The Unrepentant Carbivore

let them eat science.

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

In our family, we have a long and proud tradition of Educational Interpretation Through the Visual Medium of Cake. Cake has scored in, among other things, the subjects of Geography (State of Michigan map, complete with major rivers and cities) and Science (Volcano model, complete with stratographic layers and bright red frosting lava). Our cake projects ROCK.

There is an equally proud tradition of Educational Interpretation Through Lego Scenes. I have lost track of the number of lego scenes Son #2 has created, usually in response to reading that we've done together. Hadrian's Wall, The Fall of Troy and Little House on the Prairie are three that come to mind, but there have been many, many more.

So - when you can combine these two visual mediums into one brilliant Educational Interpretation? People, it goes beyond mind-boggling.

Behold, I present to you: The Apollo 11 Moon Landing, in Lego and Cake.

The LEM (Lunar Exploration Module, for those of you following along at home who may not have been as completely steeped in NASA nuttiness as we have around here) was an original creation by Son #2.

Neil and Buzz were created by Son #1. Son #2 found an American flag and arranged the scene on the cake. Notice that Buzz is saluting the flag. Also, it appears that there is more moisture on the lunar surface than was first assumed.

(Cake and frosting, courtesy of mom.)

The Eagle has officially landed.

now with pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:09:00 +0000

No I am not avoiding going back to work. You just keep those kinds of mean-spirited thoughts to yourself.

This is what twenty oven-roasted chicken breasts look like.

Note to self: Next time, triple the amount of breading mix in the Baked Chicken Nuggets.

The kitchen has reached Yellow Alert Level.

OAMC, day 394

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Okay, it's only day 4. But it feels longer than that.

Yesterday: got the mac and cheese done; I managed to get 3 dinners worth out of a double recipe instead of two, so we ate one and still had two to freeze.

Finally (!) shopped for all the other ingredients. Found a great deal on a boneless half pork loin, so I bought it and am trying to figure out how to work it into The Plan.

Today so far:

Cooked and shredded chicken for the enchiladas.

Made balsamic marinade in two ziploc freezer bags, added 4 boneless skinless breasts to each bag, put in freezer.

Got to work on the Crock Pot Italian Chicken. This is a new recipe for me. I chunked up about 10 chicken breasts, browned them in my biggest skillet, took them out of the skillet and began to add the remaining ingredients back in, and only then realized that I did not have the two italian dressing mix packets that the recipe calls for. Sigh.

Went to Recipezaar to find a homemade italian dressing mix substitute; I had more than 3/4 of the ingredients called for, so, it's a go! All those other ingredients are just overrated, anyhow.

Made homemade italian dressing mix. Wow. That's a LOT of seasoned salt.

Got back to dumping everything in the skillet. Thankfully the recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of white wine, so I was able to test out the bottle to confirm that it would taste good in the sauce.

What? It's lunchtime. Shut up.

The freezing/cooking directions for this recipe call for the chicken in sauce to be frozen, thawed on serving day and put in the crock pot for 6 hours. Looking at the ready-for-freezing stuff in my skillet, there is no way this recipe needs to be cooked that long; the chicken would be Wooden Nuggets of Hell by then. I think I will vary the serving day instructions and just pop it in a casserole and bake it for 30 minutes instead. It does taste good; I was concerned it would be too salty, but nope! Poifect!

Boy, that doesn't seem like I've accomplished much. Hopefully by the end of the day I will have a more impressive list of things to report.

liveblogging (sort of) a OAMC session

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:44:00 +0000

In the past, I have relied on Once A Month Cooking to stretch both our budget and my sanity. I had gotten away from it this past year, but lately have been feeling a pressing need to get a bunch of food put into the freezer. Call it a control freak thing.

I don't usually have marathon, get-it-done-in-one-day cooking sessions, because as stated, this is a process meant to enhance my sanity, not release it unharmed into the wild. I generally do prep work and cooking over the course of several days, and suddenly, voila! At the end of a short week, I've got a months' worth of food in the freezer.

My strategy is to pick out 15-18 meals and make a double batch of each. This gets us plenty of food for dinners, as well as some hot lunches, since the Hungry Boys and I are at home every day, and feeding them a bowl of chili gets them back to work much sooner than having them make a sandwich, eat it, sit down with a book, decide 15 minutes later they're still hungry, watch them get up and grab a yogurt, eat it, sit back down with the book, decide 15 minutes later they're still hungry, etc etc. It's either make extra chili, or have them home with me until they are 30, still working on that high school graduation in between sandwiches and yogurt cups. I love them, but not that much.

Most of what I've got on this month's menu is comfort food. It's what freezes well and what my family eats. My guess is that if you're a militant vegan who wants to argue this point with me, you'll actually be a lot happier at someone else's blog.

Some months, I do a rigorous cost analysis before I start cooking; this month is not one of those months. Mostly I want to get back in the groove and save myself time. Which is not to say that we're eating a lot of beer-battered filet mignon, but I'm not worrying about tracking every penny. I will sit down with receipts at the end of the cooking spree and figure out what I've spent.

So! Here's what is on the menu:

ABC Chili
Individual Cheeseburger Meatloaves
Not Chili*
Sloppy Joes
Bacon Cheeseburgers
Quiche-in-a-Bag
Phyllo Wrapped Chicken Breasts
Chicken Divan
White Chicken Enchiladas
Crock Pot Italian Chicken
Balsamic Marinated Chicken Breasts
Chicken Pot Pie
Parsley Parmesan Chicken
Marinara Sauce
Macaroni and Cheese
Cheddar Broccoli Soup
Individual Pizza Crusts (for lunches)
Minestrone
Taco Roll Ups

* somewhere back in the 1990's, I was given a chili recipe to make to contribute to our church's annual soup supper. It is a happy, bland little Midwestern chili, with a tomato soup base. My husband took the recipe as a personal affront, and declared, "That's not chili!" No, but it's a happy, bland little Midwestern tomato soup-based hamburger soup, and as it goes it's not bad. It's earned a name and a permanent place in our happy, bland little Midwestern repertoire.

