Food For Thought

Fresh Spinach "pesto" (and what to do with it)

2011-07-12T17:44:00.000-06:00

I was in the mood for pesto last week. Two problems, though. My wee little basil plants had maybe a cup of leaves between the four of them, and pinenuts happen to be insanely expensive at the moment. So I started rooting around in my fridge and came up with a faux pesto. My sister is an avid gardener and gave me some garlic scapes a couple days prior, so I incorporated them in to the recipe with excellent results. I'm assuming that most of the rest of you don't have garlic growing in your garden, so use regular fresh garlic cloves instead. Garlic scapes grow out of the middle of young garlic plants and need to be trimmed off or else the garlic bulb growth will be stunted. They have a firm stalk and pleasantly mild garlic flavor, perfect for this particular recipe.

Fresh Spinach Pesto

1/2 cup slivered almonds
4 cups packed fresh spinach leaves
2 ounces freshly shredded parmesan or romano cheese
1 large garlic scape, chopped OR 2-3 large cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the almonds for about 5 minutes, until they just begin to turn lightly brown and smell fragrant. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Then layer the nuts, spinach, cheese and garlic in a blender or food processor. Drizzle in enough oil to allow easy blending but not soupiness (about 1/4-1/3 cup), and pulse the blender or food processor several times until everything is finely chopped and well blended but still has some texture. Add kosher salt and coarse pepper to taste. Chill until ready to eat.

Besides eating the spinach pesto with a spoon right out of the food processor because it's so delicious, you can toss it together with pasta, grilled chicken and grilled veggies. Absolutely delicious! And you know what? My kids had no clue they were eating so much spinach! It's not something that they readily eat, but they do like regular basil pesto and they didn't notice the difference because I stirred in a handful of julienned basil leaves too to add that flavor in.

To make this dish, I doused two chicken breasts, a couple of cups of grape tomatoes, and two red peppers that were quartered and cored in balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I like Newman's Own brand when I'm too lazy to make a batch myself. I grilled the chicken, basting it with more dressing a couple of times during cooking, and added the peppers to the grill skin side down for the last 5 or so minutes of grill time. Meanwhile, I cooked up half a package of linguine. Once the chicken and peppers were done, I removed them to cut into thin slices, then dumped the tomatoes on to the hot grill. They softened up within 30 seconds and got a few nice little char marks. I removed them right away. I drained, then dumped the pasta into a large serving bowl, stirred the pesto in thoroughly, then added the tomatoes, peppers, chicken and a handful of julienned basil leaves and carefully stirred it all together. I finished it off with a dusting of finely shredded parmesan cheese and it was a delicious summertime supper that everyone devoured (except for my almost 4 year old, but her opinion doesn't count on these sorts of things).

Marinated Cranberry Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

2011-05-19T19:13:00.001-06:00

(I will edit this post to add pictures as soon as my computer that has all of my lovely images on it is functional again. In the meantime, use your imagination.)

I'm on a bit of a healthier eating kick lately. Watching my calorie intake and all that jazz to shed a few unwanted pounds that have snuck their way on to my hips. You know what? It works. I'm not a dieter. Never have been. But being aware of what I'm putting in to my mouth has really helped me cut out the junk. I was mildly appalled the first few days I tracked and realized how often I walk by the pantry and snag a treat in passing. I don't believe in giving up good food - just working on portion control. Tonight I roasted a pork tenderloin, served with a side of these lovely crispy roasted potatoes and a simple salad of mixed greens, oranges, strawberries and easy (lowfat) citrus poppyseed dressing. Total calories for my plate were around 700 for the meal and it was delicious and filling.

You'll need to plan ahead a couple of hours to allow the meat to marinate, but otherwise the hands on prep time is pretty short - less than 20 minutes. Butterflying and pounding the tenderloin, then browning it before finishing it off in the oven yielded very tender results. I fully intended on putting a diced pear in the stuffing but got distracted and forgot...feel free to add it yourself :).

Marinated Cranberry Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Two pork tenderloins, around 1 pound apiece (mine came packaged together, and they are each about the size and length of a woman's forearm)

Marinade:
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 red wine vinegar
1 t. kosher salt
1 T. raw sugar (or brown sugar)
1" of fresh ginger root, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
several grinds of pepper

Mix all ingredients in a gallon ziplock bag, then place the tenderloins in, squeeze the excess air out, flip it over a few times until the meat is well coated and place in the refrigerator. Marinate for at least an hour, preferably a few hours.

Stuffing:
1/2 cup minced purple onion
1 T. olive oil
1 cup day old sourdough bread crumbs (I pulsed three slices in my food processor)
2 T. julienned fresh sage leaves
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup craisins
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Sautee the onion in olive oil until it begins to soften. Stir in the bread crumbs, craisins and sage leaves, and just enough broth to moisten it. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Prepare the tenderloins by butterflying each one lengthwise. Lay a piece of saran wrap on top then pound with a meat mallet until it reaches an even 1/2" thickness. Grind some pepper over the exposed surface of each piece, then divide the stuffing in half and spoon it down the middle. Fold the meat over the filling and secure with toothpicks.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, heat 2 T. olive oil. Sprinkle a little more kosher salt and pepper over each tenderloin, then brown the top and bottom of each in the oil, cooking for about 2 minutes per side. Place the tenderloins on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, until an instant read meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.

Remove from the oven and loosely tent with foil for about 10 minutes before slicing to allow the juices to settle. Lightly drizzle a tablespoon of real maple syrup over each tenderloin, then slice into 1" thick slices to serve.

This was the perfect dinner for a cold and dreary spring day. Enjoy!

Simple Citrus Poppyseed Dressing

2011-05-18T20:10:00.000-06:00

(I will edit this post to add a picture as soon as my computer that has all of my lovely images on it is functional again. In the meantime, use your imagination.)

This is my go-to dressing. It takes less than 2 minutes to whip together and has a nice sweet tang to it. Even better, it's relatively low fat. I love to use this for broccoli slaw, or drizzle it over a bed of baby greens topped with chunks of avocado, oranges, strawberries and mangos with a sprinkling of spiced nuts. Absolutely delicious and refreshing!

Simple Citrus Poppyseed Dressing

1/3 cup reduced fat mayonaise
3 T. red or white wine vinegar
3 T. orange juice
1 t. raw sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1/2-1 t. poppyseeds, according to your taste

Mix all ingredients together. The end. So simple. I like to make small quantities at a time since a little goes a long way. Keep any unused portion sealed in a jar or tupperware in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. If you'd like to boost the citrus flavor, stir in a bit of orange zest.

Pumpkin Spice Bagels with Cinnamon Crunch

2011-04-14T20:56:00.001-06:00

The humble bagel is a deeply satisfying bread, in my opinion. I love the chewiness. I love pumpkin, too, so when I saw a recipe in Taste of Home's Healthy Cooking, I had to try it. Even though it's not exactly pumpkin season. I happen to keep a stash on hand at all times because one never knows when a sudden urge for pumpkin chocolate chip waffles will strike, and waiting for 6 months to satisfy that craving just ain't gonna happen.

This was my first crack at making bagels, and I was pleased with how they came out. The cinnamon crunch topping was my own addition, and I modified it to be kneaded by hand rather than a bread machine. Otherwise the recipe is as published by Taste of Home. Don't be alarmed by the boiling in water part - that seemed intimidating and scary to me, but it was quite simple and that's how you get the chewy outer crust.

Pumpkin Spice Bagels with Cinnamon Crunch

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/2 cup canned pumpkin, room temperature
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups bread or unbleached all purpose flour
cornmeal
Topping
1 egg white
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
2 T. all purpose flour
1 T. cinnamon

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the warm water and active dry yeast. Stir to combine and let rest for about 5 minutes until dissolved and beginning to bubble. Stir in the pumpkin, brown sugar, salt and spices, then stir in as much of the flour as you can with a spatula. Sprinkle the remaining flour into the bowl bit by bit as you knead the dough for 5-7 minutes until it forms a smooth and elastic ball. Drizzle a small amount of canola oil into the bowl, turn the dough ball to coat and set it aside to rise for about an hour, or until doubled.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide it into 9 balls. Form each into a roll, and allow to rest for about 5-10 minutes. This allows the dough to relax and makes forming the bagel hole easier. Poke your thumb through the middle of each dough ball and stretch to form a 1" opening. Allow to rest 10 more minutes, then flatten slightly

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and fill a dutch oven or other wide pot at least 4" deep at least half full of water. Bring to a boil. (I've seen other bagel recipes that recommend adding a dash of baking soda or a teaspoon of sugar to the water bath. I did it just with plain water, but will try other methods in the future and see how it effects the final crust consistency). Drop the bagels two at a time into the boiling water. Cook for 45 seconds, flip over and cook for another 45 seconds. Pull them out with a slotted spoon or spatula and let drain, then place on a baking sheet that has been prepared by misting with cooking spray and sprinkling with cornmeal.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 each brown sugar, white sugar, 2 T. flour and cinnamon. Whisk the egg white in another small bowl and brush over each bagel. Sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture liberally over the top of each one.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a rack to cool, or if you lack self control like I do, scarf them down immediately. These were divine with cream cheese. I toasted a leftover one the following day and the flavors had improved even more.

Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake

2011-02-25T11:39:00.001-07:00

I don't have a picture for this. I worked Wednesday night shift, slept my 3 hours afterward, got up and ran ran ran for the rest of the day until my book club ladies showed up and devoured the cake. As they were all swooning over it, I realized I should have taken a picture first. I'll just have to make another batch ;). This is a recipe that I tore out of Parade magazine a few weeks ago and have been plotting the perfect time to make it ever since. It is SUPER rich. Make it when you have a bunch of friends to share it with because otherwise you might keel over and die from sheer happiness and chocolate overload. It developed a delightful airy melt-in-your-mouth chocolatey crust on top that was balanced by the fudgy (but not too heavy) soft interior. It is a rather homely dessert, but utterly amazing in flavor and texture. I baked it in a springform pan this time, and am thinking that if I wanted to actually remove it from the base, lining it with parchment would be a good idea. I also think this would be fantastic baked in individual ramekins, particularly straight sided ones because of the way it rises then falls.

Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake

3/4 cup butter
7 ounces good dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70% cacao bars)
4 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar

Turn the oven on to 300 degrees and prepare a 9" springform pan by buttering the sides and bottom. If desired, line the bottom with a circle parchment paper as well. Alternatively, you may butter 8-8 ounce ramekins (straight side).

In a double boiler over medium low heat, melt the butter and dark chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth. Meanwhile, whisk 1/2 cup sugar into the 4 egg yolks until well combined. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until peaks begin to form, then gradually beat in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Stir the egg yolk mixture into the chocolate/butter mixture, then fold the chocolate mixture into the egg white mixture. Pour into the prepared pan or ramekins.

Bake for 40-45 minutes at 300 degrees, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The top crust will rise quite high, then fall within a few minutes of being removed from the oven. Run a knife around the edge immediately after removing from the oven, then remove the side ring after a few minutes. Allow it to cool to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator until serving time. This sliced and served much better once chilled. You may garnish with whipped cream, mint leaves and raspberries if desired.

Pillsbury Bakeoff Time!

2011-02-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Those of you that have hung around here for a while or know me in real life know that I was a finalist in the Pillsbury Bakeoff 5 years ago. It was rather a fluke, in my opinion. I made the recipe once. Stumbled across the contest online a few days later and mentally made the changes appropriate to submit it, sent it off and forgot about it. 6 months later, they called to let me know that I was one of the 100 finalists. Crazy.

We had a great time on our trip. I never had any illusions that they would somehow pick my recipe (a salad) as the million dollar winner, so we went with the perspective of just soaking in the experience. In analyzing the winners from the past few contests, I have come to the conclusion that they are looking for a simple recipe that is easily made even by less experienced cooks that will print nicely on the back of a package.

Make sure that you write out your instructions clearly and include every ingredient on your list. They will automatically chuck recipes that don't meat those basic criteria. Read recipes posted on their website to get a feel for how they like the instructions written. Don't forget to specify things like pan size. Be sure to read the required ingredients list carefully and makes sure you use the asked for quantities.

Go forth and cook. Then submit your creations online here: The Pillsbury Bakeoff.

Overnight Fruit and Cream Cheese Danishes

2011-02-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

I have a raging sweet tooth - that should be no secret based on the recipes I've been posting lately - and a particularly soft spot for a well made breakfast pastry. Bored of my usual fare, I grabbed a stack of old issues of Taste of Home magazine, and was pleased to spot a recipe for Overnight Cherry Danishes in the December/January 2010 issue (page 22). I had a little birthday breakfast party scheduled for Friday morning and I just knew these would be perfect.

In evaluating the recipe, I saw immediately that it had a lot more yeast than I'd like, so I cut the amount in a little more than half and allowed for a bit more rise time at the end. I find that I've become sensitive to large amounts of yeast and I prefer the texture and flavor of doughs that rise more slowly. The dough is enriched with cream, butter and egg yolks, so the crumb is very soft. It was an interesting dough to work with in that it does not require kneading. I was a little skeptical when I stirred it all together and had a shaggy sticky glob in my bowl, but by the morning, it had risen nicely. Because of how moist it is, you have to work with it straight out of the refrigerator. I took the big chunk of now firm and chilled dough, cut it into four equal pieces, and rolled each piece lightly in flour to make it easier to handle. It was a nice texture to work with, and I could tell as I got to the last piece that as it starts to warm up it gets a bit sticky again. Definitely don't let it sit around!

I added the cream cheese layer to the filling. Definitely a must. I also used homemade cherry preserves and a hastily thrown together homemade fresh blueberry filling rather than canned stuff. If you haven't been around here very long, you may not know my hatred of high fructose corn syrup. Nasty stuff.

Last of all, I had some leftover almond struesel topping from a batch of these delicious muffins, and I sprinkled it on about half of the pastries. I loved it and thought it was a great addition.

The one thing I will do differently next time is to add a bit more fruit filling. I put these together, then headed out on a nice 8 mile run, so by the time they went into the oven, they'd risen quite a bit more and the filling to pastry ratio shifted to a point of the filling looking skimpy. We can't have that! They tasted lovely, still, but I'd be even happier with a bit more fruit.

Plan on about 15 minutes of prep time the night before, and 30 minutes of prep + 60 minutes of rise time + 15ish minutes for baking the day of. These remained very soft throughout the whole day. I would even recommend this as a beginner recipe because the dough is so easy to handle. Don't be put off by the length of the recipe, because it really was simple to put together and the results were so worth it.

Overnight Fruit and Cream Cheese Danishes
(adapted from Taste of Home magazine)

Dough:
2 t. active dry yeast
1/2 cup cream
1 1/2 cups milk
6 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 t. kosher salt
1 cup cold butter
6 egg yolks, beaten

Heat the cream and milk until warm, about 110 degrees. Stir the yeast in and let it dissolve while you prepare the other dough ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt, then cut the butter in with a pastry blender until crumbly. Stir in the egg yolks and cream/milk/yeast mixture until it forms a soft sticky ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, prepare two baking sheets by misting lightly with cooking spray. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide into four equal sections. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and roll each dough chunk around until evenly lightly coated with flour. Roll each chunk into a 12" x 4" rectangle, then cut into 1"x4" strips. Pinch two strips together at one end, twist in opposite directions and pinch the other ends together. Then bend the strip around to form a wreath and pinch to close. Space 12 pastries evenly on each baking sheet for a total yield of 24.

Allow to rise for 45 - 60 minutes while you prepare the fillings below.

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounce package cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 t. vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then beat in the remaining ingredients until well combined. Make a little well in the middle of each pastry, pinching the middle of it together if necessary to close any gaps, and spoon a dollop of cream cheese filling into each.

Fruit Filling:

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 T. cornstarch

In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch until well combined. Stir in the water and berries, then bring to a low boil over medium low heat, stirring frequently. Smash a few of the berries with the back of your spoon to release the juices, and simmer for a few minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool before using as pastry topping.

Alternatively, you may use prepared fruit preserves or any fruity pie filling of your choice. Spoon a generous spoon full of fruit topping on to each pastry, on top of the cream cheese filling.

Optional Almond Struesel

1/3 cup flour
2 T. sugar
2 T. cold butter
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/2 t. cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a small food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle on top of the fruit filling.

Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes, or until lightly browned. Immediately drizzle with the glaze below.

Glaze

2 T. melted butter
1 T. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1-3 T. milk, added in small amounts to reach drizzling consistency

Combine all ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.

Samoas Bars with homemade caramel

2011-02-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

I have a particular fondness for Samoas of all of the Girl Scout Cookie options. I used to be the only one in the house that would eat them, but my son discovered them last year and kept raiding my stash. I saw a link to these bars posted a few days ago on an online forum I frequent, and I just couldn't get them out of my mind. The drawback was the caramel. I have a thing about corn syrup. I really dislike it. There are a very small handful of things I'll use a tablespoon or two of it in, but I really try to avoid it. Lo and behold, another person posted a link to this recipe for caramel sauce that doesn't require corn syrup. Voila! So happy!

I was in a hurry when I made these this morning, so I didn't have time to cut them into individual squares and dip the bottoms in chocolate. More's the pity, because I'm sure they'd be divine that way. I sense another batch in my future. They're quite good with chocolate drizzled just on top.

I used short flake unsweetened coconut and toasted it in my large skillet. This went much more quickly than doing it in the oven for 20 minutes as suggested in the original recipe. I would caution you to stir it frequently and to pull it off the heat as soon as it starts to turn golden.

Samoas Bars with Homemade Caramel

Cookie base:

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 t. vanilla

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 t. salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan or else line it with parchment paper. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla, then gradually beat in the flour and salt until well combined. (The original recipe says that it may look crumbly - mine came together just fine as a nice dough ball.) Press into an even layer in the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned.

Meanwhile, prepare the caramel:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 T. vanilla extract

pinch of kosher or sea salt

Cook butter and brown sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until sugar melts. Stir in 1/2 cup whipping cream, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.

3 cups short flake unsweetened coconut

Heat up a large skillet over medium low heat and pour the coconut in an even layer. Stir frequently, and pull it off the heat as soon as the coconut begins to turn golden. Stir it into the caramel, the pour it out on the crust, spreading it around evenly.

Allow to cool completely before cutting into 1" squares and preparing to drizzle/dip in chocolate. If you intend to just drizzle chocolate on top, you will need to melt 1/2 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips + 1 t. shortening. For a more serious chocolate experience, melt a total of 2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips + 1 T. shortening. Dip each square, bottom end down, into the chocolate, then set on a piece of parchment or wax paper until set. Drizzle remaining chocolate over the tops.

Triple Layer Brownies

2011-02-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. We were given a copy as newlyweds and it is a solid go-to book for all of your basic cooking needs, plus I'm discovering a lot of more adventurous stuff in it lately. Because you can never have too many cookbooks, my sister gave me the BH&G 75th anniversary edition a couple of years ago when I spied a recipe in her copy that I was dying to have. It has a fun section in the back that highlights favorite recipes from each decade. This one caught my eye a few days ago, and we happily devoured most of the pan aside from the few I managed to tuck into the cute box in the picture to give to a friend. I made a few modifications from the original recipe, mostly just in the amount and quantity of chocolate. I used milk chocolate chips because that's what I had on hand. It calls for unsweetened chocolate. I thought they came out delicious with the milk version. I also added some short flake unsweetened coconut to the crust base, which I often do to cookies because it lends a lovely chewiness and also seems to help them stay moist and soft for longer.

Triple Layer Brownies

1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 T. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup short flake unsweetened coconut (optional)

1 egg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips (original recipe calls for 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate)
1 t. vanilla
1/4 t. baking powder

1/2 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips (original recipe calls for 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate)
2 T. butter
1 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
1-2 T. hot water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, and baking soda. Stir in the 1/2 cup melted butter. Pat mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 11x7" pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the middle layer, stir together the egg, granulated sugar, 2/3 cup flour, milk, 1/4 melted butter. Melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring well in between, until smooth. Stir into the batter and add the vanilla and baking powder and stir until smooth. Spread in an even layer over the crust. Bake 25 minutes more, then cool on a wire rack while preparing the next layer.

