Chilly Treats & A Festive 4th

Behold. The power of a glorious homemade ice cream sandwich! 

Bringing smiles and sugar highs to wonderful 4th of July.

Our holiday was a mellow one. I woke up to a surprise delivery of my favorite lola coffee (#heartmelt), then breakfast at LGO, poolside bronzing, a smorgasbord BBQ feast for dinner, then iced tea lemonade cocktails and sparklers in the backyard. Honestly, I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day!

Lucky for Chris, the baking bug bit at about 9pm, so I whipped up some chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (my all time favorite). Tillamook recently sent me a few of their ice creams to try, since they are now going to be sold in Arizona (three cheers!). Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, there was no other option to what kind of cheese you would use. Tillamook is hands down the creamiest and most flavorful. I had no idea they made ice cream as well, and I have to say - that vanilla bean is some of the best I've ever had. And I am picky! I want to be able to see tons and tons of bean flecks throughout the entire thing. The ice cream smashed between two cookies? Heaven.

Now that I've tried the staple flavors - oregon strawberry, chocolate mudslide & vanilla bean, I'm ready to graduate to some of their more fun varieties. Marionberry Pie, S'mores & Chocolaty Chip Cookie Dough? YES PLEASE.

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from All Recipies

• 1/2 C. butter, softened
• 1/2 C. light brown sugar
• 1/4 C. white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tsp. vanilla 
• 1/2 C. plus 2 tbl. flour
• 1/4 Tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 Tsp. kosher salt
• 1 1/2 C. quick cook oats
• 1/2 C. semi sweet chocolate chips

- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large bowl or mixer, cream together the butter, white & brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, then add vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add gradually to the wet mixture.
- Hand mix the oats, then chocolate chips.
- Drop about a heaping tablespoon onto a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 12 minutes. Remove and allow cookies to cool and set for at least 5 minutes before noshing!

...

When you don't know what to blog about...bake to avoid writing

I half expected this blog break to be earth shattering. Like I would wake up one morning realizing the key to simplify posting to a 10 minute commitment, to enhance photos in one click without photoshop,   and discover a never ending stream of content ideas to make my blog, and my life, more interesting.

As I sit here, one month later, shaking off my rusty blogging skills, I feel pretty much the same. I am a month older, a month further into my new wonderful job, and one month closer to Christmas. That's about it.

It almost seems that is what I needed though. The shocking realization that blogging is never going to get easier, it will always be a happy chore that I have to set aside time for. A hobby chore, that I love so very much.

So I will continue baking and dumping goodies on my friends to get them out of my house, continue snapping an unnecessary amount of photos at friendly gathering, happy hours, brunches, hikes and during trips. I will continue to struggle with posting five times a week, but will make it work as often as possible.

But mostly I will continue to document my now 24th year, to one day look back on and smile at the wonderful things I've experienced. I'll likely look back and realize I ate too many sweets, and baked too many goodies. But hopefully I will have shared them with friends, and on the interwebs, spreading a little cheer in the mean time. Deep, I know.

So hello blog friends! Happy November! What's new in your worlds?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

•  1 cup canned pumpkin
•  1 cup white sugar
•  1/2 cup vegetable oil
•  1 egg
•  2 cups all-purpose flour
•  2 teaspoons baking powder
•  2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1 teaspoon baking soda
•  1 teaspoon milk
•  1 tablespoon vanilla extract
•  2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

 - Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. 

 - In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. 

 - Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. 

 - Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

 - Add vanilla & chocolate chips.

 - Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes, or until lightly brown and firm.

...

zucchini sweet potato bread

Zucchini is quite the versatile veggie. It makes an excellent side dish when sauteed in garlic & olive oil, adds some extra green to your favorite stir fry, can substitute as noodles in a piled high lasagna, and makes a wonderful addition to baked goods.

I'm slowly discovering all of the different things you can do with sweet potatoes too. Roasted veggies are an all time favorite of mine, and I love throwing sweet & regular potatoes in the mix. I'm also a big fan of it sliced in a sandwich with some fresh mozzarella, fig jam, balsamic and arugala, or even just mashed with a little brown sugar.

This is the first time I've baked with sweet potato, although I've always been intrigued by sweet potato pies, biscuits & even cookies. After the great success with my zucchini muffins, it occurred to me to look for zucchini recipes with sweet potato. Jack.pot.

The recipe claims to make one loaf, but my usual sized pan had gone missing so I poured it into two smaller loaves. One with chocolate chips, one without. (Stupid decision, I should have put the chips in both. Who wouldn't want more chocolate?)

