Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Chocolate cookies

These cookies are looovely and are fabulous dipped in coffee and I would think might be so so excellent dipped into coffee...if you like coffee that is...I don't (I know, I know, I don't like coffee and am not a bacon fanatic? You must think I'm crAAAzy). Well anyway, they weren't as spicy as I was expecting (the recipe called them Cinnamon-Spiced Hot Chocolate Cookies). I added more cinnamon, which helped, but I would add more next time. Instead of the dulce de leche, I made cinnamon-and-cayenne caramel and drizzled that on top.

Cinnamon-Spiced Hot Chocolate Cookies:
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Mexican cocoa powder (or substitute by adding 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon to unsweetened cocoa powder)
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons margarine* I didn't have this so instead I used more butter and a little bit of canola oil...I think it was about 2 more tblspns butter and then drizzled in the oil at the end of mixing everything together to get the dough to stay together more...
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Generous pinch ground black pepper
  • Generous pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 cup caramel drizzle (recipe follows)

Directions

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly with a whisk and set aside. Combine the sugars in a small bowl and mix well with your fingers pressing out any lumps.

In a medium mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter and margarine until creamy. Add sugar mixture, cinnamon, peppers, and vanilla. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute. Beat in the egg white and until the mixture is smooth. Stop the mixer. Add the flour mixture, beating on the lowest speed, just until incorporated *Add oil in here as needed for the dough to stick together. Put waxed paper or plastic wrap down on your counter or table and dump the dough out on it. Gather the dough together with your hands and form it into a neat log, 9 to 10 inches long by 1 1/2 inches in diameter (or you know, just long and thin). Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap (you can use the plastic wrap/waxed paper to help get all the dough to come together, since mine was a little dry. Fold or twist ends of the paper without pinching or flatting the log. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes, or until needed.

Put the oven racks in the upper and lower third of the oven (I just used the middle ones and didn't switch them half way through...) and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Use a sharp knife to slice rounds of chilled dough, a scant 1/4-inch thick. Arrange the cookies, 1-inch apart (or so), on the prepared baking sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through. Cookies will puff and crackle on top, and then begin to settle down slightly when done.Check carefully to make sure then don't burn--use your nose--because they're really dark and it's hard to tell.

Remove the baking sheets from the oven and use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Allow the cookies to cool completely before storing or stacking. Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 2 months.

Caramel Sauce
-1/2 c white sugar
-3 tblspns butter
-1/4 c heavy whipping cream
-tsp of cinnamon
-shake or large pinch of cayenne
-salt n peppa
*water as needed

-Heat sugar in a tall, heavy sauce pan and stir only until it starts to boil and then stop stirring (you can still swirl the pan around though)
-Once the sugar is golden, add the butter and immediately whisk until the butter is melted
-Once the butter is totally melted, remove from the heat, count to 3 and then add the cream
-Whisk until smooth
-Add in the spices and whisk
-Add salt and pepper to taste/a few shakes of salt and grinds of pepper
-Let cool a little bit and then drizzle onto the cookies and eat everything.
*If you suck at making caramel, add a 1/4-1/2 c of water to the sugar before it boils. The water has to boil off before the sugar can caramelize, so the sugar gets cooked more evenly and is less likely to burn. This does take longer, but since I always burn my caramel, I think it's worth it.
**The sauce is a little spicy but in the most addictive way.

An Amazing Cake plus more

So I already gave you a link to this cake I found in Gourmet and I will discuss it more here because it is freaking amazing. The frosting is probably the best I've ever had. Seriously. Wowww.

Ok, so besides this awesome, awesome cake I also made an onion pie/tart for thanksgiving, along with the zucchini roll ups and a lemon sponge tarte. The onion pie was from Gourmet as well and basically it was a pie filled with caramelized onions, bacon, and some spices I felt like throwing in. It was awsome, but I won't post until I've adapted it to my ideal liking because I think it needed toasted fennel seeds or something...and maybe some cheese. As for the lemon sponge tarte, it was excellent and from a cookbook I got from my fabulous ex-housemates. It tasted like a cross between a lemon meringue pie and a lemon bar, especially the second day. Yummmyyy.

Here's the important thing though, the cake:
Spice Cake with Caramelized Pears and Maple Buttercream
...Ok, epicurious hates me and won't let me cut and paste...here's the link, sorry!
Notes:
1. Feel free to add more of the spices than they ask for, I prefer liberally-spiced cakes and I added a shake or pinch more at least of everything and do not regret it
2. Watch the cakes carefully because I overcooked mine just barely and they came out a little drier than I would have liked (although I didn't get any complaints)
3. Definately be liberal with the brandy and toss in some orange liqueur if you have it...why not right?
4. Use a nice tall/deep pan to cook the maple syrup mixture in because it foams up like crazy and I managed to get it all over the stove. Yeah, like aaaallllll over. Not pleasant.
5. I only added about half the butter they suggested to keep the maple flavor stronger...Also you really don't need that much butter
*Sorry I don't have photos :(

Zucchini Roll Ups...aka the best appetizer EVER


Man oh man, I made these as an appetizer for Thanksgiving and they were just eaten on up. They are unusual, delicious, light, and totally cute.

-4 small/medium zucchinis
-2 few cups of baby spinach (washed)
-maybe a 1/2 cup of fresh basil (washed and chopped into large pieces)
-1 tblspn lemon juice
-2 oz garlic-herb cream cheese or plain goat cheese
-3 oz reg. cream cheese
-a few tblspns flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)
-some chives if you're feeling fancy
-salt n pepa
-tooth picks

-Chop the ends of the zucchini so you can hold it stabley upright
-Slice zucchini lengthwise and keep slicing uptil all of the zucchini is in long, thin slices
-Heat up a grill (ideally one of those nice fast ones that heat up quickly)
-Spray zucchini slices with cooking spray or that olive oil spray stuff, sprinkle with salt and pepper
-Lay the zucchini on the grill until you see nice, dark grill marks on the bottom, then flip
-Repeat until all are grilled (this should not take too long)
-Mix the lemon juice, cream cheeses or goat cheese, parsley, and chives if using in a small bowl and add cheese or lemon etc as needed to taste
-Lay out a zucchini strip on a cutting board, put a baby spinach leaf, a piece of basil, and a small dollop of cheese mixture on one end of the zucchini and then it all up slowly, tucking in the spinach, etc, as needed. Once rolled, stab with a toothpick and devour (or place on a plate and share)

*This makes about enough to feed 6-8 as appetizers with other things.
**Sorry the photo isn't great, I'll upload my other camera soon, I swear.

