technical difficulties

so. very shortly after my last post, my computer died. i was trying to figure out how to afford to buy or rent another one, but i don't think it's in the budget.

i futzed around with the laptop for awhile, and discovered that pulling the battery out and then putting it back in makes it work for... who knows how long? so i'll be limping along that way for awhile.

i HAVE been cooking, and taking pictures, and writing entries on paper, so i will backpost everything, including my "last day Easy Bake extravaganza" as soon as I have time, i promise.

but today, the parentals are in town and i have to gear up for an afternoon of who knows what.

Bear with me kids!

Day Twenty-Eight

Can you believe it's almost over? (or is it?)

I was trying to plan some kinda amazing thing for the last day, an Easy Bake-o-Rama, if you will, but just as I was doing that, I got an email from the parentals telling me they were going to be in town from Texas that day and so I'm not sure how all of that is going to monkey with my schedule yet. I WILL be cooking that day, it just might be later in the day.

Tonight, I have a work happy hour thing that I may or may not be attending. I'm still deciding. But I have this giant umm.. bunch? head? something... of bok choy in my fridge that really needs to be used, so I'm thinking I'll go Asian for today's entree. A little chicken/carrot/bok choy/onion something or other. something healthy-ish.

But for now, back to the salt mines I go.

Later taters!

Day Twenty-Seven: Dippity Do

I'm trying not to fall asleep as I write this. It's been a lonnnnnnnnnnng Tuesday.

But I'm glad I stuck it out, because this recipe was definitely worth checking out.

I made baked ricotta, inspired by this recipe from 5 Ingredient Fix.

I did tweak the recipe. I think the Food Network one was a little more umm... Mediterranean. I used what I had on hand, so it turned out a little more Latin inspired.

The Recipe
1/4 C Part Skim Ricotta
1/2 tsp Ancho chili powder
1/2 tsp lime zest
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 an egg (which basically turned out to be most of the white and half the yolk)
Salt and pepper to taste

The recipe calls for you to strain the liquid out of the ricotta for about 10 minutes. Well, I left my strainer at Coree's house like, forever ago (I'm ALWAYS leaving things behind) and so I just used a wet paper towel, and let it "strain" for about 20 minutes. It gave off zero liquid, and was already pretty creamy and unliquidy so I guess just use your best judgement as to whether you think you really need to take that extra step.

I mixed the rest of the ingredients into the ricotta, and poured the mixture into the pan.



Into the Easy Bake for 35 minutes, as directed by the recipe.



The recipe says it should get puffy in the middle and brown on top. Mine didn't. I'm guessing that's because the EBO temperature is a little less than 375 and it probably needs a longer cooking time. Or maybe the lime juice did something. I really don't know. What I DO know is that the end result I got was still pretty good. The ricotta was creamy, not heavy or too dense, and had absorbed all the flavours really well. I bought a little bag of corn chips just for this experiment, and the baked ricotta really was a great dip. I can totally see serving this at parties.

I would like to try it Claire's way, with the orange zest and the warmed olives on top, but I gotta tell ya, the chili powder and lime made a pretty good combo, as well.

I love recipes that you can tweak to make your own, and this is absolutely one of those. You can make it Mediterranean, or Latin, or maybe add some Greek spices, or sundried tomatoes, or whatever fresh herbs you can think of and as long as you follow the basic recipe you've got a winner. You could also make this a sweet dip by adding a little confectioners sugar (dissolves faster) and chopped fruit with mint and get a whole new flavour profile.

Plus, it's really pretty inexpensive.

And that, my friends, is our show. I'm off to go sleep this Tuesday out of my system. G'night!

Day Twenty-Seven: In which i have NOT had my coffee

Today has been nuts at work, and I really only have maybe three minutes before I have to get back to it.

But I deserve a break today.

