Showing posts with label presents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label presents. Show all posts
29 May 2012
15 February 2012
just another day
Yesterday started as a normal day. It was Valentine’s day, I had a plan for my day – go grocery shopping on my way home from work and also pick up a gift or two. The day did not remain normal. Having expectations for things sometimes comes with its downfalls...things happen. Life happens. Clearly, it was nothing catastrophic. Work was hectic, the interweb was down and I had to use my phone to do follow-ups, forgot my phone charger, no one had one at work...by the end of the day, I was dead. Out of touch with any and everything. The mister knew I was going to the grocery store before I got home, but he didn’t know I was going shopping – as he wasn’t supposed to b.c it was a surprise for him! When I got home, an hour later than expected, he frustratedly left for an audition, an important one where an important person specifically requested to see him...think I'd feel the same. He was expecting to be on a certain schedule. Nothing wrong with it, we all do it. I try to remind myself to “hope for the best and expect the worst.” It limits the disappointment, or so it seems...sometimes.
 |
| 14.feb.2012 Yo, DJ! |
I was just having a conversation (read shared blog post) with my best girl friend about telling stories with points. [Side note: she’s really the best, I’m like totally in love with her.] I’m not very good at it. Rory give me a hard time about it too...I tend to ramble and get lost in my details and tangents...which, sure, is good from time to time...but all the time? I don’t know, maybe I will take a story telling class and get my points all lined up. Or maybe I just accept that that's the way I work after 30 years.
Back to yesterday, while there were some let downs there were also total positives...it was Valentine’s Day after all. It was also our mini-celebration of our 7 year anniversary. Seven years! Man. It doesn’t seem like that long, or it doesn’t feel that long. I guess that’s what happens when you fall in love and decide to spend the rest of your life with someone and that someone if the right someone. Everything just sort of fits. It works properly. Even when there are problems, you work them out. I’m glad to say that we don’t fight all too often. When we get mad at each other, we’re typically able to come to common ground and we just don’t disagree on a ton of stuff. I’m a lucky girl who’s madly in love with the man she’s going to marry. That’s all. A friend of mine tonight, after I said Rory was off for a whole month, told me I was "so understanding." Sure, I am but that's also just part of what our relationship is. We've learned to make it work. It's very hard from time to time but I think it's also good for us. It's made us value each other, everything about each other. The good's, the bad's and even the ugly's. In the end, I think it makes us love each other harder and fuller. That's what I feel, full. So cliche, but Rory kinda completes me. He makes my life full. When he's not around or off on one of his distracted ways its hard but in the end, at the root of it all there is so much love and patience and kindness and joy and positive emotion that the good truly does outweigh the bad. Really.
Now on to the food! Yes, it’s a recipe post. I’m excited, it’s been FOREVER. Plus it was my instagram yesterday so, even better. (Actually I had two, both in the post) I made lamb with a yogurt mint sauce, broccoli rabe and hasselback potatoes. Then store bought pound cake w. strawberries and homemade vanilla whip cream. Delish.
 |
| 14.feb.2012 Nom, nom, nom |
Lemon-Garlic Lamb Chops with Yogurt Sauce
Slightly adapted from epicurious
For yogurt sauce:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove, minced
a big handful of chopped fresh mint
For chops:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove, minced
a big handful of chopped fresh mint
For chops:
fresh lemon juice from 2 lemons
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
a good shake dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 (1/2 to 1 inch-thick) shoulder lamb chops (I asked my butcher for shoulder chops and he sold me a whole shoulder, thought of roasting the whole thing but just ended up cutting my own pieces – I guess you could do the whole thing but think you’d need to increase the marinade)
1 tablespoon water (plus whatever you feel like you need, probably used ~ 1 cup)
Make sauce:
Put a cup of yogurt in a doubled up piece of cheesecloth, make sure you have enough to tie this up. Then tie the lose ends to a spoon and rest the spoon over a large pot, be sure to put a bowl under the cheesecloth/yogurt concoction so you catch the liquid. Recipe calls for 20 minutes, I did it for like 30-40 minutes…so worth it. Mix in the garlic, mint, and salt and pepper to taste. You can do this a day ahead of time if you want to, just make sure it comes to room temp before serving.