This might be one of the best recipes I've ever made. Which I think I say a lot, but really. This is incredible. I will say I'm planning to experiment using a little less oil, perhaps some apple sauce instead, and swapping out some of the sugar for brown sugar. I know, I like to live on the edge.

Zucchini Sweet Potato Bread
Adapted from epicurious

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 1/2 cups grated peeled sweet potato
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 350°F

- Butter and flour 9x5x3-inch loaf pan (or two smaller pans).

 - Sift first 6 ingredients into medium bowl.

 - Beat sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla to blend in large bowl. 

 - Mix in grated zucchini & sweet potato. 

 - Add dry ingredients and stir well.

  - Pour into prepared pan. 

 - Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes for one pan, about an hour for two. 

 - Cool bread in pan on rack for at least 15 minutes (patience, grasshopper. ignore the amazing smell). 

 - Turn out onto rack and cool completely. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature, or freeze to enjoy at a later date.

...

{Zucchini Muffins}

My friend Ashlyn and her husband have incredibly green thumbs. Even though it's their first time planting and growing a garden, they've managed to produce massive amounts of squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapenos, basil, and the largest zucchinis I've ever seen.

For real? I know. That's a normal sized fork!

I had no other choice but to make delicious muffins. 

Definitely the best muffins I've ever made. 

Low Fat Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Adapted from Gina's Skinny Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flou
• 1/2 cup brown suga
• 1-1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (don't skimp. Buy good ones!)
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini (preferably gigantic sized and fresh picked from a friend's garden.)

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 325°.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together.
- In a medium bowl, mix egg, vanilla, melted butter, apple sauce & zucchini.
- Add wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended. 
- Add chocolate chips.
- Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, although I recommend checking about half way through.
- They're done when you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean (make sure you're not just stabbing a chocolate chip!)

Bonus: If you make 12 muffins, they each have about 175 calories. Perfect to bake up a big batch, freeze, and microwave for breakfast on the go!

...

{Reasons to Brunch #52 - The Quiche}

Whenever I'm hosting or attending a brunch, my immediate thought is always to make a quiche. Sometimes I worry that it's boring, and I should try something a little more out of the box. Which usually results in some kind of scone. Until now, because after making this incredible quiche I officially never need another option again. I will make this each and every time...and you should too! I'm convinced everyone loves quiche. Maybe it's just a woman thing.

Once you've washed and chopped your leeks and vegetables, sautee in about a tablespoon of butter, a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. Be warned, the smell is amazing, and this is about the point you will start getting hungry. Hour to go (terrible news, I know).

When it comes to making quiche crust, I honestly feel like store bought is almost better than homemade. That might be my rookie crust skills talking, and one day I'll get on Martha's level and start making my own. But until then, I'm thankful for you, Pillsbury.

I like thicker cut ham in my breakfast foods, which means either buying a huge Costco sized ham (which I've been known to do) or buying one of those ham steak slices. Which worked perfectly for this recipe. Once it's cut in smaller pieces, throw it in the pan with the veggies while you beat your eggs and milk, and grate the cheese.

Egg mixture & cheese mixture goes in the dish, followed by everything in the pan. Then straight into the oven for entirely too long, this is no Rachel Ray 30 minute meal.

In all its puffed up glory. This recipe best served with mimosas (90% champagne, 10% Dole Orange Pineapple juice) and a few great friends!

Asparagus, Leek & Ham Quiche

Adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 leek
• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups half-and-half (I used 1% milk)
• Pillsbury Pie Crust
• 1 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese 

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- In a large skillet, melt butter, drizzling a bit of olive oil in the pan as well. 

- Add leek and asparagus, seasoning with salt and pepper.

- Cook, stirring occasionally, until asparagus is crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add ham.

- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half, 1/2 teaspoon salt, teaspoon pepper. Mix in cheese.

- Place pie crust in a pie dish, glass or metal. 

- Pour egg mixture into the pie crust, adding the meat & veggie mixture after.

- Bake until center of quiche is just set, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.

- Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

...

{Peppermint Crinkles}

Although the season of peppermint has come to an end (well, for normal people. I plan to still order americanos with peppermint until atleast march), I had to share this recipe for peppermint crinkle cookies my mom & I made over the holiday break. Just in case there are any of you out there who are not ready to say goodbye to pepperminty goodness...or christmas for that matter.

