GastroFabulous

French Nachos

2012-01-26T16:46:00.003-05:00

Happy 2012!

Well, since moving to SwitzerFrance, one of the things that I crave most is mexican food. While it is possible to get "Old El Paso" out here, everything that you can buy is expensive and...well, just wrong. For example, a pack of 8 flour tortillas will run you about 4-5chf (about $5). And, they taste kind of sweet. I found corn tortillas and they had the texture of cardboard and a mild cornbread taste. Very, very disappointing. One of my friends even said that she found guacamole in a can with the second ingredient being PEAS.

So, if we want mexican, we've got to make it ourselves. And what a surprise I had for my husband tonight: French Nachos.
Recipe:

- 1 bag of tortilla chips (yes, you can find these in SwitzerFrance)
- 1 small wedge of brie*
- Taco Seasoned Hamburger which includes
- ground beef
- half an onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- Taco Seasoning (aka, 1/2 to 1tsp of chili powder, onion powder, paprika, oregano, chili flakes, salt and pepper)
- Homemade Salsa (since you can't find good salsa here) which includes
- three fresh tomatoes
- a handful of chopped corriander
- diced hot pepper
- juice from 1 lemon or lime
- salt, pepper, a touch of olive oil and more chopped garlic if you like.
- Sour cream, creme freche, or plain yogurt is optional

1. For hamburger, mince onions and garlic and fry on medium heat until the onions are golden, about 5-8 minutes
2. Add your "seasoning" mix on the onions, stir and cook for just a minute
3. Add hamburger and cook until hamburger and onions are well cooked.
4. Chop/Mince all ingredients for Salsa and combine in a separate bowl.
5. Layer tortilla chips on a plate, slice brie and put on top of chips
6. Microwave for 2-3 minutes until brie is nice and melty
7. Remove from microwave, add hamburger on top and salsa. (And sour cream if you wish)
8. Eat! Enjoy! Savor the fact that YOU ARE EATING FRENCH NACHOS!

* The brie makes it French. Clearly, you can sub cheddar if you live in a country where cheddar is not a luxury item. Or you can take this entire recipe and make tacos if you have better tortillas than I do.

Asian Turkey Meatballs, Carrot Rice, & Stir Fried Green Beans

2011-11-15T10:07:00.002-05:00

Last night in an attempt to make a meal that was new, is not a casserole and gets through my backlog of EDF issues I made Asian Turkey Meatballs with Carrot Rice as well as Stir-Fried Green Beans. In both cases, I made half recipes (I'm trying to be really good about not having leftovers since we are SO bad about going back to eat them) and it worked out perfectly, except that we probably didn't need 1/2 c. of rice for just 2 people. For the meatballs, I used soy sauce instead of Fish Sauce because I didn't feel like buying another jar of something only have it eventually get buried in the back of my cupboard with only 2 spoons used! It was fine - I have no idea what I missed out on and I didn't mind it. For the green beans, I was too lazy to hunt down red jalapenos so I used the serrano chilis. They were quite spicy and the only downside I could discern was that they didn't give the dish the pop of color in the EDF picture shown here. Lastly I completely forgot to bring out the lime when serving and to add the lemon juice when cooking the beans. Again - it wasn't missed.

What I liked most about this dish was how easy it was to prep everything and then stick it in the oven for the last 10 minutes right before we were ready to eat.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

2011-11-13T22:51:00.007-05:00

I definitely want to bookmark this one for myself in addition to sharing it with you guys. Tuna noodle casserole - I used to eat this as a kid and it was basically just noodles, tuna, and cream of mushroom soup (weird stuff), with cornflakes or some such cereal on top. I guess I liked it back then, but it hasn't seemed appealing in years. Except the other day I found myself with extra cooked pasta, and tuna in the cupboard, so I looked up some recipes. I found some from scratch and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did because it is really good! You make a roux, then add chicken broth and milk, and a tasty mushroom-onion mixture. Then as expected just dump it in with the pasta and bake it. The topping on this is cheese and breadcrumbs which was really good too. Oh and I added peas for some color. I'm proud of myself that I now make things like this from scratch! It wasn't super fast for me but it wasn't too hard, and casseroles always make a ton!

Poached Pears

2011-11-11T16:59:00.003-05:00

I'm on a roll here, sharing all my dishes! I bought these really cheap pears at Haymarket and I figured they might not be the best pears ever so I wanted to do something safe with them. I also remembered seeing recipes for poached pears that looked really good. So I looked some up, threw some stuff in a pot, and boiled it for a while. I really wasn't sure how it would come out but it was SO GOOD! I ate them on yogurt for dessert and again for breakfast, but next time I want to put them either on ice cream or on pound cake with chocolate sauce.

I used these instructions from David Lebovitz as a guide. In the broth I put white wine, sugar, water, cloves, allspice, and a cinnamon stick. I think I simmered the pears for about 40 minutes, and I added dried cherries near the end. I highly recommend it!

Roasted Cauliflower

2011-11-11T16:54:00.005-05:00

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables I always assumed I didn't like, but lately I've discovered it's actually really good! I got one in my CSA last month and I made this really simple roasted cauliflower - you basically just put olive oil and lemon juice on it, roast it in the oven, and then dump lots of parmesan on top!

Apple Bread

2011-11-11T16:49:00.002-05:00

The other apple product I made a few times was apple bread. I got the recipe from a friend so I don't know where it came from originally. The recipe makes two loaves but I only have one loaf pan so I halved it each time I made it. I also didn't take a picture and now the apples are gone, so all I have to show is the recipe. It is really good, with chunks of apple in the batter and cinnamon sugar on top!

Combine:
3 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Combine in lg. bowl:
3 eggs
1 c veg oil
2 c sugar
1 T vanilla

Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients.
Fold in 3 c chopped apples.
Pour batter into 2 greased, floured loaf pans.
Combine 2 T sugar and 1 T cinnamon and sprinkle on top as topping.
Bake 60-70 min at 350.

Apple Cake

2011-11-11T16:36:00.004-05:00

Fall in New England means apple picking, and every year I end up with more apples than I know what to do with. This year thanks to a groupon we picked a whole bushel, literally, which is two huge bags. So in addition to the usual apple crisps, I looked around for some different apple confections. Smitten Kitchen's apple cake uses 6 apples so making it a couple times definitely helped use up the stash. I put a lot less sugar than it said and it was really good!

Chicken, Lemon, and Dill with Orzo

2011-11-08T19:15:00.002-05:00

Fresh off my last post, I was inspired to shared today's dinner with you too. I made Chicken, Lemon, and Dill with Orzo. I made a 3rd of the recipe and it came out pretty good. It looked like the EDF picture, shown here, and tasted fine, but honestly I didn't love it. It was just sorta bland and I think I'm over casseroles for the moment. I want my food separate.

Mushroom & Black Bean Tortilla Casserole

2011-11-08T14:04:00.002-05:00

Hi Ladies! I'm back! I've been noticing the resurgence of posts and been meaning to post myself AND I've been trying to cook more - as in trying to cook new recipes more often, rather than just throwing together easy things around the house. I stopped getting EDF back in March, but there are SO many recipes I flagged and never tried. I'm going to try and work my way back through them and I might start my subscription up again, just because I like paging through them for ideas and its SO cheap.

I'm still not in the routine enough to remember to take pictures, but I did make Mushroom & Black Bean Tortilla Casserole last night and it was pretty good! Incredibly easy. I did all of the prep quickly and put it aside. It then just needed to go in the oven for 15 min when we were ready to eat. I also didn't want to make so much so I sorta halved / sorta didn't halve the recipe. I used half the oil, two-thirds the amount of mushrooms, all the beans, a smaller dish, and however much I needed of everything else to make it work. It fed two of us with a smaller third serving leftover.

I'll let you know what I make next!

Squash soup!

2011-10-13T09:09:00.003-04:00

It's FALL!!

Tis the season for beautiful soups. Here's the first one (of many) that I will be making this fall. I give you, Alton Brown's Squash Soup.

A few small changes from me:

1. I have no idea what sort of squash I used because in Switzerland, each kind of squash is just called courge. I have identified pattypan, spaghetti and potentially pumpkin, but these slices of "courge" that they sell in the store is still a mystery to me. It was a brilliant orange and baked up beautifully in the oven. It certainly had a sphaghetti squash like stringy consistency (not solid like a Japanese kaboucha or a pumpkin.) Very strange.

2. I used chicken stock that I had made myself. I'm starting to do this more often because a) it's easy and freezes nicely b) chicken stock has a ton of salt and preservatives and c) whole chicken is cheaper and more fun to cook with.

3. I left out the ginger despite having some, and the soup was still great.

I thought this recipe was a good starting place because it's JUST squash and a little cream and butter. Looking forward to seeing what celery, onions, potatoes and other things do to it!

Shrimp Risotto

2011-10-03T21:03:00.004-04:00

Another one from the pioneer woman! I'm getting to really like her style of super long posts with step by step photos, it's handy to see what hers looked like at each step. And this one didn't have the recipe written out normally at the end but it was fine because I didn't really need it.

This shrimp risotto was great - creamy and tasty like regular risotto, but no cream or cheese, so it was slightly more healthful (still plenty of butter in there). And I really liked how they cut up the shrimp to go in it so you had more bites with shrimp. Now I have more than one kind of risotto in my repertoire. Yay!

Girls Curry Night

2011-09-26T06:55:00.003-04:00

Last week, J was out of town so I invited all the female friends I've made (mostly CERN wives or female physicists) for a Girls Night In. It's pretty expensive to go out to eat in Geneva and without any Olive Garden options, I made three curries and they brought wine.

One of the curries was loosely based on Jamie Oliver's recipe:
Click on the picture for the recipe at http://www.jamieoliver.com

A few change and clarifications to his version:

Frying the mustard seeds at first is important because it makes the flavor better, and it's really fun to hear the little seeds cackle on the frying pan.
I tried grating the onions with large hole cheese grater, and while I had to stop because my eyes were stinging, it actually made for a nice onion paste. I didn't have the patience/stamina to do both onions that way, so I just chopped the second onion which worked just fine. I also used a jalapeno type pepper for the hot pepper.
I used regular potatoes and thai eggplant (eggplant=aubergine) and realized that Jamie did not specify a cooking time. Even at small bite size pieces, it took at least 30 minutes for these items to cook. I made a mistake and boiled the coconut milk which you really shouldn't do. Keep at a simmer if possible.
Having neither okra nor peas, I threw in red and yellow peppers instead. It still turned out lovely.

Really great flexible recipe for a chilly autumn night and hanging with the girls.

Bacon Cheddar Scallion Biscuits

2011-09-18T17:56:00.003-04:00

Yay, glad you're posting too Sarah! I agree, pictures are ideal but even if we don't take them we shouldn't let that stop us from posting. I actually made these biscuits again this weekend and this time I did take pictures. So here they are!

Recipes from Switzerland

2011-09-16T12:25:00.002-04:00

Louisa! All is not lost! I've been thinking about blogging more about the recent cooking I've been doing too, so pictures to come! Recipe links for now!

Since last you all saw me, I got married and moved to Geneva, Switzerland. Most of my friends work at CERN at the Large Hadron Collider (or LHC). There are lots of nice things about Switzerland (cows! cheese! wine!) and downsides too (#3 most expensive city in the world).

So, we end up cooking a LOT instead of going out to eat. In the land of a burger costs $20, my reliance on Julia Child and Joy of Cooking has skyrocketed.

Recently, I've made a lot of scones to entertain my friends who stop by for tea. (I know, it sounds like we're living in the 1940s here.) But tried and true, this recipe for lemon scones actually one of my favs. Don't over knead the dough and if you have european butter, all the better. Did you know the fat content is totally different in butter here? Fascinating!

Scallions!

