No Good Guacamole Goes Uneaten

Last night Rob and I went to see Wicked. By far one of the best musicals I have seen live. This is the last week it's playing in Chicago so it was a must see. After watching a green witch running, dancing and singing about, it inspired me. I had a taste for....guacamole. If you like simple, this recipe is for you. I want to start by saying that guacamole can be easily adjusted depending on your specific taste. For example, if you don't like tomatoes just don't put them in. If you like a lot of onion then use more onion. It's all up to you. This is the way I like it, so you can start from there then add or subtract any amount you desire.

INGREDIENTES:

3 avocados
1 lime (juice)
1 plum tomato
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs chopped white onion
1 tbs finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp salt

DIRECCIONES:

Pit, peel and mash the avocados in a bowl until they are chunky. Add the lime juice and salt. Chop the remaining ingredients one at a time and add. I prefer the garlic, onion and cilantro to be finely chopped. Dice the tomato and stir all ingredients together. Cover and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour. I think that it tastes better the second day so make it the day before if at all possible. Then eat it with these. They are the best tortilla chips ever! Serve this when guest come over and let me tell you, you be so popular:

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I've been doing a lot of baking and cooking during this cold, dark, snowy, cold (...did I mention cold?) winter. Tomorrow the forecast is grim. It will be -30 F with the wind chill. It wouldn't be so bad if I could be magically transported to work, but I commute via train. So I am out in it: a ten minute walk to the train, then I wait. Fifteen minutes for a train at least and this is not the subway, the trains are above ground. Hence the name 'EL' train (stands for elevated). Then I need to transfer to another train where I usually wait yet another ten minutes in the COLD. By this time I pretend to be in a nice warm happy place until some scary person starts talking to me about gambling or something illegal. I ignore them and they go back to clipping their nails. After I transfer trains and arrive at my stop I still need to walk 3/4 of a mile to work, in the COLD. Can you sense my bitterness about the cold? Maybe? I feel better now that I've gotten that out of my system and now I can get back to what I originally intended to do which is talk about baking cookies, peanut butter cup cookies. Perfect after a cold snowy commute.

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whole milk
40 miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped of course (unless you like the taste of paper and aluminum)

DIRECTIONS

Helpful hint: (if you are of legal drinking age) it's fun to drink while you bake. It makes everything taste better and you feel less guilty eating spoonfuls of batter.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. With a spoon or mixer, cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and peanut butter until well mixed. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add flour mixture in intervals while mixing. Take a tablespoon and scoop enough dough to make little round balls (hee hee) about the size of a walnut.


Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch and a half apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. While baking, you need to get ready and unwrap your peanut butter cups. This process is monotonous so to make it more exciting do this: unwrap two peanut butter cups, eat one...unwrap three peanut butter cups, eat one and so on. As soon as they come out of the oven quickly press a peanut butter cup into each cookie like so:

Peanut butter cup pressing courtesy of Rob

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. It takes a while for the cookies to set and for the peanut butter cup to harden back up. But if you're impatient like me eat them right away, they're so good warm. And even better after you've been out in the cold.

Christmas Cookies + Wine = Messy Cookies

I know I have not blogged in a while and I have a lot of making up to do. I have been doing a good bit of baking lately and I have quite a bit to share. Please stay tuned and until then here are some messy sugar cookies made with (drunk) love...mmmmm.

I Want Some Soda

Have a happy weekend!

Oven Fried Chicken Ya'll!

My mom had an Amish cookbook many years ago where she got this recipe. She has been making it for years and now in my adult life it's probably one of my favorite things to eat for dinner. And ya know what's so great about it? You probably have all the ingredients right in your kitchen! If you feel like you're the type that can't cook, this is the perfect recipe for you. It tastes so good and it's foolproof. Trust me!

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic salt
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. On a large baking sheet combine oil and butter and melt in the oven-about 5 minutes. Once melted, take it out of the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes. Combine all dry ingredients. Take the chicken breasts-one at a time-and coat them with the butter/oil mixture. Now coat them well with the flour mixture and put them back on the baking sheet. Make sure that they're evenly spaced out. Put them back in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes is up, flip each breast over and bake for an additional 15 minutes. And that's it! So easy! It also makes your house smell so good.


The pictures don't really do it justice. Try it for yourself, I know you'll love it!

Peach Pie Part 2

As promised here is the recipe that I used for peach pie. I found this one online and changed it quite a bit. It was the first time I've ever made peach pie and I was really happy with the way it turned out. My only problem was trying to peal them. I tried to just peal them by hand but that didn't work. So then I tried the method of submerging them in boiling water for 30 seconds then peeling them. That didn't work either. I got mad. It's just a peach, it shouldn't be difficult right? It was kind of a mess so I decided to just cut them up and leave the skin on. I was pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite and realized that the skins softened up quite a bit. I would still prefer them to be peeled so if anyone has any suggestions I would much appreciate them!

