Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year…?

Yes, yes I am quite obsessed with Fall Out Boy (before it was cool, I might add) and yeeeeeeesss I am super stoked about their comeback and will be front and center in the pit when they come to town.

However, this post isn’t about Fall Out Boy (mental note to write one soon) or concerts or music.

It’s about me. I’m coming back. I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’m ready to rejoin the masses in my small corner of the internet. So, hello once again dear friends.

I’ve revamped my ‘About Me‘ profile (which I feel is ever changing since I have a bagillion things going on in my brain at once and I can’t find a way to express them all in an orderly fashion. Le sigh.) Check it out and let’s regroup.

*hug*

Foodie Pen Pals – MAY

It’s reveal day!!!

As you all may remember, I joined foodie pen pals for the first time last month. I had an amazing first month so why the heck not do it again?

This time my foodie pen pal was from Washington! Aly from Fudging Ahead did a great great great job getting me a delicious mix of goodies!!

Just as last time, I tore into it almost instantly with a child-like sense of adventure. I smelled a certain something and I had a feeling I already knew what it was!

COFFEE!! from Seattle. Duh, cus they’re know doe that stuff, ya know! I’m not a huge fan of drip coffee. I don’t even have a coffee grinder!! (I’m a Starbucks gal. I’m a bit ashamed.) But dang this stuff smelled SO good. I wrapped it up and I am storing it in the freezer until I can mentally part with it. I’m thinking of splitting the coffee between my mother and mother in law. They both adore coffee and I think they’d love some good stuff straight from Seattle!

Caramel Corn!! This stuff lasted longer than I thought it would. I was doing my absolute BEST to not eat it all in one sitting. Cus you all know that’s the kinda gal I am! And I LOVE caramel corn, like whoa! This stuff is made in Seattle and apparently this time of year, the farmers markets run rampant with it. I need to come ’round those parts just for this stuff. Amahzing!

Raspberry fruit strip! Raspberries are my fave fruit!! This is a super neat way to get my fruit in

Chocolate!!! I love me some chocolate. Duh. The neat thing about this is that it’s bean to bar right here in America. There aren’t very many chocolate companies that do that! I have this bar stashed in my desk at work for chocolate emergencies. I’m trying to make it last. Dark chocolate and sea salt? ohmahgah!!

Chocolate hazelnut? I swear, Aly knows me.

BROWNIES!! Aly said that after persusing my blog a bit, she kinda sorta got the idea that I might like brownies just a tiny bit Well, she was absolutely right!! And these were amazing. I’m normally not a fan of fudgy brownies but DANG these were so so so good!!! Bonus: she gave me the recipe! I’ll be making these here pretty soon!!

And lastly, a super sweet note. Honestly, out of all the things in the package, the note is always my favorite. I love seeing the handwriting, so different from mine. Reading the kind words and imagining what she would sound like reading it to me. Learning new things about the place she’s from and that it’s hot there too

Thank you SO much Aly, it really was a perfect package. I sincerely hope we keep in touch. Nothing like meeting new amazing people!!

If you’re like me and you’re curious to see what I sent my foodie pen pal, head on over to Andie’s blog Sea Salt ‘n’ Pepa. She is super sweet and all too kind!! We can def be friends

Chocolate-Blackberry Ice Cream

I think I’m finally becoming a true Texan.

Not to say that I haven’t been an ACTUAL Texan these years, but let me tell you… I HATED Summer. Loathed it, even. I yearned for that week of Winter. For years I’ve loved Winter more than any other season. Now I find myself looking forward to the warmer weather.

Ok. Maybe it’s not the actual warm weather I’m looking forward to, but instead everything that warm weather brings with it.

Summer fruit, hello! Shorts. Beautiful flowers. Bright, sunny days. Laying poolside with a margarita in hand. Campfires and s’mores. Weekends at the river. And most importantly… ice cream.

Any and all ice cream. It’s a must down South, it’s kinda hot. Take it from a girl that could get perfectly ripened peaches a month ago. Maybe I should make some peach ice cream next!

