not a good thing for any of our loyal blog readers.

I really don't have a good excuse other than having shifted my focus to the Bark Bites website two weeks ago. If you're wondering what on earth Bark Bites is, it's my homemade organic dog treat business - check it out! The idea has been in the works for over a year now, and I finally got my rear-end into gear and started promoting myself. With our recent acquirement of a color printer, making labels and flyers has a been a whole lot easier, and my motivation to push forth with the business returned. No orders yet, but at least I'm getting the name out there.

Like I said though, we've been cooking and baking plenty. I'll tease you with some photos from the past few weeks, and leave you with the promise to post a few of these new recipes soon. And by soon, I mean maybe a few days instead of a few weeks this time.

I've been in a bread baking mood since autumn set in; I've made this whole wheat loaf three times now and I wouldn't change anything about the recipe - it's absolutely perfect, and I absolutely must share it with you!




I also made a cinnamon raisin loaf, and albeit being tasty, the dough was a huge pain to work with and most of my raisins ended up on the floor... I'll be tweaking this recipe.




Rice Krispie treats? How about rice krispie treats made with peanut butter and agave nectar instead of marshmallows? Mmm. Healthier and tastier!




That was a chocolate loaf cake that didn't last very long at all. Oh, indulgence.




Speaking of indulgence, have you ever had brownie pie? You're seriously missing out.




Shawn made some tasty things too! He's working on his meatloaf recipe.





We came across this pepper phenomenon one night while prepping for sausage & peppers... not just one germinated seed - every single pepper we'd bought that day had some!




We all know I'm more of a baker than a cook... but when Shawn was coming down with a cold last week I couldn't very well ask him to cook, so I made his some homemade chicken noodle soup - the ultimate cold cure! It was deeeee-licious, if I do say so myself.




We'll leave the real cooking to Shawn though - he made some awesome smoked cheesesteaks the other day when we couldn't find sausage for sausage & peppers like we originally planned.




I'll end this post on a sweet note; the other night I decided to made homemade dark chocolate peanut butter cups... enough said.

Over the next few days you can expect a few new recipe posts, and a post about other bloggers' recipes I've been wanting to try! Until then, enjoy the holiday and get lots of rest!

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Spooky Sweet Halloween

I didn't go trick or treating this year, or even dress up, but this Halloween I got to spend a few hours with my brother and sister! The three of us caught up for a bit, and then my sister and I made some cupcakes in the spirit of the holiday.

My sister was in the mood for pumpkin, so we went with spiced pumpkin cupcakes and got a little crazy with the designs. We picked up some candy corn, black food coloring, and white red and green food gels, and we used some dark chocolate covered raisins too.


Check it out: spider webs, a pumpkin patch, floating heads, and a pumpkin massacre! (My sister is far more creative with her cupcake design than I am...)




We thought the icing looked really cool as we were adding the food coloring!




Monster cupcakes!

We actually had to make two batches of cupcakes... the first batch were under-baked by a good fifteen minutes, but I didn't realize it until we'd already let them cool (my mistake - I thought the cakes were just incredibly moist and delicate... dehhhh). So we made a second batch and baked them twice as long (I wonder if the person who wrote the recipe we used has a convection oven, perhaps...) - the second batch was baked all the way through and puffed up nicely. We used the first batch for practice decoration!

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Birthday Cake and Stand Mixers

It was my birthday on Friday! My lovely friend Amy came to visit and spent the night, and on Saturday morning I made myself a cake for Sunday's celebration with my family. I originally wanted to make this chocolate opera cake, but it would have been far too time consuming to undertake without a stand mixer... which I didn't own until Sunday afternoon!

For my birthday I really wanted just one thing - a Kitchenaid stand mixer. And I got one! (Reference: See picture above) A 5 quart mixer in pistachio (which I really think should be renamed mint green). Words just can't equate how happy I am - every time I walk into the kitchen it makes me smile :) and now I can cross it off the list!





Oh yeah, so back to the birthday cake. Since I didn't have a mixer yet, I wanted something impressive but not too labor-intensive. I decided to go with Deb (smitten kitchen)'s chocolate peanut butter cake. The only change I made was to use a tad more chocolate in the peanut butter chocolate glaze... making it more of a ganache than a glaze, really.





The cake was delicious. The peanut butter doesn't overwhelm the delicate chocolate cake layers, and the semisweet ganache ties everything together. Birthday cake success!



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Oh, and if you're wondering what I first made in my new mixer....

