Baking Moments

If you know me, you probably know I'm a tiny bit nerdy because one of my favorite and most frequent hobbies is cooking (or baking if you want to be specific, I don't prefer one over the other.) In fact I'll confess, I spend way too much of my free time browsing for new recipes. I have folders on my computer and books in my closet that are overflowing with new recipes to try. I told you, nerdy. I can't help it, they fascinate me. But that's all beside the point! I tried two fun new recipes this week... so far... and so instead of looking up more recipes to add to the pile, I figured I'd spend my moment of free time blogging about them instead.

Moment 1: A few weeks ago I was watching Regis and Kelly and they had a little "kitchen moment" with Chef Christina Tosi from the Momofuku Bar in New York City. Apparently they are famous for their Compost Cookies which I've never heard of, so I was fascinated as I watched them pour all these crazy ingredients into their dough! They were putting in crackers, candy bars, cereal, chips, etc. hence the name- compost cookies. Maybe I'm slow, and other's have seen/tried this, but I hadn't. For the next week it ran through my head whether those cookies were actually edible, because I had my doubts. Of course I couldn't leave it up to wondering, so I looked up their website and found the recipe. I read the reviews and comments and wasn't getting the best impression of their recipe, so I looked up more "compost cookie" recipes. I took multiple recipes into account and came up with my own as to what I thought would work best. Monday night I found myself in the kitchen adding oatmeal, Ritz, pretzels, fritos, p.b chips, and choc. chips to my cookie dough... sounds crazy I know, and I was skeptical, BUT... dun dun dun.. they were GOOD! The dough alone was the perfect sweet/salty combo and the cookies baked great! I froze them and now they taste like a Take 5 candy bar. In my mom's words, "that just sounds gross," but I had a good time with it. Not a cookie recipe I'd frequently go to, but if you ever need to clean out the crumbs in the pantry... I'm just sayin :)

Moment 2: I really like baking bread. It's so fun to work with and there is so much you can do with it. I've been eyeing this braided bread on my favorite blog but was kinda scared to try it. Yes, I'm an amateur. Last night I decided to give it a try and it turned out great!

It's stuffed with BBQ chicken, cheese, and onions. It was delicious! And so fun.

Well there's a glance into my cooking hobbie.. obsession...? And on that note, I watched the movie Julie and Julia for the first time last week. I had no idea what it was about, I just picked it up from the Redbox. A show about baking and blogging? Yes please :)