2011-09-13T22:29:00.002-04:00

No one else seems to be posting here but I'm going to continue, even if it's just for my own records. So, the main thing I've been getting in my CSA that I can't keep up with is scallions! Every week there's another big bunch and most things I make with them just uses a little bit. So I had to find more uses for them.

One thing I found was this scallion pesto. I didn't know if it would be any good but I also just got my first food processor so it was the perfect thing to try. I would say the scallion pesto is not amazing or anything but it's pretty good, definitely gives things a nice oniony tang, and a great use of my scallions!

The other thing I made was really awesome: bacon cheddar scallion biscuits! I used this recipe from the Pioneer Woman and just added scallions (sauteed them briefly in a little of the bacon fat before dumping them in the batter). I brought them to a potluck and they gotten eaten up pretty quickly. They are not healthy in the least but they are really good!

Swiss Chard

2011-09-05T22:26:00.003-04:00

I joined a CSA for the first time this year - together with a coworker we're getting a half share, so we each get a quarter share which is working out very well because it's not too hard to use it up. Last week we got some swiss chard, which I think is so much better than spinach, and I found this recipe to use it. It's really simple, just sautee some swiss chard, I added dried cranberries instead of currants, and then put in some feta at the end. I didn't add any water though the recipe says to. The only thing is I'm always amazed at how all that leafiness cooks down into not that much, so my one bunch of chard made a small dish but it was very good!

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

2011-08-21T16:28:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone, we've all been on a long hiatus but I'm trying to revive the blog now! I'll start with these baked cheesy tomatoes I made the other day, which I originally came across on Pinterest. I used a shredded cheddar blend because I had that on hand and I wanted to use it up, but I bet any cheese would be good. I'm trying to eat healthy these days and I like that you can put as much or little cheese as you want. Also I used a tomato I got in my first CSA box! These are so simple and really tasty, I will definitely be making them again.

Southwestern Filled Acorn Squash

2010-10-13T15:33:00.003-04:00

So I had a big acorn squash leftover from my CSA, and wanted to do something interesting with it. I found this recipe for Southwestern Filled Acorn Squash on Eating Well.

I don't generally like sausage, so I omitted the meat and made this vegetarian. I also only made one squash and not 3, so I had eyeball some of the amounts

. Let me tell you, this was fantastic! Really nice flavors and quite impressive looking. I think this might go into our regular fall lineup. It's very filling. I am actually eating the leftovers right now!

Spinach and Chickpeas

2010-08-24T12:17:00.004-04:00

I have fallen in love with the Smitten Kitchen blog. Deb Perelman's recipes are just really elegant, the photography is outstanding, and she makes food I might actually want to eat.

Last night I made Spinach with Chickpeas or as she likes to say espinacas con garbanzos. It was slightly more labor intensive, because it involved transferring bread cubes from a fry pan to a blender, and then back into the fry pan. The chickpeas take on a delicious flavor and it's very filling. I served it with couscous.

I definitely recommend this.
*Image courtesy of Deb Perelman.

Cooking Club: Porkchops with Mushroom Bourbon Cream Sauce

2010-07-06T16:45:00.003-04:00

I was searching through recipes I had bookmarked for myself, looking for something to make for dinner tonight, when I came across this recipe for Porkchops with Mushroom Bourbon Cream Sauce. I made this for cooking club just a few weeks ago and had meant to share it with you guys! The sauce is delish! I chose to bake the pork chops the entire time so they took a bit longer to cook than I anticipated. Overall, I don't love pork chops, but I'd make the sauce again and serve it as a side!

Photo credit to Simply Recipes - but mine looked the same.

Chipotle Chicken & Rice

2010-07-05T21:46:00.003-04:00

The combo of seeing Louisa this weekend at Maura & Christopher's wedding and having a less than fabulous moment in the kitchen tonight prompted me to post here! I decided to make the recipe for Chipotle Chicken and Rice in the July / August 2009 issue of Everyday Food magazine. All was going well (and I was thinking about how this is such a great dish to make b/c while it takes a long time - most of the time is hands off and leaves you with time to do other things - I did 2 loads of laundry and cleaned my apt a bit!) until the last 5 minutes. It seems there wasn't enough water in my pot during the last step, so all of the water absorbed about 5 minutes earlier than the estimated time and burned the bottom layer of rice. When I was putting the rice in, it didn't feel like enough, so I actually added more then - but still not enough! Thankfully, I could tell something was up and managed to save the bulk of it. It tastes great and I have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week! Definitely worth making again!

ps- photo credit to Everyday Food magazine - but mine pretty much looks the same if you discard the bottom layer!

Cooking Club: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

2010-05-24T11:20:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine started a Cooking Club and last night was our first meeting. Our Cooking Club is going to meet once a month and the basic premise is that each month we'll have a theme, selected by the person hosting. The host makes a main dish and everyone else has to make an appetizer, side, or dessert to go with the theme. Also, we each need to make something we've never made before. It can be a dish you've made before, but it at least needs to be a new recipe.

Last night's theme was Mexican, so I made the Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies found in the April 2010 Everyday Food Magazine. The picture is theirs, but mine looked pretty good! They were super easy to make and everyone seemed to love them.

I'm hosting next month - so we'll see what I come up with as far as a theme and a main dish!

Rhubarb Cake

2010-05-02T13:18:00.002-04:00

Every spring, this giant plant of rhubarb springs up from besides the garage. This is the only plant that I can harvest from on our rental property, and it gives loads and loads of rhubarb.

I've made strawberry rhubarb jam and pie and crumble, but i wanted to try something new. So, here's the recipe for rhubarb cake. (Modified from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup milk
2-4 cups coarsely chopped fresh rhubarb (I used 4)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl with electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar slowly, continuing to beat, until the mixture is well blended and fluffy. Beat the egg and vanilla into the creamed mixture until well-blended.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Combine the lemon juice and milk; add it alternately with the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat after each addition, just enough to blend. Gently fold the chopped rhubarb into the batter; spoon into a greased 9x13x2-inch pan, spreading evenly.

Dash the cinnamon on top of the batter. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan at least 25 minutes, then cut into squares and serve.

Carrot Soup

2010-04-20T00:03:00.003-04:00

I guess it was about time for me to get back to the original theme of this blog - this carrot soup was disastrous. I thought oh I'll just get some carrots and whip up this carrot soup in no time. That was my first mistake, because this recipe took a lot longer than I expected. I don't exactly know why because there aren't that many ingredients so maybe I was just slow. It was still going well though, up until the end. Second mistake - I put too much salt in. I usually put way too little and somehow this time I overcompensated. But I thought it would still be edible. Then my third and final mistake - the sesame oil. I either put way too much, or unbeknownst to me mine was the super strong kind she mentions in the article. Once that was in, the whole thing tasted like sesame which is kind of weird with carrots. Li wouldn't even eat it. I ate a little just because I'd put all this time into it, but it was terrible. Frustrating!!!! I definitely want to try it again though because I think it had potential - next time no sesame oil at all. In the comments they suggest curry powder which sounds like a good idea - as long as I go easy on it.

Chicken Patty Pockets

2010-04-19T23:54:00.004-04:00

I haven't been cooking a lot the past month or two, and when I do I haven't been trying anything new. But I decided it was time to shake things up and I finally made something from my first issue of Everyday Food Magazine (just like Uma, yay!). I made these chicken patty pockets, which I think Uma made too. The recipe is from Emeril but I don't think they have it on the site. They came out pretty good, except I used ground white meat because it was on sale, and I think the dark meat would have more flavor. Also, the recipe said to broil them for 4 minutes on each side but when I did that they were nowhere near done. I had to bake them for at least 10 more minutes. They had this yogurt sauce on them, with mint and lime, which I really liked. So I think I'll be making them again!

Butternut Squash Crumble

2010-02-26T12:13:00.003-05:00

I found this recipe on Boston.com, and decided yesterday's rainy, windy night would be the perfect time to try it. I am a squash fiend, so I was very excited to try this recipe. It's like an apple crumble you might make, except savory.

You can view the recipe here:

Yes, it does have a good deal of parmesan cheese and butter. The recipe came out great, although I would not call it light. It was very filling in the belly. I took a shortcut and used already cut up butternut squash. I found it well worth the extra money. My only other critique was that I didn't mix the crumb topping as well as I could have, so I ended up with some spots that had a sand-like consistency.

I am eating it now for lunch, and I can attest that it does well as leftovers!

Dried Fruit Pork Chops

2010-02-22T22:07:00.004-05:00

A little late but I wanted to post this. We've been cooking a bunch lately but mainly just making the rounds through the recipes we already know and love. My recipe repertoire has expanded so much since we started GastroFabulous, it's really amazing!

Anyways, we had a nice Valentine's day with my mom and Oscar (the dog) and we made these pork chops with a nice red (seasonal) sauce of red wine with dried cherries, cranberries, plums, etc. It came out too salty though, I think the result of the chicken stock plus the added salt. Next time I wouldn't add any more. Other than that, it was pretty good, and easy.

Alfajores

2010-02-07T16:51:00.004-05:00

Today I made these alfajores, apparently an Argentinian cookie. I had never heard of them but they have dulce de leche which I've always loved. I started yesterday, I made the dough and attempt #1 of the dulce de leche. The cookie dough seemed too crumbly so I added extra butter which helped only a little. The dulce de leche I completely botched - burned it and made a huge mess. So, day 1 was not a success.

But the next day I kept at it. I tried to roll out the dough like the instructions say but it was not happening - way too crumbly. Instead I just shaped it into patties by hand, and that actually worked fine. The baking instructions worked perfectly. I bought a new can of sweetened condensed milk and tried the dulce de leche again. This time I kept a close eye on it and it came out fine. Not great I think - I've had it darker and more flavorful - but still good. I made dulce de leche one other time but I can't remember how it was. So, day 2 - things are looking up!

Finally I paired up the same-sized cookies, spread the dulce de leche, and sandwiched them together. They are quite tasty! But, when they sit there the dulce de leche kind of oozes out and gets messy. I'm bringing them to a friend's house later and I think it'll be quite sticky by then. But, they taste good, so overall a success.

Strata

2010-01-11T22:36:00.005-05:00

This weekend I had a potluck brunch to go to and as usual I decided to try something new. I'd had strata in restaurants and decided to make it myself. Strata is basically bread pudding but savory, not sweet. It's also a lot like quiche, but without the crust and with bread in it. Whatever it's like, it's really good, you can put whatever you want in it, and it's not that hard to make. I used this spinach strata recipe and I added tomatoes too. At one point (actually many points) I thought I'd ruined it, but it's hard to ruin and came out great! You're supposed to put the stuff in the pan in layers, but after the first layer my pan was pretty full. Too much stuff! So I made two pans, but then when I went to pour in the liquid, it didn't even cover one of the pans. Not enough liquid! I figured I'd just see what happened, and it actually was fine. I do think the custard to stuff ratio was kind of high - I'd probably pack more stuff in next time so it was more dense. But it really didn't matter and I'm eating the second pan for lunches this week - anything goes, with strata!

Egg Nog Bars

2010-01-03T23:40:00.005-05:00

As you may or may not know, I love egg nog. So when I saw these egg nog nanaimo bars (yeah, weird name) I pretty much had to make them. The recipe is fairly involved so I was worried they wouldn't be worth it, but let me tell you - they are! These are reeeealllly good! And the two main layers really aren't that hard, though they do have a fair number of ingredients in there. Mine actually do look great, a lot like the picture, but I couldn't resist reposting this shot with their cute little faces and egg nog glasses. The bottom layer is chocolatey graham cracker stuff, and the middle layer is puddingy egg nog stuff - both buttery goodness. Then on top there is a layer of white chocolate. That part was pretty tricky. Melted chocolate doesn't quite seem liquidy enough to pour, you see. So I melted it and sort of painted it on awkwardly with a spatula. It hardens so fast so it's easy to make a mess. It was a bit frustrating, but in the end it still looked fine and tasted great. So - success! The only worry is that I can't make them again until next egg nog season.

