Tie-Dye Cookies

I’ve been wanting to make these cookies for some time now but haven’t felt super motivated to do it. I’m trying to cut down on the number of baked goods we have in the house because if there are too much they don’t get eaten and I don’t want so much food to go to waste. I also don’t want to have too many sweets laying around that make us feel like we need to eat them before they go bad. Healthier fruits are the way go to for snacking so I don’t want to make too much temptation. Still, I was feeling motivated on Sunday and decided to make Rick Martinez’s Tie-Dye Butter Cookies.

Rick is super cute in his video and like most people, I grew up liking tie-dye. My mom is a huge fan and gets excited when she sees tie-dye things that are super colorful. What a better way to spend Mother’s Day. I didn’t end up going home but it was really nice to think about her while I was making them and I'm excited to show her photos of it then next time I see her.

The recipe for the tie-dye cookies are super simple and I liked how quickly the dough came together. I still haven’t gotten cookie cutters so I ended up using an egg mold to cut the cookies our and that worked out fine. They’re a little large but they didn’t spread in the oven and ended up being the perfect thickness and they just melt in your mouth.

The glaze was also super simple and the recipe says to split it and make two colors but Ii actually did 1 batch of just white and i split the other half into red and then blue. Honestly, I was a little worried they would be kind of patriotic accidentally but figured if they mixed together they would be a really nice purple which did happen.

I tried to scoop a spoonful of white glaze onto all the cookies then drizzles spoonfuls of the red and blue on top and kind of swirled them around just like in those paint pour videos that were so popular not that long ago. I should’ve done them in batches because the glaze hardened a little on the last few before I could get to them and swirl them. It was messy but I had a really nice time with it. I do love the unexpected nature of tie-dye and paint pours and I love the way these cookies came out.

These remind me of the hard glazed cookies from the grocery store that I loved so much growing up that I have such a hard time finding now. Everyone uses frosting now that is too much and I’m happier with a glazed icing like this. These are going on my baking list and I’m going to be making them a lot more for gatherings in the future. A huge party pleaser for sure.

Empanadas

I love empanadas. This isn’t something we ever ate growing up but when I went to college I started exploring Rochester and one of the hidden gems in Rochester’s public market is Juan and Maria’s Empanada Stop. They have the most amazing empanadas that are amazing as you walk through the bustling farmers market. There’s always a line for these slightly oily pockets but they’re so fast its always a good time. I’ve gone to the market just for these and it’s always worth it.

Cut to recently, watching Bon Appetit, where Gabby makes empanadas and like before, she makes them look easy. I checked out her recipe on their website and it was actually pretty easy with a simple dough. I switched out the filling for some ground beef and onions that I had in the freezer and it was simple. Caleb isn’t a fan of beef so we just made him some chicken empanadas and it worked out well. I like recipes like this that allow for adjustments easily. While the dough came together well it was a little tricky to roll out eventually. I packed and fried these guys but honestly, I’m not a fan of the dough and the butteriness of it takes me out. I had fun making them but I think this is something I need to leave to Juan and Maria.

Tortilla de Papas

I had the day off of work today and decided today was the day to try my hand at an elaborate breakfast of Tortilla de Paps. Gabby from the Bon Appetit test kitchen makes this and I’ve never heard of it before but I’m always up for a new cooking technique and since I had time today I wanted to give it a shot. Caleb and I were going to make this on Sunday but it was the weekend and neither of us felt particularly inspired to wake up and cook something that took a while so we skipped it. But now we have a 4lb bag of potatoes and need to get moving on that so I had some more drive today.

Gabby somehow makes things feel so doable and easy so I walked into this with some skepticism but confidence. Boy was I wrong. Tortilla de Papas is a tricky dish for sure with cook times all over the place. This is one of those things you just have to know how to make. I decided to cut the recipe in half because we don’t need 2lbs of potatoes and 10 eggs. This felt like a good move but in the end my egg to potato ratio was off and I didn’t get a good egg sear on one side because the egg had all cooked on the first side (pictured here). This took me close to an hour to make which was rough and while it tasted fine, it was a lot of work for an average dish. An omelette with onions and potatoes would’ve tasted about the same without all the oil everywhere. The potatoes are poached in oil and the whole thing just had a layer of oil around it. I’d op for something lighter and more flavorful next time. An interesting dish but too much time for not enough payout for me.

Pasta with chickpea garlic sauce

Quarantine is an interesting time and it’s quite boring so I feel pretty lucky on that end. Working from home and being able to finish some half-done crafts is exciting but it’s crazy to think about how long this could continue. I’m super grateful for Bon Appetit youtube content and seeing all my favorite chefs at home making things happen. Recently they released a video where everyone made pasta using basic pantry items they had at home and I was pretty excited when Claire made a sauce using chickpeas and garlic. It was super simple and I’d never seen anything like it before so I knew I wanted to try it and I’m all over chickpeas right now so I was extra excited.

Claire cooked pasta, and while that was going, pan-fried a can of chickpeas on a little olive oil with garlic. Once they got crispy she took out about 1/3 of the chickpeas to top the pasta with later. I, of course, got a little excited and forgot to take some out until after I deglazed the pan so my crispy chickpeas became a little soggy… a little sad but not a huge deal. Claire also deglazed her pan with a dry white wine but I didn’t have any here so I used chicken stock as a substitute which worked out fine. I mashed the chickpeas in the pan, added a little pasta sauce and seasoned the sauce with red pepper flakes and a little salt. I tossed the pasta and seasoned a little more to taste.

My sauce seized up a little and wasn’t as liquid as I would’ve liked in the end but it tasted great. I topped with my slightly soggy chickpeas and it was ready to go. I’m totally going to do this again. It was so simple and easy to make and used very staple ingredients that I usually always have. I’m so happy to keep learning about these new techniques and uses for basic ingredients and I’m glad I’m still able to keep things interesting and new during this social distancing.

Camouflage Chocolate Fudge Brownies

It’s clearly not social distancing without desserts so I decided to take my day off yesterday and bake these really cool looking camouflage brownies from Bon Appetite. This is actually a Basically recipe which makes me more excited. I love simple recipes. They give me confidence.

These camouflage brownies should really be called cheesecake brownies because the lighter parts of the brownie aren’t actually brownie batter at all, they’re cheesecake.

The recipe calls for a cheesecake batter that gets divided into two, one regular and one with cocoa powder to give it that chocolate cheesecake flavor. Then a brownie batter is made separately.

Ingredients wise, there’s a short list; but this recipe calls for a double boiler situation to melt the cream cheese and the butter for each batter while then being able to mix the other ingredients for everything to come together.

My problem with this recipe was an issue of consistency. My cheesecake batter got too warm and was pretty runny while my brownie batter seized up and wasn’t as loose and runny as in the online instructions. In the end, the brownies still came out great but the top wasn’t as pretty as in the original recipe. Flavor over appearance. It’s worth another shot and I can see these being a real hit with people, but only if you like cheesecake and brownies.