Tara Takes the Cake

Butternut Squash Gallette

2011-12-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

Butternut squash and sage epitomize autumn in my mind...so, it is no wonder I made these in March. I feel like the harder I try to cook seasonal produce -- be it getting a CSA box, googling a list of what is freshest this moment in Northern California before going to shop the organic section of my local Berkeley hippy grocery store, or just trying to keep in mind that winter means it is not time to eat raspberries -- the more I end up with things like butternut squash in March and blueberry pie at Christmas.

Oh well. Maybe all the teenage rebellion I skipped is finally surfacing?

This gallette is more than just super pretentious to say, it is really delicious. Really, really delicious. It is December now, so a perfectly reasonable time for me to tell you to sprint on down to the store and buy yourself a beautiful butternut squash to make this amazing, homey, buttery, flakey, cheesy, squashy free form tart. It can be eaten hot or at room temperature, making it a versatile addition to your fall/winter/spring or summer table.

Butternut Squash Gallette
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
serves 6

For the filling:
1 small butternut squash (about one pound), pealed and cut into a half inch dice
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
1 large sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp. salt
Pinch of sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne
3/4 c. fontina cheese (about 2 1/2 ounces), grated
1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh sage leaves

For the crust: you could use Deb's recommended sour cream crust, but I found the tang of the sour cream was odd against the backdrop of the butternut squash and caramelized onion filling. I would use the pate brise I have here, without the sugar.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Toss the diced butternut squash with olive oil and 1/2 tsp. salt. Spread on a single layer of baking sheet (with foil to make your life easier), bake for 30 minutes. When it comes out of the oven, set it aside to cool slightly and raise oven temperature to 400 F.

Meanwhile, caramelize your onions. Melt the butter in a heavy skillet. Add the onions, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a pinch of sugar and cook over low heat. Stir occasionally until the onions are soft and golden brown -- about 20 minutes.

Once the onions are caramelized and the butternut squash roasted, make sure you have turned up the oven to 400 F and combine the onions, squash, fontina, and herbs together.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 12 inches in diameter. Transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and spread the filling over the dough leaving a 1 - 1.5 inch border. Fold the border over the filling, pleating the edge to make it fit and lie relatively flat.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until golden brown, and let sit for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

Meringues

2011-11-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

The only meringues I had had prior to these were the wonderful Trader Joe's ones that taste just like the marshmallows from Lucky Charms.

I could pretend I wasn't hoping to replicate that fake and sugary flavor that I love so much, but I was. I admit it.

You more refined palate readers, though, will be glad to know that these were not like the Trader Joe's Lucky Charms-esque meringues. They had no overly sweetened and artificial vanilla flavor. Instead, they tasted simple. Clean. Light, airy, and slightly chewy at the center. Lightly sweetened, lightly vanilla scented.

They were really, really great.

Click here for a printable recipe.

Meringues
recipe from Cook's Illustrated
makes about 30-40 cookies

4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. sugar (7 oz.)
3/4 tsp. vanilla*

Preheat the oven to 200 F. Adjust racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

With an electric mixer or a stand mixer, beat egg whites on medium-low speed until the eggs are frothy -- about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and increase speed to medium-high, whipping the mixture until it is voluminous, white, thick, and the consistency of shaving cream. This will take about 1.5 minutes.

Slowly add the vanilla and the sugar. When about half the sugar is added, reduce mixer speed to low and beat until just incorporated. The whites should look smooth and glossy.

Portion out the meringues onto the baking sheets, with each about an inch apart. The meringues are most easily formed with a small or medium cookie scoop, but two spoons will do the trick as well. You should be able to get 15 cookies on each pan if you have uniform sized pans (unlike me!).

Bake the cookies for 1.5 hours, and then turn off the oven and leave the cookies inside to cool for several hours. After the hour and a half of baking, the cookies should have firm exteriors and be smooth and dry.

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!

*This recipe only has 4 ingredients. Use high quality eggs and definitely, definitely use high quality vanilla. This one is my favorite.

I'll be back!

2011-11-25T20:59:00.000-08:00

Despite not posting in the past few months, I promise I have been indeed cooking. And cooking some wonderful things at that. Many of the following are recipes I never wrote down or just didn't have time to blog...but they still look great, so I wanted to share them.

Roasted Stuffed Pear with Arugula Salad

Fresh Fig Tart

Poached Egg Over Roasted Winter Vegetables from my CSA Box

English Toffee

Paneer Kebabs

Cod en Poupote with Spring Vegetables

In the next week or so, look forward to me posting about the following:

Vanilla Meringues

Butternut Squash Gallette

Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Almonds

2011-05-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

I watched Anne Burrell make this one night while vegging out in front of the TV and knew I had to make it right away. Like...RIGHT AWAY.

Luckily, that happened to be just a day or two before a President's Day weekend trip to Texas (yes, that was February so I have been depriving you of this recipe for months). I knew I would have my usual captive band of loyal, genetically overlapped taste testers at hand. This chicken let none of us down.

As the word "braised" might indicate, this chicken is extremely moist and tender. The mushrooms and pancetta were to die for. And the almonds...they just melted into the sauce completely. Making the almond butter was a fascinating way to bump up umami flavor and thicken the sauce -- it ends up thick, but light. No cream, no flour, no butter -- not that you can pass this off as health food, but it has an unexpected lightness to it, making it perfectly ok for me to have waited until near-summer to share with you this amazing recipe. Right? :)

Click here for the printable recipe.

Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Almonds
adapted from Anne Burrell
serves 4-8 servings, depending on your sides

extra-virgin olive oil
8 chicken thighs (or your favorite pieces)
kosher salt
1/2 pound pancetta, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large onions, diced
a pinch crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds mushrooms, such as shiitake, cremini, portabello, or oyster, cleaned and sliced
2 cups dry white wine
4 to 6 cups chicken stock (I think I used 5+)
1 bundle thyme
4 bay leaves
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds, toasted
Chives, chopped, for garnish

Coat the bottom of a large, wide, and deep pan (I used an approximately 2 inch deep x 13 inch across pan) with EVOO. This will probably take 3-4 Tbs and heat until fairly hot, but below the smoking point, over high heat.

Blot the chicken dry with paper towels -- this will allow it to sear and caramelize better -- and season generously with salt. When the pan is heated, add chicken, placing the pieces skin side down. Don't move it around -- let the skin sizzle and stick, it will unstick when it is crisp and golden.

When one side of the chicken is browned, brown the other side, then remove from the pan and reserve.

Lower the heat, drain off almost all of the excess fat. Add the pancetta and cook until it starts to brown and crisp -- then add the onions.

Add several pinches of salt and the crushed red pepper, sauté the onions for around 7 minutes. Add the garlic and let it sweat for 1-2 minutes. Add mushrooms, season again with salt, and sauté for 3-4 minutes until the mushrooms start to release their juices.

Add the wine and then reduce until the liquids are half. Add the chicken back to the pan and add the chicken stock -- using enough to almost cover the chicken. Add the thyme, tied in a bundle with twine for easy removal. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and simmer for 30-35 minutes, checking the liquid level periodically and adding more if necessary. Just eyeball this -- it isn't an exact science.

While the chicken is cooking, puree the almonds in a food processor, drizzling in a little olive oil until a loose paste is formed. I think at this stage, I added more olive oil than I think I could have gotten away with and next time what I might do is omit the olive oil at this stage and just add some chicken broth. No need for the extra fat, I imagine. Season with a pinch of salt and set aside in the dish you wish to serve this in.

Once the chicken has cooked for 30-35 minutes, remove it from the pan once again and reserve. Taste the sauce for seasonings, stir in the almond puree, and taste again. Adjust seasonings if needed. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer in order to thicken the sauce.

Spoon the mushrooms and sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with chives for a garnish.

I served this with oven roasted potatoes sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, sautéed hericots verts, and freshly baked (but from a freezer bag! I admit it!) biscuits.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Scones

2011-02-12T21:38:00.000-08:00

I am of the philosophy then when I'm going to be a guest in someone's house, especially under less than ideal circumstances, I must bake and cook like a doting housewife/madwoman.

This last January I found myself taking an unexpected detour to Washington D.C. to visit a sick friend and ended up staying with an overburdened 3L at George Washington. Naturally, scones were called for.

These are some fantastic buttermilk scones. Absolutely fantastic. Leave it to KAF to come up with the best of the best of scone recipes.

I could pretend that I didn't sit down and eat like 6 small ones of these scones in a single sitting (the 2nd time I made them)...but that would be a filthy, filthy lie. I did, and I would do it again. In fact, even writing about them makes me want to run to out and grab buttermilk.

Tangy, aromatic, subtly sweet, and cloud-like in texture. They were amazing.

Cranberry Orange Buttermilk Scones
adapted from King Arthur Flour
makes about 15 scones

3 c. all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbs. orange zest
1 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. butter
1 extra large egg
2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the dry team: flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and orange zest.

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients, using your fingers or a mixer (I used my amazing professional stand mixer!). Mix until the butter is fairly well-combined with the flour but a few pea sized lumps are remaining.

Whisk together the wet team: egg, vanilla, and buttermilk. Pour this into the dry ingredients and add the cranberries. Stir gently until is just combined. Don't over mix.

Using a large muffin scoop, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them a little apart -- about 1.5 inches.

Bake the scones for 15 to 18 minutes, or until they are light golden brown.

Sautéed Wild Mushrooms

2011-02-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've made this mushroom mix to go over steak several times and each time to rave reviews. It's simple, with strong and clean mushroom flavors and, well, it tastes fantastic, what more could you want?

Sautéed Wild Mushrooms
adapted from Ina Garten
Serves 6-8

2 lbs. mixed wild mushrooms. I used shiitake, portobello, and crimini, but many others would also work well
1/2 c. olive oil
1 c. shallots, chopped (4 large)
4 Tbs. butter, unsalted
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
2 Tbs. garlic, minced (about 6 cloves)
1 c. flat leaf parsley, chopped

Clean the mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms into thick slices or a large dice.

Heat the olive oil in a a large Dutch oven or saucepan. Reduce the heat to low, cook the shallots for 5 minutes or until translucent.

Raise heat to medium, add the butter, mushrooms, salt, and pepper and cook for 8 minutes, stirring often. The mushrooms should begin to release their juices. Stir in the garlic and cook for several more minutes.

Toss in parsley. Taste the mushrooms and adjust seasonings if needed. Serve warm -- preferably with steak and potatoes and with me at the table.

Skip the butter to make vegan (and the steak too!)

1 Year Anniversary!

2011-02-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

Today, February 1st, marks 1 year since I began to inhabit this little corner of the internet.

I have had to cut back on both my blogging and on my cooking over the past few months to give full attention to my school work, but rest assured, I have some great items ready in the wings that I will be posting soon -- German Chocolate Cake, Meringues, Cranberry Orange Scones, Sautéed Wild Mushrooms with amazing NY Strip Steak, etc.

I am indebted to the friends and family who have encouraged and supported me through my many cooking and baking endeavors. From visiting this site, to being my guinea pigs, to buying me kitchen equipment: thank you.

Morning Glory Muffins

2011-01-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

I love carrot cake and carrot cake-esque foods and have since I was a child. But, as my taste buds have evolved, store bought items that smell like artificial carrot flavoring and taste like excessively sweetened cream cheese frosting no longer float my boat.

Seems to be a reoccurring theme of this blog, ay? Foods I enjoyed in childhood, amped up to meet adult taste buds. Maybe I should change that to the official statement of purpose for this blogging endeavor.

These muffins, while not actually a carrot cake, are reminiscent of those flavors and are distinctly carroty, but without most of the sinfulness of cake. Although, when you eat 20 of them in a row, maybe that logic doesn't apply.

Make these, they are yummy.

Morning Glory Muffins
adapted from Honey & Jam
makes 12 muffins

1/2 c. raisins 
1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. old fashioned oats
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon 
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. carrots, peeled and grated
1 large apple, peeled, cored, and grated
1/2 c. shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened 
1/2 c. chopped pecans 
1/3 c. wheat germ, optional 
3 extra large eggs
2/3 c. unsweetened apple sauce 
2 tsp. vanilla extract 
1/4 c. orange juice

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Spray a 12 count muffin tin with baking spray or lightly grease. In a small bowl, cover raisins with hot water and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, nuts, wheat germ, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, applesauce, vanilla, and orange juice.

Stir in the "wet team," as Alton Brown would call it, to the dry ingredients, including the egg mixture, brown sugar, carrots, apple, coconut.

Drain the raisins and stir them in. Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan, filling almost to top. Sprinkle with a little extra brown sugar if you like.

Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, until domed and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

2011-01-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

I have two competing desires as a cook: first, to experiment with new recipes, rarely trying the same one twice knowing there are thousands out there, and second, to serve something tried and true at important holidays.

For something like mashed potatoes, though, quite frankly as long as cream, butter, salt, and potatoes enter into the recipe it is kind of hard to go wrong, making it a perfect opportunity to both experiment and rest assured of success.

The recipe for these mashed potatoes, like many other items on my Thanksgiving menu, came from Cook's Illustrated, put out by America's Test Kitchen. I subscribed to both the website and the magazine this autumn and have quickly become a die hard devote.

These potatoes were fantastic. Simple, easy, fool proof, flavorful, and plentiful. Can't go wrong!

Creamy Mashed Potatoes
adapted from Cook's Illustrated
serves 4

2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes
4 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
2/3 c. whole milk, warm
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Peel and cut the potatoes into 1 inch chunks. Rinse them well and drain them.

In a large stock pot, add the potatoes and fill with cold water until the potatoes are completely submerged.

Turn heat to high and bring water to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt the butter and warm the milk together in a sauce pan or in the microwave.

Drain the potatoes when they can be easily stabbed with a fork. Set ricer or food mill over now-empty pot.

Working in batches, transfer potatoes to hopper of ricer and process them -- this works better than the traditionally mashing method, it produces a much fluffier and creamier product. Stir in melted butter, milk, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Food Dislikes

2011-01-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

Every good wannabe gourmand should probably not publicly admit to having strong dislikes of foods that are 'en vogue'. But, if Ina Garten can admit her hatred of cilantro (...sounds like a neurological disorder to me!...no, literally), then it is time for me to fess up mine.

Let's face it, I might love to cook and be good at it, but I don't always have a "cool kid" flavor palette.

Mangos. The work of the devil.
Brown butter. This tastes like someone died in the churning process.
Mayo.
Eggplant.
Burt sugar. Sorry sticky toffee pudding, you disgust me.
Bleu cheese.
Snails, clams, oysters and other sea creatures in this line.
Sour cream and queso crema. Although I'm pretty sure my Mexican citizenship was just revoked.
Cooked carrots -- I'm working on this.

Yet, all of this being said, as a want to be food snob I am indeed trying hard to overcome these strong dislikes...except for the mango. They can go to hell.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts

2011-01-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

The Thanksgiving table must have a verdant vegetable in order to fully pretend like it isn't the most sinful meal possible (once I post the recipe I used for mashed potatoes, you'll understand :-D). This year it was Brussels sprouts.

As I've mentioned before, I was quite the picky eater growing up. Brussels sprouts easily made my top 5 least favorite foods. I didn't really get over that hatred until spending last Christmas in London where I was served delicious and amazing sprouts with Christmas dinner (I also developed an appreciation for the rutabaga [or swede] that night).

These were a wonderful holiday appropriate rendition of this great type of brassica oleracea and I definitely plan on making them again. They were even great drenched in gravy (a sure sign of turkey day appropriateness). My aunt, L, a bit of a gourmand, gave them the highest marks possible -- the best she had ever eaten. I concur.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts
serves 8 as a side dish
adapted from Cooking Light

1.5 lbs. Brussels sprouts, quartered or halved (depending on their size)
1 1/4 c. bottled chestnuts, halved
4 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper, coarsely ground
Pinch of red pepper, ground
1 Tbs. butter
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine all ingredients minus the butter and cheese in a large bowl and spread in a single layer over a large baking sheet/jelly roll pan.

Bake for 25 minutes, stirring after 15. Remove from oven, transfer to a serving dish, stir in butter until melted and top with cheese.

To make vegan, exclude the Parmesan and butter. I wasn't initially going to use the cheese, but my dad (and sous chef) snuck in the "I love parm on Brussels sprouts..." hint hint during a conversation about meal planning so, at the last minute, I dumped some shredded parm on top of the sprouts and he was sooo right!

Pumpkin Pie

2011-01-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the theme of most important parts of Thanksgiving, this is pie 2!

I am a pumpkin pie lover. Made from a pre-spiced can, in the grocery store freezer aisle, or fresh out of the oven -- I'll take it any way I can get it. I just love pumpkin pie.

This pie was quite frankly the best pumpkin pie I've had. It was a very custardy pie, thick and rich but more creamy than most pumpkin pies. Yet, the pie flavor really shined through.

The flaky, flaky crust, kick from natural ginger, and creamy pumpkin flavor made this an absolute hit and it was gobbled up within 24 hours.

Pumpkin Custard Pie
barely adapted from Cook's Illustrated
serves 8

1 c. heavy cream
1 c. whole milk
3 large eggs + 2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
15 oz. canned pumpkin puree
1 c. drained candied yams (from a 15 oz. can)
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. maple syrup
2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1 single pie crust dough (so, half of the linked recipe)

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Roll out the pie crust to a 12 inch circle after it has rested in the fridge for the required time. Place in the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate, cut off the excess around the edges (leaving 1 inch), tuck hangover under and flute. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Move oven rack to lowest position. Line pie crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (dry lentils or rice can be used, but you don't to try to eat either of those later.). Bake for 15 minutes rotating halfway through. Remove weights and parchment paper and then return crust to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

While the crust is baking, mix the eggs, cream, vanilla, and milk together in a bowl.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine yams, pumpkin, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Bring to a sputtering simmer over medium heat, which will take 5-7 minutes. Simmer the mixture stirring and mashing regularly until the mixture becomes thick and shiny. This will take 10-15 minutes.

Remove from heat, whisk in cream mixture, and strain through a fine mesh strainer (pressing solids through the strainer as well). Stir the mixture to ensure full incorporation and transfer it into the pre-baked pie shell.

Place a baking sheet under the pie plate and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

After those 10 minutes, lower heat to 300 F and continue baking for 20-35 minutes. An instant read thermometer will register 175 in the center of the pie -- it should be pretty set but slightly, slightly jiggly in the center. It will continue to cook a little out of the oven.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack and cool for several hours. Serve with fresh, amazing, fantastic fresh whipped cream. Enjoy and bask in the complements (or just keep it all to yourself!)

Cranberry-Blueberry Pie

2010-12-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

Let's start with the most important part of Thanksgiving: pie.

I saw this pie appear on my Google Reader and I knew it would appear on my Thanksgiving table. It was a smashing success and was gobbled up almost as fast as the most fantastic pumpkin pie I've ever tasted (or made!).