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls


YUUUUMMMMYYYY!
I made these first for my neighbor's birthday and then perfected them a few weeks later while home for thanksgiving.

Cinnamon Rolls (pretty much stolen from Smitten Kitchen)

Makes 18 buns...mine made less and were rather small, not that I'm complaining.

Dough
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/4 teaspoons rapid-rise or instant yeast (from 1 envelope yeast)
1 teaspoon salt
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Combine milk and butter in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high until butter melts and mixture is just warmed to 120°F to 130°F, about 30 to 45 seconds.

Pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Beat on low speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add additional 2 1/2 cups flour.

Beat on low until flour is absorbed and dough is sticky, scraping down sides of bowl. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls until dough begins to form ball and pulls away from sides of bowl.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. (You may also use a KitchenAid’s dough hook for this process.) Form into ball.

Lightly oil large bowl with nonstick spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel.

Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours or overnight in a warm place.

Once dough has risen and you're ready to start baking them, preheat oven to 375°F.

Filling
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt

Several pieces of bacon--make a bunch and it will get eaten...I think I made about 10 large strips?

Glaze
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

a nice long drizzle of maple syrup to taste

*OR add cream cheese to this maple buttercream frosting

For filling:

Begin cooking bacon right when you preheat the oven. Cook until a little under your prefered done-ness. I am not a huge bacon fan (I know, I know) but when I eat it, I prefer it not quite crispy.

Once cooked enough, drain and follow the next steps with the dough and filling.

Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt in medium bowl.

Press down dough. Transfer to floured work surface. Roll out to 15×11-inch rectangle.

Spread butter over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border.

Sprinkle cinnamon mixture evenly over butter.

Lay bacon in strips next to each other width-wise on the dough, leaving a little room on all sides.

Starting at the longer side, roll dough into log, pinching gently to keep it rolled up. With seam side down, cut remaining dough crosswise with thin sharp knife (a good serrated worked well here) into 18 equal slices (each about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide...or the width of the bacon pieces).

Spray two 9-inch square glass baking dishes (an 8-inch square metal pan worked just fine, too) with nonstick spray. Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be almost no space between rolls). ***

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to . Bake rolls until tops are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and invert immediately onto rack. Cool 10 minutes. Turn rolls right side up.

***[Cover baking dishes with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, 40 to 45 minutes, though yours, like mine, may take longer. Don’t skimp on the double-rising time.] I didn't do this step, so the cinnamon rolls will be a little smaller, but they are definately completely delicious. If you follow this step, maybe skip the bacon...if you want bacon, you will have to settle for baby cinnamon rolls.

For glaze: Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, syrup, and vanilla in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth. Spread glaze on rolls. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Awesome Easy Brownies

Thanks to Linda on allrecipes.com for this excellent recipe, whoever and whereever you are!

Easy But Excellent Brownies:
-3/4 c butter
-4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares (4 squares at 1 oz each) or more to taste*
*I added a few spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder
-3 eggs
-2 c sugar or more to taste
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 c flour
-pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan
3. melt butter in a double boiler or microwave
4. Add chocolate, let sit for thirty seconds or so until it's melty and then whisk until smooth
5. In another bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork
5. Add the chocolate/butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, flour and mix until combines
6. Taste and add more sugar or cocoa powder as needed
7. Spread into the pan, sprinkle chocolate chips on if you are cool like that
8. Bake for 25-30 min, depending on how hot your oven runs (mine runs hot and took a little less than 25 min)
9. Do not make these at 6 pm before you've had dinner. Woops!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Another Sandwich

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm really into sandwiches. Anyway, this is a variation on a grilled sandwich and I'm very pleased.

Another Sandwich:
-bread
-yummy cheese (I used a lovely cheddar that I got from Vermont) (grated)
-olive oil
-mustard
-honey
-tomatoes (sliced)
-white onion (roughly chopped)
-turkey/ham/whatever lunch meat you like
-garlic (a chunk of it)

-Heat a nonstick pan
-brush/rub the outside of bread with olive oil
-put one piece in the pan, oiled side down
-spead mustard on the upward facing side
-meanwhile add the onions to the pan and let them soften up
-add the cheese on top of the bread
-add the tomatoes
-add the lunch meat
-let cook until the cheese is melty and the outside of the bread gets toasty
-spread mustard and honey on other piece of bread and add that on top of the rest of the sandwich
-brush olive oil on the outside of the other piece of bread
-flip the whole sandwich over and press it down
-once the other piece of bread is toasty, take it off the pan
-rub the garlic on the outside of both sides of the bread
-eat with a nice salad and some wine

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Apple Desserts





This time you get a two-for-one deal!
I made this fantastic dish: [http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/mollys-apple-tarte-tatin/] which was delicious. I've never had or made a tarte tatin, but it's now one of my top favorite desserts without question. I did have two issues, however: the crust was a little doughy (but that was likely me since I think I added too much water and tried to fix it) and I had about twice the amount of apples needed. Now maybe this was a result of my pan, but I don't think so because the dough fit on top nicely. I've had this problem several times from Smitten Kitchen where I'll end up with too much frosting or more batter, etc, etc, so who knows.

Meanwhile, I had read a recipe for a pear tarte tatin with a red wine caramel sauce that looked fabulous. I was more in the mood for apples, however, but I figured I could still incorporate the red wine caramel sauce into the above recipe. I started making the red wine syrup (red wine simmering with a cinnamon stick in it) but I soon realized that my pan was too shallow to add more liquid that I already had in it. Since the wine was already infusing, I just went ahead and tossed in some more spices and decided to make it into a sort of mulled wine so it wouldn't go to waste, heh. Once I realized I had way too many apples, I decided to chop them up a bit more and see what happened if I cooked them in the wine and spices. Well, this was one of my better ideas because they turned out fantastically. I conveniently also had a spare frozen pie crust in my freezer so I got that out to thaw. I added some sugar to the wine and turned up the heat and cooked the apples down until the wine was syrupy and the apples were soft. I then added them into the pastry and baked them

Red Wine Apple Pastries:

-3-4 peeled and cored apples—brayburn/whatever—anything you’d use in a pie

-half a cinnamon stick

-half a bottle of red wine

-a shake of ground ginger

-shake of cardamom

-shake of nutmeg

-shake of cloves

-few shakes of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon sugar

-half a cup or so of white sugar

-tablespoon of butter

-brown sugar for end

-frozen pie crust (1 crust), thawed

-heat red wine and cinnamon stick over med. heat until bubbling and cook it for a bit to reduce it

-add all spices

-drink some to taste it (add honey when drinking it and pretend it's mulled wine)

-add apples and sugar

-cook it for a while over med high heat until the wine turns syrup-y and reduces a lot

-remove from heat

-cut pie dough into little circles

-fill will a small spoonful of apple mix plus a pinch of brown sugar

-crimp edges and cut slits in top

-bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 min

Monday, November 2, 2009

How To Make A My Little Pony Costume From Scratch


Halloween is tied with Christmas for my favorite holiday. I mean seriously, how can you not love a holiday where you get to wander around in costume and get free candy from strangers?! This year, thanks to a fantastic suggestion by Quinn, I decided to be a My Little Pony. I have a very large collection of My Little Ponies...yes, I still have it...from when I was little and have kind of always been a fan.

