Cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake, oh my!

Somehow I managed to miss that yesterday's post was my 100th post in this blog! Hurrah to me!

To celebrate this momentous event, I bring you a most delicious recipe for cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen!

I'm actually going to include the recipe here along with my commentary, because I feel like there is a bit of a trick to preparing this. It's not horrendously difficult or anything, but I did find that this bears some notes. Also my own photos, because as Deb of SK admits buried in her list of many comments, her mum put together the cake she photographed for the post somewhat differently from the recipe instructions, hence the lack of chocolatey goodness on top. So without further ado, read this recipe, get yourself into the kitchen, and make this cake!


Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

For the cake:
1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, separated (remember: separate them when they're cold, then let them come to room temp!)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 ounces sour cream (I use the low-fat kind and it's just as nice!)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For filling and topping:
12 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9"x13" cake pan.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together. I use a large fine-mesh sieve for sifting. After you sift everything into the bowl, use a whisk to get all your dry ingredients blended together.

In a small bowl, mix together the 1/2 cup of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon. Use a fork to blend them together well, then set this aside.


In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together the softened butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy (2 to 3 minutes), then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla.

Use the whisk attachment of your mixer to beat the egg whites until they're stiff and hold firm peaks. 

Alternately add sour cream and then flour mixture into butter mixture. This will require near-superhuman strength, because this mixture will become incredibly thick and hard to stir. I had to use a wooden spoon and then stop every couple of stirs to scrape it off with a spatula. Really. It is that thick. You will oof and grunt your way through this one, but it's okay! It will look almost like a bread dough rather than a batter. Carry on!

Now the recipe calls for you to fold the egg whites into the batter. Laugh, because there's no way anyone will be able to properly fold the egg whites into the black-hole-dense mass of dough in the bowl in front of you. Do the best you can to incorporate them in a technique that is as close to proper egg white folding as possible. The mixture will become softer as you incorporate the egg whites, but don't get discouraged if you can't do the folding properly. I adore artfully folding egg whites into batters, but this is not one of the times that calls for art. It calls for sheer determination and the use of your biceps.

Mop the sweat from your brow and get that cake pan handy. Plop about half the batter into the pan and spread it around. Again, it's so thick that this isn't going to be easy. I found that it was easiest to blob in gobs of dough all around the pan and use a small spatula to spread it around to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Once you've got the first layer of batter in the pan, use a spoon to sprinkle on about half the cinnamon-sugar mixture you prepared earlier, and then add about half the chocolate chips.

Then gob on the second half of the batter and spread it round again with the spatula. This can get a bit messy because of the chip layer, but I find that if you drop the batter in the pan in small amounts before spreading, it keeps things neater. (See photo!)

Once you've got all the batter in the pan, sprinkle on the rest of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and the rest of the chips. Grumble to yourself about what a pain in the ass it was to put this together, then put it in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Put the pan on a rack and let it cool. Wonder if all the effort was worth it.

It is! It IS worth the effort! The cake is moist and spongy and not overly sweet, and the cinnamon-sugar mix on top gets slightly melty and crisp, and the chocolate chips don't melt all the way and it's just awesome. The first time I made this, Jeremy took some to work and it was extremely popular--so much so that one of his coworker's wives heard tell of it and felt left out so I packed up some for him to take home to her.

So yes... Jeremy and his coworkers are lucky gents, and you and your loved ones will be lucky too if you make one of these coffee cakes! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty sure this is one of the reasons Jeremy is so excited to marry me: a lifetime guaranteed supplier of cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake.

Adventures in Apple Picking: Apple Crumble

I can't believe November is upon us! October passed way too quickly for my liking, but I was fortunate to squeeze in an October day of apple picking at Boston Hill Farm with my friends Nicole and Justina. It was a glorious fall afternoon, perfect temperature, bright and sunny, and meant for apples.

Neither Nicole nor Justina had ever gone apple picking when they were growing up, an egregious misfortune that I wanted to remedy. I grew up going apple picking, sometimes several times in one season. My father has an apple obsession that's almost incomprehensible. He takes his apple picking very seriously, overfilling the house with many, many pounds of apples. I too felt the pull to pick this fall. I guess some things are genetic!

So what does one do when she comes home with 12 pounds of apples? Bake! :) I picked a few Macoun apples, but the majority of my bag was lovely ginger gold apples. They're a yellow-green with a pink blush on them and have a wonderful, creamy texture. They are a nice balance of tart and sweet. They're fantastic to just munch on, but everyone knows the addition of butter and sugar makes everything better.

I decided to use a few ginger gold apples in a nice apple crumble (interesting factoid: an apple crisp is basically the same thing as an apple crumble except that the topping on a crisp is a finer, breadcrumb texture and a crumble's topping is chunkier). These apples brown very slowly after you cut them, so even though it was a couple of minutes between the time I finished chopping them and the time I finished combining my ingredients, they hadn't changed color. This recipe would work well with any baking apple. I highly recommend it! It's a simple, unfussy dessert that is extremely hearty and delicious. We ate our warm out of the oven with a dollop of yummy vanilla Greek yogurt. After the leftovers cooled in the pan, we wrapped it in foil and stashed it in the fridge. Just portion out a serving and reheat in the microwave. Yum!

Super Simple Apple Crumble

• 6 ginger gold (or other baking) apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a square baking pan (8x8 or 9x9, whatever you've got).

Combine all the ingredients except for the apples and the butter in a large zip-top plastic bag, seal, and shake to combine. Cut the butter into small bits and add to the bag. Reseal the bag and knead the butter bits into the dry ingredients until the mixture holds together.

Heap the apples into the prepared pan. Crumble the topping all over the apples.

Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and the juices are bubbly. Or, if you're like me and you made enough topping to completely cover your dessert so you can't see the apples, you'll know it's ready when your house starts to smell amaaaaaazing. Carefully scoop out and enjoy the bliss.

 

Stay tuned. My next adventure in apple use is going to be an apple cake! 

Chai spice bread

I love spices of all kinds, so it's no surprise I love chai tea. Lately I've been on a quick bread kick, always keeping a loaf on hand for breakfast or a nice afternoon snack with a cup of tea, so I was delighted when I found the recipe for this chai spice loaf. It combines the best of both worlds: bread that is almost cake, and the warm spice chai tea. It's the perfect treat for fall, when everyone craves dishes full of autumnal spices.

A prevalent spice in chai (and a lot of Indian cooking, which I adore) is cardamom, and this bread tastes strongly of it. It's not terribly sweet, but it's moist and and dense and wonderfully spicy. The recipe linked above recommends making a sweet glaze for it, but I left mine sans glaze and it was still awesome. I found that adding a schmear of pumpkin cream cheese from Trader Joe's was the perfect complement--again, not too sweet, and with its own level of spiciness that worked with the flavor already in the bread. You can use any kind of black tea that you like (I used some decaf chai I had on hand); just brew a cup and then let it cool while you get your ingredients ready.

