Beer Bread, Brownies, and Puffins oh my?

What's a Puffin you may ask? And you know we're not talking birds, right?

Pizza + Muffin. AKA Pizza Puff.

Picture it. Work party. Me, furiously baking up delicious confections only moments earlier, packing them into my gym bag (the irony was NOT lost on me) and lugging them into work.

As we have established my Wednesday is my Friday and I'd much rather eat and chat on my Friday than do much work. And what's better than bringing one food to work? Two. Or Three. Or just whatever can fit into your gym bag. I have a problem.

Puffins or Pizza Puffs, if you will
(adapted from this website, makes 24 mini-muffins)

3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3/4 cup whole milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup mini turkey pepperonis
3/4 cup marinara (no judgement if it happens to be store-bought)

Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, salt and red pepper flakes. Whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni; Preheat oven to 350 and let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 25 minutes. Cool in pan for 2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack. Serve with warm marinara on the side.

Let's talk about Trader Joe's. If I had to rate the top 5 things I miss most about living in California (a constantly changing list, often rehashed with much heavy sighing) then Trader Joe's would occupy two or three of those spots.

They had a boxed beer bread mix (I know, I know) that I wake up nights thinking about. But! I finally found an even better (if possible) recipe that doesn't call for any boxed mixes just in case you were going to start thinking that I was cutting corners.

Corners intact, here you go. Bring several copies of this recipe with you if you decide to feed it to your coworkers.

Beer Bread
(adapted from allrecipes, makes 1 loaf or 9x13'' pan)

3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 (12 fl oz) bottle beer (I used Yuengling)
3 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf or (I prefer) 9x13'' pan. Whisk together dry ingredients.

Stir in the beer until combined. Spread the dough out in the pan. It will be sticky and a little difficult. Do your best, it's really forgiving. It will look thin. Don't be scared.

Pour the melted butter on top of the dough. All of it. All over the dough. Just do it.

Bake on center rack for about 20-25 minute or until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan, cut, and serve.

Seriously, the beer bread? So good. So easy. You can sub 3 cups self rising flour for the flour, salt, baking powder, but it's cheaper this way. You can use whatever beer you want. I like to use whatever sad little misfit beer reject got left in the fridge for weeks. It's like giving that lonely beer a second chance. He gets to be super popular for a day.

You can throw cheese on top, add italian seasoning... No matter what you do, you will love it and it will love you. That's kind of love is hard to come by in life.

Did you seriously think I was going to show up to a party without dessert? Like that would ever happen. Don't be ridiculous. Here's my new favorite brownies recipe. Yes, better than those oreo stuffed brownies in my opinion.

A quick word about brownies in general. I know I end up making cookies all the time, but brownies are great. They're unassuming, dense, fudgy... so many great qualities. I really don't give them enough credit. That delicious paper thing crackling top that they get? Oh buddy, game over. Grab a glass of milk.

Baked Brownies
(from baked and brown eyed baker)

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (I used ghirardelli's 60%), coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.

3. Melt the chocolate, butter and instant coffee in a large bowl over a double boiler, stirring occasionally, until it is completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the last two eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter.

5. Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.


Okay, hope you enjoy those. Now I'm exhausted. I need to get better about blogging during the week so that I don't explode a hundred recipes all over the place every Wednesday. Oh well.

Last side note, did you notice that my pictures this time (except the brownies, oops) didn't have the typical woods in the background? Ha! I finally set up a little food photo set. I'll explain later.

Go forth and bake.

Sesame Panko Chicken Strips

Now with Garlic Knots!

So as quickly as my wonderful "weekend" began, it is now drawing to a close.

In a few hours I'll go to bed and wake up and quick be off to a week of 12 hour graveyard shifts. But this weekend was great, I got a lot accomplished.

Last night I baked calzones and cinnamon pull apart bread, yeah old news. Who cares if I made the calzones with delicious meatballs this time, and even one with barbecue chicken?

But what you don't know is there I was baking away, minding my own business when what creeps into my kitchen? A crayfish? A tiny lobster? Wrong. Scorpion, friends.