I believe tonight I AM going to try the baked ricotta recipe from 5 Ingredient Fix. It seems like a pretty simple recipe, and maybe I will even manage not to fall asleep and burn it. It's pretty iffy, today. I haven't had any coffee, and now it's too late to have it because I would pretty much have a caffiene crash in the middle of driving home. NO. BUENO.

Anyhoots, the ricotta thing sounds easy. And relatively fast to put together. And like maybe it could even taste good if Claire doesn't turn out to have the only oven in the world that can bake ricotta.

:D

Later people.

Day Twenty-Six: Claire Robinson has a Magical Oven

I, however, do not.

So these "crunchy" spiced garbanzo beans were inspired by this recipe from 5 Ingredient Fix on Food Network.

I was pretty stoked about this recipe. I was thinking, "this would be a fantastic snack to package up and take camping, and wrap in pretty packages and give people as part of gift baskets, and to serve at parties... and and and..."

I messed around with the spices a little, but I stuck with the measurements from the recipe for what I added. I am a chili powder freak, so I have at least four or five different kinds in my cupboard. So, along with the Spanish paprika and cumin (and salt), I added both ancho and chipotle chili powder.

I read the reviews of this recipe on the Food Network website, and almost all of them said that the chickpeas did NOT get crunchy at 35 minutes. When I checked them at 40 minutes, they were still not crunchy.



I left them in for another 15 minutes... still not crunchy, but they tasted so good, and they were LESS mushy than they were when I started so I went ahead and pulled them.



And then, just because I was curious, I went ahead and made a larger batch for the oven.

35 minutes... no crunch.

45 minutes... no crunch.

55 minutes... burn. *sigh*



the ones in the middle that didn't turn black ARE crunch, and don't taste bad at all, but I wouldn't share them with friends. Maybe my neighbors. I like them much less.

I thought maybe the ones that turned black did so because of all the chili powders. Nope. They really were burnt.

You know that scene in "Dumb and Dumber" when Jim Carrey spits out the h'ordeurve?

I did that. A lot. And then I rinsed my mouth out with water. And then I had a minor moment of panic when I imagined that mouthful of burned chickpeas being tiny little nuggets of carcinogens.

But I got over it.

I'll also mention a strange phenomenon that occurs when you bake chickpeas. They pop. Sometimes, they pop out of the pan. I'm pretty sure that before I use the big oven again, I'll have to climb in there and clean up the rogue chickpeas.

I'm very disappointed this didn't work out like Claire promised. However, the version I made in the Easy Bake, crunchy or not, are quite delicious. I think if I can settle for less than crunchy chickpeas, I may actually make this as a snack again. To bring to work. Maybe not to share. It just loses something when you have to tell people you're giving them "Supposed to be Crunchy baked chickpeas," I think.

I'm not giving up on good ole Claire, though. On the same show, she made a baked ricotta recipe that I want to monkey around with. I bought some ricotta tonight, so perhaps tomorrow we'll give her a chance to redeem herself.

But for tonight, I think it's time to unplug the EBO and imagine a world where chickpeas really DO get crunchy in 35 minutes.

But I'm not bitter.

Day Twenty-Six: Get Yo Snack Awn

Hi folks! I hope you all had a good weekend. I had a pretty good one, full of lots of much needed naps.

You know, I've done desserts, main courses, and side dishes, but I realized that I hadn't done any snack stuff yet. This weekend, I saw a Claire Robinson on 5 Ingredient Fix (Food Network) make these spicy baked chickpeas and I thought, "That might be perfect for the Easy Bake!"

So tonight, we snack.

See you later!

Day Twenty-Three: Roasted

*So, I saved this entry on time, but apparently failed to hit "publish" before i collapsed in a fit of sleep. Whoops!

Tonight I made oven roast. Sort of. It was super easy, and this is the first time in awhile that I've made something where fresh herbs made ALL the difference.