I shared this with some lady friends in addition to the usual taste-tester of Jeremy and they all agreed it was delicious. Not bad for a first-time effort. (I usually like to taste-test things before sharing them with friends, in case they're dreadful, but this time I got lucky!)

Chai Spice Quick Bread

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup prepared black tea, cooled to room temperature
• 1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Heat oven to 350. Grease just the bottom of a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter with the mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add the eggs, tea, milk, and vanilla at low speed until the ingredients are combined. The mixture will look curdled--that's okay!

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a separate bowl and whisk to blend well. Using a rubber spatula, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just moistened. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly with spatula.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool on the wire rack completely. If you choose to glaze the bread, let it cool just 30 minutes before glazing.

 Artsy shot, by Jeremy, of me making chai bread

Roasted Acorn Squash with Red Quinoa Stuffing

One of the things I love most about fall is the abundance of squash. The mix of colors and shapes adds some variety to a season where everything is gradually starting to brown, and I feel like the insides of squash are pretty darn delicious too. You can do a lot with a squash. I never met a squash I disliked.

Last week I popped into the supermarket for a quick something-or-other and spotted a beautiful, pine green acorn squash. I couldn't resist, and for a week I admired its perfect green ridges gracing my kitchen counter. This weekend I decided it was time to stop admiring the squash and get it into my belly.

I also happened to have a package of red quinoa I'd bought at Trader Joe's on a whim. I'd never before eaten quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), but I do know that it's a healthy grain that can be used in place of rice. It's got a nutty flavor, a slightly toothsome texture, and it's high in protein, so it makes a good stand-in for meat. I decided to make a variation on my traditional Thanksgiving acorn squash with chorizo stuffing. I left out the meat and made a slightly simpler version that turned out just as delicious. You should try it if you're looking for a veggie alternative that's still hearty and filling. This recipe does take some prep time but most of it is just waiting around for things to finish cooking, so it's pretty simple to prepare. You can put the squash in and then make the quinoa and prep the rest of the ingredients while the squash roasts.

Raquel's Roasted Acorn Squash with Red Quinoa Stuffing For Two (or one with leftovers)

• 1 acorn squash, washed and dried
• olive oil
• 1 cup dry red quinoa, well rinsed and drained
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
• 1 scant tsp dried sage
• salt, to taste
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped dried cranberries (I used orange flavored ones that were awesome)
• maple syrup for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil. You will need to stand the squash up on the non-stem end, so you may need to trim off the bottom to provide a flat surface. Make sure you have a big, well-sharpened knife. Carefully cut the squash in half lengthwise. (Or get your bulging bicep'ed boyfriend to do it for you with such skill that he even cuts the stem in half so artfully.) Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the pulp and seeds. Set the pulp aside; you'll want to take the seeds out to roast for awesome snackings. 

Generously brush the squash inside and out with olive oil. Place the squash cut side down on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake for about 35 minutes, until the insides are tender.

Meanwhile, rinse the quinoa well under cold running water and drain. Place the quinoa in a pot with 2 cups of cold water and a sprinkling of salt and turn the heat up to high. Once the water starts boiling, turn it down to a simmer and cover the pot. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. (It's okay if the quinoa still looks moist, but there shouldn't be any standing water left in the pot.) Remove the quinoa from the heat and give it a good stir, then leave it in the pot.

Once the squash are done roasting, remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 325. Using tongs, carefully turn the squash halves over to allow the steam to escape. Let the squash cool for a few minutes until you can scoop out the pulp without burning yourself.

While the squash cools, heat up some olive oil in a small saute or frying pan over medium-high heat. (Use enough oil to just thinly coat the bottom of the pan.) Once the oil is hot, add the diced onion and stir occasionally, cooking until translucent and softened. Add the sage and stir well to combine. Cook for another minute or two to allow the flavors to combine, then remove from the heat.

Using a spoon, carefully scoop out the squash pulp into a bowl so that the edges of each half are about 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick. Squoosh up the pulp to break up any big chunks, then add the squash to the pot of quinoa. Stir in the onions and dried cranberries. Season with salt to taste. (Seriously, treat yourself to a big spoonful of this now to taste it. It'll taste only better after you cook it.) Adjust seasoning, and add a little chopped fresh parsley if you have it.

Arrange the two squash halves back on the baking sheet. Mound the stuffing into each squash half. It's okay if you can't fit all of it; that just means LEFTOVER STUFFING for tomorrow's lunch! After filling each half, drizzle with maple syrup and put them back in the 325 oven for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Perfection! They are sweet, savory, and creamy. The quinoa gets nice and soft and the nutty flavor works well with the squash. Here's hoping you enjoy them. They are a real taste of fall. Dig into the season.

Pumpkin brownies

What's better than a brownie?

A brownie made of PUMPKIN.

Don't get me wrong, I can eat chocolate any day, any time. But pumpkin I only really eat during the fall. (Yes, I know that thanks to the glories of canning and freezing I could, theoretically, eat pumpkin any time of year, but it feels more special keeping it associated with the fall. Chocolate is in its own category though. It doesn't need to be associated with anything other than my belly.)

Chocolate and pumpkin actually tends to be a pretty decent combination, but the thing I love most about these brownies is that they just completely leave out the chocolate and are made just with pumpkin, so that the pumpkin is the moist, scrumptious star of the show. I supposed a chocolateless brownie is technically a blondie, but I've always hated the term "blondie" and so I will forever after refer to these delights as pumpkin brownies.

I got the recipe from the Baking Bites site, which to a sweet-toothed lady like me is like a baked goods porn-o-rama. They are denser than a pumpkin bread, but a bit creamier than a pumpkin cake.

I basically followed the recipe except that I whisk together all my dry ingredients before incorporating them with the moist ingredients. Also, I've found that while these are delightful with nuts and etc. mixed in, they're also positively fantastic and totally divine devoid of chunky additions. These are simple to make and I highly recommend them!

Pumpkin Brownies with Pecans

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8×8-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the pumpkin puree. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, and salt and stir this into the moist ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add in pecans (if using) and stir to evenly distribute.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer with a spatula.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the brownies are just just lightly browned at the edges and the center is set (it may look moist, but will not be sticky when lightly pressed). Cool in the pan before slicing.
Cut them into bars or whatever shape strikes your fancy and store in an airtight container. These will keep nice and moist for several days, or several hours, really, because they're just that good.

Surprise cookies: stupid name for a delicious treat

Recently Jeremy went out of town for a few days on business, and I thought to myself, Self, what better way to welcome home your gent than with a pile of soft, chocolatey cookies with a gooey surprise center? Since I'd be at work when he got home in the middle of the afternoon, I wanted some sort of treat to fill the void of my absence, so he was welcomed by two dozen scrumptious surprise cookies.

