Happy Birthday You Glorious Man

A picture a day - summer toes

DIY Monday!

One sunny Monday my darling roommate, our friend, and myself decided to have a DIY day!  I had been wanting to try to make a nifty little thing I found for the short period pinterest ruled my life....

A pyramid studded bra, genius!  Unfortunately, like everything cool on pinterest, the website that was selling it was sold out.  Slowly over time I was about to find a black bra similar to the picture at h&m (<3) and thanks to one of my ex-coworkers and legendary punk master I was about to get pyramid studs at StudsandSpikes.com.  I've never studded anything before and honestly had no clue how to do it, but with a big needle and some needle nose pliers i was able to hammer out a pretty decent knock off.

If I wasn't so lazy I could probably sell these on etsy

There was also lots of tie-dying that day, but I forgot to take photos of that mayham...

All the Breakfast Muffins!

BreakfastPullAparts&BlueBerryMuffins


What a busy week!  I was able to make two of my favorite recipes in one week :)  To start off I made my absolute favorite recipe for Blueberry Muffins courtesy of Alton Brown.  He uses greek yogurt in the muffins that gives them a great texture and unique taste.  The recipe is so good that I barely made an changes to it.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Heavy pinch salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• Vegetable spray, for the muffin tins

Directions

Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 cup blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin pans. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

These are probably my all-time favorite breakfast food.  My mom made them for me when I was in high school and I immediately adapted her recipe.  Traditionally they are made in a 9x13 baking pan, but it was always a pain for me to scrape the bottom of the pan and have enough for everyone who wanted some so I started making them in muffin cups!


Bacon Cheese Pull-Aparts

• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 cans Grands flaky layers refrigerated biscuits
• 2 pkg. bacon bit pieces
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2/3 cup finely chopped green onions - green & white parts (about 6 medium)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray paper muffin cups of a standard size muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.  In large bowl, beat eggs and milk together with a wire whisk until smooth.  Separate dough into 16 biscuits, cut each into quarters.  Gently stir biscuit pieces into egg mixture to coat evenly.  Fold in bacon, cheese and onions.  Place two of the covered biscuit quarters in each muffin cup.  Bake at 350º for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

I also took the time to make some vegetarian ones for my veggie friends.  I just mixed everything without the bacon.

In other busy news here's a small week review of other things I did:

That little dude is Theodore, I got to play with him on Friday night at my friends party!! He's the cutest.  I tried to steal him at the end of the night, but my friend chased me down.  On Valentine's Day I headed up to the Starbuck's I worked at for almost two years and was greeted with an amazing cupcake from my ex-coworker.  I really do love that Starbucks crew, they are the best.  Also my fish, Bert, was diagnosed with a yellow bubble thing on his tail.  I honestly have no clue what it is, but it seems to have subsided for the moment.  Lastly Sara and I had a brilliant DRUNK KITCHEN last Friday, It was incredible.  It was also my Valentine's Dinner for my best friend in the world!  There was a loooooot of alcohol and I woke up to caring for a friend who drank waaaay too much with us.  House rules state, if you wake up with a hangover I will make you breakfast, which was eaten in my bed.... Thanks for that one....

Boston Cream Pie ~togo~

This weekend I had the brilliant idea to make boston cream pie macaroons.  I found recipes for the filling, and the ganache, and the macaroon cookies and went out and got all the the ingredients (Almond flour: surprisingly easy to find if a giant Whole Foods is near your house).  My attempt at macaroons failed so incredibly terribly that I changed up my game plan: Cake Cookies it is.

There are a few things you need to do to make these bad boys, but I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! 

Yellow Cake Cookies

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove 3 tablespoons from the cake mix and set aside.  Add eggs and oil to cake mix and combine until smooth. If mix is too wet, add more dry mix. Drop in one inch balls on ungreased cookie sheet or baking pan.  Bake for approximately 7 minutes or until slightly browned, being careful not to overcook.

Boston Cream Pie Filling:

• 2 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 to 15 minutes. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining hot milk mixture, reserving the empty saucepan.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool slightly. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. (The custard can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Refrigerate until 1 hour before using.)

Ganache

 

• 14 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
• 1½ cups heavy cream

Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely dissolved. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. 

 To assemble you just take the cookies in sets of two and place them open faced.  To get the filling on the cookies I used a pastry bag, it's quick and easy and doesn't make a mess. Lastly dip your cookie sandwiches into the ganache.  After a few minutes the ganache will start to harden slightly, just microwave the ganache for 15 seconds and it will become a thinner consistancy.

Happy Cooking! :)

Trees Fall

The other day at my roommates parent's house (aka the Tramp's) a branch had broken off because of the wind.  Her dad ended up pulling the branch out of the tree it was stuck on and demolishing the front yard.  In our effort to clean it up me cut some beautiful wood for their fireplace.

Also, this is my cat, Rupert.  He likes the extra space at the Tramp house

I am a Smarsh

Hello!

I am a Smarsh!

I live in LA!

and I love cooking, taking photos, art, music,

being silly, my cat rupert, my bestie and roommate, and my life.

I'm going to put lots of stuff on here.