Now that I know how easy it is, there will be lots and lots of toffee in my future. And the future of my family and friends. Prepare yourself peeps. If you know me, there will be toffee coming your way at some point in your life. Nothing to complain about, that’s for sure.

So the toffee making process was born from the desire to make the chocolate almond saltine toffee recipe from Food & Wine. I’ve had saltine bark before (a.k.a crack) but this was my first time making my own. Toffee is basically butter (lots of it), sugar (yup, lots of it too), and corn syrup boiled together until it reaches 300* (a candy thermometer is very key here!!). Once these 3 simple ingredients turn into a golden brown syrupy goodness, you poor it into a container (in this case, over saltine crackers actually) and then cool it. After 15 minutes in the freezer, you have a sweet crunchy candy. Man, it’s good!

Fun fact: Our wedding favors were sweet sloops which are little sailboat shaped toffee candies dipped in i2 kinds of chocolate and pecan crumbs. Awesomeness in a pretty package. So are these:

Salty saltines + sweet crunchy toffee + creamy dreamy chocolate + nuts = happiness all around. Life changing.

The back side

Dig in!!

This little tin has someone’s name on it…

Have you ever made toffee? Other things that got me as giddy (“life changing” was also possibly mentioned in relevant posts): making marshmallows, making challah bread, making pretzel sandwich buns, Italian bread, and making ricotta. I think it’s something about demystifying some of my favorite foods, as well as the pride that comes from turning a handful of ingredients into a completely different form of deliciousness. Yup, that’s it.

PS – Other baked goods created during this baking extravaganza (thanks, Tiffany, for hosting!)…

Chocolate peppermint roll

… and peanut butter blossoms

What have you been baking lately?

Last month, Rachel of Boston Food Bloggers organized a tour of the Taza chocolate factory, followed by a trip to a few of her favorite spots in Somerville. I’m rarely in the area so I took up the opportunity to not only meet a few new blog friends but also check out some of Somerville’s hidden gems.

Christina’s spice & specialty food perfectly fit the bill.

The shop is small but is jam packed with spices, sauces, and… specialty foods (yeah, I’m original like that). The photo above depicts tables full of spices, alphabetically organized (!!). This makes it really easy to find that spice you’ve been looking all over for… and a few others you didn’t know you needed but could not walk out of the shop without having.

The shelves were full of other fun goods…

…like every kind of salt imaginable…

How cool are these long peppers?

I’ve heard a lot about preserved lemons lately. I will be definitely picking up a baggie next time!

Spices and herbs as far as the eye could see…

It was exciting and overwhelming. They had sumac – a spice I often see in my Please to the Table cookbook. I also picked up a few kinds of paprika (again, the book always calls for smoked, sweet or spicy and I just had the generic “paprika” from Whole Foods before). Then pretzel salt and fleur de sel caught my eye and of course I had to grab those (btw, everything is available in little baggies or in bottles. They also have empty bottles if you need them – pretty awesome!). And then it was time to cut myself off before too much damage could be done!

I’ve been using the paprikas ever since. I think sumac will first go into a traditional plov (I’ll blog over at Russian Bites when I make that). And pretzel salt of course had to be put to use over some pretzels. Actually better than pretzels – pretzel buns for pretzel sandwiches. Oh yes!!

I used Alton Brown’s recipe for pretzels but instead of twisting the dough into the traditional pretzel braids, divided it into ten 3.5-3.75oz balls.

With the help of instant yeast and my trusty KitchenAid mixerwith a hook attachment, this dough came together in about 5 minutes. 50 minutes later it doubled in size and was very easy to work with. As I said before, I divided it into 10 balls for large sandwich buns.

After a quick dip in a baking soda bath, an egg wash…

… and a sprinkling of salt, they were ready to bake!

Quick tip – don’t be shy with the salt. Your buns will further grow in the oven so the salt will spread out. I could have probably tripled the amount I used!

Hello gorgeous!

The whole thing came together so quickly, this little experiment for sure was the beginning of something beautiful. A pretzel filled beautiful life! I will no doubt will be making mini ones for sliders or any time a pretzel craving or an amazing-bun craving hits!

Fresh fig buratta, tomato, basil and dijon mustard sandwich = heaven on earth

Incredibly soft on the inside, chewy on the outside. These were out-of-this world amazing… and easy enough even for a weeknight project. Seriously!

Make them now. They will change your life. They changed mine!

Where do you go to for hard to find spices?

Ever made pretzels?

How should I use my fleur de sel?

Tell me, tell me, tell me!!