I got really excited about dressing up as one, but then I realized it might be a little trickier than I had expected. I went through my closet and noticed that I had a light blue long-sleeved shirt and light blue leg warmers, light pink tights, and lavender leggings. When I think of MLP (My Little Pony), I think of pastels, glitter, and rainbows, so I figured I should just pick whatever pastel I had the most of and go with it. That left me with the blue shirt and leg warmers since I figured leg warmers would work as a nice fat pony calf. From there I figured I could do black "hoofs" (black socks and shoes, black gloves) with things I already had, and all I'd really need to stress about would be the mane and tail. I must admit I got a liiiiittle too into my costume (no surprise there), and decided that I needed a rainbow mane and tail. I actually googled images of MLP and there really is a light blue pony with a rainbow mane and tail called "Rainbow Dash." I started my quest for a rainbow mane and tail by checking out ebay for rainbow wigs, figuring there would be a ton of them. Well, not the case. There were several David Bowie-esque rainbow wigs that just would not work and other than that, the cheapest one I could find was about $30. I'm having to be pretty cheap these days since I only have a part-time job (BUT I HAVE A PART TIME JOB!!!) so $30 for only one wig (and I'd need two--mane AND tail, remember) plus shipping/handling is so not worth it. Not finding real wigs made me a little bummed, but I figured I could check out the Bins and Goodwills and maybe find something to work.

At the Bins (for those who don't know, it's a huge HUGE Goodwill in se Portland where you buy most things by weight) I found this weird light blue cropped joacket with sparkly sleeves (hellooooo pony!) but not much else. I checked out the Goodwill Superstore on SE 6th as well and there's where my costume really came together. I got cute little light blue shorts and then I found the wig jackpot. I already had a long hot pink wig and at that Goodwill I found a weird wavy green one with a curly mullet top, a curly orange one, a red with red glitter wig, silver and purple wig, and some little wigs attached to combs. I got them all and probably, total, spent about about $20 (including Bins things). I figured I could cut the wigs up and make them into a rainbow.

I puff painted rainbows onto the hip/butt of my little shorts and then began chopping up the wigs to make the mane and tail. Cutting the wigs was a lot messier than expected since the hair gets all over the place, so I grabbed a trash bag and cut on top of that to make cleaning up easier. I cut the wigs first in half, and then in half again. Once I had them all broken down a bit, I layered them together to find the best-looking way to arrange them. I wasn't totally sure how to best attach them since I didn't really think glue would be that successful and I don't have a sewing machine. I decided to just try to stitch it by hand. It worked surprisingly well. After quite a bit less time than expected, I had my tail and only had to attach it to something! As my neighbor pointed out, people will probably pull your tail on halloween, so I decided not to attach it to my shorts. I found a weird belt made up of connected metal pink circles and just stitched the tail around the circle really tightly. I'm sorry the belt wasn't blue, but pale pink is enough of a pony color to work.

As for the mane, I had already planned to put my hair in a row of pony tails down my head. I tried this out and then stuck one of the wig-combs into my hair between the pony tails and it worked fantastically. I then went out and grabbed some combs at Fred Meyer (who knew they even sold combs there?!) and super glued wigs to the combs. Once those were dry, I stitched them down and it worked really well.

By this point, my costume was just about complete. I was only missing clue tights or leggings. I looked all over and really couldn't find the right color, so I just grabbed some fishnets and worse sheer stockings underneath (I've done this for a bunch of halloweens when I wanted fishnets but I didn't want to freeze). For make up I did glittery eyes with a ton of mascara, blush, and pink lipstick. I wore a little MLP on a string around my neck that I got from McDonalds and I wore these clear plastic star earings that lit up, and a big light blue ring. I finished it off with a ton of glitter hair spray in my wig and I looked pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Caprese Scramble

For some reason I had this craving for a caprese salad sandwich (tomato, fresh basil, mozzarella, olive oil and balsamic on a baguette) and ended up with more mozzarella than I needed. I tend to always have tomatoes on hand, and we have both dried and fresh basil in the house too. Yesterday morning I woke up rather hungry and settled on a scramble (mainly because I didn't have the right bread for french toast). I have made this scramble before, but I put a little more thought into it this time and thought I'd share:

Caprese Scramble
-2 eggs
-splash of milk
-salt n pepper
-a few shakes of garlic powder
-several leaves of fresh basil, washed, dried, and finely chopped OR several shakes of dried basil (I was too lazy to go allll the way outside and get some fresh...plus it was chilly!)
-about 1/3 of a medium sized ball of mozzarella, chopped
-a few pinched of Parmesan
-finely chopped white onion--maybe a tablespoon or 2? (I didn't have red which would probably also be good, although potentially too overpowering)
-half to 2/4 of a tomato, chopped

To assemble:
-Get everything chopped up
-Heat a medium-small pan over medium heat
-I just used Pam on it, but you can use olive oil if you prefer
-Toss in the onions first
-Whisk everything except the tomatoes in a bowl until all combined and nicely foamy
-Pour it in the pan (with the onions) and don't touch it for a minute until it starts to cook a little
-Sprinkle on the tomatoes (when you pick them up, shake them off a little to reduce the amount of liquid going into the eggs)
-Use a flat-ended wooden spatula and scrape everything around so that it doesn't stick. Scraping keeps the eggs light and fluffy.
-Keep scraping until the eggs are almost not runny at all and then put them on a plate since they'll keep cooking a little once out of the pan.
-Eat!
*Maybe add a splash of olive oil and balsamic at the end, if you feel like it...I just thought of it now, but I bet it would be fantastic.

