Strawberry Hand Pies

For today's recipe I wanted to do something I'd never done before. I have had these hand pies bookmarked for quite some time now and decided to make the strawberry version since we have all these strawberries on hand.

After reading a bunch of the comments about the recipe for the pastry dough, it sounded like it was a pain to deal with. And since it's been hot here in Boston, I didn't want to deal with the repeated chilling of the dough.


I started to think about another dough recipe. I debated just using my go-to pie crust recipe... Then I remembered the Good Eats episode "A Pie in Every Pocket". Alton Brown made handpies (and even used the same dough to make homemade pop-tarts!) Once I found Alton's recipe and read the reviews it looked like this dough would be easier to work with.


I had a lot of fun making a big mess in the kitchen the night I made these. The pastry dough is VERY easy to work with. And quite tasty. After the hand pies cooled, I popped them in the freezer. Hubby and I have been eating them for breakfast. Popping them in the toaster oven at work does the trick for reheating them.

One Year Ago: Corn Tomato and Avocado Salad

Check out my SECOND week of Strawberry Recipes HERE

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My dad came to visit a couple weeks ago to meet his first grandchild, baby B. It was a fun weekend with great weather. Since I rarely see my dad, I decided to bake him something special while he was here.

Now my dad loves rhubarb. Absolutely LOVES it. So naturally, I decided to make something with rhubarb. Another thing my dad loves is pie. I'm actually not a huge fan of pies. And I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because you can't really taste test it before putting it out for everyone to enjoy. I definitely get a boost of confidence when I can actually taste something first.


But even without the taste testing, this pie turned out amazing. I baked it a couple days before we served it and just left it at room temperature covered in foil. I served it with vanilla ice cream and everyone enjoyed it. The only substitution I made was to use 1/4 tsp cardamom instead of the orange peel since I didn't have any oranges on hand.


This was my first lattice pie crust and I have to admit I think it turned out pretty darn nice looking! I just rolled out the pie crust and used a sharp knife to cut strips. Then I started in the middle and worked my way out.


Be sure that you don't overlook the step where you let the strawberries and rhubarb sit in a colander for an hour. It will release a lot of juice from the fruit. If that juice was in the pie, it would make the bottom crust very soggy and the pie would probably be a soupy mess. Sorry for not having any pics of a slice of this pie, I took it over to my brothers and we ate it there. You'll just have to make it yourself to see what the insides look like! It would definitely be worth the effort.

Check out my SECOND week of Strawberry Recipes HERE

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Hubby and I went strawberry picking the other day. I actually had never gone, but we've been going through SO MANY strawberries recently that I thought it would be a good idea. We went with our friends K and A. We drove out to Tougas Farms on Saturday morning. We started with some warm fresh out of the fryer strawberry donuts. They were delicious with just a hint of strawberry. Hubby and I also split a strawberry slush. It was basically just some strawberries blended with some ice. It was very refreshing.


We did get rained on in the middle of our strawberry picking adventures. It wasn't anything horrible but we did get a bit wet. Hubby and I came home with ~12 pounds of strawberries. We figured we'd be able to eat our way through about 6 of those pounds, but to go through the rest, I've decided to highlight even more strawberry recipes this week. So today I'm kicking off a second Week of Strawberry recipes. Be sure to check back each day to see what I'm doing with all these fresh strawberries.


The first thing that these freshly picked strawberries went in to was a cake. Hubby announced this year that he was going to make me a cake for my birthday. I was honestly shocked. Hubby has never baked anything in his life. Growing up with him mom being a great cook and baker, then living with me, he's never been in a position to need to bake something himself. So I was very excited to see how it went.


Hubby asked that I give him a few recipes from my to-bake list and he'd choose from there. I gave him three cake recipes that didn't look too complicated. He chose this Strawberry Shortcake Cake recipe from The Pioneer Woman. He baked the cake the night before and wrapped it in saran wrap and put it in the fridge. The next day, after our fresh strawberries were washed and dried, he continued with the filling and frosting.


This cake was very tasty. We took leftovers to work and I kept having people stop by to thank me for the cake. I had to correct them and tell them that Hubby had made it (we work in the same building). I have to admit, Hubby's cake was awesome. I might commission him out to do some baking for me more often! I was in the kitchen giving him tips, but he did it all himself. Even the frosting of the cake.

