A Classic...Lemon Bars

Okay real life got in the way again, and I haven't been able to hangout here.  In the world of sweets, with delicious things baking in the oven.  I spent about 9 days in California, planning the largest meeting I have ever been a part of with a fantastic team.  Before that, it was really just late nights in the office with little time for after work baking of blogging.  So these are way over due for posting, and were made at the request of Charles' co-workers...shout out the Manhattan team at CoStar.  These are being posted for you.  These are some seriously delicious lemon bars though, sweet and the right amount of tart lemon flavor.  A bit time consuming, because of how long it takes to squeeze lemons...but if I had a juicer it would definitely save me some time...guess that's my own fault.  Oh well.  Enjoy!

Some fun pictures from California...

I do love running in new places, especially finding new routes in California

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake with Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I have been trying to read more "fun" books lately to try and take my mind off of all of the work of real life.  Sometimes the fun books are completely different than my life and other times they hit closer to home than I might have originally started out thinking.  The most recent book had a quote that I knew immediately I wanted to share because it really clicked with me...

"Interesting how garbled and confusing the past becomes under the anesthesia of time.  You try to count the years and make come sense of them, but almost immediately they blur and become one bit thing.  The past."  

                                            -Beth Harrison(Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave him the Wrong Finger)

I have this feeling often, because I hate to admit that I totally still ponder about things in the past.  Not that I regret them, but there are still times I wonder how something went in the direction it did at the time.  There are still moments where I can't help but wonder...Why?  I know they will all blur as I move into the future and live in the present moment; like how I sometimes forget I have made and shared some of the recipes I have here on this blog. Some days I think I am having a new and interesting idea for something to bake, and then I realize...oh wait...no I have made that before.  

This one is definitely different new though, as the birthday boy I made it for came up with a list of potential things I could make, but his one request was to make it on here.  So...this is for you Adam.  Thanks for all of the ideas and taking my combination of two of them.  I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your birthday dessert!  

Baked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Glaze

You would think I would learn and maybe go to the doctor, but its that time of year again where my allergies kick-in.  Literally in less than 12 hours, I got back from Chicago on a Friday around 2 a.m., went to bed and woke up with a stuffy nose.  This is seriously a yearly occurrence, but instead of going to the doctor I just deal with it, drink some tea, and do things in my free time that make me feel better...like making donuts. Donuts I have been dreaming about since I made these chocolate ones back in August.  Plus, these are my first attempt to step my toe into the fall...I am not fully ready to pull my boots out of the closet or the pumpkin out of the pantry, but I am ready for the warm flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.  

These donuts came out exactly like I had literally hoped and dreamed they would.  They have the great warm flavors of cinnamon and ginger with the nutmeg and cloves leaving you wondering what the extra spices are.  I took James advice and tried out coconut on some, but topped other with my preference, toasted pecans to go along with the cream cheese glaze.  So you choose, but either way I would definitely recommend giving these a dry. Enjoy!

Late Summer Vegetable Tart

This has been a crazy month with things really starting to pick up at work.  The month started with a Sunday watching triathletes and wishing I was one, when I in fact was only there to run the 10K portion of the race.

Then the following weekend I was off to Chicago for work.  Since we finished up early on Saturday, Amy and I played tourist and went for a bike ride around the city.  The only problem was, I somehow ended up with a men's bike that was WAY to big for me.  Oh and I totally tried to poorly ride my the hybrid bike I was on through sand...which almost resulted in me falling with the bike into the lake.  

Deconstructed Turtle Cake

One of my simple joys in life is getting to bake for people, especially new people.  I love seeing their reactions when they try a dessert, because I like to view them as "semi-unbiased" taste testers. Last weekend I had the honor of baking a birthday cake as a surprise for the former CEO of a large health system in the northwest and a long time member of the company I work for.  I wanted to make something he would really enjoy, so I did a little baking detective work. I began by first asking his daughter what she thought I should make...something "turtle" or a hula pie was her response.  Then to get a second opinion I asked his son...how about a chocolate mousse cake?  Since they ended up giving me very differing ideas, I called his admin who decided I should go for the "turtle" cake.

The result was this cake.  I thick single layer devils food cake, frosted just on the top with salted caramel frosting.  Then a layer of toasted chopped pecans drizzled with semi-sweet chocolate and salted caramel sauce.  This came out perfect moist, with fluffy frosting, crunchy pecans and the drizzle of chocolate and caramel on top, really make this a sort of deconstructed turtle cake.  This cake is very rich and full of flavor, but I knew it would be and that is why I left this cake naked on the sides.  This is the perfect cake for any one who likes chocolate, salted caramel and pecans...aka turtle candies.  Also, if cupcakes are more your thing, you could definitely turn these into cupcakes.  Either way, cake or cupcakes, both are delicious.  Enjoy!

This recipe required two types of caramel...both salted but slightly different.

Cinnamon Mocha Cupcakes...a request from my dad

There is something going on here.  I don't mean here like in this blog, let's be real these are really just my wandering random thoughts for the day including this one.  What I mean is here in the world...Going south sometimes I realize how much inequality there still is between races, genders and even sexual orientation.  Somehow living in D.C. I sometimes forget this because of simply how many different people there are.  Living here, well any big city I guess, you meet so many different people, and make friends that are literally from all over the world.  True, people do clump together in groups, I just hung out with a group of people the other night and 95% of them went to Florida State, but those groups will always at times run into other groups like different puddles converging.