Taco Tuesday

It Was A Good Day

2012-01-16T17:09:00.001-08:00

New Year’s Resolution and Coconut Bran Muffins

2012-01-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

I neglect my cookbooks. I love them, I buy them and I ask for them, but once they join the other 48 cookbooks on my cookbook shelf they don’t get much love. With all the fabulous food blogs I follow, cooking magazines I subscribe to, online cooking sites and Pinterest, I’m always overloaded with new recipes I’m excited to try.

My resolution for this year is to make at least one recipe out of every cookbook I own. And if I can’t find at least one recipe that looks enticing enough to try, then the book is going to be donated. So here goes: Project Cookbook 2012. Of course I have favorite cookbook recipes I turn to over and over again; such as Grammy’s Chicken Pot Pie from Simply Classic (the Seattle Junior League Cookbook), Neil’s pancakes from the Clinton Street Baking Company Cookbook and Blue Cheese Beef Roll from Elena’s Cookbook, so as a rule, the recipe I make will have to be something new I’ve never tried before.

And this will be a win win because over at Beauties and the Feast (the recipe club blog I share with my girlfriends) we’re changing our format for 2012 so it’s more like Iron Chef or Chopped: one ingredient will be posted each month and all six of us have to come up with a recipe featuring that ingredient. I’m sure I’ll find lots of inspiration in all my beloved cookbooks!

So yes, while others are resolving to eat better and exercise more, I conveniently found a way to work what I love most into my New Year’s Resolution. At least I’m setting myself up for success! Cheers to 2012!

Assignment #1: Coconut Bran Muffins from Coconut Lover’s Cookbook

My boss, who has a great sense of humor, gave me not one, not two, but three coconut cookbooks for Christmas! He loves coconut and can’t stop talking about the coconut muffins he had when he went to Kauai. So I’m sure his intention was to supply me with a lifetime of coconut recipes so I can bring treats into work. Is what I don’t think he realized is there is a new coconut / health food craze and instead of featuring things like coconut cream pie, the three cookbooks are chock full of healthy recipes!

I adapted this muffin recipe and of course managed to make it not quite as healthy as the original (chocolate chips and coconut just go so well together!). The texture is a bit off, they’re kind of dense but I liked all the cinnamon and the nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips make the muffins a hearty breakfast treat! They went over very well when I shared them with my morning coffee buddies at work.

COCONUT BRAN MUFFINS
Adapted from Coconut Lover’s Cookbook (page 133)

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup light coconut milk (or water)
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar (or honey)
1 egg
½ cup bran cereal (or 1/4 cup wheat bran)
1 cup flour (or whole wheat flour)
¼ cup grated coconut
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ cup coconut oil (now available at Trader Joe’s!)
½ cup nuts (I used pecans), optional
½ cup mini dark chocolate chips, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees f.
2. Combine coconut milk, vanilla, sugar, egg and bran cereal in a bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes. The bran will absorb some of the moisture as it sits, which will improve the texture of the final product.
3. In another bowl, mix flour, grated coconut, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Add melted (not hot) coconut oil to the liquid ingredients, add the nuts and mix together.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and the chocolate chips in one bowl and mix until just moist. Do not over mix or the muffins will not rise as well (maybe this is why I had dense muffins?).
6. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners or coat with cooking spray or coconut oil. Fill muffin cups half full and bake for 15 minutes.

Pin It

Whiskey BBQ Blue Cheese Sliders

2012-01-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

From the moment I read The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders I’d been craving a burger. This recipe did not disappoint, both Curtis and I were huge fans.

I followed Ree’s recipe (which is super easy), except I added a big chunk of blue cheese on top of each ground beef patty. Next time, to make sure these burgers live up to their spicy name, I'll kick it up a notch and add in a few squirts of Sriracha sauce.

Even though the jalapenos didn't deliver a ton of spice, the flavor was awesome, in fact these little burgers rocked! I normally cover my burgers in ketchup, but for the first time ever I didn’t use one drop. They were that good. I’ll be making them again, and again!

SPICY WHISKEY BBQ SLIDERS
The Pioneer Woman
Serves 6

Ingredients:
2 pounds Ground Meat (beef, Bison, turkey)
Salt and Pepper
4 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Large Onion, Diced
½ cup Whiskey
1 cup Barbecue Sauce
¼ cup Jarred Jalapeno Slices
12 whole Slider Buns or Dinner Rolls, Split

Preparation:
1. Form the meat into 12 (or so) miniature patties and salt and pepper them on both sides.
2. Melt the butter in a skillet (I used cast iron) over medium-high heat and cook the patties until just about done in the middle, approximately 3-4 minutes per side (Because we like living on the edge and don’t enjoy eating “hockey puck” burgers, I cooked them just under 3 minutes per side, which resulted in nice pink, medium-rare, centers.).
3. Remove the patties from the skillet and set aside. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of grease, then return the skillet to the stove.
4. Add the diced onions to the skillet and stir to cook, about 3 minutes.
5. Poor in whiskey and stir. Allow the whiskey to reduce by half, about 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in jalapenos and the barbecue sauce. (And if you like it spicy hot, add in some juice from the jalapeno jar and maybe a few squirts of Sriracha sauce.
6. Reduce the heat to low and place the patties in the barbecue sauce, turning to coat. Allow the patties to simmer in the sauce until everything’s hot and bubbly.

7. Place the patties on individual buns and be sure to spoon extra sauce (with the jalapenos!) over the top of each burger. Also add a thick slice of blue (or your favorite) cheese before topping with the other half of the bun.

Pin It

Gingerbread Pear Trifle

2011-12-29T21:31:00.000-08:00

This is a dessert my aunt Paula often brings to holiday dinners. She and I share a love of food, cooking and ginger! We really enjoy taking cooking classes together, sharing favorite recipes and swapping cooking tips and stories. She recently taught a “Northwest Holiday Dinner” themed cooking class and fortunately for me, she shared all her recipes from the class including; White Bean, Prosciutto and Spinach Bruschetta, Pear and Hazelnut Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Syrah Sauce (incredible!), Creamy Polenta, and her famous Gingerbread Pear Trifle.

This year we spent Christmas with Curtis’ family so I decided, even though I’d be missing my family, I didn’t need to miss out on one of my favorite holiday desserts! So I made it for the first time and even though there are several steps and layers, it’s actually a pretty simple dessert. I made all the steps two days in advance and then assembled the trifle on Christmas morning before we joined our family. This dessert would also be special enough to serve on New Year’s Eve.

Happy New Year and as one of my favorite Christmas cards we received this year said (thanks Jenny D!) – Wishing you lots of happy!

GINGERBREAD PEAR TRIFLE

Aunt Paula & Sunset Magazine

GINGERBREAD:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg

1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup molasses
1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl; mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, the cloves, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk 3/4 cup granulated sugar with 1 egg until thick and pale.
Stir in applesauce, molasses, fresh ginger, oil, and 1/4 cup hot water.

Stir in flour mixture.

Spray an 8 by 8 inch square pan with vegetable oil spray.
Pour batter into pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Let rest 5 minutes; turn out onto rack and let cool. Cut into 1-inch cubes.

SAUTÉ PEARS:
3 Bosc pears, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt

Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add pears. Cook, stirring until soft, about 7 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, fresh ginger, and salt.

CUSTARD:
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons butter

In a pan over medium heat, whisk half-and-half, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until thickened, 10 minutes. Take off heat; stir in vanilla and butter. Cover surface with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator.

WHIP CREAM:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

In a large bowl, beat cream, powdered sugar, and ginger until soft peaks form.

ASSEMBLE TRIFLE:
3 Tablespoons amaretto or brandy (I used amaretto)
1/4 cup candied ginger, finely chopped

Put half the gingerbread cubes in a trifle dish or glass bowl.

Sprinkle with half the amaretto or brandy.

Spoon half the pears and liquid over gingerbread.

Pour half the custard over pears.

Top with half the whipped cream and half the crystallized ginger.

Repeat layers.

Serve immediately, or cover and chill up to 1 day.

Saffron Honey and Goat Cheese Appetizer

2011-12-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

Costco is now carrying Kirkland Signature Saffron. In usual Costco fashion, it’s a steal! Plus, the jar is really darling and I’m a sucker for anything that’s pretty.

My new favorite go-to appetizer is to serve Kirkland Signature Goat Cheese with saffron honey. If you’re feeling really fancy, you can roll the cheese in toasted pine nuts first (thanks for the idea Megan!) and then drizzle saffron honey over it. It’s easy. And it’s amazing.

Full disclosure: my mom made this saffron honey, but all you do is add saffron to your favorite honey. The honey will turn a beautiful amber color resulting in a very pretty and easy hostess gift or appetizer (and everyone will think you're so swanky!). I’m sure it would also be fabulous with baked goods or in a cocktail!

Update: Here are more specific instructions: Barely heat 1 cup of honey on the stovetop and add 1/2 tsp. (or a pinch) of fresh saffron. Alternately put the saffron in hot water first and then add it to room temperature honey. Put it in a jar and the honey will be flavored and ready to eat immediately or will keep for a very long time!

Double Chocolate Cranberry Bars

2011-11-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

I made these bar cookies for dessert when Jenny and her family came for dinner and that night I think I was really full because they tasted good, but didn’t knock my socks off. But they must have gotten better because over the next couple of days Curtis and I (well let’s be honest here, it was mostly me!) managed to polish off the rest of the pan. I’d put these in the same category as the coconut cookies we love so much. Curtis keeps hinting I should make them again soon!

I used kosher salt which I think gave them that addictive combination of salty and sweet. And the cranberries offset all the chocolate with a little bit of tartness. They’re quick and easy, so I’m planning to make a batch before Thanksgiving so we’ll have cookies to share with our crew of out of towners.

Double Chocolate Cranberry Bars
Food & Wine (November 2011)

Gooey Chocolate Layer

Ingredients:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Line the dish with parchment paper, leaving 1 inch of overhang on the long sides.
In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips in the sweetened condensed milk over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and let cool to room temperature.

Dried Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter (10 ounces), at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups white chocolate chips (I only used 1 cup)
1 ½ cups dried cranberries

In a medium bowl, mix the flour with the oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter and both sugars at medium speed until creamy. Add the egg followed by the egg yolk and vanilla, beating well between additions and scraping down the side of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the dry ingredients, then add the white chocolate chips and cranberries and beat until incorporated.

To make the bars:

Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared baking dish. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the dough and spread evenly. Top with small dollops of the remaining cookie dough; don't worry if the dollops don't completely cover the chocolate mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 350, until the top is lightly browned. Let cool completely before cutting into bars.

2011 Pineapple Classic

2011-11-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

As it was pouring down rain, the temperature dropping and the wind started to pick up on Friday, I asked myself “Why did you think it would be fun to sign up for a 5K with obstacles in November? Really, why?"

Saturday morning came and it wasn’t nearly as nasty and the rain hadn’t resumed dumping so as I pulled on my long underwear, met up with my teammates and put on the awesome “Tiki Tough” t-shirt Missy made, I started to get a better attitude!

The Pineapple Classic turned out to be the most fun I’ve had yet running a 5K (well maybe second to the I Love ME 5K). Having a team of awesome Tiki Tough girls who were ready to embrace the mud, rain and obstacles was so cool! I think we had huge smiles on our face through the entire route. And the beer stop part way through the course was just an extra bonus!

It also helped that there were bottle necks before each obstacle so we got to stop, catch our breath and chat along the way as we waited to hurdle, crawl, swing and climb! And fun to know our dirty efforts all went to a good cause supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

Salted Caramel Budino vs. Butterscotch Pots de Crème

2011-11-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for dessert?

This summer I saw a recipe in Food & Wine magazine for Butterscotch Pots de Crème and I ear marked it to make later. Then in the next issue of Bon Appétit, I saw a recipe for Salted Caramel Budino. Yep, that meant another ear mark.

Before I get too long winded, pots de crème and budino are basically just fancy terms for custard or pudding. But that's not what sold me. These recipes had me at salted caramel.

When my mom asked what I'd like for my birthday dessert, I requested either the pots de crème or budino, whichever sounded best to her. She didn’t even hesitate and said, “How about if I make both and we can see which one we like better?” … That’s just one of the million reasons why I love my mom so much!

The weekend we went home to Silverdale, my mom and I spent most of Saturday cooking and playing in the kitchen. We made both the desserts and she walked me through making homemade caramel sauce. Move over Fran, now that I know what I’m doing, I may no longer drop $10 on your jars of deliciousness!

Since Missy and Kelly have us trained to turn most events into food competitions, I printed off ballots so our team of six (mom, dad, Molly, Leroy, Curtis and I) could silently vote for which dessert we liked best.

Tasting and voting was hard work - we were stuffed from our big dinner! For some it was a quick decision and for others it took several tastes back and forth.

The verdict?

It was a tie! And I don’t know if it was the wine or what, but we found it hilarious that the guys unanimously voted for the Salted Caramel Budino and the girls for the Butterscotch Pots de Crème.

The Caramel Budino definitely won points in the presentation arena (how cute are the Mason jars?) and the thick caramel sauce on top was delicious, but I truly liked the Butterscotch Pots de Crème better and it was so much easier to make! So next time I think I’d pull presentation and sauce from the caramel dessert and apply it to the budino which would result in one perfect salty, caramel, butterscotch treat!

Oh and if you attempt to make the budino… skip the “strain through a cheesecloth” step. It was a lot of work to push that thick pudding through a double layer of cheese cloth AND a sieve. Plus it meant more dishes to wash and we’re very skeptical the extra effort was worth it!

Seriously?

Our weekend trip home to Silverdale ended on a sweet note with a side trip to Graham to see good college girlfriends who were visiting from out of town!

Butterscotch Pots de Crème with Caramel Sauce
FOOD & WINE

POTS DE CRÈME
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
5 cups heavy cream
1 scant tablespoon fine sea salt
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
6 large egg yolks
Boiling water

CARAMEL SAUCE (This was more of a syrup than a sauce)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whipped crème fraîche and Maldon sea salt, for serving

MAKE THE POTS DE CREME
Preheat the oven to 325°. In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and cook over moderately high heat, whisking constantly, until smooth and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in the cream. Return the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Add the salt and vanilla seeds.

In a large heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Gradually whisk in the hot cream mixture. Strain the custard into eight 6-ounce ramekins. Set the ramekins in a small roasting pan and place it in the middle of the oven. Fill the roasting pan with enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour, until the custards are set but still slightly wobbly in the center. Transfer the ramekins to a baking sheet and refrigerate until chilled, 4 hours.

