Eat at Andrea's

Dark Chocolate, Sour Cherry and Marcona Almond Cookies

Yes, I've been on Pinterest again! These sounded so good, dark chocolate and dried sour cherries? Hello! And what the heck are Marcona Almonds anyway? I'd never heard of them. Heather Cristo, the blog on which I found the recipe, raved about them. So I bought some Marcona almonds.

Oh boy, these are good! I had to put the container in the cupboard while I mixed up the cookies or I would have emptied it. These almonds are a little rounder than a regular almond and they are white.

They have a bit softer texture than a regular almond and, in my opinion, a much different flavor. They are almost like a cashew! Hence me not being able to put them down. I should never bake before dinner!

The cookies are easy, cream butter and sugar, add the dry ingredients then the cherris, nuts and chocolate chips. I used my favorite Ghirardelli!

The recipe said it made 2 dozen. I used a 2-tablespoon scoop and got 30 cookies out of the batch. I didn't chill the dough (lazy) so they did spread quite a bit.

Were they worth the cost of the almonds? I'm going to say yes, the dark chocolate and cherry were the amazing flavors for me but the almonds added a nice texture. They cookies will be going to work with either Dave or I tommorrow. They can't stay in the house!

Bacon Cupcakes?

I like to bring treats to my coworkers on their birthdays. Last week a coworker had a birthday and I made these really cute "ice cream sundae cupcakes" to bring in then the weather hit. We had arguably the worst winter storm so far this year. It started the day before with rain that turned to sleet that turned to snow and just didn't stop snowing. We got close to a foot of snow at our house. It started out so wet that the tree branches were coated then froze and we lost several big branches and one whole tree. The roads were sheets of ice, it was ugly.

Lucky for me I have the ability to work from home when necessary. I deemed that day necessary! So the ice cream sundae cupcakes went to the neighbor boys who help us around the house and the yard and with the dogs.

I promised treats the following Monday. His manager told me that this person's favorite saying is "everything is better with bacon" and he was even nice enough to send me a link to a recipe for French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes. I had to make them.

Here is a link to the recipe:
French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes

Before you can do anything you have to cook the bacon. The person who published the recipe microwaved her bacon. No offence but, yuck. I baked my bacon. Maybe it took longer but I know it tasted better.

I cut a couple of slices into about one-inch pieces for garnish, the rest was crumbled up and put in the batter.

One batch makes 14 cupcakes. I knew I needed at least 24 so I made a double batch. I only put the cooked bacon in one batch, yes, I was skeptical, why ruin two batches?

After they baked you couldn't tell the "with bacon" from the "without bacon" by looks so it didn't impact baking at all. I did use different cupcake papers for the ones with bacon so I could tell people which were which.

The cupcakes are frosted with a maple butter cream frosting then garnished with the pieces of bacon.

So how did they taste? I am not a fan of maple so for me they were only OK. The added bacon wasn't terrible but I'm not sure, for me, it added anything other than novelty. My husband LOVED them. He is a huge maple fan and with maple in the cupcake and the frosting, well he was in heaven. There were four extra cupcakes, he ate them all!

My coworkers loved them too. The ones with bacon disappeared before the ones without and everyone raved about the maple butter cream. I'll have to remember that when I'm looking for a unique frosting flavor!

Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries and Bananas

I love breakfast. It's my favorite meal to eat out and one of my favorites to cook at home too. While I was perusing Pinterest yesterday I came across this recipe for baked oatmeal. I had all of the ingredients in the house so it was decided it would be today's breakfast!

The recipe is from Skinnytaste. If you haven't heard of this website, Gina Homolka publishes healthy dishes that don't sacrifice on flavor. I've tried many of them and they are all really good. Her Chicken Pot Pie Soup is one of my favorites this time of year. Those of you who know me know I really, really love food but it has to be good food. I don't eat fat free cheese (honestly, it's not food) or some of the other "diet" substitutions out there. If there's something in a recipe I don't like, I just change it, it's still a good recipe! For those of you on Weight Watchers, Gina also publishes both the old and new WW points for every recipe!

Here is a link to the oatmeal recipe:
Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries and Bananas

The ingredients are simple and like me, you probably have them in the house, ripe bananas (OK so mine weren't so ripe but I really wanted to make this), blueberries, honey, quick oats, walnuts or pecans, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, milk and egg and vanilla.

Slice up the bananas and put them in the bottom of a ceramic baking dish. I used one of my Pampered Chef Pie Plates. They cost less the more you use them, right? Top those with half of the blueberries and a little cinnamon. This gets baked, covered, for 15 minutes to soften up the bananas. I had to give mine a few extra minutes because my bananas were eating ripe, not baking ripe.

While that's baking the remaining dry ingredients are mixed in one bowl and the wet in another. When the bananas and blueberries are removed from the oven they are topped with the dry ingredients (oats, nuts, baking powder, cinnamon and salt) and then the wet ingredients are poured on top of that (milk, egg, honey, vanilla).

