Bites of My Life

I hadn’t really baked in what felt like forever, and I was itching. I stocked up on butter and sugar and got a surge of creativity in the kitchen. The result were these Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts, Dark Chocolate, Orange, and Fig Blondies and an oldie but goodie recipe for Snickerdoodles. Baking is good for my soul and I’m glad I was reminded of that.

In addition to baking, there was a lot of dog time this past week. If you know me well you know I’m not a huuuuge dog person. I grew up with dogs, but have held strong on the fact that now is not the time to be tied down by the responsibility and cost. Like for a lot of people, once quarantine hit the idea of having a dog became exciting. I’ve had the idea on my mind since. I was around two of my good friends this weekend, one who just got the cutest puppy and the other who has the sweetest 4 year old golden. Granted these are two very well behaved pups, but they are really softening my thoughts around the whole thing…should I do it?

-Gone are the days that yard signs and balloon numbers are enough in Highland Park, TX. Full tree streamers and garland are now the musts when it comes to celebrating birthdays. So over the top, but honestly incredible.
-Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts, the first recipe of the week. Any other cardamom fans out there? It pairs so good with the blueberry and is great for this time of year.
-Some may remember I posted a round up of all of the Trader Joe’s bagged salad mixes. Well they have a few new mixes on the shelves, so I had to update my post with a new fave or two. Check it out here before you go to TJs next!
-Second recipe post of the week, these fig blondies. They took a few tries to get right, but they are worth it for the amount of blondies that filled my kitchen this week.
-Full on Rent the Runway look for a sassy Friday GNO! I’m wildly obsessed with this purse and ended up buying this little black strapless top! If you haven’t already checked it out, I share all of my RTR finds on my new insta account @confessionsofarentaholic.
-Saturday snickerdoodles! Underrated but always good. While often overlooked, who doesn’t love a snickerdoodle?
-Perfect Saturday night with lots of cheese, The Defined Dish watermelon cocktail, and puppy snuggles with little Chica!!
-Sunday was a rainy and moody day, so I treated myself to a lavender matcha from my favorite place and was surprised with the message “we love you!” on my cup sleeve. Just what I needed.
-Ended the weekend with pjs, pancakes and Brinkley on my lap while having a Nora Ephron movie marathon with a few friends. And yes Brinkley is named after Tom Hanks’ dog Brinkley in Nora’s movie You’ve Got Mail.

Annie

Dark Chocolate, Orange, and Fig Blondies

It’s been a baking week and it’s been great. I honestly haven’t baked in forever and it is truly my therapy. I’ve been feeling pretty creative with flavors and combinations and I’m leaning in. The Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts from this week are delicious, these blondies are delicious. It’s been a tasty week y’all. I decided to make these blondies in an effort to update this ancient TAB recipe for Salted Caramel Fig Blondies. I love figs, but the caramel wasn’t necessarily a flavor I wanted to pair, so in comes this brand new recipe.

If you follow me on social media, you may have seen the quest to get these blondies just right. I sought out to make them with fresh figs and not a lot of knowledge on blondies, and it was a fail. The fresh figs led to too much water content and I didn’t beat the sugar and eggs enough, so they came out a goopy mess on the inside. After researching blondies better and swapping from fresh to dried figs, these blondies found their truth!

Let’s talk variations, because while I’m here for this combo these blondies are also very versatile. Chocolate and orange can be jarring for some. I’ve always been a fan of the combo and I think the orange is just the touch something this sweet needs, but if it’s not for you, ditch it. Fresh figs have a short 2-3 month season, but dried figs can be found year round. However, dried cranberries or dried cherries would be so delicious here. If you’re feeling nutty, throw in some walnuts.

Dark Chocolate, Orange, and Fig Blondies
yields 12 blondies

Ingredients:
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
zest from ½ an orange
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup flour
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt 
6 dried figs, chopped
½ cup chopped dark chocolate (I used chips that I roughly chop)
Flaky Maldon salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 square pan with parchment paper or grease with baking spray.

