Kat's Kitchen Place

Joe Joe (Oreo) Truffles

2010-02-10T13:00:00.002-05:00

It is hard to believe that these rich delectable little treats have only three ingredients. A warning comes with these that it is hard to just have one! A friend made these at Christmas time and I fell in love with them then. I am always looking for a delicious crowd pleaser and these fit the bill. The original recipe calls for Oreos, but you can substitute with any brand of a filled sandwich cookie. Newman's Own Organics has a great selection of Newman O's (six different flavors). I used Trader Joe's Joe Joes (peppermint flavor). I still had a box from Christmas that was staring at me everytime I opened the snack cabinet. I thought the peppermint flavor would go very good with chocolate.

A few things to note about the recipe. It calls for a little over 1 lb of cookies. You do not need that many to get three cups. I used about 2 sleeves. You can use whatever you want for dipping chocolate. I tried three variations. I had candy cane flavor Hershey kisses from Christmas, milk chocolate, and semi sweet. Each one provided it's own nice chocolate flavor with the cookie and cream cheese mixture. At first I would say the milk chocolate was my favorite, but then upon trying the other two I really liked those also. I just cannot pick a favorite. They were all good! I will say that the semi sweet chocolate does provide for a very rich treat. Nothing wrong with that though!

I will leave you with a few things I learned while making these. After you have mixed the cookies and cream cheese, chill the mixture for about a half hour. It will be easier to work with for shaping the truffles. I did not create round little truffles. I used my smallest cookie scoop and actually liked the look of when the mixture comes out of the scoop. I just patted each one down a little so there were not jagged edges. Once all of the truffles were created I placed them back in the fridge to chill as I melted my chocolate. Depending upon the type of chocolate you use, you may need to thin it down a little. You can use about one teaspoon of a neutral flavored oil and mix it in. Do not use olive oil as it has too strong of a taste. A canola is fine or if you would like to add a nutty flavor then use peanut oil. The problem with chocolate that is too thick is that it will produce a truffle with a really thick layer of chocolate. Is that really a bad thing??

I plan to make another batch of these along with some sugar cookies this weekend. I am debating as to what treat I will make my husband and I for Valentine's Day. Like this is not enough??!! What are your plans for a Valentine's Day treat?

Here is an overview of the recipe. Detailed and printable recipe below.

Start with your ingredients: Cookies, cream cheese, and chocolate

Add the cookies to a food processor and pulse until they no longer resemble a cookie and look like crumbs. You can also do this by putting them in a plastic ziploc bag and rolling over with a rolling pin or if you need to release some frustration you can squish them in the bag with your hand!

I took the crumbs out of the processor, added to a large bowl and then added the cream cheese. To get the cream cheese soft, I removed it from all of it's packaging and put on a plate in the microwave for 10 seconds. Your arm will get a little workout mixing the crumbs and cream cheese together, but it is in your best interest to burn a few extra calories before completing these as you may eat to many! My picture of the combined mixture was blury, but you get the jist of it. Once combined, I put the mixture in the refrigerator for about a half hour to chill. This just makes the next step a little easier.

Next, take a spoon or small cookie scoop and form 1" balls. As I mentioned above, I chose to keep the form that the cookie scoop makes and just pat down the edges a little. I then placed these in the fridge to firm up for about 15 minutes or so.

Your chocolate choices are endless. Be creative and have fun! There is a helpful hint below for dipping the truffles in chocolate. Using two forks is a great way to be able to let the excess chocolate drip off and then to be able to place on parchment paper.

Once you have dipped in chocolate you can add sprinkles if you like. I suggest putting in the fridge again until they are no longer shiny. This way, you know they are fully set and then you can add any other decorations. I melted some white chocolate, put it in a sandwich size ziploc bag, cut off a small piece of the corner and drizzled over the truffles. In my first attempt, the corner I cut off was a little too large so the lines were thicker. Next round, I did not cut off as much. You can see the differences below.

Oreo Truffles

Kraft Foods
Printable Recipe

1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) Oreo (or any brand stuffed) Cookies, finely crushed, divided (you do not need to divide if you do not plan on sprinkling any on top)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
2 pkg. (8 squares each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted or whatever chocolate you choose to use

MIX 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 (1-inch) balls.

DIP balls in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use.) Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs or sugar sprinkles.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator. (Note: Once they have chilled for about a half hour you can add additional chocolate decorations on top should you choose to.)

How to Easily Dip Truffles:
To easily coat truffles with the melted chocolate, add truffles, in batches, to bowl of melted chocolate. Then use two forks to roll truffles in chocolate until evenly coated. Remove the truffles with forks and allow excess chocolate to drip back into bowl before placing truffles on prepared baking sheet.

My Inspiration

2010-02-06T07:45:00.007-05:00

February is a tough month for me. I wish I could skip over it, but I cannot. I am 42 years old, but let me tell you that you never get over losing a parent. I watched my father suffer for ten years with Alzheimer's and he died when I was 30. My beloved Mother was taken from me four years ago today. It was two and a half months after a dual diagnosis of breast and lung cancer. I knew she was going to die, but I did not know it would happen so fast and in such a cruel and unjust manner. I never had time to digest the diagnosis and could not fathom the long road I would have ahead of me trying to cope and adjust to losing my best friend.

My mother was an incredible baker and very good cook. I wish now that I had spent more time in the kitchen with her. I don't know why I didn't. It was just her thing. I feel very fortunate to also have a passion for baking and a deep love for cooking. These two likes and this blog have helped me over the past year to channel so much grief into something positive. They are things that bring me joy while allowing me to stay connected to my Mom. I have all of her recipe boxes and cookbooks and love going through them. I have picked up the habit, in my own cookbooks, of after making something writing on the side how it was or what I tweaked.

The story below was written by my Mom's neighbor who was a reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton. Her neighbor interviewed her during the throws of her Christmas baking.

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A December State of Mind

With one week left until Christmas, Katy Duffus' kitchen is a mini-bakery. The retired nurse is in the thick of her holiday baking extravaganza - no less than 10 kinds of cookies for family, friends and neighbors. (She used to make around 90 dozen each Christmas!)

Fortified with a third cup of hazelnut coffee, Duffus on Dec. 16 started the morning making Swedish ginger cookies, using a star for cutouts.

Counter space had been scoured, 10 cookies sheets sat in a pile and dough made earlier in the month and frozen was molded into wafer-thin stars with a light sprinkling of sugar.

She began baking cookies as gifts years ago to cut back on spending, when her extended family decided not to exchange individual gifts. "I didn't like the idea of that. I like to do something," she said.

Each year she bakes different recipes. One mainstay is a sugar cookie handed down by her mother, the late Charlotte Karrer Powers.

Besides the sugar and ginger cookies, this season's production is fudge puddles, shortbread, maple logs, almond bars, pecan sandies, cappuccino flats, pressed spritz cookies, a brownie cup and lemon poppy seed and Neapolitan cookies.

"I always make way too many, but my son is always happy to take them to work and my daughter too," she said.

She makes the cookies small so that a wide variety can fit attractively on a tray. For cookies in the shape of a wreath, Duffus uses a straw to poke a hole that will later have a red bow tied on.

Duffus melts chocolate, dipping one end of some cookies. Others are frosted with icing or colored sugar.

"My feeling is they can look lovely, but if they don't taste good they aren't worth it," she said.

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I miss you Mom! Thank you for the inspiration and direction to find something that I love to do, that brings me so much joy, and brings joy to others.

A Cookie Makes a Difference

2010-01-30T20:03:00.002-05:00

This post is not about me baking or cooking and sharing my experience with you. It is about a wonderful event I attended in Providence, RI and a way to get you thinking about how you can really make a difference.

My friend Michelle and I attended a Drop In & Decorate event held at Rhode Island School of Design. What is a Drop In & Decorate event you ask? It was just that today. People stopped by and decorated some cookies that will make the recipients happier than you could ever think a cookie would make someone.

Drop In & Decorate is the brain child of food writer Lydia Walshin and is a Rhode Island non-profit. The concept is simple: bake some cookies, invite some friends over, decorate said cookies and donate to a local agency. You can read all about Drop In & Decorate on their website.

Today's event, though, was not a simple concept. It took many months of hard work, planning, and dedication for Lydia and her team to pull off so seamlessly. They were fortunate enough, though, to have Rhode Island School of Design do all the baking... to the tune of over 875 cookies. They had over 150 people show up to decorate cookies that are being donated to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank's Kids Cafe program.

I hosted my first Drop In & Decorate Event last year (click here and here to read about it) and cannot wait to host my 2nd one this year. I followed the instructions: baked some cookies, invited some friends over, and we decorated. I was truly overwhelmed by the appreciation, joy, and thankfulness of our recipients.

Please think about hosting your own Drop In & Decorate event. You do not need 875 cookies and 150 people to help you. You do not have to be "a baker". Lydia herself says she is not one! You can make cookies from scratch or you can buy the ones in the grocery store that all you have to do is bake. Think of an agency in your town or a nearby one that you could give your cookies to. Invite some friends over, relax, enjoy each other's company, and decorate some cookies. You will be amazed at the joy you will bring someone. Trust me on this one. A cookie really makes a difference.

News coverage of event:

http://www.abc6.com/news/83172627.html

Photos from today's event:

2/1/10 Update: Adding link to Lydia's photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lydiawalshin/sets/72157623202237933/

January 2010 Daring Bakers: Graham Wafers & Nanaimo Bars

2010-01-27T01:10:00.028-05:00

I was going to do this month's challenge a week ago Saturday, but got busy with other things so I put it on the calendar for this past Sunday. While I was driving home from my cooking class on Sunday afternoon I realized I was on the fence about doing the challenge. What? I absolutely love baking and it brings me so much joy, but sometimes the challenges are not something I would normally choose to make. There are pros and cons to this. I like it when it allows me to step out of my comfort zone and practice a new technique or learn how certain ingredients work together, but sometimes there are other factors that get in the way. It could be ingredients, degree of difficulty, time commitment, or the fact it just is not appealing to me and I would never make it again. These are some of the things that "get in the way" and don't get me fully charged up to attempt the challenge. Once I start baking, though, I usually mellow out a little!

As a blogger, I find that at times the joy of cooking and baking is diminished as I pay so much more attention to taking photos as I go along, making notes if I tweak a recipe, writing up posts and choosing and editing photos for a post. Life is busy. We all know that. It is all time consuming and like many others I try to balance a lot. In regards to my blog, there is so much I want to do from appearance to marketing that I keep going back and forth on what it is I want to focus on. If only I did not have to work! For January, with encouragement from my husband, I decided I would stick to my commitment to Daring Bakers and give the Nanaimo Bars a try!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars Nah-nye-Moh) as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and City of Nanaimo. Nanaimo Bars are a classic Canadian dessert created in Nanaimo, BC. Given that the 2010 Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver, it seems quite an appropriate time to showcase this dessert.

This month's challenge had two parts to it. The mandatory challenge was to make our own graham wafer crackers to be used in the base of the bars. These are similar to what we in the U.S. know as graham crackers. The optional challenge was to make the graham wafer crackers gluten free. I opted not to make the gluten free version as I did not have the gluten free flours and did not want to be left with a bunch of ingredients I would probably not use again.

These no bake bars are comprised of three layers:

Base: butter, sugar, cocoa, egg, graham cracker crumbs, almonds, and coconut
Middle: custard like
Top: chocolate

In seeing some of my fellow Daring Bakers share their completed challenges with us on the forums I decided I would mix up the ingredients just a little. While cooking I do this all the time, but with baking I have yet to experiment a lot. I had leftover pistachios from Christmas time so I turned to The Flavor Bible to see what went with pistachios. Cranberries were an option and I had some on hand so I replaced the almonds and coconut with pistachios and dried cranberries. I contemplated putting the cranberries in the base or the middle layer. I went for the base, but I think if I made this flavor combo again I would add them to the middle layer to add some color and texture since the base already had both. The end result is a very rich almost candy like bar and the pistachios and cranberries added a nice flavor. Pistachios are not an overpowering nut so I was pleased with the outcome. I did cut the cranberries up, but since I used dried ones they did a little chewiness. Having already cut the bars (photo above) and then tasting, I ended up cutting them in half as there is just a lot of rich sweetness going on in these bars!

The challenge was not overly complicated, though time consuming due to the fact we had to make our own graham crackers. Once the crackers are baked and cooled the bars come together fairly quickly, though you do need to allow some time for them to set. You can cut your crackers/wafers into any shape you like. I used a circular cutter with a scalloped edge just to dress them up a little. You will have a lot of leftover crackers since the recipe only calls for 1 1/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs. They are a wonderful addition all by themselves or with an afternoon cup of tea.

One thing I did notice was that my middle layer did not seem as "custard like" as many of the other Daring Bakers'. I could have added some additional milk to make it less thick, but it tasted fine so I kept it as is. On a funny note, my top layer took three try's. Um, the easiest layer of these bars. Mind you I made these late on Sunday after spending 4 hours on my feet in cooking class and in while making dinner. Trying to make myself feel a little better here. Probably not the smartest think to try to balance baking graham crackers, making dinner (a new recipe that I was also taking photos of as I went along), and making the middle and top layer to these bars. The recipe said melt chocolate and butter over low heat, cool, and pour over middle layer. Well, I skipped over the word pour and went to spread on my melted chocolate. Hmmm... this is sort of thick and does not seem like there is enough. Went back to the recipe and saw the word "pour". Grabbed some more chocolate and butter and opted for the microwave as I melt chocolate that way a lot. You know what is a bad smell? Burnt chocolate!! I have never in my life burned chocolate. I was in a rush and did so this time. So, back to the sauce pan with some more chocolate and butter. I slowed down a little and focused on the main task at hand and before I knew it I had pourable melted chocolate, not spreadable melted chocolate :)!

So, after my little breakdown I am glad that I did do the challenge and was pleased with the results. I enjoy reading the posts on our forum to see what success and challenges my fellow Daring Bakers experienced. Would I make them again? I think so. For the Nanaimo bars I would not make my own graham crackers. I thought the graham crackers tasted very good on their own, but I don't think I could tell the difference if I used my homemade vs. store bought in the bars. I was thinking the graham cracker dough could be used as a slice and bake type cookie/cracker. Perhaps the addition of cinnamon to the dough or a cinnamon and sugar mixture sprinkled on top before baking. The important thing for me is that I walk away with two new recipes that have given me ideas for other desserts! Thank you Lauren for this challenge!

For the full recipe and directions, click here.

Be sure to check out my fellow Daring Bakers from around the world by clicking here.

Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

2010-01-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

Traditional shepherd's pie (casserole with meat and veggies topped with mashed potatoes and baked) was a common dish in our house growing up. I have never made it myself nor do I remember it having any deep rich flavors, but it resinates in my mind as true comfort food and I know I always cleaned my plate! I like casseroles for a few reasons:

Creativity: Have stuff in the fridge that you need to use up? Favorite flavors you like to combine? Use ingredients you have and be creative!
Easy: If having company, you can make these ahead of time so that you can actually socialize with your guests and not be stuck in the kitchen. Also, you can freeze and reheat very easily.

The January 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times presents an article on "freezer pleasers". In these crazy busy times we live in, trying to find time to make healthy delicious dishes can at times be a challenge. The article offers four make ahead casseroles with interesting and deep flavors along with a healthy twist. In reviewing their site it looks like articles and recipes get posted about a month after the magazine comes out. Be sure to check out the site for more info: Vegetarian Times

The sweet potato shepherd's pie caught my eye. My husband is a huge sweet potato fan so I decided to try this one first. The sweetness and creaminess of the sweet potato combined with the sweet, earthy, woodiness of the spices and vegetables provide a wonderful combination for this casserole. This was the first time I ever cooked with leeks. I would compare them to a mild onion. They do sweeten up a little when cooked in oil/butter. I visited YouTube for a quick lesson on how much of the leek to use, cleaning instructions, and how to chop. I really enjoyed the flavors of this dish though my husband was not totally keen on the cannellini beans. There was nothing left on his plate so I guess he adjusted. I think a nice addition to this recipe would be a little smoked paprika.

Do you have any go to favorite casserole dishes?

Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

adapted from Vegetarian Times

Printable recipe

Topping:

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced (recipe says 1/4 lb; I used one closer to 13.5 oz)

1/4 cup fat free milk or soymilk (I had 1% on hand)

1 Tbsp non hydrogenated margarine or butter (I omitted)

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I always use fresh ground nutmeg; it's the best!)

Filling:

1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)

1 leek, white part thinly sliced (1 cup)

2 turnips, diced (1 cup)

1 carrot, diced (1/2 cup)

3 sprigs fresh thyme (did not have thyme so I used dried oregano; about 2 tsp)

1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped (2 tsp)

1/4 cup white wine or water

1 15 oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup low sodium vegetable broth

3 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

To make sweet potato topping:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add sweet potato, cover, and boil 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and return to pot. Mash with milk, margarine, cinnamon, and nutmeg; season with salt and pepper if desired. Set aside.

To make filling:

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and leek and saute 5 to 6 minutes, or until leek is soft. Add turnips, carrot, thyme, and rosemary; cook 2 to 3 minutes more, or until carrot begins to soften. Add wine (or water) and cook 30 seconds to deglaze the pan. Stir in beans and broth. Cover, and simmer 10 minutes, or until carrots and turnips are soft. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Remove thyme sprigs from filling and discard. Pour filling into 2 or 3 quart casserole dish. Spread sweet potato topping over the filling. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Place casserole on a baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until filling bubbles and cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

If you freeze this, here are the reheating instructions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover casserole with foil and place on a baking dish. Bake 60 to 75 minutes or until filling is bubbling and top is golden. Remove the foil for last 10 minutes of baking. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

French Lentils with Cashews

2010-01-18T10:17:00.002-05:00

In my last post I mentioned my recent bread baking experience. For whatever reason, every time I sit down to write it I just don't have the inspiration to write about bread. I probably should have wrote about it right away and perhaps avoided this conundrum. Any who, I promise an upcoming post on the bread as it truly deserves a post and I do want to share it. Once you see how easy and delicious it is you may be making it on a regular basis.

So, on to the post at hand. I have decided to try and cut back a little on meat. Are you going to ask me why? O.K. I'll tell you. My main reason is because I am trying to lose a few pounds and find that 3 oz. of meat does not do much for me. Yes, I have it with veggies and a salad, but I just don't feel satisfied. There are also environmental, other personal health, and ethical reasons for wanting to try to reduce my meat consumption.

