Winter Break Mission: Become Julia Child

In late August, I wrote about my adventures in baking. Sadly, my school work caught up with me as the semester progressed, which makes winter break all the more exciting. Over two feet of snow on the ground leaves me with the excuse to stay inside and to to take refuge in my kitchen.

It started with a leftover bottle of Coca Cola from New Year's Eve. I am not much of a soda drinker, but I also didn't like the idea of pouring it down the drain. The soda led me to Coca Cola Chili, which I neglected to photograph, nor was there a picture online (boohoo). Take my word for it--tasty cold weather goodness. It was spicier than I expected, but for those of you who know me, (and my tendency to order extra chilis at Thai restaurants), it was just right. Well, except the lack of starch, which prompted my next mission: jalapeno pepper jack scones--


Photo Courtesy of Joy the Baker

Lovely. I forgot the gloriousness of chili and a warm scone when it is cold outside. Plus, it was cheap to make, which is good for my grad student budget (never mind all the money I spent at Lululemon this week.

A few nights later, we were out of ice cream. What's a girl to do but to make homemade almond-vanilla rice pudding?


Thank you to Smitten Kitchen.

Quite possibly one of the most quick and easy recipes for an irresistible dessert. I say irresistible because I may or may not have snuck spoonfuls of it from the fridge until it was empty.

As if I hadn't had enough sweets; my next recipe was Meyer Lemon and Cranberry Scones, also from Smitten Kitchen. My rationale was to make something that Pat could take to work every day, like I did in my Grad Student or Domestic blog back in August. But it was also because the jalapeno pepper jack scones were so good, and I needed some sweet to balance the savory.

Voilà.
Another Smitten Kitchen Creation.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I am on a perpetual budget, or at least I will be until I pay off my student loans (ahem, which may never happen...), so I never want to let anything go to waste. I still had leftover cola. Which brought me to the soda jerk beans I that I made today:


Yum. Thanks, Epicurious .

So here I am...two feet of snow on the ground, and with leftover Coke, Sprite, and now Ham. Clearly I will have to find a solution to this predicament with an upcoming Trader Joe's run.

Weekend mission: Make and consume Mushroom Bourguignon. And begin photographing my own food.

Smitten Kitchen does it again.

And maybe some thesis research. Hmm...