Thanksgiving: Pumpkins, Peanut Butter, and Limes

I have baked/cooked quite a few things over the past few months or so that I have been meaning to take pictures of and blog about, but I never seemed to remember the camera; when I did remember the camera, I just never go around to writing about it.

Because of this lack of updates, I am sharing my three Thanksgiving desserts for this year: pumpkin cheesecake, peanut butter pie, and key-lime pie.  As it is not yet Thanksgiving day, I have not yet sampled any of these desserts in their finished state.  I have, of course, sampled during the process of making these desserts and I am very excited about the pumpkin cheesecake and the peanut butter pie.  The key-lime pie I am less sure of.  The crust tasted great (how could a graham cracker crust not taste good?)  The key-lime filling seemed completely overpowered by the texture/flavour of the condensed milk and the sour-cream topping seemed nothing more than 'fine'.  While the two main parts of the concoction seemed less-than-desirable, I am hoping that when they're put together they'll create something decent.  I suppose I will find out tomorrow.

*EDIT*  The key-lime pie tasted fine.  I apparently didn't cook it quite enough, so the middle wasn't completely set and the crust was moist, but, since it was chilled, it was not a soggy crust. */EDIT*

Pierogi!

The boy and I moved into a new apartment (with a small kitchen) last week and, after spending two days unpacking, I decided to take things easy. This means I have done nothing but read for the past two days, which was wonderful. Today, however, I decided to be productive, so I tried to make pierogi. For those who don't know, pierogi is a type of Polish dumpling filled with (in my case) potato-y goodness.  

Hodge Podge

There are so many things I've made over the past few months that have been reasonably successful that I've simply failed to post.  So here is my desperately late post about the hodge podge of meals, desserts, and odds-and-ends I have been concocting.

I figured I'd start from five minutes ago and work my way back in time. I made a light, fluffy pastry this morning for breakfast.  Well, maybe pastry isn't the right word.  Or light.  Or fluffy.  I made what I thought would be a light, fluffy pastry.  Instead it turned out to be an undercooked, sweet egg.

 

But that was my fault; it still tasted good. You see, since it was a balmy 80 degrees outside (yes, even at 9 in the morning) I decided to bake this German pancake in the toaster oven rather than the large oven, therefore avoiding heating the apartment up more than necessary.  I was, however, unaware that the pancakes puff up above the pan (and, in my case, into the toaster elements).  I had to let the pancake deflate before allowing it to continue cooking in the toaster, so the inside was not as fluffy as it should have been. 

Chocolate plastic and buttercream

Mothers day was approaching and I was going to get my mother flowers.   I was then faced with the dilemma of how to keep the flowers alive before I was able to get them to her.  Unable to come up with a way to prevent my mother from receiving dead flowers, I decided instead to make her chocolate flowers; but I couldn't just make her chocolate flowers, they had to go on a cake.  So I went on a baking spree yesterday, making two cakes, four chocolate flowers, and two batches of buttercream frosting.

Bacon and chicken and cheese, oh my!

Last night I was home alone for the evening, reading terribly embarrassing stories which I shall not post about here, so I wanted to make something simple for dinner, but more advanced than mac and cheese (tonight might just be a mac an cheese night, though).  A baked potato sounded great and, luckily, we recently made a trip to Russo's where we bought potatoes and tons of other veggies, so I had some lovely potatoes just yearning to be baked and eaten.

 I have made a meal out of a baked potato in the past, but I wanted meat.  Or, rather, poultry.  And I had already started defrosting a breast in warm water.  I hurried online to see what could be made from chicken, cheese, and an oven set to 350.  I ended up finding this:  http://agriculturesociety.com/uncategorized/rustic-baked-chicken-with-cheese-and-bacon/

What could be better?  Bacon, mushrooms, cheese, chicken, garlic, onions, and a potato?

We already had all the ingredients in the house, so I pulled them together and made a tasty, tasty meal.  (I will get confirmation on said tastiness when I make it for the boy in a few days).

Broccoli, Cheese, and Potato Soup

For the past few days, I have been craving something hearty for dinner.  I had a wonderful dinner on palm Sunday with friends and family and there was pasta, lamb, potatoes, and a myriad of other things.  For days after that, I just wanted something simple and filling.

Yesterday at work I saw a coworker eating cream of broccoli soup and I realized it was just what I was looking for.  I perused the interwebs and found this recipe.

I adapted it and came up with the following:

1 cup of Chopped onion
4 Garlic cloves, minced
Butter
5 Medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups of Milk
1 cup of Boiling water
4 Chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups of Broccoli
1 1/2 - 2 cups of Shredded cheddar cheese
Ground black pepper

The quantities are assumed, not necessary - I pretty much used whatever I had leftover.  We had a bag of squishy, sprouting, not-quite-gone-bad potatoes, so I just threw them all in the soup.  I had a piece of a block of cheddar cheese left, so I shredded it all.

A Caribbean Adventure

I recently returned from a nine day long trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the West Indies. I don’t love humidity and hot temperatures, but it was nice to escape the New England weather for a little while.

I was going to write a blog about everything that I did (accompanied by pictures, of course) and I would love to write about the people there, the life they live, the general attitude, before I forget, but I don’t know if I could do it justice. I’ll try, though. This first entry will simply be about where we went and what we saw.
 

I feel like I’m letting my blog (and myself) down by not writing once a week, but I want it to be something I want to do, not something I’m forcing myself to do. Like running. I love running and while I may have to convince myself that, yes, I really do want to go for a run today once I’ve started running I really do want to be there.

