It's Christmas in 834!

To start, a little explanation... 834, said "eight three four" not "eight thirty four," is what we (Shannon, Jocelyn, any other friends, and I) call our apartment. Over the past year and a half, it's become more of a name than an apartment number.


We've been waiting for Christmas, for what seems like months. It's all of our favorite time of year. Family, friends, presents, cookies, fudge, decorations, and NO SCHOOL! Classes have been coming down hard on all three of us for the past few weeks, but we finally found some time to get in the Christmas spirit! We spent all of yesterday transforming 834 into a winter wonderland. Now, recently we have noticed that a few balconies around the complex are decorated, but most consist of half-ass strung lights looped around the railing. There is one balcony, though, that looks professionally done. Our goal was to, and I mean this in the least Grinch way, have our balcony kick all the other balconies' butts! We totally did, by the way.

View from the ground

A little blurry, but from down the street a bit.

We also put up our tree, although, this picture is from last year!

Aside from decorating, we filled 834 with the aroma of freshly baked cookies! THREE different kinds, to be exact. I also decided to add in a treat I haven't had in a really long time, but remember from when I was a kid... 5 minute fudge! 

We had homemade chocolate chip cookies...

Sugar cookies...

Red Velvet cookies...

And only one mishap!

She's notorious for breaking things, so we shouldn't be too surprised she's holding half of a measuring cup.

Okay, procrastination over. Time to get back to the books!

Merry Christmas!!

Cheesecake Time!

Last month, my roommate Shannon turned the big 2-1! My other roommate Jocelyn and I were in a bit of a predicament, because Shannon does not like cake. At all. Luckily, for my birthday, Rebecca gave me a binder full of about 52 cheesecake recipes, so I gave it to Shannon and let her pick one. She chose the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake. I'm pretty sure it's a Cheesecake Factory recipe, but I gave it a go.

The inside

Just a slice... of heaven!

Shannon and Jocelyn loved it! I liked the middle, but thought that around the edge there was too much raspberry. 

OH! The recipe calls for Oreos without the stuffing for the crust, but that seemed like way too much work. Instead, I used chocolate Teddy Grams. 

The Cheesecake Factory's White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake

crust 

1½ cups chocolate cookie crumbs or 20 crumbled Oreo cookies (filling removed) 
1/3 cup margarine, melted

filling 

½ cup raspberry preserves 
¼ cup water 
4 x 8 oz pkgs cream cheese 
1¼ cups granulated sugar 
½ cup sour cream 
2 tspn vanilla extract 
5 eggs 
4 oz white chocolate, chopped into chunks

garnish 

2 oz white chocolate, shaved 
whipped cream 

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. 

Place a large pan or oven-safe skillet filled with about ½" of water into the oven while it preheats. This will be your water bath. 

Combine the raspberry preserves with ¼ cup water in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 1½ minutes on high in your microwave. 

Stir until smooth. Strain to remove the raspberry seeds (toss 'em out), then let the strained preserves sit to cool, then put the bowl in the refrigerator until later. 

Measure 1½ cups chocolate cookie crumbs, or crush 20 Oreo cookie wafers ( with the filling scraped out ) into a medium bowl. Mix in 1/3 cup melted margarine. Press the crumb into a 9" spring form pan that has been lined on the bottom and side with parchment paper. Using the bottom of a drinking glass or similar, press the crumb mixture flat into the bottom of the pan and about 2/3 the way up the side. Wrap a large piece of foil around the bottom of the pan to keep the cheesecake in the water bath. Put the crust in your freezer until the filling is done. 

Use an electric mixer to combine the cream cheese with the sugar, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix for a couple minutes or until the ingredients are smooth and creamy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl and then add them to the cream cheese mixture. Blend the mixture just enough to integrate the eggs. 

Remove the crust from the freezer and sprinkle 4 oz of white chocolate chunks onto the bottom of the crust. Pour half of the cream cheese filling into the crust. Drizzle the raspberry preserves over the entire surface of the filling. Use a butter knife to swirl the raspberry into the cream cheese. 

Just a couple passes is fine, you don't want to blend the raspberry and cream cheese together too much. Pour the other half of the filling into the crust. 

Carefully place the cheesecake into the water bath in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes at 475°F, then turn the oven down to 350°F and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the top of the cheesecake turns a light brown or tan color. Remove the cheesecake from the oven to cool. When the cheesecake is cool, use the foil from the bottom to cover the cheesecake and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. 

