Pumpkin Garlic Knots

Since there really isn't much of an Autumn here in the islands, a few friends and I went through a pumpkin phase to make things taste a little more Fall-ish.  We pulled this one up from tastespotting.com and it proved to be DELICIOUS and super easy.

Pumpkin Garlic Knots

Yield: 2 batches

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 envelope active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar (or honey)
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 3-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt & freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1. For the dough: Pour the warm water into a medium bowl and whisk in the yeast. Let sit until frothy, about 10 minutes. Whisk in the agave nectar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and pumpkin puree.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients then pour in your wet ingredients.
3. Using a rubber spatula, pull all the ingredients together. When you can no longer mix, use your hands to start kneading the dough. Knead the dough until it comes together in a smooth and elastic ball, adding flour as necessary to prevent sticking.

4. Lightly oil another large bowl and put your dough ball inside it -- flipping over once to coat both sides lightly with oil. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise for about 2 hours; or until nearly doubled in size
5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F, put in a pizza stone (you may use a pan, too, but it works best with a stone), and divide the dough into two equal pieces. If you're planning to use the other half the next day, just put it in a large zip-lock bag and store in the fridge. You may also freeze the dough for up to three weeks.

6. To create the garlic knots: tear off sections of dough (2 tablespoons at a time) and roll them into a long snake shape. Tie that snake in a knot. Set aside and continue with the rest of the dough.
7. Once you've made all your knots, put them on your stone (or on your pan) and let bake until golden brown on the tops, about 10-15 minutes depending on size of knots.

8. While the knots are baking, in a bowl mix together the 1/3 cup olive oil with minced garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. When the knots are done, toss in the olive oil mixture to coat. (We just brushed the oil mixture on, and also tried baking them with the oil mixture so it was a little less messy to eat. Both worked out fine)

Juli's "This is what I've had for breakfast every day for the last month" Smoothie

Like smoothies?

Want to stop drinking Starbucks' three pump white mocha chais for breakfast three stinkin' times a week? (That one might just be me...and did you know that it's a $4.51-apiece beverage?)

Trying to tone up and look hot?

Try this.

Place blender on counter, and add the following ingredients:

1/2 medium banana
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen watermelon
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup frozen spinach (must be frozen. Buy a bag of it and throw it in the freezer.)
1/2 cup orange juice

BLEND BLEND BLEND and then add:

1 scoop whey protein powder (vanilla, if you please), if you're into that sort of thing. Don't put protein powder in your smoothie unless you intend to exert yourself at some point during the day, or if you are upping protein for some other unknown reason.

BLEND BLEND BLEND!!

WICKED GOOD. Makes about 25 ounces o' beverage, which can be split up, I suppose, though I do not. The whole thing (including protein powder) is roughly 400 calories. Take out the powder and it's closer to 270.

You can substitute frozen blueberries or frozen peaches for the watermelon, but I find that the watermelon freezes kinda like ice cubes since it's so...watery...and so forth, and that helps the whole thing stay cold.

I promise you will neither smell nor taste the spinach, it will only turn your beverage a little greenish brown.

And that is all!

Here are two different vinaigrettes that I have tried and absolutely love. I've made the Balsamic-mustard vinaigrette for D&J, M&B, as well as B&D (Boyd and Janie) and it seemed to be a hit with all of them, so I will go ahead and recommend that you all try it. I'm also including one that I more recently tried and really enjoyed that's a lemon vinaigrette. I'll also include some salad fixings that went really well with these particular dressings.

Balsamic-Mustard Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons very finely minced shallot
1/2 teaspoon regular or light mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
1/8 teaspoon table salt
Ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. Combine vinegar, shallot, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper to taste in small nonreactive bowl. Whisk until misture is milky in appearance and no lumps of mayonnaise remain.
2. Place oil in small measuring cup so that it is easy to pour. Whisking constantly, very slowly drizzle oil into vinegar mixture. Vinaigrette should be glossy and lightly thickened, with no pools of oil on its surface.