Sometimes the meals are incredible but the pictures just don’t do it justice. I’m sure every food blogger in the world can empathize with that. You want so badly for the picture to make the reader drool. To make you wish you still had some leftovers to devour. Pictures really are worth 1,000 words. They are powerful.

Sometimes the stars align and your favorite meals accomplish just that (that chocolate chip cookie picture even got accepted by Tastespotting!!) Other times the lighting is perfect but the dish is just okay.

Adam and I went peach picking a few weeks ago and I could not be more excited to make all sorts of peach goodies with our 10lbs of local peaches. Making a pie is one of those things I have yet to master (last time I attempting this was back in 2009 for Thanksgiving <—whoa, I look different. Also, the perfect example of unfortunate picture quality of delicious food) so I decided to that a peach pie was the perfect little project!

I used Joanne’s recipe for a peach dream pie but used a crust recipe I got from a pie making class I took at the Brooklyn Kitchen this past summer. The crust came out flaky and delicious but the filling was pretty soggy. Here is the deal: I have no idea what went wrong since I’m not really a pie-making expert. I need your help!!

Do fresh peaches have too much moisture? Should I have made a lattice top to let some of the moisture escape? Was the yogurt based filling (mixed with the peaches) too wet to begin with? Should I have cooked it somehow prior so that it baked better? Should I have cooked the pie longer? I was scared the crust would burn on the bottom. Any other suggestions? I’m totally clueless about this stuff!

I sliced this pie the day after making it and was disappointed with the texture but the taste was fantastic. The yogurt mixture baked into something resembling a light cheesecake (mmm). It was even more delicious with a scoop or 2 of vanilla gelato!

How are your pie-making skills? Help me figure out what went wrong!

In other random “news” – look what I just scored at Trader Joe’s for $4.99.

What should I make?!

And while I’m out and about, check out the guest post I wrote on chewy caramel chocolate sandwich cookies for Beantown Baker. These cookies were delicious – you want to save that recipe for sure!

Anyways, I’m cool now and I want to tell you about the dinner I cooked for my dad’s birthday last weekend (sticking to my 30 by 30 list and hosting dinner parties left and right. haha)! His birthday happens to be on my wedding anniversary. Adam and I celebrated the night, just the 2 of us, but I had plans to make it up to my dad soon enough.

When hosting a dinner party do you pick a theme or just go with delicious recipes?

I wanted to make sure this was really really delicious so for my main course I chose a recipe I’ve made (and loved!) before – chicken thighs on the grill (btw, I always tag my favorite recipes so you can find them easily… on the right hand side).

Next up were these lovely ravioli with prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, basil and mozzarella in Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef cookbook. The pictures have been enticing me for weeks and a special birthday dinner seemed like the right time to break out my pasta roller! [PS – you can find the entire recipe on this blog]

Seriously, such cuties!

It appears that I had an Italian theme developing so I went with it! Doesn’t strawberry ricotta cake sound kind of Italian? [If you say ricottttte like Giada, it definitely will ]

OH YEAH!

Add a few Russian cheesy profiterole-like puffs (recipe coming to Russian Bites next)…

Some green beans with wild mushrooms…

And we have dinner!!

My mom was a giant help with executing the menu. I got a little ambitious planning this… happens every time!

I was hoping this would turn into delicious comfort food, fit for a hole in the wall restaurant. I don’t know if I hit the bar quite that high (I’m pretty critical of my own cooking) but every single item turned out absolutely delicious… I can tell you that!

Happy birthday, dad!!

[Ha, he was trying to make a funny face when I pulled out the camera… I say that worked!]

Hope your dreams all come true!

The angel food cake meets Italian grandmother was so light and the perfect ending to our Italian feast. Adam asked that I add it to our rotation of desserts (which means I should start a rotation of desserts! Yessss). I’m adding more strawberries between each layer next time!

Have you entertained recently? Do you have go-to items for dinner parties?

My favorite thing about the final product (which I guess is not even final yet) is that all the pretty food pictures of recipes that look appealing to me are right there, in the format that’s enjoyable to browse through (as opposed to before, where a few nice recipes were either buried between useless articles or worse – shoved into a big folder also known as the black hole for recipes).

So the other day, I was doing my thing, gluing away, and Adam spotted a picture of the spicy chicken shawarma recipe from Cooking Light… and said: “You need to make this asap!” The good wife that I am, I put it on next week’s menu… and decided to take it up a notch by making my own whole wheat pitas. Why not!

I used the whole wheat pita bread recipe from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook, which looked easy enough.

I  my Kitchen Aid.

My dough was seriously sticky. I think I added a bit more flour and definitely let the mixer go for longer than the book specified.

