And now- the rest of the story.

When we found out I was pregnant, we decided that we wanted to tell our immediate families in person. A little harder because B’s family lives in Tennessee and his sister in Alabama. My family and part of B’s lives about two hours away. We knew that we would have to come up with an excuse to go to TN so we made up a visit to B’s former employer for a presentation, which he actually ended up doing. I was 16 weeks along and worried that they would be able to tell instantly but I wore loose fitting clothes and no one guessed.
Our second day there we had dinner as a family and we told everyone. It happened to fall on April 1st, so everyone thought it was an April Fools joke. Everyone was so excited and immediately started talking about who would come up when. His mom and sister both mentioned cancelling their “girls of the family” trip to the beach with B’s aunts since the little one was due that week. It is always stuff like that I notice. The “family” was planning a girls’ trip and I had no idea.
After the trip, things were good. Everyone called lots and asked how I was feeling, how the nursery was coming, yada yada. I can honestly say that this has been the only time in my relationship with my MIL that I would consider it good. Then… the we’re coming the week he is born began. Lots of them. My first baby. My girly business being all ripped up (or so I thought). Not sleeping. Trying to learn to breastfeed. And visitors. Extended stay visitors.
I immediately told husband that I wasn’t comfortable with so many people in our house right after the baby was born. I don’t think he truly got it, but fortunately his sister and her husband did. They made plans to visit a month after for four or five days. Perfect. His mom was dead set on coming right when he was born but never officially said when she would come and go. I was super nervous about this. I had heard about the hormones that go raging through your body and even though MIL and I were okay, we had about 13 years of not okay. But she kept saying how I could just relax, sleep and take care of the baby and wouldn’t have to worry about anything else. It sounded good, in theory.
I found out that I would be having a scheduled c-section and MIL was ecstatic that she could be there when things happened. But as baby tend to do, he had his own schedule and came early via emergency c-section. MIL got in her car the next morning and was there by evening. My parents came to visit with my little brother. My sister, our neighbors, my best friend and grandmother also came. And then MIL came. All visitors after she arrived were practically intruders taking her time away from the baby. But I was on pain killers and delusional from the newfound lack of sleep so I didn’t notice. It was pointed out to me later by my husband’s best friend and his wife. Ugh.
I was in the hospital from Friday to Monday around noon. I was exhausted and just ready to go home to my own bed and learn how to be a mom. But every single moment, there she was. By Tuesday, I could tell that something was off. I was sitting the nursery, with my boob out for the 8 millionth time and my boss called. I heard the house phone ring, MIL answer it and her say “ She’s up in the nursery doing SOMETHING.” Oh, you know, just having a party up here as my nipple bleeds in the baby’s mouth and I talk to my boss. Happy days!
When I got off the phone and was finished nursing, I came downstairs to make some lunch and she about flipped because I was making a sandwich for myself. Honestly, I had spent the previous five days as a milk cow for forty-five minutes every two hours and just wanted to make a damn sandwich. Then she made judgmental comments about how I didn’t eat anything on my sandwich (mayo, mustard, cheese, etc) and I just laughed it off until she honestly looked at me like I was a freak. Sorry, I don’t eat a lot of condiments?
She went upstairs to her work laptop and I tried to talk to her about my boss/ job. She never took her eyes from her laptop, so I let it go. Then the baby woke up and it was probably time to milk again. Those were fun days. When I was upstairs nursing again, she strode past the room, said she was going out for a while and left. At that point, I knew there was shit about to hit the fan. I was already over it at that point. When she made dinner that nite and we all sat around the table, I just wanted to plant my face into the table and go to bed. I didn’t care about eating a salad, meal and dessert. I wanted bed and pain free nipples. Maybe a non ripped open gut too.
On Wednesday morning we had our first dr. appointment and B’s aunts were supposed to come up. Originally to spend the nite. Why, yes! At our house! With a less than week old baby and only one spare bedroom for three people! GREAT PLAN! Apparently MIL picked up on the fact that I was not a fan of this idea when I told my husband I was not a fan of the idea of two MORE people in my house with my bleeding boobies and screaming new baby. Come for a visit, sure! But stay the nite? Not the best idea in my mind!
