Hello again!

It has been a while, my friends! Managing multiple blogs, graduations from college, and nannying all summer sure made me busy. But guess what, I'm in LONDON FOR PASTRY SCHOOL! What!? Yeah, it's been that long since I've posted. I'm so very sorry, but I have yet another blog you can check out chronicling my journey here in London. I like to have desperation with my thoughts and blogs, so this may indeed be the last post on here, since my senior year is done and done. But don't fret! You can check me out at http://hollyinlondon.wordpress.com/ for more updates on my life!

Vi ses, Holly

Avocado Smoothie

As the semester dwindles down, my work load has only become crazier! I have a research proposal, tons of grading, teaching two classes, papers, tests, labs, and way more! It's about to get really insane. But at least I have baking to take my mind off things : )

Today, after my stint at the library, I came home and realized I finally had all the ingredients to make an Avocado Smoothie I'd seen on Pinterest!

It's super simple and totally fit in a large magic bullet cup. Here's the recipe:

• 1 avocado
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (with honey)
• 1/2 - 1 cup orange juice
• 1 - 2 cups of ice
• 
  
• Blend it all together and you're good to go!
• 
  
• It's a delightful pistachio color and tastes really creamy and tropical!
• 
  
• I suggest you try this out when there's no time for a big meal, it's pretty filling!
• Vi Ses,
• Holly

Mustache Chronicles II

In case you missed this week's episode of Parks and Recreation (which of course your didn't!), there was yet another amazing Ron Swanson food moment... involving fruit?

Yes, that's right... Ron F***ing Swanson ate a piece of fruit on the latest P&R. Apparently his potassium levels were low, so Anne told him to eat a banana every so often.

But come on! Ron? Fruit? How can this even happen?

Ron is our favorite meat-eating, mustachioed man, and here he is, being utterly defeated at the idea of eating a banana...

Ron Swanson will always be at the top of my lost for 'best fictional characters' and I think we can all see why...

Vi Ses,

Holly

Earl Grey Cookies!

This weekend has been so much fun! We had a great Day at the HSU Natural History Museum for Anthropology Day! I helped out at a booth called 'Culture through Storytelling' which was really fun, and there were tons of kids, all exited to learn about anthropology!

But today was back to the baking grind (Although I did whip up some chocolate mm cookies yesterday, which I forgot to take pictures of) and I was requested to make some earl grey cupcakes, but I wasn't feeling cup cakey, so I made cookies instead! Plus cookies are my favorite baked good, so it all works out.


Cookies:
2 c. flour
2 T of Earl Grey (about 3 sachets)
1 t. lavender
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 c. butter

Glaze:
3/4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. (or more) lemon juice
1 t. lemon zest
1 t. lavender

Method:
1. Beat the butter until fluffy and add in sugar.
2. Once smooth, add in vanilla and tea.
3. Add in flour, and salt and mix until dough forms.
4. Roll in a log and cover in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes
5. Oven at 375 degrees.
6. Slice cookies about 1/3 in. thick and lay out about 2 in. apart.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.
8. Mix glaze ingredients together.
9. Allow cooling and drizzle glaze. Enjoy!

These are amazing!! And they look super cute! I think I'm going to make these for my roommate's bridal shower, but cut out 'P' and 'G' shaped ones, since that would be too cute!

Well, that's all for now! Have a fantastic week : )

Um, hello delicious!

Vi Ses,
Holly

Lemon Lavender Shortbread

As you're aware, I love lemon. And lavender. Especially together!

An edit from my photo class!

My roommates happen to love this delicious combination as well, so whenever I make some kind of Lem-Lav cookie (like that abbreviation? All me! haha), they get gobbled up right away! 

I've been madly studying for my Primatology test (which is tomorrow!) so I definitely needed a baking break!

