Homemade Thin Mints

My marathon training continues as it seems to be getting easier to run these longer and longer distances. This weekend was my first "long run," with me logging six miles on a chilly Saturday morning. The training program that I am following gradually increases the weekday runs, from 2 miles to 5 miles, while the long Saturday runs increase by two miles each weekend.

During the week I like to use the treadmill. Especially since I run either very early in the morning (like my 5am, 4 miler yesterday) or late at night (I have a 5 mile run set for 9pm tonight). Right now it's dark outside at those times of day!  Though the best thing about running on the treadmill are speed intervals.

My usual running pace is between 8:30 and 9:30 per mile. I can run at this pace very comfortably and breathe normally. On the treadmill, I tend to get bored about a mile before I hit my goal distance. What do I do? I increase the speed until I'm breathing heavily and have to work hard to keep up with the belt. Yesterday I maxed out at 7:00 per mile.

Speed intervals not only help me bust out those last quarter miles in no time, but they also train my legs for the faster speed. After a week of speed intervals on the treadmill, I find my overall pace when running outside has improved!  Then I come back to the apartment and have a few post-run cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Yogurt Popsicles

The warm temperatures this week have me yearning for springtime.  I can't wait for long flowy dresses and wedge sandals.  I want to head out to the countryside and pick berries.  I'm ready for winter to release its grip from the Northeast so boyfriend and I can spend out weekends on our bikes, enjoying picnics under shady trees.

While giving our kitchen a good, post-new years cleaning, I came across my popsicle molds.  The day was cold and dark and I was sad to realize it would be months before I would be filling the molds with fresh berry purees and citrusy juices.  The molds went back into the cupboard, waiting for their chance to shine again.

It was this warmer week that brought the popsicle molds back to the front of my mind.  That, along with boyfriends Chobani week, gave me the inspiration to bring you these beauties - Chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt pops.  Maybe with the first set of popsicles, spring will follow soon after?  Like the groundhog of the food world.  Let's hope, because I'm ready for floaty chiffon tops and trips to the farmers market.

These yogurt pops bring our Chobani week to an end, because you can't finish your day without a tasty dessert!  Boyfriend has taught us a little something about the grocery business and the secret world that is behind those swinging doors.  And he's learned quite a bit about yogurt and all the great things you can do with it!

Are you ready for spring?  Or maybe you live in one of those temperate regions of the world, where if it drops below fifty degrees people break out the winter coats.  Seems like we will have a few more chilly weeks here in the tri-state region, doesn't mean I won't be eating these popsicles, just means I'll be curled up on the couch under a blanket when I do eat them!

Fudgy Waffles

Normally my cooking is driven by a story or experience, this week I am letting my cooking create an experience.  Here's the background...

For those of you who don't know, there exists a complex network of people whose job it is to get the right products on the shelf of your favorite grocery store.  One of those people is Boyfriend.  To explain to you what he does would probably take a whole post to itself.  Simply put - He works with the brands to get their product on the store shelves and make sure they sell to people like us.

As we enter a new phase in our lives, buying a house and setting roots, Boyfriend is looking for a new job.  He found a job at Chobani Greek Yogurt that he thinks would be the perfect fit (and seriously, I'm all for more CHO in the house!).

Never content to go the traditional route, he asked me to help out (with my cooking talents) to help get him an interview.  Over the next few days, I will be posting some delicious meals we prepared (yes, we!) using Chobani.  Let's all band together and help Boyfriend and Chobani get together!

Then make some waffles, they are delicious.  I'd recommend eating them for breakfast AND dessert.  Afraid of baking?  You can totally do this, Boyfriend made these waffles!  I just gave him the recipe and told him to excessively spray down the waffle iron with cooking oil.

If you feel so inclined, head over to twitter and help boyfriend out!  Just copy and paste this tweet and hopefully he'll be on his way to his dream job and we'll be buying our dream co-op in Brooklyn!

If backing @PitCHObani for Category Mgr-SoHo means more @WildeKitchen @Chobani recipes - I'm In! #InterviewOverYogurt http://bit.ly/WdcW52

No-Bake Granola Bars

It would seem that we are into the thick of winter here in the Northeast.  I'm pretty sure it was a lot warmer out before I went to Buffalo for Christmas.  Maybe I brought the cold weather back with me?  All I know is, I find myself putting more and more layers on before I head out to the train in the morning.

