Fall-ing for pumpkin dip.

I love Fall.  It's my favorite season, especially right around the time when the nights start to get a little chilly, but the days are still warm enough to forgo a jacket.  Fall is scarf season, it's PSL (pumpkin spice latte) season, it's apple picking season.

I took a walk with a middle school friend last week at work, and he picked these gorgeous red and orange leaves off the grass outside our building.  He kept stuffing them in his coat pocket, until he had a collection of 20 perfect leaves.  I know this, because he counted every single one.  The leaves smelled of summer days long gone, of a couple of frosty nights, and of birds starting their migration south.  I could have sworn they smelled of cinnamon and nutmeg, too.  This is why I like Fall.

Hayrides, Halloween costume dilemmas, nervously eating way too much popcorn through a scary movie, caramel apples, pumpkin entrails covering your hands as you carve a perfectly lopsided pumpkin, only to realize you've cut through the outline of the meticulous pumpkin design you've created, and all you have is a gaping hole on the front of a pumpkin (we've all been there-- possibly more than once or twice).  All of these memories remind of why I love Fall, oh-so-much.

There's also warm, nubby blankets and mugs upon mugs of hot cocoa or some spiced apple cider.  And donuts!  Let's not forget the most thankful holiday of them all, either... all that turkey and mashed potatoes, and how do you like your stuffing?  Do you take cranberry sauce?  Is it homemade?!  And warm, comforting pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.  The flaky crust, the hint of nutmeg, the warm laughter around the dining room table.  Going to bed quasi-early, stretching out those calf muscles in preparation for a full day of Black Friday retail therapy/mayhem.

And then, there are the simpler things.  Maple, cinnamon, pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar.  Mix these together, and you've got a dang good pumpkin dip.  Make this.  I promise, it won't let you down.  Dip some slices of a freshly picked apple in this, and you've solved all of your day's problems.  You've got leftover graham crackers from summertime s'mores?  I bet they'd like a dip in some pumpkin goodness.  Of course, homemade gingersnap cookies are amazing with this, too.  Game over.

Recipe  (adapted from My Recipes)
8 oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 C light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 C pumpkin puree (I use canned pumpkin--NOT canned pumpkin pie mix!!!)
3 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix cream cheese, light brown sugar, and pumpkin puree in a blender until well blended, about 2 minutes.  Add in maple syrup and cinnamon, mix for another minute.  Chill for 30 minutes, and enjoy!  Goes well with sliced apples, pretzels, animal crackers, nilla wafers, gingersnap cookies, graham crackers, and so on. 

Cupcake Recipe Challenge: Vanilla.

I have a confession.  Despite loving all things cupcakes, I'm not actually a big fan of vanilla cupcakes.  I've always gone straight to red velvet cupcakes as the 'standard' cupcake to measure how good a cupcakeries' cupcakes are.  I never even stopped to consider vanilla.  Ironically, for our wedding cupcakes, one of the three cupcake batters was actually French vanilla.  And it was the first flavor, out of about 8, that we settled on.  If you get a chance, check out The Cakery's French vanilla-- I might be mistaken, but I believe their sister cupcakery, appropriately named, "The Cup", uses the same delicious recipes for their cupcakes.

Because my tastebuds haven't had a chance to truly enjoy vanilla cupcakes (with the exception of the ones from The Cakery/The Cup), I couldn't trust myself to have a staple, go-to vanilla cupcake recipe without a little help from some friends.  So, on a hot weekday evening, after enjoying various combinations of chicken & waffles from The Sunflower Waffle Company in town, the group chowed down on some cupcakes and rated them very officially, with pens and pink index cards.

After tallying the votes for best (1) overall taste and (2) texture, the winner was determined:

Here's what the cupcakes looked like, side-by-side, to gauge the texture...:

After the best cupcake was officially decided, I tried all three cupcakes.  You know, just so I didn't spoil the project/study, since I knew what ingredients went into which batter, and which batter went into which cupcake liner (yes, this is research.  Pastry Research-- the best kind).  I have to say, I was actually really partial to the middle one (cupcake # 2) pictured above, in terms of flavor.  It was a little too dense for my liking, so I preferred the top one (cupcake # 1) for texture, since it was moist (that word just gives me the creepy-chills, but it describes #1's texture-- it was perfectly moissssttttt.)  Sorry, unnecessary.  Cupcake #3 just didn't do it for me.  It was moist as well, but almost too moist, almost.. oily.  The flavor was good, but I didn't think it was better than #2.  Surprisingly, the winner was neither of these two cupcakes-- cupcake #3 took the cake (ha, ha) for both taste and texture.  And it wasn't even all that close--well, for texture.  See? This is why I needed friends to help me choose a good, basic vanilla cupcake recipe to tweak and perfect.