In an electric mixer, mix the sugars, and melted butter until combined. Add the egg and beat on medium-high until light in color and fluffy. About 3-5 minutes. See the photo below for an example of what you are going for. This step is crucial to aerate the dough, which is what you want. Once light in color, add the vanilla extract and orange zest and mix to combine. On low, stir in the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, stir in the dark chocolate and chopped dried figs. Spread into your prepared pan and sprinkle with flaky salt. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you like things gooier, lend closer to 25-27 minutes, and if you want them more baked through, opt for closer to 30 minutes.

Let cool completely, remove from the pan, and slice into bars.

photo by Stella Parks

Annie

Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts

My friend Lauren recently moved and became my neighbor at our apartment complex. I’ve lived in my apartment for a year and haven’t known a soul, but know I’m feeling settled and comforted knowing a few more faces around the place. She also just got back from a family trip to and around Glacier National Park. Lauren came back bearing gifts and brought me back a jar of blueberry jam made on a blueberry farm in Idaho.

My mind instantly passed over jam on toast and skipped straight to using this little gift as the main ingredient in a baked good. I’ve made pop-tarts on the blog before, but I must be stalking Half Baked Harvest too much, and her unique pairing of flavors inspired these more mature pop-tarts. Blueberry and cardamom isn’t a typical pairing, but it’s not unknown.

While quarantining with my parents I loved utilizing my mom’s spice cabinet to its full capacity and would sprinkle cinnamon and cardamom on my morning coffee. I’ve kind of been stuck on the flavor ever since and knew I wanted to use this unique spice in my tarts. The pastry is homemade, but don’t let it scare you. It really is a pinch to make and that’s where most of the flavor lies.

Cardamom and cinnamon flavor the pastry, the Idaho blueberry jam works as the filling, and a little cardamom in the icing with crushed freeze-dried blueberries finish these off. I’m honestly just loving how pretty they are, but they are equally flaky and delicious.

Blueberry Cardamom Pop-Tarts
yields 8 tarts

Ingredients: 
Pastry:
1¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. sugar 
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cardamom
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ cup unsalted butter ( 1½ sticks), cold and cut into ½ inch cubes
3 tbsp. cold water
1 egg (for egg wash)

Filling:
½ cup blueberry jam or fruit preserves

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of cardamom 
1½-2 tbsp. of water
freeze-dried blueberries

Directions:
To make the pastry. In a food processor combine the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, sugar and butter. Pulse until small clumps start to form. Add the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time. The dough may look dry, but let the processor do the work until the dough starts to come together. You don’t want the dough to be sticky, but if it is too dry you can add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangular shape, 1/8-inch thick. Using a ruler or tape measurer, cut the dough into 3-inch x 4-inch rectangles. Take any extra dough scraps and roll back out to form more rectangles. The dough should make about 16 rectangles leading to 8 tops and bottoms. Transfer the 8 bottoms to parchment-lined baking sheets. 

To assemble. Spread 1 tablespoon of blueberry jam onto the center of the pop tarts, leaving a ¼-inch border. Brush the egg wash along the exposed edges, and then carefully, using a metal spatula to help you transfer without breaking the dough, place another rectangle of pastry on top. With your fingers gently press around the filling to help seal the edges together. Using a fork, go along the edge to crimp the edges together. Repeat until you’ve used all of the dough. Poke a few holes or slice a couple of indentions in the tarts, for steam to release while baking. Place in the fridge to firm up for 1 hour or in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake the tarts for 18-20 minutes until the edges are just lightly golden brown. Let cool completely before icing. 

To decorate. Once the tarts are cooled, in a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, cardamom, vanilla extract, and water. If your icing is too thick, you can add more water, but you want the icing to be the consistency of thick paint so they don’t run right off the tarts. Spoon a little bit of the icing on to each cooled pop-tart. Using your fingers, simply crush the freeze-dried blueberries over the tops of the tarts, while the icing is still slightly wet. Allow the icing to harden completely, about 2 hours, before serving. 

