Recipe Sharin'

Winter chili

2011-02-13T18:29:00.005-06:00

I made this soup with a friend. It came out of a cookbook she had from the library, with some ridiculous title like "Eating well on a budget." I was not hopeful. As it turns out, this is now perhaps my favorite soup. We call it "winter chili" because it uses butternut squash as its base (a winter vegetable at our monthly farmer's markets) rather than tomatoes (summer staple). It also gets so many kinds of vegetables into me at once, in a season when I a bit thin on vegetables in my diet.

You can add or remove vegetables as you like. For example, we also made this adding celery or celeriac with the carrots at the beginning and with frozen corn added at the end. The soup is perfect served with some bread. It’s very hearty and leaves you full for quite some time! My friend also waited to add the red pepper flakes and blended it up as baby food for her son. It was a hit among all generations!

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups stock
1 can of tomatoes or 1 chopped tomato
1 medium butternut squash soup, chopped
1 can kidney beans, rinsed (also tested and approved with chickpeas and black beans)
10 ounces of kale, spinach, chard, or other bitter greens, chopped
crushed red pepper
salt and pepper

Cooking:
1. Saute the onion, garlic, and carrots until onions start to brown, about 5 minutes.

2. Scrape the sides of the pot, and add the stock. Add the butternut squash and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes, or until squash are very soft and starting to fall apart.

3. Remove about 3 cups of the soup and blend it or food process it. (This makes the soup thicker; we use an immersion blender to avoid scalding, which I highly recommend if you own one).

4. Add the beans and kale. Cook until the greens are wilted, or about five minutes.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The Thing About Friendship (Bread)

2011-01-22T11:58:00.015-06:00

[Photo credit: Joel Straus]

Is that it can be a lot of work. In early November I got this email from a friend:

"Would you be interested in getting a starter for this Amish Friendship bread that I'm making tonight? I'll have a batch of starters to give away starting tomorrow, and it's really tasty and easy (instructions come with), so let me know."

Sounded easy enough and like a fun adventure, so I thought what the heck, and I took a bag of yeast. I did not really know what I was getting myself into. You have to "mush" this bag every day for 10 days and then on day 6 you have to add some stuff to feed the yeast. And then on day 10 when it's time to bake, you have enough to bake a whole cake (that's the other thing, this "bread" is really cake) PLUS 4 starters to give away (or 3 to gift 1 to keep).

The first round of starters I gave away all died because my friends did not care for them. (I'm hoping the inability of my friends to care for friendship bread is not an actual reflection on any of our friendships.) And in the second round I think only 1 starter got the treatment it required.

After 3 rounds, this friendship-bread thing was starting to stress me out. So at the end of the last cycle, I cooked all of them (except one starter that I froze for a later experiment), looking for as many variations as I could find. And this week I pulled out a frozen carrot cake from my freezer, frosted it (while it was still frozen, for the record), and served it at a little gathering. It was so good it almost made me miss having the secret ingredient constantly growing on my counter.

Anyway, I feel a little bad sharing this recipe because you cant make it without the yeast, but since this appears to be somewhat common I'll share my variations and assume that one day you all will find yourselves with the veritable baking chain letter that is Amish Friendship Bread. Although, I guess there are recipes on the web to make the starter, so it's not really that much of a secret.

Here are some "Important notes" that came with the bread.
1. The bread starter will come in a gallon size bag. This works well because it gives you enough space to add the ingredients later on.
2. Do not use any metal bowls, pans, or spoons when mixing (but you can bake it in a metal container).
3. Do not refrigerate the yeast.
4. The yeast will make a bunch of air bubbles in the bag, especially after you've done your mid-cycle additions. Make sure to let them out, or the bag will explode.

And, here's what to do for the 10-day cycle.
Days 1 - 5: "Mush the bag." I don't really know what this means. I generally squished it around in my hands for a minute or so.

Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk to the bag and mush it together. Don't refrigerate, even though there's milk in there. It will be okay, I promise.

Days 7 - 9: Mush the bag. Same as days 1-5 but it will grow more since you just fed it, so make sure to let the air out.

Day 10: Bake your bread and make your starters by following the instructions below.

Instructions:
1. Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non metal bowl, and using a wooden spoon, add 1.5 cup flour, 1.5 cup sugar, and 1.5 cup milk and mix well. Note: a lot of the recipes I see on the web say to add only 1 cup each of these things. I always did it according to these rules and in the end I always had around 5 1/2 cups of yeast at the end, so 4, 1-cup starters and 1 1/2 to make the bread. This seems wrong because most of the recipes online only call for 1 cup of starter, but I'm not going to question it because it worked well each time. That said, I wouldn't call the whole process exactly scientific, so I wouldn't fret too much about it.

2. Make your starters to gift away or keep for yourself for another cycle by adding 1 cup of the mixture to 4 separate gallon-sized ziplock bags. Make sure you write when Day 1 is on the bag.

3. Preheat the oven to 325.

4. Make your batter by adding stuff to what's left in the bowl. Add:

3 eggs
1 cup oil (or 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding

5. Grease your dish. This is enough for two loaves or 1 bundt pan. Then dust the bottom of the pan with a cinnamon sugar mix (like you would with flour to keep something from sticking to the pan). Bake for 40 minutes in a loaf or 1 hour in a bundt. These baking times are really approximate. I found that all the bundt variations took a little longer. Start checking at 40 minutes. It's done when a knife comes out clean.

And finally, some variations:
1. The first variation I made was pumpkin (pictured above). Instead of 1 cup of oil I used half a cup, and then I added 3/4 cup of canned pumpkin. I also substituted the cinnamon with 2-3 teaspoons of Penzy's pumpkin-pie spice. I started with only 2 and then added more until I found that the batter tasted sufficiently spicy. The glaze is a classic cream-cheese frosting, thinned with warm milk so that it could be drizzled like a glaze.

2. The second variation I made was banana. Instead of 1 cup of oil I used half a cup and 3-4 mashed bananas. I think I just used how ever many I had in the freezer. It was really good. Up there with banana cake.

3. And then I made biscuits. They were terrible. Okay, not terrible, but my immediate response to them was "I would not serve them to my friends and admit that I made them." So, I will spare you that recipe. Suffice to say, if you ever find yourself with friendship bread and are looking around on the web for variations, don't trust ones that say they will make biscuits.

4. And finally, carrot cake. Reduce oil to 1/2 cup and add 3 cups of grated carrots. Because I still have it, I used 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in addition to the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Also, I made the carrot cake in two 9 inch silicon pans and frosted them with cream cheese frosting. Man, it was good. For the cream-cheese frosting: (1) 8 ounces cream cheese, (2) 4 tablespoons butter, (3) 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and (5) sifted powder sugar. I started with 4 cups and then added a little more until I was happy with the texture.
Type the rest here

Carrot Soup!

2011-01-19T22:16:00.000-06:00

Since the new year, my bunny rabbit has been on a strict greens and hay diet. This has resulted in me buying a lot of young carrots in order to obtain the (delicious for rabbits) carrot tops. (Imagine a picture of an adorable bunny eating leafy greens here, or not. The choice is yours.)

This week, with a slight cold after a rainy weekend, I realized that a simple carrot soup was in order. I was pleased and delighted to see 101 Cookbooks turn up in my google search for carrot soup, and sure enough, Heidi Swanson's recipe was simple and delicious.

With a little harissa on top, this soup was flavorful and quick, and the perfect accompaniment to some toasted walnut bread. Yay soup!

first and last cooking of the summer

2010-09-05T22:41:00.004-05:00

I've been pretty routine in my eating this summer. Sticking to a few standards has made grocery shopping really easy but it hasn't made for a lot of variety. (Ask CH: "Uh, I can offer you a salad with, uh, shrimp and tomato and avocado, or, uh, a sandwich with cheese and tomato and avocado. Oh! Or berries and yogurt!")

So I decided to commemorate the honorary end of summer with making a meal that not only required creative shopping, but also required cooking two foods I've never cooked before. And, uh, it was totally worth it.
I started with this recipe for Corn, Bacon and Clam Stew. Out of the usual necessity, I replaced the bacon with turkey bacon. And since I failed to check whether I had bourbon, I had to find a replacement for the bourbon, too. (I know: I was also shocked. I didn't even think to check, but, after digging through every cabinet in my kitchen, I remembered that the last time I was in the wine store I thought, 'Oh, I need bourbon,' and then managed to forget to buy any. I plan on remedying this as soon as the blue laws will let me.) For half of the recipe, I substituted some old Pumpkin Ale and, for half, I substituted Vermouth. I think the Vermouth was actually more successful, although both were fine.

I've never cooked turkey bacon or clams before and I was surprised at how easy the clams were to cook. (Turkey bacon is another story. It took forever and made a huge mess.) The other big surprise was how much the basil added to the stew. Honestly, I tend to think that basil is superfluous in most recipes and I expected to think the same of this. (Read those ingredients and tell me that you think the basil sounds like it fits.) But it really added brightness to the stew so I was completely won over.

Of course, being me, I doubled the recipe since it looked like it would be a pain to make. So I've got plenty of leftovers to see how well this reheats. Depending on how much I enjoy it through the week, I may try to make it again before all the summer corn is gone. I think it's plausible that it could be made without the turkey bacon, or at least with a lot less, and I feel pretty confident that I could substitute shrimp or white fish for the clams. If I actually end up doing so, I'll let you know how it goes.

A Killer Chocolate Cookie

2010-07-11T14:27:00.008-05:00

I have had a couple of dinner parties this summer. And one common theme in the foods that I have offered has been these amazing chocolate cookies.

The first time, I made them to look like this:

(Those are ice cream sandwiches, one with vanilla and the other with homemade strawberry sorbet. I thought these were really good, even better after they'd been in the freezer for a day.)

And the second time, I did just what Deb told me to do and made these:

Pretty much all critics agree that these are delicious chocolate cookies. They're very sweet, and they spread a lot in the baking process, but in all they are the star of this show. As for the oreo filling, I and most people agree that it tastes pretty much like the original "white stuff" though at least one taste tester agreed with Deb's assessment that, when combined with the cookie, the overall package was too sweet. Deb says, lower the sugar if you're using the cookie to make oreos. I'm not sure that's the route I'd take, but I am not afraid of a sugary cookie. Moral of the story, less sugar or no, this is a great versatile chocolate wafer cookie that is easy to make and sure to please.

raw rhubarb does freeze well!

2010-05-30T21:53:00.005-05:00

I'd bought some rhubarb at the beginning of the month but didn't have time to make anything out of it. Ms. CAM kindly cut it up and put it in my freezer, awaiting a three-day weekend (and didn't even mention that most hostesses don't ask their guests to prep and freeze food for later consumption). In between then and today, Smitten posted rustic rhubarb tarts. So, thanks to both CAM and Smitten, I've enjoyed two today and am trying to stop myself from enjoying my third. Not that I've ever been picky about my rhubarb, but this recipe is definitely a winner.

I followed the by-hand directions, because I also dragged Ms. CAM around central Connecticut trying to track down a pastry blender (for the rhubarb pie that she never got to eat). Apparently, multiple Williams-Sonoma stores haven't been able to order pastry blenders quickly enough to meet demand. I managed to snag the last one at Macy's, though, and it was worth it. No more cutting in butter with two knives for me!

I modified the recipe a little because I didn't have corn flour and didn't feel like tracking it down just for 1 cup. And I did have about 3/4 c. graham flour and thought that its sweetness would work well with the rhubarb. I replaced all of the corn meal with graham flour and the corn flour with 3/4 c. regular flour and 1/4 c. graham flour. The crust may have turned out heavier, but I've got no complaints.

Black Forest Biscotti

2010-05-10T20:26:00.005-05:00

Back in the good ole days when life was simple and I lived with EW, I gave her a cookbook from Moosewood Cafe for her birthday. And, as good roommates do, she thanked me in the form of baked goods and wholesome meals. Many times. Maybe I have a selective memory for cookies and other sweet things, but I do not remember anything from that cookbook as delicious these biscotti. So, recently when I was craving sweet treats to pack in my lunch that are not completely filled with butter, I asked her for the recipe. They delivered big time. They are crunchy and sweet, but not too sweet. And since the recipe is low on butter, I didn't feel (completely) guilty when I had one every day for lunch.

Adapted from: Moosewood, via EW

Ingredients:
½ cup dried cherries
1 cup water
¼ cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extact
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

In a small saucepan, heat the cherries and water just to boiling, and then remove from heat and set aside. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and well-combined.

Blend in the eggs and almond and vanilla extracts. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drain the cherries, place them on a paper towel to absorb any extra moisture, and then stir them into the egg mixture.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. With a rubber spatula, fold in the wet ingredients until the dough is uniform and holds together when pressed lightly with floured hands.

Use the spatula and your floured hands to scoop the dough onto the oiled baking sheet. Form the dough into a 12-inch by 3 inch diameter log shape; then press down on the log, flattening it to a thickness of about an inch. The length and width should be about 14 in x 4 in.

Bake on top rack of the oven for 25-30 minutes, until dough is firm and just slightly brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer the log to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, slice crosswise in ¾ in pieces. Lay each biscotti cut side up on the baking sheet. Bake for about 5 minutes on each side, using tongs to flip them. Cool completely on a rack and then store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Other notes:
EW says to add almonds. I would have but I didn't have any. I also forgot the chocolate chips, so I just added more cherries instead. Also, I think I probably undercooked these on the first round.

Let's Talk about Kale

2010-04-25T00:29:00.002-05:00

SK had a post recently about a new way she discovered to prepare kale: drizzled with olive oil and salt and baked. I admit, this makes some freaking delicious kale chips. If you've never had kale, or haven't liked it in the past, try it that way.

However, kale is equally as delicious (and undoubtedly better for you) when consumed raw and in salad form. I'm not saying this is the healthiest salad you'll ever eat, but it is damn good. And there are lots of nutrients! Win/win people. I'm also going to apologize for the lack of pictures. I am just so happy to make and eat this salad, I forget to take pictures, and then I remember while I'm spooning the last bits into my mouth for lunch at work, and think to myself: "Oh well, guess I'll have to make it again next week." You see the problem.

Key facts about preparing kale for salads:
1) After rinsing, strip the leafy part from the stalk and discard the stalk. You can either do this with a knife, or just rip it off with your fingers.
2) Marinating is key.I like to think of this as the vegetarian version of marinating salmon in such a way that cooks it (only without that pesky risk of food poisoning!) It doesn't take long though, so don't worry if you're hungry when preparing your kale salad. You can eat it as soon as you're ready.
3) Even if you neglect your kale for a while and it gets a little wilty, it'll still be awesome in salad form.
4) There are a ton of varieties of kale. I've been favoring the curly kale with purple stalk variety, but I think this would work with any type.

What follows are three different recipes that incorporate kale.

I'll start with a salad a classmate passed on to me (and which served as my introduction to raw kale consumption.)
1. Chop up the kale (one bunch) into bit size pieces. Drizzle olive oil (1-2 tablespoons, depending on the amount of kale) and the juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon. (I looooove lemon, so I usually go with a whole one.) Maybe add a little salt. Whisper loving words over the kale (key part of the original recipe) and set aside.
2. Make dressing: combine tahini, olive oil, honey, lemon juice. Maybe some garlic. (I like to add these ingredients to a jar and then shake to combine.) You may need to add a little water to make it more liquid-y.
3. Chop your other ingredients. These can include red bell peppers, red onions, orange or grapefruit slices, avocado. Chickpeas are also a nice addition.
4. Combine! Enjoy!

The second recipe started out it's life with no kale at all. However, the dressing was really similar to the one above (save for the honey.) The original can be found on smitten kitchen (butternut squash and chickpea salad), but with kale is as follows:
1. Chop up the kale (one bunch) into bit size pieces. Drizzle olive oil (1-2 tablespoons, depending on the amount of kale) and the juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon. (I looooove lemon, so I usually go with a whole one.) Maybe add a little salt. (Whispering is not a part of this recipe, but I might do it anyways.)
2. Peel and chop into cubes a medium butternut squash. Toss the cubes with some olive oil and garlic, and bake in the oven (at 425 F) for about 30 minutes, or until just starting to brown.
3. Chop 1/2 a red onion and some parsley or cilantro. Combine with a ~15 oz of chickpeas. Chickpeas are also a nice addition.
4. Make dressing. I loosely follow sk's proportions, with more lemon:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced
Juice of one juicy lemon (or more)
3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste
Add more water if it isn't liquid-y enough.
5. When the squash is done, add to the other veggies, and toss with the dressing. Enjoy!

Third salad option!
This is from 101Cookbooks, which is a really lovely vegetarian (and mostly whole grain-type) of food blog. Originally, it was a Roasted Delicata Squash Salad. Of course, I couldn't find Delicata squash, so I ended up using butternut instead.
1. Chop up the kale (one bunch) into bit size pieces. Drizzle olive oil (1-2 tablespoons, depending on the amount of kale) and the juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon. (I looooove lemon, so I usually go with a whole one.) (No salt needed here; or whispering, but every salad is improved with a little magic.)
2. Combine about 1/3 cup olive oil and 1/3 cup miso (I again recommend the jar method.) If you're making a larger recipe, just increase the amount of olive oil and miso proportionally.
3. Peel and chop into cubes a medium butternut squash. Cube 1/2 to 1 pound of potatoes (depends on the end quantity you want.) Toss the squash and potatoes with half of the miso oil mixture and bake in the oven (at 425 F) for about 30 minutes, or until just starting to brown.
4. Add lemon to miso oil mixture. Should be lemony and salty (and delicious.)
5. When the vegetables are roasted, toss with kale. Add slices of radishes (I found these amazing watermelon radishes that were milder than a normal radish (and super pretty)) and almonds or other toasted nut (pine nuts are also good). Enjoy!

