Blueberry Zucchini Bread
During the car ride home from my parent's house yesterday, I listed all the recipes I need to post on this here website to Casey and he had no recollection of me making Blueberry Zucchini Bread! When I described it as "that tasty/moist/lemony bread studded with juicy blueberries...you know the one you ate a LOT of?" the memory of eating the bread finally came back. Apparently he was just thrown off by the word zucchini because he had no idea there was zucchini in that bread! Cooper had no clue too. I'm guilty of vegetable hiding.
Blueberries & Zucchini! They're both in season right now, so why not combine the two and make a scrumptious bread? This recipe makes TWO loaves. If you're scared that you'll eat BOTH loaves (which is easy to do and I don't blame you), wrap one up and give it to your neighbor/friend/coworker and earn brownie points. If you're feeling greedy, wrap up the second loaf and stash it in your freezer. Blueberry zucchini bread will be a great start to your week, next week!
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Triple Berry Galette
There isn't a better way, in my opinion, to welcome someone home after a week away on business than with a huge slab of triple berry pie. Casey has been gone for the past week which means I've been eating salads, playing single parent, organizing my closet, catching up on girly/trashy shows, wearing face masks, hogging the couch, plucking my eyebrows in random parts of the house and really wishing I had a reason to bake something. I woke up yesterday morning with the intention of making a pie and that's what I did. I made this one. My husband was coming home and he deserved a pie for his hard work.
A trip to the store for some fresh berries while drooling over this crostata from Lottie & Doof, and a text with my best baker friend about the difference between a galette & crostata helped me make this ridiculously easy pie. It's free form. It's gorgeous. It's rustic. It's charming and the crust is earth shattering! Like...I can't BELIEVE I made this crust-CRUST. The berries are juicy, dark & delicious. They're the epitome of summer.
I must confess that I hogged this galette like I hogged our couch this past week. Even though I gave half of it to the neighbors, I cut a small slice for myself EVERY TIME I walked past the kitchen. I purposely avoided the kitchen for 4 hours before Casey came home or else there would have seriously been none left. Pie so delicious... you must give half of it away and then hide it. Good thing I've been binging on salads....
Fully Loaded Granola Bars
SNACKS! It's about the only thing I have time for this week. My schedule has been SUPER hectic and I've been running around like a CRAZY woman! With all this chaos, I can still hear my kitchen screaming, "STOP NEGLECTING ME, TRACY! Get in here and make something! You'll feel better!" You know what? My kitchen is right. I don't have lots of time, but I need to make something that will take my mind off my TO-DO lists. Armed with a cup of coffee, I whipped up these FULLY LOADED granola bars this morning while Cooper ate his breakfast. I'd have to say that it was time well spent because they are AWESOME. I love the crunch of the oats & almonds and am digging the tang of the dried apricots! A few of them got a little crumbly, but I don't mind. They'll be making their way into a bowl of yogurt for my afternoon snack today.
If you don't have a lot of time and you want to get your butt in the kitchen, make these! You'll have 12 little bars to snack on throughout the week --or day if you're a pig like me! A runny nose will be wiped, a granola bar will be eaten, an email will be sent, and another load of laundry will be going into the washer the second I finish this paragraph. But it's all good because I have a nice big plate of chewy/crunchy granola bars to fuel me today.
The Joy of Almond & Coconut Candies
Valentine's Day is coming up! Want to impress a loved one?? You should totally make these Almond Joy inspired candies. Not only are they super easy to make, you won't be that person scrounging around for an overpriced bouquet of long stem roses at the last minute. Are you that person? Don't be that person! Don't wait til the last minute. People always know. I hope you at least write something sweet & thoughtful in your card!
By the way, I overheard your sweetheart saying that they're not really into roses! They were telling their coworker how much they dig coconut! They especially love it covered in chocolate! They also LOOOOVE salty, crunchy roasted almonds and guess what?? There's one waiting in the middle of EACH. ONE. OF. THESE. CANDIES. Make a batch of these and you'll totally seal the deal. You'll make up for that god awful ratty teddy bear you bought last year. You know why? Because people are always impressed when you make candy. ALWAYS.