*Recipe notes:
If you do not have cardamom: You can omit it. However it really makes the recipe, so I suggest buying the spice from your grocery store's bulk spice section so you aren’t committed to a pricey bottle of spice. I love cardamom in my coffee. You can also use pumpkin pie spice in exchange for the cinnamon and cardamom. 

If you don’t love blueberry: This recipe would be great with a raspberry! Just swap for raspberry jam and freeze-dried raspberries. Any berry pairs well with cardamom.

If you don't have a Food Processor: You can use your fingers or a pastry cutter to mix the butter with the flour until the butter is pea-sized. Slowly drizzle in the cold water as directed.

To Make Gluten-Free: Use an equal amount of your favorite cup for cup gluten-free flour blend in place of the all-purpose flour. I actually used this GF flour in this recipe!

Annie

Bites of My Life

I feel like I’ve put in more time driving up and down I-35 than my own job these days. All for good reasons, but I’m slightly relieved to be back in Dallas for the foreseeable future. I’ll be forever grateful for my choice to move to Dallas and have close proximity to run home for family, friend and work occasions, but it’s sometimes a strange place to be in going back and forth so much. Beggars can’t be choosers though! You guessed it, but I was in Oklahoma over the weekend for a best friend since 4th grade getting engaged. Another one bites the dust.

-Started the week with sunflowers. Highly recommend.
-Little Monday night creativity turned into my new favorite piece of apartment art work.
-Snacking like it’s my job these days. Anyone else relying on the afternoon snack with working from home.
-Y’all know it, y’all love it. My ultimate single girl meal is Cauliflower Fried Rice using freezer and pantry staples.
-Wine Wednesday feat. rosé, popcorn, and my new coffee table.
-When in Oklahoma City. You can find my favorite Brandy Ice roundup here, and my own recipe here.
-Brunch with MaryKate Saturday, but with an alliterative motive…she just didn’t know yet.
-About an hour later she was engaged! Brunch was a decoy to get her out of the house and looking cute, for her now-fiancé Connor to propose in the house that will be their home!
-Slow Sunday night back in Dallas watching old seasons of The Bachelorette.

Annie

Why, when, and how I started my blog, did you catch it?

How, when and why I started my blog

This post was originally published for Living24 Magazine, a new online platform that brings together young writers and professionals to share their own insight into life. I loved getting to sit down and write out my honest thoughts on blogging after all of these years. You can read my post, along with other lifestyle, wellness and culture themed articles on Living24’s site.

Let’s rewind to high school. I think it was my junior year (2010) when my middle sister Kathleen first got me hooked on reading blogs. Blogs? What is a blog I thought? On our parent’s giant Mac desktop computer, she showed me Jane Aldridge’s wacky vintage fashion on Sea of Shoes and Emily Schuman’s cali girl next door vibes on Cupcakes and Cashmere. From there I was hooked. I vividly remember sitting near the back of my 300+ person mass comm lecture course during first semester freshman year, skimming through my bookmarked list of blogs, reading each and every new blog post instead of learning about how to write a proper press release. I was enthralled with these digital platforms people were creating. They were merely just sharing creative aspects of their everyday life, but I was eating it up. I was making recipes I found on blogs, recreating outfits (you bet I was on that Hunter rainboot train because of this post - LOL), and DIYing my little heart out. I’ve had a creative bone since birth and reading these “lifestyle” blogs fueled me.

Being the blog junkies that we were, Kathleen actually started her own blog back in 2011. A Peony For Your Thoughts - because some things in life are too sweet not to be shared. While APFYT is no longer, we had a blast posting and coming up with content for her site. I say “we” because I was chomping at the bit every chance I could to guest post. Here is one of my favorites - ha! Around spring of my sophomore year of college I started to relish with the idea of starting my own blog. I sat on the idea for a while because I was honestly nervous my sister would be mad. I remember texting her, hey I’m going to start a blog. And she replied good you should!! You’ll be better at it than I am (blushes).