Now, as much as Martha Stewart's smug attitude of superiority to the rest of humanity bugs me, the woman knows how to put out an amazing cookbook. I have been loving her Cookies cookbook, which not only features an amazing variety but which is also absolutely beautiful to look at. (It is worth the price of admission alone for the chocolate gingerbread recipe, which is out of this world.) And I appreciate that there is a photo on every page, something that not every cookbook offers. It was here that I found the recipe for Surprise Cookies. I sort of hate the name, because it's vague (a better name would be Hot Chocolate cookies, because that's what they remind me of), but let me tell you: these cookies are the bomb. They are chocolatey, cakey cookies with a piece of marshmallow on top that are then covered in a simple chocolate frosting. So delicious! Check out the recipe and look at the drool-inducing photo I got from the website.

 Mon dieu! Look at that melty, marshmallowy center, peeking coyly out at you! What a flirt!








I did change a few things from the recipe. First off, I found that cutting each marshmallow in half resulted in too thick of a marshmallow, so I cut each jumbo marshmallow into fourths and found that size much easier to work with. But if a giant marshmallow is your thing, by all means, go for it. Second, I didn't bother to sift together the dry ingredients; I whisked them instead, and my batter was just fine. Third, I don't own a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and I have never found that an impediment; a regular hand mixer works just as well. Fourth, I don't have a variety of ice cream scoop sizes, so I just used two spoons and used those to shape the dough. Fifth, I ran out of vanilla extract after I made the batter and it was 10 p.m. and I was in jammies and not about to go to the supermarket to get more vanilla, so I didn't put any into my frosting and it was still scrumptious.

Below is my version of the recipe with my changes and comments integrated. You really should try making these. They are a real joy and everyone I shared them with really liked them. Who doesn't like surprises?


Makes about 2 dozen

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder (not Dutch processed, although I can't imagine that the world will end if you use Dutch processed cocoa powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened (you can speed up the process by placing the stick on a dish and microwaving at 5 second intervals until it is soft but not yet melting)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 large marshmallows, cut horizontally into four discs (or just in half is fine) *

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Using an electric or hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture about a half cup at a time and mix until it is completely incorporated. The batter will be extremely thick and sticky. Stirring this is a good upper-arm workout.
3. Use two spoons to drop dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Scoop up about a walnut-sized gob of dough with one spoon and use the other to shape and scrape the gob into a ball onto the sheet. These cookies do not spread much, so if they aren't spaced quite right, don't worry. Bake until cookies begin to spread and become firm, 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Remove baking sheets from oven, and place a marshmallow in the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly. Return immediately to oven, and continue baking until marshmallows begins to melt, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cookie sheets to a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes and then remove them from the sheets and place them directly on the racks so that they're cool before frosting. 

Chocolate Frosting

• 2 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional, as I learned)

1. Melt the butter and cocoa powder together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, until the butter is completely melted and has completely incorporated with the chocolate.
2. Put the sugar into a large bowl. Pour in the butter mixture and add the milk and vanilla (if using). Whisk everything together until well combined. When I was whisking, I found it a little thick, so I dribble in just a bit more milk and everything smoothed out.
3. Immediately frost each cookie, starting at the center and spreading the frosting with a butter knife to completely cover the marshmallow. Let the cookies sit out in a single layer for a bit and the frosting will firm up. 

These cookies stay fresh and chewy for a few days. Store them in an airtight container in a single layer. The frosting recipe I used actually called for larger amounts of everything, so I ended up with some extra frosting (darn, what a shame) that I stashed in the fridge. 

*Note to my vegetarian friends: If the thought of eating marshamallows is more than you can bear (due to the gelatin), something tells me these cookies would be just as amazing sans marshamallow. Just don't skip out on the frosting. It is amazing!

An Easter dish that's perfect for every day of the week

Happy very-belated Easter! And what a beautiful Easter it was here in the Northeast. The temperatures were in the low 70s, there was a lot of sun, and it was breezy. It really was a lovely, pleasant weekend.

Easter has never been a very big deal in my family. We usually gather at my aunt's house for a half-hearted egg hunt in her tiny backyard, chocolate bunnies, and a dinner of meatballs and ham. I think one reason I've never been very keen on Easter is those dreadful spiral-cut hams people have on Easter. A big, pink lump studded with cloves, covered in sweet sauce, and topped with pineapples is not my idea of how to honor a beautiful ham. To me, ham should be salty, because the natural subtle sweetness of the pork will shine through the brine. To cover a ham in sugar AND cloves AND fruit AND syrupy sweet stuff is just a crime. An absolute crime! Putting a bit of sugar on ham is okay by me ONLY if you are also putting savory spices on it, like cumin and paprika, and using the mixture as a nice rub. None of this gooey sweet ham nonsense. Honor your ham and lay off the pineapples! (I despise pineapples, mostly because they make my mouth incredibly itchy, but if they're your thing, go for it. Just don't let me see you putting them on a ham.)

Jeremy and I kept it pretty casual on Easter Sunday, but because I did want to at least do something a bit Eastery, I decided to make penne with asparagus and ham. It includes a lean ham steak, which you cut into tiny bits and add in at the end. This dish is lovely and light, yet lemony and flavorful, and it's also really healthy because it's pretty low in fat. In fact, it's a dish I got from a Weight Watchers cookbook, and Jeremy and I just love it. The best part of this dish is that you can also eat it cold, like a pasta salad, something that came in handy last night when it was freakishly hot (90 degrees!) and we couldn't even muster the energy to heat our leftovers, let alone actually stand in front of the stove to cook anything.

To make this delicious meal vegetarian friendly, swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock and consider adding some tofu stir-fried in a bit of oil and garlic in place of the ham, or else add some nice sliced mushrooms.

Penne with Asparagus and Ham (depending on your portion sizes, this makes about 4-6 servings)

- 2 cups whole wheat penne OR linguini broken into 2-inch pieces
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 3 thinly sliced garlic cloves
- 1 lb bunch of asparagus, cleaned and cut into 2-inch pieces (snap off and discard woody bottoms of stalks)
- 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 diced lean ham steak
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 3 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan

Prepare pasta according to package directions and drain.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add tomato and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomato has softened, about 5 minutes. Inhale the delicious aroma of garlic and tomatoes cooking together and wonder to yourself what you did to deserve such a treat.

Add asparagus, broth, and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until asparagus is tender, about 3 minutes. Use a fork to poke about at the asparagus and make sure it is to your liking.

Add pasta, ham, and basil and toss to combine. Allow everything to heat for a minute or two and then serve.Top each dish with Parmesan. (You remember my rant about fresh Parmesan, right? And you're not cheating by using that stuff that comes in the green tube that shall remain nameless, correct? Okay, good. Just making sure!)

Nutella bread pudding

Nutella! What glorious stuff, this chocolate hazelnut spread. It's the perfect flavor combination. The sheer genius of the stuff is that it pairs well with just about anything. You can have it on fruit, you can have it on toast, you can have it on a pretzel. It goes with most any dessert. Really, it is so versatile. It's like the friendly and amenable popular kid of spreadable foodstuffs.

