National S'mores Day!

Today (Sunday August 10) was National S'mores Day!


I started preparing on Saturday, making marshmallows. The Alton Brown recipe has been my favorite so far.

Then I made graham crackers from one of my favorite cookbooks, Homemade Pantry.

When the graham crackers came out of the oven, I set the pans on cooling racks and immediately put chocolate and marshmallow on them. This way the chocolate would melt, then cool with the cracker and become one.

I assembled them this way to transport more easily to work tomorrow.

This photos are showing me that I seriously need a better camera than just my phone if I want to take better food photos!

I really wanted to roast these marshmallows over the fire pit, but I'm having a S'mores party in a couple weeks to celebrate my birthday, so I'll wait until then. For which I have plans to make marshmallows and I'm thinking about making a S'mores tart. Graham cracker crust, chocolate ganache topped with marshmallow creme and toasted via culinary torch!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake -OR- How to use up your giant zucchini

This cake means summer, and also has been m birthday cake pretty much every year for as long as I can remember. It is a cake with no frosting, and is probably why I love cake and dislike frosting.

1/2 cup soft butter

1 & 3/4 cup sugar (sometimes I reduce this down to 1 cup when I'm going for "healthy" cake)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (you can replace some or all of this with applesauce

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour milk (to make this, pour a little lemon juice in the 1/2 cup and then fill with milk)

2 & 1/2 cups flour, sifted

4 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t cloves

2 cup zucchini, grated

1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips

 

Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer or large bowl. Add oil, eggs, vanilla and sour milk and blend. Mix together all dry ingredients in medium sized bowl and beat well into wet mixture.  Stir in zucchini.  Spoon mixture, and smooth top, into greased and floured 9 x 13  pain; sprinkle top with chocolate chips.  Bake at 325 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes.

I need to get a better camera than my phone. No frosting allowed, I love this cake!

Weekend! Ice Cream!

I finally cleaned up my room, put away the sewing projects, got the closet (which is filled to the brim) to close so that my unfinished projects aren't taunting me. I set up a table with all my study materials to take my Architecture Registration Exam tests. There are 7 tests, I haven't started any of them but I hope to complete them in 2 years. I have laid out a rough schedule, and I'm starting officially studying when I get back from NYC. The study plan is 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week, plus extra on the weekends if I feel like it. I will be signing up for my first test soon. They cost $210 a piece which means I need to save up a bit for it and work it into my budget!

I made my favorite rich chocolate ice cream during the week and finally got around to freezing it this weekend. I did the bowl in the freezer with occasional stirring method. The ice cream maker I have is super loud and I don't feel like it actually works that well :/

Rich Chocolate Ice Cream

Combine in saucepan:
  1 1/2c heavy cream
  1 1/2c whole milk

bring to a boil and whisk in
  1/2c cocoa powder

remove from heat and add
  4oz chopped dark chocolate (I use the Trader Joe's 72% bar)

In a glass measuring cup whisk together
  4 large egg yolks
  3/4c granulated sugar

Take 1 cup of the chocolate mixture and pour it into the egg mixture WHILE STIRRING. If you don't stir quickly enough you will cook the egg and end up with bits of scrambled egg! Once the egg/chocolate mixture
is uniformly combined, pour it into the chocolate mixture in the saucepan, while stirring. Then add
  1tsp vanilla

Put the custard in the fridge overnight (or 4 hours) and then freeze with your ice cream machine or in a bowl in the freezer stirring frequently until it solidifies and then placing in a closed container.

And now I'm starting a model of a play structure I'm making for the Habitat Gala that I'm trying to help out with, even though I won't be in town for it! I have about a week to finish it and my studying plans begin when I return from NY.

Mostly-Paleo Freezer Bars

These are not wholey paleo with the addition of the chocolate but good for a treat! A small treat since it's all nuts and seeds! Inspired by my aunt's bars.

All nuts are unsalted and raw:
1/2 c Hazelnuts
1/2 c Almonds
1/2 c Walnuts
1/2 c Cashews
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c dry shredded coconut
2 heaping spoonfuls raw honey
3 heaping spoonfuls coconut oil
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Blend together in food processor (slowly adding each nut might get you a finer texture and more even mix).
Press into an even layer in an 8" x 8" pan

Nut mixture pressed into the bottom of the pan

In a double boiler, melt
approximately 14 ounces of chocolate
2 Tbsp butter

Pour melted chocolate over nut layer, evenly spread with rubber spatula making sure not to disturb nut layer below. Let come to room temperature then place in freezer.

Melty chocolate spread evenly

Once it's been frozen for a while (I waited overnight but I'm sure a couple hours would be fine) cut out a small slice! They are pretty rich bars and they do need to be kept in the freezer to keep from becoming gooey piles of nuts and chocolate. You might be able to do without the chocolate and keep a bar form but with more coconut oil. Because coconut oil is solid when it's cold and liquid when it's warm it can be used as a binder.

The first bite was delicious!

Experiment with whatever nuts or seeds you have on hand or prefer. My aunt was making bars like this all last summer and they were a great dessert or mid afternoon snack, one little bar and you're good! She didn't have a recipe so when I asked her how to make it, she explained a very organic process in which she used whatever she felt like using! I wanted to write it down so that if it worked and I liked it, I could re-create and share :)