23 Oct
$100 Visa Gift Card Winner!
Posted by Michelle as Giveaways | 5 Comments
Thank you to the whopping 646 of you who commented on the BBQ Chicken Pizza post and entered to win a $100 Visa gift card!!
Ramdom.org was used to draw the winner, which was commenter #71, Lauren from Baking, Books, Booze. Her favorite pizza toppings?
“I LOVE a good margherita pizza – tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, spinach, and a sprinkle of feta cheese….now I’m drooling just thinking about it.”
Congratulations Lauren! I’ll be contacting you directly to get your mailing address.
And if you weren’t the winner, don’t worry, there are more giveaways lined up for the near future here at Brown Eyed Baker!
Make sure you don’t miss a giveaway – subscribe to the Brown Eyed Baker RSS feed!
22 Oct
Egg Bagels
Posted by Michelle as Yeast Breads | 32 Comments
A few weeks ago I realized that I hadn’t made bagels in a few months and that I was long overdue for whipping up a batch. I asked my Chief Culinary Consultant if he wanted Cinnamon Raisin Bagels (his favorite), plain bagels or something different. He mentioned that he’s always been a fan of egg bagels and wouldn’t mind if I were to tackle a batch of those. I love getting ideas for new things, and jumped at the chance to make them. I ran into a problem, however, after poring over every cookbook I own and realizing that none of them had a recipe for egg bagels. I turned to the web and found multiple recipes that were all very, very similar, so I gave it a shot and they were okay, but certainly didn’t live up to the standard I was used to, which were all variations on Peter Reinhart’s basic bagel recipe. A light bulb finally went off and I emailed Peter to see if he had a recipe for egg bagels that perhaps hadn’t been published, and he was wonderfully generous with his time and explained to me how I could adapt his basic recipe for bagels to make egg bagels.
21 Oct
How to Roast Garlic
Posted by Michelle as How-To, Vegetables | 25 Comments
In my previous post about the fabulous Potato Rosemary Bread you may remember that, aside from rosemary, the bread also included roasted garlic, which took the bread’s flavor to a whole new level of wonderful. I said that I would be following up with a tutorial about how to make it at home and, as promised, here it is! Roasting garlic is so incredibly simple and it can add robust flavor to countless dishes including breads, pizza, sauce, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and pasta, to name a few. Not to mention mixing it into things like butter or mayonnaise for a more “gourmet” condiment. Roasted garlic takes on a much milder flavor than raw garlic and as a result its uses are practically endless. With less than 10 minutes of active prep time, this is definitely a how-to that you’ll want to save and put to use again and again. Now let’s get roasting!
19 Oct
Potato Rosemary Bread
Posted by Michelle as Yeast Breads | 33 Comments
Happy Belated Bread Day! World Bread Day was last Friday, October 16th, and while I fully intended to participate my baking schedule was a little behind, so I bring you a delicious bread to start this week. Each year when World Bread Day rolls around I try to choose a recipe that is different than anything I have made before, as well as something that represents a bit of a challenge to me. Two years ago (my first time participating) I made a Brown Sugar Raisin Bread, which was my first attempt at a swirled bread. Last year I tackled Challah, which introduced me to braided breads. This year I started flipping through my bread cookbooks and, as it had countless times before, this recipe caught my eye. Potato Rosemary Bread sounds so good, and when you throw in coarse black pepper and roasted garlic, it’s nearly impossible to resist. Plus it met my requirement in trying something new: potato bread.
16 Oct
BBQ Chicken Pizza + $100 Gift Card Giveaway!
Posted by Michelle as Giveaways, Pizza, Flatbreads and Crackers | 656 Comments
While I love pizza all year round, it certainly seems to become more of a staple as the weather cools. Not only do we find ourselves ordering in more often, but pizza just seems like the perfect option when you’re sitting down to watch a football or hockey game. Even better is that there is now a yeast available for pizza crusts that doesn’t require a rise time so that you can have homemade pizza in two shakes of a lamb’s tail (more on that in a minute – the yeast, not the lamb). I have no idea how I went my entire life without having a BBQ chicken pizza. It’s fabulous!! This is an especially useful way to use up any leftover chicken you have in the fridge. Feel free to use my recipe below as a guide and add whatever ingredients you like – black beans, chopped tomatoes, and avocado would be great additions.
14 Oct
Black Bean Mushroom Burgers
Posted by Michelle as Beans and Grains, Vegetarian Entrees | 34 Comments
Bizarre seeing a healthy recipe on a dessert website, isn’t it? Well, the truth of the matter is that I do need to eat “regular” meals or else I would end up in a sugar coma. When I whip up something that I think is great, I want to share it with all of you. After all, I’m pretty certain you need more than dessert to survive as well, right? 
These “burgers” are full of flavor and deliciously hearty. Mushrooms and onions are sauteed with seasoning before being combined with the beans, which imparts much more flavor than I have found in more bland black bean burgers. This was also my first time making homemade bread crumbs (can you believe it?!) and I loved it! They were so much fresher than store-bought.
12 Oct
Lemon Burst Cookies
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 49 Comments
If you like lemon, you will LOVE these cookies. And if you love quick recipes that you mix together in one bowl with one spoon and have out of the oven in less than 20 minutes, then definitely keep reading. This is definitely one of the easiest recipes I have ever encountered. You may have seen a version of this recipe before – a cookie recipe based on a box cake mix. I have seen variations floating around the Internet for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I gave them a try. I was admittedly a little hesitant because I do try to make everything from scratch, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have a quick shortcut in your back pocket for those days when you need to throw something together in a hurry. This is a delicious solution for those kind of days.
08 Oct
“Best Baking Blog” – I’m a Finalist!
Posted by Michelle as Brown Eyed Baker Site News | 49 Comments
Grab your favorite cookie and celebrate with me! I found out yesterday that Brown Eyed Baker is a finalist in the “Best Baking Blog” category for the first annual Foodbuzz Blog Awards. Foodbuzz received over 3,500 nominations for food blogs in a variety of categories and the top 5 blogs receiving nominations in each category became the finalists. Talk about shock and awe when I found out I was a finalist! I am beyond flattered that my co-finalists are Bakerella (queen of the cake pop), Joy the Baker (one of Times Online Top 50 Food Blogs), ZoeBakes (Zoe, co-author of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
You can read about the announcement HERE.
And now a shameless request for your vote, if you feel I am deserving and you are so inclined. You do not have to register on any websites and you can only vote once, so the process isn’t labor-intensive. You can vote by going HERE.
(If you aren’t familiar with other categories, don’t worry, you don’t need to select one for each category. Brown Eyed Baker is listed under the “Best Baking Blog” category.)
05 Oct
Marshmallow Crunch Brownie Bars
Posted by Michelle as Brownies and Bar Cookies | 55 Comments
I had originally planned on using the title “Marshmallow Chocolate & Peanut Butter Crunch Brownie Bars”. That seems mighty long, but is truly the best description of these bars, and they are absolutely phenomenal. Imagine this: rich, decadent brownies. Topped with ooey, gooey marshmallows. Topped again with chocolate-peanut butter-Rice Krispy deliciousness. Folks, you just can’t get much better than these bars. Part brownie, part s’more, and part Rice Krispy treat. It’s everything you know and love, baked up into one amazing dessert.
