Dinner with the Neighbors

The other night we had dinner with our wonderful neighbors and I tried two new recipes. They both turned out fantastic. Enjoy!

Grilled Asisan Eggplant-Food Magazine

Ginger

Garlic

Sesame oil

Vinegar

Soy Sauce

Brown Sugar

Scallions

Combine first 6 ingredients to tast in a pot and reduce by half. In the meantime grill eggplant. Top eggplant with reduction and scallions. Recipe also called for peanuts, but I didn't have them on hand.

Plum Cake--Food Magazine Recipe

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1/4 cup sour cream

3 plums, halved, pitted, and cut into eights

confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 375. Butter an 8-inch cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, and salt.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter ans sugars until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated; beat in vanilla and lemon zest. Beat in 1/2 the flour mixtures, then sour cream. Add remaining flour mixture; mix until just combined.
Spread batter into pan and smooth top with a knife. In a bowl, toss plums with 2 tablespoons flour and arrange over batter.

Bake until cake is golden, about 30 minutes; loosely tent with foil and bake until cake pulls away from side of pan and a cake tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes more. Let cake cool completely in pan. Run knife around cake edge and remove cake from pan. Dust with confectioner’s sugar before serving

Birthday Cake

Chocolate Bundt Cake

I used my normal chocolate box mix adding milk instead instead of water. Then I made chocolate ganache: 12oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of whipping cream; bring the cream to a boil, turn off heat and remove from burner, add chocolate chips (do not stir), let sit for 5 minutes, whisk until combined and let sit till cool for 10-15 minutes. I drizzled the ganache over the cake and topped it with raspberries.

Happy Birthday Robyn!

Food Finally!

I did a lot of cooking right when I found out I was pregnant. I was still feeling pretty good and the smells didn't bother me too much yet. Here are a couple of recipes that turned out really well.

German Chocolate Cake

I used a Devil's Food Chocolate Cake recipe and added my usual extra egg and substituted milk for water. It makes for a much more moist cake. Here's the recipe for the topping.

Frosting

1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cup Baker's Angel Flake Coconut
1 cup chopped pecans (roasted)

Mix the following ingredients on a stove set on medium heat for 12 minutes:
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Once you are done stirring in the above ingredients add the coconut and roasted pecans. Cool the frosting until it is firm and easy to spread.

Pork and Sweet Peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1-pound piece pork tenderloin

Kosher salt and pepper

1 pound new potatoes, quartered

2 large garlic cloves, smashed

1/2 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)

1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water

1/3 cup jarred hot cherry peppers, seeded and roughly chopped

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.Season the pork with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place it on one side of the skillet; place the potatoes and garlic on the other side and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring the potatoes and turning the pork, until the pork is browned on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the wine, broth, and cherry peppers. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, until the pork is cooked through and the potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the pork to a cutting board and let rest at least 5 minutes before slicing.Stir the parsley into the potatoes and serve with the sliced pork.

Apple Crisp Pie

Pastry:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. ice water

Filling:
4 Granny Smith apples
2 Tbs. sugar
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. unsalted butter, chilled

Directions:
Pastry:In a bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut butter into small cubes and with a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut butter into flour until pea sized granules form. Add ice water and mix lightly until dough forms a ball. Wrap plastic and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Roll out pastry and fit into 9" pie plate.

Filling:peel, core and thinly slice apples; spread slices on paper towels and pat dry. Place in a bowl and toss with sugar. Fill pastry shell with apples, rounding up in center.

Topping:Combing dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut butter into small cubes, add to dry ingredients and mix with finger tips until granular and crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over apples. Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 425 oven, reduce heat to 350 and bake another 25 to 30 minutes until top is golden brown and apples are cooked and bubbly. Cover pastry around rim with aluminum foil, if it is browning too fast. Serve warm with whipped cream. Serves 8.

Thank you Sparklegirl!

Our lovely neighbor dropped off some cookies the other day while my sister and niece were in town. How did she know this preggers lady has been craving chocolate like mad...? We'll never know, but it was one of the best presents I've received this summer. My favorite part...they're chewy and the salt on top satisfies my salty cravings.

Last night was National Night Out and I went on a cooking spree Monday night and made the dough along with some lentil soup and my famous homemade granola (Tim makes it, but I found the recipe). Anyways, I brought some out for the neighborhood and Mason (with a chuckle) said I was the perfect symbol of motherhood pregnant with cookies in my hand. Too bad it was so hot in the kitchen when I was baking that I smelled like I hadn't showered for weeks. No, not the perfect symbol of motherhood the symbol of a realistic mother, I would say. Anyways, the cookies were a hit!

