Recipe: Quick and Easy Microwaveable Brownie for One

Sometimes you want a brownie, and you want it NOW. You want it chocolaty, hot, and hopefully topped with a scoop of ice cream or paired with an ice cold glass of milk. This desire for a brownie hit me not once, but twice, a few weeks ago (it had been a loooooong week), and I went on a mad online search for a decent recipe for microwave brownies (because waiting for a batch to bake in the oven was so not happening). I found one on Food.com that looked pretty good—I know that a brownie made in a cup and thrown in the microwave can't possibly compare to a batch properly cooked in the oven, but it's really nice to have the option to make a quick brownie when you want one. This recipe results in a fluffy yet gooey brownie rather than a dense and chewy brownie or cake brownie, and it just makes a single serving. You can make it in a mug, but I made mine in a small, microwaveable mixing bowl. I added a few drops each of peppermint and spearmint extract to make a minty brownie and topped mine with mint chocolate chip ice cream, but I've just listed the main, plain recipe here.

When I said I wanted it NOW, I meant it. There was no time to take a proper picture. NO TIME!

Serves: 1
Prep. time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 1-1&1/2 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 dash (approx. 1/8 to 1/4 tsp.) salt
• 4 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (I just used Hershey's, but the better quality you use, the better the flavor)
• 4 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Directions

Melt the butter in a mug or small, deep bowl, in the microwave. Add the water and vanilla to the mug/bowl and whisk to blend. Add the sugar and salt and whisk to blend. Add the cocoa powder and flour and whisk to blend. The final mixture should be well blended, with no lumps (there may be some graininess because of the sugar). "Bake" in the microwave for 1-1&1/2 minutes, but no longer (too long and it'll get burnt and dried out; a minute and 15 seconds is just about right). The brownie should be soft and slightly gooey in the middle (unless you cooked it a bit longer); it will also be very hot, so be careful. Let it sit for a minute or two before eating. Best served with a scoop of ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream, or a glass of milk.

Simple and tasty—that about sums it up. It's not a dense brownie square like you'd get from a proper batch of oven-baked brownies, but it's chocolaty, gooey, ready in a minute, and you can eat it with a spoon, so it's pretty damn delicious nonetheless.

Recipe: Lemon Cheesecake with a Raspberry Swirl

So, making a cheesecake was my way of dealing with the fact that I had a box of Girl Scout Trefoil cookies, which were pretty tasteless (at least in comparison to Walkers brand shortbread, which is far superior), that I refused to waste. The easiest way to use them, in my mind, was to make a crust with them, and I felt that cheesecake was the ideal filling for said crust (plus, I've never made cheesecake before, and I wanted to try something new). While out to dinner with a friend, I mentioned my plan for this cheesecake and we started brainstorming ideas for flavors for the dessert (because New York Style with gooey strawberry puree on top was not gonna cut it). We both mentioned lemon and raspberry in almost the same breath, and I was immediately hooked on the idea, so I found this great recipe from The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen to work off of. Even though Pennsylvania still can't seem to decide if it wants winter or spring (and thus, we go from 70 degrees one day to 40 degrees the next), I felt the flavors of lemon and raspberry were bright and perfect for this transitional stage between the end of winter and beginning of spring. Lemon and cream cheese, each with their own tangy flavor, go perfectly together, while sweetened raspberries add another dimension to the flavor and help sweeten the cheesecake. Aside from the exceptional flavor, this cheesecake is thick, creamy, and decadent—so rich that even I, champion of eating ALL the dessert, only cut myself the slimmest slice so as to avoid overdoing it.

Yields: About 16 servings (depending on how large your slices are)
Prep. time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 min. for the crust, approx. 1-and-a-half hours for the cheesecake
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Special equipment: Springform pan, food processor, stand mixer, strainer

Ingredients
For the crust

• 1&1/2 sleeves Girl Scout Trefoil cookies (or approx. 1 box of your favorite shortbread cookies/approx. 20 cookies)
• 2 tbsp. granulated white sugar
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

For the raspberry puree swirl

• 10-12 oz. fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup water

For the cheesecake filling

• 4, 8 oz. blocks/packages of cream cheese (I used Philadelphia 1/3 Less Fat), room temperature
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• Zest of 3 lemons (approx. 2 tbsp.)
• 1 cup sour cream (I used a low fat style), room temperature
• 4 large eggs, room temperature (you can bring them up to room temperature faster by placing them, still in the shells, in a cup or bowl with warm-to-hot water)
• Juice of 3 lemons (approx. 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• Additional 1-2 tbsp. sugar (to help cut some of the acidity of the lemons)

Directions

For the crust

Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a food processor, pulse the cookies until they are broken down into a fine crumb, then add the sugar and melted butter and pulse to blend until the cookie mixture is wet and looks a bit like damp sand. Spray or butter your springform pan, then pour the cookie mixture into the pan and press evenly on the bottom and up onto the sides. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Set aside to cool.

For the raspberry puree swirl

Add the raspberries, sugar, and water to a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat for approx. 10 minutes, until the raspberries are completely broken down and the mixture is bubbling. Remove from heat and pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl or measuring cup (the strainer removes all of the unwanted lumps and seeds and gives you a nice, clear puree). If the puree is a little watery, boil for about a minute to slightly thicken in. Set aside to cool (I placed mine in the fridge to cool faster).

For the cheesecake filling

Lower the temperature of the oven to 325*F. Wrap the bottom and outside sides of the springform pan in aluminum foil, so no water will leak inside while cooking (the cheesecake will be cooked in a water bath). In the bowl of your stand mixer, on medium speed, cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon zest until the mixture is smooth and airy (approx. 3-5 minutes). Add the sour cream and mix it in, then add the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Add the lemon juice, salt, and extra sugar to the mixture and blend, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until the mixture is well mixed. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan with crust and smooth the top of the batter with a spatula so it is even and smooth. Carefully drizzle part of the raspberry puree in a large circle around the edge of the batter, then another slightly smaller circle in the middle, and a smaller circle inside of that (3-4 rings of raspberry puree should be fine; you should have puree leftover). Take a skewer, chopstick, or other long and thin kitchen utensil/tool and make a zigzag motion across the batter from top to bottom, then side to side, creating a swirl pattern. Place the springform pan in a larger pan (make sure it's not too tight of a fit). Boil a pot of water and pour the boiling water carefully into the larger pan (do not splash any water into or onto the cheesecake) so that the water comes up about halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for about an hour and 30 minutes, until the cheesecake no longer jiggles much in the middle (a little jiggling is fine, as the cheesecake will continue to cook a little even after being removed from the oven, and it will firm up after removal from the oven). Remove the cheesecake and let it cool in the pan for at least 2 hours, then remove the pan (leaving the bottom) and allow the cheesecake to cool for at least 5-6 hours in the fridge. Save the remaining raspberry puree in an airtight container in the fridge.

