What’s new…

These last two months have been a whirlwind of summer time fun. My birthday was last month, my parents anniversary was right before that. My brothers birthday is the end of this week, and my cousin is getting ready to have her baby on thursday. My family is ever expanding. And in just 9 days, I will have a brand new sister in law! My older brother popped the question back in March, and the big day is June 29th. In the midst of the craziness, the boyfriend and I took a quick weekend trip to California, for some relaxation and concert going….. or so I thought. Here’s what really happened.

Thats right! I’m engaged! After 3 1/2 years together, its officially official. We are getting married.

Here’s the story.

Our trip to California was planned to see the boyfriend (the husband-to-be)’s favorite band. They are on their farewell tour this summer and he wanted to catch one last show before they go on “hiatus”. Our first night in Cali, we decided to do the touristy thing and walk around looking at the stars on hollywood blvd. We stopped to take pictures at the Chinese Theater and compared feet size with the celebrities. (Will Smith has GIANT FEET!). We walked up and down the street, people watching, snapping pictures, just enjoying the sights. On the way back to the car, the HTB asked if we could get someone to take our picture in front of the chinese theater, so we could remember it. This should have been my first hint, because he doesnt particularly like taking pictures, but I didnt think anything of it. We asked a nice little family to snap a couple photos of us. The first one didnt turn out so great. Still not sure if its because he didnt give us much warning, or because the HTB was so terrified of what was to come that he couldnt force a smile. So the family said, well, lets take one more. The HTB said, ok great, just one more thing. He got down on one knee and pulled a little purple box out of his pocket, opened it up… and it was upside down. And that photo above is my genuine expression, I was incredibly surprised. We are so lucky to have had someone snap a photo of that exact moment, and although I think I look ridiculous, I will cherish that picture forever! At some point the family handed me my camera back, I may have  muttered thank you, and me and my future husband wandered off to call our families. The moment of the proposal I remember quite clearly, the few moments after are a bit of a blur. But we made it safely back to have a celebratory cocktail at the hotel bar.

It still gives me butterflies to think about.

Although I know this isn’t a recipe post, I just thought that you may want to know what was keeping me from posting this last little bit. The recipes will come back soon, and I promise to keep you posted on the wedding details as well, as they come up.

Grilled Pizza

The high today, according to our weather station, is 90. Also, according to the weather station, the current temperature outside is 92. A sunny and beautiful day here in Salt Lake City. Today is also my parents 30th wedding anniversary. So we all got together for a special dinner. Make your own pizzas! These pizzas could just as easily be assembled and baked in the oven, but if you haven’t ever tried a grilled pizza DO. IT. NOW. The grill adds so much flavor to the crust. Delicious.

I got my pizza crust recipe over here at The Londoner, and because I love her blog so much I knew I could trust it. I’m so glad I did. It was amazing. My mom said she will never eat regular pizza again. One thing to note about her recipe is that its written in the metric system. If you don’t have a food scale, get one now! They’re relatively cheap (and can be found at walmart), and baking is infintely better with weighed ingredients. However, if you don’t want a scale, you can always use this recipe with some store bought dough. Just make sure its lightly oiled so it doesn’t stick to your grill.

Gather your ingredients, your favorite sauces, cheeses and toppings, and heat up your grill to 300-325. (low- med/low). Make sure your toppings are all fully cooked to begin with, the grill will heat them, but won’t cook them through.

Grab a handful of your dough and stretch and roll it as thin as you can get it without ripping the dough. Lightly oil the bottom (we put it on an oiled pan to take it outside to the grill, which was just the right amount of oil). Place the dough, without toppings, on the grill and cook until golden brown on the bottom. Flip your dough, and load up the toppings on the cooked side. We took ours off the grill to put the toppings on, so it was a little easier and not as hot. Place the uncooked side down and grill until golden brown on the bottom and the cheese is melty.

My pizza on the grill

My pizza. Alfredo sauce, pesto sauce, tomato, red onion, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms topped with mozzarella cheese. I finished it off with some chili flakes, avocado and sea salt.

Dad’s pizza. Chipotle bbq sauce, chicken, red onion, olives, avocado, artichokes, mushrooms and cheddar jack cheese.

