Cookie-Palooza 2014: The "Mother Dough"

Thanks to everyone who suggested recipes on Tuesday. All of them look and sound so delicious, and I will definitely be making them between now and the end of break.

I feel like cookies are an essential part of Christmas. I never really have as much of a taste for cookies  during the rest of the year as I do around the Holidays. And luckily for me, cookies are everywhere. With so many parties to go to, and so many of the invitations requesting I bring a dessert, I wanted to find a way to minimize how much baking I was doing, without having to bring the same, boring cookie to each party.

Behold, the "Mother Dough". Thank you, Google, for providing immediate results when I searched "One dough many cookies". I'd seen examples while perusing Pinterest, but had never looked into it until now. This particular recipe comes from Good Housekeeping, and serves as not only a standalone cookie dough recipe, but a base dough for eleven other recipes. It's not even limited to cookies! Due to ingredient limitations, I only made the standalone cookies, but I will include links to the others so you can see the potential of this recipe!

I'm just finding out now that my phone deleted almost all of the pictures from this project. Oh, technology. But either way, it's fairly self-explanatory.

1. In a stand mixer, beat one cup (two sticks) of butter, and 3/4 cup of granulated sugar on medium speed for about two minutes, or until creamy. My wonderful parents found me a beautiful KitchenAid mixer on craigslist as an early Christmas Present. Having a stand mixer made this recipe much more fun, and easier! 
2. Combine 2 and 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 
3. After the butter and sugar are creamed (baking word!) add one egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Continue to beat on medium speed until well mixed. I can crack my eggs with one hand now, guys. It's progress. Also, I added a little more than a teaspoon- I like my vanilla. 
4. After well mixed, reduce speed to low, and add mixed dry ingredients in even increments until fully integrated. Beat in until just blended. 

And there you have it- the Mother Dough. For fluffier cookies, I chilled the dough for twenty-four hours before rolling out and baking it. 

For baking:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. After chilling for twenty-four hours, take the dough and roll around in your hands to warm it slightly and improve the malleability. Maybe flour your hands for this. 
3. After slightly warmed, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. This dough is very sticky! When in doubt, use flour. 
4. Cut dough with cookie cutter of your choice and place on an non-greased cookie sheet. 
5. Place in oven and bake for ten to thirteen minutes, or until edges are golden brown.  
6. Let cool on wire rack.
7. Enjoy plain or with frosting and other edible decorations.

The end result is a delicious, fluffy, buttery cookie. Not only that, but as I said before, this dough serves as a base for eleven other recipes, including: apple pie rugelach, fruit bars, pinwheels, peppermint sticks, moon pies, gingerbread, Mexican wedding cookies, and even stained glass cookie ornaments. Hopefully, I'll find some time this break to try one of the other recipes!

Hopefully, this marks me being back on track. I've missed this little project in all of the end-of-semester chaos. If you have any suggestions for recipes or techniques to try, please don't hesitate to comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com. I'll post again tomorrow with a similar cookie recipe that has a little bit of a twist- Spritz Cookies. Thank you for reading! 

Original recipe: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/basic-cookie-dough-ghk1207 

One Dough, Twelve Recipes: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/christmas-ideas/easy-holiday-cookie-recipes 

Thanksgiving!

I know, I know. It's been a while. Sorry. But don't worry, you get two recipes today!

I'm glad I have this blog (and apparently quite a few readers!) keeping me accountable. Otherwise, I honestly would've probably given up by now and resigned myself to a life of pasta and lean cuisines. But no time for that here!

Finals week is upon us-or at least the paralegal program. The week after Thanksgiving break is a very strange place in the semester for exams that can make or break grades, but I'm just glad it's almost over. Then I can get back to Chicago and take advantage of my parents' beautiful kitchen :)

Thanksgiving was an interesting, but fun experiment! I had the pleasure of making some of our Thanksgiving favorites with my Dad, because for the first time in my memory, we celebrated Thanksgiving with just our little nuclear family this year (another interesting- yet fun!- experience).

Here's one of the recipes from Thanksgiving!

First: They-might-contain-meth Mashed Potatoes!

You will need:

• 2 to 2 1/2 red potatoes for each person if not more. Trust me on this one.
• 1 cup of Sour cream
• 1 stick of Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chives

1. Cut potatoes (leave skin on), boil in large stockpot for 30-35 minutes, or until tender.
2. Drain potatoes.
3. Place potatoes in a large mixing bowl, and mix on a medium speed until they have achieved a slightly more "mashed" consistency. Do not mix all the way. 

   

   After adding the butter
4. Cut stick of butter into pads, add to potatoes. Mix until integrated (that's a cooking word, right)
5. Now's the fun part! Add in the sour cream, chives, salt and pepper to taste. Mix in with the hand mixer until potatoes are smooth and toppings completely integrated. It doesn't sound fun, but it is, I promise. 