Before serving, sprinkle the entire top surface of cheesecake with 2 oz of shaved white chocolate. To serve, slice the cheesecake into 12 equal portions. Apply a pile of canned whipped cream to the top of each slice and serve.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Icing

Hi!
I shouldn't even be writing this because of all the school work I have, but, I seem to be finding any way I can to procrastinate. Oh well :) I've wanted to share this one with you since last week because it is oh, so delicious. Since it is now "Fall" (I promise all you southerners, really, it is. We've got our heat on and I even saw some snow flakes today)--it means I can now start cooking/baking with seasonal goodies. And, pumpkin is one of my faves. I have been scavenging through different recipes and finally landed on one I thought sounded devine. I was able to share the yumminess with some school friends, as I brought along these suckers to a cocktail party held after a conference-like thing my school held last week. Not to toot my own horn, but I got some pretty good reviews.

I followed the recipe exactly and had no difficulties. The whole thing was pretty easy--although, somehow in the process of all the mixing and baking, I managed to dirty every dish in our kitchen. I think that says more about me than it does about the recipe. Andrew doesn't call me Messy Marcin for just any reason. Anyway, I just know all you pumpkin lovers' mouths are watering in anticipation, so here's the recipe. BTW--I found the cupcake recipe from Duchess of Fork's blog and the frosting recipe from Cupcakes Take the Cake's .

Vanilla Pumpkin Cupcakes
Ingredients
• 1 box Vanilla or Golden cake mix
• 1 box vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup oil
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with liners, or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, water and sour cream. Mix with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until ingredients are well combined. Add pumpkin and cinnamon and mix for another 30 seconds.
3. Divide batter between prepared mini or regular muffin tins. Bake for 20-23 minutes for regular cupcakes and 12-15 minutes for mini cupcakes.
4. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool completely. Once cupcakes are cool, top with frosting.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
8 oz fat free cream cheese - room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter - room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4-6 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:
In an electric mixer, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon until fully incorporated. Gradually add powdered sugar in small portions, scraping down the sides with each addition, until desired consistency is reached.

Makes approximately 24 cupcakes, with plenty of frosting leftover to put on anything and everything you can get your hands on.


See, I had so much fun with it, I even got "fancy" and piped on my icing. And, to half of the cupcake mix, I added mini chocolate chips--which, I think made them extra good. Even if you aren't too fond of pumpkin, the pumpkin flavor in these is pretty subtle and the cupcakes themselves are super moist b/c of the pudding. I double dog dare you to try them out. Happy Halloween everyone!!

Greek Turkey Burgers

Hey!
I promise this will be a quick post, I just wanted to share a delicious recipe Andrew and I (ok, well Andrew mostly) made for dinner Sunday night. These were relatively simple to make and came out tasting really great. I don't have any of our own pictures--I think we were too hungry and they were too good to stop and take any--so the picture above is from Southern Living, where we found the recipe. We ended up saving time by buying pre-made tzatziki sauce from Trader Joes. We also switched out the french hamburger buns and bought more of a flatbread, pita thing that we just cut to size for our burgers. For toppings, we used spinach, onions, and more feta, of course. We also made our own french fries, topping them with lemon juice, oregano, and feta (for a more Greek-style fry). If you can't tell, we're big feta lovers over here :) Yum Yum. Here's the recipe:

Greek Turkey Burgers
(adapted from Southern Living)
Total: 25 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
• 1 1/3 pounds ground turkey breast
• 1(4-oz.) package crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1 12.oz. container of tzatziki sauce (aka cucumber sauce) or make your own
o 1/2 cup grated English cucumber
o 1 (6-oz.) container fat-free Greek yogurt
o 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
o 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 French hamburger buns, split and toasted
• Toppings: lettuce, spinach, tomato slices, thinly sliced cucumber, onions, and/or more feta!
• Garnish: pepperoncini salad peppers (we ended up not doing this)

Preparation
1. Stir together first 6 ingredients. Shape mixture into 4 (1/2-inch-thick) patties.
2. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat grill pan with cooking spray. Add patties; cook 5 minutes on each side or until done.
3. Stir together cucumber, yogurt, mint, and 1/2 tsp. salt in a small bowl. Or, just pull out your container of tzatziki sauce. Serve burgers on buns with cucumber sauce and desired toppings. Garnish, if desired.

