Saturday, September 29, 2007

Okay. Okay. Salt City...SAVORIES!

  • It may be once in a blue moon that you get one of these posts. Why? I tend to eat the same things most days, no reason to take pictures of big bowls of vegetables, little bowls (sometimes huge) of cottage cheese, grilled chicken, turkey breast, etc. That being said, this night I made:

Veggie stuffed spring rolls with two dipping sauces. One mildish, one uber spicy.

Lettuce wraps with onion, chicken, water chestnut, and cilantro filling.

That little bowl is spicy coconut brown rice.

















In case you hadn't figured it out for yourself...I L.O.V.E. veggies. I love spice. I should eat more whole grains. Grains in general really. Let's dub them carbomohydrates. I've somehow let myself become "scared" of them since society went insane with their Atkins Approach or whatever it has been dubbed.

Pizza, say you?

OOoooh, I'm sorry. You thought you were getting savories.
Alas...



FRUIT PIZZAS! These lovelies consist of a sugar cookie base (made with oat flour), a sweetened cream cheese, and all sorts of fresh fruit.

They really are an easy dessert option. They are, however, somewhat time consuming. I am a bit of a perfectionist and don't appreciate when fruit pieces become oddly shaped/sized, or I'm out of whack on my fruit placement. The second pizza got off kilter too long before I realized it, and the fruit had happily settled into the cream cheese...I didn't de and reconstruct this day.

Rainy Saturday Concocting



There are many things I am grateful for. Among them?? Rain. Saturday afternoons. Sales on Baking Ingredients. Coffee. Cooking shows. All five at the same time. The sale is the critical point here. Normally, I would not buy marshmallows unless I needed them for something specific. For some reason, though, they called out to me among the chocolate chips, coconut flakes, bags o' nuts, et cetera. GOOD THING! What came of these gelatinous little confections?? Why, s'mores, of course. Afterall, no one likes "raw" marshmallows.


So I began by creating a cookie base. There were no eggs in the house, and I realized this a little too late in the game. Having no intentions of going to the store, I decided to make do. I wanted it to be graham crackery (duh), and not too sweet. Here's what I came up with...


Graham Cracker Cookies


1 c. salted almonds, pretty finely ground (I used my magic bullet)

2 graham cracker sheets, finely ground (again, the magic bullet, bless it)

1 c. dark brown sugar

3/4 c. white whole wheat flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 c. softened butter (one stick)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray (PAM) a mini-muffin pan (mine has 32 spots). Whisk together everything but the butter. Add the butter and incorporate with your hands. The dough will come together into one nice ball. Set out some parchment paper, and roll the dough into two foot long logs. Slice the logs into 16 pieces each. Place the slices into your greased muffin pan. Bake for 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a good ten-ish minutes before you take them out.


After the cookies were cool, I couldn't decide if I wanted sandwich cookies, open-facers, or something resembling a moonpie. I decided to go the sandwich route. I melted a couple cups of mini marshmallows over medium high heat, stirring constantly. I wanted the toasty flavor of a campfire s'more, so I waited until the marshmallow began to brown slightly. When this happened, I began spooning the marshmallow onto some of the graham cookie bases. AHHH! Worst idea ever. So I did that to fifteen of them before I gave up. I topped six of those fifteen with six un-marshmallowed cookies. Six sandwiches was all I was up for this afternoon.


So with the nine remaining marshmallowed, and seventeen remaining unmarshmallowed cookie bases, I decided to take the broiler route. I topped all of the cookies with 4 marshmallows, and put them under a broiler on medium heat. I stood there and watched cause I knew those suckers would brown up quick, I'm no stranger to marshmallow roasting!


Then I simply set all my marshmallowed cookies back on the parchment paper, melted a cup of milk chocolate chips, and drizzled away.


They are devilish little things. I simply could not help myself from snagging another...and another...and...you get the picture.


Peabody's Glorious Bailey's Cake

Last Tuesday was my father's 50th birthday. I wanted to concoct something faaabulous for him. Unfortunately, many of his loved ones had this plan, too. People were assigning themselves courses right and left. As quick as I could, I assigned myself cake duty. Mistake??? Well, not exactly. Considering how indecisive I can be at times, and the infinite number of recipes entitled "The Best Birthday Cake Ever", this could have been trouble. I had been, however, trolling CulinaryConcoctionsByPeabody regularly. THANK YOU PEABODY! I still had a hard time making up my mind to actually stick with one recipe (as opposed to cramming 4 or 5 into one). Peabody's Bailey’s Caramel Irish Cream Cake (http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2007/09/19/totally-awesome-fer-sure-dude/) seemed decadent, and extravagant enough to celebrate a 50th birthday.

If you go to Peabody's website, you will see that I left off the store bought caramel topping, and opted to top the cake with leftover ganache and frosting bits. I just piped them into little mounds.

Oh! Speaking of leftover frosting and ganache...boy was there plenty! Peabody often makes "small batch" baked goods. This recipe was for a "regular" (9 inch rounds) sized cake. I literally could have frosted 24 cupcakes in addition to the cake. And by no means am I a stingy froster.

Also, as the name of my blog would suggest, I am in fact, in Utah. See: High Altitude. This being said, I would absolutely use Peabody's recipe as a base again in the future, albeit a loose base. I loved the frosting. I would be happy with a regular ol' ganache...no caramel candies necessary (as they didn't add much flavor IMHO). The cake layers were too dense and crumby for Salt City elevation. Don't get me wrong, the cake got rave reviews, there are just a few things I could tweak to guild the lily in the future.










the B.L.O.G. creation

As of late, I have been wasting A LOT of time reading food blogs. Certainly not in vain, as I have come across many an integral recipe. It was only a matter of time before I hopped on the wagon and created my own. I cook. I bake. I take pictures of the things I eat. It would be tragic if I were the only person who got to enjoy my mishaps, miracles, mistakes, messes, and everything inbetween.