After some research (there are a lot of great vegan resources out there), I settled on this brownie recipe from Food.com. It’s pretty straightforward and baked up nicely. (Apparently, sometimes vegan baked goods have trouble setting up.) We made a double batch and they were a hit. Here’s the recipe:

Vegan Brownies

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup unbleached white flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips (I forget the name of the brand we used, but it was a blue bag. FYI: I’m told to avoid carob chips at all costs, so stick with chocolate. Also, we amped up the chocolate and put in close to a full cup. Mmm, chocolate.)

1/3 cup walnut pieces

dash cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8″ x 8″ pan with oil.

Mix applesauce, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the applesauce mixture. Mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Spread in prepared pan and bake 25-30 min, until center is firm and not sticky. Cool completely before slicing.

The brownies turned out great and, like the reviews say, people actually asked for the recipe. Next time, I’ll actually remember to take a picture!

Apparently, nocino is an old school green walnut liqueur and it’s very easy to make at home. All it took was one quick glance at the giant walnut tree outside my window and I decided to make some for myself. I have no idea how the stuff tastes, but everything that goes into it seems pretty reasonable and leads me to believe it’ll be delicious when it’s finally ready.

I found this recipe for nocino, but ended up with slightly different measurements since I didn’t want to do a full batch. Here’s what I did:

Nocino (Walnut Liqueur)

15 unripe green walnuts, rinsed and chopped into quarters (NB: the walnuts will stain, so be careful when cutting)

750 mL vodka

6 whole cloves

1 inch of whole vanilla bean

1 stick of cinnamon

zest from 1/2 lemon, peeled with a vegetable peeler so as to only get the yellow part

1-1/4 cups of granulated sugar

I actually put this whole thing into two big canning jars, since I didn’t have a big enough jug. This required me to use more vodka than the other recipe, so we’ll see how that turns out. I found a couple of other nocino recipes online that called for a stiffer mix, so I think it’ll be fine.

You’re supposed to give the jars a shake every day to mix the contents and help infuse the flavors. After six weeks of steeping, strain the solids out of the liqueur and pour it into individual bottles.

I read that the stuff is really undrinkable until it’s at least a year old, so I’m planning on aging it at least that long before I crack into it. When I do, though, I’m envisioning using it in desserts (perhaps tiramisu or something that normally calls for another alcohol).

Here are my finished jars, waiting to age and turn into delicious, dark nocino liqueur:

Have you ever tried nocino? Have you ever made your own liqueurs before – and if so, do you have any tips to share??

For cake decorating class this week, I decided to go with a 4th of July theme (finished pictures to come). I baked a red velvet cake and designed a white frosting with red and blue flowers motif. I’m getting a little sick of buttercream, though, so I saved some of the cream cheese frosting from last week’s carrot cake debacle to have with my red velvet scraps. (When prepping a cake for decorating, you have to level it by cutting off the tops of the layers – resulting in delicious taste tests of your cake.)

Here’s the mini red velvet cake I made out of the scraps:

Isn’t it cute? And so delicious – the other scraps were put to good use taste testing. :)

I’ve made red velvet from scratch before and it’s kind of a lot of work, so these days I usually use a mix (Duncan Hines, this time). The super simple cream cheese frosting is my late Aunt Vivian’s recipe, though, and it’s just about perfect. I topped the little cake with some blueberries from the freezer to make it a red, white, and blue cake!

Aunt Vivian’s Cream Cheese Frosting

6 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

pinch of salt

splash of vanilla extract

1 lb powdered sugar

Mix the first four ingredients together, then slowly add in the powdered sugar until it’s all incorporated. Mix on medium speed until the frosting is smooth and fluffy. Spread on cooled cake or cupcakes & store in the fridge.

Wouldn’t this be a great treat for the Fourth of July? Are you making anything red, white & blue themed for your holiday fare?

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the first three ingredients until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Form soft 1″ balls of dough (they won’t spread much when baking, so make them nice and smooth when forming them). Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes (mine took 14 mins). Cool and enjoy with a frosty glass of milk!

Do you have friends with gluten sensitivities? What do you like to bake for them?

Of course, I took it upon myself to introduce her to the colorful, jiggly world of Jell-o shots. I decided to class the experience up a bit, though. No flimsy paper cups here. We went for class with a capital C – vitamin C, that is. Behold the citrusy wonder of orange wedge Jell-o shots.

If you want to make your own fancy pants Jell-o shooters, I found this very useful guide for making them. (I also appreciated the editorializing.) Just sub in vodka for the cold water in your Jell-o recipe (depending on the desired strength of your finished wedges, you can sub in anywhere from 1/2 vodka to all vodka). If you’re looking for other alcohol infused Jell-o shot recipes, check out the list here.

You could even – gasp! – make these without alcohol in them for a fun kid-friendly treat. Or just give the kids the leftover oranges from your swanked up adult Jell-o shooters. That’s a win-win!

This recipe comes via my good friend Joanna – who, incidentally, is getting married in a few short weeks – woohoo!! I believe Jo got it from her friend Tina and I’m not sure of the origins beyond that. So, if you know, please clue me in; I’d love to give credit where credit is due. Jo won our friends’ annual bake-off a couple of years ago with this recipe, that’s how good it is. I’ve been meaning to share it here ever since.

I made this cake over the weekend and served it with sliced fresh strawberries and whipped cream. It was the perfect balance of sweet and not-too-sweet, rich and not-too-rich. Delicious! Here’s the recipe:

Sour Cream and Lemon Pound Cake

3 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 eggs, room temperature

1/4 lemon juice

1 Tablespoon lemon zest (I love my microplaner for zesting lemons)

1 cup sour cream

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. The best kind of pan for this cake is an angel food cake pan, because the recipe makes a fairly sizable cake and the structure of the angel food pan will make baking and removal easier. Prep your pan by spraying with nonstick food spray, then dusting with a little flour, then spraying again. (Make sure you do this! Nothing is sadder than having a perfectly good cake get stuck in a pan.)

Sift flour, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time until just combined. Add lemon juice and zest. Mix in dry ingredients. Mix in sour cream. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 90 minutes, until cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. With a sharp knife, release cake edges from pan. Give the cake a shake to loosen and then release right side up onto your cake plate. Cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.

Note: do not refrigerate this cake, as it will dry out and turn hard. Stays fresh covered at room temperature for a few days (if it lasts that long!).

My version didn’t come together quite as smoothly as the demonstration (I pounded out boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of using prepared cutlets), but it still tasted great. We ate our stuffed chicken breasts with oven roasted asparagus and Grace Baking garlic bread (one of my favorites – it has whole garlic cloves baked into it).

Here’s the recipe and some pictures:

Italian-Style Stuffed Chicken Breasts (a.k.a. “Chicken Rollatini” from Gina’s Skinny Recipes)

8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz each (or 4 chicken breasts butterflied and pounded thin)

1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs (if you have plain, just crumble in some dried basil, oregano, etc.)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided

6 tablespoons egg whites, divided

5 oz frozen spinach, squeezed dry of any liquid (I sauteed one bunch of fresh spinach with some garlic and chopped onion)

6 tbsp part skim ricotta cheese

6 oz part skim mozzarella, divided (you’ll want a couple of ounces in your filling and one round of mozzarella to melt on top of each piece of chicken)

olive oil non-stick spray

2 cups marinara sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly spray a baking dish with non-stick spray. Wash and dry cutlets and season with salt and pepper.

Combine breadcrumbs and 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese in one bowl. Put 4 tbsp egg whites in another. Shred 2 oz of mozzarella cheese and combine with remaining Parmesan, spinach (make sure it’s dry if you’re using thawed spinach), 2 tbsp egg whites, and ricotta cheese.

Lay chicken cutlets down on a working surface and spread 2 tbsp of spinach-cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one and keep seam side down. Dip chicken in egg mixture, then in breadcrumbs and place seam side down in a baking dish (no toothpicks needed). Repeat with the remaining chicken. When finished, lightly spray with olive oil.

Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven, top with sauce then cheese. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbling, about 3 more minutes. Serve immediately.

This dish is kind of like chicken parmesan and lasagna had a love child; without the pasta, but with all the flavor!

I had a craving for homemade tortillas a couple of days ago and decided to make some last night to go with the fajitas I was having for dinner. Tortillas are not as hard to make as one would think – only a handful of ingredients – but they require a fair amount of finesse. Mine are never as thin or perfectly round as my mother’s but what I lack in finesse I make up for in appreciation.

My tortillas are more reminiscent of my Nana’s tortillas, fat and fluffy. My grandmother is past her tortilla-making days now, but when I was little I used to love to watch her roll out tortillas. Instead of a rolling pin, she had a piece of a metal pipe that she would roll over the dough a few times, and with one deft movement plop the thick tortillas onto the cast iron comal. Tortillas cook fast and a few seconds later she’d have one off the stove and wrapped up with butter, tucked into a napkin, and in my hot little hand. There was not a better treat or one made with more love.

Here is our family’s recipe for homemade flour tortillas:

Flour Tortillas

2 cups unsifted flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup vegetable shortening (or lard – just go with it)

1/2 cup lukewarm water

Mix your dry ingredients together and then cut your shortening in with a pastry blender or a couple of forks. Once your dough is crumbly, gradually mix in the water. Use your hands to finish mixing the dough and knead it for a couple of minutes. You can cook your tortillas right away, but your dough will be easiest to handle if you let it rest for a while – cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours or up to 24 hours.

