Sibs in Boston!

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My brother (Peter) and sister (Emily) came to visit me and Mike in Boston this weekend, and on Saturday we braved the cold & wind for a little adventure. We headed to Harpoon’s new beer hall (which was our back-up plan after discovering that all the brewery tours sold out only an hour after opening!!) where we tasted some beers and scarfed down soft pretzels with IPA cheddar, garlic parmesan, and maple cream cheese dips. To DIE.

Then we took Emily to try her very first lobster roll and poked around the Seaport and Fort Point Channel (obvi stopping by Flour for homemade oreos). These visits always feel too short but I was so happy to have them here! Come back soon, sibs!

Valentine Lovin’

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Happy almost-Valentine’s day, friends! To celebrate, I got you some flowers and made a trillion adorable cookies (using this recipe) I hope you have a wonderful day (week! month! year!) full of love and hugs!

xoxo

Blizzard Bonanza

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NEMO!!! Love ya to pieces.

Disclaimer: I don’t have a car or house to shovel out and wasn’t affected by power outages or transportation delays (perks of being on a school snow day schedule) so to me blizzard = play time. Major playtime.

Mike and I headed out Friday night in the height of the blizzard to hang with my old roomies (perks of having besties two blocks away) and almost became insta-snowpeople. Observe:

On Saturday we (I) made Nemo pancakes because HOW COULDN’T I, then we bundled up and hopped into our cross-country skis to ski around the ‘hood. Cross-country skiing is HARD, yo. I was sweating like a wildebeest and almost-crying but eventually channeled my inner snow bunny and got the hang of it. We dropped our skis off at home and hippity-hopped around town, took 1,000 photos, and came home to eat Kraft mac and cheese and drink hot cocoa. It was wonderful

I asked Mike if he had any spare gloves I could wear. This is what he presented me with…

PicMonkey Collage

Homemade Snickers Cookie Bars

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I have a serious case of writer’s block, so instead of a typical blog post, here’s a list of random thoughts that are swimming around inside my head. And some delicious pictures of homemade Snicker-meets-Twix-cookie-bar-thingies (Mike suggested I call them Snix?). Enjoy!

Babylandia. Beyonce. Destiny’s Child reunion. Blue Ivy (where IS she these days???)

French onion soup in a crock pot (THIS IS NOT GOOD.)

Snow day (when the heck are we going to get one?)

First cold in 2 years (waaaaaaaaaah.)

Parenthood (recently discovered, now addicted.)

Last week’s episode of New Girl (say WHAAAAAT?!)

Thinking of getting rid of cable (say WHAAAT?!)

Babylandia (want to move there.)

Enchiladas.

Valentine’s candy.

Homemade caramel. Peanuts. Shortbread. Chocolate.

Yum.

Snickers Cookie Bars (otherwise known as Snix)

yield: about 24, depending on what size you cut them

Shortbread Cookie Layer (recipe adapted from alli ‘n sons)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 8×8 pan with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, beat butter and sugar on high until fluffy. Add vanilla; blend well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir in flour and salt on medium until combined. Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are just golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 45 minutes before topping with caramel/peanut layer.

Caramel and Peanut Layer (recipe adapted from Ina Garten)

1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 1/2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Sprinkle the peanuts over the cooled shortbread. In a deep saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Bring to a boil and cook the sugar, swirling the pan (don’t stir!) until the mixture has reached a deep amber color. Watch it carefully, as it happens fast.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over low heat, bring the cream, butter, and salt to a simmer. Remove from heat.

When the sugar is done, remove from heat and pour in the cream+butter. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Cook over medium-low heat until it registers 244 degrees (just above “soft ball”) on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove from heat and pour over the cooled shortbread. Allow the shortbread and caramel to cool for 2-3 hours, until firm.

Chocolate Layer

1 cup milk chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

In a microwave-safe bowl or a double boiler, melt chocolate and shortening, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.

Spread the melted chocolate over the cooled caramel. Place the pan in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to allow the chocolate to firm up. When the chocolate has hardened, remove from the pan and cut into squares. Store and serve at room temperature.

Butterscotch Blondies

24 Replies

True confession: for the first ~~three~~ ~~four~~ five months that I knew Mike (pre-Facebook-official dating status), I stalked him.

I knew that if I left my class exactly at 10:05 and walked down a certain hallway at a certain speed, we would likely cross paths. I knew where he ate lunch and where he got picked up to go to sailing practice. I knew his favorite library to study in.

(This is the stuff Lifetime movies are made of.)

