Pomegranate-Green Tea/Chai Shortbread Cookie

These cookies were meant to have matcha green tea but at $25 for a box I had to make do with a bagged tea. Yep, I literally cut open a pomegranate-green tea bag and sprinkled it into the dough. I was skeptical but thought it actually came out with a sweet, earthy flavor I really liked. For the chai variety, I cut down some of the sugar and replaced it with the chai latte mix. I was not as impressed with those (though they were James' favorite) but I think more sugar could have helped. These cookies are not super sweet which was kind of refreshing. Each batch had:
1 Cup flour
1 Stick butter (yikes!)
1 bag of tea (your choice) or 2 tbsp chai latte mix
1 pinch of salt
1/4 Cup powdered sugar
A couple drops of vanilla extract
Mix dry ingredients. Beat softened butter. Slowly mix dry mixture into butter until blended. Roll into log (1.5 inch diameter) and stick in the fridge for an hour. Roll out dough (about 1/6 inch thick) and cut into any shape you like! Bake at 325 for about 13 min or until lightly browned.

Berry Oatmeal Bars

Sunday afternoon I found time to try out a recipe I've been eyeing for quite some time. Smitten Kitchen's raspberry breakfast bars not only looked amazing (partly due to the photography) but they combined two of my favorites: brown sugar and oats. I followed the recipe closely but used a combination of frozen raspberries and blackberries. I also baked them an additional 6-7 minutes. They came out beautifully. The only complaint I have is the soggy condition I found them in the following morning after spending the night in an airtight container. Perhaps it was due to the frozen fruit? Either way, they are worth making...and finishing same day.

Barbequed Chicken Sandwich

Unfortunately MLK Day is not a recognized holiday in my office...James, however, makes his own schedule and he apparently recognizes it as a half day. Having the morning off gave him plenty of time to get his "secret" bbq chicken started in the slow cooker. By the time I got home the apartment smelled amazing. I found a recipe for a quick wheat bun that could be thrown together in 30 minutes (including rising and baking!). I cut the recipe down to 5 servings and found the dough far too wet. I ended up adding an extra cup of wheat flour. Also brushed some egg white on top and sprinkled sesame seed before popping them in the oven.



Top that off with some coleslaw and we had a real dinner.

First Soggy Entry

After regularly visiting multiple cooking/food blogs I finally decided to create my own. What better way to start than attempting to one up one of my favorite bloggers? Nicole at Pinch My Salt recently tried these butterscotch sticky buns from a Food and Wine recipe. Though they didn't come out light and fluffy as the Food and Wine picture depicted, they still looked damn good. Plus I was determined that using the active dry yeast, I could bake that bun just as the picture shown in Food and Wine. I figured that was why Nicole's came out "too dense." So, I spent 25 minutes with my nose pressed against the oven window willing the rolls to rise, rise! They've got another 5 minutes baking time, they probably rise right at the end, right? No. Defeated. I'm not saying that I haven't already choked two down, but they did crush my dreams of fluffy cinnamon goodness. The glaze was a different story. The glaze I ate straight from the spoon...multiple times. Though I omitted the whiskey (note to self: keep whiskey on hand for uh, baking, yes, 60 ounces for the occasion glaze will do) it was still thick and rich. I also added a couple table spoons of maple syrup. In other words, I followed this recipe to a T, besides replacing whiskey with maple syrup. My suggestion? Take the glaze and run.