Divide your (rested) dough into 8 equal sized balls. You’ll want to simultaneously be rolling and cooking, so heat your comal or flat pan to medium-low heat. Roll your tortillas on a lightly floured surface, aiming for a round shape (good luck with that!). You should also have a tortilla warmer or a cozy for them to go into as they come off the stove so that they stay warm until you can eat them.

I find that it’s easiest to roll one and then put it on the griddle and then go back to rolling the next one. You have to keep a close eye on them though, because they need less than a minute or so per side (flip once the first side has started to very lightly brown).

It’s a fast process once you get the hang of it and you’ll have 8 fresh, delicious flour tortillas to show for it. You may never want to eat store-bought tortilla’s again!

I first tried wine jelly at the Boston Wine Expo a couple of years ago and was intrigued by the concept of turning such a nuanced, complex flavor profile like wine into a sweet preserve. Particularly since you can use different kinds of wine to get different flavors and pretty colors. Since then, I’ve only seen wine jelly once – at a farmer’s market in my wine-soaked hometown. Both times, I really liked it.

I’d heard that it’s fine to use not-great wine for jelly, since the sugar will improve the flavor a lot. So, when I came across a bottle of wine that I knew I didn’t love, I immediately thought of turning into something I’d actually want to consume. I used a red blend from California – a little too rough on the palate in its original form – to make a batch of fantastic jelly.

(Side note: I used my tag cutter and an old Snow & Graham calendar to make pretty little labels. Cute, no?)

The recipe is pretty basic, I used this one from eHow and it came out great. Here it is with my notes:

Wine Jelly

3-1/2 cups (approx one 750ml bottle, plus a splash or two) of wine

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 oz package of dry pectin

4-1/2 cups granulated sugar

First,  you need to clean and sterilize enough jars (with new lids) to hold approximately 52 oz of finished jelly. I made 6 standard 8oz jars of jelly plus a couple of little jars. Keep your jars in the hot water after boiling so that they’ll stay up to the temperature of the hot jelly. I also simmered my lids for a few minutes to sterilize them and soften the glue rings.

In a tall, heavy pot (trust me, you don’t want hot sticky splatters coming up at you when you’re making jelly), stir together your wine, lemon juice, and pectin. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Add your sugar one cup at a time, stirring after each addition so that the sugar thoroughly dissolves into the mixture. Once all your sugar has been added, bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Boil at this temperature for one full minute, stirring constantly (this helps keep the mixture from boiling over and/or getting too foamy).

Remove your jelly from the heat and skim off any foam that may have accumulated on the top. Quickly dry off your jars and lids and place them on a thick kitchen towel. (You can turn the pot of water back up at this point, so it’s ready to go for your sealing boil.) Fill jars up to 1/2 inch from the top with hot jelly. Wipe any spilled jelly off of the rims and threads with a clean cloth and place the lid and ring on each jar, tightening by hand.

Put your filled and closed jars back into the pot of water and boil for five minutes. Carefully remove them from the hot water and set them on your towel. As they cool, you’ll hear the lids pop as they create a seal. You can test their seal by pressing gently on the center of the lids (it may take a few minutes for the seal to happen, so don’t panic if they don’t audibly pop right away).

Voilà! You have delicious wine jelly to serve with cheese and crackers or as a glaze for desserts (or even some meat dishes). I’ve got plans to turn at least some of my wine jelly into a sweet filling for a brie en croute. Double French, double yum.

Look at that lovely color! I can’t wait to make more varieties, including a rosé jelly and a pinot noir jelly.

Would you try wine jelly? How would you serve it?

I love fried rice, but I’ve always been under the impression that it’s somehow hard to make. During grad school, I ordered fried rice from my local Thai restaurant whenever I was hungry and in a hurry for a hot meal. It was a godsend (to everything except maybe my sodium levels).

I was rummaging around in the fridge today, though, trying to figure out what to make for lunch and decided to get brave with some leftover white rice. After searching online, I thought that this recipe from Epicurious was the most approachable. Here’s my version:

Fried Rice

2 cups leftover steamed rice

1/4 onion, chopped into long strips

1 garlic clove, mashed or diced

1/4 bell pepper, chopped into chunks

1 small carrot, peeled and diced

1/3 cup frozen peas

1 egg

1/3 cup cooked chicken (I had a half of a grilled chicken breast in the fridge)

1 slice of ham, diced (I just used thinly sliced sandwich meat)

vegetable oil for cooking

soy sauce, salt, and pepper for seasoning

Heat a large pan or wok to a medium heat. Add enough oil to coat and toss in your garlic and onion. Stirfry until the onion is almost translucent; add in the rest of your veggies about halfway through (cook just until tender but still a little al dente). Transfer your cooked vegetables to a plate and set aside.

Add more oil to your hot pan and toss in your rice, breaking up any clumps. Heat the rice for a couple of minutes and then add in the egg, stirring together. While the egg is still wet, add in your meat and return the vegetables to the pan. Toss it all together for a minute or so, seasoning with salt and pepper and a splash or two of soy sauce. Serve it up and enjoy!

See, that wasn’t so hard!

I know, right? Amazeballs, as the kids would say. I made them, but you’ll have to just take my word for it because I didn’t get around to snapping any photos. However, they were monstrous and I named them Cannibal Cookies because they seemed to me like one cookie had eaten another cookie for lunch.

And then, I was zooming around Pinterest and I saw these:

Even more amazing in the chocolate-to-chocolate ratio of dessert-y things. These brownies inspired instant “nom-nom-nom”-ing inside my head. The creators of these brownies went a step further than just baking Oreos into their brownies, they also baked in ice cream, hot fudge, and chocolate chips. Hello, insulin shot, anyone?

I scaled it back a bit for simplicity’s sake and merely baked the leftover Oreos I had from the above-mentioned Cannibal Cookies into a Ghirardelli double chocolate brownie mix. And thus, these delicious treats were born:

Hello, beautiful! I think the Oreos actually helped keep the brownies together (I sometimes have problems with too gooey soft brownies, as if there is such a thing) and they were amazing. The recipe is, literally: make a brownie mix, pour half of it in your pan, lay whole Oreos down, pour the rest of the batter in, bake. And then try not to inhale the whole pan in one warm, chocolate-y sitting.

As an aside, I feel like both of these deliciously over-indulgent desserts and/or the whole more-is-more dessert trend going on right now is in some way attributable to Bake It in a Cake. If you haven’t checked it out yet, go. And just try not to drool.

The recipe is from my friend Lois, who made thumbprint cookies around the holidays. Her thumbprint cookies were probably the best  I’d ever had and she graciously shared the recipe with me. I did a double thumb press to make the hearts (aided by a tiny little spoon, since my thumbprints weren’t deep enough by the time the cookies finished baking) and filled them with strawberry preserves. Delicious and delightful!

Lois’s Thumbprint Cookies

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg, separated

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour, sifted

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Jelly, jam, or preserves of your choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Add flour and salt, mix well. Form dough into small (1″ or smaller) balls. Dip each ball into lightly beaten egg white and then roll in the chopped nuts. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and press your thumb into the center of each cookie. Bake 12-15 minutes. Allow cookies to cool and then fill thumbprint with jelly.

The cookies rose a bit while baking, so I went back when they were done and smashed the prints down a little with the back of my small spoon to make the well a little bigger. As you can see in the photo, I made the imprints deep enough so that they would hold a heart shape when filled.

The finished product is a perfect Valentine’s treat!

First, I made my go-to mini cheesecakes. Except  instead of doing the usual glazed fruit topping, I channeled some more of that indoor sunshine craving and made my own lemon curd. Yow, that stuff is good! I’ve only had lemon curd once or twice before, but I am pretty addicted now that I’ve tried homemade. The name doesn’t do the gooey, citrus creme justice – “curd” just doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as this stuff tastes!

Here’s the cheesecake recipe (it’s very simple and easy):

Mini Cheesecakes

2 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese (you can use low-fat without losing much flavor)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

18 ‘Nilla Wafers

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners (recipe makes approx 18 cheesecakes, in my family we use the shiny silver liners to glam up this dessert). Place 1 vanilla wafer cookie in each lined cup.

Mix ingredients (cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and sugar) with an electric hand mixer until the batter is smooth. Fill each cup 2/3 full with filling. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool.

For topping the cooled cheesecakes, I usually use canned cherry pie filling. The glazed fruit looks pretty and fills the indentation that forms in the center of each cheesecake when they cool. However, I’m on a citrus kick and wanted to make a more seasonally appropriate dessert.

As a kid, there was a bakery in our town that made a delicious lemon cheesecake that my godmother would get for my brother’s birthday. It was a rich, dense cheesecake, frosted with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting and each slice was garnished with a piped swirl of lemon curd. Yum – the bright citrus flavor zinged across the tongue, cutting the richness of the cheesecake and leaving you craving more!

This thought was swirling in my head the other day when I caught the tail end of a Barefoot Contessa episode in which Ina Garten was making lemon curd. It looked so simple! So fresh and bright and delicious! So perfect for my citrus kick.

