Sour Cream Dreams

I love to bake. Love love love it. I enjoy experiencing other people's happiness and delight when they truly enjoy and savor something I made. Which means I love to share. My co-workers get quite lucky :)

At my office, we'll celebrate just about anything. Hello, National Pie Day, anyone? I alone orchestrated an inter office pool regarding what flavor of pie(s) we should buy from the one and thee only Hoosier Mama Pie Company here on Chicago and Ashland Ave. 

Photo courtesy of Hoosier Mama Pie Company

Photo courtesy of Hoosier Mama Pie Company

We settled for The Elvis and, of course, Key Lime. 

Photo courtesy of ME!!

Licks lips.

Anywho, our co-worker and friend, Jeremy, is about to kiss goodbye to his bachelor days. Clearly, this is cause for celebration. To commemorate his bachelorhood, I made a cake that screams manly man, a real grooms cake....

Lemon Supreme Sour Cream Dream.

Turns out you can turn any cake into a sour cream cake. Why do you even WANT sour cream, you ask? Because it's good. It's totally, without a doubt, 100% better than your cake. Srsly. 

Allow me to show you, in picture form.

Easy peasy ingredients. Lemon cake mix, lemon pudding packet, eggs, light sour cream & water. 

Pour cake mix into the mixer.

Add in pudding mix.

Add a dollop of Daisy (lol) light sour cream
or any sour cream, for that matter.

1/2 cup of water .

Add four eggs.
Crack 'em up, split 'em open.

Okay, surprise surprise.
I use egg whites instead.
So, egg whites the equivalent of 4 eggs (i.e. 8 whites).

Mix, mix, mix!
Until smooth, of course.

Grease up your pan w/ Crisco.

Add in a handful of flour.

Pan is all set to go!

mmmmm Lemon Supreme Sour Cream Dream...
(and yes, I know I need to clean my oven. Get over it)

Wish I could say I was a top notch blogger and had the final picture, but it was devoured pretty quickly when I took it to work and assembled with fresh strawberries. Blink and you miss it!

But I did save a piece in cupcake form for my boo and me...

Making any cake a sour cream cake:

- 1 box of cake mix

- 1 complimenting (low sugar) pudding mix

- 4 eggs (or egg white equivalent)

- 1/2 cup of water

- 1 cup of low fat sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together all at once until smooth on medium speed. 

Pour into greased pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes OR until lightly brown on top.

did you know? to get one egg's worth of egg white, you need the whites of TWO eggs. 

Until next time...

tb2

Good food, friends, and Baseball!

Sunday, Funday! We had (overall) a pretty great weekend here in the Windy City. We made it out to the ballpark and got to watch Chicago's good baseball team (your #1 AL Central White Sox) dominate the Houston Astros (which helps out our Cincinnati Reds)!

Beautiful day for a butt kickin'!

Before the game, we did it up right with our nearest and dearest "region" friends, Matt & Em.

Sox hat? Check. Cooler full of food and drinks? Check. American flag tank top? CHECK.

Staying cool on that blacktop is no easy feat, but we did it!

They were even nice enough to hand out these collectors edition Paul Konerko one of a kind painting (replicas...)

Someone in my family will probably be the proud new owner of this come Christmas time ;)

Good friends...

(random new friends)

Good food...
hey, Comiskey Dog

Good drinks.

All in all, that's a helluva recipe for a great day!

After we parted ways, the mister and I ventured downtown for the Chicago Blues Festival. We were in the mood to top off the day with some good music.

We are stoked to go to as many different festivals as we can this summer. There's this little rumor going around that Chicago is a different city in the summertime, and... well... it's true. 


People are happy(ier)
Food is greasy(ier)
Drinks are strong(er)
Sun is bright(er)
and the beach is only a quick bike ride away!

Here's to your summer weekends. Cheers!


Until next time (sooner this time, we promise. Our camera went kaput on us, so all of these are compliments of iPhone, Droid, and the ever famous Instagram).

This is Nuckin' Futs!

Warm weather is approaching. Thus, the time to brew a tasty summer treat is upon us.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, i had big beer plans with the brother-in-law, Aaron - after many emails, texts, and conceptual recipes, we found the anecdote for what is surely a winning brew. A Coconut Wheat Beer. 

bottling day: cleanliness may be next to godliness - but with brewing, they are synonymous.

We found a nice Oberon-replica recipe - using the same hops (Saaz) as Bell's brewery uses for their popular summer seasonal, and other similarly-flavored ingredients - and teamed up back in Ohio at the in-law's place for a warm spring morning brew... in honor of National Homebrew Day.


This brew was also crafted in anticipation of our annual beach vacation in June, where beer-crushing in the sand commences early and often, daily.

from left: your starting line up (notice how my beard looks prepubescent in comparison) Andrew, yours truly, Aaron 

note: DO NOT feed dogs hops. seriously - it will kill them. Piper here just wanted a new profile pic for her FB

So, I won't walk you through the whole how-to, but I will lay out the basics, starting with the grain bill & ingredients. 

Mash: 

5 lbs Briess 2-row Pale malt (or 3 lbs light DME)

5 lbs Briess White Wheat malt (or 3 lbs wheat DME)

.5 lbs Briess crystal 20L ( or .25 lb Crystal 20L if using the DME)

Temp: 

153 degrees Fahrenheit 

not quite there yet...

Hops:

.5 oz GR Hallertau 4.5AA 60 min 

(i think we used Saaz also, not Hallertau...?)