I still remember when I first discovered Nutella, back when I was 22 or 23 and living on my own for the first time. I shared an apartment with two school teachers in Doylestown, PA, and I often went with one or the other one to the local supermarket to get groceries. Our closest supermarket was a Redner's Warehouse, which sold most things on the cheap, and which often carried somewhat odd brands of things. Next to the cans of Dole vegetables you'd find bizarre brands you'd never seen anywhere else, like Golden Medal sliced carrots or something. Most of the merchandise and the floor had a thin film of dust. It was a pretty ghetto warehouse supermarket, but we were young and poor, so it was fine with us. It was here that I first discovered Nutella, on the shelf with not-quite-Jif brands of peanut butter and not-really-Smuckers jars of jam. I loved Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates, and really anything that Ferrero makes (Kinder eggs have a special place in my heart), so I figured, why not?

Oh, chocolately glory on a spoon! From the first, I was hooked. It was miraculous. You could eat it on anything! You could even eat it off the spoon and not get bored. I remember a ridiculously caloric concoction I would make involving toast with a layer of cheesecake-flavored cream cheese and another layer of Nutella. It was one step away from self-induced diabetes, and it was heavenly.

I don't always keep a jar of Nutella in the house, mostly because I know it wouldn't last long and would go straight to my thighs (what doesn't though?), but it is an indulgence I like to have around now and again. I recently discovered the Tuscan Pane loaf at Trader Joe's, and it was simply divine spread with a layer of Nutella.

I had some friends visiting this weekend, as I mentioned in my last post, so I decided to feed them some individual Nutella bread puddings that I found on the absolutely fantastic website Baking Bites. If you're ever in the mood to bake something and don't know what to make, go to that site and you will most certainly be sated. Trust me. It was while browsing the site one day that I discovered the glory that is Nutella bread pudding, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I'm not even really a huge fan of bread pudding. Sometimes it's too soggy and custardy for my taste. But these are really a delight. They bake up thick and dense and yet simultaneously fluffy. The custard is the perfect consistency, especially as I tend to be jumpy around gelatinous foods. I made mine with half a loaf of challah bread and I'll probably use the rest of the loaf tonight to make more. And I was fortunate enough to find six adorable ramekins of the proper size at Marshall's to put them in.

They were a big hit with the ladies and with Jeremy, who shares my wariness of traditional bread puddings. They are the perfect portion size and are fantastic with a little dollop of vanilla ice cream. They are also easy to stash in the fridge. I think they taste amazing warm, so definitely nuke them for about a minute each before eating your leftovers. The best part of these is that they are impressive and delicious, and yet so easy to make that you can whip them up while you're waiting to serve dinner. In fact, that's just what I did. They take about 7 minutes to assemble, and that's including the 5 minutes it takes to let the bread soak in the custard mixture. (To be honest, I had cubed my challah bread ahead of time and stashed it in a large baggie, and that's what I recommend you do too.) While we ate dinner, they baked in the oven. (I found that mine took about 25 minutes to set and get gloriously puffy.) While we had seconds and chatted, they sat out and cooled and the ice cream thawed out a bit. And when we ate them, they were deliciously warm, rich, and melty. The Nutella flavor is not overwhelming, so if you want more of it, I'd say go ahead and add some more dollops to the custard batter. But they are truly delicious and so simple that I cannot recommend them highly enough. Get yourself a loaf of bread and a jar of Nutella and get baking. (That is, if you don't first eat the whole loaf of bread slathered in Nutella.)

UPDATE: Here is a poor-quality cell phone picture of one of my bread puddings in one of my new ramekins.

Braise the Roof! Beer-braised pork butt

Last night I had a friend to visit from out of town. She used to live in Boston, so this was like a homecoming for her. Like a good Cubana, I decided to celebrate her visit in style and serve up a mouthwatering feast. Traditionally, Cubanos roast a pig in order to celebrate special occasions. Since I live in a shoebox in the middle of a city and don't have a purveyor of whole pigs on speed dial, I decided to use my beloved Dutch oven to braise up some pulled pork. If you can't have the whole pig, have a piece!

I found a great basic recipe on The Kitchn, which is for braising a bone-in pork shoulder. I've never looked for a pork shoulder before, and I was initially sadly disappointed, because neither the local Shaw's nor the butcher shop down the street had bone-in pork shoulder in the 4 to 5 pound range. The butcher shop had boneless pork butt but it was about 8 pounds. I was already trying to wrap my head around the size of a 5-pound piece of meat, so I had to decline. I ended up getting a 4.5 pound bone-in pork butt roast, figuring I'd just make due, but then I realized I did the right thing after all. The butt, I later discovered, is not the butt at all, but the upper part of the pork shoulder. What? The butt is not the butt? Whatever. I'll take it.

The website I linked to above was helpful in instructing me how to remove the excess layers of fat (of course, I left some bits of fat because braising just melts them away and turns everything into a pile of soft scrumptiousness), and it also provided a nice, basic but delicious recipe for braising the pork. I made it in my 5-quart Dutch oven, which fit the pork and veggies quite snuggly. The hardest part of this recipe is honestly the browning, because you have to use tongs and a giant fork to hoist a multi-pound, squiggly piece of meat and flip it around in a pot of hot oil. But it was worth it because this pork was astoundingly delicious.

I love braising! I love it. It is hands-off cooking. I spent four hours doing other things around the apartment, preparing other food, tidying up, showering, while my oven did all the work. The low and slow cooking procedure makes the meat soft as butter and also fills your house with a positively delectable aroma. And there is something immensely satisfying about pulling the pork off the bone. There are honestly very few of the "fatty" bits mentioned in the recipe above, because most of the fat melts and moistens the meat. I'll probably toss the fattier bits into a pan and saute them before adding them into a soup or something.

I made this for dinner and dressed it in the braising juice, served with potato-spinach casserole with individual Nutella bread puddings for dessert. (I'm saving those for another post!) Was it good? Well, considering that everyone got seconds, yes, it was a success. Tonight I'm going to toss some pork with barbecue sauce and serve them with slaw on rolls. NOMS. Yes, this will give you a lot of leftovers, but it is so versatile that it's hard to get sick of. I'll probably also make some carnitas tacos too. Yay, pork!

Cheesy baked tortellini: feed a crowd!

Spring is springing, which means most of us Bostonians are crawling out of our winter-induced period of hibernation. The time is here to socialize with friends, frisk about in lighter jackets and less layers of clothing, and get down to some serious spring cleaning.

Even though I live in a tiny apartment with a weird layout that is unconducive to group socializing, I still love to have people over. Recently I tried out a slightly altered version of a tortellini bake I found online, and it was fantastic! It's incredibly easy to throw together, and it's tasty and filling. I altered a few of the measurements and switched out a couple of things. This recipe is great because you can cut it in half to make less, or leave it at the measurements below to feed a crowd.