Prepare chops while yogurt drains:
Stir together lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and 2 tablespoons oil in a shallow baking dish. Add lamb chops, turning to coat, and marinate. Recipe calls for 20 minutes, I did it for a little over an hour (I had the time) just be sure to take the lamb out of the fridge so it comes back to room temperature. Remove lamb from marinade, reserving marinade, and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté chops in 2 batches, without crowding, about 2 minutes on each side for medium-rare. I had to go back and heat these a little longer, so be sure to check the meat and do sauté to the appropriate done-ness for you. Transfer to plates. Boil reserved marinade in skillet with water 1 minute and pour over chops. Serve w. the yogurt sauce.
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
a good shake dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 (1/2 to 1 inch-thick) shoulder lamb chops (I asked my butcher for shoulder chops and he sold me a whole shoulder, thought of roasting the whole thing but just ended up cutting my own pieces – I guess you could do the whole thing but think you’d need to increase the marinade)
1 tablespoon water (plus whatever you feel like you need, probably used ~ 1 cup)
Make sauce:
Put a cup of yogurt in a doubled up piece of cheesecloth, make sure you have enough to tie this up. Then tie the lose ends to a spoon and rest the spoon over a large pot, be sure to put a bowl under the cheesecloth/yogurt concoction so you catch the liquid. Recipe calls for 20 minutes, I did it for like 30-40 minutes…so worth it. Mix in the garlic, mint, and salt and pepper to taste. You can do this a day ahead of time if you want to, just make sure it comes to room temp before serving.
Prepare chops while yogurt drains:
Stir together lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and 2 tablespoons oil in a shallow baking dish. Add lamb chops, turning to coat, and marinate. Recipe calls for 20 minutes, I did it for a little over an hour (I had the time) just be sure to take the lamb out of the fridge so it comes back to room temperature. Remove lamb from marinade, reserving marinade, and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté chops in 2 batches, without crowding, about 2 minutes on each side for medium-rare. I had to go back and heat these a little longer, so be sure to check the meat and do sauté to the appropriate done-ness for you. Transfer to plates. Boil reserved marinade in skillet with water 1 minute and pour over chops. Serve w. the yogurt sauce.
Now for the potatoes…so yummy, they were sweet and spicy from the pesto. Rory doesn’t like pesto, I knew this and still made this…he even LIKED the pesto. Goes to show you can’t judge all pestos by the cover...wait, what?! Oh, before potatoes, I really didn’t do anything to the broccoli rabe. I blanched it, then sautéed it with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes until they were done. Easy-peasy!
Hasselback Potatoes with Spinach Cashew Pesto
Barely tweeked from Joy the Baker
Barely tweeked from Joy the Baker
For the Potatoes:
4 russet potatoes
4 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
coarse sea salt
olive oil for drizzling
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Thinly slice garlic cloves – try to keep them consistent, this is near impossible for me…just try to get them pretty thin. Set aside. Clean the outside of your potatoes well. So your potatoes don’t slip around and you don’t slice off a finer, cut a small part off the bottom of the potatoes…I picked the wonkiest side. (You can do this with onions too so as to not have the onion roll around while you’re sobbing through your slicing) Slice into the potatoes creating ribs, don’t go all the way through the potatoes, so everything stays connected. Slide garlic slices in between potato slices. This is a lot harder than it seems, you may have to be a little rough with these buggers, but not so rough that you break them apart. End goal, keep them in original potato shape!
4 russet potatoes
4 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
coarse sea salt
olive oil for drizzling
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Thinly slice garlic cloves – try to keep them consistent, this is near impossible for me…just try to get them pretty thin. Set aside. Clean the outside of your potatoes well. So your potatoes don’t slip around and you don’t slice off a finer, cut a small part off the bottom of the potatoes…I picked the wonkiest side. (You can do this with onions too so as to not have the onion roll around while you’re sobbing through your slicing) Slice into the potatoes creating ribs, don’t go all the way through the potatoes, so everything stays connected. Slide garlic slices in between potato slices. This is a lot harder than it seems, you may have to be a little rough with these buggers, but not so rough that you break them apart. End goal, keep them in original potato shape!