These potatoes were great. And now I know how to make them, so I don't have to beg my Dad to do it! 

Now, you've seen one of my Thanksgiving favorites. Let's see one of my Mom's!

My mother's personal favorite for Thanksgiving is fried cauliflower, a dish my Grandma has perfected. This year, as my Grandma would not be celebrating Thanksgiving with us, my Mom asked my Dad to figure out a recipe. I did my best to document that particular endeavor. 

You will need:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 stick of butter
• Two boxes of bread crumbs. Or roughly three cups. Whatever.
• Four eggs

1. Cut butter into pads, distribute evenly in a sauté pan. Turn burner onto low-medium heat, allow butter to melt and coat bottom of pan. Guys, I know my pan types. Or at least the internet does. 
2. Cut the florets (cooking word!) off of the stalk of cauliflower, place to the side.
3. Crack eggs, whisk in a medium mixing bowl. Place breadcrumbs in a round cake pan. 
4. Coat floret in egg, roll in bread crumbs, and place in sauté pan. 
5. Continue until all florets are in pan. Increase heat to 3/4 power. Flip with tongs as needed. 
6. Once cauliflower is thoroughly fried, remove and enjoy!

This Thanksgiving was wonderful. I had tons of fun hanging out around the house with my family, seeing my cousins, and seeing friends from High School. I can't wait to be back in Chicago in two weeks for Christmas Break!

All of the delicious food we made

Having so much extra time on my hands, as soon as finals are over (December 9th!) I will be posting daily. I know, I know, I said that last week. But now I promise! And I have plenty of great ideas for the next month.  If you have any suggestions for recipes or techniques to try, please don't hesitate to comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com. Thank you for reading! 

Our Beautiful Table (Thanks Mom!)

 From my family to yours, a very happy (and belated) Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Break is a mere 12 days away...

It's been a theme on my facebook feed lately- I've seen no less than fifteen posts of members of my graduating class who have been dipping their own toes into the world of food, and all of them made the same thing: Portillo's Chopped Salad.

It happens to everyone who leaves the northwest suburbs, as far as I can tell. You miss the food, the ever-present abundance of delicious, Italian-influenced food. And while the pizza places and the beef places and the hotdog places are all equally delicious and equally available, none is missed more by the transplanted Chicago suburbanite than Portillo's. 

What I, and apparently, the rest of my graduating class, miss the most is the famous chopped salad. I introduced my friend Jen to it when we visited Illinois in September and the first thing she said when I started this blog (right after "I'm so proud of you!" Thanks Jen!) was that I had to make the delicious salad we'd had.

The recipe I found online was enough for (as I realized after) ten servings. For my purposes, I divided it in half, and it still made enough to fill my largest mixing bowl. 

Here we go!

1. Cook four cups of ditalini pasta according to package instructions. Make sure you salt the pasta water while cooking to give it some flavor. Drain and cool. Set aside. For the love of God, and listen very carefully because I will never say this ever again, do not make that much pasta. Cut this in half when making the full recipe. Four cups is way too much. 

   

   Look at all that Ditalini

2. Cook bacon in a skillet until done. Let bacon cool, then crumble. It should be about one cup. I used one of the little bags of bacon bits. I have no idea how to fry bacon, what am I, a gourmet chef? That's a whole 'nother post waiting to happen. 
3. Combine three cups chopped romaine lettuce, three cups chopped iceberg lettuce, two and a half cups of chopped red cabbage in a bowl. Walmart didn't have red cabbage, but the other two worked fine. ALSO. After reading some comments on the original post, I saw someone who recommended using a pastry blender with actual blades at the end to chop and mix the lettuce and other ingredients together. While I did pre-chop the lettuce, the pastry blender was chopping it even further in the bowl, and great for mixing it all together.
   
   

   

   With the pastry blender

4. Add one cup sliced green onions and two fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced. So, I recently discovered that Netflix has other shows that aren't Gilmore Girls available. Cooking shows, even! So in the last week and a half, I've devoured the 25 episodes of Good Eats they have available, and one of them even went over how to seed a tomato. So tonight, when it said that in the recipe and I actually knew how to do it, I was ecstatic. I learned something new, guys!

   

   The tomato on the left is "seeded"
   Basically, you juice the tomato like a lemon.
   So easy!

5. Add one cup of gorgonzola cheese, cooled ditalini, and two cups cooked and diced chicken. You all have born witness to my battle with the Chicken from Hell. It did not cooperate for this recipe. Luckily, it's not required for this salad to be delicious!
6. Mix in dressing right before eating and enjoy!

