Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Pies...er, mini muffins

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Pies - made May 16, 2019, inspired by Marsha's Baking Addiction

I didn't actually follow the recipe from Marsha's Baking Addiction in making these but hers was the inspiration for it so full credit goes to her blog. Plus, when you look at her pictures vs mine, you may want to try her recipe instead of mine so you get better looking "pies". Mine were more like "mini muffins gone mutant".

Left is how they should have turned out (from Marsha's Baking Addiction), right is how mine turned out

I had a package of ready made sugar cookie dough from when I was making the Motherlode Bars (also another baking fail, *long-suffering sigh*) and I wanted to use that up so that was the "pie crust" for these. I also wanted to make them smaller than the size of a regular muffin so I put one ready-made cookie dough portion into each mini muffin tin. If you're psychic and haven't read ahead, this is where I made a mistake. Read on, Macduff.

For the Nutella, I used the Costco Kirkland brand hazelnut spread. I've switched to this instead of the real Nutella as it doesn't use palm oil and, to me, tastes just as good. But you can use Nutella if you wish.

For the chocolate chip cookie part, I used my new favorite standby of Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since these were going to be mini desserts, I opted to use mini chocolate chips instead of chunks. Otherwise, I made the recipe as is.

After mixing the chocolate chip cookie dough, the rest of the recipe is just assembly. Lightly grease the mini muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray, drop a sugar cookie ball in the mini muffin cavity, and if you're lucky enough to own a Pampered Chef (or some other brand) mini tart shaper, you can easily make the cookie cups within each muffin tin.

Add a dollop of hazelnut spread in each cookie cup then cover snugly with a bit of chocolate chip cookie dough. So easy, right? Going to come out beautifully, right? Hey, why are you laughing??

Okay, fine, go ahead and laugh. As you can tell from the pictures, once again, how I viewed something and how it actually turned out seemed to be in different stratospheres of my baking universe and reality.

Turns out, each sugar cookie portion in those prepackaged cookie dough things were simply too big for mini muffin tins. And if they don't have enough room, they overflow their respective cavities and mock you. Talk about (mini) muffin tops! Insubordinate little bastards.

Unfazed, and after a self-deprecating mocking laugh (because if you can't laugh at your own baking failures, hang up your oven mitts), I did a little cosmetic surgery: I took out a round cookie cutter almost the same size as the top opening of each mini muffin cavity and cut through those overflowing muffin tops. They still looked nowhere like Marsha's Baking Addiction way-more-professional cookie pies but at least now they looked plausibly like mini muffins with a sugar cookie crust, hazelnut spread filling and a topper of chocolate chip cookie.

Thankfully, they tasted good. They would probably taste better with a homemade crust that didn't have the temerity to bake beyond the confines I put them in but that'll be a future experiment. For now, laugh at my baking fail and go try Marsha's recipe as written.

Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries

Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries - made May 5, 2019 from OOLA

I have a new gadget obsession. Move over Instant Pot and make room for the air fryer. I'd heard of air fryers before and been intrigued but managed to ignore the craze. Then I visited my niece and her fiance in Denver during my time off and they had an air fryer. One whirl of the sweet potato fries from Trader Joe's in their air fryer and I was hooked. It tasted better than the sweet potato fries from Elephant Bar, which had been my previous gold standard  for sweet potato fries. Crisp on the outside but mealy inside. They were amazing and much faster than baking in the oven.

Trader Joe's sweet potato fries from the air fryer

So, when I got back home, despite my inner urgings not to buy anything because I'm moving shortly and would just have to move it, I lasted a whole three days before I broke down and bought an air fryer from Costco. Then the package of sweet potato fries from Trader Joe's. They turned out as well as when my niece and her fiance made them except this time I didn't have to share with either of them, ha.

I've long been on a quest of making my own crispy sweet potato fries "from scratch", aka an actual sweet potato, sold "as is", i.e. dug up out of the ground, rather than from the plastic package from the TJ's freezer section. With the air fryer, I optimistically thought I had a chance. I mean, really, how hard could it be now that I had this swanky gadget?

