I have been on a Baking Illustrated kick lately, and its recipes have yet to disappoint. Case in point – these delicious chocolate chip walnut cookies. These were VERY good! The book’s tips for shaping large drop cookies are also helpful. This cookie makes me think a lot of Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” cookie (also good). Bryan’s coworkers enjoyed them as well.

Last weekend Bryan and I had my family over for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun! I really enjoy planning out the food and menu.

I made black bean burgers (from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything) that were pretty good, just a little dry. Next time I will cook them slightly different and I am confident that they’ll be even better. To go with the black bean burgers I made two types of buns – a light brioche and a 100% whole wheat. I liked both!

The light brioche recipe came from Annie’s Eats and I was very happy with the results. It was simple to put together and the result looked good. I definitely recommend it.

The homemade buns weren’t as soft or fluffy as the buns you’d purchase at the supermarket, but they still tasted great. Plus, I take comfort knowing that my meal is 100% homemade! Yum!

It’s hard to resist a delicious soft pretzel, and the homemade version is so tasty! I baked Alton Brown’s Homemade Soft Pretzels over the winter and they turned out perfect. Today I wanted to incorporate whole wheat flour and decided to use a recipe that I found on Baking Bites. Her recipe tastes good but I found it to be very elastic and thus quite difficult to shape into proper pretzel form.

I recommend the Alton Brown recipe – it creates the quintessential soft pretzel. Next time I make pretzels I will base my recipe off of Alton Brown’s version and use part, but not 100%, whole wheat flour. I look forward to experimenting with that!

This past weekend my little sister Carolyn celebrated her 18th birthday! My family went to Highland House to commemorate the occasion. Highland House is a very good restaurant known for their delicious Greek salad, pizza, pasta, and ribs. The salad is tough to beat, but unfortunately they use MSG in their house-made dressing (my other sister discovered this when trying to replicate the recipe). It’s nice to enjoy every once in a while, though.

Carolyn does not like cake, so I baked brownies for her birthday. I have wanted to try the brownie recipe in The Best Light Recipe for a few weeks now, but I did not want to only use a “light” recipe for her birthday.  Naturally I decided to also make the chewy, fudgy brownie recipe from Baking Illustrated as well. You can never have too many brownies, right?

I really like both cookbooks, and the instructions are easy to follow. Both recipes are simple to put together, and they both turned out great! In a side-by-side comparison you can taste (and see) a difference, but I think that individually both are excellent brownies. The Baking Illustrated brownie is very attractive – thick and tall it also cuts very well. The “light” brownie is thinner and a little darker in color, but it also cuts nicely. I thought both tasted really good. For events and parties the Baking Illustrated brownie recipe is the way to go, but if I was just making brownies for myself I would use the light recipe.

For the little brownie cake the base is the Baking Illustrated chewy, fudgy brownie and the top is the Best Light Recipe brownie. Excuse the poor quality pictures – they were taken on the fly with my phone.

Oh and did I mention I made homemade cheesecake ice cream to go with the cake? More to come on that soon, but cheesecake ice cream and rich gooey brownie makes for a delicious combination!

Since early January I have been a little obsessed with making ice cream. It all started when I borrowed my dad’s Rival ice cream maker and made some butter pecan and strawberry for my friend Jamie’s birthday. From there I made coffee and vanilla. It was my first time cooking with a whole vanilla bean and it was SO good! I love vanilla.

Then in February I purchased The Perfect Scoop (AWESOME cook book), which features so many wonderful flavors and mix-ins.  Add in a few more batches of strawberry (I had lots of frozen strawberries from when I picked them last summer), some yummy tart yogurt, deliciously rich chocolate, and I am totally out of control! I can’t help myself – ice cream is my favorite indulgence.

Recently I made malted-milk ball ice cream and mint ice cream. Both are phenomenal. The malted-milk recipe is custard based and is definitely rich. The mint is made with real mint, and blows mass-produced mint ice cream out of the water. It’s quite different and makes me wonder just what sort of flavoring the mint chocolate chip I have had in the past contains..

