THE BEGINNING…
So, here I am, at the beginning… not entirely sure where, or how to begin, a little nervous (in fact I’ve been avoiding my computer for a few days). But, here I am. Both the girls are napping, the house is quiet, the cat has me pinned to my chair, so I can’t avoid “the beginning” anymore.
I suppose the best place to start is with a little background. I grew up near Seattle, Washington. I lived with my mom, older sister, and twin brother in a little, blue, one-level house on the bottom of “the whoop-dee-doo hill” (which, sadly, we rarely got to whoop-dee-doo because we always had stop and turn into our driveway). My mom was a full-time teacher and a single mom to the three of us. I don’t remember much in the way of her cooking, which probably isn’t surprising since I can’t image the thought and effort it took to get anything on the table for us after work and tae-kwon-do and gymnastics and swim team. I do remember “swimming chicken” which we regularly had after swim class, homemade almond milk frozen until slushy, sticky-sweet mochi warm and drizzled with honey, and I remember that unfortunate year we were all allergy tested and had quite a lot of soy ice cream. Mostly, I remember chocolate chip cookies.
My mom, sister and I made cookies together often. I can’t remember if we made the recipe on the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag or another, but we made a lot of cookies in that little blue house. We would get out the “cookie spoon” and the big, heavy bowl and set to work. The specific memories are a bit vague but I remember my childhood, and teenage years dotted by batches of cookies. My sister and I both make chocolate chip cookies every other month or so. Usually, during one of our daily or twice daily phone calls, one of us will mention that we made cookies and it’s a little contagious, cookie baking. We used to team up to bake them when we babysat together, which sometimes resulted in huge, disastrous messes. So whenever she makes cookies, I feel compelled to get out the old cookie spoon, which ended up in my possession, and whip up a batch.
Over the last 25 years of cookie baking, the first half of which Tollhouse was my guide, I have slowly developed my own recipe. A little extra vanilla, perfectly creamed butter and sugar… I always have cookie dough balls in the freezer, ready to pop in the oven at a moments notice. I love making them with Gigi, and soon Lulu will join the fray. There’s something truly fantastic about watching a two and half year old eat a chocolate chip cookie. Gigi dunks it in her milk and practically slurps it down, then, when she gets to the last little chunk of cookie, she plunks it into her glass of milk, then tips the cup back drinking the last of the milk and the last of the cookie in one enthusiastic go. I admire her technique.
Baking cookies with Gigi makes me feel so wonderful… cozy, confident, very mom-like. In some ways it feels like chocolate chip cookies are the only tradition passed down from my mom to us girls and, if nothing else, my girls will know how to bake chocolate chip cookies when it’s all said and done.
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CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Dry Ingredients.
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tiny pinch of freshly shaved nutmeg, optional
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chocolate chips
Wet Ingredients:.
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions.
Preheat the oven 350 degrees.
Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugars and the butter, then add in the vanilla. Whisk the eggs in another small bowl before adding them to the creamed sugar mixture. Once this is all mixed together, slowly sprinkle in the flour and mix until it’s incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Using a spoon, scoop up some dough and roll it into a ball in the palm of your hand. Place it on a baking sheet. Continue making your dough balls until you have them spaced out (about 2-3 inches apart) on your cookie sheet.
Bake for 9-11 minutes, until golden brown on the outside and light brown in the middle. If the cookies are frozen* they will need to be baked 12-14 minutes. Enjoy!
*I usually bake up one sheet and cover a separate cookie sheet with cookie dough balls and slide in in the freezer for fresh baked cookies whenever I want. Once they are frozen and won’t stick together I put them all into the resealable bag.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
You can watch the cooking video for these cookies that Gigi and I made here.
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I have been blogging now for almost four years. When I began this blog I was a newlywed looking for an outlet of my thoughts on anything and everything. Now, I am the (very busy) thirty year old mother of two marvelous little ladies. While I still hold a special place in my heart and on my Sunday mornings for Vogue, and I still am a swaddling champion and cloth diapering master, and still keep my fingers crossed for great auditions to come my way, I am just not excited about blogging about all of it. Things are so different, so much more complicated, so much more wonderful than they were four years ago. I started this blog to get motivated, to try so many new things that I hadn’t tried. But now, my life is filled to the brim with passion, love, diapers, and everything in between. My collected passions have evolved from the lovely frivolity of fashion and films, into a rich collection that comes with having a family.
When I was pregnant with Lulu, I had a revelation. Something that’s greatly effected my decision making process going forward. What I realized was this… It doesn’t matter how much I accomplish, it doesn’t matter whether or not it’s done perfectly. (I tend to take on way too much, and I’m a failed perfectionist.) What matters is that everything I do, I do with love. I try to keep that in mind when I’m doing all the mundane, everyday tasks, as well as when I’m doing something special. The main place I feel like I’m able to express my love is when I’m cooking for, and eating with my family and friends. When I lay in bed at night I’m dreaming about recipes, I spend a huge amount of my time cooking for my family, and my favorite books are cookbooks. My heart is in my kitchen and with my kids.
Going forward this space will focus on my experiences raising my girls, cooking for and with my family, we will make more cooking videos, and most posts will include a recipe. I want this space to be a sort of gradual memoir. There will be fewer posts overall. There will still be occasional “other” posts, on baby things, style, etc. and I’ll continue sharing Lulu’s monthly updates through her first birthday. But mostly there will be recipes, cooking videos, photographs, experiences, and stories that will focus on my journey through life and motherhood by way of my kitchen.