This cake did get pretty soggy on day 3. I would definitely serve it the same day you put the strawberry filling in the cake. Definitely let it set for a while so the strawberry filling soaks into the cake layers. The second day, it was also delicious.

Two Years Ago: Inside Out Stuffed Peppers and Ropa Vieja

Check out my SECOND week of Strawberry Recipes HERE

Avon Walk Weekly Update

It's time again for my weekly Avon Walk update. If you'd like to see my full training calendar, check it out here or on the left sidebar of my blog.

Thoughts on training: I've been slacking on my updates on here, but my training has been going ok. I've decided to focus on hill training since San Fran is very hilly. So I'm doing shorter walks up a very hilly road near us. That's been going pretty well.

In other news, I finally got all my gear figured out including my outfit. That's a big sigh of relief!

Thoughts on fundraising: I am lucky to have such generous friends and family members. I have surpassed my goal and can't wait to start fundraising for next year!

Miles walked last week: 6
Minutes doing cardio: 45
Minutes doing cross training or weight lifting: 0
Total $$ raised: $2,789

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far! If you'd like to donate to support my walk, you can make a donation on my Avon Walk page.

And the Winner is...

Thank you everyone who entered the $60 CSN Giveaway last week. Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner...

I used Random.org to generate a random number...



Congratulations Ashley from Delish. Please email me and I will send your gift certificate along so you can get those steak knives you mentioned (or whatever else you're feeling like!)

Chicken and Artichokes in Wine Sauce

Hubby and I have been trying to make new recipes at least once a week for dinner. The past few weeks, we've been kind of just eating the same things over and over again. So each Sunday before I go to the store, we both pick one new recipe. The good thing about having just two of us is that those two recipes usually feed us dinner for four nights out of the week.



I chose this recipe because I love mushrooms. And it looked like a great weeknight meal since it was pretty easy to throw together. The recipe definitely makes enough to have leftovers. I cut the chicken breasts in half so we were able to spread this out to six servings.



I plated this up family style for the pictures. We both really enjoyed the flavors of the mushrooms and artichokes. I use some of my homemade chicken broth in this recipe, which we've almost used up! It's about time for another batch.

One Year Ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Homemade Coleslaw

Cole slaw is hands down one of my favorite side dishes. It's really random, but I just love cole slaw. I don't actually eat coleslaw very often because I'm just not around it much. But in the summertime, it makes an appearance at many cookouts, which I appreciated. I think it's perfect next to a grilled burger or brat and even better on a pulled pork sandwich.



Until this year, I had never even thought to make my own coleslaw. Not sure why, but the thought never crossed my mind. Granted, I never buy coleslaw either. I'm pretty sure I could down a container in a stomach aching amount of time. So it's probably better that I never thought to make coleslaw before...



I've made this recipe 3 times already. Every time, it's a huge hit. It is the perfect coleslaw. And, it's so simple to throw together. I like to mix up the dressing ahead of time and then mix it with the cabbage about an hour before it is going to be served.

One Year Ago: Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Toasts

Another CSN Giveaway

I did a CSN giveaway back in May. If you don't know what CSN Stores is, they are an online store that offers literally everything you could ever need. I'm not even exaggerating one bit. They have everything from sectional sofas to bedding, hammocks to TV stands and everything in between. Seriously, check out this list of their 200 online stores.

So enough about them, lets talk about the giveaway. CSN Stores has asked me to be a CSN Preferred Blogger. So what does that mean for me? Absolutely nothing. What does it mean for you? You get a chance to win a $60 gift card from CSN Stores. Just like that!

Some rules:
- Enter by midnight (EST) Saturday, June 26
- One lucky winner will be chosen at random

To enter, leave a comment answering:
- What would you do with the $60 discount from CSN Stores?

Extra:
- If you'd like to receive a second entry, become a fan of Beantown Baker on Facebook, the leave a second comment saying you're now a fan. If you're already a fan, just leave me a second comment on this post saying you're already a fan.

