Author: laurenfrager

Homemade Cheez-its

| laurenfrager

Take a break from holiday sweets and try out this 20 minute recipe!

I was recently talking with a co-worker about the types of food you’re embarrassed to say you love. Now, I’d normally say I have a fairly refined palate, I make an effort to try new foods, and I challenge myself with unique recipes in the kitchen. However the one exception to that rule is cheez-its. Freakin’ cheez-its. I’ve stopped buying them because they’re so mysteriously addictive.

After this conversation I decided to try homemade cheez-its. This way, if I’m eating them as a snack, I can control the ingredients [SALT!] and amount that I make. If anyone from Sunshine Foods is reading this: victory is mine.edited_1086

So, adventures of homemade Cheez-its:

Ingredients:

  • 6 oz extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or cut thin
  • 4 oz seriously sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded or cut thin
  • 1/2 stick butter, room temperature
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to sprinkle on top
  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 tbsp ice water

Directions:

1) cut or shred your cheeses

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2) Combine cheeses and butter. Beat with paddle attachment.

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3) Add salt and flouredited_10794) Slowly add ice wateredited_1080

5_ Combine into a ball. ONE BIG CHEESEBALL!

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6) Roll out (thickness doesn’t matter for this step) and refrigerate for an hour.edited_10827) Remove from the fridge and roll out to 1/8 inch edited_1083

8) The fun part! Cut into even squares and use a toothpick, straw, or end of a chopstick to poke a hole in each cracker. Note- the crackers grow, so the hole should look a little bigger than usual. The pastry cutter is not necessary, but definitely gives it the finishing touch to make it look just like the real thing!edited_1084

9) Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. edited_1085

Winter Marketplace @ Work!

| laurenfrager

Once a year, Discovery holds a Winter Marketplace at the headquarters for employees to showcase and sell their handmade products. It’s such a cool event and opportunity to see the talent that is hidden within the building. Also my favorite place to shop for holiday gifts! There is a huge variety of goods being sold- from jewelry, to ornaments, to art and letterpress cards [oh my!], and of course- dessert! Here is my menu from the day:

  • toasted coconut marshmallows
  • peppermint marshmallows
  • hot chocolate on a stick
  • salted caramel cakepops
  • peppermint bark cakepops
  • nutter butter chocolate cakepops
  • peppermint bark
  • dog treats!

A few behind the scenes shot:

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And a few of the finished product!

Insane Birthday Cake {Momofuku Mashup}

| laurenfrager

Kate – Best friend, roommate of 4 years, and dessert-loving-seattlite of 25 years celebrates a big birthday this week! I was fortunate enough to take a class at the brooklyn Momofuku Milk Bar kitchen. Everything about the place was inspiring- the intoxicating smell of cereal milk mystery, the MASS amounts of butter and dough and industrial kitchen tools, and the overall energy of the employees (calling them employees doesn’t do it justice…magicians?). It was that day, looking at all the recipes and creativity at Milk Bar, that I decided the birthday cake I’d make for Kate this year. Here it goes…

Brown Butter Cake

  • momofuku recipe here

Chocolate Stout Soak

  • just chocolate stout beer lightly painted onto the cake. enough so you can see it start to seep through.

Salted Dulce de Leche Buttercream (dulce de leche to remind her of her time spent in south america)

  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk [boiled for 1.5 hours to become “dulce de leche”]
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 5 cups powdered sugar

Malted Pretzel & Chex Mix crunch (chex & pretzels = our saturday nights)

  • 2 cups pretzels, chopped small
  • 1/4 cup malt powder
  • 2 cups corn chex cereal
  • 1/4 cup milk powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar

Chocolate Stout Ganache (she loves chocolate and beer, so this was perfect)

  • 1 bag dark chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup chocolate stout