Red Velvet Cake Pops

Hey loves,
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Mine has actually been pretty great. For one of my school friend's birthdays, Andrew and I went on a "Distillery Row" tour today, touring and tasting at 3 different distilleries here in Portland. I absolutely love Portland for reasons like this and can actually not believe Andrew and I haven't done this sooner. We've gone to tons of breweries and wineries, even a sakery--but we have yet to do this. I love learning about how things are made and then getting to taste all the different variations. After tasting quite a few different vodkas, gins (eww), and whiskeys, we ended up bringing home a hot pepper infused vodka from New Deal. This place was my favorite of the 3, mostly because it had creatively infused vodkas--even a chocolate one! We chose the Hot Monkey b/c of its interesting taste and think we can use it to put a new twist on some basic mixed drinks. It is really, REALLY, spicy, but makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

After the distillery tastings, we ate dinner at a brewpub and then came home and curled up in front of our first fire of the season and watched a movie. Its been a nice and relaxing weekend so far, even though I will be working all day tomorrow on schoolwork....But, I'll procrastinate a little longer from getting started on that by posting about red velevet cake pops.

My friend's birthday that we celebrated yesterday was actually on Wednesday of this past week. I had been wanting a good excuse to make cake pops for some time and thought that this would be the perfect one. It was also good to know that the pops wouldn't just be sitting around my house for me to devour on my own--instead, this would be a good way to share. So, I brought them and passed them out to my morning class on Wednesday. And boy, were they a hit! Seriously, people kept coming up to me and telling me how good they were and that I should go into a "side" business making them. Ha! In all my spare time.....Plus, I'm not so sure I ever want to make them again because, man, were they annoying! It might be because I'm chocolate-melting-illiterate, but I could not get the chocolate the right consistency to make dipping easy. It ended up taking too much time to dip each one, and they didn't come out as pretty as I would have liked. Bakerella makes it look so easy--it actually made me kind of mad at her.

The whole process seems like it should be a piece of cake (ha!). You start by baking a regular old cake box mix. After its done baking and completely cooled, you crumble it into pieces in a large bowl and mix it with 1 can of frosting. It looks something like this, if you all remember. Messy, messy--but really fun.


You then roll little pieces of the cake into balls and place them on a wax-lined cookie sheet. I popped them into the freezer for about 15 min to let them harden a little. In the meantime, melt a package of chocolate bark or candy melts for dipping. I chose candy melts b/c I thought they would be easier to work with. I tried melting them in the microwave first, but apparently they got too hot and the chocolate just started to harden. I might have just been impatient with melting them and heated them up too quickly. Luckily I had gotten an extra bag of chocolate just in case I had difficulty. I moved to melting this bag on the stove--double boiler style. This worked a lot better, but it still wasn't as liquidy as I wanted it to be. I just had to go with it, though.

Next, I pulled the cake balls out of the freezer, dipped the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate, and inserted the stick into the cake ball, making sure not to go more than half way. I then dipped the cake ball into the melted chocolate, making sure to cover the entire ball. Because the chocolate wasn't as liquidy as I wanted it to be, I had to use a spoon to cover the area around the lollipop stick (you don't want to swirl the cake ball into the chocolate, or it will crumble off). Its really important that no cake is exposed--or else cake will squeeze out of the exposed areas when its cooling (I think that dipping the tip of the lollipop stick into chocolate first before inserting into the cake ball really helps with that, as it helps to create a seal around the cake).

Then, you lightly tap the excess chocolate off the cake pop, making sure to rotate the cake pop as you do this (or the cake will begin to slide off). After the cake pop is completely covered, you insert the lollipop stick into a styrofoam block (I got both the candy melts and the styrofoam block from a craft store). I cut the styrofoam to fit inside a cake carrier so that I could easily transport the pops. It worked amazingly! Here's what the finished product looked like.









Here they are all ready to go!










This is one with a bite taken out! (fyi, this particular cake pop was one of the "rejects", so the chocolate isn't as smooth as the others)

I thought they tasted really good too, despite the mess and the effort it took to make them! Here's a cake pop instructional video by Bakerella--this helped a lot when I was making them. If anyone does attempt to make these, please let me know how they turn out and if/how you had better luck with the chocolate. Have a good rest of the weekend!!

Breakfast for Dinner

Just a quick post to show you what Hunter and I made for dinner last night. I watched Breakfast Paradise on the Travel Channel yesterday morning and then kept seeing delicious-looking eggs everywhere I turned, so I suggested we eat breakfast for dinner. Anyways, Hunter and I made a mini feast of pancakes, eggs and bacon, and some of those Pillsbury rolls with orange icing.