Apparently she had went to find a hotel room the day before when she ran out but due to big college football town, rooms were either not available or upwards of $300 a nite. The aunts live 1.5 hours away, not like they couldn’t visit her one day and then MIL go visit them another day.
Tuesday at some point, I said to my husband that I knew things were headed in a bad place with his mom. I didn’t know what I had done, I didn’t care. Please see bleeding nipples, ripped open gut and 45 minute nursing every two hours. I was learning how to be a mother and I didn’t need to deal with the drama.
Wednesday it all went to hell. We went to our doctor appointment and on the way back I told my husband that I was over it. I had greater things to deal with than worrying about his mother. He told me that his mother thought that I was hiding from her and didn’t want her help. I’ll be honest. Sleeping and nursing were about the only things that I was doing at that point. I wasn’t worried about our meals, the house, anything. I am a fairly modest person and not comfortable with anyone seeing my boobs, let alone my MIL, so I nursed upstairs in his room. Then, it made sense if I was tired to walk right across the hall and sleep in our bedroom. But that was a problem. She didn’t understand how why I didn’t just use that cover thing and nurse in the same room as her. Sorry, I don’t often shove my nip in a baby’s mouth. It took practice without a cover, let alone trying it on day five of nursing with a cover. I thought napping in my bed made sense. Silly me.
So the aunts were there. We visited for a little bit and then they wanted to go for a walk. I didn’t know any better, so we loaded up the stroller and started walking. Three houses down the street and I thought something was going to fall out the front of my stomach. Something important like internal organs. I started to cry and told husband that I had to head back to the house. Honestly I barely made it ¼ of a mile and thought I was going to pass out. Once we got back into the house I laid down for a bit and they began dinner. Other than nursing the baby, I slept. At dinnertime, husband asked if I wanted to come down. I told him honestly that I just wanted to lay in bed but that I would be seen as a bitch if I didn’t come down and I didn’t want to deal with that. He told me not to worry about them and to just sleep. So I did.
When I woke up, they had left. I ate less than half of the dinner my MIL made and went back to bed. At 11:00, husband came up to bed and told me that his mother was leaving because I didn’t want her there. I knew he was upset about it and in my mind I felt relief. Relief that I could just learn this whole new mom thing without worrying about making any one mad. But I heard the despair in my husband’s voice that this was his only family that was seeing our new baby and how much that meant to him. That she had driven nine hours to “take care of us.” And I got it. I understood that it meant a lot to him to have the support of his mother. So I heaved my lard ass out of the bed and went downstairs. I didn’t mince words and told her matter of factly that I didn’t get it. I am trying to do all these things to take care of the baby and was not even thinking about what I needed to do in order to treat her the way she felt she needed to be treated. We went back and forth about her leaving and I told her repeatedly that I thought that was a really shitty thing to do to her son that obviously needed and wanted her there. I never once said that I needed her there which I think is what she wanted to hear. I couldn’t say it because I didn’t mean it. It was so stressful trying to do everything else that catering to her ego was beyond my capacity at that time.
Again, like every time we have had rounds, I apologized. What did I apologize for? Hell, I don’t know? Breathing? I apologized for nursing upstairs, sleeping upstairs, not letting her make me a sandwich (seriously, the sandwich?), for growing up in a family where I don’t need to share everything under the sun about my life. You name it, I apologized for it. At no point did she say, Stephanie I know what you are going through. This is really a hard time for a woman. Maybe I should just ease up on you and not take things so personally.
At the end of the conversation, where again, I felt defeated and like I was some sort of horrible person, she decided she would grace us with her presence for the rest of the week. So the rest of the week, I had to nap on the couch, try to nurse under a cover with bleeding nipples and sit at the table and eat. Really I wanted to tell her to go f herself but I held back. I think there is a trophy somewhere for this.
The rest of the week was okay. I was seething inside but decided that I could handle it for a few more days. That her lack of respect for me as a new parent was simply how she operated and that once she was gone, I would be okay. That it would fade away and I would move on. But lawd. I was pissed off.

