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