she's cookin' now!

Finally - she returns!

2009-05-06T14:05:00.010-05:00

For the handful of you who still check in to this blog - thank you. So sorry it's been a few months since I've posted anything - I ran into a few problems at the beginning of February. To make a long story short, I've been diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer. That this has been a huge shock is an understatement - our lives have been totally turned upside down. I'm currently going through chemotherapy and am doing very well - the treatment seems to be working! I am very hopeful at this point and have received so much love and support from family and friends. Also, please forgive any glaring errors in grammar and coherency because there really is a thing called "chemo brain" (although my husband thinks it's just my new convenient excuse :-) At any rate, my life has been crazy since then, but the good news is I finally have the time and energy to blog again!

So, earlier this year, I had decided to devote this blog to healthy, diet-friendly foods. Ha - forget that now. I may eventually rejoin the Tuesdays With Dorie gang (if I even can), but for now, I'll just check in with them now and then and make some super delicious treats once in a while. One thing about being blessed with all those wonderfully caring friends and family - my family and I have been well fed. It's a well-known theory around these parts that enormous amounts of food can cure cancer. Good thing my mother bought us a freezer - we've already got enough in there to feed a small army. We won't have to worry about any kind of swine flu quarantine - we're set to eat like royalty for weeks! Needless to say, I haven't been cooking much since all this started. In the future, I think I'm going to feature some of the yummy things I've been getting.

Since yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, my sister made us her famous chicken tacos and I thought I'd start posting with that. Oh my, are they muy bueno!

Chicken Tacos

1 lb boneless chicken chicken breast

2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1-2 tablespoons pineapple juice

3/4 cup terryaki sauce

fresh corn tortillas

vegetable oil

condiments: chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, lettuce, cheese, guacamole (recipe below), black beans (recipe below)

Combine first six ingredients into a gallon-sized ziploc bag and marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Cook on the grill.

Meanwhile, fry the tortillas in a small amount of vegetable oil using tongs to hold the tortillas open (fry one side at a time).

You can always just use store bought corn tacos, of course (you could also use flour tortillas). When the chicken is done, slice thinly and serve with the toppings. Enjoy with a large margarita!

Guacamole

2 ripe avocados

1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro

1/4 finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

salt to taste

Mash all ingredients together and serve immediately.

Black Beans

1 can black beans, drained

1-2 teaspoons dried cumin

1/2 - 1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 - 1 teaspoon chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and heat. All of the spices are to taste - if you like spicy stuff, you can add some red chili pepper instead of the chili powder.

Light Italian Wedding Soup

2009-01-30T08:11:00.008-06:00

It has been cold here in the midwest - I mean really, really friggin' cold. I don't like it one bit, but I'm coping. One of the ways I try to cope is by eating and drinking lots of hot liquids - lots of tea, lots of soups. I found this recipe in the latest issue of Everyday Food, which actually had 4 soup recipes this month - and was intrigued. First, I'd never made Italian Wedding Soup before and second, it calls for escarole, a vegetable with which I was completely unaware. It looks a lot like lettuce and is actually a part of the endive family - slightly bitter when raw, cooked it mellows out and is pretty darn tasty. Thankfully, my kids are pretty adventuresome when it comes to new veggies. They've tried kale, swiss chard, broccoli rabe, and others - most of which were a hit. They really liked this soup a lot, but if your kids might balk at the escarole, you could easily substitute spinach.

I think the idea of little meatballs in the soup appealed to my kids too, so it wasn't hard to get them to try it.

This recipe was really easy and came together in about a half an hour. I only slightly deviated from the recipe, adding some oregano and additional water and it turned out to be really delicious.

Light Italian Wedding Soup

from the Everyday Food January/February 09 issue

makes 6 servings

1 pound ground dark-meat turkey (93 percent lean) I used a 1.25 lb tray of Jenny-O Turkey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes in juice
2 heads escarole (2 pounds total), cored, trimmed, and coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 cups water

Directions
In a bowl, combine turkey, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Using 1 tablespoon for each, roll mixture into balls. The ideal tool for this is a small scoop - I used a teaspoon sized scoop and kind of mounded the meatball mix on the end.

In a large pot, heat oil over medium. Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add broth and tomatoes (with juice) and oregano; bring to a simmer. Add meatballs; cook, without stirring, until meatballs float to surface, about 5 minutes.

Add as much escarole to pot as will fit. Cook, gradually adding remaining escarole, until wilted and meatballs are cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Thin soup with water if desired (I used 2 cups); season with salt and pepper. Serve soup sprinkled with more Parmesan.

Nutritional Info per serving

250 calories

9.8 grams fat (3g Saturated)

23.6 grams protein

19.3 grams carbs

4.8 grams fiber

WeightWatchers Point Value per serving: 5

I hope you try this soup at your house and please, let me know how you and your family liked it!

I'm Baaaack!

2009-01-29T11:06:00.010-06:00

Hello Internet world, I'm back. I really need a new New Year's Resolution to stay on top of blogging! I'd like to say that I've been incredibly busy doing good works and just simply didn't have the time to blog. Alas, no good excuse like that for me - just lazy :-)

We had an absolutely, perfectly terrific Disney vacation. There really is no other word to describe that place but "Magical" (well, maybe "expensive" might be one too if you ask my husband). I just love Walt Disney World and have decided that the hubby and I are going to retire down there and work at Disney part time (saw lots of retirees working, especially on the transportation stuff - boats, buses and monorails). I could do that - I mean how hard could it be to deal with millions of people from all over the world trying to placate their tired and cranky kids day in and day out. He's not nearly as excited at that prospect as I am, but luckily I've got 20 years or more to convince him!

The 1/2 Marathon was a great experience (except for maybe miles 11.5 through 13 - those were pretty brutal) and I am so thankful that my Sister-in-law ran with me at my turtle speed. Thank you so much Karen - you kept me motivated and going when I so wanted to stop! She and her husband also went to the parks with us and were not only a huge help, but the kids adore them and had a wonderful time riding rides and even standing in line with them. Which reminds me - January is a great time to visit Disney, our longest wait was maybe 20 minutes or so and most were less than 5. We had to use fast pass only twice - once for Toy Story Mania and once for Soarin' (both are highly recommended and always had at least a 45minute wait). It did get pretty cool however, with highs in the low sixties and even 50's on our last day. This of course was infinitely better than the temps the folks back in the home town were experiencing - 0's and worse - yuck! So glad I missed that!

I could go on and on about how wonderful Disney World is, but I'm sure either you already know because a. you've been there before or b. you've heard from people you know who've been. I'll sum it up and say it's worth every penny!

Back to food blogging tomorrow with a great soup recipe I found in my Everyday Food magazine.

Lighter Chicken Parmesan

2009-01-05T14:11:00.013-06:00

After I get back form Walt Disney World, I plan on really starting to watch what I eat (there's really no point while you're on vacation, right?). I've decided to use WeightWatchers.com and see how it works out. WW doesn't have any meeting places close to where I live (I'm spoiled now, living in a small town and think 25 minutes is just too far to go for a meeting, or anything else for that matter) so I'm going to track my points online. I'll try to include the points values for the recipes I post, but I can't promise I can get to every one. I'll also be tracking my weekly workouts which will hopefully be 4 runs and 2 cross trains. I've got the best of intentions don't I?!

Anyway, here's a recipe that's really easy and is a kid-pleaser too. Sorry, I don't have the points value for this dish yet, but the nutritional data is at the bottom of the recipe.

Baked Chicken Parmesan

1.5 pounds boneless chicken breasts (about 6)

1 tsp olive oil

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese

1.5 cups prepared tomato sauce (for a time-saver, I like to use Bertolli or Newman's Own)

1/2 cup egg substitute (or two eggs, beaten)

Preheat oven to 375°. Spread olive oil in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Pat chicken breasts dry and season with salt and pepper. In a shallow bowl, mix bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Put eggs in another shallow bowl and set the bowls side by side.

Here's my assembly line:

Dredge each chicken breast in eggs, letting excess drip off, and then dredge in bread crumb mixture. Set each breast in the prepared 13x9 pan.

Bake for appx. 20 minutes until the chicken starts to get lightly browned.

Remove pan from oven. Cover the chicken with the tomato sauce and top with mozzarella cheese.

Bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown.

Nutritional Information (by Nutritiondata.com)

6 Servings

219 Calories

8g Total fat

4g Saturated Fat

26mg Cholesterol

369mg Sodium

18g Total Carbs

2g Dietary Fiber

17g Protein

I like to serve this with a side of pasta and I really like the Barilla Plus line (extra fiber and protein) - but if you're watching carbs, just serve it with loads of veggies!

Enjoy!

TWD: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake and an announcement

2008-12-30T03:09:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone, I'm back! Sorry for the unannounced (and unanticipated) blogging vacation. I sure hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas - we sure did. It wasn't exactly peaceful (that's an impossibility with four children) but it certainly was joyful.

I have made my fair share of cheesecakes and even made some to sell this holiday season - and that's what I did with this one. A friend ordered a cheesecake for her family Christmas celebration this past Saturday, which was perfect timing for this week's TWD post. I have a couple of very good recipes from epicurious.com that I most frequently use. In fact, I used the topping from this one to create the cheesecake I made for my friend - Cranberry Orange Cheesecake with a Chocolate Crust.

Dorie's recipe comes together very easily, like most cheesecakes. I'm not sure why people find the prospect of making a cheesecake daunting, because, really it's pretty easy - the trickiest part is the water bath and I'm going to tell you the secret right now. When you're wrapping your springform pan in foil to go into the water bath, you must use the large heavy duty foil (18 inches wide). If you use anything smaller, the water will seep into the pan and turn your crust into mush (I speak from experience here). Wrap the pan at least twice, making sure to mold each foil layer upwards towards the top of the pan (not folding it sideways) - you may have to roll the top of the foil around the top edge.

Another tip: when you fill your roasting pan, make sure to put the pan in first, then fill it with hot water (no more than halfway up the side of the pan).

To make a chocolate crust, I just used 1 3/4 cups of crushed oreos (stuff removed - this is much to the delight of my children who make super stuffed oreos).

You can buy plain chocolate wafer cookies - Meijer doesn't carry them here though and they're usually more expensive than oreos (plus, no stuff). Anyway, I omitted the additional sugar and just stirred in the melted butter.

The only other change I made to the original recipe was to add 2 tsp. grated orange zest to the batter and add the topping. Here's that recipe:

1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

Stir sugar and water in medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium; add cornstarch mixture and bring to simmer. Add cranberries; cook until beginning to pop, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Stir in orange peel. Cool completely. Cover and chill overnight. (Cheesecake and cranberry mixture can be made 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Run knife around top edge of cheesecake to loosen. Release pan sides. Top cheesecake with cranberry mixture. Chill until set, about 1 hour.

My announcement is sort of a sad one to make - this will be my last Tuesdays with Dorie post. Unfortunately, Dorie's baked goods aren't calorie free and I really want to focus on losing 30 pounds next year. I thought that training for a half marathon would do the trick, but alas, no. At least I didn't gain any weight! I have had such a great time since I joined and I am so thankful for all my new blogging friends I met through TWD.

In 2009 I am going to try to post healthy recipes which will be lower in fat and sugar, but every once in a while, I'm going to have to sneak in something truly decadent (and there's really not many better sources out there than Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie). Thanks to all my TWD buddies for all your support and I'll be sure to check in with you each Tuesday!

Have a happy and safe New Year!

UPDATE: It's been too long since I last posted a TWD - I completely forgot to link to the wonderful blogger who choose this week's recipe. Please visit Anne of Annestrawberry for the recipe and to check out a truly fantastic blog!

TWD: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

2008-12-09T05:30:00.002-06:00

Please accept my apologies for the light blogging lately. Like all of you, we are busy, busy, busy right now and blogging has sort of taken a back seat. So, sorry - I am hoping that I'll be able to get back into the swing of things after the holidays (and then after a short break for the Disney half marathon and vacation in January).

These cookies are a snap to make and are a good all-around sugar cookie. They are a little on the crisp side, but if you watch them really carefully and take them out just before they start to brown, you can have them a little crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside (which seems to be just the right texture to me). I have to admit that they don't quite measure up to my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe though - Cream Cheese Icebox Cookies from the Joy of Cooking. These are simply outstanding - the dough is great to work with and the addition of the cream cheese just makes them taste fantastic. I also usually use the Quick White Icing II recipe from the same book and it's always a hit (watch this very carefully as it heats - don't overheat it or it'll crystallize on you). Since this was the kids' chance to get in touch with their inner artist (and taste isn't a huge factor), I went with Betty Crocker's icing bags this time.

I let the kids go to town with the frosting and sprinkles. Isn't it amazing how children have the ability to cover almost every square millimeter of the top of the cookie with stuff - that my friends, is pure kid talent. This is my three year old's creation:

For Dorie's recipe, check out the Küchenlatein blog (I think it's German, but she's got a translator function) - thanks Ulrike for choosing this week's recipe and giving my kids the opportunity to make a pretty good sized mess and get a nice sugar rush all in the span on 15 minutes :-) As usual, you can check out all the other supremely talented TWD bloggers here.

TWD: Linzer Sables

2008-12-02T04:30:00.004-06:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year again folks! Welcome to the Christmas season - well, actually according to Catholic tradition, it's only Advent, and Christmas is from Dec. 25th through Jan. 5th, but I digress.... Anyway, Tuesdays with Dorie starts off the season with, what else, cookies! They're beautiful cookies too - or they could be if you remember to make a cutout in the center of the cookie (making a window into the delightful raspberry jam filling). As you can see, I completely forgot to do this, but I still think they're pretty. And feel free to judge this book by it's cover - they're delicious!

The recipe is very easy - don't be intimidated by rolling out the dough. It rolled out like a dream and, since you roll it between two sheets of plastic wrap, clean up is a cinch. I only made one change to this recipe and that's to substitute 1 can of almond paste for the ground almonds and sugar. I thought I had plenty of almonds stored away in the freezer and only at the last minute realized I didn't have any. Thankfully, I had bought a can of the almond paste a couple of months ago intending to make another batch of almond horns (still intending to do that - maybe later this month). This substitution worked great, but I had to rearrange the directions a little to compensate, so I'm reprinting the recipe with my changes.