Crinkle cookies always remind me of my mom. I think she told me once that she loved them as a child, and I remember baking them for the first time with her when I was young. I love the way the cookies look, all individual and unique, like snowflakes.

{sugar & eggs}

{melted chocolate}

{combined wet}

{combined with dry}

Painstakingly, this dough needs to be refrigerated for atleast a couple hours, but we let it sit over night. The peppermint extract & chocolate needed a little extra time to party together, before making the fun little balls into cookies. It is so worth the wait, the flavor was incredible when these were done!

A coat of granulated sugar and a heavy coat of confectioners sugar on the little balls make the cracking nice and obvious. Beware, the dough is sticky and this part gets kind of messy. Which is why my mom got the task of rolling the balls! I stuck to the sugar coating.

Aren't they just the loveliest? I packaged most of the cookies up and gave them out as gifts, which seemed to be a big hit! 

Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

adapted from Bakers Royale

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons spooned and leveled all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 3/4 cups sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and warm, not hot
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ teaspoons of peppermint extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar

- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

- Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted.

- Beat together 2 1/2 cups of the sugar, the oil, butter and corn syrup to blend. Beat in the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla and peppermint extract. Beat in the melted chocolate.

- Add the flour mixture and beat in on low speed.

- Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

- Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line bakesheet with parchment.

- Roll the dough into 3 inch balls. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar into one bowl and the confectioners’ sugar in another bowl. Roll each cookie dough ball lightly in granulated sugar first, then very heavily in confectioners’ sugar.

- Arrange cookies 2 inches apart. For a chewier cookie, bake 10-12 minutes. Bake one sheet at a time.

{There's a hole in this cake!}

The Christmas countdown is officially on. Days are filled with holiday shopping, scrambling to finish my list of to-dos before Seattle, parties & end of the year get togethers. Saturday night was my company's holiday party at the Phoenix Country Club. I love getting dressed up & seeing everyone get fancy!

We called it a night pretty early, since Sunday we were planning to wake up early & celebrate our Christmas together. The faster you go to sleep, the sooner Santa comes, right? After tearing through some seriously amazing presents (the man seems to always know exactly what I want!), I made Christmas brunch & we sat and watched football for the rest of the day. I napped twice and never took off my pajamas. It was glorious.

For brunch, I went the typical bacon & eggs route, but also made a bundt coffee cake. Bundts always remind me of my big fat greek wedding.

{for the cinnamon layers}

{secret creamy ingredient}

{mix wet & dry}

{makin layers}

Sour Cream-Streusel Coffee Cake

Adapted from Epicurious -- via Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 16-ounce container sour cream

- Preheat oven to 350°F and butter a 12-cup Bundt pan. 

- Mix first 5 ingredients in small bowl.

- Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. 

- Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. 

- Mix in vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and sour cream alternately into butter mixture in 3 additions. 

- Beat batter on high 1 minute.

- Pour 1/2 of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of cinnamon mixture. Spoon remaining batter over.

- Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool cake in pan on rack 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool.

- Enjoy!

{Weekend Shots & Chocolate Chip Cookies}

This past Friday night, Saturday & Sunday I mastered the art of the perfect weekend ratio. I ran errands, stayed out late, caught up on sleep, cleaned, worked on the apartment & had a lot of fun!

Some snaps:

 I am a hot coffee drinker. I've hated iced coffee for as long as I can remember. After suffering through last summer in Arizona drinking hot drip coffee & americanos and trying to smile through the beads of sweat, I've decided to make the jump. Starting over the weekend. 

Fruit & more fruit. 

Strawberries in my oatmeal & sliced fresh pineapple for easy lunch assembly.

Also, I'm totally a sucker for baking requests. Chris & Brandon asked me to make chocolate chip cookies, and even offered to buy the ingredients! I just couldn't refuse. PLUS this gave me the opportunity to try the cookies with powdered pudding, instead of the pudding cups. I used this recipe.

Mmm. It also gave me an opportunity to test out my new handy cookie scooper! Every cookie was perfect sized. Seriously, I've never been so impressed. No wonder Martha uses one too. 

To settle the powdered pudding vs. pudding pudding debate... my vote goes with powdered!

The cookies were fluffy and chewy, even more so than the oatmeal chocolate chip ones. 

Now I'll just have to try it out on the oatmeal version to make sure that it actually is the best way to go. 

Finally, the BEST part of my weekend - 

Chris & I hung up my painting!

Now I just need to figure out how to dispel the constant anxiety over it ripping out of my wall/falling/wire snapping/ruining. 

It is scaring the crap out of me.