totoro cupcakes!

My friend had a birthday party this weekend, and I surprised her with cupcakes that look like My Neighbor Totoro (since we share a mutual love for the movie). This is cheating a bit in the "recipe" department, since the cupcakes are just boxed Funfetti mix. The frosting is homemade, though, and still needs a bit of tweaking (these little guys melted just slightly on the way over, in the hot car). I'm determined to perfect the recipe.

The detailing was easy, since I had bought one of those "gel icing" tubes from the grocery store in black. Instead of cutting the top off, I pricked it with a pin to get a very fine line. If you're curious about the gray colored icing, I just used 2 drops each of red, blue, and yellow food coloring and mixed very well. It turned out to be the perfect shade!

renewed focus

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in quite some time, and I apologize! In December, besides rushing around trying to get it together for the holidays, I was working quite a lot while training for a half marathon. However, I finally have secured a full time job that I'm happy with and my race is on Sunday, so I feel like I have time to return to lionheart.

During my blogging hiatus, I took some time to think through how I wanted to blog in 2013. This online world can come with a lot of pressure sometimes--there are so many blogs out there that crank out one or more posts every single day, are always creating new recipes and crafts and outfits, and it can get exhausting trying to keep up. So I asked myself: what do I want to blog about? The question seems simple (and I asked myself this when I first started) but I arrived at a new answer this time. This is a not for profit blog (I don't have sponsors or ads), so I can write about anything without outside pressure. Yes, I want to share recipes and crafts with you, but only if they are something I will truly eat or use. After moving to LA, I don't exactly have the disposable income to be making daily trips to Michael's anymore! The posts I have loved writing and revisiting the most are focused on places I discover (near and far) and the adventures I find along the way. So in this new year, I plan to write more about where I'm going and I'm up to, with the occasional recipe/craft when they so arise. I'm aiming to post 2-3 times per week.

The design of the blog will be tweaked slightly to reflect my new focus. Don't worry, I don't know enough about graphic design and HTML to change it too much!

These are photos of the Love & Peace Spiral at Runyon Canyon, taken during a hike with some dear friends on New Year's Eve. I don't know who built it or maintains it, but it is a lovely and inspiring place.

It's great to see you again!

BBQ chicken pizza

  The 5pm sunsets have not been kind to my amateur photography skills and my little point & shoot Panasonic. I meant to share a lot of the pizza recipes we've been making, but the yellowy light in our dark kitchen has resulted in some truly terrible photos, and I've been quite frustrated. These weren't so bad so I just cheated and sepia-fied them.

Do you like Sweet Baby Ray's Barbeque Sauces? I love them. SBR's is the absolute best BBQ sauce, in my opinion--and no, this isn't a sponsored post. Although I wish it was, so I could get free BBQ sauce to try. We had two flavors on hand (Hickory & Brown Sugar and Honey Chipotle) so I asked Dane which we should use. His answer? "Both." That's why I love him.

BBQ Chicken Pizza
makes one 12" round pizza

for the crust:
3/4 cups warm water (~110 degrees F)
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp evoo, plus more for oiling the bowl

for the toppings (amounts are approximate, since I usually just eyeball how much of each topping I want):
1/4 to 1/3 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 red onion, sliced
1 1/2 cups cooked, diced chicken breast
3/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

To make my crust, I followed Bobby Flay's recipe with a few modifications. I halved the entire recipe, and since I used active dry yeast, I first proofed my yeast by combining the sugar & water and sprinkling the yeast on top. I set this aside for five minutes (the yeast should become foamy) and then combined with the dry ingredients and evoo. I then followed Bobby's steps for mixing & rising.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. After the dough has risen, gently press into a 12" round pizza pan greased with evoo. Using a fork, poke many holes in the crust (so you don't get air bubbles!) and bake for 6 minutes. Carefully remove the pizza crust, top with your sauce and toppings, and return the pizza to the oven to bake for another 6-8 minutes, until the crust is starting to brown.

