Pumpkin Chai Cupcakes: Warm Things I Love

TWO posts in one day? TWO blog worthy baking adventures in ONE day?
I know, I'm making up for my 4 month dryspell away from baking thanks to the MCATs that were not to be. I'm also on a mission to bake as much as I can before I leave for Brussels this week where baking would be somewhat impractical given I should be spending my time eating waffles and chocolates and drinking beer.

Things I adore about these cupcakes:

• The liners which I got from a very very dear friend for  a  the birthday last year. (wait, I only have one birthday per year)
• The chai buttercream, which tasted surprisingly not only like chai, but GOOD considering that I usually hate basic butter+powdered sugar buttercreams.

Seriously, ya'll just gonna have to embrace pumpkin flavors in the heat of summer as the new cool. Haha. See how funny that was? Ok, no. Sorry. My mistake. Pretend I'm speaking like the Doctor a la Matt Smith and I'm totally allowed to blab on and on and on like this. (hand motions too).

Cupcake+frosting recipe from Dessert for Two. Obviously scaled to 2 persons for the blog, but that frosting was so good, I might have to scale it up for my baking partay. I'm also a bit embarrassed to say I even completely copied her piping job too. Imitation is the best form of flattery?
as you may have noticed, I haven't actually commented on how the cake tasted. mainly because I never tried it after all the other sugar I've consumed today. My taste testing minions  friends seemed to enjoy them though!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles: Seasonal Appropriate, Me?

I've been suffering from a case of sniffles. More like sore throat. But sniffles makes it sound much more endearing and cute sick puppy-like. In reality, its more like hey-my-throat-is-dying and I-am-turning-into-the-voice-of-a-smoker. The sudden decision for New Haven to descend into summer humidity tonight is not helpful either.

Being sick tends to make me pine for warm, spiced things. A nice cup of chai tea. A hot tomato basil soup. Ok. Sorry about the stereotypes. Even though its summer, the season of watermelon, lemons, pineapples, grills, ect ect ect, I never get to bake when pumpkin is "seasonally appropriate."

So forgive me for my Fall Deviation foodies (show trial me all you like, but I refuse to admit to any crimes), but here I present Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. The awesome thing about this recipe is that it doesn't require cream of tartar, which seems to be essential in classic Snickerdoodles. Unfortunately, I don't exactly know what else one uses cream of tartar for (tartar sauce...?), so buying cream of tartar just for snickerdoodles when I move at least 2x a year and bake only 2-3 months out of the entire year is useless.
I'm also 99% sure that the girls who I am subletting my apartment for the summer from again (for the second summer in a row) still have the brown sugar I left them from last summer. The only difference was that it became a rock, typical. I must have microwaved that rock for at least 5 minutes in total time, and I still had rocky unyielding pockets of brown sugar in the batter. Whatever, little things don't matter that much Helen my dear.

Recipe was from Seeded at the Table, who got it from Annie's Eats, who got it from Dylan I believe. Not linking out of laziness, but hey, there's at least one link. Though in scientific literature, it would be more proper to cite the original or all of them I suppose.
Notes:

• This recipe makes LOTS of cookies
• You really only need half the recipe of coating.
• I don't get the coated glass jar thing. It was fine just squishing them without the coating. Maybe if some of the sugar coat started coming off.
• Didn't have that many spices, since, you know, college kids flying around ever few months don't carry spice racks in their essential belonging. Just used cinnamon and some absurdly overpriced apple pie spice mix I had for some reason.
• More pictures, less text next time Helen.

Lime Sugar Cookies: A Failure in Pollock

I had grand goals for these cookies. Flushed with new found powers and resources to bake, I set out to make event-worthy commencement cookies with Yale blue "Y"s in the center. Like those cut out sugar cookie rolls you get at the store. However, I failed to remember that I struggle with shapes (Geometry was the one math class I hated). So a short chronicle of awkward failures.

