time to sign up for fitness classes

classes have barely started and already i'm getting really really busy. i'm planning my first program for senior fellows and i'm taking a risk by making an off-campus one. we're going apple picking at milburn orchards on october 4th and it should be a lot of fun, but there is a lot of planning that goes into it. also, we are doing two community builders this year. this first is tonight ["sundaes on sunday" - free ice cream] and the second is on tuesday ["pimp my doorstop" - a doorstop decorating party].

the first swing dance of the semester was on friday and it was soo much fun. i can't believe how much i missed it. like, seriously, i had nightmares over the summer that i forgot how to swing and i'd jump out of bed and do the lindy basic steps myself just to make sure. and i missed my swing friends sooo much! it was great to see them. plus, we had a HUGE turnout...like more than i had ever seen. i hope everyone enjoyed themselves and comes back next friday.

i wanted to be nice and let everyone know how much i missed them so i made peanut butter chocolate brownies :]


even though i didn't like them as much as my new classic brownies, i still got a lot of compliments on them. working with that stupid, crazy oven in the basement is annoying, but i'll just have to get used to it. it's so fussy...i have to keep checking on it every five minutes which is lame considering i live on the second floor. ugh.

peanut butter chocolate brownies
[from baking bites]

ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all pupose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

directions:
Preheat oven to 350F and line a 9×9-in square pan with aluminum foil. Lightly grease the foil with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and peanut butter until smooth, then beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.

In a small bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in to peanut butter mixture at a low speed, stopping when just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and scrape batter into pan, spreading into an even layer.

Bake for 26-29 minutes, until set. Edges should feel slightly firm and the center should not look wet or jiggly.

Cool on a wire rack and lit brownies out with the foil when ready to slice. Makes 16 brownies.

"cookies for everyone"

ok i lied. well, i didn't lie, but i accidentally didn't tell the truth. i do have a kitchen, but it's in the basement so you can forgive me for not knowing it was there.

considering how our first floor meeting is tonight, i decided to bake a little sumthin sumthin. something simple, quick, easy to give out, and that everyone will like. cookies!

i don't have too many ingredients with me so i decided to go with these flourless peanut butter cookies from baking bites. i went with chocolate truffle kisses instead of plain ones. sounds great in theory, but actually this was the first time one of baking bite's recipes didn't work out for me. the dough was super crumbly and crazy hard to work with. my first sheet burned way quickly [when i ran up to my room to get something] so i had to throw that out. i still made the second tray but didn't even bother topping them with kisses. i decided to save them for my next batch which i really really didn't want to screw up so i went with supersimple cake mix cookies. so they weren't interesting...oh well. life goes on. at least they taste good :)


edit: i was wrong about those pb ones. yes, the dough was hard to work with but somehow my attempt and packing it together into small globular cookies actually worked out. i had to wait until they cooled completely [they were very breakable when warm] to move them but then they stayed together when handled gently. i kind of disregarded them yesterday because i was pressed for time and had to make the chocolate ones, but after my roommates and i have had time to taste them, the verdict is in: they are super yummy. while they were crispy and crumbly on the outside, they packed a lot of peanut butter flavor. kira said that she doesn't really like pb cookies but really loved these ones because they were "different". she liked how they were moist and dense on the inside, which was due to my extreme packing of the dough. i actually found myself craving them today, something that is kind of rare for me. i ended up being really happy i made them along with chocolate ones because i love the choc/pb combination but it left options for those who don't.

not many people came by for free cookies so we were gunna name the pb ones "unloved cookies" but considering how much we enjoyed them, we changed the name to "partially-loved cookies". the others were also nice with a bit lighter texture and a fudgyness on the inside. the truffle kisses were perfect because they were so soft and gooey. we decided to name these ones "chocolate delights." i am posting baking bite's version of the recipe. i used more natural peanut butter than the recipe called for (along with about 2 tbsp water) in my attempt to try to make the dough less crumbly. also, i used chocolate truffle kisses so i think any kind of kisses, or chocolate candies, would work here. like i mentioned before, i packed the dough into my cookie scoop, which yielded more moist, dense cookies that cooked in about 8 minutes.

flourless peanut butter cookies
aka "partially-loved cookies"
[from baking bites]

ingredients:
1 cup smooth, “natural” nut butter (cashew, almond, peanut, etc.)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
24 hershey’s Kisses

directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat together all ingredients, excluding hershey’s Kisses, until smooth.

