Popsicles

The Sous Chef and the Ingredients

Vietnamese iced coffee grape popsicles? Actually, we made three of each kind. These are so easy, and so good.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee Popsicles

• Water, instant coffee (make it strong), sweetened condensed milk, and a dash of vanilla. Mix and freeze.

Purple Popsicles

• Concord grape juice. Freeze. Think of kindergarden when you eat these. 

Pickled Onions

Sometimes you get a hankerin' for something kind of...unusual...and that is what happened to me when I started thinking about how I wanted pickled onions.  I wanted to put them on my salad, on my burger, on my cheese and avocado sandwich, on my kielbasa with potatoes - everywhere I looked!  So I made them, and found out just how easy they are to make. As great as they taste, the color is so pretty it'll dress up anything you put 'em on.

Pickled Onions

1 large red onion
3 cups red wine vinegar (an inexpensive kind)
3 tablespoons sugar

Chop the onion into half circles and stuff inside a medium sized mason jar (a spaghetti sauce jar will do the trick too).  Heat the vinegar in a non-reactive saucepan to dissolve the sugar, and don't boil the vinegar. Once the sugar is dissolved, pour the hot vinegar mixture over the onions in the jar. Let the liquid cool before screwing on the lid and putting in the fridge.  I recommend waiting a day to eat them.

Now, some people like to get fancy and put all manner of spices into the vinegar.  But I like them plain and simple; they're flavorful enough and can go on anything you can dream up to enjoy them.

Muhammara

The Chef and I discovered this tasty dip at a middle eastern restaurant last summer. True to form, the Chef said "I could make this, and I could probably make it better." And so he did! The flavor is hard to describe; the experience of eating muhammara follows these standard 4 steps:

Step 1: eyes pop out of head in disbelief of the smoky/garlicky/tangy/sweet flavors on tastebuds

Step 2: experience of brief bliss broken by...

Step 3: calculations of how much can/should be eaten during the current sitting

Step 4: a display of (hopefully) adult-like restraint in putting the lid back on the container and putting it away in the fridge

Muhammara calls for a few specialty ingredients that you may not have on hand, but it won't be much of a trek to find them. I like eating it straight with multi-grain pita chips, but it would be good with any kind of cracker or bread, piled high on veggie sandwiches, and no doubt many other ways. Make a double batch and give some to a friend.

Muhammara (Syrian hot pepper dip)

a 7-ounce jar roasted red bell peppers, drained (or 2 medium-sized

fresh fire-roasted red bells)

2/3 cup bread crumbs

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

2 to 3 garlic cloves

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

2 teaspoons paprika (or smoked paprika)

3 tablespoons harissa (or more to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)

3/4 cup olive oil

toasted pita triangles as an accompaniment

Chop garlic and pine nuts in a food processor. Add everything else

(except olive oil) and process a few times until mixed. With motor

running, add oil slowly to incorporate. Keep processing until smooth.

Serve at room temperature with toasted pita bread.

Everyday Cookies

As soon as the last cookie is eaten from the tin, it's time to make more. My cookie budget for these is 2 or 3 each day, so they've always got to be on hand.  They're not too sweet (even a tad salty), pack rich bursts of chocolate and raisins, and go down with satisfying wholesomeness - the perfect everyday cookie.

P.S. they're vegan, but you can keep that a secret and no one will know.

Everyday Cookies, adapted from cookiemadness

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt + extra to taste (I do a rounded 1/2 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + extra to taste (I do a rounded 1/2 tsp)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup raisins, plumped
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

First, put the raisins in a bowl with some hot water to plump up until you're ready to add them to the batter.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Mix the sugar, maple syrup, apple sauce, oil and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Add the flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the oats, followed by raisins and chocolate.

Let cookie batter sit for 10 minutes. This is a good time to line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and put the ingredients away.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool for about 5-8 minutes on cookie sheets then carefully scoop up onto a wire rack.

Makes about 16 larger size cookies or 24 smaller size cookies.

If You Wanna Know If He Loves You So...

It's in his kiss, of course.  But there are many ways to say "I love you" through words, a glance, or doing thoughtful things. Obviously one of my favorite ways to give and receive love is through food!

Last night my sweetie went to the market and bought a pint of raspberries - petite, sweet-tart, deep fuschia thimbles that were picked painstakingly by hand.  We rolled out a mini pie crust, baked it, then smoothed a layer of melted dark chocolate chips on top. Channeling my inner French pastry chef, I painstakingly sunk each berry into the chocolate, anchoring them in place.