The best part – they all then planned to come for Christmas!!! Ah, the rest of the story to come.

what I can’t say in public

If you have been around long enough, you know that my mother in law and I have lots of drama.  Husband and I have been together since November of 1998.  That would be over 13 years.  I believe the drama started in September of 1999.  Prior to that we both lived in PA and she was in TN.  In the fall of 99 husband moved to TN to go to school and I went to school about three hours north of there.  Since husband had not been around that part of his family (two sisters, mother, stepdad and half brother) for anything more than a week since he was eleven, he wanted to get to know them. A pretty noble thing for a 17 year old to do.  Um, live at “home” with your family instead of head off to college.  But since he hadn’t really had a normal family unit since he was eleven, it was a chance for him to have a normal family. 

Once he moved there, his mother started encouraging him to meet up with various people.  Various female people. 

Then came the drama of me coming to visit.  He had to get a job because there was no financial support from his family, so it was often me that came to visit him.  There was drama in regards to me spending the nite at their house.  I am just going to say once and for all – if teenagers want to have sex, spending the nite together is not when it has to happen.  Let’s also take note of the hypocrisy in regards to my MIL and step FIL’s wedding date of February 14^th, 1995.   My brother in law was born on July 13^th, 1995.  Pretty sure he was full term. 

There were issues with his one sister stealing my stuff and when I said something about it to husband and he told his mother, she told me if I wanted to accuse her of those type of things that I wasn’t welcome to stay there anymore.  Please note that this is the sister that was pregnant less than six months later at the age of 15.  And that they suspected her of drug use.  And that she frequently stole items from the other sister. 

Moving on.

Post college we moved into a two bedroom house across town.  A bunch of our stuff was stored in their house from June until September when we moved. They literally sat in the house while we loaded things into our vehicles and made multiple trips across town but did not offer to help for whatever reason. I believe that they came to visit us a few months after we moved in. Perhaps our living in sin?  Please see paragraph three for pot calling kettle. 

Then we got engaged.  New Zealand was our wedding location of choice – until MIL got wind of that and LOST HER SHIT. So we decided to get married in the US but not in TN (where we lived at that time) or PA (where we grew up).  When we announced our decision to get married in the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area, she asked us why we would do that since there was nothing for them to do there.  I know I am not the sharpest knife in the block, but I am pretty sure that is considered a tourist area.  This is also known as not what she would have done for her own wedding which was uber classy at four months pregnant, in Las Vegas and on Valentine’s Day. 

Wedding planning was horrific.  We had a wedding planner that did a lot of the work for us since we were over 2500 miles away from the actual location. We told her things like red flowers – not roses and she ran with it.  That was pretty much the extent of my crazy bridezilla.  Honestly, husband handled lots and lots of it because I was afraid of doing something wrong.  But again, I did something wrong because I didn’t share every detail with her.  When I attempted to include her, things were miserable for me.  I invited her and sister in law to come see my dress on the day that I ordered it.  It was a peace offering of sorts to make her feel involved.  You know what they spent the time doing?  Well, let’s have SIL who was single with no prospects at the time try on some dresses.  Happy special day to you Stephanie!  At the same time my own mother couldn’t be there simply because of the distance.  So that important moment felt really important. 

We ended up having a sit down discussion with stepFIL, MIL, husband and I.  I flat out said – I know you don’t like me and I don’t know why.  I honestly don’t remember much of the conversation but I know that I spent the morning before the “meeting” in the bathroom at work getting sick because I was so nervous/upset.  The jist of it came to this.  She is the kind of person that is use to her daughters sharing every single life detail with her.  I mean in the sense that I have seen both of his sisters and his mother naked and they tell each other about their sex lives.  I did not grow up in a family that shares that kind of thing, so it makes me uncomfortable. So basically I spent this meeting apologizing for not being who she wanted me to be. 

They missed our wedding rehearsal due to stopping for something to eat on their way to the cabin that we rented for both of our immediate families. But when we all got back to the cabin after the rehearsal, they were all sitting there chilling as they had been there for a few hours.  Hmmm.  Thanks for making that moment special too.  They left the day after our wedding and spent an entire three days, including travel time, in the Grand Teton area. 

I skipped the part about how she invited random people to my bridal shower hosted by a good friend. Random people as in someone I had never met.  She also sent an email to the entire family listing their faults after the wedding telling us each what was wrong with us and that she really thinks she was depressed after the wedding not being what she had hoped.  BTW, her husband is fat and my husband/her son only thinks about himself, her one daughter is a spoiled brat and the other is lazy and going to waste her life if she doesn’t get on track.  I’ll just gloss over the words that she had for me.  I don’t know how my husband ever became focused on taking care of himself when she left him at eleven and moved to Kentucky.  I think it could have been that his father was a full fledged alcoholic and he pretty much raised himself.

