BakeAwayGirl

I know, it sounds heavenly, doesn't it?  Pesto grilled cheese... is there any part of that that sounds bad?  Nope.  This recipe is actually a rediscovered one for me.  I tried it for the first time before Jeff moved out here, in my first couple of weeks in the apartment.  I always pesto on hand, mozzarella is never difficult to get, and (here's my mistake) I used whatever bread I had around.  I was all excited for the deliciousness that I expected, and I was disappointed by the mediocrity that followed. I forgot about the recipe, but somehow it came up this past fall, and Jeff thought it sounded fantastic.  I acknowledged that the bread I used wasn't great and I was a little skimpy on the pesto, so we decided to try again with our favorite bread from the best bakery.  It was a success! Now we make it with some regularity and have tried on a couple different breads (like roasted garlic bread), but the key thing is the bread has to be pretty hea...

There's two go-tos for me when cooking, Mexican and Italian.  Both are easy to do meatless, and, while we're not vegetarians, I like to try to do some meatless meals.  With Mexican, we use a lot of black beans, and in Italian, we load up on carbs.  Screw Atkins, I'm a carbaholic. Anyway, what could be better than mixing my two favorite types of food together?  The answer is nothing, nothing is better. I've never made enchiladas, but Jeff wanted me to try, so months ago, he bought me some enchilada sauce, "just to have on hand, in case."  Uh huh.  But then I stumbled on this recipe on pinterest, which included taco meat, beans, cheese, and enchilada sauce.  Can't go wrong!  I filed it away for another day. Well as we hit the stores before the Polar Vortex Round 2, I found jumbo shells on sale, and immediately knew what we would have for dinner.  It was a little time consuming, just because it's cooking a few different things and then put...

Guest blogger:  Chef-Wannabe Jeff! Blueberry Pie Syrup For Christmas, Molly's parents got me a Sodastream machine, something I have always wanted. I had made several of the sample pack flavors when I decided it was time for me to start tinkering. I looked through our supplies and noticed the frozen Michigan blueberries from the summer. So far, we had only used them in pancakes so I decided that needed to change. While this syrup would be great on pancakes, ice cream, or in cocktails, I wanted to make a soda. I used the Sodastream to carbonate a liter of water and then added what would be a serving of concentrate (about 50 ml) of the blueberry syrup. It proved to be not enough so I added a second serving and that gave it a good strong flavor. 1 cup water 1 cup white sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup frozen blueberries Combine all ingredients in a small/medium sauce pan. After that, it was a simple matter of keeping the temperature at a even simmer and ...

Salad from the top view You may have noticed that I love Southwestern American food.  I love Mexican food, but I think I like the Tex Mex better.  It has a lot of spice and flavor and cheese.  The best way to do this, in my opinion, is salads.  They taste so fresh but have so much more flavor than your every day salad. Last month, we had a potluck at work.  Potluck at my work is code for snacks and desserts, but usually no real food.  I had a recipe in my To-Do List Pinterest board, and decided it was perfect for a more substantial aspect of the potluck.  The recipe made way more salad than I anticipated, but it was no problem!  The recipe was a hit, and I even sent the bit of leftovers home with people because they loved it so much. Here's the catch.  The recipe for the dressing wasn't very good, in my opinion.  Some people really liked it, but I wouldn't do it again.  I'll include it here because some people loved it. ...

Before I start this one, I'll preface it with a simple breakdown of this recipe:  If you don't like mint, move on, this one isn't for you.  If you care for mint at all, make these. Now, mint lovers, this is the best cookie for Christmastime.  The original recipe I found was not specifically for Christmas, but it uses Andes mints, and those scream Christmastime to me.  This tastes exactly like mint chocolate chip ice cream in cookie form.  So delicious.  Jeff even suggested we put two together around a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make ice cream sandwiches. In the original recipe, it calls for Andes mints chopped.  That was way too time consuming for my liking, so I just broke them up with my hands.  They break pretty easily, so that wasn't a problem, but it was still time consuming and uneven, so there were some that were still very large.  I vaguely remembered that Andes mints came in chocolate chip sized pieces, but I didn't see them a...