Mom’s pizza. Alfredo sauce, chicken, sausage, red onion and mozzarella cheese.

Basil, sitting at the table, waiting for his pizza.

 

Peanut Butter Popcorn

Over the weekend, my family and I went out of town for a little mini vacation. It was great for us, but left us in a tough spot, because the dogs would be in the house by themselves for the weekend. My neighbor was kind enough to watch them for us, so today I wanted to make her a little treat to say thank you. With all the bar baking I did last weekend, I was completely out of butter, and after my vacation, completely out of money. So I scoured the pantry and the internet and came up with this.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

Recipe adapted from here and here.

For the popcorn part:

1/3 cup unpopped corn kernels

3 tablespoons canola oil

In a heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat. When the oil seems hot, add 3-5 corn kernels. Once the kernels pop, add the 1/3 cup of kernels, put a lid on the pot and remove from the heat for 30 seconds. Place back on the heat, and keep the lid on, but slightly ajar, to let steam escape. (have the vent away from you to prevent the oil from splattering on your arms. Trust me. It hurts.). Once the popcorn begins to pop, shake the pan gently to distribute the unpopped kernels. Just like when microwaving popcorn, when the sound of the kernels popping slows down, remove from heat and immediately transfer to a heatproof bowl.

For the peanut butter part:

1 cup salted peanuts

2/3 cup peanut butter (chunky or creamy will work, depending on what you have)

2/3 cup light corn syrup

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 handful of m&ms, optional

Add the peanuts to the popped popcorn and set aside. In a sauce pan, (the same one you popped your popcorn in, if you don’t feel like doing a lot of dishes, just wipe out any excess oil) add corn syrup and brown sugar. Stir to combine, then bring to a rolling boil. If you have a candy thermometer, it should reach about 230F. If not, just let boil for a minute, then remove from heat and add the peanut butter. Stir to combine, then add the vanilla and almond extracts. Pour over peanuts and popcorn, stir to coat evenly. Spread on a greased baking sheet, breaking up any large clumps. Let cool for a moment, then add your m&ms, if you so choose. Just sprinkle them over and press into the popcorn, so they stick, but don’t melt. Let cool completely, then break into small pieces and try not to eat it all before you can take some to your neighbor. Bonus points if you have a cute little bag with a cute little note to put it in.

    

 

PB&J Bars

Apparently theres a theme in the kitchen this week. Bars. Bars with a doughy crumbly topping. Bars with ingredients that Boyfriend loves. I found this recipe when I was watching TV the other day. I was flipping back and forth between What Not To Wear and the Food Network. Ina Garten was on and I caught the end of the recipe, but the bars looked delicious, so I looked it up and made them myself

I only really changed the type of jelly used, just based on personal preference (I used strawberry instead of raspberry), so I’m just going to post the link to the recipe here, rather than copy and paste.

The recipe can be found here: Ina’s PB&J Bars.

Salted Caramel Butter Bars

So, I’m sure its pretty obvious, if you look through the archives here, that I didn’t do a lot of cooking for a while. Funny how Culinary School will do that to you. Now that I’m out of school for the summer, the cooking bug has bitten me again and I’ve been busy in my kitchen! Today I worked on a little project for Boyfriend and his coworkers. My boyfriend loves three things. Peanut butter, Salted caramel and… well, me! (Even more so for making him these bars, I suspect!)

I wish I could take credit for this recipe. I really do. But alas, I did find it on another food blog, Cookies and Cups and after reading her blog, I found out she found it on another blog as well. But I tweaked the original recipe just a hair, so I thought it’d be ok if I posted it here too, just as long as I give credit where its due. (thanks for the recipe Shelly!)

Salted Caramel Butter Bars

Crust:

 

1 pound of butter (4 sticks), room temp.

 

1 cup packed brown sugar

1½ cups powdered sugar

 

2 tablespoons vanilla

 

4 cups all purpose flour

 

Caramel Filling:

1 bag (14 oz.) caramel candies, unwrapped

 

1/3 cup milk (cream would also work, if you have it on hand)

 

½ teaspoon vanilla

 

1 T. coarse sea salt (I would assume kosher salt would work too, but sea salt was only a few bucks so I just grabbed some when I was at the store)

 

To make the crust:

 

Preheat your oven to 325F.