Here's what I've done so far:

-shopped for my Costco items, which this month was 48 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (so far - I need to go back and get more), 20 pounds of hamburger, a 5 pound bag of shredded cheddar cheese and 64 oz of half and half, most of which is actually for my coffee.

-browned, drained and cooled 12 pounds of hamburger.

-roasted 12 chicken breasts for pot pie.

-made up 12 individual cheeseburger meatloaves, which is four more than I was expecting to get from the recipe, probably because in my unbridled enthusiasm I dumped all 4 cups of cheese into the bowl instead of reading carefully and realizing that 2 cups of that are to be held out to sprinkle over the loaves at the end of baking. Sigh. So, I've got three meals instead of two but the loaves will probably laugh at me as they ooze and fall apart on the baking sheet. C'est la vie.

Yet today I need to: dice chicken for pot pie, cook, cool and dice another 8 breasts for Chicken Divan, make and freeze (uncooked) bacon cheeseburgers, and make a single batch of Chicken Enchiladas which is for tonight's dinner.

Tomorrow I'm going to take stock of what I already have in the house and what needs to be purchased at the store, make a list and head out to get the rest of the groceries; then I will finish up and get everything in the freezer. I know it should have been done already since I've got chicken breasts sitting in the fridge, but a) I'm busy, ergo the need to have pre-prepared meals in the first place, and b) they're vacuum packed so I'm not as worried about them. If we all needlessly die a gruesome, botulism-induced death, you can feel free to think, "See, I knew that would happen."

I do want to post the recipes for all of these dishes; I just have to figure out how to do that efficiently. That's a task for another day, I think...

no, it's not St. Patricks Day...

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:24:00 +0000

but doing my grocery shopping and other errands this morning, in the state of Michigan, I saw a lotta people wearing green.

I'm not a huge basketball fan, either NCAA or NBA, but I'm still pulling for the Spartans. Go team!

Fear and Popcorn

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:01:00 +0000

The other evening I was home alone with the boys, because the Hubster had to pull an overnight shift doing whatever it is he does in his highly technical job. (Some IT infrastructure mumbledy-jumble thingamabob.) Honestly, he tries to explain the specifics to me, but it's so hyper-jargoned, not to mention warp speed light years beyond my ability to comprehend, that the only defense mechanism I have is to smile and nod until he leaves the room.

But I digress. He was gone for the evening, and so The Adolescents and I popped some popcorn and sat down to watch an enriching evening of television: The MacNeill-Lehrer News Hour, Washington Week - it was all so informative and enlightening. It's important stay abreast of current affairs and remain politically astute.

What? WHAT??

Okay, FINE. We spent the evening watching truTV. Cops, Most Shocking, Forensic Files. Hey. It's kinda like current affairs.

Shut. Up.

Here's a hint for those members of the audience who are perhaps more paranoiacally inclined, and suffer from Chronic Worrywart Syndrome. (Not that I understand these things personally.)

If, in the course of events, your husband is going to be gone for the night and you will be alone in a dark and creaky house, it is not generally wise to watch, right before bed, several episodes of Forensic Files which all involve women being brutally beaten to death in their homes. It tends to make the imagination, shall we say, wander.

He finally returned home at around 2:30 am. At which point, I slept like a baby. It's so wrong of me to think, "oh good, now all the axe murderers are HIS problem." But, I kinda can't help myself.

Perhaps this is a signal from the universe that it's time to take martial arts classes.

more about me

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:46:00 +0000

I know, I know. It seems like I've totally neglected The Blog, doesn't it?

Well, I have and I haven't. See, I haven't written anything on the blog for almost two weeks. So in that sense, yes. Neglect. Guilty.

But I've been thinking about the blog. A lot. About whether I want to keep food blogging. (Answer: yes, but not exclusively.) About how I'm not a talented enough writer to be able to just turn on humor like a faucet, and yet humor, when I've got it, is my favorite thing to write. But? Sometimes I just want to be able to write without the pressure of trying to be funny. Really, there's only so much humor you can squeeze out of a polenta recipe.

I've also been thinking about my priorities, and how blogging fits into that. My first and foremost priority, which I take seriously, is as a homeschool facilitator for my boys. Their success depends at least in part on my availability. There are certain times (*Tuesday mornings, cough*) that I can't be tied up at the computer, either writing blog posts or spending time creating a network of readers - hello, all three of you!

I'd also like to include posts about what we're doing with school, because sometimes what we're doing is pretty cool. Sometimes it's downright mundane, and heck, there may even be a place for that in my writing.

I've also, at long last, decided to take seriously my attempt at Intuitive Eating. I've been messing around with it for over a year, and have never been brave enough to stick with it. But this is finally the time. And one of the things I've realized, already, is that while with IE I can eat baked goods for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack if I want to... well, I don't want to. Baking even once a week seems like overkill to me right now. I also realized that I want to bake what I choose, when I choose, even if some months that IS once a week - or more. So, if the TWD recipe looks good to me, and I'm in the mood, I'll happily bake along. If it doesn't, I won't. If I get kicked out of the club for some egregious rules violation...well, life will go on.

So there you have it, my current Momifesto. (It may change tomorrow.) Thanks for allowing me to get this off my chest; and now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Ratatouille

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Why, hello blog! It's been awhile. Apparently I do have a life. Go figure.

If you're here looking for a TWD post, you will probably be sorely disappointed. After reading the comments describing this week's Lemon Cup Custard as "eggy", "eggy", and as a variant, "eggy", I decided to bag it. It would have gone to waste.

If I sound a little cranky, it's just that I'm having a bit of a day, you see. A day that started at 12:40 am or so, when, having been in bed for a full 40 minutes, The Hubster and I were awoken to a sound of scritch-scritching in the wall right next to my side of the bed. Mere inches from where I had been innocently sleeping.

Now, I live in a suburban development. We have squirrels, chipmunks, moles (damn them!), skunks, rabbits, uncollared cats and even the occasional possum. Every member of this suburban menagerie has the decency to STAY OUTSIDE, where God designed animals to live. Up until this winter, I had never seen nor been aware of a mouse on our property. For which I have been very grateful. I am equal to a lot of tribulation, but mice are not on that list.

