Wilde in the Kitchen

Taking a Breather

2013-05-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

Taking a vacation right after being laid off is doing me good. We have been too busy doing crazy Moroccan things to even have time to think about the real world! By the time we return to the hotel each night, we fall into bed exhausted from the day. There's no time to think What? I don't have anywhere to go when I get back to the US? Nope, it's - head meets pillow - wake up tomorrow.

I'll post more about Morocco when I return, lord knows I'll have plenty of time! To keep your appetites at bay, here's a tasty dinner I made just before we went on vacation. Chicken Tikka Pizzas! After making these, I want to make all my pizzas on pitas. I also got to use my pizza stone for the first time since I got it for Christmas. It's just been taking up space in the oven. The pizza stone really crisped up the pitas before I added the toppings. Something you can do by just toasting them in the oven for a few minutes.

I've been obsessed with non-traditional pizzas, something my New York friends have called blasphemy. Apparently pizza is Italian and I should stop putting things like BBQ sauce, garam masala and salad on top of my pizza crusts. No way. Pizza is just an open faced sandwich, I'm going to trash it up with all kinds of international toppings! Maybe I'll come back and make a Moroccan pizza for you all!

One Year Ago: Homemade Ting
Two Years Ago: Casatiello Bread

Chicken Tikka Pizzas

Adapted from Cooking Light

I toasted my pitas on my pizza stone, but you can toss them in the oven on a pre-heated baking sheet instead. You just want to make sure the pitas are nice and crispy before you add your toppings. Otherwise the tomato sauce will just ooze into the pita and make it all soggy.

8 ounces chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoon garam masala, divided
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus a pinch more
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
Olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons heavy cream
4 (6-inch) whole wheat pitas
1/4 medium red onion, sliced thin
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
Fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 400 F and place a baking sheet or baking stone in the oven. Mix chicken tenders with yogurt, garam masala and a pinch of salt, toss to coat. Place chicken on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before cutting into bite-sized pieces.

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Place tomatoes in a mini food processor and pulse for a few seconds to break down the tomatoes a bit. Add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan. Add garam masala, ginger, red pepper flake and garlic. Cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and simmer for 4 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and heavy cream, stir until smooth. Add chicken to the pan and remove from heat.

Place pitas in the oven on the preheated baking sheet or stone. Flip pitas in three minutes and let crisp for another 3-5 minutes. Remove from the oven and add some of the tomato topping to each pita. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and red onion. Place pitas back in the oven on the sheet/stone and bake until cheese is melty. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with cilantro.

Wilde Away

2013-05-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

What does someone do when they've been laid off? They go on vacation! No wait, that doesn't seem like the normal thing to do. Nonetheless, boyfriend and I are not in country right now, we are in Morocco! In a way it's a good time to go on vacation. It gets the mind off of the fact that I don't have anywhere to go in the morning.

Boyfriend and I are currently in the Sahara desert, riding camels around. We got to spend the night in a Berber camp in the desert, where I saw the stars for the first time in a long time. We have spent the past few days in Marrakech and will be moving on to Agadir tomorrow morning, where we will learn how to surf! I'm very excited and totally frightened for my life. The ocean is scary and I'm hoping we're surfing little baby waves. On giant surf boards. While wearing floaties.

Until I come back, enjoy these uh-mazing strawberry bars. I made them just before we left, you know, in all my unemployed free time. I really enjoyed them hot with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. For breakfast. Don't judge.

Disclaimer: OXO was nice enough to send me some fun fruit-related products as a part of their blogger outreach program, including the strawberry huller you see in the first image. I used the huller to remove the hulls of the strawberries. You can use a paring knife just as well, I like tools.

One Year Ago: Ketchup & Mustard
Two Years Ago: Key Lime Mallowpuffs

Strawberries & Cream Blondies

A Wilde Original

Depending on how juicy your strawberries, you may need to adjust your flour content. My strawberries were pretty solid, but if yours are a little more ripe, add 2-4 more tablespoons of flour. You can wait until the blondies are cooled before you cut them into squares, or your can eat them out of the pan with a fork. Yum.

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 baking soda

1 stick unsalted butter, melted & cooled

1 cup sugar

1 large egg
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped strawberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F and coat an 8x11-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat melted butter, sugar and egg until smooth and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Add walnuts, white chocolate and strawberries, stir in by hand. Add flour mixture and gently mix in by hand, taking no more than 30 seconds.

Spread batter in the pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before cutting into bars. Serve warm with ice cream!

Bittersweet Celebration

2013-05-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm settling into my unemployment quite well. Though I'm not technically unemployed, yet. Due to Warn Act laws in New York State, companies of a certain size must give their employees 60 days notice before they can just shut down. So technically, I'm still employed by my company. They just don't want me to come to work.

If only I could get paid indefinitely to not come to work, I'm quite good at this not working thing. The house is clean, the dishes are done and all the laundry is folded. Yesterday I got to sleep in, I headed to my 9am Crossfit class and did some grocery shopping. I even got a pedicure, something my running weary feet loved.

It's not all fun and games though. As much as I want to imagine this will last, I realize I only have a few months before they won't be paying me to sit at home. I've been dusting off my resume and contacting all my friends and former advisers. I am so thankful for all my friends and colleagues that have reached out to me. I have had the privledge to work with some amazing people over the years, including those that I have just parted with at OSI.

I know that all my friends will come out of these sad times even stronger. While I don't want to say that it was a good thing, the site closure, but I'm sure there are opportunities out there for all of us. The world of pharmaceuticals is strangely tiny, I know it isn't the last time I see my friends.

This is a celebration cake. Not of the end, but of a new beginning in my life, a new chapter. Full of sweet, early summer peaches, and covered in tangy, sharp ginger cream cheese frosting, this cake is a little bittersweet, just like this week. Make it for yourself. If you're having a rough week, it will totally cheer you up.

One Year Ago: Morel Risotto
Two Years Ago: Parmesan Zucchini

Ginger-Peach Pound Cake

A Wilde Original

This pound cake totally deserves its name. It's dense and delicious. There is a high probability that you will gain at least a pound when eating this. I roasted the peaches to concentrate their flavor a bit. Be sure to use ripe peaches that smell amazing in their peels. If you use unripe peaches, you won't get the rich, summery flavor we're looking for.

2 ripe peaches
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light sour cream
2 tablespoons skim milk

Peel peaches - cut an X in the bottom of your peaches. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and set a bowl of ice water next to it. One at a time, place a peach in the boiling water and roll it around with a slotted spoon. Let it sit in the water for only 30 seconds. Remove peach from the water and dunk it in the ice water for 5 seconds. You should be able to strip the peel off, starting at the X you cut at the top. Repeat with the other peach.

Roast the peaches - Preheat your oven to 350 F. Cut peaches into quarters, removing the pit. Roast peaches for 20 minutes in the oven. Remove and let cool completely. Cut the peaches into small chunks.

Make the pound cake - In a large (or the bowl of your stand mixer) beat sugar, oil and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla extract and fresh ginger, beat until smooth.

In another small bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a third small bowl, whisk together sour cream and skim milk. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixer, beat on low until combined. Add 1/2 of the liquid mixture and beat until smooth. Add 1/3 more flour, mix. Add remaining liquid, mix to combine. Finally, add last bit of the flour mixture and stir until smooth. Add peaches and fold in by hand.

Hopefully your oven is still at 350 F. Coat an 8 or 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and pour cake batter in, smooth out the top. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until golden brown on the top. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack before frosting.

Ginger-Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

A Wilde Original

Using fresh ginger in this frosting gives it a bit of a kick. I think it balances out perfectly with the oh-so-sweet cream cheese frosting base. I made a batch twice the size and was stuck figuring out what to do with the leftovers. Turns out a spoon was all I needed!

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Beat butter, cream cheese, ginger and vanilla to combine. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Eat out of the bowl or top your cooled pound cake with the stuff.

A Wilde Day

2013-05-14T20:03:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here today disappointed, a but disillusioned and unemployed. You read that right, jobless. After landing what I thought was my dream job two years ago, I find myself once again looking to the future and deciding what to do next.

As some of you know, I have been working at a pharmaceutical company on long Island. That company was OSI pharmaceuticals. While I can't disclose the full details of what happened (here's the news article about the site closure) I can tell you the story of my yesterday.

I arrived at work (after my two hour commute) and discovered a meeting invite. When you work in the Pharma industry, and are a subsidiary of a larger Pharma company, these types of meetings never sit well.

It wasn't a surprise that our company was closing. It was just shocking how quickly everything happened yesterday. A friend of mine had just returned from his honeymoon, I'm heading out of the country on Thursday for vacation. No one expected for Monday to be their last day at work. No one thought they would be packing up their desks and saying goodbye to colleagues and friends. I would have savored that last ride on the LIRR if I knew it was going to be my last one.