These are super easy, and very Spring-y, so give them a go!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Zest of 2 lemons, divided
1/2 t. lavender buds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Add the butter, powdered sugar, zest of 1 lemon, lavender, vanilla, and salt to a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the flour, and beat until a dough is formed. This takes about 5 minutes if you're using a hand mixer, so don't be alarmed that your dough starts out looking like sand.
3. In a small bowl, combine the remaining lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant.
4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle 3/4 of the lemon sugar on top (you will use the remaining 1/4 of the lemon sugar in the same fashion when you re-roll the shortbread dough), and gently press it into the dough with the rolling pin. I then used a knife to cut pieces, because honestly, you're just going to eat these up right out of the oven! But you could cut them with a circle biscuit cutter if it pleases you...
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, and cool completely on the cookie sheet.  
6. After they're cooled, I made a quick lemon glaze: lemon juice, zest, powdered sugar and a pinch of lavender. I don't have any exact amounts, but when it gets 'glazy' it's probably done!!


Recipe adapted from A Bitchin' Kitchen, which is a fantastic blog name, huh?!

Well anyway, these are very good, and eating these makes me feel like it's spring! (Even though I live in the land of constant rain) Hopefully the Farmer's Market starts up soon, so I can get some frest lavender up in here! 

But for now, I best be gettin' back to memorizing the taxonomic names of New and Old World Monkeys.

 Peace Out, homies.

Vis Ses,
Holly

My Sister is in Hawaii right now.
LUCKY.

Hot Pockets and Goodbyes

Now that Spring Break is over, I only have 7 more weeks until GRADUATION! What?? It's pretty crazy... I'm pretty nervous for the next year and a half, I seriously have no idea what I want to do after I finish culinary school... But that stress out of the way, I did some baking today after I flew back up to Humboldt County.

Since I'm a vegetarian, it's hard to find delicious frozen meals (which honestly is good, it makes me not eat them!) but sometimes, you just need a quick fix... So I took matters into my own hands a made some homemade 'hot pockets.' YUM-O! Here's the recipe I created for these:

Recipe:

Pastry Dough:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 T. sugar
Pinch of salt
Roughly 3 T. butter
1/2 c. Silk coconut milk

Filling:
5 eggs
5 veggie sausage links
1/4 c. shredded cheese
Tapatío

1. So put the first 4 pastry ingredients into a bowl and mix a bit. Then 'cut' in the butter and after pretty meal-y, add then milk and knead until just mixed. Set to the side.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Heat up the sausage links and cut into pieces and shred the cheese. Set aside.

4. Scramble the eggs and once their cooked, add the sausage and cheese and quickly mix. Put in a bowl.

5. Roll out the dough and cut out identical rectangles. Put on dough piece in your pastry pocket form thing (or get innovative and do it on the counter?) and fill the pocket. Place the another rectangle on top and close the form thing to cinch them together (yo could totally use a fork if your using the counter).

6. Bake for 15 minutes and you are set!

I froze most of mine, with the intention to throw them in the toaster oven after I run in the morning. They taste pretty good, but the dough wasn't the best, I'd probably try to use a different recipe for that, but overall they are pretty good, way better than that store bought crap. So I would say this was a success! : )

Here are my Orange County spring break highlights:

Jack and Grady's T-ball game! They were so cute : )

My sister, Julie, and I went to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana to see Lucy (A. afarensis) from Ethiopia... And it was a really awesome exhibit! It was so fun seeing a total anthropology-based museum exhibit... On top of that, they had a small whaling exhibit, which was awesome (since I've read some non-fiction about 19th century whaling)... And an exhibition of art from Maurice Sendak, the author/illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are, all of which were truly incredible! I wish I could draw like that! 

Then, my friend Ashley and I drove up Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu and Point Dume (Makes me feel like I'm in Middle Earth for some reason...) Which was so totally fun and beautiful!

And finally, I had to say farewell to one of my best friends, Claire, as she leaves for her 18 month mission to Argentina... It is bittersweet, I know she is going to have an amazing time and grow so much, but I'm going to miss talking to her everyday and just all our adventures. But she'll be back in September 2014 and we'll be pen pals while she's gone : ) 

Silver linings, my friends, look for the silver linings.

I miss you already! 

Vi Ses,

Holly

Chocolate Cupcakes

Sometimes I forget about the simple flavors when baking, like chocolate! So I stuck to the classics when baking these delicious treats : )

I made these yesterday, before a wedding I attended, which was quite adorable (more on that later)... They were pretty easy, so here's the recipe!