Serve the cheesecake with an extra drizzle of raspberry puree, if desired, and if you're feeling a little adventurous (as I was), add a dollop of homemade whipped cream (1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, 2 tbsp, sugar, and 2 tbsp. of the raspberry puree whips up to create a lovely raspberry whipped cream). Keep the cheesecake and puree in the fridge to keep them fresh. 

The cheesecake, fresh out of the oven. My puree was a little thin, which caused it to pool a bit when I drizzled it on and swirled it, but I still think it looks pretty good!

This cheesecake is phenomenal, with flavors that are perfect for the spring and summer months. Bright, tangy lemon tempered by the sweetness of the raspberries and creaminess of the cheesecake batter itself makes for a delicious cheesecake. It's both light and incredibly rich, with a smooth, thick creaminess that's oh-so-decadent. I think other flavorings could easily be subbed in for the lemon and raspberry, so this is definitely a recipe you can play around with, but this raspberry and lemon combo is pretty hard to beat.

Recipe: Red Velvet Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing Drizzle

I spent last week in Memphis with my boyfriend, making the most of his week-long spring break. We spent a few quiet days in Arkansas, at an old hunting lodge/clubhouse his family is a member of, and spent the rest of the week at his family home. I ate some great food (including a homemade beef and cheddar hot dog in a soft pretzel bun from Hog & Hominy, a burger at Huey's, and of course, cupcakes from Muddy's), met some of his law school friends, had some "arts and crafts" time (we painted pottery and made glass dishes--both were a lot of fun to work on!), and visited a few galleries and museums. As a thank you to him and his family for hosting me, I thought it would be nice to bake brownies and send them down their way. I found this recipe for red velvet brownies and knew I had to try it out—I don't generally play around with baking recipes because they are so precise and I find it hard to change and edit ingredients (it's so much easier to mess up in baking than it is in cooking), so I left it as is, but added a little drizzle of cream cheese icing to give them a little more flavor (makes 'em prettier too). The resulting brownies were perfectly chewy and dense with a light, flaky top, just like a brownies should be, and the drizzle of icing added a little tangy flavor and creaminess to them.

Yields: 1, 9x13 inch pan of brownies (approx. 20 brownie squares)
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Baking time: 35-40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

For the brownies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1&1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1&1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 oz. red food coloring (if you don't have enough food coloring, add water to get the required measurement)
• 4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's, because that's all I could find, but a better quality brand will yield better brownies)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  

For the cream cheese icing drizzle

• 2 oz. cream cheese
• Approx. 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or more, as needed)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. milk

Directions

Preheat the over to 350*F. Spray a 9x13 inch clear, glass baking dish with cooking/baking spray. Using the paddle attachment in your mixer, beat together the butter and both sugars on medium speed until creamy, light, and fluffy (approx. 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs slowly, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Slowly add the food coloring and vanilla and blend on medium speed until the color is fully incorporated. In a medium bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt and whisk to mix. Slowly add this mixture to the mixing bowl on medium speed until it's fully incorporated—be careful not too over mix though.  The batter should be quite thick and all of the flour should be mixed in. Pour the batter into the greased baking dish and spread evenly in the dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until done (insert a toothpick in the center—if it comes out wet with batter, the brownies need more baking time, but if it comes out clean or a little crumby, the brownies are done). Brownies should be a little flaky on the outside, but slightly moist on the inside. Set aside to cool.

While the brownies are cooling, add the the ingredients for the cream cheese icing drizzle to a small bowl and whisk to blend (you can use the mixer, once clean, to make this go a little faster and to mix it better, but I was too lazy to clean the mixer and ended up whisking together the icing by hand). The finished icing should be thick, but still be able to be drizzled easily. Cut the brownies into squares and, using a spoon, drizzle the icing as neatly as possible over each square (I actually used a squeeze bottle to get more precise drizzles; you can use an icing/pastry bag with a round tip for neater results). Let the icing set (it will not get hard, but rather, it'll thicken and be a little sticky) for a few minutes.

Serve with a glass of cold milk or a mug of hot coffee, or whatever beverage you prefer. Perfect with a scoop of vanilla (or perhaps red velvet, for added red velvet-ness?) ice cream or with some fresh berries. Store brownies in an airtight container and avoid stacking them, if possible, because the cream cheese drizzle will get smeary and smudged.

These brownies are essentially your basic, everyday brownies, but the pop of red food coloring and the sweet and tangy cream cheese icing drizzle add a little pizzazz to them. Great for dessert, for a party, or an afternoon snack, these brownies are chocolaty, chewy, and absolutely delicious.

Recipe: M&M Cookies

So, my boyfriend, John, just started his first week of year two of law school and I wanted to send him some cookies to say "congrats" and help him get through the next week or two. He's a big fan of M&Ms (he keeps a bag stashed in a drawer by his desk expressly for snacking), so I figured M&M cookies would be a hit. The recipe is essentially your basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, with M&Ms in place of chocolate chips, so it's a no-brainer. From what I gathered online, this is the "original" recipe that appeared on old bags of M&M's, so it was created with them in mind.

Yields: About 3-5 dozen (depending on how big you make the cookies)
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Baking time: 9-12 minutes per batch
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 12-16 oz. (1&1/2 to 2 cups) M&Ms

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or, if you don't have parchment paper, simply set aside, ungreased. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda, then set aside. In the mixing bowl of your electric mixer, add the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and sugar, and beat on medium-high speed with the paddle attachment until well-blended, fluffy, and creamy. Add in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium speed until well-blended. Stir in the M&Ms (I recommend stirring by hand so that the M&Ms don't get broken apart by the mixer's paddle). Drop by rounded teaspoons (I usually just form small ball-like blobs by hand) onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake each batch for 9-12 minutes, until very slightly golden brown around the edges and slightly soft in the center. Remove from the oven and let cool, then place on wire racks to cool completely before storing them (or eating a bunch!). Helpful hint: Keep a slice of bread in the pot of cookies to keep them from getting too crispy. 

These cookies are simple and classic. You can pick and choose M&M colors so that the cookies correspond to holidays (i.e. red and green for Christmas, pink and red for Valentine's Day, etc.) and they're perfect for an afternoon snack, bake sale, or family picnic.