A Cool TV Show

I think my love of cooking shows began with Iron Chef (the original one, none of this Bobby Flay nonsense). They made the most bizarre and exotic foods and everything looked so pretty! My dad was really into it, so we would watch it together and laugh at the insane judges and the strange ingredients they used. I forgot about it for a while until a friend introduced me to Top Chef, which reawakened my love for cooking shows, and I've been watching them ever since. I just discovered (today actually) "The Chef's Kitchen" which I found on sidereel. Some lady goes around to restaurants all over the country and watches while one of the chefs makes her a fancy dish. What I liked about this is that you don't just watch really talented chefs make awesome food, they do it step-by-step and you find out how much of each ingredient they use and all of their tips for making the food fabulous. For example, the episode I just watched was about fish and chips. Yes, I know that you batter some fish and fry it, but now I know the trick to really crispy fries, how to make the lightest beer batter, and to try it with vinegar instead of ketchup or tatar sauce. They have a really nice variety of foods too, so I'm pretty excited.

Bread!

I made bread for the first time!! I'm not totally sure why I've never made bread before, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I LOVE bread and I was worried that I would make bread and eat the entire loaf in a day...this almost happened. However, it's fun, easy, and cheap! I know a lot of people get scared by the time commitment baking bread requires, but it's really not that bad because most of the time is spent waiting for it to rise. It's a great thing to do one day when you have a lot of little errands to run or housecleaning to do since you can get everything done but you'll still be around home enough to punch the bread down, etc.

I got the recipe from The Wednesday Chef and barely adapted it at all. It's delicious but dangerously addictive. Here it is with my adaptations for your baking pleasure:

Ethiopian Honey-Spice Bread
Makes 1 loaf

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (at least, I used more)
1 large egg
1/2 cup mild honey
1 tablespoon ground coriander (or cardamom as I didn't have any coriander)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (at least)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

*I added a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice since I had it on hand
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup whole milk, warmed
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Combine the yeast, water, sugar or honey, and ginger in a small ceramic bowl and set in a warm, draft-free place until it bubbles vigorously/looks all foamy on top

2. Combine the egg, honey, spices and salt in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Add the milk and butter. Mix in 1 cup of the flour.

3. Add the yeast mixture and beat until all the ingredients are well blended. Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, using only enough to make a soft dough. Use your hands, if needed, to work in the last bit of flour...I definately needed my hands for the end of it, it got really sticky.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the bread by folding it end to end, pressing down and pushing forward several times with the heel of your hand. (The dough will be sticky. Use a dough scraper to clear the board and turn the mass of dough. Avoid adding more flour.-->I don't have a dough scraper, but I warm sponge works just fine.)

5. In about 5 minutes the dough will become smoother and more elastic. Shape into a rough ball and place in a large oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise until doubled in bulk...which took about an hour--maybe 45 min.

6. Heavily butter a 3-quart round baking dish that is 3 inches deep, such as a casserole or an enameled Dutch oven. Punch down the dough with a single blow of your fist. Knead the dough for a few minutes, shape into a rough ball, and place in the prepared pan. (Press the dough down so that the bottom of the pan is covered completely.) Cover and let rise again until the dough has doubled and reaches the top of the pan. I don't have a 3-quart baking dish, round or otherwise, so I just formed it into a loaf and put a towel on glasses on either side of it (so the towel wouldn't stick so much) and let it rise about 45 min or so. This worked just fine.

7. At least 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

8. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the bread is nicely rounded on top and a light golden brown. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove and transfer to a rack to cool completely before slicing. Since my oven is hot I cooked it for about 45 min maybe, so check it after about 40. Eat it while warm with butter and honey. Oh man. This stuff is good and SO easy.


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

An Excellent Representation of My Favorite Things

Storms and nature: I love storms, thunder and lightening, and especially this photo as an example.
Cooking, fall, and Halloween: I love to cook and bake, I love sweet things, and I LOVE Halloween. Also I made this and I want a slice right now. Yay it's october!
Champagne and glamour: Mmm vueve! Not only do I lovelovelove this champagne, I love the cute little carrying case and the woman's chic white outfit. I feel like she's in Paris and I should be too! Ahh fashion and glamor, love it, want it, am working on it!
Pets, Animals, and my family: this is my precious little dog daisy on her couch. She's so sweet and yes, she counts as part of my family. She is a fairly accurate stand-in for the rest of the family since my mom calls everyone precious and cutie (yep, me, my brother, my dad, and my dog). I love animals in general too, so this works nicely.
Art: I have no idea who this is by, but I love it and the swirling colors. I've always been fascinated by art and wanted to be an artist when I was little.

More of My Favorite Things

By Wayne Thiebaud--love him. I first learned about him from a a set of notecards someone gave me a million years ago and I rediscovered him when I was looking for ideas for my painting class. He's pretty awesome. I particularly love his food pictures, but I couldn't find my favorite one online, sadly. Still, this one is still pretty awesome.
I ADORE Remedios Varo. This is her work. I love that you can look at it forever and keep discovering new bits and pieces. Everything is interconnected and doesn't quite make sense. She's clearly been influenced by surrealism, but to me, she's more of a Magical Realism artist.
Remedios Varo again. I like that she creates almost scary or creepy art, but it feels more unnerving than dark.
I have no idea who this is by, sorry! It reminds me of the caribbean in a storm, which is exactly where I would like to be right now.
Roses are not my favorite flower, although I really like them (I like flowers that smell nice in general), but I really love how pale this one is and the way the light is hitting it.

Things I Love


Weellll, I've never actually seen the Northern Lights/Aurora/Whatever but I really want to. I love snow, I love color, what could be more perfect?!
Ahh Rainbow Brite. I love her. I went as her as one of my costumes freshman year for halloween. I had these sweet moonboots that tragically got holes in the bottoms (I did get them at the bins...) and wore a trillion layers of different colored shirts w different sleeve lengths, a blue rainbow brite shirt over the top, some skirt, and striped tights. I would say it was pretty crafty since it cost me NOTHING (I borrowed everything from dormies). All in all, I loooved Rainbow Brite when I was little and it has clearly carried over.
How freakin' cute are baby hedgehogs?!?! Ahh I want to squeeeezzze them...um, minus the spines, of course. While I generally find the lolcats/i can has cheezburger things a little annoying, Popples are another lovely memory of my childhood. I still have one at home. He is purple and his name is Popples...yeah, creative.
I LOVE KITTENS. Seriously. It's not cool that I do not have one yet. Sad for me. I especially love this one because, hi, look at it's little face!! AWWH!
Oh Alice, you're so much fun. Although I prefer the original books to the Disney movie hands down, I have to admit that the image in my head when anyone says "Alice in Wonderland" is definately the Disney movie. Therefore, she ends up here!

Monday, October 5, 2009

My Favorite Halloween Costumes

Halloween is my favorite holiday, well, it's tied with Christmas, but I mean seriously, how can you not adore the idea of getting all dressed up so strangers will give you candy?! So here are my top 10 favorite Halloween costumes that I've either seen or been (not in any particular order):

1. A praying mantis. Freshman or sophomore year I was at the big Halloween party my school throws and I looked up to see a guy on green stilts, holding some kind of arm-stilts, wearing all green, as a praying mantis. It was pretty impressive since he managed to not only walk in stilts in costume, but he also didn't step on anyone.

