Housewarming Weekend... Literally

It's that time!  Time to celebrate our successful move in to our mansion.  The six of us are all settled in and we cannot wait to spend some time with our friends this evening in our new house.  Adam's outside painting the corn hole sets, Joe S. and Lisa are picking weeds on our back deck, Joe Z's at work making the moolah to pay for this shindig (jk), and I've been in the kitchen since 6 p.m. last night baking up a storm.  The oven has been on for at least 8 hours in the last 24 so I can literally say that our house is warm.   Nothing says 'welcome home' like the smell of a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies coming out of the oven, and that is precisely how I plan on greeting our guests this evening.  I've been busy so you can look forward to recipes for oreo pops, cake pops, brownies, mini blueberry cheesecakes, mini peanut butter cheesecakes, and cheese straw recipes in the coming weeks!   Cheese straws?  Yup.  For some strange reason, I got the idea in my mind that it was only proper for a southern girl such as myself to serve cheese straws at my housewarming party.  It's random, but that's me.  There are a few things I will do differently the next time I make these (more cheese, more spice, and more garlic) but don't tell my guests, the ones I made this morning will be great... we just like things spicy around here. :)


Cheese Straws


2 C All Purpose Flour
2 C Fresh Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
3/4 C Slightly Softened Butter
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 C Water


(Note: Next time I will increase the Cayenne Pepper to 1/2 Tsp, replace the salt with garlic salt, and maybe increase the cheese to 3 C)


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a baking sheet or two.  Combine the flour, cheese, butter, baking powder, cayenne pepper, and salt in a large bowl.  Mix until well combined.  Slowly drizzle in the water and knead dough until you have a stiff dough ball.  On a floured surface roll dough to about half a centimeter thick (I like the metric system, I'm Canadian).  Slice into strips about the width of a pencil.  Arrange on baking sheet and bake for about 8-12 minutes.   

Everything's Just Peachy

Oh Dear.  I was a roll there for a hot minute!  When I posted that picture of Joe's beautiful birthday cake the number of hits the blog received went sky high!!  But I left again.  So is life, ya know? Sometimes things are hot... other times, not so much.  The strangest thing about it all is that since I stopped blogging, I really started cooking!  Now that I have so many people around to eat my food every day (including Joe), I cook regular meals like the rest of the world.  Every single day, I've been cooking!  I just didn't blog about it because I didn't think you all would find jarred indian curry sauces and frozen naan interesting.  Tasty! But not interesting.  Oh well, shoulda coulda woulda...  I've got muffins today!!

Wouldn't you know it that it was my home state's fruit which got me inspired again to begin blogging.   Only this Georgia girl's peaches are from Virginia.  I would know,  I picked 'em myself in the 100 degree heat last weekend.   I didn't know that Virginia Peaches existed... which makes me wonder, does that make me a Virginia Peach?  Hmm... something to ponder, I suppose.  Anyways, every single dang peach in these muffins were hand picked by yours truly.  Hand picked, hand cut, hand made.  Doesn't get much better than that.  And judging from the feedback I've received today, it was worth it.

Peach Muffins

2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 C All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
3/4 C Unsweetened Applesauce
1/2 C Vegetable oil
3 Eggs, lightly beaten
1 C White Sugar
1 C Light Brown Sugar
2 1/2 C Peeled, Pitted, and Chopped Peaches

Crumb Topping
1 Tbsp Cold Butter
2 Tbsp Flour
1/3 C Light Brown Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare baking pans with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, mix flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce, oil, and sugars.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until just combined.  Lightly fold in the peaches and spoon into baking pans.
5. Combine crumb topping ingredients if desired using a fork until butter is roughly mixed into the sugar and flour (similar to corn meal).  Sprinkle over muffins.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.  Cool completely before serving.