Banana-Nut Bread

I recently bought another 9x5 loaf pan, which, on the very next day, went to work baking this banana nut bread. Reading through numerous quick bread/cake recipes have made me in want of two loaf pans, instead of one. I have to tell you- there's a lemon loaf recipe from Baked that looks like pure sunshine-y amazingness. Its recipe yields two loaves. I now have two loaf pans. I'm on it. So what if now I have one glass pan and one metal pan? Hope my oven will be forgiving and heat distribution won't be an issue. (Yeah, it will.)

Oh yeah, the banana bread.

I'm fond of banana bread. Even if it was the featured post at the genesis of my blog, with terrible food photography. I like it for its simplicity. It doesn't require a lot of you. Prep, mix, and bake.

It's baker-friendly. And super yummy.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Oreo Buttercream

Yes, that is me holding up a single chocolate cupcake.

...And if you think that's weird/arrogant/tacky/cutesy, then bear with me, because I have a little confession to make. It's embarrassing, so you want to pay attention.

Unbeknownst to most people, chocolate cupcakes- and cupcakes in general- have been my Achilles' heel in the kitchen. For some reason, I can't bake a proper cupcake. Back in 2011, I've made some divine red velvet cupcakes, but every. single. attempt since then has ended in utter failure.

I'm a girl who mastered pie crust, homemade caramels, baklava, and an epic Father's Day cake. I know how to make brown sugar from scratch. I'm close to really getting French macarons. I know how to whip up three different types of meringue.

So why?? Oh, why oh why oh why oh WHY?????

Behold, a litany of my own personal cupcake woes: 1. Overflowing cupcakes/incorrect batter distribution; 2. Lopsided crowns; 3. Shrunken cakes; 4. Dry/mousse-like/just plain wacky texture; 5. No other way to describe it...they were just plain UGLY.

The way I saw it, I had one of two choices: 1. Give up, or 2. Shut up and bake the darn cupcakes.

I shushed, and I baked. I observed, and I fixed.

Result: a cupcake held high in an absolute, all-triumphant victory.

Passion Fruit Bars

 

I'm incredibly blessed to do this really awesome thing called baking.

I transform flour, butter, sugar, and eggs into all sorts of crazy cool confections. I devote a considerable time of my day thinking about all things sugar and chocolate and lately, liquors in cakes. I am a proud owner of a cake turntable. I make some people very happy.

I'd like to tell you that, in all gratitude, everything in the kitchen goes exceedingly well. I'd also like to tell you baking is fuss-free. Batters are 100% under control. Natural lighting is always on my side. And that I look incredibly hot measuring flour.

What it's really like is that I always end up deciding on a recipe at the very last minute. Once I had to run out in the middle of the night just to get extra cocoa powder. Sometimes a recipe goes haywire on me, and it's a pain trying to either fix or abandon ship. Certain pies just make me want to cry.

Baking is hard work. But it's hard work I'm grateful for. 

Because at the end of the day, I still think it's one of the most amazing arts in the world. I'm really blessed.

 

These passion fruit bars are an example of what came about at the end of a long, terrible baking day. I had failed twice on chocolate cupcakes. The clock was pushing 9 PM. I needed something quick that would work in the next 12 hours, and these bars were it.

I had frozen passion fruit puree in my freezer and a key lime bar recipe I'd been eyeing for a while. One minor adaptation, and the crisis was averted. Thank God.

Real life baking. In all its glorious, frantic, messy craziness.

Chocolate Caramels from Miette Bakery

These are the chocolate variation on Miette's famous fleur de sel caramels. It's as if the buttery, deep, complex flavor of the classic caramels interlaced itself with big chocolate flavor and took itself to a whole different level of sexy.

I want to be clear: when it comes to caramels, nothing can replace my love of the classic caramel. I like simple and sweet; it's perfection enough for me. I have gushed about its awesomeness and sang its sugary praises. Read it, and you will see I am a caramel freak, but a wholly justified caramel freak.

