Machineless Chocolate Ice Cream (with Poached Pears)

For realz! Ice cream made in a pan in the freezer! I couldn't believe how nicely this came out. It *looks* a little funky, but let it soften and scoop it out, and it's amazing.

Here's the recipe. I won't rehash, but will just mention that (1) I forgot the straining step, which didn't cause any catastrophes (except maybe the aforementioned unpromising visual aspect), (2) I don't have a kitchen scale to measure everything superprecisely and this still came out fine.

Regarding pectin: If you buy Pomona Universal Pectin (they have it at Whole Foods, in the aisle with the spices), the box will contain 2 little packets. One of them is calcium - you don't need it here; the milk provides that. The other has the pectin mix, and that's what you use. Again, I have no kitchen scale, and I decided somewhat arbitrarily (math skills failing me in the heat of the moment) that 1.6 grams would be about 5/16ths of a teaspoon - that is, 2 1/8 teaspoons-ful, and then another half-filled 1/8 tsp. It worked.

Nor do I have an immersion blender, but pouring the wet stuff into a glass bowl and using a hand mixer to add the dry stuff worked fine and seemed easier than getting my blender dirty.

I added cinnamon to the ice cream, too, and served with (1) some tasty store-bought caramel sauce and (2) poached pears. Serious yumminess.

Squash Gnocchi with Coconut-Tomato Sauce

Somewhat unseasonal, but my sense of Spring has been totally ruined by weeks of rainy 40- and 50-degree weather. For a small dinner party, I served stacks of pale orange little gnocchis on a thick, boldly spiced tomato sauce, with a swirl of Greek yogurt & toasted cumin seeds on top.

I like the lightness of squash gnocchi compared to their potato brethren. I made 'em with butternut squash, because you can still get it in May (shipped from god-knows-where....), but I would have liked to try kabocha. Must remember this next winter.

Bake the squash well ahead of time (like the night before) so it's cool enough to handle, and leave yourself plenty of time for forming the gnocchi - it took me over an hour (granted, I may have been watching Project Runway at the same time) to make the dough and turn it into enough gnocchi for 4 servings.

I have to admit, this whole dish is just deconstructed version of this soup. Perhaps if I start with my overactive soup imagination, and force myself to put some of the ingredients in other forms, this blog will get a lot more interesting. :)

Gnocchi:

Squash
Flour
Salt
Egg(s)

Halve your squash, brush all sides with oil, place facedown in a glass baking dish, and bake at 350 for an hour or more, 'till it's well and truly softened. Mine was big - the length of a 9x13 dish - and made a lot more dough than I needed.

The next day, scoop your cooled squash into a bowl. For mine, I added 3 eggs; for a smaller squash use 1 or 2. Mash with potato masher, then start adding flour.

The size and moist-ness of your squash will cause the amount of flour needed to vary greatly. The dough will be sticky, and will stick to your fingers even when ready, but you want it floured enough that it's no longer wet, just shaggy, like a ciabatta dough. I used 4 cups before I could handle it well enough to make the leetle gnocchis. (In retrospect, I probably could've left out an egg and thereby reduced the necessary quantity.) If you're uncertain, it's easy to test: get a little water boiling and drop a ball of dough in, and see if you like the result! Once the consistency is good, salt to taste (and add any other spices you like - cumin would be nice with this recipe).

To form the gnocchi, heavily flour a surface or some wax paper, as well as your hands. Scoop up a baseball-sized hunk of dough, plunk it into the flour, roll it around, and form it into a long snake. Anything not flour-coated will stick to your hands, so flour up. Once you have a snake, slice it to make gnocchi, and roll each one in flour again if needed. Use the tines of a fork to give them pretty ridges if you care. Freeze or refrigerate till the sauce and everything else are ready - you want to eat 'em fresh and hot!

Then, it's just a matter of dropping them in boiling water in small batches. They only need about 3 minutes in the water, and are ready when they float to the top. (I tried frying one and thought it tasted too fried, but that's an option too.)

Coconut-Tomato Sauce:

Bring the following to boil in saucepan:

4 large heirlooms, roughly chopped
1/2 can coconut milk
Turmeric, ground cumin, salt, pinch of asefoetida if you have some, dash of lemon juice
Add tomato paste if coconut flavor overpowers tomato

Sautee 1/2 an onion sliced paper-thin, and a handful of dried coconut, then add them to the sauce. Simmer till tasty.

Chipotle Potato Pizza

Let's grant this recipe a handicap since it arose from the questionable creativity (/panic?) engendered by an empty veggie drawer. It was a man-pleaser and a little off my beaten flavor path, so it gets a post.

All the veggies I had were 3 red potatoes (refugees from a barbecue a few weeks ago) and 1/2 a bunch of kale, plus of course onions. Hence the following pizza toppings:

1. Onions and potatoes, sliced thinly on mandolin, sauteed in oil until tender, with salt, apple cider vinegar, and a ton of paprika, and torn kale added at the end.

2. A chipotle-tomato sauce, made with a small can of unflavored tomato sauce; 4 finely chopped chipotle peppers from a can, with their adobo sauce; salt, sugar, and molasses.

Served with dollops of plain yogurt to take the heat off.

Oh, and if you should happen to buy a new pizza stone that you *just can't wait* to try out, for heaven's sakes read the instructions and don't forgot to dust the thing with cornmeal. Otherwise, your pizza will cement itself stubbornly to the stone. If this DOES happen (and it shouldn't, once you've read this!), give the pizza time to cool. Its ardor for the stone will cool with time, and they will become much easier to pry apart.

Spicy Tomato Corn Sauce & Grilled Eggplant

Another not-too-remarkable, but very nice, summer pasta dish:

Sauce:

Put the following in pot. Bring to boil. Thicken a little if needed. That is all.

3 huge, chopped heirloom tomatoes
1 large can diced tomates
2 cobs corn, boiled & decobbed
10 sundried tomatoes, finely chopped, & their oil
Salt, sugar, lemon juice, balsamic
Cayenne to taste

Eggplant:

Peel an eggplant, quarter it, and slice into 1/2 inch thick slices. Salt these heavily and let sit in a colander until water comes to surface - should only take 1/2 hour or so. Wipe off the salt and water thoroughly with a towel. Brush with oil from jar of sundried tomatoes. Place under broiler till highest points start to brown.

Served over campanelli.

Warm Tortilla Salad & "Jalapeno Poppers"

Warm Tortilla Salad:

Last weekend I made this amazing warm pita salad, and I think it was still in the back of my mind tonight. I grabbed a bunch of fresh & vaguely southwestern veggies at the store, and had some corn tortillas to use up, and here's what came of it all:

Ingredients:

2 calabasitas
1 heirloom tomato
1 ear of corn
1 avocado
small chunk ricotta salata
1/2 package small corn tortillas
Parsley
Olive oil, lime juice, honey, salt

Before they go into the salad bowl, prepare likeso:

Calabasitas: Cut into tiny cubes and flash-fried till tender in teeny bit of oil
Tomato: Chopped into small dice and tossed in w/its juice
Corn: Boiled, decobbed
Avo & cheese: Small dice
Tortillas: Cut into ribbons, then again into squares. Toasted in oil with the parsley till partly crispy, partly soft.
OO, LJ, H&S: make the dressing, of course!

"Jalapeno Poppers:"

I also had a small package of sweet little peppers (banana peppers, maybe)? Stuffed them with a mix of chedder & manchego cheeses, a little greek yogurt, finely chopped oregano, sauteed thinly sliced onion, and salt and pepper. Baked at 350 till tender.

Guest Post: Gingery Smoothie

Kay says:

"OMG. Best. (Non-dairy.) Smoothie. Ever.

2 kiwifruit (peeled)
1 mango (peeled)
juice from 4 oranges
1 apple (de-cored)
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 piece of ginger, about 1.5 times the size of your thumb (peeled & roughly chopped)
1 Tbsp sugar

Blend. Consume. (All by yourself if you are me, who was hungry.) Yummeh."

