Salty sweet peanut butter chocolate chip pretzel date cookies

March 25, 2018 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

I really don’t bake cookies that often but today I wanted peanut butter, pretzels, dates, and chocolate (hello pregnant!) and couldn’t think of a better platform for that combination than a warm gooey cookie. Blitzed up oats to chocolate chip cookies gives them a delightful chew, dates add a wonderful sweet contrast to the salty peanut butter and pretzels, but you can just do all chocolate chips.

If you can stop yourself from eating all the dough you’re going to love these sweet, salty, chewy cookies.

vanilla cream-filled sugar donuts

March 19, 2018 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

Homemade donuts are an incredibly rewarding endeavor and a delicious treat that you should try at least once, and here I am to dispel any of your fears or hesitations about making them!

Coconut crusted brown butter banana cake

March 11, 2018 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

The coconut topping gets caramelized during baking and creates a sweet, buttery, chewy topping. The browned butter adds depth of flavor and the cake is moist and tender. It's like the dressed up sister of banana bread. Plus, it passes for dessert and is still totally acceptable for breakfast.

Dusting off the cooking magazines: cheese soufflé

February 27, 2018 by Maria Almeida in cooking, maria

I don’t think I would’ve thought to try a soufflé if I hadn’t been searching through this one particular magazine for a recipe I could fit into that week’s menu with the ingredients I had on hand. I think in my mind i had relegated soufflé to stuffy dinner parties or French restaurants, not weekday meals. Turns out, soufflé is simple enough for a weekday meal AND tasty enough to be gobbled down by kids and adults alike. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given the main ingredients of egg and cheese.

Sourdough English Muffins

February 21, 2018 by Maria Almeida in maria, baking

Store bought English muffins will seem like flavorless cardboard compared to these delicious homemade English muffins! Just a tad more involved than bread but worth it!

The no shout project

February 16, 2018 by Maria Almeida in maria, home & family

Even though on the one hand I'm pretty mortified at admitting that I struggle so hard not to shout at my own children, at the same time I realize, I am small, I am human, and this is the struggle of human love, to make it pure and selfless.

Beneath the Crust

February 04, 2018 by Maria Almeida in life, maria

When we chose the title for our blog, we didn’t exactly hash out all its implications to precision. We loved the images it summoned - crusty breads, flaky pies, sweet and savory pastries - but we also liked its suggestion of substance being interior, something concealed but exposed when cut into, divided, or, well, shared. It sounded good enough, so we went with it. But the more we’ve developed the blog with that idea in the back of our minds, the more we’ve come to see just how good it is.

Hazelnut caramel Meringue cake

January 24, 2018 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

This is my favorite aspect of making cakes: coming up with all the elements. I love looking at cake recipes in cookbooks and on blogs, but I usually end up picking and choosing from a number of different sources for my own vision or what have you. This hazelnut cake is really fantastic, which you'd expect from Cook's Country. Ganache and meringue are pretty standard recipes. The frosting, though ... I could go on and on about this frosting. It's my go-to. I find it to have the lightness of a Swiss meringue buttercream but without the fussiness of the egg whites. The cooked flour method dates way back so, really, it's a tried and true recipe.

preparing for Christmas

December 03, 2017 by Maria Almeida in home & family, maria

The weeks before Christmas can be tricky. I'm like anyone else: I get all the warm and fuzzies when I see lights on houses, wreaths on doors, and hear Christmas jingles on the radio. But I'm just as interested in preserving the expectation of the weeks before Christmas as I am eager to celebrate it. After all, Christmas is about the birth of a baby, and just like with the birth of any other baby, the months beforehand are ones of preparation and joyful anticipation.

Classic Bread Stuffing

November 18, 2017 by Maria Almeida in cooking, maria

Here's a basic-as-they-come traditional bread stuffing, straight from the old classic Joy of Cooking. (If you're beginning to suspect I'm 60, I'm not. Joy of Cooking might not be the best for trendy or sophisticated recipes, but, man, they get their basics right.) Keep it simple and just make it as written, or add in some sausage/dried fruit/nuts/mushrooms to jazz it up a little. It's a springboard!

Spinach artichoke quinoa bake

November 14, 2017 by Maria Almeida in cooking, maria

This spinach artichoke quinoa is really delicious. I love a good, hearty, meatless meal to change things up in my weekly menu. With a cheesy sauce, lots of greens, and hearty quinoa grains, this leaves you feeling totally satisfied.

Hamburger Buns

November 12, 2017 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

Hamburgers are supposed to be an easy, no-fuss meal so why complicate things, right? Wrong. These hamburger buns replace the waste-of-space which is most supermarket buns with a soft, tender, delicious bread, elevating the hamburger from meat sandwiched between two flavorless dry sponges into something more complete and, frankly, worth eating.

Banana Bread

November 08, 2017 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

This is the recipe you turn to when you have brown mushy bananas that you need to use up. This is the recipe you turn to when you're craving a moist, delicious banana bread with great flavor. This is the recipe you turn to when you only want to have to wash ONE bowl. You've probably caught on to this by now, but in my opinion sometimes basic is best. No frills, no whistles, just flavor and texture.

On why showers sound like crying babies, and other reflections on motherhood

October 30, 2017 by Maria Almeida in maria, home & family

These little people have wrestled their ways into our lives and demanded everything from us by seizing our hearts. They have given us a singular opportunity to grow in love, to learn how to love better. We lose ourselves a bit as we give more. We look for more to give, and then we find more of ourselves! We expand in love.

Pumpkin bread, two ways

October 25, 2017 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

It's autumn (in some places, at least) and that means one thing: pumpkin everything. It's a little annoying, isn't it? But then again, pumpkin is delicious in every baked good form so I can't complain too much...

Texas field trip: Newman's Castle

October 23, 2017 by Maria Almeida in maria, life

Last week I took the kids to a completely random little town in Texas (it may be that most little towns in Texas are completely random and I just haven't lived here long enough to learn that) to visit an even more completely random Medieval castle. I knew four things about this place going into it: one, that it was a castle; two, that it was somehow associated with Newman's Bakery & Deli, also in Bellville; three, that the guy who built it actually lived there; and four, that the children get to reenact storming a castle. The first and last things alone justified a visit. I'll admit, the fact of the guy living there puzzled me. I just couldn't imagine what kind of place this was! The puzzlement never really cleared up - this place remains one big (amusing) puzzle to me.

Basic granola

October 16, 2017 by Maria Almeida in maria, baking

This recipe allows for a lot of adaptation so feel free to take creative liberties!

Roasted curried butternut squash soup

October 15, 2017 by Maria Almeida in cooking, maria

Roasting the butternut squash might seem like too much work, but it pays off by giving this soup a deeper flavor. The spice of the curry against the velvety smooth, creamy sweetness of the squash makes it pretty addicting.

Sugar Drop Cookies with Oil

October 12, 2017 by Maria Almeida in maria, baking

These come together in just minutes and require no preparation or fussy ingredients. The result: a crusty sugar-coated exterior that yields to a dense but soft interior fragrant with cinnamon.

Cream scones

October 10, 2017 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

These are not only my favorite scones but quite possibly one of my favorite foods. It is an absurdly easy recipe from Joy of Cooking which I have used a million times to produce delicious scones in just 20 minutes. These aren't like the overly sweet cake-like scones that you find at Starbucks or the crumbly dry British scones that need to be slathered with butter and jam. They're in between, simple and perfect, moist enough to eat on their own but not dense or squidgy. Just sweet enough to be called a breakfast treat but not so sweet as to confuse it with a dessert.