A Note on Coffee & I

 

I sat in a booth with cracked seats at the Waffle House off of Keystone Avenue. My 11th grade math books spread out in front of me, I opened my mouth and forced the bitter, weak coffee down my throat. My Grammie told me that she drank her coffee black. She called it lazy man's coffee. I liked the way that sounded so I decided I was going to drink my coffee black too.

Pineapple & Sugar

I am having a hard time deciding if I like this picture or if it looks gross.

Carrot Cake Sliders

 

Everytime I make cupcakes my-brother-in-law uses the famous 'inside out' method. He rips the frosted top off the cupcake, turns it over, and and make it a sandwich. He has a good point. If frosting is so good on top, wouldn't it be even better in the middle? This way each bite is promised fair frosting coverage. Genius. For said brother-in-law's birthday, Carrot Cake Sliders, made lovingly in my kitchen at 12:30 A.M.

Betty Crocker Ultimate Carrot Cake Recipe ***with only a few tweeks

The recipe boasts "Here's home baked carrot cake without the hassle of shredding carrots. Yum!" I found it quite odd that one would develop an 'ultimate' cake recipe in order to avoid using the namesake ingredient so I addeded shredded carrots and a few other things.

-no raisins ***simply didn't have any. do what you like...
-butter instead of oil ***because butter is better
-1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
-sugared coconut ***again, no access to fresh coconut at my deli

Box Cake - Carrot Cake Flavored
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil ***did butter instead. Too flustered to measure exactly but about a stick of melted butter. Made these quite dense.
1 can 8 oz of crushed pineapple- undrained
1 teaspoon orange peel ***once again I find myself with no zester. So I use my cheese slicer/mince method. It does me okay.
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts ***I used pecans. You do need a softer nut.
1/2 cup fresh coconut***used sugared. Would have preferred fresh.
1/2 cup chopped raisins***n/a
3/4 cup shredded carrots

Tub of cream cheese frosting

Carrot cake batter is not one of the most beautiful cake batters, in fact it looks like several other things that are gross, but the result is great. The cakes were dense and didn't rise much. They had a bran muffin-like consistancy.
After cooling:
- unpeel the baking cup
- Cut them in half
-Stick a ton of frosting between the layers

Is it a sandwich? Is it a cupcake? I don't know.

Fudge & Go Seek

Since it was a rainy Sunday, the gang of beach foods and I decided to stay in and play hide & go seek. I, of course, was 'it.' Caramel Corn was obviously in the pink heart-shaped mixing bowl (like usual) and Pecan Log was easily discovered under the brown sugar, but Marshmallow Fudge was being tricky! We looked in the Bluebird candy dish...we looked in the box of Honey Nut Cheerios, all to no avail.

"FUDGE. MASHMALLOW FUDGE!" I yelled until my voice cracked. "HEAVENLY HASH. WHERE ARE YOU?" Maybe he would answer to his official menu title. Nothing. I was getting nervous. At what point did I have to call Dolle's and tell them? How do you tell someone that their Fudge has disappeared?

After searching for 2! hours, and with my blood sugar hitting a dangerous low point, Pecan Log finally found Fudge. Fudge had climbed into his original bag and fallen asleep. He got SUCH an attitude when opening the bag woke him up.

Ugh. I am never playing that game with Candy again.

Bakeri, Bakeri

Oh Bakeri, Bakeri
Oh how much I love thee.
Oh from your skole breadsomething
Oh to your rosemary hazelnut chocolate chip cookie with sea salt

The End.

Something called Skole- an amazing peppery mildly sweet bread with custard in the middle and sprinkled with coconut

Rosemary Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookie with Sea Salt- no description needed. Still warm and slightly underbaked in the middle. Delish.

http://bakeribrooklyn.com/

RAD

It is...isn't it.

Pineapple Inside Out Cups

What do you do when your cupcakes aren't so pretty...? Sigh...But at least they were so good. Inspired by my high school friends blog post: http://www.cookitlikehismama.blogspot.com/

I wanted to try my hand at a pineapple upside down cupcake. I declared my quest for new summer flavors in a previous post and felt this was a good next step.

Yellow Cake Mix that requires butter
Butter
Eggs
Pineapple Juice
Fresh Pineapple
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon

I don't know any anything about glazes, cooking fruit, or even much about fruit flavors in general but you can't go wrong with this. I mixed up the yellow cake mix, eggs, and butter. Instead of water I used 100% pineapple juice. I added about 3/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon. Adjust this to taste as this is pretty cinnamon-y. Bake the cupcakes.

-Cut up fresh pine apple in 15-18 bite size pieces and about 1/2 thick.
-Put 3/4 of a cup lightly packed brown sugar and mix around till it gets pretty juicy.
-Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a pan, add a little bit of pineapple juice and put in the pineapple.
-Cook on low-ish heat for about 20 mins turning and adding a little more brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon.
-Then take out the pineapple and put on a baking sheet and bake a low heat for a few more mins.

When the cupcakes have cooled dip the top of the cupcakes in the glaze that is left in the skillet from cooking the pineapple. Soooo good. Take the pineapple out of the oven and cool. Place pineapple on top of each cupcake.

Cupcakes NONE to pretty but were fantastic. In retrospect I would add a chunk of fresh coconut on top for some sort of decoration.

Jersey Breakfast!

Toasted Polish Onion Roll - the kind with toasted onion on top and a little cooked onion inside. Another Northside Bakery gem.
Sharp Cheddar - to taste!
Taylor Ham - the secret Jersey ingrediant
Eggs: Rafferty Scramble
Coffee with Whole Milk

Rabbit Run

Pecan Log Mug Shot

We went to Rehoboth Beach and based on my pictures from the trip I went there only with foods. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't...hmmm. So anywho, while we were down there, Pecan Log was accidentally arrested for loitering. Yikes! I had to pick him up from the police station. He was soooo embarrassed!