It's Not Easy Being Green

The other day someone said to me, "Your shoes are green. Just like Kermit the Frog." And I replied, "Hey, it's not easy, you know."

But that person was right; my shoes are indeed green -- and a rather Kermity shade of green, at that.

You know what else is green? Pistachios.

They also make an excellent ingredient in double-chocolate biscotti. Maybe it's not so difficult being green, after all...

Balls.

Ya heard me: balls. That's today's theme. Mostly just because the other day my husband made meatballs for dinner, and I followed up with cake balls for dessert. All the balls were scrumptious.

Let's start with dinner: Turkey Sriracha Meatballs (thanks for the inspiration, Marni!). Turkey meatballs range anywhere from amazing to horrendous, depending on what you do to them. Luckily, these were on the "amazing" end of the spectrum. They were a delightful blend of ground turkey, ginger, onions, scallions, and sriracha (of course). Yum.

 

 

They were browned to perfection -- crisp on the outside and still juicy inside (They were not burnt at all, I promise that's just my camera! The colors are off). And they taste great with a little marinara and a side of asparagus.

So, inspired by these bite-sized morsels, I decided to make Cake Balls. The first time I made a cake ball was at my in-laws' house in Vermont. I used boxed red velvet cake mix and a can of prepared icing, and coated them in melted semi-sweet morsels. They were dreamy.

But, this being a baking blog, I wanted to try to make the cake and frosting from scratch. (If you're considering doing the same, I will tell you not to bother. Just use the mix! Both version are equally tasty, so save yourself the trouble and grab a box of Funfetti).  Luckily, I happen to love using my Kitchenaid stand mixer, so this was a great project for me!

Nothin' Sour About It

Yesterday I went to a baby shower, for which the host requested that guests bring brunch food.  Instead of making breakfast cookies (What? That's a real thing.), I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out a traditional Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  Originally I was going to make this King Arthur Flour recipe, but then I remembered that the cookbook I'd recently acquired also had a sour cream coffee cake recipe. The two are actually quite similar, so I did some picking and choosing from each and came up with what I think was a lovely little immense cake. [Note: I will use the terms "coffee cake" and "crumb cake" interchangeably in this post, since I don't really know what the difference is.]

So it turns out that coffee cakes are a lot of work. And I definitely have a newfound respect for William Entenmann (real guy!) because he made a lot of crumb cakes back in the day. I also just learned from the Entenmann's website that his first bakery was in Brooklyn, NY. (Represent!)

Back to the cake. First, you need make the Crumb Topping (also known as the cinnamon streusel) and set that aside. In my opinion, a good crumb topping has lots of brown sugar, a little cinnamon, lots of butter, a tiny bit of salt -- and no nuts (not everything needs to have nuts in it!). So that's what I made: my ideal crumb topping.  It is, after all, the best part of the cake, isn't it? It should look something like this:

Mmm, crumbly goodness.

Nuts? You're Nuts!

Last week's adventures in nutty baking were so much fun, I decided to explore nuts further.  This time I was in a guest kitchen; one with an amazing Red Kitchenaid stand mixer (and my mom).

We made Almond Cloud Cookies! No almonds needed. (Seriously.)  The most important ingredient is almond paste. Apparently you can make this yourself, but I doubt it's worthwhile. Also, the brand of almond paste one uses seems to affect the outcome. We used Love 'n' Bake. See how on the can, the apostrophe in " 'n " is a heart? Isn't that cute?

The (Brooklyn-based) company is also kind enough to let us know that "Love 'n Bake" and "Love 'n Bake 'Schmear'" and the logo with the cute little heart apostrophe are their trademarks. Schmear? Really? In most parts of the world New York, I believe "schmear" was once used to refer to cream cheese (on a bagel), but apparently it has come to mean anything spreadable. Okay, so I guess almond (or chocolate) "schmear" isn't so... um, verkakte.

Back to the cookies. We're also using Almond Extract (made from bitter almond oil, water, and alcohol) and Almond Flavor (which is bitter almond oil). I'm not sure why we need both, but I'll reserve judgment until I see the final product.