Holy Wow Zucchini Bread

Now I realize the general idea of this bloggy is to post things that we, ourselves, have cooked. But someone brought me this zucchini bread, upon which I am munching with great joy, and also sent me the recipe. Its deliciousness arises from characteristic Paula Deen fat content.... but delicious it is, and I commend it to you in advance of the zucchini surplus days of late summer:*

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/zucchini-bread-recipe/index.html

*Unlike most days at work, I am actually reading law today. It makes my sentence structures go completely wackadoo. Sorry!

TOMATO SOUP, YES MORE TOMATO SOUP

It's been, like, a month since I posted a new tomato soup recipe. Don't worry, my blogidentity has not been hijacked, here's proof! (I KNOW I'm way beyond any reasonable lifetime quota of tomato soups, but this one is the BEST ONE YET except maybe this one and this one oh don't make me choooose!)

All I did was buy 12 Romas and 10 biiiig meaty heirlooms and chop them into a pot with a little olive oil, peeling skins if easy to do so but not really sweating it if not. Turn up the heat and cook 'em down. Meantime, slice 3 shallots paper-thin and cook them over low heat in olive oil & sugar. When soft & translucent, add them & their oil to the tomatoes.

Also add lemon juice, balsamic, sugar, plenty of salt, and, if you need to stretch the soup to have enough, maybe a few cups of broth (but it's not necessary flavor-wise). (After we blend this all up, we'll add the super secret amazing ingredient that vaulted this puppy into the specially reserved Tomato Soup chamber of my heart.) Taste and adjust a lot, and when it's getting there, put the soup through a mesh strainer into another pot. Whatever wont' strain, blend, and stir back in.

THEN! once liquified! You add a few TBs of creme fraiche. (!!!!! so good!) Then you do more tasting & adjusting. Served with homemade croutons and curls of good parmesan on top, with some rapini cooked this way and a salad.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Working off of this recipe, I threw some filling in a premade crust for a party last night. I liked it a lot better than the last Strawberry Rhubarb I attempted, so here ya go.

There was a little drama along the way, though (I know, even with a frozen crust.... Deb of Smitten Kitchen, I am not). I used too many pie weights while parbaking [Edit: Long after writing this post, it finally dawned on me one day that you're supposed to COVER THE CRUST WITH FOIL before you add weights.  Live and Learn!], and the bottom layer got totally embedded in crust, leaving me to gingerly pick them out one.... by.... one:


And then I realized the tapioca I had around was not instant like the recipe called for. Perusing the interwebs, I found proportions for substituting instant tapioca / noninstant tapioca / arrowroot / cornstarch as thickeners, and used arrowroot instead (though possibly not enough of it, as the pie was still a little runny).

Foibles aside, though, the final flavah won my heart like a cowboy in a country ballad ("God bless the broken roooooooaddd.... that led me straight to rhu! Barb!"). Mix the following stuff in a big bowl, put it in parbaked crust, and bake (450 for 15, then 400 for 45). Put it on a baking sheet to catch the drips, especially if you can't be bothered to throw a crust on top:

3 cups halved strawberries
3 cups (thawed) frozen rhubarb, drained
1.5 cups sugar
2TB arrowroot & 1 TB flour (maybe change these up, it didn't thicken thickly enough for me!)
1 tsp each: lemon juice, balsamic, vanilla, and cinnamon

My pie crust, like my country song reference, was pretty deep, so this may be too much filling for some pies.

Pre-baking closeup! :

Spring Pasta with Egg

Feriday night I saw asparagus topped with a fried egg on a restaurant menu and did not order it. By Saturday, I was still thinking of asparagus and fried eggs. I tossed thinly chopped asparagus and fennel and fresh tarragon with spaghetti and topped with egg and so-good-it-was-a-splurge parmesan. Fresh and rich at the same time:


2 small servings spaghetti
1 bunch asparagus
1/2 a fennel bulb
1/2 an onion
1/2 a bunch kale

2 eggs
Snipped fresh tarragon and fennel fronds
1 lemon
Grated parmesan or other hard white cheese - bring out the big guns for this one
Olive oil, butter, good salt & pepper


Start by preparing a frying pan for the eggs and a deeper one for the veggies, and getting water boiling for pasta.

Slice onion and fennel very thin and sautee in olive oil and some sugar. You don't want any burnt or fried flavor here, so use as little oil as you can and keep the heat down. Also resist the urge to make too much onion.

If your asparagus is thick, halve or even quarter each stem lengthwise before chopping into thirds. Add to the onion and fennel once they're soft. Once the asparagus is cooked through, add a confetti of kale pieces and let them wilt, then get this part off the heat.

(Sometime during this process when your water boils, get your spaghetti going).

Once the veggies don't need further attention, melt a swirl of butter in your small pan over medium heat. Add tarragon and fennel fronds to flavor the butter, then carefully break the 2 eggs in. Don't disturb - just let them cook from the bottom up till whites are cooked through and yolks still liquid.

Toss the veggies (leaving any oil behind in the pan) into the spaghetti and divide into bowls. Top each with parmesan, salt, pepper, more of the snipped herbs, and of course an egg. Then douse with a healthy squeeze of lemon juice (1/2 a lemon each). (The toppings are key, so don't skimp.)

Break the yolks and mix into the pasta while still hot, and enjoy.

Veggie-Packed Lasagna

Is it strange to reach age 28 without ever making a lasagna? Well, strangeness remedied. I like how this came out - not too cheesy or bland. This is for a double batch (2 glass baking dishes full) to allow for leftoversgloriousleftovers.

Used:

2 boxes lasagna noodles
3 jars tomato sauce (2 plain, 1 vodka)

2 zucchinis
4 carrots
4 leeks
Lots of crimini mushrooms
1/2 a squash

1 lb ricotta
6 or 8 cloves garlic
Crumbled sea vegetable (kombu)
Cayenne, Nutmeg, Paprika, Italian herbs

So, basically, the leeks/mushrooms/squash got sliced thin/chopped small/roasted respectively; cooked till soft in a little oil in bottom of saucepan with finely chopped garlic; and mixed with the sauce, ricotta, kombu, and spices. I beseech you: Do not underspice! Shake with reckless abandonment!

The noodles (after precooking per package instructions) and the zucchini and carrots (after slicing into thin noodle-like strips with mandoline and blanching briefly in boiling water) were all used for layering, with sauce in between.

Baked at 350 for 45 minutes, covered in foil for the first 30. Mmm!

Salty Apple Salad

This is inspired by the CSA-gobbling gals at Thyme to Kale, whose blogname puts ours to shame. They've been making variations of thinly sliced apples & cheddar tossed in walnut oil and lemon juice with greens, and that is a bandwagon I am happy to jump on.



I used:
2 apples, sliced w/mandolin
2 avos, thinly sliced
1 bunch chard, torn into small pieces / stems thinly sliced
2 large handfuls crushed pistachios
Thinly sliced cheddar cheese

Dressed with:
Lemon juice (lots!)
Walnut oil
Salt (don't be shy, esp if your nuts are unsalted!)
Mustard

After tossing this all together, I took my ulu to the salad bowl to turn the large slices of avo, apple and cheese into more bite-size pieces. It has at least one thing in common with its progenitor: I can't stop eating it.

Biscuits On A Stick

Last weekend, a group of friends and I jumped on the opportunity to escape the rising heat in the valley and head up north to the fresh mountain air and the red rocks of Sedona. The plans for our camping trip came together a little haphazardly and last minute, so I didn't have time to plan out the elaborate camping menu I normally would. Some people may think camping is a time where one eats only hot dogs and s'mores, but there are so many opportunities that come with a campfire that are just plain fun. One of my friends on the trip taught us this easy trick to make basic camping food a tad more exciting.

Ingredients:

Biscuits that come in dough form in a can

Sticks about the circumference of an wooden broom stick, or wooden broom sticks

Take three dough biscuits out of the can. Place one over the end of the stick, stretch down on all sides and push to make it stick. Take another, and wrap it around the stick just below the first, push to make them stick together. Take the third, do the same as with the second. Cook by rotating stick above hot coals, with the same technique as making golden brown marshmallows. Biscuit is ready when it can be pulled off stick without sticking to it. Pull biscuit bun off stick, fill with hot dogs, pb & j, or get creative with your own filling. I think this would also be delicious in the morning with sausage and gravy (made ahead of time and reheated).