Cheesy Baked Tortellini

• 4 cups marinara or other pasta sauce
• 8 oz mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley leaves
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 lbs cheese tortellini
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Parmesan cheese blend

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Whisk the sauce, mascarpone cheese, parsley, and Italian seasoning in a large bowl to blend. Cook the tortellini in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain. Add the tortellini to the sauce and toss to coat.

Transfer the tortellini mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top the mixture with the mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover with foil and bake until the sauce bubbles and the cheeses on top melt, about 30 minutes.

Warm Belgian endive salad with pine nuts

The weather is getting GORGEOUS outside, and it's all I can do not to spend the day frolicking in the sunshiney goodness rather than sitting at my desk working, or blogging. Spring means all sorts of delicious and delightful things are going to start growing and tickling the senses and the palette.

Spring, to me, means lovely growing things and lighter meals, and since I was recently on an endive kick, I decided to find a salad recipe using endive. I found one online that's made with a simple dijon vinaigrette that is positively scrumptious. I've modified it slightly and am including it below.

The thing that is so good about this salad is that heating the endive in the pan mellows out the flavor and makes it a lovely warm temperature without sacrificing the thick, toothy crunch of an uncooked endive. I decided to put the endive on a bed of spring mix greens, so I doubled the amount of the dressing I made. I'll give you the measurements for making one batch, which is tossed with the endive while you're cooking it, and then make a second batch using the same measurements to drizzle over the greens at the end. I made this recently for Jeremy and myself and it filled two big plates, so it served as our main course, but you can, of course, use this as a salad portion and dole it out to more people. Also, Jeremy and I added a few slices of torn-up thin-sliced serrano ham that we had leftover and it was scrumptious.

Warm Belgian Endive and Pine Nut Salad

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, or as needed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 heads Belgian endive (we only had 3 and it was plenty, since they were each a decent size)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

In a bowl, whisk together the mustard, vinegar, and lemon juice (I just eyeballed the measurements for the entire dressing and it was fine). Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking the whole time, until the consistency is creamy. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Remove outer leaves of the endive, if necessary, and cut off the bottom stalk. Cut each endive crosswise into rings and rinse in a colander. Shake it around to separate the rings and allow to drain. Maybe give them a quick pat with a paper towel. As I mentioned in my last entry about endive, you don't really have to do much washing because they are grown underground and have never been in dirt.)

In a large dry skillet over medium heat, toast the pine nuts, stirring constantly to avoid burning, until golden brown. Add the endive and warm slightly, then add the first batch of dressing and toss everything around in the pan to coat. Lower the heat, if necessary, to prevent the endive from wilting. You want to make sure that they are just heated through and the slightest bit tender while still retaining a nice crunch. Remove from heat.

Make a second batch of the dressing. Add a generous pile of spring mix or other mild salad greens to each dish and toss each with some of the dressing. Add the endive and nuts. Top with bits of shredded ham, freshly grated parmesan, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley. Enjoy the tangy goodness of the dressing and the crunchiness of the endive. Be amazed that such a simple combination of ingredients could be so scrumptious, and revel in the freshness that means spring is coming.

Also, get creative in terms of nuts. Try using almonds, walnuts, or hazelnuts if pine nuts don't appeal to you or are out of your price range.

Braise the Roof! Braised Belgian endive with ham

As the joyous recent owner of a beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven, among other fabulous kitchen gadgets, I have been looking for more ways to use these things to make new recipes. Since one of the things a dutch oven is best for is braising, I recently checked out a book from the library called All About Braising by Molly Stevens. It's a great cookbook that explains in clear detail what braising is and how different kitchen gadgets can be used to achieve different results. Braising is "Low and Slow" cooking: a process of cooking food, covered, in a small amount of fat and liquid at a sustained temperature for a longer amount of time. This makes for juicy, tender food. Think of your slow-cooker pot. This is basically really, really long braising. When braising meat and some vegetables, you will often first have to brown the meat or veggies in fat before adding to the liquid to braise. This almost creates a protective "armor" on the outside of the food, making a crisp outer crust that helps to seal in the tender deliciousness inside.

The book is divided into chapters by ingredients; there's one for vegetables and then the ones following are each devoted to a type of meat. She also offers lots of tips throughout and at the end for choosing and storing ingredients too. Overall it's a great book. I had to return it before I got to try out more recipes, but the one for braised Belgian endive with ham is pretty tasty and turned me on to a veggie I'd never tried before.

Endive is actually the root of chicory that is grown in darkness, hence its white color. They have a mild, somewhat bitter tang to them that isn't unpleasant. Jeremy and I paired this recipe with our belated Valentine's pork chops and they were the perfect complement. Molly Stevens explains that braising endive turns the bitterness into "something marvelously complex and luscious" and she's right. It becomes tender and soft and silky.

When selecting Belgian endive, look for firm, tightly packed bulbs that are as pale as possible. If the tips of the leaves are more than the palest green, don't select them. Endive can be pricey, so choose them carefully. For our recipe, I bought 6 endive and used 3. (I save the other 3 for a delicious salad I'll share later.) I found that the proportions for this recipe, which were for 6 endive, worked perfectly well for just 3 of them. But certainly if you have more mouths to feed and a bigger dish, make 6 or 9 of them.

Braised Belgian endive with ham

- 6 Belgian endive
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 thin slices of prosciutto or serrano ham (we used serrano), or another comparable good-quality salty ham (don't use these to make the dish vegetarian), cut or torn into small strips or bits
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup of chicken stock
-1/4 to 1/3 cup of heavy cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a ceramic or glass gratin dish that will accommodate the amount of endive you are cooking snugly. (Molly suggests a 9x13 dish, but we made only 3 so our dish was smaller)

Remove the outer leaves of each endive and trim the stalky bottom off of each. Cut each in half lengthwise.

Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When the butter just stops foaming, add as many endive as will fit in a loose layer cut side down and brown them for about 4 minutes. Using tongs, carefully turn them over to brown for a minute or two on the other side. Transfer them to the gratin dish cut side up. Use the rest of the butter to brown the rest of the endive.

There should still be a film of butter on the inside of the skillet. Add the ham bits and turn to coat them with the butter. After just a minute or two in the skillet, remove them and add them to the gratin dish, tucking them in between the endive and laying some on top. Add a bit of salt and pepper to your gratin dish (easy on the salt, as the ham and the forthcoming stock are both salty).

Add the stock to the pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan and pour the hot stock over the endive in the gratin dish.

Cover the dish tightly with foil and braise in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the endive are collapsed and tender when pierced with a knife. They will have a burnished hue.

Remove the foil and baste the endive in the pan juices. If the pan is dry, add 2 tbsp of water. Braise uncovered for another 8 to 10 minutes, until the pan juices turn caramel colored and have almost completely evaporated. Pour over the heavy cream (use the greater amount for a richer taste) and bake another 6 minutes or so, until the cream takes on a caramel color and has thickened to a sauce consistency. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving with the sauce.

