Paniolo Coconut-Lime Cookies

So, when Heidi and I were in Washington, Sheri Dew gifted each attendee at the Management Society dinner a copy of Our Best Bites. I had heard so many good things and was ecstatic.

A couple weeks ago I started with the Strawberry-Lemon Butter Cookies, but substituted blackberry jam and lime zest out of necessity.

Blackberry-Lime Butter Cookies 

They were yummy, although a little too buttery. And I must say better than anything strawberry lemon I'd had before (score for random substitution).

Then over the weekend we headed to the cabin and I wanted to make some cookies, so I followed another Our Best Bites recipe for Lime-Coconut White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies. I followed the recipe, down to the random melted butter.

Lime-Coconut White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

Again, they were yummy, although a little too buttery. And, the Diamond Macadamia nuts weren't my favorite (although to be fair, they weren't chopped or toasted). And while yummy, the cookies weren't what I was expecting, I wanted a more solid chocolate-chip cookie texture, and I created a plan for improvement.

So, tonight when we were at the grocery store and I saw macadamia nuts, I asked Ryan if he would be up for another go at it. For some friends and neighbors, and perhaps some friends that we visit and home teach?

Sure!

First thing's first, macadamia nuts. How many to buy? At more than $3.00 at ounce for the Diamond brand, I figured we go with as few as possible. Then we found the Archer Farm brand! They were cheaper and pre-toasted. Excellent.

After a little experimentation, a few miserable cookies, and some help from Ryan, we had the most delicious, beautiful cookie ever baked. (Yes, cookie, I wanted to start with just one.) And they kept coming!  Each batch, better than the previous!

They are super yummy, although I might reduce the sugar just a little because the white chocolate chips naturally add a very robust, sugary richness, but that is incredibly minor... (:

So, without further adieu, McKenzie's Paniolo Coconut Lime Cookies! (Paniolo means "Cowboy" in Hawaiian, and considering this recipe combines my favorite "Cowboy Cookie" recipe with the Lime-Coconut recipe, I thought it was quite fitting!)

Paniolo Coconut-Lime Cookies 

Ingredients (Yields approximately 4 dozen cookies)

1 Cup butter (room temperature)
1 Cup packed brown sugar
1 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup shredded coconut
1 Cup white chocolate chips (optional for texture: coarsely chopped)
1 Cup roasted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
Zest from two medium limes


Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
3) Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
4) In a separate bowl, sift flour, soda, powder, and salt together.
5) Add flour mixture to creamed mixture one cup at a time.
6) Add coconut and zest and mix thoroughly.
7) Stir in chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
8) Spoon 2 Tbsp dough into ball and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet
9) Back at 350 for 10-12 minutes (until very lightly brown)
10) Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, transfer to wire cooling rack

Critical Moments

My students have been giving presentations. Quite of few of them have involved food. I was so stalwart until today... 

One of my students talked about her efforts to become a good baker and related it to the job search: Some people don't like peanut butter or chocolate. In other words, not everyone is going to want you. 

Well, I. Wanted. That. Chocolate-covered, rice-crispy treat!

But... Ryan and I have been working hard for the past few days to avoid sweets... so while I really wanted it, in my critical moment, I deferred to my positive peer pressure (Ryan), who happened to be in influencer training...

I'm actually really proud to say that I did give it to Heidi. And apparently it was delicious. But, there are always going to be other opportunities, right?

Cupcake Wars

Inspired by us (Ryan, Ryan's siblings, and me) cooking breakfast together in the spring of 2010, my father-in-law has implemented cabin cooking challenges... 

This year over the long President's Day weekend was Cupcake Wars. The funny, and frustrating thing about the challenge is that we each have a slight competitiveness that keeps things interesting. 

This challenge's theme, inspired by Adi's 2nd birthday and Hannah's 22nd birthday was Disney Princesses. (:

We had a little bit of this... 

Ariel and "The Little Mermaid" stole the show with gum paste... 

Courtesy of Erin and Tyler 

A little bit of that... 

Prince Charming and the dragon from "Sleeping Beauty" battled it out in frosted sugar-cookie form... 

Courtesy of Hannah and Andrew

And even a smidgen of... 

Voilà

 Pascal  hung out in Rapunzel's tower from "Tangled" in Cream Cheese frosting...

