Life is Peachy (well, maybe more like Strawberry)

Life has been a whirlwind lately! I think I will just update you on personal stuff for now and cooking later.

I left Live Nation where I have worked since basically FOREVER it seems (on/off and mostly on since 2004) and started a new job at Front Gate Tickets here in Austin. This week round out my 4th full week at the new job and things are going very well. No more crazy drama and worrying about my future at the company...things are pretty chill here which is just what the doctor ordered. The office is only a mile from our house so I can still go home for lunch to hang out with Clementine.

How is Clem you ask? She's still a dog and doing fine. We went camping a few weeks ago and I think she was so scared out of her mind that we were able to leave her off leash and she stayed in the area with us...it was fabulous. However, it made me think she was a better dog than she really is because then over Easter weekend I decided to let her out in my mom's front yard with no leash to do her business and SHE RAN AWAY! She bolted about two blocks away and we couldn't find her for a few minutes. Luckily, my step dad jumped in his truck and spotted her down the street. He only had to yell CLEM! once and she bolted straight back to the house and waited at the door. Never again I tell you...that dog will NEVER be allowed off her leash again.

How is Max? He is also doing great! He quit smoking shortly before his 30th birthday just like he always promised he would do and is going on 3 full weeks off the things now. I always told people that he was pretty much a perfect boyfriend other than the fact that he smoked so...guess what...now he's perfect! Ha...no pressure dear. :)

The cooking situation has slowed down considerably since starting the new job. I haven't been cooking anything as much as I was before but hopefully I'll dig myself out of the "I'm too tired" mentality pretty soon. After all, summer is right around the corner and the weather has been fabulous. I have 6 tomato plants and 4 bell pepper plants growing in our backyard (and a withering eggplant that I'll pretend I have not failed at growing) and the tomato plants already come up to my shoulders and have some tiny guys growing already. I CAN'T WAIT! I'm going to can tomato sauce like crazy this summer.

Last weekend was the Poteet Strawberry Festival. For those of you that do not know, though I went to middle and high school in San Antonio the town of Poteet is where I truly grew up and where my mom/grandma/many other family members still live. My favorite memories in life are pretty much all in Poteet. It's a pretty small town and I'm fairly certain that the festival is the most exciting thing that happens there all year. The star of the show is, of course, strawberries! I have consumed so many berries the past two weeks that I might soon turn in to one. My uncle has a small farm outside of town where he grows berries and over Easter weekend Max and I went out there and picked a few (10!) pints to take home with us. That's a lot of berries! What did I do with all of those you ask? Well...you'll have to stay tuned to find out!

Last thing...spring in Texas is beautiful. I completely forgot this as I missed it the past 8 years! There are so many wild flowers growing alongside the roads here. It's just breath taking really. Here are some pictures - an Indian paintbrush up close, bluebonnets in a field with Indian paintbrushes and a bluebonnet with a purty moth on top.

Maple Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I have been deliquent about posting this week. I've been too busy doing things like getting a new job and hanging out with real people away from my computer! How dare I, I know.

Earlier this week I made bacon chocolate chunk cookies. They were absolutely fabulous. I have been obsessed lately with the idea of salty and sweet together so I knew I would love this combination. Also, it seems like everywhere you look these days bacon is making a come back as the most popular item on every menu in town, including the dessert menu!

I adapted this recipe from the Noble Pig blog. I tried to make them a little less horrible for me but honestly, they still come in at about 3 Weight Watchers point a cookie. I allowed myself to eat about one a day...and I gained half a pound this week. So, don't think this is diet food. It's just GOOD food.

Here's the recipe:
8 strips of bacon, cooked. 5 should be mixed in the dough and 3 crumbled and pressed on top of the dough before cooking. Noble Pig said this was optional but I really think it's necessary or you don't taste the bacon in the cookies enough.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (I used stick margarine)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/4 cup Splenda/Sugar combo)
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon maple extract
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until browned and cooked through. Drain on a paper-towel lined plate and chop finely.

In a medium bowl whisk flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars; about three minutes. Add egg and maple extract and beat until just blended. Add the dry ingredients; beat until just incorporated and the flour is dissolved. Stir in the chocolate chips, walnuts and bacon.

Drop one large Tablespoon of cookie dough 2-3 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes in a 350 degree oven only until the edges are brown and slightly soft in the center. Mine did not spread out that much but I only did about 8 cookies per tray.