I suppose that it had to happen eventually.  It's not like I live in Florida and this below freezing snap is a surprise.  It's just that you get used to those warm sunny days and it's sad to see them go.  This cold weather was further a slap in the face this week when I got to work on Thursday to find my office a balmy 40 degrees.  That's right, 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Apparently sometime Wednesday night, both boilers in the chemistry wing failed and the offices and labs proceeded to equalize their temperature with the outside world.  All the space heaters in the world could do nothing to warm up our chilly offices.  The reason?  Hood fans.

In a chemistry building, you have labs.  In each lab there are four to five chemistry hoods.  These hoods are just like your range hood over your stove, only bigger, and enclosed.  These hoods constantly pull air from within the labs and vent it through filters and out the roof.  This means that they are always bringing in new air from outside, air which wasn't being heated.  This meant that we couldn't do any lab work until the heater was fixed. 

Everyone in our wing made for the conference room to get some computer work done.  It felt like study hall.  We waited all day to hear something, anything, about the boilers.  Our facilities staff was running around the building with large wrenches, people were up on the roof banging on things, I was getting antsy just sitting in the conference room.  At least it was warm in there.

Our facilities team was able to get the boilers up and running Friday afternoon, just before we went home.  At least it will be warm in the office come next week.  Though it will be the first full week back to work, it's going to be a long one!

Brownie Cupcake Sundaes

We are only days away from Christmas.  It's been really easy to tell how many days are left before the holiday weekend begins because of the following.  Each day this week...

My morning train has been emptier and emptier.  Friday morning promises to give me a three-seater all to myself!

There have been fewer and fewer people in the halls at work.  My company is closed next week for our winter shutdown and some people choose to extend this vacation by taking a few days this week as well.  I'm pretty sure there will be 10% of the people in the building and maybe 1% of them will be doing actual work.

My evening return to the city each night has become more packed with families.  They are all dressed up in their winter best, heading to the city to see the Rockefeller tree, shop at Macy's and view the holiday windows.  Oh yeah, and be loud and noisy on the train.  Shhhhh...

T minus five days - Boyfriend has fled the cold weather to visit his parents in Florida.  This is a good thing.  While we will be spending Christmas apart (I'll be heading to Buffalo this to visit my own parents), I get to use this time to shop and wrap for the guy. 

I finished my holiday shopping last night after work.  My antibiotics have helped me kick the bronchitis that took up residence in my chest.  And Perry's Ice Cream sent me two containers of holiday flavors.  It's time to celebrate!

Actually, the container of ice cream pictured is not the original one that they sent me.  I accidentally ate all of that one.  All by myself.  Don't worry, it took me almost two weeks to eat the whole container.  BF and I had to make our way to the New Jersey Wegmans and buy the last container of peppermint ice cream.

Before I ate all of the ice cream, I had plans to make these little brownie cupcakes.  These dessert treats are really simple and perfect for a complicated holiday dinner.  Make some brownie cupcakes, top them with your favorite mint/peppermint ice cream and add a dallop of whipped topping.  Hello delicious.

Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope that you get to spend some time with the ones you love.

Many thanks to Perry's Ice cream for helping it feel like home, all these miles away from Buffalo.  I've also found that if people know about Perry's Ice cream, they love it.  If you can find it, give it a try!

Pinata Cookies

Clear your calendar, because you are going to want to make these cookies and it is going to take a while!  Boyfriend and I spent the week making these treats for his companies holiday bake sale.  BF is the creative mind behind these cookies.  He saw this post from "She Knows" and thought they would make a great holiday cookie.  We also thought that they would bring a pretty penny at the bake sale and raise lots of money for Hurricane Sandy Victims.

The process was simple, but involved.  It took us three days to complete these cookies.  You could finish these in one day if you devote the whole day to it.  BF and I worked on these at night after work for a few hours.  For someone who does little to no baking/cooking, he was a great kitchen helper.  I made the dough on my own and he helped will all the remaining steps.  Give these cookies a try if you are looking for a fun project!

Here are a few step-by-step instructions for preparing these steppy treat!

Not shown, prepare your dough and divide it up into three balls.  Place each dough ball between two sheets of  plastic wrap.  Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness.  Place dough on a cookie sheet and put dough in the fridge for 1 hour.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  Preheat the oven to 350 F and grab your chilled dough from the fridge.

Lightly flour the countertop and remove plastic wrap from the dough.  Stamp out dough with your desired cookie cutter.  Be sure to choose a cookie cutter that is large enough to punch a hole in the middle.  And remember, for each pinata cookie you will need three cookies, so stamp out cookies in multiples of three.  Using a circular cookie cutter, punch a hole in the middle of every third cookie.