After spending over an hour huddled in the fetal position in my desk chair with my feet safely off the floor, The Hubster finally coaxed me back to bed, and promised that at first daylight he'd do a perimeter and attic check of the house. So at 2 am I laid, huddled in the fetal position in my bed with my feet safely off the floor, jumping out of my skin at every little noise that the house made, until my alarm went blaringly off at 7 am. Ugh.

This was the point at which I woke to find that my 15 year old was sick. Fever, malaise, serious hocking-up of louies. It wasn't pretty. He hadn't slept much the night before, either, and still couldn't sleep. I put him on the couch in front of Ken Burns' Civil War and let him doze. He tossed and turned, finally got up and decided to retake the algebra test that he had crashed and burned on earlier in the week. Didn't seem like a great idea to me under the circumstances, but what do I know?

He got 69%. Uff.

And that's when the diarrhea started. So now my house smells like poo, a fact that didn't really hit my nostrils until I was putting a spoon into a jar of Nutella.

It's not a good idea to be contemplating Nutella at the exact point that your brain registers that your house smells like poo. Because Nutella does bear a passing resemblance to, uh, yeah. You know what I'm sayin'. Needless to say, I'm kinda off Nutella for the rest of the day.

I need to go down to the basement to clean up after this debacle, but there may or may not be a mouse in my basement at the moment, and as a dear friend put it so delicately to me this morning, I am being totally pansy ass about this. I am stridently unapologetic about it, too. So there.

So, at shortly before noon, I am kinda ready to be done with my day. I am going to go now and find a comfortable chair where I can take a nap in the fetal position, feet safely off the floor.

TWD - Caramel Crunch Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:17:00 +0000

Dateline: Monday, February 23, 2009. Early afternoon.

I look at the clock, and realize that I need to get going on baking this week's Caramel Crunch Bars if they are going to be done, cooled and cut in time for the all-important Late Afternoon Sun Photography Window.

(The bars were this week's TWD choice, picked by Whitney of What's left on the table? I approve of this choice.)

2:12 pm - assemble ingredients on counter. Feel ~~a gush of relief~~ pleased and organized that for once, all ingredients are on hand, in sufficient quantities to prepare recipe. Feel slightly smug that I even remembered to pull out my sticks of butter in time for them to be room temperature. I am invincible.

Begin by creaming butter and sugar. Scrape down bowl and take tiny nibble of fluffy creamed substance.

Add dry ingredients. Breathe deeply the whiff of espresso and cinnamon that reaches up to tickle and tantalize my senses. Decide that I need to take another nibble, to see if the flavors are, you know, balanced.

Add chocolate to dough. Need to confirm that bittersweet chocolate is not overpowering other flavors. Take nibble.

Decide to spread dough in a 9x9 pan instead of the recommended 9x13, to have thicker base layer. Dough is sticky, gets all over knuckles. The only option at this point is to lick knuckles clean.

I notice that there is some extra dough stuck to Kitchen Aid paddle attachment. I remedy the situation.

The pan goes into the oven, I give it an extra ten minutes or so since I am making a thicker layer, and while it cooks, I make sure there is not any errant dough on the bowl or the rubber scraper, since my dishwasher will be incapable of thoroughly removing this stuck-on food. When my children happen to pass through the kitchen, I turn my back to them and pretend my mouth is not full.

2:52 pm - cookies are out of oven. I sprinkle chips over all and start to spread. Darn! Chips are gooey and I get chocolate on the side of my hand as I spread! I lick it off.

There is an alarming amount of chocolate stuck on my offset spatula that will not work it's way into the chocolate layer on the cookie. I must clean my spatula.

I add toffee bits to the chocolate layer, and carefully following Dorie's instructions, press them down lightly into the chocolate with my fingertips. This results in chocolate and toffee bits all over my fingers. I clean them, the old-fashioned way.

3:15 pm - since my crunch bars have the nerve to not be completely set up and ready to eat after 15 minutes, I pop them in the freezer. I mean, come ON.

3:45 pm - ready to cut! Okay, maybe there are a few shiny spots left on the top, but I'm sure it will all work out.

Dorie says to trim the edges where they are thick. Who am I to argue? And what is to become of all those crunchy edges? I test one to see how the bar tastes, now that everything is cooked. I'm not sure I got the full Flavor Rainbow with the first bite. I'd better try again. I'll pay better attention this time, I promise.

I cut the bars into small squares, but since they persist in being not-quite-completely-cooled, they crumble quite a bit, and leave a swath of warm chocolate on the side of my serrated knife. I hate dirty knives. And I hate crumbs all over my counter. I will feel much more peaceful if I clean those up.

But - wait! I tried one of those nice crispy edge pieces, but I really ought to compare that to the soft, gooey piece in the middle. Otherwise, how will I give an accurate opinion about this recipe? In the interest of my readers, I try a middle piece.

I take the bars over to my Late Afternoon Sun Photography Studio Window, and snap some pictures while there are still bars to be photographed. Because the way the afternoon is going, there might not be any left by sundown.

TWD - Devil's Food White Out Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Yay, the cover photo recipe for Dorie's book! Cake! Frosting! Do the wave, people!

I made this cake over the weekend, made the frosting yesterday afternoon, and took it to last night's scout meeting, where I successfully used it to bribe the other parents into taking on volunteer positions. There is nothing like cake to bend people to my will.

(aside: this is why the cake pictured is sitting on a lovely Harvest Gold Tupperware cake taker. Just keepin' it real for you guys.)

(aside to the aside: they say you can tell how long ago someone got married by the color of their Tupperware. Mine is almost all that pale aqua-blue color, with the exception of the Harvest Gold Cake Taker. But I was a child bride.)

The cake went together well; it did what it was supposed to do, I didn't really have any problems with rising like some other TWD'ers had, and while I was nervous about the meringue frosting, having never made one before, it came together without a hitch. Score!

