bbq chicken wings

Barbecue Chicken Wings

• 1lb skin on chicken wings
• semi-homemade barbecue sauce
• more sauce to baste wings while cooking

for the sauce:

• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbsp garlic, diced
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 an onion, diced
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup honey chipotle barbecue sauce
• 1/2 cup of any barbecue sauce you choose (I used Sweet Baby Ray's for both sauces)

Cut up your chicken wings into wings and mini-drumsticks if they aren't pre-cut. Mix up your sauce and then add to a ziploc bag. Place the wings into the bag to marinate for a few hours or overnight.
Preheat your oven to 375° F. Cover a sheet pan with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray. Place wings on cooking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and flip wings. Coat them with extra sauce. Place back in oven for another 10 minutes. Remove and flip again. Coat other side of wings and place pan back into oven for another 10 minutes or until wings look crispy and sticky.

homemade funfetti cake with professional buttercream

I'm hanging out with one of my friends and his girlfriend later today and since I'm actually meeting her for the first time, I wanted to bake her something! So I asked what her favorite dessert was and she said "funfetti cake or anything with pink frosting," and I decided to combine the two. I couldn't find food coloring anywhere so I improvised and used the juice from a bottle of maraschino cherries to color the frosting, but of course, it's easier to use food coloring. Surprisingly the frosting only has a slight taste of the cherries. The frosting tasted way too buttery and was a weird consistency after adding so much liquid so I decided to add confectioners' sugar until it looked more like frosting. This cake looks so 1950s-esque which makes me super happy. I hope it's yummy and liked and there may be more photos of it once we cut it later.

for the cake (recipe via What Katie's Baking)

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 ¾ cups flour
• ⅛ cup cornstarch
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray two 8" round cake pans.
Combine the egg whites, vanilla, vegetable oil, and whole milk. Whisk together and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl; sift the dry ingredients. Fitted with a paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients with the butter and half of the milk and egg white mixture. Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, and then slowly add the remaining mixture and stop mixing once combined.
Fold in sprinkles and pour mix into pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.


for the frosting (recipe adapted from Yammie's Noshery):

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
6 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb. COLD butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
about 1/2 cup juice from maraschino cherries (or a few drops red food coloring)

confectioners' sugar

Beat the egg yolks and vanilla for about 8 minutes until they're more than doubled in size and very pale.
Meanwhile, heat the water and sugar in a medium sized saucepan on medium high heat. Once the bubbles in the sugar start getting bigger you can start checking the temperature. It needs to be 234º-240ºF on a candy thermometer. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can just take a spoon of it and dip it in ice water to cool it quickly so that you can check it. Once you can form a "soft ball" in your fingers with the syrup, then it's ready. Now, turn on the mixer that you were beating the eggs with and carefully pour a thin stream of the syrup between the beater and the side of the bowl. If you get it on the side it will just harden. Once all the syrup is mixed in to the yolks, just continue beating it until when you touch the bottom of the bowl, it's just slightly warmer than room temperature. Now take a small handful of your cold butter at a time and beat it in with the mixer on full speed. Do not add any more until the last handful is all combined. Beat it all until it's smooth and fluffy. Add the liquid from the cherries while beating slowly, then add confectioners' sugar until the frosting is of fluffy, spreadable consistency.

Frost your cake and decorate with more rainbow sprinkles and some cherries!

Chocolate Crêpes

The other day I remembered crêpes existed. No, really. My mother used to make them for me for breakfast constantly when I was younger but I haven't had them in ages. I was reminded thanks to tumblr and had an urge to make them immediately. Unfortunately that was when I realized we barely had any milk so I had to wait until tonight to actually make them (and upon doing so found out we actually had exactly enough milk to make one batch of them, meaning I didn't have to wait, whoops). I admit, I haven't perfected the art of crêpe making but if I make them more often, I hope to. I ended up topping these with some whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

Chocolate Crêpes (recipe adapted from Gourmade At Home)

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 to 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Dash cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted & cooled
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except the flour and cocoa (the color of your crêpe will depend on the kind of cocoa you use; they may come out any shade from light brown to brownish-red to dark brown). Once thoroughly combined, gradually add in the flour while continuing to whisk. Make sure there are no lumps of flour in the batter. (Or simply place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.) Heat a large frying pan on medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Pour between 1/8 to 1/4 cup of batter into the pan at a time. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly. Cook each crêpe for between 10 and 20 seconds on each side or until bubbly and darker brown than the original batter. Use a spatula to carefully flip the crêpes. Repeat with remaining batter, spraying the pan with cooking spray before each new crêpe.

