Not much of a post.  I’m anxious waiting to hear about a job, so I spent a couple of hours today wrapping lots and lots of wontons and putting them in the freezer for quick meals in the future.  Working with my hands helps to keep me calm!   I’ll include my recipe for my favorite wonton filling, pork & shrimp.

Pork & Shrimp Wonton Filling

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 cup shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped in small pieces (but not minced)
• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• white pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup minced shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated, if using dried) – optional

This filling will make around 60 wontons.

When freezing wontons, lay them out so they’re not touching each other on a baking sheet and stick in the freezer for 20 minutes.  Then you can move them into a zipbloc bag (otherwise, they will stick together if you don’t freeze them separately first).  I love having these in the freezer for a quick meal or snack in a moment’s notice!

Life has been a flurry of activity lately.  We had a dear friend visiting; someone whose presence I started to miss the minute we dropped him back off at the airport after a couple of days together.  I baked this apple pie for him, and felt for the first time that I got my all-butter crust absolutely perfect – and I didn’t follow a recipe for the pie, just instincts and kept it very basic (granny smith apples tossed w/ cinnamon and sugar, a sprinkling of panko on the bottom crust to minimize sogginess).

And then there were these awesome scones for brunch – bacon, cheddar and scallion scones, which I will write about soon and share the recipe – they were so, so good and perfect as part of a special brunch spread.

After the weekend, I was absolutely drained.  But I thought I was still up for baking Dorie’s Molasses Spice Cookies.  I’ve made them before and they were perfect.  I knew they were easy, and sure enough, the dough came together in minutes.  I stuck it in the fridge for a few hours, rolled them out in little balls, tossed them into a bowl of sugar, and flattened them with my palm on a baking sheet.  They looked perfect going into the oven.

I was surprised to open my oven to find that half of the cookies had pooled together into a huge, globby mess.  I was puzzled.  I can practically bake cookies with one hand tied behind my back, and nothing like this had ever happened before.  The funny thing is that they still tasted wonderful, but most of them were not presentable.  A few of them looked fine, which are the ones photographed.

The rest of them?  As I said, they still tasted perfect – warm and gingery and just like fall – so I stuck them into the freezer.  I plan to crumble them into some homemade pumpkin ice cream, and think the combination will be perfect.  So perhaps things worked out just fine, even if not exactly as planned.

TWD is a little different this month, as we’re able to bake the November recipes in whatever order we choose.  So visit the Tuesdays with Dorie page to see which fall recipes other bakers made.  For the Molasses Spice Cookies recipe, the host is Pamela of Cookies with Boys, and I think she will post the recipe on November 17.  I’ll update with the link after that!

This is the first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe that I changed somewhat dramatically.  The recipe called for a thick cherry-accented brownie base topped with a mascarpone/cream cheese mousse after baking.  I followed the brownie recipe almost exactly, but instead of baking it and then topping it with the mousse, I altered the mousse recipe to make a cheesecake layer for the brownie, swirled it lightly, and then baked it all together.

The only thing I didn’t do with the brownie recipe was using alcohol and lighting it – believe it or not, we don’t have a single match in the house.  I know I really should have some for emergencies, but we have a flashlight with extra batteries closeby; as well as a pile of glow sticks.  We used a glow stick once in a power outage and it was surprisingly bright – and lasted for a good long time.  Besides, we also don’t have any candles, so matches really do us no good. 

Anyhow, coming back from that tangent – I simply boiled the dried cherries in some water to moisten/soften them and then stirred in the cherry preserves.  That being said, I didn’t really taste the cherries all that much in the brownie base.  Then again, I only took one small bite, and didn’t get any dried cherry in that bite.

As for the topping, I omitted the whipping cream and added two eggs into the mixture.  I poured it over the brownie batter in the springform pan and swirled it lightly.  I think it came out well.  The whole thing is in the freezer right now – I really baked it just to complete this week’s TWD, but since cheesecake and brownies both freeze so well, I stuck it in the freezer so I can pull it out in a “dessert emergency.”  Yes, I like to have homemade desserts on hand to pull out in a flash in a pinch, but don’t have matches and candles in my house. 

For more Cherry Fudge Brownie Tortes, visit the the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll, and for the recipe, visit this week’s host, April.

