Baked Brie Mummy Head!

My roommates and I threw a Halloween party last night.  It was pretty awesome, especially because we planned ahead and made stuff!  There was a Martha Stewart magazine involved because she has her people have good ideas.  We used one concept, but then my brain wheels started turning.

Baked brie….wrapped like a mummy head??  YES.  I didn’t find any on the internets (just mummy hands!) which gave me a Martha moment.  Ohhh yeah.

It’s really super easy to do.  Here’s what you need:  

Chocolate Mochi Brownies

Remember how I was complaining about my inability to cut brownies perfectly?

Well, guess what…

I HAVE FOUND MIRACLE BROWNIES.

And I think I’ve also discovered the perfect utensil for cutting them.  A happy accident, really…while baking these brownies at my parents’ house, I happened upon it in their knife drawer.  

Wordless Wednesday: Jacks

I came home to these and a few more on Saturday.  Roommates get full credit!

For more WW, click here.

Pie: You win some, you lose some…or both.

Two weeks ago, I made a pie.  It was Canadian Thanksgiving.  I am not Canadian, and neither were any of us who were celebrating it together.  It’s just a thing we seem to do, at least since last year!

This pie marks the first pie crust of the dough variety I’ve made since my first unsuccessful attempt at homemade crust several years ago.  Anxiously, I thought of all of the things that could go wrong, from the typical (dense, not flaky crust) to the irrational (eaten by wild monkeys).

To help ease my worries, I went with a recipe from a source that has yet to let me down: Deb of Smitten Kitchen.  She has a few pie crust how-to’s; I went with the all butter crust from Pie Crust 102.

Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Moo Shu!

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood.  They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

Okay, I’m days late with this challenge, but wanted to complete it because 1) I’ve missed a couple of recent ones, and 2) I can’t pass up Asian recipes.  I’m glad I did it because it is SO good!!!

Traditionally moo shu is made with pork, so being vegetarian, I went with a different stir fry recipe than what was provided for the challenge.  Otherwise, I used the hoisin and pancake recipes from Shelley and Ruth!

This is an easy dinner to make, but the prep can be pretty time-consuming.  If you chop the veggies and make the sauce the day before you want to eat it, I would approve of that (it’s what I did)!  The pancakes are a little high-maintenance as most doughy things can be, but aren’t complicated.  

Wordless Wednesday: If Animal Muppet were human…

Liam Finn @ ND at 501 Studios
October 12, 2011
Austin, Texas

(some videos for you!)

For more WW, click here.

AFBA Food Photography Workshop

A couple weeks ago, I saw a tweet encouraging people to sign up for a food photography workshop being held by the Austin Food Blogger Alliance on October 9.  Since I just moved here, I thought it would be a good way to meet fellow local bloggers and learn some things about photography.  Of course when the day (last Sunday) finally came around, I got nervous and almost didn’t go.  Yep, I’m super shy and a room full of strangers is something that I tend to want to avoid.  The fact that this would have been my first ever food blogger event added to my uneasiness.

But I went, and guess what?  I met fellow local bloggers and learned some things about photography, and had a good time doing so!

Wordless Wednesday: Crowd Karaoke

(They were all singing up on stage!)

For more WW, click here.

Butternut Squash Barley Risotto

In grad school, my main source for recipes was AllRecipes.com.  I wouldn’t find out about food blogs until a few years later, and probably would have laughed if someone told me that years later I’d be writing for fun about baking and cooking.  (I might have stopped laughing if you then told me that I would still be freelancing at this point.)

One thing that drove me nuts about All Recipes is that so many of the comments would go something like this:

This dish sucked!  I subbed peanut butter for the broccoli, nixed the flour and doubled the tomato sauce, and it was TERRIBLE! (1 out of 5 stars)

I mean, really?  That’s totally not the recipe, so how can you rate it?

This was back when I would follow every single recipe to a T for fear of messing it up.

Now I’ve really let myself go and mess with most cooking and baking recipes, even if they’re for something I’ve never made.

Like risotto.

Wordless Wednesday: Napping Paper

My niece was playing Nap Time here…she does actually have proper blankets.

For more WW, click here.