MAKE THE CARAMEL SAUCE
In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar with 2 tablespoons of water and cook undisturbed over high heat, until a deep amber caramel forms, 6 minutes. Using a moistened pastry brush, wash down any crystals from the side of the saucepan from time to time. Remove from the heat. Add 2/3 cup of water and stir until smooth. Let the caramel sauce cool, then stir in the vanilla.

Top the pots de crème with the caramel sauce and whipped crème fraîche, sprinkle with Maldon sea salt and serve.

Caramel Budino with Salted Caramel Sauce
Bon Appetit

Ingredients

Cookie Crust
1 cup finely ground chocolate cookie crumbs (such as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers; about 20 cookies)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Budino
3 cups whole milk, divided
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
5 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons dark rum
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Salted Caramel Sauce (This sauce is amazing!)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream, divided
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Lightly sweetened whipped cream

Preparation

Cookie Crust
Mix cookie crumbs, butter, and salt in a medium bowl. Place 2 tablespoons in a small bowl; cover and chill for garnish. Press 2 tablespoons cookie mixture onto the bottom of each of eight 8-ounce mason jars or ramekins (we only had enough pudding to fill six mason jars).

Budino
Whisk 1/2 cup milk and cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside. Heat remaining 2 1/2 cups milk in a small saucepan just to a simmer; set aside.

To make caramel, stir sugar and 3/4 cup water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; cook without stirring until an instant-read thermometer registers 210°–220°

Line a sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth and set over a large pitcher. Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl. Gradually whisk in hot milk, then cornstarch mixture. Slowly whisk in caramel. Return mixture to saucepan. Whisk constantly over medium heat until mixture thickens and a thermometer registers 175°, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in butter, rum, and salt. Pour through prepared sieve (really, don't bother!).

Pour 1/2 cup budino over crust in each jar. Cover; chill until set, 4–5 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.

Salted Caramel Sauce
Place cream in a small pitcher. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Set aside.

Stir sugar, corn syrup, and 2 tablespoons water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high; boil, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until deep amber color forms, 5–6 minutes. Remove from heat; gradually add vanilla cream (mixture will bubble vigorously). Whisk over medium heat until smooth and thick, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in butter and salt. Strain into a heatproof bowl. Let cool slightly.

Spoon 2 tablespoons caramel sauce over each budino. Top with whipped cream. Sprinkle some of reserved cookie crumbs over each.

Lemon Herb Lamb Chops

2011-10-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here’s recipe #3 from our Silverdale weekend. My mom made this lamb for us on our Alaska boat trip and Curtis and I were hooked. Ever since we’ve made it for about every special occasion we can conjure up. It’s a great recipe because you do all the hard work, cutting and trimming the lamb and making the marinade, the day before. Then when it’s go time you just throw them on the grill, 2-3 minutes a side, and BAM! You have an amazing dinner!

So since we looooove lamb, this is what I requested for my birthday dinner at my parent's house. My mom served it with ricotta gnocchi, Megan's rosemary butternut squash and salad. Curtis’ mom and Leroy joined us and my dad popped open a bottle of 1978 wine to celebrate my birth year - don’t bother doing the math, that’s a 29 year old bottle!

The Sommeliers

The Skinny Chef

Molly & Leroy

Lamb Chops with Lemon

Michael Symon / Bon Appetit

3 large shallots, minced
6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
6 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
6 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon sugar
24 lamb rib chops (from three 1 1/4-to 1 1/2-pound racks of lamb, cut between bones into individual chops - We get ours at Costco)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon salt
Black pepper
Fresh oregano sprigs (for garnish)

Mix minced shallots, chopped mint, chopped oregano, minced garlic, sugar, and 1 tablespoon salt in small bowl. Press 1 rounded teaspoon shallot-herb mixture onto eye of each lamb chop. Turn chops over onto large rimmed baking sheet. Press remaining shallot- herb mixture onto eye of each chop. Cover lamb chops with sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon peel in small bowl until slightly thickened and well blended. Season lightly with salt and generously with freshly ground black pepper. Spoon oil mixture lightly over chops. Turn chops over and spoon remaining oil mixture over. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Grill lamb chops to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer lamb chops to platter. Garnish with fresh oregano sprigs and serve.

Ricotta Gnocchi

2011-10-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Gnocchi is one of my favorite foods but it’s hit and miss in restaurants and even harder to successfully make at home. I’ve attempted to make potato gnocchi several times and it has never been stellar, which is always disappointing since it’s usually a several hour affair and ends with both me and the kitchen covered in flour.

This past summer I took gnocchi class at PCC from Ethan Stowell and he taught us how to make semolina, potato and ricotta gnocchi. I’m usually a potato gnocchi gal, but in this case the ricotta was not only the simplest to make but my favorite out of the three.

When we went home to Silverdale my dad made his version of ricotta gnocchi to go with our lamb (recipe coming soon!) dinner. It hit home! My parents gave me a gnocchi board for my birthday so I decided to give it a go as a side dish to go with my Beauties and the Feast October cooking assignment: Oktoberfest Beer Roasted Chicken. Both the chicken and gnocchi were a success!

Here's dad's uncooked gnocchi in Silverdale (he's a pro!):

And my first attempt... I obviously need to keep practicing!

Ricotta Gnocchi
Tyler Florence / Food & Wine Magazine

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups ricotta, 13 ounces (the original recipe calls for sheep’s-milk ricotta)
2 large egg yolks
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fresh sage

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta with the egg yolks and salt until blended. Add the 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of flour and stir until a very soft, sticky dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and sprinkle with flour. Wrap the dough in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into 2 ropes that are each about 1 inch in diameter. Using a floured knife, cut the ropes into 1/2-inch slices. If you have a gnocchi board give them a roll to create ridges. Transfer the gnocchi to a baking sheet lined with wax paper and sprinkle with flour.

3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi and cook until they rise to the surface, and then simmer the gnocchi until firm, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gnocchi to a bowl of ice water to cool them quickly and stop the cooking. Drain and gently pat dry.

4. In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter. Add the gnocchi and cook over high heat, turning once, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve right away. (We browned the butter with sage.)

Really, what's not to love about dumplings smothered in browned butter and Parmigiano Reggiano!?

And it's so much fun to cook in a kitchen with this view!

Sour Cream Apple Cranberry Muffins

2011-10-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

A few years ago we started a tradition where Curtis and I visit my parents for a weekend in October every year to celebrate my birthday. Never mind my birthday was weeks and weeks ago, we like to drag the excuse to party out for as long as possible! Like every other trip to Silverdale this one was filled with delicious food and wine. I have lots of recipes to post from this past weekend, but wanted to start with these muffins (filled with hand picked Eastern Washington apples) my mom made on Saturday morning for breakfast. They were a delicious fall treat!

My dad always contributes to breakfast with his famous lattes. His secret? Cafe D'arte coffee and a whole lotta love!

Sour Cream Apple Cranberry Muffins
The Seattle Times

Makes 12 servings

Ingredients:
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons melted and cooled butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups low-fat sour cream
1 cup chopped Granny Smith apple

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
4 tablespoons cold, firm butter, cut into pieces

1. To prepare the muffins: Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray (my mom used muffin liners) and set aside. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Sift together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the dried cranberries.

3. In a second bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, vanilla and sour cream. Stir in the chopped apple. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened. (The batter will be very thick and lumpy.) Spoon into the prepared pan.

4. The prepare the topping: With clean fingers, work together the brown sugar, flour and butter to make a crumbly mixture and sprinkle onto the tops of the muffins. Place muffin pan on a baking sheet and bake on the middle oven rack about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the muffins test done with a toothpick inserted the center.

4. Let the muffins cool in the pan 10 minutes before loosening the edges and unmolding onto a cooling rack.

Crisp-Skinned Roast Chicken

2011-09-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

While driving to work the other morning I heard Dick Stein and Nancy Leson talking on NPR about crispy skinned roast chicken. When you start salivating over roast chicken that early in the morning, you know it’s a recipe worth trying. Plus roast chicken falls on my list of top ten favorite foods.

The secret? Baking powder.

...And being able to plan a day in advance because this chicken has to sit in the fridge overnight. And I figured as long as I was going to the trouble, (even though it wasn’t much trouble at all) I may as well roast two chickens and get a few meals out of it. Lucky for me we have a spare fridge the garage, because there’s no way I would have been able to cram two whole, raw, uncovered chickens in my regular fridge.

Below are the simple ingredients and steps. But I recommend you go over to The Paupered Chef and check out their visuals and step by step instructions – the wittiness is copied word for word from their site.

Crisp-Skinned Roast Chicken, via Baking Powder
The Paupered Chef / Cooks Illustrated
• 1 chicken
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Night before:

1. Pat dry the chicken, inside and out.

2. Cut four slits along the back of the bird.

3. Carefully loosen the skin from the breasts, thighs, and legs. Tuck the wing tips under the bird (I didn’t tuck anything).

4. Mix together the salt, baking powder, and black pepper.

5. Cover the chicken with the mixture.

6. Place on a rack in a roasting pan and set in the fridge for one day. Uncovered, of course.

About an hour and a half before you're going to roast it:

1. Take the chicken out of the fridge. It will look kind of gross after a day. Oh well.

2. Emily’s notes: I stuffed the chicken full of chopped onions, whole garlic cloves, fresh thyme, rosemary and sage. I also poured some apple juice and a can of Coors light in the bottom of the roasting pan for some steaming liquid. This is optional!

3. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. When the oven is hot, flip the chicken on its breast and roast on a rack in the roasting pan for 25 minutes. (I had to ask Curtis which side was breast side down. Really.)

4. Flip the chicken breast-side up. Roast until temperature hits 135, about 20 minutes. (I never stuck a thermometer in my bird, just followed their instructions.)

5. Crank the heat to 500 degrees. Cook until chicken is 160 degrees, another 10-15 minutes. (At this point my kitchen was starting to fill with smoke and the bird was getting borderline black n’ crispy, so I pulled it out early… and it was perfect!)

They're getting Crispy!

6. Let it rest before carving in. Admire the skin, and try not to eat too much.

Seriously moist!

We served it with Thai rice, roasted sweet potatoes and garlic and green salad.
We ate all we could eat and then I saved the rest knowing I could make chicken pot pie, chicken salad or just do a repeat of this fabulous meal again the following night.

They weren’t lying. This chicken was moist and had the tastiest crispy skin! The dog and cat were lingering hoping, praying and wishing we’d drop a bite or two on the floor.

And I threw all the bones, onions, etc. in a big pot with water and made chicken broth. I put the broth in recycled pasta sauce and Mason jars and into the freezer so I can use it later for soup or chicken pot pie. It’s the meal that just keeps on giving!

End of Summer Activities

2011-09-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

In an effort to offset all our eating and drinking Curtis and I participated in a few activities over the past couple of weeks.

Curtis rode the Cartridge Family’s 40 mile long Bike for Banchero ride. It was a great event; very challenging ride and fun having several of our friends involved. I enjoyed being a photographer and working the water stop. And Kristi very generously donated her massage services and was there at the end of the route for the tired, sore bikers. Thanks to Kelly for all his hard work putting on yet another cool event!

After Curtis’ bike ride we hustled to Enumclaw as fast as we could for the 3^rd annual Breidenbach Bocce Tournament. We went into this event without training and were playing bocce ball late into the night. It was an official tournament with brackets and good money prizes at stake. Curtis and I had tons of fun and luckily both walked away with some cash!

The Breidenbach's don’t mess around. This was an official, very well lit, double bocce course!

Showing good sportsmanship in the champion round

Over Labor Day weekend we couldn’t find an organized 5K to run, so we put together our own “I LOVE ME (the "ME" stood for Missy & Emily) 5K” / fun run. Everyone who was hanging out for the weekend participated in one way or another and we all ran knowing there would be Bloody Mary’s waiting for us at the end! It’s the most fun I’ve ever had “running” and I was very impressed with our 8 year old nephew Ryan, who not only ran it, but smoked us!

Ready? Set. Go!

Crossing the finish line!

Celebratory Bloody Mary's - thanks, Curtis!

The last weekend in August, Kristi and I swam 1.4 miles across Lake Washington in the Children’s Hospital Park to Park swim. I learned slow and steady doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win the race, but lucky for me it wasn’t a race and I enjoyed the long swim. Kristi, on the other hand, rocked it (she's much faster than I am)! She's been my swimming inspiration. This is an event I’d like to do again and now that I know I can swim that far, my goal is to turn it up a notch! Thanks to my awesome mother-in-law, Molly, who kayaked along side us every time we practiced our open water swims.
During our happy hours down by the river Curtis has been working on building dams. He managed to block off enough water so that we have pools to sit in. Who knew we’d have gorgeous weather and would be sitting in the river in September? I’m not sure if this counts as a calorie burning activity but moving rocks (and watching Curtis move rocks) is awfully hard!

Murray likes to dig for golf balls in the pools

"Hot tubs" at home ~ It's just like being at the spa

Next up, Missy and I are running (ahem, jogging!) the AIDS 5K. It’s a cause that’s important to me and if you’d like to donate, you can do so here. She’s been my virtual running partner and our plan/goal is to continue signing up for 5K’s so we’ll have to keep up our jogging.

One more event I’d like to do, but can’t because it conflicts with the AIDS 5K is the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk. Another charity that’s important to me and if you’d like to donate you can do it for Al’s Pals here.

Cheers to fall. We're looking forward to comfort food, Sunday football and hopefully staying a little active!

Best Five Years Ever

2011-09-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

August 5^th marked our 5 year anniversary and Curtis and I used it as an excuse to spend the entire month celebrating.

The real day fell on a Friday, which is always nice, and per tradition we enjoyed a great dinner at home complete with champagne and red wine.

The following weekend we went back to where it all began for a sunset dinner at the Summit House at Crystal Mountain. It’s the first time we’d been back since our wedding and it was as breath taking as we remembered. Since our wedding, Crystal has added a gondola (I don’t think our wedding guests would have had nearly the same experience if they hadn’t had to ride two chair lifts to the top of the mountain!) and renovated the summit house.

It was really fun to be back up there again and we were treated to a nice three course dinner and had the best seats in the house. We’re planning to go back next year, but will pack our own picnic and bottle of wine to enjoy, while watching the sunset, at the top.

And because we departed from our wedding in a helicopter, we always said we’d go on another ride for our 5^th anniversary. The last weekend in August we chartered a helicopter from Boeing Field and flew up over Snoqualmie Falls, our house, the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River and a little way up the pass. It’s amazing seeing the beautiful area we live in from a whole new point of view. The ride was so much fun and we’re already talking about wanting to it again.

We saw instructions for the correct way to fly hanging up at the helicopter place, so we knew we were in safe hands.