The Recipe:
2 good sized chunks of beef for pot roast, chopped into smallish but not tiny pieces (i'm sure you could use chunks of chuck, or top round, or whatever is handy.)
1 small red potato *medium dice
1 small carrot *medium dice
1 clove of garlic *fine dice
About 1 1/2 tablespoons of red onion *medium dice
3 or 4 slices of mushroom *medium dice
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh sage *fine dice
2 tsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Basically, you just dice everything up, toss it with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs, and pour it into the pan. Cover it with foil, and cook it in the Easy Bake for 45 minutes.



Really good. I think the meat was like... a SKOSH overcooked. Certainly not inedible, and for most people it probably would be fine. I just like my beef closer to rare than well. I could have pulled it out at 35 minutes and it would have been fine, I think, but I wanted to make sure the veggies were cooked through.



As I said, the fresh thyme and sage made ALL the difference in this dish. I think they imparted just that right flavour to make this really taste "pot roasty" even though everything was cut into pretty small pieces. If I made this again, the only thing I'd MAYBE change is that I would cook the meat and veggies separately, so I could pull the meat out a little earlier. Otherwise, good stuff, yo.

I'll probably take the rest of the weekend off, but I might surprise you with an appearance Sunday night.

Have a good weekend, peoples!

Day Twenty-Three: Deconstruct THIS

While I am aware that stews and soups are not really, technically possible in the Easy Bake, no one says I can't use the ingredients in them for dinner.

So the plan tonight is to roast some stew meat, potatoes, onions, and carrots.

I guess it sounds a little more like pot roast. We'll see, exactly how it comes out. I'm still trying to decide if I want to do a little of everything in one pan, or commit to doing everything separately.

Of course, all of this is contingent on me not having plans tonight. Which, at the moment, I don't, but I never know these days.

But I'll try not to do what I did last weekend and just completely ignore the Easy Bake for three days.

Anyhoots, have a good day kids!

Day Twenty-Two: My Just Desserts

When I was a kid, just learning to experiment on my own in the kitchen, I discovered a shortcake recipe on the back of a Bisquick box. I made shortcake at least twice a week for a month... until I moved on to an obsession with pan frying the perfect hamburger.

I remember that shortcake fondly. While yes, I WAS using a boxed baking mix to do most of the heavy lifting for me, I spent hours playing around with add-in's like extra butter, a little vanilla, orange juice, and once, even a splash of grenadine syrup. (This resulted in a shockingly PINK shortcake, worthy of Strawberry Shortcake herself.)

I can tell you right now that if I had been in possession of an Easy Bake Oven back then, Death by Shortcake would not have been outside of the realm of possibility.

Tonight, I THINK I made a shortcake worthy of my childhood memories.

The Recipe, inspired by this recipe from Food for a Hungry Soul.
1/2 C of heavy cream, whipped (reserve a tablespoon or so for garnish)
3/4 C of all purpose flour
1 T Sugar
3 Small - Medium Strawberries
1 big pinch of Baking Powder
1/4 cap full of vanilla
2 fresh orange mint leaves

I whipped the cream, and folded the flour into it a little at a time. I started with 1/2 cup of flour, then added the other ingredients, then slowly worked in more flour to make the dough form together into a sort of biscuit like shape. Then, I brushed the top with the dribbles of cream left in the container, and sprinkled a little sugar on top.



The biscuit cooked for 55 minutes. You'll notice that it looks like the top was scraped off. That's, um, because it was. I honestly didn't expect it to rise as much as it did.



But you know what? Flip it over and it's all pretty again!



The strawberries were just sliced and thrown into the pan. I didn't add any sugar or anything to them.



NOTE: Roasted Strawberries are the bomb!

They roasted for about 55 minutes, as well. They held their shape well, and gave off just enough juice to soak into the shortcake.



I mixed just a little bit of Splenda, maybe half a packet at most, into the tablespoon or so of whipped cream I had left, and, after dumping the strawberries on top, plopped a dollop of cream on top. The mint leaves were kind of an afterthought, but lookit how pretty!



This really did turn out to be a pretty classic strawberry shortcake. The cake itself was sweet, kind of crumbly on the outside, and just a little denser in the middle. It soaked up the strawberry juices well, too.