Orange Lamb

2010-01-03T22:05:00.003-05:00

Chocolate & Zucchini is a food blog I've had on my radar for a long time but never actually made anything from it. Sometimes I feel like a lot of things on there are more complicated than I'm looking for. But the other day I had time, and LZ wanted lamb, and this one looked pretty good. It's basically lamb and oranges, with a buttery citrus sauce with spices like cardamom and cinnamon, and then candied orange peels on top. I was excited about trying the candied orange peels, but in the end they mostly got left on the side of the plate. It was really delicious though, between the fact that lamb is always tasty, and the yummy spices - thumbs up! It took some work but I'd definitely make it again - could be a good one for a dinner party since we even had leftovers. I would say mine did look fairly similar to the photo, but my photos can never compare so I posted hers.

My Baking Misdaventures

2010-01-03T13:22:00.004-05:00

Hello bloggers! I haven't posted in awhile and thought I'd update you all on my cooking adventures.

First I made florentine lace cookies; these are fancy cookies you often see in bakeries. They are very impressive to bring as hostess gifts, but I must warn you. They are a huge pain in the ass! First you have to make the cookie part. I learned from trial and error that you must spoon the dough onto the cookie sheet in dollops no bigger than a quarter. Or else all of the cookies will spread together to make one giant cookie! I literally used every cookie sheet in the house, because you have to leave so much room on each sheet for the cookies to bake. The cookies are thin and if you bake them too long they will just crumble as you try to remove them. I had two whole pans of them that I could not use. After making the cookies, I made the chocolate filling with amaretto (always take a shot for good luck.). I then had to match each cookie half with another that is roughly the same size and put the filling in the middle. They came out great, but I vowed not to make them again for a few years. After that ringing endorsement, let me know if you want the recipe.

Also for dinner the other night, I decided to make biscuits. I am not a baker, so proceeded with caution. Brianna who comes from a long line of bakers was always nervous about making them, and has never really attempted.

So it was crazy that I, the person who has trouble with a cake mix was going to give this a whirl. After I made my dough, I proudly exclaimed, "Look what I did."

They came out great except that they are they thickness of English muffins. I think I rolled out the dough too thinly and maybe our baking soda has gone defunct. They tasted exactly like biscuits though, so I though that was a step in the right direction. You can find the recipe at the Joy of Baking Website.

And for my third and final act, I am attempting to make bread from scratch. Eeek! Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything) discovered this technique from a bakery in NYC. Literally take yeast, water, salt, and flour, let it rise for many hours, pop it in the oven and voila. Check out the YouTube video of it. See how easy he made it look? I've made the dough which is VERY wet and doest not all resemble a ball. It kind of shakes like jello. I've already used several extra cups of flour but it's still not quite right. I am going to hope for the best. Right now it's rising for the second time, and that we will bake it and see how it turns out. Will keep you posted!

Happy New Year!

Rugelach (not to be confused with Arugula)

2010-01-02T22:01:00.003-05:00

My mom didn't want me to make gingerbread cookies this year for Christmas.

"I don't want something with frosting. I want something with nuts," she said.

Luckily, I was reading recipes of holiday cookies on the New York Times website and found these little beautiful Jewish cookies called Rugelach. (I pronounce them "Ru-Geh-Laa" which sounds pretty much like "Arugula," which is not a cookie). For some reason, I remember my mom buying them at some bakery when I was little. There was a raisin kind and a fruity kind, but i liked both a lot. And, they had nuts. Perfect.

"So instead of making Christmas cookies...you're making Jewish cookies?" My dad asked once I explained the change in plan.

"Ask mom," I said. "I think Christmas is still on."

The two kinds we made are Apricot and Raisin and Raspberry and Dried Cranberry

Adapted from the New York Times website. (See link above)

Dough
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese (I used a block of Philly's)
1 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup (firmly packed) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup golden raisins (ok, we used regular raisins and were fine, and used craisens for the raspberry version)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup apricot preserves (or use raspberry preserves)
Topping
1/4 liquid cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Make the dough:
In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter until blended. Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in the flour and the optional salt until incorporated.
Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a ball.
Divide the dough into 4 portions and cover each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or
overnight.

Make the Filling:
In a medium bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts and stir with a spatula or fork until well mixed.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit on the counter for about 15 minutes or until it is malleable enough to roll.
Place 2 oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using a floured rolling pin, on a lightly floured board, roll out each dough portion, one at a time, into a 9-inch circle to a 1/8-inch thickness, rotating the dough often to be sure that it isn't sticking.
A great method that keeps additional flour to a minimum is to roll out the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, well floured on the bottom. Flip it over, remove the bottom sheet of plastic wrap, and dust off any excess flour. Using the back of a tablespoon, spread the dough evenly with 2 tablespoons of the preserves. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the filling over the preserves. Press the filling firmly and evenly over the dough. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough circle into 12 triangles or pieces of "pie."
Use a thin knife, if necessary, to loosen the triangles from the board.
Starting at the wide end, roll up the triangle and bend the ends around to form a slight crescent shape.
Place the rugelach, point underneath, about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

(optional) For the topping, brush the rugelach with milk. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the rugelach with it.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

(optional) For even baking, rotate the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking period.

Sushi Cakes

2009-12-13T13:14:00.004-05:00

These are my sushi cupcakes! I was having people over for sushi and wanted to make a special dessert. I wondered if it would be possible to make cupcakes that look like sushi and I figured I was probably not the first person to have this brilliant idea. Sure enough, there are a handful of sushi cupcake photos out there, and a recipe by Clare Crespo. I basically used her recipe, which started with a box cake mix. I made some in my mini muffin tin which turned out to be the perfect size for the rolls. The rest of the batter I made into regular cupcakes which I cut up to be the right shape for the fishy pieces. Next, the frosting used a sour cream base, which I don't think is the best idea. Better to use a regular buttercream. But the huge amount of coconut in the frosting did a great job of looking like rice! I packed the frosting on, and used fruit leathers for the seaweed. If I could have found a green fruit leather, or at least a darker one, that would have been better, but this is what they had at my store. If there's a next time, I'll look harder. Swedish fish and chopped up gummy bears topped them off. And for the finishing, touch, pocky sticks for chopsticks.

I was pretty happy with how they came out! I think they looked even better than I thought they would. On the other hand, they really didn't taste that great. I guess it was the disappointing frosting and cupcakes combined with these candies is weird. But the point of making them was to look like sushi and they did! So that was exciting but I probably won't make them again.

Chocolate Cherry Bars

2009-12-06T21:27:00.004-05:00

I made these Chocolate Cherry Crumb Bars yesterday. I was looking for something special to make and I LOVE cherries. The bars were good but not amazing. The cherry filling was actually pretty great, but the chocolate parts could have been better, I don't think it was as good as a brownie. So maybe next time I'll just spread the cherry filling over brownies. Or blondies. That would be so good. Also, mine didn't come out as pretty as Martha's because the chocolate part kind of mingled with the cherry part too much and made everything brown, instead of that nice pink color. If I made it with blondie bars that might preserve the pink!

Thanksgiving: Leftovers Edition Part 2

2009-12-06T11:42:00.002-05:00

As a follow up to the previous post, I did end up making Turkey Pot Pie. Actually, we had so much Turkey left, that we made two pot pies. However, in traditional mishap fashion, I forgot to mix the rest of the leftover sweet potatoes in the dish with all the cream sauce. So, I ended up just poking them individually in the top. We'll see how it turns out!

The recipe I used is here at Cooking for Engineers, a great site for precise measurements and instructions.

Thanksgiving: Leftovers Edition

2009-12-01T22:35:00.007-05:00

This was the first year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. 12 people, one 19 lb turkey. Even though it fed everyone AND served as lunch for seven Fermilab students the next day, we still somehow ended up with massive amounts of leftovers.

Here's what I've done with them:
1. (Leftover) Turkey Soup
1 small onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
2 ribs of celery chopped
1 can of white beans
pinch of oregano
2 bay leaves
2 c chopped turkey
1 bunch of kale, chopped lengthwise
Vegetable Stock (cube or liquid)
4 c water
Salt and pepper to taste

In a pot, put in a little oil and cook the onions, carrots and celery until softer, about 8 minutes. The bay leaf can be put in at this point. Then, put in the oregano and cook another minute. Add the white beans and the stock (cube and water or 4 c liquid stock) Then, put in the chopped kale and cover, simmering for 20 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf before serving. This soup can also be frozen.

2. Spinach salad with blue cheese and cranberry relish vinaigrette. (Recipe for the dressing is at the link, and I actually used leftover cranberry sauce/relish instead of fresh cranberries. It was delicious!)

3. Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Muffins. Instead of applesauce, I dumped in leftover sweet potatoes from the meal. It was a good substitute, and the muffins turned out nicely. I also reduced the sugar by half. J recommended that next time we use half brown sugar or add some molasses in to deepen the flavor.

4. Turkey Chili. I basically do the same recipe as the Turkey Soup, but just as far as the onion, celery and carrots. Then, I add at least two tablespoons of Chili Powder, and one of cumin and another of cayenne. Then the beans are kidney instead of white and I add a can of diced tomatoes instead of stock. The turkey goes in and it simmers for at least 20 minutes. You can't really go wrong with chili. It's so easy to make. I had some for lunch and froze the rest

5. Tomorrow i will do Turkey Pot Pie and freeze it. We'll see how it turns out.

Corn Pudding

2009-11-30T23:16:00.003-05:00

Tonight I made this Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash. I love foods that get made inside other foods. That is just so cool. And I love squash, and chives, and corn. This dish really didn't take a lot of prep work, though it does need quite a while in the oven. And if you spill the pudding as you pour it in, like I did, you will have to spend some time scrubbing the burnt pan. But it was good, I totally recommend it, and my picture is even not that bad!

Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque

2009-11-14T19:05:00.005-05:00

My co-worker made this dish and said it was good, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque is a vegetarian soup inspired by a West African peanut soup.

The recipe calls for one pureed sweet potato and one chopped into the soup. Initially, I had a horrible time with the sweet potatoes. I microwaved them for 6 minutes and I think I cooked them too much and they were impossible to peel. They became mush in my hands. I see now I could have just scooped out the flesh and thrown it into the blender. Instead, I wrapped up the potatoes for another meal, and took the broth off the stove.

The next day I tried again with new potatoes and armed with the advice that i should just puree both the potatoes, so i was less concerned with their consistency after microwaving.

This soup came out fantastic. I was really surprised at how filling it was. Also, I used cilantro as a garnish and it just complemented the soup so nicely.

Definitely recommend trying this.

Chickpea Stew with Six Vegetables

2009-11-14T18:58:00.003-05:00

Hello Fabulous Cookers
I have been cooking a lot but haven't posted in a while. I just got the cookbook World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey out the library.

This book is like a bible for vegetarian cuisine. It is over 750 pages long, and she dedicates a lot of time to describing various ingredients and spices. There are color photos in the middle that depicts everything from tofu varieties to different grains, etc.

I made Chickpea Stew with Six Vegetables. There are over 17 ingredients in this recipe, and I have to admit I didn't get them all or follow all instructions. For example, she is very much into fresh chickpeas, which involve a lot of soaking for many hours. I used canned instead. I left out the saffron, cayenne. She recommends eating it with a spicy Harissa sauce, which I left out.

