cookie cookie cookie starts with "p"

hi folks! happy new year. i know the holidays are technically "over" (does anyone else think unnecessary scare quotes are hilarious, by the way?), but my craving for holiday goodies is not, so i thought i'd share my favorite cookie recipe. they're called pfeffernusse, they're swedish, they're hard and peppery, and i always have the ingredients for them. win.

important note: this recipe has been (barely) adapted from this cookbook, which i love. 

ingredients
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (i'm making these today, and i'm going to use whole wheat flour, since i ran out of all-purpose. i'll let you know how it goes)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
8 tbs butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (the recipe calls for light, but i always use medium)
1/4 cup honey
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp finely chopped orange zest (sometime i skip this when i don't have any oranges, but it's definitely better with it)
1/2 cup powdered sugar

directions
1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees. line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a sil-pat.
2. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and pepper.
3. in a large bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar. beat on medium speed until well blended.
4. add the honey, egg yolk, and zest. mix until well blended. add the flour mixture. mix on low speed until blended.
5. At this point, i would chill the dough in the fridge for half an hour or so. i've found that this recipe works better when the dough is cold.
6. once chilled, place small balls of dough on the cookie sheet (the cookbook calls for a mini ice cream scoop, which would probably work great. i usually use a tablespoon). leave about 2 inches between each one. press gently on each ball to flatten it slightly.
7. bake until the edges are light brown, about 14 minutes. put the cookies on a cooling rack, and sift powdered sugar over the cookies.

these are suuuuuper good dunked in hot chocolate or tea. happy (extended) holidays!

nailed it

hello cherry amours!

so i, like many others in the interweb world, am slightly addicted to pinterest (this is not a cute way of saying i'm obsessed...i really am only slightly addicted). over the break, i decided i would attempt to make some of the cute and fun things i saw on that website. now that the holiday season is over, i would like to share with you all the pinterest adventures i went on. usually, my crafting adventures are more like this:

which is to say that they're awesome.

let's divide these adventures into baking and not baking. tutorials are linked to each project.

first...not baking!

fabric key chains:

anna and i tackled these during our crafy day. i started them with the intention of making one for every person on winter camp staff. i made this one and stopped. it was hard. 

camera strap cover

somehow theirs just looks so much more crisp! how? tell me your secrets, design sponge.

and now...baking things!

hot cocoa cookies

i made these with dear friends jeff and emily. i'm convinced ours would have looked just as good if i had split one in half and let you see all the gooey delicious-ness inside. you'll just have to trust me, though. they were amazing.

candy cane cookies

(i don't have a link for this...let me know if you want the recipe!)

these were delicious, but a little more crumbly than i would have liked. another recipe i found calls for brownie mix instead of cocoa powder, and that sounds way better. if anyone tries that before i get to it, let me know how it goes.

and lastly...

orange (and lemon) slice jello shots!

we tried these beauties for new years. as you can see, colleen, illustrious author of running and then blogging about it, approves. there was a little bit of adventure involved - using champagne instead of vodka, putting ice cubes in the jello to set it faster, setting the jello outside because it was colder than a refrigerator. but in the end, with a keen eye and a sharp knife (really important, it worked out very well! we did orange champagne jello in the orange slices and raspberry champagne jello in the lemon slices. let's take a closer look...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. and no disposable cups, so they're eco-friendly too!

kristen was instrumental to the slice-cutting process. without her steady hand, the project might not have been so successful. we had more jello than oranges, so we put the rest in cupcake tins for fun little jello mounds.

if you ask me, these projects were highly fantastic. i pronounce myself (and all of my friends who helped with these projects)...pinterest master! now that school has started i doubt i'll have time for many crafty adventures like this...but if i do, i'll send them along.

bisoux!

tasty tide-over

so i am planning on doing my first DIY crafting post tomorrow...or soon...but before i can write about this specific craftiness, i have to take pictures of it. and my samples are in my office, which is all the way down the street.

so while i gather up the energy to make the long trek over to my workspace, i thought i'd post a quick little follow-up to a recent post we did! if you remember, katie hawkes told us about the wonders of coconut milk, amongst other things. well, i was inspired to try some of her ideas so i make mango sticky rice! truthfully, i used basmati rice so it's a little less than sticky, but it's SO GOOD. here's how it got made:

1/2 cup of rice in the rice maker with 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of coconut milk, and roughly 1/8* cup of sugar.
while that's getting nice and cooked...
1/2 cup of coconut milk with another 1/8 cup of sugar, brought to a boil (this becomes the sauce).
chop up a whole, ripe mango.

when the rice is done, put it on a plate, arrange the mango slices on top, and pour the sauce over the whole thing.

VOILA. instant delish.

stay tuned for impending craftiness coming in the next couple days!