Tarragon Broccoli

I didn't think this was worth a blogpost until I had it as lunch leftovers today, and decided it would be a shame not to prepare broccoli this way again.

Clean broccoli and cut into florets. Then slice each floret through the stem (at least in half, maybe into thirds or more if it's a big one) to make flat slices of broccoli.

Sautee on medium-high heat in a little oil with tarragon and splashes of white balsamic vinegar, just long enough to turn dark green and take out the crunch. Firm, sweet, and very pleasant.

(Served as a side with this pasta dish from Smitten Kitchen, which was fantastic.)

Rebecca's Breakfast Shake

The boyfriend has been making me these in the morning. His sister taught him. They are awesome and shockingly creamy.

Banana, peanut butter, milk, ice, little salt. (I imagine if the banana were frozen you might not need ice.)

Enchiladas with Creamy Roasted Corn Sauce

Cheesy on the inside and corny on the outside, just like me!* Base recipe here, but it's weirdly hard to follow, sooooo:

For the (really really freaking tasty) sauce:
1 32-oz bag frozen corn
1/2 TB butter & a squirt of honey
4 large cloves garlic - don't peel yet!
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp cayenne
S&P


For the enchiladas:
14 corn tortillas
1 10-oz bag spinach
1 white onion
2 portobello caps
butter, salt
14 corn tortillas + grated cheese (sharp cheddar... salty white... many could work).


Start w/the sauce. Put the butter, corn & honey in a deep skillet w/a tight-fitting lid. Crank the heat up high to melt out the water & toast the corn, gripping the skillet with potholders to give an occasional good shake so it doesn't stick to the sides. Toast it till at least some of it is golden-brown.

Meanwhile, bake your 4 cloves of garlic till soft (I always do this in the toaster). You could also put them in with the corn, but that seems messy.

When corn's done, put 1/2 of it in the blender. Peel the garlic and add that too. Add rest of sauce ingredients. Puree. Adjust flavor. Mix in the rest of the corn. Try not to eat with spoon while making the enchiladas.

Next, slice up your onion and your portobellos., the thinner the better. Brown the onion in butter, add mushrooms. When they're cooked, put the spinach atop to melt it down. Salt the mixture a little.

Finally, the assembly line: On each tortilla, put a line of cheese down the middle. (I had some sharp cheddar and some grated parmesan, and I liked both). Spoon just a leetle of the filling mixture on top. Fold, and nestle all of 'em together in a greased 9x13 glass baking dish. Cover with the corn sauce. Tortillas will probably crack some. No biggie, it'll all be delicious in the end.

Bake at 350 covered with foil for 25 minutes, then without the foil for another 5. Unless you're feeding an army, this will lead to many leftover lunch portions.

*I'm so braindead that the whole time I was cooking these, I was singing a little ditty in my head to the tune of Frere Jacques, like this: "EnchiLAdas, EnchiLAdas, I'll eat you! I'll eat you!" So please, don't judge me by my commentary. Just by my enchiladas.

Lemony, Nutmeg-y Kale

In just the tiniest amount of grapeseed oil, cook down:

2 bunches kale (1 red & 1 green), torn from stems
1 container of yellow cherry tomatoes
1 TB chopped garlic

Douse with lemon juice; add about 1 tsp grated nutmeg and a small pat of butter.

Serve dusted with grated parmesan.

When I see kale as a side at an Italian restaurant it's usually something like this, and I order it everytime.

**Update:  For a variation, instead of serving with parmesan, mix the lemon juice with an equal portion of Greek yogurt.**

Strawberry Breakfast Salad with Cowboy

Older sister S and I both love salad for breakfast. Little sister A is just learning to love salad. And thus the Strawberry Breakfast Salad was born, which can be eaten by A for dinner and S and K for breakfast.

Confused? Me too. Just make this, then eat it for lunch, or for dinner, or for breakfast. Especially recommended with biscuits.



Warm brown rice
Lots of fresh sliced strawberries
Walnuts
Torn rainbow chard

Toss with a tiny bit of maple syrup, olive oil, a bit of sea salt, a dash of mustard powder, and a bit of apple cider vinegar.

Eat with a cowboy, if available. If said cowboy doesn't want salad, make this and serve with a fried egg on top.

Tom Yum Cabbage

Spicy saucy stirfry over salty coconut rice:

The veg:
1/2 a purple cabbage, chopped in large chunks
2 handfuls brussels sprouts, quartered
2 apples and 1 red onion, thinly sliced w/mandolin

The flavahs:
Nearly an entire jar of tom yum paste
Rice vinegar (several splashes)
Chopped garlic & ginger
Juice of 2 limes

The rice:
1 packet (2 uncooked cups) Forbidden Rice
1 can coconut milk
2 very large pinches kosher salt

In a large deep skillet, cover the cabbage and brussels sprouts and onions with water and bring to a boil. Add the other flavors (leave lime juice closer to the end for more punch). Boil until cabbage is tender. Add apples and boil till they soften. Thicken with cornstarch.

In the meantime, cook the rice in rice cooker and add the coconut milk and salt when it's done.

Cumin Apple Chips, Panko-Fried Asparagus, Sriracha Mayo, and more

Oscar party menu:

Dip these:

1. Sweet Potato Fries
2. Apple chips, dusted with cumin and sea salt
3. Panko-fried green beans and asparagus

In these:

1. Mayonnaise with sriracha and a squirt of lemon. Unreal.
2. Greek yogurt with Tom Yum paste stirred in.
3. Tarragon mustard with chopped artichokes.

Also there were these:

1. Dates with blue cheese
2. Grown-up No-bakes
3. Lemon cookies

(Plus tsatsiki and dolmas, bought premade, and a phyllo pie with herbed homemade ricotta, brought over by a guest.)

Another Snack

avocado + yogurt + honey + cucumber

(posted today on my friend R.A.R.E.*'s facebook wall)

*(her real initials)

Spinach and Gruyere Quesadillas

Last Saturday, P and I enjoyed a late lunch with a good friend who was in from Chicago. We went to one of our favorite Phoenix restaurants, Sierra Bonita, where I enjoyed a cup of their incredible posole, which inspired my own, and some corn tortillas cooked on the griddle and stuffed with spinach and menonita cheese. They were so good, I have been eating my own version at least once a day since. After reading about menonita, I learned gruyere (which I had on hand) was a reasonable substitution.

Wilt your spinach in a generous pat of butter and season with salt and pepper. Move to a plate, and use the remaining butter to lightly fry 2 corn tortillas. Halfway through, flip and place a generous amount of thinly sliced gruyere, sharp white cheddar, or menonita cheese on the tortilla. After melting, add the spinach and maybe some avocado, and enjoy! A particularly nice side to tortilla soup or black refried beans.

Apricot Almond Quinoa Salad

No amounts below because this is all to your taste and your batch size--I made a huge serving (4 cups of uncooked quinoa) to share with friends.

Dried Apricots
Dried Cherries
Shallots
Unroasted, unsalted almonds
Quinoa
White Balsamic
Sea Salt
White Pepper
Some type of cranberry, pomegranate, or orange dressing or juice

--

Soak dried apricots and dried cherries in water for 1-2 hours. While soaking, rinse & cook quinoa.

Thinly slice shallots and add to a skillet with a bit of olive oil, sea salt, and white pepper. I also toasted with rosemary, and while this is a delicious way to prepare appetizer nuts, it didn't work well with the salad. (At all--oops. Your version will be much more delicious). Cook until shallots begin to be translucent and almonds are fragrant.

Finally, drain and slice the apricots and cherries. Add to quinoa, along with the nut/shallot mixture. I dressed this with a pomegranate white balsamic, sea salt and pepper to taste, and a little more olive oil. I also think it would be delicious with a citrus tone--maybe orange juice, white balsamic and a bit of honey?

