Homemade Corn & Tuna Fritters

It may not sound appeasing, in fact, it may sound kind of weird. Corn and Tuna fritters. But, trust me, this little appetizer will have your guests thanking you, especially on a nice spring day.

In a big bowl, mix together one can of tuna, half a can of creamed corn, one egg, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup of flour or corn meal (depends on how you want the consistency once fried, crunchy or fluffy.) Mix well until the batter is the consistency of cake batter. Use an extra large spoon, and drop spoonfuls of batter into very very hot oil. 

Fry on one side until your fritter begins to float up a bit, They will be fairly thin, like pancakes. Use a spatula to flip them and fry evenly. 

Let them drain on a paper towel and cool slightly before serving on a bed of chopped lettuce or coleslaw. I topped my stack with avocado and spices. It made a good, easy lunch and will make great finger foods at our next barbecue. 

Would certainly be great with tartar sauce and lemon squeeze too. 

Enjoy!

xo,

Beca

Homemade Broccoli Salad

I know things have been quiet around here lately, but we have been super busy. I am trying to make blogging a priority again. I wanted to share one of my favorite things in the entire world, broccoli salad. I made this for a cookout we had last week, and it was a huge success. Perfect for spring and pretty healthy, if that matters to you.

Recipe:

Two heads of steamed and chilled chopped broccoli

1 1/2 chopped green apples

Handful of pine nuts

Handful of craisins or other dried berried

Optional (we didn't do this but it is common) 2 slices of chopped crisp bacon

Dressing:

1/2 cup of mayonnaise or Greek yogurt

1TBSP sugar (we used TBSP of agave since we're avoiding sugar right now)

1/3 cup vinegar (apple cider is my favorite, but any vinegar will do)

Salt and Pepper

Enjoy!

xo,

Beca

Miniature Mac & Cheese Tarts

I didn't invent this, although I thought I did. Don't you hate when you think you're a genius, then you google your great idea to find out other people had your same idea too. That's what happened with my lovely little mini mac & cheese tarts. But, to me, I still invented them and they are mine!

We have a "friends Thanksgiving" party to go to tonight. It's a yearly tradition and last year by the time I had gotten off work, everyone was done eating and had moved onto drinking heavily. Nobody even got a chance to eat the desserts I made (a pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies and an apple pie.) This year, since I am 100% self employed, I am closing the shop early to go enjoy an early thanksgiving with friends and not only did I make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and garlic rolls, I also made my invention. Mini Mac & Cheese Tarts.

Easy, peasy mac & cheesy tart recipe.

12 mini uncooked pie shells

1 box of mac & cheese (I got Target brand shells & white cheddar cheese)

1 package of ritz crackers

This recipe is so easy and southern, you don't really have to "make" anything, just put it together. Pre-bake your pie shells, and set them aside. Make mac & cheese with a little extra milk/butter so that it is extra creamy. Some of this will bake off in the oven. Put a spoonful of mac & cheese in each pie shell, top with crushed ritz crackers and bake for about 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

xo,

Beca

Cinnamon Rolls; Messy and Delicious

Did I really only take one photo of the finished cinnamon rolls? Why yes, I believe I did. So this is it, friends, this is what they look like. If you keep on scrolling, there is a pretty good recipe and photos that show you how to do it.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love cinnamon rolls? I love them a lot. Doug loves them to, so whenever I get a chance, I bake the heck out of these.

The Recipe:

One and a half cups of flour

One package of dry, active yeast

Melt in saucepan

Half cup butter

One cup of milk

half cup sugar (or a little more if you feel like it)

add to dry, add two eggs.

Mix on low with dough hook, scrap sides of the bowl, for one minute.

Add two cups of flour.

Mix on high for a few minutes until a ball of dough is formed.

Here is the key step. You need to knead this dough for 8-10 minutes. It's to form a gluten window. If you don't know what that is, see below.

{This is what your dough should look like before. it rises. Dense, but with a gluten window. That means that when you break off a piece of dough, you can stretch it without it breaking in half. Let is rise in a covered bowl for about an hour, it should double in size.}

{I like to punch my dough once to get the air bubbles out. It's fun, and gets your blood flowing. Roll, stretch, pull your dough out to a big, old rectangle. The more you stretch your dough, the flakier and fluffier your rolls will be.}

{I should have used more cinnamon...and more sugar...and more butter. Go big or go home.}

{Roll it up!}

{Pretty, mismatched rolls. I was lazy, what can I say?}

{I never buy paper towels, so I just used a clean tee-shirt soaked in warm water to help my rolly rolls proof. I stuck them in the oven with the door left open for about an hour. I re-wet the tee-shirt mid proof.}

{If you must know, I reuse tin foil until it is unusable. I just can't seem to bring myself to throw it away. You can often find me washing tin foil so I can use it again..eek}

Bake at 300* for about 12 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 7 minutes, or until your tops are slightly brown. The photo above is after baking, not so brown.

For the frosting, I used half a package of cream cheese, 2 cups of powdered sugar and I forgot to get heavy cream so I used about a half a cup of Half and Half. It was pretty much perfect. :)

Enjoy!

xo,

Beca

A Bouquet of Herb Rolls

I have been aching to bake bread. It is one of my favorite things to make. There are so many options when it comes to bread and I love that it takes so much patience. Bread baking really is a whole day (or in some cases a whole week) process and I love it!