2. A cupcake. My lovely friend Angie has the most fabulous Halloween costumes and for the past few years she has been doing food-related costumes. To be a cupcake she wore: gold American apparel leggings, a gold cupcake wrapper that I'm guessing she made out of cardboard (?), a ruffly blouse, and a ruffly white hat that she my have made too.

3. Dead little red riding hood. This was one of my costumes last year (yes, sometimes I get a little carried away with costumes...). I wore a cute little red and white checkered dress with an apron attached that I got at goodwill, I added another petticoat thing underneath, white fishnets, black flats, and a red satin-y cape that my mom made me. Then I powered my face a bit to make myself look a bit more dead and topped the costume off with bloody wolf scratches all over my face and neck. For those who aren't quite as fairy tale obsessed as I am, Perrault writes a different version of little red riding hood where she gets killed by the wolf. That's the version I was.

4. A donut. Again, my friend Angie. This time she wore a krispy kreme shirt and an inner tube around her waist that she painted brown and decorated with "sprinkles" that she made out of something or other. She's clever that way.

5. Twister. My friend Maeve's mom made her the most adorable costume last halloween that she made out of a twister mat. She cinched it it around the waist and made the cutest strapless dress and put a petticoat under to puff it out. Maeve topped the costume off with an jauntily-angled hat made out of a twister board.

6. The "Welcome to Oregon" sign. My sophomore year this girl wore a cardboard sign around her neck cut out in the shape of Oregon. She wrote "Welcome to Oregon" on it and wore cute little reindeer antlers. Of course, this costume is only really amazing if you live in Oregon and know the sign I'm looking at.

7. One of those creepy blue-glove guys from firefly. Easiest costumes ever: get a black suit, white jacket, black tie, and blue hospital gloves. Totally easy, totally creepy, and unusual enough to get you excited when someone recognizes what you are.

8. A herd/pack/squad of unicorns. A bunch of girls did this in a group which really makes it that much better. They each were a different color unicorn and made their horns out of rolled paper (I think). Then they dressed up in the appropriate color to match their horn. The costumes mainly involved tutus and glitter and colored fishnets, but the fact that they went as a pack is what really made it cool.

9. A dead tennis player. My friend Leah dressed up as this for last halloween and did a lovely job. She wore a rather uninteresting white polo shirt and some kind of tennis-y pants. She cut a tennis ball in half and poked holes in it that she attached to fishing line or shoelaces or something to tie around her head. over one eye. She mussed up her hair to, and, to really make that dead-tennis-player look come across, she added a few drips of blood coming out from under the tennis ball.

10. Cupid. A few years ago one of my friends, Erlend, decided to let two other friends dress him up for Halloween. He promised to wear anything they wanted. Well, lucky for him, he isn't too modest, since they returned from the thrift stores with only pink feathered wings, gold sequined boy-short underwear, and a pink-spray-painted crossbow. He went along with it and even allowed them to sprinkle glitter all over him. One of the best costumes in quite a while.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Fashion Thoughts

Goodwill necklace, like$3.99?
Thrift store shoes I've had forever (which means I got them back in the day when I had even less $$)
Michael Kors flats I got half off (for about $12) at Buffalo Exchange
My boots mentioned below, Goodwill, $10 maybe?
Goodwill necklace (probably $3.99 or so)

Occasionally I get into these moods where I really want to get dressed up, wear heels, and do my make up all fancy. Unfortunately for me, these don't always hit at the right time (for example, Sunday afternoon), but I generally start playing with make up anyway. Today I attempted to master the smokey eye which I have never been able to get right, and succeeded! Now that I finally have makeup brushes (!), smudging is now doable so I'm pretty pleased. After playing with makeup I decided to do my nails. A while ago I came across a neat little website [http://style.la-mimi.com/beauty/spring-nail-polish-trends-2009/] and decided to check it out again. I went with navy blue nails since mine are a little short right now. They look pretty sweet.

From that site I found [http://thestylishwanderer.blogspot.com/] and [http://www.fashiontoast.com/], both of which I really enjoyed. These got me thinking, yes, here is my point, 1. why am I not frighteningly rich to buy all these awesome clothes and 2. you can totally get what you need to replicate these sweet clothes for quite a lot cheaper.
I really love clothes which is both awesome and dangerous. I happen to be very small so I won't grow out of any of my awesome finds and I have a nice assortment of clothes to wear depending on my mood. However, this also means that things aren't too small and I'm not forced to get rid of anything. Woops! Another dangerous element is that I am unemployed and even when I was, it was generally part time when I was in school. Therefore I had to get really great at sticking to a budget and figure out how to buy what i wanted without the painful price tag. Luckily for me, I learned the value of a great bargain at a young age (thanks Mom and Nana!) so I am all about thrift stores (the kind I'm talking about is not the super-chic-and-waaay-too-expensive-kind that sells all designer stuff at a slightly lower price, no thanks!) and Goodwills. The trick to making thrift stores and Goodwills work is to check the stores frequently and make sure you really want each item. These stores are dangerous because everything is so cheap you can be tempted to buy it because it's only $4.99! True, it certainly might be cheap, but how often will you wear it? I think I'm pretty good about not spending too much on unnecessary clothes (shoes are another story) and my best trick is to think of something else I could get for $5 and make sure that thing wouldn't be better. For example, I could buy the strangely-cool $5 t-shirt or get a cheeseburger, fries, and a PBR on tap at the 'Vern. Tough decision, really.

Probably my favorite thing about thrift stores (besides the obvious cheap factor) is that they often do not have duplicates so no one else will have what you're wearing (of course on the downside, you might not find what you want in your size). I try to pay attention to trends but I don't really follow them exactly--I prefer to pick and choose. For example I love boots, layering, knits, and dark nails, but I'm really not into boyfriend jeans and ripped tights. As you might guess, I like to be original and try to avoid looking like everyone else. I wear what I like. For example, last night I went to a house party and wore: black leggings, black knee-high motorcycle-y/riding boots, a longish charcoal top, a long pearl-and-purple-bead necklace. Here is the point. I got the boots AND the necklace, the two things I got complemented on, at the Goodwill. Score for me! Anyway, that's my point--you can totally do the thrift store thing and get unusual, awesome scores for very little money.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ways To Not Fidget During An Interview

I would be a lot happier if this were called "How To Do Well In An Interview" but tragically I do not have a job yet, so I'm not sure that title would be qualified. I do, however, have a little practice with interviews. My biggest problem is that 1. I get nervous and then I sound nervous and then I get flustered. Not fun. I also (2.) tend to fidget when I get nervous. Here are my ways of stopping issue #2 and, by stopping, helping issue #1:

-->Wear rings on adjoining fingers. I find it really annoying when my rings touch, or at least unusual. Since I'm not used to metal on metal on my fingers, I am more aware of it and because I am aware of my rings, I am aware of my hands. I crack my knuckles (sorry mom, trying to stop) and play with my rings which I would imagine looks rather unprofessional. When I wear rings that touch, I try not to move my hands so they don't touch, and then, ta dah!, I am not fidgeting with my hands. Same goes for my hair--I don't touch it if I'm not moving my hands.