 

In a large bowl, mix together the butter and the sugars on medium speed, beating until creamy and fully combined. Add the vanilla, beat to combine. Sift in the flour and mix on low until just incorporated. (be sure to scrape the bowl, the bottom may be kind of dry).

Line a 9×13 baking pan with a piece of tin foil or parchment (if tin foil, be sure to lightly grease it). The foil/parchment should hang over the edges just slightly, this will help you lift the bars out when they’re done baking, which makes for easier cutting. Press about 1/2 of the dough evenly into the pan and place the remainder of the dough in the fridge to chill.

Bake until firm and the edges are a pale golden brown. The original recipe says 20 minutes, but it took my oven closer to 30. Check after 20 and adjust accordingly. The original recipe also says to transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool about 15 minutes, but I forgot that step and they still turned out fine. My bottom crust cooled for about 5 minutes before adding the filling.

 

Speaking of filling…

While your bottom crust is cooling, unwrap all of your caramels and place in a microwave safe bowl. Add the milk and vanilla, microwave on high for 1 minute, then stir. If your caramels have not melted, microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until it has melted completely, my caramels took about 3 minutes. Pour your caramel onto the bottom crust, spreading evenly. Then salt! I won’t lie, I didnt actually measure my salt, I just poured some into my palm and sprinkled till I thought it looked good. Since I didnt have any salted butter to use, I figured I could be a little bit more liberal with the salt on the caramel. After its good and salted, grab the rest of your dough from the fridge, and crumble it over the top. Bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until the crumble topping is lightly browned. Don’t be afraid if your bars look a little wiggly when you take them out of the oven, the caramel will set up as it cools. Place your pan on a wire rack and allow to cool until they are just warm to the touch (about 15-20 minutes, trust me, it’ll be worth the wait!) Pull your parchment/foil out of the pan and place on a cutting board and cut into desired sized squares. (or don’t cut it at all, eat it as one big piece. I won’t judge.)

 

 

Strawberry Margarita Sorbet

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate, I made some tasty sorbet for my family to enjoy tonight while I am at work. Easy peasy, I made it with ingredients we had on hand. This recipe is for a virgin sorbet, but can be spiked if the mood strikes you.

Strawberry Margarita Sorbet

1 cup margarita mix

1 1/2 cups sweet and sour mix

1/2 cup strawberry puree*

1 cup water

1/4 – 1/2 cup of your favorite tequila, triple sec or grand marnier, or any combo of the three, can be added to taste before freezing. Or try it as a float! Pour yourself a shot over the frozen treat

*Not a fan of strawberry? Just up the margarita mix to 1 1/2 cups, and leave the strawberry out.

Combine all the ingredients, freeze according to your machine’s directions.

Don’t have an ice cream machine? No problem. This recipe can also be made into a granita, which is similar to a sorbet, just takes a little more elbow grease.

Directions taken from Epicurious.com:

Freeze mixture in bowl until semifirm, whisking occasionally, about 3 hours. Cover and freeze until solid, at least 6 hours or overnight. Using fork, scrape surface of granita to form crystals. Scoop crystals into frozen glasses and serve immediately.

 

 

 

 

To jazz up your serving, dip the edge of your glasses into some water or lime juice, and then into sugar or salt.

 

 

 

Playin’ catch up.

So, hey guys. Wow. Its been a long time since I’ve had the time to post anything. To be honest, its been a long time since I’ve been able to cook anything at all. School is almost over (my last day of the semester is Wednesday!) and then we have the whole summer to experiment and eat! I just wanted to say sorry for the lack of posts, and I hope I can make it up to you by showing you a little of what I’ve been up to at school these last few weeks.

I’m just finishing up my Advanced Baking and Pastry class, and it has been quite a whirlwind. We just catered a huge fundraising event on the 13th, I made my grandparents a wedding cake for their 60th wedding anniversary, and I had a final on friday, where I had to make a classic cake, from scratch, in 4 hours. (It took me about 6… whoops). I also have a wedding cake due on Wednesday for my final project. I decided I didn’t want to do flowers on my cake, cuz I just had to be different. I decided to make my cake food themed, like a picnic, so I’ve been spending hours making tiny food items out of marzipan.