In a medium saucepan, heat and stir the chocolate and 2 T. butter until melted. Stir in the powdered sugar and 1/2 t. vanilla. Stir in enough hot water to make a mixture that is almost pourable. Spread over the brownies and allow to set up before cutting into squares to serve.

These are very rich, so I suggest cutting them into 1" squares to serve. I think they'd be marvelous with other flavors thrown in, particularly peanut butter in the crust.

Chinese New Year Chicken Potstickers

2011-02-02T22:26:00.001-07:00

Warning: this food is ugly. But very tasty. Honestly, I haven't ever seen much Chinese food that is terribly visually appealing, so I suppose this fits right in. My oldest daughter is in a Chinese Immersion program at school, meaning that half of her school day is taught entirely in Chinese. She is loving it, and has picked up on stuff amazingly fast. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, so we celebrated a day early and I gave potstickers a try for the first time. They came out quite well, though I will have to tinker with my gas stove and how fast it heats the oil up.

First, I sauteed diced chicken and mushrooms in a little olive oil (to be more authentic, I should have used sesame oil but I didn't have any on hand). Then I added in some freshly grated ginger root, minced garlic, and seasoned it with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a bit of brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Then I transferred the mixture to my new zippy little food processor (Christmas gift - hooray!).

A few quick pulses and it was finely chopped, perfect for filling the potstickers. I like chunks and discernable veggies in my egg rolls, but not potstickers. They need to be smooth.

Use small round wrappers, found with the egg roll wrappers, usually in the produce section. Lay out 8-10 on a work surface. Meanwhile, in a large lidded skillet, heat up a thin layer of vegetable oil.

Plop a scant tablespoon full of filling in the center of each one. Dip your fingers into a little bowl of water and moisten the wrapper half way around the rim.

Pinch each closed, squeezing excess air out. Now you're ready to cook!

I took a picture of my first batch, which turned out to brown a bit too quickly. I still haven't gotten used to the remarkable power of a gas range. I had it at medium for these, and it was too hot - they browned within seconds of being put into the oil. I cooked the rest of them much closer to low. Anyway, fry for 1-2 minutes on each side, until lightly browned, then add 1/4 cup of water to the pan. I learned the hard way that it spatters like CRAZY. I suggest having the lid nearly in place, and just sneak the water in and immediately close the lid the rest of the way. Allow them to steam until all of the water evaporates, about 5-6 minutes, and remove to a serving plate.

Yep, ugly. But delicious. I like the soft-but-chewy-in-places exterior, and the savory, flavorful filling. I dipped some of mine in orange sauce, but mostly just enjoyed them plain. These got universal thumbs up from the peanut gallery except for my 3 1/2 year old who was suspicious of the filling.

Chinese New Year Chicken Potstickers

1 raw chicken breast, diced into 1/2" chunks
6 large mushrooms, quartered
1 T. olive oil (or sesame oil)
1 t. freshly grated ginger root
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. low sodium soy sauce
1 T. rice wine vinegar
1 T. brown sugar
freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Potsticker wrappers
canola oil

In a medium skillet, saute the chicken and mushrooms over medium heat until the juices run clear from the chicken. Stir in the remaining ingredients down to the salt and pepper and saute for another 2-3 minutes until the flavors are well mixed. Scoop the mixture into a food processor and pulse a few times until everything is finely chopped.

Lay out 8-10 potsticker wrappers on a work surface. Meanwhile, pour a thin layer of oil in a large lidded skillet and let it heat up over medium low heat. Scoop a scant tablespoon of filling onto each wrapper, moisten half way around with your finger dipped in water, and pinch to close, squeezing out the excess air. Lay the potstickers down in an even layer in the hot oil and let them cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, until lightly golden.

Then, position the pan lid so that it's almost closed and pour 1/4 cup water in. Immediately close the lid the rest of the way and let the potstickers steam for 5-6 minutes, until all of the water has evaporated. Remove with tongs. You may allow them to drain some of the oil off on a paper towel, then serve immediately either plain or with your favorite dipping sauce. This will yield about 24.

Rachel's Rosemary Chicken Pot Pie

2011-01-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Alas, I have no photo for this post. You'll have to imagine a piping hot pie with golden crust, lovely green peas and succulent chunks of chicken peeping out of the vent holes. My 7 year old has a passion for all things gravy, and chicken pot pie happens to combine all of her favorite elements into one tidy dish. In the past, I usually made the filling, then topped it with a thick biscuit layer. Then last year, a very sweet friend of mine showed up on my doorstep when I was having a bad day with a chicken pot pie encased in an actual crust. Rachel was thrilled, and begs me to make it that way on a regular basis.

It's not rocket science, and really, you can shift the vegetables around to different types and different ratios to whatever pleases your palate, but this is how I made it last night and got rave reviews from the peanut gallery.

Rachel's Rosemary Chicken Pot Pie

Double crust for a 10" pie plate*

1 medium sweet vidalia onion, diced
2 cups diced carrots
4 T. butter, divided
2 raw chicken breasts, diced into 1/2" chunks
2 t. garlic powder
1 t. minced dried or fresh rosemary
1/2 t. dried thyme
few grinds each of salt and pepper
1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium size nonstick frying pan, melt 2 T. of butter over medium heat. Stir in the carrots and onion and saute, stirring occasionally, for about 5-6 minutes until the onions are soft. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Melt the other 2 T. of butter and add the chicken to the same pan. Saute for about 7-8 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Season with the garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, stir in the carrot and onion mixture, then stir in the flour until the chicken chunks are evenly coated. Pour the broth into the pan and stir until the flour is dissolved and it begins to thicken. Add in the peas last, then remove from heat.

Place the bottom crust into a 10" pie pan. Pour the filling mixture in and spread in an even layer, taking care to not let it slurp over the edges. Keep the flat top edge clean so that it'll seal well. Dip your fingertips with a little water and moisten the top edge all the way around. Cut vent slits into the top crust, then center it on top of the filling. Press the edges together to seal, trim the excess crust, and flute the edges.

If you want to get all fancy, beat an egg and brush it on top of the crust, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Otherwise, pop it into the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden.

This is a very hearty and filling pie, and will serve 6.

*This is where I confess that I haven't found a homemade pie crust recipe that comes out consistently well for me, and I resorted to being a slacker and used a Pillsbury crust. I figured out their secret when I read the label - they use lard! Appetizing, eh? Shortening already gives me the squiggies, but I use it because some recipes really need it, but I can assure you that a tub o' lard will never grace my pantry shelves.

Oat Pan Rolls

2011-01-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

I do not recall exactly where I got this recipe, but I've had it in my archives for several years. I believe it came from Taste of Home. I passed it around a few times a while ago, but then hadn't made a batch for probably 3 or more years. Then suddenly in the last couple of months I've had a half dozen people mention to me that this is one of their favorite recipes. So I figured I'd better make them, take a picture, and post the recipe! The oats make them hearty and just a bit chewy, an excellent accompaniment to a bowl of soup or as a roll for shredded pork sandwiches. The original recipe calls for 2 T.(!!) of yeast, something I used to not bat an eye at, but I find that I prefer much less yeast and a little bit more patience with the rising process. The texture is better and so is the flavor, in my opinion. I used 1 1/2 T. with this batch because I was crunched for time, but will use 1 T. in the future.

Oat Pan Rolls

2 cups oats (quick cooking is best but old fashioned works also)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup butter, cubed

1 T. salt

2 ½ cups boiling water

1 - 1 1/2 T. dry active yeast

½ cup warm water

5 ½ to 6 cups all purpose flour (may substitute half whole wheat flour)

Additional butter, melted

In a bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, butter and salt; stir in boiling water. Allow to cool to 110-115 degrees (the way I test for this temperature is to stick my finger in and see if it's hot, but not so hot I can't stand it - super scientific). In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in ½ cup warm water; let stand for 5 minutes. Add oat mixture and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 20 pieces. Place in a greased 9x13 pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack; brush with melted butter.

Help Leigh Anne win a cooking contest!

2011-01-18T11:11:00.002-07:00

Leigh Anne, a fellow friendly foodie, is in a contest with 15 other food bloggers for a $10,000 prize. It's super simple to help her - just vote once a day, and you don't even have to register. It's just a click. (I don't know about you, but I really hate having to sign up for some random website to vote for someone's picture or whatever. Perhaps I'm a commitment-phobe. Or I just can't remember all those password/sign in combinations.) I voted this morning and checked her standing. Currently she's in second place, so let's all do our part to help nudge her up to the top and keep her there!

Decadent Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bliss Cupcakes

2011-01-16T22:27:00.002-07:00

My oldest snuck bunny ears in just as I was snapping this photo. After making these cupcakes a few weeks ago, I've been pondering all of the cupcake possibilities since then. There's been a huge trend in my area of cupcake shops popping up all over the place. I've visited a few. Some have been delicious and worth the two bucks. Some have been utterly disappointing - revoltingly thickly sweet and tasting heavily of cake mix chemicals. In my opinion, the ones that are best are the ones with surprises in the middle. Hence my enthusiasm over the peppermint and chocolate ones.

The center for these little guys is a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter. Today I also added in some butterscotch chips, but I think they detracted from the nutty flavor I was really looking for. I'm going to post it without the butterscotch. Since the frosting is made of cream cheese, they need to be stored in the fridge, but even at that, the center core remained soft. It's a delicious bit of heaven. To counteract the sweetness of the cupcake base and frosting, I sprinkled chopped dry roasted salted peanuts on top. That still wasn't quite enough saltiness for me, so I added a pinch of an amazing greek sea salt on top. The balance of textures and flavors is fantastic - reminiscent of a snicker's bar but with tasty cream cheese frosting in place of mysterious nougat.

I made some regular size and some minis. Have to say that the minis are my favorites. The proportion of cake to yummy filling is much better. Plus, the whole bite size thing helps me not feel so guilty for eating quite possibly more than I should and they're fun to give away. Tiny cakes make people smile.

Decadent Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bliss Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 1/3 cups water
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, cocoa powder, soda and salt. Add half the water and beat well, then half the flour and beat again. Add the remaining water and beat and the remaining flour and beat. Scrape the batter into a gallon ziplock bag and snip the corner off. Squeeze the batter into cupcake pans prepared with paper liners, either 48 mini cupcakes or 24 regular cupcakes, filling each paper 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes for minis and 14-18 minutes for regulars, until the cake springs back lightly when touched. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate peanut butter filling by melting 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips in the microwave in a small bowl. Microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate is smooth. Stir in 1 cup smooth peanut butter until well combined.

Poke a hole in each cupcake with the handle of a wooden spoon, pushing all the way down. Pour the filling into a quart ziplock bag and snip the corner off. Squirt filling into each hole, then drizzle a bit extra around the top of each cupcake.

Frosting

1 8 ounce brick cream cheese
1/2 cup real butter
1/4 t. salt
2 t. vanilla
3 T. caramel syrup (optional)
2 T. milk
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Beat in the salt, vanilla, optional caramel syrup, and half the powdered sugar. Beat in the milk, then remaining powdered sugar and whip until fluffy. Scrape into a frosting bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe a swirl on top of each cupcake.

Garnish each cupcake with chopped salted peanuts and an additional sprinkling of sea salt if desired. Store uneaten cupcakes in the fridge.

Super Simple Sugar Glazed Pork Ribs

2011-01-11T21:51:00.003-07:00

I have a 9 year old son that dearly loves ribs. He has begged for them repeatedly in the last few weeks, ignoring my protestations that it's too darn cold to grill them outside. Not to mention that it's dark at 4:30 p.m. He went grocery shopping with me on Saturday night, a really exciting kid date to be sure, and steered me toward the ribs when we got to the meat section. OK, OK, I can take a hint. He likes bone in, but I don't, so I exercised my mom-veto powers and went for the boneless country style pork ribs.

One of my chief complaints about meat in general is that it can easily wind up tough and chewy. I put my trusty crock pot to use for this recipe, and finished it off with the broiler and wound up with perfect ribs. They didn't fall apart like I was afraid, but were tender, moist, and had a nicely caramelized glaze on the outside. I neglected to take a picture before my ravenous kids dug in, and after very enthusiastic reviews, I hurried and snapped this one of the lone ranger still left on the pan. It wasn't even the best looking one of the bunch, but it's better than no picture at all. My 3 year old ate two whole ribs herself, and every person at the table enthusiastically cleaned their plates. I served it with a side of gouda and garlic infused mashed potatoes and buttery sweet corn. It's definitely staying on the favorites list.

Super Simple Sugar Glazed Pork Ribs

2 pounds boneless country style pork ribs
1 cup barbecue sauce of your choice (we like Jack Daniel's Honey Smokehouse)
1/4 cup brown sugar

Place your ribs in an appropriately sized crock pot (I used my standard round that I'm guessing is 2-3 quarts). Pour the sauce over them and toss to coat evenly. Cook on high for 4 hours. Line a baking pan with foil and use tongs to pull the ribs out of the crock pot and space them evenly on the baking sheet. Sprinkle brown sugar generously over each rib and heat under the broiler for 3-4 minutes, until the sugar is bubbly and golden. Use tongs to flip the ribs over and sprinkle the newly exposed bottom with more brown sugar. Broil again for 3-4 minutes. Serve promptly with additional barbecue sauce. (This will serve 4-6 people, depending on how big appetites are.)