Six months later we moved back to PA and it was better. Really and truly nine hours apart better.  We even managed to stay in a house together for five days for my SIL’s wedding and then spend four days together one year at Christmas.  Then I got pregnant and it seemed like things were getting even better.  In part, my sister noted, because I wasn’t just the wife of her son any more but now I was the holder of her grandchild. 

Since I only have a little bit of time, I have to stop at that point for nwo.  But don’t worry, I am so upset that the rest of the story will come shortly. 

TWD: Not quite 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte

 

Today’s recipe from the TWD group was for a 15 minute “Magic” Chocolate Amaretti Torte.  I believe torte is a fancy way of saying brownie like.  I believe that the magic must have been the Amaretti cookies that everyone had such a hard time of finding.  Myself?  Did not find them and since one person admitted to using Nilla Wafers, I can admit to using some European Almond Cookie that I found in the European portion of my grocery store.  A step up from Nilla Wafers, but I am sure they weren’t the Amaretti cookies that some people paid $7 for. 

Dorie uses a food processor to make this recipe, which is an awesome idea.  If you have a big food processor.  I have a mini food processor that I love for quick chopping vegetables and for making bread crumbs.  But for this recipe?  It was too small.  I did use it to chop up my cookies and slivered almonds and then seperately to combine the eggs, sugar and butter.  It ended up leaking out the top of my little machine and I decided that a bowl and spatula would work just perfect for the final mixing.  Mine ended up taking longer to bake than Dorie suggested but I believe that is because I put the baking dish on an airbake pan rather than just a regular cookie sheet.  The torte I ended up with was also much flatter than others that I have seen too.  hmmm.  Did I screw something up?

Overall, the recipe was fairly simple and it was an interesting idea to use an almond flavored cookie and ground almonds as your flour.  But to me this recipe has the look of something rather fancy while not really being anything more than a mildly almond flavored brownie.  Perhaps if I had used the $7 cookies to make the recipe it would have had a stronger almond flavor but somehow the mix of chocolate and almond doesn’t seem all that appealing to me.  The ground nuts added an interesting texture to the recipe.  Think about when you eat nuts of any sort and after you are finished how there is always just a bit in your teeth, not so much stuck in between teeth but mashed into the grooves on the top of your teeth.  Wow.  I just made that sound fantastic didn’t I?

You can find the recipe here.

TWD: Coconut Butter Thins

I’m already a TWD failure.  It seems that the battery charger for my camera has disappeared.  It seems that the battery in my camera is dead.  It seems that someone didn’t charge the backup battery that is in the case either.  Shit. 

So, no photo unless I go home and magically find the charger that I have been looking for for four days.  My husband is going to be so pleased! 

On to the cookies.  The recipe for Coconut Butter Thins this week was chosen by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. I have to admit that I would have probably glazed past this recipe just because it seems like a light summer cookie and my husband claims to not like coconut.  I did have to buy the Macadamia nuts and since they were almost $4 a bag I need to find something else to make with them as the recipe only uses 1/2 cup. 

The method of chilling these cookies was a little interesting as Dorie suggests placing the cookie dough in a gallon plastic baggie and rolling to 1/4 inch thick.  I am anti plastic baggie so I used parchment paper and a ruler to get my 1/4 thick.  The trick was then that I didn’t have the nice square that Dorie wanted, so I used a fluted edged round cookie cutter to make my cookies.  On the TWD blog, there was lots of discussion about the cookies spreading a lot.  I actually had a variety of spreading in the batch I made, some seemed to melt all over the place and others seemed to maintain their rounded shape.  I did try to keep the dough as chilled as possible as I know that seems to affect the spreading of other cookies. 

I absolutely loved the batter of these cookies.  The recipe calls for coriander and since it was just a pinch that was to be added and didn’t have any on hand, I scrapped it.  I had also run out of vanilla the day before I made these so I decided to up the citrus and nut factor by adding lemon and almond extract for the vanilla extract.  I was nervous dumping it in there but it really didn’t affect the flavor.  If anything, I think it probably boosted the flavor. 

I gave one to my husband to taste after cooking and cooling but did not tell him what was in it because of his aversion to coconut.  Turns out he didn’t even realize that there was coconut in it.  Shocker.  He told me he liked the cookie but later after I had tasted it and commented that it seemed a little greasy he told me he had thought the same thing.  He drives me insane.  I do think that there was a little much butter in the recipe.  The cookies had a fantastic citrus flavor but actually left a grease mark on a napkin I sat it on.  Never a good sign!  I think that if you could reduce the butter a bit, the cookies would be fantastic.  This recipe would be a good one for a spring girls get together or even on a platter for Easter.  If you were serving them and wanted to pretty them up a little, you could easily use some lime juice, confectioners sugar and some green food coloring to drizzle over top. 

