Yoshimi Vs. Motherhood

Baked Sunday Mornings: Honey Corn Muffins

2011-09-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back with another Baked Sunday Mornings post today! This time around, we made Honey Corn Muffins, an easy, delicious muffin if ever there was one. Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or as an accompaniment with dinner, these little cuties taste like cornbread with a glossy sheen from the honey. They're good at room temperature, but they're phenomenal when they're warm.

I have really grown to love cornbread lately, but making these muffins made me realize something; I think I like my cornbread savory, rather than sweet. These were scrumptious, don't get me wrong. But I had to think of them like a sweet muffin in order to fully embrace them. When I thought of them as a corn muffin, I found myself wishing I had cut down the sweetness in the recipe. If I make these again, I think I will still add the honey, but omit the brown sugar. I just don't think they need both.

I'm really glad I made these; otherwise, if it weren't for the blogging group, I may have overlooked them completely. And that would have been a shame! To see if the other members of the group liked these, head on over to the blogroll, here.

MSC: Peanut Butter (No Jelly!) Cupcakes

2011-09-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy to be back blogging along with the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club again this month! I skipped out last month but now I'm back and ready to talk about some Peanut Butter Cupcakes! The original recipe was for Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes, but I just decided to leave out the jelly. I dunno, maybe it's un-American of me or something, but I just don't eat the peanut butter/jelly combo. I know, what a weirdo! If you give me anything peanut butter/chocolate, I'm yours, but for some reason I just don't really love jelly all that much.

I halved this recipe and made 10 cupcakes. I came across some reduced-fat natural peanut butter, so I used that in place of standard natural peanut butter in the batter. I don't know if my reduced-fat pb was the culprit for this, but my cupcakes turned out super dense. Like, must grab a big glass of milk to wash this cake down with dense! Also, I left out the chopped peanuts. It was good, peanut buttery cake, it just felt thick in your mouth.

For the frosting, I wanted to reduce some of the fat there, too. Sooo, I used fat-free cream cheese. Again, not the most perfect frosting in the world. It was a bit grainy in texture, and not very sweet. That was okay with me, but I don't think I would have served it to company or anything. I think putting the dollop of jelly on top could have masked the frosting's texture a bit, but obviously I will never know.

My verdict on these? They are good, especially if you're a die-hard peanut butter fan (which I am). But they do need a little something else. They need a contrasting flavor/texture to balance out all that pb. I ate these with a little splotch of chocolate sauce on the top, and that really did help out. Some ice cream alongside would probably improve these, too.

Thanks to Karen of Karen's Cookies, Cakes, and More for the selection! Check out the MSC blogroll to see how the others fared with these cupcakes!

Baked Sunday Mornings: Caramel Apple Cake

2011-09-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of making the Baked Explorations book's Caramel Apple Cake last weekend for my Baked Sunday Mornings group. Boy, what an undertaking! This was not your simple, thrown-together kinda cake. This was much more of a clear-your-calendar, spend the whole day covered in flour and frosting cake. But let me tell you, it was worth every second spent on it! It was nothing short of magnificent.

I broke the recipe up into steps; it made the whole thing so much easier and more manageable. I made the homemade applesauce, which goes into the cake batter, about two days before I was going to bake the cake. I made the homemade caramel, which is incorporated into the frosting as well as drizzled on top of the finished cake, about three or four days prior to baking day. I have to say, my confidence was totally boosted by making both the applesauce and the caramel; I had great success with both! I tend to mess up when making caramel, but this particular batch turned out pretty perfect. The applesauce was my first ever attempt at making it from scratch. It was completely easy to do and came together beautifully.

For the cake itself, I decided to cut the whole recipe in half. I was serving this for my brother-in-law's birthday, and there were going to be 7 of us eating the cake. Since this is a very decadent cake and I didn't really want there to be tons of leftovers lingering for days later, I thought a two-layer cake instead of a three-layer cake would be best. The cake was easy to whip up; I used two 9-inch round pans for it. The baking time was a bit less than the book indicated, but I am pretty sure it's because I switched things up.

The frosting, which is a cooked flour frosting, turned out way better than I expected it to. I've made this type of frosting before, and both times I have hit a bump in the road. Not this time. This batch came out great; satiny, luxurious, with a perfect hint of caramel flavor. Addictive stuff! I reduced the amount of frosting I made to just a third of the original amount, and it wasn't actually enough to frost the top and sides and fill the middle layer. So, I improvised. I had some leftover butterscotch frosting from my son's birthday cake, so I used that to fill the middle of the cake. It worked beautifully! The butterscotch complemented the spice cake so well, and the pale orange color coordinated nicely as well.

The cake was a huge hit, needless to say. Everyone really loved it. It was impressive to look at (even though my cake decorating skills need some work) and tasted unbelievably delicious. The cake was so moist from all that applesauce, and the spices were gentle but present. Everything comes together wonderfully in this cake; I don't know what else I can say about it!

But maybe there are some other people who have different things to say about it. Go check out the Baked Sunday Mornings blogroll to see the group's thoughts on this cake.

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo (Lightened Up)

2011-09-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

After a week off from blogging, I'm back! I can't promise that I will be posting quite as frequently as I used to, but I'm definitely not going to fall off the face of the Earth, either. There's been a lot of cooking going on around here, but for some reason when it comes time to post about the latest dishes I've made, I find myself highly unmotivated. I've decided that I should only blog when I really want to, rather than holding myself to a stricter schedule that sometimes becomes more of a hassle than a joy. I started blogging because I knew I would enjoy it, and I would like to continue to enjoy it. As soon as it becomes just another chore, I think it's a bit pointless to force myself to do it, you know?

But I came here today to talk about Fettuccine Alfredo, so that's what I'm going to do! I am pretty enamored with Fettuccine Alfredo, but I try to eat healthy more often than not, so that pretty much takes one of my favorite pasta dishes off the menu. I have tried countless times to recreate this creamy, decadent meal in my home kitchen, except I always try to lighten it up as much as possible. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Most often, the texture is just not right. Sometimes it turns out way too dry, and not nearly creamy enough. Sometimes the texture is right, but it doesn't seem as cheesy as I would like. A good homemade, healthier Fettuccine Alfredo is nearly impossible to achieve.

Thanks to Cooking Light, I think I have come pretty close. First of all, the addition of shrimp is genius. It bulks up the meal with lean protein so you can have a smaller portion and still be satisfied. Using a really good-quality Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is key here, too. You want that flavor to shine, so it had better be good. I used half and half, which is not as luxurious as heavy cream. Just a little bit doesn't set you back too far in the fat department, but it gives the dish that creaminess that's so essential. Finally, the secret weapon here is reduced-fat cream cheese. This, combined with a bit of reserved pasta cooking liquid, allows you to reach the desired consistency. There is one slight catch: you need to serve and eat this dish right away. If it sits too long, it can get a bit gluey and lose the creamy texture. If this does happen, just refresh it with a bit more hot water. This meal was the best kind for me; it fit within my nutritional requirements, but it totally tasted like cheat food!

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 8 servings

Ingredients
3/4 lb. (12 ounces) fettuccine
1 lb. peeled and deveined medium shrimp
2 green onions, chopped (I subbed in a shallot)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. olive oil
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup half-and-half
6 Tbsp. (1 1/2 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Directions
1. Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/4-1/2 cup cooking liquid. Combine shrimp, onions, and garlic in a small bowl.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil; swirl to coat. Add shrimp mixture, and saute for 4 minutes or until shrimp are done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add reserved cooking liquid, Parmigiano-Reggiano, half-and-half, cream cheese, and pepper to pan. Cook 2 minutes or until cheeses melt.

4. Combine pasta, cheese mixture, and shrimp mixture. Toss well to combine. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Biscoff Fudge

2011-08-31T04:30:00.000-07:00

There's a new love in my life, and it's called Biscoff Spread. I stumbled upon it in a nearby gourmet grocery store, and I grabbed it, regardless of the fact that I had promised myself I wouldn't impulse buy that day. Oh well; I had to have this stuff! What is it, you ask?

The best way I can think of to describe it is peanut butter meets a cookie, then they have a baby. This Biscoff Spread tastes just like Biscoff cookies and looks exactly like peanut butter, with pretty much the same consistency and texture. One taste (okay, I didn't stop at just one taste!) and I knew I'd be doing great things with this stuff. But where to begin?

Making fudge seemed like a great start to me. I found a very simple peanut butter fudge recipe, then adapted it slightly to substitute Biscoff Spread for the peanut butter. It worked absolutely beautifully, and this stuff turned out nothing short of addictive. It's evil and it must be stopped!

The recipe is extremely easy; there's only three ingredients, and it can pretty much be whipped up, start to finish, in about 15 minutes. The longest part is waiting until the fudge is cool to cut it into squares. Or you could just eat it straight from the pan. I wouldn't blame you.

Biscoff Fudge
adapted from Sugarbaby
makes about 30 squares

Ingredients
1 2/3 cup granulated sugar
5 ounces (10 Tbsp.) evaporated milk
5 Tbsp. Biscoff Spread (or smooth peanut butter)

Directions
1. Grease or line with foil an 8x8-inch square dish and set aside. Combine the sugar and milk in a large saucepan and place on low heat. Stir until the sugar melts, then turn the heat to high.

2. Stirring constantly, allow the mixture to come to a full boil. Reduce the heat to medium-high, still stirring, and cook until the mixture reaches 235 degrees on a candy thermometer (this takes about 5 minutes if you do not have a candy thermometer). Remove from the heat and add the Biscoff Spread to the saucepan in dollops. Leave the mixture alone (no more stirring) for 5 minutes.

3. Stir the Biscoff Spread vigorously into the milk mixture, working quickly to incorporate the ingredients before the fudge becomes too hard. Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared dish and spread to the edges.

4. Allow the fudge to cool completely (this can be done on the counter or in the fridge/freezer). Cut the fudge into squares and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Meatless Mondays: Cornmeal-Crusted Roasted Ratatouille Tart

2011-08-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

This must be my 1008th post this summer about zucchini and summer squash, but I like to think that this one is the most dazzling of them all! Ellie Krieger's first cookbook features this vegetarian Ratatouille Tart with a cornmeal crust, and it seemed like the stars had finally aligned for me to whip it up. I had everything I needed (minus the eggplant), and I had the time to put it together.

Although the tart is easy to make, it does require a bit of time because there are a few steps. I roasted all my veggies the day before and stored them in the refrigerator until I was ready for them. I baked up the cornmeal crust early in the afternoon of the day we ate this for dinner. I let it hang out and cool on the counter after par-baking it, then I let it hang out in the fridge too.

When assembly time rolled around, it went quickly and smoothly because I had everything ready to go. The veggies went into the crust, along with a good sprinkling of cheese, and then I baked it up. It filled the house with the most amazing smells, and it turned out looking completely gorgeous!

It ended up tasting delicious, except for the crust. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but the crust turned out wet and soggy and mushy. I know that the veggies were giving off a lot of liquid; I squeezed them out over the sink before assembling the tart so they would release the excess. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. You could still eat the tart, and of course the veggie part of the thing was pretty much to die for. But maybe next time I should just roast the veggies immediately before assembling the tart? I don't know exactly, but it is definitely worth a second try because I know this tart has wonderful potential!

Cornmeal-Crusted Roasted Ratatouille Tart
adapted from FoodNetwork.com
makes 8 servings

Ingredients
For the crust:
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. canola oil
3 Tbsp. water

For the filling:
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced (1/3 cup)
Cooking spray
1/2 lb. thinly sliced yellow summer squash rounds (I used this in place of eggplant)
1/2 lb. thinly sliced zucchini rounds
1/2 lb. small tomatoes, thinly sliced (Ellie uses 3 medium tomatoes)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 3 ounces)
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Make the crust: 1. Combine the cornmeal, flour, and salt in a food processor and pulse to incorporate. Add the butter and oil and pulse about 20 times, until the mixture resembles small pebbles. Add the water and pulse until the mixture forms a loose dough.

2. Remove the dough from the processor and press into the bottom and about 1/8 inch up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan with a detachable rim. Press aluminum foil into the bottom and up the sides of the pan on top of the dough. Weight it down with uncooked rice or pie weights.

3. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the rice and foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Prepare the filling: 1. Heat 1 tsp. of the oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium heat; cook the shallots, stirring, until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Meanwhile, coat two baking sheets with cooking spray. Arrange the squash, zucchini, and tomatoes on the sheets in a single layer and brush with the remaining 2 Tbsp. oil. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and roast the vegetables until soft but not browned, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Assemble the tart: 1. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Lay the squash slices on the bottom of the tart, overlapping them if necessary; cover with one-third of the mozzarella and some of the shredded basil. Add the zucchini and shallots, top with another third of the mozzarella and the remaining basil, then the tomatoes. Top with the rest of the mozzarella and all of the Parmesan.

2. Bake until the cheese is melted and the vegetables have further wilted, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes, and cut into 8 slices. Serve warm.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Mom's Olive Oil Orange Bundt (Better Late than Never)

2011-08-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

After mixing up my dates for two of Baked Sunday Mornings' selections, I am now finally posting about the Olive Oil Orange Bundt that the rest of the group made nearly a month ago. I am so glad I decided not to just skip it; it was so worth the wait!

It is a pretty straightforward bundt cake recipe. The only major difference between this cake and bundt cakes I have made before is the incorporation of olive oil. It takes the place of butter or any other oil in the cake, so its presence is definitely noticed in the finished product. Fresh orange zest is added to the batter, and it gives the cake such a fresh, bright flavor. Finally, the method of separating the egg whites from the yolks and whipping them before adding them to the batter makes it a bit lighter in texture than other, denser bundt cakes.

I was kinda grateful that others had made this before me, because I could learn something from their tips. The most important lesson I learned from the other bloggers was that I should cut down on the baking time, just slightly. I believe I checked the cake around 37 minutes, and it was just right. The recipe, as written, indicates more like 40-50 minutes. I don't know how much of a difference it made for my cake, but mine was perfect as is.

I hope the other members of Baked Sunday Mornings enjoyed making the Coffee Ice Cream that I made by mistake last month! You can see their results on the main blog, here. To see how everybody liked this Olive Oil Bundt, you can click on the blog post about it over on the main blog, here.

CEIMB: Saffron Chicken, Lemon, and Green Bean Salad

2011-08-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe is Saffron Chicken, Lemon, and Green Bean Salad, chosen by Sarah of Sarah's Kitchen Adventures. I'm so glad I was tasked with making this salad; I've read over the recipe in Ellie's book so many times, but never mustered up enough courage to go for it.

You may ask me why I would need courage for this particular salad; it sounds perfectly normal and innocent by the title, right? But don't be fooled; the lemon in the salad is actual chunks of boiled, cooled, diced lemon rind! As you can see in the photo below, the lemon becomes an essential ingredient in the salad itself, rather than simply being a part of the salad dressing (which it is, too, of course).

Now, I felt slightly silly taking a whole lemon, scrubbing its waxy outer coating, stabbing it with a fork several times, and sticking it in a pot of boiling water for close to an hour. But that's exactly what I did. I mean, if I can't trust Ellie by now, something's wrong. She's barely ever steered me wrong; I wasn't (too) worried.

Well, she was right. Again. This salad is nothing short of spectacular! Along with the crisp, snappy fresh green beans, fresh thyme, saffron-laced chicken, and the tart/sweet dressing, the lemon rind was totally tender, intoxicatingly fragrant, and actually, amazingly, tasty! So even though this may sound like quite an unconventional ingredient preparation, I promise you that it is worth a try. Don't be afraid; the results are fresh, exciting, and very delicious!

Thanks to Sarah for the awesome selection! If you would like to see this crazy-good recipe for yourself, click here. For the CEIMB blogroll, click here.

Hummus and Roasted Vegetable Wrap

2011-08-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've recently discovered my new favorite lunch wrap. It's been hiding out in one of my Ellie Krieger's cookbooks, and I just happened to stumble upon it almost by accident. I was looking for a particular recipe, but my eyes wandered to this Hummus and Roasted Vegetable Wrap before I got there. A few hours later, this lovely meal was perched on my table for lunch.

First of all, can I point out how beautifully colorful and vibrant this wrap is? Look at that red, that green, that yellow! It's so fresh and delicious, not to mention super easy to assemble. All you need to do is grill or roast some fresh zucchini and squash (Ellie just used zucchini, but I had the yellow squash so I did half and half), then allow the veggies to cool a bit. Next, you put together the wrap by spreading hummus on the bottom, then sprinkling spinach leaves, pine nuts (toasted or untoasted, your choice), the zucchini and squash, and some roasted red pepper. Roll and wrap, and there's your lunch! Try it with some cheese or olives, too. The possibilities are vast!

Hummus and Roasted Vegetable Wrap
adapted from The Food You Crave
makes 4 wraps

Ingredients
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
1 medium squash, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
2 tsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup hummus (store-bought or homemade; I used my Roasted Red Pepper Spread)
4 pieces whole-wheat wrap bread or whole-wheat tortillas
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 jarred roasted red peppers, drained, rinsed, and quartered
2 ounces baby spinach leaves (2 cups, lightly packed)
1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced into half-moons (I didn't use any)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the zucchini and squash with the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast the veggies on a nonstick baking sheet for about 15 minutes, until tender. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. Spread 1/4 cup of the hummus over each piece of wrap bread. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. pine nuts on top. Top with 1/4 of the zucchini and squash, 2 pieces of red pepper, 1/2 cup of the spinach, a few sliced onions, and 1 Tbsp. of the mint. Roll each of them up and cut in half on a diagonal.

Meatless Mondays: Quinoa Sliders with Spicy Roasted Corn Salad

2011-08-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

I keep reading and seeing blog posts about quinoa being used as the primary ingredient in burger patties, and I finally decided it was time to stop reading and start doing! I love making vegetarian burgers, and this seemed like a great twist on an old favorite. Plus, it could not be any simpler.

Let me back up a second, though, and tell you about the side dish I made to go along with the Quinoa Sliders: Spicy Roasted Corn Salad. This is a fun way to use up your fresh corn on the cob; it's tangy and spicy, with some great contrasting textures in the form of black beans, scallions, and sweet corn. It can be made in advance and served cold, and it keeps well for days. As you can see above, the ingredients are combined with a delicious chipotle vinaigrette, then tossed well and chilled before eating. I like my food spicy, but of course this recipe could be modified and made with less (or no) chipotle peppers.

The slider recipe I used came from another blog, and the author fried her slider patties on the stovetop. Then, she served the burgers with a quail egg on top. I didn't go quite so fancy; below I included a link to her original recipe. Because I was trying to make these a bit healthier, I chose to bake my patties in the oven and I skipped the egg. Because I baked them, they did turn out just a tad rubbery, which I think is due to the fact that there are several eggs in the slider patties (there to bind the ingredients).

I love these because they are a blank canvas for virtually any flavors you like. If you wanted a Tex Mex burger, you could add some chili powder to the slider base. If you were to go Asian next time, they would taste great with some soy sauce, fresh lime juice, ginger, etc. For this go-round, I did a slightly Middle Eastern thing. I sprinkled plenty of ground sumac (our new favorite spice) into the slider ingredients, which lends foods a slightly sour, acidic flavor. No matter how you dress them up, I suggest you give them a go if you like quinoa, or even if you need an introduction to them. Simple and lovely!

Quinoa Sliders
adapted from food+words
makes 12 sliders

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
2 egg whites (lightly beaten with whole eggs)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 slices whole wheat bread, processed into crumbs
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
1/2 a small onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground sumac (found in international supermarkets and spice shops)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Slider buns (we used pretzel buns, yum!)
Sriracha sauce, for drizzling
Spinach leaves

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the cooked quinoa with the beaten eggs and egg whites, the salt, bread crumbs, jalapeno, onion, garlic, sumac, and black pepper. Using your hands or a large cookie scoop, form slider patties and place on a nonstick baking sheet (or a sheet lined with parchment or silpat). Flatten slightly to form your burgers.