That would be the foreboding and premonition section of this post for those of you who have seen my prior efforts at this Don Quixote quest. Yes, you guessed it, I was tilting at windmills again. But honestly, it all seemed so easy. I followed the recipe, I read the blog tips, I did it.

Except someone forgot to tell the sweet potato fries to crisp up. They turned out pretty good, taste-wise, as I liked the spice mixture that covered them. Even if said spices burned in my (over)enthusiastic quest to make them crispy so I let them keep on chugging in the air fryer until they were threatening to turn into carbon.

So I tried a second time and this time did the other tricks I've tried before: soak the sweet potato strips in cold water then drain, pay dry and toss in the spice mixture with some cornstarch to add that outer coating for the crispness. Um, yeah. As you can see from the pictures, this time, I had a heavy hand with the cornstarch and it still didn't work. *hands thrown up in despair" #fail

Never mind. I'll always have Trader Joe's....and their packaged sweet potato fries.

2 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
cooking spray

1. Slice the sweet potatoes into half-inch slabs and then into strips of equal size. Place the strips in a medium bowl and add the olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. Toss to coat the strips.
2. Lightly coat the basket of air fryer with cooking spray. Preheat your oven to 380 degrees. 
3. Place half of the sweet potato strips into the air fryer basket and cook them for 5 minutes. Flip the fries in the basket with a pair of tongs to brown all the sides evenly. Continue to cook the fries for an additional 5 minutes or until the fries are crispy and slightly brown. Transfer the fries to a cooling rack. Repeat steps above for the remaining strips. Serve immediately.

Steak Marinade

Steak Marinade - made April 23, 2019 from Hip Foodie Mom

I finally bought some lemons so I could try one of the steak marinade recipes I'd pinned on Pinterest. And now that I've figured out how to cook flank steak without it becoming rubbery, it's my go-to meat of choice.

I also bought a garlic bulb since I ran out of the jarred garlic from Penzey's so I used fresh garlic this time. Truth to be told, I might've been a little too heavy-handed with the garlic. This marinade was pretty flavorful and had a nice bite with both the garlic and the lemon juice. No blandness here.

But still, it was a good marinade and easy to throw together. Even easier to cook. I would definitely make this again.

1/3 cup soy sauce
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons dried basil
1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon fresh minced garlic

1. Place meat into a large ziploc bag. Using a bowl, pour in all of the ingredients and whisk until thoroughly mixed.
2. Pour marinade into ziploc bag, directly over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 5 to 8 hours. Grill meat and serve warm.

Instant Pot Pork Adobo

Instant Pot Pork Adobo - made April 23, 2019 from The Recipe Pot

Now that I'm on my pseudo-semi-retirement for a few weeks, I'm doing more cooking and, in case you haven't been able to tell yet, less baking. Hard as it is to believe, I think I've lost my baking mojo. I used to want to try a bunch of different dessert recipes, troll pinterest, go through all my baking books, yada yada. But, in the temporary condo I'm staying in, there aren't coworkers and friends all around me to gobble up my baking experiments. My parents and my sister can only consume so many empty calories and I'm cutting back on carbs and sugar. (I know, who am I?)

So in times like these, I try my hand at cooking instead. Of course, don't think this means I turn into a gourmet chef or a chef of any kind. I enjoy eating, not cooking. But I can cook passably enough that I can eat my own cooking (more or less) and being off from work gives me enough time to look for recipes, buy ingredients and actually cook. Cooking for me is always a production. In a 10-ingredient recipe, I will likely only have 1 or 2 ingredients on hand and would have to buy the rest. Or I'd have most of it but would be missing one key ingredient.

Such as for this one. I had half an onion left after the Penne Alla Vodka with Chicken recipe, I had thick-cut pork chops from a prior Costco run, I had the spices, I had the soy sauce and vinegar. But I had run out of Penzey's minced garlic and didn't have enough for the recipe.  Fortunately, there's a grocery store within walking distance of my condo so going to get a bulb of garlic became part of my workout for the day.

