Measuring Spoons and Mixing Bowls

Resolutions - Update

2011-04-08T19:42:00.000-04:00

I am re-posting this list of things I want to bake/cook, as a reminder to myself. You might notice that not much progress has been made. I'm hoping I can start working on the list in the next few months. I'm hoping I can make macarons sometime soon - one of my good friends actually has a gorgeous macaron cookbook, and I think I got her excited about making them!

* Souffle (savory and sweet)
* Pate a choux pastry
* Profiteroles with above pastry
* Croissants
* Pound cake
* Cake with fondant
* ~~Stuffed mushrooms/peppers/tomatoes~~
* Cheese fondue
* Shortbread
* Latkes
* Burger buns
* Soft pretzels
* Salsa
* Macarons
* Macaroons (no I did not list the same thing twice)
* An interesting unconventional ice cream flavor
* Yogurt cake
* Profiteroles
* Candy (some kind of old fashioned caramel)
* ~~Pot de creme~~
* Artichokes
* Tiramisu (or other type of trifle)
* Baked pancake
* Babka
* Baklava
* Brioche
* Creme Brulee (I have the torch, just need some propane for it!)
* Jelly Roll
* ~~Panettone~~
* Old fashioned popcorn (the kind that doesn't come from a bag in the microwave)
* Whoopie pies
* Cauliflower (I know - it's crazy I've never cooked with it!)
* Panna Cotta (I had some for dessert on New Years and it was AMAZING)
* More artisan bread
* Parmesan cheese crisps
* Polenta croutons
* Ice cream sandwiches
* Sesame noodles
* Tortellini
* Calzones
* French onion soup
* Split pea soup
* Lattice top pie
* Eggnog
* Custard Pie
* Dinner rolls
* Flavored pasta (I have tried once and it was extremely unsuccessful)
* Poached pears
* Baked and stuffed apples
* Caramel sauce
* Pecan pie (without the use of corn syrup)
* Shortbread cookies
* Veggie burgers
* Poptarts
* Bundt cake
* Naan
* Pad Thai
* Gougeres
* Crabcakes
* Coconut cake
* Angel food cake
* Savory cheesecake

More Soup

2011-04-08T18:30:00.000-04:00

I clearly was on a soup kick, and I had a craving for broccoli and cheddar soup (like the one at Panera). This soup was delicious, and really easy to make. I would definitely make it again.

Recipe: Broccoli, Cheddar and Potato Soup (from Eat, Live, Run)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
medium bunch of broccoli, chopped
1 russet potato
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
6 oz grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 T all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk
3 cups vegetable broth

Directions:
Blanch broccoli by adding to boiling water for 30 seconds, and then removing and putting in an ice bath.

In a large dutch oven, melt the butter. Peel and chop the potato into small 1-inch dice. Saute both the onion and potato in the butter until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more. Then add the cayenne, mustard, nutmeg and salt, toss to coat.

Add the flour and stir well, cook for 1-2 minutes. Pour in the broth and add back in the broccoli florets. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the potato is tender. Slowly pour in the milk, and add the cheese, stirring to melt.

Puree with an immersion blender to desired texture.

Asparagus and Rice Soup

2011-04-08T18:24:00.000-04:00

This hearty soup is almost like a thick, creamy risotto. It had such great flavors, and was perfect on a chilly night.

Recipe: Asparagus and Rice Soup (from Pots and Pins):
Ingredients:
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups 1/2-inch cubed russet potatoes
3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts
2 bay leaves
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 1/2 lbs fresh asparagus, cut into 1-inch chunks
7 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 cup arborio rice
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Saute garlic with oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat 1-2 minutes. Add potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until crusty but not browned. Add leeks and cook until softened. Add vegetable broth, water, bay leaves and salt. Stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot. Cover, bring to a boil, and add the cut asparagus. Lower heat to vigorous simmer and cook, uncovered, about 1-1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until reduced by a third. Add rice, bring to a boil, and cook 10 minutes. Remove from heat and season with s&p to taste. Stir in 1/2 cup of the parmesan cheese. Ladle into soup bowls and top with additional cheese.

Creamy Artichoke Soup

2011-04-08T18:17:00.000-04:00

Craving yet more soup, I made this recipe. It was really easy to make, and tasted pretty good. I drizzled in some of the homemade creme fraiche from the golden vegetable soup, and I think that really brightened up the flavor. And as you can see, I added a ton of "everyday seasoning" from Trader Joe's.

Recipe: Creamy Artichoke Soup (from Everyday Italian)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 leeks, white parts only, washed well and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small potato, peeled and chopped
1 package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
creme fraiche, for serving

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a heavy, large stockpot over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and stir. Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. (Be careful that your oil isn't too hot, or the potatoes will just stick to the bottom and scorch!) Add the artichokes, stock, salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

Using a handheld immersion blender, puree the soup. Ladle the soup into serving bowls, swirl in some creme fraiche, and sprinkle with your favorite seasoning.

Stove-top popcorn

2011-04-08T18:11:00.000-04:00

I decided I wanted to try to make popcorn the old-fashioned way. I told my mom I was making homemade popcorn, and she looked at me like I was crazy. I was basically making it the way she grew up making it. But anyway, this is so easy to make. It involves a little more time and cleanup than the microwave bag, but it's a lot cheaper and it tastes better. And you can control how much salt/butter you are adding, and you can add some other flavors as well.

Recipe: Stove-top popcorn
Ingredients:
3 tbsp neutral-flavored oil (like canola)
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
salt to taste
melted butter, if desired

Directions:
Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add 1 kernel to hot oil. When the kernel pops, add the rest of the kernels and shake so they are all covered in oil, and in a single layer. Put the lid on the pot, and shake the pot, keeping it in contact with the stove burner. When the popping slows down to about 10 seconds between pops, take off the heat. Add salt, melted butter, and whatever flavorings you desire, put the lid back on, and shake it up. Then it's ready to eat!

Everything is better with cider :)

The Long Journey to Homemade Panettone

2011-04-08T17:58:00.000-04:00

My dad is obsessed with panettone. It is usually sold in stores around the holidays, and he will buy and use up an entire cake. I decided that this year, I was going to make my own! This started with first buying the panettone molds, easy to find on amazon. Next, I had to find the right recipe. I found a few that sounded promising, and saw that they all included candied orange peel or candied citron. Well this is where I started having problems. I searched everywhere, in grocery stores, specialty stores, online - could not find it anywhere. So I decided, okay, I'm just going to make my own! I made candied orange peel that was delicious in the panettone, and was also delicious dipped in dark chocolate and served at a party!

The panettone itself turned out really well. The "cool rise" method wasn't so successful for me, but it started to rise once I brought it to a warmer place in the house. I wouldn't recommend adding the butter into the top of the dough before baking - it just made the center gooey and didn't allow it to bake. I used a large panettone mold, 6.75 inches across, and it fit the entire recipe perfectly.

And the leftovers made amazing french toast :)

Recipe: Panettone (from Andrea's Recipes)
Ingredients:
1 cup raisins
2 tbsp light rum
2 tbsp hot water
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp honey
12 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (10 1/2 tbsp softened and cut into cubes, 1 tbsp melted, 1 tbsp chilled)
2/3 cup candied orange peel (recipe below)

Directions:
In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum and 2 tbsp water, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 8 hours.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, lemon zest, and vanilla bean at low speed.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, 2/3 cup water and honey.

With the mixer on low, pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Increase speed to medium-low and continue mixing.

Add the softened butter, 1 tbsp at a time, mixing completely before adding more. Increase the speed to medium-high and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Drain the raisins and discard the liquid. Stir the raisins together with the candied orange peel and the melted butter. Stir into the dough with a wooden spoon.

Place the dough into a large oiled bowl, turning to coat, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a cold oven 12-15 hours, or until the dough is nearly tripled in volume. (Alternately, let rise in a warm spot.)

Discard the vanilla bean (you may have to do some digging to find it). Rub your hands with flour, sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour, and turn out onto a well floured board. Sprinkle a little more flour onto the dough.

Fold the edges into the dough and place the dough seam side down in the panettone mold. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise in a draft-free place at room temperature until the dough is just above the top of the mold, ~3-5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F and place a rack in the lower third of the oven. Place the dough in the mold on a baking sheet. Slash a cross on the top of the dough, and put the chilled butter in the X (I wouldn't recommend doing this).

Bake about 1-1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with some moist crumbs. The top will be dark, but not burned.

Recipe: Candied Orange Peels (from Mama's Minutia)
Ingredients:
Peels from 5-6 thick-skinned oranges
4 cups sugar
3 cups water

Directions:
Wash the oranges and cut the ends off. Score the orange into 4 sections, and carefully peel each section of rind off. Slice the rind into sticks about 1/4 inches wide.

Put the sliced orange rinds in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then dump the contents in a strainer, discarding the water. Rinse off rinds with cold water. Repeat this process 2-3 more times.

Pour the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Add the blanched orange rinds and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 45-60 minutes, or until the pith becomes translucent.

Remove the rinds from the syrup, and lay the rinds out on a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet. Let the orange slices dry by either sitting out at room temperature (I would only recommend this in cooler months, otherwise fruit flies will go crazy), or by putting them in an oven set on "warm" for a couple of hours.

The orange slices can then be used as is, for snacking or in recipes, or can be dipped in chocolate. The orange syrup can be used in drinks.

Homemade Applesauce

2011-04-08T02:57:00.000-04:00

I went a bit overboard this year with apple picking. I kept on trying to save apples to use for baking, but then wouldn't think of anything to actually bake, so I made a ton of applesauce. I would have made more, but I actually ran out of room in my crockpot!

Recipe: Homemade Applesauce
Ingredients:
~6 lbs apples (I used fuji and pink ladies)
3/4 cup apple cider
couple splashes of apple cider vinegar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 star anise
1 tsp whole cloves
6 T white sugar
6 T brown sugar
zest from one orange

Directions:
Peel, core, and roughly chop the apples.
Put the loose spices in a tea ball (used for loose tea).
Toss the apples with the sugar and orange zest, and add to the crockpot. Tuck the tea ball and cinnamon sticks somewhere in the apples. Pour the apple cider over top, and add a couple splashes of apple cider vinegar. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until the apples have broken down. Keep as is if you like it really chunky, or use a potato masher to get a smoother consistency. You can blend it if you like it really smooth, but I like keeping some texture. Make sure you remove the spices before blending!

not very appetizing, but I promise it was delicious

Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies

2011-04-08T02:52:00.000-04:00

These are my other favorite holiday cookies, but they are much easier than the rugelach. All you do is mix up the dough, let it chill a bit, scoop, and bake. You definitely have to underbake them, so they stay chewy for days after baking.

Recipe: Ginger Cookies (from Jenny Bakes)
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened (1.5 sticks)
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp white sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls (or better yet, use a small scooper with a release mechanism), and then roll in the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and flatten slightly.

Bake ~8 minutes, or until edges are set but center looked puffy and uncooked. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

They are the cookies on the left.

Rugelach

2011-04-08T02:45:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, my dad and I decided to attempt making the rugelach recipe featured on Barefoot Contessa. Little did I know that we would be making the first few dozen of the 50 dozen (at least) I have made in the past couple years. These delicious treats take a little while to make, but they are so worth it. The recipe will make 4 dozen, but you don't have to make all of them at once. You can freeze the individual pieces of dough until you are ready to make them. And this dough is amazing - very simple to make, and somehow it is so flaky and tender. You can also play around with the filling. I usually make the filling that is from the original recipe, but sometimes I replace the raisins with chocolate chips. I have also replaced the jam with pumpkin butter (as shown in the picture below), with good results. Whenever using jam, I always use raspberry, but you can use your favorite flavor.

Recipe: Rugelach (from Barefoot Contessa)
Ingredients:
Dough:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
8 oz butter (two sticks), softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour

Filling:
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins (or chocolate chips)
1 cup walnuts (or pecans), finely chopped

1/2 cup preserves, pureed in food processor

1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for egg wash
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, until light. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. Dump the dough onto a well floured board and roll into a ball. Cut the ball into quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Dough can be made the day before, just let it sit out for a little while before using.)

Combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl.

On a well floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut into 12 wedges of equal size, cutting the whole circle into quarters, and then each quarter into thirds. Spread the dough with 2 tbsp of preserves and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough.

Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge. Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Brush each cookie with the egg wash. Combine the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle on the cookies.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned, and then transfer to racks to cool.

Just some of the many cookies I baked one night.

Microwave Potato Chips

2011-04-07T23:46:00.000-04:00

One of my latest toys is a mandoline slicer, and I used it to test out the "microwave potato chip" recipe I've seen floating around. It definitely worked! (both the recipe and the mandoline slicer)
This recipe doesn't require a formal recipe either - just slice your potatoes super thin, toss with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then microwave in batches. Put potatoes in a single layer on a microwave-safe plate, for 2-4 minutes, turning the slices over halfway through. You might have to rearrange slices at this point. This would be good with a wide variety of seasonings, possibly some parmesan cheese...?

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and Perfect Salmon

2011-04-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

Last fall, Sarah and I decided we had to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls. This involved me looking through dozens of recipes, until we found one we both approved of (meaning it had pretty pictures). It surprisingly included whole wheat flour. I thought they turned out really well, but were best right after they were baked.

And then for actual dinner, we made really simple salmon and vegetables, roasted on cedar wraps. I've made this salmon so many times.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting (from Good Life Eats)
Ingredients:
Dough:
1/4 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm milk
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (we used fresh)
1 tbsp melted butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I just used regular white whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cardamom

Filling:
1/2 stick butter (modified from original recipe)
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each of allspice and ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves

Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese
1 stick butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
powdered sugar, to taste

Directions:
Stir yeast into water in a large bowl, let rest about 5 minutes, until it blooms. Stir in the milk, eggs, pumpkin, butter, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom to the yeast mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.

Slowly add the all purpose flour, a bit at a time, until the dough is stiff enough to knead. Begin with 1 1/2 cups of flour and increase if necessary. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, adding flour if necessary.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, ~1 hour.

Combine the filling ingredients, except for the butter, in a small bowl. Transfer the risen dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat or roll into a 16" by 12" rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough and then sprinkle with sugar mixture.

Roll the dough into a log the long way, it'll stretch to about 20 inches long. Using a very sharp knife, slice the dough into 15 slices. Place slices in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, ~45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 375 deg F oven, until they're brown around the edges and golden brown across, ~20-30 minutes.

While rolls bake, prepare the frosting. Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Add in powdered sugar, a little at a time, until desired consistency and sweetness is reached.

Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting and serve immediately. Store leftover frosting in the refrigerator.

Recipe: Brown Sugar and Mustard Salmon
This really doesn't require a formal recipe. Preheat oven to 400 deg F, and put salmon on cedar planks or foil, on a baking sheet. Add some s&p to both sides. Squirt some dijon mustard on, then sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for ~15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of fish. Enjoy!

Golden Vegetable Soup

2011-04-07T23:22:00.000-04:00

When it got really cold back in January and February, it was necessary to start making a lot of soup. This one was easy to make, since you just throw everyone in the crock pot. And the homemade creme fraiche is pretty darn good. I like the fresh tangy bite it adds to the earthy soup. And this works with any veggies. I had a hodge podge in my fridge that I used.

Recipe: Golden Vegetable Soup (from One Perfect Bite)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 lb baby carrots
2 lbs russet potatoes
2 large leeks
~1 lb turnip roots
1 large onion
4 cups vegetable stock
1.5 cups water
s&p to taste

Creme Fraiche:
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream or buttermilk
2 tbsp plain yogurt

Directions:
Rub bottom half of slow cooker with butter. Add carrots, potatoes, leeks, turnips and onions. Add water and broth, and cook on low until vegetables are tender, about 6-8 hours.

Using an immersion blender, puree soup. Season to taste with s&p.

For each serving, swirl in a heaping spoonful of creme fraiche (directions to make, below). Serve with crusty bread.

For creme fraiche, combine cream, sour cream and yogurt in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until thickened, 6-8 hours or overnight. The longer it sits, the thicker it will get. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

Maple Pot de Creme

2011-04-07T22:20:00.001-04:00

My parents went to Canada, and brought back some maple syrup for me. I wanted to think of a great way to use it, and I found this recipe. This makes the most velvety, smooth custard, and really highlights the maple syrup. You have to try it!