Recipe: Curry-Lime Chicken with Seasoned Coconut Rice and Broccoli

Looking to redeem myself for that terrible minted pea pasta dish from the other week, I went in search of a flavorful, summery recipe that would make my parents forget that the not-so-delicious pasta dish had ever happened. I came across this recipe for lime and coconut chicken while browsing through recipe posts on Pinterest and I just knew it had to be good. Unlike the minted pea dish, I was more familiar with the flavors in this dish and how they would interact with each other. I whipped up a complimentary side dish of seasoned coconut rice and fresh broccoli and the result was absolutely delicious. My dad claimed he tasted "flavors from the Caribbean," my mom said something about South America or Thai food (not sure which one, or why she thought of them), and I was thinking of Indian food with that delicious curry flavor coming through. This dish is packed with intense flavor and freshness and it's perfect on a warm summer day (and it definitely helped erase the mint-and-pea combo from our memories).

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 15 minutes (plus at least 2 hours for the chicken to marinate)
Cooking time: Approx. 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Grill, grill pan, or George Foreman (or similar) grill

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• Approx. 1/3 cup coconut milk, as needed for the marinade-turned-sauce
• 2-4 cups cups broccoli florets
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Lime wedges (approx. 2 per person)

For the marinade

• 3 tbsp. oil (I used olive oil, but peanut oil or veggie/canola oil would be good choices)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1&1/2 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• A pinch of ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. sugar

For the rice

• 2 cups white rice
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• Juice of 1 lime
• Zest of 2-3 limes
• 1 tsp. ground cumin, or to taste
• 1 tsp. ground coriander, or to taste
• 1 tsp. curry powder, or to taste
• 1 tsp. ground tumeric, or to taste
• 1/4 cup shredded, sweetened coconut, chopped

Directions

Prepare the marinade for the chicken in a liquid measuring cup. Put chicken breasts in a large Ziploc bag, pour in the marinade, and place the mixture in the fridge for at least two hours, to allow the chicken breasts to fully marinate. After the chicken breasts are finished, remove them from the bag and set aside on a plate in the fridge. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Pour the marinade into a small sauce pan and set aside. In a medium pot, prepare the rice according to package instructions. Substitute 1/4 of the water for the rice with the coconut milk. While the rice is cooking, fill a medium-sized pot with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the broccoli florets and cook for 3-4 minutes, until tender, but still firm and green. Drain them and return them to the pot; cover and set aside to keep warm. When the rice reaches the last 12 minutes of cooking, throw the chicken on the grill and grill until tender and cooked through. Set it aside on a plate; cover with foil. In the meantime, bring the marinade to a boil—this will become a sauce for the dish, but you MUST boil it for AT LEAST 2 minutes to make it safe to consume (it's had raw chicken in it, so you have to cook that out over high heat). Once it's boiled for a few minutes, add a little coconut milk to tone it down (it's very flavor-packed)—you can also add a splash of water. Add cornstarch-and-water mixture to thicken if needed. Keep over low heat, stirring occasionally. When the rice is done, add all of the remaining ingredients (seasoning, zest, coconut) for it and mix. Plate the chicken, rice, and broccoli, and serve with cilantro, lime wedges, and the marinade-turned-sauce. 

The curry and lime are the prominent flavors in this meal, but the coconut and mixture of cumin, coriander, and tumeric add depth to the dish. The sauce is powerful on its own, but perfect drizzled over the rice and chicken, and of course the broccoli, which soaks it right up. Definitely a dish with some new and unique flavors (at least for our family), and definitely a winner.

Recipe: Fluffy, Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

A little while ago, I made these delicious peach cupcakes and used buttermilk as part of the cake recipe. That carton of buttermilk has been hanging out in the fridge since then, just begging me to figure out what else I can use it in. Well, I don't know about you, but when I hear "buttermilk" I immediately think about buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk biscuits. I've got a pancake recipe that I love, but I've yet to try biscuits, so that's what I made this afternoon, working off of Alton Brown's recipe.

Yields: 12 (one dozen)
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 15-20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tbsp. shortening (I used Crisco), chilled and cut into a few chunks
• 2 tbsp. butter (unsalted or salted), chilled and cut into a few chunks
• 1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450*F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the chunks of butter and shortening. Using either your hands or a dough/pastry blender (I recommend using the latter because it offers more consistency and you'll create less heat than if using your hands), rub/cut the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks crumb-like and the pieces of butter and shortening are pea-sized or smaller (do this quickly, as you do not want to let the butter and shortening melt at all). Make a well in the middle of the mixture, pour in the buttermilk, and stir until the mixture is just combined. Place the dough on a floured surface, put a little flour on the dough and on your hands, and gently knead the dough/fold it over on itself 5-7 times (don't work it too much because it will make the dough tough). Press the dough ball into a 1-inch thick round and use a 2-inch biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits, being sure to press straight down into the dough as you cut. Take the scraps and form them into another 1-inch thick round and cut out remaining biscuits (work these pieces as little as possible, because, as I said, the more you mess with them, the tougher the finished biscuits will be). Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake until they are tall and lightly golden-brown on top (about 15 minutes). 

Whether you spread jam on them, drizzle them with honey, or smother them with sausage gravy, these biscuits are sure to please. Buttery, fluffy, and flaky, they're perfect for breakfast or a light snack (especially when they're hot out of the oven).

Recipe: Fresh Peach Cupcakes with Peach Cream Cheese Frosting

My kitchen smells like fresh-picked peaches and it's absolutely heavenly! I ran across this recipe for peach cupcakes while browsing through posts on TasteSpotting and, as a peach lover and a wannabe baker, I knew I had to make them. I made up a half batch (I've posted the full recipe though), seeing as I'm on my own this week, and I'm hoping I can resist their delicately sweet call, beckoning to me from the fridge. These cupcakes are light, with a sweet peach flavor that's very present without being overpowering. The cream cheese frosting also incorporates the sweetness of the peach, but with the creaminess of butter and the tangy flavor of cream cheese. Perfect for a summer brunch or dinner party and such a pretty, pale peachy-pink color!

