We quit swaddling her cold turkey and so far things are going great. We also got the OK from her pediatrician to introduce solid food, and we decided to start with bananas.

After a little bit of assistance with the spoon, she was ready to try it herself.

Success! (Kind of…)

I think this weekend we may move on to sweet potatoes!

I’ve been baking a lot lately, and as always I’m thankful for Mike’s office and my work both being so willing to take baked goods off our hands. In case you’re here because I occasionally make healthy things, I do have to recommend this salad, or more specifically, the dressing, which I now want to put on everything

Proceed directly to Shutterbean for the recipe!

I wanted oatmeal raisin cookies the other day, but I decided to branch out a little bit. These aren’t as cakey as normal whoopie pies (the ground up oats make them a little denser) and they have cream cheese frosting inside. Maybe it makes more sense to call them oatmeal raisin sandwich cookies. But whatever you call them, they’re good! I mean, can you really go wrong when cream cheese frosting is involved?

I also like graham cracker crust about a hundred times more than regular pie crust, so this recipe has that going for it too.

The recipes I found for pumpkin pie bars all had an oatmeal mixture and buterscotch chips sprinkled over the top, but I wanted to keep it simple. The filling isn’t overly sweet, but it goes perfectly with the crust. I think these should replace pumpkin pie as the standard Thanksgiving dessert.

Mike and I made the mistake of putting the pan on the table and taking turns cutting pieces. Over half the pan disappeared within about ten minutes. Oops.

We took Ellie for a walk in Golden Gate Park again, and I had no idea that Spreckels lake has turtles! I’m clearly easily amused right now, but I thought that was amazing.

Friday night I decided that on Saturday, I would make cinnamon rolls.

I don’t know why I felt this urgent need, since I’ve never made them before, but I browsed foodgawker, found this recipe, and went with it. Ellie helped. (And clearly, finishing the cinnamon rolls was more of an urgent need than drying my hair. I have priorities.)

These were surprisingly easy… for some reason I thought cinnamon rolls would be way more complicated. They take a few hours from start to finish, but are TOTALLY worth it!

Recipe:
(from Cook, Bake & Decorate)

1 cup whole milk
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted

3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it’s about 105 degrees.
Stir the yeast and a pinch of sugar into the milk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add the sugar, butter, salt, eggs, and flour and mix well. Knead with the dough hook on medium speed for about 4 minutes, or until the dough is smooth.

Shape the dough into a ball, place in a bowl (the mixing bowl is fine) and cover with a damp towel. Let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until dough has nearly doubled in size.

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well.

Sprinkle some flour on your work surface and lightly flour a rolling pin. Roll the dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.

Brush the dough with 1/3 cup melted butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Roll the dough up starting with the longer side and cut into 12 rolls.

Arrange the rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch glass baking dish. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for about 30 minutes.

While the rolls are rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes.

While the rolls are baking, make the frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Spread the frosting on the rolls while they are still warm.

I’ve been on summer break almost a week now. I mentioned to my friend the other day that I was a little bored, and she told me I should enjoy this boredom now because after the kid comes, I’ll probably never be bored again. Good point, I should probably stop complaining…not only for that reason, but because I realize that having summers off is a huge perk that a lot of people are jealous of, and it’s kind of obnoxious to take it for granted.

So no more complaints here! I think I just had a tough time transitioning to spending my day with hundreds of teenagers to sitting quietly at home with no papers to grade or lessons to plan. But there ARE workouts to do, things to knit and bake, and books to read. Oh and that baby to get ready for…

My sister was here last weekend and she’s a better baker than I am. She doesn’t have a blog, but I keep telling her she needs to guest post on mine because she takes more pictures of food than I do and makes AMAZING cupcakes and cakes and cookies. She also happened to get the shot of me in action.

It took us FOREVER to decide what we wanted to bake when were hanging out this weekend, but the huge container of blueberries from Trader Joe’s beckoned and we settled on this. Our mom used to make something similar when we were little, and it’s delicious. I’d never made it in a tart pan before, but Mike said I have too many different pans that I never use so I had to prove him wrong. Score one point for maturity there! It would work well in either an 11″ tart pan or a regular pie pan.

