Technical Difficulties

I can't seem to get my photos to upload, but I haven't forgotten you! Please check back again soon!

Reconnected

Man. It has been a while. I feel like I was missing a sixth sense or something. Aside from being sick, we have been disconnected from our tv and Internet service since February. Yes, February, as in about a half a month! Wow. Thank goodness for Blackberries! I am sure there is a way to blog from my bberry, but man, I missed a keyboard. Those little letter keys were practically the death of me. Well, as you can see, I did survive. Our Verizon Fios Internet and tv were installed about 15 minutes ago. Hooray! I can't wait to get back to sharing with you. I have a fresh loaf of bread on the counter which was baked last night and a batch of citrus shortbread cooling. Trying to decide whether they want a chocolate icing. I will share the decision with you next time! :)
Talk to you soon!
Meagan

Baked Peanut Butter Cookies

If you don't want to run to the kitchen to start making irresistible desserts, you should stop reading. Honestly, I consider that I've given you fair warning, and if you make these cookies and complain about how wonderful they are and how your defenses are immune to their pull, please don't say that I didn't warn you.

There are few cookies that rise to the level of the classic chocolate chip in my esteem. These do. Sometimes, they are even better. I guess it's not shocking, the combination of peanut butter and milk chocolate has always been a favorite. These will satisfy on many different levels- salty and sweet, ooey-gooey and crispy, sandy crust, melty chocolate. Yea, they are beyond a triple threat. Obviously you're feeling pretty confident about yourself if you haven't clicked away at this point, so we might as well dive in. I am going to do this a little differently just to see how it feels, I'm going to list the recipe first, then go through my steps. If you've been playing along, you know that I bought the Baked cookbook in a moment of weakness after buying two other cookbooks that month. Of those three, it's the best. It might be the best baking cookbook that I own. Wow. Yea, I said it.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chunks

From Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Costco's organic which does not have stabilizers or sugar)

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla (I use 2)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour

8 ounces milk chocolate, broken into chunks

First things first. Butter and sugars into the mixer. Cream until light and fluffy for a few minutes.Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated each time. Add the peanut butter and vanilla. It's considered appropriate to sift together the dry ingredients to ensure that the salt and baking soda are evenly distributed. It works best to me to add them to the wet ingredients before adding the flour. I hate dirtying another bowl if you don't have to. Proceed with either method you like.
After incorporating the dry ingredients, stir in the chocolate. I had a bar and a half bag of chips, so I used both. Either way will be good. The authors caution not to swap semi-sweet for the milk chocolate, and they are absolutely right. It won't be the same, trust them.Roll into teaspoon size balls and roll in sugar. Place 2-3 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.Bake at 360 for 10-12 minutes. Cool immediately on racks. Don't cool on the baking sheet as the chocolate might burn.Enjoy. Again and again.

Therapy

I had one of those days. Not one of those days, not the ones where everything goes wrong, not the ones where one big thing goes wrong. No, basically just uneventful. It might have been better if something had gone wrong, because then at least something would have happened! Of course I am kidding, but it was kind of a weird day. On my way home I was not looking forward to cooking given my compromised condition, but luckily I had frozen homemade lasagna in the freezer. That helped. Combined with sauteed green beans and mushrooms and a spinach salad, it ended up being not as bad of an evening as I thought. I am so glad I didn't give in to the take out that I had been considering. This was so much better and easier. And just the act of doing it made me feel better. Yes, I think cooking is my therapy.

I called it a day with the finger frog...

And this girl always helps...

Hope you had a good one. If not, try this recipe below to accompany anything you like- as long as it's easy. I promise it'll pick you up!

Sauteed Green Beans and Mushrooms

1 bundle of french trimmed green beans, rinsed and patted dry

1 clove of garlic, crushed with the back of your knife and peeled

pinch salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

olive oil

Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add a few swirls of olive oil in the pan. Heat until hot, but not smoking. Add the green beans, mushrooms and garlic and sautee. About 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and toss in pan. Sautee for 5 more minutes, serve immediately.

Plans...