We all emptied our offices, carried our stuff to our cars and met up at the bar across the street. Someone at the bar must have tipped off the news, because they showed up about thirty minutes later. Since yesterday I've received about fifty LinkedIn and Facebook requests, started polishing my resume and surfing the internet for opportunities.

Now I am on the job hunt again. I have some time to find a new position, the company was very generous with our compensation at least. Sadly I'm a little disillusioned with the whole pharmaceutical research business. If the new model is for big Pharma to buy smaller companies and close them, I can only hope to hold a research position for five years before another layoff. Maybe I'll see what else I can do as a PhD chemist. Clinical or regulatory affairs, patent law, consumer products development, there are so many options, it's time to start investigating. And making cookies.

One Year Ago: Blueberry Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Cheesecake Brownies

Apricot-packed Oatmeal Cookies

A Wilde Original

I brought these cookies to work yesterday morning. We ate them as we commiserated after hearing the news. Actually, I ate one for breakfast before the meeting and then another one after the meeting. They are super delicious and filling. Be sure to use a new bag of dried apricots, I used dried Turkish apricots from Fairway. They are amazing.

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chopped, dried apricots
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal

In a large bowl (I mean really large! There is a lot of cookie dough in this recipe!), beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Turn mixer to low and add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Slowly add the flour to the wet ingredients with the mixer on low. Once all the flour is absorbed, add chopped apricots and mix for about ten seconds. Add oatmeal and mix for about 30 seconds.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Scoop cookie dough with a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop and place on the baking sheet in rounded mounds. You'll get about 15-16 cookies. (You can make smaller cookies, just reduce your baking time) Wrap the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour. You want to dough balls solid.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place 5-6 cookie dough mounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges and still slightly doughy looking in the middle. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container, share with your favorite friends.

Happy Mother's Day!

2013-05-12T10:07:00.002-04:00

Happy Mother's Day mama! Since I'm not home visiting you this weekend, I thought I would post some flowers for you. Because they are pretty and so are you!

Enjoy your day, I hope it doesn't really snow in Buffalo tomorrow.

Wilde Week #16

2013-05-11T21:44:00.002-04:00

1. Time for another book suggestion! The Bakers Daughter by Sarah McCoy. It's a historical fiction about a German bakers daughter in the last days of World War II and a writer in current day Texas. I love historical fictions and this one was a great combination of story told through first person and letters. They talk about German pastries and breads through the entire book and have included the recipes for most of them at the end! Such a great book for the food lover too.

2. I love this nail polish. They had me at Sprinkles.

3. Boyfriend and I are just a few days away from heading across the ocean to Morocco! I've booked our camel trek through the Sahara, surfing lessons in Agadir and our rock climbing in the Atlas mountains. I've packed my maxi skirts and TOMs, sunscreen and bathing suit. I'm so ready for vacation! Don't worry, I've been baking and cooking this weekend. There will be plenty of treats so you won't miss me too much!

4. Last time I was at LUSH I bought a few things and spent all my money. Never heard of LUSH? They make all-natural, cruelty-free, amazing-smelling bath and body products. Here are a few of my new favorites, I'm totally addicted to these sugar lip scrubs.

5. It has been another long week in the lab. Nothing was going right. I tried for two days to get one reaction to work. I couldn't even form the catalyst! Once I did, I took a picture because it was so pretty.

6. Baby animals are totally cuter than baby humans. Sorry, you know it's true. But seriously, what are those animals in number 3? I'm not on board with them being called cute. They are creepy. I'd totally take a human baby over those guys.

7. So... last weekend BF and I were going to go for the first bike ride of the season. We got ready, filled the water bottles and headed down to the garage. When we got to the bikes I turned to him and said "Do you remember the combination to that lock, because I certainly don't." I thought there was an 8 in the combo, the dials only go up to 6. Time for a trip to Home Depot.

Keeping it Simple

2013-05-09T04:00:00.000-04:00

Is it me, or has this been the longest week ever? Usually I'm pretty excited once Wednesday rolls around. After lunch on Wednesday, I'm cheerful and happy to be on my way out of the work week. How different this is from my thoughts just a year and a half ago! When I first got my job, I was just so happy to have weekends off, the work week flew by. How quickly you get used to things!

I think this week has felt super long because nothing has been going right! Reaction after reaction failed this week. Thankfully I was able to figure out what was going wrong late last night. Here's hoping I can parlay that bit of good science into more success today and tomorrow.

Today I've made you something super simple and delicious. Roquefort potatoes! Fingerling potatoes, Roquefort cheese and Bartlett pears. Add a a little salt and pepper and you've got an amazing side! Just be sure to watch your fingers when working with a mandoline. My thumb is a little worse off after making these potatoes!

One Year Ago: Sponge Candy FAQ
Two Years Ago: Key Lime Pie on a Stick

Roquefort Potatoes

From The Little Paris Kitchen

Fingerling potatoes (2-3 per person)
Roquefort cheese (or another blue cheese)
Firm pear, diced
Kosher salt
Freshly cracked pepper

Slice each fingerling potato about 1/8-inch thick. Spread the potato slices into a rectangle on a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with Roquefort cheese, keeping it in the center of the potatoes. Add pears. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve while hot!

Wilde day in Brooklyn

2013-05-07T04:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend I spent my Saturday in Brooklyn with a whole bunch of NYC area food bloggers! It was the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry and the delicious treats were out in full effect. For some reason I only took one photo, I must have been distracted by all the sweets.

The crowds were great, thanks to the beautiful sunshine, and once people learned it was all for charity, they really opened up their pocketbooks. With a plethora of sweet options from over twenty local bloggers and bakeries, along with some fun raffles and tote bags to promote big purchases! I picked up a few treats for myself too!

Image via Tasty Pursuits
Meet @sweetsillianah, @Takethetoyz, me, @TheRescueBaker, and @ChipChipHooray

Last week I told you about the birthday cake mallomars that I brought to the bake sale. I also made some raspberry macarons and these Gluten-Free Cookies & Cream Mallomars! Lillian had suggested I give a gluten-free mallomar a try and I had to agree that was a great idea!

I took one of my classic dark chocolate cut out cookies and swapped out the traditional all-purpose wheat flour with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour and some xantham gum. Along with these cookies being gluten-free, they were made with the support of Divine Chocolate!

Divine Chocolates was one of the sponsors of the NYC bake sale and donated several baking kits to the bloggers to help make some seriously chocolatey treats. These mallomars wound up super chocolatey because they contained the Divine 70% dark chocolate bars and dark cocoa powder. The rich chocolate offset the sweet vanilla marshmallow perfectly.

In addition to being able to bake with the Divine Chocolate, the actual farmers (and owners) of Divine were in town this weekend. I got to meet with and share my mallomars with two of the Ghana farmers. I'm fairly certain they thought they were a bit too sweet, which means they were perfect for the American palate! Give them a try!

Disclaimer - I received a package of Divine chocolate for use in this post. All opinions are my own.

One Year Ago: Thai Chicken Salad
Two Years Ago: Three Musketeers Bars

Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Cut out Cookies

A Wilde Original

These gluten-free cookies served as the base of my cookies and creme mallomars. They would also be great plain or topped and decorated with your favorite royal icing! They are super rich and chocolately thanks to the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate in the dough.

2 cups Gluten-free all-purpose flour (I like Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 teaspoon Xantham gum (Also Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces 70% Dark chocolate, chopped

8 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan combine chocolates, butter and sugar and heat on medium-low. Stir until melted and remove from heat. Continue stirring until smooth and sugar is totally dissolved. Allow to cool slightly. In another small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add 1/2 cup butter mixture to the eggs and gently whisk to combine. Pour this back into the remaining butter mixture and whisk until smooth.

Pour chocolate mixture into flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball. Divide dough in half and flatten to ¼-inch between two sheets of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Cut out cookies using any two-inch cookie cutter. Place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper or a silpat. Collect the scraps and re-roll to a ¼-inch. If the dough gets too sticky then put in the fridge for ten minutes. Chill cut out cookies dough pieces in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 F for 8-9 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan on a wire rack for 1 minute. Remove cookies from the baking sheet and let cool completely before topping with marshmallow.

Vanilla Marshmallows

Adapted from Several sources

Can you believe that I have never made a plain vanilla marshmallow? All of my other ventures into the marshmallow making world have been flavored! Here is a simple vanilla marshmallow that is springy and soft. Perfect for piping onto cookies or just cutting into cubes, this will become your go to vanilla marshmallow. Or maybe I'm the only one who needs a "go to" marshmallow recipe...

For the bloom
1/2 plus 2 tablespoons cup cool water
1 1/2 tablepoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons powdered gelatin (I like Knox brand)

For the sugar syrup
1 1/4 cups corn syrup
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
pinch kosher salt

In a small bowl, combine cool water and vanilla extract. Slowly whisk in gelatin and set aside.

