I was delighted to have the creative genius Joanne of the wildly creative with healthy edge to it blog called 'eats well with others'. I am drawn to Joanne and her baking & cooking ways because she, unlike me, has a healthy edge (I need to get my baking-healthy edge on) . When this girl isn't creating amazing healthy yet definitely delish recipes in her nyc kitchen, you can find her exercising; well, exercising to the extremes honestly. I've lost count on how many marathons she's done. I was able to stop counting her marathons this past fall when ironically, she and I were both nursing knee injuries. Jokingly we would tease each other via twitter on who had the worst cabin fever since knee injuries take their own sweet time to heal. Oh did I mention she also is in the process of getting her MD/PhD? Yeah. The woman has crazy energy, and insane passion; I just love that about her!
A couple things I wanted to know:
You seem to have a mainly ‘healthy edge” to all your recipes, where or when did this start?
My family is the quintessential meat and potatoes family so I grew up on absolutely zero vegetables and lots of bread and cannoli. I started eating more healthy my junior year of college. I kind of woke up one day, realized just how overweight I was, and decided I was tired of being “the fat girl” among all my friends. Dining hall food isn’t the best for getting healthy and so I started to cook for myself. Since then, it’s pretty much been history. I fell in love with vegetables and, a year ago, stopped eating meat entirely. I still have a pretty intense sweet tooth so dessert will always be a part of my life, but I try to eat uber healthy the rest of the time to make up for it.
Do you plan out what you’re going to make? Or are they spur of the moment?
I am quite the stereotypical medical student in the sense that I am an organizational freak...however, I use those OCD tendencies to menu plan instead of study plan. It happens. Occasionally when I get a craving or inspiration hits, some spur of the moment cooking gets done, but most of the time there’s a plan and I follow it. Or sushi gets ordered.
When looking at recipes to try or create next, what sparks your interest most?
I definitely have certain flavor profiles that jump out at me. I love very bold, spicy food so anything Indian, Thai or Middle Eastern always appeals to me. I also have a strong and definite penchant for orange vegetables. If you show me a recipe with a sweet potato or winter squash in it, I am about 1000x more likely to make it. If it has celery...then there is no chance in hell it will come anywhere near my kitchen.
What country would you like to visit most for their food?
I would love to go to Thailand, Morocco or India. Although, my roommate just brought an intestinal parasite back with her from India (Giardia) and so my desire to go has declined a bit.
Are there any junk foods you love?
I’m a Reese’s-aholic. And a nutella-aholic. Although, I wouldn’t consider nutella a junk food. It’s more of a food group.
Favorite health foods?
Sweet potatoes, winter squash, and apples. I seriously eat an apple a day. Honeycrisp are my favorites!
What was your favorite food to write about?
I love writing about cupcakes. They’re my favorite thing to bake and one of my favorite things to eat. There are just so many cupcake/frosting/filling combinations and you really can’t go wrong with any of them.
Below is one of Joanne's recipes. For more info on her and her recipes check out her food blog: eats well with others.
My mom always used to tell me that you can catch more bees with honey than you can with vinegar.
It was her quaint way of saying, "I know you're thirteen and have an attitude problem, but if you want me to drive you to the mall then you really probably should take out the garbage. And do the dishes. And clean your room."
I just didn't get it though.
Why would anyone ever want to catch bees?
And given how much time my mother spent swatting at them all summer long, why weren't we dotting vinegar below our ears and on our wrists until we smelled like balsamic vinaigrette (yum) to try to keep them away?
She is such an enigma.
However. If she had said, you can make more friends when you sandwich fudge in-between two layers of chocolate chip peanut butter chip cranberry cookies than you can if you try to give them bran muffins?
That, I would have understood.
Nothing against bran muffins. But they don't say "love me always and forever" as much as gooey chocolate chip sandwich bars do. Truth. I speak it.
Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars
adapted from Food and Wine
print recipe
Ingredients
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup peanut butter chips
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the dish with parchment paper leaving 1-inch of overhang on either side.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour with the oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, followed by the egg yolk and vanilla, scraping down the sides after each addition. Beat in the dry ingredients, then add 3/4 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and dried cranberries until just incorporated. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, melt 2 cups chocolate chips in the sweetened condensed milk over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and let cool to room temperature.
4. Press half the cookie dough into the prepared baking dish. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the dough and spread evenly. Top with small dollops of the remaining cookie dough. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Let cool completely before cutting.
