her baking & his cooking

she bakes. he cooks. we eat.

her: banana cream pie

i’ve made this dessert approximately 7 times since the 4th of july.  i don’t really want to make anything else and i kind of want to eat a whole pie by myself.  it’s a super basic recipe that’s kicked up a notch with the bruléed bananas. the pastry cream needs to cool in the refrigerator for a few hours, so give yourself some prep time and start this in the morning or the night before.  now, promise me, pinky promise me, that you will never ever ever make banana cream pie with banana pudding and cool whip again. seriously. promise me. 

bruléed banana cream pie

inspired by: glorious treats and cupcakes & cashmere

<3 

His: Fresh Pasta and Sauce

I love a good pasta dish and it’s pretty cheap and easy to make. Really Really.

Pasta:

2 eggs for every 1 cup of flour. Sprinkle some salt and a quick splash of olive oil and then mix it up. You can use a fork or your hand. Either way is fine. 

A good tip is to let the dough rest once it has formed for about 20-30 minutes.

If you don’t have a pasta roller, no worries. Use a wooden roller or perhaps a wine bottle to roll out the dough to a desired thickness. Be sure to constantly flour the roller and the pasta. Once rolled, fold it over itself a few times and then chop it to the desire noodle width.

Drop it in seasoned boiling water for about 2 minutes and you’re good to go!

Check this out. This is how easy it is to make a classic tomato sauce.

Sauce:

Take a can of crushed tomatoes and heat it up in a pan. Add salt and pepper and voila. It’s really that simple! 

The cost of that whole meal is probably $1.50 a serving. Seriously.

I just took the sauce up one level and added some things like italian sausage, basil, oregano (nothing wrong with the dried stuff), garlic, shallot, and fresh heirloom grape tomatoes. I cooked the sausage first and rendered some of the fat from it. Then continued to put in my chopped garlic and shallot and tomato. Caramelized those real quick and tossed in the oregano. Then tossed in the crushed tomatoes and added the chopped fresh basil and let that simmer for about 5-7 minutes. 

Topped it with a fresh mozzarella slice and had myself and delicious meal!

Try it! It’s easy and tasty and sure to impress!

-‘til the next dish

His: Rosemary & Fig grilled chicken wings

Mmm mmm mmm! The summer time is always such a great time to be cooking, especially in Washington (I feel that the vitamin D boosts everybody’s energy for sure). I also get to take more advantage of the grill even though I grill year round, but in the summer I’m not fighting with mamma nature. Grills are so versatile and bring out such great flavor and depth to food that otherwise go unnoticed when it’s just covered up and sitting in the corner.

Which brings me to this dish. Pretty simple as usual. Check it out.

It’s just grilled wings!

I took some whole chicken wings. Lightly coated them in olive oil (so that they didn’t stick to the grill) and just placed them with the wing tip DOWN. The reason for this is so that it cooks evenly since it’s the whole wing and it has time cook all the way to the bone.

While this was happening, I previously took a stick of butter and let it come to room temperature. Once it was soft, I just took two tablespoons of fig jam and fresh rosemary leaves (which I gave a rough chop) and mixed it all together. I then put the butter mixture and put it in the middle of a sizable piece of plastic wrap and then rolled it tightly back into shape and put it back in the fridge.

That’s all. Then I waited a bit.

Once the wings were cooked, I placed them into a large bowl. I cut the butter into little cube chunks and then tossed the hot wings around in the butter and used the heat to melt the butter down and coat them. Once coated, I then placed the wings with the tip UP back onto the grill to give it the sweet grill marks and let the butter crisp up the skin. Took them out and then had a feast! 

Rosemary and fig is such a great combo! Sometimes it’s best to just try and come up with interesting ways to use what you have lying around already because you’ll either

1. Learn unique and tasty flavor combos

or

2. Learn unique and un-tasty flavor combos

Try it out!

-‘til the next dish 

our: life, lately

every time i start to blog, i think, ugh. we kinda suck at this whole blogging thing.  but, in all actuality, i’m okay with our blogging stats.  we’ve been enjoying life, soaking up the sun, and hanging out with friends and fam.  i’m an instagram whore, so i’m always posting pics… but, i want to make sure that we’re not living life to blog it.  we have been baking & cooking a bunch lately, so we do have some new goodies coming up but for now… here are some snap shots of life, lately.  