(Click to Enlarge)

 

This was pretty easy, a bit time consuming, but totally worth it! I did substitute a few things... I replaced the sour cream with plain greek yogurt, since that's what I had in my house... And I halfed both these recipes since I was only making cupcakes. 

And et me tell your these are delicious! Maybe one of the best things I've made yet! My roommates tried them and were super complimentary, so yeah, these were a success!

And after I made these I attended a wedding of two members of my roommates' church, and it was really sweet and adorable! My favorite part was watching the groom's face when the bride walked into the church, it was so sweet : )

And there were some great photo-ops!! Here's our little group, part of the bridal party for my roommate's wedding in June! So many weddings, yay!!!

Have a great Sunday!

Vi Ses, 

Holly

Recipe Source: 

http://www.annies-eats.com/2013/03/01/classic-chocolate-layer-cake/

Cauliflower Pizza Bites

Yes, you read correctly, Cauliflower Pizza Bites! 

I made these last night and I just had to gush about them on here... Because they are delicious!

As you may know, I've been experimenting with coconut oil, and these not only intrigued me due to that, but also because cauliflower is delish.

Cauliflower pizza stuff is all around Pinterest, so these are my first experiment. They were pretty easy, but 'ricing' the cauliflower was a bit awkward... I used a cheese grater and grated it, and for whatever reason graters and I don't have a great relationship haha... who knows?

Here's the recipe:

• 2 Cups Grated Cauliflower (washed, dried and grated using a food processor or cheese grater by hand until rice-like or thinner – Note – Approximately one head of cauliflower)
• 1/4 Cup Egg Whites
• 1 Cup 1% Cottage Cheese (drained)
• 1 Tsp Oregano
• 2 Tsp Parsley
• 1/4 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil (Optional)
• 1-2 Tbsp Frank’s Hot Sauce (Optional)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 450 F.
2. Using a healthy cooking oil spray your mini muffin tin.
3. In a hot frying stir fry the “cauliflower rice” until the cauliflower is slightly translucent (about 6-8 minutes). Place in a bowl and let cool.
4. Place all other ingredients the food processor and blend until smooth.
5. In a bowl combine both the “cauliflower rice” and blended ingredients. Mix completely.
6. Evenly spoon mixture into your muffin tin molds. Press pizza dough down evenly and firmly (*The pressing down firmly is very important to make sure these stick together).
7. Place in your oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
8. Remove the pizza bites from the oven and let set until cool (This is also very important – let these pizza bites set in their pan for 5 – 10 minutes before removing – If you take them out while they are too hot they will break).
9. Once cool remove from muffin tin (either by tipping them out OR by running a thin knife down along the side and popping them out).
10. Heat up some delicious sauce and enjoy!

So once that was out of the way, it was smooth sailing! I blended all the other ingredients and then stirred the blend into the lightly sautéed cauliflower... Voilà, c'est fini! I topped them with a little mozzarella and just threw them in the oven and my gluten free snacks were finished!

 Yum Yum Yum is all I can really say about these! They are super good, and who doesn't love pizza-anything?!

Well I'm officially on Spring Break, so hopefully I'll be baking a few more treats soon!

Happy Weekend!

Vi Ses,
Holly

Source:
http://www.damyhealth.com/2012/03/cauliflower-pizza-bites/

Kale Potato Tart (with an essence of coconut?)

Hey y'all! So let me tell you, it is hard maintaining 2 blogs and all my schoolwork... But have no fear! I am still baking and cooking!! This last week was crazy, I wrote a huge paper in 3 days, so I basically lived in the library, but I think the paper came out pretty sweet, so it was totally worth it!

Anyway... So for the last few months, I've been trying to buy less food, but better food. So more organic and higher quality food, and with this I've been trying some new things! And for some reason, 3 of these have included some sort of coconut product... Coconut milk (instead of soy or almond milk), peanut butter with coconut, and coconut oil! Random, I know. So with two of these, my latest creating has been baked!

I was perusing Pinterest (as you know I typically do) and saw this delicious looking tart! I love savory tarts, so this was too good to pass up!