Everyone at the troop meeting told me how good the cake was, so I'm going to have to take their word for it, because here comes my deep, troubling confession:

I hate marshmallows. HATE them. Oh, I will eat s'mores with the best of them, but only by thrusting my marshmallow directly into the flame and charring it to a smoldering, blackened heap that no longer tastes like marshmallow, but is hot enough to smelt iron and therefore also to cause my Hershey bar to become softened and gooey and yum. I do not eat Rocky Road anything. I do not eat sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping. I do not like them, Sam I Am.

But, I dutifully ate a piece of cake. And spent the whole time choking back the oppressive taste of the marshmallow in the frosting, just thinking of England and wanting it to be over.

Like I said, everyone else liked it. Or at least told me they did. And volunteered for things, so it works for that if you need a fail-safe plan. But I probably won't be eating this particular cake again soon.

Since it's not Stephanie's fault that I have deep and troubling marshmallow issues, go check out her blog, Confessions of a City Eater, for the recipe and just to say, "hey, thanks! We love marshmallows!" And check out the TWD blogroll because there are some really interesting interpretations of this week's recipe, as well.

Next week: Caramel Crunch Bars, which I am certain I will be able to genuinely embrace, to the point that someone will probably have to prise my greedy fingers off the top of the aqua blue square Tupperware lid.

lovin' from the oven

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:00:00 +0000

It's one of those low key Valentine's days around our house. We're currently on the Budget Plan (see: recession), so no fancy dinners or expensive chocolates. Which is fine. It's been a long and busy week, and honestly, the idea of laying low around the house, making a fire and playing board games sounds so much more love-ly to me today.

But I didn't want to let the day pass completely unrecognized, so I whipped up a batch of these streusel muffins this morning. They are pink, see? Get it? Valentines = pink/red stuff?

Yeah, I don't get why either, but never mind.

These are quick, yummy, super-moist muffins. And if your sweethearts are anything like mine, they will ask for seconds. And because it's Valentine's Day, you will give them seconds, and a kiss on the cheek, and tell them you love them.

May you be surrounded by love today.

Cherry Streusel Muffins
serves 12

2 cups frozen unsweetened tart cherries
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla
1 t. almond extract
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

streusel topping:

1/3 cup flour
3 T. packed brown sugar
3 T. cold unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin tin or line with paper liners.
Place frozen cherries in food processor and process until coarsely chopped. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, almond and milk and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and add slowly to butter mixture. Do not overmix. Fold in chopped cherries.
Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin tins. ( ed note: I actually got batter for more like 14 muffins.) Sprinkle with streusel topping. Bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and firm. Cool in pan 10 minutes.

to make streusel:

combine brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins.

TWD - Floating Islands

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:52:00 +0000

I was really looking forward to making this week's Tuesdays with Dorie challenge - Floating Islands. I've never tried this technique before, and it sounded like an impressive dessert. Plus, custard. What's not to love?

However, as previously mentioned, the Mother of All Head Colds has taken up residence at our house. So in addition to having trouble staying vertical long enough to make a complicated dessert, it seemed rather pointless when no one in the building would have been able to taste it.

So instead, we've spent the weekend doing Nyquil jello shots and watching re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond. Because we are party animals, and that's how we roll.

There are lots of other healthy TWD bloggers who have risen to the challenge, though, so you should go check them out - and leave nice comments for them! They worked hard. Make sure to visit Shari at Whisk: A Food Blog for this week's recipe.

Next week is Devil's Food White Out Cake, and I will be making it, even if they have to wheel me from the morgue to my kitchen. Hmph.

Everyday Chili

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:12:00 +0000

I was pladdig to get a lot of bloggig dud dis weeked, but I hab a head code. So, dot so much. I used lots ub kleenex, idstead.

Generally, we are pharmaceutical minimalists around our house. I'm not anti-pharmaceutical (Lord knows, the amount of sudafed I've ingested over the last 72 hours has been anything but minimal), but if there's another way to help us feel better, we tend to go that route. So when the whole family gets blasted with the head cold from Hades, one of my go-to remedies is homemade chili. There's nothing that packs a phlegm-busting wallop like a good bowl of steamy, spicy chili, and it's nice to be able to smell again for a little while. Especially when you are smelling chili. And just about the time that you start thinking, "you know, now that I can smell again, I notice that no one in the house has changed out of their jammies or showered for the last 48 hours...", well, the mucus monster blessedly sets in again. But the relief feels good while it lasts.

This chili achieves The Recipe Trifecta: it is easy, good and cheap. It's the kind of recipe that you can make even in the midst of feeling like death in a paper cup. You do, of course, have pre-browned hamburger sitting in ziploc bags in your freezer, right? (Yes, of course you do.) This clocks your need-to-be-vertical time at about 10 minutes for the whole batch, because you can just thaw the meat for one minute in the microwave and dump it into the recipe. Brilliant! But the recipe is also good enough that you might end up wanting to make it any old weeknight that you happen to be jonesing for chili. And cheap? Yeah, well that just leaves you more money for kleenex now, doesn't it?

Everyday Chili
serves 6

2 pounds of hamburger
1 onion, diced
2 -15 oz. cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 -14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1- 6 oz. can tomato paste
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 T. chili powder
1/4-1 t. cumin (or more), depending on taste or nasal congestion
1 t. ground black pepper
1 t. salt

Brown hamburger and onion in a large skillet; drain. In a large pot, combine hamburger mixture, beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic and spices. Stir to combine, and simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you are thinking ahead, you can also brown the hamburger and onion and combine everything in a slow cooker. Set it on low for 6-8 hours while you nap and blow your nose, then serve.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Happy World Nutella Day 2009!

I'm telling you, if this week's World Peace Cookies haven't already aligned the planets in perfect harmony, I can't think of what else might do it besides World Nutella Day. A whole day devoted to the celebration of Nutella? (Um, as if I don't celebrate Nutella every other day of the year. Which, maybe I do, and maybe I eat Nutella out of the jar with a spoon, but never when the children are watching because that would make me a bad influence. Please.)