These were a delicious accompaniment to the sweetness of the pork chops: the mellow, slightly bitter tang and soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture accompanied by the creamy sauce and bits of ham. Heavenly!

Date night pork chops

Valentine's Day! A perfect excuse to eat extremely decadent food and more chocolate than anyone should consume in a 24-hour period. This Valentine's, I made chocolate chip pancakes using heart-shaped pancake molds, and also some thick-cut bacon. Jeremy took me to the New England Aquarium to visit the penguins. Then we made a lovely dinner of pork chops and braised endive with ham.

Pork chops! When I was growing up, my mother—ordinarily a good cook—absolutely butchered pork chops, turning them into thin, tough, gray things with a greasy brown sauce. So I grew up hating pork chops. Now I realize that it's because the pork she used was too lean, and the chops were too thin, and she probably overcooked the hell out of them, which many people tend to do with pork. In fact, pork is safe to eat when it reaches about 150 degrees F, because any potential bacteria have long been killed off at this point and the meat will still be tender and moist. Mark Bittman does it again with his recipe for sauteed pork chops, which includes 8 variations. We chose the garlic sherry chops and they were scrumptious!

When choosing chops, definitely get thick-cut chops that are about an inch thick. These will cook better and are far more satisfying than thin ones, which get tough and overcooked. Also make sure to select center-cut loin chops; avoid shoulder or blade chops and loin-end chops.

Let the chops come to room temperature (about 20 minutes or so), then trim them of excess fat. You will want to leave a thin layer of the fat around the edges, but sometimes it's a bit thicker in spots, so you can trim that away before cooking. This recipe is for 4 chops, but you can just as easily make two. It's flavorful, delicious, and pretty easy—a perfect meal to impress company or a significant other.

Mark Bittman's garlic-sherry pork chops

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine (we used some chardonnay)
1 tsp minced garlic or 2 tbsps minced shallot, onion, or scallion (we used scallion)
1/2 cup chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, or water, plus more if needed

For finishing the sauce:
1/2 cup not-too-dry sherry (we used oloroso)
1 tbsp additional olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat for 2 or 3 minutes, then add 2 tbsps olive oil. As soon as the first wisps of smoke appear, add the chops and turn the heat to high. Be careful, as there will be some splattering. (A splatter screen will come in handy here.) Brown the chops on both sides, moving them around with tongs so they develop good color all over. This whole browning process shouldn't take too long, perhaps 4 minutes but preferably less. (If the pan splatters too much while you're browning, turn the heat down just a bit, but it should remain pretty high.)

Reduce the heat to medium. Carefully add the wine and garlic or onions and cook, turning the chops once or twice, until the wine is mostly evaporated, about 3 minutes. (Oh, the smell! Cooking wine with aromatics = scrumptious perfume!) Add 1/2 cup of stock or water, turn the heat to low, give everything a good stir, and cover. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, turning the chops once or twice, until they are tender but not dry. When they are done, they will be firm to the touch, their juices will run slightly pink, and the interior color will be rosy at first but will turn pale quickly. (Cut into one if you're at all unsure, or use a meat thermometer to make sure they're 150 degrees F. We tried to use mine, but it appears to have broken after just one use. Awesome.)

Remove the chops to a platter and let them rest. Add 1/2 cup of sherry and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the liquid is reduced slightly. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp minced garlic and continue to cook until the sauce thickens and becomes a bit syrupy. Add the juice of half a lemon, and a quarter cup of minced parsley (we didn't have this on hand and it was just fine without it). Taste for seasoning and pour some sauce over each chop. Revel in the deliciousness! 

I'll add the recipe for endive soon. But definitely try these chops. They are easy and delicious, and we're definitely going to have them again soon, perhaps trying one of the variations in the book.

Here are the pork chops with the braised endive and ham. NOMS.

For dessert, we each had one of Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Brownies. I am not a big fan of baking mixes, but TJ's does have excellent brownies and they're probably the only brownie mix I'd ever use. But I had to get the Reduced Guilt ones because you can make them individually with yogurt. Just add 2 tbsps of mix to 1 tbsp of low-fat or fat-free vanilla yogurt and stir in a small microwaveable container (RAMEKINS to the rescue) for 45 seconds. For being reduced guilt, they are really quite good! They remind me of those Betty Crocker Warm Delights desserts, only delicious instead of craptastic.

Baked eggs

My love of all things Mark Bittman is pretty obvious all over this blog, and is also evidenced by the fact that whenever someone asks me what my favorite cookbook is, I say, without hesitation, "How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman." I love him and this book because it was the first resource I turned to in order to learn to select and prepare food properly. His book taught me how to properly cook a scrambled egg and how to turn Brussels sprouts from a stinky, soggy mess into something crisp and divine. But the reason I love him the most is because he taught me how to make baked eggs.

Baked? EGGS? Yes, my friends. YES.

I too had no idea what these were until I perused the section on eggs in his book. In his book he discusses how baked eggs (also known as shirred eggs) have fallen out of favor, and he rightfully says he has no idea why. Baked eggs can be made in casserole form but since I just eat two, I prepare them in ramekins, which are small, porcelain custard cups that can be purchased in varying sizes. I love ramekins. They are the perfect place to stash small things, place cold eggs when allowing them to come to room temperature, and are essential to making things like creme brulee. Plus, you can move them from freezer to fridge to oven to microwave. I love multi-taskers in the kitchen! As your blogger, I advise you to make haste to a kitchen supply store and pick up at least 2 of these for your home, if not 4... or 6.... or 8.... you get the idea. They are not expensive and might run you two bucks each. So if you like eggs, get yourself some ramekins and make this recipe. (In a pinch, very small tea cups could also be used. Not large mugs, but smaller ceramic tea cups. Or you can use a bigger Corningware or Pyrex dish, as I mention below.)

The beauty of a baked egg is that you can really make it with any accompaniment you want. Put some cream in the bottom for a luxurious texture. Tomatoes are glorious. Throw in some cheese. I recently made spinach-parmesan baked eggs and wanted to cry, they were so delicious.

Preheat the oven to 375. While it heats up, put a frying pan on medium heat. After a few minutes, add a generous dollop of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add a passel of fresh baby spinach leaves (this recipe, by the way, is a perfect way to use up spinach leaves that are just past the peak of freshness but not yet gone bad) and stir constantly. Once they have begun to darken and wilt, add a clove or two of minced garlic and a pinch of salt. Stir until the leaves are dark and wilted and the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat and place the spinach in a bowl or dish.

Grab your microplane (another must-own item if you don't already have one) and grate yourself a generous couple of tablespoons of fresh parmesan cheese. Don't even try to get away with using that powdery sawdust that comes in a can. BLASPHEMY. Once you start using freshly grated parmesan you will wonder how in fuck they can pass that canned shit off as edible. (My father rightly says that the Kraft parmesan smells like feet. Real, fresh parmesan has a tangy, salty, beautiful smell and in no way resembles powder when it is grated.) A wedge of fresh parm will keep in your fridge for weeks, because it's an incredibly hard cheese. Just wrap it in plastic wrap and stash in a small plastic container. My parm has been in the fridge since January. It had a spot or two of mold on it, but a little mold never killed anyone. The beauty of parmesan is that you can easy trim off any moldy spots with a sharp knife. It doesn't affect the taste of the rest of the cheese.

