My Second Favorite Sandwich

My first favorite sandwich I only get to have about once a year, because it's only in Tallahassee at Hopkins.  So I guess this is my favorite sandwich to make at home.  It's REALLY easy, and it travels in pieces well, so you can take it all to work and then just make it there without worrying that it's going to get smushed, weird, and soggy on the way.


Avocado, Tomato, and Cheese Sandwich

First, toast up two slices of bread.  While they are in the toaster, slice up a few small tomatoes and some cheese.  Cut an avocado in half.

Next, take the toast out of the toaster.  Scoop the avocado out of its skin with a fork and mash half of it on each slice of bread.  If it's ripe enough and mostly soft this should be really easy.  If your avocado is still a bit on the unripe side, it might work better to just slice it up.

Top with tomatoes, salt, and pepper.  Feel free to add any other seasonings you'd like, but don't skip the salt.  It's key.

Top with the cheese.  Devour.

Super easy and healthy.  It took significantly longer for me to write this post about the sandwich than it did to make and eat it.  It's only going to get better as the better tomatoes come into season.  YUM!!!

What's your favorite sandwich? 

Finally FINALLY Grocery Shopping

So I haven't really cooked anything in the past week.  I've just been lazy and blah.  However, I finally broke out of my blahs and got it together and went to Shaw's.  I have a plan for most of this food.  Today I made my second favorite sandwich (my first favorite is the Cordon Blue from Hopkins at home) and salmon with zucchini and grits.  Tomorrow, the world.

So, here's what I bought.

Salad Mix (it's 50/50 Spring Mix and Spinach)
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Avocado
Zucchini
Beets

Bananas
Strawberries
Nectarines

Pierogies
Salsa
Dried Black Beans
Onions
Garlic

Milk
Fat Free Half and Half
Cheddar Cheese
Eggs
Cream Cheese
Greek Yogurt
Cottage Cheese

Pie Crust
Butter
Salmon
Tortillas

I do actually have a plan for most of this.  I'm soaking the beans now so that I can make some tacos, I had the salmon for dinner today, I'm going to make another quiche with tomatoes and goat cheese, and the rest of it is just general stuff that I eat regularly.  I haven't really figured out what to do with the beets yet.  I've never cooked them before and they're intimidating looking.

Any suggestions?!

Birthday Cake, Part Deux

Eek.  Sorry, I know you've all been on pins and needles, eagerly awaiting the post about the rest of the cake.  Namely, the frosting.  I had a super busy, fun weekend, and yesterday I had the monkey all day.  We went to the park and my face is kinda red now.  I guess at some point I should use sunscreen on my self in addition to the baby.

For some reason, I think that a lot of people are intimidated by making frosting from scratch.  Don't be, for the most part it follows a fairly simple outline: softened butter, flavoring (cocoa powder, lime juice, etc), and confectioners (aka powdered) sugar.  Then, you mix all that together, add liquid as needed to make it the right consistency and you're done.  I usually use cream/milk, but for a fruit flavored frosting, the fruit juice would be better; water or some kind of booze (if you're making that kind of cake) would also work fine.

Chocolate Frosting (adapted from Love and Olive Oil)

What you need:
3 Sticks of Butter, SUPER softened (if you're house is as freezing cold as mine is, put it in the oven with the light on overnight.  Or the microwave for like 15 seconds, you don't want it to melt though, so careful)
1 Cup Cocoa Powder
2-4 Cups Confectioners Sugar
Up to 1 Cup Cream
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Mix the butter until it's all fluffy-like.  This actually often helps soften it some, but it doesn't work unless it's fairly soft to begin with.  So don't be like me and think that if you just mix the ever loving crap out of it all day it will work, because then you'd be wrong and have a very tired arm.

Add in the cocoa powder and blend until well incorporated.

Begin adding the sugar, and add a touch of cream as needed.  Overall, I ended up using about 2 1/2 cups of sugar and maybe 1/3 of a cup of cream.  This is kind of a matter of personal taste; because this was going on the lemon cake, I didn't want it overly sweet.  But just taste as you go along and once it tastes how you want it to, you're done.  Finally, add in the vanilla.