Yields: 24 cupcakes
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Baking time: 21-24 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Equipment: Electric mixer

Ingredients
For the cakes

• 2 & 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/2 cup pureed fresh peaches (cut slices off of the peach, being sure not to include the pit; skin on is okay)
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs (large)
• 1.75 oz freeze-dried peaches, pulverized (use food processor or place in Ziploc bag and crush with mallet; Target's Archer Farms brand sells 1.75 oz. bags of freeze dried peaches, which is perfect)

For the frosting

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter (salted or unsalted)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1.75 oz. freeze-dried peaches, pulverized
• 3-5 cups of powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)

Directions

For the cakes

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line cupcake tins with liners.In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, pureed fresh peaches, and vanilla, then set aside. Add the butter and sugar for the cakes to the bowl of the electric mixture and, using the paddle attachment, blend on medium speed until the mixture is pale and well-blended (approx. 2 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the freeze dried peaches. Mix in the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two batches of the buttermilk mixture (i.e. flour, then buttermilk, then flour, then buttermilk, then flour, and then all of both mixtures will be incorporated). Mix until just blended, scraping the batter down the side of the bowl as needed. Scoop even amounts of batter into the cupcake tins and bake for 21-24 minutes, until golden brown (a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean or slightly crumby). Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for about 10 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

For the frosting
Using the paddle attachment on the electric mixer, mix the butter until softened and pale in color. Add the cream cheese and beat to combine, then add the vanilla extract. Add the pulverized peaches and blend thoroughly. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar to the mixture and mix. Add more as desired, and mix until the frosting is creamy, thick, and spreadable.

Spread or pipe frosting onto each of the cupcakes. Garnish each with a dusting of pulverized, freeze-dried peaches or a slice of fresh peach. Can be kept at room temperature or in the fridge (I like to keep mine in the fridge because of the cream cheese and butter in the frosting).

These cupcakes are perfect for the summer time! Fresh and dried peaches offer light, sweet, and fruity flavor, while the cream cheese in the frosting creates a tangy, buttery taste that blends well with the sweetness of the cakes.

Recipe: Pecorino-Romano Cheese Sauce

The other night, we had thawed chicken breasts, leftover grilled veggies, and three cups of heavy cream crowded together in the fridge, and for me this was just another night of "how can I pull these things together to create a dinner that tastes good AND helps clear out the fridge." The answer was simple: Make a sauce with the cream and toss it with the chicken, veggies, and maybe some pasta (which, of course, we always have on hand in the pantry). So, sauce. Cheese sauce made the most sense. But what kind of cheese? Well, I had an assortment to choose from— Gouda, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Jarlsberg—and I chose Pecorino-Romano, craving its distinct salty flavor. A little garlic, some onion and seasonings, and a splash of chicken broth added to the cream and cheese mix created a velvety, salty sauce that brightened up lightly-seasoned chicken and previously-grilled veggies.

Yields: About 1-1.5 cups
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• Approx. 1/4 cup chicken stock/broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2-3/4 cup shredded/grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
• 1/2 tsp. white pepper (or more, to taste)
• 1 tbsp. dried basil (or more, to taste)
• 1 tsp. dried oregano (or more, to taste)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Cornstarch (mixed with water; as needed)

Directions

In a medium pot over medium-low heat, melt the butter, then add the garlic and onion and cook for approx. 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is fragrant and slightly soft. Add the chicken stock, then slowly whisk in the heavy cream and increase the heat to medium. When the mixture starts to bubble slightly around the edges, slowly add in the cheese, whisking constantly. Increase the heat slightly and continue to whisk until the cheese is almost completely melted. Whisk in a little regular milk if the mixture seems a little thick or lumpy. Add the white pepper, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper and whisk to combine. Let the mixture cook over medium to medium-high heat until thickened. If it seems a little thin, add a little bit of cornstarch (mix about 1 tsp. cornstarch with about 2 tbsp. cold water, then add it to the sauce). Serve over chicken, pasta, rice, vegetables, potatoes, etc. 

This sauce is creamy, salty, cheesy, and surprisingly light despite the heavy cream. It may seem quite salty and strong when tasted straight from the pot, but once tossed with warm pasta or poured over roasted red potatoes or a grilled chicken breast, it's absolutely perfect—bright and flavorful. We had it as a pasta sauce, tossed with pieces of sauteed chicken, whole wheat farfalle pasta, and grilled vegetables (squash, zucchini, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and onion) and it was ridiculously tasty. We had some sauce leftover, so we ate it over breaded chicken breasts and roasted new potatoes the next night, and it worked so well. Despite being a cream sauce, its bright, cheesy flavor works well in warm weather dishes.

Recipe: Homemade Pancakes

To start this very warm Memorial Day off right, my parents and I decided to cook up pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and add a side of mixed berries to help make us forget about all of the carbs and bacon fat we'd be consuming. While you could be lazy and make pancakes from a boxed mix, it's so easy to make up homemade batter and you probably already have all of the ingredients in your fridge and pantry. These pancakes are fluffy and flavorful, and as my dad commented, they have better body and texture than the boxed stuff. Try them out, and pair them with your favorite breakfast foods, like eggs, sausage, or fresh fruit. Add nuts, berries, or chocolate chips to the batter to create fun, flavored pancakes.

Yields: Approx. 15 pancakes (depends on what size you make them)
Prep. time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 2-4 minutes per batch
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tbsp. vegetable or canola oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• Butter, just enough to use for cooking the pancakes
• Maple syrup, butter, fruit, and other toppings, as desired

Directions
In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients, then add in all of the wet ingredients. Mix/stir until smooth. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat or heat a (pancake) griddle to approx. 375*F (we use a griddle because it fits more pancakes). Add a little butter to the pan/griddle, then spoon out the pancake mixture and pour into even sized circles (we do about 4 inch wide pancakes) and cook for about a minute. Flip the pancakes over when the edges start to look a little dry and the middle of the pancake starts to bubble. Cook for another minute. The pancakes will be cooked through and golden brown on both sides. Serve hot with butter, syrup, or other toppings of your choice. Perfect paired with breakfast meats, hash browns, and/or fruit.

These pancakes have just a touch of sweet and salty, with that perfect fluffy-as-a-cloud texture and softness that soaks up creamy butter and sticky-sweet syrup. Perfect for breakfast on the weekends!

Recipe: Homemade Slice-and-Bake Cookies (a.k.a. Ice Box Cookies)

For most colleges and graduate schools, it's final exam time, which means there are countless 20-somethings, my boyfriend included, stressing out, staying up late, and eating junk food just to make it through. I thought it would be fun to send a care package to John with some homemade cookies and other goodies to make his law school exam studying a little less awful, and I decided to try out a cookie recipe from one of my recent Bake 1 classes. Ice Box cookies, are they are officially called, are essentially homemade slice-and-bake cookies, called "ice box cookies" because the dough can be made up and then stored in the fridge (or "ice box"), and cookies can then be sliced off one at a time and baked fresh rather than be baked all in one batch. They're very easy to make, and you can dress them up by dying and rolling/shaping the dough into a variety of patterns, including the pinwheel (which I made for John) and checkerboard.