Boy oh boy were these gems a hit! I tasted this almost exact cookie at a trendy eatery the week before and I have to say - MINE WERE WAY BETTER!

Make them, eat them, love them. Be sure to tell people they have bacon in them before you hand them over because whops, some people do still keep kosher these days...even in Texas. I'm going to try these again but without chocolate. I want to taste the bacon even more and I think a simple maple and walnut bacon cookie would really do the trick.

Key Lime Cupcakes

As far back as I can remember my dad has loved Key Lime pie. I remember it was always his dessert of choice when we went out to eat pretty much anywhere. So, when his birthday rolled around this year I contemplated just making him the straight up pie...or maybe even key lime bars. But then I came across this recipe for Key Lime Cupcakes. It was love at first sight...and eventually at first bite.

The recipe was pretty straight forward and after making cupcakes from scratch the week before I felt like a total pro already. I diligently zested and juiced more key limes than I have ever seen in my life (and gosh, I still have about 30 of them leftover...). I have to say that the addition of real lime juice and zest to this recipe put it over the top. It was just SO amazingly zingy, tangy, citrusy...limey. You get my point.

The batter was a bit runnier than the chocolate cupcakes I made previously but honestly I think these came out much more fluffy and moist.

Oh...did I mention I didn't mess with the recipe at all? That's right...full fat butter, cream cheese, etc. And I ate 2 of them. I will not measure my waistline this week.

I think my favorite part of this recipe was the frosting. I'm a total sucker for cream cheese. You could spread it on pretty much anything and it will be my favorite dish ever. I was happy to learn how to make a traditional-ish cream cheese frosting since it seems many cupcakes are topped with that.

Look at how green they are! In the future, I might not add the food coloring. I imagine the coloring was added to punch home the idea that they are LIME but you can smell it and taste it so I just don't think the fake green was necessary. Fun to buy the little McCormick's box of colors though!

Adventures with Candy - Divinity and Buckeyes

Last week was my Dad's birthday. Every year I have no idea what to buy him (this goes for most people actually). Luckily, thanks to my new hobby, I did not even think of buying him a thing this year. He LOVES sweets of all kinds so I figured I would take a stab at some of his favorite items.

First, I attempted to make divinity. I'm not incredibly familiar with this candy but I remembered that he likes it so I gave it a shot. Wikipedia says that "Divinity is a nougat-like confectionery made mainly with egg white, corn syrup, and sugar." I could tell just from the description that this could not be made in to a healthy treat so I did not even try. After all, I wasn't really planning on eating these. I used a recipe from Paula Deen that you can find here. However, I would recommend doing more internet research than just this recipe because after the fact I found more information on how hot to heat the syrup and I think maybe I shouldn't have just blindly trusted Mrs. Deen in this case.

The process was unlike anything I have ever done. First of all I have NEVER used white corn syrup in my kitchen. I have also never beaten egg whites to stiff peaks (though I have seen it done on TV many times). I think I got the egg whites portion down...at least they seemed like stiff peaks to me.


Melting the sugar, corn syrup and water together was rather exciting. I loved seeing it bubble and using my new candy thermometer. The recipe said to use a heavy bottom pot so I chose to use my enameled cast iron pot. In retrospect this was not a great idea since the pot was too heavy to lift off the stove and pour the scalding hot sugar in to the mixer. I ended up using a ladle which worked OK but might have contributed to the gooey outcome I suppose.



Once everything was mixed together I had no idea if it was done. The recipe says to "beat until mixture holds its shape." No clue what that means...what shape? I beat it for about 5 minutes and decided it seemed fluffy and stopped. I think that was my mistake right there. Once I started to spoon everything on to the parchment paper it just oozed everywhere. Disaster. I tried to put some in to muffin tins...even after letting them sit for a day and a half they were still gooey and would not come out. In the end, a few of the thinner candies did dry out and tasted pretty good. Most of the mixture ended up in a Ziploc bag. It has the texture of marshmallow cream. I'm going to try to use it this week to make cookie sandwiches or something...I just hate to waste it. So, Divinity - 1 Ashley - 0.

