Garlic Knots

Yay! These rolls are easy to make, pretty, and tasty.

2 1/2 t yeast 
1 C warm water

Dissolve yeast in water, let rest 5 minutes.

1 C wheat flour 
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
2 t sugar

Combine the above ingredients and add in your dissolved yeast. Knead dough 5 minutes. Let rise in a covered, lightly oiled bowl for 1 hour (or until doubled).

When dough has risen, roll it out into a 10x10 inch square and cut into 10 strips. To make a roll, tie a knot and pinch the ends in underneath.

Tie knot

Tuck ends under

Cover the rolls and let rest for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

But you aren't done yet! Now make your garlic butter topping:

4-6 cloves garlic
2 T butter, melted
2 T olive oil
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/2 t salt

Toss rolls in butter topping (or just pour butter over rolls to avoid burning your fingers on hot bread). Then eat.

Pretty!

Winter Tacos; In-season alternative to Tomatoes and Lettuce

What's this? Ben is posting once again? Yes, indeed, now that I have no job, I can return my attention to what's important in my life: amateurish writing about amateurish cooking in a blog that no one reads.

Carolyn and I are (amateurishly) trying to eat more seasonally, in an effort to feel superior to other people. Recently we were craving tacos in a serious way, but this being December, tomatoes are way out of season. Luckily, Carolyn came across this black bean/sweet potato taco recipe from Bitchin' Kitchen.

The recipe is a lot longer than it is complicated, and since the proper link is right up there (and since I'm lazy), I'm going to skip the work of actually typing it out. For the basics:
1) cut up sweet potato into cubes; coat with oil, lime, salt, and pepper (or red pepper flakes); bake in an oven.
2) shred cabbage; mix with 1/4 cup diced onion, cilantro, more lime juice, salt, and pepper.
3) can of black beans like usual.
4) mix yogurt with chopped or pureed chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, plus whatever spices you feel are appropriate.

This meal was fun to make and very pretty to look at, but if your craving is traditional tacos, it doesn't satisfy. That is not to say it's no good; it just doesn't cover the same ground. The soft sweet potatoes combined well with the crunch of the cabbage, and chipotle sauce is just delicious all on its own. If we hadn't started out wanting regular-old tacos, we would have been 100% happy with this meal. And now knowing what it tastes like, we will make it again, but not when we're craving fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese.

Okay, so have you ever been in a sweets shop and like everything looks tasty and you get overwhelmed because you can't decide what to buy?  Maybe that's just me...any who, on my most recent visit to a cupcake shop in NY I bought a filled cupcake for like four dollars and it looked super good but then when I went to try it I was severely disappointed.  It was like WAY too sweet and somehow even though it was filled it was still dry.  AND IT WAS FOUR DOLLARS.  So that is what has led me to this post!
Double Chocolate Filled Cupcakes!

I'm not going to post a recipe for the actual cupcakes since I cheated and used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Cake Mix©.

But here's what I used for the filling and frosting. I tend to not do a good job when I'm measuring but I will give this my best guess...
6TB unsalted butter (softened)
3TB shortening
1/2 Cup marshmallow cream
3TB cocoa
2 (ish) cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 ts vanilla

Basically all I did was beat the first three ingredients until it was smooth with no lumps. Next add the vanilla.  After that I alternated the remaining dry ingredients and cream.  I whipped all of this until it was a bit more fluffy and then put it in a pastry bag with a plain circular tip.  Shove the tip into the top (some people do bottom-right through the paper) and push about a tablespoon of filling into the cupcake.  Then frost the tops and decorate!
Mine looked like this on the inside!

Oh! On another note for a full batch of cupcakes you may need to double or even triple that frosting recipe.  I only made 6 cupcakes and I have some leftover but it's definitely not enough for 24.  Thanks guys :]

Potato Leek Soup

I don't know where potato leek soup has been all my life, but I am glad it has finally made its way into my dinner rotation. This soup is easy and so satisfying. I'm sorry to have kept it to myself for so many weeks. By the way, doesn't the roll in the picture look awesome? Recipe to come later this week. Unless I forget. Sorry in advance for forgetting.

Potato leek soup

3 leeks, cut lengthwise (I waver between cutting in half or cutting in fourths; suggest your favorite fraction in the comments) and chop
2 T butter
2 C water
2 C broth
2 lbs potatoes (4 medium? I don't know. I buy funny sized potatoes, but then I also own a kitchen scale ((brag, brag, brag)) ) peeled, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/2 t thyme
dash hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Cook leeks in butter on low for 10 minutes. Be careful not to let the leeks brown, they'll get bitter. Add water, broth, and potatoes. Simmer 20 minutes. Blend half of the soup (or whatever amount looks good). Add spices. Eat.

A Welcome for Wendy

I know you're all wondering why the most recent post showed such a marked improvement in quality over the posts from the past 7 months. Well, I can satisfy your curiosity by announcing an addition to the Dinner Adventure team: Wendy. Welcome, Wendy. I'm so glad you'll be blogging, because I'm much to lazy to post regularly.

Chewy Chocolate Meringue Cookies

So I tried making these cookies which claimed to be chewy meringue cookies on Sunday. While they didn't taste anything like a meringue cookie ought to they did taste pretty good. I got this recipe (with great pictures) from Bakerella's website. From what I understand meringue cookies are traditionally a dry and crunchy cookie but these were soft on the inside and almost melty (I did use a lot more chocolate than the recipe called for). 

1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) large egg whites – about 7
2 cups (1 lb / 500 g) sugar
5 tbsp (1 oz / 30 g) natural cocoa powder
4 oz (125 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used about 6oz)

Whisk the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until the sugar it entirely dissolved. Next whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in cocoa and chopped chocolate. Scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 15- 20 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.

This is what mine looked like about five minutes before coming out!

Annnnd up close

I didn't take a picture but mine were almost hollow on the inside with just a bit of melty chocolate. 

If anyone else makes meringue cookies (This recipe of another) let me know what temp you cook them at because I'm suspicious of 350°.  


**By the way I was told I'm supposed to introduce myself. So Hi! I'm Wendy Harvey. I'm Ben's sister. I like cooking. And cookies. And eating.  And really food in general. So there's all that.
Bye! 

Chocolate chip pretzel cookies

This is a blog hosted by librarians. As such, it's amazing that we've gotten this far without a book recommendation.Well, we're going to keep that streak going because today I have a book anti-recommendation. Namely, the worst mystery series I've ever encountered: Murder She Baked. These books are bad in every way a book can be bad (and I should know, I've read about 10 so far). Their saving grace, however is the recipes. Yes, recipes. The detective in the mysteries owns a bakery, so almost every chapter there is a recipe.We tested out chocolate chip pretzel cookies from Plum Pudding Murder because: (1) Ben loves chocolate chip cookies and requests that I make them at least once a week; (2) I'm sick of making and eating plain old chocolate chip cookies (see #1); and (3) we happened to have pretzels on hand.

everybody likes these, even Fred

Chocolate chip pretzel cookies

1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks)
2 cups white sugar
3 Tablespoons molasses*
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups crushed pretzels (measure after crushing; to crush, put in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (1/2 less than a whole bag)

*If you don't have molasses, you can substitute brown sugar for white. The math doesn't come out exactly right, but I'd assume that it would be fine. Actually, the math does work if you substitute half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar, but if you're the type of person who has two kinds of brown sugar on hand you probably already own molasses.

Cream together butter, sugar, and molasses. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let your cookies rest on the pan for a couple minutes before moving to a cooling rack so they don't fall apart when you transfer. (I've tended to ignore that last step in the past, but I've discovered that it really does help.)