You can top / fill your crêpes with whatever you want, including fruit, whipped cream, or jam.

Christmas Baking: Gingerbread Cake with Cinnamon Frosting & Chewy Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

I didn't get to do as much Christmas baking as I'd planned, being away for most of the time. But what I did bake, people seemed to really like, which is always good, especially since I tried something new this year. I usually make Snickerdoodles every year but we didn't have the right sugar so I opted out.








Gingerbread Cake

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 eggs
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger (I didn't have ginger so I used 1/2 tsp of cloves and nutmeg)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup hot water

Grease a 9-inch square pan and pre-heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, and stir in the molasses. In a separate bowl, sift the remaining dry ingredients; add alternately with water to molasses mixture in 3 additions, stirring after each addition. Bake in prepared pan about 50 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Frosting

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 8oz package cream cheese
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp heavy cream

I'm just guessing on the amounts, I never write them down for frosting. I just add more butter and more sugar and more cream until the taste and consistency is what I want.
Cream butter and cream cheese. Slowly add confectioners' sugar and cinnamon. Mix until well blended. Add heavy cream and beat until frosting is fluffy and of spreading consistency.

Chewy Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies (from ohmyveggies)

• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate)
• 1/2 c. crushed peppermint pieces (about 6 candy canes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk until combined and any lumps are broken up. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together using a mixer on high speed. Add vanilla and egg and beat until combined. Set mixer to low speed and slowly add flour mixture. Beat until just combined and fold in chocolate chips and peppermint pieces.
Drop tablespoons of batter two inches apart onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake for 12 minutes or until set. (Don't overbake or the cookies won't be chewy!) Cook on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then finish cooling on wire racks.

Chicken & Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings is one of my absolute favorite meals. Especially because it's like chicken pot pie without the pie crust (and if you know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of pie crust unless it's made from cookies or graham crackers). Plus it's super easy to make, warms you up on cold days, and you almost always have all the ingredients in your pantry.

I had a rotisserie chicken I needed to get rid of and I'd never actually made it myself before, but I thought it tasted pretty delicious, so I'd call it a success.

It should be noted that I used a combination of a recipe found online (via Feast Ur Eyes) and my knowledge of watching my father make this on occasion to write up this exact recipe. Coincidentally, I didn't have some of the ingredients so I improvised. Here are my changes:

• no celery or peas
• 4 sage leaves instead of bay leaves
• shredded rotisserie chicken instead of making my own
• one carrot because it was absolutely enormous

but if you do have the correct ingredients, either way is fine, obviously (also, if you don't have heavy cream, you can just use milk, whipping cream, light cream, etc). I don't have any pans with lids, nor do I own a dutch oven, so I used the deepest pan we had and used my cutting board as a lid, which worked fine, except I should have added more broth. The dumplings sucked so much of the broth up while cooking that there wasn't very much left and a lot of chicken ended up stuck to the bottom of the pan.

The dumplings turned out HUGE, but that's what I get for eyeballing the size and trying to fit all of them into my tiny, too shallow pan.

Chicken & Dumplings

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• salt
• pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cups chicken broth (1 cup reserved)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded 

For the dumplings:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley (can be substituted with rosemary, thyme, basil, etc)

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in large dutch oven (or a deep pan with a lid) over medium heat. Sauté onion until softened, about 2 minutes. Add carrots, celery, salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves. Sauté until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add 3 cups chicken broth, scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add in most of the chicken and the peas. In a separate bowl, heat 1 cup chicken stock and slowly whisk in 1/4 cup flour (use a sieve to pour mixture into the soup if it is lumpy). Bring soup up to a boil and reduce to simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes, or until broth is thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir flour, baking powder, parsley, and salt in large bowl. Stir in cream until incorporated (dough will be very thick).

Discard bay leaves and return stew to rapid simmer. Add reserved chicken to stew along with any accumulated juices. Using 2 large soup spoons, a small ice cream scoop, or your hands, drop golf ball-sized dumplings onto stew about 1/4 inch apart (you should have 16 to 18 dumplings). Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until dumplings have doubled in size (or until a toothpick inserted into them comes out clean), 15 to 18 minutes. Serve.