It was very delicious and hearty, but I bet it would have more kick with all of the other ingredients.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

2009-10-26T22:37:00.003-04:00

Cupcakes with a gob of cookie dough inside, and cookie dough frosting on top. Need I say more? Amazing but seriously intense. The trick is that the balls of cookie dough have to be frozen before you put them in the batter so they won't cook through and they'll still be dough. And the frosting is basically spreadable cookie dough. There are lots of recipes out there but I used this one, along with her photo because mine looked nothing like these.

Apple Pie

2009-10-23T20:29:00.004-04:00

Apple pies are pretty easy to make, even for me. Frozen pie crust, dump in some apples, all you have to make is the crumb topping (essential pie topping if you ask me). But lately a bunch of people have been telling me it's not really that hard to make your own crust. So I decided to challenge myself. Here I am crumbling the frozen butter. An interesting experience. A pastry cutter would have been key here, but I don't have one. If only I had known what I was passing up at all those yard sales! Next time I see one I will certainly grab it. Regardless, the crust came out fine. Mom thought it was better than frozen ones so I'd say it was a success. It did take some work but I would do it again if I wanted a project. And there are so many different recipes to try out there! Butter? Shortening? Baking powder? What's the difference?
Then there's the crumb topping - what really makes the pie. I've made it with nuts and I've made it with oats, but whatever else you add in there, you've got to have the crumble. This is the tried and true recipe from my mom's ancient Joy of Cooking - the most stained page in the book by far. Posted right here for handy reference. Now go make pies!

Pasta with Lentils and Kale

2009-10-06T12:13:00.004-04:00

I am not a huge fan of kale, but I got a bunch from my weekly farm share, that I need to use up. I decided to make this really crunchy vegetarian dish from epicurious.

The hardest part of the recipe was getting the timing right. Towards the middle of the process the onions, lentils, and kale are all cooking and it was hard to remember what was ready when.

Also, I think my proportions were way off. I didn't know how much "3/4 pound of kale" or "3/4 pound of pasta" were. I think I only had half the amount of onion needed and way too much pepper.

All in all, I would say this turned out better than I expected. It seems really healthy, but I don't know that it will make it into the regular rotation of meals. Maybe if we get kale again.

Guest Blogger!

2009-09-25T08:18:00.003-04:00

I was so excited when Louisa asked me to guest blog on GastroFabulous!! I love reading this blog and it gives me tons of ideas for my own cooking. Shortly after I was invited to this blog, I started my own blog about cooking in my small, New York kitchen with one plate. I recently acquired 4 new plates!! So I thought it was time to expand my blogging as well. I hope to do an exclusive post for GastroFabulous int he future, but for now, I hope you enjoy "Chayote, Explored," visiting from One Plate Wonder for one post only.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Massive Meal, Massive Post! Chayote, Explored. (Video included!)

This past week was my birthday and my awesome friend and follower of my blog, Liz, gave me plates!!!

Such a thoughtful birthday gift!! While my title is no longer relevant, I am still One Plate Wonder in spirit. And I still have a tiny kitchen where the plate doesn't even fully fit on the counter. So, here is a big, birthday post from One Plate Wonder.

I recently visited my friend in Boston who had just come back from Costa Rica. She recommended Chayote and pointed it out in the market. So when I saw it in Whole Foods, I picked it up and decided to give it a try. All I knew was that it was from Costa Rica, so I started to research. I found out that it is a squash cooked by boiling then peeling. Now, I know Costa Rica is in Central America. I am not too familiar with where certain foods come from as I have not traveled much, but I do associate it with South of the Border/South America, so I tried to go for those flavors. This is the chayote.

The full explanation of the dish is in the video interview below (an exclusive interview with One Plate Wonder herself interviewed by my sister). Here is the description I may put on the menu of a restaurant (if anyone wants to put it on a menu I am happy to sell it because I am definitely short on cash at the moment): A melange of mushrooms and chayote atop a bed of sauteed swiss chard above spiced polenta patties, topped with avocado.

I started prepping the chayote and while that was going on, I sauteed onion and garlic then added cremini mushrooms. When the chayote was ready I added that to the mix with some paprika, salt, pepper, and chili powder.

To read the rest of this post, see the exclusive video, and view the final dish, visit One Plate Wonder.

Thanks for letting me guest blog!

Tomatillo Salsa

2009-09-14T21:03:00.008-04:00

This is my bowl of tomatillos. I picked them at my friend's CSA farm last weekend. Actually, LZ picked most of them because I couldn't spot them among all those leaves. Good thing I had him along. So I brought them home and thought about making salsa all week until this weekend I finally did. And here it is:
I kind of combined a few different recipes which might not have been the best idea. I was worried for a while in there that I was ruining it, but it came out pretty good and relatively salsa-like, so no harm done. First I roasted the tomatillos in the oven. I also roasted some garlic, onion, and corn to add to the salsa. When the tomatillos seemed soft and roasted, I let them cool. Then I chopped them up. That part was weird because they were obviously roasted and mushy. Some recipes said to blend them but I didn't want a tomatillo smoothie. I put the tomatillo mush in a bowl, added the onions, corn, garlic, salt, and some lime juice, then mixed it all around and it looked pretty much like salsa!
Lastly, I put it on tacos! We had bought some pulled pork so I just put cheese and tomatillo gloop on top and it was REALLY tasty! If I ever find myself with another bowl of tomatillos, I'd definitely do it again.

Meditterraneean Eggplant and Fennel Stew

2009-09-03T19:46:00.003-04:00

So as most of you know, I am doing a CSA this year. Some weeks I am better organized than others and use up all my veggies before more come. Well, it's Thursday and I still had eggplant and fennel (and potatoes and corn). So I did a search for "fennel and eggplant." There seemed to be two appealing options: Oven Baked Parmesan Crusted Eggplant and Fennel and Mediterranean Eggplant and Fennel Stew. For some reason I chose the latter (less work I think).
The ingredients were as follows:

fennel, EVOO, onion, garlic, diced tomates, veggie broth, eggpplant, olives (which I omitted), cinnamon, bay leaf (which I forgot to take out), capers (which I omitted) and balsamic vinegar.

It may be because I omitted some things, but this was not very good. Actually the smell was pretty close to nauseating. I think it was the cinnamon. Happily it tasted better than it smelled, and I was able to choke down a bowl full but I won't make this again! I definitely wish I had made the parmesan crusted eggplant!

Everyday Food Magazine - July / August 2009

2009-08-31T22:40:00.006-04:00

The Summer issue of EDF was for July & August so I had twice as much time to get through it. I'm not sure I did much better - but here's my recap!

A little known secret about me is that I don't really like chicken. I don't dislike it, but I rarely eat it and love it. I almost never make recipes with chicken, but I did stop to make the Chicken Burger with Roasted Poblano and Onion. I didn't bother to buy buns, so you can see mine on bread. It was actually really good and roasting the poblano was really fun!

The in-season food was corn (pretty obvious choice for the summer). I flagged the recipe for Corn and Shrimp Chowder with Bacon, even though I knew I'd probably never make it. It's a pretty heavy dish for the summer and even in the winter I always feel guilty making stuff that rich.

Also in the in-season section was a recipe for Corn & Zucchini Sautee with Basil that I made the same night I made the Pork & Chorizo Kebabs. Except my kebabs were made with pork & turkey sausage! My local farmer's market has a guy that sells turkey in all forms, one of which is a spicy sausage. I've gotten to be pretty dependent on having some in the house at all times because its an easy way to add protein without spending very much energy at all! I'll have to remember to fill my freezer at the end of the farmer's market season. There was a whole section on kebab's in this issue, but the only other pairing that looked exciting to me was the one for Lamb, Tomato, & Mint Kebabs. The lamb was much tastier than the pork. I highly recommend these!

I also tried their recipe for BBQ Sauce which came out really well. Sadly I made it right around the time my fridge died so it was one of the things that needed to be thrown out that night! One of my most favorite blogs ever is The Pioneer Woman. Often, with the recipes she posts, she posts a "cast of characters" photo that shows everything that went into the recipe. Since, when cooking, I always feel the need to pull everything out ahead of time, it felt really easy to snap my own "cast of characters" picture for the BBQ sauce. Good thing I did, because there's not much to photograph when you're done with BBQ sauce. It looks pretty boring in a jar. So, without further ado, my BBQ sauce cast of characters:

And finally, as always, a list of recipes, I flagged, but never got around to making:

Chipotle Chicken & Rice (I really intended to make the Quesadilla variation listed in step # 5)
Grilled Pork Chops with Spice Paste
Soy-Marinated Flank Steak
Tuna Nicoise Sandwich
French Toast with Red Wine Nectarines
Eggplant, Tomato, and Mozzarella Salad

Pearl Barley Salad

2009-08-28T18:53:00.003-04:00

When I'm organized, I like to make a lot of something on Sunday to have for lunches all week. Whenever I do it I feel like a genius because I don't have to panic every evening trying to find something to bring for lunch. I've made couscous and quinoa salads similar to this so I looked for something with a different grain and I decided to try this one. It turned out to be so good! It's pearl barley with roasted veggies - eggplant, zucchini, and onion - with a basic dressing. It even looks gorgeous too, with all the veggies. I did roast the onions with the other veggies, and I think next time I would roast the tomatoes too. It was so good and everyone commented on it too! You should try it.

Ham & Egg Fried Rice

2009-08-27T21:35:00.001-04:00

One night I just happened to find myself with a slice of ham, a tiny bit of rice, eggs and some scallions in my fridge (and prob not much more!). Somehow inspiration struck and I made the recipe for Ham & Egg Fried Rice in the April 2009 issue of Everyday Food. Ok, fine it wasn't really inspiration, but I did some how magically recall the recipe. It ended up being super easy and fast to make - not to mention yummy!

Everyday Food Magazine - June 2009

2009-08-23T21:46:00.001-04:00

** I wrote this post ages ago and never remembered to go back and add the pics and then publish it! Oops!

--------------
Clearly they publish these things faster than I can keep up with them -- trying the recipes or blogging about the issue! Here's a belated recap of the June 2009 issue.

I made Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables and decided it would be a go-to summer recipe for a quick and easy dinner. See I even remembered to take a picture:

I also tried their recipe for Strawberry Jam. I'd been meaning to make my own jam for awhile. It really is as easy as the recipe suggests. I scrimped on the sugar a bit and haven't missed it. I did break out my new (to me, hand-me-down from my mom) food processor to chop the strawberries and in my excitement of now owning the gadget I think I over processed a bit, but its still yummy and goes on my toast each morning.

So now, what I didn't get to:

The obvious in season fruit of the month was strawberries and they included a recipe for Strawberry Icebox Pie that looked easy and yummy.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Emeril does a recipe or 2 in the magazine each month and this one's recipe was for Pork & Chorizo Burgers. I'm waiting to have a group of people over to make them.

Also flagged by me:

-Baked Onion Rings
-Salmon Cakes
-Sauteed Shrimp with Scallion Rice
-Jam Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
-Grilled Steak with Tomatoes and Scallions
-Spinach Phyllo Pie
-Roasted Eggplant Dip
-Honey Chipotle Glazed Ribs
-Jerk Chicken Wings
-Roasted Eggplant with Basil
-Almond & Orange Yogurt Cake
-Brownie Cookies

I promise the next EDF recap will have more recipes actually tried by me - I've already made more of a dent in it than the June issue. Plus - its a July / August issue so I have 2 months to work my way through it!

Tomato Goat Cheese Tartes

2009-08-22T14:41:00.002-04:00

I saw this on Barefoot Contessa about two weeks ago, and made it myself this past week. Omg, rarely do I make something so CRAZY DELICIOUS. And, it was easy as pie to make!

Here is the original recipe, but let me tell you how easy and tasty it is!