2. Bake the sliders for 20-25 minutes, flipping them halfway through the cooking time. (If desired, you can also fry them in some olive oil on the stovetop, about 2 minutes per side.)

3. Serve the quinoa sliders on slider buns with spinach leaves and a drizzle of sriracha sauce.

Spicy Roasted Corn Salad with Black Beans and Feta
adapted from Fine Cooking
makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients
3 ears fresh corn
1 small red onion, diced
1 (15-oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
2-3 oz. (1/2-3/4 cup) reduced-fat feta cheese, crumbled
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
2 scallions, sliced
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 small canned chipotle pepper, seeded and minced, plus 1 Tbsp. adobo sauce (from the can)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the ears of corn, still in their husks, directly on the center rack in the oven. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool; remove husks and silk. Slice the corn kernels from the cob and place in a large bowl.

2. To the bowl, add the red onion, black beans, feta cheese, scallions, and oregano. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, chipotle pepper and sauce, and salt and pepper. Alternatively, you can blend the ingredients together with an immersion blender, or inside a standard blender.

3. Pour the dressing over the corn mixture and stir well to combine. Refrigerate the salad for several hours before serving. This will keep in the fridge for several days.

Cauliflower Campanelle

2011-08-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

This dish is so simple, you might dismiss it right away as "boring" or "blah." But I am here to tell you, you'd really be missing out on something great if you didn't give it a shot! Even my self-proclaimed cauliflower-disliking husband decided that this recipe was a keeper, which is really saying something!

This Cauliflower Campanelle (renamed by myself because campanelle is the particular cut of pasta I used for this) comes together in less than thirty minutes, requires mostly ingredients that you usually have on hand anyway, and turns out deliciously addictive. Not bad, right?

For ease of preparation, you cook the cauliflower in a huge pot of boiling water, then drain it and throw your uncooked pasta into the same pot to be cooked. Alongside, you heat up another skillet and saute the cauliflower until it starts to brown. Some aromatic ingredients are added to the mix (garlic, basil, crushed red pepper and freshly ground black pepper, Parmesan cheese) and everything is tossed with some extra pasta water to loosen the sauce. As a result of your minimal efforts, you are rewarded with the kind of dish you just want to keep eating long after you've technically had enough. The seasonings are just right, and the cauliflower is so nutty and tender and yummy. Next time cauliflower goes on sale, I know what I'm going to be doing with it!

Cauliflower Campanelle with Red Pepper, Basil, and Parmesan
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients
1 head cauliflower (about 2 pounds)
1 pound campanelle pasta (or any other small shape)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. minced garlic (about 6 medium cloves)
1/2-1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1-1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Fill a large pot 3/4-full with water and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, cut the cauliflower florets away from the core and add them to the boiling water. Cook until fork-tender, about 5-7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the cauliflower and drain in a colander.

2. Bring the water back up to a boil, then add the pasta and cook until it is al dente, 10-12 minutes. While the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat until it begins to shimmer but is not smoking. Add the cauliflower and, with a spatula or wooden spoon, break the florets into bite-size pieces, roughly the same size as the pasta. Cook, stirring, just until the florets begin to brown, 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook until it is fragrant and beginning to brown, 1-2 minutes. When the pasta is done, drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water. Add the pasta, cauliflower, and garlic to the pasta pot and toss, using tongs or two large spoons. Add the crushed red pepper flakes, the basil, the salt, and the pepper and toss. Add the cheese and toss again. If the pasta doesn't look saucy enough, spoon in a little of the reserved pasta water, toss one last time, and serve immediately.

One Post, Two Cookies!

2011-08-17T04:52:00.000-07:00

I didn't know which of these two types of cookie I wanted to talk about more today, so I just decided to do a two for one today and talk about both! Each cookie is delicious in its own way; your preference would probably be dictated by what kind of mood you're in, or if you prefer chocolate and nutty to smooth and full of cinnamon.

The first cookie, the Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie, is actually adapted from a Cat Cora cookie recipe. Hers is called the Peanutter Cookie, and is made with crunchy peanut butter and salted cocktail peanuts. That sounds amazing, naturally, but I thought I'd try an almond butter variation. I swapped smooth almond butter for the peanut butter, and threw in raw almonds in place of the peanuts. These were super delish! I wouldn't go so far as to say they are healthy cookies, but they certainly did taste a little less guilty than the peanut butter counterpart would. The almond butter is a much more subtle flavor than peanut butter, so the chocolate and chopped nuts really have a chance to shine through. I also added a bit of ground cinnamon, as I think this enhanced the overall taste.

The Snickerdoodle cookies I made are oldies but goodies. I make these at Christmas time each year, and since they are among my son's favorite treats I thought it would be nice to make them for his birthday party. I learned something about cream of tartar that I never knew before. I was confused by the lack of it in this version of the Snickerdoodle recipe (from Martha Stewart). I always associated cream of tartar with this cookie, but it turns out that you only need it if you are using baking soda as the leavener. If you use baking powder, on the other hand, the cream of tartar becomes unnecessary. It has something to do with the chemical reactions, etc. needed to make the cookie rise enough. So, I learned something new while baking these cookies!

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 36 cookies

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. kosher salt
12 Tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup almond butter, crunchy or smooth (or crunchy/smooth peanut butter)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, preferably 3/4 cup each milk chocolate and semisweet
1 cup coarsely chopped raw almonds (or salted cocktail peanuts)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Position the oven racks in the middle and upper third. Spray two baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray or line with parchment paper.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Beat the butter, almond butter, both sugars, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add the flour mixture in two batches, beating after each addition. When all the dry ingredients have been beaten in, stir in the chocolate chips and chopped almonds with a wooden spoon.

3. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons onto the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, switching the baking sheets halfway through the baking time and rotating them 180 degrees, until the cookies are light golden. Let them sit on the baking sheets for a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool. Cookies will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.

Snickerdoodles
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies
makes 18-20 large cookies

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

2. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into large balls, using a large cookie scoop. Roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks for about 5 minutes before transferring to the racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Grasshopper Bars

2011-08-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

This week's Baked Sunday Mornings selection is a blast from my past. I actually made these Grasshopper Bars all the way back in December, and have resisted blogging about them until now. That's why, in the above picture, you can just sorta kinda make out Rudolph's little hooves in the background. He was presiding over the kitchen that day!

I love all things minty, so I was absolutely sure I would go crazy for these. The bars are basically the Baked brownie, with a cool mint layer of frosting on them, covered with a dark chocolate layer on top. I mean, yum, right? So why didn't I totally adore these?

Maybe it's me. Other people tried them, and enjoyed them very much. This was probably the first Baked recipe I've made that didn't totally blow me away. Maybe I expected the mint layer to be more minty than it was, or perhaps it was the creme de menthe in particular that I didn't really dig. I couldn't put my finger on it. It's still a good brownie, just not one I would make again.

So, Merry Christmas in August, and head on over to the Baked Sunday Mornings blogroll for a second (and third, and fourth, and....) opinion! I hope everybody else liked them a whole lot more than I did!

Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Spread (Plus a Birthday Cake!)

2011-08-13T04:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend is my oldest son's sixth birthday. I can't, for the life of me, believe that I have a child going into first grade! It seems like only moments ago, he was born and I was holding a little baby (okay, maybe not so little. He was nearly 9 pounds when he came into the world!). But enough of me strolling down memory lane. We have a cake to discuss here!

I blogged about this Butterscotch Krimpet cake a couple months ago, and I mentioned how much my son loved it. Turns out, he loved it enough to request it as his birthday cake this year! It actually works out great, because orange is his favorite color, and the butterscotch frosting is naturally orange. I did add a couple drops of orange gel food coloring to make it pop a bit more, and I think it turned out nice and vibrant. I baked the cake in two round 9-inch cake pans, slathered a generous helping of frosting in between the layers, and piped a teal border around the top and bottom of the cake. Since his favorite TV show is Scooby Doo, he wanted there to be some sort of Scooby theme. So, orange and teal represent Scooby, and just before serving the cake we pressed a few of his Scooby Doo action figures onto the top. Voila!

Now, I promised you a Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Spread recipe, and I did not forget about it. This is my own, made-up version of a white bean hummus with a nice chunk of feta and a roasted red pepper thrown in for good measure. I decided to make it to go along with my CEIMB recipe this past week, since I was too chicken-y to try the assigned feta spread. I really loved it; give it a try and see if you agree!

Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Spread
recipe by Bri
makes about 2 cups

Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, preferably low-sodium, drained and rinsed
1 roasted red pepper, drained and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup (1 ounce) feta cheese, crumbled
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp. tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cannellini beans, roasted red pepper, and feta cheese. Pulse a few times to break up the ingredients. Add the remaining ingredients, turn on the food processor, and blend until very smooth. Transfer to an airtight container; store in the refrigerator.

CEIMB Greek Salad Pitas with Feta Spread and Turkey

2011-08-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was a good one! We made Greek Salad Pitas with Feta Spread and Turkey, selected by Jennifer of The Rookie Baker.

Because I am the first one to admit that yogurt really repulses me, obviously I did not put any of the feta spread on my own pita sandwich. However, I did make it for my husband, and he really loved it! It's a simple spread; you mash up some feta cheese with plain yogurt, then add in some fresh lemon zest and juice, dried oregano, and freshly ground black pepper. I made myself a roasted red pepper and feta spread, which turned out really yummy. I'll be blogging about that one soon.

This was such an easy little recipe to put together. It's just some deli-style turkey breast (I chose a lower-sodium variety), romaine lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, and the spread wrapped up in a pita half. As you can see from our pictures, hubby added sliced kalamata olives to his, and he left his pita bread whole. Instead of stuffing the pita pocket, he just combined all his sandwich fixings and placed them on top of the pita, then folded it up like a tortilla.

I was grateful to have such a simple weeknight meal to make this week! Thanks to Jennifer for the great pick. If you'd like to see if the other CEIMBistas enjoyed this one, be sure to head over to the blogroll. For the full recipe, click here.

Meatless Mondays: Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables

2011-08-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to tell you about this week's Meatless Mondays dish, because it was such cheesy, comforting goodness. After finding myself with a healthy supply of zucchini, summer squash, and various cheeses, it seemed only natural that this recipe would pop into my head. After searching briefly through one of my Giada De Laurentiis cookbooks, I found it: Baked Pasta with Roasted Vegetables.

There's really nothing I can hate about this dish. It's pasta, so right there I'm in love. Next, throw in a nice assortment of roasted veggies. Awesome. Then, you mix it all together with some marinara sauce, thawed frozen peas, and, best of all, four different types of cheese. Uh, yum! You pour it all into a big baking dish, then top it with yet another type of cheese, and bake it until the whole thing turns brown and bubbly and melty. Ahhh.

This was wonderful. What else can I really say? If you like baked pasta dishes, I highly recommend throwing in some roasted veggies for a delightfully healthy twist on the old fave. The five types of cheese just make it more interesting and even more delicious. I liked the peas in there, too. It was a nice pop of texture every time you bit down on one. I made it a bit differently than Giada did; it's got less oil in the veggie-roasting part, and I thought it was totally unnecessary to add chunks of butter to the top of the casserole before baking it, like she did. I wrote the recipe as I made it down below.

Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Pasta
makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch strips
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 summer squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into 1-inch strips
1-2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. dried Italian herb blend or herbes de Provence
1 lb. rigatoni pasta
3 cups marinara sauce, homemade or store bought
1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup gouda cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Muenster cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup Camembert cheese, crumbled or chopped
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. On a baking sheet (I lined mine with nonstick aluminum foil), toss the bell peppers, zucchini, squash, and onion with the olive oil, 1/2 tsp. of the salt, 1/4 tsp. of the pepper, and the herbs. Bake until tender, about 15 minutes.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for about 8 minutes; you don't want to cook it fully since it will be cooked later in the oven. Drain.

3. In a large bowl, combine the pasta with the roasted vegetables, marinara sauce, all the cheeses except the Parmesan, the peas, and the remaining salt and pepper. Gently mix using a wooden spoon until all the pasta is coated with sauce and the ingredients are combined.

4. Pour the pasta into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan. Top with the Parmesan cheese. Bake until the top is golden and the cheese melts, about 25 minutes. Allow the pasta to rest for 5 or so minutes before serving.

Pork and Mango Coconut Curry

2011-08-05T05:24:00.000-07:00

Sure, we all know it's a good idea to go into the grocery story with a list and a plan. It pays to be prepared. But have you ever just impulsively bought something without knowing what you were going to do with it? I have that problem. I do that a lot.

The last time this happened to me, it was a mango that I bought on the spur of the moment. Sure, they were on sale for a good price, and yes, the mangoes were looking really great. But I can't say for sure what drew me to them. I shrugged, plopped a mango into my cart, and decided to figure it out later.

Fast forward to dinner a couple nights ago. How's this for an idea: Pork and Mango Coconut Curry. I got it in my head that I wanted the mango to be featured in a savory main course dish, rather than used for dessert or even ice cream, as I have done before. I had some pork to use, as well as half an open container of coconut milk. It was fated. I was going to do a curry!

I've never made a curry exactly like this before. The mango, along with sauteed onion, bell pepper, garlic, and spices, comprise the curried sauce of the dish. After these ingredients have had time to simmer and meld together, you puree the whole mixture. Once it is a nice, yellow sauce, you add the meat pieces directly into the pot and allow the hot liquid to poach the pork. It cooks completely through in about 10 minutes, and then you add the coconut milk and just continue heating the whole thing long enough to make it hot again (since the coconut milk cools it down).

I served the fragrant curry on a bed of cooked brown rice, after garnishing it with some chopped scallions. I was hopeful that this preparation method would pay off, and I was not disappointed. The curry was so delicious! It had such a deep, complex flavor. There was sweetness from the mango, spiciness from the curry powder, and a bit of tartness from the cider vinegar. The coconut milk made everything slightly creamy, but it didn't feel heavy or too rich. The pork was cooked right, and wasn't too tough or chewy as I feared it might be. I savored every bite of this, and I am happy to report that even Mr. Picky Pants (a.k.a my oldest son) ate his whole bowl! Sure, he'll eat curry, but I still have to practically tie him down to get him to eat a plain old potato or even a boring chunk of corn on the cob! Sigh, baby steps.

Pork and Mango Coconut Curry
adapted from Eats Well With Others
makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbsp. yellow curry powder (I used 1 Tbsp. hot curry powder and 1 Tbsp. of mild)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 mango, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
1 lb. boneless pork loin, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup light unsweetened coconut milk
3 scallions, sliced, for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups cooked brown rice

Directions
1. In a Dutch oven or soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the ground ginger, curry powder, and cumin and cook for another minutes, stirring the whole time to incorporate the spices fully.

2. Add the vinegar, water, and mango to the pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat. Use an immersion blender or a standing blender to puree the mixture; you can leave it slightly chunky if you prefer.

3. Add the pork cubes to the pan. Allow the pork to cook by poaching in the curry liquid, about 8-10 minutes on a medium-low heat. Remove a piece of pork and cut it in half to make sure the meat is cooked through.

4. Stir in the coconut milk, turn the heat down to low, and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, until the coconut milk is warmed through. Try not to let it boil so that the coconut milk will remain smooth. Once the curry is hot, turn off the heat and add the scallions, plus salt and pepper to taste.

5. To serve, spoon 1/2 cup of the brown rice into a shallow bowl, then cover with a couple scoops of the coconut curry.

Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake

2011-08-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

So I got this new cookbook called Cake Keeper Cakes. It's basically exactly the kind of cookbook I've always wanted, but for some reason never had up until now. It's full to the brim with simple, no-frills, casual cakes. There's a section on bundt cakes, a section on loaf cakes, and a section on angel food cakes and chiffon cakes. All the recipes appear easy to follow, and none of them require weird, exotic ingredients.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love my fancy cookbooks, filled with complicated baking techniques and precise instructions that, should you fail to follow them to the letter, could end in a kitchen disaster and lead to dashed hopes and dreams (at least as far as eating something delicious is concerned). Those higher-level cookbooks have taught me a lot, and I continue to get an education every time I bake from them. But, you know, sometimes you just want to bake something quick and easy, with predictable results. And I'm happy to say that so far, this cookbook allows me the opportunity to do just that.

I made a chocolate birthday cake for a coworker of Andy's first from this book, and it went over really well at the office. I didn't happen to get any, since it was devoured before Andy brought the empty cake pan home, but I took that as a huge compliment! Encouraged by this huge reception, I decided to make a second cake for home. This time, I wanted to make something I knew my kids would eat. That meant angel food cake.

I think I've mentioned this on the blog before, but my oldest son hates frosting. Well, he hates most frostings. He likes his sweets on the plain, unadorned side. He's that kid that throws a fit when you take him to a birthday party and one of the activities is to decorate your own cookie/cupcake. He just wants to take the naked cupcake and eat it that way, darnit! So I've come to realize that angel food cake is a great cake for both of us. For him, it's nice and plain and spongy and he really loves the taste. For me, I get to eat a fat-free cake for dessert! Not bad. I chose a Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake, just because it sounded like a fun spin on the original. It's pretty much exactly like a standard angel food cake (whipped egg whites, a bit of cake flour, some vanilla, etc.) but with light brown sugar in place of the granulated sugar. There was a simple cinnamon glaze recipe along with the cake in the book, but of course I omitted that on my son's behalf.

I was a bit nervous about how this would turn out, but my fears were quickly calmed when I took this beautiful, pillowy tower of cake out of the oven. The last time I tried making an angel food cake, the thing looked flat and deflated and it didn't go over too well. This one, on the other hand, was a home run! It was unbelievably soft; it almost dissolved on the tongue. It had fantastic height, and it kept very well for days on my counter in an airtight cake dome. It was wonderful with the Coffee Ice Cream I made the other day, too! This cake is now in the running to become my son's birthday cake, so I'd say he loved it!

Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake
from Cake Keeper Cakes
makes 1 10-inch cake

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar, divided
1/4 tsp. salt
14 large egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have ready a 10-inch ungreased angel food tube pan with a removable bottom.

2. Combine the flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly to break up any lumps. Set aside.

2. Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl or electric mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until the whites are frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat on medium speed until the egg whites begin to turn white. With the mixer still on medium speed, pour in the remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar in a slow, steady stream and whip until the egg whites just hold soft, floppy peaks when the whisk is lifted from the mixture. Stir in the vanilla until it is just combined.

3. Place a small fine-mesh strainer over the bowl of egg whites and strain about 1/4 cup of the flour mixture into the egg white mixture. Gently fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture in 1/4-cup increments until all of it has been folded in. Pour the batter into the tube pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

4. Bake the cake until it is golden brown and the top springs back when you touch it, about 45 minutes (Note: mine only took about 38 minutes).

5. Remove the pan from the oven. If your pan has feet, invert the pan onto a heatproof surface and allow it to cool. If your pan doesn't have feet, invert 4 heatproof drinking glasses on the counter and rest the inverted pan on top of the glasses to allow air to circulate around the cake while it cools. (Alternatively, you can do what I did, which is to place a heavy juice bottle underneath the hole in the center of the tube pan and allow the center hole piece of the pan to rest on the top of the bottle, inverted.) Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 1 hour or for up to 6 hours.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza with Blue Cheese

2011-08-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love barbecue chicken pizza, and when I saw that there was a rendition of it in a recent issue of Cooking Light, I couldn't resist giving it a try. This was a version that I had never seen before, because instead of being smothered in lots and lots of gooey cheese, this one just has a fair sprinkling of blue cheese. I happened to have a bit of fancy schmancy blue cheese that needed to be used up, so I seized the opportunity.