Two Butter Pecan Shortbreads for the Price of One

Before I start: I have to acknowledge that I know today is Purim, and I know I should be making Hamantaschen. But the thought of rolling and cutting out all that dough for a cookie I don't even like was a little overwhelming on this lazy Sunday. I would also like to note that today is my grandpa's 94th birthday. Happy birthday, Pop-Pop!

So, I've made Butter Pecan Shortbread, two ways. Shortbread is super easy to make, not too sweet, and generally delicious. Plus, it comes from Scotland. I've been to Scotland (and eaten their haggis), and am of the opinion that pretty much everything from Scotland is fantastic (particularly their weddings, their castles, and their kilts).

Wedding, Castle & Kilt -- all in one photo! Trust me.

You can even make shortbread chocolate! Or dip it in chocolate! This makes it almost the perfect food! I didn't use chocolate today, because I was actually, strangely in the mood for something un-chocolatey. I may or may not have overindulged in Cadbury Mini Eggs this weekend.

Anyway. Today is all about shortbread and pecans. I love it when I get to make something with chopped nuts, because I get to use my Big Choppy Knife. Perhaps I enjoy the choppy knife a little too much; when I pulled it out, my husband took one look and warned me, "Be careful."

Ginger: For Health & Happiness

They say that ginger can soothe aching muscles, brighten dull skin, ease an upset stomach, prevent heart disease, and even cure depression.

I just think it looks like an alien visitor from a faraway planet. It's ugly. But -- it's ugly in a so-ugly-it's-almost-cute kind of way.

When I started gathering my ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies, I paused to contemplate why I had never before cooked or baked anything using fresh ginger.  I mean, I'm a pretty good cook and a frequent viewer of food-related television; I'm not afraid to use spices and try different techniques when I cook, so I wondered, "Why have I never come face-to-face with a ginger root?"
And the questions kept coming.

Something's Wrong, Here...

It's ironic, then, that for my first real post I've made brownies, baked on a Wednesday. C'est la vie!

I knew I was running low on flour, and was too lazy to go get more (Don't judge me! Those 5lb bags are heavy). But I'd found this brownie recipe that only called for 1/2 cup of flour -- which is great for two reasons:
1. I had enough flour in my house to make the recipe, and
2. A brownie recipe with only 1/2 cup of flour is bound to be deliciously rich and fudgy.

Alas, when I started gathering my ingredients on Sunday afternoon, I realized I had no sugar. None.
So I had to postpone my delicious brownies until later in the week. (And don't think for a moment that my coworkers weren't fully expecting some sort of delicious, sugary snack on Monday morning. They asked; I answered; they pouted. It was tragic. They even offered to buy me a pound of sugar before I went home that day. . . )

But I think my dear office-mates would agree that these peppermint patty brownies were well worth the wait. Yep, that's "peppermint patty," as in -- there's a layer of York peppermint patties in the middle. Because really, who can argue with chocolate and mint?

I'm a big (huge!) fan of any recipe that begins by instructing me to completely cover the pan with foil, because this way I might actually keep my shiny new pans... shiny and new.  Hooray!

Semisweet chocolate! A great start.

 Chocolate + Butter = Best Friends (in a heatproof bowl)

Bring water to simmer --

NOT a boil.  

It's a good idea to pay attention when you're melting chocolate and butter. It's not a good time to stop and take photographs of melting chocolate, because it has a tendency to burn when you do this...

Perfect!

Add sugar, and then eggs.

This is actually a good time to stop and take photographs. I like to let the chocolate-butter-sugar combo cool for minute before I add my eggs, so they don't scramble. 

And add a little bit of cocoa powder to make sure it's really chocolatey...

 

Start with a layer of batter, then add peppermint patties, and cover with remaining batter.

Something strange happened, and a few of my patties bubbled to the top while the brownies were baking.  But even though they weren't beautiful, they were certainly delicious!