Luckily, I think I redeemed myself slightly with the second candy attempt: Buckeyes. These were SO easy it was wonderful. Unfortunately, my non baker self kicked in and neglected to read or learn anything about melting chocolate correctly. I had seen it done a zillion times on the Food Network with the whole double boiler situation so I got that setup and dumped in the chopped up chocolate (I used half milk, half semi sweet). It started to melt but never got to the consistency necessary to dip the peanut butter balls in. So, I added a couple tablespoons of coffee (Ina Garten always uses coffee in her chocolate!) and it loosened up a bit but still not enough. So, I added a couple splashes of milk and voila! - I could easily dip the balls. Unfortunately, I guess adding all that liquid made it more of a ganache so it never really got very hard. They firmed up enough to be mighty delicious and pretty though so I didn't cry over it too much. Lesson learned for next time.



The last thing I made for him were Key Lime Cupcakes. But...you'll have to wait to hear about those as they definitely deserve their very own entry.

New favorite things: turkey tenderloin and the mandolin slicer

I cooked so much last week that I couldn't find the time to blog about it. What a problem to have!

I finished out the week of veggies with a couple of great dishes and some not so great. I never did make the carrot soup...I'm going to get to that today hopefully and I have an entirely new bunch of carrots to add to it from the box this past Friday.

On Tuesday I had to use those mustard greens that we attempted to eat as a salad the night before. I have to say...they weren't my favorite things ever. I mixed in the greens from the beets and added some red wine vinegar which helped but they were just meh. That night I roasted a turkey tenderloin which was a new addition to my normal repertoire. I'm a fan! This meat is so low in calories and fat that I could eat 8 ounces of it for under 5 Weight Watchers points - that same amount of chicken breast is 8 points! I have no idea how it is so much leaner than chicken breast but I'm going to go along with it and use it more often. The leftovers made great sandwiches mixed up like chicken salad. That same night I cooked brown rice and put in some diced up carrots and...BACON! Yum. It was only 1 slice but gave the rice a great flavor.


Wednesday and Thursday we went out for dinner but made up for it on Friday with a blowout vegetable and shrimp stir fry. We make this a lot and it's always a hit. I used up the brocolli, some carrots, spinach, leftover brown rice and we threw in some shelled edamame and shrimp as well. And LOOK - Max and I finally learned how to use our mandolin slicer to make perfect stir fry carrots. Very exciting, I know.


After all of the things I cooked last week, how much I indulged AND the fact that I did not exercise even once, I still lost 2 ounces. I know that might not seem like a lot but I had at least 3 HUGE and ridiculously calorie heavy meals out this week so if it wasn't for my healthy cooking during the week the situation would be much worse. :)

I have to get the pictures together of the treats I made for my dad...some turned out great and others not so much. Stay tuned if you have a sweet tooth!

Beets and dill and mustard greens...OH MY!

Every Friday afternoon I pick up a box of organic vegetables from my local certified organic farm. Here's a clip from their site: "Johnson's Backyard Garden is a 20-acre certified organic farm just five miles east of Downtown Austin owned by Brenton and Beth Johnson. We have a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program which serves 650 families in Austin year-round with fresh, organic vegetables, herbs and flowers." You can visit them here.

I joined their program shortly after moving to Austin and learning how supportive the Austin area is of not only local businesses but local agriculture as well. I love the idea of the whole Slow Food movement and I wanted to join in the fun. It has been an amazing decision so far. Each Friday I feel like a kid waiting to be taken to the candy shop for a surprise bag of treats. Except I'm not a kid and these are vegetables...but, it is still a surprise that I love opening. They post a list of what might be in your box each week but you still never really know. Getting this box has really helped me challenge my creativity in the kitchen. I mean...what do you do with 2 pounds of carrots on a weekly basis? And dill...don't get me started with the dill. I've been freezing it in hopes that this summer they will deliver lots of cucumbers. ;)

This week the box had: an avocado, grapefruits, oranges, broccoli, beets with their greens, lettuce, dill, spinach, spring onions, carrots and mustard greens.


The avocado and citrus I haven't gotten too creative with. We eat the citrus and they are AMAZING...so juicy...and I used some of the juice this week to make a citrus vinaigrette for salads. The avocado so far is just getting sliced up in salads and on sandwiches.

On Sunday I made Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers from Cooking Light and to go along with it made mashed potatoes with broccoli.


Basically, I just boiled a large baking potato (cubed up) like you do when making mashed potatoes and in the last few minutes I threw in about 1.5 cups of broccoli to cook with it. I drained everything together, mashed and threw in some sour cream, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. These were a HUGE hit with the man and I would highly recommend the chicken dish. It had some very unique and different flavors. My second favorite part of this dish, after eating it, was eating it again reinvented for lunch today. I used the chicken and leftover onion/bell pepper mixture and shoved it in some pita bread with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. YUM.