Eventually I stopped it and hoped that once the yeast does it’s thing, everything will turn out fine

Why hello, Mr. Yeast… looks like you’ve been hungry!

The dough was still slightly goopy (see top right in the picture above) but a slight toss in some flour produced perfect little dough balls.

Hi cuties! [Ok, I really need to stop this whole talking-to-my-food thing.]

Roll ‘em out…

And into the oven (on a pizza stone) they go!

OMG, OMG, OMG – they’re actually ballooning up!!!! [Yes, I was that excited.]

Actually, most of them looked like the ones below – at best. Spraying some water into the oven seemed to help a bit (thanks, Emily for this tip on twitter… Btw, I changed my twitter handle to @elinaholbrook… follow me if you love me!!)

Dinner time!

My first pita opened up so easily and perfectly, I was excited about “nailing it”!

The ones that followed definitely put up a fight (after this dinner I pretty much used them as flatbreads). They were really pillowy and doughy though so I enjoyed the texture.

I hate how store bought whole wheat pitas taste like cardboard so I’d love to find the perfect homemade (fool-proof) recipe that I can make over and over. It’d be cheaper too!

Have you ever made pitas? Any tips for me on technique, or maybe a link to a better recipe? Thanks!

PS – The chicken recipe was quick and easy but nothing earth shattering taste-wise. The pitas were definitely the highlight of the meal for me!

As you know, I spend the week on a conference in NY (btw, Adam is loving all the meals I made him… and thank you for your sweet comments. I did feel like an awesome wife for doing that). This weekend I’m staying at my sister’s place in Brooklyn – hanging out with her and my friend Katy, and of course, baking and cooking. The natural light is too good at her place to miss such an opportunity! [Remember last time’s cookie baking extravaganza, rice crispie treats, sugar-free brownie dough balls, and baking with protein powder? Those are my favorite pictures from the blog!)

I’m focused this year with the list so I knew I wanted to tackle at least a few items from it and maybe a thing or two for Russian Bites. Every single Saturday morning, my sister and her boyfriend make French toast for brunch so I decided to take on the challenge and make French toast with homemade challah bread [challah was part of my 30 by 30 challenge.]

I used the Bon Appetit recipe that my blog friend Michelle recently tested. Wanna see some pics from the process?? [Say yes!]

[yeast, sugar and warm water get all bubbly]

[Mixing dough by hand]

It got pretty gluttonous.. and sticky for a while. I just kept kneading and adding flour.

Eventually it was time for it to rise… and time for me to go out with my friend Katy (we went to the Westville Restaurant btw, and ohmygod guys… if you’re ever in NY, go there!!!! Best meal in recent memory and not expensive!)

The dough was supposed to rise for 30 minutes… it’s been many hours. So yeah, it got a little over ambitious

I punched it down and put it on a well floured countertop. It was all good!

Love the pockets of air!

At this point I divided the dough into 2 balls (it makes 2 loaves) and braided one and put the other half in the fridge. I read right after that if you don’t want to bake it right away, you can actually store the dough in the fridge for up to 2 days so I put away both the braid (which you shouldn’t do anyway) and the other dough ball, and went to sleep.

Next morning, it was time to braid the other dough ball. Here is how we do it:

Roll (by hand) into three 9-10” ropes (if you want a fat braid for sandwiches, etc… you can also have longer ropes which would make a longer but skinnier challah… just make sure they’re all the same length.

Now, right over middle; then left over middle

Repeat… (new) right over middle, (new) left over middle

Pinch the ends; flip the braid

Repeat the same process (left over middle; right over middle… pinch the ends)

Yay, it looks like challah!

Cover with towel and let it rise for another 30 minutes while the oven is preheating. Then it’s egg wash time!

Pretty!

I’m obsessed with this picture (below)!!!!

Don’t you just want to rip a piece off? We did

Ready for the best french toast of your life?? This one goes in the “sane” category because there is not much healthy about it… but man, is it good. Going on the favorites list for sho

Crème brulee French toast (note I attempted the broiling method for the sugar topping but was so scared to burn the tops that I ended up just taking them out and shaking off most of the sugar. It was beyond fantastic even without it… and hey, just a tad healthier )

Custardy (not to be confused with soggy… it definitely was not) french toast with some organic raspberries… and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. This tasted like it came straight from a fancy restaurant’s brunch menu, and I felt pretty good about making it all from scratch!

Mmm, this was slightly reminiscent of lemon pound cake with berries.

When can I have this again??

Have you ever made challah bread? I definitely plan on doing it again to perfect it. It will be even easier with my KitchenAid at home. I do think I’m going to try a different recipe though… this one was slightly lacking in the salt and maybe even sugar dept (although pure perfection in French toast form).