I did change the veggies on the pie slightly, as the recipe called for yellow pepper and plum tomatoes but I had none at the time. Instead, I used the recommended red onion, plus some scallions for a bit of green. Rather than using tomatoes, I combined the barbecue sauce with some pizza sauce so we would still get both flavors. I used a pizza crust that I had made a long time ago and frozen. I figured if I don't remember how long ago I made it, it had better come out and get used up!

We loved this pizza. It was a fantastic balance of sweet (from the barbecue sauce and red onion) and savory (from the pizza sauce and chicken). Plus, the blue cheese was a nice, assertive kind, so it really shone through despite the fact that I didn't use all that much of it. For a pizza that came from the pages of a healthy eating magazine, it really delivered!

Barbecue Chicken Pizza with Blue Cheese
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 (8-ounce) prebaked pizza crust, preferably whole wheat
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup pizza sauce or marinara sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded, cooked boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup vertically sliced red onion
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Place pizza crust on a baking sheet. Combine the barbecue sauce with the pizza sauce, then spread it evenly over the pizza crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border.

2. Top evenly with the chicken, red onion, scallions, and blue cheese. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the crust is crisp. Cut into 8 wedges and serve.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Coffee Ice Cream

2011-07-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

This week's Baked Sunday Mornings selection was supposed to be Olive Oil Orange Bundt Cake. Somehow, I got my dates mixed up. I never actually went back and checked the recipe schedule, I just assumed I knew what this week's pick was. Then, this morning, when I went over to the blogroll to link up, I realized that I had made the wrong recipe! Oops. It was a tasty mistake, though, and now I'll be making the bundt cake on the week that the recipe I did make is scheduled to be on.

So, here's my offering: Coffee Ice Cream! I was really excited about this; I have recently begun to embrace my little home ice cream maker, and I knew this recipe would just have to be wonderful. Coffee, Kahlua, custard base? Count me in!

I decided to reduce this recipe to half the amount, since I was going to have to make it in small batches either way. I only have a half-pint ice cream machine, and it really isn't very powerful, anyway. Plus, I knew only my hubby and me would be eating this; no coffee or booze for the kiddos, of course!

The custard base was very easy to assemble and didn't take very long to make. It required a bit of stirring while on the stove, but otherwise it wasn't labor intensive. The base is cooled down to room temperature, and then set in the refrigerator for a long chill. I made my base the day before we were going to make the ice cream. I think it aged well, because it tasted even better the next day (yes, I know this because I tasted the base after I first made it. Wouldn't you?). I found out after the fact that I had forgotten to reduce the salt measurement by half, so my ice cream did turn out a tad salty. Lucky for us, we like salty/sweet desserts!

I discovered that it's hard to get a decent picture of ice cream for food blogging purposes, so here's my weak attempt at getting a good shot. I think you get the gist; it was very creamy, with a nice solid coffee flavor, and the alcohol really wasn't noticeable at all to us. I would certainly make this again and again! If you'd like to find out what everybody else in the group thought of the bundt cake, check out the blogroll, located here. I'll be making it at the end of August; in the meantime, try the ice cream!

CEIMB: Chicken Sate with Asian Noodle-Vegetable Salad

2011-07-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks, so it's time for another great Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe! As it turns out, this week's selections mark three great new recipes for the price of one. Danica of Danica's Daily chose for us to make Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce and a Soba Noodle-Vegetable Salad. I was actually quick shocked to discover that I hadn't made any of these dishes yet. Well, I was going to fix that for sure!

First off, we have the Chicken Sate. It's a simple enough recipe. Take your chicken pieces, coat them in a yummy marinade, then thread the pieces onto bamboo skewers and grill until cooked through. A sprinkle of basil (and chopped peanuts, which I didn't use) goes on top, and then you can dip your chicken sticks in the Spicy Peanut Sauce.

The chicken turned out juicy, succulent, and flavorful. It almost didn't need any dipping sauce....almost. The sauce is addictive stuff! I love anything that contains peanut butter, so I knew I would be a fan. However, Ellie adds a couple unique touches to her version of peanut sauce, such as a small amount of curry paste, which make this particular dip unforgettable. It's just spicy enough, just sweet enough, and just tangy enough to be, in my book, perfect. Yum.

The Noodle-Vegetable Salad is great, too, although I did like the chicken and peanut sauce better. For my salad, I chose to use a combination of some skinny brown rice vermicelli that I had left over from a soup I made long ago, and some wide Asian noodles. The latter noodles were similar to a fettuccine noodle, so I thought the two contrasting cuts of pasta would be fun. And it was fun, but a bit confusing. In the future I will definitely stick to just one type of noodle! The salad was very delicious. It was fresh from the chopped herbs, crunchy from the red bell pepper and carrot, and zingy from the Asian dressing. The dressing was the best part of this recipe, no doubt. I will be using this dressing in other salads! I did not follow the directions to the letter here. Ellie says to present the salad in lettuce cups, made from Bibb lettuce leaves. I didn't have any nice lettuce to use for this, so I just served up the salad as is. In my opinion, it worked out just fine.

Thanks to Danica for the excellent picks! Together, it all made for a fantastic Asian meal that my family truly enjoyed. To see if the other CEIMBistas loved it too, check out the blogroll, here. For the Chicken and Peanut Sauce recipes, click over to Food Network's site, here. The Noodle Salad recipe is over there also; click here.

Crispy Oven Fries and Roasted Summer Squash

2011-07-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's another post about side dishes today! These are good ones, I promise you. The first one I'm going to tell you about is the Double-Baked Oven Fries I made the other night. I found this recipe over on Rachael Ray's website. I remember her making oven fries on her show once that were reportedly "crazy crisp," restaurant-quality french fries. Supposedly, you couldn't even tell they were baked instead of fried! I had to make them for myself to find out if this claim was true.

Even though Rachael Ray is not my favorite celebrity chef by any means, I have to admit that this whole concept is very clever. She uses cooling racks on top of the baking sheets, then spreads the potato slices on the racks. This allows for even heating all over the potato, so it doesn't have a chance to get soggy on the bottom. Then, she double-bakes the fries, at two different oven temperatures, with a brief re-toss in oil and spices in between. The fries do become very crispy, golden, and delicious after cooking them this way. I absolutely loved them; my seasoning of choice was Old Bay this time, but you could use virtually anything you particularly like. The only minor gripe I have with these is that you have to eat them right away, or they do eventually turn soggy. It's no biggie if you're making just enough to serve with no leftovers, though!

It's summer again, so of course that means the summer squash is in abundance around these parts. Sometimes, when I'm trying to figure out what to do with all of it, I become overly ambitious, coming up with ideas that are somewhat elaborate or time-consuming. Often, the easiest preparation is also among the most delicious.

This way of roasting squash just could not be simpler. Just toss sliced squash with some sliced onion, then add oil, salt, and pepper. As with the potatoes, any other spice of your choice could be added. Then you roast the veggies for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees, and you have sweet, juicy, tender summer squash that you barely exerted any effort in producing. Not bad for a lazy summer dinner!

Double-Baked Oven Fries
adapted from RachaelRay.com
makes about 1 1/2 lbs. fries

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. medium Idaho potatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Old Bay seasoning, to taste (any of your favorite spices can be used)
1-1 1/2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with foil, then place an oven-proof cooling rack over the foil on each sheet.

2. If desired, peel the potatoes. Cut each potato into thin fries, lengthwise: the thinner they are, the crispier they will be. Transfer each slice to a large bowl.

3. Sprinkle the salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning, and olive oil over the potato slices. Toss well to coat all the slices. Transfer each slice to the cooling racks, taking care to leave space between each.

4. Place the fries in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and increase the heat to 425 degrees. Return the fries to the bowl, and toss again. You may add more seasonings at this point.

5. Return the fries to the baking sheets and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, until crisp and brown. Serve immediately.

Roasted Summer Squash
recipe by Bri
makes 1 lb. squash

Ingredients
1 lb. yellow summer squash, ends cut off and thinly sliced into circles
1/2 large yellow onion, sliced into strips
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Toss squash and onion pieces in the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Arrange vegetables in a baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Roast for 15-20 minutes, until veggies are tender and slightly brown. Serve immediately.

Meatless Mondays: Tabbouleh and Batata Harra (Spiced Potatoes)

2011-07-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the other half of my Middle Eastern meal from the other night. I figured it would be smart to blog today about the meatless side dishes I served, in honor of Meatless Mondays! I had the pleasure of making a Tabbouleh for the first time for this meal. Although I mostly used Cat Cora's recipe, I did make some changes to her formula.

I want to try her version soon, but I loved this one! Mine was more what you would consider a standard Tabbouleh, with tomatoes and cucumbers and parsley. Cat Cora's swapped out the tomatoes for red grapes, and fresh mint in place of the parsley. Yum! But I happened to have the tomatoes and parsley on hand already, so that is what I went with. It's a very easy side salad to make; the bulgur literally prepares itself once you pour boiling water over top. Once all your veggies are prepped and chopped, everything just gets tossed together with olive oil and lemon juice.

For the Batata Harra, or Lebanese Spiced Potatoes, I had to do a little bit of research. A couple weeks ago, my family ate dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant, and there was a very big menu. I finally opted for a large tasting plate for my entree, but I had my eye on the Batata Harra as well. Since I did not order the potatoes in the end, I decided I would just find out how to make them myself; they sounded too good to pass up! And they were simple and very delicious. They have quite a kick; I used both a fresh jalapeno and cayenne pepper, and you could definitely feel the heat.

My preparation method was different from the recipe I found; I made mine a bit healthier. In the original recipe, the potatoes are deep fried, and then all the aromatics are tossed in more oil. I decided to bake my potato pieces, and then I tossed the aromatics in a much smaller amount of oil. I'm happy to say that my dish still turned out extremely flavorful, and the potatoes were deliciously crispy. I don't know what the restaurant version of these tastes like, but I'll be making these at home again for sure!

Tabbouleh
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups boiling water
1 cup bulgur
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup chopped scallions
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup diced cucumber (about 1 medium)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted

Directions
1. Pour the boiling water over the bulgur in a large bowl and stir just until all the grains are moistened. Cover and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature.

2. Pour the oil and lemon juice into the soaked bulgur. Add the scallions, parsley, oregano, tomatoes, and cucumber; toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Cover and refrigerate tabbouleh for at least 1 hour so the flavors have a chance to meld. Top with the pine nuts just before serving.

Batata Harra (Lebanese Spiced Potatoes)
adapted from Food.com
makes 1 lb. potatoes

Ingredients
1 1/2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Nonstick cooking spray
1 1/2 lbs. red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp. fresh lime juice

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the potatoes with some salt and pepper, and 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil. Spread on a nonstick baking sheet, or a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray, and bake for about 30-40 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender.

2. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil. Add the scallion, garlic, jalapeno, cayenne pepper, coriander, salt and pepper. Saute the mixture for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Toss the potatoes in the scallion mixture until well coated. Take the skillet from the heat; stir in the parsley and lime juice. Transfer to a serving dish and serve.

Grilled Middle Eastern Turkey Meatballs (Kofte) with Olive and Oregano Hummus

2011-07-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

I prepared a meal last week in which every component was delicious enough for me to want to blog all about it. It consisted of a nice Tabbouleh salad, a potato side dish, and these truly yummy Grilled Middle Eastern Turkey Meatballs with some Olive and Oregano Hummus to dip them in. The meatballs and hummus, as well as the tabbouleh, came from Cat Cora's most recent cookbook. I'm loving this book so far!

The hummus comes together in about 5 minutes flat, and it's amazing. I love the addition of salty capers and kalamata olives; you can decrease the amount of salt in the recipe and it still tastes just salty enough. I do my hummus a bit differently than most recipes instruct; I add less olive oil and then I throw in a bit of warm water to thin it out. My hummus still turns out smooth and creamy, but with less fat. I wrote the instructions to reflect my changes.

The meatballs have a really long ingredients list, but most of those ingredients are spices and I feel like they are all vital to the overall flavor of the meatballs. The recipe is very simple; as long as you have all your spice bottles or jars out and lined up when you are ready to assemble these, the prep time flies by. Cat instructs you to make your meatballs long and cylindrical, rather than perfectly round. That's because these meatballs are grilled, rather than fried or baked, and the heat needs to be able to cook the balls evenly from the bottom.

Though my meatballs were pretty spicy (I think because I had only hot paprika, rather than the sweet papriks called for in the recipe, and also because my freshly ground black pepper was a kicker!), they were packed to the brim with great flavors. They taste exotic, but familiar at the same time. With the hummus alongside, the meatballs were a huge hit with hubby and me. I'll blog separately about the Tabbouleh and potatoes, since four recipes in one post is a bit much! But below I am including the meatball and hummus recipes.

Grilled Middle Eastern Turkey Meatballs
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 12-15 meatballs

Ingredients
2 slices wheat sandwich bread, torn into pea-sized pieces
1 lb. ground turkey (dark meat)
1 small red onion, minced or grated
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tsp. pure chile powder (I used pasilla chile powder)
2 Tbsp. sweet paprika
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp. kosher salt
Nonstick cooking spray, for coating meatballs
Nonfat Greek-style plain yogurt, for dipping (optional)
Olive and Oregano Hummus, for dipping (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat a gas grill or indoor grill pan to medium-high heat; allow to heat up for 30 minutes before you plan to cook.

2. Mix the bread, turkey, onion, all the herbs and spices, and salt together in a large mixing bowl with your hands or a wooden spoon. Divide the meat mixture into 12-15 equal portions. Shape each portion into a cylinder. Spray each meatball with a light coating of cooking spray.

3. If using an outdoor grill, cook meatballs over indirect heat; use only one grill burner and cook the meatballs on the opposite side of the grill. If using indoor grill pan, cook meatballs slightly to the side of the heating element.

4. Cook until slightly springy but firm to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve with yogurt or hummus on the side.

Olive and Oregano Hummus
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup tahini sauce
1 Tbsp. capers, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 Tbsp. warm water
1 cup pitted and halved kalamata olives

Directions
1. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients except for the oil, water, and olives. Pulse until everything is finely chopped.

2. With the motor running, drizzle in the oil. Slowly add warm water until the hummus is the consistency you like best. Add the olives now and pulse once or twice to chop them, or fold them in separately so they will remain large pieces. The hummus will keep for 1 week, covered, in the fridge.

Peanut Butter Blondies

2011-07-21T05:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I received Iron Chef Cat Cora's latest cookbook, and I was eager to start digging in and making all the wonderful things I've found in there. In a few days I will post about a fabulous dinner we had recently, most components of which came from this book. But since I personally believe that dessert is the best meal of the day, I will be telling you about these Peanut Butter Blondies first!

First of all, a simple bar-cookie-type dessert loaded with peanut butter, and with a surprsingly low butter content? Count me in! I debated making these, or making her peanutter cookies, but I have a feeling those cookies will be making an appearance in my house sooner rather than later! I'm glad I chose these, because they took about a blink of an eye to make.

These are very simple blondies, but sometimes that can be such a good thing. With these, I felt like they turned out just a tad less moist than I would like, but I am guessing that this is because I test-drove a new peanut butter in these. Smucker's now makes a reduced-fat natural peanut butter. Since I have never seen a peanut butter that is both natural and reduced-fat, so I definitely wanted to see if it would work. And while the peanut butter is very tasty and doesn't seem lower in fat at all, I think that it did contribute to the less-than-greasy texture of the blondies. But I'm not complaining about it; I warm up a blondie for a few seconds, pile some ice cream on top, and I'm a happy girl. I made them in my Magic Brownie Pan, so that eliminated the guesswork of slicing these evenly, too. So easy, it's dangerous! There's no excuse not to make them often!

Peanut Butter Blondies
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics With a Twist
makes 12 blondies

Ingredients
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/2 cup peanut butter, preferably creamy
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I actually used vegan cane sugar)
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. quick oats (Cat used 2 Tbsp. chopped peanuts)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Position a rack in the middle; coat a 9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, or line it with parchment or nonstick aluminum foil.

2. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.. Add the vanilla and mix until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture, beating after each addition, until a smooth dough forms. Spread the dough in the prepared pan and sprinkle with the quick oats.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let the blondies cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then cut into 12 rectangles and serve. The blondies will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.

Baked Black Beans with Chorizo

2011-07-19T02:02:00.000-07:00

I found this dish in a recent issue of Cooking Light, and I just had to try it. When you see the title, Baked Black Beans with Chorizo, you may think of the traditional baked beans that are served in a red sauce with hot dogs or pork. This, however, is deliciously different.

I've already made this twice; the first batch was promptly inhaled and devoured by hubby and me. It's a simple enough mixture of ingredients: among them, onions, jalapenos, black beans, Spanish chorizo, and cheese. Something happens to this stuff after you mash it up together and bake it, though. Something magical.

Oh, and I used Manchego cheese to top this the first time I made it. It's a hard, Spanish cheese not too different from Parmesan. I especially loved it on there; it formed a great cheesy crust on top and lended a nice salty tang to the dip. But any cheese would be wonderful, I'm sure. It's great, too, because you have the freedom to mash up the beans as much or as little as you'd like, so the dip can be just the texture you want. We left ours with some substance to it, but it was mashed enough that it was very scoopable (and was fantastic with tortilla chips). It's a great appetizer to serve if you're having people over for tacos!

Baked Black Beans with Chorizo
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup diced Spanish chorizo
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper (cayenne pepper)
5 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth (or water)
2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped seeded tomato (I omitted)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Manchego cheese (or Monterey Jack)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chorizo; saute for 2 minutes. Remove chorizo from pan. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and jalapeno; saute 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt, cumin, red pepper, and garlic; saute 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Stir in broth (or water) and beans; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Mash to desired consistency. Spoon bean mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray.

3. Top with chorizo, tomato, and cheese. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Top with green onions.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Peaches and Dream Pie

2011-07-17T05:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Baked Sunday Mornings selection was another great, summery pie: The Peaches and Dream Pie. Isn't that a fabulous title? Once again, the Baked guys have taken something that is traditional and garden-variety, such as a peach pie, and turned it on its head.

It all starts out with a generous pile of peaches (the recipe gives you the option to use either canned or fresh, but I went fresh because the peaches are peaking right now and they looked fabulous!), diced and spread out in a standard pie crust. Next, you mix up an interesting mix of eggs, honey, sour cream, salt, flour, and dark brown sugar, and pour it all over the peaches in the crust.

Finally, you make up a topping made only of flour, dark brown sugar, and cold butter that is worked into the other ingredients until you have, basically, sand. It is pretty much the same type of topping you would put on top of a crumb or coffee cake, and it is divine. That was the smell that pervaded my house while this pie was baking, and it really made me want to pick at the hard, yummy crust that formed on top of the pie when it came out of the oven. But I resisted, because I was serving this to my husband's family the next day and I didn't want to have to explain why there was a big hole on the top of the pie!

When everything was said and done, this pie baked up beautifully, was very easy to make, and received rave reviews by everybody who tried it. What more could you ask for? Please check out the results of the other members of Baked Sunday Mornings by clicking on the blogroll, here.

MSC: Yogurt-Lemon Cupcakes (With Lemon Curd)

2011-07-15T04:37:00.000-07:00

For this month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club, we were supposed to make Yogurt-Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam. I say "supposed" to because, in typical fashion, I just had to deviate from the script!

This one was chosen by Jenny of Give Cupcakes, and I was happy to see it on the schedule because, quite honestly, this is one cupcake that I probably would have always overlooked in favor of fancier, flashier cupcakes! The beauty of this cupcake is in its simplicity; there's no special bells or whistles or crazy swirls of frosting here. It's basically just a dense, lemony cupcake that has been cut two times lengthwise and filled with raspberry jam. You can sprinkle some powdered sugar on top if you'd like. And that's it. No frills necessary.

