Blueberry Crumb Cake

We're terrible newlyweds-to-be, since we've been opening up our wedding presents as we get them.  We're even starting to use some of the goodies before the wedding takes place.

For example, our friends AH^2 got us the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, and we couldn't wait to dig into it.  Since it's blueberry season, we decided to make this blueberry cake, instead of the usual brownie type object.

Full recipe is here: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2014/07/blueberry-crumb-cake/

It was yummy.

Kale Salad with Radishes and Lemon Dressing

We first experienced this salad when our friends H. & E. brought it to a potluck on a ski weekend.  We asked for the recipe and replicated it, working in H.'s modifications and adding some of our own.

This is the recipe that inspired us: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Kale-Salad-with-Dates-Parmesan-and-Almonds-51137020

Our Modifications:

• no dates
• add radishes
• 3x the dressing
• garlic instead of shallots
• add bacon bits
• add heirloom tomato 
• skip the parmesan

Basically, we changed everything, except for the idea of soaking kale in lemon-honey mixture.

It was delicious!

Remade on:

2014-06-14 for BBQ Sparks w/o bacon

Apricot Cobbler

We volunteered with Village Harvest again this weekend, yielding a shoe box full of slightly imperfect apricots:

We've decided that a cobbler is the most effective method to use them up.  Here's a step in the prep process:

This is the recipe we stuck to: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Apricot-Cobbler-105131

The results were delicious!

Spiced Brownies

When J. is feeling stressed, he likes to bake brownies.  Today, after figuring out the wording on our wedding invites, he tried out a new recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/the-baked-brownie-spiced-up/

N. insisted he add some walnuts on top to make them 'healthier'.

They were delicious!

White Bread

Our friend B. posted a picture of her bread dough rising on fb.  This inspired J. to try to make bread...from scratch.  We were short on time, so opted so the shortest and simpliest recipe we could find.  It came from our Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (so 50s housewife!):

Here's how the result looked:

It was edible, but not amazing.  Conclusion: let's leave bread making to the professionals.

Lentils w/Spinach and Artichokes

A long time ago N. got a copy of 'Help my Apartment Has a Dinning Room' cookbook, designed for those aspiring to host their first dinner parties.  Now, we finally got around to cooking something from it, as part of our cook-one-thing-from-each-cookbook-we-own initiative.

Ways we deviated from the recipe:
- skipped the onion, of course
- did 1.5x lentils and 2x spicies
- put in the juice of a whole lemon
- added chopped artichoke hearts from a TJ's can

Remade on:
06-16-2014 with sausage:

09-05-2014, also with sausage

Bittersweet Decadence Cookies

We somehow ended up with a copy of The Wall Street Journal.  In their lifestyle section, they had a piece on fancy chocolate.  J. was inspired to make these cookies:

We used two different varieties of Scharfenberger baking chocolate bars.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579551731399758384

The result was pretty amazing.