Eggless Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

People sometimes ask me if I'm a vegetarian or if I'm allergic to certain things because I've made quite a few eggless / gluten-free / dairy-free desserts. I don't have any food allergies and while I don't eat meat frequently, I'm not a vegetarian (and I don't have any problems with those who are). I always find it funny when people think this because the case usually is I was just out of certain items usually needed to bake but was determined to make something anyway. I also just really like trying new recipes and seeing what substitutes can work and still taste good.

Tonight, we had no eggs. The reason I wanted cookies so badly was for a ridiculous reason: Spongebob. Spongebob was on and he was eating a cookie and I instantly needed to make some. It's silly, but it's the truth. I wanted to make cookies so badly I looked up an eggless recipe and adjusted it accordingly. This is also the first baked good I've made a) with my replacement wire whip for my KitchenAid, and b) in the oven in my new apartment. So I was taking quite the risk.

It should be noted that the batter for these cookies is much lighter than normal dough because of the lack of egg, and it also has a slightly floury aftertaste that goes away with baking. If you bake the cookies too long, they crumble very easily (and don't taste very good) because of the flour to liquid ratio. The bottoms of my cookies got brown rather fast, but the tops barely browned at all, so don't worry about the bottoms burning and the rest not being cooked through. About 8-10 minutes and they should be perfect. They aren't crunchy and they aren't chewy, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. They're light and soft and melt in your mouth.

Eggless Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from recipe4living )

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1-1 1/2 cups dark (or semisweet, etc) chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Beat butter and other wet ingredients until butter appears creamy. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add in chocolate chips.
Bake for about 10 minutes.

Cucumber Sandwiches and Tea at 4am

My father taught me how to make cucumber sandwiches when I was younger, because like most little girls, I liked having tea parties, and wanted real food to go with it. I had always heard of cucumber sandwiches being served with tea at fancy parties, so I imagined them to be this incredibly complex thing to make.

This is how my dad taught me to make them, and how I like them, though I'm sure there are many different substitutions and varieties out there for you to experiment with.

Cucumber Sandwiches

• bread of your choice (I usually use wheat)
• a cucumber
• cream cheese
• dill weed

Toast your bread to your liking, then spread a good amount of cream cheese on one side. Slice your cucumber into thin circles and place them on top of the bread. Sprinkle dill weed on top of cucumber slices.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Reese's Pieces

This weekend is being spent up in Portsmouth / Maine to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday. His birthday is actually September 2nd, but my aunt and uncle are going to be in the area, so we're celebrating early. I haven't seen my dad, aunt, uncle, or cousins in a while (especially the latter, I think it's been years) so I'm really excited. My dad adores peanut butter cookies and last year I made him peanut butter bacon cookies, so I made more this year since he loved them so much. I wanted to make something for the less adventurous in my family (mainly my cousins), so I made these cookies as well. Chocolate and peanut butter is always a good combination.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Reese's Pieces (adapted from The Curvy Carrot)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup Reese's Pieces candies
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Nestle chocolate chunks)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. With the mixer running, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture, mixing until combined.

Add the Reese's Pieces and chocolate chips. Mix to combine.
In rounded tablespoons, place the cookies about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet, pressing each one down slightly to flatten.
Bake the cookies until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 10 minutes total. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

It tastes just as good as it sounds and it made me wonder why I'd never mixed ground up cookies into my cookie batter before, because it's a brilliant idea (especially with Oreos).
I've since made these cookies two more times because they've become a new favorite.

I don't have a food processor (which if you read this blog often enough, you'd know) which may seem like a setback, but it's no problem at all. In order to crush cookies, crackers, and the like, all I do is take a ziploc bag, put the cookies in, and smash them up with a rolling pin. Sometimes (like with Oreos, specifically because the cream in the cookie makes it stick to the bag in large amounts), it's easier to smash one cookie at a time. It's tedious but worth it if you don't have a food processor. All that smashing is probably good for stress too.