Shape into 1-inch balls and place on prepared baking sheet. Leave about 2-inches between each cookie so that they don’t spread together. Top each with a Kiss.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes at 350 F, until golden brown at the edges. Cool on pan for a few minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen.

rewind

yeah yeah, it's been forever since my last post. that would be because alex and i went to the delaware beaches monday-thursday and then i had to move in. it took waaay longer than i thought it would and i just finished last night. granted, i was in senior fellow meetings from 9-4 on friday, but still. that's a lot of moving in.

and the worst part is that i cannot find a kitchen in our building! i don't think it has one and now i'm sad :[. thank goodness alex has a house. i saw it for the first time the other day and man oh man, you can definitely tell four guys live there. looks like i'm going to have to play maid before i can play chef.

ok, let's rewind. remember how i did that post about paciugo gelato? well they saw it! elyse and i went in there last saturday and they started calling us their "favorite bloggers". i have no idea how they found it, but i'm really excited that they did :] we got to talk to brittny, the manager [who is totally sweet, but also delightfully spunky], and her mom and when they found out i was leaving for school, they hooked it up and gave me a paciugo t-shirt [which i am currently wearing]. they also let me special request a flavor for the next day! [i chose s'mores, and they also made my favorite: mediterranean sea salt caramel].

on our way out, we saw alonzo bodden, the winner of last comic standing season 3. i introduced myself and offered to buy him a gelato and he accepted! so we went back in to paciugo for the 3rd time that night and bought him a coffee. he hung out for a little and we talked with the lovely paciugo ladies. then we took some pictures and i got an autograph. it was a really great night :]

so as a "thank you" to paciugo for all their generosity, i baked some cappuccino biscotti and brought it in along with some jam. in return, i got a free gelato. yay!

cappuccino biscotti
[from joy of baking]

ingredients:
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Toast hazelnuts for 10 - 15 minutes or until the skins start to blister. Remove from oven and place hazelnuts in a clean towel and let steam for about 5 minutes. Then briskly rub the towel back and forth to remove the skins of the hazelnuts. Let cool and then coarsely chop. Set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

In a small bowl whisk together the eggs and vanilla extract. Set aside. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices, and espresso powder until combined. Gradually add the egg mixture and beat until a dough forms, adding the chopped nuts and chocolate chips about halfway through. With floured hands divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface roll each half of dough into a log about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. Transfer logs to the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart, and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until firm to the touch (logs will spread during baking). Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

On a cutting board, with a serrated knife, cut each log crosswise, on the diagonal, into 3/4 inch slices. Arrange the slices on the baking sheet and bake 10 minutes, turn slices over, and bake another 10 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 24 biscotti.

we ended up going back again that same day and i got the cioccolata con gelato ["rich and silky, italian-style hot chocolate infused with your favorite gelato flavors"] with the peanut butter chocolate swirl. it was amaaaazing and a perfect end to my last night in california.

the jam plan

MONICA: I needed a plan, a plan to get over my man. What's the opposite of man? Jam.
-Friends (The One with the Jam)

yesterday was the best day ever. woke up all early and hit up the farmer's market for some fresh california fruit...the kind that i won't be able to find in delaware. the plan? to make it last all winter. and make everyone jealous of my exclusive fruit stock. it's the jam plan.

what's a fruit you can't find in delaware? pluots! the lovechild of a plum and an apricot, the pluot has a variation of flavors, all with really cute names. cotton candy. flavorosa. sweet treat. watermelon. i ended up getting flavor king and dapple dandy [which i thought was called apple dandy...which i like better, so i'm going to pretend i put that on the labels on purpose].


you can't rep california's summer fruit selection without strawberries and peaches :]


even though i've never done jam before, i kinda ignored the directions i found because a) i only wanted a couple jars of each kind [who needs 9 jars of strawberry jam?! honestly] and b) there were no instructions for pluot jam. so i decided to pioneer this feat on my own. i mean, seriously, what's the worst that could happen? if it was too thick, i'd use it for baking. if it was too soupy? pour it on pancakes! that's my kind of mistake ;]

so here's what i ended up doing...sweet and simple. [ps: i don't like lemons, so i used lime juice instead. it made the jam slightly sweeter, which is how i like it.]

pluot jam

ingredients:
3 cup pitted and sliced pluots
3-4 cups Splenda [or sugar, if you like it like that]
2 Tbsp lime juice [or lemon, if you're normal]
1/2 packet of pectin [2 Tbsp i think]

directions:
1. Place a small bowl in the freezer.

2. Wash the jars in the dishwasher to sterilize or boil for 10 min in a large pot with a couple inches of water above the top of the jars. The jars should be placed on a little rack inside the jar (or some jar bands tied together) to keep them from direct heat. Keep the jars hot until ready to use.

3. Cover lids with a couple inches of water in a small saucepan and heat, without boiling while you prepare the jam.

4. Simmer the pluots with a 2-3 Tbsp of water for 5 minutes.

5. Combine pluots with lime juice in a wok or large, deep frying pan over med to med-high heat. Gradually stir in pectin. Let come to a hard boil.

6. Add Splenda and stir to dissolve. Keep stirring until the color deepens, most water evaporates, and mixture begins to thicken.