I wasn't expecting this to be so intensive though, it took like an hour and a half to make the damn thing, but it will be worth it.

Here's my minimalist version of the recipe:
1 Pie Crust (I made mine with half coconut oil and half butter)
1 T Olive Oil
1 lb. Kale
1 Potato, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs
3/4 c. Milk (I used Coconut Dream)
4 oz. Cheese, shredded (it suggested Gruyere, but I used Mozzarella)
Pinch of Nutmeg, Salt and Pepper

Pre-Cooked

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Simmer the sliced potatoes in salted water 10 minutes, drain, set aside to cool and dry.
3. Take all the leaves off the kale and roughly chop. Blanch in salted, boiling water for a few minutes and drain. Submerge in ice bath and squeeze out excess water. Set aside.
4. Sauté onion in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic for 1 minute. Add kale, nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Roll out pie crust and put in a 9 inch pie dish.
6. Mix the eggs, milk, and half the cheese and add the kale. Mix thoroughly.
7. Arrange half the potatoes on the pie crust and put 3/4s of the kale mixture on top of the potatoes. Arrange another layer of potatoes, and top off with the rest of the kale mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and place in the oven for 40-45 minute, until brown on top. Cool and Cut.

YUM!!

Um, this looks amazing! It's too hot to try, but I'll update you when I do!

While I was baking, I was watching the most recent SNL with Justin Timberlake, classic! He is so funny (and attractive as well) and can we be real here... Bringing back him and Andy Samberg's classic '90s MotherLover and D*ck in a Box characters was amazing!! I haven't laughed at an SNL sketch that hard in a long time! Seriously, go watch it :)

Hope you all have a great week! Happy March!

Vi Ses, 
Holly


Recipe Source: http://strongertogether.coop/recipes/potato-kale-tart/

Gotta Love the Classics 

Baking Banana Bread is More Fun than Paper Writing

This Slow Loris loves bananas... and so do I!!!

Let me tell you, it's totally true. Baking banana bread is much more fun than having an unwritten 10 page paper due in 3 days looming over your head. So that's why I baked some! And yeah, it's delicious... I kinda forgot to take pictures of the process and the recipe, so you'll just have to look one up for yourself, and with the internet, any recipe is possible!

 This is just a quick post, since I have to take some night photographs for tomorrow, and reluctantly write some of my paper... BLAH. Oh well, I secretly love it (but don't go telling everyone that!).


And Game of Thrones is coming back soon!! Winter is coming, bitches! AKA Jon Snow is coming back!

Vi Ses,

Holly

Lemon Bars!

Lemon, lemon lemon!

Lemon is so fresh and delicious, and my household up here in Humboldt County, loves lemon everything! Bars, cookies, cakes... You name it, we'll try it!

So I decided to make some homemade lemon bars today, since it's been wedding central, and we are thinking about making lemon bars for my roommate's wedding! YUM!

                We used a classic, Paula Deen recipe.. Full of butter, so you know it's going to be tasty (albeit, unhealthy).

Yeah, these are super easy, and UM AMAZING. No joke, we're going to stuff our faces right here, right now.

Bonus, while baking these, we watched the extended version of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring... My first time! It is so good, but we only had this one in extended! NO! Now we have to settle for the regular versions of the other two... Oh well, another time I guess...

LoTR Meme humor + GoT = Awesome

AND my Game of Thrones Season 2 came in the mail, so good bye weekend! So much drama and action, I love it! (Jon Snow will forever hold my fantasy heart!)

Well this was just a quickie, hope you have a wonderful weekend!!


Vi Ses,
Holly

Mustache Chronicles I

So this is a new mini-post series I'm going to do from time to time, called 'Mustache Chronicles.'

Since I LOVE everything Parks and Recreation, and especially every thing Ron Swanson, I've decided to dedicated a mini-post here and there to the burly man himself!

Enjoy!

Classic.

Have a great Sunday!

Vi Ses,

Holly

Lent for an Ape

As an anthropologist, I try really hard to stay open-minded and accepting of everyone... Which admittedly can be hard sometimes, but I'm not ashamed to admit that. I'm not an overly 'religious' or 'churchy' person (even I fall to the boxing of people sometimes) but I do participate in some cultural events that correlate with the [Reconciling] United Methodist church I hit up at home.