In search of some recipes I went to that file of "to try" recipes and came across one I had been wanting to make for a while. It is Butternut Squash and Hazelnut Lasagne. The problem though, is that it is beyond high in calories and fat. I decided to put that one aside and am working on coming up with a lower calorie version. I then looked online at Vegetarian Times and also bought a copy of their latest issue. There really are so many meatless options utilizing lentils, beans, and even meat substitutes. What the heck, I'll give it a try!

In trying to find a "filling" recipe I started looking at lentil dishes. They are high in protein and fiber and are quick to make. I often buy a premade Spanish Lentils and Vegetables dish from Trader Joe's. It's very good, but after reading this recipe and seeing how easy and quick a lentil dish is to make I was off to try it on my own. I came across this recipe in the New York Times earlier this month. I used the original recipe as a base and adjusted it to my own liking for spice and added a pepper that was in the fridge calling out to be used. If my recipe below has too much heat for you just eliminate the crushed pepper and cayenne. To find the original recipe, click here. The recipe was one of many that accompanied an article by Mark Bittman on the versatility of lentils. You may want to check that out here. One thing to note about the original recipe is that when it was first posted it called for a 1/2 cup of lentils. I had printed off that version and used that amount and everything was fine. It was adjusted and now calls for 1 cup. Your choice. The recipe can be served as a main or side dish. In our house we did both. I had never made lentils before and this first experience was positive. My only issue with this recipe is that the cashews did get a little soft. I think mixing some in per serving or sprinkling some on top will provide the nice nutty crunch. The lentils have a bean like taste and pick up the flavors you make them with. You can create a great home cooked healthy dish in a short amount of time. Lentils give you the option to be very creative with flavors and produce something that tastes like you were in the kitchen for a long time when in fact you were not!

French Lentils With Cashews
adapted from The New York Times
Printable Recipe

2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil (I used Brummel & Brown)

1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon curry powder or garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (to get a little smoky flavor I used the seeds I had leftover from dried chipotles)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup chopped cashews (I used a much smaller amount and then sprinkled some on top)
1/2 cup dried French green (Le Puy) lentils, washed and picked over
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup yogurt for garnish (optional)
1/4 cup chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

Put butter in a large pot over medium heat until it is melted and foamy (or shimmering if using oil). Add onion and green pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and onions golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in spice blend and keep stirring for a few seconds, until it becomes fragrant. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until it darkens, another couple of minutes.

Add cashews and stir to coat them in onion mixture. Cook and stir just long enough for them to warm a bit. Add lentils and enough water to cover by about an inch. Be sure to add enough water as your lentils need the liquid to cook. If you add a little too much you can always just let it cook down.

Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to medium-low so mixture bubbles gently. Cook, stirring until beans are soft, 20 to 30 minutes; add more water as needed to keep everything moist. When lentils are cooked to desired tenderness and mixture has thickened, stir in some salt and pepper, then taste and adjust seasoning. Serve, garnished with a dollop of yogurt and a little parsley.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Happy New Year (Recipe: Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps)

2010-01-06T21:40:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone enjoyed the Holidays and I wish you all much peace, joy, and good food in 2010!

My husband and I opted to stay in for New Year's Eve and relax a little. I did not want to make a big dinner as my eating choices over the past few weeks were not of the healthy nor low cal nature so I thought we could both use a break. For Christmas I received lots of cooking related items so I decided to refer to some of those for our New Year's Eve menu.

First, I would like to share the titles of a few books I received that you may be interested in looking into.

I am a big fan of Cooks Illustrated & America's Test Kitchen so I was thrilled to receive, The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2010. The book has over 650 recipes from all 10 seasons of the show. It does not just provide recipes. There is info on recipe development to the equipment segments and of course pictures. I love pictures! I don't always agree with Christopher Kimball or the team in regards to their rationale on how to do things or why they pick certain things, but I do enjoy both the shows and magazines and refer to their site and magazines often.
Last year I made homemade bread for the first time. I started out with the Jim Lahey No Knead bread recipe. I was very thrilled with the results and have since made it a few times along with trying other recipes found here or here. I personally think that the downfall with the No Knead recipe is that the dough has to sit 16 or so hours prior to baking. This is fine if you plan, but if you are having dinner guests over and all of a sudden you want to make bread this recipe will not work for you. So, along came Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. In the upcoming week I will post more about the book and my experience making the basic dough recipe.
Two baking related books that I am really excited about are A Passion for Baking and How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science. The science behind cooking and baking fascinates me. I am intrigued by why things do what they do and how they do it so given my love for baking the second book will be a great learning experience. It is much like a text book. It offers material to learn, questions for review and discussion, and exercises and experiments. It will be my way to attend baking/pastry school on a budget while working full time!

Our New Year's Eve menu consisted of Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps, slices of a homemade baguette with habanero cheese, and shrimp wrapped in soy wrappers. I found the soy wrappers at Whole Foods in the aisle that has Asian related items (soy sauce, sushi making materials etc.) They are made by Yamamotoyama and you can read more about them here. I wanted to use them like a spring roll wrapper, though I was not overly creative nor neat in wrapping! I will share the Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps in this post and have an upcoming post on my first experience with the basic bread dough recipe from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

Have you ever made a recipe anticipating it would taste like something and then when you took the first bite you were utterly disappointed? This is what happened to me with the Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps. I had set my mind that these would taste like the ones I often order at a local restaurant. The problem, though, the ingredients were much different. What was I thinking? The ingredients in this recipe include shallots, fresh mint and cilantro, and a tiny amount (per my taste buds:) ) of red pepper flakes. The ending result is just that: light and fresh with a hint of heat vs. some pork with hoisin sauce dumped in it! I think that if the light and fresh taste is what you are looking for this recipe is a keeper. After I adjusted my mindset I realized that I did actually like these. The only thing I had a hard time with was the color of the pork. I am sort of picky about the color of my food. I love my meat to be browned and have a caramel to deep brown color. My end result was a light colored meat. I seemed to have a fair amount of liquid at the end of cooking the pork. I think next time I will reduce the amount of fish sauce to 1 1/2 Tbsp and potentially reduce the amount of chicken broth as I am not totally convinced it was needed. Also, for my taste, they needed a little extra red pepper flakes for heat! Lastly, I was not able to pick up on the nutty flavor the rice powder was supposed to provide which was not earth shattering as the rice powder was easy to make, but it would have been nice to taste it.

Thai Pork Lettuce Wraps

adapted from America's Test Kitchen (the recipe is on their site or in the above book I mentioned)
Serves 4 for a main dish and 6 as an appetizer

Printable Recipe

1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed of silver skin and fat, cut into 1-inch chunks, and frozen for 20 minutes

2 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp white rice

1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

3 medium shallots, peeled and sliced into thin rings (about 1/2 cup)

3 Tbsp roughly chopped mint leaves

3 Tbsp roughly chopped cilantro leaves

3 Tbsp juice from 2 limes

2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 head Bibb lettuce, washed and dried, leaves separated and left whole

Place pork chunks on large plate in single layer. Freeze meat until firm and starting to harden around edges but still pliable, 15 to 20 minutes.

Place half of meat in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, 5 to six 1-second pulses. Transfer ground meat to medium bowl and repeat with remaining chunks. Stir 1 tablespoon fish sauce into ground meat and marinate, refrigerated, 15 minutes.

Heat rice in small skillet over medium-high heat; cook, stirring constantly, until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool 5 minutes. Grind rice with spice grinder, mini food processor, or mortar and pestle until it resembles fine meal, 10 to 30 seconds (you should have about 1 tablespoon rice powder).

Bring broth to simmer in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook, stirring frequently, until about half of pork is no longer pink, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon rice powder over pork; continue to cook, stirring constantly, until remaining pork is no longer pink, 1 to 1½ minutes longer. Transfer pork to large bowl; let cool 10 minutes.

Add remaining 1½ tablespoons fish sauce, remaining 2 teaspoons rice powder, shallots, lime juice, sugar, red pepper flakes, mint, and cilantro to pork; toss to combine. Serve with lettuce leaves. I also served with hoisin sauce topped with chopped peanuts.

A Year of Blogging

2009-12-28T22:19:00.004-05:00

December 27th was the one year anniversary for my blog. It's hard to believe that a year has passed by so quickly. When I started blogging I had no idea what I was doing, but knew I could figure it out as I went. I did have a few goals, though. I wanted to spend more time baking and cooking, learning new techniques, sharing recipes, and also working on my photography skills. Over this past year, I am pleased with what I have accomplished, but it has now made me set some higher goals for 2010! I am also grateful for the blogging buddies I have made along the way. Some live close. Some live far. Some I have never met face to face. We all share a passion and that in itself brings us all together. I thank all of you who take the time to stop by my blog and share your comments!

As we come to a close for 2009, I went back to look at some of my favorite and not so favorite baking and cooking experiences. Below is a slideshow that I hope you will enjoy! If you click on an image below it will bring you to Picasa where you can follow links back to the recipes.

So, what's on my list for 2010? It's still in process at the moment, but here is the start of my goals:

Reading four books that I have on cooking and baking. I have had the Flavor Bible and Ratio for some time now and have not spent the time to read, though I have skimmed! I recently purchased the Ratio app for my iPhone so I need to check that out too! For Christmas I received Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking. No just scanning the pretty pictures. Time to get down to business! I think these books will help me hone in on some techniques while also learning to be more creative in baking. I am a little creative in cooking, but am not as adventurous in baking.
Spend time redesigning my blog: I feel like my blog shows a part of who I am and my brand and I would like to spend some time coming up with a new look along with adding some cool tools and gadgets.
Create a Schedule for Posting: Working full time, cooking, baking, trying to stay fit, and a social life take up a lot of time. During this past year my blog suffered as I got so busy with other things. I would like to start with a goal of a minimum of two posts per week and go from there.
Photography: I have made some strides with my photography, but know I have a ways to go. My husband bought me an image stabilization lens and some photo shoot equipment for Christmas so I am looking forward to learning how to use them and incorporating the results into my blog.
Cooking Classes: I am starting this in January with Cambridge School of Culinary Arts'6 week Back to Basics Series I-IV. I will be on the lookout for more!
Social Media: Get with the times and create a Facebook page for my blog and get on Twitter!

What are you most proud of that you accomplished in 2009 and what's in store for 2010?

Veal Ragu

2009-12-28T21:06:00.001-05:00

I have made this recipe twice now and it is truly one of my favorite dishes. I had never had veal prior to making this and know now I was certainly missing out. I purchased the veal at my local Whole Foods Market. They did not show boneless veal shoulder in the meat case, but upon asking they brought out what they had in the back. I will say the second time I made this I had to use veal stew meat as I could not get the boneless shoulder anywhere. It was still delectable, but the meat just was not as fall apart as the first time.

I read this recipe in November over at Megan's Delicious Dishings site. It is cold here in the Boston area and this is a perfect dish to warm up to as well as a taste worthy one to serve to company. It is fairly easy and your guests will think you spent hours on it. I sometimes find myself making too complicated dishes when we have company over. This one pot meal (well two if you count the pasta!) will be a real crowd pleaser. The meat is tender and melts in your mouth. Serving it with the wide noodle pasta gives it that better than pasta look. Add some home made bread or a dinner roll for gathering the last bites of the ragu and you will be having your guests asking you when they can come over again! Jump on over to Megan's Delicious Dishings site for the recipe and her step by step instructions!

Spiced Cranberry Bundt Cake

2009-12-26T11:04:00.002-05:00

On Christmas morning I decided we needed something besides cookies for dessert after dinner. You would think I was all baked out, but in between preparing the ham and Alton Brown's macaroni and cheese (yes, that's a keeper) I jumped online to the bon appetit site and perused some of their top dessert recipes and came across this Spiced Cranberry Bundt Cake by Dorie Greenspan. I wanted something that was not too sweet because between cookies and candy I sort of had enough of that.

This recipe was easy to put together and the end result was very good. Two ingredients that you may not have on hand are almond flour (aka almond meal or ground almonds) and Chinese five spice powder. I actually had both so decided to give it a go. I did substitute walnuts for almonds as I prefer one to the other. I had never used Chinese five spice powder before this recipe. Depending upon where you buy the Chinese five spice the ingredients can differ slightly. The original Chinese five spice ingredients included equal amounts of cassia (cinnamon family), clove, fennel seed, star anise, and Szechuan pepper. I had purchased McCormick's and the ingredients were anise, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and ginger.

When I opened the spice, the first smell I picked up on was licorice (provided by the star of anise) and then could recognize the cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. These flavors provide sweetness, but are also pungent. I was afraid that the cake was going to come out with too much of a licorice taste, but I was completely wrong. While baking, the cake will fill your kitchen with an aromatic smell of the spices and you will be counting the minutes until it is done so you can try a piece! The cake looks like a typical cranberry nut one, but the taste is much different with the combinations in the Chinese five spice.

In reading the reviews, many stated that this cake truly tastes better as it ages. I would agree that after sitting for a while and letting the flavors meld together it only gets better. I would say, though, that is the case for most fruit and nut breads and cakes.

So, if you are looking for a twist on the typical cranberry nut cake I would recommend that you add this recipe to your must try list.

Spiced Cranberry Bundt Cake

Dorie Greenspan via bon appetit (November 2008 issue)

Printable Recipe

CAKE
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour or almond meal* (about 2 1/2 ounces)
2 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder**
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup plain reduced-fat (2%) Greek-style yogurt
1 cup chopped toasted almonds
1 cup halved fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw)
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
ICING
1/3 cup powdered sugar
4 teaspoons (about) orange juice

PREPARATION
CAKE
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract, then Greek-style yogurt. Add dry ingredients; beat just until blended. Fold in almonds and all cranberries. Transfer batter to prepared Bundt pan.
Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely. I baked mine for 60 minutes.

ICING (I doubled the icing recipe below. My cake was still a little bit warm so my frosting ran a little)
Stir powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons orange juice in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Mix in more juice by 1/2 teaspoonfuls to reach consistency of heavy cream. Spoon icing over cake, allowing it to drip down sides. Let stand until icing sets, at least 30 minutes.

DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and store at room temperature.

*Sometimes labeled "ground almonds"; available at specialty foods stores and natural foods stores.

**A spice blend that usually contains ground fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves; available in the spice section of most supermarkets and online at penzeys.com.

Giveaway Winner

2009-12-21T22:18:00.004-05:00

Thank you to all who left comments for suggestions on the last cookie to add to my trays! After much difficult deliberation I decided on the Peppermint Biscotti submitted by Lynn for two reasons. One, I had never made biscotti before and second when I received an email from Culinary in the Desert today with a summary of a ton of awesome treasts Joe has made it included a recipe for Peppermint Biscotti. I took it as a sign and went for it. These were really easy to make and have a wonderful peppermint flavor. Because biscotti are a hard cookie, I chose to leave out the crushed peppermint that the recipe calls for as a decoration. The crushed candy canes that get added to the batter melt and provide a wonderful minty flavor. Next time I make them I need to be a little better in dividing the dough as I had one log that produced smaller cookies. Certainly not a tragedy!

I used to live in the North End of Boston (little Italy) and I spent more than my fair share of time at Modern Pastry buying biscotti. They are one of my favorite cookies. If I were going home for the weekend I would buy some for Mom and learned I had to buy extra as I would be nibbling on them in the car ride there.

I have added all of the recommended recipes to my must try list so I will be sure to let you know how they come out when I try them in 2010! Right now, after baking for three days, I cannot even look at a cookie or another stick of butta!

Thank you Lynn and please be sure to email me your address along with confirmation of which prize you want so that I can provide to the giveaway sponsor cookware.com, a part of CSN Stores.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Candy Cane Biscotti
Adapted from Land O Lakes via Culinary in the Desert

Printable Recipe

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup finely crushed peppermint candy canes
14 ounces fine-quality white chocolate, melted
extra crushed candy canes to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined - stir in crushed candy.

Evenly divide dough into 4 pieces on a lightly floured surface. Shape each piece into 9" x 1 1/2" round log. Place logs 3 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake until tops are cracked and ends just start to turn light brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 325. Cool logs 10 minutes on cookie sheet.

Cut each log diagonally into 1/2" slices with sharp serrated knife. The recipe says "discard ends", but I would not recommend discard any pieces! Arrange pieces standing up back onto the baking sheet.

Bake until cookies are light golden brown and crisp on both sides, about 12 to 15 minutes. The centers may still be a little soft, but will firm up as they cool.. Place onto cool rack and cool completely.

Dip half of each biscotti into melted chocolate - shake off excess. Immediately sprinkle with additional crushed candy canes or drizzle with chocolate and set on a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet until the chocolate has set.

Makes about 4 dozen.

Christmas Cards 2009

2009-12-18T00:00:00.005-05:00

This year I decided to make our Christmas cards. Well, let me restate. Not make in the sense I was super crafty and came up with some handmade Martha Stewart looking thing, but make in the sense I chose a photo of a completed Cookie Tray from Christmas of last year, made a postcard on iPhoto and had Apple make my Christmas cards.

I was really pleased with the way that they came out. I wanted to add a little extra to them and ended up having a stamp made (thanks husband for that idea!) that said, "Recipes at: katskitchenplace.blogspot.com". I thought should anyone want a cookie recipe they could come on over and visit my blog!

So, if you stumbled upon my blog due to my direct marketing approach via this year's Christmas cards WELCOME! You can click here for the recipes of the cookies on our Christmas card. The link will bring you to my first post of last year of which I just have basic old recipes with no how to instructions. Geez, I have come so far this year :) As I post my cookie recipes for this year, I will provide my now standard commentary and photos. I hope you will take a minute to review the recipes and also surf around my blog. Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Be sure to check my previous post as I am having a great Giveaway sponsored by cookware.com, a part of CSNStores.com!

Above cookies clockwise starting with Cappuccino Flats (chocolate cookie dipped in chocolate)
1. Cappuccino Flats
2. Sugar Cookie (with green food coloring)
3. Chocolate Chip Meringues
4. Maple Logs
5. Gingerbread Stars (this was a prepared mix as I was trying out gingerbread)
6. Almond Bars
7. Pecan Butter Balls
8. Gramma's Sugar Cookies
9. Peanut Butter Cup Tarts

Help Me Choose the 12th Cookie to Add to My Trays & a Giveaway!

2009-12-17T00:00:00.007-05:00

Over the past week or so I have been pondering over which cookies I will make for my cookie trays this year. Two years ago I began to carry on my Mom's tradition of making Christmas cookies and giving out trays of them to family and friends. So many cookies, so little time! I usually do not stray to far from a handful of standard ones I make, but I do like to add a few new ones.