It was tart, sweet, flaky, rich, and a perfect form for eating good, homemade whipped cream.

Cranberry-Blueberry Pie
serves 8

Filling:
adapted from Annie's Eats

16 oz. frozen organic wild blueberries (do not thaw)
12 oz. fresh cranberries
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 Tbs. cornstarch
2 cinnamon sticks, whole
1 Tbs. fresh orange juice
1/2 tsp. grated orange zest

Double Crust:
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

2 1/2 c. unbleached a.p. flour (12 1/2 oz.)

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. sugar

12 Tbs. cold butter, unsalted, diced

1/2 c. chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut in half

4 Tbs. vodka, cold

4 Tbs. water

Begin by preparing the dough:

Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar together in a food processor until combined, with two quick pulses.

Add butter and shortening and process until the dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 10 seconds. The dough might resemble cottage cheese and no flour will go uncoated.

Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and add remaining 1 cup flour and pulse about 4 times, until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl. Empty the mixture into medium bowl and sprinkle vodka and water over the mixture. Go light on the water at first, you can add more as necessary.

With rubber spatula, use mix the dough using a folding motion, until the dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

Flatten dough into 2 disks of roughly 4 inches. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Make the filling:

Combine blueberries, cranberries, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon sticks, lemon juice, and zest in a saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring until the mixture thickens and begins to boil, about 12-14 minutes.

Once the mixture reaches a boil, continue boiling for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, remove and throw away the cinnamon sticks, and let cool completely before assembling the pie.

While the filling is cooling, heat the oven to 400 F. Assemble the pie by first rolling out the bottom crust, on a well floured surface, to a 12 inch round. Place the bottom crust in a 9 inch pie pan, pour in filling (spreading so it is evenly distributed), and roll out the remaining pie dough the same way but removing several small holes for the pie to breath.

Cut off the excess crust leaving 1 inch on all sides of overhang. Tuck the overhang under and flute the edges with a fork or with your fingers. Brush the top with heavy cream and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Place the assembled pie on a rack in the upper-middle position in the oven with a baking sheet blow it on the bottom rack. Rotate the pie halfway through baking and bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling, about 60-70 minutes.

If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, loosely tent with foil to prevent excessive browning. Alternately, I placed a cutout of tinfoil over the crust that protected the edges but left the middle exposed.

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature and serve with fresh whipped cream.

Recap: Thanksgiving for 8

2010-11-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

This year was my 2nd year hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my family and it was a lot of fun.

The menu was as follows:

A heritage turkey (14.5 lbs.)
Traditional (Midwestern style) stuffing
Candied yams
Mashed potatoes
Jellied cranberry sauce (from a can, yes I admit I love it) and homemade cranberry sauce
Roasted Brussels sprouts with chestnuts
Gravy
Hard cider punch
Pumpkin pie
Cranberry-Blueberry pie
Fresh whipped cream

I started on Tuesday with the bulk of the shopping and making the homemade cranberry sauce.

Wednesday morning finished last minute shopping and made the pie crusts, completed the Cranberry-Blueberry pie, and roasted the nuts for the candied yams. I also chopped the celery and onions for the stuffing and cubed and toasted the bread.

Thursday was the big day: I had goofed on the crust for the pumpkin pie late Wednesday evening so I made a new crust, prepared the filling and baked the pie off before noon so it would have time to cool. I made the stuffing and let it sit in the fridge with the flavors melding. Yams got roasted and pealed, Brussels sprouts and chestnuts were washed, quartered, and tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. The turkey was covered in sage butter, salt, and pepper and began its oven journey at 4pm. The candied yams were layered into a casserole and baked, potatoes were cooked and mashed (with tons of whole milk and butter), sweetened cream was whipped, and finally the gravy was tweaked to perfection by my stepmom Cindy.

It was a ton of work, and worth every minute of it.

Fresh Cherry Tomato Pasta

2010-11-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

As much as I love to cook and experiment with different combinations of flavors and spices, my ultimate favorite is clean, simple recipes with just a few ingredients. There is something so refreshing about using really high quality ingredients and few enough of them that you can taste the incredible, natural flavor of each one.

This is one of those dishes. The true stars of this dish are simple: tomato, basil, and excellent fresh pasta. I used backyard cherry tomatoes, basil from my plant, and fresh pasta from Berkeley Bowl, the amazing bay area grocery store.

You can really taste each of those 3 stars clearly and cleanly, which is why when I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it right away. When next tomato season rolls around, I plan on rushing to the grocery store to load up on cherry tomatoes for this great dish.

Fresh Cherry Tomato Pasta
adapted barely from the inspired recipe at Macheesmo
Serves 4

1 lb. fresh pasta
1.5 lbs. ripe cherry tomatoes (I used ones grown in my mom's neighbor's back yard...very high quality!)
2 Tbs. olive oil
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

Get out a really wide based pan, put it over medium high heat and add the olive oil. When it gets hot, add the garlic and onion and sauté until they are soft.

Add in the tomatoes. No, don't chop them, just wash them and dump them in. After about 10 minutes they will begin to pop and wilt. Once this happens, get out a fork (or a potato masher) and smash them up a bit. This is a good time for a first seasoning: just salt and pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes if you like (I did this and regretted it, but I really hate this inclusion in all pasta sauces).

Reduce heat to medium and simmer and reduce until it is fairly paste-like, about 25 minutes stirring every few minutes.

Make sure you are bringing your pot of salted water to boil during this reduction time. This is the time to cook your pasta, but reserve 1/4 c. of the pasta water to thin out the sauce if necessary (this is a good tip for all pasta sauces).

Add the white wine to the tomatoes and deglaze the pan. Add in the chopped basil and check the seasonings.

Stir for a minute or two before tossing with the pasta. Add pasta water if necessary to loosen the sauce. Serve with fresh ground black pepper and tons of Parmesan cheese.

A note about extra seasonings: oregano, red pepper flakes, etc. Don't use them. It doesn't need them and they just interfere with the primary flavors, in my opinion.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

2010-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

I opened up a delightful email the other day from Wunmi O., my budding pro photographer best buddy, containing the pictures she took of my meatballs and oh my god her photos are as amazing as my meatballs were! Yay! Alas, thanks to her, no words are really necessary since I am on the verge of biting into my screen.

Well I guess I can't resist. A few words: I dream about these meatballs, they are the best I have ever, ever, ever had. Ok, that is all :).

Spaghetti and Meatballs
serves 12 - a mid-sized village
adapted, barely barely barely, from Cook's Illustrated

Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients nor by the directions, it really is simple but a little time consuming.

2 1/4 c. panko bread crumbs
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
3 large eggs, beaten
2 lbs. 85% lean ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
6 oz. proscuitto, thinly sliced and chopped fine
3 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated (1 1/2 c.)
6 Tbs. fresh parsley, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tsp. powdered gelatin, dissolved in 3 tablespoons cold water
kosher salt and ground black pepper

Sauce
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 c. grated onion (1 to 2 onions)
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. dried oregano
6 c. tomato juice (bottled)
3 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes (ohhhhhhh! 3 cans? Woops!)
6 Tbs. dry white wine
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
3 pounds spaghetti
1/2 c. fresh basil leaves, minced
3 Tbs. fresh parsley leaves, minced
Granulated sugar (just a tsp. or so)
Parmesan cheese, grated, for serving (TONS!)

Begin by preparing the meatballs. Place wire racks in 2 foil-lined rimmed baking sheets. If you just have one, that is fine but this will take a while longer (this is what I did, but I love to starve my guests.)

Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions and preheat oven to 450 F.

Combine bread crumbs and buttermilk in large bowl and let sit, smoosh occasionally with fork until it becomes somewhat smooth and pastey, about 10 minutes.

Add eggs, beef, pork, prosciutto (try to declump these as you add them in, this stuff loves to stick together), Parmesan, parsley, garlic, gelatin mixture, 1.5 tsp. kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper to bread-crumb mixture. Using hands, gently mix until thoroughly combined. I did this mostly with a fork, but go easy on it. Overworked meat is never a delight.

Lightly form about ¼ cup mixture into 2-inch round meatball (about 2 ounces); repeat with remaining mixture to form approximately 40 meatballs. Use a measured scooper. Mine comes out with about 2-3 Tbs. of meat and it is the perfect size.

Spray wire racks with nonstick cooking spray (woops, forgot this) and place meatballs on racks (not touching but they don't grow too much); roast until browned, about 30 minutes, rotating trays from front to back and top to bottom halfway through.

Now, on to the sauce. While meatballs roast, heat olive oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden around edges, 6 or so minutes.

Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano (I went easy on these last 2); cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato juice, crushed tomatoes, wine, 1½ tsp. salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Turn up the heat to medium-high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.

Remove meatballs from oven and reduce oven temperature to 300 F. Gently add meatballs to sauce, cover pot, and place in oven. Gently, gently! You don't to break up these bad boys.

Cook until meatballs are firm and sauce has thickened, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, bring a ton of quarts water to boil in a massive pot if you plan on making all 3 pounds of pasta (I just made 1 pound for 3 people so we would have some leftovers). Add 2 Tbs. of salt to the water and add pasta when the water is boiling; cook until al dente. Drain pasta and return it to cooking pot.

Stir basil and parsley into sauce and adjust seasoning with sugar, salt, and pepper. Toss pasta with 1½ cups sauce until lightly coated.

Serve with meatballs and more sauce over the pasta.

Enjoy!

PS: This is my very first recipe post with beef in it!

Veggie Pot Pie

2010-09-25T02:14:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have those days when you make something really delicious and make a mental note to save the scrap of paper on which you wrote umpteen revisions to the original 5 recipes you adapted and mashed together?

I had one of those days...about 5 months and 3 days ago (not to get too specific!)

It was a chilly late April day and I had decided to experiment with puff pastry for the first time. I made apple turnovers and delicious, individual vegetable pot pies.

Of course, I kept putting off posting the recipe and this partially written ingredient list has been hanging around my blog drafts patiently waiting to be posted.

Well, today is the day. I have no idea how I made this, nor with what I made it. Enjoy!

Vegetable Pot Pie
created by TaraTakesTheCake
serves 2

1/2 sheet of puff pastry, defrosted
2 large button mushrooms, diced
1/2 large carrot, diced
1 medium Yukon gold potato
1 Tbs. butter

Gluten Free Peach Cobbler

2010-09-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

I used to shy away from anything with a "special diet" type label. Vegan, gluten free, diary free. It all freaked me out.

Well. I started this blog. Went through and tagged/categorized my recipes and, shock of all shocks I have been making vegan, gluten free, and diary free food this whole time. Turns out part of my diet is "special" too.

Over the summer I realized several of my close friends had diet restrictions -- gluten free/ shellfish free, gluten free/dairy free, etc. And I myself became lactose intolerant. I've begun seeking out and experimenting with this so called "special diet" food and what I have tried is pretty much amazing!!!

Tracy, one of my best friends from college

This peach cobbler was delicious and I would totally make it again, gluten free or not.

Gluten Free Peach Cobbler
adapted from Tasty Kitchen
serves 8

10 whole peaches, peeled and sliced
½ c. + 2 tsp. sugar
scant 3/4 c. white rice flour
1/4 c. potato starch
2 Tbs. tapioca flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. xanthan gum
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ c. butter, cut into small cubes + 2 Tbs. butter, melted
½ c. buttermilk
½ tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine white rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch in a bowl. Set 1 Tbs. aside.

Combine sliced peaches with 1/2 c. sugar and 1 Tbs. of the reserved flour mix.

Pour peaches into a greased 8x8 inch baking dish.

For the topping, add the following to a food processor: flour mix, remaining sugar, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, butter, and salt.

Pulse until the butter is the size of small peas.

Combine the buttermilk and vanilla then combine with the flour mixture, stir until just combined.

Spoon batter over peaches in the pan, leaving some of the peaches exposed.

Drizzle the exposed areas with butter and sprinkle the top of the cobbler with brown sugar.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until top is browned and peaches are bubbly.

Cool for at least 10 minutes, or as long as you can resist!

Enjoy!

Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Shallots

2010-09-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

UPDATED:

I remade this for my mom a few weeks back. Here are the photo results:

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Want an easy, delicious dish that will please 8 year olds, 80 year olds, and those of us in between with more adventurous palates? Well, here it is!

Shalloty chicken, my you are delicious. My picture looks like it has LOTS more liquid, and is less brown and crispy, than Mr. Lebovitz's, but that is no matter. This was delicious. Just make sure you make enough (I didn't!) because it will be gobbled up quickly and enjoyed by all.

Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Shallots
adapted from the amazing David Lebovitz
serves 4 to 6

3 Tbs. olive oil
3 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 Tbs. soy sauce
4 large shallots, peeled and minced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
chicken -- use one whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces (or 10 if you want to separate the wings) OR use 8-10 pieces of breasts and thighs, which I did
one 1/4 c. coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Use a baking dish which can hold all the chicken in a single layer. In that baking dish, mix the soy sauce, vinegar, oil, shallots, salt, and pepper.

Toss the chicken in the sauce mixture so it is completely coated.

Roast the chicken for 20 minutes and then flip the pieces in the pan. Scrape juices and shallots over the turned chicken and then bake for another 20 or so minutes, until the pieces of chicken are cooked through and the shallots appear darkly caramelized.

Remove from oven, top with parsley, and let rest (covered) for several minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Oaxacan Grilled Shrimp

2010-09-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

These shrimp were incredibly simple, flavorful, and fun. I brought it to a barbecue over the summer and these little shrimpys were quickly devoured and heavily complemented. So quickly that the only photo I got was while they were on the grill!

People just popped these in their mouths at the party, but you could just as easily serve them as a part of a wonderful "Latin flavored" (whatever that means!) meal, inside of a burrito or enchiladas (just peal the tails before cooking), or on top of a big, southwestern salad.

These can be a great party addition, appetizer, or protein for a main course. And they are EXTREMELY simple with no hard to find ingredients.

Definitely a winner!

PS: I've added a new feature on the blog, inspired by the wonderful posts of Every Last Cookie, see below!

Oaxacan Grilled Shrimp
adapted from Beautiful BC
serves 6-8

2 1/2 lbs. large shrimp, de-shelled and de-veined
1/2 c. olive oil
zest of 2 limes
1/2 c. lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 c. fresh parsley
1/3 c. fresh cilantro
4 tsp. garlic, minced
1 Tbs. paprika
2 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Prepare your grill or grill pan as you usually do to medium-high heat.

Mix together all ingredient except for the shrimp in a blender. Blend for 30 seconds, until well combined.

Pour into a non-reactive container, add shrimp. Mix until well coated.

Cover, and chill for half an hour (no more! You don't want the acid to cook the shrimp).

Grill the shrimp for several minutes on each side, until firm and pink. It will take 2-4 minutes per side, depending on the heat of your grill. Brush with more marinade as they grill.

Serve and enjoy!!

Note: these also can be easily skewered. Make sure you soak the skewers, if they are wood, first to eliminate the potential of them burning.

End Result:
Attractiveness: 3 out of 5
Ease of preparation: 5 out of 5
Tastiness: 4 out of 5

Blueberry Peach Custard Pie

2010-08-30T00:31:00.000-07:00

I was somewhat lazy this summer and have not been posting as much as I wanted to, so I thought I would be generous to yall, my blog follower(s), and go out of the summer with a bang.

A pie shaped bang that is.

Martha, darling jailbird Martha. Will you ever lead me astray? I hope not.

This pie. Oh man. This pie was to die for. It was fantastic to the extreme. It got mostly gobbled up at a party I brought it to, but I managed to steal away a tiny piece for Ro to try. And I'll bet he was glad that I did.

Note: Yes, I made this in a sauté pan. Sue me. I also use this beloved pan for quiches. It is a fabulous pan, and cheaper than buying a pie pan :-D

Blueberry Peach Custard Pie

adapted from Martha Stewart

serves 8

Crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

2 Tbs all-purpose flour

3/4 c. sugar

1 large egg

1 c. heavy cream

1 generous lb. peaches and blueberries (total), washed and peaches cubed in 1 inch chunks

1/4 tsp. salt

Prepare the crust: Pulse the dry crust ingredients in a food processor until combined. Add in the cubed butter and pulse until butter is the size of small peas (about 10 seconds of pulsing). Slowly drizzle in the cold water until the mixture seems to hold together (test this by squeezing some of it together in your hands. You shouldn't need all of the water). Shape the dough into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven, when the dough is almost fully chilled, to 375 F.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/8th inch thickness. Fit it into a 9 inch pie pan with one inch of overhang. Tuck overhang under, and crimp edges. Pierce bottom with a fork in several places to let steam escape.

Freeze the shaped crust for 15 minutes.

Line crust with parchment and fill with pie weights, dried beans, or dried rice. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until edges are golden. Remove weights and parchment and continue baking until the crust is light gold and cooked through (10-15 minutes).

Let the crust cool on a wire rack as you prepare the filling.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 F.

Whisk together the eggs, cream, flour, and 1/2 c. of the sugar. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining cup of sugar, salt, and the fruit. Spoon the fruit into the crust trying to evenly distribute the blueberries and peaches.

Pour in the custard mixture.

Bake until custard is mostly set but a bit wobbly in the middle (about 45 minutes). Let cool on a wire wrack, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve cold.

Enjoy!!

Summer Squash and Potato Gratain

2010-08-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Fresh, this was delicious. Leftover, it didn't exactly fly out of the refrigerator. Savory, cheesy, carby -- it is a wonderful springboard for future development. Feel free to tweak away with this recipe -- it is good, but needs improvement.

I would definitely make it again, but I would invest in a mandolin to slice the potato paper thin, which mine were not, to ensure even cooking and use less olive oil, creating an even thicker pesto.

Summer Squash and Potato Gratain
heavily adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1/4 c. walnuts, toasted
1 medium leek, chopped
1/2 - 1 c. basil, packed
3 Tbs chopped parsley
scant 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil (or less)
4 cloves garlic
salt and paper to taste, don't skimp
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

1.5 lb summer squash (zucchini & yellow), sliced 1/6 inch thick
1/4-1/2 lb potatoes, sliced paper thin
1/4 tsp. salt to drain
1/2 c. fontina, shredded
1/2 c. Gruyère

2 c. day old bread, cubed into 1/2 in. square pieces
1 tsp. butter

Preheat oven to 400F.

Grease a large baking dish (I used a deep 9" round, but it was a little small)

Toss zucchini slices with salt and set in a colander over the sink for 10-15 minutes to drain of excess water.

Prepare the herb pesto by combining the first 8 ingredients and pulsing in a food processor until coarsely chopped.

Prepare bread by heating butter in a skillet until browned and fragrant. Add bread cubes and sauté, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.

After squash has drained, transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add 2/3rds of the pesto, potatoes, the cheese, and 1/2 the bread cubes. Toss until well combined.