7. Take the bowl out of the freezer. Scoop a little of the jam into the cold bowl and wait like 30 seconds. This will show you the consistency of the jam. If thick enough to your liking, turn off heat and proceed to step 8. If it is still thin and runny, keep stirring and repeat a few minutes later.

8. Skim off foam into the bowl. Carefully remove jars from the pot, using tongs or a jar lifter, and set them on a towel on the counter [putting hot jars on a cool counter can cause them to break!]. Using a ladle and/or a jar funnel, pour jam into jars, leaving about 1/8th inch at the top. Wipe off any jam that split on the jar, especially around the rim.

9. Carefully remove lids from the saucepan and center on jars. Screw on the bands tightly. Put the jars back into the large pot and bring to a gentle boil. Process for 10 minutes.

10. Carefully remove them and set them on the towel. Leave for 12 hours or overnight. Then press on the center of the lids. If they don't move, they are sealed. If they pop up and down, reprocess using a new lid.

strawberry and/or peach jam

ingredients:
3 cups sliced strawberries and/or peaches
1 cup Splenda
2 Tbsp lime juice

directions:
Follow steps 1-3, above.

Combine fruit with lime juice in a wok or large, deep frying pan over med to med-high heat. Let come to a hard boil.

Follow steps 6-10, above.

CHANDLER: Hey, Joe, I gotta ask. The girl from the Xerox place buck naked (holds up one hand), or, or a big tub of jam. (holds up the other hand)
JOEY: Put your hands together.
MONICA: Joey, take your time with that. That's my last batch.
JOEY: No more jam?!
RACHEL: Well, what happened to your jam plan?
MONICA: I figured out I need to charge seventeen bucks a jar just to break even. So, I've got a new plan now. Babies.
CHANDLER: Well, your gonna need much bigger jars.

homemade jam + fresh bread from the farmer's market
= yumm :]

cookie carnival: august

two more of my managers are leaving for a different victoria's secret. that calls for two different baked goods.

this was the perfect opportunity to try out the recipe for this month's cookie carnival - chocolate hazelnut biscotti. considering the recipe says it yield 4 dozen, i was kinda waiting for an outlet to unload all that biscotti on. the recipe was pretty straightforward and i'd say that the hardest part was finding the hazelnuts. it's not that they're hard to come by, it's just that i typically can only find them in teeny tiny packages...and i kinda needed a lot. they were worth it though and they added a nice nutty flavor to balance out the sweetness of the chocolate. if i do these again, though, i would probably omit the whole hazelnuts and just add some more ground up ones. just personal preference though :]


i like this picture because you can really see the bits of ground-up hazelnuts. also, you can see how i left them kinda soft on the insides. i know, i know, biscotti is supposed to be crispy and stuff. but isn't that because it's supposed to be dunked in coffee or something? i'm more of a ice blended frap kinda girl...so i left them a little softer.


somehow i only got like two dozen out of these. probably because i didn't slice them thin enough. it was hard to slice them thin with all those whole hazelnuts in there! oh well, it was the perfect amount considering i still had one more baked good to put in the box.

[ps: if you wanna join the cookie carnival, visit the clean plate club.]

so for treat #2, i wanted to use up some of the frozen berries that i got from trader joe's a while ago [before i remembered that i can't really eat a whole bag of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries]. i came across a recipe for whole grain blueberry buckle on baking bites and decided it would work with the mix of berries. and hurrah hurrah...i think i actually liked this better with the mix. the pink from the raspberries blended with the blue and purple from the other berries to make a really pretty, colorful batter. these pictures don't really do it justice because the flash washed out all the color and the no-flash made them look green :[ so use your imagination.

chocolate hazelnut biscotti
[from Bon Appétit]

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted, husked
3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Grind 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts in processor. Set aside. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Beat butter and sugar in another large bowl to blend. Add eggs and vanilla and almond extracts and beat until well blended. Beat in flour mixture. Mix in 1 cup whole toasted hazelnuts, chocolate chips and 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece on baking sheet into 2 1/2-inch-wide by 14-inch-long log. Place logs on prepared baking sheet, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart (logs will spread during baking). Bake until logs feel firm when tops are gently pressed, about 35 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet 15 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Using long wide spatula, transfer baked logs to cutting board. Using serrated knife, cut warm logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Then put them back in the oven to get them as crispy as you'd like.

whole grain mixed berry buckle
[from baking bites]

ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

Topping
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
2 tbsp butter, very soft

directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square (or 9-inch square) baking pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in melted butter, milk, egg and vanilla extract. Stir well, mixing until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in blueberries and pour into prepared pan.

In a small bowl, make the topping. Whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in butter until mixture is crumbly and sand-like. Sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20-30 minutes before serving. Can be served warm or at room temperature.

all together and ready to go :]