You can see some commonalities between all of these recipes. Squash, tahini dressing, roasting vegetables to add to a salad mix, lemonlemonlemon. It made me realize the possibilities were endless. I've made this with roasted potatoes and roasted asparaus + tahini dressing, with pieces of clementines thrown in; with just an olive oil and lemon dressing + pinenuts and a little romano cheese; it's always divine.

And it makes really good leftovers as well. I generally will eat this cold for lunch, but I think it'd also be good warmed up.

Peanut, Peanut Butter (and Chocolate)

2010-04-16T23:16:00.004-05:00

My favorite professor in law school frequently cautioned that things always take longer than you think they will. Such was the case with these brownies, which I planned to bring to a dinner party last Friday night. The problem was, the dinner party started at 7, and I couldn’t be bothered to read the recipe in advance. If I had, I would have known you are supposed to cool them completely before you put the chocolate on top. As it was, I was going to be late, and I had to take these brownies from the oven to my car pretty much immediately. Cooling time was not an option. So when I got to the party, they were a little bit soupy, but after an hour in the fridge, they turned out pretty good. And over the week (as I ate them in inappropriate quantities from my fridge) they tasted even better because the chocolate layer had an opportunity to properly harden.

A couple of warnings about these things:
(1) They are addicting. I came home with 2/3 of the pan from the dinner party (it was a small gathering with lots of desserts), and despite my roommate's help, I managed to consume far far far too many of these.
(2) They do not taste like peanut butter cups. I was sort of expecting something more along that line, but alas I guess we'll have to rely on Nigella's recipe for that. (Is it on this blog??)
(3) Deb says she used organic PB when she made these. I used full fat skippy. I found the PB taste to be somewhat understated. Next time, I'd make them with natural PB and a quarter teaspoon of salt or so.

Soup in a Bowl

2010-03-27T19:16:00.000-05:00

Thai Peanut Noodle Soup

So, I realize soup season is basically over, but I felt the need to share these two dishes I made over the last three months with you all.

PB & Co. sent me this recipe. I didn't use their peanut butter (because this would be pretty gross with White Chocolate Wonderful), but it is a pretty delicious soup.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp peanut oil (or other vegetable)
1 large yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
6 cups broth/stock
1 package extra firm tofu (I froze and then thawed mine)
1 can straw mushrooms (I tried these the first time, but didn't love them and didn't use them after that)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (better than the stuff off the shelf, for sure)
1/4 cup lemongrass (I could never find this, but I would love to add it at some point)
1 tbsp grated ginger
4 large bay leaves
1/3 peanut butter
1 can light coconut milk
1/2 lb rice noodles, cooked

Directions:
1. In a large stockpot, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic over medium heat until translucent.
2. Add the stock, tofu, mushrooms, lime juice, lemongrass, ginger, and bay leaves and simmer for 30 minutes. (I simmered for much longer the first time, maybe an hour, because my tofu wasn't completely dethawed, and I think it helped make the tofu super flavorful. Highly recommended, if you have the time. I also added red bell peppers; really, any good vegetable would be good.)
3. Add the peanut butter and coconut milk and stir until well-combined. Simmer an additional 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
4. Remove the bay leaves from the soup. Divide the cooked rice noodles into 6 bowls, ladle the soup over the noodles and serve.

I made this and brought it for lunch and it totally saved my sanity on several cold, rainy days.

Black Bean Soup

SK's black bean soup is also delish, and I didn't even make the cumin crema. Also, I soaked my beans overnight and didn't use a pressure cooker, and the time seemed fairly equivalent.

Empire State of Mind

2010-03-03T23:58:00.004-06:00

These days, I miss New York. A lot. And in my misery over the last month, I started dreaming of the things I would make when it was all over. Invariably, my list was very New York. Bagels. Pizza. Cheesecake. Black & Whites. You get the idea.

When I told another former NY resident that I was going to make B&Ws because I missed New York, his basic response was, "why, they're gross?" And, as is often the case with this particular friend, he had a good point. But the thing about cravings, especially ones that are geography centered, is that even though I never actually wanted or even liked B&Ws while in NY, once I got it in my head to make them, I couldn't make the thought go away. I had to make them, even though almost every single one (of the 5 or so) I ever had (with the exception of a rare aberration from West Side Market) was stale or frosted in such a way that you couldn't actually taste the difference between the two sides. But these red flags would not be an impediment to my determination, and so I took the plunge and made them.

Given everything I've said up to this point about how black and whites usually taste mediocre to me, it should be no surprise that the ones I myself made were no exception to this rule. I knew they were off the moment I took the first batch out of the oven, yet I persevered and finished cooking them and icing them. And almost 60 cookies later, all I could think about was "what am I going to do with these black and white hockey pucks."

I will say, I am being overly hard on these cookies. I gave my cousin a batch, and though she agreed with me that they were off, the throng of children she was feeding found them delicious. My office mate also approved. And even I came around to a decision that the dough wasn't all that thick after all.

Moral of the story? When you miss a place, you're probably not going to solve that longing with a food you didn't really like to begin with, especially when the things you miss cannot be produced in your oven (you cant bake up a batch of friends, or pinkberry for that matter).

Want the recipe after this glowing recommendation? I, of course, used Deb's. I know that HEB has a version that she and CH served to 40 of our closest friends in college, and I feel like I probably liked those. And I believe EW has even posted a version on this very blog. But since I have come to rely on Deb's pictures and antics to get me through the day, I figured I should do her a solid and try her version. That's all for now. I hope happier food tales are on their way.

recipes that shouldn't be good but, oh man, they are

2010-01-31T13:53:00.007-06:00

So KZ and I had a conversation earlier this week that went something like this:
HEB: Oh man, I made that tomato sauce from Smitten, you know, the one with the canned tomatoes and onion that you throw away and butter, and oh man. I ate one-and-a-half servings and I had to stop myself from having two servings.
KZ: I saw that on smitten and thought, "This can't be good. It has three ingredients."
HEB: Oh man. I want to eat more right now. I mean, it might be my favorite tomato sauce ever. Well, okay. Fresh in the summer is good. But I'm never buying sauce in a jar ever again.
KZ: Wow. I never would have tried it because I would have thought that it was a waste of time to make a sauce that would clearly be bad.
HEB: Oh man.

I've actually made it twice now (single recipe once and double recipe once) and am not yet over the "oh man" phase. Although I will say that I think that the San Marzano tomatoes do make it better than the Shaw's brand ones. And also, don't skimp on the butter like I tried to do in my double recipe. The sauce only has three ingredients (and you throw one of them away). Let it have as much of those ingredients as it calls for.

If you want an "oh man" conversation, the recipe is here.

This one doesn't have just three ingredients, but it inspires similar feelings for me. It's a Fig and Walnut Tapenade over goat cheese on ciabatta.

Nomi made this for our aebleskiver party this year and it was so excellent that I had to make more to bring to my office's holiday party. I generally don't get excited by olives and capers, but, oh man, they are perfect here.

Banana Bread 2 Ways

2010-01-30T23:07:00.012-06:00

One of the most valuable lessons I learned from living with EW was that almost-bad bananas could be salvaged by putting them in the freezer to use at a later date. This rule has allowed me countless opportunities to make this, and she has further used them to make this.

The problem with this lesson, is that the bananas in the freezer can start to pile up when you have no excuse to make the best and hugest birthday cake ever.* I decided it was time to make some banana bread, but my usual recipe has essentially the same sugar and butter content as the cake. So I started looking around for recipes with less butter and less sugar. Of course, there are all kinds of recipes out there. Some with apple sauce, some with sour cream, some with yogurt. But then there was this recipe with none of those things. Just the standards: bananas, flour, sugar, baking soda, and vanilla. The only addition this recipe has - cinnamon. Oh, and chocolate chips.

I decided to give it a try, and because I had so many bananas, I decided to make two batches, one with chocolate chips and one without. The chipless version is not the most delicious thing in the world (what can I say, butter does make a difference), but it's a nice alternative that's a wee bit healthier. And if you toast it and put some butter or cream cheese on it, it is the best thing ever. The cinnamon really makes a difference. The chocolate chip version, I am happy to report, is not lacking in the least from the missing butter. It's gooey and delicious.

* I did recently make a birthday cake. But the recipient is a chocolate lover, so I made this.

Ginger Crisps

2010-01-30T22:58:00.004-06:00

I know, I know. I promised to lay off with the ginger posts. And this recipe certainly does not qualify as laying off. But these cookies are really delicious. My mom made them when I was home around Christmas, and they may be one of my favorite cookies of all time. They are super crunchy, and they have little bits of chewy candied ginger inside. I must admit, I've never made them myself, but they are quite delightful. Someday, I'll try.

You can find the recipe here.

Things that don't look like much

2010-01-30T21:50:00.004-06:00

First up is the casserole I made for a potluck a bit ago but never posted, they key to this was the 1+ pound of cheese, can't go wrong with that in a recipe. Second up is HEB's tofu/peanut sauce which i'm sure i butchered but tasted good!

Not that this is a major achievement compared to stuff on here, but if you're interested:

From About.com.

Chicken, Cheddar, Bacon Casserole

Ingredients:

* 8 ounces mini penne pasta or elbow macaroni
* 6 to 8 slices bacon
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 pound chicken breasts or chicken tenders, cut in 1-inch pieces
* 4 green onions, sliced
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 1/2 cup chicken broth or more milk
* 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
* 8 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
* 4 ounces American cheese, shreds or chopped
* 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
* 1 cup bread crumbs
* 1 tablespoon melted butter

Preparation:
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water following package directions.

Grease a 2 1/2- to 3-quart baking dish. Heat oven to 350°.

In a large skillet or saucepan, cook bacon until crispy. Remove bacon to paper towels; crumble. Pour off grease in the skillet, leaving about 1 or 2 teaspoons. Add butter to the skillet and cook the chicken over medium-low heat until cooked through. Add green onions and cook for 1 minute longer. Add flour and stir until blended into the fat. Gradually stir in the milk, cooking and stirring until slightly thickened. Stir in salt, pepper, and thyme. Add the cheeses and thawed peas, along with crumbled bacon. Spoon into the prepared baking dish.

Combine bread crumbs with 1 tablespoon melted butter; sprinkle over the casserole. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until topping is browned and casserole is bubbly.

HEB previously posted her Tofu recipe, but here is her peanut sauce:

* peanut butter
* garlic
* soy sauce
* sesame oil
* rice wine vinegar
* water
* lime juice (if you have it)
* red pepper flakes (not too many)

Combine two large spoonfuls of PB, maybe a clove of garlic, more soy than sesame oil, about the same amount of rice wine vinegar as soy, maybe a tablespoon of lime, and enough water to make it a good consistency. Add a little brown sugar if so inclined.

toss with veg, noodles and tofu or serve over rice

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-01-30T16:23:00.000-06:00

I candied some oranges.

And then I made a cake. (Thank you Southern Living!)

Blondies

2010-01-18T13:55:00.006-06:00

Let's talk about blondies. And why they were the only food item I wanted for more than a week, despite the fact that I've never craved blondies before. In fact, I'm not even sure I'd ever had a blondie before these, and I generally believe things like chocolate chip cookies in bar form are inferior to their cookie counterpart. So, why the blondie craving? Who knows. What I do know is that these hit the spot.

We had them for dessert at the first installment of a series of dinners where we teach my first-ever roommate how to cook. They were the encore to this lasagna. Topped with caramel frozen yogurt, they really hit the spot.

As with almost everything I make these days, the recipe came from Smitten Kitchen. As SK makes clear, these are in fact infinitely adaptable. We added chocolate chips, PB chips and, toffee bits in them. The result? Yum.

Oh, and did I mention, these really hit the spot.

Apple...Bread Pudding?

2009-12-27T14:10:00.005-06:00

Every year my dad gets a box of these apples as a holiday gift.

Too bad the rest of my family tends to think of them as some sort of punishment. Why is that? Because what are we supposed to do with 50lbs of red golden delicious apples? They look really pretty, but they are not the best tasting thing you've ever had.

So, on the morning of the 25th, my mom was deciding what desserts she was going to make (yes, that's desserts, plural), and my dad said, "Why don't you make something with apples." We had tried to make apple pie with these bad boys one year, and the result was less than satisfying. But, I remembered that SK has an entire section of her blog dedicated to apples, so I figured I could find something useful there.

In the end, I settled on Deb's mom's apple cake. She is right. This cake is very moist and incredibly tasty. I dare say this is the best thing we've ever done with our annual inundation of apples.

Why then, did mine turn out to be more of a bread pudding (hence the casserole-like pan)? Well, there are many possibilities. Here are the two most probable. First of all, I used 6 apples like the recipe called for (heck, what else are we going to do with them) even though these apples weigh about a pound each. The result was a greatly extended cooking time.

Second, and I only realized this after I went back to the SK website to make this post, I mistakenly tried to flip the cake out of the tube pan instead of serving it upside down like the picture shows. The result? Well, the cake fell apart at the middle apple layer. And because I couldn't very well fix this problem with frosting, I decided to put the cake in a different container. At the time, I decided I would only repeat this recipe in a container like this to begin with. But now that I see that I was never supposed to flip it out of the pan to begin with, I think the tube pan method will produce a very manageable, delicious, and pretty cake.

A Nice Thing to Have Around

2009-12-22T23:38:00.003-06:00

A couple days after Thanksgiving, I made these buttermilk biscuits because I didn't want to waste the leftover buttermilk. I ate one at the time and put the rest in the freezer. Since then, I've been eating them for dinner with eggs and cheese. I wouldn't call them the best biscuits ever, but I will say that the idea of having them in my freezer made me really happy. So, with this as the starting point, I would like to solicit ideas from you and yours on how to make the best biscuit.

The problem with these? They were good but they sort of tasted like pancakes in biscuit form. I guess more salt, less sugar (though I only used 1 tablespoon to begin with) is a starting point, but i am sure someone can give me the key to a homemade egg 'n cheese sandwich.

S'more Bites Are My Winner

2009-12-16T21:42:00.010-06:00

Look at those. Just look. Don't they look delicious? Aren't they pretty? And let's pretend you were a judge in a cookie contest. Wouldn't you vote for these amazing treats? Of course you would. You appreciate homemade marshmallows and graham crackers. Unfortunately, you were not the judges in my unsuccessful bid to win my office's first annual cookie contest. In retrospect, this choice may not have been the most appropriate for the audience, but that's okay because I loved them. And that's what matters. But next time, I will save my confections for a more appreciative audience.

Do you want to know how to do this? Fortunately, it's not that hard.

Ingredients:
- For the marshmallows, look here.
- For the graham crackers go here.
- One bag of good quality milk chocolate chips (11.5 oz?). I used Ghirardelli
- One big bar of bittersweet chocolate. Again, I used Girardelli.

A few notes on the ingredients:
In a recent trip to Penzey's HEB convinced me to buy double strength vanilla extract. The bottle says to use half the amount the recipe calls for or, for special baked goods, use what the recipe calls for. I decided to use the full amount from the original recipe in the marshmallows, and it was amazing. It's definitely worth the extra flavor there, but not in the graham crackers.

And as for the graham crackers, I had a mild disaster. I could not find any graham flour at 3 grocery stores in Chicago. I had to make one batch with graham flour and one without. This process actually taught me an important lesson - regular flour is superior for the limited purpose of making these s'more bites. Why? They cooked a little more solidly and generated many fewer crumbs, which made for better cutting. I'd still prefer graham flour for the graham crackers standing alone.

Finally, don't skip the bittersweet chocolate. You need it to cool down the chocolate when you temper it (more on that later).

Instructions:
1. Spray 13 x 9 pan with cooking oil. Line the pan with parchment paper. Spray the paper, paying particular attention to the sides.

2. Follow the graham cracker recipe to make the graham cracker dough. Instead of making them into round cookies, take about 2/3 of the dough and roll it out in the bottom of the 13 x 9 pan. You can't really use a rolling pin to roll out dough inside a pan, so I used a glass, and it worked great. You could even use your hands if you have to. Bake the graham cracker layer at 350 for about 12-14 minutes. Make the remaining dough into graham crackers that you can eat for instant gratification.

3. While the graham crackers layer is in the oven, make the marshmallows. Pour the marshmallow mix directly on top of the graham crackers and it let sit until the marshmallows are firm (at least 4 hours, I let it sit overnight). Sprinkle the top of the marshmallow with the potato starch/powder sugar mixture before you remove the layers from the pan.

4. Flip the marshmallow/graham combo onto a cookie sheet to remove from the pan. Remove the parchment paper. Flip again onto a cutting board. This second flip is important. I tried cutting these marshmallow-side down and the crumbs from the graham crackers stick to the marshmallows, which looks ugly.

5. Cut the m/g combo into 1 x 1 squares. A large serrated knife works best for this, and you will need to clean it off pretty regularly to keep graham cracker crumbs from sticking to it.

6. Dip the marshmallow portion of the m/g combo into the potato starch/powder sugar mix you made in step 4. Shake off the excess. Try not to get the mixture on the graham crackers. It doesn't do any harm, but it makes them less cute.