Garlic n' Gouda Spuds
6 large redskin potatoes, peeled if desired, and diced into 1/2" chunks
water
1 T. salt
~~~
4 T. butter
1/2 cup shredded gouda cheese, preferably aged gouda for more flavor
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper
1 t. garlic powder (not garlic salt!)

Boil the potatoes in enough water to cover them completely with the salt added to the cook water until they are fork tender. Drain the water, add the butter, and mash until fluffy. Mash in the cheese, pepper and garlic powder last, and serve immediately.

Finger Food

2011-01-10T21:38:00.002-07:00

Tonight I was in the mood for kid food, except that I can't really bring myself to stomach chicken nuggets from the freezer. So I dug around a bit in the pantry and came up with a more grown up version, and paired them with oven roasted sweet potato fries. My big kids cleaned their plates happily. I didn't particularly go out of my way to make the nugget coating nutritious because I just grabbed what surfaced first, but I am quite certain you could add some ground flax seed and whole grain cracker crumbs to the mix to nudge the fiber and vitamin content up.

Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

2-3 large yams or sweet potatoes
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Peel the yams and slice into fries, roughly 1/2"x1/2"x4". Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Spread out in a single layer on a 10"x15" baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 450 degrees for 35-45 minutes to desired doneness, stirring once in the middle.

Grown Up Chicken Strips

3 chicken breasts, sliced across the grain into 1/2" thick strips

2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 t. smoked paprika
2 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper

1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup smashed Ritz crackers
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Olive oil

Whisk the egg, yogurt and seasonings together until well combined. Stir the crumbs and cheese together until well combined. Pour each mixture into a pie plate. Heat up a large skillet over medium heat and add 3 T. olive oil. Dip each piece of chicken into the yogurt mixture, turning to coat evenly, then roll it in the crumb mixture. Fry on each side for 4-5 minutes, or until the crumb coating is golden brown and juices run clear. Remove to a paper towel on a wire rack to drain, then serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

Leigh Anne's Lovely Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

2011-01-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

Leigh Anne at Your Home Based Mom posted this a couple of weeks ago. I saw them and immediately thought they'd be an excellent treat to take to work on Christmas Eve to enjoy with my coworkers. If you're gonna have to work a holiday shift, it might as well be with good food in hand. They were a big hit, and I'm going to apply the same techniques to other cupcake recipes. I made my cupcake base from scratch rather than using a mix like she did. The peppermint ganache and frosting are as she posted them, though I don't really consider the ganache real ganache since there was no cream involved. I'd love to make these again with a good cream and melted chocolate ganache...mmm. The very best part is the core of chocolate in the middle created by pushing a wooden spoon handle into the middle of the cupcake to make a hole. I put the chocolate filling in a baggie, snipped off the corner and drizzled the filling in to each hole and generously around the top of the cupcake before piping on the frosting.

Leigh Anne's Lovely Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 cups sugar
2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line 24 cupcake tins with cupcake papers. This quantity actually made 24 regular size cupcakes and an additional 12 mini cupcakes for me.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until fluffy, then add in sugar a bit at a time until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, and beat in the vanilla. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and add them alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition. Pour the batter into a gallon size ziplock bag, cut a hole the size of your thumb in one corner and squeeze the batter into the cupcake papers, filling each about 2/3 full.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched lightly. Remove to a wire rack to cool slightly, and poke a hole in the center of each cupcake by pushing a wooden spoon handle all the way to the bottom.

Meanwhile, make the peppermint ganache.

Peppermint Ganache

1/2 cup butter
5 T. unsweetened cocoa
6 T. buttermilk
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 t. peppermint extract

In a small pan, melt the butter and add cocoa and buttermilk. Bring to a boil, then pour over the powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Add peppermint extract and stir until smooth. Pour into a quart size bag, snip off a small hole in one corner and drizzle into the holes in each cupcake, then around the top of each cupcake until a nice puddle forms. Allow to cool/set.

Peppermint Buttercream

8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2-1 t. peppermint extract

Crushed candycanes

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluff, then beat in the powdered sugar and peppermint extract. Scoop into a decorating bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe swirls of frosting on top of each cupcake. Garnish with crushed candy canes.

Store loosely covered. I put mine in a tupperware, and the moisture in the frosting caused the candy cane pieces to dissolve, leaving pink streaks in the frosting rather than tasty chunks.

Crusty multigrain loaf

2011-01-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

Dreary January day = must bake bread to lift my spirits. I've become quite comfortable with just dumping ingredients in the bowl and seeing what happens. I've also become more adventurous with cooking methods to get a particular finish. This is a combination of my basic honey whole wheat, though I tinkered with adding some other grains in as well as some all purpose flour, and a rustic baking technique - high heat and a moist oven. Right out of the oven, the crust is quite hearty and thumps nicely. After standing for 30-40 minutes, the crust softened a bit to a wonderful consistency - a little chewy, but not difficult to chew, if that makes sense. The interior is soft, lightly sweet and wonderful. I will definitely make this again.

Crusty Multigrain Loaf

2 1/2 cups warm water
1 T. active dry yeast
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil.
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup dark rye flour
4 cups whole white wheat flour
3-4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast, honey and molasses in the warm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes. Add in the oil, salt, cornmeal, dark rye flour and whole wheat flour and stir until well combined. Let it stand for 10 minutes, until you see bubbles rising to the surface. Stir in enough AP flour to form a stick dough glob, then dust generously with more AP flour and knead, adding small amounts of AP flour as needed, until it forms a smooth and elastic dough ball.

Add a tablespoon or two of oil to your bowl and roll the dough ball around in it until well coated. Cover with a towel and let rise in warm place until doubled, about an hour to an hour and a half. Gently dump the dough out onto a work surface (I love my Roul' Pat!) and stretch it into a large square. Fold it in thirds one direction, then the other direction, then place seam side down in the bowl again. Let it rise again for another 45 minutes or so, until nearly doubled again.

Prepare your oven by placing one rack in the top slot and another rack in the bottom slot. Place a small pan in the top filled with water. (I use a cheap pie tin for this because the high heat warps a lot of pans). Turn the oven on to 500 degrees.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Form each into a boule, let rest for about 5 minutes until the dough relaxes a bit, then elongate the boule into an ovel shaped loaf. Place the three loaves side by side on a large baking sheet dusted with cornmeal or semolina flour. Let rest for 30-40 minutes, until nearly doubled. Slash each loaf in an artistic pattern with a sharp knife just before placing in the oven.

As you put the loaves into the oven, use a spray bottle to mist the walls, flour and roof of the oven, taking care to avoid the oven lights and door (sad experience with my old oven when the lightbulb exploded all over, leaving shards of glass in my lovely loaves). Set the timer for 28 minutes. After one minute, open the oven and mist everything like crazy again. Now turn the oven temperature down to 450 degrees.

Check the loaves halfway through the bake time. If they aren't browning evenly, spin the baking sheet around. Otherwise, bask in the aroma of baking bread. Once the time is up, remove the loaves promptly from the baking sheet to a cooling rack. Allow them to rest for at least 30 minutes before slicing in to them, tempting as it is to not wait.

Creamy Pear or Apple Tart

2011-01-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

This is a lovely combination of flavors and textures. The original recipe comes from a Junior League of Denver cookbook I received for my wedding. I have made it several times over the years, and am reminded why it's on the favorite list each time. The nutmeg in the crust is unusual and delicious. This time, I used freshly grated nutmeg and it added an extra pop to it. The original recipe calls for apples, which is what I usually use, but the pears were calling my name at Costco and I succumbed... The results were very tasty, and I actually think I like it better with pears. I made this a few days ago for a party, and munched on some leftovers of it today and it was still great - the crust was not soggy, and the flavors had improved with time. This was technically listed as a breakfast tart in the original cookbook, but it serves well as a dessert too.

If you've never invested in a tart pan, I highly recommend that you bite the bullet and spend the 15 or so bucks. It is so much easier to make impressive looking desserts in a tart pan than any other pan - just press the crust into the fluted edging, and pop the outer rim off once it's ready to serve. Voila! Fancy dessert! I now have three, two sizes of round pans and this rectangular pan. I like 'em all.

Creamy Pear or Apple Tart

Crust:

1 ¼ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
¼ t. nutmeg
½ t. baking powder
½ t. salt
½ cup butter, chilled
1 egg
1 T. milk

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
2 egg yolks (or one egg if you're lazy like me - I don't notice a difference)
½ t. vanilla

Topping:

2 large McIntosh, Fuji or Granny Smith apples, cored and thinly sliced OR 2 large pears, same treatment
1/3 cup sugar
½ t. cornstarch
½ t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 10 inch tart pan or pie pan. In large bowl, combine the dry crust ingredients. Cut butter into flour mixture until crumbly. In small bowl, beat egg and milk and add to flour mixture. Blend until dough forms a ball and pat dough into prepared pan.

Blend cream cheese and ¼ cup sugar, then add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until smooth. Spread evenly over crust. Layer apples over cream cheese mixture in circular pattern, slightly overlapping slices. In small bowl, combine remaining topping ingredients and sprinkle over the apples.

Bake 30 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown.

This is best if served at room temperature or chilled. It holds up well if made in advance, even up to two days in advance, and kept in the refrigerator.

Christmas Morning Orange Rolls

2010-12-28T22:46:00.040-07:00

Last year for Christmas morning, I made my first batch of overnight cinnamon rolls. Super duper good, by the way, and one recipe that I get frequent comments about from people who have had good success with it. After making several batches this month for various events, though, I was looking for something different for the big morning. I loved the idea of making them the night before and expending basically no prep effort in the morning - what could be better than simply pulling a pan of formed rolls out of the fridge when the kids get up, and popping them into the oven a bit later to have them come out warm and wonderful just when everyone is starting to get hungry?

So, I totally winged a dough creation last night with an orange twist to it, and made up a decadent gooey cream cheese glaze. Messy. Sticky. But darn delicious. These are loosely based on an orange bowknot recipe that I have made in the past from Better Homes and Gardens, as well as the overnight cinnamon roll dough recipe. But really, I didn't consult either recipe - I just kinda dumped stuff in the bowl like I have a tendency of doing.

Christmas Morning Orange Rolls

1/2 cup warm water
2 t. active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 t. salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 t. nutmeg
zest of one orange
5-6 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Glaze
1/4 cup butter
4 ounces cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
juice of one orange

In a large bowl, stir the yeast and sugar into the water and let rest for a few minutes while you heat up the buttermilk and butter either on the stovetop or in the microwave until the butter is melted and the milk is 105-110 degrees F. Pour the butter/buttermilk mixture into the yeast mixture along with the egg, orange zest, salt and nutmeg and stir to combine. Stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time, until a shaggy dough begins to form. Add a bit more flour and knead by hand, adding flour as necessary, until the dough forms a ball that is smooth and elastic. (You may certainly do this by machine, but I don't have a mixer, and therefore figure out how much flour to add entirely by the feel of the dough.)

Lightly oil a large bowl, plop the dough ball into it and turn it over to coat. Cover with a towel and let rest in a warm place until doubled, about one hour. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 18 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into a 7-8" long "snake" and tie a simple knot, tucking the ends in. Place on a cookie sheet misted with cooking spray, spaced out 2 inches between each roll.

Lightly mist the tops of the rolls with cooking spray and cover with saran wrap. Refrigerate overnight. In the morning, remove the trays of rolls from the fridge about one hour before you want to eat them. Allow them to rest at room temperature for 30-45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by microwaving the butter and cream cheese for 30 second intervals until soft enought to stir together easily. Squeeze the orange juice in, and whisk in the powdered sugar until a smooth consistency is achieved. Immediately after removing the rolls from the oven, drizzle glaze generously over the tops.

This glaze will not set up as much as a normal powdered sugar glaze, so be prepared for messy fingers, but the cream cheese adds a decadent dimension that makes the mess worth it :).

Peanut Butter Christmas Mice

2010-12-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

I fully intended to get this posted before Christmas, but life got busy. So, you can either stick this in your archives for next year, or use different colored M&M noses and make them valentine mice or whatever other holiday you choose. This recipe was originally posted in Taste of Home a few years ago. The last time I made it was at least 3 years ago, but Ethan has a good memory. His cub scout pack held a cookie derby last week, and this was the first cookie that popped in to his head.

These are fun to make, and definitely a kid friendly project. I find that the dough is just a touch crumbly, so my 3 year old wasn't so much help, but the two bigger kids managed just fine.

They took great delight in making the eyes and ears point different directions to give the mice a little more individuality.

I felt a little barbaric sticking the poor suckers in the oven.

As soon as they come out, you insert the tasty licorice tail (another fun task for kids).

Bonus points for making a Christmas tree out of gingerbread cookies to complete the whole Night Before Christmas scene. These are exceptionally cute cookies, fun to make and tasty too. I highly recommend them for a snowy day activity.

Peanut Butter Mice Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup peanut halves
1/4 cup mini M&Ms (green and red for Christmas, or whatever color you choose)
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
60 2" lengths of shoestring licorice (we used Twizzler pull n' peel)

In a medium bowl, cream the peanut butter, butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, baking soda, and then the flour until a dough forms. Cover with saran wrap and chill for an hour or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1" balls, lightly pinching one end of it to form a nose. Insert two peanut halves for ears, two chocolate chips for eyes, and a mini M&M for a nose as shown above. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Immediately insert tail pieces, allow to cool for a few minutes on the sheet, then carefully remove to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.

Santa Sugar Cookies

2010-12-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Soft sugar cookies at this time of the year...perfect. I can't take credit for the Santa decorating idea - I saw that at my local Kneader's bakery and totally copied it. We don't even do Santa in our family, but they were so cute I had to make them. Then I started pondering about how Santa would feel if faced with a plateful of his own face to consume on Christmas Eve. I'll leave you to make your own decision about that one!

Everyone has their own super secret favorite sugar cookie recipe. I don't know that this one is more fantastic than any other, but it's serviceable, and works well even without chilling the dough. I like to add the pinch of nutmeg to the dough or a bit of grated lemon zest to make the flavor more interesting.

Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup real sour cream (read the label - I use Daisy because it doesn't have anything funny in it)
1 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
3 cups all purpose unbleached flour

Beat the butter, sour cream, sugar, vanilla and egg together until creamy, then beat in the salt, soda and the flour, one cup at a time until it forms a nice dough ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll out to a 1/4" thickness and cut into desired shapes. For Santa heads, a 2 1/2"-3" circle works best. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter
1/2 t. vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
milk

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla, adding milk a tablespoon at a time until the frosting reaches a nice fluffy spreadable consistency.

To make Santas, sprinkle red sugar across the top 1/4" of the frosted circle. Place a mini marshmallow on one side for the hat pom pom. Place two chocolate chips for eyes, a red hot for the nose, and sprinkle coconut on for the beard.

Delicious cranberry sauce

2010-11-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

Whenever I see a gelatinous heap of cranberry stuff with the can rib impressions still clearly visible I want to cry out in pain. Why, for the love of all that is holy, would you eat that when it is so simple to make it from scratch? I personally like mine chunky anyway. I look forward to the post-Thanksgiving sandwich of turkey, lettuce, mayo and a generous helping of whole berry cranberry sauce on toasted hearty bread all year long. It just isn't the same with the canned stuff.

This literally takes about 2 minutes of effort, 15 minutes of total prep time, and is easily made in advance. I have made different variations each year, and was pleased with how it came out this year. I used brown sugar instead of white, added some orange zest and juice, and my usual top secret pinch of cloves. Good stuff.

Heidi's 2010 Cranberry Sauce

1 package fresh cranberries (I'm guessing it's about 4 cups of fresh berries)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
zest of one orange
juice of one orange
pinch of cloves

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and stir. Bring up to a low boil over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature for at least an hour before refrigerating. This may be made up to three days in advance, leaving you free to worry about other things on Thanksgiving day.

Leftover Turkey? Try a Hot Brown!

2010-11-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Alan was first introduced to the awesomeness that is the Hot Brown at a local restaurant this summer. He's been plotting to make our own with leftover Thanksgiving Turkey ever since. The concept is simple, and with quality components, it's a delicious and different way to eat up the rest of the bird.

I made the bread myself, but with a recipe that I unfortunately don't have permission to post. If you come over, I'll show you how to make it :). It's really good stuff, and several of you have had the pleasure of eating it. Otherwise, I'd recommend a thickly sliced crusty sourdough. No pansy squishy white bread for this - it just won't do.

Alan's other fantastic discovery this year is "Slow and Low" bacon. He put the bacon in the oven at 220 degrees and let it cook for about 4 hours. The result is chewy and rich, evenly cooked, and again, deliciously different. His top secret addition is to sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar on about an hour from the end of baking time.

These are called Hot Browns in reference to the gravy you pour over the top. I am personally not a fan of browned turkey gravy (this is managed by browning the roux before adding the broth in, and in my experience it's a little tricky to walk the balance between browned and burned). I leave mine light colored. Therefore I suppose these should really be called a Hot Cream? Not quite as nice of a ring to it. We'll stick with the original title.

I recommend eating this with a hearty scoop of mashed potatoes so that you can liberally douse the sandwiches and the potatoes with your gravy, and a generous spoonful of cranberry sauce on the side to balance the flavors.

Hot Brown Sandwiches

12 thick (3/4") slices of a sturdy sourdough bread
12 thick (1/4") slices of roasted turkey breast
1 package of bacon
2 T. brown sugar
12 slices provolone cheese
1 - 2 cups turkey gravy

Cook the bacon according to your preference. I recommend baking it on a cooling rack placed in a foil lined pan. Clean up is easy - simply let the grease set up a bit as the pan cools, and wrap it all up in the foil and throw it away. If you're impatient, bake it at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, until it is to the desired crispness. Sprinkle the brown sugar on for the last 5 minutes of baking. If you're patient and plan far enough ahead, lay the bacon out as indicated above and bake at 220 for about 4 hours, sprinkling the sugar on at about 3 hours.

Toast the bread under the broiler, flip it over and toast the other side. Assemble the sandwiches by layering turkey, bacon and provolone cheese on top. Return to the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately with a side of mashed potatoes, a thorough dousing of warm turkey gravy, and a scoop of homemade cranberry sauce.

(This is an excellent meal to feed to a crowd. We made three trays of these at once to feed 20 people the day after Thanksgiving. Everyone left with full tummies and I heard no complaints from even the pickier eaters.)

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites with Spicy Nuts

2010-11-21T11:32:00.001-07:00

This recipe is a hybrid of several. I love to browse my cookbooks and magazines to get ideas, and then I let them percolate in my head until I come up with what I really want to make. I think these would be a great alternative to plain pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, and the beauty is that they work very well to make ahead. It's even more fun if you have a special kitchen helper like me to assist (and a 50mm/f1.4 lens to take cool pictures...I rediscovered the fun of low aperture).

I discovered these gingerbread flavored graham crackers a couple of weeks ago. I imagine that they're only a seasonal item, so snatch them up if you see them! I've used gingersnaps for crusts before, but it's hard to find ones that are the right texture. These are the perfect graham texture with a zippy kick of ginger, and the inspiration for this recipe.

Don't forget to stop and snitch a little bit. After all, what's the good of cooking if you don't get to taste test?

I'm all about convenience. Mash your graham crackers up, and then pour the melted butter into the same bag to mush it all around nicely. I lined the pan with foil - two layers going opposite directions - both for easy clean up, but also to lift the bars out for easy slicing.

You will do the filling in layers. Smooth the plain cream cheese layer down, then dollop blobs of the pumpkin stuff evenly spaced on top and carefully spread it out until it covers the plain layer completely.

(I would like you to note that this handmixer, #6 in the last 12 years, is on it's way out. #5 lasted 2 whole weeks. This one has been kicking around since spring but started making desperate noises this week when I forced it to plow through all of the cream cheese.)

While the cheesecake is baking, make your white chocolate ganache. It needs to chill for a while before being whipped. It's quite simple and can either be done on the stove top or in the microwave.

Bake the cheesecake until it is uniformly puffed across the top surface and no longer jiggles.

Another task while waiting for the cheesecake to bake or chill is to make the spiced nuts. Don't be afraid of cayenne pepper! Once these are sprinkled on top of the creamy cheesecake, the kick is totally mellowed out. I think next time I'll put even more pepper.

Chill the cheesecake for a while. At least 3-4 hours. I was in a hurry and only chilled it for 2, but when I tasted leftovers later that evening that had chilled longer, I was far more impressed with the flavors.

Use the handy dandy foil to lift the cheesecake out of the pan, slice it into 36 even squares, whip the ganache and pipe it on top, and sprinkle with chopped spiced pecans.

Voila! Sweet, spicy, creamy, smooth, crunchy - all sorts of wonderful flavors in one little tasty mouthful.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites with Spicy Nuts

Crust:
12 gingerbread graham crackers
4 T. butter, melted

Filling:
3 8 oz. bricks cream cheese
3 T. cream
1 cup sugar
2 T. real vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 t. each cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
2 T. flour

Ganache:
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup + 3 T. cream, divided

Pecans:
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1 cup pecan halves

Crush the gingerbread grahams and mix with melted butter until evenly distributed. Line a 9x13 pan with foil with pieces going both directions and overhanging the edges. Press the graham crumbs evenly into the bottom of the pan and bake at 325 for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat 3 bricks cream cheese (softened at room temperature) until smooth, then beat in the cream, sugar, vanilla and eggs until well incorporated. Reserve 2 cups of cream cheese mixture and spread the remainder in an even layer over the graham crust.

Into the reserved cream cheese mixture, beat pumpkin, spices and flour. Spoon dollops evenly over the plain cream cheese layer, then spread carefully until the pumpkin layer completely covers the plain layer.

Bake for 60 minutes at 325 degrees, until it is puffed all the way through and no longer jiggles. Remove to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before putting in the fridge to chill for 3-4 hours.

Meanwhile, make the ganache. You may either bring the 1/2 cup cream just to a simmer in a saucepan on the stovetop, remove from heat, add the chips and let them sit for a couple of minutes before whisking until smooth, or melt the chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth, then whisk the cream in. Either way works just fine. Chill the ganache in the fridge for an hour or so.

Make the nuts by pouring the nuts into a skillet over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes until they start to lightly brown and smell toasty. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cayenne and cinnamon. Pour all but 2 T. of it over the nuts and stir constantly as the sugar melts to coat all the nuts evenly. Once the sugar is melted, remove from heat and immediately pour the remaining 2 T. of sugar on and toss to coat. Pour the hot nuts out onto a piece of parchment paper to allow them to cool. Chop into medium pieces.

Once you are ready to assemble the bites, pull the ganache out of the fridge and add 3 T. of cream. Whip with a handmixer for 2 minutes, or until it is fluffy and reaches a piping consistency. Lift the cheesecake out of the pan with the foil handles and cut into squares. Pipe the ganache on top with a large star tip, then sprinkle pecans over the ganache. You may either serve immediately, or return to the fridge until you are ready.

Monkey Bread and variations

2010-11-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

I spied this recipe in the February/March 2010 edition of Taste of Home and knew I had to try it. I've made it twice this week and it's been declared a new favorite by my kids. The second time, I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour, as well as adding cinnamon to the sugar the balls are dipped in, and I also diced up an apple and sprinkled it in with the nuts. I liked the cinnamon and apple additions, but decided that the whole wheat was pretty noticeable. I subscribe to the theory that if you're going to eat a treat, make it a serious treat. I don't know that I'll do the whole wheat next time.

I served it at a party warm on a platter with tongs for people to grab chunks of the bread, and it was a big hit. I suspect it would be good sliced and made in to french toast the second day (that is, if there's any left). I did modify the recipe a little bit from the original, so I will post it how I made it. The dough is pleasant to work with because of the butter - nice and rich and easy to knead. It's kid friendly to make. Mine enjoyed rolling the dough balls and dipping them in butter and sugar. It's definitely not diet bread, so save this for a rainy day when you need a pick-me-up and don't mind a few extra calories.

Monkey Bread

Dough:
2 t. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups warm 2% milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 t. salt
5 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Caramel:
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 t. vanilla

Assembly:
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 medium apple, peeled and diced (optional)
2/3 cup sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the milk, butter, sugar, egg and salt and stir until well combined. Stir in the flour one cup at a time until a dough ball starts to form, then generously dust with more flour and knead for 5-7 minutes, until smooth and elastic. (I do not have a stand mixer, and therefore knead all of my dough by hand. I sprinkle on 2-3 T. of flour at a time, work it in until the dough starts sticking to my hand, sprinkle some more, knead and repeat.) Mist with cooking spray, flip over and mist the other side, then cover and let rise until double, about 1 hour.

As the dough is nearing double size, prepare your assembly ingredients. Combine the caramel ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil. Boil for three minutes then remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mist a 10 cup bundt pan with cooking spray and pour half of the caramel into the bottom. Sprinkle with half of the nuts and apples. Divide the dough into chunks the size of a golf ball and roll into balls. Dip each ball in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar. Place evenly around the bottom of the bundt pan. Once you have laid down half the dough balls, drizzle with remaining caramel, sprinkle on remaining nuts and apples, then layer the rest of the dough balls.

Allow to rest for about 10-15 minutes, then bake for 35-40 minutes. The top will be very golden. I noticed that one of the batches I made I skimped a little on the baking time, and while the top was golden, the bottom was just barely cooked. Err on the side of well done. You may tent foil loosely over the top if it's browning too quickly.

Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate. Serve warm.

Quiche

2010-11-06T22:18:00.000-06:00

This one is for my brother Lincoln. Alan informed me some time ago that quiche is girl food, and several of my brothers in law are on an anti-egg bandwagon, so it was refreshing to serve it to my bachelor brother and have him scarf it, take home the leftovers, then ask for the recipe. No picture with this because it was all gone by the time he asked :). I make quiche once or twice a year when Alan's gone on business trips, so this was the week for it. You can mix and match the cheeses and other fillings to suit your taste. I particularly like a nice balance of veggies, meat and cheese, and I like to put it together in layers. But it really doesn't matter. Do whatever you want. This is for two pies because the cheater pie crusts happen to come in a two pack, and a whole package of bacon divides out just right for two.

Quiche

2 refrigerated pie crusts
1 package bacon
1 red bell pepper, diced
6-8 mushrooms, sliced
3 cups chopped fresh spinach
3 cups shredded swiss cheese (or a mixture of cheeses)
10 eggs
2 cups half and half
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. each kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper

Pull the pie crusts out of the fridge and let them warm up to room temperature for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook your bacon. I prefer to bake it at 400 degrees on a foil lined rimmed baking sheet until it's nice and crisp, about 20 minutes, remove to a paper towel lined plate to cool, and crumble. Line two 10" pie pans with the crusts, prick with a fork, and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. While those are in the oven, saute the diced pepper and sliced mushrooms in a medium skillet over medium heat, using a tablespoon or two of the bacon grease for flavor. Sop up the rest of the grease with paper towels, roll them up inside the foil and chuck the whole mess. (Credit for that idea goes to Sarah and Kate at Our Best Bites - I have baked my bacon for a long time, but never thought of the foil lining/paper towel sopping...it's genius.)

Beat the eggs, half and half, nutmeg, salt and pepper together until well combined. Divide the bacon, pepper/mushroom mixture, spinach and cheese in half. Layer each quiche as follows: spinach, bacon, cheese, pepper/mushroom mixture, spinach, bacon and cheese. Pour equal amounts of the egg mixture over each quiche, making sure to coat the filling ingredients evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until the center is just set. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing so that the egg mixture will be completely set.

Fall in a Bowl

2010-10-17T21:28:00.002-06:00

Acorn Squash Soup--the best squash soup I've ever had. It isn't too sweet! I even put a bit of bacon on top as a garnish. It was SO lovely. Make it. You won't regret it.

1 chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 tsp chicken bouillon granules
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 cups chicken broth
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
3 cups mashed cooked acorn squash (I only had one acorn squash--so I made up the rest with some shredded zucchini)
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of garlic salt

In a saucepan, saute the onion, celery, carrot and red pepper in butter. Stir in flour, bouillon, dill and curry until blended. Gradually add broth and milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add the squash, salt & pepper; heat through.

In a blender, process the soup in batches until smooth. Mmmm, you are going to love this.

A shout out from Leigh Anne

2010-09-22T09:05:00.000-06:00

I have an online blogging friend that has a marvelous blog (actually several - I really don't know how she keeps them all up!) She passes through here often on her way to visit her kids at BYU, and one of these days we are just going to have to meet in person. She just featured one of my recipes from last summer on her blog. Her pictures are so gorgeous that I encourage you to go take a look - Tuscan Roasted Tomato Pesto Pasta.

Pear Pie (or tart) with Struesel Topping

2010-09-10T15:36:00.000-06:00

Something that I look forward to every summer is making fresh pear pie when the fruit is so succulent and sweet that the juice drips off your elbow. There are few things on the planet more satisfying than a perfectly ripe pear with smooth and luscious flesh.

I discovered this recipe several years ago, and unfortunately can't remember where so I can't give credit where it's due. I have, of course, tweaked it since. I usually make it as a pie, but I have this wonderful rectangular tart pan with a removable bottom that I just had to use, so the batch shown is made as a tart. The preparation is the same, but the cooking time may need to be modified just a bit.

I love the added dimensions of the lemon zest and the crispy oatmeal topping in this recipe. Truly delicious.

Pear Pie (or Tart) with Struesel Topping

Pastry for a 10" single crust pie*
3/4 cup sugar
3 T. quick cooking tapioca
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. butter, cut into small pieces
1 t. lemon zest
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
6 large ripe pears, peeled and thinly sliced.

Topping:
3/4 c. quick oats
3 T. sugar
1 T. flour
1/4 c. cold butter

Mix the sugar, tapioca, lemon juice, butter, zest, spices and salt, then add the pears and toss gently to coat. Line a 10 inch pie pan with pastry and flute the edges according to your preference. Alternatively, you may use a 10 inch round or square tart pan. Add the pear filling and spread around evenly.

Prepare the topping by mixing together the oats, sugar and flour, then cut in the butter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the filling.

Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly. This is fabulous served warm with vanilla ice cream.

*You may also make this as a traditional two crust pie, and the cooking time is about the same. Cover with foil or a pie shield if it starts to brown too quickly. I like to brush top crusts with milk and sprinkle with coarse turbinado sugar before baking for a lovely sparkly finish. I also recommend placing the pie or tart on another baking sheet before putting it in the oven. As you can see from the second photo, drips happen.

Summer Sunshine Pasta

2010-09-04T08:33:00.000-06:00

I went foraging in the gardens of my generous family members (ours was a wash this year with the whole kitchen project thing - we had no idea how much the house construction would tear up the yard), and found dozens of sweet, ripe, delicious orange and red cherry tomatoes. The wheels in my brain immediately started turning as I plotted what to do with them. Lots of possibilities. I settled on a pasta dish that can be served warm or cold, and it was delicious.

While I prepared the other ingredients, I drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the bowl full of tomatoes along with chunks of soft fresh mozzarella. The perlini size balls would have been perfect - I just couldn't find them when I went looking. If you're not a fan of fresh mozzarella, freshly shredded parmesan would be great too.

I like to make a nice balance of flavors and textures. Something salty, something sweet, something crunchy. All really good stuff. I've recently discovered grilling bacon, an idea born of sheer laziness a few weeks ago when I wanted to cook a few strips, already had the grill fired up, and wasn't in the mood to pan fry it. I learned the hard way that it's not advisable to put it on the lower rack next to the flame because the first couple of strips turned out rather carbonacious and the resulting blazing inferno was quite impressive. It does, however, work nicely on the top rack. Just don't go too far - it cooks up quickly. For this recipe, I put the chicken on the bottom rack and the bacon right above it so that the drippings would help flavor the chicken. Absolutely delicious!

Tomatoes and basil pretty much have to go together. I think there's a law about it somewhere.

The finished product. A symphony of flavors, and nice and light for a summer evening. My older daughter tried cherry tomatoes for the first time in her life while I was making this, discovered that she liked them, and tried to eat all of them before they made it into the bowl. My theory that you just have to keep offering kids the same thing over and over and over again before deciding that they'll really never eat it holds true yet again.

Summer Sunshine Pasta

1/2 a box of farfalle pasta (I prefer Barilla Plus)
3 chicken breasts, thawed and butterflied
6 strips bacon
3 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 cup cubed fresh mozzarella cheese
20 leaves fresh basil, sliced into thin strips
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Cook pasta according to al dente, then drain well. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together the cheese and tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil, and stir gently to coat. Then drizzle about 3 T. balsamic vinegar, and again stir gently to coat. Preheat a BBQ grill, season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and place them on the lower rack of the grill. Place the bacon strips directly over the chicken on the upper rack. Check the bacon after 5 minutes and turn if necessary. Flip the chicken over at about 7 minutes, or when the bottom shows nice grill marks and the top is opaque. Remove the bacon when it's cooked to your desired crispness. Grill the chicken an additional 5 or so minutes or until the juices run clear when poked. Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before cutting into thin strips.

In a large bowl, pour the drained pasta noodles in and drizzle with olive oil. Toss lightly to coat. Dump in the tomatoes and cheese, along with the oil and vinegar in the bottom of the bowl, the chicken strips, basil and crumble the bacon over the top. Stir everything gently to coat and correct seasoning as desired with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

This amount will serve about 6 people.

Ethan's Sweet Pork Sliders

2010-09-02T22:07:00.001-06:00

My kids are off track, so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to let them spend some time in the kitchen. I handed Ethan a stack of my cooking magazines and told him to select our menu for last night. He settled on Sweet Pork Sandwiches that he found in an old issue of Taste of Home, with S'more Bars for dessert. Later in the day we were driving past a restaurant that advertised sliders, and Ethan declared that we had to make small rolls. The kids had fun helping me form the rolls, and the meat was delicious. I modified a few little things, so I am posting it the way I made it. Quite sweet, but tasty. This recipe requires a substantial amount of cooking time, so plan accordingly.

Ethan's Sweet Pork Sliders

1 boneless pork shoulder butt roast (2 1/2 - 3 pounds)
1 medium sweet vidalia onion, chopped
1 T. butter
1 can (15 ounces) tomato puree
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. molasses
1/2 t. salt
Rolls of your choice

Place pork on a rack in a roasting pan and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 2 hours or until tender. (I simply used a cooling rack placed inside a 10x15 jelly roll pan, and I tried out convection mode on my oven, still at 350 degrees. It came out great at the 2 hour mark. This roast was packaged encased in a mesh sleeve to keep all the little pieces together. Leave the mesh in place until the cooking is through.) Once you remove the roast from the oven, allow it to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing to let the juices settle. Slice it into very thin pieces or shred it.

Meanwhile, in a dutch oven or other sturdy pot, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Stir the pork into the sauce and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Serve on buns.