Overall, I am glad that I tried this recipe.  I only baked one dozen and have at least that many more in my freezer for another occasion, so these will make another appearance in the future.  Be prepared for the next couple of weeks as the recipes chosen are doozies.  We have Banana Creme Pie, 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte, Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, Chocolate Cream Tart. 

A little chocolate anyone?

 

I’ll update with a photo if I am able to find the battery charger!

Schezwan Chicken

 

 

Can I tell you the hardest part of this recipe is spelling the word “schezwan”?  So true.  I still don’t even know if I have it spelled correctly.  If you know the true spelling, please feel free to enlighten me!  I won’t mind at all!

Now on to the important stuff!  The food. 

My husband claims not to like any Chinese food besides sweet and sour chicken and I am determined that he does like it, he is just afraid to try anything that wasn’t simple English.  Moo Goo Gai Pan?  Nah.  General Tso?  Nah.  Really, he probably likes them all but doesn’t know what they mean so he won’t try them.  I have now broadened his horizons to my favorite Chinese eat.  I love anything spicy and this dish fits the bill perfectly.  My one word of caution is to add the red pepper with caution.  If you like spice, start easy.  If you don’t, start even easier.  The first time we made this dish with the original recommended amount of red pepper, we called it fire sauce.  It was so ridiculously hot that we had to get napkins to wipe our noses and eyes.  There may have been a cup of milk for each of us as well. 

I love strifry type meals.  They are easily adaptable to everyone’s tastes and preferences.  You can also make them as healthy as possible.  Growing up stirfry meant rice but I have fallen in love with rice noodles that you can buy at almost any grocery store in the Asian foods section.  Try them!

I like chicken and shrimp with my stirfry but my husband is anti shrimp so ours typically are just chicken. You could always use some sort of steak as well.  For three to four servings I use two medium sized chicken breasts and as many vegetables as I can stuff in there.  I like to use vegetable mixes that include water chestnuts.  I do think I am the only one the world that likes water chestnuts!  But don’t think you have to stick to just a plain old bag of frozen vegetables.  Throw in some edamame, julienned carrots, snow peas, fresh peppers, garlic, onions, broccoli, or any other vegetable you like.  I like to have about 1-2 cups of vegetables per person, 1/2 cup of cooked meat per person and 2 oz of rice noodle or rice per person.  If you like more of one, just increase the quantities accordingly. 

The recipe below is only for the schezwan sauce.  Again, I caution you to add the red pepper according to your taste. You can always add but never take away.  The portion below is suppose to be for four people but we must use a lot more sauce than that because I have had to double it for our servings.  Don’t worry about the amount of garlic.  I will admit it is scary but you can do it.  It really makes the flavor so authentic.  If you buy garlic in those glass bottles instead of in the head, it is really easy to have the amount you need.

Schezwan Sauce

8 tbsp water

4 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp honey

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup sliced green onions (optional)

8 cloves garlic, minced

 

1. Mix all ingredients in small bowl with a whisk

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat warm until thickened to desired consistency.

3. Pour over stirfry vegetables and chicken.

Note:  I prefer to keep the sauce and the stirfry items seperate as I like a lot less sauce than my husband.  This way the sauce portion is controlled to my liking and his.  If you prefer everything to be coated, after mixing the ingredient with a whisk, pour the sauce over the stirfry mixture and allow to thicken approximately five minutes. 

My first Tuesday with Dorie

I mentioned a while ago that I had gotten a great deal on Dorie Greenspan’s newest book and that I was trying a few of her recipes. I was inspired to even buy the book and learn more about who Dorie was after seeing many of the food bloggers I read link to the Tuesdays with Dorie  group.  Week after week they would post these tasty looking treats.  I debated joining the group, hemmed and hawed about it long enough that the group was closed to new members.  Then something happy happy happy happened.  Last week they opened the group to new members. 

I greatly fear failure, which perhaps seems to not match with joining a baking group in which you post your results each week.  At the same time I like trying new things so I pushed myself into joining and begin posting my 2-4 recipes a month.  I want to try new things and have any excuse to bake.  But I worry that I will not be able to keep up and then feel such guilt that I won’t maintain my member status.  So I worry.  If you know me though, I worry about pretty much everything so this is nothing new. 

