Brown Butter Biscuits
Guess what I started this Sunday morning with? Brown Butter Biscuits!
Reasons why you should make them:
- They're SUPER easy! You don't have to cut the butter into the flour!
- You LOVE biscuits.
- You love the nutty taste of brown butter!
- You need something to spread raspberry jam on!
- You find therapy in biscuit cutting. (I know I do)
Reasons why you shouldn't make them:
- Butter repulses you.
- You are on a diet.
- You've never really liked biscuits.
- You're no fun.
White Chocolate Almond Chunk Cookies
Almost two weeks ago, I was inhaling one of these amazing cookies at the kitchen counter of the most beautiful home in Seattle. With the happy chatter of 5 fellow female food bloggers in the background, I thought to myself.....
"I need to make these cookies. I need to be transported back to this moment. Girls weekend...discussions of cookbooks, family, the internet...A weekend of overeating, learning new things, and taking a break from my routine. I sooo need to get back to this space when I'm at home drowning in my TO DO lists."
Fortunately our lovely host-- Dana thee DANA of Dana Treat has supplied us with the recipe...
Oh these cookies...creamy white chocolate, chunks of crunchy almonds with a subtle oatmeal taste/texture! Your mouth is going to love you. The part in your brain that loves chewy cookies is gonna go nutso. I sandwiched them with vanilla ice cream at a Labor Day BBQ we went to; they were a hit! You are gonna DIE when you taste those almond chunks. I did. Fortunately I was resuscitated just in time to write this post.
So here I am. It's Thursday morning. I'm chugging coffee while Cooper shoves cupcake wrappers and pens into our printer. I'm working on a TO DO list for the day and I'm transported back to Seattle. I'm eating one of these cookies. My heart is happy. My taste buds sing. I am thankful for the new people in my life who show me different sides of the world and bring out new dimensions of myself. I feel like today is full of hope. I can do what needs to be done. I can handle it all. My kitchen is filled with Dana Treats and I couldn't be happier.
So thank YOU to Cheryl, Dana, Denise, Joy & Kristina
Because of you and the International Food Blogging Conference in Seattle, I finally feel like myself again.
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Roasted Mangoes & Blueberries
If I was a painter, I'd focus my attention on making abstract paintings with roasted mangoes and blueberries.
Preferred canvas? A big white casserole dish!
My brush strokes would produce bits of fiery orange flesh with rich black dots speckled on top of a deep crimson wash.
Here's a glimpse at my latest painting.
What do you see?
The juxtaposition of ooey gooey blueberries & baked juicy mangoes masking the reflection of my happy face?
Wow, you're good! Did you go to art school?
Now that you've learned how to make Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Crisps, it's time to do something with them! I probably know better than anyone they do just fine on their own (hello! who ate a whole batch?!!) but let's jazz them up with another recipe! So baked mangoes & blueberries? Hmmm. At first your brain tells you I'M EATING PEACHES (cuz that's what it looks like) and then your taste buds say WAIT! NO! MANGOES! The combination of the blueberries & mangoes creates something almost raspberry like. So peculiar yet fun & totally unexpected. And let's discuss that color again! Can I just say that I want this as a flavored lip gloss. Hello Stila? You out there? Please help.
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Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Crisps
Dear 7 year old Tracy,
I'm watching you. You're sitting at Taco Bell with your brothers scarfing down cinnamon crisps. At your age, Taco Bell isn't a scary place. You always order the Mexican Pizza and there's only like 10 options on the menu. Today there's a GAZILLION. You don't even know about that crazy annoying Chihuahua yet! Consider yourself lucky. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place as an adult. Your parents did the right thing and only took you out to fast food restaurants sparingly. You won't understand how important that is until later on in your life but I promise it will be worth it. Sorry for the lecture. Apparently you've turned into one of THOSE adults. Have I lost you?
Let's talk about those cinnamon crisps you like soo much! Taco Bell stopped making them. They went through dozens of incarnations, but never returned to what you are eating now. Don't fret. The 31 year old version of you JUST made some. If I could go back in time and give you this recipe sooner, I would. Sorry-time travel isn't a done deal yet.
These cinnamon sugar tortilla crisps are crunchy and ooooh so yummy! Your son Cooper LOVED them and your husband, Casey begged you to make some more. Yes, at 31 you will have a son and a husband. So that little M.A.S.H. game you played was wrong. You don't live in a shack and you aren't married to Joey McIntyre with 12 kids. Ok, get back to what you are doing. Enjoy your life and keep up the good work!