** Note the $60 gift certificate cannot be applied towards shipping costs

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes

I've had my eye on this chocolate mousse cupcake recipe for quite some time. The cupcakes finally made their way to the top of my must-bake list recently when I needed to bring a dessert to a cookout. The host requested something chocolate and these definitely fit that bill.



The great thing about this recipe is that the batter and the frosting are basically the same thing, so you don't have to worry about making frosting in addition to the cupcake batter. Everyone really enjoyed the chocolateness of these guys. My favorite part was the mousse frosting. It was ridiculous. Even Hubby agreed that it was awesome, and he's quite the chocolate mousse fan.



In the end, the mousse didn't hold it's shape very well after being piped onto the cupcake. Next time (and I'm positive there will be a next time), I think I'll just spread the mousse on the top of the cupcakes with a spatula.

PB&J Omelet

It's a well known fact that I eat some weird things. Well at least that's what Hubby will have you thinking. We saw a girl eating a pickle with ketchup at a restaurant the other night. Now THAT'S a weird food combination.


This one might be pretty weird too... I saw this pop up in my Google Reader and wanted to try it. I already knew I like jelly with eggs. And obviously like peanut butter with jelly. The weirdness comes in when you think about eating peanut butter on eggs... But I'll tell you what, it works.


The warm egg helps to melt the peanut butter and jelly into an ooey gooey deliciousness. I'm pretty sure Hubby has never seen me eat this since I only have it every once and a while when I'm working from home. I'm sure he'd be disgusted even more than when I eat jelly on a breakfast sandwich.


I like to spread the peanut butter on half and the jelly on the other half the fold it over and let it set for a few minutes to melt a bit. I used the strawberry-blueberry jam that I recently made for this omelet.

One Year Ago: Crockpot French Dip Sandwich

30 things to do before I'm 30

Today is my last birthday in my twenties. I made a list a couple years ago of things I wanted to do. I was inspired by Amy and have seen similar lists pop up all over the place. I decided I wanted to make a list of 30 things I need to do before I turn 30. I'll keep you updated on my progress as the year goes on.

Cooking/Baking:

• Bagels
• Marshmallows
• Molten Lava Cakes
• Baked Doughnuts
• Cheesecake
• Indian Meal (chicken tikka masala and naan)
• Sushi
• Continue to bake for a good cause
• Try three foods I've never had

Health/Fitness:

• Get to my goal weight
• Work out on a regular basis
• Complete the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

Boston/Travel:

• Visit at least 3 new cities
• Pack a picnic dinner and see a movie on the Esplanade
• Go to the beach! (can you believe Hubby and I haven't had a beach day since we moved to Boston 3 years ago)
• Go to the Cranberry Festival in October
• Take a spontanious trip with girlfriends

Relationships:

• Talk to younger siblings (A and L) on a regular basis
• Plan/host a girls night (in or out)
• Go visit my little brother's college dorm room
• Meet my friend's babies in the Midwest
• Babysit/Spoil my new nephew as much as I can
• Send birthday cards to my siblings, parents, and nephew
• Plan a date-day with Hubby

Other:

• Take a cooking class
• Read the photography books my dad got me
• Finish all the nearly-complete kitchen projects
• Fully de-clutter our place
• Volunteer for something at least four times
• Plan a Boston area food blogger event

Homemade Chicken Broth and Veggie Chicken Soup in the Crockpot

Remember the chicken that I posted a couple weeks ago? The butterflied and broiled chicken recipe that Hubby loves to make (I think it's because he loves using his big sharp knives). Well it yields a delicious chicken that is sure to impress. But it also yields some great chicken brother and veggie chicken soup.

I read about making homemade chicken broth in a crockpot and was shocked at literally how easy it is. Now I do this every time Hubby makes a chicken and we always have homemade chicken broth in the freezer. Not to mention the pureed veggie soup (Hubby loves taking it in his lunch).

I like to have my crockpot cook overnight and then let the broth cool during the day while we're at work. It takes all day for that pot of deliciousness to cool down enough to be able to handle it.

To start, place all the ingredients in your crockpot and turn it on LOW for about 8-10 hours. Then turn crockpot off and allow to cool another 8-10 hours.


Once the broth has cooked and chilled, place a colander in a large bowl. Pour the contents of the crockpot into the colander so it catches all the solid veggies and bones.