Triple Chocolate Cookies (recipe via picky palate)

• 2 sticks softened butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, I used semi-sweet
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 15 whole Oreo Cookies, finely ground

Preheat oven to 350°F and get a large baking sheet ready.
In a stand or electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Place flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add to wet ingredients along with cocoa powder, ground Oreos, and chocolate chips, slowly mixing until just combined. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart from each other.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cooked through. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting and Vanilla Spice Filling

I wanted to make a cake, but unfortunately didn't get the ingredients until Saturday.
I altered this recipe a bit and if I ever use it again, I would definitely make some changes. I should have known when I read the recipe that pouring all that batter into one 9" cake pan sounded a little suspicious, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. I already had to convert the oven temperature to Fahrenheit, so I thought maybe the amounts just didn't add up to make a normal 2-layer cake, and when I poured it, it wouldn't have fit evenly into two 9" pans (one cake layer would have been exceptionally smaller). I think if I hadn't omitted the coffee, maybe it would have fit into two pans. I probably should have just boiled one cup of hot water to add instead but left it out entirely, which is one reason why the cake wasn't as moist as it could have been.
The cake, along with not coming out as moist as I'd hoped, it overflowed in the pan, making it so the outside almost burned but the middle was still quite raw. I managed to cook it all the way through, carve off the really crunchy pieces, and cut it in half to make a 2-layer cake. It looks prettier than it tastes, I will admit that. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to cooking, and I believe there's always ways to make things better.

Chocolate Cake (recipe adapted from Sips and Spoonfuls)

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot brewed coffee or water
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350° F and spray two 9" cake pans with cooking spray. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat the butter, sugars, and eggs. Add the milk, oil, and vanilla to the wet mixture. Combine the wet and dry mixtures. Mix well until combined and then add coffee/hot water. Mix once again. Pour into greased pans and bake in the middle rack in the oven for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out just clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Spice Buttercream (makes just enough for filling in between 2 cake layers)

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 to 1 Tbsp milk (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2—2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Beat butter and vanilla until creamy. Add cinnamon. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and beat until desired consistency. Add milk and/or more sugar until icing is the desired consistency.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting (adapted from Smitten Kitchen; makes about 5 cups)

• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate*, melted and cooled
• 4 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 tablespoons half-and-half or whole milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Beat your butter and chocolate until incorporated. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar. Add the vanilla and beat well. Add more or less milk / sugar until the frosting is the desired consistency.

*(I used half a bag of Hershey's dark chocolate chips; in retrospect, unsweetened chocolate would have been better, as I think the frosting turned out too sweet)

Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

I have been in a ridiculous cooking-mode all week. I guess I missed baking and cooking a lot more than I thought while I was at college. 



Chocolate Cheesecake

• 1-1/2 cups finely crushed Oreo cookie crumbs (about half the package) 
• 3 tbsp. melted butter 
• 2 8oz packages of softened cream cheese 
• 3/4 c. sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa (1.38 oz) 
• a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Preheat your oven to 325 F.
Line a 9x9 baking dish with tinfoil, then coat it with cooking spray.

If you don't have a food processor (like me), place your Oreos in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin until they're good and crumbly. They don't have to be perfect and small chunks of cookie are fine. After crushing the Oreo cookies, mix them with the melted butter and press into the bottom of the pan tightly. Cook crust for about 10 minutes.

Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl on medium (or with a hand mixer) until creamy, then mix in the cocoa until everything is combined. Pour cheesecake batter into the prepared pan with crust and spread evenly. Coat top of cheesecake with chocolate chips.

Bake 35-40 minutes, until set. Let cool on a wire rack and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before slicing into bars.

Cow Cookies

Not to be confused with "cowboy cookies" or "cowgirl cookies." Just cow cookies. Because they're black and white patterned like a cow!
I didn't have a lot to work with (we were almost out of cocoa powder and butter when I started making these and now we are out) but I didn't want to make plain old chocolate chip cookies. I made these before, but with a different recipe. I have to say I like this one better.

"Cow" Cookies (makes about 5 dozen)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Hershey's)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups Nestle chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks. Divide dough in half. Mix the cocoa powder with one half of the dough. Grab an equal amount of the plain and chocolate dough, and roll into a ball (about a tablespoon of dough should cover it, depending on how big you like your cookies). Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden. Cool on baking sheet and enjoy!