Serve on top of torn spinach with a sharp cheese, like feta.

French Lentil Soup

The main thing to know about french lentils is that they hold their shape and stay pretty firm when cooked, which makes a french lentil soup a different animal than other lentil soups. This one hit the spot. I won't repost since I did basically as the recipe's author instructed (including using a spice bag).

I did substitute tomato paste for tomatoes; use dried thyme & oregano instead of fresh; add some dried kombu (sea vegetable) that was lurking in my cupboard for smoky flavor + nutrition; and substitute a mix of soy sauce/bullion/rice vinegar for the worchestershire sauce (since it has anchovies in it).

All of which is just to say, it's a forgiving recipe like most soups are, and it was DELICIOUS. And I highly recommend miso , soy sauce and tomato together as a veggie soup base.

Baked Potato Soup

Saw breadbowls at the bakery in a snowstorm; had to fill 'em, made this up as I went along:

3 large baking potatoes
2 heads broccoli
1 yellow onion
1 head garlic

4 TB butter
Salt, white pepper
Celery seed, nutmeg
Brown mustard
4 c water
2 c milk
Sherry

1 grated c ea: Cheddar & gouda

1. Put the potatoes in to bake, preferably for about an hour. Steam the broccoli crowns & leaves, removing most of the stems.

2. Slice the onion with a mandolin. Peel the garlic cloves and halve the big ones. In the bottom of your soup pot, melt the butter. Put the onions & garlic in there to soften.

3. Chop the soft steamed broccoli into smithereens (as Kay would say) with trusty ulu. Add it to the softened onions & garlic.

4. Add the milk & water, then the flavorings (spices, squirts of mustard & splashes of sherry). Taste & adjust. Be very judicious with the nutmeg & generous with the rest.

5. When the potatoes are nice & crispy, take them out of the oven. mash em up some in the skins and add innards to the soup. Then chop the skins and add those too. Thicken a little with flour or cornstarch if needed (it probably won't be).

6. Stir in the cheeses to melt.

7. NOM NOM NOM.

Grown-Up No-Bake Cookies

(Note: These are easily made gluten free IF you have a source for GF oats.)

My entire Legal Aid office played musical offices today in the course of expanding onto a new floor. It was a DIY move aside from desks and file cabinets (it's a DIY kinda place), and a lot of folks had been in their offices for, oh, longer than I've been alive. So needless to say, we were all pretty dusty & tired by the end of the day.

So, tonight, I wanted to bake something to cheer everybody up, get a leg up on befriending the Consumer Unit's new neighbors (the Health & Elder Law Unit), and thank the fulltime volunteers who helped us haul files. Being dusty and tired, though, by "bake" I really mean "stir." Et voila:

Ingredients, group one:
1/2 cup milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Ingredients, group two:
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ea: cinnamon & cloves
1/2 cup Nutella
3 1/2 cups quick oats

Bring Group One to boil in a saucepan, whisking all the while. Once boiling, turn heat to medium and boil for 1 minute (still whisking).

Remove from heat. Stir in Group Two (leaving oats for last so everything else is mixed together).

Drop by large teaspoons onto waxed paper & chill. Makes about 2 dozen.

Guest Post: Pan-Mediterranean Baked Eggplant

Kay & Nigel team up again!!

This recipe is modified from Nigel Slater's "Simple Baked Aubergine" in his wonderful book Tender Vol. 1. My biggest adjustments (which aren't very big) are adding measurements. Also, in the original Nigel uses plain old paprika and fresh mint, and recommends using sheep yogurt. I didn't have any of those things on hand.

Ingredients:

2 eggplants
olive oil (2 1/2 Tbsp.)
sea salt
garlic (4 cloves)
greek style yogurt (approx. 1 cup)
pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)
one Moroccan mint spice teabag (or alternatively, dried mint and cinnamon)

First, preheat the oven to 400F. Slice off the tops of the eggplants and then slice them lengthwise into halves. Slash the flesh on the cut face into a lattice pattern, as deep as you can without cutting the skin. Drizzle the slashed sides with olive oil and give them a sprinkle of sea salt (to taste--and upon tasting, I wished I had been a little more generous here; personally, I think eggplants can take a lot of salt, but then again, I've been called a salt-aholic).

Turn the eggplant halves over and lay them face-down in a baking dish. Put the 4 garlic cloves unpeeled into the dish along with the eggplants, and proceed to bake. Bake into smithereens! Or until the eggplant is completely collapsed into squishy and translucent deliciousness (which took about an hour for me).

Decant onto plate, and then squeeze the now-squishy garlic cloves out of their skins and rub the cloves across the faces of the cooked eggplants. Then top with yogurt, and finish off with a sprinkle of pimenton & minty spices.

Sweet & Sour Barley

File this under simple & satisfying. It's not as strongly flavored as most dishes usually described as sweet & sour, but it's that kind of flavor profile. The purple cabbage is a great color.

You'll need:

1.5 cups quick barley
4 leeks, cleaned & sliced
1/4 of a red cabbage, sliced

Butter
Salt
Sugar
Veggie Bullion
Rice Vinegar

Sautee the leeks and cabbage in butter and sugar in the bottom of a soup pot. Add 3 cups of water, a dollop of bullion, a heavy splash of rice vinegar, and cook till the barley has soaked it all up.

Sweetly Spiced Socca

Socca is a new discovery, and an amazing one at that. Made from chickpea flour, it is typically crafted with olive oil, savory salts, peppers, and other herbs, cooked over a wood fire. Luckily the oven is a decent substitute (so says this expert and this expert) so this is basically the lazy celiac's dream. You can make it thin and crispy (think pizza), or soft and almost cake like.

Tonight I decided to do some flavor experimenting. Following the advice of these gluten free bloggers, I went with a cocoa cardamom socca. It probably violates a lot of rules about traditional socca, but it is amazingly tasty so I am choosing not to care.

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix 1 cup chickpea (garbanzo) bean flour with 1/4 cup dutch cocoa, 2 tsp. vanilla, and 1 and 1/2 cups water. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil, butter, or coconut oil and pour into cake pan. Pour batter into oil and bake for 25 minutes.

There you have it! I served with some cherries for a subtly sweet and cakey nighttime snack. The possibilities are endless though--it could easily be dressed up as a brownie, baked in a skillet as a soft bread to pair with salad, turned with fresh basil in the batter and broiled with cheese on top to finish...oh yum!

Guest Post: Delicious Baked Onions

Another post from Kay, our favorite expat:

Delicious Baked Onions (or, "Nigel says...")

from Nigel Slater's "Tender Vol. 1"

I should probably start out by saying that I haven't actually EATEN this yet, but I've just taken it out of the oven and it looks so delicious that I'm not sure I'll be able to restrain myself until G gets home. They smell good, too. Nigel says to eat these baked onions with some grilled gammon steaks (gammon is English for ham) sprinkled with oregano, and possibly also some mashed potato or buttery rutabaga.

Ingredients:
6 medium onions
About 2 Tbsp. butter (Nigel says 30g)
1 heaping Tbsp. flour
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup milk
3 bay leaves
salt & black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (Nigel says "a gentle grating")
2 tsp. whole-grain English mustard
chopped parsley (Nigel says "a small handful")

Preheat the oven to 350oF. Peel the onions, and then put them whole into a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 20 - 25 minutes until they're tender (Nigel says you should be able to poke them with the tip of a knife). Then dump them into a colander and let them cool down a bit while you do the next few steps. (Nigel says not to be tempted to use the oniony water for the sauce--it will be TOO oniony, apparently.)

Next, put the pot back on the stove and melt the butter in it. Add the flour to the butter, and cook for a few minutes, whisking so the mixture doesn't burn.

Now, at this stage, my mixture turned into about five big butter-colored lumps. Either, a) it's supposed to be that way and I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to making a white sauce, which is quite possibly the case, b) I used low-fat spread instead of butter in an attempt to be healthier, or c) I religiously weighed out a meager 30g of said low-fat spread and Nigel estimates the mass of his butter with an optimistic eye, which resulted in an anomalously low butter-to-flour ratio in my pot.