Linzer Sables

adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 8 oz. can Almond Paste

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

scant 1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 large egg 2 tsp water

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup raspberry jam

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend almond paste and butter together until smooth, maybe 3 minutes at medium-low speed, scraping down the sides as needed. Reduce speed to low and add in the ground cinnamon, cloves and salt. Add in the egg and water, beat another 2 minutes. Add the flour, mixing only until just combined - don't over mix.

Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, put the dough between two large sheets of plastic wrap. Using your hands, flatten the dough into a disk, then grab a rolling pin and roll out the dough, turning it over frequently so the paper doesn't cut into it (I did not do this and it wasn't a problem - I used plastic wrap though) until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Leave the dough in the paper and repeat with the second half of the dough. Transfer wrapped dough to a baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until it is very firm, about 2 hours in the fridge or about 45 minutes in the freezer. The rolled-out dough can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Just thaw the dough enough to cut out the cookies and go on from there.

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 375°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Peel off the top sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap from one piece of dough and, using a 2-inch round cookie cutter - a scalloped cutter is nice for these - cut out as many cookies as you can. If you want a peekaboo cutout, use the end of a piping tip to cut out a very small circle from the centers of half the cookies. Transfer the rounds to the baking sheets, leaving a little space between the cookies. Repeat with second disk of dough. Set the scarps aside - you can combine them with the scraps from the second disk and roll and cut more cookies (refrigerate the rolled out disk as before).

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time (I didn't - I put them both in the oven and switched them halfway through baking and they came out great) for 11 to 13 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden, dry and just firm to the touch. Transfer to a rack to cool to room temperature.

To make sandwich cookies, spread jam on one side of the cookies and top with another cookie. Dorie's recipe is a little different her in that she melts the jam with some water and boils it slightly, but again, mine came out fine just using the straight jam. One final note, the recipe says it makes 50 cookies (or 25 sandwich cookies) - I didn't even come close to that as I only got about 16, but I don't think I rolled out my dough as thin as a quarter of an inch either.

I definitely recommend this cookie and think it'll look great in your holiday assortment, especially if you use a Christmas themed cookie cutter. I tried using my star-shaped cutter, but the tips kept breaking off so, in order to keep my stress level down and avoid that Mommy's-really-irritated-so-don't-mess-with-her atmosphere in the kitchen, I went with the scalloped edge cutter. (My kids know first hand that expression "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" and have started to recognize the warning signs)

Many thanks to noskos of Living the Life for selecting a cookie that's as beautiful as it is tasty (you can find the original recipe there)! Like I said, I don't know if I'd classify my Linzer Sables as beautiful, but not bad. Dorie's are in the book and I'm sure plenty of other TWD bakers' have gorgeous cookies - so check 'em out!

Coming up next Tuesday: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies (we'll be breaking out the Christmas sprinkles for sure!)

Barefoot Bloggers - Mexican Chicken Soup

2008-11-27T05:23:00.001-06:00

I have to be honest - I wasn't all that crazy about making this soup and then having to post it on Thanksgiving of all days, but actually I really liked it. Judy from Judy’s Gross Eats selected this week's recipe and I thankful she did because I probably would have never tried it on my own (a common theme with my Barefoot Bloggers experience so far). The kids didn't really think it was all that great, but this really isn't the kind of soup that's going to please the under 12 crowd anyway. But, if you're in any age group above that, you should give this soup a try - I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Here are my changes:

I took a major shortcut and used a roasted chicken from Sams and just shredded it - worked great and only cost me $4.88!
Used store bought chicken stock
Omitted the jalepenos - kiddos don't like anything even remotely spicy
Omitted the ground coriander seeds and just used 1/2 cup of cilantro

Mexican Chicken Soup

from Barefoot Contessa at Home

yield 6 - 8 servings

4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on

Good olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)

1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)

2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)

4 large cloves garlic, chopped

2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree, crushed

2 to 4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, optional

6 (6-inch) fresh white corn tortillas
For serving: sliced avocado, sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts skin side up on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until done. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions start to brown.

Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using. Cut the tortillas in 1/2, then cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch strips and add to the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste.

Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla chips.

You can find the list of all the other Barefoot Bloggers here.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

TWD: Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

2008-11-25T00:30:00.015-06:00

If you're short on time this Thanksgiving (and really, who isn't), this pie may be just the thing for you - two pies for the price of one! This week's recipe was selected by Vibi of La casserole carrée (another French-Canadian blog! Don't worry about trying to read it with your high-school-French-class-only-level French language abilities, she's got Google Translate) - thanks for choosing such a perfect recipe for this week Vibi!

It's very easy to put together, especially if you buy a Pillsbury ready to use pie crust. Yep, that's right - I pulled a Sandra Lee and I used a store-bought pie crusts to make my "semi-homemade" twofer pies. For those of you who know me, you know what a monumental announcement this is - I never, ever, under almost any circumstance use refrigerated pie dough. You see, I am a bit particular when it comes to pie crusts because they are my favorite part of the pie. My husband calls me a food snob, whatever. I prefer to think of myself as highly selective - I just know what I like, and homemade pie crust is, IMHO the only way to go. With a single exception - time. Or, more specifically, the lack there of. I don't mean to keep harping on this, because I know everyone is busy, but (as usual) I have over-committed and have just simply started to run out of time. I think I have the word "sucker" tattooed across my forehead, so please do me a favor and don't ask me to sign up to help with anything because I am just incapable of saying no.

At any rate, I ended up making two of these twofer pies for my church bake sale a week or so ago. Unfortunately, this meant that I personally don't know how they tasted, but I was told that they sold right away and the Women's Club earned some money for them, so I'm happy with that. I sure hope whoever bought them enjoyed them!

Here's my little 3 year old helping with the pumpkin pie part of the recipe (as a side note - don't you love all that stuff all over the counter - I'm surprised I found room for the dang food processor!).

The recipe calls for mixing the ingredients for the pecan pie filling together, then spinkling the pecans on the pumpkin layer already in the pie pan and then pouring the filling on last. I messed up and mixed the pecans in with the filling and just spread it over the pumkin - turned out just fine.

The final product:

Can't wait to hear how the other TWD bakers liked this pie - you can check them out here.

Lots and lots of cookies are scheduled for next month, including Linzer Sables which are on tap for next Tuesday!

TWD: Arborio Rice Pudding, Black, White (or both)

2008-11-18T00:38:00.006-06:00

I chose the "both option" since I knew I was going to have to double the recipe anyway to satisfy my family of sweet-tooths. I was eagerly anticipating this recipe because I haven't ever made rice pudding, and hadn't even eaten it since I was oh, about twelve years old. My Mom made it for us occasionally when we were growing up, but I haven't had the opportunity to have it since. On the surface, this recipe looks extremely easy, with only a handful of ingredients even if you include the chocolate. But, as I'm sure you are aware, looks can be deceiving.

I made one change from the recipe because I wanted to and another change because I had to. For the first, I decided that I would make the "white" part white chocolate as opposed to just a simple vanilla. I was frankly surprised that this wasn't what Dorie had originally in mind when she wrote this recipe (just seemed to make sense in that the "black" part was to be chocolate). As for the necessary change, read on.

When I read over the recipe, the thought of only using a measly 1/4 cup of rice to 3 1/4 cups of milk was unsettling. I wondered if it might be a misprint, but I went ahead and trusted that Dorie knew what she was talking about. I wish I had read the comments over at the Tuesdays with Dorie site first (I will remember to do that from now on as it is always full of great advice). Suffice to say, my pudding didn't quite come out right.

The recipe says to parboil the rice for 10 minutes and then cook it in the milk and sugar mixture for 30 minutes until 80-90% of the milk had been absorbed. After 30 minutes of simmering, it tasted delicious but looked nothing like rice pudding and everything like rice soup. The rice was tender and I just thought there was no way it was going to soak up that much milk. I added white chocolate to half and bittersweet to the other half and covered them with the skin-preventing plastic wrap. By this point, it was getting late so just I threw it in the fridge for an overnight stint and hoped fervently that things would set up. Alas, this was not the case. In the morning I simply had cold rice soup.

By now, you'd think that I would have remembered to go to the TWD site to figure out what was going on, but no, I didn't. My necessary recipe change was to put each batch back into a pot and add some cornstarch (2 tbsp per pot) to thicken them (bring to a boil and cook for an additional minute). This worked like a charm but kind of diluted the flavor. Of course, it was after this additional step that I consulted my fellow TWD bakers and discovered what I did wrong. Although the recipe calls for 30 minutes of simmering, many others found that if allowed to simmer another 15 to 30 minutes more, the pudding thickened nicely.

All in all, I have to say that this rice pudding was pretty tasty, despite my doctoring with the cornstarch. The white chocolate was far and away my favorite of the two and I'll definitely be making it again and next time, I'll try to be more patient. Thanks Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa (a French food blog - oh, la, la tres magnific!) for choosing this delicious recipe. Check out the other TWD bakers here.

Be sure to check in next week for Thanksgiving Twofer Pie!

Barefoot Bloggers - Herb Roasted Onions

2008-11-13T06:30:00.002-06:00

Bless you Kelly (of Baking with the Boys) for selecting such a delicious and, most importantly, easy recipe for us today! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am just flying by the seat of my pants right now because time is moving at light speed (I know, I know - scientifically, that makes no sense, but you know what I mean). So, of course, I just prepared this dish last night at 8 pm knowing full well I wasn't going to really enjoy them until the next day. But, enjoy them I will. The husband is coming home tonight from a business trip and will be here by dinner - I am planning on preparing a wonderful steak and serving these roasted onions on the side. I can hardly wait, the aroma these made while roasting was just amazing and the small sample I tried right after they were done was really delicious.

I halved this recipe and only made one substitution - I used dried thyme instead of fresh (the selection at Meijer was terrible!)

Herb Roasted Onions
from Barefoot Contessa at Home
2 red onions
1 yellow onion
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the stem end of each onion and carefully slice off the brown part of the root end, leaving the root intact. Peel the onion. Stand each onion root end up on a cutting board and cut the onion in wedges through the root. Place the wedges in a bowl.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Pour the dressing over the onions and toss well.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the onions to a sheet pan, reserving the vinaigrette that remains in the bowl. Bake the onions for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and browned. Toss the onions once during cooking. Remove from the oven, and drizzle with the reserved dressing. Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature.

Again, great choice Kelly! Be sure to check out the other Barefoot Bloggers here.

Coming up for November 27th is Mexican Chicken Soup. Yep, Mexican soup on Thanksgiving - go figure (and no, of course I won't be serving it that day - I'll be making it well before then and just posting it that day).

Back to food blogging! TWD: Kugelhopf

2008-11-11T00:30:00.006-06:00

I was intrigued when I first read that Kugelhopf would be our recipe this week - sounds really different, doesn't it? Really, it's just a kind of brioche (egg and butter, mildly sweet bread) and, well, to be totally honest, I didn't really think a whole lot of it after the taste test. It was good, but nothing to write home about, especially for all the steps involved in making it. Boy, I feel terrible writing that. It makes me wonder if I didn't do something right - which, after looking at it once it came out of the oven, makes that possibility more likely (note the concave bottom of those slices).

Anyway, here's how it came together:

The dough after the first addition of liquid (warm milk and yeast).

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought: "Huh? What the heck is that?" Dorie describes this look of the dough "shaggy". I've made quite a bit of bread but that was a new one for me, but that's a pretty accurate description.

After the addition of the eggs and butter however, the dough got very smooth and was actually pretty wet.

The boys had fun helping me out with this recipe (well eyeing the potential goodness, anyway), especially my littlest one - he really enjoyed watching my not-so-sturdy old Kitchen Aid work so hard to mix the dough.

Here he is helping to hold that crazy thing down! At any speed above 3, it really starts to wobble and kinda inches its way all over the counter.

My blogging friend Cathy over at The Tortefeasor is asking for kitchen goodies from Santa, I think I need to hop on that bandwagon too! Surely the big guy reads blogs - right Cathy?

I went looking for a Kugelhopf pan at our kitchen store in the mall and they didn't have one. So, not wanting to drag a tired 15 month old over to Bed Bath and Beyond, I just used the standby bundt pan (don't read anything into that Santa - just the new mixer would be great!).

After refrigerating the dough overnight, it actually rose faster than I expected - only two hours, but that was in a slightly warmed oven.

And, ta da - here's how it looked fresh out of the oven. Yeah, not quite right. Not sure what I did wrong, but Dorie says that the dough might rise up over the top of the pan once in the oven, but obviously, that wasn't a problem for my little Kugelhopf.

It looked much better unmolded with a fine dusting of powdered sugar:

So bottom line, if I were to make this again, which is doubtful, I would skip a lot of those middle rises and just do one rise overnight in the fridge, cook it in the morning and serve it at a brunch. You can find the recipe over at The All-Purpose Girl (thanks, Yolanda - I hope yours turned out better than mine!) and you can check out all the other fabulous Tuesdays with Dorie bakers here.

Next week's recipe sounds equally intriguing, but I'm hoping for better results: Black, White (or both) Arborio Rice Pudding

Twilight Mania

2008-11-09T15:21:00.007-06:00

Okay, will this Twilight madness ever end? It's everywhere! Once I started reading the first book, I just couldn't stop. And now I'm reading them again to get ready for the movie. My husband thinks I'm just a little too gaga over Edward. What he just doesn't seem to understand is that he is my Edward - love you dear {{{kiss}}}}

I just found this at Real Mom Kitchen and immediately had to find out which character I was (though I knew I wasn't going to be Bella):

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

So I'm Esme and I'm happy with that (I'm definitely the mother hen type). Have fun finding out who you are. And for those of you who haven't read the books, for your families' sakes, please don't until maybe after Christmas. The mania that ensues is inescapable.

It's a happy Friday!

2008-11-07T08:46:00.007-06:00

Happy Friday everyone! I got this blog award the other day from a wonderful blogger - Sihan of Fundamentally Flawed {{{{hugs}}}}

So here's what the deal is: apparently, I've got to answer these questions (nothing like making accepting this blog award a little challenging, sheesh!).

