Brittany's Epic Christmas Cookie and Dessert Round-Up

So pretty much everyone knows the best part about Christmas is the cookies, right? Well, okay, I'm willing to concede non-cookie desserts are pretty good too. But Christmas cookies are probably the most important part of the holiday tradition to me, and it doesn't really feel like the holidays until I've gotten myself covered in flour in the pursuit of deliciousness. (It's also one of my three acceptable use cases for Christmas music.)


Last year, I had just moved to Australia and had only made a couple of friends to date. I didn't start work until January, so I had a lot of time on my hands. It was also my first Christmas ever away from home, which was a mixed bag of emotions. Since I'm totally good at processing feelings and shit, I squished all those to the side and buried them in mounds and mounds of Christmas cookies. I seriously made an absurd amount of Christmas cookies for someone who only knew about 5 people in the entire continent she was on. The Boy and I ate a tremendous number. I took about a third to his family. We froze another third and ate on them for months. I think I even ended up throwing out some when I moved house in April.

This year, I still have a bunch of time on my hands because I don't start my new job until January, but I also have a wonderful big group of friends and am psyched to be hosting my first ever Christmas Day at my own home. (I have a giant ham and a wafflemaker. BRING IT ON, CHRISTMAS.) I also run a nerdy social group in Sydney (because of course I do), so I decided to have a giant cookie-making party with those fine folks. So without further ado, may I present...

BRITTANY'S EPIC DAY OF COOKIE MADNESS!

The tastiest of all the task lists.

Fancy Foodie Friday: Macarons, Part 1 (Macaron d'Amiens)

Feel like a treat after a long week? Splurge on a special ingredient? In the mood to spend a little longer in the kitchen? Got a hot date to impress with your culinary prowess? Check out the recipes in our ongoing Fancy Foodie Fridays series. These recipes might be a little too complex, time-consuming, or expensive for the every day, but are a nice challenge or treat for a fancy evening in. 
  
So I'm currently taking a bit of time off of work until my new job starts and my visa transfer escapes bureaucratic purgatory. While I'm (f)unemployed, one of my plans for the downtime had been to learn lots of new things. I'm learning to play the ukulele. I took an awesome sailing class. I even painted a painting that didn't totally suck!

Although that hill behind the bird is the grave mound of his misshapen brother who had to be eaten by the earth and replaced by a less terrible bird for it to reach that stage.

Last week, I took an awesome macaron-making class at the Paris International Cooking School in Sydney. It was an intro class/demo, and we rushed through making 5 different styles of macarons in just a couple of hours, did some generous sampling, and then got to take home a box of our creations. (Side note to my Sydney friends: I'll probably go back for one of their longer weekend workshops early next year--let me know if you're interested in joining me!)

Testing the consistency of the meringue in class.

I've never attempted macarons before, because I've heard they're very finicky, but after this class, I've undertaken the adventure. I thought I'd do a short series on my adventures.

I thought I'd start with the easiest and least finicky macaron I learned, Macaron d'Amiens. These macarons are the regional variety from Amiens, a small city in the Picardy region in northern France. They're apparently not very popular or well-known outside of the region, which is unfortunate because they are delicious. They're a super chewy, heavier honey and apricot macaron. Serious amounts of yum.

Homemade Yogurt

Confession: around the time Brittany created this brilliant blog, I developed some serious stomach/nausea issues. Thus, I have been unable to cook for the past few months (unless you consider cooking to be combining a can of condensed soup with water in the microwave, then hey! I've become a pro at that!). This recipe is for creating homemade yogurt, something I had been doing on a monthly basis.

So although I didn't make something specifically for this first blog post, I’m still excited to share this with you because it’s been a part of my repertoire for a very long time. Sadly, I only have a few photos of the yogurt-making process to share (and apologies in advance to Facebook/Instagram friends…you've probably seen these photos before!) My fingers are crossed that by my next post, things will have resolved and I will have something new (with way more awesome pictures) to share.

So why make your own yogurt? Because it’s insanely easy and tastes about a million times better than the store bought stuff. And (ok, here’s my real reason) making it yourself is cheaper than buying it pre-made. Even when I use organic, grass-fed, local milk it is still cheaper, per quart, than the generic brand stuff available at Wal-Mart. For a family like mine, that loves its yogurt, that money saved can make a difference in the grocery bill.

