The Oven Mitt

Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

cobo0521 — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:09:00 +0000

The Girl Scout Cookies are long gone, but that doesn’t mean my cravings for Thin Mints will stop! Luckily, they’re super easy to make and you don’t even have to be guilted into spending $5 a box from little girls flashing their big smiles at you. I will warn you, once these are made, they will be gone immediately. I only got to enjoy about 4 cookies before my visiting family members ate them all.
I guess I’ll have to bake another batch… oh no…

Ingredients for 30-40 cookies:
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 bag of mint & chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350F.
Cream the sugar and butter together.

Add the egg and vanilla to the sugar mixture.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture, until all is combined.

The dough will be quite dry.

Halve the dough and roll two cylinders onto a lightly floured surface.

Now that they’re looking quite unappealing, wrap the cylinders with wax paper, parchment paper or plastic wrap.

Place the cylinders in the freezer for about an hour to harden.
Take one cylinder out of the freezer at a time and use a sharp knife to slice your cookies.
I wasn’t too careful about how thin/thick my cookies were, but if you would like your cookies to be more true to Thin Mint form, definitely cut very thin slices. The thinner you slice, the crunchier they will be.

Since the dough won’t spread much, you can place quite a few cookies on one sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Right before you take the cookies out of the oven, melt the mint chocolate chips.
Take the cookies out and drizzle the melted chocolate on top of the warm cookies.

Place the cookie sheet in the fridge and allow the chocolate covered cookies to firm up, I only had mine in for about 20 minutes before I placed them in my cookie jar.

Enjoy!

Recipe Find! Chocolate Chip Cookies from Kelseys Apple A Day

cobo0521 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:01:41 +0000

As someone that loves to bake and think up new and interesting recipes… there are times where I don’t want to make my same ol’ recipe and am far too lazy to think of a new one. These are the moments I check out my Pinterest boards and bake someone else’s great recipe! I’ve come across some amazing and creative ideas on Pinterest, anyone that doesn’t have an account, I highly recommend it.

On this particular afternoon, I just wanted some chocolate chip cookies. I looked through the rows and rows of what looked like good cookie recipes, but one definitely caught my eye. With a caption like “The fluffiest, chewiest, most amazing chocolate chip cookies–all thanks to a very surprising ingredient!” I knew it had to be good. I was directed to the great blog of Kelseys Apple A Day on Blogspot.

Definitely check out Kelseys Best-Ever Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies! I gave the cookies a shot and they were a hit! I’m pretty sure this is one of my new favorite go-to recipes for chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were chewy and perfect, they were gone within 2 days. I mean, c’mon… look at these beauties…

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
barely adapted from Anna Olson, Food Network Canada

Ingredients:
3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4. Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5. Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes. Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely. Makes approximately 3 dozen. Try not to eat them all.

Strawberry “Carrots” for Easter

cobo0521 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:11:58 +0000

I was visiting my family in Southern California and was thinking of ideas for Easter on the Oven Mitt. You wouldn’t believe who had the best idea, my 13 year old nephew. He said I should dip strawberries into orange chocolate, so they look like carrots… Brilliant!! So, I take no credit in this adorable, yet super easy idea for Easter!
I was in luck, as my local grocery store had just restocked their organic strawberries. They all looked and smelled perfect! It’s definitely that time of year again for some beautiful, red ripe strawberries. For the sake of them looking like carrots, I would recommend grabbing some larger strawberries.

Ingredients:
• Fresh Strawberries
• Orange Candy Melts(I got mine from Michael’s)

Make sure your strawberries are clean and dry. I just rinsed mine off with cool water and patted dry with a paper towel.

Pour the candy melts into a microwave safe container. Set your heat to low, while doing 30 second intervals with the candy melts. Every time you go to reheat, stir the candy melts.

Once the chocolate is melted completely, gather the strawberry stems and gently dip into the chocolate.
Place the dipped strawberries onto a cookie sheet or plate that is lined with parchment paper.

As soon as you’re finished dipping all of the strawberries you want, place them in the fridge to harden.

I left my strawberries in for about an hour and they were perfect, but I continued to store the remaining strawberries in the fridge.
Enjoy!

Quickie: Green Smoothie

cobo0521 — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:36:56 +0000

Now that the weather has been warming up and Spring is just around the corner, the smoothie cravings are definitely kicking in. I have no problem indulging all year round, but something about a warm day with a smoothie in my hand… can’t beat it. I’ve discovered the “green smoothie” craze and was intrigued. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best at eating my vegetables, unless they’re dipped in ranch or part of a salad. Eek!

I’m up for anything that will help me in that department, so I’ve been doing some experimenting with these green smoothies. I usually switch off between baby kale and spinach as my green, then toss in whatever fruit sounds good! I’ve read that a lot of people add juice, yogurt and/or nuts, but I felt that keeping it basic with just the green, fruit, water and ice would be the best way to go. Anywho, I wanted to share one of my favorite green smoothie concoctions with you!