This is the first time I've seen a cake that I made in the EBO actually brown on the bottom. I'm thinking a longer cooking time on future cakes is the key.

Okee doke, I'mma go finish my dessert. G'night everyone!

Day Twenty-Two: Who you callin short, cake?!

I'm sorry about that lame title. I think having to wake up earlier than normal today has depleted my clever reserves.

I have, in my refrigerator right now, two pints of strawberries. I also have, in my email right now, the link to a roasted strawberry shortcake recipe.

So guess what I'll be making tonight?

The "shortcake" bit of the recipe seems to be a lot like my grandma's "easy way" biscuits, just with a little more sugar, the addition of vanilla, and a couple of important differences. The shortcake recipe tells me to whip the heavy cream before mixing it into the flour, and to just use the all purpose flour/baking powder combo vs. the self-rising flour. I'm interested to see if there is a difference in the final product in terms of texture.

All that, and not a shred of cheese in sight!

See you tonight!

Day Twenty-One: In which I've officially OD'd on cheese

So, I'm a space cadet. I forgot two things tonight. Not absolutely critical things, but things nonetheless.

I forgot tomato paste, and I forgot to take a before picture. I was distracted by the Netflix movie that has been sitting in its envelope for two months. I finally watched it. "The Sinking of the Santa Isabel," I think. It was about a guy who spends a whole summer living in a tree house.

I'm a little jealous. But then I remind myself that he's an actor, and he didn't REALLY spend his summer in a tree house.

But I digress. (See what I mean?)

Tonight I made a veggie lasagne of sorts.

The recipe:
2 slices of eggplant, sliced to fit the pan
4 spinach leaves
4 or 5 slices of mushroom
1 smallish tomato, sliced
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
(1 T tomato paste, which I forgot, but you will remember, riiiiiiiight?)
3 T of shredded cheese

I roasted the tomato slices in two pans for 30 minutes, then pulled them out of the EBO and whirred them up in the blender with the olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. If you weren't a dingbat like me, you'd also add the tomato paste at this stage.

Then I built the lasagne in layers in this order:

A little sauce
A slice of eggplant
2 spinach leaves
2 mushrooms
Cheese (as much or as little as you want)

I repeated that one more time, and then smooshed the whole shebang down into the pan a little with the bottom of another tart pan and a little pressure. Then I covered the pan with aluminum foil and put it in the Easy Bake for 30 minutes.

When it came out, it looked like this:



It was good. I would make it again, for sure, in a larger form. Oh! And I just realized I forgot another thing. I forgot to season each layer. You should do that. Salt and pepper between each layer of veggies. Not a lot, but trust me, it will make a difference.

The eggplant gave off a lot more liquid than I thought it would, and it made for a kind of soupy sauce. Well, that and the lack of tomato paste. But I'm not dwelling.
The eggplant also shrunk a little bit, so I bet I could have cut the slices a little bit bigger.

I love cheese. I love how it melts, and how it's all cheesy and scrumptious. But, after two days of cheese heavy entrees, I'm thinking that tomorrow I'll make a dessert. NOT cheesecake. ha.

What else did we learn tonight?

Hit pause on the movie while you're cooking. True Story.

G'night ya'll.

Day Twenty-One: Veggie Madness

Sup kids? How's your day? Mine's pretty good so far.

I have a problem, though. I bought a bunch of vegetables that are now quietly and very patiently hanging out in my fridge for me to use, and I haven't done much to acknowledge most of them except to push them out of the way so I can get to other things.

I don't hate them. In fact, quite the opposite. I just haven't seemed to be able to think of anything to do with them.

"That's ridiculous, Jordan!" you say. "The interwebs are full of recipes for vegetables!."

Oh. I know. But I'm a procrastinator, and easily distractable. That's a lethal combination, dontchaknow.

"Ohhh... I'll use that eggplant tomo-- OOOH! shiny thing!"

You know.