However, if you decide the classic needs a black stiletto of sorts, then chocolate is obviously the way to go. If you happen to think chocolate is the greatest thing ever next to [whatever you think is the greatest thing on Earth], then you need to make these caramels. Also, we need to become friends.

Miette's caramels are super easy, no-fuss candies. Just boil all the ingredients together until the proper temperature, then pour onto a buttered and parchment lined pan. These caramels slice beautifully. They also disappear instantaneously.

Cowvin Cookies from Sticky Fingers Bakery

Once I had discovered a vegan cookbook that looked promising- so promising, in fact, that I went out in an active search of vegan "butter." If I was going to stick to a vegan recipe, then dang it, I would do it right.

The nearest store that carried it was a Whole Foods situated about an hour away from where I lived. So I marched in, and did the obvious: I sniffed every essential oil, briefly looked for this one beer (don't ask), fought the temptation to hoard buy chocolate, and bought what I needed. I also ended up with two bars of goat milk soap, a decision I regretted terribly. The stuff dried out my skin like no other.

In any case, long story short, I bought vegan butter.

Then the said vegan butter sat in my freezer, semi-ignored, for a long, long time.

Why? The vegan cookbook failed to pull through on its promises. The cake that was supposed to be dark red turned out gray-blue. The biscotti was so tough I couldn't bite into it.

Naturally I concluded it wasn't worth it to open a box of vegan butter... if the next recipe (and this time, a recipe that would actually require using it) turns out to be yet another disappointment.

But then the famed Sticky Fingers Bakery cookbook ended up in my hands, I turned to THE famous Cowvin Cookies, and end of story, the vegan butter finally saw the light.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I am big into soup lately.

Chicken noodle soup (coming soon!), carrot soup, and now, cream of broccoli soup.

This lovely soup was made on Monday, which was after Sunday (church+two services), which was after Saturday (rafting trip all day+apricot cheesecake at night). Which altogether meant I was very, very tired.

Slightly sore muscles, a lot on my mind, rainy/drizzly morning, and four heads of neglected broccoli at the bottom of the refrigerator pretty much settled it. I had to make soup. Stat.

I'll be totally honest. I hate when some recipes call for pureeing the soup with a blender. So annoying! It's a cinch if you have a handheld one, but if not (like me!), then it's a lot of extra work and a lot of extra dishes. Still, I think this soup was totally worth it. I ended up eating it for both brunch and early dinner.

Most importantly, I felt so much better, which I guess is what soup is supposed to do for you in the first place.

Apricot Cheesecake Bars

One of the most tragic things ever to happen in my kitchen was when I had to throw out an entire 9x13 pan of cheesecake bars. The entire thing. It was these apricot cheesecake bars, Take 1.

The cheesecake was unsalvageable. I had kept a big tub of cream cheese in the freezer for later use, unaware that cream cheese doesn't transition well from freezer to fridge to room temperature. So what I had on hand was a soft tofu-like cheesecake base. The tiny grains of cream cheese had not fully melded together into a uniform texture, so the end result was reminiscent of eating solidified porridge.

Lesson learned: never, ever thaw cream cheese from the freezer and use it in a cheesecake.

A week later, I revisited the recipe, this time with freshly bought (and never frozen) bars of cream cheese. Increasing the cheesecake layer by half and adjusting for textural preferences, I ended up with these beautiful bars. I personally like a slightly denser cheesecake, but these were divine the way they were. Take 2= success!

The apricot compote is to die for, and the recipe yields many servings. Be warned, though, that these don't last very long. The entire thing disappeared in under 15 minutes. They couldn't get enough.

Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake

Deep down in my heart (and up here in my head), I know that not every new recipe will be a success story.

But dang it, I'm in denial.

Not everything I bake comes out ready to dazzle, awe, and pose for the camera. This is too true, too often.  I have days when cookies turn out all greasy and flat, the cheesecake has a semi-cooked center, and Swiss meringue buttercream refuses to cooperate. Note to certain people in my life who think I can bake no wrong: I, ahem, can and do bake wrong. (I love you.)

This blueberry buckle coffee cake is a success story. In a way I never expected.