  1. getting fancy for a wedding
  2. bahn mi dinner dates
  3. tini loves the sunshine too
  4. beer, baseball, and garlic fries
  5. evening stroll at the dock street marina 
  6. korean bbq forthemuthafuckinwin
  7. gig harbor for the day
  8. froyo. yolo. 
  9. loving the 10thingsihateaboutyou view
  10. best. stuff. ever.
  11. taco truck tastiness

that’s all for now. hope ya’ll are havin’ a blasty blast of a summer.

<3

her: 1st layer cake

i made my 1st layer cake! it was just as exciting as the 1st time i made pie from scratch.  except it was stressful. so stinkin’ stressful. y’all, there is a good reason why there is no picture of the inside of this cake.  1. i was too scared to look at the inside after i cut it and 2. there is a LOOOOOT of buttercream on this cake. by a LOOOOOT, i mean a LOOOOT a LOOOOOOT. 

lol, it’s not as easy as it looks to cut cake layers , keep them even, crumb coat the whole thing and then lather on the final “pretty” layer.  it’s actually a work of art. 

i’ll get it down, eventually. this time, i was just happy that it looked bomb.com (on the outside) and BONUS POINTS: it tasted fab! yay! 

i bought some fun 6” pans, so i can’t wait to make cute, super tall cakes.  

ps. this is a chocolate cake with kahlua buttercream.  basically, these cupcakes. but as a cake.  next time, i’m going to add strawberries to the layers. yum.

<3

her: ice box cookie cake

lawdhavemercy. this cake.  it’s pretty much out of this world.  and… shhhh, don’t tell. but it can totally be super semi-homemade if you’re short on time. and no one will have to know.  i baked a bazillion batches of cookies for this thing.  but you could totally pick up your favorite box of chewy cookies from the grocery store and whip this thing up in no time at all. 

the cookies are layered with a heavenly mix of whipped cream and mascarpone cheese. whipped together until it’s super light & fluffy with medium peaks.  there is just a little bit of tanginess that works really well with the cookies.  start layering and then leave it in the “ice box” overnight so that all of those wonderful flavors can blend together. 

leaving it in the ice box, makes it possible to cut through all of the layers like a regular cake! yummm. add some fresh whipped cream and a few chocolate shavings, for garnish. then try not to eat the whole thing. by yourself. 

recipe source: martha stewart

<3

our: (forgotten) weekly dinner menu

remember that one time, i said that we were going to create a weekly dinner menu? and then post all the pics?  oh right, me too. expect, we didn’t actually do that? ugh. blogging fail (x232902).  apologies for the wait. we did make dinner that week. and it was sooooo good. we felt better. we stayed on track with our budget. and it was nice to be back in the kitchen with some consistency. 

then, my family came into town. YAY FOR FAMILY! and it’s been the best thing since sliced bread.  they’re thee best. and they’ve been spoiling us.  we haven’t had to cook anything since the end of may.  it’s been glorious.  so, maybe we should have started this cooking plan at the end of june. 

anyways. here’s our culinary journey from that week… forever ago.  

monday: tostadas salsa verde

tuesday: ratatouille with white beans

wednesday: parmesan chicken with green beans & petite reds

thursday: garam masala chicken stew with peas & potatoes 

friday: braised chicken with mushrooms & polenta

thanks for being you and thanks for being awesome. 

<3 

our: weekly menu

we’re getting back to it, folks.  cooking at home.  saving money. and eating right.  the boy likes to get caught up in fad diets. those aren’t really my favorite.  i like food too much for all that paleo-i’m only allowed to eat sticks-diet nonsense.  but, i’m totally down for making healthy choices and  tasty dishes.  

on sunday, we went through a few of our favorite cookbooks & magazines and put together a weekly menu.  

the plan to is to post the weekly menu on sundays and post dinner & recipes throughout the week.  hopefully it works out that way.  *fingers*crossed*

cookbooks/magazines:

happy monday! 

<3

her: lemon & poppy seed mini cupcakes

the little one turned 14 this weekend.  14. it blows my mind how grown up he is.  makes me sad & happy all at the same time.  he’s one of my most favorite people in the whole wide world.  so when he asked for lemon & poppy seed cupcakes for his birthday… duh, i made it happen. 

ps. what kid asks for lemon & poppy seed cake for their birthday? this kid does. oh, franco.

the cake was delish. light, fresh & zesty. perfect for a hot, sunny, PNW day!  

cheers to the little one’s 14th year of life! 

recipe source: always with butter

ps. happy mother’s day to all the mommas out there! 

<3