Couldn't even wait to take a picture! My favorite way to find a new recipe isn't actually Pinterest.  I prefer accidentally discovering a food I love (by eating it of course) and then asking someone for the recipe.  This past summer, at my cousin's birthday party, her roommate brought out a chocolate cake.  Me and chocolate are besties, so of course I took a piece.  After the first bite, I decided I had discovered my new favorite chocolate cake! This cake is luscious.  Decadent.  Sinful.  Devil's Food Cake, you naive child, you haven't tasted sinful yet. There is so much chocolate, but it is balanced out by enough moisture that it never becomes cloying and overdone.  It's just delicious.  Every bite is worth the calories.  I will admit I have only made it once because we had company in town and I wanted something to wow the crowd.  Simply making it for Jeff and I, or even a small party, feels too gluttonous.  After all...

Who doesn't love biscuits?  The best part of most restaurants is their bread or biscuits, and let's be real, those Pillsbury biscuits are addicting.  I normally don't try to make many breads or doughs because it's such a delicate process.  Dough needs the right amount of flour and water and handling.  Too much of any one of those things turns your final product into a rock hard mistake. I had buttermilk for a different recipe and with the leftovers, I was craving biscuits.  I decided to venture into this totally unknown territory and try it myself.  I did what most women do... I asked my mom for help.  No idea why I did this.  My mom is a perfectly good cook and she likes to experiment every now and then, but she has gladly handed over the majority of cooking over to me when I lived at home as an adult.  Apparently she tried biscuits only once and hers were hard as stone. So I was on my own!  Luckily, I had played enough with pie c...

Believe it or not, folks, this was not  a Pinterest find.  I know, shock and awe.  You see, while I spend many hours browsing Pinterest, Jeff reads articles and browses pictures of ridiculous people and cats.  He sends me so many links that I ignore half of them, but I was lucky I looked at this one.  It was a Buzzfeed article on the best one-bowl cakes. I had offered to make cupcakes for a friend's baby shower, and I knew she wanted chocolate, so when I stumbled on this Buzzfeed article, I made sure to pin it for later.  The original recipe only made 12 cupcakes, which is just ridiculous to me.  Who eats only 12 cupcakes?!  Silly. These were a hit at the baby shower and the few leftovers I had went quickly.  I will admit that I did not eat one.  There were fantastic cake pops at the shower as well, and I hit those hard.  So, personally, I cannot vouch for these cupcakes.  However, based on how fast they went, I will gues...

Mine was a mess this time... but amazingly delicious! You'll never eat tacos the same way again!  At least we haven't.  With this cheesy, delicious pie, we no longer eat traditional tacos around here.  This is consumed (eagerly) with a knife and fork, and uses less tortillas than tacos. Now, the best thing about this recipe is it leaves a lot of room for customization.  Jeff and I have very different ideas of what goes in a taco.  I think the spicier the better, but he wouldn't enjoy that much, so we keep our taco pie very basic.  Remember that you can add whatever you'd like to yours! Taco Pie Adapted from here 1-2lb ground beef (or turkey if you're so inclined) Taco seasoning (and as much water as your seasoning packet calls for) 1/3 cup salsa 1/2 cup shredded cheese 2 large tortillas Enough cheese to cover the top (roughly 2 cups) Suggested Toppings: Shredded lettuce Jalapenos Diced onions Diced tomatoes Sour Cream Guacamole In...

Om nom nom these sliders were a fantastic find on Pinterest.  We were planning on having friends over for a Bears game and I immediately thought of sliders.  Luckily, I had this little beauty stashed on my Pinterest boards! See, I'm picky.  Any time the ingredients involve Velveeta, I'm out.  Done, moving on.  I realized how ridiculous it is for the woman who eats box macaroni and cheese, but I don't care.  Velveeta is gross.  Therefore, when I read recipe sliders, I usually abandon them because they incorporate some level of velveeta.  This recipe uses real cheese but still uses the oven.  The last thing I wanted to do with friends over was stand outside on the balcony and grill, so the oven was a must. As you can see in the picture, we had a plethora of condiments for the sliders.  We tried bacon, onions, ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce... it was all good, but I wasn't too wild about them.  Then, with the leftovers, we tried pi...

