Summer Fun In A S'mores Cookie

These were just perfect! Fun to make, and to eat!
Check out the recipe here.

Day Two And They Still Love Me

So today was the second official day of summer vacation, and it went much better than the first. Catching up on laundry on a hot day, apparently, is not stimulating enough for my kids. Who woulda thunk? So today we hit our local pool. For the entire afternoon. Ahhh, now that's better. Happy, chlorinated kids.

You see, neither my 11-year-old son, nor my 9-year-old daughter wanted camp this summer. So it was with not a little bit of trepidation that I undertook the challenge of . . . being with my kids all summer. Now, many of you in different parts of the country may say, "So?" But 'round these parts, kids that age are very commonly shipped off on large air-conditioned coach buses to sleepaway camps with names that take me back to my 7th grade Social Studies segment on Lewis and Clark. It's pretty rare for kids around here to just hang with Mom. For those who don't leave for sleepaway, there are countless (and I really mean that) day camps, half-day camps, theater programs, sailing programs, music programs, crafts classes. You name it, it's within a half hour drive from my house. Really. As luck would have it, not one of those things appealed to my two. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But, my new-found job as summer coordinator was sort of what got me thinking that I could perhaps blog about our summer together. I can't guarantee in even the slightest way that this will make for exciting blog fodder. But at least I can look back at the end of the summer, and rather than ask wistfully, "Where did the summer go?" I can state, "Look at what we did this summer!"

Tomorrow we're running just a couple of errands, and making S'mores Cookies, and then D has a baseball game. The weather could not be better, and summer is off to a rockin' start. But, really. Let's see how Day Three goes.

27 Outs in Brooklyn

We braved the Belt Parkway to see a Brooklyn Cyclones game a few nights ago, and (pardon the pun) what a hit! The smaller park means you see the players really close, cool plays were made that you don't always see on TV, and there was Carvel to boot. So we were all happy. And when the sun went down, and all the lights from Coney Island came up, it was a pretty sight to see. We'll definitely do it again. Go Cyclones!

Dare I say . . . perfection? I do.

I have finally perfected my cupcakes. This is a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream icing. Glistening in the sun before being gobbled up at a good pal of my son's going away party. The key: do not overbake! Cupcakes are not meant to be golden in any way on top. If they are, they will be dry. My oven, I have learned, has required me to rotate, rotate, and rotate. If I don't, I will have scorched bottoms, burned rims, and a smell of burnt cake in my kitchen for the day. But to bite into a moist, butter-y, creamy cupcake with just the right amount of frosting mixing in your mouth, is one of those happy things I can't live without - once in a while, that is!

Here's the recipe I use for the cupcakes. One bowl, 5 minutes. The best.
Old Fashioned Cupcakes from Cheryl Day, via foodnetwork.com
1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.

Combine in a bowl both flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed until combined for about 3 minutes. Add in cubed butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

Add eggs 1 at a time until combined. Slowly add milk and vanilla to batter until completely mixed scraping down the bowl as you mix.

Scoop batter into baking cups filling about 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Cool and frost.

And here's the frosting, barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Instant Fudge Frosting, but I left out the chocolate (which is very good, I just didn't have any unsweetened chocolate left)
3 sticks butter, softened
6 cups confectioner's sugar
6 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp vanilla

Everything in a large bowl. With a hand mixer, slowly incorporate the sugar into the mixture, then beat at highest speed until smooth and creamy. Use a pastry bag to frost cupcakes. Keep them cool.

Summertime Means Baseball

This is my 2nd baseman at tonight's game, getting ready to make the out. But really the hardest part about having a kid on travel baseball, is getting to the games with lousy directions. Talk about a recipe that's impossible to follow! We all got there, though, and enjoyed some ball park fare. I think it's going to be a great summer . . .

My First Recipe

I've never made anything that wasn't someone else's recipe. Especially in baking. I'm too scared to make any adjustments, for fear that it'll be a flop - and a waste of perfectly good butter, eggs and sugar. But yesterday I fiddled. I wanted to make an apricot almond cobbler, but the friend I was making it for felt that was too heavy - with the ice cream and all - for the occasion she was hosting, so she requested bars. Hmmm. I set to work. Well, I found an amazing looking Austrian Shortbread Recipe, and adapted that. I added almond paste to the dough. My husband's not big on the crunch of nuts, and even though my trusted friend, Lisi, told me not to mess with dough, I did. I needed to use that $7 tube of almond paste. So, here's the recipe. I think it's officially mine, since I changed 3 vital elements of the original recipe. People at the party flipped for these. The lemon and apricot flavors were just a step above the mild almond base in the dough, and the texture just sang in our mouths.


"Graduation Bars" or "Rachel's Almond Apricot Bars"

7 oz almond paste
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon zest

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups apricot preserves, slightly heated and whisked, then brought to room temp.
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

In an electric mixer, with paddle attachment, mix almond paste and sugar on lowest speed for about a minute. Place a towel over mixer (to avoid bits flying out) and increase speed just a bit. After a few minutes, check to see that most of the paste has been incorporated with the sugar. Small beads of paste are okay.
At lowest speed, add the butter by tablespoonfuls, then increase to medium speed and beat until creamy and fluffy (about 4 mins). Add the egg yolks and mix well. Scrape down bowl. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and mix well.
Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the butter mixture and mix just until incorporated and the dough starts to come together. With the spatula, fold the dough over by hand to finish incorporating any remaining bits of flour, and bring the dough to its final stage. Spoon the dough out onto sheets of plastic wrap, to form two logs. Freeze at least 2 hours or overnight.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Remove one log of dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it by hand or with the grating disk in a food processor into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking pan. Make sure the surface is covered evenly with shreds of dough.
With a piping bag with a wide tip or a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off, squeeze the jam over the surface as evenly as possible, to within 1/2 inch of the edge all the way around. Remove the remaining dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it over the entire surface.
Bake until lightly golden brown and the center no longer wiggles, 50 to 60 minutes. As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Cool on a wire rack, then chill in fridge for about an hour before cutting into squares.

Stay Sweet

With all the end-of-year festivities, I had to cram in one more: Took Mel and 2 friends to Gail's for lunch. With a wall of candy behind you, the day's got to be good!