I love Filipino adobo. My mom makes it and she makes it well. I can make a passable adobo and liked the last Chicken Adobo I made in my instant pot. So I thought I'd try my hand at Pork Adobo this time. The recipe is as easy as it looks. I cut up the thick cut pork chops into cubes. I didn't have pork butt but figured the chops would be good enough. "Sauteed" the pork chunks and threw the rest of the ingredients into the Instant Pot. When it was done pressure cooking and had released pressure, I let it boil on Saute for another 20 minutes. I don't know that the sauce thickened as much as evaporated so it wasn't so plentiful but that's also how adobo is traditionally made. My mom lets it boil until the sauce is reduced and the flavor has intensified. Not to mention the meat becoming tender. Which it did thanks to the Instant Pot.

The sauce turned out a bit more bland than I expected. I'm used to adobo having a bite, primarily from the vinegar. At least, my mom's does and that's what makes it abobo and delicious. It could be because I didn't eat it with rice which is the perfect accompaniment to the sauce but next time, I think I would up the vinegar, brown the garlic and leave off the onion. My mom doesn't make it with onion and she confirmed she uses a 3:1 ratio of vinegar to soy sauce in her adobo. I'll have to try that next time.

1 tablespoon canola oil
3 pounds pork butt, cut into 1 1/2" cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, peeled and sliced thinly
6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water

1. Using the Saute function on Normal, heat oil. Add pork cubes and cook, turning as needed, until browned on all sides. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Add onions, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves.
3. In a bow, combine vinegar, soy sauce and water. Pour into the pot over meat mixture.
4. Close the lid, making sure the valve is on Sealing position and cook on High pressure for 10 minutes. Do a quick release and open lid.
5. Turn on the Saute feature on Normal and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes or until sauce is thickened.
6. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper as needed. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Restaurant Review: Asian Noodles

Asian Noodles - lunch on April 7, 2019

If you want Asian food in Reno, here's a go-to option. And if you can't decide which Asian cuisine you want, they offer different options.

There's "standard" Chinese fare with chow mein. There's the Vietnamese representation with lemon grass flavors or dishes with rice noodle vermicelli instead of rice.

Fried Salmon

The place itself isn't very fancy and it isn't gourmet Asian fusion but I'm not about the fancy and "fusion" isn't really my thing either so I liked this place. Ultimately, if you want a dish with rice or noodles with some protein, this is a good place to go to.

Fried Salmon

Lemongrass Beef

Restaurant Review: Daughters Cafe

Daughters Cafe - brunch on April 2, 2019

One of the upsides of moving to Reno is meeting up with one of my old friends from high school who moved there with her husband and kids many years ago. She lives a little farther out and suggested going to Daughters Cafe as she'd been looking for someone to try it out with her. It wasn't that far from where I was temporarily staying and I always like trying out new places so it was perfect.

Like what seems to be many places in Reno, Daughters Cafe is run out of what was once a house. On the outside it's clearly a house and when you walk in, the dining spaces are in different rooms in the house, similar to Homage Bakery. They're only open in the morning through end of lunch time so we met for brunch on a day I had off. It wasn't crowded (it's going to take me awhile to adjust to that in Reno) and the atmosphere was more homey than restaurant-like, as if we'd dropped in for a meal with the (unseen) owners of the house, rather than going out to a restaurant to eat.

The menu is pretty straightforward: there were several choices, most of which included fresh fruit and sausages, for a flat price of $15. I went with the Dutch Baby and my friend chose Shirred Eggs. I didn't get a picture of her order but I should have as I tried at bite of her eggs and they were delicious.

For myself, I loved the Dutch Baby pancake. It was fluffy and moist and just tasted good. The sausages were also delicious. Actually, I could probably rave about the sausages as much as, if not more than, the Dutch Baby. You know how food is delicious not just because of how it's prepared but also because they use the best ingredients? That's how the food at Daughters Cafe came across to me. Plus the fruit was top notch and not just a mere health garnish on the plate.