Yields: Approx. 3 dozen cookies (depends on how thin you slice them)
Prep. time: 10 minutes, plus time to chill the dough
Baking time: 12-15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate (rolling into shapes takes a little skill)
Special equipment: Rolling pin

Ingredients

• 2 sticks (or 8 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Food coloring of your choice

Directions

In the bowl of an electric/stand mixer, cream together the two types of sugar and butter (cream together: using the paddle attachment, blend on low to medium-low speed until the sugar and butter are well-blended; a few small lumps are okay). Add the egg yolks and vanilla and blend on medium-low speed until incorporated. Slowly add in the flour, a little bit at a time, until it is all blended into the dough and the dough is slightly sticky, soft, and pale yellow/khaki in color. 

To create a solid-colored dough: Add the food coloring of your choice to the dough and gently knead it into the dough until the dough is completely colored. Wrap the dough up in saran wrap or put in a bowl covered over with saran wrap and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm it up. Remove from the fridge and roll into a large log, then return and chill until it's able to be cleanly sliced through (about 1-2 hours, or 10 minutes in the freezer). 

To create a pinwheel pattern: Divide the dough into two even pieces (it's easiest to weigh each piece on a kitchen scale so that you get equal pieces). You can dye one or both pieces (obviously, use two different colors if you choose to dye both). Gently knead food coloring into one or both dough balls until the dough is completely colored. Wrap the dough balls up separately in saran wrap or put in bowls covered over with saran wrap and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm them up. Remove one dough ball and lay it out on a long piece of wax paper covered in a second sheet of wax paper. Tape down the wax paper sheets (just a small piece of tape along the top, bottom, and sides—packing tape holds really well), so they don't move around when you start to roll out the dough. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into one long, wide sheet, then remove the tape tape from the wax paper and lay the dough on a sheet pan in the fridge to chill for at least an hour (or chill in the freezer for 5-10 minutes). Repeat this process with the other piece of dough. Once both pieces have been chilled, remove them from the fridge (1), remove the wax paper from on top of each (2 and 3) and flip one on top of the other as centered as possible (4). Trim the edges with a knife or pizza cutter (5) to create a straight-edged, even rectangle. The trimmings can be mushed together to create a tie-dye ball of dough that can also be rolled into a log and sliced up into cookies (see #6). Roll the rectangle into a log (you'll be able to see the pinwheel shape when you look at the ends of the log) and chill in the fridge for at least an hour (or freezer for 10 minutes). Either store it in the fridge and slice off cookies as needed, or slice the cooled log down into even slices (6) and get ready to bake. 

To bake them: Preheat the oven to 325*F. On a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, lay out the cookie slices with an inch or two of space in between each. Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly crispy around the edges and cooked through in the middle, but still soft (they should not be very golden-brown at all though, because that means they're overdone). Remove from the oven, chill on the sheet pan, then remove to a wire rack to chill completely. Store in an airtight container (or eat a bunch right away, haha).

1

2

3

5

4

6 (this roll was made from the scraps of the pinwheel roll)

These cookies are buttery, sugary, and so much fun! They're a great thing to keep in the fridge if you have kids—you can always have fresh-baked cookies when they get home from school or when they want a snack to eat while they work on homework. They're also great as a simple dessert or easy bake sale item, and they hold up really well in the mail (so they're great for to send for Christmas or birthdays). They can be completely sliced up and baked all together too because they keep for days!

Recipe: White Chocolate Chip and Orange Zest Cookies

Looking to make something light and sweet for Easter (and having failed at making candied ginger for use in orange ginger cookies that I mentioned in a Facebook post a little while ago, but still having a craving for orange), I decided to try out these "Orange Creamsicle cookies" from Living Tastefully. I didn't have enough white chocolate chips for a full batch of cookies, so I halved the recipe, but I'll share the full batch recipe here since the taste is the same (delicious!).
These cookies combine the sweet, vanilla-like taste of white chocolate with the brightness of tangy-sweet orange zest to create the perfect flavor combination in a twist on the original chocolate chip cookie. Try dark chocolate chips for a richer flavor or try lime or lemon zest instead of orange for a subtle change in flavor.

Yields: About 3-4 dozen (I got 20 out of a half batch)
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients 

• 2 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (pack the sugar into the cup rather than loosely fill)
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp. orange zest (grated orange peel)
• Approx. 12 oz. white chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350*F. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. In a mixer, blend/cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on low to medium speed. Add in the egg and orange zest and beat on low to medium speed. Slowly add in the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until the mixture is well-blended and uniform in color. Add in white chocolate chips and beat gently or stir to mix them in. Roll out 1 & 1/2 - 2 inch balls of cookie dough and place them a few inched apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden brown on top. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes, then move the cookies to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. If cookies start to get hard, add a slice of bread to the container to help soften them.

These cookies are light, sweet, and citrus-y—perfect for the spring (and Easter day)! Enjoy with a cup of tea, a glass of milk, or alongside all of your Easter candy.

Recipe: Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I first saw Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies while perusing pins on Pinterest and I quickly pinned it to my own "Recipes to Try" board. I pulled that recipe out on Friday, having decided to make these crazy, monstrous cookies for my boyfriend as part of an Easter candy care package I had planned to send him. I didn't have enough flour to make a full batch, but the twelve cookies I got out of a half batch were more than enough to feed the two of us—these cookies are so big! As far as I can tell, you can use any chocolate chip cookie recipe (I usually use the Nestle Toll House cookie recipe), but I stuck close to the recipe I found on Sprinkle Charms, the site I pinned the recipe from, and they were absolutely delicious.

Yields: Approx. 24 cookies
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Mixer

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (used salted, unsalted, or one of each)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Approx. 1&1/2 to 2 cups chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips —they're rich and delicious)
• 1 package Oreos (you'll only need about 24)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Add the butter, sugar, and brown sugar to the mixer's bowl and cream together. Once mixed, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well-blended. Gradually add in the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix until well-blended. Add chocolate chips and mix on low or stir to incorporate them into the batter.
To wrap the Oreos in cookie dough, get a small scoop of cookie dough and form it evenly around an Oreo, being sure to make sure the Oreo is completely encased in dough. The finished product will look larger than a regular chocolate chip cookie, and that's okay. Repeat until all of the dough is gone. Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet, a few inches apart (I baked about 6-8 per sheet), and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cookies are lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then move the cookies to cool racks to finish cooling.

Yum!

The heat from baking softens the Oreos just slightly, so you get these great slightly crunchy, slightly soft Oreos in the middle of the cookies and the flavors of each cookie blend perfectly. These cookies are quite big, so one will likely fill you up, and they're absolutely perfect with a tall glass of cold milk.