This amazing holiday is the brainchild of Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso. They both live in Italy. Jealous yet? Yeah, me too, but I'm working hard not to hold it against them. The residual peace from Tuesday's cookies is helping. The Nutella on the end of the spoon that I am currently ~~holding~~ imagining does not hurt, either.

I decided to make Ina Garten's Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing, and subbed out the peanut butter for Nutella. I also made half a recipe because, 24 cupcakes? Holy Weight Watchers, Batman.

The cupcakes are dark and moist, not too sweet and nicely bitter, which is a great foil for the fluffy, sweet Nutella icing. This is not really a kid's-birthday-party kind of cupcake, and even some adults will probably like it better if the amount of sugar is upped a little bit. Me, I loved the way it kind of bit my tongue and grabbed the back of my throat, but that might be because I'm a glutton for punishment. The frosting is sweet and fluffy, but maybe a little too fluffy. I would have liked it to have been a bit more substantial, but I have a feeling adding less cream, or adding more confectioner's sugar would fix that in a jiffy.

Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Cupcakes

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 tablespoons brewed coffee
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup good cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.

Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (ed note: this is WAY too long. Start checking at about 16 minutes. I took mine out at 18.) Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Serves 24.

World Nutella Day Icing

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup Nutella
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
Place the confectioners' sugar, Nutella, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

TWD - World Peace Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Can a cookie, a mere baked good, help achieve world peace? Before tasting these lovelies, I didn't think so. Now I'm not so sure.

I'm thinking we should ask Sam Kass, personal chef to the Obama family both in Illinois and now at the White House, to start slipping these weapons of mass consumption to the Commander in Chief, and see what happens. We may be on the verge of peace in the Middle East, the end of terrorism, beating swords into plowshares... who knows where this cookie could take us?

Let me just say that I felt a lot more peaceful after eating ~~more than a few~~ one of these. These cookies are lovely, dark, chocolaty, with a hint of salt that makes your tongue say, "oh YEAH baby!" (Probably not out loud, but, no guarantees. Be careful the company you keep when you are eating them, just in case.)

The secret is fleur de sel, which is French for "hoity-toity sea salt". I didn't really have my hoity-toity on, though, as all I had in the house was lowly, pas-Francais, coarse sea salt. It's supposedly from some sea that's relatively near France, though, does that count?

The recipe calls for fine sea salt, so I dumped some in my coffee grinder and whinged it around for a bit until it was fine. Resourceful is my middle name.

I had some bittersweet chocolate wafers (see: King Arthur Flour Chocolate Sale), so I chopped them up for inclusion. I had chunks of all sizes, some big, some leetle, and I think that might be part of the reason that my cookies look a little, ahem, drunken, relative to some other pictures I've seen. Or not, I dunno, but it didn't really matter because they tasted That Good. And even though the cookies may be a bit on the ugly duckling side, I loved biting into ~~several~~ one and getting a rush of gooey bittersweet chocolate along with the saltiness. Nirvana.

So: the conclusion is that you need to go make these cookies Right Now, and see for yourself what happens. They may not immediately bring about world peace, but it's entirely possible that they'll chill you out just enough to keep you from yelling at the jerk who just cut you off in traffic. And that would be a good start towards the pursuit of happiness, no?

Thanks to Jess of cookbookhabit for this week's pick; you can get the full recipe at her site or in Dorie's book (which I highly recommend), Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Now go check out the TWD blogroll to pick up some serious internet peace, love and cookie vibes. I mean it. World peace is important, and you're expected to do your part.

Teleflora

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:06:00 +0000

I'm not afraid of dark humor, but I cannot think of any Superbowl ad I have ever seen that was more offensive than the Teleflora ads that ran during the Superbowl last night. I have already informed my husband that I don't want him to buy me Teleflora flowers, ever.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies II - The Sequel

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Okay, in general, a sequel is never as good as the original, right? I mean, raise your hand if you are a fan of Caddyshack II. Anyone? Jaws 3-D? Rocky V? C'mon, somebody's gotta love these movies, right? No?

Yeah, me neither. Sequels pretty much suck. BUT! That's in Hollywood, where they also think that Jessica Simpson is fat. Come. On.

In the real world, I would kill to be as fat as Jessica Simpson, and sequels don't suck, at least if they are sequels to the world's best chocolate chip cookie recipe. Could I make it even better? (Ooh, sorry. Slipped into Cook's-Illustrated-Speak there.)

I made another batch of these cookies; a double batch, in fact, but this time I subbed out the AP flour for bread flour, didn't bother with the fussy reshaping step, and per the New York Times, stuck it in my fridge for 36 hours, and tried to forget they were in there. Actually, I was so successful at this that they stayed in the fridge for more like 48 hours, because I, um, forgot they were in there.

The results were seriously, amazingly, orgasmically good. The cookie stayed thicker than my first batch, had an interior texture that was unbelievable - how can a cookie be perfectly chewy and yet utterly melt in your mouth at the same time? I dunno, but these bad boys managed it. The flavor was, like the NYT predicted, more complex and caramelly than the average chocolate chipper, without taking away from the essence of what a CCC is supposed to taste like.

All I can say is, if I keep making these cookies, I have zero chance of ever looking like Jessica Simpson. It's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Sequel
(double batch)

4 1/4 cups bread flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line several large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

Put dough into a sealed container (I used a gallon sized zipper bag) and refrigerate for 36 hours. (Dough will stiffen. Freak out not.)

Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball.

Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges just start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time.

Pull the cookies out of the oven while they still seem a little underbaked, and let them cool completely on the sheets.

Yield: About 36 - 40 large cookies.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:46:00 +0000

Hey, I dunno if you've gotten this vibe, but I love carbs. (Whether they love me is a post for another day.)

But after awhile, a girl craves something other than sugar. Granted, in my case this takes a long, LONG time, but I do eventually get there.

And if you want carbs-not-sugar, and it happens to be, you know, oppressively gray, cold and bleak where you live - not that I'm complaining, mind you - well, one of the first things that comes to mind is soup.

