Crazy Delicious

ATTN TWD

June 3, 2008 at 8:58 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Brownies are posted here

Clara is a slacker and didn’t update the blogroll this week 😛

Things are a little crazy around here

May 29, 2008 at 8:42 am | Posted in Random | 1 Comment

I’m working on moving my blog to wordpress.org and hosting it myself. Of course I’m having slight technical difficulties and I stopped forwarding this domain to crazydeliciousfood.com. What that means for the time being is that the two blogs are a bit different and all posts are going to be put on crazydeliciousfood.com until everything is up and running.

Memorial Day Weekend: Drinks, Fun and Sticky Buns

May 27, 2008 at 9:33 am | Posted in Random | 8 Comments

This weekend one of my best friends got married and it was a blast. Lots of drinking, lots of friends in from out of town, a beautiful wedding and lots of sticky buns but, sadly, not of the TWD persuasion. The Inn the wedding was at is known for their sticky buns (see the bottom right corner of the picture) that just happen to be covered with delicious little pecans. After eating far more than I should have this weekend, there was just no way I could stomach making a batch at home. I did make one of Dorie’s delights and I promise to post it tonight, I spent most of the day yesterday uploading wedding pictures to shutterfly and my computer couldn’t handle any more uploads (I woke up this morning and they still weren’t done grrr). So, as soon as I can get my pictures uploaded you’ll see what I made. Are you shaking in your boots with excitement? I know you are.

TWD Madelines

May 22, 2008 at 10:25 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

I’m late I’m late for a very important date … or am I. It’s called TWD and today is Thursday which does start with a T right? Maybe? Ya, no, I’m not on time. I would like to list my excuses now because they’re lame, but you know you want to know what I’ve been up to. You care don’t lie. I’m not really making excuses as much as laughing about the wackiness of this week

1. Cleaning the apt all weekend because the fire dept is coming soon (they check to make sure the landlord isn’t slacking every 7 years but, if the apt looks like a tornado swept through I’m in trouble too) and people are staying over this weekend for a wedding totally got in the way. Do you have any idea how much time I wasted cleaning. Cleaning is the biggest waste of time ever! That’s why I never do it. I hate cleaning. Cleaning sucks.

2. I forget #2

3. Sexy Time kept me up all night hehe

4. Going to bed at 7pm because of the previous nights sexy time doesn’t help at all. Especially when you wake up at midnight, have more sexy time then spend another night up until 4am

5. Ya sexy time again

Bahaha ok so ya G thanks you all profusely for baring with me because he has thoroughly enjoyed this week 😛

TMI I know I know

Anyway, something crazy happened in my oven and half my madelines burned after less than 10 minutes. My oven is clearly on drugs but damn these little babies are tasty!! Actually I know what my oven’s prob is. It heats way too fast in the back. Usually I leave things right up at the front but, for some stupid reason I didn’t pay attention and put them in the long way and look where it got me. Burned little Madelines 😦 Whatever they’re all gone already . You must make them NOW it’s an order!

Bickfords Big Apple Pancake

May 19, 2008 at 10:19 pm | Posted in Breakfast, Fruit | 21 Comments

If you’re from New England or at least Massachusetts you’ve probably been to Bickford’s at least once in your life for their breakfast all day and no trip to Bickford’s is complete without a Big (or more likely Baby) Apple a la mode! On their website they describe it simply “Our specialty. It takes a little longer, but is worth it!” I think that pretty much says it all.

I don’t like standard pancakes but, give me crepes or a Bickford’s Big Apple (German Pancake) and I am a happy girl! Basically the Big Apple is a thick pancake covered with cinnamon sugar apples and it’s just divine! Top it with your favorite vanilla ice cream and you have the best bad for you breakfast EVER!

I found this recipe online and half way through cooking it I realized it needed more brown sugar sprinkled on top so I added some more brown sugar and cinnamon to make it perfect. I would also change the cook temp to 400 instead of 425 and I did cook it a teeny bit longer than 15 minutes.