Put 'em on a baking sheet, salt them, well. Put a tablespoon of butter on each potato and drizzle with oil. Bake for about 1 hour. Every 15 minutes, baste the potatoes with the oil and butter deliciousness that is happening. (When I was doing this, I wished that I had put the potatoes in a deeper dish, I kept fearing that the mixture would pour over onto the bottom of my oven, so...a suggestion?) When cooked through and crispy, remove from the oven, top with spinach pesto and serve.
For the Pesto:
2 loosely packed cups of spinach
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup toasted cashews
juice from one fresh lemon
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup olive oil
Put everything (sans oil, salt & pepper) in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until spinach is broken down and, whiles still blending, slowly pour in the olive oil. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Cook's note: this makes a TON of pesto, after dinner I grabbed a piece of parchment paper and put 4 globs (about the size of a silver dollar pancake) of pesto on it and put in the freezer. I meant to grab them last night, but just put them in their own ziploc bags in the freezer. These are perfect for a pesto pasta dinner down the road...now you don't have to make the pesto!
I hope you enjoy these recipes, it always makes me so happy to cook. To cook something I've never eat but have read about somewhere else that someone else tried...I always want to know what I can do with it.
What'd you make (do) for Valentine's day?
xo
03 May 2011
Double Celebration!
First of all - Rory has done it again!! Check out his most recent Land Rover commercial:
Pretty sweet huh!? And secondly, he proposed to me this weekend at an Explosions in the Sky Concert! Song. Ring. YAYAYAYYAAYAYAYAYAY!
xo
10 November 2010
rory was on late night with Jimmy Fallon!
i'm madly in love with this guy :) and i'm pretty sure he
feels the same.
feels the same.
24 July 2010
i dont make pretty desserts, i make yummy ones.
but first:
i can't help it. i love eggs. for awhile i was careful not to eat them all the time b.c there were the reports that you shouldn't eat too many eggs for fear of high cholesterol. then i was told that that could be ignored...i'm still careful, i don't eat them every meal or everyday for that matter, but there's at least 3 meals a week that use eggs as a center piece. thursday i went to the store and wanted greens, black beans and poached eggs. so i got turnip greens, cut out the stems and chopped them. threw some oil and garlic into a pan. once hot, i threw in the turnip greens. after the greens wilted i threw in a can of black beans and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. i let it all meld together then poached two eggs, threw the beans and greens into bowl, put the eggs on top and salted and peppered it. yum. turnip greens are bitter people. bitter. they need lots of salt. probs more than i put on them....
now...the the main attraction of this post...a spanish custard berry tart. we had a cast dinner party/line thru (we have a show tonight and we didnt have rehearsal all week so we needed to make sure we remembered our lines!) and we decided to have a spanish themed dinner. we had home made paella and i made a tart. man was it good but man was it ugly. i dont think i let the puff pastry thaw enough and i, for sure, should have pulled the pastry up and over the edge of the spring form. had i done that i would have been able to attach the lattice puff pastry pieces to the other pastry. what happened was the lattice pieces fell into the berry topping and sort of sank into the tart. i also took the tart out maybe 10 min early - it could have cooked a little longer to make the pastry a little more puffy...make sense? it was really good, you should try it. (ps. it weighs like 5 pounds...cra-zy)
Berry Topping
(recipe adapted from about.com)
spanish custard and berry filled tart
(again adapted from about.com)
remove the puff pastry and allow to thaw (10/15 min). using your hands (i love getting messy when i bake/cook) coat 8-in spring form with the butter. i bet you could just use a tall pie dish too - it just has to be at least 2 inches deep. line the cake with the puff pastry, trimming the edges to fit the pan and pressing the pastry into the corners and prick the bottom w. a fork. (this is where i urge u to make sure that the pastry reaches up and over the edges of the pan).
set pan aside and second sheet of pastry until ready to cut. you are going to make a lattice top bu cutting strips 1/1 1/2 inches thick. later of course.
measure and sift flour and cornstarch to use later.
heat over to 360F (160C)
while the oven was heating, prepare the custard. pour all but 1/4 cup of the milk into a medium-size heavy bottom pan and add the cinnamon stick. bring milk just to the boiling point then remove from heat and set aside.
in a large mixing bow, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns light yellow and has a smooth texture. add flour and corn starch to the eggs and beat with a hand mixer on medium/high. add the 1/4 cup o f milk and continue to mix until smooth and creamy.
remove the cinnamon stick from the milk. while stirring constantly, pour about one third of the warm milk into the egg mixture. once milk has mixed throughly with the eggs, slowly pour in the rest of the milk, while stirring constantly. transfer the mixture into a large sauce pan and heat on medium, stirring continuously. bring to a boil and allow to boil for just 30 seconds, then remove from the heat immediately and pour into the spring form pan with the puff pastry crust.