Her recipe is as easy as it looked. Here it is, reprinted from FoodNetwork.com (my notes are in italics):

Ina Garten’s Lemon Curd

3 lemons

1 – 1/2 cups sugar (I used superfine, because I knew I was going to have to make up for not having a food processor)

1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

4 extra large eggs

1/2 cup lemon juice (3 – 4 lemons)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Last week, I was craving said sunshine, so I made a sweet treat from a few oranges I had on hand.

Candied orange peel! Sweet and zesty – literally! Like natural gum drops.

Candying citrus peel is fairly easy (though I have seen some ridiculously complicated recipes out there). It involves peeling the outermost layer of skin off the fruit, blanching it a bunch of times, cooking it in simple syrup, drying, and then tossing in sugar. Candied peels can be eaten as is, dipped in dark chocolate (mmm, chocolate + orange), used to decorate baked goods, baked into things (mmm, citrus scones), and more.

My recipe is adapted from one on Epicurious.com and I originally used it to make candied grapefruit peel last winter. Here it is:

Candied Citrus Peel

2 small grapefruits, 3-4 oranges, or 4 lemons**

1 cup sugar (this is for the simple syrup)

1/2 cup water

1 cup superfine granulated sugar (this is for the coating)

**You can do more at once, just  increase the other ingredients roughly proportionally. This time, I actually did 5 oranges.

Here’s the Epicurious directions (my notes are in parenthesis):

With peel still on fruit, quarter peel lengthwise then remove, keeping pieces of peel intact. Reserve fruit for another use. Diagonally cut pieces of peel into 1/3-inch-wide strips. (Just get the peel off in somewhat large strips any way you can. Cut off any extra pith, as this will make the peel bitter. Don’t cut it too thinly, though, or your pieces will fall apart during the cooking process.)

Put peel in a 3-quart saucepan filled with cold water and bring slowly to a boil over moderate heat. Boil 1 minute and drain. Repeat procedure 4 times to remove bitterness. (You might be able to get away with doing it one less time if you’re using particularly sweet fruit.)

Have ready a lightly oiled large rack set in a shallow baking pan.

Bring regular granulated sugar and water to a boil in a large heavy skillet, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add peel and boil, stirring, until most of syrup is absorbed, about 10 minutes.

Turn out peel onto rack, separating pieces. Dry candied peel, uncovered, at room temperature until only slightly sticky, 4 to 8 hours. Toss, a few pieces at a time, in superfine sugar, shaking off excess.

Cooks’ notes: • If sugar syrup begins to crystallize on peel, turn out of skillet immediately. Peel will still be good but will have a different appearance and won’t need a sugar coating. • Candied peel keeps in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week or chilled 1 month. If chilled peel becomes too moist, pat dry and reroll in sugar.

Ta da – sweet, delicious citrus peel to bring in some sunshine!

I packaged my candied orange peels in these cute little apothecary jars I got at Michaels (small jars) and the Crate & Barrel Outlet (medium jars). They show off the bright, vibrant colors of the candied peel and preserve its freshness. Perfect for tucking into a care package or gift basket.

Cioppino (serves 6)

I recently recalled a braised leek dish that an old roommate made. It was actually a Persian recipe from her best friend’s mother and featured halved leeks braised in a chunky tomato sauce. And it was delicious! So, I scoured the web for an easy braised leek recipe and discovered this one by Hank Shaw on Simply Recipes. It’s simple and straight-forward and requires a few basic ingredients. Here’s my amended version:

Braised Leeks

3 whole leeks (make sure to choose ones with plenty of white on their stalks, because this is the part that tastes the best when cooked)

1 – 2 garlic cloves, minced

2 – 3 Tbsp. butter

dash of salt

1/2 tsp. dried thyme (or 1 tsp. fresh thyme)

pinch of sugar

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken stock (you can also use vegetable stock if you want to be veggie-friendly)

2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

Trim most of the green ends off of your leeks then slice lengthwise down the center of each, being careful not to slice all the way through the root end. Rinse thoroughly under cold water to remove dirt. Once they’re clean, you can finish the lengthwise cut to create 2 separate halves.

In a large pan (large enough to lay your leeks down in a single layer), melt your butter over medium heat until the butter starts to froth. Add the minced garlic and lay the leeks cut side down. Allow to brown for 1 – 2 minutes.

Carefully turn your leeks over (turning becomes a delicate process once they start cooking, because the layers want to come apart). Sprinkle with a little salt (give or take a bit depending on whether you’ve used unsalted or salted butter) and allow to cook for 1 – 2 minutes on the solid sides.

Gently turn leeks back over so that the cut sides are facing down again. Sprinkle with the sugar and thyme. Add in your liquids (you can substitute more of one for the other, as desired, but the half and half split tastes great) and the bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 25 – 35 minutes over medium-low heat.

When your leeks are tender enough that a knife easily slices into them, remove the lid and bring the liquid back up to a boil. Allow the braising liquid to reduce a bit then remove the pan from heat. Add in your chopped parsley for garnish and serve.

Here are my finished leeks:

The color is a little washed out, but let me tell you – they tasted amazing! The wine and garlic blended beautifully with the mild onion-y flavor of the leeks…mmm, delish.

I served the braised leeks with a succulent roasted chicken (tucking the leftover leek ends into the cavity for extra flavor) and butternut squash and kale lasagna. Aside from the massive stack of pots and pans I managed to go through, the meal was a resounding success!

I’m sharing my grandma’s bread pudding recipe this week because for some reason it seems appropriate for Christmas. Maybe it’s just the coziness of it or the fact that it reminds me of family. (My grandmother used to make it for my mom when she was sick, so it’s considered a special treat and I make it for my mom now if I’m around and she’s feeling under the weather.) It’s best made with cinnamon bread. In the Bay Area, my go-to is Semifreddi’s Cinnamon Twist Challah (mmm!), but any thick-sliced cinnamon bread will do. I’m also kind of anti-raisin when it comes to baked goods, so choose your bread based on your preferences.

Grandma’s Bread Pudding
6 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups milk
3 – 5 slices of bread (depends on how thick the bread is), cut into chunks
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
dash nutmeg and cinnamon
raisins, if desired

In a large bowl, lightly beat your eggs. Add in the sugar and milk and stir together. Add bread, nuts, and raisins and mix together. The bread should sop up quite a bit of the egg mixture but not too much or your pudding will be dry after cooking it.

Pour into a lightly greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake at 350 degrees “until a silver knife comes out clean.” (Grandma’s words….I’d say between 40 minutes and an hour, depending on the depth of your dish.)

Some alternatives to this recipe: you could add chunks of apple for a warm fruity treat; you could omit the bread and extras and just make a simple custard; or you could add a 1/2 cup of cooked rice instead of the bread to make rice pudding.

I hope this becomes a cozy treat for your family, too!

In my family, Christmas cookies are a bit non-traditional. We don’t do the whole sugar cookie or gingerbread thing. Instead, our traditions were set by my late Aunt Vivian, who used to mail us tins of cookies from Minnesota. Every year, Aunt Vivian made us candy-coated pretzels, peanut butter blossoms, and gingersnaps. Sometimes we’d also get Russian Tea Cakes (aka Mexican Wedding Cakes), fruitcake, or other treats. Aside from the fruitcake, it was a much anticipated shipment!

These days, I totally cheat and use a mix for the peanut butter blossoms. I find the bagged mix to be so much faster and less sticky (and less expensive, actually) than wrangling with a jar of fresh peanut butter. I bake the cookies according to the mix, then after they’re just out of the oven I smoosh an unwrapped Hershey’s kiss into the center of each one. Remove from the cookie sheet and let cool undisturbed for at least a couple of hours (it takes awhile for the chocolate to set).

The candy pretzels are just as easy. Simply melt white candy bark or melts in the microwave and quickly dip pretzel twists into it. Allow to cool/dry on a piece of waxed paper or aluminum foil.

(I only dipped half of each pretzel this time, to help cut the sweetness a bit.)

So those two items are quick and easy, barely any work involved. The gingersnaps are from scratch, though. Here is our legit family gingersnap recipe:

Gingersnaps

2 cups sugar

2 cups shortening (It’s an old recipe – what do you expect?)

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs

1/3 cup of light molasses (You can use dark, which you’ll see in the photo below. I just think the light looks better and less like a chocolate cookie.)

2 tsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

4 cups flour

Add ingredients in the order listed, mixing thoroughly. Roll 1″ balls of dough in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 11-13 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Makes several dozen cookies – you could easily halve the recipe if you’re not planning on shipping them to a bunch of relatives in other states. :)

I found these nice little baked goods boxes at the craft store and packaged the gingersnaps, peanut butter blossoms, and candy pretzels with some double chocolate cookies. Doesn’t that look like a tasty treat anyone would be happy to receive?

(Except subbing in the word ‘pomegranate’ for ‘peanut butter’. It’s the same syllables and everything. Pretty perfect.)

All the mental “Pomegranate Jelly Time” music is because I made pomegranate jelly today! I made pomegranate jelly once before several years ago in a hugely messy experiment with my dad which some white kitchen curtains didn’t survive. We managed to stain ourselves and our surroundings and break several kitchen implements in the process. But the jelly was awesome.

Cut to today when I, a little older, a little wiser, and a little more fearful of ruining things with pomegranate juice, made my second batch ever. And it was also awesome.