On to my cooking adventure for this week.  Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake.  In the easiest sense it is a coffee cake.  I am never a huge fan of coffee cake which doesn’t mean that I won’t eat it, it just means that I am not apt to grab it on the breakfast buffet.  One of the things that I like most about Dorie’s recipes is that she offers adaptations and variations to many of her recipes.  I always want to try something a little different to make my recipe stand out from the rest and I loved the option of adding orange zest instead of lemon zest.  The orange zest really gave the blueberry cake a bright little pop of flavor but I think I should have measured the quantity a little better instead of guestimating, which I tend to do a lot! 

My only issue with the cake was the topping.  Mine had a pool of butter in the center while baking even though the edges were browning and finished.  Even I, who eats pretty much anything under the sun with flour, sugar and butter, don’t like a dry cake, so I pull it out of the oven with the pool of butter.  There were suggestions of chilling the topping mixture before placing on top of the cake but I have decided that I would just lessen the amount of butter in the topping if I were to make it again. 

I also felt that the topping was a bit more crunchy than the typical crumb topping. I envision crumb topping to be crumbs not a firm layer of sweetness.  The recipe was quite tasty and if you are looking for a good standby blueberry crumb cake recipe, this is one to try.  The recipe can be found at Zihan’s website, as she chose the recipe for the week.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

 

I have been on the search for that elusive recipe.  That recipe that is relatively easy, highly adaptable and tasty.  I may have found it.  I may not have.  This recipe is my second from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my Home to Yours.  But in reality, the flavor that she was going for isn’t how I made it.  Dorie envisioned a peanutty delight.  I?  Envisioned a big ass chocolate chip cookie.   

Interestingly, the original recipe called for 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.  I tried it once with the cinnamon and found that it overpowered the entire chocolate experience.  Perhaps if the recipe was prepared as originally created, the cinnamon would not be so strong. 

I have made this recipe 3 times.  Once using a 9 inch round (seen below) and twice using an 8 inch round (seen above) .  I wanted something to make this blondie seem special.   I ended up adding another layer of swirl on the edges of the one below to pretty it up a bit. 

The only trick with changing the baking pan is the baking time.  I have not quite figured it out yet.  I prefer my blondie to have that ooey gooey factor that I like.   My suggestion is to watch them carefully starting at 40 minutes and even if the center does sink in, they still taste fabulous.  If you are planning on eating these at home straight out of the pan, don’t bother with lining the pan with foil.  If you want to remove the blondie from the pan and cut into slices, line with foil.   

The best part of the recipe is that ability to adapt it.  You could easily increase the peanut butter aspect by adding peanuts instead of chocolate chips like Dorie suggested or you could do half and half.  There is also the option of using any type of chip that suits your fancy, toffee chips, white chocolate and macadamia nuts or even all peanut butter chips.  There is a small amount of peanut butter in the recipe that is mildly noticable.  If you are a peanut butter lover like me, reduce the butter and increase the peanut butter in the recipe. 

The swirl and writing was created by mixing chocolate chips with peanut butter in a small dish and melting for 25 second increments then stiring until the chocolate was entirely melted.  It usually takes about a minute and a half total.  If you don’t have any fancy icing bags, just use a plastic baggie with a tiny snip in the bottom corner cut off.  It works just as well!

This recipe is best served warm with some ice cream on top.  Mmmm.  But then what chocolatey buttery confection isn’t?

Chocolate Chip

Blondies adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
5 tbsp butter (room temp)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1.5 – 2 cups chocolate chips (I like to use a mix of regular sized and mini chips.  If you have any of the Reese’s peanut butter chips, throw some of them in too)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Line a 9 inch square pan with foil, butter the foil and place on a cookie sheet.
3.  Whisk flour, baking powerder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
4.  In a seperate large bowl, beat peanut butter and butter together on medium speed until smooth.
5.  Add both sugars abd beat for one to two minutes until well incorporated. 
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating for one minute after each egg goes in. Beat in vanilla extract. 
7. Reduce mixer to low and add dry ingredients.  Mixture will be thick. 
8.  Add chocolate chips and stir into dough.  Do not overmix.
9. Scrape into pan. 
10.  Bake blondies for 40-50 minutes or until they turn a deep honey brown and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool. If the edges are browning too fast, fold foil down to cover edges.
11.  When completely cool, carefully lift the blondies out of the pan using the foil as handles.  The foil should peel away easily.  Cut into bars. 

