Beer Onion Chive Cheese (BOCC) Bread

Two weeks! That's the amount of time that's passed since I last blogged. And that's much too long! Where does the time go? Since school has ended, I've somehow been much busier....hmmmm. That doesn't seem right!

But anyway, I do actually have a recipe for you here. It's a delicious quick bread made with beer. Can you go wrong with adding beer? I don't think so! As you can read from the title, this bread also contains onions, chives, and cheese. YUMMM! I've made this recipe a few times now. It's super simple in terms of the steps and the ingredients involved. Have I mentioned that you can't go wrong with this recipe? ;-) I found this recipe in Cooking Light, and here is a link to it for you.

There are multiple variations you can make with this bread, depending on the type of beer you choose to add, the type of cheese, and any herbs you might also add. There are probably endless combinations! The link I gave you above shares some suggestions of ingredients to add, but be creative and add other things too! This past time while making this bread, I used good ol' cheddar cheese and a pilsner style beer (see below - gotta love Sam Adams!). And then I added fresh, chopped chives from our garden! I think the addition of fresh herbs is a must in this recipe. :)

Here are a few more pictures of the process for you.

Sauteed onions!

Dry ingredients, onions, and cheese...

I like this picture of the addition of the beer...all foamy and yummy! The baker is allowed to drink any leftover beer, of course. ;-)

Mmmmm, fresh chives.

Ready for the oven!

Or wait, is it ready?

Nope, it also needs some butter or margarine drizzled over top before baking!

Final product! Soooo good. I prefer to eat this bread warm or toasted. I don't add any extra butter to it, but if you prefer that, I say go for it. But I just think it's delicious as is! And remember, it's a Cooking Light recipe...

No guilt as long as you enjoy in moderation. ;-)

Hope to see you again soon...sooner than two weeks from now!!

Candy Pizza!

Yes, candy pizza...you read correctly! Apparently I like to make pizzas that are not your typical tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings... Remember my Breakfast Pizza post? Yummmm. Actually, I do love making regular pizza at home, but I just haven't blogged about it yet. I'll have to do that soon! In the meantime, I'll share with you a very fun recipe for a dessert-themed pizza. :)

My mom used to make a delicious candy pizza for us when we were younger, and that was my inspiration for this one. When I decided to make this the other day, I was not planning ahead very well and I did not have time to chat with my mom beforehand to get her recipe, so sadly this is not the same original recipe she used to make. However, it is very close in terms of its flavors, toppings, and overall deliciousness! You can read the recipe that I followed here. It's from good ol' Betty Crocker!

Now, the main difference between the recipe I used and the one my mom used to make is the crust...  Both pizzas have a peanut butter crust, but my mom's was from scratch, whereas I used the shortcut of Betty Crocker's peanut butter cookie mix, pictured below.

You can read the exact instructions in the link provided above, but essentially this recipe simply involves making the crust with the peanut butter cookie mix, oil, and an egg and pressing it into a pizza pan, after which you add whatever toppings your heart desires!

I added dry roasted peanuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips...

...and butterscotch chips and dark chocolate m&m's.

You bake those toppings for a while before adding the mini marshmallows (which I like to think of as the pizza's "cheese"!!).

The marshmallows only bake for the last 7-8 minutes or so.

Look at them all puffy and fluffy! :-D

For a fun touch at the end I drizzled on some chocolate syrup and caramel sauce...

And that's all there is to it, friends! This recipe literally takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. Sooo easy! I think it'd be such a super fun recipe for kids too. They'd love to pick out some of the yummy candy toppings and put them on the pizza themselves, I bet! I think it'd be tasty to add different types of candy bars or candies, chopped into smaller pieces... Reese's peanut butter cups? Snickers? Milky Way? Hello!! 

I've got a busy week, but I hope to post again before the weekend is here...we shall see! Stay tuned for more yummy Barbershop goodies. ;-)

Summertime Strawberry Dessert

Welcome back and happy 4th of July weekend, all! This is a special Barbershop post... Are you wondering why? Well, it's my 60th post! 60! And in honor of this milestone, I thought I'd share a yummy, cool summertime dessert that is red, white, and blue, which is obviously appropriate for the holiday! Here you go. :)

I was looking for something cool and summery to bring to a friend's going-away party. The recipe I ended up with is a combination of a couple different recipes. I did not follow one exactly to a "t," as you might say. What I ended up making was inspired by this Strawberry Pretzel Squares recipe and this Tropical Strawberry Cream Pie recipe.