In a 4 quart pot, combine sugar, water, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat and clip on candy thermometer. Do not stir the contents of the pot (if there are sugar crystals clinging to the sides of the pot, wash them down with a wet pastry brush). Let the sugar syrup come to 250 F. Once the sugar hits this temperature, remove from the heat and gently stir in the bloomed gelatin.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer and attach whisk. Place a clean kitchen towel over the stand mixer (to reduce splashing) and turn the speed up to max. Whip the marshmallow batter for 10 minutes, or until white, shiny and smooth.

To make mallomars - transfer marshmallow batter to a piping bag with a 1/4-inch, circular tip. Pipe blogs of marshmallow onto the top of the cooled cookies. Let the marshmallow set for at least 15 minutes before dipping in your desired coating.

I chose to use Wiltons Cookies & Cream Crunch Sprinkles because these would be sitting in the sun at the bake sale. If these were just for me, I would have dipped them in milk chocolate!

Wilde Week #15

2013-05-05T14:32:00.000-04:00

1. It has been a week full of baking! I was making all sorts of fun sweet for the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry and went through pounds and pounds of sugar, chocolate, almond flour and butter. It was an amazing day where I got to help out a great cause and meet so many NYC area bloggers! Such a great group of ladies (and guy!). I'm looking forward to making some savory treats over the next few weeks.

2. This is the most amazing lip balm ever. A little expensive for lip balm, but it's amazing!!!

3. While in Brooklyn yesterday, BF and I came upon the Bust Magazine craft fair. There were so many amazing artists, jewelers, sewers and crafters from the area and I found a few amazing pieces. Including this necklace! I have been lusting after a geode necklace for months and this one really caught my eye. (You can find the super nice jeweler, Eileen, here on Etsy!)

4. I love this list. And yes, it makes me feel old. So very old.

5. Chemistry has been not only fruitful this week, but it has been fun to look at! The first flask contains dry potassium dichromate, the second flask is after dissolving in hydrochloric acid and adding zinc dust. Inorganic chemistry is so pretty.

6. I bought a container of dried kiwis are Fairway market the other day and I have no idea what to do with them! Other than eat them all, of course. They taste like candy.

7. Spring is slowly coming to the Tri-state area. I'm looking forward to the hot days of summer when BF and I can get strawberry shakes at Shake Shack and sit in the park. We spent some time at the Brooklyn Bridge park this weekend, napping on the lawn, it was fabulous.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and decompressing for the week to come!

Restaurant Wars 2013 - Cheesecake Factory

2013-05-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

I wonder why I don't make cheesecake very often.

No wait, I know exactly why I don't make cheesecake very often. It's because I would weigh nine hundred pounds. Cheesecake is delicious and I have no self control around it. This is why I was so excited about having the Cheesecake factory next on my list. I was looking forward to that cheesecake menu.

For the most part, I have never been that impressed with the Cheesecake Factory's food menu. I think it's because they have way too many options. I want a menu with ten to fifteen great options, not seven pages of sandwiches, burgers, pasta and entrees. The power that Cheesecake Factory holds over me is in their two page cheesecake menu.

Boyfriend and I enjoyed a pretty basic lunch. Apparently Cheesecake Factory realized that most of their menu items were super high in calories and has introduced a Skillylicious menu. I ordered a salad and BF got a lunch-sized portion of pasta carbonara. (He really likes carbonara and will order it off of just about any menu) Since it was lunchtime, there was no way I was going to be able to eat my salad and a slice of cheesecake. Luckily, they have these great to go boxes!

I asked the waitress which two cheesecakes were their most popular. She suggested their white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake and their limited edition Oreo cheesecake. I took a slice of each home and found out that I would be eating all of this cheesecake myself. Boyfriend apparently doesn't like cheese in his dessert. And he was the whole reason I got the Oreo cheesecake! I guess I'm still learning new things about the guy I've been with for over ten years!

And you would all be so proud of me! I had total self control with these two slices of cheesecake. I had a bite of each once we got home from our day out and promptly put them in the fridge. It took me until the end of the week to finish eating them! I think it took me so long, because they weren't mindblowingly delicious. The limited edition Oreo cheesecake was uber rich and had four layers of mousse, cheesecake, ganache and crumb. It was just too much, you can see how it was falling over after a short ride in the car. The white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake was half and half. The top layer was amazing, but the raspberry-less bottom layer was just meh.

I decided to neglect the entire food menu of Cheesecake factory and try to recreate their white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake, in miniature form. There was no way that I was going to have an entire 10-inch cheesecake sitting in my house, so my recipe makes six cupcake sized cakes! I can handle having that many cute little cheesecakes in the house (especially since I'm the only one living in this apartment who likes cheesecake!).

Make these mini cheesecakes at home and enjoy the best part of going out to dinner at the Factory.

One Year Ago: Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

Two Years Ago: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

White Chocolate-Raspberry Cheesecake

A Wilde Original

Now is not the time to go low fat. I want you to be sure to buy full fat everything. Cream cheese, sour cream and of course, heavy cream. These guys are small, perfect for sharing with someone!

6 chocolate cookies

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

pinch salt

8 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 ounces white chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon heavy cream

2 tablespoons sour cream

1/4 cup raspberry preserves

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Line a muffin pan with 6 paper liners. (I used big liners because I knew the cheesecake would puff up when baked.) Preheat oven to 325 F.

Crush chocolate cookies in the food processor, add melted butter, sugar and salt. Pulse to combine. You just want the cookies moistened. Add 1 tablespoon cookie mixture to the bottom of each paper liner and press into an even crust. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool while you prepare the filling.

In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, mixing until well beaten. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add flour. Add the beaten egg, mix well. Add melted white chocolate, combine. Finally, add heavy cream and sour cream and mix until no more swirls of white are present. In another small bowl, mix raspberry preserves and melon juice until smooth.

Using an ice cream scoop, add ~1/3 cup cheesecake batter to the six muffin cups. Tap pan on the counter top to even out the cheesecake. Drizzle raspberry preserves on top and swirl with a toothpick to mix and make it look pretty.

Bake cheesecake cupcakes for 20-22 minutes, or until they just barely jiggle when the pan is shaken. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack on the counter. Once they are completely cool, put the entire pan in the fridge for at least 3 hours before eating.

Share with friends, try not to eat them all yourself!

NYC Food Blogger Bake Sale

2013-04-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

Are you going to be in New York City this weekend? If you are, you should come out and see me in Brooklyn! I'm so excited to be in town and free to participate in the NYC Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry. I was out of the country last year, so I made sure to plan my spring vacation after I found out when the bake sale was!

But it's not just me! I'll be joining 35 other NYC area bloggers at the Brooklyn Flea with homemade treats from our kitchens. I've spent the past few weeks trying to decide what to make for the bake sale. I wanted something that would just scream WITK. I came up with - Mallomars.

I've made many different varieties of mallomars here at WITK. From simple flavors like key lime and blueberry flavors to holiday flavors like peppermint and pumpkin. For the NYC bake sale, I decided to give everyone what they want - Funfetti!

I used my classic almond sugar cookie base and swapped out the vanilla extract for cake batter flavoring (I got it at my local gourmet food shop) and added a copious amount of rainbow sprinkles. My classic vanilla marshmallow was also pumped up with the cake batter flavoring. The marshmallow batter smelled Ah-mazing. I was seriously licking it off the spoon (after I was done piping the cookies). The whole shebang was topped off with a coating of rainbow sprinkles.

If you can make it to the city this weekend, come visit me and taste test these bad boys! If you can't make it out/across the country for the bake sale, I included the recipe for you to try at home. Be sure to buy this cake batter flavoring, you can also add it to milkshakes and ice cream (which I totally plan on doing this summer).

Don't worry, even if you can't come out and visit us at the Brooklyn Flea this weekend, you can still take part in the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry. You can enter to win a whole bunch of different raffles! From Divine chocolate to Le Creuset stoneware, amazing cookbooks to sweet gift boxes. You can win these without even being in New York City! Enter them all!

One Year Ago: Tarragon Chicken & Roasted Potatoes
Two Years Ago: Maple Mousse

Birthday Cake Mallomars

A Wilde Original

Birthday Cake Cut Out Cookies

2 stick butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tsp birthday cake flavoring

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons small sprinkles (I used the little sprinkle beads)

In a large bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar and salt until smooth. Add almond flour and vanilla and beat until combined. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the edges. Add egg and combine. Finally, add flour slowly until completely mixed.

Divide dough in half and drop each onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Place dough on a large piece of plastic wrap and fold over. Gently press dough flat with your hands. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Place dough on a baking sheet and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Place chilled dough on your counter top and lift off the top layer of plastic wrap. Stamp out dough with your desired cookie cutter shape and place cut dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Place this baking sheet in the fridge for 30 minutes. Collect dough scraps and roll into a ball and re-chill and cut until you use all of the dough.

