TWD: Toasted Almond Scones

My dad and sister came to visit this past weekend. I was pretty darned excited, especially since I hadn't seen them since the wedding, Rach hadn't been to Chapel Hill yet, and OH! We had tickets to a UNC basketball game. Have I mentioned that I am beyond thrilled to again be in an area where people appreciate basketball as probably the best sport ever? Yeah. Wisconsin, you need to get on that if you ever want me to come back. We also got to introduce Dad, Rach, and her boyfriend to Annabelle, who (of course) won them over nearly immediately with the chirping, cuddling, and gallumphing through the apartment that she does. Which brings me to another habit that she has - she will flop down in the middle of the floor, roll onto her back, pull her front paws up by her face and splay her back legs out wide. It's probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, and I have no photo proof because I'm too busy laughing every time she does it. Yeah, I know. I'm sure that I'm emotionally scarring this cat, but I'm going to counter that with the fact that she started it.

 
So what else did we do to prepare for the familial visit? Well, the obvious cleaning, which wasn't too bad given the mega cleaning that occurred pre-Super Bowl party (thank goodness, since one guest was mildly allergic to cats...). Aannnd... dinner prep. Yes, we are the family that eats together. While eating one meal, we're discussing at least the next one, if not the next few. We call each other for dinner ideas. My favorite part of Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving is the few days before, while we plan out our menu, and the day of, when we each have our individual tasks and merrily share the kitchen the whole day. So obviously I had to have things prepared. And while my lack of confidence in a croissant recipe (hello butter overflow each time I've made them before...) led to the purchase of a dozen unbaked croissants from the local bakery, I knew that I could do better than that. So we brainstormed and decided that Saturday's dinner needed to involve dumplings, buns, and various other filled and cooked things. Well, originally we were going to do steamed buns and that was that, but somehow that morphed into veggie potstickers, pork-scallion steamed buns, potato samosas, and red bean buns. Full batches of each. Because excess? We do not know the meaning of it!

And these scones were a perfect addition to the croissant breakfast the morning after that dinner of excess. They're very mildly sweet, which I like in a scone, although they definitely don't beat Dorie's cream scones - those are my go-to scones. What did we do after all this excessive food consumption? We went on a run together. Because none of us really want to die early.

Last Week: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops
Next Week: Chocolate Pots de Creme

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

I'm going to make a wild guess. Go out on a limb. Conjecture, as it were. None of you are at all interested in hearing about how climate change could affect water resources globally, regionally, or locally. True? This is more than a little unfortunate, as the impacts on freshwater and its management are basically what my weekend was filled with. Well, that and other things related to climate change like radiative forcing of aerosols, the ice albedo feedback, and greenhouse gas emissions. Oh yes, and a little on carbon sequestration in the deep ocean and how it affects atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Yep, I can see your eyes glazing over, your head tilting into a WTF position, and you scrolling hurriedly through those last few sentences. My sincerest apologies. I mean, there's not much I can do about it - it turns out that when your life consists of a very narrow range of subjects, there's not much else going on in the headspace.

That's not to say these topics aren't relevant to cookies. Especially to these cookies. I mean, I did bake them while reading about said topics. And they were brought into the classes in question so that we could nibble on cookies while talking about those topics. I have to think they added a little something to the discussion, right? How could they not, with their brownie-like texture plus the added chew of oatmeal throughout? I had one break as I was transferring them to the cooling rack, so I passed it on to J, whose immediate reaction was to threaten to hoard them. Given his general pickiness about what he wants to hoard (generally, brownies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and snickerdoodles get top billing), that's a very good sign.

 
A couple notes re: the recipe though. I know a few people had issues with their cookies tasting greasy or spreading. I did not, but I think a couple things went in my favor there - using a whisk to incorporate the melted butter allowed everything to homogenize a bit better, as did waiting to do so until the chocolate had cooled sufficiently. Letting the dough cool until it was a tad bit stiffer also kept my cookies from spreading - one of the few times where I actually had patience in the kitchen! And it paid off! (Think I'll learn my lesson here? Yeah, probably not.) This last note is less of a way to avoid issues and more of a personal preference - I used kosher salt, and a good bit more than was called for in the recipe. J's comment was that he liked them better with that assertive background saltiness, since it punched up the chocolate flavor quite a bit.

Last Week: Bourbon Bread Pudding
Next Week: Toasted Almond Scones

TWD: Bourbon Bread Pudding

When I moved away from Wisconsin a bit under a year ago, I was excited. How could I not be? When I started applying to graduate schools, one of the top priorities was applying to programs in locations where I'd like to live for a long, long time. Places like Seattle, with vibrant food communities and outstanding cultural opportunities. Or Boulder, with its amazing community feel. And Chapel Hill, where I can indulge my love of basketball (honestly earned by growing up in Indiana, the home of March Madness). I said goodbye to the white bread Midwestern states, full of corn and flat as far as the eye can see. And then... And then.