Bickford’s® Big Apple Pancake

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pam (for coating pie pan) – I used a cake 9″ cake pan

Spray pie pan with Pam or other cooking spray.

Combine flour, milk, and eggs.

Pour melted margarine in 9-inch pie plate. Pour batter into pan.

Combine apple slices, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Place evenly over batting in pie pan.

Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Servings: 2

Magnolia Cupcakes aka New York Part 1

May 18, 2008 at 7:10 pm | Posted in cupcakes, Random, Reviews | 9 Comments

G and I went to NYC last weekend after my cousins wedding. We were there for a whopping 20 hours but, we did hit a few great random food spots. I’m going to talk about all of them, but I feel that Magnolia deserves it’s own post and it’s not necessarily a good thing.

G has quite the sweet tooth so we bought a broad sampling of more than just the cupcakes, but I of course had to sample the cupcakes. For a bakery whose website labels them as a cupcakery I was really let down by their cupcake selection. They had red velvet, chocolate and with vanilla, chocolate with chocolate, vanilla with vanilla and vanilla with chocolate. Can we get any more basic and boring?

I figured that with that limited of a selection they had to be good. Right? Wrong. As we walked back to our car on Bleeker Street I immediately snapped pics of the cuppys I had hand picked then I tried my vanilla cuppy with chocolate frosting (aka my favorite kind of cuppy). Can we say gross? First off, the chocolate frosting was so sickeningly sweet that I couldn’t even taste the cake. The only thing I knew about the cake was that it felt nasty and gritty (if you can even believe that) in my mouth. I tossed 99% of the frosting and still I could only taste the chocolate. WTF? So I took a bite of just the cake and quickly figured out why they frost them with so much super sweet frosting. They don’t want you to even taste the bland nasty ass cake. That’s right I said it, the cake was foul. It had a horrible texture and it was FLAVORLESS. A quick search online of their recipe explains why. In a regular home batch you only use 1 tsp of vanilla. No wonder I couldn’t taste the vanilla, you need at least 1 tbsp of vanilla for vanilla cupcakes. Geeze is this their first day on the job? The chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting were equally disappointing.

My text msg convo with CB because it still makes me giggle

Me: Um ya magnolia’s cupcakes suck

CB: Haha. Yeah? What’s wrong wit it?

Me: First off chocolate vanilla and red velvet are their only options … boring. (yada yada I tell her what I already told you guys about my cuppy) Worst cuppy I’ve ever tasted. Boxed mix is far superior.

Me: Their pumpkin cheesecake on the other hand is to die for

CB: Boxed mix better? Dang that must mean u really thing it sucked

Me: Oh you have no idea how bad it was.

If you know what a huge anti boxed mix snob I am you would understand that me saying anything was better means it was really bad. On the other hand, their non cuppy baked goods were absolutely delicious!

Their pumpkin cheesecake was … well … perfection in a mini cheesecake. I can’t say one thing bad about it, everything was amazingly perfect. G and I ate that down in no time flat and it definitely made up for the cuppy suckiness.

Their swirl cheesecake wasn’t quite as good and was a little lacking in cheesecakey flavor, but was still good enough to eat.

Their mini flourless chocolate cakes were chocolaty deliciousness. Really rich and chocolaty but, not too sweet.

Mini chocolate pies. These little chocolate pudding pies with a yummy graham cracker crust (a family Thanksgiving fave) were delish. They chocolate pudding was really chocolaty which was perfect! MMmmm good.
So … if you’re going to Magnolia skip the cupcakes and get the pumpkin cheesecake. You won’t be disappointed!

Blackberry Ice Cream

May 15, 2008 at 10:22 pm | Posted in Fruit, Ice Cream | 10 Comments

Just about a month ago I thought I was back and life was going to slow down. I wasn’t exactly that lucky and life has continued to keep me busy. I have a few blog updates waiting in the wings, but you’ll have to wait my young jedi’s. Unlike some people *cough* April *cough* I don’t puke out my blog posts all at once.