Cap'n Crunch Chicken Fingers and Bacon Green Beans

I have always been a cereal fanatic. I love it so much, I don't just eat it for breakfast. Sometimes when I was younger I would eat it for every meal of the day. That doesn't happen so much anymore, but I do eat it frequently. Sometimes I eat it as a snack between meals instead of a meal. I eat it without milk. When I was younger, I was definitely most enthusiastic about the super sugary cereals (Cap'n Crunch and Cocoa Pebbles being my favorites). Now I've learned to like "healthier" cereals (especially Honey Bunches of Oats), but I do still enjoy the occasional sugar-overdose.

I believe I first heard of using Cap'n Crunch as a coating/batter for chicken on the Food Network ages ago. I somehow convinced my mother to make it, she hated it, we never had it again. I remember it being delicious but I think it was too sweet for my parents.
We had some chicken breasts I had frozen earlier in the week because I was afraid of them going bad so I decided to thaw them and that I would try to make the recipe again to see if I still liked it.

I didn't really think of a side-dish to go with the chicken until I had already put them in the oven. We had some green beans left and the tiny bit of bacon in the fridge was looking very sad, so I made a recipe my Grammy used to make. My dad's side of the family traveled around a lot, but they lived in the south a lot (my father was born in Virginia, they lived in Texas for I don't know how long, and eventually moved to New England sometime before my father and uncles were in high school). What I've learned from certain family recipes is this: everything is better with bacon and almost everything in southern cooking has bacon (or some other meat) to help flavor it. This is pretty much law and I have no problem with it.

Cap'n Crunch Chicken Fingers (recipe adapted from Breakroom Test Kitchen)

• 3 cups Cap’n Crunch cereal, crushed
• 1/2 cup corn meal (or crushed corn flakes)
• 2 lbs chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut into tenders)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Combine the crushed cereals (or cereal and corn meal) in one bowl. Combine the egg and milk in another bowl. Combine the flour, paprika powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another bowl. Dip the chicken tenders into the dry mix, then into the egg mix, and then coat with the cereal crumbs. Arrange tenders on a baking sheet lined with aluminium foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping the tenders over halfway before they're done if you want them to be extra crispy. if you aren't sure they're done, just take a knife and cut one in half: when the juices run clear, the chicken is done.

Bacon Green Beans

• about 4 strips bacon, cut into about 1" pieces
• green beans (not sure how many I used but for larger amounts, just adjust the amount of bacon)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

Clean and cut your beans. Put some water on the stove to boil. When water is boiling, drop your green beans in for about 10 minutes or until you can pierce them easily with a fork (if you like your beans mushier, leave them in longer and skip the next part). To keep beans crisp, after draining them, dunk them in a bath of ice water for about 30 seconds. 

While your beans are boiling, grab a skillet and cook your bacon over medium heat. After the bacon is done, get rid of most of the bacon grease (but not all— leave maybe 1 tbsp. I know it sounds weird and unhealthy, and it probably is, but trust me, it's delicious)When the beans are done, place them in the skillet with the bacon and flip the beans until the bacon is incorporated and they are coated. Add salt and pepper to taste, tossing again to make sure the beans get coated.

I need to learn how to be creative when naming recipes I come up with.

Is there like, a class for that or something? Some things already have names, even though you can make them differently and customize them (like steak and cheese or certain kinds of cookies), but there are some dishes that need a new name. Dishes that are created by just throwing a bunch of stuff together, and having it come out great, thus deserving a great name. Something I am terrible at. Anyway, this dinner came out of me having a couple chicken breasts in the fridge and not knowing what to do with them. Also, stale bread. I hate when it gets so stale that it's practically inedible and you either have to find a use for it or throw it out.

Semi Chicken Parmesan (that's a temporary name, because frankly, it's awful)

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• stale bread, about 4 slices, depending on the type of bread (or pre-made breadcrumbs)
• salt
• pepper
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• about 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• pasta of your choice (I used penne)
• tomato sauce
• roughly 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• fresh basil (optional; to garnish)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Take your stale bread and smash it up into crumbs (I put the bread in a ziploc bag and then repeatedly bashed it with a rolling pin until it resembled crumbs of a reasonable size). Place crumbs in bowl. Add flour to bowl, then add about 3/4 of the basil and oregano. Mix until combined. Take your eggs and scramble them up with a fork in another bowl to make an eggwash. Salt and pepper your chicken breasts, then dip them in the eggwash, followed by the breadcrumb mixture and transfer to a greased skillet. Add the rest of the dried spices to the chicken while searing. Cook just enough so that the outside of the chicken is browned and none of it is pink. Transfer chicken to a sheet pan and sprinkle a bit of mozzarella on top.