7 Things I say most often:

Knock it off!
Stop whacking your sister with that _______ (most often a pint-sized broom)
Practice piano!
You all need to go outside and play. Now.
You've got to be kidding me.
I'm counting to three. One...Two.....
Hurry up, we're going to be late!

7 things I did before

Got 8 hours of sleep consistently. I can't remember anything else (sleep deprivation wrecks havoc on the brain).

7 things I do now (I'm assuming that most people don't want to hear about diapers and laundry, but there's not much else going on right now....this may be a short list)

Teach 5th grade Sunday School
Read what I like to call "brain-candy" books (no time or energy for heavy stuff) - the Twilight Saga is my current obsession.
Training to do the Disney Half Marathon in January (only 9 very short weeks away - yikes!)
Dream about escaping with my husband to somewhere warm and tropical

7 Things I want to do

See number 4 from above.
Go back to school to get my Masters Degree (in what, I have no idea)
Learn to crochet
Get back into Scrapbooking
Own a business (again, no idea what)
Keep my house clean for more than 5 minutes
did I mention I want a vacation?

7 that attract me to the opposite sex

Sense of humor
Has to be taller than I am
Intelligent
Honesty
Loyalty
Enjoys playing with kids
Nice pecs doesn't hurt

7 favorite foods

My Mom's Lasagna
Spinach and artichoke dip
Pound cake
Chicago-style pizza (How did I ever live without it before I moved to Illinois???)
Pistachio ice cream
Pecan Pie
Prime Rib with Yorkshire Pudding (our annual Christmas dinner)

7 Blogs I want to pass this award on to. These are all fantastic blogs that I've recently discovered and will revisit frequently! I know you will enjoy them, too.

Have fun playing along bloggers!

TWD: Rugelach - better late than never

2008-11-04T06:54:00.010-06:00

Just a quick post today. As usual, I waited until the last minute to make these and ran into family issues last night while waiting for the dough to chill. My 10 year had to make amends with her best friend and so we pulled out the Easy-Bake oven, made her a sugar cookie and my daughter and I delivered it (with a long note of apology). Problem solved, best friends again, all is right with the world.

So we rescued the friendship, but I didn't get around to finishing the Rugelach until today.

I used apricot preserves, dried cherries and white chocolate chips to make these and the flavors came together beautifully. In the recipe, Dorie suggests cutting the rolled out dough into 4 squares and cutting those into triangles. I just ended up cutting it up like a pizza and ended up with 12 slices for each round of dough - so only 24 cookies. I didn't think these were extra large, but maybe my eyes, and tummy, like the bigger size (I'm guessing my hips won't like these larger rugelach though :-)

I was successful in stowing these in the freezer (except for the one I had for purely R&D purposes, of course) and plan on pulling them out for Christmas. Check out Piggy's Cooking Journal for the recipe and be sure to check on all the other TWD bakers here.

Creme Brulee Cheesecake - yes, it's as good as it sounds

2008-10-30T05:30:00.000-05:00

First, an apology. I don't have very many photos and the ones I do have are pretty crappy. The picture above is one someone else took of the entire table as we were still getting everything ready and I just cropped it - don't you just love that big box of crackers right behind the cake?! And it really was much prettier when you looked at it closer - the caramelized sugar was nice and twinkly.

I made this cheesecake a couple of weeks ago when I threw a surprise party for one of my very best friends. I was so preoccupied with keeping the whole shebang a secret and getting everything else ready, I forgot to snap pictures both as I made it and after it was all done. She's one of those people for whom it's practically impossible to either a) find a day that will work because she's so busy and/or b) genuinely surprise - miraculously, I was able to do both. This is her piece (after I finally remembered to take a picture):

I've only ever had Creme Brulee Cheesecake one time, but from that first forkful, I was smitten. It was a frozen one from Sam's Club, but I thought that someday I must try to duplicate it. After making Creme Brulee for the first time a few weeks ago, I knew that the time to try was at hand. So, thanks to some inspiration from Dorie, here's the recipe (should be prepared the day before you're going to serve it):

Creme Brulee Cheesecake

For the crust:

About 2/3 of a 16 ounce package shortbread cookies

3 Tablespoons melted butter

For the filling:

4 8 ounce packages low-fat cream cheese, room temperature

1 tablespoon flour

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs, room temperature

3 large egg yolks, room temperature

1 cup heavy cream

granulated sugar for topping (I used about 1/3 cup - you don't want too thick a layer of sugar 'cause it would be a real pain to cut through and really mangle the slices)

Preheat oven to 350 °. Wrap the outside of a 10-inch diameter springform pan (you could use a 9 inch pan, just cook it for a while longer, maybe 15-20 minutes) with at least 2 layers of aluminum foil. Make sure this is the large heavy duty foil so that the width of the foil exceeds the diameter and height of your pan - this will help prevent water from leaking into your cheesecake (trust my experience here, watery cheesecake = nasty mess). When you fold the foil over the sides of your pan, try to make sure you press the foil up and not to the sides of the pan.

Prepare the crust. Finely grind shortbread cookies in a food processor. Add melted butter and process until crumbs are moistened. Press into bottom of the prepared pan. Bake crust until golden, about 15 minutes. Cool crust completely on rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325 °.

Prepare the custard. In a medium heat proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Mix together cream and 1/2 cup sugar and heat over low heat until just about to boil. Add about half the cream mixture to the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper them. Add the egg mixture back to the pan with the remaining cream and heat on low, continuing to whisk until just starting to thicken (don't overdo this because you'll get scrambled eggs); immediately remove from heat again and stir in the vanilla. Let the mixture cool slightly. (You can strain this mixture if you think any eggs curdled in the process)

Prepare the filling. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until very smooth. Add flour and beat until smooth. Gradually add the remaining 1 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add whole eggs one at a time, beating just until blended. Slowly blend in the custard mixture until smooth.

Pour filling over crust in pan. Place the springform pan in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come about halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake cheesecake until cake is almost set (the center will still move slightly when pan is gently shaken), about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool cake on rack for 1 hour. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.

About 30 minutes prior to serving, remove the cake from fridge and unmold. Sprinkle the top with sugar and use a blow torch to caramelize.

Just a few side notes:

A lot of folks are turned off by the whole water-bath thing and skip it. Please don't. I've made it both ways and when in the bath, they have never cracked (without it, the cakes always cracked)

Getting the cheesecake out of the water-bath can be tricky. I finally got some of those silicone oven mitts and those work great because they're water and heat proof!

To get nice clean cheesecake slices, have a large, tall pitcher full of very hot water and heat a large knife in it for a few minutes before serving. After each slice, wipe the knife clean with a paper towel and reheat in the hot water; wipe dry and make your next cut.

All the party-goers raved over this cheesecake and I thought it was pretty darn tasty, too (if I do say so myself ;-). Next time I make this I may skip the extra steps involved in making the custard and just dump all the ingredients into the mixing bowl and see how it turns out. I hope you get a chance to make this cheesecake and if you do, I'd love to hear what you thought, so please come back and comment or send me an email!

One of the wonderful things about blogging...

2008-10-29T10:19:00.007-05:00

is the recognition from your peers that comes out of nowhere, just when you need it most! I have been so busy in my non-blog life that I really was wondering if I should be spending as much time as I have on my new hobby. Then, I received this award on Monday from Nancy at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs and it renewed my commitment to the blogging world.

Now, her blog is truly fantastic and she writes and cooks so well, it's a real honor to be thought of by her. So a heartfelt thank you, Nancy! Now I get to pay it forward to these great blogs (I think they've all have already gotten this award before, but I wanted them to know how much I enjoy them!):

Catilin of Engineer Baker

Honey B. of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's HoneyBunch

Jaime of My Baking Addiction

Clara of I Heart Cuppycakes

Lady Baker of Lisa is a Baker

*Here's the scoop on the award, and its rules:

"This award was created in Uruguay by a fellow blogger who makes dolls exclusively from recycled materials. Her blog can be reached by clicking here. The rules for this award include the following: Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
Advertise name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone
Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
Award-winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of “Arte y pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
Share these rules."

I certainly don't mind if you pass this on or not, like I said I just wanted to let you know how much I love reading your blogs! Have a great day :-)

TWD: Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes

2008-10-28T00:30:00.002-05:00

I wish I didn't wait till the last minute to make all these blog-group recipes - it always seems like I'm making them the day before I've got to post. Unfortunately, I'm pretty short on time these days and I just can't seem to plan much past tomorrow, let alone a week from tomorrow. I would have loved to make a double batch of these cupcakes and bring them with me to a meeting scheduled for tonight (sorry Ladies, next time I'll try to plan ahead a little!).

As you can see, I got in touch with my inner Martha and went with the Halloween theme. I used some crushed oreos for the dirt (my three year old had lots of fun helping me dispose of all that leftover oreo middle stuff) and milano cookies for the gravestones. It would have been awfully fun to make a full-fledged graveyard had I made this a double batch!

I liked these cupcakes but I was expecting them to be really chocolaty. They're not. In fact, they've got a pretty light texture and are quite tender. I guess I thought that with a double "chocolate" in the title I was expecting them to be fudgier - I generally like a slightly denser cake like pound cake. (If that's what you like in a cupcake, I highly recommend Martha's One-Bowl Chocolate cake recipe - I've made it many times and it's wonderful and definitely on the "devil's food" side of chocolate cake.) Dorie gives a chocolate ganache "glaze" to frost her cupcakes with and works very nicely with the light chocolate flavor of the cupcakes. By the way - I wouldn't use that ganache with Martha's cupcake recipe, because oh my, would that be over-the-top (never mind that glass of milk, just chug straight from the gallon, you'd need it!)

I wish I had remembered to take pictures of the batter because my only note to you all would be not to worry about how thick it is. It's definitely more similar to muffin batter than cake batter. I had to stop and look over the recipe again just to make sure I had put in the right amount of buttermilk. Don't fret though, these cupcakes come out really nice and light.

Thanks Clara of I Heart Food4Thought for selecting this week's frightfully good recipe! Check out all the other wonderful TWD bakers here. These folks are so incredibly talented - it'll be fun to see how creative they got with the whole Halloween theme!

Next week: Rugelach - which I've never made but always wanted to try, so lucky me! I'm going to try really hard to stick all of these in the freezer and save them for Christmas - one less batch of cookies to squeeze in!

I haven't forgotten about posting that Creme Brulee Cheesecake either, just been busy, busy, busy. I'm hoping to post it Thursday (but don't hold me to that :-)

Barefoot Thursday - Vegetable Pot Pie

2008-10-23T00:30:00.007-05:00

This is the kind of recipe that makes me so glad I'm a part of Barefoot Bloggers. My family and I loved this dinner and I probably never would have made it without having had someone else choose it for me. It is a little on the time intensive side and uses a lot of bowls and pots - and I really wasn't sure how well the kids would like the fennel. In the end, it was one of those oh-so-worth-the-effort meals. This was simply delicious and so much a comfort-type food - nice and warm for our tummies on a chilly fall evening.

I ended up just making one large pot pie (in a 9x13 inch pan) and really didn't stray much from the recipe, except for the stuff I completely forgot to add: no cute little onions and no flat leaf parsley. Oh yes, and no saffron - it was nowhere to be found in my neck of the woods when I went shopping last week. I guess I'll have to order it from somewhere on the internet (and if any of you have a good site to do that from, please let me know!) or get some family member who lives in a bigger city (hellllooo Atlanta folks :-) to buy it for me. I didn't miss any of those things, however, as this pie tasted fantastic without them. The only thing I think I will try when I make this again is to cut down on the fat content a little by reducing the butter and omitting the heavy cream (eh, it was only three tablespoons - maybe I'll keep it in there...)

Vegetable Pot Pie from Barefoot Contessa Parties

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups sliced yellow onions (2 onions)
1 fennel bulb, top and core removed, thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups good chicken stock
1 tablespoon Pernod (oops, forgot to mention I didn't use this either - I subbed 1/4 tsp anise extract)
Pinch saffron threads
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 1/2 cups large-diced potatoes (1/2 pound)
1 1/2 cups asparagus tips
1 1/2 cups peeled, 3/4-inch-diced carrots (4 carrots)
1 1/2 cups peeled, 3/4-inch-diced butternut squash
1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions (1/2 pound)
1/2 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
For the pastry:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 to 2/3 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Flaked sea salt and cracked black pepper

Directions

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and fennel and saute until translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the flour, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Slowly add the stock, Pernod, saffron, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the heavy cream and season to taste. The sauce should be highly seasoned.

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Lift out with a sieve. Add the asparagus, carrots, and squash to the pot and cook in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain well. Add the potatoes, mixed vegetables, onions, and parsley to the sauce and mix well.

For the pastry, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the shortening and butter and mix quickly with your fingers until each piece is coated with flour. Pulse 10 times, or until the fat is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water; process only enough to moisten the dough and have it just come together. Dump the dough out onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls. Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the sides, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.

I really don't see how you would make 4 servings out of this - those would have to be some pretty large bowls. Like I said, I made this in a 9x13 pan and we had half of it left over (this after 2 grownups and 4 kids had their fill!). Yum - plenty for lunch for tomorrow!

Big thanks to Deb of Kahakai Kitchen for selecting this delectable dish. Be sure to check out how the other Barefoot Bloggers Vegetable Pot Pies turned out here.

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

2008-10-21T00:30:00.002-05:00

Boy, did that week fly by! And am I ever glad it did - the floors are beautiful, but it sure was a big job. My husband and his brother worked 14 hour days for 6 days to install and were such troopers, they even fought through colds to finish! Of course, the house was in complete and total chaos during that time, but I finally have my kitchen back and got a chance to make these wonderful muffins yesterday.

I decided to up the healthy-factor on these and so here are my substitutions:

Used 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup AP flour
Added 1/2 cup whole oats
Decreased butter from 8 tablespoons to 4
Added the entire can of pumpkin (as opposed to 3/4 cup called for in the recipe) to increase the moisture content due to less butter and the addition of the oatmeal. I also did this because I hate to have that small amount of pumpkin left over in the can - I never want to throw it away, but never seem to use it up either.
Used regular raisins and omitted the nuts
Added an oatmeal crumb topping rather than the sunflower seeds (forgot to buy them!)

