Take a Megabite

Matchy Matchy Cookies

I worry about things like backordered boots and runs in my new tights and if I can make it another half mile before running out of gas or maybe that there won’t be enough food at a party and I didn’t eat dinner or whether or not I have cereal for breakfast in the morning…

Do you worry about matching? If you do, you should probably make these cookies to match: your outfits, eyeshadow of choice, wall colors, your dog’s collar, your school colors, your belt to your shoes, your eyes to your nail polish…etc.

If you’re feeling particularly matchy-matchy, these are the cookies for you.

Or you can just make them with pretty colors because to me it’s not about matching. It’s more about coordination, ruling the nation.

Matchy Matchy Cookies
Recipe adapted from the Food Network

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 t nutmeg
• 1/8 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks) at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 T pure vanilla extract
• Colored sanding sugars

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until combined.
3. Add the flour mixture and mix until you’ve got a soft buttery dough you were dreaming of.
4. Divide the dough in half and form onto 2 (12-inch long) sheets of plastic wrap, using the plastic to shape into rough logs. Refrigerate the dough logs for 30 minutes or until just firm enough to shape into uniform logs. Refrigerate until firm. (At least 2 hours or overnight.)
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
6. Scatter sanding sugar onto the plastic wrap that the dough was wrapped in and roll the logs until completely coated. Cut into 1/4 inch thick cookies and space about an inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. (Since I wanted to use four different colors of sanding sugar, I cut each log in half before preparing.)
7. Bake until golden around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool cookies on wire racks. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

And you can put these cookies in a jar to showcase their colorful splendor for a gift!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Ok. The trick today is that I’m telling you again to make Corn Bread Pizza. The treat is that you’ll love it!
I like to roll the crust thin and then fit it into my 8 inch cake pan tucking the extra dough around the edges for a crust.

And check it out. It’s happy to see you.

P.S. I have cookies and granola on the brain. Keep coming back because there are good things coming your way.

Oh! And comment to say, “Hi” if you want to. I’d love it!

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

These brownies are like the essential boot for fall.
They are like the perfect jacket, that just so happens to have birds on the lining.
They are like the comfy ankle boot.

Pumpkin + Chocolate. Who knew? I had my doubts. But after I made pumpkin cookies a bit ago, and now after these guys … I’m sold. Pumpkin and chocolate are meant to be.

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen + Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

• 8 T (1 stick), unsalted butter
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 T pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups solid-packed pumpkin
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t ground nutmeg
• handful of chocolate chips to sprinkle on top (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or dish, or line the pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray. (The foil technique makes for super easy clean up and easy cutting. Once removed from the oven, simply lift the brownies out of the pan using the tin foil and cool on wire rack. This may be old news to you, but it’s a recent and exciting thing for me!!).
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in another large bowl and beat until fluffy and well combined, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in flour mixture.
4. Pour half of batter (about two cups) into a separate bowl and stir chocolate mixture into it.
5. In another bowl (I used the original dry ingredient bowl), stir in the pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Transfer half of chocolate batter to prepared pan smoothing top with a rubber spatula. Top with half of pumpkin batter. Repeat to make one more chocolate layer and one more pumpkin layer. Work quickly so batters don’t set. ( I found that my chocolate batter was a bit thick, while the pumpkin batter was a bit thin. Don’t worry about it. The swirling will be pretty, I promise. AND delicious.
6. With a small spatula or a table knife, gently swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, if using.
7. Bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 16 squares (or a various other amount and shapes…like me. I have trouble cutting equal sizes, in case you didn’t notice).

Note: My brownies got a bit crackly on top. It’s ok though. They are still really pretty and I’ve been eating them like they are going out of style.

“Lick the Bowl” Beef Stew + Easy Corn Bread

Don’t bother asking for a bite of my meal. Really, don’t bother. Especially when I’m eating a meal as delicious as this. It’s just not going to happen.

I can’t wait to make this again on a freezing cold day. I’ll eat it in my frumpy fleece and yoga pants, and not even care.

This beef stew is amazing. Jake and I both wanted to lick the bowls, and both agreed that the flavorful thick broth was the very best part. And my love for corn bread is old news.