As of today, I have eleven different cookies picked out. Seven of them I have made before and four are new this year:

Almond Bars
Maple Logs
Spritz
Sugar Cookies (Stockings & Trees)
Pecan Butter Balls or Cinnamon Chocolate Butter Balls
Chocolate Chip Meringues
Cran Crackle Bars
Peppermint Meltaways
Potato Chip Cookies
Chocolate Nut Wafers
Cranberry Noels

I need your help to decide what the twelfth cookie will be! Leave me a comment with a recommendation (perhaps one of your favorites or a family recipe) of a cookie to add to this year's tray and you will be entered into my giveaway that is being sponsored by cookware.com, a part of CSNStores.com. In your comment let me know what prize you would like Santa to deliver to you.

So what's the prize you ask? The prize will be chosen from Le Creuset, Rachael Ray Cookware, or John Boos.

The choices are:

Le Creuset: A baking dish on this page or this page. (note: due to stock color may vary). Having recently purchased a Le Creuset stock pot and fry pan this brand has become one of my favorites!

Rachael Ray Cookware: Any of the Bubble & Brown Stoneware Bakeware excluding the 3 piece Stoneware Baker set. Click here to view the items. I bought the full set of this line a few months ago and can say it is extremely versatile. I have used the larger size bakeware for making a pork tenderloin and it was perfect for the roast and vegetables. They are great for cooking or baking.

John Boos: 18x12 cutting board. Click here to view. I wish Santa would drop one of these off at my house!!

Entries will be accepted until Monday, Dec 21st at 12 p.m. EST. Good luck and I look forward to seeing some great cookie recommendations!

Christmas Whoopie Pies

2009-12-16T18:05:00.005-05:00

I was browsing through the Williams Sonoma catalog the other night and came across their Holiday Tree Whoopie Pies that caught my eye. I new I had to try to make these myself. I used the Williams Sonoma recipe for chocolate cakelets and use my Mom's whoopie pie filling. Like many, I am a fan of mini desserts so I bought two Christmas Cookie Shapes pans from Wilton to use as my whoopie pie like forms.

I decided I wanted to bring these as a dessert to a friend's cocktail party so I did a test kitchen/trial run and then the real thing. Both times I ended up with very good results. My Mom's recipe for frosting was lighter an more airy than the peppermint buttercream I made for the second batch. Tough call in regards to which one I liked better. I think I am leaning towards the buttercream as the peppermint flavor was a nice addition. I came across the mint buttercream frosting from Jenna at Modern Domestic; adapted from Chockylit. I suppose I could have added peppermint to the first frosting I made, but I did not think of it.

I will share with you some tricks of the trade I learned while creating these. If you have experience with cupcakes or muffins your natural tendency is going to be to not want to fill the pans to the top with batter. Let go of your natural tendency. In my test run I tried filling some wells 3/4 full and then others all the way. Trust me on this one. You are going to want to fill these to the top so that your edges do not curl away and you get a nice imprint on your cakelet.

By filling to the top the batter will overflow while baking. Don't fret. It will all be o.k. Once you take them out of the oven let them cool for about 5 minutes. At this point, you are going to want to level out your cakelets. You can do this by taking a knife and slicing off, or my preference, by utilizing a piece of thread. Note, some may not look good from this angle since they puffed up, but you can fix that.

Cut a piece of thread about 12 inches long. You can make it shorter, but I like to be able to be comfortable with it in my hand and also to be able to move it around easily. Place it up against your cakelet and start to saw lightly back and forth. The thread will catch under the cakelet and you should be able to easily pull it along. If you let them cool too long it will not be as easy and if you don't let them cool enough it will be messy. I have used this thread tip with full size cakes and have always had good results.

So now you have a flat underside, but what are you going to do about the messy edges that overflowed? Take a pair of kitchen scissors and cut out the excess batter that cooked around the shapes. Before you know it, you will have nicely cut out shapes.

I was talking to one of my friends about how I made these and she was wondering if you could bake a sheet cake and then use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. My concern with this is that the sheet cake would be too floppy and not form as well as the pan shapes did. I cooked these about a minute or so longer so that they would not be as soft and flexible.

Once you have your cut outs you can proceed to decorate however you like. As mentioned, I made frosting to put in between two cut outs. I made my buttercream so that it was little more stiff as I did not want the cut outs to slide off of the frosting. I also tried grinding up some candy canes to put along the edges, but I could not get them to the right consistency. I tried smashing them with a rolling pin and also putting in the cuisinart. I did find some crushed peppermints at Williams Sonoma and will try these when I make them again next week. The only thing to keep in mind is that crushed peppermints are hard so you don't want huge pieces around the edges or those eating your treats will chip a tooth.

I really liked everything about these. The cakelets were moist, but firm and the peppermint buttercream frosting was a great last minute add! You can adjust these to whatever Holiday you are celebrating as their are many pans to choose from. The pans can get a little pricey, but keep your eyes open for coupons. I hope you will try these and enjoy creating them and test tasting them as much as I did!

Chocolate Cakelets
Williams Sonoma
Printable recipe

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2/3 cup boiling water

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease and flour pan.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, egg and vanilla; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk in the boiling water, then whisk in the butter mixture. Add the flour mixture in two additions, whisking until smooth and no lumps of flour remain.

Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan. Bake until the cakelets spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Since my pans were much smaller I started checking them around 10 minutes and ended up baking between 14-16 minutes. Remember that you don't want these to be too flimsy, but also you don't want to over cook. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cakelets cool for about 5 or so minutes. You can use the above mentioned thread trick to slice off the excess cake. If you are having a hard time slicing with the thread, then the cakelet is still too warm. I also used the thread to loosen the cake that had overflowed. Let them cool another 5 minutes, remove from pan and then cool completely on a baking rack.

Peppermint Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from Chockylit via Modern Domestic

Printable Recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk
1/8 to 1 tsp all natural peppermint extract

In a mixing bowl, beat your butter until creamy. Add four cups of the sifted powdered sugar and milk and beat until creamy. Add 1/8 of a teaspoon of peppermint extract and mix until combined. Taste the frosting – if it is not minty enough for you, continue to add small amounts of the mint extract until you reach your desired flavor. I did add an entire teaspoon. Once you have the flavor down, add enough powedered sugar until you get the frosting to the consistency you want.

Kate's Whoopie Pie Filling
Printable Recipe

1 cup milk
5 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup Crisco
1 stick margarine (I used butta)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar

In a small saucepan, blend the milk into the flour. Cook over low heat until thickened. This takes a while. Let cool.

Cream together crisco, margarine, vanilla, and sugar. Add the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixture for 10 minutes.

Whichever frosting you choose, I would recommend piping it on vs. spreading with a knife. Using a sandwich bag (snip off a little of one corner) or a pastry bag, fill either with the frosting and pipe on to one of the cakelets. Top with a matching cakelet. Next time I will use a deocrative tip when piping as it just finishes it off a little more. At this point, you can gently roll the sides of the cakelets in some crushed peppermints. I would not wait until the end of decorating all of them as the buttercream does start to get a little harder and form.

I made and decorated these the night before the party and they stored perfect in a plastic container in the fridge.

Operation Baking GALS: Round 15 (Recipes: Snickerdoodles, Cowboy Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels)

2009-12-08T22:30:00.001-05:00

I have had a very busy work schedule the past two months and my poor little blog has suffered! I have been baking and cooking many recipes and hope to get caught up after the Holidays.

I was sure to make time this past weekend to bake cookies for another round of Operation Baking GALS. As I have mentioned before, Operation Baking GALS is a group of volunteer bakers who bake and send homemade goods to our military men and women. The goal of the organization is to show our support and remind them how much we appreciate everything that they do for our freedom.

I signed up for 3 Teams this month. Two were outside of the country and one will be going out next weekend to a group of soldier that are recovering back here in the U.S. I actually sent out three packages earlier this week as one of the soldiers we were baking for had a friend that had not received a package yet so I felt the need to send him one!

The menu consisted of Snickerdoodles, Cowboy Cookies, and Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels. I have made the cowboy cookies before (aka Cowgirl Cookies for Breast Cancer Awareness), but the snickerdoodles and pinwheels were new. The snickerdoodles were my Mom's recipe and came out exactly how I remembered them. They are a sweet and buttery cookie that are crunchy on the bottom and have a top that is filled with sugar and cinnamon. While taste testing a few it brought me back to days of sitting on the couch in her house taste testing many of hers!

The Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels are a recipe I came across as I have been pouring over my magazines, emails, and recipe boxes deciding what I will make for the Christmas Trays this year. My first post last year (click here to read it!), was all about the Christmas Cookie Trays tradition of my Mom's that I have continued. I have really enjoyed my blogging experience to date and look forward to dedicating more time in 2010 to my love of baking and cooking!

So, the chocolate peppermint pinwheels did not turn out exactly as I had thought. I had expected more flavor from them. They were also a fair amount of work. I probably would not complain about that as much if they were some superb cookie! I hope the soldiers don't think I am bad baker! I really wanted to start over and do an old standby, but I had already baked dozens of cookies and needed to get things packaged up and ready to go to the post office. Included in each package were about 4 dozen of the variety of cookies, some gum, candy, munchies, and mini candy canes. I hope everything arrives in one piece and is not stale!

This weekend I will be finalizing my cookie tray list. I think I did 11 kinds last year. There are a handful of standard ones that I make and then each year I try a few new ones. What are your favorite Christmas cookie recipes? I saw a treat in a catalog the other day that I just had to try myself. I did a test run in my "test kitchen" last night and they came out great. I am going to a friend's party later this week and will be bringing them. If you are a fan of whoopie pies, you must check back for this great tasting and fun recipe!

Below are the recipes for the cookies I made for the troops:

Snickerdoodles

Kate's recipe box

Printable recipe

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend in dry ingredients. Shape ball into 1" balls and then roll in sugar. Don't sugar the bottoms. I used my small cookie scoop and did not form all of them into a ball shape (see photo below). The reason for this is when they bake the top crackles more and you get that not even look. Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. My Mom's recipe said it made 6 dozen, but I got 4 dozen!

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels
adapted from First
Makes about 6 dozen
Printable recipe

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 Tbsp crushed red and white had peppermint candies or candy canes
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Combine flour, salt, and soda. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Beat in flour mixture. Divide dough in half. Stir crushed peppermints into one half and beat chocolate into remaining half.

Flatten each piece, wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.

Roll out each piece of dough between sheets of lightly floured waxed paper to a rectangle approximately 16"x9". Put peppermint dough on top of chocolate dough and roll out to a rectangle approximately 18"x10".

Starting with one long side roll dough up into a log. Chill at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut dough into approximately 1/4" slices. Put 2" apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until edges just start to brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Cowboy Cookies: click here. Note, these were called cowgirl cookies when I used pink M&Ms and cowboy cookies when I used red and green M&Ms!

Crab Cakes

2009-11-18T06:00:00.005-05:00

One of the new products I purchased on a recent trip to Trader Joe's was canned crab meat. I am not usually a canned fish person, but thought I would give this a whirl. I decided I wanted to make crab cakes. A lot of the time I go to the standard recipe sites to look up a specific dish, but this time I decided to check out a fellow blogger's site.

I enjoy reading Kevin's posts on his blog Closet Cooking. He always has a variety of recipes that he shares. So, I went on over to his site and did a search on crab cakes and I found this great recipe. These were so easy to make and I cannot wait to make them again. My only adjustment was that I did not use as much as the green onions. I made 7 crab cakes out of this recipe. We found that two crab cakes on a bed of lettuce made for a perfect dinner. You could make these smaller and serve as appetizers as an option too.

We topped the crab cakes with a homemade version of Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. My brother had given me some habanero peppers a few days ago and I put them to good use. We were both big fans of Chris Schlesinger's Inner Beauty Hot Sauce and were sad when they stopped producing it. I had found a recipe online and decided to give it a shot. I learned after I made this that the original version is slightly different, but this was close. This hot sauce is mustard base with habaneros and mango. It's got a Caribbean flair to it. I was so pleased with the results! My camera was having issues and the ones I took with my iPhone were blurry (user error!) so I am going to wait to post about it until I try the "real" version.

Crab Cakes
adapted from Closet Cooking

(Printable Recipe)

1 pound crab meat
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mustard
2 green onions (sliced)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Mix the crab, bread crumbs, milk, egg, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, green onions, salt and pepper in a bowl.

Grab a handful of the mixture and form a patty. I found that if you squeeze the patty together you will not have an issue of it falling apart. Don't be afraid to do this! You could pop your mixture in the fridge to help this. I was ready to eat and not willing to wait for it to chill.

Heat the oil and melt the butter in a pan.

Fry the patties in the oil and butter until golden brown on both sides, about 2-4 minutes per side.

Operation Baking GALS: Round 14

2009-11-17T22:24:00.001-05:00

This month I signed up to send a package to a soldier overseas. The past two months my packages stayed stateside and went to our soldiers who are in the hospital recovering. I was feeling really bad as I have been so swamped at work that I just did not have my regular time to bake and missed our shipping schedule. I emailed my Leader for this round and she said it was o.k. to send late. My plan was to make pumpkin muffins and oatmeal raisin cookies. As I was racing home from work I realized that was a little ambitious for a weeknight given the fact I would not even turn the oven on until 6:30 or so. I decided to use my coupons from Immaculate Baking Company for the oatmeal raisins ones. Their refrigerated dough is all natural so thought I would give it a whirl. Of course the husband and I had to taste test a few out of the first batch out of the oven. We both gave them a thumbs up! For the pumpkin muffins I used this recipe which is now one of my favorites. This morning I headed off to the post office with the cookies, muffins and some fillers for the box that included, gum, candy, chips, and mints. Though late, mission accomplished! I hope everything arrives in good shape.

If you like to bake and would like to send something to our troops, I encourage you to check out Operating Baking Gals. You can visit our website here, or check us out on Facebook: Operation Baking GALS. The men and women in the Armed Forces are doing so much on our behalf that it is a great way to say thank you and send them something from home.

Veteran's Day 2009

2009-11-11T10:39:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that today is Veteran's Day. Please take a moment to give thanks to the soldiers who are serving our country, the veterans, and those who sacrified their lives on behalf of our country. Whatever your political views are, put those aside and honor our service men and women for doing their jobs.

In our family, we have two young soldiers in Iraq. I pray for their safety and thank them for doing all that they do.

Date Nut Spice Bread

2009-11-10T06:00:00.003-05:00

This quick bread was very tasty and has the Fall thing going on with it. You know, the cinnamon, clove, nutmeg thing. If you don't have any dates on hand or don't like them you could substitute with raisins or even cranberries. I topped a slice of this bread with Toffuti brand "Better Than Cream Cheese" from Trader Joe's with orange zest mixed in. It was sooooo good. Of course any kind of cream cheese can be used. What I like about this type of bread is that is easy to make and delivers such a great taste. It's pefect in the morning with a cup of coffee or as an afternoon snack. If you give baked goods as gifts around the Holidays you are going to want to try this one out!

I was introduced to this recipe on Smitten Kitchen where she adapted it from Ina Garten.

Date Nut Spice Bread

Adapted from Ina Garten

(Printable recipe)

2 cups coarsely chopped dates (10 ounces pitted)

1/3 cup orange liqueur such as Cointreau or Triple Sec

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon grated orange zest (2 oranges)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (3 oranges)

3/4 cup (3 ounces) coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter the bottom of an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pan. I don't have an 8x4 so used my 9x5.

Combine the dates and orange liqueur in a small bowl and set aside for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar together on medium speed for one minute. Scrape down the bowl. With the mixer on low, add the egg, vanilla, and orange zest. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. With the mixer still on low, add the flour mixture alternately with the orange juice to the creamed mixture, beating only until combined. By hand, stir in the dates with their liquid, and the pecans.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Visit the Food Network site for the recommended cream cheese spread.

Cranberry Sauce

2009-11-09T07:30:00.002-05:00

POM Wonderful had sent me some of their 100% pure pomegranate juice to try. The first thing I tried was pomegranate margaritas. At first, the tequila seemed to be too overpowering for me. I thought maybe I needed a better brand tequila, but then I got it right. Fortunately or unfortunately I then had a pomegranate margarita when we went to Maxwells 148. If you live in the Boston area be sure to check this restaurant out. Both the food and service is incredible. Chef Maxwell visits each table to check how your dining experience is and of course your meal. Back to the drink. It was superb! Of course, I wanted to recreate it. I have tried a few different creations, one of which I did like a lot, but just could not re-create exactly what I had at Maxwells so I am not ready to share the margarita recipe just yet. I am determined to get it right!

I came across a cranberry-pomegranate sauce and thought it would be a perfect use for the POM Wonderful as well as the bag of cranberries that keeps staring at me everytime I open the fridge. My Mom used to make a Cranberry Conserve that we would have around the holidays. I plan on making it this year for the first time for Thanksgiving. I would have tried that recipe, but I was missing an ingredient. This recipe is really easy to make and produces a nice tasting sauce. As it sets it does get thicker. I do warn you, I found it to be on the tart side. I did use a sugar substitute the first time around. I personally think it would be too tart if served on top of a meat or as a side. I eat Greek yogurt everyday and decided to try it in that. I added about a tablespoon to the yogurt, mixed it together, and it is now one of my favorite snacks. The creaminess of the yogurt mixed with the tartness of the cranberries and pomegranate add a wonderful flavor.

The second time around, I tweaked the recipe. I did not have any more POM so I used 1/2 cup of water and the juice of a large orange for my liquid, added walnuts, and I actually reduced the sugar. This still had the tartness expected from cranberries, but not as strong as the cranberry pomegranate one. It was a winner for me. I think if I were just going to use the sauce to mix with my Greek yogurt the first one was perfect for that. If making as a side or to add on top of meat my version is definitely less tart. It still has a kick to it, but not as intense as the first one I tried. I don't know if it was the POM that was adding the super tartness or if the sugar substitute just did not cut it.

Cranberry sauce is quick and easy to make and tastes wonderful! Start with the base of cranberries, 1 cup liquid, desired amount of sugar, and be adventurous!

Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

adapted from Pillsbury Thanksgiving recipe book

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup pomegranate juice (I used POM)

1 Tablespoon grated orange peel

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries

Kat's Cranberry Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

juice of a very large organe

1 Tablespoon grated orange peel

1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries

1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions for both:

In nonreactive 2-quart saucepan, stir together all ingredients. Heat to boiling over high heat, stirring occasionally. Please note, I did read that if you boil pomegranate juice you do reduce the health benefits. Reduce to medium-low. Cook 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cranberries "pop" and sauce thickens slightly.