Taste one zucchini sliver for seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed and more of the pesto sauce as desired.

Transfer the mixture into the greased pan, top with remaining bread cubes, and bake for 35-50 minutes (time will depend on the thinness of your potatoes).

Serves 8 as a side, 4 as a main.

To make gluten free: use gluten free bread or omit bread entirely. To make vegan, use vegan cheese or omit cheese entirely and substitute oil for butter.

Buckwheat Pancakes

2010-08-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

I don't know why these are called buckwheat pancakes...there was way more of other stuff in them than that. Then again, I have no idea what buckwheat tastes like so maybe they were super buckwheaty. Whatever they were, they were delicious. And, dare I say it, healthy.

For those of you who know me, I tend to eat low on the food chain and a fairly healthy diet...except I love cheese. I put it on everything...which makes things less healthy. Oh yeah, and I love sugar. The H word is not what I would think of normally when I think "I want a delicious and amazing breakfast."

But, if I had followed that line of thinking, I would have been wrong.

Very, very wrong.

Buckwheat Pancakes
created by Doc Tracy
serves 6 (makes about 30 small pancakes)

1/2 c. buckwheat flour
1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
1 c. yellow corn meal
1/2 Tbs. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 Tbs. xanthan gum
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. oil or melted butter

Mix the dry ingredients (first 7) together thoroughly.

Heat a skillet or a griddle until fairly hot.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (last 4). Pour the wet over the dry and mix until just barely combined -- less than 10 strokes of a whisk or spatula. Do this just before the griddle reaches temperature.

Let sit for a minute or two to let it thicken. It will continue to thicken, so if you don't make them fairly quickly you might want to thin it out with a little buttermilk or regular milk.

Ladle these babies out onto a griddle or hot pan, greased with butter, and cook until they appear slightly dry on the top (2 minutes, or so), then flip and cook for another minute.

Normal, flour based pancakes can be judged done on one side based on bubbles, these will not bubble. You just have to eyeball it.

These are gluten free, but not vegan. To make vegan, use egg substitute...I guess..and oil instead of butter.

Green Beans with Shallots and Pancetta

2010-07-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

By cooking vegetarian most nights at home, I have managed to almost forget that this thing called a "side dish" exists. I am all about the one pot or one part meal in the first place, but when vegetables are the main course, there is no need for a side.

These green beans were delicious and reminded me of the value of adding a little pork fat to really amp up flavor. Use really fresh, high quality beans for this. Mine weren't stellar. The dish was still delicious, but a little snap, crackle, and pop in the beans would have been better than the slightly older, chewy beans one can find in a normal grocery store.

Visit your farmer's market, people. Learn from my mistakes.

Green Beans with Shallots and Pancetta
adapted from Simply Recipes
serves 4 as a side dish

1 lb. green beans*, ends trimmed

3 oz. pancetta, diced very small
2-3 large shallots, chopped
2 tsp. butter
salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt, pancetta is salty)

Blanch the beans in a large pot of boiling salted water 4 minutes, or until they are crisp tender. Drain and place the beans in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain again and set aside. (At this point you can make the beans a day ahead, store in refrigerator.)

Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the diced pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pancetta from the pan to a plate, leave the fat.

Add the shallots to the pan. Cook, stirring often, on medium high heat, in the pancetta fat, until lightly browned.

Add butter to the pan, then the green beans and pancetta. Season to taste with salt and pepper (easy on the salt, pancetta is salty. Stir constantly until the beans are hot and are well mixed. Serve immediately.

* It is really important to get good, fresh green beans. I bought ones at H-E-B (like Safeway, Ralphs, Kroger, etc) that were less than amazingly fresh. Elise of Simply Recipes suggests ascertaining the freshness by holding it at both ends and bending -- if it snaps easily it is fresh, if it just bends....meh, not so fresh.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-07-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

I love peanut butter cookies.

They taste like childhood.

I have made several versions of this cookie, and these are my favorite for purely selfish reasons as a cook -- they are insanely simple and very easy to handle. The dough is wet enough that it scoops easily and doesn't crumble. This makes the cookies very moist even a day later, which I love, but I also cant resist a really crumbly peanut butter cookie.

I imagine these would travel well -- add some to your next cross-country care package. Or just do what I did, and stuff your face with them.

Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted, barely, from Simply Recipes
makes about 2 dozen cookies

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. chunky peanut butter, use the good kind
1 large egg
1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Cream the butter and sugar together for two or more minutes, until slightly fluffy and well combined. Add in the peanut butter, vanilla, and egg; mix until combined. Stir together the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, in a separate bowl. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet, but do not over mix.

Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours OR if you are impatient like me, form your 1 inch cookie balls, put them on a plate and pop them into the freezer for 10-20 minutes.

Remove the dough from the freezer and place 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.

For chewier cookies, bake at 300°F for 15 minutes.

Pesto Pasta with Steamed Vegetables

2010-07-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

I am convinced pesto is the food of the gods. Take a simple dish like pasta with plain sautéed vegetables, toss in some pesto and you have yourself something incredibly, incredibly delicious. Can I speak more highly of my dear friend pesto? No.

Make this, shovel it into your mouth. Go back for seconds. Then thirds. Sing my praises, and rest happily.

Pesto Pasta with Steamed Vegetables
created by TaraTakesCake and "Doc" Tracy
serves 6

1 lb. pasta **
~2 lbs. fresh vegetables, diced (we used: 1/2 large onion, 2 bell peppers, 2 medium zucchinis, 1 small head of broccoli, 1 medium yellow squash)
1 Tbs. butter
~1/2 c. pesto
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water as directed until al dente.

While the water is coming to a boil and the pasta is cooking, sauté the vegetables in the butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Think about cooking times before you throw them in -- we did onions first, then broccoli, then bell pepper, then zucchini, then yellow squash with a minute or so in between each. I started out with the intention of sautéing them...but let's get real, my pan is no where near big enough. They just steamed, but were great anyway.

Cook the vegetables until tender, but not mushy. Salt and pepper to taste. In a large bowl, combine vegetables, pasta, and pesto.

Serve with grated or shredded Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts.

** We used gluten-free brown rice pasta. As you may have noticed, I have started tagging old recipes with the label "gluten-free." I recently found out that the good friend who was visiting me is gluten intolerant and thus, for her benefit, I am trying to incorporate that into my blog.

Pesto

2010-07-23T03:25:00.000-07:00

Ina's pesto, this pesto, inspired this blog. Plain and simple.

I made a batch in late January and was thinking to myself "damn she is good! does Ina ever miss??" I was licking it off of spoons, dipping bread into it, smearing it on anything in sight.

After I smeared it on some bread, topped it with cheese and everything else delicious in my fridge I could find, I sat down at my computer, pestered my good friend Wu about what I should name it, and wrote my first blog post.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this pesto is inspiring. Life changing even. I made another batch the other day with a visiting friend from out of town who had never had fresh pesto. Needless to say, her mind was blown.

Make this. Don't skimp on the garlic, it mellows when you add it to hot pasta. Dip everything in it. Put it on crepes, sandwiches, pasta, and everything you can think of.

Pesto
adapted from Ina Garten's infinite wisdom

1/2 c. pine nuts, toasted
3 Tbs. chopped garlic (9 cloves)
5 c. fresh basil leaves, packed
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 c. olive oil (or less)
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan

In the bowl of a large food processor, place garlic and pulse several times. Add the pine nuts, and pulse another once or twice. Add basil, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Pour the oil slowly. I think I used less than the full cup. You want it to be thick like hummus, not oily and greasy.

Serve, or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a film of plastic wrap pressed on top to prevent air from getting in (your pesto will turn brown otherwise).

Enjoy!

Blueberry Struesel Bars with Lemon Cream

2010-07-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

I have an insane sweet tooth. Tragically, the people I enjoy baking and cooking for the most (i.e. "Texas family") do not. When I cook for that side of my family, I often try to make a dessert that is light, fruity, and not cloying, serving my need for dessert and creating something they will enjoy, even if it is only in small quantities. This time, to celebrate my aunt being cancer free, I made these delicious blueberry bars to accompany a celebratory dinner.

They were fantastic. Crumbly, oaty crust and topping with just-in-season blueberries, tons and tons of blueberries, and a citrus and cream burst. Even my "oh no, I don't need dessert" claiming relatives enjoyed them and I ended up giving a bunch away to prevent eating all the rest of them myself!

Blueberry Struesel Bars with Lemon Cream

adapted from Noble Pig

makes 15-20 bars

1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature; more for the pan or use baking spray

3 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2c. old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 1/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 large egg, separated
14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. grated lemon zest
21 oz. blueberries, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder.

With your fingers, blend the butter completely into the flour mixture. You could also use a mixer if you prefer. Transfer 2 c. of the crumb mixture to another bowl and reserve for the topping.

Blend the egg white into the remaining crumbs.

Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving a 1-inch overhang on the ends. Lightly butter the sides and the bottom of the foil.

Press the egg white-crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan to form a crust. Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes.

While the crust is baking, in another bowl, whisk together sweetened-condensed milk, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, and the egg yolk. Let this mixture stand for 5 minutes; it will begin to thicken.

Evenly sprinkle the blueberries over the hot crust and spoon lemon mixture over the blueberries. Spread carefully with a spatula to distribute a little more. Do not crush the berries. Bake for 8 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle reserved topping over the blueberry layer, pressing the streusel between your fingers into small lumps as you sprinkle. Bake until the edges are bubbling and the topping is brown, about 30 minutes.

Let the bars cool in the pan on a rack for half an hour. Carefully lift them out of the pan with the foil overhang, and place them on the same rack (foil and all) to to cool to desired serving temperature.

Remove foil and cut into 15-20 bars.

Can be served warm, room temp, or cold. They are delicious any way.

Special dietary needs: these are neither vegan nor gluten-free, lo siento.

Chickpea Croquettes

2010-07-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

I have deprived you long enough. I am truly sorry. I don't think I can go on any longer without insisting that you rush, rush, rush into your kitchen, fling open your pantry, and make these this very second.

I can't remember another meal in which I turned to Ro so many times exclaiming, "oh my god, this is soooo good!" Poor guy didn't even get any of the leftovers, I gobbled them all up over the next 2 days before he even realized they were quickly disappearing.

Dearest chickpea croquettes, where have you been all my life? These croquettes are one of the best meals I have prepared thus far this year, and definitely one of the absolute easiest to make. Healthy too, but shhh, don't let that fool you into thinking they don't pack a huge flavor punch.

Chickpea Croquettes
adapted from fresh365
makes 8 patties

1 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. hot water
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. salt
15-oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained well
4 scallions, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, minced
3 garlic cloves , minced
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro leaves
3 Tbs. olive oil, divided (2:1)

In a large bowl, add flour, water, lemon juice, cumin and salt. Stir until well combined. Let sit as you clean the chickpeas, and chop the scallions, pepper, habanero, garlic, and cilantro. Combine with the flour and stir well.

In a large pan, heat 2 Tbs. olive oil over medium heat. With your hands, form the chickpea mixture into 8 patties, about 1/2“ thick (the patties will be quite wet. Don't worry, they will stay together when cooked).

Place 4 patties in the pan, and cook 4-5 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. With a spatula, flip patties, and cook 4-5 minutes on the other side, until that side begins to brown. Transfer to a plate. Add the rest of the oil, form and cook the last 4 patties.

Do not skimp on the oil for cooking the patties!

To serve, I stuffed one croquette in each side of halved pita bread, along with lettuce, bell peppers, onion, feta, and Greek yogurt. Neither Ro nor I could finish 2 pita halves, but we very much enjoyed trying.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops

2010-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Whenever I visit my family in Texas, I try to cook as much as possible. My dad's house has a large kitchen and he and my stepmom are willing test subjects for whatever I decide to make for dinner. Also, much to my pleasure, they eat meat, which means that all the meat dish ideas I have saved up since my last visit can be executed with a captive audience.

This particular recipe is a Giada recipe that I had on my mind for quite some time before I got around to making it, and boy am I glad I did. It was delicious. I paired it with roasted asparagus and wild rice, but the pork stood out well on it's own and played nice with the others. Good porkey.

I would definitely make this again, and it makes quite an appetizing presentation and would be fitting for a dinner party. Most importantly, it tasted wonderful.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops
serves 5
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced (optional -- I'm not a big fan and I
couldn't find them, so I left them out)
1 lb. fresh spinach, wilted, and squeezed
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
scant 1/4 c. (just under 2 oz.) goat cheese
1/3 c. reduced-fat cream cheese
5 (4-ounce) center-cut pork chops
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1/2 lemon, zested
2 Tbs. lemon juice
2 tsp. Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 350 F. **See note below**

Heat 1 Tbs. olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, about 1 minute.

Add the sun-dried tomatoes, if using, spinach, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook until combined, about 2 more minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Add the goat cheese and the cream cheese. Stir and set aside.

Use a sharp knife to cut a pocket into the thickest portion of the pork chop.

This takes the meaning of "food porn" to a new level.

Stuff each pocket with 1/4 of the spinach mixture and close the pork around the stuffing. Season the outside of the pork with salt and pepper -- go easy on the salt, the filling is salty.

In a separate bowl combine the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mustard.

Heat the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot add the pork.

Cook until golden, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the pork to an oven safe dish and place in the oven while you prepare the sauce. ** This was an adjustment I made based on reviews to the original recipe. I found my pork slightly overcooked, but it needed some time in the oven. Use your judgment, a lot will depend on how much filling you put in and how thick your pork is.**

Add the chicken broth mixture to the skillet over medium-high heat. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan as the chicken broth simmers. Reduce the broth by half to make a light sauce, about 8 minutes. Spoon some sauce over the pork before serving.

I'm Back!

2010-07-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog Readers,

So sorry for my prolonged absence, but have no fear -- I am back!

Nicaragua was nothing short of amazing. I love Central America, but I wish I could magically remove all humidity from it so I wouldn't be covered in sweat all the time.

Nicaraguan food...well. Some good, some not so good, and some tragically and not so tragically untried.

Two things stand out in my mind as very common:

Vigorón - yucca with fried pork skin (chicharrones) with a cabbage salad. I would almost say I am sad I didn't try this, except for 2 reasons: I don't know if I can wrap my mind around frying pork skin, and also, it is street food. Street food is the best part of developing countries, you say? Not if you are already prone to intestinal infections. Noooo gracias!

Gallo pinto - did it ever strike you as odd that just about every culture has a rice and beans combo or rice and lentils? Together they form a complete protein!! I always love it when I find out the nutritional logic of food traditions that just...well...make sense! Gallo pinto is rice and beans. White rice, black beans. Combined. Sometimes with some bell peppers or onions mixed in for seasonings.

During my stay, I lived with a Nicaraguan family and thus was primarily at the mercy of the madre of the house, who happened to be an excellent cook. In the mornings I would get fresh fruit and toast or eggs and toast, accompanied by a freshly made juice -- passion fruit juice was my favorite of them. Lunch was very well balanced -- protein, vegetable, carb -- and also was accompanied by a fresh juice or some type of flavored drink (horchata in a variety of colors, the juice of a deeply purple fruit which usually had some acid (lime) to balance the flavors, a Nicaraguan beige drink made of ground, toasted corn, etc). Dinner, the same.

The sheer variety of drinks I was provided was the most impressive of the "food" offerings, I think I must have tried 30 different concoctions in a stunning rainbow of colors.

Other memorable samplings included soup with an egg in it, delicious roasted chicken thighs, and, last but certainly not least, whole fish.

WHOLE FISH!

As an American, I found this quite exotic. Fortunately, I had braved this new experience once before in England this year, in a post-Christmas feast of a massive, massive whole salmon.

The pic above is of the smaller of the 2 fish I was served at different points in my trip. Both were served with rice as a side, and both were incredibly, incredibly moist and delicious.

Out of Town

2010-06-12T00:40:00.001-07:00

Dearest Blog Devotees,

I'll be touring around Central America for the next month and won't be able to post much/at all while I am way.

Look forward to Nicaraguan food pictures when I return!

T

Roasted Vegetable (and chicken) Sandwiches

2010-06-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

I started this blog with an open-faced sandwich post. Two open faced sandwich posts, actually. Despite this, I am really not much of a sandwich person. I don't stock deli meats in my fridge and the only sandwiches I eat regularly are the "oh shit I have class in 5 minutes, I wonder what I can throw together" PB&Js or grilled cheese sandwiches (simple -- I like wheat bread with copious amounts of sharp cheddar).

Because of this, when I do eat sandwiches (that aren't PB&J or grilled cheese), I try to make them special and really delicious with high quality ingredients: melty cheese, flavorful well seasoned vegetables, and good crusty bread are all definite. If meat is being used, make sure it is really flavorful and not a dull "well I need protein" kind of filler.

These sandwiches I made for Ro and I a few weeks ago for a weekend lunch. I used two types of cheese, roasted vegetables, a fresh, crusty ciabatta loaf, and delicious roasted chicken breast (on mine only, of course). Is this really that different from this sandwich, this one, or even this one? No. But it is a reminder to heat up your oven and make yourself something wonderfully simple.

Roasted Vegetable (and Chicken!) Sandwiches
created by TaraTakesTheCake
serves 2

2 large pieces of fresh bread, halved (for a baguette, about 4 inches per person)
1/2 large bell pepper, cut into 1 inch wide strips
1/4 onion, cut into large semi-circle strips
1/3 small zucchini, sliced into thick rounds
1 tsp. olive oil
2 large pieces of lettuce
2 Tbs. hummus
4 slices of cheese -- one for each top and each bottom, I used Gruyère and sharp cheddar
1/2 roasted chicken breast, sliced or your favorite deli meat (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Combine olive oil and vegetables, coating evenly. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in one layer on a pan until tender but not mushy (you want a little crunch, 10-20 minutes).

On another pan, prepare the bread: add sliced cheese to the bread tops and bottoms. When roasted vegetables are done, add them on top of the cheese and add meat as well, if using. Bake for several minutes until the cheese is melted.

Add the lettuce and hummus (I smear the hummus on the lettuce since the bread is cheesy), close, and enjoy!

Cheddar Chive Biscuits

2010-06-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

These biscuits are classic, tender, flakey, delicious, and not easily messed up. Exactly what I look for in a good biscuit! I have made these now three times, and they have never failed me. My beloved Ina has produced yet another winner :)

Serve these at a dinner party, with a brunch, or make them for yourself as a sinful, sinful snack. They are cheesy, with the hint of oniony garlic flavor from the chives, and oh so so buttery. I can't wait to make them again.

Cheddar Chive Biscuits
adapted from Ina Garten
makes 12 biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more to roll the dough
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup cold buttermilk, shaken
1 cold extra-large egg
1 cup grated extra-sharp Cheddar (I have grated it as well as cubed it, and I think both work)
1 handful of chives, chopped
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water or milk to brush the tops of the biscuits
Sea salt, optional (to sprinkle on the top)

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Place the flour, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, add the butter and mix until the butter is the size of peas. This can also be made in a food processor -- at this stage just process until the butter is the size of peas, then stir in gently the liquids as called for below.