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup AP flour

1/2 cup whole oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons melted butter

Mix together until large clumps form and crumble on top of the muffins.

One more change I made was to decrease the oven temperature to 350 ° (the recipe calls for 400 °). I'd like to tell you how long they were in there for, but I forgot to notice the time and so I just checked for doneness with a toothpick - but I would guess they were in there for 20 to 25 minutes.

These lightened muffins came out wonderfully moist and tasty. Even after they'd been sitting out for a while, the kids thoroughly enjoyed a pumpkin muffin after-school snack! This is definitely a keeper recipe. You can find it listed on Sounding My Barbaric Gulp - thanks for choosing such a fab recipe Kelly! Check out all the other Tuesday's with Dorie blogs here.

Next week: Chocolate, Chocolate Cupcakes!

Sorry gang, no TWD this week

2008-10-13T20:21:00.007-05:00

Weeeelllll, my week hasn't gone exactly as planned and I'm pretty far behind. I'll have to take a pass on the Lenox Almond Biscotti and make it another time. Such a shame, as I really love homemade biscotti. Sigh. Be sure to check out my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers here and you can find the recipe at Canela & Comino (thanks for the pick Gretchen, and I'll be sure to make it sometime soon!)

It has been a great week, but filled with lots of time-consuming activities and little time to bake. I had a surprise party for one of my dearest friends on Friday night and made a Creme Brulee Cheesecake (inspired by Dorie, of course) which I must say, came out pretty darn good. I'll hopefully be able to post that later this week or early the next depending on how things go with the new floor. Yes, that's the primary item on this week's agenda and is taking precedence over just about everything else. My husband and his brother are installing hardwood throughout our first floor this week and while I am ecstatic to see my yucky, dated peach tile now sitting at the bottom of the dumpster, replacing it means that I won't have much access to the kitchen till next Sunday.

So no real food-blogging this week. Be sure to check back for the cheesecake though, it's definitely a keeper. Have a great week everyone!

Barefoot Bloggers - Risotto

2008-10-09T06:19:00.018-05:00

Well fellow Barefoot Bloggers, I owe you all an apology. I really did want to make this by following the recipe exactly as written because a. I love risotto and b. thought the butternut squash version would be fantastic. Things however, don't always work out as they ought.

It has been an absolutely crazy last two weeks for me and in hindsight, I wish I had waited to join BB until November when my commitments would ease off some and I could devote the proper amount of time and energy to the group. Not that I'm trying to make excuses or anything...but in addition, my whole family has been sick over the last week and while I fervently hoped I wouldn't come down with it, by Tuesday afternoon it had gotten to me too (okay, I guess I am making excuses).

Anyway, I did join Barefoot Bloggers, and this being only the second time to post with you all, I figured I needed to do something. I fully intended on making the risotto with butternut squash but I apparently had a total brain freeze when I went to the grocery store this past Tuesday and completely forgot to buy the ingredients for this recipe (I had a copy of it in my purse) - somehow I managed to buy $150 worth of other stuff, but alas....no squash, no Arborio rice, no shallots, no pancetta, no saffron, no fancy Parmesan. Sigh.

So, yesterday morning I decided I would make risotto anyway (in some shape or form) and post whatever I ended up with, figuring that making risotto from stuff you've already got in your pantry might provide someone out there in internet-land with the inspiration to try making it. So I had regular white rice, chicken broth, onions, white wine, grated parmesan cheese (yes, in the plastic container...sigh), and canned pumpkin. ::cringe:: Oh, I hope Ina never reads this.....

Before I ruined my batch of risotto with the canned pumpkin, I mixed a small amount on the side and taste-tested first.

In spite of everything, it actually came out alright and the two littlest ones and I had it for lunch. I know how vastly superior this would have tasted had I used the correct ingredients (especially roasted butternut squash and freshly grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese!) and I will try it again soon. The original, perfectly fantastic Ina Garten recipe is on Foodnetwork.com - but here's my mangled version (I only made half of this):

~~Butternut Squash~~ Pumpkin Risotto

~~1 butternut squash (2 pounds)~~ 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups ~~chicken stock, preferably homemade~~ chicken broth
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
~~2 ounces pancetta, diced~~
1/2 cup ~~minced shallots (2 large)~~ minced onion
1 1/2 cups ~~Arborio rice (10 ounces)~~ white rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
~~1 teaspoon saffron threads~~
1 cup ~~freshly~~ grated Parmesan (Kraft parmesan works)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. You should have about 6 cups. Place the squash on a sheet pan and toss it with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing once, until very tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken ~~stock~~ broth in a small covered saucepan. Leave it on low heat to simmer.

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the ~~pancetta and shallots~~ onions on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Add 2 full ladles of stock to the rice ~~plus the saffron~~, 1 teaspoon salt (if your broth is salty, you might want to omit this, I did), and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Stir, and simmer until the stock is absorbed, 5 to 10 minutes. Continue to add the stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring every few minutes. Each time, cook until the mixture seems a little dry, then add more stock. Continue until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente, about 30 minutes total. Off the heat, add the ~~roasted squash cubes~~ canned pumpkin and Parmesan. Mix well and serve.

Check out the Barefoot Bloggers blogroll here to see how this recipe is done right and to see some truly fantastic photos. And I hereby solemnly promise to do better on the next recipe - Vegetable Pot Pie!

Update: My apologies to Rachel of Rachel Likes to Cook for not giving her the credit for selecting this fantastic recipe! I will do it justice someday Rachel, I promise!

TWD: Caramel-Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

2008-10-07T06:37:00.014-05:00

In the book, this cake looks absolutely mouth-watering. I was expecting it to taste a lot like a peanut butter parfait from DQ (especially because I planned on serving it with ice cream) which is my very favorite treat from that place. It didn't, but was still very good. I don't mean to sound like this wasn't delicious, because it was, but I guess Creme Brulee is an extremely tough act to follow.

Overall, the consensus at my house was that the brownie cake was great but the caramel was too chewy.

I think if it had been more saucy rather than chewy, it would have been really outstanding. I recommend adding more cream and butter - maybe 1/2 of cream and another tablespoon or two of butter to the caramel. Also, my cake really sank in the middle and created quite the crater.

Dorie warns against this in her book and says that it's okay, but I still think mine sank more than was supposed to and I'm not sure why. Maybe the dark pan caused the outside edges to cook faster? Anyway, all my caramel and peanuts sat well inside the crater and just didn't look quite as nice.

Speaking of caramel, it's not that difficult to make, especially Dorie's recipe which calls for corn syrup (for some technical chemistry-type reason, the corn syrup helps to prevent the sugar from re-crystallizing after you start to heat it up - I think this is true for almost any time you're cooking sugar to make candy). I would add a couple of notes to this recipe:

Make sure to wash down the sides of your pan with water (using a pastry brush) before you start cooking the sugar - this also helps to prevent re-crystallization)

Really keep a close eye on your caramel as soon as it turns amber in color - it'll get dark on you fast and scorch easily (this means do not leave the stove for any reason other than danger to life and limb of one your children - trust me, I've burned a lot of sugar).

So, when I make this again, I'll be making a saucier caramel and I'll probably try roasting some pecans in place of the peanuts. Thanks to Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy for choosing this week's recipe (which should be posted on her site) and of course, you can check out all the other fabulous Tuesdays with Dorie bakers here.

On deck for next week: Lenox Almond Biscotti!

Mocha-Chip Meringues

2008-10-02T10:29:00.008-05:00

For those of you out there who made Creme Brulee for Tuesdays with Dorie, here's a great way to use up some of those egg whites (and for those who didn't you should try it - it was so surprisingly easy!). I made these yesterday and already almost half of them are gone (kids got home from school and somehow they just miraculously started to disappear...hmmmmm). I'm trying to tell myself that these are actually "healthy" cookies because they're made from egg whites (protein!) and cocoa (no-fat!) ... I just skim over the whole sugar thing.

They are very easy to make and, like most cookies I've come across, the only difficult thing about these is to have to wait 'til they're done baking. These were a little harder in that respect as they bake for 40 minutes (an eternity in the cookie-baking realm, I know!). But they're so worth the wait. I love the crisp outer shell and the chewy insides - just yummy!

Mocha-Chip Meringues

from Everyday Food Jan/Feb 2008 issue

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp instant espresso powder (I didn't have any, so I substituted instant coffee and I can still taste a hint of coffee in the cookies)

3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips (okay, so there is a little smidgen of fat in each cookie from these)

Preheat oven to 300°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch; set aside.

In a large bowl, using and electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until frothy. Beating constantly, add sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes total (scrape down the bowl halfway through). Add espresso powder and cocoa; beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake until crisp, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool completely on sheets, about 20 minutes. Makes 48 (must have made mine on the large side, because I only got 40).

My cookies don't look quite as perfect as those pictured in the magazine (what else should I expect?!). I think they must have used a pastry bag and piped them using a large, open tip because they're pretty uniformly round. I think I'm going to make these again at Christmas time, only substituting Andes mint chips for the semi-sweet and I think I'll try piping them too. I always make a traditional Italian orange-anise cookie that my Great-Grandmother brought over from the old country and it calls for a dozen egg yolks (yes, you read that right, 12). I'm always looking for recipes to use up all those whites and now I can make another cookie to boot!

TWD: Creme Brulee...oh.my.

2008-09-30T06:30:00.006-05:00

Let me just start out by saying that this is one of the best desserts I have ever made. Yes, ever.

I was so excited to make this week's Tuesday's With Dorie selection because I have never made Creme Brulee before and it looks absolutely delicious in the book. Why oh why did I never make this before? Who knows - I as sure the heck don't and I'm still asking myself why. Maybe it was the lack of a torch (really, a weak excuse because the husband loves any reason to get a new tool and I could have just asked him to get one a long time ago) or maybe, I was just a wee bit intimidated. I mean this is such a classic and classy dessert. After having finally made Creme Brulee, however, I can say with full authority that this excuse should never hold you back - it's incredibly easy to make. In fact, after I had made the custard and had them in the oven I thought, "that's it? That's all there is to this fancy-schmancy dessert?" Three eggs, some sugar, cream, milk and vanilla. Bake it, sprinkle it with sugar, put a torch to it. That's it.

Simple. Beautiful.

Divine.

I went straight ahead with the recipe as listed in the book, full fat and all. I thought since this was my first attempt at Creme Brulee I'd better start with the basics. There will most definitely be time for experimentation later. Dorie lists several variations to try and I'm sure many of my fellow TWD bakers got creative (check out the blogroll here).

I only have two suggestions:

The recommended cooking time was 50 to 60 minutes. I had mine in the oven for 75 and they were still a little wobbly, but after their time in the fridge they had set up nicely. Maybe this depends on the dishes you use - I used ramekins which were about 1 1/2 inches high by 3 inches in diameter. For thise recipe, I filled 4 rams plus an extra, larger bowl).

If you've got a three year old in your house, get her a spoon before you give her the bowl. I had just given her the Creme Brulee and when I turned to give her a spoon, she already had her tongue broken through the sugar.

My 8 year old son, who is already a man of few words said simply, but emphatically "Make this again" (we're still working on the please and thank you thing). My 10 year old daughter actually licked the bowl clean and begged to eat Daddy's (which did not happen). The baby grabbed the spoon from me and demanded to eat it by himself (which also did not happen, as we were sharing). End result, five empty dishes in record time. Delicious!

It was also a lot of fun for the kids to watch the caramelization process (science in the kitchen - such fun!). We didn't even make it back to the table to eat these - just stood around the counter devouring them.

Thank you, thank you Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake for selecting this fabulous recipe! Save some drool for next week though because coming up is Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake.

I'm a Barefoot Blogger!

2008-09-25T06:12:00.000-05:00

Prior to the birth of our bundle of joy #4, and prior to embarking on my new "little hobby" you just happen to be reading, I used to watch TV and The Food Network was one of my favorite channels. Of all the wonderful shows on that network, the Barefoot Contessa was one of my absolute favorites. Ina Garten was always making beautiful food from fresh, simple ingredients (most of the time, anyway - sometimes she went crazy with the gourmet stuff, but not often). So when I learned there was an online baking group working through her recipes, I knew that I had to join.

This week's recipe, Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup was selected by Chelle at Brown Eyed Baker and to be honest, I wasn't looking that forward to it. I was kind of bummed that my first Barefoot Bloggers recipe was for something I could only imagine using to make this:

But oh, was I so mistaken in that oversimplified association! Ina's version of this creamy soup is chock full of wonderfully flavorful mushrooms and leeks (a favorite soup-vegetable of mine!). It came together so nicely and the flavors were sublime. And I love recipes that call for wine - I always make sure to follow Justin Wilson's advice and have a little for me. "I ga-ron-teee it tastes more better."

I ended up making half of the recipe and, in an effort to try to cut back on the fat content, I made the following changes:

The recipe calls for sauteing the veggies in olive oil and butter for the stock - I eliminated the butter;

For the leeks and mushrooms, I only used one Tbsp of butter;

I used 3/4 cup low-fat half and half and only 1/4 cup heavy cream.

And finally, I have to thank Rachael Ray for showing me how to properly clean leeks (and, totally unrelated, for the idea of using a garbage bowl). I know some people don't like her, but I think she's great and thanks to her, I don't have gritty leeks in my soup.

I just wish it were like, 30 degrees cooler (it was 85 today) - I'm too cheap to turn the air back on so it was very warm in the house by the time I had finished making this. Even in the heat, this soup was magnificent and I thoroughly enjoyed it for dinner last night.

The kids on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it whatsoever. Fine by me - this is what they had instead (and all was right with the world in their eyes)

And yes, those are in fact dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. I'm sure (er, I hope) I'm not the only foodie-Mom who feeds her children something quite less than what Ina would expect.

Be sure to go and check out how the other Barefoot Bloggers did here.