In fact, I knew his favorite chair in his favorite library. And I would sit directly behind it.

(I AM THE CREEPIEST CREEP.)

I would sit in that chair acting all indifferent like, Ohhhh…hey. You study at this library too? That’s cool I guess.

And I would wait until he finished his studying and was packing up and super casually be like, Ohhh, are you leaving too? Wanna walk together? Can I carry your books? I know where you live.

You cannot make this stuff up.

While I was putting in long hours stalking (studying! I was studying.) at the library, I would get these amaaaaaazing butterscotch blondies from the library cafe. They were so dense and chewy and buttery and I easily ate one (or five) every day.

Flash forward six years, and I’m recreating the blondies in our kitchen. I give one to Mike to try and he’s like WHAT ARE THESE THIS IS THE BEST THING I’VE EVER EATEN DO NOT SHARE THEM WITH ANYONE EVER I LOOOOOOVE YOU.

OH, so all I really had to do to win your love was hand you a butterscotch blondie?? The very butterscotch blondie I was chomping on THE ENTIRE TIME I STALKED YOU???

Irony, people. This. Is. Irony.

If you’ve learned anything from me today, let it be this: if you ever find yourself in a stalking situation, don’t forget to bring baked goods.

Also? These blondies really are SO SO SO SO YUMMY DON’T SHARE THEM WITH ANYONE I LOOOOOVE YOU.

Butterscotch Blondies (adapted from Martha Stewart)

yield: about 16

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, browned and cooled
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8×8-inch pan with cooking spray (I line my pan with tinfoil before coating it with cooking spray for extra-easy removal).
In a small pan, brown your butter. Transfer to a medium-sized bowl and allow it to cool until it is warm to the touch. Whisk in the brown sugar, then add the egg and vanilla and whisk until smooth. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour, salt, and butterscotch chips until combined.
Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t over bake these, you want them to be a bit gooey inside! Allow to cool fully on a wire rack, then remove from the pan and cut into squares.

Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream

19 Replies

This week marked the beginning of both student teaching AND my last semester of grad school, which means I’ve been having meltdowns left and right. For starters, the first week of the semester/student teaching = new. New people, new school, new experiences.

And Melanie ≠ good at new.

I am that girl who would happily stay within her comfort zone and routine for the rest of her live-long days – if only that didn’t mean I would likely have stopped experiencing new things around age 7. You do NOT want to know how long it took my parents to get me to call and order pizza over the phone, because that would mean UM, TALKING TO A STRANGER.

I like to know what to expect. I like my schedule. I like things to happen the way I plan them to. So it goes without saying that the night before I started my brand-new student teaching I got totally nervous and spent eighteen hours running through every possible scenario in my head: What if I wear the wrong thing? What if I forget my lunch? What if my bus breaks down? What if the kids don’t like me? What if I’m supposed to bring pencils but I only brought pens? What if I forget the teacher’s name? What if I forget my name? WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE ANY FRIIIIIEEEEENDS?

Thanks (!) but no thanks, I’d rather stay in my familiar apartment with my familiar experiences. I have plenty of ~~cookies~~ friends here.

BUT, alas. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, and this girl’s gotta finish her master’s degree. So I put on my best I’m-not-scared-of-new-things-or-people face and marched to school and survived the day – and immediately came home and ate a giant chocolate peanut butter sundae, complete with homemade peanut butter oreo ice cream, brownies, and chocolate peanut butter ganache.

Thank you, Ben & Jerry’s, for helping this hermit get through yet another [SCARY AND UNFAMILIAR] new day.

Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream (based on Ben & Jerry’s recipe)

yield: ~one quart

Ingredients

2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups roughly chopped Oreos (I chopped mine into quarters, but you can make the chunks smaller if you’d like)

Directions

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the sugar a little bit at a time, then whisk until fully incorporated, about another minute. Pour in the cream, milk, and vanilla extract, and whisk to combine. Place about one cup of the mixture in a separate bowl and whisk in the peanut butter. Add the peanut butter mixture to the rest of the ice cream base and stir until fully combined.
Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker/attachment and freeze according to maker/attachment directions. When the ice cream has frozen to soft serve, gently fold in the chopped Oreos. Place the ice cream in an airtight container and put it into the freezer until frozen to desired consistency (I like it best after it has hardened up in the freezer over night).

I served my ice cream with these brownies and chocolate peanut butter ganache (pour 1/4 cup hot [not boiling] heavy cream over 3/4 cup chocolate chips and 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter. Whisk to combine.)