7. Prepare the chocolate. After some research and a couple failed tests, I decided the best method was to temper the chocolate. I read some instructions on how to do this online, and found myself pretty confused. I think the basic idea is to get the chocolate just hot enough to melt, and then to cool it down before you begin dipping. How do you do this? There is some complicated version that requires fast hands and a marble slab. Instead of that, I melted the milk chocolate in a double boiler and then added cold bittersweet chocolate to the melted chocolate to cool it off. This seemed to work out fine. Once your chocolate is ready (apparently 88 degrees is the temperature you want...), dip the bites and set them on a plate to cool.

Onion Tart

2009-12-13T18:30:00.005-06:00

For an appetizer on Thanksgiving, we had this delicious onion tart. I think many of the diners found this to be the best part of the meal, which is sort of funny because it's the tart that almost wasn't. I asked my parents if we needed an appetizer several days before the meal. They both replied that they thought we'd have plenty of food. And then, a few days later, my dad called to ask what my "plan" was for a starter on Thanksgiving, leaving no indication that we'd had the previous conversation. Thanks to Deb, I had this recipe in my back pocket and wanted to give it a try.

We made the onion mixture the night before. We had more than we needed so my dad put the leftovers in the gravy. Then we made the dough as part of our baking morning. I tried to put this tray in my refrigerator, but it didn't fit so we covered it in foil and put it on the balcony until we were ready for it to go in the oven.

Sorry about these lack luster photos. This dish went from this:

to this:

in about 30 seconds (minus, of course, the baking).

Pasta Salad w Chicken/Spinach/Peppers

2009-12-10T21:07:00.004-06:00

As i said below (if you read bottom up), i made two things tonight, here's the second. much more chopping involved. nothing like a pasta salad for a potluck.

The recipe is from about.com, it came out pretty decent i think. I followed it fairly loosely, don't think it really matters in pasta salad and i definitely went a little lighter on the Mayo.

* 8 ounces fusilli or rotini pasta
* 1 cup coarsely chopped spinach
* 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
* 1/4 cup diced onion
* 1 medium clove garlic, finely minced
* 2 to 3 cups coarsely chopped chicken (i boiled it)
* 1 to 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
* 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon Dijon or a favorite gourmet mustard
* 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
* salt, to taste

Cook pasta following package directions; drain and rinse well.

Toss cooled pasta with the spinach, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, and chicken.

Combine 1 cup of the mayonnaise with wine vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, pepper, and basil. Toss with the pasta mixture. Add more mayonnaise, if needed. Taste and add salt, if desired. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving time for best flavor.

and since i'm proud of all my chopping, here it is:

Chicken wrapped in bacon

2009-12-10T20:57:00.007-06:00

Well, tonight in anticipation of two more upcoming potlucks i went all out and made two dishes this evening. this one was pretty darn simple but it was also pretty good. how bad can anything be that has brie and bacon as part of the ingredients.

The real reason why i made this was that i bought a meat mallet at Ikea and really wanted to pound some chicken. Anyways here's the super complicated ingredient list:

Chicken
Brie
Spinach
Bacon

Pound chicken to 1/4" thickness. Put brie in middle, put spinach in middle, fold over twice to keep Brie in the middle. Wrap in bacon, use toothpicks to secure if you wish.
Broil for 7 minutes, turn broil for 7 more minutes. take it out, let it cool a few minutes, enjoy!
and here it is raw:

You're So Damn Hot

2009-12-07T22:56:00.007-06:00

A few months ago CH and I went to our new favorite southside restaurant and ordered a spit-fire-hot garlic soup. The soup was so spicy that they served it with a beer to help you cope. And, the chef even came over to warn us not to drink all the beer because we’d need it for the soup (we were sitting at “the kitchen table”). After the initial shock, the soup was delicious. It made your mouth burn, but the heat said “give me more” and not “kill me now.”

And then, at the beginning of soup season, CH decided to make this garlic soup. It was good, but it’s nothing like the fiery version we’d had. So, the next time we were at the restaurant, we asked about what they did with the soup. We wanted to know if the peppers were roasted, seeded, etc. The chef explained how to do it. And then he gave us these:

...along with a warning to handle them with care.

Having never received ingredients from a restaurant before, we decided to give it a whirl. If I do say so myself, I think we did a decent job of replicating the soup. In terms of special equipment, this soup may not need goggles, but rubber gloves would probably come in handy.

As for the recipe – We followed Smitten Kitchen’s recipe except we got rid of the thyme. We roasted two habaneros at the same time as the garlic, but in a different container. Once they were roasted, we took out the seeds and took off the stems. We thought about taking off the skin, but it was too much work, so we just put them in the pot with everything else and blended them all together with CH’s handy immersion blender.

Thanksgiving: The Main Event

2009-12-02T19:36:00.010-06:00

Of course, Thanksgiving involved turkey. I got a fresh turkey because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of thawing it.

Turns out, I should have also thought about the hassle of brining. I believe some of you know the story of my first brining attempt with my dad. He had spent hours the day before making the brine (it has to be cold before you put the turkey in it, so you have to do it in advance), but when we tried to move the bag with gallons of liquid and a 25 pound turkey out of the sink it was too heavy and we spilled all the brine everywhere.

Well, there was no way I was going to let that happen to me. I knew I had to add the brine to the turkey while it was in the fridge because it would be too hard to move it after the fact. That did solve one problem, but it meant I had to add the brine one glass at a time. Things were going well until the end when the bag started to get full. I couldn’t fill the glass and hold up all the sides of the bag. Despite my best efforts, I still spilled brine everywhere. It was in the vegetable drawer. It was all over the floor. And even a week later, the light in my refrigerator still delays in coming on because the button is sticky from residual brine I can’t seem to get off. It was a disgusting mess, but fortunately I didn’t waste too much and the turkey turned out quite delicious.

Also, You see how that bag says “gourmet made simple.” That is a lie. Brine bags, which are glorified ziplock bags, are anything but simple.

Oh, do you actually want the recipe? Hmm. My dad did most of the work, so what follows is my best guess.

The brine recipe came from here. My dad rinced off the brine and cooked the bird. Basically, he patted the brine off, and seasoned it with a bunch of spices and some butter. He cooked it breast side down for an hour, then flipped it for the remaining time, covering the top with foil so it wouldn't burn. He stuffed it with vegetables, which we then ate.

Thanksgiving Desserts

2009-12-01T19:09:00.011-06:00

The dessert menu for Thanksgiving included SK's silky pumpkin pie and a luscious looking ginger pear cake. Both were topped with homemade whipped cream.

As someone who spends more time baking than cooking, I definitely contemplated these two additions to the Thanksgiving table more than any of the other components. It's sort of a shame though - by the time dessert comes everyone is so full nothing tastes that great.

And, for a dinner party of seven people, it was sort of ridiculous to make two desserts. It proved even more ridiculous the recipe for pumpkin pie I followed yielded nearly two pies. So now, I have a pumpkin pie in the freezer. We'll see if it lasts. The reason for the two desserts? My family never has pumpkin pie and I'm still not really convinced I like it. That said, it's certainly a classic of the day and was voted as "non-optional" by at least two of my guests. Which brings me to another Thanksgiving lesson: don't take requests. Your guests will eat what you serve, and like it.

Anyway, here are the recipes and my comments.

Ginger Pear Upside Down Cake:
I got this recipe from Macrina Bakery after stumbling on it on the Seattlest website. I followed it pretty much to the letter. I even emailed the bakery because the baking time seemed to be ridiculously long for a cake in my view. It was a tiny bit long, but not by much. Overall, I really liked this cake, but it doesn't taste much like ginger. In fact the ginger flavor is barely noticeable. That said, it's still really tasty. If I make it again, I might try to add some candied ginger on top, incorporate ginger powder, or something like that.

If you attempt this recipe, here are some important tips. First, make sure you put it on a cookie sheet, and if you're smart line that sheet. The bottom of the spring form pan is filled with a sugary liquid that will ooze out a little. Second, make sure your pears are very ripe but not over ripe. Third, I think it tastes best warm. It was not warm on thanksgiving when I served it, but I have been eating it periodically over the past few days, and I've liked it microwaved for about 30 seconds and topped with whipped cream.

Silky Smooth Pumpkin Pie:
I got this recipe from SK, and tried to follow it to the the letter. I used this pie crust on her suggestion, without the shortening (though it appears she has since changed to a different pie crust). Since I don't think I've had pumpkin pie since I was 12, I'm not sure how it compares to other recipes. But one of my guests, who is not easily pleased, proclaimed "this is excellent pumpkin pie," so I guess that counts as a success. For me, I might add in some of the traditional pumpkin pie spices that were absent from Deb's version. However, I will say that the straining was definitely worth it. My biggest gripe with pumpkin pie has always been that was dense and grainy. This pie lives up to its silky smooth title.

Whipped Cream:
I usually think whipped cream is a waste of calories, but I have to admit that when it's homemade and fresh, I really like it. All I did was put it in the mixer with the wisk beater. I added sugar and about a teaspoon of vanilla and kept the mixer going until it was stiff.

Thanksgiving Debrief

2009-12-01T11:37:00.008-06:00

I am happy to report that I survived my first Thanksgiving as hostess, and I even enjoyed the non-stop cooking. The process was certainly made more enjoyable and feasible by the presence of my parents, both of whom are more talented in the kitchen than I. The food was delicious, and the company quite pleasant. And while I am not going to jump at the opportunity to host again next year, there is no small amount of joy in putting together a whole meal like this.

In addition to posting the recipes and my comments about them, I feel like I should share a few of the lessons I learned, for the inevitable day when you too have to host Thanksgiving dinner. Here’s the menu. I will post the recipes separately and link back as I go.

Thanksgiving Day Menu 2009

~ Drinks/Appetizer Course ~
Cranberry Slushy
Onion Tart

~ Dinner ~
Cranberry Sauce
Parmesan Bread
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing with Sausage and Mushrooms
Green Beans
Roasted Carrots
Cider Brined Free Range Turkey with Gravy

~ Dessert ~
Pumpkin Pie
Ginger Pear Upside Down Cake
Fresh Whipped Cream

And keep reading for a few lessons learned:

1. Make sure you have the equipment you need. I realized (fortunately in advance) that I did not have many things you might want/need to make this meal. Some non-obvious (to me at least) things you will need: (1) a meat thermometer (you may remember what happened to mine), (2) pie weights or some alternative, (3) a big ass fork to pick up and rotate the turkey while it is still cooking, (4) obscene amounts of tupperware for all of the leftovers.

2. Plan out the timing. This is the first time in awhile where I cooked a meal of this size in a house with only one oven (I know, I’m a spoiled brat), so that means you have to think about what you can do in advance and how you will position your oven racks. Here was my advance game plan: I made the cranberry sauce, the slushy, and the brine for the turkey on Monday. On Tuesday, I put the turkey in the brine and made the pie crust. On Wednesday afternoon I made the dough for the bread, made the onion topping for the tart, peeled the carrots, grated the cheese for the onion tart and bread, and trimmed the green beans.

3. Don’t overcook your turkey. This is clearly obvious, but thanks to my dad, I learned a bunch of ways to achieve this important goal. First, cook the turkey upside down for the first hour. This keeps all of the juices from running out of the white meet. Second, don’t stuff your turkey with stuffing. It sucks up the moisture from the bird. Instead, put your carrots, along with an apple and an onion inside the bird.

4. Try not to think about the butter content of the meal. It’s obscene and gross. Just try not to think about it.

5. Print out your recipes. My mom and I were working on the two desserts at the same time and tabbing back and forth on my computer between the two recipes. When she asked me “how much brown sugar in the pumpkin pie” and my answer was “zero brown sugar,” I accepted the perils of this plan. Especially if you’re going to have multiple cooks, printouts are a good way to avoid catastrophe.

not port wine sauce

2009-11-27T16:05:00.000-06:00

RJ's recent chicken post inspired me to type up a ravioli sauce that I made couple of weeks ago. It was remarkably simple and turned out pretty well. The idea came from a sauce I had at Viva Fresh Pasta, which I visited with EW and then with my mom. If you're ever in Northampton, you too should go!

1/ Over medium-high heat, reduce about half a bottle of red wine to a half cup. (I used some Malbec that I'd opened before I got ill and then had never drunk. The fact that it had been open for over a month didn't seem to matter.)
2/ Pour reduced wine into a bowl; set aside.
3/ In same pan, heat about 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Once butter is melted, add about 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Stir.
4/ When sugar begins to caramelize, pour the reduced wine back into the pan. Stir thoroughly.
5/ Let the sauce caramelize until desired consistency.
6/ Add salt and pepper to taste.
7/ Serve over ravioli (I used butternut squash).

I think that it was a mistake to top these ravioli with parmesan. When I reheated the leftovers, I didn't and I thought that it was much better. If I wanted to be fancy, I might caramelize some walnuts or pecans and maybe some onions to top the ravioli.

Cast Your Vote

2009-11-23T19:59:00.004-06:00

Ok people. My work is having a cookie contest, and I have a reputation to uphold. So, I need some suggestions. There may be a cash prize, if it turns out that's allowed. Tell me what to make. Vote on one of these, or suggest an alternative.

Current Contenders:
Rugelach
Molasses Spice Cookies (maybe in the shape of ginger bread men)
Lemon Cookies
Peanut Butter Brownies
Ameretti Cookies
Salted Chocolate Chip
Some inventive version of the PB bars and graham crackers.

Help!

It's True: Jack-o-Lanterns Are Not For Eating

2009-11-23T00:38:00.007-06:00

Remember when I commented that, apparently you're not supposed to eat the flesh of regular, Halloween type pumpkins? Well, I should have listened to that advice. I had in my freezer the roasted flesh of a pumpkin my parents grew in their garden, so I decided the time had come to make it into soup.

I followed this recipe, but to be honest, I thought it was boring and flavorless. So, I added curry powder, tumeric, cumin, and pepper at random and in bits until I got something that was edible. The end product was okay, but given all the amazing soups there are in the world, I would not repeat this endeavor, especially when delicious pumpkin-like soup is not difficult to produce.

In other news, the Thanksgiving preparations have begun. Many blog entries to follow. And, CH and I have a tale from our new favorite restaurant. Stay tuned!

French Onion Soup

2009-11-19T19:18:00.007-06:00

It's taken awhile to get here, but it's finally autumn in Chicago (no doubt soon to be followed by months of blistering winter). Anyway, everyone knows autumn is soup season, so I have a couple of soup posts to share. This is probably my favorite soup, and though it calls for beef broth, I know I made it with vegetable broth when EW was my roommate. And, if you have a food processor, this soup is actually really easy to make.

This is my mom's recipe, which she says she got at Famous Barr when she and my dad were first married. Still delicious even 40 years later. And, to be fair, someone else deserves credit for this post since she has made this soup much more recently than I have, and in the process she came up with a must try technique for all of us. Keep reading ;)

Ingredients:
- 5 pounds thinly sliced onions
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- 3/4 cup flour
- 3 quarts beef broth
- 1 cup win (Sherry)
- Crusty French Bread
- Gruyere

Instructions:
1. Slice onion thinly in a food processor.

So, right here at step 1 is where our friend's secret technique comes in handy. Chopping onions makes you cry. It even made my cat cry when I was chopping onions recently. That is, unless you do this:

If you don't have any use for swim goggles but appropriately think this idea is genius (as you should), consider these.

2. Melt Butter in a large stock pot and add onions.
3. Sweat the onion over a low heat for a 1 ½ hours.
4. Add all the other ingredients except the beef stock to the onions.
5. Cook for about 10 minutes over low heat stirring to keep from burning. This is to keep the flour from lumping.
6. Add beef stock. Cook for 2 hours over low heat.

Serving Instructions:
1. Set oven to broil.
2. Place a generous slice of Gruyere cheese in the bottom of an oven safe bowl.
3. Add soup.
4. Place a piece of French bread on top of the soup. Cover with thinly sliced Gruyere.
5. Place in the oven until the cheese is melted.

Chicken with Cranberry sauce

2009-11-17T22:00:00.005-06:00

So, partially due to some positive feedback from the chili, for potluck #3 in addition to the Trader Joes stuffing from a box, i decided to give a shot at this peppered chicken with cranberry sauce. People once again at least pretended to like it, and ate most of it. As with my crochet attempts, i don't go for fancy, just enough to look like i tried.

Recipe also came off the Internet.

Chicken:
4 trimmed boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour for dredging
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

For the cranberry sauce:
1 cup port wine
4 tablespoons dried cranberries (Craisins!)
2 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Season the chicken breasts on both sides with ample salt and pepper. Put a handful of flour in a pie pan or other sided plate and position it near the stove. Combine the sauce ingredients of your choice in a 1-cup Pyrex measuring cup or small bowl.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter and the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Dredge one of the chicken breasts in the flour, coating both sides well but shaking off any excess. Increase the heat of the pan to medium high.

Before adding the chicken, test the heat of the pan by flicking in a little of the dredging flour. If the flour sizzles enthusiastically and immediately turns golden, the pan is ready. Add the first floured chicken breast. Then quickly flour the remaining breasts and add them to the pan. Cook for about four minutes without moving the breasts. Then, starting with the first one in the pan, turn them over and cook for another three or four minutes on the other side.

Transfer the chicken to a plate or plates and keep it warm. Add the pan sauce ingredients to the hot pan and boil, stirring and scraping up the browned bits in the bottom of the pan, over high heat until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and whisk until smooth and glossy. (Tilt the pan to bring the small amount of liquid to one side while you whisk in the butter.) Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately.