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
NY Times
Adapted from Jacques Torres

Ingredients
-2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour. I used all purpose flour.
-1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
-1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
-2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter. I didn't have enough unsalted so I substituted one stick of salted butter.
-1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
-1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
-2 large eggs
-2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
-1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao . I used semi-sweet chocolate chips from our local Coop.
-Sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies. My batch made about 2.5 dozen although my cookies may have been smaller

Strawberries

I think I may have talked about this before, but one of my fondest childhood memories is weekend mornings with my grandmother and mother picking strawberries and eating strawberry shortcake for lunch. Besides cherry pie, strawberry shortcake is my favorite summer treat. Our CSA Harmony Valley Farms has been sending us cartons of berries each week and I keep meaning to make dessert with them, but instead I kept cutting them up and freezing them so they don't spoil. Wednesday night a long time friend came over for dinner and I found this great recipe for homemade biscuits, so I thought the timing was perfect. I cut up some berries and let them sit with sugar and mint from my garden. Tim made the biscuits and I added some whipped cream. YUM!!!! A perfect summer treat.

Biscuits
3 cups all purpose flour

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups heavy cream1

1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Toss with a fork to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. (Or pulse several times in a food processor.) Combine the cream and vanilla in a liquid measure. Make a well in the center of the flour and and pour the cream mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined; it should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand five or six times to create a loose ball.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat, cover with plastic and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 9 even squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.Makes 9 biscuits. (Adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine, July 2003

St. Patty's Day

York Peppermint Patty Brownies II

-3/4 c Hershey's cocoa

-1/2 ts baking soda

-2/3 c butter, melted and divided

-1/2 cup boiling water

-2 c sugar

-2 eggs

-1-1/3 c flour

-1 ts vanilla

-1/4 ts salt

-8 oz package York Mini Peppermint Patties

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9x2 inch baking pan. Stir together cocoa and baking soda in a large bowl; stir in 1/3 c melter butter. Add boiling water; stir until mixture thickens. Stir in sugar, eggs, and remaining 1/3 c of melted butter; stir until smooth. Add flour, vanilla and salt; blend completely, Stir in peppermint patties. Spread in prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan or wire rack.

Ham and Cheese Turnovers

-1-pound package refrigerated pizza dough, I couldn't find pizza dough so I used Pillsbury French Bread Dough, cut into 5 strips per package.

-8 ounces deli ham, thinly sliced

4 ounces Swiss cheese, thinly sliced

1/2 yellow onion, cut into thin rings, I cooked the onions down in olive oil and a little butter

whole-grain mustard

Heat oven to 400° F.Roll the pizza dough into a 14-inch circle and cut into 8 triangles.Stack a piece of the ham, cheese, and onion on the bottom of each triangle and roll the dough up around the filling. (Some of the filling will stick out the ends.)Transfer the rolls to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until golden and crisp, about 20 minutes.

Simple Salad

-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

-1/2 c red wine vinegar

-1-2 ts Dijon mustard

-1 clove garlic minced

-1 jar marinated artichoke hearts

-mixed greens

-handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

-a couple slices of red onion

Combine vinegar, mustard, garlic and artichokes and marinate in a bowl. Remove artichokes and add to mixed greens, tomatoes and red onion. Whisk olive oil into the red wine vinegar mixture. Serve salad with dressing on the side.

The Happy Group

Cookie Bars

I made these Friday night for some friends who came over for dinner. Pretty basic an easy recipe with a play on cookies. For some reason my cookies never really turn out that great so it's nice to have a quick and easy alternative. I made the bars again last night for Tim's b-day only I substitute butterscotch chips for semi-sweet chocolate chips. Good change, but I think I'll stick with the chocolate.

Mom's Cookie Bars

-1 stick butter, softened

-1 1/2 c brown sugar

-1 c sugar

-2 eggs

-2-3 Tbl milk

-2 ts vanilla

-1/2 ts salt

-1 ts baking soda

-1 3/4 c flour

-2 1/2 c oats

-1 12oz bag of chip (chocolate or your choice)

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cream together first 6 ingredients. Add dry ingredients. Dough will be really tacky, but make sure it's not dry if so add a little more milk. Add chips. Press into rectangular baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cut squares when cool.

York Peppermint Patty Brownies

My friend Holly brought these amazing York Peppermint Patty brownies to bookclub last month. They were so awesome that I thought I would try the recipe out. Holly told me that she found her recipe on the back of the baking bag (24 pieces) of Yorks. So, I went to the store thinking no big deal I'll follow the recipe on the back it will be simple. Well....the bag of 24 pieces I bought didn't have the recipe so I called Tim at home panicking and asked him to look up the recipe online (thank goodness for technology). The result was more of a peppermint and chocolate cake then brownies, but it was still really good. Soon I'll try to find the bag of with the real recipe and try it again. Hmmmm look forward to a second York Peppermint Patty Brownies post.