Need:
2 medium onions or 1 large one
thyme
pepper
Pastry dough (go out and get it in the freezer section, next to frozen pie crusts)
One thick tomato
goat cheese
Parmesan cheese
basil (optional)

1. Cut onions in half, and then chop them into thin long strips cross wise
2. Saute onions in olive oil on low/medium heat until they turn yellow/yellow brown (the key here is that this can take 15 minutes or more. Be patient! The flavors are knock out.
3. Add thyme and pepper and saute just a little longer.
4. Take pastry dough and cut into sections that are 6 inches across and put on parchment paper on a baking sheet. (note: the BC uses 6 inch diameter circles. This is all nice and aesthetically pleasing except all your leftover dough then will be wonky shaped. So, if you plan on making more than just 2 circles, I suggest doing squares. The puff pastry looks just as cool even if it's angled, but you want to have at least an quarter inch of dough around the food in the center.)
5. Take a knife and score a circle in the dough at least a quarter inch from the boarder. (I prefer at least an inch) This will be your "landing pad" for all the food!
6. Shave Parmesan cheese into circle. Be liberal!
7. Heap caramelized onions on top of cheese. (mmm!)
8. Put goat cheese on top of onions (like 1 tbs to 3 tbs depending on your love of goat. cheese.)
9. cut a nice thick slice of tomato and put on top of goat cheese
10. Shave more parmesan cheese on top of tomato. Basil can be added here too.

It will, at this point, look like a little tower which is cool. Don't worry, the puff pastry will do exactly that--PUFF!

11. Put in oven at 400 for 30 minutes or so. Check after 20 to make sure it's not burnt.
12. EAT.

it is amazing.

Blackberry Mini Muffins

2009-08-09T21:10:00.003-04:00

Today a bunch of things came together and told me I was destined to make blackberry mini muffins.

1. First, this morning at a yard sale I found a bunch of cooling racks. I have never owned cooling racks because I never thought it was worth it to buy them. I've been waiting for the day when I would find some at a yard sale or on the free table and that day was today.

2. We went to Duxbury to visit some relatives and one of their main attractions (yes, aside from the soft sand beaches) is the "Duxbury Mall" which is the free stuff pile at the dump. Mining this place is like a career for some people there, but I was lucky enough to come away with a mini muffin tin.

3. Mom was over to visit and she brought lots of fresh picked blackberries from her backyard. We had some for breakfast but there were a whole bunch leftover.

I knew the blackberry mini muffins were meant to be. I used this recipe but substituted yogurt instead of sour cream because that's what I had, and of course they are very good. It was serendipitous!

Chipotle Beans

2009-08-06T21:15:00.003-04:00

This one's probably not something Julia Child would have made, not quite enough butter for her. None at all actually. It's another one from 101 Cookbooks: Giant Chipotle White Beans. The unique thing about this is you have to buy a can of chipotle peppers but then you just use the smoky sauce. It's kind of a waste because I had to toss the peppers, but the sauce does add a different flavor. Plus the giant beans are really fun and this queso fresco is really good. I used to have queso fresco with my Mexican roommate but I never knew it was also called farmer's cheese or that it was popular and available everywhere these days. So, a great discovery! I've been eating this dish all week for lunch, it's a great find!

Julie & Julia

2009-08-04T22:26:00.004-04:00

I just saw Julie and Julia tonight at a preview showing, thanks to the WGBH-Julia connection! It was great. How could you not love Julia Child, and Julie was just like us! Great cooks that sometimes mess up and have meltdowns. I don't think I'll be trying many of Julia Child's recipes anytime soon, and I'm still trying to stay away from all that butter. But the chocolate cake I would definitely go for. If we made more than one recipe a day, maybe we'd have lots of fans on our blog, but I still love it the way it is! So get motivated everyone, and keep posting! Here is a video of the actual Julia Child's cooking show - The French Chef.

Chocolate covered banana bites

2009-07-23T22:17:00.004-04:00

I decided to make chocolate covered banana pieces. As you can see, they were kind of a disaster. They tasted really good though. I got one or two that came out kind of okay, you can see the best one there. It's just not possible to get the chocolate on smoothly and keep it on smoothly. Eh, oh well. Now I've started to think about what else I could cover in chocolate...

Green Bean Casserole

2009-07-20T23:15:00.003-04:00

Every so often, J and I take a trip to Trader Joes, or also known as, land of the best frozen food. I don't know what it is about that place, but it makes frozen food appetizing. I think it's that TJs doesn't banish their frozen greens to a ice chest with a heavy door and a white plastic bag with birds on it. No, we SEE the beans, flash frozen, glistening with possibility, or the mouthwatering cherries, preserved at it's peak and ready for me to thaw and enjoy.

This often amounts to me buying way too much frozen food, where, when we get home, I banish it to the back of our freezer until a day, like today, when we have returned from vacation and have no food in the house. That is when I am reminded of the possiblities with the green beans, which now, are glistening even more due to freezer burn.

Green Bean Casserole, we meet again.

One thing i hate about green bean casserole: Campells Soup apparently blackmailed Mrs. Joy of Cooking and the rest of the 50s housewife world by insisting that mushroom soup is a necessary ingredient. Even googling "green bean casserole" yields THOUSANDS of recipes, all using mushroom soup. That soppy, half solid/half liquid, salty grey plaster.

Not fabulous.

So, here's where I've looked around and found a vegan casserole

The only things that I would change are:
-skipping the soy creamer
-adding 1-2 tbs butter to make the sauce more of a roux before adding stock, yet then rendering it unvegan.

I also didn't have fresh mushrooms, so i subbed in dried porcini which added a nice nutty/woodsy taste to the entire dish.

Now that there are no green beans in my freezer, I probably will feel compelled to buy them again during my next TJs shop. Maybe next time, I'll find a better use.

101 Cookbooks

2009-07-19T22:21:00.003-04:00

I recently discovered a new food blog with lots of recipe ideas and I love it! It's 101 Cookbooks. A friend at work told me about it and I've been reporting back to her every time I make something from it. It's all vegetarian and is all about whole foods and natural, healthy stuff. Here are a couple things I've made so far, but there are lots more I want to try. I particularly like it because she talks a bunch about each recipe and how she got the idea for it. And she makes it sound so easy to just throw things together from whatever you have in the pantry. Granted, I don't have a pantry, but still.

Garam Masala Tofu Scramble
My tofu doesn't come out scrambled, I think it's too firm. But I love garam masala and with cranberries and pistachios, you can't go wrong. I made this once and then I made it again the very next week. I take leftovers for lunch and I feel like it's even better the next day. Simple and delicious!

Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh
(pictured) Believe it or not, this was my first time having tempeh. I'd been meaning to try it but didn't know what to do with it so when I saw the recipe I knew tempeh time had come. I even squeezed my own oranges because I had time and I wanted to see if it was better than buying orange juice for the recipe. I spilled the orange juice at least twice and it wasn't any better, so just buy a bottle, ok? My tempeh wasn't pretty and triangular like hers, but it was really good! And very filling. But, I took it the next day for lunch and it was not good, it got too dry by then. So just make enough to eat and not more.

Polenta

2009-07-19T22:09:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I posted anything. I was cooking a bunch a few weeks ago, but then I pretty much stopped because I was insanely busy the last 2 weeks. I'm hoping this week will be a bit calmer and I can get back to it. Since hubby started working full time, I've been trying to do more of the cooking but it's too hard to think of things each day. So I'm trying this super organized thing where I plan a bunch of meals for the week on Sunday and buy all the ingredients (or almost all) so each evening when I get home I'm ready to go. This may sound easy, and lots of blogs say it is, but I assure you it's very difficult.

One thing I've started trying is polenta. I just didn't really know what to do with it before, but I finally tried some polenta recipes and they were great. I'm now an official polenta fan. I didn't take my own pictures but here are some polenta things I made:

Italian Eggs over Spinach and Polenta (pictured) from Cooking Light, though I made something really similar before from Giada deLaurentiis. It's easy to go overboard with the cheese though I try to control myself. And you can feel good about it because it has greens in it. I despise spinach so I use kale instead.

Mini Meatloaves with Tomato-Balsamic Gravy from Rachael Ray. These are great, not least because you get to make a roux which is a really cool word. The recipe suggests having it with mac and cheese but as I try to avoid that (it's very difficult) I had the genius idea of having it with polenta! I highly recommend it that way.

I'd love to hear anything else you've done with polenta, so start posting people!

Rhubarb Meringue Pie

2009-07-16T15:11:00.008-04:00

Hello gastrofabulous readers! My name is Angela, and I'm a friend of Uma's. I'm currently living in Finland with my boyfriend Kimmo, and the GF ladies allowed us to do a guest post.

We set out to make the 'Mom's Rhubarb Delight' from the blog Siskot Kokkaa.

The recipe is translated here (bear with us because the measurements are european, so it doesn't convert easily to american measurements):

Crust:
150g butter (1 stick = 113g)
3 dl wheat flour (1 cup = 2.38 dl)
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar

Filling:
350g rhubarb (we had 3 big stalks)
4 tbsp sugar (according to taste -- she uses less in the springtime)

Meringue:
2 egg whites
3 to 4 tbsp sugar

serves 6 to 8.

The instructions are long and we don't want to translate everything, but here is a brief summary:

Preheat oven to 220 Celsius (about 425 F).

Whip the butter with a mixer, then add the flour and sugar. Mix until dough is crumbly. Add water, one tablespoon at a time (the recipe here says 'until it feels right', which was irritating, because if we knew what felt right then we wouldn't be using the recipe, right?). Let rest in a cool place for a while so it's easier to handle, then press into the pie pan evenly.

Slice the rhubarb into pieces about 1cm in width and place into the pie crust. Sprinkle a thin coating of sugar over the rhubarb. Place in the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the rhubarb is soft.

For the meringue, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Then whip in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Pour onto rhubarb and place pie back into the oven for a few minutes, just long enough to give the meringue a golden brown color.

Peeling the rhubarb -- my first time! Some people don't peel them (which preserves the pinkish color better) but it was really fun:

Here is the chopped rhubarb in the crust, pre-oven:

Here we are making little peaks in the top of the meringue:

All done!

We ate it all in about a day, so I'm guessing that 'serves 8' is a pipe dream.

Delicious Spring Recipes

2009-06-16T00:14:00.002-04:00

Spring is almost over! I can't believe it.

Well, onto some delicious spring/early summer recipes that I've stumbled upon...

Rhubarb Crisp is delicious. Rhubarb is for sure a seasonal fruit, and we had a whole bushel growing in our backyard for the picking. The young, tender red stalks are the best, but if you lack your own rhubarb plant, whole foods has plenty of stalks right now.

By the way, "fruit" is a pretty generous definition of a long thin stalk, but technically, rhubarb is a fruit.

This recipe from Food and Wine was tremendously delicious. I didn't even need any extra sugar!

Everyday Food Magazine - May 2009

2009-06-15T14:48:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the late post - I started this draft ages ago and never got around to digging up all of the links! Better late than never....
----------------
My June issue of EDF arrived much sooner than I expected. But that means, its time for me to recap May's issue. Sadly, I didn't try a single recipe out of this month! (As a lame excuse I offer the fact that I spent many evenings in the last month searching for a new apt, a subletter for my current apartment, and just generally fantasizing about my new kitchen. Somehow with all of that going on I really didn't pull out the mag to explore.) Worry not - I flagged plenty - so here's the recap:

The in-season food of the month was rhubarb. Quite honestly, the stuff has never really excited me, but I did flag the recipe for Rhubarb Crumb Bars. I will admit I think I half intended to substitute something else for the rhubarb. Anyone else have any feelings about rhubarb good or bad?

Remember awhile back when I posted about trying a recipe for Oven Fried Chicken and I thought it was kinda lame? Well this issue has a recipe that looks much more promising than the one I originally tried.