So, what did I do differently from Martha? Well, for starters, I didn't actually have any yogurt, but I did have some sour cream! So I subbed that in for the yogurt, and I think it worked out just fine. In addition, I decided to make mine super-lemony by filling them with a homemade lemon curd, rather than the recommended raspberry jam. I just got a new cookbook for my birthday that I wanted to make something from, and the lemon curd jumped out at me. I figured it would be perfect for this.

Though the lemon curd did turn out a bit runny (which I am sure was a result of me not cooking the curd to a thick enough consistency), it tasted completely wonderful. It was very tart; the curd is sweetened with some agave nectar, and nothing else. I love citrusy desserts, so this one really worked for me. A bit of fresh whipped cream on top would have sent this over the top, but I still enjoyed it. Thanks to Jenny for the pick!

I am sharing the lemon curd recipe below, in case anybody was interested in trying out this combo. The book the recipe is from is Sugarbaby by Gesine Bullock-Prado (Sandra Bullock's sister), and I can't wait to keep making treats from it! Everything looks amazing.

Lemon Curd
adapted from Sugarbaby
makes 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, divided (from about 3 large lemons)
Zest from the above lemons
1 cup organic agave nectar
6 egg yolks
1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions
1. In a heatproof metal bowl, combine the 1/2 cup lemon juice, the agave nectar, and the egg yolks. In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining 2 Tbsp. lemon juice until it blooms, or in other words, looks soggy. Set aside.

2. Place the bowl with the egg mixture over a pot of simmering water and whisk until it has thickened enough that it ribbons when you pull out the whisk. Remove from the heat; immediately add in the gelatin mixture and whisk until it is completely melted.

3. Add the butter and the lemon zest, and whisk until fully incorporated. Transfer the curd to a different bowl. Take a piece of plastic wrap that is larger in diameter than the bowl, and place it directly on the surface of the curd. Make sure the plastic touches the entire surface of the exposed curd; otherwise a skin will form. Refrigerate for a few hours until it is completely cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

CEIMB: Stir-Fried Chinese Cabbage with Tofu

2011-07-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly was chosen by my friend Liz of This Chihuahua Wears Pearls (how awesome is the name of her blog?). And for her, I would gladly make pretty much any dish, even one that initially sounded...well, too healthy to be good!

Luckily for us, I was very wrong about that. This dish, Stir-Fried Chinese Cabbage with Tofu, was downright shockingly delicious! I think it had something to do with the preparation of the tofu. Instead of pressing all the liquid out and then simply stir-frying it, as I have done before, this recipe instructs you to marinate the tofu, then bake it in the oven.

While the tofu is baking in the oven, you can assemble the rest of the dish. I pulled out and dusted off my wok, and did a quick fry of the aromatics: ginger and garlic, and I threw in a small red jalapeno I had on hand. Then in went the bok choy (I could only find one large head, as opposed to the 3 small heads the recipe directs you to use) and scallions. Next, you throw in the cooked tofu and some soy sauce diluted in a small amount of water. I reduced the amount of soy sauce ever so slightly; I watch our sodium intake at home and I just thought I could make do with 3 total Tbsp. instead of 4.

The stir-fry is garnished with sesame seeds (I toasted mine for just a couple of minutes in the wok while it was still dry), and I chose to serve mine over brown rice. I am happy to report that this dish is packed with great Asian flavor! The ginger, garlic, and jalapeno gave it a great kick, and the toasted sesame seeds gave it a nice nutty flair. I particularly loved the marinated tofu; I believe I will only be baking my tofu from now on! It was the perfect texture, not crumbly or mushy at all.

I think if I am remembering correctly, Liz is not the biggest fan of tofu. But knowing her, she wanted to try this dish to see if she could learn to love it. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as we did, Liz! Thanks for choosing it; I don't have Ellie's first book and I never would have known about this recipe if you hadn't introduced it to us! For the full recipe and the CEIMB blogroll, click here.

Meatless Mondays: Zucchini-Crusted Quiche

2011-07-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

So this dish is a good example of a meal that sounded so amazing in my head, so unique and different and interesting, that it couldn't possibly live up to my expectations. I was thrilled to be making this quiche and was way too excited about it. Alas, my dreams were dashed.

We got these gorgeous, huge spring onions from my in-laws, and I was itching to use them in something good. Plus, they gave us one huge zucchini to use, and suddenly I remembered something I saw recently. I was able to go to a Taste of Home Cooking School show not long ago, and they made this incredible quiche. Instead of a traditional pie crust, they used a bed of shredded zucchini. How cool is that?

And so, it was settled. I wanted to try that Zucchini-Crusted Quiche for myself, but I would change the filling and make it my own. So I made this beautiful bed of shredded zucchini and sliced spring onion, although I was a bit worried with all the liquid that zucchini can give off. I had set the zucchini in a strainer after shredding it, and I had wrung it out -three times- in a kitchen towel. Still, I was not completely convinced that my zucchini was dry enough by the time I needed to prepare dinner. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I made this about a day or two after I prepared the Chicken Pepian for CEIMB, so I actually had some leftover pepian sauce to use up. I thought maybe it would be cool to use that sauce as the liquid in the quiche. The original recipe I was using as a model utilized evaporated skim milk for the liquid. I took a risk and threw in the pepian sauce, along with a bit of Mushroom Duxelles for a bit of earthy goodness. I mixed the sauce up with the eggs and egg whites then poured everything into the prepared zucchini "crust."

I used some shredded Muenster cheese on top of the quiche, which gave the finished product a pretty, golden-brown crust on top. This quiche turned out looking amazing and it smelled wonderful, too. I was so hopeful that this was going to work out perfectly.

Well, my luck ran out. As soon as I cut into this quiche to serve it, my heart sank. Underneath the knife was a small puddle of water. Turns out the zucchini wasn't dry enough, after all. It seeped a bunch of liquid while it baked in the oven, and as a result the quiche was sitting in sogginess. We still ate it, and Andy and I agreed that it tasted very, very good. This quiche had so much darn potential! That is why I decided to share this story with you, here. Maybe somebody out there is brave enough to try this, and learn from my mistakes! I think if you had perfectly dry zucchini, this would have been a real showstopper. I will include a guideline recipe below, but of course substitutions and improvisations would be great here!

Zucchini-Crusted Quiche
adapted from allrecipes
makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large zucchini, shredded and drained of all liquid
3 large spring onions (or 6 scallions), sliced
12 oz. liquid (can be evaporated milk, or leftover sauce, etc.)
2 eggs
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 oz. Muenster cheese, shredded or chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray. Gently press the shredded zucchini and spring onions into the pie plate, covering the entire surface evenly. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine the eggs, egg whites, whatever liquid you choose to use, the mustard powder, salt, and pepper. Pour the liquid mixture into the zucchini "crust," making sure it is evenly spread.

3. Scatter the Muenster cheese evenly over the surface of the quiche. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the center is set and a toothpick inserted into the quiche comes out cleanly. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Grilled Baby Peppers (for Wine and Cheese Date Night)

2011-07-09T04:35:00.000-07:00

Recently, my husband and I were afforded the blessed, rare opportunity to have a date night. With two little boys and no relatives living close by, we find that our alone time is pretty sparse these days. But the kids were off for a few days with their grandparents, so we decided to have a fun date night where we pretended we were sophisticated and know how to pair wines with cheeses. Silly us!

I went all out for this meal. I was inspired by some meals we have had at restaurants in the St. Louis area, where we always seem to order the assorted cheese plates. What can I say, we love our assorted cheese plates. They usually come with some type of dried fruit, some nuts, some olives, or some cured meats. Well, I figured I would just serve all of these!

We had golden raisins, green grapes, dried cranberries, and dried apricots. We had cashews and marcona almonds. We had a wide assortment of olives that I picked up from the olive bar at Whole Foods (which may be my new favorite section of the store!). We had pita bread, toasted wheat bread, and hummus. We had so much food I was a little overwhelmed by it all!

I went to a fancy cheese store that afternoon, and they were very helpful there. They let me sample pretty much any and every cheese I glanced at. I wanted a good variety, and there was so much to choose from. I settled on a Muenster, some Gouda, some Gruyere, a nice Manchego (which is a hard cheese, like Parmigiano), a bit of Camembert (that was my fave), and some super duper stinky blue cheese called Morbier. To go along with it, I picked up some spicy Spanish chorizo from the same store.

We lined up four different types of wine (two reds, two whites) and tried to pair up the various cheeses with the corresponding wines. In some cases, we were shocked at how beautifully it all worked. In other cases, though, it just didn't work out. We still had a blast trying to figure stuff out. It's not something we're likely to do every day, but it was great for a staying-in date! And I would imagine it was at least marginally less expensive than going out.

Now, because none of my blog entries seems complete without some kind of recipe, I will share with you the absurdly simply recipe for the baby bell peppers I served with this meal. I found it in Food Network Magazine, and it seemed like something that would go well with everything else we had that evening. It's a snap, and so very pretty!

Grilled Baby Peppers
adapted from Food Network Magazine
makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 lb. baby bell peppers (or quartered full-size peppers)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Chopped fresh mint, to taste
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4-1/2 cup feta, crumbled

Directions
1. Preheat a grill pan to high. Toss the peppers with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Throw them on the grill pan and cook for about 10 minutes, turning frequently, until blistered on all sides.

2. Remove the peppers from the grill pan and place on a serving dish. Sprinkle the mint over the peppers, along with the juice of the 1/2 a lemon and the feta. Toss lightly, and serve.

Mississippi Mud Cake

2011-07-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is my birthday cake. At least, I think I can call it a cake. It's sort of a cake, sort of a pie. It's part pudding. All delicious, though. And decadent. I mean, just look at the thing. Chocolate, on top of chocolate, smothered with even more chocolate. Love!

It all starts with a chocolate cookie crust. The original recipe has you grind up a bunch of Oreo cookies and turn them into a cookie crust (oh, did I mention that the original recipe is from the Baked Explorations cookbook? Yeah. So I knew I was in good hands with this one.). However, I actually prefer the flavor of chocolate graham crackers, so I made my crust with those instead. It was a wise decision; I mean, the cake has enough sweetness (and calories!) without adding Oreo cookies to the mix. And those chocolate graham crackers are tasty.

So, once you have assembled and baked the cookie crust, you're ready to make the next layer: a flourless chocolate cake. Could you just die? It's an amazingly rich, gooey, almost molten cake. It closely resembles a brownie, actually, but I think it's even richer. It's very delicate, too, and it cracks on top while it's being baked. Then, while it's cooling on your counter, it deflates and sinks. It looks pretty cool, when all is said and done. So, once you have cooled your flourless cake layer, it's time to stick it in the fridge and let it set up for a few hours (overnight works even better, as it allows the coffee flavor to mellow out some).

Next, you make a dark chocolate pudding, and that is supposed to go on top of the flourless cake. Now, maybe I messed up on the pudding (and that is most likely what happened), but the pudding layer turned out very runny, at least the first night we ate the cake. I got a phone call while I was stirring the pudding over the stove, and I think the distraction proved to be my undoing. The pudding tastes phenomenal; rich, sweet, yet delicate. It just wouldn't set up and form a solid layer for me. So, as you can see below, as soon as we cut the cake into slices the pudding ran all over the place. An avalanche of yumminess. It was still totally edible. And addictive. And by the next evening, the pudding was much sturdier and held up on top of the cake very well.

The book suggests a whipped cream layer to go on top, but I decided that it was going to be good enough with just the three layers I made. I know it seems ridiculous given the sinfulness of this dessert, but I figured I really didn't need a fourth layer comprised pretty much completely of heavy whipping cream! Call me crazy. This cake is a chocoholic dream. It is not for the faint of heart, and it does take a bit of time to put together. However, I guarantee that you will absolutely love this cake if you are a huge fan of chocolate. It is worth the effort!

Mississippi Mud Pie (B), aka Muddy Mississippi Cake
adapted from Baked Explorations
makes one 9-inch round cake

Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cookie Crust:
24 full sheets chocolate graham crackers, broken into pieces
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 egg white

For the Flourless Chocolate Cake:
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
6 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 70%), chopped
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. instant espresso powder
1/4 cup strong coffee, at room temperature
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

For the Chocolate Pudding:
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Scharffen Berger)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
4 large egg yolks
2 1/2 cups whole milk
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 70%)

For the Simple Whipped Cream (which I omitted):
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

Directions
Make the Chocolate Cookie Crust: 1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the pan with parchment paper and lightly spray the parchment and sides of the pan.

2. In a food processor, grind the graham crackers to a very fine crumb. You should have about 3 cups. With the food processor running, stream in the melted butter and the egg white. Continue to blend until the liquids have mixed in.

3. Turn the crumb mixture into the prepared pan and press it into the bottom and up the sides, leaving about 1/2 inch between the top of the crust and the top of the pan. Use the back of a large spoon (the bottom of a heavy glass works, too) to get an even layer of crust. Place the pan in the freezer and let the crust set for about 10 minutes.

4. Bake the crust in the oven until it is dry to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool.

Make the Flourless Chocolate Cake: 1. Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Using a double boiler or microwave, melt the butter and chocolate together. Set aside to cool.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the espresso powder, coffee, salt, and vanilla. Set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the sugar until the mixture is light and has almost doubled in volume, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the chocolate mixture to the yolk mixture and beat until just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix on low speed for 5 seconds. Add the coffee mixture and beat until just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix on low for 5 seconds.

4. In a clean bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Gradually increase the speed to high and add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until soft peaks form.

5. Scoop 1 cup of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the egg whites. After about 30 seconds of folding, add the remaining egg white and continue folding until they are almost completely combined. Do not rush the folding process, work gently, and take care not to overmix.

6. Pour the batter into the cooled cookie crust and bake for 38 to 42 minutes, until the cake is set but still jiggles slightly. It might not appear to be completely cooked. Transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely. (As it cools, the cake will deflate in the center and look sunken. Do not despair, this is just the way it settles.) Tightly wrap and refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Make the Chocolate Pudding: 1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt. Add the egg yolks and whisk until combined. The mixture will look like a thick paste. Slowly pour in the milk, whisking constantly.

2. Place the saucepan over medium heat on the stove and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly to prevent it from burning on the bottom of the pan. Boil for 30 seconds, then transfer it to a medium bowl. Add the butter, vanilla, and chocolate and whisk until combined.

3. Continue to whisk for a few more minutes to cool the mixture slightly. Let the pudding stand for 15 minutes at room temperature. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming, and chill it for at least 3 hours.

Assemble the Mississippi Mud Pie: 1. Stir the pudding to loosen it, then pour it on top of the cake, making sure to stay inside the cookie-crust border. Use an offset spatula to spread the pudding into an even layer. Return the cake to the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes while you prepare the whipped cream topping.

2. Pour the cream into a chilled metal bowl and beat with a chilled whisk for about 1 minute or until soft peaks form. Sprinkle the sugar on the cream and continue whisking vigorously until stiff peaks form.

3. Remove the cake from the fridge and spread the whipped cream across the pudding layer, all the way out to the sides. Unmold the cake, and serve it immediately. The cake can be kept, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Poblano Pesto Potato Salad

2011-07-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I made another potato salad. It seems to be my new thing. I love a potato salad, or at least I love them as long as they don't contain mayo. I don't do mayo. But fortunately for me, there are still plenty of creative things one can do with potatoes.

I had a couple of leftover poblano peppers to use up, and I thought I was being very clever when I decided that they would taste fabulous as a pesto sauce. However, it turns out that I was not the first person to think of this. A quick Google search revealed that another blogger had made a sauce just like the one I thought I had dreamed up. Using their basic recipe as a guide, I made my own with a couple of different ingredients, such as fresh cilantro and marcona almonds. I especially love the marcona almonds in there; they have such a nice flavor, and they're already roasted and salted. That means I can use less oil and salt in the pesto; score!

I divided the batch of pesto in half, and used one half to make a simple potato salad. It was delicious! Just the thing for July 4th. The other half is awaiting its use in my fridge; I'm thinking about just using it as a pasta sauce. It's very scrumptious; it would be good as a sauce for meat or shrimp, as well. Heck, you could even use it to top your tacos or fajitas; the poblanos and cilantro give it a Mexican kinda flair.

Poblano Pesto
adapted from The Food Medic
makes about 1 1/2 cups pesto

Ingredients
2 large poblano peppers, blackened over an open flame or under the broiler, with the skin, seeds, and stems removed
1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves (you can include stems)
1/2 cup marcona almonds
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon, juiced
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In a food processor, combine the almonds and garlic. Pulse until the almonds have been finely chopped. Add the poblanos, the cilantro, and the lemon juice. Process until the greens have been blended and the mixture resembles a coarse sauce. Slowly stream in the olive oil while the processor is running, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle in salt and pepper, to taste, and then pulse the food processor again until the mixture is uniform.

2. To make Poblano Pesto Potato Salad, simply mix half the pesto sauce with 1 lb. to 1 1/2 lbs. small Yukon gold potatoes that have been quartered and cooked in simmering water until fork tender (about 12 minutes). Store in the fridge until chilled, then serve. The other half of the pesto sauce can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for at least a week.

S'more Macarons

2011-07-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July! I figured it would be fun to share these S'more Macarons with you today, since this particular holiday is a perfect barbecue holiday. And what better treat to top off a barbecue with than a s'more? You know what I'm talking about. Just before you retire the grill after an evening of cooking up burgers and hot dogs, you toast up a bunch of marshmallows and smash them between some graham crackers and chocolate. Mmm!

Now, I have a confession to make here. These macarons did not come easily for me. I managed to get them to turn out looking relatively pretty in the end, and they tasted really, really awesome! But for some reason I have not been able to make them as well as I did the very first time, which was about a year ago. Maybe it was beginners' luck; maybe I got overly confident after that and just assumed that I'd always be able to turn out lovely-looking macarons thereafter. I don't know, but I definitely have not duplicated my first success with them.

Last week, I made the above macarons; what a disaster those were! I think my problem was the almond flour I used. I had been storing it in the freezer (I'm not sure I should have been doing that in the first place), and recently our freezer had been left open too long one day and things started thawing out. I believe that some moisture may have gotten into the almond flour bag, and the excess moisture created a problem when I was making the macarons. The batter was incredibly runny; the macarons almost immediately began running into each other on the baking sheets! I decided to bake them anyway (because, really, why not?) and they still tasted okay. I knew that I needed to try again, though. My confidence was low, and I wanted another chance to redeem myself!

This time around, they turned out a lot better. Granted, the macarons were just a little bit too big, and the feet on the bottom of each shell ended up being pretty imperfect. They formed out on the sides, rather than underneath the shell. But the cookies taste wonderful, and the filling definitely works great and reminds you of a real s'more. I simply took some marshmallow fluff straight out of the jar, put a scoop on one macaron shell, then slapped some dark chocolate that had been melted down with butter on another macaron shell. Finally, I sandwiched the fluff half and the chocolate half, then put them in the fridge to help them set and the chcolate to harden back up. They're wonderfully soft and dreamy, but then the outer shell of the macaron gives it that little bit of crispiness that's such a great texture contrast. It may not be the traditional graham cracker/Hershey's combo you're used to, but it's a really fun spin on the old standard!

S'more Macarons
adapted from Tartelette
makes about 32 shells (for 16 sandwich cookies)

Ingredients
90 g. (about 3) egg whites, aged for at least 24 hours
110 g. blanched almond flour
200 g. confectioners' sugar, sifted
30 g. granulated sugar

Directions
1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until foamy. Slowly drizzle in the granulated sugar, then continue whipping the egg whites until you have achieved medium (floppy) peaks.