~~~
It just so happens that since the pork takes 2 1/2 hours to get ready, that's the perfect amount of time to make your own rolls. Any of you that have been in my kitchen know that I knead by hand (no mixer, thankyouverymuch, and plus I like it that way), and that I rarely measure anything that goes into my bread doughs. I've gotten quite comfortable with the approximate ratios that work, and yeast and I are on very good terms. This is frustrating for people that want to know how I made whatever roll I served to them, because most of the time I really can't remember. I am giving you the basic principal here. The only measurement that is going to be really approximate is the flour, and that's something that varies from batch to batch depending on the humidity, how packed your flour is, what type you use, etc. That's why kneading by hand is so great - I can tell when I've got just enough by how the dough behaves. Any of you local readers are welcome in my kitchen for fun times with bread dough. It's such a satisfying skill to learn. I keep telling my kids that they are royally spoiled because I make yeast dough of some sort several times a week. I made rolls last night for dinner, and have overnight cinnamon rolls rising in the fridge. Anyway, let's get on with the recipe.

Rolls of the Wednesday Sort

2 cups warm water (warm to touch, but not so hot that you have to withdraw your finger)
1 T. yeast
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil (you may also substitute melted butter)
1 t. kosher salt
2 cups whole grain flour (I prefer a mixture of white wheat and semolina)
3-4ish cups unbleached all purpose flour

Soften the yeast in the warm water in a large bowl for a few minutes. Add in the honey, oil, salt, and whole grain flour and stir to combine. Stir in the all purpose flour cup by cup until the dough gets difficult to stir by hand. At this point, sprinkle a fairly generous layer of flour on top of the dough glob, and begin kneading by hand. Add in a handful of flour at a time until your dough glob works it's way into a lovely smooth ball that feels springy but not too stiff. It is tempting to add a LOT of flour so that it won't stick, and this is where finesse comes in. I always have a bit of dough clinging to my hand, but not a freakishly thick layer. I add just a light layer each time and work it until it starts to get sticky, then add a little bit more. Total hand kneading time is 5-7 minutes, depending on how efficient you are.

Either drizzle a little oil in the bowl or mist the dough and bowl with PAM, turning to coat. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes, or until doubled. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and cut or pull off equal globs of dough. To make the mini rolls, the globs were about walnut size. For more normal dinner rolls, a generous plum size.

It's difficult to explain how to form rolls properly, but I found this good tutorial. And again, I'd be happy to demonstrate it to any of you willing to come hang out in my kitchen. This same principal applies to how I form my round rustic loaves of bread.

Place the formed rolls on a 10x15 baking sheet that has been misted with cooking spray, cover with a towel, and allow to rise again for 30-60 minutes or until almost doubled. Preheat your oven to 375 (or 350 in convection mode). If you like a glossy top, beat an egg with a fork, then paint the egg wash over the top of each roll. You can also brush on milk or melted butter.

Bake for 10-15 minutes for tiny rolls, and 15-20 minutes for larger rolls. They are done when uniformly golden across the top and they spring back when touched. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Buttermilk Peach Pie Pancakes

2010-08-29T21:34:00.000-06:00

Our peaches are on right now. We planted the tree shortly after we moved in 9 years ago, and it has proved to be a healthy producer. This year's late frost thinned the fruit crop down substantially, but also somehow yielded us the biggest and best textured peaches we've ever gotten off of it. I've mostly been freezing them (dipped in a lemon water solution first to reduce browning), but this morning I got a hankering for that peach pie flavor. While it might be frowned upon to eat actual pie for breakfast, I figured that the following recipe was a nice compromise.

Peach Pie Pancake Topping

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 T. cornstarch OR 4 T. Ultragel
1/2 t. each ginger and cinnamon
5 large peaches, peeled and thinly sliced

Stir the water, sugar, thickener and spices in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the peaches, and continue to simmer for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is thickened and the peaches are tender. Serve warm over pancakes.

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 cup whole white wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk

Whisk together the dry ingredients while the griddle preheats. Stir in the wet ingredients until well combined. If needed, stir in a little bit more milk or buttermilk to achieve the consistency you prefer. Ladle 1/4 cup amounts onto a hot griddle and cook on the first side until the bubbles on the surface pop and leave holes. Flip over and cook on the second side until golden brown and cooked through. Slather with butter and heap a generous amount of peach topping on top.

Buttercream Frosting Transfer Tutorial

2010-08-11T09:44:00.000-06:00

I have a delightful three year old that is completely obsessed with Scooby Doo. That's what she requested for her birthday cake theme last week, so I hit the internet in search of a way to decorate her cake without undue stress. My friend Amber suggested a buttercream transfer. Looked doable, so I gave it a try and I was very pleased with the results.

The first step is to print out your design template. If you're going to be doing lettering, you'll need to reverse the image, which can be done in Word in text art, or else you can print it out frontwards then tape it to a window and trace it on the back side of the paper. I just did a simple image search on Google for my Scooby Doo picture.

Next, tape it onto a cutting board or other stiff surface that you can fit into your freezer. Tape a piece of wax paper over the top. Then, trace the outline and detailing in your desired color. I wanted black, which is hard to achieve in homemade batches, so I simply purchased a tube of Wilton squeezable frosting and used a round tip. I think that next time I will pipe a second line of frosting to form a deeper border, and then allow it to set up for 30 or so minutes before proceeding to the next step.

Next, determine the next layer of color and pipe it in. For this particular design, the whites of the eyes and teeth were next in order. I used ziplock baggies with the corner cut off - it doesn't have to be precise and pretty. You're just filling in the space. I wasn't quite careful enough, though, and laid this on a little bit thicker than I should have which resulted in a little spillover in the finished product. Lesson learned for next time!

I did the yellow detail on the collar next. I forgot the principal of reversing the lettering. Good thing three year olds aren't picky. Then I filled in the blue that surrounds the yellow.

Next, I coated the whole head in brown, covering over the eyes and teeth. I then did a layer of white over the collar to bring it up to the same level as the brown.

Last of all, I put another layer of wax paper on top and gently pressed the design down to help fill in all the little gaps, then put it in the freezer overnight. This could be made the day of, though it still needs at least a couple of hours to freeze adequately to transfer without disaster.

The next day, I laid down the background layer of frosting, pulled the Scooby Doo head out of the freezer, peeled the top layer of wax paper off, popped the design onto the cake in the right place, and peeled the bottom layer of paper off. Easy peasy!

I finished the cake off with a simple border, sprinkles and some lettering and voila! A Scooby cake! You can see where some of the piping lines showed through, which I'm sure I'll be able to clear up next time I do this. I think that a flat decorating tip might work really well for laying down the layer of frosting in large areas more evenly.

I'm my own worst critic, though, and as you can see, my daughter was 100% thrilled with it and didn't notice the little quirks. I'll definitely do this again!

Delightful apricots - syrup, jam and spicy butter

2010-08-09T22:32:00.001-06:00

My lovely sister (and fellow excellent cook) Amy was super duper awesome and picked a ton of apricots for me and even drove all the way down to deliver them. Did I mention that she's awesome? Because she is.

Anyway, now that I have my spacious and lovely kitchen with an enormous stove top, I feel ready to tackle a lot more canning and preserving. I'm a relative virgin at it - just a handful of batches of peaches and tomatoes under my belt from a few years ago - so this is a fun, new adventure. We grew up preserving food, but I was always out in the garage facing the enormous heap of fruit, pitting and pitting and pitting until I was cross eyed. I never really saw the other end of it. It was a summer tradition to go to my grandparents' house in Utah and come back with crates of ripe apricots to put up. Lots of memories tied up in that little fruit. My mom is not a big believer in sugar, so she mostly bottled straight nectar and made fruit leather out it, which we affectionately dubbed boot leather, because if you dry it just a little bit too long that's about how easy it is to chew.

Saturday morning I faced the mounds of fruit and pondered how to tackle them. I have been wanting this Victorio Food Mill for some time, but was waiting for my birthday at the end of this week. The fruit, however, was impatient and demanded that I go get one sooner. It is a very worthwhile gadget and reasonably priced - just over 50 dollars. You simply pop the pit out, then throw the whole fruit into the hopper on top and crank away and watch the magic.

Good stuff out this chute. I made so much at once that I couldn't process it quickly enough before it would have browned, so I measured off 8 cup increments, mixed in 6 T. of freshly squeezed lemon juice and poured it into gallon ziplock bags, squeezing out the excess air. I processed the last of it today (two days later) and it was just fine.

Mucky pulpy waste out of the other end. No fuss. No blanching and peeling. Just perfect sauce. You can use this for raw tomatoes and several other fruits and vegetables, and there is even a berry screen with holes small enough to catch raspberry seeds. Clean up takes a few minutes, so this is the sort of thing that you want to set up and crank your way through all of it in one go so that you don't have to tear it down and set it up again. Money very well spent, in my opinion.

I looooooove my new extra wide 5 burner cooktop. The middle burner is super big and a veritable bonfire. It heats up that big pot in no time! Unfortunately, one batch into my Saturday, the spark module went haywire and was clicking incessantly. Bah. So we wound up unplugging it, lighting it manually, and are waiting on a part to come. Thankfully it is covered under warranty.

First things first: run all of your jars through the dishwasher. By the time they're done, you'll be ready to fill them. You will also need jar tongs, a wide mouth funnel, a magnetic lid lifter (these things all come in a nicely packaged starter kit made by Ball for about 10 bucks), new lids, a canning pot with a rack, a thermometer (for some recipes), long handled wooden spoon, ladle, assorted bowls and measuring cups. You will also need to start your water bath heating up so that it will be boiling when you're ready to pour your fruit into the jars.

Next, prepare your fruit. This series of pictures is for apricot jam. I will post instructions for syrup and butter made from puree at the bottom. To make jam, choose ripe fruit. If it's too green, it won't mash well and you may get a bitter cast to your jam. Discard the pits and quarter the pieces. Some recipes call for peeling them, but I didn't and it came out just fine. The fruit I used were quite small and peeling them would have been horrid.

Mash the fruit up with the appropriate amount of lemon juice. Still chunky is good. You don't want it pureed. Stir in the sugar.

I decided that plain apricot jam, while tasty, wasn't quite fulfilling my wildest dreams. So I cut off a 2 inch piece of vanilla bean, slit it lengthwise, and scraped the seeds out of the pod. I stirred in the seed paste and also tossed the pod in (to be removed before ladeling into jars). This addition is a wonderful boost to the flavor and transforms the jam from serviceable to decadent.

Pour the sugar and fruit mixture into a large stockpot. You want at least as much headspace as the mixture is deep because when it starts boiling it expands rapidly. It might even suddenly crawl right out of the pot and all over your cooktop. I wouldn't know that from experience or anything. Just as it begins to boil, a layer of foam starts to form on top. Skim it off with a spoon and discard it. Once you get rid of that, the boiling expansion is far less.

I looked at several recipes. Some were based on timing, and were in the 20-30 minute range, while others specified a temperature to cook up to - 220 degrees. I wound up cooking my jam for far longer, more like 45-50 minutes and still never reached that magical 220 degrees. I did notice that the chunks of apricot tended to get stuck in a big clump around the base of the thermometer so that may have had something to do with it, but the end result is that I noticed the character of the jam changing to a thicker syrup around 205 and took it off then. The delicious scrapings from the bottom of the pan were plenty thick. Amy made some and cooked it by time for 25 minutes, and hers was looser and fresher. I like it both ways. You'll notice that there's no pectin in these recipes, and I really like the texture that results from letting the fruit's natural pectin do the work.

While your jam is boiling away, put your lids into a shallow pan filled with enough water to cover them. Bring it to a low simmer. Do not boil or you'll ruin the rubber and they won't seal.

Using your funnel, fill each jar until there is a 1/4" headspace. Wipe the rims with a damp cloth.

Grab a lid for each jar with your nifty lid lifter and set in place. Screw the rings on to just finger tight.