Dorie’s Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of my all time favorite treats.  I loved it enough to have it as my wedding cake.  It was ridiculous to pay that much for a wedding cake for only a small number of people but hell, I am planning on sticking with the one I picked! 

Cheesecake falls into two worlds, French style and New York style.  Simply put, french style is more pudding and creamy like while NY style is way better.  Okay, not the real story but NY style is much more firm and dense.  The Tuesday’s with Doriegroup is baking their way through the Dorie Greenspan book one Tuesday at a time.  I have been watching the group from afar so when I found the regularly priced $45 book at TJ Maxx for $10 I grabbed it and ran like a demon.  That crazy TJ Maxx had no idea that even Amazon.com was selling it for four times that price.   The book is a bit more than just a cookbook.  Dorie gives variations of almost every recipe and also tells stories about a lot of her recipes and how they came to life.  I have spent hours pouring over the recipes and stories deciding which one would be my first test.  If you don’t know who Dorie is, just imagine being good enough to work with some of the legends of the cooking world and there you have it, Dorie Greenspan. 

This cheesecake recipe is relatively simple in ingredients, but does require a few extra steps to make the recipe like boiling water for the hot water bath and allowing the cheesecake to set for a hour in the oven after baking.  I was nervous the cheesecake would be underdone since it was very white on top after baking.  Then I was nervous that the cheesecake would overbake since it sat in the oven that extra hour.  Now I realize that Dorie has worked with people like Julia Child for a reason, she knows what the heck she is doing. 

The recipe turns out gorgeously.  Perfectly creamy and thick.  Rich enough to make you only need a small slice.  Perfect with a berry glaze on top.  I also melted some chocolate chips with a tablespoon of peanut butter for a different take on the same cheesecake.  I rarely top the cheesecake with anything immediately after baking since everyone has their own preference.  I like to be able to choose my topping! 

My instructions for a berry glaze follow the recipe. 

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake: From Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

16 servings

Ingredients
For the crust:
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two

Directions
To make the crust:

1. Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap  the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

2. Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir with a fork until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist.  Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don’t worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn’t have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

3.Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:

1. Put a kettle or large pot of water on to boil.

2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

3. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

4.  Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

7.  When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight is best. 

Berry Puree

Ingredients

3-4 cups frozen berries

water

1/4 cup sugar

1-2 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup water

Directions

Most berries have about two million seeds but making a puree is relatively easy.  

1. To make a berry glaze puree frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc…) with a bit of water until smooth. 

2. Strain with a cheesecloth into small saucepan. 

3.  Add sugar to berries.  It will depend on your berry, so be sure to taste test. 

4.  Bring berry mixture to a boil. 

5. Mix cornstarch with  water and slowly add to berry puree while whisking.  The cornstarch will thicken the berry mixture almost immediately, so only add cornstarch until it is desired thickness.

Allow to cool and pour over individual slices of cheesecake. 

 

KA Freezer Blueberry Muffins

During the summer I bought a ten pound box of blueberries.  You are probably imagining all kinds of giant boxes but in reality the blueberries arrived in a box no bigger than a typical running shoe box.  We ate less than half of the box and froze the rest.  As we approach spring and I think about things in the freezer that should be used, I think about those blueberries.  I could make blueberry pancakes every day and be happy, but I figured that may get a little boring. 

Yesterday I decided a container of those blueberries needed to be used and what better way to use them than muffins.  Everyone likes muffins.  The only problem with blueberry muffins is that many times the recipe calls for fresh blueberries and when you use frozen the recipe just doesn’t come out quite right.  In comes the King Arthur “Freezer Case” mufins.  If you have never visited the King r website and you like to bake anything under the sun, run there now!  They even have a baking blog which I love.  Bakers’ Banter has a ton of recipes that I have printed out and plan to use soon as I just recently discovered the site myself.  The blog gives a description of why they did what to the recipe and then typically walks you through each step of the recipe.  Then they always link the recipe in printable form.  Perfect! 

What I liked most about this recipe is that it explained what to do to prevent your muffins from getting that blueish-grey color from the frozen berries.  Those girls over at Baker’s Banter are bright ones!  Take a look at these beauties. 