Place cookie dough cut-outs on the prepared baking sheets.  Chill the baking sheets in the oven for 30 minutes.  Bake the cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookie.

Remove cookies from the oven once they just begin to turn golden brown.  Let cool for 1 minute on the baking sheets on a wire rack.  Remove from the baking sheet and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Now would be a good time to call it a day.  You don't want to ice the cookies until they are completely cooled.  Once you are ready to design and draw, make a batch of royal icing (I used Bridgets from Bake at 350, no changes required because it's an amazing recipe!)

Since BF and I went with snowmen and snowflakes, we didn't have to worry too much about icing colors.  We piped and flooded the cookies with white icing.  The snowmen got black hats too!  Day two was completely taken up by piping and flooding the cookies.  Let them sit overnight or a few hours until the icing has dried.  Remember, you only need to decorate a third of the cookies.  Do not decorate the cookies with a hole in the middle.

We used parchment paper cones to add the final touches to our snowmen.  Check out this helpful video if you want to make parchment cones for icing too.  I made tiny ones and we used them to pipe the carrot noses.  Okay, to be honest...  I piped the scarves and noses.  BF gave them eyes using a toothpick.

While your final decorations are drying, begin the cookie sandwiching.  Take the completely undecorated cookie and the cookie with the hole in it.  Pipe some royal icing on the back of the holey cookie.  Place the holey cookie on top of the undecorated cookie.  Do this for all of your cookies.  Let the icing dry for 30 minutes.  Now fill the hole with mini M&Ms.  Don't overfill, just a single layer of M&Ms should do it.

To finish your pinatas, pipe some more royal icing on the top of the holey cookie.  Place the decorated cookie on top and gently press down.  Ta Da!  Sandwiched, snowman, pinata cookie!

Maybe you want to see it done with the snowflakes?  These bad boys were edged and flooded with white royal icing.  Once the white icing was dry, some stiff icing was tinted blue and piped onto the tops of the cookies.  You don't have to be perfect, remember, every snowflake is unique!

We got a little fancy with these cookies and piped the holey cookie too.  Just a little...

Here comes the M&Ms!!!

This time we offset the cookies when sandwiching them together.  The icing on the center cookie shows through to the top and makes our snowflakes extra special!

I hope all of BF's coworkers like these cookies and they help raise lots of money for Hurricane Sandy victims!  All I know is they smelled delicious and I wanted to eat all of them.  It was difficult to let them leave the house without me!

Triple-Peanut and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the following...  This is the best time of year because you have such a great excuse to bake dozens and dozens of cookies.  Seriously!  You bring a batch of cookies to the office in June and people are all "Cookies?  Were you bored this weekend?"  Even holiday-themed cookies through the year (heart cookies in February, pumpkin cookies in October) raise an eyebrow of some people. 

It's in December that I can freely bake to my hearts desire without question from my coworkers.  No, I'm not trying to slowly poison you/make you fat.  It's the holidays!  You're supposed to eat lots of cookies.  Although, I think that if I feed my coworkers lots of cookies, I will eventually look thinner in comparison... 

I was very happy to take part in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap again this year.  It gave me yet another reason to bake cookies... and raise money for charity!  Be sure to head over to Love and Olive Oil or The Little Kitchen and check out the whole group of cookie swappers!

For the cookie swap, I decided to make use my favorite flavor combination - chocolate and peanut butter!  Happy Holidays everyone and I hope you eat lots of cookies!

Why Bother? 2012 - Nut Butters

With only a few Why Bother? challenges remaining, I think I have found my favorite.  Nut Butters!  I don't know why I put this challenge so far into the year.  It may have had something to do with a lack of fresh produce?  I have no idea.  Perhaps I thought I could use said nut butters in the upcoming holiday cookies?  If not, that is exactly what I plan to do with some of these but butters.

When it comes down to it, store bought peanut butter isn't that expensive, isn't seasonal and has a classic flavor that is difficult to reproduce.  There was no way that I would be trying to replicate a jar of JIF or Skippy.  First of all, I don't have the right equipment in my kitchen to make a creamy peanut butter that smooth.  Would I really want to anyways?  Those creamy peanut butters are packed full of sugar and salt.  What I wanted to try and copy was a store bought jar of natural peanut butter.