Pour into a serving bowl or storage container, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

(Printable Recipes)

11/10 Update: I had some of my second recipe the next day and it was a little tarter than the previous day so you may want to tweek your sugar amount!

Slow Roasted Beef

2009-11-08T10:44:00.002-05:00

I have mentioned before that I am afraid of beef. Ever since the time I cooked it in a frying pan and it came out grey I have been harboring hard feelings. Well, times are a changing.

One of the many things I miss about working with my last manager is that we would always find a few minutes to talk food and share recipes. I recently stopped by his office and he shared with me the concept of salting and slow cooking an eye of the round cut of beef. It sounded very interesting. He sent me to the America's Test Kitchen site for the recipe. The recipe (Slow Roasted Beef) is from the episode, "Resurrceting the Roast Beef Dinner". You'll salt the beef about a day before you make it. Prior to it going in the oven you sear it and then roast in the oven at a low temp until it reaches the specified temperatures. You then shut the oven off (no opening he door!) until your therometer reaches the temperature for rare or medium.

While preparing my order for the Peapod grocery delivery service (yes I do this a lot at it saves me a ton of time!) I saw that eye of the round was on sale. It must be an omen. I added it to my order and planned on making it for a Sunday night dinner. Later in the afternoon, I went to the America's Test Kitchen site and read the recipe in detail. As mentioned above, you need to salt the beef and let it sit in the fridge for 18 to 24 hours. Since my order was not coming until Sunday a.m. I would not be able to make it for Sunday night dinner. Ugh. Plan B. Get in car and drive to Stop and Shop to pick up ANOTHER beef roast eye of the round so that I could still be on track to make it for Sunday night dinner. I wanted to make it Sunday as Monday is a week night and I don't like to fuss in the kitchen too much on weeknights. (I can say now, though, this recipe is not to fussy! ) Luckily, I grabbed the last one in the butcher case and headed home. The one that was delivered has been put in the freezer for another time.

So what is eye of the round and what's the deal with salting it for 18 to 24 hours? Since I am a beginner when it comes to beef I felt the need to finally do some research. Take a look on The Nibble as they show a beef cut diagram by the National Cattleman's Beef Association. I found it to be informative as a starting point. The diagram shows the many sections/cuts of beef. The round is in the back of the cow and since it is has been toughened by exercise it is not as tender as a sirloin or short loin. Top round, bottom round, and eye of the round are a few names of cuts from the Round. The Cook's Thesarus also has a good high level overview.

Before I move on to the importance of salting the beef, there are two more things that I would like to share with you that I learned. It has to do with marbling and grade. Have you ever heard of marbling in regards to beef? Bare with me. I am a beef newbie, but yes I was familiar with marbling! Marbling is the flecks of fat found within the muscle. The more marbling you have within a cut of beef the juicer and more flavorful it will be. The amount of marbling determines the quality grade of the beef. The U.S. Department of Agriculture grades meats according to their quality. The more marbling the higher quality grade you have. The higher quality grade the more money out of your pocket.

From what I wrote above we have learned that the eye of the round is considered a tougher piece of meat and has less marbling. The way you cook it is important. Actually, knowing the qualities of any piece of beef is important as the way you cook it can make it or break it. The two key items in the America's Test Kitchen recipe are salting and oven temperature. The salting is going to draw out the juices in the meat, but then they will be reabsorbed. I won't get all scientific on you here, but when you go review this recipe check out the "Science Desk" piece of the recipe as it goes into the details of what actually occurs when salting meat. If you want to learn more about different types of salt, Beyond the Shaker has a very good salt guide. If you sign up for their newsletter you get a free sample!

For this recipe it is important to have a probe meat thermometer. By using a probe meat thermometer you are able to keep the oven closed the entire time this beef is cooking. The importance of keeping the door closed is to maintain a constant temperature and higher moisture as that will contribute to making your not so prime cut of beef a great tasting piece of beef. I purchased a probe thermometer at Target for about $20.

I made the recommended horseradish cream sauce to go with this recipe and found it to be a delicious compliment with the beef. Overall, I am quite pleased with the way my beef came out. It was very juicy and tender. The inside flavor was very good, though I thought the outside was a tad bit salty in some areas. I read afterwords that some people washed the beef prior to applying the oil and pepper. I would not recommend that, but instead use a little less salt since I had a smaller piece of meat. My knives are in need of sharpening and I could not slice it as thin as it should have been so that thickness made it just a little chewy. For me, the doneness was perfect. It was true medium and that's the way I like my beef. I would have to say for $7.50 for a 2.5 lb piece of meat it was certainly company worthy. Next time I make it I may start experimenting with my smoky and spicy rubs to see how those would change the flavor! Jump on over to the America's Test Kitchen site to get the recipe. They do require sign up via email. It's worth it!

To follow are some photos along the way. You will note a cut off the thick piece of fat on the bottom. I probably was not supposed to, but everything still turned out excellent! The fourth photo shows how juicy the meat became after the salting.

Lastly, I just upgraded the updated the editor in Blogger which has some great features, but I have to figure out how to make a collage of photos vs. showing them one by one!

Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

2009-11-07T10:30:00.013-05:00

As mentioned in other posts, my husband loves barbecue flavored anything. I came across this recipe by Ellie Krieger on the Food Network. I read through the recipe and had all but two ingredients. I was missing a rotisserie chicken and liquid smoke. Have you ever heard of liquid smoke? I had not and was getting ready to google "substitutes for liquid smoke", but ended up googling "where to buy liquid smoke" and surprisingly saw many results that said it is in the grocery store near the ketchup, marinades, etc. Since it was getting late I decided I would head off to the store to pick up a rotisserie chicken and some liquid smoke. Low and behold, there it was; right where Mr. Google Foodie said it would be.

You could certainly use chicken breast in this recipe vs. the rotisserie chicken. Actually, I think it would be easier! It takes a little while to take off the skin and then shred the rotisserie chicken. It is also quite messy. I could have cooked some chicken breast and then pulled it apart with a fork and ended up with the same result.

Before moving on I should inform you of what liquid smoke is. Simply, it is condensed smoke turned into a liquid that is supposed to add a nice smoky flavor to dishes. Read all about it on wikepedia. I read a few articles about liquid smoke that provided many varied opinions of it. The key takeaway after reading about it was the warning of not to use too much as it can totally ruin a dish. I did not. I used the recommended amount because I was not familiar with it. I was not wowed by it.

I thought this dish was o.k. I honestly don't think the liquid smoke added anything. I could have got a deeper smoky flavor using canned chipotles or any type of a smoky chili powder or smoked paprika. My first impression of this was that it was very tomatoey, not BBQey. When I had some the next day for lunch I tweaked it with a dab or two of a smoky hot sauce. That helped as well as the flavors had more time to come together. I don't know if my husband was just being super nice, but he kept raving about it. I think for me, the flavor was off as I was thinking BBQ, but not tasting it. This recipe did give me, though, some additional ideas of what to do with chicken besides the basics of grilling it up.

Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
adapted from Ellie Krieger
(Printable Recipe)

Makes 6 Sandwiches

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14-ounce) can low-sodium tomato sauce (I used regular)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
5 tablespoons molasses (you could sub with brown sugar; about 3 3/4 Tbsp )
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 whole rotisserie chicken, skin removed, meat shredded into thin strips (about 4 to 4 1/2 cups)
6 rolls and lettuce leaves

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, vinegar, molasses, pepper and liquid smoke and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add chopped chicken, return to a simmer, and cook an additional 10 minutes.

Split rolls. Place a leaf of lettuce on each roll, then pile on 3/4 cup of the chicken mixture onto the roll.

Daring Bakers October Challenge: I am De Feeted (Recipe: Macarons)

2009-10-27T07:15:00.004-04:00

On my blog it is important to me that I share my successes and failures. I am a home cook and baker who is self taught and learns as she goes. If I only posted my successes it would imply everything I make comes out as expected which is certainly not the case. You know where I am going with this right? Chock this attempt at macarons up as a failure. Not as bad as my butter cream episode as these were at least edible, but geez these challenges are really starting to hurt my ego. I better ace next month's challenge or I may just cry! It is a tough thing to balance as a part of me wants to just jump in and figure it out myself while the other part wants to read up and learn as much as I can before I attempt the challenge. I think I need to find the happy medium.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern (can be found here) as the challenge recipe.

When some people think of macaroons (notice the extra "o") they think coconut. We are talking European macarons here and they are comprised of ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites. They are usually presented sandwiched together with incredible fillings. This is where the creative ones can go wild.

I would say I am not usually a "filled" cookie person so that is one reason why I had not jumped on the macaron band wagon earlier. I have never had a true French macaron which also makes it a little challenging as I only know what it should and should not be by what people tell me, not by taste. When this month's challenge came up I was not overly excited, but what the heck. The purpose of being a Daring Baker is to expand beyond my comfort zone. I started to get a little nervous though reading about those who had already done the challenge and the problems they were running into. Some were on their third, fourth, or fifth batch. Yikes! Looking back now, if I had not waited until the last weekend I maybe would have tried these again. I may have to, though, in the coming weeks attempt again as I want feet on my macaroons! Is that asking for too much? You see, a key attribute of French macarons are the "feet". Having feet on macaroons is sort of like winning the lottery. If you want to see what they are supposed to look like take a look on Tastespotting. I had a hard time finding, though, an explanation of what is going on to create the feet. I did find a post on Off the Bone which seemed to describe it well assuming it is factual! I make no attempt to wordsmith. Go here and read it. I know nothing about this blog, but it is all I could find as to what causes feet on macarons.

I must say I did start off my challenge as a Daring Baker. I did not feel like buying a bag of almond flour that I would probably never use again, so Miss Daring here made her own almond like flour. I ground 4 ounces of hazelnuts and 4 ounces of macadamia nuts with one cup (plus a little extra) of powdered sugar. The recommendation was that if combining nuts use 50% almonds as they have less oil. My flour was not wet, but maybe I should have dried it overnight. Though I did not follow the recommendation for 50% almonds, I am convinced that was not the demise of my feetless macaroons. This combination of flavors along with orange zest, gave my failure a truly delectable taste. To the point I ate three in a row. They were nutty with a hint or orange and had a crunch that ended with a chewiness. The batter was runny, but they did not stick to my silpat. They were just feetless flat cookies with too much air that tasted very good.

I do believe the problem was that I did not beat the egg whites enough, but then over mixed when I added the dry ingredients. I am mad at myself for that. I know better! Could it also have been my egg whites were not aged enough? Not to sure about that. This was not my first time working with egg whites, though. Once you have worked with egg whites, you just know when they are right. You can have egg whites that form peaks, but if you don't have the shiny/glossy look you will be doomed. Looking back mine had so called peaks, but they certainly were not shiny. Was it that sometimes I get a little nervous during these challenges and guess that just because I did not see any reference to shiny or glossy in the instructions I became inexperienced? I know I am acting like I am on a Food Network Challenge, but seriously even though I am in the privacy of my own kitchen the pressure is still on! I must admit I was also a little rushed as I was planning on making my first roast for dinner and since I was using a Cook's Illustrated recipe thoughts of comments Christopher Kimball recently made were filling my head too. Check back later for the roast recipe. It was a total success!

If you made it this far in my post you see I did not even include a picture at the top. I ALWAYS have a picture at the top. Since I felt de-feeted (get my funny joke?!) I just could not come up with a filling for these large creatures. A filling would have turned them into the size of a whoopie pie and let me tell you I make a damn good whoopie pie and I did not want to create any confusion!

For any of you bakers out there, please take a look at my photos and let me know if my conclusion of what went wrong is correct. Also, can anyone add any insight on why some recipes call for "drying" the macarons while others do not?

To follow is the recipe. Are you up for a challenge?

Be sure to check out the other Daring Baker's blogs across the world to see how they did on their month's Challenge!

Macarons
Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern
(Printable Recipe)

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons. Kat's note: My yield was also much smaller.

Chili Cream Cheese

2009-10-21T09:30:00.009-04:00

As noted in a previous post, I was quite pleased with the outcome of my homemade chili powder. The first batch I made included dried chipotle peppers, aji cereza, and aji limo rojo chilies. The chipotles provide some heat along with a smoky flavor. The Aji cereza are a very hot chili and the aji limo rojo are hot with a slightly sweet taste.

I chose cream cheese as my basis for testing the chili powder because it was quick and easy. I could take a tablespoon or two and add the chili powder until I got to heat level I was looking for. Lastly, if I hated it all it would not be an expensive or time consuming mistake.

The outcome was great. Cream cheese alone has a nice creamy texture and adapts quickly to what you add to it. I ended up using a ratio of about 1 1/2 teaspoons of chili powder to 1 Tablespoon of cream cheese. Even though I used some hot chilies, the end result was not too hot. The cream cheese picks up the deep colors of the chili powder and intensifies the longer it sits.

Granted this was just an experiment with my homemade chili powder, it was a quick way to test it out without a lot of work or waste of ingredients in case the outcome was not good Trust me, though, the chili cream cheese did not go to waste in my house!

When you try new things do you go for the gusto and make a full recipe or do you reduce it as a testing ground?

P.S. A few houskeeping notes:

There is so much I want to do to and with my blog, but I never seem to find enough time to divide and conquer. I learn as I go and make notes of things I would like my blog to have when I visit other blogs. Over the past few days, though, I have added two features. One is the capability to print out a version of a recipe without getting the entire post and pictures. You will find this under the recipe headings noted as "Printable Recipe". On the fence if I should update every single previous recipe with this feature. I probably will, over time. Lastly, I have added an option on the left nav bar for readers to sign up and receive an email when I post something new. For my bloggie friends out there: How have you improved your blog? Learn as you go? Take a class? Lots of reading online :)?

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip

2009-10-20T06:00:00.003-04:00

Have you ever gone out to eat and ordered the spinach artichoke dip for an appeitzer? I have. I also have read the fat and calorie content of some of the larger chain restaurant's spinach and artichoke dip. Ugh! Sorry, but if I were to waste that many calories and fat on something it better be a dessert!

We were having friends over and and decided I would make this as one of our appetizers. Guess where I found the recipe? Yes, allrecipes.com. It was quite a hit. I adjusted the original recipe in an effort to reduce some calories and I was very pleased with the results. You could certainly reduce calories a little more by using low fat cheeses. I have this one rule about cheese, though. Don't mess with it.

I had originally served it in a bread bowl, but did not get any pictures of it in that as I was too busy getting other stuff ready and it was gone before I knew it! The recipe calls for heating this in the oven for 20-25 minutes. I did do that, but the next day when we were snacking on some leftovers I just popped it in the microwave for a few minutes and it heated up wonderfully.

Do you have any favorite recipes that you have tweaked a little to make a little healthier?

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip
Adapted from allrecipes.com

(Printable Recipe)

2 (14 ounce) cans artichoke hearts, drained
2/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic
1 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup light cream cheese
1 cup low fat sour cream
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a baking dish. I believe I used a 2 1/2 quart round Pyrex dish. It may have been a little smaller.

In a blender or food processor, place artichoke hearts, Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese and garlic . Pulse until chopped, but not ground. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together spinach, cream cheese, sour cream and mozzarella cheese. Stir in artichoke mixture. Spoon into prepared baking dish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Baking for Our Troops - October Team Oven Loving for the Recovering (Recipe: Congo Bars)

2009-10-19T06:00:00.004-04:00

This month I participated again in Operation Baking GALS (Give A Little Support) and again joined Team Oven Loving for the Recovering. We had such great participation the prior month that we were able to send treats to a second recovering group. Instead of going to Maryland, my cookies went cross country to San Diego, CA.

My plan was to make mini muffins, but when they stuck to the mini muffin tins beyond belief I resorted to an old stand by: My Mom's Congo Bars. I blogged about these before, but the recipe I included was a photo of her original recipe. The one below is easier to read! It was very hard for me not to sneak one of these and when the husband came around looking for "defects" I had nothing to offer him. These are a tried and true favorite of my family. You can also play around with the ingredients: omit nuts, add cranberries, cherries, add a different type of nut, etc. You get the hint.

If you like to bake and would like an easy way to help support our troops, please be sure to check out the Operating Baking Gals site at: www.bakinggals.com or visit us on Facebook (Operation Baking GALS). Our troops, whether on the frontline or now home recovering from injuries received enjoy these treats more than you can imagine.

Do you have a favorite go to recipe that never lets you down?

Kate's Congo Bars
(Printable recipe)

Makes 2 dozen bars

2 3/4 cups sifted flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup oil (if you want to reduce calories try substituting half the amount of oil with applesauce)
1 pound dark brown sugar (you can certainly use light brown, but dark will give a richer flavor)
3 eggs
1 cup nuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 oz (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

In a medium bowl, mix and sift flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream and beat well sugar and oil.

Add eggs one at a time and beat well before adding the next.

Add flour mixture and vanilla to the wet mixture and then fold in nuts and chocolate chips.

Spread on a well greased pan and bake 20-22 minutes. Let cool and then cut.

Enjoy!

Seafood Stew

2009-10-18T09:45:00.002-04:00

While on vacation last week, I was supposed to be focusing on creating the posts for the 15 recipes I have waiting in queue. Well...... I was working out one morning and had the Martha Stewart show on and they made three recipes that I wanted to try. Coming home from vacation and not having a lot of groceries I turned to the freezer last to see what I could put together. I had scallops and shrimp. Hmmm.... a quick trip to the grocery store to get some fennel and I would be good to go with the Seafood Stew.

My version is a slight deviation from the original recipe as I chose to use canned diced tomatoes. There are just no good looking tomatoes around here after the super wet Summer. Given I was using the canned tomatoes I did not want to drain them and waste the the juice so I reduced the amount of chicken broth the recipe called for and used the juice from the tomatoes. I used a large can (28 oz) of diced tomatoes and about two cups of stock. You can certainly play around with the base of the soup to your liking. My base became tomatoe based vs. a chicken broth base.

A key ingredient in this stew is fennel. If you have never tasted fennel before, the raw bulb has the texture of celery and is crunch. The taste is a tough one to describe. Most say it reminds them of a licorice type flavor. I would have to say a very very mild licorice. I don't know what else to compare it to! I think it's one of those things you either like or won't go near. I found that it provided a nice change from the typical flavors I like and use so often. I also added tarragon to the stew as I thought that would be a nice combination with the fennel.