1/12/12
guest post: gooey chocolate chip sandwich bars w/ cranberry
1/8/12
apple fritters
Extra crunchy apple fritters mind you. Just have to have my apple fritters done extra crunchy. It's that crunch mixed with that sweet sugary glaze--the perfect bite. A bite that gets the saliva, in the back of your mouth running full time because it knows whats coming and it is so ready! That first bite of warm, crisp, apple fritter covered in a sugary sweet almost hardened glaze? Oh yeah baby. So happening. These--are way better than any fair fritters.
Do me a favor? Make these next weekend. Trust me everyone in the house will come to the table for these. They are not too hard to make; the only hard part (if you want to call it hard) was the the deep frying. But all you have to do is test a small batch first and see if the dough is ready. Then all you have to do is just set up camp at the fryer and watch them. Do not walk away from the fryer as these cook up fast; depending on the size. I got this recipe from pioneer woman. , only made a few adjustments and made mine fritters a bit bigger. I used pink lady apples as they are sweeter with more tart--I really wanted to taste an apple-ly like taste to the fritters knowing I was going to make them extra crunchy. But feel free to use whatever apples you like.
apple fritters
adapted from pioneer woman
print recipe
fritters
2 cups AP flour
½ cup white sugar
2-1/4 ts baking powder
1-1/4 ts salt
2 ts cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
2 ts vanilla extract
3 TB melted butter, cooled
2 regular size pink lady apples, peeled, rough chop (use any apple you like)
glaze
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 ts salt
1/4 cup PLUS 3 TB half & half (or more depending on how thick or thin you like glaze; I like mine thick)
In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with milk and vanilla extract, then add in cooled melted butter; mix well.
Fold in the dry with the wet ingredients; only mix till just combined. Lumps are fine. If you overmix you will have tough chewy fritters—that’s a no no. Next fold in the chopped apples.
Heat about 3-4 inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat.
When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.
Drop oversized tablespoons of batter (using an ice cream scoop, medium size, helps a lot, if you don’t have an ice cream scoop you can use two spoons to roll out the scoops of batter) into the hot oil. Only do about 3 -4 fritters at a time. They cook fast about 1-1 ½ minute per side or if you want extra crispy about 2 minutes per side—if that? Make sure to flip them.
Remove and drain on a paper towels or brown paper bags. Let these cool a bit before the glaze bath.
For the glaze:
Mix all the glaze ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Mix well. Then quickly dunk each fritter and let them rest on wire rack with cookie sheet on bottom to catch drippings.
Don’t let the fritters sit too long in the glaze as they will get soggy.
1/5/12
coconut clusters
Do you have a favorite homemade candy shop? I do. It's gross really how much money I dropped at the last visit. And the people that work there 'almost' know me by name. Sad. Let's blame it on winter and winter time makes people eat more carbs. Sounds right. Stage Stop Candy in Dennisport, MA makes the best peanut butter logs and coconut clusters--oh of course many other things, but those two are the main reasons I go there (and the occasional sea salted Tahitian vanilla caramel).
AND congrats to the winners of the Sweets on a Stick Cookbook giveaway. Tree #8, Janet Rudolph #59 and Cake Duchess #66. Please email me your address so we can get these books out to you. CONGRATS!
Also, Jen of Duluth, GA (#62) you were the winner of the Nescafe Piccolo Giveaway. You still haven't contacted me and only have a few more days left before I choose another winner on Monday Jan 9, 2012. Please email me ASAP Jen!
coconut clusters
print recipe
7 ounces of toasted coconut*
11.5 ounces of high quality milk chocolate (you could try dark chocolate)
A pinch or two of sea salt
Cook notes:
*Toast your coconut on a parchment lined baking sheet in a 250 degree oven for about 15-25 minutes. You will have to toss the coconut around on the baking sheet a couple times during cooking; this prevents uneven browning. You know the coconut is done when the coconut is a very light golden brown—this is when to take it out of the oven. The coconut gets dark fast! So watch it at the 15 minute mark.
I used mini cupcake pans to make even, round clusters. Use whatever mold you like, just make sure you use liners or non stick spray or even silicone molds since the chocolate might stick to the pan.
If it does stick all you need to do is put the pan in a larger pan of warm/hot water for a few seconds to a minute. This should loosen the bottom a bit and you will be able to lift them out. Do not let it sit in the water too long as they will melt. If you want to decorate tops of clusters with toasted coconut then save a little on the sides.
To make clusters, take cooled toasted coconut and mix with about 11.5 ounces of melted/tempered milk chocolate. Sprinkle a couple small pinches of sea salt. Mix well, then transfer to your molds. Push them down into molds to make even and get out the air. This would be the time to sprinkle the tops of the clusters with the saved toasted coconut, if desired. I did a few, not all. Let cool/harden at room temp then finish setting up in fridge.