“Lick the Bowl” Beef Stew
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light and Tyler Florence

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds lean beef stew meat, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided
• 4 T butter, divided
• 1 pound baby button mushrooms, cut in half
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 6 potatoes peeled and chopped
• 3 carrots peeled and chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups beef broth
• 1 t thyme
• sprinkling of cinnamon
• sprinkling of allspice
• 3 bay leaves
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, and saute for 5 minutes or until mushrooms begin to brown. Spoon mushrooms into a large bowl. Add onion; saute 10 minutes or until tender and golden brown. Add garlic; saute 1 minute. Add onion mixture to mushrooms.
2. Place flour in a shallow bowl or pie plate. Dredge beef in flour, shaking off excess. Heat remaining oil and butter in pan over medium-high heat. Add half of the beef mixture; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook 6 minutes, browning on all sides. Add browned beef to mushroom mixture. Repeat procedure with remaining beef, sprinkling again with salt and pepper. Removing again and setting aside.
3. Measure out wine and balsamic vinegar and add to the Dutch oven, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add broth, thyme, bay leaves, cinnamon and allspice and bring to a boil. Stir in beef mixture (mushrooms, onion, garlic and beef) to the pan. Cover; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for an hour.
4. Stir in potato and carrot. Simmer, uncovered, 1 hour and fifteen minutes or until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard bay leaves. Eat with corn bread!

Easy Corn Bread
Recipe from Quaker

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup corn meal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt (optional)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, corn meal, sugar and baking powder).
3. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing until until dry ingredients are moistened.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light gold brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Serve warm with beef stew.

And here is Elliot being ever-s0-hopeful about cornbread.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Maybe I’ve been spending a bit too much time dancing in my car to the new Tegan and Sara. Maybe it’s weird that I practice songs for karaoke when I have no plans of ever really singing one alone. Maybe I did sing “All I Want for Christmas is You” last year…in a group. Maybe the rumor is that we sounded like Kidz Bop. Maybe I had pizza for lunch and totally disguised my pizza-champ-eating-skills for the sake of being a lady. But most importantly; maybe I’ll just let these cookies ruin my dinner and feel perfectly fine about it.

I’ve been thinking about oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for awhile now. Ever since: my sister gave me a few giant bags of oatmeal + that time I saw this recipe on a Homesick Texan’s blog. They are delicious little two bite cookies that happen to be a bit addicting. You might eat one and feel the need to confirm your love by eating a few more. Don’t bother saying I didn’t warn you.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe from Homesick Texan

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1 t vanilla
• 3 cup of oats
• 1 cup of whole-wheat flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 2 cups of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar and egg. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3. Place 1 teaspoon-sized balls of dough on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Makes four dozen.

Apple Crumble Bars

I am really loving fall. My three top reasons are the following:
1. Anything pumpkin
2. Boots of all varieties
3. Anything that contains both apples and a crumble topping

They are REALLY good. I recommend making them promptly. And, don’t worry, they’ll be done before Mad Men.

These are so good that even the most prim and proper lady is likely to curse aloud exclaiming the goodness of these for all to hear!

Apple Crumble Bars
Recipe adapted from Pete Bakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
• 3 cups apples, peeled and diced ( about 3 apples)
• 1/2 t cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line an 8 x 8 dish with aluminum foil. Spray with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Combine flour, salt, and sugars in a bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles crumbs, using a wooden spoon or your hands to rub the butter into the dry ingredients.
3. Take 1/2 cup of the crumb mixture and mix it with the apples. Add the cinnamon as well and set aside once mixed.
4. Take 1/2 of the remaining crumb mixture and press it into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
5. Remove crust from oven and pour the apple mixture into the dish and top with remaining crumbs. Gently press the crumbs down slightly. Put back in the oven for 45 minutes.
6. When it’s done the top should be a beautiful golden brown. Cool pan on a wire rack and then remove the bars using tin foil and cut into them for the most delicious apple crumbly goodness ever.

Mini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Even banana chocolate chip muffins have hearts.

