Caution: Hot!

Today I got up early (super early) and went to the farmer's market! Working on Saturdays for the past 2-ish years has made it nearly impossible to visit... sadly. While I don't always pick up any fresh produce, I still enjoy walking amongst vendors and farmers and seeing their goods.

This time around, even though I had to get to work, I made it a mission to go!
Why? Because... of Blackmarket Bakery.





Amazing Chocolate Almond Bread Pudding. MMMMMMMMM!
The warm melty goodness of the caramel in contrast to the light sweetness of rum, and almond, and of course chocolate. Then there is the crunch of a few slivered almonds.
SOOOO GOOD! (The minor burns from the hot ramekin are absolutely worth it.)
I never really bit onto bread pudding until Ila's sweet potato bread pudding from the holidays (which I am still waiting for a recipe on). And ever since... I have been hooked.
If I see it, I will get it. No lie. (Unless there are raisins, then I will mull it over.)

Also, I love to see the buckets of flowers. I'm not a flower person... but they make pretty gifts! (So sad when they wilt and die...)


Getting up early was so worth it today! Got to grab a latte with a bud, and stroll the market together and look at random food things. AND, it wasn't hot! We went before the clouds had cleared for the afternoon... AWESOME.

And to continue this "active/productive" streak... I finally got my "corkboard" up!
Note to self: have a boy hammer nails into walls next time.

Friday Fat Day

Thanks to my lame ankles I haven't gone jogging in about 2 weeks now.
And gradually I am eating like crap again.

Cookies have started to sneak into my tummy ever since I made them...
but by far, today is the worst since my whole health kick began.

Started like usual with a nonfat yogurt with sliced strawberries and almonds.
For lunch, I planned to just have a small bowl of leftover brown rice and grilled chicken and veggies from FlameBroiler.
BUT I was still hungry, and when half a bean and cheese burrito was offered to me, I took it and INHALED it.
Then I had an orange.
Couple hours later, a chocolate chip cookie.
I was given a torta since a co-worker forgot to take it with him when he left work and insisted I should try it. So that was dinner.


It (barely) survived the trip home in a non-descript brown baggie... a quick reheat in the microwave and ta-da. It was definitely a knife-and-forker for me. I can only assume it is better fresh. Not several hours old and soggy. So I must say... I was not all that impressed.

And then to top off the insanely unhealthy day, I had... *gasp* a SODA. Oh coke zero... I missed you. I see you and your buddies tucked away in the back of the fridge everyday...

So with that... I fully intend to watch more carefully what I shovel into my mouth. and for gods sake to show some friggin restraint when it comes to cookies!

3 hour baking hell

I thought this recipe would go off without a hitch.
Chocolate Chip Overload Cookies from Evil Shenanigans
The recipe I'm sure is fine... MORE than fine... I mean it's a SUPER CHOCOLATE CHIP cookie! I, on the other hand, am a massive failure.

I think it began with me forgetting 1 entire cup of flour. Also, I was a smidgen short on baking soda. (I guess that's what happens when you pilfer scant amounts from home in ziplock baggies.)

SO! I had issues. MAJOR issues.

I didn't realize I was missing a cup of flour (in fact, I'm not 100% sure - it just makes sense.) until everything was mixed together... and the dough seemed less dough-like and more melting-ice-cream-like.

That's when I started to back track... and even for a million bucks, I could not remember exactly how much flour I had measured out.

So, I did a few trial runs... just in case I wasn't insane. I was proven wrong.
The first testers baked out to be a lot like the potato chip cookies. Too much butter over flour.

Then I added in just shy of 1 cup of flour. Did another test run... a little better. Not quite what the original pictures showed. (Which made me think... what is wrong NOW?)


So little by little I added in a few tablespoons of flour and just continued to bake. I must have added in at least 6 tbsps to get the the "final" dough.

These cookies are definitely super chocolatey! The dough part is good... much as expected for a chocolate chip cookie.

The dough was distinctly DARKER than any other cookie dough I've made.