Modification Monday: In Search of Fond Memories

You know when you start with one recipe and then end up with something totally different? Or start with a vision in your head they you can’t find a recipe for, so you find 3 or 4 recipes that are sort of similar and awkwardly mash them together, with a bit of your own flare? Or have to adapt well-loved favorites to new dietary restrictions? Or look at old stand-bys and think: “This should totally have bacon. Or tomatoes. Or bourbon.”? Yeah, the Modification Mondays series is for you. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to follow our recipes either.

So I love Italian wedding soup. Specifically I love Knox’s* version of Italian wedding soup, which I’m sure is nothing special. It probably comes out of a can, but I love it so much. Italian wedding soup days meant nothing but Italian wedding soup, didn’t matter what was on the dessert bar; nothing would adulterate that delicious soup. Well maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but I usually had two bowls so that didn’t leave a lot of room for anything else. So I was pretty excited to find this in my Crockpot cookbook.

*Knox is a college.

Fancy Foodie Friday: Thyme Steak with Lemon Ginger Potatoes and Carrots

Feel like a treat after a long week? Splurge on a special ingredient? In the mood to spend a little longer in the kitchen? Got a hot date to impress with your culinary prowess? Check out the recipes in our ongoing Fancy Foodie Fridays series. These recipes might be a little too complex, time-consuming, or expensive for the every day, but are a nice challenge or treat for a fancy evening in. This is the second installment in the series.

It took a fun, creative sous chef to turn an eat-to-live girl into a food lover. I told my boyfriend Doug about this project, and he was instantly ready to create a delicious dish. Honestly, anytime we take the time to make dinner, it's amazing. The first bite is always an explosion of tastiness that makes me instantly happy and more in love.

This meal is no exception.

This dish presented some new flavor combinations that I personally never tasted before. The carrots are interesting in that they have the vinegar flavor, but not the bite. After the honey is added, the finished product has such a unique flavor that you'll either really enjoy it or not like it at all. The lemon ginger coconut oil that he's been cooking with is a perfect harmony of lemon, ginger, and coconut. We've even thrown it in when cooking rice, and it makes it 10x tastier.

Recipe, cooking, and cooking terms brought to you by Doug Sprous, Sous Chef (my main inspiration to expand my palate and learn how to cook properly).

Apple-y Goodness: Apple Cider Baked Chicken

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

I.

LOVE.

Apples.

I think part of it stems (yes, pun intended) from growing up in Upstate New York. We lived a half mile from an apple orchard; every fall, my folks would take me and my brother apple picking. Homemade applesauce was mum’s specialty - and it was PINK, which makes it all the better. Having moved to the midwest, I realized I’m extraordinarily picky about my apples...and I can’t get a good macintosh apple (insert obligatory computer joke here) out here to save my life.

Needless to say, when Zac and I were surfing through my pintrest board of “ooh, that looks tasty and I want to try that sometime” recipes and his eyes lit on the Apple Cider Baked Chicken, I was more than ready to write the grocery list!

And it’s a pretty simple grocery list at that. Some chicken legs, potatoes, onions, lemons, apples, apple cider, and mushrooms, plus some pantry staples like olive oil and salt and pepper and bay leaves. All in all, it’s a pretty inexpensive and uncomplicated grocery list, requirements for just about any recipe I’m going to try!

The only tricky bit to this recipe is the planning ahead component. For all that I love planning ahead when it comes to Things I’m Doing and People I’m Hanging Out With, Zac and I are reeeeeeally terrible at forseeing anything beyond “what am I hungry for right now?”

Fortunately, the only planning ahead this recipe calls for is measuring and dumping things into a giant ziplock bag! The night before (or in our case, the morning of) you just gotta put the onion, lemons, apple cider, olive oil, thyme, apple cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper and chicken legs in the ziplock bag and let it marinate till it’s time to cook.

What’s nice is that once you’ve done that work in the morning, all that’s left to do when you’re actually cooking is chop up the potatoes and apples (and mushrooms if you want to add those to the recipe!), dump everything in a cast iron skillet or casserole dish and stick it in the oven for an hour and change.

And then you get this sort of tasty deliciousness that is full of apple-y goodness:

And since we had more cider than the recipe called for, of COURSE our drink for the night was apple cider spiked with honey whiskey!

So here you go! Next time you’ve got a hankering for something delicious with apples and cider, we’ve got you covered :)

Modification Mondays: Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

You know when you start with one recipe and then end up with something totally different? Or start with a vision in your head they you can’t find a recipe for, so you find 3 or 4 recipes that are sort of similar and awkwardly mash them together, with a bit of your own flare? Or have to adapt well-loved favorites to new dietary restrictions? Or look at old stand-bys and think: “This should totally have bacon. Or tomatoes. Or bourbon.”? Yeah, the Modification Mondays series is for you. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to follow our recipes either. This is the first post in the series.