Courtesy of Ryan and I 

Best chocolate cake/cupcake ever? I think so. Taste the proof... 

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Speaking of cupcakes... Adi and I visited the Sweet Tooth Fairy yesterday for some last-minute visiting teaching surprises. And yes, we have some waiting in the freezer... 

Scrumdiddlyumptious!

Tortilla Española

Last Friday was the final day of my spanish class. We celebrated with a delicious Spanish Feast! The main dish? Delicious tortilla española. 

Yummy? You bet. 

Cir. Aug. 2006

Throw back to Spain? Absolutely. 

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By the way. I rocked the class with an A. Just had to share. (:

Girl Time!

Ryan's been studying a lot lately. It's either O-Chem, MCAT, or Molecular Biology. Fun right? (: Adi and I are so proud of him! He is working so hard and is going to rock the MCAT and become a great physician. We love him.

The other night, Adi and I were on-campus for a Bookstore sale and decided to make it to our favorite pizza place for dinner. It's crazy how much Adi's changed from pizza picture to pizza picture. I'm so grateful we document via pictures!

Anyway, we of course ordered the "Alcatraz" and enjoyed some fun mommy and me time. (Don't worry, we saved some for Ryan!)

My little girl eating with a fork! Is she old enough to do that!?

Yummy!

Fork? Shmork.

Guilty Pleasure

I just got back to my desk from the Cougar Eat. I brought my food with me. My Tacobell food. 

That's right, I eat Tacobell.

A couple of years ago I saw a Biggest Loser episode where Jillian completely yelled at a bunch of contestants for eating Tacobell. She said, "How can you eat that?! That's not even food." 

Well. I am guilty. And I like it. 

And just because the beef is 50% Tofu (which is supposedly a 'health' food), that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. :) 

Tortilla, Lettuce, Tomato, Beans... yummy. (Can you tell I'm hungry for my food.) 

Cookies!

Yesterday Ryan and I were going to make a pie, but happened upon a sugar cookie recipe. We decided to pull out our cookie cutters and go to work. I will not describe how much sugar or oil was in the dough, but let's just say when I was eating it the thought "I'm eating butter and sugar" came to mind. 

The dough was a little difficult to deal with, until we realized "chilled" basically meant "slightly frozen".

But, they were yummy.

Halfway through the frosting recipe, we realized we were out of powdered sugar, so Austin and Bri came by to save us and doctorate with us. 

Adi liked the cookies, although she was on a serious sugar overload last night. 

Austin documented the process, apron and all. 

Ryan whipped together some delicious frosting.

We used orange cream cheese frosting and orange sugar crystals... 

And some black gel icing. Muahahaha. 

Austin and Bri decorating... and saving the day!

Here's to fall fun! 

Football game: check!

Decorating cookies: check!

The Sun! The Sun! I saw the Sun!

That's right! The sun actually shines in Seattle. I felt quite lucky that the weather was so incredible--I thouroughly enjoyed my trip and found that it was the most fun and successful outreach trip I've been on to date. We'll see if Portland in December can sway me to the Northwest even further.

My first day in Seattle was overcast. As I drove to the city after landing, I noticed the grey skies immediately. But, by early afternoon, the skies started to clear, the sun came out, and my trip to the top of the Space Needle was perfect.

Views from the top of the Space Needle, Seattle, WA 

From above and below. (If you look closely you can see a helipad and helicopter. Those belong to Bill Gates.) 

After a beautiful trip to the top, I headed out of the city for dinner with recruiters at the beautiful Palisades restaurant. Elegant, delicious, simply beautiful.

I loved our view of the marina from our table--perfect sunset. (I was sad Ryan wasn't there to enjoy it with me.)

The next day, I headed out to a beautiful building owned by Weyerhaueser. It was a pyramid built into the ground and was covered with greenery. It was really neat. And, because it was outside the city, it was more calm, relaxed, and peaceful. 

After my appointments that day, I thought I'd drive to the Seattle Temple. I was just going to take a few pictures, but decided that I would do a session. Needless to say, I got lost amongst the escalators. 

The rest of the week consisted of walking Pike's place and eating some delicious food. Photographic evidence...