Place in oven for about 20-25 minutes.

While the chicken is finishing off in the oven, bring some water to a boil. Follow the instructions on your pasta, then drain and coat in about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Plate your pasta, adding as much sauce as you would like. When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit for about five minutes so it retains its juices. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and stir into the plated pasta. Cover with more mozzarella cheese, then place back in the oven for about 5-8 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Remove plates from oven (remember that they're hot and don't burn yourself accidentally like I did) and garnish with fresh basil.

Simple Brownies with Dark Chocolate Chips

I finally got to bake my first dessert in my new apartment! I finished packing up at my mother's house yesterday and the unpacking is almost finished here. I got a brownie pan and some other baking stuff, and since we need to go grocery shopping today anyway, I figured brownies weren't a bad idea for breakfast.

This is my go-to brownie recipe. I usually add chocolate chips of some sort, but you can add pretty much anything (candy, caramel, nuts, etc).


Dark Chocolate Chip Brownies (recipe via Living Lou)

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• 6 oz coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• a handful—1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (depends on your preference; too many chocolate chips and the brownies won't cook properly)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch pan or line with parchment paper, and grease the parchment paper.
Melt butter, chocolate and cocoa in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, or melt in microwave at 30 second intervals, mixing each time. Stir together until melted. Once melted, cool slightly.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bow, and set aside.

Beat sugar, eggs and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer for 4 minutes. Add the melted chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl until completely combined.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake until a cake tester comes out with a few crumbs, which takes about 30—35 minutes, depending on your oven.

"Fluff," AKA Ambrosia Salad

This is something my mother always made for me as a child. It’s super addicting and terrible for you, but it tastes marvelous. Growing up, I always called it “fluff” (not to be confused with the marshmallow stuff you put in fluffernutter sandwiches) but apparently it’s a form of ambrosia salad.

I don’t know the exact measurements of any ingredients, because my mother just eyeballs everything.
You’ll need:

• confectioner’s sugar
• heavy cream
• 1 can crushed pineapple/pineapple tidbits
• mini marshmallows

Whip the heavy cream, adding confectioners sugar slowly until you have a thick, sweetened whipped cream. Add in the mini marshmallows and stir until incorporated. Drain your can of pineapple until it’s no longer wet, and add that in, stirring until everything is mixed well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (the longer it’s in the fridge, the better it tastes).

Variations on this recipe include adding: maraschino cherries, mandarin oranges, bananas, strawberries, and coconut.
Substitutes for the whipped cream include sour cream and yogurt.

Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving was at my dad’s this year for me. It’s a very small get-together, larger than last year when it was just my mother and I, but it’s just me, my dad, and my grandfather this year. I’ve never made pie completely from scratch and upon discovering my love of pecan pie bars last year, I decided to choose pecan pie as the one to make. Luckily it also happens to be my grandfather's favorite kind of pie.

Southern Style Pecan Pie

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups pecans
• 1 pie crust, recipe as follows (or store-bought, your preference)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, gently beat eggs. Stir in sugar and flour, then the syrup, melted butter, and vanilla.
Fold in pecans.
Pour mixture into pie shell. Go around edges of pie shell, pressing down with a fork, then go over edge with melted butter (this is optional, it’s just to make it look pretty and golden). Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. A knife inserted in center of filling should come out fairly clean.

All-Butter Pie Crust Dough (adapted from merrygourmet)
yields 2 9-inch deep pie crusts

• 2 1/2 cups (312 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
• 8 tablespoons ice water (a bowl of ice water on the counter is good for this, since you may need more or less than 8 tablespoons, I only needed 4)

In a food processor, mix the flour, sugar, and salt until blended. Add cubed butter and pulse just until a coarse meal is formed. Sprinkle water into the food processor by the tablespoonful and pulse until the dough begins to form moist clumps.
If you do not have a food processor, like me: mix the flour, sugar and salt with a fork. Cut the butter into cubes, then cut the cubes into smaller cubes, then add it to the mixture. You can then try to mix it in with the fork, or just crumple it up with your hands, which I find is easier, until you have a coarse meal. Then go ahead and sprinkle in your water until the dough begins to become moist.
Pour the dough out onto a work surface and form into 2 balls. Flatten ball gently into a thick disk and wrap each tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least an hour before rolling. Make ahead: Dough can be kept in refrigerator up to one week. You can keep it in the freezer for up to 1 month; double wrap in plastic prior to freezing.