Should make about 15 mini cupcake sized clusters. Stores for about a week in air-tight container.
1/2/12
quick and easy chocolate-gingerbread
As in very quick and easy. As in the fastest quick bread I've ever made 'quick & easy'.
But saw these photos sitting in the archives and said "why not post it--someone out there will dig it".
Remember what I did with the gingerbread mix last year? The gingerbread cupcakes with white chocolate ganache frosting? Tres fab.
Did you also know that I made a batch of waffles with this box mix too? Pretty good. No photos on that one. If you do try it, use fresh whipped cream, not syrup--you already knew that didn't you?
Easy peasy. Follow box directions, pour in 1/2 the batter into greased loaf pan, put down as much or as little chocolate as you like, then pour remaining batter on top and bake according to box directions.
12/29/11
friday links AND cookbook giveaway
Let's just get to the good stuff. There's lots of good stuff we need to click on.
Is this not the coolest clock?
I'm a leggings junkie no doubt about that. Have you seen these "Leggings in a Bag"?
Or how about these leggings from Billabong. LOVE!
Super cute dress for summer.
Crazy brownie combo that totally works. Bacon-bourbon brownies. I am so trying that one.
I just love this new 'chalk board paint' craze that's going around. Martha Stewart gives a small tutorial on how to make that fabulous check board like calendar.
Want to make your own chili powder at home? I never thought of doing this, but apparently it is a LOT cheaper. From Nick at Macheesmo
Do you use parchment paper on a daily basis? Here are half-sheet parchment sheets already perfectly sized for you baking sheet. Brilliant!
The latest food craze and I love it. The Meatball Shop in NYC. A place I must go. Have you been there? Even the website is cool. Click on the little meatball slider image in corner! LOL
Dean & Deluca spice rack. It is so pretty but so expensive. I need way more than a rack to hold all my spices.
Are you throwing a party for New Years Eve? Want to learn an inexpensive way? Here are a few smart tips from thekitchn. Don't make a full meal! True.
Peanut butter smores with strawberry marshmallows AND bacon peanut brittle. Irvin is a genius at eatthelove.com
Tips and places to use coupons for organic produce? Right here.
That bow is just fabulous.
Slouchie hats are in. Love or hate?
I'll take this one too. Would be fabulous in a black & white color too.
Dear Sir Richard Branson: please hire me. I will do a fabulous blog post all about your perfect Necker Island. 
Petite indoor gardens. How cute is this?
Can boot trays be made somewhat pretty? Yes they can.
Lately I've been into hats, like this one. Element Thistle hat. How cute is that?
Does your pie crust always shrink? Follow these steps--this is exactly what I do. It works.
I really want a Soda Stream. Talk about saving money on soda. What a great invention.
Extra dark brownies with fresh lime. This is new but I can definitely see why it would work well together.
Chubby Hubby Truffles! From Brown eyed baker. Heavenly.
Just in time for New Years Eve party, Heather makes a champagne mousse.
I do love the mini pie craze that's happening now. I'm all for it!
This is the backsplash I want!
This is how I should be spending my winter, right here.
Argan oil seems to be all the craze lately. Do you use it?
Now this is a fabulous way to display your travel photos. Love love!
Cherry pie shortbread bites from raspberri cupcakes. I have no words, just drool.
Pulled pork empanadas with peach bbq sauce. Clever little baker!
Pepperoni pizza monkey bread! Thanks Shawnda at confections of a foodie bride.
SWEETS ON A STICK is the only cookbook that provides recipes for cakes, cookies, brownies, pies, and candies that are convenient, eye-catching, and a treat to make. You will find everything from cake pops and mini pies to cookies and marshmallow kabobs. From fruity to chocolate, crunchy to smooth, there are dozens of tasty bites to tempt your taste buds.
Parents will encourage kids to play with their food when they get together to create these delicious and decadent desserts, including unique holiday creations such as:
• Coconut Christmas Wreaths
• Abominable Snowman Pops
• Gingerbread Cookie pops
• Christmas Tree Cookies
Whether its cake pops or candied fruit, this book offers a variety of treats to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth. Many of the recipes in this book make the perfect activity for a play date or party. Invite kids of all ages to make, bake, and decorate—then sit back and watch as they laugh and play with the unique results. It’s just plain fun for everyone involved, and with full-color photos and step-by-step instructions, this book is guaranteed fun for the whole family.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment here telling me what kind of "sweets on a stick" you'd like to see.