Either way, I didn't let the butter/flour mixture cook very long--I just got it all mixed into homogeneous lumps and then added the hot vegetable stock. At this point, worried that the sauce was going to turn out lumpy, I whisked frantically until my butter/flour lumps disappeared, and then added the milk. So, if you know how to make white sauce, do this part of the recipe as you see fit--otherwise, feel free to copy my amateur technique. Then add the bay leaves, the nutmeg, the mustard, and the salt and black pepper.

Let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes or more, stirring frequently to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pot. Meanwhile, slice the (hopefully cool) onions in half from top to bottom (stem to roots, that is, not around the middle) and put them face-down in an oven-proof dish. Stir the coarsely chopped parsley into the sauce and dump the lot over the onions. Their tops will probably be poking out, but Nigel says that is ok.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until the sauce is nice and bubbly. Nigel says you can leave the onions in the bottom of the oven while you broil up your gammon steaks. Yum!

Pear & Sweet Potato Pizza

I'm at a complete loss re: how to introduce this pizza. So I'll just say it was amazing - funny how that happens when you just go pick out exactly the ingredients you want - and move on.

1 pizza dough (made ahead by you or by someone else.... in my case a whole foods employee - they do make a really good pizza crust....)

1 small sweet potato
1 pear
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 large, sweet white onion
1 small bunch spinach

Pizza sauce
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt, sugar, honey

1 hard white cheese (pecorino romano)
some good goat cheese

1. Roast toppings. Chop the sweet potato and pear into small dice. Toss them with the pine nuts, olive oil, balsamic, sea salt and honey in a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 425 for 20 mins or so, till soft and browned where they touch the pan.

2. Caramelize onion. Chop roughly, heat some olive oil with salt, sugar and balsamic in a saucepan or deep frying pan, add the onion and stir to coat. Then let it sit there on med-low heat. After about 15-20 mins, when it's really gotten soft, add the cleaned & torn spinach on top to wilt it.

3. Prepare the dough & coat w/sauce.

4. When the onions & spinach are ready, layer those on. Then add the sweet potato mixture, then sprinkle with a light dose of both cheeses. Bake at 425 for about 20 mins.

Christmas Tomato Soup

I kinda felt I'd posted enough variations on "roast squash and put it in soup," but Annalise requests the version we made together on Christmas, so here's my memory thereof:

1 small butternut squash
10 roma tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 small, juicy onion
1 head of garlic

+ Olive oil, broth, 1 small can tomato paste, white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, salt & pepper, splash of cream

Roast the veggies & garlic with oil & salt until well and truly softened. Toss em in the broth (and other stuff), bring to a boil, and blend. Taste & adjust.

I probably tossed some other things in there, but I'm drawing a blank. I do remember it was a lovely orange-red and warmed the bones!

Winter Foods

In an attempt to inspire, sometimes with recipe links and sometimes without:



Always healthful, Heidi's savory protein muffins are amazing. I added sundried tomatoes, sauteed baby potatoes, and lots of fresh basil to this batch.

Another protein favorite, steak. Here, in a salad, with green chile salsa, avocado, shallots, and other delicious things.



Simply delicious, this tortilla soup from Simply Recipes is a new favorite.



Or this cabbage soup with spicy sausage, which I unfortunately didn't document and now can't recall how I made it. I know it had salt, pepper, fresh chorizo sausage from a local butcher (with no casing), cabbage, potatoes, maybe onions?


Or how about backyard local eggs?


Or homemade roasted tomato soup, served with a caramelized onion, Gruyere and fried sage polenta flatbread and massaged kale tossed with white beans, walnuts, and Parmesan?

Warm Brussels Sprout Salad

I feel badly that I don't have any idea how much of anything I added to this comforting salad. All I can say is trust your instinct and you want a really good brussels to pecans/shallots/garlic/feta ratio. Basically, just make sure you include enough of the good stuff!

So, here's what you'll need to have on hand:

Brussels sprouts (Sidebar: I never knew it was "brussels sprouts" and not "brussel sprouts" until writing this post!)
Shallots
Garlic
Pecans
Feta
Sherry
Rubbed Sage
Ground Rosemary (optional, I love Rosemary but it seems that it doesn't please everyone's palate)
Sea Salt
White Pepper
Olive Oil
Brown Sugar


Slice brussel sprouts into quarters. On a baking sheet or roasting pan, toss with a generous pour of olive oil, rubbed sage, sea salt, white pepper, and rosemary if using. Roast at 400 until starting to crisp. Meanwhile, saute a few shallots with minced garlic in sherry and just enough olive oil to keep from sticking. Cook until shallots are translucent. Toast a bag of halved pecans with some brown sugar, the tiniest splash of afore-mentioned sherry, and just a hint of salt. Toss all together with a large portion of feta, and enjoy warm!

I used sage and rosemary because this was for a holiday party and so those flavors felt appropriate, but it would also lend itself to many other profiles if you want to play around!

Champurrado

Also known as the CHOCOLATEY DELICIOUSNESS that was demanded to be posted by my oldest sister.

I found the recipe for this perfect wintery drink at Muy Bueno Cookbook. While I don't personally know a whole lot about authentic Mexican flavor, the drink tasted perfect to me. It was sweet yet spicy, and filling yet not too rich. Using corn flour to thicken balanced out the deep chocolate flavor. It didn't take a whole lot of effort to prepare, just a little time. If your sidewalks are piling with snow, I highly recommend this drink to warm chilled hands and fill empty tummies. If they aren't, well, I recommend it anyhow. 'Tis the season.

Toffee Pecan Cookies

Poking around for a quick cookie recipe to feed hungry skiers, I settled on this one from Giada de Laurentis. A little more exciting than good old chocolate chip, but still in the cookie comfort zone. The ground oats really do things for the flavor - I'll have to remember to use that trick in other, future cookies.

I didn't change anything except using pecans instead of hazelnuts, 'cause they come chopped in a bag and it's a lazy kind of day, so I'll let you click through for the recipe. I should add, though, that if you ever find yourself baking in an unfamiliar kitchen with no mixer or food processor, this worked really well. Happy New Year!

Flourless Mexican Chocolate Cookies

Between the aforementioned mom's best friend (for gluten-eaters) and K herself (for gluten-haters), the Christmas cookie needs in this house are pretty much taken care of without any involvement by moi. But when a flight carrying both of your baby sisters home for the holidays is about to land, it feels like the house should smell like cookies. Chewy, fudgy, nutty cookies:

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1.5 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped & toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 300.

Mix the dry stuff (minus nuts) well. Add vanilla to egg whites, then gradually stir this into the dry until dough forms. Add the nuts.

Forms into balls and roll in powdered sugar (makes 15 cookies). Bake for 15 minutes, until crackled, being careful not to overbake. Keep these guys in a ziploc or they'll get crispy pretty quick.

Creamy Meyer Lemon Bars

Around here lemon season happens in December, but no matter how hard I try I associate lemon treats with spring and summer. Luckily for all of us, the combination of having done no Christmas baking and having four Meyer lemons fresh off a tree staring at me from my counter prompted me to set my seasonal confusion aside and and make a lemon bar rich and creamy enough for my, well, rich and creamy holiday tastes.

These thin Meyer lemon bars come together with only six ingredients, two of which are good for you. Four of which aren't. But who said I was counting?

Meyer Lemon Bars

As a base layer, I used a pie crust recipe from Karina, found here and also seen here. For the top layer of lemony goodness, I drew a little inspiration from the Pioneer Woman, who uses this approach in her more streusel like lemon crumb bars.


For your base layer, you'll need:

2 heaping cups of almond flour
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 T vanilla

For the lemon topping, you'll need:
1/2 cup fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice (or any fresh squeezed lemon juice)
1 can of sweetened and condensed milk
2 T lemon zest

Preheat your oven to 325 F, and grease or line a 9x13 baking sheet. Mix together almond meal, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. Transfer to pan and flatten to 1/2--1 inch height with fingers, in the shape of a rectangle. Crimp edges up with fingers to form a bit of a shelf.

