Grilled Baby Peppers (for Wine and Cheese Date Night)

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.

MSC: Tiramisu Cupcakes

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!

Sangria

Next up in our week full of Cinco de Mayo recipes: Sangria! I haven't had that much Sangria in my life; in fact, I only just tried it recently for the very first time. However, I loved it at first sip. It's a red wine that has been steeping pretty much all day in fruit juices and sugar and, I am sure, a variety of other things depending on how it is made. Certainly, there are endless possibilities with Sangria.

I found a pretty basic, standard (I think!) recipe that I wanted to try out. I did not let it sit for 24 hours before serving, as the instructions indicated. I gave it over 8 hours, though, and there is still some left in the fridge, so we'll have to see if the extra day really makes a difference!

For our purposes, my husband and I bought both ginger ale and club soda as the carbonated portion of the beverage. I prefer to drink diet sodas normally, but I don't think that would have been very good in there. So, it was ginger ale for hubby, and club soda for me. I have to tell you, I really did not miss the sweetened ginger ale at all. The club soda worked out very well; it gave it fizz, and I thought the Sangria was just sweet enough. One final note, though; I do very much apologize for my lackluster photos! I really need to practice my beverage picture-taking; I just can't seem to figure out the best camera angles when it comes to drinks. Oh, well. Here's the recipe!

Sangria
adapted from about.com
makes about 12 or so cups (not including ice)

Ingredients
1 bottle red wine (any will work but I used a Garnacha)
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 grapefruit, cut into wedges
2 Tbsp. sugar
Splash of lemonade (I used a mango lemonade, about 2 oz.)
2 shots of gin or triple sec (I used gin)
1 cup strawberries, sliced (thawed or frozen works; mine were fresh)
1 small can diced pineapples with juice
4 cups ginger ale or club soda

Directions
1. Pour the wine into a large pitcher and squeeze the juices of the lemon, lime, and grapefruit into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges, leaving out the seeds if possible.

2. Add the pineapple, the sugar, lemonade, and gin. At this point, I also added my strawberries, then read that you're supposed to add them in at the end. I think my way was fine, but do whatever works!

3. Chill up to 8 hours or overnight (the longer this sits, the better it gets). Just before serving, add in ice and either ginger ale or club soda. We served ours with both (I used the club soda, and my husband used the ginger ale). So, I filled up each glass halfway with the sangria (I strained it first, since it does get gritty), then threw in the soda and the ice, and stirred well before serving.