Take A Bite was established in 2013. My little creative outlet to share “bites of my life.” I remember spending a full day at the corner table in the dining room of my sorority house, piecing together free font downloads and creating header images for my site on PicMonkey (scroll down in this post for a look at what TAB looked like on day one). This was back when blogging was still really just gaining its stride. This was the Blogspot registered domain days where my posts looked like articles on fall fashion, nail DIYs, or how to style costume jewelry with horrible low-res and over-filtered images. If you dig back in the archives of Take A Bite you can find some true gems like this DIY t-shirt turban headband, homemade tassel garland, and mint is the new black. I was devoted to putting up 4-5 posts a week on the best pumpkin quinoa recipe (what?), how to washi tape your laptop, and the best fall bag from Old Navy... These old posts give me the biggest chuckle when I revisit them, but will always be some of my all-time favorites.

Blogging back then was worlds different than what it is in now. There are a few true bloggers still hanging on, but we have pretty much all retired our Blogspot web address for a sleek Squarespace site that really just acts as a concrete place to link an Instagram post to. #guilty. However, from day one of creating Take A Bite I was serious about two things. 1. Not making this a short term thing. I wanted to commit to longevity with my blog. I’ve seen so many people go through all the work of starting a blog and after being hyper committed for a month, just slowly stop posting. This included friends of mind. I didn’t want that. I saw TAB as an extension of me and I wanted it to run a long course. 2. To keep blogging my hobby. Strictly my hobby. 

I’m proud to say seven years later I’ve held on to those two truths I first promised myself. Take A Bite has shifted to be much more food heavy than fashion and DIY. I’ve also shifted to rely much more on Instagram as a way to share quick content, leaving new posts fewer and farther between. However, I think that is really just an expression of the times and how the digital space has turned. All this to be said, Take A Bite is still very much a part of my life it’s just expressed differently. 

Take A Bite is also not my full-time job, nor do I think it ever will be. I work full time as the Marketing Director for a fabulous restaurant group and I truly love what I do and who I get to work with. Being apart of a team, having a boss, being told what to do, yet also having my own responsibility and freedom is something I personally love. Blogging/content creating/influencing whatever you want to call it has always sounded isolating to me. This goes against the cultural dream to be your own boss and building your own platform, but I don’t want that. I’m already working from home due to the pandemic, but working for myself on top of that sounds lonely. This is nothing against all of the wonderful people who have been able to create a beautiful life from their blogs, that’s just not want I have ever wanted for myself. 

Now I’ll be honest, Take A Bite has cultivated a decent little community for me. I do get paid here and there from content I produce and I’ve had far more opportunities than I could have ever imagined because of my blog, and for that I’m so thankful. I’ve met incredible people through blogging, including one of my dear friends who I’ve traveled with, talk to regularly, and got to go to her wedding two years ago. It’s not lost on me just how cool blogging has positively impacted my life. What an awesome hobby if I do say so myself!

All this to be said, there is so much pressure out there to be a hustler striving for more Instagram followers or to become the next Defined Dish. Oh you don’t have 10k and a swipe up, then why bother sharing? I feel those pressures. I feel them hard. But I do my very best to remember the voice in my head that told me back in 2013 that this is a hobby, this is for fun, this is my creative outlet. I’ve never wanted my blog to overshadow me, I’ve just wanted it to be a bonus add-on. Sometimes I want to scream “Hey look at me, I’ve been doing this for 7 years!!! Follow me! I’ve been around forever.” But honestly, that’s just me being jealous of seeing people grow quicker around me. If I put my head down I’m sure I could get those numbers up and create more opportunities. But for the 5th time, I really and truly love this as my hobby. I have never personally put pressure on myself to post something at a certain time, to stick to a content calendar, or to reply to every DM. Because I’m really just a normal ol’ 27-year-old girl who has this blog and can use it as my excuse to post yet another picture of my chocolate chip cookie recipe and show you what I bought on Amazon and pretend as you care. 

If you want to start a blog, or maybe more relevant today, and Instagram account. Go for it! This outlet continues to be so incredibly fun. Just own it and own your intentions on where you want it to go, and I promise it will be worth it.

Annie