Lunchtime Links for July 24th, 2012

• Serious Eats: Top 10 ice cream recipes.
• Baker's Royale: Brownie cookies with salted caramel creme filling.
• The Kitchn: Turn lemons into glowing candle centerpieces.
• Million Dollar Listing LA: Recap from TVGasm. 
• Buzzfeed: Baked alternatives to potato chips and French fries.

Lunchtime Links for July 9th, 2012

• Miss Advised: Recap from TVGasm.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Pepperoni pizza waffles. 
• Betty Crocker: Strawberry green smoothie pops. 
• The Kitchn: Patriotic cheesecake flag.
• Serious Eats: Japanese vegetables you should know.

Lunchtime Links for November 9th, 2011

• Metrocurean: Komi's new Thai restaurant.
• The Kitchn: Baked apple cider doughnuts. 
• Top Chef: Recap from NYMag.  
• Martha Stewart: Pumpkin-swirl brownies.  
• Just Bento: Japanese sandwiches. 

Martha Stewart's Magic Blondies

Sometimes it's nice to bake without a real plan going into it - I've had a good run with the Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook, and figured I'd flip through it to see what I could make based on what I had on hand.  This time around, I found that I had a bunch of random mix-ins in my kitchen cupboards - a small bag of walnuts, 1/2 a bag of mini marshmallows, some peanut butter chips, to name a few.   

Enter: Martha Stewart's Magic Blondies recipe.  As you can see based on my photo above and the original recipe, I swapped out a number of items.  But that's the beauty of a recipe like this one - with so many ingredients involved, it's easy to swap one ingredient for another, based on your personal preferences and what you have on hand that day.   

The finished product is by no means fancy-looking, but really delicious!  I especially loved how the mini marshmallows on top got toasted a lovely golden color.  The base of these blondies was super vanilla-y and delicious on its own, but was enhanced by the texture and flavor of the other mix-ins.  I also liked the idea of baking these in individual cups - they were super easy to transport to work, and people can just grab one vs. needing a knife to cut off pieces.  This is a great recipe that can be adjusted to all different types of flavor preferences!

Lunchtime Links for July 5th, 2011

• Serious Eats: Grapefruit soda review.
• The Kitchn: Crab cakes with remoulade.
• Big Girls Small Kitchen: Mocha caramel sauce.
• CC Loves: Pretty platform pumps. 
• Ohdeedoh: DIY tiered dessert stand.

Lunchtime Links for May 23rd, 2011

• Serious Eats: Best American bakeries in NYC.
• The Kitchn: Cake bunting decorations. 
• Tasty Kitchen: Cookies and cream cheesecake bars.
• Real Housewives of NJ: Recap from Jay Mohr via Bravo.
• In Good Taste: Martha Stewart's easy shrimp paella.

Martha Stewart Chocolate Ginger Brownies

I had a knob of ginger left over from making the filling for the Pillsbury pork steam buns, and flipped through Martha Stewart's Cookies book to see if there were any applicable recipes.  I saw the one for chocolate ginger brownies and thought it looked tasty and easy to make.

I liked how easy it was for everything to come together- it's pretty much a one-pot recipe, since you dump in a bunch of ingredients after melting the chocolate, haha.  Hey, anything that requires minimal cleanup is fine with me!

The ginger flavor is v. strong in these brownies, so be forewarned about that.  But then again, if you're making something called "chocolate ginger brownies" you should probably expect that, haha.  Because the flavors are pretty strong, it made sense to cut these into smaller squares when I brought them into work. 

I would've preferred a sweeter brownie personally, but I found these to be an interesting, and somehow more "grown-up" version of a regular brownie.  They seemed to go over pretty well at work, although brownie traditionalists didn't seem to love them that much, haha.  If you have a little nub of ginger left over that you aren't planning on using for cooking, give this recipe a try!