And this is some amazing soup. How amazing? Well, I actually had to make a second batch for this post because the Fartketeers inhaled the first batch the other night before I could save some out to take a picture. I mean, the recipe is supposed to serve eight. And these guys were having thirds. Then, when I told them I was going to have to make another batch for dinner tonight so that I could get a picture? They cheered. Loaded Baked Potato Soup twice in 48 hours? Ah, the food gods are smiling on us.

This is a seriously thick soup. As in, it really has one foot in the Cream Gravy camp. You could serve this stuff over biscuits, if you were REALLY carb happy. But, take that as a good thing. This is comfort food on steroids. I dare you to eat it and not feel at least temporarily better about it still being January outside.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

4 large baking potatoes, baked and cooled to room temp
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 yellow onion, diced
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk (it is fine to use fat-free milk here. The soup will still be uber-rich and creamy, trust me.)
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 t. freeze dried chives
1 cup sour cream
1 cup (about 10 strips) bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cube potatoes and set aside. Melt butter in large saucepan or stock pot. Add onions and saute over medium high heat until soft. Add flour. This is a very dry roux, so watch carefully and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes, just to cook off the raw flour taste. Add about a quarter of the milk and stir until mostly smooth; continue to add milk a quarter at a time to prevent lumps from forming. Add salt, pepper and chives, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once soup has boiled, reduce heat to low, and add sour cream and cheese, and stir until cheese is melted. Add bacon and potatoes, and cook for another 2-3 minutes until potatoes are warmed. Garnish with additional cheese and chives if desired.

The Chambord Chronicles Volume 1: Raspberry Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Sorry, no Tuesdays with Dorie post today; I ended up with too many other baked goods in the house to justify making one more thing this week. Next week is World Peace Cookies, though, so I will be back with bells on!

In an effort to use up the bottle of Chambord that found it's way to my house, I baked a Raspberry Glazed Lemon Pound Cake this weekend. Because I was home all alone, and nothing says more-cake-than-one-person-should-ever-eat than an entire pound cake, all to oneself.

(oh, okay, FINE. I saved it until the Fartketeers got home. With, I might add, the Snack Mix Bars that they forgot to put out for snack time. Baked goods? Why yes, we have a few at home right now.)

The cake was pretty good; the lemon flavor was very light, which let the bright, tangy raspberry glaze really come through. I loved that the cake was pale yellow and the glaze was carnation pink; it was so sweet and girly. (Which did not, I might note, stop the Fartketeers from inhaling it. No manhood issues with this crew.) I was worried that there would be an alcohol flavor in the glaze, but either I've become totally immune to it, or it wasn't noticeable. I'm going to remain mysterious and let you decide.

The cake did start to dry out and feel a little heavy the next day, which of course only meant that we were compelled to eat it all, right. then. Because heaven forbid we had bad cake lying around. The horror!

aside - a public service announcement for my dear readers: a Microplane Grater Zester does not discriminate between lemon rind and human skin. Shocking, I know. I strongly suggest the use of chain mail when using this implement. Maybe even a double layer. And protective glasses. And one of those censor-beeper thingies. I would not want anyone else's knuckles (or innocent's ears) to suffer the same fate as mine, because well, it hurt like a beyotch.

Raspberry Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

3 cups cake flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 T. freshly grated lemon rind
1 cup sour cream
2 T. Chambord

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 T. Chambord
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 16-cup tube pan. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Using electric mixer, beat butter at medium speed until fluffy. Add sugar; cream for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in lemon juice, peel and sour cream. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes, then transfer to rack. Brush with Chambord while warm. Cool completely before glazing.

For glaze:
Combine powdered sugar, liqueur, juice, and butter, whisking until smooth. Pour over cooled cake.

Chambord

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:40:00 +0000

One of the great things about baking is that it allows you to justify going out and buying all kinds of cool gadgets and ingredients. I maybe kinda sorta got caught up in the moment, and took advantage of King Arthur Flour's chocolate sale, for instance. (It's only running until Tuesday - get thee hence!) And I might've gone to Williams Sonoma to buy a brand spankin' new tart pan to make Dorie's French Pear Tart, because I would not have wanted to insult her by baking this dessert in *gasp* a pie pan.

So, as I was looking at the recipe for Berry Surprise Cake, I saw that it included a berry liqueur; kirsch, chambord, framboise, you get the idea. Cool. I didn't have any in the house and thought it might be a nice ingredient to have on hand. Only, I wanted a s-m-a-l-l bottle, because yeah, nobody needs a half gallon of kirsch.

I forgot that I needed the liqueur until a Saturday night. In which there was a raging blizzard, natch. Sigh. I wanted to bake the cake on a Sunday, but buying liquor on a Sunday doesn't happen around here. So. Out into the blizzard I was going to have to go.

Under those tight circumstances, I gave up on finding kirsch in my white-bread suburban town; the stores I called either didn't carry it or didn't even know what it was. (!) But one store assured me they had a small bottle of Chambord on the shelf, so off I went.

Without remembering to ask the price of the Chambord. My bad.

Because it turns out that they must use unicorns to stomp the fruit for this stuff, and then add fairy dust to it, or something. I can't figure out what else would make a small bottle of raspberry liqueur cost $24.00. I know, maybe it's just that I'm a cheapskate, but damn.

Once I saw the bottle, however, it all became clear. It costs that much, because they actually put the liqueur into the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!

So, I ponied up the 24 bucks, took my Holy Chambord Hand Grenade back out into the blizzard, and headed home.

But wait - if you're still with me, here's the punch line:

I forgot to put it in the cake.

Yep. Clean forgot. Because that's the kind of brilliantness that I'm known for. And I can't return the Chambord, because I opened it to get a tiny taste. Alrighty then. There's an object lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure.

So what's a blonde girl to do? Well, bake with Chambord apparently, from now until the cows come home. The ~~hand grenade~~ bottle states that it's best used within 6 months. So. I herewith intend to embark on a Chambord baking adventure. I'm looking for interesting recipes that use Chambord; I've already found a hundred different recipes for Flourless Chocolate Torte with Chambord, Deep Fudgy Brownies with Chambord, and any other variation of, "Hey, I know! Let's pour some Chambord in this decadent chocolate dessert recipe! Brilliant!"