The original poster also gives a recipe for the fancy sweet Italian dressing that makes this salad so delicious. It requires the following:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil 

She directs that you place everything but the olive oil into a blender and then, while the blender is running, drizzle the olive oil through the blender tube until combined. I do not own a blender, so I could not do that. I did, however, combine everything in a large cereal bowl and whisked it until it thickened up a little, and it tasted fine!

End Result!

All in all, not quite as good as Portillo's, but pretty darn close. Now, I know that my favorite meal is easy to make, and my poor parents don't have to take me straight to Portillo's as soon as I cross the state line every time I come home. I mean, I'll probably still make them take me. Why not? :)

I will post again tomorrow because I was too full after eating this to move, much less cook another recipe. Luckily, I have all morning tomorrow! If you have any suggestions for recipes or techniques to try, please don't hesitate to comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!

Original Recipe: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2013/06/portillos-chopped-salad.html#LZB9fhW0SJOVW53d.99

The Chicken From Hell Returns!

Sorry about last week! I had an old friend from high school come visit and that threw my whole weekend preparation off. But, don't worry, I still had time to make some food!

Today's recipe contains the Chicken From Hell and is courtesy of my Grandma Jo. It's called Chicken Fiesta, and it's a four-ingredient recipe my grandma handed to me on a card the day I left Chicago to come back to school after summer break.

Ordinarily, it's made in a huge crock pot and feeds my sub-section of our enormous extended family. I don't have a crockpot big enough to feed an army of a small country, but I do have one of those tiny-baby crock pots. It's red. I love it, even if all I've used it for up to this point is to warm chili or italian beef while I'm at a night class.

This recipe took almost no time, almost no prep, and almost no thought. But it's delicious, and I will definitely make this again next time I have to be at class for six straight hours. Also, unfortunately iCloud confuses me and it would appear I deleted all the pictures I have of this. But again, very easy. You'll be able to figure it out. :)

Here's what you'll need!

• Eight chicken breasts, cubed. I used two. Probably could've gone with three. 
• Two cans of diced tomatoes. I used one. I eat tomatoes like candy.
• One can of corn, drained. I used one of the little itty-bitty cans. Next time, I'll go one further and use only half of that.
• One packet of taco mix. You might remember that I like things spicy. I used the full packet. #YOLO

The actual process of making this is simple.

1. Defrost chicken (it only took 26 hours this time, guys! Improvement!). 
2. Cut into cubes. Throw into adorable crock pot. 
3. Add diced tomatoes. 
4. Add Corn. 
5. Add taco mix. 
6. Stir to combine.
7. Place lid on crock pot, cook on low for 8 hours. Between the reduced yield (that's a cooking word, right?) and the smaller pot, mine was ready in about 4.  

And there you have it! Chicken Fiesta, ready to serve. It's delicious and warm and perfect with tortilla chips. You can even add sour cream or cheese to it, but it's so tasty, you don't have to!

Since I missed last Thursday, I'm going to be doubling up this Thursday. That's right folks, two posts for the price of one! I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to be making, but either way, it'll be an adventure. As always, please feel free to suggest meals or techniques you would like to see! I've appreciated every comment I've received. If you do have a suggestion or a question, or a hilarious youtube video of a cat you think I should see, please feel free to email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

Pull-Apart P i z z a B r e a d

Soooooo. Slight change of plans, because the Chicken From Hell took two full days to defrost again. Today's post will cover what I think will be a new staple in my apartment, albeit with some tweaking: Pull-apart Pizza Bread.

Have you ever heard of monkey bread? That delicious, rich, vein-clogging goodness that you make out of sugar and cut up grands biscuits and sugar and butter and sugar? Yeah. This is that, but with pizza, and it's easier to make and definitely easier to clean up.

Right, the pan thing! This recipe requires a special kind of pan- you want one that has the hole in the middle. I used an Angel Food Cake Pan from Walmart that cleaned up pretty nice after cooking. The special thing about it is that it has a removable section, so it's easy to get the cake (or monkey bread or pizza bread) out after it's been in the oven and glommed onto the pan. After using a pan that was all one piece to make monkey bread in high school, I would definitely recommend the two-piece model. And, even with having to buy the pan, this recipe was still pretty cheap and it made a LOT.

Here's how to make it:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Totally did that. I'm getting better at this "remembering to preheat the oven" thing.
2. Cut 2 packets of grands biscuits into quarters. Put into Angel Food Cake Pan or Bundt Pan. After the first package, I threw in some cheese so that there was an even cheese distribution throughout.  