Whisk lemon juice into sweetened and condensed milk. Slowly pour onto the crust, dust with lemon zest. Bake at 325 F for 25-30 minutes. Let cool and cut into squares.

I imagine these would be delicious chilled.

Christmas Wreath Cookies

...at about 4:00 pm, and there is already only one left. Someone even walked into my apartment begging for some after their roommate returned eating one. I'm gonna go ahead and say they were a pretty big hit, and they were simple and sweet.

A friend and I wanted to spend a lovely afternoon making Christmas treats, but wanted something rather easy. She was the one who suggested the recipe, so I Google'd it and found this. Below is the recipe for what we did, with slight modifications from the original. It yielded about 3 dozen sweet treats.

1 cup butter

8 cups mini marshmallows

2 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring (increased for a brighter, cheerier green)

2 teaspoons vanilla

7 cups cornflake cereal

red m&m's or red hot candies

Melt butter and marshmallows together in the microwave. Start on HIGH for 2 minutes, stir, put back in for 2 more, stir.

Move to the next steps quickly so that marshmallow doesn't begin to set up.

Add cereal, food coloring and vanilla. Butter hands so marshmallow doesn't stick to them. Mix together into a blob of gooey deliciousness. I've reduced the amount of cornflakes from what was called for because we liked them extra gooey, you may want to add more yourself.

Lay out parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Pick up a golf-ball sized blob, place on parchment paper, shape into wreath. Add m&m's or red hots for decorations according to taste preference. Let set (no refrigerator or oven necessary!) until ready.

The result is similar to a Rice Krispie treat, but gooier and with more Christmas cheer. :)

Shakshuka

I used to get this at a teeny Israeli restaurant right by my dorm at NYU Law which served only two dishes: hummus and shakshuka - both loaded with flavor, with tiny pickles and soft pita and tongue-blistering Turkish coffee on the side. When finals time came along in the icy New York winter, I'd go for the steaming-hot shakshuka; when it came around in the spring, a swirl of hummus with fava beans and hardboiled egg. Talk about brain food for vegetarians. Anyway:

You'll need:

4 Anaheim chilis, seeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 28-oz can whole stewed tomatoes
6 roughly chopped cloves garlic

Olive oil, sugar, salt
Paprika, cumin, turmeric, cayenne
1 cup veggie broth

4 eggs

Toppings: Feta, fresh parsley
Sides: Pita, hummus, pickles

Soften the chilis, onion and garlic in olive oil with some salt and sugar in an oversize skillet, a wok, or a soup pot. Add about 2 tsp each cumin and turmeric , 1 TB paprika, and a few tsp of cayenne, for starters. (I added more of all 4 once taste-testing time came. This is no time to be shy with the spices.)

Break apart the tomatoes with your fingers as you add them (and their juice). If you don't think you have enough broth to cook down into a good stew, add some veggie broth. Let this all come to a boil with the lid on and simmer for 15 mins.

Then break the eggs carefully on top, and cook again till they're poached. Taste and adjust salt and spices.

Spiced Molassess Pie with Maple Whipped Cream

After three years of various people trying this spiced molasses pie, it was time for a post update. As it turns out, this pie is a delicious hit with everyone we know. However, it seems there should be two options for different palates. Below, you'll find a recipe for a strong, rich, not-so-sweet pie and a slightly modified recipe for those who prefer a very sweet holiday treat. 

A and I spent Wednesday afternoon making pies and Christmas wreaths. We made the same maple cream custard tart as last year, with no adjustments and no problems. Knowing that others were bringing more traditional pies, we also decided to have fun and make a strong, sugary molasses pie with gingerbread spices. I had a frozen Whole Foods gluten-free pie crust I wanted to use, although this could also be tasty with the almond meal crust we use for the maple cream tart.

After doing some googling, and coming up with a few recipes on forums, we came up with the following.

Option One: Spiced Molasses Pie with Maple Whipped Cream: Strong and Rich
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup white sugar
Splash of apple cider vinegar
3 eggs (4 if your eggs are small)
1 T vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
Nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, ground cloves to taste

Melt 1/2 cup butter, then simmer with 1/2 cup of blackstrap molasses, 1 cup of white sugar, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and slowly beat in 3 eggs, 1 T vanilla, 1/4 tsp. salt, and nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, and ground cloves to taste.

Pour filling into an unbaked pie shell and cook at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 25 more minutes.

The molasses taste here will be rich and strong. To soften this a bit, and to make a prettier pie, pipe a thin layer of homemade maple whipped cream (1 cup heavy cream, 3 T maple syrup) over the top. The molasses lovers at your table will really enjoy slivers of the pie, especially with strong coffee or tea. The texture-soft and gooey-is beautiful, as is the color.

Option Two Modification: Spiced Molasses Pie with Cinnamon Whipped Cream: Sugary Sweet
For those who are entertaining a crowd that loves very sweet desserts, we recommend adding another 1/4 or 1/2 cup of sugar or reducing the molasses by 1/4 cup and replacing with a 1/4 cup of honey. With the sweeter version, we recommend topping with homemade cinnamon whipped cream rather than the maple! (Just add cinnamon to heavy cream prior to whipping.)

Easy Angelfood Cake

Again: Used to make all the time. Have terrible memory. Etc etc. Nothing revolutionary here, but if you need a go-to angelfood, this is it.

12 egg whites
1.5 tsp cream of tartar
1.5 c sugar, divided
1.5 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 c sifted cake flour
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the egg whites & C of T at high speed till foamy. Add 3/4 c of sugar a tablespoon at a time, beating constantly, till sugar is dissolved and egg whites are glossy and hold a peak. Beat in flavorings.

Sift together flour, 3/4 c sugar, and salt. Sift half of this over the beaten egg whites and fold in gently until JUST combined, then do the same with the other half. Bake at 375 in a bundt pan or brownie pan until springy.

(Hmm, looks like my forgotten recipes were 2 cookies, 2 soups, and 3 cakes. Cookies, soup, and cake!? Yes please!!!)

Ridiculous Rum Cake

My friend Jess made me this recipe from her Italian grandmother* who, it turns out, uses yellow cake mix in her baking. Fine by me. I am drooling just remembering it.

1 package yellow cake mix
1 small package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 c water
1/2 c oil
4 eggs
1/2 c white rum

Beat ingredients together for 3 min., pour into lightly greased & floured bundt pan, and bake 50-60 mins at 350.

Sauce:
1 c sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 c water

Cook for 2 mins and add 1/4 c white rum. Loosen center of cake w/knife when cooled, and pour sauce over it while still in the pan.

Good lord. Rummy.

*Or maybe it was her American mother. Either way, bless the woman.

Adzuki Chili

(Note: I make this in my pressure cooker, 'cause I have never once been organized enough to soak any beans overnight.) Adzuki beans are tiny and brick-red and kind of nutty! I love them!

1 cup adzuki beans, soaked overnight then simmered till tender (35 minutes or more) & drained.

4 TB butter
1 large chopped onion or equivalent amount of leeks
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 diced carrot

1 c broth
2 TB whole wheat flour
1 TB paprika
pinch cayenne
Salt & peppah
1 TB soy sauce
1 TB tomato paste + 1 can diced tomatoes

Fresh parsley to garnish

Heat the butter in the bottom of your soup pot and soften the onion in it. Add garlic and carrot and soften these, then stir in the flour and spices. Add the remaining ingredients (broth, soy sauce, tomato stuff), bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the beans, adjust flavors, simmer gently for 20-25 mins, eat.

Rich Cream of Broccoli Soup

I am so glad I found this recipe again; it is getting dang cold and I need a big pot of it in my life. Also, I found it on a printout of an email I sent from my very first email address, which was - get this - s-j-p@excite.com. Seriously! I'm an oldster!

