Slacking.

What a major, major slacker I've been lately. In my defense we have been without internet for a week. It's like were pioneers or something. But today I came home and hallelujah we have internet again. And to my defense # 2, this week has been the longest week of my life. Between my first calc test and babysitting 3o+ long hours I've been a bit preoccupied.

Last Friday I made dinner. 

 Part of that dinner was this.

Blue-Cheese Scallion Biscuits

source: Vanilla Garlic

Ingredients:

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
a few grinds of black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
7 tablespoons butter
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 ounces blue cheese
3/4 cup buttermilk

Sea Salt, for topping

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. 

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, mustard, salt, sugar, pepper, and baking powder if using. Set aside.

3. Dice the butter and toss with the flour mixture until finely coated. Add the scallions and blue cheese and toss until finely coated. 

4. Messy Alert** Add the buttermilk and mix with your hands until it just comes together. Do not over-knead.

5. Form into an 8x8 square on a lightly floured service. Cut into squares and top with a bit of high-quality salt. Bake for 12-16 minutes or until golden. 

I'd like S'more Please!

Like I said I have a whole heck of a lot of time on my hands so I've been playing catch up and finally getting around to posting all most the recipes from this past semester.

S'mores are my favorite. 

Then again I feel like I say everything is my favorite in every post. But s'mores are just so good. And remind me of my childhood when we used to going camping every summer. And then when I was older and Italy came and never had s'mores before. And then when I was in high school and we had fires like every weekend senior year. 

We made these for our Christmas Party and they were a hit. The cookie tray even went missing temporarily. Someone was trying to steal all the cookies!

S'mores Cookies

source: Baked Perfection

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 dash of cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups miniature chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
2 Hershey bars, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and dash of cinnamon. 

3. In a larger bowl beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 

5. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.

6. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 8 minutes, and remove from the oven. Push 3 to 4 marshmallows and a few pieces of hershey bar into each cookies. 

8. Return to the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes until fully cooked. 

9.Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Sweet Treats

My Friday consisted of:
5 mile run: check.
Trip to Wegmans: check.
Dinner planned and made: check.
Homework for Sunday due: semi-check.
Cookies made for the boys: check.


Friday was rather productive if I do say so myself. But at this point I think I was filling my time up so it would go quicker and 8 o'clock would come faster because then we'd be off to Oswego which meant I got to see Mariah, yay!! and hang out with N's friends who I've adopted as my own after many trips over the past semesters. 


If you recall I made these bad boys back in April and I'm pretty sure all the boys thought they died and went to heaven. Until last night when they had my "sweet treats" that were a "roller coaster of flavors" maybe it was the alcohol talking but after half the bag was gone in 10 minutes and Mike made it his personal job to give everyone there a cookie, and Josh requested me as a personal chef, I'm thinking hoping it wasn't just the alcohol ;)


Anywho, I saw a recipe for cookies that needed white chocolate, milk chocolate and Oreos, I was dead set on not going to Wegmans either so I saw a bag of hugs in the cupboard, okay perfect that's white and milk chocolate and I saw a bag of Oreos in the pantry, good, great. I'd be all set to bake on Thursday. Funny how I am knee deep into the recipe and the Oreos are MIA. Time to improvise. So, here is my adaptation of Triple-Chocolate-Oreo-Chunk-Cookies.

Triple-Chocolate-Cookie-Chunk Cookies
source: Two Peas and Their Pod 
makes 45-50  

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 bag chopped Hugs (or 1 cup milk chocolate chunks, 1 cup white chocolate chunks)

1 heaping cup chopped Keebler Chips Deluxe Cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.
3. With a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time. Then, add in vanilla extract. Mix until blended.
4. Slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks and Cookies.
5.Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Don't over bake. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes. Move to a cooling rack and cool completely.

A staple.

A staple in our apartment were Turkey and Feta burgers. They were so easy and quick to make and they were deeeelish. The recipe was for sliders but we turned ours into burgers for our meal.

