Fruit Pizza - SO YUMMY

STRESSFUL DAY AT WORK -> Baking Time with Kimdolion!

Found a recipe for what is effectively delicious pie crust.

1 and 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 and a half full sticks of butter!

Beat that stuff into submission and you've got yourself some awesome crust that needs some tender 350* lovin' in the oven for 10 minutes.

Then came the basically cheesecake without the egg filling... pizza sauce... whatever.

Soooo many strawberries. 

It's good to buy them organic because of the possibility for developing breast cancer otherwise.

Beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla extract into submission as well. 

If you didn't notice, I was making the crust and the sauce one after the other so as to make the best of my time.

I let it sit for about 10 minutes as I cut up the rest of the fruit (canned peaches, fresh kiwi, and fresh blueberries)

I had enough of the pizza filling to make actual cheesecake as well!

Err... more like two cheesecakes. I had bought way too much. Still trying to figure out what is the right amount.

Gods it was so beautiful

Even better lookin' when it's mostly devoured by awesome coworkers/teachers!

White mushrooms

boneless, skinless chicken breasts

a lot of chopping

A LOT of chopping. It definitely didn't help that the knife I was using was quite poor.

We started on the sauce/filling for the pies. It basically required us to fry up the mushrooms in oil, add in some flour, then slowly pour in the chicken broth.

Very slowly pour a cup and a fourth of chicken broth while stirring. This was definitely a 2 person project as I am still unsure of my own cooking prowess.

oh and a sprinkle of Thyme.

hmm... Thyme... what an odd name for an odd seasoning/spice. It really is a pain to pronounce. Makes me feel like a fool. "I think we put in too much time."

Regardless the filling turned out awesome.

The ever so glamorous Val catering plate was to measure out an approx. 6in diameter circle. 

Gotta slice little vents into the pie tops and brush on the beaten egg onto the tops as well. Definitely didn't have a brush so we used a fork.

and Voila!


I think it turned out really well. They were quite tasty.

Savory Pie

If you didn't catch the last hint then you now may know that I made Chicken and Mushroom pie(s). 

I also ended up making cheesecake as a random fun extra thing to do. I really had no business making it but who cares?

When I opened the Daisy sour cream it had this photo of the Grand Canyon. ITS SO PREETTTTY!

Nicole has been such a good sport about this. Of course, I'm sure it helps that she gets whatever she wants of what we ended up making. 

What you see in her hands is a new madness. This madness shall be known as the cheesepancake. 

The center was so delicious. I can't say I cared for the graham cracker crust. I'll have to make that from scratch too from now on. 

Lazy Day

So this blog will be a combo of food and place exploration as it seems to be directed. 

In case you haven't figured it out, I've never really cooked before. So I'll be going a little slap happy with pictures and writing about my cooking adventures in Amherst while also adding in adventures in Holyoke. 

So to start things off with a BANG...

I made grits for breakfast.

MMMMMMMM GRITS

I also threw in a scrambled egg. Scrambled eggs is difficult. I spent a good 10 mins washing the skillet afterwards because I wasn't swishing it around fast enough or maybe didn't have the heat up high enough. D:

Next recipe might be more savory than sweet...

My Own Honeydukes Part II

Onwards to the filling!

This hot mess that you see before you is 1 cup of corn syrup (with a hint of vanilla flavoring apparently...) 

and bread crumbs (2 and 1/4 cups, supposed to be fresh)

This combo gave us this delicious looking animal feed you see above. 

There was also supposed to be rated zest and juice of 1 lemon but we couldn't be bothered to buy 1 lemon for a recipe being made by frugal (read: poor) college students working on a pre-agreed amount for the summer. 

Anyway, we rolled out the dough to make the bottom crust.

Previously we had rolled it out into 9 doughy discs (was going for 8 but I miscounted) because we interpreted the recipe differently. 

We assumed that a tart that served 8 people was 8 cupcake sized tarts for 8 people. It turns out it means one whole tart in a pie pan basically. So go us for not exactly following the recipe.

Lookin' Fab!

Anyway with our corn syrup and bread crumb mash we decided that half a bag of chocolate chips would be the most appreciated addition to this recipe. 

We also (quite literally) threw in some more confectioner's sugar.

Applied lattice work pie crust with the other half of the dough.

Then made mini pies of peanut butter and chocolate chips with the leftover dough. 

Jesus christ our kitchen was a madness after we finished up the tart.

But ... IT WAS AWESOME

We ate almost half of it once it came out.

Then almost annihilated it the next day with more friends