-->Put on makeup (or pay more attention/put more time into it than usual). You are then less likely to touch your face which is definitely something to avoid. I include lip gloss or lipstick into this category because then you won't lick your lips and be distracted by chapped lips, etc.

-->Wear a watch. This way you aren't looking at your cell phone (my usual watch) and you also can easily keep a eye on time to make sure you don't spend too much time rambling.

-->Bring a notepad and take notes. This gives you something non-fidgety to do with your hands and is likely to be useful.
*Personally I like to write down the position qualifications and what I've done to apply before the interview, as well as a few questions. I've always been one of those people who makes study guides because the act of writing stuff down helps me remember it better. Plus I'm horrible at coming up with questions on the fly.

-->Wear layers and look nice. Obviously you want to avoid sweating (and smelling) or shivering constantly, so layers come in handy. Additionally, I think most people feel more confident and happy when they know they look great (ahem, What Not To Wear...), and I am definately one of those people. I tend to dress according to my moods, but weaning something really nice can definately improve my mood. For example, last week I was feeling rather sick (I think I ate bad turkey the night before) but I had an interview to go to. I alllllmost didn't go, but then I sucked it up and got dressed. I wore a really cute navy blue skirt with a loose pale gold top tucked in and low-heeled shoes. It was a flattering outfit, and one that I could wear downtown wandering around or to an interview (not over-dressed, not under-dressed--always my goal) but it was also really comfortable. I tragically didn't get the job, but I definately felt the need to pull myself together and at least pretend I felt as good as those clothes looked. So, although I didn't get the interview, I also didn't vomit all over the table. Thus, I think it's a worthwhile trick.

Belated BBQ



A few weeks ago we had a rather impromptu barbecue I guess for labor day (although I didn't realize it was labor day until someone pointed that out--yay unemployment!). This was actually a little tricky to pull off since we don't actually have a full-sized barbecue and neither do any of my neighbors. I do have one little tiny barbecue and it turned out one of my neighbors had another little tiny one, so we were successful after all! This plan started with my housemate and a few friends she used to live with and turned into almost all of our neighbors plus a bunch of friends and a ton of food that we ate almost all of.

Since for some reason I know a lot of vegetarians, we had a nice amount of veggies and only some meat. Of course, I'm definately not complaining since veggies are generally pretty awesome, especially the way we did them. My personal bbq favorite (other than meat) is grilled green onions. All you do is chop off the very end of the white part and toss them on the grill. Once they're hot and have grill-marks, eat them.

My second favorite veggie bbq option is grilled corn on the cobb. Toss it on until it's got grill-marks and then eat as soon as you can without burning your fingers. Some people like to butter, salt, and pepper it and then wrap it back up in the husks before grilling, but I don't really think you need to. Put it on the grill in the husk and just add the butter etc when it's done.

I've grown up with barbecued meat thanks to my dad and I still cannot go to a barbecue and not eat meat. It just seems wrong. This bbq proved no different. For my part I made burgers that shrunk into sliders since it was my first time making the burgers and I made the patties too small. Woops. They were still excellent.

Really Good Burgers:
-1 pkg ground beef or whatever you wanna make your burgers out of
-onions
-garlic
-salt
-pepper
-cayenne
-soy vay

To Make:
-wash your hands
-take the meat out of the packaging and put it in a large-ish clean bowl
-liberally salt and pepper it
-crush a few cloves of garlic and add them
-finely chop a little less than half a white onion and toss that in
-pour in some soy vey teriaki sauce--I probably used a 1/4 cup or so to maybe 3/4 lbs of meat?
-mix everything together with your hands until just mixed *Do not over mix
-stick in the fridge until you're ready to make the burgers
*I think making the patties at the last minute likely would keep the meat more moist, but I'm not really an expert so who knows.
-form the meat mixture into rather large patties because they shrink up a lot. To give you a sense of how big, the ones I made were about the size of normal burgers and shrank into slider-sized. Woops.
-Cook for a few minutes per side and cut into one to see how done it is after 3 min or so (depending on how hot your grill is)
-eat immediately on toasted buns with grilled onions on top and ketchup.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A Note On Yellow Plums


I forgot to mention this when I first discovered it, but I find it so interesting that I will share it with you now: yellow plums go fantastically well with champagne. I should mention that I am very interested in the way that alcohol pairs with food. I love that drinking a certain wine with a specific dinner can actually emphasize the flavors of what you are eating. While I have certainly heard about this, I can't say I've ever had a chance to really taste it for myself since I generally can't afford to go to a restaurant and ask for the wine pairings to go with all of my courses. Sad! However, I did get to experience this totally by accident one evening last year.

It was last fall and cold and rainy. I got back home from class and decided that I really wanted a grilled-cheese-and-tomato sandwich. I only recently discovered how wonderful grilled-cheese-and-tomato can be (the key is great bread and fabulous cheese), thanks to Vault, and decided to attempt to recreate it. I prefer sourdough bread for grilled-cheeses and I butter one side of each and stick it in the pan, add the cheese and tomato, and flip the sandwich when the cheese starts melting and the bread is crunchy. Easy, easy, I know. Here is my point: Trader Joe's caramelized onion cheddar cheese. Man oh man that stuff is amazing. It's fantastic no matter what, but it's especially great with tomatoes. To make things even better, I happened to have grabbed a 6-pack of Drop Top Amber. GUESS WHAT?! It goes perfectly with that grilled-cheese. It was awesome. I took a bite of my sandwich and washed it down with a sip of beer. Everything suddenly tasted better! Anyway this was pretty exciting, but I digress:

As I was eating that plum cake I made a while ago, I decided to have a slice for dessert. I happen to love champagne, and, in order to avoid drinking a whole bottle in a night or risk it going flat, I buy those mini bottles of cooks every once in a while. The same thing happened as it did with the beer and grilled-cheese! Everything suddenly tasted better! That was my exciting discovery.

