Weekend Visitors

I kept telling folks that I would bake over this past weekend. It never happened. Instead I hung out with my sisters and ate way too much. I wasn't too upset.

The weekend started off with a trip up to Columbia, MD for the Fleet Foxes concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion.

I'd never been before and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I knew there was a pavilion and a lawn. Unfortunately it was raining and my camera is not waterproof, so all I got were some blurry Ipod photos. So let me try to describe it... the main concert grounds are shaped like a slice of pie. With the pavilion at the tip and a nicely sloped hill radiating out from there. There were numerous food stalls going up the sides, all mostly selling the same thing. I'd recommend packing a picnic dinner though, as the prices seemed quite steep. We had a nice meal of cheese (Gouda and triple X sharp cheddar), bread (sourdough, my favorite!), and fruit before heading in.

Due to the rain, all of the lawn ticket holders were invited inside the pavilion, yay! The concert was fabulous, only starting... half an hour late. What is it with this practice of concerts not starting on time? And how can it be stopped? The concert was good though. I'd pretend to be able to review music, but I'm not one of those people that can pick things out. Like, oh they were pitchy or weren't keeping the tempo or whatever. But in any case the opening band, The Walkmen, were good but I'm not running out to buy a CD. I think they got a bit farther from the folk feel that I was expecting. Fleet Foxes was fabulous, but, when you like a band enough to buy tickets to a concert, what else would you say? They have a nice folk-rock sound. Yep, that's right. Folk rock.

The rest of the weekend involved some very delicious cupcakes from Lavender Moon and Alexandria Cupcakes. I've already got a post on Lavender Moon, though I think I could probably write odes to their S'mores cupcake. And Alexandria Cupcakes will have a forthcoming review.

After Lavender Moon and Alexandria Cupcakes, we attempted a third cupcake in one afternoon... and failed. We got all the way out to Stickyfingers, looked at the display, looked at each other, and decided we just couldn't do it. We did however get some of the tomato soup, in hopes that this would temper the feeling of sweets overload. The soup was actually pretty good. A nice tomato-y flavor, not chunky but it wasn't thin like Campbell's; it had a little texture to it. We all agreed that it would have been fabulous with a nice hunk of crusty bread on the side.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

Growing up, my family got a box of fancy schmancy toffee from my Aunt every year. I wrinkled my nose and shook my head, no thank you. Toffee? What's that? Nuts? Eww. Luckily my taste buds have gotten much less picky as I've gotten older. I eventually tried that toffee, and actually kind of enjoyed it. Then one day I found a chocolate toffee cookie at Whole Foods, and wow. Was it ever tasty. Not wanting to make a habit out of spending three dollars on a cookie, I decided to make up my own.

I've had this recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies for ages. It's a decent chocolate chip cookie recipe, for when I want something other than the classic Toll House cookies of course =) and i thought it would hold the extra toffee pieces well.

I made mine a little smaller than the original recipe called for, I was taking these to a function and wanted the most bang for my buck. Still good, but if you want that 'big, fat, chewy', don't skimp on the amount of dough per cookie.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

3 dozen or so

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter - melted

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup toffee pieces

First thing you'll want to do is set the oven to 325°.

Cream the butter, white and brown sugars. Add in the vanilla and the egg and egg yolks.

Add in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. 

Spoon the dough onto cookie sheets and bake 15 minutes or until they get slightly golden.

Then, remember to nibble on the broken cookies; it's your duty as the baker to taste test =)

Fried Tofu and Roasted Veggies

Cooking is pretty much limited to the weekends for me. At least anything particularly involved. During the week I go from work to work outs with only an hour or so in between. So most of the time I'll make a large batch of something on Sunday and eat the same thing all week. Luckily I haven't gotten bored of the weekly monotony yet.

I have a rotation of meals that I go through, and wanted to add something in that didn't include meat. I found a recipe for Crispy Tofu Triangles and thought, I could give that a try. Sure, I've never liked tofu in anything else before... but, fried? That could work. 

To go with, I decided upon roasted veggies. Possibly my most favorite side ever. I also added in some Thai sweet chili sauce to dip the tofu in. If you haven't tried it, please, go out right now and buy some for yourself. So. Good.

For the tofu, follow the link above to the recipe. It's super easy, even for a tofu newbie!

