Seams to me - I'll have one of everything bag

Since Jeanne was coming to town I knew I had to get the move on my "pay it forward" promise I had made to her. The short story is someone sent me an awesome homemade gift, and in return I paid it forward to 5 people by making them a home made gift. This is my first one of the year... four more to go!! You know who you are people, just keep an eye out for your homemade surprise :)

I decided to make Jeanne a bag from Seams to me by Anna Maria Horner. If you've never heard of her definitely go check her out, she makes brilliant patterned cloth, and has some awesome sewing patterns as well. I changed this pattern slightly, doing only 5 patterned materials on the front instead of the 8 the pattern suggests (ha suggests... apparently I don't only disregard recipe directions! I do it for sewing directions too!)

I love how the bag came out, and I love how much you can fit into it. Jeanne was pretty smitten with it as well which made me wicked happy! The best part is it only took a few hours total to make this bag, that's what I call instant gratification :)

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Foodbuzz 24x24 Sugar on Snow

Even though it's spring we got a little more of winter this week blanketing everything in a few inches of fresh snow. It made for the perfect backdrop for a maple syrup weekend. We started the day heading to Trout Brook Sugarhouse, to watch maple syrup be made and learn about what makes grades of syrup different, and most importantly taste every last one of them!

Did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to boil down and make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup? Makes you understand why the good stuff is so expensive doesn't it :) That process is what is happening in the picture above. Think about it... 39 gallons of water needs to evaporate out of the sap to make just one gallon of the sweet stuff. (that's a lot of steam! and it smelled amazing if you were wondering)

(from left to right: Grade A light amber, Grade A medium amber, Grade A dark amber)

My favorite was grade A medium amber. Do you know what yours is? Did you know the maple flavor gets more intense the darker the syrup is?

The grades are based on the color which is dependent on the time of season the sap is harvested and the temperature outside. The later in the season (and warmer the outside temps are) the darker the syrup, until eventually it is so dark it is considered Grade B (super intense maple flavor), this is classified as a cooking grade and goes well in marinades, baking, and even in beer making!

Care for a little sugar on snow? (traditionally maple syrup on fresh snow... but today we had it on vanilla ice cream, YUM!)

Next was a ride down to Canandaigua Lake to the NY Wine and Culinary Center to take a class on baking with maple syrup. The class was taught by Chef Andrew Chambers and was a sweet treat, literally.

Jeanne and I were assigned to make Maple Walnut Baklava. Here's the recipe... and a picture of what you get when you follow the recipe.

Maple Walnut Baklava (made by another set of our awesome classmates!)

Somehow I didn't get a picture of what we made... (ours also had nuts on top... whoops guess you aren't suppose to do that) You see Jeanne is also a recipe tweaker like me. So instead of using 1 cup of butter (seriously...) we used 1/4 cup. And instead of slathering butter in between ever sheet of phyllo we did butter every 2, and alternated that with maple syrup every 2! We just stole some of they syrup from the sauce you make later... shhh don't tell.

4 out of 5 people we asked liked our slimmed down version better than the full on butter version! Go us! And we didn't hate on the one who liked the butter version better, to each their own :)

Other things the other groups made:

Maple Nut Brittle Muffins

Maple Pecan Tart

Somehow I also missed out on a picture of the chocolate covered maple bavarian... it was DELICIOUS!!! And really beautiful... and we just dug right in and didn't take a picture... sorry :D

This post is brought to you by 24x24 sponsored by Foodbuzz! Thanks so much Foodbuzz for sending us on this maple adventure!

Your email will never be displayed on this site or stored, it's only there so I can email you back directly if you have questions. Don't worry I wont spam you!!! Unless you want me to send you some of the lunch meat... :D

Snow

It's spring... and yet.. mother nature likes to mess with us.

Not cool mother nature... not cool.

In other news my best bud Jeanne is coming into town to visit today for the weekend!! We will be having many adventures and there will be a post up Sunday night so make sure to check back. It's going to be "sweet" :)

Your email will never be displayed on this site or stored, it's only there so I can email you back directly if you have questions. Don't worry I wont spam you!!! Unless you want me to send you some of the lunch meat... :D

Whole Wheat CC Cookies

Foodbuzz and Electrolux are partnering to host a Top 9 Tea Party Takeover this Friday. For this Electrolux Tea Party Top 9 Takeover, we want you to create the perfect tea party recipe.

The best part is for every post entered Foodbuzz is donating $50 to Kelly Confidential to help ovarian cancer research! I had to join in.


For my tea party I wanted to make delicious healthy chocolate chip cookies. The cookies pictured above are my modified version, I used half the oil, and subbed apple butter for the other half. I also used splenda in place of the white sugar. The image below is the original recipe. You can see the originals spread more and have a smoother finish to the tops whereas my version puffed a bit but didn't spread out. All in all the flavor of both were delicious!!

I brought the original recipe to a friends house and they were none the wiser that these contained white whole wheat flour, and were vegan! I'll be making my modified version to chow down at home again and again I'm sure.


Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip cookies - Vegan
recipe from Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar

1/3 cup sugar (my version I subbed splenda)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil (my version used 1/4 cup oil 1/4 cup apple butter)
1/2 cup almond milk (or non dairy milk of your choice... or use milk, they just wont be vegan anymore)
2 Tbs tapioca flour (or you can use corn starch, or arrowroot powder)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I did 3/4 cup and then 1/4 cup butterscotch chips)



Mix sugars and oil for a minute, then add in milk and tapioca flour, beat until all incorporated. Add half the flour baking soda, salt and mix well. Add in remaining dry and then fold in chocolate chips.

Drop rounded tablespoonfulls of dough onto parchment paper or a silicon baking mat, press down slightly with your fingers. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Your email will never be displayed on this site or stored, it's only there so I can email you back directly if you have questions. Don't worry I wont spam you!!! Unless you want me to send you some of the lunch meat... :D

Gluten Free Crepes with Nutella

A good friend of mine recently realized she had a gluten allergy. Which makes it tough when I keep bringing baked goods into work and she can't eat them... so I'm on a mission to try out more gluten free options so she can still partake in the chow fest that happen daily at work :)

Again I found myself staring skeptically at the recipe... really... that's all that goes in... and it's going to taste good... hmmm I'm not so sure about this... and yet again I was proven wrong... I LOVED these things. Talk about easy, fast, and delicious.

I made these to bring along to a french themed party. Bring a french food to pass, and dress up like a french person. If you are from France... stop reading now... cause I'm probably going to offend you... no really stop scrolling...

Ok if you're still scrolling you better have a good sense of humor... here's a headshot from the night...

Gluten Free Easy Crepes
recipe from Gluten Free Gobsmacked

Recipe makes 10 crepes (depends on your pan size!)
Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup (or 50g) cornstarch
1 egg
2 teaspoons olive oil or melted butter
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Mix (I used a small whisk) all ingredients until very well blended.
2. Spritz a pan (small, nonstick) with olive oil. Preheat the pan over medium-high heat.
3. Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter into the pan while swirling the pan.
4. Continue to swirl the pan – OFF the heat! – until th ebatter begins to bubble and there is no longer excess batter to swirl.
5. Cook for 20-40 seconds (the first crepe takes the longest… this time is for the quicker crepes) or until steam is puffing out the sides.
6. Quickly and with some care, flip the crepe and cook and additional 15-20 seconds.
7. Continue until all the batter is used. (Depending upon your pan, you may not have to spritz it with oil between crepes.)

Fill with nutella and sprinkle with powdered sugar... or fill with jams, jellies, other nut butters... fresh fruit... whatever floats your boat!

Super Fast Whole Wheat Rolls & enLiven yogurt

I didn't believe this recipe... 100% whole wheat yeast rolls, without any rise time... seriously?? These things are going to taste like hockey pucks...

Luckily for me (and John) these rolls did NOT taste like rocks! They have a very mild flavor that is for sure, not the same yeasty goodness of a slow rise roll. But I must admit... for the time required to make them, this recipe is going to stick around for sure.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when I realized I forgot to pick up rolls for the workweek. I was lazy... and there wasn't enough time for a couple hours of rise time... so a quick search found this recipe for quick yeasted whole wheat rolls. I figured... if nothing else John would just have to buy lunch Monday :D lucky for us both, he got tasty rolls instead.

I wont lie, the next day they aren't as great, but a trip in the toaster fixes that problem right up!

Super Quick whole wheat buns
recipe from Food.com

1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons warm water
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar or 1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour


Directions:

Prep Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 30 mins

1 Combine water, yeast, oil and sugar or honey; let rest for 15 minutes.
2 Add salt, egg, and flour to yeast mixture and mix well.
3 Roll out 3/4 inch thick and cut into 10-12 rounds.
4 Place rolls on cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
5 Bake at 400-425 for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Be careful not to overbake or they will be too dry. Every oven is different.

(picture from enliven.com)

I also wanted to tell you guys about a new yogurt I got to try. Full disclosure: the company sent me a box of 4 yogurts to try and blog about. It's called enLiven, here's a little about it "Today, a new low-cost, all-natural yogurt branded as enLiven launches exclusively in Walmart stores. The low-fat yogurt from Ganeden, the nation’s leading distributor of over-the-counter probiotic products, is available in four delicious flavors and features GanedenBC30 probiotics."

I love yogurt as a snack and eat it most days. I'm always up for a new flavor or brand to try. The texture was spot on, not too thin, not too thick, and you could tell they used real strawberries (no unnatural red dyes here) actually I was interested to see they use beet juice to help keep the strawberries red! That's pretty fun if you ask me. I don't normally find myself in Walmart, but if I was I'd grab a box of these and know it was going to taste great :)

Vegan Whole Wheat "Fig Newtons"

So I've told you guys this before, but I'm a library ho, it's true. I don't buy any books I just hit up the library. This is especially true with cookbooks since so many of them have 1 or 2 recipes I'll actually make while the rest of the recipes are just taking up valuable real estate on my book shelf. Sometimes though I find a book so chocked full of recipes I'd ACTUALLY have to go buy it. Enter in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I wasn't asked to pimp out this book, I just happened to find it at the library, and fall in love.

I brought these into work and everyone who had some thought they were better than the store bought variety. I made two changes (like you didn't see that coming) I only made half the filling, and truthfully it was plenty enough filling if you ask me. If you want a super thick gewwy filling make the full batch. The second change was I used 1/2 cup apple sauce instead of the 1/2 cup oil. Truthfully I think it worked out fine for these and wasn't missed one little bit. Oh wait... one more thing, she rolls out the dough... I just divided it in half and used my fingers to press it into the pan ... sure it would have been flatter and prettier if I rolled it out between wax paper like she said... but I'm lazy, and not using the oil makes things harder to roll out... true!

Whole Wheat Fig Bars

recipe from Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar
for full on her direction... go get the book :D these are my short hand directions

Filling (this is the full version I only made half)
1 lb dried figs, hard stems removed and diced into small pieces
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup agave nectar or maple syrup
2 tsp finely grated citrus zest

Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce to simmer and cook 8-10 minutes stirring on occasion.

Dough
Mix together:
2 Tbs ground flax seeds
1/4 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 cup canola oil (I used unsweetened apple sauce)
3/4 cup sucanat or other natural dry sweetener
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Then sift in:
1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (I used less)

Divide into two balls and roll out between wax paper, or just smoosh it into a tin foil lined 8x8 pan like I did. Top with fig mixture then second layer of dough. Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes.

PS. I just started using a new commenting system, your email will not be displayed and I'm not collecting / storing anything or going to spam you or anything like that, it just makes it easier to actually be able to answer people's questions! I've had so many times when people ask me things but I couldn't email them back since blogger doesn't let you see emails. :)

Pi Day!

Ok any other nerds out there?? It's 3.14 does that mean anything to you? How about 3.1415926... it's pi!!! Come on I told you I was a nerd. In celebration of mathematical pi day, I made a pie. :D

Cherry Pie to be exact, and it's delicious!! I got the crust from a blog I recently found and fell in love with What would Cathy Eat. You can find the recipe here, and check her out! So many good recipes!!

As for the pie, I've made it here before, and still love it!

Cherry Pie Filling (using canned cherries packed in water)
6 Tbs brown sugar (more or less to taste, if you like a sweet pie you'll want to add more)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cans Oregon Red Tart Pie Cherries, drained, reserve juice from one can
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional but oh so tasty!)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drain the cherries and reserve the juice from only one can. In a saucepan, stir the cherry juice into the combined mixture of the cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Gently stir in cherries and almond extract. Remove from heat. Pour filling into pastry lined pie pan. Bake 45 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble. If necessary, cover edges with aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning. Cool pie several hours to allow filling to thicken before slicing.

PS. If you didn't catch it this weekend, check out my Newman's Own Video debut!

Newman's Own - Dinner in a jiffy

A big thank you you to Foodbuzz and Newman's Own who made this video possible! Newman's Own sent me a flipcam and a bunch of products to put together a fun video about making dinner in under 30 minutes. I had a blast creating, and of course chowing! Hope you enjoy it!

In my original proposal I wanted to make a no bake cereal bar for dessert, unfortunately the Newman's Own Sweet Enough Cereals aren't available near me :( Don't worry though, I still threw together an amazing meal!