Line your lovely jars up in the water bath rack and lower it in. Make sure there's enough water to cover the lids by an inch of depth. Once the water bath gets back up to a full rolling boil, start your timer and process for the specified amount of time. When the timer rings, use your jar tongs to remove them to a dish towel to cool off. Within minutes you'll hear the satisfying pop of the lids sealing.

The trio of sauces: apricot spice syrup, apricot vanilla bean jam, and apricot spice butter. I modified each of these recipes to suit my own taste. Without further ado, the abbreviated recipes:

Apricot Spice Syrup

8 cups apricot puree

1/2 cup water

6 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice

8 cups of sugar (may reduce this to 6 cups for a lighter tasting syrup)

1/2 t. each cinnamon and ginger

2 inch segment vanilla bean pod, optional

Stir all ingredients together in a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 10 minutes, skimming the foam off. Ladle into prepared jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe rims, place lids and rings, then process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. This will yield about 5 pints.

Apricot Spice Butter

8 cups apricot puree

6 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 cups sugar

1 t. each ginger and cinnamon

Simmer over medium low heat in a large pot until reduced by about 2/3 and is thick and syrupy. Stir often to prevent burning on the bottom. Ladle into prepared jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe rims, place lids and rings, then process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. This will yield about 4 half pint size jars.

Apricot Vanilla Bean Jam

3 quarts crushed apricots

3 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice

9 cups sugar

2 inch segment of vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped

Mix all ingredients together in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cook rapidly until thick, 25 minutes for a looser set or up to 45 minutes for a thicker set, skimming foam off of the top. Ladle into prepared jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe rims, place lids and rings, then process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

For further canning reference, I recommend the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving as an excellent all purpose resource. $6 very well spent.

I feel so domestic.

Fudge Puddles

2010-07-28T17:44:00.000-06:00

My kids have inherited my love of browsing through cook books. Ethan spied this recipe in a 2004 Taste of Home cookbook and insisted on making them. The results were delicious. I did change the filling recipe because I was out of the called for sweetened condensed milk and didn't have time to run to the store. I instead made a chocolate ganache base and it was wonderful. Soft, but not drippy. Perfect counterbalance to the peanut buttery crust. These are simple to put together and my kids enjoyed rolling the balls of dough.

You can see by the variation in height that I had lots of help making these. We also managed to make 5 dozen rather than the 4 dozen listed in the recipe, not a bad thing at all! After baking the balls of dough in a mini muffin tin, I simply pushed the centers down with the end of a wooden spoon right after they came out of the oven and then let them cool for about 10 minutes before removing them from the pan.

Fudge Puddles

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Filling:
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 T. vanilla extract

Chopped salted peanuts

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then beat in the remaining dry ingredients until a dough forms. Roll into 1" balls and place each ball into the well of a mini muffin tin that has been misted with cooking spray. Bake at 325 for 14-16 minutes, until just set and the centers begin to sink.

Immediately upon removal from the oven push the centers down with a wooden spoon handle. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the filling, heat the cream up to a simmer over medium low heat in a heavy skillet. Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips and vanilla. Let it sit for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Pour the filling into a quart freezer bag, snip a small hole in the tip, and fill each cookie cup. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts if desired. The filling may not set up very firmly if your kitchen is warm. This is easily remedied by putting them in the fridge for a few minutes.

Makes 48-60, depending on the size of your dough balls.

Zucchini Overload

2010-07-27T22:12:00.001-06:00

I have been the recipient of an abundance of zucchini. Turns out that you don't even have to have a garden to wind up with a good stash - I have some very generous neighbors. I have experimented with a number of ways to use it, including these zucchini brownies. They were very tasty and very moist. The dough was a little weird as I mixed it - so dry and crumbly that I couldn't fathom how it was going to possibly come together - so I added an egg, then stirred in the grated veggies and voila! It worked. I would make them again.

I also experimented with pan frying 1/4" slices. I first sliced the rounds and sprinkled them with kosher salt while I put together the rest of the ingredients. I beat an egg with a teaspoon of water for egg wash, then mixed together a half cup each of panko bread crumbs, grated parmesan cheese, and a half teaspoon each of salt, garlic powder and dried basil. I patted each slice dry, dipped it into the egg, then into the bread crumb mixture, then fried it in a thin layer of olive oil for about 4 minutes on each side until the coating was nice and crispy. They came out tasty and would be excellent served with marinara for dipping.

Probably the favorite baked good variation of all, though, was the Chocolate Zucchini Bread from Our Best Bites. I was in a big hurry when I was putting it together and forgot the cinnamon sugar topping, but it was still devoured quickly by my coworkers and family. I baked the batter in mini loaf pans rather than the two larger ones originally called for, and they came out great.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2 cups flour
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking soda
6 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. canola oil
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. sour cream
3 c. grated zucchini
3/4 c. mini chocolate chips

Topping:
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. white sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease either 2 large loaf pans or 6 minis. Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, soda, salt and cocoa powder in small bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat together oil, sugars and eggs, then add in vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined. Gently stir in the zucchini, then fold in the flour mixture. Last of all, stir in the chocolate chips.

Divide the batter evenly between pans and sprinkle topping over each. Bake large loaf pans for 50-60 minutes, small pans for 35-40, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let loaves cool for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2010-07-13T17:04:00.000-06:00

Who says you can't have dessert for breakfast? Any time I can sneak a little dab of chocolate into my morning, I do. These are a spin off on my Banana Spice Waffles, again born of the need to use up some overripe bananas. The kids enthusiastically ate and ate and ate. Rachel downed more pancakes than I have ever seen her eat at one sitting.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 T. baking powder

2 T. brown sugar (optional)

dash of salt

1 T. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

1 T. vanilla extract

1 large ripe banana, mashed (or two medium)

1/3 cup oil

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl while your griddle heats up. In a small mixing bowl, mash the banana, then stir in the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. If it needs to be a little thinner (this depends on how juicy your bananas are) simply add a little more milk a bit at a time until it suits you.

Cook 1/4 cup dollops of batter on a buttered griddle for 3 or so minutes per side, until golden brown and cooked through. Immediately slather in butter and drizzle real maple syrup on top.

Fast fixing appetizer - Caprese Bites

2010-07-13T16:49:00.000-06:00

Ever have one of those panic moments when you find out that you're supposed to take an appetizer to a party that's only a couple hours out? Yeah...that might have happened to me this week. I am pleased to say that my kitchen is finally almost in working condition, and that the only major appliance I am now lacking is the cook top, but I didn't feel like heating the house up to bake anything. The solution was a four ingredient favorite and so simple to assemble that a kid could do it. For this particular batch, I used cubed aged mozzarella cheese rather than the divine fresh stuff, but that was only because Costco failed me on the fresh mozzarella front that day. I much prefer it, but either way it's tasty. I am not listing quantities because that entirely depends on how many you want to make, and I trust that you can figure out how to count out equal amounts of cheese, tomatoes and basil leaves.

Caprese Bites

Mozarella cheese, either fresh small balls or aged cut into 3/4" cubes
Grape tomatoes
Balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing of your choice
Fresh basil leaves

Drizzle the salad dressing over the mozarella cheese and tomatoes in a medium bowl until evenly coated. On round (non-colored) tooth picks, thread a tomato, a basil leaf and a piece of cheese. Chill until serving time.

Dutch Oven Heaven - Ribs, Potatoes and Apple Crisp

2010-06-20T10:46:00.000-06:00

We went camping this weekend with my hubby's family. Perfect time to bust out the dutch ovens. We have one much loved and well used Lodge 12" oven, and I finally opened the box of a Cabela's brand 12" oven that his parents gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago. While Lodge has always been the go-to brand of choice for me, I was very impressed by the quality of the Cabela's oven. It has the awesome bonus feature of the lid being shaped nicely on the inside so that it can be used as a griddle. My point with this rambling is that it is worth it to spend good money on a solid oven. If you see a no-name brand one for sale for 20 bucks, run the other way. It will drive you crazy and not yield the results you hope for.

I am not a scientific dutch ovener. I have a few cookbooks that I've been given over the years in which the authors expound on the number of coals on top and bottom to achieve the right cooking temperature, rotating the lid every twenty minutes, knocking the ash off, using only a particular brand of coals...blah blah blah. That takes the fun out if it, in my opinion! Just like the way I cook at home, I especially do dutch oven by the seat of my pants and 90% of the time it works just fine. The other 10% of the time it still tastes good because something about being outside = extra hungry.

I would like to bring up a couple of basic points for success, though. Work in a well ventilated area. We had a deep concrete fire pit at this camp site that we didn't use because the air flow would have been poor and taken the coals longer to heat up. We simply laid down a square of heavy duty foil and heaped half a big bag of match light coals up. Purists wouldn't use match light, but I'm not a purist :). They work just fine and are far easier to get going than plain briquets. I had the men fire up the coals while I prepped the food, and by the time the food was ready to go, the coals were too. Perfect.

You need to make sure you have a pair of heavy duty leather gloves and some tongs to move coals around. I have a lid lifter tool as well, which I think is on the "really nice to have but you can get by without it" list. The tongs I use are my favorite el-cheapo stainless steel all purpose kitchen tongs.

In general, you will need more coals on top than on bottom since there is dead air space to heat between the top and the food. For the things I cook, I just put as many coals as I can fit on top and bottom, evenly spaced. Especially at higher altitudes, you need as many as you can get. I don't have experience cooking dutch oven below 4,500 feet, so I can't give advice on the number of coals needed for you lowlanders.

If you're doing a few pots at once, stack them. I check the food every 20-30 minutes and change the stack position if necessary.

Boneless Pork Ribs

5 pounds boneless pork ribs

1 large sweet vidalia onion

2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce (we love Jack Daniel's Honey Smokehouse and Sweet Baby Ray's)

Cut the onion into thick slices, then quarter the circles so that you are left with good size chunks. Place the ribs and onion slices into a 12" dutch oven and douse them in sauce. Stir it around until everything is thoroughly coated. Put the lid on, place it over a bed of coals, cover the lid with coals and let it cook merrily away. Stir it after 45 or so minutes, then check it every 20 minutes or so thereafter and stir if needed. Cook time will be 1 - 1.5 hours, depending on how hot your coals are. You want them to be fork tender, so the longer they simmer, the more tender they'll be.

Awesome Potatoes

2 bags frozen O'brien style potatoes

2 cups carrot "pennies"

1 sweet vidalia onion, diced

1 pound bacon

2-3 T. butter or oil

salt and pepper

2 cups shredded cheddar jack cheese

Heat a 12" dutch oven over a bed of coals and toss the bacon in. Cook until browned, then remove to dice. Dump in the potatoes, carrots and onion and stir around until evenly coated with bacon grease. If there wasn't enough grease left over, add another 2-3 T. butter or oil as needed and stir well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, stir in the diced bacon and put the lid on. Cover the lid with coals and let cook for 30 minutes. Stir, and cook for another 20 minutes. The vegetables should be tender at this point and lightly golden. Sprinkle the cheese over the top in an even layer and put the lid back on for another 10-15 minutes.

Feed the thundering herd of hungry people, and chances are good that this is all you'll have left over. The quantities in these recipes fed a crowd of 13, with 4 of those people being little kids that didn't eat much.

Apple Crisp

6 large apples of assorted varieties (jonagold, golden delicious, gala, granny smith, etc.)
3 T. flour
1 T. cinnamon
4 T. butter, cubed
Cloves, nutmeg, ginger as desired

Topping:
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup whole wheat or all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon

Stir together the topping ingredients except for the butter until well combined, then cut in the butter. I often do this part with my hands to make sure that the butter gets evenly distributed. I also usually make the topping in advance to make prep easier at the campsite.

Thinly slice the apples. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and spices. Sprinkle over the apple slices and toss gently to coat. Dot butter over the apples, then layer the topping evenly over all of it.

Lay on a bed of coals and place a layer on top as well. Cook for 30 minutes, then check apple tenderness. Cook for up to an additional 20 minutes until the topping is nicely crisp and brown and the apples are fork tender. Serve warm with ice cream.

Amy's Rhubarb Custard Pie

2010-06-14T10:57:00.000-06:00

This recipe comes to us via my sister Amy, who got it from her coworker, who got it from...I don't know. The gist is that a recipe that's passed around that much generally speaks well for it. I made the most fortunate discovery at Costco of reasonably priced vanilla beans and split them in half with Amy, and she used one of the beans to make "the best vanilla ice cream ever" that you see accompanying the pie. It's definitely on my list to make as soon as my kitchen is put back together.

Rhubarb is one of those interesting ingredients that grows on you. Tart and tangy, it's not particularly wonderful on it's own, but add the right ingredients to it and you can create something magical. Amy included the quote below with her email to me, and it cracked me up. Had to include it. Happy cooking :).

"There's nothing like a piece of rhubarb pie to take the taste of shame and humiliation out of your mouth!" -- A Prairie Home Companion

Rhubarb Cream Pie

Pastry for a double crust pie of your choosing

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

3 slightly beaten eggs

4 cups cut-up rhubarb

2 Tbsp. butter

Fit a 10-inch pie plate with pastry. Set aside. Blend sugar, flour and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Add eggs, beat until smooth. Add 1/4 tsp. of red food coloring. (This I didn't do, and you will see, my pie is very un-red.) Stir in rhubarb, pour in pie shell and dot with butter. Top with lattice crust. Bake at 400 for 50-60 minutes. Cool. This pie is better after it has cooled and set a while.

Variation: Use a french topping instead of the lattice crust.

Stephanie's Cracked Wheat Raisin Bread

2010-05-30T22:01:00.000-06:00

The kitchen project is coming along at a reasonable clip and will hopefully be wrapped up in the next three weeks. In the mean time, I have 2 square feet of countertop space, half of which is covered by the microwave, a range that is intermittently plugged in and lots and lots of dirtied paper plates to my credit. I have baked a few batches of cookies because a girl can only survive so long without homemade goodies, but I haven't so much as cracked open my yeast jar since the beginning of May. And that's really saying something. I usually bake a yeast based dough at least a couple times per week.

Enter my friend Stephanie, who sensed my need for something warm, homemade and delicious. She brought over a loaf of cracked wheat raisin bread on Friday and we savored every single crumb of it. It's lovely slathered in butter. It's delicious when turned into french toast with a generous splash of orange juice and loads of cinnamon in the egg batter. The dough is enriched with brown sugar and butter, so it has a very nice feel to it. I full intend on making a batch of it as soon as my kitchen is functional again.

The recipe was originally published in the Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking several years ago.

Cracked Wheat Raisin Bread

1 1/2 cups cracked wheat

1 cup rasins

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons margarine or butter

2 cups boiling water

2 pkg. active dry yeast (4 1/2 t.)

2/3 cup warm water

5-6 cups all purpose flour

beaten egg

In large bowl, combine cracked wheat, raisins, brown sugar, salt, margarine and 2 cups boiling water. Mix well and allow to cool to 105-115 degrees F. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add to cooled cracked wheat mixture. Add 2 cups flour to cracked wheat mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened; beat 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in an additional 2 1/2-3 cups flour until dough pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.

On floured surface, knead in 1/2-1 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic; about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place until light and double in size, about 45-60 minutes.

Grease large cookie sheet. Punch down dough several times to remove all air bubbles. Divide dough into 2 parts; shape into balls (or loaves). Place on greased cookie sheet. Cover; let rise in warm place until light and double in size, about 45-60 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Uncover the dough. With sharp knife, slash 1/2 inch deep lattice design on top of each loaf. Brush with beaten egg. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped. Immediately remove from cookie sheet; cool on wire racks.

Pardon my absence

2010-05-13T09:20:00.000-06:00

This is the current state of my kitchen. Well, more like the upper photo now that we've got temporary sink plumbing in place.. Things are quite makeshift, but the remodel is going along very quickly so hopefully (fingers and toes all crossed very tightly) within 5 or so weeks I'll have the kitchen of my dreams :). The carpeted swath shows you the width of my old kitchen, now almost halfway covered with my new pantry. We pushed the wall out 12 feet, and I just went and signed off on our appliance purchases for a 36 inch gas range, double convection oven and a fridge big enough to accomodate pans of slow rising bread dough without astonishing acrobatic feats and rearranging required. We've been eating take out, mooching off of friends and family, gone through several loaves of bread (sandwich, anyone??) and a few crock pot meals here and there. I finally broke down and had to bake some cookies because I was suffering baking withdrawels and we were in a lull of dusty messes. So there you have it - my excuse for not being a very dilligent food blogger. If I come up with something fantastic, I'll post it, but I'm afraid things will be a bit sparse for the next few weeks.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand the winner is...

2010-05-03T07:15:00.000-06:00

True Random Number Generator

Min:

Max:

Result:

11

(I'm not sure how to make that look all pretty like other people do - I just copied and pasted and this is the way it came out.)

Congrats Amy H.! The citrus juicer is yours! I tried to email you off your profile, but I don't have outlook set up for that to work properly. Please send me an email at hvawdrey (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll make arrangements to get you your goodies ASAP.

Chewy Cherry Chocolate Cookies

2010-05-02T07:55:00.000-06:00

For these, I modified this recipe. The result is decadent and amazing. Dried cherries offer a nice tang that perfectly counterbalances the white and dark chocolates. I always look on the lable of dried fruits to find brands that don't use sulfur compounds in the preserving process, and was pleased to find that Costco carries a very good brand of cherries. I recently found macaroon coconut and really love using it in baking recipes. It's a fine, dry, short flake style coconut, the sort you see in packaged cookies like Samoas. For those of you in Utah, I found mine at Kitchen Kneads. In making a couple of batches of these, I messed around with the best way to chill it and discovered that wrapping a log of dough in wax paper and then simply slicing off dough rounds was far simpler than trying to scoop balls out of a hardened lump of dough. This recipe must be chilled before baking - no exceptions.

Chewy Cherry Chocolate Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 T. vanilla extract
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup macaroon coconut
4 ounces good quality white chocolate (like Ghiradelli), coarsely chopped
1 cup extra dark semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Beat in the salt, soda, flour and coconut, then stir in the chocolate and cherries. Divide the dough in half and on two 14" long piece of wax paper, form each into a 2" diameter log of dough. Roll the dough log up and twist the ends. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Slice a log of dough into 12 equal pieces and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes. The top will appear just barely set, but still quite soft in the middle. Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool. These are best if eaten within a day of baking, and should be stored in an airtight container.

**Thanks to Nan for giving me this pretty dish to take pictures of my food on :).

Chocolate frosting and kitchen gadgets...and a giveaway!!

2010-04-27T10:49:00.001-06:00

I am not a fan of crisco laden, stiff and hideously sweet frostings, so when I saw this recipe for a cream based chocolate frosting I knew that I had to try it. Honestly, the cupcakes weren't anything to write home about and I don't think I'd use that cake base again, but I did like the frosting. It pipes nicely and holds it's shape without being too stiff. I made these the day before leaving town and hurriedly threw the rest in the fridge and was pleased to find that 5 days later they still taste good and the frosting is still in great shape. It's not a super gooey chocolate lover type frosting, but a good, serviceable milk chocolate flavor every day frosting.

Chocolate Cream Frosting

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

pinch of salt

In a heavy medium saucepan, heat all of the ingredients together over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the cocoa blends in to the mixture. (If your cocoa powder is particularly lumpy, you may want to sift it first.) Remove from heat and allow it to cool to room temperature, then pour it through a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours, then beat with an electric mixer until it forms medium peaks and reaches a good spreading consistency. This must be stored in the refrigerator.

Now, let's talk about some of my favorite kitchen gadgets. My kitchen is currently quite small. A "two cheek kitchen", so to speak. More than two people in there at once makes for a cozy experience. Three months from now, when this construction mess is all out of the way, I'll have myself a much more serviceable space with a lovely 7 foot island, double convection oven, 36" gas range...all sorts of goodies. In the mean time, though, I've had to be quite choosy about what gadgets make their way into my limited cabinet space. As I've said before, I don't have a stand mixer of any sort, in part because of the space issues. So the things I do have are tried and true. The first things on display are disposable decorating bags. So useful! I've had several reuseable sets that have split within the first couple of batches, causing me great frustration. Ever since I found these lovely little Wilton bags (available at most craft stores in the wedding cake section), I've not looked back. Go for the larger size - you won't regret it. Along with it, grab yourself a nice oversized star tip and you can easily pipe fancy pancy looking cupcakes like the ones above. No more crookedly slathered frosting.