Recipe: Traditional Red Pizza Sauce

As I shared in my basic pizza dough recipe post, my mom wanted me to help make homemade pizza for a Super Bowl party she's hosting, and I worked off of a recipe from Food.com to create a delicious red sauce. This sauce has a TON of ingredients, which all blend together to create a rich, flavorful sauce perfect for pizza, or even as a pasta sauce. It's easy to pull together and the flavors deepen when you allow the sauce to simmer for a while. Now, because I had to make up a big batch (enough to cover at least four pizzas), and was editing the original recipe as I went along, the amounts listed here are measured for a larger amount and I have not done the math to edit it to work for a single pizza—I trust you can figure this out. This sauce freezes well, and can be stored for a few months, so you can easily make this recipe as is and freeze the excess for future pizzas or for other uses (pasta, dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks or fried eggplant, etc.; we still had left over after making about five or six pizzas).

Yields: Approx. 3.5 quarts
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-60 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Blender, food processor, or immersion/stick blender

Ingredients

• 6-8 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tbsp. butter
• Approx. 2 cups onions, chopped (I used 4 small-to-medium onions)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Approx. 45 oz. tomato sauce (I used a 29 oz. can, and then added a 15 oz. can when I realized I needed more)
• 1, 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 2, 6 oz. cans tomato paste
• 6-8 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 3-4 tsp. dried basil
• 3-4 tsp. dried oregano
• 3-4 tsp. dried fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
• 3 whole bay leaves (remove these from sauce before pureeing)
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• Approx. 1 tsp. black pepper
• Approx. 2 tsp. salt
• Approx. 2 tsp. sugar

Directions

In a large pot, heat the butter and olive oil together over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and slightly transparent. Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and tomato paste and stir to combine (the paste is thick, so be sure you stir it vigorously to break it down in the sauce). Add in the remaining ingredients (the cheese, herbs, spices, sugar, and salt) and stir to combine. Briefly bring the sauce to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pot with a lid, and let it simmer for 30-60 minutes (I cooked it for 30 minutes; the longer you cook it, the more the flavors can blend). Remove the bay leaves from the sauce. 

To blend: If using an immersion/stick blender (this is what I did, because it's the easiest and creates the least amount of dishes to wash), immerse the blender into the sauce in the pot and pulse to blend, stirring as you pulse, until the bigger chunks (onion, diced tomatoes, garlic) are broken up and blended into the sauce and the sauce is smooth. If using a blender or a food processor, pour as much as the sauce as possible (without overloading) into the holder on the unit and blend/pulse until smooth. Pour the smooth sauce into a clean bowl. Repeat this process with the remaining sauce until it's all blended and smooth. Sauce can be kept in the fridge for a few days or frozen for a few months. 

This sauce is a little sweet, a little spicy, a little tangy, and oh-so-good. Fennel and oregano are classic pizza sauce flavors, and the combination of the remaining flavorings is just right. Allowing the sauce to simmer for a while gives it a great depth of flavor, making it the perfect addition to any pizza, pasta, or other Italian-esque dish.

Recipe: Basic Pizza Dough

Being the good little cook-daughter that I am, I agreed to help my mom out with food for the Super Bowl party she hosted tonight. I mentioned that an Italian bread recipe we tried in class the other week can also work as pizza dough and she was instantly hooked on the idea of making homemade pizza. I pulled a recipe for pizza sauce from Food.com and edited it a bit (recipe in a separate post), and we used the basic pizza dough recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. The dough is incredibly easy to pull together and takes just 1 to 2 hours to rise. You can mix it by hand, or with a mixer or food processor—my mom and I made five batches of dough, using both the KitchenAid mixer and the food processor, and we found that the food processor blended the ingredients together faster and more evenly, so the recipe below is based around the use of a food processor. The result was soft dough that crisped up just right when baked and made for a delicious slightly crunchy, chewy crust.

The dough, fresh out of the food processor

The dough, after rounding

The dough, risen to twice its size

Yield: Makes 1 large or 2 small pizzas
Time: 10 minutes to blend and knead, 1-2 hours to let rest and rise
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor or mixer

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour (we used bread flour), plus more for dusting
• 2 tsp. kosher or sea salt
• 1 cup of room temperature water, plus more if needed
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus more to coat the bowls used to hold the dough

Directions

In a food processor, add the yeast, then the flour, then the salt, and blend. With the food processor running, gradually pour in the water—the flour mixture will start to look a little darker and wet, and then it will pull together into a thick, sticky dough. Gradually add the olive oil to the dough and continue to blend until the dough is pretty much all pulled together into a ball and is slightly sticky. If it's very sticky (sticking to your hands and very hard to get off), add just a pinch more flour and blend. Remove the dough ball from the food processor and place on a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough for just a few seconds, until the dough looks smooth. Round into a ball and place in a bowl that's been lightly brush with olive oil. Cover tightly with cling wrap and set aside in a warm, dry place (it's winter here, and quite cold, so we just put the bowls in the warmest room of the house, which happens to be a living room area at the front of the house). Let sit for 1-2 hours until the dough ball is twice its original size. If you want the dough to rise more slowly, place the bowls in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. Once rested, remove the now-larger dough ball and prepare your pizza, or, if you plan to use it up to 24 hours later, tightly wrap it in cling wrap and place it in the fridge until ready to use. If you want to use it later than a day later, wrap it tightly in cling wrap and freeze for up to one month.

This dough is very easy to make and it's ready for your favorite pizza sauces and toppings in no time! If you want to use a mixer to make this, follow the same steps, but use your dough hook to blend the dough. Traditional pizzas (we used a red sauce, cheese, and a variety of toppings) should take about 10-15 minutes to cook.

Salt Your Pasta Water

Dinner was casual tonight, i.e. my dad's out of town in State College, PA for the evening and my mom and I agreed to each do our own thing for dinner. My go-to easy dinner is pasta with a little butter, olive oil, garlic, and cheese, and tonight wasn't an exception (though I added a side salad to get some healthy greens in my body). Cooking pasta is pretty basic—boil water, add pasta and cook, drain, and serve—but many people forget one key thing: salting the pasta water.

Now, any of you who cook pasta often will likely have heard or seen in recipes that you should salt your pasta water and some of you may be wondering why...is it for flavor? Does it help the water boil faster? Does it keep pasta from sticking? Pasta, particularly dried and out-of-a-box pasta, has very little flavor, and it takes a sauce or some sort of light seasoning to kick it up a notch. Adding salt to water adds flavor to the pasta. That rumor that salt raises the temperature and makes the water "boil better" or boil at a "higher heat" is false. In fact, the salt in the water only raises the temperature by about 1*F or maybe 2*F, which is insignificant. As for salt helping to keep it from sticking, it doesn't. Olive oil can be added to the water to help prevent sticking, but I don't recommend doing this, because the oil prevents sauces from sticking well to pasta after it's been drained—you should stir pasta when it's first put in the boiling water to help evenly distribute starches from the pasta and keep the pasta from sticking.