We feel very lucky to have a special occasion to recognize and celebrate!

Time has gone so fast, but I’ve enjoyed every moment being married to my best friend. He’s truly the best of the best. We’re both looking forward to many more years and adventures!

Smoked Salmon Bloody Mary

2011-08-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

A little while back I labeled my posts so I’d have an index of all the recipes I’ve put up. Curtis and I were looking through it and laughing because, beside all the cookies, it doesn’t really represent us and what we eat. On average our weekly rotation includes salmon stir fry, tacos (every kind), soup (especially during the winter months) and pasta (with Italian sausage, caramelized onions and mascarpone. and maybe a veggie or two mixed in). I guess when I post it’s usually because I’ve tried something new and I think you may want to try it as well. And I’m sure you’d like our staples, they are our main meals for a reason, but they just don’t seem exciting enough to write about and photograph.

This following recipe is not one I think many of you will actually replicate. It won’t have the same nostalgia for you as it does for us and let’s face it, smoked salmon vodka is not a staple in most liquor cabinets. But this blog is also a journal so I’m posting it for myself to have as reference and to remember where and when we came across the recipe.

The last town we stopped in, in Alaska, before heading out to sea was Petersburg. It’s amazing when you either haven’t been around civilization or you’re about to leave all of a sudden all you want to do is shop, spend money and eat out. So we did just that, we got up early and I drug poor Curtis into every single store (don’t worry, he found things to buy and I didn’t) and never mind our boat was provisioned well enough to feed ten people for three months, we decided to hit a local hole in the wall for breakfast to sample their Smoked Salmon Bloody Mary’s and some of the best (and spiciest) Chilaquiles I’ve ever had.

After seeing signs proudly promoting Smoked Salmon Bloody Mary’s, my first thought was “Eww, gross, but we should try it!” I really thought we were going out on a ledge with this Bloody Mary and it had the potential to be nasty, but when in Rome… so I was pleasantly surprised when it was one of the BEST bloodies I’ve ever had.

We’ll never give up our Ultimate Bloody Mary recipe, but every now and then when we want to relive our trip and have a little taste of Alaska, or mix things up a bit, this is where we’ll turn.

Smoked Salmon Bloody Mary

Courtesy Kito’s Kave ~ Petersburg, AK

The Drink

Smoked Salmon Vodka

Demitri’s BloodyMary Seasoning (Available from our friends at Amazon.com)

Spicy V-8 Tomato Juice

Pepper Juice (from cherry pepper jar)

The Flair

Salt & Johnny’s – for the rim

Cipollini Onions

Olives

Peppadew Peppers

Salmon Jerky (to use as a stir stick)

Rim a tall glass with salt and a pinch of Johnny’s seasoning. Mix vodka, Demitri’s seasoning, V-8 and pepper juice in a shaker filled with ice. Give it a shake shake and pour it in the rimmed glass and garnish with an onion, olive (we left this out, C does NOT do olives), peppadews and salmon jerky as a stir stick (when we recreated at home, we just used a pepperoni stick … don’t worry the smoked salmon vodka still gave it a nice smoky flavor). And since we had them in our fridge, we threw in pickled green beans too.

Jason, Henry and Dad heading into Petersburg in the rain

Leaving Petersburg

Oh My

2011-08-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

When I walk into Trader Joe’s I always check out their display of new products and this past trip I saw a new chocolate bar: 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans. I was envisioning big chunks of nuts and a few toffee bites and figured it was worth a try.

That night I broke off a square to try. And I was wrong, it wasn’t large chunks of “stuff” floating in dark chocolate but was filled with tiny bursts of salty toffee goodness. They’re not lying on the back of the package when they say “It’s a beautiful balance of sweet, salty and chocolate bliss.” This is my weak spot. I had to have just one more square. And yes, it was bliss.

That night when I went to bed all I could think about was making cookies with overflowing with big bites of my new TJ’s find. And this was supposed to be the week I wasn’t going to eat any sugar.

So I went back and bought 10 of the dark chocolate toffee bars and it turns out they also have a 70% Cacao (the magic number!) Caramel with Black Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bar. Soooo I bought 5 of those too. The checker at Trader Joe’s must have thought I was a real pig.

The caramel bars are oooey gooey good so I froze them for about 15 minutes and then chopped up both the toffee and caramel bars and threw them in chocolate chip cookie dough in lieu of the chocolate chips. The cookies turned out kind of flat and ugly, but after one bite I didn't care what they looked like. It was a genius move if I do say so myself.

Fortunately I don't have to make this choice, but if I could only have one I'd choose the Toffee bar with Walnuts and Pecans.

Salted Toffee Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(Nestle TOLL HOUSE Chocolate Chip Cookies meet Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate “Bliss” Bars)

Ingredients
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 Trader Joe’s 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans 3 oz. bars, chopped
• 2 Trader Joe’s 70% Cacao Caramel with Black Sea Salt 3 oz. Dark Chocolate Bars, chopped

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate toffee and caramel bar chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

SE Alaska

2011-07-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Our big summer vacation this year was joining my parents on their Selene for a two week leg of their SE Alaska adventure. We flew into Wrangell, cruised north and then around Baronof Island and ended up in Sitka. This is the first year we didn’t bring Murray on a boat trip with us because 1.) We didn’t want to put him on a commercial flight and 2.) We weren’t sure how the grizzlies would feel about sharing their beaches with a big yellow dog.

It was an incredible trip. The beautiful landscape, waterfalls, ice bergs and wildlife took our breath away! And as always it was so much fun to be on the boat with my parents, brother, sister in law and nephew. Between all the seafood we hauled in and my mom’s cooking, we ate like royalty! We came home with over 1,000 photos so it was hard to narrow it down, but here are a few!

Highlights of the places we stayed

The crew celebrating 4th of July in Wrangell

Awesome small town parade

One of the best firework shows we've ever seen!

Tracy Arm and South Sawyer Glacier

Bergie bits make great cocktails!

Pybus Bay ~ Cannery Cove

Peregrine breakfast tart

Red Bluff Bay (Baranof Island)
We were probably going much closer to these guys than we should have been, but lucky for us they were nice and we made it out alive.

Have you ever seen a bear paw?

Captain Curtis

Alaska Highway System ~ Warm Springs Bay

Hot springs overlooking the waterfall

Fishing with Granddad

Mmmmm, salmon burgers!

I've watched this bear video Curtis took about 100 times but I still giggle every time I see it!

Olive-Oil Cake with Candied Orange

2011-06-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

I didn’t find too many recipes in the June issue of Bon Appétit that I was excited to try. I don’t know if Gwyneth* being on the cover threw me off or what. Don’t get me wrong, Gwyneth is wonderful and beautiful, but I just don’t think she belongs on the cover of a food magazine. In my opinion food magazines should be covered in gorgeous pictures of food that make your mouth water. Seeing skinny Gwyneth holding a tiny bowl of pasta did not inspire me to run to the kitchen to try new recipes!

But as I flipped through, this recipe for Olive-Oil Cake with Candied Orange really stood out to me. I made it for my parents to celebrate both their birthdays and Father’s Day.

*And as a side note after I read the letter from the editor I thought it was kind of cool BA took a risk and did something different and I have heard from friends Gwyneth’s new cookbook is great, and I will give her props for some of her published recipes. I can’t argue that Grilled Halibut with Mango-Avocado Salsa doesn’t sound good and I do intend to try it.

But back to the Olive-Oil cake. It was striking. It was delicious. The batter tasted really good and I will be making this again!

Olive-Oil Cake with Candied Orange
Bon Appetit
12 servings

Ingredients

candied orange and syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup orange blossom honey
• 3 tablespoons green cardamom pods, crushed (I used ground cardamom)
• 1 small orange, thinly sliced (I used 3 oranges but from BA’s photo, it looks like they cut their orange slices a lot thinner than I did!)

cake
• 1/2 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup semolina flour (pasta flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 2/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chopped unsalted pistachios, lightly toasted

special equipment
9"-diameter springform pan

ingredient info
Semolina flour (pasta flour) is available at better supermarkets and at Italian markets.

Preparation
candied orange and syrup
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring sugar, honey, cardamom, and 3 cups water to a boil in a medium heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add orange slices. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, turning orange slices occasionally, until tender and syrup is reduced to 3 ¼ cups, about 40 minutes. Arrange orange slices in a single layer on prepared baking sheet; remove cardamom pods and seeds. Strain syrup. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover syrup and orange slices separately; chill. Return orange slices to room temperature and rewarm syrup slightly before using.

cake
• Preheat oven to 350°. Brush pan with oil. Whisk both flours and next 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup oil in a large bowl for 1 minute. Beat in yolks, then flour mixture. Beat in yogurt, zest, and vanilla. Using clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar until firm peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter just to blend in 2 additions. Transfer to prepared pan; smooth top.

• Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Pierce hot cake all over with a metal skewer. Slowly drizzle 3/4 cup warm syrup all over. When syrup is absorbed, slowly pour 3/4 cup more syrup over. Reserve remaining syrup for serving. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack. Run a thin knife around edge of pan to release cake. Remove pan sides. Arrange candied orange slices over. Sprinkle pistachios over. Cut into wedges and serve drizzled with more syrup.

Update: Got a little shout-out from BA for this post

Golden Labs and Gardening

2011-06-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

Both Curtis and I grew up with parents who were (and are) amazing gardeners. So I always envisioned when we had a house I’d have a large vegetable garden and yard to play in. But when we moved into our house and it was already beautifully landscaped we didn't want to rip anything up to plant a big garden.

But every year Curtis focuses on making our lawn as perfect as it could possibly be and slowly we’ve added new plants, a small herb garden and are making the yard our own. My project for this year was roses. There was an existing rose garden when we moved in, with several plants, but they weren’t the big roses that smell amazing like my mom has. So we planted nine new bushes this year in pots on our deck and around the yard. Roses such as Mr. Lincoln, Dick Clark and Double Delight, that should smell amazing. I’ve been trying to learn all I can about pruning and feeding and I’ve given them a lot of love. No flowers yet, but I have my fingers crossed that as soon as the sun comes out on a regular basis, the rose buds will too!

Gardening Tip: It’s important to drink a margarita while tending to and admiring your rose bushes

About the time I was starting my rose project Jenny D. did a giveaway on her blog for a gardening apron that she made herself – she’s super talented! So the whole point of my ramblings is to show off my darling apron and introduce you to Jen. She has a personal blog that I love following, but she also just started a new project: Girl Has Thyme.

Girl Has Thyme is all things gardening from the view point of a regular person (not a master gardener) learning the ropes through trial and error. I’d recommend following it if you have any interest at all in playing in the dirt! Her posts are both entertaining and educational. She’s also a genius in the kitchen, so I have a feeling good recipes will show up from time to time as well.

And for Golden Labs, well it’s really just one golden lab: my number one boy Murray. He’s my side kick, jogging partner, hiking buddy and comes to work with me … anyone who knows me, knows I’m obsessed with this 80-pound furry blond bundle of joy. I couldn’t love this dog more. But the reason I’m writing about him is to give a long overdue shout-out to Haute Apple Pie.

Haute Apple Pie is a group of three ladies contributing to one awesome blog. It’s mostly about good food, but there are home DIY projects, parties and personal stuff thrown in as well. The design and format is, what in my mind, I hope Beauties and the Feast will become. Awhile back they featured a Double Dose of Pet Accessories giveaway and Murray won!

His new “dress” collar came from Rogue Collars. Anyone who has dogs knows that stylish dog collars are grossly over priced (and suckers like me are willing to shell out the dough) but these collars are super cool because they’re homemade, very couture and only $11! Sure beats the plain ‘ol collar you’d buy at Petsmart. Murray picked out the brown harlequin collar and boy does he look handsome in it!

And his fancy tag is from Make Your Dog Smile. It was a hard choice, but he went with the Scout Tag. It worked… Murray is smiling, real big!

Day to day he still wears his awesome “no stink” collar from Dublin Dog. Because when you have a dog who spends as much time in rivers, lakes and salt water as Murray it’s important to have a collar that doesn’t stay wet and grow bacteria, plus one that’s easy to rinse off. Dublin Dog has just that product and they rock!

Thank you to Jenny, Haute Apple Pie, Rogue Collars and Make Your Dog Smile for such generous giveaways!

Orange Basil BBQ Chicken

2011-06-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

The other day my mother-in-law asked me for my favorite basil recipes. I love basil and use it all the time in Italian and Thai cooking (and love it in cocktails too!) … but I didn’t have any specific basil “recipes” that came to mind. So I did what I like doing best, I started browsing all my favorite blogs and recipe sites and put together a list of fresh basil recipes for her. In my search I came across this recipe for BBQ chicken on allrecipes.com and I adapted it a bit to fit what ingredients I had at home. It was super easy, pretty (orange peel and basil brightened it up), quick and tasty!

What’s your favorite thing to make with fresh basil?

Honey Orange Basil BBQ Chicken
Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
• Grated orange zest from 3 oranges
• Orange juice, squeezed from 3 oranges
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 5 stalks of fresh basil chiffonade (cut into ribbons)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 pieces of chicken (breasts, thighs or legs)

Directions
1. In a large resealable plastic bag (or bowl), mix the orange juice, oil, honey, parsley, basil, orange zest, salt, and pepper. Place chicken in the bag, seal, and marinate in the refrigerator overnight (or longer).

2. Preheat the grill for medium heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place the chicken on the grill, and discard marinade. Cook chicken about 7 minutes per side, turning once, or until juices run clear.

Coconut Cookies

2011-06-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod and was excited to try it because I love coconut and have never put pudding mix in cookies before (which I believe gave these cookies their awesome texture). This was one of those recipes where I made them, left a few out on the counter and then froze the rest. But I gradually kept pulling more cookies out of the freezer and we continued to eat them until they were gone! Once they were gone, Curtis must have asked at least three times if we had any more and then requested I make them again soon. He's doesn't have a sweet tooth like I do, but this recipe obviously has his seal of approval!

I love chocolate and coconut so I also tried dipping half of the cookies in dark chocolate, but we actually liked the plain cookies best. I'll be making this recipe again soon!

Coconut White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
two peas & their pod

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3.4 oz. package Coconut Creme instant pudding mix (Jell-O Brand)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
2 cups white chocolate chunks or chip

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and set aside.

2. Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add in coconut creme pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the coconut and white chocolate chunks.

3. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. (The first batch came out puffy and round, so I pressed the remaining cookies down before I baked them.) Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slight golden and set. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Potato Crusted Halibut

2011-05-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Dana from DANA TREAT - treat yourself (if you’re not familiar, awesome Seattle blogger with fabulous dessert and vegetarian recipes) wrote about both Guy Fieri and pedestrian (low-brow) tastes in two separate posts. It got me thinking about all the “pedestrian” things I consume. I love fine food at home and when we eat out, but I’m also a sucker for things like Costco hot dogs, grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a side of French fries, mac and cheese from a box and Samoas Girl Scout Cookies.

When I saw this recipe for Potato Crusted Halibut, which just happens to be a Guy Fieri recipe, with the crust being made from tater tots I was sold! I’ve never made a Guy recipe before and a lot of people wouldn’t dream of coating a beautiful piece of halibut with tater tots, but I thought is sounded delicious.

The combo of Asian flavors with tater tots is kind of odd, and I don’t think Curtis was sold on the final product (evidence by him eating his fish, but not much of the crust). But I love hoisin sauce and the combo of salty and sweet flavors and I really enjoyed this dish . But if Asian meets potato is not your thing, I think you could mix the tots with herbs or really any combination of flavors, to get a nice “potato” crust.

I was working with HUGE pieces of halibut so after following the pan fry directions, I finished the fish off in the oven at 300 degrees for about 5 minutes. The fish was cooked perfectly! I used leftovers the following day to make halibut sandwiches.

What’s your favorite guilty food pleasure?

Potato Crusted Hoisin Halibut
Guy Fieri
Serves 4

ingredients:
• 2 pounds halibut (whole fillet), cut into 4 equal pieces
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 cups shredded potato nuggets, defrosted (recommended: Tater Tots)
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions

directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Cut halibut in 4 equal pieces. In a mixing bowl, combine ginger, light soy sauce, white wine, and pepper in mixing bowl. Add fish to bowl and let marinate for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Defrost potato nuggets; add panko, hoisin, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil. Mix together thoroughly and divide into 4 equal amounts.

Heat a medium nonstick saute pan to low and add 2 tablespoons of oil.

Remove fish from marinade, shake off excess marinade, and dredge in flour on both sides.

Apply 1/4 of potato mixture to fish; press the mixture onto the top of the fish.
Add fish potato-side-down to saute pan; cook 2 portions at a time. Cook until potato mixture is lightly browned and crispy. Gently turn the fish over; cook the other side for 2 minutes. When finished, remove, place on a baking sheet and hold in the oven until the next two fillets are cooked. Repeat the process for the next two fillets.

Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.

Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Sausage and White Beans

2011-05-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Pasta is my all time favorite food. I’d pass up a juicy steak any day for big bowl of pasta. What can I say? I’m a carb girl. The other night I combined Gina’s healthy weight watchers recipe for Pasta with Cauliflower with Giada’s recipe for Orecchiette with Sausage, Beans, and Mascarpone. I seem to have a talent for taking “healthy” recipes and making them not so healthy…

I bought my Orecchiette at Trader Joe’s and although penne will always be my favorite pasta shape, I’m a fan. This ear shaped pasta is cute and delicious! I stirred in some arugula in at the end to give the dish a little color.

Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Italian Sausage and White Beans

ingredients:
1 pound Orecchiette pasta
1 onion, chopped
Olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
1 pound Italian Sausage
5 anchovies
1 jar large Greek white beans (available at Trader Joe’s and specialty food stores)
1 large head cauliflower, roughly chopped (about 3 cups)
1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
Arugula or spinach, a few handfuls
Pecorino Romano cheese, to taste

directions:
Bring salted water to a boil to use for the cauliflower and pasta.

Caramelize onions in olive oil with a little salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and brown sugar. Add sausage and break it up while cooking. Add anchovies (don’t worry, they’ll dissolve) and white beans.

Meanwhile, blanch cauliflower in boiling water. Remove it and add to sausage mixture and bring water back to a boil for the pasta.

Toast the bread crumbs in a small dry frying pan, be careful not to burn and set aside.

Cook the pasta until al dente. Reserve about 1 cup of pasta water.

Toss pasta with sausage, onion, bean and cauliflower mixture. If it's dry, add in some of the reserved water. Add in toasted bread crumbs and a few handfuls of arugula. Divide onto plates and top with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Rhubarb Bars

2011-05-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

The summer after my freshman year of college I worked as bank teller. At some point that summer a nice man I worked with brought rhubarb bars into work to share. I must have been impressed because I asked for his recipe and passed it on to my mom.

Fast forward several years and my mom made these bars for us and when I asked for the recipe she reminded me that I had brought it home from the bank. Fortunately for me, she saved it. Apparently back in my college days I didn’t realize the value of holding onto a good recipe!

Now every spring this is one of my favorite desserts to make. They’re sticky and gooey and really more like a crisp than a bar… best served warmed up in a bowl with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Rhubarb Bars

Make a pie filling consistency using:

3 cups chopped rhubarb
3 T. cornstarch
¼ cup water
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Stir together in heavy pan over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Cool slightly.

Crust:

1 ½ cups oatmeal
½ tsp. soda
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. salt

Mix well.

Line a 9” square pan with foil (so the bars can be easily pulled out and cut). Press most of the crust mixture on the bottom of the pan. Pour the cooled rhubarb mixture over the top and crumble the remaining crust on top.

Bake at 375 for 30 min. Serve at room temperature cut into bars or warmed up with vanilla ice cream.

Ice Hockey

2011-04-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Since this blog is supposed to be about “us” not just me and the food I cook, I decided I should give Curtis a little love. We’ll see if he notices, and find out if he actually reads this or not. :) Hockey is a big part of our life, he plays once a week in the Greater Seattle Hockey League and I go and cheer him on (when the games aren’t too late). Here are pictures from his most recent playoff game. They won 2-1, with Curtis, #20, scoring both goals!

His final playoff game for the winter season is this Wednesday and then he’ll have a small break before moving into the summer season. Wish him luck!

Signs of Spring

2011-04-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

We spent our day playing the yard; thatching and aerating the lawn, cleaning up my herb garden so it will be ready for planting, putting in new hedges and filling in a sink hole we had in the grass. It was a perfect day. The rain has stopped, the temperature was mild and while we were out we noticed several flowers are in bloom which means warmer, longer days are on the horizon!

Luck of the Irish Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

2011-03-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

I took this recipe and skipped the Bailey’s Cream Cheese frosting (as divine and celebratory as it sounded) and instead used leftover Dulce de Leche frosting I had from this recipe. Because really, who doesn’t love chocolate and caramel? I thought about making green frosting, but I figured these beauties topped with gold wrapped chocolate coins would make them festive enough for St. Paddy’s Day!

Chocolate Guinness Cake
haute apple pie

1 cup butter
1 cup Guinness
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
About 1 cup of Bailey’s to drizzle on top of the cooked cake.

Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces room temperature cream cheese
2 to 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
5-6 Tbsp Bailey’s Irish Cream

or Dulce de Leche frosting
Joy the Baker

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup dulce de leche, plus more for drizzling
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter and allow it to cool slightly. Then, mix in the Guinness and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

In a third bowl, mix the eggs and sour cream.

Slowly mix the Guinness mixture into the egg mixture. Then, add the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

Pour the batter into a well buttered spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 20 minutes, remove from the pan and place on a cake plate.

Poke holes all over the top of the cake with a fork. Slowly spoon 1 cup of Bailey’s over the cake.

Next, make the Irish Cream frosting by creaming the cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Add the Bailey’s a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency. Frost your cake.

OR, make the caramel frosting: Place cream cheese in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds, until very soft and pliable. Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the butter and dulce de leche. Beat on medium speed until well incorporated. Stop the mixer and add the salt and powdered sugar. Beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until fluffy and lighter in color. Generously spoon frosting on top of cupcakes, or use a large frosting tip to pipe on frosting.

For garnish, heat a few spoonfuls of dulce de leche over a low flame until just pourable. Then drizzle it over the cupcakes and top with a few sprinkles (or gold coins). Add a few sprinkles of fine sea salt if you’re feeling fancy.

*I made cupcakes instead, so I baked them for about 20 minutes at 350. I also threw a few handfuls of milk chocolate chips into the batter.

Tequila Lime Chicken with Jalapeno Butter

2011-03-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

This post was supposed to be about fresh margaritas. The kind that are so refreshing that they go down easily, and before you know it, you’re two or three in and feeling good. But Jason, the margarita maker, wouldn’t share his super secret family recipe with me. And I guess if he had shared it and then I turned around and blasted it out to blog land, I would have lost a few points. And really, at the end of the day, it’s probably better for me and you if I don’t have the recipe.

This past weekend Jason (who was the best man in our wedding) and Curtis had a smoked meat party with a Mexican theme. Jason made the margaritas and chicken and Curtis did brisket with a Mexican dry rub (it was melt in your mouth good!). We completed the meal with homemade salsas, taco fixings, Mexican carrot torte, Piper’s cilantro fennel coleslaw, smoky beans and Dulce de Leche cupcakes. It was a feast and we’re still recovering!

Since the average household doesn’t have a smoker, I think this chicken brine and butter rub would also be pretty divine for BBQ chicken. It could then be pulled off the bone for tacos or eaten as is!

TEQUILA LIME BRINE
From Low & Slow

2 whole chickens, halved

½ cup tequila
2 limes, juiced (about ¼ cup juice)
1 cup warm water
2/3 cup kosher salt
½ cup honey
2 teaspoons grated lime rind
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
½ teaspoon ground coriander
2 jalapenos, cut in half

In a large bowl, whisk the tequila, lime juice, water, salt, honey, lime rind, pepper, and coriander together until the salt and honey are dissolved. Add the jalapenos.

Cover the chicken pieces with brine and allow to marinate for 6 to 12 hours in the refrigerator, turning the bag once or twice.

JALAPENO-ORANGE COMPOUND BUTTER
2 tablespoons orange juice
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 jalapeno, stemmed, seeded, and minced
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
2 tablespoons finely diced chives
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Combine the orange juice with the softened butter in a medium bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until blended.

To apply, slide your fingers between the skin and the chicken, and gently lift up the skin over the breast. Massage 2 tablespoons of compound butter directly onto the meat.

To crisp the chicken skin, brush two tablespoons of the melted butter on the chicken a few minutes before it comes off the BBQ.

The Smoke Masters ready for a re-fill

Baked Oatmeal

2011-03-07T21:57:00.000-08:00

First I was on a cookie streak and now I’m on a breakfast streak. I love oatmeal and always have. I’m not talking the instant kind, but the quick oats that take about 5 - 10 minutes to cook and with a little pinch of salt, some cinnamon, brown sugar and whatever else is inspiring me that day; dried fruit, bananas, nuts, agave syrup… I’m set for an easy, hot breakfast.

My mom sent me this recipe for baked oatmeal and warned me it makes a ton, so I cut the original recipe in half. It sounded fascinating to me; kind of a mix of a custard and oatmeal. It’s supposed to soak for 30 minutes before you bake it, so I baked some in individual dishes after 30 minutes and refrigerated the rest overnight and baked them the next morning (pictured). Both ways worked well. It’s loaded and tasty. You won’t leave the breakfast table hungry! And I had enough leftovers that I intend to continue eating it this week for a quick breakfast before I head off to work.

When I was mixing it up, it smelled like oatmeal cookie dough. So good!

Baked Oatmeal
Recipe courtesy of Monica’s Waterfront Bakery

4 servings

2 cups rolled oats
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup chopped nuts (I used a mix of almonds, sesame honey cashews and walnuts)
1/3 cup dried fruit (I used a mix of figs, apricots, tart cherries, mango, cranberries and blueberries)
1 chopped apple
1 ½ cups milk
2 large eggs
¼ cup melted butter, cooled slightly
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 ½ Tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla

Spray, oil or butter an 8 inch baking dish (I used individual serving dishes).

Stir all the ingredients together in order (I used my kitchen aid mixer). Pour into baking dish(es) and let soak for 30 minutes or put in the refrigerator to soak overnight.

Bake at 350 until the liquid is absorbed about 45 minutes to 1 hour for a full baking dish or about 30 minutes for individual servings.

Options: reduce butter to 1/8 cup and add ¼ cup peanut butter. Add bananas instead of apples.

Clinton Street Baking Company Blueberry Pancakes

2011-02-22T22:17:00.000-08:00

My whole life I’ve been eating sourdough pancakes. My Granddad’s sourdough starter dates back to 1958 when my Grammy brought it home from garden club. The lady who gave it to her claimed the starter was from Alaska.

So to this day, my entire family makes sourdough pancakes with the same starter that is now over 50 years old. They’re simply the best and even better in Danville, CA when my granddad makes them on Sundays. I’m not sure if it’s tradition, the seasoned griddle (that may be as old as the starter) or just my granddad, the pancake expert, but there really is nothing better.

But, just this once, I deviated, went out on a huge limb and this weekend made an entirely different recipe. I have a mild obsession with Throwdown with Bobby Flay, so when I saw the episode of him taking on the pancake professionals at Clinton Street Baking Company in New York City, I knew the popular little breakfast joint was a place I wanted to visit. When we were there on a girl’s trip, I drug Jenny G. and Melissa across town, we put our name on the list and patiently waited until we could indulge. Their famous blueberry pancakes with maple butter were all they were cracked up to be.

Then Jenny D. posted on her blog that there was a Clinton Street Baking Company Cookbook out and I immediately bought it for myself for a Valentine’s Day present (sometimes Amazon’s one click shopping just makes it too easy!). Since then Jenny has been telling me all the fabulous things she’s made out the book; chili, split pea soup, and of course, the amazing pancakes.

I’m excited to try so many of the recipes in my new cookbook, but Neil’s pancakes were number one on my list. And they are incredible. Light, fluffy and perfect.

So long story short, sourdough pancakes will always be my number one. But next time I make them, I may use Neil’s trick of folding in beaten egg whites and drowning the sourdoughs in maple butter. And when we feel like changing it up, I’ll always fall back on this recipe for blueberry pancakes.

For my local friends, if any of you are interested in some of the Dance family sourdough starter, I’m happy to share along with our pancake recipe!

Neil Kleinberg’s Pancakes with Real Maple Butter – because as Jenny D. said, “It would be a sin not to make the maple butter!”
Clinton St. Baking Company

MAKES EIGHTEEN TO TWENTY 3-INCH PANCKES*

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder, plus 1 teaspoon
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs, separated
3 cups whole milk
¾ cup (12 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted, plus 2 teaspoons for the griddle
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups blueberries or sliced bananas and 1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar for dusting (I skipped the dust)
Maple Butter (recipe follows)

*I cut the above recipe in half (as well as the maple butter recipe) and it made more than enough pancakes for four hungry adults.