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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.
Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies
Yes you read that correctly. BACON! These cookies were a birthday treat for my precious bacon-loving friend, Whitney. They were a hit at her pre-birthday tapas celebration last week! Six of us ladies scarfed them down for dessert. Ca-caw!
The recipe comes from my best baking friend, Joy! She's my go-to person when I want to bake something sweet and different! I love her. I love bacon. I love peanut butter. I love super easy recipes. So it's a match made in heaven!
Let's talk about how IN-CRED-IBLE these cookies are! The salty sweet combo is WICKED! They are chewy because of the brown sugar, crispy because of the bacon, and crunchy because of the light sugar coating! My mouth waters as I type this...I really wish I saved a secret stash of them. If you are a bacon lover, this recipe will not disappoint. I'm pretty sure Elvis would have been tickled for a tray full of these! Continue reading→
Hazelnut Espresso Cookies
If the culprit for my college "Freshman 15" had to be named, it would be ridiculous amount of hazelnut lattes I consumed. When I lost the extra weight, I lost the taste for hazelnut flavoring and hazelnuts in general. Many many MANY years later, I saw this recipe and thought it could be a good test to see if the adult Tracy still liked hazelnuts---in moderation of course! And yes, thanks to this recipe, I still do. If I had to do college over again, I would have made these cookies weekly! I also wouldn't have lived with my roommate who was the mayor of PSYCHOVILLE for over 2 years, but we'll save that for another time.
These cookies are everything I look for in a cookie. They've got crispy crunchy edges with a nice chewy center. Such a great bite! No need to worry, the espresso flavor isn't too bold. It's like a light buttery hazelnut latte with a few crunchy toasted nuts every now and then. There's also a subtle hint of malt flavoring in them. I don't know where that came from, but I enjoyed it immensely.
A few more notes about these cookies-
-The description in the Everyday Food: Fresh Flavors Fast cookbook says that these cookies are more of an adult cookie. NOT TRUE. Eleven of the twelve cookies I gave to my neighbor were eaten by her children. Those kids saved ONE for their mom. How ROTTEN! Tell your kids that there's spinach in them. Get their paws away from your cookies. Eat them during their nap time or when they are down for the night. Hide them where you hide their Christmas presents! Seems Coop wanted to get his little fingers on them too... NO WAY!
-The scent that will fill your kitchen when you bake these resembles the smell of hot buttery pancakes served with a freshly brewed pot of coffee. Close your eyes and meditate on that one. Is there anything more comforting than that? NOPE.
-They aren't ridiculously sweet. Which is great! And that's probably one of the reasons they are considered an adult cookie. If you want something on the sweeter side and want to indulge yourself even more, add some chocolate chips. DO IT. I will if you do!
-Roasting the hazelnuts wasn't as hard and annoying as I thought it would be. The skins peel right off if you use the technique described in the recipe! The steaming in the dish towel trick is pretty cool.
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Sour Cream Coffee Cake
You should NOT make this recipe IF you:
-are on a diet
-don't love a moist cake
-aren't a HUGE fan of crumble topping
-don't enjoy toasted pecans
-can't stand cinnamon
-can't be trusted with an entire pan of coffee cake
I wish I had a warning like this this before I made this cake. I ate more of it that I had planned to! And to think that I thought portioning some for the neighbors would have been a enough! Little did I know that I couldn't be trusted with ANY of this cake. One piece was a gateway drug. Suddenly I found myself standing in the kitchen with a spoon scooping out cake like it was going out of style. I totally caught Casey doing the same thing. I really couldn't get enough and my stomach never signaled my brain to say it was full! Damn stomach! How dare you! Coffee cake is seriously the best excuse to have cake for breakfast. Agreed?