Now, there are varying ideas about how much salt should be used in pasta water. Some people claim the water should be salted enough so that it tastes like the sea (that's really salty, but you'll be draining all of the water anyway, so not that much is actually absorbed by the pasta), while others say to add just a pinch of salt. I add a small handful (see picture) when I'm cooking a portion for myself or two people, and a larger handful with larger batches of pasta. From what I've read and seen, a tablespoon or two of salt per 4 or 5 quarts of water seems to be the general consensus on the salt-to-water ratio. You don't need to use any special kind of salt—your average table salt (we have a big container of Morton's brand that we use) works just fine, and it's a lot less expensive than using nice sea salt or a fancy salt grinder (though any salt will work). Add the salt to the water right as it's coming to a boil and add the pasta shortly after that, that way, the pasta can absorb a bit of it before the salt dissolves completely in the water.

Small amount of salt for a single serving of pasta (should have taken my claddagh ring off...got salt underneath it :P)

Salt in the bottom of the pot (I added it before boiling so you could see it)

So, next time you make pasta, try adding some salt to the water right before you toss in your pasta and see if it gives the pasta a little more flavor.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Blossoms

At noon today, it was snowing out, but I was packed up and ready to go spend the weekend with my cousin and her fiancé  in Maryland. I crept down the driveway in my car, inched down the slush-and-snow covered hill leading out of my neighborhood, pulled out onto the main road...and then promptly decided that taking a four hour trip in "winter weather advisory" conditions was probably not the best idea. I have high hopes that the roads and weather will be better by tomorrow so I can still go on my trip, but for today, I'm stuck home with the cats (the oldest are napping, while the two little ones are suffering from a particularly bad case of cabin fever), hanging out in my PJs and wondering if there will be any good movies on TV tonight. Frustrated and looking to keep myself busy on such a cold, dreary day, I decided to bake, and for no particular reason, I decided to make peanut butter blossoms. I've never made them before, but they are a classic cookie with a classic flavor combination—peanut butter and chocolate—that I've always enjoyed. My mom absolutely loves these cookies—any time one of her friends has them at a party or she takes home a handful from a luncheon, they're "hers" and I get maybe one for myself, so I'm excited to have a whole batch for the both of us.

Yields: Approx. 48 cookies
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 8-10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Electric mixer with paddle attachment

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup for rolling on the cookies
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened (I used salted butter, because it's what we had, but unsalted should work too)
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Jif brand)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1&3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 48 Hershey Kisses, unwrapped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375*F. In a bowl, combine the 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, and butter and beat at medium speed in an electric mixer (or by hand, if need be) until well-blended and fluffy. Add the egg, salt, and vanilla and continue to beat at medium speed until well-mixed. Add the baking soda and flour and continue to beat until well-blended. The dough will be smooth, soft, and peanut butter-colored. Roll pieces of the cookie dough (approx. 48 total) around in the palms of your hand to form one inch round balls. Roll the balls in the 1/4 cup sugar and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the dough has start to expand, crack a little bit, and turn ever-so-slightly golden-brown (if you let them cook too much, you will end up flattening out the cookies when you press the Hershey Kisses in them later). Remove from the oven and immediately press one Hershey Kiss into the center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely on wire racks (the chocolate will get melty all the way through, so be sure you let them cool completely so you don't smear or smush the chocolate when you put the cookies away). Store the cookies in an airtight container.

These cookies are so easy to make and you probably have all of the ingredients at home already. They've got that great classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate, and the texture—chewy-crunchy cookies with crispy sugar granules and smooth chocolate—is delicious. These are perfect with a glass of cold milk or a mug of hot chocolate. 

Recipe: Basic Pasta Dough

My big gift this Christmas was a beautiful Marcato brand pasta maker, a kitchen gadget I'd been begging my parents for ever since I made fresh pasta during my last Foods 1 class in early December. I'd expected a basic model from our local DeLallo's store, but the model they got me is a stunning little machine, with multiple pasta cutters (including a gadget for making crinkle-edged raviolini), and an incredibly sturdy design. Last night, I convinced my mom to let us put off a dinner of leftovers until tonight and let me make pasta for dinner instead, and I had a blast using the gadget for the first time.

Making pasta from scratch has stereotypically been one of those things that foodies would brag about at a dinner party—a somewhat smug, yet casual comment like "Oh, I made homemade fettucini last week with a tomato-basil cream sauce that was to die for!" slipped into a conversation, meant to make the listener feel in awe that their friend took the time and effort to make something oh-so-complicated and oh-so-fancy. But really, making pasta isn't this big ordeal...you don't even really need a pasta maker if you've got a rolling pin and a good, sharp knife. I think the biggest hang up for people when it comes to making pasta dough is what flour to use and whether to mix it by hand or in a mixer (and how much time it can take). Traditionally, Italian pasta is made with semolina flour, but you can find recipes that call for durum wheat flour, bread flour, or all-purpose flour. Dough can be mixed by hand in the old-fashioned way, or gently mixed with a paddle and then a dough hook in an electric mixture. Basic dough only needs a few ingredients to pull it together, and once you know the basics, you can experiment with flavoring pasta by adding in minced garlic, herbs, or other flavorings. In this post, I'm going to share my recipe for basic pasta dough, as well as my method for using a pasta maker to roll out and cut the dough.

Serves: 4 (making a long noodle—in this case, it's fettuccine)
Prep. time: Approx. 1 hour, 15 minutes
Cooking time: 3-5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Special equipment: Electric mixer with paddle attachment and dough hook attachment (and a pasta maker and two baking sheets for rolling out and laying out the pasta)

*Pasta dough can be mixed by hand, and if you don't have the pasta maker, you can use a rolling pin to flatten the dough to the desired consistency, then cut long strips or whatever other shape you might want, but for this post, I'm sharing the pasta maker method

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
• Flour for dusting

Directions
Put the paddle attachment in the mixer and add the eggs, water, salt, and olive oil. Gently mix on a low setting for about 1 minute, then gradually add in 1 cup of flour and increase the mixing speed slightly so that the mixture blends well. The dough should look and feel wet and somewhat thin once the one cup of flour is incorporated. Switch the paddle attachment out and place the dough hook in the mixer, then gradually add the second cup of flour while on a low-to-medium mixing speed. If the dough looks very dry and floury and doesn't appear to be absorbing the flour well, add in a little more olive oil and mix until it's a light yellowy-beige color and somewhat dry-looking. The dough should feel thick and slightly sticky and it should look fairly dry. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and gently roll it into a ball using a little flour to keep it from sticking to your hands. Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap then let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. After resting, the dough can be unwrapped and prepared as desired.

