Two Quick Recipes to keep you warm!

School is absolutely insane this semester, I am enrolled in 21 hours, graduating in may (yay!) so I don't have much free time to blog these days :(
But it's a snow day! The pups are outside (yes pups, we recently adopted a stray) and I have a free moment to throw some delciousness your way!
First up, one of my favorite, go-to recipes: Roasted Brussels Sprouts. I used to think I would never like brussels sprouts, they can be an intimidating vegetable, but after tweeking this one, I (and Scott!) LOVE these. They're great as a quick snack or as a side dish, but either way, you will never look at them the same way!

Jessalyn's Roasted Brussels Sprouts

About 2 cups of fresh Brussels Sprouts, washed and halved
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea Salt
Pepper
a handful of shredded Parmesan Cheese

Preheat your oven to 420 degreees
Simply place a sheet of foil over your cookie sheet (easy clean-up!) To make sure all of my sprouts get coated, I play them in a bowl pour in the olive oil and toss. Then, lay your sprouts flat side down on your cookie sheet and sprinkle generously with slat and pepper (you can also add some garlic here if you want to). Then pop them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. About 1/2 way through, flip your sprouts, then with about 5 minutes left, go ahead and return them to their flat sides and finish cooking. Then simply sprinkle on your Parmesan cheese and ta-da! beautiful, tasty Brussels Sprouts! Who would've thought these little guys could be so delcious! I love the crustiness of the outside! It almost reminds me of a french fry, but even better!





Next we get to enjoy one of the best cookies I have ever made/tasted! I never thought this combination would be as delicious as they turned out, but everyone has been raving over them!

I can't even remember where I found this recipe because I've had it so long and never tried it out, but you will really enjoy these!

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Now whip out your kitchen-aid, or you can do this by hand, and mix butter, both sugars, vanilla and eggs on medium or until all mixed in. Next add your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and continue on medium until everything is well incorporated. Now, I took my bowl off the mixer to add the oatmeal and chocolate chips because I figure all of that would cause an oatmeal explosion. So I simply added one cup at a time until everything is mixed well. Now, place about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie and bake away, about 11-14 minutes, depending on your preference. I felt like I was baking batch after batch of these, it made about 48 cookies, so if you don't need that much, feel free to half it!
Yum!



Happy Baking!! And stay warm out there!

snickerdoodle blondies

WOW, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?
I have actually been in the kitchen plenty since my last post, but my camera has spazzed out on me and I've been too lazy to post anything without pictures. Who wants to read a food blog with no pictures! But, I just have to share this one with you, I am in looovvvee!

Snickerdoodle Blondies
(adapted from Recipegirl.com)
For the cookies:
1 cup of butter, softened
2 cups of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
2 & 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour
2 tsp. of baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of cream of tartar
1 tsp. salt

For the topping:
2 tbsp. of sugar
1 tsp. of ground cinnamon

For the glaze:
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 tsp. of ground cinnamon
3 or 4 tbsp. of heavy whipping cream
pinch of nutmeg


Ok, first, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper, then spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Now whip out your mixer and combine the butter and brown sugar and cream for 2 or 3 minutes.
Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix well
Add all of your dry ingredients for the cookies, and mix on low until everything is nice and mixed.
Scoop mix into pan, flour your hands, and pat down the mixture evenly.
Next, in a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon for the topping and using a sifter, top the mix.
Bake for about 30 minutes, then cool in pan, on a wire rack until cool.
After the blondies have cooled completely, whisk together ingredients for the glaze, and decorate your blondies! I just put my glaze in a ziploc bag, cut off a small triangle off the corner and made a criss cross pattern! To set your glaze, put blondies in the fridge for a bit.
To remove your blondies from the pan, lift the parchment paper carefully and set blondies on your counter and cut into small squares.
Enjoy!

And to let you know what will be coming up next, I have officially dived into the world of homemade flour tortillas and am perfecting a great recipe I came up with, so get ready, they are sooo good and except for being a bit time consuming, are very easy! Everyone so far has loved them and I'm excited to share them with you!

-Jessalyn

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Muffins

FINALS ARE COMING! so to prepare myself and my belly for the next few nights locked in the basement of the library (sup club willis!) I spent the day in the kitchen making rice crispy treats, snickerdoodles and one of my favorite brain foods, muffins! I put a tasty little spin on the chocolate chip muffin, and threw in peanut putter chips, because you really cannot go wrong with that combination. Now I'll have plenty of goodies to go along with the 300 gallons of caffeine I'll be ingesting over the next week or so.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of cocoa
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of peanut butter chips
1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips






Preheat over to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, combine wet ingredients and whisk until mixed.
Then add all dry ingredients, and stir until well blended, and add the peanut butter and chocolate chips.
Pour into a 12 muffin tin, 3/4 full each.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes.
Cool in tin for about 10 minutes, carefully remove and let cool on wire cooling rack for about 30 minutes.
Grab your caramel latte and one of these and hit the books!





Good luck to everyone on their finals and Happy Baking!