So tonight I'm going to use that eggplant. AND the mushrooms. AND the tomatoes. AND the spinach.

It will be sort of a veggie lasagne, with the eggplant slices playing the role of pasta.

I shredded way too much cheese last night, so I'll use the leftover shreds for tonight's entree.

I'm sure it will be fantastic. That's how I roll.

See you tonight!

Day Twenty: One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Yum!

So, I really didn't use three potatoes. I was just trying to be clever.

But I will tell you right now that these Au Gratin Potatoes are the best thing I've made in the Easy Bake so far. Seriously. Effing. Delicious.

The recipe was based on this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. Well, I say "recipe", but she believes in measurements about as much as I do, which is to say, not very much. Here's what I came up with, based mostly on her ingredients list:

1 baby red potato, sliced pretty thinly
1/4 C of heavy cream
1 1/2 T flour
Pinch of salt
3 or 4 grinds of pepper
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 C finely grated cheese (I used a mixture of Manchego and Irish Cheddar)

I followed the "directions" in the recipe, except she uses potato chunks and I used slices for height reasons. Whisk the flour into the cream, then add the garlic, salt, and pepper. Lay down a layer of potatoes and then put about two tablespoons of the cream mixture over them, and keep doing that until you run out of potatoes and cream. I actually had some of the cream mixture left over, but that's no shocker. I have yet to figure out how to make EXACTLY just enough of anything for one tart pan.
Cover the pan with foil and into the Easy Bake for 30 minutes.
Pull the pan out of the EBO and remove the foil. At this point, the cream had thickened and the potatoes were already cooked through.



Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of cheese over the top, and put it back into the oven for 10 more minutes, until the cheese melts.



So, I know at least one of my readers doesn't like cheese, so all that ooey gooey-ness might not seem so appealing, for a person who LOVES CHEESE, especially the particular cheeses I was using, this turned out just about as close to perfect as a potato dish can.



The potatoes were cooked through and tender, but were NOT AT ALL MUSHY. They held their shape, despite having soaked up all that delicious creamy sauce. I will absolutely, definitely make a full sized version of this recipe, calories and fat grams be damned because seriously... THIS potato whore was sat-is-fied.

I only wish I had made more.

G'night kids!

Day Twenty: One of those days

Work has been super busy today, so I haven't really had a chance to check in until now.

But I'm here now! Wheee!!

Tonight I'm going to attempt au gratin potatoes. I have a few little red potatoes, a few different kinds of cheese (I DID find some manchego in the "odds and ends" basket, and I DID do a little happy dance in the middle of the store over it) to work with, and I think just enough heavy cream to do an EBO sized portion.

I'm a big ole potato whore, so I'm pretty stoked about this one. Yes, I said potato whore. Yes, that does mean I will pretty much do anything for deliciously prepared potatoes. Fortunately, since I know how to cook, I really only have to do it to myself.

Wait. Ermm.

AWK-warrrrrrrrrd.

Moving along...

So tonight we'll au gratin the heck outta some taters, ya'll!

See you tonight!

Day Nineteen: Just a little more

And now... Sweet Potato Chicken... Shtuff.

The recipe

Crust
2 T finely crushed vegetable chips (the kind I have consist of beet, carrot, sweet potato, and taro chips with dried green beans, which is weird, but oddly tasty)
1 tsp olive oil

I just mixed the crushed chips and the oil together and pressed the mixture into the bottom of the pan.



It baked for 10 minutes.



I think the picture makes the crust look a little burned, but I didn't think it was. 8 minutes probably would have done it, though.

The filling was inspired by this recipe. I used:
1/8 of a peeled sweet potato, sliced
1 1/2 T heavy cream
1/2 an egg yolk
1 T plain yogurt
1 pinch sea salt
3 or 4 grinds pepper
1 big pinch Chinese 5 Spice
Shredded, pre-cooked chicken

I put the sweet potato slices in the pan and poured the cream on top, then put it into the EBO for about 15 minutes until the potatoes were softened.
Then, I mushed the sweet potatoes up, and added the rest of the ingredients except the chicken, and spread the filling on top of the crust. The chicken was shredded into pieces by hand and sort of smooshed down into the sweet potato mixture.