So, where are these said recipes?  Right here, friend.  Bake away, and share away:

Cupcake #1: Hungry Girl Por Vida's vanilla cupcake, adapted from Joy the Baker, adapted from Hummingbird Bakery. Whew!
*note: easiest.recipe.ever.
Cupcake #2: Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake
*note: Self-rising flour?  What?  No.  I used this substitution.  Let's be real here.  My pantry space is limited, and full of Nutella.
Cupcake #3: Cupcake Project's The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake
*note: I didn't use vanilla beans because I am a poor graduate student.  I know there are some great online sources for buying vanilla beans, but this was a last-minute taste test, and I didn't plan accordingly!  Also, 1% milk and light sour cream.  Jeez, just writing this makes me realize that this recipe was a bit high-maintenance...

One last thought: It's actually kind of reassuring to know that Cupcake Project's The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake won my taste challenge, since the Cupcake Project's Stef came up with the genius idea to have 50 test bakers go through a similar taste test of 3 different recipes of hers-- and 60% of the bakers named The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake as being... well, the ultimate best!      



 

Baked Pancake with Summer Fruits

Whenever I'm out for brunch, I fall victim to the same impossible decision-making process: sweet or savory?  Typically, I'll end up getting one or the other and totally regretting my decision a couple of bites in, as I enviously eye fellow brunchers' delicious meals.  Luckily, some places combine sweet and savory (e.g., sausage wrapped up in a pancake, smothered in cinnamon apple goodness?  Yes, that's a real.thing.), so the decision isn't as difficult.  It's hard to think about these huge decisions at 11 am on a Sunday.  This, friends, is a true fact.  I tend to even dabble a bit onto the lunch menu, asking for a side of mac and cheese with my short stack of blueberry pancakes.  Don't knock it until you try it.

Last weekend (yes, I'm behind), I wanted to make a deliciously sweet and fruity breakfast.  I thumbed through a beautiful cookbook and found just what my belly wanted.  A massive pancake you bake!  Yes, please.  The original recipe (found in The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen's book) makes this with apples, but I had fresh peaches and way too many strawberries, so I decided to adapt the recipe to incorporate these light, juicy, summer fruits.

Ingredients.

Looks like summer!

This is a three-step process of baking, but super-easy.  This is after Step 2 of the baking process.

Ugly but yummy.

Perfect drizzled with a little maple syrup.

 So, it turns out, our current oven is a little tempermental.  The pancake is only supposed to bake for about 20 minutes, but it didn't set!  After I realized that the oven wasn't as hot as it should be, I reset the oven, and it was completely fine.  The end product, however, was an ugly pancake.  Sorry!  I'm pretty sure that it would have been a lot more pretty had it been in the oven for the 20 minutes, at the right temp all along.

Are you interested in making this?  I sure hope so!  Here's the recipe, again, adapted from The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen:

What you'll need-

A 9-inch glass pie plate (I used a ceramic pie plate and it was fine) 
Blender or food processor
1/4 c unsalted butter
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
approx. 1 c fruit (sliced/diced if big)
5 large eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2 c all-purpose flour
pinch of salk
maple syrup

How-to-

1.  Heat oven to 425F.
2.  While preheating the oven, place the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in the glass pie plate.  Stick the pie plate in the oven until the butter is nice and bubbly (5-7 mins).  Then, remove from oven.
3.  Stir in your fruit slices, mix well.  Return to oven for another 2-3 mins.
4.  In your blender or food processor, mix eggs, milk. flour, and salt until these ingredients are frothy, but don't overmix (1 min).
5.  Take out your pie plate from the oven, pour the blended egg mixture into the pie plate, and bake until the pancake is puffy and set (approx. 20 mins).
6.  Serve it up with some syrup, and enjoy!

Bucket List!

It's officially summer.  Two seasons since my last post have come and gone.  School's out.  Kids are running through sprinklers.  Ants attempted to have parties in our kitchen, more than once.  This means, it's time to get my summer bucket list going.  On their podcast, Joy and Tracy assigned their listeners some homework.  It's been about a year since I've had actual 'homework'-- so I've actually been super-excited to get back to being a diligent student.  The homework assignment was twofold-- make up a summer bucket list, and then, do what you set out to do!