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup white sugar + 1 tbs sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
7 cups sliced peaches
2 tbs butter

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Combine sugar, flour, nutmeg and salt. Add lemon juice and vanilla to mixture. It will be kind of like a paste at this point. Stir into the sliced peaches.

To save time I used a pre-made pie crust. The Pillsbury® pie crust comes in two circular sheets. Unroll the first sheet and lay in the bottom of a pie pan. Pour the coated peaches in then cut up the butter into even chunks and spread over the peaches.


Cover with the other half of the pie crust. Tuck the excess dough down around the inside of the pie pan. Slightly pinch the dough all the way around the edge. Bake for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 20 minutes. Now carefully sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar over the pie. Bake for an additional 20 minutes. You should have a delightfully delicious peach pie that looks like this:


Enjoy!

Peach Pie

With a WHOPPING 4 votes Peach Pie is the latest winning recipe in the baking poll. Which is great timing considering I have so many peaches because of this. I swear it's complete coincidence that peach pie won and that I have pounds and pounds of peaches. Just like me, people must love peach pie this time of year. I will be posting the recipe tomorrow since I left my recipe at home and cannot remember the exact measurements. This song was in my head while I was making the pie:

Sing along for fun.

How to Extract Vanilla Bean Seeds

If you're going to use vanilla bean seeds for the recipe that I previously posted-and you've never extracted them before-take a look at this video. It's a simple 'How To' for extracting the seeds.

Lemon Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Icing

This recipe is really great for the summer. It's light and refreshing. The vanilla flavor compliments the lemon really well. This is one of my favorites!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups non-fat vanilla yogurt

FROSTING:

3 tablespoons butter softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
vanilla bean seeds from one whole vanilla bean
(for instructions how to scrape a vanilla bean go here)
1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS:

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar then beat in the eggs one at a time.

Add the lemon peel and vanilla and mix together. Combine all dry ingredients well in a separate bowl and add to creamed mixture alternately with yogurt. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and happy.

Happy cupcakes baking

Cool for about 10 minutes then place on wire racks to cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter and sugar in a small mixing bowl. Add the vanilla, vanilla bean seeds and milk. If necessary add more milk until you reach the desired consistency. Now frost the cupcakes and EAT 'EM UP!

Also, don't forget to vote ya'll!

Peach Picking

Rob and I took a little trip up to Michigan this past weekend. We went to a "You Pick" farm where you can hand pick your own fruit. Living in Chicago, the closest thing you get to really good fresh fruits and veggies are the farmer's markets that they set up throughout the city on the weekends. They always have a really good selection and great tasting fruit but there's nothing like picking your own. We found a brochure for a place called Fruit Acres Farm and decided to go there. On the way through Michigan we saw a lot of signs for other "You Pick" farms. So there is a plethora to chose from. The only option for fruit this past weekend was peaches so we put on our peach pickin' hats and off we went. When we got there the very nice girl who weighed the fruit informed us that we were going to be taking a HAY RIDE to the peach orchard. Yes, I said hay ride. We were so excited. We are definitely city boys. Here I am on the hay ride:

Can't you see, I'm beaming with happiness!

When we got there the driver told us to go ahead and eat some peaches while we picked. So we did! It was like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory except we were scrambling to eat peaches. I felt like a kid, running around, eating as much as I wanted. But then we got down to business. It really pays to be tall in situations like this because we were able to pick the big fat juicy peaces way up at the tops of the trees that no one else could reach. Here is a picture of Rob, umm, not staged AT ALL:

Also, beaming with happiness! Here are some of the yummy peaches we picked:

Now we have a whole lot of peaches to eat. I think I see some peach pie in my future.

City Porch Pics in the Rain

This obviously is not food related but it was such a great moment I had to share. I woke up Saturday morning to a downpour. So I sat on the porch and watched the rain and listened. Is was so serene and beautiful. It rained for over an hour. After I enjoyed it a bit I took some pictures.




Also, don't forget to vote in the new poll!

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

So I haven't blogged in FOREVER. Well at least it seems. The reason why is that I just really haven't baked much in the past few weeks. It's been hot, it's summer, it's HOT...did I mention the heat? I love summer but I just haven't been motivated to bake. The BF makes comments everyday like, "When are you gonna bake something?", "You really need to bake something!" and "I remember when you used to bake for me." Aaaawwww. So, I shall bake! Banana bread with chocolate chips. This was his idea. I used my banana bread recipe but added mini chocolate chips.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups very very very ripe bananas mashed up
2/3 cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl.

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl, then add bananas. Slowly combine with dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Line a 9 x 5 non-stick bread pan with parchment paper. Use enough parchment paper so that it hangs over the outside of the bread pan. See photo here. This makes it really easy to remove the loaf and saves you from having to grease the pan. Fill pan with batter and bake for 50 minutes.

And then you will have this:



Also, the winning recipe in the latest poll was for the lovely Lemon Blueberry Tarts. Look for them soon!