2. Meanwhile, sift together the almond flour and the confectioners' sugar, making sure to discard any larger bits of almond you may find. Add the almond flour mixture to the meringue. Begin folding the almond flour into the meringue quickly, taking care to slow down as the mass begins to come together. Continue to mix just until the mixture becomes uniform and slightly runny. When you lift up your spatula and allow a few drops to drip back into the bowl, it should run back into the mixture by the count of 5. The whole mixing stage should not exceed 50 strokes.

3. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Transfer the batter to a large pastry bag fitted with a large, plain tip. Squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible, then begin piping your macaron shells. Pipe small rounds (about 1.5 inches in diameter) onto the baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

4. Give each baking sheet a firm rap on the counter, to release any air bubbles. When the bubbles rise to the surface, you may pop them with a toothpick. Allow the unbaked macaron shells to sit on the counter at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, to harden their outer shells.

5. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Bake each sheet, one at a time, for about 10-12 minutes, depending on their size. Allow them to cool on a rack before attempting to remove the shells from the parchment. Once they are cool, you may fill them.

S'more Filling

Ingredients
1 jar marshmallow fluff (you do not need the entire jar)
1.5 oz. dark chocolate chips
1/4 tsp. light corn syrup
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions
1. In a small saucepan, melt together the chocolate chips, corn syrup, and butter over low heat. Once melted, stir and allow to cool slightly before using.

2. To assemble the S'more Macarons, scoop about a teaspoon of marshmallow fluff onto one macaron shell. On a second shell, spread the chocolate mixture. Sandwich the two halves together, then repeat with the remaining shells. Refrigerate the macarons for at least 30 minutes to set them before serving. Leftover macarons can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Blackberry Pie

2011-07-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

For this installment of Baked Sunday Mornings, we had the pleasure of baking a Blackberry Pie. I'm not too familiar with baking pies that have a fruit or berry filling; this was my very first berry pie, actually! I've made apple pies before, and I've made key lime, but otherwise I prefer to make non-fruit pies, such as pecan. That said, I was really looking forward to switching things up a little!

The filling is a very simple mixture of fresh blackberries, butter, granulated and dark brown sugar, lemon juice and zest, flour, and salt. It smelled amazing before it even went into the oven. Plus, it only took about 10 minutes to assemble (not including the pie dough, of course).

Speaking of the pie dough, I do find this one pretty easy to work with. Granted, I don't have a ton of experience with dough (mostly because I haven't entirely overcome my fear of working with it!), but I have never had a problem with the Baked version. It baked up flaky and tender, just as it always does.

The finished product was aromatic, perfectly brown and bubbly, and tasted wonderful. I confess; I made this a while back, for Easter dinner. I saw that it was coming up in our recipe rotation for July, and I decided it would be a good thing to bring. I think this would be just the thing for a Fourth of July barbecue or party, though. It's a very summery pie, and I think it could only be enhanced by some vanilla ice cream on top!

Please do check out the other Baked Sunday Mornings blog posts this week; the blogroll can be located here.

CEIMB: Chicken Pepian

2011-06-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly was another one of my picks! That's one cool thing about being in a blogging group that is a bit on the smaller side; you get to pick the recipe a whole lot more often! I chose to make Chicken Pepian, which I have seen Ellie make at least twice or three times now on her cooking show. I have drooled over this one for far too long; it was time to finally prepare it myself!

These beautiful green gems above are fresh tomatillos, which I absolutely love working with. They are a descendant of the gooseberry (or so I am told by Rachael Ray!), and they kinda sorta taste like a cross between a tomato and a citrus fruit. It's hard to explain, so if you've never tried them and are intrigued, I definitely suggest that you give them a try. We really love them! The tomatillos are used as the base for a yummy green sauce that is first prepared and then used to top boneless, skinless chicken breasts in this dish.

I do have to apologize to my fellow CEIMB-istas for this one, because I didn't realize just how many steps were involved with this recipe until I read through it just before prepping my grocery list. Though the steps are all pretty simple, there are a lot of them and they do take a bit of time. I am happy to say that I think it was worth it, though!

For the actual preparation, I decided to deviate from Ellie's method a bit. Call it laziness, or call it creativity; it was really a little bit of both! I broiled my onions and garlic along with my tomatillos and poblano pepper; it saved me a step in which you sauteed the onion and garlic in a pan. Then, instead of pounding out chicken breasts, I used chicken tenderloins, which of course are much smaller cuts. I put my tenderloins in a Dutch oven, poured all the pepian sauce over top of them, and then baked the whole dish in the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees. I thought the low and slow method would keep the meat moist, and would also ensure that the sauce was bubbly and simmered enough (especially since I had prepared the sauce one day ahead and it was cold from the fridge).

Then, in one final burst of ingenuity, I decided to serve them up two different ways. The first night we ate this, I placed a pile of stone ground tortilla chips beside the chicken and let everyone choose whether they wanted to just eat the chicken straight up, or use the chips to scoop it all up. Either way, you couldn't lose, because this was very, very scrumptious! The second night, I used the chicken and the sauce as a filling for some wraps, and that was super delicious as well.

This sauce was reminiscent of a pesto, since it utilized leafy green herbs, roasted veggies, and pumpkin seeds. However, the flavor was decidedly Southwestern, and there was the barest hint of heat from the poblano and jalapeno. It was nice and zesty, but not overpowering. I'd love to see how this would taste tossed with some pasta, though!

I've provided the full recipe, the way Ellie intended it. You can try it her way or mine; I can only vouch for my method. I'm glad I chose this; it got some very enthusiastic thumbs-up at my house! If you'd like to check out the CEIMB blogroll, click here. Thanks to everybody who cooked with me this week!

Chicken Pepian
adapted from Food Network
makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1 lb. fresh tomatillos
1 large poblano pepper (2.5-3 oz.), seeded and chopped into four pieces
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1/2 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds
5 whole peppercorns
2 whole allspice
1/2 tsp. whole cumin seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped, fresh cilantro leaves (plus 1/4 cup more for garnish)
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 medium (2-inch) jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
4 (6-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
Lime wedges

Directions
1. Preheat the broiler. Remove papery outer skins from tomatillos, then rinse with warm water to remove some of their natural stickiness. Pat dry, then cut into quarters. Toss tomatillos and the poblano with 2 tsp. of the oil, place on a baking sheet, and broil until charred, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

2. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add pumpkin seeds, peppercorns, allspice, and cumin, and toast until pumpkin seeds are fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.

3. In the same saute pan, heat 2 tsp. of the oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

4. Place the tomatillos, the poblano, the onions, garlic, 1 cup cilantro, chicken broth, jalapeno pepper, pumpkin seeds, spices, and the salt in a food processor (or blender) and process on high until totally smooth, about 30 seconds.

5. Heat the remaining 2 tsp. oil in a skillet and cook the chicken until browned on both sides and nearly cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Add pepian sauce to the skillet, covering the chicken pieces. Bring to a simmer and cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Serve chicken topped with the sauce and garnished with cilantro and lime wedges.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Malted Buttercream Filling

2011-06-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

Now that I've become familiar with malted milk powder as an ingredient in my baking (thanks to the Baked cookbooks!), I decided it was time to test it out in some whoopie pies. Why not, right? So I toyed with several different ideas, such as whether or not I should put the malt flavor into just the cookie shells themselves, the filling, or both. Finally, I settled on doing a basic chocolate whoopie pie shell with malted buttercream filling.

I can't really explain the deliciousness of these cookies to you. I think you just need to try it for yourself! The chocolate cookie part is pure comfort food, all soft and pillowy with a dark, not too sweet chocolate taste. Then, the malted buttercream offsets the dark chocolate with its sweet, unique flavor and perfect smoothness. It was love at first bite! The crowning touch was rolling the sides of the pies in crushed Whoppers candy. Heaven! I know it has been a while since I've made whoopie pies, but I plan on turning that around. I'm gonna be making them way more often from here on out. It's a tragedy, I tell ya, that I almost forgot just how great they could be!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
adapted from Whoopie Pies
makes 48 cookies (24 sandwich cookies)

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup natural, unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
4 Tbsp. vegetable shortening
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
Malted Buttercream Filling (see below)
Whoppers candy, crushed (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a few baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray a whoopie pie pan with nonstick cooking spray). In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and shortening until uniform and creamy. Add in the brown sugar and beat well for another 3 minutes on medium, until everything is well-incorporated and the mixture is fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and beat for another 2 minutes.

3. To the mixer, add half the flour mixture and half the milk; beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with the remaining flour and remaining milk and beat until combined.

4. Using a tablespoon (or a small ice cream or cookie scoop), drop batter onto cookie sheet, spacing drops two inches apart. Bake each sheet for about 10 minutes, rotating them halfway through. They are done when each pie springs back when touched lightly in the center. Cool the pies on baking sheets for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Fill whoopie pies with Malted Buttercream Filling; recipe is below. Roll the sides of the filled pies in crushed Whoppers candy, if desired.

Malted Buttercream Filling
adapted from Whoopie Pies
makes enough to fill 24 small whoopie pies

Ingredients
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbsp. malted milk powder (or you can use Ovaltine)

Directions
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the milk, vanilla, and malted milk powder. Continue to beat on medium speed for another 3-4 minutes. Use to fill chocolate whoopie pie shells; yum!

Meatless Mondays: Veggie Burgers with Jalapeno Coleslaw and Malt Vinegar Potato Salad

2011-06-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

Last week, I found myself suddenly craving outdoor barbeque food. I guess it's because we have the Fourth of July coming up soon, and all over the place I am seeing recipes for burgers and salads. Still, I have been cooking so many meat-free dishes lately, I thought it would be fun to make an entire picnic-style meal without any meat involved. Plus, I had just found out that Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook included a recipe for a supposedly delicious veggie burger, and I was just intrigued enough to want to test it out.

I first made a Malt Vinegar Potato Salad to go along with my meal. I just love that special tang that malt vinegar has; it's the perfect pairing with those soft potatoes. It reminds me of summer evenings on the boardwalk in New Jersey when I was growing up. My mom would order a huge bucket of fresh-cut french fries, and we would eat the fries dipped in malt vinegar. Huge yum! In fact, it has been way too long since I've been to the Jersey Shore; now I'm craving boardwalk fries!

I made up this recipe for the potato salad on the fly; it really couldn't be simpler. If you like German-style potato salads, which are quite tart, you should like this a lot. If I'd had some grainy mustard on hand, I would have added that in, too. Feel free to do that if you have some!

The coleslaw is an interpretation of a Cooking Light recipe I found recently. I only had lemons on hand, but the original recipe was actually a Jalapeno-Lime Coleslaw. However, I just made a few simple tweaks, and came up with this Jalapeno-Lemon Coleslaw. It was great, but I can't wait to make it again with the lime. I do love the jalapeno/lime pairing.

Finally, I made Gwyneth's Veggie Burgers, and they were every bit as delicious as I'd hoped (but secretly doubted) they would be. The black beans and rice give the burgers a nice firm texture, and there's a generous addition of cumin that I thought gave it a nice Mexican flair. Onion and garlic keep things zesty, and the whole meal can be whipped up fairly quickly. There is a period where you can rest the burgers in the fridge before cooking them up, but I don't think you absolutely have to do that if you're strapped for time. One small note about this recipe: she says to dust the burgers in flour before frying them up, and I understand that this probably helps bind everything together better and gives the burger a nice, crispy crust. However, I believe that the instructions indicate more flour than is actually needed, so I put the amount I think is sufficient down below.

Gwyneth's Veggie Burgers
adapted from Savor Flavor Dining
makes 4 burger patties

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 (14-oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed well
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/2-1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
Oil or nonstick cooking spray, for cooking the patties
Burger buns, condiments, etc.

Directions
1. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions, garlic, and cumin and cook until softened and fragrant, about 7 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, beans, and rice; cook for about 2 minutes, stirring often. Add the cilantro and mash the mixture with a potato masher; you want to make the mixture cohesive and combined, but don't mash completely. You still want some texture.

2. Allow the mixture to cool until it is easy to handle. Form the mixture into 4 patties. You can now allow the burgers to rest in the fridge for several hours before cooking.

3. When you are ready to cook the burgers, preheat a nonstick skillet, griddle, or grill pan to medium-high. Dust both sides of each burger patty lightly with the flour. Add the oil or nonstick cooking spray to your pan or griddle to heat it up. Cook the burgers until browned on both sides; it should take about 3-4 minutes per side. Top burgers with whatever you like, and serve on the bun of your choice.

Jalapeno-Lemon Coleslaw
adapted from Cooking Light
makes about 5-6 cups

Ingredients
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
4-5 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1 (10 ounce) package angel hair coleslaw
3 jalapeno peppers, halved crosswise

Directions
1. Combine the lemon juice, sugar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Slowly stream in the olive oil, continually stirring with the whisk. Add scallion and coleslaw.

2. Thinly slice 1 jalapeno half crosswise (keeping seeds), and remove seeds from remaining jalapeno halves. Cut the remaining halves into thin crosswise slices. Add the jalapenos to scallion mixture and toss well to coat. Cover and chill at least 1 hour before serving.

Malt Vinegar Potato Salad
recipe by Bri
makes about 2 pounds

Ingredients
2 lbs. small red potatoes, quartered
4-5 scallions, thinly sliced
4 Tbsp. malt vinegar
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions
1. Place the quartered potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Set the pot on the stove, allow it to come up to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Continue to simmer the potatoes for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender but still hold their shape. Drain the potatoes when they are finished cooking.

2. While the potatoes cook, combine the scallions in a large bowl with the malt vinegar, salt, pepper, and rosemary, stirring with a whisk. Slowly stream in the olive oil, continually whisking the mixture. Dump in the hot potatoes and combine well with a large spoon, allowing the dressing the absorb into the potatoes. Cover loosely and chill potato salad for several hours before serving.

Jamaican Pork Chops with Snow Pea Succotash

2011-06-25T05:19:00.000-07:00

I decided to make this recipe because of one tiny, little pepper. I was experiencing a craving for something Caribbean-flavored, and I just so happened to have a beautiful habanero pepper that needed using. Suddenly, inspiration struck and I knew I was destined to make Jamaican Pork Chops. It's been a while since I've used those flavors, and we love them so much. Plus, these pork chops were hanging around in my freezer and could stand to be cooked already.

I gathered the ingredients for my marinade based on several different recipes, ones that I can't even quite remember just now. The flavors were fantastic, I thought. There was some great sweet/tangy/fiery marriage going on there. Unfortunately, I kinda overcooked my meat. I took it out of the oven just as it was nearly done, but then I threw it back in for another minute or two, and sort of forgot about it. Five or six minutes later, I took the meat out again, only to find that it was a bit crispy around the edges. Oh, well. It was still good! It was just a bit dry, but as I said, the flavors were enough to salvage the whole thing.

To serve with the chops, I made a simple pot of Israeli couscous, along with a quick Snow Pea Succotash that I found in one of my Rachael Ray cookbooks. I took a couple of liberties with her master recipe, and I really liked it. It is also a clever way to use up the other half of the lime you use for the pork chops! Waste not, want not!

Boneless Jamaican Pork Chops
adapted from various recipes
makes 4 chops

Ingredients
4 (6-7 ounce) boneless pork chops, trimmed of excess fat
1 medium habanero pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 lime, zest and juice
2 Tbsp. dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. ground thyme
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. onion powder

Directions
1. In a large, resealable Ziploc bag, place the pork chops. In a medium bowl, stir together all the remaining ingredients, then pour the marinade into the bag. Close the bag and shake it up so the marinade coats the chops. Stick the bag in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before broiling.

2. Once you are done marinading, preheat the broiler. On a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, place a cooling rack. Using tongs, extract each pork chop from the marinade bag, allowing the liquid to drip off. Place the chops on the cooling rack-covered baking sheet.

3. Broil the pork chops for 5 minutes per side, then allow them to cook for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the juices run clear. Rest the meat for 5 minutes before serving.

Snow Pea Succotash
adapted from Rachael Ray
makes 4 servings

Ingredients
8 oz. (about 2 1/2 cups) snow peas, trimmed and chopped into bite-size pieces
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 ears corn on the cob, kernels removed (you can also use thawed frozen corn)
1/2 yellow onion, sliced thinly
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 lime, juice and zest
2 tsp. hot sauce, such as Sriracha
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In a medium skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the snow peas and cook for about 2 minutes, tossing frequently. Add the bell pepper, corn, and onion, and cook for another 7 minutes or so, until the veggies are crisp-tender. Remove from the heat.

2. Transfer the veggies to a serving dish. Sprinkle in the lime zest and juice, the hot sauce, and salt and pepper. Toss well before serving.

CEIMB: Tuscan Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

2011-06-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am really sorry about these bad pictures. I don't know why, but for some reason it was darn near impossible to get good shots of this meal. And that is quite a shame; the pictures do not do the food justice!

For this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly dish, Margaret of Tea and Scones selected Tuscan Roasted Chicken with Vegetables. I was looking forward to this; I just recently have come to love roasted tomatoes and roasted zucchini, and this recipe includes both. Plus, there's roasted fennel (love fennel!) and lots of fresh lemon flavor and sprigs of rosemary. All the makings of a fabulous meal were there.

For some reason, this one kinda disappointed me. I can't exactly put my finger on why. For starters, I did use a whole 4.5 pound chicken rather than the bone-in chicken breasts that Ellie used. I added onions to the veggies; we just love roasted onions. Because the chicken took about 2 hours to roast, I set it in the roasting dish and cooked it for an entire hour before adding the veggies. The veggies still ended up a little overdone, I thought. The zucchini virtually fell apart when I used tongs to lift it out, so much that I couldn't get many full pieces of zucchini to serve. Same with the tomatoes; they were just a mushy mess.

The onions and fennel held together well, though! And the flavor of the chicken was very good. Lots of fresh rosemary, garlic, and lemon was stuffed into the cavity of the bird, so Ellie's flavors were definitely reflected there. I don't know; I just think in the future I will try roasting different veggies with the chicken, ones that are sturdier. Or, I could roast them for an even shorter time.

It was still great to try this, because I have wanted to for a while now. Thank you for that, Margaret! Be sure to check out the full, unedited version of Ellie's recipe over on Food Network's website, here. And to see the CEIMB blogroll, click here.

Greek Panzanella Salad

2011-06-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

I don't make the Barefoot Contessa's recipes very often, but it has very little to do with how I feel about her. I actually like her very much; she's such a soothing television host, and her food always looks accessible and drool-worthy. Therein lies the problem; her food isn't exactly fat-free! It usually has a high calorie content, although I wouldn't call her an unhealthy cook. So, I think the best thing I can do when I'm craving one of Ina's recipes is to go for it, but alter it to better fit my calorie needs. As Ina herself might say, "How easy is that?"

So I embarked upon the task of making her Greek Panzanella Salad, because it looked insanely delicious, and quite frankly I was craving bread. This seemed like the perfect way to turn bread into a one-dish meal that is also packed full of fresh vegetables, feta cheese, and a scrumptious dressing. I've made panzanella once before, and it was Ellie Krieger's recipe. That one was wonderful, too; this one is just a different spin on the formula.

This one has spinach, onions, bell peppers, cucumbers, kalamata olives, grape tomatoes (which I roasted first so they would get all soft and concentrated in flavor), and feta cheese. I used a five-grain bread for my toasted bread cubes, which added a nice nutty dimension to the salad. The dressing is a pretty simple red wine vinaigrette; I just used a lot less oil than Ina did. I also decreased my feta to about 2 oz., and used a reduced-fat variety. That said, I think it could have used a bit more feta, so I wrote the recipe below with the option of using 3 or 4 oz. of cheese. Use the amount you feel comfortable with. Even with all my changes, this salad was absolutely wonderful! I didn't feel like I was depriving myself of anything; all the flavors were there, and a serving was definitely filling enough to pass for an entree. Now that I've made this recipe with such rousing success, I can hardly wait to get my hands on some more of Ina's recipes!

