thank God it's monday...

yeah, i just thought of the nofx song. ohgeez.
but seriously.
monday is the end of the weekend. which is a welcome reprieve from solid solitude. this weekend was abnormally busy, but i'm still more than embracing the weekdays. to boot, i heart mondays because they're my fg day. fg = friendly grounds = my local coffee shop. my friend (i can call her that, now, since we're facebook official and all) katie works monday nights, but it's also ceramics and euchre night. i get to sit on the comfy leather loveseat with my laptop and watch the goings-on, talk to katie if it's a slow night, and be away from home. lovely.
since i haven't posted a recipe in a good while, i thought i'd give one. i failed to take pictures, which is devastatingly slacker-ish of me, but i do hope that you try this recipe. now. because it is my new favorite cupcake recipe. aside from the carbomb cupcakes (also from smitten kitchen).

spiced honey cake & cupcakes
adapted from smitten kitchen

3 1/2 c. a-p flour (next time, i might replace half of this with whole wheat flour, just for fun)
1 T. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. kosher salt
4 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. ground allspice
1 c. canola oil
1 c. honey
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temp
1 t. vanilla
1 c. warm coffee
3/4 c. orange juice (fresh-squeezed is best, but all i had at home was the carton)

yield: one loaf pan, and about 18 cupcakes

preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease pans / line muffin tin with liners.

in a very large bowl* whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. form a well in the middle and dump in the wet ingredients and sugar. (deb throws in a great reminder to measure the oil before the honey, so the honey doesn't stick to the measuring cup!) whisk all together, or use a mixer on low speed until well the wet and dry ingredients are well-incorporated.

fill the loaf pan to 3/4 full, and place on a baking sheet (deb encouraged 2 baking sheets, stacked, and said it helps to bake the cake evenly. alas, i only have one suitable baking sheet, but my loaf cake still turned out okay). the loaf gets baked for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean!

cupcake trick: fill liners 2/3 full, using a large cookie scoop - they'll all be the same size if you do the same amount of scoops for each! cupcakes get baked for 15-17 minutes, but start checking them around the 12-minute-mark, to be sure they don't overbake! dry cupcakes are so sad...

let all of these rest for 15 minutes before removing from the pans! then, continue to cool on a wire rack. my loaf went straight for the aluminum foil and into the freezer for when hugs comes back. the cupcakes got the following frosting and attended (but did not return from) a friend's birthday party:

beat 1/2 stick butter and 4 oz. cream cheese with an electric mixer until creamy and slightly "whipped" looking. add in 1 t. vanilla, and continue to mix. turn the mixer to a slow speed and add powdered sugar until the frosting reaches a nice consistency. (about 2 cups, maybe? i forgot to measure...)

muah. love.

memorial day?

what i wish i'd done yesterday:
have a bbq bash with friends. anyone we know would've been welcome. i love big parties with tons of great food. blame my upbringing. grin.
of course, i'd have to make dogs, burgers, and the best [baked!] sweet potato fries ever. i don't know a single person i've made them for who doesn't love 'em. and they're SO easy to make!
and if i had an ice cream maker (not that my flabs of steel need one), i'd definitely make this. or this.
or maybe we'd go crazy and move everything about 15 miles west, to the beach. grin. be jealous.
or if it could've been david and i together, i might've gone really nuts and made some coffee-crusted steaks like i've long wanted to try. mmmm.
--
except i didn't do any of that. i DID, however, put together a patio furniture set (thanks mom!!). all day long i worked on this project. 2 target stores, 20 minutes of pulling and yelling at a box that got stuck in my car (i ended up just opening the box and removing everything, and STILL had a tough time getting the box out), and hours and hours of bolts and screws later... i ended up with these pretties:

they don't have their cushies in this pic, but that's because the sun was going down and the couch in front of the tv was calling out to my tired self. come sit on meeeeeeee! mmhmm. indeed.
all in all, a productive day, but definitely not the best memorial day i've ever had. and now it's time to call it-quits on this day, and maybe even fall asleep on the couch. after i turn the a/c back on. it's still hot in this house!

boozin' blondies.

okay, okay. so they aren't so boozin'. but they do have a bit of whiskey in them (which is added before they bake, so the alcohol mostly bakes out)... mostly, it's fun to say "boozin'" every time i think of these.
i bake when i'm lonely. so a while ago, after a day alone with jade and nobody else, i got antsy and went straight to my go-to dessert site: smitten kitchen. and found a recipe for simple blondies with a genius add-in options list.

as such, these blondies need no further introduction.

boozin' blondies
adapted slightly from smitten kitchen

1 stick (8T / 4 oz) butter, melted (i used salted, because it's all i had on hand)
2/3 c. lightly packed brown sugar
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 t. vanilla
1/4 c. whiskey
1/4 to 1/2 c. chocolate chips (more or less to your own taste!)
pinch salt
1 c. all-purpose flour, plus 1 T. flour (set aside)

butter an 8x8 baking pan (if you're feeling fancy, use the aluminum-foil trick - turn the pan upside down, cover with foil and mold to pan's shape, being sure to leave excess on at least two opposite sides. then, invert and put the foil on the inside of the pan. when you take the blondies out of the oven, they won't stick to the pan, and you can lift them right out with minimal clean-up of the pan itself!)
preheat oven to 350°f.
in ONE BOWL, mix the sugars together and add the melted butter. stir until well blended and smooth. add egg, then vanilla and whiskey, and beat until combined.
add in flour, 1/2 c. at a time (just to make mixing easier) and incorporate.
in a small dish, combine chocolate chips with the extra 1 T. flour set aside earlier (this is so they stay in place during cooking! try it - it works even better with nuts and raisins!) and toss those into the mix.

