Birthday Outing with Silas

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We were finally able to take Silas out to celebrate his 6th birthday that was back in May.We went to a Camden Riversharks Baseball game at Campbell's Field at the base of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Here at The Camden Waterfront just across the river from Philadelphia, Silas clenches his Finley.  A ride on the carousel and a hug from Skeeter Though he doesn't look it, Jared had a great time too.Sweet guy was at a sleepover the night before and hadn't slept for over thirty hours but was still cheerful and kind.  He dozed in the car then came alert a bit after this :) 
 We had had seats right in the center just behind the dugout but when the sun came out from behind the clouds it got pretty hot.  We moved to higher, shadier seats with an occasional breeze that was better.View of the Ben Franklin Bridge heading into Philly After the game there was a firework display  

I've Got Wheels!

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Finally. After a long time saving and a long time looking I bought a car.Its a 2003 Toyota Avalon with decent miles on the odometer.Not exactly the sporty black baby with moon roof and rumbling varoom I had in mind but still with style. I opted for sensible, like-new appearance, smooth ride, roomy interior, quiet and good over-all reviews(but slightly humdrum) The toothy smiley face is growing on me The convenience of having a second car and not dropping John off at work to be mobile is very nice.Still dreaming about my next car though. The really fun one to drive :)

Let's give Alton Brown a great birthday present

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Alton Brown tweeted to today what he would like for his birthday this year...

His tweet got me thinking about how to help even more. Remember the little fundraiser we did for Monterey Bay and Heifer International? I was happy to report of the $300 we raised. So I thought, why not try to help out this cause for AB's birthday here too.

I've been wondering what to do with this site in light of the new developments with Alton and his social media forray. In my current poll a lot of you have said you enjoy the news and reports of his events. So, if you have ever enjoyed anything on this site or got anything, please donate. It will be great to have the wonderful readers and Alton's fans banning together to bring in another good amount of money for another worthy cause. This would mean a great deal to me as well as AB.

So here's what I want to do.

Donate what you can, but remember PayPal takes a percentage 2.9% + $0.30 USD here's a chart to figure in the fees if you would like to include that.

Then I will send the whole pot to Samaritans Purse from all of AB's fans for his birthday.

Update
As of June 13, the birthday fund raiser is complete.
We ended with $100 to donate to the organization for Alton's birthday.  I have contacted them and am waiting to find the best method to send the money


Thanks to all who participated!

Alton Brown and Tennessee Aquarium's Serve and Protect Project

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Alton Brown will help the Tennessee Aquarium with their new sustainable seafood endeavor later this fall. The "Serve and Protect" project will raise awareness and promote local and sustainable seafood choices.

At the main event on Sept. 22, Alton will conduct a demo with recipes he's developed for the project.Tickets for the event are $150, which includes the demo and a dinner. They are available at the Aquarium's website. To make your reservations, visit here.

Happy 50th Alton Brown

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A very good thing about having a just a written site is no one has to hear me sing Happy Birthday. But I do want to wish Alton Brown a very special birthday wish. I always wish him a good day for his birthday but this year it is even more special because his is turning 5o.I'm not sure if AB is keen on hitting the milestone or not but I do want to point out a few things to AB.So of this is being said completely as a fangirl (yes, occasionally I do lapse into one of those).

• You may be 50 but are handsome as ever. In fact, I think you are even more handsome now :D
• Smart, funny and quirky are never old
• You're charming and gracious
• No one on Food Network has your combination of talent and never will

I hope Alton has a great birthday and doesn't get to caught up in the number on the candles. He has been blessed to have a lot in his life. Especially a dream come true like getting to make Good Eats and I hope that he reflects on that and remembers that.PS:On Food Network's Facebook page they are asking what fans would make for AB's birthday. I said I would smoke some trout in my box smoker that's patterned off of his. A tomato pie because we're both Southerners (and tomatoes are in season) and a coconut cream pie. I hope he would enjoy that meal. :)

Saucy Asian Meatballs

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Meatballs aren't usually my thing. Prior to these, I had never made cocktail meatballs before and though I make spaghetti somewhat frequently, I typically make a meat sauce as opposed to meatballs. 

But, I found this recipe via Pinterest, which comes from the blog Gimme Some Oven and the pictures looked great and I loved the flavors of the ingredients.  This looked like another perfect tailgate recipe, especially for a game where the weather was finally looking a bit more like fall.

These really turned out great.  The meat itself had good flavor and the sauce was delicious - sweet, savory and a bit tangy all at the same time.  Definitely a big hit at our tailgate.

I also think this could be a great meal instead of an appetizer if you doubled the amount of sauce and served over brown (or white) rice.

A few notes:
- I used a mix of ground beef and ground venison.  I'd say this is a great recipe for using different varieties of meat, but be sure if you use a lean protein like elk or venison to use a higher fat ground beef or pork to ensure the meatballs aren't dry and crumbly.
- After baking, I transferred the meatballs into a slow cooker, poured the sauce over top, mixed gently and set the temperature to warm. This was perfect and made sure the meatballs didn't dry out.
- I discovered at the last minute we were out of sesame oil. I used almond oil instead.  I think this was a great substitution.