Finally the remaining blueberries and nuts are sprinkled on top and back in the oven it goes for 30 minutes. How simple is that? This picture doesn't do it justice, it was a beautiful golden brown and the kitchen smelled like cinnamon!

This was delicious! And the possibilities are endless! Don't like blueberries, use raspberries! How about apples? They would be amazing with the cinnamon! Need to feed a crowd? I can see baking a double batch in a 13x9 for a big family brunch. Want to make it "fancy," how about individual servings in ramekins? I am sure I'll be making this again and again!

The best laid plans... lead to lemon pepper linguini and eggs!

I had big plans for the weekend. Sunday is my mother's birthday and for the past few years I've been traveling to Green Bay and making dinner for her and a select few of her friends. Well, this year I didn't get that planned soon enough so I decided I would just surprise her and my brother and his family.

Through some recon I found out that mom would be at my brother's because my nephew was in a basketball tournament this weekend. So I started planning the menu, buying ingredients, arranged for the kids down the block to take care of the dogs and booked our hotel room.

I was planning on making lemon pepper linguini with shrimp and asparagus served with homemade Italian garlic bread and, of course, birthday cake for dessert. For the picky eaters I had traditional lasganetta and red sauce.

And then I got sick. Actually I've been sick for a little over a week but it got to the point I couldn't power through it anymore. I went to the doctor and, based on my symptoms I have a sinus infection and/or a virus that has been going around. A guy I work with has been battling this since December. I sure hope I kick it faster than that!

So we called off the trip so I can have a relaxing weekend at home.

As a result of this failed trip, we have LOTS of Sunrise Creative Gourmet lemon pepper linguini in the freezer! This is delicious pasta. If you haven't tried it I highly recommend it. Toss it with a little olive oil and serve it with salmon or shrimp, delicious!

I also had a big loaf of homemade bread.

This morning I got thinking, could I use it for breakfast? Maybe a breakfast pasta egg scramble thingy? I got to work!

I started by sauteing some onions in some lemon infused EVOO from The Olive Grove Olive Oil Company. I like it when the onions are caramelized!

I boiled up some of the pasta, it only takes a few minutes, then tossed it in the pan with the onions, some beaten eggs and a little smoked ham. It only took a couple of minutes to cook. I topped it with a little freshly shaved Parmesan and a side of toast made with that homemade bread. The verdict? We loved it!

I still have A LOT of lemon pepper linguini in the freezer. I wonder if I could use it in a dessert?

Pretzels!

I've been wanting to attempt pretzels for a while now. What has kept me from it mostly is the lye. I don't really want to use it. I know how dangerous it can be (I have that master's degree in chemistry you know) but also know how to work with dangerous things. Just chicken I guess!

Then an email from Tasting Table arrived with this recipe for Traditional Soft Pretzels. Instead of lye, baking soda is used. I can do that, right? Today was the day.

I went out to the recipe to print it (no tablet in my kitchen) and noticed there were a couple of comments about the recipe, neither very flattering. Yikes! I was all set to make these and now there was a comment that they were so bad even the person's dog wouldn't eat them! But I wanted to make pretzels!

I went out to my "Breads" board on Pinterest and looked up another recipe. Maybe I could still make pretzels just with another recipe. I had pinned a Michael Ruhlman recipe for pretzels. I've never had a Ruhlman recipe fail, maybe I'd make those. Well, they called for lye! He did mention that baking soda could be used but he wasn't sure of the amount. So, gosh darn it, I was making the original recipe.

To start, the baking soda is placed in a 250 degree F oven for an hour. The recipe doesn't say specifically but I'm guessing this is to remove more moisture and make the soda more basic. For you chemistry geeks out there, baking soda is a base. It has a pH of about 8 while lye is more like a 13 or 14 on the pH scale. I had no way of testing if the hour in the oven made the soda more basic, I'm just guessing!

The dough is simple to put together, bloom some yeast in warm water with some brown sugar. To this flour, pilsner style beer, butter and salt are added. I don't know beers. I don't like beer. I'm allergic to barley so most of them just congest me. I like wine. I'm lucky to have a husband who is a beer connoisseur. I grabbed a beer from his beer frig behind the bar and walked it outside where he was shoveling the driveway. "Is this a pilsner beer?" His response (read this with a chuckle in his voice) "Um, no." He then came in and found me a suitable beer. He said a pilsner is a lighter beer and he doesn't usually drink lighter beers. This is what he picked.

You are supposed to mix this until it makes a "shaggy mass." I don't really know what a shaggy mass is but I'm guessing it looks like this, because this is what my mixture looked like!

Once you have the shaggy mass it's time to knead until you have an elastic dough. I do know what an elastic dough is! I did have to add 3 teaspoons of water to get my dough just right.

I have to say the dough smelled really good. I found myself wondering how a dough that smells so good could create tasteless pretzels that a dog wouldn't eat.

According to the recipe, for best flavor the dough should be refrigerated for 8 hours or up to 24 hours but for "quick" pretzels you could just let it rise for three and a half hours. That's what I did!