First, to clear up a couple of things for the canning-uninitiated. Jam is chunky, jelly is smooth. Got it? Jelly only uses the fruit juice, jam uses the pulp too. Pomegranates lend themselves to jelly, because they are very juicy and have little pulp aside from their million seeds.

Which leads me to the pomegranate juice extraction process…it’s a pain in the ass. Partly because you have to pick countless little gems of juicy arils (new word!) out of the spongy white pith in order to have anything to work with, and partly because said juice will stain everything in its path. I learned a new trick this time around, though, from an old canning cookbook. You score the fruit in quadrants (you should still do this in a sink you don’t mind getting a little dirty), then submerge the quadrants in a big bowl of water. You pick the arils out of the pith  under water, which prevents huge sprays of juice spatter from getting everywhere. The arils are heavy so they sink to the bottom, while the lightweight pith rises to the top to be skimmed off. I prepped about half of my pomegranates ahead of time, saving them in a covered bowl in the refrigerator.

To make one batch of jelly, I picked about 7 medium to large pomegranates. (I actually picked 8, but didn’t need it all so I’m saving the rest to put on a salad.) I juiced the arils in batches in a food mill.

Again, I was being mindful of the stain factor, so I jerry-rigged a lid of sorts for the food mill out of wax paper. Classy, no?

Once I got all the juice I needed, I prepped the jars and lids for canning. (This is a long and annoying process. Just be sure to follow the directions on your jar/lid packaging or on the pectin box. Sterile = safe.)

The actual jelly-making process was very quick. Here is my recipe:

Pomegranate Jelly

(makes 6 half pints)

3-1/2 cups of fresh pomegranate juice (You can take the easy way out and buy pomegranate juice at the store but it will lack the complexity and flavor of fresh!)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 package of powdered pectin (My original recipe called for 2 oz of pectin but the boxes at the store were all 1.75 oz. It turned out fine.)

4-1/2 cups of sugar (Don’t be shy, now! No skimping on the sugar or the jelly won’t set properly. Measure this all out before you start cooking.)

In a large, tall pot, combine the pomegranate juice, lemon juice, and pectin. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. (Apparently, you can add a little smidge of butter to your jelly if it gets too foamy as you cook it, but I didn’t need it for mine.) Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Quickly stir in your sugar and return to a full rolling boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and skim off any foam.

You can test for consistency at this point by dripping a bit of hot jelly onto a plate or spoon and sticking it in the fridge for a couple of minutes. If it gels up, you’re done. If it doesn’t, you may have just made syrup.

Ladle your hot jelly into prepared jars, filling to 1/8 inch from the top. (A wide-mouthed funnel is very useful for this process.) Wipe the rims and threads clean and cover with lids and screw on bands. Boil the jars in a big canning pot for 5 minutes, then remove from water and let cool on a towel. You’ll hear the lids pop as they seal (my favorite part!). Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place for up to one year.

I ended up with 6 finished, sealed jars of jelly and one half jar that I put in the fridge for immediate use.

Look at that ruby red color. Of course, I made sure to clean up the sticky, jelly pot with a big hunk of bread. It tastes amazing! It’s definitely pomegranate jelly time!

The other day she forwarded to me this quiz, a visual test of different kinds of sandwiches. I scored 24/25. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I’d like to credit my high school summer job of working at a deli with my initial sandwich education. Take it and let me know how you do…and what kind of sandwich you’re craving by the time you finish. :)

This is all a very long introduction to the topic at hand: the best sandwich ever. The Sporcle quiz may have inspired a few cravings after taking it, but I always crave what I consider to be the best sandwich in the world – fresh crab, bacon, and avocado on toasted wheat. Mmm. The ingredients are only available a short time each year, but the sandwich is worth the wait.

Crab season is in full swing right now (joy!) and I particularly enjoy Dungeness Crab, the real San Francisco treat. It’s far sweeter and more tender than other varieties of crab and virtually impossible to find out of season. My preferred crab for the C-B-A sandwich is, obviously, Dungeness. Fresh picked and lightly mixed with a little mayonnaise. Delicious all by itself but perfect accompanied by crisp, salty bacon and accented with creamy avocado slices. I like it on toasted wheat bread, but I think sourdough would be apropos, too. I keep mine unadulterated – no lettuce or tomato- and just a little smear of mayo on the bread. I like to let the main ingredients shine.

Tell me this doesn’t make your mouth water! What is your favorite kind of sandwich?

This recipe is pretty fool-proof. I know this because it’s the same recipe I’ve been using ever since we made it in class in the first grade (what’s up, Mrs. Yunker!). If a classroom full of 6-year olds can make it, you know it’s easy.

Pumpkin Bread (makes 2 full size loaves or about 6 mini loaves)

3-1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2/3 cup water

2 cups canned pumpkin

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients. Stir well. Pour into greased & floured loaf pans. Large loaves will take a little over an hour to bake and small (1 lb.) loaves will take about 45 minutes. Test for done-ness by sticking a toothpick into the center (few crumbs = done, batter or moisture = not done). Allow to cool slightly and then gently remove from pans and enjoy!

I love the idea of using mini loaf pans. I’m a fan of mini desserts in general (I absconded with my mom’s mini muffin tins years ago and have made hundreds of delicious mini cupcakes), because I like sharing my baked goods and having smaller serving sizes. For mini loaves in the past I’ve just used the disposable kind from the grocery store, but I just saw these mini loaf pans from William-Sonoma and they have me drooling about as much as my pumpkin bread does. Maybe the Christmas elves can whip together something similar. ;)

Sunday morning, I was shuffling around the kitchen half asleep when my eyes fell upon a big sack of potatoes and a huge bowl of apples, inspiring one of my favorite artery-clogging meals – potato pancakes with fresh applesauce. Now, I won’t even feign to call these latkes, even though that was the original inspiration, because they have some decidedly un-kosher ingredients: cheese and bacon. Mmm. The method is very much the same, though. Here’s the gist:

(Forgive the fuzzy photo – I took this as an afterthought using my phone. Notice the nice sheen of oil on the plate!)

Bacon & Cheddar Potato Pancakes

4 medium – large potatoes, washed & peeled

2 – 3 green onions, chopped (you could substitute an equivalent amount of chives, if you have ‘em handy)

1/4 white onion, finely minced

2 eggs

1 tablespoon flour or matzo meal

1/2 lb. bacon, cooked and diced

1/2 – 2/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

salt & pepper to taste (really, this is a trial and error process, you’ll have to fry at least one pancake to test)

lots of vegetable oil

Grate the potatoes into a large bowl with a little water in it. Keeping the potatoes somewhat submerged will help prevent discoloration due to oxidization. You don’t want to use too much water, though, or you’ll end up rinsing away a lot of the starch when you drain the water off. After you’re arm is putty and you’re done grating the potatoes, carefully drain the water out of the bowl. (You can remove more moisture by gently patting with paper towels.) Add the eggs, onions, seasonings, flour, bacon and cheese, and stir to combine.

Heat about an inch of oil in a pan until an appropriate frying temperature. (I test the temperature by carefully dripping one drop of water in the pan – when it spits back angrily, it’s ready.) Drop the mixture by large tablespoonfuls into the oil to form individual patties. I aim for patties that are about 3″ in diameter. Flip once or twice until both sides are golden brown and crispy. Remove and drain on a paper towel covered plate. You can keep the pancakes warm while you cook the rest of the batch by sticking the plate in a 200 degree oven in-between rounds. You may need to add additional oil and allow to reheat as you cook, since the pancakes will be absorbing some of it. Serve with applesauce (see below), sour cream, or ketchup. Makes about 16 pancakes.

Applesauce

6 – 8 apples, peeled, cored (wisdom says that some varieties are better than others to use for cooking, but to be honest I’m pretty indiscriminate)

water or apple juice

sugar to taste

cinnamon

Applesauce is super easy to make and it makes the house smell amazing. Measurements are totally dependent on how sweet your apples are and how much you like cinnamon. Cut your prepped apples into large chunks and cook over medium high heat in a large pot with about an inch of water or apple juice in it. (The apple juice will help sweeten the sauce, so if you use that instead of water you may not need to add any sugar.) Stir periodically as the apples cook down. Add several hearty shakes of cinnamon and sugar, as desired. When the apples are thoroughly softened, mash with a potato masher or large fork. Serve warm. Preferably with bacon-cheddar potato pancakes!

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:
4 – 5 leeks, chopped and rinsed (discard the roots & greens)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3/4 stick of butter
4 – 5 potatoes, all but one or two should be peeled, all diced
1 cup chopped cauliflower
5 – 6 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper

The trick to prepping leeks is to chop off the top green parts and the very bottom by the roots. Then run your knife lengthwise down the stalk to cut it in half. Line up your halves side by side and chop into small pieces. Put the chopped leeks into a bowl of cool water and swirl and swish around to remove any dirt or dust. (Dirt usually manages to find its way into every little fold and layer of the leek.) Remove the leeks from the bowl with your hands, leaving the dirty water behind!

For the soup, saute the chopped leeks and garlic in half of the butter over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, or until leeks are tender. Add the chicken broth, cauliflower, potatoes, and bay leaf. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Remove the bay leaf. Add salt & pepper to taste. Blend 2/3 of the mixture and add it back into the pot (the combo of chunky and creamy lends a nice consistency).

