1/4 Italian Cookies

I have been wavering all week about what to call this recipe. The original recipe, inspired by my coworker, was for funfetti cookies. You know, like the cupcakes you had for your (twenty) fourth birthday with the rainbow sprinkles baked inside. This recipe called for literally a cup of sprinkles, and boy was I in luck when I went to my local Tedesci while I had 15 minutes to kill because I missed my bus. I still wasn't sure if I was going to make these funfetti cookies as I wandered around the little shop. Connah- Stowah, if you will. (Seriously, there is a real store called that in the North End.) Amidst the off-brand chips, dental floss and 8 kinds of coconut water (I'm sorry, but I can't get on board with it. I just don't like it. There, I said it.) I found THIS:

Life time supply of sprinkles

Huge jar of sprinkles. I now HAD to make the funfetti cookies. The recipe I used is adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod and Tasty Kitchen.

Cookies! That dishtowel in the back has a map of the London Underground on it, in case you were wondering.

 1 cup room temperature butter (whenever I bake, usually after dinner- I just let the butter sit on the counter while I cook and eat dinner, and by the time I'm done, the butter is soft enough to use)

1 cup sugar
3 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sprinkles
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar until well combined, and then add vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except the sprinkles and almonds. Once everything else is mixed up, add the sprinkles and almonds, but do not overmix- stir until everything is just blended- you want the almonds and sprinkles to retain some integrity. Bake for 15 minutes on a parchment paper lined sheet. Cool on a wire rack.... (....or just eat right off the baking sheet like I did...) and enjoy!

So colorful

I'm not going to lie- I think I overbaked these a bit- my oven is extremely temperamental (I honestly didn't know that is how that word is spelled. You learn something new every day.) so I always opt for the longer end of baking times when a range is given. When I make them again (because I clearly have to with all the sprinkles of which I am now the proud owner) I will either bake them for less time, or add another egg or some milk. I didn't think they were as chewy as I would have liked them to be. However, since they were so crisp, and with the addition of the almonds, they reminded me of Italian Bakery Cookies!

Italian Bakery! Buttery, almondy cookies. Photo Credit: weheartastoria.com

 Since I am 1/4 Italian, that is why I am calling these "1/4 Italian Cookies" because they aren't quite funfetti cookies, but the funfetti cookies' Mediterranean cousin. Either way, they tasted good, and that's what matters!

You say tomato, I say toh-mah-toes are delicious

This is my dog, Jack. He's super furry, super cute, and has super weird tastes in food.

That's his spider monkey toy in the background.

Meaning, he loves all fish (mostly salmon and tuna) and, as I discovered yesterday, tomatoes. So this post is dedicated to him. My family has a theory that he was a bear in a past life; he kind of looks like one now- not the grizzly bear kind, but the teddy bear variety. He also has no survival skills and I feel like the other forest animals would make fun of him (for his cuteness) if he were released into the wild, so his bear past life was probably several reincarnations ago.

Princess Jackson

Plus, he'd have to sacrifice the cushy standard of living to which he is accustomed, so I think he's going to stick around in a domestic environment.

Clearly getting sidetracked- this is supposed to be about food that I, and my dog (strangely enough) both enjoy. The other night, I made a tuna melt on whole wheat mini bagels with a side of sauteed baby kale. Tuna melts are a quick, protein (and flavor) packed dinner.

Such a good dinner! And ready in about 10 minutes

First, toast your bagel. The oven won't toast your bagel, so it's best to do this step before preparing the rest of the melt. Prepare your tuna how you like it (I do a bit of mayo, pepper, and lots of chopped celery), and then put it on top of your toasted bagel. Put a few slices of tomato and some cheese as well- I like to use sharp cheddar. Place under a hot broiler until the cheese is nicely melted (should take 5 minutes or so), and enjoy!

Cheeeeeeeesy

I've been using a new method lately to sauté vegetables. Sautéing usually involves using oil, but you can achieve the same end result by using a much healthier substitute, vegetable broth. To make my baby kale (which cooks up very similarly to spinach), I put a tablespoon of veggie broth, and a clove of minced garlic in a medium-hot pan, added my kale, and stirred until it was wilted. It tastes delicious and cuts down on oil! Since I was having cheese and a fatty fish like tuna to accompany my kale, this was definitely the way to go!

I will probably make another tuna melt this week with the tomatoes my brother and I picked in my mom's garden this weekend. While we were harvesting, we threw out some of the more rotten/bug eaten tomatoes into a pile. Jack got into said pile, and had a small (3 tomatoes?) snack for himself. Odd snack for a dog, but he really seemed to enjoy them! We picked a ton of yummy, ripe tomatoes, and since my mom is kind of is overrun by tomatoes right now, so I'm happy to take them off her hands!