I was nervous when I scooped the batter into my muffin wrappers.  It seemed to have too many blueberries and the dough was very stiff.  I actually pressed down on the muffin batter to get it into the muffin cup.  But in the end, they turned out lovely.  The taste was so naturally blueberry.  I think that the large granule sugar that they recommend for the top of these muffins would throw it over the top.  Use the full two cups of blueberries if not a bit more and don’t worry about incorporating them into the dough perfectly.  I pressed several of the remaining frozen berries onto the top of some of the batter and they still came out gorgeous. 

The KA website says that this will make 12 very large muffins but since I don’t have the “Texas” size muffin tins, I ended up with 17 regular sized muffins.  If you are using a regular size muffin pan, be sure to err on the side of caution with baking times.  I only baked mine for intial 25 minutes and I had exceptionally large frozen berries.  Mine were only slightly brown on the edges and the center remained so tender and moist.

These would be great for a work or shower breakfast as they come together quick and aren’t fussy.  Perfect for a weekend breakfast as well.

 

Freezer Case Blueberry Muffins – King Arthur

2 cups (8 ounces) frozen blueberries
1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at  room temperature
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sour cream or plain  yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Sparkling sugar for garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with papers, and grease the papers.

1.  First, assess your frozen blueberries. If they’re the big fat ones you usually find in the freezer case at the supermarket, go ahead and use them as is; no need to thaw. If they’re tiny wild ones, ones you may have picked yourself, they may be fragile enough that they’ll bleed a lot of color into your muffins. If you don’t mind blueberry muffins with streaks of blue from the frozen berries, go ahead and use them right from the freezer. If you want less blue streaking in your muffins, rinse the berries gently, till the water lightens in color. Drain them thoroughly, and gently drain/blot them on paper towels. Don’t squash them; you won’t be able to really dry them off, but just blot up any excess liquid.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until well combined. Beat in the eggs; then the vanilla and almond extracts, sour cream or yogurt, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3.  Add the flour, mixing till everything is evenly moistened. Gently stir in the blueberries with a spatula, mixing just until they’re mostly incorporated. Don’t worry about distributing them evenly throughout the batter.

4.  Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups; a muffin scoop or large ice cream scoop works well here. Sprinkle the tops with sparkling sugar, if desired.

5.  Bake the muffins for 25 minutes. Gently lay a piece of foil across the top of the pan, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes (the longer amount of time for larger frozen berries), until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan to finish cooling on a rack.

 

Crab Cakes – none of that filler stuff!

Oh again, I profess my love for crab. If you are allergic, I am quite sad for you. This will be my last post for crab for a while, so just stick it out!

Yesterday it was crab dip. Today it is the glorious crab cake.  Most people are particular about their crab cakes and for good reason.  There should not be a bunch of filler of bread crumbs and such.  There should never be anything that even resembles faux crab.  While I would love to be able to buy fresh crabmeat, I don’t live close enough to the ocean for such glorious things.  But PLEASE do not purchase canned crabmeat for this recipe.  If you have to, make sure that it is at least lump or claw meat. 

While living elsewhere, I discovered a brand called Blue Star.   They are headquartered in Miami but sell their products all over the US.  Their website is clunky and a bit non consumer friendly, but I will look past that since they sell crab meat in my local grocery store.  Do you want to know what it looks like? 

I know, not pretty.  But it is the best option for a reasonable price. 

Because that little pouch turns into this.  These gloriously tasty crab cakes.  Crab cakes that taste like restaurant quality.  Crab cakes that don’t have a ton of filler.  Crab cakes that are making my mouth water as I type and look at that picture. 

 

Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes – adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Serves 3-4

1 egg slightly beaten

1 cup bread crumbs (I like fresh, but any will work)

3 tbsp mayonnaise or salad dressing ( I like Miracle Whip)

2 tbsp onion, finely minced

1/2 tbsp parsley

1 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1/4 tsp pepper

1 lb crab meat

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees

2. In a medium bowl, combine egg, bread crumbs, mayonnaise, onion, parsley, Old Bay and pepper. 

3. Gently add crab meat and fold into mixture.

4. Shape into 8 – 2 inch rounds.

5. Bake on a greased baking pan for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.  You can also pan fry these in 2 tsp of oil, but I find that they cook more evenly and maintain their shape much better in the oven. 

I like to serve these with some crispy baked fries.  Slice one potato per person into 6-8 wedges.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning.  Bake at 450 for 45-60 minutes, turning once, depending on desired crispness.