Ivar's was good, especially their famous Clam Chowder. Stopped for some peach crepes, slightly disappointed. And, of course I love breakfast, so the Brown Bag Cafe was on the menu (and those were the leftovers! And, don't listen to what google tells you because Topolino's wasn't that great. 

Loved the old-town architecture, fresh flowers and peppers, and who doesn't love a good fish market with an onlooking pig!? 

I got to enjoy sights of the market from every direction and saw the space needle from every point in the city as well. I walked everywhere.

Visited Weyerhauser headquarters--gorgeous, and the first Starbucks. I also made it to a bizzare Asian market inside a building downtown. Awesome? I think so.

Cupcake crazed.

So, I've talked about the Cupcake Craze, but not about my love for all things beautiful. Including food. 

From the day I could boil water to present, my dad's food motto has always been "Taste is nothing, presentation is everything." And... I've taken that as one of my personal mottos. 

While I don't cook or bake very regularly, I can. And that's what's important. And, at times, I can make wicked delicious food that looks incredible. 

I say at times because often I feel like all the women around me are creating beautiful, delicious food all the time, so for me at times is often a response to show off and demonstrate that I can do it. Well.

Last week, our ward had an activity. I had volunteered to make cupcakes, so Ryan and I got a head start on these gourmet beauties. 

We baked the actual chocolate cupcakes the night before and then whipped up some delicious fresh raspberry butter creme frosting. We topped them with fresh raspberries and added a touch of iridescent bakers powder for looks. 

They look amazing, right?

Yeah, killer when Ryan and I are now a sweets-once-a-week-for-life family.

We were thrilled with how they turned out, and heard from friends that they tasted delicious too.

I was totally devastated however when I remembered that they were only for a kid's cake walk!? And everyone else had brought kid-themed, store-bought vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.

Oh well, you won't doubt though, will you? :)

The Quest for the Perfect Pizza Pie

Last week our bread maker died. Did I mention it was barley a year old? Did I mention that's what we always used it for our pizza dough?

Luckily last week I bought myself my mother's day gift...

I spent the entire evening reading it and finished it before I went to bed. I was extremely excited!

The best part was that Ryan and I had a breakthrough last week because in the food nanny cookbook, we found an amazing dough recipe that used half white flour, half wheat flour. It was so easy, and we made it by hand!

I also thought that because we were trying something new... I venture to use the pizza stone again (the first time I used it, it was a complete failure)... but this time we had corn meal.

We had a variety of veggies and random items so we made a few different kinds of pizza... voila!

BBQ Chicken - Ready for the Stone!

BBQ Chicken Pizza - Half-eaten. :) Yum. 

Spinich, Onion, Tomato, and Corn Pizza - a palate pleaser. 

Onion, Yellow/Red Pepper, and Spinich Pizza... the Best. Ever.

Adi loves Pizza! 

Kenz loves Pizza!

Ryan loves Pizza!

WE LOVE PIZZA!

3.141592... Pi or Should I say Pies?

So, serendipitously, tomorrow is Pi Day... here's a nice little post about pies in honor of the great mathematical principle... (not that I've used it in the past 5 years...)

Oh, and a small piece of trivia. When I was in 7th grade, I memorized this: for Pi Day...

3.14159265358979323238462 - that's a lot of pi.

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This last week, my colleague invited me to her house to learn how to make delicious apple pie.

I was really excited about going and making it. The only problems?

1. I hate pie. The analogy I've come up with to describe why I hate pie is related to my aversion to flannel as well. Pie crust, it's like flannel for your mouth. :) Oh well.

2. And no sweets. Oh well.

It was a lot of fun getting together and fun learning a new skill! I thought they even looked pretty too.

Apple Pie from scratch. (Not too shabby for my first pie ever.)

And nope. Didn't eat a bite--gave it to a family in our ward to say thanks for watching Adi.

Today I decided to try again, and worked up this masterpiece as well...

Blueberry pie, crust from scratch. (Pretty great for my second pie, don't you think!?)

And nope. Didn't eat a bite--gave it to my family for their FHE treat.

So, now we wait until April so I can make Ryan a Cherry Pie. (He's sad that we've made 2 batches of cookies and 2 pies and that he hasn't been able to eat any of them. Only 19 more days... ugh, when will March be over!?)