Hunter really did most of the heavy lifting, but I helped. All in all, it was an awesome night, eating breakfast and watching football with Hunter, Melissa, and my old friend Alex from high school, if any of you remember him.

Celebration Cookie Dough Balls!

Hey wonderful family,

What a week! I have unfortunately gotten super busy at school all of a sudden and have been preparing for midterms, projects, etc. that will go until the end of the semester. I'm sure those of you still in school share my pain. My practicum site has also begun to get really busy and I have been super stressed with pretty tough clients and families and with trying to still figure out the system of this new clinic. One day last week I had one of those, "I have no idea what I'm doing and I can't believe I'm spending so much time and money to do this with my life" days--and I came home and had a little meltdown. Luckily, Andrew was there to help put me back together. I was feeling much better after some wallowing, bad tv (America's Next Top Model, to be specific), sleep, and pampering by my man. Oh, and getting this also helped quite a bit:


We just went out and got the frame today (we got one exactly like it for my Bachelors degree so they could be hung next to each other). I've been able to put the letters after my name for about 1 1/2 months, but this really made it official. Considering I still have 3 years left, I've got to really soak in these little moments as much as I can. Here it is a little closer (this is really for Dad's sake, as he wanted me to send him close-up pics of it).


Anyway, partially in celebration of my degree and partially to help my slightly still stressed-out self, I decided I would make these fantastic looking cookie dough balls I had been eyeing over on Joy the Baker's blog. I absolutely love cookie dough and would actually rather eat the dough as opposed to the real, baked cookie. So, these are a safer version (no eggs!), but frozen and dipped in chocolatey goodness. Because there are no eggs, you can use yogurt, applesauce, or peanut butter as the binder. I thought applesauce would be weird and peanut butter is my arch nemesis, so yogurt it was! Although she suggests using Greek yogurt, I just used regular old vanilla yogurt that we already had in our fridge. And it turned out great. Like, warm my heart and make me forget about all my worries great. Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
recipe found on www.joythebaker.com
makes 9 large balls

• 1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (i know we're not baking them, it's for flavor)
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt or applesauce or peanut butter
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, melted for dipping

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment (or with a large bowl and a wooden spoon) cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about three minutes in the machine. Beat in yogurt or applesauce or peanut butter along with the vanilla extract and stir to combine.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add all at once to the butter and sugar mixture and stir until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scoop large spoonfuls or ice cream scoops onto a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Spear each dough ball with a cute plastic fork or a popsicle stick. Place in the freezer overnight or until frozen, at least three hours.

When ready to dip the balls, melt chocolate chips in a small saucepan over a low flame or in the microwave. Remove balls from the freezer and dip into warm chocolate. Return to the lined cookie sheet and return to the freezer to harden. Serve cold from the freezer.





Okay, well mine aren't really "ball" shaped--but I don't have one of those fancy pants ice cream scoopers that releases perfectly shaped balls, so they came out sort of clumpy. It may not be as pleasing to the eye, but I think they are perfectly pleasing to the stomach! And, they are very quick and easy to make, with the added benefit of no baking!! Hope all of you had a good week! Miss and love you lots :)

Polish and Greek Festivals!

Cześć and kalo apoyevma! That is, "hey" and "good afternoon" in Polish and Greek (I'm continuing on with Sarah's foreign language greetings :) For the past two weekends, Andrew and I have been busy with food festivals. Last weekend it was the Polish festival and this weekend, the Greek! I absolutely love attending these things. Tons of good food, dancing, arts and crafts, opportunities to learn about other cultures, and, did I mention, GOOD FOOD?!

This is the 2nd year we've been to the Polish festival, and although its quite a bit smaller than the other festivals, it really is a lot of fun. Plus, I love getting to spend some time celebrating some of my own heritage. When we arrived this year, seconds after walking into the entrance, a woman heading out gave Andrew and I 11 free tokens--which translated into 11 buckaroos that were enough to buy both of us dinner! Needless to say, we were stoked and headed immediately to the food lines for delicious Polish grub.


This was the pierogi ruskie plate, which had pierogis filled with onions, potatoes, and cheese. My favorite! I seriously wish I could figure out how to make these at home--Andrew and I have tried once before--even making our own dough, but unfortunately they still turned out a little bland. Anyone have a good homemade pierogi recipe?