Preheat oven to 350 F while the cookie dough shapes are chilling. Take cut dough straight from the fridge and place in the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool, on the baking sheet, on a wire rack for 1 minute. Remove cookies from the sheet and let cool completely before adding marshmallow.

Birthday cake marshmallow

Adapted from Marshmallows

For the gelatin bloom
1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons cold water
1 1/2 tablespoons birthday cake flavoring
3 tablespoons unflavored gelatin (I use Knox powdered gelatin)

For the sugar syrup
3/4 cup water
1 1/4 cups corn syrup
pinch kosher salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

For the mallomars
1 cup small rainbow sprinkles/cake decors

In a small bowl, whisk together water and birthday cake flavoring. Add gelatin and whisk until smooth. Let sit while you prepare the sugar syrup.

In a 4-quart pot, combine all four ingredients for the sugar syrup. Bring to a boil and cover with a lid. Let boil for 2 minutes (this will wash down any sugar crystals from the walls of the pot). Uncover the pot and clip on your candy thermometer. Heat to 250 F. Remove from heat and add bloomed gelatin. Whisk until the gelatin is incorporated.

Pour mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer and turn it up! Beat the sugar mixture on high for 10 minutes, until bright white and fluffy. Transfer marshmallow batter to a piping bag with a 1-cm tip.

Pipe blobs of marshmallow onto the cooled cookie rounds. Let marshmallow set for 30 minutes before dunking in sprinkles. Be sure all the marshmallow is coated in sprinkles, this will keep them from sticking to each other. Enjoy how happy they look!

Wilde Week #14

2013-04-27T11:35:00.002-04:00

1. It's been a long week in the lab. I've been working on a tricky new synthesis and have spent the majority of my time on my feet, running around the labs. As of Friday, I'm happy to report that I completed the synthesis and made my project leader and boss very happy. Along the way I ran a nickel reduction and during the course of the reaction, the nickel became magnetic. Enjoy the magnetic lines formed as my newly magnetized nickel dances around my magnetic stir bar.

2. It was a week of ups and downs. Like Sunday, when I discovered my iPad screen had shattered somehow. It's still a mystery to me. Then moments later I noticed there was a Groupon for iPad screen replacement.

3. Why Jimmy Fallon was so good and so terrible on SNL. Enjoy the top 10 crack-ups of SNL. Love it.

4. I wore these shoes to work Friday. The only thing most people said to me was "Whoa! Those shoes are bright!" My girlfriends told me they were awesome. I believe both groups of people were correct! Please note, these are just hot pink ballet flats. Not hot pink four inch heels. Wait till they see my lime green Sperry wedges this summer!

5. Why yes magazine, I am grossed out by walking around the yoga studio in my bare feet. Am I willing to drop $110 for some adorable pink and orange polka dotted foot wraps? Maybe...

6. If I could, I would make everything in a muffin tin. You too? Here are some cool ideas, some that I'd never even thought of before. Love the mini lasagnas.

7. I'm spending this weekend prepping for the NYC bake sale that is happening next Saturday at the Brooklyn Flea. If you're in the city next weekend, stop by and support No Kid Hungry by picking up some tasty treats made by some of your favorite NYC area food bloggers and bakeries! There are some raffles you can enter, even if you aren't in the NYC area! Enter Here!

Have yourself a great week and hopefully I'll see you next weekend at the Brooklyn Flea!

Cute, Colorful and French

2013-04-23T09:26:00.002-04:00

I know, I know. Macarons are so 2012.

I should move on to whatever this years big dessert treat is! (actually, I have no idea what is supposed to be "IN" in 2013. The internet says it's fancy popcorn, figs and push-pops.) But you know what? I love macs. I think that they are cute and colorful and French, so I will go on making macarons until I run out of flavors to make! Especially now that I've found my method for macs that works consistently without all the fuss.

First, I got these handy egg tools from OXO (through their blogger outreach program). OXO suggested I make myself a nice omelet, but quite frankly, I don't really go for omelets. I'm much more of a cinnamon bun for breakfast kind of girl. If I'm going to eat eggs, they are going to be scrambled and it is going to be after six pm. Worry not OXO, these egg tools fit perfectly for my other egg related plan - macarons!

I received an egg separator - perfect for separating those whites from yolks. I also got a person powered hand mixer - just what my tired arms need for whisking sugar into egg whites over a simmering pot of water. Finally I got a fancy spatula. The tag said it was an omelet turner. I put mine to use in the oh so important macaronage step of macaron making. These tools should be remarketed to the macaron maker. They worked perfectly!

The other reason I decided to make macs? I found these freeze-dried raspberries at a gourmet grocery store in South Orange, NJ. I knew they would make an amazing ingredient to a macaron, since the best way to flavor the cookie itself is with dry ingredients. If you find freeze-dried mangos, let me know. I totally want a mango-flavored mac. How the French would sneer at a mango macaron!

With the tools and the cookies taken care of, there was just one thing left to deal with. The filling. Searching my cabinets I happened upon a block of Callebaut white chocolate. Raspberry macarons filled with white chocolate buttercream? That sounds just delicious enough to work. (Would I rather have filled them with white chocolate ganache? Yes, but I was out of heavy cream and I wanted to eat the cookies ASAP.)

So now we have raspberry and white chocolate macarons, OXO has a new marketing campaign for their egg tools and my pantry is cleared of two of the more eccentric items. All in all, a good day!

See, so cute. So colorful. Bonjour macarons.

One Year Ago: Chocolate Malt Marshmallows
Two Years Ago: Mango-Lime Muffins

Raspberry Macarons with White chocolate buttercream

A Wilde Original

I used freeze-dried raspberries to flavor these macaron shells. You can find freeze-dried fruits at gourmet grocery stores or sometimes at hiking stores. Toss them in the food processor and process them until they are finely ground. I used about half of my bag of dried berries for the recipe. You can also use the powder to flavor rice crispy treats!

My preferred method for making macaron shells is this Swiss method. It requires you to heat the egg whites and granulated sugar over a simmering bowl of water. It partially cooks the egg whites and gives the macaron batter a bit of structure. I have had major success with this recipe and have achieved lovely pieds on my macarons each time I've used it. (Thank you Dessert Truck Works!)

125 g almond flour
125 g confectioner's sugar
15 g freeze-dried raspberry powder
1/4 tsp powdered red food coloring
50 g egg whites

50 g egg whites
110 g granulated sugar

Combine almond flour, confectioner's sugar, powdered raspberries and food coloring in the bowl of a food processor. Whir for about 1 minute, until everything is combined. Sift mixture through a medium sieve to break up the large pieces. Just toss anything that remains in the sieve into the bowl with the sieved stuff. Stir the dry mixture with 50 g egg whites and set aside.

Bring a 4-quart pot of water to a simmer. In a medium bowl, start whisking 50 g of egg whites until they start to get foamy. Add granulated sugar in three portions, continuing to to whisk. Once all of the sugar is added, place the bowl over the simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't sit in the water, but is a few inches above). Whip the eggs until they reach stiff peak and are shiny and glossy white. The meringue should be warm to the touch, but not hot. If it starts to get too warm, but isn't yet at stiff peak, remove from the heat and continue whipping.

Add meringue to the almond flour mixture and begin folding it into the almond flour mixture. Be sure to turn the bowl to combine all the ingredients together. It will take between 30-40 turns to get to the desired consistency. It should flow like cooling lava, or, if you draw a line down the center of the batter with your spatula, it should disappear within ten seconds. Transfer batter to a piping bag with a 1/4-inch tip.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Pipe out 2-inch circles of batter, leaving an inch in between each circle. Allow the newly piped shells to dry for 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat oven to 300 F and bake shells for 15 minutes, rotating halfway during the baking. Once finished baking, remove macarons from the oven and immediately transfer the parchment paper/silpat off of the baking sheet. Place macarons on a wire rack and allow them to cool completely before filling.

White Chocolate Buttercream

Adapted from Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

I decided that there is nothing better with raspberries than white chocolate, although I'm wishing this buttercream was lemon and white chocolate. Although that may have been dangerous, as I would have eaten the entire batch of macarons before I could get them to the office.

8 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, beat butter for about 1 minute, until light and fluffy. Add heavy cream and beat until combined. Add white chocolate and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar in two portions, being sure that the sugar is completely incorporated. Beat until your frosting reaches your desired consistency.

Disclaimer - I received the OXO utensils (omelet turner, egg separator & hand mixer) as a part of the blogger outreach program. The opinions within this post are my own.

Wilde Week #13

2013-04-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's been a wild week for everyone, I'm glad the weekend has arrived. Here are a few things that will hopefully make you smile and ease you into a low-stress weekend.

1. Cat comics! Nothing is better than cat comics! Makes me want a cat. And not want a cat at the same time.

2. Crazy skirts! Apparently Lucky magazine thinks I can wear a wicker lampshade as a skirt. My only question, what if I want to sit down?

