Poptarts

Ok quick recipe today because I am so exhausted! I think that's mostly because while I'm at work I eat one or two (or a dozen) sugary snacks and then I crash later. Today I crashed right before dinner, and even though I ate real food, I'm still sooooooo tired. So I'm just gonna give you a really fast recipe that I've had on my "to post on blog" list for a while. How to make your own poptarts!

I tried this a long time ago after I had made apple pie. I had a lot of pie crust leftover and I remembered seeing something about making poptarts out of leftover crust. And hey, I hadn't had a poptart in eight years and I had a huge pile of gluten free pie dough...so poptarts it was! I made mine with strawberry jam because it's my favorite, but you can use whatever kind you want. You could even make frosting to put on top! (But then

wouldn't it be more like a toaster strudel?)

The basic idea is: roll out the leftover dough and cut it into a large rectangle. Fill one half of the rectangle with jam, leaving a 1/2 inch border around it. Then fold the dough over and seal the edges with a bit of water or beat up egg. Cut a couple of decorative slices on the top and throw it in the oven. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. The other method is to cut two seperate squares and just make a pie dough sandwich. Then seal the edges with a fork--they look more like poptarts this way.

As you can see, I used the folding method which I think makes them look more homemade and cute. But that's just my preference.

XOXO

Natalie

Rainbow cupey-cakes!

I made these for my friend Paul because I felt bad about not seeing him for basically the whole summer. And to make up for my horrible friendship skills, I made him cupcakes! I ended up giving them to him in front of a whole bunch of people who demanded he share and they all liked them too. Even the strangers that were standing around us! But I don't blame them. These are some seriously tasty cupcakes. This is my new favorite cupcake recipe because the great thing about it is: it's so basic! It is a simple simple simple cupcake that can be altered any which way you want. So here's how to make them into rainbow cakes, but feel free to experiment with different flavors and styles following this basic recipe. I made two batches: one gluten free and one not. I actually thought that the gluten free ones came out better because they had a better texture-of course this is just from looking. Stephen said they tasted the same, so that's awesome too!

Rainbow Cakes

Adapted from Baking Bites

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

red, green, yellow, blue food coloring

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Then pour the batter into five seperate bowls trying to make them as even as possible. It should be about 1/3 cup in each. Add 1/2 tsp of food coloring to each bowl to make yellow, orange, red, green, and blue. Of course, to make orange you do 1/4 tsp of yellow and red. Stir them really well so that there are no streaks. Feel free to add more food coloring if you want more color!

Starting with the blue, add a spoonful of each color into 10 lined muffin tins. Work from blue-green-yellow-orange-red. I ended up having enough batter to make 11 whole muffins and 1 small one. Don't spread the batter around, just let it fall where it wants, otherwise everything will just run together and you'll end up with mud-puddle cupcakes. Bake at 350F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Once they're cool, frost them with a basic buttercream frosting. I did it all very pretty and artistic with my mad frosting skills. Here's how to do it: After you make your basic frosting, seperate it into three bowls and add one or two drops of food coloring. Do whatever colors you like; I went with red, blue, and green.

Then get a piping bag, or in my case a ziplock bag, and put the frosting in in sections. By this I mean, spread the red frosting into 1 third of the bag then the blue in another third, then the green in the other third. Here's a diagram because I'm tired and I can't think of another way of explaining it. Looking down on the top of the piping bag:

Then just pipe the frosting in a spiral to make it look beautiful!

XOXO

Natalie

Summer Corn Fettucini

I knowwwwwww. It's been about a week since my last post. But I've been super busy! Lately I've spent all my free time researching job opportunities and internships in Santa Cruz. The other thing I've been researching is super duper exciting. I'm looking into the possibility of teaching English in Chile after I graduate. Possibly teaching at the school my dad attended when he was a kid! I think that sounds like an awesome opportunity. Does anyone know of programs? Or has anyone done anything similar?

But now onto the main event! I have a recipe here that is....not for the faint of heart. And by that I mean, if you are prone to heart attacks, don't....don't eat this. It is all carbs, cream, and DELICIOUS!

Summer Corn Fettucini

Adapted from Taste and Tell

1 lb fettucini

6 slices of bacon

6 ears of corn, shucked

3 shallots, finely chopped

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)

salt and pepper

1 cup 1/2-1/2 or cream

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme

Hot sauce (optional)

1 cup Parmesan

1 cup basil leaves, torn

Cook the pasta and set aside. In a saucepan cook the bacon until crispy. While the bacon is cooking, cut the kernels off of the corn cob. Add 3/4 of it to the cooked bacon. Add the shallots and bell pepper and season with salt and pepper, cook about five minutes until the vegetables are soft.

While the veggies are cooking, put the remaining corn and the cream into the food processor and pulse until smooth. Make sure it is very smooth, mine was a little too grainy. Add the chicken stock to the pan and let it reduce for a minute or two. Add the thyme and corn mixture and stir, then add hot sauce. Pour the sauce over the pasta and then stir in the cheese and basil.

XOXO

Natalie