This recipe is really quick to make and is very versatile in the sense it is perfect way to warm up on a chilly day or could be serve to guests as an appetizer before dinner.

Seafood Stew
(Adapted from Everyday Food October 2009; original recipe can be found here)
Printable recipe

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, halved, and thinly sliced, plus fronds for garnish
1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes and juice
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
12 ounces medium shrimp
12 ounces scallops

In a medium Dutch oven or saucepan, combine oil and garlic; cook over medium-high until garlic is fragrant, 1 minute. Add fennel and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently for about 3 minutes.

Stir in broth and bring stew to a gentle boil. Reduce to a simmer.

Gently fold in seafood. Return to a bare simmer and cook until seafood is opaque throughout, about 3 minutes. Serve stew topped with fennel fronds and a drizzle of oil, with bread alongside.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Recipe: Cowgirl Cookies)

2009-10-17T08:30:00.003-04:00

Statistics tell us that 1 in 3 women in our lifetime will or have been impacted by breast cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009 over 190,000 of new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women. Add to that over 60,000 additional cases of in situ breast cancer. This year, over 40,000 women are expected to die from breast cancer. Only lung cancer accounts for more deaths in women. Breast cancer does not only impact women. In 2009, approximately 1,900 cases of breast cancer are expected to occur in men. In addition, it is estimated that over 400 men will die from this disease.

On February 6, 2006 my Mom lost her battle with a dual diagnosis of breast cancer and lung cancer that had metastasized to her brain. She was diagnosed a few days before Thanksgiving 2005. During those eleven weeks she underwent intensive radiation and chemotherapy. Some of the cancer masses decreased in size from the treatment, but others were growing at too rapid of a speed and ultimately took over.

For those who read my blog regularly, I often reference my Mom. She was my rock. When she died my world took a huge blow. It's three and half years later and I still miss her more than many know. She was my inspiration for this blog. I realized after recreating her annual Christmas cookie trays that baking and cooking was a way for me to find peace and comfort and to carry on her memory.

Before I share a recipe with you today, I ask you to do a few favors for me today. Take the time out of your busy day to do something that could save your life. Do a breast self exam, schedule a regular mammogram, and mark your calendar monthly to remind you to do a breast self exam. Take a second minute to remind someone you love and care about to get into the habit of doing monthly breast self exams and for them to schedule annual mammograms. Early detection helps save lives. Lastly, if you are a blogger remind your readers to do the same!

My recipe today comes from Angie at Bakerella. I love to read her blog and am always amazed at her creativity. Her post for cowgirl cookies (inspired by cowboy cookies) was accompanied by a jar gift idea. Jar gifts are a great way to share a favorite recipe. Check out her site to get more info on putting together the jar gifts and also the templates she provides. When I saw the pink M&Ms in the cookies and the jars I thought it would be a nice thing to give my friends this month with a reminder of breast cancer awareness month. The cookies came out wonderful. They are soft and a little chewy on the inside and have a slight crunch along the outside edge. M&Ms make so many holiday specific colors that these are a great addition to any holiday treat plate! If you are not a fan of M&Ms you could substitute chopped cherries or cranberries. I don't know how long those items would hold up in the jar gift, though.

10/21 Update: I was on Jen of Beantown Baker's blog and saw that she is hosting a Power of Pink Challenge this month as a way to promote breast cancer awareness. What does the challenge involve you ask? Make something pink! Please be sure to visit Jen's blog to get all the challenge specifics!

Cowgirl Cookies
Adapted from Bakerella

Depending upon the size you make you will get anywhere from 2-3 dozen cookies

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup M&Ms
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar as I like the rich flavor)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 - 1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 egg
1/2 cup butter (melted slightly in the microwave; about 30 seconds worked for me; you want it soft not liquid)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add:

1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 cup butter (melted slightly in the microwave; about 30 seconds worked for me)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use the back of a large spoon to work it all together. You may even need to use your hands to get everything incorporated. I definitely used my hands to bring it all together. I went back to the recipe twice as I was sure some wet ingredient was missing. Trust me, it just takes a little TLC to get everything combined.

Roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, place on a parchment covered baking sheet or silpat and bake for about 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. I used my 1 1/2 inch cookie scoop and baked for 9 minutes. The mixture does get a little sticky on the hands when rolling out. The way I got around this was to place a scoop of dough in my hand and then close my hand for about 5 seconds. The heat from your hand helps keep everything together and less sticky. I then rolled into a circle and placed on the cookie sheet. Angie said she got about 26-28 cookies out of these, but I got about 40 since I used the scoop.

If your friends are not of the baking nature, you can whip up a batch of these and give them a few as reminder of breast cancer awareness.

Have you ever created a jar gift? Any recipes you want to share?

Making Chili Powder

2009-10-16T08:43:00.029-04:00

A while back I posted about the chili peppers that were sent to me by the Marx Foods company. I pondered over many many recipes. Would I make chipotle brownies, a robust chili, chili oils or some other concoction? I decided I would focus on using all of the sample chili peppers and make my own special chili powder that I could then use in some of my cooking. I am a huge fan of Southwest flavors and thought this would be the best way for me to use the peppers. The results of making my own chili powder were comparable to the first time I made Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cake. I said I could never go back to a box mix. I can now never go back to store made chili powder. The difference is unbelievable. Spices are such a key ingredient to a recipe that this trial has inspired me to do more research on creating my own.Yes, I used a huge variation of peppers for my chili powder which a basic store chili powder cannot compete with, but the intense flavor was unbeatable. I ended up with a robust chili powder that when used in small amounts can add a slight amount of heat to when used in larger quantities adds an incredible spice to a dish.

I made two batches of chili powder. The first was just a small amount so I could get the hang of what I was doing and to ensure creating chili powder was the right way to go. I learned that using my Cuisinart mini chop was not the best route to take for chopping and grinding the peppers. It just did not make a fine enough powder. I purchased a coffee bean grinder at Target and that did the trick! Still not as fine as what I see from a store brand chili powder, but fine enough for me.

Since I used such a variation of chilies; from ancho (dried poblanos that provide a hot/sweet taste) to Aji Cereza (extremely hot; rank just below habanero) I cannot provide the exact recipe to create the chili powder I made as I did not count how many of each I had. The chilies I had the most of were ancho and chipotle (dried, smoked jalapenos that are very hot and smoky) and to those I added the rest of the ones that Marx Foods had sent:

Aji Amarillo: Peruvian yellow chili; medium to hot
New Mexico: dried Red Anaheim chilies; mild
Aji Panca: very mild with a fruity taste
Aji Limo Rojo: related to habanero, but not as hot

Making chili powder is pretty easy. Once you figure out what chilies you are going to use, just follow the directions below. I would highly recommend wearing rubber gloves during this process. If you do not wear gloves you can wash your hands and two hours later go to rub your eye or face in be in big trouble as it will burn like heck depending upon the heat of your chilies!

Recipe for making Chili Powder

Choose your peppers. Your canvas is open and you decide the heat level. I really encourage those who are not fans of hot things to try making their own chili powder using mild and sweet chilies. You really will taste the difference in your recipes. Below are just a sample of what I used.

Cut off the stems of the peppers and then cut in half to remove the seeds. Being the chili head I am of course I saved the seeds!

Place the peppers in a skillet and heat for about 3-4 minutes per side. Be very careful not to burn the chilies. If you do, it will really impact the flavor of your chili powder. If you are using chilies on the extreme hot end of the scale, be careful sniffing what is heating up before your eyes. When you heat the chilies and the heat is released from the pepper, the smells can be extremely strong and make you cough a little. Lets just say I am talking from experience!

Remove chilies from the skillet and place in a spice grinder. As noted above, I started with a mini chopper, but then switched to a coffee grinder as my chopper did not grind enough. Before placing in the grinder you can certainly use some kitchen scissors to chop up the chilies a little. At this point I added a few shakes of cumin, garlic, oregano, cloves, and allspice. Next, turn on your grinder and chop and grind away. Once you get to the texture you want let the powder sit for a few minutes before removing the cover of the grinder. Experience talking again here. If you remove the cover immediately, the dust has not settled yet and will produce another cough or two!

If I had not seen the offer to try the chilies I would never have thought to make my own chili powder. I was really pleased with the results and look forward to trying it again. I have made two recipes to date with my creation. I made chili cream cheese with the first batch of chili powder and a shrimp and pasta dish with round two. I hope you will visit again to see these recipes. Both of these were made on a whim and a figure out as you go dish and what I found so inspiring was that the basis of each dish was a spice combination that was truly my own.

Have you ever ground your own spices? Do you find a difference between your own vs. store bought?

It's Been Awhile (Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins)

2009-10-14T11:51:00.022-04:00

I cannot believe it has been over a month since my last post. I have been squeezing in cooking and baking with my busy work schedule, but just was not that good at getting my posts done. Those of you who blog about food know that it's not just about making or creating a recipe. There are photos and a write up to be done too! I need to get a better schedule in place so I don't go so long without a post! I am on vacation this week, so I plan to get caught up on my blogging. We spent a few days in Maine earlier in the week and I enjoyed a cooking class at the Stonewall Kitchen in York. It was a lot of fun, reasonably priced, and a full four course meal was served. More to come on that later this week.

With Fall upon us in New England, baking seems to involve lots of apples, pumpkins, and warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Do you have a favorite Fall recipe (cooking or baking) you would like to share? I find it hard to believe that I have not baked an apple crisp yet, but it's on the list. What I did make was some wonderful pumpkin muffins. The original recipe was for pumpkin bread, but I went for the muffins. The original recipe can be found here on allrecipes.com. I really like allrecipes.com as I enjoy reading what people liked and or disliked about a recipe and adjustments they made. My version below is my adaption, which I must say came out quite good! Next time I make I may tweak the spices a little more. The recipe is very versatile. If you only have white sugar then just use that. You could also substitute some of the flour with whole wheat flour. I would probably use 2 cups white and 1 1/2 whole wheat. Should you want to make bread instead of muffins, the recipe below will bake 2 loaf pan breads; three if you use the smaller 7x3 size loaf pans.

Pumpkin Muffins
(Adapted from Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread on allrecipes.com)

Makes 24 muffins or 2 9x5 breads or 3 7x3 breads

1 can Pumpkin puree (15 oz; plain old pumpkin - not pie ready)
3 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the muffin tins or loaf pans. For muffins, I use the muffin liners as that way I am guaranteed no stick!

In a large bowl, mix together the first five ingredients (pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, and sugar) until they are well blended. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Stir these dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until blended. If making muffins, fill the tins about 3/4 of the way full. Otherwise, pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 20 - 23 minutes for the muffins or around 50 minutes for the loaf pans. The time for the loaf pans is per the original recipe. As I did not make a bread, be sure to watch. They are done when you stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

Happy Fall!

Team Oven Loving for the Recovering

2009-09-11T06:44:00.002-04:00

I came across the Baking Gals site earlier this year and had planned on signing up to participate on one of the Teams that bake and send cookies to our Troops. For numerous reasons my schedule was not syncing up with their shipping schedule, but finally this month I could do it. I signed up this month to bake for our soldiers who are recovering from injury. The Team's mission is to send packages filled with homemade baked goods and well wishes to hospitalized soliders and their families. The baked items are incorporated into a program that is held each Friday in their honor. The program helps bring them together while serving them a home style meal in the hospital along with the baked goods.

Take a minute to think of the sacrifices these men and women have made for our country, their families, friends and for us and our family and friends. Since I enjoy baking so much, I thought this effort would be a small way for me to say thank you to our Troops and provide them with a taste of home as they recover.

I decided to make Martha Stewart's Blondie Cupcakes in the mini version along with Peppermint Cookies n' Cream Brownies that I saw on Baking Bites. The Blondie Cupcakes recipe says it makes 12 regular sized cupcakes. Since I made minis I ended up with 30. You can find the Blondie Cupcakes recipe on this previous post or on Martha's site. On to the brownies....

The recipe was inspired by and calls for Peppermint Jo-Jo's. These are a peppermint oreo cookie that Trader Joe's sells during the Holidays. Since it is September, I opted to use Newman O's Hint 'O Mint cookies. They are a minty oreo type cookie that worked fine in the recipe. I am a big fan of the peppermint Jo-Jo's so will be looking foward to when those are in stock! Nicole at Baking Bites notes that if you cannot find a mint oreo type cookie, use a plain one and add a teaspoon of peppermint extract to the batter.

The brownies came out very good. It is a rich batter with a nice hint of mint and crunch of the cookie. Since they were being shipped, I probably should have pushed down the cookie crumbs I sprinkled on the top just to avoid any falling off. Lastly, I baked mine for about 40 minutes which I think was just a few minutes too long. Since this was the first time I made them I was not 100% sure on the texture and was nervous (as usual) of underbaking.

Take a minute today and remember all that our Troops do on our behalf. I pray for those that are still in War fighting, those that have come home, those that have come home and have a long road to recovery and those that lost their lives fighting for our Freedom. Let's also remember those today that lost their lives in the terrible terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and their families that have had to face the unbearable losses.

Peppermint Cookies n' Cream Brownies
Adapted from Nicole at Baking Bites

1 cup butter
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups roughly chopped peppermint oreo-type cookies (approx 18)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, and grease lightly.

In a medium-large saucepan over low heat, melt together butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. Whisk in sugar, salt and vanilla, then turn off heat. Whisk in eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Stir in flour and cocoa powder until mixture is uniform. Stir in peppermint oreo cookies and pour batter into prepared pan.

Crush 3-4 additional cookies finely and sprinkle on top of batter, if desired.

Bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, but not coated with batter.

Cool brownies in pan for about 20 minutes, then lift brownies in the foil out of the pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Makes 36 brownies (or 48 bite-sized brownies).

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

2009-09-08T19:50:00.015-04:00

Today is my husband's birthday. Happy Birthday Dear! When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he said Boston Cream Pie. I had never made one before so I started to look at some recipes. I quickly decided I did not want to make it as it is a sponge cake base. My Daring Baker's fiasco was sponge cake and I am still traumatized plus I think sponge cake is a little boring. I told him to pick something else and he chose something "lemony." I looked around and found this lemon blueberry cake on Recipezaar. I love the combo of lemon and blueberry and knew he would too! The cake came out wonderful. It was very moist with a light buttery base accompanied by the tartness of lemon and then offset with the sweetness of the blueberries. It is so good I may have to have a second piece! This is definitely one for the recipe boxes!

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake
Adapted from RecipeZaar

Cake:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups blueberries, tossed with 1 tablespoon flour

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
8-10 teaspoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon corn syrup (I omitted this)
lemon zest

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter (or use baking spray) a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl, beat butter (or margarine) until smooth. Add sugar and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in flour in three additions, alternating with buttermilk. Beat for 2 minutes. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. I ended up baking it for about 56 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a sharp knife around edges of the pan. Turn out and cool completely.

Glaze: In a small bowl, mix together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until smooth. I added additional lemon juice to make the glaze a little thinner. I also added lemon zest to the glaze. Drizzle over top of cake and let it roll down the sides. Add additional lemon zest as a garnish if desired.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

2009-09-07T09:55:00.009-04:00

We were heading out to a cookout on Saturday and I decided last minute I wanted to bring something besides the standard bottle of wine. When I opened my pantry the can of pumpkin caught my eye. The weather has started to get cooler at night so the Fall baking ideas are in the back of my head. I also had some cream cheese in the fridge for another dessert that is on my list for this week. Hmmmm....let's go visit our friend Mr. Google and see what we can find. I decided to take that route vs. visiting some standard recipe sites.

I came across Celebrations while surfing. It is a website that provides ideas for Party Planning. I did not surf around the site as I just wanted the recipe. I will have to check it out another time. The first thing I noticed when reading the recipe was that these called for an 8x8 pan. Can I just tell you I like to bake bar cookies in a 9x13 pan. I always feel 8x8 is too small. Sometimes it annoys me when something calls for an 8x8 pan. Just a pet peeve I guess!!! The pan really is not to small. Just my quirkiness! So, started off with the 8x8 issue and then as I was reading the recipe through again it seemed like two packages of cream cheese, a can of pumpkin, and 2 eggs was going to make a lot of cheesecake batter. Sort of to the tune of that is two much for an 8x8 pan. Well, I had already mixed the graham cracker crumbs and butter and formed in the 8x8 pan so off I went.

Let's just say these are the thickest pumpkin cheesecake bars ever! This is not a bad thing. They can actually be served in small portions so that you get a mini tower of cheesecake. I added some allspice and omitted the cinnamon liqueur and these produced the taste I was looking for. A little Summer, with a hint of Fall!

As we approach the Fall season here in New England, I am really looking forward to using some of my favorites spices like cinnamon and allspice in both baking and cooking. Do you have any favorite recipes to share for Fall or a favorite season in your neck of the woods?

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
Adapted from Celebrations

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 cups graham cracker crumbs, finely ground
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups cream cheese, room temperature (2 - 8 oz. packages)
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Spray the bottom of an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with a non-stick cooking spray. Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix together until crumbs are thoroughly moistened. Pat an even layer of crumb mixture in bottom of prepared baking pan. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Add cream cheese into a mixing bowl and beat until whipped. Add the pumpkin and beat until creamy. Beat in sugar until smooth. Add eggs and beat until thoroughly combined. Mix in allspice.

Pour pumpkin cream cheese mixture in an even layer over graham cracker crust. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of the pumpkin cream cheese comes out clean. (I ended up baking mine for about 50 minutes). Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours or overnight.

Makes 25 cookies. Cut into 1 /12 x 1 1/2-inch bars and top with whipped cream, if you like, before serving. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Jerk Chicken

2009-09-01T12:30:00.003-04:00

I signed up awhile ago to get daily emails from myrecipes for dinner ideas. I like their site as I can read a recipe and the reviews from people who have made the recipe. They rate the recipe and give tips of what they liked, disliked, adjusted. The recipes are from Cooking Light, Southern Living, Sunset, Coastal Living, All You, Real Simple, and Heal.

The originally recipe is a jerk spice rub for shrimp, but I substituted chicken. Upon visiting my friend google, I came across the following history of jerk and Jamaican jerk. Jerk seasoning is a seasoning that had been traditionally used in curing chicken and beef in Jamaica and the Caribbean. The "jerk" in jerk seasoning comes from charqui, the Quecha root word for "jerky" which means dried meat. The Caribbean colonies made a lot of preserved meats because jerky was the only effective way to cure meat in the heat of the islands. As time went on, people developed their own unique cures for the different meats that they made and jerk seasoning was born.