Ingredients:
• 1 banana
• 1 green apple (cored and peeled)
• 1 cup spinach (I usually freeze the spinach before using, it seems to give the smoothie a better texture)
• 2 cups of ice (about 10 ice cubes)
• 1/2 cup water

Just toss everything into your blender and let it go until it’s smooth! I have my blender on the highest speed setting and let it blend for a good 2-3 minutes.

Do you have any favorite smoothie recipes? Green or not, I’d love to hear about them! Have a great day!

Dinners for the Week

cobo0521 — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:37:31 +0000

This week had to be an easier dinner sort of week. I’ll be making the drive from Northern California down to Southern California this Thursday to visit with family and friends! I didn’t want to buy a ton of groceries, just so the boyfriend can get take out every night that I’m gone. So, I ended up going with some easy dinners where I had the majority of the ingredients already.

This week, we’ll be having:
Sunday – Sandwiches of choice
Monday – Homemade mac n’ cheese
Tuesday – Crockpot orange chicken with steamed rice
Wednesday – Breakfast for dinner
Thursday – OUT
Friday – OF
Saturday – TOWN!

Do you dig my artistic skills? My car looks like a turtle… oops.

I’m thinking that I’ll definitely be bringing my camera and notepad along for the trip. I’ll be staying with my parents for 2 nights and my sister for 1 night, one or the other is bound to cook/bake something delicious that will need to be captured for the Oven Mitt!

Homemade Marinara with Penne Pasta

cobo0521 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:22:27 +0000

One of our favorite meals at my parent’s house is my mom’s lasagna. She doesn’t make it often, but when she does… it’s on. Obviously what makes her lasagna so good is her homemade marinara sauce. Even though I watched her make it for years, it never occurred to me that I could make one just as good. Well, I gave it a shot, with my own tweaks and preferences and I must say, I may have enjoyed it a little bit more than my moms! My boyfriend made it clear that we’re never purchasing store bought sauces ever again, as this one took the cake. Now, the beautiful thing about cooking is that there isn’t much measuring going on when it comes to spices. Everyone feels differently about their spices and I encourage everyone to add/subtract whatever they feel will work better for their household. I didn’t measure any of the spices I put into my sauce, I just tasted as I went until it was perfect for me. There are only two of us in my home and we had leftover sauce for an additional two meals. Feel free to half or double this recipe, depending on how many mouths you’re feeding and how much leftovers you want.

Ingredients:
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 15oz. can tomato sauce
• 2 15oz. can tomato puree
• 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 12oz. can tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Basil

To get started, sauté the red pepper flakes and garlic in the olive oil. Try not to breathe in right over the pot, you’ll have a coughing fit… like I did. haha. Also, my mom likes to sauté onions at this part as well, but I’m not a huge fan of onions, so I used onion powder later on instead. You’ll be done once the garlic cloves are soft.

Chop up the garlic cloves and toss them back in the pan.
Brown the ground beef, drain and rinse well. My mom likes to add italian sausage as well, but I only used the ground beef.
Add the beef to the pepper flakes and garlic.

Toss in all of the tomato can contents and spices.
Crunch up the bay leaves and sprinkle them into the pot as well.
While on medium/high heat stir everything well.

Allow the sauce to heat until it just begins to boil, turn down the heat and simmer. I had mine simmering for two hours, while stirring occasionally.
You can test the taste with a piece of bread or getting a spoonful. If you feel it needs anything extra, add whatever will get you your perfect sauce.
I used some gluten free penne pasta. I was surprised that gluten free pasta doesn’t taste any different than regular pasta, definitely going to continue to purchase!

Cook your pasta as indicated on the box and toss with your homemade sauce.
I sprinkled some parmesan flakes on top and served with garlic toast.

Have a good day!

Dinners for the Week

cobo0521 — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:43:24 +0000

I recently purchased a chalk board for the kitchen because I wanted to plan out the dinners for the week, plus it looks pretty damn cute! I would also like to make an effort to post the dinners for the week every week on The Oven Mitt. If a noteworthy dinner is in the works, it will definitely have it’s own post too.

This week, we’ll be having:
Sunday – Fend for yourself night
Monday – Homemade marinara sauce with penne pasta
Tuesday – Crunchy honey chicken with a salad
Wednesday – Turkey burgers with fries
Thursday – Chicken caesar salad
Friday – Burritos
Saturday – Dinner out with my family

Please don’t mind my terrible handwriting. As you can see, I have the penmanship of a serial killer.

Tonight, I will definitely be taking photos of the marinara sauce in action. It’s mostly my mum’s recipe, with some of my own tweaks.

My parents and little sister will be coming up to visit this weekend, so there won’t be much cooking going on. We’ll be having some amazing pasta at La Strada in downtown Palo Alto on Saturday night. Then on Sunday, we’ll be enjoying an amazing dinner at Fog Harbor Fish House in San Francisco. Yes, we have it all planned out because we want to make sure the parents eat well while they visit.

If you have any amazing dinners that are a staple in your home, please let me know about it! I’m always up for trying new dinners. Have a great week!