1-2 heads broccoli (or a large bunch of asparagus, or some artichoke hearts...)
4 red potatoes
1 onion
6 cloves garlic

4 TB butter
1/4 c flour
1 egg yolk
2 c milk

Salt & white pepper
Ground coriander
Any variety of mustard
(other possibilities: cardamom, chives, etc etc)

2 c (ish) broth
1 - 2 c grated cheese - 1/2 parmesan, 1/2 gruyere or cheddar

Chop and steam the veggies (you can steam the garlic cloves whole to avoid chopping, or chop finely and add at next step). Once soft, melt 1 TB butter in a deep frying pan and move 'em over there to get truly soft. They can stay on medium-low heat while you make a roux:

Melt 3 TB butter in bottom of soup pot, add flour. Beat the egg yolk in a bowl till foamy, add milk, then pour this into the soup pot once flour is golden and starting to bubble. Add spices and mustard. Cook, stirring frequently, till it thickens.

When veggies are quite soft, mash with potato masher, removing un-masheable bits (especially of onion.) Or toss them in the food processor, but don't over-process - you want some small chunks. Add these and the right amount of broth, then melt in the cheese, adjust spices, and simmer together.

Lentil Cookies (emphasis on "COOKIES")

Never has virtue tasted so good. This was an Alton Brown recipe, I think. (His measurements are in ounces with approximations of volume, of course. I just use the volumes.)

2 c whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp allspice

1 c sugar
3/4 c butter (@ room temp)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1.5 c lentil puree (= 2/3 cup dry lentils simmer for 30-40 minutes in 2 c water, pureed, and cooled)

1 c rolled oats
1 c each unsweetened coconut and dried fruit (I left these out but finely chopped dried cherries would probably be amazing)

Cream sugar and butter. Add (1) egg, then (2) vanilla and lentil puree until just combined. Mix the dry stuff (flour, bp, salt, spices) in a separate bowl, then add gradually. Stir in oats, fruit, and coconut. Drop 2-tsp sized balls onto parchment paper and bake for 15-17 mins at 375.

Lemon Cookies

When I went digging back through my dog-eared pile of paper recipes to find the Apricot Spice Cake, I dug out quite a few more that I'd completely forgotten about thanks to the internet. They need to be on this blog or I'll never remember to make them again. So brace yourselves. 

 For starters, these sweet, cake-like, sunny little guys are my favorite thing on the tray of Christmas cookies my (our!) mom's best friend brings over every year. Last year I finally wrote down the recipe: 

1/2 c butter, softened 

1 c sour cream 

1.5 c sugar 

2 eggs 

.5 tsp baking soda 

.5 tsp baking powder 

.5 tsp salt 

2 3/4 c flour 

1 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 of vanilla and 1/2 of lemon extract) 

 Cream the sugar & butter. Mix in sour cream, then eggs & extract. Sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to the wet. 

Chill in bowl for one hour, then drop by tablespoons onto parchment paper, and bake for 8 minutes at 400.

Frosting: 

3 TB melted butter 

3 TB milk 

2 tsp lemon extract 

Yellow food coloring 

3 c powdered sugar 

Mix all ingredients but the sugar, then add it gradually. Frost while warm. (PS - if you can't has teh gluten, perhaps these little guys will suit your fancy?

Apricot Spice Cake

This used to be my go-to dessert in college and law school, but I'd completely forgotten about it until I tried making Deb's Spiced Applesauce Cake. The cake was good, but rather dense and not as moist and spicy as I wanted. Clearly, somewhere in my mind, there was already a "Spice Cake" archetype lurking... and suddenly I remembered scouring the shelves of a Brooklyn bodega for apricot baby food:

Dry:
2 c flour
2 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (make the teaspoons of spices generous)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
.5 tsp baking powder

Wet:
1 c veg oil
1 jar (1/2 cup) apricot baby food
1/2 cup mashed canned apricots & juice (leave some chunks)
3 eggs

Mix together dry, add wet, and bake at 350 in a brownie pan. (Can't remember how long.) Top with cream cheese frosting.

I originally begged this recipe out of the mother of a childhood friend who would make it specifically for me... it may very well be the first thing I baked. I guess I can thank the applesauce cake for bringing me back to it.

Persimmon Rice, Pile Of

(Whenever they served Rice Pilaf in our college cafeteria, that's what Kay - the same person who sent me this recipe, actually - would call it. Giggle, giggle, snort!!)

The best thing about this dish was how it made my apartment smell - the fragrance of shallots, ginger, and cinnamon together in the rice cooker had me walking around taking big sniffs of air like a weirdo. It was plenty tasty as well, though it couldn't quite unseat this in the annals of delicious sweet-savory Piles Of.

Basic recipe here, though I strongly recommend adding something for crunch as I do below.

Ingredients:
1. 1/3 cup finely chopped shallot (+ olive oil)
2. 1 TB fresh grated ginger

3. 1/4 tsp cinnamon
4. 1 cup white long-grain rice + broth to cook it in

5. 3 firm-ripe Fuyu persimmons, peeled & chopped
6. 1/2 cup well-chopped cilantro
7. 1/2 cup pepitas
8. Lemon juice to taste (go generous!)
9. S&P to taste

Sautee 1&2 in the bottom of your saucepan (or better, rice cooker). Add 3-4, and cook the rice. Toss in 5-9 at the end. The NYT is right: Fuyu persimmons are like extra-cheery tomatoes .

And finally, A Brief And Rapid Overview Of Other Things I Have Recently Cooked:

Soup,

then more soup,

then a stirfry flavored kind of like this with the leftover ingredients from the second soup,

then a Spiced Applesauce cake,

then 3 kinds of cookies in a single Sunday, all from Smitten Kitchen:
Key Lime Meltaways (my favorite and SUPER easy)
Hazelnut Thumbprints (crowd favorite)
Green Tea Shortbread (cute and green but not tea-flavored enough - maybe my matcha was inferior?)

oh and at some point, in a fit of using up farmer's market proceeds, roasted beets & carrots one night and risotto the next.

It's been a nice repeat-recipe rut, but thanks Kay and persimmons for getting me out of it!

Applesauce Sticky Cake with Dates

This cake is not what I was envisioning, but it's delicious. Due to a lovely apple picking adventure last weekend, P and I had eaten through an apple pie and a tub of applesauce, but still had apples to consume.

Well. P was in California. So really, I had eaten all of that and still had apples to consume. After some recipe plotting, I designed an applesauce date cake based on Martha's, here, which turned into a delicious sticky cake reminiscent of a proper steamed British pudding.

Well. I've never eaten a proper steamed British pudding. But I imagine that's what this is like. Regardless, it's delicious. The amount below makes enough for one 9 inch cake and 6 cupcakes.

1.5 cups almond flour
1.5 cups gluten free all purpose flour
2 tsp. xantham gum
2 tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups chunky applesauce (I recommend homemade, and super chunky)
1/4 honey

Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cardamom

1/2 cup or more chopped medjool dates

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, honey and applesauce. Sift in combination of dry ingredients. Add copious amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom. Throw in some ground cloves if you want! Fold in 1/2 cup or more of chopped medjool dates.

Bake in buttered 9 inch cake pan and buttered muffin tins. (I left the "muffins" unfrosted and have been eating them for breakfast. :). I baked at 350 for 50 minutes, but took the muffins out earlier.

Any frosting will do. For simplicity's sake, I used a basic powdered sugar + milk + cardamom frosting. It's not very pretty, so if you're going for presentation, I'd use a spiced buttercream.

Honey Rosemary Pork Chops

A few nights ago, faced with a pork chop that I wanted to cook not with my normal barbecue sauce (I really am trying to branch out. I swear.), I decided to throw it in a frying pan with whatever I pleased and see how it went. In went the pork chop, some lemon-infused olive oil and a little water to keep the oil from spattering too badly. Then went rosemary, my lemon-garlic spice mix, and thyme. I flipped it and cooked it on medium high until no longer pink, but when I pulled it out knew it would be wanting for a little more flavor. In a moment of randomness, I pulled out a bottle of honey, drizzled some on, and bam! Unexpected deliciousness. The honey, the move I was most afraid of making, turned out to be what made the meal. Served with corn on the cob and brown rice.