Even though my google reader has officially stopped counting how many posts I still need to check out (Ya that’s right all I know is that it’s “1000+”) I’ve seen enough of the ice cream craze to motivate my bum to make some ice cream. I love making ice creams and sorbets. There are three main reasons

1. They’re fun and I’m in love with my ice cream maker

2. Ice cream is yummy

3. I don’t feel like I have to eat it all at once because unlike some sweets it actually freezes remarkably well 😛

I was really craving black raspberry ice cream, but my local Trader Joe’s failed me the last week and there were no black raspberries to be found. It was already 8:30pm and I still hadn’t been home so the thought of searching all the grocery stores between where I was and home was just not my idea of a good time. One f my favorite things about black raspberry ice cream is it’s pretty color so I figured I would settle for blackberry ice cream. And before you say to yourself “Aren’t blackberries the same as black raspberries?” I’ll answer it for you, no, they’re not. Google tells me so. I don’t think I’ve ever had blackberry ice cream and even though it was a darker color it was still so delicious. Puddles snuck some while I was taking pictures and in less than 30 seconds she had gobbled down my three tiny scoops. Lucky for me there was more to go around!

I have quite a few ice cream books. I really want the Ice Cream Ireland one, but because I’m in the stupid US I can’t get it without paying like a bajillion dollars in shipping if I can even find somewhere to buy it from. Grumble Seriously though, their blog is amazing if you like ice cream. Everything I’ve made from their blog is delish! This recipe came from a random cookbook I picked up on the Border’s sale racks but it’s fab and there are lots of great recipes. Even better is the fact that a lot of the recipes have instructions to make the ice cream by hand without an ice cream maker.

PS neener neener CB I can make ice cream and yooouuu can’t … if you move to Boston I’ll share wink wink nudge nudge

Blackberry Ice Cream – The Ice Cream Book by: Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis

5 cups blackberries

6 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp water

1 1/4 cups whipping cream

– Put the blackberries in a pan, cover with the sugar and water. Put a lid on it and let it simmer for about 5 minutes until they’re soft.

– Dump (ya dump that’s what I said) everything from the pan into a sieve and put it though until you’re just left with the nasty stuff you don’t want.

– Put ice cream in ice cream maker for about 10-15 minutes until it starts to firm up then slowly pour the whipping cream in.

– Let the ice cream maker do it’s thing and enjoy!

Me me me me me me me me me me me me

May 15, 2008 at 6:21 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Because I feel semi guilty that I never do the MeMe’s CB tags me for I guess I’ll do this one

1. Why did you start your blog?

I started my first blog years ago. A good friend has a very popular blog in Egypt and I wanted to be as cool as he was. Tragically, it never happened. I have my suspicions that it’s because in about a year I had about 10 blog updates. My next two blogs were started around the same time. One was a blog of the last 100 days before my wedding … I got from day 100 to day 96 before I lost interest and the other was my first cooking blog. Initially it was a locked blog and I pretty much used it as my own online recipe file, but things change and I started posting, then I moved over here and I have CDF and MasterBaker now

2. How did you come up with your blog name?

I’m horrible at coming up with names for things so I asked my hubs and this is what I got stuck with 😛 Master Baker was a little easier and I’m not commenting on why that is.

3. Do your friends and family know about your blog, and what do they think?
Most of my family and friends know, but I don’t think they come visit and if they do they sure as hell don’t comment. I almost pooped my pants the day I got a comment from my Mom. Now my Jknotties, they sit online all day too so of course they know and visit.

4. How do you write posts?

Um, I sit down at the computer and use my amazing typing skills to type whatever it is my little heard desires. I don’t really understand this question.