They had a section this month on Chicken 6 Ways. Here are the ones I flagged:
-Roasted Chicken with Lemons and Fennel
-Chicken Cutlets with Herb Butter

Also in this issue were the following recipes I flagged:
-Emeril's Lemon Herb Grilled Shrimp
-Blueberry Almond Granola (I thought this looked so fun to make your own granola! Definitely a project for my new kitchen!)
-Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes
-Steak Salad with Snap Peas
-Roasted Salmon with Herbed Yogurt
-Buttermilk Creams with Strawberries
-Versatile Vanilla Cake (they also printed Chocolate and Lemon variations)
-Glazed Lemon Cookies

French Toast and fresh peaches

2009-06-12T19:16:00.003-04:00

I finally got the inspiration to post one of my culinary creations and ironically, it is probably one of the simplest recipes you could possibly make.

One of my favorite activities is to have a quiet Saturday or Sunday morning with a hot cup of coffee and a great breakfast. French toast has become a favorite of mine - it is easy to make and can be dressed up with some fresh fruit to make it even better.

Recently, I got some fresh peaches in my produce box and immediately wanted to use them as a topping for french toast.

Here's the recipe with inexact amounts (you can't really screw it up - it is super easy):

Mix together 1 egg, half a cup of milk, a teaspoon of vanilla, about 2 small spoonfuls of sugar, and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Slice some high-quality bread (the egg mixture above will be enough for about 4 small slices of bread). I use sourdough - SF has the best sourdough bread. Get a griddle on the stove and spread some butter on the surface. Once the griddle is nice and hot, dip the bread slices in the egg mixture and make sure it soaks into the bread. Place the bread slices on the griddle, let them cook until the bottom side is browned and then flip. Cook until both sides are browned.

While the french toast is cooking, cut up your favorite fresh fruit topping (peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries are all good). Melt some butter in a small skillet and throw in the cut up fruit and caramelize the fruit in the butter until it is heated through. Warm up some real maple syrup (don't skimp and buy Aunt Jemima - there is a huge difference) in the microwave for 20 seconds. Put it all together as in the picture above and enjoy. Not exactly a super healthy breakfast, but a darn good one.

Sweet Potato Quesadillas & Homemade Tortilla chips

2009-05-19T22:38:00.003-04:00

I got this recipe from my Moosewood cookbook. It was very labor intensive to grate the sweet potatoes, but ended up tasting delicious. I wonder if it could be done in a food processor? Somehow I ended up using like every pot, pan and dish for this recipe, but it was worth it. I halved this for two people.

1.5 cups finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
3 TBS vegetable oil
4 cups grated peeled sweet potato (about 3 potatoes)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
generous pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

8 tortillas
Salsa
Sour Cream

Saute the onions & garlic in the oil until the onions are translucent. Add the grated sweet potatoes, oregano, chili powder, cumin and cayenne and cook covered for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. (I cooked for less time). When the sweet potato is tender, add salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat. Spread 1/8th of the filling and 2 tablespoons of cheese on half of each tortilla. Fold in half and place in the skillet. Add a little bit of oil. Cook on each side for 2 or 3 minutes. Garnish and dip with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

Homemade Tortilla Chips
This also is from my friend's homemade cookbook. These are easy!
4 8 inch flour tortillas, cut into 6ths or 8ths
2 TBS olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional: any or all of the following
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350

Combine olive oil, tortillas, salt, and any of the spices in a large bowl. Toss to coat. Spread in a single layer on a greased baking sheet and bake about 15 minutes (it took less for me), until the edges curl up and they are slightly browned and crisp. They will get firmer as they cool.

Skillet Glazed Tofu

2009-05-19T22:28:00.002-04:00

I think I may have mentioned that for my birthday, a good friend of mine actually MADE me a cookbook. She is a phenomenal cook who is not afraid to improvise or make her own recipes. The hallmark of her recipes is her knowledge of alternatives or how to substitute. Everything i have from her has been so good!

The other night I made her Skillet glazed tofu. It was delicious. My only complaint is that it was very time consuming to turn all the little cubes. I am wondering if maybe it would work better to cook the tofu and then slice it.

1 block firm tofu, drained
2 TBS vegetable oil

2 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 TBS lime juice, lemon juice, or rice vinegar
1 TBS minced fresh ginger, or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 to 1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon molasses, honey, or maple syrup
2 TBS dark sesame oil
a few shakes of any other asian style sauce or ingredient (hoisin, terikyaki)
Cilantro or scallions (optional)

Slice tofu crosswise into two slabs. Press tofu with paper towels to remove excess water, then cut into 1 inch cubes.

Heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick frying pan until the oil is liquidy. Put the tofu into the pan in single layer. Cook undisturbed fro 5-6 minutes or until a nice brown crust forms on the bottom. Carefully turn the cubes so that another side is facing down. Cook undisturbed for another 5 or minutes until that side is brown, then turn tofu one more time and cook until browned.

Meanwhile, mix up all other ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk or a fork.

When the tofu is browned, turn down the heat to medium and pour in sauce. It will sizzle like crazy and smell really good. Stir to coat the tofu and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring and turning the tofu occasionally until the sauce had reduced to a lovely syrupy glaze and edges of the tofu are browned.

Serve over hot rice, toss in a stir fry, mix with noodles and steamed vegetables, put into wraps or eat plain!

Global Cupcakes

2009-05-12T00:06:00.009-04:00

To follow up on Uma's post about Rainbow Cake, I wanted to show off more neat things you can do with cake and colored gel: Celebrate Earth day.

Here are little world cupcakes that I made in honor of earth day. I think they turned out super well. They look kind of like little maps, all mini pieces of different continents. The toasty areas make for even more topographic variation. I could even go as far as to overlay a google map image on top...but we won't go there.

Frosted with white, they were snow capped delicious cupcakes! Earth never tasted so good!

Taco Skillet

2009-05-03T16:19:00.004-04:00

I found this recipe for Beef Taco Skillet and made the mistake of showing it to Rajeev. I was just asking if he'd want to try it one day. Little did I know he'd love the Campbell's picture so much that he'd ask for it every time I asked what he wanted for dinner. I finally made it last week (with ground turkey instead of ground beef) and it was a hit! I suggest adding some red pepper flakes to give it more of a kick.

I insisted we have some sort of vegetable to go with it so I simply sauteed some corn with red pepper.

Thai Chicken Salad

2009-04-27T23:34:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was so hot so I wanted to think of something that didn't need a lot of cooking. I found this Thai Chicken Salad and got the ingredients. Then it ended up being so hot I didn't even feel like eating. I didn't want the chicken to go bad (how long does that stuff last anyways?!?!) so I made it tonight even though I didn't have time until 11pm. I had a few bites just now and I think it'll be a great lunch for tomorrow and probably the next day too. I don't think it's very Thai really, but I love peanut butter so I'm a fan. Mine looked absolutely nothing like the picture, partly because I omitted the noodles. Mine is basically a bowl of cabbage, carrots, and cucumber, with chicken on top and doused with peanut butter sauce. I can't be bothered to take a picture though because it's really almost bedtime. This should be a good standby for hot days in the summer.

Evereyday Food Magazine - April 2009

2009-04-25T11:40:00.003-04:00

April's issue contained tons of recipes I want to try and sadly I barely made any before May's issue arrived. (Partly due to the fact that my April issue got lost in the mail and was almost 2 weeks late and partly b/c I've been busy!) None-the-less -- here's my recap:

Recipes I made:

Pan Seared Pork with Potatos and Lemon: It was ooooook. Probably lacked flavor since I couldn't be bothered to buy and store the scallions and cilantro the recipe called for. My loss. Someone else try it and let me know what you think!
Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce: I already declared this to be a surprising success.
Asparagus, Leek, and Gruyere Quiche: Also a success.
Mediterranean Salad with Green Beans and Feta: Only make if you like raw red onions, which I don't.

The "In-Season" food of the month was Asparagus, so there were several recipes using asparagus. Here are the ones I didn't manage to try:

Among the "5 Great Meals for Under $10" I flagged, but didn't get around to making:

They had a section on "Unbeatable Egg Suppers" which I'm all about since I've always loved eggs for dinner! I flagged the whole section but never made any of them:

They also had a section on making cookies that you normally buy in the store. Here are the one's I flagged to try:

Finally, here are the remaining misc. recipes I wanted to try as well:

(I know - it was a good issue! I flagged a lot of it! Just means more things to try later! Let me know if you make any - I'm especially curious about the ones I didn't try yet.)

Dinner: Quiche, Chicken, and Salad

2009-04-25T11:37:00.002-04:00

Last night for dinner I made a few things (and dirtied several dishes!) for my roommates, Rajeev, and I. In all the excitement, I completely forgot to take pictures - we'll have to settle for other people's pics.

Asparagus, Leek, and Gruyere Quiche
I love quiche of all kinds and have suggested it to Rajeev on several occasions, but he never seemed into the idea. Finally the other night I declared that I was making quiche (once I knew my roomies were going to join us for dinner and it wouldn't be just me eating a giant quiche in case he hated it)! Aside from being really yummy, I like quiche because its so easy to make and people always think its hard! I'm sure it gets harder if you make your own pie crust - but I have yet to do that, so for now - easy peasy. Asparagus is the featured "in season" food in this month's EDF so I made the quiche recipe in that section. As expected, it was not a big deal to make and super yummy. (How could something that something with that much cream and eggs not be yummy?)

Oven Fried Chicken (aka - do it yourself Shake and Bake)
From my Help My Apartment Has a Kitchen book that was gifted to me when I graduated from college, I found a recipe for Oven Fried Chicken. It claims to yield the yum factor of fried chicken without the take out container & without the frying. The recipe might as well be called DIY Shane & Bake. You basically throw bread crumbs & seasoning (I used garlic powder, oregano, & cayenne) into a zip-lock, put the chicken in, shake away, and then bake it. (Smells of an 80's gimic, if you ask me.) When the chicken came out of the oven, shake and bake chicken was exactly what I had - but it tasted good so I'm not really complaining.

Mediterranean salad with Green Beans and Goat Cheese
To round out the meal I made this salad (swapping the feta for goat cheese since that's what I had at home). It was ok. Everyone liked it but me (I should have known since I don't like raw red onions), but we ended up with leftovers that needed to be thrown out because between the pre-mixed in dressing and the juice from the oranges it would have been super soggy.

Overall - the 3 went together for a pretty good dinner. Too bad there isn't a pic of them all on 1 plate. Oops!

Engagement Cupcakes

2009-04-18T13:01:00.015-04:00

Another week, another batch of cupcakes! Clearly I'm on a cupcake kick here. I wanted to make something to celebrate Maura's engagment and my big idea was cupcakes with rings on them. Sarah! happened to be in town for a few hours so she helped me make them. They didn't come out as good as we planned, but for the first try they are not bad. We experimented with a few different designs but ended up with rings and flowers.
I originally wanted to use rock candy for the diamonds, but didn't find any at the store. Sarah thought of using silver balls to put on the band, which would look like Maura's ring, but we didn't find those either. Then we wanted to make the rings look like they were in a ring box, sticking out of the cupcake. But there was no good way to attach the jewels to the fondant because it was too soft. Next time someone gets engaged we'll perfect all of the above! But for this time we settled on fondant rings with crystallized ginger stones. And Sarah made some awesome flowers too. And that's our cupcake story for this week!

Carrot Cupcakes

2009-04-12T17:06:00.010-04:00

I'm so proud of my carrot cupcakes! I kept seeing pictures of cupcakes with cute little carrots on top and then I was determined to figure out how to make my own. It was quite a process, but I did it. The carrot cake recipe was sort of a combination of the one Uma used from EDF and this one from the Food Network. I of course did the cream cheese frosting too, because why would you ever pass up on a chance to eat frosting!?

