Elle & Co.

Today I was featured on a friends blog!  The blog is called Elle & Co.

My friend Lauren, who runs the blog and company, asked if I would be a part of her Friday coffee date series...I was so happy to do so!  Aside my my guest appearance, you should check out her site.  She has her own design company, driven by her love for organization.  You can purchase so many cute and useful items from Elle and Co.  I personally love the item featured above.  It is a family starter kit for organization.  How unique and helpful!

Thanks Lauren!

Homemade Sushi

I can eat some serious sushi.  And by that, I mean a lot.  We have reached the point where Andrew and I can no longer just go out for sushi and order a few rolls.  Nope, no longer our style.  At this point, we can only go to all-you-can-eat sushi buffets.  Glutenous or amazing?  I will go with amazing.

Since we love sushi so much, I thought I would try to make some at home.  It was so easy!  I do happen to have a sushi making kit, which includes a rolling mat.  This is one tool you absolutely need to make sushi at home. Another thing to note, make sure you get sushi rice, it makes a world of difference!  For a healthier option, get short grain brown rice.

My kit came with a "how to" book, so I received instructions from that.  But you could just as easily watch some youtube videos to get tips.  For Andrew, I made rolls with teriyaki salmon and avocado.  For me, I made veggie rolls. The great thing about sushi is that you can make so many different varieties!

 My ingredients

 Dinner time

Chocolate Cupcakes with Candied Bacon

People in the office make lots of jokes regarding me being a vegan, in a loving way of course.

Well these bacon cupcakes all started because a co-worker tried to make an outlandish request; he asked for a chocolate bacon cake for his b-day.  I like to bring in a birthday treat for everyone, so I ask for a favorite dessert!  Even though I am vegan, I love to experiment with baking, so I gladly accepted the challenge.

I'm still tweaking the recipe, looking for the perfect balance between chocolate and bacon.  Once I do get the recipe just right, I will share!  Essentially, it is a chocolate cake, with chocolate icing and candied bacon on top.  I candy the bacon by cooking it in brown sugar with a bit of cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  It smelled so good I was tempted to eat a piece.

 We start with a chocolate base

 Add a little icing

And then a little bacon.  Enjoy!

Baking Tip: Broken egg shells

Something I am going to start doing on this blog; baking tips!  I'm slowly starting to realize that there are so many little tricks I learned while working as a baker.  I didn't realize these tricks were valuable until now, which is why I am going to share.

Today we will start with the story of an egg.

This little egg made a very long journey to good ole' Trader Joe's, where I just so happened to stumble upon him and his eleven other siblings.  Since I am a vegan, I don't actually eat these little guys, but my husband loves eggs and I do a good deal of non-vegan baking, so I always have them around the house.

One of the most obnoxious things that will just put a damper on your baking is when you get broken egg shells in your batter.  Seriously, it is the worst!  Then you stick your fingers in the egg and continually try to grab the shell, but somehow it keeps getting further and further from you...sometimes I feel like the egg shell has something against me and doesn't want to get caught, it feels like a conspiracy theory.  Until I found out about this trick...

Super simple, I can't even remember who told me about it at the bakery.  But here we go.

First you have a perfect little egg.

 Then you crack your egg.

But oh no!  You notice there is an egg shell caught.

 Use one half of your broken egg shell to fish out the missing piece. 

And like magic, the missing egg shell is just drawn to the big egg shell.  Like I said, so obvious and easy and it always works!

Asheville

We have been dying to get out of town.  Just a little trip to refresh, rest and re-connect.  Seeing as we are so close to the mountains, we decided to head to Asheville for a night.  We planned to shop, eat and hike, however, the weather decided to change our plans.  It was cold and rainy, so all we really got to do was eat, sleep and watch movies, activities that are relaxing in their own way.

When we arrived, we ate lunch at Farm Burger.  A delicious trendy burger joint.  We stuffed ourselves with delight.  After relaxing the rest of the day, we ate dinner at Curate, a tapas bar.  The food was awesome, a bit more upscale. Dishes were filled with simple ingredients and robust flavors. The morning we left, we stopped at Green Sage, a coffee house that served breakfast.  All the restaurants were fantastic, I highly recommend all of them.

Farm burger.  My burger is pictured above.

Dark, but what up new glasses.

Pan con tomate. Bread and tomatoes at Curate.

Birthday Cakes

March is a big birthday month in my family. Both of my parents, along with Andrew have b-days in March.  With b-days on the mind, all I can think about is baking cakes! This past weekend my dad celebrated his 60th bday! Anyway, here is the cake I baked for him.

I used this lemon cake recipe, and altered it a bit.  I added about 2 tsp of lemon extract to give it a bit stronger of a flavor, along with 1/4 cup more of lemon juice. And I'm glad I did, because the lemon flavor was still subtle.  The cake turned out to be a bit denser than I would have liked, but overall I was pleased with the final product.

As for the icing, I made a cream cheese icing.  I don't normally use icing recipes, I just go by look and texture.  After making icing once a week for two years at a bakery, you get a feel for it.

To add a little texture and color to the cake, I toasted some sweetened coconut.  It added a nice little touch to the flavor and final decoration of the cake.

It's a New Year

Well it's 2014!  A new year, a fresh start, a chance to work on some things.

The first things I will be working on....this blog.

Yep, I said it!  I'm committing to writing one blog post per week, and you can send me hate mail if I don't. All 50 of you who read my blog :)

Since it has been far too long, I'm going to update you all on what has been going on in my life.  And since it is 2014, I'll give you 14 things going on in my life.



1. I got a new job!  I started about a month 1/2 ago and truly love it.  Life has actually been stress-free, a feeling I have not felt in a long time.

2. I am going to be an aunt!  Andrew's brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby.

3. We are heading to Italy in June for a week. This month I started working on my Italian so I can chat with the locals.  Currently working on food vocab, obviously the most important.

4. Chocolate cake has been a favorite dessert recently.

5. We joined the gym and got rid of cable.

6. Love this tea from Trader Joe's.

7. I love this cookbook I got for christmas.

8. Chocolate spice cookies I recently made. I made them into sandwiches. YUM.

10. Apple chips are a new obsession. The recipe is found in the cookbook mentioned in #7

11. I just got glasses! They look similar to this pair, but mine are from costco so yea....slightly different and bigger.

12. I recently made a duvet cover and curtains.

13. Im obsessed with the movie Frozen, and the soundtrack.  I love it so much, I can't even explain it. I'm currently waiting for the movie to come out in the dollar theater so I can see it again.

14.  Andrew and I head to Asheville this weekend to get away!  I'll put some pictures up once we get back.


Ok, one post per week to come!