NOTE: if lumps begin to form in the custard while heating, us a hand mixer on a low speed to break up the lumps. (i had to do this almost immediately but it makes it hard to realize the boiling, so pay attention!)
pour the berry topping over the custard filling and spread evenly. cut the other pastry sheet into strips about 1 inch thick and as wide as the springform and lay them across the top in a lattice pattern - or whatever you think that looks like. beat the egg whites in a small bowl. brush them over the crust.
place in hot oven in the middle rack. bake for 30 - 35 min. remove and allow to cool for at least 20 min before serving. if tart will not be eaten w. in 2 hours, refrigerate. bring to room temp. before serving.
it was fun to make this tart - it take a bit or time and focus...and if your tart turns out looking like mine (man i wish i could show it to you - it was u-g-l-y and had NO alibi) just say to yourself: i don't make pretty desserts, i make yummy ones. at the end of the day, its the taste that matters.
xo
i can't help it. i love eggs. for awhile i was careful not to eat them all the time b.c there were the reports that you shouldn't eat too many eggs for fear of high cholesterol. then i was told that that could be ignored...i'm still careful, i don't eat them every meal or everyday for that matter, but there's at least 3 meals a week that use eggs as a center piece. thursday i went to the store and wanted greens, black beans and poached eggs. so i got turnip greens, cut out the stems and chopped them. threw some oil and garlic into a pan. once hot, i threw in the turnip greens. after the greens wilted i threw in a can of black beans and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. i let it all meld together then poached two eggs, threw the beans and greens into bowl, put the eggs on top and salted and peppered it. yum. turnip greens are bitter people. bitter. they need lots of salt. probs more than i put on them....
now...the the main attraction of this post...a spanish custard berry tart. we had a cast dinner party/line thru (we have a show tonight and we didnt have rehearsal all week so we needed to make sure we remembered our lines!) and we decided to have a spanish themed dinner. we had home made paella and i made a tart. man was it good but man was it ugly. i dont think i let the puff pastry thaw enough and i, for sure, should have pulled the pastry up and over the edge of the spring form. had i done that i would have been able to attach the lattice puff pastry pieces to the other pastry. what happened was the lattice pieces fell into the berry topping and sort of sank into the tart. i also took the tart out maybe 10 min early - it could have cooked a little longer to make the pastry a little more puffy...make sense? it was really good, you should try it. (ps. it weighs like 5 pounds...cra-zy)
Berry Topping
(recipe adapted from about.com)
- 2 pints blueberries
- 1/2 pint blackberries
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
spanish custard and berry filled tart
(again adapted from about.com)
- 2 cups berry filling (recipe above is proper amount)
- butter to coat the pan
- 2 sheets puff pastry (1 pkg 17 oz puff pastry)
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 egg yolks
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup corn starch (i really wanted to substitute this...but i didnt)
- 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
- 2 egg whites
remove the puff pastry and allow to thaw (10/15 min). using your hands (i love getting messy when i bake/cook) coat 8-in spring form with the butter. i bet you could just use a tall pie dish too - it just has to be at least 2 inches deep. line the cake with the puff pastry, trimming the edges to fit the pan and pressing the pastry into the corners and prick the bottom w. a fork. (this is where i urge u to make sure that the pastry reaches up and over the edges of the pan).
set pan aside and second sheet of pastry until ready to cut. you are going to make a lattice top bu cutting strips 1/1 1/2 inches thick. later of course.
measure and sift flour and cornstarch to use later.
heat over to 360F (160C)
while the oven was heating, prepare the custard. pour all but 1/4 cup of the milk into a medium-size heavy bottom pan and add the cinnamon stick. bring milk just to the boiling point then remove from heat and set aside.
in a large mixing bow, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns light yellow and has a smooth texture. add flour and corn starch to the eggs and beat with a hand mixer on medium/high. add the 1/4 cup o f milk and continue to mix until smooth and creamy.
remove the cinnamon stick from the milk. while stirring constantly, pour about one third of the warm milk into the egg mixture. once milk has mixed throughly with the eggs, slowly pour in the rest of the milk, while stirring constantly. transfer the mixture into a large sauce pan and heat on medium, stirring continuously. bring to a boil and allow to boil for just 30 seconds, then remove from the heat immediately and pour into the spring form pan with the puff pastry crust.
