A Schmorgisborg of Cookies

Get pumped.

Because from today until the holidays, I will be posting about each of these delicious cookies!

MMMMM I want some just looking at that picture.

And if you didn't know, a "schmorgisborg" is:

"A large quantity of something, with diverse variation, served or otherwise open to people.

Typically refers to a platter of food at a social gathering."

--Complements of Urbandictionary.com.

aka tons of yummy cookies!

Happy Hanukkah!

To round up Hanukkah, I wanted to show you this recipe for a "Jewish" apple cake that my mom made for Rosh Hashanah this year and then I brought into work for a breakfast birthday celebration later! Of course, I used some of the apples that we handpicked!

This is hands-down the moistest cake I've ever eaten - and its delicious! The original recipe calls for slicing the apples, but the cake falls apart when you try to cut into it! Here, I've diced the apples to allow for smoother cutting (and less mess!).

Happy Hanukkah & enjoy!

Apple Cake (from relishmag.com)

6 cups peeled and sliced (or diced) Granny Smith apples (about 3 large)

1 1/2 cups plus 5 tbs granulated sugar

4 tsps cinnamon

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice

2 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

Preheat 350F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.

Combine apple slices with 5 tbs sugar and 4 tsps cinnamon, set aside.

Beat eggs with remaining sugar and brown sugar. Add vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla, beat well. Gradually blend in all dry ingredients.

Pour 1/3 batter into the pan, top with half the apples. Pour in about half of the remaining batter, top with the rest of the apples. Pour the remaining batter on top of the apples, making sure to cover all the apples.

Bake 55 -60 minutes until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes in pan, turn out of pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information - 1 serving (1/16 of cake): 320 calories, 15g fat, 47 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 190mg sodium.

Carrot Cake Muffins/Cupcakes

Really, these just give me an excuse to eat cream cheese icing first thing in the morning.

And who wouldn't want to do that??

Seriously though, I've served these as muffins (AM) and as cupcakes (Birthday celebration) and they are equally as delicious at any time of the day! I'm thinking that carrot cake in cake form means that it has to be dessert, while in muffin form, you can eat it at anytime. In that case, all my carrot desserts will be in muffin form :)

I prefer my carrot cake without nuts, so I left them out, and added lots of cream cheese frosting, just to cancel out the healthiness of the carrot :) Enjoy!

Carrot Cake Muffins/Cupcakes

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, room temp

3/4 c oil (canola or sunflower, vege will work)

1tsp vanilla

1 c sugar

1.5 cups shredded carrots

1/2 c chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 and line a 12 cup muffin tin (or a mini muffin tin) with paper liners

In an electric mixer, whisk together eggs, oil, vanilla, sugar on high for about 5 minutes until it resembles a runny mayonnaise. Stir in flour, baking soda, and cinnamon until combined. Stir in carrots (and pecans).

Divide batter among muffin tins (about 1/2-2/3 full), bake about 18-20 minutes for regular muffins or 8-10 min for mini muffins (inserted toothpick should come out clean). Cool in pan 5 minutes, then take out allow to cool completely. Frost with cream cheese icing!

Cream Cheese Icing

1 package (8oz) softened cream cheese

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cream together until smooth. Try not to eat the whole bowl until you are done frosting the cupcakes/muffins.

Apple Picking Part 1

We've been meaning to go apple picking the past three falls, but somehow always end up missing the season. Growing up in Virginia, my family would drive up to the mountains when the weather turned fall-ish and pick tons of apples. So, as soon as the weather breaks in North Carolina, I look up places to go apple picking and find that everything has already been picked! Luckily, I was early this year, so on a nice, hot Sunday, we drove about an hour away to pick the last few apples off the trees.

The only kind of apple that was left was Fuji, and there were only a few trees full of apples, but super-tall Patrick was able to reach the untouched apples at the top, and all I had to do was hold the basket! It took us all of 10 minutes to pick half a bushel, which was about all I could carry.