Lemon Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon regular or light mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon table salt
Ground black pepper
Pinch of sugar
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Follow directions for Balsamic-Mustard vinaigrette adding the sugar and lemon zest with the salt and pepper.


*For the Balsamic-Mustard Vinaigrette I used more assertive greens (I generally prefer spinach and the like) with Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, kalamata olives, and toasted pine nuts. I have also added penne to the mix to make a delicious pasta salad.
For the Lemon Vinaigrette its recommended to use milder greens, and I added white mushrooms, craisins, red onions, and toasted slivered almonds.

Chewy Congo Bars

For Father's Day I was to provide a dessert. After eating some congo bars at Annie's I was cravin some congos, but I haven't been able to find my moomy munker's recipe book for ages. I went ahead and checked out allrecipes for something that sounded good and this one came up. It's always a scary thing to try a recipe for the first time. I didn't know how they would turn out, but I must say...these were delicious. If you prefer a cakey congo bar over a chewy one I would stick to the classic moom recipe. If not try this.

Ingredients

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter
2-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (you can use dark or semisweet if you prefer)
1 cup chopped pecans (or nut of your choice)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt butter, stir in Brown sugar. Let cool.
3. Beat in all 3 eggs
4. Add dry ingredients
5. Add chocolate chips, nuts, and vanilla
6. Pour into 10"x15" pan and bake for 30 min.

These were very good. The original recipe called for 2 cups of chocolate chips. If you are a little intense in your love for chocolate you can try it out, but we all agreed that 1-1/2 cups was more than plenty.

Creamy Tomato Pasta

Alright, I thought I'd better finally get on here and add something. I found this recipe in one of my Cook's Illustrated Annuals, so I initially attempted it for D & J and it turned out well, but there were a few things that I thought might be nice to adjust to my personal taste. So, I tried it again for Brett and Meesh and I must say, those few minor tweaks made this great recipe into a spectacular one. This one can be easily made at least vegetarian by leaving out the prosciutto.

This sauce is best served with short pasta, such as ziti, penne, or fusilli.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ounce proscuitto, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
1 small onion, diced fine (about 3/4 cup)
1 bay leaf
Pinch red pepper flakes
Table salt
3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons tomato paste (I added an extra tablespoon to make the sauce a little more tomato-y)
2 ounces oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, rinsed, patted dry, and chopped course (about 3 tablespoons- I made these pretty generous tablespoons since I'm a huge fan of sun-dried tomatoes)
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons crushed tomatoes
1 pound pasta (I ended up using only about 3/4 of the box of pasta since I like it pretty saucy)
1/4 cup heavy cream
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Grated Parmesan cheese

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add prosciutto, onion, bay leaf, pepper flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is very soft and beginning to turn light gold, 8 to 12 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high, add garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and sun-dried tomatoes and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly darkened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup wine and cook, stirring frequently, until liquid has evaporated, 1 to 2 miutes.
2. Add 2 cups crushed tomatoes and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, partially cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened (spoon should leave trail when dragged through sauce), 25 to 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil. Add pasta and 1 tablesoon salt and cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water; drain pasta and transfer back to cooking pot.
   
4. Remove bay leaf from sauce and discard. Stir cream, and remaining 2 tablespoons crushed tomatoes; season to taste with salt and pepper. Add sauce to cooked pasta, adjusting consistency with up to 1/2 cup pasta cooking water. Stir in basil and serve immediately, passing Parmesan separately.
   

Mystery Biscuits

These biscuits are super easy and are always fluffy and really delicious. We use them as a side for almost any meal or as the substrate for tempeh sausage and gravy. If you make this recipe with vegenaise and soy or almond milk, then you can make them vegan in case you have any vegan friends or family members.

2 C. sifted flour

1 T. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/4 C. vegenaise (or mayonnaise)

1 C. soy milk (or almond milk or just regular milk)

1 t. sugar

Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add remaining ingredients.

Mix till smooth and drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet or fill 12 muffin tins two-thirds full.

Bake 18-20 minutes at 375°F.

