Bites of My Life

Settling into school, cooking, baking and more cooking and baking, and winding down from a long weekend. These are the current happenings of my life. 

A long weekend means a short week, but it is especially short for me because I'm ducking out early and heading back to D.C. on Thursday! You can imagine my excitement. More on that trip in next week's bites!

Life is funny, like when you get corn delivered to you from Colorado because a friend knows you "can turn it into something awesome." Life is delicious, like when you get to have a handful of your best friends to your parents house for the yummiest Labor Day feast. Lastly, life is great, like when you are finding peace in the little things and constant happiness in the recent days. 

-Corn cakes with zucchini salsa. The creation I cooked up with my Colorado corn.

-Leftovers on my back deck made reading for Women and Gender Studies much more bearable. 

-I bought a batch of zucchini for zucchini bread and the salsa on my corn cakes, but luckily had some extra for spur of the moment zucchini fries. Check back today for the recipe!

-Friday nights are for girlfriends and platters of sushi. 

-Saturdays in Norman are back, thank goodness!

-Checked CousCous Cafe off my Oklahoma restaurant list with zaalook, falafel and grape leaves.

To avoid overloading your bite intake I split up our Labor Day feast into its own big bite! It's apparent my family loves to cook and eat, but it was even better getting to cook and eat with some of my best gal pals for a little long weekend evening in OKC.

-Chips and dips being attacked by some hungry guhls.

-I give mom and dad almost all the credit for the food, but I did make the amazing brussels sprout coleslaw. 

-Smoked pulled pork, chicken and sausage sided with baked beans, corn casserole, tabouli, cole slaw and fruit salad. 

-Our own version of the name game. 

-Kudos to Pie Junkie for their incredible peach/blueberry and french silk pie paired with our homemade ice cream to send us into the happiest of food comas.

-Worked off our feast with a little laughing ab workout!

Life is good people.

Annie

Cinnamon Veggie Bread

Cinnamon veggie bread--I know that sounds disgusting but ultimately that's what zucchini bread is and I just wanted a way to grab y'alls attention.  Zucchini bread is kind of like carrot cake. What ultimately tastes like a flavorful spice cake actually has vegetables and added nutrients hiding inside! I love my veggies, but love them even more when they are baked up with sugar and flour! 

After having the best zucchini bread of my life this summer from Baked and Wired, it went straight to the top of my baking list.  I raved about this bread so much I was surprised with a platter full of their zucchini bread at my internship going away party. 

I searched around to see if Baked and Wired had their zucchini bread recipe somewhere out in the Internet world, but they seem to have their recipes locked up. I then turned to my trusty food resource, The Kitchn to find an alternate recipe.  If you ever need to find a recipe, a way to cook  certain ingredient or want to know what's new in the food world, check out  The Kitchn. 

Zucchini Bread adapted from The Kitchn
Yields 2 loaves*

Ingredients: 
2 medium sized zucchini, shredded
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 egg
1 cup white sugar
½  cup brown sugar, packed
¾ olive or canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line two 8 x 4 loaf pans with parchment paper. Trim the stem and root-end form the zucchinis and shred on a box grater. Gather the zucchini in a dishtowel or a few layers of paper towels, squeeze out as much of the moisture from the zucchini as possible.

Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and spices in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, olive oil, and vanilla extract.

Toss the zucchini in the flour mixture. Pour the liquids over top. Gently stir and fold just until no more flour is visible. Divide the batter between the two loaf pans.

Bake 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. The finished loaves should have a golden-brown crust and feel springy if you give the top a little pat. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Loaves will keep in an airtight container for several days. They can also be wrapped in foil and frozen for up to three months. Thaw in the fridge overnight or in a warm oven for 20 minutes.

*I halved this recipe and it still turned out great. After my loaf disappeared in a few short hours I wish I hadn’t, but just know that you can half it! 

Annie

Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

A fabulous combination. I've had these 

cookies

 pinned since back in December, then after my sweet friend Molly made 

them

 in April, they were on my radar again. I finally got around to making them and thank goodness I did. I originally found this recipe after going pistachio crazy around the holidays. My mom had bowls of them around the house and my sister and I would stand there and gorge on the whole bowl.

Note to self-buy the already shelled pistachios next time I make these.  

I made these cookies as a first day of school treat. I think they helped lift spirits of school starting again. 

Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
yields 2 dozen

Ingredients:
1 ½ cup flour
½ tsp. sea salt

¾ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup sugar

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

¾ cup unsalted pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped
1 cup chopped dark chocolate


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Using a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.

Stir in the pistachios and chocolate chunks. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, form tablespoons size balls of cookie dough. Place balls on prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle cookie dough balls with sea salt. Bake cookies for 12 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack and cool completely. Store in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.

Like I said yesterday our neighbors were never around when we tried to deliver our friendly neighbor cookies, so I had two platters full of cookies to share with my friends on the first day of school! 

How to Make a Good First Impression

After my roommates and I moved into our little house we wanted to make a good first impression with our surrounding neighbors. Naturally we made them cookies, because that's what I know best. 

Instead of your traditional oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I baked them into bars. I found this recipe and loved the way they turned out. Hopefully our neighbors did too. 

(Tip* spray your fingers with cooking spray and use your hands to get the dough evenly spread out on the pan!) 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
yields 32 bars 

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups oats
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and beat until combined. Fold in the oats and chocolate chips. Spread in a rimmed 10 x 15 baking pan or jelly roll pan, using a spatula or your hands to press into place. 

Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool, but cut the bars while they are still somewhat warm so a knife will go through them more easily.

One of our sets of neighbors never answered their door after three attempts to deliver their cookies. Their loss, our gain because we were quick to enjoy their plate of cookies! 

Annie

Guest Post: The Only Time You'll See Peanut Butter on Take A Bite

Oh, what a joy it is to be blogging again! I have taken a nice break but was more than ready to do a guest post for Take a Bite. I loved getting back in to the kitchen with a new recipe, camera in hand, and ready to make a mess for the sake of cookies and a blog post. Recipes for a blog always take longer when you factor in the extra minutes of angling your KitchenAid just right, perfectly stacking your cookies, burning a dish towel on the stove, and crawling on furniture to capture your creation just right. I savored each moment knowing that it will only happen every so often.

As much as I love Annie’s blog and drool over every recipe post, there is something huge missing from her recipe index. Peanut butter! I guess she has a good reason, seeing as that she is allergic, but I figured for my first guest post I would offer the followers something that she can’t give you. So I present you Dipped + Crisp Peanut Butter Cookies! I had been holding on to this recipe for a special occasion and a blazing hot, lazy, Sunday afternoon sounds like the perfect event!

I can always count on finding the best recipes from Joy the Baker and not that I will ever get tired of a classic peanut butter cookie, but sometimes you just gotta kick it up a notch. I can assure you that dipping perfect peanut butter cookies in rich, dark chocolate and sprinkling them with honey roasted peanuts and sea salt is a way to kick up a basic cookie and a basic Sunday. I love that cookies can turn around a whole mood and make the last day of the weekend seem more like a treat and less like Monday-Eve. If the cookies aren’t enough to brighten your day, I would recommend listening to Taylor Swift’s new song on repeat. Dance party is not optional.

Dipped + Crisp Peanut Butter Cookies original recipe from one of our favorite food bloggers, Joy the Baker
yields 2 dozen cookies 

Ingredients:

For the Cookies:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for coating
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

For the Topping
8 ounces dark chocolate chunks
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons coarse sea salt
1/3 cup coarsely chopped honey roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions:
In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars on medium speed. Beat for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract egg and beat on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Add the peanut butter and beat until just combined.

Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl, ensuring that all of the wet ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add the dry ingredients all at once. Beat on low speed until just combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and finish mixing with a spatula. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the cookie dough chills, preheat the oven.

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Place about 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a small bowl for coating the dough. Spoon cookie dough by the tablespoonful into the palm of your hand. Gently roll into a ball and coat in sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet and use a fork to mark the cookies with a cross-hatch pattern. Place cookies on the sheet about 1-inch apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes until removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt chocolate and coconut oil in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir until completely smooth and combined. Place in a small but deep bowl for dipping. Place the salt and chopped peanuts in separate bowls near your dipping area. Dip the cookies halfway into the melted chocolate. Place on a parchment lined tray. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and a bit of sea salt. Place in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate. I bagged my cookies up and store them in the refrigerator. Delicious!

Until my next guest post,

Kathleen