Recipe: Maple Pot de Creme (from 17 and Baking)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300 deg F and arrange 4 ramekins in a rimmed baking dish.

Combine the cream, maple syrup and salt in a small saucepan. Heat until it comes to a simmer. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Using a small ladle, add some of the hot cream to the eggs a few tablespoons at a time. Whisk the warmed egg yolks into the cream in the saucepan. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Pour the mixture into the four ramekins. Carefully pour enough hot water into the rimed baking dish until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the edges are set, but the center jiggles when shook, about 50-60 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Cheddar Serrano Bread

2011-04-07T22:05:00.001-04:00

I'm friends with some serious bread bakers. They have a real brick oven, and have made hundreds of loaves for specialty shops. When they found out I was interested in bread baking, they procured a banetton and a clay baking dish (cloche). Then my dad rigged a handle on the cloche so I wouldn't burn myself lifting the hot dish out of the oven. I wanted to find a great recipe to test out my new baking tools, and I definitely found it with this Cheddar Serrano bread. I made one HUGE loaf with hit. I think that the cheddar and peppers added great flavor, and the bread itself had a nice texture. It stuck a little to the banetton, so I would recommend using a TON of flour. This would also work well making free form loaves.

Recipe: Cheddar Serrano Bread (from Girlichef)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting workspace
big pinch of sea salt
4 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded and minced
6 oz extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in large bowl with water and sugar. Stir and let sit 10 minutes, or until bloomed and creamy.

Mix in eggs and oil. Toss cheese and serranos with flour and salt. Mix into wet ingredients with wooden spoon. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, ~10-15 minutes. (You can also use a stand mixer with a dough hook, which would take less time.) Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic or a slightly damp towel. Let rise until doubled in size, ~2 hours. Punch down.

Form dough into a ball and put in a well floured banetton. Let rise until doubled in size, ~90 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 deg F in the last 30 minutes, with a pizza stone placed on the center rack.

Transfer to the oven and cover with a cloche, bake for ~30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

What to do with leftover champagne

2011-04-07T13:31:00.001-04:00

So I need to preface this by saying we chose this recipe before we bought the champagne, bought pink champagne just so the cupcakes would be pretty, and then had to make a point to save some champagne to use for the cupcakes. Leftover champagne is not something we are familiar with. You need to be very careful when mixing the cupcakes, ours got a little tough.

Recipe: Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Pink Champagne Buttercream Frosting (from Gimme Me Some Oven)
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup champagne
6 egg whites

Frosting:
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar (we didn't use this much)
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp champagne, at room temperature

Directions:
Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 deg F and line cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking soda and salt, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with champagne.

In another large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff whites form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 deg F for 20 minutes.

Frosting:
With an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter (add only some of the sugar to start, so you can taste for sweetness). Mix on low until well blended, and then on medium for another 2 minutes. Add vanilla and champagne, beating on medium for another minute.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

2011-04-07T13:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, so these are incredible! Make sure you freeze the cream cheese, otherwise it can get extremely messy. I didn't make the topping, but I'm sure it's delicious. I halved the recipe, and it turned out perfectly.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (from Annie's Eats)
Ingredients:
Filling:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Muffins:
1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tbsp flour
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix until well blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Freeze at least 2 hours.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Line muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until combined. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl, stir until combined. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom (1-2 tbsp). Slice the log of cream cheese into 12 equal pieces. Place a slice of cream cheese in to each muffin well.

Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely.

Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving (otherwise the cream cheese will be VERY hot!)

Notice that one is missing? :)

Updates on the typical stuffing and green bean casserole

2011-04-07T12:59:00.001-04:00

I wanted to make a more gourmet version of stuffing and green bean casserole, and I think that I succeeded. The stuffing in particular was delicious. Why do we only make stuffing for Thanksgiving? I think we should make it more often!

Recipe: Artichoke, Mushroom and Parmesan Stuffing (adapted from Our Best Bites)
Ingredients:
Big bag of seasoned bread cubes (maybe 2 lbs?)
1 tbsp butter
1 lb mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
2 onions, chopped
1 cup diced celery
2 tbsp minced garlic
2-2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, in water, drained and chopped
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
s&p to taste

Directions:

In a 12-inch (or larger) frying pan over high heat, cook mushrooms, butter, onions, celery and garlic, stirring often, until vegetables are tender and lightly browned. Pour into a large bowl. Add a bit of broth to the pan (a few tbsp) and stir to scrape up browned bits, add to the bowl.

Pour 2 cups broth into bowl and add bread cubes, artichoke hearts, parmesan and rosemary, mix well. Add s&p to taste. You can add more broth at this point, if you want stuffing to be more moist.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Spoon stuffing into a 9x13 baking pan. For moist stuffing, cover with foil; for crusty stuffing, do not cover. Bake until hot and lightly browned, about 50 minutes.

Make ahead: Up to 1 day ahead, make stuffing, put in casserole, cover and chill. Allow about 1 hour to bake.

Recipe: Green Bean Casserole (from Life's Ambrosia)
Ingredients:
2 lbs green beans
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp oil
2 1/2 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup half and half
2 oz cream cheese
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
* Note - I really wanted to do the parmesan + panko topping, but my mom insisted on the fried onions

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add green beans and cook for 3 minutes or until bright green. (Might take longer than 3 minutes, mine were still crunchy after baking)
Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain and transfer to prepared baking dish.

In a skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter with 1 tbsp oil. Cook onions and mushrooms 5 minutes, until mushrooms release some of their moisture. Transfer to a plate and set aside. In the same pan, add remaining butter and oil. Whisk in flour. Cook 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk and half and half. Return mushrooms and onions to the pan. Stir in softened cream cheese. Once melted, season with s&p. Pour over green beans.

In a bowl, combine parmesan cheese and panko bread crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes or until bread crumbs are lightly browned and sauce is bubbling. Remove from oven. Allow to cool slightly, and serve.

A Thanksgiving Dessert Compromise

2011-04-07T12:47:00.000-04:00

We had our own Thanksgiving meal at home this past fall. We used to go to my mom's parent's condo, then we started bringing them with us to my dad's parent's place. This time we decided to keep it simple, with just us. My sister was supposed to join us, but had a lot of work to do, so she stayed in Brooklyn. Normally, I have to fight to include pumpkin in the menu. My mom loves it (although not as much as I do), but my dad and sister are not fans. They however both love cheesecake. I decided that if I made a cheesecake, and swirled some pumpkin in, maybe they would be okay with it. Well, I didn't hear any complaints!
This was my first time baking a cheesecake in a water bath. It came out so creamy! It still cracked on top, but I blame the pumpkin for that.

This was a beautiful, and delicious, dessert.

Recipe: Deluxe Pumpkin Cheesecake (from Culinary Covers)
Ingredients:
1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies (I used some gingersnaps, and some graham crackers)
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
4 8-oz packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Optional garnishes: chocolate syrup, caramel ice cream topping, whipped topping, additional crushed gingersnap cookies

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Place a greased 9-inch springform pan on a double thickness of heavy duty foil. Securely wrap foil around pan.

In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs, pecans and butter.

Press onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until set. Cool on a wire rack.

For filling, in a large bowl, beat 1 package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in remaining cream cheese, one package at a time. Add remaining sugar. Add 2 eggs, beat on low speed until just combined. Add remaining eggs and vanilla, beating on low speed until just combined.

Place 2 cups filling in a small bowl, stir in the pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. Remove 3/4 cup pumpkin filling and set aside. Pour remaining pumpkin filling over the crust, top with remaining plain filling. Drop reserved pumpkin filling by spoonfuls over cheesecake, swirl with a knife.

Place springform pan in a large baking pan, add 1 inch hot water to larger pan. Bake at 350 for 55-65 minutes, or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springpan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen, cool 1 hour longer.

Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight. Add garnish, if desired.

Baked doughnuts

2011-04-07T12:29:00.001-04:00

I bought a doughnut pan last fall. For some reason, I have only used it once. This needs to be remedied. But I did make some delicious pumpkin doughnuts when I used it last fall! The recipe includes a glaze, but I didn't make it. I was transporting the doughnuts and figured that would be a bit messy. But I'm sure it's delicious.

Recipe: Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts (from Culinary Cory)
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 deg F. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon, set aside. Cream the brown sugar and butter. Stir in the pumpkin, eggs, milk and vanilla. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, mix until barely combined.

Spray the donut pan with cooking spray and fill each donut mold halfway with pumpkin batter. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes or until the exterior springs back when touched. Allow to cool completely, top with glaze if desired.

Easy dish to bring to a Thanksgiving potluck

2011-04-07T12:22:00.003-04:00

My lab was told that we were participating in a Thanksgiving potluck, about 2 days in advance. I was really busy at the time, but still wanted to make something to bring. This dish was so easy to make - I just dumped everything in a pot and let it do its thing, while I got some work done. And you can add flavorings to make this dish your own. I made this a second time, for our Thanksgiving meal at home, and added some bourbon :)

Recipe: Fresh Cranberry Orange Sauce (from Two Peas and Their Pod)
Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 tbsp orange zest

Directions:
Rinse cranberries with cold water. In a medium saucepan, add sugar, water and orange juice. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and add cranberries and orange zest. Return to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low. Cook until cranberries start to burst, about 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Pour sauce into a bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Can be made 1-2 days in advance.

Stone Fruit Tea Cake

2011-04-07T12:14:00.000-04:00

This is the most amazing cake. It is so buttery, with a filling of pure fruit, and has such a pretty shape when baked in a tart pan with a removable bottom. I have made this many times with peaches (hence the name stone fruit tea cake), and I have also made it with apples. The last time I made it was in November, when I had a ton of apples leftover from my many trips to the apple orchards here. I think this would work very well with most fruits. I added a few cranberries in, for some pretty color. I have a randomly sized tart pan, it is 11 inches instead of the standard 9 inches, so I made 1.5x the recipe. I'm including the recipe for the original amount, which can be used for a 9 inch tart pan. You can also make mini tarts, I have made 4 mini tarts with 4.5 inch pans, from the standard recipe.

Recipe: Stone Fruit Tea Cake (from Food Gal)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature, for pan
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups chopped or slices fresh fruit
1 tbsp turbinado sugar

Directions:
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Using a handheld mixer with a beater or a standup mixer with the paddle attachment, cream sugar and butter together on medium-high speed for 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl after each addition, then stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir just until a smooth dough forms. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten into a 1-inch thick disk, then freeze for 30 minutes. Dough can also be refrigerated for a day or two.

Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Butter a shallow 9-inch round baking pan or tart pan.

Divide the dough into two equal portions and pat one portion evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread fruit over the dough.

Break remainder of the dough into tablespoon-size pieces and distribute atop the fruit, then sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the dessert.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm. Cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Storage:
Wrapped in plastic wrap, this cake will keep well at room temperature for up to 3 days. (The top will soften a bit.) You can also freeze the unbaked dough; if wrapped well, it will keep for up to 3 months. You can freeze a whole, unbaked cake with fruit (again, wrapped well) for up to 1 month.

Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Lasagna

2011-04-07T11:59:00.000-04:00

I am obsessed with pumpkin. I also absolutely love goat cheese. So when I saw a recipe that combined the two, and put them in a creamy lasagna, I knew I had to try it. Overall, this was a really great dish. I think it could have used a bit in terms of seasoning, but that's definitely easy to remedy!

Recipe: Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Lasagna (from One Perfect Bite)
Ingredients:
1 lb dried lasagna noodles

Bechamel Sauce:
1/2 stick unsalted butter (4 tbsp)
4 tbsp flour
3 cups whole milk
2 tbsp fresh creamy goat cheese
1/2 tsp salt
Freshly grated nutmeg

Filling:
1 can (29 oz) pumpkin puree
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp minced fresh sage (I didn't use)
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup bread crumbs (the recipe said to use unseasoned, but I used seasoned and liked the flavor it added)
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp goat cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup brown sugar (I think I would use less next time)
1 tbsp salt (I didn't use the full tbsp)
Freshly ground pepper

For assembly:
1/2 cup bread crumbs (again, I used seasoned)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 deg F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Boil noodles until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain. Rinse in cold water, and then lay out in a single layer.

Meanwhile, to prepare sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat; sprinkle in flour, stirring continuously with a wire whisk. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Whisk in milk slowly, then add goat cheese, salt and pinch of nutmeg. Heat to a simmer; cook, whisking often, until thick and creamy, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

To prepare filling, combine pumpkin, thyme, sage, nutmeg, bread crumbs, goat cheese, parmesan, brown sugar, and s&p to taste in a large mixing bowl.

To assemble lasagna, spread 1/3 of pumpkin mixture on bottom of lightly greased 9x13 pan. Cover with a layer of lasagna noodles, placed lengthwise side by side, overlapping edges. Spread another 1/3 of filling over noodles; top with 3/4 cup of bechamel sauce. Top with another layer of noodles, remaining filling, and another 3/4 cup of bechamel sauce. Cover with a final layer of noodles and remaining bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and parmesan.

Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray, and place it sprayed side down over the lasagna, folding the edges down.

Bake until heated through and bubbling, about 50 minutes. Remove foil, bake until topping is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven, cool 10 minutes, and enjoy!

The Best Dip Ever

2011-04-07T11:41:00.000-04:00

Here's another recipe I have made a few times. This caramelized onion dip is oh so good, and made with greek yogurt and light sour cream, isn't as bad for you as most dips out there. The onions can be caramelized up to a few days ahead of time. And I recommend mixing the dip a few hours in advance, so the flavors can all develop together.

Recipe: Caramelized Onion Dip (from 101 Cookbooks)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large yellow onions, finely chopped
1-2 sprigs fresh thyme
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup greek yogurt
1-2 tbsp onion granules/flakes
s&p to taste

Directions:
In a large thick-bottomed skillet over medium heat, saute the chopped onions in the olive oil along with a couple pinches of salt and the thyme. Stir occasionally with a wood or metal spatula and cook until the onions are deeply golden, brown, and caramelized - roughly 40 or 50 minutes. Set aside and cool.

In the meantime, whisk together the sour cream, yogurt, onion granules, and s&p. Make sure to add whatever onion powder you are using to taste. Set aside until the caramelized onions have cooled to room temperature. Stir in 2/3 of the onions, scoop into a serving bowl, and top with the remaining onions. Serve at room temperature.

Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

2011-04-07T11:33:00.000-04:00

I have made this salad so many times. It is a great summer side dish, when tomatoes are in season, and fresh basil is plentiful. I have also just made the tomatoes, and tossed them with pasta, or used them to top some creamy polenta (as seen below). It is such an easy, and pretty, dish to make. Get some plum tomatoes at your local farmers market, and give it a try!

Recipe: Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad (from Barefoot Contessa)
Ingredients:
12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeds (but not cores) removed
1/4 cup good olive oil, plus more for drizzling (you don't necessarily need this much)
1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 oz fresh mozzarella
12 fresh basil leaves, julienned

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 275 deg F.

Arrange the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with the garlic, sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Roast for 2 hours, or until tomatoes are concentrated and begin to caramelize. Allow the tomatoes to cool to room temperature.

Cut the mozzarella into slices slightly less than 1/2 inch thick. If the slices of mozzarella are larger than the tomatoes, cut the mozzarella slices in half. Layer the tomatoes alternately with the mozzarella on a platter and scatter the basil on top. Sprinkle slightly with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

Banana Sourdough Muffins

2011-01-10T22:02:00.001-05:00

While my last recipe post had a ton of pictures, but lacked a recipe, this is exactly the opposite. I've made these muffins 2 or 3 times now, and somehow I have managed to avoid taking a picture! When I made them, I was searching for a recipe where I could use my sourdough starter in a quick bread, just like when I made the sourdough scones. These muffins are delicious, and have a really great texture. Just make them!

Recipe: Banana Sourdough Muffins (from The Fresh Loaf)
Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (I always add less)
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup sourdough starter (mine is kept at a 1:1 ratio by weight, and this can be used before or after feeding)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't use)
1 tsp vanilla or 1 tsp orange zest (I used vanilla)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix until blended. Stir in bananas and sourdough starter. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stir just until combined. Pour either into a greased 9x5 loaf pan, or into muffin cups, either greased or with paper liners. Bake the loaf for ~1 hr or the muffins for 20-30 minutes. They are done when a toothpick comes out still moist. The first time I made these, I overbaked them slightly because they still looked underdone. They continue cooking in the pan after you take it out, trust me!