Greetings, fellow eaters, creators, and lovers of food. For this, my first post here, I will be sharing my all-time favorite classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, plus a new (and healthy?!) twist. [ETA: Two twists! Read to the end!]

Behold, the recipe:

This, dear friends, was clipped out of some forgotten newspaper or magazine by my mother before I was even born. This piece of paper was printed when the Berlin Wall was still a thing. It also contains what I am convinced is the greatest chocolate chip cookie recipe known to man.

(It should be noted, however, that it also makes the largest chocolate chip cookie recipe known to man. I always halve it and still end up giving cookies away.)

Fancy Foodie Friday: Roasted Cauliflower, Sirloin Tip Roast, and Caramelized Onion Pasta

Feel like a treat after a long week? Splurge on a special ingredient? In the mood to spend a little longer in the kitchen? Got a hot date to impress with your culinary prowess? Check out the recipes in our ongoing Fancy Foodie Fridays series. These recipes might be a little too complex, time-consuming, or expensive for the every day, but are a nice challenge or treat for a fancy evening in. This is the first post in the series.


I’m a big fan of cooler weather. Many of the things I like best in life (soup, hot tea, fuzzy blankets, fuzzy socks, a lit fireplace, etc.) are best-suited to cooler weather. It’s also the perfect time of year for roasting. I live in Buffalo, NY, and this week is the first week it’s gotten nice and cold, so I’m celebrating by turning on the oven!

Roasting is my favorite way to prepare vegetables. It’s well-suited to my favorite veggies, which tend be the roots—cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, parsnips—but I’ve also found it works well for things like broccoli and asparagus. Asparagus especially gets these delicious crispy tips and turns very nutty in taste. Denser veggies like carrots or rutabagas take longer.

Pumpkin Pie for Breakfast: All Those Others Were Imposters Edition

So I didn't really have any intent to do an immediate follow-up to yesterday's post, but HOLD THE PHONE, I JUST MADE THE MOST DELICIOUS BREAKFAST EVER. And I had to share immediately. As in, I'm still eating it as I type this post.

I had a flash of inspiration this morning as I was getting ready to make a Pumpkin Breakfast Mug. I didn't feel like oatmeal, but I did feel like pumpkin pie for breakfast. (Let's be real, though, when don't I?) And I remembered a few years ago when I was having a pancake breakfast, but had a co-worker with a gluten allergy coming. My general approach to cooking gluten-free is to just make things that don't have gluten in them naturally rather than fuss around with flour substitutes.

So I found this recipe for bananacakes (I'd link it, but can't find it at the moment) that just had a mashed banana, scope of almond butter, and an egg. The texture was a little glomy, but they were delicious! They're my go-to for gluten-free breakfasts for friends, and I eat them myself all the time, despite loving gluten and its happy puffy formation in my baked goods.

Anyway, my flash of inspiration was to make this recipe with pumpkin instead. And OH, MY GOODNESS, I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THE DELICIOUS. Be careful with this one, folks--you may never want to eat anything else ever again.

Welcome! + Pumpkin Pie for Breakfast

Welcome to the launch of Until We Meat Again, a collaborative food project. To learn more about us, click here. To learn more about my desire to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast every day, keep reading...

So last week was American Thanksgiving. Even though I don't currently live in America, I do love any excuse to make a tremendous amount of food and foist it on guests until they beg for mercy. (You can take the girl outta the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest outta the girl....) So I threw a big feast for some friends here, although I did give a nod to the fact that roasting meat is completely weather-inappropriate for Sydney in November and did my turkey on the barbeque!

Feast! Also: Photo-bombed by of jack-o-lantern.

But everyone knows the real meaning of Thanksgiving is having an excuse to eat endless amount of pie. (These people know what I'm talking about.) And every year, I set out on a brave experiment to challenge the assumption that woman cannot live on pie alone. And every year, I eventually am thwarted by three silly factors:

• I run out of pie. 
• I am too lazy to make more pie. 
• I finally admit to myself that eating that much sugar, particularly for breakfast, starts to make me feel a bit ill. Because apparently, I'm old now.

Then I get a little heart-broken that I can't eat pumpkin pie for breakfast every day. Why, cruel world, why?

Pumpkin Pie: The Best Breakfast Pie. Seriously, just look at it. I want that in my belly NOW.
Oh, wait, I already put all that in my belly, which is why there is no more of it.

So this year, I decided to fight back. I was inspired to turn my love of pumpkin pie into a breakfast food appropriate for everyday breakfast.