I tried another recipe last week, this time one of Giada De Laurentiis’ masterpieces from FoodNetwork.com: Eggplant Rollatini.
The recipe was very easy to follow and took less time than I expected. The most important thing to do is to sauté the eggplant slices in extra-virgin olive oil until they are soft. If the eggplant slices are not soft you will not be able to roll the cheese mixture inside.
The one thing I would do differently next time is to peel the eggplant before slicing it. With the skin on the eggplant, it was difficult to cut, and tougher to roll after it was cooked.
I served the eggplant with angel-hair pasta and it made the perfect meal. I made 10 pieces of eggplant and that served three people with still some left over for lunch the next day.
Filed under Eggplant Rollatini Giada De Laurentiis recipe Food Network
I am not a chef, nor am I exceptionally talented at cooking or baking, but I was in the mood to try out a new recipe and came across this tasty treat while Stumbling.
The dessert I had in mind was the ‘Ultimate Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar’, a mix of oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies and oreo-stuffed brownies first created by Amanda Green Bottoms on her website www.kevinandamanda.com. The pictures on the recipe website looked so delicious there was no way I could pass it up.
The recipe called for basic dessert ingredients: Cookie batter and brownie batter. While it recommended you make the chocolate chip cookies from scratch, I am not the best baker, and did not have the time, so I decided to take the easy way out and buy bagged cookie batter that you add the eggs, water and oil into.
Otherwise I followed the recipe to the tee. It can be found at Kevinandamanda.com
As I said, I used store-bought cookie batter, similar to the brownie batter, which cut my prep time down to about 10-15 minutes. But I realized while cooking that this change created a cooking problem. The directions on the cookie batter says to bake it for 10-20 minutes, when the brownies needed to be baked for 30-45 minutes.
I started to worry that my bottom cookie layer would burn and my top brownie layer would be undercooked. Before I even had to come to a decision on when to turn the oven off, I noticed that the middle layer of oreos, strategically placed on top of the chocolate chip batter and covered in the brownie batter, began to pop to the top of the brownie batter while it cooked. I continuously opened the open and used a knife to push the oreos down further into the cookie dough. Once the brownies began to thicken, the problem stopped.
I cooked the entire 8x8 pan of layered desserts for 40 minutes then took it out of the oven to check its progress. The cookie was clearly finished, but the brownie seemed a little gooey, but I decided to keep it out of the oven to let it cool.
My solution to the undercooked brownie was to put it in the oven for another few minutes before eating. It was good to eat the bar warm anyway so the oreo would get a little gooey between the cookie and brownie layers.
The recipe definitely passed the test when both my dad [the biggest chocolate lover ever] and boyfriend had raving reviews.
I luckily got to save one for myself! It was definitely as good as it looked.
Thanks for the recipe Kevin and Amanda!
Filed under chocolate chip cookies oreos brownies baking recipe
Although I do love the fads, trends and pop obsessions from time to time„ there are just some parts of pop-culture I will never understand and hate to admit I love. One of these is Jersey Shore.
I started watching a few weeks into the first season because I was really curious what “the situation” was. Now, seasons later I will be the first to make fun of my friends who love it, yet I will find myself in front of the TV every Thursday night [more likely the DVR on a Sunday afternoon] and catch up on the guido drama fest. I guess MTV is a genius in that way. They find the train wrecks and make millions off of them.
Though the characters fight, and make huge idiots out of themselves week after week, they do make me laugh and seem to be entertaining individuals on and off the J-Shore set.
Check out Vinny Guadagnino’s dance to Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.”
I first saw this on http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/08/pumped_up_kicks.html
Filed under Jersey Shore MTV pop-culture Pumped Up Kicks Foster The People Vinny Guadagnino NYMag YouTube
Home sweet home in New York. Ok, maybe I don’t exactly live in NYC but it’s a lot closer to home than the West Coast. After all of my travels it was nice to be back in the familiar city, but give me a week and I will be sick of it. Especially once I start attending school in Times Square (I start Wednesday, too soon.) I’m still not over my touristy ways and felt that taking a picture of Times Square was a necessary close to the travel part of my blog. After seeing the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Discover Times Square Museum (amazing, I highly recommend all HP fans go) and seeing Wicked for the third time (I’m a fan, don’t judge me) I think I fit in the tourist category. I guess now it’s time I start the next chapter…
This is one of my favorite pictures I took on the trip. It’s a great shot of the Golden Gate Bridge taken from the ferry to Alcatraz Island. Though it looks black and white, it was taken in normal settings on my Cannon PowerShot and just shows how intense the fog is in San Francisco.
Filed under golden gate bridge photography cannon Alcatraz San Francisco
Five weeks went by too fast. The campers who were headed to New York left on the bus around 9 to catch their 11am flight. It was really depressing to say goodbye. Whitney and I have a 3pm flight to JFK since we had to bring the 4 campers heading to Florida to the airport. Although I don’t mind traveling, once I know I am heading home I just want to be there already. I won’t get to Long Island until midnight Eastern time. Tomorrow will definitely be full of sleep, laundry and entourage.
Filed under ATW San Francisco Goodbye
The last night of the trip we went to a Giants v. Phillies game. We left at the bottom of the 8th, but the Phillies were up 9 to 2. Back at the hotel we all met at midnight for a final group bonding session. We all shared our favorite memories, had an auction and stayed up all night in preparation for our 7am wake up.
Filed under Giants Phillies AT&T Park San Francisco
ca(Post is out of order because tumblr deleted it) Going to Alcatraz at night was not as creepy as I thought it would be. We took the ferry ride out there and I got a lot of cool pictures of the island (sorry, no muploads since my phone died at the time). Once we got to the island we went on an audio tour of the prison. We saw the cells, the solitude area, the dining room and the rec area. It was interesting to hear the tour from the perspective of guards and inmates. One inmate even said that he came on the tour after the prison was shut down. I can understand why people think the prison is haunted since we learned about the escape attempts, and how 5 men possibly escaped, but were never seen again, and how guards and inmates were killed during a different escape attempt. I’m glad I did not live in the Bay Area at the time!
Filed under Alcatraz Arrest San Francisco
We walked the 1.7 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s funny how the climate changes across San Fran. The weather on the bridge was windy and foggy, but the second we got to Sausalito it was sunny and hot out. One of my life goals was to walk across a bridge (I don’t judge your life goals so don’t judge mine) and I finally got to do it. We just drove across the bridge a few hours after we walked it and it was completely engulfed in fog. I guess we are lucky we crossed it when we did!
Filed under Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco Fog
What ever happened to predictability? The milk man, the paper boy, evening T.V You miss your old familiar friends, but their waiting just around the bend. Everywhere you look (everywhere) There’s a heart (there’s a heart) A hand to hold on to. Everywhere you look (everywhere) There’s a face of somebody who needs you. When you’re lost out there and your all alone A light is waiting to carry you home Everywhere you look.
Filed under Full House Row Houses San Francisco Alamo Park