Et voila! A labor of love.

Thin Crust Pizza

Mama mia this is the best pizza we ever made! Thank goodness there is a pie in the oven RIGHT NOW since I'm drooling as I post these pics. How'd we do it? Once again Cook's Illustrated comes through. They had a recipe for a thin crust and once we got that down the rest was a slam dunk. Best eaten hot out of the oven, at least once a week.

Tandoori Chicken

We made this loosely following a Cooks Illustrated recipe, which recommended rubbing a dry spice mixture into the raw chicken before applying a wet yogurt-and-spice mixture. It came out great! Also on the dinner plate (not pictured) was jasmine rice, yellow split peas cooked like chana dal, and sauteed spinach.

Birthday Dinner

You can cook a meal at home that's better than 90% of restaurant dishes. Spend your money on quality ingredients, not table service. The menu: pepper-crusted pan seared New York strip steak (finished in the oven), saffron-pepper scallops, mashed potatoes with mushrooms sauteed in steak fat, and roasted green beans. Who has room for cake? (Ok, I always have room for cake).

Perfect Grilled Cheese

This is how I make a grilled cheese sandwich: spread butter on one side of a good bread like sourdough or multigrain, and place butter-side down in a cast iron pan. Place slices of a good cheese like extra sharp cheddar on the top of the bread. Put a lid over the pan to promote cheese melting. When it begins to soften and melt, add thin slices of a ripe, real tomato. Keep checking the underside of the bread to make sure you like the toasty brown color that's happening. Add the top bread layer, and flip after re-buttering the pan to brown the other side. Voila! Best eaten with piping hot tomato soup sprinkled with hot sauce like Tapatio.

Healthy Dinner

Turkey kielbasa, boiled red potatoes, roasted green beans, sauerkraut, caramelized onions, schmear of dijon mustard.

Recipe: Mocha Cookies from Some Crust Bakery

A few years back, the Los Angeles Times published the recipe for Mocha Cookies from Some Crust Bakery in Claremont, CA.  They will transport you to the chocolate dimension.

Some Crust Bakery Mocha Cookies

Total time: 1 hour

Servings: Makes about 20

(3 1/2 -inch) cookies

Note: Some Crust chef Jack Housen uses Guittard unsweetened and bittersweet (70%) cacao chocolate (available at Sur La Table) but you can substitute another top quality chocolate such as Scharffen Berger and Valrhona with the same percentage of cacao. 

 

4 1/2 ounces (99% to 100%) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 eggs

3 tablespoons instant espresso

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup pastry flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2 -inch chunks

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan over low heat, combine the unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from the heat.

2. Combine the eggs, espresso and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on low speed, scraping the bowl as needed, until blended, then on high speed until the mixture becomes lighter in color and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the melted chocolate mixture (do not cool it beforehand) and beat on medium speed until just mixed with the batter.

3. Add the pastry flour, baking powder and salt and beat at medium-low until just mixed in, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks.

4. Spoon one-fourth cup batter per cookie onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until set, about 15 minutes. Cool for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Each cookie: 287 calories; 4 grams protein; 34 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 19 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 54 mg. cholesterol; 51 mg. sodium.

Picking fresh blackberries in Humboldt County

We picked two buckets by the side of the road.  Berry juice stained our hands and lips and thorns scratched our arms and legs.  Wouldn't have it any other way - makes the pie taste better.

 

Peach Tart for Thanksgiving

This tart was made for the family of a friend.  The peach filling was made during the height of peach season in the summer, frozen, and placed in the freshly-made tart crust right before baking.

Delmonico steaks on a summer Sunday

My parents were in town so we got the good stuff. Not pictured is the wild Alaskan salmon that accompanied the steak - we had been dreaming of a grand surf and turf dinner all summer.

The original Freedom Dinner - chili dogs, tater tots, peas and sauerkraut

After a crappy day, there's no better pick-me-up than a Freedom dinner.

Grill prep

Don't need no fancy schmancy grill.

Watermelon eating contest, 4th of July Atlanta

July 4th fireworks picnic

Ahhh...sweet southern summer fruit.

July 4th pork ribs two ways in Atlanta

Grilled with wet sauce and baked with a dry rub. We picked these up from a pig farm and happened upon a litter of newly born piglets - they must have been minutes old - still shaking and looking for mama's nipples for their first meal.

July 4th potato salad in Atlanta

How it's done in the dirty south.