Greek Panzanella Salad
adapted from Foodnetwork.com
makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 (12-0z.) loaf whole grain, crusty bread, cut into cubes
1/4-1/3 cup kalamata olives, chopped
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved (or roasted, like I did)
1/2 a cucumber, seeded and chopped into cubes
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 a red onion, sliced into thin strips
3 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves
3/4-1 cup reduced-fat feta cheese, cubed
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar (I use a pomegranate red wine vinegar; yum!)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Arrange the bread cubes on a large baking sheet and lightly coat with nonstick cooking spray. Bake the cubes in the oven for about 10 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking. Check for doneness; they should feel stale, like croutons. Adjust cooking time if they need a bit longer.

2. Toss the olives and the next 7 ingredients (through feta cheese) together in a large salad bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the red wine vinegar, the mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, and oregano. Slowly stream in the olive oil, whisking constantly.

3. Pour the dressing over the vegetables; toss well to combine. Add in your reserved, cooled bread cubes and toss again to coat the cubes with dressing. Serve in shallow bowls.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Rosemary Apricot Squares

2011-06-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

This week's Baked Sunday Mornings project was to make these Rosemary Apricot Squares, a pleasant surprise if ever there was one. Why? Well, I guess I just didn't think I'd like these bars very much; they don't sound quite as exciting as most of the other Baked recipes do. I'll be honest with you; I don't eat apricots. I don't buy fresh apricots, and I don't buy dried apricots. I've also never turned a dried fruit into a jam filling, so this recipe marked a couple firsts for me. I'm glad I took the plunge, because these bars were simply delightful.

You start out with a pretty simple shortbread crust. The addition of fresh, minced rosemary lends specks of color to this otherwise blond layer, and gives it a nice, floral dimension that I really liked.

The next layer is a fruit filling layer, and it actually couldn't have been much easier to make. I cooked a bunch of dried apricots down in a mixture of water, honey, brandy, sugar, and a pinch of salt. They did take forever to get to what I considered the "ready" stage, but it was all worth the time spent on the stove. The mixture is transferred to a food processor and pureed until smooth. I tasted it, and I was surprised at how good it was. Maybe apricots deserve another try, I thought.

This fruit filling is then spread over the cooled shortbread crust and evened out. A final layer of delicious topping is sprinkled over the top of the fruit. It's just flour, dark brown sugar, flour, a bit of salt, some butter, and chopped pecans. It tastes like crumb cake topping, but mine was a lot sandier and less chunky than crumb cake topping. Plus, I patted mine down so that the top layer looks more smooth and uniform, with just the lumps of pecan visible.

The squares were so fragrant while they were in the oven; my curiosity was officially piqued. Before making these, I didn't even know if I was going to try them. I figured the whole batch would be sent off to work with Andy, never to be seen again. But now I wanted to eat one!

When it came time to cut these into squares, I trimmed the edges from the outer sides of the block. The apricot had seeped out a bit and burned on the sides, and it just wasn't as attractive as the rest of the bars were. So I snacked. I tried those edges, and I loved them. The shortbread is tender (maybe a bit too tender and crumbly, but still delicious!), the apricot layer is sweet and smooth and wonderful, and the topping is the perfect nutty, salty foil to the rest of the bar. This cookbook has done it again; it's taken flavors that are an odd pairing, and transformed them into an amazing, cohesive dessert that seems to work on every level. I am very impressed with the Rosemary Apricot Squares. Now I think I better make sure the rest of them do make it to work with Andy, because they are dangerous to keep around!

Find out if everybody else in the group was impressed with these bars, too. The blogroll can be found right here.

Shrimp Korma over White Rice

2011-06-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that anytime I see a recipe these days for an Indian or Mediterranean dish, it immediately catches my eye. I don't know what it is that makes me gravitate towards the food of these two regions, but I am constantly craving it. I have yet to tire of nice, spicy curries, served on a bed of steaming hot rice; similarly, a plate of warm pita bread and hummus always sounds like heaven, day or night.

This dish is one that I read through briefly and then pretty much went straight to the kitchen to see if I had all the ingredients on hand to make. Turns out, I didn't have everything, but I gave you my variation on the dish below. My differences were slight; I put in ground ginger instead of fresh, and I omitted fresh tomato in favor of a bag of frozen veggies. In my opinion, this dish turned out wonderfully. It was comfort food at its spicy best. The shrimp and veggies absorb the brightly flavorful curry broth so nicely, and the rice is the perfect base layer to ground the dish. Best of all, the whole meal takes less than a half hour to put together. You could allow the pot to simmer longer to meld the flavors even more, but even with the quick prep I found it all very tasty. I love it when something so exotic is ridiculously easy, too!

Shrimp Korma over White Rice
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. hot curry powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. salt, divided
2 cups vegetable broth
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup light coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen green peas
1 (16-oz.) frozen vegetables (I used broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower)
1 lb. peeled and deveined large shrimp
4 cups hot, cooked white rice
fat-free plain yogurt, optional

Directions
1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper and onion to pan; saute 2 minutes. Add flour and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add curry powder, ginger, garam masala, and 1/4 tsp. salt; cook 30 seconds, stirring.

2. Stir in broth and 1/3 cup water; bring to a boil. Stir in coconut milk and reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add peas, frozen veggies, shrimp, and the remaining salt; cook 5 minutes or until shrimp are done.

3. Spoon about 2/3 cup rice into each of 6 bowls. Top each serving with about 1 cup shrimp mixture and, if desired, 2 tsp. yogurt.

MSC: Father's Day Tee-Time Cupcakes

2011-06-15T04:29:00.000-07:00

This month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club pick was the Father's Day Tee-Time Cupcakes, chosen by Julie of Little Bit of Everything. I was eager to try my hand at something a bit different for this group: a project that focused on the cupcake's appearance, rather than the cupcake's taste or fun flavor. I knew my kids would be on board with this one, too!

For the cupcakes themselves, I tried a recipe that I've really been wanting to make for a long time. I found it a couple years ago in an issue of Cooking Light. It's a Coconut Cupcake with Lime Buttercream; yum! I just thought that sounded so summery and refreshing; plus, anything with lime automatically catches my eye. I tinted the lime buttercream frosting green, and decided to use that shade as my putting green surface, rather than covering the frosting in green sprinkles. I guess I figured my kids and I didn't really need a mouthful of sanding sugar in every bite!

My five year-old actually is frosting-averse, so he opted to decorate his with just some ground-up graham cracker crumbs (for the sand traps), some mini M&Ms (for the golf balls), and just a bit of green sanding sugar (to make some grass). I made my little flags by affixing some trimmed, bright orange Post-It notes to toothpicks; I thought it worked pretty well, although I did have to apply a bit of transparent tape to each to secure it.

This was a great way for me to spend an afternoon with my boys; they enjoyed the decorating, and eating the leftover decorations! As for the cupcakes themselves, it was a mixed bag. My husband and I thought they were delicious; I was so impressed with the texture of the cupcakes in particular. These are a lower fat version of a dessert, but they really don't taste like it. I think my substitution of coconut milk for skim milk in the recipe made the cakes a bit fluffier and lighter. Considering that some of the recipes from Martha's cupcake book have turned out denser and drier than I would have liked, this was a very nice surprise. If you like the lime/coconut flavor combination, I highly recommend these cupcakes. And I recommend the decorating idea if you need a tasty, fun way to spend an afternoon with kids! Thanks, Julie!

Coconut Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
Cooking spray
4.5 oz. all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp. potato starch (not potato flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2/3 cup light, unsweetened coconut milk
2 Tbsp. sweetened, flaked coconut
1/2 tsp. coconut extract

For the frosting:
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. fresh lime zest
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp. light, unsweetened coconut milk
4.75 oz. confectioners' sugar, sifted (about 1 1/3 cups)

Directions
Make the cupcakes: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin liners, then spray the liners with nonstick cooking spray. Set tin aside. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour and the next 3 ingredients (through salt) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.

2. Combine the 2/3 sugar and the 2 Tbsp. butter in a large bowl; mix at medium speed until well-blended; mixture should be the consistency of damp sand. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and the coconut milk in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Fold in coconut and coconut extract.

3. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched in the center. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; remove from tins onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting: 1. Combine the 3 Tbsp. butter, the lime zest and juice, and the coconut milk in a medium bowl; mix until well-blended and smooth. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, beating just until smooth. Frost each cupcake with about 2 1/2 tsp. frosting.

Meatless Mondays: Slow-Roasted Tomato Pasta

2011-06-13T05:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a meal that takes quite a bit of time to prepare, with hardly any effort put forth. The hardest thing required of you to do is wait around while you smell the slow-roasting tomatoes and wonder how much more you can stand! I found the recipe for Slow-Roasted Tomato Pasta in Cooking Light and knew it would be on my dinner table eventually; it just looked too good, and too easy, to pass up.

To roast the tomatoes, you simply cut them in half (or quarters), seed them, and let them roast in the oven at a lower temperature for 4 hours. The tomatoes get unbelievably sweet and tender; the flavors become intense and concentrated and wonderful. I highly recommend cooking tomatoes this way sometime; it's worth all that time in the oven.

To finish the meal, you saute some garlic in a skillet, then add crushed red pepper and the reserved tomatoes. A splash of pasta cooking liquid is added, then the mixture reduces slightly before being combined with the pasta noodles. Toss well, add a sprinkle of basil and Parmesan cheese, and you've got delicious simplicity at its finest! All that, and it's vegetarian!

Slow-Roasted Tomato Pasta
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 6 servings

Ingredients
3 lbs. plum tomatoes, cored and halved lengthwise
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 1/4 tsp. kosher salt, divided
1/4 tsp. black pepper
6 whole peeled garlic cloves
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
12 oz. uncooked long-cut pasta
dried basil, to taste
shredded or shaved Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with nonstick aluminum foil. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. oil, 3/4 tsp. salt, and the black pepper. Bake for 4 hours.

2. Heat a large skillet over low heat. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp. oil and the garlic; cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove garlic, and chop. Combine garlic, tomatoes, and crushed red pepper in pan.

3. Cook pasta in boiling water with 1 1/2 tsp. salt until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 3/4 cup cooking liquid. Increase heat to medium-high under the tomato mixture, and stir in the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a boil; cook 3 minutes. Add pasta; cook for 1 minute, tossing to combine. Remove from heat; transfer to serving dishes and sprinkle basil and cheese on top, if desired.

CEIMB: Apple Pecan Muffins

2011-06-09T04:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I almost completely spaced on this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly this week! I must really still be on vacation or something! But I managed to pull it together long enough to snap some photos of this week's recipe, Apple Pecan Muffins, chosen by Joanne of Apple Crumbles.

If you're wondering how I could have produced muffins to photograph when I could barely even manage to remember to post about them, the answer is very simple. I always, always have these muffins on hand in my house. Out of all of Ellie Krieger's recipes that I have tried (and I've probably tried over a hundred by now), this one is the hands-down household fave. In fact, my husband eats two every single work day! I freeze single and double batches of these muffins, so that he can easily thaw and tote some to work each and every day. I've even tried varying the basic formula, but he just likes the muffins the way Ellie intended them; no bells and whistles are needed here! It's probably the first recipe I've ever committed to memory; I could crank these puppies out in my sleep by now. One quick note: I can usually get at least 15 muffins per batch, rather than the yield of 12 listed in the book.

It's been about 3 years now since the first time I have made the Apple Pecan Muffins, and I still have not been able to bake my husband a muffin that he prefers over these. So I probably would have eventually chosen these as my weekly pick, but Joanne beat me to it! I'm so glad the group is finally making these, because in my opinion the whole world should know about these! Thanks to these muffins, I am no longer afraid to eat apple in baked goods. Not only that, but they've taught me how to transform any old muffin recipe into a lower-fat version, and for that I will always be grateful to Ellie.

If you made these muffins this week, I'm dying to hear how you liked them! Everybody's results can be found by heading over to the blogroll, here. And for the full, glorious recipe, you can go to Food Network's website and find it here.

Spinach Pistachio Pesto

2011-06-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

This pesto was another brain child of my week prior to vacation, when I had to get rid of some fridge staples and didn't want to grocery shop. I happened to purchase a pretty big ol' bag of pistachios not that long ago, and for some reason I was in the mood to make a pesto. Since I had some fresh cilantro and fresh spinach to use up, I decided to see what would happen if I combined all of these ingredients in my food processor!

I have to say, this was a pretty great idea! I generally make my pesto on the coarser side, because I like it to be less oily and caloric. I will drizzle a bit of olive oil into the pesto, and then I will use my hot, reserved pasta liquid in the pasta to compensate for the lack of moisture in the pesto. Normally, about 1/2 cup of the water will do the trick, but you can always add more if necessary. One final thing: I was all out of Parmesan cheese that day, which was a shame because it would have been so good in there. You can definitely add it into the pesto if you'd like, but I really liked the simplicity of this pesto without it. Either way, I don't really think you can lose with this one!

Spinach Pistachio Pesto
recipe by Bri
makes enough to cover 1 lb. pasta

Ingredients
4 cups spinach, loosely packed
1/2 cup cilantro (can use stems and leaves), loosely packed
1/2 cup raw, shelled pistachios, toasted
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2-1 tsp. salt
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions
1. Combine the pistachios and garlic cloves in the work bowl of a food processor; pulse to chop them finely. Add the spinach and cilantro; run the food processor long enough to make a coarse paste.

2. With the processor running, drizzle in the olive oil and about 1/2 cup to 1 cup warm water (reserved pasta water works very well for this). The pesto will still be similar to paste, but will be looser and almost creamy looking. Add salt to taste.

3. Toss with your choice of pasta shape; add Parmesan cheese before serving if desired.

Meatless Mondays: Spinach and Parmesan Souffles

2011-06-06T04:01:00.000-07:00

The week before we left town on vacation, I was trying my hardest to use up my pantry and refrigerator staples without having to buy more ingredients that may go bad before I had a chance to use them. The meals of that week, as a result, were some surprisingly tasty and innovative dishes, which I am proudly going to be sharing with you in coming days. First up is these Spinach and Parmesan Souffles.

My latest copy of Cooking Light featured several different types of souffle, most of them sweet souffles. While they all sound delicious, and are on my list of things to try, I zeroed in right away on the one savory offering. This one sounded so good, and I had all the ingredients in my house, so I decided to make it for dinner one evening. I figured a side salad and some bread would round out this meal nicely.

This was my first souffle, and I was extremely pleased with the results. There seem to be a few secrets to a successful souffle, which the article in the magazine detailed nicely. The first important step is to coat your individual serving dishes, or ramekins, with something that will allow the egg mixture to cling easily to the sides of the dish and to climb up. In some cases, a sprinkling of sugar may suffice, but for these savory souffles it was breadcrumbs that did the trick. It allows the mixture to rise beautifully, while adding another layer of flavor as well.

The next step is to allow the egg whites to come to room temperature before beating them. Make sure no yolk gets mixed in with the whites; they won't rise otherwise. When beating the egg whites, you want to get them to medium, not stiff, peaks. When you lift a beater straight up in the air, the egg whites should stand at a 45 degree angle, not at 90 degrees.

Finally, the incorporation of the egg whites into the rest of the mixture should be done by gently folding. You don't want to mix vigorously; this will deflate your whites and decrease the lift of your finished product. A great technique when folding ingredients is to scrape the spatula along the bottom of the bowl, then turning the bowl a quarter turn and scraping down along the botton again. Repeat this until the mixture looks uniform.

As you can see, following these steps to the letter results in a pillowy, light, airy souffle that rises high above the rim of the ramekin. You'll want to present and eat them fairly quickly once they are out of the oven; they do deflate dramatically after about 5 minutes.

Not only do these souffles look impressive, they taste wonderful. They are tangy from the Parmesan, with those delicious ribbons of spinach running throughout, and the eggs form a lovely crust on top while being almost impossibly soft inside. I was thrilled with my first souffles, and I do hope you'll give them a try, too. They are so much easier than you think they are!

Spinach and Parmesan Souffles
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 4 souffles

Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 1/2 Tbsp. dry breadcrumbs
1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
2/3 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 large egg yolks
4 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions
1. Place a baking sheet in the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat 4 (6-ounce) ramekins with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with breadcrumbs, tilting and turning dishes to coat sides completely.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly coat pan with cooking spray. Add spinach; cook for 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, tossing constantly. Place spinach in a colander; let stand 5 minutes. Squeeze excess liquid from spinach. Coarsely chop spinach.

3. Combine 2/3 cup milk and the next 4 ingredients (through black pepper) in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Cook for 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. Spoon mixture into a large bowl, and let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in spinach, cheese, and egg yolks.

4. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl, and let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Beat with a mixer at high speed until medium peaks form (do not overbeat). Gently stir one-fourth of egg whites into spinach mixture, and gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Gently spoon mixture into prepared dishes. Sharply tap dishes 2 or 3 times on counter to level.

5. Place dishes on preheated baking sheet; return baking sheet to 425 degree oven. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees; bake souffles at 350 for 21-24 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown on top. Serve immediately.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Orange Creamsicle Tart

2011-06-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend's recipe for Baked Sunday Mornings is getting us back to what we know and love about this ever-expanding group: an eye-catching, complicated confection that requires many steps and hours to make. What with us making Tomato Soup Cupcakes and Cowboy Cookies most recently, I was beginning to think those Baked boys had gone soft on us! The last two treats were easy to make, it's true, but finally with this week we're back with something showy and grand!

So, it's time for me to talk about this Orange Creamsicle Tart. What a project! It's basically a tart with a sweet crust infused with lots of orange zest. Next comes the bright, citrusy curd made from, among other things, real orange juice and lemon juice, plenty of citrus zest, and orange cream soda. The cream soda really gives it a wonderful flavor that you just would not get from a regular citrus curd. It was pretty divine; eating the curd straight reminds you of eating a melted creamsicle pop.

The next step was listed in the margin of this recipe in the book, and therefore optional, but I decided to go whole hog here and add it in. They instruct you to melt some white chocolate and then brush it all over the baked, cooled tart shell before adding any curd. It's supposed to prevent the crust from becoming soggy. In my opinion, it added a whole other layer of flavor that would have been missed here. It was truly inspired, I thought. As a crowning touch, fresh whipped cream that has been sweetened with a bit of sugar and a couple tablespoons of orange cream soda is spread over the top of the tart.

Though the tart took me the better part of an entire day to complete, it was totally worth every single step. The tart is divine, unique and delicious and a real conversation piece. If I'm not going for a chocolate dessert, my default is always something citrus. I can see this dessert coming to mind plenty in the future if I ever want to make something dreamy and luscious and non-chocolate. I hope everybody who made this agreed that it was a real doozy (and I mean that as a compliment!). Make sure to check out the blogroll, here.

A Week of Muffins: Cherry Craisin-Wheat Germ Muffins

2011-05-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

I'm closing out this week of muffins with what turned out to be my favorite of the bunch: Cherry Craisin-Wheat Germ Muffins. It's surprising, really. I definitely did not expect the muffin that sounded the healthiest, and let's fact it, the blah-est of the five, to be the one I favored. That's exactly what ended up happening, though! I absolutely loved these muffins; the best was saved for last.

These are extremely simple; none of the ingredients are wild or bizarre. The dried cherries were the only component I altered in the slightest; I opted to use cherry-flavored dried cranberries instead, because I just really like dried cranberries. There's a good amount of wheat germ in the batter, but you really don't taste it at all. It makes the muffins bulkier, and more filling, but it doesn't make them taste like health muffins or anything. There's also a small amount of allspice in there, which I believe gives the muffins a little special something else.

