My Favorite Guacamole

I LOVE guacamole. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

My favorite recipe is simple:

avacados

finely chopped onion

finely chopped cilantro

fresh lime juice

salt

tomatoes

I add the ingredients to taste - for each avacado, I usually squeeze in one lime, add about a tablespoon each of onion and cilantro, pinch in a sprinkle of salt, and stir in about a half cup of tomatoes. I like to mash the avacados with a masher (best tool ever!) and leave them a little chunky. I stir in the tomatoes at the end. I encourage you (whoever you are) to experiment with guacamole and find your favorite combination of ingredients!!

A Simple Supper

Lately, Jamie and I have been keeping it simple. One of our favorite dinners is quick and easy quesadillas with beans and cheese. Of course, we love some guacamole on the side too, and I have found that there are limitless ways to throw together an awesome guac. I'll be posting my favorite recipe soon!

To make bean and cheese quesadillas, all you do is spread refried (or black) beans (from a can) onto a tortilla and sprinkle cheese on top. I like to add some pickled jalapenos as well for a little extra flavor and spice. Then, you grill them on each side in a pan sprayed with olive oil spray or greased with butter.

Super easy and super delicious!!

The Best Margaritas

Since moving to Massachusetts, I've mourned the loss of my favorite drink in Austin - the Mexican Martini. I've settled on the following method of margarita making to satisfy my margarita cravings when they come. It is a simple recipe that requires only four ingredients:

Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

Agave Syrup

Tequila (100% de agave is best)

Orange Juice

We don't use triple sec because we never have it and I prefer not to buy it.

You need a few other things to make the margaritas:

A shotglass (preferably with a longhorn on the front), a shaker, fresh lime slices, ice, and martini glasses.

Oh yeah, and you need salt too!

Get your glasses ready. This recipe makes 2 margaritas.

Shake together the following ratio of ingredients over ice:

3 shots tequila

1 shot agave syrup

1 shot orange juice

2 shots lime juice

Shake, shake, shake, and then pour...

... and enjoy!

Happy Fourth!

This post is super late, but I've been super busy :)

Every year I love to make a flag cake for the fourth of July. No matter where I am or what my plans include, I somehow always manage to make a patriotic cake. This year, I made angel food cake (from a box - thanks Duncan Hines!) and topped it with freshly whipped cream (I can no longer purchase cool whip after reading the ingredients), sliced strawberries, and blueberries. It looked beautiful and tasted absolutely wonderful.

If I have more time next year, I'll make one of those cakes that looks like a flag when you cut into it:

Glorious Treats Flag Cake

Baked French Toast

A while back, I made baked french toast.

It's really easy to make and quite delicious! I adapted the recipe from Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Baked French Toast, and you could adapt it however you would like to, too. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 loaf crusty bread (old bread that is not yet moldy works great!)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 T vanilla
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/8 t. salt
• 1/2 stick butter, cut into cold pieces

Method:

Spray a round pie pan with olive oil spray. Cut bread into cubes and spread in pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour over bread. Let soak for at least 15 minutes, up to overnight.

In another bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the butter pieces into the dry mixture until it looks like fine pebbles.

Sprinkle flour/butter mixture over the bread mixgture. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

Serve with fresh berries,

and REAL maple syrup :)

Baguette

This recipe will change your life. Forever.

I was inspired by Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and it can inspire you too! I used my library copy for weeks before buying the book myself since it is full of recipes I wanted to try.

I changed up the basic recipe a bit (I half it and use slightly different methods), but I have found the book to be an invaluable guideline for baking times and inspiration for variations.

To make the dough, mix 1 1/2 c. of warm water with 3/4 T of yeast, 3/4 T of salt, and 1/2 T of sugar*. Stir in 3 1/4 c. of flour, and keep stirring until you have a moist dough. Let it rise for 2 or more hours and then put it in the fridge for up to two weeks. SO EASY!! I do this in my standing mixer, but you can also mix it by hand.

*To yield more dough (will make 4 loaves), use 3 c. warm water, 1 1/2 T yeast, 1 1/2 T salt, 1 T sugar, and 6 1/2 c. flour.

You can use this dough to make pizzas, pita bread, baguette, and more!

I am going to show you how to make it into baguette.

First take the dough out of the refrigerator,

and sprinkle some flour on top.

Sprinkle some flour onto a work surface as well.

Pull out chunks of dough and shape them into baguette loaves.

Let the loaves rest for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Just before baking, brush the top of the loaves with water and slice them with a sharp knife.

Slide them onto a baking sheet that is HOT (preheat it (and a broiler pan - see below) along with the oven) and bake the loaves for 20-25 minutes. To keep the bread from sticking to the pan, you can coat it with cornmeal, spray with olive oil, or use parchment paper.

When you put them in the oven, it is helpful to create some steam to give the bread a crispy crust and soft interior, so you should preheat the oven with a broiler pan on the bottom rack and pour 1 c. of hot water into it right after you place the bread into the oven. It will get all steamy inside! DO NOT use a glass pan or this will happen:

Accidents aside, after 25 minutes, extremely delicous bread will emerge from your oven.

I'll say it again - it will change your life!!!

Just give it a try :) Thanks to Lisa for telling me about this wonderful recipe!

Cooking for a Crowd

Wow, this is a super busy time of year!

A couple of weeks ago, Jamie and I spent the week cooking finals dinners for the students of Conner 5, and ever since then I've been busy with other things and haven't had time to post about it, or anything else for that matter. 

We cooked for about 20 people each night - we had pasta night, taco night, hummus + falafel night (we ordered in for that!), and a pancake breakfast. I wanted to take lots of pictures (ha!), but I found that when cooking for 20 you don't exactly have a lot of extra time or energy to devote to picture taking :)

To go with the pasta dinner, I made home-made loaves of bread (which I will post how to make very soon!):

We served chips, salsa, and guacamole with the tacos. The students loved the freshly made guac!

To go with our catered falafel dinner, we put together a huge salad:

And one of the desserts we made were some delectable chocolate covered strawberries.

I washed and dried all of the srawberries,

and then dipped them in either white or dark Bakers chocolate.

They were delicious and super simple!