TWD: Dimply Plum Cake

2008-09-23T06:30:00.008-05:00

I'm not real happy with this photo - I had lost all the natural light by the time the cake was ready to be cut (and I haven't learned enough about my new camera to figure out how to compensate). It looks wonderful in the book, however, and I knew the flavors of plums, cardamom and orange would come together beautifully. The recipe calls for ground cardamom and I was pretty sure I had bought some cardamom seeds for some recipe I made ages ago (and I'm thinking at least 5 years or so). As I'm sure most of you foodies out there are aware, there is some sort of statute of limitations on how long spices hold their flavor. I don't have any idea as to how long that may be because I keep them around despite this "rule" and they always seem just fine to me. Case in point, my cardamom seeds - after I unearthed the jar from the deepest darkest reaches of my spice cabinet - were still incredibly fragrant. The only challenge was to grind them up to put in the cake. I'm sure you all have received gifts from people and wondered "when the heck am I ever going to use this" and consider pulling a classic Seinfeld "re-gift"? Well, might I suggest you rethink that strategy in the future - you never know when that gift might come in handy. From another deep, dark corner of the same cabinet, I pulled out a gift I've had for years and never used: a mortar and pestle set and it worked like a charm for the task at hand:

All I ended up having to buy for the recipe was one orange and the plums (which were on sale this week - Prudy would be so proud!).

This made for a pleasant change over the cost of the last TWD which was filled with lots of delicious, but expensive chocolates (white, semi-sweet, bittersweet you name it!). As a side note, you really, really must make those cookies, they were divine - just make sure to have a glass of milk on hand to accompany them, they're pretty rich.

This cake came together very easily as Dorie follows a pretty straightforward cake baking protocol. I have to tell you that before I even I got this cake in the oven, the house smelled amazing - cardamom has an exotic, but somehow at the same time homey, fragrance that's hard to describe (as if that weren't obvious from the oxymoron I just wrote, sheesh...).

The cake looks lovely with all the plums on top doesn't it? The recipe calls for 8 plums, but I could only smoosh 7 into my 8x8 pan, and that's only after I quartered the seventh one.

Dorie says to bake this for 40 minutes, but at 40, the knife I used to check it with came out fully coated in batter. I left it in for 5 more minutes, but it probably could have used more. Unfortunately, the tops were getting quite brown and I didn't want to risk drying out the edges. As a result, the middle pieces were a little underdone. I wonder if this was because my plums may still have been cold from the fridge when I placed them on top of the batter? My advice would be to let your fruit come to room temp before making this.

My girls really liked this cake the night I made it and ate it while it was still warm. I think I actually liked it better the following morning after the flavors of the orange and cardamom really came together.

A question for my fellow TWDers out there - can anyone tell me why Dorie calls this cake "Dimply"? I've just been wondering since I read the recipe. Is it the plums - do they have a dimple? Sorry, maybe I'm just clueless on this one.

Thanks to Michelle of Bake-en for selecting this week's recipe. My take on this is that it's a great breakfasty-type cake which is quite nice with a cup of coffee and a friend :-)

I'll miss you, summer berries

2008-09-21T20:15:00.003-05:00

Well, I barely squeezed this post in on the last day of summer. On the one hand, I am happy that fall will be here tomorrow - backyard bonfires, a little chill in the air, soups, little kids dressed up in their Halloween finery, Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I will miss the warm, lazy days we've enjoyed these last three months.

We had a wonderful summer, filled with long vacations (the pools, the beaches!) and lots of visits with family and friends. Here in the midwest, the weather has been absolutely delightful. And the berries.....oh my. I hope to enjoy them for a couple of more weeks (still haven't made a berry shortcake yet) but then, alas, we'll all have to wait 'til next year to truly enjoy their deliciously plump sweetness. sigh.

All the berries have been great this year, and the blueberries here have been especially good. I made these Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins from JoyofBaking.com for my fifth grade Sunday School class. The blueberries were just bursting throughout these and the kids really enjoyed them.

It was actually was pretty funny - the girls daintily ate one each and watched aghast as each of the boys ate three of these, and then asked for more! I just had to smile - I've got two little growing boys of my own and some days they can put away such a huge amount of food for their relative size that the hubby and I seriously wonder how we'll afford to feed them when they're teenagers. Second mortgage? Just plain scary.

Hope you all get to try these muffins, they are really delicious - moist inside and the sugar on top made for a really nice crunch.

Please let me know if you've got any really good berry recipes for me to enjoy before berry season's gone for 8 months!

Thanks, Matt!

2008-09-21T12:18:00.014-05:00

My little ole blog got another award yesterday! Thanks so much to Matt of Matt's Kitchen for this award:

His blog is fantastic - and I've said this before, but it's so great to get a guy's perspective on cooking. His posts are so well written - I told him I'm guessing he's an English teacher. Unfortunately, language arts was never my forte - maybe I should get Matt to grade and correct my blog.

When I first started blogging, oh all of about two months ago, I had no idea just how fun and rewarding this little hobby could be (it's more time-consuming than I originally anticipated, but so worth it). But, to be recognized by one's peers - who I feel are far more talented than I am - is an awesome thing and I am just so beside-myself happy.

Okay, so I am passing this award on to the following blogs because they are ex-cel-lent (in my head I'm hearing this the way Bill and Ted would say it). I know I have given some of these blogs awards before, but I can't help it, they are so good (and Matt picked a bunch I would have sent this to)!

little momma and company - This is, without a doubt, one of the cutest Mom blogs on the planet. Emily just does the most amazing things - so incredibly talented, that one.

Whisk : a food blog - I think this is a pretty big time food blog. Shari's got such talent at blogging, cooking and photography - definitely prime time stuff!

My Baking Addiction - Jamie has got a beautiful blog, and obviously knows her baking stuff (check out this post to see what I mean).

The Tortefeasor - Cathy is just too funny. This is one of my all-time favorite blogs - and she's just getting started!

Flannel Hippos - My dear friend Jennifer's blog is so sweet. I have learned so much from her and I love following along with her life!

Prudence Pennywise - I check Prudy's blog every day, without fail. Her recipes are great and budget-friendly to boot. Wonderful, wonderful blog!

Ezra Poundcake - Another in the "gorgeous blogs" category. Rebecca's abilities shine through all her wonderful photos.

Champaign Taste - This blog is a favorite of mine because I can get caught up in the local foodie scene (with 4 kids at home, I rarely get the chance to go out and see for myself).

Hooked on Houses - Julia takes me on fantasy house tours, gives great ideas for my dream house I'm building in my head, and keeps me up to date on HGTV. It's so much fun to read this blog everyday.

This Young House - Such a cute couple running this blog and what they've done with their house is incredible. They give out great budget-friendly decorating advice, too!

Enjoy taking a peek at these most excellent blogs. I know you'll like them as much as I do!

Ready for fall? Put on a pot of chili!

2008-09-18T16:14:00.009-05:00

This version of chili is hands down, my kids favorite - in fact, they love it so much, they request it! When I made this the other day, my eldest said, and I quote, "this is the best chili ever, Mom". I got the recipe from my dear friend Christy a few years ago and haven't made another chili recipe since - gotta keep the troops happy you know. And there's a bonus: it's insanely easy to make and pretty healthy for you too (shhhhhhhh, don't tell the kids)!

Turkey Chili

2 pounds ground turkey
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1-2 Tbsp cumin
2-3 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
28 ounce can tomato sauce
11 ounce can tomato soup
1 can of water
2 cans kidney beans, black beans, cannellini beans or any combination thereof
1/2 cup wine or one can of beer (or water if you don't have either on hand)
salt and pepper
topping options: grated cheese, sour cream, green onions, chopped cilantro, saltines, tortilla chips (the kids love to customize and make up their own concoctions - it can get out of hand sometimes :-)

Brown turkey with onion and garlic. Mix in remaining ingredients and cook on low for one hour.

How easy is that?! Serve with cornbread muffins, a little salad and dinner's done. If your kids weren't chili fans before now, they will be after you serve 'em this. Have fun with it and enjoy!

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

2008-09-16T06:00:00.006-05:00

Okay, this is without a doubt, my favorite Tuesdays With Dorie recipe so far. Oh my goodness are these suckers good - I'd even go so far as to say they're downright sinful. Yes folks, this rich little cookie is enough to send this good Catholic girl to confession. (Well, maybe not that sinful, but still decadent and utterly delicious!)

I knew after reading the recipe that these would be truly great cookies because they were loaded up with delicious things - dark chocolate, white chocolate, pecans and raisins. In fact, if anything, I was a little concerned about the lack of much else in them. The recipe only calls for 1/3 cup of flour and 3 tablespoons of butter - this to make 2 dozen cookies. I should have just trusted Dorie's greatness - there's the perfect amount of fudgy, brownie-like cookie holding all those chunks o' goodness together.

A few notes for when you make these (and you must):

Though the raisins were good in this cookie, next time I'm going to use dried cranberries and the time after that I'm going to use dried cherries (because I WILL be making these many times, I can assure you). I think either of these two choices would be better in this recipe than raisins.

Definitely use parchment paper. I had no trouble at all lifting them off the paper.

Finally, these cookies need to come with a warning - they are rich and extremely addictive. You might want to freeze some before you even take your first bite.

There's only one drawback to this cookie and that's how they look. The first round looked, well a little lumpy:

For the next round to go in the oven, I kinda flattened them out a little with my hand and they turned out better.

Everyone in the house raved about these - even the littlest one got the opportunity to try one. He has apparently grown taller since the last time I really checked and can now easily grab things off the counter. After I put the 2nd round of dough on the cookie sheets and into the oven, I turned around to find crumbs and chocolate smeared all over the floor. When I looked up, I saw the same said cookie remains smeared all over a tiny, smiling face and hands:

Now that was one happy boy, let me tell ya - until I wouldn't let him have another. These things are chock full of choking hazards - big chunks of nuts and raisins (my sister-in-law the doctor is probably having a kinipshin right about now). Totally yummy for those of over age 3, but not such a great idea for little 13 month olds, no matter how tall they're getting or how cute they look covered in chocolate. I'll make them again little man, I promise.

You all (look at that, I've been too far north for too long I guess - should read y'all) can find the recipe at Fool for Food - wish I could speak or at least read German because her site looks great! Thank you so much for picking this cookie Claudia!

Y'all come back next Tuesday for Dimply Plum Cake!

Ahhhhh...the Galette

2008-09-12T06:30:00.009-05:00

I saved the best of the meal for last. I am just so pleased at how this dessert turned out and I most definitely will be making it again. A galette is supposedly a rustic, country pie, but it can be lovely just the same, don't you think?

I got the recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Peaches and raspberries were on sale last week, so trying to decide what fruit to use was easy. Before I joined Tuesday's with Dorie, I had read the group's results with this recipe and had seen that combo somewhere but for the life of me couldn't remember. Thanks to a comment in the first post I made on this meal, I now have the answer! Thanks N.O.E. of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs for the inspiration!

My usual pie dough recipe is Martha Stewart's pâte brisée. I love the all butter crust because, besides being delicious, it's both flaky and super tender. Some say that butter doesn't make for a flaky crust, but mine always came out pretty well. The only problem I've ever found with it is that it's a little more difficult to work with than those using shortening - tends to break after rolled and it must be re-chilled after placing it in the pan because the butter melts really fast and, if not really cold, it'll slide down the sides of your pie pan. Of course, the fat of choice that most professionals agree makes for the best all around crust is lard. I personally haven't tried it yet, I guess because I can't get around the whole cow fat thing, but isn't butter essentially the same thing? I will try it one day...one day. Anyway, for this galette, I used Dorie's pie dough recipe in the book. I have to admit, I really liked this crust - it was the best of both worlds (using mostly butter and a little shortening) and therefore was very easy to work with and tasted fabulous.

A few notes:

As I've said before, my pie crust rolling skills leave something to be desired so I made one and a half recipes and had plenty. In fact, I increased the diameter of the finished galette from 9 inches to 10 and I think it makes for a really nice presentation being a bit bigger.

The recipe calls for 8 peaches, but I could only get 5 in mine (and that's using the bigger diameter!) and they fit perfectly. Then I just sprinkled about a half cup of raspberries around. Pretty, huh?

I forgot to buy graham cracker crumbs, so they were omitted from the recipe. These are used to soak up some of the juices from the cooked fruit and my omission became obvious about halfway through cooking - my beautiful galette was swimming in peach juice. I ended up carefully holding the tray and parchment over the sink (said a quick prayer) and tilted it slightly to let some of the liquid drain off. It turned out okay, but I don't recommend skipping this step.

Also forgot to buy raspberry jam (which, I think, would have made this great dessert sublime, but oh well!) so I used apricot which was just fine and worked well with the peaches.

I could only fit about half of the custard mix on top of the fruit and even some of that spilled over onto the parchment. Speaking of which - I highly recommend using that under the galette. With all the juices that came off and the custard issue, this probably saved it from destruction as I would have totally mangled it trying to pry it off a Pam-coated tray. I figured at the very least, I could cut around the darn thing and plop it on a serving plate, parchment paper and all, and peel the paper off each slice.

Serve with vanilla ice cream. Swoon-worthy I'm tellin' ya!

I can't end this post without giving credit to my darling littlest sous chef (who is 13 months old), whose help I found indispensable, who was a constant grounding presence throughout the whole process, and who quite literally held me up by the apron strings...

What you obviously can't hear is the screaming that was going on when I snapped this. Oh, my little baby love...someday, I know I'll look back on these days and smile and wish I could turn back the clock....but not this day.

Long story short, make this - you will not regret it! You can find the recipe here.

The French connection, part duex

2008-09-11T06:35:00.012-05:00

So, the rest of the meal from last Saturday was really very simple too. For the green beans, with some help from my lovely assistant Little Miss K, we just snapped the ends off and steamed them whole. After they were done (and when I say done, I mean somewhere in-between the almost raw of fancy restaurant fare and overcooked to the point of gray-green stringy mush of Golden Corral) maybe after 5 minutes or so, toss with a little butter and salt. That's it, side dish number one, done.

For the Pommes Frites Campagnard (a.k.a. potato wedges) I actually cut up the potatoes a couple of hours in advance. I had heard that if you place cut potatoes in a bowl of cold, salted water the won't turn brown on you. Well, I'm happy to report that this is absolutely true. I couldn't believe how great they looked! Didn't even have to put 'em in the fridge.