Then the fun began.... First, we needed to wash them. The farm where we picked them gave us instructions to fill our sink with water and add a little bit of bleach (about 2 tablespoons), and soak the apples for 5 minutes.

Bobbing anyone? Then, I transfered them to a rack and rinsed them off really well to get rid of the bleach.

Unfortunately, they were still dirty, so then it was time to shine each apple. This took for FOREVER, and used up at least 3 wash rags, but most of the ugly dirt spots came off of each apple easily.

Don't they look so pretty in that bowl?

The first thing to make with them was an apple pie. There was a recipe that I had my eyes on for a while, so I decided to try it. I need a few more tries to get the pie perfect, but I can tell you that the crust was delicious! It didn't use butter, but had shortening in it, making it really crisp and flaky.

The Fuji apples were a little tart for the pie, and not sweet enough for me, even though I added much more sugar than the recipe called for. Next time I'll probably use store bought granny smith apples.

I did get to finally use my pie plate that's been staring at me all summer - did you notice that it matches the bowl? I also have a mixing bowl in the same pattern - they are all from a fantasic pottery store called Irvin Pottery in Seward, Alaska.

Stay tuned for more apple recipes!

Happy Halloween!

What better way to celebrate Halloween than to attempt to get all of your favorite Halloween candy in one bite? I couldn't think of one, so I made Halloween Candy Bark!

You can totally mix it up with any candy that you want - I used Reese's Pieces and Reese's Peanut butter cups, Butterfingers, Heath Bars, and Honey Roasted Peanuts - yum!

All you do is melt some bittersweet chocolate (I actually did a mixture of semisweet and bittersweet because that was the chips I had) and spread it in a foil-lined baking sheet to about 1/4 of an inch. While it is still warm, add all the chopped Halloween candy you want! I froze mine before chopping so they stay together easier. To finish, melt some white chocolate* and drizzle over top. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour until chilled, then break into pieces and eat!

Be forewarned - this stuff is addicting!

*for readers that will remain un-named & used up 3 bags of chips, here is how to melt white chocolate: Don't put it directly over the heat if doing it on the stovetop - use a double boiler or boil water in a pot and then put your bowl with the chocolate overtop. OR put the chocolate in a microwave and microwave for one minute, stir, then in 15 minute intervals until melted. If you need to drizzle or make it thinner, you can add some shortening, vege oil, or butter.

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

I always love it when I have an excuse to make a whole cake - I can hardly justify the work of making an entire cake when its just the two of us. I made this cake this summer during Patrick's family reunion in Oregon. With two full houses of relatives, there were lots of mouths to eat it!

This is a layered chocolate cake with ganache frosting, strawberry jam, and fresh strawberries. I would have liked it to be circular, as the recipe calls for, but the rental house did not have any 9-inch diameter cake pans! Instead, I used a 9x13 (they didn't even have any 9x9s) and just cut the baked cake in half. It did the trick, and it still tasted great in rectangular form.

The ganache on this makes it super rich and quite messy to frost - especially if you don't have enough time to fully freeze and set the ganache like I did (there were too many outdoor activites to do - biking, hiking, swimming, floating down a freezing cold river.....). But, the drippings go nicely on the extra strawberries :) and you don't even have to wait for it to set!

And before the recipe, here's a beautiful view from the top of the hike that we went on before eating this cake :)

Recipe:

CAKE

2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup water

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

Preheat over to 350F and spray two 9 inch diameter pans. Blend flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, form a well in the center. In a separate bowl, whisk water, buttermilk, oil and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry well and whisk to blend. Divide batter between pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans.

Meanwhile.... make the ganache!

GANACHE

18 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate

2 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Bring cream to boil, pour over chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Let stand 1 minute for chocolate to melt, and then stir until smooth. Refrigerate 1 1/4 cup ganache about 1 hour until it is thick enough to spread. Leave the other at room temp to cool - it should still be pourable.

Now its time to assemble...