Caramels from Miette Bakery

I like to think I travel vicariously through the things I bake.

New York, D.C., L.A, New Orleans, Honolulu, and an infinite number of places outside the United States are on my travel-to list, except I'm a poor college student and the timing isn't right and that's the way things are at the moment. But one day, I shall conquer the world and learn how to say hello (and where's the bathroom) in every language.

I like to check out cookbooks by famous bakeries and get a feel for what might be out there. Granted I can't use their locally sourced ingredients native to their specific terrain, nor can I remake a dessert with a master chef's expertise, but I like to try anyway. It's fun to imagine that one day, I can visit these places and compare the sweets I had made with the "real thing," so to speak.

Recently I had the chance to check out the lovely bakebook by Miette bakery. Miette is hailed as "the most charming pastry shop" in San Francisco. True to this wide acclaim, the book's pages are filled with pictures and recipes of the most darling cakes, macarons, and other irresistible treats.

Unfortunately, most of Miette's cakes are on a smaller, 6-inch scale. (I use 9-inch cake pans.) However, seeing as how I'm big on caramels these days, I decided to give the Miette version a try.

The Miette caramels are decidedly simpler to maneuver, and one recipe yields plenty of caramels. In my personal opinion, I like my first caramel recipe a tad better. Just a tad bit. Some of my friends and family have tried both caramels, and opinions are varied. But there's no denying people go crazy over homemade caramels, period.

Amazing caramels. Amazing recipe. Miette bakery, you're on my places to visit in California!

Homemade Caramels

All right. I'm sorry. You deserve an apology.

I've been putting off writing this particular post for...a freakishly long time. I know some of you have been waiting. It's been weeks. Months. We're scribbling a different year on our checkbooks. It's that bad.

It's that bad, because these are caramels, which are candies, which require boiling sugar with a thermometer, which means a lot of things can go bad, very fast, very out of control, at very high temperatures. It's not necessarily your safety that's jeopardized, provided you don't spill hot caramel on yourself. Rather, the safety and yumminess of your candies are at extreme risk, should things boil for the worse.

It makes mixing a batter and popping it into a nicely preheated oven look like (excuse the pun) a literal piece of cake.

As of today, I've made about ten batches of caramels. And out of those only one single batch has been completely satisfactory to my aching, sugar-craving heart. I've intentionally (but mostly unintentionally) made plain caramels, chocolate caramels, gingerbread caramels, hard caramels, soft caramels, dark caramels, light caramels...blah blah blabbady blah and someone cue some sad self-pitying music, please.

Caramels are not impossible to make. They're quite maneuverable, given that you know what you're doing.

It's just I had an ideal caramel in mind. And once the idea hit, it wouldn't budge. I had to make. Period.

The perfect caramel, to me, was like this: reddish-brown with a brilliant sheen, firm and solid at room temperature (no drooping or molding to the wrapper), soft and chewy with an easy bite (absolutely no pulling teeth), and most importantly, full of that rich, deep, complex flavor from the perfect balance of butter, sugar, and cream.

I'm sure fewer bakers expect this much out of their caramel creations. But I'm hard to please. 

After many failed tries and too many caramel sets tossed whole into the trash, I got it right on my sixth try. The caramels were exactly how I wanted them to be. Honestly, I'm still not completely sure what went right. I still can't tell you with certainty what conditions, tricks, know-hows produce the most perfect, decadent caramels.

But what I can tell you is that homemade caramels, when done right, are so worth it. They're worth the time, the failed experiences, and even the heartache. There's really nothing like it. Store-bought caramels just do not compare.

So what I'm doing today is sharing with you...everything about my caramel-making experience. I'm going to tell you what I did right, what I did wrong, some of my thoughts on candymaking, and advice that has helped me some in the past. Hopefully you can take away something helpful from my goof-ups. Hopefully you can make the perfect caramels on your first or second try, and call it an excellent day.

Red Velvet Marbled Brownies

Let me give you a prime example of an incredible FAIL:

Two really good friends, living in the same city, living less than an hour apart...meeting up and not being able to recall the last time they had seen each other.