But, if you, one of my six loyal (non-commenting, ahem) readers, has a really sparkling, different recipe using Chambord, give me a shout.

Otherwise I'm gonna hafta use this stuff to snuff out killer rabbits.

in which I finally make something that almost doesn't suck

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:04:00 +0000

I've been cooking this week; cooking AND baking, in fact, but my success quotient is, er, down. Way down. I'm gonna hold off on playing the lottery for another week or so, let's say.

First, I started off with Shirley Corriher's Mile High Popovers. I knew Shirley wouldn't let me down. Surely, Shirley?

Or not.

Huh. I just don't remember anything in the recipe warning me that there would be an abyss the size of a black hole in every. single. popover. WTF?

I followed the recipe uber-closely; the only difference was that since I don't own a dedicated popover pan (yet), I made them in muffin tins. I don't think this accounts for popover sinkholes, but I am not a food scientist, nor do I play one on tv, so what do I know.

Next! Roasted Broccoli and Bell Pepper. Simple! Straightforward! And, bonus, something not laden with sugar and butter!

A few weeks ago, I read Melissa Clark's NYT article about roasted broccoli and shrimp, and it reminded me that I hadn't roasted veggies in awhile, which is a crying shame. Because roasting vegetables is a beautiful thing. So, I took some broccoli florets, a yellow bell pepper that was languishing in the veg drawer, some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and thyme, and then because I was feeling reckless, dashed some sesame seeds in there and mixed the whole thing up.

Despite my photography skills, the veg didn't look that bad.

But here's the thing about broccoli. If, in the midst of making a dinner of pot roast, mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli, you get so absorbed in the work of the kitchen that you, say, turn off the timer but forget to turn off the heat or take the roasted veggies out of the oven? Well, bad things happen. Bad, unable-to-be-photographed kinds of things. I briefly considered taking a picture of the blackened, mushy morass, but for the sake of the children, thought better of it.

Which leads me to today. I live at home with a husband and two adolescent boys who I dearly love. But they do make a lot of man jokes. And they fart a lot. Which, for reasons unclear to me, brings them endless amounts of glee. I am happy that flatulence fills them with such joy, but I have to say that living with the Three Fartketeers does sometimes make a girl feel like it's not a home, so much as a never-ending frat party.

So when they leave for the weekend to go on Scout campouts (with other joyful farters), there's a certain je ne sais quoi about the peace, quiet, and lack of malodorousness in the house that I enjoy very much. So much so, that I am happy to bake fun treats for them, to encourage them to leave.

Today I made them some Snack Mix Bars. They are... what is the word I'm looking for? Killer. Sweet, salty, sticky, crunchy, chocolate, peanut butter bliss. In the office where I used to work (filled with women), we named them PMS bars, for obvious reasons. However, the name is somewhat less apropos on a Boy Scout Campout, so this weekend they are Snack Mix Bars. You can name them Hello, Sailor Bars if it makes you feel better, I'm pretty easy about stuff like this.

Even these didn't turn out as good as they usually do for me; they didn't set up all the way, and many of them started to fall apart. Eh. They're in a ziploc bag, being eaten by a bunch of 12-16 year old boys who will not care if they happen to morph into Snack Mix Trail Mix. Normally, if you follow the directions and you're not, ahem, living under a bad kitchen moon, they will set up so that they can be cut into bars.

Snack Mix Bars

2 1/2 cups of halved pretzel sticks
1 1/2 cups plain m & m's
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
5 cups mini-marshmallows

Mix pretzels, candy, peanuts and cereal in a bowl. Melt butter and peanut butter together. Once melted, stir in marshmallows until melted. (I dump this all in a large microwaveable bowl and end up zapping it again in 30-second increments to get the marshmallows completely melted. YMMV.) Stir melted mixture thoroughly into snack mix, then press into a well greased 9x13 pan. Cool, and cut into squares.

a hint - I save the wrapper from the stick of butter, and use it, buttered side down, to press the sticky mixture solidly in the pan. Works like a charm.

TWD - The Inauguration Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Happy Inauguration Day! Can you feel the excitement in the air? What a privilege to be a witness to history, and I didn't want to miss a moment of it. But, since I didn't get an invitation to any of the Inaugural Balls, I'm now finally free to share my weekly Tuesdays with Dorie post.

This week's recipe was Berry Surprise Cake, chosen by Mary of Meet Me in the Kitchen. It was such a great choice, and it's been fun to see how all the creative food bloggers chose to interpret Dorie's recipe! To see the full recipe, head on over to Mary's site.

I had never made genoise before, and so in addition to reading Dorie's recipe v-e-r-y closely, I also read Shirley Corriher's discussion in BakeWise. I love Shirley's book - it is very informative and I love learning more about the science of cooking. After reading Shirley, I knew that I had to be super careful with the temperature of my eggs, and so I used my instant-read thermometer while I was whisking them in their water bath, to get them to exactly 90 degrees. I also learned that keeping the mixer speed at medium is critical for forming small bubbles that will help with rise and texture.
I was very fortunate in that I didn't seem to have the sinking problem that some people encountered with their cakes. (Dumb luck, really... plenty of other bakers were careful with their temp and mixer speed, and their cakes fell. I'm almost afraid to try this again - I don't know if I can get this lucky twice in a row!) Mine deflated just a little in the middle, but otherwise stayed pretty stable.
I debated about how to actually make the cake - the idea of hollowing out the middle and filling it with berries never really appealed to me, I'm afraid. I decided instead to make the cake as it might have looked in Dorie's cardboard tube. I'm danger with a biscuit cutter, I tell you.

