Maps!

Little break from the cooking but I was really happy with my last crafty project.

I've always liked the 'Where I've been' maps that you see in hostels, restaurants, and even the online app.  I've looked at a couple different ways of doing it at home.  Including mounting a map on a large cork board, scratch off maps, wall decals ect.  But I found it is hard to make something that doesn't look like I live in a hostel or dorm room.

There is also the problem of framing.  MrFP got a large Asia map, and we had a hard time trying to find a reasonable frame for it's unusual dimensions.
I ended up hanging it with two $1 pants hangers from ikea.

So for my travel maps I chose to break it up a bit.  Since, for the time being, we have only been to three continents, I made three maps.  I google imaged - blank outline maps - and found blank outlines of North America, South America and Europe.  I specifically looked for North America ones with province and state lines.

The colours represent places each of us has been.
Green = me
Blue = MrFP
Red = both of us

They worked out pretty well!  And they will be easy to update or, one day, even add a continent.

Banana Oat Cookies

Like most people I spend an embarrassing amount of time on pinterest. And like all of those people I have a huge list of things to try and do/make, many of which will probably not actually work.  But here is an exception - these were so good!

These cookies have no milk, no eggs, and no butter but still had a cookie texture.

Banana Oat Cookies

3 bananas

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 crushed walnuts

1/2 cup peanut butter

Then you just mash them all together until the bananas are broken down and it starts to look like cookie batter.  I found a fork was the easiest mashing utensil. 

Use a spoon and put your cookies on pans.  I got about 9 good sized cookies out of this recipe.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

So good! I couldn't stop eating them!  I will be making these a lot, great little snack and a good way to get rid of those extra bananas. 

Popsicles! - Strawberry Peach, Watermelon, and Mimosa

Virginia summers are hot!  Really hot.
And so naturally we have been going through boxes and boxes of popsicles.
We recently got a homemade popsicle mold and I figure just maybe I should start using it.  The bad side to these is it takes up a pretty good chunk of the freezer.  However, that is the end of the cons.

Pros - no corn syrup - grocery store popsicles have a ton of added sugar
        - even if you buy 'natural' popsicles - they have those little gross chunky fruit bits in them
        - all the flavours you can think of!

Now I realize it may just be me that thinks the chunky fruit bits are gross, but they are.  I don't like them in yogurt either - gross.  But at home I can make healthier popsicles with no grossness!

Here are the three popsicle recipes I've tried recently:

Mimosa Popsicles
After the wedding we ended up with a couple bottles of champagne and no one to drink it but me so I've been finding alternative ways to use it.  Obviously I can't finish a whole bottle at once and it goes flat pretty fast, but like old wine, you can always cook with it.

These were just half OJ and half champagne.  I think next time I would either add a little sugar or only use 1/3 champagne.  They were good but a little dry.
Also, due to the bubbles, they freeze a little weird. Lots of little air pockets.

Strawberry Peach Popsicles

1/2 cup raspberries
16 oz bag of frozen peaches (thawed)
16 oz bag of frozen strawberries (thawed)

Just blend everything up. Don't worry if it is really thick.  Depending on our fruit you may want to add a bit of sugar, just taste it and see if you want it sweeter.
To get rid of the seeds (and the chunky things) I ran the mix through a strainer before pouring in the mold.

And last but definitely not least - these were excellent!

Watermelon Popsicles

1/4 of a watermelon diced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup raspberries
sugar (optional)

Blend everything together.  Again taste for sweetness, add a bit of white sugar until it is to your tasting.  Watermelon tends to be, well - watery.  So the sweetness will change with every different melon.
Again I ran it through the strainer to get rid of the seeds.

I love these molds! And as a bonus they are a great colour when I keep making red.pink popsicles in them.

Leesburg Burgers - MELT

Sometimes my job requires travel and travel means new food!
This was just a close trip to Leesburg, Virginia - so MrFP and I made a little day of it.  After I was done with the work things, we went to the Ball's Bluff Battlefield Park.

MrFP is a historian and even at a battlefield that he was less familiar with, he still flipped into tour guide mode pretty fast.  I married a walking guide book.

After our educational walk though the park we decided we had earned a good dinner.  Top of all the lists for Leesburg food came Melt - Gourmet Cheeseburgers.
http://www.meltgourmetcheeseburgers.com/

And the ratings did not steer us wrong!  This burger was excellent.

Not only was the cooked to order meat fantastic, but with all of the creative combinations left us wanting to try everything.  I finally decided on the Paris burger - which was topped with roasted garlic, a big slice of melty brie, balsamic glazed onions and extremely fresh spinach.