   

   Ready to bake!
3. Cut pepperoni into smaller pieces. For this, I used turkey pepperoni because I find that it crisps up a bit more, and it's not quite as greasy. But don't stop with pepperoni- you can put any pizza topping you want into this pizza bread. Toss into pan with quartered biscuits. 
4. Mix in 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons of Italian Seasoning, and as much cheese as the spirit moves you to. Mix all ingredients so that oil evenly coats each piece of dough. If you're using the two-piece pan, this can get a little messy, so be careful and make sure the pieces stay firmly together. 
5. Bake for about 30 minutes (or until top is brown and the center is thoroughly cooked). This is where we ran into some issues. My poor neighbor was forced to be my guinea pig, and I didn't realize until after I served it that there were some pieces that were still just a tad gooey. But, no worry. As far as I know, neither of died or got violently ill, so that's... a plus, right?
6. Flip over onto a plate while still hot. This is where the two-piece specialness helps a lot. The outer ring just slips off while the tube part stays in place and you can pluck it out. 

   

   Seriously, look at how good that looks.

7. Serve with a side of sauce and enjoy! I drizzled balsamic vinegar all over it, and it was divine, even with the gooey pieces.

Another extremely interesting cooking adventure on my end, yes. But this recipe was great. Thank you, Lynsey, for being such a trooper and sticking with me through this, I'm glad you didn't die from it :)

All in all, I'm going to have to mess around with the cooking times next time I make this. I worry that if I leave it in any longer, the top and outside will burn. But, this was a great, easy dish that would be great to bring to someone's house for game day or study night. Next time I make it, I'll try a different bake time, and I'll also add some more pizza toppings, like veggies! 

Hopefully the Chicken From Hell will be defrosted in time for Thursday's meal. It's been recommended that I try boiling it. I've never boiled meat of any kind before, so if I do that, it'll be a whole new kind of first. We'll see! 

I did go grocery shopping, and I was amazed at how much money I saved by making a list and an actual meal plan. I have a whole slew of fantastic meals planned for the next month, and I'm so excited! To those of you who have been reading, thank you for your support! I've appreciated every comment, every suggestion, and every encouragement. I'm always open to suggestions and I have a little bit of wiggle room! If you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see, comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! Thank you for reading!

Here's the original recipe: http://sweetandsimpleliving.com/easy-pull-apart-pizza-bread/

Apple Dumplings... There's a theme here, can you tell?

Happy Halloween! Sorry for the delay in posting. We're down to the wire here, last few days of the month, and I still only have apples in my fridge.

Well, actually, now I don't even have that, because I used them. Good thing I get paid tomorrow, right? :)

Today, I made "Southern-style" apple dumplings. I deviated from this recipe a bit too, but not too much. And they were definitely delicious!

1. Use an apple cutter to core and cut an apple into eight slices. Peel the slices. This totally brought out the Montessori kid in me. I love my apple slicer- it was one of the things on my "must buy" list when I started college! However, I did totally forget to peel the slices- it didn't really affect the taste, though.
2. Open can of crescent rolls, and unroll. Place apple slice at one end of crescent triangle and roll up. I added some brown sugar and cinnamon to the inside of the crescent, to add some flavor to the apples. If you can't tell yet, I love brown sugar.

3. 

   Before rolling.

4. Place apple rolls into an 8x8 (of 9x9) greased pan. So far, the #1 thing I've learned about cooking is that lining the pan really helps with cleanup. Seeing as I was using another sugar-and-butter sauce, and soda in this recipe, I thought I should probably line the pan again. 

   

   It's OK if they're close together!

5. In a small bowl, melt 1 stick of butter, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp of flour, and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. This is the first time I used my microwave, which is a hand-me-down from my parents from when they got married. Because, of course, #safety and #radiationprotection. Also, this mixture turned out pretty thick. I triple-checked every measurement, because I thought that it was maybe too much. Next time I make this, I'm going to add a little butter and sugar, and maybe only do one tbsp of flour. I also added pumpkin pie spice, because I don't have regular cinnamon. 
6. Spoon mixture over each crescent. You're definitely going to need to spoon it, because it's too thick to pour. Also, next time I might just double the amount I make. Because of how thick it was, there wasn't enough to entirely coat each crescent.

   

   Before baking

7. Pour 6 oz of sprite in the open space in the middle of the pan, NOT over the crescents. He BOLDED that part of the instructions, so it seemed important.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. I had to bake these the full 40 minutes, and then turned out great.

   

   All done!

   These were SO. GOOD. Almost better than the caramel apple blooming onion, but not quite. I would definitely double the sauce next time, but these tasted great. Fantastic warm, and even better cold this morning for breakfast. The sprite makes the bottoms a little soggy- you definitely need to put these in a bowl or a plate that's not entirely flat, like the plates I have, because they're a little runny. 