Sweet Potatoes Are Not Just For Fries and Thanksgiving

2009-11-17T19:31:00.011-06:00

Gnocchi are one of those things that, even though they require very few ingredients, they are seemingly impossible to make. And, they require special machinery (a potato ricer). But, the last issue of Gourmet that came to my house (sad) had this recipe for sweet potato gnocchi, and I decided I had to try them. The recipe calls for a potato ricer, which I do not have. Luckily, neither does Deb. She has a post about making gnocchi with a box grater. Rejoicing the work-around, I decided to give her method a try on Gourmet's recipe.

I must say, the process was trying. I feel like I needed a lot more flour than they called for, and eventually I decided to switch to potato flour. That said, I was careful to follow Deb's instruction to add it a little at a time and only add as much as necessary, so I don't think I over did it. Another problem: sweet potatoes are not exactly the same texture as russet potatoes, so it was impossible to get a completely uniform mix.

And, I know that I am a messy cook, but these were even more messy than most of my usual ventures (except perhaps the marshmallows).

But then there is the finished product. It's actually quite good. It's not amazing, it's not A Tavola, but it is something I am happy to have in my freezer. It might not even really be properly classified as gnocchi since they are sort of a finer texture version of hash browns. Also, one of the things that makes these delicious is that, when you put them in the skillet with the brown butter, they get a little crispy on the outside, which improves them even if it does make them more hash brown than gnocchi.

Moral of the story - I will try this method again with only russet potatoes. And, I will try to figure out a less greasy but still delicious sauce (The greasiness of the sauce probably just has to do with the fact that, though I tried, the sauce is not easy to prepare in single serving portions.)

(Source Gourmet: October 2009)
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 lb. russet (baking) potatoes
- 3/4 lb. sweet potato
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg (I didn't have fresh nutmeg, so I used equal amount ground)
- 1 tsp. salt. + more for sauce if you want
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/3 cup Parmesan plus more for serving
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting. (I am guessing I needed nearly 2 cups, but you just have to add it slowly. Deb says only add until the dough stops sticking to your hands. I stopped adding when it was still a little sticky and relied on the dusting to compensate.)
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 cup sage leaves
- 1/3 cup bottled roasted chestnuts, thinly sliced (I did not use these because I don't really like chestnuts. I didn't substitute anything either...)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions:
1. Pierce the potatoes and bake in oven at 450 until just tender, (45 minutes to an hour).

2. Cool potatoes slightly, peel and grate. (Gourmet says to let potatoes cool completely, they were still warm but not very when I moved on). Spread the grated potatoes out on a sheet pan.

3. Beat (lightly) egg, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

4. Gather potatoes into a mound and make a well in the center. Pour the egg mixture into the well. Knead in cheese and flour. Don't overwork the dough, but keep kneading until it isn't sticky to the touch.

5. Cut dough into 6 pieces, and, one at a time, roll out the pieces into ropes that are 1/2 inch thing. Cut the rope every 1/2 inch (to get squares). Gently roll into balls and dust with flour.

6. Add ridges. I tried this step, but failed miserably. Basically, you're supposed to run the gnocchi down the back of a fork to give it ridges, but I couldn't make it work, so I gave up.

7. You can either cook or freeze the gnocchi at this point. I cooked the first 6 I made to make sure they were edible and froze the rest. If you decide to freeze, line a tray with parchment paper and put them on the tray so that they are not touching one another. Once they're frozen solid you can put them in a bag. I had some for dinner from the freezer tonight, they didn't suffer too much.

8. Prepare the sauce. Put the oil in a frying pan and flash fry the sage leaves. Gourmet says put the oil in a skillet and add the leaves once the oil starts to "shimmer." I'm not sure what that means - I waited for it to get hot and then put them in for just about 30 seconds each. Take out the leaves and fry the chestnuts in the same oil until they are golden and crisp (about 30 seconds). Gourmet says to do the sage and chestnuts in batches. Drain the nuts on a paper towel. Add the butter (and 1/2 tsp. salt says Gourmet) to the pan with the oil and cook it until golden brown.

9. Cook the gnocchi. Add half of the gnocchi to a pot of well salted boiling water and stir. Cook until they float to the surface (about 3 minutes). Transfer with a slotted spoon to the skillet with the butter sauce, coating them in the sauce over medium heat.

10. Serve with the nuts, sage, and Parmesan on top.

Fried dough = yes

2009-11-15T14:09:00.000-06:00

So, SK posted about some apple cider donuts. Knowing heb, I forwarded them to her. And then, when we had 12 hours to spend together, we spent 6 of them making donuts. I thought it would be disastorous, but it turned out MIRACULOUS (though our waistlines might argue otherwise.)

I wouldn't double the recipe next time, unless there were more than two people involved, but damn, these were delicious.

I think the cinnamon sugar topping was best (the apple cider was rather tart), and yes, you do need that whole thing of Crisco. I'm sorry too.

Turkey Chili

2009-11-15T14:02:00.005-06:00

It doesn't look like much compared to KZ's masterpieces on here, but I made this for potluck #2 of 3 in a span of four days. Normally (and for the other 2) i opt for something from Trader Joes out of the box, but i decided to go for this turkey chili, mainly because i was intrigued by the recipe calling for some Mexican lager-style beer. I didn't have more than a little taste, but it was well received by the folks eating. Recipe is courtesy of the food network.

Here's how i made it:

hearty bit of olive oil (recipe calls for 3 tbsp)
1 diced yellow onion
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp or so of salt
2 tsp chili powder
1-2 tsp red chili peppers
2 tsp dried oregano
1 hearty tablespoon tomato paste
1 pound ground turkey
1 (12-ounce) bottle of Dos Equis beer
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, no salt added, with juice
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
Lots of rice

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, spices/seasonings, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cook 1 minute more. Add the turkey, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, and cook until the meat loses its raw color, about 3 minutes. Add the beer and simmer until reduced by about half, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the beans; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 10 minutes.

Oh. My. Goodness.

2009-11-10T22:38:00.010-06:00

Wow. Wow. Wow. I just had the most delicious drink. I finally found a way to get over my hate of the treadmill. And I when I came back to my apartment, I had this amazing drink to quench my thirst. You could call it homemade ginger ale. You could call it green tea ginger twist, sans tea. You could call it a way to make club soda not only tolerable but also delicious. Whatever you call it, have it...Now.

(I promise, this is my next to last ginger post, and then I'll give it a rest, for awhile.)

First you need to make some ginger syrup. Boil 1 cup of sugar in one cup of water, along with 2-3 tablespoons of fresh ginger. Let the syrup chill at least overnight. Pour a glass of club soda and add the ginger syrup to taste. Enjoy with a straw, like one of these cute ones HEB gave me a million years ago.

I've seen a couple of recipes for this with things like lemon grass and fresh chilli peppers. I plan to experiment with these additions.

UPDATE: Some people have asked how much syrup to a glass. For me, not too much. I added maybe a tablespoon to 12 ounces of club soda. Also, you can strain out the ginger if you don't like it floating around in your drink. I don't mind that, but I can see how others might.

Sometimes, Turning on the Oven Is Too Much to Ask

2009-11-04T21:41:00.008-06:00

In addition to my work potluck, I went to another, much stranger potluck more recently. But I'd been doing a lot of cooking for DB, so I the thought of making something complicated was more than I could handle. Instead, I made this salad, which I believe HEB inspired from her favorite at Cosi. It's not hard, it's not complicated, but it took nice pictures and tasted good...

For the dressing:
- one part balsamic vinegar
- one part olive oil
(I start with 1/4 cup each of oil and vinegar and then decide if I have enough dressing for the amount of salad I have.)
- 1 teaspoon of mustard
- 1 teaspoon garlic
- pinch of salt
Someone once told me that if you slowly drizzle the oil into the vinegar as you're wisking it will separate less, so I do that. Not sure if it actually works.

For the salad
- Mixed greens
- Colored Peppers
- Carrots
- Cashews and pistachio nuts
- Grapes
- Craisins
- Blue Cheese

Make This For Your Next Potluck

2009-10-31T12:35:00.016-05:00

A while ago I went to a work potluck. I wanted to make something delicious (and mildly impressive), but by the time the list came to me, many people had already signed up for dishes in the other genres I had considered. So after much anxiety and numerous suggestions, I decided on this rice. I have had this recipe for years, but I never make it because it has a lot of ingredients that I never had and never felt like buying. But, this time I took a look at my spices and realized I was pretty much set to go with this. And, once you have all the ingredients, it's pretty easy.

And, this rice is so delicious. Like this and this, it might be the butter. Also, I did not cook this rice in the pot in the picture, but I did serve it in that dish because it's so pretty. I think you could make this rice in the oven in a dutch-oven-like pot. The chicken would probably even taste better if you did.

Recipe adapted from and Zubin Mehta (Bon Appetit)

Ingredients:
- 1 stick butter
- 4 medium onions, chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 cups (basmatti) rice
- 4 cups of stock
- 2 large (or more) chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces. You can skip the chicken, add in cubed (pan fried) tofu, or skip it all together. When my parents used to make this they served it as a side, and I always thought the chicken was sort of pointless. However, if you want it as a main dish, I think adding chicken (or tofu) definitely improves it.

(Spices)
- 16 whole cloves
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground mace
- 3/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds
- 3/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
- 1 teaspoon sugar

(Other Stuff)
- 3/4 cups dark raisins, plumped in water
- 3/4 cups yellow raisins, plumped in water
- 1/2 cup unsalted raw cashews
- 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- One more onion cut into strips and fried until they're crispy (for garnish, if you want)

Note about substituting tofu: If you do this (which I think would be equally delicious) you should pan fry it first, and add it to the mix later in the cooking process, so that it doesn't fall apart.

Note about the spices: The only downside (that I can think of) to this recipe is that it involves numerous spices and can therefore require a sort of heavy investment in spices at the outset. I skipped the cloves because I didn't have any, and I used ground cumin instead of cumin seed for the same reason. It all worked out just fine.

Instructions:
- Melt butter in large pot (like one you'd use to make soup)
- Saute the onions and garlic, then add ginger
- Add the broth and bring to a boil
- Add the rice and spices. Lower heat, stir and simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken. Cover and cook on medium heat for 40 minutes, or until all of the liquid is absorbed. I found I needed more broth than the recipe called for because all the liquid was absorbed but the rice was not soft yet. If this happens, just add a little more broth (or water if you don't have more broth).
- While the rice is cooking, in a skillet, roast all of the nuts and soak all of the raisins.
- Once all the liquid is absorbed in the rice, add in the nuts and (drained) raisins. Stir and cook for an additional five minutes.
- Serve. The recipe says it serves 8. I think, as a side, it serves several more than that.

Because It's Always Somethin' Somethin' Weather

2009-10-27T22:27:00.010-05:00

This cranberry slushy can barely be classified as a recipe, but it is probably my first (and favorite) exposure to alcohol. My aunt always made this at Thanksgiving and now it is a staple in my freezer, for parties and for weekday nights.

All you need is (1) one can of frozen lemonade, (2) one bottle of standard sized cranberry juice, and (3) the frozen lemonade can full of rum (1.5 if you're really feeling feisty).

Stir it up, and put it in the freezer. The next day you'll have a frozen treat. The alcohol keeps it from freezing solid, so once you stir it up, you're good to go.

Mini Quiche Are Maybe Worth It

2009-10-21T22:35:00.006-05:00

For the recent David Berkeley house concert, I made mini quiche. During the baking process I basically decided there was no way I was going to post this recipe because they were sort of a hassle. But today one of my coworkers told me she "must have eaten a dozen of them." And, to my surprise, they were the most heavily consumed item at the event (this is particularly shocking since these were also available). So since they were pretty popular, and since I imagine they will be much less of a hassle now that the kinks are basically worked out, here is the path to mini-quiche heaven.

Before you try to repeat this at home, a few warnings are prudent. First, other than the crust, I made this up as I went along. Second, I had a number of debates with my sou chef (who has much more experience eating quiche than I but much less experience in the kitchen) regarding the proper way to make sure each mini had the proper mix of ingredients. Third, the sou also raised his eyebrows at my use of skim milk and at the fact that the cheese to spinach ratio was sort of low. He also forbade the use of pepper and salt, which ultimately I would have liked to have had. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, you need an obscene amount of PAM to get these buggers out of the pan.

What follows is mostly approximation, except for the crust, which I followed to the letter. I will also add that I only own one mini-cupcake pan. This process would have been much less painful with 2, just in case you're thinking of trying this at home.

Crust Ingredients
This is Julia Child’s all-purpose best quality French pastry dough, provided to me by EW. The quantities listed here are for a single recipe, which I actually doubled to accomodate the amount of filling I made. I left it as is (instead of doing the math for you) because I do not think you can double this recipe. You just have to make it twice. Your food processor will die otherwise. Plus, if you want to make a plain ole quiche (as opposed to mini ones), one portion of this is more than enough.

- 1 ¾ cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ¼ sticks chilled butter
- 1/3 to ½ cups ice water

Crust Instructions
1. Place salt and flour into mixer and blend for a few seconds. Cut chilled butter into quarters and drop into mixer. Turn on for three seconds.

2. Add all but two tablespoons of the ice water and turn on the machine. In 2-3 seconds, the dough has just begun to mass on the blade and the pastry is done.

3. Take the dough out and put it on a lightly floured surface. Make yourself, 48 (or 96) little balls, being careful not to over handle the dough.

4. Make each ball into a disk and press it into the bottom of your mini-cupcake pan that you have HEAVILY sprayed with cooking spray (and not the kind with flour either).

5. Press the dough to form little cups. Do your best to get the dough all the way to the top of the pan (sou was right on about this).

6. Stab the bottom of each little quiche crust with a fork to get any air bubbles out.

7. Pre bake the crust at 350. You will see in the picture, I wasnt particularly precise about the baking time. I think 5 minutes is plenty, but I did forget about one batch and left it for closer to 10 and the result was not tragic.

Filling Ingredients
- 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- one box of fresh spinach. I think this is about a pound. It was one of those boxes that you would buy for a week's worth of salad before you ended up throwing half of it away because you cant eat spinach salad every day.
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 large yellow onions
- 1 cup milk
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup gruyere
- 1/2 cup fontina
- salt and pepper to taste

Filling Instructions
1. Saute the Spinach and garlic with just a little olive oil so that it doesnt stick to the pan. I did this in batches because the pan I started to use was too small for the quantity of spinach, no more than five minutes per batch. Take the spinach out of the pan and set aside.

2. Put the onions in a food processor. Chop them up. Put them in the pan them in the same pan you used for the spinach and saute them too, about 10 minutes. Mine were too liquidy to really brown properly, but they still tasted good.

3. While the onions are cooking, put the spinach in the food processor and grind it up.

4. Put the cooked spinach and onion in a large bowl. Add milk and eggs. The sou thought it looked too liquidy, and he may have been right, but in the end it worked out fine. If you would like it firmer, I saw recipes that did crazy things like add flour or use cream instead of skim milk. The biggest lesson I learned from this process is that it doesn't really matter as long as you think the filling will taste good.

5. Stir all these ingredients together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sou would not allow this, and since he was being so kind and helpful, I went along. Next time, I will add probably 1/2 teaspoon each (at least) to this mix.

6. Grind up your mix of gruyere and fontina (hey, that food processor really has to earn its keep after I dragged it to New York and back). Keep the cheese separate from the spinach/onion mixture. Put them in the refrigerator until your crust is ready.

Assembly
1. Once you have pre-baked the crusts, fill each with the spinach mixture almost to the top. Then sprinkle a healthy portion of the cheese.

2. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes.

3. Pry them out of the pan and serve them to your friends, who will be wildly impressed that they didn't come from Costco. (I found that a butter knife worked pretty well for the quiche removal process.)

Resurgence of a Classic Cookie?

2009-10-19T17:45:00.004-05:00

As we all know, Deb is perhaps our greatest source of inspiration. Many among us seem tempted to just make whatever she says. So, lacking creativity of my own, I pondered her snickerdoodle recipe. I had all but decided against it when, to my shock, I got almost the exact same recipe in an email from Saveur.

Partially because I dont want any more of my cooking magazines to go out of business and partially because I dont want to be too reliant on one source of inspiration, I went with Saveur's version. They are seriously pretty much identical, but maybe one day I'll do a taste test to see which one I like more. Yes, I'll do that as soon as I have a need for 96 snickerdoodle cookies in my life.

One thing I will say about this cookie that I had pretty much forgotten about from childhood, it is delicious. I love cinnamon. I love sugar. And this is one occasion where I won't complain about the butter.

Ginger Pear Sorbet

2009-10-17T22:15:00.001-05:00

As we've mentioned before, sorbet making is easy and the results are delicious. Recently I bought a pint of pears at the Farmer's Market, to make another dessert. But then I got to making things for an upcoming party, and decided I could not justify making a pie for 10-12 people if I would not be able to serve it at said event. So, I axed the other dessert. But then I had a pint of pears going bad in my apartment. What to do?? Make sorbet!

And, I also had a bunch of fresh ginger in my apartment from a number of only mildly successful attempts to replicate Argo Tea's Iced Green Tea Ginger Twist, so we (I had a visitor's help) decided to add the ginger to the pear.

The result, a delicious frozen treat.

Ingredients
- 1 pint of peeled pears
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- about 3 tablespoons of minced ginger.

Instructions
- Boil the sugar, water, and 2 tablespoons of the ginger until the sugar is complete dissolved. Let cool. (Our original recipe says to let the syrup chill, but I don't think that's necessary, as long as it's not burning hot when you add it).
- Puree the pears
- Add the syrup to the pears, puree some more.
- Add the last table spoon of fresh ginger
- Freeze until hard, then take it out and puree it again.