Martha Stewart Lemon Squares

 

Normally, I'll pick out a chocolate dessert over a fruit-based one, but I had recently bought a bag of Meyer lemons on sale at Whole Foods and no idea what to do with them, haha.  I found this recipe for Lemon Squares in the Martha Stewart Cookies book, and figured it was a great chance to use a few lemons up!

Since I don't have a juicer, the most time consuming portion of this recipe was actually manually juicing the lemons.  However, the rest of the recipe was easy.  Just remember that since you have to chill the crust before baking it, the recipe doesn't come together as quickly as a regular bar cookie.  

Overall, the use of Meyer lemons made these much more sweet than regular lemon bars, so keep that in mind if you're looking for a sweet bar, or a really tart, "real" lemon flavor from using regular lemons.  They are v. pretty in person and were a big hit at work!

Lunchtime Links for March 9th, 2011

• Serious Eats: Chipotle mac n' cheese.
• Real Housewives of Miami: Recap from TVGasm.
• Martha Stewart: 10 coffee cake recipes.
• Bella Nutella: Nutella cream cheese swirl heart brownies.
• Self Magazine: Dance like Lady Gaga.

Martha Stewart's Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of cream cheese in baked goods - brownies, cupcake frosting, cake frosting, etc.  That being said, it was only a matter of time before I'd try out Martha Stewart's cream cheese swirl blondies- yum!  This is another recipe from the Martha Stewart Cookies book, which I am slowly making my way through.

Mise en place

The great thing about blondies is that the ingredients are pretty much items that any semi-regular baker would have on hand.  Luckily, with a sale on cream cheese at Harris Teeter recently, I also have a few blocks of cream cheese on hand for these occasions as well, haha. 

The recipe came together easily, but one issue I had was with the consistency of the cream cheese mixture.  I can't blame Martha for bad instructions, because I a) don't own multiple bowls that fit into my stand mixer; and b) was too lazy to wash out the blondie batter bowl to use for the cream cheese mixture.  You can clearly see from the photo below that the hand-mixing method didn't turn out so well- haha.  Also, my attempts at creating a swirl pattern on the chunky cream cheese mixture resulted in a "dirt bike racing track" look that did not melt away in the baking process, ha.  

All that aside, these blondies tasted great, and I loved the addition of cream cheese with the blondie.  My co-workers were not too thrown off by the look of these, and seemed to enjoy them a lot.  If you'd like to add some texture, feel free to add chopped nuts, or whatever else strikes your fancy :o)

Lunchtime Links for January 21st, 2011

• Top Chef All-Stars: Recap from The Kitchn.
• Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Recap from TVGasm.
• La Fuji Mama: Sweet potato ginger risotto.
• Jersey Shore: Recap from NYMag.
• Bakerella: Chocolate crackles.

Lunchtime Links for January 18th, 2011

• Tabatha's Salon Takeover: Recap from TVGasm.
• The Kitchn: Martha Stewart's foil and parchment.
• Kirbie's Cravings: Nutella swirl bread.
• Serious Eats: Cakespy's crumb cake shake.
• The Peche: Peanut butter cream pie.

Lunchtime Links for January 6th, 2011

• Serious Eats: Harney & Sons in NYC.
• Mango & Tomato: Roasted Indian chickpeas.
• Martha Stewart: Crepe cake.
• Girl Meets Food: Komi restaurant in DC.
• The Kitchn: Five ways to use ponzu.

Lunchtime Links for December 14th, 2010

• Serious Eats: Taste testing Wendy's new fries.
• Real Housewives of Atlanta: Recap from TVGasm.
• The Kitchn: Five caramel gifts.
• The Budget Babe: Elegant holiday updos.
• Martha Stewart: Traditional holiday cookie recipes.

Martha Stewart Blondie Cupcakes

After making the (modified) Martha Stewart butterscotch-cashew blondies, I wanted to make something from her Cupcakes book next.  As it turns out, these Blondie cupcakes are essentially the same as the aforementioned blondies, just in cupcake form, haha.  But, in case anyone's looking for a non-chocolate, cupcake version of a blondie bar, well, here ya go! :o)

These turned out tasty and were v. easy to transport to work, due to the lack of frosting.  But, if you are looking for a frosting-ed cupcake, I'd recommend a nice brown butter glaze!