 

Here’s some of the things I’ve been working on!

An ice cream bombe. A layer of basil ice cream, a layer of blackberry sorbet, and a layer of lemongrass pate au bombe.

Marzipan bananas, cabbage and watermelon

Marzipan pumpkins and lettuce

    

Grandparents 60th Anniversary cake

Slutty Brownies

Before I post this recipe, I want to talk about two things.

1- Do you have stumbleupon? Have you heard of it? Its pretty awesome. You pick from a list of interests, and it will bring up random websites based on things you say you like. Lots of cute/funny pictures, recipe ideas, craft ideas, you name it. Stumbleupon is where I found this recipe. (warning: its addicting and you will lose sleep)

2- Yes. This recipe is called Slutty Brownies. I thought for a while about changing the name, to make it a bit more conservative, but I figure… It is what it is. And these brownies are, apparently, slutty. I found the recipe here, where the author describes these brownies as “oh so easy and more than a little filthy”. So. I mean, what else could you possibly call them? (not to mention, the use of boxed mixes makes them pretty cheap)

Plus, I got lots of funny looks when I told everyone I was making slutty brownies for my boyfriend for Valentines day. And you can’t beat that.

 

Slutty Brownies (Adapted from The Londoner)

1 batch of peanut butter cookie dough*

1 batch of brownie batter*

2 bags of tim tams**

* These things can be homemade, or from a box/bagged mix. If using a mix, add a tablespoon extra oil and water to your cookie dough, but prepare the brownie batter as directed.

** If you’ve never heard of a tim tam, they’re little rectangular cookies made by an Australian company called Arnotts. Chocolate cookies with chocolate cream filling, dipped in chocolate. Pepperidge farm makes a US version, which according to the boyfriend, is acceptable but not quite the same. Either way, he’s pretty obsessed with them, so I knew I had to use them in this recipe.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a 9×9 glass baking pan with parchment paper (I forgot to get the paper at the store, so I just sprayed it really really well with some non-stick spray). Prepare cookie dough first, smoosh it into the bottom of the pan. Then layer the cookies (I made sure to leave some space between them for the brownie batter to fill in. You won’t need all the tim tams, but one pack won’t be quite enough.). Then, prepare the brownie batter and pour over the top. Bake for 30 minutes.

 

Now that these bad boys (girls?) are out of the oven, I know why it says to line the pan with parchment paper! When you use parchment, you can easily pull the bars out with the paper to allow them to cool. When you grease the pan and then try to flip them out of the pan, you wont be able to. Those tim tams in the middle will be melty and only the top layer will come out. Whoops!

This is after I flipped it back into the pan and squished it down with my trusty orange spatula.

Oh well. They still look pretty good… and trust me. They taste like heaven.

super melty!

Hind-sight is 20/20, and next time I make these I’ll probably stick with the oreos, to avoid this melty chocolate problem. They dont really cut into bars, which is going to make dividing them up and packaging them a little difficult (read: impossible)

What a slut!

Two things these need. A scoop of ice cream and a fork.

Boston Cream Pie

Did you know that Boston cream pie isn’t a pie at all? Its actually just a layer cake. Yellow cake, pastry cream and chocolate ganache. Simple and delicious. (The flavors can also be translated into a filled cupcake quite easily).

For this recipe, you’ll want to break out your favorite yellow cake recipe (or favorite boxed mix, I wont tell anyone.). If you don’t have a favorite from scratch yellow cake mix, I suggest you check out this one from the Smitten Kitchen. Its definitely my favorite. Bake the cake according to the recipes directions and let cool completely before assembling.

 

Boston Cream Pie

Pastry cream

1 cup milk

1 cup cream

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

6 large egg yolks

6 ounces white chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes, room temp.