Notes:

Instead of 3 bags of the same chocolate chip, I used a mish mash of "leftover" chocolate chips I've had laying around. I did use a whole new bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet. Then I used some minis. Then some 60% cacao bittersweet Ghirardelli chips. And to finish it off, some white chocolate chips.

Baked at a lower temp of 325 for 15-ish minutes. Until golden brown of course.

The color was off too... not as warm and golden as you would want them to be, obviously a correlation to the darker dough. It was like it was "infused" with chocolate.


At least there was a nice breeze coming in through the window...

It's MARGARITA TIME

aka summer time (well... close enough).

Friends and I celebrated an early cinco de mayo with tacos, burritos, chips, nachos, and lots of margarita and mojitos poolside. Kate made most of the awesome food. Yummy meat... Tres Leches Cake! It was a beautiful day!

I contributed a whole #10 can of nacho cheese.

AND sweet corn cakes!

Yes its a mix... but an AMAZING mix. Not exactly the same as the restaurant, but definitely a close second. Slightly more grainy... but otherwise, MMMmmmMMM good!
The color is a wonderful sunshine yellow... the photos just can't capture that.

Add in some butter, creamed corn, and water... and voila!



In other news, my boss/friend appreciated me this past week with an awesome MAC Hello Kitty doll! It's so great to work with people you like and who like you too!

2 days - 2 quesadillas - one plate

I can never get enough of cheese. Hence my love for quesadillas, cheese omelets, grilled cheese sandwiches, and "extra" cheese on everything!

Been relatively lazy... so I've had quesadillas for the past 2 nights. easy peasy hand held food.


Sauteed Mushroom & Cheese in Garden Veggie Tortilla


Eggs & Cheese in Garden Veg Tortilla

Almond Butter Chocolate Bars

Kate and Josh went away during Christmas, and brought me back this mix!

I'm finally getting around to doing some baking, and since I had some almond butter in the fridge... I decided to give that a go!


It was so nice to just dump everything in a bowl and mix. SO MUCH LESS DISHES TO WASH! It was just so weird to not have to cream the butter and sugar when baking this time.

Ingredients included: Quick cooking oats, flour, sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, baking soda, butter, eggs, vanilla and almond butter.


Not sure if it baked up correctly... I don't think so, since there was a "crust".



Overall, pretty good. It was nice and warm and chewy right out of the oven. Got a little more chewy as it cooled. If you like oatmeal cookies, then these are totally awesome! It's not TOO sweet either.
Some people ate it up! (But those I know are total oatmeal eaters).
Some were indifferent to it. Maybe it wasn't sweet enough for them.



Is it weird to check that things are done in the middle by doing this?

Low(er) Fat Cake

I've been meaning to bake a chocolate matcha cake for a while now, especially after borrowing some matcha powder from Ila.
And since the little missy is planning to borrow one of my cake stands, what better way to say thanks for the matcha than to give her a cake!

Actually, I've made a White Chocolate and Matcha Cake before based off of La Tartine Gourmande's recipe.
But I didn't use matcha powder, instead I found a green tea cake mix from Trader Joe's and kind of smooshed those two recipes together. Essentially, I made three cake mixes (White Chocolate, Matcha, Dark Chocolate) in order to marble two cakes.
Then I stumble across GORGEOUS pictures of Chocolate and Matcha yummies, and I know why I'm so drawn to making it!
Bakerella's Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake
Mini Matcha Whoopie Pies
Matcha and Chocoalte Swirl Cake

But I decided to go with this recipe, mainly because I had all the ingredients (sorta) and it uses yogurt. I've been meaning to bake with yogurt more too!

Chocolate Matcha Marble Cake from Fresh from the Oven

I didn't have any cake flour, and wasn't about to go buy some. So, I looked up on Baking Bites how to sub out/in AP flour for cake flour.

Pretty pretty batter

A few dollops... then the swirling. (I think I did okay this time!)

I filled these about half full... one had a little more than the other. Obviously. The batter bakes up to about double the volume. I scored these awesome paper bundt "cups" from Daiso where I go to stock up on all these kinds of goodies when I'm back in the San Fran area.