Grease the inside of two small ramekins with a little butter or olive oil. Divide the spinach into the bottom of each cup, then top with a layer of the parmesan. Carefully crack an egg into each ramekin, being careful not to let the yolk break. The yolk and white should completely cover the spinach-parmesan nest at the bottom of the cup.

Take a metal or glass oven-safe pan and place the ramekins in it. A square brownie pan is perfect for this purpose as the ramekins will fit snugly within (see photo below). Carefully pour hot tap water into the pan so that it comes up the sides of the ramekins just past the point where the egg is in each cup. This warm water bath will help the eggs cook evenly and will prevent brown, overcooked edges.

Bake them for about 12 minutes. You want to remove them from the oven when everything looks just barely set. The whites should be white and the yolks should be pale. The hot ramekins will continue cooking the eggs, and you want them to be just a tad firm, but not so firm that the yolks won't be scrumptiously runny. Carefully remove the ramekins from the pan and set them on a plate. Sprinkle the top of the egg with just a pinch of salt.

These are best eaten with a spoon, so you can savor every last bit. The yolks stay gloriously runny once you pierce them, and the whites are soft. The whole thing is like an unshelled soft-boiled egg, but with glorious treasures at the bottom. The spinach with parmesan was gloriously but not overly salty and a nice mix of textures. The yolk mingles beautifully with the wilted leaves and the whites melt in your mouth. Seriously. These are THAT GOOD. They are an easy, hearty, and luxurious dinner, and would go well with a silky, cream-based soup.

 

Behold! The glory of the baked eggs, straight from the oven.

If you don't happen to have two small ramekins, but have one of those circular Corningware or Pyrex dishes, just prepare the dish with both eggs in it in your larger round dish. I just really like preparing each one separately because come on... how adorable are those ramekins?

Try this and then tell me how OHMIGOD good it is.

Cranberry-orange muffin

I've been feeling somewhat under the weather lately (sinusy evil), so I haven't been much in the mood for cooking, hence the lack of posts extolling the glories of edible goodness. A friend of mine recently asked me for a recipe I've been meaning to post on here for months, so in honor of her and her new mini muffin pans, I share with you the recipe for cranberry-orange muffins from Baking Unplugged. These muffins are delicious: moist, flavorful, and addictive. And they're made with buttermilk, and let's face it: when it comes to baking, what's better than buttermilk?

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, soft
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 1/2 cup fresh or slightly thawed frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt until well combined.

In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. (Note: I use an electric hand mixer for this, because it is much easier and much quicker.) One at a time, whisk in the eggs, then the orange zest and vanilla.

Stir in half the flour mixture and then the buttermilk and orange juice. Dump the remaining flour mixture into the bowl, place the chopped cranberries on top, and then gently stir until the batter just barely comes together. (A silicone spatula works great for this because you can fold the batter up and over easily without breaking the berries or overmixing the batter.)

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the top of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool as soon as you can comfortablyremove them from the pan.

Cranberry-Orange Bread

To make a loaf instead of muffins, reduce the amount of buttermilk by 1/4 cup. Bake the batter in a buttered and floured loaf pan at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Apple oatmeal quick bread

If you're anything like me (and don't think I'm implying that you are), you might be feeling somewhat overindulged, bloated, and downright blarghy after the bingefest that was the holidays, and you've resolved to be healthy. But if you're anything like me, you also don't want to give up on certain pleasures in life, because honestly, you only live once, and woman cannot live by bread alone.

Although if it's this apple oatmeal quick bread I recently discovered, then perhaps you could feel like you live by bread alone. It's that good. I've always loved quick breads, which—let's face it—are just cake in loaf form. But because of their intrinsic cakeyness, quick breads are also often loaded with sugar and butter—two things you don't necessarily want a lot of when you're trying to be healthier. Enter the apple oatmeal quick bread.

I love this recipe because the butter is replaced by low-fat vanilla yogurt, which clearly has a lot less fat than butter, but which also adds a moistness and softness to the cake. The oatmeal and whole wheat flour give it a really hearty, tasty feel, but it doesn't feel heavy. The apples also keep it moist. I discovered this recipe on the back of a Stonyfield yogurt container, and I did do a few slight modifications (adding raisins, using a little more apples, and adding more cinnamon and introducing nutmeg), but it's not very different from the original recipe.

Remember to make sure your egg is room temperature before beginning the recipe, although if you're using just the egg whites, it'll be easier to separate your eggs while they are cold and then allow the whites to come to room temperature before combining. (Stash the yolks, covered, in the fridge for another use; they will keep for a couple of days.)

Apple Oatmeal Bread

1 cup Stonyfield Organic Low Fat French Vanilla Yogurt
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 egg or two egg whites, slightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups finely diced unpeeled apples (I use Granny Smith, which are tangy and lovely!)
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries (I haven't tried it with those yet, but what's better than cranberries and apples together?)

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix together yogurt and oats and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together egg(s), oil and brown sugar.

In another bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir into the egg mixture. Add yogurt mixture. The batter will be lumpy and it will feel like you're stirring a bowl of cement. Do not despair! Put your back into it and fold in apples and raisins or cranberries if you decide to use them. Trust me, the batter will become light, moist, and scrumptious. The first time I made this, I too doubted that this could become something other than concrete in a pan. Pour into greased pan and spread about evenly.

Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown or a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan immediately. Wrap it up in foil; it'll stay moist and soft for about a week and doesn't need refrigerating. I like eating this with some apple-cranberry butter or other fruity jelly or jam on top. It is also a tasty and filling breakfast when you're on the go.

I'll probably be trying some more yogurt baking and cooking in the weeks to come, so stay tuned for the results, good, bad, and everything in between.

The ultimate comfort food casserole

Ah winter... the perfect time to indulge in warm, comforting carbs. What more perfect carb for this than the humble but mighty potato? Potatoes are not only incredibly versatile (boil them, bake them, fry them...) but they also lend themselves well to pairing with things you add to them, like shepherd's pie or pierogies.

Years ago my mother clipped a recipe out of a magazine for a potato-spinach casserole. We tried it one year for our Christmas Eve dinner, and it was such a hit that it's made a repeat appearance every year since. The recipe is easy and the end result is delicious. I made some this weekend and figure there's no better way to ring in the new year than with a carb-o-licious recipe.