This was the Golabki which were cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, beef, and pork. Sooo good.

We didn't order any this year, but they were also selling some delicious kielbasa sausages. Doesn't it look yummy? That stuff next to it something called Hunter's stew.


We also grabbed a beer and then ate our dinner watching a Polka dancing contest! They first had one for little kids, and then later had one for adults. I have to say I was mighty impressed by the kids' dancing ability. They really knew what they were doing, complete with twirls and lifts!




Once we finished dinner, we moved on to dessert. I was initially a little bummed because they were out of the fruit and sweet cheese filled pierogis (which we had the pleasure of eating the year before); however, my bummed-outedness quickly disappeared after seeing the huge pastry table with tons of different things to pick from. We got some sort of berry cobbler thing, a donut-like thing filled with jam, and some little pieces of fried dough. All were super tasty!


After all that eating, we walked around for a bit admiring all of the Polish arts and crafts booths and listened to live Polish music. Some of that music can just be so funny sounding. It always reminds me of this funny tape my grandfather brought home for us after one of his trips to Poland. It was a tape full of Polish music, our favorite of which was this Polish "rap". We used to sing that song around the house and just crack up at how funny it was!

Anyway, after a long and busy week full of school and work, Andrew and I treated ourselves to the Greek festival on Saturday with some old college friends. This festival is my absolute favorite festival in Portland and I literally get excited about it months in advance. The food is just amazing! It was pretty crowded when we arrived, but it was totally worth pushing through the mobs. We, of course, ate before we did anything else. Andrew and I started by eating a delicious spanakopita (phyllo dough filled with spinach and feta) and a lamb gyro. And I don't know if its just being amidst all of the festivities and fun, but I have to say I think these gyros are the best I've ever eaten.



We also had some bites of a tasty greek salad and of a tyropita, which is almost exactly like the spanakopita except without the spinach. My cheese-loving self might have even liked it better :)


Although we didn't order any this year, one of my favorite things about this festival is how you can order lamb off the spit. They roast all day and the air is just full of that delicious roasted lamb smell. Last year we waited hours to get some (seriously, the wait is insane to actually get any of the meat)--and we just couldn't get ourselves to do it this year. Maybe we just need to get there earlier?


Although we were already stuffed, we had to get "dessert". There were tons of different choices, but my favorite (and apparently everyone elses's by how long the line was) were the loukoumades. These are almost like little donut holes topped with cinnamon, sugar, and honey. They are crazy delicious!


After stuffing our happy faces, we watched some Greek dancing and toured the church and the Hellenic-American cultural center (which was located next to the church). Andrew and I also entered a raffle to win a trip to Greece...fingers crossed!



Anyway, I am now sad to say that most of the food festivals are over for the year. The next big event is the Winter Brew Fest sometime in December. For now, I'll just have to try and replicate these delicious recipes in my own kitchen! Love you guys :)

Things I Ate This Weekend

Bonjour, mes amours. I'm practicing French for my upcoming trip to Togo. That's right, I'm going to Africa this summer. Not officially yet, but I'm working on it. I only need roughly 2,000 dollhairs for a plane ticket, a Togolese visa, and proof of the Yellow Fever vaccine. I don't know why I'm including this news in this post, but it seems like a good time to share it.

Anyways, I ate some awesome stuff this weekend. From Thursday to Sunday, I babysat my cousins, Nick and Natalie, while my aunt and uncle were in Chicago. My dad came up to spend Friday night and Saturday with us, so I managed to eat some really good food at no cost to me. And then, Sunday was Hunter's birthday, so I had another delicious meal, though I had to pay for it.

So I know Becca and Alli are aware of it, but there is a food trailer in Austin called Hey Cupcake, which sells, you guessed it, crepes...I mean cupcakes. I ate the red velvet cupcake:

It was DELICIOUS.

Natalie ate one called the Double Dose:

That would be chocolate cake with chocolate icing. She seemed to enjoy it. My dad has some photos with his fancy camera, which I'll put up here if he ever posts them to Flickr.

Finally, I took a crappy camera-phone-quality picture of what I ate for Hunter's birthday dinner. We went to a place called 24 Diner. It has one of my most favorite meals in the world:
Don't let the picture fool you. It is frickin tasty and comes with this maple bourbon butter that is like crack.

That's all for now. Gute Nacht (I'm also taking a class in German this semester...I'm trying real hard to be a polyglot). Love you all.