Check out those Goliath tomatoes in the back!

I'm planning some tomato and cottage cheese lunches, as well as plain ol' tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and basil! Insanely delicioso and insanely easy! I know Jack is going to miss me when I go back to my apartment...

You're leaving?!?

But I'll be sure to eat many a tomato this week and think of him fondly!

YUM!

Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Scones = YUM

Since summer is winding down, my love affair with fresh berries will come to a halt because I refuse to pay $7 for a half pint of strawberries in November- sorry Trader Joe. Summer is the perfect time to take advantage of all the fruits that are in season, especially ones grown locally. A great friend of mind visited family in Maine this past weekend and was so kind to bring me a pint of fresh picked Maine blueberries that she bought at a farmer's market in Bar Harbor. She even saw Martha Stewart at the aforementioned market, so these have to be some great berries. With instructions to "look for blueberry recipes," my mind immediately went to blueberry and lemon- two of my favorite flavors to combine. I am also in the process of moving (aka haven't actually started packing but am *thinking* about it and getting stressed out) so I want to use up any ingredients I have in my cabinets. I have a three-quarters full jar of cornmeal, so I knew that had to be included as well. The recipe I ended up using is adapted from Life on Breck Hill.

Ingredients:
1  1/3 cups flour
2/3 cup white cornmeal (yellow would work too)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk (I used vanilla soy milk + 1 Tbsp white vinegar)
1 egg
Zest from one lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add butter and combine until the mixture becomes crumbly. I used a potato masher (and my hands) for this step because I don't have a pastry cutter. Create your "buttermilk" or use actual buttermilk if you're fancy like that. I'm not. Into the same measuring cup, break the egg. Zest the lemon (just use the finest side of a regular cheese grater) and add to the other liquids. Mix to break the egg yolk. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Toss the blueberries in the cornstarch until coated, and then add the blueberries to the rest of the ingredients. (Yes I was using a tablespoon measuring spoon to mix everything. Don't judge. It saves on dishes, and I'm all about that.)

Scoop out onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet until you have 12 scones. Sprinkle a little bit of raw sugar (I use Trader Joe's Turbinado Sugar) on top of the scones. Tip- see that small scone in the bottom left? That's my tasting sample. I always try to make one scone/cookie/muffin/cupcake a bit smaller than the other ones so that I can taste it the day I bake them to make sure they're edible enough to serve to other people! Also I just want to taste my creation right out of the oven- who wants to wait?!

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Clean up the mess you created.

And enjoy!

Seeds!

When I was a little girl, I hated foods that had edible seeds. Absent from my diet were cucumbers, pickles, tomatoes, and watermelon. I had a really weird relationship with watermelon in that I didn't like the sweet, pinker pieces, but preferred the translucent "pink" (if you can call it that) pieces that were near the rind. I'm pretty sure they were 148% water and held absolutely zero nutritional value. I've since come around and want to share a salad I've discovered I love, and it contains watermelon!

This lunch is inspired by a salad I had a few weeks ago at Le Pain Quotidien while visiting a friend in New York. Their version was highlighted by grilled peaches, but ain't nobody got time for that! (In the words of Sweet Brown).

In my salad I included: baby spinach, green bell peppers, cucumbers (seed food número uno), watermelon (seed food número dos), feta cheese, almonds and balsamic dressing. Super easy to assemble, and the combination of the salty feta cheese with the sweet, refreshing watermelon is a winner!

oh hi

I'm not new to this whole blogging thing. In high school, I wrote an extremely intelligent, popular blog for about 3 years. And by "intelligent", I mean that I wrote fervently and about my love for John Mayer (expect some of that here too), and democratic politics (not so much here). And by "popular" I mean that I wrote dramatically about boys I had crushes on at age 15 who are probably really weird and/or successful now. This blog won't aim to capture all of my interests, so much as it will attempt to organize my stream of consciousness and funnel it all into one of my greatest loves, baking! And food in general. But baking is my jam, as is peanut butter. See what I did there? I think I just lost 19 readers already. Here goes!

PS- Here is a snippit from my high school blog. 

"soo, i took drivers ed last week, and it was the most boring experience of my life, and i can say that without taking in other boring experiences, because i know for sure that this is numero uno.

we totally bonded, all the drivers ed kids. actually not really. but inside we did because we had an intense loathing for what we were being put through that there was no way we could not get along. it was a common bond. we were so breakfast club it wasn't even funny."

Told you I was dramatic. I will try to tone it down when writing about cookies.