This mango slicer is a newcomer, but one that my mom insisted that I need. The way I have always sliced a mango is to slice two big slabs off, as close to the pit as possible, then score the flesh down to the peel, pop it inside out and slice those lovely poking out chunks off. That always leaves behind two nice swaths of fruit on the sides of the pit. Enter this handy dandy gadget, which, with one push, neatly leaves the pit behind and maximizes the amount of fruit. This was about 12 dollars, and is OXO brand. I wouldn't rate this as a completely necessary thing in my kitchen, but it's definitely nice to have. I make lots of mango salsa.

This citrus squeezer is a real gem. Absolutely worth it's space in my drawer. My mom gave me this for Christmas, and I'm amazed at how well it juices limes and lemons. I have a couple of other juice gadgets that don't even compare.

I had all sorts of clever things in mind to add to these little tongs since they appear to be having a nice conversation, but got distracted and didn't get that far, so you'll have to use your imagination. The all metal ones on the right are my BBQ grill work horses. I have an 18" long set of true BBQ tongs that came with a grill tool set that languishes in my drawer because they're so unwieldy. These ones are perfect for pretty much everything. I also use them for salad, and I prefer them over a salad fork and spoon. The blue ones are newcomers, and I found them at Tai Pan Trading company for less than 5 bucks. They earn their keep serving salad as well as flipping meat over in my non-stick skillets.

Last but not least, my favorite basting brush. The bristles are made of silicone, AND you can see the middle layer of bristles is specially designed to slurp up extra sauce. I love love love this brush. It's OXO brand, and less than 10 bucks. I use this for grilling, brushing butter on pastries, egg washes and all sorts of stuff.

I have some other kitchen favorites, like my Roul Pat pastry mat, Calphalon pans and nice knives, but I am unfortunately not made of money so I can't be giving any of those away :).

Here's the good news, though. Leave me a comment about which of these gadgets you'd like the most. I will close this on May 2nd at midnight and randomly draw one name. The lucky winner will get the gadget they asked for AND a dozen delicious cookies. The type will depend on how far away you are from me - some varieties ship better than others. If your profile is set to private, leave me some way to contact you if you win.

Fudgy brownies with gooey mint ganache

2010-04-15T09:25:00.001-06:00

I long for a from-scratch brownie recipe that yields the same texture as a box mix. That shiny crackled top, wonderfully chewy edges, just barely cooked through and gooey in the middle sensation. Alas, I have not found one yet, so if you have one to share, please post it in your comments. This recipe is good, particularly with the ganache on top, and one that I'll make again...it's just not quite that brownie nirvana that I was hoping for. I didn't add chocolate chips into the batter when I made this on Monday, but I will in the future. The more chocolate, the better! This recipe (minus the frosting) is from the Better Homes and Gardens 75th Anniversary edition cook book.

Fudgy Brownies with Gooey Mint Ganache

1/2 cup butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional...but not really)

Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 t. peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, cool.

Grease an 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 pan. Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture, then add the eggs one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon after each addition until just combined. Stir in the vanilla, then the flour and baking soda. If desired, stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Spread batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 minutes for an 8x8 or 25 minutes for a 9x9, then cool on a wire rack. To make the ganache, bring the cream to a low simmer in a medium saucepan, pull off the heat, and add the chocolate chips and peppermint extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth. Pour/spread over the brownies. If you want it to set up, refrigerate for 20-30 minutes before serving (but I personally like it a little on the gooey side!)

***Please note that I corrected this recipe on 4/30 to include 2/3 cup flour. If you printed it out before then you'll need to reprint :).

Simple Poppyseed Salad Dressing

2010-04-13T10:24:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I made the most scrumptious salad. Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of it until it was scattered most unattractively across my plate, so you'll have to use your imagination. In my opinion, salads should be interesting, colorful, have a contrast of flavors and textures, and be packed with nutrition. I composed the one yesterday of spring mix and baby spinach, chunks of orange, sliced strawberries, large dices of avocado, crisply fried bacon, slivered almonds candied with a kick of cinnamon and cayenne, and chunks of chicken. Delicious! A little sprinkling of blue or feta cheese would have just been the icing on the proverbial cake, but I was limited simply to what I had on hand when I made this creation.

The dressing is something that my little sister made for a family gathering once. I couldn't remember the exact proportions, and I believe that she added milk to hers, but mine came out great, and with just 4 ingredients, you can't beat the simplicity. If you're looking to cut calories, use fat free mayo, and if you're really desparate to cut more calories, I *suppose* you could use artificial sweeteners. I personally hate artificial sweeteners, though, and would be more inclined to try something like stevia instead. This is a sweet/tangy dressing that works well with the addition of other flavors, such as orange juice or zest.

Simple Poppyseed Salad Dressing

1/2 cup mayonaise (reduced fat is just fine)

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

2-3 T. sugar, to taste

1 T. poppyseeds

Stir all ingredients together and let rest for 30 minutes to allow the sugar to dissolve, then stir again just before serving.

Let's talk about grains

2010-04-05T09:44:00.000-06:00

Here's a little tour of what I have in my pantry. I'm sure I left a grain or two out, but this is at least a good sampling. On the top row, from left to right, you see red and white quinoa, unbleached all purpose flour, semolina flour, a whole grain blend that includes white wheat, spelt and barley, dark rye flour, and buckwheat flour. On the bottom row you see hard white winter wheat, spelt, rye, barley, brown rice and white basmati rice. Some of these I don't have much experience with yet but am anxious to try out.

I have strong feelings in particular about the unbleached all purpose flour, white wheat and semolina. I converted all of my baking flour to unbleached flour about a year ago. My brand preference, for those of you in Utah, is Lehi Roller Mills Turkey Blend, which you can purchase at Costco in 25 pound bags. It's got an excellent and consistent flavor. I didn't realize how accustomed I've become to unbleached flour until I went home to visit my sister and parents a few weeks ago, and my sister opened a bucket of bleached flour for us to bake with. The sharp chemically tang smacked me in the face immediately. No thanks.

My mom always uses red wheat. It's got a heartier flavor and darker color. There's no nutritional difference between white and red wheat - it's entirely a flavor preference. I personally far prefer the white wheat, and in particular, I purchase Montana Milling Company hard white winter wheat. I've tried a number of other brands of white wheat over the years that haven't been up to snuff, where the MMC stuff has been consistently good. The amount of gluten/protein in wheat varies widely depending on the grower and region, so once you find something that works well for you, stick with it.

Semolina is my golden girl, literally. It's a whole grain flour milled frum durum wheat, though as you can see in the photo above, it's a grainier flour and a texture that's difficult to mimic with a home use grain mill, so I purchase it pre-ground. I add a half or full cup of it to nearly all of my roll, pizza and bread dough recipes. I love the clean, bright flavor it lends. It also works well as a dusting flour on baking sheets for things like pizza and rustic breads and is far less gritty than cornmeal.

Lately, when I've been grinding my whole grain flour, I routinely mix multiple grains rather than using straight whole wheat. White wheat/spelt/brown rice and white wheat/spelt/barley are the most common combinations, but I've been known to throw in quinoa and rye. I find that if I'm baking a 100% whole grain loaf, I need to be a little careful about how much gluten free grain I add to the mix (like rye, quinoa and buckwheat), but when it's mixed with all purpose flour, it's not been an issue. The three grains that I add sparingly because they have a strong flavor are white quinoa, rye and buckwheat. I just purchased the red quinoa a few days ago and am anxious to try it. Right out of the bag, it has a milder scent. I'm not sure if it is simply due to it being a different brand or if it's a true difference between the two varieties.

The main point of this post is simply to encourage you to try something different. Don't be afraid of adding some whole grain into your current favorite recipes. If you're not accustomed to eating and baking with whole grains, I recommend replacing 1/3 of your all purpose flour in a recipe with whole grain rather than transitioning straight to whole grain. Your digestive tract, if unaccustomed to whole grain, will take some time to adjust, but ultimately whole grains are so good for you, and each has something unique to offer. My grain mill is the best wedding present I got, because you can't beat freshly ground flour. Because whole grain flour has the germ and oils mixed in that are lacking in white flour, you should store it in the refrigerator or freezer if you will not be using it within a couple of weeks.

Cheddar Bacon Cornbread Muffins

2010-03-25T07:37:00.001-06:00

These are a fantastic accompaniment for a hearty bowl of soup. I took the basic cornbread muffin recipe out of my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and simply added some whole kernel corn, shredded bacon and cheddar cheese with very pleasing results. I think they'd be awesome with pepper jack cheese, but in deference to the wimpy taste buds in my house I stuck with cheddar. I ate the last one the next day and it was nice and moist. I'll definitely make these again.

Cheddar Bacon Cornbread Muffins

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal (I used yellow)
2-3 T. sugar
2 1/2 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup whole kernel corn, fresh or canned, drained
1/4 cup shredded real bacon bits
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and generously mist a regular sized muffin pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk and oil. Add the liquid to the flour mixture all at once and stir until just moistened. Fold in the corn, bacon and cheddar cheese and spoon equal amounts into the muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are lightly golden brown and the tops spring back when you depress lightly with your finger. Serve immediately or remove to a wire rack to cool.

Seared Pink Peppercorn and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

2010-03-22T22:22:00.001-06:00

I went to Colorado last week with my kids for a quick trip to see my family. I made time for a trip to the Savory Spice Shop, and just like the first time I went there, it was very very worth it (pssst...they do flat rate shipping). I came away with a sack full of culinary inspiration. The flavors of freshly ground spices will absolutely knock your socks off and flood you with desire to whip up something delicious in the kitchen. I am particularly partial to their True Ceylon Cinnamon, which is sweet and so cinnamony it almost seems fake. This time, I also purchased a bottle of their Vietnamese cinnamon, which they told me is their absolute top seller. It's also very cinnamony but the sweetness is tempered with a firey kick. Cardamom, achiote paste, California bay leaves, a microplane grater with some whole spices included, a moroccan blend called Ras El Hanout, crystallized ginger and some pink peppercorns rounded out my purchase. I've already used almost all of them. The achiote goes into my Puerco Pibil. I tossed a bay leaf into my pot of "cream of whatever's in the fridge" soup. I made a chicken and apricot recipe with the Ras El Hanout, and I added cardamom and crystalized ginger along with hunks of dark chocolate to my gingersnap recipe with awesome results. I'm all about tweaking old recipes to make them better.

So let's talk about the pink peppercorns. I wouldn't have even tried them if the guy at the store hadn't made me. They're not hot peppery like you'd expect. More like a blast of pine flavor with a little zip at the end. I knew immediately that they'd be most excellent paired with pork and rosemary with a fruity finish, and I was right. You could absolutely substitute coarsely ground fresh pepper in this recipe, but if you can ever get your hands on the pink ones, give them a try for sure! It turns out that they're not actually peppercorns at all, but are related to cashews. Who'da thunk it? Here's my creation:

Seared Pink Peppercorn and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin (generally around 2 pounds)

2-3 T. olive oil

kosher salt

1 T. pink peppercorns (or 1/2 T. freshly ground pepper)

2 large sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves stripped

High quality cherry or apricot preserves (Bonne Maman is my personal favorite)

In a large, oven proof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat for a few minutes. Sprinkle the tenderloin with salt, peppercorns and rosemary, and sear on all four sides for 2-3 minutes each, rotating with tongs. Pop the skillet into an oven heated to 400 degrees and cook for an additional 30-40 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 155-160 degrees. (I have found that with a lower rimmed skillet, the cooking time will be shorter than this, and with a high rimmed pot that's more like a dutch oven, the cook time can be as high as 50 minutes, so definitely go off the meat temperature). Remove from the oven and roll the meat around just a bit in the drippings to soak up all the flavor. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Fruit preserves are an excellent accompaniment, and if you are so inclined, the pan drippings would make an excellent gravy. I recommend serving this with a side of roasted root vegetables.

Double the Pleasure & Double the Recipes

2010-03-21T19:03:00.003-06:00

There's lots of soup making going on at my house right now. I'm trying to get in some extra vegetables AND take advantage of some cool spring days. As a result, I've been cooking up a storm. Gina's blog is just amazing and I have enjoyed the "leftovers" for days following. One of the advantages to living alone is that I only cook 2-3 times a week and eat like a queen. So, here are the two soup recipes I tested out last week. They were healthy and wonderful. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Potato Leek Soup
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 6 • Size: 1 cup • Calories: 159 • Points: 2.75 ww points

1 bunch leeks (about 4) dark green stems removed
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter
4 cups fat free chicken stock (or vegetable broth for vegetarians)
1/2 cup 2% milk
salt and fresh pepper

Wash leeks very carefully to remove all grit. I usually cut them horizontally and separate the rings to make sure no dirt remains. Coarsely chop them when washed.

In a medium soup pot, melt butter and add flour on low flame. Using a wooden spoon, mix well. This will thicken your soup and give it a wonderful flavor.

Add chicken stock, leeks, onion, potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low for about 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are soft. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth adding the milk and adjusting salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Cream of Broccoli Soup
I omitted the cheese for waistline purposes, but I'm certain it would have been divine!
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 servings • Time: 20 minutes • Points: 2.5 ww point

3 cans fat free chicken broth
1/2 cup milk (2 percent)
2 tbsp low fat sour cream
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 onion chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
5 cups broccoli florets (head of 2 large bunches)
ground black pepper to taste

In a medium sized stock pot, bring chicken broth, onions, carrots, garlic, and celery to a boil. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Add broccoli, milk and pepper and cook, covered, 10 more minutes. Add sour cream and puree soup. Adjust pepper to taste and heat through over medium heat. Add cheddar cheese and serve.

*Please note that I give all the credit to Gina for these recipes, but this blog serves as a virtual recipe book of sorts and I didn't want to lose these recipes in cyberspace.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

2010-03-14T13:03:00.000-06:00

Adapted from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 Serving Size: 1.5 cups Calories: 137 Points: 1.5 ww points

4 large red bell peppers, roasted seeds removed
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable stock)
1 medium russet potato, peeled and chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp fat free sour cream
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

I usually just roast my peppers in the oven under the broiler until they are black. Turn your peppers frequently, as needed until the skin has turned completely black and starts to blister. When the entire pepper skin has turned black, remove the peppers place them into a bowl.

Cover the bowl with a lid or a dish to make it airtight to build up steam. Let the peppers rest in the bowl for 10 minutes. Uncover, remove from the bowl and the skin will slide off easily. Cut the pepper in half to core and remove seeds.

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, and herbs and saute until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the broth, roasted bell peppers, and potato. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cover, simmer until the potatoes are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

With an immersion hand blender, puree the soup in the pot with the sour cream until it is smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the grated parmesean and ladle into bowls.

Cherry Almond Streusel Muffins

2010-03-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

These luscious beauties are really so much a treat that it seems sinful to eat them for breakfast. But that didn't stop me. Nosiree! I've had my eye on this recipe for a long time, one of the many gems that I found in my Jackson Hole Cooks cookbook. That book alone made our trip to Yellowstone worth it! The original recipe calls for raspberry jam, but I have such a fondness for the Bonne Maman cherry preserves that I had to try it that way. I was not disappointed. The list of ingredients looks long and daunting, but it really only took a few minutes to put together and they were very worth the effort. These earned universal thumbs up from everyone but my 2 1/2 year old, but her opinion doesn't count ;).

I found that the quantity of cream cheese filling in the original recipe was roughly double what I needed. I used the excess in a pan of cream cheese brownies - a real tragedy to be sure - but I'd rather not have to deal with extra so I am posting it with half the amount. The batter is very thick and reminiscent of biscuit dough. I recommend dividing it in half before you begin filling the muffin cups to make sure you don't run out of it for the tops. I lightly pressed it into the cups, leaving a little depression in the middle to cradle the filling.

Even so, I didn't have as much batter for the tops and I was concerned that the filling would make a mess. I was generous with the streusel topping, which proved to help seal things together nicely.

The finished product. Soft, slightly nutty topping, creamy filling in the middle and 100% decadent. Enjoy!

Cherry Almond Streusel Muffins

Muffin:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 t. each baking powder and baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/2 cup cold, firm butter (no substitutes!)

1 egg

3/4 cup sour cream

1 t. almond extract

Muffin filling:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 egg yolk

2 T. sugar

1/2 t. vanilla extract

2/3 cup cherry preserves (or other fruit preserves of your choice)

Streusel topping:

1/3 cup flour

2 T. sugar

2 T. cold, firm butter

1/3 cup sliced almonds

1/2 t. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12 cup regular sized muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside. In a small food processor, combine all of the streusel ingredients and pulse a few times until combined and roughly chopped. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry muffin ingredients. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream and almond extract until smooth, then add to the flour mixture, stirring until the mixture is just moistened.

Divide the batter in half and place equal amounts of the first half in each muffin cup, leaving a slight depression in the middle. Divide the cream cheese filling equally between the cups, and top off with a dab of jam. Divide the remaining batter between the muffin cups and spread it as close to the edges as you can to cover the filling. Sprinkle a generous amount of streusel topping over each muffin. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and serve immediately.

Saturday Night BBQ Chicken Calzones

2010-03-01T17:03:00.001-07:00

These were a product of my husband's imagination. You have to understand, first of all, that he is a die hard red sauce + meat + cheese and none of this funny business on his pizza kind of a guy. So I was pleasantly surprised when he specifically asked me to make calzones with barbecue sauce and chicken in them, and I took off from there. They were really, really tasty, I must say. The kids ate seconds. We enjoyed the leftovers the next day. Definitely a must make again recipe.

See all that melty cheesy saucy goodness? YUM!

Calzones

Double batch of pizza crust dough**
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, thawed
kosher salt, fresh ground pepper
Barbecue sauce of your choice (we prefer Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 recipe or Honey Smokehouse)
1 large bell pepper, preferably orange, yellow or red
1 small purple onion
olive oil
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup real bacon bits

Make your pizza crust according to the directions. While it is rising, fire up the grill and let it preheat at medium for a few minutes. Sprinkle kosher salt and pepper over the chicken breasts, and put them on the grill. Cook for 7-8 minutes on the first side. Meanwhile, slice the purple onion into 1/4 thick rounds, not separating the rings, and quarter the bell pepper so that you have relatively flat slabs. Drizzle a little olive oil over the veggies and carefully toss to coat, leaving the onion rings intact. Sprinkle a little more salt and pepper on top. Add them to the grill when you flip the chicken breasts over, taking care to place the peppers farther away from the flames because they'll burn quickly if you're not careful.

Baste the newly exposed cooked side of the chicken breast with sauce, and shut the lid for another 7-8 minutes. Flip the chicken over one last time and baste again with sauce, and and flip over the veggies at the same time. If you're feeling really snappy, drizzle a little sauce on them too. Once the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is nicely caramelized but not burned, remove the chicken and veggies to a plate and let the chicken rest for a few minutes before slicing into thin strips. At this point, you will slice the pepper slabs into 1/4" wide strips and separate the onion rings.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a couple of baking sheets lightly with cooking spray. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a circle about 8" in diameter. Place a helping of peppers, onions, chicken, cheese and bacon on each one and finish it off with a generous tablespoon (or so) of sauce. Pull the sides up and pinch to close. If you want to be all fancy and scientific about it, mix the filling around a little bit, but I found that it worked just fine this way.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the calzones are uniformly golden brown, and devour immediately. I have a sneaking suspicion that these would be awesome with a little bit of well drained pineapple, but a certain someone in my house doesn't think you should add fruit to pizza or pizza-like concoctions.

**This particular batch of dough I used both white wheat and semolina flour as my whole grain mix along with all purpose flour as directed in the recipe. I find that I really really love semolina in pizza doughs. It adds a brightness of flavor and I love the sunshiney yellow color.