Quirks

2011-01-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

Just some weird things I've been thinking about lately.
For example - why in the world would anyone advertise aged cheese as "old cheddar?" I have actually seen one brand in the grocery store call it "really old cheddar." No kidding. I'm going to have to take a picture of it if I ever see it again.
Also, I am a major hypocrite when it comes to choosing recipes from blogs. I'm a major photo snob. I will often veto recipes when they don't have stellar pictures. Umm, has anybody noticed my pictures? Let's just say it's usually a combination of bad lighting, poor focus, and a big mess in the background. If I came across my own blog, I probably wouldn't make any of my recipes.
I also veto any recipe that has a component I'm not a fan of, even if it's something I could probably easily change. Like bacon - for some reason that's been a huge craze lately, and since I don't eat meat, I definitely won't be sexing up my food with bacon. I'm sure it would be pretty simple to just remove that crumbled slice of bacon from the recipe, but I just skip it. And with recipes including apples - let's just start off by saying that I love apples. I love them raw, mashed in sauce, apple cider, in pies, etc. But when it comes to oatmeal or bread, I refuse to eat apple chunks. I think it's a texture thing. So of course, it would also be simple to just change the recipe so it includes shredded apples instead of diced, but I prefer to use recipes where that change has already been made.
So I admit it - I am a judgy*, hypocritical blogger. Who finds old cheese humorous. And I have all kinds of other quirks that I'm just mentioning right now, food related and otherwise.

* I don't know if I had ever heard this word (at least not in this form) before hearing it about 10 times per episode of The Vampire Diaries. Are you judging me for watching the show? Then that makes you judgy too :)

Pita Bread

2011-01-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

One hot night this past summer, I had the random idea to make pita bread. I had a recipe, and the ingredients, so I figured why not? They turned out pretty well, but I think only the first one puffed up the way it was supposed to. The rest puffed in parts, so I couldn't cut them open and stuff them, but they were still delicious to dip into hummus. Okay so only problem now - I CAN'T FIND THE RECIPE I USED! And it was so long ago, that I can't remember what it looked like or what ingredients were in it, so I can't match it up to recipes I have saved. So all I can leave with you are the pictures, unfortunately. Sorry this is such a tease post!

Pumpkin Oatmeal

2011-01-10T18:33:00.000-05:00

It is definitely going to be difficult to catch up! I was behind already, back in October. I guess it's good timing though, because the start of the semester probably means I won't be able to cook as frequently, so it's a good thing I have a big stockpile of things to post about.

Since I just made this for breakfast this morning, I figure it's a good place to start. I went through countless cans of pumpkin this fall (btw, so happy it made an appearance on shelves this year!) making this oatmeal. It's really the simplest oatmeal in the world to make, and this is a great base recipe (minus the pumpkin) to add whatever you have on hand - bananas, raisins, nuts, etc.

This isn't really a true "recipe" - all you do is take 1 part quick oats to 2 parts water or milk. I like using almond milk, it gives it a nice creamy texture. 1/2 cup oats will give a really big bowl of oatmeal. Mix the oats and water/milk together with a pinch of salt. Microwave 2-4 minutes at 45-60 second intervals. KEEP AN EYE ON IT! Oatmeal has the tendency to bubble over very quickly. Once it has cooked, add in 2-3 tbsp of canned pumpkin, sugar to taste, and a few shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg. I can't really take credit for inventing an actual recipe, since the main portion came off the canister of oatmeal. But you should definitely try this - it is yummy, and has a ton of protein and fiber.

Resolutions

2011-01-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

So let's forget about the fact that I haven't posted A THING in almost 3 months.
It's a new year, a new start, so I can be forgiven, right?
Since it's the new year, that means I can make some resolutions. And no, not resolutions to actually stick to a diet and get back to the weight I was a year ago. Because then when I fall off that diet, it would just be a failed resolution and that's so disappointing.
But I am going to make some cooking resolutions. Things I want to bake/cook in the next year. I don't have to do all of them, but I would love to try!
What are your resolutions?

(In no particular order)
* Souffle (savory and sweet)
* Pate a choux pastry
* Profiteroles with above pastry
* Croissants
* Pound cake
* Cake with fondant
* Stuffed mushrooms/peppers/tomatoes
* Cheese fondue
* Shortbread
* Latkes
* Burger buns
* Soft pretzels
* Salsa
* Macarons
* Macaroons (no I did not list the same thing twice)
* An interesting unconventional ice cream flavor
* Yogurt cake
* Profiteroles
* Candy (some kind of old fashioned caramel)
* ~~Pot de creme~~ (made one the other day so crossed off the list!)
* Artichokes
* Tiramisu (or other type of trifle)
* Baked pancake
* Babka
* Baklava
* Brioche
* Creme Brulee (I have the torch, just need some propane for it!)
* Jelly Roll
* ~~Panettone~~ (also just made this!)
* Old fashioned popcorn (the kind that doesn't come from a bag in the microwave)
* Whoopie pies
* Cauliflower (I know - it's crazy I've never cooked with it!)
* Panna Cotta (I had some for dessert on New Years and it was AMAZING)
* More artisan bread
* Parmesan cheese crisps
* Polenta croutons
* Ice cream sandwiches
* Sesame noodles
* Tortellini
* Calzones
* French onion soup
* Split pea soup
* Lattice top pie
* Eggnog
* Custard Pie
* Dinner rolls
* Flavored pasta (I have tried once and it was extremely unsuccessful)
* Poached pears
* Baked and stuffed apples
* Caramel sauce
* Pecan pie (without the use of corn syrup)
* Shortbread cookies
* Veggie burgers
* Poptarts
* Bundt cake
* Naan
* Pad Thai
* Gougeres
* Crabcakes
* Coconut cake
* Angel food cake
* Savory cheesecake

And after all of that food talk, I would like to run in a few 5ks this year. But I think that can wait until the weather warms up...

Oh and can I just say that I had this post open for several days, so I could keep on adding things I want to try! I eventually decided that I could probably keep adding things forever, so I should probably just post already!

Baby Shower!

2010-10-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

My friend Sarah and I threw a baby shower for one of our friends. She hosted it, so I said I would make the cupcakes. Of course, at this point, I had never made (from scratch) cupcakes before. This may be a little confusing since I recently posted a cupcake recipe. This is why I wanted to post things in order!
But anyway, I had only made muffins, so I had to search for a really good cupcake recipe. I found a delicious sounding recipe for Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting, and decided to go with that. The end result was really good. I used green food coloring for the frosting, since my friend is using a green theme for her baby boy.
After they baked, I was a little concerned. The tops of the cupcakes started to get crusty and caramelized, and tunnel-like holes formed. The inside was still pretty gooey. I didn't want them to get too dry, so I took them out while still a little wet. I figured that any imperfections could be covered by the frosting. They still tasted great!

Recipe:
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting (from How Sweet It Is)
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 lb powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 vanilla bean

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
For cupcakes: cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla and vanilla seeds. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Fold in half the dry ingredients to the wet, just until combined. Mix in the milk, then add in the other half of the dry ingredients. Pour into cupcake tins (line with paper liners, if desired), and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool.

For frosting: beat butter until smooth. Add in powdered sugar and beat until fluffy. Gradually add milk, vanilla and vanilla beans, until at desired consistency. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

2010-10-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

Now that I have a pizza stone (not sure if I mentioned this, but I bought one!), I can make the bread and follow the directions exactly. I've already posted the instructions, so this time I just want to post the beautiful pictures of my beautiful bread.

A birthday galette

2010-10-19T21:47:00.000-04:00

For a friend's birthday last month, I decided to make one of her favorite desserts. In July of 09, I made a peach and blueberry galette that she practically swooned over. I knew this would be the perfect thing to make for her. I think the best part about this recipe is the crust. It's so flavorful and has great texture. My only issue - the filling always leaks out! I've made this three times now, and it has happened every time. I keep on saying that next time I'll bake it in a pie plate, so any leakage will stay in the dish. Maybe next time I'll actually do this.
This time I did half blueberries and half raspberries - I used berries I had picked and frozen, and didn't thaw before using. The second time I made this I used apples and fresh cranberries. You can really use any fruit, so it's adaptable to any season. Make this pie!

Recipe: Peach and Blueberry Galette (from Food Blogga)
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup coarse cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup low fat buttermilk

Filling:
2 1/2 cups blueberries
3 cups thinly sliced peaches (don't need to peel)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp minced ginger
4 tbsp cornstarch

1 egg white
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp raw sugar

Directions:
For the crust: combine flour, sugar, cornmeal and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and pulse until it resembles coarse meal and the butter is in pea sized bits. With the processor running, slowly pour the buttermilk through the chute. Process until the dough forms a ball. Dump the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
For the filling, toss all ingredients in a large bowl and make sure the cornmeal coats the fruit well.
Take the dough out of the fridge, and put on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough out to a 14-15 inch wide circle. Put the dough, with the parchment paper, on a baking sheet.
Spread the fruit on the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the border over the filling, overlapping as you fold.
Mix the egg white and milk, and brush on top of the crust. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the crust and filling.

Bake for ~1 hour, or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.
Cool for at least 20 minutes, and then enjoy!

See - filling all over the place!

Delicious, flaky crust

Easier isn't always better

2010-10-19T21:15:00.001-04:00

I have a bunch of goat cheese I need to use up, and I thought that a creamy sandwich spread would be delicious. Only problem - no bread. So I looked to see if I had any simple recipes, and found one that was perfect. Very few ingredients, it only makes one loaf, and no kneading required. I wanted a lighter wheat bread, so I did a 1:2 ratio of wheat to all purpose flour, instead of the 2:1 ratio in the original recipe. The recipe said to cover the loaf pan with a floured tea cloth during the second rise - since I let mine rise in the oven with the oven light on, I didn't cover it at all.

So this is the good. The bad....
Well this didn't turn out at all how I thought it would. I should have been worried after the second rise - the dough rose so high above the top of the pan that I thought it was going to collapse onto itself. After 10 minutes of baking, some of it had actually dripped down onto the bottom of the oven. Thank goodness I caught it before anything started burning. After less than 20 minutes, the top of the bread was completely brown and hard, so I took it out. I let it cool on a wire rack, in the pan for a while, and then took it out. The bottom of the loaf was soggy and spongy. I'm thinking I'm going to have to toss it.

All in all - this sounds like a great loaf of bread, but unfortunately didn't work out for me. I don't know if I didn't add enough flour, if it rose too much before baking, if it needed to be baked at a lower temperature, or what! I'm including the recipe anyway in case someone is brave enough to try and see if this works for them.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (from One Perfect Bite)
Ingredients:
1 packet active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp molasses
2 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 cup whole wheat flour, divided
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, yeast and molasses. Let sit for ~ 5 minutes, until foamy. Add 1 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, butter and salt; mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add remaining flour, and mix just until combined.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and sit in a warm spot ~ 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Pour into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Cover with a flour-coated tea towel and let rise in a warm spot, or until it fills the pan.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes. Cool in pan, and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Cooking while fasting - genius idea or huge mistake?

2010-10-19T17:57:00.001-04:00

This past Yom Kippur, I had a few friends over to break the fast. For those of you who don't know, Yom Kippur is a Jewish holiday that is 10 days after the Jewish New Year. It's the "Day of Atonement," when you're supposed to repent for all of your sins of the past year, and then you start the new year with a fresh slate. You're supposed to fast to help clear your mind and focus. And then you get together with your friends and stuff your face :)
I probably technically could have made some of the food in advance, but I wanted everything to be fresh. Which means that I made most of the food while fasting. For someone who tastes as she cooks, this was extremely difficult! Not only did it make me really hungry, but I couldn't check to make sure everything tasted okay.
For some reason, the food at break the fast parties resembles breakfast or brunch food. There is usually an assortment of bagels, with cream cheese, lox and other toppings. So I made homemade bagels, and had my friend bring cream cheese and lox.
Kugel is an essential Jewish food. It's kind of like a bread pudding, but with egg noodles. The custard is a combination of eggs, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese and cream cheese. I added in apples and raisins.
Even though kugel is almost a dessert, I needed a real dessert. I had some leftover buttermilk from a pie (post coming soon), so I used it to make buttermilk chocolate cupcakes. They were so good! Not too unhealthy, but really decadent-tasting. I paired them with a coconut cream cheese frosting - not too sweet, and completely delicious.
So what do you think? Is it horribly cruel to cook when you can't eat, or is it a great idea to have a ton of food ready for when you can eat?

Kugel with Apples and Raisins:
Ingredients:

4 oz cream cheese, 1/3 less fat (at room temperature)

6 oz unsalted butter, melted

8 oz cottage cheese, reduced fat

1/2 cup sugar

6 eggs

1 pint sour cream, reduced fat

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb medium egg noodles
2 apples, thinly sliced
1/2 cup raisins
cinnamon sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine the cream cheese, butter, cottage cheese and sugar and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and beat in, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream and vanilla and set aside.
Parboil the apples ~2 minutes, until tender. Drain and set aside.
Cook the egg noodles in boiling water ~6 minutes, until al dente. Drain, and mix with the creamed mixture. Add the apples and raisins, toss until mixed well.

Pour into a 9x13 pan, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Bake 45 minutes-1 hour, or until the custard is set. If starting to brown too much, cover with foil.

Let sit ~30 minutes before serving. Enjoy warm or at room temperature (with a freshly baked bagel).

Recipe: Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes (from Picky Eatings)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup dutch processes cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F and line a standard cupcake tin with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Add eggs, water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla, and beat until smooth.
Use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake liners. You may have a little extra batter.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is springy, about 20 minutes. Put on a cooling rack, and then frost once at room temperature.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:
Ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, divided

Directions:
Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. With the mixer on low, add in the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Fold in the extracts and some of the coconut.

Smooth on top of the cooled cupcakes, and sprinkle with the remaining coconut.

A Perfect Fall Meal

2010-10-19T12:30:00.000-04:00

I have also started having dinner dates with my friend Sarah. We wanted to make something weather appropriate, so soup seemed like a perfect choice. She mentioned that she likes Panera's Broccoli and Cheddar soup, so our plan was to try to recreate that. For dessert, we wanted to use the apples we had just picked from Carter Mountain Orchard. One of my friends recently made a pumpkin cheesecake that I can't stop thinking about, so we decided to make a cheesecake with apples, but in a bar form. Like with my dinner date with Jess, we had to make the dessert before making the dinner, since cheesecake needs to be chilled before enjoying.
This dinner was delicious. We made a TON of soup. We actually had some concerns halfway through that everything might not fit into her 6 quart soup pot. Don't worry, we made it all fit :)
We noticed that the soup actually had more of an onion taste than a cheese taste. I think that next time, I might cook the onions separately. They were in the soup base the entire time, so it makes sense that it transferred a lot of flavor to it. I think I would be afraid to add much more cheese - it already had a ton in it!

Broccoli and Cheddar Soup (for an army)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 medium-large red onion, chopped
1/2 cup flour
4 cups whole milk
3 cups reduced sodium vegetable stock
24 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (we used a combination of yellow and white)
2 medium-large carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped in 1/2-1 inch cubes
2 bunches of broccoli, florets cut up
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamom
s&p

Directions:
In a large stockpot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the flour, and stir well to incorporate. Cook for a few minutes, then slowly add the milk while stirring. Once incorporated, add the vegetable stock. Cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add in the cheese, stirring until melted.

While making the base, cook all of the vegetables. You can either do this in separate pots, or use one pot at a time. The potatoes and carrots will take the longest time - cook in boiling water until fork tender. The broccoli will only take a few minutes, remove from water when bright green and crisp-tender.

When the cheese has melted, add in the potatoes, mashing them slightly to thicken the soup. Then add in the carrots and broccoli.

Using an immersion blender, blend to desired consistency. Add s&p to taste.

I love the green and orange flecks from the blended veggies!

Apple Pie Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Filling:
3 packages room temp cream cheese (we used 2 packages 1/3 less fat, and 1 package regular)
3 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Apples:
3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
For the crust: Mix the flour, graham crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives. Use your fingers to mix together until large clumps form. Pour in a 9x13 pan and press down to uniform thickness.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until just barely starting to brown. Let cool.

For the filling: While the crust is cooling, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and beat. Then stir in the cinnamon and vanilla until well combined.