STRAWBERRY TOPPING

Fresh strawberries

1 jar strawberry jam

Place one cake layer on plate, spread 4 tablespoons jam. Spoon several dollops of the chilled ganache over top, and spread until even. Place second cake layer on top of the first. Spread another 4 tablespoons strawberry jam on top. Pour almost half of the room temp ganache over the cake, spread over top and sides to cover. Freeze the whole cake until the ganache sets (20-30 min). Pour the rest of the ganache over the cake - spread evenly, smooth the edges, and make it pretty. Freeze to set ganache. Add strawberries in whatever pattern your heart desires, refrigerate until two hours before the time to eat, serve at room temp!

Homemade Challah

When I think back to what I enjoy most about the Jewish Holidays, I always remember the good food! Especially on Rosh Hashanah, when its perfectly acceptable to dip everything in honey (and not just when I go to fast food restaurants - fries dipped in honey are so delicious!). However, the BEST thing about the holidays is the challah. Since I can't get Ukrops round challah's down here - and I've never even seen a challah in the Harris Teeter - I decided to make my own this year. I ended up making a total of 4 loaves since the recipe that I found makes two - and they are almost gone!

This bread was actually super easy - it only rises twice, so you can make it in one night. I think that it tastes better the second day.... we've been living off of toasted challah the past two weeks (even Bailey loves it!)! I prefer my challah with raisins in them, which I added right before the knead step. The second time around, I ended up adding honey into the dough, which I thought made the bread tastier and also slightly firmer. I didn't measure, but just squeezed a bunch in there so hopefully I can replicate it next time!

Also, I left off the egg wash both times - once I forgot, the other time I was out of eggs! I didn't miss it - I actually prefer my breads without an egg wash.

Challah - adapted from bonappetit.com

1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoons dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar

5 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
squeeze honey (optional)
2/3 cup warm water
7 1/2 cups (about) all-purpose flour

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water

Stir together 1/2 cup warm water, yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in a separate bowl. Let yeast mixture stand at room temperature until foamy.

Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, beat 5 eggs until blended. Add oil, salt, 3/4 cup sugar and honey (if you want) and beat until pale yellow and slightly thickened, about 4 minutes. Add 2/3 cup warm water and mix. Add yeast mixture mix. Remove whisk and fit mixer with dough hook.

Add flour 1 cup at a time until dough is smooth, beating well after each addition and making sure you don't add too much flour - you want the dough to not stick to your hands, but not be dry. At this point, the dough was overflowing my bowl, so I split it up into two equal pieces. Then beat dough on medium speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, adding flour by tablespoonfuls if sticky (Add raisins here). Turn out onto floured surface and knead 2 minutes.

Lightly oil large bowl. Add dough, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap, then with clean kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Divide each dough portion into 3 equal pieces and roll each piece into 9-inch-long rope on a lightly floured surface. Braid 3 ropes together; pinch ends together to seal and fold under to make a nice end. Repeat with remaining dough pieces, forming 2 braids. Place braids on a baking sheet and cover with a towel . Let rise in warm area until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F. If you want, whisk yolk with 1 tablespoon water to blend and brush dough with egg mixture. Bake 10 minutes at 400, then reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 30 minutes. Transfer loaves to rack and cool completely. Eat and enjoy!

I'm baaaaack!

Hey y'all - Sorry about the 2 month hiatus. For those of you that didn't know, I was involved with planning The DOUGHMAN that took place last Saturday. It was on Man vs. Food last year (I had my 2 seconds of fame) and its basically a relay quadrathon where you have to eat a meal (think pork BBQ or a pizza) and then run, bike or jump into a flimsy inner tube and paddle across the pool. It was a lot of fun this year, but took up A LOT of my time. So, in addition to school, DOUGHMAN, and starting to coach summer swim league again, and throw in a trip to Italy, there wasn't much time to bake/blog.

So, let's start summer off in style - with a Fruit Pizza! I absolutely love this dessert and make it all the time in the summer. Its super simple and easy to take to a cookout, and its got fruit on it, so its gotta be healthy, right?