The secret to their pancakes is folding egg whites into the batter. Neil discovered early on in the bakery’s existence that if he applied his French techniques—that is, you make a cake lighter by folding in whites (almost like a soufflé) —the batter gets lighter but retains the springy resiliency that makes for a proper pancake. The other key to magnificent pancakes is to avoid overmixing, which creates gluten in the flour and makes them tough.

1. Measure and sift all the dry ingredients into a large (preferably stainless-steel) mixing bowl: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the yolks, milk, melted butter, and vanilla until combined. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry mixture. The result should be slightly lumpy, yet combined to form a batter.

3. Whip the egg whites in a medium mixing bowl (Kitchen Aid) until they reach medium peaks. Peaks are “medium” when you put your finger in and they drip over a bit and stand up.

4. Gently mix half of the whipped whites into the batter with a large rubber spatula. Then gently fold the remaining half into the batter. Remember: this batter should be slightly lumpy and have large parts of egg whites not fully incorporated; it should look like whitecaps in the ocean with foam on top. (The batter will last a few hours in the fridge without deflating too much.)

5. Heat a griddle to 350 to 375 F. Grease the hot griddle with the remaining butter. Drop ¼ cup (approximately 4 tablespoons) of pancake batter on the griddle and cook to set. Add 1 tablespoon blueberries or sliced bananas and 1 teaspoon walnuts before turning the pancakes. When you see bubbles start to form on top, lift the pancake halfway up to see if it’s golden brown and crispy on the edges. If ready, flip the pancake.

6. When the pancake is golden brown on both sides, remove with a spatula. Repeat with the remaining batter and filling, cooking several pancakes at a time. Garnish with confectioners’ sugar for the blueberry pancakes, cinnamon sugar for the banana-walnut. Serve warm with Maple Butter.

MAPLE Butter

MAKES 2 CUPS

1 cup real maple syrup (grade-B organic)
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1. Heat the maple syrup over medium heat

2. Add the cold butter to the warm syrup by whisking in a few cubes at a time until the sauce is smooth and all of the butter is incorporated.

3. Turn off the flame and keep the sauce in a warm place until ready to serve.

It will keep for at least two months in the refrigerator. Never boil the syrup.

Nashville, TN

2011-02-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

What a great city, Curtis and I had a blast! Top 10 highlights (in no particular order) include:

1. Gumbo and the local Nashville microbrew, YAZOO, at Broadway Brewhouse

2. Live music at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge

3. Megan the fiddler at Tootsie's & Rippey’s (home of the “I’ll pull your pork if you rub my ribs” t-shirts)

4. Burger Up followed by the most incredible popsicles at Las Paletas Gourmet Popsicles. I had dark chocolate covered rose petal and Curtis had Mexican chocolate. Someday, when I get to redo our kitchen, I’d like to do it just like the interior of Burger Up (not pictured) … someday.

5. Watching the Nashville Preds smash the Colorado Avalanche

6. New boots

7. Touring the YAZOO brewery

8. Ryman Auditorium

9. Dinner at Merchants

10. Give me a Holler and a Swallow (aka Swaller)

Bonus: Drunk dialing Jason & Charity every time we heard “Wagon Wheel”

Nashville rocks. Curtis and I would go back in a heartbeat!

Chicken Mole

2011-02-08T22:43:00.001-08:00

I received the Soups, Stews & Chilis From the Editor’s of Cook’s Illustrated cookbook for Christmas and there are so many recipes I’m excited to try, but number one was Chicken Mole. I love mole but have never made it before. After recently realizing I rarely follow recipes exactly as they’re written I decided to do exactly what I was supposed to for this one! It is Cook’s Illustrated / America’s Test Kitchen after all… they work and work to perfect their recipes, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and I even read through all their notes and the entire recipe before I started (what a concept – right?). The only roadblock I ran into was I couldn’t find ancho chilies so I substituted a Serrano and Anaheim chile.

The verdict? The mole was amazing! I could take or leave the chicken, but this sauce recipe is a keeper! I’ll make it again for enchiladas, other meats, shredded Costco rotisserie chicken or maybe even as a unique pizza sauce.

CHICKEN MOLE
Cook’s Illustrated Soups Stews & Chilis

Serves 6 to 8

¼ cup raisins
¼ cup almond butter
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon minced chipotle chile in adobo sauce
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 11 thighs), trimmed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ancho chilies (about ½ ounce), stemmed, seeded, and broken into small pieces
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, plus extra for serving
1 medium onion, minced
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dark brown sugar, plus extra to taste
2 scallions, sliced thin

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the raisins, almond butter, chocolate, garlic, chipotles, cinnamon, and cloves in a small bowl and set aside. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown half of the chicken well on both sides, 10 to 15 minutes; transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and remaining chicken; transfer to the plate. Remove and discard the chicken skin.
3. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat left in the pot, add the ancho chilies, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until they are dark red and tasted, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the sesame seeds and cook until golden, about 1 minute. Stir in the onion and cook until just softened, about 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the raisin-chocolate mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is melted and bubbly, 1 to 2 minutes (do not let the chocolate burn). Stir in the broth, scraping up any browned bits.
5. Stir in the diced tomatoes with their juice and 1 teaspoon of the sugar and bring to a simmer. Puree the sauce until smooth (my Vita-Mix came in very handy for this step!), then return to the pot and season with salt, pepper, and additional sugar to taste.
6. Nestle the browned chicken with any accumulated juice into the pot, spoon the sauce over the chicken, and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot, transfer to the oven, and cook until chicken is very tender, about 1 hour.
7. Remove the chicken from the pot, let cool slightly, and then shred the meat into bite-size pieces, discarding the bones. Whisk the sauce to re-emulsify, then stir in the shredded chicken and reheat gently over low heat, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve, sprinkling individual portions with scallions and additional sesame seeds.

Serve with rice or warm corn tortillas

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2011-02-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

So I know you’re probably think, wow, Emily sure has been making (and eating) a lot of cookies lately! But I have a very valid excuse. We’re going on another weekend getaway (which requires treats, right?) and our hostess is with child, and along with my meal assignment she specifically requested, and I quote: “and if you have any of your famous cookies--prego here thinks those sound soo good!” I wouldn’t want to offend the host, so I must deliver! Plus, it would be awfully mean to disappoint a pregnant lady.

I saw a recipe for Barefoot Contessa’s Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies on my friend Jen’s blog. Jen isn’t a huge sweet lover (like I am) so when she puts up a cookie or dessert, I know it must be good! If you scroll down on the right side of her blog you'll see links to her favorite recipes. I highly recommend her rosemary popcorn.

Here are Jen’s notes: “Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies: I am obsessed with this cookie and I am not even a chocolate lover. The recipe calls for white chocolate chunks, but my mom advised using Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips. Amazingly delicious!”

I decided to go for the best of both worlds and included white chocolate, Callebaut chocolate chips and of course a little sprinkle of fleur de sel on top.

Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 2/3 cup good unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds good white chocolate, coarsely chopped (or 1 lb. white and 1/2 lb. chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix well. Add the cocoa and mix again. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the chocolate with the mixer on low speed until just combined. Fold in the chopped white chocolate (and chocolate chips).

Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Sprinkle fleur de sel on top. Bake for exactly 15 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cowboy Cookies

2011-01-26T22:11:00.001-08:00

We are going to our friend’s cabin and will be snow shoeing and sledding all weekend so I was on the search for a new cookie to try because like any other weekend getaway, being at the cabin warrants having lots of treats on hand! I found these cowboy cookies on Dana Treat and she mentioned they had too much chocolate and really not enough pretzels. So instead of the 2 cups of chocolate chunks, I used 1 cup chocolate chips, ½ cup white chocolate chips and a few handfuls of craisins. And instead of just 3/4 cup pretzel chunks, I threw in a few handfuls. I think these cookies are excellent, the perfect balance of salty and sweet, but honestly next time I might skip the pretzels and just put a few sprinkles of fleur de sel on top.

And as usual I didn’t read through the entire recipe before I began and didn’t realize until I was a few ingredients in that you’re supposed to chill the dough for four hours before you bake the cookies. Considering I started at about 8 p.m. this wasn’t going to work for me. So I ended up refrigerating the dough overnight and baking the cookies the next evening.

Cowboy Cookies
Dana Treat / Baked Explorations Cookbook
Makes about 24 large cookies

1¾ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 cups rolled oats
14 tbsp. (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter, cool but not cold, cut into 1-inch cubes
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. instant espresso powder (I used Chai powder)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks (about 12 ounces) (I used 1 cup choc chips, ½ cup white choc chips and a few handfuls of craisins)
¾ cup thin salty pretzels (about 1½ ounces) broken into tiny pieces but not crushed into dust (or a few handfuls)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the oats and stir to combine.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until the mixture looks light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, add the vanilla, and beat for 5 seconds. Dissolve the espresso powder in ¼ cup hot water and add it to the bowl, mixing until combined.

Add half the dry ingredients and mix for 15 seconds. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and fold in the chocolate chunks and ½ cup of the pretzel pieces. Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop dough in 2 tablespoon-size balls (or use a tablespoon measure) and place the dough balls onto the prepared sheets about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup pretzel pieces over the dough balls. Use the palm of your hand to press the dough down lightly; don’t small the cookie – you just want to slightly flatten the ball and push the pretzel pieces into the dough.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown or just starting to darken.

Set the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

And this is Murray willing me as hard as he could (with no success) to drop a cookie. He really has the RCA dog, head tilt mastered!

Beauties and the Feast

2011-01-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

So most of you have already caught on to the new awesome blog five of my best girlfriends from WWU and I started, but just in case you’re not aware, here’s the skinny:

Amber dreamed up the best blog idea ever. We brainstormed and debated and came up with several clever names (turns out there are lots of other witty foodies out in blog land who already claimed many of the names) so we finally settled on Beauties and the Feast because it was available, a fun play on words, and basically says it all: Six beauties. One feast. One blog where we gather to dish our reviews! We’ll each take turns “hosting” by featuring a new recipe and then we’ll individually post our feedback about how it turned out. We’re hoping lots of food lovers join in to consume, cocktail and comment!

The “beauties” range the gamut from a single girl working on a ranch in Wyoming to a very together, stylish, mother of two working full time in Bellingham, WA. We’re all in different places in our lives, and it’s not often that we all get to be together in one place, but when we are together we pick up right where we left off. And fortunately for the internet, we communicate weekly and this blog is bringing us even closer together!

We kicked off the blog by each posting an appetizer and cocktail and now we’re moving into our recipes. Here’s what we have so far:

Missy’s Parmesan Gorgonzola Sticks

My Cream Cheese Chutney Dip & Blue Cheese Crackers with Martha’s Berry Little Cocktail

Amber’s World’s Best Baked Brie (It seriously is the best)

Megan’s Sausage Balls with Mascarpone Chive Dip and Cinnamon Sipper Martinis

Jolie’s Tapenade and Blue Christmas Margaritas

Rachel’s Party Poppers

January Recipe: Wine & Tomato Braised Chicken

My favorite post so far: Jolie’s Life Reflections through Braised Chicken

And don’t miss BATF on facebook!

Salt Encrusted Whole Red Snapper

2011-01-09T18:10:00.001-08:00

Between Top Chef and the Food Network we’ve seen several variations of cooking a whole fish in a salt crust and Curtis really wanted to try it at home. So we ordered a whole red snapper from our local fish market and brought home a 3.5-lb Rockfish (that’s what was available and the nice man at the market cleaned the fish for us).

At home Curtis combined an entire box of kosher salt (about 8 cups) with 10 egg whites (we just kept adding egg whites until the texture felt like it would stick together). He then put a layer of the salt mixture on the bottom of a roasting pan, stuffed the fish with slices of Meyer lemon, fresh rosemary and pepper and then covered all but the tail with the rest of the salt mixture. The salt crust was about ½ inch thick.

He baked the fish for 35 min in a 425 degree oven. The salt crust turned a nice golden brown. When the fish came out of the oven, he cracked the salt crust with a mojito muddle and pulled it off.

He peeled the skin off the fish and then the fish off the bones and we went to town. This was so moist and delicious that Curtis and I polished off the entire fish between the two of us!

And we had Eating Well Rocky Road Brownies for dessert!

NYE Round Up

2011-01-09T15:16:00.000-08:00

We stuck to tradition this year and rang in 2011 at Lisa and Tom’s house. The theme is usually international cuisine – a variety of appetizers outside our comfort zone. Last year we had snails, the year before that, frog legs and so on. But this year was just a huge spread of pretty “normal”, very delicious appetizers.

Curtis requested we contribute with three of Giada’s fried recipes and like most fried foods, all three were finger licking, grease dripping good! Plus if skinny Giada eats fried food, it must be healthy! Tim pulled recipes from his new cookbook: Ghetto Gourmet, the Kitchen Pimp himself aka Cookin' with Coolio.

Here are a few pictures of what we consumed along with links to the recipes:

Spicy Fried Chicken Drumettes

Fried and Stuffed Rice Balls (Arancini di Riso)

Fried Chocolate and Banana Ravioli (We were so excited to dig in that we failed to photograph these delicious morsels)

Tim's Soul Rolls (carefully crafted with Barry White's Greatest Hits playing in the background)

Tim's I'm Gonna Slap You With My Whisk Tomato Bisque

Tom's Spicy Meat Rolls

Tim's Ghetto Gourmet Chicken Lettuce Blunts

Tom's Grilled Flatbread with Asparagus Pesto and Fontina

Tim's Jack Balls (for adults only!)

Tim's Note: Although I'm sure Coolio would have approved, the Jack balls were not from Cookin' With Coolio. The recipe calls for bourbon, but Tennesee Whiskey works just fine as a replacement. I also cut it down by about 75% (seriously, who needs 72 balls?).

Bourbon Balls

Makes 6 dozen

12 cups crushed vanilla wafers (4 boxes)

¾ cup dark corn syrup

6 TB unsweetened cocoa powder

4 ¼ cups powdered sugar, divided

4 ¾ cups chopped pecans, divided

3 cups bourbon

Mix vanilla wafers, corn syrup, cocoa powder, 4 cups powdered sugar, 4 cups pecans and bourbon. Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

Shape into balls. Pulverize remaining ¾ cup pecans and sift in remaining ¼ cup powdered sugar. Mix together and roll bourbon balls in mixture.

I can’t think of a better way to end 2010. I’m extremely grateful to have such wonderful family, friends and an abundance of food!

Curly Kale with Orange Peanut Dressing

2010-12-15T18:18:00.001-08:00

I love kale. I always throw it in soups and stir-fry’s, but I’ve never really had it raw (except in the green smoothies Hillary introduced me to) until now. My parents picked up this kale salad recipe at Whole Foods and the first time my mom made it, I couldn’t stop eating it!