But for now, I’m sharing a strange pairing with you: blackberries and chocolate. It works. Use amazing chocolate and ripe blackberries, and a splash or two of heavy cream and never look back.

Chocolate-Blackberry Ice Cream
Yields about 3 cups of ice cream

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 Tablespoons (40 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
2 cups (240 g) blackberries, fresh*
small pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoons dark rum, optional

* I used fresh blackberries but frozen berries should work just fine. I would suggest to let the berries sit in it’s bath a bit longer.

Instructions:

Measure the heavy cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt into a medium saucepan and whisk to combine (to make things easier I set my saucepan on my scale and measured all ingredients in it to save dirty dishes).

Set the pan over medium heat and, whisking frequently, bring the mixture to a full, rolling boil. My mixture was pretty thick to start out with, but this is OK, it will thin out once it heats. Turn off the heat under the pan, add the vanilla extract and dark rum and give it a good whisk. Then add the blackberries. Cover the pan and set aside for 10 minutes.

Puree the mixture in a blender, immersion blender or a food processor, making sure that there are no large clumps of blackberries left. Strain mixture into a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled (overnight is good). The mixture will be thick – almost like pudding – once chilled.

Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to airtight container and store in your freezer. Top with whipped cream, a healthy dose of unhealthy toppings and dive right into Summer!

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop via Tracey’s Culinary Adventures

Homemade Flour Tortillas

I’m horrible at posting delicious recipes in time for holidays. I think I went through about half of my day not remembering it’s Cinco de Mayo.

It’s the friggin fifth of mayonnaise. HOW COULD I FORGET?! I live in Texas, for crying out loud. I should be knee deep in amazing mexican food, margaritas and tequila! Instead, I’m on my couch watching Moneyball.

BUT to my defense, I did tell my hubby that I wanted at pina colada at 9am. I thought it was noon. I’ve been up since 5:30am, leavemealone.

Anyway, if you’re like me and you’re a plight on this world and forgot to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (which Mexico doesn’t even celebrate), make up for it by making homemade tortillas. Or as my very German mother would say “tor-tee-lee-ahs.”

Make em and then stuff them with barbacoa, roll them into enchiladas, fill em with good stuff for quesadillas or shove some chocolate peanut butter and strawberries inside and call it dinner. I’m so grown up.

Homemade Tortillas
makes 12 – 7″ tortillas

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour*
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cups canola oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 cup hot water

Note: I used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 all purpose and they came out yummy. A bit thicker but definitely still tasty!! The original recipe yielded 12 tortillas but my dough weighed 650g and it was just easier to divide that evenly into 13 tortillas (at 50g each).

Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder with a whisk until completely combined. Add the oil and mix it together with your fingers until all the oil is incorporated and the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add the hot water and resume mixing with your hands until it begins to come together. Lightly flour your surface and knead for a minute until you get a smooth ball of dough. Put your dough in the same bowl you mixed the dough in, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes (mine ended up sitting for about 2 hours, oops). You can make this dough up to a day in advance and just let it rest, covered in the refrigerator.

Divide the dough into 12 balls (if you have a scale, weigh the dough and divide accordingly). Flour your surface and pat the ball down a bit with your hands to create an even, flat surface. With a rolling pin, roll the dough flipping and adding flour as needed until it is uniform in thickness and about 8-inches in diameter. Cook on a hot, ungreased skillet over medium-high heat. Working one at a time, cook until brown blisters form on one side, then flip. Wrap them in a clean dish towel to keep them warm, before serving.

Keep in mind that these don’t have preservatives and junk so they won’t keep for weeks like store bought ones will. Aim to eat them immediately or at least within a day or two.

Recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen

My First Foodie Pen Pal

…and I’m posting two days late. That’s me, pretty much always late. BUT, better late than never everyone I always say.

