Off to the U.S of A!

I'm writing this as I am surrounded by the chaos of packing. I have suitcases surrounding me, clothes in the process of being rolled and packed neatly, toiletries and cosmetics everywhere and best of all, I have a huge grin on my face - because I'm off on another eating and shopping adventure!

Over the next month, I will try to keep my readers and fellow foodies updated with my gastronomic jaunt through the US via twitter and blog posts. I'll be visiting Los Angeles, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and New York and I already have lists of places to go, food to eat and restaurants booked for every single location (well, with the exception of Yosemite and the Canyon). At this point, I need to make a huge shout out to my walking talking foodie guide Ramen Raff for all of his wonderful tips - check out his blog for SF dining tips!

Restaurants that I have made reservations for are as follows:

• Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles;
• Michelin starred Seasonal in NYC;
• Brasserie 8 1/2 - a restaurant that I just want to check out for it's funky decor and the fact it was in S&TC;
• Momofuku - probably all of them, including the milkbar;
• Michelin starred Joel Robuchon;
• and probably many many others...

I am determined to find quality local eats, track down food trucks, dine at some seriously dodgy but tasty locations and then burn it all off by hitting the shops and swiping my credit card until I develop RSI. Now that's my idea of a holiday!

Watch this space for some US themed posts soon!

thesuzchef x

Peanut Butter Cup Tarts

Since starting this blog and joining Twitter, I've met and become friends with some wonderful like-minded people. It's probably been the best thing about starting this blog actually - I never envisioned that it would cause me to make new friends but that's exactly what it's done! It's great to meet, talk to and share stories / experiences and recommendations with people that are interested in the same things. Twitter is a great way to meet new people with the same interests as you - it's like a dating site for friends - "must like food"!

Over the past year I've met a number of fellow Sydney bloggers, either one-on-one or in groups. But this past weekend was the first time I met Sydney bloggers en masse - and boy was it an eye opener! First of all, they are predominantly female. Secondly, they are then predominantly Asian. Thirdly, we all seem to have a sweet tooth - myself included!

For the Sydney food bloggers picnic, helpfully and generously organised by chocolatesuze and helen from grabyourfork, I made something that I thought would be easy, individual bite-sized and super tasty... so naturally I thought Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

Ingredients

48 Reese's minature peanut butter cups
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarb
1/2 teaspoon salt
225g butter at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a mini-muffin tray with butter or olive oil spray and put your peanut butter cups into the freezer. 
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together for 2 minutes or until creamy and light.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating constantly. Add the vanilla extract and beat for another 2 minutes until all well combined.
4. Add the flour, salt and bicarb to the mix and beat again for another 2 minutes until all combined.
5. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of mixture into each mini-muffin hole in the tray, flattening it with your fingers, until all are full. You will still have half the mixture left over. If you have 2 trays, fill the second, otherwise just leave the mixture for now.
6. Place tray in the oven for 8 minutes.Whilst they are in the oven, remove peanut butter cups from the freezer and unwrap them.
7. At 8 minutes, remove the trays from the oven and press one peanut butter cup into each mini-muffin of batter. Press them right down until the top of the peanut butter cup is level with the batter. Do this for all and then return the tray to the oven for another 4 minutes or until golden.
8. Remove tray from the oven, let it sit and cool for 30 minutes before removing from tray to a wire rack. When taking them out, use a butter knife to help you.
9. Leave to cool completely if you have the discipline to stay away!

Look at them fresh out of the oven, all melty!

These are great as the cookie base forms a tart-like pastry for the peanut butter cup. However, they are sinfully rich and indulgent so it helps that they are in bite sized pieces!

Hope my fellow food bloggers enjoyed them - it was lovely to meet you all and put faces to alter egos!

thesuzchef x

Oatmeal & banana muffins aka Up&Go muffins!

If you follow me on twitter, you'll all know that my parents in law are currently in town. If you know me personally, then you would know all about what they're like... hehehe. You may notice that there are lots of "parental recipes" on this blog - cakes and the like that I have made for my parents: usually consisting of fruit and devoid of icing. Well, my mother in law takes it one further. She wants me to somehow create miraculous delicious goods but without using butter, oil or sugar. Impossible!

Trying to be a good daughter in law, I came up with this recipe, modifying something that I saw in my all time favourite baking cookbook: The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. Although there is still butter and sugar in this, it is significantly less than anything else I've made before, and they turned out surprisingly good!  With the oats and banana, as I was making this, I kept on thinking that it's like a Weetbix Up and Go but in muffin form!

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and then cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a muffin tin with patty cases.
2. In a bowl, mix together the oats and the milk. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes.
3. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre.
4. Pour into the well the wet ingredients, the bananas and the oatmeal mix. Stir until just combined - take care to not overmix! Batter may be lumpy and that's ok.
5. Fill the muffin cases until about three-quarters full. Bake for 16-18 minutes until lightly golden or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with moist crumbs attached.
6. Remove from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire stand.