Proper Architects

I know I said this blog wasn't going to be all about me me me me, but I don't see how I could write about things that I've never had experience with. 

I had a faux job interview today at an architecture firm.  The firm was not hiring, but they offered to give me an interview so I could get the experience.  It was a small firm, only seven architects plus the owner/principal and the receptionist, and I got there twenty minutes early, which I suppose is better than twenty minutes late.

When I met with the owner, he asked about what I was looking to be as a designer, which is a common way to start off an interview.  We looked at my portfolio, and I told him about some of my projects - he hadn't heard of a parti and I wonder if it's actually a common thing in the architecture world or just school - and we talked about projects that his firm works on. 

He spoke about how the main difference between residential houses and commercial buildings is the attitude toward money.  They do a few car dealerships throughout the year, along with other corporate buildings, and only one or two residential houses.  When they build for corporations, they are asked to design less to keep the cost down.  When they are hired by home builders, they are expected to design everything down to the furniture and then are asked to pick out art and bath towels.  While residences are fun to design, he admits that there is little profit in it, which is why they stick mostly to commercial designs - they pay better although they aren't as rewarding.

He cautioned against speaking too much about college projects, as they are nothing like the real world, which I understand.   He said when he hires he needs someone with AutoCAD experience and would like to find someone who knows html, photography, and quick 3d rendering programs - all of which I have, so yay for me!

Overall, I feel that the interview went well, I didn't stumble too much on my words and I think I know what I would like to become as a designer - passively designing residential houses with an emphasis on structure.  Unfortunately only 5% of what I need to know will I be taught in school, the rest comes from experience. 

Cheesecake (part ii)

Fortunately the baking and decorating of the cheesecake went without a hitch.  Unfortunately, this is all there will be of this post.

Cheesecake (part i)

As I am not yet the owner of a kitchen aid stand mixer, I took the opportunity to use my boyfriend's mother's mixer while we were visiting for dinner.  I decided to make the cappuccino fudge cheesecake as I wasn't in the mood to make both brownies and a cheesecake, which the other recipe had called for. 

I had one heck of a time finding heavy or whipped cream, apparently the day after new years many stores aren't stocked well.  Both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods were out, but I was happily able to find it at Shaws.  The cheesecake called for four layers, the first of which is the crust, made from chocolate teddy grahms.  I used a food processor for the first time in my life to crumble them with the bittersweet chocolate (which, according to wikipedia, is only required to be 35% cacao), butter, and dark brown sugar (which smells heavenly).  I didn't have a spring-form pan, but I was able to get my hands on a bunt pan with a removable bottom, which I decided would have to suffice.  I guess I'll just have a cheesecake with a hole in it...

And so it begins...

My boyfriend just started a new blog.  I casually mentioned that I never started one because I felt I had little or no opinion on most things; he told me that that's why I could blog - it would force me to think about things. 

I am starting 2011 off as a different person.  I have graduated from college.  I have an apartment, and I will (hopefully) soon have a job.  When I was not stressed out by school in 2010 I did a decent job of running a few days a week.  Once my previous injuries started acting up, I took a break to revitalise and, since I was enjoying not getting up till 7am and having time in the evenings to work on school (or non-school) related things, I never started again.  I want to change this in 2011.  I want to run or exercise not simply because I need to get back in shape, but because it makes me a happier person.  I can be somewhat bipolar when it comes to my moods on an daily, or hourly, or minute, basis.  When I was running, these mood changes were not as dramatic and I was, in general, a better, more pleasant person to be around.  And I liked myself more. 

I don't know if I want to make 2011 resolutions, per se, but there are some things I would like to accomplish and resolution is as good a word as any.  As I said, I would like to be a happier person, therefore I would like to exercise on a semi-regular basis.  I would like to get back into reading.  As a teenager I read daily; and then I went to college.   Depending on the book, it would take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to finish if you had nothing else to do.  I never had a few days free in college, and I didn't like reading for only an hour here or there.  So I ended up watching shows instead; it was so much easier to watch a fifty minute show for a break than to try and constrain my reading time to only an hour.    I missed reading, but whenever I started a book I always ended up sleep deprived or behind on my work.  Since I am out of school for nine months, I want to try and catch up on all the reading I missed over the past three and a half years.  I would also like to blog at least once a week.  I don't know what these blogs will be about and I don't even know if I will be able to find things worthwhile to blog about.  I wouldn't want my blogs to be like this introductory one, all about me, because I'm not that interesting of a subject.  But I'm not political or academic or a frequent cook.  I hope, however, that if I try and stick to this resolution I could find things to write about that other people might want to read.  I'm studying architecture and I could find an architect and examine his/her style and what I think about it.  I love to bake (although I don't as often as I would like) and I could write about my exploits in trying a new dish.  I could read a new book and attempt to analyse it. 

There are many possibilities out there and I'll never get any better or go anywhere if I don't jump in. 

On that note, I am thinking about not sharing the link to this new blog until I (a) decide which site to blog on (do I really want to use Google?) or (b) start writing about somewhat significant things.  I don't want to start a blog simply because my boyfriend did and then abandon it within a week or something.

My next post (my first post not all about me, me, me) will probably be on our "dinner party" tomorrow night.  I have a friend who helped us find our apartment and, as a thank you, we have invited him over for dinner.  As my boyfriend is a cook and I am a baker, the dessert fell to me.  And what a dessert it will be!  Once I decide what I am making...  The current options are Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake, Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake, and Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake, all of which come from Smitten Kitchen, a food blogging site I am absolutely in love with.