-24 small (1-1/2 inch) YORK Peppermint Patties
-1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
-3 cups sugar
-1 tablespoon vanilla extract
-5 eggs
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1 teaspoon salt

-Heat oven to 350°F.(325°F. for glass baking dish). Remove wrappers from peppermint patties. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl. Add eggs; beat until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; blend well. Reserve 2 cups batter. Spread remaining batter in prepared pan. Arrange peppermint patties about 1/2 inch apart in single layer over batter. Spread reserved 2 cups batter over patties. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack; cut into squares. About 36 brownies.

Thanksgiving Desserts

Chicago Day #2 and #3

Day Two- Chinatown, Greek Town and Shedd Aquarium

JP and I took the L everywhere around Chicago. It was great cheap and on time transportation. It makes me think that someday when the LRT in Minneapolis can actually connect suburbs and cities we might actually be able to get rid of our car.

This was a beautiful welcome sign when we entered Chinatown. It was great exploring the shops...I was getting low on shoes and was able to purchase two really neat pairs. I also got a great print for our living room wall. Stopped for a small snack of veggie dumplings, crab won tons and pork pot stickers.

After Chinatown we took the L to Greektown. We weren't really sure where it was so we ended up walking a few blocks before we hit a great little eatery. We were both so exhausted that we ordered a beer and just relaxed. We bought two bottles of wine from the restaurant that had been directly imported from Greece. Then we walked over to this bakery for some sweets. Pictured above are some of the great items we bought there.

That night we went to here jazz music at the Shed Aquarium. This happens every Thursday. It's $10 to get in and most of the exhibits are open. The jazz was great and truly complimented the atmosphere. The coral reef was my favorite part...amazing colors.

This is what Chicago looked like as we were heading back into the city to our hotel. JP and I walked along the water's edge to Navy Pier and then cut back in. What a beautiful night.

Day Three-Taste of Chicago and Pizza

JP and I got to The Taste around 11:00 on Friday. We headed right to the cooking tent and watched a little cooking demonstration by the chef from the Chicago Botanical Gardens. The shot above is right off Lake Michigan.

Our first "taste" was a fried plantain and steak sandwich with garlic mayo. Wow! Talk about amazing... It was one of the best mini sandwiches I've ever had. We also tried some mango chutney fries.

After The Taste JP and I took an architectural boat cruise with some of JP's friends. Then we all headed to Pizzeria Due. Talk about a packed place...We waited about an hour for pizza and a seat, but man was it worth it. I seriously think it was the best deep dish pizza I've ever had. A friend had told me to go to Gino's East, but it was the 4th and all places were packed so we just stuck it out.

Thursday and Friday were both long and wonderful days. I think we walked a minimum of 6 miles a day around the city. It was hot and humid, but that didn't keep us down. We were two crazy ladies on the town.

Dessert 1-MC's Birthday Cupcakes

Yesterday I decided to make cupcakes for MC's birthday. I got the recipe from Amy Sedaris' cookbook for vanilla cupcakes. I made the batter and dyed it yellow. Why yellow you ask?--well it's one of MC's favorite colors. Why cupcakes you ask? I decided this yesterday (without telling anyone of course) that I was going to make desserts for Molly's birthday every year. Last year I made a white cake with raspberry filling between the layers and green frosting. The cake, although very good, basically leaned like the Tower of Pisa because it was so hot and humid that day that the frosting wouldn't stay on the cake and kept ripping parts of it off as I was frosting it.

Since I only have a 6 cup cupcake/muffin pan I decided to pour the batter out in the cupcake shells while I waited the 20 minutes for each group to bake.

I made homemade butter cream frosting and dyed it pink. Well, I was actually going for red, but lacked the amount red dye to make it happen. And once again pink is my signature color.

While the cupcakes and frosting were cooling I decided to take the rest of the frosting I had and dye that purple so I could add little purple dots to the cupcakes.

Finished product. They definitely turned out super cute. The actual cupcakes themselves weren't as moist as I like them. Next time I'll take them out of the oven a little sooner. I think everyone enjoyed them...

Plus they go great with PBR right??? We had a great night bowling and having fun. So what if white sand beaches entice me to go swimming in the mighty Mississippi. It was the result of the champagne I tell you. The night ended around 4am. What a party. Miss MC had a real blast.