Henry's weekly photos

Inspired by Clara's Weekly Photo Project from Young House Love, I decided to take weekly photos of Henry to help document his first year. My photo skills aren't that great and I don't have Photoshop, so my version is decidedly lower tech, but I'm ok with that. 


Here are his first 2 weekly photos:

 

A few weeks before Henry was born, I bought 1 yard each of several different fabrics (all on sale) from JoAnn's. I plan to supplement with other fabrics we have on hand such as sheets, comforters, rugs, etc. Because I don't have Photoshop, I use Picasa to add the text to Henry's onesie. Hopefully we can keep up the tradition for another 50 weeks!

Firsts

Today, in honor of the first day of summer, we had a lot of firsts:

1st outing (breakfast at The Grind)

1st attempt at tummy time

1st time in the swing

1st walk

1st at home bath (clearly, Henry is not a fan)

And Henry wasn't the only one. Today I had my first, full-caffeine coffee in over 10 months.  

sweet, sweet nectar

Bonus photos:

wide awake during Henry's first night at home

pretty much my favorite photo on the planet

Henry looking dapper in some business casual wear

Henry Makes 3

On Saturday June 16, after 9 months in the oven, Henry Flynn made his grand entrance into the world. He's as beautiful as can be and we could not be more thrilled with the wild adventure we're about to embark upon. 

Weepy and tired but ecstatic 

Proud daddy

Grandma Karla and Grandpa Rick meet Henry

1st family photo

Auntie Elyse

Uncle Andrew

Uncle Yogi

FEET!

Ready to go home!

Grandpa Lee

Grandma Georgia

Wide awake during his first night home

Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of my favorite things to bake is chocolate chip cookies as they are usually super easy to whip up and always delicious. Since I almost always have a bag of chocolate chips on hand, it's my go to  item when the urge to bake strikes late at night. So when one of my favorite bloggers did a post on "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies...Ever," highlighting a recipe posted on For Me, For You, she definitely had my attention. The problem? These chocolate chip cookies required a few ingredients (cake flour & bread flour) I don't always have in my kitchen and they require refrigerating the dough for 36 hours before baking them. THIRTY SIX HOURS. First of all, I'm not even sure how you properly time that since it's a very odd time frame to work with when we're talking about baking. Do you make the dough at 8am one morning and bake at 8pm the next day? Second of all, ignoring a giant bowl of cookie dough in my fridge for a day and a half seemed like a fool's errand. And lastly, THIRTY SIX HOURS. 

I decided the hope of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted won out over these minor inconveniences so yesterday I bought some cake and bread flours and whipped up the dough. We had some friends over for dinner tonight so I thought the timing would work nicely for baking. I knew I wouldn't be following the 36 hour suggestion to the letter so I aimed to refrigerate the dough for as long as possible, which turned out to be about 30 hours. 

This recipe makes A LOT of cookie dough. I figured as much when I looked at the ingredients and realized it was almost 2 whole bags of chocolate chips. I got 34 cookies out of my batch and I made BIG cookies. Like the diameter of a softball big. The cookies turned out gorgeous. The perfect amount of spread, the right golden brown, these are some fine looking specimens of deliciousness. Probably the best looking chocolate chip cookies I've made. 

But were they the best chocolate chip cookies of my life? I'm honestly not sure. They are damn good cookies. They have a good ratio of crunchy to chewy (I could have probably baked them about a minute less for an even better balance) and have an excellent flavor. But I'm not convinced that 36 hours (or 30 in this case) in the fridge was really necessary. I wish I'd baked a few right away just to see if I could notice a difference. 

Long story short: the quality of these cookies make them worth repeating, but I might not wait so long to bake them next time. And now that I have the necessary ingredients, these won't be too difficult to make the next time a craving for chocolate chip cookies strikes!

The Only Chocolate Chip Cookie I Will Ever Need to Know How to Make For The Rest of My Life
(recipe from For Me, For You, by way of Leite Torres)

Secret 1: The use of a mix of cake flour and bread flour. Cake flour is finer, and bread flour has gluten, both important. Use them and no other.

Secret 2: Chilling. This is key — KEY! — to cookie texture success. The reason is that letting the dough rest allows all the eggs and the butter and the liquids to ooze and soak and hydrate into all the dry goodness. 24 hours is minimum, 36 is preferable (and noticeably better).