Tempeh Sausage Crumbles

This tempeh sausage recipe has been a hit every time we've made it. It is unlikely to fool any omnivores, but if you have a vegetarian loved one (oh wait, you have several) they will certainly enjoy it, and I imagine you will too. Or just give it a try for something a little different. Consider serving it with biscuits and this gravy. This comes from the Vegan With A Vengence cookbook.

1 (8 oz) package tempeh*
1 tbsp. fennel seed
1 tbsp. dried basil
1 tsp. marjoram or oregano
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. dried sage
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. tamari or soy sauce
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

In a small pan, crumble the tempeh and add enough water to almost cover it. Over medium-high heat, simmer the tempeh until most of the water is absorbed, about 12-15 min. Drain the remaining water and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 10 min.

*some normal grocery stores carry tempeh, but a natural food store might be better (and often cheaper).

Best Tasting Gravy on the Earth

This is without a doubt the best gravy I've ever tasted. I made it for dinner last night with biscuits and tempeh sausage, a dish we haven't had in a while, and it blew my mind all over again. 

Spice Mix

2 1/2 c. nutritional yeast*

1/3 c. dried parsley

1 1/2 tbsp. salt

1 1/2 tbsp. dill weed2 1/2 tbsp celery seed

2 1/2 tbsp onion powder

2 tsp. each basil, oregano, thyme

1 tsp. rosemary

In a small, dry, seal-able bowl mix all ingredients well

Roux 

1/3 c. soybean oil (i've also used olive oil and vegetable oil with no noticeably difference)

1/3 c. unbleached flour

Heat the oil in a small saucepan. When hot, gently whisk in the flour, stirring constantly, until the mixture develops a nutty aroma and starts to lightly turn brown (Be careful; it burns easily). Set aside.

Base

4 c. water or vegetable broth

1/3 c. tamari, soy sauce or Braggs amino acids

1/4 c. spice mix (above)

In medium pot, bring all the base ingredients to a high simmer. Gradually whisk in the roux and cook to desired thickness. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.

The spice mix makes quite a bit and should provide enough mix to make gravy about 8 times. That said, since the mix is made of all dry ingredients it stores well and the gravy itself is good enough that you will undoubtedly want to eat in on everything. I will include the recipe for tempeh sausage as well as the biscuits we like on separate posts. 

*be forewarned that nutritional yeast can be a pain to find depending on where you go. I had to ask an employee and they had to ask someone else. Health food stores may be the easiest bet.

Oatmeal Pancakes

I risk flooding the blog with round foods. I think just about every recipe I've posted featured roundness...cheesecake, cupcakes, and now pancakes. I'm apparently going overboard on different kinds of cakes as well. These are good round cakes though, so I will post them proudly.

I don't have photos of the oatmeal pancakes. They're not really very photogenic. if you can't adequately visualize pancakes, go to the Smitten Kitchen blog. Our mutual friend Deb has pictures.

My brother Joel has been known to say that eating pancakes or cereal for breakfast is like riding in the back of a pickup with a funnel in your mouth. He's not impressed with their ability to sustain life all the way to lunch. My views on the subject are not, perhaps, quite so extreme...but they're along those lines.

These pancakes, however, are pretty substantial. Add a couple of sausage patties, a couple of eggs, plenty of butter, syrup, maybe some fruit and a refreshing beverage and you're well on your way to having a moderately sustaining breakfast.

Seriously though, these are very tasty pancakes. They have a nice oat-y flavor and more heft than the average pancake. They also hold up better in the fridge than regular pancakes, so you can make a big batch on Monday and enjoy pancakes two or three times during the week. This recipe uses cooked oatmeal, so you can get double-double frugality points by using leftover oatmeal...which does not keep well in the fridge and cannot be eaten for days after you make it. This might be the only reasonable way to use leftover oatmeal, unless you're planning on hanging wallpaper.

I have to give Deb at the Smitten Kitchen blog credit for the recipe...and as you can see, she has to credit a cookbook for the original idea. The authors of the Good to the Grain cookbook probably got it from somebody else. Sharing is good.