*okay fine, not an actual measurement. but i put in 1/4 cup and it seemed a little too sugary, so i suggest trying less.

honey, we have guests

i would like to present to you our very first guest post from san diego native katie hawkes, author of the world is delicious. after reading our charismatic megafauna post, she decided to write up some of her favorite things for our blog. according to katie, "some of [these things] are super cheap, some less so, but when i think about spending money i always ask myself: how many times will i use this, and if i paid a penny/a dime/some other reasonably tiny sum every time i used it, would it be worth it?  and all of these things TOTALLY are."


thanks, katie! and without further adieu, here is her list...

coconut milk. 

it's kind of weird and a lot of people don't use it because they don't know what to do with it, but here are some high points: 

1. it's vegan, if you're into that; 

2. it's freakin delicious; 

3. it can swing either sweet or savory, a rare and phenomenal bi-gustatory quality. and 4. if you're trying to impress people (and even when you're not), it makes ordinary things extraordinary. here is a list of ordinary things that are incredible with coconut milk in them:

rice (substitute for some of the water when you cook it)
oatmeal (also substitute for some of the water)

pancakes (substitute for some of the water, and then for even MORE awesomeness add chopped fruit, like apple or banana or pretty much anything)
mashed sweet potatoes (add while mashing, toss in some cinnamon/ginger and honey/brown sugar and butter - HELL YES)
any kind of sweet squash (butternut, pumpkin, etc)
soup (especially chicken broth-based ones, and ones that involve citrus ingredients)
substitute for the liquid in anything you bake (eg. banana bread)
curry (just add ready-made curry paste)
any kind of smoothie or shake (+ rum = pina colada time!)
cook/marinade chicken or any kind of seafood in it, +lime = awesome.

guava paste.  

i don't know if this is available in all grocery stores, but since i found it in a generic connecticut grocery store where you ask for quinoa and get nothing but quizzical looks, you might be surprised. it's probably in the hispanic foods section. it is mad cheap usually, like less than a dollar. AND IT IS DELICIOUS. It's kind of like solid guava jam. you slice it. it's good with cheese and crackers, melted with any kind of dessert, with cream cheese in puff pastry, and it can also add an interesting sweet/tropical note to savory things, like chicken or pork recipes. it's another one of those things that is not actually that special if you think about it (or if you're from a tropical country), but no one's ever heard of it here in the US and pretty much any use of it (even sliced and slapped onto some random hors d'oeuvre) will immediately impress people with your worldliness and culinary savoir faire. WIN.

 

powdered buttermilk.  

it can be found in the baking aisle usually - you may (like me) have never actually noticed it, but it's not uncommon. originally i got this from [my friend] julie, who changed my life with the pancake recipe on the side of the canister, and whose mom gave me some as a present, but then i realized that you can add it to pretty much everything you bake, and it makes things at least 70% moister/more awesome. things i've added it to include not only pancakes but also cornbread, banana bread, and various cakes and cupcakes. the internets have great ideas for stuff to do with it. just get some and see where fate leads you. your life will be better. seriously.

pure beech jersey knit sheets 

image from bed bath & beyond

according to BB&B, "these unique sheets are made from a modal™ blend, which is a high-strength fiber regenerated from the beechwood tree of europe. the result is a fabric that is extremely soft and light as silk."   although they're a little on the pricey side, at least for me ($50 for a set of full sheets/pillowcases), they are SO WORTH IT.  and if you're super poor, like me, you really only need one set, haha. they're even softer than flannel, and much lighter.  basically if you like going to sleep at night embraced by fluffy clouds and rainbows and happiness, these are for you. CAUTION: purchase with care. if you acquire these, you may never want to get out of bed again. ever. it can be problematic.

REI.

so, REI is basically one of my favorite things in life. although known by many as the Really Expensive Item store (which, okay, it is), it gets a bad rap, and i want to clear things up. if you are at all into stuff that might even tangentially be called "outdoors-y," it is THE place to get things. here is why: 

(1). if you need a general class of thing (like hiking boots, or a backpack, or a flashlight, or a coffee mug) but are kind of clueless about what precisely will most enrich your life, the salespeople know EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING and will hang out with you for a like a million years and listen to all your needs and concerns and existential quandaries, and then recommend exactly what you need, and then (if necessary) fit you for it and make sure it's exactly right. they have no incentive to send you home with something that's not right for you because 

(2) you can return EVERYTHING. ANYTIME. after ANY AMOUNT OF TIME. and if you're a member ($20 for a lifetime membership), you don't even have to keep receipts to get a full refund or exchange. so basically once you buy something there, you have it FOREVER. oh, and i've never tried it, but i've heard that if you buy something there and lose it (and you're either a member or have the receipt), they'll give you a mad discount on a new one.  

(3) you can rent some things for really reasonable rates, like rock-climbing gear, or bike stuff, or a whole slew of things. you know, if you're just trying something out and don't want to invest in the equipment quite yet.  And lastly, 

(4) stuff is expensive, but the key is being an expert stalker (which, come on, you probably already are. right now you're reading a style blog and you probably checked facebook within the last ten minutes. who are we kidding). things go on sale all the time. there is an outlet (rei-outlet.com) which periodically has coupons (eg. extra 20% off one item), and members not only get a 10% dividend on anything they buy full-price, but there is usually a once- or twice-yearly member coupon for some percent off a full-price item.  in sum, there is rarely a reason to buy anything full-price. in the last year i have worked at a zoo and a national park, and on any given day at either of these jobs i was wearing at least 90% REI stuff. 

and that's katie's list! if you have a list you would like to submit, or even just an idea, or one single thing, send us a comment!

happy tuesday!