Over the years, I've tried to go vegan for the 6 weeks, or 'give up' something like candy or chocolate. This year I decided to change it up a bit and try to make a small impact on the world

I am not going to purchase anything with Palm Oil in it.

What's the big deal with Palm Oil you may be wondering? Is it just another type of oil? Well no, it's not.

I'm not giving up Palm Oil because it's unhealthy, or to lower my oil intake. I'm giving up Plam Oil because the Palm Oil industry is one of, if not the, main reason(s) that Orangutans are so close to extinction.

Orangutans (OH-rang-a-tan-s) live on the Islands of Sumatra and Borneo. That's it, people. And there, the Palm Oil industry is so prevalent, that major deforestation is destroying the Orangutans' environment. It's really sh*tty.

If this destruction isn't stopped, the beautiful Orangutans could be extinct in as few as 20 years! Imagine a world where you couldn't see one of their smiles, or feel the love of mother and child connections. I can't. And you shouldn't either.

Look at these faces!!! So amazing.

So join me in halting the purchase of Palm Oil, and together we may dent the industry, even a tiny bit, to help the Orangutans survive.

Vi Ses,

Holly

For more information:
http://www.orangutans.com.au/Orangutans-Survival-Information/About-Palm-Oil.aspx

Heartbreak Cookies

Well, heartbreak may be harsh.

But in all reality, isn't Valentine's Day a bit like rubbing 'being single' in to us singletons? Because, honestly, if you're in a loving and awesome relationship... Then shouldn't everyday be like Valentine's Day? Do you really need a random, pink-tinted, hallmark-induced day to show someone your love?

Alright, I'll stop, only because if I was in a relationship, I would probably be pumped. Alas, 'tis not so.

Any way, I do however LOVE pink and hearts, so I'm using good ole V-Day as an excuse to procrastinate on my hugely unfinished annotated bibliography and bake some cute cookies!!!


 The recipe is super simple, but the blog I read didn't have any pictures of the final product?! LAME. Don't worry I have an artsy Instagram pic of my cookies, that you'll love... Or probably have already seen since you're ignoring the type and just looking at the pictures.... (So if you get to this point, congrats you are awesome!)

Unfortunately I don't have the recipe right here though... it was on my iPad ...(Oops!)

Yeah, these are as good as they look.

So I'll update with it at some point... Or will I? Muhaha! But here are my sweet hearts! I even dyed the dough PINK, because I CAN.

I like my cookies 'crispy' so these are thinner than what was intended, I think? (again, the blog didn't have details!)

Well, nonetheless these are pretty delicious... I think they're plenty good enough to take to the get together I'm going to tomorrow, which I don't know much about... But I'm pretty sure cookies won't be refused!

Oh! And Happy Belated Birthday to this guy, Charles Darwin!! Love you, bro!

Happy #ForeverAlone Day!

Vi Ses,

Holly

Look at these two lovebirds! My Mom and Dad, on their
honeymoon in the late '80s... Gotta love them!

Happy Galentine's Day!

Happy Galentine's Day everyone! The day to celebrate your lady friends :)

A new post is coming soon, since I should be making some "Heartbreak Cookies" (aka sugar cookies shaped like broken hearts) for all us singletons out there!

Vi Ses,

Holly

Food Memes!

So since I love memes...

and I peruse pinterest so much...

 I wanted to share a few of really funny food themed memes!

To start us off, here's an Ina Garten meme:

I personally, cannot stand this woman, but the memes made about her are SOO funny! 

Because it's true!

Here's a few of my favorite from the famous "Paula Deen Riding Things" meme base:

Voldemort's secret-keeper!

Are you kidding me?! This is perfect on every way!

The Julia Childs inspired meme:

Who doesn't agree!?

And of course, my favorites... 

The Ron Swanson Memes

"I don't go much for ethnic food... 

Wait. 

You had me at meat tornado."

Classic quote.

No caption needed.

Happy Eating!

Vi Ses,

Holly

Not meme-related, but I do love a good
 San Francisco bread bowl!