NOTE: if lumps begin to form in the custard while heating, us a hand mixer on a low speed to break up the lumps. (i had to do this almost immediately but it makes it hard to realize the boiling, so pay attention!)
pour the berry topping over the custard filling and spread evenly. cut the other pastry sheet into strips about 1 inch thick and as wide as the springform and lay them across the top in a lattice pattern - or whatever you think that looks like. beat the egg whites in a small bowl. brush them over the crust.
place in hot oven in the middle rack. bake for 30 - 35 min. remove and allow to cool for at least 20 min before serving. if tart will not be eaten w. in 2 hours, refrigerate. bring to room temp. before serving.
it was fun to make this tart - it take a bit or time and focus...and if your tart turns out looking like mine (man i wish i could show it to you - it was u-g-l-y and had NO alibi) just say to yourself: i don't make pretty desserts, i make yummy ones. at the end of the day, its the taste that matters.
xo
10 July 2010
opening night cookies!!
cookies. what better than chocolate chip cookies on opening night. everyone gets their own little bunch. i havent started baking yet and the current brain debate is: make them a 'normal' cookie shape OR make like chocolate chip cookie bars. sounds sort of incredible...i decided to try this out with molasses instead of granulated sugar (mainly cause i have a lot of molasses that is just sitting in the pantry but also, b.c it reduces the sweetness factor). with a little research on that handy-dandy-world-wide-web, i learned that you a) should not replace more than half the sugar content in a recipe w. molasses, b) you have to add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for every cup of molasses you add to the recipe, c) you use 1 1/3 cup molasses for every cup of sugar (*note: i replaced the granulated sugar b.c thats the more processed of the two sugars - brown and granulated) and d) reduce the liquid in the recipe by 5 tablespoons. (there's no liquid in the recipe so...i'm ignoring that step.) Ali (from Gimme Some Oven) suggests cooling the dough for 20/30 min to make sure your cookies dont go flat. on it!
i also have an affinity to dark chocolate and when you're making gifts for people...why not splurge a little. at whole foods i found sirius chocolate. its pure icelandic chocolate. i purchased 14.1 oz of their 70% extra bitter (damn...) i also borrowed this picture from someones website b.c i couldn't make sense of the actual companies website. doesnt this look amazing? Found here.
the packaging is even awesome.
so...i am taking my first batch out and they fell and look like chocolate on chocolate cookies...verdict will be the taste - i guess. verdict: they taste like molasses cookies w. a hint (slight) of chocolate. SO - if you dont like molasses cookies, don't make them my way. :)
i also have an affinity to dark chocolate and when you're making gifts for people...why not splurge a little. at whole foods i found sirius chocolate. its pure icelandic chocolate. i purchased 14.1 oz of their 70% extra bitter (damn...) i also borrowed this picture from someones website b.c i couldn't make sense of the actual companies website. doesnt this look amazing? Found here.
so...i am taking my first batch out and they fell and look like chocolate on chocolate cookies...verdict will be the taste - i guess. verdict: they taste like molasses cookies w. a hint (slight) of chocolate. SO - if you dont like molasses cookies, don't make them my way. :)
Dad’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Gimme Some Oven)
(adapted from Gimme Some Oven)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp. butter, slightly softened
- 1 1/3 cup molasses
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips (mini, regular, or chocolate chunks!)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by large spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until they look cakey.