Combine the buttermilk and egg in a small bowl cup and beat lightly to combine.

With the mixer still on low, add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and mix only until barely moistened. In a small bowl, mix the Cheddar and chives with small handful of flour and, with the mixer still on low, add these mix-ins to the dough. Mix only until roughly combined.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured, clean surface and knead lightly a few times to bring together fully.

Roll the dough out into a rough rectangle and cut into 12 equal sized pieces with a sharp knife.

Transfer the biscuits to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops with the egg wash, sprinkle with salt, if using, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the biscuits are cooked through. Serve hot or warm -- these are wonderful the next day too, but out of this world amazing when they are fresh out of the oven.

Girl Scout Knockoff Samoa Bars

2010-05-29T09:34:00.001-07:00

As a young girl, I, like millions of other young American girls, was a Girl Scout. Why? Why else. The cookies. While that it isn't entirely true, it was certainly a significant perk. I was a good cookie seller too.

Everyone has their own favorites. Many people are devoted Thin Mint fans, but I myself would give my left arm (but not the outrageous price of $4 a box now a days!) for a lifetime supply of Samoas. Oh my darling Samoas.

My baking buddy suggested making Samoa bars recently. I had never thought of making the magic happen in my own kitchen and I didn't hesitate to take her up on the offer!

These Samoa bars are an easy way to solve a Girl Scout cookie craving without coughing up the insane amount those little tiny green-covered girls charge these days. They aren't a dead ringer for the real thing, but they are pretty damn good. Next time I will use higher quality caramel (avoid Kraft caramel bead type balls, they don't taste the same as their individually wrapped squares), I would use a different shortbread crust recipe...or maybe even a recipe that is the cross between a shortbread and a sugar cookie – these were a bit too crumbly, and I would also double or do 1.5 times the filling. The crust to filling ratio was a bit too tilted toward the crust.

All that being said, these were definitely amazingly delicious and were quite a hit at the dinner party my friend brought some to.

Enjoy!

Samoa Bars

barely adapted from Baking Bites

makes one 9x13 pan worth of cookies -- about 30

Base:

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 extra large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Filling:

3 cups shredded coconut, sweetened
12 oz. caramels
1/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbs milk, any kind
2-3 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly beat in flour and salt, 1/3 of the dry mixture at a time, until the dough is crumbly.

Pour dough into the pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on before topping with filling.

While the crust is cooling, reduce the oven heat to 300 F and prepare the filling.

Toast the coconut in the 300 F degree oven until golden brown, stirring every few minutes. It will take about 20 minutes, stirring every 4-5.

Melt the caramel with the milk and salt in the microwave in short intervals or very carefully on the stove. Stir in the toasted coconut, and spread evenly over the cooled crust. Let the whole pan cool and set.

Once set, melt the chocolate and drizzle it over the whole thing, remove from the pan -- if you used parchment, this will be particularly easy, but mine was hard enough that I could remove it in one piece with a large spatula. Put on a cutting board, slice into small squares, and serve.

Ro's Chickpea Paneer Curry

2010-05-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

My love of Indian food came late. I was nuts. I didn't like spicy food until college, but even beyond that, I just didn't like the favors of Indian food. Like I said, I was nuts.

This is a dish I have made dozens of times. Ro made it up back all those years ago when we were starving college students, and it is delicious. Really delicious. Feel free to swap in other kinds of beans, experiment with the types of dal, take out the paneer or even the beans and add in some different vegetables instead. It all works.

I served this to guests over for dinner that I know are foodies. When feeding foodies, I can get gunshy. This is a dish I KNOW is a crowd pleaser, and it is unique. It has strong Indian flavors, yet it isn't supposed to be anything one knows and could be familiar with -- that way it can be judged on it's own merits. And trust me, if you salt it correctly (which I frequently don't do until Ro rushes to my rescue), it will be a hit.

Ro's Chickpea Paneer Curry
Created by Ro, measured by me
serves 4-5

1 c. dal
1 or 2 15 oz. cans chickpea, drained and rinse
16 oz. paneer (optional -- to make vegan, exclude this), cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. oil (vegetable or olive)
1 tsp. mustard seeds
2 tsp. cumin seed
1 inch ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pepper Thai green chili, minced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups tomato, roughly chopped
1 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. chili powder
2 Tbs. channa masala powder
1/2 tsp. sugar
2.5 tsp. kosher salt (less if using table salt)
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a medium pot, add the dal and cover with water with an inch of water over the top. Exact ratios of water to dal are not important, you will be adjusting the liquid level later and can always cook extra off easily. You want about 3 cups of water. Bring this to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Cover, partially, with a lid and cook for at least 20 minutes until dal no longer retains its shape.

Meanwhile, toss the paneer lightly with 1 tsp. of oil. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake for until bottoms are browned (about 10 minutes). Flip each cube and cook again until the new bottoms are browned (about 10 minutes).

In a very, very large skillet, a wok-like pan, or a dutch oven, heat 1 Tbs. of oil over medium high heat. Add cumin and mustard seeds and cook until mustard seeds are fragrant and brown. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the peppers, ginger, and garlic. Then, add the tomatoes and lentils. Stir the paneer and the rest of the spices, including salt. Cook for 5 minutes for flavors to meld, stir in cilantro and serve.

Serve with rice or naan.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

2010-05-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

As most of you know by now from reading my blog, I am an Ina Garten devotee. I think she is the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, and whatever other corny saying one might think up. She is my food deity and I try to channel her regularly as I slave over a hot stove.

This cake...oh man, this cake. I have had this cake bookmarked for maybe 2 years. I finally got around to making it a few months ago, and then again recently, after a friend of mine brought some over to me after she had baked it for her boyfriend's parents. While they already adore her, if one was to try to buy affection...this would be the cake to do it with.

It is lemony, aromatic, dense, luscious, and oh so very, very moist. The texture is perfect. Melt in your mouth perfect. The flavor is perfect. Tart, sweet perfect. Ina, my hero, you have done it again. To all of you reading this (all 2 of you), make this cake. Make it now. Run to the kitchen, run to the store. This is like pound cake on steroids. Lemon flavor on crack. I would snort this cake if I could. Trust me, I am not overselling it.

Lemon Yogurt Cake
adapted from Ina Garten's infinite genius
serves 1...or 10, depending on your generosity

This cake has 3 parts: cake, syrup, and glaze. Skip one and you will regret it.

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs
1 Tbs. grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Syrup:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Grease a standard loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla.

Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

With a spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the syrup: cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove and place on a baking rack over something to catch the syrup when you apply it -- a sheet pan works well for this.

While the cake is still warm, pour the syrup over the cake slowly and allow it to soak in.

Cool the cake completely, then apply the glaze. For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake slowly...you don't want to waste any of this!!

I made too much glaze for this cake because I had 3 Tbs. of lemon juice...much of it just slid right off. Use the amount above.

Note: Ina serves this with a blueberry sauce. I think that is perhaps gilding the lily, but who am I to judge! I have not yet tried it, but I guarantee you I will the next time I make this and I will update accordingly.

Enjoy!

Veggie Tacos

2010-05-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

I love Mexican food. I love Tex-Mex. And I love Southwestern food. Despite studying Mexican politics in school and having spent several months there, I am not a Mexican food purist. I have spent wayyyy too much time in Southern California and Texas to not appreciate a truly superb bastardization of Mexican food. Sizzling fajitas? Oh hell yes. Shrimp stuffed chiles rellenos with a tomatillo cream sauce? Bring it on.

Ro, on the other hand, is not so enamored with the cuisine of my favorite country and it's descendants, but I try to convert him whenever possible. These tacos were among his favorite things I have made in a while, so...success! They have a bunch of different components, but honestly if you left out the rice, sliced a little avocado over the beans and veggies, and squeezed a lime on it, I don't think you would miss a thing...except the leftover guac and look of joy on your boyfriend's face.

These are a healthy, delicious, and colorful way to dine. Enjoy!

Veggie Tacos
created by TaraTakesTheCake
makes 9 small tacos -- 3 each person for a very, very large meal

9 small corn tortillas
1 tsp. olive oil
2 red bell peppers, sliced into 2 inch strips
1/3 onion, sliced into thin semi-circles
1 jalapeño pepper, diced small
2/3 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 - 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, jalapeño jack cheese, or a combo of the two
salt to taste
1/2 recipe cilantro lime rice
1/2 recipe guacamole

Heat the oven to 350 F.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until very hot and add onion. Sauté for a minute before adding in bell pepper. Cook until onions and peppers are wilted and blackened around the edges, but still have some crunch. Salt liberally. Add the jalapeño pepper.

On a large baking sheet, distribute the tortillas so they are overlapping the least extent possible. Spread 1/9th of the cheese on each and bake for 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly and tortillas are toasted.

To assemble taco: remove the tortillas from the oven, add a tablespoon or two of the cilantro lime rice over each, then a tablespoon or two of black beans, 1/9th of the bell pepper mixture, then a spoonful of guacamole.

Serve with a sprinkling of cilantro over the top and with fresh salsa.

To make vegan: omit the cheese or use vegan cheese. Corn tortillas are typically vegan so there should be no problem there.

Guacamole

2010-05-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love guacamole. Guacamole is like wine (ok, fine, I don't really drink so maybe chocolate would be a better analogy?). Guacamole is like chocolate. Really good guacamole is life altering, mind blowing, fantastic. Mediocre guacamole, like mediocre chocolate, leaves you craving the real thing even more than you were before the first bite.

Authentic, fantastic guacamole has the following ingredients: ripe avocados, tomatoes, onion (or shallots), jalapeño, cilantro, and the two most important ingredients after the avocado -- LIME AND SALT. Skimp on either and you will have crappy guacamole, I guarantee it. Some people add garlic, feel free to experiment.

I feel apprehensive about giving you a recipe for guacamole. Please don't use a recipe, not even this one. Guacamole is one of those things you have to have a feel for. Grab a pile of tortilla chips and sample, sample, sample as you go.

Guacamole
created by TaraTakesTheCake

2 medium Haas avocados, ripe
1/2 - 1 medium roma tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 - 1 jalapeño (there is huge variation in spiciness even within a pepper species, go easy, you can always add more)
scant 1/4 cup onion, diced small
1 handful cilantro, chopped
juice of 1/2 - 1 lime FRESH
salt, salt, salt

Start with the juice of 1/2 of a lime in a medium bowl. Dice the avocados and stir them into the lime juice. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir. Taste, taste, taste and adjust.

Don't smash this with a fork. The avocados will get sufficiently mashed as you stir everything into them. You want them to be somewhat chunky.

Grab the biggest stack of tortilla chips you can find and dig in!

Note: you'll see a picture of this in tomorrow's post on some wonderful tacos. I didn't take a separate photo.

Apple Turnovers

2010-05-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

I made veggie pot pies for Ro recently, knowing it was likely a food he had never eaten before (frankly, neither have I!). They turned out deliciously, but more importantly so did the apple turnovers I made with the left over puff pastry!

This was my first time working with puff pastry and I found it simple and delicious.

Naturally, given my adoration of Ina Garten, I adapted one of her recipes for this delicious treat and was very pleased with the result. It was sweet without being cloying, had a subtle burst of orange, and the filling tasted like sublime apple pie.

Apple Turnovers
adapted from Ina Garten
serves 8

1 tsp. grated orange zest
1 Tbs. orange juice
1 1/4 pounds tart apples, such as Empire or Granny Smith (3-4 apples), pealed and cut into 3/4 inch dice
3 Tbs. dried cherries (optional, I only used about 1 Tbs.)
2 Tbs. sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
Pinch kosher salt
1 package (17.3 ounces, 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a bowl, combine orange zest and juice. Toss the diced apples in the juice to prevent them from oxidizing and turning brown.

Add cherries, brown and white sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir to combine.

Flour a board and lightly roll each sheet of puff pastry to a 12 by 12-inch square. Cut each sheet into 4 smaller squares and keep chilled until you are ready to use them.

Brush the edges of each square with the egg wash and place about 1/3 cup of the apple mixture on half of the square. Fold the pastry on a diagonal over the apples and seal by pressing the edges with a fork.

Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silpat mat. Brush the top with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and pierce twice to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 20 minutes, serve warm.

Note: This can be frozen and eaten later. Skip the last step of brushing with an egg wash and sprinkling with sugar. Place them in the freezer on a baking tray and once frozen stiff (about an hour), transfer to a freezer-proof ziplock bag. I froze 4 of the ones I made and have reheated them successfully with the exact same directions. Take them right from the freezer, do the egg wash and sugar step, then toss them in the oven.

Enjoy!

Chard and Mushroom Stuffed Shells

2010-05-08T01:05:00.000-07:00

Everyone has their own way of relaxing after a long and stressful week. Cooking with friends is mine. I have been cooking since a very young age and I have often found myself at the helm of large family meals, and that is the type of cooking I enjoy doing. Simple, delicious, and able to feed a crowd! There were only three of us to eat this, so it lasted for days making savory, cheesy, and delicious leftovers.

So good I forgot to snap pictures of it before we all dug in!

Enjoy.

Chard and Mushroom Stuffed Shells
created by TaraTakesTheCake (and Kate!)
serves 8

1 lb. box of jumbo shells
~1 lb. bunch Swiss Chard, cleaned and roughly chopped
14 oz. low-fat ricotta cheese
2 extra large eggs
1/2 lb. white button mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c. (a big splash) dry white wine
1 Tbs. butter
1 1/2 cups Gruyère cheese, shredded
2 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 Tbs. Parmesan cheese, grated
a handful of basil, roughly chopped (I didn't have this but it would have given it a fresh bite)
16oz of tomato sauce -- I use jarred pasta sauce (I know, I'm a slacker!), use whatever you like
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil. Cook the shells a few minutes shy of the directions. I hate mushy baked pasta, so I cooked mine for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt the butter over medium-high heat, sauté the onions and garlic. Then add the mushrooms, cooking until browned but not cooked through. Add a large splash of dry white wine and cook for another minute or two. Add the chard and wilt completely. Cool and spoon out any obvious liquid.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, ricotta, Gruyère, basil. Add in the chard mixture once it has cooled, stirring to combine.

Stuff the shells each with several tablespoons of this mixture. Don't skimp!

In a 13x11 pan add a small layer of tomato sauce, followed by the shells, and then the rest of the sauce on top. Sprinkle the top with mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is melted and has browned.

Serve with crusty French bread.

Spinach and Gruyere Strata

2010-05-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

I have been cooking regularly for several years now and eating regularly for far longer. It is pretty rare that my entire conception of how two ingredients should go together gets changed drastically. Rare, but not never.

This morning, breakfast, for the first time in years, was mind blowing. I like French toast as much as the next person, and eggs and bread seem meant for each other, but a savory eggy bread pudding in the form of a strata? Where has this been all my life. How have I lived without this for so long.

A strata (or stratta is it is sometimes spelled) is a savory bread pudding of sorts, but with the ingredients layered: first bread, then veggies, then cheese, and repeat, then an eggy mixture is poured over the top. It must be made at least 8 hours ahead so the egg mixture can be absorbed fully by the bread and the flavors can meld and combine.

This is a great dish to make for a brunch party, for a lazy Sunday morning, or for any day of the week. Ro and I had this for breakfast this Monday morning and then I had another slice for lunch....and another slice as a snack right now :). It is that good.

I made a half recipe of this because I only had a bit of day old bread. One note: I made this in a loaf pan...it was amazing and easy to slice, but the top crust is so crunchy and sublime that I wish I had attempted to create more surface area. Keep that in mind when choosing a serving dish. But, then again, I am sure you won't make the same mistake I did of only making a half recipe.

Spinach and Gruyère Strata
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

15 oz. fresh spinach
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion (1 large)
3 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
8 cups cubed French or Italian bread in 1-inch cubes
2 cups coarsely grated Gruyère
1 cup grated Parmesan
2 3/4 cups milk
9 large eggs
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, wilt the spinach with a pinch of the salt. Once wilted, remove from the pan, squeeze out excess liquid using a paper towel or a tea towel, and roughly chop. In the same pan, heat the butter, sauté the onions until soft (I used "fresh onions" which are a long stalk like a thin leek, just use anything in the onion family) until translucent, add the spinach and remove from the heat.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, the rest of the salt, pepper, mustard, nutmeg, and milk. Whisk thoroughly.

In a well buttered 3 quart baking dish, add 1/3 of the bread cubes, followed by 1/3 of the spinach mixture, and 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat 3 times.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the strata, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 8 hours to one day.

The next day, bring the strata to room temperature letting it stand for 30 minutes, then bake at 350 F for 45 to 55 minutes until the top is brown and bubbly. Let stand several minutes before serving.

Pizza with Baby Greens

2010-04-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

Until a few days ago I had hardly set foot in my kitchen for over a week. I think poor Ro may have been starving to death. An insane amount of school work and an inability to keep on top of it kept me away, but the week prior I was cooking up a storm. So much so that I forgot everything I cooked that week until I peeked back into my camera and found this.

This pizza was delicious. The flavors were excellent and melded beautifully and the crust was delicious. In my haste, however, I used the entire dough ball to make a massive (and thick crust) pizza. I think these flavors (and the limited cheese) would have been better suited to a thin crust. But that's no matter! This was delicious and a hidden bag of mixed kale and collards from my CSA box several days earlier came to the rescue since I was pretty convinced the fridge was not only empty but starting to have tumble weeds pass through it.

Pizza with Baby Greens
created by TaraTakesCake
serves 4

1/2 batch Tyler Florence's Pizza Dough
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lbs. mixed baby greens (kale, chard, collard, spinach, etc)
1 large leek, cleaned and diced (I used a combination of a leek and a red bunching onion, hence the purple in the picture, use anything in the onion family)
1/2 lb. mozzarella, sliced or grated
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 500 F.

Prepare the pizza dough.

In a large skillet, heat oil. Add the garlic and leek, sautéing until soft. Add the baby greens and wilt completely. Salt and pepper to taste.

Roll out the pizza dough and distribute the greens mixture evenly across, then add the cheeses.

Bake until the crust is golden brown and done through -- this will depend completely on the size of your pizza, the thickness of your crust, etc. If you are making a thick crust like I did, you may want to par-bake it for 5-10 minutes. My pizza ended up taking 20 minutes.

Pasta Carbonara with Shrimp

2010-04-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to share this with you guys. Why? Because it was delicious, juicy, herbaceous, succulent, savory, peppery, creamy, earthy, salty, carby and amazing. Pasta carbonara is one of my favorite quick fix meals that is a real crowd pleaser...especially if I am in the crowd.

Mmmmm mmmm mmm mmm mmmmmmmmmm!