Tropical Paradise Salad

2010-02-28T22:51:00.002-07:00

I'm sick of winter. I was hopeful that if I made a wild and springy salad, it would warm up outside, but I found myself eating the leftovers as I watched snow flakes flutter down. It was delicious anyway :). The dressing is something that I haphazardly threw together, tasting and adjusting as I went. It's very likely that I'll come up with a different version in the future, but the basic bones of it were good. Light and citrusy, which is what I was going for. I made this for a crowd, and was able to prepare everything in advance and assemble it at the last minute.

Tropical Paradise Salad

1 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
dash cayenne pepper
1/4 t. freshly ground sea salt
1/2 t. cinnamon

2 chicken breasts
3 T. honey
2 T. butter
freshly ground sea salt and pepper
1/2 t. dried tarragon

1 mango, peeled and diced
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1 cup sliced sweet bell peppers (I used mini colorful sweet peppers found at Costco)
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 bag prewashed baby salad green mix
1 avocado, diced (and with a splash of lime juice if you're not going to eat it right away)

Dressing:
1/2 cup coconut milk
zest and juice of one lime
one orange, zested, and juice sqeezed out of half of it, fruit removed from the other half and added to the mix
2 T. honey
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup pineapple juice
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

To make the almonds, heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat, then add the almonds, cooking for 3-5 minutes and stirring a few times until they begin to toast. Meanwhile, mix the sugar, cayenne, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle 3/4 of that mix evenly over the nuts, then wait until the sugar starts to liquify. Stir gently until most of the sugar is melted and coating the nuts. Remove from heat and immediately sprinkle the remaining sugar over them and stir until it's evenly distributed. Immediately dump out onto a piece of parchment to let them cool.

You may certainly use prepared grilled chicken strips or diced rotisserie chicken as a time saver. To prepare it the way I did (though I always prefer to grill - it was just too cold), add two chicken breasts right from the freezer into a large nonstick skillet with a tightly fitting lid. Add 1/4 cup of water to the pan, and season the breasts with the salt, pepper and tarragon. Put the lid on and simmer over medium low heat for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid, put a pat of butter on each breast and a generous squirt of honey, put the lid back on for another 2-3 minutes until the juices begin to caramelize, then flip the breasts over and again put the lid on for another 2-3 minutes. Remove the lid for the last 2-3 minutes to allow the juices to reduce into a lovely syrup. Pull the pan off the burner and let the chicken rest for several minutes before dicing.

Assemble the salad by laying down the bed of lettuce on the bottom, then sprinkling the fruit, veggies, chicken, nuts and cheese on top. Prepare the dressing by processing all of the ingredients but the oil in the blender. Once the blender is spinning, add the oil in a thin stream. This will help it emulsify nicely so that it won't separate later. If you want a little bit of a kick, a couple drops of tabasco or a dash of cayenne will do the trick nicely. A dab of dijon mustard would add a nice tang as well.

If you are not going to serve immediately, I recommend having the dressing separate. This quantity will serve 4 main dish salads.

Moist and Chewy Granola Bars

2010-02-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

When the weather is gray and murky, I turn to food blog surfing for comfort and inspiration. Bring on the carbs, I say! Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for granola bars that caught my eye. Just like everything else I cook, I used that recipe as a basic guideline and really just did my own thing. I'm pleased to say that the pan of gooey nuts, craisins and oats turned into some really wonderfully tasty bars. I'm not sure I can go quite as far as calling them truly healthy, because they do have butter and brown sugar in them, but I used a nice blend of whole wheat flour, oats, flax, pure almond butter, cashews, almonds and sunflower seeds to counteract them, and skipped the corn syrup in favor of honey and maple syrup. This is the sort of recipe that you can unleash your imagination for combination possibilities and be hard pressed to go wrong. I'm thinking they're a great grab-n-go breakfast choice.

Moist and Chewy (and even mostly healthy) Granola Bars

Dry ingredient mix:

1 2/3 cup quick rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 cup ground flax seed

2-3 cups your choice of nuts and dried fruits (I used sunflower seeds, cashews, almonds, coconut and craisins), chopped coarsely if desired

Wet ingredient mix:

6 T. melted butter

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/3 cup peanut or almond butter

1 t. vanilla (optional)

Prepare an 8x8 square pan or an 11x7 rectangular pan by lining it in one direction with parchment paper, allowing some overhang for easy removal after baking. Lightly mist the ends of the pan that are not covered with parchment. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together until well combined. In a small bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients together, then stir into the dry ingredient mixture until everything is uniformly coated. Press into an even layer in the pan.

Bake the bars for 30 minutes, or until the edges and top are golden. It will still yield to touch in the center, but will set up as it cools. Allow it to cool in the pan for 20 minutes or so before gently lifting it out by the parchment paper overhang onto a wire rack. Once it is entirely cool, cut into bars with a serrated knife. Store in a tightly closed container. SK says you can freeze these - I doubt they'll last long enough here for that to be an issue ;).

Sun Dried Tomato Penne Bake

2010-02-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

This is one of those random creations that I put together that turned out well enough that it warrants duplicating. I have a problem with creativity in the kitchen. Stuff turns out tasty, and then I can't remember what I put in it when I want to make it again. That's half the reason I started food blogging! Anyway, back to this recipe. This is a concept that is very adaptable and I think would be totally amazing with some grilled zucchini, fresh basil or roasted tomatoes in the height of summer. I meant to put asparagus in it but totally spaced it...I'll have to make it that way next time. You can also easily prepare it in advance and pop it into the oven right before dinner. I made two pans full of it, one so that I could feed my family at the usual time, and a second for a batch of visitors that were later in coming, and it worked out just fine.

Sun Dried Tomato Penne Bake

1/2 pound penne pasta, cooked al dente and drained (I prefer Barilla Plus pasta)

2 chicken breasts

kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

3 T. each lemon juice and honey

1 cup sun dried tomato strips packed in oil

10 mushrooms

2 T. butter

1/2 cup shredded real bacon

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

3/4 cup cream

1/4 cup pine nuts

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and grill over medium high heat for about 7 minutes on each side. Before you turn them over for the first time, baste them with a mixture of lemon juice and honey, then baste again right after turning and one last time a minute or so before you take them off the heat. Set aside on a plate covered with foil to rest for a few minutes before slicing.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mist a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and pour the drained penne into the pan. Meanwhile, heat up a large skillet over medium heat, add the butter and let it melt, then add the mushrooms and saute until just starting to turn golden. Season with salt and pepper, toss in the bacon bits just to heat them up, then pull the pan off the heat.

Pulse the sun dried tomatoes in a food processor until loosely pureed. Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips. Stir the chicken breast strips, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon gently into the pasta until everything is well combined. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top of it all, then drizzle the cream evenly over the top of the cheese. Sprinkle the pine nuts on top and cover with foil.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until heated through and the cheese is melted, then turn the broiler on high and broil for 3-5 minutes until the cheese and pine nuts are nicely golden and toasted. Serve immediately. (If you put it in the fridge for a while before cooking, you may need to add an extra 5-10 minutes of cook time.)

Chile Verde, Take 1

2010-02-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

My buddy Emily pointed me toward a blog that one of her chef friends started recently as a way to test drive his recipes before he publishes them in a cook book. The recipe that immediately caught my eye is this one for Chile Verde. Emily made it and gave me a few modification tips. Since I don't use alcohol in my cooking, the beer had to go. I also left out the orange peel/juice and used lime juice instead at Alan's request. When I went to the store to buy peppers, there were no Poblanos in sight, so I had to settle for Pasillas. I left out the Maggi, an optional ingredient. I did find that at the store and in reading the label found that it's basically just MSG, something I avoid if possible. It wasn't spicy enough for Alan's taste, so I added a bit of cayenne and chipotle flakes at the end.

I loved it that way - he still says it's missing that elusive "something". He spent two years down on the border of Texas and Mexico and has strong opinions about the perfect batch of chile verde. He deemed it very good, just not exactly what he had in mind. I have to say that I loved it even more the second day after the flavors had mingled in the fridge. I melted some cheese in it and scooped it up with chips. Sloppy chip dip, but utterly delicious :), and the texture was great. I am posting this recipe the way I made it, which deviates somewhat from BDL's posted recipe, so if you're a purist, look at both of them and make your own variation. I can foresee more batches in our future, and I plan on planting tomatillos in our garden this year.

Chile Verde, Take 1

3 pounds pork, cut into 1 inch cubes, taken from the shoulder, butt or country ribs (I used boneless ribs)
1 T. salt
1 T. black pepper
6 T. flour
6 T. vegetable oil
2 onions, cut in large dice
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds tomatillos, husks, stems and cores removed and cut in quarters (about 8-10 tomatillos)
1 T. ground cumin
1 T. dried Mexian oregano
1 cinnamon stick
3 cups chicken stock
3 Anaheim chiles, seeded, de-veined and cut into 1/2" squares
3 Pasilla or Poblano peppers, seeded, de-veined and cut into 1/2" squares
1/2 a yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2" squares
1-2 jalapenos, seeded, de-veined and minced
1/2-3/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
Additional spices added to taste at the end: salt, fresh cracked pepper, chipotle flakes, cayenne pepper, cumin and cinnamon.

Put the flour, salt and pepper in a bag. Flour the pork in three batches by shaking until well coated. Preheat a braising pan over medium high heat (I used an oval magnalite pot that has about an 8 quart capacity). Add 4 T. oil and heat it up until the air above it appears to shimmer. Add as much pork as you can fit without the pan being overcrowded, and brown it well on all sides, then remove and reserve on a plate until all of the pork is done. Add more oil as necessary. Then add the onions and cook until translucent, add the garlic and cook for another minute.

(This is where I deviated, totally by accident - not paying attention - to his prep instructions). Add the peppers into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften, then add the chicken stock, and stir well, scraping any lovely brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatillos, cumin, oregano, cinnamonstick, and pork and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to bring it to a simmer, cover, and allow to cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

I prefer my sauce without big chunks other than the meat, so at this point, I fished out the pork chunks with a slotted spoon, then used an immersion blender to loosely puree the peppers, tomatillos and onions. Add the pork back in, taste the seasoning and correct as needed, add the cilantro and lime juice, and simmer uncovered for another 30-45 minutes. We had guests that arrived later in the evening, so I left it on the stovetop at a low simmer for another 2 hours, and the texture and flavor were even better.

We ate this with a side of black beans (seasoned with a splash of lemon juice and a dash of cumin), cilantro lime rice, shredded cheese, and hunks of tortilla to scoop it up. Alan has informed me that real Mexicans use tortillas instead of forks. The texture of this sauce would be fabulous as an enchilada sauce or to smother burritos, and I imagine that it would freeze quite well. I can see this being a big batch thing to do in the summer when I have oodles of produce and freezing it for a special winter treat.

Excellent breadmaking advice

2010-02-10T09:35:00.003-07:00

Sorry to be MIA. I've had a bit of a cooking mojo slump as I am in the middle of some big transitions. We're also preparing to blast our kitchen and dining room wall out and expand by 12 feet, so I have this sneaking suspicion that you'll be getting a lot of grill and crock pot recipes on here during the worst of that in a couple of months. I can only stand take out food so many days in a row :).

I finally got my mill back and am getting all geared up to try some new grain mixtures. In particular, I am curious to see how a 1:1:1 mixture of brown rice, spelt and white wheat treats me. This has been recommended by my friend Jerrianne who is even more bold and fearless about incorporating whole grains into her diet than I am.

Since I haven't had time to come up with anything awesome, I would like to direct you to my friend Emily's blog. She's a very careful cook, the sort that actually weighs her ingredients and checks temperatures of things, and consequently gets great consistency of results. Unlike me, the queen of dump-it cooking. So whenever I get too frustrated with my concoctions, or have a question about a particular method, she 99.9% of the time has the right answers and is very patient about explaining things. She just posted an excellent tutorial about some breadmaking basics that I think is very worth your time to read, especially if you're a yeast-a-phobe and are timid about jumping into the art of making magic with dough.

So pay Emily a visit, leave her a comment, and browse her other recipes. She is a total from scratch cooker out of necessity due to food allergies, and I totally love it. Since becoming aware of her allergies, I have transitioned to many of the same brands of basic ingredients that she uses and have become increasingly aware of how icky I feel when I eat processed, preservative laden, MSG enhanced stuff. You'll notice that very few of my recipes use pre-fab ingredients either.

Happy cooking~

Semolina Sweetheart Rolls

2010-02-03T10:17:00.003-07:00

These lovelies are simply a variation of the Semolina Bread I posted last. I added a splash of molasses for an extra flavor boost and formed them in muffin tins. My kids were delighted to discover that they look like hearts.

I have a new absolute favorite jam - Bonne Maman Cherry Preserves. My local grocery store carries it, and it is a slice of heaven! No nasty corn syrup to sully the flavor of the marvelous concoction of ripe cherries and sugar. It's totally amazing on these rolls and we've also found it to be delicious inside crepes with a dollop of whip cream and a few slivered almonds.

~~~

Semolina Sweetheart Rolls

~~~

1 1/3 cups warm water

2 t. active dry yeast

3 T. butter

3 T. molasses

4 T. honey

3/4 t. kosher salt

1 1/2 cups semolina flour

1 1/2-2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

~~~

In a medium bowl dissolve the yeast in the water until softened. Stir in the butter, molasses, honey, salt and semolina flour and let this mixture rest for 10-15 minutes until it begins to rise and bubble.

~~~

Stir in enough all purpose flour until it forms a nice glob, then sprinkle a generous amount over the top and knead it in, adding more flour as needed until it forms a smooth and elastic ball, about 5-6 minutes.

~~~

Drizzle a small amount of oil over the dough and turn to coat until the bowl and the dough ball are evenly and lightly oiled. Cover bowl with a towel and set aside to rise until it is doubled, about 70 minutes.

~~~

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 24 equal chunks. Form each into a ball and place two balls into each well of a regular sized muffin pan that has been misted with cooking spray. Let rise until nearly doubled, about 20-30 minutes, then bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes or until golden.

~~~

Immediately after removing them from the oven, rub a pat of butter over the tops, then remove to a wire rack. Serve immediately or store in a ziplock bag once completely cooled and reheat before serving.

~~~

Makes 12 rolls

Golden Semolina Bread

2010-01-28T21:48:00.001-07:00

My mill is still not back from the repair shop, and I am beginning to get twitchy from a lack of whole grains. I used the last few scraps of wheat flour up a week ago. I was hankering for some homemade bread, though, and decided to experiment with using a higher proportion of semolina than I have before. Semolina is coarsely ground durum wheat, so it is a whole grain. It has a fine sandy texture to it, so it'd be difficult to make something with that as the sole flour, but it adds such a nice sunshiney flavor and color that I often add a 1/4 or 1/2 cup to pizza and roll doughs. I buy mine in bulk from Kitchen Kneads in West Jordan where it is far more economical than purchasing a one pound bag at the grocery store. If you don't live in Utah, you may be able to find it at places like Whole Foods or any store that carries bulk grains.

Anyway, I completely made this recipe up from scratch. I went easy on the yeast because I like the texture of breads that rise a little more slowly. The dough was very easy to handle during kneading (I do all my doughs by hand by choice and necessity - I don't have a mixer, but I also love to feel it come together) and much less sticky than other doughs I usually work with. The kids totally raved about this bread. The crumb is soft, the texture wonderful. I have to confess that it took longer to rise than I was prepared for, so I actually formed it into three mini loaves so I could knock 10 minutes off the cook time. It worked out nicely. For the quantities listed here, you can either make one regular sized loaf or three minis, and it should be able to be doubled without any problems.

Golden Semolina Bread

1 1/3 c. warm water
2 t. active dry yeast
3 T. butter, melted
4 T. honey
3/4 t. kosher salt
1 1/2 c. semolina flour
1 1/2 - 2 c. unbleached all purpose flour

In a medium mixing bowl combine the water and yeast and let sit for a few minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir together the butter, honey and kosher salt and add to the water and yeast. Stir in the semolina flour, then let this mixture sit for about 10-15 minutes or until it begins to rise and bubble.

Stir in enough all purpose flour until the dough begins to form a glob, then sprinkle a generous amount on top and knead it in, adding more flour as necessary until the dough turns into a smooth and elastic ball, about 5-6 minutes.

Drizzle a small amount of oil over the dough, then turn to coat the dough ball and the bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, 70-90 minutes. Dump out onto a very lightly oiled work surface and gently stretch out into a square. Fold it into fourths, then press it into a rectangle as wide as your loaf pan and three times as long. Roll up jelly roll style and pinch to seal. Place in the pan and let rise until nearly doubled again, about 20 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until nicely golden brown. If doing mini loaves, bake for 20-22 minutes. Immediately remove to a wire rack to cool. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Streusel in the middle Pumpkin Bundt (with caramel icing)

2010-01-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

I went in search of a good pumpkin bundt cake, and was dismayed to find that most of them started with a mix or used a pudding packet. Not quite what I was looking for. But then allrecipes.com came to my rescue with this little gem. I made a different icing on a whim, but I'm sure that the original one would be just as delicious. I also made some minor modifications to the spices. The best part of this cake, hands down, is the gooey sugary cinnamony ribbon of filling running through the middle. The batter is quite thick, so it was easy to create a little canyon to sprinkle the sugar mixture in. You want to make sure that it is completely encased in batter - no leaking out against the pan allowed.

Cover it all over, put it in the oven, walk away for nearly an hour...

...and voila! Cake! The instructions said to let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes before flipping it out onto the rack. I was skeptical, but it proved to work perfectly. It was initially a little bit stuck, but once it sat and steamed a bit in it's own heat, it popped right out.

Puddles of caramely glaze -yum!

Streusel in the middle Pumpkin Bundt (with caramel icing)

Streusel:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 T. butter (softened)

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. allspice

pinch of cloves

Cake:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 T. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

1/2 t. each cloves, cardamom and nutmeg

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup butter, softened

4 large eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

8 ounces sour cream

2 t. vanilla

Glaze:

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 T. butter

1/3 cup cream

2 T. milk

1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a bundt pan by spraying generously with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix the struesel ingredients together until well combined.

In a medium bowl combine the dry cake ingredients and set aside. In another medium bowl, beat the sugar and butter until creamy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the pumpkin, sour cream and vanilla, then gradually beat in the dry ingredient mixture.

Spread 1/2 of the batter mixture evenly around the bottom of the bundt pan, creating a "canyon" in it. Sprinkle the struesel in the canyon, evenly distributed, making sure that the sugar mixture doesn't run into the wall of the pan. Then spread the rest of the batter around the top of the sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to rest on a wire rack for 30 minutes before removing from pan.

To make the glaze: in a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the brown sugar and cream. Bring to a simmer and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the sugar is well dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in the milk and powdered sugar. Immediately drizzle over the cake.

Perfect Turkey

2010-01-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

I mean it. This is a 100% fool proof recipe. I have posted this before, a long time ago, lumped in with several other recipes in one post, but this is one that I get asked for frequently enough that it warrants it's own real post with pictures. Plus, I've learned a thing or two over the years after making it several dozen times. One of my versions of this was published in Taste of Home a few months ago, which resulted in a mildly unnerving phone call from a guy on the East Coast that had some questions about how to prepare it, and just wanted to let me know that he was making my recipe. TOH publishes first and last name as well as home town with each recipe, which I never saw as problematic before that phone call. Now it has honestly made me think twice about submitting more recipes. I'm sure he was just a nice old fella, but that was just a bit over the line. Anyway, on with the recipe.

First, select a nice bone in turkey breast. Boneless turkey breasts are just plain weird. They take all the meat hunks and press them into a lump and wrap mesh around it. Not terribly appetizing - take my word for it. I can fit up to an 8 pound breast in my 6 quart oval crock pot, though that is definitely pushing the limit. You'll definitely be safe with one around 7 pounds. Thaw it, either by putting it in the fridge a couple days in advance, or if you're like me and you decide that you've got a hankering for turkey dinner that morning, pull it out of the freezer and let it sit in a sink full of hot water for a couple hours. That size of a bird actually thaws relatively quickly. Remove the nasty gravy packet from the chest cavity and throw it away, then rinse the bird off and stick it in the crock pot, breast side down.