3. Disney Princesses in sloth form. Go ahead and look, it's silly.

4. Green hair! Do you think I can pull off this look at work? I wonder how many people would come up to me and say "Your hair is green!"

5. Layer cakes. So pretty. This one is so simple too! Bonus? Sweetapolita is working on a baking cookbook! So excited!

6. Spring has finally shown its face here in the Tri-state area. As memories of winter fade away, I'm looking forward to walking through New York City in my cork wedges, sipping an iced tea. Spring makes me smile.

7. Go ahead and watch all the episodes of Better off Ted. It will take you all afternoon, but you'll enjoy laughing all afternoon long. Tweet me with your favorite moment. I have so many!

Restaurant Wars 2013 - California Pizza Kitchen

2013-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

First off today, I have to say Happy Anniversary!!! to Boyfriend. It's been ten years since our first date. Ten years, seven cities, nine different apartments, over twenty different countries, we're like our own little Amazing Race. That's right, BF and I have been a couple for a whole decade. You might ask why we aren't yet engaged or married. My answers generally vary from 'We've only been living together for 2 years' to 'We're really busy' to 'If I get engaged, then I have to plan a wedding.' We'll get around to it before all this food blogging catches up to us and I can't fit into a size 4 wedding dress!

Now, back to the reason for todays post - Restaurant Wars 2013! It's been almost a month since my last RW post because I've been out of town so much recently! March and April found be travelling to my hometown for a long weekend and to Washington, DC for a work conference. I also spent my weekend mornings training for my half marathon. I reorganized my RW schedule based on restaurants that are close to our apartment and therefore easy weeknight meals!

This week brought us to California Pizza Kitchen, on a surprisingly busy night. Our CPK is located inside of a mall, like most locations these days, and tends to be a popular place for dinner. It would be forty-five minutes if we wanted a table. How long for the bar? You can sit down right now! I highly reccommend sitting at the bar at CPK. The bartenders are fun and lead to quick drink service. You can also watch all the pizzas being made and get good views of the TVs.

Personally, I love all of the unusual pizzas at CPK. I always wind up with their pear & gorgonzola, spicy Korean BBQ or Jamaican Jerk pizza. BF is more of a classic pizza fan. Meat and cheese is his go to pizza. This trip to CPK was no different - I went with the Thai chicken pizza and BF got the Meat cravers. Apparently vegetables have no place on a pizza in BFs world.

When it came to reproducing CPK at home, I had a little leg up. While browsing the local bookstore in Montclair, I stumbled upon this book. Published in 1996, previously owned, this cookbook cost me $8. Deal. The best thing about this version of the cookbook (they have updated it twice since the original was published), this book contains several pizzas that are no longer offered on the CPK menu. Like BF's favorite - The Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza.

I remember heading to CPK in the early years of our relationship and ordering this pizza. He's been upset ever since it was pulled from the menu. When I discovered the recipe in my new cookbook, I knew this would be the recipe to make for RW - CPK. The only problem, this recipe is so involved.

It took me almost two hours from chopping the first clove of garlic to when I pulled the pizza out of the oven. You can prepare some things in advance (which I should have done, but I neglected to read the recipe ahead of time, bad blogger) and shave some time off of the prep. I have also reorganized the directions, to allow you to multitask during the cooking process.

Make this pizza, it is delicious. And according to Boyfriend, very close to the original.

One Year Ago: Salad Dressing

Two Years Ago: Mango Shrimp Curry

Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza

Adapted from The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook

The original recipe makes two pizzas. The majority of changes I have made are just to cut the recipe in half and reorganize the instructions to be more multi-tasking. If you can get help in the kitchen, you will be able to bring this dish together pretty quickly. But make this pizza, I cannot stress how delicious it is.

For Rosemary Potatoes

4 small, red new potatoes, sliced into 1/8-inch thick rounds

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fresh chopped oregano

1 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary

dash of white pepper

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Garlic Chicken

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 pound chicken strips

Garlic-Shallot Butter Sauce

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 small shallot, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme

Pinch of kosher salt

1/4 cup chardonnay

Juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon chicken bullion cube

For the Pizza

1 recipe your favorite pizza dough

Cornmeal

1 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Make the rosemary potatoes - Heat oven to 325 F. Toss potatoes with remaining ingredients. Arrange potato slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 45 minutes, or until they being to brown. Remove from the baking sheet and move to a plate lined with paper towels. Blot off excess oil. Set aside, do not put in the fridge.

Prepare the chicken - Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken and toss to coat. Let chicken marinate for 15 minutes. Grill chicken on a grill pan or grill, discard excess marinate. Cook chicken until no longer pink in the middle. Remove from the grill and let cool. Chop chicken into 1/2-inch cubes. Place in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the pizza (you can do this a day ahead of time).

Make the sauce - Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, shallot and thyme and toss to coat in butter. Let cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 8 minutes, or until softened. Add remaining ingredients to the saucepan and stir until chicken bullion is dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Now it's finally time to put the pizza together. Preheat oven to 450 F. Arrange your pizza dough on a baking sheet/pizza sheet. Top pizza dough with garlic-shallot sauce. Spready to within one inch of the edge. Top with half of the mozzarella cheese. Add chicken. Top with potatoes, leaving one inch between each potato. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary and oregane. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake pizza for 15-18 minutes or crust has risen and is slightly browned. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Slice and eat!

Now wasn't that worth it? Totally.

A Wilde Half Marathon

2013-04-16T06:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend, all of my weeks of training culminated in my first half marathon! It was six weeks ago that I decided to sign up for and seriously train for 13.1 miles through Central Park. I have always wanted to complete a half marathon. I realized that I would never train for it, unless I made the commitment and signed up for a race. It was paying that entry fee that made me stick to the training schedule.

Boyfriend and I woke up at 6:00 am, Sunday morning, and got dressed in our finest running gear. Boyfriend was not officially signed up for the race, as it was a ladies only half marathon, but he planned to run along with me as long as he could. I loaded up my running belt with Clif bloks and lip balm and tossed extra clothes and water in my tagged baggage. We headed off into the sunrise toward New York City.

You want to head into the city? There really isn't any traffic at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. You might be a bit early for brunch though. We parked our car around 72nd st (right near the finish line of the race) and walked into the park with hundreds of other ladies, already wearing their running bibs. By 8:00am BF was waiting at mile 1 for me and I was waiting at the starting line, nervous energy coursing through my body.

When my seed corral was finally at the start line, all 1,000 women were packed tightly together. After I crossed the starting line I was ready to go. The first mile I spent on the outer edge of the course, passing everyone in my corral. Apparently I underestimated my running pace at 9:40/mile, after my six weeks of training I was running closer to 8:20/mile. I spent the majority of the race passing everyone in front of me, it felt good.

BF met up with me at mile 1 and kept up until his shoes came untied around mile 4. I was on my own, with 10,000 women, running the Central Park loop. The loop is 6 miles around, which meant I would be making two full loops and one mile of a third. I knew that once I passed the 6-mile marker, I would be much happier the next time around.

And I certainly was. I was so thrilled that I reached up and tapped the mile marker, only 1.1 miles left to run. Gradually I increased my pace until I was at a full out sprint to cross the finish line at 1 hour 55 minutes, five minutes shy of my two hour goal. Do I think I could do better? Yes. Do I plan to run more half marathons? You bet.

Finally, my heart goes out to those that have been affected by the tragic events at the Boston marathon yesterday. It's unbelievable what occurred and so surreal that something like this could happen. I have several friends that were running in the marathon this year and thankfully have heard from all of them. Here's hoping for a swift recovery for those injured yesterday as well as the city of Boston.

One Year Ago: Cookie Dough Fudge
Two Years Ago: Cookie Dough Egg Rolls

Granola Cookie Wedges

Adapted from Cooking Light

I know that when you read the word "granola" one tends to think it equates to "healthy." Notice this recipe is also called a cookie. While delicious, these bad boys are not good for you at all. Enjoy, but try not to pretend too hard that you're being healthy, I know I wasn't when I chowed down two after they had cooled down enough to handle...

1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg white
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 F and coat a 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray.

Whisk together brown sugar, canola oil, butter, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda and egg white until combined and smooth. Add remaining ingredients and stir until everything is just moistened. Pour into prepared pie dish and press to the edges with a spatula. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookie is set. Remove from the oven and let cool for ten minutes on a wire rack. Remove from the pan and cut into 8 wedges.

Wilde Week #12

2013-04-13T12:15:00.001-04:00

1. It's been six weeks since I decided to sign up for a half marathon. Before this training program, my longest run was the Bolder Boulder 10K. After finishing my 12 miles last weekend, I'm confidant I can do this half marathon tomorrow! Here's hoping I finish it in under the four hour time limit. My plan is to finish in under two hours. Two laps around Central Park and I'll have finished my first half marathon!

