magic peach slump dessert

If stone fruit is still available in your area, I highly recommend a nectarine slump (I made mine with peaches) from Food52 Baking:

It was magical. It think it must be a cousin of the dump cake (my reasoning for this is that slump and dump rhyme and you will definitely get to dump ingredients over some fruit when you make it). It's also almost as easy as a dump cake.

saucy beef with broccoli

Robert, Rachel, and I recently made a stellar recipe that everyone, including Robert's mom, Audrey, loved.

It's from this book:

And the sauce is spectacular.

Here's the recipe

October Favorites Part 2

Here are the rest of my favorite October reads:

Penguin Problems by Jory John and illustrated by Lane Smith (picture book)

Another wonderful penguin book! The sarcastic humor and whiny penguin grousing are absolutely hilarious, but the icing on the cake is the wise walrus and what happens on the very last page. 

The Treats Truck Baking Book by Kim Ima (adult nonfiction)

This is my current go-to book when I'm looking for a blissful sugar coma. I like how the recipes have optional add-ins, icing options galore, and fun tips like crumbling chocolate cookies for a piecrust. The graphics are also very pretty and the book is quite lovable, kinda smallish for a recipe book. I cannot decide which recipe is my current favorite - the plain jane oatmeal cookies or lemon cake. My husband's favorite thing in here is the lemon icing, which can be smeared on everything (fruit, toast, cookies). Next on my list? Oatmeal jammys! 

Kitten and the Night Watchman by John Sullivan and illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (picture book)

Even though it doesn't rhyme, this book reads like a poem - "A crane looks like a huge mosquito. A beetle bumps against the yard light." The story is really sweet too. This is exactly how I hope to find a kitten some day. But I'm not sure my husband will be as receptive as the night watchman's family.

squishing macaroons into brownie batter

Though it feels like my days have been a nonstop cycle of planning for storytimes, giving the storytimes, walking the dogs, sleeping (barely) and rushing to squeeze in chores, I've also been spending a fair amount of time in the kitchen.

For a coworker's birthday I made pumpkin-oat chocolate chip cookies that another coworker made a couple times when we both worked at the same branch.  I think it's ok to say the cookies were just as good as hers.  This is the exact recipe, and I wouldn't change a thing.  They're super moist, with just enough chocolate, and they were gone by the end of the day.

That same morning, because I'm insane, I also made cinnamon rolls from scratch, which is something I've always wanted to do.  Let me start by saying I can live without cinnamon rolls.  They don't really have any of my favorite sweet flavors - lemon, chocolate, or coconut.  And there's other breakfast foods I'd rather eat - eggs or oatmeal to name a couple.  But I've been wanting to make them for a few reasons. First, Robert loves cinnamon rolls.  Second, I love the whole idea of making them - covering a rectangle of dough with stuff and then rolling it up and looking at the swirls after it's been cut.  It's darn-near magic!

Anyways, the cinnamon rolls were pretty good as far as cinnamon rolls go.  The icing this recipe called for was atrocious though.  Even Robert wasn't a fan.  So next time maybe I can talk Robert into orange and chocolate rolls?  We'll see.

This is the recipe I used.  I have no idea what magazine I found it in.

I also made a so-so beef and vegetable soup from a recipe I wouldn't use again, pumpkin coffee creamer that is far too good, biscuits I totally messed up and refuse to say anything else about, and these things called coconut macaroon brownie cupcakes with chocolate ganache, which came from the book, Bake It in a Cupcake.  It was a very long-winded recipe that I think I've figured out an easier way to make next time.  Next time I will bake a thin sheet of coconut macaroons.  Then I'll make a brownie batter that has a bit more chocolate flavor (because I'm a chocolate monster).  Then I'll fill a pan halfway with brownie batter, then add the sheet of coconut macaroons, and another layer of brownie batter.  And because the brownie batter will have a better chocolate flavor, the ganache can be skipped.  But the cupcakes I made were pretty great, and I would have never come up with the idea on my own.  

Squishing the macaroons into the batter was surprisingly cathartic and brought me much joy.

Once again, I'm not sure what magazine this is, but this is the pumpkin creamer we've been using.  As you can see, it is incredibly sinful.  

Next time I'm in the kitchen I'm going to make biscuits that actually look like biscuits!   

May Reads Part 1

May was such an awesome month for reading.  I read two early chapter book series I fell in love with and a cookbook filled with recipes both Robert and I are enjoying making together.  And these books are only a drop in the bucket!

