necessity is the mother of invention

Earlier this week, I made these peach bars from How Sweet It Is. If there is one thing you make all summer, it needs to be these peach bars.


I used about three or four peaches for that recipe, but I had one left over. So I had to come up with something to use up this peach and maybe even a few strawberries. 


I ended up making Peach Strawberry Shortbread. Delicious! I'm traditionally not much of a baker, so trust me when I say this recipe was easy. 


What You'll Need:
Crust:

• 1 C. flour
• 1/4 C. sugar
• 1/2 C. butter

Topping:

• 1 peach, sliced
• small handful of strawberries, sliced
• a blackberry jam/preserves

How to Cook:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a pie tin with a non-stick baking spray.
• Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl, just with a spoon.
• Measure out your butter and leave it out for a few minutes so that it's a little soft - not fresh from the fridge. Once soft, cut/spoon into little cubes or pieces and mix into the flour mixture.
• Combine the flour mixture and butter together until combined; it will look very crumbly - that's what you want. Just try to make sure everything is fluffily mixed together.
• Press the dough into the pie tin. This is when it will actually look like dough and when I stopped being confused about it. It may try to stick to your hands, but that just means you can probably stop pressing it.
• Spread enough jam/preserves to cover the entire crust. I used a blueberry-blackberry jam that I made, but basically any dark preserve will work.
• Place your sliced peaches and strawberries on top.
• Bake for around 35 minutes. Remove, let cool, enjoy!

It took a lot of guesswork to know when it was done baking; the shortbread won't turn crispy brown on top like a normal pie crust might. (For reference, I used the shortbread recipe from here). Check after 25 minutes to see how much longer you'll need, but I suggest 35-40 minutes in the oven.

This shortbread turned out great, I think! The crust was moist and dense, but still crumbly like a shortbread; the jam was maybe a tad sour for this recipe, but store-bought won't be.

a note about tofu

I get the feeling that a lot of people are scared of tofu and that's why they "don't like it." So in order to promote tolerance, I'd like to introduce you to your good friend tofu. Tofu tastes like what you cook it in. That's all. Doesn't sound so scary, now does it? The toughest part


You can find tofu in any grocery store (if I can find it here in the south, then it can be done). It comes in a package that looks like this:

For cooking purposes, I recommend extra firm tofu. When you open the package, you'll see a block of tofu sitting in liquid. Don't worry! That's how it should look. But in order to use the tofu, you'll need to get as much of the liquid out of the block as you can. In three easy steps!

1. Place the block of tofu onto a plate with two or three paper towels. Put two or three paper towels on top of the tofu.
2. Get a heavy, flat thing (a cutting board!) and place it evenly on top of the tofu. Put a small pan or heavy bowl in the middle of the cutting board; this is to put pressure on the tofu and gently get the liquid out.
3. Wait. For like at least thirty minutes.

Check your paper towels at least once during this process; if your tofu has more water than usual, you might need to replace your paper towels. 

Now your tofu is ready for cooking!

I'm not even going to write down a recipe because it is SO EASY to cook tofu, you guys. Three more easy steps!

• Spray a pan with non-stick cooking spray and bring to a medium heat (about a 5 on my stove top).
• Put the tofu in the pan (I generally tend to cube mine, but cooking it flat is also fine). Pour the sauce of your choice over the tofu.*
• Cook tofu for no more than six minutes, flipping occasionally to make sure it cooks thoroughly and is completely distributed with sauce. Serve.**

* - I often use a soy sauce/teriyaki sauce combo, but BBQ sauce works also. I've even used honey mustard.

** - Rice makes a good side with tofu; I've also put tofu in a sandwich with lettuce and tomato. It's pretty versatile, as it just takes place of a protein in your dish.

Now you have no reason to be afraid of tofu. It's the easiest thing in the world to cook, so try it out!

jamming is not hard, sorry

Working for Punk Domestics has opened my eyes to a whole new world of food. Besides making my own meals, I've also started to make my own jams!


