5 minute fudge?

Really.  It's that simple.  Let me give you some back story.  A few years ago...like 6 or so...I thought it would be fun to give fudge and cookies as Christmas gifts.  Isaiah and I were not married yet and I lived in a tiny little apartment in Kirkland.  The fudge recipe was super simple so Isaiah made several batches of fudge and I made several dozen cookies and all was right with the world.

Now, flash forward to last year.  I suggest to Isaiah that we give cookies and fudge as gifts again and Isaiah agrees so I tell him he can make the fudge again and I got a funny look.  Not only did he not remember how to make the super simple fudge...he didn't remember ever making it before!  And I though my memory was bad!

So this year he suggests making fudge again and he does remember making it last year but he doesn't remember the recipe.  And I have to admit that I don't remember the exact recipe either so I fire up Foodgawker again and find the same recipe we'd used in the past.  And here it is:

1 (340g) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (340g) bag milk chocolate chips
                   OR
2 (340g) bags semi-sweet chocolate chips (what we used)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon flavor extract (we used peppermint)
dash of salt
Festive sprinkles (we used mint flavored candy cane shaped sprinkles)

Over low heat mix the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a sauce pan.  When the chips START to melt, add the flavor extract.  Once the flavor extract is mixed in add a dash of salt.  Stir, stir, stir constantly.  the chips will melt completely and it will start to look like a thick dough.  Pour warm fudge into a parchment or wax paper lined square dish (about 9x9).  Sprinkle your sprinkles while it's still warm.  Cool.  Serve.  Viola!  Fudge.

Slacking: It's One of the Things I do Best

So maybe slacking is not the right word.  I know I've been neglecting my blog lately but hey, we're at that point in the year where everything turns into a down hill slide and you have to hold on for dear life or get left behind.  I'm talking about those last three months of the year that are filled with holidays, and in my family, birthdays!  I can't seem to get a breath in edgewise!  

I suppose something similar could be said for all the months of the year with all the birthdays but, for me, October, November, and December is when I feel the hill start to get steep so this is why I haven't made a post in several weeks.  That being said, somewhere in that blur of days I made an amazing cake that I though I'd never like and ended up loving!

As always I am a firm believer in using what I have in the pantry.  This time I found individual-serving cups of applesauce staring at me.  Blueberry-applesauce to be exact.  I had purchased it for Lola thinking it would be a nutritious snack that she would like.  I was wrong.  As it turns out, just like her mother, Lola does not like applesauce.  Daddy was a trooper and ate half of the single-serving cups but his enjoyment had slowed down to a stop and here were the last three cups, staring at me.

Well I thought, I can make applesauce cake.  I probably won't eat it but someone will.  And with that thought I was half right, and half wrong.  Oh, I made the cake.  But I think I ate more of it than anyone else.  I found a recipe I liked.  Translation: easy.  Changed the recipe a bit more to my liking.  Translation: lazy.  busy.  And the rest is history!

The result?  A moist, hearty, healthy, delicious applesauce Bundt cake!

As I mentioned before, I changed the recipe a bit.  I used whole wheat flour because I was too lazy to get the other flour out I wanted it to be heartier and healthier.  Also, the original recipe called for two cups applesauce but all I had was one and a half cups blueberry applesauce so I used those and chopped up a Granny Smith apple and threw that in too.  And I substituted one cup of brown sugar instead of using two cups of granulated sugar.  I'm pretty sure the original didn't mention a Bundt pan anywhere but I had just found one at a thrift store and I was excited to try it out.

If you're anywhere near Seattle you know that the weather has been, well, a little schizophrenic and we were in the middle of a cool spell when I made this.  It went perfectly with the weather.  It wasn't dry, not even a little bit.  It was filling and satisfying.  And fiber?  Fugettuboutit!  All in all, good stuff.  You will find the original recipe here.  But here is my yummy version:

Cooking spray with four
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2cups applesauce

1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat your Bundt pan with cooking spray with flour; set aside.

In a large bowl cream together the softened butter and sugar. Beat in the salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Heat the applesauce, either in the microwave or on the stove top, until very hot, but not boiling.

Stir in the baking soda. (It will fizz and bubble up, and that's fine.) Beat into the butter mixture...batter will be very thin at this point. Beat in the flour just until smooth.  Fold in Granny Smith apple pieces until just mixed.  Be sure not to over mix.

Pour into prepared Bundt pan and bake for  about 50 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  As with all Bundts, do not place on a cookie sheet...hot air needs to flow through the hole in the center. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn cake out onto wire rack to cool completely. Serve with a glaze if you like but it's delicious all by itself. Store in the refrigerator.

Cake Pops

A few posts ago I wrote about our visit to Bakerella.  The weekend before that I made my first cake pops.  I know, I'm kind of posting out of order but c'est la vie!  Anyway, turns out, cake pops are more difficult than I thought.  I had a feeling this might be the case so I didn't try to rush things. 

 I baked the cake ahead of time and let it cool overnight like Bakerella suggests.  The crumbling of the cake wasn't too bad and went pretty quickly.  Lola helped out.

The rest is kind of a blur.  I chose lemon cake and dark chocolate candy melts for the coating.  Two reasons for that:  1. I thought dark chocolate and lemon would go well together, and 2. I don't like lemon cake so I figured I'd be less tempted to eat them.  I mixed in the frosting with my Kitchenaid, which made it a lot easier, rolled them into balls and stuck them in the fridge.

After heating the candy melts and dipping I decide that next time I'm going to have to thin the mixture out with something.  They didn't turn out as smooth as I'd had like but it was a good first run!

Isaiah got to take a bunch to work because, really, what am I going to do with a bunch of experimental cake pops in a flavor I don't like?

And, of course, Lola did the taste-test!

My next cake pop challenge is making jack-o-lantern cake pops that are presentable enough for Halloween.  Wish me luck!

Cheating

That's right.  Cheating.  Some days are made for it.  Like today.  Tomorrow's my mom's birthday and we're going up for a visit in the morning so I have a lot to do.  We're having Moroccan chili and 10,000 grains of sand for lunch and I'm making it ahead of time and bringing it up, so that has to be done today.  We're also bringing a lemon meringue pie in lieu of a cake, so that has to be done today.  Lola wanted to make Grammy a pinata for her birthday and we finished that up today.  What I'm tryin' to say is...I got a lot to do!  So we cheated. 

Lola wanted to make cookies so we opted for the frozen, already made-pop-in-the-oven kind.  I know it's cheating and they don't taste very good.  But I don't have to eat them and Lola loves them!  Besides, they are pretty cute.  With my laze factor the closest I could come to these is to bust out my spritz gun and use two colors of dough...maybe.  So Lola and I baked Halloween cookies and Lucy supervised.  I'll get to the rest of that stuff after they go to bed!

Bakerella!

Number 32 in line!

 Last week the girls and I went to a book signing for Bakerella's new cookbook Cake Pops!  It was scheduled for 12:00 PM on a Wednesday and we arrived shortly after 11:00.  When we got in line, much to my irritation, I was asked if I had my book, yes.  Then I was asked if I had purchased my book at Williams-Sonoma, no.  Then I was informed that, per the contract between the publisher and Williams-Sonoma,  in order to get my book signed by Bakerella it had to be purchased at Williams-Sonoma and I had to have the reciept, *$@#!!!.  The pleasant woman in the black smock told me she'd save our place in line while we went in and purchased a book and when we came back she gave us our number.

The line outside the store

The wait in line was not that bad.  All of the people waiting were nice and everyone was in good spirits.  It had a little bit of a circus vibe going on; everyone was excited to get to the front of the line.  A couple of smocked William-Sonoma employees flitted up and down the line as it grew passing out sample size servings of coffee and coffee cake.  I did not partake but Lola enjoyed two tiny squares of the cake which she gave a thumbs-up.  

Bakerella!

 Before she came out the employee who seemed to be running the show informed us that Bakerella (AKA Angie Dudley) would be doing a demonstration and Q&A before the book signing and that we should all pile into the store but hold onto our numbers.

Demonstration

 It was standing room only and a packed house to boot!  Most people that asked question inquired about things to which I already knew the answer but it was fun to watch and listen anyway...for a while.  About the time I was getting bored Lola informed me that she needed to go potty so we made a quiet exit and migrated to the store next door because it happened to have it's own restroom.  When we had all used the facilities (or had a diaper change in Lucy's case) we went back to the store to find that the Q&A was finished and people were moving back to the cordoned off area in front of the store so we took out our trusty number 32 and found our place in line.

Lola calls her Cinderella; she thought that was cute

 Angie was super cute and very nice in person, and much shorter than I imagined.  My only complaint, other than having to buy the book a second time, was this:  Bakerella was featured in the October issue of the Betty Crocker baking magazine.  You know, the tiny ones you see in the checkout aisle?  Well I purchased it sometime in late September and Lola fell in love with it.  She loved the pictures; it had jack-o-lantern cake pops on the cover and several recipes from Bakerella inside.  I brought this with us to get it signed for Lola and asked an employee if Bakerella could sign it for my 3 year old daughter.  The answer?  Absolutely not!  Per the contract, of course.  So instead of having her sign the Cake Pops book to me, I had her sign it to Lola.  She was happy.

Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner? Yes!

 I love me some potatoes!  I do have a bit of the Irish in me, after all.  And what better way to get in touch with my inner leprechaun then with rainbow potatoes?  Ok, so they're not really called rainbow potatoes.  I believe they are marketed as Tri-color Potatoes, when sold together, but when sold separately they are simply known as Yukon Gold, Red, and Purple Potatoes.  I got these at Costco.

I had the potatoes I was craving but what to make with them?  I had also been craving Quiche and everyone knows potatoes go great with eggs....I know!  Quiche with shredded potato crust!  I got the idea from a recipe I found at For the Love of Cooking but I adapted it A LOT.  If you follow her recipe instead of mine you will get a tasty, but completely different than mine, quiche.

As I am a firm believer in using what you have in your fridge/pantry, this is what determined what went into the quiche.  I wanted to use the bacon that I thought I had in the freezer but I was mistaken so I chopped up about 1/4 of a Kielbasa sausage instead.  For veggies I had some baby spinach and zucchini on hand so in they went.  I also had some broccoli, which I enjoy in quiche but I've found that too many people at the party gets crowded so I saved the broccoli for next time.  And for cheese?  I was fresh out of Gruyere so I chopped up some Swiss and was thrilled to find that I had some Feta lying around and threw a couple handfuls of that in too.

• 10 small tri-color potatoes, shredded (I used 4 Yukon Gold, 3 Red, and 3 Purple)
• Olive oil or olive oil cooking spray
• about 1/4 Kielbasa sausage, diced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced finely
• 1/2 cup of fresh spinach, diced
• 1/4 cup of feta cheese
• 10 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a pie dish with cooking spray. Shred the potatoes into a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Smash the shredded potatoes all over the bottom and sides of a 9 ionch pie pan, making sure to press them firmly. Season with sea salt, freshly cracked pepper, and garlic powder, to taste. Bake in the oven for 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a small frying pan, saute Kielbasa and onion for about 5 minutes.  Add zucchini and spinach until the spinach is wilted.  Sprinkle the sauteed mixture and cheeses on top of the potatoes Beat the eggs and season with sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper. Pour the egg mixture on top of the veggies and sausage.

 Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center of the quiche comes out clean - don't overcook. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before slicing. Yum!

Haven't got time for the pain...or anything else, really...

I have a cold.  In the past month the baby has had two colds, the husband has two colds and the three-year-old has has three colds.  I am just succumbing to my first cold and I'm doing it kicking and screaming.  I don't have time to get a cold.  I was in denial for a few days and then I finally let myself cough.  The sneezes I couldn't stop.  But then sneezing doesn't mean you have a cold really.  What?  Allergy season is pretty much over?  Ok, then.  I have a cold.

So a few days back, sometime last week, I make some amazing Kalbi ribs, or Korean style short-ribs, for the first time.  This was before I had the cold, or before I admitted I had the cold.  They were amazingly easy, which I always like, and super tasty, which keeps the husband happy.  I took pics and planned to write something about them that night but the baby had other plans for me.  Her cold was in full swing and she was not happy and decided no one else should be happy either.  Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep that night.  But at least I had the forethought to take the photos right?  So now, I give you my Kalbi ribs.

KALBI – KOREAN SHORT RIBS

3 lbs. sliced short ribs

2/3 C. soy sauce
1/4 C. sesame seed oil
1/3 C. water
1/2 C. sugar
3 cloves garlic

2 Tbs. crushed toasted sesame seeds
1 onion, sliced
1 bunch scallions, sliced 3 ” long sections 

I left out the onion and scallions because I was in a hurry.

Combine soy sauce, sesame seed oil, water and sugar in a large zip-lock bag.  Shake until sugar is dissolved.  Add garlic, onion and scallions and combine.  Add short ribs and make sure to coat both sides with marinade.  Refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour, but preferably a couple of hours.  After pre-heating grill , cook short ribs about 3-4 minutes per side on medium high.  If you don't have a grill, or if you ran out of propane like we did, you can broil the ribs for 3-4 minutes per side on high and they will turn out great!

When I started cooking the ribs, I took the marinade and boiled it for a few minutes and then threw in some green beans and they turned out divine.  Add a little brown rice and you've got a meal!