About an hour before I wanted them done, I layed them out on a paper-towel lined baking sheet and let them dry off a little. Thirty minutes later I tossed them with olive oil, garlic powder (yes, between the chicken and potatoes, we were going to have stinky breath that night, but at least it was going to affect all of us), dried thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper. This recipe is slightly modified from one I found in the September issue of Everyday Food. After the chicken was out of the oven resting comfortably and covered in foil, I popped the potatoes in a 475 ° (thank you so much Dershana and Matt for teaching me know how to do this!!!) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. At the end of this time, the potatoes were done, but they weren't as brown as I wanted so I turned the oven up to broil and toasted them for a couple minutes. Perfection!

I'll post about the best part of the meal tomorrow: the galette!

TWD: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

2008-09-09T06:30:00.020-05:00

This one's definitely for those of us with a chronic sweet tooth. Here's how Dorie starts off the recipe in her book:

"If you're thinking that these sound like something right out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, you're right. They are almost equal parts candy and cookie...."

Sounds fantastic, right? But, overall, I have to admit I was a little disappointed in these cookies. Don't get me wrong, they were good, I guess I was just expecting more. Maybe I'm just not a malt-flavor kind of gal. Usually, the raw dough is a good indicator of how good a cookie will be, but not so in this case. My first reaction from the glob I swiped from the paddle only rated a "meh". They really improved with baking, however. They're a nice, soft cookie and every bite was filled with either bittersweet chocolate and/or a whopper chunk.

If you decide to make these, and if you're a lover of whoppers and/or Ovaltine you should, here's my two cents worth:

I followed the advice of a fellow TWDer and just chopped the whoppers in half. This left recognizable chunks in the cookies. Some people said that they chopped the whoppers up and you really couldn't tell they were in there. Also, the box I bought at the grocery store was 5 ounces, this was plenty.

I used regular-flavored Ovaltine and didn't think the cookies were overpowered with chocolate flavor (some reviewers who used chocolate Ovaltine thought this).

"Ovaltine for Radiant Health" - I love that. So these cookies must be good for you!

The recipe calls for using parchment paper or silpat mats on the trays. I just used Pam and didn't have too much trouble getting them off, but a word of caution...

Once you pull these out of the oven, definitely let them sit on the cookie tray for at least 5 minutes. The recipe says 2 minutes, but they were still awfully fragile at this point and a few had to be disposed of right away because they just fell apart (one of my little sous chefs happily came to the rescue).

My cookies don't look a thing like the photo in the book, and in fact, I don't think they're really much to look at. So here's how I decided to eat them, taking a cue from the book (Dorie's got the whole cookies sitting atop a large mound of vanilla ice cream):

I enjoyed a few bites of this during the blissful silence of nap time. Had to force myself to only have a little bit and put the rest back in the freezer for tomorrow (with all the baking I'm doing, I am downright fearful of the scale these days - an occupational hazard of food blogging?)

Thanks to Rachel at Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for choosing the recipe this week (you can find the recipe there). And check here for all the TWD folks who'll be posting their results too.

On deck for next week: Chocolate Chunkers (yes, another cookie recipe - my kids are rejoicing!)

Back to our regularly scheduled programming....

2008-09-07T14:52:00.015-05:00

Food blogging, that is.

We had our parish pastor over for dinner over last night - he's always such a treat to feed and so appreciative. For me, I love to cook for other people, so it's a win-win! He's extremely easy to please, as long as the meals are simple (not into fancy-shmancy gourmet food). So here's the menu (I'm trying to make it sound fancier than it really was - I realized only in hindsight that this meal was very rustic French. Shhhhhh don't tell the hubby - he's not a fan of anything French, but he did enjoy this meal):

Roasted Chicken with garlic and thyme

Garlicky Potato wedges

Fresh Green Beans

Peach and Raspberry Galette

En Francais:

Poule avec Ail et Thym

Pommes Frite Camagnard

Hericot Vert

Galette de Peche et Framboise

Anyone who visits this site and actually speaks French will laugh hard at this, I know - I had to look for the translations online and I'm sure the grammar is all wrong. It just sounds so much nicer in French though, n'est pas? Sorry, it's like once you start, you can't stop!

First, the bird. I got a whopper of a chicken at the grocery store (7 lbs.) because I always try to send a lot of left overs home with Father. He has confided in me and let me know that he usually eats a hotdog and canned veggies for dinner - seriously, ick. Makes feel like I should invite him over much more frequently (does this count as Catholic guilt?).

Anyway, all I did was rub the chicken down with olive oil, salt (don't be stingy with it either - use a good couple of teaspoons or so), freshly ground pepper, garlic and dried thyme and then shoved about 5 small pieces of butter under the skin of the breasts and legs. Truss the chicken and roast in a 425 degree oven (can someone please tell me how to put the degree mark at the end of the temp, it's bugging me not knowing - thanks!) for 20 minutes and then reduce the temp to 350 for about 1 1/2 hours more (depending on the size of your chicken, this may only take 40 minutes more) - or until the an instant-read thermometer reads 165 when you check in the thigh (the temp will raise another 5 degrees while it rests). Let rest for 10-20 minutes before carving. You can learn how to truss a chicken here.

And here's that lovely chicken all nice and roasted. (The house smelled so good!)

Since this post has gotten lengthy already, stay tuned this week as I blog the rest of the meal.

Bon Appetite!

Well, blow me over....another award?!

2008-09-07T12:14:00.014-05:00

Wow - two awards in one week! I am just floored. I have been having so much fun doing this blog and I'm just tickled that other people are reading and enjoying the posts.....but awards....for me.....I mean, wow! It's definitely icing on the cake.

A big super-duper thank you to Cathy at The Tortefeasor who presented me with the Brilliante Weblog Award. She's got a fantastic blog and I so enjoy reading her posts (although she may say they're long-winded, I like reading every word :-) If you haven't already, please go check it out.

I guess there are some rules to follow as I present this award to others:

1. when you receive a diamond, make a post about it on your blog. check

2. name the blogger from whom you got it. check

3. award the diamonds to seven other bloggers. see below, check

4. link them. check

5. and tell them they got one. ~~ok, gotta do this still~~ check

It's so great to be in the company of the blogs who have received this and the ones listed here. They are all so talented! When my blog grows up, I want it to be just like these:

Real Mom Kitchen - right back atcha Laura. I'm still smiling from getting my first award from her - such a wonderful surprise! Laura's got a great blog and just plain delicious recipes (and she's got such a nice name, too :-)

Rookie Cookie - I just love the name of this blog - so clever! And the layout is just terrific. Beautiful photos and lots of great recipes.

food.baby - An Aussie blog - so cool! Susan's got a saying at the bottom of her blog that I really think is poignant: "The difference you make in someone else's life, will always be smaller than the difference it will in your own ..." Of course, her recipes are great too!

The Boastful Baker - Just a gorgeous blog - photos, recipes, layout, everything.

Frantic Home Cook - This lady is simply inspiring. She may say she's "Frantic", but sure looks like she's got it all together to me.

A Recipe A Day - Nancy is absolutely prolific with the recipes. I ask this question about a lot of blogs, and I certainly do about this one: "How on earth does she do it? Really, how!?".

Cream Puffs in Venice - Ivonne is one of the co-founders of the Daring Bakers Challenge. Beautiful blog, and so talented - check out this post and you'll understand. Still considering joining this baking group, but I haven't screwed up enough courage yet. I feel like they are way outta my league.

These amazing blogs have probably all received this award before, but I am so inspired by their brilliance that I felt I must send it to them anyway. Hope you all get a chance to check them out - you won't be sorry you did!

"It's a major award!"

2008-09-04T16:57:00.014-05:00

I have exciting news everyone - I received my first blog award! Woo HOOOOOO! Thanks so much to Laura at Real Mom Kitchen for giving me this - I am truly grateful.

No it's not this (although, how cool would that be!):

But this:

Isn't it adorable?!

So now, I need to pay it forward (let's see how many movie references I can get into this post) and send it to 10 other fantastic blogs.

Flannel Hippos - My friend Jennifer started blogging quite a while ago and I've been following since the beginning. She's one of the people who inspired me to start my own blog (and do so many other things) - she is amazing!

Prudence Pennywise - I just love this food on a budget blog! She is positively prolific with her posts and recipes.

La Mia Cucina - I haven't laughed so hard at a baking post -ever- as I did with hers on the July Daring Bakers challenge (Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream). I just may have to go back and read it again.

The Tortefeasor - Just getting to know Cathy because she just started with Tuesdays With Dorie too. The saying she's got on her blog wins big points with me (because I have said this myself to some turned up noses at the magnificent meals I prepared) "you'll eat it and you'll like it!"

Matt's Kitchen - I love reading a guy's perspective on cooking and baking! His blog is great and he's fellow newbie to TWD, too.

The Del Sisters - These two teenage girls are amazing! I can't believe how much cooking they get done, and it all looks so good too! You go girls!

Simmer Till Done - Marilyn's posts are great and they're always good for a chuckle or two. She's got fantastic recipes, too.

Ezra Pound Cake - This is just such a nice looking blog. Rebecca's got wonderful stories to go along with her recipes and fantastic photography.

The Dogs Eat the Crumbs - Her success with the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte (it's gorgeous!) alone is worth giving her this award (but she's got a great blog, too).

Proud Italian Cook - A fellow Italian cook, need I say more? Beautiful blog and food - I nearly drooled all over my keyboard at her Daring Bakers Eclairs.

These are some really great blogs and I hope you all visit and enjoy them! Congrats to all!

Food Blogging Link Love

2008-09-04T07:11:00.006-05:00

I haven't made anything interesting in the last few days because all 4 kids have been sick with the welcome-back-to-school icky nose and fever thing (all my shirts are covered in ...... well, I guess I'd better not gross you all out, this being food blog afterall - wouldn't want to ruin your appetite.)

Anyhoo, here are a few great looking recipes I've read about and am most definitely going to try (as soon as I can unbury the house from tissues):

The best darn banana bread from Flannel Hippos

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits from Ezra Pound Cake

Hot Crash Potatoes from Honey B

Go Get Em Smoothie from Matt's Kitchen

And, for those of you feeling really adventurous, you can make some Chocolate Eclairs (at the Mele Cotte blog) like the Daring Bakers group did last month.

Happy cooking!

TWD: Chunky Hazelnut and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

2008-09-02T07:00:00.007-05:00

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was for Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters which, to me, sounds as great as the name is long - I love PB and chocolate, Reeses being my fav-o-rite candy. As I mentioned before, however, we've got a little one 'round here that may have a peanut allergy, so I had to ditch the Peanut Butter.

Enter in

If you've never tried this chocolate hazelnut concoction, well, you simply must. It's realllllly good, especially on a slice of french bread. I like it this way for nostalgia sake I guess, because I first tried nutella when I was in France as an exchange student way back in high school. Unfortunately, it's not particularly inexpensive, but c'est la vie.

I really needed to add some chunkiness to these, too (mainly because I like nuts, but then there's also the whole "Chunky" thing right in the front of the title). So conveniently, I snagged the very last bag of chopped hazelnuts at Meijer (for a minute there I was sweating in the baking aisle - you gotta be kidding me, no hazelnuts in the nut section?! but then there it was, buried under the walnut pieces - yessssss!). This was quite a find, because if you've ever had to crack and skin hazelnuts, you know what a real chore this can be, and I just wasn't up to doing all that.

These cookies were very easy to make. Really, I'd only have to recommend one thing and that's to follow the chilling directions. I didn't chill the dough after the first batch went in the oven and, in hind sight, I wish I had. The cookies that were chilled looked better (see exhibits a and b below) and tended not to spread as much:

The kids really enjoyed these, and yeah, so did the grown-ups. All in all, I'd have to give the nutella twist on these the thumbs up. Try it, you'll see.

Little Miss K approves, too (sorry for the blur, but this was definitely an action shot - had to hurry before that cookie was a-goner):

Thanks to Stefany at Proceed With Caution for choosing this week's recipe! (You can find the recipe on her site.)

Looking forward to next week? I sure am: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

2008-08-30T11:25:00.011-05:00

My favorite breakfast food is waffles and over the years, I have tried a good many recipes. I can't say I've found a favorite, but I really like the one I tried this morning. The most important ingredients I have found in making really good waffles are butter and buttermilk and this one's got 'em both. They came out evenly brown and crispy on the outside (an absolute must IMHO). If I'd thought more about posting this recipe, I would have gotten some nice fun toppings for them. Sorry I wasn't on top of my game today folks - you'll just have to use your imagination.

Buttermilk Waffles from Everyday Food September 2008 issue

2 cups all-puropse flour (I used 1 cup a.p., 1 cup whole wheat)
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
toppings (gonna have to do another post some other day on these)

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter, and eggs; add flour mixture and mix just until combined.

Pour batter onto pre-heated waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer's instructions (or, if your like me and haven't read those instructions, according to your own personal experience).

They also added the following note, which I think definitely makes for better waffles: Like pancakes, waffles require a gentle hand when preparing the batter. For the most tender results, don't overmix it - there should still be some lumps remaining.

I guess at the pinnacle of the waffle world are Belgian waffles. Someday I hope to own (and, more importantly, have a kitchen big enough to store it) a Belgian waffle maker, but for now, my trusty (and compact) Cuisinart handles the job well.

Now, go eat some waffles and enjoy your weekend everyone!

Almond Horns, take 1

2008-08-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

Last week, a friend of mine introduced me to these sinfully delicious treats, and I can only guess that the chef who came up with them has sold his or her soul to You-Know-Who (no, not Voldemort, but I couldn't resist throwing a H.P. reference in here). This is why I figure they're called horns, because they look more like a boomerang to me. They were kinda crunchy on the outside and filled with chewy almondy goodness on the inside. And they were huge - big enough for two, but if I was all by my lonesome I could've eaten at least two or three of these bad boys without batting an eyelash. It's a veeeerrrrryyyyy good thing the bakery she got them from is pretty inconvenient to get to. (The picture above is just one I found on the internet, but it looks pretty much like the one I had.)