Public Service Announcement: Always prebake your pizza dough to prevent soggy, drippy pizza.

christmas tree by the books

Hi everyone! I was having some problems uploading photos to blogger this week, but I seem to have it figured out. 

Despite my mini holiday decorating spree this past weekend, we don't have a proper Christmas tree up yet (either fake or real). I saw a tree made out of books on Pinterest (but can't find it anymore!) so I decided to build a book tree for our bedroom! In Chicago, our living room (exposed brick) wall had two large built in bookshelves that we loved to fill, so we have a ton of books--now, our bookshelf in the living room is completely full along a dedicated shelf in the hall cabinets--so I had plenty to build my little tree!

I didn't take any step-by-step photos, because the construction of the tree was trial and error. I divided my books into three piles--large hardcovers (like old textbooks & coffee table books) for the bottom, medium hard covers & paperbacks (like biographies & novels) for the middle, and small paperbacks (like shorter novels & plays) for the top! I first stacked the bottom books in a circular configuration, trying to layer the corners of the books to look more natural. Then, I did the same for the middle & top layers and finished with an open book on top to make a point. It took me a few tries & re-stacks to get something stable that looked good (due to the ranging thickness of the books). Once I was happy with my tree, I wound a string of lights around the "branches" and topped it with a bow!

The tree is about 2.5'--3' tall. I wanted it a little taller, but I didn't want to pull all of the books out of our living room bookshelf. I used the books we had stored in the hallway--about 35-40 in total for the tree. This is a great project for you if you have a bunch of old college textbooks and readers that you couldn't (or didn't want to) sell back!

I still want a real tree with ornaments though :)

pizza advent

For our advent calendar this year, Dane & I decided to try something kind of silly, kind of strange, but kind of awesome. The idea stemmed from a statement Dane once made: "I could eat pizza every day." So, to build anticipation for Christmas, we created pizza advent.

To defend myself against those of you who think this idea is unhealthy and gross, we have twenty varieties of pizza on our advent calendar. Some are the traditional, cheesy variety (pepperoni, Chicago style deep dish) but some are healthy (veggies & herbs, butternut squash, grilled fajita). A lot of these pizzas are dinners we already make--but now, they will be served on some sort of crust. The crust will change up a bit as well, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with different styles and tastes of crust.

We are also very active people and you can't tell me what to eat. So there.

To make the calendar, I simply cut triangles of white paper and decorated them in seasonal themes with markers. Then, I pinned them onto a cork board in a feathery, pine tree like manner. Can't beat that for simplicity.

Here's a rundown of the pizzas that made the list. I'll be sharing the recipes for some of the more "special" ones:

cheeseburger pizza
s'mores pizza
grilled fajita pizza
dessert pizza
King's choice (Dane picks)
Lady's choice (I pick)
calzone
breakfast pizza
leftovers
bacon & eggs (inspired by Elise's pizza)
pepperoni
taco pizza
butternut squash & caramelized onion pizza
BBQ chicken pizza
veggie & herbed cheese pizza
Chicago style deep dish (because we miss it!!!)
green chili pizza (this is the flavor we usually make when we have a regular "pizza night")
margherita
pesto pizza
buffalo chicken pizza

We put twenty pizzas on our advent calendar. I am pretty excited for this--not only do we get to eat some form of pizza every day, we also get to spend time together in the kitchen creating the recipes and save money by not eating out (since we have every meal planned until Christmas vacation on the 20th).

Did your favorite kind of pizza make the list? If not, share! I'll still need to come up with something good as my "Lady's choice" night!

feast

Although Dane & I celebrated Thanksgiving with just the two of us, we still wanted to go all out with our dinner menu. So, we decided to make most of the traditional Thanksgiving--after all, aren't leftovers one of the best parts of Thanksgiving?

Our menu included a roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls with honey butter, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, Brussel sprouts, jalapeno cornbread dressing, and pumpkin pie. The cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie were store-bought, but everything else was made from scratch (we had to cut a few corners since there were only two of us).