Also, the flavor gets crazy! Deep, caramel-y, toffee-y, and they bake up so much more deliciously brown. Plus, it lets the outside get crisp and crackly and keeps the middle almost underdone when you pull them out — they set up and turn into soft, chewy heaven.

Secret 3: All ingredients. Room temperature. Do it. (Note: The misconception with room-temperature butter: it actually doesn’t mean letting it sit out until it’s supersoft and melty. You should be able to press a slice of butter with your finger and easily make a dent, and it should crack faintly.)

Secret 4: Did you know? People make their cookies way too small! It’s silliness! If you make them too small, they dry out too quick, and they get too crunchy. We want gooey and chewy! The way to achieve that is to scoop your dough out into golf-ball sized — or slightly larger — portions. I use a 1/3 c measuring cup for extra big cookies.

Secret 5: The chocolate. Sorry, Toll House. And don’t even think about the generic supermarket brand. I only use Ghiardelli 60% Cacao chips — they’re pretty widely available the best chips you can buy at a grocery store. However, if you run across anything that is 60% cacao, it’ll be good.

Secret 6: The sprinkle of salt on the top. Makes all the sweetness sing.

Secret 7: Wait. I mean, sure, have one piping hot out of the oven, but the flavors actually meld and deepen once they cool. These are definitely cookies that get better the next day.

Secret 7 1/2: Always err on taking them out too early rather than too late – also essential for middle-softness. They continue to cook on the sheet for a few minutes, so don’t overdo it – underdone is better than overdone, every time (and you can always pop them in for a minute more if you like).

Stick to these secrets, and you will ace chocolate chip cookies forever.

2 cups minus 2 Tbsp. (8 ½ oz.) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 ½ oz.) bread flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher
2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups; 10 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups (10 oz.) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. (8 oz.) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, preferably about 60% cacao content, such as Ghirardelli
Sea salt or kosher salt for garnishing

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; then set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low; then add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, and mix briefly to incorporate. Press plastic wrap against the dough, and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. The dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to soften slightly. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Using a standard-size ice cream scoop – mine holds about 3 fluid ounces, or about 1/3 cup – scoop six mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, making sure to space them evenly. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto the rack to cool a bit more.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: About 24 (5-inch) cookies.

Spicy Garlic Bread

I've always been an "I'll only bake bread if I can make it in a bread maker" kinda gal but today I broke out of my comfort zone. After spying this recipe on Joy the Baker for Easy Spicy Garlic Bread in a Pot, I thought, hey, that doesn't look that hard. And it wasn't.

First of all, turns out the dough hook attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer is kind of amazing. I wish I'd known this sooner. I plan to put it to work more often.

My candy apple green beauty hard at work.

Next, this dough only rises for an hour, so it's not a time intensive endeavor. 

Mine didn't come out in a perfectly round ball. Oh well.

After the rise, only 2 additional minutes of kneading is needed (try saying that 10 times fast). I'm all about minimizing manual labor.

Dough ball with delicious flecks of flavor

My favorite part is that it cooks in a dutch oven, which seems to lock in all the steam giving the bread a perfect crust.

Oiled up and ready for the oven

Slashing the dough with a knife for that criss-cross pattern was way more fun than it should have been.

Fresh out of the oven and gorgeous

The bread only bakes for a total of about 45 minutes and then you have to try and give it enough time to cool down even though it smells really really good. 

Ready for cutting

It should stay good for up to 3 days. If you are able to keep it around that long. I doubt we will.

Super soft insides

Scott has already declared this a winner that needs to be repeated. Which is good because I have a lot of leftover chives and thyme. So I might make it again this weekend, as long as I'm still incubating.

Easy Spicy Garlic Bread in a Pot

(recipe from Joy the Baker)

makes 1 loaf of bread

1 cup (8 ounces) of warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
pinch of granulated sugar
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
3/4 teaspoon dried red chili flakes
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
about 4 cups (20 ounces) bread flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
a few big pinches of coarse ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
olive oil, coarse sea salt, and chili flakes for topping

Sprinkle yeast over warm water, add pinch of sugar and stir gently. Allow yeast and warm water to rest, foam and froth for about 5 minutes. If yeast does not foam and froth after 5 minutes, toss it and start over again with new yeast.

Melt butter in a small saucepan. When butter is melted, remove from heat and add herbs, chili flake, and garlic. Set aside.