Next, if you plan to make the pureed veggie soup, sort through what's in the colander. Place the bones in one bowl (for trash)and the chicken pieces that fell off the bones and the soft, mushy veggies and garlic in another bowl. If you don't want to make the veggie soup, throw the veggie out as well.


Place the veggies and garlic in a blender along with a cup or two of the chicken broth. Puree until smooth. I like to then portion out the broth and soup using a 1 cup measuring cup and a plastic bag.


Place the bags in a pan and freeze. Once frozen flat, place bags in freezer and be ready to enjoy your homemade chicken broth and pureed veggie soup!


One Year Ago: Almond Joy Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Frosting Recipe

I've been on the hunt for a great chocolatey frosting. When in doubt, I've always just gone with ganache. You can dip cupcakes in ganache for an easy slick cover. Or you can let it thicken up and spread it on with a spatula. But I wanted something I could pipe in pretty swirls on cupcakes.


Now I've tried the Hershey's chocolate frosting and wasn't a huge fan. I've also tried chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. I love SMBC but that stuff just wasn't chocolatey enough. That's where this frosting comes in.


I saw this recipe pop up on My Baking Heart and instantly perked up. It's a humorous story about her Count Chocula obsession. I wasn't so much interested in a Count Chocula cupcake, but the frosting on top looked like a great chocolate frosting. And boy, is it great!


When I made this frosting I actually didn't have any milk in the house. It happens quite often around here. Since I'm lactose intolerant and Hubby isn't a huge milk drinker, we just don't keep it in the house. On a side note, when my brother A was here, he went through a half gallon in a day. I'm pretty sure he would have drank more if I had more in the house. But I digress. Back to this frosting. I had no milk, but I had some Baileys. So I subbed that in place of the milk. It was great. Feel free to use whichever you prefer.


Remember how I mentioned I had bought a boat load of pink sprinkles for really cheap. Yea, these are the same sprinkles again. I think I'll be using them for years!!

Two Years Ago: Pina Colada Cupcakes

Avon Walk Weekly Update

It's time again for my weekly Avon Walk update. If you'd like to see my full training calendar, check it out here or on the left sidebar of my blog.

Thoughts on training: This was a slow week of training due to the rain. I know I should be training in it, but I just can't walk around in wet socks and shoes.

Along those lines, I've decided that instead of bringing two pairs of tennis shoes, I'm going to bring my tennis shoes and a pair of sandals. That way if it rains, I can wear the sandals or if my toes start cramping up, I can throw on my sandals. And they won't be very big or heavy to carry in my bag.

My friend A and I also decided that we're not going to tent this time around. It was going to be a big hassle to bring camping gear plus stuff for a week long vacation halfway across the country. On top of that, she has a business trip starting the Monday after the walk, so she's going to have a lot more stuff to bring than I will. By not tenting, we also don't have to check out of the hotel early Saturday morning and back in Sunday. Plus we'll be able to take a real shower and sleep in a real bed Saturday night. I'm pretty happy with our decision.

Thoughts on fundraising: I got a huge boost this week from some GE matching gifts, so I have surpassed my original goal of $2,500 this week!

Miles walked last week: 0
Minutes doing cardio: 0
Minutes doing cross training or weight lifting: 0
Total $$ raised: $2,764

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far! If you'd like to donate to support my walk, you can make a donation on my Avon Walk page.

Chickpea and Roasted Red Pepper Salad

Hubby love chickpeas. They are yet another food that I had never tried before meeting him. We always have a couple cans in the pantry. One of our favorite ways to eat chickpeas is to throw them on top of a salad. Hubby always ends up putting a very large scoop on his salad to which I always comment "want some salad with your chickpeas".



In this case, the chickpeas make up the salad. They're mixed with another of our favorites, roasted red peppers. I've never roasted my own peppers even though I hear it's very simple. Our grocery store sells cans of roasted red peppers that are great and opening a jar is definitely easier than roasting my own peppers. We both enjoyed this salad in our lunches this week. It's quite tasty.