I should also point out that champagne really doesn't go with strawberries and chocolate (sadly), because the strawberries and chocolate are just too sweet and they bring out the tartness in the champagne too much. If you want strawberries in champagne, try putting sliced strawberries into mimosas. That's ideal.

Useful Decorations


As I learned from my mother, you can never have too much jewelry because it's easy to store. While this may be true that it's easy to store, it's often not easy to find and untangle without proper storage. I have this issue myself, and have finally figured out how to fix it while making use of my lack of real jewelry box. I love jewelry, clothes, shoes, and getting dressed up. Yes, you might even call me "girly." Maybe this is the reason that I love my new way to hang up my necklaces without getting them tangled and simultaneously find them easily: bulletin boards. Now the ones I have happen to be totally cute--they have these big gold frames--and don't look as boring as most do. However, if you are not as lucky as me, you can get one of those really basic silver-framed bulletin boards and hot-glue fake pearls to it. It looks fabulous, I made one for a friend for her birthday one time. Anyway, here is my necklace solution:
-get one (or two in my case) bulletin board
-decorate the frame to your liking
-find a bunch of clear tacks
-stick them in at different heights and hang your necklaces off them
*Naturally, since they are right there in the open, don't use this to display your ruby chokers and diamond pendants. Sadly for me, I am really lacking in the ruby choker and diamond pendant department, so no worries there.

More Farmer's Market Goodness





As I mentioned in my last post, along with the corn, I found green and yellow zucchinis as well as potatoes at the market. I'd forgotten about these for a few days, and when I remembered, I figured I should really eat them as soon as possible. However, being a small person, two zucchinis and several potatoes are a lot for one meal. This led me to think of something I could make that might last for a few days and not get boring or soggy. I decided to make a variation of Smitten Kitchen's Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/herbed-summer-squash-and-potato-torte/). The original recipe is fantastic as well, but I decided I was too lazy to look up exactly what she put in it and make it as best I remembered. Plus, I wanted to use up the rest of the artichoke stuffing I had left over.
Zucchini and Potato Torte (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Ingredients:
-1 yellow zucchini (sliced into thin rounds--not too thin or they get too mushy)
-1 green zucchini (same as above)
-2 purple potatoes (sliced into thin rounds--thinner that the zucchini since they take longer to cook)
-2 red potatoes (same as above)
-about a stalk of minced celery
-1/4-1/2 a white onion, finely chopped
-a few sprigs minced rosemary
-a few sprigs minces oregano
-a few sprigs minced thyme
-a few spoonfuls of flour
-finely chopped ham (I'm not sure how much I used since I used pre-sliced lunch meat that I had on hand--so a few slices of that, I guess)
-grated Parmesan and mozzarella cheese to taste (depending on how much cheese you want)
-toasted breadcrumbs
-olive oil
-salt n pepper

To Create:
-Preheat the oven to 375/350 depending on how hot your oven gets (mine gets really hot)
-Butter/oil a round 8-9'' cake pan
-Assemble the potatoes in concentric circles until they fill the the bottom of the pan in a single layer
-Do the same with the zucchini
-Sprinkle lightly with flour and cheese--not so thickly that you can't see the zucchini, but enough so you'll be able to taste it
-Sprinkle on the ham, herbs, breadcrumbs, celery etc
-Add salt n pepper to taste
-Drizzle lightly with olive oil
-Repeat until there isn't any more zucchinis or potatoes
-Be sure to save the enough cheese/four/ham/etc for the very top
-Stick it in the oven and cook, covered, for 20-30 min (again, my oven runs hot) and then take off the cover and cook for about 10 min or until you stick a knife in and it goes in easily.
-Let cool slightly and scoop onto a plate, or now that I think about it, maybe scoop it into a bowl!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Joys of Farmers Markets





I love farmers markets for many reasons--supporting local farmers, tasting the products, (often) cheaper produce, and, most of all, finding things you weren't expecting or thinking about getting. There is only of these neat little markets down the street from me (well, quite a few blocks I guess, but totally walkable) and I went a few weeks ago, yes, this is a little belated, sorry! I didn't really go there with a shopping list, I figured I'd wander around and see if anything caught me eye. I *almost* bought a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread but controlled myself. I would've eating the whole thing that weekend, no joke. I have a bread problem where I can eat it any time, any day, every day and never be sick of it. I made my way towards the produce and ended up with some fabulous corn on the cobb, a yellow and a green zucchini, and some red and purple potatoes. I spent lesss than $5! Woohoo! I ate one ear of corn that night--I prefer to roast them at 350 degrees for 25 min or so and then add butter, salt, and pepper. I threw the rest in my fridge and forgot about everything else because I'd bought artichokes the other day. I love artichokes, but I'm totally spoiled because we grow them at my house in California and they are way way better than the stuff up here. I realized this upon attempting to cook them the way we always do at home (put in a pot of boiling water and cook until tender) and they just weren't as good. I then had three little artichokes to somehow use up so I checked out various recipes online as well as in my cookbooks. Here is the result:
Stuffed Artichokes adapted from Steven Raichlen's Big Flavor Cookbook
*His recipe is for 6 but I chopped it down to the amount needed for two. I'm putting in his recipe because that math was tricky and I leave it to you to figure how much you wanna make
-6 small artichokes
-1/2 lemon+1tsp grated zest
-salt
STUFFING:
-1 tbs olive oil
-1 small onion finely chopped (I used white)
-1 stalk celery finely chopped
-1 oz prosciutto finely chopped (I used deli-style ham that I happened to have on hand and ripped it into little pieces til I thought there was enough since I had to guess how much was an oz)
-1 c toasted bread crumbs
-3 tbs minced flat-leaf parsley (I eyeballed it)
-fresh thyme finely chopped (to taste)
-fresh oregano finely chopped (to taste)
-1/4 c grated cheese (parmigiano-reggiano or whatever you like, really)
-salt n pepper

Cut off the ends of the artichoke stems, leaving about an inch. Chop off the top third. Cut the artichoke in half lengthwise and scoop out the choke (a spoon works alright) and put the artichokes in a bowl of cold water w some lemon juice.
When you've finished with all of the artichokes, cook them in about 4 quarts of boiling salted water until tender (6-8 min but you can tell if the leaves on the outside break off easily)
Drain and rinse and put them in a baking dish
For the stuffing: heat half the olive oil in a nonstick pan, add everything but the breadcrumbs and cheese and cook until soft but not brown. Stir in the breadcrumbs and half of the cheese and stir a few times.
Put the stuffing in the scooped out artichokes using a big spoon and smushing the stuffing down so you get a lot in there. Top with cheese and stick under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese on top gets melted. Remove and eat (ideally with fresh corn on the cob and a refreshing glass of pinot grigio).
*NOTE: be careful not to burn the breadcrumbs.
*ALSO: this is a rather tricky dish to eat since the artichoke is sometimes hard to get out. Don't feel bad if you get it all over your plate, it's worth it!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Happy Hours Around Portland