All in all, Daughters Cafe is one of the best places I've tried in Reno so far and I already want to go back. Next time, I'm ordering the Shirred Eggs.

Penne Alla Vodka with Chicken

Penne Alla Vodka with Chicken - made April 20, 2019 from The Cozy Cook

It's well known among my friends that I don't drink. Not from any particular moral or religious reasons (although they conveniently align) but mostly because I've never developed a taste for alcohol. Never cared for the taste or smell so it's been easy to be the automatic designated driver at social gatherings. When people don't know I don't drink and give me wine, I promptly give it away or share it with my drinking friends.

So it's a puzzle, why, when I don't imbibe, I've been hosting a tall bottle of vodka in my pantry for many years, likely through several moves. It's been so long since I've bought it that I can't even remember why I bought it. I suspect it was because I needed it once to try a baking recipe but apparently it couldn't have been that good because I neither remember it or seem to have made it again as the vodka bottle was nearly full.

I'd been reading a decluttering book that encourages you to clean out your pantry (as well as the rest of the house) by getting rid of those "specialty ingredients" you never use. Couldn't agree more with that philosophy and, as I'm looking to move again in a couple of months, saw no sense in moving a tall bottle of vodka I hadn't opened or used in at least 10 years. (Does alcohol expire? Asking for a friend."

But when I made to empty the bottle down the kitchen sink, the thrifty side of my nature warred with my decluttering soul. It seemed like such a waste to get rid of it. Not that I planned to actually drink any of it but surely I could find some use for it. Hello, pinterest, my friend, let's look for vodka sauce recipes. Mostly because that's the only thing I could think of that uses vodka which wouldn't involve drinking it.

Turns out there are a number of vodka sauce recipes out there. I went with this one since it seemed easy. Easy because the main ingredients involved opening a can and a jar. I can do that. Since I'm not a cook, I had hardly any of the ingredients on hand except the vodka. One quick trip to Trader Joe's and I was all set.

This turned out surprisingly well. Which, for me, meant I couldn't taste the vodka (seriously, maybe it really did expire and was nothing more than flat liquor?). The sauce came out creamy and for once, I resisted the urge to add more pasta than the recipe called for as at first it looked like too much sauce. Fortunately, the Trader Joe's package of penne only contains 1 pound so I couldn't have added more pasta anyway as I didn't have more than that one package. Not the healthiest thing I've made, alcohol aside, thanks to the heavy cream and cheese, but it's a nice, easy pasta dish. I might even make this again "for company". I still have some vodka left in that tall bottle and I refuse to move it a 4th or 5th time.

1 pound penne
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 boneless/skinless chicken breast
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter, separated
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon garlic
1 cup vodka
14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
24 ounces marinara sauce
1 cup heavy cream
pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
fresh parsley, for garnish

1. Prepare the penne according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil on medium-high heat.
3. Butterfly the chicken breast and cut the seam to create 2 thinner slices, each about an inch thick. Season the chicken with desired amounts of salt and pepper.
4. Carefully lower the chicken into the preheated skillet and leave it untouched for several minutes to sear.
5. Once the chicken begins to release a bit from the bottom of the pan, it's ready to flip. Rotate the oil around in the pan to help it loosen if needed. Flip and decrease heat slightly; sear the other side.
6. Once done, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting up. Leave oil and chicken remnants in the pan for added flavor for the sauce.
7. In the same pan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter and use a spatula to release some of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
8. Add the diced onion and cook until softened and begins to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
9. Add the vodka to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes.
10. Reduce the heat to low and add the diced tomatoes and marinara sauce. Stir in the heavy cream.
11. Add the cooked chicken back to the pan and stir into the sauce.
12. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes and add the final tablespoon butter. Add in the pasta and stir until penne is evenly covered.
13. Top with Parmesan and chopped parsley; serve warm.