Today I'm going grocery shopping for the entire month of November. I have most of my recipes for the month planned out, but I'm always open to suggestions and I have a little bit of wiggle room! If you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see, comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! I'll post again on Tuesday with an attempt at one of the staples of my extended family gatherings- a diet-friendly entree my Grandma calls "Chicken Fiesta". Thanks for reading!

Original Recipe: http://southernbite.com/2011/12/06/apple-dumplings/ 

Brrr... It's Chili Out!

Sorry. I know. The pun. It's bad.

In weather that could only happen in Minnesota, yesterday was a beautiful 75 degrees. Today was barely 40. Luckily, I had already planned to make chili tonight, which, as it just so happens, is my favorite thing to eat on cold days!

Last year, when I still lived in a dorm, my kitchen tools were limited to a single pot and an electric griddle, between the two of which I made nearly all of the food I ate that entire year. With my limited cooking talent and experience, that meant that I was eating some sort of pasta, or my dad's chili. When he sent me his recipe in September, I followed it exactly. As the year went on, I grew a little bolder- by my own standards, mind you- and changed it up. So today, I'll be giving you MY version of that recipe.

This recipe will make you more than two pounds of chili- more than enough. Tonight, I halved that, so the pictures will reflect a smaller amount. Usually I make the full amount, and freeze most of it so I can have it throughout the month.

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 3/4- 2 Pounds of Ground Beef
• 2 Bell Peppers
• 1 Sweet Onion
• 1/2 cup of water
• 2 Packets of Taco Mix, whichever degree of spiciness you prefer
• 2 Packets of Fajita Mix
• 2-3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar (wow, I use a lot of brown sugar when I cook...)
• 2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes

Optional: If you so desire, you can add in some beans. I am not a fan of beans in my chili, but my Dad uses them in his recipe. He recommends:

• 1 Can Beans
• 1 Can Kidney Beans

Let's get to the recipe.

1. Brown and ground beef in a large pan. Drain. Remember NOT to drain into the sink- pour the grease into the garbage over paper towels. Don't drain it entirely, either. You want a little bit of grease to still be in the pan. 
   
   
2. Transfer the beef to a large stockpot. Add in the peppers and onion, chopped. Usually I chop the pieces pretty roughly, until one day I realized I wanted smaller chunks, especially of the onion. For reference, here's the pepper I used today:

   

   Before you ask, yes, I washed the penny first
3. Set burner to a medium heat. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Stir once a minute. If I'm using the full two pounds of beef, I let it sit for the full ten minutes. If I'm only using one pound, I will only let it sit for five.

   

   After adding the spice packets

4. Add the seasoning packets, pouring the water over them after all have been added to the beef. Stir. After the beef has changed color, mix in the brown sugar. I like my chili to be spicy, so I use a medium level spiciness, as well as mixing with the fajita mix. However, if you don't like this, you can decrease the spiciness or not add the full four packets. 
5. Decrease the heat by half. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. At this step, I let it sit for the full ten minutes, no matter how much beef I'm using.
6. Add both of the entire cans of diced tomatoes. Do not attempt to drain the water out of the can before adding. In tonight's attempt, the tomatoes were so red that there was no way they could have randomly occurred in nature. That made me feel safe. :) Mix into the chili.

   

   After adding the tomatoes.
   You can't tell how red it was from this picture...

7. Reduce to a low heat. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Again, no matter how much beef I'm using, I let it simmer for the full time. When you only use diced tomatoes, rather than also adding in tomato sauce (like my Dad does), the chili needs to thicken up, and this twenty minutes is perfect for that. 
8. Enjoy! Add your favorite chili topping, whatever it is. I've had this chili with Fritos, oyster crackers, cheese, sour cream, bacon bits- whatever floats your boat. Though, if I'm be honest, I prefer to eat it plain!

Optional: 

• Between steps 6 and 7 is when you would add both cans of beans, if you felt so inclined (yuck). 

This is my first personal recipe I've posted- hopefully, as I learn how to cook, there will be many more to come. I love making this chili, because it's nice to be able to cook something of substance, rather than pasta or break-and-bake cookies. If you freeze it, it's easy to reheat. Usually I'll either defrost it over a day while I'm at school and throw it in a pot for a few minutes with about 1/4 of a cup of water, or I throw it into my super-tiny crock pot (OK, I lied, I had three kitchen tools) on high for about two hours. Either way, it's just as delicious then as it is right after cooking!

The month ends this weekend, and because I thought ahead like an adult and made a plan, I have a whole bunch of recipes to try in November. I'll post again on tuesday with an attempt at one of the staples of my extended family gatherings- a diet-friendly entree my Grandma calls "Chicken Fiesta". If you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see, comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! Thanks for reading!