I absolutely love sweet potatoes, so I was excited about this week’s TWD project!  I made these as part of our Sunday morning brunch spread (along with an apple crisp and bacon – a strange brunch, to say the least!).  I halved the recipe and found it to be a very easy dough to work with.  I always freeze my butter for about 30 minutes before I make biscuits, and I didn’t think I overworked the dough, but  my biscuits didn’t rise as high as I would have liked.  A few other people mentioned this over at the P&Q page for this week so I’m glad I wasn’t alone.  Perhaps it was my own fault for spending the last five minutes of baking time staring at the biscuits through the oven door hoping they would rise more!  Perhaps a watched biscuit doesn’t rise? 

Even so, they tasted wonderful, full of sweet potato flavor.  They weren’t as flaky as a normal buttermilk biscuit, but they were tender and soft.  I ate mine plain, and didn’t think it needed anything, but my husband ate his with a bit of butter.  I followed the recipe closely, except for halving it, and got six big biscuits.  This recipe was surprisingly light – a half recipe only had 3 tablespoons of butter and really no other added fat, so I felt good about making them and eating them (usually, I send my TWD treats away as soon as I can!).  I’ll definitely make these again, and perhaps they’ll rise more for me next time. 

For more sweet potato biscuits, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie page and for the recipe, visit this week’s host, Erin of Prudence Pennywise!

Quick post today!  I made this recipe from Everyday Food except in cupcake form.  I used bittersweet chocolate, baked them for 21 minutes and came out with 20 lovely little pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes that were a huge hit.  Make these!!  They’re quick, easy and so good.    And your home will smell like fall as they’re baking.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

As you can see, I didn’t feel like putting crumbs on individual muffins, so I just plopped all the batter into an 8 x 8 pan, spread all the crumb topping over the top, and baked it for 36 minutes – it was perfect!  These went straight to a gathering, but I saved this lone square so that I could take a few pictures the next day.  I didn’t eaten any of it, but it smelled amazing coming out of the oven and they were a big hit.

I thought the recipe was pretty straightforward.  Besides not making muffins, I followed it closely.  I’m not sure I would make this again, not because they didn’t come out well, but because besides a few exceptions, I so seldom repeat recipe these days, since there are always so many new ones to try!  These just didn’t stand out to me as anything special (then again, since I didn’t eat any, perhaps that’s not a fair assessment).

I cut the 8 x 8 pan of cake into 16 pieces, and think it was a good serving size.  These would have been much cuter in muffin form, but I am happy with the way they came out in the cake pan!  For more Allspice Crumb Muffins, please visit the Tuesdays with Dorie page; and for the recipe, visit this week’s host, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table. 

I’ve always loved fall, even when it was time to start school again.  It has always felt refreshing, like a new beginning and a time to reorganize.  I love stepping outside for a run and feeling crisp, cool air in my lungs and I love bundling up in sweaters and blankets at home.  This fall, we live somewhere new and are making new friends, and I’ll (hopefully) be starting a new job in not too long, and I feel mostly excited about what’s to come.  Though I also feel homesick a lot these days, but not for a particular place, since my family and friends are so spread out.  I’m most homesick for my parents, as I haven’t seen them for over a year, and am counting down the days until I visit them in California in December.  Often, when I feel a bit sad and homesick, the best remedy is to cook and bake familiar foods.  I’ve been cooking a lot of homestyle Chinese dishes that remind me of my mother, and then there are these cookies.  Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies have always been a favorite of mine, but I’m extremely particular about them.  I don’t like ones that are big and flat, and like them to be chock full of oatmeal.  These are my perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  They hold their round shape when baking, have a crisp exterior, only a cup of flour to the three cups of oats, and they’re tiny – two or three bites, big enough to satisfy a sweet craving under 100 calories, but not so big as to send you into a sugar high after one.

I adapted this recipe from The Homesick Texan.  I like to add a teaspoon of cinnamon along with the dry ingredients and I cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes before adding the egg and vanilla; and I add the oats and chocolate chips at the end after the dry ingredients.  I’ve also baked it with all-purpose flour, when I was out of whole wheat, and while I prefer the whole wheat, they come out wonderfully either way.  I also end up with more cookies even though my scoop is closer to 2 tsp than 1 tsp – I consistently come out with 60 cookies out of this recipe, which means there are tons to share.  I had enough to bake for a small gathering as well as send a bunch into work with my husband.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from The Homesick Texan

1 cup of whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups of oats (I use old-fashioned, but am sure quick oats would work well too)
2 cups (12 oz) of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon in a bowl and whisk together.