For apples: Mix together the apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until the apples are coated.
Pour ~1/3-1/2 of the filling on the (slightly cooled) crust, spread to cover crust. Spread out the apple slices on top, then pour the rest of the filling over the apples.

Bake 30-45 minutes, or until the filling is set and lightly browned. If starting to brown too early, cover with tented foil.

Cool until warm, and then cool the rest of the way in the fridge. Cut into squares with a sharp knife.

Since marshmallows do not = dinner

2010-10-19T11:46:00.001-04:00

I promise, we did not just eat s'mores for dinner the other night. We started with a delicious goat cheese pizza and salad.
Jess and I share an obsession with goat cheese. After we chose a date for dinner (something that needs to be done many weeks in advance since Jess is one of the busiest people I know), I then scoured my list of recipes for anything and everything using goat cheese. I came across a really interesting recipe for pizza with a goat cheese sauce. It ended up being perfect - we had a lot of the ingredients in our own kitchens, so it was really cheap to make.
To go with it, we made a really simple salad. The original plan was to make a salad with pan fried goat cheese rounds, but after making the marshmallows (that was the first thing we did, since they take a while to set), and then assembling the pizza, simplicity was our friend. And crumbled goat cheese won out.

Always drink wine while cooking :)

Recipe: Whole Wheat Pizza with Goat Cheese and Veggies (adapted from Cake, Batter and Bowl)
Ingredients:
1 lb of your favorite whole wheat pizza dough (Trader Joe's has a great one that's cheap)
1 tbsp olive oil
10 oz fresh, sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas for good flavor)
2 cloves garlic, minced
~6 oz fresh spinach and arugula (I had some leftover from salad)
6 oz goat cheese
3 oz (6 tbsp) milk (any kind works fine here, I used skim because it's what I had)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Take out your pizza dough, if refrigerated. It rolls out best when it's close to room temperature.
Put your pizza stone on the middle rack of your oven and preheat at 450 F. The instructions that came with my stone say to preheat it at 450 F for 30 minutes before using so I always do that - if yours says anything different, then just go with that.
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet (use a pretty big one) over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened. Add spinach (and arugula, if using) and garlic, and cook until wilted. Remove from the heat.

Roll out the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface into whatever shape you want. (Just make sure it'll fit on your pizza stone! Mine is a rectangle, so it supports almost any shape/size.) We rolled it into a ~14 inch diameter circle.

In a small bowl, mix the goat cheese, milk, salt and parmesan together until creamy.

When the oven has preheated, put the pizza dough on a cornmeal-coated pizza peel and slide onto the pizza stone (which should also be coated with cornmeal). My dad loves this aspect of pizza baking - he calls the cornmeal his "ball bearings."
Cook the pizza for ~3 minutes, just until it starts to hold shape a bit. I always par-bake my pizza crust before adding toppings so it can crisp up a bit, and handle a heavy load of toppings without getting soggy. If it starts to bubble up, just pop the bubble with a fork or the tip of a sharp knife.
Using the pizza peel, take the pizza back out of the oven. Spread the goat cheese mixture on top, leaving a border for the crust. Top with the mushroom and spinach mixture (warning - my mushrooms let out a lot of liquid, so I used a slotted spoon to pick them up and then pressed down with another spoon to push out as much liquid as possible.) Sprinkle the red onions on top, and then the tomatoes on top of that.

Top with the mozzarella cheese, and then (carefully) slide back onto the pizza stone. Cook for ~10 minutes, or until the crust gets crisp and the cheese is bubbling and golden.
Remove using the pizza peel, and let it sit for a few minutes before slicing up and enjoying!

Arugula Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese
This recipe is pretty basic - take a bunch of arugula, top with sliced roasted beets (Trader Joe's has them in the refrigerated section, pre-roasted. Very handy.) Crumble fresh goat cheese on top. We made a simple vinaigrette using Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne vinegar, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Enjoy your dinner with (more) wine!

I want some more

2010-10-18T22:10:00.001-04:00

My plan had been to post everything I've made in the past 2 months chronologically. Well, I couldn't wait to post this.
I've been having dinner dates with my friend Jess, and we always try to think of something creative to make. Well after I made homemade graham crackers (coincidentally, the last food item I posted), I told Jess about it, and we decided that a homemade s'more was definitely in order. Jess is allergic to corn syrup, so we scoured the internet for marshmallow recipes that don't use any. After figuring out the rest of our menu (goat cheese pizza and salad, coming soon), we decided that making both the graham crackers and the marshmallows in one evening would be a little too ambitious. Some thick old fashioned cinnamon graham crackers from Trader Joe's definitely did the trick. As well as a square of good quality dark chocolate.
You really have to make these marshmallows. So simple to make. I still don't completely understand how they got so fluffy! This is a great recipe for anyone with food allergies, as well. Next time I want to try to have some fun with them - maybe add some food coloring, or a different extract or spices. I would also want to try making them in a bigger pan, so they aren't quite as tall.

Recipe: Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows (from Sugar Plum)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp unflavored gelatin (2 Knox envelopes)
1/2 cup cold water
pinch salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
butter to grease the pan
powdered sugar to coat the pan

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve the gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water. Over medium heat, stir the sugar, salt and 3/4 cup water until dissolved. Once it comes to a boil, let it boil for ~15 minutes, until it reaches 236 degrees F. (Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a candy thermometer. I used just a regular probe thermometer and it worked just fine. Just make sure you are careful when taking it in and out of the hot sugar, and that you run it under hot water after you take it out.)

When the sugar syrup reaches 236, take it off the heat and slowly pour it into the mixing bowl, while on low speed. Add the vanilla. Turn it up to medium, and beat for 20 minutes, until white, fluffy and partially cooled. It will get REALLY fluffy.

Action Shot :)

While it's beating, prepare your pan. Use an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan, and line with parchment paper or wax paper. Butter the paper, and then dust with powdered sugar.
When the marshmallow fluff is ready, pour/spread it into the prepared pan. It might be difficult. I think I overbeat mine slightly and it was really thick and stiff already. I just put a spatula under hot water, and then used that to spread out the top until it was relatively smooth.

Like my paper clips? They were keeping my parchment structure together

Then let it sit until it's set! And you'll have deliciously spongy marshmallows. When cutting, use a thin sharp knife, and run under hot water if it gets too sticky.

Then....take a nice thick graham cracker, top it with a marshmallow, and stick it under the broiler until your marshmallow starts to brown. Top it with a piece of good quality dark chocolate, and stick it back under the broiler until it melts a little. Keep it open-faced, or add another graham cracker on top, and enjoy!

Yes, it was really necessary to include all 4 delicious pictures!

Long absence + frustration

2010-10-12T07:58:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted anything. My absence has been because of a few reasons, and the biggest was because I was without my laptop for almost 5 weeks. One day at the end of August, Safari was acting a little strange so I restarted my computer (always my default move if something isn't right), and it wouldn't start up. I ended up taking it to an Apple authorized repair shop (the one good thing was that it's only 1 mile away), and was then without a computer for the next 4.5 weeks. They had to replace the battery, the top case, the bottom case, and worst of all - my hard drive. The computer was gone so long because of the slow data recovery process. That was the only part I had to pay for, since my computer is still under warranty, but it was worth it. I would have cried if I had lost all of my pictures, music, and files. So I wasn't able to post anything because of first, the obvious reason of not having my computer, but also, because I didn't have the pictures of anything I had made recently. I'm still not sure if they recovered all of my pictures. Every picture on my computer was put in one big dump folder, with many many duplicates, and a ton of junk images. It all added up to 65,000 - how crazy is that?

So now I've had my computer back for 2 weeks, but why haven't I posted anything yet? I think I've just been frustrated lately. Frustrated that I'm not really losing weight, even though I've been trying for the past two months. Frustrated that I've been so lazy lately - both in lab and at home. And I'm sick of being frustrated. This morning I went on my first run in 2 weeks and it felt great! (Actually, now that I think of it, I haven't mentioned running at all before. That's because I started running the same week I lost my computer. I was really good for the first month, and then started slacking the last few weeks or so.) I signed up for my very first 5k (not counting my pitiful attempt at cross country when I was 15 - wow, almost 10 years ago!) for this Saturday and I'm excited. And nervous! I knew that I really needed to get back into my exercise routine, but that I needed to be careful. I really don't want to be crazy sore before I even start the race. If I had been running consistently the past month, this goal might be different, but right now I'm hoping to finish under 40 minutes. I am NOT a runner by any means, so to do a race at all is a pretty big deal for me. I'm definitely going to have to walk for part of it. But one of my good friends is running (/walking) with me, so it should be fun! And of course it's for a good cause.

Now I just need to post everything I've made in the past two months. Actually, more than two months. I was already behind when my hard drive died. I think I documented all of the recipes, and hopefully I'll remember any changes I made to them. Unfortunately, there was one recipe that I made up that was not recovered on my computer. I'll do my best to remember what I put in it.

So be on the look-out for some new posts with lots of yummy food! I'm hoping that posting again and exercising will keep some of my frustration at bay.

Bagels again, but with a twist (plus graham crackers)

2010-08-15T20:57:00.000-04:00

Weeks ago (which shows again how behind I am), one of my friends came over for what turned into a 2 day cooking marathon. Why we chose the weekend it was over 100 degrees, I really don't know. My kitchen was like a sauna. On the second day of cooking, I had to take 3 showers to cool myself off. But we did have some really delicious results! The main point of this cooking adventure was to show Sarah how to make homemade bagels. We made a lot - one dozen for each of us. Most were the typical bagels I've made before - plain with some toppings. And then we decided to experiment a little. We made some with fresh blueberries pushed into the middle, and some with cinnamon sugar and raisins. The blueberries exploded in those! But they still tasted really good. I wish I had taken pictures. Next time I'll have to try with dried blueberries.
I really don't remember if I mentioned this any of the other times I posted about bagels, but I kept on noticing these shiny, hard brown pebbles forming while kneading the dough. It almost looked like the color of yeast, and since I didn't have it happen the first time I made it, without yeast, I figured it probably was that. This time when I made the bagels, Sarah and I were making our own batches side by side. And I did an experiment - with mine, I added the yeast in the order it said on the recipe, which was somewhere in the middle. And in hers, I had her add it at the very end. I had the pebbles - she didn't. So I'm thinking that when the yeast is added before you mix everything up, it won't distribute itself in the dough. It's a good thing I was using a sourdough starter, since I picked out all of the pebbles, essentially all of my yeast.
I decided randomly that I wanted to make homemade graham crackers. Well it wasn't a random decision, I'd been thinking about making it for a while, it was just a random addition to everything else we were making. It turned out pretty well, and I would definitely make them again - but not when it's 100 degrees in my kitchen! The dough was really sticky, and I wasn't able to roll them as thin as I was supposed to, so they were a little too thick = chewy. The flavor was amazing though. I stuck half of the dough in the freezer, and I have to admit that I ate ALL of it. Raw. I will be retrying this once the weather is cooler. That way my kitchen won't be a sauna, plus I can make some homemade marshmallows and get some s'more action happening.
I only made one change in the recipe - I didn't have dark brown sugar so I used light brown, and replaced some of the honey with molasses to give it a richer flavor.

Recipe: Homemade Graham Crackers (from Smitten Kitchen)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
7 tbsp unsalted butter, diced and frozen
1/3 cup honey
5 tbsp milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon sugar

Directions:
Mix the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a stand-up mixer with the paddle on low speed. Add the butter and mix on low, until the mixture is like coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture and mix on low until everything barely comes together (and is VERY sticky). Pour onto a piece of plastic wrap, pat into a 1-inch thick disk, wrap up and freeze for at least 2 hours. (More if it's a hot day.)
Divide the dough in half and put one half back in the freezer. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into strips or shapes (see Smitten Kitchen for better instructions), and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Chill in the fridge or freezer until firm, and repeat with the second half of the dough.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake cookies for 15-25 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through.

They all smooshed together!

Homemade Vegetable Stock

2010-08-15T19:49:00.001-04:00

So...I made homemade vegetable stock! I saw the idea on a blog months ago, and promptly decided to start saving all of my veggie scraps in the freezer. I kept on thinking that I didn't have enough veggies to fill my pot. Let's just say that I definitely overestimated the size of my pot. When I finally decided to make the stock, I could only fit maybe half of the veggies I had in the pot. I wanted to get as much as I could out of the veggies, so I cooked everything for a total of 4 hours (Christina only did 3), and I added water to refill the pot at the 1, 2 and 3 hour marks. I really don't have a recipe for this - like Christina, I just threw all of the veggie scraps I had been saving into the pot, added some dried and fresh herbs, and let it do its thing! I think that my veggie scraps included onions, leeks, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, potatoes and bell peppers. I had frozen a bunch of wilted basil a while ago I threw in. I also put in a big handful of garlic cloves and a few bay leaves. At the 2 hour mark I added a generous sprinkling of herbs de provence and coarsely grated black pepper, and at the 3 hour mark I added 1 tbsp salt. I figured I had maybe half of what Christina did, and she used 2 tbsp and said it wasn't very salty. I thought it was a bit salty, which is why I kept on adding water when it cooked down. Next time I would probably add a little less salt. All in all this is a GREAT way to get everything you can out of your veggies, and make a really healthy and flavorful stock.
And I used this stock to make a really great soup!

My straining apparatus

Look at all of that stock! Almost 4 quarts!

The cooked veggies at the end - barely anything left!

My Review of Imperia Home Pasta Machine

2010-08-15T16:29:00.002-04:00

Originally submitted at CSN Stores

6 inch wide roller

Includes double cutter for spaghetti and fettuccine

Attachments available

Enjoy the satisfaction of making fresh pasta right in the comfort of your own home with CucinaPro's Manual Restaurant. This profes...

Works great, but learn Italian!

By Jen from Charlottesville, VA on 8/15/2010

Pros: Easy To Clean, Easy to Use
Cons: Weight Is Imbalanced
Best Uses: Kitchen
Describe Yourself: Avid Cook
Primary use: Personal

I have used this twice so far and it works really well! So far I just have some minor issues with it. First - the instructions are in Italian! Good thing it was easy to put together. However, there's one piece I have no idea where to put. I've rolled out sheets of noodles for lasagna and ravioli, and I've made cut noodles with the fettuccine attachment. The handle won't fit very well into the spaghetti attachment, so I'll have to call CSN. Also, if you're clamping it to your counter, I would recommend putting the cutting attachment on it, even if you aren't using it. Its weight isn't evenly distributed and the cutting attachment helps keep it in place.

(legalese)

So behind!

2010-08-06T17:22:00.000-04:00

It is embarrassing how long it's been since I last posted! I expected to come back and find that all of my followers had given up on me.

It looks like I just posted my previous post, but I actually wrote that up weeks ago and just now added the pictures. I've been such a slacker lately. And I haven't been doing that much cooking. I was away for a week in Minnesota for an Immunology course, and I did some cooking before I left, but haven't done any since I got back! As usual, I'm going to try to break up the recipes to one per post, and in chronological order of course. Not that the order even matters. But just ask my friends - when I tell any kind of story, it must be in order.

I think the girls night I had with a few of my friends is the perfect place to start. It started out as a movie night, and then I said I would make dessert (surprise surprise), and then my friend J said she would cook dinner, then we decided we needed movie snacks...let's just say there was a lot of food!

It was so much fun. And the food was amazing! My friend J made Korean sushi, called Kimbap. She had the bamboo roller and cool seaweed sheets, and even let us help her make roll them up!

We assembled a TON! And then somehow ate most of them. We made a lot without meat, for my benefit, which I definitely appreciated :)

Don't they look so perfect?

While we were stuffing ourselves with Kimbap, I stuck my crumble in the oven. Oh it was so delicious! And it smelled so good while it was cooking. If you have fresh peaches and berries, please make this recipe!

By the way, I think the distinction between crumbles, crisps and cobblers is pretty funny. Just in case you're wondering, crisps have a topping that includes oats, crumbles have a thick, almost cookie dough-like topping that is, you guessed it, crumbled on, and cobblers have a biscuit topping on top.

This recipe is really easy. I was multi-tasking, of course, so I had the topping going in the mixer while I was doing other things. It was still in very dry crumbs so looked like it had a while before it would come together. I turn back around and the whole thing had come together in a big ball, and looked just like cookie dough! Whoops! But...it still turned out very well and tasted amazing. I was reading the reviews on the Food Network website, and some people mentioned that the topping was a little doughy, but delicious. Maybe they did the same thing I did :)

The only thing I did to change it was to replace half of the blueberries with some raspberries I had picked and frozen in June. I think they added a necessary tartness to the really sweet dish. And they made the sauce really pretty! I'm sure any fruit combination would work for this recipe.