I always use strawberries and blueberries no matter what (they are my favorite), and here i've used kiwi and bananas, but you can change it up with whatever fruit you have! I've used mandarin oranges or peaches - this can really work with everything!

The icing is cream cheese "frosting" - my favorite by far. For the cookie crust, if you are really in a time pinch, you can use it with the pillsbury roll out sugar cookie dough and it tastes great. I recently made it with my own sugar cookie dough, and I liked it a lot better -I think the Pillsbury dough is too sugary.

There is an optional apricot glaze that you can put on top. Ever since the glaze leaked on my friends pants on our way to a cookout, I've left it off. I don't think it adds anything to the pizza, but it also doesn't ruin it!

The tart usually lasts a couple of days, but it can go soggy - so make sure you eat it up in a timely manner (shouldn't be problem). You can also use any shape of pan (square, rectangle, star, heart), so go crazy!!!

Fruit Pizza

Sugar Cookie Dough

1 8oz package Cream Cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

assorted cut fruits (strawberries, kiwi, banana, blueberries, raspberries, peaches - anything!)

Optional Glaze:

2 tbsp apricot preserves

2 tbsp water

1. Spread out cookie dough on a flat pizza sheet (or any other sized sheet) until covered (use your hands!!!). Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until just turning brown. Let cool.

2. Mix together softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread onto cooled sugar cookie - I like to spread mine right to the edge!

3. Arrange the cut fruit in any pattern that you like.

4. (Optional) - Mix together the apricot preserves and water, spread evenly over tart.

5. EAT!

Bran Muffins

In keeping with the health kick, I complemented my homemade granola making with some bran muffins. I had seen these on another blog a while ago, and filed them in the back of my mind to make them. The only problem was that they require wheat bran - and who has that on hand???

I finally remembered to pick some up on one of my rare Whole Foods Trips (I tend to overspend there so I limit my shopping trips - everything looks so GOOD!!). The recipe calls for toasting the bran - I ended up burning my first batch, so luckily I had another full two cups! Make sure you stir the bran every once in a while - burnt bran doesn't smell very nice.

I wonder who took that bite? These were gone in about two days. But they are good for you, right??? If you are feeling healthy, or just want to try a not so sweet, but still delicious muffin, give these a try!

(Please note the barbie-themed muffin liners. What a great find.)

Recipe by Nancy Silverton

2 cup (125g) wheat bran
1 cup, plus 1/2 cup (190g total) dark raisins
1 cup, plus 1/2 (370ml total) cup water
1/2 cup (120g) buttermilk or plain low- or non-fat yogurt
a few swipes of fresh orange zest (unsprayed)
1/2 cup (105g) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/2 cup (65g) flour
1/4 cup (35g) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Toast the wheat bran on a baking sheet for 6-8 minutes & STIR every once in a while (DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR KITCHEN SMELLING OF BURNT WHEAT BRAN. not a good idea). Heat 1 cup raisins with 1/2 cup water - simmer for ten minutes until water is gone and puree raisins in blender or food processor. Mix together the toasted bran, yogurt or buttermilk, and 1 cup water. Then mix in the raising puree, orange zest and brown sugar. Stir in the oil, egg and egg white. Sift, or just throw in the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt - stir until combined. Mix in remaining raisins. Spoon batter into muffin tins - almost to the top! Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until set.

Homemade Granola

About a week ago, I had a granola craving, and instead of going out to the store to buy some, I decided to make my own. After a quick search online, I found a simple recipe with most of the ingredients that I already had in my kitchen. I made only half a recipe - and it was fantastic!! I didn't end up having some of the ingredients (walnut oil & flaxseed meal), so I wanted to try it again to see if it would make a difference.

The second time, I used the walnut oil that the recipe calls for, which was surprisingly not very expensive at the store. I actually liked it better the first time when I just used canola oil - maybe it wasn't quite as rich. Also, I couldn't really tell a difference with the added flaxseed in there. Either way, it works with almost any combination of ingredients that you want to throw in (walnuts, almonds, raisins, etc) and goes great with yogurt for a breakfast! Enjoy!