In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer in a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.   Add the egg and the vanilla and mix until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined.  Add the oats and chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed, taking care not to overmix.

Place 2 teaspoon-sized balls of dough on a greased or parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.  They will not spread much during baking, so there’s no need to leave tons of space between cookies.

Makes 50-60 cookies.

We’re really not fans of pudding around here, so for this week’s TWD, I doctored the recipe to make just a single serving so that I could still participate.  Though it’s usually not my style to make something lowfat (as I can usually just send the decadent sweets away for others to consume), I used organic lowfat milk and reduced the sugar drastically, so that I could actually eat it.  I’ve only had a bite and it’s still very good – nice and pure vanilla flavor with that bit of chocolate swirled in.  I’ll enjoy it as an afternoon snack later today. 

For more pudding, please visit the Tuesdays with Dorie page and for this week’s recipe, visit this week’s host, Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla.

I have to admit that I’ve never been one to stray away from braised stew-like dishes during the summer.  I will make Boeuf Bourguignon in the heat of summer, and never hesitate to turn on my oven to bake, no matter how hot it is out.  I have to admit, this is probably because I’ve always been spoiled with well-ventilated living spaces, as well as air-conditioning.  In any case, I’m thrilled that the cool weather of fall is setting in, and decided to cook something warming and appropriate for the season.

I love Wandering Chopsticks’ blog.  She has tons of great recipes on her site, and it’s the first place I go if I’m looking for a new Asian (especially Vietnamese) recipe to try out.  I never grew up eating any type of Asian food except for my mom’s Chinese food, so I have fun trying new dishes out that are still somewhat familiar with Asian flavors, but unique to a different culture.
I made this pork and egg dish (“Thit Heo Kho Trung”) from WC’s blog this week, and was really pleased with how it came out.  The recipe is here, and I followed her recipe pretty closely, just tweaking the amount of ingredients since I had a larger amount of meat.   I used pork shoulder (skin-off), and made this a few hours ahead of time so I would have time to chill and de-fat the sauce.  I’m not a big meat-eater, and my favorite part of this dish were the eggs.  While the meat was good – fall apart tender and flavorful – I would have been happy to just have the eggs.  Since they’re added at the end, they don’t get overcooked.  The yolks stayed creamy and bright yellow, without that ugly gray ring that forms when hard-boiled eggs are overcooked.  I usually hard boil my eggs by putting them in a saucepan, covering them with water, bringing the water to a boil and then turning off the heat and waiting 12 minutes.  When I made this dish, I only waited 10 minutes before cooling and peeling the eggs.  They were a bit soft, but this further ensured that the eggs would not overcook.

Anyhow, I’ll point you over to WC’s blog for the recipe here.  I encourage you to try it as the cooler weather sets in. 

It felt great to get back into the TWD routine after a few weeks off with my ankle injury.  I was excited about making this tart – the pictures looked great in the book and it didn’t seem too complicated.  We’ve made a few tarts since I joined TWD more than a year ago, so I’ve had a lot of practice with the sweet tart dough.  I’m proud to say that I made it without even looking at the recipe and that it came out perfectly – making tart pastry used to really intimidate me, but being “forced” to do it a few times with TWD has taken away my anxiety.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, except that I exchanged the honey roasted peanuts for toasted walnuts.  I just thought the combination of walnuts, caramel and chocolate sounded lovely, plus I have a big bag of walnuts in my freezer.    I also only have a 9.5″ tart pan.  I noticed on the TWD notes that a lot of people had extra ganache – I pretty much used up the whole bit of ganache, perhaps because my tart pan was slightly larger.

This was lovely.  The ganache was so smooth and silky, and the caramel was sweet and rich.  I brought most of this tart over to my neighbors, who have a little girl.  I hope that they enjoyed it!

For more Chocolate-crunched Caramel Tarts, please visit the Tuesdays with Dorie page.  If you’d like the recipe, visit this week’s host,  Carla of Chocolate Moosey.