This was a great and indulgent weekday lunch. The kind of indulgent lunch you eat when you are having a salad for dinner or are rewarding yourself for a 10 mile run (I chose the former, naturally). Make this to treat yourself and your (non-vegetarian) loved ones, it is so very, very simple and easy.

Feel free to do what I love to do -- alter the recipe according to your own tastes and preferences. Don't like mushrooms? Throw in zucchini, bell peppers, or peas! Pancetta too bougie for you? Try bacon. No shrimp laying around? How about chicken! At it's very heart, a pasta carbonara is just this: pasta, egg, Parmesan, pork fat, and pepper. Make it simple, make it delicious, and make it yours.

Pasta Carbonara with Shrimp
created by TaraTakesTheCake
makes 2 large servings

4-5 oz. dry pasta (I like penne, but use what you prefer)
2 oz. pancetta, diced large
6-8 large shrimp (3-4 per person)
2 eggs* -- if using extra large eggs use one egg and one yolk
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 Tbs. Parmesan cheese, grated
3 large button mushrooms, chopped
1/2 Tbs. parsley, chopped
1/4 cup white wine (do not use this if you substitute zucchini for the mushrooms, it always ends up tasting very bitter)
salt and pepper

*Part of the very nature of pasta carbonara is that the eggs do not get fully cooked. They are heated through by the hot pasta and become a rich, creamy, delicious sauce. It is important that you use the highest quality of egg possible, not just because of how integral of an ingredient it is but because you need to trust it's source. Organic, cage free (nobody likes torture), vegetarian fed, locally grown are all things to look for.

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook until it browns and renders its fat. Pour off almost all of the fat and set aside. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Then add the garlic and the mushrooms.

Continue cooking until mushrooms are browned and almost cooked through. Add a pinch of salt while they are cooking. Once almost cooked through, transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Around this time, your water should be boiling. Throw in your pasta and cook one minute shy of the directed time.

Pour 1 tsp. of pancetta grease back and heat until very hot but below smoking. Pat the shrimp dry. Do not salt them as you would meat, they swim in salt water their whole lives and have a lovely salinity without any additions.

Cook for 1-2 minutes without touching, then flip and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute (depending on size of your shrimp). After you flip the shrimp, add back in the pancetta and mushroom mixture. Then add the white wine and stir occasionally until mostly absorbed.

While the shrimp are cooking, in a large bowl add eggs, Parmesan cheese, most of the parsley, and LOTS of freshly ground pepper. Mix thoroughly.

When pasta is one minute shy of fully cooked, drain it and transfer it into the pan with the shrimp and cook for another minute. This allows the flavors to marry better, but is not absolutely necessary.

Once the pasta and shrimp are fully cooked, carefully pour the pasta mixture into the egg mixture, stirring continuously so as not to allow the egg to become scrambled.

Taste and adjust seasonings, adding several more grinds of pepper.

Serve with a garnish of more parsley and a shaving of Parmesan cheese.

Pesto Pasta with Salmon

2010-04-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is an insanely simple and delicious. I ate it for a weekend lunch a few weeks ago and remember it fondly. I will be making it again, very very soon.

Pesto Pasta with Salmon
created by TaraTakesTheCake
serves 2

4-5 oz. spaghetti
4-6 oz. salmon fillet
1/2 lemon
4 Tbs. pesto (I use Ina's, it freezes and defrosts really well)
1 tsp. olive oil
Parmesan cheese, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Get a large pot of salted water boiling.

Lay the fillet on a greased baking sheet, spread the olive oil over it, sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, and cover it completely with 1/4 inch thick slices of lemon.

Bake the salmon for 12 minutes.

Time the spaghetti and salmon to be done at the same time -- if your pasta box says cook for 5 minutes (as mine did), then when the salmon has 7 minutes left to go, throw the pasta in the boiling water.

Take the salmon out of the oven, and let it rest while you drain the pasta. When the pasta is done, drain and mix immediately with the pesto, then serve in two bowls.

With a fork, break the salmon up into large, beautiful chunks, removing the skin (if it was not a skinless fillet). Distribute the chunks evenly to the pasta bowls, add a grind of fresh pepper and a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Poppyseed Dressing

2010-04-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

I went to a barbecue last weekend and brought a massive salad dressed with poppyseed dressing as well as salted caramel cookies. Both were a big hit and things I will definitely make again.

The inspiration for this dressing came from an amazing salad place a few blocks south of the UC Berkeley campus. Their lightly creamy poppyseed dressing is famous and I was on the hunt to replicate it. This delicious knock off came close, and was a wonderful alternative to my standby salad dressing.

Poppy Seed Dressing
adapted from Food People Want
dresses 2 massive, massive salads -- probably 20 servings of salad

1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoons mustard (I used Dijon)
1-2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup finely grated red onion (I used white)
1 1/2 - 2 tsp. poppy seeds

Throw everything into a jar and shake vigorously.

Enjoy and excuse the poor picture of the dressing! I just couldn't scrub the stuff off my jar.

Sweet Stuffed Crepes

2010-04-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

You didn't think I went to all the trouble of making crepe batter last weekend without making sweet crepes too did you? Ofcourse not!

Sweet crepes make a wonderful dessert and require nothing extraordinary in your pantry. I used some strawberries that were hanging around, melted a few chocolate chips added a little milk to make a ganache, and a touch of sweetened cream cheese to make something absolutely delicious and fabulous. You can really fill them with anything you want and have around the house, but I would keep in mind balancing the flavors (as always) and the proportions of ingredients. I personally prefer a high volume of fruit to dressings (like the chocolate and sweetened cream cheese).

I cheated with these and just added sugar to what was left of my savory crepe batter, but the recipe I used was this: Alton Brown's Crepes. Scroll down to the bottom of his page for the "sweet" version instructions.

For the filling for 2 servings, I melted about 10-15 chocolate chips with a tiny splash of milk to loosen the chocolate. For the sweetened cream cheese, I took maybe 1.5 oz. of cream cheese added a few table spoons of powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla.

Enjoy!

Boiled Artichokes

2010-04-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

I love artichokes. I believe they are the representation of all things good in the world (an exaggeration? I think not!). What is green and delicious but if left to over ripen turns into an amazing purple flower? The artichoke. What is prickly and stabs you, yet lulls you back in with it's tender juiciness? The artichoke. What can you slather with melted butter and not feel guilty about? Nothing. Tragically, nothing. But the deliciousness of the artichoke erases my guilt after the first few leaves.

Some of you are looking at the title of this post and judging me. "Boiling? Boiling is for pasta! Is she crazy?!" Probably, but this is the way I ate them grown up and so this is how I make them. They are delicious. I know, I know, all the cool kids steam, sauté, or braise them. But I tried to be a cool kid, and I failed. Maybe I will try them steamed, but cooking them with anything but water, lemon, and garlic is not going to happen for a long, long time.

Note: this was wayyy too much butter! And more importantly, don't judge me by my ugly 'choke. I saved it from doom as it was past its prime and only 20 cents. It's heart was in the right place, literally, :) and that is all that matters.

Boiled Artichokes
"created" by TaraTakesTheCake
serves 1

1 large artichoke
salt
1/2 lemon
3 cloves garlic, smashed

Boil enough water to envelop the artichoke. Cut the stem off the artichoke and immediately rub the exposed ends with the lemon. Peal the stem and trim the bottom 1/4 inch to expose the fleshy deliciousness. Peal back the first few leaves of the artichoke and rub all exposed areas with lemon. DO NOT CUT THE TOPS OF THE LEAVES! Doing so will result in my fury and in loosing out on a wonderful ready made handle for the leaves.

Salt the boiling water well -- 1/2 Tbs. per gallon maybe? Throw in the artichoke, stem, garlic cloves, and the juice of the half lemon. You can toss the lemon in too, if you like.

Boil for about half an hour or until the outer artichoke leaves pull off easily. Serve with lemon butter.

Maybe this is overly simple and not worthy of a recipe, but since it is one of my all time favorite foods I thought I would share it.

I have a California long stemmed artichoke in the fridge as we speak, awaiting my digestion.

Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Cookies

2010-04-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bought something, realized it didn't taste what you thought it would taste like, and try to fix it? Well, I have!

There exists a soft Mexican goat's milk caramel called cajeta. It is...wonderful, amazing, complex, delicious, mind blowing, and life altering when done well. By done well I mean when it is purchased from a 3-story candy store near the Teatro Morelos in Guanajuato, Mexico. When it is not done well, like say perhaps coming in a plastic tub (I know! I should have known better) from a Mexican store in Berkeley, CA, it is mediocre at best.

The "cajeta" I bought was actually made from cow's milk. Somehow I didn't see "de vaca" written in tiny print on the container. It was also syrupy (how did I not see corn syrup as ingredient 1!), overly sweet, and not complex, rich, or smooth. The only thing I hate more than fake cajeta is fake grainy cajeta.

Fortunately, I managed to both rescue it, making it taste decent, and pawn it off unto unsuspecting friends :). Don't worry, I am not that mean -- I made it into something else delicious before bringing it to a barbecue: salted caramel cookies. They were wonderful and well received. Nobody knew my dirty little secret.

Salted Caramel Cookies
adapted from Happy Tummy Blog
makes 40-50 small (oreo size) cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup dulce de leche, cajeta, or caramel
3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. salt (roughly, don't be afraid to test the batter)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, mix butter, dulce de leche, and sugars until fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time until fully incorporated. It may look a bit curdled, don't worry, that is normal. Slowly beat in the flour, baking soda, and salt, incorporating them a little at a time until just barely mixed.

This was just before I added the last bit of flour, keep mixing!

On a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet, spoon out the cookies. These spread an incredible amount. I tried different sizes and single teaspoon (the measurement, not the spoon, I'm talking about a penny size) drops works best.

These were tablespoon size.

A few notes about the caramel/dulce de leche/cajeta: if you find good soft caramel then you are good to go. However, if you find yourself with a jar of mediocre stuff then open it up, heat it slowly if it is too runny or too grainy (mine was both) until you have the desired consistency, and if the flavor is off, salt it and add a smidgen of vanilla. These became salted cookies after I kept adding salt to the "cajeta" in an attempt to make it tasty. Go a head and try you cookie dough (raw eggs won't kill you, you know you want to) and see how it tastes or you can bake a test cookie. I found my dough to taste a lot sweeter than the finished product, so don't be too heavy handed with the salt. You can always do a sprinkling of sea salt on top when they are just out of the oven if you missed the mark on salty sweet balance.

...what wives are for.

2010-04-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

I came across this old ad on FailBlog and thought it was just too funny to not post about.

It would be so surprising in this day and age to see a product like a stand mixer advertised so clearly to men as it is here. Stuff like this makes me wonder what we will look back on 30 years from now and think was incredibly sexist and outdated from the 2000s/2010s.

Savory Stuffed Crepes

2010-04-11T02:02:00.000-07:00

Crepes were not a regular part of my diet until this last year. I had had them several times before, but never thought much of them as something I could and should make myself. This year, I live several blocks from a crepe chain (yes, booo, booo! except it's delicious!) and crepes have been on my mind to cook lately.

These crepes were light, eggy, crispy, and deliciously savory. The homemade pesto made the filling pop and fresh, local, organic vegetables along with delicious Gruyère cheese brought the whole thing together.

With this particular meal, I did something I almost never, ever do (mostly out of laziness). I added meat to mine. Thinly sliced delicious prosciutto to be exact. And boy am I glad I did! It really added another layer of salty, savory, umami flavor to the dish.

Both Ro and I were quite pleased and I imagine I will be making this again in the very, very near future.

Savory Stuffed Crepes
filling makes 5 crepes if you stuff them like I did and batter makes 10 crepes (wait until tomorrow to see what I do with the extra ones!)

Crepes: I used Alton Brown's recipe for savory crepes.

Filling
created by TaraTakesTheCake

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 bunch asparagus, with ends trimmed and chopped into 3/4 inch long pieces
10 oz. button mushrooms, chopped large
1/2 sweet yellow onion, sliced thin
1/2 zucchini, sliced into long strips*
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 to 1/2 cup pesto, I used Ina Garten's
3/4 cup Gruyère cheese, shredded
2 Tbs. Parmesan cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbs. pine nuts, toasted
Prosciutto (optional) -- 2 thin slices per non-vegetarian crepe

Now, let's get going.

Make crepe batter as directed. This batter must sit for an hour in the fridge.
When your hour is almost up, prepare the filling.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, blanch the asparagus for 2 minutes and then shock them in ice cold water until they have cooled completely. This preserves their beautiful green color and cooks them more than we can in the sauté pan.

In a large skillet, heat the oil under medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until soft. Then add the garlic and mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms begin to give off their liquid and are browned on the sides.

Add the asparagus and zucchini slices and saute until both are softened but retain some crunch. Then, reduce heat to lowest temperature possible and set aside.

In another large skillet, heat a bit of butter under medium-high heat. If you are using a non stick pan, skip the butter. Once the pan is hot, add a heaping 1/4 cup of crepe batter and swirling the pan to distribute the batter around the pan evenly. You want the crepe to be much thinner than a pancake, but not too thin so adjust the amount of batter based on the side of your pan. I think my pan was 1/2 inches measured from the lip. Crepe making really requires a bit of trial and error -- I threw out 2 crepes before I got the hang of it.

Once the crepe has been cooking for a minute or two and is golden brown on the side that is in contact with the pan, flip it over and immediately cover 1/2 of it with a bit of pesto. I did this by putting pesto on the back of a spoon and very carefully spreading it around.

Next, add a bit of both cheeses and let them melt for 10 seconds. Then add a sprinkling of pine nuts, the prosciutto if you are using it, and a healthy portion of the stuffing. You want to only put the stuffing on 1/4 of the crepe.

Fold the crepe in half such that the pesto sides are touching the filling, then fold in half again to create a triangle shape.

Repeat until you have made enough crepes. You can pop the made ones in a very low temperature oven until you are ready to serve them all.

Enjoy!

Bobcat Breakfast Sandwich

2010-04-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

If you have a fear of dying young, I would highly, highly recommend that you not eat one of these everyday. Low calorie and Bobcat are not words that belong together. It is incredibly delicious and truly, quite amazing hangover food or, more realistically for me nowadays, 'I've only slept 9 hours this entire week and I have more essay to write' food.

The glorious Bobcat was one of the few things my college cafeteria did well. It was there that I first fell in love with this breakfast bundle. Eggs, sausage, cheese, bread...and, for me (I know, I'm sick, I need help), 4 packets of ketchup. Yes, 4. FOUR.

I try to make these a little less heart attack oriented than my college cafeteria (mostly by cutting out an egg), but not much. This breakfast hovers just around 400 calories if made the way I describe, but let's get real. A bagel with shmear can have that many calories so quit your yappin' and make this.

Bobcat Breakfast Sandwich
created by TaraTakesTheCake
inspired by Cafe Ventanas, Univ. of California - San Diego

1 egg
1 English muffin
2 very thin slices of cheddar cheese
2 breakfast sausage links
ketchup
salt and pepper
cooking spray for your pan

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, spray with cooking spray. Drop in your two sausage links and cook completely.

After the links are cooked completely, take them out of the skillet, let them rest for a moment, then cut them in half. After you do this (no sooner) begin to toast your English muffin.

While that is toasting, fry your egg in the sausage greased skillet (whole egg, yolk intact) -- cook the egg long enough that the whites are not completely set on the top but the egg can be flipped over easily. About 2 minutes.

Flip your egg over and cook for another minute until the whites are completely set and the yolk is soft but not extremely runny. I usually like a very runny yolk, but this is not the time or place. After you flip the egg salt and pepper it and put one slice of the cheese on top of it to let it begin to melt

Take your English muffin out of the toaster and assemble the sandwich. From top to bottom: bottom slice of muffin, slice of cheese, both halved sausage links -- so 4 halves lined up, the egg with cheese topping, ketchup, and top half.

Done. Eat. Enjoy.

Spanakopita

2010-04-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

While spanakopita is equally as fun to say as paella, I was not always such a fan. I was a really, really picky eater growing up, much to my mother's displeasure. Among the many things I hated, spinach was near the top (although Brussels sprouts trumped everything. EVERYTHING.). Raw spinach was completely intolerable (and I am still not over the moon about it) and cooked spinach was not much better.

These days, I adore spinach and add it to everything and anything that I think can handle it. I especially love the combination of spinach and feta (the Greeks just do food so right, don't they?). Spanakopita, a Greek spinach pie with feta, satisfies all of my needs: nutritious, cheesy, vegetarian (not my need so much as Ro's), and most importantly delicious. My mother used to make a version of this that I detested as a child, but I have come around and adore this.

I will say this though: as delicious as this is, my filo dough was already torn (neatly however, with one straight line tear going halfway thorough every piece!) when I bought it, and my troubles with it did not end there. This was my first attempt with filo dough and I think next time I may save myself some trouble and try one of the following options: baking the filling in a savory pate brisee crust (this would make it very close to that quiche recipe, but much less eggy) or leaving it bottomless and topping it with a layer of puff pastry, rolled thin to give it a spinach pot pie kind of feel.

Either way, if you have the patience for filo dough, this recipe is well worth it, and even if you don't, this is a must make. This has so many delightful layers of savory flavor and don't forget the nutmeg! It takes the spinach flavor to a whole new level.

Spanakopita
adapted from Closet Cooking
serves 6 as a main, 12 as a side

3 pounds fresh spinach
12 oz. high quality feta, diced
1/4 cup dill, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 giant leek or 2 medium ones, cleaned and diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 scallions, with both white and green parts diced
4 large eggs
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tbs. pine nuts, toasted (optional)
3 Tbs. butter
12 sheets filo dough
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat the oil. Add in the leeks and sauté for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add a large pinch of salt, the garlic, and, in batches (or adding a bit at a time), add the spinach and green onions, cooking until wilted.

Once wilted, let cool and then pour the spinach mixture into a tea towel and squeeze out the excess juices. You want this to be fairly dry.

Then, in a large bowl mix the eggs, feta, squeezed spinach mixture, diced scallions, nutmeg, more salt and lots of fresh pepper, pine nuts (if using), as well as the herbs. Set aside.

In a small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave and add a pinch of salt to it if it is unsalted.

Brush a layer of melted butter in the bottom of a 9x13x2 baking dish, making sure to butter the sides. Layer in the first layer of filo dough and brush completely with butter. Repeat until you have 6 layers. Ina Garten (Queen) recommends dusting bread crumbs in between layers of filo dough when she makes spanakopita triangles. I didn't try this, but I will next time...mostly because she is a queen.

Pour your spinach mixture over the top of the layered filo and spread gently and evenly.

Over the top of that, begin layering the filo dough as before until you have 6 layers. Sprinkle the top with kosher or sea salt, and bake for 30 - 50 minutes.

Enjoy!