For those of you who don’t know what the heck a foodie pen pal is, it’s only the greatest thing since indoor plumbing. Basically, every month you are paired up with another foodie and you send a package containing food to share and you in turn receive a food filled package from a different foodie. Then you tear into your goodies and post about how you ate everything in a matter of 2 days. Ok, maybe that last part is just me. No lies.

My foodie gifter was Cat from Breakfast to Bed. She’s certainly a girl after my own heart. She was bubbly and kind and somehow, even though we never met or even really conversed for that long, she hit the bullseye with her box to me. All I told her was that I had no preferences (so decisive, I know) but I didn’t like bacon. But that I DO like food from all over.

    

My box contained: a very sweet and hilarious note. No worries Cat, everyone spells my name wrong even when it’s right in front of them

Pesto. I swear, she just KNEW somehow that I’ve been mulling over buying some to try!

Turkish Caramels. These are basically nutty, chewy taffy. Delicious.

Lard bread. It sounds weird but I bet it’s delicious. Unfortunately, thanks to Houston’s humidity, the loaf arrived moldy I was super bummed. Like, super super bummed. I envisioned it to be perfect sliced thick, slathered with avocado and tomatoes. Ugh, bummed.

A Russian cake. This bad boy is about the size of a salad plate and it lasted about two days. I couldn’t stop picking at it. I want to go to NY JUST for a fresh slab of this cake. No lies. It is basically a cake version of babka. And smart me didn’t realize that I photographed the bottom of the cake until I was already halfway through eating it. Classy.

And last but definitely not least, an authentic NY black and white cookie. I took a bit the second I unwrapped it. then I remember I was supposed to photograph the contents and quickly grabbed my camera so that I could continue eating this cookie. It was heaven. Now I want to visit NY even more.

I loved every bit of food in this package. A successful first experience!! I’m positive that I thanked you profusely already, but I just want to say thank you once more. And I sincerely hope we can keep in touch. You know… in case I need a place to crash once I come to NY Save a spot for me on the couch!!

If you’re curious as to what I sent to my foodie pen pal, head on over to Lindsay’s blog, Running with Tongs! I hope she loved it!!

Brownie Batter Pancakes for One

I am seriously doing a 903 things at once right now.

That may not sound like a lot to you but I’m not too used to multi-tasking and handling a bunch of stuff all at once. I like to give each task my undivided attention. Multi-tasking usually freaks me out.

But today I am trying to find the perfect birthday treat for one of my great friends, make my gma some candied pecans, clean the kitchen, figure out something quick to have for breakfast, look around on Facebook (cus it’s super important, duh!), write this post while uploading pics to my Flickr. See? 903 things! I don’t exaggerate here, I don’t need the drama. And I have to do all that by 11am. It’s 9:18am now. Oh gosh, my life is overrrr!!!

Ahem.

Good thing that I have the best recipe EVER for THE MOST AMAZING QUICK FIX PANCAKES THAT WON’T KILL MY WAISTLINE!! Yes, I’m yelling at you. I want you to understand the sheer awesomeness of these pancakes. These come together super quick, they are chocolatey delicious, a perfect breakfast (or dinner, or dessert) for one, and the best part about these is that you get about 8 silver-dollar sized chocolate pancakes all for yourself and it won’t kill your diet!!! How can anyone NOT get excited about that?! Now, go chow down on some pancakes!!

Brownie Batter Pancakes
Yields about 6-8 silver dollar pancakes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (30g) *
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 Tablespoon of Splenda Granulated sugar (or 1 Tablespoon of sugar)
pinch of salt (optional)
1 1/2 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce (I used this)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 1/2 Tablespoon nondairy milk**

*There are several options for flour choice, choose what works for you: spelt flour, whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, or even a gluten free AP flour.

**Same goes for the milk, feel free to use what you have: soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk (oh, YUM) or plain ole dairy milk, I don’t judge

Instructions:

If you have a pan that can handle the heat (such as a cast iron skillet) set a non-stick pan or skillet over medium-low heat. (I do this before anything else so that once the mix is done, the skillet is preheated and ready to go. I’m impatient, clearly.)