Here is mighty Jim, capturing it in a salsa jar. Thank God for Pinterest or I never would have saved that salsa jar to turn into some sort of hare-brained craft. On a side note, however, I've realized that now that I've been pinteresting like a fiend, when one of my friends sees something cool I've made or cooked or whathaveyou, no longer will they be like, Oh wow you're so creative! No, no, those days are over. Now they're going to say, Oh yeah...I saw that on Pinterest like a month ago. Anyway, enough with the side notes, there's a scorpion on the loose!

And this photo was taken after much begging and pleading with Jim (as well as eye-rolling and strongly worded protest on his part) to lift the jar for just a second because I needed to get a "better" picture. There were several attempts. And may I just add that scorpions run in incredibly rapid circles around the bottoms of salsa jars? Utterly terrifying.

So now that you've seen scary bugs you're ready to hear about more food, right? Absolutely.

So anyway, then tonight I whipped up sesame encrusted chicken strips, adapted from skinny taste, as well as garlic knots, adapted from joy the baker.

I loved this chicken recipe because it is low fat and low cal, and the chicken actually came out moist! Unbelievable, I know.

Sesame Panko Chicken Strips
(makes about 4 servings of 2 strips each)

Ingredients

18 oz chicken tenderloins
pepper and garlic powder to taste
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
6 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp course salt
4 tbsp panko
olive oil spray

Season chicken lightly with pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Combine soy sauce and sesame oil in one bowl, set aside.

In another bowl, mix sesame seeds, salt, panko.

Dip chicken in soy sauce mixture to coat, followed by the sesame seeds mixture. Make sure each strip is coated evenly with the sesame seeds.

Place strips on a lightly greased baking pan. Spray strips lightly with the oil spray.

Bake at 415 degrees for 10 minutes, turn, and bake an additional 6 minutes.



Parmesan Garlic Knots
(makes about 5-6 knots)

Dough

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tsp additional olive oil

Garlic Topping

2 cloves very finely minced garlic
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp parsley
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Directions

Dissolve yeast in sugar and water, let sit for 5 minutes until frothy.

Whisk together flours and salt. Add the yeast mixture and the oil, stirring until combined.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes, then place in a bowl with 1 tsp olive oil, flip the dough to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise 40 minutes.

Roll out the dough into a 6x6'' square, approximately.

Cut into 5-6 1 inch strips. Tie the strips into a knot, tucking the ends into the rest of the knot. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and let rest, covered for 20 minutes.

Bake at 415 for 13-15 minutes. While baking, combine garlic topping ingredients and mix.

Remove from oven and immediately, brush the topping onto the rolls. Serve immediately.


And there you have it. Have a good one!

Loves

There are lots of little things that I just love about my first day off of the week. Here are several.

I love throwing together what sad pathetic little ingredients I still have lying around after a week of cooking to make something like this garlic lemon basil pasta.

Wednesday is my grocery day so I always plan out the meals for the week and then I go to the grocery store and leisurely peruse the aisles to my heart's content.

I love bringing all the food home and putting it where it goes in my new kitchen with copious cabinet and fridge space.

I love washing my fruits and vegetables, chopping them, making my weekly tabouli and storing all of these in mason jars.

I love watching movies while Jim is at work in the middle of the night. It's the perfect time to watch both the extremely girly Jane Austen-type movies that I love AND the cheesy scary horror movies that he can't stand.

I love a ridiculously large bowl of popcorn and a pop while I watch these movies.

Speaking of those movies, I love that after having rated an absurd 787 movies on Netflix, it now knows me better than I know myself and suggests for me strange long-winded film categories that I didn't know existed like

Critically Acclaimed Quirky Thrillers

Feel-Good Independent Comedies Featuring a Strong Female Lead

Really hilarious. And finally, after I've eaten my popcorn and watched my probably scary movie, I love it when Jim comes home because it means our days off together have officially begun!


On a side note that has nothing to do with today... I loved hanging out with everyone this past weekend in North Carolina. I had a ton of fun and it officially marked the first time I've enjoyed myself on a dance floor.

This one's not about food!

It's about hair.

Jim and I drove up to his old college town of Winston-Salem, North Carolina for our friend Hannah's wedding. We had such a great time! Of course there was food, Cookout (if you don't know, you need to find out) makes over 40 shake flavors, and I baked 2 dozen cookies, but nothing I haven't told you about before.