Coffee Iced Milk

2010-04-08T01:21:00.000-07:00

I brought a bottle full of this stuff to my stats class last week where I was greeted with quizzical glances and questions -- "milk? in this hot weather?"

Yes darlings. Milk. In this 'hot' weather (for my Texas readers, it was a whopping high of 62 F).

I discovered this genius idea on another blog while surfing the web one day. Let me remind you, for those of you who do not know me well: I do not like coffee. I like the smell. I like coffee ice cream. But the actuality? All hot and bitter? I don't think so. (I'll refrain from a 'good coffee is like good men' joke here).

I used to enjoy coffee much more than I do now. Granted, I filled it with sugar and milk and was...I don't know...maybe 11 years old? A Starbucks opened not far from my house when I was in middle school in Michigan and I used to walk down there regularly and get sugared up drinks until one day...dun dun dun...I heard coffee stunts your growth.

I immediately did what any normal 11 year old (who was already well over 5 feet tall, mind you) who had a friend taller than her would do! I quit immediately. And look how I turned out. At 6ft tall, maybe I shouldn't have been so afraid :)

Anyway, back to the point.

The point is this (and this is the "recipe"): make ice cubes out of regularly brewed coffee. Each ice cube tray should produce 2 large (16 oz?) cups of this. Put the cubes in a tall glass half filled with milk (you want the cubes to make up about half the volume), toss in a packet of splenda (or if you prefer real sugar, sweeten the coffee while it is still hot so it melts). If you are really daring, you can also put in a 1/4 tsp. of vanilla. Then you wait. Wait, wait, wait.

I tend not to be able to drink things slowly. This forces me to -- nobody wants a glass of sweetened milk. But once those cubes start to dissolve...oh the magic. This is perfect for long hot days where you are lounging outside and want something delicious and cold...or for one's three hour statistics class which takes place in a furnace of a room with no ventilation on the 7th floor of an ugly cement building.

Either way, try this.

Vegetarian Paella

2010-04-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Paella.

Paella.

It just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

Paella.

Paella.

A friend of mine and I made this paella the other day and it was quite good. If you are not a food traditionalist, paella is quite easy to adapt. We tinkered with it a bit, but we could have certainly gone further.

The next day, I ate the leftovers with a fried egg and a little bit of Parmesan cheese over the top (see pic below!). It was delicious. This is something I will definitely make again.

Vegetarian Paella
adapted from Mark Bittman of the New York Times
serves 4 - 6

3 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 - 2 Tbs. minced garlic
1 large bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup peas (defrosted, if necessary)
1 heaping Tbs. tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads
2 tsp. smoked paprika
2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice (we used Arborio)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 Tbs. parsley, minced (we forgot about this!)
1 lemon, sliced into wedges

Preheat oven to 450F.

Warm stock in a sauce pan, do not simmer or boil. Drizzle sliced tomatoes with 1 Tbs. of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Heat the remaining oil over medium-high heat in an oven proof skillet between 10 and 14 inches in diameter. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, sauté until vegetables soften (3 - 5 minutes).

Stir in bell pepper, peas, tomato paste, saffron, and paprika and cook for another minute. Add rice and, stirring occasionally, cook for another minute or two (the original directions say 'until shiny'. I have no idea what that means and never saw any shiny rice).

Add liquids and stir until combined.

Place the tomato wedges on top of the rice and drizzle the rice with the juices leftover in the bottom of the tomato bowl. Put the pan in the oven and roast for 15 minutes, undisturbed.

Check to see if the rice has absorbed the liquid and become tender. If not, put the pan back in the oven and cook for another 5 minutes. If the rice has become too dry, add a little more vegetable stock and return to the oven for a few minutes.

When the rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit in the oven for 5 to 15 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle with parsley.

Now, you are not quite done yet: put pan over high heat on the stove for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving (several minutes, don't be afraid!)

This bottom crust is very important for flavor development. It is called a socarrat and is considered to be one of the finest parts of the dish. Trust me, you want this to turn a medium brown, it really takes it to a whole new level.

Naturally, we forgot about the socarrat until after we had served ourselves! Here we are doing it with a big chunk missing. No matter, we went back for more anyway :).

Serve with the lemon wedges. The slight spritz of the acid really complements the dish.

Additionally, this article was quite interesting and gave a bit more information on paella.

A Weekend of Flops

2010-04-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

Some people believe that bad things happen in threes: celebrity deaths, Roger Federer open losses, earthquakes, republican wins, etc. Well, I am not a supporter of this notion and the gods of speaking before one's chicks are hatched better not prove me wrong.

This weekend was a weekend of flops. Not many, just two. While I am not an expert baker and cook, I have been doing it for long enough that I rarely get two fails in such close proximity. Either way, this food sucked. It sucked big time. And it wasn't food that was supposed to suck.

What did I make? Braised artichokes and chocolate cupcakes.

I made one, minor, minor adjustment to the braised artichoke recipe (ok 2, I used onion instead of shallot) and it was even a recommended adjustment: adding a big splash of white wine (1/2 cup in my case). The result? Have you ever bit down on white wine?

Maybe the quality of my wine was not up to snuff, but I think I would have found this disgusting either way. It took me back to my college days when, one weekend, my insane friends and I decided to drill a hole in a watermelon, fill it with vodka, and let it absorb it overnight so we could have some boozy fruit the next day. The reality was a lot more like crunchy, cheep vodka with a watermelon after taste. Every bite was like a nasty, nasty shot. Cheap vodka was part of the problem, but the real problem? We used a 750ml bottle in a medium sized watermelon!

Anyway, these braised artichokes were nasty. I used baby artichokes as I saw on another recipe and prepped them the way they described. Well, apparently just because they are baby artichokes doesnt mean you can eat the whole leaf. Do I look like the kind of girl who would spend 5 hours scraping baby artichoke leaves with her teeth? The answer is obviously yes! but not if they taste like crap. And crap was not far from the taste of these. I bit off the hearts of a bunch of them and threw out the rest. The hearts, FORTUNATELY, had avoided absorbing as much flavor as the leaves. Still, nasty nasty nasty. I'll go back to steaming my artichokes and liberally dousing them in lemon butter, thank you very much.

Disaster 2? Cupcakes! This was my fault, I should have seen it coming. I cannot blame my beloved Ina Garten that her cupcakes failed me. I used crappy ingredients.

A while back I won a supply of Saco foods off of another food blog -- powdered buttermilk, coating chocolate, chocolate chunks for cookies, and cocoa powder. In this recipe, I used both the buttermilk and the cocoa powder. I should have known, truly I should have, since a previous experiment with buttermilk pancakes ended without delicious pancakes.

These cupcakes managed to both taste and smell burnt, while being technically not at all burnt. I took them out just after the center had set. I am no lazy baker who forgets things in the oven, these were cooked just right. The taste? Burnt, burnt, burnt! I can only conclude that there was something wrong with those 2 ingredients, since eggs, sugar, and oil can't go too wrong.

Also, ofcourse, I did not spray the pan liberally with nonstick baking spray. Rookie mistake and all my fault.

They didn't taste super burnt (never a good statement to make about cupcakes), and Ro insisted we not throw them out. So I went to frost them and top them with some raspberry jam when....my beloved hand mixer which I have had for 5 years died. A real tragedy, not just because hand mixing frosting makes it overly dense, but because it and I were best buddies. Maybe I'll give it some appropriate mourning period before I buy it's replacement and start baking breads anyway.

Enjoy my fail pictures and just be glad you weren't so fortunate to 'enjoy' the taste!

Baked Falafel with Tzatziki

2010-04-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

Fewer foods on the planet have more deep meaning and memories attached to them for me than falafel.

Artichokes and carrot cake remind me of my childhood birthdays, root beer and tortellini take me back to visits to my dad's house, and falafel, crispy, delicious, falafel, reminds me so distinctly of my time in Sweden that every bite takes me back to the center of Lund, standing on a street corner with a massive wrap in my hand, chatting with friends.

Falafels in Sweden? By now, I am sure you think I have lost my mind. But trust me, they are the best I have ever had (no, don't even ask, I have never been to: Turkey, Israel, Egypt, etc.).

While by and large considered to be a highly homogeneous country filled with tall blondes (yep, I fit in just fine!), Sweden, my darling socialist utopia, actually has a large population of immigrants (around 9% of the population is foreign born, if I remember correctly). Those who come from North Africa and the Middle East are well represented in Malmö, Sweden's third largest city, and Lund, the the neighboring city that I stayed in.

So, while I have my artichokes braising on the stove in a white wine and garlic sauce [they turned out horribly! what a waste], let me tell you how I recreate my beloved falafel with way less fat, and almost...almost! as much flavor as in Sweden.

Enjoy!

Baked Falafel
Created by TaraTakesTheCake
serves 3-4

2 15oz. cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 small handful each cilantro, flat leaf parsley, and dill (any of them can be excluded, if you don't have them on hand. don't use dried)
1 Tbs. olive oil
juice from 1/4 of a lemon
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a large food processor (mine is 14 cups which is larger than necessary...but not by much), combine all ingredients. Pulse until it just comes together and is grainy, not smooth.

Grease a large baking sheet liberally with olive oil or cooking spray.

Scoop the falafel mixture into balls slightly smaller than golf balls (I got 15 balls out of this batch) onto the pan and flatten them out slightly with your hand. This is somewhat unnecessary, but creates more contact with the pan which means more crispiness. If frying, keep them as balls.

Bake for 20 minutes, then move the discs around and regrease the pan. Reposition the falafels and bake for another 20 minutes for a total baking time of 40 minutes.

Serve in warm pitas with: feta, bell peppers, pickles (trust me), hot sauce, tzatziki, hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers or anything else you can think of!

Tzatziki
created by TaraTakesTheCake
produces 10oz.

8oz. greek yogurt*
1/2 English cucumber, small diced
juice of 1/4 of a lemon
1 handful of dill, chopped fine
1 large pinch salt
1 clove of garlic, minced very very fine

In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Stir well and check to see if more salt is necessary.

Spoon liberally over everything in sight -- falafels, cats, dogs, walls, computers, etc.

*If you cannot find greek yogurt, then you have to thicken regular, plain yogurt. Do this: take your coffee melitta, put in a filter, and pour in 8 oz of yogurt. let it sit in the fridge over a bowl for several hours. You will be amazed at how much liquid comes out.

A testament to the deliciousness of the falafel -- Ro's plate:

And a testament to its fillingness as well!! I couldn't finish the last two bites of mine:

Special Dietary Needs: the falafels themselves are vegan and gluten-free. The tzatziki is obviously not vegan, but is gluten-free.

Hippie Salad

2010-03-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today was the third day in a row that I ate out/ate take out. I generally despise doing this, but this week has been busy and I haven't had a chance to go to the store. Tomorrow my CSA box comes in and I am sure that will rescue me. In the mean time, I have been remembering fondly this amazing salad I made a couple weekends ago.

My stepmom introduced me to the phrase "hippie salad" to refer to a salad with tons of different, amazing ingredients, ever so lightly dressed with complementary flavors. That is exactly what this is. There is an amazing salad place in Berkeley called Cafe Mattina that offers salads literally as big as your head (and with the most amazing poppyseed dressing I have ever tried). But, feeling too lazy to walk across campus to go there (and not wanting to spend the $6.50), I made this delicious salad, dressed with a simple, classic balsamic vinaigrette.

Enjoy!

Hippie Salad
serves 2
created by TaraTakesTheCake

Salad:
Use a combo of lettuces, cabbages, carrots, beans (garbanzo and kidney work well), cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, cheeses (I like feta), sprouts, hardboiled egg can be nice (but works better with a creamy dressing), grilled, sliced chicken or chopped deli meat (like turkey), dried cranberries, walnuts, bell peppers, peas, etc. Throw in whatever you like and make it enough for 2 large (full meal sized) servings. Don't be afraid of using a large number of ingredients, this is a "the more the merrier" salad.

I used two types of lettuce, green cabbage, carrots, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, feta, and bell peppers.

Dressing: (this is an approximation)
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp. dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Toss the salad with the dressing, but make sure you go light on the dressing at first. You can always add more.

You want your salad to be lightly dressed so that the flavors of the vegetables stand out and are hightened by the dressing, not masked by it. I didn't take my own advice and poured on more than I wish I had. The salad was still amazing, but the flavors of the amazing produce weren't able to come through as brightly.

To make vegan: exclude cheeses and meats.

Pancetta, Pesto, and Veggie Sandwich

2010-03-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

I was really in the mood for garlic bread the night before last so I bought a loaf of bread and, of course, never made the garlic bread.

Not wanting the bread to go to waste, I decided a delicious sandwich was in order for lunch. A delicious, delicious sandwich.

Enjoy!

Pancetta, Pesto, and Veggie Sandwich
created by TaraTakesTheCake
serves1

1 hunk of bread (for a French baguette, cut off about 3 inches and then slice in half lengthwise. This also would have been great open faced, feel free to only use one half of the bread.)
3/4 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 oz. smoked gouda, sliced
1/2 medium zucchini
1 small handful of spinach, roughly chopped if leaves are big
1/4 onion, sliced
1 oz. pancetta, diced
1 Tbs. pesto
pepper, NO SALT

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a pan, sauté the pancetta until the fat is rendered over medium heat. Careful not to burn it or cook it too much -- you don't want it to end up tough. Add in onions and sauté until softened (1-2 minutes). Add zucchini and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook until spinach is just wilted. Pepper to taste.

Place the bottom half of the bread onto a pan. Add the mozzarella and then the vegetable mixture on top of that, and then the gouda. Distribute the pesto on the top half of the bread and then close the sandwich.

Bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted and bread is toasted.

It is important not to add salt anywhere in this process for 2 reasons: pancetta and cheese. Both are quite salty and really add a lot to enhance the flavor. Take a bite of your sandwich and if you find it isn't salty enough, just pop the top open and salt to your heart's content.

Southwestern Stuffed Bell Peppers

2010-03-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

There are some recipes that I come back to time, and time again for simple, low-prep, delicious meals. This recipe certainly holds a spot in my top 3 most frequently made recipes.

These peppers are relatively quick, delicious, and can serve a crowd. They are spicy, cheesy, and surprisingly healthy. Everything I look for in a standby.

Enjoy!

Southwestern Stuffed Bell Peppers
created by TaraTakesTheCake
Makes 10 pepper halves, serves 3-5

5 medium red bell peppers
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 15 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, diced (any color onion)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium zucchini, diced
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1.5 cup chopped tomatoes (about 3 roma)
1 tsp. ground cumin (optional)
1-2 large jalapeños, diced
handful cilantro, chopped
handful basil, chopped (optional, I include it when I have it around)
2 cups cheese, shredded (I like sharp cheddar, but pepper jack and others also work well)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

In a very large pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and sauté until soft. Add garlic and zucchini. Sauté until zucchini starts to turn golden brown.

Add tomatoes and tomato sauce along with salt, pepper, cumin if using, jalapeño, and the beans. Cook until zucchini is almost fork tender (several minutes).

Meanwhile, prepare the bell peppers. Cut them in half lengthwise and remove the insides but keep the stems in tact (keeping the stems in prevents the filling from leaking out). Usually there is a small whiteish ball of seeds and membrane attached to the stem area. I cut straight across the top of that, severing it while keeping the stem in tact, and scoop it out with the seeds.

In a greased baking dish (I used 1 9x13x2 pan and 1 9x1 circular pan...you want your pans to have at least a 1 inch side in case some of the filling spills), lay all the peppers so that their openings face up.

Equally distribute the filling amongst the peppers and top with cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the peppers are soft but retain some crunch. Garnish with additional cilantro and cheese.

Serve with wild rice*. Maybe some tortillas would also go well instead of the rice.

*I served this with wild rice, which to be quite honest, brought down the dish a notch. I frequently use the ricearoni wild rice blend, which is delicious and also sodium and preservative loaded. This time, I used just normal wild rice and tried to doctor it up with a bit of vegetable broth instead of water for cooking. Next time I will do the same, but add a bit more salt and pepper, a bit of cilantro, and a healthy squeeze of lime to give it a kick and to help it meld with the other southwestern flavors.

To make vegan: leave off cheese or use vegan/soy cheese.

Lemon Bars

2010-03-27T01:50:00.000-07:00

There is something magical about lemons, truly magical. Such an incredibly wide variety of edibles and drinkables are enhanced with or made from lemons: lemonade, fish, cupcakes, pie, pasta, artichokes!, broccoli, shrimp, chicken, cakes, potatoes, cookies, sorbet, mousse, soup, Diet Coke, dressing salads, squeezed in beer, or over saganaki. While originally native to Asia, these tasty babies have invaded every aspect of the culinary world -- sweet, savory, and everything in between. But best of all...bars.

Lemon. Bars.

Have sweeter words ever been written? I think not.

When it comes to food, Ina Garten is my patron saint. She has never led me astray, bequeathed me with a bad recipe, or done anything to stop me from wishing that I could both be her and be her best friend on a daily basis.

These lemon bars, not to hyperbolize or anything, are a gift from the gods. The lemon gods and the Ina Garten gods.

They are very tart without making you pucker, sweet without being cloying, and a delicious crowd pleaser without being fussy. These bars require exactly 5 things: flour, eggs, sugar, lemon, and salt. Period. I love it when so few ingredients can come together into something truly magical, and these certainly hit the mark.

Enjoy!

Lemon Bars
adapted (ever so slightly) from Ina Garten

Crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 lb. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt

Filling:
6 extra large eggs (I used 7 large eggs)
3 cups sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed (6 lemons, in my case)
2 Tbs. of lemon zest (I zested 5 of the 6 lemons and had about 2.5 Tbs, I used it all. Also, please use organic! You are eating the peal...and the pesticides.)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar together until well incorporated. Add the salt, and then the flour, incorporating the flour 1/3rd at a time.

Gather the crust into a ball and press into the bottom of a well greased 9x13x2 pan. Press it in evenly, going up just slightly around the edges.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown (I cooked for 20).

In another bowl, combine all filling ingredients together and mix until just combined.

When the crust comes out of the oven, pour the filling over the crust and bake for another 30 - 35 minutes or until set (I cooked for 35).

Remove from oven and let cool. Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.

Many people dust lemon bars with powdered sugar, but since I hate the feeling of accidentally inhaling powdered sugar, I always leave it out. It doesn't need it, and it is beautiful enough without a topping.

A note about the picture: you see a whiteish rectangle in the center of the picture of the pan of bars. When you whip the filling together, a little bit of foam will rise to the top...when it bakes, it looks like this. I never bother to do anything about it, but you could skim it off before baking if you please.

Baked Pasta with Butternut Squash and Greens

2010-03-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

I love baked pasta. Love, love, love.

