WHAT I MADE THIS MONTH: June

June was a month of visiting and working, so it flew by faster then May. My parents visited and I was treated to lots of delicious food around the city. That being said, I wasn’t very creative with my cooking and, as I expected, I did not cook a single new dinner recipe. I will say I made some free style stir frys, but other then that it was only desserts. With my recipe challenge, I’m really pleased how many recipes I’ve repeated since the beginning of the year. It’s nice to know I’m not just wasting my time, but actually adding to my recipe repertoire.

New recipes tried: 3

Repeats 

• Baked Tortilla Chips from Love Grows Wild: I absolutely loathe wasting food, yet sometimes I am silly and buy food I won’t really eat. Tortillas is one, since they are usually only used for one meal, then they sit in my fridge/freezer all sad. I decided to take action and look for a recipe to make my own tortilla chips and I was really pleased with the results. Often baking things into “chips” doesn’t get my desired level of crispness, but these were perfect.
• Classic Strawberry Shortcakes by Betty Crocker: As I hate wasting food, I have to get extra creative with any leftovers I have. One pantry leftover I had was Bisquick, and this recipe allowed me to use it up. They aren’t overly sweet, but when you’re piling whipped cream and strawberries on top, you can’t really tell!

Shortcake always goes better with whiskey 

• Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting by Cooking Classy: I did not use the chocolate buttercream because it called for ONE AND HALF CUPS OF BUTTER, and I am not that swanky. So I just reduced it to 3/4 cup and added another 1/2 cup of icing sugar and it was fine. The cake was very classic and was a great birthday cake.

Similarly, birthday cake pairs best with sparkling wine. 

Fails 

• No fails! All three recipes would delicious and easy (thank God), and I can totally see myself making them again.

 

Game of Thrones is ended now and their are no upcoming birthdays in my friend group, so my dessert testing will be reduced significantly. I’m working full time and still doing thesis work, so I’m on the lookout for healthy, quick dinner and lunches (who isn’t). Hopefully July will offer some inspiration for my dinner rotation!

 

 

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What I Made This Month

Even with all of my travelling, May was a pretty decent month for recipes. I tried six new recipes, with a good mixture of big and small ones. I, as always, was heavier on the baking, mostly because I’m baking for Game of Thrones weekly now. Overall, I found some great new staples for my baking repertoire and continued to challenge social norms by actually making things that Tasty posts.

New recipes tried: 7

Repeats

• Vanilla Cupcakes and Vanilla Buttercream: I’ve already posted about them here, and these are now my go to vanilla cupcakes.
• Croutons from The Pioneer Woman: I used the cut and oven method method, but this really isn’t really a recipe, more of a general “how to”. I didn’t have all of the herbs, so I threw on some parsley and garlic powder and called it a day.
• Funfetti Cupcakes from How Sweet It Is: It is easier said then done finding a Funfetti recipe that doesn’t call for a million ingredients and this one kept it simple. I might do a larger post on these because these were a) delicious, and b) definitely made more then 12!

Fails 

• Graham Cracker Chocolate Chip Cookies: I already lamented about them here, so please don’t make me relive my misery.
• One Pot Teriyaki Chicken from Tasty: I wouldn’t call this a fail really, just something I wouldn’t repeat again. I didn’t have any broccoli, so I used edamame instead, but it will still too sweet for my liking.
• Whipped Coconut Cream from Leelalicious: I needed a vegan icing for my vegan cupcakes, and I thought this would be simple enough. Not so much. After two days in the fridge, I opened the can to still liquid. I whipped and whipped with all my might and nothing happened. I just ended up mixing some caco in with the milk and glazing them. To be fair, the recipe does warn that certain brands might not separate, and I’m telling you the that Rooster Brand did not!

 

The other “recipe” I tried was Peach Whiskey Ice Tea from Tasty,  which was simple to make, delicious and made a ton. Too bad that most of the people at my party were drinking wine, because now my fridge looks like one of a hipster alcoholic, with mason jars filled with homemade cocktails. I’m hoping next month I get back into making new dinner recipes, but I’m feeling a little doubtful. The summer just started and the #budget is hurting a little. Time to get creative with pasta!

 

 

 

 

 

Failures Happen: Graham Cracker Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ahh, the sweet, sweet defeat of the Pinterest Fail. I have been an avid user of Pinterest over the past four years and have even made some of the recipes. “Look at me!”, you say. “What a perfect ~domestic goddess~.” Or, back in reality, the most common question is, “did it work?!”