Recipe:
(adapted from Notes From My Food Diary)

crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
4 Tbsp butter, melted
3 Tbsp sugar

filling and topping
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs

3 cups fresh blueberries, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp freshly-sqeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease an 11″ tart pan (or a 9″ pie pan).

Combine the cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar and press into the tart pan. If the mixture seems especially crumbly, add a little extra melted butter so it holds together. Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling and topping.

To make the filling, beat the cream cheese on high until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, and mix on medium until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the zest, eggs, and sour cream, then mix on medium until smooth.

Pour into the crust and spread evenly. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until set and slightly puffed up (it will settle as it cools). Cool to room temperature, then make the topping.

Combine 1 1/2 cups of blueberries with sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium, stirring constantly, until fruit is soft and has released juices (about 5-7 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and remaining berries. Cool to room temperature, then pour over the cream cheese layer, spreading evenly. Chill about 3 hours before serving.

I found this recipe on the absolutely beautiful Sweetapolita and made just a couple changes. I halved the recipe to make a 6″ cake (because as much as I may have wanted to eat a bigger cake, that’s probably the last thing Mike and I need right now. I also added raisins because it’s just not carrot cake without them. I left the coconut and sour cream out of the frosting to keep it simple. Plain cream cheese frosting is a beautiful thing.

In other completely random news, Mike was feeling a little nostalgic about Korea (it happens rarely, but it does happen), and picked up a few things at the Korean grocery store up the street.

I think it’s hilarious he actually bought Hite, because the entire time we lived in Korea, we both complained about how awful it was. In the bowl are the crunchy snacks you can’t have beer without. The little square plastic container has yellow pickled radish that quickly became one of my favorite foods in Korea.

My running this week was kind of sporadic. I have been really tired lately, so I think I need to switch back to morning treadmill workouts to make sure I get the miles in. Yesterday morning was absolutely PERFECT – 60 and sunny, so I did an easy 6.5 miles and felt awesome.

There were a ton of people running around the lake, including lots pushing their kids in running strollers. I can’t believe that will be me in just a few months!

After my run, I came home to my new obsession.

I was really skeptical about $60 socks, but I LOVE these, and I see why they’re so popular! I haven’t tried running in them yet, because I feel like you look ridiculous in them unless you’re really fast, but people say they actually DO make you faster, so I might have to try it someday.

Recipe:
(adapted from Sweetapolita

makes 1 6″ layer cake; double the recipe for a 9″ cake

1 8-oz can crushed pineapple in juice, drained
2 cups grated carrot
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch ground ginger
1 stick (4 oz) butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp golden brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup raisins

frosting
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
2 cups sifted icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 6″ cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together in a medium bowl.

Stir the vanilla and milk together in a small bowl.

Cream the butter in a stand mixer and add the sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes on medium, or until fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix gently. Stir in half the milk and. Repeat with remaining flour and milk, ending with the flour. Stir just until all traces of flour disappear. Fold in the carrots, pineapple, and raisins.

Divide evenly among pans, and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the eges and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, cut each layer horizontally in half so you have 4 layers.

Fill and frost the cake, then refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

First I packed a nutritions lunch for my hard-working husband.

Then I went to Target and bought some new boots and some plum nail polish. I painted my nails but didn’t wait long enough before doing dishes…manicure ruined. Housewife strike one.

I made myself a bowl of Anne’s pumpkin pie oatmeal. If you haven’t tried this yet, you’re missing out!

I did some laundry and hung it to dry in the middle of the living room. It’s what all the environmentally-conscious housewives without yards do.

I washed our mesh produce bags because they were getting kind of gross. Another environmentally-conscious housewife move.

I lounged around in my new boots for awhile, pretending I was going to work on lesson plans but actually just tweeting.

Determined to be slightly more productive, I headed into the kitchen to start baking (after eating a lunch that remarkably resembled last night’s dinner.

