something new

so i have never had a candied apple, and i have certainly never attempted to make one. but, i was in the grocery store a few weeks back with my man (from this point forward - in this posts and future posts - will be referred to as the jeffster), and he mentioned his affection for them. though, the ones at the store were unacceptable as they were covered in nuts.

for some reason, i always thought the red apples were just caramel apples with food coloring to make the caramel more festive. it never really struck me that they were different. so different.

now, i heart caramel apples. in fact, each time i fly through the minneapolis/st. paul airport, i always walk past the rocky mountain chocolate factory and salivate in front of their caramel apple display. they have giant apples covered in layers of caramel, chocolate (milk, dark, and/or white), nuts, candies, and other tasty delights! i bought one once for my roommate (for pickin' me up from the airport in dc), but the hefty price tag on the beasts limits my purchasing frequency.

anyway, i'm making a short story long.

i was feeling generous and wanted to get the jeffster something fun, so when i saw the candied apple kit at the store, i got it and splurged on some superb apples (man, they were good)! unfortunately, i didn't realize you needed a candy thermometer to make them, so we had to wait a couple days till we were back at my place to make them. so two of the big apples were consumed in the meantime (luckily, i had a couple of little apples to take their place). check out the finished product:

warning: just because the thermometer isn't going up quickly, doesn't mean you should let the candy coating sit and boil while you join your bf on the couch for some tv watching. as soon as i turned my back, the temp spiked, and the candy coating has a slightly burned taste to it. sigh. they still turned out very pretty. and considering i'm a fan of burnt black marshmallows for s'mores, i didn't mind the toasty flavor. nor did the jeffster.

side note: my co-worked mentioned a recipe she heard on the radio for mini-candy apples. and it just sounds far too cute for me to pass up, so watch out!

2nd side note: notice the biscotti in the background to the upper right. i made that too. though that is another trial and error blog post for the future...

remember this one?

just thought i would mention that i have been baking, but i have been going back to some of my old favorites. i saw the bags of ocean spray cranberries piling up in the grocery store, so i made this recipe again. mmm... just as good as last time. and i got multiple compliments on my crust. what can i say, i'm good.

also, i just wanted to note my favorite fall flavors:

cranberries (fresh)
poultry seasoning (mmm, stuffing)
pumpkin pie spice (in anything i can use it in)

this year i want to try a cranberry cheesecake... let the experimentation begin!

i won the entire office pizza today...

well of course i had help - but i was the team leader and ended up doing quite a bit of the work. anyway, i found a segment on martha's website that inspired me to try to do a hi-tech pumpkin. the idea was a witch's cauldron. we got fiber optic lights, colored christmas lights, and dry ice fog to give it a nice ambiance. we dressed up an old mail cart with a black table cloth, cut-up shower poofs, and rubber creepy-crawlers. to top it all off, we put a skeleton hand coming up out of the top... to make you wonder what really was cookin' in the pot!

anyway, i got to spend two afternoons at work on this (which was a fun change of pace). and, AND - i (i mean we) won! there were 8 other pumpkins (only 1 really provided any really threat), and we were decided the winner. so the property manager of our office building bought the entire museum lunch. bertucci's catered it, and we has 42 gourment pizzas delivered to our conference room today. it was sooooo good! there was enough pizza that i got to take a whole one home with me :)

happy halloween!

birfday cheezecake

tuesday was my man's birthday, and to help him celebrate, i made him a cake - a cheesecake! he told me a couple weeks back that he liked plain cheesecake best, but when have i ever just done a plain anything? yeah, that is what i thought too. so i thought on it a bit and decided to combine a cheesecake with another dessert i knew he liked - apple crisp. i did a bit of googling, and below you can see the spectacular results. it really was a tasty number!

if you want to attempt to replicate it, check out the recipe i used here. i did, however, find the texture to be a bit off. it wasn't as dense and creamy as i would have liked. i also had to bake it for a very long time (an additional 20-25 minutes). this may have been due to the fact i used a pan that could have been a bit larger... also, the recipe calls for brown sugar with the cream cheese and sour cream to compliment the topping. perhaps using regular sugar would have improved the texture... who knows. it's not like it was bad. off texture or not, the cheesecake was damn good :)

one groom's cake - comin' up!

my friend and co-worker grant got married a couple of weeks ago. i was able to get an invite (it was a small wedding with a short/limited invite list), and i was also commissioned to make the groom's cake. grant hails from minnesota, and requested a golden gophers cake. needless to say, as a stanch supporter of the iowa hawkeys, it pained me to fulfill this request (but, for grant, i labored through it).

grant immediately asked if he could have a cake that was chocolate/peanut butter. i wasn't sure how i was going to do it, but i knew it could be done! so i said yes and went on the hunt for a good recipe. i used martha's one-bowl chocolate cake recipe (so good, so easy) and this recipe for an extremely fluffy (and hard to resist) peanbutter buttercream. the cake was delicious and it smelled about 100x better than it tasted. mmm... so good! it was definitely a hit. although, they forgot to tell the caterers not to serve it (it was supposed to be saved for grant and his new bride), so the only cake he got to taste was the little bit from the ceremonial cutting portion. poor guy.

i get to knit at work - my job is awesome!

check out my sit 'n' knit program at work. man, i'm a lucky girl :P

you'll find the article here.

thought i look like a gomer in the photo... meh.

for the crunchy, granola people out there

my co-worker loo is a bit of a health nut these days. actually, i'm a touch jealous. the girl is training for her second full triathlon and is sticking to healthy eating regiment (something i should really consider - the eating, not the triathlon; no need to kill myself). anyway, i usually bake something delicious for my friends on their birthdays, but i knew loo wouldn't eat a cake or something similar this year. so i researched granola and protein bar recipes and concocted a mix of my own. these little babies are tasty power burst!





my recipe (based on several different bloggers out there):

2 cups of rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of nuts and seeds (i used almond slivers, pumpkin seeds, and soy nuts)

[toast the above ingredients on a greased cookie sheet at 350-375 degrees, stirring about every 5 minutes]

3/4 cup of honey
3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter (a generic natural kind - runny is easier to use)
2/3 cup of brown sugar

[heat these ingredients on medium heat until combined and melty]

2 cups of dried fruit (chopped up, i used apricots, cranberries, and papaya)
1 1/2 scoops of vanilla protein powder (not sure how much a scoop is - but they come with those huge cans of whey protein my male roommates insist on having...)
toasted oats, nuts, and seeds

[mix these with the melty stuff and then press into a greased 9x13" baking pan, refrigerate for at least an hour, cut into bars, and wrap in wax paper, cling wrap, or foil - as i did below]


the little "g" on the middle bar denotes a special littla addition i made to a couple of the bars. i bought som crystalized ginger while i was at the grocery store. i wanted to chop it up for the bars, but the flavor was so strong (i'd never had it before), i wasn't sure if it would over power the bars. so i chopped a few and pressed them into the top of a small portion of the bars. glad i did it to - loved it!