bake for 20-25 minutes, or until middle is set. cool, then cut and enjoy immensely, maybe with a glass of milk or a bowl of ice cream. or, if you're feeling a bit wild, both. i'm not judging. and, as deb mentions in her post, you can easily double the recipe and use a 9x13 pan if you plan to share any of these. mmmm.

maple-oaty scones.

maple-oaty scones
adapted from smitten kitchen


yield: i got 18 eensy-triangles, perfect for each person having about two. deb from smitten kitchen got 8 of the 2-in. rounds

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour (the recipe called for 1 3/4 c. a-p and 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, but i didn't have whole wheat on hand. i'm sure they'd be even tastier with the ww flour!)
1/2 c. rolled oats
1 very heaped T. baking powder
1 very heaped T. sugar
1/2 t. table salt
3/4 c. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. buttermilk (regular milk is fine, too)
1 egg, beaten (for glaze)

preheat your oven to 400°f (200°c). butter a baking sheet and set aside.
whisk the flour, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. i put the butter in a bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes or so after cutting it up, to make sure it was cold (like you'd do with butter for a pie crust or other pastry dough). with a pastry blender or your fingers (don't use a food processor, as it will grind up the oats), work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. in another small bowl, mix together the milk and syrup, then pour into the butter-flour mixture. mix it all together (it's easiest to use your hands on this step - don't forget to take off the rings and put them in a safe place!) until it becomes a soft dough. you can add more buttermilk if you need, but the dough shouldn't be sticky at all.

 
flour a silicone baking mat or clean, smooth countertop (i don't have one of those, so i used the former!) and pat or roll the dough until it is 1 1/4 in. tall. i formed it into a square shape, cut it into 9 equal pieces, and cut each of those mini squares on a diagonal to make eensy-triangles. you could also do as deb over at smitten kitchen does, and use a 2-in. round cutter. place the cut scones on the prepared baking sheet, half an inch apart or so. brush the tops with the beaten egg (for the yummy brown color at the end!) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the scones are lightly golden. mine were done perfectly right on the 20-minute mark, so be sure to set the timer for 18-20 minutes and check them before letting them stay for any longer than that!

 
serve them warm, if you can... and they don't last longer than a day. plan accordingly! either halve the recipe, or HAVE an excuse to eat a couple more! c'mon, they're tiny!

"all sorrows are less with bread." - miguel de cervantes (don quixote)  i'd venture to say that scones would be substitutable for bread, in this case.

favorite recent recipes.

i wanted to share a few recipes that i've been loving (and so have the wonderful people in my life - in san diego AND on the ship!), so that maybe you could love them, too!

first is a cake recipe that i turned into cupcakes (with green dye) for our small group's st. patrick's day potluck!  here's the link.  the only notes i'd add would be: • i halved the recipe, and had much more than enough batter for 12 cupcakes!  i only made 12, so they overflowed and looked like green muffins, which is something i'd definitely change. •if you're curious, i used this frosting recipe, also halved, which was just right for lots of frosting on my 12 huge cupcakes. so, it would probably be okay for a normal amount of frosting on regularly sized cupcakes. ha!

so pretty! they'd be less brown and more green if i hadn't overfilled them!

second, i tried making my own granola bars for the first time, modifying a recipe by ina garten. the lady is a genius in the kitchen. i love how she makes gourmet cooking feel accessible! these were loved by myself (i ate the crumbs that resulted from using a rectangular pan with vey rounded edges) and by all the men in david's division on the ship, apparently! i made two batches. one with pecans, craisins and chocolate chips. the other with craisins, dried apricots (chopped up to the same size as the craisins), and almond slices. for both recipes, i left out the dates and crushed the nuts inside a baggie with a rolling pin so they wouldn't hinder the granola bar slicing process at the end, as per one of the recipe reviews! worked like a charm! (note: i found the wheat germ in a local health-food store, but you might be able to find it in a bigger supermarket!)

here are my ingredients:
2 c. rolled oats (old fashioned... not "quick")
1 c. pecan bits
1 c. shredded coconut (i used unsweetened, and the bars were still plenty sweet!)
1/2 c. toasted wheat germ
3 T. unsalted butter
2/3 c. honey
1/4 c. light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. kosher salt
+
batch 1:
3/4 c. craisins
3/4 c. chocolate chips (i pressed a few more into the tops of the bars at the end, since the others melted in the hot mixture!)
batch 2:
3/4 c. craisins
3/4 c. dried apricots, chopped

and that's all for now, folks! go! shoo! try the recipes! i really think you'll like them!