Oh, and Ina made individual crumbles - I just threw it all together in a gratin dish.

Recipe: Peach and Blueberry (and Raspberry) Crumble (from Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients:

Fruit:

2 lbs firm, ripe peaches (6-8)

2 tsp grated lemon zest

2 tbsp squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Crumble:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Peel the peaches - the easiest way is to put them in boiling water for 30 seconds-1 minute, then put them in a bowl of ice water. The skins will peel off easily, but only if they are ripe enough. If that doesn't work, just use a vegetable peeler. Slice the peaches into thick wedges, and toss in a bowl with the lemon juice, zest, flour and sugar. Gently mix in the blueberries and raspberries.

For the topping, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the butter is the size of small peas. Rub the mixture with your fingers until it is in big crumbles, and spread over the fruit.

Place your dish (or ramekins, if you choose to make individual crumbles) on a sheet pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the juices are bubbling. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The unbaked crumbles can be stored in the refrigerator before baking.

Pasta with Spinach, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

2010-08-06T16:51:00.000-04:00

I have two logs of goat cheese in my fridge that need to be used up by the fall. Now that's definitely not a difficult thing for me to do. But I'll take any "excuse" to make something with goat cheese.

This is a dish that I used as inspiration for a meal I made last year, but this time I decided to follow it (almost) exactly. I used more spinach than it called for because hey, I like spinach. I didn't have oil-packed tomatoes so I took my dry packed ones, put them in a shallow bowl, and covered them with oil. And since I was planning on eating this over several days, I added the goat cheese to each individual serving, rather than all at once. I also cooked the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes right with the spinach, rather than mixing them in with the goat cheese.

All in all, this is delicious. The goat cheese gives it a wonderfully creamy sauce. And I love the flavor of garlicky spinach with sun-dried tomatoes. I think I got 1 big dinner serving and 2 big lunch servings out of it.

Recipe: Pasta with Spinach, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese (from Adventures in Shaw)
Ingredients:
4 oz sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil (or pour olive oil over them a few hours before you use them)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
several handfuls of spinach
6-8 oz tagliatelle (I used trader joe's pappardelle)
s&p to taste
pasta water

Directions:
Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta. Cook until al dente.
Heat oil from sun-dried tomatoes in a medium skillet on medium heat. Add garlic - saute for 1 minute and then add the spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Add s&p to taste.

Add the cooked pasta directly to the spinach and tomatoes, and toss. Crumble the goat cheese on top and toss it all together, adding pasta water as needed to thin out the sauce.

Enjoy!

Banana Buttermilk Ice Cream

2010-07-11T20:29:00.001-04:00

I still had some overripe bananas after making the pumpkin banana muffins, and I had leftover buttermilk from making ricotta last week. I found this great recipe that used up exactly what I had leftover! The ice cream is really good - it's nice and light and has a great tang from the buttermilk. And it's so easy to make - what could be easier than blending and pouring? I think next I'm going to have to try Nicole's caramelized banana buttermilk ice cream recipe.

Banana Buttermilk Ice Cream (from Baking Bites)
Ingredients:
2 large ripe bananas (1 cup puree)
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Puree the bananas and sugar in a blender. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla and continue to puree. Pour into the frozen ice cream bowl and mix according to manufacturer's instructions.

Keep in airtight containers in the freezer.

Pumpkin Banana Muffins

2010-07-11T20:21:00.001-04:00

I used to make this bread all the time while I was in undergrad. I have recently been craving pumpkin bread, and I had some overripe bananas to use up. I halved the recipe, and made it into muffins instead. It made 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins (that were a bit on the small side). Now I just have to figure out what to do with the leftover pumpkin!

Pumpkin Banana Muffins (adapted from Spark People)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
2 eggs
1 overripe banana, mashed
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup buttermilk
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.
Mix the sugars, oil, eggs, banana, pumpkin and buttermilk well, in a medium bowl.
Pour the liquid into the dry mixture, and fold together with a spatula until just combined.
Spray a standard muffin pan and a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Using an ice cream scooper, fill the standard muffin pan. If there is leftover batter, fill the mini muffin pan.
Bake regular muffins 20 minutes and mini muffins 10 minutes.

Free Seafood

2010-07-11T19:45:00.000-04:00

The greatest thing happened last weekend! I was grilling at my friend's place, and went to the grocery store to buy some fresh tuna. While I was checking out, some of the items from the person in front of me ended up in my bag. My friend had driven me there, and she brought the bags in, so I didn't actually notice until later that night that I had almost 3 lbs of fresh sea scallops and shrimp!! I was so so excited! Especially since I've never cooked scallops before, and I love when I'm forced to try something new.
I found a great recipe for the scallops and adapted it to include the shrimp. It was amazing. I actually raved about it so much that my parents are making it tonight.
I changed it a decent amount since I didn't have some of the ingredients. I'd be curious to try it out sometime soon with the actual ingredients.
The one change I made that I'll probably keep, is that I removed the scallops from the pan after they were seared, and then made the sauce. The original recipe added the sauce ingredients while the scallops were still in the pan, and I thought that would remove some of the crispy edges.

Scallops Provencal (adapted from One Perfect Bite):
Ingredients:
2 lbs fresh sea scallops
1 lb fresh shrimp, 10-15 count
all purpose flour
s&p
6 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2/3-1 cup vegetable stock
1 lemon, cut in half

Directions:
Peel the shrimp if they're in the shell, and pat all of the seafood dry. Put the flour, s&p in a medium bowl, add the scallops, and toss gently until they are all coated.
Heat 3 tbsp butter in a large skillet over high heat. When it starts to sizzle, turn the heat to medium, and place as many scallops that will fit in. Once you place them down, don't move them for about 2 minutes, then flip them over once they are browned on the bottom. When they are browned on both sides, remove them to a plate. Cook the remaining scallops, if necessary, and also remove them to a plate. Cover the plate with foil to keep warm.

Add the remaining butter, onions and garlic. Add enough of the vegetable stock to make a slightly thick sauce. Place the shrimp in the sauce in a single layer.

When pink on one side, flip them, and add the scallops back in. Mix gently and cook until heated through, and the shrimp are pink on both sides.
Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Three Cheese and Zucchini Galette

2010-07-11T18:49:00.000-04:00

So this is the recipe I made that ricotta for. It was so good! Extremely buttery. The crust of the edges was the perfect amount of buttery, but the underneath was a bit too much. But I would be afraid that the edges wouldn't be as good if I decreased the butter.
This was one of those recipes where I thought it was a failure when it was in the oven. I took it out, and there was a pool of liquid around the edges. I'm not sure if it was juice from the zucchini, olive oil seeping out, or just all of that butter. Whatever it was though, after 5-10 minutes out on the counter, it disappeared! The crust just soaked it all up. (See pics below if you don't believe me.)
The cheeses worked together really well - the ricotta made it really light, and it got melty from the other two.
I wish I put more of the zucchini on. I didn't roll the crust thin enough (I had a few issues with it), so I didn't have as much room for the zucchini, and I always forget how much vegetables cook down. I ended up with a lot of leftover zucchini that I just snacked on. Next time I'll pile them on. This happens whenever I make any kind of pie - I think the filling is going to overflow.

Three Cheese and Zucchini Galette (from Smitten Kitchen):
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced and then chilled again
1/4 cup sour cream (I didn't have any, so I used greek yogurt)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup ice water

Filling:
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Topping:
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp water

Directions:
Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle the butter over the combination, and cut in with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse meal with small pieces of butter.
In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream (or yogurt), water and lemon juice, and add to the butter/flour mixture.
Mix in the liquid to the dry using a wooden spoon until large lumps form. Dump out on a piece of plastic wrap, and form into a disc - don't overwork the dough. Cover with the plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Spread the zucchini out over several layers of paper towels. Sprinkle with salt, and let sit for 30 minutes. Blot the top of the zucchini with a paper towel before using.
In a small bowl, mix the olive oil and garlic together, set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the cheeses and 1 tsp of the garlicky olive oil together, season to taste with s&p, and set aside.
Preheat oven to 400 F. On a floured piece of parchment paper, roll out the dough to a 12-inch round. Spread the cheese mixture over it, leaving a 2-inch border. Spread out the zucchini in overlapping concentric circles, starting from the outside. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the filling. Fold the border over the filling. Brush the crust with the egg yolk.

Place the parchment paper with the galette on a cookie sheet, and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the crust is golden, the cheese is bubbling, and the zucchini has wilted.

Let stand for 5 minutes, then serve.

Homemade Ricotta!

2010-07-11T18:31:00.000-04:00

Smitten Kitchen very recently posted about a zucchini galette, and I decided that I just HAD to make it. It calls for ricotta as well, and since I've seen homemade ricotta posted on so many blogs, I figured I would give it a try (and if it didn't work, I was planning on buying it from the store). I discovered right away that there are many ways to make it. The "real" way is to use the whey leftover from making homemade mozzarella. The next best thing is to cook soured milk, using either buttermilk, white vinegar or lemon juice. I decided to use buttermilk, and it worked really well. Be careful when draining it - I think mine got a little too dry. I think next time I might try using white vinegar. That's something that's easier to always have on hand.

Homemade Ricotta:
Ingredients:
1 quart whole milk
1 cup buttermilk (I used nonfat because that's all the store had)

Directions:
Line a colander or large strainer with cheesecloth, folded over so it's at least 4 layers thick. If you want to save the whey, put a bowl underneath.
Combine both milks in a heavy medium sized saucepan, over high heat.

Stir frequently, to prevent the bottom from scorching, until you start to see some curds floating to the top. Once there are a lot of curds, turn the heat off.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the curds to the cheesecloth. (Some advised to only skim curds off the top, some said to pour all of the contents of the pot in. I did one batch of using just the skimmed curds, and another pouring the rest in, and I didn't notice any major differences.)

Gather the edges of the cheesecloth and tie together, and hang for about 15 minutes, more or less depending on desired level of moisture.

If not using immediately, put in an airtight container in the fridge.

I can't stop bageling

2010-06-30T12:40:00.000-04:00

I'm making bagels, yet again!
My lab has lab meetings every Wednesday morning, and for a bunch of reasons, we haven't had one the past three weeks. We're finally having one tomorrow, and even though it isn't my turn to present, I wanted to bring in food. So what would be better to bring than bagels and cream cheese?! I decided I'm going to make 1.5x the bagel recipe I've been using, and mix up some flavored cream cheese.

I'm going to try to make a variety of toppings, like I did last time, but I might have to try something different with the cinnamon sugar ones. They tasted great, but the topping didn't hold up well - it cracked and mostly fell off. I might try to incorporate some cinnamon sugar inside of the bagel rather than just on top, and maybe only sprinkle the cinnamon on top? I also might use something like an egg wash to help adhere the toppings, but I'm afraid to do anything to mess with the recipe too much. I'll probably make some cinnamon sugar, some sesame, some everything, and a bunch plain.

And then for flavored cream cheese - I will make some honey walnut raisin, some sundried tomato and herb, and keep some plain.

I'm pretty sure this will be the most gourmet lab meeting we've had!

Okay - so I made the bagels! And it seems like everyone in lab loved them. I made 18 and they were all gone within a few hours. I decided against using an egg wash for the toppings, and just did it the same way as last time. The cream cheeses were delicious, I especially liked the sundried tomato one. I adapted the recipes here. I have to say that I'm a big fan of the plain bagels. I think they cook a little better, and they work well with anything you put on them. This may be my new sandwich of the summer - putting good stuff on bagels! I froze most of my last batch from a few days ago. And they have been delicious so far with sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil.

Homemade bubble tea!

2010-06-27T19:44:00.001-04:00

I looove bubble tea. In Delaware, there was a cute place called T-licious that had the best bubble tea. St. Louis (where I was for undergrad) had a bunch of places that had it. They even made it in the library cafe! (Although now that I think about it, the one they made was definitely not authentic bubble tea. They used some kind of powdered mix, and now that I've made bubble tea, I have no idea why they did that.) But I haven't found any places in Charlottesville yet that serve it. Plus, any kind of drink like that is always overpriced. So I was very excited when I found a recipe to make your own!
The recipe is very very simple. I think next I want to try to make different flavors. I figure I can do that with either different flavored teas, or adding an extract. Maybe I can even infuse some flavor while boiling the tea? Update: Using Torani syrup as a sweetener and a flavor works really well
Next time I'll actually follow the recipe and stir in the sweetener while it's still warm. I forgot to do that this time, and had a hard time getting it to dissolve once it was cold.
I may have to start looking for the big black tapioca balls. But in the meantime, the small pearls were very delicate and fun!

Recipe: Bubble Tea (from Food for Laughter)
Ingredients:
10 cups water, divided
4 black tea bags (I used 2 English Breakfast Tea and 2 Chai Tea)
Sweetener, to taste
1/2 cup small tapioca pearls
4 cups milk

Directions:
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add the tea bags. Let it steep until it reaches desired strength. Stir in the sweetener, and chill in the fridge. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add the tapioca. Stir it so nothing sticks to the bottom, and let it boil for 25 minutes. Note: Make sure you have enough water, or add some water halfway through. Also, stir every few minutes or so - some of mine stuck to the bottom.
Turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for another 25 minutes.
Drain and rinse with warm water in a sieve.

Mix the chilled tea with the milk in a large pitcher.

For each serving, put a couple of spoonfuls of the tapioca in the bottom of the glass, fill up with the tea, stick in a straw and enjoy!

Bagels Again!

2010-06-27T12:45:00.001-04:00

Since I couldn't make bagels when I was last home, I wanted to make a batch for myself. And this time I had all of the necessary ingredients, like milk powder and yeast. (Using yeast is probably "cheating" a little, but I'm not really pretending to be a sourdough expert here.)
And it was a success! Only one small problem - I discovered after I had mixed up the dough that I used AP flour instead of bread flour! That could explain why it took so long to get good gluten development. I think they still turned out okay though.
This time I made some everything, some cinnamon sugar, some sesame seed, and some plain. I ate a cinnamon sugar one this morning and it was delicious :)
I think I may have discovered what caused my troubles with rising last time. At first I thought it was maybe since I used only sourdough starter, and no additional yeast. And I thought that was confirmed when my first batch (shown below) turned out fine, with actual holes. But then when I made a second batch just now, and had the same problems. I think it may be related to how long the dough sits out before you boil the bagels. This morning, I had the bagels sitting out for a while, while I was letting the water boil and the oven preheat. When I made the second batch, I took the bagels out of the fridge right before boiling. Maybe the bagels need some time to rest first? The next time I make them, I'll test boil a few straight from the fridge and see if that is the problem. And maybe I'll remember to use bread flour!

My 12 little dough balls

This time I made the holes bigger so I wouldn't have the same problem as last time

After being boiled

A perfectly retained hole, post-baking!

These were sticky and sweet!

Dinner, with two visitors

2010-06-27T01:12:00.002-04:00

When my friend Jess came over for dinner tonight, she probably had no idea what she was getting herself into!

So to give a little background first -
I moved into a new apartment 2 weeks ago. The first thing I did when I got the keys was go over to clean the kitchen before moving everything in. I noticed while cleaning out some of the drawers that there were small dark things, but I assumed they were dirt and didn't think much of it. I immediately put some of my dry goods in one of the drawers. What with being at home, and then being busy in the lab, I didn't open two of those drawers until today. The first thing I noticed was that those small dark things had multiplied. And then I immediately realized that they were mouse droppings. That was confirmed when I saw that the bags/boxes had been chewed into. After freaking out for about 20 minutes (and lifting everything out of the drawer using tongs, since I thought the mouse was still there), I went straight to Lowes and bought 10 mouse traps. After Jess and I finished our dinner, we setup 7 of the traps with some peanut butter. It looked like the mouse (or mice) was just living in that one drawer, so we put a few of the traps in there. Literally 40 minutes later (I'm not even kidding, we hadn't even gotten through an episode of Gilmore Girls), we heard something from the kitchen. I was so oblivious that it took me a good half minute to figure out what the noise was! We ran into the kitchen, and first I checked the traps on the floor and under the sink. I saved that drawer for last. And of course, that was exactly where the mouse was.

The trap must have killed it immediately, since it didn't budge when I gingerly opened the drawer. Now I don't know what to do with the mouse! For the time being, I'm just letting it be. I'm also afraid that there could have been more than just the one mouse, so I'm leaving the traps out tonight just in case.

But on a better note, I had a very nice evening with Jess! We made roasted veggies and lemon risotto (she is the risotto queen). I also made a batch of the ABi5 bread. The risotto was great! It's one of the recipes that I've had saved for a while, but hadn't gotten around to making yet. Jess is a huge Giada fan, and she has made this recipe many times before. We didn't do anything really to change it, besides swap veg broth for the chicken broth (for my vegetarian needs) and skip the mascarpone. She said that she's made it with and without and didn't notice any difference. Which works for me, since I really didn't want to buy an expensive tub of mascarpone for just 2 tbsp. If you're looking for a simple risotto recipe that will go well with some strong sides, this is your recipe. You can use more or less lemon, based on how much you like it.

Recipe: Lemon Risotto (from Giada)
Ingredients:
2 cups low sodium vegetable broth/stock
1 tbsp butter
1 large shallot, diced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 lemon zested and juiced
s&p to taste

Directions:
In a medium saucepan bring the broth and 1/2 cup water to a simmer. Cover the broth and keep hot over low heat.
In a medium, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallot and saute until tender but not brown, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat with the butter. Add the wine and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated, about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the simmering broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of the broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 20 minutes (it took us a lot longer than that!) Remove from the heat. Stir in 2 tbsp of Parmesan, the lemon zest and juice, and the s&p. Serve with the extra Parmesan.

CSN Review

2010-06-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

I got contacted by CSN again! Since I did a giveaway last time, I decided I wanted to try a review now. Only one problem - I have no idea what I want! I could get so many things - a comforter to fill my new duvet cover, artwork for the walls, a bathroom vanity....
Anyone have any suggestions??!! And has anyone ordered anything from CSN before?

Unexpected use for sourdough

2010-06-25T17:31:00.000-04:00

The very kind person who gave me the sourdough starter said that she had heard you could substitute the starter for buttermilk in some recipes. I thought that this sounded too good to be true! This would make a very easy way to use the starter, plus would make recipes using buttermilk more accessible. Buttermilk isn't an ingredient that I have on hand usually, but I always have my starter!

Well she was right! When I was home, I decided that it was necessary to revive the starter I gave my parents (that they hadn't touched since the last time I was home). I brought the necessary ingredients to make bagels, but that became unnecessary when my dad made a trip to Panera and got a dozen and a half. I looked at some of my favorite sourdough blogs, but most recipes involved ingredients that my parents didn't have, and that I didn't think to bring home. Then I found a recipe for sourdough scones! Wild Yeast had the perfect recipe - we had all of the necessary ingredients (except I substituted AP flour for the white whole wheat and oat flours). We even had a scale at home - I gave my parents a really cheap dinky one I used to use before I got the digital scale. The fact that the scones turned out well shows how versatile the recipe must be, since I know most of the measurements were not exact! And we didn't have a food processor, so I mixed everything by hand, cutting in the butter with two knives.

So if you have a sourdough starter and don't know what to do with it, this is a really simple recipe to start with. Besides feeding it 8-12 hours before starting, it requires much less time than most sourdough recipes. And who doesn't like scones??
Oh, and the "small scones" were pretty darn big!

Recipe: Cranberry Oat Sourdough Scones (from Wild Yeast)
Ingredients:
50 g dried cranberries
87 g white whole wheat flour (can use AP)
40 g oat flour (can use AP, or grind oats into a fine powder)
17 g nonfat milk powder
1.5 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp baking soda
5/8 tsp salt
50 g sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (optional - I didn't use it because we didn't have any lemons)
1 stick cold unsalted butter
40 g rolled oats
340 g mature 100% hydration sourdough starter
milk and coarse sugar for topping

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Cover the cranberries with warm water and soak for 10 minutes, then drain well.
In a large bowl, mix the flour(s), milk powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and lemon zest (if using). Cut the cold butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and cut in using a pastry blender or two knives, until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal with a few larger pea-sized pieces of butter remaining.
Mix in the oats and drained cranberries lightly.
Add the sourdough starter and mix quickly and lightly, just until the dry ingredients are incorporated into it. The dough will be wet and sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured counter and pat into a rectangle about 5x9 inches for larger scones, or about 4x11 inches for smaller scones (what I did).
With a dough cutter (or a metal spatula), cut the dough into two rectangles (three for small scones, what I did), and each of those, on the diagonals, into four pieces.
Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Revisiting Old Favorites

2010-06-25T17:06:00.000-04:00

In the past week or two I've remade some of my favorite recipes. Three, to be exact (besides the ones I already mentioned). One turned out great, as usual. One turned out a little different, but still good. And one just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

First - the cinnamon chip banana coffee cake. I gave the recipe to my mom, and it's one of her favorite things to make. Of course she always has me make it for her when I come home. It turned out really well this time. And unlike last time, I took pictures! Doesn't it look yummy?

When my parents came in to help me move, I decided to make the flourless chocolate cake from Passover, for both of their birthdays. It was good, but I made the mistake of overbeating the eggs. This resulted in a meringue-like top, instead of a brownie-like top. So if you are going to make this recipe, DON'T overbeat the eggs! Once they start to increase in volume, stop!

For my mom's surprise party, I decided to make Ina's Outrageous Brownies in addition to the dozens of cookies. I'm glad I had the cookies, since the brownies were a bit of a disappointment. I made them exactly the same way I did before (at least I think I did), but this time they ended up really crumbly. They still got the shiny flaky crust, so I thought I was in the clear. I honestly don't know what happened. This just means I'll have to make them again!

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

2010-06-25T16:44:00.000-04:00

I have (well now make this had) two vanilla beans that I got for a really good price at World Market almost a year ago, and decided that I finally needed to use them! Plus, I have an ice cream maker that had only been used once...so that meant vanilla bean ice cream! This was such an easy recipe to make - there were all of 6 ingredients.

The first time I made ice cream, the only actual problem I had was making a custard. This time, the blog suggested cooking the custard directly over heat instead of in a double boiler, and I successfully got a thickened custard. For a while I thought it was never going to thicken, and then suddenly it got really thick! So just have patience and it will work out perfectly.

I didn't have vanilla sugar to use for this recipe, but I will the next time I make something vanilla-based! I washed off the used vanilla bean and stuck it in a tupperware, covered with sugar. Within a few days the sugar already had a great vanilla flavor. I'm going to have to go back to World Market to stock up - $2.99 for 2 vanilla beans is a great deal.

I made just one change, in the proportion and amount of milk and cream. I only had one small carton of heavy cream so I used 1 cup of cream, and 2 cups of whole milk. The original recipe called for 2.5 cups dairy total, but I wanted to stretch out the ice cream a bit. I used 1.5 cups of the whole milk in the custard, then added the cream plus the extra 1/2 cup whole milk right before churning.

So please make this ice cream! It's really rich (even with the extra milk) and not overly sweet. If you have vanilla sugar, definitely use it, but I can say that it doesn't negatively affect the flavor if you use regular sugar.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (adapted slightly from Mangio da Sola)
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk, divided
1 vanilla bean
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar (vanilla sugar if you have it)
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Put 1 1/2 cups of the milk, vanilla seeds, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan, and heat gently to near-boiling point.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and allow the vanilla to infuse for 15 minutes.

In a separate, heatproof bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar, using a whisk or electric beater, until thick and pale. Add a little of the milk mixture to the egg mixture to warm it up slightly, then beat in the rest of the milk.

Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the saucepan, and stir the mixture until it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove the bowl from the heat, and cover the surface directly with plastic wrap or waxed paper to prevent a skin from forming.

Allow the custard to cool completely by refrigerating mixture for 4 hours to overnight.

Once cool, stir in the cream, 1/2 cup milk, and vanilla extract and churn in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Serve immediately, or transfer to a freezer container; cover the surface directly with waxed paper or foil, and put in the freezer.

The best chocolate chip cookies you'll ever eat

2010-06-23T17:37:00.000-04:00

These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies ever. And they aren't that difficult to make. I think I made 100 of them in the span of a week. First I made 3 dozen before I moved - I baked some and brought them into the lab for a birthday, and froze the rest so I could bake as needed. Then I made 5 dozen for my mom's birthday - made them, shaped them and baked them all in one night! Everyone thinks I'm crazy since I did all kinds of baking while I was moving.
But anyway, make these cookies! You can cut out some of the butter, I usually cut out 1-2 tbsp per batch, and I'm sure you could cut out even more. But make sure that whatever butter you cut out is not the butter that is browned - you want all of that wonderful toffee flavor!
The dough freezes really well, so you can make a ton, shape them, and then cook them later. Just make sure to thaw them out before cooking. I think some were still too frozen when I cooked them, and they didn't bake very well.
Oh and the original recipe says to make them much bigger than I do - I use my size 40 scooper, which I think is about 1-1.5 tbsp.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Family, Friends and Food)
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
14 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (I only had light brown and it was fine)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I used a combination, and it was dark chocolate)
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (I didn't use)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl and set aside.

Heat 10 tbsp butter in 10-inch stainless steel skillet (it's easier to see if the butter is brown) over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes.

Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1-3 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tbsp butter into hot butter until completely melted.

Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated.

Add egg and yolk (make sure butter mixture isn't too hot) and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds.

Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny.

Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough a final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

Use a #40 cookie scoop and arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until the edges are starting to get golden brown and the cookies are puffy, about 8 minutes. The centers will still be soft and look uncooked. Let cool on the sheet for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Finally a new granola

2010-06-23T16:55:00.001-04:00

For the longest time, I have remained loyal to two different granolas - Tyler Florence's and Steph Chows'. I decided that maybe I should try something new. (But don't worry, I still love my old favorites!)
Granola is such an easy thing to make, and as long as you keep the general ratios. I didn't follow this recipe exactly, and it turned out great. For the liquid part, I used a liquid cup measure and poured everything in until it was just over 2/3 cup, using mostly vegetable oil. I'll include the original amounts for simplicity. I didn't have enough pecans, so I used a mixture of nuts. I have to say that the pecans were my favorite part, so I might use only pecans next time. I also added wheat germ and sunflower seeds. I didn't add any fruit into it. I really dislike dried apricot (hate the texture), and I prefer adding fresh fruit and eating over yogurt. Actually on a side note, I made homemade gingerale again, and decided to follow another recipe and put the leftover ginger pieces in the oven at a very low temperature, rather than letting them dry out over a day or two. I figured this would speed things up. Well that was true alright - after half the time the recipe called for, it had shriveled up into hard little pieces.

Definitely not what I was looking for. But they were good to add in with the granola, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Recipe: Coconut and Pecan Granola (adapted from Fine Eats)
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats or thick cut oats
1 cup sweetened, dried coconut
1 cup pecans, chopped roughly (or any mixture of nuts)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (with no salt)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil.
Mix the oats, coconut, pecans, cinnamon, salt, wheat germ and sunflower seeds in a medium bowl.
Add oil, honey and maple syrup to a measuring cup or small bowl and stir to combine.
Pour over oat mixture and stir until evenly coated.
Spread the oats evenly on the prepared sheet pan.
Place in the oven and bake for about 25-35 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes. In the last 10 minutes, watch very closely as the oats will brown quickly. Once they are golden brown, they're done.
Let cool in pan - if you like big clumps, don't stir once you take it out.
Store in an airtight container.

Leftovers --> Salad

2010-06-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

After my big success with caramelized onions, I wanted to put them on everything. I took 4 huge vidalia onions and caramelized all of them. I figured that once they cooked down, I wouldn't be left with very much, but I still had a ton! So much that I really did need to put them on everything to use up. I of course bought a few heads of broccoli to make that delicious dish. At the same time that I bought the onions, I also bought and roasted a bunch of veggies - eggplant, peppers and zucchini. I made a few sandwiches, and then got sick of it. So I made several salads with the leftovers! I tossed spinach/spring mix with the onions, broccoli, roasted veggies and feta, and added a little sesame ginger dressing (there are so many veggies with their juices that not much dressing is needed). This salad is so good! So any time you have random leftovers - just throw them in a salad!

Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

2010-06-23T11:35:00.000-04:00

Now that I have a working sourdough starter, I want to do a lot with it. I decided to try using it with the ABi5 dough. Of course I made this a while ago, and I don't remember exactly how much starter I used. I know that I calculated everything by weight - the recipe is given in cups, but they include how much flour usually weighs and I calculated the weight based on that. And I took the amount of sourdough starter I used and subtracted half of that from each the water and flour weight totals. I used the whole wheat starter and the equivalent of 1 cup of rye flour, the rest was AP unbleached. Of course I meant to make several loaves from the bucket of dough, but only managed to use it once. I now have it sitting in my fridge and really should dump it out.
The dough was really hard to work with! I don't know if I didn't measure right, but it was extremely liquid-y. To the point where when I grabbed a handful to make a loaf, half of it stuck to my hands and any surface I put the dough on. The loaf also didn't rise very much in the oven. But I have to say, the flavor was pretty good. I was busy so I sliced and froze the whole loaf right away, and I've only had a few slices from it. I'll have to try it again once I have more time. I am borrowing the book from the library, and I'm probably going to buy it soon.

Catching Up

2010-06-23T09:44:00.001-04:00

I have been so bad about posting lately! But this time I have a real excuse. I moved! I scheduled the moving so I would have an entire weekend, which was definitely good thinking on my part. My move-in date for the new place was the 11th, and I had until the morning of the 15th to move out of the old place. So things have been crazy the past few weeks, with packing up all of my belongings, moving all of them, and then attempting to get settled in. And then I went home this past weekend for my mom's surprise 50th! Of course, she wasn't surprised. You can't get anything past her. But it was still a great party. I got to see all of my family, including my aunt from California who I rarely get to see.

So with all of this craziness, I haven't had time to even think about posting (although I did spend plenty of time cooking). As always, I'm going to attempt to do it in chronological order (when I take pictures, that helps me figure it out).

This meal I made for my parents when I went home over Memorial Day Weekend. When my parents visited me for my birthday, I took them to an Indian grocery store in Charlottesville, and they bought a bunch of stuff. 2.5 months later, and they still hadn't touched anything! The paneer said it was good until May, so I knew that if I didn't make anything with it, it would get thrown away. I decided to make a dish I have already made many times before, in pre-blogging times. And it was great as always! I was in such a rush, since I wanted to get on the road by 5:30 to avoid getting back to Virginia too late (of course I didn't leave until 6:45). I didn't remember to take pictures at the time, but my dad took pictures when they ate the leftovers the next night (I still need to get those pics from him). I make very few changes to this dish when I make it. First - I dice the paneer instead of shredding it, only out of convenience. And this time, we didn't feel like dealing with fresh hot chilies so we used two from a can, and then I used 2 dried chilies that I removed later. I used half-and-half instead of cream, and omitted the cilantro because I can't stand it. This dish is really easy to make. It has a lot of ingredients, but don't let that deter you.

Recipe: Kidney Beans in a Slowly Simmered Tomato Sauce with Paneer Cheese (from Lisa's Kitchen)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp of ghee or a mixture of butter and oil (I used a mixture)
3 black cardamom pods
1 6-inch cinnamon stick, broken in half
3 bay leaves
1 small onion, chopped
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped or shredded
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
3 hot green chilies, finely chopped
1 5.5 oz can of tomato paste (I used a 6 oz can)
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp turmeric (warning - this will stain everything yellow!)
3 cups of cooked kidney beans (I used canned)
1/2 cup of heavy cream (or half-and-half)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2-2/3 cup paneer cheese, shredded or diced
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)
small handful of dry curry leaves (optional)

Directions:
Heat the ghee (or butter and oil) in a large, deep pan over medium heat. When hot, add the cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves (this is where I added the dried whole peppers) to the pan and cook for 15 seconds. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, until it starts to soften. Add the garlic, hot chilies and ginger and cook for another minute or so.

Add the ground spices and salt. Stir and add 1/2 cup of water and the tomato paste. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the water is mostly evaporated - roughly 5 minutes. Stir in another 1/2 cup of water, cover, stir occasionally and simmer until the water evaporates again. Repeat 1-3 more times until you have a nice, thick red sauce.

Stir in the kidney beans and 3/4 cup of water. Stir, bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium and simmer uncovered until the sauce is thickened - roughly 15 minutes.

Add the cream, garam masala and shredded paneer and cook for another few minutes. Stir in the curry leaves and the cilantro (if using), reserving a bit for garnishing if desired. Remove the cardamom pods, bay leaves and cinnamon stick pieces (and peppers if using) before serving.

Sourdough Bagels

2010-06-05T16:36:00.000-04:00

I am so excited about these bagels. They are long gone now, so I need to make some more! I think I will as soon as I move (which is in less than a week!) They definitely require more space than I currently have in my kitchen.

To back up a bit, I decided to make the bagels when I went home last weekend. I brought my sourdough starter with me. I fed it its own weight in water and flour the night before traveling (a Wednesday), and left it out overnight. Then I kept it refrigerated (or in a cooler) until Friday night. Then I fed it again with equal weight water and flour.

(Side note - I've been enjoying doing it by weight. It's easy, you don't need to measure anything. And I like how precise it is.) I left my parents with the excess, and told them they have to keep it going :)

I let it rise for a few hours at room temperature on Saturday, then shaped them and refrigerated for almost 24 hours.

I assume that everyone has a ridiculously stocked pantry, like I do. I discovered that my parents didn't have any yeast! I know the bagels use the sourdough starter, but the recipe I was using called for some yeast. I had found some recipes that didn't use yeast, so I decided to follow their rising methods. They also didn't have any dry milk. I just replaced some of the water with skim milk, and it seemed to work fine. Next time I'll use dry milk. But I think I'll stick with using only starter, no yeast. I still get such excitement from seeing things rise, when I haven't added any commercial leavening agents.

I know there are a lot of steps, but this is really so easy to make! They turned out so well! My mom actually said they tasted like New York style bagels. I think the double feeding gave them a nice sourdough flavor. I would love to make flavored bagels next time, maybe add some cheese or herbs in the actual dough. Some recipes call for using a stand mixer to make the dough, but I wouldn't recommend it. It takes a lot longer, and requires some muscle power, to mix it by hand, but that's better than running the risk of burning out your motor! It's a really stiff dough.

My only problem - my bagels had such a funny shape! I don't know if that had anything to do with using only sourdough. They looked fine after boiling, but then when I baked them, they just expanded upward instead of widthwise. They looked like really tall smushed bagels. And the holes completely closed up. I know that when you use a pizza stone, things really rise upwards. But I put them on cooled cookie sheets, so I don't know why it happened. Next time I'll make them really flat and wide before boiling, and see what happens. And if anyone has advice, I'd be happy to hear it!

Recipe: Sourdough Bagels (adapted from Wild Yeast)
675 g bread flour (I used King Arthur)
18 g vital wheat gluten (bought at Whole Foods)
304 g ripe 100% hydration (fed equal parts by weight of water and ap flour) sourdough starter
308 g ice water (I replaced 58 g with cold skim milk)
2.5 g instant yeast (I didn't use)
2 tsp salt (I started to measure by weight, and then realized that there must have been a mistake in the original recipe, since 13.5 g of salt is a lot!)
18 g sugar
15 g extra-light malt power (bought at a beer brewing supply store)
47 g milk powder (I used the milk above instead)
Cornmeal or semolina

Topping:
4 tsp kosher salt
4 tsp poppy seeds
4 tsp sesame seeds
4 tsp garlic flakes
4 tsp onion flakes

Boiling:
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp extra-light malt powder

Directions:
Combine the flour, starter, water, yeast (if using), salt, sugar, malt, and milk powder (if using) in a medium bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.

Use your hands and knead until the dough is very smooth and strong, it could take at least 15 minutes. In the first few minutes, it might feel like it needs some flour, so sprinkle some on. But only add what is absolutely necessary. It will eventually feel tacky, but not sticky. The test to when you can stop kneading is the "windowpane test." Take a small piece of dough, and stretch it until you can see through it when you hold it up to a light. If it breaks, it needs to be kneaded more for gluten development.
When the dough is ready, form into a smooth ball.

Put the dough in a bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a towel.

If using yeast, let it rest for 10 minutes. If only using the starter, let it rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and dust them with semolina or cornmeal.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces ~100 grams each. Form each piece into a tight ball, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.
There are two methods of shaping the bagels. The "true" method is to roll each piece of dough into a cylinder about 8-10 inches long without tapering the ends. Wrap the cylinder around your hand, with the ends overlapping by about 2 inches in your palm. Roll your palm on an unfloured counter to smash the ends together. The easier way is to form the piece of dough into a smooth, tight ball. Carefully poke a hole in the center by bringing your thumb and middle finger together. Widen the hole to several inches - it will close up as it rests. I did about half the first way, and half the second. I didn't notice any major differences after cooking.
Place the bagels on the prepared cookie sheets and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days.

When you take the bagels out of the refrigerator, test them to make sure they are ready to be boiled by placing one in a bowl of room temperature water. It should float within a few seconds. If it doesn't float, then pat it dry and let it sit out longer, re-checking every 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450 F. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the baking soda and malt powder to the water once it is boiling. Be prepared - it will foam up! But it will subside once you add the first bagel.
Meanwhile, place a cooling rack on the counter with a dishtowel underneath it. Mix together the topping ingredients and place on a small plate in a shallow layer.
Drop the bagels, up to three or four at a time (I did them one at a time), into the vigorously boiling water for 30 seconds - 1 minute. If they float right away so the tops are not submerged initially, flip them over about halfway through the boil.

Remove the bagels from the water to the cooling rack with a slotted spatula. Let them drain for about 30 seconds before pressing them, top down, into the seeds and replacing them back onto the cornmeal/semolina-dusted, parchment-lined cookie sheet. (I didn't press them in the seeds, I just sprinkled the seeds on. Pressing would have probably added more, so I'll do that next time. And I would suggest spritzing with water or using an egg wash to get them to stick better.)

Turn the oven down to 400 F once the bagels are in. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through cooking. (Don't be tempted to pull them out early. I did, so I could toast them individually when eating, but then the insides were a little doughy.)
Cool on a wire rack.

(Baked on left, Unbaked on right. See how tall they got!)

I enjoyed mine with cream cheese+lox or whitefish salad+tomatoes.

Cherry Cream Cheese Tarts

2010-06-05T13:18:00.000-04:00

Since I picked over 6 lbs of cherries (some for my parents and grandparents), I definitely needed to cook with some!

I found this recipe, and it looked so yummy I wanted to give it a try. I didn't do much to change it, except for making it in four 4" tart pans instead of one 9" one. I loved how small and cute they were! I shared one with two other people, and it was the perfect small serving of dessert.

My cherries weren't as dark and red as the ones on the site of the original recipe, so I added 2 drops of food coloring (gasp!)

I think the people I made this for enjoyed it more than I did. I loved the cherry topping. I froze the remainder of my cherries and I will definitely be making the topping to eat with ice cream and yogurt. I thought that pitting the cherries would be a pain, but it was actually really easy. I used one of the tips from my cake decorating kit, and just did it while watching tv. I just stuck the tip on my finger like a thimble, and pushed through the cherry. They all stayed intact.

I thought the cheese filling was a little dense. Maybe since it didn't have any eggs? I was expecting something more similar to cheesecake. I didn't love the crust either, but that could entirely be my fault. I probably haven't fully mastered making great tasting crusts. It was hard to roll out so I had to press it out with my fingers, which could have created some issues. But I thought it was a little dry (after it was cooked).

All in all it was definitely good, but I might not make it again. I definitely will use it as an inspiration for other recipes though! Great idea with the combination of ingredients.

Recipe: Cherry Cream Cheese Tarts (from Evil Shenanigans)
Crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
3-4 tbsp ice water

Filling:
8 oz block cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tbsp sour cream (I used whole milk greek yogurt)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp flour

Topping:
2 cups fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:
Crust:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Mix well, then add the cubed butter. Use a pastry knife or your fingers to mix well, until the butter is mostly in pea-sized bits. Add the cold water, starting with 3 tbsp, and add the 4th if kneaded. Knead about 10 times, then form into a disk, cover with plastic, and chill for 30 minutes or up to 3 days.

Topping:
While the dough chills, mix the cherries, cornstarch, sugar and water in a small pot.

Cook over medium heat uncovered until thick, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then add the almond extract and lemon juice.

Stir well and cool to room temperature, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Filling:
In the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer (I used a stand mixer), add the cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and sugar. Process until very smooth. Add the flour and blend until combined.

Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Assembling:
Heat the oven to 425 F.
Roll out the dough for the crust on a well floured surface. Line the inside of the tart pan(s) with the dough, making sure not to pull or stretch the dough in the pan, and trim off any excess. Dock the dough with a fork, then line the crust with parchment paper and add pie weights, beans or rice.

Bake for 10 minutes, remove the weights and parchment, and bake for 10 additional minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Fill the crust with the cheese filling

and bake for 30 minutes, or until puffed all over.

Cool to room temperature.
Spread the cherry topping over the tarts just before serving.

Can keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Caramelized Onions - Success!

2010-06-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

I keep on doing this, where I let a week or two go by without posting, and then post about 6 recipes at once.
I decided to give caramelized onions another try. I got the idea from the broccoli recipe, and then decided that they would also be delicious in a strata.
I started with the strata. I had gone to my Take It Away (best sandwich shop ever), and of course, I couldn't leave without buying a bag of their bread ends. This time I think there was even more bread than the last time! Which turned out to be a good thing. The recipe called for 1/2 lb,

so I cubed it,

and since it was still really soft and fresh after sitting out for a day, I decided to toast it. I had the onions caramelizing, stuck the bread in the oven, and sat back to watch tv. Then I promptly forgot about the bread. I wasn't worried about the onions, since they were on very low heat. After a little while, I started to think I was forgetting about something. Then I remembered the bread! I expected to find little black mounds where each cube was, but they actually didn't burn. They became perfect croutons.

And then I turned them into breadcrumbs. Kind of coarse, but still good.

So now that the first batch of bread cubes was unusable, I was very happy to still have a lot of bread left. This time I set a timer, in case whatever I was watching on tv (most likely Gilmore Girls reruns) sucked me in.
This strata was just as delicious as the others I have made. I actually think this was the best yet! I followed my favorite recipe, except I used fresh herbs (basil and rosemary), the dairy I had on hand, caramelized onions, and fresh tomatoes.
I made the mistake of making this two days before going out of town for a long weekend, so I decided to bring it with me! It was definitely a hit with my grandparents!

Recipe: Caramelized Onions
Ingredients:
3 medium red onions, sliced thinly
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter

Directions:
Heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add onions,

and cook until they are starting to soften.

Turn down the heat and cook for 2-3 hours or until caramelized, stirring occasionally.

Then use with everything!

Recipe: Strata with Caramelized Onions, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese (adapted from Baking and Books)
Ingredients:
1/2 lb artisan bread, cubed
Caramelized red onions (the equivalent of 1-2 onions)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt

6 large eggs

1/3 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup whole milk

2 tbsp fresh basil, julienned

2 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced

1/4 lb goat cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
If your bread is still soft, toast it for a few minutes. Don't forget about it like I did!
Caramelize the onions, as above. If using pre-prepared onions, then reheat them now over low-medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper and saute for a minute.

Add the tomatoes and salt and bring to a simmer.

Stir the bread into the mixture.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, basil and rosemary.
Pour the bread mixture into a 9x9 glass baking dish (or something of a similar size).

Crumble the goat cheese over the bread,

then pour the egg mixture over everything

and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Bake until the strata has set and is golden on top, about 25 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Refrigerate leftovers - they can last up to a week.

The next night, I still had a lot of caramelized onions left, and decided to use the original recipe I had found. This is now my favorite way to eat broccoli! You really have to try this. The onions are so sweet, they make you think you are eating something decadent.
I didn't have any pine nuts on hand, so I toasted some slivered almonds instead. They tasted so good, I might just use them every time I make this recipe.
The recipe said that it made 4 servings, but I honestly ate all of this myself!

Recipe: Broccoli with Caramelized Onions (from Baking Bites)
Ingredients:
Caramelized red onions (equivalent of 1-2 onions)
1 head broccoli
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
s&p to taste

Directions:
Make the caramelized onions as above, or reheat (in a pan) some that were previously made.
Boil a salted pot of water. Add broccoli and cook for just a few minutes, until tender but still crisp. And make sure they're still bright green.
Add the broccoli to the pan with the onions, and add the balsamic vinegar. Toss and cook for a few minutes. Take off the heat, add the toasted almonds, s&p, and enjoy!

Sourdough Pancakes

2010-05-23T19:46:00.001-04:00

Now that I have my sourdough starter, I want to do so much with it. Last night, right before I went to bed, I decided I wanted to try sourdough pancakes. The recipe was really simple - just proof the starter overnight, add some stuff in the morning, and voila - pancakes!
I'm going to post the recipe, even though I don't recommend it. I think the batter way way too thin to start with. Plus, pancake batter is supposed to be lumpy. It was lumpy when I added the flour and water last night, but not this morning. I think it would have been better if I only added some flour and water last night, and added the rest this morning. So it resulted in very flat pancakes. I started out adding some cut strawberries to each pancake, but that started to get messy.
I don't have any complaints about the flavor - it had a nice light tang.
So it wasn't a complete failure, plus using the starter and replacing some continues to activate it and preserve the "tang."

Recipe: Sourdough Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup sourdough starter
1cup warm water
1 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:
Mix together the starter, water and flour - loosely cover the container and let it sit in a warm place for 8-12 hours.
After the time is up, return 1 cup back to your jar of starter.
To what remains, mix in the egg, oil and sugar.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat.
When everything is ready, add the baking soda (it will foam up very quickly).
Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Flip when it has started to bubble on top, and the edges look dry.

Eat with fresh fruit and/or syrup.

Caramelized Onion, Zucchini and Goat Cheese Frittata

2010-05-23T19:34:00.000-04:00

I have been dying to make a frittata for a while now. The pots and pans I bought are all oven-safe, so nothing was stopping me. I bought a basket of mini zucchinis (I should have taken a picture, they were so cute!) at the farmers market last week, and wanted to use them. I found a recipe that was perfect - zucchini, onions and goat cheese. I figured I would throw in some fresh rosemary as well.
This turned out pretty well. I made some changes - I wanted to have more of an egg base to it, so I added more eggs. I used more zucchini and less onions than the recipe called for.
Now that I've made it, there are a few changes I would make the next time I would make it. I definitely recommend salting the zucchini and letting it sit in a colander for a while. I cooked it for a pretty long time, but a lot of water was still retained, so the frittata was soggy on the bottom. The salt would also give it some flavor. I've never caramelized onions before, and I had a hard time actually getting them to caramelize. They got nice and soft and sweet, but didn't turn golden brown. Another thing I would do is grate some parmesan on top - it would give it a nice golden crust. And I would probably add more rosemary than I did, to give some extra flavor. But I think the recipe was pretty good, and very filling.

Recipe: Caramelized Onion, Zucchini and Goat Cheese Frittata (adapted from My Kitchen Addiction)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, halved and sliced
1 tbsp sugar
6 mini zucchini
2 egg whites
5 eggs
1/4 cup cream
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup goat cheese, plus extra to sprinkle on top

Directions:
Heat the olive oil and sliced onions in a skillet over medium-low heat. Sprinkle with sugar and stir occasionally, cooking the onions until they are golden and caramelized.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg whites, eggs, cream, 1/4 cup of goat cheese, and rosemary. Set aside.
Use a vegetable peeler to cut the zucchini into long thin ribbons.

Once the onions are just about done, spray a 10-inch nonstick oven-safe skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Saute the zucchini ribbons until they are tender. Add the caramelized onions, and toss to combine in the skillet.

Pour the egg mixture over the zucchini and caramelized onions.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the broiler. Uncover the skillet, sprinkle with some additional goat cheese, and broil for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the top is set and the frittata is cooked through. Serve immediately.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

2010-05-23T16:43:00.002-04:00

After making my strawberry scones, I still had a lot of strawberries left. One of the first things I thought of making was ice cream. One problem - I didn't have an ice cream maker! The night before I went strawberry picking, I ordered an ice cream maker from amazon. It was actually a great deal, especially after my $20 gift card.
This ice cream is oh so good. If I was making it for a party, I would have made the graham cracker crust rounds.
I only have a few things I would have changed - mostly just my own technique. I recommend mashing the strawberries really well. I wanted to have some chunks still there, but they were so frozen in the ice cream that I think I would have preferred more of a puree. The original recipe said that the strawberries could be folded into the ice cream, but I think that negatively affected the texture. As long as there's room in the ice cream maker (there wasn't any left in mine), add it right in the mixer in the last 5-10 minutes. I made 2/3 of the recipe, and the ice cream base on its own filled my 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker. Also, make sure the cream cheese is completely at room temperature before using. I didn't let it sit out long enough, and it didn't mix uniformly into the custard. Actually, that may have been due in part to the cold custard. It might be best to mix the custard into the cream cheese when the custard is still a little warm, and then chill that combination before freezing.
But regardless of all of that, the ice cream is so delicious! I may never buy ice cream again!

Recipe: Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (from Apple Pie, Patis and Pate)
Ingredients: (I am listing the amounts I used - 2/3 of the original recipe)
2/3 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/3 cup sugar

2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 2/3 cups whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

2/3 lb cream cheese (I only had 1/2 lb so I made up for the rest with greek yogurt)
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:
Mash the strawberries with the sugar, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until thick and light.

In a saucepan, bring the milk to a gentle simmer. Add a small amount of the milk to the eggs and stir well, then ad the rest slowly. Heat over a double boiler while stirring constantly, just until the mixture thickens to coat the back of a spoon. (Mine never got that thick, but it worked out just fine.)

Remove immediately from the heat. Stir in the cold cream to stop the cooking, followed by the vanilla extract and salt. Strain using a fine mesh strainer.

Cool the custard completely at room temperature. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Using a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, beat the cream cheese (and yogurt, in my case) with the sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice until light and smooth. Slowly add the chilled custard and mix until smooth.

Pour into the chilled bowl of your ice cream maker, and start churning!

When it is almost set up, pour the sugared strawberries into the machine.

Serve immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or store in an airtight container and freeze.

Strawberry fields forever...

2010-05-23T00:16:00.000-04:00

I have been waiting for what I like to call "the picking season" for months. I'm pretty sure that dreams of ripe strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and cherries are what got me through this past semester.
Last weekend I finally got to go strawberry picking, and it was amazing! The drive there was really pretty - it's not that far from Charlottesville, but you feel like you're in a different world. Picking was surprisingly fun. And their strawberry ice cream was amazing. (If you live in Cville, you have to go to Chiles Orchard in Crozet.) Of course my camera battery died after I got one measly blurry picture.

Which just means I'll have to go back.
After picking 3.5 pounds of strawberries, I had to figure out what to do with them. Besides just eating them, of course. I had a few salads, this time with the full dressing. I wanted to do something special though. And my first idea was to make strawberry scones. I found a lot of great recipes, and picked one. They were great! Really moist, and not too sweet. I added a little extra sugar (since I figured 3 tbsp might not cut it for my sweet tooth). I didn't have any cream or buttermilk on hand, so I used light coconut milk instead. I wanted to use something that had a little fat in it, and the only real milk I had was skim. It didn't add much of a coconut flavor, but I thought it turned out well. I cut the dough into 8 wedges, instead of 6, and they were still really big. Next time I would maybe make two small rounds, and cut them each into 6 wedges.

Recipe: Strawberry Scones (adapted from Confessions of a Tart)
Ingredients:
1 cup diced strawberries
1/4 cup + 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
2/3 cup (cold) light coconut milk
raw sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tbsp sugar, set aside.
Combine 1/4 cup sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, and use a pastry cutter or 2 knives (or your fingertips) to cut in the butter. Stir in fruit; then add coconut milk all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together. It will be pretty wet.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.
Pat the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them. Sprinkle with the raw sugar.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the tops are beginning to brown and spring back when you push them.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

2010-05-22T23:57:00.000-04:00

This is my go-to banana bread recipe. I love it because it uses a TON of bananas, which both helps to clear out my freezer stash, and gives it a great banana flavor. I've made it in every size imaginable - standard muffins, mini muffins, jumbo muffins, 9x5 loaf, mini loaves...I think you get the point. Sometimes I do it with just chocolate chips, and sometimes I do it with cinnamon and pecans. I got it from this great cookbook called "Muffins" (very appropriate). I've used the recipe so many times that I should know it by heart, but the book automatically flips open to it.
Oh, and the recipe claims that it makes 12 muffins, but I always fill the batter to the top, and I get at least 18 muffins every time. This time I got 20.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (from Muffins)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
5-6 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I didn't have minis, so I used 2/3 cup regular sized chips)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray (or use liners).
In large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and bananas; mix well.
in separate bowl, combine flour with salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Stir in creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Orzo with Veggies

2010-05-22T21:46:00.001-04:00

This recipe is really good. And very simple. That's about it - you'll have to try it with your favorite veggies.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
5 sundried tomato halves
~ 1/2 cup orzo
1/4 cup feta cheese (mine was tomato and basil flavored)
s&p

Directions:
Cut the zucchini and squash in a large dice. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the rosemary, and cook the zucchini and squash until tender. Chop (or tear) the tomatoes into pieces, add to the veggies.
Salt some water and bring to a boil. Cook the orzo until al dente.
Toss the orzo with the veggies and the feta, add s&p to taste.

My Adventures with Sourdough

2010-05-22T21:26:00.000-04:00

It has been way too long since I've posted anything. I have no excuse for it. I've actually done a lot of baking/cooking, and I really need to post what I've made so I don't forget to write about anything. Somehow, even though class are over (at least until August), I've still been really busy. That's definitely due to the fact that I jumped right back into things in lab. The weather has been so gross lately that I figured I would rather be in the lab, being productive. So lab, combined with a week-long clinical rotation in surgical pathology, has completely worn me out. I can't really complain though. And I still had enough time to watch the entire first season of Vampire Diaries last week! It was really good actually.

But back to food. I'm going to do separate posts for everything I've made, and I will attempt to do it chronologically. Not that it makes any difference to you!

A few posts back I talked about receiving a sourdough starter in the mail. As soon as exams were over, I was very excited to use it! When I received it, the first thing I did was add 1.5 cups warm water and 2 cups flour (a combination of all purpose and whole wheat flour), and let it sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. I may be repeating myself from the previous post. Then I let it sit in the fridge, undisturbed, for one week. After that I was set to use it!

This first recipe came from the person who sent me the starter. She's been making it for quite some time now! It's a great sandwich bread, and doesn't have a typical tangy sourdough flavor. I'm definitely going to do some experimenting with the starter. This was a great beginning recipe.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Ingredients:
Sponge:
1/4 cup sourdough starter
1 cup warm water
1 cup + 2 tbsp whole wheat flour

Bread:
1/2 cup warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour, sifted

Directions:
If your sponge has some liquid on top, stir it back in.

Mix together the sponge ingredients. Put it in a warm place for 8-12 hours.

After the time is up, stir the sponge (it should be springy from the gluten).

Keep 11 oz to use for the recipe, and mix the rest back in with the starter in the fridge.
Mix the water, sugar, olive oil and salt together until it is all dissolved. Add this to the 11 oz of sponge.

Add 1 cup of flour to the batter and stir 100 strokes (all in the same direction) to build gluten.

Add the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well each time until it is incorporated before adding more. Add only enough to form a ball of dough that is not too sticky.

Lightly flour a surface, and knead the dough for at least 5 minutes. Add more flour as necessary.

Oil a large bowl. Form the dough into a ball and rub it against the bowl to coat with oil, and cover the bowl with a cloth or plastic wrap.

Let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours, or until doubled. Test with two fingers - if the imprint remains, then it is ready.

Punch it down to remove air. Fold over edges of dough about five times, going in a circle. Turn dough over and return to the warm place for 1/2 hour to rest.

Oil and flour a 9x5 loaf pan. Flatten the dough to remove air pockets. Roll both side edges to the center, meeting in the middle. Pinch together really well to seal it at the center. Fold in the two ends, and flip it over, so the seam is facing down in the loaf pan. Set it so it is touching the pan on all sides.

Cover lightly and let rise about 1-1.5 hours, until it fills the pan.

Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 45 minutes. If it is starting to get too dark, cover with foil.
Thump the loaf on the bottom with your finger, it is done if it sounds hollow.

Remove from the pan immediately and cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.

Don't cut into it when it's still hot, even though you really want to!

Giveaway Results! And some jam

2010-05-11T12:24:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I know I said that I was going to post the results yesterday. It was just a busy day, and when I got home I was tired...you know how it goes.

First I want to copy and paste a comment I made in the giveaway post. I figured there was a better chance it would get seen here (of course everyone is going to read this post to see if they're a winner!)

Thank you for entering! I'm going to give everyone until midnight to enter, and then I'll pick a winner tomorrow. I just wanted to respond to a few comments.

First - I have to say that I didn't come up with the name of Passover Crack! Smitten Kitchen came up with that, but I have been making that recipe for years and years.

katidyd - I tried to figure out how to add email signups and I couldn't! If anyone has any tips/hints, I would appreciate it. And if you live nearby I would love to give you some amish starter.

Thank you so much everyone for checking out my blog, and I hope to hear from all of you in the future!

I really mean that - it's been so great to hear from so many new people. I really wish everyone could be a winner!

But okay, I won't drag it out any longer. The winner was.....

Memoria from the blog Mangio da Sola! I used random number generator (random.org) to pick a winner from the 87 entries, and entry #10 won - where she became a follower. I tried to copy and paste the results from the site, but had some difficulties doing it on my mac.

Memoria - if you could contact me to give me your email address, I'll send it over to the representative from CSNstores, and you'll get your gift certificate! I'm so excited to see what you get, you'll have to blog about it!

And on another note - I was in the mood yesterday for a pb&j sandwich. I went to get out my jam from the fridge, and saw that there was mold on the top of the lid. Definitely not a good sign. I'm still in that lazy mood so I wasn't about to go to the store (even though there are several items I sorely need). Last night I decided I wanted something fruity for dessert, so I unearthed some strawberries I froze last summer. I decided to heat them up in the microwave with some sugar and tapioca (to attempt to soak up the juices). They were still really juicy, so I added some cornstarch and heated some more. I was surprised when it came out jelly-like. I added some frozen raspberries to it, and called it jam! I made a pb&j sandwich today with it. It's not the best jam I've ever had, but it does really well in a pinch! And it's preservative and HFCS free, always a good thing.

Recipe: Strawberry and Raspberry "Jam"

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped frozen strawberries

1/4 cup frozen raspberries

2-4 tbsp sugar (depends on how sweet your fruit is)

1 tsp instant tapioca (optional)

2 tbsp cornstarch

Directions:

Put the fruit in a microwave-safe bowl, and sprinkle the sugar and tapioca over them. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Sprinkle the cornstarch on top, and stir well until it is dissolved. Microwave on high for another 3-4 minutes, stirring after every minute or two, until it comes to a jelly-like state. You can either enjoy it warm (it would taste great with yogurt or ice cream), or stick it in the fridge and use it as jam.

I survived!

2010-05-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen (although I'm pretty sure it's just ladies - except for maybe my dad) - I have completed my first year of grad school! I finished my takehome exam last night, and now it's just burning a hole in my backpack until I can turn it in on Monday. I can't put into words how great it feels to be done! I'm not going to pretend that I spent every minute of the last year studying or learning, but that was always at the back of my mind. So now when I watch an SVU marathon for an entire day, I really don't need to feel guilty about it! But seriously, there are so many things I want to do now. First - there are two farmers markets I want to check out. I usually go to the one downtown every Saturday, but apparently there are two others - one on Tuesdays and one on Wednesdays. I also want to go to every orchard nearby and pick all of the fresh berries! I think I need to clear out freezer space just for that.
But right now, I'm just being lazy, and watching lots of tv and bad movies. I haven't been to the grocery store in a while, in part because I am trying to save money and clean out my pantry, and also because I just haven't had a lot of time. So I was hungry, and realized I had nothing convenient to eat. I have a ton of eggs, and I thought about making a frittata. But of course, I was not in the mood to actually chop anything to put in it. So I went the easy way - I made a big pan of scrambled eggs, and added in some jarred roasted peppers (I didn't even chop them, I literally tore them up right over the pan). But it was definitely delicious.

So I just want to remind you one last time to enter the giveaway! Today is the last day!
And happy mother's day to all of you mothers!

Sourdough starter!

2010-05-06T20:39:00.001-04:00

I am so incredibly excited - today when I got back from hours of studying, a sourdough starter was waiting for me in my mail! My favorite person from the children's hospital I worked at last year told her sister about my blog, and my sourdough troubles, and she sent me some of hers! She has been making sourdough bread for the past 16 years, so she is my sourdough expert and angel.

I was sent 1/4 cup of the starter, and I added 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour (unbleached) and 1/3 cup whole wheat flour. I'm letting it sit in a warm place for 24 hours, and then it will live in the fridge. There are so many things I want to make with this - I can use it in my artisan bread, I want to make pretzels, rolls, I even heard you can make chocolate cake with it!

So stay tuned - I will be having a lot of fun with it once exams are over!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Easy pasta

2010-05-06T20:30:00.001-04:00

After using up all of my strawberries, I still have a ton of spinach left. Since it's been several days since I bought it, I decided that it would probably taste better cooked than fresh. This was a very easy dinner. I was going to write up an actual recipe, but realized that it wasn't really necessary. When cooking pasta, add spinach in the last minute or two so it cooks, but is not overcooked. And roasted shrimp is great with this - toss peeled shrimp (thawed if frozen) with olive oil and s&p, and cook for ~7 minutes at 400 F. Toss everything together and enjoy with some freshly grated cheese.

The perfect spring-like salad

2010-05-06T20:22:00.001-04:00

I went to the farmers market last Saturday, and was very excited to see strawberries! I bought strawberries and fresh spinach. There was some asparagus, but it was a bit expensive. I can't wait until there are more veggies though.
I remembered there was a salad my mom had made when I was a kid, that had strawberries and spinach and a sweet dressing. I got the recipe from her, and realized that I didn't have all of the ingredients. I made it anyway, and it was so good. I didn't have the worcestershire, sesame seeds, or poppy seeds, and I used all red wine vinegar with a splash of balsamic. I used a small glass jar to mix the dressing - it was easy to shake it all up, and it stores it well. The dressing is so pretty! It's pink, and kind of sparkly because of the sugar and oil. I remember that with the missing ingredients, it is even better. Oh and I used half the sugar - I thought it was sweet enough as is.

Recipe: Strawberry and Spinach Salad
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup vinegar (red wine and/or balsamic)
1/2 cup oil (a neutral oil, like canola or vegetable)
1 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp worcestershire

1 bag spinach
2 pints strawberries, sliced

Directions:
Mix everything except for the spinach and strawberries, it works well in a glass jar. Toss the spinach and strawberries with the dressing and serve.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Homemade ginger ale

2010-05-06T20:06:00.001-04:00

I'm not a big soda drinker. I really dislike most coke/pepsi products. I love having root beer or cream soda every once in a while. And I love ginger ale. While I was visiting my sister in New York in the winter, I discovered green tea ginger ale. It was amazing. And I haven't been able to find it since! I have to say that a good substitute for it is just pure homemade ginger ale. I might try mixing in some green tea the next time I make it - see if I can make my own!

This ginger ale was so good, and tasted just like fresh ginger. It had a much stronger bite to it than the store-bought kind. I used the leftover ginger to make candied ginger. The recipe said to leave it out for a day or two, but I am unfortunately having some issues with fruit flies. So I left it in the fridge for several days and it worked just fine.

Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale and Candied Ginger (recipe from One Perfect Bite)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups ginger, peeled and sliced thinly (a spoon works really well to peel)
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 cups water
1 quart club soda
1 lime, sliced in wedges

Directions:
Combine ginger, 1 cup sugar and water in a saucepan. Simmer slowly for 2 hours, until sugar is dissolved and ginger is softened. Strain warm syrup and allow to cool. Save the ginger pieces to make candied ginger. To serve - take 1 part ginger syrup and 3 parts club soda, and squeeze some lime juice in the glass.
For the candied ginger - line a cookie sheet with wax/parchment paper. Place a cooling rack on top. Toss the ginger with 1/2 cup sugar and dry on rack for 1-2 days. (Can do this in the fridge if necessary, but it will take longer.) Store in an airtight container.

Don't forget about my giveaway!