Someday I'll figure out how to take properly lit photographs in this kitchen...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

eggless chewy chocolate cookies

I have a confession to make to all of you: I am terrible at baking cookies. I consider myself a very good cook and a good baker. For some reason, when it comes to making cookies, something goes wrong. My cookie disasters have ranges from rock-hard-can't-scrape-them-off-the-pan to so-soft-they-can't-be-picked-up-without-falling-apart. Failure comes in many varieties.

But!

This recipe redeemed me. These cookies turned out amazing--rich and chewy with the tiniest hint of crunch at the edges. Like a brownie in cookie form. Without eggs! And I even went out on a limb and modified the original recipe! I must say I am pr-e-tty chuffed.

Eggless Chewy Chocolate Cookies (recipe modified from here)
makes about 26-28 cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda  (if using dutch process cocoa, DO NOT add the baking soda!)
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
1/3 cup skim milk

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa (and baking soda if using natural cocoa) with a whisk. In a separate bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the white & brown sugar to the butter and beat until creamy. Mix in the maple syrup. Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Add milk and beat until just combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes (or, in my case, for the length of one episode of Parks & Rec).

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and spritz with a little cooking spray. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough onto the pan. Bake for 16 minutes, then remove pan from oven and allow cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, you can transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

With chocolate cookies, it is difficult to see when the are "browning" and done. I removed mine at 16 minutes and, like I said, the cookies turned out fudgy and chewy. If you are looking for a crisper cookie, I'd suggest keeping them in the oven for 17 minutes and then watching them like a hawk until they are close to your desired crispness (the cookies will continue to cook slightly as they cool on the pan). Don't burn these because you will regret it.

While making these, I learned some interesting things about cocoa powders. The original recipe called for dutch process cocoa, but I only had natural cocoa powder (Hershey's) on hand. After some googling, I found out that you can not directly substitute one for the other. Dutch process cocoa involves washing the beans in a solution which reduces acidity. Therefore, when substituting, you must convert like so:

Dutch Process to Natural Cocoa Conversion
3 Tbsp dutch process cocoa= 3 Tbsp natural cocoa + 1/8 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp natural cocoa= 3 Tbsp dutch process cocoa - 1/8 tsp baking soda

Recipes with natural cocoa should include baking soda to neutralize its acidity.

Happy (chocolate) baking!

russian blini

As a special birthday morning surprise for Dane, I made him Russian blini (very thin crepes) for breakfast. They were a little intimidating, since traditionally the blini are paper thin, but turned out much better than I expected (and if they had been a little thick, I don't think he would have minded)!

Russian Blini (recipe from here)
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
~2 cups flour
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
nonstick cooking spray

Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, and salt. Slowly combine flour about 1/4 cup at a time, until the batter is runny but thicker than milk. Stir in the oil and let rest for about 5 minutes. Preheat a nonstick pan (mine was 9") over medium heat and generously oil with cooking spray.

Blinis are all in the execution, so here are a few tips: Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into the hot pan. While pouring, quickly tilt the pan in a rotating motion with your wrist so the batter creates a very thin layer over the entire surface. Cook for about 1-2 minutes until small bubbles form and the bottom is golden, then carefully flip with a spatula. Cook for 1 minute, then transfer to a plate. Spray the pan in between each blini! If your blini seems too thick (like I said, it should be paper thin--almost transparent) you can either add a bit more milk to the batter or use less batter per blini. Also, time & temperature may have to be adjusted depending on your stove. The pan should be hot enough that the batter sizzles on contact but not so hot that the blini burns in under a minute. Don't lose confidence--after the third or fourth blini you will get the hang of the rhythm of cooking these!

Don't forget to top with some sweetened condensed milk!

This recipe is pretty involved and takes a few tries to get right, so it's best to make on a weekend morning when you have plenty of time. Also keep in mind that you'll have to make a lot of blini per person (the stack in the photo has about 25-30).  The original recipe site has some great photos of the process if you need a step by step visual.

