LEMONANANUT BARS

In the past, I have been a follower of recipes but getting back into the blog has inspired me to start inventing because it is much more exciting to post about a recipe I created, especially when I’ve made up a name for it! LEMONANANUT! Pronounced Lem-OH!-nananut! These are a lemon bar with some new exciting additions. The bottom is a cashew crust, middle layer is a fudgy white chocolate and banana, the top is lemon curd, and there is coconut all through out. This is also no bake, but it does require some stovetop action for the lemon curd. I made a half recipe in a loaf pan to prevent myself eating an entire pan of them. If you cut them small you can still get around twelve from the half recipe. I provided amounts for both because when I’m doubling or halving a recipe I always forget to change one of the ingredient amounts (there was an incident with some ketchup that I don’t want to think about).

Ingredients:

CRUST:

Loaf:	8x8:
⅓ c.	⅔ c.	roasted salted cashews
⅓ c.	⅔ c.	cheerios
5-6	10-12	dates
1½ tsp	3 tsp	honey
1½ Tbsp	3 Tbsp	coconut butter*

*This is not the same as coconut oil. It is ridiculously expensive to buy (Nut butter prices are one of my main problems with the economy these days.) but supah cheap and easy to make yourself. I learned how here!

WHITE CHOCOLATE BANANA LAYER:

Loaf:	8x8:
¾ c.	1½ c.	white chocolate chips
½ (25g)	1 (50g)	banana
¼ c.	½ c.	shredded unsweetened coconut

LEMON CURD:

Loaf:	8x8:
⅛ c.	¼ c.	lemon juice
1 tsp.	2 tsp.	lemon zest
1½ *	3	eggs
¼ - ½ c.	½ - 1 c.	sugar

*I needed an egg wash for something else I was making so I used the extra half egg for that, but I’m sure two eggs would be fine here.

+ a couple tablespoons of shredded unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on top

Directions:

1. MAKING THE CRUST:
First pulse the cashews in a food processor a few times, just to break them up a bit. Then add the rest of the ingredients and wizz until all combined. The cashew don’t need to be ground finely, they add a nice texture. If you don’t have a food processor, you could do this in a blender but I would recommend bashing the cashews in a ziplock bag a bit first. Then line the bottom of the pan with wax or parchment paper and press the mixture into the bottom.

2. WHITE CHOCOLATE BANANA FUDGY GOODNESS:
Melt the chips in the microwave or in a double boiler. Mash the banana, make it really smooth, you don’t want banana lumps in this. Mix the banana and shredded coconut into the melted chocolate. This will have an extremely strange texture while it is warm, somewhere between melted marshmallows and troll boogies. It is very difficult to spread over the crust. I would not suggest using your fingers and licking them clean when necessary because although that would be effective, it is also totally unsanitary and not something I would ever do. Once it’s spread as evenly as possible, stick it in the fridge while you make the curd.

3. CURDY CURD:
[About the sugar: The recipe I used for this said a half cup of sugar, but that seemed like a lot to me so I did a very scant half cup, but even then the curd came out pretty sweet. Personally I like my lemon desserts on the tart side, so I ended up adding extra lemon juice. If I make this again I’m just going to cut down the sugar even more. So basically for the half recipe, ¼ c. would be very tart and ½ c. would be very sweet.]
Put all the ingredients into a double boiler over simmering water and whisk until thickened, about ten minutes. It is a good idea to put this through a sieve to remove any scrambled egg, but if you are confident in your whisking abilities or just impatient, you can skip that. For me it was 20% confidence in whisking and 80% impatience. Put it in the fridge for a couple minutes.

4. TOASTING THE COCONUT:
Put the coconut in a skillet over medium-low heat and keep mixing until it is golden brown. This happens fast so don’t step away and keep moving it around.

5. FINAL ASSEMBLY:
Pour the slightly cooled curd over the fudge layer, spread evenly, and sprinkle the toasted coconut on top. Refrigerate for a couple hours, then remove from pan and slice into bars.