I did do a cute little updo since it was so warm out. Actually very easy. Here's my little hair bow:

Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies

Have I mentioned that Nutella is my absolute favorite food? I know that changes weekly, but it's true.

So when I stumbled across this recipe, adapted from Delightful Bitefuls, I had to try it.

Much to Jim's dismay I might add.

I keep trying to convince him (to no avail) that he should work to overcome his aversion to peanut butter, but he won't even try. I tried telling him that he's too much of a man to let something as lame as peanut butter beat him, but he just says that's the way it is?

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get him to love peanut butter as much as I do? Because it's starting to affect my baking.

While you think, go ahead and whip up these little beauties...they're easy and if you love Nutella like I do, you probably have all the ingredients on hand!


Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Nutella

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add flour, baking soda and salt. Drizzle Nutella on top of the dough then swirl it through the dough with a butter knife.

Chill dough 15 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll into balls by hand. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Using a fork, press down the balls to flatten slightly. Bake until edges are very lightly browned (about 7 to 10 minutes).

Allow to rest 2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.

This should make about 40 cookies.

I insist you don't worry about the calories on this one...just make them and share them and love them and bye!

Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings

This is the first day since our dinner party that we haven't been dining on leftovers. Well, honestly, Jim is the only one who's been eating the leftovers really. I felt the need to detox after all the gluttony so I went meatless the past two days...here's what I ate

Breakfast: Oikos Greek yogurt with honey on the bottom

Lunch: Fiber Plus berry yogurt clusters cereal, skim milk, tabouli

Snack: 1 biscuit with honey

Dinner: Coffee with fat free hazelnut cream, baby carrots, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, blueberries, special K crackers, laughing cow cheese wedge, and 2 special dark Hershey's kisses.

I realized after two days of that that I wasn't even eating meat! I didn't miss it much honestly.

But we fixed that tonight, oh buddy did we ever.

Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
(adapted from bubblecrumb's blog, 4 servings)

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
1 onion diced
1 tablespoon dried parsley
dash of black pepper
5 biscuit's worth of biscuit dough, I used this recipe, as I had dough leftover from the dinner party.

Directions

Place everything but the biscuit dough in the crockpot on high for 4 hours.

After the 4 hours, break up chicken with a fork, cut the biscuit dough into 1 inch pieces and place in crockpot.

Continue to cook on high for about 1 hour, until dumplings are tender but firm. Serve hot.


Jim loves his home-cooked meals, and this one was a winner.

2 last things.

I am officially obsessed with watching Mad Men...I don't know why. It's so fascinating to me how messed up society was back then and how I both love and hate all the characters at the same time. Please make me stop, I need help.

Second and more important thing. I decided to compile a family/friends cookbook! I sent out letters today to the women of my family asking for recipes. I hope I get a good response! Also, if any friends/relatives/soon to be relatives have any special recipes you'd like to add, please by all means, send them to me!

Slow cooker Mac and Cheese

Well we had a few people over for dinner last night and it went well. The kids LOVED Cricket...they are hilarious.

I wanted to make this dinner kind of a farewell to summer as well as a hello to fall. The pork chops had a nice maple-garlic glaze, and as we know very well maple is one of my favorite flavors. We had mashed potatoes and mac and cheese, and biscuits which are three of my favorite comfort foods. I also made a spinach salad with strawberries and blueberries...I love fruit in summer. For dessert, of course, we had peach cobbler.

My best part of the dinner, though, was the mac and cheese! I made it in the slow cooker, which I didn't think was possible.

Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk
One 12 oz can evaporated skim milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to room temp
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups Italian blend shredded cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar
1/2 pound macaroni, I used Cavatappi (my current favorite pasta), par cooked and drained (this means cook them for about five minutes until tender but not completely cooked)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Spray the inside of your slow-cooker with cooking spray or grease it with olive oil. Combine milk, evaporated milk, eggs, butter, and salt in slow-cooker and whisk until until smooth.

Add the shredded cheese (except the Parmesan) and macaroni, sprinkle with black pepper, oregano and garlic pepper, stir to coat.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top. Cover and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to LOW and cook for 2 hours. My crockpot has a "simmer" setting as well, which is lower than low... I did 1 hour on low, 1 on simmer, 30 minutes on warm.

Oh! And by the way, here's the peach cobbler.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this last time I made the peach cobbler, but to peel the peaches effectively, boil them for one minute, and then plunge them into icy water... the skins are really easy to peel off after that. And peaches are so gorgeous when you peel them!

Nothing to Offer

Yes that's right, I have absolutely nothing to offer you today.

Is it because I haven't been cooking?

No, because I made some delectable Oreo-stuffed brownies today.

Is it because I don't have pictures of said brownies?

No, I have pictures, but they're terrible!

Is it because I'm lazy?

While that's debatable, I'm going to go ahead and say no, just because I have a very well-organized list of things to get done starting as soon as I get off work.

Is it because I just don't feel like blogging? No. Because I've been reading Joy the Baker obsessively and between that and cruising Pinterest for hours (I blame you, Eileen), I have about a billion tons worth of inspiration for new projects.

The truth is, I'm writing from work, and even if I wanted to I couldn't share my crummy pictures with you.

Another truth is that before we moved, I began putting everything off until after we moved. Now I'm putting everything off until the weekend.*

I have projects! Loads of them in fact! I have so much to do, between stepping up my workouts, planning a dinner party and a wedding, raising a spoiled rotten puppy, chores, and work work work.

One of my projects has to do with being able to take better food pictures (without a better camera), which I believe we'll all appreciate. I'll share a process for that one once I actually accomplish it.

Do you think Jim has gotten the hint that I want a better camera for Christmas? Because really, at least 40% of the fun of cooking beautiful food is showing off photos of it, am I right?

Oh yeah.

*My weekend consists of Wed AM-Sat AM.

Chicken Enchiladas

Well after yesterday's disappointment, this one was a hit out of the park. I made Chicken Enchiladas and oh my Lord...were they good. I was skeptical that I was using enough chicken. I slow cooked about six breasts while I slept today just because I always need cooked chicken and I never have any on hand, and it's such a pain in the butt to bake, so I needed some anyway. I only used 2.5 breasts for these and they were still extremely filling. Take a peek.

That's all I've got for now... off to work!

Can't win 'em all

For the most part, I don't usually have a meal that falls flat on its face. And this one didn't either really, it was just...blah. I don't understand why. Granted, usually I use allrecipes for my dinners. This time, I tried one of my favorite healthy yet delicious food blogs, skinny taste. I made the pineapple shrimp fried rice, which looked amazing. It tasted...less than amazing. It had so many of the right ingredients, things I love! Like shrimp, rice, pineapple, green onions, garlic...but somehow I just didn't pull it off. Not that it was horrible, let's just say there will be no repeat performance.

And Jim, who always puts a positive spin on any disappointment I might encounter, said, "Well, this will be good for your blog." That's one of the things I love about him. He doesn't lie to me and tell me it was phenomenal when it wasn't, but he manages to find a sweet way of turning anything negative into a positive. And he's completely right. Because I know you all are probably sick of hearing me say oh this was so delicious blah blah blah. Well this wasn't. I'm not even going to bother with a picture it was so not delicious.

So, like a real trooper, I'm going to shake it off and come back with an even bigger challenge... a dinner party! Jim and I are officially settled into our new place, and we wanted to celebrate with a dinner party, which is an excellent excuse for me to cook up a storm. It will probably be 7 adults and 2 kids, so here's what I'm thinking for a meal that will tick all the boxes: late-summery, easy on the oven (it's hot), comforting, kid-friendly, delectable.

Maple Garlic Pork Chops
Garlic Roasted Mashed Potatoes
Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Peach Cobbler

Sounds great huh? I don't have an appetizer planned yet but I'm thinking I'll get the recipe for this delicious bean and corn salsa from my stepmom, Robin, which she made for our couple's shower... it was fantastic! I kicked around the idea of a cheesy corn bake (like Jack Stack's for those of you who are familiar with Kansas City) but I did a trial run of my non-restaurant version and it came out lackluster, so I think I'm going to go with the macaroni. Needless to say, I am already very excited at an opportunity to cook so much for so many people...plus, Jim and I can finally repay all the many dinner's we've had at their homes which we couldn't reciprocate in our old (little) apartment.