Turkey and Feta Burgers
source: Picky Palate

Ingredients:

Burgers:

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 lb ground turkey

1/2 Cup crumbled feta cheese

1/4 Cup sun-dried tomatoes, jarred in olive oil

1/2 Cup fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped

Pinch of Kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and Lawry’s Garlic Salt with Parsley

Sun-Dried Tomato Mayonnaise:

1 Cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, packed in olive oil, drained

Hamburger buns, split

Directions:

1.  Heat oil into a large skillet over medium heat.  

2. Place turkey, feta, sun dried tomato, spinach and seasonings into a mixing bowl.  Mix until just combined.  

3. Form patty’s and place onto a cookie sheet.  Once all are formed, place batches in hot skillet.  

4. Cook for 5-6 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through (depending on size).

5.  Place mayonnaise and tomatoes into a bowl; mix to combine.  

6. Spread mayo over rolls. Top with a burger and spinach.

Triple Berry Bars

Growing up triple berry pie was always a hit in my house. We rarely had desserts laying around but when we made pie, my father and I always made triple berry pie. One time we tried making it for my mom and it was a total disaster. But other than that little fiasco we've had nothing but success with it.

When I saw a recipe for triple berry bars, I knew I had to make them. I had the perfect opportunity to when my aunt and uncle were visiting from California a few weeks ago, so to finish off our dinner of Red Wine Marinated Flank Steak filled with Prosciutto, Fontina and Basil and a side of risotto we had these bars. Oh boy were they hit, especially with my father and uncle.

Triple Berry Bars

source: Pinch of Yum 

Ingredients:

Crust and Topping

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 cup quick oats

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled

Fruit Filling

 4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup flour

pinch salt

zest of 1/2 lemon  

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 (16-oz) packages frozen mixed berries (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries)

Directions:

Crust and Topping:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.
2. Put oats into the food processor and pulse until a coarse “flour” forms.  

3.Add the regular flour, sugar, and salt to the food processor. Pulse a few times to mix.  

4. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Process until the butter is evenly distributed but the mixture is still crumbly, 30-60 seconds.  

5. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mixture to use as the topping.  

6. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, and bake 12-15 minutes.  Cool for at least 10 minutes.

 Filling:

1. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then add the sugar, sour cream, flour, salt, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. 

2. Fold in the berries and spoon the mixture over the crust.  

3. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling, and bake 45 to 55 minutes.

4. Cool at least 1 hour before cutting into bars.  

5. Serve warm or chilled, and try not to eat the entire batch!

Eggplant Parmesan

I love eggplant parm. I love chicken parm. Quite frankly I love anything cheese and sauce related. Last semester I decided to make Eggplant Parm and all the eggplants were frozen in Texas, if you recall. Thankfully, they are unfrozen and we are back to normal sized eggplants.

I cut the recipe in half because it was just my mother and I, if you are confused as to why the pictures only show a small pan.

Eggplant Parmesan

adapted from Gina's Skinny Taste

8 servings

Ingredients:

2 large Eggplant

1 tbsp Olive Oil
12 oz Ricotta

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Pecorino Romano

1/4 cup fresh Parsley, chopped

1/4 cup freshBasil, chopped

1 medium egg

2 cups Mozzarella, shredded

3 cups homemade tomato sauce

salt

Directions:

1. Prepare your homemade sauce, do not even think of using a jar.

2.Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices and lightly salt the slices and put in a colander to release excess moisture for about 1/2 hour. Lay on paper towels to soak up any extra moisture.
3.Preheat oven to 450°. Brush eggplant lightly with olive oil on both sides and place on cookie sheets.

4.Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way through until eggplant is golden brown.
5. In a medium bowl combine ricotta, egg, parsley, basil and 1/4 cup of grated cheese.
6. In a 9x13 baking dish, lay a little sauce on the bottom of the dish and put a layer of eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce. Add another layer of eggplant and repeat the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and sauce until everything is used up. Top with sauce and the mozzarella cheese and the remaining grated cheese.
7. Cover with foil and bake until cheese is melted and everything is bubbling, about 30 minutes at 400°. Remove foil and bake an additional 8-10 minutes.  

8. Let sit about 10 minutes then time to feast!

Of course I forgot a picture of the finished product, but you get the idea..

Strawberry and Onion Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

I love salad. 

Any kind.

Especially Strawberry and Onion Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing.

Daddy does not like his salad with fruit inside. We have this when he is away and I am a happy camper.

Strawberry and Onion Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

serves: 8

source: Applehood & Motherpie

Ingredients:

Salad:

1 head Romaine Lettuce

1 pint Fresh Strawberries, sliced

1 Bermuda Onion, sliced

Dressing:

1/2 cup Mayonnaise

2 tablespoons Vinegar

1/3 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Whole Milk

2 tablespoons Poppyseeds

Directions:

1. Chop lettuce, slice strawberries and onions in a large salad bowl.

2. Place all ingredients for dressing in a bowl.

3. Whisk until blended.

Dressing can be stored in refrigerator for several days.