There are many different forms of jerk seasoning in the Caribbean, but most people usually think Jamaican jerk when they hear the words "jerk seasoning". Allspice and thyme, along with heat from peppers are the ingredients that characterize traditional Jamaican jerk. It was the heat of the peppers that helped to preserve the meat while it cured. The peppers are what ensured it would be safe to eat. It is thought that many people acquired a taste for hot food as this result.
I go in stages of planning out our meals for a week. Those stages can range from planning out most night's meals to picking up sandwiches a couple times a week. Sometimes life gets in the way of my cooking plans. When I saw this recipe I knew it was a keeper and that I wanted to try it soon and I am really glad I did. The original recipe (you can find it here) calls for shrimp, but chicken tenders were on sale so that is what I used. I also doubled this as I did not feel like freezing the rest of the tenders. (Note below that I did not double the amount of oil as I did not think it was necessary) We got a lot of meals out of this and did not get tired of it one bit. I was sure my husband was going to ask for something different after having it for dinner and then lunch the next day. I was getting ready to freeze the rest of the leftovers and he made it clear that was not to be the case! This was my first time making and using a jerk spice rub and I was quite pleased with the results. This is one of my new favorites! I did make a pineapple salsa to accompany it too. I did not have all of the ingredients listed below, so I just added some peppers instead of the cucumber. The cilantro would have been a nice addition. The pineapple is a nice offset to the flavors of the chicken.

Jerk Chicken
Adapted from myrecipes

1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon paprika (I used smoked paprika as that is what I had on hand)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders
Cooking spray

1. Prepare grill to medium-high heat.

2. Combine first 7 ingredients. Combine oil and chicken in a large bowl; toss well to coat. Sprinkle spice mixture over chicken; toss to coat. Be sure to get the spices all over the chicken. Place on grill and cook based upon the size of your chicken. I used tenders and I think I cooked them about 4 minutes/side.

Fruit salsa: Combine 2 cups chopped fresh pineapple, 1/2 cup chopped cucumber, 1/2 cup vertically sliced red onion, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, and 2 teaspoons cider vinegar.

Giveaway Winners

2009-08-31T18:15:00.001-04:00

Since there were two comments for my giveaway and two prizes, guess what? Both win a prize of a Pillsbury Doughboy and a magazine of past Bake-Off recipes. The questions I asked were what do you think makes a winning recipe or do you have a favorite Bake-Off recipe. We got a reply for each:

I would think that a winning recipe is chosen based on many factors, such as taste, texture, appearance, how easy it is to follow, its universal appeal, and how easy it is to find the ingredients and equipment needed to make it!

My favorite Pillsbury bake-off winner is an old recipe called Blueberry Boy Bait. Perfect for this time of year. I just found the recipe and have already made it twice. It's easy and delicious.

Thanks to both of the participants for leaving a comment, providing nsight, and a new recipe for me to try!

Cake Bites

2009-08-30T08:09:00.000-04:00

I came across Bakerella's blog awhile ago and fell in love with her cupcake bites and cupcake pops. She has some really creative designs so I bookmarked her site and added it to my "must try" list. I made Martha's One Bowl Chocolate cake for the Bug cupcakes knowing I was not going to make 36 cupcakes, but instead would start a second project with the leftovers. It was perfect for making cupcake bites. I must add that I really like mini things. I like bite size appetizers and desserts like this. Maybe it's their bite size quality, that they look so cute, or that I kid myself thinking there are less calories. That is true, if you only eat one!

If you check out Bakerella's (aka Angie Dudley) blog you will see she offers ideas for cupcake bites, cupcake pops and cake bites. A plethora of ideas and designs to choose from. She was on Martha Stewart a while back and if you did not catch it, click here to watch it. Martha was amusing during the segment. I had purchased the sticks to make the pops, but decided it would be best to save those to present at a specific event, not something I was just trying during a weeknight. That decision sent me back to A.C. Moore to pick up the mini peanut butter cup molds which are the secret behind the design. I sent most of the finished product off to work with my husband and he returned with two empty containers and let me know the team enjoyed them. We kept about a dozen in the house and we savored them over the next few days.

I was using the cupcakes I had not decorated the day before as my chocolate cake center which was a huge time saver. Also, once you get a rhythm going the production moves along at a decent pace. I had a slight issue with the temperature as it was hot and humid. The impact was when I was dipping the tops in the chocolate the bottoms began to slightly melt and were at times challenging to hold on to and not drop in the chocolate! There are two things I would change on these the next time I make them. I am going to try to find an all natural substitute for the chocolate melts. The taste is fine, it's just that there are a lot of artificial colorings added. I would also make my own frosting to mix with the cake vs. using the store bought. I found these to be a rich dessert. Not rich like a cake with chocolate ganache, but rich as they bring together the flavors of a deep chocolate cake engulfed in a candy coating. I had a fun time making them and will definitely make them again. They could be used for a special occasion - a bridal shower, a baby shower, a graduation, a dinner party. You decide! I can guarantee they will receive rave reviews!

Cupcake Bites
Adapted from Bakerella

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake... or Martha's One Bowl Chocolate cake!)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.) (I only used about 60% of the container)
1 package chocolate bark (or candy melts for cupcake bottom)
Colored candy melts (for cupcake top)
Candy Cup Mold s (medium peanut butter cup molds; I worked with two sets)
Sprinkles and m&ms for decoration

After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. (The texture should be fine/fluffy). I put into my food processor and finely chopped.

Using the back of a large spoon, mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)

Roll mixture into quarter size balls (make sure they are smaller in diameter than that of your candy mold) and lay on wax paper covered cookie sheet. I used my small cookie scoop so that each cupcake bite would be the same size.

Chill in the freezer for a few minutes, until they are slightly firm, not frozen.

Melt chocolate bark and candy melts in microwave per directions on package.

Using a spoon or squeeze bottle, fill each mold cavity with a small amount of chocolate. I opted for the squeeze bottle as I don't have the steadiest of hands. I placed the melted chocolate into a plastic baggy that I had set up in a glass. I zipped up the bag, cut a small piece of the corner off and then was able to easily get the chocolate into the squeeze bottle. This is a great tip to get royal icing in a squeeze bottle too.

I filled them about 50 - 60%. As soon as you fill the cavity, place one of the rolled balls into it. Carefully push it down until the force causes the chocolate to push up and fill in around the sides of the ball. You may have to experiment with a couple to get the right amount. Stop pushing once the chocolate reaches the top edge.

Place the mold tray filled with cupcakes in the freezer for just a few minutes to let the chocolate set. Remove and then gently pull up on the cake ball top to release from candy mold.

Holding the bottom of the cupcake, dip the top in another color of melted chocolate

Decorate.

Taste.

Impress your friends and family.

Makes about 50. Store in an airtight container and they will last for several days.

My Attempt at Cupcakes (Recipe: Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cake)

2009-08-29T09:25:00.002-04:00

As mentioned in my last post, I said the next post would be about my cupcake adventure. I know people must think I am crazy since I stated I had never made cupcakes before. What can I say? I grew up in a cookie house!

I made these cupcakes to bring to a friend's house for dessert for her two young children. I started by checking out Martha's site to see what ideas she offered. I settled on "Bug" cupcakes. They are really cute. The ingredients recommended making Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cake. I cannot say enough about this recipe. I kept taking a whiff as it was in my mixer and the batter just smelled incredible. It has a great chocolate flavor and was very moist. I obviously put the batter in cupcake tins. I should have made half the recipe, but I decided I would use the rest for a recipe I had been wanting to try. Think Bakerella and I will leave it until tomorrow's post.

I found it sort of funny that Martha suggests using the One Bowl Chocolate cake recipe for the cupcakes, but does not reference a baking time or any cupcake related info. I did a quick google search (remember I have never previously made cupcakes - the blondies don't count as that is a very different batter) and determined I should bake for about 18 - 20 minutes. I also read I should not fill the cups all the way; only about 3/4 of the way. Well..... I decided it would be ok to fill them a little more as I was going to be cutting the tops off to make the bugs. Not a bright idea. The cupcakes rose more than I expected and turned practically into muffins!

The tops ended up being too big as bug wings, but I made do. They were truly top heavy!... but oh, don't they look so good?

I did not make my own frosting as I was running short on time. Store bought just does not taste the same and it was not easy to work with so I did not put as much on the bugs as I could have. The recipients did not mind. The kids loved the cupcakes! I only made 4 bugs and then just put a small amount of frosting on two others. As mentioned above, I used the remaining cupcakes for my next project that you will see tomorrow.

In reading through the One Bowl Chocolate cake recipe, I realized it called for buttermilk and I had none. I did not want to go buy any as it comes in a big container and I would never use it. I came across an ingredient substitution list on allrecipes. I read I could just use a Tbsp of vinegar plus enough milk to make a cup (for a 1 cup substitution; note this recipe calls for more). Worked like a charm. Check out the ingredient substitution list here.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Unsalted butter, for pans
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans
3 cups all purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups warm water (thought this was odd, but followed recipe and it was fine!)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Makes 2 eight-inch square or 3 eight-inch round layers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa or line cupcake pans with liners.

Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 1/2 cups warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter and about 18 to 20 minutes for regular size cupcakes.

Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.

For assembly of the bug cupcakes, please visit Martha's site. You will need frosting, gumdrops, and licorice as additional ingredients. There is a great tip about using a piece of thread to remove the tops. I tried it and it was a great idea. As mentioned earlier, the One Bowl Chocolate cake was superb and I don't know if I could ever go back to a box cake mix. Overall, I thought these were a really cute idea and it made me smile to see the kids eyes light up when I entered the house with this fun treat! Isn't that what the joy of baking is all about???

Blondie Cupcakes

2009-08-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

I tried to stay away from them. Really. I wanted nothing to do with them. They are all the rage, but I will take my cookies over them any day. Then, Megan at Delicious Dishings presented these stunning ladybug cupcakes. I had just seen Martha's Cupcake book the day before at Target. I came close to buying it, but told myself I am not a cupcake person. But geez, the cupcakes are so darn cute!

Our friends invited us over to dinner and when asked what I could bring she said dessert. She hinted towards Blondies. Those are a regular item I make so I was not overly enthusiastic to make them only because I could make them in my sleep. Don't get me wrong, they are always a crowd pleaser, but to someone who always like to try new things I think I can say I have these mastered.

I then started thinking that the Blondies would be a boring treat for her two little kids. The damn cupcake idea flashed in front of my mind again. Should I try? Well, maybe I could look at Martha's site and she what she had for ideas. Nothing crazy at this point, but maybe I could try some. I have never made cupcakes before. Can you believe that? OK. I did end up making a chocolate cupcake and they were a hit, but as usual I learned something along the way. My next post will detail my journey on the road to cupcakes! Don't worry, I am not going to turn into some crazy cupcake baker. I had fun, but I am a cookie kind of gal!

Back to the Blondies. These are a basic Blondie recipe, but the added twist is that they are baked in a muffin pan. I did find them to be a little big at first, but who am I kidding? Like I only ever eat one Blondie? I think making these in the mini muffin pans would be a great idea, though, to offer a bite size option.

The difference between these and my Mom's tried and true Congo Bar recipe is that these are a little dryer mainly because there is one less egg and uses less butter than oil. Though my Mom's recipe is my standby, I would certainly make this version again! I did not have toffee chips/toffee bars on hand so I substituted with chocolate chips. I personally felt like they needed nuts, but my friend was clear this was to be a no nut Blondie.

Blondie Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 chocolate covered toffee bars (1 1/4 oz each), finely chopped-about 1 cup) (I used chocolate chips ; 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a standard 12-cup (each 2 1/2 inches wide) muffin pan; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Add flour mixture, and beat just until combined (do not over mix). Fold in chopped toffee (or other add ins).

Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each about halfway. (Mine were filled a little more than halfway)

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes.

Transfer to wire rack; cool 10 minutes in pan. Turn out blondies onto rack; cool completely, top side up.

August 2009 Daring Baker's Challenge: Dobos Torte

2009-08-27T00:15:00.003-04:00

It is that time once again when Daring Bakers across the world participate in a baking challenge and then blog about it. This month's challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

Now that administrative part is done, let's cut to the chase on this one. My challenge of creating the Dobos Torte did not end up in a positive manner. I had never made sponge cake or buttercream frosting before, though I had made caramel. The sponge cake and caramel came out fine, but I failed beyond belief at the buttercream frosting. Well, actually, I failed at it twice! As you see in my photos, my buttercream became extremely soft which led to the caramel sliding, the frosting on the side looking like I had never decorated a cake before, and lastly a completely pathetic outcome. As I went to slice it, everything just shifted to the right in a leaning way. I wish I could tell you what it tasted like, but I cannot. I can only tell you that my version of buttercream frosting tasted like dipping my finger in butter. After the cake slid sideways on the plate, I calmly grabbed a trash bag and placed said cake in it. I picked up the kitchen and called it a day. My ego is still bruised, but I will be o.k. and keep working on this baking thing. I will share my experience and tips on this Challenge and then maybe someone can help me understand what I did so terribly wrong to create a melted buttercream disaster! It was 90 degrees and very humid the day I attempted this Challenge. Perhaps that played a role in it. Have you had any baking or cooking fiascos? Does is bruise your ego??? Do you try to make the best of it or just get through it and move on?

The recipe is really long so instead of adding notes and tips along the way I have included a link to the PDF here (it includes links to resources and photos) and tips/lessons learned below. I also posted some photos on flickr. For a slide show click here, for the set click here.

Tips/Lessons Learned:

Sponge Layers:

I used 9" disposable cake tins for the sponge layers. I used the tin as a template and traced the bottom on parchment paper. I cut out 6 circles and placed each one (pencil trace side down) in the cake tins and then sprayed with Baking Pam. I just knew that if I used the tins I would be guaranteed better consistency and shape vs. me doing it freehand.
Having never made a sponge cake before I was not familiar with the batter. Guess what? It's spongy!
The folding in of flour into the cake batter was not your typical folding exercise. I found that folding in flour took much longer than folding in egg whites for example. You want to ensure your flour is all mixed.
When the cake comes out of the oven let it cool for a few minutes and then go around the edge with a knife. For me, once cool, they popped right out. Note that they did shrink a little in size once cool.
I would not recommend cooling them on a rack as they get an imprint on them. For a few, I removed the parchment and then placed back on another sheet of parchment. They stuck a little. For the others, I let them totally cool in the cake tin and did not remove the parchment until assembly.

Buttercream:

I need tips here! On my first batch I used superfine sugar and no eggs. Substituted milk and corn starch for the eggs which I did based upon another Daring Baker's trial. The problem with this batch was the sugar was crunchy in the frosting. The second batch I used confectioners sugar and followed the recipe. Maybe I should have let it chill more in the fridge. It was in there about an hour. It seemed to be o.k. as I started to assemble and then as I added layers it got softer and softer.

Caramel Top:

Be organized and patient. Have your tool of what you will spread the caramel with greased and ready to go. The sugar will take a while to caramelize and you will notice the color changing slowly and then all of a sudden it will be amber in a blink of an eye.
Make sure you scrape out all of the caramel from your pan. It will harden and it will be a pain to get out afterwords. You can always add a little water and reheat. I, on the other hand, forgot about the pan and ended up throwing it out!

Be sure to check out my fellow Daring Bakers blogs and their Dobos Torte. This group is extremely talented, dedicated, and creative! Lastly, if you want to learn more about Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks, visit The Daring Kitchen.

Pillsbury 44th Bake-Off: You Be the Judge! AND my First Giveaway

2009-08-23T21:32:00.011-04:00

For the first time in the 60 year history of the Pillsbury Bake-Off YOU can help determine recipes that are going to compete for the $1 million grand prize!

Judges originally selected 20 recipes that are being placed online at www.bakeoff.com in pairs for a period of two weeks. At this point, there are three pairs of recipes left to vote on. Right now you can cast your vote for either Pizza Pretzels or Tangy Honey Ham Hoagie. Additional recipes will be posted on 9/3 and 9/17. The recipe from each pair that wins the most votes will earn a spot in the final competition, to be held April 11-13 2010, in Orlando, Florida! To learn more and cast your votes visit www.bakeoff.com!!

If you have a minute, watch this short video of Jann Atkins, Bake-Off Kitchens assistant manager, as she shares some tips for evaluating a recipe.

In honor of the Bake-Off would you like to win a prize? I am giving away two packages that each will include a Pillsbury Doughboy giggle doll (yes he really does giggle!) and a magazine of past Bake-Off recipes. All you have to do is leave a comment and let me know what you think makes a winning recipe or if you have a past Bake-Off recipe favorite to share. You have until, Sunday August 30th at 5 p.m. EST to leave a comment. Please be sure to leave an email address if you do not have a blog.

My friends at MyBlogSpark are sponsoring this giveaway. If you are not familiar with them, be sure to check out their site. As a member of MyBlogSpark you can choose to receive information on topics and products based upon your interests. I have recently participated in helping to chose the next few covers of Betty Crocker recipe magazines and as a perk received copies of the final magazine.

My Public Service Announcement for the Day

2009-08-22T11:28:00.004-04:00

Has anyone heard of Create TV? If you have not, you must check it out! To sum it up, I would say it is Public Televison's version of round the clock DIY. They offer shows on cooking, arts and crafts, gardening, home improvement, and travel. To learn more, click here. Check out your local channel listing to see if it is offered in your area.

Since we are going to the Red Sox later today and that always includes a stop at Boston Beer Works I figured I would make a guest appearance on the treadmill. I really have to get better about exercise. When I used to live in the city I walked everywhere. In the suburbs I drive everywhere. No more walking to work, shopping, going out etc. I always feel better after exercising, but seriously I rather be cooking or baking!

We have a TV in our workout area in the basement, but I am too cheap to pay an additional $10/month for a cable box so I get the basic channels. I must say, though, I do get a fair amount of channels. This a.m. I got moving on the treadmill and flipped on the TV. A week or so ago (ugh, was that the last time I was down there??) I came across Create TV and they had old Julia Child's cooking shows on. I was able to catch a Baking with Julia episode. It was enjoying to watch Julia and her guest, Beatrice Ojakangas - an expert on Danish pastry, make some Danish treats. Today I watched Rick Bayless. He is a well known restaurant owner, chef, and, TV personality. Through all of these avenues he has introduced truly authentic Mexican cuisine to Americans. I learned today that he is the face behind Frontera salsa. I have purchased this salsa before at Whole Foods and for a store bought jar salsa give it a thumbs up. So, take a minute to check out Create TV! If you cannot find it on TV there sure is a lot of info on the website!