Maybe this is a testament to us early twenty-somethings getting too old, too soon, but we can never meet up as often as we'd like. In fact, we text each other about being total fails....while rescheduling our dinner plans or Skype chats.

This. Is. So. Sad.

I feel like it's about time I talk about my friend Adithi on this blog. 

She's the sweetest soul, a true-blue friend, and one of the most huggable people on the planet. You just have to take my word for it. We met our freshman year while dancing in the same Bhangra/Hip-Hop dance troupe, where I got both the most spine-crawling, mortifying ten minutes of my life AND a good friend out of the experience. I'm very grateful for both. Yes, very.

Anyway...We finally met up for dinner, during the course of which I (semi-intentionally in an unintended way) vented for a good half-hour and afterwards apologized profusely for it. Then we took some silly and hilarious selfies on the parking lot by my car. Fast-forward to four hours later I was sick to my stomach, heaving and throwing up everything I had eaten earlier. Uhhh... surprise, Adithi!

(I'm really sorry you had to find out this way. Oh, and I don't think I can eat spinach pasta anytime soon. Just making it clear.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, no matter what, my friend is super awesome. And that she totally deserved these red velvet brownies.  

Fig-Walnut Muffins

We have a fig tree growing in our backyard that's bearing fruit this summer. Granted the figs likely won't be ripe enough to eat until fall, but the tree alone is a wonderful thing to behold.

I love figs. I love the big, fresh, bulbous purple figs fresh and cold, cold, cold. William Carlos Williams had his plums; I have my figs. Except I won't apologize to my significant other that I've stolen his breakfast. All mine. All good.

Fresh figs on top of silky, creamy buttermilk panna cotta and drizzled with honey....fresh figs atop a bed of sweetened mascarpone filling, encased in a buttery tart crust...grilled figs(???) and nectarines with whipped cream...salad with spring greens, figs, shaved white cheddar....and I like where this is going. New entries for the future? We'll see.

However, the recipe I'm sharing with you today uses dried figs, which have an entirely different charm of their own. They're chewy, fragrant, and reminiscent of your Fig Newton eating days. (I always used to pick apart the biscuit-cookie shell and eat the filling only.)

These muffins are down-to-earth good. Sweet and charming. Decadent yet approachable. Best when eaten warm, in my opinion, and definitely within the same day.

Although dried figs will never replace my love for freshly cut figs, this recipe is solid. I think they'd make a nice breakfast table addition when you have a large group of guests over, or a special treat if you're feeling nice and decide to feed your starving roommates.

Feel free to experiment with pistachios, macadamias, and other nuts you like!

Olivia's 6th Birthday Cake

So... I did this crazy thing again where I baked a birthday cake for someone.

This time, for a sweet six-year-old who likes blue dresses and loves anything strawberry. But then again kids say they like a lot of things, so you never know. But this strawberry obsession seemed legit.

Still, you don't want to take a chance on a birthday, of all days. I shuddered at the thought that a kid might be upset over vanilla vs. chocolate, pink vs. chartreuse green, Ariel vs. Belle, and so on. Given that I didn't know too much about Olivia, I called her mom to ask a few questions.

Actually, a string of the most probing confectionary inquiries no mom of a birthday kid should ever live through.

May I use fresh strawberries? (How soon will the cake be eaten? Where will it be stored?) One-tier or two-tiered? Is it just the two of you who will be eating it? Any buttercream or icing preference? May I place a tiara on top? (I really, really want to.) How about the design- any particular theme or color arrangement?

By the time I got to asking about fondant the mother stopped me short and told me to do whatever I want.

Which is the BEST thing an obsessed, totally dedicated baker can ever hope to hear.

Whipped Cream 101

Whipped cream was one of those things I've seen, read, and talked about over and over but the name hadn't actually registered in my slow-as-heck noggin until a few years ago.

Obviously I was aware whipped cream doesn't originate from aerosol cans. It just was...bought from the store, shaken vigorously, held upside down, and piled on high atop steaming hot cocoa. This was also when I didn't bake much at all, let alone use heavy cream in anything. So I didn't really give it much thought as to what it actually was and how it was made.