Now, these aren't traditional jams as I'm not using any preservatives (pectin products) or any sort of canning methods. That means that you have to use it within a few days; believe me, that's not a problem.


There are basic ingredients to every jam and I've had fun experimenting with different variations. You should, too!


Today I made a strawberry-blackberry "jam". It's going to make you wish every meal was breakfast.


What You'll Need:

• strawberries
• blackberries
• a lemon
• brown sugar
• sugar
• pumpkin pie spice (optional)
• cinnamon (optional)

Notice I gave no measurement for any of those. That's because I don't use any in particular. It all depends on how much fruit you use; a cup of fruit should get just about two cups of sugar. The spices are just generous pinches.

How to Cook:

• Chop/slice your fruit into small pieces and place into a saucepan.
• Squeeze the juice of one lemon into the saucepan. I also like to include some small chunks of lemon.
• Place the saucepan on the stovetop on a medium-high heat, about a 4 on my stove.
• Add the pinches of optional spices.
• Add what sugar you'd like. I chose to include brown sugar to make this jam deeper.
• Check your twitmailbook to give the fruit some time to get with the sugar.
• Stir and mash some of the fruit. All of the liquid in the jam comes from the fruit itself (there's no added water). So it's important to squish the fruit. It's up to you how MUCH you do; I like seeing the fruit in the final product so it's chunky.
• Once the fruit is at the desired consistency, just stir it around.
• Check your facetwitmail.
• Stir and raise the heat to a 5/6. It doesn't need to be that hot for too long, but this helps eventually make the jam thick.
• Once it's been boiling for just a minute or two, reduce to a low heat for five-ish minutes. So, check your bookmailtwit.
• Pour the jam-sauce into a resealable container. It's still really warm so don't put it in the fridge just yet.

It may not seem like much... but it is TASTY.

So what are the main points to any jam?

• A fruit! Berries tend to be better in jams; citrus fruits can be made into marmalades, though I have made an orange-strawberry jam before.
• An acid! Lemon is an obvious choice, but oranges would work too.
• Some sugar! Sugar brings out the fruits' juices and makes the jam sticky and delicious.

Experiment while berries are in season! Maybe next week I'll make some sort of apple "jam"...

did I bake an apple?

Well, kind of.


This is a generally pretty easy recipe, as all of mine tend to be.


Here's what I did; it wasn't perfect, but it was still dang tasty!


What You'll Need:

• an apple
• about 1/8 C brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• handful of Craisins
• pat of butter

How to Cook:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Somehow core your apple.
• Stuff the apple with brown sugar, cinnamon and Craisin mixture.
• Place the pat of butter on top of the stuffed apple.
• The apple should be in a small, oven-safe dish. Fill the dish with a little water, enough to come up about halfway up the apple.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• After letting the apple cool for a minute and then somehow transfer to a bowl.
• Enjoy!

Now, when I cored my apple I used a paring knife. I almost got the core out beautifully but then the apple split. Oh well! I kept the apple together the best that I could. 

When I took the apple out of the oven, it looked like a crazy apple soup; perhaps too much water? Oh well! I put the apple into a bowl and spooned the liquid in/around it. That's where all of the sugar and Craisins had gone and that's the important part!

I almost forgot the most important step!

• Eat two or three doughnut holes while you wait.

princess breakfast

We've moved on to delicious cupcakes for breakfast, you guys. And I gotta say, it's a great way to start the day. I pair a cupcake with a couple pieces of fruit (Monday, grapes. Tuesday, strawberries). 


It automatically makes you feel like a princess. What's more decadent than that?


So when you guys are done making some cupcakes (I'll wait here), you can enter a great giveaway!

AllThingsForSale.com is giving away adorable sandwich cutters and bento accessories. The giveaway ends July 11 and it's SO easy to enter: follow that link for further instructions.