It cooked for about 35 minutes.



The sweet potato bit was tasty, for sure. I think the filling could have used just a touch more salt, but I was pleased with the end result. The Chinese 5 Spice gave the sweet potatoes just a little more personality, but this was definitely NOT a sweet filling. The chicken was dark meat, and stayed pretty moist. The crust, by the time it came out, WAS probably a little overcooked. It wasn't all that crispy, either, but it wasn't inedible. I was trying to avoid using the butter that is traditional in these kinds of crusts, but I think it probably would have made a difference in helping the crust to get crispy and stay that way.

I would like to make this as a full sized pie or tart. I think the recipe could have been adapted much more easily to a savory dish if I had been able to make it with the full measurements of ingredients.

Annnd... I think I'm going to lie in front of the fan and cool off, now. Good night, kiddos.

Day Sixteen Part Deux: Vous les vous... um... something

So I'm a bazillion years late with the results and recipes and whatnots. Let's not dwell, yeah?

So, I was attempting to make a dessert that echoes the flavours of coffee and beignets. I sort of succeeded.

Since beignets are fried, I wasn't going to get the crispy outside without using something OTHER than the EBO. Traditional beignets are basically square, fried donut type things, and you can't really fry in the Easy Bake. But, I tried to get a sweet dough that would turn into a sweet, bready "crust" type thing with maybe a little bit of crunch by loosely following this recipe, which is basically a yeastless version of the dough, or a petit choux dough, minus the cooking it on the stove. Confused yet?

What I ended up with was:
1/3 C of all purpose flour
2 1/2 T Sugar
1 egg
1 T softened butter

I mixed the flour and sugar together, then made a little well in the middle, cracked the egg into it, and incorporated it until the dough just came together. Then, I mixed in the softened butter. I smooshed about half the dough into the bottom of the buttered tart pan...


...and baked it for about 10 minutes.


The meringue was pretty easy to put together, using this recipe as inspiration. I couldn't find a recipe that used brewed coffee, but just as if the food sample gods realized I would need a little help, I received a sample of Starbucks Via in the mail today.

The recipe I used was:
1 egg white
1 pinch of cream of tartar
2 T sugar
1 tsp Starbucks Via instant coffee

I basically just followed the directions in the recipe to make the meringue, and then piped it onto the "beignet" crust and put it back into the EBO.



It was in there for about 10 minutes when I started to wonder exactly how hot it's supposed to get inside an EBO. I looked it up and discovered that the temperature when the oven is fully pre-heated can be between 325 and 375. So, at 15 minutes I pulled the dessert out of the main oven and put it into the warming chamber. My digital meat thermometer told me the temp inside the warming chamber was about 170-ish, which is much closer to the 200 - 250 degrees I saw in pretty much every meringue recipe I read. So, I left the dessert in there for about another 15 minutes.



Forgive the fingerprints on top. That's from me sticking my fingers on top to check for doneness.

The crust turned out kind of like a cookie. It wasn't as sweet as I thought, which is a good thing. In terms of tasting like a beignet... eh. Maybe a little. Enough for the purposes of this experiment, but I'd definitely like to try this recipe again to make the real deal.

The meringue was kind of soft, but still... umm... meringue-y? It tasted really good, and the coffee flavour definitely came through, but because the EBO doesn't really allow for tall desserts it really was a pretty thin layer. Maybe one day when I have a couple hours to kill, I'll make more meringue and let it sit in the warming chamber until it dries out and does what it's spozed to in a much larger dollop.

I will definitely use this recipe to make meringue cookies, though.

And that, folks, is the slightly anti-climactic Day Sixteen dessert recipe. Worth the trouble, but worth the wait? You be the judge.