2. What was I reading this week? Teen lit! I love reading all these post-apocalyptic world stories. They are such great commuting reads because they are fast moving and requires very little of me. This is good because I generally fall asleep at some point on the train. The book this week is Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Set in an alternate timeline in our world, where love is seen as a disease, our heroine Lena learns that her world isn't quite what she thought. A little silly, kinda sappy, yet another trilogy. I wasn't sure I would even bother reading the next two books. The last few chapters finally convinced me to read onto the next book.

3. Nails this week? Okay, I painted them a few days ago, so don't mind the chips here and there. This nail varnish from Illamasqua is called Purity. It's actually a really nice peach, so perfect for spring. I only have one complaint. The coverage of this polish isn't that great. I put on two coats and could have done with a third, but I was too lazy.

4. I want to be as daring and creative as this girl! She heads to the thrift store and buys over sized, outdated and un-cute clothes and turns them into the cutest outfits ever! For like a dollar each! So jealous. I have a sewing machine, I should buy some ugly clothes...

5. I was in Washington, DC this week! I was attending the AACR (American Association of Cancer Research) annual meeting from Saturday to Wednesday, learning about what's happening right now in cancer research. While I wasn't at the conference, I was wandering around DC (and logging my marathon training miles!) taking pictures with my phone. So much fun, so many cherry blossom trees.

6. I know this is from last year, but I totally want to dust off my ice cream maker and make myself some strawberry-coconut ice cream! It sounds delicious. Maybe I'll wait until I can pick my own berries?

7. While I was away at the conference, Boyfriend was at home, cleaning up my mess! Apparently he grew sick of all my cookbooks on top of the kitchen cabinets and bought me a bookshelf! Now all I want to do is stand in front of it and look at my cookbooks. There's a little open space up there on the top shelf, I'd better head to amazon and fill it up.

8. I'm inspired by my new bookshelf to making marshmallows and macarons. Let's see if this inspiration carries me into the kitchen...

Wilde in Washington, DC

2013-04-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

I spent this past week in Washington, DC for a work conference. As luck would have it, as my train was pulling into Union station, the famous Japanese cherry blossoms were getting ready to bloom. Over a million people travel to Washington every year to enjoy the Cherry Blossom festival. Then there are those of us who just lucked out and were there at just the right time!

Also, I was lucky enough to be training for a half marathon and had many miles to cover over my six days in the city. Twenty-five miles to be precise!

I even got to test out my new macro lens for my iPhone. That's right. The photographs below were shot with my iPhone. I want to wallpaper my house with these images.

I was so lucky to be in Washington this week. I didn't want to leave the flowers, it was so beautiful.

Wilde Week #11

2013-04-08T06:55:00.002-04:00

1. It took me months, but I have finally finished reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. This book was recommended to me by a friend about six months ago. I downloaded it to my kindle and started it one morning train ride. The problem? This book takes forever to get going. According to my friend "It has a lot of pipes to lay." I'll say. The book was setting up the story and the interesting bits for over 50% of the book. Which, when the book set in 19th century Dutch- Japan, is a lot of pages to slog through. I finally finished this book (along with about ten others when I needed a break). It ended up being pretty good, it just took a long time getting there.

2. I can't wait to own a house because I want nothing more than to paint the walls. I want to see something other than white on the walls of my bedroom. Here's hoping to a new Wilde house within the year!

3. Having worked at and been a member of many gyms, I've seen most of these guys. Dude is right on.

4. I just finished my last long run before my half marathon next weekend. 12 miles through DC. What a great way to complete a long run, there was so much to look at and distract me from the miles. Have a long run to make? Take a new route!

5. Nails this week? Since I'm away this week, I decided to go with OPI nail stickers! They are quick to put on and don't chip as quickly as polish. The ones I'm wearing have little birds sitting in trees.

6. I'm in Washington, DC this week for a work conference! It's been a few years since I've been in our nations capitol and I've never been here during the cherry blossom festival. It's like NYC on a warm summer day around here, so many people! The blooms haven't opened yet, hopefully before I leave on Wednesday. Rather than recipes this week, there may just be pretty pictures of cherry blossoms!

Have a great week!

Wilde Taste Tester

2013-04-04T13:16:00.000-04:00

What do you do for the man who has everything when his birthday rolls around? Why, you make him Charlie and bring him to is own Chocolate Factory. Or as it was in this case - Dad and the Perry's Ice Cream Factory!

That's right, I'm the best daughter in the world and I took my dad to his most favorite place in the world for his birthday - the Perry's Ice Cream Factory in Akron, NY.

Now I can't take all the credit for thinking up this amazing birthday trip. In reality, it was kismet, fate, destiny or just plain luck, that Perry's Ice Cream invited me (and a special guest) to come visit the factory for their first ever - Perry's Taste Testing event. The tour and taste testing happened to land on my dads birthday weekend, so I flew home to celebrate (and eat lots of ice cream) with him at Perry's.

If you're not a local Western New Yorker, you might not be familiar with Perry's Ice Cream. It's a local brand that fills the freezer cases at TOPS and Wegmans in my hometown. It's the ice cream that our local schools carried when we were kids (get them hooked young!). Perry's is what you find at local ice cream stands. If you happen to live near a Wegmans grocery store (except that new one in Boston), you can buy Perry's Ice Cream. If you are outside of their distribution region, you can come visit me. I have lots in my freezer.

Perry's is still run by a Perry actually. See that guy above? That's Brian Perry, executive vice president and fourth generation Perry's ice cream worker. During our trip to the factory, we actually got to look down on the factory floor and watch the ice cream being made (sorry, no pics allowed!). Cartons of ice cream were zipping around all over the place. Huge silver drums processed the ingredients and immediately distributed the product into containers and sent them to the freezer. The front of the room was dominated by a machine dedicated to making ice cream sandwiches. It was totally fascinating.

My dad and I weren't alone in our visit to Perry's. A few other bloggers were there (Hello to Ashley and Brette!) as well as some local press and other businesses (Including a girl I totally graduated high school with. But she either didn't recognize me, or is still too cool for school.). There's me in my bright green pants, standing next to my dad, who is so excited to be there.

A quick group shot with Brian Perry (jammed in the back behind my bright green legs) and some questions from the press (did you know Perry's recycles/reuses/re-purposes just about everything that comes in their doors?) and we were finally off to the most important part - the taste testing!

Now this was going to be a big job. We weren't there to just eat the ice cream. We were there to taste test it and give our opinions. The great ladies at Perry's gave us a presentation about how to taste test. We had to think about the following things...

1. Texture
2. Flavor
3. Aroma

Lactose-Free Vanilla

Texture is pretty straightforward - Perry's pasteurizes their ice cream low and slow rather than a hot flash pasteurization. This leads to a smoother, creamier ice cream. It's devoid of large ice crystals, unless you leave it in the freezer for months, but who is going to do that! Texture is also touched upon when the ice cream has inclusions - or little bits of something else. Inclusions vary from nuts to chocolate to candies.

Oh My, Cherry Pie!

Flavor is where it gets tricky. First - dairy. Someone from the South might not like Perry's because you can definitely taste the dairy in the ice cream. Southerners tend to prefer a sweeter ice cream rather than one with a lot of dairy notes. Us Northern ice cream eaters like to taste the dairy notes, then the flavors and sweetness.

Movie Time

Flavor gets more complicated as you add extracts, fruits, chocolates and inclusions. Did you know there are four different types of vanilla? Or that you can describe the taste of chocolate in over 20 different ways? From roasted to nutty, burnt to barny, chocolate is very complex.

Sponge Candy

Finally comes aroma. When you plan a taste testing event, be sure to avoid wearing perfumes, lighting scented candles or eating/drinking anything else for about 20 minutes. You want a clean palate. Drink plenty of water in between flavors and go from lightest to heaviest flavor (we went from vanilla to dark chocolate). Be sure your ice cream has a few minutes to warm up from the freezer, other wise you'll just taste cold.

Queen of Hearts

We taste tested seven different flavors. Let me tell you, it was a hard task. I know, I know. "Eating all that ice cream must have been terrible!" It was not terrible, I was just very full. I was a little confused by the Movie Time flavor (Popcorn flavored ice cream with swirls of sea salt caramel and caramel truffles). It smelled like movie theater popcorn, but tasted like caramel. Yet it had the aftertaste of popcorn. My dad loved it and finished mine.

All Natural Black Cherry

I fell in love with the Queen of Hearts flavor (Dark chocolate ice cream with a raspberry swirl and fudge filled hearts). Most of the men in the room didn't like this one, while the ladies were more partial to it. I think women tend to lean more toward dark chocolate than to men. There was also a local flavor - Sponge candy! Something to get the WNYers excited about summer and bring out the local aspect of Perry's.

Party Sandwich!