At any rate, I've got a thing for almond flavored baked goods and knew I must find a way to make them. A quick Google search (what would we do without that little internet tool?) came up with about 300,000 hits. I looked through quite a few before settling on trying this recipe first from Recipezarr.com. The recipe says to bake for 12-14 minutes, but I'm here to tell you that mine were in for 16 minutes and still came out on the undercooked side. I was just so scared of over-cooking them that I just went ahead and took them out; they are nice and chewy but, unfortunately, no crunchy outside.

My preliminary taste test results - pretty good, but not even close to the ones I tried a week ago. So, darn, I'm going to have to try another recipe. The downside of trying again is that the almond paste is pretty pricey. The upside, of course, is that I get to keep sampling my efforts (I fear the scale is not going to like me after all this).

Wish me luck as I continue on my quest.

In which I attempt to make an ice cream torte

2008-08-26T18:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I must take a deep breath and sigh before I write this.

Sigh.......

This was not one of my finer moments in the kitchen. When I first read the recipe it really seemed like it wasn't going to be too difficult, but alas, for me, the amateur, it was. When I made this on Sunday, at every step of the way, something happened to reinforce that fact that I am still, very much, but a learner. Again, sigh.......

It turned out to be surprisingly good in the end, but ugh, what an ordeal. I really think I made this much more difficult by a.)not following the recipe to the letter and (and this pains me to admit, because I know better!) b.)not reading through the recipe carefully beforehand. I read it, but apparently (duh!), I didn't really pay attention. You know how that sometimes happens, you're reading a book and then suddenly your a page farther but have no idea what you just read, right - please tell me this happens to other people too.

Anyhoo, on Saturday morning, (nothing like waiting til the last minute) I was still trying to decide what to mix into the ice cream when my dear friend Christy suggested cherries - great idea, huh, I mean chocolate and cherries, yum! So I decided to macerate said cherries in brandy because the recipe in the book listed liqueur as an option. This part went just fine, started them the night before and they were good to go the next morning. So far, so good.

This, however, was the end of my good fortune.

I don't have much photo-documentation from this point on, because I was to d*mn frustrated too take any pictures and I thought there wasn't any way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks I was going to post this disaster. My second friggin recipe from the book, UGH!

Here's a quick recap of the problems with making the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte (really, it shouldn't have been this difficult and I'm sure there are lots of TWD bakers out there who handled this with nary a problem. The blogroll is here and the recipe is here):

Realized the recipe called for 8 inch springform pan - don't own one so used a 9" and knew the torte would be thin

Didn't feel comfortable using raw eggs in the ganache because the kids were going to have some - doubled the chocolate and used a combo of 2 parts butter and one part vegetable oil and substituted corn syrup for the sugar - all in an effort to prevent the ganache from becoming brittle. This only sorta-kinda worked. Actually all melty, it looked awfully pretty in the bowl - nice, shiny, beautiful chocolate brown.

Tried to put all the ice cream and cherries in my too stinkin small food processor (yes, I know, I should have learned my lesson by now, but no.) and found out, yes it's still too small a bowl for that much liquid. Put in blender - this worked but the color was not very attractive - sort of mauvey gray. Oh yes, and by now my ice cream had become quite the consistency of a milk shake - an ugly, mauvey gray milk shake. On the bright side - ugly as it was, it did taste pretty good.

Realized after the second layer of ice cream that I had erroneously divided the ice cream into thirds when there were only supposed to be two ice cream layers. Now my already too thin torte was going to be that much thinner. grrrrrrrrr.

We still ate it for dessert and everyone said it was good, but the kids ended up eating all the ice cream and leaving most of the chocolate. I think if I had used semi-sweet chocolate and/or added more sugar or corn-syrup, they would have liked it more. It was also hard to eat. Not completely brittle, but still hard to dig into with a spoon.

Bottom line: don't think I'll make this again, but I'm looking at this as a learning experience. On tap for next week: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. Cookies, I can definitely handle - should be a piece of cake (famous last words?). Stay tuned!

Oh yeah, and I couldn't resist this one:

I wondered where that saying came from and looked it up online - apparently it was a song from the 1930's. I liked it so I thought I'd share:

Life is just a bowl of cherries;

Don't make it serious;

Life's too mysterious.

You work, you save, you worry so,

But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go.

So keep repeating it's the berries;

The strongest oak must fall.

The sweet things in life

To you were just loaned,

So how can you lose what you've never owned?

Life is just a bowl of cherries,

So live and laugh at it all.

"Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" was the title of a song by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson, sung by Ethel Merman in Scandals (1931).

In the end, it's all good :-)

Mangia!

2008-08-24T18:13:00.009-05:00

I am so proud to be part Italian (although, I think I'm only a quarter or something like that - I still claim the heritage). My great grandparents came over from Siciliy in the 1920's and I still remember going to their house as a kid and just stuffing myself silly. My nonna was probably the greatest cook I ever knew - gosh I miss her! Almost as soon as we walked in the door, she was saying "Mangia! Mangia!" because the table was already piled high with traditional southern Italian food (my favorite was a dish called scachatta - I have no idea how it's spelled, but this is how she pronounced it - which is kind of like a stuffed deep dish sausage pizza. I'll have to make it for you all sometime!). I'm getting hungry just remembering those days.

Well, I don't think this is a traditional food from Italy, but I love it just the same (and just like me, it's descendants had to come from somewhere over there).

I like this recipe because it's easier (and not to mention healthier) than the original in that you don't have to fry the eggplant - you bread and then bake them. Serve it up with some pasta and a salad and dinner's done. Three out of four kids approved of this dish, and I think that last vote was a nay because he wasn't feeling really well. The others ate it up and even Little Miss K, my 3 year old, had seconds!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan from MarthaStewart.com

Mangia bene!

Another yummy use for all those blackberries

2008-08-22T09:41:00.008-05:00

Another friend from church had a baby (another darling little boy - we've had a run on them ;-) and I brought them dinner the other day. I wanted to try something a little different (but not too far out there) so this is what they had for dessert:

I can't actually say how this tasted, because I didn't keep any for us, but I just had to slice it up and get a picture - it looks pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. And just to guild the lily a little, I also took them some vanilla ice cream to go with it.

You can find the recipe at epicurious.com. I ended up following the advice of some of the reviewers and lowered the temperature to 350 after about 20 minutes (the top was getting pretty brown) and baked it for about 15 more minutes. 400 is awfully hot for a cake, maybe that's a mistake in the recipe. I think if I were to make this again I'd just cook it at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, this put an end to my blackberry stash. Karen, I will be calling you soon for more!

Fresh is best

2008-08-21T10:43:00.010-05:00

Another treat for summer - Caprese Salad.

I got the tomatoes from a friend last weekend (thanks Susan!) and they are just so delicious and begging to be pared with fresh mozzeralla and the basil from my new plant. I ended up eating the whole plate myself for lunch yesterday and it was goooood.

Caprese Salad (for 1 - well, for me anyway)

1 fresh tomato, sliced
1 bunch basil leaves (appx 1/4 cup chopped)
4 oz. fresh mozzerella cheese, sliced
olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Arrange tomatoes and cheese around a plate, sprinkle with chopped basil, drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper.

Delish!

It's Tuesday!

2008-08-19T06:37:00.015-05:00

This is my first Tuesday entry with the Tuesdays with Dorie group - yay!

These Granola Grabbers turned out even better than I thought they would. I was afraid that since the granola was such a big portion of the recipe that these might turn out a little dry and hard - boy was I pleasantly surprised. They taste a lot like a soft, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie, but with oomph. I had to forgo the peanuts because of a possible allergy, so I doubled the almonds. Definitely two thumbs up...er, make that, two hands up.

Granola Grabbers

makes about 40 cookies

3 cups granola without fruit
3/4 plump raisins
1/2 cup salted peanuts
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 3/4 sticks (14 Tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp.
3/4 cup packed lt. brown sugar
1/4 sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper (I didn't do this and they came off my pans fine).

Put granola in a large bowl and break up any clumps with you fingers. Add the raisins, peanuts, almonds, coconut and wheat germ and mix together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, or until creamy. Add the egg and salt and beat until well blended. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is just incorporated, then steadily add the granola. Stop the mixer when most of the granola mix is blended and finish the job with a sturdy rubber spatula, making sure to get up any bits of dry ingredients left in the bottom of the bowl.

Scoop out rounded tablespoonfuls of dough, pack the scoops between your palms and arrange the mounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them. Flatten the mounds lightly with your fingertips.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway. The cookies should be golden brown, but not firm (you definitely don't want to over cook these). Allow them to rest on the sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring them to racks to cool to room temp.

There is no way they're going to last until the first day of school on Thursday. Darn, I guess I'll just have to make more :-)

Enjoy - we sure did!

No green thumb here

2008-08-17T16:40:00.009-05:00

You know, I really have had some success before at gardening: tomatoes, green and red peppers, green beans, watermelon, broccoli. But I must admit failure when it's due. Now I realize this isn't exactly gardening, but it's in the same ballpark.

Back in the early spring, I decided not to plant anything in my garden in the back yard because we were going to be away this summer for 4 weeks and didn't want to have to ask my very kind neighbors to care for it for that long. However, one of the things I would really miss was having fresh herbs (I usually grew at least Italian parsley, basil and thyme). So I thought would try planting some for the kitchen - how hard can it be, right?.

Instead of buying nice, easy, already established plants, I decided to try my hand at planting from seed - got the little peat moss disks, seed packets, those cheap little trays, and I was set, this should be easy right? Lots of people have success at this, right? Alas, not I.

That's supposed to be parsley and thyme. I know you're thinking "parsley, I mean c'mon? That's sooo easy." I tried folks, I really did. It just didn't work out for me and I really don't understand why, but I have come to accept the fact that I failed. period. the end. sigh.

Enter in the nice, easy, already established plants from Meijer:

I already had the rosemary, which has been used many times, and I am looking forward to combining that basil with some fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes (from the aforementioned very kind neighbor) and olive oil in the very near future!

Let's hear it for the berries!

2008-08-15T11:14:00.014-05:00

Ah, summer .... did I mention before how much I LOVE summer - the heat, the sun, the fresh berries!? Oh yes, I did. A friend of mine from church has been picking blackberries and had some extra she needed to find a home for. I was quite happy to take them off her hands - I ended up with about a gallon of them. Thank you so much, Karen! They are tart and juicy and delicious!

Today we are going to a pool party and cookout and I said I'd bring the dessert. Obviously, I needed something that was pretty easy to transport and serve - these are perfect because you can just pick em up and eat em on the go:

The recipe is from Martha Stewart's "Baking Handbook", but you can find it on her website here. My only problem with the recipe is the crust - it's delicious, don't get me wrong, there was just not enough of it to cover my pan. I am not talented enough to roll it really thin and still manage to get it in the pan in one piece. I had some help though -

So, this is definitely not the prettiest pie I've ever made, but after some patching in the corners, it turned out ok, I guess. Next time I make this, I will be doubling the crust recipe and using whatever might be left for individual tartlettes at a later time.

As for the taste, well it's fantastic. I hope you try it and be sure to let me know how it turns out!

I've got more blackberries left, so stay tuned for another recipe to come soon!

Tuesdays with Dorie

2008-08-14T08:07:00.006-05:00

I am so excited to be a part of this online cooking group! Each week a recipe is selected from the beautiful cookbook "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan for the group to prepare. I got my copy of the book a few days ago and it just looks spectacular. It's loaded with photos - this is a huge plus for me because I really don't like it when cookbooks don't have a lot of pictures to base your results on. The author is quite accomplished, and one of the things that impressed me the most is that her previous book is titled "Baking with Julia" - you know, the Julia, pioneer of cooking shows, educator to millions on the basics of fine cooking and all-around chef extraordinaire.

Anyway, check back each Tuesday as I attempt to keep up with this fabulous group of bakers. Featured for this coming Tuesday is Granola Grabbers. Here's an excerpt from the book:

"It would be hard to find a more after-schoolish cookie than this one. It's chunky, bumpy, both chewy and crunchy and packed with little surprises..."

This sounds perfect, as next Thursday is the first day of school for us. I'm not sure we'll have any left by then, but maybe I can freeze them without the kids knowing (I know, you're thinking - yeah, good luck with that). We'll see.

I Scream, You Scream...

2008-08-11T19:19:00.011-05:00

...we all scream for ice cream! My absolute, all-time, most favoritest ice cream is pistachio and, let me tell you, it's pretty hard to find. Somewhere deep down, I realize this is probably a very good thing because if I could get my hands on it more frequently, well my waist to hip ratio would be off the charts.

I was recently talking to one of my dearest friends (who, by the way, is probably the best cook/baker I have ever known and I credit her with getting me started in baking) and mentioned something about wanting to make pistachio ice cream but hadn't found a good recipe (I should clarify, I have found them but they called for pistachio paste which is impossible to get at your local grocery store and pretty expensive to buy online). She pipes up and says "Oh, I have one" - <smacking my forehead with palm>I should have known she'd have a recipe and asked her a recipe couple of years ago when I got my ice cream maker! Anyway, she emailed it to me the other day and of course, I had to make it immediately.

The good news - it's easy. The bad news - she also included the nutritional info...UGH. For a 1/2 cup serving (who only eats a 1/2 cup of homemade ice cream at a time - maybe Paris Hilton, but no real people I know) it's 289 calories and 21 grams of fat, 10 of which are saturated. sigh.

I don't care I am making it anyway!!! But I did lighten it up a bit - my substitutions are in pink.

Pistachio Ice Cream (makes 12 minuscule 1/2 cup servings, about 8 real people servings, or 1 single-serve I'm PMS'ing serving)

2 cups heavy cream (or 2 cups 1/2 and 1/2)

1 cup whole milk (or 1 cup fat-free 1/2 and 1/2)

1 cup pistachio nuts (I used unsalted)

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp.vanilla

1/4 tsp almond (optional - not to me, but that's what the recipe said)

1 drop green food coloring (optional)

Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until nuts are chopped to the size you want them. Pour into freezer bowl, mix until thickened 20-25 minutes. Transfer to freezer safe container and freeze until firm (about 2 hours).

