Chocolate Chip Marble Bundt Cake (#15 TYSC)

Chocolate Chip Marble Bundt Cake

#15 of the Treat Yo Self Challenge

Counter Cakes chapter

After all the savory foods of yesterday, I was looking forward to something sweeter - with chocolate! - today. I love the ease of a good bundt cake, although I usually don't like marble cakes of any sort. Why ruin a good chocolate cake with swirls of white cake?! I also love using my bundt pan beacuse it reminds me of my friend Marcy, who gave me mine as a gift when we left Minnesota. We used to live less than a mile from the NordicWare factory, so every time I pull out my trusty bundt pan I think fondly of Marcy and our old house.

As a general rule I try not to modify a recipe the first time I bake it, but this time Rose wanted to help and she BEGGED to substitute M&M's for the chocolate chips. We compromised and went halvsies :)

Verdict:  Definitely a winner! I'm surprised that I actually really liked the marbling. Next time I'd leave out the M&Ms and chocolate chips, so as not to ruin the smooth texture, but overall this one was great! Hopefully my coworkers enjoy this one tomorrow.

English Muffin bread (#13 TYSC)

English Muffin bread
#13 of the treat yo' self challenge
Savories chapter

I was craving some good bread this weekend, so set upon the Savories chapter to see if I could find any new recipes to test out. There's really nothing better than fresh homemade bread, except maybe when that same bread is toasted with some butter! So when I saw a recipe for English muffin bread, something I've always loved but never made, I knew I had my next recipe at hand.

Since our chickens have finally picked up their egg production a bit, I could see a dinner plan starting to form: toasted English muffin bread, fried farm-fresh eggs, crunchy Costco bacon, and delicious winter citrus fruit. Yum.

Thus bread itself was incredibly easy to make. I guess I'm so used to making sourdough (and all the time that entails) that a bread that can be done in less than 3 hours seems FAST!

And here's the finished product:

The fruit was already at the table. I promise. 

Verdict: I will definitely be making this one again. Actually, I will probably do what I always do with a recipe that I really want to perfect: I will consult multiple sources, compare and contrast each one, use my limited knowledge to create my own, and repeatedly bake and refine until I have the exact version that will be "mine" from thence forth. Ask me in a couple months and I may have "my" English muffin bread recipe by then!

Garlicky, butter-swirled pull-apart rolls (#14 TYSC)

Garlicky, butter-swirled pull-apart rolls
#14 of the Treat Yo' Self Challenge
Savories chapter

One of my favorite recipes is an unexpectedly savory version of a traditionally sweet breakfast, a savory SCONE with bacon, cheese, and carmelized onion. So when I saw this savory version of cinnamon rolls, I was immediately interested.

I love cinnamon rolls, and I love garlic bread. Could this be the perfect marriage of the two?

Verdict: Really, really good! Next time I would put some mozzarella inside, to make them more like cheesy garlic bread. In all honesty, I would be most satisfied if all of my meals were comprised of "cheesy carbs." I love every variation of this combo: cheese and crackers, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, savory scones, Italian dunkers, fettucine alfredo, cheddar on graham crackers, etc. This recipe could join the exhaulted cheesy carb club with only a little tweak...

52 hike challenge (#6)

I thought our high wind warning was over at 11am, so I waited until after lunch to go for my walk/hike. OMG, there were times when I could barely stand upright! When I got back home I double checked and realized it was still in effect until 11 PM! D'oh! Well, that explains it! Per the National Weather Service, we've been having 40-50mph winds, with gusts up to 75mph! But despite the windy conditions, it still felt good to get out there and get some fresh, sunny air.

It's hard to get a selfie with my walking buddy, Doug the dog. 

Holy mud, batman!

Doug loves the creek at the halfway point!

Doug also loves the neighbor's animals. They do not love him. 

Short sleeves! In February!!!

And here are two goofy little videos to try to give you a sense of how windy it was:

52 hike challenge
1. 1/1/20 - 2 mi - out and back
2. 1/5/20 - 4.5 mi - neighborhood loop
3. 1/11/20 - 2 mi - out and back
4. 1/19/20 - 4.5 mi - neighborhood loop
5. 1/26/20 - 4.5 mi - neighborhood loop
6. 2/1/20 - 4.5 mi neighborhood loop

Next Level Krispie Treats (#12 TYSC)

Next Level Krispie Treats
#12 of the Treat Yo' Self Challenge
Bars chapter

I love Rice Krispie Treats. Love, love, love. I've perfected the marshmallow to cereal ratio over the years, I can make these from scratch (probably while blindfolded), and I've also created a modification to include peanut butter and to substitute cheerios, making a really "healthy" and "wholesome" variation.