Recipe (adapted from bonappetit)

• 4 tablespoons walnut oil (I used canola), divided
• 3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon (scant) coarse kosher salt
• 3 cups organic old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup walnut halves, broken in half
• 1/2 cup flaxseed meal*
• 1 cup pitted dates, coarsely chopped or torn into pieces
• 1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350. Brush parchment with 2 tbs oil. In a bowl, whish 2 tbs oil with egg whites, sugar, and salt. Add oats, nuts, and flaxseed, toss well. Spread mixture on baking sheet, bake 10 minutes. Stir, bake 10 more minutes. Add dried fruit, drizzle honey over, bake for 10 more minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made some festive shamrock sugar cookies for St. Patty's Day, and then iced them in green royal icing!

Here they are "in progress" before I flooded them with more icing.

After some taste testing, we decided that the fully iced ones are actually better - I just loved the look of the outlined ones though (and I ran out of icing so they didn't really have a choice). Everyone loved them, including Miss B (who also shares her dad's ability scarf down incredible numbers of sugar cookies).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

THE ultimate oatmeal cookie???

After 24 long years of baking, I might be finished testing oatmeal cookies. How do I know this? Patrick, who does not like oatmeal cookies AT ALL, and who will never ever ever eat one under no circumstances whenever I make a batch, first, tried one (gasp) and second, said "These are pretty good for oatmeal cookies" (jaw dropping).

I made these to bring to an all day lab meeting, figuring that oatmeal can be eaten in the morning (it qualifies as breakfast, right?) or in the afternoon (it is in cookie form after all). With no raisins, which I found out was a plus, I made two kinds: walnut chocolate chip and white chocolate - craisin. I was impartial to the walnut chocolate chip, and I noticed that those went faster.

It was also nice to have people eat these cookies instead of the desserts that the Washington Duke Inn gave us (must be something they put in those Dook cookies). I will definitely be making these again and might be done looking for THE oatmeal recipe (until the next one comes my way).

Valentine's Day Cookies!!

So even though I'm a tad bit late for a Valentine's Day post, I really wanted to show you guys a few pictures of the sugar cookies that I managed to get before these guys disappeared!

How fun are these?? Not gonna lie, they took me for FOREVER to make. I've never been a big fan of the sugar cookie making/decorating. It takes an hour or so to chill the dough, then you have to dirty the counter to roll them out, and then I always loose a few during the transfer from cookie-cutting to pan (although my average is steadily increasing). And thats just to get a cookie! Then you have to either decorate with sprinkles (which always fall off for me) or wait until they cool and then frost (and normally have to make a couple of different colors to make them look cute). I'm exhausted just typing it.

However, I have recently decided that I wanted to get better at this sugar cookie decorating thing, because they look so dang cute! So, I made my mother-in-laws sugar cookie dough (delicious) and cut out a bunch of heart cookies. I do have to say that using the Silpat to roll out the dough really helped these babies to not stick to the floured surface (yay!). While they cooled, I made royal icing and colored it PINK! I then piped a really thin line of icing to outline the heart. (I sucked at this. Like really sucked.) Then, I added a little bit of water to the icing and filled in the outline (although some turned into bleeding hearts since they leaked outside the icing lines. I was never great at coloring inside the lines anyways....). They didn't look great at this point - the lines weren't really straight and kind of lumpy and the icing filling wasn't quite even, so I decided to hide their flaws with SPRINKLES - and it really worked!! I loved the pink on pink icing/sprinkle combo. I also made some red icing and put the same pink sprinkles on them - the colors didn't turn out in the picture, but I loved the contrast and it was probably my favorite color combo.

I didn't think that these were awful for my first attempt. And I actually had a fun time doing it, until I got to the dirty dishes part. I'm pretty sure they tasted good since they were gone by just the next day on our way down to the beach - we even had to make an emergency trip to a cooking store to buy more cookie cutters so that we'd have some cookies to eat ON Valentine's Day!