Chicken Friand

Ok, so I LOVE La Madeline, definitely one of my top 5 restaurants, and whenever I'm able to venture to one (COME TO DENTON, PLEASE!) I always order the Chicken Friand, a beautiful puff pastry stuffed with chicken and mushrooms and the most delicious sauce. And since we don't have one in Denton, I decided to try making it at home basing my recipe simply off remembrance and I think I have come pretty close to the real thing after making this a couple times! So here goes!

Chicken Friand
makes 2 puff pastries, plus extra sauce

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups of sliced mushrooms, i used Baby Bellas
1 & 1/4 cup of white wine
1 onion, finely chopped, divided
1 or 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of chopped garlic, depending on your preference (more is always better for me!)
1/2 tablespoon of fresh thyme
3 or 4 tablespoons of flour
1/3 cup of chicken broth
about 2 cups of chicken, cooked and diced*
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of milk
1 sheet of puff pastry
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon of water


*I cook my chicken on the stove in some olive oil and lots of thyme to give it extra flavor





First, before anything else, get your puff pastry out of the freezer and let that baby thaw! It takes at least 40 minutes, sometimes more and the longer it thaws, the easier it is to roll out!

Heat over to 350 degrees.

Now for the fun! In a large sauce pan, heat up 1 tablespoon of butter and oil on medium heat, and add mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms until the mushrooms' liquid gives off and evaporates, about 4 minutes. Next add 1/4 cup of wine and continue until the wine evaporates. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl.

Now, in the saucepan, melt the other 2 tablespoons of butter and add onions, garlic and thyme and cook until onions are soft. Next, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with a whisk until a thick mixture is formed. Slowly whisk in chicken broth and the remaining wine and heat.
Add cooked chicken and mushrooms and heat through.
Add milk and cream, slowly again, until sauce is nice and thick. (if you like a thinner sauce, add more milk)


Turn heat on low and move onto your pastry.
I like to roll out parchment paper and throw some flour on it for a quick clean-up later when rolling out anything. On a floured surface, roll out pastry sheet about 4 inches wider and 2 inches longer and make sure you roll the seams of the dough together so they don't break. Now, cut the pastry diagonally and transfer each triangle to a baking sheet. (Again, I line my baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean-up)
Spoon mixture onto one side of each triangle then fold the other side over and press together (this will be messy, but do the best you can!) Now, whisk the egg and water in a small bowl and using a pastry brush, brush egg wash onto the tops of the pastries.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until pastry has puffed up and turned golden brown
Place each pastry on a plate, then add more sauce on top and you're done!!



I served this with sauteed aspargus and a spinach salad, light greens go perfect with this savory dish!

Happy Baking!

On a baking bender!

Whenever the holidays begin, I start going 200 mph in my kitchen, whipping up anything and everything i can. Thanksgiving really gets me going, and even though my belly is entirely too full (yes, 5 says later) I cannot, for any reason, step away from the rolling pin and my brand new Kitchenaid! So my blog will probably see new posts very often throughout December, especially when the semester is finally over (2 weeks!!) so get ready, y'all!


Anyway, to start off, a little about me: I'm 22, and a soon to be graduate (may 2010) with a History Degree. I love any and all things baking, cookies, cakes, pies, and any recipe that includes my beloved puff pastry! The name of my blog, in English, roughly translates to "The Wonderful Mix (or mixture) and I thought, as a Spanish minor, a little Spanish alliteration would be fun! I live in Denton, TX with my wonderful boyfriend and our little girl, Marley (the dog, not baby!)


Isn't she the cutest?
Alright, so back to baking... I'm fairly busy, I'm in school full time, and I work nights in a bar, so my time spent in the kitchen generally is quick, unless I have the whole day off (thank you Sundays!) so for my first post, here's a super quick, super easy recipe for Toffee Bars. But beware, these things seriously pack a punch (of sugar!) and are a little too sweet for my tasting, but others love them!



Toffee Bars
adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook


1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 egg yolk
2 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (i used walnuts)

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Mix butter, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla on low speed until mixed well
(this can be done by hand too, I'm just obsessed with using my mixer at all times!)
Add flour and salt and continue to mix until everything is mixed in well.
Press dough into a 13x9 inch pan
Bake about 30 minutes or until very light brown (keep crust soft!)
Quickly add the chocolate chips, evenly, then let stand for about 5 minutes, or until your chocolate is melted
With a spatula, spread the chocolate evenly and then sprinkle with nuts
Now the hard part, let sit, in the pan, on a wire cooling rack for 30 minutes
Then cut 8 rows by 4 rows and serve!



So easy!
Also, if you want to take these with you to a holiday party, I suggest lining the pan with foil or parchment paper so you can easily lift the bars out and display them or pack them up to take with you, but if doing so, refrigerate for a while so you don't have chocolate everywhere!

And bare with me on the poor photography skills I have! Soon I'll have my amazingly talented friend, Amanda, coming over to help me out! My creative juices are dedicated to the makings of treats, not takin' their pictures!


Happy Baking!!