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Chicken Thighs in White Wine Sauce with Lemons, Capers, Artichokes, and Mushrooms

| laurenfrager
My first savory recipe on the blog! I cook a lot, but tend to only post about baking. I say this is a baking blog because that is my passion and that’s what you’ll get most of the time. However I’ve recently learned/confirmed that life is crazy and unexpected- so I decided to shake things up a bit and post a CHICKEN recipe (whoaaaaa). It really is nothing special, but a solid recipe and great for a quick weeknight meal.
Chicken Thighs
  • 4 Chicken Thighs – bone in, skin on
  • 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
  • 3 large cloves Garlic, sliced
  • Salt & Pepper

Pasta

  • 1 lb Capellini Pasta
  • Olive Oil
  • 3 Tbsp reserved chicken fat
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 4 Tbsp jar of Capers, drained
  • 1 jar of Artichoke Hearts, sliced
  • 1 Lemon, sliced
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 C White wine
  • ½ C Chicken stock or broth
  • Parsley, chopped
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts
  • 1/2 cup mushrooms
Instructions
Chicken Thighs
  1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
  2. Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large pan over low-medium heat. Add the garlic slices and slowly saute until fragrant. Be patient- it’s worth it! Let the garlic really seep into the oil. edited_915
  3. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and then add them the pan, skin-side down. Let the chicken thighs cook approximately 8-10 minutes — until the skin has turned golden in color.edited_917
  4. Turn off the heat. Prepare an oven-proof dish with foil. Place the chicken breasts skin side down, and put in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes and then flip the chicken over.
  5. Bake the chicken, skin side up, for about 5 minutes, or until the skin is crispy and caramel colored.
  6. Remove the chicken and set aside to rest

Pasta

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until just al dente. Drain the pasta and toss with some olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking.
  2. In the stove pan, heat back up the reserved rendered chicken fat and extra garlic oil. If your garlic is starting to burn, take it out and set aside. I added a little more garlic at this point but that’s optional- I love garlic.
  3. Add the the capers, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, sliced lemon and salt. Saute for another few minutes until the capers and artichokes just start to show some color and the mushrooms are darkening. (not pictured: mushrooms)edited_920
  4. Add half of the white wine, making sure to scrape up any bits from the bottom of the pan.
  5. Add the rest of the white wine and the chicken stock and bring the sauce to a simmer.
  6. Simmer the broth until it reduces by half and begins to thicken. Add chopped parsley. edited_921
  7. Add the pasta to the pan and stir or toss to fully coat all the strands with the sauce.
  8. Serve the pasta and the chicken thighs together, garnished with the remaining lemon slices and pine nuts. edited_923edited_922

Just a little food porn…

| laurenfrager

We had a small happy hour at our apartment this past week that turned out really nicely. I was in way too much of a rush to take pictures (always my problem!) but it was too cute to not post. First things first, THESE TOMATOES. As delicious as they are pretty. edited_860

This is a go-to quick recipe my mom used to make for dinner parties. It is always such a hit, I’m embarrassed to say how effortless it is. 8 oz cream cheese + 1/2 cup raspberry chipotle sauce!edited_861

Second on the menu was prosciutto & goat cheese toasts with a blackberry ginger balsamic. I picked up the balsamic this weekend while I was in St. Michaels, Maryland. It was super rainy so there was nothing to do but shop!edited_865 edited_867edited_872edited_877

Third, I made rosemary parmesan foccacia bread. The bread flour is a necessity in my pantry lately. Also, pantry is a loose term- more like hoarding space where I fit as much as I can into a cabinet without causing a food avalanche.  The dried rosemary didn’t flavor the bread as well as I hoped, but I didn’t have any fresh. Never again!edited_874

Our wonderful landlord sent us this cookie delivery from Captain Cookie and the Milkman in DC. Wish I could say I made these beauties, but I just ate them instead 🙂edited_876

Lastly- onion dip with veggies!edited_879

Photo Fun!

| laurenfrager

One thing that really bothers me is when people see a photo and say “whoa you have such a good camera!”. Yes, the camera is part of it, but the photographer makes the magic happen. My friend Kristen is a phenomenal photographer and I was lucky enough to spend the past two weekends doing a full photoshoot of the baking process with her. From the messy mixing to the polished final product, these photos tell a perfect story of my life in the kitchen.