My May reads will be a triple post due to the many amazing books I fell in love with last month.

Early Bird by Toni Yuly (picture book)



Such a simple story, yet there's a well-developed plot and even a climax. A very smart person pointed out the color difference in the background of the pages when the bird finds the worm. So clever! My favorite illustration is the eyelashes of the sun when it peeks over the horizon.

The Ivy & Bean series* written by Annie Barrows and illustrated by Sophie Blackall (juvenile fiction)

* I am going to share my review of the first Ivy + Bean book.  I recommend them all but must tell you the mystery in the last book isn't solved.

I giggled much of the way through the first Ivy + Bean. Ivy and Bean's shenanigans are very similar to the shenanigans of my childhood, and I love how Annie Barrows is able to get into the minds of seven-year-olds. Bean is impossibly mischievous and funny. She reminds me of Beverly Cleary's character, Ramona. Bean's sister, Nancy is a bit like Beezus, but more whiny and obnoxious than Beezus. I think Ivy + Bean is an easier read than the Ramona books though and a great stepping stone for series like the Ramona series. I thought Ivy was going to be uptight and she's not. She aspires to be a witch and isn't afraid to break the rules and race through neighbor's backyards. They make a wonderfully exciting and funny duo. Sophie Blackall's illustrations are just as fantastic as the story. Bean's expressions are hilarious and so true-to-life and the illustration of the houses with their backyards is quite clever.

Get Real with Storytime by Julie Dietzel-Glair (adult nonfiction)

I appreciate how nicely this is organized, with lots of popular themes such as airplanes and dinosaurs. Each section features plenty of nonfiction titles, flannel board activities, songs, and fingerplays. I particularly like the plenitude of familiar songs with wildly different lyrics. I'm not very good at creating new lyrics with familiar tunes, so these songs help me get started. "The pterodactyl's wings went Flap, flap, flap" sung to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus" is one I can't stop singing. Though this book is geared around using nonfiction and poetry books in storytime, my favorite thing is definitely the songs and action rhymes.

The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken (picture book)

The message inside The Book of Mistakes is incredibly powerful and awesome. Mistakes can be beautiful. It's all about perspective. A smudge can be a smudge or it can be a leaf carried by the wind. Luyken acknowledges and accepts each mistake and triumph. What a great attitude to have! The language read like a conversation between the author and myself and the ending baffled me and left me with my head in the clouds.

Kindest Regards by Ted Kooser (adult nonfiction)

Kindest Regards has many of my favorite Kooser poems: Selecting a Reader, Shoes, Barn Owl, and many more. It also contains poems from books I haven't been able to get my hands on yet (One World at a Time and At Home) and poems from excellent books my library doesn't own (Valentines and Sure Signs). The most exciting part of the book for me came at the end. New poems! And such beautiful, emotional, exquisite poems!

One of my favorite lines comes from the poem, A Summer Afternoon with Clouds: "But still there's the sorely overworked wind stuck at his station for the rest of the day. He dreams of having just one afternoon alone with not one cloud, with a few pleasant hours to enjoy his collection, his big stamp album spread open, showing the villages and fields."

The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook by Mary Younkin (adult nonfiction)

I like how the recipes are divided up by how long they take to make. They are also really simple, which is great when you don't want anything fussy, but they're also really versatile and fun to play around with. This is the perfect kind of cookbook for my house. I like to follow the rules. The less fuss, the better. Robert, however, enjoys basic recipes he can tinker with. The red chile beef enchiladas (which is more like an enchilada casserole), for example, is delicious on its own but has a lot of room to play with it. Onions can be added to the meat, different spices can be sprinkled in, or a different kind of cheese can be used. We haven't tried every recipe in this book, but it's definitely on our list of books to purchase because we've had so much success with it. Our favorite recipe so far is the garlicky peas and rice with kielbasa!

porridge is one of my favorite words

It's been awhile since I tackled anything in the kitchen.  I can easily survive on salads, canned fish and peanut butter smeared on pretty much anything.  It also helps that there's a chipotle 10 minutes away that's easy to walk to and Robert makes dinner a few nights a week when he's around.  We're busy people, and most days I'll happily pick family time, writing, librarying, and tennis over cooking or tinkering around in the kitchen. 

But I do love to cook.  It just happens to be at the bottom of the very long list of things I love.  