Something strange happened. I got to Chapel Hill, and it was too hot. I stopped at the farmer's market and was disconcerted by the lack of the shout "Hot spicy cheese bread!" that I made fun of so much when I went to the Madison Farmer's Market. There was a distinct lack of cheese brats, beer brats, and bad beer. There was a distinct lack of cheese. And when the professional football season started, things went even further downhill. I guess I can't blame North Carolinians, because if my team was that sad, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care very much about the NFL. But you know what I missed? The green jerseys, worn the day before and day of every Packer game during the whole season. How the guys on the floor would congregate in the quietest part of the plant so that they could pay as much attention as possible to the game. The endless recaps during the day after, as everyone rehashed how awesome the Packers were or noted every minute mistake that was made. And through it all, the incredible loyalty. This is their team.

 
You could see it on Sunday. Many times, even if a team makes it to the Super Bowl, their fans aren't travellers. They won't fly halfway across the country to see their team play. The Super Bowl tends to be rather lacking in crowd noise, populated as it is by some of the see-and-be-seen crowd. Luckily, we struck gold in Sunday's matchup - Steeler fans and Packer fans are not fair-weather. They will go to the ends of the earth to watch their team play. There were cheese heads and terrible towels galore. I watched from home, with a few friends. We drank quite a bit of Wisconsin beer, and there were a few times where our yelling scared the living daylights out of Annabelle. To be fair, our shindig was maybe a bit more highbrow than many that occurred in Wisconsin - beer bread was made with a microbrew and some whole wheat flour, french onion dip was from scratch (and vegetables were dipped in it - the horror!), and I'm pretty sure no good Packer fan would make something like a pork and fruit ragout to eat while watching their team play. Brownies weren't from a box. But I think it's a compromise. And it led me to a realization - Wisconsin is a pretty damned good state.

There's probably only one thing left to say - Congrats Packers, and go Pack go!

 

Oh, oh right. And the bread pudding. Well, we're not really bread pudding fans over here, so I just made one little ramekin of it using a stale whole wheat baguette and some whiskey (it was in a plastic bottle. yep, J's a klassy guy.). If nothing else, it smelled darned amazing in the oven. Then again, vanilla + whiskey = never a bad idea. Only good things come from that combo.

Last Week: Great Grains Muffins

Next Week: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops (basically, brownie cookies you can pretend are healthy because look! There's oats in there!)

TWD: Great Grains Muffins

Oh hai. Research, it has stolen my soul, my life, my sleep, and my peace of mind. Fie on it! Well, fie on that one particular analytical instrument (it's this one, in case you're wondering) ((well, something like that one, since the one we have is more like 30 years old) that is actually owned by a Chemistry professor who needs it ASAP (ohmygodhislifewillendifhedoesn'tgetitinthenext3.5749minutes). That pesky instrument is incredibly necessary for a potential paper and a grant proposal, leading to all sorts of wacky scheduling so we can cram our experiments into the next week. Which has led to a complete lack of predictable schedule, lack of baking opportunities, yada yada yada. Hello, welcome to my life. It's utterly boring, complete with 12 hour days spent in darkened labs! (because god help us if UV light hits any of our precious particles. uppity little buggers.)

 
In other news, I'm upping my running and exercise variety as well. As in, I severely under-dressed for a speed workout yesterday, but still managed to gut through 6x400 and a 200 thrown in for good measure. What can I say? The adorably baby blue track got to me! Unfortunately, so did the cold, as I was able to keep my legs warm but my fingers had shooting pains in them. Yay? I'll blame it on peer pressure and move on, mkay? Well, hobble on. It's sortakindamaybe been a while since I've hit up a track. Which is why today = spin class. First wreak havoc on one set of muscles, then switch it up to another! Because it's better to be in pain all the time.

 
Oh, and right. Muffins. May I mention again my thanks for the muffin picks? Number one, muffins = frosting-less cake. WIN. Number two, 10 minute prep, 20 minute bake. WIN. Number three, grab-and-go breakfasts for J. WIN. Number four, these muffins have some dubious claim to health due to the grains and nuts and dried fruit. WIN. J really liked them, and said they lasted quite well throughout the week, not getting stale or dry. They're definitely a hearty little muffin, with adorable little flat tops. Because yes, I think of food as being cute, adorable, gorgeous, or some other random adjective that is generally not applied to food. But it's okay. I'm already weird. In case you hadn't noticed. (And rustic is good! Homely is good! Both are also goddamned tasty. It's just that some baked goods just scream cute.)

 
P.S. Some people mentioned that their muffins baked up quite quickly. I didn't notice, since I generally have issues already with baking things in my current oven. It's hinky beyond all belief. But in case you actually have a legitimate oven? Check them as much as 5-8 minutes before you think they'll be done. Heck, do that with any baked good, it's a good practice to get into. Well, that and recognizing things are done by smell, which is my current favorite party trick.

 
Last Week: Nutty Chocolatey Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake
Next Week: Bourbon Bread Pudding