YUMMMMM

These are so so good! I highly suggest making the curd on the tart side because it pairs really well with the creamy sweetness of the middle layer. These cannot be stacked and might not travel that well because the curd stays pretty soft. But if you are like me and only need them to travel from the pan to your mouth, it’s fine.
I was pretty nervous when the melted chocolate and mashed banana mixture had such a strange texture, but once it cools it is just smooth and creamy and gooood. It has given me ideas about using banana in fudge, like what about milk chocolate plus peanut butter plus banana? Sounds amazing! Or white chocolate and banana but with nutmeg and cinnamon and allspice and cardamom, so it’s like a chai fudge? OR almond butter and banana and maple syrup and just a tiny bit of white chocolate? Oh my goodness, sometimes I have ideas! Sometimes I have TOO MANY IDEAS!

While making this, I listened to Belle and Sebastian, as usual!

I also need to mention that the kitty of my life is laying on me right now. It is making typing rather difficult, but he was very persistent and I cannot resist the love of a cat!

These two recipes inspired some of the flavor combinations:

Vanilla Lemon Swirl Bars

Raw Lemon Cashew Cheesecake
And the lemon curd recipe is adapted from this one.

BEET GNOCCHI

I pretty much see eighteen thousand recipes a day that I think look amazing (see foodgawker.com), but this is one I felt an immediate need to make. BEET GNOCCHI is such a brilliant idea, I can't even believe it. But the shock of the century this meal was that the gnocchi didn't even turn to be the best part. The site I found the recipe on had a pesto to serve them with which sounded really good. But Oh NO! I don't have any basil! But wait I have the ingredients for the besto pesto of your life: ARUGULA and PISTACHIOS! It was meant to be. I could (and did) eat this plain. Prepare yourself for the amazingness.

Ingredients:
Serves 2

GNOCCHI:
2 medium/largish beets (with tops!!)
1½ - 2 c. all purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
¼ tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper
[some bozos put an egg but that is so unnecessary, i don't even know why i'm mentioning it.]

PESTO:
2 c. arugula
¼ c. roasted pistachios
⅛ - ¼ c. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt/pepper to taste (if you use salted pistachios like me, you'll barely need to add any at all)

Directions:
1. Roasting the beets:
Beets are the slowest cooking little trolls in the world so keep this in mind if you decide to make this. Preheat oven to 425F. Cut the tops off the beets, I also suggest cutting them into smaller pieces so they cook faster. Then rub a bit of olive oil on them, wrap them in tin foil, and pop them in the oven. Check them every 20 mins or so. Mine took an hour.
2. Besto Pesto:
While those badboys are in the oven, get the pesto ready. Put everything in a food processor and WIZ! Boom! Most delicious thing of you life.

3. Prepare Tops:
The beets are still in the oven, obviously, so prepare the tops. Cut the stems off at the base of the leaf. Then, stack them up and cut into 1 in. ribbons. Wash and set aside.
4. Burn Your Fingers:
Thank GOD, the beets are finally done. You’ve waited long enough, don’t bother letting them cool just start peeling right away. If you squeeze the 400 degree beet in your bare hand your skin the peel will slide right off.
5. WIZZZZ:
Put the beets in a food processor (blender would probs work too) and puree those chumps until smooth.
6. Make Dough:
In a large bowl add the first cup of flour and in the center form a crater? ditch? what is the technical term for this? Dump the beet puree in the hole? depression? why do these all sound wrong? Mix with your hands and keep adding flour until you have a soft dough that’s not too sticky.
7. Form Gnocchi:
Sprinkle flour on a clean surface. Cut dough into four equal parts. Roll each into a rope ½ in. thick. Cut into ¾in pieces. The size doesn’t matter that much, just make them the size and shape you find pleasing in your mouth. Let them sit about 15 min. (5 if you’ve had it with these beets making you wait)

8. Cook ‘Em:
Bring salted water to boil in a medium sized sauce pan. Drop around 8 in at a time. When they float to the top them are ready. Scoop them out into a colander. Sometimes they stick to the bottom and can't float up so I like to give them stir a minute into cooking in case this happens.
9. Tops:
Before adding your last batch, heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a pan. After adding the last batch, toss the tops into the pan and sautee about 4 minutes until they are wilted and dark and one millionth  their original size. When all the gnocchi are done toss them in with the greens to warm them back up and then remove from heat.
10. SERVE!

Not only are these delicious, they are the most beautiful gnocchi you’ll ever see! These pictures don’t even do them justice (my camera makes everything and everyone uglier than they really are). The pesto goes with them and pretty much anything very well. If you want to make this for more people, it’s easy: just have one beet per person. Also, this is vegan and can easily be made gluten free by using the equivalent amount of rice flour.