Now, time for frosting the cake.  Honestly, I'm not very good at this, but practice makes perfect and I have a posse of peeps who don't care how it looks and are totally willing to eat the practice cakes.

First, you need to make sure that the cake is totally cool before you start.  At least two hours of sitting, and if you're not needing it that day, overnight.  If the cake is still warm, the frosting just melts right off.  Like this:

Second, invest in an offset spatula.  I got mine at Kitchen Witch for like $9.  You can also get them at this fancy French place that I love called Tar-jay.  It just makes the whole process easier.

Third, use only a little bit of frosting at first.  It makes it easier to spread evenly.

Fourth (I didn't do this), put some foil around the bottom of the serving dish so it's easier to clean up.  I just wiped the excess off the plate, but it would have looked nicer if I hadn't.

Fifth, DIG IN!!

Superb Sunday

Hey look, it's Sunday once again!  How lovely.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend and did some fun things.  It's finally fairly consistently nice here in Boston, so weekends are way more fun now.  I went to the Boston New York Food Truck Throwdown yesterday and had some amazing food.  Seriously, if you're local try out Mei Mei, it's so good.  And in NYC, Uncle Gussy's.  Then I went to a birthday party and took some cake.  It was delightful.  Full report on the frosting tomorrow and finished pictures of the cake.  I finally bought an offset spatula, so it was much more nicely iced than past attempts have been.  Also, Milton kind of has a girlfriend now.  Puppy preciousness.  And without further ado, superb things.

Superb Sweet Tooth

Well, this is basically the ultimate in sweet foods, it's a brownie with cookie dough frosting.  My teeth hurt just looking at it, but OMG AMAZING.

Superb DIY

Overall, my apartment is amazing.  However, in the great tradition of rentals, the appliances are a little old and grody.  However, some wall paper on the fridge would totally spruce things up for low cost.  And you can take it with you when you leave, so no one is annoyed (I'm looking at you, Boston area landlords who take every little thing out of the security deposit).

Superb Side

I think I ate a Brussels sprout for the first time about 3 years ago; it just wasn't something we had at home when I was growing up.  But, I tried them and they are delightful.  I personally think the best way to make any vegetables is to roast them.  These maple roasted ones with nuts look especially amazing.  Honestly, the addition of maple syrup is always a good plan.

Superb WTF

I'm actually not a big fan of bloody mary's to begin with; the tomato juice and I aren't really friends.  But this one, with it's 10 appetizer toppings...it's just absurd.  I mean, I'm sure that there are people who would love this, but ick.  WTF.

Superb Meatless Meal

I eat mostly vegetarian, especially at home.  It's just too much work to make meat for only one.  I'm not into the fake meats though - if I'm going to do it, I'm doing it right.  However, this meatless meatball subs aren't made with faux meat, they're made with mushrooms, and that is something I can totally get behind.  These are vegan, but I'd add cheese (I've yet to find something in this world that can't be improved with the addition of cheese).

Superb Dream House

In my dream world, I have a big big house, with lots and lots of rooms.  Clearly, all of my super fabulous jet setting friends would need a comfortable place to stay on their travels, and what better than these bunk beds with queen beds at the bottom?  Oh who am I kidding, I want a giant guest room so no one has to worry about how they're getting home.  You could cram a bagillion people in here.

Superb Light Lunch

I've always loved quiche.  When I was a kid, that's what I wanted for my special you can have whatever you want today birthday dinner (yea, I was kind of a weird kid).  The tomatoes are amazing roasted, and if they're starting to get kind of wrinkled, roasting them is a great way to save them.  And, say it with me people, goat cheese changes lives.

Superb Precious Pupster

I wonder what Milty would do if I put him in a baby swing?  Probably not sit nicely so I could take a picture, that's for darn sure.

Birthday Cake!!

So one of my neighbors is having a birthday party tomorrow, and I figured what better to take to a birthday party than a birthday cake?  Nothing, the answer to that question is nothing.  So I found this amazing recipe for Lemon Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting at Love and Olive Oil and I'm making it.  As always, I have made a change or two based on my own laziness, so it's two layers instead of three.  And there is cream instead of whole milk because I don't really have much use for whole milk and cream at the same time.

Lemon Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting

For the Cake:
3 Cups of Cake Flour (I actually used pastry flour because I totally thought they were the same thing and that's what they had at Harvest.  Apparently, they are not the same, but the Googles told me that it's going to be fine regardless)
2 1/2 Cups White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 Cups Butter, softened and cut into chunks (that's 3 sticks, FYI)
1 Cup Whole Milk, divided (I used cream because you need that for the frosting and I'm too cheap to buy both if the remainder is just gonna go bad)
5 Eggs
4 Teaspoons Lemon Zest (The original recipe says that's 4 lemons worth, but she was using Meyer lemons, which I think are smaller.  I did 4 lemons worth of regular and I have a lot leftover)
3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice (Again, I have a lot leftover.  Mix it with some vodka and seltzer and have a cocktail.  Also, please for the love of God use actual lemons for this, the stuff in the plastic lemon is for your hair)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Very first, take the butter out of the fridge and cut it into cubes.  Let it sit somewhere not freezing for a while to soften.  Then go do something else for an hour or so (I cleaned my room).

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl.

Add the butter and 3/4 cup of the milk/cream.  Blend until it is evenly moist, then blend on medium until it become fluffy.  You need a really big bowl for this, I ended up switching it into a spaghetti pot.

Zest and juice the lemons.

Add the lemon zest and juice to the eggs, reminder of the cream, and vanilla.  Beat together.

Add this by thirds into the flour/butter mixture, mixing well to incorporate each time.

Put into two WELL GREASED pans.  Seriously, one of the cakes stuck and parts of it crumbled.  Tragic.

Put into an oven, preheated to 350 and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a fork comes out clean.  Add your favorite frosting and enjoy!!

Finished pictures will come with the frosting post....

I'm Back :)

So I kinda dropped off the face of the planet for a few days here.  Oops.  I guess it started with the Friday we had all sorts of awfulness happening in Boston, and although I had plenty of time to write a million blog posts (not being allowed to go places creates this), it seemed rude to be writing about my eating habits while people were getting shot at. 

Then, my mom and sister came for a weekend.  We had SO much fun and found some lovely dresses for the wedding in August.  We also ate A LOT.  Of course, I don't have any pictures, except for this one of a snack plate we had at the apartment one afternoon.  But, we ate at James' Gate, Bukhara, this amazing place in the North End, Legal, Ole, and Rox Diner.  Overall, a success.

A few more snapshots

My dress

Milton was giving Catherine's suitcase the stink eye.  Then he just turned around because he didn't want to think about it anymore.  We were both really upset that they left.

I made this quiche, with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, and some scallions that came all the way from Portland.  It was AWESOME.

New Running Shoes!

Now I'm back on the health train.  Christy and I have started theCouch to 5K once again.  We have completed 2 days and are going again on Friday.  Milton loves it because he has double the legs that I do, therefore it's easier for him to run.  And there are geese.  I'm also doing this May Plank Challenge.  Right now, it's only 10 seconds.  We'll see how it goes as the month goes on.

So, what's next for Cooking with Milton?  Well, now that I'm back to babysitting I have more free time to cook and blog, so lots.  Since I'm trying to eat healthier myself, probably more vegetables and the like.  Also, my neighbors have 2 giant gardens and we've gone in together to get a CSA, which should start arriving (well being picked up, but whatever) the beginning of June, so we might be overrun.  Which is great, because that will just make more creative recipes.  I have a few ideas, but I'm really looking forward to the random things that they add to the box that I haven't cooked with before.  Those are my faves.  Also, since I have this fancy new camera, I'd like to learn how to really use it.  I'm gonna hit up the library and see if they have a book, but I'm also thinking about taking a class as well.  Besides, lots of adorable romcoms start with some girl taking a class, right?  Yea.