"World's Best Chicken" is Tough to Make With Frozen Poultry From the World's Worst Vendor

Alright, full disclosure: I've made this chicken before, so technically, it's not a "new" recipe that I'm trying. However, it might as well have been, because it didn't turn out anything like the other times I've made it. #whoops.

This recipe is SUPER easy, and tastes amazing. Even tonight, though it didn't look like it normally does, it still tasted fantastic.

I halved the recipe, since I was only cooking for myself. It really only requires three ingredients, besides the chicken. And oh good lord, the chicken.

I think that's went wrong, honestly. Last time I made this, I had fresh chicken and made it the day I bought it. This time, I used frozen chicken breasts from a bag, and the two breasts took two full days to defrost. Two. Days. I'd always heard that fresh versus frozen makes a huge difference, but I didn't fully realize it till tonight.

Here's the recipe. After the torturous two-day defrosting debacle, it took me all of five minutes to mix together the sauce, put it on the chicken, and put the chicken in the oven. And even then, it only took thirty-five minutes to bake.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of dijon mustard, 1/8 cup of syrup (yes, like the kind you put on pancakes!) and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. Last time I made this, I substituted balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar, and I was happy with the result. I did the same this time. This time, the mixture was a little darker than normal, probably because I didn't use quite enough mustard.

   

   I whisked the whole mix in this one measuring cup

3. Place the chicken breasts into a 9 x 13 lined baking dish. Season with salt and lots of pepper. Lining the pan is so important. The sauce is messy and runny and horrible to clean up. Much easier to just roll up the tin foil after you're done. 
4. Pour mustard mixture over chicken. Make sure each breast is coated. Put some more pepper on, if you please. 

   

   The chicken before baking. Coat the entire breast!

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. The meat thermometer for mine read 165 right at 35 minutes, but the chicken still looked a little pink so I flipped it over, and brushed the excess mixture back over it, and popped it back in the oven for five more minutes.
6. Season with fresh rosemary. Yeah, I don't have that, so I skipped this. But I've had it with it and it's a nice touch. 

Like usual, this chicken tasted amazing. You wouldn't think that those three things- mustard, syrup, and balsamic- would tasted good together, but it truly is amazing. I would recommend this recipe to anyone because of how easy and delicious it is. The only issue I had tonight was that the mix didn't take to the chicken as well as it normally does- again, I think between the crappy Walmart frozen breasts and the slight lack of mustard definitely affected the outcome. But otherwise, this was the perfect quick meal for me to make after six straight hours of school today. 

This weekend, I'm planning on doing a little grocery shopping (like a grownup) so that I have more food than apples and frozen chicken (because again, I'm a grownup). I'll post again on Tuesday with my take on my Dad's super-secret, super-special, extra-delicious chili recipe. If you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see, comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! Thanks for reading!

Here's the original recipe: http://rachelschultz.com/2012/07/11/worlds-best-chicken/

All I have are apples. I should go grocery shopping.

With midterms finally behind me, I feel like now I can really enjoy fall. It is Minnesota after all, so fall is a two or three week period between boiling hot and chilled-to-the-bone cold. And the cold is definitely coming- I was glad I'd brought gloves on the bike ride home.

Fall weather calls for a certain kind of food- #PSL, anyone? ;) My fall staple is apple, apple ANYTHING. So today, when I was surfing through Pinterest and found the caramel apple equivalent of a blooming onion, I was sold.

Also, the chicken I was planning on making for tonight's post didn't defrost and the only other thing in the apartment was the previously-mentioned apples.

I'll post the link to the original poster's blog, as well as the original recipe. She includes a lot of pictures that I won't, illustrating the process on a minute-by-minute basis.

This recipe is for two apples, took about 10 minutes of prep, and made my apartment smell amazing. Here's the instructions for your own apple blossoms:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Did that. Also had to relight my pilot light, like a grown up. Go me.
2. Slice off the top 1/4 to 1/3 of the apples. Scoop out the core. I don't own a corer, but a small spoon did just fine.
3. Use a thin knife to make two, deep circular cuts around the center of the apple. Next, turn the apple over and make narrow cuts all the way around the apple. Flip it back over and you can see all of the cuts. I lied, I am going to include some pictures. Sorry Jen! :)  

   

   Here's the better of the two apples after being cored and cut.

4. Place the apples in an oven safe dish and put two caramels into the center of each apple. I used salted caramel ice cream sauce, and it worked fine.
5. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter and three tablespoons of packed brown sugar in the microwave for 30 second, stir and continue heating for an additional 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and stir in flour and cinnamon. Divide the mixture over the top of the two sliced apples. I did not add flour to this, because I'm still out from the bread bowl debacle. I also heated it on the stove instead. While this... sauce? glaze? Something? Whatever it is, was a bit thin without the flour, It definitely tasted good. Also, I got to use my fancy APPLE measuring spoons at this step (Thanks Mom!).