These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are not the healthiest treat out there, but I LOVE them. Sweetened with a mix of maple syrup and brown sugar, they are just the right level of sweet and rich for a Fall morning.

Recipe:
(adapted from Healthy Food For Living)

filling
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves

muffins
2 cups sifted whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 large eggs, lightly whisked
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt

First, spray a 12-muffin tin with nonstick spray and preheat the oven to 375.

Beat the cream cheese, brown sugar, and spices together until smooth. Set aside.

To make the muffins, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, syrup, oil, brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and yogurt and mix until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently until all traces of flour disappear. Divide the batter among the muffin tins so each is filled about halfway. Drop a spoonful of cream cheese filling on top, then fill nearly to the top with the remaining batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

You know those articles about people who find their dream job and get to spend every day doing what they love? I thought it was all just a bunch of crap, until I got this job. Yes, teaching middle school definitely has its moments, but I honestly feel like there is nothing in the world I would rather do. Even as much as I love baking, (and considered trying to make it a career at one point), I think being in the classroom is the perfect place for me.

But obviously I’m still going to bake (for fun), and I’m going to take a lot of what I bake to school, because my co-workers are truly amazing people who are making my first year as a teacher so much less stressful than it could be. Okay, I think that’s about enough sappiness for one blog post. Onto the cupcakes.

Gingerbread, cream cheese frosting and lemon are almost magical when combined into one cupcake. As someone who loves anything and everything ginger (and believes most things are better with cream cheese frosting), these were an ideal treat. And I know my co-workers agreed because they vanished pretty quickly!

Recipe
(adapted from Epicurious)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling water

frosting
6 ounce cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line 12 cupcake tins with paper liners.
Sift the flour, salt, ginger, and cinnamon together into a medium bowl. Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy, then add the egg and molasses and beat on medium until smooth.
Combine the boiling water and baking soda in a small bowl, mixing so the baking soda dissolves. Add to the molasses mixture, and stir well. Then add the flour, and mix on low until all traces of flour disappear.

Pour into the prepared pans and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely (the tops may sink slightly).

To make the frosting, mix the butter and cream cheese until smooth, then beat in the lemon juice, zest, and powdered sugar. Add additional powdered sugar if it seems too runny, then spread onto cooled cupcakes.

I may spend the majority of my time in the kitchen figuring out how to pack lots of vegetables, whole grains, and legumes into a simple yet flavorful dinner, but I can’t pretend that packaged food never makes an appearance in our house. There’s just something about Oreos I can’t resist, even though I know they’re full of junk.

I swear I’m not trying to make all the cupcakes out of Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, but lately every recipe that’s jumped out at me as I scroll through dozens of food blogs happens to be from that book.

These are awesome, and if you’re at all hesitant about making cheesecakes this is a great place to start, because you get all the good qualities of a cheesecake without having to worry about cracking or water baths or springform pans. They’re easy to put together, and the hardest part is definitely waiting the four hours they need to chill (but you can speed that up by putting them in the freezer for some of the time).

Until I saw this post over at Brown Eyed Baker, I had never heard of Black Bottom Cupcakes. Upon discovering that they combine chocolate cake with a cheesecake filling, I realized that my 24 years of life have been missing something.
I had been meaning to make these for a few weeks now, but life always finds a way of interfering with my plans. Fortunately this morning everything fell into place and I was able to whip up a batch. The recipe is much simpler than the cupcake’s appearances will have you believe. 25 minutes later, these magnificant little confections will be all yours!

I found that I had a LOT of cream cheese filling…so I put quite a bit on every cupcake, filling the cups completely. I was a little distracted while they were in the oven so some of them browned a little too much, but they still taste amazing. The only changes I made to the original recipe were to add some vanilla to the cream cheese mixture and some instant espresso to the cake batter.

(from Brown Eyed Baker, original recipe by David Lebovitz)
For the Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

For the Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons naturally unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the Filling: Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla and egg until smooth. Stir in chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

Make the Cupcakes:
1. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, instant espresso, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring just until smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.
4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely, which is fine.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These moist treats will keep unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.

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