But then what about the berries? There are not a lot of fresh local berries in Michigan in January (hey, have I mentioned that it's gray and cold and bleak? Yes? Well, never mind, then.), but I did have some blueberries and some cranberries in the freezer; and that's when it struck me. Both truly American fruits, one red and one blue, with a white filling, they would be perfect for Inauguration Day! I decided to make the fruits into a curd. Supper In Stereo had posted a fabulous looking Nigella Lawson recipe for Cranberry Curd, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The cranberry curd is to. die. for. Amazing. Tangy. Sweet. Buttery. Jewel-colored. I tried the same recipe with an equal weight of blueberries, reducing the liquid by half, and the flavor is incredible, but it doesn't have the same thick, jam-like texture. It probably needed a little cornstarch to give it the oomph that would have helped it look better in the picture and not ooze all over the place. *sigh*

I really liked the cake; it isn't named a sponge cake for nothing. It's texture alone was a little dry, but it was the perfect foil for the fruit and filling, and it all worked together really well - the filling was creamy without being too sweet, the fruit curds were sweet and bright, and the cake was sturdy and textural against the softness of the other components. Another winner!

Check out all the other TWD bloggers this week for some really great posts. And thanks again, Mary!

Basque Chicken and Chorizo Saute

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:10:00 +0000

I hate to admit this, but I'm not crazy about cooking. Really. So much chopping, and searing, and mincing, and reducing. I find it all a little tiresome some days, and if I never had to deglaze another pan as long as I lived, well, I wouldn't be that disappointed.

Mind you, I like eating all that stuff. I just would rather be baking than cooking. But I also don't like to eat pre-packaged, preservative-ized (yes that IS a word. Shut up.) food. So I cook, from scratch, and it's not like it totally stinks, relative to a lot of other things I could be doing, but I get a lot more satisfaction out of making the cornbread to go with the chili than I do out of making the chili itself.

But I decided to try a new dinner recipe, and this recipe for Basque Chicken and Chorizo Saute from Food and Wine seemed like as good an option as any. It was created by Daniel Boulud. How bad could it be?

Not bad at all, as it turns out. Really, really good, in fact. The sauce that gets created is sweet and spicy and deep and complex and red, and the chicken is tender and juicy. And it wasn't hard, though my kitchen was an unholy mess by the time all was said and done. This, however, speaks more to my inability to keep chorizo grease from sloshing out of the pan all over my stovetop than anything inherently involved in the recipe. In other words, I'm a klutz. Don't blame Daniel Boulud for that.

I didn't really change the recipe as such. I lost patience with trying to hunt down dry chorizo at the grocery store, so I just bought (not-dry? regular?) chorizo instead and crumbled 4 oz. into the pan. I would recommend the dry, though. While the dish had chorizo flavor, the sausage itself got lost in all the other stuff. I used 4 chicken leg quarters because that's all that would fit in my pan. I also dialed back the crushed red pepper based on the preferences of my family. Beyond that, I followed the recipe as written. Make sure you have lots of crusty bread on hand to mop up the sauce!

Basque Chicken and Chorizo Saute
courtesy of Food and Wine Magazine

4 ounces dry chorizo, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 whole chicken legs, split (3 1/2 pounds)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 medium red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
6 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 large thyme sprigs
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup dry sherry
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
One 9-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and pressed dry
2 tablespoons shredded basil

Heat a really, REALLY big, deep skillet. Add the chorizo and cook over medium heat, stirring, until lightly browned. Remove chorizo from pan and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in the skillet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook over medium high heat, turning once, until well browned, about 15 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add the bell peppers, onions, garlic and thyme to the skillet and cook over medium heat until onion starts to reduce, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sherry, paprika and crushed red pepper and cook for 1 minute, scraping up any browned bits from the pan.

Return the chicken and chorizo to the skillet. Cover and simmer over medium low heat, turning once, until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.

Add artichokes.

Raise the heat to medium and cook uncovered until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a large, deep platter.

Stir the basil into the sauce and continue cooking for about 5 minutes to further reduce sauce. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:37:00 +0000

I was wandering aimlessly through Food Bloggerland awhile back, when I stumbled on a recipe for Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies at Jaime's terrific blog. The pictures looked so good, and as we all know, cookies are always right. I'm still in utter despair about the fact that we have months of cold, gray, bleak winter ahead of us (this will be a recurring theme, in case you hadn't noticed), and I knew that cookies would take my mind off the misery, at least temporarily.

These cookies do live up to their name. They are big, and thick, and crispy around the edges but melt-in-your-mouth chewy on the inside. I added 1/2 cup of pecans to mine, because ... sometimes you feel like a nut. Do heed the instructions not to overcook them, and let them cool on the cookie sheet. I also found that doing the whole roll-yank-twist-smoosh thing didn't result in tops that were substantially more jagged or (even though I did it) worth the effort. Just sayin' - if that's going to be a deal breaker for you, then skip the step. The cookies will still taste remarkable.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball.

Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves.

Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface.

Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time.

Cool the cookies on the sheets.

Yield: About 18 large cookies.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:39:00 +0000

Ah, corn muffins. So hearty and filling, a perfect accompaniment to a winter's bowl of chili. I was really looking forward to this recipe - simple, yet creative. And it's a Dorie recipe, so they would of course be wonderful, right?

Well... sort of.

I made this recipe with some minor tweaking: since I knew that most of us (husband excluded) wouldn't be crazy about the jalapeno, I subbed it out - instead I added 1 tsp. of toasted cumin seeds, and dropped the chili powder back to 1/2 tsp. so that it wouldn't compete with the cumin.

The flavor of the muffins was terrific; the cumin really shone, the corn and pepper gave it some sweetness and we all loved the cilantro. Winner!

But.

The organic corn meal that I keep on hand has a rather different texture than most cornmeals. Rather than being granular, it is almost powdery.

This is the only thing I can figure that would cause the texture of the muffins to be very dry and overly crumbly; they fell apart in our hands. I found this a little odd, since I can use this cornmeal successfully in my other "standby" recipes (well; not polenta, but that's a different story entirely), but it didn't work for this recipe. The flavors were so intriguing, however, that I am almost itching to give this recipe another try with a coarser cornmeal - the recipe does call for "stone ground", which I would assume would generally have a more granular texture.

And even crumbly muffins look good in pictures...

A super-duper thanks to Rebecca over at Ezra Pound Cake for this week's pick! And as always, thanks to Laurie for the herculean effort of coordinating the TWD bakers. Check out the blogroll this week for lots of interesting variations and opinions!