Oh and… this is off topic but… Taste of Cambridge this year is on June 28 (this coming Tuesday) and I scored tickets over the weekend and am beyond excited to attend the event. I wasn’t around last year and read numerous recaps from my blog friends and was super jealous, so I know it’s going to be a fantastic evening of food, drinks and friends! You can find more info about the event here. This year’s beneficiaries include The Salvation Army Cambridge/Somerville Corps “Restoring Lives Capital Campaign and The Saturday program of the Cambridge special olympics. If you come, definitely say hello!!

One of these better-than-crack brownies was my breakfast.

I’m okay with it.

PS – New post on pirojki is up on Russian Bites. Check it.

This week, however, I was on a mission to finally make things that have been on my to-make list for AGES. I bought the ingredients weeks ago and this week was the week!!! Wanna see what I’ve been up to in my kitchen? Come, come!!

Jen posted about these salmon burgers last August during her burger week and raved about them. I love smoked salmon and thought it was such a fun addition to the mix.

Unfortunately wild salmon is very lean and I overcooked these. They tasted like dry smoked salmon patties – the sauce was the only saving grace. I mixed greek yogurt with sriracha and diced grape tomatoes. They added some spice and freshness.

The next night I wanted to make something with goat cheese. I cooked some ww pasta, sauteed mushrooms and spinach, threw in some leftover lamb sausage and then topped it all with creamy sundried tomato and goat cheese sauce.

I was a bit disappointed with how thin the sauce turned out… but it ended up thickening significantly as it cooled.

Adam actually said this was one of the best things I’ve made in a while! After a few bites I was hooked too – creamy and slightly tangy, with a pronounced sun-dried tomato flavor and just a hint of nuttiness from walnuts.

Btw, I only used 2-3T of sun-dried tomato olive oil (from the jar the tomatoes were in) instead of 7. This was plenty rich as is!

Next up, a craving hit. I NEEDED cheesecake asap. Although I live across the street from the Cheesecake Factory, I stay away from their 1,000+ calorie slices.

Instead, I went with an old (healthier!) favorite – honey yogurt cheesecake bars (ick, my photos have improved over the years, huh?).

I did have some meyer lemons so meyer lemon cheesecake bars were born (I added a bunch of juice and zest and subbed agave nectar for honey to let the lemon flavor stand out).

Can you see how light these are? They taste decadent but also very airy unlike the more traditional dense cheesecakes. I really love this recipe!

Agave isn’t as sweet as honey so these weren’t sweet enough for my liking (and the meyer lemon flavor was still lost) so I drizzled some maple syrup over the bars once cooled. I guess they ended up being maple syrup cheesecake bars!

Whatever you call them, these were delicious! How would you make the lemon flavor be more pronounced? I was afraid about too much liquid if I continued to add lemon juice….

Last recipe! I told you I was busy in the kitchen this week!!! GRANOLA.

While most of you (from what I read ) seem to be obsessed with cereal and granola and need a lock on your cupboards, I’m much more of a trailmix/nut/cookie girl. Cereal, as delicious as it is, isn’t a “trigger” food for me.

That was apparently because I’ve never made homemade granola – totally different ball game! I made Flour Bakery‘s granola last month and was amazed at how much I loved it. In fact, I ate a whole container-worth in just a matter of a few days… and it was supposed to be “for Adam.”

So this week I tried again. I followed NY Times’ recipe for olive oil granola (found through Tri to Cook).

I thought you could just throw everything in and bake, but I learned a lesson here. Yeah, someone didn’t read the instructions well! Add the dried fruit at the end - my beautifully sweet dried apricots turned into rocks!!! No worries, I picked them out and carried on with my newly established granola obsession.

Adam said it was the best granola he’s ever had!! I actually can’t choose between this one and Flour’s – both are fantastic. A little salty, crunchy, nutty. Yeah, I’m going to be honest – this granola has been enjoyed more often than not, straight out of the jar. And I’m ok with it

If you meal plan, how often do you deviate from the plan? I was so proud for following through because there is not much better than a delicious homemade meal.

On next week’s agenda – take ice cream and granola bars off the list. I hope to report back next week with some pictures for evidence

Yesterday I’m happy to say this was not the case. There was a bit of “tasting” during the making of the cream cheese frosting…

… but then I was content with just 1 cupcake. One guilt-free pumpkin cupcake with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

And that’s why diet free living is a worthy goal!

PS – I don’t like any cupcake places in Boston (except for Mix Bakery which is delivery only) so if I have a serious craving, I have to make them (bringing the rest to work today). What’s your favorite cupcake recipe?? Maybe I’ll recreate it when a craving hits again