I hope I haven't intimidated you from making these--they are truly delicious and fun once you get the hang of the cooking method! This is a great recipe if you want to push yourself in the kitchen!

parking lot pumpkin patch

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young once sang: "If you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with."

With those words in mind, on a sunny, 85 degree morning in Southern California, Dane & I headed to the nearest "pumpkin patch" that wasn't a cardboard box in front of a grocery store.

It was in a car wash parking lot.

A far cry from our last pumpkin patch experience on a small Wisconsin farm, where we got to pick our own pumpkins, feed the goats, and milk a cow.

The hot weather hasn't transitioned me into the normal cozy fall mood, but that is NO excuse not to carve pumpkins for Halloween. Celebrating fall in such a warm climate involves a lot more effort than it does in the Midwest.

Pumpkins and palm trees in the same photos. Strange, huh? Today we're off to another fall activity that I've planned for Dane's birthday. I've managed to keep it a surprise, which is no small feat for me--especially when I ask him every day, "do you want me to tell you the surprise?!" hoping he'll give me permission to spill my secret (he always says no).

Happy Friday! I hope you enjoy your Halloween weekend--it's time for that last minute costume scramble!

pumpkin cinnamon rolls

As you may remember, I had some ideas when it came to Dane's birthday shindig. The most important was making pumpkin cinnamon rolls in place of birthday cake. I'm actually not going to post the entire recipe, because I copied this recipe from smitten kitchen almost to a t (my only change was adding 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice instead of the nutmeg/ginger/cardamom). I feel like it would be unfair to try to pass off this recipe as something I've improved or tweaked. Sometimes, you just have to follow the pro's instructions.

Oh yeah, I also have to admit that I cheated by using store-bought Buttercream frosting. Sometimes, you just have to save a few minutes.

Another confession: these photos were taken two days after I actually made the pumpkin cinnamon rolls. They finished baking at 8pm, and my kitchen has less-than-photogenic lighting. Yesterday I had to work, so these were the last three rolls left this morning when photo time "rolled" around (ha!). And I ate them afterward (in my defense, they were mini-sized).

We were excited to have our first party in our new home. We only knew a few people here before we moved to LA, so to have a growing group of new friends is exciting! Making new friends as an adult is difficult--luckily the other students in Dane's program are friendly and fun, and our friends from college are excited to show us everything LA has to offer. I feel so lucky to have friends living in nearly every area of the country, so I know that wherever I may go, there will be a familiar face to help with the transition. I do miss the familiarity (and autumn colors!) of Chicago, but I must say that I'm really starting to feel less like I'm visiting LA and more like I live here.

male birthday party inspiration

In two weeks my incredibly wonderful boyfriend Dane will be celebrating his birthday. I've been scouting inspiration to make his party truly special, since fall stubbornly refuses to land in LA, robbing him of his beloved October colors and weather. Sometimes it's tricky to throw a male-driven birthday party (lots of decorations and treats seem a little too girly or too child-like) so I'm taking some of these ideas and applying them in very small doses. We still want a casual, invite-friends-over vibe rather than a full themed party. The last thing a guy wants on his birthday is more cupcake toppers and bunting than booze and food.

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Elsie on Pinterest

I love that this black & white theme from the mavens at A Beautiful Mess can be a nod to Halloween without being a full-blown costume party. Also, I really want to make those chocolate covered potato chips!

Pumpkin cinnamon rolls from smitten kitchen instead of birthday cake? I'm sold (I'm not a big fan of big cakes).

Of course, a celebratory Moscow Mule is in order!

And the birthday boy will need a crown! I could go classic...

note: this is a product photo, not my boyfriend

...or contemporary.

That's the beginning of my brainstorming session...it seems so difficult to find ideas for men that aren't childish or heavily sports related. I'll be sure to share photos of the finished product Dane's big day!