Add the rest of the butter for a little richness. This soup tastes great as leftovers, too. It’s perfect for making a big batch and savoring it over a couple of days.

Now, here’s a shot of our yummy lunch:

Bacon mac and cheese and dijon vinaigrette salad, with chai blondies and Noe Valley Bakery cupcakes for dessert! Lilly made the blondies and they were delicious – butterscotch chips, coconut, and macadamia nuts in a tasty spiced blondie base. She’s promised to send the recipe, so I’ll be sure to share that soon. The cupcakes were also great. NVB makes these awesome classed-up Hostess cupcake knock-offs called Mostess cupcakes. Mmm, so good! Heaven!

The salad was a nice combo of crispy cabbage, tender greens, and crunchy carrots, cucumbers and apples. Perfect alongside the richness of the bacon mac and cheese.

The macaroni recipe is a spruced up version of the basic Joy of Cooking baked macaroni and cheese recipe. I’ve made it so many times, I have it memorized (though the bacon was a new addition).

Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

8 ounces of your preferred style of macaroni noodles (I like rotini because they hold the cheese nicely but orechietti or elbows would also work well)

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

1/2 onion, diced

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/2 to 3/4 cup frozen peas

2 and 1/4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (Or more, if you like cheese! Also, consider trying different kinds of cheese to add new flavors. I added some Manchego I had on hand this time, but other hard or semi-soft cheese are delicious, too!)

salt & pepper to taste

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

5 slices of cooked bacon (this lends a smokey flavor, I think pancetta would do well if you want the saltiness without the smoke), diced

Bring 6 cups water and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt to rolling boil in medium saucepan. Add pasta and cook until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, about 3 minutes. This will be the thickener for your sauce. Gradually whisk in milk. Stir in onion, bay leaf and paprika. Simmer gently, stirring often, for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 cups cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove bay leaf. Stir in frozen peas, cooked bacon, and prepared noodles. Pour half of mixture into greased, deep 9″x9″ baking dish and sprinkle with half of remaining cheese. Top with remaining noodles and remaining cheese.

Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in small skillet over medium heat. Add bread crumbs and toss to coat. Sprinkle buttered crumbs over top of macaroni. Bake at 350F. until bread crumbs are lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Yum!

Now for the obligatory photo of my ridiculously cute niece in her Halloween costume. Adorbz!

And feel free to admire the fanciest Halloween pumpkins my crew has ever carved. I made the bat on the end. I didn’t get the cat memo, apparently. Oh well, at least they rhyme. :)

The quince paste recipe came from an old Mexican cookbook, then altered by my dad (the recipe was in English, yet he still found a way to reinterpret it!). Regardless, it’s an error he’s made many times over and it still yields tasty results.

Quince Paste

6 medium to large quinces, washed, peeled, cored, and sliced into large chunks. (This number is totally arbitrary, the recipe pretty much just has you match equivalent amounts of cooked down quince and sugar. I used 6 quinces today and yielded about 6 cups of pulp when cooked.) Note: quinces can be a pain to peel. They’re really dry, so it’s kind of like trying to peel a sawdust fruit. Do your best, I don’t think it’s the end of the world if you miss some spots.

water to boil (just about an inch over the level of the cut up quinces)

6 cups of sugar (or, as I said, equivalent to the number of cups of cooked pulp you’re using)

Using an extra large tall-sided pot, boil the quince chunks in water until tender, approximately 30 minutes. Drain off the liquid (this is the controversial bit from the recipe to my dad’s translation) and then run the softened chunks through a Foley Food Mill to mash the fruit and remove any solids.

In the same cooking pot, stir together 2 cups of the quince pulp and 2 cups of sugar. The tall pot is crucial here, as is an oven mitt, because the quince will spit and splatter as it cooks. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently and scraping down the sides of the pot to prevent sugar crystals from forming on the sides.

The mixture will darken to a pinkish-brown color and thicken noticeably. The mixture is done when the quince paste is thick and starts to pull together a bit as you stir it, approximately 25 minutes. Spoon at once into loaf pans or small trays to cool. Repeat cooking process with the remaining pulp and sugar until done. You don’t need to rinse the pot out in-between and you probably shouldn’t do more than 2 cups per go-round to avoid bubbling over. (With my 6 quinces today, I ended up with 3 batches.)

Allow to cool. The candy can be removed from the pans, wrapped with plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator. Enjoy with a nice, nutty Spanish cheese!

Next, I made quince jam. That process was even more time consuming, as canning requires several steps to sterilize the jars and lids. I used a recipe from Simply Recipes and followed canning instructions from the canning lids packaging. Here’s the recipe:

Quince Jam

6 cups (packed) of quince, washed, grated (discard cores, leave peel on), from about 2 lbs of quince (about 5 – 6 quince)
4 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest
4 cups sugar

Prepare the quince by washing and cutting in half. Working around the core, grate the quince flesh (including the peel) with a cheese grater, until you have about 6 cups of grated quince. Put water in a large, wide, thick-bottomed saucepan (6-8 quarts) and bring to a boil. Add the grated quince, lemon juice and lemon zest. Reduce heat and simmer until the quince is soft, about 10 minutes.

Add the sugar and bring to a boil again. Stir to dissolve all of the sugar. Lower the heat to medium high. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally until quince jam turns pink and thickens to desired consistency, about 30-50 minutes. Ladle into hot, sterilized canning jars* and seal. Before applying the lids, sterilize the lids by placing them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. Wipe the rims of the jars clean before applying the lids.

* To sterilize the jars, rinse out the jars, dry them, and place them, without lids, in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes, or boil in a canning container or large pot for 10 minutes. Follow instructions on the lid packaging for sterilizing and prepping lids and rings. Keep both lids and jars in very hot water until ready to use.

Makes about 5 half-pints. Note: Mine made about 8 half-pints somehow, so you may want to prep extra jars and lids, just in case.

Aren’t my little tags cute? I’ve actually never had quince jam before, but I can’t wait to try it out! Maybe after I take a shower to rinse all the extra sugar off of me, though.

Lentil Soup

1/2 lb. dry lentils

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large link of turkey sausage (I usually keep one of those turkey kielbasa rings in the freezer and chop up about 1/4 to 1/3 of it for this soup)

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 garlic clove, finelyminced

4 cups of chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste (you probably won’t need much, if any, salt depending on your broth and meat choices)

Sort and rinse your lentils.  In a medium to large saucepan, heat the oil over medium  heat.  Stir in the sausage, onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and saute until tender.  Add the lentils and broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the lentils are tender and soup thickens up (about 1 hour).  (Keep an eye on your water level and add more as needed.)  Serves 3-4.

I lived off of this soup last winter. It’s the perfect thing to have on the stove when it’s cold out!

In addition, I made an awesome chicken pot pie the other night. This was after roasting a couple of chickens the night before – one for eating and one for the pot pie.

Recipe: Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken, innards removed, bird rinsed and dried
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 lemon
1/2 onion, in large chunks
several garlic cloves, peeled
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into chunks
2-4 Tbsp butter, slightly softened

My recipe for roasted chicken is very simple. I just mix some herbs and spices (salt, pepper, sage, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder) and rub them under the skin, directly on the meat. Then, I stuff the cavity with fresh lemon wedges, and large chunks of onion, garlic, carrots and celery. I tie up the legs to keep all that stuff inside the bird, then rub the outside with butter. I roast the chicken in a 375 degree oven for a bit on its back, then flip it over to let the breast meat collect some of those pan juices, flipping again another third of the way cooking to help brown up the skin again. Cooking time will vary based on the size of your bird, but mine were about 4-5 lbs each and took approximately an hour and forty minutes to cook.  The rotation helped the white meat get nice and flavorful without drying out. Yum!

Recipe: Chicken Pot Pie

The chicken pot pie was a first for me – I cribbed a recipe I found online and made some of my own modifications based on my tastes. First, I stripped the meat off the extra roasted chicken and set aside the cooked veggies from the cavity (so long, lemon!). I diced the chicken and vegetables, along with some new vegetables (carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, potatoes). I melted 3 – 4 tablespoons of butter and sauteed the uncooked carrots, onion, and celery until they were slightly softened. I added in about 1/2 of a cup of flour and stirred a few minutes until the butter and flour formed a thick paste. (If you’ve ever made a roux before, this should all be familiar.) I added about 1/2 cup of white wine (I happened to have some open Viognier in the fridge that smelled great while cooking and enhanced the flavor nicely). With the roux and the wine and all, the recipe kind of reminded me of a cross between macaroni and cheese and a risotto. Either direction, I knew it had to be good!

I added a couple of cans (approx. 30 oz total) of chicken broth to the pot and let it cook down until the sauce started to thicken. I added finely diced potatoes, frozen peas, and some fresh chopped parsley, and let the mixture cook down some more. When the sauce reached the desired thickness, I added in the chicken and cooked vegetables, seasoned with pepper and salt to taste, then let the whole thing cool a bit.

While the pot part of the pot pie cooled, I prepared the pie part. Now, you could totally go the easy route here and get a pre-made crust or some refrigerator crescent rolls or puff pastry or something. I’m definitely not going to judge, since making pastry can be a pain in the you-know-what. The pastry that the original recipe called for was okay, but not great. The recipe made twice what I needed and I thought the finished product was a little dry and crumbly, so I’m not going to bother writing it in here. You go with whatever you like best. Personally, I’m going to go for my mom’s meatloaf pastry crust next time – which reminds me, I’m going to have to share that recipe with you!