Today I carved out a little time to try out a new porridge.  I am a hot cereal fanatic.  Oatmeal, farina, quinoa, grits... You name it, I love it.  When I read about amaranth porridge in Lucid Foods I was instantly intrigued and knew I had to try it.  It has a lot of protein and fiber and is easy to cook. After three different grocery stores, I finally found it at Whole Foods.  

I soaked a cup of amaranth in two cups of water overnight.  Though I googled it and discovered many people thought the soaking was unnecessary, I went ahead and followed the recipe from Lucid Foods.



This morning I brought the amaranth to a boil in the water I soaked it in.  From there I let it simmer for 12 minutes, and it was ready to go.  



Because I like different toppings on each of my hot cereals (brown sugar and milk with oatmeal, chocolate chips and milk with farina, cashews, honey, chocolate chips, banana with quinoa) I knew that I needed to try the amaranth many different ways.  So I set up a taste test and experimented for awhile (I had way too much fun doing this).

I tried it with chocolate chips, banana, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla and butter in a myriad of combinations.  I quickly discovered that the banana, chocolate chips, peanut butter combination was the best.  Though I liked none of the brown sugar combinations, I did notice that the vanilla really popped.  So I added a dash of vanilla to the banana, chocolate chips, and peanut butter and it was delicious.  I'll definitely make this again, and am feeling pretty confident that the remaining servings from today can be warmed up and will taste just fine.  

While making the amaranth porridge I also made a green mojito smoothie recipe from an unknown source.  It was delicious and I highly recommend it.

For the green mojito smoothie:

1 cup water
handful of spinach or mixed greens (I used frozen)
1 cup pineapple
1 lime (recipe calls for half, but I'm definitely tossing the whole lime in next time)
1/4 cup mint (Robert's mom, Audrey, has a mess of it in her garden right now, so thanks Audrey!)
handful of ice (I like to pour my smoothie over ice rather than blending it, but that's up to you)



It was such an awesome breakfast!

2 delicious recipes

I finally tried Susan Branch's hot milk cake recipe from A Fine Romance, and it was excellent and very comforting (just like the book).  I made it with Robert in mind, because he likes simple desserts. I wasn't sure I would like it because it has zero chocolate in it.

But I loved it.  And unlike other desserts without chocolate I didn't feel the need to stuff a chunk of dark chocolate in the middle and melt it.  Though Robert thinks an orange hot milk cake would be a delicious experiment the next time I make it... 

Today I tried an amazing recipe that I created on the fly. One of my favorite salads in Kansas City is from a place called Beer Kitchen. The salad has kale, apples, cheddar cheese, pretzel croutons, dried cranberries and raisins with an apple vinaigrette.  It's stellar.  But I never considered making a version of it at home until this morning. 

I usually buy a couple boxes of greens every week for work lunches, mix mayo, pickles and fish (usually tuna or kippers) together and plop it into the box with the greens.  I always buy my greens based on sell date so that I'm not just buying spinach all the time. Every once in awhile I get stuck with kale or arugula, and because it's so bitter I rarely look forward to eating it. So instead of adding some fish to it I dump the bitter greens in a blender with some kefir and bananas to mask the flavor.

Today, I had a small epiphany.  There was one lonely granny smith apple left in the fruit basket, dried prunes and pineapple in the pantry, and freshly shredded cheddar from a meal earlier this week. These things sounded suspiciously like the Beer Kitchen salad.

So I got out the dreaded box of arugula I bought earlier this week, and instead of dumping it in the blender I came up with this recipe:

for the salad:

3 handfuls of arugula (about 1/2 a box)

4 dried prunes chopped finely 

a healthy pinch of dried pineapple chopped finely

1/2 granny smith apple chopped into bite-size chunks

sprinkle of cheddar cheese 

for the dressing:

​1 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp olive oil 

pinch of sea salt

for the fancy topping:

a handful of pretzels!

Because I was biking to work I tossed everything into one container (except the pretzels) and hoped it would still be tasty a couple hours later.  The bumpy ride tossed my salad perfectly, and chilling it for a few hours helped, so I'd recommend vigorous shaking and chilling before you eat it ; ).  

When I sat down to enjoy it I discovered something was missing. This is where the handful of pretzels come into play. They were definitely the missing ingredient. With the pretzels thrown in, it became one of the best salads I've ever eaten.

This recipe is sadly missing some protein, but I'm not sure how well chicken or tuna will go with it. Perhaps ham? But today I just grabbed some greek yogurt, ate it separately, and called it good.  

All modesty aside, this was a damn good salad. Better than the one at Beer Kitchen, though it always has a place in my heart. 