Whipped. Cream = Cream...whipped.

Well, of course.

Someone please PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one.

(As an extra side note: Cool Whip (or any other commercial "whipped topping") is not actually whipped cream. It's a type of emulsified "dairy" product that's actually mostly water, hydrogenated vegetable oil, corn syrup...a little of skim milk and cream...and some controversial ingredients. Just so everyone's clear.)

Once I realized how easy it was to make whipped cream at home, I've had a rockin' delightful time. I dipped and dunked whole strawberries. I baked a cake and frosted with it. I want to one day scoop an insane mountain of it on top of a chocolate-caramel icebox pie.

I'm going to show you how to make whipped cream for yourself. It's simple, but extra tips still prove to be helpful if you're a newbie. Not a must, mind you, but if you're interested...and of course you are...because I've written this post super duper detailed...there's some fantastic information on here...and of course you appreciate that and are insatiably curious about what's coming.

Classic Sponge Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream Frosting

I've baked my share of cakes here.

Okay, so not nearly as much as I wish... but I'm getting there.

Most of the featured cakes here are what's called butter cakes. That means these cakes are generally dense, butter-based (had you guessed as such?), and very common, at least here in the States.

And for good reason- they're really good.

Might I suggest a divine, decadent Devil's Food cake? Or how about the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten? Feeling like a Southern belle? This coconut cake is for you. And this golden vanilla cake will never, ever let you down. I promise.

But today I'm talking about a different kind of cake. I'm talking sponge cake today, something that's prepped very much like the French genoise.

(If you've just said "geno-WHAT??" it's totally okay. I'll get to that. Eventually but definitely.)

The sponge cake is light and delicate and airy and absolutely delectable. It gets some of its sweetness and most of its moistness from the sugar syrup that's brushed on its layers. The sponge cake doesn't have to exclude the butter, but it is nonetheless a lower fat cake. The namesake texture of the cake is from the rise and volume it gets from heavily whipped eggs.

Sponge cakes are also versatile and adaptable to so many different flavor combinations. For this cake, though, I stuck with vanilla layers with fresh strawberries and plain whipped cream frosting.

Total deliciousness. 

Harvest Apple Challah

Georgia's been having a crazy weather conundrum lately...which is, by all means to all of us here, annoyingly normal.

So some time ago we've had some March snow + flurries, and this past week we've had a clear but chilly day, a rainy/stormy day, a fairly okay but windy day, then finally, a really hot today.

Naturally my immune system freaked out, and now I have a full-blown cold.

Question: is it okay to bake things for people when you're sick? Is that just terribly gross and unacceptable, even if you wash your hands more times than you can count and when you run ten feet away from the kitchen just to sneeze, then come back?

I promise I had nothing but good intentions.

I baked this challah for a close family friend. She's also been sick and down in that place... where you live a few days in your pink fleece pajamas... and don't give a crap what anyone might say about it. She yelled at me for baking when I was sick. As in, sick and should've taken care of myself instead. NOT sick and shouldn't have dared to make food in my nasty germ-infested state.

Obviously this person is a saint, and obviously this person deserves a good bread.

This isn't our first run-in with the challah.

I've baked it before, in a classic two-braid log form, for someone very dear to me. We both loved this egg bread, and ever since then I've been on the lookout for more challah recipes. When I found this one featuring tons of apples and cinnamon and honey, I knew I had caught on to something good. Really good. Plus, seeing as how I'm trying to incorporate more whole wheat into recipes, I thought it'd be nice to sneak some in here, too, along with some ground flaxseed.

Result: this bread is some serious comfort food. Chicken soup, meet your match.

Sean's 1st Birthday Cake

Someone dear to me called and asked if I could bake a birthday cake. A little boy named Sean was turning 1, and his parents were planning on throwing a dohl party.