5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

Well if the DB gods can be considered trolls then yes I’ve had them. They didn’t like that they couldn’t control what I write on my blog so they got their big bad posse together and tried to scare me into submission. They’re neither cool enough or bad ass enough to scare me so I didn’t care. In the end I did leave all the comments they wrote up (if I want to speak my mind then people have a right to hear the other side), but after a few hours of going around in a circular motion I closed comments on the post, but all were left up.

6. Do you check your stats or care how many people read your blog? If you care, how do you increase traffic?

I used to check my stats more than I do now. I think that’s partially due to the fact that I’ve been so damn busy. Of course I want lots of people to read and enjoy my blog, but as long as CB still reads it then I’m happy.

Kenny vs Spenny … Cook

May 7, 2008 at 1:10 pm | Posted in Funny | 3 Comments

For those of you who have never seen Kenny vs Spenny I beg you to start watching. It’s terrible, but most of the episodes will have you rolling on the floor peeing your pants. The premise of the show is that two buddies Kenny Holtz and Spencer “Spenny” Rice think up these wacky contests to have and then compete, typically over the course of a few days and at the end the loser has to suffer some type of humiliation. The general rule of thumb is that Kenny always cheats and Spenny always loses, but on occassion, things are reversed.

Last night I was watching/listening to streaming videos while doing work and I stumbled across a Kenny vs Spenny I had never seen … Who’s the best Chef. This is one of the few episodes where Spenny cheats and he knew, Kenny seems like a bit of foodie. Sure hummus isn’t too hard to make, but how good do burnt molasses ribs sound (with red wine and garlic). I want to try to figure out how he made them and I don’t even like ribs. For a little chuckle and a whole different type of cooking contest take a look here

It’s not the necessarily the funniest episode, but it’s probably the most enjoyable episode for us foodies.

TWD: Peanut Butter Torte

May 7, 2008 at 12:27 am | Posted in Blog Event, Chocolate, Dessert, Peanut Butter, Tuesdays with Dorie | 14 Comments

I feel like I’m going cross-eyed with how busy I’ve been. Have I mentioned how much I hate being busy? Ok, I did go out to dinner last night and that was fun even though it added to my overstuffed schedule it was an enjoyable break from the craziness and drunkenness of the last week. I got to see blog-a-phobe KT and fellow TWD-er Beth (if CB would just move her butt to MA I would have seen her too). Then today at work my boss was whining that in the last week since I got my new work comp I haven’t been able to get 2 weeks of work re-input in addition to my regular workload. Ya, that’s 3 weeks worth of work in one week. I’m sick of him whining so I had to bring work home tonight and waste 3 hours re-doing work I’ve already done. Damn you Quickbooks and your stupid backup failure the day before my comp died and fried my poor hard drive.

In the middle of doing work I took a break to do the one thing that relaxes me most. I baked! Well, that’s kinda a lie. Sleeping relaxes me more, but we’re talking about non sleep related things. In case you’re wondering what my #3 most relaxing thing is, I’ll tell you. It’s chopping veggies. Oh I love it, I could do it all day. I’m tired and rambling can you tell?

On to the torte goodness … I love pureeing Oreos. I did it with the TWD marshmallows and they’re just so much fun and the powder is so yummy. You know you tasted it too. I was a little worried that my oreo crust needed more butter, but as always Dorie knows best and after it baked it was perfect. Then came the PB moose (hehe Moose is the best way to spell it who cares if it’s wrong). I’ll be honest here, Dorie didn’t know best. I tasted the mousse before adding the cream and I liked it better. I’m all about the PB. I skipped the ganache because my buddy Beth mentioned last night that she thought it was too much. I think I would have to agree more chocolate would have been good for G and bad for me. Since I’m the baker what I say goes.

My only real complaint is the waiting time. Of course I fixed that by cooling all the steps in the freezer, which went just fine until the very end when I went to release my springform pan. The PB filling was a wee bit frozen to the sides so there was a bit of split-age on one part (you can see it in the picture). I’m a thinker though so I fixed that lickity split. I just got a warm cloth and rubbed it around the edge of the pan. Volia! Perfect loosening.