Oatmeal Pancakes
Adapted and just tweaked a little from Good to the Grain

Makes about 18 pancakes

3/4 cup oat flour (you can make this by pulsing rolled oats into a food processor or spice grinder until finely ground; 1 cup of oats yielded 3/4 cup oat flour for me)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon Kosher or coarse salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (plus extra for the pan)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup cooked oatmeal*
1 tablespoon unsulphured (not blackstrap) molasses or 1 tablespoon honey
2 large eggs

Whisk the dry ingredients (oat flour, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the butter, milk, cooked oatmeal, honey and eggs together until thoroughly combined. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a light hand is important for tender pancakes; the batter should be slightly thick with a holey surface.

Heat a 10-inch cast-iron pan or griddle over medium heat until water sizzles when splashed onto the pan. Lower to medium-low. (This is my tip; I find pancakes impossible to cook well over higher heats. I’ve got more pancake tips over here.) Rub the pan generously with butter; Boyce says this is the key to crisp, buttery edges. Working quickly, dollop 1/4-cup mounds of batter onto the pan, 2 or 3 at a time. Once bubbles have begun to form on the top side of the pancake, flip the pancake and cook until the bottom is dark golden-brown, about 5 minutes total. Wipe the pan with a cloth before griddling the next pancake. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Serve the pancakes hot, straight from the skillet or keep them warm in a low oven. We also found these to reheat surprisingly well the next morning, again in a low oven.

Do ahead: Although the batter is best if using immediately, it can sit for up to 1 hour on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. When you return to the batter, it will be very thick and should be thinned, one tablespoon at a time, with milk. Take care not to overmix.

* Make oatmeal, if you don’t have any leftover: Bring 2 cups of water, 1 cup of rolled oats and a pinch of salt to a boil and simmer on low for 5 minutes. Let cool. You’ll have some extra oatmeal, which you can eat while you’re cooking.

Faux-stess Cupcakes

Cream Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Here's the recipe for the Faux-stess cupcakes that many of you enjoyed at the recent Juli/Elise birthday celebration. For those of you who weren't able to join us, you can now enjoy them at home. For those of you who liked them at the party, you can now have seconds.

I said that the Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake was easy, but had a lot of steps. Maybe that's an oxymoron. I will reiterate the oxymoron here. Regular cupcakes are easier to make than these...and they can be pretty tasty. Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake are easier too...unless you count the labor required to earn the money to buy a $5.00 cupcake. Buying a package of Hostess is a lot easier...unless you count the effort necessary to drive to an unfamiliar neighborhood to buy them...so that nobody who loves or respects you will see you debasing yourself like that. But of course, God is always watching...and God will smite you.

Hostess cupcakes taste like sweet brown chemicals. The filling tastes sweet and white and coats your mouth...think of a little Louisiana Gulf coast right there in your mouth. These cupcakes taste irrefutably like chocolate. The creamy filling tastes creamy. If you left it out on a store shelf, it wouldn't last an hour. It would melt down into inedible goop. That's because it's real, actual food. Real, actual food does that. Mysterious white chemicals with polysyllabic names remain perky and foodlike nearly forever. These cupcakes have no frosting. These are slathered with ganache...chocolate melted with butter. You cannot peal it off like a disk of brown Play-Doh and eat it separately. Ganache melts at just below body temperature, so it can be licked off, if nobody's watching...and you're that kind of person.

Maybe "easy, but with a lot of steps" is an oxymoron. Fair enough. There is a continuum between "easy peasey lemon squeezy" and "too fussy to bother with". There is also a continuum between "inedible really but kind of food-like" and "very tasty". Others may use lurid descriptions, eye rolling and groaning..."the best thing I ever ate" and other hyperbole. Those kinds of intemperate descriptions are unscientific. We're scientific around here. (Editors note: Jacqueline defines the tastiness scale. The "very tasty" can be accompanied by a demure stamp of the foot...feet in third position. "Over the top" can also be appended to "very tasty". But since "over the top" can be used to describe things that are not food, "over the top" cannot be used to define
the scale...like the foot stamp, it is only a modifier.) These cupcakes lie at the intersection of the two curves...where the difficulty line meets the tastiness line...at the "for special occasions" point on the difficulty curve...admittedly closer to "too fussy to bother with" than "easy peasy lemon squeezy"...but smack dab on top of "very tasty" on the tastiness curve. Around here, we call that point of intersection "worth it".

