Eggs Cocotte: A Happy Husband Maker

Since I got married my new favorite thing is to play housewife, even though I'm not a house wife. I have a 2pm - 10pm job that sucks the life out of me. The only good thing about it is my open mornings to make my husband his favorite thing. Breakfast.

As a wedding shower gift from one of my bridesmaids I got this amazing book.

And as the title promises, this recipe is really easy. Easy for me to modify the way I want.

Preheat the oven to 400F.
I use two of my mini cocottes and spray the bottoms with PAM. You can grease them however you like. The recipe calls for spinach, but I only had arugula. So that's what I used.
Chop chop.

Fill the bottoms with yummy arugula.

Add parsley.

Chop up some ham.

Add ham to your beauty cocottes.

Crack two eggs in each pot of yum, add a splash of milk and season with cracked pepper and kosher salt.

Bake 10 minutes or so until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny. Cover with cocotte lids for presentation.

Wait for it...

Nom nom nom.

A closer look.

Here is the original recipe. I added more time because I added an extra egg and my cast iron cocottes take a second to heat up. If you use smaller ceramic ramekins you can follow the recipe's baking time.

Mexican Cooking Fun!

True to my word, I have started baking again. However, I apparently haven't taken to documenting the goods very well. I got two pix out of an afternoon baking in my lovely kitchen.

Two weeks ago I made a Mayan Chocolate Cake and Mexican Wedding cookies for our friends who had a Mexican themed house warming party that turned out amazing. Well, kinda. I'm still getting used to my oven and I burned the first batch of cookies a little. Luckily, you can't tell once they are covered in powdered sugar. They got devoured at the party.

Also, last Friday I got off work ridiculously early (Thanks Boss!) and didn't know what to do with myself so I made my Mother's chocolate chip cookies, and set out some appetizers and invited my girlfriend over. My husband, friend and I had an impromptu party. Of which, I took zero photos.

So, I promise, the next time I bake up or cook up the yums, I take tons of pictures. Until then, here is the recipe for Mayan Chocolate Cake. So good!



Chocolate Mayan Bundt Cake

6 ounces Cacao Dark Chocolate Baking Bar, broken into small pieces
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease & flour 12-cup Bundt pan.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate stirring constantly to avoid burning.

***or if you must:
(Microwave chocolate in small, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 45 seconds; STIR. If pieces retain some of their original shape, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring just until melted.)

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cayenne pepper in small bowl. Beat brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate. Beat flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with milk.

Pour into prepared Bundt pan.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; invert cake onto wire rack to cool completely. Transfer cake to serving platter. Drizzle cake with Chocolate Glaze. Let set before serving.

Me No Lie

Like I said, coming back to bake. And I did....

For my Birthday, my BFF got me the most amazing contraption.

BEHOLD....

The Cake Pop Maker!
I'll give you a minute.

And with said miracle cake pop maker I made my husband (tee hee, that'll never get old) Cinnamon Apple doughnut holes, rolled in cinnamon sugar. I know. Best. Wife. EVER.

Yeah, here's the thing... I forgot to take pictures! LAME, I know. Believe you me, they were fantastic. A baked doughnut hole. Who knew they would give a Sunday morning just a little bit more sunshine.

Next time, pictures. In color. Maybe the macro on.

Oh yeah, click HERE to check out Babycake's Cake Pop Makers.

Strawberry Basil Cupcakes

You read right. Strawberry BASIL. It all started with a strawberry basil salad that I made WAY too much of.


It's easy enough to make. Cut up strawberries, cut up fresh basil and toss together with a few tablespoons of good balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar. Bing Bang Boom!

I just took my regular strawberry cupcake recipe and used this strawberry basil salad in it.
My poor mixer has been feeling a little useless lately. I felt bad for her. I knew she'd dig on these yummy cakes.


Here's all the fixin's
A pretty polka dot outfit for m'cakes (It's a fancy Friday, why not?)

Batter up!



Done
and done.
I set up a build-your-own-cupcake bar at work Top it with a little whipped cream and left over strawberry basil salad. My co-workers loved them!

(These cupcakes are dedicated to Haejung. Sorry you missed these and I hope you feel better. I promise I'll make these again.)

Now to figure out what do do with all these cuties?!?!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's been so long since I've made cupcakes. I had the best time making these.
They're magically delicious

Green Vanilla

Chocolate Mint

These are SO green

Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are every bit as good as they look. At first I wasn't sure about the cookie, it was different than I expected. A good friend of mine gave me this book, and it's the first time I've tried a recipe. It's like shortbread. Yummy crumbly buttery shortbread. I modified it a tiny bit by adding white chocolate chips in place of coconut.(click on image for recipe)
I also watched the Kings lose to Ohio. At least these cookies turned out and my day wasn't a complete downer. So pretty and delicious.

Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies. No Wait... M & M Cookies... No... Walnut White Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Picture it, this morning, my kitchen, eating cereal. I look in my pantry and see a pile of an idea. So I says to myself, I says "What could I make out of this mini mountain of goodies?" I search through my recipe book and came across this: I can make sort of an Everything-but-the-kitchen-sick cookie. Then I get started on softening some butter. I had a little bit of dark brown sugar left over so I used that up with a little light brown sugar.La La La, finishing my cereal, drinking some tea, just about to mix all the base ingredients.. La la la... WAIT A MINUTE..... I can't just make an M & M coconut walnut toffee mini chocolate white chocolate chip cookie!!! That's just irresponsible, it can't be done. I have the dough all mixed up, now what?I actually saw the light bulb turn on above my head just then. I decided to split the dough three ways and make three different kinds of cookies, ALL FROM THE SAME DOUGH!!! It's insanity!!! My first cookie creation I'll use walnuts and coconut....and white chocolate chips!! YES!Into the oven, OH hello there engagement ring!For my next cookie trick... M & M's!! These pink M & M's were left over from my 30th birthday. My Mother had them made. Duchess is a nickname my parent's good friend Danny gave me when I was little.The dough looked too pretty to add anything to it, so off it goes to the oven!Ok.. last cookie.. what to do.. what to do..... what would the guys over at Apple, Inc. do? They'd keep it simple and sexy.... are you thinking what I'm thinking????? Walnut mini chocolate chip! It's crazy, but it just might work.LET'S DO IT!! The dough looks so good do I have to bake them?.... (fine)Like the Three Caballeros, I give you

Coconut Walnut White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pink Duchess M & M Cookies
and Walnut Mini Chocolate Chip CookiesWhat we've learned here kiddies, is that you can take any basic cookie recipe and fold in a bunch of yummy and pretty things from the pantry to make some destructively tasty cookies.