Peach Kuchen

2009-10-08T19:21:00.002-05:00

This post may be too little too late because peaches are no longer in season, but I wanted to post my family's lovely alternative to peach pie. This recipe comes from my great aunt, and kuchen is German. But, I don't think this qualifies a legit kuchen. Instead, I tend to think of it as a custard, at least when I bake it much longer than my mom does (she likes it runny, I like it firm).

I almost convinced CH to eat it (even though it involves cooked fruit), and apparently I know more than one crazy person who does not like peaches who also refused to try it. But, I maintain, this "pie" is delicious.

Crust Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 tbs. sour cream

Filling Ingredients:
- 1 quart fresh sliced peaches
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup flour

Crust Instructions:
1. Combine all the crust ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it forms coarse crumbs (like corn meal).
2. Press into a 10 inch spring form pan. Crust should go onto the sides of the spring form.
3. Bake at 375 until golden brown, about 15 minutes (don't over cook, it's going back in the oven again later).

Filling Instructions:
1. Combine all the ingredients together. You can make more filling if you want a deeper dessert. If it seems to runny, add a little more flour or more peaches.
2. Bake at 375. My mom bakes for 35 minutes. I bake for almost an hour. It's done when you take it out and you can shake it and the filling stands up.

Not Even Remotely About Recipes

2009-10-07T20:33:00.003-05:00

Okay, so my job rarely has anything to do with cooking or recipes. And most days, it has nothing at all to do with food. But today I came across this quote in a case I read for a project I'm working on. It's...sort of about food? Sometimes federal judges (and their clerks) do have a sense of humor.

Here's the quote:
"We start with some threshold questions about the scope of Volovsek's suit. Unfortunately we have to spend considerable time addressing this issue because the parties appear to have simply collected the sum total of all the unpleasant events in Volovsek's work history since 1991, dumped them into the legal mixing bowl of this lawsuit, set the Title VII-blender to puree and poured the resulting blob on the court."
Volovsek v. Wisconsin Dept. of Agr., Trade and Consumer Protection, 344 F.3d 680 (7th Cir. 2003)

Brownies are Better with a Little Cheese

2009-10-06T20:19:00.001-05:00

In just over a week, I am hosting a concert for David Berkeley. Hopefully, it will be a fun-filled evening with music and delicious food. But, since the concert is going to be on a weekday, I must plan ahead. And since Deb recently describe a reason why she too had a need to cook in advance, I decided to try her apparently delicious recipe for cheesecake brownies.

Or, at least I planned to follow her recipe. But once again, I concluded that Deb uses too much butter. So, I shopped around for some other recipes and made some modifications. Even with 25% less butter and reduced fat cream cheese, the end product is delicious. (Probably because it still has enough fat to cause a coronary.)

When I looked at the brownie recipe on Smitten Kitchen, I decided (1) I needed to double the recipe and (2) that would require 2 sticks of butter, which is outrageous. I also noticed that my mom's brownie recipe called for basically the same ingredients. Turns out, the exact same ingredients in nearly the same proportions.

So, I followed my mom's brownie instructions and then topped it with a double dose of Deb's cream cheese topping. I had one package of regular fat cream cheese and one package of 1/3 fat, so that's what I used, and it was delicious. I also decided to skip the chocolate chips - seemed like overkill.

Deb's freezing-then-cutting tip was key, and something I think I'll do from now on with brownies (even though I have recently made disparaging remarks about putting a whole slab of brownies in the freezer). I cut them into bite sized brownies so that people can have more, and so that more people can have some.

Here are the brownie ingredients:
- 6 oz. Unsweetened chocolate
- 1 1/2 sticks butter
- 6 eggs
- 2 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups flour

After that, I followed SK pretty much to the letter. Hopefully they'll be a hit. Now I just need some more ideas for things to make!

The Best Apple Pie Yet

2009-09-14T22:08:00.001-05:00

My friend Jenny and I got a little obsessed with Pushing Daises over our last semester of school. Now that we are free of that time suck, we've devoted ourselves to making pies. The real goal in all this has been to recreate the apple pie that Chuck sends to her aunts. A cheese is always involved, since Chuck's aunts love cheese. We tried the cheese grated on top version, which, while delicious, did not see up to the PieMaker's standards. We also branched out to non-apple pies (because seriously, it's just as easy to bake one as two). Most recently, this effort turned out the almond, pear tart.

(Earlier (and picture-less) was a creme fraiche peach pie that was AMAZING.)

However, the crowning glory of the weekend was the apple pie with gruyere baked into the crust. A small amount of cheese was mixed with the flour before combining with butter and water (much to my surprise, I'm finding that a pastry blender really does do an excellent job at pie making (above the food processor!) -- leaving more substantial chunks of butter to make a more delicious baked pie crust).

The recipe, recreated here from a combination of SK's apple pie making and this blogger's cheesey instructions (I must disagree with and reject his lard-related instructions.)

Crust:
Makes one double-crusted 9-10 inch pie.
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp. sugar
20 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter
2 oz. Gruyère, grated
Icewater (get a class, put some water in, add ice. Ready your tablespoon.)

Mix flour, salt, sugar and Gruyere in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until "the size of peas."

Sprinkle ice water over flour in increments of one tablespoon, toss with fork after each addition. When dough clumps together when squeezed in your palm (about 6-7 tbsp is generally the right amount), gather dough together into two disks, one slightly larger than the other, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Pie:
3 lbs of apples. We used half granny smith and half mcintosh, for what I felt was a perfect level of tart+sweet.
2 lemons. (None of this one tablespoon nonsense. TART!)
6 tbls cornstarch (flour is also an option, but I really like what the cornstarch did in this version)
1/2 cup sugar

Peal and core apples, then thinly slice. Combine in a bowl with other ingredients.

Once pie dough is chilled, roll out the larger disk until it fits a 9 in pie pan (or 9 in springform cake pan, if that is all you have at hand.) Gently settle pie dough into pan (I prefer the fold into quarters method myself.) Pour apple mixture into the prepared pie pan, and roll out second disk of dough. Place on top of apples, and seal edges of pie dough together.

You can brush with egg at this point, though I never do. Place in oven pre-heated to 375F, and cook for at least 50 minutes. I like my apples mushy and my crust crisp, so I would tend to go over this time limit myself, especially if you have a more gentle oven.

Cool for about 20, if you want the pie to stay pie-like, or cut immediately and glory in the deliciousness.
Type rest of the post here

Apparently Jack-o-lanterns are not for eating

2009-09-13T21:15:00.001-05:00

This summer, my father decided he wanted to grow pumpkins in his garden. And, despite the in-land hurricane and all the bad weather, the pumpkins grew like weeds. When I was home last weekend for my niece's bat mitzvah, there were many rather huge pumpkins.

I decided to take one home with me and figure out something to do with it. Unfortunately, all of my internet research has indicated that jack-o-lantern pumpkins are, well, just for show. I am certain my father was unaware, or else he would have picked a different variety. Never the less, I'm making a go of it.

And so far, I have discovered at least one part of the halloween pumpkin variety tastes delicious ... the seeds.

As for the recipe, there's really nothing to it. I found that one average size halloween pumpkin gave me about 2 cups of seeds. I wanted them salty and spicy, so I coated them with just a tiny bit of olive oil plus 2 tsp of garlic powder, 1tsp of salt, and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes. I roasted them for about half an hour, stirring after half an hour. I am now resisting the urge to eat them all at once.

this one was worth it

2009-09-06T21:34:00.001-05:00

Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream Sandwiches

I fell in love with the idea of these sandwiches, which were on the cover of Gourmet's August 2009 issue. However, I also pretty much simultaneously fell in love with a batch of KZ's homemade graham crackers that she made while visiting, so I decided to tweak the recipe to accommodate the graham-love.

The sandwich layers turned out a little odd, much more caramelized than I anticipated. However, all-in-all, I'm pretty pleased with these. If I make them again, I will probably stick with the lemon ice cream as in the original, since I think the tartness would be extra delicious.

Here's the recipe with my mods:

For ice cream:

2 pints vanilla ice cream
Blueberry compote

For blueberry compote:

2 cups blueberries (10 ounces)
1/4 cup sugar
2 (3-by 2 1/2-inch) strips lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch

For sandwich layers:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup graham flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Equipment: 2 (8-inch) square baking pans (2 inches deep); a small offset spatula

Blueberry compote:

Cook blueberries, sugar, and zest in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat, thoroughly crushing blueberries with a potato masher, until juices are released and sugar has dissolved, about 2 minutes.

Stir together lemon juice and cornstarch, then stir into blueberry mixture. Boil, stirring, 1 minute (mixture will thicken).

Transfer blueberry compote to a bowl and chill until cold, about 1 hour. Discard lemon zest.

Sandwich layers:
Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Butter baking pans and line with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on each side, then butter parchment paper.

Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat together butter and brown sugar in another bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. At low speed, add flour mixture in 2 batches, mixing until just combined.

Divide batter between baking pans and spread into thin, even layers with offset spatula. Bake until golden-brown but still tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely in pans, about 30 minutes.

Assemble sandwiches:
Dollop tablespoons of blueberry compote all over ice cream, then swirl it gently through ice cream with a spoon. Spoon all of ice cream over 1 sandwich layer (in pan) and spread evenly using clean offset spatula. Invert second sandwich layer over ice cream, pressing gently to form an even sandwich. Wrap baking pan in plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.

Transfer sandwich to a cutting board using overhang. Cut into 12 pieces. (Eat with a fork because the sandwich layers are super sticky.)

next time, I will spend the $7

2009-09-05T13:12:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while, I get a really strong craving for homemade pasta. Luckily, it's usually intense but brief and passes by the time I've convinced myself that I cannot spend $7 on pasta and have walked away the fresh pasta in the grocery store. But, last week, I was subject to a much more durable version of this craving, the likes of which I hadn't experienced since circa 2003 in Cape Town without good access to a kitchen so I couldn't make up my own pasta. Anyway, I now do have access to a lovely kitchen and have recently been very appreciative of what happens when you hand-make things that you would usually buy in a box at the grocery store (or a bag in the grocery store). So I thought I'd give homemade pasta a try, and save the $7. Add to that the recent drool-worthy interpretations of Smitten Kitchen recipes, and I knew where I'd be searching for my homemade pasta recipe.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Not having a pasta maker, the hand-shaped orecchiette seemed like a perfect option. SK actually links to the orecchiette recipe at Delicious Days, which sure *looked* easy. I couldn't find 00 flour, so I purchased the durum flour that DD had rejected. Maybe that was my first mistake. Because no matter how much I kneaded 2 c. durum flour, 2 eggs and salt, it would not form a dough. I finally gave in and added another egg. And then another egg. And then some water. And then it formed a dough. (Oh, and also, the durum flour cost $5.29, so there goes my rationale for not just buying fresh pasta in the first place.)

Discouraged by that experience, I decided to make another version of the dough using all-purpose flour. (I knew that it had too much gluten, but didn't have anything else to try.) That dough only required 1 extra egg to form up properly. Having spent way too long kneading dough for one night, I dumped it in the fridge and ate toast with chevre for dinner.

Rejuvenated the next day, I let the dough come to room temperature while making the sauce. I stole SK's idea of using shallots, but beefed up the sauce with some zucchini and yellow squash. I sauted chopped shallots and garlic in olive oil, and then added the chopped squash. While it cooked, I chopped three heirloom tomatoes and tossed them in a baking dish. I added the squash saute, salt and pepper and cooked everything at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, tossing once.
It was by far the most successful part of this pasta-making adventure.

I'm willing to admit that part of my frustration in shaping the pasta may have had to do with the fact that I did so while on the phone. Since I couldn't find my earpiece and my phone is breaking at the hinge, it requires a very particular angle of my neck to hold it between my ear and my shoulder. This may have added to my tension while shaping the pasta. Anyway, I started as instructed. And even made it through shaping about 1/4 of the durum dough and 1/8 of the all-purpose dough before my neck hurt too much to continue. The durum dough was much tougher than the all-purpose dough, even with the extra eggs and water, so it was more difficult to shape. However, the pasta turned out cuter. I laid the shaped pasta out to dry (durum on the left; all-purpose on the right).

By this point, I really wanted to eat homemade pasta. So I took the other 1/8 of the all-purpose dough and rolled it out as thin as I could manage. Then I cut it into unintentional trapezoids.I ignored the requisite overnight drying time and popped it into a pot of boiling water. It was pretty much exactly what I wanted out of homemade pasta.

Over the following two nights, I cooked the actual orecchiette, durum version first. As SK mentions, they took forever to cook. (I think the durum version clocked in at 24 minutes, while the all-purpose clocked in at 18. I'm also not sure that the durum ones were actually fully cooked when I ate them.) Both were delicious; however, they will not be added to the category of food that takes 7 hours to make and is worth it. (The trapezoids might have been worth it, since they didn't take quite as long to make as the orecchiette.)
Will there be homemade pasta in my future? Perhaps. Under the following circumstances:
1/ I figure out how to buy 00 flour, since I think that would have eased some of my problems, and I purchase a pasta maker so I can roll out thin sheets very easily; or
2/ I decide not to throw out the 1 1/2 batch of pasta dough that is currently in my freezer and roll it into thin sheets to be cut into trapezoids; or
3/ I buy the $7 fresh pasta at Whole Foods.

At the moment, I am leaning towards #3.

Still Smitten

2009-08-30T19:22:00.001-05:00

Seriously, I don't know that I cook recipes that aren't from her website anymore these days. Here are a few pics of the most recent deliciousness.

Corn and Tomato Pie

I was going to make a stock of the UTTERLY delicious salad that HEB posted below, eggplants do not seem to be in season the in CA yet....thus, corn and tomatoes instead! Most of the ingredients for my version actually came from the farmer's market this morning (to which I biked! Whoo whoo!) Even the cheese, which was a delicious garlic cheddar that added an extra punch to my version.

test run

2009-08-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

After having the best salad of the summer at a friend's house, I couldn't wait to recreate it. Here's her recipe:
eggplant: cubed, tossed with garlic, olive oil and salt and roasted at 425 degrees
cucumbers: peeled, de-seeded, sliced
tomatoes: from the farmer's market, chopped
red onion: thinly sliced
fresh field greens
feta
tossed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil

Here were my mods:
Used a fig/walnut balsamic salad dressing because I discovered that I had no balsamic vinegar.
Used a crumbled goat cheese rather than feta because I like goat cheese better and they were sampling a particularly tasty one at the grocery store.
Didn't peel or de-seed the cukes because I'm lazy.

Here's the verdict:
Dressing: I'd use balsamic in the future. The fig/walnut flavor was unnecessary and got lost.
Goat cheese: fantastic.
Cucumbers: being lazy is okay.
Proportions: I definitely didn't master the proportions, and I also ended up making about three times as much salad as I could eat. Next time, I will add more greens and fewer tomatoes/cucumbers. Also, probably less cheese.
Overall: still delicious. The eggplant really makes this special, well worth the roasting time. (However, I think that my roommate might not think that it's well worth heating up our too-hot apartment...)

I swear I would have given CH credit

2009-07-30T00:18:00.002-05:00

I was about to post this black bean and corn salsa recipe, and then decided to check to make sure that CH hadn't already posted it. Well, she has. So that makes this a pretty boring post. But I'll add that I made this salsa on Monday (without avocado or cilantro) and added the avocado (but not the cilantro) right before serving on Thursday, and I thought that the extra marinating time made the salsa even better.

remodeling my kitchen

2009-07-25T14:54:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.

Before:

After:

I celebrated the successful remodel by making a batch of brownies from scratch. I have no problem admitting that I rarely see the point in making brownies from scratch when you have Ghiradelli's double chocolate brownie mix available. However, I did not, and I wanted to try the Fudge Brownie Recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.

Verdict: delicious (even though I'm still thrown off by my one remodeling mistake: replacing the gas stove with an electric one)Here's the recipe with my mods:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Green & Blacks)
1.5 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Penzey's double strength)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1 inch overhang on two sides. Set aside.

Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water; stir frequently until chocolate and butter are melted, about 7 minutes. (I heated in the microwave for about a minute at 50% power.)

Remove bowl from heat; let cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes. (I probably let it cool for 5 minutes, while prepping the pan and measuring other ingredients.)

Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture until combined. whisk in eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition.

Whisk in vanilla.

Gently fold in flour and salt.

Pour batter into prepared pan, and smooth top with an offset spatula.

Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes. (Took me 35.)

Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

I'm not sure that they were delicious enough to replace Ghiradelli as my go-to brownie, but I'll certainly be pulling these out when I want to be extra impressive. (Ghiradelli does still have the advantage of being less expensive to make since you don't need to purchase butter and chocolate.)

Spring semester catch up

2009-07-19T17:54:00.001-05:00

One of my proudest achievements during my last semester of grad school was cooking enough food on Sunday to last me as lunch through most of the week. I wasn't able to achieve this every Sunday, but it happened on most.

For some reason though, I was not able to combine the cooking with much picture taking or blogging. So, here's a post to catch up with a few of the recipes I tried with a few of the pictures I managed to take. Mostly these were from smitten kitchen, so I'll just post links to her recipes.

First up: Blood Orange Tart.

NEVER AGAIN. In addition to crust needing days to complete, what with all of the freezing it had to go through, this recipe called for the pulpy middle of the blood orange to be separated from their membranes. Pictures from smitten kitchen make clear what this should look like, but the lovely Deb failed to photograph her blood orange stained hands or mention the HOURS that it might take someone who has no idea how to separate orange innards from their membranes. The real kicker though, was after baking this sucker, the juices all ran out of the crust, so it ended up being rather dry. Oh well. Not every recipe can be a success.