Scoop all your delicious pot pie filling into an oven-safe dish and lay the pastry dough over it, cutting slits to vent. Cook in the top 1/3 of a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until your pastry is golden brown. Let it rest for a few minutes so you don’t burn your tongue, then dig in! With a nice side salad, it’s a hearty fall meal perfect for the cooling weather.

Ohmysweetnothings, these are good cookies! Look at all those delicious crags of nuts and chocolate!

I’m meeting up with friends tonight to watch a play that one of them stage managed and we’re having a little potluck picnic beforehand. I have a bottle of pinot to share and wanted to make something chocolate-y to go with it. Voila, these decadently sweet double chocolate cookies! The recipe is new to me, but clipped from a Hershey’s advertisement many moons ago. Here it is, with my notes:

Hershey’s Doubly Chocolate Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa – of course, the recipe specifies Hershey’s ;)

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (can you guess which brand?)

1/2 coarsely chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. In another bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt. Mix dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until just set. Cool slightly on pan, remove to wire racks. Cool completely before storing. Makes 4-1/2 dozen cookies.

My notes: I halved the recipe, since I have no need for quite so many cookies (want, maybe, but not need!). Instead of plain chocolate chips, I used a combination of peanut butter chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips (I only had mini, so the result is that you get little bits of chocolate throughout), and a scattering of white chocolate chips. I used slightly more chips than the recipe calls for (about 1-1/4 cups instead of the 1 cup my halved recipe needed). For the nuts I used chopped pecans, but I think walnuts would work equally well.

The end results are awesome, but I have to warn you – the batter is amazing, too – you might not end up with as quite many finished cookies as planned. :)

Snickerdoodles

1-1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup (one stick) butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375. Prep a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

In one bowl, mix dry ingredients: flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

In another (larger) bowl, cream:  butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Mix in egg and vanilla extract.

In a small bowl, stir together: 2 Tbsp. sugar and the ground cinnamon.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into butter mixture so that a soft dough forms. Roll dough into 1″ balls and roll in cinnamon & sugar. Place 2″ apart on the greased cookie sheet and bake 8 – 10 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating. Makes about 2 dozen cookies. Enjoy!

I mastered the first step, washing and cutting the figs. You know, because a raccoon could do that.

I mastered the next step, applying honey and then topping the figs with blue cheese:

The part that I didn’t quite get down was the melting. I wasn’t sure whether to bake or broil, so I chose to bake. Except it wasn’t melting the cheese. Even after 15 – 20 minutes in the oven, the cheese was still intact. So, at that point I decided to broil. And then my friend Lilly and I wandered away from the kitchen and started watching television, forgetting about the figs until the smoke detector started going off about five minutes later. Yup, you know things are going south when the smoke detector starts screaming at you.

Instead of lovely cheesy fig bites, we had melted molten figs:

I wish I could say that they still tasted good, but they were so over-cooked at that point that they were pretty much flavorless…well, except for the slightly burned blue cheese flavor. Not one of my finest moments in the kitchen.

Fortunately, for every kitchen failure I’ve ever had there have been many times more successes. This weekend, redemption came in the form of fresh plum crisp.

The recipe was pulled from Epicurious, originally in Bon Appetit in May 1993. Here it is as it appears on the website:

Plum Crumble

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

• 2 pounds plums, halved, pitted, cut into wedges
• 1 tablespoon plum brandy or Port

Mix flour, oats, 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Add butter and rub with fingertips until mixture forms coarse meal. Press with fingertips until mixture begins to form moist clumps. (Crumb topping can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss plums, remaining 1/2 cup sugar and brandy in medium bowl. Transfer to 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Sprinkle crumb topping over. Bake until fruit bubbles and topping browns, about 1 hour. Cool slightly. Serve with ice cream.

**My notes: We didn’t have brandy or port, so we substituted a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead. I also threw a pinch of ground cloves into the topping mixture. It was done after about 45 minutes, not an hour as stated in the recipe (I learned my over-baking lesson from the figs). (You could also use peaches…I repeated it tonight with fresh peaches and it was great!)

It was AMAZING!! The crumble topping was delicious and the fruit was sweet and gooey and warm. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s the perfect end-of-summer dessert.

He’s the most talkative cat I’ve ever met, the kitty version of a Chatty Cathy… a Chatty Catty??

His owners have a nice blender (woohoo!) so I’ve been making banana nutella smoothies while I’m here:

They’re delicious. Just blend together 2 frozen bananas (let thaw briefly to make peeling easier), a couple of tablespoons of Nutella, and about 1/3 cup of nonfat milk. Perfect for breakfast or dessert!

My cat-sitting has coincided with having a cold and viral conjunctivitis, so the cat and I have both been curled up on the couch lately, quarantined. I was finally feeling a little better yesterday, so a friend baked beer cupcakes (!) and came over for bacon pizza from our favorite local pizza joint. She made the cupcakes in these adorable silicon teacup molds, using Blue Moon‘s Honey Moon Summer Ale and plenty of real honey. Sticky sweet and good!

“Sri Wasano’s Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad” – edited by the HungryCook

~ 2 cups cooked brown rice (despite my normal cooking prowess I’m somehow terrible at making rice, so I usually cheat and just buy the prepared packaged brown rice at Trader Joe’s, it’s actually about 1.5 cups)

1/2 cucumber, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

2 scallions, chopped

1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts (unsalted)

1/3 cup raisins

Dressing:

1/4 cup canola or peanut oil

1.5 tablespoons sesame oil

juice of one orange

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon honey (this is approximate, depending on the sweetness of the orange)

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Mix dry ingredients together. In a separate dish, mix together the dressing (this is to make sure it has the right balance of saltiness/sweetness/tang/etc. before you mix it all together). Stir dressing into rice mixture and let marinate for at least a half hour before eating, so that the rice has time to absorb the flavors of the dressing. Yields 4-6 servings.

To me, this salad is the perfect blend of flavors and textures – a great warm weather side dish. Enjoy!

My corn salad is a go-to summertime treat, particularly since I love the flavor of raw corn. In fact, everything in it is raw, which I think is what keeps it from being a succotash. Here’s my recipe:

Corn Salad
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off of the cob
1/2 of a red or green bell pepper, diced
1/3 of a red onion, very finely diced
1-2 cups of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 cup cucumber, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
dash of salt & a hearty grind of fresh pepper
Optional additions: 1/4 cup chopped basil, or some diced avocado.

Mix everything together and enjoy. If I’m making it as an accompaniment to Italian food, I make sure to add basil, but you could add cilantro instead if you want to serve the salad with Mexican food or another cuisine. I love the fresh flavors and taking advantage of all those great seasonal vegetables!

The falafel sandwiches were easy to make because of shortcuts like using a mix and store-bought hummus. I love the ease, but crave fresh hummus and falafel (even pita!). Do you have a good recipe for homemade falafel or hummus? If so, please share!

Here’s the recipe:

Prosciutto & Kale Quiche

1 tbsp butter

1/2 chopped onion

1 1/2 cups chopped kale

1/2 chopped bell pepper

1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mix of cheddar, jack, and mozzerella)

4 eggs

1/2 cup cream

salt & pepper

2 slices of prosciutto, diced

1 prepared pie crust (I used a whole wheat crust from the grocery store)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter and saute the onion until translucent. Add the kale and bell pepper and continue cooking until softened (the kale should still be bright green, not overcooked).

Sprinkle the shredded cheese on the uncooked pie crust.

Top the cheese with the cooked kale mixture. Top that with the diced prosciutto. Beat together the eggs, cream, and a healthy dash of salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables.

Bake until the filling is set – approximately 50 minutes. Cool slightly and cut into wedges to serve.

Yum! Tasty the day you make it and the perfect easy weekday breakfast as leftovers.

Rigatoni alla Delicious (for lack of a better name)

6 – 8 oz mezzi rigatoni (these are the little half rigatoni shapes, but you could use any smallish pasta)

water

1/2 jar of pasta sauce

1/4 diced onion

1 clove of garlic, finely diced

salt to taste

1/2 cup chopped kale

1/2 cup diced zucchini

1/4 cup chopped basil

1/2 lb. seasoned ground beef (or turkey), pre-cooked

1/2 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly

Instead of doing the usual boiling of the pasta, I browned the pasta over medium heat in a big pan with some oil.

Browning the pasta ahead of time gives it a richer, nuttier flavor. After the pasta toasts up a bit, add the onion and garlic and stir fry for a minute or two.

Add water to cover the pasta and about 1/3 of the jarred marinara sauce. Let the water come up to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Add the chopped kale and salt and let cook down a bit. Add the next 1/3 of the pasta sauce and a little more water to keep the pasta simmering.

Stir in 1/2 of the chopped basil and the zucchini. When the water is close to absorbed and the pasta is al dente, add the rest of the pasta sauce, the ground beef, and lay the mozzarella rounds on top. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for a few minutes to let the flavors blend and let the steam melt the cheese.

Right before serving, top with the remaining basil. The dish serves 3-4 people, depending on how hungry they are. The best part is that because of the cooking process, the pasta absorbs a lot of the flavors and is just the right amount of saucy. It looks almost as good as it tastes!