If you compare servings of JIF and a natural peanut butter, you'll be looking at two things with roughly the same number of calories.  Natural peanut butter has a much more pronounceable ingredient list.  Usually these jars contain just peanuts, salt and maybe a little oil.  An ingredient list like that makes for something that can easily be made at home.

One thing, I didn't want to make plain old simple peanut butter.  I wanted fancy peanut butter and that's just what I made.  I present to you, White chocolate peanut butter.  I've been enjoying this spread on top of waffles for breakfast and by the spoonful at any time of the day.

I didn't stop with peanut butter though.  My favorite nut is the walnut.  I'm my fathers child when it comes to the fact.  He requests each and every cookie that my mom makes, contain walnuts.  I'll toss walnuts in my cookies, quick breads, pasta sauces and salads.  My love of walnuts drove me to take a pound of walnuts and feed them to the food processor.  The outcome was simply amazing.  Spiked with a bit of cinnamon, the cinnamon walnut butter I created tastes just like the holidays.  This stuff is destined for a batch of cookies, I can't wait.

What is your favorite nut?  Have you thought of whipping up a batch of your favorite nut butter?  Almonds, pecans, cashews.  These would all make amazing spreads, have a go at it with your food processor!

Brookie Sandwiches

Things are getting back to normal in the Wilde household.  Last week I stayed with friends on Long Island so that I could get to work without spending more than six hours a day commuting.  I learned how to play Texas hold-em (I know, I'm the last person in the world to learn), got to sleep until 7:30am and baked banana bread at night. 

This week, the Long Island trains normalized and boyfriend offered to drive me to Secaucus junction.  It meant that he had to wake up an hour early and work an extra long day to pick me up on the way home.  Isn't he sweet?  By Tuesday, New Jersey transit opened up the Midtown direct connection and trains were running only three miles from my house and come Wednesday I was taking my normal train, albiet at an unusual time. 

I'm excited to be back in my apartment and sleeping in my bed.  Boyfriend in enjoying his extra shut eye.  Hopefully my Long Island friends will be happy when I bring them cookies.  My kitchen is happy to have me back, or sad because I'm going to make it messy again.  I'm not really sure.  Come by this weekend for the nut butter "Why Bother 2012" challenge post.  With living in Long Island and weekending in Montreal, I haven't had a chance to get back into my kitchen!

If you have been affected by the hurricane, I hope that things are getting back to normal for you.  So many of my friends just got power back this Sunday!  If you were outside of the storms path, I hope you are almost ready for Thanksgiving.  I can't believe it's next week!

Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chunks

Things around here are slowly getting back to normal. Yes, I've only been to work two days out of the past seven. Sure, my train line was washed out and will take weeks to fix. And yeah, BF had to wait in a long line this morning to get gas (it's an odd day, so he could fill up today). I can't complain because so many others are so much worse off.

Since I live in New Jersey and work on Long Island, I wasn't able to get to work last week. The one day I tried it took me four and a half hours to get there in the morning and five and a half hours to get home. Not a recipe for a happy girl. I was forced to work from home. Which, if you're a lab scientist, is very difficult to do. You run out of things to do rather quickly. I spent some of my work hours baking and working out. Between thinking about science and reading literature of course.

I made it to work yesterday in a record breaking tree hours. I have since taken a friend up on their offer to stay at their place on the island until train service becomes tolerable. I've been told that it's okay and encouraged for me to bake while at their house.

It's kind offers like these that I've seen throughout this disaster. Friends, neighbors and strangers helping each other. Humanity really shines when times are tough and people in the tri-state area are looking pretty bright. Stay tough everyone out there, things aren't great right now, but they'll get better.

Caramel Buttercream and Cookie Dough Dip

Every once and I while, you get lucky.  Recently, I was lucky enough to be chosen to test out some of Ghirardellis newest "Intense Dark" chocolate creations.  You should have seen me when I picked up my package of chocolate from my apartment office.  First, I thought how heavy it was (heavy with deliciousness).  Next, I wondered what exactly they sent me!  I'll tell you...

The Intense Dark line of Ghirardelli chocolates are as follows.  Sea Salt Caramel, Cabernet Matinee, Toffee Interlude, Hazelnut Heaven, Evening Dream, Twilight Delight and Midnight Reverie.  As a taste tester, I was asked to pair these chocolates with different foods and beverages, rather than use the chocolate in a baked good.  Boyfriend and I decided this would be the perfect thing for a dessert buffet.

