Monthly Archives: April 2013

Apr21

Riding in Cars with Cakes (sorry boys)

Posted on April 21, 2013 by athaidek

Note to self: Never decorate a cake on a square plate and try to carry it in a round cake carrier. LOL. but really, what an experience. The lovely Annie B turned 22 last week, and I THOUGHT I’d be able to deliver this baby in full-form to her dinner partay pre-Corey Smith concert.

On the car ride over however, I proceeded to show the decoration to my friend sitting next to me in a teeny convertible backseat and TIPPPPED the cake over directly into the air vent and back seat. Silence…..(keep this going a few more seconds) All five of us in the car turn and look at each other, each with another apprehensive smile. My brain is thinking “Noooo I have to clean this car tomorrow!!!” I think everyone else is wondering if I’m going to cry or not.

One person starts laughing and we tipped it back to some sort of stability on the plate. While it looked mangled, I was happy as long as people were going to eat it. My dear friend next to me helped the situation by eating much of the icing covering the air vent (thanks Liz) and we brushed it off until we got there.

Moral of the story is, if you do spend hours making a cake and it does in fact fall over, PEOPLE WILL STILL EAT IT (if it tastes good obvi)!! Clearly I’ve got a ways to go when it comes to baking cakes for travel, but for a first big cake, at least the taste was a success!

Plus, if it’s chocolate, the few dots of icing leftover from spilling on your chest or foot make for great stories at bars later or for a midnight snack 🙂

Here’s the recipe if you feel daring enough to attempt! http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2012/06/14/german-chocolate-cake-recipe/

Apr20

Rainy day calls for desperate measures – BB French Toast

Posted on April 20, 2013 by athaidek

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Otherwise known as “Jules and Katie do Monday morning right”

Another adventure that’s been in our daydreams for months, Banana Bread French Toast is one of those pinterest things that you just can’t get out of your head. No matter how many times you convince yourself that banana bread and french toast could stick to their respective baked good and hot breakfast item categories, respectively, you’ll still revert back to dreaming of a crunchy, sweet, decadent breakfast.

And we can tell you now that IT’S SO WORTH IT. Last week, I made a banana bread loaf in anticipation of our leetle date. I have always wanted to make all these variations of banana bread, but stuck to this basic recipe, knowing that the french toast recipe would probably work best with a simple walnuty, moist bread. Twas VERY moist and I highly recommend this recipe if you want a classic banana bread.

I cut a few of these slices the night before we made it to let them harden a bit on the edges. This bread is really that moist that even 2-3 days after baking it, the bread still needed to be left out overnight to firm up. This step was definitely necessary otherwise I think the bread would’ve fallen apart. (one piece is kinda messy bc i cut off like half a chunk :/)

The next morning, I arrived at Julesy’s apt, bread and accoutrements in hand for what was the best medicine to a sleepy Monday morning. We based our recipe off of spoonforkbacon’s rendition and basically used 3 eggs with some milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg as our dipping batter.

Then we coated the bread in some crushed up cornflakes (yep the cereal) and added it to a buttered pan just like regular french toast

Give it a little flip after the cornflakes are browned and the bread has formed a crust. Be very gentle if your bread is pretty moist when you’re flipping the toast.

Because this is so decadent, you actually don’t really need the maple syrup typical to a french toast recipe. In fact, we agreed it went better with a classic nutella+PB combo! and of course some bananas. Try!

Julia’s the organized one, clearly….

her plate:

mine meh i need food styling skills

Apr18

Lime Peanut Ginger Chicken Noodle Bowl

Posted on April 18, 2013 by athaidek

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This was one of the few of my mix-and-match recipe concoctions that actually turned out well…woohoo! A few weeks back, my friend Molly and I made this yummy spaghetti squash stir fry and I decided to recreate it with some chicken. I don’t know about you, but I need to figure out how to mix it up with some marinades. This is usually pretty difficult considering by the time I decide I might want chicken for dinner, it’s still cooped up nestled between some ice cream and a pizza in the freezer.

Weeelll if you have one of those rare mornings where you can spare ten-fifteen minutes, this peanut sauce + a little extra soy sauce + the lime rind works as a great chicken marinade! Plus it’s super convenient because then you can use the rest of the sauce for some veggies and noodles.

Morning: Whip up the peanut sauce, using olive/veggie oil instead of grapeseed (don’t really have any grapeseed oil around my college kitchen…) We actually used a mix of sesame+olive I think

looks kinda weird, but i swear this is great! peanut butter, chili garlic, a whole lime and lots of other sweet+spicy goodness

Next: Coat some chicken tenders in a a few tablespoons of sauce + a few shakes of soy sauce in a plastic bag. I also added the lime rind to add flavor but who knows if that did anything 🙂 Place in the refrigerator for 3-12 hrs…I wish I had done this overnight!

Dinnertime: Heat up a pan and cook up your chicken 4-5 minutes per side. I’d also recommend tenderizing it a bit (pound out breasts/tenders until flattened a bit)

Take out the chicken and set aside. Add to the pan some chopped onions and peppers with a bit of oil

While these are cooking up, microwave those black noodles your mom sent you in a package (ok ya that’s just me, but ya know, noodles, rice whatever you want!)

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Cook up your onions with peppers, garlic, frozen stir fry veggies (I used broccoli cuts), and baby carrots with some more peanut sauce

Mix it all up with some chopped cilantro and crushed peanuts on top!

Apr10

Ch-ch-ch-chai granola

Posted on April 10, 2013 by athaidek

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My friend Jess has the Spicy Chai Latte mix from Trader Joe’s, and ever since I tried it once at her house, I’M HOOKED on chai (just like phonics). This whole summer my roomies kept raving about it, and I don’t know what took me so long to catch on to the trend. I think I was a little offended that tea would even think about encroaching on the deliciousness of my morning coffee, but now I love it.

I’ve made granola twice before but the first time I burned it. The second time, I didn’t understand that you have to let it dry a bit so it gets crunchy. This time, I think I’m getting closer to getting it right. With some yogurt and fruit, twas a delicious breakfast for the week. You should try it just add whatever you have!!

Here was my guide: http://www.thekitchenismyplayground.com/2012/06/chai-granola.html

Per usual…I didn’t have sunflower seeds, wheat germ, dates or cardamom. Just added whatever nuts I had and some dried cranberries at the end.

spices: cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cloves