And in non-(directly)food-related news, I really want to start a book club. I think moving into this new house has gotten me bitten by the hostessing bug, but to my credit, I've been scouring Augusta for a good book club since I moved here. I love to read and discuss books, but I suspect deep down I want an excuse to make lots of tiny little appetizers and desserts. Anyway...that's about it for now.

Oh! One last thing, I started using pinterest in my spare time which is a super neat site that lets you visually track sites that interest you. Here's a link to mine, just in case this blog didn't quite overload you.

Pepperoni Calzone

So I mentioned the other day the super duper cute apron Brandy got me, here it is!

I just love it. And I felt inspired to bake so at around 2am or so I started making an apple pie.

It turned out really well! Then I decided to bake some more so today I made calzones again. Here's what that little process looks like.

Here's the recipe for you, as usual adapted from allrecipes.

Pepperoni Calzones

Ingredients
(makes 4 large calzones/8 servings)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzerella
1/8 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup sliced pepperoni
1 cup marinara sauce
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 egg, beaten

Directions

Dough:

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water, let sit 10 minutes.
2. Add salt and 1 tablespoon oil. Mix in 1 cup of the flour until smooth. Gradually stir in the rest of the flour, until dough is smooth and workable.
3. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until it is elastic. Lay dough in a bowl containing 1 teaspoon olive oil, then flip the dough, cover and let rise for 40 minutes, or until almost doubled. While dough is rising, make filling.

Filling:

1. Combine the ricotta cheese, mozzerella, oregano and basil leaves in a large bowl.
2. Mix well, cover bowl and refrigerate to chill.

Calzone:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. When dough is ready, punch it down and separate it into 4 equal parts. Roll parts out into thin circles on a lightly floured surface.
3. Spoon a layer of marinara (you can use store-bought, I won't judge) onto the entirety of each circle, leaving about a 1/2 inch margin at the edge. Reserve the remainder of the marinara for dipping later. Fill 1/2 of each circle with 1/4 of the filling. Add a double layer of pepperoni on top of the filling, sprinkle a bit of parmesan on top of the pepperoni. Brush a bit of the beaten egg onto the naked 1/2 inch edge of each calzone.
4. Fold over, securing edges of calzone by pressing with a fork. Brush the top of each calzone with egg and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Serve hot.


Why the cute new apron baking? Because I just started watching Mad Men (yeah, I know I'm officially the last person in the world not to have seen it) and I'm completely addicted and love it. I don't know how they made 50's/60's fashion look super cute but they certainly managed.

Banana Oatmeal Walnut Cookies

So I put on my beautiful new apron (a shower gift from my best friend/MoH Brandy) and made the best banana nut cookies that anyone has ever heard of. And somehow they are low fat.

I insist you go make them immediately. Oh, and a big thanks to Jim for relinquishing his glass of milk long enough for me to snap the photo.


Today's dinner was simple, just a crockpot turkey chili that I've made many times before. In my family, chili is always served over some sort of pasta, almost always shells. But as I meandered through what I like to call "the good Kroger" the other day on my usual two hour grocery store trip, I noticed a new pasta shape called Cavatappi.

I tried it out and it turns out it's delicious. The texture, the ease of eating it with a fork or spoon, and visually...just what a great shape! So here's how that chili turned out.

It was great... I followed the recipe except I added 2 tbsp brown sugar, twice the cumin, and simmered it in the crockpot for about 8 hours.

Glazed Donut Muffins

So after our whirlwind of a July in which I gained a few pounds back we are now back home and I'm back down to my pre vacation weight again. That was a relief. So of course, to celebrate, I made glazed donut muffins. My pictures didn't turn out that great because my camera was dead and I used my phone, but here's a peek:

Today I have overripe bananas sitting on my counter so I think I might whip up some low fat banana oatmeal cookies. Sounds delicious.

In other news, I'm becoming swiftly addicted to pinterest as well as a new baking blog called blue eyed bakers. It always blows me away that a) so many women out there have wonderful blogs about food and cooking and b) how well some of them write! These two sisters who write this blog have me in stitches regularly, check it out.