I served this alongside Bridgett’s (La Bella Cook) recipe for Roasted Smoked Paprika Chicken with Spicy Chorizo and Potatoes. Dinner was Asian flavors meet Spanish – but I didn’t get any complaints! In fact this chicken is about the easiest recipe ever and while it was roasting Curtis commented at least three times how great it smelled. The only change I made to her recipe was I roasted a couple heads of garlic earlier in the day and then added the whole cloves to the chicken goodness when it came out of the oven.

Curly Kale + Roasted Chicken + Rice = One delicious weeknight dinner!

Curly Kale with Orange Peanut Dressing
Whole Foods

Curly Kale, washed and chopped

Dressing:
1/2 cup orange juice and grated rind from one orange
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 T. peanut butter (fresh ground)*
2 T. raw cashew butter or almond butter*
1 t. soy sauce
1/4 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1/4 clove garlic**

Blend all ingredients in a high power blender until smooth. Pour over kale.

*I do love fresh peanut butter and raw almond butter, but I didn't have either so I just used regular ol' peanut butter, it was still delicious

**or more!

Hot Cocoa with Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Marshmallows

2010-12-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

I did something very dangerous. I went to Trader Joe’s with no shopping list or agenda. It started out well, I went straight to the produce section and picked out veggies to complete the salmon stir-fry I had planned for dinner.

Then things went downhill fast. ‘Tis the season and I’m a big sucker for all their new holiday products. Gingerbread mix? Yes please, I’m sure I’ll want to make a gingerbread trifle this season. Advent calendars? Why not… I get them for our nieces and nephews, Curtis and I should have a fun countdown to Christmas too. Candy Cane Joe Joe’s? I was able to pass (this trip). I’ve already had them several years in a row and know they are delicious and I can consume several in one sitting.

And then I found the Dark Chocolate Minty Mallows. All year long my Starbucks drink is either an Americano or double tall nonfat latte. But when we get into the season of red cups, I can’t resist peppermint mochas. The red sprinkles make me really happy. Immediately I was having visions of sitting in front of the fire with dark chocolate covered peppermint marshmallows floating in a mug of hot cocoa – How could I resist? The entire box of marshmallow goodness cost less than one Starbucks drink. I may be paying for this come January, but I think it’s worth it! It was all I expected and more.

What’s your best Trader Joe’s find?

Spicy Coconut Shrimp and Sea Scallops Over Soba Noodles

2010-12-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

This is a recipe from The Hali'imaile General Store Cookbook (in my humble opinion, one of the best restaurants on Maui) that I adapted. The original recipe is spicy lobster and shrimp and I love lobster, but we didn't happen to have any on hand, so I worked with what I had. The cookbook is divided by season and this particular recipe falls under summer, but I was in the mood to make something pretty with bright colors, so I went for it. Summer in December isn't all bad! My changes are noted.

Spicy Coconut Lobster and Shrimp Over Soba Noodles
The Hali'imaile General Store Cookbook

3 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 cup seeded and thinly sliced red bell pepper
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 cup stemmed and sliced shiitake mushrooms (Curtis doesn't like mushrooms, so I used cabbage instead)
2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound lobster tail meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used sea scallops)
1 pound large shrimp (16 to 20), peeled and deveined
2 1/2 cups frozen coconut milk, thawed (I used canned)
2 teaspoons sambal - Indonesian garlic-chile paste (I used Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic Sauce)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1 pound dried soba noodles
1/4 cup seeded and chopped tomato, for garnish
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, for garnish
1/2 cup chopped green onions, white and green parts, for garnish

In a large saute pan or wok, heat the oil over high heat. Add the bell pepper and stir fry for 20 seconds, until they start to go limp. Add the peas and stir fry for 20 seconds, until they start to go limp. Add the mushrooms (or cabbage) and stir fry for 20 seconds, until they start to go limp. Add the ginger, garlic, lobster (sea scallops), and shrimp and stir fry for 1 minute, until the shrimp turns pink and begins to curl. Add the coconut milk, chile paste, lime juice, basil, and cilantro and stir fry for 2 minutes, until the seafood is cooked through and the mixture begins to bubble. In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and water and stir into the seafood mixture. Stir-fry for 30 seconds longer, until the sauce thickens slightly.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the soba noodles, stir well, and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, until al dente. Drain and place on a warmed platter.

Spoon the seafood mixture over the noodles. Garnish with the tomato, mint, and green onion. Serve immediately.

Serves 6

We just got a new macro lens and this is the first time we used it so here are a few photos Curtis played around with. Thanks to all our family members who gave me birthday money to use toward our lens!

Winter Wonderland

2010-11-28T19:35:00.001-08:00

We were pretty thrilled to have a pre Thanksgiving snow this year (over 10 inches!) and are hoping for lots more of the white stuff this winter!

Murray LOVES the snow

Curtis loves it too - this is a picture of him "working" hard shoveling off our deck roof

Curtis' masterpiece: a golfing snowman

November Windstorm

2010-11-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

We had a wild storm a few weeks ago with winds up to 60 mph. The storm took out our flag pole, one tree, power and left us with a yard and roof covered in branches. Fortunately we didn't have any damage to our house, our wood stove kept us toasty warm and we ended up with a nice wood pile.

This tree smashed through our fence

The neighbors had it much worse with five very BIG trees down

Lots of branches to clean up

All this wood will keep us warm through future storms!

Rocket Muffins

2010-11-17T18:59:00.000-08:00

My mom gave me the Macrina Bakery (one of Seattle’s best bakeries!) cookbook for my birthday. The first thing I made out of it was a lemon butter cake and it was delicious, but I decided for recipe #2, I should pick something a little healthier. Loved the name and list of ingredients in these muffins!

ROCKET MUFFINS
Adapted from Macrina Bakery & Café Cookbook

Makes 15 Muffins

¾ cup walnuts
¾ cup all-purpose unbleached flour
¾ cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup rolled oats
3 medium carrots, grated
1 small, ripe banana, mashed or pureed
2 eggs
½ cup canola oil
½ cup molasses
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup raspberry preserves

• Preheat oven to 375. Brush the insides of a muffin tin with canola oil.
• Sift flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Add oats, chopped walnuts, and grated carrots. Toss with your hands until ingredients are combined.
• In a separate medium bowl, combine banana, eggs, canola oil, molasses, and buttermilk. Mix fully with a whisk. Add mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir just until batter comes together, taking care not to overmix.
• Scoop batter into oiled muffin tins, filling them to the top. Bake on center rack of oven for about 25 minutes, or until tops are deep brown. Let cool for 10 minutes, then dent each muffin with a spoon and top with a dollop of raspberry preserves. Slide a fork down the side of each muffin and gently lift it from the pan.

The Winner Is ...

2010-11-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

Jamie! CSN Stores will directly e-mail you a gift certificate to use. Happy shopping!

CSN Stores Giveaway

2010-10-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Enter to win a $35.00 gift certificate from CSN Stores! CSN is comprised of over 200 online stores, selling everything from dining room chairs to salt pigs (which is what I’d personally buy if I had a CSN Stores gift certificate!). No matter if you're in the market for a diaper bag, firepit or remote control boat - CSN Stores has it!

To enter, leave a comment telling me your favorite Halloween costume or what you plan to dress up as this year. You have until Sunday, October 31 and I’ll announce a winner, chosen via random.org, on Monday, November 1.

Thank you CSN for another great giveaway!

Homemade Bread

2010-10-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

When I visited Megan at her ranch a couple of weeks ago I had the most incredible homemade focaccia bread. As I raved about it Megan asked if I ever make my own bread. At the ranch they make fresh bread daily, and according to Megan it’s not that hard.

Then this past weekend we had our friends Charity and Jason over for dinner and Charity e-mailed me ahead of time and said she’d bring bread. She now makes all their bread and wanted to share some.

I've always been afraid of yeast, but that's all the inspiration I needed.

Charity’s bread was incredible and she brought me a print out of the step by step tutorial from Dana Made It.

I decided I'd make some to bring to my parent's house but a few things went wrong. My braids were fat and then skinny. I smashed two loaves onto one baking sheet. When they came out of the oven, they were flat and hard, nothing like what Charity's looked like. And most disturbing... Denali the visiting dog helped herself to the entire cinnamon loaf right off our counter. But the good news is that even though it was flat and ugly, the bread was really tasty.

Round two went much smoother. I used King Arthur bread flour (vs. the whole wheat / white mix I had in my flour container). I gave each loaf its own baking sheet, made nice fat even braids and skipped the egg wash. And I let the bread cool way up high out of the dogs reach.

After working through a few kinks, I've decided this is fairly easy. Yes there is a lot of rising time, but hardly any hands on work. It’s so worth it, 100x better than any grocery store or even bakery bread I’ve had.

Braided Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast (or one yeast packet)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup hot water
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. butter

2 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
1 3/4 - 2 cups more flour

Cinnamon variation:
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Click here to see the full tutorial and recipe.

Amber’s Chicken Tortilla Soup

2010-09-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

Since I put my heavenly fleece sheets on, it has warmed back up… but it is raining, so that’s all the excuse I need to make soup. My friend Amber sent me this recipe a few days ago, her version of Chicken Tortilla Soup. I’m leaving for Montana today to visit my friend Megan on her ranch, so I made a huge batch last night so Curtis will have plenty to eat while I’m gone. I’ve included Amber’s original recipe below with my changes noted. We also tried Trader Joe's tamales and they're great! The soup is delicious!

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast (I used 2)
½ onion, diced (1 onion, diced)
2 cans diced tomatoes (1 - 28 oz. can)
1 small can diced green chilies
4 cups chicken stock (I put in a box and ½ of stock)
Dashes of Tabasco, to taste (I love spicy, hot, so I put in a big squirt of Sriracha sauce)

For later…
1 can corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 avocado
Cheddar or Jack cheese, shredded
Crumbled tortilla chips

In a Crockpot, put in the chicken breast (whole), diced onion, canned tomatoes, green chilies, chicken stock and hot sauce. Let cook for about 4 hours on low, and then pull the chicken breast out and shred. Add shredded chicken back in soup and then add the corn and beans. Let the soup cook another 30 minutes to an hour.

To serve: Put a generous helping of shredded cheese and a handful of crumbled (but not too crumbled) tortilla chips on the bottom of each bowl. Fill each bowl with soup, add a little more cheese and chips to the top and finish off with fresh, cubed avocado.

In Amber’s words, “Seriously, Yum.”

Cranberry “Stuffed” Pork Chops

2010-09-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

It’s only September 9, but today I put fleece sheets on our bed. It’s cold when we go to bed and it’s now dark when I wake up for work, so being snuggly warm in between fleece sheets makes the darker, colder days slightly more bearable... and that much harder to get out of bed! Along with winterizing our bed came a craving for comfort food. My sister-in-law, Lisa, shared a recipe with me that she saw in Costco Connection for Easy Stuffed Pork Chops and the recipe didn’t lie, it was easy and filled our house with a delicious aroma of fall comfort food.

The stuffing part was really good, but to be honest the pork was over cooked (my fault) and pretty bland. I’ll make this again, but maybe brine it first and cook it for less time? Any advice on cooking a good, flavorful, and moist pork chop? I bought my pork chops at Costco, so we have many more nights of pork chops ahead of us... which means lots of time to perfect them!

Cranberry "Stuffed" Pork Chops
Adapted from Costco Connection

Ingredients:
1 cup dried cranberries
1 onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cups cubed sourdough bread
2 teaspoons butter
3 garlic cloves, chopped (or more!)
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 egg
4 Pork Chops (1 ¼ inches thick)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1 8-ounce can apple juice

Melt butter in a Dutch oven and add cranberries, onions, celery, bread cubes, almonds, garlic, red pepper flakes and egg. Mix. (Or put into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish if you don’t have a Dutch oven.)

Place the pork chops on top of the mixture (the original recipe called to butterfly the chops, but I left them whole). Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour apple juice over all. Put lid on or cover with foil. (Next time I’ll probably cover the chops with the stuffing to try and get more flavor in them.)

Bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees F. Uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until the internal temperature of the chops reaches 165 degrees F. (Next time I’ll do less, maybe shoot for 150.)

I served with Polenta (double carbs are okay when it’s cold out – right?) and pear, blue cheese and walnut spinach salad.

The Broughton Islands

2010-09-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

One of the most beautiful places on earth!

Peregrine Breakfast Tart

2010-08-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

I’ve been meaning to write an update with pictures from our July boat trip to the Broughton Island's in B.C., Canada, but we’ve been taking our time sorting through 1000’s of pictures deciding which ones to delete and which ones are worthy of sharing. I will then pare it down to 5 or 6 highlights… So stay tuned, that post is coming soon!

Until then here’s a recipe for one of my favorite breakfast treats my mom makes on our annual boat trips. We eat very well on these trips. Even though I've been experiencing this for 30 years, I'm still amazed by the delicious meals my mom creates on a boat in the middle of nowhere!

Peregrine Breakfast Tart is not its official name but I feel like I should tie it to the boat (In fact this dish started on our first sailboat, Rain Dance, then moved with us to Aurora (terrible name!), Coyote and now on to Peregrine). For some reason my mom only makes it on the boat, therefore we only eat it once a year … but Curtis loved it so I’m going to change that. As long as fresh fruit is in season, this will become a regular in our weekend breakfast rotation!

Peregrine Breakfast Tart

Ingredients:
Store bought puff pastry
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/3 cup sugar
2 T. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. grated lemon peel
Fresh, seasonal fruit i.e. blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, kiwi, and cherries
Jelly

Directions:
Bake puff pastry at 425 degrees until browned, about 10 – 12 minutes.

While it’s baking mix cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla and lemon peel in a mixer (or by hand).

Spread cream cheese mixture on puff pastry and bake for another 12 – 15 minutes.

When it comes out of the oven, arrange sliced fruit on it and brush with jelly.

Cut and serve.

A Summertime Cocktail: Mrs. MPH Green Tea Delight

2010-06-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

I was first served this cocktail by Christina after a day of wine tasting in Walla Walla. Christina and her husband Matt (MPH) hosted an amazing BBQ for all of us winos visiting from the west side and her green tea cocktail hit the spot - it was cold, delicious, refreshing and palate cleansing!

The lovely Christina

So I decided to recreate it for a small Memorial Day BBQ we hosted. The cocktails were easy to prepare ahead of time, turned out great and were a big hit. The only problem? I didn’t consume them in moderation. So be warned, you can hardly taste the alcohol and these babies are dangerous!