I never ate baked pastas (or casseroles either) when I was growing up, but the past few years have brought many baked pasta dishes into my life. My stepmom has made an amazing dish called "Mac and Jack" for a long time, which is a spicy macaroni and cheese with jalapeños and ham -- it is such a wonderful comfort food which I always look forward to eating when I visit her and my dad in Texas. But, the real impetus for my baked pasta frenzy came my junior year of college. I was living in the international house and one of my roommates used to throw together pasta, top it with cheese, and pop it in the oven.

I had never thought about doing that with regular ol' pasta with tomato sauce. It was BRILLIANT. Delicious, crispy around the edges, al dente in the center, and with bubbly browned cheese on top. I started making them myself and couldn't get enough.

Flash forward several years (and several attempts at my stepmom's mac & jack), and I am a baked pasta fanatic.

This particular version was amazing. Ro, who is not particularly a fan of creamy pasta OR cheese (insanity, I know), absolutely loved it. Between Ro, my friend visiting from out of town, and myself we finished off the whole 9x13 pan of it in less than 24 hours.

This dish is a bit time intensive (takes about 45 minutes to put together, and then another 25 to bake), and requires doing multiple things at once, if you work efficiently it is well worth the time investment.

Baked Pasta with Butternut Squash and Greens
created by TaraTakesCake
serves 6-8

1 pound penne
4 + 1 Tbs. butter
5 Tbs. all purpose flour
4 cups milk (I use skim or 2%)
1 medium butternut squash
4 cups greens (I used baby kale and collards, spinach or others will also work), cleaned, dried, and roughly chopped
2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 onion, diced or 5 fresh onions, chopped (leeks would also works)
5 leaves of sage, minced
1/2 pound button mushrooms, largely diced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cup gruyere cheese, grated
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 F.*

Peal and dice the butternut squash. Toss the diced butternut squash with 1 Tbs. olive oil, a several pinches of salt, and several grinds of pepper. Place on a baking sheet in on even layer. Roast for 20 minutes or until fork tender.

Reduce oven temperature to 375 F when the butternut squash comes out.

While the butternut squash is roasting, cook your pasta in very well salted water (this is the only time you have to really season the pasta itself). Cook the pasta several minutes shy of the package directions -- you want it VERY al dente, it will continue cooking in the oven during the baking phase.

While your pasta is cooking and your squash is roasting, in a very large sauté pan (you want a lot of surface area), heat the remaining olive oil and the butter until very hot and almost bubbling. Add the onion and garlic, sautéing until almost translucent. Add the bell pepper and sage and sauté for another 2 minutes, then add in the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are lightly browned. Add salt (about 1/4 tsp. or more) and several grinds of pepper.

Pour this mixture into a large bowl, and set aside. As the pasta and butternut squash finish cooking, add them to this bowl. In the same pan, still on medium-high heat, add in the greens, stirring until JUST wilted.

In the pan you cooked the vegetables in, make a roux: Melt 4 Tbs. of butter, then once it is melted, whisk in the flour, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until a medium brown.

Adding 1 cup at a time, incorporate the milk into the roux, whisking constantly to avoid clumps. Season this with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne. Cook over medium to medium-high heat until it thickens. You want this to be somewhere in between a milk and yogurt consistency. This is your bechemel sauce.

Once the bechemel sauce has thickened, combine it with the pasta and veggies, stirring until fully incorporated. Pour into a greased 9x13x2 baking pan.
Combine the cheese and bread crumbs (and a bit of salt and pepper! you have to season at every stage), and distribute it evenly over the top of the pasta.

Bake for 25 minutes at 375 F until bubbly and golden brown.

Enjoy!

* Roast at a high temperature to caramelize, roast at a low temperature to concentrate flavors.

Cilantro Lime Chicken

2010-03-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed by now, I love the flavors of the Southwest and Mexico. I have lived in California for a number of years, Texas for one, and have had a long love affair (accompanied by a 2 month visit and frequent border crossings) with all things Mexico. One of the things I would miss the most if I left this wonderful slice of the world would be the delicious food.

This recipe uses the flavors of the region in a marinade for chicken, and the chicken as a topper for a bed of veggies and beans. Yum!

The chicken came out deliciously, exactly as I had envisioned it. The spice gave it bite, the lime made it tangy and subtly sweet, the cumin gave it a smokiness, and the cilantro...ohh how I love cilantro, just brought it all together with a burst of freshness.

This came together quickly and easily with ingredients I always seem to have around. Make it. It is simple and wonderful.

Cilantro Lime Chicken
Serves 4 at a serving size of 4oz. of meat
Created by TaraTakesCake

1/2 cup + 1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
zest of 1 lime
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 Tbs. cilantro, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. chili powder
2 large chicken breasts (seems to be the only size they sell these days!, you want a total of 1 pound of meat...that ends up being 4oz per person)

In a large ziplock bag, mix all ingredients except 1 Tbs of oil and the chicken. Make sure they are well mixed. Add the chicken and marinade in the fridge for 1- 1 1/2 hours (No more! It will get too limey!).

In a very large pan, heat the remaining olive oil (1 Tbs.) on medium high until just below the point of smoking. Distribute oil evenly around the pan and place the chicken breasts in the pan.

Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, depending on the size (use a meat thermometer if you are unsure of doneness). Do not move them around a lot in the pan, you want to set them down and let them form a good crust to seal in the flavor. Remove from the heat and let rest for several minutes to let the juices redistribute before slicing or serving.

I served this grilled chicken sliced, on a bed of black beans (not going to lie, it was leftover topping from the enfrijoladas!), a little bit of cheese, and sautéed bell peppers and onions. The beans were quite spicy, so nothing else needed any extra kick. I topped it off with lots of fresh cilantro.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-03-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

As a child I always loved carrot cake. I can't remember if my mom made it frequently or if we just bought the amazing store kind with the little carrots drawn on top (yes, I like store bought cake, it tastes like childhood just like Thanksgiving dinner, cheese curd, Johnsonville bratwursts, and cream soda do), but I know we frequently had it for my birthday.

A few months ago in my old apartment, my flatmates brought home a 50 pound bag of whole wheat flour, which I had never baked with before. Not one to shy away from a new ingredient, I proceeded to investigate and ended up discovering 2 of my new favorite baked goods: apple cake and these dense, moist, and wonderful carrot cupcakes.

There is a lot of debate out there about what should be in carrot cake. Just carrots, carrots and raisins, or carrots, raisins, coconut, pineapple, nuts, etc. Since debating and eating, for me, cause equal pleasure, I'll weigh in on the subject. Never one to give up having it both ways, I lie firmly in both extremes (although minus the pineapple).

If a carrot cake is supposed to be a deliciously sweet, delectable dessert to be served to company or for a special occasion, then only carrots and MAYBE a sprinkling of toasted coconut or nuts on the frosting. If it is a "gee I'd like to eat an entire chocolate cake. by myself. but I have carrots in the fridge and also love carrot cake...which can be made into a healthy dessert..." kind of day, then this is the recipe for you.

But, don't get me wrong. This isn't diet food and it doesn't taste like it. It is cake*. With frosting. And it is delicious.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
makes 12 cupcakes
adapted from Bob's Red Mill

1 3/4 cup carrots, shredded and squeezed lightly in a paper or dish towel to remove excess moisture
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup flaked coconut (I only had sweetened this time, usually I prefer unsweetened)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt (don't skip, salt is just as important in baking as it is in cooking)

Frosting:
8 oz. low fat cream cheese, room temp
4 Tbs. butter, room temp
2 cups (8 oz.) powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Take the cream cheese and butter out of the fridge first. They must come to room temperature before you can beat them together.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the first 10 ingredients into a large bowl. Mix thoroughly to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (the last 7 ingredients), stirring to fully combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Using a spatula, carefully fold the dry into the wet, ensuring not to over mix. I used 11 folds to fully incorporate. If you see some dry spots of flour, don't worry about it. Everything will fix itself in the oven. You do not want to over mix this, we are looking for cupcakes not hockey pucks.

Bake for 20 minutes. While they are cooling, beat all frosting ingredients together and frost away!

To make vegan: leave off frosting, use either vegan yogurt or oil (what the original recipe calls for) instead of the regular yogurt.

*Prior to making these cupcakes, I had a lengthy debate with a friend about whether they count as cupcakes or muffins. His argument: no creaming of butter and sugar, so they are not cupcakes and do not take on the crumb structure of cake. And it requires "the muffin method." My argument? IT'S CALLED CAKE. And according to various websites, cake vs. muffin depends on the fat ratio. This recipe (if I hadn't swapped out almost all the fat for yogurt), would surpass the classification of muffin and slide right into cake. So we are at an impasse. :)

Sweet Potato, Spinach, & Mushroom Enfrijoladas

2010-03-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

Of the many amazing foods I discovered while spending a summer in Mexico a few years back, enfrijoladas are among my favorites.

One of my best friends and I were sitting on the patio of a beautiful restaurant in Queretaro, on a weekend vacation from our Spanish language school in Morelia. It was the start of my last week there. I looked at the menu, and low and behold: enfrijoladas. A miracle of a food. As a lover of enchiladas who insists they be served with one of my all time favorite foods, black beans, there could be almost nothing better in the world: amazing fresh tortillas, wrapped around succulent filling -- in that case chicken, in this case veggies -- and smothered with a loose black bean sauce that was spicy, savory, and perfect all at once. Oh yes, and cheese too. Can't forget my love of cheese.

For me, the enfrijolada puts the enchilada to shame any day.

But, as it turns out with many delicious Mexican food items (molletes, cajeta, pozole, and AUTHENTIC al pastor -- I want it shaved off the rotating spit, people!) that I discovered in my travels, enfrijoladas have just not taken America by storm in the way that other Mexican foods have.

This was my first time making them properly -- as in not just taking a big bite of black beans with every bite of my enchiladas -- and it was sooo worth it. The flavor profile of the filling really matched the creaminess and taste of the black beans: the onions, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, and sweet potatoes melded together to hit the senses. Sweet, savory, spicy, and umami (from the cheese and mushrooms...don't question me! Wikipedia says so!).

Enfrijoladas
created by TaraTakesTheCake
makes 8-10 enfrijoladas or 4 servings.

2 15 oz. cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups vegetable stock (or low sodium chicken broth)
2 1/2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 medium sized onion, diced and divided
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 small sweet potatoes
1/2 pound of button mushrooms, chopped
3 cups spinach, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
8-10 corn tortillas, small
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 Tbs. ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper or as desired
1/2 tsp. oregano (my friend just told me this trick: rub it between your fingers before you pour it in to bring out its aroma and flavor)
1 1/3 cup shredded Manchego cheese*
a handful of cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Peal and dice the sweet potatoes. Mix the cubes with 1/2 Tbs. olive oil, 2 pinches of salt and several grinds of fresh pepper. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until fork tender. Remove from oven, reduce heat to 350 F, and let the potatoes cool while you finish preparing the sauce and the filling.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized pot on medium - high heat, heat 1 Tbs. olive oil. Add one half of the diced onion once the oil gets hot (but not smoking). Sauté until translucent. Then add the diced jalapeño, the cumin, and the oregano. Hold off on the cayenne until you know how spicy your sauce is and how spicy you want it. It can be added in at the last minute.

Next, add in the tomatoes and the black beans as well as all of the vegetable stock.

Using a potato masher or a fork, as this heats through, gently begin smashing the mixture together. You want it to be relatively thin (and you should add water at the end to get it down to a soup like consistency -- I ended up adding about 1/2 a cup). Salt and pepper to taste. With the salt here it is very important to add it slowly and taste since vegetable stock can be salt laden.

As the sauce cooks, in a large bottomed sauté pan over medium - high, heat 1 Tbs. olive oil. Add the other half of the diced onion and cook until translucent. Add in mushrooms and garlic. Stir until mushrooms begin to release liquid and are browned. Add in spinach and the sweet potatoes, salt, a heavy dose of pepper, and 1/3 of the handful of chopped cilantro. Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach is wilted.

Grease the bottom of a baking dish large enough to hold 8 rolled tortillas (I used a 9x13 and could have fit 12 rolled tortillas in it). If your tortillas are extremely fresh you can skip this step (mine were), if they are not then place them in the microwave for 20 seconds with a damp paper towel over them. This will make them more pliable. Take each tortilla, fill it with 1/8th of the filling mixture, roll tightly, and place seam side down in your baking dish.

Once all the filling is used up and all the tortillas are rolled, check the consistency and flavoring of the sauce. Add the cayenne until you are satisfied with the spiciness (the measurement given is how much I used), and add more salt and pepper. If you can't taste the cumin (a smokey flavor), add some more of that as well :). Thin the sauce out if necessary with water to resemble a thick soup. Stir in 1/3 of the handful of chopped cilantro.

Once the sauce is the appropriate thickness and spiciness, ladle it over the rolled tortillas evenly, spreading it out to the edges to make sure no corner goes uncovered. Distribute the cheese and the rest of the cilantro evenly over the top.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and melted and the dish is heated through.

*I understand Manchego can be expensive in some parts of the country -- it is quite cheep at Trader Joe's if you have one. Monterrey Jack, Pepper Jack, or sharp cheddar would work nicely here...none of that is traditional though. I think cotija, queso fresco, or queso blanco might be more traditional, but I'm not 100% sure.

To make vegan: buy vegan tortillas (I think most corn ones are) and omit cheese on top.
To make gluten-free: buy gluten free tortillas, not all of them are made with just corn flour.

A Weekend of Deliciousness

2010-03-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

***UPDATE***: Ok, so I totally failed at my lone attempt to meal plan. I made the enfrijoladas, but that was it. C'est la vie!

My life (and semester) has come to a pause point, a wonderful, wonderful pause point -- spring break. Despite my penchant for using every spare moment and dollar I have to travel, this spring break I have big plans that will likely keep me tethered to my apartment with a 1 mile leash: my master's essay.

After a week of getting almost nothing done, fun with my family in town, and a seemingly ceaseless battle with a common cold (don't worry, I won), I am preparing for a very different week now. One of hard work and relative solitude...and deliciousness.

My main goal for the next 11 days in which I don't have class is to live as the best possible version of myself. I lack balance in my life and have trouble managing to eat healthy, exercise, work hard, minimize stress, and have time for myself and my relationship all at the same time. I ain't superwoman!

My plan is this: hard work and lots of it, but minimal stress and anxiety. Delicious food, but healthy and well balanced. Pampering my body (a pedicure is totally on the agenda), and taking care of it as well with my absolute least favorite activity on the planet: running (I take that back...I would probably rather run than skydive, or light myself on fire. But it's a close call.) And last but certainly not least, knocking off the 30+ tasks on my to do list (from buying a side table to making a dentist appointment).

Menu planning is an activity I rarely partake in. I keep key staples stocked in the fridge (a variety of cheeses, zucchini, bell peppers, and onions...but always with a half dozen other fresh veggies floating around), the freezer (individually wrapped salmon fillets, fresh bread crumbs made from the little stubs of bread that always seem to be left over), and the pantry (risotto rice, basmati, garbanzo beans, black beans, and dried pasta), and make most of my meals from some combo of those ingredients. But, today I picked up my CSA box, so the fridge is filled with foods I rarely (if ever) cook with and I have time to do that cooking. The world seems full of possibility!

This week my box contains: murcott tangerines, navel oranges, lemons, apples, lettuce, spinach, escarole, mixed kales and collards, green garlic, onions, mint, and sweet potatoes and I couldn't be more excited.

With all this excitement, I have decided to make a plan. Just a small one, not very extensive...but a plan, a food plan.

3 meals: 2 more elaborate, 1 simple of what I will eat in the next 3-4 days (and since Ro will be at his parent's house, I'm going to have delicious, delicious meat!). The lucky winners are:

Salmon Tikka
Butternut Squash Carbonara (a bit of a calorie splurge, but not too bad if I keep the portion small)
And swiss chard, sweet potato, and black bean enchiladas

I'll post the results as soon as I make and devour them!

Spinach and Leek Quiche

2010-03-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a total quiche melt down. It was a disaster -- everything went wrong. The crust didn't stay up, the egg leaked out of the pan, the ratio of eggs to filling was way off, and I overcooked the thing by about 5 minutes. But, in spite of all that, it was still pretty damn good which leads me to believe that quiches might be magical...or at least Tara-proof.

My family is in town this week so I decided to try again, after all I had half of the crust still in my freezer waiting for it's time to shine. This quiche was declared the best my dad ever had...which is pretty good considering he regularly buys quiche slices from a wonderful local place in Austin.

The ratio of spinach to egg was just perfect. The strong verdant flavor of the spinach was swathed in the richness of the egg mixture and the sharp bite of the garlic and feta. My stepmom had to squirrel a slice away in the fridge so that Ro would have even a chance of trying some when he got back from work. All in all, this quiche managed to taste buttery, rich, salty, and fresh (with 6 cups of spinach!) all at once and is delicious enough to earn a spot on my "must make again...immediately!" list.

Spinach and Leek Quiche

Crust (Savory Pate Brisee):

adapted from Martha Stewart

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, very cold and cut in to marble sized chunks
1/8 - 1/4 cup ice water

In a food processor or with a pastry blade, incorporate flour and salt. Add butter and process until the mixture resembles very course meal, about 8 - 10 seconds. Using the "pulse" button is best for this. You want the butter chunks to be the size of peas.

With the machine running (or your hand running with the pastry blade), add 1/8th cup of water slowly through the feeding tube. Pulse just until the water is incorporated. Feel with your hand if you can clump the dough into a ball. I made the mistake of continuing to add water until it "came together" which made the dough wet and sticky. You do not want wet and sticky dough! If your dough doesn't hold together when you clump it with your hands, add water a little bit at a time until it does. Do not exceed 1/4 cup of water total. Trust me, it doesn't need it.

Gather the dough into a ball, pat into a disc, cover with saran wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Filling:
created by TaraTakesTheCake

1 Tbs. butter

1/2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

5 - 6 cups spinach, cleaned and dried

2 extra large leeks (just the whites and light green parts)

2 cloves garlic

5 extra large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup half and half

3 oz. crumbled feta

3 oz. total Fontina and Parmesan cheese (any ratio you want, I did about half and half)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a pan, heat olive oil and butter over medium high heat until butter is melted.

Clean and chop the leeks -- remove the dark green parts, cut the leeks once length wise, and run under cold water pulling back the layers to expose the dirt between them. (A note about removing the dark green parts: typically I cut away the dark green parts in a way that makes the leeks look like spears. underneath the very first inch or so of dark green on the outside leaves is light green on the inside leaves. I paid for these bad boys, I want to use as much of them as I can!). Then chop into half moons 1/4th inch thick. Add the leeks to the hot pan. Stir every minute or so, being carefully not to let the leeks brown (too much, a few will get brown, just stir them though).

Meanwhile, while the leeks are cooking, roll out the crust to around 1/4 of an inch thick and carefully drape it into an ungreased pie pan, large sauté pan, spring form pan, or quiche pan. Gently press it into the sides being careful not to stretch it. (Keep stirring the leeks!) Refrigerate for a few minutes.