6. 

   Halfway through baking

   

   Thanks Mom :)

7. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. At the halfway point, I did take them out and spooned the sauce back over them.
8. Remove from the oven and use a large spoon to move the apples into bowls. I cut the apples off of the core and put it into a coffee mug instead- portability is nice when you want to binge watch Gilmore Girls. And, that way I was able to pour the extra sauce/glaze/stuff on top of it. 

All in all, this went MUCH better than the bread bowls. I felt so cool making this very, very easy recipe- from the fancy cutting and coring to the sauce thing. Also, I had no idea that melting butter and brown sugar would make that sauce thing. I'm definitely going to make this again. After all, there's nothing else in my fridge. And this is semi-healthy, right? At least it has fruit in it? Whatever, it's delicious.

Look at that. Perfect for binge-watching!

A+ to this recipe, and snaps to me. While this isn't an entire meal, I was proud of how well it turned out. And so ends this (decidedly less humorous, sorry!) post, with to minutes to spare! I'll post again on Thursday, with a four-ingredient chicken recipe that is to die for, courtesy of my friend Matt.  If you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see, comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! Thanks for reading!

Here's the original recipe: http://www.thegunnysack.com/2014/09/bloomin-baked-apples-recipe.html

First Attempts- Bread is easy, right?

So today, I was craving tomato soup in a bread bowl. Back when I lived in the NW Suburbs of Chicago, there were Panera Breads all over the place. Now the closest one is at least a half hour away- and I do not have that kind of gas money.

When I was home this summer, my mom was cleaning out our cabinets and gifted me all of the baking ingredients in the house- I'm not the only one who doesn't cook in my family. I stored it in my own kitchen at school, and forgot all about it until I was lamenting the absence of bread bowls in my life.

Perfect, I thought. Bread is easy, I made that in preschool! Great first blog opportunity. It'll be perfect and in me will awaken a natural chef and I will never have to pay $8 for a bread bowl again because mine will be so much better.

L O L nope.

Here is the tale of my first attempt at really cooking. Enjoy!

I used a copycat recipe off of justapinch, which I'll attach at the bottom. It seemed fairly simple, though a tad bit time-consuming due to the yeast. But other than that, it seemed easy enough. Flour, Water. Yeast. Salt. Sugar. Egg white for a wash.

1. Mix 2 1/2 cups of water with 1 tsp of sugar in a large bowl. Add 2 packets of active dry yeast and let stand 5-8 minutes until foamy. Yeast is weird, guys. It smells gross and it looks even worse. Luckily you don't have to deal with it for all that long.
2. Add 2 tsp of salt, 2 tbsp of olive oil, and 4 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined. The recipe says to use an electric mixer if you have one, but it was definitely easy enough to mix by hand. Also, this way, you only use one bowl! As my friends know, I hate dishes, so the less I have to clean, the better. 
3. Add in the remaining 3 cups of flour, 1/2 a cup at a time. Mix well after each addition, about 45 seconds on medium speed, or two minutes by hand. If using an electric mixer, switch from the paddle attachment to dough hook.
4. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about six minutes. I did not anticipate how sticky dough would be. My hands looked like the hands of some sort of bread monster. I also did not anticipate how much I would enjoy kneading- kneading is fun! It's a great way to take out energy. It's surprisingly physical. Or maybe I'm just horrible at it. :) Either way, I would say that kneading the dough was my favorite part of this recipe.
5. Lightly oil a large bowl (whoops, didn't do that), place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil (didn't do that either). Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Ok, so I didn't follow the directions exactly. I don't think that affected it too much though- the oil seemed to be more for keeping the dough from sticking to the bowl than for anything else. I also have pictures of what it looked like before and after rising! 
6. 
7. Remove the expanded dough from the bowl and punch it down. Divide into eight equal portions. Also a very fun part. It reminded me of being a kid and playing with play dough. 
8.  Shape each of the portion into a round bowl shape of about 4 inches, and then place on two parchment lined baking sheets. This is the part I started doubting the recipe. While there's definitely a lot of dough, there was no way that the eight sections made eight four-inch-round balls. However, having never worked with yeast before, I thought that maybe it would resolve itself in the actual baking process. Also, I didn't use baking sheets- I don't own any! Instead, I used the glass pyrex pans I bought at a garage sale. 
9. Cover and place in an area that is free of drafts, and let rise until doubled in size, about 40 minutes. Again, I followed these directions. I waited even longer than 40 minutes. The rolls grew, but still not enough that it met the size suggestion of 4 inches round.
10. Place two racks in the bottom and middle positions, preheat to 400 degrees fahrenheit.P
11. Beat 1 egg white with a tablespoon of water, and lightly brush the tops of the bread bowls with half of the mixture. 
12. Bake for 15 minutes, and then brush on the remaining egg white. When returning to the oven, reverse the baking sheets. Make sure to do the reversing! my oven is older and small, and otherwise these wouldn't have baked evenly.
13. Bake for an additional 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire racks. 