Smitten Kitchen: Indian food recipes.

I've tried the Red Kidney Bean Curry, the Red Split Lentils With Cabbage, and the Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes (same link as Red Split Lentils.) ALL DELICIOUS. Also, all surprisingly less work than expected. Seriously, that middle recipe made me love cabbage (I'd never tried cooking with it before!) and the Red Kidney Bean Curry is super easy. Mmm, and potatoes and cauliflower + cumin is obviously a good choice. Mmm, mmm mmm.

And then, the recipe that now defines comfort food for me: Vegan Mac and Cheez.

Before you start with the eyerolling, etc, let me just say: this is the most delicious casserole ever. No, it's not really like mac and cheese. But frankly, I can only eat mac and cheese in small amounts. It's just so rich (and delicious, don't get me wrong), but it doesn't work for a weekly lunch. This recipe however, gives the creamy, satisfying texture of mac and cheese but without...well, all the cheese. I also really like a lot of the ingredients. Miso, check. Tahani, yes please. Cashews, always! The nutritional yeast (a yellow flakey powder) may be the one ingredient that is not already on your shelves, but it should be in bulk food sections of fancier grocery stores. (If not, I will totally mail you some. I'm not kidding.) Well, that and the Earth Balance (vegan butter), but hell, it's better for you than margarine, so buy it!

The recipe I use is from Vegan Yum Yum, and she's modified it from other recipes herself. I really really love it though you guys, and it's really not that difficult. I have also found myself adding a little miso and tahini to other recipes when a need a little sauciness or flavor. It's never as good as this recipe, but it makes me happy nonetheless.

If I can take a picture before I eat it all, I'll try to post about the artisan bread you can make in your own oven.

A Graham Cracker Duel

2009-06-24T23:10:00.001-05:00

I have been making graham crackers to accompany my marshmallows for a few months now, so you can imagine that I was a bit incredulous to see Smitten Kitchen's very recent set of posts on the same combo here and here. But, because I am generally a fan of Smitten Kitchen, I decided to give her version a try.

They were delicious but, for three reasons, I will stick with my original recipe.

1. My original recipe actually uses graham flour. I do not think there is much point to graham crackers if you aren’t going to use the named ingredient. That said, I substituted graham flour in the SK version too, so I can’t really say what it would taste like without the graham flour.
2. My original recipe calls for half a stick of butter, this recipe calls for almost a whole stick. To be sure, the butter adds to the richness, but for nearly twice the fat, not worth it.
3. The SK version requires you to refrigerate the dough in advance. This is a pain, especially if you are like me and cannot plan that far in advance.

So, these caveats in mind, here is my previous recipe, taken almost verbatim from here but with a few additions.

Ingredients:
• 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 6 T sugar
• 4 T honey
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 2 t water. I found that I needed more water the first time because the final product wasn’t sticking together. This was not true the second time. I think it has to do with out “liquidy” the honey is. If you need to add a little more water to get the dough to form, that’s fine, just do it very gradually.
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 1/2 C graham flour
• 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t vanilla

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Combine the butter, egg and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in the honey and blend.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture.
5. Add the salt, graham flour, all-purpose flour, vanilla, and cinnamon to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable.
6. Divide the dough into 4 sections. Keep the sections in the refrigerator when they are not in use.
7. Dust the counter with all-purpose flour. You will need a lot of flour at this stage, especially if you are not rolling the crackers out directly on the sheet where you plan to bake them. Roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.
8. Cut the crackers. If you want squares, you can just use a knife or (as SK does) a pastry wheel. I make them round, and I use the top of a peanut butter jar as my cookie cutter (This really is how we do things on the south side, even though I am only faux south side now).
9. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a lined/grease baking sheet. I tried a plastic spatula, they stuck to it.
10. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
11. Remove from the oven and cool on racks. They will not be crunchy, but that’s fine.
12. Eat with these and a bit of chocolate.

New Kitchen and all the Rest

2009-06-23T22:07:00.001-05:00

Yes, 2 posts in one day. I do not want to study. At all. But, this one is short, and it allows people to see the place where I prepare the food that gets posted on this blog. Enjoy.

Asparagus Salad

2009-06-23T11:55:00.000-05:00

I love asparagus, and they are in season now. But, I never know quite what to do with them. Turns out, you can do just about anything with them, which includes putting them in a salad. The recipe below is super easy, and not all that original. However, it is post worthy because it taught me a new technique - to boil my vinegar before adding it to salad dressing. The result, according to the original recipe, is that the dressing is less bitter. The result is also that you need less oil AND it doesn't separate as easily. Magic.

Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 pounds asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted (recipe originally called for pecans, but I don't like pecans so much).
- Feta cheese to taste

Preparation
1. Boil vinegar in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Pour vinegar into large bowl.
2. Whisk in oil, mustard, and garlic. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Cook asparagus in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, (original recipe said 4 minutes. I think 2 is more like it).
4. Drain asparagus and rinse with cold water. Pat asparagus dry.
5. Toss asparagus, carrots, and pepper with dressing.
6. Sprinkle with nuts and cheese and enjoy.

A Hold Over Post

2009-06-18T14:24:00.001-05:00

I realize that I have made grandiose promises of regular posts and then proceeded to post precisely nothing. I really do plan to share some exciting things with you very soon. But in the mean time, check out this post from a fellow blogger who (I hope) is back from a hiatus.

Type rest of the post here

because it's somethin' somethin' weather

2009-05-30T13:19:00.001-05:00

And this is my favorite somethin' somethin'
Bourbon Slush

4 tea bags
2 cups boiling water
6 ounces frozen lemonade concentrate
12 ounces frozen orange concentrate
1 cup bourbon*
7 cups water
2 cups sugar
ginger ale

Put tea bags into 2 cups boiling water; steep for five minutes and remove tea bags.

Mix together remaining ingredients and add tea.

Pour into several containers and freeze at least 24 hours.

Scoop frozen mixture into a highball glass; pour ginger ale over top.

Stir and serve.

* I have been known to double the amount of bourbon.

[gratuitous somethin' somethin' picture]

this is not that

2009-04-24T23:12:00.002-05:00

You know those veggie burgers that you have to slather in cheese, or ketchup, or in other random toppings? Well, this is not that.

This, on the other hand, is a burger that is so amazing that: I am worried that I only made 32 (because that's only 16 days of lunches and dinners and then I'll have to make them again); I ate one at midnight yesterday when I finally finished making them; I had to explain at a dinner party why I had pre-gamed with a veggie burger and was thus not hungry; I am seriously considering eating my third of the day today even though I'm still not hungry.

This is the ultimate veggie burger. You can find the recipe here. My mods were simple: 1/ Doubled the recipe; 2/ Made them 1/3-cup-sized rather than 1/2-cup-sized; 3/ Cooked on my Le Creuset Grill Pan without oil. (Honestly, when I make them again, I will probably stick with the 1/2-cup-size and hope that means that I won't want to eat one after another after another after another.)
I have my mother to thank for finding this recipe. And, honestly, I thought she was making a big deal out of an excessively time-consuming recipe until I ate one over Easter weekend. I can admit when I'm wrong. So as soon as I came out of my flu/sinus infection haze enough to be hungry, I had to make these. My plan was to break them down over three days: 1/ Shop and chop; 2/ boil and saute; 3/ shape and grill. But I ended up compressing into two days because I got too excited to eat them. So, yesterday, I started boiling lentils and cooking bulgur and saute-ing leeks and, five hours later, I had 32 of the best veggie burgers ever. I can't remember the last time I spent five hours cooking and thought that it was as worth it as this.

(If I haven't made it completely clear how I feel about these burgers, you can ask CH, who was on the phone with me for a large chunk of the cooking time, about how distracted I got once I started eating one.)

how many cupcakes can one girl fit in her back seat?

2009-04-05T17:48:00.001-05:00

A baby shower for two co-workers left me with a back seat that looked like this:Close-up:I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, with vanilla frosting. The vanilla cupcakes are my favorites, from Billy's Bakery via Martha Stewart. (The vanilla frosting was also the vanilla buttercream from the same source.) During law school, I discovered this recipe when a cupcake craving was met with zero New Haven bakeries stocking cupcakes and it's been a favorite ever since. The chocolate recipe was less carefully selected: after I forgot to get sour cream at the grocery store, I searched Martha's website until I found a chocolate cupcake recipe that required neither sour cream nor buttermilk. Here's what I found. I thought they were pretty decent, for using things that were regularly in my cupboard/fridge.

I have to admit, however, that I think the real highlights of these cupcakes were the liners. I found them in a cute paper store in Pasedena, and EW talked me into them. (She was right: they did drastically improve my mood while I was baking.)
And finally, proof as to why if you're going to bother labelling something, you should turn the label towards the front of your freezer.

Sorry, kid. I have no idea what frozen food I delivered to you, but I found the 6 chocolate cupcakes that were intended for you when I started frosting the ones for my office. I almost popped them in the mail, but wasn't sure that you'd have time to eat them pre-Passover...

Delicous Yes - Healthy No.

2009-04-01T22:40:00.001-05:00

I had a potluck to welcome the incoming members of my journal's executive board. There are many vegetarians, so I decided to go with mac & cheese. After browsing many many recipes, here's the one i settled on. The primary source is Saveur, but I made a number of modifications.

Ingredients
6 tbsp. butter
6 tbsp. flour
1⁄2 tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3 3⁄4 cups hot skim milk
2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar
2 cups grated gouda
1 lb. short macaroni, cooked - I used fusili which i actually think is better.
1 cup fresh bread crumbs.

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Boil the pasta.

2. Make the bread crumbs. I used very crunchy french bread. I put it in the Cuisinart. I sauteed them with a bit of olive oil and salt and garlic powder to taste.

2. Melt 6 tbsp. butter in a medium stainless-steel saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes (flour mixture must foam as it cooks, or sauce will taste of raw flour).

3. Stir in cayenne and season to taste with salt and pepper. Whisk in hot milk, 1/2 cup at a time, and cook, stirring, until sauce thickens. Reduce heat to low and stir in 1 cup of gouda and 1 cup cheddar. Cook, stirring, until cheese melts, about 2 minutes. Season sauce with a bit of salt - about 1/4 teaspoon, more if you like.

4. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of remaining cheese in bottom of greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Place half the pasta on top of that. pour in half of the sauce. repeat.

5. Bake for about 30 minutes. You can cook it longer, if you want, just dont let it burn (yes, this is my motto).

It's a Marshmallow World in the Winter

2009-02-02T14:44:00.003-06:00

My friends are well aware of my fondness for (bordering on obsession) for marshmallows. And if you were in attendance for NYE 2007-2008, are also aware that when a cooking activity calls for a candy thermometer, I generally fail. So when I read this recipe, which requires heating sugar to 240 degrees, I was skeptical. Sure it has only a few ingredients and appears to be incredibly simple. BUT it involves a candy thermometer. Not only do I not own such a device, but I also seem to be incapable of using one.

Fortunately, as the pictures suggest and my ineptitude notwithstanding, I was able to produce some delicious marshmallows, even though it did cost me my meat thermometer (which I used as a stand in for a candy thermometer and subsequently dropped into a pot of boiling sugar water). While I remain a dedicated fan of the jet puffed variety, these marshmallows are basically pure joy. And, the process is basically magic. There are only a few steps, and yet each one amounts to a complete transformation.

Additionally, there were a few close calls. First, the recipe calls for 3 packages of gelatin. Apparently it comes in 1/4 packages. Having never purchased gelatin, I was not aware. Fortunately I discovered this problem before I began the process, so I avoided the catastrophe of using 3 and 1/4 ounces of gelatin and used the correct 3/4 ounces.
Anyway, here is the recipe.

Ingredients
* Nonstick vegetable oil spray
* 1 cup cold water, divided
* 3 1/4-ounce envelopes unflavored gelatin (Note that this does NOT say 3 and 1/4 ounces. It says 3/4 ounces.)
* 2 cups sugar
* 2/3 cup light corn syrup
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup potato starch
* 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions
1. Line 13x9x2-inch dish (glass/metal/whatever) with parchment paper. (The recipe that I had said to use foil; don't do that. I hear it's a disaster.) I spray a little under the paper to help keep it in place as I'm pouring the marshmallows into the pan.

2. Coat parchment lightly with nonstick spray. Pour 1/2 cup cold water into bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand until gelatin softens and absorbs water, at least 15 minutes.

3. Combine 2 cups sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup cold water in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves, brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush. Attach candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat and bring syrup to boil. Boil, without stirring, until syrup reaches 240°F, about 8 minutes.

4. With mixer running at low speed, slowly pour hot syrup into gelatin mixture in thin stream down side of bowl (avoid pouring syrup onto whisk, as it may splash). Gradually increase speed to high and beat until mixture is very thick and stiff, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla and beat to
blend, about 30 seconds longer.

5. Scrape marshmallow mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top with wet spatula. Let stand uncovered at room temperature until firm, about 4 hours.

6. Stir potato starch and powdered sugar in small bowl to blend. Sift generous dusting of starch-sugar mixture onto work surface, forming rectangle slightly larger than 13x9 inches. Turn marshmallow slab out onto starch-sugar mixture; peel off foil. Sift more starch-sugar mixture over marshmallow slab. Coat large sharp knife (or cookie cutters) with nonstick spray. Cut marshmallows into squares or other shapes. Toss each in remaining starch-sugar mixture to coat. Transfer marshmallows to rack, shaking off excess mixture.

Indian Spiced Latkes

2009-01-29T18:54:00.003-06:00

Once again, the NYE crew had an iron chef contest. This is, in my view, one of the best things we consumed in the evening. And they are definitely some of the best latkes I've ever had. Adding the spices really takes latkes and makes them more than hashbrowns.

Having consumed more latkes than I care to remember during the holiday season, these are the clear winners on flavor and will become my family's multi-cultural Channukah tradition.

Latke Ingredients
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 medium onion, peeled
• 3 large russet or Idaho potatoes, peeled
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
• salt to taste, probably at least 1/4-1/2 teaspoon
• 2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Curry-Lime Yogurt
• 2 cups plain yogurt
• 3-4 teaspoons curry powder (to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh lime juice, plus more to taste

Latke Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 200°F. Place 2 nonstick baking sheets in oven. In small saucepan, bring salted water to boil. Add peas and cook, uncovered, until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, then rinse in colander under cool, running water. Set aside in colander to drain completely.

2. Using box grater or food processor fitted with grating disc, coarsely grate onion and place in colander set in sink. Coarsely grate potatoes, add to colander, and set aside to drain.

3. In large mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs. Whisk in flour, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, salt, and cumin. Mix in ginger, cilantro, and peas.

4. Press potatoes and onion to extract as much liquid as possible, then add to bowl. Using wooden spoon or hands, mix well, but do not overwork.

5. In heavy-bottomed, 12-inch skillet over moderately high heat, heat 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter until hot but not smoking. Drop 4 scant 1/4-cup portions of potato mixture into pan and flatten with spatula to form four 3-inch pancakes.
Fry until bottoms are golden-brown, 4 to 5 minutes, then turn over and fry until golden-brown and crisp, an additional 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Season with additional salt and pepper as desired. Keep warm on baking sheets in oven while making remaining pancakes.

NOTES: (1) If the latkes aren't sticking together (too much liquid) add more flour until they stick together. (2) Try to squeeze out as much of the liquid before putting these into the oil. I've found that forming them using a slotted spoon to get out the excess liquid works well.

Yogurt Sauce Preparation
In medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add more lime juice if desired.

Vegetarian Lasagna

2009-01-29T18:39:00.002-06:00

When I came back to New York from winter break, much to my surprise and joy, I discovered a new subscription to Saveur Magazine. This recipe is delicious and pretty easy. I did include meat because the person for whom I was cooking does not eat mushrooms. That said, I am fully confident that it would be equally, if not more delicious with mushrooms. In particular, the béchamel really makes this recipe.

12 tbsp. unsalted butter
12 sun-dried tomatoes
1 shallot, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1⁄2 cup flour
5 cups milk
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 lbs. shiitake mushrooms,
stemmed, quartered
1⁄2 lb. spinach, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp. chopped oregano
1 tbsp. chopped thyme
1 tbsp. chopped rosemary
1 tbsp. tomato paste
5 cups whole canned tomatoes, crushed
1 lb. lasagna noodles
2 1⁄2 cups grated grana padano
2 1⁄2 cups grated fontina

1. Grease a 9"x 13" baking pan with 1 tbsp. butter. Cover dried tomatoes with 1 cup boiling water; soak for 20 minutes. Drain. Chop; set aside.

2. Make béchamel: Heat 8 tbsp. butter in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and carrots; cook 5 minutes. Add flour; cook 2 minutes. Whisk in milk; boil. Reduce to medium-low; simmer, whisking, until thick, 20–25 minutes. Add nutmeg; season with salt and pepper.

3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil and remaining butter in a 6-qt. pot over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; cook 10 minutes. Add dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic, parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and tomato paste; cook 3 minutes. Add canned tomatoes. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set sauce aside.