First, I made the promised Caprese salad (named after the Italian island of Capri, one of the prettiest places on Earth), using red heirloom tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella (get the kind swimming in water, not wrapped in plastic), salt & pepper, olive oil, and a little balsamic vinegar. I accented it with that great rosemary foccacia to help sop up all the tasty juices. Nothing to cook or heat up the kitchen – the perfect summertime treat.

I’m going to have to pick up some prosciutto and cibatta to turn the rest of the mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes  into a tasty sandwich, too.

Yesterday I turned the fresh ground beef from the farmer’s market into Mediterranean burgers. I call them that simply because the beef is seasoned a little differently than regular burgers and they’re served in pita pockets.

Mediterranean Hamburgers

Meat:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 onion, finely diced,

1 -2 cloves of garlic, diced

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil (if using fresh, use 1 tsp)

salt & pepper to taste

Condiments & Additions:

tomato, sliced thin

lettuce leaves, rinsed and dried

1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced

sauce made with a 2-2-1 ratio of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard

pita bread

To make Mediterranean burgers, cook ground beef over med-high heat with plenty of diced onion, garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. You can also throw in some in diced red bell pepper to add a little more flavor. If you have time, you can grill up onions, too, since they’re a great addition. To dress the burger, I use tomato slices, mixed salad greens, and special sauce (just a mixture of ketchup, mustard & mayonnaise). Sometimes, I also throw in thinly chopped cucumbers, as well. Layer all the ingredients into fresh pitas and you’re set for a quick, tasty meal.

Here’s the recipe:

Mini Cheesecakes

2 large packages of cream cheese (I use low-fat)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use real, not imitation)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix ingredients with an electric hand mixer until the batter is smooth. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups. Place 1 vanilla wafer cookie in each cup and fill 2/3 full with filling. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool.

For topping the cooled cheesecakes, you can either use canned cherry pie filling or if you want to take advantage of all the delicious ripe summer berries, you can stir them together with a fruit glaze or even a little jelly (something to make the berries adhere to the cheesecake and help sweeten them up a bit if they’re too tart). I think the blueberries and raspberries I picked the other day would have been perfect for a dessert like this. Of course, that is if I hadn’t eaten them all! :)

Briskett with Roasted Vegetables

brisket
brown sugar
pepper
2 onions
envelope of dry onion soup mix
baby carrots

Preheat oven to 300. Slice onions into rings. place one layer of onions on bottom of the pan. Rinse the brisket if needed. Rub brisket with brown sugar and sprinkle with pepper to taste. Place brisket in pan, fat side up. Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the top. Add some more onions to the top. Reserve a few onion slices for later. Cover TIGHTLY with aluminum foil. Cook according to the Lose Weight Exercise/time directions on the brisket package. When there is 1 hour remaining, add the baby carrots and the remaining onions and cover tightly again.

*NB: Do not under any circumstances peek or allow anyone else to peek at the brisket while it is cooking or the meat will dry out!

Fruit & Macaroon Tart

Crust:

Cauliflower Latkes

Boil cauliflower till soft, mash and mix with eggs and a little matzoh meal and then fry with oil. (Super simple, but these are so good! Try it with broccoli, too!)

It was chocolatey and delicious. I decorated it with meringue mushrooms and marzipan greenery.

The sponge cake recipe came from the December issue of Martha Stewart Living and you can find it here. For the filling, I made the easiest filling I could think of – Cool Whip (1 tub, defrosted), mixed with one small package of chocolate instant pudding and 8oz of mandarin orange slices including the syrup. Bake the sponge cake and when done immediately turn it out onto a clean dry dish towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll the cake up (with the dish towel separating it as its rolled) and let cool. This will help keep the cake from cracking when you apply the filling. When the cake is cooled, un-roll and spread the filling out, rolling back up as you go along. Place the filled cake seam side down on your serving platter and frost with your favorite frosting. I’d recommend a nice chocolate buttercream, but I was in a hurry so I cheated and used store-bought frosting and then applied some texture with the remaining filling.

For the meringue mushrooms, I used this recipe. I ended up letting the meringues dry out in the oven all night (turned off, of course). The meringues started getting sticky every time I pulled them out of the oven, so I think it must’ve been too humid in the kitchen. The ones that I packaged up immediately survived nicely.

To decorate the cake, I used frosting to affix the mushroom stems to the caps and dusted them with cocoa powder to make them look a little more authentic. I dyed marizpan with food coloring and shaped leaves and stems by hand. I included a little lady bug and some berries, too, for color.

Mexican Wedding Cakes

(Set oven to 325 degrees.)

• 1 C. butter
• 1/2 C. sifted powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 C. flour
• 1/2 C. finely chopped pecans
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• more powdered sugar!

Cream the butter, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and vanilla together. Separately, combine the flour, pecans, and salt. Add the dry goods to the creamed mixture. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes til lightly browned. Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar and cook on wire racks. When cool, roll again in more powdered sugar. Makes 36.

-Recipe from: Better Homes & Gardens Mexican Cook Book (c. 1977)

Corn pudding and acorn squash (no idea what corn pudding is, but I love the idea of using a squash as a container)

New England Fish Chowder (locally appropriate)

Date Spice Loaf (I made pumpkin bread last week. Amazing, as always, but this might be a new twist to try.)

Mother’s Day is this weekend and to celebrate my mom I’m making brunch for the whole family. By popular demand, I’m making do-ahead french toast (recipe here) and potato bacon frittata. Both were a huge hit the first time I made them and I can’t wait to eat them again (calories don’t count on special occasions, don’t you know?).

Here’s the recipe for the frittata.  I’ll try to remember to take pictures on Sunday and post them, too.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

8 oz. bacon, diced
2 potatoes, peeled & cubed
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. diced green bell pepper
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. salt (in parts)
6 eggs
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese (I also like to throw in a pinch of Parmesan if I have it handy)
1 c. milk
1/3 c. Bisquick
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Cook bacon in large pan until browned. Remove and drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 4 tablespoons of bacon fat from skillet (or do like I do and pour it all out but then add in some veggie oil, so you still have the bacon flavor on the pan w/o all that bad stuff). Cook potatoes, onion, green pepper, black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon salt until potatoes are tender but not soft (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in bacon.

Beat together eggs, cheese, milk, Bisquick, butter and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour egg mixture into a greased quiche dish or a 9″x9″ baking pan. Spoon potato mixture on top of eggs. Bake in 375 degree oven for 20 – 30 minutes until set. To serve, cut into wedges. Serves 6.

The ravioli were tasty – I used prepared wonton wrappers from the grocery store, and filled them with a mixture of lowfat ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, spinach, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. For a sauce (super healthy), I heated up some store bought pesto with cream, nonfat milk, and garlic. The ravioli were very delicate, however, and while I was careful during the cooking process taking each one in and out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon, the darned things stuck together as soon as I put them in the colander to strain. Which meant my roommates had to rip them all apart to get a chunk of “ravioli” on their plates. Boo.

The bruschetta were good, because really, how hard is it to make bruschetta?

The salad, on the other hand…..well, it started out good. I made the same salad as last week, with kiwi, avocado, and raw pumpkin seeds. However, this time we were all out of greens from our veggie box so I went out to the garden and harvested some lettuce our green thumb roommate has been growing. I washed it (twice!), salad spun it, and ripped it up into manageable pieces. We’d eaten almost all of it when one roommate asked if she could finish it off. Of course, we said yes. On her last bite, she screamed bloody murder and leapt up from the table, shouting, “What is that? What is THAT?”

“That” was a hungry little snail. Chilling in the last bite of salad. So gross.

I roasted a chicken, mixing spices including salt, pepper, low sodium season salt, lemon pepper, crushed thyme, sage, and maybe one or two other things that I’m blanking on right now, and rubbing them on the bird under it’s skin.  I also stuffed fresh lemon wedges, rosemary, and garlic into the cavity and in and around the bird.  I drizzled the top with a little olive oil and baked it (covered with tinfoil) for about an hour at 400 degrees, then removed the foil and baked for an additional 20 minutes or so at 350 degrees to crisp the skin up a bit.  It came out perfectly moist and delicious.

I also steamed some green beans with more garlic and a little butter, and made a salad with mixed greens from our veggie box, kiwi (also from the box), avocado, raw pumpkin seeds, and a homemade honey mustard poppyseed vinaigrette.  Dessert was freshly baked brownie-cookie things from the prepared cookie dough aisle (the yellow package – I think it was Tollhouse).

Oh, and then I officially became my mother and realized after everyone was all full and done that I had forgotten to put out the potato salad that I made earlier in the day that served as the inspiration for the entire spring-y meal.  Darnit.  The potato salad was so good, too.  I used part russet, part red potatoes, chopped up boiled eggs, green onions, dill, salt, pepper, spicy brown mustard, and a little bit of mayo.  Mmm… at least it was tasty with lunch the next day.