Happy Hour is my favorite hour. It means cheap food, cheap drink, somewhere more exciting that sitting at home, and likely with wonderful people. Since I have no real job at the moment and tragically no trust fund, if I want to go out, I do it as cheaply as I can. Happy Hour makes this easy for me, and luckily, Portland has some great ones. Since I live in SE, that's mainly what you'll find. Here is a list of my favorites:
Victory Bar (SE 37th and Division)--5 pm-7 pm I think
-->maybe 2 tiny tables outside? Totally cute inside but not for huge groups--4 or so is ideal
-->$5 food--get the spatzle (mac n cheese with caramelized onions and apple sauce on the side), no question.
-->$4.50 cocktails (they make seriously good drinks--no lemon drops or cosmos here. My favorite is the Corpse Reviver and I cannot figure out what's in it).
-->beer on tap (I think it's cheap but the kind as well as the price rotates so i could be wrong)

Bonfire (SE Stark and 28th)--maybe 3-6 pm?
-->outside seating that's usually packed in nice weather. Inside was nothing thrilling but bigger than I realized
-->$3.50 menu with excellent tzaziki, ok hummus, and a huge portion of fries. They have burgers for this price too that I didn't try (sadly) but seems promising
-->well drinks were discounted but I don't think beer was. Go for the food.

The Blue Dragonfly (between 11th and 12th on Powell)--til 8 pm
-->surprisingly fancy shmancy place considering the location
-->$3.00 (2.99 technically I think) food: chicken quesadillas, tacos, chicken wings, burgers. Yes, $3 for a very decent burger. Big fan.
-->cheap drink menu. I think $3.00 or 3.50 for well drinks and certain cocktails (appletinis etc), also bottled beers. Their tap wasn't working (demerit)

The 'Vern (27th and Belmont) --the food special is between 4 and 6 or 7 on weekdays I think
-->Totally dive/wannabe hipster bar from first glance, however, they get the plus of having a nice stack of books along one windowsil
-->$5 for a pbr on tap and a cheeseburger and fries
-->really good beer specials. Two beers on special (maybe $2.50 or 3.50 for a pint of legit beer on tap) rotating daily
-->no hard alcohol (beer and wine only) but the food special is so worth this place being on here

Vault (downtown/pearl 12th and Everett)--4-7?
-->my favorite bar--classy inside, awesome bartender (the tatooed lady is wonderful and so nice)
-->good drink menu. Certain drinks for cheaper (maybe $5?)
-->possibly a cheaper food menu, however, the food is fabulous and generally worth the price. Well, the grilled cheese and tomato sure is. They also have a bring-your-OLCC card and get happy hour all night but I'm not sure when

Crush (14th and Morrison)--til midnight tuesdays, otherwise I think 4-6 or so
-->super cheap food menu: $2.50 for an excellent place of mashed yams in curry gravy (my favorite) and bread and oil, up to $5.50 for a pulled pork sandwich. Among other things they offer nachos, ceasar salads, mac n cheese, and baked spagetti
-->$3.50 wells and certain cocktails (the Sidecar and the tropical one with guava in it are both actually very good)

Blue Monk (33rd? and Belmont)--til 8 downstairs
-->$5 food menu: the sandwiches were nothing special but the pasta primavera was a great deal: big plate of pasta with veggies and your choice of sauce
-->cheap drink menu: not thrilled by most of their drinks but I did like the margarita with blue curacao

Aalto Lounge (33rd? and Belmont)--til 8 maybe?
-->this place, like the Blue Monk are only on here for the food
-->cheap, cheap paninis for $4.50 or something. Comes with kettle chips. Really good.
-->Not much in the way of Happy Hour drinks but I think they did have a special on their IPA on tap. Unfortunately, I don't like IPAs (too bitter)

I'm sure there are more. I'll work on remembering all of them and try to come up with a point system and perhaps better reviews.

Belated Pie and Cookies






I'm not so great at doing things in the right order, but hopefully this will be the last time I mess that up. Several weeks ago I brought home some fabulous fresh blackberries from work in hopes of making a pie. I love baking pies (lemon meringue, pumpkin, and blackberry are my favorite, but I haven't broadened my horizons as much as I should) and when I think of summer dessert, I always think of blackberry pie. Turns out I bought way more blackberries than I needed for just one pie, so, bummer!, I had to make two.
The first pie I made the way my dad usually does: buy some frozen pie crust and follow the recipe for blueberry pie on the back. Now this is a great pie. I'm all for frozen pie crusts, too. Nothing wrong with frozen food, people (this is directed towards Ray)! Anyway, so I made that pie for our housewarming party and it was a hit.
My wonderful ex-housemates gave me a nifty fruit desserts cook book for my birthday that I haven't tried out as much as I've wanted to, so for the second pie I went checked out the book. I found a yummy-looking recipe for marionberry pie and decided to sub blackberries. Marionberries are a variety of blackberries. I can't always tell the difference, but occasionally you can, and I prefer marionberry jam to blackberry. Point being, they are essentially interchangeable for pie. I decided to get fancy and not only make a pie with more ingredients that the first one (no nice, simple tapioca, instead corn starch and a variety of fancy other things), but I decided to get really wild and make my own crust. Oh man. So worth it. Now with pumpkin pies especially (or more savory pies), I think the frozen pie crust is fine, and even for not-as-savory pies. Still, if you're making a pie with fresh fruit or fresh anything (as opposed to canned pumpkin), fresh pie crust really makes it.
I've always been one of those kids who loved pie crust (my brother never did and still just scrapes out the filling from the crust), so combine that with my adoration for bread, this pie crust is out of control. the downside, of course, to making your own pie crust, is that cutting in cold butter is a hassle, and letting it chill FOREVER is equally annoying. I stuck my crust in the freezer for half the time instead of in the fridge and it worked just fine. I also made the mistake of starting the pie around 10 at night so it wasn't done until after midnight. Even then, I was too impatient to try it that I took it out a little early and it didn't thicken up all the way. Still, it was deeelicious.
After making the pies I felt the need for something else outrageously sweet so I made homemade oreos from Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/ . I cooked them a little too long and they got very crispy/slightly burned, but it turned out to be kind of nice to have something really crunchy to munch on. Also I used about half the frosting. It's frighteningly sweet but tastes just like the inside of an oreo. I recommend these immediately.