These rolls are super easy to make and you can change the spices you use, or not use any spices and just make plain rolls.

After you let your dough chill for 2 hours in the fridge, it should have risen twice its size. I knock the air out of the dough and then you can use a number of different ways to separate your dough.

I made three different trays of rolls. One spiral, one tulip and one that I like to call the gobstopper, lots of little balls of dough! Once you have your rolls separated out, I let them rise for another hour on top of the stove (the stove was turned on to warm for the first 45 minutes, then turned up to 400*

Bake at 400* for 12-15 minutes or until they start to get golden on top! It got way too dark in the house so I had to run out to the porch to take photos of the finished product. They came out so pretty, it was hard to even eat one, but not that hard...The outside was crispy and flaked with sea salt and herbs, and the inside was soft and fluffy. Pretty perfect.

I have to be careful or else I'll scarf all of these down instantly. These will be great with soup tonight, or maybe some tomato pasta.

xo,

Beca

Pumpkin Muffins and Happy Saturday

This morning I woke up extra early to make a batch of pumpkin muffins. I realize now, i should have made a double batch because they were gone within the first hour of work. I love muffins, not really eating them, but making them. There really is no greater satisfaction that watching a perfect muffin rise in the oven.

There are two things that make a great muffin. Crunchy, sugar top and an airy center. Divine. My only thing with these as that I didn't fill the tins as much as I should have. I only filled each cup about 1/3. I suggest filling the cups half way to get that nice muffin top. I've been making muffins for a long time, and I don't follow the rules. Be forewarned. Here is my recipe.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins // Makes 6 medium muffins

1 cup of white granulated sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 TBSP milk

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1 large egg and 1 egg white

1 1/2 Cup flour

2 TSP Baking Soda

1 TBSP Baking Powder

dash of cinnamon

dash nutmeg

{Combine all ingredients, but do not overmix, or your muffins will sink during baking. I don't add the wet to the dry, or anything special like that, I just combine everything at once. That works for me, but if you want to get fancy, mix wet and dry separately, then add wet to dry. Combine. Fill your greased baking cups, or papers, about a half of the way. Top with brown sugar and white sugar.}

{This makes 8 flat/small muffins. Again, I suggest filling the cups a little more than I did. Bake at 350* for 15-22 minutes, or when knife is clean. I keep a sharp eye on muffins, because a minute or two too much could ruin them. Once the centers are baked through, pull the pans, and then immediately dump the muffins from the pan. They will keep cooking if you leave them in the pan.}

Also, today seemed extra magical for some reason. Maybe it was the muffins. Or maybe it is a great mug of coffee. Wearing the boyfriends sweatshirt. Little tiny pumpkins. And BBQing at the shop with the pup on my lap.

Hope you are having a great weekend so far! I can't believe it is almost November! I am pretty excited for next month for a number of reasons. It will be our one year anniversary of being in San Diego, holiday season is upon us, we have some exciting projects coming up andsome new blog stuff.

Time for bed. It's been a long day!

xo,

Beca

Miniature Caramel Apples + Pretzels

Oh lordy lord. It has been a long time since I did anything but complain and post sunglasses related stuffs. Well, here is my redemption. I hope it is worthy. Oh, yes I do.

So these are the absolute last thing I should be eating right now, since I have a rotten tooth that needs to be err...extracted...tomorrow probably, if I can get a payment plan because mama can't afford the dentist right now...BUT, alas, they are also my favorite thing in the entire world. Like I could eat caramel apples all day long. Forever. Or just in the autumn. You know.

Get this, Doug and I went to get pumpkins today (buy one get one free, hooray) and while grabbing some fresh veggies, Doug brought me a little guy. A crab apple!! They are the tiniest, cutest things I have ever seen in the world. I instantly dumped the bag of red delicious apples out and grabbed a few of these. They can be pricey if you go crazy, so we got four. The perfect amount for itty bitty caramel apples.

Now, coring these things is a B word. I almost cut my finger off several times. But, I managed to get the cores out and stick, get this...my favorite pretzels in them as the post. (please excuse my hands, they are stained with glue/dust, not gross un-washed, I promise, and be sure to not notice my blisters from cutting veneer. I work hard, yall.)

Normally, I make my own caramel, and maybe when I have the money to buy all the ingredients for it, I will share my world famous recipe, but today, I just used some caramel bits from Hersheys that I had in the pantry. This stuff is kind of tricky, so if you are nervous about heating up caramel on the stovetop, just get the microwave kind. It tastes just as good and is WAY easier to work with.

Dip your fancy little crab apple + pretzel into the hot hot caramel and stick those pups in the fridge to cool. If you are anything like me, you won't wait and you'll eat a still kind of hot one and burn your mouth and it will all be worth it.

Evidence. I think these would be great for little party treats, holiday snacks or just a foggy afternoon project. Damn it, I also can't get over how cute these apples are!

Do you like caramel apples? If you try this, link up to me so I can see yours!

xo,

Beca

PS I am definitely going to try to share more recipes and stuff like that! Let me know if there is anything you want to see. French Macarons are on the top of the list. Anything else?