I went to yoga on Sunday night, and one of my favorite parts is the deep relaxation at the end. (Shocking, I know!) It's funny, sometimes I just lay there and feel all the muscles that just worked and how they feel relaxed and tired and I sort of drift off into this relaxed state until... ding! ding! Class is over and it's time to pack up your things. Ahhh. Then, there are other times, when all I think about is what I am going to run home and make for dinner. And dessert. And lunch to take to work on Monday. On and on. Sunday was one of those nights. I was going to make pizza with this spelt dough that I had tried for the first time. I was going to try new toppings. We had just gone to costco and I had a big package of strawberries and spinach just waiting to be made into this wonderful salad that I make all the time, but haven't shared yet on this site.

I had a tub of greek strained yogurt to make into gelato in my new gelato machine.

Things were promising. Then, when I was cutting the mushrooms for the pizza, somehow my finger got mixed in with what I was doing. Argh. This is like, one of my worst fears. Luckily, I am not badly injured, but the damage was done. Chris was so helpful and got me bandaged and settled down. He helped me finish the pizza, which was already in the works.

We ate dinner together, and I was already feeling a little bit better. However, needless to say, I didn't get around to any more photos. I didn't get around to the salad or the gelato. I didn't get around to my lunch for Monday. So much for my plans.

So I decided to take this opportunity to share some of my favorite food pictures of my work over the last year, as well as links to where they appeared on my blog, in case this inspires you to try them again or for the first time. I hope you rediscover something that you'll love. I'll get to the rest- you better believe I am making plans for what to make as soon as I am back to my old self!

http://meaganstephens07.blogspot.com/2008/07/all-things-grilled.html

http://meaganstephens07.blogspot.com/2008/10/better-than-halloween-candy.html

http://meaganstephens07.blogspot.com/2008/10/jealous-much.html

http://meaganstephens07.blogspot.com/2008/09/where-were-we.html

http://meaganstephens07.blogspot.com/2008/09/cheesecake-tart-with-fresh-fruit.html

http://meaganstephens07.blogspot.com/2008/08/summertime-lasagna.html

Real Deal Gelato

I guess there is no point in having a gelato machine if you don't go all out and make the real deal gelato. I figured Giada's nutella gelato was a good place to start. Basically started with a custard base, then you can add any flavors you like. I decided to make mine half nutella and half pistachio. You start with 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups milk and 1 cup of cream over low heat. Using room temperature eggs, beat 4 egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar until light in color and thick.

This takes about 5 minutes of beating. To temper the yolks before adding to the milk mixture, add a half-cup of the warm milk to the eggs before adding them to the mixture on the stove.

Cook for about 10 minutes until thickened. Insert a spoon in the mixture and make sure it coats the spoon. After cooking, strain the mixture through a sieve. I divided mine into two bowls to make the two flavors.

For the pistachio flavor, mix 1/4 cup raw pistachios with 2 tablespoons sugar in a food processor. Stir this into the gelato base.

For the chocolate-hazlenut flavor, add 1/4 cup nutella to the gelato base and whisk until incorporated.

Cool on the counter for 30 minutes and then chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the custard to prevent a skin forming on as it cools. Freeze the chilled custard in the ice cream maker for 30-40 minutes until frozen.

It was a little melty after just the ice cream freezer, but the second night it was BOSS. (Sorry, momentary channeling Juno moment.) Move over HagenDaaz - your spot in my freezer just got taken! The chocolate is that perfectly dense flavor, even Chris liked it! He's usually not a chocolate ice cream guy despite his tenure at Cold Stone! If you don't think you need an ice cream machine, you might want to rethink that... it's definitely worth it to make it yourself!

Sushi

When your husband calls to tell you that he's eating dinner at work, what's a girl to do but treat herself?! I hardly ever go out to sushi, and I rarely pick up take out on the way home, but for some reason, it just sounded good! I got a shrimp tempura cruch roll and a vegetable roll. The sweet potato was awesome! Some organic edamame that was in the fridge from costco....

Just a little dinner for one.... Yum!

Totally gringo sushi, I know- but it's what I like! Let me know your favorite little splurge for moments like this!