Lunchtime Links for October 11th, 2010

• Serious Eats: Gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe.
• Cakespy: Fat Witch Brownies cookbook and recipe.
• Top Chef Just Desserts: Recap from TVGasm.
• All Things Cupcake: Martha Stewart Halloween items.
• The Kitchn: Stuffed French toast ideas.

Martha Stewart's Butterscotch-Cashew Blondies

Normally I tend to stick with chocolate-based desserts/sweets, but decided on something different because I had bought some butterscotch chips recently.  Once again, Martha Stewart's "Cookies" cookbook came to the rescue :o)  

Mise en place

The original recipe called for cashews and toffee; instead I used what I had, which was chopped walnuts and extra butterscotch chips in place of the toffee.

All done!

The great thing about bar cookies is how easy it comes together - no  need to spoon out individual cookies, just throw it all into a pan and bake!  As it was baking, my apartment smelled more and more like butter and butterscotch, sooooooooo yummy.  

These turned out really tasty- everyone at work seemed to like them too, so I'm going to assume others liked it as well, haha.  It's v. easy to adapt this recipe with ingredients that you already have, like I did.  I would recommend keeping an eye on this a few minutes before the "end" time, as it's v. easy for blondies to go from moist to overbaked (at least in my experience).  Overall, a great staple recipe for a rich little bite that isn't chocolate!

Mad Hungry Prize Pack

Mad Hungry prize pack!

I recently won a v. fun prize pack from the Mad Hungry blog, which included the cookbook, a t-shirt, and what I thought was a magnet (the small white thing in the bottom of the photo).  Turns out that "magnet" is a handy-dandy pan scraper, to be used for scraping up bits of food from pan-searing or general cooking in pans.  So useful!  I've looked through the cookbook a little bit, but haven't had a chance to really read through it unfortunately.  The basis of the cookbook (from what I could find online) is Chef Lucinda Scala Quinn's solutions for her real-life cooking dilemma- feeding the hungry men in her life.  While I can't say that I fall into that specific lifestyle/demographic, I do appreciate the straightforward recipes that are approachable and sound tasty.  Thank you, Mad Hungry, for the great prize pack!    

Lunchtime Links for July 12th, 2010

• Blondie & Brownie: Junior I at Shopsin's. 
• Cookies: Nikki's chocolate chip walnut cookies, yum. 
• Beautopia: Sephora by OPI Havana Nights minis review.  
• Serious Eats: Sugar Rush- Wafles and Dinges.  
• Momofuku for 2: Inside-out grilled cheese sandwich recipe. 

Recipe: Martha Stewart's Applesauce Spiced Cupcakes

I picked up a jar of applesauce a while back, thinking it'd be nice to use on some sort of baked good.  If you look online, there are tons of recipes that substitute oil/butter/sugar for applesauce, to get that moist, fluffy consistency w/o being too bad for you.  Well, as you can see in the recipe, Martha didn't exactly go THAT route, considering there's butter and two kinds of sugar in her recipe, haha.  But hey, I didn't say I was making cupcakes from her book because they were healthy, so let's keep it moving, shall we?

Mise en place

The recipe comes together v. easily and smells great- I did sub in walnuts for the pecans, but that didn't change the fantastic smell of these cupcakes.  I used pre-made cream cheese frosting for this because I already had it in my cupboard, but feel free to make the frosting recipe if you are so inclined/have the time to do so.

 

All done! 

The applesauce in these cupcakes definitely bumped up the taste and fluffyness of these cupcakes- these were really delicious!  Everyone seemed to enjoy these at work, so I'd say they were pretty successful.  Give these a try if you like apple-based baked goods, or even if you just bought a too-large jar of applesauce and want a recipe to use some of it up.  I love the smell of apples and spice- perfect for a chilly or rainy day :o)