Guest Post: Pasta with Arugula & Goat Cheese

And now, a mouthwatering interlude from everyone's favorite Nebraskan (and that's saying a lot, because Nebraskans are mad awesome, as a general proposition), polkadotdotdot:

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I adapted this from an epicurious recipe for homemade ravioli w/ arugula & goat cheese in the middle. Fat chance, epicurious.

You'll notice that there aren't many measurements. I think we're all big girls here.

Pasta w/ Arugula & Goat Cheese:

Ingredients:
fat
flavor
vegetable
cheese
starch
water

Turn on the tunes. As you proceed with the recipe, make sure to insert a few sweet dance moves and sing along with a chorus or two. This is not part of the recipe. It just makes you happier.

Start your water boiling for pasta. Salt &/or oil your water if that's what you do. I didn't.
When the water's boiling, insert pasta (I prefer fettuccine but pretty much any kind'll work) and cook it. Set your timer if you're that sort of person. I am.

Meanwhile:

• Tear your arugula to bits! Best to do this first or you'll end up w/ burnt butter, and then SJP would say SHAME!
• Melt 1T-ish butter (or fat of choice) in big frying pan on medium.
• After bubbling subsides, add a couple cloves of garlic, lightly mashed but not in tiny bits, + S&P. Saute until garlic is golden, then remove (we're just flavoring the butter here, people, not scaring away the potential smoochers lined up at the door).
• Add arugula bits! Saute until limp but not dead.
• Remove the pan from heat and put the arugula in the bowl you plan to eat out of.
• Add a couple T of goat cheese and shred some parmesan on there too.
• Squeeze in a lemon wedge. Please do not airily dismiss the lemon like you just don't care. It is critical. Plus it will keep away the dread scurvy.

When the pasta's done, strain it and dump it on top of arugula/cheese mixture. Mix w/ fork.

Insert into mouth, chew, swallow, digest, excrete.

the end.

Cake Balls

Yesterday was my roomie's 20th birthday, and we appropriately threw her a surprise party that included milkshakes served in various coffee mugs, a "Birthday Jedi" badge and a fantastic cake that she cut with a toy light saber. The cake was created by a talented friend, and featured a Yoda head with the words "20 years, you have." In the process of creating her masterpiece, she had leftover cake bits and frosting with which she suggested I throw together some cake balls. This is a recipe I had heard of from multiple people and had been wanting to do for awhile. It's super easy and delicious! Here's how it works:

Take some cake and crumble it into frosting. Find a good consistency. Roll the mixture into bite-sized balls. (This part gets messy. It's fun.) If you want them chocolate-covered, put into the freezer for a bit, and take them out later to dip them in melted chocolate and freeze them again. If you want them sprinkles-covered, roll them in a bowl of sprinkles and then put them in the freezer.

Last night's were fun-fetti with strawberry frosting and sprinkles. I'm eager to try this with red velvet cake, vanilla bean cream cheese frosting and chocolate. Yum!

Snack

Sliced Fuji apple, honey mustard, and robusto cheese on toasted ciabatta.

Makes me want to get Hobbesian (no, not THAT kind of Hobbesian!) and say "snack" over and over:

September Cookies

I am mildly sad that I decided to make these using a box mix as a base, and not to measure any of my own contributions, because that certainly makes it harder to share them with you. They are lovely. The best I can do is tell you to take a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, add about 1/4 cup of oat bran flour, 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree, 3 tablespoons of molasses, and a lot of cinnamon. Or, alternately, do all of the above to a Betty Crocker gluten free chocolate chip cookie mix. Because really people, we're all busy and sometimes measuring out millet flour and coconut flour and almond flour and xantham gum and guar gum and oh don't forget the potato starch--it's a damn drag.

Bittersweet Orange Macaroons

Perfect fancy party fare, this macaroon recipe from Bon Apetit defies all laws of good baking and uses the oh-so-dreadful sweetened coconut stuff. Shockingly, these still have a very sophisticated taste (thanks to the bittersweet chocolate and addition of orange peel to the batter). It also produces lots and lots and lots o'macaroons, for a very low cost.

I didn't make any changes, so you can find the recipe here.

Blackberry Cream Frosting

I wish this post could be titled Blackberry Buttercream Frosting. Sadly, while I intended on making a buttercream, I didn't feel like walking from the kitchen to the computer to look at the recipe. Yes, I am that lazy. So instead we have a cream cheese/buttercream hybrid frosting. But really, what's wrong with that?

1/3 block low-fat cream cheese
The lowfat part is kind of a joke, considering the nutritional stats of frosting.

1/2 stick butter, just above room temperature

2/3 bag of powdered sugar
The normal sized bag. If you don't know which one is normal, buy bigger and just add powdered sugar until you get to the right consistency.

1 pint fresh blackberries, washed and dried

1 tsp. vanilla

Using an electric mixer or a lot of arm strength, beat together the butter and blackberries. Add powdered sugar until frosting starts to stiffen, then add cream cheese and whip until just so. If you don't have a pastry bag and tip, like me, just cut the corner off of a ziplock bag, scoop in frosting, seal tightly, and pipe through there.

You could easily eliminate the cream cheese and add more butter, but I like the tang it provides as background for all.that.sugar.

This was delicious on 15 vanilla cupcakes, and I had plenty left over to freeze for the days when blackberries aren't abundant.

Food from Morocco

Fancy, traditional Moroccan courtyard restaurant in Marrakesh


Food stalls in the Djemaa al-Fna in Marrakesh


Food stall feast


Sorbet at an ice cream shoppe in the ritzy Ville Nouvelle


Rooftop cafe snack in Essaouira


Cozy French cafe lunch in Essaouira


Shopping for mint at the Essaouira spice market at the end of Ramadan

Cat with olives.

Mint Green Smoothie

I can't believe I forgot to put this concoction up when I first started making it - heaven knows I broadcast its delicious + virtuous qualities to everyone who would listen. So anyway, the best smoothie I personally have ever made:

2 frozen bananas, several scoops mint chocolate chip ice cream, half a package of spinach and a splash of soy milk.

Summer Ratatouille, with Harissa

[..... is really hard to spell.]

I guess oven dishes are not ideal for summer, but the result was light and fresh, with that sweet-savory vibe I can't get enough of. Woulda been great with a glass of chilled white wine.

Chop up the following into bite-sized chunks and put them in a small casserole dish:

Half a large eggplant / 1 small eggplant, peeled
1 small zucchini
2 large tomatoes
2 large peaches

Top with a can of harissa, bake for 25 mins at 400, serve over fusilli.

I realize it's not likely that any of us has home-canned harissa hanging around the shelves at a given moment, but harissa recipes and commercial pastes (or spice blends) are pretty easy to find. The rich tomato-and-chile flavor was amazing on all these veggies, and especially with the peaches.

Pulled Pork Green Chile Stew

After a trip to New Mexico, a trip to a local butcher and a trip to Safeway where New Mexican green chiles were on sale, pork green chili stew seemed inevitable even in the dead heat of a Phoenix summer. There is likely nothing authentic about this recipe, but it was delicious and gave us about 12 big servings (!!).

Cook a 3 lb bone-in shoulder blade of pork with several tomatoes, 3 chopped Anaheim chiles, and 2 cups of water for 8-10 hours in a slow cooker. Season well with salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and cinnamon. After cooking remove fat and pull pork apart with a fork.

Chop several potatoes and a large onion. Brown with garlic, cumin, olive oil, cilantro, and chili powder. Add 2 cans pinto beans and 2 cans stewed tomatoes (we only added stewed tomatoes because we didn't use enough tomatoes with the pork).

Combine the contents of the slow cooker with the potatoes and beans. Add more spices to taste, let simmer for a few hours and enjoy. It was quite tasty with a bit of sharp white cheddar cheese.

**I use Black Canyon Chile Powder (linked to above) from the Savory Spice Shop in Denver, Colorado. You can order their spices online for a reasonable price. If you are ambitious and like to mix your own, this particular chile powder is made using "chile peppers, cocoa powder, garlic, toasted onion, Saigon cinnamon and Mexican oregano" and is salt-free.