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...

Pancakes and Benefits

So I have to say, my job at CONNECTIONS is AWESOME.

As a part of a summer recruitment effort we went around the schools advertising a family skate at Interskate 91 in Hampshire Mall, Amherst, MA. 

We were expecting a bigger turnout but we still had a great time as did the kids. We even had families who came by whose middle schoolers didn't want to go. 

Interskate 91 had some fun decorations on their ceilings and I really wanted photos of them.

The presents were quite the... SURPRISE. 

I was unable to take more photos due to particular reasons I won't go into and the dangers of skating and photographing. You just don't do that. People get hurt and that includes yourself.

So in lieu of a short blog I present Pancakes at Puffer's Pond

We got a fairly large group to go to the Puffer's Pond pancake bonanza. It was all you can eat pancakes for 8 dollars at Mill River Recreation Area/Park. 

We arrived a little after 9 am and the line wasn't too bad. Though the smell of the pancake storm that was brewing made the wait all the worse.

Our voucher/ticket to pancakes was a plate. It was cute and certainly made people take efforts to reuse their plates. 

Augh waiting!

So close and yet so far awaaaaaaay

but we'll waaaaait. we'll wait and then we'll geeeeeet...

geet our pancaaaaaaakes.

When we left the Puffer's Pond benefit we hit up Holyoke Mall and a bit of grocery shopping at Stop n Shop. When I returned the trusty school van I saw a rare site in the parking lot...

I needed to get closer.

THE BAT MURAL MOBILE

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 

My Very Own Honeydukes

Recently purchased the Unofficial Harry Pottrr cookbook in the hopes of trying something different.

I'm hoping to learn how to cook for myself so I don't rely on restaurants/fast food as much.




So as any sane person would do, I got a friend to help and we picked out a dessert to try first.
That dessert being an 8 serving Treacle Tart recipe.

It requires a lot of flour... (2 and 1/2 cups), confectioner's sugar (1 cup), salt (1/2 teaspoon), eggs (2 large, yolks and all) and 2 sticks of butter all for the crust alone.
























It requested the use of a food processor of which we did not and continue to not have in our rather poorly stocked kitchen.

It had confectioner's sugar of all random things but no vanilla extract, cutting boards, oven mitts, and the list goes on.



Despite those happy faces we were quite tired and flustered at our own efforts to butcher this recipe into some semblance of awesome.






Note to self... buy a pastry masher tool thing. I forget what they're called but I like to think of it as a baker's wolverine claw.




















At the end of what felt like hours (probably was actually 2...) we finished the crust. At least to the point where we had to toss it into the fridge to chill for 2 hrs up to 2 days...

Puffer's Pond

Charlie! We're going on an adventure!

With the threat of a thunderstorm we dashed away in our cars to Puffer's Pond.

It was not warm enough nor was the water warm enough to necessitate swimming. Though one old man decided to be a boss and swim the length of the lake/pond.

Regardless it was a beautiful day.