GO SOX!

The Goodies Have Arrived

2009-08-22T09:07:00.000-04:00

Marx Foods recently had a post on their site asking if anyone wanted to review some of their dried chilies. The regulars who read my blog (really, I know there are a few :) ) know that I love love love spicy food. This offer had my name all over it and it is my first food review! Well, the chilies arrived earlier this week. My oh my, I received six samples of different dried chilies and some of them even just smell hot. I am on a search for recipes. Does anyone have some to share with me? I have never used dried chilies and am reading up on how to reconstitute them, make chili powder, pastes, and oils. I am going to try to get creative here so be sure to check back in to see my culinary adventure with dried chilies is progressing!

The package included the following organic dried chilies:

Aji Amarillo: Hot
New Mexico: Hot
Chipotle: Hot
Aji Panca: Mild
Aji Limo Rojo: Hot
Aji Cereza: Extremely Hot

Caprese Pesto Mini Kabobs

2009-08-21T15:30:00.003-04:00

I made these as one of the appetizers for the family dinner the other evening. I had seen recipes for Caprese Kabobs pop up on a few different blogs recently. I then saw the addition of pesto and the use of toothpicks vs. kabobs and decided that would be the route I would take. I did not jot down the name of the blog I saw these on so I really apologize for not giving credit where credit is due. The original recipe used pine nuts and more oil and since I have a recipe tweaking sickness I tweaked. I am not a fan of pine nuts so I substituted with walnuts and per personal preference reduced the amount of oil. These went super fast! We had four adults so I used 20 tomatoes. I just did not want to end up with too much that would not get eaten. The flavor of the basil and the cheese comes through wonderfully in the pesto and since I used heirloom tomatoes they added different flavors. Careful, these are addictive!

Caprese Pesto Mini Kabobs

1 pint of tomatoes (I get the mix I used at Trader Joe's; you can always use grape or cherry tomatoes)
Mozzarella balls (I purchased a small container of the balls and then cut the balls into fours)
A bunch of basil (Used my Cuisinart Mini Chopper and filled it. All depends upon how much you want to make)
A healthy handful of walnuts

A clove or two of garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I used shredded as that is what I had)
about a 1/2 cup olive oil

Remove stems from basil and add basil, walnuts, and cheese to chopper/food processor. Chop until paste like. Slowly start to add oil and continue to mix/grind/chop or whatever your machine says! The amount of oil added is really a personal preference. I like my pesto a little thicker so went a little lighter on the oil and used about a little under a 1/2 cup.

Add tomatoes and mozzarella cheese to a large bowl. Add desired amount of pesto and mix. Take a toothpick and add a tomatoe and piece of cheese to each toothpick and lay out on a plate. Watch them go fast!

I ended up with a fair amount of pesto leftover. I had lots of tomatoes so the next day I took a handful of tomatoes, some mozzarella, added some pesto, mixed together and ate as a tomato salad vs making mini kabobs. Pesto has such basic ingredients, but packs so much incredible flavor!

Easy as Pie - Key Lime Pie

2009-08-19T06:00:00.002-04:00

I first learned of this recipe a few years ago when a friend was on Weight Watchers. She brought this over for dessert and I have made it numerous times since. It certainly does not have the intense flavors of a true Key Lime Pie, but it is a quick and tasty low calorie version!

Key Lime Pie

Serves 8

1 Reduced Fat Graham Cracker pie crust
1 package of sugar free lime gelatin
1/4 cup boiling water
1 container Cool Whip or Fat Free whipped topping
2 6 oz Key Lime Pie yogurts (I used Dannon Fit this time around)
Lime Zest (optional)

In a large bowl, add gelatin and boiling water and dissolve the gelatin.

Mix in yogurt.

Fold in whipped topping.

Spread evenly into crust and sprinkle with lime zest.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Gazpacho

2009-08-18T17:59:00.008-04:00

This past weekend we had family over for dinner. I debated about what I would make as I knew it was going to be a scorcher. I decided that a cool and refreshing bowl of gazpacho would be a nice starter to the rest of our dinner. Gazpacho is a tomato based raw vegetable soup that is served cold. It's perfect for a hot Summer day! I found this recipe on Elise's Simply Recipes blog (which you should definitely check out) and would certainly make it again! There are many versions of gazpacho. Some don't even use tomatoes, but instead V8 juice. Do you have a favorite gazpacho recipe? Please do share! :)

Gazpacho
Adapted from Simply Recipes

Serves 8

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 purple onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 sweet red bell pepper (or green) seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 clove garlic, minced (I used 2 cloves)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
6 or more drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (omit for vegetarian option)
4 cups tomato juice

*Note: I did not "finely" chop all of the ingredients, but instead "chopped". I wanted to achieve an end consistency that would resemble a thick, but chopped soup. Does that make sense?

Combine all ingredients. Blend slightly (I used my food processor) to desired consistency. Place in non-metal, non-reactive storage container, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight, allowing flavors to blend. Since my husband and I really enjoy Southwest flavors, I added some Chipotle Chili Pepper spice on our servings. It added a nice smoky flavor with a little kick. Don't like the kick? You could try smoked paprika.

Before I sign off I should comment on two things. One is that I did have a slight fiasco when making the gazpacho. Let's just say, make sure the chopper is fitted properly in the food processor. If it is not and you go to fit it after the fact you could potentially have gazpacho coming out of the bottom of the food processor. It was quite a site! Lastly, you will note a piece of bread in the photo below. Yes, it was 90 degrees and I made bread which required my oven to be at 450 degrees for about an hour. It was sooooooo worth it!

Guacamole Salad

2009-08-14T17:58:00.009-04:00

I have been baking and cooking a lot in the past two weeks, but slacking on posting! Since this salad takes about 10 minutes to make I figured I should take a few minutes to post it as it is a great addition to a Summer cookout. The weather here in Boston is looking great for the weekend, so I may be making this again! The salad offers a wonderful mix of flavors and textures along with just looking nice with all the different colors of the ingredients. The lime adds a zesty flavor to offset the spice of the cayenne while the avocado provides a nice rich creamy flavor with each crunchy bite of pepper. Next time I make it I think I will reduce the amount of oil a little and add some grilled corn. My version of this salad was given a slight Southwest flavor with the addition of cumin and cilantro.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Guacamole Salad
Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa

Serves 6

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and ½-inch diced (I used a red and yellow pepper)
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
½ cup small-diced red onion
2 Tbsp minced jalapeno peppers, seeded (2 peppers) (my regular readers know I did not seed them!)
½ teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice, (2 limes)
¼ cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Optional: I added 1/2 tsp cumin & about 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 ripe Hass avocados, seeded, peeled, and ½-inch diced

Place the tomatoes, yellow pepper, black beans, red onion, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and lime zest in a large bowl. Whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, and cumin and pour over the vegetables. Toss well.

Just before you’re ready to serve the salad, fold the avocados into the salad. Since it is only my husband and I, I only used one avocado and then as we ate the leftovers chopped up an additional one. Check the seasoning and serve at room temperature.

Magic Cookie Bars aka Seven to Nine Layer Bars

2009-07-29T07:00:00.006-04:00

I realized the other day that I had made these bar cookies a few weeks ago, created a draft post, and then never ended up posting them. How rude! My inspiration for these came about when reading about them on Baking Bites. When I grabbed the condensed milk out of my pantry there was a recipe booklet attached. Little did I know that these were a trademark cookie for Eagle Brand condensed milk. Do I live in cave or something? My recipe below is a combination of Nicole's from Baking Bites, the Eagle Brand recipe and my tweaks. Hmmmm, does that now mean I created my own recipe? :) Mine ended up as a Nine Layer Bar! These are a very rich bar cookie and I would suggest cutting the cookies in half the size I did! I think next time I make them I will mix up the ingredients a little and reduce the amount of chocolate chips and add either some craisins or dried cherries. Lastly, as noted on Nicole's blog, using salted nuts would help balance the sweetness.

Magic Cookie Bars

Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies

2 1/4 - 2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup oats
Cinnamon (I think I used 2 1/2 teaspoons; maybe 3)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (I had walnuts on hand)
1 1/2 cups of flaked coconut

Preheat over to 350 degrees

In small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, oats, and cinnamon and stir together. Add butter and mix well. Press the crumb mixture firmly on bottom of 13x9 inch baking pan.

Pour condensed milk evenly over mixture. Layer evenly with remaining ingredients; press down firmly with fork. (Sorry about the shadow below!)

Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool and cut into bars or diamonds. Store leftovers covered at room temperature.

Daring Bakers July Challenge: Milan Cookies

2009-07-27T06:50:00.005-04:00

The July Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies by pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

We had the option of baking both cookies or just one. I opted just to do the Milan Cookies as it is stifling hot, I am not a marshmallow fan, and I waited until the last minute! I have not had a Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano cookie in ages, but this take on those reminded me how I could never eat just one of them! I adjusted the recipe slightly by using Lindt Dark Intense Mint chocolate instead of plain chocolate. I thought the combination of the mint along with the orange zest and lemon extract would provide a nice blend of flavors. The rich orange mint chocolate between the two thin layers of vanilla lemon cookies proved to be a winner. My cookie was thinner than a Pepperidge Farm Milano and not as crumbly as I remember the Pepperidge Farm ones to be.

I found the Milan cookies to be fairly easy, though time consuming. The biggest challenge for me was piping the cookie dough with a steady hand. I did fairly well on keeping them a consistent width and length. A few separated a little mainly due to air bubbles. A suggestion to ensure that they all come out the same size would be to create a sheet that has all the same size shape and place it underneath a piece of parchment paper. This way, you can easily trace the shape. I did notice that my last few batches seemed to have more bubbles in them. I am not sure if it had been sitting in the warm kitchen too long or I had not squeezed the dough together enough in the pastry bag.

All in all a good challenge. I love trying things I have not made before. The more I bake the more I enjoy learning how ingredients come together and what happens to them in the oven.

Be sure to check out my fellow Daring Bakers by clicking here! For more information on the Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks, be sure to check out The Daring Kitchen!

Milan Cookies

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used light cream)
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt Intense Mint Dark chocolate)
1 orange, zested

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. The 1/4 inch tip produces a thin cookie. I would certainly suggest trying a 1/2 inch tip.

5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald (heat to just under boiling) the cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. I actually put the chocolate in a ziploc bag and cut a notch in the corner so it was like a pastry bag and piped onto the cookie. I had more control over the chocolate this way and it was a little neater.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Chewy Hermits

2009-07-19T07:30:00.000-04:00

One would wonder why on a hot and very humid Saturday One would decide to bake cookies. The answer is The One likes to bake and does not mind sweating to make a good cookie!

This hermit recipe is one that my Mom used to make all the time. They offer a rich spice flavor with the mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves & ginger and are nice and chewy inside and crisp on the end. Molasses is not something I use very often, but love the smell of it combined with these spices. This was my first time making Hermits so I followed her recipe exactly which means I used shortening aka Crisco. Shortening, as is margarine, is made with hydrogenated fat. OK, so not the healthiest option, but hey these are a must try cookie. Now that I think of it, most of my baking is not the lowest in calories though to me it is all about moderation!

You can certainly substitute butter for shortening. Your cookies will turn out a little differently. Shortening makes a cookie that is crisp on the edge and chewy on the inside. Butter will make your cookies crispier throughout. Also, they will tend to spread more during baking due to the moisture in butter. I have read that you can counteract some of the spread and crispiness that butter will produce by adding another egg. I have never tried this so if someone has or does, let me know how it works!

I was laughing when I first read through the recipe. Not sure why my Mother wrote it down as I know she knew it by heart and I must say the directions were a little skimpy!

Chewy Hermits

Makes about 3 dozen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 1/2 cups shortening (Crisco)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark molasses
4 tsp soda (for you and me, this means baking soda!)
1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp each: nutmeg, cloves, & ginger
1 1/2 cups raisins

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs, and molasses. Sift dry ingredients. Add gradually and mix well. Add raisins.

Wet hands and roll dough about 1" thick on ungreased sheet. Press with glass dipped in water. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 9-13 minutes. Cool slightly before cutting.

I told you the directions were a little skimpy! I did wet my hands a little and then took about two handfuls of dough and placed on a silpat on a cookie sheet. I shaped it into a loaf and then pressed down to about 1 " with my hands. I don't remember when my Mom used to make these if she made them the width of two cookies and cut down the middle or did a narrower bar. Now that I think of it, I think she did narrower. The first sheet was a little thicker and wider. I adjusted the time in the oven a little. Do not over bake as you want to ensure they are chewy inside! I definitely need a little more practice shaping these out.

After baking, I let these cool for a little and then cut down the middle with a pizza cutter and then at an angle. I used most of the dough in this format. I also tried scooping about one tablespoon of dough and just dropped on the cookie sheet as well as scooping the dough out and then pressing down with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in water. In the picture of the plated cookies, the center ones are the bars, ones on the right were just scoops dropped on the cookie sheet, and the ones on the left were scoops that were flattened with a glass.

Lastly, does anyone know where the name of the cookie originated?

Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

2009-07-18T10:58:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I was heading to the Cape with my college friends. My friend's Mom enjoys my baking and I don't like to go empty handed so I was looking around for a new cookie recipe. Like I don't have 25 sitting in the must try folder. Anyways, came across this Martha Stewart recipe over at Barbara Bakes . She always has good looking stuff and gave these rave reviews, as did the original recipe on Martha's site, so thought I would give these a go.

My dough was a little hard to work with when trying to roll into a log. I think it was a combination of not chilling it and also I nuked the butter for 10 seconds as it was right out of the fridge. I did shape out per the directions, but then switched as it was late on a Friday evening and my patience was low. Sometimes when trying a new cookie I like to try different ways of putting the dough on the cookie sheet. For these I used small scoops, large scoops, pressed down with the back of a fork, press down with the bottom of a glass (that is wet) and sometimes just putting a blob on the cookie sheet!

I think next time I make them I will use more cherries. I really like the taste of the cherries with the chocolate. I just don't like the price of the cherries! In reading the reviews on Martha's site, some substituted craisins for the cherries. Lastly, I might adjust the butter a little. Two sticks is a lot, but the cookies sure are good! In the end, these are a great tasting cookie that your family and friends will enjoy!

Oatmeal Toffee Cookies
Found on Barbara Bakes, original from Martha Stewart

Makes about 2 dozen 3-inch cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 3/4 cups)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semi sweet chocolate chips)
1 cup toffee pieces, (5 1/2 ounces)

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour and baking soda, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice during mixing. Add egg, and mix on high speed to combine. Add vanilla extract; mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the sifted flour a bit at a time on a low speed until well combined. Add oatmeal, cherries, chocolate, and toffee pieces; mix to combine.

Divide dough into three equal portions, and roll into logs using plastic wrap, approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter. To bake, cut logs into 3/4-inch pieces. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to a baking rack to cool. As mentioned above, these will still be just as tasty if you scoop out a tablespoon per cookie!

Hash Brown Quiche... and some bittersweet memories

2009-07-07T19:02:00.002-04:00

My Mom used to make this recipe and it was always served for dinner. It is one of those meals, though, that is good any time of day. I had been looking around for this recipe for weeks and finally came across it when I sorted through that never ending pile of on my desk. I had taken it out of my Mom's recipe box and put aside to make. It got added to the hundreds of other recipes I will some day try.

Ironically, a lot of emotion came over me as I read through it for a few reasons. First, my Mom used to right notes on recipes. Good, Excellent, etc. along with noting what she adjusted or how she would change something the next time she made it. Just seeing her handwriting sparked some emotion. "I added chives & parsley" means nothing to the rest of the world, but actually made me tear up! I now also make the notes on recipes. I cook and bake so much and tweak things as I go I could never remember it all.

The bittersweet part of the story is that two days after my Mom's first round of chemo she made this for us for dinner. The oncologist prepped us for the worst and by day two Mom was doing o.k. She was certainly tired and not feeling 100% from all the weeks of radiation and now the chemo, but she still insisted on making dinner for me and her neighbor. As usual, it was delicious. Sadly, from that day forward the cancer gave her the fight of her life. A fight she succumbed to eight weeks later.

Um, o.k. this is a food blog and I am rambling about my Mom's battle with cancer. There is a point I am trying to make. I miss my Mother more than anyone can know. Cooking and baking, though, has been a way for me to channel my grief. I truly find comfort in both these activities and they are ways for me to feel her presence. Though this particular recipe brought up a sad time it also reminded me how much my mother enjoyed cooking and baking for her family.

Below is the original recipe which was always good as is, but in parenthesis I noted my adjustments. For the addition of the paprika and crushed red pepper, I added them to the melted butter. I realized when eating this that I did not let the hash browns thaw enough which in turn made the crust softer due to the extra moisture. I will have to put a note on the recipe to remind myself to make sure they are thawed enough :)

Hash Brown Quiche
6 servings

3 cups frozen loose pack shredded hash browns, thawed
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted (I used Brummel & Brown spread)
1 cup diced fully cooked ham
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced green pepper (I had red on hand so that's what was used)
1/4 cup diced onion
2 eggs (I used 1/2 cup of Eggbeaters)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Because I cannot follow a recipe as is I added 1 tsp of smoked paprika and 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes. I think 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika and no red pepper would be fine for those who just want a little added something. For me, this was a nice addition.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Press hash browns between paper towels to remove the excess moisture. I forgot the picture with the paper towel on top!

Press the hash browns into the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9 inch pie plate. Drizzle with the butter.

Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Obviously, my dish was burnt orange color due to the addition of the paprika!

Combine the ham, cheese, and pepper.

Spoon the mixture over the crust.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. I transferred the egg mixture to a measuring cup with a handle. I find it easier to control what comes out when I am using a measuring cup with a handle vs a bowl. Pour the mixture evenly over everything. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester or knife inserted near the center comes out clean. I turned the broiler on for a few minutes just to add a little brown to the top. Allow the quiche to stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Roasted Chickpeas with Moroccan Spices

2009-07-02T09:53:00.001-04:00

I have roasted chickpeas before and like them as a snack, but from a flavor perspective I must say they were sort of boring. When I saw this recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen I knew I had to try it. I doubled the recipe, including the spice mix so that I would have it to use on other things. The ingredients of the spice mix are ones that I use a lot so I knew I would enjoy the blend.