Essentially, this dish was a graham cracker crust recipe, topped with a cream cheese/cool whip/sugar layer, which was then topped with a jello/fruit layer, as you can see in this picture below. :)

I'll share with you the ingredients I used as best I can... I have to honestly say that I did not always measure exactly! Since I wasn't baking something that is "scientific" (ya know, something that needs flour, baking soda, baking powder, etc.), I figured I could improvise a bit!

-1 and 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

-5 Tbsp. of butter or margarine, melted

-2 cups cool whip (I used light)

-8 oz. softened cream cheese (I used light)

-1/4 cup sugar

-instant JELLO gelatin, strawberry flavored (I used two packages that were each 4-serving size)

-3/4 cup boiling water

-1 cup ice

-1 cup sliced strawberries

-1 cup blueberries

Now, as far as the jello goes, you can certainly use whichever flavor you like! I actually used one package of strawberry flavored gelatin and one of raspberry; you can see their different colors here! They were also sugar-free.

You could switch up the fruit you use as well. It's your call! That's the beauty of recipes like this. Another change you could make is what you use for the crust. I used graham cracker crumbs, but the two recipes I worked from used even different items - one used crushed pretzels and one used crushed vanilla wafers. Yum to either of those options!!

Here are your instructions:

Mix the crushed graham crackers with the melted butter. Press this mixture into a 9-inch pan (I used a square glass pan, but you could probably even use a pie plate).

Next, with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Then gently mix in the cool whip with a spoon or spatula. Top the graham cracker layer with the cool whip layer.

Add the boiling water to the gelatin and mix until the gelatin is fully dissolved; then stir in the ice until it's melted. The jello should be very slightly starting to solidify at this point.

Next, mix in your fruit and refrigerate the jello mixture for 5 minutes or until it's thickened but still "spreadable." At that point, top the cool whip layer with the jello and fruit mixture.

Refrigerate the entire dish for 4 hours or until set (mine was fine after 2 hours actually!). 

When I served this, I topped each slice with the remaining cool whip too...everyone got a dollop. I just really wanted to use the word dollop. :) This dessert was definitely a hit with our friends! I'm always a little nervous when I try new recipes for the first time, but once people had their first bites, I knew it was a keeper. Unless they were just trying to humor me, they indicated that this is a very delicious dessert! Perhaps the next time I make it I'll try different flavored jello or a new type of fruit! I bet peach jello with fresh peaches and pineapple would be good. Mmmmm, I can almost taste it now. ;-) And it tastes like summer to me!

See you next time, and once again, happy 4th of July!

Fish Tacos with Mango-Peach Salsa

Why hello! As I have been saying often lately, "long time" no see. I still haven't been blogging as often as I'd like since school has ended. I don't know where the time goes! Anyway, let's just get right to it here, shall we? Although the recipe I'm about to share does include baking, it's not in the typical Barbershop baking realm that most of my posts are. I am sharing a dinner recipe for a change! No breakfast or dessert for you here. ;-)

I made these fish tacos for my boyfriend Mike's birthday a couple weeks ago. They were deeelicious, and I would definitely make them again! It was such a simple, tasty, and healthy meal...the best combination, if you ask me. :)

I was inspired by a recipe in my latest Cooking Light magazine issue. I looove Cooking Light! I found the same recipe online here. The fish recipe I semi-followed, but I didn't really follow the mango salsa verde recipe that's provided on that link. As for the tacos, I used cod instead of tilapia (any white, flaky fish would probably do just fine!). To prepare the fish, I simply brushed the fillets with some olive oil, and then sprinkled on some seasoning; I used the Great King Salmon seasoning and rub you see in the picture below. Yum!

Choose whatever spices you'd like for your fish! I'm sure anything goes really. I also squeezed some fresh lemon juice overtop of the fillets, but that was it! Easy easy. I broiled the fillets for maybe 8 minutes or so? I'm not really sure actually...sorry! I broiled them until the fish meat flaked pretty easily with a fork. I love that fish doesn't take too long to cook. It makes it an easy go-to weeknight meal!