MrFP had the Diner Blue Plate Special - topped with bacon, pimento cheese, lettuce, tomato, house sauce ans (his favorite part) a perfectly cooked over easy egg.  And I mean perfectly cooked, I watched with jealousness as the yolk poured over everything.

Now let me talk about the bread - oh my goodness.  They bake it daily and you can tell.  We decided the best way to describe these buns was that it tasted like a tasty tasty biscuit.

One last little note.  Melt has a partnership with the local animal shelter.  Not only do they help raise money for the animals, they also help them find a home.

Coffee Cake Cookies

We loooove coffee cake and we loooove cookies so this recipe - http://www.ohbiteit.com/2013/01/coffee-cake-cookies.html - looked really good.

Meh it was ok.
First of all mine did not turn out near as tasty looking as the original.

Secondly, like the original poster, I love the crumbly struesel stuff. Sooo very much.  But this one was only so-so.  It turned out a little more crunchy sugary than I like.  I also find the store bought portion overly sweet.

But anyways, enough complaining, here is the original.  I made a couple changes in the glaze but I posted both here:

Coffee Cake Cookie
1 roll of store bought sugar cookie dough

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup brown sugar          
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons water

1. In one bowl mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter until butter is broken down.  I used a pastry blender but you can also use a fork.
2. In another bowl mix brown sugar, vanilla, and water
                          OR
2. Make a mixture of icing sugar, vanilla, and room temperature coffee.  Just start with the sugar and add liquid until it is the consistency you want.

3. Distribute the cookie dough on a baking sheet as you normally would.  I started with little balls and then flattened them with a spoon to make a little dip to but the crumble stuff in.

4. Cover the cookies with the crumble.
5.  Bake following the instructions on the dough wrapper.

6. Drizzle the icing/glaze over each cookie

I make coffee cake about once a month and have tried a few recipes now.  The annoying this about most of them is that there is generally no coffee in coffee cake.  Which is why I changed the glaze for this cookie, to make a coffee flavoured icing.

But I may try this recipe again with my own sugar cookie recipe and the icing and crumble from my favorite cake.  Probably just settle for the cake for now.

Vacation Food!! - Bar Harbor, Maine

Although I travel pretty often for work, it's rare that I am able to go on an actual vacation.  Due to the recent rearrangement of summer plans I was able to go to Maine with MrFP and his family.  I have never been to Maine but MrFP has been going to Bar Harbor every summer since he was in kindergarten.

From knowing the best lobster pound, to the best place to get a blueberry pie, and even a place we could find our own fresh mussels - I had the best guides possible.

On our first full day the usual lobster pound was closed so we went to another down the street and got the hard shells above.  They were good and all but a few days later we went to the 'good' one and I see now why this is the favorite.

This place was so cool!
The boiler pots were outside with wood fires burning underneath.  Bags of lobster, corn and clams come out with number tags.  You can see our little 55 cooking!

And they are done!

To go with our tasty lobsters we had fresh mussels.  And I mean fresh - we kayaked out to a little rocky seaweed covered shore with a bucket.  At first we didn't find much, but as the tide went out we found a whole bucket full!
My mother in law boiled these till they opened in just water and ginger.  They were excellent, you could really taste the difference between the fresh ones and mussels we had earlier in the week.

Did you know mussels make pearls? I do now - my first one had a whole mouthful of them!

Looking forward to next year!

Brown Sugar Butter Baked Peaches

I love cooked fruit - grilled, baked, sauced.  I've never had it fried but I'm sure I'd love that to.

We had some peaches to eat before we go on vacation this week so thought I'd give this one a try.

Alright, might just be me, but cutting pitted fruit in half is surprisingly tricky.  Usually I make things that don't require the fruit staying intact - this was not one of those recipes...
That being said, I did figure it out eventually.

Cut all the way around the pit.  With a hand on each side of the fruit, twist in opposite directions.  Now theoretically it should come apart with a whole on one side and the pit on the other.  Then use a parring knife to cut out the pit, mine were stuck in there pretty darn good.

A lot of this depends on your personal preference of sugar and spice but here is what I used -

2 peaches
4 teaspoons butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar
Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Place your nicely halved peaches skin down in a baking dish.
3. In each half put 1 teaspoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of sugar and sprinkle cinnamon to taste.
4. Bake for 30 minutes

You can see my terribly cut peach on the left
Oh well - tasted good