We even got to try their newest novelty - the Party Sandwich. This will be a bit hit with the under 12 crowd. Cake batter ice cream, filled with rainbow sprinkles, sandwiched between two vanilla cookies. They were fun, but sadly the last thing we had for the day. I couldn't come anywhere near finishing it.

We wrote down all our comments, using our new flavor words like cultured, smoky, caramelized and buttery and handed our comment cards to the Perry's Team. Hopefully our comments will help make more delicious flavors? I'd totally be willing to come back and try some more flavors!

The only thing I'm bummed about? We got to take home a few pints of our favorites, but since I flew to Buffalo, my dad took ownership of all my ice cream! Plus, all the flavors we tried that day are ice cream stand flavors - not available in the stores! I guess I'll just have to make another trip to WNY this summer and get a scoop or two by the river.

Before we left, the Perry's team offered to take us into their freezer. This is not your traditional, basement freezer with a few half gallons of ice cream. The Perry's freezer is a warehouse, kept at 25 degrees below zero, filled from floor to ceiling with pallets and pallets of ice cream. My dad wanted to back the truck up to the loading dock and load up a few pallets for himself.

I took the picture on the left just after we got into the freezer. My dad took a picture of me after spending about a minute in the freezer. His hands were shaking so bad, all three images he took looked like this! The freezer workers laughed at us when we came out to warm back up. But at least I look awesome in a hard hat. It matched my pants.

This summer I'll have to try to a few of these flavors in my little machine. It will be a little hard in my home kitchen, but I'm up for the challenge! I think sponge candy would make an amazing ice cream sandwich (hint hint!).

I there a local brand of ice cream in your part of the country? Do you prefer it over the big guys?

Photo Credits - Photos 3-6, 15 & 16 are credited to Yuka Photo Art (all the rest are from my iPhone)

Note - While Perry's did provide samples for taste testing, there was no financial compensation for the trip or this post. I like to write about Perry's because they are one of my local hometown businesses.

Make Ahead Monday - Chicken & Rice

2013-04-02T21:51:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just want to come home to a meal on the table. When you are the main meal prepared of the household, this is a rare occurrence. It is with this desire in mind, that I decided to bring about Make Ahead Meals, or MAM ~~Mondays~~ (Oops, make that Tuesday this week!)! Based on the traditional 1950's casserole dinner, but with a healthy 2010's twist. MAMs are made on the weekend and cooked during the week in the oven or crockpot!

You all know I'm not really a fan of condensed soups and I love my dinners to be full of vegetables. Most MAMs that I come across are either prepared with two cans of condensed soup, or are simply pasta with sauce covered in cheese. I like to call these "comfort casseroles." With springtime approaching (and bikini season around the corner), I'm looking to keep the MAMs light and healthy.

The best thing about the MAMs that I have prepared so far, I come home to Boyfriend in the kitchen, pulling a hot dish out of the oven. His timing is usually pretty good as he stalks me with his phone to see when I'm coming home. (Want to stalk your significant other? Download the Find My Friends app to their iPhone and yours. Authorize each phone to view the other. Voila - you've just lo-jacked your SO.)

This weeks MAM is a creamy chicken and rice casserole. I added way more mushrooms and peas than the original recipe called for, because mushrooms are delicious. I threw this meal together on Sunday in about thirty minutes and BF tossed it in the oven Wednesday night for a quick heat through and crisp up. I was enjoying dinner a mere minutes after I got home. Which when your commute is two hours each way, sometimes it's nice to not worry about what is for dinner.

Have any favorite casseroles that you want to see lightened up and made into a MAM? Drop me a comment below and I'll see what I can do for you!

One Year Ago: Grilled Chicken & Potatoes
Two Years Ago: Sponge Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue chocolate frosting

Chicken and Rice Casserole

Adapted from Everyday Food

This meal is super comforting and delicious. I had it three days in a row for lunch after we had it for dinner Monday night. Really easy to put together, this meal is ready in thirty minutes the night you want to cook it. The preparation is also pretty quick, especially if you use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Just a little time in front of the stove and your dinner is ready to go for later in the week.

Olive oil
2 cups baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 cups cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 shallots, minced
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
4 cups shredded chicken
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 cup panko breadcrumbs

Prepare 1 cup of brown rice by simmering in 2 cups water for 35-45 minutes or until done. Set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add mushrooms and shallots, season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are browned and softened. Add 1 tablespoon more of oil and add flour. Stir the flour into the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute.

Add chicken broth, whisking to combine and bring to a boil. Add chicken and cooked rice and bring mixture back to a boil. Add peas, parsley and sour cream, stir to combine. Pour mixture into a 9x13-inch casserole dish.

To eat immediately: Heat oven to 375. Top casserole with panko breadcrumbs. Bake for 20 minutes, until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

To eat later: Cover casserole dish with foil and transfer to the fridge. On the day you want to make dinner, remove casserole from the fridge and top with breadcrumbs. Place dish in the oven and set temperature to 375. Once the preheat alarm rings, set timer for 25 minutes. Enjoy!

Wilde Week #10

2013-03-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

1. This week I have eaten a ridiculous amount of European-style butter. I blame Milk bar. Boyfriend and I went to a third baking class (technically class #2 - the crunch) in Brooklyn. There we made more delicious cookies with a half pound of butter in them. Then we took them home and I ate them for breakfast. Cookies for breakfast is totally okay, especially cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip cookies.

2. BF and I emptied out our piggy bank this past week. It weighed over thirty pounds! Now someone won't let me take it to the coinstar because he likes looking at the jars of money.

3. There was a Girls marathon on Sunday night. I tried so hard to enjoy it. It just didn't happen, maybe I'm too uncool. Am I the only one who just doesn't get it?

4. I got new running shoes! After spending time with a nice girl at Fleet Feet, I learned you should buy running shoes a half size larger than you usually wear. Huh, who knew. Now I'm going to be so much faster, can't wait. Just wish they were in a more obnoxious color.

5. I totally kicked butt at my Crossfit workout this Thursday! Finished first! Mostly due to my awesome jump roping ability coupled with everyone else's inability to jump rope. I jump rope like a rock star.

6. Ever have one of those weeks at work when nothing went right? Yeah, that was my week. Chemistry was plotting against me all week long. I can't wait for next week, I have to redeem myself.

7. Easter is tomorrow! What does that mean? Easter candy is on sale on Monday! Yeah half price Reese's peanut butter eggs. It also means that everyone who gave up chocolate for Lent can stop being crazy and have some chocolate bunny!

8. For some reason my Crossfit gym is closed on Easter Sunday! I had to sign up for the 7am class this morning. Someone isn't happy about my alarm going off at 6:45 on a Saturday morning. Okay, it's more than one person who isn't jazzed about getting up at that time. Class better be awesome!

Coconut Key Lime Squares

2013-03-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

I've never been so happy to see Thursday than I have this week! Not that it has felt like a very long week, it's just been a very tiring one! Coupled with the fact that I spent a long weekend in Buffalo, eating totally healthy food (aka - hot dogs, Buffalo wings and Perry's ice cream), I'm exhausted. I even missed one of my scheduled runs for my half marathon training plan! I'd make it up, but I'm tired.

This past weekend I headed to Buffalo for a few reasons. 1. It was my dad's birthday! We enjoyed local hibachi at Shogun (ONION VOLCANO!) and ate Dessert Deli cake that was more chocolatey than just pouring chocolate syrup in your mouth. 2. Perry's Ice cream invited me to come visit them and eat ice cream! And they told me I could bring someone. I brought my dad, because it was his birthday and he loves their ice cream. I'll talk more about our ice cream factory tour next week, what I want to talk about today is - my long run in Buffalo.

If you have been reading along, you'll know that I'm only three weeks out from my half marathon! Each weekend I've been making longer and longer runs to help train for my eventual 13.1 miles in central park. I've run 10K races in the past and never really trained for them. BF and I ran a Spartan Super last year that wound up being 11 miles, we trained one day for that race and ate crossant sandwiches the morning of the race. I decided that neither of these tactics would be a good idea for my upcoming half marathon, I wanted to do it right.

Knowing that it was still a little cold in Buffalo, I packed my new running hat and gloves and fuzzy running jacket. The only thing I wasn't prepared for was snow. Which it did on Friday, four inches worth of the white stuff. I headed to my brothers house and used his treadmill for my 4 mile run. But there was no way I was going to run 8 miles on a treadmill. It's so boring!

Instead, I mapped my run online, trying to find the right route from my parents house that would give me an 8 mile loop. It also had to avoid running up the highway overpass near their house. I decided upon a route that was just longer than 8 miles and crossed only one 4-lane highway. It was also on a series of roads that I grew up driving down. I'm very familiar with the roads of my hometown and I know exactly when each road intersects. This proved an amazing bonus when running.