Faux-stess Cupcakes (AKA Chocolate Cream Cupcakes from Cooks Country)

CUPCAKES

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FILLING

3 tablespoons water

3/4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

1 1/4 cups marshmallow creme (not marshmallow sauce)

GLAZE

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

METHOD

1. MAKE BATTER Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Whisk boiling water, cocoa and chocolate chips in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined. whisk in flour mixture until incorporated. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool cupcakes in tin 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

2. PREPARE FILLING Combine water and gelatine in large bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds (microwaves are so unpredictable and fussy, you need to watch this like a hawk). Stir in butter, vanilla and salt until combined. Let mixture cool until just warm to touch, about 5 minutes, then whisk in marshmallow cream until smooth; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Transfer 1/3 cup mashamallow mixture to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip (see note below); reserve remaining mixture for filling cupcakes.

3. ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES Microwave chocolate and butter in small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 30 seconds. Cool glaze to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Cut cone from top of each cupcake (see note below) and fill cupcakes with 1 tablespoon filling each. Replace tops, frost with 2 tablespoons cooled glaze, and let sit 10 minutes. Using pastry bag, pipe curlicues across glazed cupcakes. Serve. (Cupcakes can be stored up to two days in an airtight container at room temperature).

Note on pastry bag: A pastry bag is not necessary. Use a sturdy ZipLock plastic bag. Spoon the filling down into a bottom corner of the bag. Snip a tiny bit off of the corner and presto...cheap, instant pastry bag. That's what we did and it worked fine.

Note on cutting cone from top of each cupcake: Use a small, thin bladed knife, like a paring knife. Cut about 1/4 inch from the edge of the cupcake with the knife slanting inward toward the center at about a 45 degree angle. Cut about 2 inches deep in a circle. It's easier than it sounds...and if you Gerber one up, spoon its measure of filling into it immediately and eat it! Once you've extracted the cone of cake from the cupcake, cut off all but about 1/4 inch at the top, to make a little lid. The leftover cones of cake are pretty tasty too. You need your strength to get through a recipe like this. Eat those little cones of cake as you work. The party is still probably hours away.

One last thing: Even if you don't want to go to all the trouble of filling and curlicues, at least make the chocolate cupcakes...frost them with cream cheese frosting or put a little vanilla glaze on them...you can even eat them plain...but honest, they are the best chocolate cupcakes you might ever eat. Would we lie?

Shakshuka...or...Eggs in a Hellbasket

Eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce

I think that many people fear poached eggs. Many more fear egg poaching. I suspect that those who fear poached eggs are put off because they have been served gelatinous blobs of watery egg white with yolks in the middle...the nice runny yolk being the only truly edible part. I can feel your pain. I'm not a fan of eggs that make me want to reach for a straw.

On the other hand, a well-poached egg is a fine thing. I think that poached eggs are the eggiest kind. There is a purity and simplicity to a nicely poached egg that cannot be approached by other methods. Even soft boiled is less pure. It requires all that cracking and digging out of the shell. Poaching is purity.

Shakshuka is a good way to gain confidence and to confront your egg poaching...and poached egg eating...demons. It's an Israeli dish of eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. However, the Israelis do not have a monopoly on the eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce market. I know about something called "Eggs in Hell"...or Eggs in a Hellbasket, if you're reluctant to use the word hell...a Tex-Mex dish that's a lot like shakshuka. In fact, the only difference is in the spices, and that difference is not huge.

When poaching eggs in something fairly thick, like tomato sauce, the whites of the eggs don't drift off in strings, wisps and veils through the poaching liquid. The egg is contained reasonably well by the viscosity of the sauce. Also, since you'll be eating the eggs under cover of the sauce, less harm is done if you poke at the whites to see if they're cooked to the suitably non-mucoid stage.