Yes, if you want a combo of marshmallows and cereal, I'm your girl.

So when I saw a recipe titled "next level" krispie treats, I was hooked! What could possibly bring this recipe any higher in esteem? How can one possibly improve upon perfection? What could the new technique or secret ingredient possibly be?

I quickly skimmed the recipe and my eyes befell the culprit:

white chocolate chips

(Gag.)

I know I've previously confessed my love of chocolate to you. Perhaps even mentioning it more than once. But have I ever confessed my absolute abhorrence all things white chocolate? It seems a travesty to even call it "chocolate" since it's basically the fat that's removed when you make REAL chocolate, plus some sugar and some additional milk fat. Blech.

Somehow I managed to end up in a household where my kid and my husband love this mockery of a chocolate, so I try to throw them a bone sometimes and bake something with white chocolate periodically. (Read: annually, at best) I figured it was probably time to throw them that bone again, plus I eventually want to bake everything in this book, plus we always tell Rose that "tastes can change!"

So I tried to keep an open mind...

Verdict: Well, it's a good thing I love Rice Krispie treats, because the marshmallows and cereal in this recipe can ALMOST overpower the white chocolate flavor. Then again, it is hypothetically possible that if I didn't KNOW there were "travesty chips" in here, they may have been the je ne sais quoi that the author describes. I guess we'll never know.

But on the plus side, Rose did call these the best Rice Krispie treat she had ever tasted, so I suppose that's a win.

52 hike challenge (#5)

I had such a good time hiking with Rose last weekend that I invited her along on today's hike. I really had NO expectation that she would even consider saying yes, but she did! So we packed up our supplies (tic tacs for her, cheese for Doug) and hit the road!

Here we are the the very start of our hike:

Here we are still having fun at the halfway point:

And just past the halfway point, the tides abruptly shifted- for one of the three of us. I'll give you three guesses as to who stopped having fun on this walk, and the first two don't count.

The second half of the walk was EXHAUSTING. I had to use every trick in my parenting repertoire to keep this kid going. It was pure torture. And it certainly didn't help when the kid who is terrified of cows and goats saw a cow up ahead that had escaped its pen.

We made it home eventually, some of us exhausted more mentally than physically! Now it's time for some Legos (for her) and some tea and a good book (for me) so we can each recover. Sigh.

52 hike challenge
1. 1/1/20 - 2 mi - out and back
2. 1/5/20 - 4.5 mi - neighborhood loop
3. 1/11/20 - 2 mi - out and back
4. 1/19/20 - 4.5 mi - neighborhood loop
5. 1/26/20 - 4.5 mi - neighborhood loop

Bluebarb Lime Crumble (#11 TYSC)

Bluebarb Lime Crumble
#11 of the Treat Yo Self Challenge
Pie Chapter

This is another of Mike's selections, and by now you're probably recognizing a theme that he picks fruit-based recipes...preferably including blueberries. He's definitely had his eye on this one for awhile. We had a huge bag of rhubarb left in the freezer from last summer, but I didn't think we'd be able to get a good price on blueberries until the summer. Then, lo and behold, he got a surprisingly good deal on blueberries (organic, no less!) at the grocer this week, so this recipe quickly moved to the top of the queue!

I've never had blueberries, rhubarb, and lime together, so even I (the consummate chocoholic) was looking forward to this one. And as a bonus, I actually got to use two recipes for this one, because it includes "My Favorite Pie Crust" as the, well, pie crust.  The foundation of this pie crust recipe is basically the same as MY favorite recipe, but it also includes a few weird add-ins (baking powder? red wine vinegar?) and uses the dreaded Cuisinart. (More on my verdict later, but perhaps you've sensed my foreshadowing of displeasure?) The filling, however, looked amazing as I poured it into the pie crust, and I was excited to try a new crumble recipe. (My standard crumble includes oats and brown sugar - as well as the usual flour and butter - but this one just has butter, sugar, and flour.)

A couple hours later, this beauty came out of the oven:

And another couple hours after that (there is no torture greater than waiting for fruit pie to cool), it was finally set enough to slice and eat.

Verdict:  Ladies and gentlemen, we have another winner! I will now look forward to combining blueberry, rhubarb and lime at any opportunity in the future. The only change I'll make next time is going back to MY favorite pie crust recipe, or at least making it by hand instead of in the stupid food processor. I really didn't like to assemble my crust without the tactile feedback. I'm undecided on whether I want try her weird crust add-ins next time, but at least I now have an excellent new filling to add to my pie repertoire.  I'll look forward to making this again when rhubarb and blueberries are in season locally!