Now if only I had some leftover hot milk cake!

cherries & sugar, mushrooms & noodles

This year I am definitely spending lotsa time in the kitchen.

I've already got three recipes I've tried and will continue to tinker with.

I've been making smoothies almost every day, and though I like my smoothie books, sometimes the best smoothie is born out of stuff other people won't eat/drink.  My favorite smoothie of the moment came to fruition (ha ha, there's a pun for you dad) after Robert turned up his nose at some cherry kefir he bought.  

One person's cherry-flavored nightmare is another person's happiness.  

Cherry-Flavored Nightmare Smoothie aka The Kind of Tim Burton/Edgar Allan Poe Nightmare, Not the Pee Your Pants Variety 

(as you can tell I should never be given the power to name things)

* 16 oz cherry kefir
* 1 cup frozen cherries (frozen cherries give smoothies an ice cream/dessert-like texture)
* 2 fresh kiwis (frozen kiwis are like rocks even in a blendtech and the sound of it first thing in the morning will make you pee your pants)
* 2 handfuls of fresh spinach (frozen probably works just as well. I was just trying to get rid of some spinach that I never used for a salad...)

I always put a liquid in the blender first.  After that, it's entirely up to you.  

With Rachel's help, I also made a batch of chocolate chip coconut macaroons.  There's a weird mixup with the amount of coconut the original recipe called for so Robert and Rachel used their mad math skills to fix the recipe (which worked better than my cursing).  The cookies were delicious so apparently they belong to the forgiving family of cookies. 

The pre-math-nerds recipe came from Nosh on This by Lisa Stander-Horel.  Because I'm playing catch-up on my long list of recipes I can honestly say I don't remember reading this book.  I can only guess I was attracted to the cover, which has one of the macaroons on it.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons aka Crunchy Ethereal Patties of Everlasting Bliss

* 3 egg whites
* 2 2/3 cups shredded coconut
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 tsp almond extract
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  
2. In a large bowl stir all ingredients except chocolate chips until fully mixed.  Let sit for 3 minutes.
3. Stir again. Add chocolate chips and mix well.
4. Use a 1/3 cup to scoop the stuff and plop onto baking sheet.  After you plop it mash that shit flat. The flatter the cookie the crispier and happier it is.
5.  Bake for 15 minutes. You may like them at this point. I recommend baking until golden brown but you have to watch them like they're your grandparents crossing the street during rush hour. There is a very fine line between brown and your fire alarm going off.  
6. You can make two sheets at a time or rotate them. Up to you. I need time to pace myself while eating them so one sheet at a time works best for me.

Next time I make these cookies I am adding almonds.  I think it will be delicious and also balance out the sweetness.  And while we're talking about sweetness, you should probably have a large glass of water to drink after eating one of these things.  Delicious, yes.  Mega sugary, yes.  

The last recipe I'll share with you is a soba noodle bowl recipe that came from an unknown magazine from who knows how long ago.  Thankfully I have a brand new way of organizing recipes that will make it easier to know the sources and when I found them.  But as I dig through some of my old recipes it's a crap shoot where some of them actually came from.  



This soba noodle bowl recipe was decent.  It needs some work however.  I am definitely adding more veggies next time (celery and cauliflower for sure).  

Soba Noodle Bowl 

6 oz.  4 oz. soba noodles (I used an 8 oz package, which was way way too much, so I'm sure 6 oz. is also too much.  I'd recommend saving some of the noodles for the next batch)
* 8 oz. as much bok choy as your heart desires (I did not buy enough)
* 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (Skip the salt on something else that day. Reduced-sodium chicken broth is crummy)
* 1/4 cup white miso paste (looking for this in a grocery store is like looking for gold at the end of a rainbow)
* 2 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
* 1 cup or more carrots
* 4 oz 8 oz cremini mushrooms
* 6 as many hard-boiled eggs as you can get away with

1.  Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse well.  Drain.
2.  Using the same sauce pan heat broth and water over medium-high heat until simmering.
3.  Whisk in soy sauce and miso paste.
4.  Add carrots, mushroom (and a couple other veggies you think will work) and return to simmering. Reduce heat.  Cook 1-3 minutes until your toughest veggie is as soft as you wish).  
5.  Ladle soup mixture onto noodles.  Add bok choy and egg(s).  
6.  For a kick add a spoonful of chili garlic paste.  

I'm ready to try out the next recipes on my list. Hopefully I have as much luck as I did with these!