Even if you fear poached eggs, it's worth making Shakshuka or Eggs in Hell. Even if it's only for the fun of announcing what's on the menu for friends and family. Both sound risky, if not downright dangerous. The recipe shown below strikes me as dangerous, actually. It requires a lot of chilis. When we made it the first time, I added a medium pinch of dried chili flakes in place of all of those Anaheims or jalapenos. Even then it was too much for Jacqueline's delicate palate, so the next time we made it without any chili and I added Tabasco at the table. Beware of the chilies and adjust to suit your tastes.

The Eggs in Hell variation would involve substituting some oregano for the paprika, cilanto for parsley, and jack, cotija or queso blanco for the feta. The pitas would be replaced with warmed tortillas. Either way you do the spices, it's very tasty...really, it is.

We got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. As you can see, she got it from Saveur magazine. Thank you Saveur magazine and thank you Deb at Smitten Kitchen.

Shakshuka [Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce]
Adapted from Saveur

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup olive oil
5 Anaheim chilis or 3 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
Kosher salt, to taste
6 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Warm pitas, for serving

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chilis and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping.

Jewish Wedding Traditions Everybody Should Have

A couple of weeks ago Jacqueline brought home Jewish Weddings, by Rita Milos Brownstein. It was mostly out of curiosity…curiosity spurred by Brett and Mesia’s wedding. There were two traditions in there that we really like.

The first is the Ketubah. Here’s what the book says about it.

“This one piece of paper is more important than a knockout diamond, a beautiful wedding album, piles of gifts, or a heavenly island honeymoon. This is a gift from the husband to his wife, outlining his obligations to the woman who will share his life. It is a written document assuring respect, dignity, happiness, shelter, and legal and financial rights within the union.”

These are beautiful documents, prepared by calligraphers, and beautifully decorated. There is a general pattern for the contents of the ketubah, but each is unique.

The other custom we like is the yichud. Here’s what the book says about the yichud.

“A wonderful custom, the yichud, ensures that the couple’s first moments as husband and wife are spent together privately. Friends escort the couple to a private room where a table is set with a snack and a bottle of champagne or wine. I those precious moments the couple gets to share their thoughts and feelings, and most of all, their happiness.”

We kind of drew from this custom when we prepared the little luncheon for Brett and Mesia. We knew they’d be hungry, so we made it a meal rather than a snack. We also knew that they wouldn’t be interested in champagne or wine, so we left that part out.

Here’s what we prepared for them...

Salad of Caramelized Golden Filet Beans, Carrots, and Duck Breast Prosciutto

On a Bed of Organic Baby Greens

Poached Line-Caught Steelhead Trout
with
Sour Cream and Dill Sauce



Home Baked Butter Croissants
with
Butter and Crabapple-Rosemary Jelly

S. Pelegrino Sparkling Water

Orange Madeleines

See’s Dark Chocolate Truffles

The duck breast prosciutto could have been regular prosciutto di Parma, other quality ham or even pancetta. We liked the duck breast because it’s salty and smoky and has a rich sort of gamey flavor underlying it all. It's also kind of unique. If you want to try it you'll have to contact me. I made it my own self.

Salmon would make a good substitute for the steelhead trout. The trout seems a little fattier and softer than salmon. Other kinds or trout would work well.

Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake

This is a recipe we made for our most recent dinner group evening. It was a hit. It's adapted from SmittenKitchen, but of course, Deb (of SmittenKitchen) had already adapted it herself from other sources. Now, I've acknowledged Deb, and I'll acknowledge everybody that she acknowledged.

The recipe looks like it's complicated and demanding. It's not really. There are a lot of steps but none are difficult or fidgety. You can bake the brownies the day before and have them ready to cut. I would say that putting together this blog post, with pictures, italics and bold text, was far more fidgety than making the cheesecake...and it turned out looking a lot more amateurish and a lot less appealing.

You need a springform pan for this recipe, which is somewhat specialized, but not especially expensive.

