The Summer of Cooking

As much as I enjoy cooking (and eating) good food, during the school year it's really not always an option. Tons of classes, homework and work time leave little room for cooking, not to mention I'm one person and can only eat one dish so many times before I get tired of it.

Enter summertime.

I've been fortunate enough to get to spend June at home in Maryland eating some good home cooking by my mom :)

With Dad's grill shenanigans thrown in..

And sometime from Sarah & her boyfriend, Sean.

And other times, I get in the baking mood and decide to make two kinds of granola bars & cookies all in one night. But at least there are plenty of people around to help eat them!

I tested out a recipe from my cousin, Erika for Peanut Butter Granola Bars. She had previously sent me a box of these during a really busy week at school. So tasty and much appreciated!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1 22-oz. box granola

1 cup nut pieces

3 cups crispy rice cereal or puffed brown rice

½ cup dried cherries or raisins

1 tsp. cinnamon, opt.

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 to 1 ½ cups brown rice syrup

½ cup honey

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix together peanut butter, syrup and honey;

combine with dry ingredients. Press into greased 12 x 18” pan; put a piece of wax or

parchment paper over the bars and roll flat with a rolling pin. Refrigerate until firm.

Keeps best in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 dozen bars

I tried some Gingered Carrot Cake Cookies from BrownEyedBaker

Gingered Carrot Cake Cookies

Yield: 18 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 16 to 18 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of grated nutmeg
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded carrots (about 3, peeled and trimmed)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans

1. Position oven racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and nutmeg.

3. With a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then add the egg and beat for another minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the vanilla. Continuing on low speed, add the flour mixture in 2 or 3 batches and beat only until they just disappear into the mix. The dough will be very thick, but don’t overbeat to incorporate the flour. Using a rubber spatula, mix in the carrots, coconut, raisins and pecans.

4. Spoon about three heaping tablespoonfuls of dough (or use a large cookie scoop, which is what I did) onto the prepared baking sheets at a time, leaving about an inch of space between them. Using your fingers, every so slightly flatted the tops of the cookies.

5. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cookies should be light brown and only just firm on top. Carefully transfer the cookies to racks to cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

And some Cherry & Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars from Healthy Food for Living. Although apparently I forgot to document those. Oops.

This past weekend we made our way up to New Jersey (after a long 7 hour drive due to flash floods and tons of traffic-- should have taken 4 hours) to spend some time with family and celebrate Father's Day!

Of course, there is the mandatory elevator shots in Eric's fancy Jersey City apartment complex (which by the way, I have decided that I'm going to move into the laundry room of the place if the rest of my life doesn't work out.)

On Saturday morning after breakfast I hopped on the train and headed into NYC to visit Jon for the day. Apparently my picture taking skills have gone down the drain because I failed to document any portion of it. But we spent a good long while wandering through Central Park, eating tasty pizza, and sitting on fire escapes.

Sunday was spent back in Jersey, after picking Eric up, with lots of outdoor patio time.

Tomorrow morning early we're headed off to Wisconsin for Grandma's 80th (belated) birthday celebration. But first a pit stop in Chicago tomorrow night to see Remy (one of my roommates from RIT this past year). After Wisconsin I have a few days at home to pack up -- and steal more of Sarah's clothes ;) -- before headed back up to Rochester for the rest of the summer.

The Swing of Things

While breaks are fantastic, the reality is that eventually you have to jump right back into the swing of things. Which is exactly what tomorrow is...classes.  

After a 14+ hour trip we made it to Rochester yesterday from Green Bay. Alison slept over in my dorm last night-- which she discovered is ridiculously small! Took a walk around campus to show her around and then hung around with everyone who was already back from break. This morning we woke up at 6:45 to go to IHOP with my parents and Sarah before they all headed back down the road. Unpacked and such until Ashley woke up and then we went out to buy some of her books for next quarter and get some juice from Wegmans for her. Came back and then got invited by Drake to go to the mall so we walked to the Library and caught the shuttle over to the Marketplace Mall. Walked around the mall for a few hours just looking at stuff for fun and then came back here for dinner and a movie (The Holiday) in our dorm room. Now we're listening to christmas music and making snowflakes for our door and windows! 

I've been absolutely horrible about updating over break and I apologize again for that. However, my justification is that I was having so much fun relaxing and seeing people that I didn't even have time to slip away and write about it. And you know what, that's just fine with me. These are afterall my memories and this is simply a way to share some of those with you. I think we'll go with a nice photo wrap up of the break and leave it with that. Hope you all had a great thanksgiving! 

We had an excellent time in Green Bay, as always. It's always nice to catch up with family and hang around for a week. On the way up we stopped in Bloomington Indiana to see a volleyball game and also look at where my dad used to live. I'm pretty sure I ate more this week than I did all quarter (just kidding... sort of =) ) Uncle Dan has become master chef and lives in the kitchen starting each meal just minutes after we finished the last one. Uncle Mark and Aunt Barb made the trek to get 11 delicious pies (which we got to start eating earlier this year!). And, of course, Grandma's cookies and rolls! Yummy. There was lots of pool playing, air hockey-ing, swimming, walking, biking, movie watching, reading, and general hanging out going on throughout the week.