These cookies not only did not look like 'Y's due to my struggle bus in aesthetics  but I don't think there was nearly enough lime flavor OR sugar in these cookies. Thankfully, more sugar fixes everything. But a bit of sugar-milk-lime mixed with dark royal blue splattered Jackson Pollock style seems to have fixed most things. Most.

Lime Sugar Cookie recipe from Naturally Ella. I think her recipe was less sweet due to the generous use of royale icing to decorate. Unfortunately, I've never been a pro at decorating cookies, and I lack the meringue powder or cornstarch needed to make some.

 Till the next recipe failure! Maybe I'll even try to make a better version of these cookies. Probably not. At least not until X-Mas cookie season.

Avocado Mac and Cheese: The Most Delicious Way to Consume Fats

Macaroni and cheese itself is full of those swoon worthy flavors of salty creamy cheesiness (even in powdered form). Add avocado to the mix? I think I died a little and went to foodie heaven tonight. I don't think I could have cooked a happier dinner for myself to celebrate having a kitchen again for the summer.

 Along the way, I also got some new cooking experiences! Since I'm a literal n00b at cooking.

• Minced fresh garlic for the first time. I normally buy the pre-chopped stuff because I used to be scared of chopping garlic, but it was definitely not actually too difficult. There's something strangely satisfying about crushing that tiny clove with the side of a knife.
• Made cheese sauce on the stove top. It was really really surprisingly thick. The sauce was not, well, saucy, and more like moist dough. I was so worried I added MORE milk and butter to the mix, which only marginally helped and just made the entire sauce probably excessively decent, but its ok.
• Cooked chicken breast on the stove top. So not a new experience, but definitely still a scary experience. Sorry, I'm terrified of meats. But it turned out ok too. Probably because it was mixed with the mac and cheese and smoothered in avocado and cheese.

garnishes for the iPhone camera

The recipe was from Two Peas and Their Pod. I made a few changes to the recipe based on items in my kitchen (there is no pepper in this kitchen...I'm serious).

• The use of whole milk is probably not necessary. I used it, because I assumed that all mac and cheese should be as creamy as possibly, but I don't think I would have noticed if I used skim or something.
• Paprika=really delicious addition if you don't have pepper.
• I used whole wheat pasta. I usually hate whole wheat pasta, but since this stuff was so gooey and flavorful, you really don't notice.
• Added in some chicken for extra protein (though the cheese and milk does have protein in it)
• Did I mention the gummy cheese sauce that turned out to work perfectly?

The Pantry- aka hipster foodie adventure

I'm done with classes. I officially only have 1 more year of college. It's definitely starting to become summer here--rainstorms and greenness everything (oh how my definition of summer has changed). Sadly, no post-exams, post-MCAT baking or cooking. Well, not really post-MCAT, because those are to be repeated, but thats a separate story. They say that you shouldn't celebrate life achievements with food for dieting reasons, but hey man, you only have so many meals in your life and you gotta find every reason for them to be decadent every once in a while.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I've been crashing with some friends who have on-campus housing during the commencement period, and today we decided to be like real people and walk 1.7 miles into East Rock to have a typical Sunday Brunch at The Pantry. Sunday Brunch. Sunday Brunch is what I think about when I watch Sex and the City, if I were the type of person to watch Sex and the City. Classy, semi-awkward mixes of savory and sweet at a not-quite late enough time where you won't get hungry before dinner (no matter how much you ate). Maybe a mimosa. If I drank mimosas (to be determined). But asides from holiday meals, Sunday Brunches are defined by decadence and lavishness. Only the best of the best can be dedicated to Sunday Brunch. 

CA Eggs Benedict

I think just these two meager iPhone photos give a pretty clear idea of what decadence means. When I talk about decadence, I by all means only care about the food, as any hipster foodie would. Who cares about the glamour of a Sex in the City brunch when you can have authentic classic old-fashioned brunch in a tiny off the beaten path local classic? Seriously, this place is tiny, but its food is definitely not (oh god, did I really just write that sentence).  

note: I had help with the pancakes. And we only each ate half a pancake in addition to our own Benedicts. Pancakes for dinner anyone?