Cocoa-Zucchini Cake w Brown Sugar Glaze

I am late night baking. My house smells amazing, and only partly due to a brand new candle I picked out at Pier 1 today. I also picked up a new cake stand (see above). We have been go - go - go for weeks and tonight is the first non-work day where I've found myself at home with an open evening. I've been planning on baking this cake for a few days now. We were gifted a beautiful garden zucchini and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. I grew up with my mom baking chocolate zucchini bread and I have always LOVED it. Although this isn't the same recipe my mom bakes from it still reminds me of home.

Speaking of home, I have some exciting news. Scott and I made an offer on a house. Right now we are at the wait-and-see part of the process but I am hopeful and spending a lot of time thinking about creating a home with my favorite guy. This is a big step and one that we've been talking about for most of the summer. If all goes well we'll find ourselves in a new space before winter sets in. Buying a house locks us into a location for a few years but it grants us so much freedom with how we live our lives. I won't have to worry anymore about using a jewelry hammer past 10pm! And I'll be able to dance around with my loved ones without worrying about pounding on someone else's ceiling. And I'll have my very own garden in my very own yard! These are dreams, people. Dreams made real.

The Food Matters Project: Berries & Chocolate Bread

Hi. I didn't really follow this week's food matters project recipe. Sure I utilized some kind of berry, some kind of chocolate and some kind of bread. But not cherry and not in panini form. You can check out Margarita's host post here.

We spent our Father's day weekend charter fishing in Westport. It was cold, wet and mildly nauseating. I know I'm making it sound fantastic. I think it would have been a way better experience if I'd caught a fish instead of letting the only one I hooked get away. I wouldn't call it a complete wreck of a weekend. I spent some quality time with the boy side of my family and Scott. I saw the ocean from both the shore and while at sea. I learned that if I take a dramamine, wear accupressure bands on my wrists and chew ginger gum I'm mostly not as nauseated as I'd expect (I'm positive this will come in handy some day). Besides, I love adventure.

On the car ride home, after spending hours eating nothing due to a large fear of accidentally throwing it right back up, I ate a ton of delicious homemade bread.

Raspberry & Almond Muffins

Yesterday I had my first successful baking experience using only almond flour. I have so many friends who are avoiding gluten or following some kind of paleo guideline to eating that it makes sense for me to experiment with gluten free baking. These muffins were meant to be a yummy surprise for a camping trip this weekend but the trip fell through and now I'm sitting at home on a Sunday with a surplus of baked goods. I know what I'll be eating for breakfast.

These muffins are particularly good right out of the oven. The following day they prove to be a bit more oily then I'd like. Next time I make this recipe I am going to try substituting applesauce for the olive oil and I'm also going to combine the fruit with the batter instead of creating separate layers.

Brown Sugar Apple Bundt Cake

I spent yesterday playing outside, baking and chatting with a good friend. Eowyn is a modern day awesome lady. She works outside of her home but still manages to garden, make delicious meals, bake bread, homemake anything that can be homemade, run an etsy shop and be a great mom and wife. You can meet Eowyn here and see her etsy shop here. When I made my way to Eo's after a lazy morning at home I found her just finishing up making sunscreen and about to hang laundry outside in the bright sun. We took a walk around the backyard - checking out the new chickens and the garden beds. Then we had a picnic. I'm not joking when I say this woman does everything. Lunch included homemade yogurt with honey and fruit. It was awesome.

The Food Matters Project: Curried Tomato Soup with Poached Egg (and popovers)

photos by scott haydon

Hello! Welcome to another Food Matters Project post. This weeks recipe was chosen by Joanne and can be found here.

We actually made this recipe on Saturday. And I've had the post sitting on my computer desktop since then. Mainly because Sunday was my best friend's 32nd birthday and we spent the day having the most amazing time. We baked a cake, set up Beatles Rock Band, broke out a pinata and created an impromptu photo booth. If you ever have the opportunity to create a photo booth at a party I highly recommend it. It brings out the silly nature in your friends and family and takes away a lot of the fear some people have of getting their picture taken. Scott and I spent Friday night making "props" such as: mustaches, lips, beards, glasses, hats, batman mask, etc. It was so amazing and I know that I'll be looking at all of the pictures and cracking up for a very long time.

Nutella Cheesecake Mousse Brownie.

photo by scott haydon

Scott asked me to make something with Nutella. He didn't really care what. And maybe I went a little overboard but the result was definitely worth it. Prepare to be delighted.

Rogue Voodoo Donut Bacon Maple Ale (Bread).

all photos on this post by the great scott haydon

We were gifted a very special bottle of beer the other day from our friend Sandy. Rogue Ales collaborated with Voodoo Donut to make Rogue Voodoo Donut Bacon Maple Ale. The result is a beer that is truly something else. It is like someone stuffed a very sweet and savory breakfast into a bottle of beer and shook it up. It is a beer that I took one sip of and could only think - this beer is begging to be a baked good. I know what you're thinking, that this beer was co-created by a BAKERY, of course it would cause one to think of baked goods. I can't fault your logic there. But still! Let's make magic.

Lemon Poppyseed Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies

photos by scott haydon

I am currently obsessed with lemons and poppy seeds. Last week it was a Poppy Seed Lemon Cake. This week I really wanted to bake a lemon poppy seed cut-out sugar cookie. But my internet was down and my choices (read: cookie cookbooks available in apartment) were limited. I ended up looking through my handy Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook and coming up with something I thought I could modify relatively simply. I was right.

Weather Got You Down? Make Pretzels.

all photos on this post by the great scott haydon

Salted Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

This recipe was adapted from this really good recipe.

I didn't have any pastry flour. But I learned (via the wonder that is google) that you can substitute a cake flour/all purpose flour custom blend for the pastry flour. In a 2.1 ratio. So I did that. Instead of chopped milk chocolate, I used roughly 1 1/2 cups of milk chocolate & dark chocolate chips. I also used chunky peanut butter instead of creamy.

I am not a fan of huge cookies. I like to make them small so that I can eat more and still feel like I'm not eating too much. That said, I preheated my oven to 350 but I used a large spoon instead of a 1/4 cup measurement and I baked my cookies for 12 minutes instead of 15 to 18.

These cookies are amazing. They have extra salt in them and it leads to a delicious lingering salty peanuty chocolaty flavor. They are very tender and crumbly in a messy but fantastic kind of way.

Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake: Let's Be Friends.

photo by scott haydon

This recipe was adapted from this really good recipe.

I substituted the pecans with hazelnuts. I used 2 packages of neufendel (1/3 less fat) and 1 package full fat cream cheese. I only used 1 cup of sour cream for the topping. I also tripled the bourbon used inside the pumpkin filling. I didn't have nutmeg so I substituted the cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger with a pumpkin pie spice blend. I garnished my cheesecake with hazelnut pieces that I roasted briefly, then cooled before placing on top.

This is a beautiful and tasty treat of a cheesecake. Not too sweet. Full of yummy flavors. Highly recommended!