I was a little dubious about having oats in a muffin - thinking that they'd remain hard - but surprisingly, they dissolved away to nothing and it isn't even discernible that they are in there! Despite my mother in law's aversion to sugar, I couldn't help myself but to sprinkle a little cinnamon sugar on top of each muffin in the last three minutes of baking... hehehe.

So the verdict? They were fans!

So those are my Up&Go muffins - oat and banana - I think I'll definitely be making them again as they're perfect for breakfast or morning tea!

Happy baking!
thesuzchef x

M&M Cookies

For Christmas I gave my BFF a never-ending cookie jar. I handed her a jar filled with cookies, tied with a pretty festive bow, and the concept is that until next Christmas, I would bake and refill her cookie jar with new delicious goodies every few weeks! I had even prepared by purchasing more than one cookie jar so that I could do an exchange - a full jar for an empty one, and back and forth until the year comes to an end. So it's been a week since Christmas and I'm up for my first refill! I think I may be thoroughly sick of baking cookies by the end of the year
:-)

I had half an empty packet of mini M&M's in my fridge from a visit to the movies a few days ago, and thought that they'd make a colourful batch of cookies!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (170g), at room temperature
2/3 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup M&M's - original sized. If using mini M&M's, 1/2 cup will do

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes.
4. Beat in the egg and egg yolk, scraping down sides of the bowl.
5. Add the vanilla extract and beat for another minute or two until well combined.
6. Gradually add the flour mixture to the bowl, beating continuously until all combined.
7. Using a tablespoon, form the dough into balls and place onto the baking sheet. Flatten down with the palm of your hand and add the M&Ms onto the top, pressing into the dough.
8. Bake in your oven, one tray at a time for more consistent results, for 15 minutes. This will create a soft chewier cookie. It won't look done when you remove from the oven but they will firm upon cooling.
9. Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack until cooled completely.
10. Enjoy with a tall glass of icy cold milk!

These cookies are incredibly fun to look at - bright and cheerful, once they were in the jar, I couldn't help but smile.

Keep your eye out for a whole year's worth of cookie recipes!

thesuzchef x

So it's 2012...

Firstly, my apologies for not being a more conscientious blogger in the past month - I have no excuse other than Christmas, the end of year, work heating up, more parties, less time at home and the in-laws in town. I had started the silly season with the best intentions of baking and blogging - I had envisioned post after post of all these pretty creations that I churned out in my kitchen to give to loved ones. In the end, I had no time to do any of those things!

So how was everyone's Christmas? Mine was epic. I had my entire family + the hub's entire family over for Christmas lunch and I approached this event with all of my project management skills. The menu was decided weeks in advance, lists of groceries created, and a running sheet of what needed to be done in the week leading up to Christmas day. I spent the evening of Friday 23rd, the entire day of Saturday 24th and the morning of Christmas day itself preparing, cooking and cleaning and the lunch went off without a hitch. There are a few things that are non-negotiable when it comes to my family Christmas: ham - the bigger the better - and my well loved no fail tiramisu recipe. Just thinking about these things make me salivate!

Let's have a recap of 2011 shall we? For me, the biggest thing of the past year was how many new friends I made through this simple blog. This blog was started 12 months ago, just after Christmas 2010, as something purely and selfishly for myself. It was me indulging my love of baking, eating and writing and never did I imagine that it would lead to new friends. So to my fellow foodie bloggers out there - you are all kind, supportive and funny - and you have all turned me into a twitter addict!

My most popular post this year was the Reese's peanut butter cup cupcakes - with a lot of my readers for this coming from the good old U.S of A itself - hello international readers! I had readers from Israel and Brazil, and it humbles me that someone on the other side of the world is reading about my thoughts on food and looking at what I'm knocking out of my little kitchen.
 
I always get reflective at the end of a year and the start of a new one. Was 2011 my best year? No - it's pretty hard to beat 2010 when I spent half the year travelling and got married! However, 2011 was a year that gave me pause after the craziness of 2010. It was the year that I finally realised that my career isn't everything, the first time I have entertained making plans that offer alternatives to my corporate life. It is a year that I ate and baked and cooked and somehow managed to not stack it on - I think it's cos being a wife is a pretty tough gig! :-) It was a fun year, a light hearted and carefree year and 2012 promises to be bigger and better!

So readers, what can you expect from me this year? Well, more travel of course! The hub and I are heading off to the US in 3 weeks for a big big holiday and I can't wait! We'll be visiting LA, SF, Vegas and then spending over 2 weeks in NYC. It's a combination of road trip and city living and I've already and kindly been given carte blanche by the hubby to organise our eating itinerary. First thing I did? Google "New York Michelin 2011 list" and yes, we will be working our way through it!

Thank you for reading my blog and thank you for your comments, support and friendship. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a huge hangover this morning from last night's celebrations, and wishing you all the best for 2012.

Much love,
thesuzchef x