4. Heat oven to 375˚. Spread 2 cups tomato sauce in baking dish. Cover with a layer of noodles. Spread 1 cup béchamel over top; sprinkle with 1⁄2 cup of each cheese and 2 cups tomato sauce. Repeat layering 2 more times. Top with remaining noodles, tomato sauce, béchamel, and cheeses. Bake covered with foil on a baking sheet for 1 hour. Remove foil; raise oven to 500˚. Bake until golden, 15 minutes.

wheatberry salad

2009-01-18T20:41:00.000-06:00

After visiting the Washington Hotel Coffee Room over the holidays (better known, perhaps, to some of you as the coffee shop attached to the amazing yarn store in Madison), I've been itching to try to recreate their wheatberry salad. Luckily, my mother gifted me a bag of wheatberries, as they are relatively hard to track down. Also luckily, I found this recipe online. It's a fairly flexible recipe, so I modified it to get closer to the salad I remembered. Here's how: 1 cup of each carrots and celery, diced; used chickpeas; omitted parsley, onions and fennel; topped with feta cheese. Super easy!And, oh man, is it tasty! It is also incredibly hearty. Even though I was eating dinner after 9 pm having daydreamed about this salad most of the day, I still only made it through about half of what I'd served myself. All in all, this recipe is definitely a winner. (Although the next time I make it, I will use about half as much olive oil, since there was a lot left in the bottom of the bowl after I'd dished out lunches for the week.)

This is not the NYE entry you are looking for

2009-01-16T14:01:00.001-06:00

Black and White Cookies

I'm sure Aaron first introduced me to the wonder of the Black and White cookie. They're slightly lemony, cakey taste is very satisfying, and the decision making of how to eat the cookie (all black first? half and half?) is a good indicator of overall mood. However, here on the other side of the county, finding a cookie that resembles the real thing is a difficulty. Mostly, you end up with a sugar cookie with black and white icing--totally not the point.

So, when I saw this recipe on smitten kitchen, I was pretty excited, and after finishing finals last semester I went straight to the cookie baking. As the picture reveals, I divided these cookies into groups and brought them to various people or events. The details are a little fuzzy.

One cool detail that Ms. SK shares is that these cookies originated in bakeries who had extra bits of cake batter leftover at the end of the day. Bakers would add a little extra flour, and bake up a set of black and whites. I will admit that I forgot the icing-rule of these cookies, which is to ice the flat (bottom) of the cookies. Whoops. I guess I'll just have to make them again some time...

-------------------------------

More recently, I've been trying recipes from the Breakfast, Lunch, Tea book that KZ gifted me. At A&C's we had potato soup with cheese scones one night--super delicious!

After I got home, I decided I wanted to try the Lemon and Chickpea Soup.

I tend to be amused when one cookbook has many recipes that follow a really similar pattern, and the two soups I've made from this book fit that design. Both start with a simmer of onions and celery and carrot, and then the body of the soup is added. I really enjoyed this Chickpea soup though--I'm hoping it's just as good on reheat, but there is something about the combination of red pepper spices (I didn't have the dried red chili called for in the recipe, so I used some dried chili flakes and chili powder) with chickpea and lemon that I love. Ok, maybe it's not a surprise I liked this recipe. Chickpeas+lemon+spice is kind of my favorite food ever.

-----------------------------------------

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Current Cookies

While I was waiting for the soup to complete its simmer, I found a recipe for a quick cookie that would use up some ingredients I had lying around. I call it the Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Current Cookie. Wheee.

There isn't actually any yogurt in the recipe, but I after finding this container, I couldn't resist taking a picture. These cookies turned out pretty deliciously. The dough is a little dry and crumbly, but shaped up into cookie form when I pressed them into balls without getting my hands ridiculously sticky. The sugar almost caramelizes during baking, and there is tons and tons of texture. I usually don't like raisins in cookies, but I think the currents are small enough that they add a nice flavor without causing me the problems that raisins in cookies do.

spotted on the mass turnpike

2008-11-11T08:23:00.001-06:00

Driving home from Boston on the Mass Turnpike, I saw the most surprising sign. No, not the McDonald's sign.... let's zoom in a little...

I felt awkward taking pictures, which is why they're so bad, but if you look closely, you'll see that it's a "Local Honey" stand. The sign that got me to pull over at the rest stop was an automated road sign that said "Farmer's Market Open Today 9 AM to 5 PM" The farmer's market turned out to be two stands: one with honey and another with apples, but I was still amused at the idea of a farmer's market at a turnpike rest stop.

A Full Meal, Over Three Days

2008-10-21T23:09:00.001-05:00

Round three of delicious homemade bread was the most delicious yet, and round four (sourdough) is bubbling up now. I really get a kick out of making bread, especially when the instructions are all: "Don't forget to feed your starter! Remember, it's a living creature!"

To be honest though, I started with dessert. Magnolia's recipe for chocolate cupcakes and a simple buttercream icing. I improvised a little and added peppermint extract to the icing. In case you can't tell, the raspberries on three of the cupcakes spell out: "TOD", ie, transit-oriented development.

And today, after picking up our CSA box, I was feeling inspired and threw together a roasted vegetable medley of Kabocha Squash (apparently chefs will sometimes use this as a substitute for pumpkin. I don't blame them--it's delicious.), red daikon, a couple of radishes, potatoes, and onions. Roasted vegetables are the best.

Check to see if there are CSA pickup points in your neighborhood: NYC, Chicago, and Hartford, to name a few.

Cooking = Procrastination

2008-10-19T00:41:00.001-05:00

So remember the Ciabatta recipe? I finally attempted it, and conclusion=delicious. Here we see a hunk with some chili I threw together (black beans, a variety of sweet peppers, some cilantro and parsely, butternut squash, and lots o' spices.)

Of course, as this picture illustrates, bread and chili should really be started early in the day, to avoid eating your delicious meal at midnight. (The clock is a little fast...)

Also, just for fun, pretty pretty California tomatoes! The time to really enjoy these lovelies is leaving, sadly, but I have enjoyed the season.

It's possible that I am becoming a slave to King Arthur's Flour emails....

2008-10-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

I made their ciabatta bread and am totally in love with the world. Pictures for that to come.

Today, they sent an email claiming "best gingerbread ever, guaranteed." Gingerbread that's all bready, and sweet, and dense and delicious? Ummm, yes please? I love that the recipe calls for whole wheat flour and cyrstallized ginger. YUM.

Photo from: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeDisplay?RID=7

Three Birthdays in One!

2008-10-03T19:21:00.001-05:00

I made some carrot cake cupcakes for my MUP friend's birthday!

It was also V's birthday and today is my brother's, so they'll get some pictures, as I don't think cupcakes would mail well.

This recipe was fun and pretty easy--all you need is a food processor and you're good to go. The recipe giver, while mourning the loss of her own carrot cake recipe, also really likes the cream cheese frosting, and I agree: super tasty.

shockingly, chocolate chip cookies also make me feel better

2008-09-30T20:06:00.002-05:00

See here for my first strategy at cheering myself up. But now I've come home to chocolate chip cookies that I made yesterday and discovered that they are a pretty good way to cheer up as well. Here's the recipe, which is my mom's usual chocolate chip cookie recipe, edited for my personal taste. (Part of my personal taste is doubling the recipe because I tend to think that you might as well double cookie recipes that freeze well.)
ETA: watching the Sox make it into the playoffs also helps. Thank you, Jim Thome and TBS (for out-of-market broadcast). Oh, and Jenks, way to be!

2 cups softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 cups packed brown sugar
4 eggs
5 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 bag milk chocolate chips
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz. white chocolate chips
Fleur de sel

1/ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2/ Cream the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
3/ In another bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4/ Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
5/ Stir in the chocolate chips.
6/ Form and place golf-ball-size cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (note: I usually make them about 2 teaspoons of dough, which seems about right, and always use a Silpat.)
7/ Place a large pinch of fleur de sel on each cookie. (Note: this is out of the NYTimes perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe from this summer, and I think it's brilliant. I can't remember the last time I craved a chocolate chip cookie, but the cookies with salt are crave-worthy. But I've been told it's not universally beloved, so since most of this batch is being shipped out, I only put salt on the ones I was keeping for myself.)
8/ Bake for 9 minutes. (They won't look like they're done, but the sugar will continue cooking even when they're out of the oven.)

Plans for the Weekend

2008-09-23T15:49:00.001-05:00

Homemade Ciabatta.

YUM.

Guarunteed Happiness

2008-09-21T21:18:00.002-05:00

Seriously, the best ever. Thanks to KZ (and family) for spreading the joy over to the West Coast!!

things that look like poop

2008-09-19T22:39:00.001-05:00

My ex-housemate Gretchen is known for her pithy and accurate life observations. Once, when one of us was apologizing that the dinner we'd made looked like, well, crap, Gretchen pointed out that "we've eaten tons of things that looked like poop and they were fantastic!" That's how I feel about this casserole. It's not much of a looker, but, oh man, is it tasty.
I celebrated my oven being fixed by making up a double recipe of this baby yesterday, which means that I also packaged up lunches for today and all next week.
It's the Caribbean Sweet Potato Gratin from Moosewood New Classics. I don't feel right posting the recipe, because you should all own this cookbook if you don't already. I'm actually trying very hard to think of any cookbook that has made me as happy. Which is saying a lot because I'm very fond of my cookbooks. (Maybe my waffle cookbook. Maybe.) But, basically, it's sweet potatoes, rice, black beans, and spinach layered with a coconut milk/lime juice/garlic/thyme mixture and topped with a cornmeal topping. And fantastic. Just writing about it makes me want to go heat up some. Luckily, I have plenty that didn't get packed into lunches, so that's an option. (If you're really unconvinced about buying New Classics, other people have posted the recipe online, so go to them.)

PS: I am shocked that this blog has gone so long without having a "sweet potato" label. Seriously.

run, do not walk

2008-09-18T20:39:00.001-05:00

To your nearest grocery store. Or I might beat you there and buy out all of the Canadian Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale. Because it's just that amazing. And I've already done so at one grocery store and a Target. (To my limited credit, that was only a total of 3 12-packs.) And, look, it's not just me who thinks so. But I may be the first to point out that it's basically canned Tea Sparkle. So until Argo opens up on the East Coast, I'll keep stocking up on the Green Tea Ginger Ale.

ugly but amazing

2008-09-14T19:04:00.001-05:00

I wanted pancakes all day yesterday, so I was thrilled to discover that I did, indeed, have baking powder and could make them. I used the yogurt variation of the super-simple Everyday Food recipe. (I used Trader Joe's vanilla yogurt for the yogurt.) This isn't my usual pancake recipe, but that one is in a box somewhere and this produced a completely delicious dinner. I managed not to eat all of them yesterday, so I could reprise this meal today.

best proxy eva

2008-07-31T17:09:00.000-05:00

This is only slightly a food post. But I thought this would be a good place to point out that lattes really are more delicious when they're drunk with a large dose of self-satisfaction. And when you've got two large doses of self-satisfaction, nothing could be better. Except maybe having people in your life who know how good it feels to pat yourself on the back.

Dirty Rice

2008-07-06T00:45:00.001-05:00

I was just thinking about how sad it was that there had been so few posts to the food blog. Probably a sign that none of us have time to cook. But, since I've left the firm, I've had time to cook a few things. So here's the first post. Most of you probably wont like this, but I think it's really tasty so. . .

Paul Prudhomme makes this thing called dirty rice. When my parents gave me a 10lb. bag of basmatti rice I started seeking out ways to use it. I have been making a very modified version of this recipe all year, but it has been overwhelmingly hot every time. This time however, just right, so finally post worthy.

Ingredients:
- red pepper, chopped (green too if you're feeling adventurous)
- onion, chopped
- two large chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (you could substitute this with tofu I think)
- two links chicken sausage, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2+ cups of chicken broth (you can sub. vegetable broth if you want)
- 2 tbs. olive oil

Spices:
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 teaspoon, sweet paprika
- .5 teaspoon dry thyme
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 bay leaves
- .5 teaspoon oregano leaves
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic

Directions:
1. Chop everything up. Put the vegetables and the garlic in the pot and cook them with a little bit of olive oil.
2. Once the vegetables are soft, put the meat, in the pan. Cook it alone for about one minute.
3. Add everything else (the spices, the rice, and the broth).
4. Let it simmer until all the liquid is dissolved and the rice is tender. You might need to add more broth if it looks like it's drying out before the rice is soft.

Eat. This is a great meal to take to work or to eat on the go. I think everything meet could be replaced with a fake meat product or tofu without having a negative result.

Pesto, it can happen to anyone

2008-07-06T00:35:00.001-05:00

I'm growing basil in a pot on my back porch, and it's producing like crazy. Thus, every so often, I am forced forced to trim off big bunches. And as everyone knows, big bunches of basil means pesto making.

However, I don't tend to keep pinenuts (a key pesto ingredient) on hand, but I tend to forget this until the basil is pureed with lots of olive oil. What to do?

This time, I had a bunch of pecans so I threw some of those in, and while I wasn't totally sure, it actually turned out really tasty. Not a pure pesto, but it had an interesting, meaty (like hearty, not like meat) flavor. I know am curious what other nuts will do to the basil and olive oil mix. Or what about different oils?? Sesame? I don't know, but I would love to hear if anyone else has experimented with this, and what they have discovered.

The Best and Easiest Sorbet Ever

2008-07-05T22:51:00.001-05:00

Hopefully some of you remember the delicious banana, pineapple, and other fruit sorbets that came out of Elizabeth and Keren's kitchen back when that room was shared between the two of us.

I realized the recipe for those desserts wasn't on this blog, and was sad for us all. Thus, Banana Sorbet, and some variations. Please include your own!

Step 1: Dissolve half a cup of sugar in half a cup of boiling water, making sure to stir until sugar is dissolved. Let cool slightly, and then refrigerate until cold.
Step 2: In a food processor or blender, puree 2 medium bananas and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice until smooth. Add the sugar syrup. Pour the mixture into a 9-inch square metal pan. Freeze until solid, several hours or overnight.
Step 3: Break the sorbetto into chunks. Place in food processor and puree until smooth and creamy. Enjoy!

Other sorbets follow the same pattern, with differing amounts of syrup.
Pineapple sorbet: 3 cups of pineapple and 1 cup of water and sugar for the syrup.
Blueberry sorbet: 1 pint blueberries and 1 cup of water and sugar for the syrup.

Chocolate calls for milk (2 cups) with 1/4 cup sugar dissolved in it, and 3 ounces chocolate melted into that. (This I may have to try...)

Chocolate Macaroons

2008-06-28T21:20:00.001-05:00

I bought a chocolate macaroon this afternoon, and it was so good, it prompted me into FINALLY making the macaroons from the ingredients that have been residing in my pantry since KZ told me "Make them, they're easy!"

Since her recipe is for normal macaroons, I hired consultants to figure out how to adjust for chocolate.

There were lots of versions, but I wanted one that called for the ingredients I had. Apparently, it's the "southern" way. Southern Illinois, maybe?

Cook Time: 12 minutes
Ingredients:

* 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
* 3 squares (3 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 8 ounces shredded coconut
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:
Generously grease cookie sheet.

Combine condensed milk, chocolate, and salt in the top of a double boiler. Cook over boiling water, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and mixture is thick; remove from heat. Add coconut and vanilla; stir to mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons about 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet(s). Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cookies are set. Remove chocolate macaroons from cookie sheets to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen chocolate coconut macaroons.

The double boiler is probably unnecessary, but since I have one, I like to use it when possible.

Final judgment: yum!

Party Popcorn!

2008-01-19T22:48:00.001-06:00

This is also from Iron Chef: Popcorn for New Year's, and also from Nigella Express (Nigella Lawon).

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup (unpopped) popcorn

4 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground paprika

4 teaspoons table salt

4 teaspoons sugar

1. Put the oil into the biggest pan you with a lid over high heat, add the popcorn, and quickly put on the lid.

2. Let the popcorn pop, shaking the pan every now and then to keep the kernels moving. You will hear it, but don't be tempted to look, unless you want to get shot at, and once it has stopped popping - a couple of minutes or so - take it off the heat.

3. Melt the butter with the spices, in another pan, salt, and sugar, then pour it over the popcorn and put everything into a large paper shopping bag. Fold the top over to hold in the popcorn.

4. Shake, shake, and shake the bag again to mix the popcorn and get it thoroughly coated in the spicy butter.

5. Arrange in several party bowls.

Makes 12 cups.

Sweet Corn Chowder with Toasted Tortillas

2008-01-19T22:13:00.001-06:00

This is the soup from our famed Iron Chef: Popcorn for New Year's edition. The recipe is from Nigella Express (Nigella Lawson). I'll type the recipe as it reads in the book (I'd hate for you to miss things like "...serve immediately to very grateful people") and then comment on our modifications below.

Ingredients:

6 cups frozen sweet corn, defrosted

3 scallions, each one trimmed and halved

1 clove garlic, peeled

1/4 cup semolina

6 cups hot vegetable stock made from concentrate or bouillon cubes

15 cups lightly salted tortilla chips

2 cups grated cheese

2 long red chiles, deseeded and finely chopped, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Drain the corn and put into a food processor with the scallions, garlic, and semolina. Blitz to a speckled primrose mush; unless you have a big food processor you may have to do this in two batches.

3. Tip this mixture into a large saucepan; add the hot vegetable stock, and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let the chowder simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, spread the tortilla chips out on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and sprinkle over the cheese. Warm in the hot oven for 5-10 minutes or until cheese melts over the chips.

5. Ladle the soup into bowls and put a small mound of cheese-molten chips into the middle of each bowl. Sprinkle over some of the red chile, if you feel like it, and serve immediately to very grateful people.

Our modifications:

We couldn't find red chiles, so we bought serranos and also roasted some red bell peppers. We pureed the red peppers and added them to the processed corn. KZ wrangled the serranos, and we added them chopped to the mix. I think the serranos added a nice kick!