01 May 2010
b-i-r-f-d-a-a
i must first begin with the facts that a) my birthday was a month ago and b) my celebration began on friday when my boss took myslef and my co-worker out to lunch and then called it a day! we got to the restaurant (the standard grill) and ordered pimms...i had never had a pimm anything before and lemme tell you...this drink was delicious! we had H.M.S. PIMM’S, which consisted of pimm's cup no. 1, cointreau, lime juice, prosecco, winter berries, cucumber and mint. yum. and simple...you can probably make them at home. who am i kidding, probably? you can. period.
so good! i had mussels for lunch, with fries? bien sur. then for dessert we had a pecan pie that we all split and the waitress brought us all a glass of champagne...it was a really kickin' friday afternoon.
i even got to make my own birthday cake with macy (my niece)! we used a basic white cake recipe from epicurious. [my birthday was now a long time ago...but the food and post are worth sharing] i will share the recipe but i gotta admit...not sure i am a fan of white cake. its sort of dry - or at least thats how ours ended up and the description said it would be moist...was not. it might be because there's no yolk, how do you have a cake without yolk? you dont. you have white cake.
i wanted to make something really simple and maybe a little messy (at least looking) for my cake. i didnt want a lot of sweet stuff, so i just whipped up some heavy cream and tossed some berries with a pinch of sugar then layered.
Classic White Cake
adapted from here
ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk
Directions
1. make sure you have 2 9-inch round cake pans, buttered (really well)
2. set your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven
3. combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, mix well.
4. place butter and sugar in a bowl, beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very soft and light. beat in the vanilla.
5. whisk together the egg whites and milk by hand in another bowl until just combined.
6. reduce mixer speed to low and beat in 1/4 flour mix, then 1/3 milk mixture, stopping and scraping down the bowl and beater after each addition. (this may have been where macy and i messed up the cake) do this in this ratio until all combined.
7.scrape bowl well w. a rubber spatula, pour batter into the prepared pans and smooth tops. (i always tap my pans on the counter top, i think i say someone on the food network do this once to "get rid of air bubbles." its now part of my baking regime.)
8. bake layers for about 30 - 35 minutes, until they are well risen and firm and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean (also, where we may have messed up - i didnt check both, make sure you check both...also, our cake didnt really rise). cool the layers in the pan on racks for 5 min (seriously - no more, i think also may be where we messed up!), then unmold onto racks to finish cooling right side up.
see! she was happy with the final outcome, but cooking with a child under 10 is tough, she got bored very quickly. maybe there's a way to make baking/mixing/stirring into a game and that way she'd be all about it?
on to dinner. yes, i got to choose and make dinner on my birthday. you may laugh/gawk/shock, but hey, i love cooking, remember? (not to mention the salmon was cooked by my bro-in-law and my sister and i kept swapping positions) so, i chose mushroom risotto, asparagus and salmon. my big sister is sort of hilarious. we keep switching back and forth with the risotto...she got sooo bored of stirring. like mother like daughter? nah, my sister has a better attention span than a 7 year old. for the most part. all we did with the asparagus was boil them a little with salt water and then with the salmon, we baked it with olive oil and salt and pepper.
mushroom risotto
adapted from here
ingredients
1 oz dried porcini (1 cup)
3 3/4 cup hot water
5 1/4 cup reduced(low) sodium chicken broth (42 fl oz)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 fresh cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 lb Arborio rice (2 1/3 cup)
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup finely grated parm-reggiano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black peppper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
directions
1. soak the porcini in 1/2 cup hot water in a bowl until softened, about 20 minutes. lift them out, squeezing liquid back into the bowl. rinse off any grit that may remain and coarsely chop. pour soaking liquid through a sieve line with a coffee filter or a dampened paper towel into a 3 to 4 quart saucepan, then add broth, soy sauce, and remaining water and bring to a simmer.
2. meanwhile, heat oil with 1 tablespoon butter in a 4 to 5 quart heavy potover moderately high head until foam subsides, then saute onion, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. add garlic and fresh mushrooms and saute, stirring, until mushrooms are browned and any liquid they give off is evaporated, about 8 minutes. stir in porcini and cook, stirring, 1 minute, then add rice and cook, stirring,, 1 minute. add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed, about 1 minute. (MAN...that is a lot of stirring.)
3. stir 1 cup simmering broth into rice and cook, stirring constantly (serious?) and keeping at a strong simmer, until absorbed. continue cooking and adding broth, about a cup at a time, stirring frequently (come on!) and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until ice is tender and creamy looking but still al dente, 18 to 20 minutes. thin with some of the remaining broth if necessary.
4. remove from heat. stir in cheese, salt, pepper, and remianing 5 tablespoons of butter until butter is melted.
5. if reserving some risotto to make risotto cake tomorrow, set aside 3 cups and cool to room temp, then chill covered with plastic wrap.