Saucy Asian Meatballs

Meatballs:
2 lbs. ground pork or ground beef
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 eggs
3 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds, sliced scallions

Asian Sauce:
2/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. ground ginger

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined.  Shape into balls (I made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 35 meatballs, but 1 inch is probably standard), and place on a greased baking sheet or in a 9×13 baking dish.


Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.

While the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended.  Once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually (using a toothpick) in the sauce mixture.  Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs and gently stir them until covered.

Serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired.

Note: You can also keep these warm (after cooking) in the crock pot on a low setting!

Valentine's Day Recipes

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Pin ItWith Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought I'd compile a list of my go to Valentine's Day treats for inspiration to share whether it's with coworkers, friends, family, significant others.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Salted Caramel Brownies and Mini Strawberry Swirl Cheesecakes
Cheesecake brownies 
Black Bottom Cupcakes
Vanilla Bean Macaron with Chocolate Ganache
Best Brownies

Chocolate Cupcakes - Two Ways


Chocolate Souffles
Baby Lava Cakes


Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

St Patrick's Day Ideas

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Pin ItLooking forward to the upcoming "holiday" as I need an excuse to bake something blog worthy. Below are a few of my past treats that would be fitting if you're looking for some ideas as well for St Patrick's Day.


Guinness Stout Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Cream Frosting


Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Mint Brownies
Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes (Stout Cupcakes, Whiskey Ganache, Irish Cream Frosting)

Happy St Patty's Day!

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Pin It  For St Patrick's Day, I decided to take on yet another chocolate stout cupcakes recipe.  I have made at least two different variations already which can be found here and here.
Chocolate Stout Cupcakesadapted from King Arthur Flour Makes about 24 cupcakes

• 1 cup stout or dark beer, such as Guinness
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup sour cream

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners.

Place the stout and butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and heat on medium heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cocoa powder.  Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature. 

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream. 

Add the butter-stout-cocoa mixture, mixing to combine.    

Add the dry mixture and mix together at slow speed until incorporated. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again for 1 minute.

Fill the cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter each.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick interested in the middle comes out with few crumbs.  Remove from the oven and let rest in the tins.  After 10 minutes, remove cupcakes from the tins and cool to room temperature on racks.

Irish Cream Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon Bailey's Mint Chocolate Irish Cream
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons of milk

Directions:
Cream the butter and shortening together.

Add in the Bailey's.

Sift the powdered sugar and slowly add one cup at a time until incorporated.  Beat on medium/high speed, scraping down the bowl periodically.

Add in enough milk until desired consistency is reached.
 

Alton Brown's The Chewy Recipe

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Pin It

I have seen this cookie on other blogs as the "best" chocolate chip cookie, so I had to see how it would hold up against the Cook Illustrated's Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie which I recently discovered.  It was chewy but was missing that wow factor for me.

Alton Brown's The Chewy Recipe
from The Food Network
Makes About 2 Dozen Cookies


Ingredients
8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ounce whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup of walnuts


Directions
Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.


Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda into a medium bowl.

Pour the butter into your stand mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.

Gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to "stir" and add the chocolate chips and nuts.

Chill the dough for 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions (size of a golf ball) onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet.

Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing the cookies to cool on a wire rack.

Happy St Patty's Day!

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Pin It  For St Patrick's Day, I decided to take on yet another chocolate stout cupcakes recipe.  I have made at least two different variations already which can be found here and here.
Chocolate Stout Cupcakesadapted from King Arthur Flour Makes about 24 cupcakes

• 1 cup stout or dark beer, such as Guinness
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup sour cream

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners.

Place the stout and butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and heat on medium heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cocoa powder.  Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature. 

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream. 

Add the butter-stout-cocoa mixture, mixing to combine.    

Add the dry mixture and mix together at slow speed until incorporated. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again for 1 minute.

Fill the cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter each.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick interested in the middle comes out with few crumbs.  Remove from the oven and let rest in the tins.  After 10 minutes, remove cupcakes from the tins and cool to room temperature on racks.

Irish Cream Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon Bailey's Mint Chocolate Irish Cream
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons of milk

Directions:
Cream the butter and shortening together.

Add in the Bailey's.

Sift the powdered sugar and slowly add one cup at a time until incorporated.  Beat on medium/high speed, scraping down the bowl periodically.

Add in enough milk until desired consistency is reached.
 

Alton Brown's The Chewy Recipe

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Pin It

I have seen this cookie on other blogs as the "best" chocolate chip cookie, so I had to see how it would hold up against the Cook Illustrated's Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie which I recently discovered.  It was chewy but was missing that wow factor for me.

Alton Brown's The Chewy Recipe
from The Food Network
Makes About 2 Dozen Cookies


Ingredients
8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ounce whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup of walnuts


Directions
Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.


Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda into a medium bowl.

Pour the butter into your stand mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.

Gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to "stir" and add the chocolate chips and nuts.

Chill the dough for 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions (size of a golf ball) onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet.

Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing the cookies to cool on a wire rack.

Wedding Favors

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Pin ItRemember, how I made madeleines for my bridal shower favors a few months ago?  Well, I had the crazy idea to make my own wedding favors too! 5 batches of chocolate chip cookies and 3 double batches of brownies later, I had 150 wedding favors for my wedding this past weekend.  Couldn't have done it without the generous help of my sister, her boyfriend, and my now husband!

My Niece, The Future Baker

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Pin ItI can't believe that Cake4Kids.org's second annual CakeOff-4Kids event is already taking place next month!  I entered last year and won the best decorated category but this year, I wanted a chance to taste the 50 cakes by other volunteers.  However, my 10 year old niece will be entering the kids' 15 and under category.  In preparation for the event, she asked to come over and make a cake for her Dad's birthday party this past weekend.  She did an amazing job!  I was quite impressed with her piping skills.


Cake was Baking Illustrated's Yellow Layer Cake which is now a go to yellow cake recipe for me.  It wasn't too sweet and very fluffy.  She frosted the cake with the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Frosting.  The writing was done with melted candy melts.

Cocoa Caramel Cake

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Pin It
My niece won first place in the Made By Kids category at the Cake4Kids CakeOff-4Kids event this past weekend!  Under my supervision, she baked, frosted, and decorated both a tasting cake and a show cake (which we ended up serving that night as well).  They were chocolate cakes with a salted caramel buttercream frosting.

Instead of having her use Hershey's cocoa powder in my go to chocolate cake recipe, I supplied her with a "premium" can of Ghirardelli cocoa powder.  It definitely changed this chocolate cake recipe for me.  I don't think I can ever go back to every day grocery store brand now.  (To make matters worse, I recently purchased both E. Guittard and Scharffen Berger cocoa powders to do a comparison in the near future.)

The best part of the night was when I let her decide whether to use coffee or boiling water with this recipe and she replied with the most logical answer, "Kids don't drink coffee!"


The show cake included a base made of candy melts and extra candy melts as "sprinkles" on top.  She piped on the frosting using a 2D tip.  I was trying to teach her to do swirls but her making drop flowers worked out a lot easier.


Not wanting her to deal with hot bubbling sugar, I prepared the salted caramel sauce for her which she simply added about 1/2 cup to my go to vanilla buttercream recipe.  I was afraid of burning the caramel; so, I took it off the heat a lot sooner than necessary; hence, it didn't turn out as amber.  It might explain why the taste was too subtle in the frosting.  So, I let her drizzle the caramel sauce all over the top of the cake and it turned out really good!  People thought the tasting cake was her show cake as well.

New York Style Crumb Cake

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Pin It
My to bake list, a collection of ideas off the Internet, is growing out of control.  In addition, I have 3 new, now months old, cookbooks which I haven't made a single recipe out of yet.  It was clearly a sign that I was neglecting my oven.  So this week, I did two things.  One, I added my to bake list here to my blog to help move things along.  Two, I made a crumb cake out of the Baked Explorations cookbook which I received months ago for my birthday.

What I learned is that crumb cake is not interchangeable with coffee cake in New York.  A crumb cake does not contain cinnamon swirls nor nuts of any kind.  Those elements were not missed at all in this crumb cake.  I did reduce the "crumb" topping by half but the cake and the crumb topping still balanced each other out perfectly.

Tin Roof Ice Cream

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I can't believe that summer is already coming to an official end with Labor Day weekend approaching just around the corner.  To top it off, I did not make a single batch of ice cream this entire summer!  With that realization, I decided to tackle tin roof ice cream which has been bookmarked in my copy of The Perfect Scoop for quite some time now.

The ice cream had so many different components but if you stick to a component a day, it's not as labor intensive as it seems.

First, I made the fudge ripple.
Then, I made the chocolate covered peanuts.
Last, I made the vanilla ice cream base.
I 've had huge successes with the philadephia style vanilla ice cream but this time, I went with the french style vanilla ice cream.  The egg yolks made a world of a difference!  It was so rich and creamy.  My test tasters thought they were eating caramel ice cream.

Though summer is officially coming to an end, I definitely don't see that as a reason to stop making.. and eating ice cream.  This batch only encouraged me to step out of my hiatus.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cupcakes

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Pin It
Chocolate and peanut butter is a combination that never gets old in my book.  I have made these exact cupcake combination multiple times.  However, this time around, I added a surprise element.  A few of the cupcakes had a mini reese peanut butter cup inside.  Next time, I would toss them in some flour as they did sink all the way to the bottom.


Peanut Butter Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Makes enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes

1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of peanut butter
3 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of milk

Beat the butters together until light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar.  Add the vanilla extract. Add enough milk until desired consistency is reached.