On a positive note, green tea has so many (supposed) health benefits including fighting cancer, heart disease, lowering cholesterol, aiding in weight loss and being chock full of important antioxidants. So when 5 o’clock rolls around, you really should indulge in the name of health.

Mrs. MPH Green Tea Delight
Green Tea, brewed (I used Kirkland Signature Green Tea)
Fresh Lemon Juice
Agave Syrup (Available at Costco)
Vodka or Gin

Make up batch of hot green tea and pour it in a pitcher. Add a few squirts of Agave syrup and mix it until the syrup dissolves. Cool in the fridge. Add fresh lemon juice and keep in the fridge until ready to drink.

When it’s time to serve:
Fill a glass with ice, add vodka or gin and fill the rest of the way with the iced green tea mixture. Top with a lemon wedge and have agave syrup available to add for those who like it sweeter and lemon to add for those you like it citrusy sour.

Warning: DO NOT CONSUME TOO MANY IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING REMOTELY IMPORTANT TO DO THE NEXT DAY.

Cheers!

And the winner is …

2010-06-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

This turned out to be a lot of fun. First off, most comments Taco Tuesday has ever received on a single post and I collected lots of good recipes. I'm still hoping to secure Shauna’s “Better than Sex Cake” recipe. Curtis doesn’t buy it, but there is only one way to find out! And Jenny’s cream cheese lemon bars? Straight from heaven! And Greg reminded me about his divine flour-less chocolate torte. Recipes below.

And I’ve learned my kitchen is a bit lacking … my birthday list will include (hint, hint darling husband):

• An immersion blender
• Knife sharpener
• Chopper
• Vitamix – see review here
• Wooden spoon
• Jar opener (mine is MIA)
• Salt pig
• Oh yeah, and a Thermador gas oven – may have to wait for Christmas… or our kitchen remodel… or a winning lottery ticket for this one!

Because many of you are my friends, I had Curtis witness me picking the winner using random.org (around here, we’re 100% fair and square!) and the winner is Hillary! Her favorite kitchen gadget?

"My favorite these days is my Vitamix. It's become the second love of my life, next to my husband."

Hillary, please let us know what color baking dishes you’d like and we’ll send them your way. CSN Stores - thanks for such a great giveaway!

CREAM CHEESE LEMON BARS (Jenny Goodman)

Step 1: The Crust
6Tbs butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour

Grease 8x8x2 pan. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in flour.
Bake crust at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden.

Step2: Lemon Filling
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp lemon peel
3Tbs lemon juice

Beat ingredients for lemon filling until thickened. Set aside.

Step 3: Cream Cheese Filling

1 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/4 tsp baking powder

Pour cream cheese filling over hot crust. Then slowly pour lemon filling over cream cheese.

Bake 350 35-40 min or until center doesn't shake.

Jen’s notes: If I remember correctly the lemon and cream cheese switch places in the oven

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CARAMEL SAUCE (Greg Platz)

Cake

1 cup butter, cut into pieces
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 ½ cups)
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 large eggs

Caramel Sauce

1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup water
1 ½ teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbsp. (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Vanilla Ice Cream

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350◦F. Butter 10-inch-diameter spring-form pan. Line bottom with waxed paper. Stir butter and chocolate in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted. Mix sugar and cocoa in large bowl. Add eggs, whisk until well blended. Whisk in chocolate-butter mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake about 40 – 45 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack.

For Caramel Sauce:
Stir sugar, water and lemon juice in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil without stirring until syrup is a deep amber color, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Add in cream (mixture will bubble vigorously). Return to low heat; stir until any bits of caramel dissolve. Add butter; whisk until smooth.

Le Creuset Giveaway!

2010-05-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ashley from Cookware.com recently contacted me and generously offered to do a giveaway via Swanky Taco Tuesday! One lucky winner will receive a 9” and 5” square Le Creuset baking dish (you pick the color!). I can't live without my Le Creuset Dutch oven and baking dishes and know you won't be able to either!

Since Ashley contacted me I’ve been browsing CSN Stores (Cookware.com) and love all the fun kitchen gadgets, pet supplies and baby gear they have to offer. They also have great furniture including sofas, I especially like this armchair and ottoman.

For a chance to win, leave a comment telling me your favorite kitchen gadget. I have many but my microplane grater is at the very top of my list! I will randomly pick a winner using random.org on Friday, June 4.

Good luck!

See the giveaway results here

Spring Forward

2010-05-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a really busy, yet fun, spring – it’s flown by! Below is a quick re-cap (I did a good job of pairing just one photo with each event!). Our plan now is to make no plans. We look forward to spending most of our summer weekends in town enjoying our yard, local friends and cooking at home!

Santa Barbara weekend

Selene Rendezvous in Roche Harbor

Celebrating Murray's 3rd Birthday

Megan's road trip - Olympic View stop

Wine Tasting in Woodinville for Kirsten's bachelorette party

Kate Funke tied the knot!

We were lucky enough to celebrate Mother's Day with both our moms! Click here for the Cocktail recipe.

Curtis met some happy pigs at Niman Ranch in Iowa

Annual spring trip to Walla Walla

The Ultimate Bloody Mary

2010-05-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is Curtis’ specialty. We think flair is the most important part of a bloody… and a smoky rimmer doesn’t hurt!

What you’ll need:
Tall Glasses
Ice
Vodka (plain or infused)
Spicy V-8
Marie Sharps Hot Sauce – Belize (or your favorite hot sauce)
Limes

Smoky Rimmer
Sugar
Smoked paprika
Lime zest
Pinch of salt

The Flair
Celery
Pickled asparagus
Pickled green beans
Lime wedges
Smoked Gouda cheese, cubed
Salami, cubed
Optional:
Olives
Prawns

1. Make the smoky rimmer by combing equal parts of sugar and smoked paprika. Add some lime zest and a pinch of salt.
2. Rim glasses with lime and dip in the smoky rimmer
3. Add ice
4. Pour in about 2 shots of vodka per glass
5. Add 8 shakes of your favorite hot sauce (adjust to taste)
6. Squeeze in 1/2 of a lime
7. Add all the flair.
8. Layer cubed salami and gouda on toothpicks and rest on rim.
9. Fill with spicy V-8. Gently stir and serve.

You can make infused vodka by adding habanero peppers, cilantro, cucumber, mint or basil - put your favorite stuff in a mason jar with vodka and let it sit for a few hours.

For more great cocktail recipes, check out our friend Nancy’s blog: Nancitinis – Cocktails for a Better Day

Taco Tuesday

2010-04-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hillary e-mailed me this morning to ask if we have Taco Tuesday at our house. And along with her question she sent me a link to this New York Times Article: Tinkering with Taco Night. I’ll be trying all these recipes starting with Soft Tacos with Sauteed Winter Squash and Chipotles.

To answer Hillary’s question; I love having a reason to eat specific food, i.e. Mexican for Cinco de Mayo, Dungeness crab or lobster on our anniversary and Valentine’s Day, corned beef, shepherd’s pie and Irish soda bread for St. Patty’s day and of course tacos on Tuesday. We’re not religious about it, but many Tuesdays you can expect tacos for dinner at the Adamson abode.

We like fish tacos best, then shrimp tacos, followed by Trader Joe’s carne asada with feta, green onions and chilies, sometimes we mix it up with chicken, black beans and caramelized onions and every now and then Curtis makes REAL tacos like his mom used to make – iceberg lettuce, ground beef, cheddar cheese and hot sauce. Our fridge is always stocked with tortillas and Coastal cheddar cheese. And I’ve never been above late night Taco Bell – sometimes it just hits the spot!

We mostly wash our tacos down with a good cold beer, but when we’re feeling extra swanky or the weather is nice enough to eat on the deck we pair our delicious, tortilla wrapped creations with fresh margaritas.

The best tacos we’ve ever had were grouper, pineapple, banana and pico de gallo at Ana y Jose in Tulum. Pictured above.

What’s your favorite kind of taco? And will you be eating them this Tuesday?

Playa del Carmen

2010-04-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Mexico was as good as it could possibly be… spending quality time with Curtis, my parents, Jason, Silvia and Henry enjoying the sun, playing in the Caribbean, Curtis getting in three rounds of golf and eating taco after taco after taco was pure bliss!

The Team - We got to celebrate Henry's 1st Birthday while we were there:

I would have happily stayed much longer...

Mayacoba

Henry

Of course we had to visit the Cancun Costco

The Wildlife

and Snoop was on our flight down!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Irish Soda Bread Scones

2010-04-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

I’m playing a bit of catch up, I wrote this and meant to post it the weekend before St. Paddy’s Day. Vacation photos coming soon…

Sunday, March 14: The other day I was browsing all my favorite food blogs and came across two recipes that I thought would make a perfect Sunday dinner. This soup is from Two Peas and Their Pod – the cooking couple, a great blog full of healthy recipes. I made the soup even healthier by adding kale and then counter balanced it with some Italian sausage (because that’s how I roll). And I found the Irish Soda Bread Scones at Wicked Good Dinner, another great food blog. In my mind, Irish Soda Bread is one of the best parts of St. Paddy’s Day, so I couldn’t pass these up. I kept it simple by leaving out the caraway seeds and used craisins since that’s what I had in my panty. The combination of the spicy soup and slightly sweet scones made one delicious dinner!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. Italian Sausage
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (you can use jarred)
Kale – a few leaves rinsed and chopped
2 cans low sodium vegetable broth (15 oz. size)
2 cups water
3 cans low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained (I realized at the last minute I didn’t have black beans, so I used kidney beans, which were great, but next time I will use black beans)
3 cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 T chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
Dash of red pepper flakes
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and cook until tender. Add in the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the Italian sausage and cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the sweet potato and roasted red pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add in the broth, water, black beans, kale and tomatoes. Stir well.
4. Add the chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Stir and toss in the cilantro. Stir again. Let the soup simmer on medium low for 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
5. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Irish Soda Bread Scones
adapted from Wicked Good Dinner

Ingredients
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup organic raisins (I used craisins)
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons cold butter
1 tablespoon toasted caraway seeds (I skipped this)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt (I used ½ tsp.)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, soak the raisins in the vanilla and buttermilk for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk the together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drain the raisins, saving the vanilla buttermilk. Stir in the caraway and raisins. Add the egg and buttermilk and mix with a spoon until just incorporated.

Place the dough on sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly floured and form dough into an 8” round loaf. Gently flatten the loaf with your hands until it’s about 3” high. Cut into 8 wedges and slightly separate each wedge on the baking sheet to allow room for expansion when baking.
Bake for 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet.

Chicken Salad and Cranberry Brie Toast

2010-03-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends, Jenny, sent me this recipe and she’s one fine cook, so when she sends something my way I know it’s going to be good. Jen and I went to high school together and then were roommates at WWU (along with two other girls who soon became life long bffs). Jen and I were happily trudging through the path of life together until one day she fell in love and transferred to UW. Then to add insult to injury she married the man, he graduated from the UW school of medicine and they picked up their darling son and two dogs and moved all the way across the country to Albany, NY. Rude! But that’s okay, her husband is a great guy and he’s doing great things and I know it won’t be long before they move back to Seattle (right, Jen?).

The best part about Jen living in NY (besides getting to visit her) is that she’s become an avid blogger and I’m almost more in the loop with her family and cooking adventures than I was when she lived in Seattle. When Jen moves back, one of her goals is to write a cookbook with her mom. I’m waiting with baited breath – I know it’s going to be fabulous.

So on to the delicious sandwich. Jen adapted this Tyler Florence recipe and I took it one step further and really simplified it so it could be a week night dinner. And let me tell you, it’s one mouth watering sandwich!

Click here for the original recipe. I skipped poaching the chicken (which is 2/3 of the recipe) and picked up a Costco Rotisserie Chicken… although in hind sight if I wanted to attempt to make this a bit healthier I should have tried the Kirkland Signature pre-cooked chicken strips. They’re an item Curtis helped develop and have an extremely clean ingredient deck… but no, I went with the juicy, salty (inexpensive) goodness of a rotisserie chicken.

I also picked up Delice de Bourgogne (it’s a triple cream brie) at Costco. Being married to a cheese buyer I know is going to take a few years off my life, because this stuff is crack. Once you go Delice, you’ll never go back to plain ‘ol brie.

When Jen originally sent this to me my first thought was to make it as an appetizer on bruschetta, but it’s a bit messy and there are a lot of ingredients so it worked well as a regular sandwich.

Chicken Salad, Apple, Brie & Cranberry Toast
Adapted from Tyler Florence

Ingredients:
Sourdough Bread, Sliced
Unsalted butter, room temperature
Cranberry Sauce
Brie cheese
Fuji apple, thinly sliced

Ingredients for the chicken salad:
½ cup walnuts
Kosher salt
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Lemon, juiced
Celery, small diced
Carrot, small diced
Onion, small diced
Freshly chopped parsley (I used cilantro)
A few splashes olive oil
Salt and pepper
Dill
2 cups shredded chicken meat, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

For the Chicken Salad:

Roughly chop the walnuts and toast in a dry skillet until they are brown and slightly fragrant. Season walnuts with salt once they are finished toasting. Add the walnuts, mayo, mustard, lemon juice, celery, onion, carrot, parsley, dill, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste in a large mixing bowl and combine. Fold in the shredded chicken and set aside while you prepare the bread.

Toast the bread in a hot oven until golden (next time I’ll throw it in the Panini press for pretty grill marks). Smear each piece with a little butter and then a tablespoon of cranberry sauce. Lay the cranberry-smeared pieces out on a sheet tray and top each piece with 2 to 3 slices of thick-cut brie. Pop this back in the oven for a minute or 2 so the cheese is slightly melted and creamy. Remove from the oven and top with a few slices of green apple. Top with a scoop of the chicken salad and cover with the other half of the bread to complete the sandwich. Serve.

Pizza Pie

2010-02-19T12:32:00.001-08:00

My parents and their food loving buddies decided that even without a wood fire pizza oven, it can’t be that hard to make pizza at home that compares to what the best local joints (like Serious Pie) put out. So they set out on a quest to make The. Best. Pizza. Ever... Many You Tube videos and pies later they found success and have perfected making thin crust pizza at home! Lucky for me they shared their secrets.

This is SO GOOD and SO EASY!