Anyway, I recommend The Perfect Scoop, which is where both of these recipes are from.

I am not sure if I have enough time for training, but my dad and I are thinking about participating in a half marathon on June 6 (only seven weeks away)! I found two eight week training schedules from fitness Magazine and need to decide if I should start with the beginner or intermediate program. I am thinking beginner is the way to go, since my workouts this past week were quite similar to week one on their training program.

Here is a .pdf link to the plan: Beginner Plan.

Let’s hope this goes well!

I had a fun baking-filled Easter weekend.

I made nested egg cupcakes for something cute and themed. I frosted Nick Malgieri’s Incredibly Moist Chocolate Cupcakes with chocolate frosting (both recipes from The Modern Baker), dipped the edges in toasted coconut flakes, and then topped them with three Cadbury chocolate eggs. They were quite cute and tasty!

The buttercream frosted cupcakes went much quicker than the chocolate/coconut cupcakes did, and I really liked how nicely the frosting piped on the cakes (Confectioners’ Sugar Icing recipe from The Modern Baker). Yum!

I baked sugar cookies and frosted them with Royal Icing. This was my first time decorating with Royal Icing, and I think they turned out alright. The consistencies of the piping and the filling weren’t 100% great this time, but next time they will be much better. I look forward to using Royal Icing again. I used Brown Eyed Baker’s decorating with royal icing tutorial and would definitely recommend it.

Everyone raved about this Lemon Meringue Pie (recipe from Baking Illustrated). While I am not a huge lemon person, I must admit that it was quite tasty. This was my first time making a single pre-baked pie shell as well as a meringue pie so it was lots of fun!

I also made an layered trifle – with vanilla pudding, pound cake, whipped cream and mixed berries. It’s super easy to layer together, looks great, and tastes good as well. I love baking with a purpose (such as a holiday)!

This year I have decided to run a race each month. Well, I missed January, so perhaps I can make that up by running two in one month at some point.

This morning my sister Katie and I ran a 5K  together in Ann Arbor. It was a lot of fun and definitely nice to run with someone. I am used to running with my dogs, but no other people, so it was a welcome change!

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day I baked a small batch of Irish Soda Bread Muffins, from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri.  They were quite tasty!  The flavor and texture make me think a bit of a biscuit.

Also – if you have not checked out The Modern Baker yet, I recommend it! I made his golden cupcake recipe over the weekend and it was excellent as well.

When I was working full time in an office I went to the gym each morning before work. Usually I did 35-40 minutes of strength and about a half hour of cardio during each session (four or five mornings a week). Now that the gym is not on my way to work but rather a 10 minute drive each way I am finding that it’s not as conducive to a productive day when I go first thing in the morning. Last week the weather was so temperate that I ended up on going to the gym one or two mornings the entire week and I found that I got a lot more done around the house with such a schedule. I still ran and/or walked outside each morning, but not doing the strength training at the gym every day made a huge difference. With the nicer weather I hope that I will be able to jog most mornings before breakfast, and then get in my strength training a few afternoons a week.

Also as of late my friend Emily and I have worked out together a few times. It’s nice that we both belong to the same gym. She focuses on a volleyball-specific strength training routine, and I think that it is a nice balance to my usual workout combinations. Since she doesn’t do cardio when she goes to the gym I think that working out with her should complement my schedule nicely. This week we’re working out together on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Not in the afternoon, but also not first thing, so I will have to note how that works out. I plan on going out with my dogs first for a little walk or run, then checking in with work while eating a light breakfast before we head out.

Other than the occasional group fitness class and my recent workouts with Emily, my strength routines have been virtually the same since November. Since my job change I have intermittently combined the workouts and done two back to back on the same day, but that’s the main variation. I break them up by Chest/Back, Arms/Shoulders, and Legs. I am happy with the results, and not really too bored, so I will probably continue as-is for now.

At some point I would like to integrate a calendar into my blog so that I can keep track of the workouts. Right now, though, just starting this blog is taking priority.