Mini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Recipe adapted from my Mom’s classic banana bread

Ingredients:

• 2-3 mashed over ripe bananas
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 3 T oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips + some melted for drizzling purposes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl mash bananas with potato masher until no big chunks remain. Stir in the dry ingredients until combined (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt).
3. Add oil, milk and egg and stir until combined.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Fill mini muffin tins using cookie scoop or a tablespoon. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until tops are firm and a cake tester comes out clean. Loosen muffins with a paring knife and gently twist to loosen. Cool on wire racks.
6. If you’re feeling fancy go a head and melt some chocolate and fill a sandwich bag and cut a teeny corner for drizzling or heart making.

Recipe makes about 43 mini muffins or one loaf of bread. If making the bread, bake for an hour!

Pita Bread

My pita bread has a mind of its own. It decided to bubble up all over the place and not just in the center. Next time I’m hoping they get the perfect pocket.

I guess this time they are just trying out a new style. They want to be pita bread with a million cargo pockets. Who I am I to judge some fashion forward pita bread?

Despite the lack of perfectly centered pockets, these guys are delicious. I just might be looking forward to my pita sandwich in tomorrow’s lunch already.

Pita Bread
Recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 1 package dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 t salt
• 1 T canola oil
• 3 1/2 – 4 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Sprinkle yeast over warm water in a large bowl and let stand a few minutes to dissolve. When dissolved, add the salt, oil and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until the mixture is smooth. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a manageable dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
2. Knead the dough for about 10 – 12 minutes*, sprinkling on more flour as necessary to keep it from being too sticky. Continue kneading until it is smooth and elastic. Place in a large greased bowl, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk (1-2 hours).
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a long, ropelike cylinder. Cut into twelve equal sections. Form each section into a smooth round about the size of a golf ball by gently pulling the sides down  and pinching them together where they meet at the bottom. Set the balls aside on a floured surface and cover with a towel. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes.
4. Use a rolling pin to roll each ball into a flat, pancake like disk about 6 inches across and less than 1/4 inch thick. As they are formed, set the disks aside on a floured surface and cover lightly with a towel. Don’t let them touch. Allow to rest for about 2o minutes before baking. These are baked in relays like cookies, depending on your oven setup. I cooked one at a time.
5. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and line the rack with a baking stone or tiles. (I used my pizza stone.) If you don’t have cooking tiles or a stone you can use a large iron skillet or iron griddle in the oven. The pita must be baked on a hot surface to obtain the maximum puff.
6. Open the oven door and gently toss as many pita on the hot baking surface as will fit comfortably — they should not touch. You may be able to fit as many as six; if you are using a skillet or stone you might only have room for 1 or 2 at a time. Don’t open the door for 1 minute, then take a look. The disks will have puffed into high, rounded domes. Bake for 2 minutes in all, then remove them with a spatula and transfer to racks to cool; they will gradually deflate. Bake the remaining pita the same way.
7. When completely cool, stack them and press down gently to remove the air. Store in tightly closed plastic bags in the refrigerator. Freeze if you plan to keep them longer than 2 days.

Recipe makes twelve 6-inch pitas. Mine made 11 of varying sizes around 6 inches. I’m hoping to have a kitchen scale someday so I can ensure then that they’ll be equal in size.

* I kneaded mine for a fraction of the 10-12 minutes … making sure that when I was done it was compact and elastic.

Pocket Apple Pies

I’m sick of sandwiches. I had them for lunch and dinner pretty much all week. I’m never sick of apple pie.

I am pretty happy that tonight Jacob made a huge dinner instead of my lazy sandwiches.
I decided to make these pocket pies for dessert.

They turned out delicious and perfect one person portions. I baked two out of the eight pies this recipe made and froze the rest so that at any time of day I can simply have a freshly baked pocket pie in my life and my belly.

I use the same apple pie filling used in my Mini Dutch Apple Galettes.
This pie crust recipe has just a little bit more sugar (2 T instead of 2 t) than my Perfect Pie Crust recipe. I thought I’d try it out and it turned out delicious. So it’s up to you on the sugar content of your crust.

(I figured I’d retype the info so that you guys can have this recipe all in one place!)