As for the veggies, I'm sure everyone has a favorite way to roast veggies. It's so simple and you can easily change it up with different herbs or liquids. Generally I'll do a few crowns of broccoli and a head of cauliflower spritzed with some olive oil with some fresh cracked pepper and salt over top. 

Or, I love love love Penzeys spice mixes. Pick any of them, they'll always turn out good! Some of my favorites include the Northwoods and Cajun mixes. 

Halfway Bar Cookies

These were among the many recipes sitting in a long line of recipes; so why did I choose them? Well, first off, I had all the ingredients on hand. It was like fate! And fate was all too kind in this case. And besides who can resist the blondie-esque base covered in chocolate covered in a brown sugar meringue? Not me, that's for sure.

They were super simple, and earned rave reviews from the folks that I routinely foist baked goods upon. I mean, a girl can't eat a whole pan of bar cookies by herself... can she? Ok, she can, but only if she's willing to go running for the next week straight. And eat a bunch of lettuce. Given the choices, I opt to share the wealth.

Let's jump on in to the recipe, which I found here. I followed the recipe to a T. Well, as much as I ever do. I'm from the school of thought that doesn't stress the finicky, just so measurements. And I have to tell you, no one's complained yet.

Halfway Bars
fills a 9x13 pan


2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter - softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar - divided into 1 cup and a 1/2 cup
2 eggs
1 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

First thing, set the oven to preheat to 350°.
It was recommended to foil line your 9x13 pan, and spray coat the foil. While the bars ended up being super easy to get out of the pan, I'm not totally sure it was all necessary. Spray some pam on there sure, but the foil? Meh. Unless you're super worried about presentation, I probably wouldn't bother.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and soda and set to the side for a bit.
Next, cream the butter, sugar, and the 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Separate the eggs, keeping both the whites and yolks.

Mix the yolks into the creamed butter mixture, followed by the water and vanilla.

Then mix in the flour, until just combined. The dough will be crumbly, kind of like a slightly damp shortbread dough. Once it's ready, dump the dough crumbs into the pan and press to make a relatively even layer of cookie dough.

Now, add the chocolate. Make a nice layer over top of the cookie crust, press the chips in a bit to help them stay in place.

Onto the meringue.

I would use either a stand mixer or hand mixer for this one.
Beat the egg whites until they are nice and frothy. The first time I made these I didn't beat the egg whites quite enough, and while still tasty, wasn't quite as fluffed as it needed to be, so definitely make sure to get these well frothed. Slowly add in the cup of brown sugar, keep mixing. And then keep mixing some more, until the meringue is in the soft peak stage - not liquidy anymore, but it tends to run back on itself, not holding a good shape for very long.

Once the meringue is ready, pour it out over the cookie and chocolate base. Spread it out gently to cover the chocolate. Doesn't have to be perfect, because you're going to be pressing some parchment over top anyways.

Bake for 20 minutes, remove the parchment, and bake for another 5-10 minutes. You'll want it to start looking toasty, like a perfectly done marshmallow... unless you like your marshmallows burnt, then, nevermind.


*disclaimer - the original recipe called these 'halfway cookies', my calling them 'bar cookies' isn't an attempt to make them my own in some way. This recipe is that same recipe,  I just have a hard time calling anything cut from a 9x13 pan a cookie...

Labor Day weekend

Welcome back everyone, hope you had a fabulous holiday weekend. This weekend was full of relaxing, food, and family. We had a birthday as well, which meant the traditional family birthday cake that we've had since before I can remember for pretty much every birthday. My sister and I were allowed to tackle the cake this year, and we think it turned out pretty well. At some point I'll attempt it on my own, and will create a post devoted to it at that time. Don't worry, it's definitely worth the wait.

For now, I'll leave you with a few snapshots of the weekend. Now, excuse me while I go find some lemonade and enjoy the rest of my mini-vacation from work =)

chipotle rubbed ribs

birthday cake in progress

After all that good food, I had to work it off somehow. Running with this energetic girl seemed appropriate

puppy?

want: Solar Powered Illuminating Waterbottle

So I was meandering through one of my favorite sites, uncommongoods, and saw these:

photo from uncommongoods

 Yep, these are water bottles, that also act as lanterns. I'm pretty much in love with this idea. So the lid has these LED lights that run on solar power. So you can take them pretty much anywhere. Living in a city, sans car, I don't get out hiking and camping as much as I'd like, but these are so tempting!