As you can imagine, the carrots were the tricky part. Here they are after I had made them, a day early, before I put them on the cupcakes. I did some research on fondant and discovered that fondant you buy in stores allegedly tastes terrible. But fondant is pretty difficult to make. But then I found out about MMF - marshmallow fondant. I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's definitely doable, and I'm sure next time will be better since I'll know what I'm doing. This blog did a great job explaining how to make MMF. Basically you melt marshmallows and add a ton of powdered sugar and it turns into a playdough consistency. Except mine was really sticky, but with the help of corn starch and crisco, I managed. And I think the carrots came out so cute! Hehe I can't wait to EAT THEM ALL!

Easter Eggs!

2009-04-11T21:25:00.004-04:00

Happy Easter!

The soup kitchen, where I volunteer sometimes, jazzed up meal service today for Easter. We had brightly colored table clothes and flowers on every table, plus 500 dyed eggs! My 12 are mixed in there somewhere.

Chocolate covered matzah

2009-04-11T20:30:00.003-04:00

Even though I don't keep kosher for Passover, I decided to make chocolate covered matzah in honor of Passover. This was my mom's recipe I think. It's so tasty!

1/2 lb matzah (I used like 4 pieces)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
8 oz. chocolate chips

Pre-heat the oven to 350.
Line a cookie sheet with foil and lay matzah on pan.
Melt brown sugar with butter in a saucepan.
Boil until mixture coats a spoon.
Brush matzah with brown sugar mixture
Bake in 350 degree oven for 3-4 minutes (watch closely, it burns easily!!) until it starts to bubble.
Cover with chocolate chips and put back in the oven until the chips start to melt (like one minute). You can put nuts on top if you like.
Spread the chocolate to cover the matzah.
Put in the freezer or fridge until the chocolate is solidified.
Break into pieces.

Note: I had a little bit of extra brown sugar mixture leftover, so you probably could make more than 4 pieces.

Asian Fish in a Packet

2009-04-11T20:24:00.004-04:00

One of the best presents I have ever received was a handmade cookbook from a friend of mine who is a superb cook. (For God's sake, she makes her own cheese!) Last night I made one of the recipes, Asian Fish in a Packet (from Moosewood cookbook). It was so easy and fast and there was virtually no cleanup!

I got to use lots of ingredients I don't normally cook with (haddock, sesame oil, baby bok choy). The recipe calls for cooked rice, and to save time I used Trader Joe's frozen brown rice which cooks in 3 minutes in the microwave.

Ghetto Warning-Pea Soup

2009-04-11T20:17:00.002-04:00

So I had a bag of split peas and a new hand blender, and was excited to make Curried Split Pea Soup by Alton Brown. Well I made it, and it was fun to use the blender. It didn't look great, and definitely thought it needed some kind of garnish.

I was a little hesitant to eat it and kept making all kinds of disclaimers to Brianna that she didn't need to eat it, and I would try it first. Much to my surprise, it actually tasted pretty good. It was actually rather delicious.

However, the leftovers looked absolutely appalling, like nasty green sludge in tupperware. It sat in our fridge for at least a week and nobody ever touched it again.

When I dumped it out into the sink, it scarily retained the shape of the tupperware!

Charoses

2009-04-10T19:29:00.004-04:00

Happy Passover! This is the charoses I made, mainly from this recipe but not exactly. I love charoses, it's the best part of passover. Apples, walnuts, cinnamon, honey, and wine. How can you go wrong with that!? You can't. Some people make it in the food processor so it comes out minced but not me. Grandma used to always make it in bigger chunks like this so I do too. Plus I don't have a food processor and chopping it like this already takes enough time. She probably made it this way for the same reasons. Anyways, it's yummy.

Rainbow Cake

2009-04-09T20:11:00.004-04:00

Yup. Its a cake. And its rainbow. And I made it.

My latest obsession is Google Reader. If you don't use it - you should. And you should share the things you read with me. One of my Google Reader friends is a guy named Elliott that I worked with at a summer camp almost 10 years ago. We lost touch and then we discovered that we did TIE a couple of years apart (he first) thanks to the TIE listserv. As a result, he's in my Google Contacts and therefore shares his Google Reader reading with me. He posted "Taste the Rainbow with a Rainbow Cake". They got it from Omnomicon. As a result - I made Rainbow Cake!

I didn't use the "diet recipe" that calls for diet soda instead of eggs, oil and water. I used regular cake mix. Here are some pics from before it was done:

It got rave reviews from everyone that tried it, including many of my co-workers, but my favorite comment came from Rajeev (who was tasked with cleaning up after me - thanks again rajeev!). He said: "I feel like I'm cleaning up after a 5 year old thats been painting all afternoon!" That's exactly what my bowls looked like when I was done.

Carrot Tea Cake

2009-04-09T19:59:00.002-04:00

Since Louisa asked about it, here is the recipe for Carrot Tea Cake that was in the March 2009 issue of Everyday Food Magazine.

-0.5 c. unsalted butter, room temp, plus more for pan
-1.25 c. all purpose flour, plus more for pan
-1 tsp. baking powder
-0.5 tsp. baking soda
-0.5 tsp. salt
-0.5 tsp. cinnamon
-0.5 tsp. nutmeg
-0.5 c. packed dark brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 tsp pure vanilla extract
-1 c. packed grated carrots

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 5 x 9 (6 cup) loaf pan. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in carrots. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; beat until combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan; bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 mins. Let cool in pan 5 mins. Turn cake out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

They recommend making and frosting it with a cream cheese frosting. I didn't bother with that.

Everyday Food Magazine - March 2009

2009-04-08T23:02:00.001-04:00

By now you should have long since figured out that almost everything I post about comes from Everyday Food Magazine. I heard about EDF from my friend Monica, who's a new reader of Gastrofabulous as of today! (Hi Monica!)

One of the things I look forward to at the end of each month is my new issue. As soon as it arrives, I devour it, reading every recipe and flagging all of the ones I want to try. I rarely manage to make them all in a month (almost never!), so I'm going to try posting a recap each month so you get to see other recipes

So far, I've tried to following recipes out of the March 2009 issue: -Rustic Marinara Sauce (we added sausage, peppers, onions, and mushrooms to their recipe)

-Carrot Cake (I never bothered with the cream cheese frosting they recommend)
-Cornmeal-Crusted Fish Sticks
-Whole Wheat Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Veggies

-Balsamic Rosemary Vinaigrette & Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops

Recipes I flagged but haven't gotten around to trying yet (maybe you guys will post about them!):
-Emeril's Turkey Bolognese
-Smokey Beef Tacos
-Avocado-Red Onion Relish
-Corn and Tomato Salsa
-Fudgy Skillet Brownies
-Pear Tart Tartin
-Spinach Salad with Salmon
-John's Pecan Lace Cookies (didn't one of you post something similar recently? Louisa?)
-Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

PS- I couldn't find the recipes that aren't hyperlinked. If you want to try one, I'll send you the recipe, just let me know!

Carrot Habanero Soup

2009-04-07T20:48:00.007-04:00

Hello Gastrofabulous! Thanks Louisa for inviting me, I've been meaning to post for a long time and I've finally found inspiration! I absolutely love this bright orange soup because it is spicy and brings a lot of flair to any dinner as a side, or as a centerpiece for lunch. If two whole habeneros is too intimidating, you can pierce them with a fork and let them simmer with the rest of the ingredients, then fish them out before putting everything into your food processor/blender. This recipe comes from my favorite cookbook, Cowgirl Cuisine by Paula Disbrowe.

Carrot Habanero Soup
serves 8

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 pound carrots, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1-2 habanero chiles
1/4 cup white wine
6 cups chicken stock
1 medium sweet potato
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. coriander
1 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. salt

Garnish with sour cream/plain yogurt and cilantro leaves

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add leek, onion, and carrots and saute for 7 minutes until tender. Add garlic, ginger, and habaneros and saute for an additional 2 minutes. Stir in wine, scraping up browned bits.
2. Add stock and sweet potato and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, partially cover, and simmer 30 minutes until veggies are tender. Stir in OJ, cumin, and coriander.
3. Let soup cool slightly. Place half of carrot mixture in blender and process until smooth. Pour the pureed mixture into a medium bowl or pitcher and repeat the procedure with the remaining carrot mixture. Press the puree through a large fine sieve into the pot and discard any solids that remain. Stir in the honey and salt and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Ladle into bowls and top with yogurt and cilantro.

Roasted Chicken & Asparagus

2009-04-02T20:58:00.006-04:00

One of the tips in the March 2009 issue of EDF is to tuck some butter and herbs under the skin of chicken before roasting it for a fast dinner. I decided to try it tonight with rosemary and thyme. It was OK. Given that it's probably not that healthy and didn't result in something insanely yummy, I probably won't bother with it again. We'll see. One combo they suggest is butter with chili powder and lime zest. I might still try that one. Let me know if you do.

As a side, I made Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce. Initially when I tasted the sauce on its own, I thought it was too bland, but there's something about the asparagus that blends perfectly with it.

Balsamic Pork Chops and Green Beans

2009-04-01T22:14:00.005-04:00

Let the lesson for today's post be: Read the entire recipe before you decide to make it!

This evening, after plans for dinner with friends fell apart, I came home and contemplated what to make for dinner. For me, an opportunity like that usually involves paging through my collection of Everyday Food magazines for items I've flagged and skimming them to see if they seem like the appropriate amount of effort for the evening. I settled on Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops (from the March 2009 issue) and Green Beans with Cider Vinaigrette (from the June 2008 issue). Only after returning from the store (with the only 3 ingredients I needed to buy: pork chops, green beans, and garlic -- not bad considering I hate recipes that require me to misc, items that will sit in my pantry / fridge forever with nothing more than a pinch used), did I realize that the pork chops required an hour to marinate (I wanted to eat asap!) and the beans are actually served cold (not what I was looking for on this cold rainy night!).

I managed to improvise and still have a pretty good meal. A couple notes:

The pork chops need to be marinated in a Balsamic Rosemary Vinaigrette (also from March 2009). I didn't bother with the blender - too many dishes to clean. I just pressed the garlic into the mixture which I combined in a cup with a spoon. Way easier.
Since I didn't want cold beans, here's what I did: I steamed my beans with some pressed garlic on top. Meanwhile I mixed together more pressed garlic and the other ingredients. (I substituted Red Wine Vinegar for the Cider Vinegar b/c I don't need another type of vinegar in my kitchen - I have 3 already!). Once the beans were done I dumped them in a bowl and mixed them with the vinegar / mustard mixture. It worked out pretty well. I'd make them again.

Catching Up

2009-04-01T22:10:00.000-04:00

In late November / early December I was cooking and taking pictures for Gastrofabulous a ton - I just never got around to downloading the pics and posting about them. So - to catch up - here's a few of the things I made:

Penne with Bacon and Green Beans
adapted from Everyday Food - June'08
(they called for Spaghetti & Pancetta - I used what I had in the apt)

Seafood Risotto

from Everyday Food - April 2008

(I couldn't find the recipe online, but if anyone wants it I'll be happy to type it up - it was really easy and yummy!)

Balsamic Skirt Steak & Polenta
from Everyday Food - March 2008

(ditto about not finding the recipe online / willing to type up for anyone)

I toot my own horn here - this was one of the "fanciest" meals I have ever made and it was EXCELLENT.

Japanese Breakfast

2009-03-29T19:37:00.004-04:00

There's something beautiful and simple about a Japanese breakfast. Fried eggs with soft centers over rice, sprinkled with black sesame and white salt. Some vinegar cucumbers add a little bit of freshness to the morning meal.

The little boat of soy sauce allows for each person to have just the right amount on their bowl.

Eat. Enjoy!