Roasted Chickpeas with Moroccan Spices
Adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Moroccan Spice Mix
salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp. kosher salt)

Spice Mix:
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. chile powder
1/2 tsp. sweet paprika (I used Smoked Paprika as that is what I had on hand)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (Suprise, I increased this :) )
pinch of ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drain garbanzo beans into a colander and rinse well with cold water until no more foam appears. Let beans drain for 5-10 minutes, then pat dry with a cloth of paper towel if they still look wet.

While beans drain, make spice mix. This spice mix is a great addition to veggies and meats. Last time I made turkey burgers I used this as my seasoning. I find ground turkey to be boring and this spice mix provided great flavor.

When beans are well drained and dried, toss with olive oil, spice mix, and salt. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet. Roast 40-50 minutes, or until they are slightly browned and make a rattling sound when you shake the baking sheet. Serve warm or let cool.

One More for the Boston Area folks - Grilling Class with Steve Uliss of Firefly's

2009-07-01T11:38:00.003-04:00

My husband loves anything barbecue. Seriously, he would probably put barbecue sauce on ice cream if I wouldn't cringe. We have a small BBQ restaurant in the next town over, but a favorite not too far away is Firefly's in Marlborough, MA. They also have locations in Framingham & Quincy. I was psyched when I read the article in today's Boston Globe about the upcoming grilling classes. Steve Uliss, who is the owner of Firefly's, will be hosting three "Healthy Grilling Tips" classes this summer at his restaurants. Check out the details here!

Bourbon Chicken

2009-07-01T08:01:00.004-04:00

Chicken is a staple food in our house for meals so I am always looking for a new recipe for it. I came across the below recipe on RecipeZaar. I like RecipeZaar because like to read what others think of the recipes and how they tweaked it or substituted ingredients. In reviewing the ingredients they are not a combination that I usually put together, but the fact the recipe had over 1,700 reviews and a rating of 4.5 stars encouraged me to try it and I am sure glad I did. For the regulars who read my blog (I think there are a few out there :) ) when you see the 5th ingredient you know I increased it. My husband and I like our food on the spicy so I probably put a tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes in. Also, I did not have any apple juice so I used one of the single servings of applesauce. I thought I had some apple juice boxes in the pantry, but that was not the case. I do like to keep those on hand instead of going out and buying a bottle of apple juice I would not normally drink. I think next time I make this I will play around with the amount of soy sauce. 1/3 of a cup of soy sauce packs a lot of sodium even when using the lower sodium ones. Lastly, since this was a weeknight meal and I was a little short on time I opted to serve over some frozen veggies.

Bourbon Chicken
Adapted from RecipeZaar

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, but into bite size pieces
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove the chicken from the skillet. Add remaining ingredients heating over medium heat until well mixed and dissolved. Add back the chicken and bring to a hard boil. I am not 100% sure what "bring to a hard boil" means. Does anyone? I have only ever heard those terms when referring to eggs. I brought the ingredients to the point they were bubbling a lot! Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over rice or veggies.

For the Boston Crowd - 50 Food Finds

2009-06-30T07:21:00.007-04:00

For those of us in the Boston area, waking up to rain for the past gazillion days has started to become a bummer. Need a little pick me up? Thanks to Lydia at Drop In & Decorate (and The Perfect Pantry) for bringing my attention to an article in this past Sunday's Boston Globe. It offers suggestions on places to go, foods to try and some blogs to visit. Oh, and a nice surprise to have Drop In & Decorate mentioned in that top 50! Be sure to check it out. Click here to visit the article.

*Photo courtesy of RocBike.com

Berry Yogurt Smoothie

2009-06-29T12:20:00.001-04:00

Like many, I am loving berries this time of year. I wanted some fruit, but was not up to baking something nor did not really want just a bowl of fruit. I opted to create a fast and easy smoothie. This ended up a large serving and probably could have been divided in two had I wanted to share. As I was enjoying the creaminess of the yogurt blended with the fruit my mind was in overdrive of all the different varieties to try and ways to incorporate into a dessert!

Berry Yogurt Smoothie

1 cup hulled (stem removed) chopped strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
6 oz container Chobani 0% Vanilla Yogurt

Add the ingredients to a mini chopper or blender. I went for the mini chopper as the cleanup is easier. I went back and forth a few times between chop and grind and voila you have a delectable afternoon snack.

Breakfast Bowls

2009-06-28T10:01:00.023-04:00

My breakfast usually consists of Chobani Yogurt with some fruit or Cheerios or a breakfast bar. Believe it or not I do not like milk so if I have cereal I mix it in yogurt. These are my staple breakfast foods that I grab to take to work or eat on the go. I do love to go out to breakfast, but it is always way too much food and calories. I don't have the willpower to only eat half or not clean my plate. It's just not in me! So, on Sundays I take a little more time to make my version of a healthy and hearty breakfast.

My inspiration for this breakfast came from one of the daily Hungry Girl newsletter emails. For those of you who are not familiar with Hungry Girl she is a typical female who has tried many fad diets, but has finally found what works best for her and shares all of her ideas. She has two cookbooks out and has a website with lots of great ideas. Be sure to check out the site!

A few weeks ago I put some eggbeaters in a small coffee mug, popped in the microwave and voila here was some eggs with no pan to clean. Well, uh, the eggbeaters stuck to the bottom of the mug and were a pain to get out. A few days later I received a Hungry Girl newsletter with ideas for Egg Mug recipes. The first direction was to spray a mug with non stick spray. Duh. Why had I not thought of that! Later that week another email came with healthy recipes for Breakfast Bowls.

This morning I decided I would create my version of a Breakfast Bowl. This was very easy, quick, and delicious! I did have one pan to clean, but that was because I cooked up some turkey bacon to add to the egg bowl. Get creative and let me know what ingredients you try!

Kat's Breakfast Bowl

1/2 cup Eggbeaters (used 3/4 cup for the husband's serving!)
1/3 cup Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles
3 slices cooked Turkey Bacon
Fresh chopped chives to taste
Fresh chopped Thai basil to taste (I am growing this so am using it a lot lately. Regular basil is fine. Thai gives a distinctly different taste. It has a subtle licorice/mint flavor. I used two leaves)

Cook bacon in a pan to get it crispy. Takes about 3 minutes per side. Place on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain grease. Let cool and then slice into bite size pieces. Spray a microwave safe cereal size bowl lightly with non stick cooking spray. Add all ingredients and mix together.

I added a little pepper to taste. I did not add salt as the meal starters and bacon have enough for my taste. Place bowl in microwave and cook for two minutes. As it cooks it will expand above the bowl, but when it comes out it will shrink down. Based upon how much of the eggbeaters you use you main need an additional minute or so. Be careful removing the bowl from the microwave as it will be hot.

Serve with a few slices of toast that have been topped with Brummel and Brown spread! More to come on this new favorite product!

If you are cooking for a larger crowd instead of making individual servings increase the ingredients accordingly and cook in a larger microwave safe bowl like a Pyrex 2 quart or larger.

*The first plated picture is using 3/4 cup of eggbeaters and all the rest are with 1/2 cup of eggbeaters.

Where or where I Have I Been???

2009-06-24T08:41:00.003-04:00

Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? My poor little blog has been so neglected over the past two months. Work was crazy and at home we spent many a weekend creating lovely new gardens that there was just little time for blogging :(. I am baaaaaaaaaack though and looking forward to posting many a new recipe over the next week and introducing a new format to my blog. Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the Summer! Please be sure to stop back in over the next week!

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-09T06:55:00.015-04:00

On May 3rd, I hosted my first Drop In & Decorate party in memory of my Mom for Mother's Day 2009. It was a huge success! You can read more about the background of my event by going to this pos t. Be sure to visit the Drop In & Decorate site to learn more about Lydia's nonprofit and read about all the events across the country in honor of Mother's Day. I baked about 215 sugar cookies and my Mom's friend added to that by making 8 or 9 dozen almond sugar cookies. From there, my friends showed up and decorated away! The cookies were donated to the following local agencies:

New Hope; a domestic violence agency in Attleboro, MA
Franklin Senior Center
St. Vincent de Paul Society/St. Mary's Church Franklin
Bellingham Senior Center

I had been planning the event for about a month and then all of a sudden it was here! I took last Friday off to bake and then Monday off in order to individually wrap and deliver the cookies. I must say I did start Friday a little teary eyed thinking about my Mom, but it was an opportunity to remember why this event was so important to me. If she were still alive she would have been quite thrilled to be part of it. Baking and giving back. Those are two words that bring back memories of my Mom.

Over the next week, I will post some tips that I learned through my baking, frosting creation, and cookie decorating for this event. Lydia has a "how to" document on her website that is very helpful on how to get started to host your own Drop In & Decorate event. I have some additional tips on rolling out dough, mixing frosting colors, and, transferring frosting to squeeze bottles. Lydia was a huge support and was always quick to respond to my email questions. Thank you Lydia!!!

Think about hosting your own Drop In & Decorate event. It does not have to be big scale or fancy. You don't have to make cookies from scratch. You can buy slice and bake sugar cookies and decorate those with frosting. Royal Icing helps create some really beautiful cookies. It is very forgiving and you can create simple designs with as little as two colors and end up with stunning cookies! Matter of fact you can use any frosting you want! Trust me, you will truly make a difference in someone's day.

For all the Mom's out there Happy Mother's Day to you today! For those who have lost their Mom's be good to yourself today. For my Mom, I miss you every second of each day and continue to try to adapt to life without you here. Each day, though, you continue to help guide me on this journey called life. I am very fortunate to have had such a wonderful Mother who instilled the value of being kind and good to others in me. For that, I thank you more than words could ever say.

Please take a stop by Flickr (click here) to see some photos. You can view individually or in the upper right hand corner you can choose "slideshow". There were just too many too post here!

I will end this post with one of the thank you notes I received:

"Dear Ms. Coullard,

I am an employee of New Hope and wanted to thank you for your generous donation. Laura told me about your project in honor of your mother who passed away from cancer. What a beautiful way to memorialize your loved one and bring joy to others from what I know must have been a grueling journey for you and your mother.

My beloved sister is currently fighting her battle with cancer. Our family anticipates losing her within the next few months. You have inspired me to create a project of my own to honor my wonderful sister and I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Buffalo Chicken Salad

2009-04-29T06:00:00.001-04:00

Wednesday is "Buffalo Chicken Day" at the cafeteria in the company I work for. It's like a big thing. People stand in line to get a buffalo chicken wrap. It's pretty basic stuff, though. Chicken tenders dipped in a light batter, dredged in a Frank's like hot sauce, and fried. Add the chicken to a wrap, top with chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce, some blue cheese, and some extra hot sauce. The End... but it tastes really good! They have tried to add a healthy option by offering a baked chicken tender. The first week I tried the baked one I was not impressed. It was definitely sprinkled with Italian seasonings. So not the flavor I was looking for. The second time around the Italian seasonings thankfully got lost, but it was still missing something. It got me thinking, though, that this is a really quick dinner option.

Hence, Buffalo Chicken Salad day was born at our house. It was Wednesday, ya know when the creation was born! There are two key things to this recipe. The first is the blue cheese dressing. I am always tracking my points for Weight Watchers and regular blue cheese dressing probably has an entire day's worth of points. Low and behold, please welcome Marie's Lite Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing:

It is a staple in our house. Two tablespoons will put you back 80 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 4 grams of fiber. Really, you have to try it! The second key piece of this dish is to combine all of your ingredients in a large mixing bowl, toss, and then plate. By doing this the flavors of the blue cheese and hot sauce get on each piece of chicken, tomato, and lettuce. vs. just sitting on top . I think this is what the baked option at work is missing.

It's just my husband and I so I make each of our salads separately as sometimes he may want a little extra blue cheese or hot sauce. On to the recipe.... it's Wednesday so go make this quick, tasty, and pretty healthy dish!

Buffalo Chicken Salad

1 Serving

Grilled chicken breast chopped into one inch cubes
a couple cups of lettuce - I like using Romaine
half a tomato chopped
2 Tbsp of Marie's Lite Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing
Frank's RedHot Sauce to taste

I like to use my George Forman grill for chicken breasts. While it is cooking I chop the tomato and then add the lettuce, tomato, and dressing to the mixing bowl. Once the chicken is done (about 8 minutes depending upon the size) I let it rest for about 5 minutes and then slice it into 1 inch cubes. Add the chicken to the other ingredients in the mixing bowl and add Frank's Hot Sauce. I probably use about 2 Tbsps to start. Remember we like hot flavors in this house, so I don't end with just 2 Tbsps :). Take some salad tongs and toss the salad some more and then serve.

Quick Weeknight Dinner - Chicken Basil Stir Fry

2009-04-25T08:01:00.001-04:00

I am hoping that the extra hours at work will start to slow down as I have not spent much time in the kitchen or on my blog the past few weeks! With the nice weather on the way I am looking forward to local veggies and cranking up the grill.

When sorting through my "recipes to try" folder I came across this chicken basil stir fry. Super quick and easy for a weeknight meal. I did find this to be a little salty so next time would probably reduce the chicken broth a little and substitute with water. I did not have 3 cups of basil, but used what I had left. Of course I increased the amount of chili flakes as a 1/4 teaspoon is nada! Enjoy!

Chicken Basil Stir Fry
Adapted from Sunset on myrecipes

1 pound boned, skinned chicken breast halves

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon hot chili flakes
2/3 cup fat-skimmed chicken broth
1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce or soy sauce (should be able to find in the International aisle at the grocery store)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed
Rice for serving

The original recipe mentions thai basil and cinnamon basil, but my grocery store sells plain 'ol basil so that is what I used.

1. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Cut crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick strips 2 to 3 inches long.

2. Place a 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over high heat; when hot, add oil, garlic, ginger, chili flakes, and the chicken. Stir often until chicken is no longer pink in the center (cut to test), 3 to 4 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, mix broth, fish sauce, and cornstarch until smooth. Add to pan and stir until sauce is boiling, about 1 minute. Add basil leaves and stir just until barely wilted, about 30 seconds. Serve with rice.

Chex Party Mix

2009-04-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

My Mom used to make a mean chex party mix! I remember many a time her making it and me sneaking into the kitchen while it was cooling to grab some while she was not looking. Like she couldn't hear me chomping away??? The first time I went to make it, I went through my Mom's recipe box to find the recipe. I came numerous versions, but one was a classic. It was a handwritten one from my grandmother that looked like it had been referenced many a time. It made me chuckle as I read it through it. "Nuts - any kind, salted or not, as many as you want (or can afford!)" Gramma's original recipe did not recommend as much seasoning so the next time I made it I went to the Chex site and came across "the original". Here is the link to that one. The one below is my slightly tweaked version. Enjoy!

Chex Party Mix

3 cups Corn Chex cereal
3 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-size pretzels
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Heat oven to 250°

In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, and pretzels.

Place mixture in a large ungreased cookie sheet (preferably with sides).

Melt butter in a small microwavable bowl. Add seasonings and whisk together. Gradually cover cereal mixture until evenly coated. If you don't feel the mixture is covered enough with the butter and seasonings, melt a little more and add a little more seasonings. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes.

Store in airtight container and hide from your family and friends!

Chana Punjabi

2009-04-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

As I visit food blogs that I come across via The Foodie Blogroll, my Daring Bakers co-horts, or the staple blogs I try to catch up on each week, I find myself stumbling on some incredible blogs with great recipes and themes. I found today's recipe on The Wednesday Chef. Luisa Weiss is a New York writer who decided to started her blog as a way to chronicle her attempts at making recipes she had clipped from the New York Times and LA Times. This recipe for Chana Punjabi was in the NY Times in March. (Yes I made it back then and am just getting to posting it! :( ). It is from Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, who runs Lassi in the West Village in NYC.

Chana Punjabi is a thick Indian chickpea stew with lots of flavors. One of those flavors is garam masala. Garam masala is a blend of spices. There are a variety of garam masalas you will find in India. Some common ingredients are black & white peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, long pepper (also known as pippali), black cumin (known as shahi jeera), cumin seeds, cinnamon, black & brown & green cardamom, nutmeg, mace, and star anise, coriander seeds. The spices combined to make the mixture usually differ depending upon the region. You did note that one of the common ingredients in garam masala is cardamon. I am not a big fan of cardamon. For me, it is just to pungent. It brings me back to the crock pot chicken vindaloo dish I made and had to throw away. So, when I stopped in Whole Foods to pick up some garam masala and I looked at the ingredients I thought this dish was doomed. There were two brands of garam masala available. I looked at the ingredients of both and opted for the one that had cardamon second on the ingredients list vs. first. Not sure how much that really matters, but it made me feel better!

I doubled this recipe (except salt and garam masala) as I like chickpeas and like to bring leftovers for lunch. I learned from this recipe that my chicken vindaloo most likely failed because even though I doubled that recipe it was not necessary to double the amount of cardamon. Hence, I only used 1/2 tsp of garam masala due to my fear of cardamon. Do you think I am being obsessive compulsive here?

I agree 100% with Luisa on this recipe. I absolutely loved it! If you make the recipe as is, I honestly do not think it will be enough for 4! Our servings were 1 1/2 cups each. Even though I was quite full, I seriously could have eaten more. This will be become a staple in my house. Besides the fact I love love love this recipe, I actually believe that there is a possibility that cardamon and I can become friends.

Chana Punjabi
Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez

Serves 4

1 tablespoon canola oil or other vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 small Thai bird chili, chopped or 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped (I used the entire jalapeno as I like heat!)
2 large tomatoes, chopped or a 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika (I used smoked paprika)
1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
Cooked rice for serving (optional)

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat oil and add onion. Sauté until translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and chili, and sauté until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Fragrant is an understatement. These ingredients together smelled incredible! Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook until tomatoes are very soft, about 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Seriously, I could have stopped at this point and eaten this as a new kind of salsa! Sure glad I continued, though, even with my fear of cardamon.

2. Purée mixture in blender or food processor until smooth. Return to pan and place over medium heat. Add paprika, 1 teaspoon salt, coriander, the garam masala, turmeric and lemon juice. Add chickpeas and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.

3. Cover and simmer until sauce is thick and chickpeas are soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir pan about every 10 minutes, adding water as needed (up to 1 1/2 cups) to prevent burning. I used about 3/4 cup of water. When ready to serve, sauce should be thick. If necessary, uncover pan and allow sauce to reduce for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until desired consistency. Stir in cilantro, adjust salt as needed and serve with cooked rice, if desired.