Halloween Whoopie Pies

Being home from college means an opportunity to bake for my favorite holiday! I made pumpkin whoopie pies last year, so this year I’m just making traditional ones, colored black and orange. Halloween sprinkles/nonpareils optional.

Have you ever written something down and then read it completely wrong, even though you wrote it? That’s what happened when I was making the cake portion of the pies. I didn’t do the steps in order and the batter came out completely lumpy and unappetizing due to me mixing the cocoa with the flour and then the coffee-water mixture with that. What were you thinking, brain? Granted, this isn’t my usual recipe for whoopie pies, and we didn’t have the full amount of brown sugar the recipe calls for, but oh well. My mom had one and says they taste good. I’m sure the amazing filling makes up for my cake mistake. Seriously. Try not to eat the whole bowl of that stuff before you fill the whoopie pies. It was hard for me not to.

Halloween Whoopie Pies
For the cake:

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup hot coffee (I used espresso powder mixed with water)
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1-2 tablespoons black food coloring (depends on how dark you’d like your cake to be)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, add cocoa powder. Pour the hot coffee and water over the mixture and whisk thoroughly until powders are completely dissolved.

In another medium bowl, mix together the canola oil and light brown sugar. Add this to the cocoa mixture and whisk until combined. Add the egg, vanilla, and buttermilk, and food coloring and whisk until smooth.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture with a rubber spatula. Add the food coloring until the batter is as black as you want it. (If you’re using liquid food coloring and the batter becomes too runny, add about 1/8 cup flour.)

Either use a medium ice cream scoop or piping bag fit with a large round tip to measure out the cookies. Release or pipe 2” rounds onto baking sheets, 1 inch apart.

Bake 8-10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, until the cookies crack slightly on top and spring back in the center when gently pressed. Let cool completely, then remove from sheet with a spatula.

For the filling:

• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow Fluff
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable shortening
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• red and yellow food coloring (optional)

Add all ingredients to bowl and mix together. Add food coloring until filling is a noticable shade of orange. Scoop mixture into empty freezer back. Snip one corner off bag and pipe the frosting onto 1/2 of pie. Sandwich to make complete pie.

Halloween Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

I got the chance to bake I was at my mom’s house, picking up a few things. I had to make something for Halloween, since I do every year, and with all the Halloween Oreos I’ve been eating, I figured I might as well incorporate them into something.

Notes: The oreos I took cream out of were the ones that went in the batter. Instead of “coarsely chopping” them, I crushed them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, until they were pretty much just crumbs, about the consistency of sand. I left a few with cream, chopped into about 1/8in bits to crumble on top before I put them in the oven.

Halloween Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup dark cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped Halloween Oreo cookies (about one row from a package)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Cover an 8x8 baking pan with tinfoil (this will make lifting the brownies out easier when they’re cool) and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Whisk until combined and set aside.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Whisk in sugar and bring to a boil, whisking frequently; boil for 1 minute. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

Take the cream out of about six Oreos. In a small mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and Oreo cream until well combined, about 1 minute.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, until combined. Whisk in melted butter-sugar mixture until combined. Stir in flour mixture until just combined, followed by Oreo cookies.

Spread half of brownie batter into baking dish, followed by cream cheese layer; dot the top with remaining brownie batter, and spread evenly, as best as you can. Run a knife through batter to make “swirls”.

Bake for 23-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out semi-clean.
Cool on a wire rack to room temperature before slicing.

Gingersnaps

These are the other cookies I made for my dad as part of his birthday cookie care package. Gingersnaps! He’s loved these ever since I can remember but I’ve only ever made them twice. I tend to like them when the texture is a little chewy, but my dad likes them better when they’re hard and crunchy, so I made sure they were just how he likes them.

Gingersnaps

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup white decorating sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg.
Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger;
stir into the molasses mixture. Roll dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Roll
each ball in white sugar before placing 2 inches apart on ungreased
cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until center is firm. Cool on wire racks.

(adapted from Kirbie's Cravings)