Thanks to my two sous chefs, the work of opening the pistachios went really fast.

I can hardly wait!

No, it's not super smooth and creamy, but ohmygoodness is it good! I actually like my ice cream a little crystallized but I'm in the minority, I know. The really good news - my version has 188 calories, 9.7 grams of fat, 3.6 grams saturated. So, roughly half of the original - I'll take it!

This one's mine ;-)

Thank you, Beth :-)

These are a few of my favorite things

2008-08-10T20:14:00.007-05:00

Well, some of my favorite simple kitchen tools anyway. My father always told me that ya gotta have the right tool for the job (actually, he often told me "that's the wrong tool" and I had to run around trying to find the right one for whatever job we happened to be working on). This is certainly true in the kitchen. I have my favorites and thought I'd share a few with you:

1. My Wuestoff knife collection so far - still waiting for the steak knives :-) But my favorite knife is this little guy and I use it daily:

2. France's favorite tool (no, it's not what you're thinking): the whisk (this one's made by Oxo - don't you just love their stuff?)

3. The only thing to use when grating citrus peels: the microplane

4. And last, but certainly (most definately!) not least: my wine opener. You might even say that this is an absolute necessity in my house, especially after a long day with 4 lovely children ;-)

I've had this one since I waited tables in college 20 years ago (WOW, was it that long ago? Yeesh.)

Oh yeah, and I forgot another one - my mandoline (seen earlier in the post on "Main Course"). Like I said, I just wouldn't make scalloped potatoes without it.

I'd love to hear from you - what are your favorite simple kitchen tools? (I'll have another post on the more complex stuff later)

On the lighter side

2008-08-07T21:40:00.000-05:00

I have decided that being on a diet stinks. No really, it's true. I have struggled with weight for, oh, pretty much my whole life and it seems like every year I try to lose some weight (all to varying degrees of success). I have found that the all-time best diet is the breastfeeding diet. Did you know that most women burn around 500 calories a day when nursing an infant? What a wonderful bonus God gave us ladies when we decide to gladly sacrifice so much time and energy to our little ones.

Well, unfortunately for me, that gravy-train is over. I have weaned my last baby and, not only am I a little misty-eyed that this precious time has passed, but now I find myself having to really watch what I eat again (Chocolate Ice Box Pie aside, of course). Sigh.

I just wanted to share a quick and easy recipe for a healthy and tasty salad that is, for me, a perennial go-to diet food. It's from the South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook (there are some really tasty and easy recipes in here, I highly recommend it). I made it the other day but, since I was so friggin hungry, I didn't take a picture and just dug right in. You can get the recipe here. For more of a light dinner, I have increased the olive oil, vinegar and oregano and added pasta. And yes, the kids liked it too. It's also great for summertime potlucks because there's no mayo.

I'd love to hear what your go-to diet food is - it's always nice to share the food love!

The Main Course

2008-08-05T20:38:00.001-05:00

From Saturday's dinner, that is. Here is the recipe for the delish Flank Steak Marinade from my brother-in-law Dave (but it's called Julie's - how confusing?!)

Julie’s Flank Steak Marinade

6 cloves garlic minced
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1.5 tbsp ground pepper. (I didn't use this much - maybe 2 tsp or so)
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup olive oil
5 tbsp honey (maybe a bit more)

Optional:
Shredded ginger
Green onions

I used this recipe for about 3 pounds of flank steak and, in hind sight, I should have doubled it (but I didn't have enough honey or soy sauce for that). I put the steaks and marinade, sans optional stuff, into a gallon sized ziploc bag and parked it in the fridge for about six hours. The flavor was great and not over-powering in the least. I guess if you let it sit overnight, the flavors would be stronger, but that's definitely not necessary.

Unfortunately, our grill is on it's last legs and we can only cook on half of the surface. They took a realllllly long time to cook and weren't ready when our guests arrived. Luckily, I knew they'd be forgiving :-) I handed them each a glass of wine and we listened to the ever-effervescent Katherine while we waited - luckily, they only took about 10 minutes more (this is after being on the grill for 20 already - painfully slow!).

Fortunately for us, I think we will be inheriting a really nice, almost brand new grill from my sister-in-law Karen and her husband Richard (did I marry into a great family or what - recipes, grills and so much more!). We just aren't sure when they'll be able to deliver it (or when we might be able to get it) - but I suppose I've got all fall and winter to get it here before the next grilling season strikes up again.

As for the side items for our meal, we had Three Cheese Garlic Scalloped Potatoes and Strawberry Spinach Salad. (didja see? didja see? I figured out how to link within the text!!!!! You can click on those and they'll take you to the recipes!)

For the potatoes, I doubled the recipe which I baked in a 13x9 casserole. Other changes: I only used two cheeses (cheddar and parmesan) and after reading some tips in the comments section, I substituted 1 cup of low-fat milk and 1 cup of low-fat sour cream for the heavy cream (if only making one recipe, use 1/2 cup each).

The proper tool for this job: a mandolin or food processor). I honestly don't think I'd ever make scalloped potatoes without one, they make the cutting potatoes job go so fast! It also works great for apple pie.

Oh, and completely ignore the times on there. Mine took 2 hours to cook and it really needed to sit for 20 minutes or so to set up.

This was taken at 1 and a half hours in, definitely needs more time. I was kind of worried about how soupy they looked, but after a few minutes on the table, they were much more solid.

These were fabulous and everyone (and I mean even the kids) wanted seconds, so make plenty!

Company's coming

2008-08-03T16:28:00.000-05:00

We had some guests come to dinner last night - our parish pastor Father Horton and Father Rogers Byambassa, a missionary priest with the Apostles of Jesus from Uganda, Africa. It was such a pleasure to have them over and really interesting. A great experience for the kids, too. Father Rogers was quite entertained by Katherine (who is quite the conversationalist at 3 years old) and he promised to take her to Africa to see all the animals she kept talking about.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time or energy for much entertaining (oh for the last 3 years or so) but I really enjoy it. There's something about planning and making a nice meal and dessert for people that really makes me happy!

I tried several new recipes this time (although my mother wisely told me once not to experiment on guests, but luckily it worked out this time). My brother-in-law sent me a great marinade recipe for flank steak (thanks, Dave!), and I found a recipe online for 3 cheese and garlic scalloped potatoes (though, I guess this was more like an au gratin); and another recipe online for chocolate pudding which I turned into a chocolate ice box pie. This latter recipe was found through a network called "Tuesdays with Dorie" where some foodie bloggers are working their way through a cookbook called Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I am hoping to join them - not sure if I can keep up with that and keep the 4 kids fed and clothed, but I'm going to give it a shot - it sounds like fun! I guess you'll find out soon (check back on Wednesdays :-)

Anyhoo, here's how things went yesterday with the dessert portion of the meal. Of course, nothing goes as planned and of course, I was under a time crunch because I didn't do any prep work the day before (and did I mention I have 4 beautiful, but always-needing-something-when-I'm-really-really-busy, children). First off, I realized I didn't have any whipping cream (and you most certainly can not have chocolate ice box pie without fluffy whipped cream on top!), so now a quick run to the IGA is on my to do list.

I made my crust using Nilla Wafers first thing in the morning and while that was cooling, made the pudding/filling. I had to alter the recipe a little because a) one recipe was not going to fill my deep dish pie pan and b) since it was pie, and presentation value matters when having company over for dinner, I had to make sure it ended up being thick enough to slice.

Here's the recipe (which I made one and half of). It's actually not that difficult (despite my trials) and it did come out very nice - smooth, chocolaty and not too sweet.

Chocolate Pudding
Courtesy of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2 ¼ cups whole milk
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and still warm
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Have six ramekins or pudding cups, each holding 4 to 6 ounces (½ to ¾ cup), at hand. Bring 2 cups of the milk and 3 tablespoons of the sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

While the milk is heating, put the cocoa, cornstarch and salt into a food processor and whir to blend. Turn them out onto a piece of wax paper, put the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, the egg and egg yolks into the processor and blend for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the remaining ¼ cup milk and pulse just to mix, then add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times to blend.

With the machine running, very slowly pour in the hot milk mixture. Process for a few seconds, then put everything back into the saucepan. Whisk without stopping over medium heat – making sure to get into the edges of the pan – until the pudding thickens and a couple of bubbles burble up to the surface and pop (about 2 minutes). You want the pudding to thicken, but you don’t want it to boil, so lower the heat if necessary.

Scrape the pudding back into the processor (if there’s a scorched spot, avoid it as you scrape) and pulse a couple of times. Add the chocolate, butter and vanilla and pulse until everything is evenly blended.Pour the pudding into the ramekins.

If you don’t want a skin to form (some people think the skin is the best part), press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of each pudding to create an airtight seal.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.Makes 6 servings

Soooo, I didn't exactly follow the directions.

Apparently, my food processor isn't large enough to hold one and half times this recipe (and I have my doubts about it holding one, so just a warning - make sure your processor holds at least 7 cups). The evidence:

This was after I tried adding all the hot milk mixture into the eggs/cocoa mixture - not happening, I was only able to add about 2/3rds of the milk. I ended up dumping what I managed to fit in the processor bowl back into the pot with the milk and whisking like crazy. To say the least, I was a little irritated at this point and kicking myself for not doing this the day before and thinking I probably should have heeded my Mom's advice (see above). It definitely didn't look right to me (look at how foamy the mixture is),

but I kept whisking like a maniac anyway and praying (as I looked at the clock which read 11am, knowing this pie will need at least 6 hours to chill and dinner was set for 6:30pm....ack!) that it would come together.

Eventually, thankfully, it did.

Oh, for the pie crust (for a 9 inch deep dish pie pan) I used 3 cups of mini Nilla Wafers and 3 tablespoons melted butter - crush wafers in a food processor until fine crumbs form and then add melted butter, pulsing until mixed well. Press crumbs into the pan and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until just starting to get golden brown. I think this pie would be fabulous with a traditional pie crust, but I just didn't have the time yesterday.

My results...not too bad (and a hit with the dinner guests!)

Let me know if you try this - it's definitely a keeper recipe for me. When I lived in Birmingham, Alabama we frequently ate at a BBQ restaurant called Johnny Rays and they had the best Chocolate Ice Box Pie I have ever had. Each slice was, I swear, 4 or 5 inches high, and it had a light consistency with lots of whipped cream on top. Next time I make this, I think I'll try folding in some whipped cream into the pudding and maybe it'll be more like that. If I can come close, I'll be in foodie-heaven - I'll let you know!

What's for dinner tonight, Mom?

2008-08-01T09:35:00.000-05:00

This is what I made for dinner last night. The recipe is from Kraft (for the Food and Family magazine) and was very easy to do and the kids generally love kabobs (meat on a stick - fun, right?). The most difficult part is trying not to puncture your fingers during assembly (trust me, I speak from experience, this really hurts!).

The husband really liked it (but he likes almost everything, so his vote is always kind of taken for granted) and the youngest kiddos liked it (ages 3 and 1) - me and the older 2 (ages 10 and 8), not so much. I really think the chicken should be marinated and I got a great marinade recipe from my sister last month which uses terryaki and pineapple juice that I will try. I guess I thought it was only ok - but really, I should know by now (because I've tried quite a few of these Kraft recipes, some pretty good, others, eh) not to expect great flavor from something that only calls for BBQ sauce and OJ concentrate. But anyway, it was fast and easy and they sure looked nice. That red pepper, on which I spent (and I hate to even type this, because it is so ridiculous) $2.50 for (yes, on just one!) really makes the kabobs look so purdy, don't you think. And I just love grilled red pepper - yum! (this is Kraft's picture, as I forgot to snap one of mine when they came off the grill, but they looked pretty much the same)

Here's the recipe:

http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/sweet-bbq-chicken-kabobs-92092.aspx

Substitutions: The recipe calls for Kraft BBQ sauce, which I am not particularly fond of, so I used Sweet Baby Rays; and I used canned pineapple chunks instead of fresh.

PS (are there ps's in blogging?): I sure wish I knew HTML and could write the words something like this :

You can find the recipe here

where when you click "here", you go to the website above. Someday, and someday soon, I hope to learn how to do that!

Berry good!

2008-07-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

One of the reasons I absolutely LOVE summertime (besides the warm weather and sunny days - I am a southern girl at heart, afterall) is being able to get fresh, deliciously sweet berries at the store.

Check out these beauties

Meijer had quite the sale on blueberries last week (2 pounds for $4.99 - yes pounds!), so I stocked up. Actually, I wish I had bought some more to freeze - but instead we all ate a lot of blueberries!

A friend of mine from church recently had a baby and I was to bring her dinner last night and I always include dessert with it. So, I decided to make this:

Blueberry Crumb Bars - YUM!

This is a slightly modified recipe from Everyday Food (a magazine which I have really come to love, BTW - lots of great recipes that are pretty easy too - my only beef is that they only rarely include nutritional info). Theirs called for fresh blackberries, but since Meijer blueberries were such a deal, well I just had to use those. Here's the recipe:

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup packed lt brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2 containers (5 ounces each) blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries (I just thought of something - you could mix them all up for a mixed berry crumb bars - yum, I'll have to try that one!)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with Pam. Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides. Spray paper with Pam.

2. Make topping: In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, brown sugar and 1/4 tsp salt; add 1 cup flour and mix until large moist crumbs form. Set aside (the original recipe says to put this in the fridge so the crumb topping comes out looking "nubbly", but I didn't and it came out fine, but you can if you'd like).

I dare you to not try sampling some of that buttery sweet goodness! No dare, not even the triple-dog dare, could keep me from trying it - the topping, IMHO, is the best part!

3. In bowl of electric mixer, beat softened butter, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Reduce speed to low and add remaining 1/4 tsp salt and baking powder. Mix in remaining 3/4 cup flour.

Spread batter evenly in pan.

Sprinkle with berries,

then topping.

4. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 40-45 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

Using paper overhang, lift cake out onto work surface and cut into squares. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. (Keeps in airtight container for 3 days)

I sure hope my friend and her family enjoyed these last night. Thankfully for my family, I made extra (they hate it when I make something and don't have any left for them - and I can't blame them).

Bon Appetit!