I hope that everyone had a great valentine's day (better late than never)!!! Thanks for stopping by!!!

Super Bowl!

I had been looking forward to throwing the second annual Woodruff Superbowl Party for a long time - it was the light at the end of the tunnel of a long month of studying. I decided to serve Indianapolis vs. New Orleans food - complete with jambalya vs. buffalo chicken mac n' cheese. (I never did find out who won the food bowl - they were both all gone by the end of the night!!!)

I also OBVIOUSLY had to do themed desserts as well, and they were OBVIOUSLY all bite sized. I started off with two kinds of cupcakes - a white cake with blue buttercream frosting and a chocolate cake with yellow cream cheese icing. I'm a sucker for chocolate cake and anything with cream cheese, so you can guess which was my favorite. Plus I got to try out my beginning staged piping skills, which actually turned out better than expected after a momentary panic of not finding the right tip (and the only one I've ever used).

See? Not so bad.

The next thing I made, and my absolute FAVORITE were these mini peanut butter pies with graham cracker crust. I had my first slice of peanut butter pie at a holiday party my parents had when I was little, and have been obsessed ever since. Since I can't make an entire pie because I would eat it myself (in probably 10 minutes), I had been brainstorming how to make these guys mini-sized. I ended up individually forming the crusts into mini-muffin tins, but upon inverting the pan to get them out, I lost a bunch of the ends of the crust. I made the next batch in paper cups, scooped the filling into them with an ice cream scooper, and stuck them in the freezer. The next morning, the paper peeled right off no problem and left most of the crust. I topped these guys with chocolate ganache and managed to get a few onto the plate instead of in my belly :)

Since I had a lot of leftover ganache from the mini PB-pies, I had to whip up something to put underneath it (of course). I found a quick brownie recipe from Hershey's that ended up being great, but not as fudgy as I like. BUT the ganache MADE the brownies and I'm not sure that I'll be able to make another brownie without the rich topping. darn.

Doesn't that look scrumptious??

Hope you all had a great superbowl (if you weren't over here enjoying the above treats) and GO HEELS, who happen to be playing dook right now. (I get too nervous to actually watch the entire game without having something to distract me) Stayed tuned for some Valentine's day sugar cookies!

I Passed!!!

I'm officially a PhD candidate!!! I'm not sure, but it might have something to do with the awesome breakfast that I provided my committee!

They had their choice of lemon poppyseed bread (with a lemon glaze), blueberry muffins, apple cinnamon muffins, and chocolate-chocolate chip muffins!! Yummmmm.

and yay!

Chouquettes, or a really yummy cross between a puff pastry and a chocolate chip cookie

In keeping with the French theme, I made these Choquettes before Thanksgiving. Even though I didn't make them during that week, it was a "warm up" to get ready for all of the baking that I did that week. These were super good - very light and fluffy with just a little bit of chocolate. It was a little odd that the dough was made in a saucepan, but they still turned out fine! However, they didn't keep very well, the sugar made them soggy, so they are definitely a "day of" bake. But I still managed to eat a few before that happened.

I actually got this recipe from David Lebovitz's book "Living the Sweet Life in Paris" but I also found them here on his blog! Bon appetit!

A French Thanksgiving

Every year since before I can remember, we always have a theme day on the Friday after Thanksgiving, mainly so we can keep eating such great food. This year, our theme was "France," so we jumped on the Julia Child bandwagon and made some great beef bourguignon (unfortunately, no pictures). All together, we had a 7-course dinner - starting off with some raclette, which consists of a 2 part grill in which you melt some raclette cheese underneath the top grill, which has peppers and ham simmering on top. When everything is done, you pour the raclette on top and enjoy!

Next up, we had a green salad with cheese and bacon (blurry pictures only - perhaps too much wine already?)