Thanks for bearing with me during my vacation week; next week I'm actually going to be gone, too. But at least this way I was able to still put some new material up on the blog for part of the time. Be sure to check back with me the first weekend in June, though! I'll be back with a bunch of stuff I had made prior to vacation, just waiting to be shared with you!

Cherry Craisin Wheat-Germ Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
6.75 oz. (about 1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cherry-flavored Craisins
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 7 ingredients (through allspice) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

2. Combine buttermilk, oil, and egg in a separate small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups, and coat liners with cooking spray (I simply sprayed my muffin tins, with no muffin-cup liners, and it worked fine). Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

4. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

A Week of Muffins: Pistachio-Chai Muffins

2011-05-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

Marching on with our week filled with diverse, delicious muffins, we'll discuss Pistachio-Chai muffins today! These muffins are the only ones out of this whole week's worth that contain nuts. We love pistachios, and I don't think I've ever made a muffin with pistachios in them until now. I have to say, they really work great. They're slightly salty, even though I bought the raw, pre-shelled kind, and it was a nice contrast to the sweet muffin.

Unlike Martha Stewart's Chai Cupcakes, which I made not too long ago, these enlist the use of the contents of a couple of chai tea bags. With Martha's cupcakes, you infused the milk that went into the cake batter with black tea, then added into the dry ingredients the usual spices you would find in a chai tea. So, the end results are actually pretty different. With these muffins, you can see little flecks of the tea leaves running through the batter, and in the finished product. Plus, these are even more dense than the cupcakes were, and those cupcakes were on the denser side.

That's not to say these muffins are bad, though; on the contrary, they're great if you're looking for something that tastes vastly different from your run-of-the-mill muffin. The tea makes it taste exotic; the nuts give it a nice texture. One note: there's a simple powdered sugar glaze in the recipe for these; you'll notice in my pictures that I left that off my muffins. I was trying to cut down on the sugar, but feel free to try the glaze for yourself.

Pistachio-Chai Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
7.9 oz. (about 1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 chai blend tea bags, opened
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp. Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread, melted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Nonstick cooking spray
1/3 cup shelled, dry-roasted pistachios, chopped
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut open tea bags; add tea to flour mixture, stirring well.

2. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Combine buttermilk, butter, Smart Balance, vanilla, and egg in a separate bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in a muffin tin and spray each with nonstick cooking spray (I simply sprayed my muffin tin with spray, which worked fine). Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle nuts evenly over batter. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out onto a cooling rack.

4. Combine the remaining 1/2 tsp. vanilla, powdered sugar, and 1 Tbsp. water, stirring until smooth. Drizzle evenly over the muffins.

A Week of Muffins: Bacon-Cheddar Corn Muffins

2011-05-25T03:07:00.000-07:00

The third muffin this week is a bit of a departure from the others, because it is a savory one rather than a sweet one. I was pretty excited about these Bacon-Cheddar Corn Muffins, since they really are so different from any muffin I would normally make. They're similar to cornbread, with that same grainy texture that comes from baking with cornmeal. The bacon is chopped finely so you can ensure many small bits are well incorporated throughout. There's a decent amount of shredded cheddar cheese in there, which of course is delicious with the bacon. Then, for an extra little something, you throw in a finely diced jalapeno pepper for heat.

Despite my excitement about making these, I was disappointed to discover that my husband was not the biggest fan of these. I thought a savory muffin would be right up his alley, but he told me that when he eats a muffin, he expects it to taste sweet. So in other words, biting into these was a bit of a letdown for him. As for me, I really loved them! They're best warm from the oven, and I know they'd be great with a little pat of butter to spread on them, though I ate them plain. They're not overwhelmingly spicy if that scares you (and obviously you could just leave out the jalapeno altogether), just slightly kick-y. These would be equally great with some kalamata olives tossed in to replace the hot pepper. And if the idea of a savory muffin is daunting to you, as it was to my husband, I say you should still bake these, but serve them with a nice soup or chili at dinnertime!

Bacon-Cheddar Corn Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
4.5 oz. (about 1 cup) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup (2 oz.) reduced-fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
4 center-cut bacon slices, cooked, drained, and crumbled
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 7 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Stir in bacon and jalapeno; make a well in the center of the mixture.

2. Combine buttermilk, oil, and egg in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups; coat with cooking spray (I simply sprayed my muffin cups, with no liners, and baked them right in the muffin tin, no problems). Divide batter among muffin cups.

4. Bake for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in tins for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

A Week of Muffins: Tuscan Lemon Muffins

2011-05-24T04:28:00.000-07:00

The muffins I'm going to tell you about today are my son's muffins of choice. These Tuscan Lemon Muffins are definitely a top contender for best of this week's muffins. They're delicately sweet, fluffy from the addition of ricotta cheese, and just tart enough to be refreshingly lemony.

Just like with the Chocolate-Pomegranate Muffins from yesterday, I had to make a couple small changes. First, I reduced the amount of granulated sugar in the batter (which turned out to be a wise decision for us; my son doesn't like things terribly sweet and these were just perfect), and then I also reduced the amount of olive oil by just a tablespoon. I find that if I shave off the amount of fat in a recipe just slightly, the results are still strong and I've saved us a couple calories at the same time. I wouldn't go omitting the oil altogether here, because I think the muffins do need some. Though these muffins are delicious, in the future I would definitely increase the amount of lemon zest in the batter. They're great, but I do wish the lemon flavor had provided more of a punch than it did. It's a small complaint, though! Otherwise I would make them again exactly as I did this time; they're already long gone!

Tuscan Lemon Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
7.9 oz. all-purpose flour (1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup)
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp. olive oil (the original recipe called for 1/4 cup)
1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Nonstick cooking spray
2 Tbsp. turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 3 ingredients (through salt); make a well in the center.

2. Combine the ricotta and the next 5 ingredients (through egg). Add ricotta mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups and coat with cooking spray (I simply sprayed my muffin tins with cooking spray, with no liners, and it worked fine). Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over the batter. Bake at 375 for 16 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pans before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

A Week of Muffins: Chocolate-Pomegranate Muffins

2011-05-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

This week, my blog's going to be a little bit different. My family and I are traveling to Orlando, Florida to visit Universal Studios, and then Disney World, and we'll be gone 9 days. Initially, I was considering just skipping the idea of doing blog posts at all for the duration of my vacation. After all, what's the point of being on vacation if you're still cranking out 3 or 4 blog posts while you're away? But then I had this brainstorm, and it worked out really well.

In the May 2011 issue of Cooking Light, I found a section on muffins. I love muffins, and I make them quite frequently. Imagine my delight when I was given 5 new muffin recipes in the latest issue of my mag! I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to try; they all sounded so good, and so different from one another. Finally, I took this as a sign that the stars were to align with both these muffins and with my vacation. I decided to bake all 5 of the muffins, and then I could make my vacation week Muffin Week! I just wrote all the blog posts ahead of time, and now I'll be able to publish each one gradually as the week unfolds. And you, as the reader, gets the 5 new muffin recipes, too!

First up: these Chocolate-Pomegranate Muffins. I decided to alter the Cooking Light recipe in a few different ways. It's a fantastic base recipe to play with; feel free to be creative in your version, too. The original recipe called for warm water for most of the liquid in the batter, and then a big handful of mini chocolate chips. Half the chips went into the batter, and the rest were sprinkled on top.

For my variation, I substituted coffee for the half of the water in the batter. I wanted a nice, kicky punch to my muffins. Honestly, I think I could have subbed coffee for all the water, since I did not actually taste coffee in the finished product. I do like to think that it gave the muffins a more intense chocolate flavor, though. As for the mini chips, they still adorned the tops of my muffins. But for inside the batter, I decided to throw in some chocolate covered pomegranate seeds I recently found at Trader Joe's. I loved them in there; they added a bit of fruit, as well as a nice little tangy bite every so often. I'd highly recommend trying to get your hands on some of these, but if you can't find them any dried fruit would be nice in there. Chocolate and fruit for breakfast? What's not to love?

Chocolate-Pomegranate Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
7.9 oz. all-purpose flour (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup warm brewed coffee
1/2 cup warm water (you can use 1 cup coffee and omit the water, too)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup chocolate covered pomegranate seeds (or just use dried pomegranate seeds)
1/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk.

2. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Combine the coffee, water, and the next 4 ingredients (through egg) in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Stir in the chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. Add the oil mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups, and coat liners with cooking spray (I coated my muffin tins with cooking spray, omitted the papers, and I was fine). Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the 1/4 cup mini chips evenly over the batter.

4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack before turning them out onto the rack to cool completely.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Cowboy Cookies

2011-05-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

For this week's Baked Sunday Mornings, we got to make something we don't usually make for this group: cookies. Cowboy Cookies, to be exact. And I have to tell you, I was really excited for these cookies! Yet another play on sweet/salty flavor pairings, these are unique and delicious.

At first glance, these may just appear to be your standard, everyday chocolate chip cookies. No, sir, that would not be entirely accurate! In fact, these are chocolate chips cookies, but enhanced. They are enhanced with a heavy dose of oats and my personal new favorite cookie ingredient, salty pretzel sticks. This has to be one of the greatest ideas ever! I'm telling you, the first time you bite down on a bit of pretzel, it's a surprise. But it's an incredibly pleasant one. The crunch, the salt, the flavor; it all just works so well! If you are a fan of chocolate covered pretzels, consider this your cookie.

I love the addtion of the oats, too, although I would not have thought to put them in there if the Baked boys hadn't told me to. It's definitely not your grandma's oatmeal raisin cookie, that's for sure! In fact, I'm glad there are no raisins or nuts in these cookies, because neither are needed at all. This cookie is different, but familiar. It's indulgent, but hearty enough to seem at least a little bit good for you. I don't think I need to do any more convincing here; you just need to make them!

I'm eager to see if everybody else in the group were as blown away by these cookies as I was. I hope so! You can see all the yummy results over at the blogroll, here.

CEIMB: Lemon-Ginger Iced Tea with Berry Cubes

2011-05-19T04:58:00.000-07:00

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was supposed to be the Peach Pie Smoothies. However, once again, I found myself not really wanting to make this one since it contains my nemesis, yogurt. I feel bad that I haven't been participating with the correct recipes for two weeks now, especially because next week and the week after I will be on vacation, and therefore unable to participate!

So, I decided to go ahead and make next week's recipe a bit early and post about it today. Next week's recipe is the Lemon-Ginger Iced Tea with Berry Cubes, chosen by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet. This one was such a great, refreshing beverage to make for springtime! And we enjoy both iced tea and lemonade around these parts, so I figured this one would go over pretty well.

As usual with Ellie's recipes, this one is easy to make. You allow a saucepan of water, honey, and chopped ginger to boil, and them simmer briefly. Once that is finished, you add in 6 tea bags and steep it for a while. Strain out the solids, and then add a bunch more water, along with 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice. Then you chill it out in the fridge for a few hours. To accompany the iced tea, Ellie instructs you to plop some fresh raspberries in an ice cube tray, fill the tray with water, and freeze it until you have these adorable little berry cubes. Since my kids and my husband just did some strawberry picking over the weekend, I decided to slice those and use them in my cubes.

The tea turned out delicious! Not too sweet, just the right amount of lemon, and the berry cubes were definitely the highlight. I didn't have time to run out and get fresh mint and extra lemon for garnish, but I feel like the cubes do the job of a garnish nicely, so we didn't really miss the other stuff too much. Thanks to Mary for the pick, and my apologies to Chaya of Comfy Cook's Kosher Kitchen for skipping out on the Peach Pie Smoothie! Do head over to her blog to see how it turned out.

Butterscotch Krimpets (With Peanut Butter Variation)

2011-05-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

I may live in the Midwest currently, but at heart I am still an East Coast girl. I was born and bred in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and most of my family still lives there today. One of the fondest food memories I have from when I was growing up is eating the region's Tastykake products.

Tastykakes is a line of baked goods that is found primarily in Pennsylvania; in fact, I'm not even sure if you can purchase them in stores in any other state (though you can order them online). There are several products that are available, among them kreme-filled cupcakes, donuts, and little pies, but my favorites were always the Butterscotch Krimpets and the Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes. Nearly every day in my lunch box, my mom would pack for me either one of these delicious treats. I loved them both equally; to choose which one I preferred would be similar to choosing which of my two sons I favor. In other words, it's impossible! They are each scrumptious in their own right, although they taste different from one another.

The Butterscotch Krimpet is a light, airy sponge cake, covered with a sweet butterscotch frosting and sliced into long, zigzag-y strips and packaged in twos. They're so good; I can still recall unwrapping them, flipping then over and eating them cake-side first, then the frosting. Weird, but yummy!

Then there was the Peanut Butter Kandy Kake. The cake part is similar to that of the krimpet; both are light, springy vanilla cakes. But the kandy kake is a round little cake, smeared with peanut butter and then dipped in chocolate, so that the entire cake is surrounded by it. Again, yummy! I would eat these by nibbling off all the chocolate first, until all that was left was the peanut butter-covered cake. And I had to eat them slowly; that way I could truly savor every bite.

Now that you know what a devotee I was as a child to these Tastykakes, you can understand how excited I was to know that I could recreate these treats in the comfort of my own home! That's right; there's copycat recipes out there, and I've made them! I made the Butterscotch Krimpets a few weeks back, fully expecting that I would be the only member of my household to be consuming them. I was pleasantly surprised when my oldest son and my husband both fell head over heels for the krimpets and devoured every last one (after I had snagged a few, of course)! I was thrilled to be sharing my krimpet love with them!

A few days after the krimpets were all gone, my son asked me when we could make more. He said he missed having them around. So, I decided to make them again, but this time I thought I would cut the cake part in half after baking, and frost only half in the butterscotch frosting. The other half, I decided, was going to taste like the Kandy Kakes.

My mom actually has a killer recipe for the Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes in which you bake the sponge cake, then slather it with peanut butter while the cake is still warm. Once that has cooled, you melt a bunch of chocolate and spread that all over the top. So decadent, so good. However, I just decided to find a different frosting recipe that combined the peanut butter and the chocolate into one convenient little package. It still hits the same nummy flavor notes, but it took about half the time to put together.

So, feel free to try one, or both, of the recipes below. Either way, I promise that you can't go wrong! It definitely beats paying for a box of these to be delivered to your house; they're every bit as wonderful as the originals. Just note: the measurements below for the frosting indicate the amount needed to frost the whole cake. So if you were to divide the cake in half and frost each half in a different frosting, you would need to cut both frosting recipes in half.

Butterscotch Krimpets
adapted from Baking Bites
makes 20-24 pieces

Ingredients
For the sponge cake:
4 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk (2% is fine)
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

For the butterscotch frosting:
6 Tbsp. butterscotch chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 Tbsp. milk
1/4 tsp. salt

For the chocolate peanut butter frosting (from Food.com):
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 oz. mascarpone cheese, softened (or cream cheese)
1 pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3-4 Tbsp. milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (Dutch process)

Directions
Make the sponge cake: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 15x10 jelly roll pan (17x11 works too) and line the bottom with parchment or nonstick aluminum foil. In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer), beat together eggs and sugars until pale and thick, 3-5 minutes. Beat in vanilla.

2. While the eggs are beating, heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat. Once the butter is just melted and the milk is steaming, but not boiling, remove from heat and set aside.

3. Gradually sift flour, baking powder, and salt into the egg mixture; mix at low speed until just combined. With the mixer running, still at low speed, drizzle in the milk and butter mixture and mix until batter is uniform.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan, spread it out evenly, and bake for 20-25 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, and when the top is golden and springs back when touched lightly. Allow cake to cool for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

Make the butterscotch frosting: 1. In a heatproof bowl, combine the butterscotch chips and butter; melt in the microwave and set aside for a few minutes to cool to room temperature. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer.

2. Add the confectioners' sugar, milk, and salt to the bowl; beat until everything is well combined, and free of lumps. Spread in a thin layer across the cake. Cut into squares; cake can be stored for a few days at room temperature in an airtight container.

Make the chocolate peanut butter frosting: 1. Beat together the peanut butter, mascarpone (or cream cheese), and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Blend in the vanilla and 3 Tbsp. of the milk until mixed well.

2. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar and cocoa powder, beating just until incorporated. Add in the extra Tbsp. of milk if the frosting appears too thick or not spreadable enough. Spread in a thin layer across the cake. Cut into squares; cake can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Meatless Mondays: Easy Onion Tart

2011-05-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

I normally try my best to make things from scratch, but there are times when convenience becomes a necessity. I don't like having to use pre-made doughs and things like that, but even I have to admit that they can be so easy to pull out and take advantage of. This tart was the result of a semi-homemade dough mixed with ingredients that were very easy to prepare, resulting in a yummy, pizza/calzone-like dinner!

The pizza dough (I used thin crust) is wrapped around a filling comprised of caramelized onions, mushroom Duxelles (which I had previously made and frozen, and for this I thawed out only what I needed), and two kinds of cheeses. You form a cool diamond-shape with your tart as you fold the corners over onto the filling, then bake for around 20 minutes or so. It's so easy; there's really not much else I can say about it. And of course, this one would be easy to add variations to. I'm sure spinach would be fantastic in there; if you wanted to make this non-meatless, sausage or chicken, or even bacon, would work very well. It's not something I would make every day, but it definitely works for a crazy day when you just don't have time to be making dough from scratch. Give it a try!

Easy Onion Tart
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1/2 Tsp. olive oil
3 to 4 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup Duxelles (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 store-bought thin crust pizza dough
1/4 cup (1 oz.) reduced-fat feta cheese
1/4 cup (1 oz.) reduced-fat Swiss cheese

Directions
1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add the olive oil and swirl the pan to coat. Add the onions and cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Once the onions have started to become tender, lower the heat the medium-low and cover with the lid. Continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are browned and have reduced. Stir in the Duxelles; cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until the mixture is warmed through.

2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. On a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spread out the pizza dough evenly. Sprinkle the 1/4 cup feta cheese across the center of the dough, leaving at least a 2-inch border. Add the onion mixture on top of the feta, allowing it to reach to just 1 inch from the edges. Top with the Swiss cheese.

3. Bake the tart for about 20-25 minutes. You want the dough to be cooked all the way through and brown around the edges, and for the cheese to be melted and bubbly. Cut into 4 wedges and serve.

MSC: Tiramisu Cupcakes

2011-05-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

This month's selection for the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club was the Tiramisu Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting. These were chosen by Jennifer of The Rookie Baker, whom I am in both this group and the Craving Ellie group with. I was intrigued by these cupcakes, because while I am not too familiar with tiramisu in general, I did wonder how it would translate into cupcake form.

My understanding of tiramisu is that it is a dessert composed of ladyfinger cookies that have been soaked in wine and/or coffee. The dessert is topped with a whipped cream (I think; see, my knowledge of actual tiramisu is limited!) frosting and then dusted with cocoa powder. Since I am not usually a fan of desserts that taste like booze, I wasn't sure if I'd like these, though I was certainly open to trying it!

The cupcakes themselves are not too difficult to make; they just require a bunch of different steps. You infuse milk with vanilla bean flavor by heating it up on the stovetop with a vanilla bean pod. Some butter is stirred into this at the end of the heating process. Meanwhile, you beat together some eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until combined, then heat that up on the stove, as well. You just want the sugar to dissolve, and for the mixture to become warm. Next, you beat the eggs/sugar on high speed until the mixture becomes very thick and the batter is almost ribbon-like when drizzled from a spoon.

You blend in cake flour, baking powder, and salt next to form a cake batter. Once everything is combined, you divide it into cupcake tins and bake. Once the cupcakes have baked and cooled completely, you brush each with a simple mixture of brewed coffee or espresso, marsala wine, and a bit of sugar. I was concerned that these would become too soggy, so I stuck the baked cupcakes inside a second cupcake liner each to minimize the possibility of them leaking all over. As it turned out, it wasn't really a problem, but at least I was prepared!