Marbled Brownies






They're kind of addictive. The kitchen smelled so sweet while they were in the oven! The true test of the stand mixer will be chocolate chip cookie dough though. I mean, I know it can handle it, but I'm curious to see if the cookies made in the mixer bake up differently than the ones I mix by hand. It's a project I may undertake tonight, after Shawn's done making dinner (sausage & peppers & onion)!

I'll let you know how my little 'experiment' turns out!

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Herb & Garlic Dinner Rolls

My contribution to Saturday night's dinner were homemade herb & garlic dinner rolls. I've tackled yeast doughs on a few occasions before, so the technique and all the waiting is nothing new to me, but these are the first fancy looking rolls I've made!

1 1/4 cups bread flour, + more to work into dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon combination of dried herbs: oregano, basil, thyme

- Stir together the yeast and 1 1/4 cups of flour.
- In a saucepan heat and stir together milk, sugar, butter, salt, garlic and herbs until the mixture is warm to the touch and the butter melts - about 120 to 130 degrees. (You don't want it to be too hot because the heat will kill the yeast.)
- Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast. Stir it all together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go, until it all comes together and starts to form a sticky dough.
- Gradually add more flour in (I added about an extra cup or so total) until the dough becomes workable.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 6 to 8 minutes) It should feel smooth in your hands and no longer be sticky.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

- Punch the dough down and turn it out again onto a lightly flour surface.
- Divide the dough in half, then cover and let it rest another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease a baking sheet with oil.

Ok, here's where it gets a little fancy. Feel free to bake these off as round rolls (just portion them out and let them rest on the baking sheet for half an hour before baking them), but if you'd like to make the knot rolls:

- Divide each portion of the dough into smaller pieces, however many you'd like - I got 16 rolls out of mine. Then roll each piece into a 12-inch long rope.
- Tie each rope into a loose knot, like a pretzel, leaving two long ends.
- Tuck the end on the top under the knot and the end on the bottom into the top center of the knot.












- Place rolls about two inches apart on your greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in a warm place until they've just about doubled in size, it took about a half hour for me.
- If you'd like a brioche-like brown and shiny crust, brush the rolls with a little milk or melted butter. I originally intended to brush the tops of mine, but forgot to in the whole proofing process, and they came out looking just fine regardless!
- Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes (the rolls should sound hollow when lightly tapped) Immediately remove them from the pan and cool on wire racks.

Indulge while they're warm! The flavors really come together once they've cooled down a bit though.

These were really delicious! I even froze a few of them to bake them off the next day and they were just as tasty as the first batch. Expect to see more bread recipes, for sure!

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Saturday Night Dinner Party

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend; ours was both enjoyable and more eventful than usual! Saturday night my friend Alina and her boyfriend Ryan came to visit us for the first time! We had our first small dinner party in the apartment - Alina made stuffed bell peppers, I made some herb&garlic dinner rolls, Ryan took the awesome photos that you see in this post, and Shawn took it easy for the night and enjoyed not having to cook.




tomatoes, mozzarella & basil + tabbouleh - 2009

Alina and I have known each other since our early high school days. We met during lunch period freshman year, and then we had Biology together sophomore year (where we made homemade yogurt to the tunes of Madonna and we also dissected a fetal pig together!) and we've been friends ever since! So you might not believe me when I tell you that she and Shawn had never met each other prior to Saturday night... I know, I'm ashamed. They've both known of one another for years, but Shawn's elusive and other things always got in the way. Or maybe it's me and I'm just an awful friend because I only see most of my friends about two or three times a year... I think that's just what happens to everyone over time though.



double couple trouble! oh, so corny.

It was also the first time Shawn and I met Alina's boyfriend Ryan - he's such a nice guy! And his camera puts both Shawn's and mine to shame.




Alina stuffed the peppers with ground beef and rice, then topped them off with some shredded cheddar and jack cheese. Then she filled the pans with diced tomatoes and green chilies, a little olive oil and some water - this made the peppers so incredibly soft and moist when they finally came out of the oven over an hour later!












Our kitchen table is only big enough for the two of us, so we gathered around the coffee table in the living room instead - no one seemed to complain. It was a late night because after getting stuck in traffic and making a trip to the grocery store, we still had to wait for the peppers to cook, but we had some great wine and some herb&garlic bread rolls while we waited. Thanks to great friends, delicious food, and good times, our weekend was a hit!

Check out the full set of photos on our Flickr!

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