That looks like magazine bread!

Those were the exact words uttered by my hubbby after I mentioned that this particular loaf of bread was turning out pretty nice. This is the simple loaf from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. If I do say so myself it is a nice lookin loaf.

Putting off work......

In an effort to not do school work, while also not feeling "idle" I made some feed today. While running errands this morning it was decided that a friend would make some burgers for dinner, so I offered to try my hand at making some rolls. I used the base recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They turned out rather hearty an big but they were a hit with the burgers.

Here are a few before and afters.
Sorry that there are no giant burger pics, but the camera didn't make it to the patio.



After some relaxing and eating of meats, we succumbed to the rain and packed it in. I saw a post on PheMOMenon! about black and white cookies and it peaked my intrest a bit. I have a very special place in my heart for these cookies. They are not my favorite to eat, nor to make, in fact I haven't made them in almost nine years... The last time I made them was a goofball effort for my now hubby's birthday the first year that we were dating. He is a transplanted Long Islander and grew up munching on black and white cookies. As a surprise I decided that I would make a GIANT black and white cookie (a bit bigger than a record/garbage can lid) and ship it to him our first summer apart during college. Ultimately I successfully made and shipped the massive cookie in time and unbroken for his birthday. Needless to say they remind me of the early days of my relationship with him.

I actually had all of the ingredients on hand so I decided to make the cookies. The recipe came together very easily, quickly, and got a prompt and frosting filled thumbs up from the hubby.

I may erase this later.....

So, first off I love Las Vegas. I feel the itch to go just about every six months. This has nothing to do with the specific location.....

I am in Las Vegas for a work conference. Rad, I know, work sanctioned enabling of my booze and gambling. I opted to stay at The Palms because it is nearby the conference and I really wanted to check it out. If anyone has any urge to do this, don't. It is totally underwhelming. The casino and gaming floor is fine, but so far the food sucks, you are pretty much isolated from the strip and any of the fun things. Oh, and Internet costs 14 smackers a day, and they gym cost 20 dollars a day and only if I want to use it the exact hours I am supposed to be working. I mention this because I feel that all hotels should have wifi connections and the gym should be halfway decent and 24 hours or free (better if both). If I were at a shitty holiday inn express, that would be the case and I would get a waffle in the morning, or something

sorry for the whining, but really what is the point of a blog otherwise.....

goat cheese and date pizza

While at first blush the combination my not sound delicious, but let me tell you it is. This past Friday night the hubby and I tried our hand at making this awesome pizza. We used the olive oil dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. We have been having a carbohydrate filled love affair with this book for about a month and we show no signs of stopping. For this dough we halved the recipe and used half of the batch (essentially 1/4 of the dough from a full batch) and it was totally enough for a nice dinner for the two of us.

The hubby giving it the thumbs up.

We stretched out the dough on a floured board then transferred the dough to a nicely cornmealed peel. Added a bit of olive oil, some chopped garlic, crumbled goat cheese, quartered dates, and a few twists of fresh black pepper.

Viola!


All in all it was quite a tasty success!

Ice Cream Cupcake Round-Up Caramel Apple Pie a la mode

Hooray! I have just finished my first challenge/round-up. The Cupcake Project is hosting this challenge along with Scoopalicious. I tried my hand at creating Carmel Apple Pie a la mode.

I started out with a base from Crazy About Cupcakes. I thought that the caramel apple cupcake would be a great base...



Then I added some ice cream....caramel swirl to be exact....
I let the ice cream soften a bit, piped it on and then smoothed it out (I will save you the image of the slightly "poopy" appearance after the initial "deposit" of ice cream, at least it wasn't chocolate.....

And then a simple cream cheese frosting.....

Drum roll.... final product




They definitely came out ok. Nothing amazing, probably not a "make again". In hindsight there are a few things that I would change. They were totally tasty, and my tasters had no complaints, but in the future I would choose a stronger base. Maybe a hearty vanilla or a brownie-ish chocolate. The apple caramel lost a bit of flavor in the freezing translation. It maybe better to experiment with the ice cream and frosting versus the cupcake base. I would also firmly make this a two-day or early morning late afternoon project rather than an evening attempt like I tried. You need some time for the ice cream to set before you add the frosting. Room temperature frosting to, not-so-set ice cream results in some soupyness as you get to the end of tray. I will say that I was very pleased with how the frosting turned out, it was creamy and delicious. I tend to have frostings that are going great and then will suddenly split on me or start burning out the motor on my mixer so it was a nice surprise.

Tada! first real post!

Let me know if there is anything else that I should include in the future.

this will serve as a bit of a warning.....

Ok. As I get ready to start actually posting projects and recipes everyone needs to know the following:

1. I am not a photographer, most of my pictures will have the lovely backdrop of my dumpy apartment kitchen and cluttered counter.

2. I "follow" recipes so anything that post will only be a suggestion and I probably tweaked it a bit as I went or I was missing/substituting an ingredient. I also really enjoy cooking and baking and will not let this cause me to miss out on the relaxing and creative aspect of making food and treats for my friends and family.

3. I have been phasing out vegetarianism for a really long time, it was just recently that I truly pulled the trigger. I incorporated poultry and fish years ago but recently decided that meat tastes good and I like some of it. Fair and simple. So if you see a VERY rudimentary meaty dish remember that it is still new to me and I am learning....

Now that I have put a few more things out there, keep your eyes peeled for my foray into ice cream cake-cupcakes. I am currently working on The Cupcake Project Ice cream Cupcake Roundup.

Stay tuned!