half and halfs

Moving

2009-10-29T21:50:00.003-04:00

Because we likes what we likes, we've moved... http://halfandhalfs.wordpress.com/

Who's a happy puppy?

2009-10-27T14:17:00.008-04:00

Yuki is! He is so spoiled, but to spoil him even more I baked home made peanut butter dog treats for him this weekend. Recipe was adapted from Brown Eyed Baker and was super simple.

PEANUT BUTTER DOG TREATS
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup 1% milk - we used lactose free.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the peanut butter with the milk. Add wet to dry. Knead, roll out to 1/4 inch, cut and bake for 20 min at 375 degrees. I used three different size bone cookie cutters and a cute little doggie one.

Yuki was following me around the whole time I was baking. He must love me... or I smelled like delicious peanut butter!

The ultimate test: Does Yuki like them??? We gave him one and made him "wait" like we always do. Look at the concentration on his face as he stares down his treat without stealing it.

Looks like the treats got Yuki's approval. Munch munch munch.

All gone!

Yuki liked them so much we decided to send some to his puppy friend in Chicago, Juli. Hopefully she enjoys them too! :)

Pumpkin pops

2009-10-27T13:47:00.002-04:00

I made some pumpkin cake pops for fun. Insides consist of dark chocolate cake, Bailey's (of course!) and cream cheese frosting. I decorated them with marzipan stems and leaves. Apparently I'll be making these for a halloween wedding this weekend (just found out yesterday)! Don't worry, there will also be a cake - not made by me of course. I'll have more pictures of the batch I'll be making later this week.

Quick Sunday breakfast

2009-10-26T17:21:00.001-04:00

I saw this recipe for mini chocolate croissants from Joy the Baker a while ago and have been waiting for a time to make them. This weekend seemed like the perfect time - we're always lazy Sunday morning. The croissants were super easy and tasted great, especially with a sprinkling of nice sea salt. Be sure to get all butter puff pastry, it definitely tastes a lot better and I definitely wasn't generous enough with the egg wash on a few of them. Oh - and the chocolate inside can be super hot. I think Steve burned his tongue because he couldn't wait to eat one!

Mac 'n Cheese

2009-10-25T20:55:00.004-04:00

Macaroni. Its good in "Easy" form (although I ate a lifetimes worth freshman year in the dorms). Its good in boxed form. Its even good in "Deluxe" box form, even if that cheese sauce tastes like plastic. But sometimes powdered or Velveeta cheese just won't cut it. Tonight was one of those nights. After a day of baking...or watching baking in my case, we wanted something that wasn't going to leave our kitchen in shambles (as many of my dishes do), but didn't want to settle for the previously mentioned forms of "pasta". We thumbed through a few recipes and chose one from America's Test Kitchen (although with a touch more cayenne and garlic..more than a touch more of the latter and Parmesan in the bread crumb topping).

mmm...cheese...

And because of Dana's love of individual servings...ramekins! The recipe called for 25-30 minutes in the oven. For ramekins we cut it down to 15 and it worked perfectly.

To make the moms happy, I made Dana eat some green beans. She didn't whine too much, but did insist we spice them up with some red chili flake, which added another layer of flavor to our standard stir fry in garlic method of cooking vegetables.

My plate, cause a ramekin's worth just wouldn't cut it.

Raspberry and Chocolate

2009-10-19T15:13:00.007-04:00

Raspberry and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations... or anything with raspberry for that matter. So below is another recipe that may get added to the regular rotation: dark chocolate cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese frosting. The frosting is one I make often now. I just love it!! It's made with real raspberries - pureed, strained, and then beaten into a cream cheese frosting. It is NOT made with raspberry cream cheese. I didn't even realize this possibility until someone asked me recently. To finish, I piped on the frosting after chilling briefly, making sure to work quickly as my hand normally heats up any sort of butter-based frosting when working with a piping bag. Then I decorated with a simple white fondant flower rather than my usual raspberry. The cupcakes turned out pretty cute for being so simple, if I do say so myself.

Cookies

2009-10-19T15:04:00.003-04:00

It's been a long time since I made frosted sugar cookies and boy can you tell! Apparently I need to get back in the habit of making these cookies rather than snickerdoodles, chocolate chip and oatmeal. They really aren't much harder or longer to make except for the waiting time while the dough re-chills before rolling out. I made dragonflies and acorns (not that they look like acorns...)

The dragonflies I frosted with royal icing. Simple and quick. But as you can tell, I really need to practice my piping!

For the acorns I made chocolate, vanilla and a set of marbled cookies. Plain marbled on the left, bailey's buttercream frosting in the middle, and royal icing on the right.

Chinese smorgasbord

2009-10-18T21:53:00.004-04:00

What to do with Chinese leftovers. Too little for dinner for two, too much for a snack. The best solution is just to make more Chinese food! To go with our roast duck (no, we haven't attempted this one yet), chow fun and pot stickers I made sai fun with lop cheong (bean thread noodles with Chinese sausage) and napa cabbage stir fried in the wok with oil, salt and plenty of freshly minced garlic. Simple foods, but so tasty!

Looks like Chinese Thanksgiving. No empty space on this plate.

Reliving Barcelona

2009-10-18T21:22:00.007-04:00

Back in 2005 when I was studying in Barcelona I had a pretty consistent diet of a cafe americano and a magdalena (muffin) for breakfast and a bocadilla de tortilla for lunch. Bocadillos are essentially a sub sandwich on a small baguette. The bread is sliced and fresh tomatoes are rubbed on both sides and then seasoned with a healthy dose of salt. Bread is often served this way and called pan con tomate and in my opinion is vastly superior to our traditional bread and butter. A Spanish Tortilla resembles its Mexican counterpart only in shape. Its the Spanish version of an omelet and this particular version (Española) is filled with thinly sliced potatoes and onions. I probably ate this same breakfast/lunch combination at least 5 days a week...apparently I'm a creature of habit. Rather than making a bocadillo we served it with a couple slices of pan con tomate and leftover checca....mmmmmm

Food related...

2009-10-13T18:27:00.002-04:00

Is it awful that I want these adorable individual cupcake stands?

Risotto and Checca

2009-10-12T22:08:00.004-04:00

A quick meal of risotto with spinach and parmesan and checca with Italian bread. Don't tell anyone...but the risotto was made in the microwave. You can't tell the difference and its way less work. A great tip I picked up at realgoodfood.com, a great source for cooking tips, PDX restaurant reviews and the best olive oil and sea salt around.
And a close up of the checca...Dana's specialty......look at all that garlic!

More recent baking

2009-10-12T08:20:00.004-04:00

First, raspberry pistachio buckles. These were super easy to make as the dough is made almost completely in a food processor. We served them with some delicious vanilla ice cream while they were still warm. The buckles can also be popped out and served on plates, but I just love the look of the ramekins. And it keeps the melting ice cream in one place :) Recipe was from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

Simple late night snack: brownie bites. So addictive.

On another note. I just got yet another cupcake book! I can't wait to try out some new recipes.

A little history

2009-10-12T07:56:00.004-04:00

Just a few pictures from past baking projects.

About 75 almond-raspberry cupcakes for a bridal shower (before packaging):

Mini black bottom and pre-frosted almond raspberry cupcakes for a graduation party:Chambord, Grand Marnier, and Bailey's buttercreams:

Dessert and drinks. Thanks to Jessica for all her help!!
Leftovers everywhere!

Mini black bottom cupcakes again. This is just one of those staples that I keep coming back to.

Food blog!

2009-10-11T10:58:00.001-04:00

Steve and I finally decided it was time to find a place to post pictures and stories about our cooking adventures. Welcome!