What's cookin' in the kitchen

Image via Mary Ruffle

Gooood morning, moppets!

It's Wednesday! Normally I'd feel much more along the lines of "booo, it's Wednesday - blah" but since it's sunny, 66 degrees, and B has off on Friday (making today his Thursday), I'm definitely more in the "yay, it's Wednesday!" spirit today.

Most normal people would be excited to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, but for some reason all I want to do is bake today. Backwards, I know - welcome to my world. I probably won't actually do any baking - more like I'll just watch something on the Food Network to supplement my craving :) - but maybe I'll get ambitious and make something later this week. I figured I could at least share the in-the-meantime food inspiration with you all, and maybe one of you would actually do the baking in lieu of me. (And if anyone wants to share slash send me baked goods, feel free!) :)

Here are some of the recipes that have piqued my interest lately:

Tomato tart.

Photo from Herbavoracious

This one is actually seasonally appropriate (see? some things I do make sense...sometimes), as tomatoes are just starting to really pop up around here. I'm aiming to buy some amazing heirloom yellow and red tomatoes from Whole Foods (sadly, no farmers markets open here yet) instead of the mealy putrid pinkish ones my nearby Giant always has. It makes the tart just that much more pretty.

I found the recipe for this on the Martha Stewart website ages ago (here) and gave it to my mom to try for a pot-luck; she made it perfectly the first time and it was a huge hit at the party. My friend Sara made it shortly thereafter and hers was delicious too. Of course I then gave it a try and it was an utter disaster. Oy.

My mom has since gifted me with a proper tart pan (rather than an old, thick Pyrex dish), so hopefully it will be better on my second go-round. The tart (when made by anyone but me, evidently) is so, so good, and so, so easy. Mmm, I'm getting excited just thinking about it (too bad B doesn't actually like tomatoes - oops!).

Photo from Martha Stewart (the photo doesn't look so hot, but I assure you it is incredible)

Chocolate chip cookies.

Photo from Martha Stewart

I wouldn't usually think to make choc. chip cookies (maybe because if they're in my house, I will eat approximately 2,192 of them a day), but Jordan from Oh Happy Day posted about "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe from America's Test Kitchen and my mouth started watering immediately. Yumm. (Again, too bad B doesn't share my love of choc. chip cookies - he's more of an oatmeal raisin cookie guy. Booo!) The ATK recipe looks really easy to follow (step-by-step pics and all), so maybe I'll give it a shot.

I''ll definitely continue to use my grandmother's secret of refrigerating the dough before baking it though - it works like a charm. (Choc. chip cookies are one recipe I can do.)

Chocolate croissants.

Photo from Paisley Petunia

Okay, so this one isn't actually baking because it comes frozen from Trader Joe's (huzzah!), but you do have to put it in your oven, so that kinda counts, right?

Photo from Justinsomnia

I read about these on Kate Flaim (Girl Reporter)'s awesome blog and went out and bought a box the next day. They couldn't have been easier. Here's what you do:

Place them on a baking sheet. They'll look like this to start:


Let them "proof" for 9 hours. This is what they'll turn into:

Cool, right?

Then bake for 25 minutes. Eh voila:

This photo (and previous two) from Justinsomnia

They were awesome. Just as good as ones from a bakery, and they made my whole house smell delicious (with such minimal effort).

And last:

Asparagus gruyere tart.

Photo from Cupcakes and Cashmere

Emily posted beautiful photos of the asparagus gruyere tart she made using Martha's recipe. It reminds me of the tomato tart above. Do I sense a theme here? Dough, cheese (gruyere), olive oil, veggies? Yum, it's basically just a really fancy take on pizza.

I love asparagus (and pizza!) so I'm excited to try this.


Have you baked anything lately? Do any of these recipes appeal to you? Or are you outside enjoying the sunshine? Let me know if you've tried the asparagus tart - or if you have any can't-miss recipes I should know about.