Part One: One Bowl Brownies
Adapted from Baker’s One Bowl Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (Baker’s chocolate, optional of course)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 3/4cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on high for 2 minutes, or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake 30 to 35 minute or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles.

Cool brownies, then cut* them into 3/4- to 1-inch squares for use in the cheesecake. You will have much more than the two cups of cubes, loosely measured, than you will need, and I’m sorry, you’re just going to have to decide for yourself what to do with the extra (I actually halved the brownie recipe and baked it in a nine inch square pan and there were still extra brownies). Add cubes to cake batter as directed below. This brownie recipe bakes up thin and a bit hard, but once it is in the cheesecake it is ultra soft and yummy.

* I find that brownies are fantastically easy to cut once they’ve been refrigerated–you end up with nice clean lines, and in this case, a sharp pizza wheel was especially helpful (I found that a knife was easier to use).

Part Two: Crumb Crust
Adapted from Gourmet, 1999

I like an extra thick crumb crust. I can’t get enough cookie. Below are proportions for one crust. I made 1 ½ recipes of it. It tastes good and multiplying fractions will keep your brain agile. You know you wanna. As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing is…wonderful.”

1 1/2 cups or 5 ounces finely ground cookies such as chocolate wafers. Or Chocolate Teddy Grahams.
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of a buttered 24-centimeter springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.

Part Three: Cheesecake
Adapted from the Three Cities of Spain Coffeehouse

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 cups brownie cubes (from recipe above)

Make crumb crust as directed above for 24-centimeter cheesecake. Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make filling and bake cake: Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy and add eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla and sugar, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated and scraping down bowl between additions.

Fold brownie cubes in very gently and pour mixture into prepared pan. Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan. Pour filling into crust and bake in baking pan (to catch drips) in middle of oven 45 minutes, or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken. When I took it out at this point, mine was a little underdone in the center. Next time I would bake it a little longer, maybe until barely wobbly. Cool to room temperature. When completely cool, top with following glaze.

Part Four: Ganache Glaze
Adapted from Purdy’s original recipe

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken up, or 1/2 cup chocolate morsels
2 ounces butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar



Grind the chocolate into powder in the food processor (I skipped this step because I used chocolate morsels. Even if you use fancy-schmancy chocolate, I think you could chop it up with a knife and get good results. The food processor seems like overkill to me), scald the butter and cream in a saucepan (or in a Pyrex cup in the microwave). With the machine running, pour the hot cream/butter mixture slowly through the feed tube onto the chocolate. Blend until completely smooth, stopping machine to scrape down sides once or twice. Add the extract and sugar and process until smooth. Spread over cheesecake while ganache is still warm. Chill until ready to serve. Cut the cheesecake while it's still very cool. Wipe the blade of the knife between cuts (I suggest that you wipe the blade of the knife with your finger, then lick your finger.), then dip it in a little warm water and clean it with paper towels. That will give you nice, clean cuts.

I did not make my ganache in a food processor at all, but just carefully melted the chocolate and butter in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave, added the cream and powdered sugar and vanilla and whisked until smooth. It was very easy to do it that way and I strongly suggest it.

By the way, this is a very rich desert. It will serve twelve people and make them very happy.

Just checkin'

Well I've never blogged anything in my life (that was worth a crap) so here I go! Let's see if it works. :) The website I use the most for food-making is allrecipes.com. One of the recipes I utilize a lot is Black beans and Rice, which is delish, and everyone reading this blog can eat it, woot! I usually dice up a few jalapenos and cook them with the rice. The second time I made it, I put too many in there and had to drown it in sour cream to eat it. In the reviews on the site, many people added other things (can of tomatoes, more cumin, garlic powder, whatev). The recipe says it serves 10. Guess it depends how hungry you are.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium, low fat vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 1/2 cups canned black beans, drained

Directions

1. In a stockpot over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 4 minutes. Add the rice and saute for 2 minutes.
2. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes. Add the spices and black beans.

elise, you go girl! woo, woo, woo!

elise, i just called on your phone and left a message, but i thought id go ahead and test out this blogger stuff.