What came first, Pinterest or the Pinterest fail? There is something that ties Pinterest so closely to failures it’s hard to even have hope. But after trying over 120 Pinterest tips, trick, recipes and crafts, I’ve had an alarmingly high success rate! But when they fail, they failll. Visions of confused Girl Guides with bottles of Mountain Dew filled with hydrogen peroxide and my hands stained for weeks in nail polish, trying to get a “super cute watercolour flower pot!”, fill my mind, but a recipe I can follow. A recipe is a recipe. Straightforward, follow the directions, eat.

Until these cookies.

As a wanna be domestic goddess, I have a pantry that rivals most actual grown up adults (I guess I’m not one). But, with a tiny room, I lack the storage. Recipes often call for a part of an ingredients, and the leftovers sit abandoned at the back of the cupboard, taking up space and severely annoying me. I had most of a box of graham crackers, and I found a recipe from Get in My Belly, called Graham Cracker Chocolate Chip Cookies. “Perfect! So easy and will be great for the gang! What good luck I thought!” It was a simpler time.

“Use up ingredients,” I say, “it will be wonderful.” I say. 

 

What went wrong? I only have my speculations. One friend suggested I should have used graham cracker crumbs, instead of crushing them myself. I also was impatient and microwaved my butter to soft it (hey it didn’t melt all the way!). But even with these in mind, it felt like the batter was missing a binding ingredient, as I pretty much has to knead the chocolate chips in. The picture posted on the website shows thin, crispy cookies while mine didn’t spread at all. None of my 3 batches baked in 7 minutes; the average was 15 minutes, and the 2nd and 3rd batch I cooked at 375F. The taste is okay, but I don’t think I would make them again. I’ve been burnt bad.

Does the plate make them look any better? 

Graham Cracker Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Recipe exactly from Get in my Belly (see my adjustments above)

Yield (mine): 24 misshapen beasts

• 1/2 cup Butter, room temperature
• 1 cup Brown sugar
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
• 3/4 cup All purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Beat in the vanilla and egg until well combined.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Gradually add to the butter mixture until just combined.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Grease pan with cooking sray.
8. Bake for 7 minutes.
9. Cookies will look slightly underdone, but should set up nicely as they cool.
10. Enjoy!

 

Stealing Ingredients: Blueberry Oat Muffins

This past week, I enjoyed one of the best vacations I’ve had in years; I hung out at my parents house for a week. My dad turned 60 on Monday, and my older sister and I surprised him and brought the whole family together. My dad had three (!) days of parties and celebrations, and then, princess that I am, forced my family to celebrate my birthday early on Wednesday.

Along all of the birthday celebrations, I was lucky enough to visit some friends. One of these friends (actually, old Pathfinder leader turned friend), is about to have her second baby any day now, so I brought the two things all new parents need for their new baby; food and books. Paddington was my poison of choice of the newest member of the family, and I brought a batch of a family’s favourite Blueberry Oat Muffins. I live in the North, where blueberries grow wild and many a summers were spent in the scorching sun filled an old ice cream pail with blueberries. Ah, child labour at it’s finest. I now actually enjoy picking, and making this recipe for those I love (aww, I’m so cute and domestic). But seriously, these are the best damn muffins you’ll eat and never go back. #trust.

Another fun kitchen hack is that these muffins taught me I don’t need buttermilk in my life! Dairy is  a ~luxury~ I could barely afford in Ontario and now in Newfoundland I almost shed a few tears when I bought whipping cream. My mom always taught me to make my own sour milk with 1 tablespoon and filling the rest of the cup up with good ol’ 2% milk. You are welcome.

I miss you very much, milk from a bag. 

Blueberry Oat Muffins

From a very old Sudbury Blueberry Festival Cookbook 

Yields 12 muffins

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk (1 cup milk with one 1 tbsp vinegar)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ c melted butter

  Combine oats and sour milk in a small bowl, let stand. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar in mixing bowl. Stir well to blend. Add egg and melted butter to oat mixture. Mis well. Add oat mixture all at once to dry ingredients. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in blueberries. Fill lined muffin cups ¾ full. Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes.

Also, because I am an amateur, I totally forgot to take a picture of the BAKED muffins. Whateves, here is my parents adorable kitchen.