Place flour in the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a bread hook. Add salt and pepper. Pour in activated yeast mixture, and butter mixture. Stir on low speed, with the dough hook, for about 10 to 12 minutes. The dough ball should clean the sides of the bowl and not stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl. The dough will be relatively smooth and supple, with some firmness from the bread flour.

Place dough in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

When doubled in size, place on a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about 2 minutes.

In a large Dutch oven, add about 2 tablespoons olive oil, to coat the bottom of the pot. Place dough in pot and use a large knife to slice a fairly deep cross into the dough. Drizzle about 3 more tablespoons of olive oil atop the bread. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt and pepper flakes.

Cover with tight fitting lid and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 400 degrees F, remove lid, and allow to make for about 15-20 minutes more.

Remove from oven and allow to cool until easily removed from the pan. Bread will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cookies

In addition to being back into blogging, I've recently fallen back into love with baking. For awhile I was only baking about once a month. In the past week I've baked 4 things. Probably has something to do with not working. We'll see what happens when I stop having copious amounts of time on my hands or, you know, a decent night's sleep. This afternoon I whipped up Salted Caramel Chocolate Cookies, a recipe I found via Pinterest, but I now also follow the original source blog (Gimme Some Oven - awesome blog name) because the author clearly has good taste.

The key to these cookies is a genius ingredient: Kraft Caramel Bits. I love cooking with caramel but I HATE dealing with individually wrapped caramels. Kraft Caramel Bits solves that problem.

I found my bag in the baking aisle at Target. I should have bought 5 of them. Scott pointed out that they look like garbanzo beans, which they totally do. Except they're about a million times more delicious.

The recipe calls for flattening the cookies slightly (so you can easily sprinkle a little salt on top). I first tried flattening with a cup, but that just stuck so I ended up pressing down slightly with my fingers. Which naturally resulted in eating some cookie dough. Normally not a problem, but, being pregnant, probably not the best idea. Oh well, if you make these and can resist eating the cookie dough, you deserve a medal.

My only complaint about these cookies is they were a humongous pain to get off the cookie sheets. I coated the trays in one layer of spray. I coated the trays in two layers of spray. Next time I'll try wax paper. Because these suckers stuck to those trays like it was their job. Caramel, in case you didn't know, is sticky. If you tried to remove them too early, the caramel bits would be too soft and the cookies would fall apart. If you wanted longer, the caramel bits got hard and stuck to the tray. Moral of the story - those 3 cookies up there are probably the only 3 that came off in one piece.

But these cookies? So worth the trouble. They might be, dare I say it, my new favorite cookies. How can you go wrong with chocolate and caramel?

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cookies
(from Gimme Some Oven)

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (or dark chocolate cocoa powder)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (11 oz.) bag Kraft caramel bits
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
coarse sea salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the caramel bits and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Press each cookie down slightly to flatten, then sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Try not to stuff your face with their deliciousness.

P.S. This is what happens when you forget how big your 9 month pregnant belly is. Whoops.

I'm back...

So I've decided to start blogging again. My last post was February 2011 and a LOT has happened since then. Quick recap:

We bought a house. A gorgeous condo in the Lower Haight. Been living here for over a year now and we could not be more in love with our home and the neighborhood.

this is a screen shot from Street View since I apparently do 

not have a photo of the front of our building

We traveled a ton. Since I last posted I've been to Dallas, New York (4 times!), Pittsburgh, Lake Windermere (English Lake District), Napa, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, London (+ Stonehenge), Zurich, Rochester, Niagara Falls, Orlando (Harry Potter World!), Chicago, Monterey, Portland, Disneyland, Kauai, Austin, Washington DC, Baltimore, and, of course, Los Angeles (10 times) and San Diego (7 times).

A few of our closest friends got married and engaged.

 

Our adorable nieces turned 2 and got a baby brother.

And, biggest of all, we did this:

It's a boy! And we're preparing for his arrival very soon!

With the little one arriving, I decided I wanted to get back into blogging. I don't necessarily intend to create a "mommy blog" but I do imagine there will be lots of photos of and posts about the little one. With most of our family in Southern California, I'll be using this space to keep them up to date. There will also be healthy doses of baking, eating, and life adventures. And whatever else strikes my fancy. I hope you'll bear with me as I figure it out!

Elsewhere on the internet these days you can find me on Google+ (add me to your circles if you're there too!) and I'm completely and utterly addicted to Pinterest (feel free to follow me there too). I have accounts in all the other usual places, but I don't really visit very often.