Using the tortilla chips was actually important with the addition of popcorn to the top of the soup, as we figured the tortilla chips would offer a nice buffer to keep the popcorn from turning to mush so quickly. Plus, it was the perfect opportunity to use the delicious red and green tortilla chips.

The popcorn topping the soup is "Party Popcorn" which will be my next blog entry.

Popcorn O'Rama

2008-01-04T16:13:00.000-06:00

Sometime this fall, Columbia Law School held an iron chef competition. Since I have no friends at Columbia (at least none with demonstrated cooking ability), I decided this would not be a viable competition for me, though it did seem like a lot of fun. Then in a late night phone conversation, Hannah and I decided this would be a fun New Years "weekend" activity. So, on January 1, the throw down took place.

The logistics of the process were as follows: There were four of us competing. We decided to make a four course meal with an amuse-bouche for each team (so six courses in all). Each person put a secret ingredient into a hat and we chose. The chosen ingredient (as the title of this post suggests) was popcorn (my pick). I was scorned for this selection at every step of the way, but I maintain that it provided a good amount of challenge and some tasty results. After we had an ingredient we selected teams and courses and the game began.

I'll leave it to everyone to post their individual recipes, and I think Hannah took some pictures of the whole thing that are pretty amusing. In the process of preparing the recipes, two patterns emerged: (1) grind up the popcorn and use it as a substitute for bread crumbs/flour or (2) season the popcorn and add it to things you already like.

While we never engaged in any official scoring, Hannah unilaterally declared that she and Elizabeth won because, while Christine and I won for taste (no bias here - this was her declaration), we lost badly on plating (because she claims we copied her). While I readily concede that we did serve little shot glasses of Corona with our amuse-bouche (copying their shot glass of milk), there were no further instances of copying in the plating department. Since taste is worth 10 points and plating only 5, I submit it must be a wash at best (the other scoring category is originality, an area where I think we pretty much tied). Regardless of score, it was a pretty fun time, even though I think most of us are not too anxious to see any more popcorn for quite some time.

Here's the menu:

Amuse-Bouche I: Green apple with white chocolate peanut butter and "perfect popcorn" with a shot of milk. (I don't mean those quotes to be sarcastic, I'm just repeating the descriptive used when served. Elizabeth popped lots and lots (and lots) of popcorn, and did a very good job with that task).
Amuse-Bouche II: Popcorn-Beer battered Zucchini sticks.
Appetizer: Popcorn Parmesan encrusted vegetable slices with a popcorn, parmesan, tomato dipping sauce.
Soup: Corn Chowder with roasted red peppers and ceranno chilies served with spicy popcorn and sharp cheddar cheese topping.
Main Course: Acorn and Butternut Moroccan Squash sprinkled with oven seared chickpeas and cinnamon popcorn.
Dessert: Chocolate toffee with pecans and salted popcorn, and 8 layer bars (the 8th layer being salted popcorn).

Lessons Learned (if we ever decide to do this again):

No full sized courses. Everything should be amuse-bouche sized.
Set a time limit and try to stick to it, or be prepared to eat dinner at 10:30 pm after having cooked for 4 hours.
Don't disparage the chosen ingredient!!
If we're going to score at all, have a plan for blind scoring.

Rugelach

2007-12-07T11:43:00.001-06:00

This is probably the most classic Jewish cookie around. One of my friends has described them a "an excuse to eat powdered sugar." Whatever you call them, they're really tasty. I like to make a combination of fillings since some people don't like currants and I'm not a big nut fan. Mini chocolate chips are the favorite of my nieces. The nice thing about them is you can put whatever you want inside. Just roll out your dough, put in your filling of choice, and cut the circle like a pizza rolling from the outside to the point. The other great thing is you can make this dough and put in the freezer for a month, and no one would be the wiser.

Ingredients:
Cream Cheese Pastry:
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sifted flour
Filling:
• ½ cup and 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• ¾ cup currants
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
(NOTE: all of these are approximate. It's like topping on a pizza, use what you want.)

Topping:
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks

Instructions:
Dough:
1. In a large bowl cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add salt and flower on low speed.
3. Pull down dough from beater.
4. When smooth, flour hands and form into short fat roll.
5. Cut roll into four pieces. Form each piece into a round ball. Flatten slightly.
6. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least four hours. Dough can be frozen.

Filling:
1. Mix together cinnamon and sugar. (Not an exact science. Add enough of each so that you like the way it tastes.)
2. Place one ball of dough onto floured surface (Keep other dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it).
3. Roll into a circle, about 12” in diameter.
4. Brush with butter and quickly sprinkle with ¼ of the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
5. Cut dough into wedges.
6. Sprinkle with toppings: currants, nuts, chocolate. (You can vary by putting other filling like other dried fruits).
7. Roll wedges from the outside to the point. Place wedge point down on a covered cookie sheet.
8. Glaze with one egg yolk and a teaspoon of water. (I sometimes skip this, but it’s what makes them golden).
9. Bake at 375 degrees until brown, about 8-10 minutes.
10. Cover with powdered sugar while still hot.

Lemon Cookies With Lemon Glaze

2007-12-07T11:36:00.001-06:00

I am happy that some of us are making holiday cookies, even if it's not in the cards for me this year. Per Elizabeth's requests, I'm posting two of my favorites. These lemon cookies are a nice alternative to lemon squares because they are much more easily transported and still have all the lemony goodness. I suggest doubling the recipe if you're going to give them away. The original single recipe says it makes 3 dozen, but I seem to remember it being closer to 2 dozen.

Ingredients:
Cookies:
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ¾ cup flour
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 12 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla.

Glaze:
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ½ cup powdered sugar

Instructions:
1. In a food processor, combine sugar and lemon zest until sugar is damp and lemon peel is finely chopped.
2. Add flour, salt, and baking powder to sugar. Pulse 10 times.
3. Sprinkle in cubes of butter. Pulse again, 15 times. (It should look like corn meal)
4. In a separate bowl, beat together lemon juice, egg yolk, and vanilla with a fork.
5. Add lemon juice mixture to flour mixture. Process until dough makes a ball.
6. Remove dough and roll it into a log. Refrigerate for about 2 hours.
7. Slice and bake at 375 for about 14 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
8. To make glaze, combine ingredients in mixer. If glaze requires more liquid, add more lemon juice.
9. After cookies are completely cook, glaze and store in the refrigerator.

Makes about 3 dozen.

macaroon redux

2007-11-10T01:40:00.001-06:00

more macaroons (but the French Almond kind).....

courtesy of Martha Stewart's recipe. I think this is the first time I've ever made real buttercream and am not sure that it was worth it. It was the Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe from Martha's Baking Handbook and it turned out very, very buttery. I ended up adding about a cup of powdered sugar to cut the taste. I'm sure that goes against all that is buttercream, but I really couldn't serve it otherwise.

Pumpkin Chili

2007-11-07T21:59:00.001-06:00

Fall is a really lovely time, and part of the joy of the season is how there is pumpkin everywhere! Why not use the pumpkin in a savory, stew-like chili and celebrate the coolness of the season with a warmth in your stomach! ;)

Anyways, Linda emailed me this recipe that she threw together and it sounded amazing, so, here it is. Try it for yourselves!

Ingredients:
can of pumpkin
can of black beans drained
can of kidney beans mostly drained
half can of stewed tomatoes
one chopped fresh tomato
one red bell pepper
half large onion
couple random chunks of yams, butternut squash, and parsnip (medly from trader joe's)-roasted
cinnamon
honey
nutmeg
cumin
red pepper
brown sugar
ginger
salt
pepper

Directions:
saute onions and red pepper until tender. roast yams, squash, parsnips until tender. chop up into smaller pieces. put everything in a big pot and let simmer for at least 2 hours. when everything is getting soft, mash everything a little with a potato masher to get a better texture.
eat until full.

Final Elizabeth note: As Linda mentioned in the email, she tends to throw things together and season to taste. I was a little afraid of making it too sweet, so while I added nutmug and brown sugar (and would have included some honey, if I were in possession of any) I added those in smaller quantities than the cumin and cayenne.

Macaroons

2007-10-29T13:51:00.001-05:00

Matzo ball soup made me think of passover, which made me think of macaroons, which made me think of this super easy recipe I made last year. I didn't have the proper proportions and I tried to make them anyway. They were a tasty (if oozy) failure. I have since spoken to my mom to learn the proper quantities of ingredients. I think this recipe is awesome because you can make them in literally 20 minutes, including the bake time. The one thing is that they dont keep too well because they get soft.

Ingredients:

1 Can of Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk (8oz)
4 cups of sweetened shreaded coconut.
1.5 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients together. If it's runny, add more coconut.
Spoon them onto a baking sheet (that's either well greased or has a silpat on it).
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 until golden brown.
Eat!

Matzo Ball Soup

2007-10-27T10:34:00.000-05:00

This post feels sort of like cheating because it's really just making something from a box. But, I know at least one reader of this blog is pretty fond of the soup and I just had some for dinner last night, so I figured I'd post some instructions.

Ingredients:

Manischewitz Matzo Ball Mix. Do yourself a favor and don't choose another brand. Also note: Manischewitz sells a product called Matzo Ball SOUP. The difference is that this one has some gross powder mix in it for how to make soup. Yuck. Buy the mix and make your own soup (Directions below).
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (I don't think you need quite that much).
1 box of stock. You can use chicken or vegetable. I use swanson.
1 onion
2 tsp. minced garlic.
1 tbs. butter or oil.
water
vegetables - use whatever you like. I usually put carrots and celery and not much else, but there's no reason not add what you would want in vegetable soup.

Preparation:
These instructions come from the box, mostly.

In a small bowl combine eggs, 2 tbs. veg. oil and mix. Stir it up and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes.
During those 15 minutes chop up the onion into small pieces. Put in a soup pot with butter and garlic, and simmer.
Chop up the vegetables you're going to put in.
Add stock to the pot with the onions. I think those broths tend to be really salty so I usually do one part stock one part water.
After 15 minutes have passed, take the bowl of mix out of the fridge. take the mix and gently roll it into balls. You should get 12 and don't push too hard unless you want your matzo balls to be hard. The balls will seem small, dont worry about this. They expand a lot.
Add the matza balls and the veggies to pot. Let it cook for about 15 minutes until the balls are floating and are somewhat soft to the touch. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Eat!

easy-peasy baked tofu

2007-10-22T00:27:00.001-05:00

Per kzwick's request, here's my favorite tofu-for-non-tofu-eaters recipe. It's super easy. Non-tofu eaters love it. (And so do tofu eaters.) Just don't serve it with ketchup. Please.

Ingredients:
Water-packed firm or extra-firm tofu
Soy sauce
Oil (vegetable or sesame)
Peanut sauce

1/ Press tofu for 10-20 minutes. (Technically, you should probably cut tofu into pieces first and then press, but I'm lazy, so this is what I do.)
2/ Cut tofu into pieces. (I usually cut a block of tofu into 6 slabs and then cut each slab into 2 squares and each square into 2 triangles for a total of 24 pieces from each block. But you can cut them however you like.)
3/ Make a marinade of 1 part soy sauce to 1 part sesame or vegetable oil. (For 1 lb of tofu, you should probably use about 2 tbsp. of each.)
4/ Dredge each tofu piece in the marinade.
5/ Optional: arrange the tofu in a single layer in a shallow dish and pour remaining marinade over it. Let sit for 20-30 minutes.
6/ Preheat the oven to 425.
7/ Oil the bottom of a baking dish or rimmed baking sheet with about 1 tbsp. vegetable oil. (It will seem like a little too much oil. That is okay.)
8/ Lay tofu pieces in a single layer on baking dish/sheet.
9/ Bake for about 15 minutes. Turn. Bake for about 15 minutes more. (Obviously, if you cut your tofu into smaller pieces, you should bake for less time. You can also cut up some red peppers into thin slices and bake them in the same dish and at the same time as the tofu. I don't do this because I'm not a red pepper fan. But I'm sure it would be nice.)
10/ Serve with peanut sauce. (I often serve this with my sesame noodle recipe, which is basically peanut sauce on noodles with cucumber and carrot strips.)

Muffins Make the World Go 'Round

2007-10-22T00:19:00.001-05:00

More than a year later, but I finally fulfilled the muffin-making dream that Izzie creating in her baking frenzy of grief.

I got the base muffin recipe from Moosewood (Should I put it in here? Vote in the comments!) and then split a double recipe. Added orange zest and juice and chocolate chunks to one batch and lemon zest and juice and blueberries to the other!

I plan to use these muffins to gain the undying devotion of some people in my program. And then take over the world!!!!

And the Hug goes to...

2007-10-19T00:43:00.000-05:00

A big thanks to Nick for making us flower free. Maybe soon we'll have a new more stylish layout, but for now the flower removal was a big improvement.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

2007-10-18T21:09:00.002-05:00

This is a recipe from my friend Mary-Anne. I made it when we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the northside and I know Hannah made it for her DB concert last year. It is very easy to assemble. One recipe makes a pretty generous portion (as Hannah discovered last year, a double recipe makes a lot of salsa!).

Black Bean and Corn Salsa
2 cans (15 oz.) black beans
1 can (17 oz.) whole kernel corn (I used about 3 fresh ears of corn)
2 large tomatoes – seeded and chopped
1 large avocado
1 purple onion
1/8 to 1/4 cup cilantro
3 or 4 TBLSP lime juice
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP red wine vinegar

Banana Cupcakes!

2007-10-18T20:09:00.001-05:00

I decided to make banana cupcakes for Jill's birthday tomorrow (for the morning portion of the celebration). It was my first time actually making zwick's banana cake recipe. I made 24 cupcakes without a problem. Zwick did warn me that the baking time for the cupcakes should be less than that for the actual cake - the cake recipe suggests a baking time of 30 - 35 minutes and the cupcakes were in the oven for less than 25 minutes. I actually had to ask zwick about the frosting recipe. I guess I had always imagined that the coffee flavor was the result of coffee grounds, but it turns out (as perhaps all of you knew) that you actually add 1/2 cup brewed coffee! Here's the final result (on an adorable platter I might add):

On a tangentially related note, I received a surprise thank you gift in the mail today from my friend Theresa. For those of you who don't know, Theresa and her friends ran the marathon this year and insist that they would not have survived had I not provided them with water and gatorade in the first 10 miles. I obviously didn't expect any sort of thanks, but the gift is pretty fabulous and seemed fitting in light of the fact that I was making chocolate frosting:

Pasta and stuff!

2007-10-18T00:07:00.001-05:00

It is a well known fact that pasta+stuff is an easy take- it- for- lunch, make- it- quick- for- dinner meal. However, for the vegetarians among us, pasta+sauce, pasta+veggies, etc., are not full of brain-stimulating protein (the very same protein that I hope is secretly storing away the identity of Rex Lugwell and Olivia Hill). What to do??

Add chickpeas! (Yes, yes, I'm a fanatic.)

Nothing too fancy, but since I did spend some time in the kitchen, near the stove, not making an omelet, so I thought I'd share.

Boil water! If you are lucky, maybe you have a steamer that fits on top of a pot. If this is true, you can cook your pasta and steam spinach (or asparagus, or zucchini....the list continues). Then, once the pasta and steaming are complete, dumb the water, drain the pasta and veggies, and pour them back into the pot (a key to quick dinners is minimal cleanup).

Then, add whatever you have on hand! Canned, diced tomatoes, fresh basil and other spices make a nice treat, and if you are a cheese lovin' person, add some of that as well. Let the flavors meld together a bit, let the cheese melt, and then your lunch-on-the-go is ready for the next day! Hurrah!

Veggie Samosas

2007-10-16T18:12:00.006-05:00

This is my own adaptation of the meat recipe to accommodate all the vegetarians in my life. I personally don't think it's quite as good as the meat version, but still rather tasty. If any of you make them, you should feel free to experiment with different quantities of spice and the consistency of the potato to make this recipe better. With that, here's my made-up recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1.5 pounds yukon gold potatoes (I used these because I had them for the pizza. I've also used red with success. My only advice is to avoid Idaho because they are a bit too gummy).
- 1 yellow onion finely chopped but not minced
- About 2 table spoons olive oil (I've never measured it, but you need enough to coat the potatoes in the spices)
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- ¾ teaspoon cumin powder
- ¾ teaspoon tumeric
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (can be subbed with more black)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt (maybe a little more, I don't measure it)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 bag of frozen peas
- 1 package of philo dough
- enough butter to brush the tops

Preparation:

1. Peel and chop the potatoes into little pieces. I tried to get them to be not much larger than peas, but it's not a huge problem if they are.
2. Place chopped potatoes, onion, and garlic in a plastic bag. Add oil and all the spices (including salt). Shake the bag well so that the potatoes are well coated with seasoning.
3. Bake potatoes until they are soft (about 45 minutes) at 400. I put them on a silpat to minimize the mess. Once the potatoes are soft (they should be ready to eat), take them out of the oven and let them cool. When they are cool, add the peas. The peas need not be cooked, but they should be mostly thawed. Stir the mixture so you have a nice distribution of potato and pea.
4. Cut the philo dough into four long strips (2 inches wide). To assemble, place about one tablespoon of filling onto the end of the philo dough. Fold into triangles like folding a flag. You should use about 2 sheets of philo for each one. Place triangles onto cookie sheet with end facing down. Brush tops with butter and bake for about 10 minutes at 400, until golden brown.

HTML problem?

2007-10-15T22:39:00.001-05:00

Anyone who figures out how to get rid of those annoying flowers will get a big virtual hug from me.