Dohl (read: Dole) is a major event for us Koreans. It's a term that refers to a baby's first birthday celebration, and it usually involves a lot of friends and relatives gathering together in a big party setting. Sometimes the parents dress in the traditional hanbok, but the baby almost always wears it. There's a fun little game called the Dohl-jabi, in which the parents try to predict their baby's future by what item he or she grabs. I'm told I grabbed the string, meaning I would live a very long life. Ha-ha. All fun stuff.

Dohl is major. Dohl is important. Dohl is also particularly memorable. In my dohl pictures, I'm decked out in baby hanbok with gold rings on all my ten fingers. All ten, folks. Dohl also features specialty rice cakes and fruits and plenty of food for guests. Add in dohl photo shoots, the imported hanbok from Korea, and etc., the first birthday party can get pretty expensive.

Nowadays the popular trend among Korean parents seems to be more and more elaborate dohl parties. The bigger and fancier the better, is the idea. I'm all for celebrations, but I personally don't see the point of spending a couple grand just to throw a party my child won't remember but through pictures.

Sean's parents felt the same. They were a young married couple, and an even younger parents. They didn't have much. Even I could imagine the stress behind wanting to throw the best dohl party on a limited budget. Especially with 45+ people coming and watching.

That's why I was so honored and thrilled to bake their boy's birthday cake. In my brain, it all worked out perfectly: the parents don't spend extra on a cake, I get to practice cake decorating, the baby gets his cake, and all of you get to read about what went down.

And trust me, a lot went down.

Coconut Lime Blondies

Some things just don't hit me until much, much later.

For instance, when I used to work as a writing tutor, this guy came in and waited behind four people just to get a conference with me. By the time his turn came along, my brain hurt from checking thesis statements, the clock was pushing 11 at night, and that was it, I had to stop the line somewhere.

"Can you just read a page?" he asked.
"No, I'm really sorry, but I'm not reading any more papers today. Maybe you can get some of your friends to read it for you?"
"Can you just read a paragraph?" he asked.
"No, I'm sorry. I really can't."
Then: "Can you read ONE sentence?"

And that's when I got super annoyed and sent him on his way. I wanted to yell at him, like, hey kid, I'm tired and sleep-deprived. I worked overtime. I have homework, too. What difference does a single sentence make?

A few days later I was complaining to my English professor and he gave me this really amused look and I finally went ohhhh.

Some other things I didn't "get" include Chik-fil-A (Chicken fillet, DUH), a close "friend" who secretly hated me for years, and... the exact deal with Honey Boo Boo.

I didn't get what these blondies reminded me of until a few days afterwards. Let's see...tons of coconut and chocolate that's chewy and sticky and practically addictive...

Coconut macaroons, in bar form. Except made better with tons of lime zest and crunchy walnuts.

PEOPLE. Are we getting this??

Chocolate Sweet Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!

...Or Happy Singles Awareness Day, I guess, if you're one of those people.

I'm a (sometimes) happy single who's (always) aware of her singleness and someone who loves Valentine's Day nonetheless. This day might as well be Happy Eating Chocolate Day- although Easter does prove to be a close contender for the title. But then again, roses+chocolate wins over boiled eggs+chocolate, so there's that. 

If you're like me, you bake chocolate heart cookies, treat yourself to some Moscato, and catch up on The Mindy Project. You resist the urge to shout, C'mon Mindy the character! Stop going out with random jerks! Danny's the right jerk you should end up with!!! Then you pour yourself another glass.

You also read the Valentine status updates on Facebook and predict this year's single people bitterness index. I have to say, I didn't see a whole lot of negative posts this year. Either you guys are really happy or have turned completely apathetic.

This Valentine's Day, I surprised my mother with a bouquet of red roses. She surprised me with nothing, but that was okay. I ate the last of the rice.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was having one of those days when I knew "it's going to be all right" but everything still sucked anyway. I was tightly strung between mild irritation and steady annoyance, which basically meant I wasn't in the mood to tolerate foolishness. To anyone throwing yet another hackneyed cliche in my face, BEWARE. You've been warned.

Cookies don't actually solve anything in real life. They don't pay the bills. They don't stop the nosy neighbor from staring at you just because you're Korean also. They don't make fake friends go away into la-la land. But there's something about a freshly baked cookie straight from the oven...cooled just enough for you to break into two pieces...perfectly chewy from the caramelized sugar inside the dough...aroma of chocolate and sugar and butter swirled together like a halo around your head...

Yeah, I needed a cookie. I needed a cookie badly.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

Trends come and go (and sometimes stay), and the culinary scene is no exception to that rule. 

Anyone recall how molecular gastronomy was this huge thing? I mean, those olive oil caviar spheres! The herb vapors, the liquid popcorn, the disappearing pasta sheets, and my personal favorite: the foams. 

I think all that stuff is fascinating. I hope someday someone will cook up an edible gum that, after a reasonable amount of chew time, turns into a shot of fizzy liquid soda. Also, hard candy that turns cold as soon as you start to eat it would be a godsend for summer.

But at the end of the day, I'm a classic comfort foods gal. I like to try new methods, pair up unlikely ingredients, gleefully attempt a complex dish as the next baker. But sometimes you come back to the old tried-and-true. You come back to what's simple and sweet and comforting.

Classics are wonderful that way. You might have to ponder a bit before offering someone parmesan foam or frozen durian, but a classic, old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie? You know you don't even have to think twice.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

My mom likes to tell me to "go have tea with someone."

That's her way of telling me to go out on a date. She's (secretly) afraid I'm going to die never having gone out on a single date. She's (secretly) afraid I don't have it in me to be attracted to someone.

That certainly couldn't be farther from the truth. I talked about boys before. My mother just has selective hearing and selective memory. It's like she needs to see it happen in order for all my talking to have been legit. So she tells me to go have tea with someone, because that's her way of saying "I need you out of this house and eating dinner with a nice young man."

I have to remind her that people don't go out for tea. We go to Starbucks and order lattes. She tells me her point still stands, but she won't care where I go, as long as I go out on dates like a normal person.

I'm 22. I'm not weird. I'm not an uber-conservative. I don't suffer from extreme social anxiety. It's not a religious thing. I also know I'm not the only one.

I've had crushes. I have a crush. I'm not pushing it. I'm fine with that.

I also don't know a single guy who drinks tea. But it'd be so awesome if my future guy did. I love, love tea. Green tea, black tea, white tea, herbal tea, caffeinated or non-caffeinated, I love them all.

These cookies have crushed Earl Grey tea leaves in them. I can imagine peppermint, lavender, and rose tea crushed into shortbread, as well. It'll happen. The tea date thing will happen. My mom not freaking out thing- that's going to happen, too. Eventually.

Carrot Cake Pancakes, Revisited

Hi.

How's everyone's 2013 coming along?

Are you excited? Desperate? Busy? Oblivious? Still scribbling 2012 on your checks? Yeah, I feel you on that last one.

My year started off super loud, super charged, with 60,000+ people at the Georgia Dome. From January 1st to 4th, I attended the Passion 2013 conference, where I had the most wonderful time singing praise songs, listening to Francis Chan live, getting 3 hours of sleep a night, and...possibly sneaking in a dear friend the last two days. (I'm so sorry!) I also met the coolest group EVER, and I want to send the loudest online shout out to my dream team. You know who you are ;)

But then my year literally came crashing out of nowhere. I'm not going to go into details now, but let's just say it was challenging, complicated, and crazy messed up. It's also the reason why I've been so behind updating this blog. The good thing is that it's over, and I'll move on the best I can.

So, on that note, I'm starting off 2013's very first post by visiting a recipe I wrote back in November 2011.

I practically gaped in horror as I read what I had written back for that post:

"As the name implies, these are pancakes. So don't expect to bite into a pancake-shaped version of carrot cake. These carry only the slightest hint of carrot cake, which comes alive with a drizzle of clover honey on top."

I'm sorry, but "only the slightest hint of carrot cake"???? And what's with the stern, don't-expect-much crapshoot on what's supposed a fantastic breakfast pancake?

Clearly there was something amiss with me that day. A revision was in order.