B is for Baked Oatmeal Cups

I am a big fan of oatmeal and love to have it in the mornings before work, but I am not a big fan of the wait time involved if I cook it on the stove.  I don't like overnight oatmeal because it just seems so soggy and cold.  I DO like baked oatmeal because it's got a firmer, more cake-like consistency and it reheats nicely when I'm in a hurry.  I decided to do a little experiment with baked oatmeal in silicone muffin cups tonight with the intention of heating up a cup or two each day this week before jumping in the car on my way to school.

Baked Oatmeal

3 cups oats
2 cups skim milk
3/4 c. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. melted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon into muffin cups until 3/4 full.  Bake at 375º for about 25 minutes.  The oatmeal will not be firm or completely dry;  it has a moist consistency but can hold its shape when you pop it out of the silicone muffin cup.  

I topped the unbaked cups with all sorts of goodies- pecans, blueberries, frozen peach slices and blackberries, flax seed, raisins, butterscotch chips, and dried papaya.  I would say that a few of these toppings should just be added AFTER cooking because they lose their good looks in the oven.  If I made these again, I'd skip on the blackberries and blueberries because they bleed into the oatmeal mixture and look unappetizing even if they taste fine.  

Just out of the oven, these oatmeal cups were very tasty!  I hope they'll be just as delicious when I'm reheating them this week for breakfast.

F is for Flippin' Amazing Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is a rare dish at my house, but from time to time, it's a real treat.  Peter discovered the most fabulous recipe in Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook and he set to work.  He brined, he soaked, dipped, battered, and fried like a pro this weekend!  I watched from a distance since this was absolutely Peter's project, but I'll say for certain that all the work paid off;  even though it took a lot of time and ingredients, the fried chicken was the best I've ever had.  For this brilliant recipe, click on this link to Epicurious.





A few fried chicken notes:
We made 1/2 the brine recipe because we made one medium sized chicken (4 lbs) instead of two smaller ones (2 lbs, as Thomas Keller suggests).  We noticed that the smaller pieces of meat were significantly saltier because of the brine, so if we did it again, maybe I'd soak the wings and legs for less time overall.

With the leftovers, we made yeast waffles and topped them with some sliced up fried chicken and a drizzle of local maple syrup.  Holy moly!

P is for Pizza

Today as I was rattling off things to make for dinner, Peter asked if we could just order a pizza.  No, we will not just order a pizza!  It might be a big day for football playoffs, but I've been wanting to make my own pizza dough & I simply can't have Dominos do the job for me.

Because I've never made my own dough, I needed a true side-by-side comparison so that I'll know in the future if the homemade dough trouble is really worth it.  Yeast, kneading, rising, resting, etc...it's definitely more complicated than the wonderfully simple can of pizza dough.  God bless you, Pillsbury, but I need a new challenge!  I made one pizza using a can of refrigerated dough on a cookie sheet and one pizza using homemade dough on our pizza stone.

 The homemade dough didn't rise as much as I thought, and I was quite nervous about the "activeness" of my yeast.  However, the dough rose nicely in the oven at 425 and it was sturdy enough to support lots of delicious toppings- pepperoni, onions, green pepper, zucchini, and some spinach.  The homemade dough's crust by itself wasn't as delicious, but it looked a bit more appealing.  The canned dough was softer, but not as thick, and had good flavor, but not as much as the homemade.  When I blindfolded Peter, he guessed incorrectly as to which was homemade and he said that he preferred the homemade (when he thought it was the canned!).

So, I think the homemade pizza dough is worth it.  Here's the recipe incase you want to try it:


Pizza Dough

adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook


1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups flour (I used 1 c. all purpose & 1 c. whole wheat)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 Tbsp. kosher salt


Combine the water, yeast, vinegar, & olive oil in your stand mixer with a dough hook.  Mix until just blended and then add 1 cup of flour.  In a different bowl, mix together the rest of the flour, sugar, and salt.  Add the dry mixture slowly to your wet dough and beat slowly until thoroughly combined.  Mix for 2 minutes more at medium speed.


Put the dough ball in an olive-oiled bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel.  Let it rest at room temp for 30 minutes.


Roll out the dough on a floured counter and cover with a damp kitchen towel.  Let it rest for 10 minutes, and then top it with your favorite sauce, cheese, and veggies or meat.


I cooked the pizza at 425 for 15 minutes.  The book suggests 500 for 10 minutes, but they also divide the dough to make smaller personal pizzas.  To each his own!

A is for Apple. B is for Baking. C is for Cooking.

I have been reading food blogs and taking pictures of my own creations for a long time.  It's now, the beginning of a new year, that I am ready to enter the world of food blogging and share a little bit of what goes on in my kitchen.

I am 25 years old and live and work in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I went to the University of Virginia and got a job teaching 3rd grade at a school that I fell in love with while volunteering.  Although I enjoy teaching and can't see myself really doing anything else, I also love the way that cooking and baking help me escape the stresses of my job.  When I'm cooking, I don't have to give directions, repeat myself, or look around for confused faces; I don't have to be perky or even professional.  I can just be me!

I got married in May of 2010 to my man of five years--Peter.  He enjoys what goes on in our kitchen and he's a willing guinea pig, but he's also a meat n' potatoes kind of guy.  He'd be perfectly content with a regular meal rotation of pot roast, spaghetti with meat sauce, beef stew, hamburgers and macaroni & cheese.  The classics!  He isn't like this every day of the year, but I can count on Peter to enjoy the standard fare as well as the deluxe dishes that come out of my kitchen.  I like to try new things regularly and experiment with fresh ingredients whether they're local, in season, or just calling to me from a grocery store display.  I get my inspiration from cook books, food blogs, my travels, food network, and from my foodie friends.  I'd like to invite you to join me in my kitchen for some exciting dishes (and probably some laughable failures as well).  Let's do this!