Love,
31 year old Tracy
p.s. I served some of these with Baked Mangoes & Blueberries. Don't worry, you'll learn to like mangoes!
Monkey Bread Minis
I wish alarm clocks had built-in smell alarms. Why haven't we figured this out yet?! Imagine the possibilities!! You wouldn't have a problem getting up for a 6am flight if the smell of these cinnamony Monkey Bread Minis assaulted you. Now to think of it...the 13 year old Tracy would have set my brother's alarm clock to rotten farts at 4am.
OK we NEED to make this happen.
If you are familiar with monkey bread, then you should know that this recipe doesn't produce a doughy/yeasty pull apart roll. It's like a hybrid of a cinnamon roll (taste wise) and an old fashion donut (texturally). Yes. DONUT. The best part is that there's no yeast stress involved. Yup, yeast stresses me out when I'm not properly caffeinated. There I said it. I think little hands would love dipping dough into butter & cinnamon sugar. When I get over my fears of Cooper's messy sticky cinnamon fingers on our micro suede couch, I'll totally do it. For sure!
You'll enjoy putting every last piece into your mouth hole. I know I did.
Orange Hazelnut Biscotti
I briefly mentioned that my oven broke this summer. We got a new one. It's fantastic. I love it. It works like a charm! Would you believe that I spent close to three days figuring out what it's maiden baking voyage would be!?! I will now share with you the recipe that popped my oven's cherry. Hazelnut biscotti!
As a child, I never really understood the appeal of biscotti. Through kid goggles, they were an icky grownup "treat." I'd watch my dad dip a ridiculous amount of biscotti in a short class of Vin Santo and wanted to gag. I always thought dipping a cookie into something that wasn't milk was weird, but now as a grown up I totally get it. These biscotti don't need to be dipped in ANYTHING. They have TONS of flavor on their own. A nice cappuccino or some milky tea would be a good companion---but that's it. Notes of orange, spicy anise undertones & crunchy toasted hazelnuts will assault you with each bite. They're delightful!
So yeah- I'm a grown up and I love biscotti. I'm always surprised at how easy they are to make. Some people think that because they are baked twice, it means more work in the kitchen. It's really not that bad!! I find cutting up the baked "logs" to be quite therapeutic (WEIRDO alert). It's really nice to see a huge batch of cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet that have no risk of melting & sticking to each other. To me, that is worth any "extra" effort. Another upside- they last in an air tight container for a few weeks. They taste soo good that you might not have any around that long enough to find out...
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Simple Banana Ice Cream
I keep going back to this post on the kitchn....ONE INGREDIENT ICE CREAM. It's absolutely bananas! That's it! I started to preheat the oven today for banana bread and said SCREW IT. I couldn't be bothered, so made ice cream instead! It's the simplest little recipe. There's no ice cream maker required. You just need a device that can puree almost frozen bananas and then you have banana ice cream! No wonder everyone's been raving about it! It's CRAZY DELICIOUS.
You'll find that it's pretty adaptable. A scoop of peanut butter mixed in would be good...cocoa powder would be dandy! Some cocoa nibs or some chocolate chips? Heaven! I put a scoop of unsweetened coconut flakes in ours tonight! It added a nice little crunchy texture. I topped it with a little chunk of pizelle my grandma made. Hummina Hummina!
The directions go something like this:
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Blueberry Pie
I made this pie for my dad because:
1. It was his 64th birthday.
2. He loves blueberry pie.
3. I love him!
4. I wanted to impress my family with homemade pie crust. (And did!)
Oh! This pie!! There were times I felt like giving up because the dough was being a bit obnoxious when I was rolling it out. Parts of it crumbled and I felt like all I was doing was piecing it together. I mostly blame the temperature outside mixed with my lack of patience. It also didn't help that I drank a bunch of wine the night before with my family and didn't sleep well. With a glass of red wine and a long deep sigh, I finished what I started. There's nothing that says I love you more than a homemade blueberry pie. Right? We devoured this fantastic lemon scented blueberry pie. My dad was proud, and we had such a wonderful evening!
Happy Birthday Dad! And thank you to Martha Stewart. This recipe worked out fabulously!
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