Here are the fillets, before they are broiled.

And here they are after they're cooked!

Once the fillets were cooked, I just used a fork to create smaller pieces of fish to put into the tortillas. I bought whole wheat tortillas, and I heated each one briefly in a pan on the stove. I'd highly recommend doing that! Eating the tortillas warm really makes the dish yummier, I think.

Now I must share the salsa part! This salsa was very fun to make, and I just love how colorful it is too. Check it out!

I didn't follow an exact recipe to make this, but I'll share approximate measurements with you here:

-1/2 grilled peach, chopped

-1/2 grilled mango, chopped

-1 plum tomato, deseeded and chopped

-1/3 cucumber, chopped

-1/3 red onion, finely chopped (so maybe 3 Tbsp or so?)

-2 or 3 tsp. fresh chives, chopped

-3 or 4 tsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

-1 or 2 tsp. fresh lime juice

-1/4 tsp. black pepper

-1/4 tsp. chili powder

You'll noticed that I said grilled peach and mango. I thought I'd try grilling the fruit before adding it. I'm not sure if it added a different flavor really, but it was something fun to try anyway! I originally wasn't going to add cucumber, but I wasn't sure if I was going to have enough salsa overall for the two of us (as it turns out, it was plenty), so I added some chopped cucumber to make it a little more substantial. I would say that the red onion and fresh cilantro are must-haves in a fruit salsa like this! All in all, it was a wonderful combo of ingredients that really complimented the fish well. Here are a few pics of the steps along the way as I was making the salsa. :)

Now I bet you're wondering what we drank with our fish tacos and mango-peach salsa...  I thought so! The weekend before Mike's birthday we were down in Westport, MA for a wedding, and we stopped at the Just Beer brewery there for a tasting. We bought a growler of their Golden Flounder beer, which is an excellent wheat, summery beer. I was in looooove with this beer, people! It was very refreshing, citrusy, and drinkable...mmmmm. It paired very nicely with our dinner too!

To round out the meal, I prepared a very simple side salad with just greens, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Here is another shot of our dinner.

I forgot to take a picture of dessert, but a while back I had frozen some mini bundt cakes that were the same double chocolate cake recipe I had used to make cupcakes for Jenn's bridal shower last month. They froze quite well! I also bought some really yummy Edy's "vanilla sandwich" ice cream. Soooo good. I'd highly recommend trying this flavor, if you haven't yet. It's a very tasty treat!

I know this is a little late now, but a very special happy birthday to Mike!!! :)

I hope to return to the Barbershop again soon for another recipe... I have several waiting in the line-up right now!

The Barefoot Contessa's Addictive Blueberry Muffins

WARNING! You are about to read a blog post about some of the best tasting blueberry muffins out there!!

Okay, you've been warned.

Now you can read on. :)

I made these muffins last week for our weekly lab meeting at work. I think I've mentioned this meeting before... We all take turns each week bringing in breakfast, and typically, people bring in bagels (which are always a fun treat!). But I always like to take my turn as an opportunity to bake something yummy to share! This time around for lab meeting, I made these blueberry muffins and a beer cheese bread (blog post is planned soon about that one too!).

Blueberries!!!!

I used a recipe from Ina Garten, the Food Network's Barefoot Contessa. I have made a few of her recipes now, and I have to say, she hasn't let me down yet! Her recipes have all been delicious, and this one for blueberry muffins is no exception! You can check out her recipe for them here. She calls them "Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins." The only thing I did differently was add yogurt in place of the sour cream since I did not have sour cream on hand. You can read about other possible sour cream substitutes here if you'd like. I tend to prefer the taste of yogurt to sour cream anyway, so I almost always use yogurt when I bake instead of sour cream! I did use real butter, as the recipe calls for; that may have made them exceptionally yummy too... Sometimes I opt for margarine in lieu of butter, but I went for the real thing this time! Oh right, and I also added a bit of fresh lemon juice - maybe 1 or 2 tablespoons or so? The original recipe doesn't call for lemon juice.

Mmmmm, here's the batter. 

And here is a platter of the tasty muffins, ready for my coworkers to consume!