Thank you for visiting.
With love,
Kacie
.jpg) PINI feel cheated. The winds changed, the clouds came in, the air felt crisp and cool, the rain showed up, and the promise of fall was in the air. But this week has been hot, hot, hot. I have to tell you, I felt like fall came just for me. No more sweating while holding a hot baby, no more sunscreen, no more tossing and turning at night. I thought, “my prayers were heard, fall is here!” But, no. It’s so hot. I’m photographing a wedding tomorrow and the forecast says 95˚. That is too hot. You’ve probably gathered from this that I am not, in fact, a “summer” person. My fair skin and Irish roots don’t know what to do with all those UV rays. That said, I’m trying to embrace this extended summer, I really am. We’ve had a couple more barbeques, we’ve sat in the patio after the kids are in bed sipping wine and talking about the future, we’ve filled up the pool so many times this week… and, hey, at least it’s not raining for my wedding shoot tomorrow. But starting on Sunday I’m keeping my fingers crossed for rain. Sunday’s around here mean cleaning the house, football (I’m more excited about the house cleaning), books, baths in the middle of the day, pajamas at inappropriate times, and the occasional Bloody Mary. The wonderful thing about Bloody Mary’s is that you can sip them whether it’s hot or cold outside. Maybe it’s the heat from the Tabasco, but somehow they are just as warming in November as they are cooling on a sweltering, summer has overstayed it’s welcome kind of Sunday in September.
THE BLOODY MARY
Ingredients.
2 oz. vodka
8 oz. tomato juice
1 tablespoon of each: peppercini juice, lemon juice, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce
large pinch of celery salt, plus more for rimming the glass
freshly ground black pepper
Tabasco hot sauce
kosher salt
celery stalks
lemon and lime wedges
whole peppercinis
Directions.
In a small dish combine kosher salt and a celery salt. Wet the rim of the glass with a bit of lime or lemon juice and dip it in the salt. Fill the glass 3/4 full with ice cubes. Fill the glass with the vodka, tomato juice, peppercini juice, lemon and lime juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and a few dashes of Tabasco.
Garnish with a lemon and lime wedge, a stalk of celery, and a peppercini.
Kick your feet up, pick up the paper (or the latest issue of Vogue) and enjoy.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
THE BLOODY MARY
 PINThings have been in a bit of a spin around here. We’ve been working hard, Kyle at the brewery, me at home and on photography jobs. We are doing our best to find time for fun too… camping, canning, working in the garden. These days are so busy, one of the easiest things to pull together for dinner is a wonderful sandwich and a simple salad. I love the availability of fennel in the summer but I wasn’t quite sure how to use it on a sandwich. I decided to roast it and throw it in the food processor with some kalamata olives for a simple, but slightly unique tapenade. This sandwich is satisfying, rich and simple to make.
BAGUETTE SANDWICHES WITH PROSCIUTTO, BRIE, FENNEL AND OLIVE TAPENADE
Ingredients.
baguette
brie cheese
1/4 lb thinly sliced prosciutto
one yellow onion, thinly sliced
one fennel bulb, thinly sliced (save a small handful of the fennel fronds)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 large basil leaves
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pits removed
extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons room temperature butter
1 garlic clove, peeled
mixed-greens
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Directions.
Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Toss the sliced fennel, with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes until softened. Allow to cool. Once cooled, transfer to a food processor. Add in the lemon juice, basil, olives and 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Blend until mostly smooth.
While the fennel is roasting, caramelize the onions.
Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add in the onions and cook slowly, stirring often, until they have completely browned. Season with the brown sugar, a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir and allow to cook for another minute or two before setting aside to cool.
Turn on your oven broiler. Slice the baguette into four pieces, cut each of the four sections into eight open faced sandwich pieces. Place the pieces, cut side up, on a cookie sheet. Spread each with a small bit of butter. Place in the oven to broil for a few minutes, until they are golden. Remove from the oven and rub each piece with the garlic cloves.
Spread each sandwich with the fennel/olive tapenade, top with slices of brie, prosciutto, onions, and a small handful of fresh mixed greens.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
BAGUETTE SANDWICHES WITH PROSCIUTTO, BRIE, FENNEL AND OLIVE TAPENADE
On Monday night I went out in the evening and harvested a lot of our basil. After all my blogging, photo shooting/editing and time on the phone it was so lovely to stand in the warm grass without shoes on and methodically trim the fragrant basil. I washed it and set it aside to make pesto with Gigi. Pesto is a great, simple thing to make with kids! Gigi loves to make it, and eat it!
PINPINPIN
BASIL PESTO
Ingredients.
5 cups basil leaves, packed
3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2-3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (you probably won’t use all of this)
1 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Directions.
Put the basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor and pulse until it’s finely chopped. Scrape down the sides. Turn the blender back on and slowly stream in the olive oil until the mixture is smooth, creamy and thick. Transfer the pesto to a bowl and stir in the parmesan cheese*. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
*leave the cheese out if you are planning to freeze the pesto. If freezing, spoon the pesto into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight before transferring the cubes into a large ziploc bag.
Have fun and enjoy!!!
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
BASIL PESTO
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