I chose three of the chocolates and paired them with different dips, trying to play off of the flavors in each chocolate.  Midnight Reverie (86% Cacao Dark Chocolate), a rich and classy bar, was paired up with a homemade blackberry marshmallow fluff.  The sweet and tart blackberries really went well with the deep, dark chocolate.

Evening Dream (60% Cacao Dark Chocolate) went exquisitely with cookie dough dip.  The reason behind this pairing?  Chocolate chip cookie dough usually used a semi-sweet chocolate chip and the 60% Dark bar was like having a cookie with the best possible chocolate chips.

Hazelnut Heaven (Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts), a semi-sweet and crunchy bar, went perfectly with a sweet, homemade caramel buttercream.  Caramel and hazelnut was the perfect pairing and this plate of chocolate was devoured first.

The remaining flavors were tested with less auspicious pairings.  I allowed a square of Cabernet Matinee (Dark Chocolate with Blackberry and Cabernet) to melt slowly over a warm piece of French bread.  Sea Salt Soiree (Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt and Almonds) was a surprising treat with leftover bacon from breakfast.  And Toffee Interlude (Dark Chocolate with Toffee)?  I just had that one with a bottle of sparkling water.

So next time you have a dinner party, don't worry about a tricky dessert.  Set out plates of chocolate and a few different dips and let everyone choose their favorite!

This post is brought to you by Ghirardelli Intense Dark™ Chocolate.

Oreo Cupcakes

Did you know that New Jersey is actually quite hilly?  Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't realize this either.  I came to this revelation after boyfriend and I decided to take a ride to the zoo on our new bikes.

This was a few weeks ago, just after boyfriend and I had assembled our brand new bikes.  Personally, I like to just go out and ride my bike.  Boyfriend is more of a destination rider.  He likes to have a goal, rather than an open-ended ride.  It helps him strive to get there faster, since he knows there is an end in sight.  It was a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon and boyfriend suggested we head to the zoo for an afternoon of animal watching and llama petting.

The ride looked totally feasable, just over five miles, pretty direct route and wide sidewalks, this would be a breeze.  Too bad we didn't plan properly for the ride we were about to take.  First, the temperature quickly topped ninety-five degrees over the course of our ride.  Next, to make the extreme heat even worse, we managed to leave our water bottles on the counter. 

Things only got worse as we continued biking away.  With the mercury in the thermometer bursting out the top, our final right turn brought us onto a freshly black-topped road.  Heat was emanating off of the dark road, you could see waves in the air.  And there was one last bit of torture for the ride...

That's right, a big, scary hill.  I just about died.  We kept thinking that the hill would eventually come to an end.  Or that we would find a convenience store where we could buy some water.  Or that someone would be watering their lawn and we could lay down in the sprinklers.  Sadly, the hill went on and on. 

Yet when we made it to the top (not without stopping to walk our bikes for a good portion!) we were proud to make it to the top and happy to see a McDonalds.  These days we are sure to bring lots of water with us when we hit the road and to check a topographical map before we leave home!

Chocolate Peanut Pralines

Last week, the days seemed to drag on.  The hours at work seemed endless and Friday took twice as long to get here.  It was just one of those weeks.  A week that required a relaxing weekend at the very end of it.  What did boyfriend and I decide to do in order to wash away the previous five days?  We went tubing.

If you are in the New Jersey/Pennsylvania/New York area this summer, I would recommend you set aside some time  and head to the Delaware River.  Boyfriend and I were a little wary as we got to the River.  Would it be cold?  Is the river deep?  Will I really need this life preserver?  What was the compelling story that the river tube staff member didn't tell me that would make me want to actually wear this life preserver?  I feel a little strange wearing a bikini in the middle of rural New Jersey.

When we stepped in the water, all my fears were set aside.  At this time of the year, the Delaware River is like a bath tub.  It is slow-moving and hip-deep along most of the tube riding route.  Most of all, it is the most relaxing way to spend an afternoon.  Although boyfriend and I apparently can't find the current in a river to save our lives.  We slowly floated along as everyone else in a tube passed us by.

The one fun thing about floating along in the slow current?  You find stuff on the bottom of the river!  Boyfriend and I rescued a fishing weight, a rubber wristband and a set of car keys from the riverbed.  If you're out there and find your long lost keys in the mail one day, that was us!  (and Shop Rite!)

So boyfriend and I started our workweek yesterday refreshed, relaxed and a little sun kissed.  Nothing like floating down a river for a few hours and enjoying a riverside barbecue to melt away the stress from the previous week.  Ahhh, floating away...