And below are some pictures of a muffin I ate... Or, was it hoops and yoyo who ate it?!? I may have given them a nibble or two. ;-)

Super sad - it's all gone! :-(

I can't quite put my finger on what it was that made these muffins so delicious... All I know is that they were very moist and quite flavorful. To be honest, I was actually going to add a streusel topping of sorts too, but I got lazy and didn't! And as it turns out, these muffins did not need a streusel topping at all! They were delicious on their own.

Oh, also of note, this recipe makes a lot of muffins! The recipe says it makes 16 muffins...but for me, this recipe made 12 regular-sized muffins, 24 mini ones, AND 1 mini loaf! That's a lot of blueberry goodness. :-D

Now it's your turn to go make some muffins bursting with flavor! I bet you can't eat just one. ;-) See you next time!

Overnight Oats

Hi all! Welcome back. There have been a few more days than usual between my last post and this one...ever since graduation, I've been even busier than usual, it seems! Funny how that works... I've been meaning to blog before now, but it just hasn't been possible!

This post is a bit different from the typical Barbershop recipe, as it doesn't even involve any baking. Uh oh! But rest assured, even though this doesn't involve baking, I think you will want to try this recipe. :) I may have mentioned Kath Eats Real Food previously; this is a blog by a woman who's devoted to eating healthy, "real" food. She blogs about everything she eats...yes, everything! It's a little crazy if you ask me. But then again, for her it's her job (she has a sort of business attached to it) so she's somewhat obligated to do it! I couldn't imagine that though, sharing everything I eat with the world. And she has thousands of followers too, so there are a lot of people out there who knows every bit of food that Kath eats day in and day out!

One of Kath's common breakfasts, especially when she's short on time, is her famous overnight oats. This recipe essentially consists of soaking oats in liquid overnight, and then voila, they're ready for breakfast the next morning! There's no cooking necessary at all! Kath offers many different suggestions on her site about various combinations of ingredients for her overnight oats, and you can check them out on the link I provided above. For my first time making this the other night, I chose to use some ingredients I had on hand, which you can see below. You can also see a bit of the bouquet of flowers that Mike got me for graduation last week in the back there. :-D

Here are all the ingredients I used:

-1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

-1/2 cup skim milk

-1/2 cup Dannon Light n' Fit vanilla yogurt

-one half banana, sliced

-1/4 cup (approximately, I didn't measure) sliced almonds

-1 tsp. or so of peanut butter (just for a little extra flavor and protein!)

When you make your oats, you should add equal amounts of oats, milk, and yogurt. Any type of milk will work too, depending on your preferences (regular, almond, soy, etc.), as will any type of yogurt (flavored, greek, etc.). And then you can go "wild" with your other ingredients! The only thing to keep in mind is that all of the ingredients will be a bit on the soggy side when you eat the oatmeal mixture the next morning, so I'd recommend staying away from adding anything that you don't want to taste soggy (maybe cereal?). Kath has a ton of suggestions on her site for other additions. Some ideas beyond what I added in mine this time include various fruits (berries!), flaxseeds, different nuts, pumpkin, spices (I'd go for cinnamon :)), maybe a little jam or jelly, maple syrup, etc. You name it, you could put it in your overnight oats! Here is a picture of my ingredients in the tupperware before I mixed them all together.

And then here they are again, all mixed and ready to sit overnight in the fridge!!

I liked a few things in particular about this recipe... For one, it was suuuper easy. If you like to eat a healthy breakfast to start your day, this is a great way to do it. It's especially great if you're a busy person who doesn't have a lot of time in the morning (or maybe that's because you like to snooze a few times? ;-)). All it takes is 5 minutes (tops!) to put these oats together the night before. I did eat my oats cold, and I liked them a LOT. I suppose you could heat them up, but I think the recipe is intended to be eaten cold. It's definitely worth a shot though to warm them in the microwave if you think you'd prefer that! The recipe was delicious and filling; it held me over for a few hours after I ate it. Typically, I have something lighter for breakfast and I'm hungry again for a mid-morning snack within two hours or so! But these held me almost until lunch time, I'd say. If you know you're going to have a busy day at work or school, I'd highly recommend starting off your day with a tasty combo of ingredients in the form of overnight oats. You'll enjoy them, I promise! And that's a Barbershop guarantee. ;-)

Oh, and here are my favorite Hallmark characters, hoops and yoyo, helping me eat my overnight oats at my desk at work. :-P