So, after some deep thinking (a.k.a. putting off dissertation work), here's what I came up with:

Yuri's Summer Bucket List 

1. Read a 'reading for leisure' book, cover to cover.  I have about 10 leisure books that I've started and never finished.  I tried to read Heartbreak Work of Staggering Genius about 6 times, each time, having to re-read the book from the start because I forgot everything I read.  This resulted in me never getting past page 137. 
2. Perfect a frozen yogurt recipe.  I've used my ice cream maker (an impulse buy from a Macy's in St. Louis approximately 2.5 years ago) two times.  This needs to change.
3. Be active, daily.  Whether it be a bike ride around the neighborhood, a rejuvenating yoga class, or quality time watching Cupcake Wars on the treadmill screen at the gym... I.WILL.BE.GOOD.TO.MY.BODY.
4. Make solar light lanterns.  I posted this project idea on my Pinterest board, and I completely plan to follow through.  I even bought all of the supplies already, so there's obviously no turning back.  Of course, the supplies have been sitting patiently for a month now, hence the need to put this agenda item on a summer bucket list.
5. Drink beer from a pony keg hoisted atop a beer girl's back at a Japanese baseball game.  This is so super-specific, but it's a near-guaranteed bucket list cross-off item.  Things are happening.  Plans are being made.  Oh yes.  I might be as excited as Jarrod on this.
6. Practice some sweet Zumba moves while grocery shopping.  This is an odd one.  I wanted to put one in that I haven't quite been ballsy enough to do.  The thing is, grocery shopping with me is a Horrible (yes, with a capital H) experience.  I meander.  I get distracted by pretty food.  I get lost.  A cell phone is a must if you go to a grocery store with me.  So, to alleviate the dread for one lucky grocery-mate, I will bust some Zumba moves in the produce section.  Yup, the section right when you walk in.  And, where you walk out.  Totally a high-traffic area, no big deal.  All that, to put a smile on a friend or husband's face.  This better not end up on YouTube.  Or, maybe it better, so I never do that again.
7. Don't cut my hair.  I have a love/hate relationship with my hair.  Every summer, I start out wanting to keep it long-- so I can style it pretty and have beach wave-y hair (nevermind the fact that Midwest is exactly that-- in the Middle-west of the country... as in, no salt-water beaches).  Then, come the first truly hot day of summer, and I'm on the phone booking a haircut.  I think the exception to this rule was the summer before I got married-- because I wanted an updo and *had* to keep growing my hair out from the previous summer's short bobbed 'do.  This year, I will yet again, strive to keep my hair intact.  Beach wave-y hair is also a goal.

I think that's it.  7 bucket list items.  I'll get started on these ASAP.  Thanks again for the idea, Joy & Tracy!
Friends, I will keep you posted on my progress!  

Inspired, and Thanks-eating (a vegan cheesecake).

Every time I browse 'real' blogs by highly creative and talented individuals, I'm always amazed at the quality of the subject (foodstuff) captured by the photographer/blogger. Since the only 'camera' we have is actually more of a video camera that also has a still setting (and no flash), and all of the photos I've been posting here have all been with my very old iphone, I've finally upgraded to a new phone with a fantastic camera. Now I officially don't have to be quite as shameful as I once was of my photography skills (which are still basically at a 0).



See? Our dog now looks way cuter and less blurry-by-accident due to a perma-smudge on my iphone camera lens. success!


This week, we had the in-laws in town for Thanksgiving, which was a perfect excuse to try out a vegan pumpkin cheesecake recipe I came across on Post Punk Kitchen . I should take time now to clarify something. The in-laws are meat-and-potatoes folk from South Dakota. True fact. So, although my dear husband gently suggested I not open up dessert-time with, "it's made with tofu and soy milk," it was my bad for not heeding to that cautionary note.

Regardless, hubby's mom truly seemed to enjoy it (considering her non-dairy needs, I think she was just excited she could have cheesecake again), and hubby's dad gave a mild grunt of approval (but quickly chose a leftover red velvet cupcake for dessert the following evening). I myself found the dessert surprisingly cheesecake-like in texture (creamy and smooth), and refreshingly citrus-y in flavor (thank you, orange zest and lemon juice). I have to admit it-- I cheated a bit and used regular graham crackers for the crust (which probably had a bit of dairy in it, but hubby's mom didn't seem to mind it at all), thereby basically tainting the whole vegan-ness of the cake, but at least it was a shared dessert among the four of us-- something we really hadn't done in a while.

No photos of the cheesecake-- I guess I was just too busy enjoying hot coffee, good conversation, and vegan dessert with family to notice I hadn't taken a quick shot of the concoction. That's not necessarily a bad thing, now, is it?