And that's when I stopped following the recipe. The "bowls" never grew in size in the oven- had I made six bowls, or four, rather than eight, I'm sure they would've been the right size. However, these were hardly bigger than rolls you get at a restaurant. They also looked nothing like any of the pictures from the recipe- they were a light color, but rock hard- had I baked them any longer, they would've burned. After letting them cool (in the pan, not on a rack- another thing I need to buy!) they didn't even taste anything like the bread from Panera at all. All in all, I was disappointed, but hey, bread is bread! And it was good enough when I dipped it into my soup. 

Here's a picture of the "bread bowls" after baking:

So what did I learn today?

I learned that yeast is weird. I learned to follow directions very closely, or your end product will turn out differently. But, I also learned that sometimes your recipe won't give you what you think it will, and that's ok. I learned that what kind of tools you use to bake matters. I think that using a baking sheet instead of my pan might have altered the outcome. I learned that I love to knead bread.

In the next year, there will be many more chances for me to attempt making bread bowls again. I think that next time I will try a different recipe, maybe a sourdough roll. But either way, I found today that it was okay to mess up, that I am not going to suddenly be able to make a 7 course meal that five star chefs will laud as the finest they've ever tasted. My first attempt was not a disaster, but not necessarily a success. And I am so excited to try again soon! :)

From now on, I will be updating each week, twice a week, probably on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually there will be one new technique per week, and one new recipe. 

Do you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see? Comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! Thanks for reading!

Want to attempt today's recipe on your own? Here's the link to the original post: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/savory-bread/homemade-bread-bowls.html 

Let me know how your attempt goes!

What Even is "Fun"?

"But.... what do you do for fun?"

I get that question a lot. I get a lot of questions a lot. Questions like, "You're how old?" (19), "You've been in college for how long?" (A year and a half- and I'll be getting my bachelor's in the spring), "You have how many spreadsheets on your computer?" (87, 46 of which relate directly to my plans for the future).

Almost all of my free time is spent dreaming about the future, of when I'll be a real "grown up" and have a "real" job and do "grown up" things. I research constantly. I have answers upon answers for nearly every question I've ever been asked, the "what are you going to do when..." questions, the "what are you doing now" questions. The only question I don't have an answer for is "what do you do for fun?"

The answer, I suppose, is depressing. I spend a lot of time on the internet, judging my Facebook friends and pinning articles on how to get the perfect winged eyeliner, a look I have never even attempted. I pride myself in my skill of sitting in front of a television for hours, binge-watching entire seasons of television shows. But I don't really do anything "fun", no hobbies meant to take up my time, nothing useful I can justify spending time on.

And recently, it's come to my attention that that might be an issue. Even my doctor has decided that I need to find some sort of constructive hobby, something where I don't feel like I'm just wasting time, and something not (entirely) based in the internet. In fact, he has even instilled a deadline in this quest for a hobby- November 1st. Of course, I've had all summer to come up with one. But I was busy
this summer- I needed to knock out another full semester's worth of classes. I couldn't possibly find a hobby.

A few weeks ago, I was on the phone with my friend discussing pancakes- one of the few foods I know how to make, albeit from a box. In fact, all of my "go-to" foods are like that- boxed mixes or pastas I can pour some kind of sauce on, meat that comes in bags pre cut that I throw in the oven and drown in dressing you'd find at a high school cafeteria. I have no idea how to cook. I only just figured out how to make popcorn on a stove and not in the microwave, and even in that I succeeding in burning almost every pot I own. In short- my Italian blood has not made me into some "natural cook". In fact, it's quite the opposite. Although, I must admit that I've never actually tried.

If in eight short months I'm going to be thrust into the "grown up" world I want so desperately to be in, I'm going to need those same "grown-up" skills. But even as hard as I try, no amount of talent at typing, filing, or tracking finances will help me if I can't cook enough to keep myself alive. Cooking is for grown-ups, after all.

So here lies the solution to my problem- I needed a hobby, had to find a hobby. I wanted it to be something productive, and being in college, something that didn't require me to spend any additional money, at least not too much. It needed to be something that I would be encouraged to do, and something I could be kept accountable through.

And that's why I'm here. This blog will make me hold myself accountable in the coming months. I will be posting my (likely disastrous) attempts at various cooking facets- from basic techniques to recipes. Hopefully, by graduation in May I'll be better at cooking than I am now!