Part Two of our pumpkin delights!  As soon as pumpkin season began, I was craving pumpkin bread.  It's so spongey and full of flavor.  So of course I began browsing Pinterest, and discovered I had pinned a recipe last year and never gotten around to it.  As I was assembling my ingredients, I realized the recipe made two loaves.  I hesitated for only a moment before figuring if  some  pumpkin bread was good,  more  was better! You could easily do a cream cheese frosting or even a brown sugar glaze, but it was so delicious all on its own that we didn't make anything. I'm posting the recipe that will  only make one loaf of pumpkin bread .  It is easily doubled and makes plenty.  We made one regular sized loaf and three mini loaves to share with our doubled recipe.  I do recognize that I might be alone in my desire for that much pumpkin bread, so here is the recipe for just one.  Enjoy... and bring your extras over to...

Sorry for the lousy instagram shot... it's all I could do with my time Mmmm it is my most favorite time of the year!  Around August, I start craving soups, stews, and things made of apples and pumpkins.  Luckily, last year I had the foresight to buy in bulk, and at the end of the holiday season, I bought canned pumpkin from Costco and it's been sitting in the back of my pantry, patiently awaiting this very event. This is a two-part post, and the first is dedicated to a favorite from last year.  While browsing Pinterest for great holiday ideas, I found a recipe for pumpkin donuts.  We had all the ingredients, but we were missing the mini-muffin pan.  Well, I take any excuse to hit up TJ Maxx!  Heck yes.  So we found the pan (as well as many other things, of course) and began baking. These have a sugary cinnamony coating that just totally makes these little bites of heaven.  The only thing is, I haven't yet perfected a technique for creatin...

What?  No recipe?  But this is Bakeaway Girl , not So You Think You Can Pinterest !  I know, I know. But it's been absolutely beautiful outside here for a little while, so I took a little hiatus from my kitchen and tackled a few projects that needed to be done in a backyard.  Living in a cute upper floor apartment, I don't have a backyard, but my parents do and my mom enjoys having me spend time there (even if I smell like polyurethane). You see, last summer, I decided to dive head first into the world of DIY and take this... Light wood, green paint (yuck!)  To this... Darker stain, wine-colored paint (ahhh :) ) The man at the hardware store laughed  at me when I told him what I was trying to do.  He said I should start small for my very first wood project.  As per usual, I smiled politely and ignored him and did what I wanted to do to begin with.  He might have been right, but I think our dining room looks fantastic! So t...

When I'm craving something sweet and homemade, I bake one of two things:  brownies or chocolate chip cookies.  What can I say?  I like the basics.  I will eat tiramisu all day long, and if you want to bring me your fancy dessert, I'll eat that too, but my favorites will always be the classics. In my mother's house, if you ever bake a full batch of cookies, you're doing something wrong.  Lecture all you'd like about raw eggs.  I'll listen politely... as I stuff my face with raw cookie dough.  Mmmm salmonella!  My mother would rather have a spoonful of cold cookie dough than a warm chocolate chip cookie any day, so in her house, we made whatever dough she liked best.  As a result, we always made the standard recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip bag. Which made flat, hard cookies. Blech. Not my picture! I tried undercooking them.  I tried melted butter, cold butter.  It didn't matter, they were always f...

You may have sensed a theme around here... we like Mexican food.  For Jeff, this is a relatively recent discovery and for me, it is a life long love affair.  Every Wednesday night of my childhood, we had chicken fajitas and it was my favorite night of the week.  So when I find a good Mexican recipe, I am automatically drawn to it. I just stumbled across this little beauty the other day and have had it on my mind ever since.  So today, after Rolled up, brushed with oil, and unbaked hitting the gym, I dragged Jeff to the store for the few ingredients we would need for it.  Mixing was easy and so was rolling, but I was nervous about baking them and having them hold their shape after.  Don't worry about that; it takes care of itself as long as you roll them tightly and place them seam-side down. As soon as we took a bite, we agreed that this will definitely feature itself in our kitchen again!  It can easily be doubled for parties, as well.  ...