Raspberries + Cream Cheese + Cinnamon + Walnuts = yes.

I've been fantasizing about making cinnamon rolls, ever since winter. True story-- but I was too busy in the winter, with all the grad school stuff they throw at you (dear higher education, you're a bully!), and then I was too bogged down in the spring, with all the school stuff + vacuuming up all the dog hair that emerged out of nowhere (well, i guess it all emerged from my dog... mystery, solved). So, that leads us to right now, mid-summer, for me to make these labor-intensive (but totally worth it) breakfast (and dinner) treats! Yes, I had to crank the AC up to offset the heat from the oven, but man-- my belly (and the husband's as well) gives me a hi-five for that completely un-economical decision to use an oven during a midwest summer.



Speaking of summer, berries are EVERYWHERE, and since there was a crazy sale on raspberries at the chain grocery store, i caved and bought 4 cartons (i know, i know-- i totally should only buy produce from local stores like the co-op, where we're actually members... or the farmer's market... i'm sorry!). What was I going to do with that many raspberries?! I ate them by the fistfuls, forced them onto Jarrod and Juni, and threw them into salads. Then, I thought about my favorite summer camp sandwich from way back when... cream cheese and jelly. And then it dawned on me. The cinnamon roll recipe I had in front of me folded in cream cheese into the dough (thanks, Joy the Baker, and... (drool)... I can shove raspberries into the swirly pockets of these cinnamon rolls! They'll be just like childhood awesomeness!

So I did it.

It took 4.5 hours.

Seriously.

So what if Jarrod and I split one as a 1 am snack on a Wednesday night? no biggie.



Check out Joy the Baker's recipe for these yummies-- all I did was cut the amount of confectioner's sugar by a little more than half (for the icing-- it was more of a glaze, which was perfect for my taste), and instead of the raisins + pecans in the filling, sprinkled in about 1 cup of fresh raspberries.

The cinnamon roll dough itself ended up tasting (and having the consistency of) a light and mildly-sweet brioche, and the raspberries definitely added a tart zing to the sugary filling. I have a feeling I'll be making these again soon... now, if only I didn't need the oven for this...

Sweet & Salty Mini-Mallow Treats

This is probably TMI, but I have to tell you. I occasionally sweat in my elbow-pits. You know, that area between your forearm and your upper arm? Yeah. It's a little weird, I agree. Anyway. I'm telling you this because it's stupid-hot out, and our 90-year old rental home has the worst air conditioner. I swear, a litter of puppies making snowballs in the living room would cool me down quicker than this silly old creaky duct taped- box in the basement.

So the heat has been making me do silly things. Like, craving marshmallow square treats at 10 pm last night. And then dragging my husband to bike with me (pre-snack work-out) to the store to pick up mini-mallows, peanut butter, and mini-pretzels. And then not communicating with the husband about who would be bringing their wallet to pay for said ingredients. Oops. So, after our quasi-pointless workout/bike ride to the store, a pit-stop back home to pick up a wallet, and a car-ride over to the grocery store, I was back home, ready to make a gooey treat. And then I realized that I have NO.IDEA. how to make these dang treats.  True fact.  I ended up having to resort to googling step-by-step recipes for marshmallow square treats. Not only did I have to look this up, but I also struggled immensely trying to make the marshmallow-butter mixture, and left an explosion of butter-taffy all over the kitchen counter. I was basically 10 last night. Scratch that. 10 year-olds probably know exactly how to make the perfect rice krispie treat.

After spending a little too much time and effort (so much elbow-pit sweat, I kid you not) to make these treats, I was finally content. Crushed up pretzels, semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and peanut butter. All folded into this sticky, globular marshmallow treat monster.

And you know what? It was delicious.




Here's the recipe, in case you're also 10 and craving something amazing that doesn't require an oven:

adapted from Allrecipes:

Ingredients:
1 stick Butter or Margarine (1/2 cup)
1 11.5 oz bag Mini-Marshmallows
10 cups Crispy Rice cereal
2 cups crushed mini-pretzels
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter

Steps:
1. Butter a 13x9 pan and set it aside.
2. Melt butter/margarine in microwave for 60 seconds.
3. Mix in marshmallows and re-heat for about another 60 seconds.
4. Mix together until gooey and blended well (no lumps).
5. Add in cereal, then the mix-ins (you might want to wait to add the chocolate chips until last, or else they'll all melt-- unless you want it that way!!).
6. Spoon everything into the greased pan, flatten with fork or hands until the treat is even in the pan
7. Wait until cooled (or stick it in the fridge for half an hour), and enjoy!