In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together very well.

In a small measuring cup, stir together all the wet ingredients.

Add the wet to the dry and mix until the dry ingredients JUST disappear. You don’t want gummy pancakes.

If you haven’t already, preheat your skillet on medium-low heat and let it get nice and hot (flick some water on the surface of the pan, if it sizzles it’s ready to go!) Pour a very small amount (about 2 Tablespoons, one cookie scoop) worth of batter onto the center of your skillet and let it cook until bubbles start to form and the edges are set. Flip them, taking care not to break the pancakes (they are fragile) and cook them for 30 seconds – 1 minute longer.

Stack, throw on every topping you can think of (not really. Try: powdered sugar, caramel, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, sliced berries, nuts, dried fruit, your favorite yogurt and granola, or maple syrup) and dig in!!

adapted from Skinny Taste

Servings: 1 • Serving size: 6-8 silver-dollar pancakes (one recipe without toppings) • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 172 • Fat: 2.4 g • Carb: 32 g • Fiber: 6.7 g • Protein: 5.3 g • Sugar: 4.7
Sodium: 241.7 (without salt)

Rum, Brown Butter and Pecan Brownies

If you haven’t been here long, you probably don’t know that I’m a Texan. If you have been here for a while, you’re probably tired of me making references to the fact that I’m a Texan. Not the kind that wears cowboy boots with skirts and rides to work on a horse named sugar, but a Texan no less.

I can’t help it, I’m a Texan. It’s a pride unlike any other.

You won’t find better Tex-mex anywhere, steaks seem just a bit bigger, beautiful bluebonnets transform regular hills into waves of blue, seeing cows from the side of the road is perfectly normal, margaritas are a staple, BBQ is an art form, the night sky isn’t more beautiful anywhere else, and pecans run rampant across this great state.

Texas, I made you brownies. Brownies you wouldn’t mind calling home. They have rum and pecans in them, you’d be proud!

Do yourself a favor: if you hate rum or aren’t crazy about the strong flavor of rum in your baked goods, don’t make these. There’s a half cup of rum in these, they are not for sissies. If you don’t like pecans, you can sub for any other nut just be sure to toast them or the flavor will get lost. If you don’t like browned butter, you’re in the wrong place BUT, you can just as easily use regular melted butter in place of browned. If you don’t like chocolate… we can’t be friends anymore*. If you want to smother these brownies in vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and a drizzle of dark rum for good measure… I think we can be the best of friends.

Rum, Brown Butter and Pecan Brownies
yields 12-16 brownies

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter, cut into 16 small pieces
175g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
190g (about 3/4 cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup dark rum
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
75g (about 1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
heaping 1/4 pecans, toasted and chopped

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line an 8×8″ pan with foil or parchment paper, taking care to leave an overhang on at least two sides for easy removal later. Lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter, swirling the pan occasionally until all the butter has melted. After several minutes, the butter will begin to bubble and this is your sign to really pay attention to your butter. The milk solids will separate: stir it frequently at this point, so that the milk solids do not settle at the bottom of the pan and burn (there is no saving burned butter, trust me). Continue stirring as your butter changes from a light brown to a medium brown and smells nutty. Remove from the heat. Let it cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, toss in your chopped chocolate and pour the browned butter over it (swirl the bowl a bit to make sure all the chocolate pieces are submerged in butter). Let it sit for about 3 minutes. Using a whisk, mix the chocolate and butter together vigorously until it is satiny and combined. Add the sugar and whisk until combined. Add eggs, one at a time until incorporated. When both eggs are in, give it a good vigorous whisking for about 10 seconds. Add the rum and mix well.

Sift the cocoa powder, flour and salt together over your chocolate mixture. Fold everything together with a rubber spatula until almost combined and then toss in pecans and fold until combined. Pour batter into your prepared pan and bake for 20-25 mins, begin checking early to ensure your brownies don’t overbake.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan until room temperature. Remove the brownies from the pan using the overhang, cut and enjoy!

Adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes