kitchen addiction

Come visit me this weekend!

2010-12-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

I'll be participating in Elliot's Angels' Boutique this Friday and Saturday. I'm baking up a storm all day today and tomorrow and hope to see you there. Come support the local chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and sample my delicious treats!

Halloween Candy Cookies

2010-11-04T11:56:00.001-06:00

I really can't stand Halloween candy sitting around, gnawing at my children's brains, waiting to throw them into sugar highs and crying fits. Ick. That's the down part of motherhood. Plus there's the good possibility that I'll ask (or sneak) a piece of candy here and there until it's all gone, and that's probably my bigger fear!

The up part of motherhood is being clever with the candy. This year I took most of the chocolate items (the delicacy!) from the bags of my two younger children and made cookies.

First, chop up as many candy bars as you can into little bite-size chunks. Add the M-n-Ms. Maybe not the skittles. Throw them in the fridge so they don't fall apart while mixing into the dough, while you make the dough.

That's the second part. Use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe base. Mine is at the bottom of this post (and it's totally okay to cheat...I didn't refrigerate the dough before baking, and I only used all-purpose flour; I was obviously anxious to use up those bars).

Stir in the goodness. (I added a generous 4 cups of candy to the cookie dough.)

Follow the baking directions for the recipe, making cookies that aren't too big. Let them cool 3-4 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack, or they'll likely stick.

If you were wise in your choices, you'll have toffee, nutty, crunchy, peanut buttery goodness throughout the cookies. And, if you're lucky enough to have lots of friends, I suggest giving most of the cookies away immediately.

Get 'em while they're hot!

Sourdough, part 1: Starter

2010-06-14T16:51:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time that I've wanted to post about how to do sourdough, but there were so many problems with it: I wasn't happy with everything I made, I didn't feel confident in my ability to discuss it, and I do all my sourdough starters and bread measurements in grams, which aren't very friendly to the masses for a blog. Also, there's no way to talk about sourdough without going into a lot of depth.

But it's finally time. How? you may ask. Well, I consistently love my bread now, and I'm pretty sure I know why it turns out well. Also, I've decided it's okay to post in grams. It's European-style bread, for goodness sake. As for the depth of the subject...it's not like I don't have the ability to go on for a long time, so I'll just say what I need to say. And break it up into multiple posts if I need to.

Since I've gushed very recently, I'll try to keep that to a minimum, but I need to start by saying that I have spent considerable time reading and studying from Daniel Leader's Local Breads and Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. While each has been very instructive, being able to learn from both of them has helped me understand how to move forward on my own, to come up with my own formulas, with a decent grasp on bread basics, especially pertaining to sourdough and fermentation. If you're feeling serious about hearth breads, you should have them on hand.

*little note: If you don't already, you really need to get used to making notes in your cookbooks. They should feel like a workbook, especially since you bought them to learn from. Sometimes I go a year between repeating a recipe, and I need to know if I like certain changes I made and want to continue them. Buy a coffee table book for the coffee table, but use your cookbooks.

Let's start with making the sourdough starter. This is surprisingly easy. All you need is flour and water. That may seem preposterous, but it's true. The only catch is that it's a good idea to have a wee bit of rye flour at the beginning, as rye is very easy to start a sourdough with. (It ferments at a faster rate than wheat flour, so it jump starts the action. After feeding and refreshing the sourdough with wheat (all-purpose or bread) flour, the rye will have disappeared, so it doesn't turn up in your bread unless you're adding rye at a later point.) Wild yeast is in the flour and in the air, so you don't need to add anything to start the process, just feed it with flour everyday and give it time to grow.

All-purpose flour or bread flour is fine. I prefer to use bread flour, as it has a higher protein content and will help develop the gluten in dough a bit easier, giving your bread structure and stretch (and chewiness), but there's not a big difference, and the protein doesn't play any role in the sourdough itself.

So here's what you do: in a very clean environment, stir together 150 grams of room temperature water with 75 grams flour, about half rye and half all-purpose. Cover it loosely with plastic and leave it on the counter for 24 hours. Then every day for the next several days (about 5-7), add the following: 35 grams of water and 60 grams of AP (all-purpose) flour. If your water is really chlorinated, you should use filtered water in your starter so yeast and other bacteria aren't kept from growing.

Each day, before you feed your starter, note the changes. At first you'll see next to nothing. As the days progress, though, you'll notice air bubbles on top and inside the starter. You'll also smell earthy, acidic smells that will increase and alter throughout the process. Also, always make sure your hands, containers, and utensils are very clean. Introducing other bacteria into the starter can alter it or even kill the yeast.

Somewhere between days 5 and 7 (usually; it can take up to 10 days), you'll notice that the culture will have risen about half again in the 24 hour period (a mason jar can be helpful for storing the starter on the counter, so you can track how much it rises), and it will be full of bubbles inside. Daniel Leader explains the smell and taste perfectly: it will smell like very ripe apples, and it will taste tart and fruity. If you taste it before it's ready, you'll note the change when it is ready, as the tartness will zing on your tongue.

It's like magic in the kitchen when you reach this point. You started with just flour and water, and now you have a leavening agent. Are you impressed? You should be impressed.

At this point, you'll start the normal refreshing process, something you'll try to remember to do every week, but will at least do just before you bake with the sourdough and no less frequently than every 2-3 weeks (or maybe 4-8, but then you have to scrape off the icky top before refreshing). To refresh the starter, you have to throw some away (but don't be sad; you're only getting rid of about 20¢ tops) and feed the rest, so it can continue to grow at a healthy pace. This keeps the bacteria (which gives it the sour taste) under control, so it doesn't overpower and lessen the strength of the yeast. It also feeds the yeast, so it can continue to grow. Sort of the same thing, really.

Anyhow, throw out all but 50 grams of your starter. To it, add 50 grams of water and 87 grams of AP flour. Mix thoroughly, cover loosely in a container marked with the spot it reached when first mixed, leave it at room temperature, and check it in 8-12 hours to be sure it has doubled in volume. If it has, it's ready! If not, go back to the feeding stage for a few more days.

If your starter is ready, you can use it at this point or cover it with a lid and place it into the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

I'll post pictures shortly, and tomorrow we'll turn our starter into bread!!

Why I Love to Cook

2010-06-11T06:30:00.000-06:00

I know I'm supposed to be posting about bread, but that will take a lot of time that I don't have available until tomorrow, and I've been thinking about this subject today. Maybe because I'm blogging again, maybe because I've baked yesterday and today, but for some reason I want to gush about the joy of being in the kitchen.

I'm fully aware that cooking isn't for everyone. I try to make my recipes easy to follow and appealing for people who like food but fear cooking. This is one of the things I really enjoy about blogging. I have a firm belief that everyone with decent (average) taste buds should have the opportunity to eat really good food, and really good food isn't always hard to make. (Some of it is, and some of it is way beyond me; I'm okay with that...that's what restaurants and invitations to friends' houses for dinner are for.) I love getting comments from people that have followed my recipe and found that it works well for them. I actually get loads (and by loads, I mean well above a dozen) of google hits everyday from people searching for recipes like M&M cake (maybe there aren't many out there?), canned salsa (try googling "canned salsa"), bacon chipotle potato salad, Puerto Rican flan (because I'm very Puerto Rican...see my picture in the left column), and others. A lot of Guittard chocolate interest. Shocking that I'd come up on those searches.

Anyhow, I'm tickled pink that I can help people find recipes they're looking for. Recipes that I trust and try and love and want to share. See how I get all gushy just thinking about it? I know it won't change the world for everyone to eat good food, except it might. Seriously, don't you think it could? Well, we don't have to discuss that.

Now that I've gone on and on about why I love to blog about food, I really should tell you what I said I would. Why I love to make good food. That's easy. It makes me giddy to cook something perfectly delicious. I love the way flavors complement each other in a dish or dessert. I love the way salt brings out deeper flavors like chocolate or beef. I love the way sugar can complement salt, especially when you have a perfect balance of salty, sweet, and acid. Like in pie crust. Or mole.

I love the way a good bread rises just right and forms a good crust. I love knowing that almonds have toasted perfectly in the oven by just starting to smell them two rooms away. I love seeing chocolate chunk cookies come out of the oven just medium golden, knowing they're not going to fall but they'll still be chewy in the center.

I love the char on a good grilled steak, and the way a smoky grill or rosemary improves the flavor of lamb. I love learning more about flavor combinations, especially with herbs, like mint and nectarines, or tarragon and lots of things I've never tried with tarragon yet but should. I love the combination of flavors in Mexican cuisine, the way food can taste bright and alluring in the heart of winter.

Learning new techniques and improving them makes me feel accomplished and pleased, like when I understood laminated dough and made really good croissants and kouign amann. Or understanding sourdough, as I read my cookbooks cover-to-cover like the textbooks they're intended to be (the ones I like best, anyhow).

I love cooking with my kids. Cooking is like a great science experiment with the best results, since you get to eat them. I love that aspect, and my kids do, too. Spending time with them in the kitchen can be hilarious and happy.

And after I make something really delicious, I love to give it away. To my family, to the neighbors, to friends, to Mark's coworkers, to anyone I want to show that I care.

I seriously love cooking.

High Altitude Gardening, part 1

2010-06-09T21:00:00.001-06:00

It's June 9th, and my garden looks like this:

Even worse, I didn't take a picture of all the weeds, which I've been laboring mightily to clear out today. The soil is quite poor, but I'm too cheap to buy more top soil right now, so I'm just working with what I've got: a hoe, some gardening gloves, and a little muscle (probably a little more after today).

I've been semi-consciously ignoring my weeds. I've loved gardening in the past, but last year in January we moved to a new home, located conveniently for cool summers at 6300 feet. Not so convenient for gardening, as the growing season is chopped off about a month or so on each end. Last year's endeavors were a waste. My one hope was for my herbs, but I planted them before we were into full summer and discovered too late that they weren't near any sprinkler system. Luckily I have very hearty thyme, curly parsley, and strawberries that love it here, whether they've been loved or not. I'm a big fan of thyme, so this is pleasing. My garden spot that I cleared from a few bushes, lava rocks, and lots of weeds ended up being the wettest spot in the yard, and it was a wet spring. Nothing lived.

I'm not giving up. In fact, I was excited to plant my spring seeds (peas, in the pod and to be podded, and lettuce) early on. We'd lent our hoe out, though I didn't know it, and I just had a hand cultivator, so I didn't do much with the soil. I just pulled a few weeds and made a quick row, then my kids helped me add the seeds to the ground, cover them, and water them. That was April 14, give or take a couple of days. It snowed within 2 days, so the seeds didn't come up.

And then it warmed up for a fews, but then it snowed again. The pattern kept repeating, and we finally got our last bout of snow (I hope?) two weeks ago. About six inches. They melted very quickly.

My seeds never came up, so I knew I'd eventually just replant them. Only I was wrong! They came up this week – two months after I planted them! I found them today when I was weeding. How is it that the weeds had grown so quickly and so tall when my little seeds were just sprouting? Ah, I know, that is the life of the weed. In any case, I was thrilled.

However, I looked at the sky and noticed I had 10 or 15 minutes left before it rained, so I quickly finished hoeing the weeds then raked them away. I stuffed them into a garbage bag just as the first drops were falling on my back.

Then my kids gathered on the front porch with the neighbors to enjoy the cool wind and the rain. With blankets and creamsicles. Listening to Taylor Swift.

Why am I posting about gardening? Well, it's my food blog, and my garden contributes to my food, and I think this growing season may turn out to be a bit frustrating. I may need an outlet for venting, so I'm just preparing y'all.

Tomorrow, I'm going to finally post a full how-to on sourdough bread. I'm guessing the post won't be short. Here's my teaser:

Yes, those are my real hands, and no, I'm not a paid hand model. Thanks for asking!

Coming Soon...

2010-06-08T09:47:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm going to start posting again! Can you believe it. I know all my faithful readers were seriously concerned that I hadn't actually eaten anything since November of last year, since that's when I last talked food. I promise you, I haven't wasted away. (Though I wouldn't have minded wasting away just a little bit.)

As a teaser, I'm throwing out lots of pictures of food from the past several months I always meant to discuss but didn't get to...maybe I still will? In the meantime, I guest-blogged at my friend Nikki's thesaltypineapple today, so you can check out my write up there on grilled chicken and black beans.

Dinner Rolls

2009-11-21T17:01:00.002-07:00

It's been a long time since I've been as anxious to post as I am today. (For proof, you can look at my frequency.) I just made my dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, which I'm hosting next week. I thought I'd make them ahead of time and toss them in the deep freezer to move them out of the way, since most items need to be prepared the day before or the day of dinner.

I've made rolls before, of course. Like most of you, I like a good, soft, sweet, buttery dinner roll. I really wanted them to be just right this year, but when it came down to time, I didn't have the option of trying several recipes to see which I preferred. Instead, I just went for it today, mixing and mashing up recipes with what sounded desirable in my head, knowing my first attempt would be my only.

Let me tell you, it definitely worked.

If you look at the ingredients, you can probably see where everything went right: white flour, milk, honey, plenty of butter, and a sponge (or pre-ferment) for extra flavor. All the most delicious roll ingredients, but put together in just the right way. They're tender and golden, delicious warm or room temperature, and have a lovely crumb. It doesn't hurt that they're helped out with a double dose of butter – a generous amount in the dough and a nice basting on top.

I debated whether to make cloverleaf rolls or regular round rolls. Here's the argument going on inside my head this morning:
clover leaf angel: Mom always had clover leaf rolls at nice dinners when I was growing up. Ah, sentimentality.
round roll devil: But you know you'll want to make them all perfectly the same and weigh each little tiny ball to make sure they look attractive and bake evenly.
clover leaf angel: Thanksgiving is a special occasion. It deserves special attention, like clover leaf rolls, not boring little puffballs. And my mom will actually be there.
round roll devil: So will several others. You'll need to make a lot of rolls. And the round rolls are perfect for leftover turkey/cranberry/goat cheese sandwiches. Clover leaf rolls don't really do that job.
clover leaf angel: Party pooper.

I made a large batch of dough, which ended up being the perfect compromise: 40 round rolls and 12 clover leaf rolls. I'll serve the clover leaf rolls with dinner and have all the rest for leftovers. Or seconds. Or thirds.

The recipe I'm posting here is for half that amount, but it can, of course, be doubled like I did. It's nice to have extra rolls to freeze or giveaway, though, but if there's just two of you, 52 rolls might be overkill.

Dinner Rolls

sponge:
1 c. all-purpose or bread flour
1 c. cold water
1/4 t. instant* yeast

dough:
2 c. all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as you go
1 c. milk
1/4 c. honey
4 oz. (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 t. salt (reduce to 1 1/4 t. if you use salted butter)
2 1/2 t. instant* yeast

Mix the sponge ingredients together (see note below about yeast) in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic and leave on the counter for 3 hours.

Warm the milk with the honey. (If you're using active dry yeast, you can proof the yeast in the milk and honey once it has been warmed. Just be sure the milk isn't heated above 115˚ or you'll kill the yeast.)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sponge, yeast, milk, honey, and salt. Stir together with a wooden spoon until well combined. Add the butter and another cup of flour and start kneading, breaking up the butter and blending it as you go. Don't worry about the butter, as it will eventually be thoroughly integrated.

Continue kneading, adding flour as necessary until the dough is still very soft but just barely workable without being too sticky. Knead for 10-15 minutes, until the dough passes the windowpane test**.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and place the dough in there to rise. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with the same spray and let rise in a warm place until double, about an hour to an hour and a half.

Once the dough has sufficiently risen, turn it out onto a work surface. It should make about 2 dozen rolls. Divide the dough into half, then half again, then partition each of those quarters into 6 pieces. You can shape them into balls and place them on a sprayed half sheet pan, two inches apart, or make clover leaf rolls by dividing each roll into 3 pieces and roll them into balls before placing them in a sprayed muffin pan. Generously baste them with melted butter (you'll need about half of a stick of butter for this). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 45 minutes, until well risen.

Preheat the oven to 425˚. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden on top and bottom. Cool on a rack. Enjoy.

*I'm always recommending to people that they buy instant yeast, and I'll say the same thing to you. You don't have to proof it, just throw it in with your other ingredients. It's just a little bit harder to find, but 2 of 3 stores carry it in my area, and probably in yours as well. Just buy a pound of it and keep it in a ziploc in your freezer. If you only have active dry yeast, just be sure to proof it in some 105˚ water before adding it to the rest of the recipe, and then subtract the amount of water you use for proofing from the overall recipe.

**Take a small piece of dough and slowly stretch it. If you can stretch it so that it is thin enough to see light through (like a window pane), the gluten is sufficiently developed, and your bread will have a connected, stretchy crumb inside. Otherwise knead for a few more minutes.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

2009-11-11T12:01:00.006-07:00

I have to admit, I'm struggling with this post, but not because I'm not excited about the product. Oh, no. That's not it.

It's because I don't have any of these cookies sitting around, and they are highly addictive. So much so that taking time to write about them makes me twitch, wondering when I can have them again.

I'll try to restrain myself. After all, I've already made them at least twice in the last three weeks, and one of those times it was a double batch for a little occasion. And Thanksgiving, with lots of pie, is just around the corner, followed by the entire month of December, which is a non-stop onslaught of hard-to-resist deliciousness.

But you have likely not had them yet, unless you've been by in the last few weeks, and even then you haven't had too many (like me). So you should make them. Because they're extraordinarily easy to make. As long as you have chocolate around.

But, see, I'm avoiding the subject again. Let me start from the beginning.

I recently picked up a gem of a cookbook. It's not often I find a new cookbook that is worth its paper to me (though I find many useful cookbooks I would recommend to others) because I have a good collection of books and other recipes. And there's typically nothing really educational or new that I will likely make more than once because it's not a fit for me and my family or because it's just not that good. But when I started picking through Chocolate Obsession, a book from Michael Recchiuti (this one, not this one, though I'd be thrilled to meet either), I felt inspired, culinarily-speaking.

I love his simple method for making chocolates. In the past, I've made my fillings, chilled them, rolled them into balls (a sticky, disgusting mess on my hands), chilled them again, then dipped them. Michael recommend making a filling, pouring it into a plastic- or parchment-lined container, setting it up (or chilling it, as I do), turning it out, cutting it into squares, and dipping. If you've ever dipped chocolates, that probably sounds way easier to you. If not, you may not get it. But I'll have another post about dipping chocolates in the future and then you can try it out.

His book also has a recipe for homemade graham crackers that I was anxious to try after having delicious s'mores with freshly made grahams at Pizzeria 712 in Orem (where the s'mores were amazing, but the pizza was, too). I wasn't a fan of Michael Recchiuti's grahams, but it was a good starting point for me, so I can start experimenting to get the flavors and texture I want.

But, so far, my favorite find in the book is these cookies. I rarely find a new cookie I especially like. I've got my favorites: chocolate chunk, cinnamon, molasses-ginger, what else is there that is really, really worth the calories?

This one.

The base of these cookies is a sandy, chocolate dough. It has no egg in it, so it has some of the texture of shortbread, but it has some leavening in it, so it's fluffy. The cocoa and butter make it a moist treat that melts in your mouth. To add to the experience, generous chunks of milk and dark chocolate are interspersed throughout the dough. The cookies are small, about two or three bites each (unless you're anxious, I guess), but they're rich and delicious and plenty large for their content.

Since the dough is refrigerated for at least three hours and up to three days, they can also be very convenient. Mix the dough today, bake them off after dinner tomorrow. If you can wait.

Triple Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Michael Recchiuti

1 1/2 c. (7 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 c. + 1 T. (1 1/2 oz.) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 t. baking soda
12 T. (6 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. (3 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar
3/4 c. (4 1/2 oz.) dark brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped*
1/2 t. Kosher salt, or fleur de sel**
3 oz. milk chocolate, roughly chopped
3 oz. dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together in a bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter with both sugars, vanilla, and salt on medium, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, incorporating each before adding the next. Mix just until the dough is consistent throughout. Add the chopped chocolates and mix on low until just incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Knead a few times if necessary to incorporate any crumbs.

Divide the dough in half. Form each half into a log about 1 1/4" in diameter by 12" long. Keep the logs an even thickness and tightly formed, with no air pockets inside.

Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours, and up to 3 days.

To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325˚. Line the bottom of a half-sheet pan (12"x18") with parchment or a silpat.

Remove the logs from the refrigerator and unwrap them. Using a ruler to guide you and a sharp knife, cut each log into rounds 1/2" thick. Reshape any slices that crumble. Place the rounds on the prepared pans, 1 1/2" apart.

Bake cookies in the middle of the oven until set but soft enough to hold a slight indentation when pressed with a fingertip, 14-15 minutes. Let cool completely on the pan, then remove to a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

*Note: If you don't have a vanilla bean, increase the vanilla extract to 1 teaspoon.

**Note: If you are substituting table salt because that's what you have hanging around your kitchen (I'm resisting unkind remarks here, but you should know that table salt is much more bitter), please reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon.

Chocolate Open House

2009-11-03T09:17:00.007-07:00

Chocolate Open House

Thursday, Nov. 5, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Do you like chocolate? Do you panic when you run out? Do you like to always be prepared with chocolate?

Do you live in the Salt Lake/Provo area?

Come sample delicious, chef-recommended Guittard chocolate and consider placing an order, or find someone to split an item with. Items available to order include dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, semisweet chocolate, chocolate bricks, chunks, chips, cocoa powder, and hot chocolate powder.

Chocolate comes in 10, 25, or 50 lb. increments, depending on what you want. Prices average about $3 a pound, with cocoa powder and hot chocolate powder being significantly less.

This isn't a business, though that sure would be fun. I place a chocolate order about once a year because I like really, really good chocolate at wholesale prices, and I need help making the order large enough (total minimum order must be at least 500 lbs.) So I do all the work. You just order from me and pick the chocolate up from my house after I get it.

Stop by! Bring your friends and family! I'll have samples of some of the chocolate in original and prepared forms (like truffles, brownies, cookies, and drinks), so you can taste the quality.

For more information on chocolate, information on where I live, and how to get here, email me at kitchenaddiction (at) gmail.com.

Please note: Should the order reach 1000 lbs, I'll be closing it, so first-come, first-served.

Days 7-14: Everyday dinners

2009-10-07T11:24:00.000-06:00

Yes, I am a waste of a blogger. I promised you two weeks of whatever we eat for dinner, and you got 6 days. Pathetic.

In case you're agreeing with me, I'd like to defend myself. I don't really blog for the same reason other people blog, I think. I mean, really, that I don't know why other bloggers blog, but I blog mainly to keep track of my recipes and share them with you when I have something worth sharing. And by "you" I mean the few readers I have plus the bizillions of googlers that find my site when I have something relevant like canned salsa or M&M cake. Seriously my biggest draws. Followed frequently (it varies) by carne asada, cinnamon cookies (for my non-chocolate loving son), and Puerto Rican flan.

But that's beside the point. Back to the argument. I did say I would tell you what we were having for dinner for a slightly different-than-usual purpose. For the most part, I don't cook intense, 6-hour meals on a daily basis, but I do try to cook from whole foods. Not only does food taste better when it starts from good quality whole foods, it's better for you in so many ways. So I thought I'd run down the list a little farther and see if I can fill in the rest of the two weeks.

My daily meals are often but not always quick and easy, ranging in preparation time from 20 minutes to 2 or 2 1/2 hours, depending on the interruptions.

These next three meals are fast.

Nice plate, huh?

First, it was bread making day, so I made some whole wheat bread when I had time earlier. As it grew closer to dinner, I threw a butternut squash in the oven. When it was done, I removed all the squash from the exterior and mixed it with butter and salt. Then I added some sliced apples and called it good. And, the big test, it had at least two things every child at my table would eat. Kate prefers meat above all other things, but toast and apples will do. And she'll always venture a bite of squash if I ask.

Second, I made a bulgur salad and some quick yogurt naan. In fairness, I had to think about the naan an hour before I wanted to bake it, but it mixes up quickly. The yogurt naan is like a creamy pita, and it gets nice and toasty baking on a very hot stone.

The bulgur salad was new and a great discovery for me. First, I hydrated the bulgur. To do this, place the amount of bulgur you want to use in a bowl. Then top the bulgur with very hot water until it is covered to a half inch above the surface. Once all the water is absorbed, taste it to see if it needs a bit more (if it's too firm). It will have some texture to it even fully hydrated.

While the bulgur was hydrating, I chopped up and prepared some various items I had in the refrigerator and pantry, then added them: red onions, cucumbers, slivered almonds, lemon zest, basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

To complete the meal, I served it with some sliced cheese. Another winner in the kid category, though they ate the bulgur salad very well.

My third really fast meal was less than 30 minutes. Sliced fresh tomatoes, homemade biscuits (amazingly fast to make!), and cole slaw.

If you have cabbage and carrots, you can throw cole slaw together in the time it takes for your biscuits to bake. First, follow the recipe in the link above and make the biscuits. (As a side note on them, these days I double the recipe and roll them out twice as thick. We like the biscuits tall.)

While your biscuits are in the oven, core the cabbage, cut in quarters, and thinly slice half of it. Shred a carrot or two and toss together. If you're interested in having onion in there (totally optional), finely dice a small, fresh white onion (nothing too pungent) and add it to the mix. In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 c. mayonnaise, 1 T. white wine vinegar, and 2-3 T. white sugar. And about 1/2 -1 t. Kosher salt and some fresh black pepper if you want it. Add most of the dressing to the cabbage mixture. If it needs more dressing, add the rest.

Slice the tomatoes, pull the biscuits from the oven, and serve. Seriously fast, especially if, like me, you don't need to have meat and potatoes every night.

Slightly longer to make, but not by much, are enchiladas. It usually involves leftover chicken, pork, or beef. I make a quick enchilada sauce helped out by smoked almonds. It gives the sauce body and flavor that would take hours to get normally.

Here's the quick sauce:

Enchilada Sauce
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c. smoked almonds
2 serrano chiles or more, if you're looking for some spice (jalapeños will work), sliced in half
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
2 c. chicken broth
olive oil

In a large saucepan or pot (to avoid splatter down the road), heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, until translucent and starting to brown. Add the chiles and garlic for just a minute more of cooking. Add the onion, garlic, almonds, chiles, and tomatoes to a blender. Purée until smooth.

Add a bit more olive oil to the saucepan. Once it has heated, add the purée all at once and start stirring. It will sizzle and pop. Keep stirring until nicely thickened. Add the chicken broth and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the consistency of spaghetti sauce.

To prepare the enchiladas, mix together the leftover meat, some of the enchilada sauce, and some sour cream. Warm some corn tortillas wrapped in a towel in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, depending on how large a stack you have. Assemble the enchiladas at the table (so you don't have that soggy casserole mess) by placing some meat filling inside a warm tortilla, then topping it with more sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

So I've made it to day 10. Not bad for one post, but here are a list of some more random items I've served for dinner recently:

Rotisserie chicken, roasted red potatoes, roast pie pumpkin with butter and salt, salad

Tacos

Cereal

Pot Roast

Adobo-Basted Pork Roast (I'll definitely post about this another time)

Seriously. Cereal.

Dinner, Day 6: Pozole

2009-09-04T09:07:00.004-06:00

Before I write anything, I need to make sure you pronounce this properly. It's a Mexican soup, and it's pronounce "poe - SOE - lay". Now we're talking about the same thing.

So I mentioned last week that I was quite sick. I'm all better now, thanks for asking, but my husband was hit at the beginning of this week with the same knock-your-socks-off cold I had. This was no ordinary humdinger, but rather the kind where you can do nothing but lay in your bed and avoid everything. There was only one thing I could do for him: make pozole.

What?! What about chicken soup with homemade noodles? I'll answer your question, but just because I'm so nice. Back in my single days, anytime a friend got sick, I would make the very best homemade chicken soup and use my grandmother's recipe for homemade noodles. It was delicious at the time, and I especially loved the noodles, but I was burned out on chicken soup before I ever got married. Lucky for me, Mark has never been a chicken noodle soup fan. He does, however, like soups that are aromatic, spicy, and have a good broth.

Pozole is a combination of many of the best flavors Mexico has. You start with a strong stock (though you can cheat, as it gets stronger) then add the flavor of chiles, lots of garlic, pork, hominy, onions, cilantro, cabbage, and lime. I'm convinced that if you only had that garlic, chile-infused broth, you'd be delighted, but everything else puts it over the top. When you're sick, this is the best thing you can eat. It's satisfying and healing. When you're healthy, this is still one of the best things you can eat. It's satisfying, fresh, and packed with vibrant flavors.

I learned how to make pozole soon after I married Mark, as he's long had a strong affinity for good Mexican food, and learned to make it better from Rick Bayless. If you want to make good Mexican cuisine at home, or even just want to improve your Mexican repertoire, he is the master. And if you live nearby, you can come over and browse a cookbook. I have three or four from him, all very useful.

This is a fairly simple version of the recipe. I include my instructions on making a good chicken stock, but if you buy a good variety in cartons at the grocery store, you'll still get a decent soup.

Pozole

5 lbs. chicken drumsticks
1 large head garlic
2 lbs. pork (sirloin roast or Boston butt works well; even pork chops will do), sliced or diced, 1/2" thick
2 oz. dried guajillo or New Mexico chiles (or more, if you like it extra spicy; or less, if you don't)
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 t. dried Mexican oregano
1 30-oz can white hominy, drained, rinsed
cabbage, thinly sliced
onions, thinly sliced
limes, wedged or cut in half
cilantro, roughly chopped
radishes, sliced

To make the chicken stock, lay the drumsticks in a single layer on a baking sheet or in a pan. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 400˚ for an hour. Cool the chicken until it is manageable. Remove the meat from the chicken and save it for another use.

Place the bones, skin, and anything else remaining from the chicken in a large pot. Cover with water. Bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours. Strain the stock and return the stock to the pot. You should have about 6 cups of broth, give or take. Season lightly with salt, but not too much, as the stock may further reduce a bit.

Remove all the garlic cloves from the head. Set two cloves aside. Peel and slice the rest, then add them to the chicken stock. Add the pork to the stock as well. Place the Mexican oregano (not even remotely the same thing as regular oregano, this is found in inexpensive plastic packets in the Mexican section of most grocery stores) in the palm of your hand. Rub your hands together over the pot to crush the oregano as it falls into the soup. Bring the stock to a simmer again; simmer for about 90 minutes, until the pork is tender.

After about an hour, remove the stems from the chiles and shake out the seeds. Place the remaining chile pods in a bowl. Cover with very hot water (or microwave the bowl with chiles and water until water is nearly boiling); set aside and let the chiles rehydrate for about 20-30 minutes.

Once the chiles are soft, place them in the blender with the 1/2 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 t. salt, and about 1/2 c. water from the chile bowl. Blend until smooth, adding a touch more water if necessary.

Here's an optional extra step: you can pass the chile purée through a strainer before adding it to the pot if you like. If you don't, you'll have very small pieces of chile skin that you will feel occasionally as you eat the pozole. This doesn't bother me, but it is more pleasant without them. If you thin the purée with a little more water first, it will be slightly easier to strain. The soup will be very good either way.

Add the chile purée and hominy to the soup. Simmer for about 30 minutes to let the flavors come together. Taste for salt and season as necessary. If it's not spicy enough for you, add some cayenne as well.

Set out the aromatics: cabbage, onion, radishes, cilantro, and lime.

Ladle some soup into a bowl, then add aromatics as desired. Don't miss the squeeze of lime; it's essential!

Enjoy. You'll be better soon.

Dinner, Day 5: Pop Tart (Slab Pie)

2009-09-03T14:00:00.000-06:00

First, I have to admit I'm cheating a little, but you should have known it was coming if you read my blog. I never blog daily. Even when it sounds like a good idea. So to prevent myself from being way behind (and move myself to only slightly behind), I'm eliminating a few dinner nights.

In the spirit of truth, however, I will fill you in on what dinners I will not be posting about: 1. Nothing. This was two nights in a row, actually, when I was feeling sick as a dog and my good husband continued to make sure the kids got random food or found some good leftovers for them. 2. Costco hot dogs. This is actually part of number 1. 3. Little Caesars. Sometimes we're just busy. This is decent, inexpensive fast food. Probably the fastest, now that they have $5 pizzas always ready to go.

I guess I just posted about those. But we're not counting them in my 14 days of meals because I don't care for them. And it's my blog, so I get to say.

So Day 5 was actually Sunday, Day 6 was Tuesday, and Day 7 is tonight (Thursday). See how it works?

Day 5 was our turn to host family dinner, a favorite of mine. Not only do I love, love, love cooking/baking/toiling in the kitchen, I love hosting. I don't know why, and I'm not going to figure that one out, but I love it. I don't put doilies on the tables and vases with flowers throughout the house, but I do vacuum. I think I just like being home, and I like other people being in my home, rather than going to them.

Anyhow.

My father-in-law took a trip to Alaska with his brothers and they caught some mighty fish – salmon and halibut, to be exact – and he brought some to us to grill for family dinner. Mark marinated the fillets for about an hour in olive oil, salt, sliced onions, garlic, and lime zest. They were very good.

Family dinners are a little potluck, with the host choosing what to base the meal around. Since we had the fish already planned, I made ciabatta, sourdough, peach pie, and nectarine slab pie. What's slab pie, you ask? Well.

Slab pie is a pie made on a sheet pan (with edges). It contains roughly one and a half times the pie dough used for a double-crust pie with the same amount of filling. And when you drizzle a little frosting over the top, it looks very much like a large Pop Tart. Well, more like a Toaster Strudel, I guess. But it tastes a wee little bit better. At least. And it serves a large amount of people, which is a bonus. Still great with ice cream.

My sister-in-law and her husband planted a nectarine tree two or three years ago and asked me a bit ago if I could use the nectarines for pie or something. Never one to turn down free ingredients, I gladly peeled, sliced, and froze the nectarines until it was time to host dinner. Their generosity was a benefit to me: I wouldn't have tried using nectarines otherwise, and I think they may be one of the best fruits for slab pie. They formed a dense, smooth, soft filling, rich in flavor, that was a nice center for such a thin pie.

Let's talk about the crust for just a minute. It's important that you still use the very best crust for this dessert, as the crust is even more predominant than in a regular pie, but keep in mind that you will need to roll it out until it is quite thin, thinner than a regular pie. This is probably the most difficult part of putting the dessert together, but it's not rocket science. Just take your time and be mindful of trying to make a rectangular shape.

My half sheet pan that I used is about 17" x 12", or perhaps just a bit more, with sides that are about 1/2" high. This recipe should work for any pan that is no larger than this size and any pan that is smaller. If you're only going to make a 9" x 13" pan, you'll want to cut back on the pie dough and a third of the filling.

I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper to be sure I could easily remove all the pie pieces. That part is optional but recommended.

I also think this recipe would be terrific with apples. No matter what fruit you use, it really looks perfectly created for breakfast.

Nectarine Slab Pie

for the dough (adapted from Sherry Yard):

3/4 lb. (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter
3 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

3 T. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt (table, or finely ground Kosher)
3/4 c. ice water
3/4 t. white wine vinegar

Filling:

6 c. peeled, sliced nectarines

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. flour

Topping:

2 c. powdered sugar

3 T. milk

1 T. fresh lemon juice

For the dough:

Cut the butter into 1" pieces and place in the freezer for 15 minutes (no more).

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the flour and sugar. This lightens the flour to make the dough more tender. Add the butter and salt. Mix on low speed for at least 30 seconds and no more than 2 minutes, until most of the butter is about the size of walnut halves. Stop the machine and pinch all the large pieces of butter flat. Be careful not to just mash the pieces; the goal is to create flat, flaky layers in your dough.

Combine the ice water and vinegar, then add the liquid all at once to the flour mixture. Blend for no more than 15 seconds, until much of it is just coming together.

Spread out two sheets of plastic wrap. Bring the dough together just a bit with your hands, just enough so that it's not all crumbs, but do not work it much at this point, as working the dough while it's slightly warm from this process will damage the layers of flakiness and cause the dough to be tough. Divide the dough into two rounds, one larger by about 25%. Wrap in plastic and square off the edges. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. If you refrigerate it an hour or more, let it set at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling out.

Just before rolling out the dough, prepare the fruit and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400˚. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper if desired.

On a well-floured surface, heavily dust both sides of the larger piece of pie dough and roll into a rectangle slightly longer and wider than your baking sheet. Be sure to dust the dough with flour a few times, brush the flour around, and flip the dough over to be sure it doesn't stick to the work surface. Once it is large enough to fill the sheet, come up the edge, and lean over the edge enough to crimp later, fold it in half and transfer it to the pan. Then unfold.

Roll out the top dough. Fill the bottom dough with the nectarine filling, making sure you get all of the extra juice into the dough. Top with second rolled dough and crimp edges.

Bake at 400˚ until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Since the filling is thin, it will be done as soon as the crust is done. You can reduce the oven temperature to 375˚ if you feel the crust is browning too quickly. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack.

Stir together the confectioner's sugar, milk, and lemon juice. If it needs to be thinned a bit more, you can add a little more milk or lemon juice. Drizzle over the slab pie.

Let cool. Slice into 20 pieces. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Dinner, Day 4: Tomato Soup (for the soul)

2009-08-28T10:55:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned previously, I'm feeling extraordinarily under the weather. Enough that all I've done over the last 24 hours is sit at the computer or in front of the tv. Okay, that's not true. I took the kids to school, picked them up from the stop, made lunch, fixed Em's hair for ballet, cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed the floor, and worked on my new crochet stitch. And I made tomato soup.

Tomatoes are high in vitamin C. Not as high as oranges, which are crazy-off-the-charts high, but a good source of vitamins C and A with a little fiber to boot.

I was planning on tomato soup with grilled cheese for dinner as a celebration of my son's first day of kindergarten, since he's a grilled cheese fan suddenly. But I was slightly hungry at lunch and nothing - NOTHING - else sounded good enough to ingest except water. So I made tomato soup. I didn't have any chicken stock or vegetable stock on hand, so I cheated by adding a few extra vegetables at the beginning. Also, I had a little less tomatoes than I would have liked and supplemented with a can of chopped tomatoes.

I roasted the tomatoes and carmelized the onions to give the soup some depth. I only added a small amount of milk, so it was not only very healthy but a good soup for me on a sick day. I ate very small bowls of it most of the day and found it very comforting.

We didn't have the grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. My kind husband whisked the children away as soon as he was home from work to their various activities (ballet, back-to-school night, grocery shopping) and left me alone to lay perfectly still and nearly catch up on Top Chef Masters. And he found some food for them on the way. But I didn't mind at all. Now I have more soup leftover for today. Which I am happy to consume.

Tomato Soup

4 lbs. tomatoes (or at least 2; you can supplement with good, canned diced tomatoes)
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, thinly chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 T. butter, room temperature
1 1/2 T. flour
2 sprigs fresh thyme
water
1 c. milk
salt
pepper

Turn the broiler on in the oven and set the rack six inches below it.

Spray a sheet pan with non-stick spray. Core the fresh tomatoes (not as essential with Romas) and spread them out on the pan. Broil on both sides until the skins are blackened. Remove from oven and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large saucepan (larger is better so it doesn't spit at you), sauté the onion and a couple of pinches of salt in 2 T. butter for about 5 minutes over medium high heat. (Adding the salt immediately with the onion helps to bring out the sugars in the onion, which will help it to carmelize faster.) Add the carrot and celery and continue to cook until the onions are starting to brown, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 5 more minutes, until they're more thoroughly browned but not burning. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute. Remove the pan from the heat.

Place all of the contents of the saucepan in the blender. If you're supplementing with canned tomatoes, add a 15-oz. can, juice and all, along with the onion mixture to the blender. If you're not supplementing, add a tomato or two, removing the skins first. Blend until smooth, then return to the saucepan.

Remove the skins from the tomatoes and purée the tomatoes, in two batches, in the blender. Add to the saucepan. Stir everything together and return to heat. Add 1 cup of water and leaves from the thyme sprigs. Bring to a simmer and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

Stir together the remaining 2 T. room temperature butter and flour to make a beurre manié. Stir the beurre manié into the soup and continue stirring as the soup thickens slightly. Stir the milk into the soup and remove the pan from the heat. If you prefer a thinner soup, you can add more milk.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as desired.

You can, of course, strain the soup if you don't like the tomato seeds in there. It wasn't a big deal to me, and straining would take a while. Plus I really liked the consistency of the soup, which would smooth out more upon straining. Removing the skins before puréeing the soup takes away the biggest reason to strain, but use your own judgment.

Also, one or two tablespoons of chipotle purée would be a great addition if you're not serving it to spicy-sensitive kids.

Dinner, Days 2 & 3: pancakes, simple soup, and peach cobbler

2009-08-27T15:13:00.004-06:00

Day 2 was Tuesday and we had pancakes. Not so exciting, really, unless you're a kid. Then they're great (picture the Kellogg's tiger here). And since it's peach season and I'm overflowing with peaches, we had them with peach syrup.

We use a pretty basic recipe for pancakes from The Joy of Cooking, but we always use half wheat and half white flour, and I usually add cinnamon to the dry ingredients.

My mom nearly always made homemade syrup for pancakes when I was little, or at least that's how I remember it. I've used Mrs. Butterworth's or Log Cabin here and there, but when I don't have maple syrup (because I'm so darn cheap, which is nearly always), I revert to her recipe. It's really easy and I think my family prefers it to all the other options. It's a simple syrup made by bringing equal parts brown sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan, then boiling them for 15-20 minutes, depending on the heat and your elevation, until it's slightly syrupy. Or, for a more precise determination, your finger should leave a trail after you've dipped a metal spoon into the syrup and rubbed your finger along the back of it.

Sometimes we get a little crazy and add 2-3 T. butter to the syrup at this point, then let it boil another 4-5 minutes. Then nobody gets to request butter for their pancakes because it's already in the syrup and saves us the hassle. This time I also chopped up 3 peaches and added them to the syrup for about 2 minutes of boil time. It tasted really good. And then I could say there was semi-fresh fruit with dinner as well as whole grains. See, not too guilt-inducing.

Day 3 was yesterday, and I was starting to feel a little sick. Stuffy nose, sore throat, that sort of thing. (And today, lucky me, I'm much worse!) Since I'd opted for pancakes the night before, I couldn't resort to cereal or anything so un-vegetably for a second night. Besides, I wanted vegetables. So I made a really basic vegetable soup: I sautéed onions and celery, then added several chopped carrots, 1 clove minced garlic, and 4 chopped potatoes. I covered it just barely with enough water and simmered it until the carrots and potatoes were tender.

Next I used a beurre manié, a handy little trick I learned from paying close attention to a food show on tv years ago, to thicken the soup before stirring in about 1/2 c. of milk. (To make the beurre manié, stir together 2 T. butter and 2 T. flour until well combined.) I highly recommend you learn that beurre manié method, as most soups can't start with a roux and this tastes a heck of a lot better than whisked in cornstarch. But you do have to add fat. Still, it's a healthy soup.

I served it with homemade whole wheat honey bread. It's a revised recipe, not the one I posted about a year ago, and I hope to post it in the near future, preferably before I lose it.

I realized I still had about 10 ripe peaches in the bottom of my fridge that needed to be used, so I made a cobbler for the kids as bribery to get them to clean. (See how wicked I truly am?) I used my favorite ever cobbler topping, which is a sweet biscuit-style topping that always reminds me of making pie dough. In a very good way. And cobblers are so easy. Chop the fruit, stir in some sugar, throw it in the pan, and top with biscuit dough. Bake. Cool slightly. Eat with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm....

Here's the recipe for the cobbler.

Peach Cobbler
(or any other fruit variety)

about 10 medium peaches, peeled and sliced (or 6-8 c. other prepared fruit)
1/2 c. sugar, or to taste
1/2 t. cinnamon, optional

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. (12 T., 6 oz.) unsalted butter, very cold but not totally frozen
1 t. white wine vinegar (you can substitute lemon juice)
1/3 c. cold water

Preheat the oven to 400˚. Toss the butter in the freezer for a few minutes if it's not really, really cold.

Prepare the peaches (or other fruit) and add sugar to taste and cinnamon if you want it. Stir well and spread evenly in a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter up into 1/2" pieces and add to the flour. Working quickly with your fingers (like pie dough or baking powder biscuits), break the butter into smaller pieces and flatter pieces without warming it up and rubbing it into the flour too much. Combine the vinegar and cold water and stir into the biscuit dough until it's evenly moist. Drop/spread evenly over the peaches.

Bake at 400˚ for 35-40 minutes, until the fruit is bubbly in the middle and the biscuit topping is golden brown. If it's browning too quickly, turn your oven down to 350˚ about halfway through.

Cool partially (you know, about 15 minutes). Serve topped with ice cream or straight up!

Dinner, Day 1: steak, grits, and grilled vegetables

2009-08-25T15:11:00.002-06:00

I've mentioned to friends a couple of times that I'd be willing to just jot down what we eat on a daily basis for about two weeks, though this may prove to be terribly boring to some of you. Now that school is starting and things are settling, this seems to be a good time, since I'll actually be home for two weeks.

I've been a little busy lately, which is nothing new, and I often forget to think about dinner until afternoon. Yesterday I was thinking we might be having cereal for dinner with everything going on, but my husband mentioned that he'd forgotten to bring lunch or lunch money, so I knew something more filling would be a better plan. Lucky for him, I had the right stuff hanging around.

I pulled a couple of ribeyes out of the freezer and set them out on the counter to thaw. Now, I know you're not supposed to do that. Meat should be thawed in the refrigerator. The problem is this: I've read that it takes about 24 hours per pound of meat to thaw in the refrigerator. You either need one day's advance notice on a small portion or a week and a half for guests if you're thawing anything. Let's not even talk about Thanksgiving turkey. The other bonus in my direction is that I have granite counters, which like to maintain an even temperature and will quickly conduct heat (of the room temperature variety) to the meat. It takes me about 2-3 hours to thaw 2 one-inch steaks from my deep freezer. That's not even getting into the danger zone for meat sitting out too long. (Meat should be kept below 40˚ F or above 140˚ F for safety reasons, as that will prevent bacteria growth.) Seriously, I shouldn't even be mentioning this. Don't follow my advice, because if you get sick I'm warning you this is not proper procedure and you can't sue me. Use your refrigerator for thawing, but plan WELL ahead.

Did I get sidetracked?

So, I thawed two large steaks, which would easily be enough for our family of five.

Last weekend, we took a quick trip to Boise to visit old and dear friends (not old and feeble; they're all still very young). We had a nice meal with three different families, and there was one pervading factor: fresh garden produce. We were even sent home to Utah with some of that produce, so I thickly sliced the zucchini and onion, brushed them with olive oil on both sides, and seasoned them with salt.

After lighting the grill, I cut some fresh tomatoes in half and removed the core and most of the juice inside each half. I drizzled a little olive on them, salted them, and topped them with sharp white Cheddar cheese and fresh thyme. They went into the oven at 425˚ for about half an hour.

We all really like grits, something I've discovered over this last year, and they're so easy to make, so I quickly pulled those together while grilling the steak (just salted), zucchini, and onions. My husband helped, since he really is master of the grill.

So, we had steak, grits, grilled zucchini and onions, and roasted tomatoes topped with cheese. It was absolutely delicious, and I could have left the steak off my plate if it hadn't been so good, too. There was something for everyone in my family, since we have our variety of picky eaters. And there was enough leftover for both parents to have a good lunch the next day.

In case you haven't made grits before, they're not only really easy, they're delicious (if you like corn) and fairly healthy in the standard starch-side-dish category. Unless you add a whole lotta cream and butter. I add a little; I like enough milk and bits of cream and butter to make it creamy tasting without being crazy high in fat. Also, I was never trained by a southerner, so keep in mind that I just make mine to taste really good, not to be authentic to anything in particular. I use yellow cornmeal, which I'm sure is so not the way to go, but it's handy for me, as I usually have yellow cornmeal in the pantry.

Sorry – no pictures!

Grits

1 c. yellow cornmeal
2 c. water
2 c. milk (skim to whole, you decide)
salt
1/4 c. cream (or milk, if you don't want to)
3 T. butter (or as little as 1 T., if you're going light)
freshly ground black pepper, optional

In a medium-large saucepan, combine the milk and water with a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium high, then quickly whisk in the cornmeal.

When the mixture begins to boil, turn it down to medium or medium-low (depending on how much you'll be standing next to it) and whisk at least every 30 seconds, or continually, for about 10 minutes or so. Taste it a few times, and when the cornmeal is tender, the grits are done.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, then the cream or milk. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as desired. Serve warm.

Pie Night

2009-08-20T14:49:00.000-06:00

The other night we had a little (sort of) get together with a few friends, mainly to celebrate (or lament?) the end of the biking season, though we've still got Lotoja to go.

I loved the evening because it was nice to hang out and relax with all of our friends we've made through Mark's hobbies, and it was great to serve pie. Don't get me wrong. I love eating pie, too, but – if I had to choose – I would pick making and serving pie over eating it any day.

We had a really difficult time limiting the number of people we invited, which is always a real issue for us, since we would prefer to have an open invitation and let everyone show up, but we don't have that kind of space. Instead, we chose a very crowded amount we thought we could manage and most of them were able to come, fortunately.

That meant we needed a lot of pies. A couple of friends brought cookies (which were really, really delicious). Holly volunteered to make two peach pies and Gina lent me two pie dishes. It was also my brother-in-law's birthday, and he requested pecan pie. I can't make a lot of pie without making chocolate cream, so I made 2 of those, 2 pecan, 3 blueberry, and 1 peach, bringing us to 10 pies with Holly's contribution. But then I had one more pie dish sitting in my cupboard and two boxes of peaches waiting to be frozen and canned, calling out to me. I gave in and threw another peach pie in the oven last minute. As busy as I was, I loved making the pies. It may be my favorite thing to make. I could make them forever.

Even better than making pies, though, was hanging back and watching everyone chat and eat, knowing they were happy to be here. I really like all the friends we've made here, and it was comforting to me to surround myself with them, since moving to a new place can potentially make you feel like you're a fish out of water for a long time. It's terribly selfish of me, really, but I feel really happy serving good food, knowing someone gets to enjoy a taste of something they'll like. I didn't even care if I ate pie that evening, which is crazy, since it was really good. Know what I mean?

I made blueberry pie for the first time ever just a few weeks ago. Not only was I surprised at how well I liked the flavor of the baked blueberries, I couldn't believe how simple it is to make. No peeling or slicing fruit. No juice streaming down the arms. And they bake a little faster than other pies, too, which is nice. This is my recipe:

Blueberry Pie

enough dough for a double crust pie (I like to do 1 1/2 batches of dough and bake the extra, just to be sure I've got plenty)

36 oz. blueberries (2 1/4 lbs.) - frozen then thawed blueberries are great, just use good quality
2/3 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 T. lime juice
1 t. cinnamon (you almost can't taste it, but it gives it a nice nuance of flavor)

Preheat the oven to 425˚.

Stir together all the pie filling ingredients.

Roll out the bottom and top crusts. Lay the bottom crust in the pan. Add the filling. Top with the top crust. Trim edges, press together, and crimp. Cut a few vent lines in the top of the pie.

Bake at 425˚ for 30 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375˚ and bake until filling bubbles in the middle, topping with foil if necessary to keep the crust from burning (not always necessary). Cool on a cooling rack until room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Canning Salsa

2009-08-03T22:00:00.003-06:00

For the last several years, Mark and I have been canning salsa as our tomatoes ripen, storing up for the winter. And the fall and the spring. He eats a lot of salsa, which is okay, as it's a very healthy food by itself. And still sort of healthy with chips.

This year, we moved to higher ground: 6300 feet, to be more exact. Not having gardened at this altitude before, I was highly disappointed when nothing really worked except the strawberries and blackberries. (The blackberries are new, too, so I won't see any fruit for a while, though the plants have been growing strong all summer, and I'm pleased with that.)

Still, canning salsa is a necessary tradition from an economical standpoint. Even if I buy tomatoes, if I get a good price it's still a better deal than purchasing enough salsa over the course of the next year. And if I use local tomatoes, the flavor is better. At least that's the hope. Mark has traditionally been the mixer and taster, so this year when my steal of a deal on tomatoes ($20 for 30 lbs) coincided with his 170-mile bike race, I knew I'd be in for a daunting task. Not only would I need to be the recipe developer, but it would need to be up to Mark's standard, since he's the consumer. As he relaxed and then snoozed on the couch, I would periodically bring him samples to taste. They passed muster, or maybe even surpassed. In any case, we were both very happy with the recipe, and I was happy I'd kept careful records so I don't have to repeat the stress of perfecting the ingredient list each year.

Most online recipes we've found for salsa include large amounts of vinegar, presumably to keep the pH level plenty low for the boiling water-method of canning. When we started the tradition a few years ago, I did some research. The pH level needs to be at or below 4.6. I bought some pH testing strips that bottom out at 4.5. As long as my salsa is registering at least as bright in color as the 4.5 I'm safe. We've actually never had a problem with this, even without the added lime juice. If you loaded your salsa up with a lot of bell peppers – at least a few cups – you'd probably run into problems and need some vinegar. But, really, you'd need more than just vinegar, because the flavor wouldn't be right in my book. I keep my recipe similar to the same way we make fresh salsa: tomatoes, onions, chiles, cilantro, and salt. I add just a bit of lime to my canned version to give back a little of the tang that's lost from cooking.

As a side note, I'm going to tell you how I choose limes when at the grocery store. (I keep thinking I should do a post on picking produce but have yet to do it.) The thinner the skins, the more time the fruit has had to fill them out on the tree. This means they also shouldn't have large dimpled sections on the ends. If they're all looking pretty good, then it comes down to weight. Compare several by holding them in your hand, one at a time, and choose the heaviest. The heaviest ripened the longest on the tree and is heaviest because it has the most lime juice, and it has the best flavor as a bonus.

As far as special equipment goes, I highly recommend a food processor. I think mine is a 10-cup. You could go as low as a 7-cup, but lower than that and you'll add a lot of time to the whole process, as will going the knife and cutting board direction.

You'll also need a very large pot for a boiling water bath, which you probably already have if you're considering this. I just have a large thin aluminum pot that I use, not specifically made for this, which I bought dirt cheap at a Latin market a long time ago. I don't have a rack for the bottom, though that would be lovely, but I use cut pieces of old flour sack towels (any very thin towel or fabric will do) to wrap the bottom and sides of each jar. This keeps them from banging against each other and seems to work just fine.

Lastly, you'll need a 9-qt. pot for cooking the salsa in. If you don't have one this large, prepare half of the recipe at a time and use a 5-qt. pot.

This recipe makes a medium spicy salsa.

I made two batches of this over the weekend. The second batch, the one I did without several stops to keep track of the process, took me 2 hours from start to finish, including cleanup. Not too shabby, really. Only slightly more than jam.

Canned Salsa
yield: about 7 quarts

15 lbs. juicy, ripe tomatoes (preferably local, as the flavor will be best)
3 large bunches - 9 oz. - cilantro, stems and all, washed
2 poblano chiles
12 large serrano chiles
4 very large (5 lbs. pre-trimmed weight) Walla Walla onions
1 1/2 T. Kosher salt, plus additional as needed
juice of 2 limes, or more to taste

Rinse and core all of the tomatoes. In batches of 4 tomatoes (approximately 1 1/4 lbs.), pulse the tomatoes in a food processor about 8 times, until there are no large chunks left (this will make it easier for dipping once you get to the chip stage). Transfer the chopped tomatoes to a colander suspended over or inside a bowl with room to drip juice. Repeat the process.

After three batches of chopped tomatoes, use a spoon or clean hands to stir the tomatoes in the colander to separate all the juice from the fruit (my tomatoes were almost half juice by weight). Turn the tomatoes out into another bowl and pour the juice into a large pot. Set the pot over medium high to high heat. (You'll want a large pot or it will end up spitting tomato juice all over your kitchen!)

Repeat this entire process with the remaining tomatoes, adding the juice to the reducing liquid as you go, until finished. Continue reducing the liquid while working on the next steps, but stir it occasionally and keep an eye on it. You'll want it to be about a third of the original total amount of juice and it should have the consistency of slightly loose spaghetti sauce.

Rinse off all of the parts of the food processor and put it back together. (You could be really sloppy and ignore this part, but that's messy and a bit disgusting.) One bunch at a time, chop the cilantro in the processor until very fine. Large pieces of cilantro are a good idea for a fresh garnish, not for cooked salsa. Add the cilantro to the tomatoes. Repeat with remaining cilantro. Rinse the food processor again and put it back together.

Peel the onions and cut them into wedges. Process them in small batches - one at a time - until very fine, about 11 quick pulses. Rinse the food processor again.

Cut the ends off the poblanos and serranos. Slice the serranos in half lengthwise and process them until very fine, scraping down the sides twice to make sure the pieces are homogenous. Add them to the tomatoes. Slice the poblanos in large pieces and process them until just as fine as the serranos. Add them to the tomatoes also. Rinse the food processor out completely and set aside for cleaning later.

Add 1 1/2 T. Kosher salt to the tomatoes and stir all the ingredients together. This is a delicious fresh salsa and you could stop here if you had a huge crowd to serve, but you probably don't. If you want to, you can reserve a cup or two of fresh salsa to keep in the refrigerator; just remember it will taste best over the next two days.

Once your liquids have reduced to the right consistency (which is probably right about now), add the salsa to the tomato juice. Stir the reduced liquid and the salsa together thoroughly and bring to a boil.

While you're waiting for the salsa to boil, prepare your next line of equipment: fill your water bath pot a little over half full of hot liquid, cover, and bring to a boil; wash and rinse your jars, lids, and bands in dangerously hot water and set them on a rack to dry as you near filling time; and have your rags or rack on hand, whatever you are using in your boiling water canner.

Let the salsa boil for 5-10 minutes, as the taste will change once this happens, then add lime and additional salt as desired. I added the juice of two limes, but my tomatoes had a bright flavor; you may choose to add more lime. I ended up adding 1 T. more of salt.

Using your canning funnel and a mug or measuring glass, fill a jar to the top, leaving only the slightest amount of space (one-eighth inch or less) at the top. Place a lid and tighten a band on top. Repeat until the salsa is all allocated. One by one, wrap your jars in a thin cloth that is large enough to reach the lid on 2-3 sides, then, using a jar lifter, ease the jar into the boiling water. Process at least 30 minutes, 40 minutes or so at high elevation (that's me!).

Using the jar lifter, place each jar on a cooling rack until room temperature. Make sure all the lids are sealed once cool. Wipe off the lids and label them, then store for later use.

Note: I can salsa and jam in quarts because we go through it quickly. If you're not that sort, go ahead and use pints. You'll process them in boiling water in two batches.

Croissant Theme and Variations

2009-05-25T00:36:00.014-06:00

At long last, I am finally going to post my recipe for making croissants, chocolate croissants (pain au chocolat) and kouign amann. I admit I was hesitant to take the time to post this as I doubted anyone would make them, but that's only because they're very time-intensive and not everyone loves spending all their spare moments in the kitchen like I do. It seems there are at least a few of you, though!

Homemade croissants don't taste very much like grocery store-purchased croissants. There are similarities, of course. You can understand what a painting is by looking at your child's 2nd grade project, which – despite your adoration – doesn't bring an understanding of art like visiting the Sistine Chapel. Well, maybe there's not quite that much difference in the two options for croissants (and maybe I shouldn't be quite so vain about my product), but you get the point.

All croissants should feel fluffy and layered on the inside, and flaky and toasted on the outside. They should also taste deliciously of butter. With mass-produced croissants, there's often a serious lack of quality layers on the inside, as well as the obvious butter-rich flavor. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat a decent grocery store croissant from time to time. Or, at least, I did before I started making them. I don't think I have since then. What a snob I am.

I should probably warn you up front (or pretty close to the front) that my serving sizes for all three recipes in this post (wow! three recipes in a post! that hasn't happened since pipián verde last August) are quite small. As amazing as any of these are to your palate, they are potentially lethal, at least in very large doses. Anyhow, I can't justify making huge croissants that are 25 or so grams of fat per serving; mine are closer to 12 or 15. Nothing to pooh-pooh at, still, but low enough to get my head around. If you want to be more indulgent than me, you're welcome to adjust the cutting directions to create larger pastries.

Almost anything is better with chocolate, especially if "anything" means something with butter as a main ingredient. Pain au chocolat (pronounced 'pan oh shock-oh-lah'), is not just a step above ordinary croissants, it's at least 3 steps up. I don't know what's in between, because it's not a real analogy, but it's a serious improvement on something that is already absolutely fantastic.

Dark chocolate is always, as far as I know, the filling, as the flavor mellows significantly against all that butter. I tried white chocolate once for my dark chocolate-detesting son, but it was very sweet and unbearable. I also first attempted using half the chocolate I now use, and it's too insignificant an amount for the pastry. This is better than most desserts you'll get at the average restaurant, which leads me to a side note.

Side note: once you start making really good pastries and really good desserts at home, or really good bread, it gets more difficult to appreciate the mediocre attempts you find at restaurants. Really, this is their business, their livelihood. Can't they make a more creative effort? And then it's so refreshing when someone does that you really want to meet the chef and shake his hand and say "thank you, thank you, thank you" over and over until you look absolutely ridiculous, so you just tell the server.

Further side note: This has nothing to do with the home cook, or home chef, whose magnanimous efforts should be appreciated and applauded on a daily basis, no matter the result. In fact, I never feel critical when eating someone else's food; the critique only comes out at restaurants. Why is that?

Kouign amann (pronounced 'queen amahn') is a French pastry from the Breton region that is as old as dirt. Not really, just as old as the Civil War. The American Civil War. Even though it's from France. (Americans don't seem really famous for inventing new pastries, do they? The kind that are legendary and still being perfected 150 years later. Why is that always left to the French?)

It's related to croissants pretty closely as it's a yeasted, laminated dough, like croissants. "Yeasted" obviously means containing yeast, and "laminated" means a butter block is added to the dough, which is then pressed and folded, pressed and folded, and pressed and folded to create those lovely layers inside the croissant.

Kouign amann is made from the same basic croissant recipe with some slight alterations: first, water instead of milk is added to the original dough. Don't ask why, because I don't know. That's how they do it, and it's very good, so I'm not messing with it. Another difference with kouign amann is that a heavy dose of sugar is added in part of the pressing/folding process, creating a sweet layer inside, and then the pastry is topped with melted butter and more sugar before baking. Doesn't sound very good, does it? I make mine in individual portions, rather than the traditional large cake, as this creates more of the delightful crunchy exterior and is nice for serving as well as freezing.

All of these croissant-like delicacies freeze wonderfully, so you don't have to accidentally eat an entire batch in a day. (They are, however, best when eaten within a day of baking or thawing.)

I'll start with the instructions just on how to make croissants, and then I'll explain the differences for the other options. Since I posted most of my pictures in the previous post, you can refer to them for understanding how things should look, or you can ask questions in the comments or email me (email address listed in the left column).

I am very interested to see if anyone makes these, so please let me know, as I'll be so excited for you. Excited for you to make them, even moreso for you to taste them. If you're desperate to try them and live nearby, you can always ask me when I'm making them again so I remember to drop off a sample.

Croissants
adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard
makes 24 small croissants

dough:
1/4 c. warm water - 57 g.
3/4 c. cold milk - 173 g.
1 T. instant yeast (if you have active dry, dissolve it into the milk before starting) - 9 g.
2 c. bread flour - 280 g.
1 c. + 2 T. all-purpose flour - 150 g.
2 T. sugar - 28 g.
2 1/4 t. Kosher salt - 14 g.
4 oz. (1 stick, 8 T.) cold, unsalted butter

butter block:
12 oz. (3 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
up to 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

melted butter, for brushing

Bloom your yeast by combining it with 1/4 c. warm water and a pinch of sugar for 5 minutes.

Cut the 4 oz. butter into pieces and, using your fingers while working quickly, work it into the bread flour.

In a stand mixer, combine the milk, yeast, bread flour (with butter), 1 c. all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt. Knead for about 2 minutes to combine all ingredients and bring them to a smooth, consistent state. Don't knead longer than necessary, as you're not interested in developing gluten here. By hand, knead in the last 2 T. of flour. This will keep it from being too sticky on the outside when you first start working with it.

Place the dough on a plate or in a container. Using a sharp knife, cut an X in the top of the dough, deep enough to extend halfway to the bottom. Cover well with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours to overnight.

Make the butter block: sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with a bit of flour; slice the sticks of butter (12 oz.) in half and place them on the parchment to form a square. Sprinkle with a bit more flour. Using your rolling pin, beat the butter with a few good smacks to tenderize the butter and create a square that is about 6" x 6". (See picture in previous post.)

Sprinkle a work surface with flour. Set out your dough and roll against the 4 sections of the X, creating a square (or even a slightly odd-looking square) that is at least 12" x 12", or a bit larger. Place the butter block in the middle, with the square butter block edges perpindicular to the square dough edges (diamond-inside-the-square sort of look). Fold the edges of the dough over the butter block, envelope-style, taking extra care to not trap air bubbles next to the butter, or they'll cause difficulty as you're rolling out the dough.

Sprinkle the square of dough with flour, turn over, sprinkle the top with flour, and roll the dough into a even rectangle that is about 8" x 18". Don't roll over the edges as you go along, or you could push the butter out. The better squared your corners are for this process, the easier things will go. Brush off any extra flour sitting on top and fold the dough neatly into thirds, pulling the top short edge down two-thirds of the way, then folding the bottom third of the dough up over the folded top edge.

With the length of the rolling pin, press on the three open edges of the dough to semi-seal them up. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This is the end of the first "turn". Croissants need three turns to be ready to continue, each created 30 minutes apart to ensure the butter stays sufficiently chilled (and the layers between dough and butter distinct).

Once the three turns are complete, wrap the dough in plastic wrap again (with closed edges, but not too tightly against the dough, as it will rise), and refrigerate at least 5 hours, or overnight.

Lightly flour a work surface, then roll out the dough into a rectangle that is 16" x 18" (at least, but err on the side of slightly wider if estimating) with the longer edge directly in front of you and the shorter edges on the sides. Cut 6 diagonals from the upper left down toward the lower right, starting with the first at the uppermost left edge and reaching to the bottom, three inches to the right of the lower left corner. The last diagonal should begin three inches to the left of the upper right corner and finish at the bottom right corner. Repeat the process in the opposite direction, with 6 cuts traveling from the upper right to the lower left, crossing the opposing diagonals halfway between the upper and lower long edges. Then make one cut parallel to the upper and lower edges, halfway between them, from left to right. It should look like the picture on the right.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll each croissant from the bottom of the triangle to the tip, stretching the bottoms just a touch as you begin rolling. Place them, two inches apart, on the baking sheets with the tips securely tucked under. Cover the croissants with cooking spray-coated plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs.

Preheat the oven to 375˚. When the croissants are risen to the point that they are noticeably puffy and feel pillowy to the touch, they are ready to be baked. Brush them with melted butter and bake about 28-34 minutes, until they're a deep golden and well done, all the way through. Remove from the oven and baking sheets and place on cooling racks immediately. Cool to room temperature before eating. Store uneaten croissants in a brown bag for up to a day, or freeze for later use.

Pain au Chocolat

1 recipe Croissants
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I like 68%), in small chunks

Follow the directions for making croissants, but place a third of an ounce of chocolate on each of the triangles down at the base. The chocolate should seem thick when you are making them, but be sure to keep it all inside the rolled-up croissant.

After baking, these croissants must be cooled completely to room temperature before eating, about an hour, or the chocolate will not have set up enough.

Kouign Amann

1 recipe croissants, substituting water for milk and doubling the sugar in the dough
sugar

For kouign amann, turn the dough 4 times rather than three, and follow these additional instructions:

When making the third and fourth turns, sprinkle the middle third of the long rectangle with a very generous amount of granulated sugar before folding the top third down, then sprinkle the same amount of sugar on top of the new top half of the dough; fold the bottom half up. The sugar layers should be evenly coated and dense without piling high.

After the fourth turn, refrigerate the dough for 5-24 hours. Generously sprinkle your work surface with sugar, dust both sides of the dough with sugar, and roll it out on the work surface into a rectangle at least 14" x 21". This will take a little work. Cut the dough into 24 squares, 4 squares by 6 squares. (For slightly larger kouign amann, you can cut the dough into 18 squares.)

Spray two 12-cup muffin pans generously with cooking spray. Fold each of the squares of dough by pulling two opposing corners together to the center, pressing the points against the base gently to secure them, then pulling the last two corners into the center, pressing the points into the middle as well, or they will open up during baking (not that I've ever experienced this, of course). Place each pastry in a muffin cup.

Generously brush the kouignettes (because original kouign amann is one large cake) with melted butter and sprinkle generously with sugar. Let rise at room temperature an hour and a half to two hours. Do not try to hurry this process by placing it in a warm place, as you want to keep the butter cool.

Preheat the oven to 450˚. Place the pans in the oven, then turn the heat down to 400˚ and bake 18-22 minutes, until golden brown. Try not to open the oven door, as you want to keep all that heat inside so the butter will cause each distinct layer you worked so hard to form to puff, rather than melt. If the pastry looks like it's going to burn soon in the last 5-10 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 375˚. Remember, though, that they will be pretty brown and the sugar will be quite caramelized when they're done.

Remove the muffin pans to a cooling rack. Let the pastries cool for about 2 minutes, then try to gently pull each pastry out and set them on a cooling rack. You can dump them out, but there's a greater chance they'll deflate. Along the same lines, try not to touch them too soon or they will deflate. But if you wait too long, they could stick too much to the pan to come out cleanly. Let cool to room temperature and serve.

Pain au Chocolat

2009-04-01T11:57:00.019-06:00

I recently (well, semi-recently) dove into the world of croissants and made a lovely batch of the chocolate-filled variety. Have you ever made croissants? It requires a bit of time, but it's worth it when you're in that baking-over-the-course-of-two-days sort of mood, especially when you have incredible results. If anyone really, really thinks they'll be making these, you can request the recipe in the comments section and I'll post it in the future. For now, here are the basics (click on images for larger pictures):

Prepare a dough with flour, yeast, salt, milk, cold butter, and a touch of sugar. Let rise, refrigerated, several hours. Also, make a butter block by pounding on a few sticks of butter.

Roll the dough out. Set the butter block inside the dough, then fold the dough up like an envelope. Seal the edges.

Roll the dough out into a long rectangle, being careful not to roll over the ends (or you'll push the butter out). Fold into thirds and seal the edges.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes. This is the first turn, completed. Repeat the process. Croissants take 3 turns, puff pastry takes 6.

After the last turn, leave the dough in the refrigerator at least 5 hours, and up to 24. The roll the dough out into a large rectangle, cut it into croissant triangles (long enough to roll up, as fat as you'd like them to be), and place chocolate on the wide edges of the triangles. (Note: if using white chocolate, it's best to use just a touch, as it's so sweet; if using dark chocolate, you can't use too much!)

Roll them up. At this point you have two options: 1. place them fairly close on a sheet try lined with parchment or silpat-lined sheet, place them in a freezer until solid, and transfer them to a zip-close freezer bag until ready to bake, or 2. place them further apart on a parchment or silpat-lined sheet and let them rise, covered with plastic, at room temperature, for 1-2 hours (depending on how warm your house is). Then brush them with milk and bake.

Cool completely on cooling racks to be sure the chocolate sets up (and doesn't burn your mouth), and to let the croissants finish residual baking. Serve at room temperature. Mmmmm.

They are delicious, but one of the benefits of making these yourselves is realizing how unbelievably high they are in fat and calories (all from fat). Not only do you get to serve a delicious treat, but you'll be (hopefully) restrained in eating all of them, knowing a whole pound of butter went into the batch.

Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Pudding

2009-03-22T12:54:00.004-06:00

(Chocolate pudding and vanilla bean pudding with berries. I admit, the chocolate custard was slightly less than perfect in texture (technical error), but you couldn't tell when you tasted it!)

Last night we had a few friends over, and I made crème brûlée for dessert for the adults (the original version, of course) and pudding for the kids. And by pudding I mean custard. Two varieties: chocolate and vanilla bean. And enough to have leftovers for sure.

Often pudding by itself really means cornstarch pudding, a cooked concoction of milk or milk and cream, sugar, cornstarch, and whatever flavor you're looking for. A dessert custard may or may not have cornstarch in it (crème anglaise, for example, does not), but includes eggs or egg yolks, milk and/or cream, sugar, and whatever else gets tossed into the pot, depending on the recipe. Custard has a richer flavor than cornstarch pudding and is one of my favorite treats (though I do have a lot). To most people, I just called it pudding. If I gather kids in for dessert and tell them they're having custard, half of them will walk away. Well, depending on the kid, obviously.

Anyhow, I've used different recipes here and there, trying to get the thickness just right, the sweetness just right, and the creaminess just right, and I was pretty pleased with yesterday's result. So pleased, in fact, that not only am I writing down these recipes to resource them later, but I'm posting for the first time in nearly two weeks. I haven't been a great poster lately, but don't worry...it's just a phase. A very busy phase.

If you haven't made a stirred custard before (that just means the stovetop kind), never fear! It's not difficult. The only thing to be careful about is making sure you heat the custard low and slow. Well, fairly low and slow. If you go too fast and don't stir enough, you'll heat some of it enough to cause curdling of your egg yolks. Should this be a concern, just pass your custard through a fine-mesh strainer when you're finished cooking to help remove (at least some of) the curdled egg. This caveat aside, there's no reason to be afraid of making homemade custard, and there are really delicious reasons for attempting it. Good luck!

For a printable version of these recipes, click here.

Vanilla Bean Custard

1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. cream
1 vanilla bean, split
4 egg yolks
3 1/2 T. corn starch
2/3 c. sugar
2 T. unsalted butter, cut into 3-4 pats

Set the milk and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Scrape the seeds out of the bean and add the seeds and bean to the milk and cream.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, corn starch, and about half of the sugar, stirring the other half of the sugar into the milk. The egg yolk mixture will be quite thick.

When the milk is getting very hot (but not boiling, 5-10 minutes), remove the bean pod and scrape down the center, adding the additional seeds into the milk. Whisk the milk and cream to stir the vanilla seeds in, then slowly add half of the milk mixture to the egg yolks, whisking the yolks constantly, to temper them. Add the egg mixture back to the saucepan.

Stir, alternating between a rubber spatula and a whisk, until the custard is significantly thicker (it will thicken more when cooled) and is starting to boil just a bit. Taste to make sure the cornstarch doesn't leave a strong aftertaste in your mouth; if it does, continue to stir and cook for another minute or two until that flavor has cooked out, keeping the heat low enough to prevent a full rolling boil.

Pour the custard into a bowl, passing it through a fine-mesh sieve if you feel you may have any coagulation of eggs, and stir in the butter until melted and consistent throughout. Cover with plastic wrap, setting the wrap directly on top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Cool at room temperature about 20 minutes, then in a refrigerator for about 6 hours. If you don't have that much time, you can freeze it for about an hour or two, stirring it every twenty minutes, then refrigerate it when cool, before it freezes.

Two notes: 1. Don't double dip into the main bowl; the cornstarch will break down from the enzymes on your spoon (from your mouth), and the pudding will just be crème anglaise.
2. If you don't have a vanilla bean around, you can stir in 1-2 t. vanilla extract with the butter at the end.

Chocolate Custard

1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. cream
1 vanilla bean, split
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 T. corn starch
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. unsalted butter, cut into 3-4 pats
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, in small pieces

Set the milk and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Scrape the seeds out of the bean and add the seeds and bean to the milk and cream.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, corn starch, and sugar. The mixture will be quite thick.

When the milk is getting very hot (but not boiling, 5-10 minutes), remove the bean pod and scrape down the center, adding the additional seeds into the milk. Whisk the milk and cream to stir the vanilla seeds in, then slowly add half of the milk mixture to the egg yolks, whisking the yolks constantly, to temper them. Add the egg mixture back to the saucepan.

Stir, alternating between a rubber spatula and a whisk, until the custard is significantly thicker (it will thicken more when cooled) and is starting to boil just a bit. Taste to make sure the cornstarch doesn't leave a strong aftertaste in your mouth; if it does, continue to stir and cook for another minute or two until that flavor has cooked out, keeping the heat low enough to prevent a full rolling boil.

Set the chocolate and butter in the bottom of a bowl. Pour the custard into the bowl, passing it through a fine-mesh sieve if you feel you may have any coagulation of eggs, and stir until the butter and chocolate are completely melted and consistent throughout. (If you stop stirring, the chocolate will never fully melt and incorporate, and you'll have small pieces of chocolate in your custard.) Cover with plastic wrap, setting the wrap directly on top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Cool at room temperature about 20 minutes, then in a refrigerator for about 6 hours. If you don't have that much time, you can freeze it for about an hour or two, stirring it every twenty minutes, then refrigerate it when cool, before it freezes.

Two notes: 1. Don't double dip into the main bowl; the cornstarch will break down from the enzymes on your spoon (from your mouth), and the pudding will be softer.
2. If you don't have a vanilla bean around, you can stir in 1-2 t. vanilla extract with the butter at the end.

Wedding Cake

2009-03-09T09:49:00.003-06:00

My brother-in-law and fiancé were married just over a week ago, and I had the great pleasure of making their wedding cake. My husband helped decorate...he's meticulous enough to be a great help in that regard.

It was carrot cake topped with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate and edged with sugar pearls (which were a surprising crunch in your mouth when you're eating a moist cake). In case you ever make one, the 6-inch layers were a half recipe, and the 12-inch layers were each a whole recipe.

One alteration to the recipe, since moving to Utah: if you live above 4000 feet, add an extra egg white to the batter.

Bread for the Ages

2009-01-22T13:50:00.003-07:00

It's been ages and ages since I last posted. So long, actually, that I'm not going to check the date, but I will take a moment to finally put up that picture or two I've neglected. I do have a good excuse, as we moved to another state and things have been crazy preparing for the move and unpacking. Not a good enough excuse, of course, but it'll have to do.

I 'm really happy with our move, though there were so many good friends we left behind it broke our hearts to drive away. But we have wonderful family and friends built in here in Utah, not to mention a nice view out the front and office windows:

The two months before we moved were filled with anxiety, work, and a lack of time to enjoy much cooking or baking, so I'd been looking forward a long time to having a semi-normal life and a kitchen so I could return to one of the huge stress-relievers in my life. One of my first tasks was to replace my old broken tiles I used in the oven for baking. I stopped by a stone yard to pick something up, and the salesman recommended limestone, since it does well in the heat of summer, the cold of winter, and a variety of humidity conditions. I bake on parchment, so I'm not concerned about food-safe surfaces; I just wanted something about an inch or an inch and a half thick and big enough to nearly fill my oven. I've been more than thrilled with the result! You'll have to try this out if you're looking for an option. It is heavy, but I just store it directly under the oven in the drawer, and I expect it to last a good long time.

Back to a normal life means back to baking bread for my family, and when I started a batch yesterday morning I noticed we were out of whole wheat flour. I'd been waiting for an excuse to experiment anyhow, and I was really happy with our bread yesterday and plan on repeating it frequently. I added a few grains to give it some texture and flavor, as well as improve the nutritional aspects of what would have been just white bread. It's still white, but not really white bread. The crumb is really nice – not too fluffy, not too dense – and I love the flavor. I'll probably try using whole wheat flour for part of the white flour in the future...when I have it around, of course.

3 Grain Bread

sponge:
1 c. warm water
3/4 t. instant yeast
3/4 c. bread flour

Combine the sponge ingredients first thing in the morning and set aside for 2-3 hours. Alternately, combine the ingredients the night before and refrigerate overnight.

dough:
2 c. warm water
1 t. instant yeast
1/3 c. milk
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. canola oil
2 1/4 c. quick oats, processed in a food processor until fine
3/4 c. corn flour (you can use masa flour from the Mexican section of the grocery store)
4 c. bread flour, plus more as needed
1 1/2 T. Kosher salt

Stir the warm water and yeast into the sponge. Warm the milk and honey together until the honey stirs into the milk completely, then add the milk mixture and oil to the sponge. Add the remaining ingredients and begin kneading, adding more bread flour as needed until the dough holds together well but is still pretty sticky. Knead 8-10 minutes, until the gluten has developed and the dough pulls apart in strings rather than breaking quickly.

Let rise in a warm place until double in volume, about 60-90 minutes. Divide between two 9"x5" loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Let the loaves proof until the dough is above the line of the loaf pans.

Preheat the oven to 350˚. Set a deep dish cast iron skillet or stoneware pan on the lower rack in the oven, and let that preheat with the oven.

Score the top of the loaves with a very sharp knife, slicing 1/4" deep in one line across the top of the loaf. Place the loaves in the oven and add 1/2 c. of ice cubes to the deep dish. Close the oven door and keep it closed.

Bake until the loaves are nicely browned and thoroughly baked, 45 minutes. Turn out and cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before slicing.

Chewy Molasses Ginger Cookies

2008-12-10T18:34:00.005-07:00

I realize that I just posted about chewy cinnamon cookies ("just", of course, is an entirely relative term), so this might seem overkill with the whole chewy cookie thing, but these chewy molasses ginger cookies are an essential part of Christmastime cookie baking, so they're going up. Without a picture even, because I'm rushing the recipe out to you before I get a chance to make them again, though I've made them often.

I'm pretty picky about my cookies. I don't like making mediocre cookies (probably because I don't like making mediocre anything), so there needs to be something compelling about a cookie to make me fall in love. These were inspired by Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, which sells a cookie called ginger jump-ups. I found a recipe that reminded me of them in an issue of Cook's Illustrated some time ago, and this is my variation of that recipe, candied ginger being a significant portion of that. I really like all the spice in these cookies; they have a slightly unexpected bite that goes well with the dark flavor. A heavy dose of molasses keeps the cookies moist for a good long time (in case your holiday gift to the neighbor sits on their doorstep the whole weekend), and the ginger pops in your mouth. I love it! Don't chop it too finely, or you'll miss out on the delight of these cookies.

Note again about crystallized ginger: it's very easy to find in a small box in the Asian section of most grocery stores as well as in bulk spice sections.

To view a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Chewy Molasses Ginger Cookies

⅓ c. + ½ c. granulated sugar
2¼ c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1-2 T. diced crystallized ginger
¼ t. ground cloves
¼ t. ground allspice
¼ t. salt
¼ t. fresh finely ground pepper
⅓ c. dark brown sugar
12 T. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 lg. egg yolk
1 t. vanilla extract
½ c. mild Brer Rabbit molasses

Preheat the oven to 375˚. Place ½ c. sugar for dipping in a shallow dish.

Whisk together flour, soda, ginger, and salt. Separately, beat together butter, ⅓ c. sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 min. Beat in yolk, vanilla, and spices, then molasses. Carefully add dry ingredients and beat until just mixed in.

Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough into palms, roll into balls, and drop into dipping sugar. Toss dough balls and set on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, 2” apart. Bake until browned but puffy. Edges will be slightly set but the center should be soft, about 11 min. Cool on sheet 5 min., then transfer to rack or counter to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Pumpkin Pie

2008-11-26T08:40:00.004-07:00

I know, I know. I'm spoiling you, posting twice in two days. It's so unlike me. Well, maybe more like my old self before I was trying to sell a house and take care of the kids while my husband is in another state. But I know you can take it. And besides, this recipe is especially for me because I've nearly lost it several times and I'd have to start all over if I did, deciding what I like in a good pumpkin pie.

I like my pumpkin pie to be pretty traditional, but smooth and creamy (it is a custard, after all). And I don't mind a little zip or zing to go with the spices, so I substitute crystallized ginger (sometimes called candied ginger) for powdered ginger. I also love it in my chewy molasses cookies which I've also never posted (maybe I'll take care of that in the next couple of weeks). It's a little punchy, but still sweet and not too crazy. If I'm making the pumpkin pie for a large gathering with lots of children (typical), I chop the ginger up really finely, into little bits, and then it's not too strong for them. You can find crystallized ginger in the Asian section of the supermarket, in a little box. Or in a bulk spices section, if you're lucky.

I came up with this recipe about 6 or 7 years ago, and I've never varied from it until this year. It's always been a deep dish recipe, but my husband and I decided last year we prefer pumpkin pie not to be deep dish. Yes, it took us a long time to figure that out, but it's the only pie I would say that about, so you'll have to forgive me.

Here's the recipe, and I'll post a picture after I bake it. Sorry! You'll have to wait.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Pumpkin Pie

1 unbaked pie shell (recipe here)
1 3/4 c. pumpkin purée (canned is great, fresh is great if you press the juice out)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. cream
1/2 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 t. allspice
3/4 t. cinnamon
pinch cloves
1/4 t. ground ginger
1 1/2 T. crystallized ginger, chopped
1/4 t. salt

Preheat the oven to 375˚. Line a 9" or 10" pie dish with the pastry. Make some pastry leaves with the remaining dough. You can place these around the edge of the pie now or bake them separately to garnish later (just a few in the middle). Chill the pastry while preparing the filling.

Combine the pumpkin with all remaining ingredient and mix thoroughly. pour into the prepared crust and and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned and the custard is set (it will jiggle like jell-o, not like liquid). A toothpick should come out clean halfway to the center of the pie. If the crust browns too quickly make a ring of aluminum foil to protect it during baking. Bake the individual leaves for about 15 minutes. Cool pie and leaves. Refrigerate pie to chill completely.

Garnish with pastry leaves. Serve with lightly sweetened (about 2 T. sugar per 1 c. cream) whipped cream.

Cinnamon Swirl Vanilla-Orange Bread

2008-11-25T15:06:00.001-07:00

I know it's Thanksgiving and you're probably expecting me to post something Thanksgivingish, but I'm currently in love with my new loaf and couldn't resist passing this on first.

My mom made homemade bread all the time when I was little. Well, in retrospect it seems like all the time, but maybe it wasn't. It was definitely a lot. And occasionally she'd make cinnamon swirl bread with raisins in it, and that would make the best toast ever possible. Mmm. Good memories.

I had (shockingly) never made cinnamon swirl bread until a couple weeks ago, at which time I could resist no longer. My family is not a raisin family, so I needed a way to make my cinnamon bread taste like more than just regular bread with cinnamon sprinkles. Since the title of my post gives my quest-end away, and since I didn't take too long figuring it out anyhow, I'll cut to the chase: orange zest and vanilla beans in a honey-and-butter enriched milk bread. That's right. I know what you're thinking. Mmm. That sounds good.

You should taste it.

But, of course, that's why I post: so you can taste. Only you have to do the work. Or, if you're masochistic, you can simply read what I'm writing, stare at the pictures, and ache for what you're missing.

The orange in the bread is bright and vibrant against the mellow dough, but it doesn't overpower the bread and nicely complements the cinnamon. The vanilla is slightly angelic, and I'm keeping it in the recipe, but if you don't have any beans around, feel free to make this bread with everything else and leave that out. But don't leave anything else out. (By the way, I buy my vanilla beans for a very low price on eBay and keep them in a sealed bag inside an airtight jar in my pantry.)

Since it's Thanksgiving week, I highly recommend you make this tonight and tomorrow (it takes 2 days) and have a lovely breakfast Thanksgiving morning (you'll be having leftover pie on Friday morning). Or do what I'm doing, and make several loaves over the next few weeks and pass them out as Christmas gifts. You could make friends pretty quickly that way.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Cinnamon Swirl Vanilla-Orange Bread

approx. 7 1/2 - 8 c. white bread flour
2 c. cold water
1 1/4 t. instant yeast (if using active dry, you'll need to proof it first)
1 1/2 c. lowfat milk
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter
zest of 1 large orange
seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (optional)
1 T. salt
a good supply of cinnamon sugar (1 t. cinnamon for each 1/4 c. sugar)

In a medium bowl, stir together the water, 2 c. flour, and 1/4 t. yeast. Cover. Set aside 8-12 hours (overnight).

Heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted, then stir in the honey.

In a large bowl, combine the sponge from the night before, zest, vanilla seeds, and remaining 1 t. yeast. Stir together, then add 5 c. flour, salt, and milk mixture. Begin kneading with a stand mixer or by hand, adding more flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky but still soft and tender. Knead 8-10 minutes. Transfer the dough to a large bowl coated with oil or cooking spray. Cover and let rise 2-3 hours, until doubled in size.

Divide the dough into two equal parts. On a lightly floured surface, roll each out into a rectangle about 9" x 22". Sprinkle the dough generously with the cinnamon sugar, creating a nice, even layer, not too thick, but covering the entire surface. Roll up the short ends to short ends. Seal the ends by pinching them to the rest of the dough, then turn that side down and set loaves in two generously sprayed 9"x5" loaf pans. Cover and let rise about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚. When the loaves have risen to the point that they are an inch or so above the top of the loaf pans, place them in the oven. Quickly add 1 c. of ice cubes to the bottom of the oven and close the oven door. Leave the door closed during baking, especially the first 20 minutes.

Bake until golden brown all the way around and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom of the loaf, 45 minutes for me. Don't underbake your bread. If you want to measure the temperature, it should be around 200˚ in the middle.

Turn the loaves out onto a cooling rack and cool all the way to room temperature before slicing into, or the cinnamon sugar will not be set and will be gooey, sliding out and abandoning future slices of bread from the same loaf. So tempting, but DON'T do it.

Enjoy. :)

Chewy Cinnamon Cookies

2008-11-03T14:32:00.003-07:00

I've been anxious to post these cookies for a while, namely because I'm afraid I'll lose the recipe and have to stop making them. That would be a tragedy.

My sister told me a couple of weeks ago that she prefers her cookies not to have chocolate in them. I was shocked. Really, are there more people like this out there? Unless you have a natural aversion or allergic reaction to chocolate, this is something I don't really understand. Well, I can understand it to a degree, I suppose, because I prefer taking bites or chocolate chip cookie dough without chunks of chocolate in it. And I really, really like these cookies. So I'm starting to get it.

About seven years ago (holy cow! how time flies!) when we lived in Ann Arbor I first tasted Carol's Cookies. If you live within purchasing distance, I recommend you try them. Anyhow, my favorite by far was the cinnamon swirl. I've never been a snickerdoodle fan, though at least for part of my childhood they were my sister's favorite. I'm not a fan of the cream of tartar – who really is? – and there wasn't nearly enough cinnamon on there. Carol solved those problems for me. No cream of tartar (at least none I could taste), and lots of cinnamon. Plus the cookie was thick, so it was nice and golden on the outside but still moist and chewy on the inside. I loved them.

After we moved to California, there was no way to have Carol's cinnamon swirl cookies anymore except by mail order, which was too expensive for me. But I never forgot them. I actually started trying to figure out how to make really wonderful cinnamon cookies about halfway through my brownies project, but it wasn't until I'd made the Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies a few times that I realized I might be able to get the cookie I want. To me, cookies always needed to mixed by hand. If you beat them in the KitchenAid, you'd whip too much air into them and they'd fall flat on the cookie sheet. What I learned from this recipe is that you should whip them a good long time, creaming the butter and sugar, and then refrigerate them. This helps in two ways: 1. a higher butter content in the dough which means more flavor, and 2. baked from a cold temperature keeps them from falling flat; they have just the right amount of height for me (not way huge like a Carol's cookie, though).

So I took the chocolate chip cookie recipe and tweaked it a bit. I like a good amount of brown sugar with cinnamon, and a couple of other things here and there. I didn't want the flavor to fall flat, either, so I top the unbaked balls of dough with a generous shake of cinnamon and sugar.

Also they won a neighborhood dessert contest when served with drinking chocolate, so I'm not the only one who likes them.

They're very good. You should try them.

for a printable version of this recipe, click here
Chewy Cinnamon Cookies

2 c. + 2 T. (8 1/2 oz.) cake flour
1 3/4 c. + 2 T. (8 1/2 oz.) bread flour
1 1/4 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. Kosher salt
1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. (5 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar
1 3/4 c. (12 1/2 oz.) light brown sugar
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
granulated sugar
cinnamon

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon together on medium high for 5 minutes, until very light and fluffy. Mix in eggs, one at a time, and then vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.

Cover at surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate at the very least 4 hours, but preferably 24 hours before baking.

To make the cinnamon-sugar topping, combine 1 t. cinnamon for every 1/4 c. sugar.

To bake, preheat the oven to 350˚. Place a silpat or parchment paper on a large baking sheet. Place 8 2-oz. rounds (2 1/2 - 3 T.) on a baking sheet. Sprinkle each ball heavily with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake 18-19 minutes, until golden brown but still slightly moist on inside. Cool 5-10 minutes on sheet, them cool completely on a wire rack.

The unbaked dough will keep in the refrigerator up to 72 hours (if you keep it well hidden).

Crazy Days

2008-10-22T19:51:00.004-06:00

Sometimes it's hard to keep up on my blog because I feel a bit like The Scream and that's about all I have to say right now.

Except that I also really wish I had time and sanity to post about some amazing, incredible, chewy, buttery, cinnamon cookies. No, not snickerdoodles. Later.

New York, part 4

2008-10-17T20:16:00.003-06:00

After Del Posto, Heidi and I decided to see the Statue of Liberty at night from across the water and take pictures. On the way (sort of), we passed by the New York Stock Exchange during its calmest hours, just days before it started falling apart. The building looks pretty solid, though, so at least that's not going anywhere.

As we neared a very dimly lit Battery Park and saw tons of police officers just hanging around the periphery (though not a foot inside it), I remembered that Battery Park is often used in Law & Order, where all the bad stuff happens at night. We saw a very small, faraway glimpse of the beautifully lit Statue of Liberty, but that was as close as we dared get. So we hopped back on the subway, and that wrapped up our evening.

Day two of two started with a plan to head up toward Jacques Torres soon after it opened (9 a.m.), find some pastries or something for breakfast, and then look around Central Park and the general area before lunch. Instead, as we headed over to the Times Square subway station (a block from the hotel), we walked right into a huge outdoor market that wasn't there on Friday. It was a really nice surprise. Heidi and I really weren't that hungry (surprise, surprise) after so much food the day before, so we split a smoothie from a vendor made from freshly chopped mango, oranges, some pineapple juice, and ice. It was delicious, especially since I prefer to start my day with a smoothie. Then we shopped a bit: I bought a tie for Mark, a cashmere scarf for me, and a pashmina shawl each for Emily and me. I think the total, with smoothie, was about $25. Not a bad deal.

We then headed up to Amsterdam Avenue and the irresistible Jacques Torres chocolate shop, which you can read about here (if you haven't already). (By the way, I've added a picture of the cookies after I made them at home, and they are as delicious as the ones at the store!) After indulging in chocolate, we took a peek at Central Park, looked for some painkillers for Heidi's headache (to no avail), and visited L'Occitane, one of the very best little stores on the planet with several locations worldwide. Though I'm not a huge shopper, if I had lots of extra money, I would probably buy everything in that store. Or online.

After a bit of shopping, we headed over to Trump Tower to lunch at the Nougatine Room at Jean-Georges. Once again, I don't have access to the menu we ordered from, so I'll have to do my best at explaining our selections.

I took a picture of my roll, by the way, because the crumb was so nice. The bread was airy and chewy and slightly crusty, and deserved a photograph.

Heidi and I went for the very affordable $24.07 prix fixe menu, which meant we each ordered an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert. The prix fixe menu was separate from the regular lunch menu and had two options for each course.

For the first course, I had the soup: a spicy tomato broth with cockles and kafir. Cockles would be a small shellfish, like the Irish song "Cockles and Mussels", and kafir would refer to very thin leaves from the kafir lime tree. The tomato soup was poured over the cockles, kafir leaves, and a few other greens at the table, which was a lovely presentation I very much enjoyed. I was expecting and hoping for a light soup, since it was called a broth, but there was definitely a touch of cream (though certainly nothing like 50%). It was very good, and nicely offset the rich chocolate from the morning.

Heidi opted for the salad, Romaine hearts with a balsamic vinaigrette (I think) and spicy pickled plums. They were very interesting, and they packed quite a punch! I thought they were delicious, and I'd love to try making some maybe next year, as they're great for salad. Maybe not so punchy, though, as Heidi couldn't finish the dish due to her burning mouth.

Our entrées were beautiful. Heidi ordered the beef tenderloin (I think it was tenderloin...) served over broccoli rabe and corn purée of some sort. (I don't remember what they called it.) The beef was topped with a black pepper butter. I thought the whole thing was delicious and would have eaten hers had I not been full from mine, but it didn't appeal to Heidi quite as much. In the dish's defense, though, she had a splitting migraine by this time and was not enjoying much.

I ordered the salmon with napa cabbage, bacon, porcini mushrooms, and a miso mushroom broth. It was topped with mustard seeds. It's pictured below as a large picture because it was the very best entrée I had in New York, and I can't wait to have it again. Of course, that may be never, but maybe, someday, I can figure out how to make it. I'm not sure what the fronds and seeds are. Maybe fennel fronds? I think they're a little stiff for that. The mustard seeds were superfluous and did nothing for the dish other than top an otherwise ordinary-looking piece of perfectly medium or medium-rare, whatever is perfect, salmon. Not only was the salmon exquisitely prepared, the Napa cabbage was just perfectly sautéed with the mushrooms and bacon, and the miso mushroom broth was warm and soothing in every way. I loved this dish. Loved it.

Well, to make up for that, our dessert arrived. We both ordered the non-chocolate option, sure nothing could top what we'd had that morning. I don't know why we didn't learn from our trip to Del Posto and go with chocolate, since nice restaurants work hard at perfecting their chocolate offerings. Instead, we opted for something "refreshing". That would be yogurt panna cotta served over a sponge cake, gelato, and minted fresh peaches over a strawberry purée. The peaches and purée were very small but good. The yogurt panna cotta was inedible. Maybe too much gelatin in the panna cotta? Bad yogurt? It really was unpalatable. The gelato was far worse. I couldn't remember what it was supposed to be. Black pepper? Snot? Seriously, it was that bad. It reminded me of the bad additions to Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans in Harry Potter. Horrific is not going too far, I promise. And look at the picture. Is that a pretty presentation? If you think it might be, then, believe me, the camera did wonders for it. It was very unappealing from the moment it arrived. However, by this time there wasn't any space left anywhere in our bodies for food, so we didn't send the desserts back.

Anyhow, I don't fault Jean-Georges. He gave me one of the best entrées of my life, remember? I can forgive him. And the cost of the meal was amazing for a very high-quality restaurant with excellent (if a bit stuffy, okay not just a bit) service.

With the Nougatine Room behind us, the two of us headed out to continue our conquest of New York. We had gifts to buy for our kids, places to see, that sort of thing. We visited Rockefeller Center and the American Girl Place – without our girls – and admired how pretty some of New York is. We also tasted the chocolate at Teuscher Chocolates and opted to return to Jacques Torres for more take-home chocolate and take-home cookies. That was one of our best decisions on the trip.

We had tickets for the broadway show Wicked at 8:00, and we'd certainly had plenty of food since arriving in New York, so we opted to have a really light evening meal. I'd seen a great pizza stand at the food court at Grand Central Station. We headed over ther, where I ordered a slice with sausage and soppresetta or something like that. It tasted very rich for such a thin little slice. I was surprised how strong the meat was, but it was delicious and a great place to get a little pizza.

Then we headed off to Gershwin Theatre and Wicked. Since this is a food blog, I'm not going into that except to say that it was an amazing experience and we were thrilled throughout the entire performance. I wanted to stay in my seat and watch the whole thing again, but I'm pretty sure everyone was going home.

After the show, Heidi and I changed back into our normal digs and took the subway down to Chinatown. Once again, police officers lined the streets, so we were either very safe or not at all, and I chose not to worry. I didn't take my camera to that area, but there's a great disparity in how clean the streets are between some places and others in the city. I suppose that's true everywhere.

We went out for a late night dinner at Wo Hop, a 21/7 downstairs Chinese cafe in Chinatown. (It's closed from 7am - 10am daily.) The sweet and pungent chicken was good (made with large slices of pickles), but the steamed dumplings were really good. They were fist size, filled with a pork mixture, and looked like oversized potstickers. Six large dumplings came on a plate, happily nestled in potsticker sauce, a combination of soy and something sweet, I think.

Exhausted and happy, we returned to the hotel, chatted too long, slept very few hours, and headed to separate airports and back to our families.

New York, part 3

2008-10-16T12:19:00.001-06:00

It's now been nearly a month since New York, and I haven't finished my write-up. What a slacker! Anyhow, to continue...

Heidi and I made a tourist stop Friday afternoon, taking the subway a little out of the way to see Grand Central Station. It's magnificent. It's amazing that such care was taken with a travel station, but I suppose traveling used to be more for the well-to-do. Below are several pictures, which you can click on to get a larger view.

Dinner that evening was at Del Posto, an upscale Mario Batali restaurant. We'd originally planned on dining at Babbo, a very popular Batali restaurant in Greenwich Village, but the only reservation I could get (on the day reservations opened) was 10:45 p.m. Yikes! Del Posto was more accomodating, though I think when I called I must have filled in someone else's cancellation, as 6:15 and 10:45 were my options.

Del Posto was an amazing experience. The waiters were attentive and professional, and were excellent at putting us right at ease. There was no pretension that they were better than we, but at the same time it was clear we were dining at a higher level. A talented jazz pianist filled the room with music – good jazz, because there's good jazz and lounge-type gets-old-fast jazz. The decorations were very classic but elegant, and the lighting enough to clearly see your companion and food, but not all the way across the room. There are several options for ordering, and we chose to go with a menu that would give us several courses, one of which we'd share. (As a note, the menu has already changed so much I'm going to have to do my best explaining what we ordered!)

Before anything we'd chosen arrived, the waiter brought out a small dish with amuse bouches from the chef. They included a whipped mortadella ball and a breaded and fried disk of some Italian cheese. The cheese was good, the mortadella not so much, and I thought it a strange sample of the chef's talents. Still, I felt pampered.

Then a bread basket was brought out with two portions each of five types of bread: a crispy breadstick, a focaccia roll, a rustic white roll, a whole wheat olive roll, and something else. Hopefully Heidi will remember better. Knowing how much food was in store, Heidi and each split a roll and then ate half of what we'd taken, so we could try them all. They were all very good, with an especially excellent crumb on the rustic white, but my favorite was the breadstick. I think it was made with a generous amount of olive oil in it; it had a nice crunch on the outside and the inside was spacious but flavorful and almost pastry-like, nothing like the rustic white. I'd like to learn to make them. If I do, I'll pass the recipe on.

For my first course, I ordered a tuna and beef dish. Those are small cubes of fatty tuna (the kind you'd use for good sushi) and tenderloin, seasoned with herbs and sesame seeds, and accompanied with a mellow, slightly sweet sauce. While the meat was a touch large for bite-size, the flavors were delicious and the tuna melted wonderfully in my mouth.

Still, as much as I loved it (especially the tuna), it was trumped by the horseradish panna cotta on Heidi's plate. This panna cotta was loose enough to nearly be a thick sauce. It was light and delicate and one of the two best things I tasted in New York that wasn't chocolate. It was an accompaniment to her lobster with (I think) a puréed pea sauce that was very nice and fresh but totally masked the flavor of the lobster. That didn't really matter, though, because they could have just put a generous dollop of horseradish panna cotta by itself on a plate and it would have been worth it.

The next course, the primi, was shared, so we each chose an item and they brought one out first on two plates, then followed it with the next. Our first was Heidi's choice: toasted semolina crespelle with sweet garlic, pancetta, and pesto. A crespelle, as we discovered, is a crèpe, and a delicious one at that. I ordered the handmade meat-filled ravioli with browned butter. It wasn't called ravioli, I'm sure, but I don't recall its name. My first intent in going to a Mario Batali restaurant was to try the pasta, to see how it tasted, how thin the noodles were, and know what the texture is supposed to be. Assuming Mario knows, and I think he does, the noodles should be as thin as you can possibly get them, the texture delicate and moist, and the browned butter not too brown. I could have just had a large serving of that for dinner, frankly. In fact, I hope to try to replicate it in my own kitchen, but who knows when, and who knows how long it will take to get my noodles so perfect?

My entrée was roast duck alla scappi with sweet corn polenta, trevisano, and campari. If you're looking at the picture, it's easy to spot the duck and sweet corn polenta. The trevisano is a type of radicchio, which was definitely used in making the bitter and unappealing round of something to the left of the entrée. The campari is a liquor that was used in making the dish, so I'm sure its flavor has been imparted somewhere, but I don't know it at all, so I didn't recognize it. I did learn something, two things, from this dish: 1. Making polenta from sweet corn is a fabulous idea, and I'll have to tackle that. 2. I don't care for duck. It has a very strong poultry flavor to it, and it's tough if overcooked, so thus the medium-rare look, which probably does nothing to diminish the strong taste. Not the best dish, but I still admired how excellently prepared and presented it was.

Heidi ordered an almond-crusted halibut with fresh vegetables and a light sauce. It was very good. I was concerned when the waiter mentioned the dish that an almond crust would be overpowering for the delicate flavors of halibut, but Heidi really enjoyed it. I preferred it without the crust, but it was cooked perfectly, and the vegetables were very nice.

After such a lovely meal, all that was left was dessert. We had just soaked everything in, too. The atmosphere was so relaxing and elegant, and it was rejuvenating to be there for a couple of hours, attended to gingerly by three waiters who knew everything about each dish, including intricate details about its preparation and authenticity. We were offered a cheese plate before dessert, but Heidi isn't a cheese fanatic, and I knew if I sampled them, I might not have room for dessert. Oh, I definitely have to go back.

For dessert, I chose the butterscotch semifreddo, similar to a slightly soft but dense ice cream, which was served with strawberries, cake crumbles, and a milk caramel. The butterscotch flavor was warm and soothing, not overly sweet, and the strawberries were a perfect match. I really enjoy trying items like semifreddo at a nice restaurant because I know what to aim for in my home kitchen. In fact, I sincerely regret not trying risotto in New York, something I was hoping to taste while there for the texture, so I could be sure to get it right here. (I have made it, but I don't know how my texture compares with what it ought to be.)

Back to dessert. It's funny, but when I think of dessert at Del Posto, I have to think for a moment or two to remember what I ordered because what I really think of is Heidi's dessert. I opted not to order chocolate since we'd had a nice chocolate dessert at Mesa Grill for lunch, but Heidi was smart enough to not let that get in the way. Her chocolate soufflé was amazing, and I genuinely think of it at least every few days since we've been back, anxious to replicate it. Her soufflé was served in a smart little demitasse cup, dusted with powdered sugar, and accompanied with an outstanding hazelnut gelato. When it was brought to the table, the waiter broke the top open with a spoon and poured an intense chocolate sauce from a small, delicate silver pitcher inside the dessert. The chocolate was not only intense but smooth and of the best quality. Seriously, the best dessert.

So, of course, we assumed we were done after dessert. Little did we know, there was more to come. (Not enough experience in fine dining?) Our third waiter, who seemed to take over about a third of the way into the evening, brought out confections. He placed two of each on a plate for us to share, and they included jellies, biscotti, something coconut, and a few other things. Nothing as amazing as dessert, but everything interesting and a delight.

That was the entire experience of Del Posto. Everything was smooth and perfectly placed and calming. Heidi and I left feeling better than a day at the spa. It was our most unaffordable meal in New York, but definitely my best.

New York, part 2

2008-09-26T13:19:00.000-06:00

I am not a breakfast person. Large waffles smothered with syrup and whipped cream make a great dessert but often make me sick at breakfast, and pancakes are at about the same place. I love a good omelet, but I'm allergic to eggs (egg whites, actually, and not if they're in things like cake, just if I'm sitting down to eat some fluffy, creamy scrambled eggs). What's left? Biscuits and gravy. Heavy. Granola? Good option, but I make that at home. French toast? See waffle. Have I reached the end of your standard menu? Pretty much, which is why going out for breakfast is not typically my suggestion. Still, Heidi wanted a good breakfast in New York, and I was right there. I'm not so jaded I can't hope there are still good possibilities for a morning menu; I just didn't know them yet.

Two of my friends that visited New York this spring insisted we try Norma's at the Parker Meridien Hotel. So glad I trusted their advice. It was fabulous! Really, truly, inspiring. This was the one nice restaurant we went to that I really had little information about, so I didn't have overblown expectations. I don't know who came up with the menu, who runs the show, to whom I owe the pleasure of my visit.

We were seated in a very nice room with lots of suits and formally-dressed waiters. (I say waiters because I'm pretty sure we didn't see any female wait staff the entire time we were in New York.) Menus were presented by the host, which were quickly followed by our waiter pouring freshly squeezed orange juice into our tall, elegant glasses. We started reading the menu – something that is usually a short task for me – and only stopped ourselves when we were conscious of taking so long to decide. Soon after our menus had been swept away, another server brought us samples of the smoothie of the day, orange banana. It was little perks like these that put their service over the top and made a good visit with excellent food a really great visit.

Heidi ordered the Light and Lemony Griddle Cakes with Crispy Crêpe Strings and I ordered the Artichoke Benny (which, unfortunately, is missing from the online menu!). The griddle cakes taste nothing like any pancake I've ever eaten. They're moist the way a crêpe is moist, thick like a pancake, sweet and buttery like a cake (but not like the frosting), and lemony like fresh lemonade. It was topped with a luscious whipped Devonshire cream, a delight that was almost unnecessarily, and not even thoroughly consumed. (My daughter will be appalled!)

My breakfast was a lovely entrance into the food possibilities awaiting me in New York. Two perfectly poached eggs each sat atop a freshly carved and cooked artichoke heart, sitting on a bed of sautéed spinach. The entire dish was placed on cubes of steamed or boiled potatoes and turnips, lightly buttered and salted, and topped with a porcini mushroom sauce. The mushroom sauce, spinach, turnips, and potatoes went so extraordinarily well together that I am looking forward to making a side dish out of those items in the future. The eggs and artichokes were also wonderful, though I admit I reluctantly ate only half of my egg white.

While we were enjoying our breakfast, we heard bits of conversation here and there from our close neighbors. Heidi afterward told me a piece she'd heard from the lady next to her.

Waiter: Freshly squeezed orange juice, madam?
Lady: I'll have a diet coke, please.
Waiter (horrified and shocked look on his face): A diet coke?
Lady: Yes. I cannot start my day without a diet coke.
Waiter: I'll see that you get one.

Also, the neighbors to my left were speaking in some sort of a French accent. As the man was reading some of the items out loud to the lady with him, he came across something with Gruyère in it. I (later) remarked to Heidi that I'd never heard the word spoken in a way that made it seem so simple to pronounce. I guess it makes sense, being a French word and all.

We happily paid our bill and stayed a moment to chat (and take a moment to let it all sink in) while the staff refilled our orange juice glasses. I know I sound so naive, but really, when have you ever had your freshly squeezed orange juice glass refilled after you've paid the tab? I would have sworn it was heaven.

We didn't just go to New York to eat, though that may have been a primary objective, so we spent that morning visiting Filene's Basement, Anthropologie, and learning the ins and outs of the subway system before going to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill for lunch, where I quickly changed from tennis shoes to brown flats, feeling quite conspicuous.

Mesa Grill was exciting to me, being an admirer of Bobby Flay. Michael Symon has said Bobby Flay is one of the most under-appreciated top chefs, which did not surprise me in New York, where the food is very much about subtle flavors and French technique. Mesa Grill is about bright, bold flavors and presentations. But, because of this, it also stands out as a nice contrast and compliment to continental restaurants across the city. Looking back, I think I may have appreciated it more on the second day, when the delicate character of other meals would make such strong food stand out. As it was, this meal was delicious in every way, but not unfamiliar, as I enjoy making and eating Mexican/Southwest cuisine on a somewhat regular basis.

I ordered the Ancho Chile-Honey Glazed Salmon with Spicy Black Bean Sauce, Tomatillo Salsa, and Roasted Jalapeño Crema. The salmon was glazed and blackened, intensifying the warm flavors of the ancho chile. The black bean sauce was delicious; I could have had nothing for lunch but a bowlful of that and been content. I really liked the tomatillo salsa. When I've had or made fresh tomatillo salsa in the past, it's always been blended, and this was diced. The tomatillos were fruity and soft; I'll have to try this method sometime.

Heidi ordered the Grilled MahiMahi with Roasted Pineapple-Cascabel Chile Sauce and Caramelized Pineapple-Green Onion Salsa. The fish was very tender and the flavors were delicious. Surprisingly, we didn't taste any heat from the chiles, but certainly the entrée was not worse off for that. Even better than the fish, though, was the rice it was served with. It was soft and creamy but not heavy, and the flavors were a light contrast to the sauces and onions, but still intriguing. It was a treat. I was pleased when I came home to see the recipe for this rice in my cookbook, and I'll make sure I blog about it in the future when I make it.

Getting full but not too full, we decided to split a dessert, an excellent move as we didn't even finish it. The Chocolate Brown Sugar Soufflé Pudding with Pecan Flatbread Crunch was a great choice. The pudding was creamy and fluffy, and the pecan flatbread was completely new. I tried forever to figure out how to describe it. It tastes very much like pralines. The main flavors are toasted pecans and brown sugar, and if it had been sold in bags I would have bought several. I don't know where to start, even, to recreate them, but I'm sure I'll try. The pudding was also served with a size of what I believe was toasted pecan whipped cream. It was so nice with a bite of the chocolate pudding.

We started the afternoon by walking over to Chelsea Market, a place we'd heard we needed to go but new nearly nothing about. This was unfortunate. While the entrance was strikingly peculiar, the market was cafe-style restaurants, bakeries, a small restaurant supply store, a small produce market, and a small Italian grocer. We were in no situation to appreciate it, having eaten two very good and very filling meals already that day. We did grab a few small rolls to sample later from Amy's Breads and a caramel brownie and turtle brownie from Fat Witch Brownies. When we did eventually nibble at them, they were all delicious, especially the brownies. (I may try adding a layer of caramel to my brownies!) The Food Network is also stationed there, but there were no signs, and I'm guessing they don't take to people strolling in off the streets. Maybe if we'd gone around the outside of the building?

In any case, we were tired and had time to spare, so we headed back to the hotel, where I went for a short swim to burn a few calories before dinner. Such exhausting work.

New York, part 1: Jacques Torres Chocolate

2008-09-24T14:28:00.005-06:00

My dear friend Heidi and I ran off to the Big Apple last weekend for 2 days of indulgence. We left our children behind with our good and encouraging husbands and set our minds on what we could experience in such a short time. Just to cut the suspense, I'll tell you right now: it was a lot. We squeezed as much as we could out of our weekend and slept a total of 11 hours over 3 nights (granted, it was really good sleep, the kind you can only get on perfect mattresses, crisp sheets, and no children within earshot).

Neither of us had ever visited New York City prior to this trip, so this heightened the anticipation, and we each felt like the stereotypical small town girl walking into the big city, excited and naive. It was an unavoidable sensation, but delightful in its own way.

We had three main goals: have fun, eat a lot of good food, and do a little shopping. And go see Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. Four...we had four main goals. And we happily accomplished them.

It may seem simple to write a blog about my experience, but, as you know, I do like to go on and on about food, so I will not attempt to do too much at once. Instead, I'll just do little installments until I've taken care of everything. And, except for today, I'll just start at the beginning and go through each meal.

Today, however, I'm starting with what may have been the best episode. I'm talking about the Jacques Torres chocolate shop. You're probably aware of my love for good chocolate, so this opportunity was an absolute delight. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we went back a second time – the only place to score that ranking.

Jacques Torres has three locations, all in New York, and two in Manhattan. The nearest location to us was also their newest, on Amsterdam between 73rd and 74th. One of the treasures of visiting New York for the first time was jumping on the subway to go to a district, walking out of the station, and seeing something completely different than wherever we'd just left. Our stop at Amsterdam and 72nd was the most pleasant of all these surprises. It is a beautiful area of New York City with amazing architecture (which really can be said of most of the city) and a very clean feeling to the streets. It felt energetic to be there, but still quaint with its wrought-iron fencing and garden area around the station entrance.

The chocolate shop is small and non intimidating. It has a little counter for drinks and a separate counter for chocolate truffles, pastries, and cookies. The walls are lined with ready-to-purchase delights: white, milk, and dark chocolate bars; mendients (more on those in a sec), malt balls, chocolate pretzels, chocolate gingerettes, chocolate macadamia nuts, hot chocolate, cookie mix, brownie mix, and chocolate for baking. There are two stores I would have gladly purchased the entire contents of while there, had I the ability, and this was one of them. (You'll have to read my future posts to know the other.)

Between the two trips to the store, I purchased (to bring home) a couple of chocolate bars, a 2-lb. bag of dark chocolate disks, a box of hand-picked truffles, and a small bag of mendients. Mendients (which I'd not heard of before visiting the shop) are small squares of chocolate each topped with a pistachio, an almond, and candied ginger. They are small-bite size, and like getting a taste of a good truffle at a discount. I purchased them when we first visited the shop, and then went all out for a box of chocolates upon returning, as I preferred them to the well-known (and somewhat garish) Teuscher chocolates I sampled at Rockefeller Center. Though it wasn't the price that swayed me, I was thrilled to pay a mere $1.50 per chocolate for such quality. And, really, all the contents of the shop were very affordable – another plus.

While there, Heidi ordered the frozen hot chocolate and I ordered the classic hot chocolate. Incredible. I wouldn't so much call mine "hot chocolate" as maybe "drinking chocolate", but I appreciate their lack of pretension in naming it. It's quite thick, very intense, and amazingly, beautifully rich. I would even say it's the best hot chocolate I've ever had. The frozen hot chocolate was irresistible; with conflicting emotions Heidi finished it off, though it upset her empty stomach. You can buy a bag of the hot chocolate mix there. Heidi did, and she said that it did indeed taste just like it did there. The ingredients are just chocolate, milk powder, and cornstarch. And if I have a list of ingredients, you can bet I'm going to get to work replicating.

It didn't take me long. I worked on it today, and I'm very happy with the result, so I'll be sharing that recipe with you at the end of this post. If you like eating really good chocolate, it's like that but better. I could really go on and on, but it would get old and it would be much better if you make it yourself. But I will add a note about the recipe: I used a chocolate that is about 62% cacao, and so I included a teaspoon of cocoa in the recipe to make it dark enough. If you use a chocolate that is over 65%, you might just try it without the cocoa first, as it will likely have the right depth of chocolate. My husband and daughter have both already had it and love it.

I also purchased in the shop two other delights. The first was an almond paste-filled pastry. I think the pastry was pâte à choux, which is what is used to make éclairs, or it may have been a puff pastry. I know they're completely different, but it was a bit confusing, and it seemed like a crossover between the two. Not possible, I know. In any case, it was delicious. I also had a chilled chocolate chip cookie (your choice of chilled or warm), which was, I promise you, the very best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had. I brought five home. It was buttery and chewy and heavy on the chocolate. The form of chocolate they use is called a fève, a wafer about quarter size that is very thin, and this is the bag of chocolate I purchased there, specifically for recreating the cookies at home. The benefit to this form is that each bite can have a great deal of chocolate in it while still having a luxurious amount of buttery, chewy cookie.

Lucky for all of us, the recipe for this cookie and an accompanying article was posted in the New York Times earlier this year, and I'm also including the recipe here. The salt content looks high. When I made them a month or two ago, I really liked the extra salt on top, but by the next day, there was no distinct saltiness, just a well-balanced cookie. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it. I do still really like my other chocolate chip recipe, but I'll be making this one again soon to see if I can get it to be as nice as my experience in New York.

To view a printable version of the following recipe, click here.

Drinking Chocolate

1/2 t. cornstarch
1 t. cocoa (or 1/2 t. cocoa if the cacao content of the chocolate is over 65%)
1/4 c. finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, at least 60%*
1/2 c. whole or lowfat milk

Stir together the cornstarch, cocoa, and chocolate. Whisk into the milk in a mug. Heat the mug in the microwave on high for 1 minute and 30-40 seconds, stopping to whisk every 20-30 seconds, until thickened slightly, melted, and smooth. Serve.

This recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc., and made on the stovetop (carefully).

*To measure the chocolate, I place the cornstarch and cocoa in the bottom of a 1/4 c. measuring cup, then add the chocolate on top, pressing and crunching it down to get it very compact.

To view a printable version of the following recipe, click here.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Jacques Torres

2 cups + 2 T. (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 3/4 cups + 2 T. (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate wafers, disks, or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

(note: 2 oz. cookies (about 1/4 c.) are also a nice size. About 8 fit on a tray.)

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.

Pipián Verde and Mexican White Rice

2008-08-27T15:40:00.018-06:00

I was recently talking about food with my friend Heidi, and when I mentioned that we eat quite a bit of Mexican, she pointed out how poorly represented that is on my blog. I've mentioned the tacos, which are really so simple and easy it seems silly to mention them, except that they taste so good. I also posted a recipe for green poblano rice, which I don't make often enough considering how nice it is. And I have a few recipes tucked away in my head that I go to semi-frequently for Mexican food, namely stuffed poblano chiles (which I'll have to go into another day) and pipián verde con pollo.

Pipián verde, also known as mole verde, is a creamy, bright sauce that gets the base of its flavor from ground, toasted pumpkin seeds. You can often buy pumpkin seeds near the produce section (at least in my grocery store) already toasted, which is very handy and makes for a quick dinner when paired with a quality carton of chicken stock from the store and a good rotisserie chicken (DON'T assume your quality store has a delicious chicken...I've made this mistake!), but I prefer the flavor of home-toasted pumpkin seeds, and the process takes about 5-10 minutes total, so it's not a huge effort. Plus, pumpkin seeds are less expensive when they're not toasted. I buy them in my grocery store's bulk section; you can often find them in the Mexican/Latin section of your grocery store or at a Latin market.

One of the reasons I love this meal, other than wanting to eat the delicious sauce by the spoonfuls, is that it's authentic Mexican food. The first time I made it, the flavors tasted so exotic but warming, unfamiliar but pleasing at the same time. I learned about it in one of the several Rick Bayless cookbooks I own and love. Chef Bayless has a style that is very easy to read, and in his cookbooks he speaks fondly of each dish before sharing the recipe, so it makes you really want to try everything he has to offer.

Even when I take the long version to make this, excepting the time it takes to make my own chicken stock, the meal never takes more than 90 minutes to prepare, and probably less. The short version takes about 30 minutes, and doesn't taste substantially different, so feel free to go that route if you prefer.

Well, at least for the pipián. You really need to take the time to make your own stock for the rice. It makes all the difference. Here's how.

Chicken Stock
Buy a whole chicken, sprinkle generously with Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and roast it in the oven. I usually go about 60-90 minutes at 400˚. After removing all the edible chicken, throw all the remaining bones, skin, etc. (no liver) into a stockpot with water to cover. Simmer about 3 hours. I don't even add carrots, onions, herbs, or any extras to the stock unless I'm making a soup-specific stock I want to take extra care with. Strain. Reduce if you have way too much...6 to 8 cups should be about right.

Okay, now that we've cleared that up, let's talk rice. The beauty of this rice is that it just has a few ingredients, and when you have an item with just a few ingredients, it can be really, really good. If each ingredient is treated properly and has an important role in the dish, it's wonderful. Like crème anglaise. Or this rice. The onion is sweet, but the garlic sweeter, and smooth and nutty, complementing the roasted chicken stock and the mellow onion. How often would you expect to receive praise on white rice? Yet guests inevitably tell me how good it is. And it's really so very easy to make. Rice like this is also a nice side dish with anything that requires a good deal of attention in its final stages, since it's low-maintenance. You'll need 5-10 minutes of attention at the beginning to prep and sauté, but then a timer should take care of the rest of the work.

One last note, which I'm hoping will work out well and make me just so terribly excited. I'm going to start adding a link before each recipe that will take you to a read-only file on google docs where you will find a printable version of the recipe I've posted. This will make my life so much easier, since I'm always copying and pasting my own recipes into temporary documents, and some of you have either done the same or hit "Print Selection". In any case, this should be a bonus. I'd prefer to have a pdf available for download from the post, but blogger doesn't have the option to upload files other than pictures.

Print the following recipe from my Google docs page here.

Pipián Verde
adapted from Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless

1 1/2 c. (6 oz.) hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2-3 serranos, stemmed
3 cloves garlic
15 large sprigs cilantro
4 Romaine leaves, torn up a bit
2 large radish leaves, torn
4 c. chicken stock
prepared chicken, either sautéed breasts or roast chicken
olive oil
Kosher salt

Set a skillet over medium heat. Once it is quite warm, coat the bottom with about 2 T. olive oil. Add the pumpkin seeds and stir to coat them evenly. Sprinkle in some salt. Cook, stirring or flipping, for about 5 minutes, until most of the seeds have popped and look rounder and toasty. Don't burn them. Remove to a plate to cool slightly.

To a blender, add the onion, serranos, garlic, cilantro, Romaine, radish leaves, and 1 1/2 c. chicken stock. Blend until smooth. Add the toasted pumpkin seeds, saving about 2 T. for garnish, and blend again until smooth, adding an additional 1/2 c. of stock if necessary.

Heat 2 T. oil in a medium-large or large saucepan over medium heat. When it's hot, add the pumpkin seed purée all at once and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 5-10 minutes. Add the remaining stock and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer and thicken for about 20 minutes. Season with salt, then return it to the blender in about 3 batches, covering the blender loosely with plastic wrap only (to prevent explosions and burns), and purée again. Add to prepared chicken and warm together before serving.

Leftover sauce is great for cheese enchiladas. Warm corn tortillas filled with monterey jack, rolled, sauced, and heated.

To view a printable version of the following recipe, click here.

Mexican White Rice

1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 T. olive oil
2 c. medium-grain rice
3 1/2 c. rich chicken stock
Kosher salt

In a medium-large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute or two. Add the rice and cook, stirring about 3 minutes, until some of the kernels are opaque. Add the chicken stock. Season with salt until the broth is pleasantly salty - not too much, but at the upper edge, as it will be salting the rice, too. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer (I put mine just past the 2 on a scale of 1-10). Set the timer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove the pan from the heat, but do not lift the lid yet. Let rest 5 minutes. Remove the lid and turn out into a bowl. Serve.

Baking Bread

2008-08-22T10:59:00.021-06:00

In case you're wondering what I've been up to lately (other than recovering from cooking camp), I've been working on breads. Namely sourdoughs and no-knead rustic breads. Here are some pictures. Please note that I've got a long way to go, but I'm pretty happy with my progress.

Biscuits
No-Knead Bread (3-day version)

Polish Rye (Daniel Leader version)
French Sourdough (Daniel Leader)

More Sourdough (all white, as opposed to my usual 20% whole wheat)
Still More Sourdough (best rise)

Chocolate Sourdough (better than you can imagine!)
And lastly, from today, sourdough loaves and baguettes

Jr. Chef Camp/Granola Bars

2008-08-12T17:39:00.018-06:00

Last week I took on the crazy task of training 8- to 14-years olds how to really get to work in the kitchen. I called it Jr. Chef Camp, and I had nine students: eight girls and one boy. It was very exciting to plan all this out, quite nerve-racking as the days grew closer, and exhausting but rewarding by the time the week was over. This was our schedule:

Tuesday – Vegetables and Pasta: al dente and brilliant vegetables
Classic Vinaigrette
Pasta Salad
Green Onion Dip
Roasted Vegetables with Penne

Wednesday – Cookies and Bars: properly following recipes
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
The Best Brownies
Granola Bars (recipe below!)

Thursday – Bread: yeast
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Parker House Rolls
Cinnamon Rolls
tasting: farmhouse rye, French sourdough

Friday – Pie Day!
all-butter pie crust
peach pie
chocolate cream pie

Really, they were very good students. They listened, they measured, they messed, they cleaned, they cooked, and they baked. I didn't have them use any sharp knives or touch the oven, since I'm not an incorporation with liability insurance, but if I did an older class (12 and up) in the future, I'd probably add those elements.

The students really made all of the recipes themselves with little assistance from me other than demonstrating or instructing, with an occasional hand if things needed to be pulled back in. The only big exceptions would be the green onion dip, the roasted vegetables (both were demonstrations only), and the filling for the chocolate cream pie (which I basically made and asked for help on some parts). It was a lot of fun watching them tentatively crack an egg after I told them it needed a big hard smack, except for Jeremy, who had no problem applying force to the egg.

My big dreamy hope for the class was that they would each feel by the end that they could really go home and make these things entirely on their own (or almost entirely, depending on knives and such), and that this would help them feel confidence in themselves. While I love cooking and baking for the opportunity it allows my creativity to come through, I find myself turning to recipes I love or want to try so I can feel accomplished and joy in the work my own two hands can do. Anyhow, I'm getting way too mushy for myself, so I'll move on...

I've been wanting to post this recipe for granola bars for some time, but I obviously haven't had much time for blogging lately (trust me...it's always on my mind!). Mark found it somewhere online, and we altered it, as we're prone to do. He was sick of all the packaged varieties of energy bars, made these, and our entire family loves them.

To view a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Granola Bars
makes 16 bars

1/2 c. almonds, toasted, chopped
1/2 c. craisins
1/2 c. roasted sunflower seeds
2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
2 c. Rice Krispies
1 1/4 t. Kosher salt or 3/4 t. table salt
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. corn syrup (or honey, or a combination of both)
1 t. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9” x 13” baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, mix almonds, craisins, sunflower seeds, oats, Rice Krispies, and salt.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, add the remaining ingredients. Microwave on high until everything is melted and can be stirred together, checking every 30 seconds. Stir together, then pour into large mixing bowl. Stir all ingredients well.

Spread mixture into baking pan. With wet hands, press bars firmly until they are as condensed as you can make them.

Bake at 350˚ for 15 minutes. Place sheet pan on a cooling rack. Again, press the bars firmly until they are condensed as much as possible. If you have another clean sheet pan the same size, you can set it on top of the hot bars and press down. Cool completely before cutting. Bars keep well in an airtight container for about a week.

Best Brownies

2008-07-15T22:46:00.023-06:00

Today's title is really intended to make me giggle a little. I'll explain why. Ever so long ago, I picked up a thin, spiral bound cookbook entitled Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook (original name) in the bargain section of a bookstore or something like that, and it became one of the first cookbooks I ever purchased. I don't think it was the first, but I can't be sure. I was aiming so high, I know.

Anyhow, I tried very few recipes from that book, because most of them seemed silly or pretentious, like the cover picture. There was, however, one or two good recipes in there. I recall making the chocolate mousse several times for friends, and I've probably made the basic brownie recipe in there at least 50, if not 100, times. It was called Best Brownies, and I believed the title when I made them. I'd never made brownies from scratch before then, and I pretty much gave up boxes after I tried them. (With the exception, of course, of the Hershey's brownie mix at Costco.)

They were so easy to make, and tasted so buttery and good. Of course, I wasn't as picky then, but it was still a good recipe. It went like this: melt 1/2 c. butter. Stir in 1 c. sugar, 1 t. vanilla, and 2 eggs. Whisk together 1/2 c. flour, 1/3 c. cocoa, 1/4 t. baking powder, and 1/4 t. salt. Stir into butter and sugar. Spray an 8" square pan, pour in the mix, and bake at 350˚ for 20-25 minutes.

How long did it take you to read that? It took slightly longer to toss it together. In fact, I usually turned the oven on and would get the ingredients ready just before the oven was preheated, so the whole process took 35 minutes start to finish. Tops. Not including cleanup. Maybe 5 more minutes for that. It's no wonder I became addicted to brownies, and everyone I knew asked me to make them constantly.

As wonderful as all that sounds, 15 years later, I realize that those brownies were good but not the absolute best brownie ever. I needed to find that. A homemade brownie that is everything I want. The trouble is, I want it all. In searching and testing recipes, I came to understand there are two main categories of real brownie lovers: fudgy and chewy. Not "fudgy and chewy" but "fudgy" and "chewy". I'm in the third, often overlooked camp. "Fudgy and chewy". Is there a reason I have to choose one over the other? Well, that was the question. That was the reason for the research, really, otherwise it would have been easy.

And that's not all. I have more requirements. I wanted a cocoa-based recipe, because I'm going to share it with some kids I'm teaching to cook next month (more on that another time), and most people have cocoa at home in their pantry, but I think most people don't have unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate handy for melting, and I'm giving them this recipe with the hope that they will continue to cook at home. Also, because I am so very demanding, I wanted a nice thick brownie, because I prefer thick brownies, that is excellent in flavor and texture and depth of chocolate all by itself but also is terrific with chunks of dark chocolate or toasted walnuts or pecans in it. I'm a chocolate chunk girl myself, but once in a while I prefer the nuts. But the brownie shouldn't need that.

And one more thing. (I warned you that I am so terribly picky.) It shouldn't have frosting. It should be exquisite enough that frosting would do absolutely nothing (except for maybe bad things) for the brownie should you attempt to add it.

So, here's the list:
1. Fudgy
2. Chewy
3. Cocoa-based
4. Thick
5. Deep chocolate flavor
6. Not too sweet.
7. Delicious. Really, really delicious. Enough that I'd call it the Best Brownie.
8. Great with the addition of chocolate chunks or toasted nuts (or possibly both?).
9. No frosting.

Before I go on, let me stop and thank all of you who contributed your recipes. They were all very good. I think I attempted them all. Even the beloved Zingerman's Magic Brownies (fudgy, chocolatey, delicious, but not chewy). And before you go thinking you should attempt the same kind of intense testing I did, I'll warn you: it temporarily ruins your sweet tooth. I know that sounds like a good thing, but I really want to love a cookie when I bite into it. Still, it was fun. I was very critical and probably ate about 2 brownies from every batch, tops, except the winner. I gave several away, which no one seems to mind. They were, after all, all quite good brownies. And I couldn't have done it without another expert taster: my husband. I don't know, though, that the tasting had the same effect on him — he didn't get tired of trying the brownies.

So, here's the final result. Ooh, I'm so excited to have this recipe at long last! It's like some crazy dream come true, like I just stole the precious ring or something. It might not be far off, really. If we could get world leaders to bake these for each other, there might be world peace after all. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. One thing at a time.

Though my instructions are always lengthy, the steps are quick and easy, and you will probably have the brownies in the pan before the oven is ready. (Oddly enough, the instructions in my notebook state only the following: 350˚ 8" square 30 m.) It's really important to learn how to tell when the brownies are done, though, for just the right consistency, so you'll have to forgive my lengthy treatise on the subject but pay close attention and it should work out for you!

Please, if you like brownies, try this recipe. And if you do make them, let me know if they meet your exacting standards.

To view a printable version of this recipe, click here.

The Best Brownies*
my version, of course

12 T. unsalted butter
1 c. cocoa (I use natural-process, but haven't experimented much with Dutch-process)
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 T. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/2 t. table salt
1 1/4 c. bittersweet chocolate chunks (optional)
1 1/4. c. toasted walnuts or pecans (optional

Preheat the oven to 350˚. Spray an 8" square metal or stoneware pan with Pam or whatever you've got on hand (but Pam works best!). Set aside. (Glass pans are not ideal here. If you use one, I have no idea how long the brownies will need to bake, but glass will cause the brownies to bake slower and don't conduct heat evenly.)

Melt the butter in a medium microwave-safe mixing bowl for about 1 minute, until completely warm so that it's quite hot (but not boiling...there's no need to overdo it). Whisk in the cocoa immediately until the cocoa has completely melted and the mixture is smooth. (Not only will this prevent clumpy cocoa, but melting the cocoa makes sure that the full flavor is brought out.)

With a wooden spoon, stir in the sugar until evenly combined, then completely stir in the eggs and vanilla. Set a small sieve over the top of the mixing bowl and add the flour and salt to the sieve and sift in. Completely stir in the flour until there are no white bits left. Stir in any optional ingredients you may be using. If you're going to try chocolate pieces and nuts, you may want to back off to 1 cup each. Use a rubber or silicone spatula and spread the batter evenly (it will be very thick) into the prepared pan.

Bake 32-37 minutes. Brownies are done when they have pulled away from the sides and, more importantly, when they feel slightly firm and crusty when pressed gently in the center. A toothpick in the center will still have crumbs, but a toothpick inserted one inch from the edge should come out clean. And the best sign of all that they're done: you can smell them throughout the house. It's odd, but the smell of baked food is at its peak just as it is finally done, and two minutes before it's overcooked. If they go too long, the edges will turn a darker brown and begin to burn a touch. (They're quite forgiving if this happens, though. Just cut the edges off and no one will know.) Remove to a cooling rack to cool, and cool completely before cutting. For the cleanest edges, chill the brownies completely in the refrigerator or for a short while in the freezer before cutting.

I prefer to eat my brownies a bit cooler than room temperature. You can chill them and remove them from the refrigerator half an hour or so before serving. Or you can serve them warm with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Store leftovers in the pan, covered with a dishtowel, at room temperature, for up to a day, covered tightly in the refrigerator for about 3 days, or freeze in Ziploc bags and pull them out when needed. (They stay very fresh in the freezer; I highly recommend this method.) Enjoy.

*Note: this recipe can easily be doubled and baked in a 9"x13" pan. The baking time will probably increase a bit, so note the instructions on how to tell when they're done. I also quadrupled the recipe, with no chocolate chunks or nuts, and it fit (though just barely) in a half sheet pan (17.5" x 12.5"). I baked it at 325˚ for 55 minutes, and they were great. And well-received.

Testing, testing...

2008-07-09T19:19:00.004-06:00

Over the last 36 hours, I've tested 3 brownie recipes, trying to get a cocoa-based brownie that is just right for me. Chewy, chocolaty, melt-in-your mouth, and just exciting enough with the basic ingredients. Over the last year, I've probably tested 8 or 10 different recipes. What I really want is a base to build off of. I like a thick brownie, loaded with chunks of chocolate and occasionally some nuts, but I need to get the basics right first. And I want a cocoa-based brownie because pretty much everyone has cocoa in their house, but we don't all keep stashes of unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate for melting. So the recipe would be great for sharing. Which is what I love to do with recipes, of course!

So I've tweaked and tweaked, and hopefully I'm on my last tweak. If you see a brownie recipe here in the very near future (oh-hopefully 24 hours!) that will mean this last tweak was just right. I know it sounds like a delicious feat, but it's actually a bit difficult to figure out exactly what's just not quite right with this recipe or that brownie. I think, perhaps, that I am very close.

I've mentioned in the past that I love the box of Hershey's brownies you can sometimes find at Costco, which is, in fact, Betty Crocker Supreme triple chunk brownies. (I think it's Betty's, but it's definitely from whatever company makes the Supreme line of brownie mixes.) They're very good if you make them with melted butter instead of vegetable oil. One of the best brownies out there, really. But I want my own recipe. Call me vain. Or cheap. Or crazy.

Well, honestly, it is a labor of love. I do love chocolate, and I have no trouble admitting it. Brownies are one of the best forms of chocolate. For proof, I could present at least two, maybe three people that I know who don't like chocolate but will eat a brownie any day and enjoy it. Brownies are definitely one of the world's most beloved treats. At least America's.

Anyhow, when I get all this figured out, I'll pass along the recipe. And by figured out, I mean I'll have a recipe that will be delicious, irresistible, and adaptable to whatever you like adding to your brownie. And delicious plain. (I once had brownies with chunks of peanut butter cups in them. You can probably guess how good they are, and how guilty I felt afterwards!)

Hope you hear from me soon! Happy summer cooking!

Grilled Chicken

2008-06-23T20:30:00.006-06:00

I recently discovered the magnificent flavor of grilled whole chicken, butterflied. I'd just been wondering, too, if there was a way to grill chicken without drying it out, but I never considered throwing an entire bird on there until I read about it in Cook's Illustrated's Summer Grilling & Entertaining publication from last summer (which, incidently, I didn't use once last summer but have used twice this month).

With rotisserie chickens available at any store nearly any hour of the day, I'd nearly stopped buying whole chickens to roast at home. (Our favorite, by the way, is Costco's version.) It's been a bit of a letdown for me, actually, since I really like working with whole chickens. It somehow makes me feel like a cook. So I'm thrilled to have this new recipe, and I'll definitely be using this frequently over the summer and into fall.

The beauty of this chicken is that it's so tender, even leftover 3 days. (How it managed to last 3 days I don't know.) It's smoky and delicious, and is probably my favorite way to eat chicken right now. It's wonderful served just the way it is or with a great sauce (I'll be posting one in the next few days), and leftovers are great on sandwiches or as tacos or in soup. I won't pretend it's the easiest item on the menu, but it is worth more than the small effort you'll need to supply. So, if you're thinking of grilling anytime soon, think chicken.

Grilled Butterflied Chicken
adapted from Cook's Illustrated Summer Grilling & Entertaining

1 whole chicken, about 5 lbs. (you can go smaller, but why? leftovers will be treasured!)
1/2 c. Kosher salt
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 lemon

About five hours before you want to grill, prepare the chicken. To do this, you'll need to remove the backbone. With the tail of the chicken facing you, use poultry shears, kitchen shears, or a strong knife (carefully!) to cut completely down one side of the backbone. Turn the chicken around and repeat on the other side of the backbone. (You'll probably still have quite a few bones in the area, but that's fine. These are irrelevant in the cooking.)

Turn the spineless chicken over and flatten it a bit with the heel of your hands. Then cut one small slit on each breast about an inch up and in from the tail. Tuck the drumstick tips in the slits (you can see in the picture above that one leg has stayed in and one has come out). And now for the fun part: use a smooth mallet to pound the chicken to a fairly even thickness. It doesn't need to be thin, just even enough that it will cook evenly.

Dissolve the salt and sugar in a medium to large container (bucket) with a few cups of water. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze the juice in, add the lemons, and add an additional 1 1/2 gallons of cold water and lots of ice. Add the butterflied chicken and let it brine until you're ready to grill it. Make sure you check it frequently to add and be sure there's still ice in there; this will ensure that the chicken is being kept at a safe temperature. (I actually thawed my chicken in the brine, because I didn't really plan on doing this until the day of, and then I butterflied it after it had brined.)

To grill, you'll need a medium fire, which means you can hold your hand 5 inches above the grate for 5-6 seconds before it's too hot. If your fire is hotter than this, it will be difficult to cook the chicken thoroughly without burning it. Remove the chicken from the brine and air dry for a couple of minutes. When the grill is ready and the rack is hot, place the chicken, bone side down, on the rack. Press the chicken by topping it with a baking sheet that has been topped with a couple of large bricks, or several smaller ones. After 15 minutes (12 if your bird is closer to 3 lbs.), remove the press and turn the chicken over.

The chicken no longer needs the press at this point, as it has been smashed as far as it will go and will just lose juice if pressed further. Cook for about 15 minutes on this side, until the temperature of the breast meat is 165˚ and the thigh is 185˚. Remove to a platter, cover with foil, and rest for 10 minutes. Serve.

And yes, this chicken does look like it's got excessively large legs. They've just been turned from their original grilling position, though, and were really quite normal.

Dark Chocolate Cream Pie

2008-06-16T10:24:00.004-06:00

It is with great pleasure I announce that my most recent pre-baked pie shell was successful. As I've mentioned previously, blind baking has never been my forte. Making pies, however, is one of my favorite kitchen tasks, so I have welcomed the challenge. Since I last posted, I've studied up, listened to advice, and experimented. And, as you can see above, I did pretty well. There was just a touch of shrinkage, but I'm still calling this a success.

So, here's the first step to this great pie:

Blind-Baked Pie Shell

First, make the pie dough (recipe here), roll it out, and shape it in a pie dish. Then refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes. This gives the elastic properties in the dough time to relax in the shape you've set it in, so it doesn't want to spring back. Next, place the pie dish in the freezer. I used my deep freezer and had it in there 20 minutes. If you're using a kitchen freezer, go for 30. Line the pie with aluminum foil (this takes two regular-width sheets, perpendicular), then fill the pie one-fourth of the way up with pie weights or dry beans. Don't add more weights than this, or the crust will not bake quickly enough, as they'll pull heat away from the crust. Also, the weights are a benefit to the bottom crust and won't hold up the sides, really, so you don't need a ton of them to do the job. (By the way, I use beans.)

Bake the pie crust in a 450˚ oven for 20 minutes. Remove the weights and foil from the crust, reduce the oven temperature to 375˚, and bake about 15 minutes more, checking after 10, until the crust is perfectly baked. Remove from the oven and cool completely before filling.

Sherry Yard, pastry chef to Wolfgang Puck and author of The Secrets of Baking, says that it's necessary to start the pastry baking at a very high temperature to encourage steaming between the layers of fat and starch right away; otherwise you're just melting the butter first, which will slacken the dough. Because the dough is frozen before baking, I increased the temperature from the usual 425˚ to 450˚, especially since my previous attempt to start at 425˚ didn't work well. Also, I baked it at this higher temperature for a full 20 minutes. It certainly wasn't going to burn, and I wanted the sides to set up really well. I definitely wouldn't go less than 20 minutes unless you're baking in a thin metal pan, and then you might stop at 17 or 18.

Now, onto the reason I was doing this in the first place. Chocolate.

Of all the cream pies, chocolate has to be my favorite. I think. They're all good, actually. Especially banana. But chocolate tops them all when the chocolate filling is just right: decadent, smooth, and firm when set up. You should already know I don't like wimpy chocolate, so trust me on the depth of flavor here. And if you're not sure how dark you like your chocolate, just add more whipped cream to the top of the pie. Or you could substitute bittersweet chocolate for the small amount of unsweetened chocolate. But please don't. Just make the pie like it is, and enjoy it. But leave some leftovers. Like all chocolate desserts, it's even better the next day.

Chocolate Cream Pie
ever so slightly modified from a Bon Appétit recipe, Black-bottom Chocolate Pie

Filling:
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch salt
6 large egg yolks
2 c. milk
1/2 c. heavy or whipping cream
5 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 T. unsalted butter

one baked, cooled 9" pie shell

Topping:
1 1/2 c. chilled heavy or whipping cream
3-4 T. granulated sugar
1 t. vanilla extract

chocolate curls, for garnish

For the filling, whisk the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt in a heavy medium saucepan. Stir in the yolks until evenly combined. Whisk in the milk, then the cream. Set the saucepan over medium to medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it starts to get pretty warm. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue whisking until the mixture thickens and simmers (a full boil isn't necessary) for one minute.

Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Stir in the butter and vanilla until the butter is melted. Pour into a medium bowl. Set the bowl inside another bowl made into an ice bath (ice and water) and stir frequently for about 20 minutes to cool.

Pour the filling into the prebaked pie shell and chill for at least 2 hours, preferably 4.

Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla until medium to firm peaks form. Top the chocolate pie and garnish with chocolate curls. Keep chilled when not serving.

When I served this the first day, I was anxious, so it wasn't a really solid filling, but by the next day it cut nicely and held its shape well. Even if you ice bath the filling for 30 or 40 minutes, it will still need a couple of hours to chill completely in the refrigerator before serving.

Bacon Chipotle Potato Salad

2008-06-09T16:39:00.003-06:00

In case you're wondering from my infrequent posts, I do still know how to cook. I'm just a teensy bit on the busy side with 3 offspring to nurture. (I'd call them rugrats, but really, only the younger two are rugrats.) Still, sometimes I manage to throw something together that is so terribly delicious I need to pass it on. Or at least post it for future use.

We're having guests over for dinner tonight, and I opted to make hamburgers, since grilled meat is always good on a sunny day. What else could I serve with it but potato salad? But there was a problem. I made potato salad a week ago. Now, I like potato salad, at least as much as you, but I don't like eating potato salad for three days and then starting over a few days after that, so I needed to get creative. I usually turn to epicurious.com for ideas, then sort by fork rating, only wasting my time on items that pretty much everyone recommends. Unfortunately, my search today turned up nothing but the usual (but usually delicious) fare: potatoes with onions, mayo, maybe herbs, maybe eggs, mustard, pickles, and celery. I know how to make a good potato salad. I wanted to make a better potato salad.

So I ignored the online world and thought about my refrigerator. It occurred to me that I had two perfect ingredients waiting for me in the fridge: bacon and chipotle purée. I quickly added ingredients in my head - Dijon, boiled eggs, red onion - that would match the salad and went to work.

The result, I humbly admit, is the best potato salad I have ever eaten. And those words were actually stolen from my husband, but I agree with him. Mom, I love your potato salad. But I think you should try this one.

Just a couple of notes, of course. First, the salad isn't loaded with bacon. It's a potato salad, not a bacon salad, so the bacon is there to add to the salad, not take it over. Likewise for the chipotle. I added just enough to give it a kick after a few bites, mellow enough for my kids but interesting enough for adults. You can add more if you like, depending on the palates of your diners.

Bacon Chipotle Potato Salad

2 1/2 lbs. red potatoes
3 T. white wine vinegar
1/4 c. thick cut bacon, chopped, cooked, drained, and chilled
2/3 c. mayonnaise
1 T. Dijon mustard
1 1/4 T. chipotle purée (place contents of canned chipotles with adobo sauce in blender or food processor; purée)
1/2 c. finely chopped red onion, chilled in ice water 10 minutes (to take the bite off), drained
2 boiled eggs, roughly chopped
1/3 c. chopped dill pickles
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
Kosher salt

Gently boil whole, unpeeled potatoes in water 20-40 minutes, depending on size, until a knife or fork will just go through to the center. Set aside and cool for 5 minutes. Slice into 1/4" or 1/2" slices. Place in a bowl and drizzle with the white wine vinegar. Chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours.

Stir remaining ingredients into potatoes, including 2 t. of Kosher salt to start. If the potatoes don't fall apart on their own at the point, you didn't overcook them (congratulations!), and you can cut some of them into smaller pieces if you like with just a butter knife or the edge of the spoon you're stirring with. Taste for salt and spice. Add more salt if needed and more chipotle purée if desired. Serve or chill and serve!

Dark Chocolate Lemon Cookies

2008-05-29T11:11:00.008-06:00

I recently discovered that I love the incredible combination of dark chocolate and lemon. They balance each other very well - the bitter, intense chocolate with the bright tartness of the lemon. I've been anxious about a way to put them together, and yesterday I found one I like. I used the deep, dark chocolate cookie recipe here, pressed them a bit before baking, and cooled them. Then I topped them with a smear of the following: 8 oz. cream cheese, 1/4 c. granulated sugar, and the zest of 1 lemon. In case you're interested, the recipe is also gluten-free, since the cookies are made mostly of chocolate, cocoa, and egg whites. And they taste fantastic, though I might increase the lemon zest next time around.

I was originally going to sandwich them together, but it was too thick for that. I may try making dark chocolate wafer cookies in the future and using the cream cheese mixture as a sandwich cream, but I don't know. Those cookies are awfully good.

I used Guittard 62% cacao chocolate for the recipe.

Yes, life is very busy with 3 children, so my posts aren't as frequent as I'd like. But I won't be giving up this blog, either, so keep checking back for more food!

Ham Loaf (and great potatoes!)

2008-05-10T19:37:00.004-06:00

I'm sure you're wondering why the pause between blogs. Or you're smart and figured with three kids, life gets a bit out of control at times. It's not that I haven't been cooking. In fact, I've been accessing my blog to cook a lot over the last few weeks, which is one of the reasons I take the time to write here. (As a side note, I also really like writing and I like sharing recipes and my love for cooking.) Lately, I've used several recipes here: whole wheat bread, chocolate-chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, carrot soup (also great with butternut squash in lieu of the carrots), granola, Rice Krispies treats (frequently), and - for Mother's Day - cheesecake.

Which is why I'm desperate to be eating healthier, but also resistant to give up such deliciousness.

So, as part of my farewell to heavy winter food, I made ham loaf. If you tell me you're not familiar with such a dish, I promise not to be shocked. From what I can tell, it's generally familiar to Midwesterners, and the rage never really took off elsewhere. It's just what it sounds like, mostly. A meatloaf-style dish made with ground ham and ground pork, then topped with a sweet vinegar-mustard glaze. And if you make it, you, too will feel truly transported to the 1950's. Just look at the picture. It could only be more perfect with maraschino cherries and a side of jell-o salad.

But don't get the wrong impression. If you like ham and meatloaf, you will also like ham loaf. I like the sweet glaze the best. And if you're from the Midwest, it will probably taste like home.

As for the potatoes, you may be disappointed to hear I don't have an exact recipe for them, but do you use an exact recipe when making mashed potatoes? I'll tell you how I made them, and you should be able to figure out amounts fairly well. The best part is that they taste like a dressed baked potato, and my 14-month old couldn't stop eating them. That's really impressive, because her list is very short for well-loved food, and includes chicken, beef, pork, lamb, fish, lasagne, pizza, and these potatoes. You may not share her palate, but I bet you'll both like the potatoes.

Ham Loaf
Mom's recipe!

loaf:
1 1/2 lb. ground ham (whatever you've got, grind it up!)
1 lb. ground pork
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. milk
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
1 c. bread crumbs
1/3 c. finely chopped onion

basting sauce:
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 T. prepared mustard
1/4 c. hot water
1/4 c. white wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350˚. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine the basting sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.

Combine all loaf ingredients. Mold into a loaf form on the baking sheet. Bake for 2 hours, basting frequently the last 45 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

Note: this makes a generous-sized loaf, so invite company, or put half in the freezer for another day.

Mashed Baked Potatoes

4 large leftover baked Russet potatoes
butter
sour cream
milk
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
chives, chopped (optional)

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Meanwhile, chop up the cold baked potatoes into one- or two-inch chunks. If you don't have a potato ricer, remove the peels first. When the water comes to a boil, gently drop the potatoes in for 1-2 minutes, until hot, then drain. Using your ricer or potato masher, mash the potatoes. Stir in 6-8 T. soft or melted butter, 1-2 t. salt to start, and some pepper. Add about 1/2 warm milk and 1/2 c. sour cream. Stir. Taste for salt, and add additional salt as necessary and chives if you have them. Enjoyed by all children!

Nearly Perfect Pecan Pie

2008-04-22T16:38:00.003-06:00

If you read my previous post on pecan pie, you know I've been trying to perfect the recipe for some time. Quite some time. In general, I'm very critical about my own food (and much less so of others), but that's only because I'm trying to learn to get things just right. And, frequently, I do get things just right, at least for me. We all of our own preferences. For example, I wouldn't change anything about my granola, carrot soup, roasted garlic soup, carne asada, M'n'M cake, or chocolate chunk cookies. Most other things may change a bit, depending on the day.

The pecan pie has slowly been evolving. It has gone from good to better to very good indeed. The funny thing is that the original recipe was from a Cooking Light magazine, though it hardly resembles that rendition now. Theirs was good, but why make a light pecan pie? And, in fact, the secret to their "light" pie was that it was about half the filling. So a slice would have half the calories and be half as tall. Portion control is an important aspect of food consumption, so I'm not against the trickery, but I wasn't fooled.

You may be wondering why the title is "nearly perfect" rather than "perfect". Or maybe not. In any case, it's the crust that's at fault. My darn crust always shrinks up. I'm sure it's because I use an all-butter crust. I even tried chilling it for 45 minutes before baking it, a suggestion from Cook's Illustrated, but to no avail. It doesn't shrink below the filling, though, because the filling holds it up if it falls that much. If I ever fix this problem I'll let you know. But I won't be fixing it by substituting anything for butter. I love my butter crust too much. Have you tried it? I mentioned it before with the peach pie, but I'll add it below again.

At last, I'm willing to share the recipe. So many hours of labor went into it, so if you make it, follow the recipe carefully and you should be happy. And if not, you should be nearly happy.

Pecan Pie

1 9" deep-dish unbaked pie shell (recipe follows)
6 large eggs
2 c. light corn syrup
1 1/3 c. dark brown sugar
9 T. butter
1/4 t. salt
3 c. pecan halves, toasted at 350˚ for 8-10 minutes, cooled
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350˚.

In a medium saucepan, stir together the corn syrup, brown sugar, salt, and butter over medium heat. Bring to a boil and boil for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour out of saucepan into a bowl and cool by stirring over a water bath or setting in the refrigerator and stirring occasionally, until just a bit warm. (Until it's cool enough to add eggs without any danger of cooking them prematurely. This also provides a good opportunity to roll out your pie dough.)

Whisk the eggs until smooth and consistent. Whisk in the vanilla. Stir the eggs into the caramel. Stir in the pecans. Pour into the pie shell. Bake for about 30 minutes, then cover it with foil to prevent the crust from browning too much. Continue to bake another 40-50 minutes, until the center of the pie is well set. This is difficult to figure out...if it's sufficiently baked. With a deep dish pecan pie, it's going to take a while, but it shouldn't be in the oven more than 90 minutes. 75-80 should be about right, unless your dish is shallower.

Remove to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature, then chill before serving. I prefer to serve pecan pie at about 50˚-60˚, so if it's not cold enough in your garage to chill it there, chill it in the refrigerator and let it set at room temperature for 30-60 minutes before serving.

Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream: about 2 c. cream, 3 T. granulated sugar, and 1/2 t. vanilla, whipped to soft or medium peaks.

Pie Dough
adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard
makes 2 crusts

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 T. sugar
1 t. salt (table, or finely ground Kosher)
1/2 c. ice water
1/2 t. white wine vinegar

Cut the butter into 1" pieces and place in the freezer for 15 minutes (no more).

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the flour and sugar. This lightens the flour to make the dough more tender. Add the butter and salt. Mix on low speed for at least 30 seconds and no more than 2 minutes, until most of the butter is about the size of walnut halves. Stop the machine and pinch all the large pieces of butter flat. Be careful not to just mash the pieces; the goal is to create flat, flaky layers in your dough.

Combine the ice water and vinegar, then add the liquid all at once to the flour mixture. Blend for no more than 15 seconds, until much of it is just coming together.

Spread out two sheets of plastic wrap. Bring the dough together just a bit with your hands, just enough so that it's not all crumbs, but do not work it much at this point, as working the dough while it's slightly warm from this process will damage the layers of flakiness and cause the dough to be tough. Divide the dough a little unevenly into two lumps and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. If you refrigerate it an hour or more, let it set at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling out. Also, before you remove it from the plastic, make sure each lump of dough is shaped into a nice round, semi-flat disc. This will help you in the rolling-out process.

To roll it out, I highly recommend using a French rolling pin, as it's more easily controlled and lightweight enough to avoid mashing the dough, which is not what you want. Lightly flour a work surface, then dust both sides of your disc with flour. Begin rolling out your dough, taking turns which direction your are rolling. You should go in all directions, and you should dust the top of your dough with flour and turn it over once or twice during this process, so that it doesn't stick to the work surface or get unwanted clumps of flour in spots underneath. Feel free to use lots of flour while rolling out your dough; just be sure it's evenly used across the circle.

Crème Anglaise

2008-04-03T21:53:00.006-06:00

Strawberries in crème anglaise is the dessert I think of when I'm wondering what I should make that will be casual but elegant. If I want something creamy but not heavy, with a bit of brightness to it, this is where it's at. Crème anglaise is like a lighter, thinner version of crème brûlée, perfect as a sauce for bread puddings or trifles, a wonderful base for ice cream, and delicious served just with berries. It always amazes me to think that there are so many out there who have never had this simple, perfect dish, which is why it's so important I share this with you. Also, strawberries are just coming into season.

Crème anglaise is a great French term, but unfortunately there's not a good English term to match it. This leaves me sounding ridiculously self-important when I explain what I'm serving. Sometimes I try to say "vanilla cream sauce" or "custard sauce" or something else to keep from seeming too pretentious, but then I end up feeling completely silly calling it something it isn't, like calling a filet mignon a "piece of cow" to make it simpler to understand. Utter silliness. Eventually, crème anglaise will be more commonly known, and I won't have this problem. Right now, I'm just doing my part to spread the word.

Stovetop custards are just a bit tricky to master, but not so much that you should stop here and think, "Tricky? Hmmm. Maybe this isn't right for me." Not that tricky. In fact, if you follow the instructions carefully, you should have a perfect dessert. And then you'll be wanting to make them all the time. Crème anglaise, old-fashioned puddings. This is not such a bad idea, actually. Stovetop chocolate pudding (not the packaged variety or another cornstarch-based recipe) will send you over the top if you're as much a chocolate fan as I. Or as much a custard fan.

Oh, let me back up. Have you ever made the stovetop (not instant) Jell-O brand puddings? Because that's as tricky as this recipe gets. See, not very tricky. Not if Jell-O is asking you to take it on.

So, please, do the country a favor. Make this for yourself. Share it with others. Say it with me. "crem ong-glezz". Then, not only will you speak French, but you'll have a very pleasant dessert in your repertoire.

Strawberries in Crème Anglaise
adapted from Julia Child in Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home

6 egg yolks
2/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. milk (whole is best, 2% good, 1% will do, substitute 1/4 c. for cream if using skim)
2 T. unsalted butter
1 T. vanilla extract (or use half a vanilla bean and steep it in the hot milk for a few minutes)

1 lb. fresh strawberries, cleaned and stemmed (sliced or quartered if large)

Set a heavy-bottomed* medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk and warm to hot. Hot enough to burn you, not hot enough to boil.

Meanwhile, in a small to medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. It should form a ribbon when drizzled, and should make you think of some kind of candy, like taffy maybe.

Slowly drizzle two-thirds of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly, being especially sure during the first little bit to evenly incorporate the milk and not heat any part of the egg yolks too fast, or they will coagulate and you'll be left with lots of little clumps. Very unappealing. Toward the end, this is less important. Then return the mixture to the remaining milk in the saucepan while the saucepan is off the heat.

Return the saucepan to the heat. Using a wooden spoon or a flexible silicone spatula, stir the custard continuously for several minutes, being sure to thoroughly clear the sides and bottom of the pan during the process. (You are being careful for the same reason you were careful when adding the hot milk to the yolks). As it heats and nears the thickening point, faint whiffs of steam will appear. It will not seem much thicker, but it will be noticeable as you have been paying careful attention. Remove it from the heat to test it. Dip a spoon in and run your finger across the back. The custard should leave a trail when it is fully cooked. Don't stress over whether your eggs are absolutely positively up to whatever temperature you think is best. If the custard has thickened slightly and leaves the trail, it is done. If you continue to cook, you may regret it.

Pour the custard out into a clean bowl (you can set a sieve over the bowl to catch any bits of coagulated egg), and set the bowl inside another larger bowl set up as an ice bath (lot of ice, just enough water to make it fluid). Stir in the butter and vanilla. Continue to stir to bring the custard to room temperature and refrigerate until completely chilled. Or, if you need it sooner, keep stirring it in the ice bath until it's completely chilled.

To serve, set several strawberries in the bottom of a small dish (we typically use half-cup ramekins) and drizzle with enough custard to nearly cover. Enjoy!

*If you don't have a heavy-bottomed saucepan, you can try one of two things:
1. Do everything over medium-low, and be especially vigilant during the stirring time, never letting up.
2. Set your saucepan inside a larger pan over heat. I've never tried this, but I think it might work. It might burn your other pan, too, though. I really don't know. You could maybe trying adding a bit of water to that pan.

Whole Wheat Bread

2008-03-30T12:49:00.003-06:00

I'm in the mood for bread. Not sourdough, not ciabatta, nothing remotely European. I want homemade whole wheat bread, sweetened with honey. Enriched with milk. Warm and topped with honey butter. Melting in my mouth.

And I'm going to get it. It's in the oven right now, so I don't have too long to wait. Except when it comes out, it has to cool and I have to go to church. But when I get home, it will be waiting for me. I will likely eat a slice before I've taken 12 steps in my house. And I bet I won't be alone.

I have a recipe I love for whole wheat bread, so I'm sharing it with you, so you can have it, too. While you're at it, make some honey butter: equal parts honey and softened butter, then refrigerated until you're ready to use it.

I wish you could smell my house right now.

Whole Wheat Bread

2 T. active dry yeast
1 T. sugar
2/3 c. lukewarm water (105˚-112˚)
3 c. hot milk
1/2 c. honey
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 1/2 t. salt
1/4 c. gluten (yes, you can leave it out if you don't have it, but it sure helps)
7 1/2 - 9 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in a large bowl with the water.

Combine the milk, honey, and oil until the honey is dissolved, and cool to lukewarm.

Add the milk to the yeast, then 1 c. flour with the gluten and salt. After that's stirred in, add another 6 c. flour and begin kneading. Add more flour as necessary until the dough is a cohesive mass, but it will still stick a bit to the sides.

Let rise in a non-stick coating-sprayed bowl until double, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Divide into 2 loaf pans. Let rise until well-risen. Bake in a 350˚ oven for 45 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool at least half an hour.

Pictures to come later

Grilled Lamb

2008-03-24T10:50:00.006-06:00

I understand lamb may not be a flavor everyone knows or loves. I get that. Still, I think it's wrong. Perhaps you've never tried it because it sounds a bit different. Maybe you've had it once, and you were expecting it to taste just like beef, so it threw you off, and now you think it's just not for me. Well, keep this in mind: you may be wrong. It could be that when you have perfectly prepared lamb, you will love it. In fact, I think you should try this recipe just to find out.

For Easter, we had a lovely dinner:

salad with tomatoes, feta, and vinaigrette
potato gratin (half recipe)
roasted asparagus
grilled leg of lamb
lemon pound cake with sugared strawberries

It was so nice that Mark promptly took over clean-up duty. That definitely means it was a success.

There are three main aspects of the lamb that help to create the wonderful, finished result: the marinade, the butterfly, and the grill.

First, the marinade. It's a yogurt-based marinade, which really tenderizes the meat, and it's filled with garlic, rosemary, and pepper to settle those flavors into the meat before cooking.

Next, the butterfly. A boneless leg of lamb usually comes tied up; remove the string and slice the larger portions of the meat in half width-wise, leaving them attached, in a way that will allow you to set the entire piece of lamb on the grill without pieces overlapping. The benefit of having your lamb butterflied is that it will cook consistently, rather than leaving you with some rare portions while others are well-done. You do want the whole thing to be cooked just right, so you don't have to fight over the best pieces.

Lastly, the grill. There's something about the smokiness of grilling lamb that pairs so well with the slightly tangy flavor of the meat. Grilling mellows out the robust aspects of the meat, in a similar way as it does a good steak. While we debated whether to oven roast or grill, it really was no difficult decision. I think most meat is better grilled, but lamb is top on my list for how much better it is grilled.

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Rosemary Salt
adapted from Gourmet magazine via epicurious.com

1 4-to-6 lb. leg of lamb, butterflied
1 1/4 c. plain yogurt (lowfat works fine if you've got it sitting around for smoothies)
7 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 1/2 T. coarsely chopped rosemary
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
skewers

for Rosemary Salt:
1 t. finely chopped rosemary
1 T. Kosher salt or flaky sea salt

Combine the yogurt, garlic, rosemary, and pepper in a large dish. Place the lamb in the dish and rub the marinade all over to coat thoroughly. Cover, refrigerate, and marinade 4-5 hours, turning once or twice.

Prepare the grill to medium high heat. Remove the lamb from the marinade and discard the marinade. Lay the meat out and run a few skewers through it to make it easier to turn and manage on the grill. Salt the lamb on both sides, then grill, turning a few times, for 20-35 minutes, depending on the thickness of your meat.

Remove it from the grill when it nears the temperature at which you like your lamb done (it will increase in temperature another few degrees during the resting period). We took ours off at 143˚, and it was just right for us - medium - pink through all of the middle with no sign of red. Most people do prefer medium rare, in which case you should remove the meat at about 135˚. Place on a platter and cover with foil. Let it rest for 5 or 10 minutes.

Combine the rosemary and salt. Slice and serve the lamb with rosemary salt. Store leftovers uncut in a container for up to 3 days (if they last).

Tortilla Soup

2008-03-19T16:20:00.000-06:00

Everyone should know how to make tortilla soup. (I realized this just as I was finishing the last of it off, which is why the soup bowl is nearly empty.) I mean tortilla soup that is fairly quick to throw together, has a rich broth with a good depth of flavor, and uses ingredients readily available in your kitchen. The first time I followed a recipe for tortilla soup (by Rick Bayless), it felt complicated and tedious. Yesterday, following a different recipe by the same chef, I went from barely deciding what to make to serving dinner in under an hour. That's pretty good for me. Next time, it should be a little faster...closer to 40 minutes.

"What is tortilla soup?" you may ask. Lucky for me, that answer was given several years ago. Mark and I stopped in a Boston Market (oh, back in the day, when they were all over the place) to grab some dinner. Our order was slightly delayed by a frustrated customer who had ordered the tortilla soup. Usually, it came with a small cup of chopped green onions on the side, as well as another cup or bag of tortilla strips. She had returned from her table to complain of the lack of green onions for her soup. "By definition," we distinctly recall her saying, "tortilla soup has green onions." Perhaps the confident tone of voice she used helped to solidify this knowledge in our young minds, but we have never forgotten this culinary lesson.

That is not really all there is to tortilla soup (and many would argue that green onions have nothing to do with it). The soup base has a little chile kick, a little tomato, and chicken broth. Typically, chicken is added once the soup is done along with other toppings, most notably tortilla chips.

I did a small experiment. Yesterday, in making dinner, I made my own tortilla strips chips by chopping up some tortillas, frying them in oil, salting them, and adding them to my bowl of soup. They were delicious. Today, eating the leftovers, I broke some purchased tortilla chips in pieces and placed them in my soup. I liked them even better. So now I know.

The recipe I used called for adding a melting cheese, like Monterey Jack, to the soup as well. I think my kids really liked that part, but it made the soup a bit sloppy for me, so I'd recommend one of three things: a dollop of sour cream, a bit of feta or queso fresco, or leave it out. It's also topped with avocado, which adds plenty of creaminess to the soup, so the cheese is unnecessary. Also, the recipe did not call for topping the soup with green onions, but I added them anyhow, for old time's sake. They were good.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless.

Tortilla Soup

olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 or 2 dried chiles: guajillo, pasilla, ancho are good (use 2 if it's a milder chile)
1-14.5 oz. can chopped tomatoes
6 c. chicken broth
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, chopped into small bite-size
Kosher salt
1 t. dried oregano, preferably Mexican (inexpensive; usually found in packets with other Mexican ingredients in grocery store)
1 large, firm-ripe avocado, chopped into 1/2" cubes
3-4 green onions, chopped
1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped
lime, halved
queso fresco, feta, or Monterey Jack (optional)

In a large saucepan, heat 2 T. olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes, then add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium high heat. Press the dried chile(s) onto the skillet to toast. Turn and repeat. Add the chile(s) to the blender along with the tomatoes, juice and all, and blend until smooth.

Add the tomato mixture to the saucepan with the onions. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens, 5-10 minutes. Add the chicken broth, bring to a simmer, and simmer for about 20 minutes to let the flavors combine.

While that's going on, drizzle the chicken with 2-3 T. olive oil, a couple generous pinches of salt, and the oregano. When adding the oregano, crush it by placing it in your palm and rubbing your hands back and forth. This will help to bring out the flavors. With a spoon or clean hands, mix this all together to coat all the chicken with the oil. This will keep it from sticking to each other as the pieces cook.

Heat the skillet over medium high. Add the chicken (unless you have a very large pan, do this in two batches; crowding the pan will leave you with steamed, not sautéed and nicely browned, chicken). Cook for a few minutes, until the edges are white and the white is starting to creep up the top side, then either carefully turn each piece and cook a few minutes more, or stir and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 more minutes, until it's thoroughly (but not over-) done. Remove to a serving dish.

Taste the soup for salt and add a bit as necessary.

Serve. Fill a bowl with broth, then add some chicken, avocado, cilantro, green onions, a squeeze of lime, and cheese, if you're having it. Enjoy!

M&M Cake

2008-03-18T13:33:00.003-06:00

Last week we celebrated Kate's first birthday. She's such a doll! For the celebration, we blew up 50 balloons and scattered them around the living room floor and let the kids play with them. I'd thought about a couple of other things we could do, since David had told me we needed to play games, but the three of them pretty much occupied the evening with the balloons. (Follow the leader, Twister, and going for a walk were also on the list.)

For dinner, we had some of Kate's favorites: rotisserie chicken, homemade white bread, black olives, and fresh strawberries. Actually, they were clearly all our favorites, since everyone seemed to enjoy dinner. I especially enjoyed that it was such a light meal, so I could eat as much cake as I wanted.

As for the cake, Mark and I took quite a while to decide on what to make. Chocolate had to be part of the equation, since Katie is a big fan, but the dark chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting I usually make seemed a bit too dark for a baby's first birthday. (I just realized I've never posted that recipe!) I had only one big concern with the M&M cake: that the candies would make a big mess. Alas, I eventually realized she would be a mess no matter what cake we made, and I resisted no longer.

The idea for the M&M cake wasn't originally ours. Mark's brother-in-law, Kirk has had one (I think) every year of his life, save maybe two, on his birthday. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.) His mom always made him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, covered in M 'n' M's, and his wife, Kathy, gladly took over the responsibility when they were married. (I think gladly...I'm pretty sure they all like the cake.)

I already had a chocolate cake recipe I loved, but I didn't want one too dark, so I began my search for a still-chocolatey-but-slightly-less-so cake recipe. I didn't want to give up how moist the other cake was, and I didn't want the chocolate to go too light. After searching for a while, I found nothing I was happy with. So I made up my own recipe. I used my dark chocolate cake recipe as a base and made several alterations, then trepidatiously threw my new cake together. Okay, I wasn't really worried. It couldn't be that bad.

Next came the frosting. I'd decided on a chocolate cream cheese frosting. This is funny because I don't like chocolate cheesecake (with the exception of the mildly acidic and absolutely delicious chocolate cheesecake made by Zingerman's, which I will some day come close to replicating and which appears to not have cream cheese inside), but I do really like cream cheese frosting with chocolate cake, so I thought it could work. Work is a good word for it, though, because the balance was all wrong at first and it took a bit of time to properly rework.

Then came the M&M's. I thought the Easter pastel variety would look pretty, so we went with those. And Mark and David helped me top the cake, as it is no small task.

And everything was perfect. Kate picked the M&M's off first, then started taking apart the cake. The rest of us had our own methods, but I think we each had two pieces that night. And another the next day. And the next. And David kept asking for more. And I suggested to Mark that we always keep some on hand, and then we can just snack on a piece whenever we want. (He thought it might not be a good idea.) And, honestly, it's maybe the best cake I've ever had. At least the most addictive. Which is funny, because it's doesn't have the most intense chocolate flavor, though it's not lacking, but the chocolate is just right. And if you ever need a perfect cake for any occasion, I recommend this one. If it's for a formal even, everyone will even forgive you throwing M&M's all over it once they bite into it. Is there anything else I need to say to convince you?

You really should try it.

M&M Cake

1 c. cocoa
3/4 c. boiling water
1 c. sour cream (light is fine, fat free maybe not?)
2 t. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. unsalted butter, cut into 1" slices if still cold
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. brown sugar
3 eggs

Prepare two 9" cake pans (I really like these). Spray each with nonstick coating, line the bottoms (and sides, if you're patient enough) with parchment paper, then spray again. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350˚.

In a medium bowl, whisk (or stir) together the cocoa and boiling water (it will be quite thick) until all the cocoa is dissolved. Stir in the sour cream and vanilla.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. This helps to break up any clumps in your flour and will help the baking soda and salt be more evenly distributed throughout the batter.

In a stand mixer, cream the butter until fluffy, then add the sugars and cream together on medium 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each until thoroughly combined and scraping down the sides as needed. Alternately add in the flour and chocolate mixture, beginning and ending with the flour (about three additions of flour, two of chocolate). Scrape down the sides between the additions to keep the batter consistent and mix in the last bit of flour delicately (don't turn the mixer on high and beat it for two minutes).

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake for 30-40 minutes (I think mine took 40), until they're set and spring back when lightly depressed in the center. Remove to a cooling rack. After 10 minutes, remove from pans to cool to room temperature, then wrap them and freeze them. (I set them back on the used parchment paper in my cake pans to do this, since they're on something stable in the freezer that way.) Freeze them because it's so much easier to frost a frozen cake then a room temperature cake. Also, by the time you serve it, it will just be chilled, and cold chocolate cake is always better than chocolate cake at room temperature.

When you're about an hour from being ready to frost the cake, begin to prepare the frosting:

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate*
1.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate*
1 1/2 T. cocoa
6 oz. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 T. cream
2-8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 c. sugar (I like using granulated sugar in cream cheese frosting. After mixing a few minutes, it dissolves, and then you don't have that unpleasant cornstarch flavor in your frosting.)

In a medium bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the unsweetened and bittersweet chocolates and cocoa, then return to the microwave in 15 or 20 second intervals, stirring in-between, until smooth and completely melted. Chill in the fridge/freezer until cold. Don't completely freeze it, though, as it will be too cold.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together the ganache, cream, cream cheese, and sugar on a pretty high setting until lovely and fluffy. Makes a generous amount to frost a two-layer cake.

So, frost the cake, then cover it with M&M's, then serve it. Mmmmm, mmmm, good!

*Yes, you can probably do a little substituting here. This mixture of chocolate worked well for me, but you could also try 4-5 oz. bittersweet chocolate and reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup. Taste and add up to another 1/4 cup of sugar if necessary.

Blog Surfing

2008-03-05T14:37:00.005-07:00

Occasionally, I go blog surfing, searching mostly for other good food sites. It doesn't happen very often, because my life is pretty crazy, but it's fun to find a creative site or two once in a while that's within the realm of what I'll tackle.

I'm pretty picky, so I don't often find much, but once in a while a site piques my interest. I'll tell you what I like. I like a blog written by someone who clearly loves food but isn't all about gorging on it, you know? Everything shouldn't be about dessert, because I can come up with plenty of dangerous ones on my own. I like creative meals, ones I haven't tried before but don't look outrageously expensive to make (and I can be a bit generous once in a while). Basically, I just want good food. So I thought I'd pass on a couple of sites I've found lately. Just in case you get tired of waiting around for me to post something new. And I'll try to get them in the lineup on the left soon, too.

Kitchen Chick - Maybe I like her because she's a fan of Zingerman's in Ann Arbor (and lives in Ann Arbor), but I can't wait to try her recipe for Braised Beef with Rice Noodles. It's the kind of thing I'd love to eat but don't know how to make. And I think my family would be willing to try it (no worries about my husband).

Amuse Bouche - The recipe for Creamed Leeks with Horseradish is calling my name. Now you really think I'm crazy, don't you?

The Gracious Bowl - Everything here looks good enough to make. Well, maybe not the chestnut soup, but everything else. Doesn't it? Of course, I love soup, especially while I keep testing bread recipes. But I do have to limit my production of them, since they're not a family favorite. Maybe I just need to find the right ones?

The Fresh Loaf - An indispensable resource if you're making bread. So much experience to pull from in all of the forums.

And, of course, don't forget the links on the left.

So, what are your favorite sites? Food or otherwise? Do you make food that you read about? Just desserts, or other things? I'm dying to know!

Doodleberry Cake

2008-03-03T14:40:00.003-07:00

My little helper, David, has been asking me for the last two weeks if we can make doodleberry cake. Like you, I've never heard of doodleberry cake. (And if that's not like you, please let me know.) He did tell me it's made with doodleberries, baking powder, and sugar. But I've been putting him off, making other things with him (like blueberry muffins, which I'll post about later this week). This morning, he asked again. It's really difficult to say no to a 3-year-old asking you to make doodleberry cake, no matter how daunting the task may seem. So I told him yes.

We had to do a bit of grocery shopping this morning anyhow, so I told him we needed to buy some doodleberries first. We were in luck, as the store I went to happened to carry doodleberries. David was so excited he nearly jumped out of his skin.

So together, we made a delicious doodleberry cake. Well, I'm telling you it's delicious, but I really am only sure that the cake batter is delicious, since it takes an hour to bake. But trust me...it's a coffeecake with cream cheese in the batter. How can you go wrong with that?I'll post a picture of the finished cake at the top so you can see how good it is when it's done. And then you'll want to make it, too. Because I'm sure none of you have had doodleberry cake before, either. But please tell me if I'm wrong!

Doodleberry Cake

8 oz. low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
3 T. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. + 2 T. sugar
1 1/2 eggs (you probably think I'm crazy, but I end up adding one and a half eggs quite often; just add half the white and then half the yolk...it's not that difficult)
1 t. vanilla extract
2 T. milk
1 c. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
2 c. (1 lb., if you're doing the frozen variety) doodleberries, still frozen is fine, if that's how they came
3 T. sugar

Preheat the oven to 350˚. Spray a 9" round cake pan with cooking spray. If you want (I did), line the bottom with parchment paper and spray again. It makes for an easier time turning it out.

Beat the butter and cream cheese until creamy. Add the sugar and beat in well. Mix in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk until thoroughly combined.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, then stir into the batter (don't overstir!). Fold in berries (by hand if you've done the rest with a mixer).

Spread evenly in the cake pan and sprinkle the top with sugar. Bake 75-85 minutes (60-70 if you're using fresh berries), until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out pretty clean. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Note: you can keep this in the pan the whole time you're eating/serving it, or you can cool 10 minutes then remove it from the pan and cool completely on the wire rack, then serve it on a platter. Either way, it's great with a dollop of ice cream. Or straight up.

Enjoy!

Cookie Dough Cake

2008-02-26T11:21:00.005-07:00

This is a great cake. A great cake. Let me tell you why.

First, it's homemade. There's no box involved. That means the cake will have a cake-like texture to it, rather than a pile of crumbs. It will be moist and soft, but it will stay in one piece when you lift a forkful to your anxious mouth. And in case you don't already know, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. You know how box cakes take 5 minutes to put together? Homemade cakes take 10-20 minutes, tops, even the difficult ones, and this one isn't a difficult one. Ask yourself: do you have an extra 10 minutes to spare for a cake that is 10 times better?

Second, it's guiltless. Well, for cake, it's guiltless, since I wouldn't bother with a dessert that is flavorless or falls flat on your tongue. It's quite light, using only one stick (4 oz.) of butter in the cake and another 3 oz. of butter in the frosting. In fact, I had a second piece later on in the evening and had no guilt whatsoever. I did, I admit, have a light dinner.

Most importantly, it is delicious! It's a brown sugar cake (that may be a term I just made up), and tastes more of brown sugar and vanilla than anything else, just like chocolate chip cookie dough (before you add the chips). And there are few things as good as a bite of chocolate chip cookie dough.

So, when I concocted this batter and tasted it, I decided it needed to have a good chocolate chip-type frosting. Chocolate ganache had been on my list, but I'm relieved to say I was out of cream, or it would have been too heavy for the cake. I tweaked a basic ganache recipe to come up with something lighter and voilà! The perfect match.

It's all the goodness of eating a chocolate chip cookie when you're craving cake.

In the recipe, you'll see a couple of options in the brown sugar arena. This is because I have some of the world's most fantastic sugar, Billington's Dark Brown Molasses Sugar. I bought it at our Co-op, but a lot of organic grocery stores carry it. It's not remotely similar to dark brown sugar because there is so much more depth of flavor. Anyhow, if you don't have it, it's nothing to get carried away about, because I've provided you with a suitable alternative.

Also, for the chocolate, I used Guittard bittersweet chunks that I have on hand, and they are 67% cacao, meaning they're quite dark, but not inedible straight from the bin. I'll just assume you need some alternative suggestions. I'd certainly recommend getting some E. Guittard bars in the baking section of the grocery store, something between 60% and 70% cacao, but the Lindt 70% bar would also do nicely as would the Ghirardelli 60% cacao (formerly double chocolate) chips. I would classify this cake as "non-fancy" but "worth your time" and get the Ghirardelli chips myself, had I not had the perfectly-suited Guittard chunks already available. Semisweet chips and bars are also an option, but I'm not a huge fan of semisweet as they're too sugary for me.

Best of luck in your cake-baking. I'm sure you'll love it!

Cookie Dough Cake

2 c. all-purpose flour, fluffed before measuring
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. (4 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. brown sugar + 2 T. molasses sugar + 3/4 c. plus 2 T. granulated sugar
OR 1 1/2 c. dark brown sugar + 1 1/2 t. molasses
3 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 c. sour cream

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
3 oz. (6 T.) unsalted butter
5 oz. (about 2/3 c.) milk

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray two 9" or 8" round cake pans (I used 9"), line the bottoms with parchment paper, spray again, and dust with flour.

Next, you're going to need whipped egg whites, so I recommend doing that right off the bat if you've got a stand mixer. Place the egg whites in the bowl and whip on high until medium to stiff peaks form, but do not overmix and end up with dry peaks. Remove the whites to another bowl and keep a whisk handy.

Wipe out your mixing bowl, then add the butter and beat until fluffy and the sugars and beat again until fluffy, scraping down the sides. Mix in the egg yolks and vanilla.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gently alternate mixing the flour and sour cream into the batter, starting and ending with the flour. Then gently fold in about a third of the egg whites to lighten the batter, then fold in the remaining two-thirds until fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake until golden and just starting to brown around the edges (like a cookie) and the cake holds its own and springs back when pressed lightly in the center, 30-35 minutes for 9" pans and probably 35-40 minutes for 8" pans.

Cool 5-10 minutes then remove from pans. Cool completely before frosting.

For frosting, melt the butter and chocolate slowly together (microwave is fine if you're careful), stirring every 30 seconds. When completely melted and stirred together, heat the milk to lukewarm and whisk it into the chocolate. Chill until cold, then stir vigorously to lighten the consistency. Divide evenly between the tops of the two layers when frosting. Or double the frosting recipe if you want to cover the entire cake. Serve.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T16:32:00.008-07:00

For Valentine's Day this year, I made chocolate truffles (as gifts for my family) and crème brûlée for dessert (see here for recipe). Mark and Emily are making dinner (hamburgers and cole slaw), and I am so excited. Not only do I love hamburgers and cole slaw, but I love it when someone else makes dinner. I know - that sounds crazy. Of course, since I love to cook, I want to cook every single night for dinner without ever an evening off and be terribly creative and nutritional at the same time. Believe it.

The milk chocolate truffles have a milk chocolate ganache filling in them, some of them nearly runny, others just a bit firmer with a touch of honey. The dark chocolate truffles have a peanut butter chocolate ganache inside. They're no good. Not at all. I haven't sampled more than one, and I'll probably throw them all out. Who likes chocolate anyway?

The crème brûlée (I can now make all those funny marks like ´,`, and ˆ with keyboard shortcuts, since I recently learned them, and I'm so very excited about that!) baked up perfectly and I can't wait to dip my spoon into one. I cooked them just until they were barely set in the middle - not watery-looking when I bumped it, more like firm jell-o. And I prepared them in very shallow dishes, while I usually use deeper ramekins, so I'm excited about that, too, because it means more surface area and more crunchy, caramelized sugar.

Hope you're all having a great Valentine's Day and enjoying a little chocolate or cream!

Creamy Corn and Zucchini Soup with Sourdough Bread

2008-02-13T13:14:00.005-07:00

Yesterday I made bread again. (I did warn you.) This time, I made Pain de Campagne from Daniel Leader's Local Breads, except I made it with all regular bread flour, rather than adding a bit of rye and whole wheat. It's made from a sourdough starter, a liquid levain, which only took a week to be fully ready to use. Not bad, really.

I was pretty pleased with the turnout this time, but it was interesting along the way. I'd heard that sourdough rises late - meaning it sits around the first half of the rising time and then gets on its way - but it was still unexpected. During the second rise, after my loaves were shaped, I didn't notice much change in height. I'd been careful not to let too much of the gas release when I shaped them into loaves, but I expected something to go on in the next hour and a half. It may be a bit difficult to see from the picture, but these loaves are not very tall...maybe an inch or so. After leaving them for even longer than the suggested 1 to 1 1/2 hours, I decided to go for it and accept my failure if nothing happened in the oven.

During the first 3 minutes of oven time, it's really important to introduce as much steam as possible to the bread. This keeps the top of the bread from forming a crust too early, which allows it to rise longer. Often, I can literally watch the bread rising during this period, which I find absolutely fascinating. I still had some hope that my sourdough would jump up during these first few minutes and I wouldn't have to stick my head in the sand, but after the final introduction of steam, I still hadn't seen more than maybe a quarter inch rise in the oven. So discouraging. I walked away.

Five minutes later, I returned to two lovely, tall loaves. Not Empire State Building tall, of course, but it wasn't that kind of a loaf. They'd somehow risen after I walked away, probably intentionally waiting for me to turn my back. It was a nice surprise.

Like all good sourdoughs, the bread has a very chewy, connected feel. Substantial yet well-risen. Lots more good holes that the last loaf, too, which was a result from long rises as well as making slits in the top. If you don't make slits in the top, the membrane of the upper crust suppresses the leavening inside, while slits will allow it to jump up in certain areas, creating a less uniform rise. Just what I was looking for. I'll have to try that with the Ciabatta again, where I hope to find a more dramatic increase. I can't wait.

Now to the soup.

Since I keep making bread, unless I want to eat myself to death, I need some lighter meals. Soup is the obvious choice, especially being a girl. I found inspiration from Rick Bayless (not really surprising, is it?). He has a lovely recipe in Mexican Kitchen which I didn't follow whatsoever but was a really good inspiration. My sister Michele recommended it to me, and it involves blending corn and milk together and straining them, which is the only part of the recipe I was interested in, based mainly on what was available in my house.

Being a lover of creamy soups, this hit the spot without being too heavy or too starchy. It's slightly thick naturally, sweet, and simple enough. And to top it all off, it's really good made with frozen corn (choose a quality product, please), though I'm sure it's wonderful with fresh corn. So here's the recipe, though I'll admit right off that I didn't measure everything out exactly out, but the measurements should be quite close.

Creamy Corn and Zucchini Soup

1 1/2 T. olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 serrano chiles, chopped
5 cups sweet corn, thawed if frozen
5 cups whole milk (it won't be really creamy unless you use whole milk...at least go for 2%)
1/2 c. chicken broth (if you have it around...you could leave this out or add more milk)
2 medium zucchini, chopped into 1/2" squares
Kosher salt

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the celery, garlic, and chiles. Sauté for about 5 minutes with a pinch of salt, until softened and the garlic is quite fragrant (slightly roasty), but not burnt.

Set the pan off the heat, then scoop the sautéed ingredients out of the saucepan, leaving the oil behind, and place them in the blender along with the corn and 3 cups of milk (you may need to do this in two stages as your blender will be quite full). Blend until smooth.

Set the saucepan over medium heat and set a strainer over the saucepan. Pour the blended corn mixture back into the saucepan, straining it as you go, and stirring the mixture back into the oil to keep it from burning. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for one minute and season with salt. Add the zucchini and continue to cook, just barely simmering, until the zucchini is done to desired consistency.

Serve. Tonight!

Artisan Bread

2008-02-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

Aaaagh! I feel like my blogging life, along with my exercise life (save for a day or two of skiing) is slipping away from me! No one warned me that having three kids meant I'd sacrificed all my personal time. Oh, well. At least they're cute.

You may suppose from my lack of posts that I haven't taken the time to explore all the pantry has to offer lately. Au contraire! Actually, I have been investigating one of my favorite mysteries: artisan bread. Let me first explain what I mean by "artisan", since it's such an overused term these days. Artisan bread is typically handmade bread, often old-world style, often taking two days to two weeks to make. When I use the term, I just mean I'm trying to make bread that reminds me of the type I'd buy in Europe if I ever traveled there. (Aaah...someday.) And let me say...I think I'm getting pretty darn close.

I have two major resources that I'm using these days. The first is The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, and it has been a very educational book thus far. (Not surprising, since Reinhart is an instructor at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. I've read most of the information in the beginning 100 pages of the book, and it has been an incredible learning experience. While I am continually reading cookbooks and learning all I can about food in general, there is so much technical information on bread out there that I have been completely in the dark until now, and I am only beginning to come into a bit of light. It's very exciting. The second resource, which I'll write more about later, is Bread Alone by Daniel Leader. I haven't read as much of his informative information yet but have already delved into the world of pre-starters in Leader's book and am completely taken in. There is just so much to be learned about yeast, fermentation, carmelization, humidity, temperature, and all kinds of flours, and the books are so well-written that I feel as though I'm learning it in their kitchens. Of course, it helps that I'm working on these recipes as I go along.

Anyhow, pictured at the top of this post is the Ciabatta that I made from Peter Reinhart's formula. It's not really too involved, comparatively speaking: it only takes two days to create an amazing bread. It's wonderfully spongy and springy in texture and the flavor is simple but balanced. My only real complaint about my results is that it didn't have the large, gaping, non-uniform holes throughout the bread, though it rose very well. Still, I'm not too broken-hearted; I already told you I haven't yet finished all the instructional reading, and I'm just really getting into experimenting with my doughs, but I plan on resolving this issue. If anyone knows the answer, feel free to let me know...

In any case, I'll keep you updated on how the bread baking is going. Right now I have two perfectly usable, ready-to-go sourdough starters (one standard, one rye), and I'll let you know the lovely results I get from them as soon as I can take another moment to write. Until then, happy cooking/baking/eating!

Squash Soup

2008-01-30T15:24:00.002-07:00

I totally feel like a cheater today because I'm posting someone else's recipe in its original form. I usually mix it up a bit, improve on it, and do some alterations before I get a recipe exactly where I want it and pass it on to you, but I'm willing to sink so low because I love this soup. Granted, it's a soup, so if you're male, there's still a good chance you won't like it, and if you're female, there's a terrific chance you will. Why is that?

Anyhow, Jamie Oliver has a new show on the Food Network, and I'm thrilled to watch it. Unfortunately, the recipes are only available inside the U.S. and they don't post all the recipes from the show...I'm sure it's all Jamie's doing, and it's all very understandable. However, the show is fantastic because he grows nearly everything he uses except meats and grains in his backyard (and perhaps some of the meats...definitely the eggs). Everything is fresh, local, and organic. So splendid! I just love it...it's my own personal dream, really. But I digress.

This squash soup is so good...it's warm and hearty, especially hearty for a puréed soup, and has just a touch of heat from the chile. While my carrot soup is lovely and delicate (and can be used for a simpler squash soup substituting squash for carrots), this soup tastes more reminiscent of a winter stew. I didn't make the parmesan croutons to go with it this time, but you may as well go for it. I'm sure they're delicious. Also, I learned a very valuable lesson from this episode: if you chop up butternut squash, simmer it for soup, and purée it, you don't need to peel the skin off of it first. It gets nice and soft and leaves no trace behind once it's puréed. Seriously. In fact, before I tossed everything in the blender, I checked the skin for tenderness, and it was more delicate than the carrots that had been cooking for 25 minutes.

One word of warning: make sure you remove the sage leaves after frying them in the oil (to season the oil). While they enhance the soup with flavor, they don't purée into a smooth consistency, and you'll have to strain them out later if you forget. My only alterations to the recipe were substituting serrano chiles and doubling the amount of celery and carrots. Also, I only made a half recipe and it made more than enough...probably 6 or 8 cups.

Last of all, enjoy. Squash is one of the best parts of the winter foods, and this soup shouldn't be missed.

Butternut Squash Soup
by Jamie Oliver

This fantastic soup is best made with varieties of squash that have dense, orange flesh, such as butternut or acorn squash. It's important to use good chicken stock and season the soup well to bring out the nutty, sweet flavor of the squash. Once you've mastered this recipe, you can take the soup in different ways by adding pearl barley, dried pasta, or some chopped bacon. Even the smallest amount of dried porcini. P.S. I made this in my pressure cooker the other day, with really great results - it's so quick!

Olive oil
16 fresh sage leaves
2 red onions, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked
1/2 fresh red chile, to taste, seeded and finely chopped (I substituted serranos)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 1/4 pounds butternut squash, onion squash, or musque de Provence, halved, deseeded and cut into chunks
2 quarts good-quality Chicken or vegetable stock
Extra-virgin olive oil

For the croutons:
Extra-virgin olive oil
16 slices ciabatta bread
1 chunk Parmesan, for grating

Put a very large saucepan on a medium heat and pour in a couple of glugs of olive oil.

Add the sage leaves and fry for around 30 seconds or until dark green and crisp. Quickly remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl lined with paper towels - you'll use these for sprinkling over at the end. In the pan you'll be left with a beautifully flavored oil, so put it back on the heat and throw in your onion, celery, carrot, garlic, rosemary leaves, chile and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are sweet and soft. Add the squash and the stock to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for around 30 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, make your croutons. Drizzle a little olive oil over the ciabatta slices, and press some grated Parmesan onto each side. Place in a non-stick pan without any oil and fry until golden on both sides.

When the squash is soft and cooked through, whiz the soup with an immersion blender or pour it into a standard blender and pulse until you have a smooth puree* (but you can leave it slightly chunky if you like). Most importantly, remember to taste and season it until it's perfect. Divide the soup between your bowls, placing 2 croutons on top of each. Sprinkle with a few of your crispy sage leaves and drizzle with a swirl of good-quality extra-virgin olive oil.

*When blending hot liquids: Remove liquid from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Transfer liquid to a blender or food processor and fill it no more than halfway. If using a blender, release one corner of the lid. This prevents the vacuum effect that creates heat explosions. Place a towel over the top of the machine, pulse a few times then process on high speed until smooth.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2008-01-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

So, for years, we've been making this recipe called "Kitchen Sink Cookies", which is also known as "Chocolate Chip Pecan Oatmeal Cookies". Don't get me wrong...they are so good. If you haven't made them yet, you should. However, I've always had a secret wish to make perfect chocolate chip cookies.

I searched, sampled, and worked on so many recipes to get the perfect cookies, but it never quite happened. Then one day I realized why: everyone has their own idea of perfect. Too bad they didn't know mine, since it is the ultimate perfect, and if everyone had been working toward that all along we would have all been a lot happier.

At long last, though, I found it. Actually, my sister kinda did. And my brother. Well, my sister told me my brother Seth really liked this recipe in The Best Recipe, so I thought I'd give it a go. Guess what? Nearly perfect!

That was close enough for me, so I made the slight modifications necessary and have it here, ready for you.

Do you know what is so extraordinarily wonderful about the perfect chocolate chip cookie?* It's even better the next day. Most cookies aren't like that, but when you pop a moist, chewy, chocolatey cookie in your mouth the following afternoon, not having been in front of the smell of them for an hour or two, you find that little blissful part of heaven that occasionally imparts itself to your dreary life. Or not so dreary, really. Especially if you just had a really good cookie.

*I know, I said "chocolate chip cookie" instead of "chocolate chunk cookie". It does kind of roll off the tongue. And chips are fine, too. I just prefer chunks.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies
slightly modified from The Best Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine

2 c. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
scant 1/2 t. baking soda (not as little as 1/4 t., but not quite a full 1/2 t.)
1/4 t. salt
12 T. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted then cooled for just a minute
1 c. dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. bittersweet chocolate chunks, preferably hand cut into 1/2" x 1/2" size, or about the same amount in dark chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60% cacao or Guittard semisweet are good choices)

Preheat the oven to 325°. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly combined. Stir in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until consistent throughout. Stir in the flour combo until just barely combined, then stir in the chocolate.

Use a medium scoop or large spoon to place large balls of dough (1 1/2 T.) onto the baking mat. After portioning each ball of cookie dough, split the top a bit by pulling the mass apart and pushing the sides toward the bottom. It's not an exact science, just keep them from going on the cookie sheet in a nicely balled form, or they'll look funny when they come out of the oven.

Bake at 325° for 16-18 minutes, until slightly golden around edges. Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 5 minutes (or you'll have a mess), then remove to a clean, dry countertop. You can sample them in about 5 more minutes. Let them cool completely on the countertop before storing in an airtight container or freezing. And make sure you try one tomorrow afternoon!

Vanilla Lime Crème Brûlée

2008-01-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sheesh. Over two weeks since my last post. You'd think I had made a secret New Year's resolution to discourage all my readers! Actually, you might be surprised to learn that my life outside my blog is sometimes a bit crazy, and for no particular reason whatsoever. Except that I have those three cute kids, and one of them is a boy and 3 years old, and one of them is 10 months old. The truth is, the 10-month old, who is perfectly healthy, has been keeping me from sleep quite a bit this whole month, and I've taken my lack of energy out on this blog, since I like to prioritize my family above writing. But I've still been cooking, which means I've always got more to say.

In December I tried another variation of crème brûlée, despite my assertions that the original version is better than any alterations (at least raspberry). I guess I'm stubborn. Or this just sounded like a really good idea. And it actually was. I really enjoyed it. The lime gave it a really bright, clean flavor which did take away from the delicate custard taste but really was a nice burst of something wonderful when I took a bite of it. And the vanilla balanced out the bright flavor just enough to enhance the texture of the custard.

I did try a couple of versions of this recipe, one with the zest baked right into the custard, and one with zest in the sugar that is burnt on top. Both are terrible ideas: the zest on top burns when caramelizing the sugar and the zest in the custard sinks to the bottom and is inedible.

Let me reiterate that if you've never made crème brûlée, you ought to try it. It's amazingly easy if you have a recipe in front of you. And if you don't want to complicate your first go at it with a variation, leave out the lime and just make the original. The only sticky points are these: incorporate the eggs carefully into the hot cream (which you don't need to worry about with the original recipe), and don't overcook. If you follow the directions, these shouldn't be an issue. And when burning the sugar on top, don't get the whole custard hot - just the top, or you'll cook the delicate inside.

When zesting, the ideal tool is a microplane, which you can pick up at most kitchen stores for $10 - $15. It will only take the very outer zest, which is where the oils are, and leave behind the lighter, whiter rind underneath, which is bitter and will leave you with less-than-stellar results. Most graters will not be so accommodating. If you don't currently own a microplane, break the bank and order one today. I use mine constantly for zest, nutmeg, and ginger (especially zest, since I incorporate a lot of lime and lemon into my cooking).

Well done crème brûlée should be perfectly smooth and creamy on the inside, not at all runny, and not stiff or curdled. And it should send you straight to heaven when you eat it.

Vanilla Lime Crème Brûlée

2 c. cream
zest of 1 lime, only the very outer part
4 egg yolks
3 T sugar + 2 T or so more for tops
1/2 a vanilla bean, or 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°. If your water bath will be in a stoneware or glass pan, preheat that in the oven as well. Heat about 6 cups of water for the water bath and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the cream and lime zest. Split the half vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds, and add the seeds and pod to the cream. (If you don't have a vanilla bean, add the vanilla in the next step.) Set the saucepan over low heat and let steep, without boiling, for about 30 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 3 T. sugar, and vanilla extract, if not using a bean. Strain the zest and bean pod out of the cream and whisk into the egg yolks, pouring slowly and whisking quickly to make sure you carefully temper the yolks rather than scorch bits of them. (If you think this may have not gone so well, you can strain out any coddled yolks by straining the entire mixture before moving on.) Place four 4-oz. ramekins in your water bath dish, then fill them to the top with the custard. Gently pour the hot water into the water bath dish.

Bake until the centers are just barely set, like gelatin. I usually bump the edge of the water bath dish enough to see the custards jiggle. If you test them early on, you'll see that they move like liquid and notice the difference when they are done. If you use a preheated stoneware dish, hot water, and your cream is quite warm, this will probably take about 18 minutes, or closer to 25 if your custard is cold going in. If you're using any regular 9" x 13" pan for the water bath, it may take 40-50 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool for 30-60 minutes, then chill in the refrigerator until cold, at least 3 hours.

Sprinkle about 1/2 T. sugar on each of the baked custards, coating the tops evenly. Using a torch, burn the sugar until slightly brown. This is best done by holding the torch 4 to 6 inches from the tops (assuming it's a kitchen-size torch, farther away for an industrial torch) and evenly warming the entire top, rather than trying to completely melt the sugar in one area at a time. Also, if you don't heat the sugar immediately after sprinkling it on, the custard will start to absorb it and you'll need to add more. If you don't have a torch, you can brûlée the tops under a very hot broiler, placing the custards no farther than 4" from the heating element and burning the sugar as quickly as possible. Watch them closely and be careful not to get them too hot, or you will end up overcooking the custard and destroying the smooth texture. Chill at least 10 minutes more to let the caramelized sugar harden, or up to a day, before serving.

Bacon Mustard Vinaigrette

2008-01-04T17:06:00.000-07:00

I mentioned that in December I catered a meal for a friend of mine, and I so wanted to pass along my recipe for Bacon Mustard Vinaigrette that the chicken was topped with, since it's delicious, especially in large quantities, but I completely forgot about it until tonight. While we just cooked the chicken breasts huddled together in pans on the stovetop for the party, I recommend this sauce for a roasted chicken, either a pan roasted breast with skin and bone or as a dressing for an entire roast chicken. No matter how you choose to serve it, though, I hope you're as happy with it as I am.

By the way, when I next make it, I'll post a picture of the finished product for you.

Yes, it's very high in fat. While it's good in mass quantities, it's also good as a little drizzle.

Bacon Mustard Vinaigrette

1/4 lb. bacon
3/4 T. Dijon mustard
3/4 T. stone ground mustard
2 T. honey
1 1/2 T. maple syrup
3/4 c. olive oil
1/3 c. white wine vinegar
1/2 T. shallots
1/2 T. garlic
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Dice the bacon and fry it up in a pan until just getting crispy. Remove the bacon to paper towel, reserve the bacon fat.

To your blender, add the bacon fat, 2 mustards, honey, maple syrup, vinegar, shallots, garlic, a generous pinch of salt, and a few turns of pepper. Blend until thoroughly combined, then - with blender running - slowly add the olive oil. Taste. If it's a bit too tart, add 1-2 T. more olive oil and a touch more honey and syrup. Season with additional salt and pepper as desired and pour into a dish. Stir in the bacon.

Serve over chicken. Dee-lish!

Roasted Garlic Soup

2008-01-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

You may think from the title of this post that this is some ordinary soup you might like when it's snowy or rainy outside. You're right. This soup is so good when it's cold outside, and it's my favorite soup of all time. It's also absolutely delicious and appropriate in late spring or summer, with its bright flavors matched with the warmth of a rich broth and sweet, slow-roasted garlic. In fact, this soup is fantastic everyday, though I recommend only having it about twice a week, so you can try other things in between.

The other very nice thing about this soup is that it's a cinch to prepare and crowd-pleasing, since you add almost all the ingredients at the table and can cater to individual tastes (very handy with children, you know).

Did I mention this is my very favorite soup? It leaves you feeling satisfied but not heavy, since the protein from the chicken and creaminess from the avocado and feta cheese fill you up, but the tomatoes, cilantro, and lime lift the palate with some of the best south-of-the-border flavor combinations. The dish is similar to one found in Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless, the great source for Mexican cuisine, but I've altered it fairly significantly to my tastes. I like the clear broth while Chef Bayless instructs you to stir an egg in at the end to make it nice and creamy. I also like the taste of a fresh cheese, while he recommends dry Jack or Parmesan. And he puts the roasted garlic olive oil to use by making croutons, which is a lovely addition but not necessary if you're going for a quick meal.

There's not much more to say, since it's a very simple dish, so I'll get right to the recipe, but you should try this soon.

Roasted Garlic Soup
my adaptation from Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless

1 roasted chicken - rotisserie from the store is a fabulous choice here
1 head garlic
3/4 c. olive oil
4 to 6 Roma tomatoes
1 to 2 avocadoes, ripe but still a bit firm
1 lime, wedged or cut in half
6 to 8 sprigs cilantro, chopped
1/2 c. feta cheese (or queso fresco)
Kosher salt

Remove the chicken from the bones and refrigerate. Set the remaining chicken pieces - bones, skin, etc. - in a pot and just cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 to 4 hours, whatever you have time for.

Remove the skin or paper from all of the garlic cloves and slice them into 1/8" pieces. Bring the olive oil with the garlic to a slight simmer in a small saucepan over very low heat. Simmer for 15 minutes, being sure to maintain the slight simmer without the oil coming to a full boil or cooling off too much. This is the most difficult part of the process, but it shouldn't be too bad. After 15 minutes, check to see if the garlic is nice and soft. If not, cook for about another 5 minutes, but don't brown the garlic as this will form a crust on the outside that you do not want for this dish.

Strain the olive oil from the garlic, return the garlic to the saucepan and add 4 to 6 cups of the chicken stock you've just made. Taste (carefully...it's very hot) for salt. Keep this over low heat just long enough to prepare the other ingredients.

Warm about 2 cups of the chicken in a serving dish. Chop the tomatoes and avocados and set them in small dishes, as well as the lime, cheese, and cilantro.

To serve, have each individual fill theirPublish Post bowl with a bit of all of the items, including a squeeze of lime, and top with a couple ladles full of soup. Serves 4.

Enjoy!