After the rise, the dough is punched down and separated into 8 pieces.

Each piece is rolled into about a 12 or 16 inch log. Once they've all been rolled you can go back to the first one that has been resting and roll it into a 24 to 28 inch log. These are then shaped into pretzel shapes. Mine didn't look exactly like the once in the picture on the recipe but I wasn't worried!

The eight pretzels then get a little rest for a half hour or so before being soaked in a warm solution of water and the baking soda prepared earlier. If I'd been thinking, I would have left one out of the bath just to see how different it was. Next time!

Each pretzel is soaked for only about 20 seconds then put back on the baking sheet. The directions say to cut a slit in the thickest part of the pretzel so I did. Not sure what that got me. They then get a little egg wash and some salt (or whatever topping you want) and into the oven they go.

They came out beautiful! The smelled good! But, according to that one reviewer, hers did too.

So how did they taste? Mine weren't terrible and I'm sure the dogs would have eaten them! I might have had to put butter on Cider's but he would have eaten it!

Flavor-wise I thought they were good. I could taste the beer. They weren't tasteless as reported. They were soft and slightly chewy. They didn't have that tough, really chewy crust of a good Bavarian pretzel. My guess is had I used lye I would have gotten that crust. Bottom line, they were good, they were fun and I will make pretzels again. Maybe I'll try Mr. Ruhlman's recipe next time and maybe I'll see if I can find some lye. Maybe I'll do a couple with no bath, a couple in lye and a couple with the baking soda and see what the differences really are. Or maybe I'll just make them all the same way and eat them!

Not quite epic fail but definitely a flop!

My friends at work stopped by my desk with a couple of pages they had ripped out of a magazine. They know I like to bake and have been known to bake fun things like cakes that look like spaghetti and meatballs or cakes with hidden flags in them. They thought this cake from Better Homes and Gardens was right up my ally. I didn't disagree!

Here is a link to the recipe. I will admit to a bit of frustration that you have to register for the site with not only an email address (no, I didn't use my real one, I get enough junk email) but also your mailing address! And again, they didn't get my real one there either.

Better Homes and Gardens Hidden Snowman Cake

I read the article, looked at the pictures and thought, I can do that! I've done more complicated cakes before. So I made sure I had all the ingredients and got started.

First you make the snowmen. A dense "vanilla" cake is used for the snowmen. I put vanilla in quotes because even though they call it a vanilla cake, vanilla is not listed as an ingredient in the cake! I added some.

The cake is baked in a 13x9 pan and you are supposed to get 12 to 15 three-inch snowmen out of this cake. In what universe? I didn't use a snowman cutter, I used gingerbread men cutters but they were 3 inch cutters. Even in the picture in the article there is now way they are getting that many snowmen out of the pan. I was able to cut 9 gingerbread men out of mine and as you'll see from the pictures, I'm not sure many more than that would even fit in the pan. I tasted some of the waste and the cake tasted OK, not fabulous by any means but OK.

Next you put together the batter for the chocolate cake that will hide the vanilla snowmen (or gingerbread men in my case). This is A LOT of batter. I started getting nervous when my Kitchenaid was nearly over-flowing with batter. Really, all of this will fit in the pan WITH the gingerbread men? It was Better Homes and Gardens, they must know better, right?

I put half of the batter in the pan and then put my gingerbread men in, upside down as instructed. I then put the rest of the batter in the pan. Anyone else nervous at the amount of batter in this tube pan?

The recipe said to loosely cover the cake with foil for the last 15 minutes of the hour and twenty minutes of baking. Well, that was waiting too long! Yes the batter over-filled the pan, yes it dribbled all over the bottom of my oven, and yes the top was a bit scorched. I still wasn't too worried, I could just cut that off and no one would know about it!

It took much longer than an hour and 20 minutes for my cake to bake. Closer to an hour and 40 minutes. I made this after work one evening so I had started it later in the day. It was now almost 9pm and the cake was just coming out of the oven! The things I do for my coworkers!

After 15 minutes I cut the burned part off the top and tasted it. It was OK. Not great, just OK, then again, it was burned. I removed the cake from the pan and the sides looked burnt too. I made the decision at this point to throw in the towel on this cake. This is not a cheap cake to make. The two cakes used 8 eggs, 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, a cup and a half of butter and a cup of buttermilk in addition to the normal flour, sugar, etc. ingredients in cake. The frosting called for another 6 egg whites I wasn't willing to throw away on a cake I knew wasn't going to be good.

So I looked for my hidden gingerbread men. I'm not sure how they got the picture in the magazine but mine didn't work very well. I did get one slice where you can sort of tell the thing in the middle of the cake is a gingerbread man. Maybe my choice of cookie cutter wasn't a good one?

So I won't call it an epic fail. The cake did eventually bake and I could have frosted it and it would have tasted OK, but it didn't nearly come close to some of the other fun cakes I've made in presentation or flavor.