Saturday morning, around 9:00am, I worked up the energy to go running. I put on my layers, showed my mom how to track me with her phone, laced up my shoes and hit the road! I ran past my High school best friends house, my first house that we moved out of when I was 5, my high school and first middle school. At mile seven I ran past my brothers house and was on the home stretch! I crossed the highway and my mile tracker called out the completion of my eighth mile. Unfortunately, I was still a half mile from home.

After running 8.47 miles in 82 minutes and burning almost nine hundred calories, I had no qualms with eating a big slice of cake for dads birthday that night.

One Year Ago: Lemon and Honey Chicken
Two Years Ago: Filled Meringue Coffee Cake

Coconut-Key Lime Sqaures

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine

I would describe these bars as my perfect dessert. Sweet, tangy, tropical. Love 'em. I wanted to bring these bars to work so I wouldn't eat them all, but I couldn't bring myself to let them leave my house! These bars are perfect when you want something citrusy, but don't have time to make a lemon curd.

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
3 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Key lime juice

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 F. Coat an 8x8-inch pan with cooking spray, line with parchment paper. Lightly spray parchment paper with cooking spray.

Combine flour, brown sugar and kosher salt in a food processor, pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Add coconut and white chocolate and pulse until just mixed. Pour into prepared pan and press into the bottom of the pan with your hands. Bake for 18 minutes, or until golden brown.

Reduce heat to 300 F. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar. Add flour and whisk to combine. Add Key lime juice, stirring gently to combine. Pour liquid over the hot baked crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until set. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Remove cookie from the pan with the parchment paper. Dust lightly with powdered sugar and cut into 1-inch squares.

Momofuku Confetti Cookies

2013-03-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, you may have read that Boyfriend and I spent the evening at Momofuku Milk bar making Crack pie and cereal milk. Well, BF went out of town for a business trip the other day and I went back to the bakery for more! And this time we were making crumbs.

I was so excited to be able to make it to this particular class because I have had no luck making Milk bar cookies yet. I've made them twice before and I have come out with vastly different results. First, I made the blueberries and cream cookies and wound up with thin, crispy, non-delicious cookies. The second time, I made the compost cookies and wound up with high mounds of baked dough. I was determined to make this work!

At the crumb class, Tosi and her team showed us how to take ordinary ingredients, like powdered skim milk, and turn them into tasty inclusions for our baked goods. We made a white chocolate-coated milk crumb and a sprinkle-filled birthday cake crumb. The reason I signed up for the class though is what we did with the crumbs - we made cookies. Those blueberries and cream cookies that I originally had no luck with. Second try is the charm?

I learned exactly what I ws doing wrong with the cookies. It was a series of problems. 1. I wasn't using the correct ingredients. 2. I wasn't beating the butter high enough or long enough. 3. I was mixing the flour into the cookies for too long. 4. I had the wrong size cookie dough scoop. After learning the correct tricks for each of these problems, you might be wondering if my blueberries and cream cookies came out all right. Well, my bakery partner and I ate them too fast and I completely forgot to take a picture. Yeah, they were perfect. Let me pass on the secrets.

Let's start with the ingredients. I labeled you a nice picture above and hit on the key ingredients. Bread Flour - I used all-purpose flour the first time. Because of the higher percentage of butter in these cookies, you want a higher protein flour that can support all that fat. European butter - Tosi mentioned that regular unsalted butter would work fine, European butter is made with cultures and tastes richer.

Glucose syrup - I originally used corn syrup, as the cookbook said it would be fine. I can say that the glucose lead to a crunchy/chewy cookie that was amazing. If you can find it, use glucose. Powdered milk - Okay, I did use this in the original recipe, but you might not know where to find it. I bought private label powdered skim milk and it works just fine. You will either find it in the baby or baking aisle.

Once you have the proper ingredients at hand, it's all about timing. The Breville stand mixers that we used actually had a timer on the side of the machine. I totally wanted to take that mixer home with me, it was awesome. When combining the butter, sugar and eggs, you need to beat and beat until you see no more streaks of sugar crystals. In the first image above, you'll see exactly how far you have to take the mixture. It's just before the mixture turns into butter soup. We started with fridge temperature butter and in ten minutes, on the highest setting, it turned into that fluffy buttery cream.

Adding the dry ingredients to the butter mixture is done quickly. After pouring all of the dry ingredients into the bowl, you turn on the mixer to medium low and mix for less than 30 seconds. The final inclusions (crumbs, dried fruits, chocolate chips) are added and mixed in for less than 15 seconds.

The final step is measuring out the dough. I went to Amazon and bought the same measuring scoop that they use at Milk bar. It's that blue handled cookie dough scoop you see resting on the baking sheet. By portioning out the cookie dough with this scoop, the cookies bake perfectly in 18 minutes.

I spent a few hours with the Milk bar team and have finally mastered these amazing cookies. It's a combination of the high butter to flour ratio, addition of glucose and secret powdered milk ingredient, that make these cookies chewy, crunchy and amazing. They are also huge and a meal of their own.

Hopefully my previous failures and newfound knowledge will help you when making the Milk Bar cookies! Let me know if you have any questions when baking, I learned quite a lot from the bakers at Milk! And of course, if you are coming to NYC sometime soon, sign up for a class yourself! It's a great way to spend a night!

One Year Ago: Fish with Mango Salsa and Honey-roasted Parsnips

Two Years Ago: Balsamic BBQ Chicken

Confetti Cookies

From Milk - Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook

There are two steps to making these cookies. First, you have to make the birthday cake crumbs. Next, you make the cookies. I suppose you could omit the crumbs, but then you'll be missing the iconic, salty-sweet, Milk bar flavor combination. You'll also notice that I specify clear vanilla extract. This is the imitation vanilla extract that you can find at the craft store or online. We want the fake flavor, this is not the time for your good organic vanilla extract.

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted European butter

1 1/2 cups sugar (300g)

2 tablespoons glucose (50g)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract (8g)

2 1/2 cups bread flour (400g)

2/3 cup milk powder (50g)

2 teaspoons cream of tartar (9g)

1 teaspoon baking soda (5g)

1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt (5g)

1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles (40g)

1/2 recipe birthday cake crumbs

Chop up room temperature butter into large pieces. Start that stand mixer on medium and begin breaking up the butter. Add sugar and glucose and cream on medium-high for 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add eggs and vanilla. Turn up mixer to high and let beat for 7 to 8 minutes. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times. You're going for a creamy butter with no trace of sugar crystal.

In a small bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (except crumb). Add dry ingredients all at once to the whipped butter. Turn mixer on low and stir until everything just comes together, less than 1 minute. Add birthday cake crumbs and mix for about 15 seconds.

Scoop cookie dough with a 2 3/4-ounce scoop or 1/3 cup measure. Place cookie dough lumps on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet. Pat down the tops of the domes just a bit. Once all of the dough has been scooped out, wrap up baking sheet with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Let the dough chill for 1 hour minimum.

Preheat oven to 350 F and line several baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Place 5-6 cookies on each baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff and crack and turn golden. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheet. The cookies will settle and set up as they cool. Cookies will keep for about a week at room temperature, if they last that long!

Birthday Cake Crumbs

1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)

1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar (25g)

3/4 cup cake flour (90g)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (2g)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (2g)

2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles (20g)

1/4 cup grapeseed oil (40g)

1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract (12g)

Preheat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add oil and vanilla and stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are coated in oil and they start to clump together. Spread clusters of crumb on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and break up any large clumps. Let them cool competely before using in the cookie recipe.

Wilde Week #9

2013-03-22T22:11:00.001-04:00

1. Being a child of the nineties, there are so many things to miss! I really miss #23. Remember those tiny floaty bubbles in Orbitz? They were awesome.

2. I'm spending the weekend in Amherst, NY! It's not only my dads birthday, but I was invited to Perry's ice cream to be a taste tester! I brought my dad with me (As his birthday present. I'm cheap!) and I'm also enjoying all the foods that Western New York has to offer!

Izzy and Bella say hi!

Dad and I spent a few hours with Perry's ice cream taste testing the new flavors!

A quick stop at Watson's chocolates is always necessary!

Ted 's versus Theodore's? Each local has their opinion.

Bella is ready for Easter!

3. Eight miles to run today, I hope it stops snowing! I am ready for the cold weather with my new hat, but slogging eight miles over snow covered streets doesn't really appeal to me! First week of springing Buffalo and three inches of snow fell yesterday. I met someone at the airport who was also flying to Buffalo. He asked how warm it would be this weekend and was surprised when I told him it would be just above freezing. But it's spring! He said. I laughed and told him spring starts in Mayin Buffalo. The businessman across from us laughed. He knew.

4. Let it be known BF took this weekend of me being away to go and visit his parents. In Florida. He keeps posting pics on facebook of sunny skies. I'm super jealous/hate him.

5. I've got nothing else today, I'm so full of ice cream and hot dogs! What do you like to pig out on when you visit your hometown? I'm looking forward to a chicken finger sub this weekend!