That was a seared ahi tuna appetizer on sliced cucumber with a little smidge of cream cheese and dill in between. Here’s the rest of the meal:

A mixed green salad with grapefruit, avocado & goat cheese; salmon; beets with gorgonzola; and asparagus risotto. Forgot to take a picture of dessert, but it was very classic Valentines-ish — chocolate covered strawberries. Mmm…

I had only one minor issue with the recipe. The cooking time was way underestimated. I took it out of the oven after 30 minutes (15 minutes pretty high and 15 minutes lower, per the recipe) and let it cool and turned off the oven. But, when I went to slice into it later it turned out to be a big runny mess. So, in a fortuitous moment of tantrum, I slapped the piece back into the pie pan, threw the thing back in the oven, cranked it back up to 350 and stormed off to take a hot shower for a little while. Got out of the shower 15 minutes later and it was perfectly set.

To start off, I cranked the oven to somewhere between 350 and 375 degrees and coated a large casserole dish with nonstick spray. Then, I rinsed my (giant) salmon fillet, patted it dry, and laid it skin side down in the pan. I cut one lemon into paper thin slices and chopped up a quarter to a third of a cup of fresh dill, then laid the lemon slices on the salmon and sprinkled it with the dill. I melted 3 tablespoons (or so) of unsalted butter in the microwave and added in a few healthy squirts of mesquite honey and several grinds of sea salt and fresh black pepper, then poured the whole mess over the fish. I did a few more grinds of sea salt (I like the taste better than table salt) and black pepper over the fish. Covered the pan with tinfoil and popped it into the oven until the fish was firm and flaky (about a half hour, since the thing was so big).

I served the salmon with brown rice (cooked with vegetable broth, leeks, celery, garlic, and mushrooms), greens (spinach and chard cooked with butter, onions & garlic), and carrots (brown sugar and more butter…mmm). And now I’m looking forward to the leftovers!

Part 1 (the night before breakfast!):

1 loaf cinnamon twist bread (around here it’s all about Semifreddi’s)
5 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup half & half
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all the wet ingredients. Spray a large casserole dish with nonstick spray. Cut the bread into 1″ slices and dip into the mixture (let ‘em get nice & soggy), and lay them in a single layer in the dish. Cover and store in the fridge overnight.

Part 2 (breakfast!):

1 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup light brown sugar
2 apples, cored and diced
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Remove your dish from the fridge. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the butter, sugar & maple syrup. Sprinkle the apples pieces and nuts over your french toast. Spoon the sugary mixture over all that. Stick it in the oven for 40 minutes or so.

Enjoy!

My favorite part had to be the wonton soup. Using vegetable bouillon (what kind of Bay Area grocery store doesn’t carry vegetable stock??) as the base, I threw in bok choy, onions, enoki mushrooms, flat pea pods and carrots. I used store bought wonton wrappers and created a filling out of minced carrots, sauteed kale and garlic, with some soy sauce and honey ginger dressing as a binding agent. The soup cooked up super fast and was delicious.

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:
5 leeks, chopped and rinsed (discard the roots & greens)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3/4 stick of butter
5-6 potatoes, all but one or two should be peeled, all diced
1 cup chopped cauliflower
6 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper
splash of heavy cream

Recipe:
Saute chopped leeks and garlic in the butter over medium flame for 15-20 minutes, or until leeks are tender. Add chicken broth, cauliflower, potatoes, and bay leaf. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked. Add salt & pepper to taste. Remove bay leaf. Blend 2/3 of the mixture and add back into the pot (makes it a nice consistency). Add a couple more teaspoons of butter and a splash of cream for smoothness. Enjoy! (Tastes even better the next day!)

The green curry chicken was fairly simple, I used the Thai Kitchen brand green curry paste, mixed with coconut milk, fish sauce, chicken broth, and brown sugar (it’s all outlined for you on the back of the jar). I threw in thinly sliced chicken, bell pepper, onion, garlic, green beans, carrots, and baby corn, and simmered until it was all cooked and tender (putting the green beans and baby corn in later than the others), and added some bean spouts at the end. It was very tasty, a complex flavor instead of the straight heat that you get from some curry mixes.

For the lumpia, I cooked up some ground beef, seasoned with fresh onion, a little bit of italian seasoning, seasoned salt, garlic pepper, and black pepper (do it to your taste, so as not to make it too salty). When that was browned and cooked thoroughly, I turned off the heat and added some frozen peas and carrots (small pieces), bean sprouts, and thinly sliced cabbage (like you use in cole slaw). Using spring roll wrappers from the grocery store, I rolled some of the filling into a long thin cigar-like shape, then put another wrapper down diagonally and rolled again, tucking the ends in to seal in the filling. Then, I fried each roll in oil over high heat (too low of a temperature and you’ll end up with a pale, soggy mess). The sweet chili dipping sauce is available in the Asian food aisle of the grocery store and is very good with egg rolls. So good, in fact, I bet it’d even be good with chicken nuggets or other dippable items. I’m having the leftovers for lunch today, and I’m looking forward to it!

For these stuffed chicken breasts, I bought skin-on, ribs-attached breasts. I prepped four chicken breasts by rinsing and patting them dry. I stirred together a mixture of 1/2 cup of cheese, 1 egg, 2 Tbsp. diced onion, salt, pepper, 1 Tbsp. chopped green onion, 1/2 cup diced broccoli, 1/4 cup diced cauliflower, and 3 chopped up (cooked) slices of bacon. I pulled the skin on each breast back a little (you don’t want to pull too much of the skin away around the edges, but you do want to have it loose over the center of the breast to make a pocket) and stuffed as much filling as I could under the skin. Then I tucked the skin back down and brushed it with melted butter to make the skin nice and golden and crispy.

I baked as usual (I’m never very specific with times or temperatures when I’m baking, but it’s pretty intuitive if you’ve baked chicken before, probably between 45 minutes to an hour at about 375 degrees). I served the chicken breasts with sauteed cabbage, chard, onions, and grated carrots, and the butter mashed potatoes mentioned below. A yummy meal, my attempt at German-style heartiness.

Of course, to prep the beets, you need to remove the stems. Beet greens have tons of uses, so don’t toss them! Scrub your beets (they’ve been playing in the dirt, after all) and slice them into 1/4″ to 1/8″ medallions. The first time I made them, I drizzled a little bit of olive oil on them and lightly sprinkled them with salt and pepper, then popped ‘em into the oven (375 degrees) for about 40 minutes (the time depends on size and thickness). Last night, I tossed them with a little olive oil and garlic pepper and wrapped them loosely in a tin foil pouch and stuck them on the grill for 15-20 minutes.

They’re very good either way. The roasting brings out a nice mellow sweetness. Just be sure not to get the juice on anything, it stains thoroughly.

I have made variations on the vegetable latkes for the last two Hannukahs and though they were originally received with some doubt, they’ve become somewhat of a crowd pleaser. The ones I made last night were fairly simple and have been crowned “even better than the ones you made last time”, which is always nice to hear. Want to make them yourself? Here’s how (only attempt this if you’re the kind of person who can handle non-exact recipes):

Winter Vegetable Latkes

Wash and grate a couple of carrots, a turnip or two, a zucchini, perhaps a parsnip.

Mince some onions (equal to about 1/4 of the volume of the mixed grated veggies).

Wash, peel, and grate some Russet potatoes (you should have about a 2/3 potato to 1/3 veggie ratio). Rinse the potatoes frequently with cold water to keep them from turning color. Once they’re all grated, use paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible from them.

Throw everything in a big bowl and add an egg or two. Add 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of potato starch flour (regular flour also works, but add with caution, as it is more likely to result in a starchy latke). Add (plenty of) salt and pepper, to taste. Add some chopped green onions for color, if you haven’t used any green vegetables.

Heat a big pan with veggie oil until the oil pops when you sprinkle water over it. (Be sure to keep an eye on your pan as it heats, as unwatched oil leads to kitchen fires.)

Do one or two latkes at first, to make sure that a) the oil is hot enough, b) you’ve got a decent egg/flour ratio going on, and c) your seasonings all taste good. Fry away, draining cooked latkes on a plate with a paper towel on it. Serve hot with apple sauce and/or sour cream.

Crust:
1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cold butter
1 tablespoon cold vegetable shortening
1 1/2 tablespoons ice water plus additional if necessary

Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained well (or a couple of loosely packed cups of chopped fresh spinach or chard!)
1 red bell pepper, diced
miscellaneous vegetables: chopped fresh asparagus, broccoli, etc.
6 strips of prepared bacon or some deli ham, cut into bits
1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) grated Monterey Jack
1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) grated Cheddar
a few pinches of grated Parmesan
6 eggs (or 1 cup Egg Beaters/egg whites product and 2 real eggs)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried dillweed
1 tomato, sliced into thin rounds

Preheat oven to 425F.

Crust:
In a bowl with a pastry blender or a fork and knife blend together flour, butter, and shortening until mixture resembles meal. Add water and toss until incorporated, adding additional water if necessary to form a dough. Pat dough onto bottom and one half inch up sides of a 9-inch pie plate and bake shell in bottom third of oven until set and pale golden, about 7-10 minutes.

Filling:
Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper and saute until onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Add spinach and stir until spinach is dry, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly.

Reset oven to 375F. Sprinkle cheddar and jack cheeses over bottom of crust. Top with spinach mixture. Beat eggs, cream, salt, pepper, and dill in large bowl to blend. Add your chopped vegetables and bacon pieces. Pour over spinach. Top with tomato slices and sprinkle on Parmesan cheese.

Bake until filling is set, about 50 minutes. Cool slightly. Cut into wedges and serve.