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

In a saucepan, combine milk, cream and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Place over low heat and warm until bubbles begin to form around the sides of the pan. Meanwhile, in a bowl, wisk together the rest of the sugar, cornstarch and egg yolks. When cream mixture is hot, add a small scoop of the hot mixture to the egg yolks and wisk to combine. (this is called tempering. It helps prevent your eggs from scrambling when they hit the hot liquid, and trust me, no one wants a scrambled pastry cream). Add a few more scoops of the hot mixture to the eggs, wisking quickly to combine each time. Pour the egg mixture into the hot milk and stir constantly over medium heat until the cream begins to thicken and it no longer has a grainy, starchy taste. (Cornstarch must cook for 2 minutes before the starch will break down). Transfer the cream to a mixer (or a bowl, if you have a hand mixer). While the mixture is still hot, mix on a low and slowly add the white chocolate chips, vanilla extract and butter, until everything is incorporated. Store in the fridge, with plastic wrap touching the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming, until cooled and ready to use.

 

Ganache

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup (8 oz) chopped dark chocolate

Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until bubbles begin to form along the sides of the pan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, let sit for 1 minute, then stir. All the chocolate should be melted, and the ganache should be smooth and shiny.  For this cake, we want the ganache to be pourable. If your ganache hardens, just microwave for about 15 seconds, and stir, repeating until melted.

 

To assemble the cake:

For one large cake, take two equal sized layers of yellow cake. On one cake, spread a healthy amount of pastry cream. Place the other cake on top and pour the ganache over the whole thing, allowing it to drip down the sides. (Doesn’t need to be perfectly covered here, in fact, the drippier the better!)

For individual portions, cut the desired size and shaped cake pieces from the original large cake. Spread on some pastry cream on one piece and top with another. Pour ganache over the top.

For cupcakes, bake your yellow cake in a cupcake pan lined with papers. When the cupcakes are cool, cut a cone out of each cake. Cut the pointy end of the cone off, fill the cupcake with pastry cream, and replace the top of the cone. For the ganache on these cakes, you dont want it to be quite so runny. Think more along the lines of canned chocolate frosting. This way you can frost the cupcakes without getting chocolate all over the cupcake papers.

 

 

For Restaurant, we served these up on a pool of creme anglaise (recipe to come soon!) with a berry compote. The berry compote consisted off blackberries and raspberries tossed in a little sugar with big splash of some grand marnier (orange liqueur).

 

Blueberry Cobbler

As promised, here’s one of the recipes we used in Restaurant this week. Blueberry cobbler! These cute little guys are baked and served in their own individual ramekins. (Don’t have ramekins? Oven safe mugs will work just fine!)

Blueberry Cobbler with Cinnamon Biscuits

Filling

4 cups frozen blueberries

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup fruit juice (we used cranberry, but apple or orange would work as well. Just whatever you have on hand!)

Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

4 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 large egg

Preheat oven to 375F. First, work on the berries. In a small bowl, wisk together the cornstarch and sugar. In a larger bowl, mix together the blueberries (they don’t need to be thawed), the vanilla, the lemon juice and the fruit juice. Add the cornstarch/sugar mixture and stir to combine. (Make sure the corn starch is evenly distributed, you don’t want to end up with lumpy bits in your cobblers!)

Now for the biscuits! In a large bowl, wisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to blend. Add the butter cubes, rub into the flour mixture with your fingers until a coarse meal forms. (Be careful not to leave your hands in the bowl too long, the warmth will melt the butter.) Wisk cream and egg in a small bowl to blend. Stir the egg/cream mixture into the flour just until blended. Gently knead the dough, just until it comes together.

Scoop 1/4-1/2 cup blueberry filling into your ramekins (how much you actually use will depend on their size). The blueberries should be about 2/3rds up the ramekin. Break small pieces of biscuit dough off and place them on top of your blueberries. It shouldnt cover the entire surface of the blueberries, probably about 6 or 7 nickle sized balls should do the trick. (If you like your cobbler with more crust, feel free! Just make sure the berries aren’t completely covered. They need a steam vent). Place cobblers on a lined sheet pan (parchment or aluminum will work fine, trust me, it makes for WAY easier clean up if your cobblers should boil over.). Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, or until the blueberries are bubbly and the crust is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in them comes out clean. Let cool on the sheet pan until the ramekins are cool enough to handle. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.