I used to remove the skin before cooking. It's a horrid job, and I've lately found that it slips off quite easily after cooking, plus lends better flavor to the broth if you leave it on. Since I hate to handle raw meat, I now leave it on.

Next, tuck 5-6 cloves of garlic in and around the breast, grind some freshly ground pepper over it all and sprinkle a generous pinch of kosher salt. Tuck 4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary in and around (you can use dried as well, but the flavor of fresh is really worth it), and last of all a tablespoon of brown sugar. For more savory flavor, you can toss a peeled whole shallot into the cavity.

Put the lid on. If you're like me and tend to choose bustier turkey bosoms than your crock pot can handle, you might wind up with a gap between the lid and the pot. Like this one. There was a centimeter gap. So I simply placed a towel over the lid, followed by a layer of tin foil, and then pulled out some old sacks of beans that have been pressed into service for this very thing a number of times, and weighted the lid down. Works like a charm, but I wouldn't push it any farther than I did.

Set it to cook on low for 8 hours or high for 6. Walk away and let the pot do it's magic. When the cook time is up, pull the breast out and flip it upside down on a plate. Tent it loosely with foil and let the juices settle for at least 10 minutes before pulling the meat off. Usually, the meat literally just falls off the bones in two neat breasty hunks, which are super easy to slice for serving.

Now it's time to make gravy. Easy stuff, I promise. I slurp all of the juices out of the pot with a turkey baster and pour them into a pyrex cup. I usually get around 2 cups. (Notice that I did not have to add any water to the pot to achieve this - it's pure turkey magic.) Melt 2 T. of butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, then whisk in 2 T. flour until it forms a thick paste. Slowly whisk in the turkey juices, bit by bit, making sure that you incorporate the flour well and smoothly. Once all the juices have been added, correct the seasoning as needed with a little more pepper (I have never needed to add more salt) and let simmer for 2-3 minutes. Done!

~~~

This is such moist and tender turkey that you may never cook a full bird again. I have hosted Thanksgiving before with only this kind of turkey. I lined up three pots in the garage, and voila! Not only did I have perfect turkey that everyone swooned over, but I also didn't have it competing for oven space.

Peanut Butter Bars

2010-01-19T10:15:00.002-07:00

Oh so satisfying. These came from another one of my very favorite cookbooks, Jackson Hole Cooks. I spied it at a gift shop in Teton National Park, browsed through it, put it down, walked out, regretted it, and went back in to purchase it. Most cookbooks I find only 2 or 3 keepers in the whole book that I consistently go back to, but this one has given me several gems. A friend gave me a recipe for her peanut butter bars a while back that were very delicious but I was appalled to find that they had FIVE sticks of butter in them...holy hannah! Granted, that was for a jelly roll size pan, but still! So I was pleased to find this version that uses only ONE stick. While that doesn't quite qualify them as diet food, it's a lot more reasonable. These are delicious the first day, and slightly softer and even tastier the second day.

Peanut Butter Bars

1/2 cup each butter, sugar, brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 plus 1/4 cup peanut butter (divided)
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. soda
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 t. vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

4 T. milk

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cream the butter and sugars. Blend in egg, 1/3 cup peanut butter, soda, salt and vanilla. Add flour and oats and mix well. Spread in a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle immediately with chocolate chips. After about 5 minutes when the chips are softened, spread them evenly on top of bars.

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter and milk until smooth. Pour into a ziplock bag, snip the corner off, and drizzle over the bars. Allow to set up, then cut into 2" squares.

Yield 24 bars

Tangy Lemon Cookies

2010-01-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

These are a light, crispy and very lemony cookie that I tried for the first time last night from Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook. It's one of my favorite cookbooks. The first time I laid my hands on a copy and saw that it had a pictorial index by texture categories, I knew I had to have it. Some of the recipes are a tad fussy, as is customary with Martha recipes, but I have always gotten good results. This one has a definitely unique way of putting the batter together, and the batter turned out so light and soft I thought it'd be difficult to form them, but it really wasn't. I think they'd be absolutely perfect for a tea party, and if you really want to go all out, make the cookies smaller, whip up a batch of lemon curd or pastry cream, and turn them into delicate sandwich cookies. Divine! The original recipe adds poppy seeds, which I am not overly fond of, but I do think these would benefit from a contrasting flavor. Once my herbs wake back up from the dormancy of winter I intend to try some with finely minced rosemary or lavender

Tangy Lemon Cookies

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided
2 cups all purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. coarse salt
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 large egg
2 t. pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 t. finely grated lemon zest
1 T. poppy seeds (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degreees. Bring lemon juice to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, and cook until reduced by half. Add 1/2 cup (1 stick ) of butter and stir until melted, then remove from heat.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Put remaining 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar into a medium bowl and beat until creamy. Add egg and reserved lemon butter and mix until pale, about 3 minutes. Mix in vanilla and 2 t. lemon zest, then reduce the speed to low and add in the flour mixture and poppy seeds if desired.

(At this point, I refrigerated the dough for a few minutes because I was busy with other things, and I think it made the dough a little easier to handle.) Stir together remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl. Scoop up dough into 1 1/4 balls and roll balls in lemon sugar mixture. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and press each with the bottom of a glass dipped in the sugar mixture until 1/4 inch thick.

Bake until just browned around the edges, 12-13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through the baking time. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

Yield - about 3 dozen

Pizza "casserole"

2010-01-15T09:48:00.003-07:00

Not a big fan of casseroles here. I can hardly bring myself to call this a casserole, but it is what it is. I can guarantee that you'll NEVER get a recipe from me on this blog that starts with canned cream of crud soup. Their resemblence to unfortunate bodily discharge is too strong. But every now and then I do need to resort to something that's quick to put together and doesn't require last minute fuss, and this totally fit the bill. Best of all, every person at the table cleaned their plate and pronounced it tasty. Victory!

8 ounces small pasta - shells, elbows or similar
1 jar any flavor spaghetti sauce
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozarella cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
Kosher salt
Coarse pepper
1 cup mini pepperonis or regular size cut into quarters

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook the pasta in salted water to al dente according to package directions. Drain thoroughly and dump into a 9x13 baking pan that has been misted with cooking spray. Pour the spaghetti sauce over the pasta and stir until well coated.

In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta, 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheese, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon globs of it evenly dispersed over the pasta mixture, and lightly stir. Sprinkle the pepperonis in an even layer, then sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top of it all.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and golden on top. Serve immediately.

Creamy loaded penne

2010-01-15T09:28:00.002-07:00

This is the sort of thing that I whip up on a regular basis. The beauty of it is versatility. You can swap the veggies around to suit your taste, add more meat and different kinds of it. It's just a good, basic, and very filling meal. Everyone in my family eats it without complaint which is a big deal. It's easily expandable and very flexible. I'm going to give you the principles, and allow you the freedom to make it the way you like it.

First, bring a big pot of water to a boil. Dump in half a box of penne pasta (roughly half a pound), a generous dash of salt and a splash of olive oil.

Next, place two chicken breasts in a large, lidded, nonstick skillet. If I were to choose just one pot or pan out of my kitchen, it would definitely be my deep 12" lidded skillet. Season them with a few grinds of coarse pepper, a dash of kosher salt, a generous sprinkling of garlic powder and thyme or rosemary. Add 1/4 cup of water, put the lid on and let them cook unbothered for about 15 minutes over medium heat. If you're cooking them from frozen, they'll take 20-25 minutes to cook through. If they're thawed, more like 15. Once the water has evaporated and they have shrunken to about 3/4 their original size, drizzle a small amount of olive oil over them and flip them over. Put the lid back on and let them brown lightly on the other side for a few minutes, flip them back for a couple more minutes, then remove from heat and allow them to stand for 5 or so minutes before slicing into thin strips.

While the chicken and pasta are cooking, cut up your veggies of choice into bite size slices and chunks. I like to use a variety of colors and textures. Pictured above I simply used half of a red bell pepper and a couple of cups of small broccoli florets. Zucchini, yellow summer squash, other bell peppers, minced garlic, fresh basil, fresh spinach, purple onions, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, capers, roma tomatoes and peas are all possibilities (though not all at once - that might be overwhelming ;)...). Once the chicken is done cooking, I remove it from the pan, drizzle in a little more olive oil and toss the veggies in. Sprinkle kosher salt and fresh pepper over them and put the lid on to allow them to steam in their own juices for about 3 minutes. Take the lid back off and toss in a handful of real bacon bits, and saute for a minute or two.

By now, the pasta should be done. Drain it well, then add it into the skillet with the veggies, and add the chicken as well. Pour 2/3 of a cup of cream over it all and stir well to coat. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese (NOT the nasty pebbles found in the green can - I'm talking real shreds) over it and stir briefly to distribute it. Sprinkle another 1/4 cup over the top and serve immediately. This will serve 4-6 adults, depending on appetite size.

I've done versions of this in which I've heated the cream up, then melted the cheese into it, then stirred it into the food, and that works ok though sometimes the cheese doesn't homogenize well into the cream. I find that I prefer the method in this recipe because it gives you a light creamy glaze over all of it with little pockets of lightly melted cheese. I'm not a fan of thick, heavy classic Alfredo sauce. This pasta satisfies my desire for creamy sauce without totally busting the calorie bank, plus it reheats well without that nasty separation problem you get with Alfredo.

Basic Black Bean Soup

2010-01-10T17:27:00.002-07:00

One of my resolutions for 2010 was to master the art of cooking with dried beans. After much experimentation, I'm not sure if I've mastered it, but I'm definitely more comfortable with the process. Granted, I still keep many a can of prepared beans in my pantry for emergencies, but I think the dried bean and I are now friends, too.

Here's my favorite way to prepare dry beans. Put them in a pot covered with water. Bring them to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave them tightly covered to sit for one hour. This is the quick method and I've found it very useful for slow cooker recipes.

This Black Bean Soup is one of my favorites. It's healthy (until you add cheese, sour cream, and tortilla strips), full of wonderful flavor, and cooks up in a jiffy!

I'd post a photo for it, but it isn't the prettiest dish and I can't seem to do it justice with my camera. JUST TRUST ME!

Black Bean Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 T ground cumin

¼-1 tsp crushed red pepper

2 T vegetable oil

3-16 oz cans black beans, undrained

½ cup chicken broth

3 cups salsa

2 T lime juice

Cook onion, garlic, cumin, and red pepper in olive oil. Blend to puree 2 cans of beans with liquid and broth. Add to pot. Stir in last can of beans, salsa, and lime juice. Serve over rice with sour cream and cheese.

Ahem.

2010-01-09T21:46:00.002-07:00

I haven't forgotten about this blog. It's just been a difficult couple of weeks, and I have been therefore falling back on comfort food. Like crockpot turkey breast, which made everyone smile. And those lovely cinnamon rolls a few posts down. Like last year, I will attempt to post something weekly, so come back in a few days and see what I've come up with. Now that I have the comments set up to email me, I actually can respond to ones you make on old posts. Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it!

I had quite an experiment with wheat grinders this week. So while this isn't a recipe post, I hope it'll be useful. I was given a Whisper Mill a decade ago for my wedding by my mom, master of massive batches of homemade bread. She has an old bakery mixer with a 5 gallon bowl that's capable of 10 loaf batches at a time. It's really a humdinger, and something you have to see in action to fully appreciate. A Kitchen Aid never looked so wimpy. Anyway, Whisper Mill went out of business and with it went the warranty, but shortly after that, someone else bought up the rights to the design and Wonder Mill was launched. Same mill, different label.

The Whisper Mill has been good for me for all these years, but the motor conked out this week mid grind. Boo. Alan tried some resuscitative efforts, but was unsuccessful, so I began the process of researching new mills. Many people have raved about the Nutrimill, and the Nutrimill and Wonder Mill are similar in price. I read as much as I could find online, then set about asking neighbors. I even went and tried one out. The flour seemed a little coarser, but the speed was reasonable and the noise level similar. One of my neighbors, whose opinion I really respect, strongly recommended the Nutrimill because their customer service is so great and they actually follow through on their life time warranty.

With all of those things in mind, I headed to the store and purchased a Nutrimill. The particular mill that I bought had been used as their demo model for a few months, then rotated out. Warranty still intact but 40 dollars cheaper? Sold! I took it home, all excited to try it out. I ran the first batch through with the settings at low speed and finest grind. The flour that came out into the bin settled in a dense, stratified heap, with a swath of visibly granular coarse grinds and a swath of finer, but still palpably coarse grinds and other stuff in between. Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind.

We fiddled with the settings some more, downloaded the instructions, and had it on what should have produced the finest flour - high speed and finest grind - and it STILL produced far more gritty flour than I have ever gotten from my Whisper Mill. Not quite ready to throw in the towel, I decided to reserve judgement until I actually used the flour. I made a batch of my honey whole wheat bread and it felt like I was kneading a glob of sand! I wound up adding a fair amount of white all purpose flour to it just so that the dough would handle remotely like I was used to. Very, very disappointing. I used some in a batch of pancakes, and they had a chewy grit to them, even though the ratio of whole wheat to all purpose flour was quite low. Same with some rolls I made for dinner last night.

The flour that I get out of the Whisper Mill is fluffy and light, very finely ground. I would be quite interested to do a cup for cup weight comparison of the products of each mill. I wound up taking the Nutrimill back to the store, and then took my ailing Whisper Mill to a local retailer that carries the Wonder Mill. They sent it in to the manufacturer to replace the motor. Still a good chunk of change, but far cheaper than a new mill...and I'll get my good flour back!

I don't know if I just got a dud Nutrimill, but as for me and my house, we will stick with what we know works - Wonder Mill all the way. How about the rest of you?

Ham and White Bean Soup

2009-12-28T20:21:00.002-07:00

Cook a ham for Christmas and if you're at our house you'll wind up with that whole hunk of meat at the end of it that doesn't get spiral cut and is just hard to deal with. In the past I have feebly hacked away at it, winding up eventually throwing much of it away. This time I was determined to not waste it, so I looked around on line at a few different soup recipes, and then opened up my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (you know, that classic red and white checkered one), and loosely followed their recipe. Alan declared it one of his favorite soups, and that's saying something. This was also one of my very few attempts at cooking beans from scratch and I'm pleased to say that they came out well. This is the sort of soup that you should plan ahead, starting it around 4 hours before you plan to eat it if you're cooking the beans from dry. If you're going to use canned, an hour is sufficient.

Ham and White Bean Soup

3 cups dry Great Northern Beans

pinch of baking soda

1/2 t. ginger

water as directed below

1 yellow or white onion, diced

3 celery ribs, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 T. olive oil

ham bone with a generous amount of meat left on it

2 bay leaves

1 T. fresh thyme leaves or 1 t. dried

3 cups carrot "pennies"

1/2-1 t. liquid smoke to taste

1/4-1/2 t. tabasco to taste

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Place washed and sorted beans in a 4 quart pot and add 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes, then turn off and let soak for 1 hour. Drain and add another 8 cups of water, along with the pinch of baking soda and ginger (these are supposed to help reduce digestive issues associated with eating beans), and bring to a simmer. In a large nonstick skillet, heat up the olive oil, and add in the celery, onion and garlic. Saute until softened, then add to the beans. While the skillet is still hot, fry the hunk of ham bone on all sides until lightly browned, then add it to the pot. Add in the bay leaves and thyme and let simmer for 1 hour. Add in the carrot pennies and simmer for another 20 minutes. Remove the ham bone and the meat should fall off easily at this point and allow for easy shredding. Add a little more water if needed. Add the shredded meat back into the pot and season with liquid smoke (go easy - a little goes a long way), tabasco, salt and pepper to your taste.

Truly Excellent Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

2009-12-25T21:40:00.004-07:00

I went in search of a good overnight cinnamon roll recipe. One friend directed me toward a recipe on Allrecipes that looked promising until I realized that the overnight part was the first rise and it wanted me to allow 2 1/2 hours in the morning to fiddle around with the dough. Not what I want on Christmas morning. I have tried other overnight recipes that yielded a tough roll or ones that rose nearly out of the pan before I even managed to get them in the oven. These ones came out perfect. The dough was soft and supple, very easy to work with, and the flavor was just the classic sort of fluffy cinnamony sticky goodness that you want on Christmas morning. All sweet roll recipes are a blank canvas, ready for you to do what suits your taste, so feel free to tinker with the filling.

Notice the Ov-Glove. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am the proud owner of a pair. My kids spotted them at the store while out doing last minute shopping with daddy and insisted that I needed them. So far so good!

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

~~~

1 1/2 T. active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter, diced

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups scalded milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

5-6 cups all purpose flour

~~~

Filling:

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. vanilla

~~~

Glaze:

4 T. butter, melted

1 t. vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1 t. cinnamon

2 T. real maple syrup (optional)

2-4 T. milk, depending on desired consistency

~~~

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water and let stand about 10 minutes. Heat the milk on the stovetop or in the microwave until just boiling, then remove from heat and stir in the butter, salt and sugar. Allow to stand until the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, then stir in the egg and yeast. In a large mixing bowl, combine the liquid mixture and 4 cups of the flour. Stir in more flour little by little until it gets too difficult to mix by hand, then knead in enough additional flour until the dough forms a ball that is soft and only lightly tacky. Knead for 4-5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Lightly oil the dough ball and turn to coat, then set aside to rise for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.

~~~

Make the filling by beating the butter, sugar and cinnamon together until fluffy and creamy. Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased surface and spread/roll into a large rectangle (24"x 12", roughly). Spread the filling over all of it in a thin, even layer, leaving one long edge with a 2 inch margin. Roll up, pinching the margin end shut, and cut into 2 inch thick slices with dental floss. Place in a large (I used the next size up from a 9x13 - not exactly sure of the size, but I'm guessing 10x15) greased baking pan, and cover with saran wrap that has been lightly misted with cooking spray. Place in the fridge overnight. ***Please read the notes at the bottom of this post in regards to rising and pan choices.***

~~~

The next morning, pull the pan out of the fridge 30 minutes before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Meanwhile, mix the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over the tops of the rolls right after they come out of the oven.

~~~

Yields 12 very generously sized rolls

*****
Notes from making this several more times:

-I have made the dough in the evening and refrigerated the whole glob overnight. 3 hours before serving time, I removed it from the fridge, let it rest at room temperature for an hour and a half, formed the rolls, let them rise for 40 minutes, then baked as indicated above and the results were very good. In some ways, I actually preferred the texture this way.
-I have been able to get more consistently even baking by making thinner slices - more like 1 1/4" slices, smaller rolls (the rectangle rolled out to 8"x24"), and baking them on a jelly roll sheet pan with just a little more space in between.
-Adding vanilla to the filling and cinnamon and maple syrup to the glaze is a very, very good thing. I just edited the post to reflect those changes. You can leave them out, but you'll be sorry.
-I made a quickie orange roll version by beating 1/2 a stick of butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup orange marmalade until well combined and spreading that over the dough. For glaze, I simply stirred orange juice into powdered sugar until it reached drizzling consistency.

Cherry Christmas Scones

2009-12-25T21:24:00.002-07:00

I made these last Christmas, sans the cherries and buttermilk. Alan has been hankering for them ever since and this was his special request for Christmas Even brunch. Like a lot of scones, they're a little shaggy and homely, but very tasty, especially right out of the oven. I did one batch with an egg wash to hold the lovely large sugar crystals on top (shown in picture) and another batch with buttermilk on top. Same taste, just obviously yellower with the egg. They're tasty plain, but marvelous with fruit jams and lemon curd.

Cherry Christmas Scones

Blend together:
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
zest of one orange

Cut in:
1 stick of cold butter

Stir in:
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries (preferably ones not processed with sulfur)
1+ cups buttermilk (you may need a tablespoon or two more than one cup in order to adequately moisten the dough)

Knead lightly about 10 times until the dough forms a ball. Pat into a round about 12 inches in diameter. Cut into 12 even wedges and separate them out at least a 1/2 inch. Brush the tops with either a little more buttermilk or else a beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until golden and cooked through.