Pretending to be Italian

So, I had a whole bunch of basil left over from the pizza last week, as well as a whole bag of pine nuts. I was racking my brain to figure out what I could make to use up the basil when the finally the light bulb went on...PESTO! Usually I'm not a pesto person but I figured I might as well try it out. I somewhat-followed this recipe: "How to Make Pesto like an Italian Grandmother" (sans food processor) - Domenica, I know you will appreciate this... 

Ingredients

 1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
3 medium cloves of garlic
one small handful of raw pine nuts
roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
A few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Start chopping the garlic along with about 1/3 of the basil leaves. Once this is loosely chopped add more basil, chop some more, add the rest of the basil, chop some more. I scrape and chop, gather and chop. At this point the basil and garlic should be a very fine mince. Add about half the pine nuts, chop. Add the rest of the pine nuts, chop. Add half of the Parmesan, chop. Add the rest of the Parmesan, and chop. In the end you want a chop so fine that you can press all the ingredients into a basil "cake" - see the photo up above. Transfer the pesto "cake" to a small bowl (not much bigger than the cake). Cover with a bit of olive oil, it doesn't take much, just a few tablespoons.

More pine nuts and parm than basil, just my style :)

SMORES CUPCAKES!

I know I say this every time, but this really is one of the yummiest things I've ever made. A favorite blog of mine is Bakerella, creator of the oh-so-cute cake pops. (photo from bakerella.com)
She makes some of the cutest and most delicious-looking baked goods I have ever seen! Her latest post is a recipe for smores cupcakes that looked SO good I immediately started gathering ingredients...

It looks like a lot of stuff, but its almost all things I already had on hand! The recipe calls for two batters - graham cracker and chocolate - as well as graham cracker filling. I ate at least 400 spoonfuls of the graham cracker batter before I baked it - it was that good. After the batters were made it was time to assemble somewhat of a cupcake sandwich: first graham cracker batter, graham cracker filling, a marshmallow, chocolate batter, more graham cracker topping!

Photo credit to Mike for this picture...I love the little bit of marshmallow peeking out!

Then it was time to put them in the oven. Only fifteen minutes later, this is what emerged....

I mean, come on.

The best part is, all of them sunk in the middle where the marshmallow was. Typically I would be sad about the presentation resembling a dormant volcano BUT this indented center actually held an ooey gooey too-good-for-words suprise. Y-U-U-U-U-M

And, true to the recipe, we added some chocolate ganache to finish them off.

Go here for the recipe (and slightly better pictures). Thanks, Bakerella!

Countdown to spring

On the eve of a potential snow storm, I thought we could use a little spring in our lives. Two more months.... I think I can, I think I can!

It's a narcissus (looks like a baby daffodil) from Whole Foods. So CHEERFUL!

Beer Summit 2K10

First things first...I am not a beer drinker. Given the choice, I would pick wine over beer any day. But, when my roommate Liz told me about the Beer Summit Winter Jubilee with over 50 beer vendors, I knew I had to investigate. We ended up making a day of it...

Me, Mike, Fina, Dave, Liz

We started out the day with a calorific breakfast of sticky buns from Flour (obsessed) and....bacon. Yes, I caved. Though I have to admit that I had been planning on having bacon since the beginning of the week, so it wasn't a total oops. After our delicious breakfast we headed over to the Park Plaza Castle (who knew there was a castle in Boston?) and waited in a huuuge line, which thankfully moved pretty quickly.

Once inside, I was SO excited to receive our teeny-tiny beer tasting mugs!

Between the five of us, we managed to hit every beer vendor. Some of my favorites were a raspberry lager (pictured above, it tasted just like raspberry iced tea!), Blonde Bombshell (duh)...

and the Chocolate Stout from the Southern Tier Brewing Company (represent) that tasted (and felt) like a liquid tootsie roll.

Things I learned:

-IPA does not stand for "Ithaca Pale Ale" as I had hoped.

-Wearing a flowery headband gets you extra beer samples.

-"Stouts" and "Double IPAs" are YUCK-o.

-I am probably only going to like it if it is a. almost translucent or b. berry-flavored.

-Next time, I will make and wear a pretzel necklace, as so many seasoned Beer Summit-ers did!

Apparently there is a Beer Summit every season, spring and summer here we come!

Pizza Night!

I look forward to pizza night all WEEK! Usually Mike and I buy premade pizza dough from the store, but this time we got ambitious and made the dough from scratch! The recipe was actually pretty easy, and sooooo scrumptious. Only a few ingredients:

 1 package yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups of flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar
(These pictures are really dark because the light in my kitchen is terrible)

Dissolve the yeast in water for 10 minutes

Add the rest of the ingredients

Mix for 10-15 minutes

Let rise for a half hour

Pick toppings. We decided on...

fresh mozzarella

tomatoes

basil

Into the oven for 30 min at 350 degrees!