Lamb Burgers

2009-03-21T19:59:00.002-04:00

We've had this ground lamb in the freezer for months, just waiting for us to finally make the lamb burgers I had it earmarked for. I made the ones in this recipe from Emeril and it was super simple. Most of the ingredients I even had on hand - yogurt, cumin, rosemary, that's about it. Stick it in a pita with avocado, tomato, and feta, and it's a gourmet sandwich. One piece of advice though - don't toast the pita if you're going to try to put the burger inside it. I liked it crunchy though so no regrets. Make this, it's awesome!

Buddha Banana Bread

2009-03-18T21:01:00.002-04:00

Last night I made banana bread! LZ's friend had a ton of fruit he had left from his "worship fruit" - it's like an offering to the Buddha. But sooner or later someone has to eat it. And the three bananas were getting overripe. What else could I do with them but make banana bread?! So I settled on this recipe with chocolate chips and walnuts. It came out so good (maybe because it's chock full of chocolate chips) and my favorite dishes are always the ones that can double as dessert & breakfast. So there you have it, Buddha Banana Bread. And what else is funny: I twittered about baking it and eating it. And someone found that and started following me - a person whose username is bananabreadnut. Seriously she has a whole web site about banana bread. I love it!

Chicken and Clouds

2009-03-17T20:56:00.003-04:00

I made this recipe for Chicken and Dumplings, and it was a huge hit! Brianna thought the biscuits looked like clouds and it will forever be known in our house as "Chicken and Clouds" This is a very comforting recipe; great for a rainy or snowy day. (I opted for the quick Bisquick biscuits, but feel free to make the real things).

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-and-Dumplings-240818

Sweet Potato Ravioli

2009-03-06T21:11:00.002-05:00

We bought too many wrappers last time we made ravioli. So we figured we had to make them again, but I wanted to try a new kind. I found these sweet potato ravioli and I love sweet potatoes so we gave it a try. The filling is just mashed sweet potato, brown sugar, and butter. Can't go wrong with that! It was like a dessert. The fried shallots on top were kind of a pain but worth it - really good! There's also a sauce on them that's just melted butter with sage - seemed a little pointless. Overall: dessert-like and yummy!

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi

2009-03-04T21:20:00.002-05:00

Cheryl and I made this Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi and it was just what we wanted! Good and quick to make before American Idol. Could have been more lemony but we weren't sure how to do that - maybe try lemon zest next time?

Pecan Lace Cookies

2009-03-02T21:09:00.006-05:00

I bought pecans for the salad (see below) and the epicurious recipe had links to other pecan dishes and I was tempted by the pecan-filled desserts. I decided on these cookies which were supposed to be sandwich cookies with orange frosting in the middle. The cookies came out really good and looked great too! The frosting I kind of ruined - wrong consistency entirely. I think I wanted it to be more orangey so added too much juice which made it too runny. I kept adding more sugar but it wasn't working so the frosting leaked through the lacy holes in the cookies. Still tasted good though. The cookies are totally good on their own anyways, and maybe next time I'll take another stab at the frosting. Yum!

Cabbage Salad

2009-03-02T20:57:00.003-05:00

Since today was a surprise snow day, I wanted to do something special with my extra time so I decided to cook up a feast! We made Cheryl's Sake Glazed Salmon which was really good and simple too! I'll definitely be making that again. And to go with it, I wanted to make a fancy salad. I found this Cabbage Salad on Epicurious and it was so good, just like the reviews said. It has lots of stuff in it - red cabbage, napa cabbage, dried cherries, apple slices, and spiced pecans. I was worried about making them - the worcestershire sauce sounded weird - but they turned out great! It's a different kind of salad but I highly recommend it!

Prosciutto Ravioli

2009-02-24T21:36:00.003-05:00

Today we made something fancier than usual: Giada's Prosciutto and Spinach Ravioli. With tasty ricotta cheese, mmmmm. LZ got his diploma in the mail today, so we celebrated with ravioli. It takes a bit of time to wrap them, of course, but it's not so bad and they're really tasty! We boiled half of them and it was enough so we froze the other half for later this week.

Making Pasta

2009-02-18T20:53:00.019-05:00

For Valentines Day, we decided to stay in and make pasta for dinner.

The first thing you have to do is figure out how to put the pasta maker together. Fortunately, there's only four major pieces, so it's a pretty easy puzzle.

4 pieces: the pasta roller, roller handle, table clamp and cutter.

I remember how to do it mostly because when assembled properly, I think it resembles a baby dinosaur. Or maybe a baby T-rex with no tail.

Anyway, after you get the pasta maker put together, it's time to make the dough. The recipe we have is really easy. Three eggs, a cup and a half of flour. Not bad.
You have to make a mountain with the flour, and then crack the eggs inside. It makes a neat little volcano, but be careful not to break the wall while you stir up the eggs. Otherwise, you have a very runny mess all over the cutting board.

Apparently, slowly incorporating the egg with the flour is key. Otherwise, it takes a long time for your pasta to become smooth if you do not do this step.It does take some time, however, to make the egg less runny (like 20 minutes).

Once the egg is mixed in enough, you can finally pile all the flour in the middle and knead it into the perfect pasta dough. This requires folding the dough on itself several times. Makes for a good workout too!

You'll know the dough is done when it is nice and smooth. (I suppose you can see who was doing most of the work in making the pasta!)

Then, in the pasta roller it goes. You have to fold it several times while it's still soft. When the dough is pliable and not too dry, you can roll it through the pasta machine, each time changing the setting one notch tighter. The dough gets thinner and longer.

Two sets of hands is very useful. One person feeds in the dough and turns the crank, and the other catches the long strip as it comes out.

Once the dough as thin as you like it, it's time to cut! The other side of the pasta roller has a roller with a cutting edge that you just run the strip through.

Of course, this is also the most difficult part of the pasta making process. Or, it was for us at least. If you feed the dough in the cutter incorrectly, the pasta folds on itself and gets munched up. Then you don't have thin flat ribbons, but you have doughy munched up ribbons.

Exhibit A: Ghetto Pasta ...................Exhibit B: Fab Pasta

At the end of all of this, it doesn't really matter if the pasta is pretty or not because it all goes into the same salted water to boil for 10 minutes. (I throw in the ghetto pasta first since it can be a little thicker in places.)

Throw in some sauce (homemade is the best), a glass of wine and you've got a great meal. Sure, it took us several hours to get to the finished state, but it was well worth it.

Yum! Let's eat!

Portobello Burger

2009-02-17T21:41:00.004-05:00

I had some portobello caps leftover from the mushroom stuffing that went with my lamb roast the other day, so I decided to make some portobello burgers. They are so easy and really good! We will definitely be making them again. The marinade is just mustard, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. You can brush that on and then grill them (or cook them in a pan). I didn't have buns but I had nice bread from yesterday so I used that. With cheese, guacamole, and tomato - voila!

Lamb Shoulder

2009-02-15T20:57:00.004-05:00

Valentine's Day! I wanted to make something special for the special guy on the special day, and we had a lamb shoulder in the freezer. There aren't a lot of recipes for lamb shoulders, but there are a lot for legs so I just used one of those. This one included mushroom stuffing. it took a LOT of precooking - chopping, boiling, etc. but the stuffing turned out really good. I had a small crisis with the thawing of the shoulder, but I managed and it was very tasty. The picture does not do it justice as usual. And chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert!

Black Bean Burgers (from Gourmet Mag)

2009-02-14T19:06:00.003-05:00

Even though the blog has been oddly silent, I've been cooking up a storm. Time to add the backlog of tasty dishes that have neglected to make their way to GastroFab.

This recipe for Black Bean Burgers came to me in this month's Gourmet.

It is pretty straightforward: can of beans, some breadcrumbs, mayo and spices. Crush together (use food processor if you have one), form into patties and cook.

I had some leftover sweet potato that I put into the mix which added more flavor. The fresh cilantro was great too, but the only thing that was weird was the texture. I mean, I know it's not meat, but it would have been nicer if it had held together a little better. You bit into the burger and everything was soft--the bun, the bean burger, toppings. I guess that made me appreciate my meat counterpart if nothing for more than the difference in texture.

Funny the things you notice when you do variations. I guess I expect my burgers to feel a certain way.

Are there other foods that you feel this way about?

Chicken Tagine with Almonds and Raisens

2008-12-31T09:19:00.006-05:00

I got this recipe from a friend and it came out so good! Moroccan inspired, it is sweet and savory. All of the warm spices make this a very comforting kind of dish and it makes the house smell great while cooking.

It seemed like something I'd plunk down $15 for at a restaurant, yet it was incredibly easy. I have the original recipe and then have my adaptations or omissions in green.

1 3lb. chicken cut up (I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion, sliced (I diced it)
2 carrots, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Pinch saffron (I omitted this)
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup water or chicken stock
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup raisens or other dried fruit

1. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel. Put chicken in a large heavy pan. Season with salt and pepper, and add onion, carrots and garlic.

2. Sprinkle on the saffron, turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. Pour in the water or broth, cover and cook on medium for 30 minutes. Because I was using boneless chicken, I cooked for 20 minutes.

3. Add the almonds and raisens. Cover and cook on low for another 30 minutes (again, I did it for 20) or until the chicken is tender. Serve with couscous or pita.

NOTES:
Although the dish had flavor, the chicken wasn't quite as flavorful as you would expect with all of those spices. I wonder what would make it so? A different cut of chicken? Marinating the chicken beforehand? Making a spice rub? If anyone tries this, please let me know. Also, for some reason by the time we ate, the almonds, raisens and carrots were a bit cold. Not sure why this happened b/c it was on the stove for almost an hour. Despite this, I would still recommend it.

Lentil Soup

2008-12-21T19:38:00.003-05:00

This very snowy weekend seemed like the perfect time for a batch of lentil soup. I had made lentil soup in my slow cooker once and it had absolutely no taste. So this time I tried a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis (from the Food Network. Very smily Italian lady who almost always uses marscapone cheese, or prosciutto).

This turned out very very good. It was enough for two for dinner and lots of leftovers.
It was easy and filling.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 pound lentils (approximately 1 1/4 cups)
11 cups low-salt chicken broth (this was about 5 cans)
4 to 6 fresh thyme sprigs (I used dried and it was fine)
2/3 cup dried elbow pasta
1 cup shredded Parmesan

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Add the garlic, salt, and pepper and saute until all the vegetables are tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices. Simmer until the juices evaporate a little and the tomatoes break down, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add the lentils and mix to coat. Add the broth and stir. Add the thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer over low heat until the lentils are almost tender, about 30 minutes.

Stir in the pasta. Simmer until the pasta is tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Sprinkle with the Parmesan, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.

Christmas Cookies!

2008-12-21T14:09:00.003-05:00

Here's this year's crop of Christmas cookies! Ridiculous, as usual. Thanks to everyone who came, it was a lot of fun! Especially since Maura the cookie master was late and the rest of us had to figure out how to make the cookies by ourselves. Not that we had any problems.

Sake Glazed Salmon

2008-12-01T22:14:00.004-05:00

So I can't believe I haven't posted this yet. This is my signature dish!

I made this tonight and I am always so amazed at how much I like it. I can't even remember where I found the recipe now.

1 cup sake
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 TBS fresh grated ginger
2 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or minced
1 TBS dark brown sugar
Salmon (I prefer fillets. I usually buy 2/3 of a lb. for two people).

1. Prepare the marinade by mixing the sake, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and brown sugar together in a small bowl. Reserve 1/4 of the marinade to brush onto the fish later, if you desire.

2. Rinse the salmon under cold water and place in a glass pan or a freezer bag. Pour marinade over it. Let marinate for 1-3 hours in the fridge, spooning the liquid over any exposed parts once or twice.

3. Preheat the oven to 350. Take the fish out of the fridge and discard the marinade. Cook the fish for 15-20 minute or until the flesh of the fish is flaky. Spoon reserved marinade over fish if you desire.

I served this with couscous and sugar snap peas!