Pizza Dough - Makes two 12” pizzas
½ tsp. yeast
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup ice water

(You’ll also need cornmeal and cooking spray or oil)

Night before:
1. Stir dry ingredients first, then add water
2. Mix and place in refrigerator over night

Two hours before cooking your pizza:
3. Remove dough from the fridge 2 hours prior to making pizzas
4. Sprinkle with flour (it’s gonna be sticky, so don’t be shy with your flour)
5. Divide dough in half
6. Fold each half a few times like a letter
7. Shape into a ball (you’ll have two balls)
8. Place each ball on a small plate that’s been sprayed with PAM, spray the dough with a little more oil and sprinkle flour on top
9. Let it rise for two hours

When it’s time to eat:
10. Place your stone* in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees
11. Spray a 12” piece of foil with oil
12. Sprinkle with cornmeal
13. Place one ball of dough on foil
14. Push to edge of foil (that’s right – no rolling pin!) Sprinkle with flour and spray with oil as needed to keep from sticking
15. At this point we cook the crust for about 3 min (if you need to do this or not probably depends on your oven.)
16. Add toppings (go easy on the toppings, otherwise you’ll end up with a soggy crust)
16. Bake on a stone in a 500 degree oven for 7-10 minutes

Ready for the secrets?
*If you don’t already own a pizza stone – don’t go spend $42 at Williams Sonoma – you can pick up a ceramic floor tile at your local hardware store for $2 and it does the trick! I’d recommend a 12” or 13” tile – that way it’s sure to fit in your oven with plenty of room for hot air to circulate and this crust recipe fits perfectly.

Secondly – even though it’s 10 minutes long and a bit annoying, watch Jim Mortenson’s You Tube video (click here) on making this pizza – you’ll see how easy it is when you watch him go through the steps!

Jim makes a fresh tomato sauce, but I went with Mario Batali’s Marinara sauce per my parents instructions:

Martio Batali’s Pizza Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 ½ cups whole, peeled, canned tomatoes in puree (about 1 – 28 oz. can), roughly chopped
Spring of fresh thyme
Sprig of fresh basil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute the onion and garlic, stirring until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and herb sprigs and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Remove and discard the herb sprigs. Stir in the salt and season with pepper, to taste. This can be used immediately, stored in the fridge for 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

~
Curtis smoked a duck for our real Valentine’s Day dinner on Sunday, so Saturday I showed my love by making pre-V-day pizza. If Papa Murphy’s can make heart shaped pizza, so can I!

We topped our first pizza with pepperoni, caramelized onions and Parmigiano Reggiano and made a Margherita pizza (just tomato sauce, Mozzarella di Bufala and fresh basil) for our second course (Note: add the basil after it comes out of the oven).

Margherita Pizza

This is going to become one of our staples when we have friends over and for weeknight dinners (because it’s that easy)! When my parents made it for me they did a combination of fresh mushrooms cooked in butter, truffle cheese and drizzled truffle oil on top. I can’t wait to experiment with more topping combinations… I may even attempt Serious Pie’s green eggs and ham.

Whidbey Weekend Getaway

2010-02-17T19:31:00.001-08:00

We enjoyed a great weekend at the Abo’s beach house filled with delicious food including a beach picnic, fabulous wine, lots of hot tub time, games, golf and the best of friends!

This is my kind of laid-back golfing!

Murray gives pony rides and kisses

Hi Uncle Curtis

Just like their dads, these boys looooove to be naked!

Murray babysitting Roman

Piper cleaning up!

For more weekend pics, go to Absolutely Abo

Look who came for breakfast!

2010-02-14T17:24:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we woke up to three, HUGE critters in our back yard.

We were wondering the breed of these elk and it appears they're 100% USA grass-fed elk. Mmmmm, yummy!

In the three years we’ve lived here we’ve had elk sightings pretty consistently … but never have they hopped our fence and braved the Murray smells to come in our yard! We’re not sure why they chose our fenced lawn over the neighbors on either side without fences… except maybe the organic Murray and Gracie lawn fertilizer put our lawn deliciousness factor over the edge. Please excuse our poor picture and video quality, it was still dark out … but you’ll get the idea.

Watching these huge animals hop over our fence was like watching a human hop over a puddle; it was completely effortless (little did we know!).

Apparently they had a lunch date on the other side of the river, once they were done with breakfast they used our little trail and were off across the river!

After they left we let Murray out and he went bananas running around the yard - it was a combination of running, growling and marking. He'll show those elk!

Cupcake Cuteness

2010-02-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

When I first saw these owl cupcakes on La Bella Cook, I knew they’d be the perfect dessert for Missy’s owl themed baby shower. And since I’d never really have any other excuse to make them I was going to run with it. I love to cook and bake, but decorating has never been my forte, so even for something this simple, I figured I’d better do a test run. I ended up with lots of broken cookies, but at the end of the day they weren’t too hard to make and turned out super cute. And our friends who were over for dinner appropriately oohed and ahhed, giving me the confidence I needed to know these would pass for the shower.

For the owls, you’ll need:
• Cupcakes (black bottom cupcake recipe below)
• Double stuffed Oreos (for the eyes and ears)
• Chocolate Frosting
• Banana Runts (for the nose)
• Junior Mints (for the eyes)
• Small tube of white frosting
See how to make them on La Bella Cook

So back to the baby shower. It turned out it was giraffe themed, so Hillary found these for me and without doing a test run I made them and crossed my fingers they’d survive the car ride to the baby shower. I lost a few ears on the trip over, but other than that they made it and they were actually easier to make than the owls (because it’s challenging for me to cut Oreos in half w/o breaking them). But Curtis did inform me he liked the owls much better, so we’ll pull the owls out again when it’s time for Rachel’s baby shower.

For the giraffes, you’ll need:
• Cupcakes
• White frosting (I used cream cheese frosting)
• Chocolate frosting
• Small tube of brown or black frosting
• Nutter Butters (for the head)
• Vanilla Wafer cookies (for the neck)
• Black licorice (for the mane)
• Candy Corn (for the ears)
• Reese’s Pieces
See how to make them at Kevin Menzie

And as long we’re on the cupcake theme, my friend Megan made beach themed cupcakes a couple of weeks ago for a baby shower she was hosting.

For beach cupcakes, you’ll need:
• Cupcakes
• Blue frosting (for the water)
• Nilla Wafers (for the sand)
• Small toothpick beach umbrellas (the kind you use for cocktails)
See how to make them at Megan My Day.

With all these cute cupcakes, I think I may invest in a cupcake tower!

Black bottom Cupcakes

Make regular chocolate cupcakes either from a box or using your favorite chocolate cake recipe. If you’re going to make them from scratch, I’d recommend Hillary’s Hershey’s chocolate cake recipe.

Fill the cupcake papers 2/3 full.

Cream Cheese Filling:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
A handful of chocolate chips

Beat the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt until light and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Put a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture on top of each chocolate cupcake.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Top Chef Pork Belly

2010-01-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did another podcast interview with Angela from Kick Back and Kook and her guest chef: Kevin Gillespie from Top Chef! I was hooked on Top Chef this past season and Kevin was by far my favorite contestant and I truly believe he should have won. I mean, who can pass up uncomplicated comfort food, the big red beard (click here to become a fan on facebook) and the sweet, non-drama demeanor?

Kevin is not only a reality TV star, but he is one of the owners of Woodfire Grill in Atlanta, GA. I’m not sure if or when I’ll ever be in Atlanta, but if I make it there, Woodfire Grill will be at the top of my list of places to visit. And after listening to him over the phone, I have to stay I’m still a big fan and a bit star struck!

Angela and I both made Kevin’s recipe for Slow Roasted Pork Belly with Pickled Apples and Peanut Butter and then spent an hour talking with Kevin about it yesterday (well, to be honest, I only answered about 3 questions and maybe totaled 30 seconds of speaking time :)

Kevin said he only shares recipes with home cooks when he knows it’s actually realistic for them to recreate the recipe in their own kitchen without extravagant kitchen tools or exotic ingredients. I ordered the pork belly from Fischer Meats in Issaquah and the rest was easy! Colleen, Read and Boden volunteered to be guinea pigs. They brought Brussels sprouts with truffle salt (delicious!) and we also make some pasta as a back up so we wouldn’t starve in case my pork belly wasn’t Top Chef quality.

Boden helping Colleen cook

It was actually a really simple recipe and turned out great … although as the saying goes, I’m not sure it was “to die for” … which can be taken pretty literally since I don’t know any Cardiologists who’d recommend consuming pork belly. But it was definitely different and very fun to try.

Kevin said he loves to pickle things, so he stared with the pickled apples and then developed the rest of the recipe to compliment the apples. The peanut butter touch was inspired by Thai flavor combinations. And if you watched Top Chef, you know that Kevin loves cooking pork (he even made a bacon dessert in one of the final rounds). Here's the recipe with my notes.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly with Pickled Apples and Peanut Butter
Kevin Gillespie

Ingredients:
1 whole pork belly, skin off (about 5 - 10 lb.)
5 Fugi apples
3 cups cider vinegar
1 tsp. pickling spices
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanuts, roasted and cooled
Grilled peanut oil
Peanut Oil
Salt
Black Pepper

Peel, core and dice apples into a medium dice (next time I'd cut them really small).

Combine vinegar, sugar, spices, a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup water in a pot. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 5 minutes. Cool until just warm to the touch. Add apples and allow to cool, under refrigeration for 6 hours.

Season pork belly with salt and pepper. Wrap in a double layer of foil and cook at 225 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature without opening package. (We used a 2 lb. piece of a pork belly, but still cooked it for 2 1/2 hours.)

Add peanuts and enough peanut and grilled peanut oil to blender to make a puree. Season. (I skipped this and just used Kirkland Signature Organic Peanut Butter).

Slice pork belly into pieces and grill until warm through and carmelized on the outside. Place on top of a pool of peanut butter and top with pickled apples. (We each did just a smear of peanut butter and next time I'd just barely paint a little bit on the plate. A little goes a long way.)

Boden is the only 8 month old baby I know who has tried pork belly!

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

2010-01-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

Meyer lemons hold a special place in my heart. My Grandfather who lives in Danville, CA has a Meyer lemon tree at his house, so every time I get a whiff of a Meyer lemon, it makes me think of my grandfather and his fabulous Whiskey Sours. For those of you who have never experienced the bliss, Meyer lemons are a hybrid of a lemon and a mandarin.

As soon as Meyers hit Costco, Curtis brought me home a container. First I made a huge pan of lemon bars and single handedly consumed most of them. Next we moved on to cocktails and this past weekend I made Meyer lemon pound cake. I still have lemons left … so if you have any good ideas, throw them my way! I asked my girlfriend Colleen (who made the same Costco purchase) what she did with hers and she replied, “I put them in a tall vase.” Duh! They’re so pretty and smell so good, that’s the perfect thing to do with them!

Lemon Pound Cake
Cook’s Illustrated

Ingredients:
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), plus 1 tablespoon, softened, for greasing pan
1 1/2 cups cake flour (6 ounces), plus 1 tablespoon for dusting pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (8 3/4 ounces)
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest plus 2 teaspoons juice from 2 medium lemons (I didn’t want regular ‘ol poundcake, I wanted LEMON pound cake, so I used at least a ½ cup of Meyer lemon juice and lots of zest)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Lemon Glaze (Optional) (this may be "optional" but it makes it!)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup lemon juice , from 1 or 2 medium lemons

Ice Cream (Required)
Haagen-Dazs five vanilla bean (Passion Fruit is my all time favorite “five” flavor, but I didn’t want to steal the limelight from the lemon flavor, so we just went with plain vanilla)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with 1 tablespoon softened butter; dust with 1 tablespoon cake flour, tapping out excess. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In glass measuring cup or microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter, covered with plastic wrap, at full power until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. (GENIOUS! I always have butter explode all over my microwave, I will always cover it in plastic wrap from now on!).
3. In food processor, process sugar and zest until combined, about five 1-second pulses. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla; process until combined, about 5 seconds. With machine running, add melted butter through feed tube in steady stream (this should take about 20 seconds). Transfer mixture to large bowl. Sift flour mixture over eggs in three steps, whisking gently after each addition until just combined.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and continue to bake until deep golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire rack.
5. If using lemon glaze, while cake is cooling in pan, bring sugar and lemon juice to boil in small nonreactive saucepan, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.
6. After turning cake onto wire rack, poke the cake's top and sides with a toothpick and brush on Lemon Glaze (I added a small scoop of ice cream and just spooned the lemon glaze over each slice when I served it). Cool to room temperature, at least 1 hour. (Cooled cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.)

Gracie the Big Grey Dog

2010-01-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

Gracie is vacationing with us at the North Bend Doggie Camp this week and every time she comes to stay, it reminds me that our big boy Murray really isn’t that big!

Chicken Chile Corn Chowder (with Bacon)

2010-01-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

I ran across this recipe on Thursday on one of my favorite food blogs, La Bella Cook, and thought it would be the perfect dinner to accompany Thursday night TV. Curtis made me a Meyer lemon cocktail while I was cooking (because it was Thursday, so why not?) so I lost my desire to follow directions and kind of just put all the ingredients together in a pot … after all it is chowder. If you want the real recipe, please follow it on La Bella Cook. I also used a little bit more of everything because I was counting on leftovers to bring for lunch the next day.

Chicken Chile Corn Chowder
from La Bella Cook adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients:
7 ounces sweet corn, fresh or frozen (I just dumped in ½ a bag of frozen corn)
1 small potato, peeled (I buy my produce at Costco, therefore my potato was NOT small)
3 cups vegetable broth (I used Pacific chicken broth since that’s what I had in my pantry)
1 small onion, chopped (again large, blame it on Costco)
1 stick of celery, sliced (I used 4)
1 medium fresh red chile
1 pat of butter
1 small bunch fresh thyme
3 scallions, sliced thin
1 ounce cheddar cheese, grated (Coastal, of course)
1/3 cup sour cream (a dollop for me, none for Curtis)
Olive oil
Black pepper
Sea salt
Rotisserie chicken, shredded (Costco)
Bacon, cooked ‘til crispy and crumbled

Directions:
Chop the onion and sauté it in olive oil until soft and a bit caramelized. While the onion is cooking, grate the potato in a food processor (or with a cheese grater) and slice the celery. Add the shredded potatoes, celery and butter to the onions and cook until the potatoes crisp up a bit like hash browns.

Dice the chile into small bits (I threw it all in because I like everything spicy hot but discard the seeds if you’re not a fan of heat) and add it to the potato mixture. Add the broth (I used the entire box – 32 oz.), thyme, corn, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes. For more of a chowder/thicker consistency, use an immersion blender and blend it up a bit (I don’t have one, so I just put a few cups in a regular ‘ol blender and then added it back in).

Stir in the shredded chicken and heat for a few more minutes. Dish your chowder into bowls and top with sour cream, grated cheese, bacon bits and scallions.

I thought this would need more seasoning, but it was surprisingly very flavorful. In fact it was easy and delicious and I’ll definitely be making it again!