when i suggested the google docs thing, i had never actually used it. i heard it was great for collaboration, and assumed you could make comments and add markups. after using docs, i feel like the living document idea is cool, in that many people can edit something and it keeps a change-log, but there is no real way to organize the various entries.

ultimately when i suggested we do a living cookbook like this, i wanted to see three things:
1) easy interface for inputting text and adding pictures so people would actually add recipes
2) concise way to make comments/suggestions as others try the recipe and add their personal touch (or even if the contributor mixes things up one night and likes the results)
3) easy organization

in just the 10 minutes i took to compare the two, blogger kicks google docs' rump on all accounts. the interface for google docs is great if youre working on a group paper, but not for having a recipe and letting people make comments. commentors would have to change font/color, in order to distinguish from the original recipe. every time you make a recipe, you need to send an email to everyone telling them that they all have access to your doc (which would rough up inboxes everywhere). and the list goes on but im already tired of hearing myself talk, so ill spare the other reasons why i didnt like it, and just focus on the positives of blogger, and ways we can make it work for us.

the third bullet is, in my opinion, the most crucial aspect of my three "wants" i outlined above. i have seen other nerdy tech blogs and noticed they used the tag/label feature. the bottom of this text input window has a text field called "Labels for this post" where you can add tags. the way i think we should do it (just my opinion, and not the final say, just chime in on the comments if you think it should be done differently) is by adding a set of semi-standard tags. lets use some brownies that annie made recently as an example (recipe to follow). they are chocolate with peanut butter frosting (de-LISH). in this case, the tags would be: dessert, brownies, easy (and if we have any other chocoholics out there, we can tag chocolate too). hopefully this tagging system works. itd be the ultimate cookbook because then you dont have to try to remember which category your recipe falls under in the index - it should just be a keyword away. the standard for tagging could be: meal type (breakfast, lunch dinner, dessert, snack), dish type (soup, salad, pasta, italian, vegetarian...), major ingredients/components (chicken, egg noodles, basil) and difficulty level (easy, medium, hard, or wait till tawn and jacqueline make it). that way we could all search each others' recipes fairly easily. ideally there would be a way to activate a column on the right that has all the tags/labels for easy reference (as ive seen before), but that might be something you, elise, have to activate, being the site creator (i dont know how blogger works). the default timeline is interesting, but i think the tagging will be the bread and butter of organization in this living recipe book.

also, i just want to say thank you elise for doing this. you beat my lazy rear-end to the punch. it looks great, and your nastily titled recipe sounds tasty. i dont think we need to "pretty it up" too much. as a matter of fact, i think a little k-i-s-s (keep it simple stupid) is nice in this crazy world of ours. one thing i will suggest, however, is that we work a "tahini bit" on a new title. no offense, but i want something like moomy (without being moomy) where everyone who knows what the blog title means is "in" and outsiders are left wondering if we are speaking some sort of tolkien language. also, it would be great if it were as absurd/provocative/punny as possible so it could be a convo starter and we would sound cool while we bragged about our familys recipe blog. once again elise, ya done good (food).

just my $0.02.

ps: just in case someone from a major publisher stumbles upon our blog, we might want to put where we got the recipe should we get it from a book or website.

FOOD BLOG

hey everyone, just wanted to try out the recipe blog idea. i'm not great at making blogs look cool or anything, so if we end up doing this, someone else can be in charge of that. also, i can invite you all via email to be members/contributors that way anyone can post anytime.

so here's a really basic recipe just because i have nothing else to do right now. steve and i found a recipe website that we like pretty well called simplyrecipes.com. last spring i made some banana bread using their recipe and really liked how it turned out, so i'll share (even though i know most of us probably already have a recipe for banana bread). i made it when steve had swine flu, so we'll call it:

SWINE FLU BANANA BREAD

INGREDIENTS

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

METHOD
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

*the bananas i used were actually pretty over ripe and had been in my freezer for a while, but it still turned out great. every time i have bananas that are going to go bad now, i stick them in the freezer and then make this recipe whenever i have time. works every time.