Monday night I sauteed up shrimp with garlic, butter and lemon juice and to go with it an Israeli couscous dish with roasted beets, carrots and goat cheese. This dish took a little more time but it was well worth it. I roasted the beets and carrots in two separate aluminum foil packages (about 1.5 cups of each) in a 375 degree oven for oh...about an hour I would say. I let them cool, peeled the beets and diced everything up. Later, I cooked the Israeli couscous in some chicken stock and when it was done I simply mixed the veggies in along with 2 ounces of goat cheese. Again, HUGE hit. We had never had Israeli couscous before but boy was it tasty.


We did have one little snafu on Monday night. Sometimes when I get the vegetables I can't quite tell what they are. I make assumptions, look up pictures and go with it. Mostly this works out. However, last night I instructed Max to wash up this lettuce we got to make a big salad. He did and made his favorite balsamic dressing and brought it to the table. He took a huge bite...chewed...chewed...and ran to the trash can to spit it out. I knew the lettuce was a bit spicy but we figured it was some sort of arugula. Um, no. It was mustard greens. OUCH. Too spicy to eat raw...worse than horseradish actually. We set it aside to saute up with Tuesday nights dinner. Live and learn...now we know what mustard greens are I guess.

More dishes to come...tonight I am roasting a turkey tenderloin, tossing together the mustard and beet greens and making some sort of brown rice dish. Oh, and maybe carrot bisque for lunch today or tomorrow. Hopefully everything is edible.

Sunday Morning + Berry Scones

It's official - nothing beats a lazy Sunday and some fresh baked goods to go along with it. I woke up this past Sunday ready to bake! I had been thinking about what to try next all week and decided on scones. Why, I have no idea, especially considering that I do not even LIKE scones! Or, at least I thought I didn't like them.

In my mind scones are big, dry crumbly things that make my mouth very unhappy and my shirt very dirty. No thanks. And yet, they are at nearly every coffee shop you visit these days so I figured there must be something there that I was missing. I decided to stick with the angel on my shoulder and try out a recipe I found on weightwatchers.com. Three Berry Scones. Very simple. I can do this!

Here are the players:
2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
2 Tbsp butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 cup(s) buttermilk (I used 1 cup of skim milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar...let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes or so before using. Mine sat in the fridge overnight)
1 1/2 cup(s) frozen unsweetened mixed berries
2 serving(s) butter-flavor cooking spray


Here are the oh so simple instructions:
* Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
* In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix in butter until mixture is size of fine crumbs. Stir in buttermilk and then stir in berries.
* Shape dough into two 7-inch circles on prepared baking sheet. Cut each circle into 6 wedges and coat with cooking spray.
* Bake until cooked through and golden, about 20 minutes. Yields one wedge per serving.


I decided to use my hands this time since it was still early and I was feeling too lazy to clean the stand mixer. Not a good idea...this was a DENSE dough. Once the flour came in to the equation the whisk was utterly useless. I ended up folding it with my hands which was awful because it was so sticky! Plus, the frozen berries started to melt from the warmth caused by handling. I'm sure the chilled and small pieces of butter also did not like my hands - they're always saying on the Food Network that cold butter is the key to successful pastry. Next time I'll use the mixer, I promise.

Also, next time I won't bake from a Weight Watchers recipe. They really don't explain things enough. I had to dust some flour on the dough to work with it in order to form it in to the discs...I just can't see that it would have been possible otherwise. When it came time to cut in to 6 wedges each I kept thinking...am I meant to separate these wedges or leave them together? Due to the fact that everything was so sticky I left them together. Fail. They baked in to two large discs...NOT 12 lovely wedges. Doh. I had to slice them immediately after removing from the oven to make the wedges which wasn't a huge deal but a more detailed recipe could have prevented this.


Somehow in the end everything worked out. In fact, it more than worked out since I previously thought I hated scones and I still can't stop munching on these. They were not dry at all and though the berries mostly fell to the bottom of each wedge they offered a great tart contrast. They remind me of biscuits actually...not wedges of chalk which is what scones always were in my mind. In fact, I just did some research online and discovered that it's mainly in the US that scones are dry...in the UK and other such places apparently they are more like what I created. GOOD TO KNOW! Give them a try if you were as tricked by Starbucks as I have been!

BIG week coming up as far as baking goes. It's my dad's birthday and instead of buying him useless junk that he doesn't need I'm going to clog his arteries with sweets. That's real love. <3