weekend roadtrip

Shhh.  I still have a headache from this morning, when the office upstairs had a fire drill that lasted a full seven minutes.  Let me tell you, the alarms in my building work just fine.

Let's just look at these pictures and keep quiet, okay?  They're from a weekend visit with the boyfriend to the city, where I was lucky enough to meet up with two friends.

oh hi. that's me & laura.

at home... with mojitos

Meet my garden.

This little pot is growing chives, basil, rosemary, oregano, mint, and some other herb I forgot the name of (it smells like pine).

So far, I've used a tiny bit of the oregano for seasonings, and the mint leaves (they're my favorite) have graced a few mojitos— mmm. I'm hesitant to use the rest because I feel like I should save them for something special, even though the whole point of growing your own is that they'll keep growing. What can I say?
Now, meet my kitchen.

I'm still getting used to it. Do you like it's old-fashioned flair? My whole apartment has this '60s vibe going on that I totally didn't notice the first time I saw it. I mean, how did I miss the textured ceilings and the brown shag rug upstairs?!
But I like it anyway.

And now, about those mojitos...

Mojitos

Okay, so this isn't your classic mojito. I didn't have limes on hand. But I did have lemonade, and I had, earlier that day, been transfixed by eatmakeread's frothy mint lemonade recipe. And I'd just brought home some tasty strawberries. Have I mentioned strawberry mojitos are my favorite drink? The minute I brought some mint leaves inside and spotted the strawberries, I knew what I would do.

lemonade

rum (I used lemon rum)

strawberries, diced

a few sprigs of mint leaves

Put strawberries in a cup and mash well with a spoon. Add desired amount of rum and let sit.

Put mint leaves in a blender and pulse til finely chopped. Add desired amount of lemonade and blend til frothy.

Top off the strawberries and rum with the mint lemonade. Garnish with a mint sprig, add a straw, and sip! Very delicious.

chocolate covered cherry cookies

Seeing as how this post is about cherries, it might strike you as odd that I don't really love them. Nah.  Not a huge fan.  It's not that I dislike them, but more that I'd never go out and buy them myself.  So what's up with these cookies, you ask?

Well, first things first.  There's been a big change to my life recently: a new apartment!  That's why I disappeared a little while ago off this blog.  Waiting for the Comcast man to get here and install Internet was part of it, but it was really more that it was a brutal move.  One that involved hauling stuff from two separate apartments and trying to fit it all in one— in the rain.  It involved narrowly escaping breaking off the side mirror of the U-Haul truck (those things are hard to drive!).  It involved getting out of my old apartment where my good friend/roommate and I had stopped being friends.  

But the upside of it all is that I now live in a two-floor sunny apartment with a backyard!  I have a bright kitchen.  I have a large pot out back with growing herbs.  I have so much furniture that I have to Craigslist some of it.  I have a great new roommie— the boyfriend.  And, I had a bag full of cherries given to me by my mom when she came to check out the new place.

Since I didn't really want to eat them plain — they weren't very sweet on their own — I set out searching for some kind of delicious cherry dessert to bake them into.  But I wasn't looking for something to show off their flavor... more like, hide it.  Bake them into something amazing where there also just happen to be cherries.  That was ideal.  This recipe for chocolate covered cherry cookies fit the bill perfectly.  It was meant for maraschino cherries, but why not give it a go?

That said, they were a little pesky to make.  The dough yielded way less than the 48 cookies it was supposed to, and it was super crumbly.  I literally had to pack them  into balls of cookies.  But I loved spooning the chocolate sauce over them, and aren't they cute?!  Not to mention tasty... As each day went by, the chocolate topping made the cookies more moist and rich— it was like having fudge on top of a chewy brownie, with a cherry mixed in.  Does it surprise you that I paired the last two with some vanilla bean ice cream in an amazing sundae?  You should do the same.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Adapted from A Good Appetite

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (I might use more next time)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

24 cherries, halved and pitted (or less, depending on how many cookies you form)

4 tablespoons of pureed cherry juice (just blend some cherries til smooth)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together.  Set aside.

In a new bowl, beat the butter until it's soft.  Add the sugar and beat til fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.  Add in the flour mixture and beat til well-mixed.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Use your thumb to make an indent in the center of each.  Place each halved cherry in the center of each cookie.

Put chocolate chips and condensed milk into a saucepan on low heat.  Stir til melted, then add in the pureed cherry juice until it reaches desired consistency. (I kept mine thick, but made it smooth enough to easily drizzle).  Spoon chocolate sauce over each cookie until covered.

Bake 10 minutes and cool before devouring.

pattie's patch strawberries

Strawberries are here!

I picked some up on the drive back from New York yesterday, at this farm stand off the road called Pattie's Patch. Aren't they pretty?

Somehow, strawberries straight off the farm are so much better. They're warm. They're juicier. You think you know what a strawberry tastes like, but then you take a bite of one of these and it's amplified by 1000.

What should I do with them? I kind of just want to eat them plain (they're that good) but maybe you can persuade me to be more creative. Especially because I'll probably go pick some myself this weekend!