Add the spinach slowly (a few handfuls at a time) to the leeks, stirring and wilting between handfuls. Add in the minced garlic.

Remove crust from the refrigerator. Pierce the bottom several times with a fork. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the crust, and pour in a few cups of rice, lentils, or pie weights to ensure the sides stay up as we blind bake.

Put the crust in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

While the crust is baking, continue stirring the spinach gently until it is completely wilted. Season with salt (not very much) and pepper (lots).

Prepare the filling: in a bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, and half and half. put in a large pinch of salt and more pepper. Fresh grated nutmeg would not go amiss here either.

Remove the crust from the oven. Carefully remove the parchment paper and it's contents, avoiding spilling any onto the crust. Layer in the spinach mixture, topping it with crumbled feta. Pour the egg filling over the spinach mixture evenly. Push down any stray clumps that rise to the top.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before removing the quiche from the pan and placing it on a wire rack to cool. This prevents the crust from getting soft or soggy, allowing the air to crisp and cool it.

Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature. It is delicious at all temperatures!

Toasted Rigatoni with Mushrooms and Baby Greens

2010-03-10T01:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the stars align and give you the most perfect dinner ever. After the quiche disaster, that is EXACTLY what I needed.

Tonight I made a one dish, one pan wonder: toasted pasta, cooked in a flavorful vegetable broth, mushrooms and shallots sautéed in garlic, butter, and white wine, wilted baby greens -- mixed kales and collards, and freshly grated high quality Parmesan . Ohhh lordy, it was good.

The flavoring of this was right on the money, but the texture, for me, really made it stand out from other pasta dishes. Toasting the pasta made it nutty and crunchy and...interesting! Keeping it al dente and pairing it with soft, wine soaked mushrooms and the leafy texture of the greens was nothing short of perfect. Just perfect. This is going to be my new go-to pasta method.

Make this, you won't regret it. Make it now.

Toasted Rigatoni with Mushrooms and Baby Greens
adapted liberally from gimme some oven
Makes 3 large portions

2 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. butter
1 large shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 - 8 oz. mushrooms (I used white button, any kind will work)
1/2 cup white wine
8 oz. rigatoni
2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (I started with 2 and added the 1/2 in later, I think I needed it because I used a larger, thicker pasta than the original)
3 cups mixed baby greens, with larger leaves torn in half (chard, kale, collards, arugula, spinach all would work well. Don't use salad greens. I used mixed kale and collards).
1/3 cup half and half
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and lots of pepper to taste

Heat half the butter and half the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook until golden around the edges. Add garlic and chopped mushrooms. Cook for 3-4 minutes until mushrooms begin to brown. Add white wine, a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Cook for 2 more minutes, then remove from the skillet and set aside.

Add the rest of the oil and the butter to the now-empty skillet. Add the rigatoni and cook for 5 or so minutes, stirring every 30-40 seconds to ensure that the rigatoni toasts and browns, without burning.

After the pasta has become toasted, add in 2.5 cups of broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer -- uncovered. Cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, until very al dente.

When the pasta still has quite a bit of "bite", add in the mushroom mixture, greens, cream, and more pepper. Stir gently, wilting the greens. DO NOT DRAIN PASTA

When the greens are sufficiently wilted (slightly more wilted than below), add in the Parmesan cheese and stir to combine. Add several grinds of pepper, then check for seasonings and add more pepper and some salt if necessary.

Serve immediately, topped with a sprinkling of Parmesan.

(The greens got a little buried in this pic, trust me, they are in there!)

To make vegan: exclude cheese and cream (the sauce will still be delicious) and use vegan pasta.

Chard and Green Garlic Quiche

2010-03-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday marked 4 days since the arrival of my CSA box...and after 4 long days, everything remained uneaten (minus one apple).

This weekend marked the arrival of admits for Berkeley's poli sci department and with them came an abundance of free food. By the time Monday rolled around, I felt too lazy to attend any more of the events and instead, stayed home and made a quiche.

Ahh the quiche.

The quiche was delicious, savory, buttery, eggy, cheesy all at the same time without being too heavy. It had a green bite from the chard and green garlic which added a delicious and amazing fresh flavor.

Despite the deliciousness of the quiche, the quiche making process was a DISASTER.

I started with Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee (minus the sugar) and accidentally hit "on" a few times instead of pulse on the stand mixer, over mixing the ingredients. That was no matter...until I felt the ice cold water was not enough to bring the dough together. Naturally, like a moron, instead of reaching my hand in and feeling the dough, squeezing it together to check it's ability to form a cohesive ball...I dumped more water in. The crust ended up not as amazingly crisp as I had hoped, but it was still delicious and an excellent texture.

Ok, well mistake #1 was survivable...how about #2? I used a spring form pan instead of a pie pan or a quiche pan because it was what I had on hand...also, I prefer a thicker quiche anyway, so I thought it would be perfect. Instead of using pie weights or beans as I par-baked the crust, I just tossed it in the oven for 5 minutes. Naturally, the wet, buttery dough slid right down the sides forming a big heap of edges. Great.

Patiently and with great care, I cut off the excess and decided I would just have a quiche with a bottom crust. No big deal, hell, I survived the water mishap, right?

Wrong.

I sautéed the chard and green garlic, and layered it into the pan. No problems there.

Then I began to pour in the egg mixture (8 eggs, 1/2 cup half and half, 1 1/2 cup milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg) and guess where it went? All over the counter. So much for my $20 spring form pan!

Thinking fast, I grabbed the pan I sautéed the greens in, and put it under my leaky pan, tossed on some Gruyère cheese, and threw it in the oven, hoping it would set before more egg leaked out.

Overall, I ended up loosing about 1 + cups of the egg mixture, which formed a burned frittata ring around the spring form pan. Nice going, Tara. To top it all off, I over cooked the quiche so the filling was slightly wet because the eggs had started to separate from their moisture. Despite all this, I decided to forge ahead.

I took the scraps of the crust (and the part that had already started baking that I pealed away from the pan) and threw it on a cookie sheet with some Gruyère and baked it up...it was quite delicious. As was the quiche, in the end. But, certainly not what I would call smooth sailing for a triple first: first attempt at making a quiche, first sampling of green garlic, and first sampling of chard.

Perhaps it was all for the best -- I prefer a quiche that is mostly vegetables and is less eggy. If all the egg had stayed in the pan, this would have been overwhelmingly eggy. I still have half of the dough sitting in the freezer, I promise I'll post the actual recipe next time...after I dry out the dough and buy a new pan!

Dry Fried Green Beans with Tofu

2010-03-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

It seems that most people, myself included, have a few signature dishes that they frequently rely on as go to meals for delicious dining. For me, I fall back on stuffed bell peppers or baked salmon. For my mom, it was roasted chicken and Chinese Four Season Dry Fried Green Beans. Quite a mouthful!

Last week I attempted a vegetarian version of her green bean dish. The original recipe consists of ground pork, tons of delicious green beans, garlic, garlic, spicy dried chili peppers, and a to die for black bean sauce. It is heaven!

However, tragically, because I cook vegetarian food most of the time, I rarely eat this delicious concoction. I had thought about making it vegetarian before (swapping tofu for the pork, as I did here), but one secret killer lurked in the background: oyster sauce.

In a recent trip to Berkeley Bowl, a local grocery store with incredibly diverse ethnic food selections and amazing produce, I discovered vegetarian oyster sauce! It is made with mushrooms and is completely vegetarian. I immediately snapped it up and set out to make this dish.

It turned out quite delicious -- not quite the same amazing flavor like my mother's, but never the less delicious (I just had to imagine the delicious ground pork instead of the actuality of it).

I love super crisp veggies and I take steps to ensure they stay crisp during the cooking process -- however, with this particular dish, a mix of soft green beans with delicious charred bits on them with more firm beans that have retained their shape is both perfect, delectable, and inevitable because of the cooking method. Even if you are a crisp veggie lover, don't be alarmed and don't take this off the stove too early! The beans need the cook time. Trust me, you wont regret it.

Dry Fried Green Beans with Tofu
Serves 3
Adapted from an unknown Chinese cookbook

1 pound green beans, washed and trimmed
1 pound firm tofu, cut into 3/4 inch cubes and patted dry
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
3 Tbs. black bean with garlic sauce
3 Tbs. low sodium soy sauce (very important that it is low sodium, otherwise it will be excessively salty)
2 Tbs. oyster sauce or vegetarian "oyster" sauce
2 Tbs. dry sherry (I used dry white wine in a pinch, sherry is better though)
4 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed (a bit of an oxymoron, perhaps)
4-6 dried red chili peppers (some red pepper flakes work in a pinch)

In a large pan, heat 1.5 Tbs of the vegetable oil (half of what I call for) until just below smoking. Add the tofu and cook until browned on all sides, stirring every few minutes. This will take roughly 10 minutes.

Remove tofu from the pan, and set aside. Add in the other half of the oil, and heat again until below smoking. Add the green beans, chili peppers, and garlic cloves. Keep heat on high, cook until beans are fairly wilted and blistered (15 minutes, at least), stirring every few minutes. Meanwhile, combine the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sherry, and black bean sauce in a small bowl, whisking to combine.

This is not wilted or blistered enough.

Remove garlic when it begins to brown and mince it.

When the beans are sufficiently wilted and blistered (let them cook longer than you think), add back the tofu, the sauce**, and the minced garlic. Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.

** Add the sauce slowly, a bit at a time tasting as you go. This was quite a strong sauce and because there was no pork to compete for flavor dominance, the whole amount of sauce may have overwhelmed the dish if I had dumped it in. I was left with about 2 Tbs. of sauce in the end.

Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

Banana Milk

2010-03-05T21:32:00.000-08:00

There are some flavors (and smells and sounds) that remind you so distinctly of people in your life that it is almost as if they are there.

For me, this is one of those flavors.

When I was growing up, I was quite close to my maternal grandmother. From a young age she fostered my interest in cooking and food -- I remember when I was 10 or 11 flying to her house in Chicago to help make Easter dinner with her.

During my frequent visits to her house in my childhood she would make this drink for me. I call it banana milk and I still drink it every now and then when I want to use up bananas that are turning but don't have quite enough to make bread -- it always take me back to standing in her overcrowded kitchen as she whipped up a batch for me. It is simple, healthy, delicious, and tastes just like childhood.

Banana Milk
created by Grandma Louise
serves 1

1 cup milk
1 banana, very ripe
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/16 tsp. nutmeg (a few swipes with a microplane works perfectly)
1/2 packet of Splenda, other sugar substitute, or 1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

In a blender, combine all ingredients. Pulse until well mixed and the banana is fully incorporated. Chill before serving.

White Chocolate, Cherry, and Oatmeal Cookies

2010-03-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

One of the most important features of good cooking and baking is high quality ingredients. One might not think that using cheap butter and eggs, generic brand oatmeal, etc. might not make a big difference, but the cumulative effect really does. For this particular recipe, I used King Arthur flour, organic brown eggs, good butter, Ghiradelli white chocolate, name brand oats, and organic dried cherries. The end result: well worth the extra money for good ingredients. If you are going to eat something so deliciously fattening, might as well get the most bang for your calories.

Some anecdotes about cheap ingredients: my first attempt at pear and Gorgonzola pizza back in January ended up tasting greasy and a bit slimey -- why? Cheap (Target brand) butter used to caramelize the onions. Another disappointment from Target came when I tried to make oatmeal cookies last year with their generic brand of oats. It looked a lot more like powder in the box than whole oats, which effected the texture quite a bit. I don't mean to single out Target, I am generally a big fan of their generic brands and of the store in general, but these experiences underscored for me the importance of high quality ingredients, especially with items that one might imagine would be pretty standard across the board.

All of that aside, let's get down to the nitty gritty (or in this case the soft and chewy) of the matter: cookies. These were delicious. The orange zest gave them brightness, the cherries were slightly sour, the white chocolate gave them creaminess, and the touch of salt really helped bring out the flavor (don't skip salt in baked goods! it is KEY) and gave it a slight but discernible saltiness to round out the sweetness. Try these. They are A+ material.

White Chocolate, Cherry, and Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from GimmeSomeOven

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tsp. salt (if you are using salted butter, reduce this quite a bit)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 extra large eggs
zest of 1 orange
10 oz. white chocolate chips or chunks
7 ounces dried cherries (1 1/2 cups) -- apricots, cranberries, or other delicious dried fruit would be good substitutions. Apricots were in the original recipe, but I loved the sourness of cherries. Think about balancing your flavors.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.

Cream sugars and butter together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla and zest, incorporating one egg at a time to not 'flood' the batter, so to speak. If you dump them all in, the butter will not incorporate smoothly and you will end up with something akin to cottage cheese appearance -- this isn't disastrous for the cookies, but it isn't the goal either.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and oats. Beat the dry ingredients into the egg mixture 1/3rd at a time until just shy of incorporated. Add the cherries and the white chocolate and finish incorporating.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer, then scoop heaping tablespoon sized balls onto a cookie sheet -- a cookie scoop works well to control for evenness.

Bake for 11 to 14 minutes or until set. (I made some giant ones that took 20 minutes, but start checking them early, a burnt cookie is never delicious no matter how good your ingredients are.)

Make Now Bake Later: these taste every bit as delicious after being frozen. I frequently make a batch of cookie dough and then freeze all the dough minus a cookie or two. You can either shape them into balls before freezing or just put the dough in an air tight container and plop in the freezer. No need to defrost before cooking -- the butter being frozen helps prevent unnecessary spread -- just add a minute or two to the cooking time.

Enjoy!

Baked Salmon with a Lemon-Herb Marinade

2010-03-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

The inspiration for this dinner came from my one of my aunts -- a gourmet cook who is known for her amazing, amazing shrimp.

After years and years of eating her shrimp, I finally asked her for the recipe. While I have never been able to make it quite as delicious as she does, I have used the marinade on a variety of seafood (salmon, scallops, shrimp) and it always turns out wonderfully. It is easily adaptable and quite delicious.

Last night when I made this, I just eyeballed everything and tweaked the recipe a bit to use what I had on hand (mint instead of basil...and way less of it, yellow onion instead of shallot) and to add a little something extra to it (a pinch of salt, the zest of a lemon).

It turned out wonderfully, yet again, proving just how adaptable this recipe is.

Here is the slightly adapted version of the recipe that my aunt originally sent me, change at will!

Lemon-Basil Marinade for Seafood

enough for 4 servings of seafood (or 24 jumbo shrimp, as the original recipe calls for)

adapted from Pierre Franey's Cuisine Rapide

1 1/2 tsp. finely minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped shallots

1/2-3/4 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/3 cup dry white wine (or white vermouth)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 scant cup olive oil

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh basil

Whisk everything together -- this works best if you drizzle the oil in after you have combined the mustard with other liquids (it is an emulsifier), whisking while you drizzle.

Marinade 4 servings* of seafood in this for 15 minutes or more, but not too long though, seafood is more permeable than meat or poultry and takes less time to absorb flavors. Cook according to your desired method for the seafood (I have broiled, sautéed, and baked).

While your grill/oven is heating, begin to reduce the marinade over the stove: bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for several minutes until it is thick -- I reduced mine a minute or two too long. It was still delicious, but very potent! Serve with the seafood.

Note: your sauce will not end up this pink/orange. I upped the Cayenne, proportionally, quite a bit.

Some cooking suggestions:

- for shrimp, grill or broil. Skewer shrimp so that they are barely touching, place skewers on grill or under broiler (6 inches from heat). Cook 3 minutes on side 1, 2 minutes on side 2 or until barely opaque.

- for salmon, I generally bake at 400 F for 12 minutes per inch of thickness (usually just 12 minutes for a normal fillet)

For this particular dinner, I served this alongside a half a cup of cooked wild rice and a medium zucchini baked with a little bit of salt and topped with Parmesan...it was excellent!

* a note about servings: for shrimp, what this was originally intended for, 4 servings equals 20oz of raw shrimp -- 5oz. per person. American portions tend to be a bit bigger (6+ oz.). When I made this, I used a 4oz. salmon fillet. Keep portion size in mind when making this and increase the quantity of marinade if necessary.

Black Bean Soup

2010-02-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

Today for lunch I wanted something light, healthy, quick, and not vegetarian! I am so used to eating vegetarian inside my home that sometimes I forget to use up the few non vegetarian staples I keep around (salmon fillet in the freezer, chicken stock in the fridge, etc). This recipe can actually be quite easily be made vegetarian by swapping out the chicken stock for vegetable stock, but since I prefer the flavor of the chicken and was just cooking for myself today, I decided to live on the edge :).

This lunch took about 10 minutes to throw together and was perfect for a slightly chilly California Sunday. For black bean soups, I generally prefer them to be on the thicker side and this was, but it can easily be thinned and adjusted with adding more broth. This would make a great sauce for enfrijoladas (think enchiladas but instead of enveloped in a chili sauce, they are in a bean (frijol) sauce) as well. Also, you will notice, this is not that different from how I prepare black beans as a side dish :). The flavor combination here lets the black beans stand out but really perks them up a bit.

Black Bean Soup
created by TaraTakesTheCake
Serves 2-4 (2 for a main, 4 for a side)

2 15oz cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
2.5 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp. olive oil
1/4 large yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, diced
1 roma tomato, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1.5 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. chili powder
2 Tbs. cilantro, chopped
3 Tbs. salsa (I used fire roasted)

In a small pot, heat olive oil and add onion. Sauté onion until translucent and caramelized around the edges, then add in garlic. Saute for another 30 seconds before adding the diced tomato and the broth.

Scrape the caramelized bits off the bottom of your pot, using the broth to deglaze. Mix in the rest of the ingredients including the salsa, but not the cilantro, and bring to a simmer.

This was right before I added the 2nd can of black beans and prior to mashing. The original 1.5 cups of chicken stock I put in were insufficient, so after this I added a cup more as well.

As the soup is cooking, with a fork or a potato masher begin to crush the soup. I don't have an immersion blender but using one or a normal blender would be an effective way to smooth this soup. I prefer a slightly chunkier version, however, so I just went with the potato masher. Mash until the consistency you desire and test for seasonings. Stir in the cilantro right before serving.

This soup is very adjustable. I made it to my individual tastes, but here are some tweaking suggestions:
- not smokey enough? add more cumin
- not spicy enough? dice part of a jalapeño or increase the chili powder (I didn't want something very spicy so I just put in enough for a subtle hint of spice)
- too thick? add more broth
- too thin? cook for a few more minutes
- flavor not standing out? add more salt
- flavor not bright enough? add more cilantro

Garnish with cheddar cheese, sour cream, salsa, cilantro, or tortilla strips. I used all of these minus the sour cream. To make tortilla strips, take a tortilla (I used corn), cut into 2 inch by 1/2 an inch strips and heat in a dry pan over medium heat for several minutes, turning occasionally.

Enjoy!