My pasta-making station

Directions for rolling out and cooking pasta

When the dough is done resting, remove it from the plastic wrap and place it on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into about 4 pieces (you need to use smaller chunks of dough in order for them to fit in the machine and roll out to the right thickness and width). Depending on what type of pasta you want, there are different settings on the pasta maker for rolling out various thicknesses and different cutter attachments to cut different types of pasta. I chose to make fettuccine, so I'll share those instructions here. Set the pasta maker on the 0 setting, sprinkle a little flour in between the rollers, and roll one of the dough balls through on this setting 4 times. Moving up through the numbers (which indicate the width between the rollers, and thus the thickness of the sheet of pasta), work your way up to number 5, making sure to pass the pasta sheet through each number twice. Make sure you sprinkle a little flour between the rollers each time to prevent the dough from sticking. Repeat the process until all of the dough is rolled out. The dough sheets should be lightly floured and laid out on a lightly floured baking sheet (the flour will help keep the sheets from sticking to each other). Roll each sheet through the fettuccine cutter (you'll just pass the sheets through once), sprinkling flour between the rollers. Place finished fettuccine noodles on a lightly floured baking sheet. It's important that the noodles are lightly floured and that you pull them apart if any are stuck, because you don't want them to stick. Cover the sheet of pasta with plastic wrap or a cloth towel to keep the noodles for drying out.

When cooking the noodles, simply fill a medium-to-large pot with unsalted water and bring the water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the noodles are cooked through. The finished noodles will be softer than regular dried pasta from a box and they may feel a little slippery. Once you drain the pasta, you can add a little butter or olive oil to keep them from sticking to each other.

If you have the chance to make fresh pasta, even without the aid of a pasta maker, I highly recommend it! Fresh pasta is so much lighter and softer than dried boxed pasta and it really makes a difference in a meal (really—once you've had fresh pasta, you'll never want to go back to the dried stuff, though, unfortunately, it's not really practical to make fresh pasta all the time, haha).

Recipe: Bourbon-Spiked Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

For the past three or four years, my parents have had Thanksgiving at our house, with just my grandmothers, my brother, and me (long story short, it's easier this way, and we do a larger family gathering for Christmas). This year was my first Thanksgiving as a college grad, and because I'm living at home and only employed part time, I was more available to help with dinner preparations than I have been in the past (oh, and my entire family figured that, since I love to cook and I have culinary class experience, I could probably just do the whole meal myself—I'm not quite that good though, haha). We had all of our traditional dishes—stuffing (or rather, dressing, because we cook it outside of the turkey), this Grand Marnier-spiked cranberry relish my mother makes (I find this dish amusing, because she hates cranberries but gets compliments on this dish all the time), turkey, mashed potatoes (though not as many as the good ol' days, when my cousins, Katie and Jess, and I would wolf them down like we'd never get a chance to eat them again), and a brown sugar-and-pecan-topped sweet potato mash, plus a few other sides. My mother and I did a lot of preparation on that Wednesday before the holiday so we wouldn't be overwhelmed on the day of, and my grandmothers each took turns washing dishes and helping us put things away. While I had a hand in a number of dishes, I wanted to make something on my own, and, since we already had so many dinner dishes, I thought I'd go for dessert. We always have pumpkin pie (this year was no different) and the occasional fruit pie, and sometimes cookies or some sort of cake, but I got hooked on the idea of making a chocolate chip pecan pie. I found this highly rated recipe from Emeril Lagasse on Food Network's website, tweaked it a little to get it exactly how I wanted it, and it turned out beautifully. The pie was sweet and rich, but not overwhelming, and the salted caramel sauce and some freshly whipped cream were perfect on top. The pie is best served the day of or the next day, and it's delicious served warm, cold, or room temperature. I highly recommend making the crust from scratch, but you could use a pre-made crust if desired—just make sure you use a deep pie dish, otherwise you may have issues with the pie filling overflowing while the pie bakes.

Yields: 1, 9 inch pie; approx. 1 cup caramel sauce
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, plus approx. 10 minutes for the caramel sauce
Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients
For the pie filling

• 1 & 1/2 cups pecans (I used a mix of chopped and whole pecans)
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli brand; you may want to use a little less)
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell (my mother makes homemade crusts and I highly recommend making your own)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark, but light or dark would work)
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• Approx. 1/8 tsp. salt 
• 1 tbsp. bourbon (any brand will work)

For the salted caramel sauce

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 to 4 tbsp. 2% or whole milk (I used a little over 2 tbsp.)
• 1 tsp. bourbon
• Good quality salt, to taste (I highly recommend sea salt, or some sort of high quality coarse salt; just add a small pinch at a time, and taste the sauce as you go to make sure you don't over salt it)
• 1-3 tbsp. butter (salted or unsalted; if you use salted, don't add as much salt) 

(It's really important to taste this sauce at the end, when you're adding in the final ingredients. You want it to be sweet, with a buttery, salty background and just a hint of bourbon)


Directions
For the pie: Preheat the oven to 350* F. Spread the pecans and chocolate chips evenly on the bottom of the pie shell. In a mixer or just in a bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the pie filling until well blended, then pour the filling over the pecan and chocolate chip mixture in the pie shell (the pecans and chocolate chips will rise up into the filling so that the filling is "mixed"). If you want a pretty design on top of the pie, arrange whole pecans on top in the desired pattern. Bake the pie until the filling sets, about 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 30 minutes before slicing.

For the caramel sauce: In a medium, heavy sauce pan/pot, combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Let boil without stirring until the mixture becomes a deep amber color (watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't burn). Slowly add the cream, whisking to combine, and remove from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk, adding more (I didn't add any more to mine) until the desired consistency is reached. Stir in the bourbon and butter until the butter has melted into the mixture. Sprinkle in salt, to taste. Let cool before serving (the sauce will thicken as it cools). Gently reheat before serving atop the pie.

 
This pie is perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas (I feel like a lot of people make plain ol' pecan pies for the holidays, so this fits right in), but it could easily be served any other time of the year. Many pecan pies call for ungodly amounts of sugars and syrups that make them cloyingly sweet, but I think this pie has just the right amount of sweetness. Semi sweet chocolate chips add a richness and the warm caramel sauce adds a buttery, salty flavor to the pie that perfectly blends with the pie's sweet filling. This dish was a huge success with my family (even my brother, who rarely eats sweets), and I'll definitely be making it for Christmas.