6. stir parsley into remaining risotto and serve immediately.
all in all. it was really lovely. just my sister, brother-in-law and me having dinner and drinking nice wine. we of course had cake, but the first pieces went to my niece and nephew, duh...you can't go to bed without dessert people, we all know this! too cute.
i know its way way way past my birthday, but thanks for bearing with me.
xo
i'm 29!
whats nice (and not nice) about having a birthday so close to easter is you get to celebrate with family. the downside of that is going to an easter egg hunt with at least 50 children who range from 2 - 11 and having conversations about basement flooding and what company you should use for the repairs. it was all sorts of hilarious. it was nice because i love my sister and brother-in-law and i really enjoy spending time with my niece and nephew, but it was also very suburban.i even got to make my own birthday cake with macy (my niece)! we used a basic white cake recipe from epicurious. [my birthday was now a long time ago...but the food and post are worth sharing] i will share the recipe but i gotta admit...not sure i am a fan of white cake. its sort of dry - or at least thats how ours ended up and the description said it would be moist...was not. it might be because there's no yolk, how do you have a cake without yolk? you dont. you have white cake.
i wanted to make something really simple and maybe a little messy (at least looking) for my cake. i didnt want a lot of sweet stuff, so i just whipped up some heavy cream and tossed some berries with a pinch of sugar then layered.
Classic White Cake
adapted from here
ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk
Directions
1. make sure you have 2 9-inch round cake pans, buttered (really well)
2. set your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven
3. combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, mix well.
4. place butter and sugar in a bowl, beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very soft and light. beat in the vanilla.
5. whisk together the egg whites and milk by hand in another bowl until just combined.
6. reduce mixer speed to low and beat in 1/4 flour mix, then 1/3 milk mixture, stopping and scraping down the bowl and beater after each addition. (this may have been where macy and i messed up the cake) do this in this ratio until all combined.
7.scrape bowl well w. a rubber spatula, pour batter into the prepared pans and smooth tops. (i always tap my pans on the counter top, i think i say someone on the food network do this once to "get rid of air bubbles." its now part of my baking regime.)
8. bake layers for about 30 - 35 minutes, until they are well risen and firm and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean (also, where we may have messed up - i didnt check both, make sure you check both...also, our cake didnt really rise). cool the layers in the pan on racks for 5 min (seriously - no more, i think also may be where we messed up!), then unmold onto racks to finish cooling right side up.
on to dinner. yes, i got to choose and make dinner on my birthday. you may laugh/gawk/shock, but hey, i love cooking, remember? (not to mention the salmon was cooked by my bro-in-law and my sister and i kept swapping positions) so, i chose mushroom risotto, asparagus and salmon. my big sister is sort of hilarious. we keep switching back and forth with the risotto...she got sooo bored of stirring. like mother like daughter? nah, my sister has a better attention span than a 7 year old. for the most part. all we did with the asparagus was boil them a little with salt water and then with the salmon, we baked it with olive oil and salt and pepper.
mushroom risotto
adapted from here
ingredients
1 oz dried porcini (1 cup)
3 3/4 cup hot water
5 1/4 cup reduced(low) sodium chicken broth (42 fl oz)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 fresh cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 lb Arborio rice (2 1/3 cup)
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup finely grated parm-reggiano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black peppper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
directions
1. soak the porcini in 1/2 cup hot water in a bowl until softened, about 20 minutes. lift them out, squeezing liquid back into the bowl. rinse off any grit that may remain and coarsely chop. pour soaking liquid through a sieve line with a coffee filter or a dampened paper towel into a 3 to 4 quart saucepan, then add broth, soy sauce, and remaining water and bring to a simmer.
2. meanwhile, heat oil with 1 tablespoon butter in a 4 to 5 quart heavy potover moderately high head until foam subsides, then saute onion, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. add garlic and fresh mushrooms and saute, stirring, until mushrooms are browned and any liquid they give off is evaporated, about 8 minutes. stir in porcini and cook, stirring, 1 minute, then add rice and cook, stirring,, 1 minute. add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed, about 1 minute. (MAN...that is a lot of stirring.)