While making this I listened to an episode of Radiolab and once again had my mind blown. 
Click here to listen/download!  
SPOILER ALERT: Deluminators are possible! What ?! (Okay, okay, somewhat possible/on the road to being possible. There is a troll here who is raining on my parade with his trollish lack of excitement)


Recipe inspired by: What's Cooking Good Looking

PEACH COBBLER

peaches! this tree + our kitchen = the need for peach cobbler! if you are not awesome enough to have a peach tree, you will just have to use the unremarkable peaches from the market. Ours are white peaches, but orange/red are usually used. either will be [insert clever adjective for good]. while we were picking them, one car drove by and asked for a peach, and another asked if we were selling them! so if times are tough for you in this recession, grow a peach tree. simple!

we used six peaches, but ours are slightly small (not genetically modified), so you might want four or five. when sliced, you should have around four to five cups to taste.

read end comments before starting!!

• 1/2 cup white sugar [if you waaant]
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 cups fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder [nooo!]
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons shortening [pffft, use butter!]
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

3.[explanation below] To Make Peach Filling: In a large saucepan combine 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Stir in peaches and lemon juice, tossing until peaches are evenly coated.

4. Cook filling over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 1 minute. Pour mixture into an ungreased 2 quart [see note] casserole dish. Keep mixture hot in oven while you make topping. [or not!]

2. To Make Topping: In a medium bowl combine flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix thoroughly, then cut in shortening until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add milk and stir until mixture is evenly moistened.

5. Remove peach filling from oven [Why?] and drop dough onto peaches in 6 equal-size [unnecessary] spoonfuls.

6. Return cobbler to oven and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/fresh-peach-cobbler-i/detail.aspx

we added some nutmeg, unmeasured dash, in addition to the cinnamon. also it seems quite silly to keep the filling warm in the oven. just make the topping first! by the by, the batter is gooood. sort of like really addictive pancake batter. we added a small handful of oats. they give a nice texture, but it never really got golden brown, cooked, but more of a pasty, oaty color. it looks strange! i dont know if oats are to blame. did we sabotage our own cobbler? maybe! D: use only one tsp baking powder (this could also have been the problem).


we used a 1.6 quart dish, and the cobbler was tall and had little area for topping. make sure to use a 2 quart dish!

finally, the shoogar! the cobbler is pretty sweet. three of us in this household think it's at the ideal sweetness level. but one straggler, thinks it is too sweet. she would prefer to taste the natural flavor of fresh peaches more. if you have a sweet tooth for the syrup, keep it the same, but you could easily adjust the recipe to your taste! the peaches also came out slightly mushy, so boil them a bit less than the instructions say; unless you like them mushy!

This is a delectable, comforting desert! it only has three tablespoons of butter, so it is a healthier alternative to more fattening comfort foods. we ate the whole thing in about five hours... please don't be alarmed or scared away by the photos, because it is incredibly delicious! we warned: we make ugly, tasty food!

Enjoy!

Song (watch "Blue Valentine"!!): 

Prologue (or should we say problog?)

Welcome to our blog!

We are two sisters in a kitchen. its true. here we are. together. humor. cat. this summer we both became rather (mm yes, quite) inerested with a "t" in food! baking and cooking. after spending half our lives watching cooking tutorials on youtube, we decided to actually make something :D (aah thats a crooked smile!) after many adventures and our foodie brother's encouragement, we became absorbed by the idea of a FOOD BLOG! and a baby was born! .....what?

keep in mind that we are both vegetarians, so there will very rarely, if ever, be meat. some recipes will be vegan! our food may venture into treacherous realms that cannot be escaped or recovered from, but we will post those pictures/recipes too!

we usually make.. ugly... tasty food. some food blogs are created by master chefs (see foodwishes and titli nihaan on youtube), but this! this is whole new experience! we are making real food for everyday people. and that brings us to the title. we have a cat named Norman (otherwise know as norms, normy, naams, snarf, cat, and beast). he is maGNIFICENT (warning: unexpected caps! ) we have been referring to him as "the kitty of our lives" for so long that we forgot its affiliation with Cotton. when picking a title for the blog, we combined these two major influences to create "the kitchen of our lives"!! overwhelmed with excitement, we created the blog without considering our lack of originality. ah well! the "lively kitchen" is a play on words, really.

also! we will attach a song that we listened to while cooking to set the mood. we home you enjoy our humor, music, and food!

songie song: