St. Patrick's Day Puppy Chow!

I can't believe it's almost St. Patrick's Day! We've officially lived in this house for two months, in a kitchen that is wood and olive-colored and a dining room we play Scrabble on. The dogs bark at the birds that dance in the trees and I wait for Nolan to come from a 12-hour shift before we eat dinner. This St. Patrick's Day will be quiet, as they tend to be now.

I used to wear green paint on my face and black out on the strip of bars downtown in Pittsburgh. My fake ID would bend in my wallet and beer was cheap and dyed. Three years in a row and it never felt like I was doing it right. And in California, when it was just the two of us, I had no reason to really celebrate then. 

But it's different here, as I tend to say. I celebrate the small things, the holidays that aren't just for gifts and drinking. I made this Lucky Charms puppy chow with Nolan one Saturday and we laughed and kissed along the way.  It's these small victories of getting older that make me appreciate Nolan standing by my side.

Lucky Charms Puppy Chow

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups confectioner's sugar
2. 3 TB matcha powder
3. 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
4. 1 1/2 cup peanut butter
5. 1 cup white chocolate 
6. 2 TB unsalted butter
7. 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8. 1 box Lucky Charms
9.  

Directions:

1. Shake to combine sugar and matcha in a large brown paper bag
2. In a Dutch oven, heat marshmallow, peanut butter, chocolate, and butter on medium-high and stir constantly until melted
3. Add your box of cereal and stir to coat completely
4. Add salt to taste (it will be sweet and the salt will cut a lot of this)
5. Allow to cool slightly and then add in parts to your paper bag
6. Shake to coat and pour into a bowl
7. Repeat and enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! And celebrate the immigrants that made this country.

Post-Vacation Funnel Cake

There are 5 inches of snow on the ground and I just bought a new coffee pot yesterday, our old one from California broke. After being in storage for a year, I'm not surprised. I'm happy, in fact, to get rid of something else from our time on the West Coast. We're different now, simpler. We bought a Mr. Coffee for $21 and it does the job. I'm content with the bare minimum now.

There are three dogs on the couch next to me. A girl that lopes in the backyard and barks at scents she finds in the wind. Two boys that sit on our lap, our stomachs, our chests to stay close, stay warm, stay within eyesight and earshot for treats and kisses and words of comfort when the wind blows too strong.

It's been two days since we got back from Cancun. A world so apart from where we are now. Five hour naps and three course meals. We talked to no one and turned off our phones for the weekend. We fell in love with the beach, the coati, the people. The language and the lilting way I speak it nervously. A world so different than where we live now; we spoke about how it is not right to build the wall. We spoke about how to be more active in what we can do now, when we got back to our real lives.

This week has been full of numbers, questions without answers. Even though I love this cold, sometimes when the snow falls, I dream of warmer weather every once in a while. I dream of more pools and more margaritas. The wild flowers that grow by our creekbed and the dogs lying in the shade. Of barbecues and fair foods. Of ballpark lemonade and fried dough covered in sugar.

Funnel Cake

With the addition of the whipped egg whites and cornstarch, these are lighter versions of your favorite fair food. And you all know how much I love fried dough by now (see here, here, and here)!

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites + 2 eggs
• 1 ¼ cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• 1 TB white vinegar
• 3 cup AP flour
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• Pinch of sea salt
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• A flavorless oil, for frying dough

Directions:

1. In a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, whip your egg whites on medium-high until stiff peaks form. Set these aside
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together your whole eggs, milk, vanilla, butter, and vinegar
3. In a separate bowl, stir flour, sugar, and baking powder
4. Add your milk mixture into your flour and stir with a rubber spatula
5. Fold in your egg whites and stir until completely mixed
6. Now, fill an old bottle or a pastry bag
7. Heat your oil to 375*F in a large Dutch oven
8. Line a couple plates with paper towels to soak up the grease
9. Now, squeeze some of your batter right over the hot oil and allow to cool for about a minute, flip over to finish frying on the other side
10. Remove from oil and allow to drain on prepared plate
11. Repeat with remaining batter
12. Cover with confectioner’s sugar and enjoy!!

Sunday Hummus, a variation on a theme

I dream of owning a house now, I think of it every day. I've outgrown the boundaries of my family's home; I can't drift much longer. The days repeat themselves and by Thursday I'm second guessing if I missed any deadlines for the week. There's not a lot of purpose here right now.

There were years of me questioning what I wanted from life. Thinking the seeds I had sown were somehow rotten, stunted, cicadas that would spring in 7 or 13 years. But I put that all off and think about food. I think in terms of recipes, in terms of future cookbooks I want to author. I think more and more of having kids of my own with a person I love very much and the packed lunches I could make, working from home and poaching fresh, almost orange-yolked eggs every morning.

After Cynthia's baby shower post the other day, I had some extra ingredients in the fridge. I built this recipe off a soup, an afterschool snack for a future child. Whether it's Lana or one of my own, I'm already planning ahead.

Cauliflower Harissa Hummus

This is a super easy recipe and the hardest thing about it is finding the ingredients. With this one, the spice level is a little high, so you can adjust to your tastes. I paired this recipe with a homemade flatbread as well, using this recipe as my base and adding a little sour cream.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head of cauliflower, tossed in oil and roasted at 425*F for 20 minutes, as in here
• 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 TB harissa (modify to your taste buds)
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 2 TB sour cream
• Juice and zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Allow for your caulflower to cool before handling in this recipe
2. Put all ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until chickpeas and cauliflower are processed, it will be a little chunky
3. With motor running, pour in olive oil slowly, checking halfway through to see if you have achieved your desired consistency
4. When it is how smooth you like it, turn motor off and transfer to a bowl
5. Allow to rest for half an hour in the fridge for flavors to meld and serve with pita, flatbread, or other vegetables

Virtual Pumpkin Party 2k16 - PUMPKIN GRANOLA!

If you haven't noticed by now, Fall is my favorite season. I enjoy the ritual of it, the open window chapping my lips and cooling my coffee before I have time to finish it. The unpacking of sweaters and the boots with broken zippers. The festivals that sell apples on sticks and the only Catholic church in town that sells beer on tap from a pick-up truck. I've said it before, but I missed this season dearly. I missed it while in California and how different it tasted when I lived in Italy, too. There's nowhere else in the world like a Pennsylvania autumn. Beautiful, crisp, silent and yielding to the most sleepy of urges and memories, swaying branches and moth-eaten scarves. 

I like that there are only certain foods that are only appropriate in the fall, the cans of pumpkin puree and the misshapen gourds they sell roadside and at Wal-Mart. The bags of kettle corn my mother makes at the candy shop that goes stale after a week. I used to have pumpkin pie on my birthday instead of cake. When Sara emailed me about participating in the Virtual Pumpkin Party, I tried to make a cake in a gutted pumpkin and it never turned out right. So I took all the flavors appropriate of Fall, the threshold flavors of the holiday seasons, and put them into a snack I could have anytime of the day - granola, by the handfuls and on my morning yogurt. Something to wake up to, to sustain me when work gets too stressful. A break and a rest, a prize and a necessity--that's what fall is to me these days.

I was so happy to participate in this year's Virtual Pumpkin Party. Check out Sara's (Cake Over Steak) and Aimee's (Twigg Studio) posts for a full list of those contributing to #virtualpumpkinparty!

Pumpkin Granola

Ingredients:

• 4 cup uncooked oats
• 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds (I used these easy directions for mine!)
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped roughly
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste, based on if you used salt in your pumpkin seeds!)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg white
• 2 TB molasses 
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/4 cup tahini or peanut butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F and prepare a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together oats, seeds, pecans, sugar, salt, and spices with a wooden spoon
3. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, whisk together remaining ingredients together until wholly incorporated
4. Using your wooden spoon, create a well in the center of your dry ingredients and, stirring slowly, pour in your wet ingredients
5. Stir until all dry ingredients are coated (here, I actually used my hands because it was easier!)
6. Spread mixture onto baking sheets and bake for 25 minutes, stirring 3 times at around every 8 minutes, as the high oil and sugar content can burn the oats easily
7. Take out of oven, allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks

Roasted Banana Shortbread Cookies

I have the luxury of time now, reflection, opportunity. I’m 24 but I wasted an embarrassing amount of years shoring up the flotsam of who I used to be. I don’t worry so much now. I know I’ve kissed boys I’ve regretted. I know I’ve eaten ice cream the carton and left it on the counter until morning. Laundry piles up, bills change color; but I keep waking up in the morning and find it comforting.

Time shifts. Slows down. There’s a birds nest that’s been shuddering with wakeful chicks since last Sunday. It’s an eyrie built in the rain gutter and there’s a poem in there somewhere. They keep me up at night, I hear their hungry cries. They’ve just woken up and I hear them through my window.

There’s a rise and fall to my emotions. I used to think they were impressionism, small strokes of color and enough space in between to contrast. I have a Rembrandt temper, deep and opaque.

I’m working on this.

I made these cookies for no one but myself. I made them because it’s rained for four days straight and it doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. I made over two dozen and only ate a handful. The rest I took out, still on the pan, and threw them to the birds that peck at the apple tree wood. I threw them, one by one, and brought back an empty tray. I have a lot of time these days; I don’t mind sharing.

Roasted Banana Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 banana, cut lengthwise
• 8 tablespoons butter, divided and softened
• ½ cup brown sugar, divided
• 1 ¾ cup AP flour
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon cinnamo
• Nutella, optional

Directions:

1. First, you must roast the banana for this recipe
2. Preheat oven to 400*F and prepare a pan with aluminum foil
3. Lay banana, peel side down, on pan and cut three small cuts into the banana
4. Top each banana half with 1 tablespoon butter and 1/8 cup brown sugar apiece
5. Roast for 10-15 minutes until sugar is caramelized and bananas are soft and browned
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before continuing on
7. While waiting for banana to cool, do the following: Reduce oven to 350*F; prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper; sift flour and salt together in a mixing bowl
8. When bananas are cooled, use a food processor and blend together bananas, remaining 6 TB butter, and remaining sugars. Process until well blended
9. Add vanilla and cinnamon to the mixture
10. With food processor on, slowly add flour through the feeding tube and continue to blend until a dough just starts to form
11. Turn food processor off and turn onto a floured work surface. Dough will be a bit crumbly at first, so work it a bit with your hands and pat into a disc
12. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes
13. When 30 minutes are up, roll back onto floured work surface and cut into desired shapes (make sure the cookies aren’t over a 1/3 inch in thickness)
14. Place shapes on your prepared cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges are golden
15. Allow to cool and you can eat as is, or top with Nutella and a little cinnamon
16. Last for up to 3 days in an airtight container