Where the Magic Happens

cobo0521 — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:42:57 +0000

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. My boyfriend received an awesome job offer and we drove up here January 1st, 2013. Heck of a way to start the new year! We were in corporate housing for a month and used that time to look for a house to rent. After countless viewing appointments and applications, we found the perfect house! Not only is it exactly what we were looking for, but it’s below our original budget!

We’ve been scrambling the past two weeks to get settled in and have very few boxes lying around at this point. I’m happy to say that it’s really starting to feel like home. I would love to give a home tour soon, but we’re still purchasing furniture and clearing out the last of the clutter. Once everything is all set, I’ll go picture crazy! You can see a lot of the pictures I post in my personal life on my Instagram account: Cobo521.

I wanted to give a little behind the scenes look at where my baking/cooking magic happens, the most important room in the house… The Kitchen.

Not that I could really complain, but there is a ton of natural lighting coming through and it will be quite obvious in the photos. I tried to take down the exposure a bit, but only so much can be done.

As you can see, I really like plants! My favorite part of this kitchen is definitely where the sink/island is. There’s a huge window that brings in so much light, making everything feel so open. Towards the back corner, you can see my “bread basket” which is literally a random basket I found with a green bow wrapped around it, some bananas, my Kitchenaid mixer and some cookies (of course)! Along the window sill, I have some candles, toothpick and some plants.

Here’s the other side of the stove, where the fridge and coffee goods sits. It’s a bit hard to see with the dark backsplash, but we have a Keurig coffee machine, which is amazing! Plus, our little coffee pod carousel, my favorite is the Starbucks Sumatra and pretty much all of the teas.

This is our “stuff” corner. My owl salt/pepper shakers, words cannot describe how much I love them. Then you’ll see a white board, where my boyfriend and I write sweet nothings to each other or to-do lists. Have some coupons attached to the board as well. In the giant goblet, there’s a bunch of pens and little odds and ends that we may need. The little notepad wedged in between is where I write down grocery lists, recipes, etc. The plastic container is our puppies food, she’s hardly a puppy anymore, she’ll be one year old in April! The white boxes are for mail organization, otherwise there would be paper and mail all over the counter.

Anywho, this probably wasn’t as exciting of a post as I thought it would be, but at least you can see where I bake for you! St. Patrick’s Day and Easter are coming up, so I’ll be getting some recipes up for those holidays as they come. I’m thinking some treats with alcohol will be essential for St. Patrick’s Day! A carrot cake will definitely be in order for Easter as well. I hope everyone is having a great day!

Chocolate Spice Cake

cobo0521 — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:50:47 +0000

When it comes to Valentine’s Day treats, it’s always something red. Red cake, red brownies, red cookies, red candies. Here’s a cake that is perfect for your Valentine and it’s not even red! A decadent, dense chocolate cake with some spice! Nothing better to top this cake off with, then some homemade whipped cream. This recipe is for a smaller cake, it’s only one layer from a 9″ square pan. Much more intimate, don’t you think?

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup hot coffee
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 350F.
Cream the butter and sugar.

In a separate cup/bowl, stir the cocoa powder into the hot coffee and set aside to cool (even though it will smell incredible and you’ll want to drink it up!).

Add the eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time.
Then add the milk and vanilla extract until all ingredients are smooth.
In a separate bowl, mix all remaining dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg).
Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the cocoa coffee mixture into the butter batter, until all ingredients are well combined.

Pour the batter into a greased 9″ square pan and cook for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow cake to cool before decorating with the whipped cream.

Ingredients for the whipped cream:
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tbs. confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Whipped cream is super easy to make, just beat all of these ingredients together on high speed until you have soft peaks forming.

Once the cake is nice and cool, you can decorate your cake however you want. I smoothed the whipped cream over the whole of the cake and added some flair to the edges. I finished off with some cinnamon drops for a little bit of Valentine’s Day red. Share this cake with your love, friends or family!

Red Velvet Brownies

cobo0521 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:44:30 +0000

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching!… So quick, in fact, that I almost forgot about it. Oops. Thankfully, my good friend Mandey from MamaMandolen.com reminded me and even suggested we do some collaboration. Well, collaborating is what we did! I’d say we’re a great team, as we created an awesome Valentine’s spread with my baking and her craftiness. I decided to make some red velvet brownies, nothing says love like red and chocolate.

Ingredients for 9″x13″ baking pan:
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 tbs. red food coloring (if desired)
• 1 bag of dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Beat the vegetable oil and sugar on medium speed for about a minute.

Add the vanilla extract and eggs to the sugar mixture, one at a time until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powered, salt, coca powder).

Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture until all is well blended.
Mix the vinegar and red food coloring in a small dish and pour into the brownie mixture and blend well.

Add some chocolate chips and/or nuts and stir until well combined.
Pour the brownie mixture into a greased 9″x13″ baking pan and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges start to pull away from the pan.

Out will come a moist brownie with a crumbly top crust.

Mandey was sweet enough to let me use her beautiful home for a backdrop and she decorated the table and brownies with tons of adorable handmade Valentine goodies. She even included some pink milk! If you’d like to learn more about Mandey’s crafts, home, beautiful twin boys and more, you won’t be disappointed in checking out her blog, MamaMandolin.com!