One Year Ago: 40 Clove Garlic Chicken (in Crockpot)

Fire Roasted Ketchup

I've been loving making random condiments this past year. I'm so glad I found these jewel jars to hold all of them. Hubby's favorite of the past year is definitely this fire roasted ketchup. I found the recipe from Rachel Ray when I was looking for a sliders recipe. I didn't end up using her sliders but this ketchup intrigued me enough to try it. Good thing I did!


This condiment provides a great firey flavor that compliments grilled food perfectly. One thing Hubby and I really miss about living in the Midwest is our grill. Our place in Boston is very small and we don't have any room to have a grill anywhere. We miss the ease of being able to just throw something on the grill for a quick meal.


The best thing about this recipe is that it's SO simple to mix up. AND, it makes two jars of ketchup. So you can keep one yourself and give one to a friend. I promise they'll love you for it!


And yes, I do pile that much ketchup on my burgers because this stuff is seriously awesome!

One Year Ago: Chocolate Oreo Rice Krispies Treats

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

When I sent a picture of these bars to Hubby at work to show him what I had done during my day off, his response was simple "YES PLEASE". As I've mentioned, Hubby is a HUGE cookie dough fan. As much as he claims not to be a big sweets/dessert guy, he will never deny his love of cookie dough. So when I saw these pop up in my Google Reader, there was no doubt that I had to add them to my must-bake list.



And due to that love of cookie dough, these bars jumped right to the top of that must-bake list. And boy am I glad they did. In fact, I think everyone who got to taste these guys is glad they made it to the top of the must-bake list.



These bars start with a base of a graham cracker crust with mini chocolate chips in it. Yes please. Next comes a cheesecake layer. Yes please. And last, but definitely not least, comes a layer of cookie dough crumbles. Yes Please.



The combination of these three layers results in amazingly delicious cookie bar that you will not be forgetting about any time soon. You get a great crunchiness from the graham cracker crust, then a great creaminess from the cheesecake layer, and then the delicious crumbliness from the cookie dough. I this this cookie dough recipe would be great to mix in to some ice cream. Like I mentioned, it yielded large crumbles of cookie dough, as opposed to the smooth cookie dough frosting that I've used on brownies and mini cupcakes.



A couple notes, I doubled this recipe since I was baking for a large group. I used a 9x13 pan and had to bake them for about double the baking time listed. I have shown the recipe below as a single batch. The original recipe has a chocolate drizzle over the top. I left it off literally because I forgot about it, but it would add another layer of indulgence to these bars.

Avon Walk Weekly Update

It's time again for my weekly Avon Walk update. If you'd like to see my full training calendar, check it out here or on the left sidebar of my blog.

Thoughts on training: This week we had family in yet again. I was able to get a few shorts walks in. Yesterday, Hubby and I did the Great Urban Race and I'm not sure how much walking we actually got in... Today my friend KT and I headed out for a walk then got caught in a thunderstorm about 5 miles into the walk. So that was a bummer.

I did make a decision this week that instead of getting a second pair of walking shoes, I am getting a pair of walking sandals. I ordered quite a few pairs online and will be deciding which one to keep this week. I'll let you know which ones I decide to keep.

I also wanted to let everyone know about the bag I mentioned last week. It's great and kept all my stuff dry in today's down pour. Here is the link to my bag from REI (I got it in grey/black).

Thoughts on fundraising: I got a couple more donations this week. So I'm ALMOST to my goal of $2,500. I also found out about a glitch in the company matching process. Talking with the Avon Walk people, I was able to come up with a solution, but it was frustrating to find out about this issue...

Miles walked last week: ~13
Minutes doing cardio: 0
Minutes doing cross training or weight lifting: 0
Total $$ raised: $2,464

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far! If you'd like to donate to support my walk, you can make a donation on my Avon Walk page.

Week of Strawberries Recap

I had a lot of fun doing a week of strawberry this week. Here's a recap of the recipes I posted:

I started the week with some delicious Strawberry Cobblers that Hubby and I enjoyed with ice cream on top!


Next, I went savory and made a Spinach and Strawberry Salad


Adding blueberries into the mix yielded some delicious Strawberry and Blueberry Jam


Then I went savory again and made this unique and delicious Salmon with Strawberry and Tomato Salsa


And I finished up the week with some Strawberry Shortcake Cookies