All done!!

And Trader Joe's chocolate bon-bons for dessert

So good.

Veggie Tales: Week 2

Yes, yes, I'm still at it! No meat pour moi! But, Mike did return to Boston with a 60 pack of bacon, which could prove to be problematic this weekend.
Last night, we made a recipe out of my veggie cookbook... Stuffed Zucchini!

Ingredients:

(I'm not very good at following recipe measurements, usually I just eyeball)

4 zucchini

white bread, cut in chunks

milk

1 egg yolk

Cheddar, ricotta, and parmesan cheese

oregano

thyme

s&p

Recipe:

-Soak the pieces of bread in milk

-Boil the zucchini for 5 min, cut in half, scoop out the insides

-Mix together zucchini and the rest of the ingredients

-Put the mixture in the hollowed-out zucchinis

-Bake at 375 degrees for 35 min or until golden brown

SO EASY!

Things that make me happy

Getting flowers!! I walked into my classroom today to find these waiting for me...

Hyacinths! I know very little about flowers, but I think they are going to bloom soon?!

I love how it brightens up the room :)

My cute little lunchbox...

Headbands...

My newest one from jcrew!

And finally, the fact that weather.com predicts it is going to be 42 degrees on Friday. Compared to recent temps, that's practically bathing suit weather!

Reason #58 why I love my job

 www.sea-monkeys.com

Our class pet, the Sea Monkey family. First things first, what ARE Sea Monkeys? According to wikipedia, they are a variant of brine shrimp or Artemia salina, a species which enters cryptobiosis, a natural state of suspended animation, allowing their cysts (dormant saclike embryos) to be sold as a dry powder. When the powder is poured into water, live shrimp appear within hours, and can grow up to an adult length of 2 centimeters within one year. Thus the novelty of "instant" life. Blah, blah, boring shmoring, but let's underline the main concept here... Sea Monkeys are born from POWDER. This is something the kids have a little trouble understanding, and probably isn't the best thing to be teaching them. I can just hear them telling their parents-- "Today we learned that animals are made from powder!" I apologize, future biology teachers of these children.
I digress. Three of our Sea Monkeys just so happen to be pregnant. This realization spurred a circle time discussion about Sea Monkey weddings. My class decided that our Sea Monkeys must have gotten married over winter break (hence why we missed the wedding) and yes, they wore dresses. The kids have also started talking to them because we have established that they have ears (questionable).
Please visit youtube for the magical Sea Monkey lover's dance. Here is my attempt to take a photo:

There are two Sea Monkey mates attached near the top of the photo. Ewwww

Though the Sea Monkeys were originally my idea, I think a new class pet may be more appropriate. Professor Blueberry, Volume 2 anyone?

!!!!

My biggest baking accomplishment thus far....I made bread. From SCRATCH! For those of you that don't know (because I certainly didn't), bread recipes are complicated! The yeast has to rise at a very specific temperature, there is a lot of waiting for the dough to rise, blah blah blah. But, thanks to my New Years rezzy of patience, I succeeded!

I had to improvise because I couldn't find a bowl large enough for the dough to rise in, but here is stage one:

After rising for an hour, stage two:

Into the pan!

Bake for 30 min...

This NEEDS a close up...

 

Helloooooo cheesy goodness!

 Here is the recipe!

A wonderful Bostonian day!

Ever have one of those days full of great people, great places, and great food? That was my day yesterday, and after a day of exploring I am starting to feel like a true Bostonian!
I started off the day with some shopping with my new roomie Fina! We went to j.crew, where we found a fantastic sale and I got a super cute new headband to add to my collection. Then we headed to the South End to walk around, shop, see the place where Fina works (jealous) and check out.....Flour!!

Flour is a super delish bakery/cafe that made it on to the Food Network for its amazing sticky buns (Throwdown with Bobby Flay- the Flour baker won!!). We started off with some quiche, but couldn't resist getting some sugary sweets to take home! I got a homemade oreo, a hazelnut chocolate chip cookie, and of course the famed sticky bun. We practiced some self-restraint and saved the sticky buns for this morning. And WOW, was it worth the wait!!

I had intended to only eat half and save the other half for Mike, but, oops, I ate the whole thing (sorry Mike!)

After a day of exploring with Fina, I had an equally delicious night with Mike and his parents. We went to dinner at Tamarind Bay in Washington Square, and it was my first good experience with Indian food! I got paneer in a cashew cream sauce, but unfortunately neglected to take a picture. After a quick stop at the Golden Temple for a photo op...

(quite the ice sculpture)

We rounded out the night at Athan's in Washington Square for gelato (despite the 17 degree weather) and coffee.

I got coconut and fig, Mike got pistachio and pomegranate.

I am starting to sense a pattern in my pictures...all FOOD!