No "French" dinner is complete without escargots... which we all had to try. Here they are getting all buttered up before going in the oven. You actually can buy the shells separately, and then get escargot and put them in these shells. Pretty ingenious. AND they were great. But it could have been all the butter (and Marty's special sauce...).

I'm blanking on some of the other courses (except who could forget the amazing cheese course - with about 5 types of Brie). But here are some croissants ready to go in the oven. I made these from scratch - they are really fun to do and about 100x better (read - fluffier, butterier, crispier, yummier) than the roll-up Pillsbury kind.

And for dessert, I made chocolate mousse and an almond-pear tart. The mousse was ok - the tart was phenomenal. I will definitely be making it again - and you can either make your own crust (which I did) or buy the ready-made.

The recipe can be found on David Lebovitz's blog here. It was awesome! I substituted Grand Marnier for the liquor because that is what we had - and it was still great!

Brioche

Even though I'm about two holidays late, I did want write about the Brioche I made for Thanksgiving!! This year, the theme was all about French cooking (more on that later), and for breakfast one morning, we decided to make brioche french toast.

I had tested this recipe out at home once before, and ended up burning the entire thing due to oven mishaps and an overly long walk with the puppy. I didn't have much better luck at the beach for Thanksgiving, because one of our ovens was down and the other one wasn't set at the correct temperature. (It was 50 degrees hotter than what it was reading) Luckily, we got an oven thermometer, and I saved all three loafs from a burning death. They ended up being a big hit! (And, if you make French Toast out of it, it doesn't really matter what it looks like! They all look the same covered in egg batter, and taste delicious!)

But it did end up really nice and fluffy - and very buttery - which I would hope so considering how much butter went into each loaf!

In fact, we had made enough brioche, that it even made it to Thanksgiving dinner table. Doesn't it look pretty on there? (I also made that amazing pile of mashed potatoes. My absolute favorite.)

The recipe is pretty involved, and takes two days. And your mixer gets a great work out, but its completely worth it!!

Brioche Dough (from Dessert University by Roland Mesnier)

1.5 tsps salt

5 tbs sugar

6tbs warm water

3 c all-purpose flour

1 1/3 envelopes active dry yeast

5 large eggs

2 sticks (1 c) unsalted butter, softened

1. Combine salt, sugar, 2tbs warm water in electric mixer. Stir together with dough hook, add flour and combine

2. Combine 4 tbs warm water with yeast, dissolve until foamy

3. Add 4 eggs to mixer on medium speed, one at a time. Mix for 5-7 minutes until dough is smooth and firm

4. Add remaining egg slowly, followed by the yeast mixture. Turn mixer down to low speed and mix for 15 minutes or until dough is silky and elastic and detaches from the side of the bowl

5. Add butter, 4 tbs at a time, with mixer still on low. Make sure the butter is incorporated before adding the next. Make sure your butter is softened for this step or it will take for forever! Overall, this should take about 5 minutes.

6. Dough should be glossy and elastic. Cover it with a towel and let stand in ~75 spot until its doubled in size (1.5 hrs). (I sometimes put my oven on warm for a few minutes, turn it off, and put the dough in there - just watch it and take it out when its doubled in size!)

7. Deflate dough by flipping it in bowl several times. Cover and place in fridge overnight, no longer than 24 hours

8. Butter a loaf pan (I used a standard large loaf pan)

9. Divide dough into 6 even pieces, roll into egg shapes. Place dough eggs in pan, 2 across, 3 deep. They will be touching

10. Drape pan with plastic wrap and let rise until its doubled in size, about 1.5 hrs

11. Preheat oven to 450. Brush loaf with beaten egg (Note - I don't do this.). Snip middle of loaf with scissors, making a half inch deep cut in order to let the bread rise.

12. Bake for 10 minutes at 450, then reduce the oven temp to 375 and bake for 50-60 minutes more until the loaf is golden and fully risen.

13. Unmold and cool on wire rack.

(Since its unlucky to end on 13)

14. Slice, eat, and enjoy!!!!!!!