Video star...

I have a post that will be going up tomorrow... it's for a company... and they sent me a flipcam to videotape my cooking adventures... I'm trying wicked hard to make something that's entertaining and also does the company justice... so far this is what I've got.

Wish me luck and come back tomorrow to see the real video! OK note to self... don't video in the vertical orientation... wow that quality looks like crud... ok another note to self, upload to youtube instead of through blogger... yikes!

Bagels

Uhoh people, she's going to talk about bagels again... seriously woman enough with the bagels already....

Huh, what? Oh hi! Want to know something exciting?? We're talking about bagels today! Remember how I figured out the secret here? I decided to use that secret but with a new recipe, one that involved whole wheat! I've fallen in love.

The recipe comes from Natuarally Ella and you can find it on her blog here. I ended up needing about 1/4-1/2 cup more flour than she said. The other change is I boiled my bagels with a helping of barley malt syrup! These were delicious, seriously go make some!! They aren't scary hard to make I promise!

Opera Cake

When John and I went on our honeymoon we had Opera Cake for the first time (image above), and it was delicious!! We haven't been able to find any in Rochester (anyone know of somewhere??) So I decided to make some myself. You basically make a thin almond sponge and then layer it with coffee butter cream and top it with a chocolate ganache.

We have recessed lighting in our kitchen which makes it wonderfully bright, sometimes too bright for food photography though as you can see by this picture. You will also notice my cake looks nothing like the professional one from the bakery *whomp whomp* yeah it looked pretty darn sad... and I scorched the chocolate... which is never a good thing (it came out totally lumpy).

Things I learned... leave Opera Cake to the professionals, guess we'll just have to go on another vacation to get some... don't mind if I do! If you want to try I found the recipe here.

Cherry Crisp - and a winner

I love cooking all types of sweets, healthy, unhealthy, vegan, bacon filled... hey, I don't like to discriminate :) The other weekend I wanted to make something super quick to bring along to John's parents, I didn't have much time at all, and I was totally out of butter (so bad for you cookies were out). I looked through my cabinets and found a can of pie filling. Lucky Leaf sent it to me awhile back and I had yet tried it. I admit I'm a "make my own pie filling" kinda girl... but I needed something fast and this was the perfect opportunity to give this a try. But the whole no butter to make pie dough was stumping me... hmmmm what about a crisp?? A vegan crisp that uses oil maybe?

To the internet!! A quick search brought this recipe up and within 5 minutes this dessert was in the oven cooking away. 30 minutes later, a tasty, not overly sweet perfect dish to bring along came out of the oven. Total life saver. So if you are in a pinch and don't have much in the house, this is a great recipe that uses mostly shelf stable staples you will find already in your kitchen :)

Now for the winner...
Congrats Mindie! I'll be emailing you to get your information and connect you with Shabby Apple Women's Dresses! Thank you everyone who entered!

Glazed Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Here I go with pumpkin again! And a bundt cake! Who doesn't' like bundt cakes, I mean it's just so fun to say!

Bundt bundt bundt bundt bundt... ok you get the point. I registered for a bundt pan when we got married, and was so excited to get it. We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and I decided it was the perfect excuse to make the inaugural first bunt cake in the pan. I remembered that the one person coming was in love with gingerbread... so off I went to the internets searching for a good gingerbread bunt cake. Low and behold I found this one hiding in the crevices at Eating Well.

It didn't call for a ton of ginger, just pumpkin pie spice, so I added more ginger and a good helping of cinnamon and called it a day. Only a few slight changes to the recipe but I stuck to what they had for the most part.

Glazed Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake
recipe by Eating Well

CAKE

1 cup all-purpose, flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup granulated sugar ( I used 1/2 splenda, 1/2 white sugar)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, (not Dutch-process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice ( I used 3/4 tsp ginger 1 tsp cinnamon)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

GLAZE & GARNISH

1/2 cup packed confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips, or toasted chopped nuts

PREPARATION

To prepare cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl.
Blend 1 cup buttermilk, pumpkin puree and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Beat in whole egg and egg white. Stir in oil, corn syrup and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack, about 2 hours.
To glaze & garnish cake: Combine confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon buttermilk in a small bowl, stirring until completely smooth. Place the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the glaze over the top; garnish with chocolate chips (or chopped nuts) while the glaze is still moist.

(or another great opportunity to toss on some bacon!!!!)

PS it's the last day to enter the Shabby Apple Giveaway!