You allow this mixture to soak in for a while, and then your cupcakes are ready to be frosted. I was eager to taste this frosting, because last week I made a different mascarpone frosting for the Tomato Soup Cupcakes that I didn't care for too much. This one's made with whipped heavy cream, mascarpone cheese, and some confectioners' sugar. Just those three ingredients. And I have to say, this one really worked for me! True, I did not really taste the mascarpone when all was said and done, but it did add some body to the otherwise light and airy frosting. It was smooth and divine. A sprinkling of cocoa powder over the top of this, and these are ready.

I'm still glad I tried these, but I have to admit that they are not my absolute favorite. There's just something about the soggy, soaked cupcake tops that jut does not appeal to me. However, my husband took these in to his office and they received rave reviews, so clearly I am in the minority here. That said, they were a lot of fun to make and were very impressive.

Thank you, Jennifer, for giving me the opportunity to branch out and try something new. I wonder how everybody else liked these? Click on over to the MSC blogroll to see all the other results, here!

CEIMB Rewind: Breakfast Cookies

2011-05-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

There won't be any post about Ellie's Muesli Parfaits today, unfortunately. Those parfaits were the assigned recipe for today, chosen by Sarah of Sarah's Kitchen Adventures for Craving Ellie in My Belly. However, I opted to do an Ellie rewind instead.

Why? Well, the main reason is because I really, really dislike yogurt, and that is one of the main ingredients in the Muesli Parfaits. And while I have been known to forge ahead and make recipe of Ellie's that I don't think I'll like, I had to take exception with this one. I wish I could like yogurt, but there just seems to be no getting around it. I could have made this recipe for my husband, but I had actually just made Ellie's Breakfast Cookies late last week, and it just felt like doing a rewind here would be a good way for me to blog about them.

These Breakfast Cookies were made all the way back in the first week of July of 2009, nearly two years ago! I was not yet part of the group, and may never have known about this cookies, since they are not found in either of Ellie's cookbooks. But I've seen them on Food Network's website and they are reviewed very well, so I wanted to give them a shot. Plus, I'm building up a small arsenal of portable baked goods that I can take on my upcoming trip to Disney World (whoo-hoo!), and these fit the bill nicely.

The ingredients list for these cookies is long, but the recipe itself is very simple to put together. The cookies are made from, among other things, whole wheat and all-purpose flour, rolled oats, bran cereal, raisins, and walnuts. I substituted pistachios for the walnuts, and Fiber One Bran Cereal for the bran flakes. Also, I had no carrot baby food, so I just used some unsweetened applesauce. The cookies turned out hearty, tender, and just sweet enough. I think maybe two of these could suffice for a nice breakfast; one may not be quite enough. Still, I am very excited to take these on my trip for quick morning fixes!

Thanks to Sarah for hosting this week, and I do apologize for not making these along with everybody. If you're curious about whether the other members of the group liked their parfaits, be sure to check out the blogroll, here!

Shrimp, Swiss Chard, and Swiss Cheese Quesadillas

2011-05-10T02:26:00.000-07:00

I was having so much fun last week, posting Cinco de Mayo recipes, that I wanted to make just one more thing that could possibly pass for Mexican. When all was said and done, I think this recipe turned out a bit too out-there to be an authentic Mexican dish, but I really enjoyed it all the same!

I had seen the basic idea for these quesadillas in Cooking Light Magazine, but I took the concept and ran far, far away with it. There was an article last month about putting dark, leafy greens into your quesadilla, usually with some type of protein, and using less cheese. It's an unexpected surprise in between your tortilla, but it's very nutritious and completely tasty. I'm always up for trying new ideas, so I forged on with this one and made it my own.

For my greens, I chose mustard greens. For my protein, I chose to work with shrimp. For my cheese, I was feeling like some Swiss, so that's what I went with. I started out by sauteeing some onions low and slow, then I added garlic, red bell pepper, and finally the mustard greens. Once the greens had wilted down considerably, I turned the heat off and went about assembling the quesadillas. They came together very quickly, and then they baked up in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. The resulting quesadilla was scrumptious! Sweet from the onions, bitter/flavorful from the mustard greens, and the shrimp was great in there. I can only imagine how great sausage would be instead, but this totally worked, too. Feel free to be way more generous with your cheese than I was; I'm a cheese conservationist!

Shrimp, Mustard Greens, and Swiss Cheese Quesadillas
recipe by Bri
makes 8 quesadillas

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 large yellow onions, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 cups mustard greens (1 bunch), stemmed and chopped
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
32 shrimp (the size I used was 26/30 per lb.), cooked, shelled, and tails removed
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
8 flour tortillas
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Once the onions have started to soften, lower the heat to medium-low, cover the skillet, and continue to cook for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the lid from the onions, allow to cook for another 2 minutes, then add the red bell pepper and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes more, then add in about half the mustard greens. Toss and turn the greens, allowing them to wilt evenly. Sprinkle the Old Bay seasoning over the greens, then add the other half. Once all the greens have wilted down, remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.

3. Take your tortillas and begin to assemble the quesadillas. Lay a tortilla flat, then spread 1/8 of the greens mixture on it. On top of this, add your shrimp (I sliced my shrimp each in half lengthwise, making them extra thin, but this is optional), 4 per quesadilla. Next comes the Swiss cheese, 1 Tbsp. per quesadilla. Fold the tortilla in half, so it forms a half moon, then spray the top with cooking spray. Transfer the quesadilla to a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

4. Bake the quesadillas for 8-10 minutes, until the filling is very hot, the cheese is melted, and the tortillas have just begun to brown and crisp up on the edges. Cut into wedges and serve.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Tomato Soup Cupcakes

2011-05-08T02:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that title correctly. For this week's Baked Sunday Mornings assignment, we were to make the Tomato Soup Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting. As bizarre as this cupake may sound, I actually have heard about these before reading the Baked book. I can't say that I ever thought I'd be baking them, though! Lucky for me, then, that this cupcake came up in the rotation for the group.

I've gotten used to setting aside huge chunks of time to make the Baked recipes, and I'm fine with that. However, if you're looking for a nice, easy recipe that is still just as elegant as the other offerings in this book, I definitely recommend that you give these a try. I was able to throw this whole thing together, including frosting the cupcakes, within my two year-old's naptime! I can't beat that!

So, what's up with the whole tomato soup thing, anyway? Where did this originate? Who ever thought to put a can of tomato soup in their cake batter, and then feed it to their loved ones? I really don't know, but they must have been on to something. This is one of those oldey-timey cake recipes that has been passed down for years, and I'm sure a lot of people hold this cake near and dear to their hearts. It is basically a spice cake, almost reminiscent of a carrot cake, without the carrot. The "secret" ingredient (not so secret if you know the title of the recipe, though!) dyes the batter a pale, pretty orange hue that still does not betray its identity. I mean, who would ever guess that the cake is orange because it contains some Campbell's?

As I said before, the cake itself came together in no time flat, and baked up beautifully. I loved the nice, domey tops on these! Next comes the frosting, which was a Mascarpone/Butter combo. I've made many a cream cheese frosting, but this was my inaugural batch of mascarpone frosting. While I've heard mascarpone described as a "fancy cream cheese," I actually think it's kind of its own thing. It's good, don't get me wrong. It just was not what I had expected. The frosting, to me, tasted very sweet, almost like a buttercream. Again, that's fine, but I supposed I was in for a tangy, tart/sweet topping to my cake and instead it tasted just sweet. Also, I think that maybe I just whipped this up wrong, because I accidentally threw the butter and mascarpone in the mixer at the same time. Only after this did I read in the book that the butter was supposed to be mixed first, all by its lonesome. Oops. My frosting, as a result of this (perhaps?) seemed a bit thin or something. It was not at all fluffy, but it spread just fine.

I'm glad I tried these, but I can't make any promises that I would bake them again. If I wanted a spice cake, I would probably just make a regular spice cake, sans soup. As for the frosting, if I absolutely had to make the cupcakes again, I would sub in just a cream cheese frosting for the mascarpone. Later this week, I'll be making Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Cupcakes, and they call for a mascarpone frosting as well! The preparation and ingredients differ from this one, so we'll see if I like that one better. Check out how the other members of Baked Sunday Mornings felt about this recipe by clicking on the link here.

Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie

2011-05-06T04:52:00.000-07:00

And now, I present to you my fifth and final Cinco de Mayo recipe: Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie! I just had to end on a high note, and this one definitely takes the cake (er, pie?). I found this amazingly flavorful pie in my latest copy of Cooking Light Magazine, and I thought of it when I was planning my Cinco de Mayo menu. I'm glad I did; otherwise this wonderful gem may have slipped through the cracks, and gone unmade. That would have been a real shame.

Now I know Cinco de Mayo was technically yesterday, but so what? You hardly need an excuse to make this pie. I mean, it's straight from a "light cooking" magazine, so anytime can be pie time! If you need any more convincing, I suppose I could try harder....

You start out with a graham cracker crust, enhanced with a big sprinkle of cinnamon and lightened by using part butter, part egg white for the binder. I made mine even more cinnamon-y by using half cinnamon-flavored graham crackers.

Next, you make a spicy chocolate pudding. Man, is this stuff good! It's got both unsweetened dark cocoa powder and real, melted dark chocolate, which makes it taste oh-so-rich. Espresso powder strengthens the chocolate flavor, while a dash of cayenne pepper makes the whole concoction a whole lot more intriguing. The pudding was a snap to make and I found that part of the recipe much more painless than I expected it to be.

Finally, after chilling the pudding layer for a few hours inside the pie crust, you slather on your final layer. Now, this is the one part of the recipe that I may try to improve upon in the future, because you use Cool Whip. Just Cool Whip. Nothing homemade, or complicated. But that kinda disappointed me, because I do try to make things completely from scratch a lot of the time, and my husband could tell right away that this came out of a tub. That's okay, though. The pie was still unbelievably delicious and decadent, especially for a Cooking Light pie. It's the stuff of healthy-living dreams, I promise!

Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 1 (9-inch) pie

Ingredients
5 sheets honey graham crackers
5 sheets cinnamon graham crackers
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, plus more for garnish
1/4 tsp. salt, divided
2 eggs, divided (1 egg white for the crust, 1 whole egg and a yolk for the pudding)
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
Cooking spray
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. instant espresso powder
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper (cayenne pepper)
1 3/4 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk
2 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip Lite, thawed

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare the crust: crush the graham crackers in a food processor, until the crumbs resemble sand. Add 2 Tbsp. sugar, the cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp. salt and pulse to combine. Drizzle in the egg white and the 2 Tsp. butter until the crumbs are moistened. Transfer the crumb mixture to a 9-inch pie plate that has been coated with nonstick cooking spray. Press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Bake at 375 for 9 minutes or until fragrant and lightly toasted. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

2. To prepare filling, combine 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, espresso, cayenne, remaining 1/8 tsp. salt, egg, and egg yolk in a medium-sized bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Place the milk in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until milk reaches 180 degrees or until tiny bubbles form around edge (do not boil).

3. Gradually add hot milk to egg mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return milk mixture to pan; cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until thick and bubbly (mine only took about 5 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add dark chocolate; stir until smooth.

4. Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl for 10 minutes or until mixture cools, stirring occasionally. Spoon filling into crust, and cover surface of filling with plastic wrap. Chill for 3 hours or until set; remove plastic wrap. Spread the Cool Whip evenly over the pudding layer; sprinkle with ground cinnamon to garnish.

CEIMB: Roasted Tomato and Almond Pesto Pasta

2011-05-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to be able to present you with this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, because Ellie Krieger herself has chosen it for us! That's right. Somehow Ellie managed to find out about our little blogging group, and she kindly offered to share with us a new dish that she has come up with. Needless to say, we jumped on it and it was placed on the rotation for this week.

The dish, Whole Grain Spaghetti with Roasted Tomato and Almond Pesto (or whole grain rotini, which is what I used), is definitely one of Ellie's best, at least in our opinion! Not only is it packed with flavor and nutrition, but it's absolutely, uniquely delicious and so very easy to make! As you are boiling some water for pasta, you can easily assemble the pesto sauce. It starts out with some toasted almonds and a clove of garlic, which are chopped finely in a food processor.

Meanwhile, you slow-roast about 6 tomatoes in the oven (Ellie also presents the option of using a can of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes), which makes the tomatoes' flavor concentrate and become tangy-sweet. Sooo, sooo good. After they have roasted, into the food processor they go, along with some fresh basil, red wine vinegar, and crushed red pepper flakes.

You blend in some olive oil, then add salt to taste. What I could not get over at this point was how creamy the sauce became. I suppose if I had not processed the ingredients too much, I could have had a chunkier pesto, but I happen to like it the way it turned out. It wasn't completely smooth; there were still little nut pieces and basil flecks, which gave the sauce a great texture. Finally, you throw in some Parmesan cheese and gently pulse to combine. That's it for the sauce.

I was about 97% faithful to the original recipe. I did use rotini instead of spaghetti, and I also reduced the olive oil by 1 Tbsp. (I used 2 instead of the recommended 3) and bumped up the red wine vinegar from 1 tsp. to 4 tsp. I do like things tart, and this made it slightly more so. Finally, I served the pasta on a bed of fresh spinach, just to plump up the bowls a bit. Overall, we absolutely loved, loved, loved this dish! Even my son, who routinely gives me trouble at dinnertime, inhaled this and declared it "really good!" That's a huge compliment from him!

So, Ellie, if you're reading this, thanks so much for this wonderful recipe! I can hardly wait to make it again (and again). And if you have any other new recipes lying around that you want us to try, please don't hesitate to share! I hope the other ladies in the group had as much fun making, and eating, this as I did! You can find this recipe on our main CEIMB site, here. That's also where you will find the blogroll, so do stop by if you get a chance!

Mexican Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

2011-05-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

It's Cinco de Mayo, and it's time for dessert! Well, actually, it might not really be time for dessert yet, depending on when you are reading this. But since I have already blogged about a starter, a beverage, and a main course this week, clearly at this point you need a little something sweet to wash it all down with!

So I made this wonderful Mexican Chocolate Pistachio Fudge. We're big fudge fans, the husband and I. But I usually stick to my tried-and-true fudge recipe, and rarely branch out from that. There have been some pretty interesting results the few times I have strayed from what I know works. A certain time I made bacon fudge comes to mind...

Anyway, this fudge is a snap to make. I did use my regular recipe as a base, but I expanded on it and I'm really happy with the results. I made the chocolate more "Mexican"-tasting by adding ground cinnamon and cayenne pepper. I thought pistachios would be great in there, so I mixed in a bunch and then scattered even more over the top. The fudge turned out creamy, rich-tasting, and so interesting with that little bit of spice and heat. You don't really taste the cayenne pepper, but you know it's there because you get a nice little burn at the back of your throat after you've eaten a piece. You could leave it out, and the fudge would still be great, but I think it's necessary in there. It's a fiesta in fudge form (sorry, I couldn't resist)!

Mexican Chocolate Pistachio Fudge
adapted from about.com
makes 36-40 squares, depending on the size you cut them

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. butter
2/3 cup fat-free evaporated milk
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
12 oz. (1 bag) semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
6 oz. raw, shelled pistachios, divided

Directions
1. Line a square, 8x8 inch baking pan with nonstick foil, or regular foil that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. Combine the marshmallows and chocolate chips in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a medium, heavy saucepan, combine the butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt. Turn the heat to medium-high, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Allow the mixture to come up to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Stir in the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and vanilla, and continue mixing until the marshmallows and chips have almost completely melted. Throw in about 3/4 of the pistachios and continue mixing well. Note: you should work quickly here, because the fudge starts to harden around this point and it becomes harder and harder to stir.

4. Spread the fudge into the prepared pan and even it out, smoothing the top. Before it has a chance to set, sprinkle the remaining pistachios over the top of the fudge and press down lightly so the nuts will stick. Place the pan in the fridge to allow the fudge to set completely before removing and cutting into squares.

Burritos (And They're Vegetarian!)

2011-05-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

Our entree this week in our Cinco de Mayo fiesta was something I've never made before, but have wanted to for a while. Now that I eat (and love!) black beans, and have been working more with meatless dishes, I thought I would make a nice black bean burrito with some soy chorizo and corn.

I ate the most delicious vegetarian burrito at a Mexican restaurant a couple weeks back, and it inspired me to try making one of my own. The burrito that I ate before contained flavorful rice, corn, squash, and black beans, so mine is very loosely modeled on that one. I liked the idea of the meatless sausage for heat, and I figured I can always try making the squash variation later this summer, when Andy's parents start sharing their bumper crop of summer squash and zucchini with us!

For the rice, I simmered mine in some salsa and added onion and garlic to the pot for flavor. When it came time to cook my meat, I did half soyrizo and half non-spicy veggie crumbles. The soyrizo by itself would have been pretty spizy, so I wanted to cut it down a bit. After the meat had a chance to cook, I added some ground cumin, a can of black beans, and some thawed frozen corn.

I read somewhere that it makes the burrito-rolling process much easier if you warm the tortillas first in the oven, so I used that method and it worked beautifully. My rolling skills still leave an awful lot to be desired, but I was at least able to roll mine up so that nothing fell out and the sides were more or less tucked in. The burritos were baked in the oven for about 10 minutes, just enough to lightly crisp the tortillas and warm the filling through. These were so good dipped in some of my Salsa Verde, and Andy slathered sour cream all over his and loved it. He had cheese mixed in with his filling, but I did not. Try the cheese if you love it; I was just trying to cut down on my calories! And I loved these burritos, cheese or no cheese.

Black Bean and Soyrizo Burritos
recipe by Bri
makes about 10-12 burritos

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 a red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups white rice
3 cups water (you can use vegetable broth)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. salsa (any variety, any heat level)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
4 oz. Soyrizo (vegetarian chorizo sausage), casings removed
4 oz. Morningstar Farms veggie crumbles (or any combination of meat/veggie meat that adds up to a total of 8 oz.)
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 1/3 cups frozen corn, thawed
10-12 (large or burrito-size) flour tortillas
Cheddar cheese, optional, for filling
Hot sauce, optional, for filling (we like Cholula)
Sour cream, optional, for serving
Salsa, optional, for serving

Directions
1. In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic; cook for another minute, stirring frequently. Add the rice and stir occasionally to toast the grains, about 2 minutes. Stir in the salsa until it coats the rice. Add the water (or broth), bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cover with a lid. Allow to cook, covered, for 20 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is fully cooked. Fluff with a fork and let stand 5 minutes before using.

2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet turned to a medium heat, heat the (frozen) veggie crumbles until hot, stirring frequently. After about the first 5 minutes of cooking, add in the soyrizo and continue to cook. Keep stirring; the meat mixture should take about 10 minutes until it reaches the fully cooked stage.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 and place the tortillas on a large piece of foil. Sprinkle the tortillas with just a few drops of water and cover completely with foil. Warm the tortillas in the oven for 10 minutes (this makes them pliable and easier to handle when filling).

4. After the meat mixture has had a chance to fully cook, add in the ground cumin, the black beans, and the corn. Cook just until the beans and corn are completely heated through, and remove from the heat.

5. To assemble the burritos, place a heated tortilla on a work surface. Add about 1/4 cup rice mixture and 1/4 cup meat mixture to the tortilla; top with cheese and/or hot sauce, if desired. Roll the tortilla over the filling, then tuck in the sides. Roll all the way up, and transfer to a greased bakin sheet, seam side down. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and filling.

5. Bake the burritos in a 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes, until the tops are starting to crisp and the filling is very hot. Note: this step is optional, but we really enjoyed the burritos warmed up this way. Serve with sour cream, salsa, or anything else you'd like!