3. stir 1 cup simmering broth into rice and cook, stirring constantly (serious?) and keeping at a strong simmer, until absorbed. continue cooking and adding broth, about a cup at a time, stirring frequently (come on!) and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until ice is tender and creamy looking but still al dente, 18 to 20 minutes. thin with some of the remaining broth if necessary.
4. remove from heat. stir in cheese, salt, pepper, and remianing 5 tablespoons of butter until butter is melted.
5. if reserving some risotto to make risotto cake tomorrow, set aside 3 cups and cool to room temp, then chill covered with plastic wrap.
6. stir parsley into remaining risotto and serve immediately.
i know its way way way past my birthday, but thanks for bearing with me.
xo
26 April 2010
15 September 2009
presents
stuff done: i had a friend move to manhattan literally yesterday. he crashed on my couch the night before moving to what i am sure is a kick ass apt on the uws. i would love to someday live on amsterdam or columbus between 69 and 80. its such a cool neighborhood, albeit expensive as all get out but very nice nonetheless.
anyway - i've been having an itch for something sweet. even at work i said, out loud, i want cookies or brownies but the idea of buying them makes my stomach turn. i want to bake something sweet and eat it. so...i decided to bake a house warming gift (which i'm not even going to eat, unless tomorrow he wants to share them) i'm baking thumbprint cookies. with black raspberry jam.
i got the recipe from one of the blogs i read: eat make read. i dig kelly's blog a lot. she has a lot of good recipes and ideas. i want to read the book she posted today, especially if i'm getting into this cooking/stuff blog. the only thing missing is a camera.
i made these cookies for kyle after we talked at length last night about how, when he cooks he googles what he's in the mood for and the filters it through blogs. he browses a bunch of the blogs i frequent, so i thought using a blog i love would do perfect justice to these little guys!
and here's the recipe:
Cookie Dough
based on this recipe from everyday food
anyway - i've been having an itch for something sweet. even at work i said, out loud, i want cookies or brownies but the idea of buying them makes my stomach turn. i want to bake something sweet and eat it. so...i decided to bake a house warming gift (which i'm not even going to eat, unless tomorrow he wants to share them) i'm baking thumbprint cookies. with black raspberry jam.
i got the recipe from one of the blogs i read: eat make read. i dig kelly's blog a lot. she has a lot of good recipes and ideas. i want to read the book she posted today, especially if i'm getting into this cooking/stuff blog. the only thing missing is a camera.
i made these cookies for kyle after we talked at length last night about how, when he cooks he googles what he's in the mood for and the filters it through blogs. he browses a bunch of the blogs i frequent, so i thought using a blog i love would do perfect justice to these little guys!
and here's the recipe:
Cookie Dough
based on this recipe from everyday food
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract OR 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1 jar of jam
Preparation
1. in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.
2. add egg yolks, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. reserve egg whites. add vanilla and lemon extract or zest.
3. with mixer on low, add flour; mix just until combined. wrap in plastic; chill until firm, about 1 hour. to make ahead: refrigerate up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 3 months.
4. preheat oven to 350°. remove chilled dough from refrigerator. using a small scoop, place round of dough on cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart.
5. using the bowl of a 1/4 teaspoon, make an indentation into each cookie.
6. whisk the egg white with 1 teaspoon water and brush each cookie with the wash. (i forgot this step so i did it after i had put the jam in the cookies.)
7. spoon 1/2 teaspoon of your chosen jam into each cookie.
8. bake for 13-15 minutes.
1. in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.
2. add egg yolks, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. reserve egg whites. add vanilla and lemon extract or zest.
3. with mixer on low, add flour; mix just until combined. wrap in plastic; chill until firm, about 1 hour. to make ahead: refrigerate up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 3 months.
4. preheat oven to 350°. remove chilled dough from refrigerator. using a small scoop, place round of dough on cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart.
5. using the bowl of a 1/4 teaspoon, make an indentation into each cookie.
6. whisk the egg white with 1 teaspoon water and brush each cookie with the wash. (i forgot this step so i did it after i had put the jam in the cookies.)
7. spoon 1/2 teaspoon of your chosen jam into each cookie.
8. bake for 13-15 minutes.
for me, this yeilded 20 LARGE cookies and b.c they were so big, i cooked them for about 20 minutes or so. (they smell, divine! the whole house smells of buttery goodness.)
let's hope he likes them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)