Kristen and I met when I was interning and she worked at Nat Geo Channel in DC. We sat directly next to each other but we didn’t talk until my LAST day when I brought in cookies. People love cookies.collage2

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Strawberry Balsamic Jam with Vanilla & Bourbon

| laurenfrager

YES. This recipe is one of my new favorites. It started out with a wonderful strawberry picking adventure Saturday morning, and then I set out to make a small batch of strawberry jam. Since it was a low pressure little project, I just started playing around with flavors….and it worked! I woke up this morning {cheated, went to the store and bought more strawberries} and tripled the recipe. For the past 24 hours we’ve put this on cheese and crackers, toast, in yogurt, and made a quick smoothie with it. On top of angel food cake or marinating chicken is going to be my next move.

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Ingredients: Makes three half-pint size jars

– 2 lb strawberries

– 1 1/4 cup sugar

– 2 tbsp lime juice

– 1 tbsp bourbon

– 2 tsp vanilla

– 2 tbsp balsamic {the good, quality kind. not balsamic vinegar! I used pomegranate balsamic from my favorite oil store…could that sentence sound more annoying?}

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1) Sprinkle 1 1/4 cup sugar over the strawberries and toss. Let sit for 10 minutes. Note: this recipe requires more sugar than others because it is pectin-free. I prefer to use real sugar because just a pinch too much pectin and you’ll have something closer to jell-o! edited_low546

2) Mash the strawberry and sugar mixture and let sit for 2 hours. Add vanilla. edited_low548

3) Put lemon juice at the bottom of a medium to large saucepan and heat on medium-high.

4) Add strawberry mixture, bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium.

5) After 15 minutes, add bourbon.

*now is a good time to prepare your jars*

5) Cook until the spoon test yields the texture you’re looking for.  My first batch was done in 30 minutes, my second batch cooked for 45 and was still a little runny. So totally depends on the batch you’re making!

6) When its ready, add the balsamic. edited_low549

Made some new recipe cards to give out with the jars of jam!edited_low534

Final product!

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Happy 30th Birthday, Discovery!

| laurenfrager

Many of you may find it weird that I baked birthday cakepops for a large, inanimate, corporation, but this company has given me so much in the past two years that it felt appropriate.

This year we are celebrating 30 years of Discovery, and we’re doing it big. There are decorations ALL over the building, employees from global offices are coming together to brainstorm for the future of our networks, and there’s this intangible sense of community wafting through the halls.

Enough sap. Here’s how to make some awesome cakepops:


1. Start with a baked cake, completely cooled. edited_517

2. Using a fork, tear the cake up. Avoid the edges, as it will get in the way of your cakeball and cause them to break. (I also avoid the bottom of the cake if it is even the slightest bit overcooked)edited_518

3. Add 1/3 cup frosting of your choice. I usually just use good ole’ duncan hines because it’s easy. There’s a debate that you can also use whole milk but I feel weird about leaving them out at room temp with milk.edited_519

4. Mash up into a ball. It shouldn’t look like a perfect moist ball, otherwise that means you used too much frosting and the sticks won’t stay inserted. The purpose is to have an evenly mixed cake/frosting mixture that will stick together.

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5. Take a chunk and (with clean hands!!!!) squeeze to tightly pack them. Roll into balls in the palm of your hands and set on parchment paper.

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6. Melt chocolate wafers at 50% heat in a mug or bowl.

7. Somehow forgot to take a picture of this, but dip the sticks into the melted chocolate and gently stick them in each cakepop, about 1/2-3/4 of the way in. Refrigerate cakepops for 20 minutes, then take them out and let them come back to room temperature (about 15 min)

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8. Decorate! See video above

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