.75 oz Czech Saaz 3.2AA 30 min

.5 oz Czech Saaz 3.2AA 15 min

Yeast:

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II or Wyeast 1010 American Wheat...

we opted for the 1450 - while not common for whear beer, it is known to accentuate fruit & added flavors (like coconut, we hope)

And now, the most critical step in the process...

Secondary:

1 oz Czech Saaz 3.2AA dry hop 

2 lbs toasted coconut

For an ultimate Alc. by Vol of 5.67%

   

toasted coconut added for secondary fermenting... looks marvelous!

Like I mentioned before, cleanliness is the most critical aspect of brewing. So when recycling old beer bottles for your new brew (this is common practice - it is economical, ecological, and easy) you need to first sanitize, then sterilize the bottles.
One sterilizing trick I have learned from my brewing partner: put the bottles in the oven at 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit with foil over the top. Then, they will be sterilized and ready for bottling.

Back in April-ish, i brewed up my new classic Epic Fale Amber Ale - yes, I am working on a logo for my soon-to-be flagship brew - and went through some silly issues. Well, it is all part of the process, and you have to learn to roll with the punches.

someone (not me) broke the bottling spigot. shucks.

Luckily for the guilty party, he also built his own mash tun which we used for mashing our grain.

here it is being used for its intended purpose

Although frowned upon in the brewing community, we use this unit for bottling as well. Shit happens.




So what kind of other shit happens now that this liquid gold is all bottled up?

delicious coconut remnants...

We could indulge in the oatmeal-like coconut remnants. But we tossed those out (not to mention they would probably taste pretty nasty).


No. Now, we wait.
And while we wait, we will think of some clever names for this brew - because hey, if you can get people to drink Big Hurt Beer from branding alone, we could do great business if this Coco-wheat turns out decent.

that's two dollars i would like to have back. just stick to RBIs, Frank.

I wouldn't say Nuckin' Futs is a great name, but it gives me an excuse to link to this movie and it gives us a starting point.


Throw me some ideas if you have any - and if you are lucky, you will get to try one of these!


-tb2

We're growing!

Lemons, that is. Look! 

Dwarf lemon tree (next to a blossoming mint plant!)

We went out and bought ourselves a lil' lemon tree! I've only been wanting one for, oh, I dunno, 'ever. I first read about them on apartment therapy, and just knew I needed this as an added addition to our growing collection of vegetation. With this baby, I can make all sorts of delicious treats (insert: jumping for joy)!

I just might get crazy and make this mouth watering lemon bread, sticky lemon rolls with lemon cream cheese glaze, or, if I'm feeling particularly ballsy, a more savory dish like pork meatballs with lemon and thyme. 

As an added bonus, there are plenty of other eco-friendly uses for lemons around the house, which you can find here. Limescale, be gone!

Fingers crossed we'll have a full jar (or three) by the end of the season... oh pretty, pretty PLEASE!

Until next time,

tb2.

Hear ye, hear ye.

I've made an executive household decision to exercise my right as co-captain to declare Sundays officially: BRINNER night. 


Best. Decision. EVER. 

Portobello Mushroom Eggs Benedict
with fresh fruit
oh, & mimosas!

I'm just going to lay this out on the table for everyone: I could eat breakfast food all day. All the live long day. Love. It's so versatile and fun! And delicious, of course.


All fruit (apples, bananas, raspberries, blackberries), whole wheat English muffins, portobello mushrooms, organic eggs, hollandaise sauce and orange juice are compliments of our ever friendly Trader Joe's. 


Nope, I didn't make the hollandaise sauce - lazy lady right here. 


And now on to my next trick:

Mixed berry pie with whole wheat crust; adapted from Simply Recipes.

...licks chops. Yum!

What's your favorite dinner?

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Happy Mothers Day!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Yes, happy Mother's Day, indeed to all you grandmas, mommas, soon-to-be-mommas, baby mommas, and fur baby mommas. Hope your day is just as special as you.


I for one, would like to stand atop my mountain and shout that I am super duper thankful for my own mom, who is pretty damn incredible. Thanks to you, Mom, for your unyielding and never ending love, support, thoughtfulness, and generosity. That, and for sharing your love of cooking and baking to fill up tummies full of yummies (too cheesy?). 

Just because it's so cute. 

Last time my parents came to see us in Chicago, she brought this, which she found in her own kitchen from my yesteryear when I was still learning the ropes. Sure, maybe you can buy it for one stinkin' cent on Amazon, but it's pretty much priceless to me.

How cute is that!?

Aside from the endearing cookie recipes, I personally enjoy the Rules for Success in the Kitchen tidbits, such as, and I quote: 
"Rule 3 Wash your hands! Always have clean hands before you touch ingredients or utensils"... "Nobody wants dirty cookies - especially you. If you have long hair, now is the time to put it into a braid so that a stray hair won't get into your way - or your cookies. You may want to put out your cat or dog, too."


In honor of this special day, I decided that there was no better time than 12:30pm to whip up a little recipe chalk full of love to pay homage. 

I settled on Blond Brownies (Blondies). Pretty straightforward here, gang. 


1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine 
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, 325 if you're using a glass dish.
Put the butter or margarine in the saucepan. Place over low heat until the butter or margarine melts. Remove the pan from the heat and turn the burner off. Use the wooden spoon to stir in the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Spread the batter evenly into the greased pan. Bake the cookies for 30 to 35 minutes or until the batter begins to pull away. 


Update: They're fabulous. 


Happy Mother's Day!! Love you, Mom!


Until next time.......Tb2.