Pocket Apple Pies
Apple Pocket Pie Mold from Williams-Sonoma. I really recommend it! They have a pumpkin one too! They are pretty fun, don’t you think?

Pocket Pie Crust
Recipe from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 t salt
• 2 T sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 16 T cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 6-8 T ice water
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon water

Apple Pie Filling (makes a heaping cup and a half)
Recipe adapted from Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook

• 2 or 3 baking apples, cored, peeled, and sliced. (I used one macintosh and one granny smith)
• 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 T flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Make pie crust. Whisk together flour, salt and sugar. Cut butter into the flour mixture until it looks like crumbs and there are no butter pieces bigger than a pea. Add 6 tablespoons of  ice water all at once and mix just until the dough starts to come together. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly at all add a little bit more water 1 teaspoon at a time. Gather the dough in your hands, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to an hour before rolling out.
2. Meanwhile make your apple pie filling. Mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a small bowl. Mix lightly through apples. Set aside.
3. On a floured surface roll out 1 dough disk into a round 1/16 – 1/8 inch thick. Brush off excess flour.
4. Using apple pie mold, cut out 8 of each shape (4 with the decorative cutout and 4 without). Roll out the other disk of dough and do the same. (If you don’t have this snazzy pie mold just use a large cookie cutter and prick with a fork before baking.) Make egg wash by whisking together one egg and one teaspoon of water in a small bowl.
5. Use the pie mold. Place a solid dough shape in the bottom half of the cutter and gently press dough into the mold. Fill the center with 1-2 tablespoons pie filling and brush edges of the dough with egg wash. Top with matching shape that has the decorative cutout. Press top half of the cutter down to seal and crimp the edges of the pie. Remove pie from mold and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and freeze the pies for 20 to 30 minutes before baking.
6. Brush the pies with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is gently bubbling. 15-20 minutes. I baked them for 15 minutes and then tented them with tin foil for the remaining 5 minutes to prevent the crust from getting too dark. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. (Recipe makes about 8 pocket pies)

These would be really good with carmel sauce drizzled on top and perhaps with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream! These are the perfect size! I’m also thinking I want to make some savory pies with this mold. Yum!

Raspberry Orange Mini Muffins with Pink Icing

My first favorite thing about these muffins is how the raspberries turn the icing pink and my second favorite thing is the way the raspberries are a surprise when you bite into these. The deliciousness is understood.

These are pretty much cupcakes, that I’ve decided to call a muffins for breakfast’s sake. They seem like the kind of breakfast cake that should be served with pink hot chocolate or at a tea party.

Mostly, they are a pretty muffin with freckles. What’s not to like?

Raspberry Orange Mini Muffins
Recipe adapted from Cupcakes!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 – 2 t grated orange zest
• scant 1 T poppy seeds
• 1/2 cup buttermilk*
• 1 t orange juice
• 27 raspberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 27 mini muffin tin cups with paper liners.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on a medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is blended and batter looks creamy. Mix in the vanilla, orange zest and poppy seeds.
4. On a low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it. Mix in the buttermilk to blend it. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is just incorporated and batter looks smooth. Stir in orange juice.
5. Fill each paper liner using a cookie scoop or about 1 teaspoon of batter. Pop one raspberry on top of each cupcake and press in lightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center and comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool before drizzling. It makes for prettier frosting, trust me.

*I was out of buttermilk so I used the following substitution:
Place 1 1/2 t lemon juice in a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill to the top with milk.
Allow to sit for 2 minutes. Use in place of buttermilk! Thanks Joy!
(substitution found on Joy the Baker)

Raspberry + Orange = Pink Icing

Ingredients:

• 1 T butter, melted
• 1 cup powdered sugar, divided
• 2 t orange juice
• 2 raspberries mashed

Directions:

1. Stir butter and 2/3 cup powdered sugar together until it looks like large crumbs.
2. Add 2 teaspoons orange juice and mix completely. Mash two raspberries and stir into the icing.
3. Add remaining 1/3 cup powdered sugar one tablespoon at a time until slightly thicker than a glaze. Drizzle on top of the cupcakes and eat 26.

Here I am sifting like I mean it with my new flour sifter!