Day 19: In Which I Have Overwhelming Guilt

I'm sorry. I keep... not being able to post.

I don't feel bad about the actual social life I seem to be having every weekend, but I do feel bad that I'm not keeping up here.

Tonight I'll present you with the Day 16 recipe I promised three days ago, as well as a new recipe for today.

I'm going to do something with sweet potatoes. I have this idea... I bought these veggie chips at Sunflower Market last week, and I have just enough of them left to crunch up and make a sort of crust out of. I also have a sweet potato, which I will dice up and attempt to "saute" in the EBO until the pieces are soft enough to mash, and then do something with the smooshed sweet potato, chicken, and maybe a few other ingredients thrown into the mix.

So it will be a sort of, savory sweet potato and chicken dinner pie. I'm a little unsure about this one, but I can kind of taste the flavours in my head and if I can pull it off, it will be delicious.

So. I will see you tonight, for dinner and dessert.

Later taters! Have a great day!

Day Sixteen: Gimme Coffee!

Today is going to be interesting. I have a plan for what I want to make, but I'm actually going out tonight and I don't know when I'll be home to make it. So, I am promising you right now that there WILL be a Day Sixteen recipe, but it might not be posted until sometime tomorrow, depending on when I get home tonight. Or tomorrow morning.

So what's the plan, Stan?

I'm going to attempt meringue. Coffee meringue, specifically. Due to the height constrictions on the EBO, I'm going to have to be a little creative with how it looks. I have this lovely, brand new can of chicory coffee from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, brought back to me by my boss from a recent business trip, and I'm determined to do more than just make a cup of coffee with it. I'm almost wondering if I could do a "beignet" type crust with the chicory meringue on top.

hmmm... I think you just witnessed inspiration striking right before your very eyes!

So that's what I'll attempt, either later tonight or early in the morning, and I will post the results as Day Sixteen.

Later taters!

Day Fifteen: Here's what

Well hello there!

So my company is still here, so I'm trying not to be rude by being on the computer for too long, but I wanted to share the most delicious dessert I just made.

It's not really anything complicated, but hellz yeah!

Sorry. I was apparently just channeling a teenager circa 1996.

So, I'm not sure what you'd call it. I'd ALMOST call it a crumble type thing, but I didn't really use enough crunchies to call it that.

Here's the Recipe:
1 Apricot, cut into sections
a handful (i have small hands) of blueberries
3/4 of a tablespoon of sugar
1 healthy drizzle of balsamic vinegar
1 pat of butter, broken into pieces
1 T any kind of granola (i used blueberry flax)

I buttered the pan a little, and then lay the apricot sections in the pan, arranged the blueberries around them, drizzled the balsamic on top, and then sprinkled the sugar all over it. Then I sprinkled the granola on top and put it in the Easy Bake.



I left it in there for 30 minutes without checking it once. Good call, me! When I pulled it out, the fruit had broken down and the butter and sugar had melted together and mixed with the balsamic and omg yummmmm. The granola was still crunchy, too!



I still have no idea what to call this, but I loved it. I think I would love it better over ice cream, but I'm telling you-- dee-lish-uzz.

And that's that, folks. i'm off to... do something sociable. With the actual person in my apartment.

Day Fifteen: Holy Crap

You guyyyyyyyyyyyys. Work has been ridiculous. I've finally whittled down my pile to a manageable amount for what's left in my day, so I'm taking a few minutes. Just a few. TYPE FASTER JORDAN!!!

Truth be told, I have no idea what I'm making tonight. I'm having company for dinner and I'm not going to force them into an Easy Bake dinner because, well, it takes a long time and I'm pretty sure they'd like to eat at a reasonable hour.

So I'll make some sort of something, and I'll let you know how it goes.

How's that for vague?

I just didn't want you to think I had forgotten about you. I don't want any of my readers to have abandonment issues.

So. I'll see you later tonight. With something, of some sort, that has been prepared in some way, and baked to delicious perfection, I'm sure.

Peace!