POTATO-SPINACH CASSEROLE
- 6 to 8 large potatoes
- 1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
- 8 oz. sour cream (you can go low fat), or use 8 oz plain yogurt
- 1 package of frozen spinach, thawed
- 2 tbsp chopped chives, fresh or dried, or in the absence of chives, use a generous helping of onion salt
- salt and pepper to taste
- shredded cheddar cheese

Scrub the potatoes, peel, and cut into small chunks. Add to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a rolling boil, then lower the temperature until you get a constant gentle boil. Cover the pot loosely (I just tilt the lid over the pot so steam can escape), and boil for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Drain. (I find that it's easiest to assemble this dish in the warm pot, as it helps melt the butter and it's easy to mash everything together in the pot.)

Mash the potatoes with a masher, adding chunks of butter as you mash them to help the butter melt and incorporate. Add the salt and pepper (and onion salt, if you're using it instead of chives). Start adding dollops of sour cream and spinach, incorporating into the potatoes with the masher, until you've added them all. Add the chives.

Spray a square casserole dish (Pyrex or Corningware work perfectly here) with nonstick spray and spoon in the potato mixture, spreading it evenly around the dish. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the casserole happily for the day or even overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put the casserole into the oven, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cover with a layer of cheese, then return to the oven for 5 more minutes or until the cheese is melted. Enjoy! The leftovers keep pretty well (covered) for a few days, but I doubt they'll last that long. :)

Here's to a new decade of cooking

Happy new year! And new decade! No, I didn't drop completely off the face of the earth, but I did disappear from the blogosphere for the past month because of how insanely busy the holiday season is. Between end-of-the-year madness at work, a freelance editing project, gift buying, and other holiday happenings, I just didn't have it in me to blog. I also was so busy that I really didn't embark on any particularly fun and savory cooking projects, although there was a lot of food involved in my holiday celebrating, natch!

One of my resolutions is to definitely post in here two to three times a week for the rest of the year, and now that things have settled down and I feel less busy, I can stick to that schedule.

My holidays were hectic but good. Christmas Eve dinner is always held at my parents' house, where my mother cooks up a Cubano feast that includes roast pork loin, black beans with rice, and yucca. I can do without the yucca, but the rest of it is scrumptious! We also have some potato casserole, hors d'ouevres beforehand, and dessert, which this year was a Queen of Sheba cake. It looks so impressive but really isn't that challenging to make, especially when you pulverized so many almonds the first time you made it that you have leftovers. I promise that the recipe will be forthcoming! There are a few variations of it out there in online land, but I'd only trust Julia Child's recipe. I do whatever she tells me to do because I know she will not fail me.

I was disappointed because I traveled home early this year in order to help my mother cook for Christmas Eve, only to find that she'd already cooked everything, so all she had to do on the 24th was pop things in the oven. I really wanted to help in the kitchen and learn to do everything so I can one day carry on her cooking traditions for my family, but hopefully next year I can learn instead.

One thing I made this year that was a big hit last year was olive penguin appetizers. This isn't a photo I took, but this is exactly how mine turned out.

Too adorable! And they're also extremely easy to make. You'll need a can of pitted jumbo black olives, a can of pitted medium black olives, a few baby carrots, toothpicks, a baggie, and a tub of whipped cream cheese, which is softer and easier to use than the non-whipped kind. (I use chives whipped cream cheese, which I find adds a really nice little tang.)

Stand each olive up on one end and cut a small panel out of it, maybe about half an inch. (Save the pieces you cut out for a salad or cooking.) Cut the carrots into thin coins, then cut a wedge out of each circle to form the feet. Reserve the wedges you cut out of the slices to use for beaks. Turn each medium olive around to the bottom, where the cross-shaped cut is located, and insert one carrot wedge to serve as a beak. (You may need to trim the wedge a bit depending on how large you cut it.) Spoon some of the cream cheese into a zipper-top sandwich baggie and seal. Use a pair of scissors to snip off just the corner of the bag to form a spout and push the cream cheese down into that corner to use as a piping bag. Fill each jumbo olive's cavity with a dab of cream cheese to form the tummy on the body.

To assemble, insert a toothpick into the carrot coin directly across from where the cut-out wedge is--the toothpick will act as the penguins spine. Slide a jumbo cream-cheese filled olive on top of that with the white facing the cut-out wedge, then slide a medium olive on top with the wedge beak facing forward. Serve to a chorus of, "Ohmigod, that's so adorable!"

These look labor-intensive, but I find that if you just do each step (cut out all jumbo olives, cut all the carrots, etc.) and then assemble at the end, it doesn't take much time. I made about 25 of these in like 15 minutes. They are really tasty too! Stand them up in a cute dish and cover loosely with plastic wrap and they'll keep in the fridge for the day until you're ready to unveil them at night.

More tasty posts to come (including scrumptious Christmas gifts!), but in the meantime: how do you celebrate the holidays? What special meals or traditions do you and your family have?

San Gibbin: Overeating with a purpose

Ah, Thanksgiving. (Or, as we Latinos call it, San Gibbin.) I was in such a food coma, both from the big day and from enormous meals in subsequent days (including INDIAN BUFFET), that I lost my internets faculties. But now I've re-emerged into the world of getting back to business and staring at a screen all day, so I'm here to recap the goodness and share a recipe for the side dish that is becoming my claim to fame at the Trout family Thanksgiving dinner. I also have to share an exciting personal revelation, but that deserves its own post.

Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic. Jeremy's mom is an amazing cook. In addition to the typical spread, this year we had the usual escarole soup for starters (it's literally just escarole and broth, and it's delicious) along with marinated mushrooms, olives, and these little onions soaked in balsamic vinegar (DELICIOUS OMG). Jeremy's mom also made a tasty fig sauce, almost like a marmalade, to go with the turkey that was awesome. Need that recipe! The salad was oranges, red onions, and black olives with olive oil, which was simple and refreshing and which I'm going to steal for Christmas this year. She also put some leftover stuffing into muffin tins and baked it to make STUFFIN' MUFFINS! I love the idea. We also had wine, belatedly celebrated our joint birthday with pumpkin spice cake from the Amish market, and talked about Trotsky. Pretty typical Trout family Thanksgiving.

For the second year in a row, I made acorn squash filled with chorizo stuffing. I got this recipe from a Latina magazine and it's great! It's not as hard as the recipe might make it seem--just takes a few steps. But the good part is that while the rice cooks and the squash roast, you can prepare everything else and then be ready to go when the squash and rice are ready. There are only 4 of us at Jeremy's Thanksgiving dinner, so I halved the recipe. The trick to splitting an acorn squash is to use a large, very sharp knife and work very slowly, cutting carefully around the squash. Having your mother in the kitchen nervously supervising is optional.

* 2 cups wild rice
* 4 1/2 cups chicken broth
* 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
* 4 small acorn squash
* Olive oil (for sauteeing onions and brushing the squash)
* 1 large onion, diced
* 12 oz Spanish chorizo, chopped (you can also use sweet or mild Italian sausage, the kind that doesn't have a casing)
* 2 tsp dried sage
* 1/4 cup chopped parsley
* 3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
* 1/4 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375. Rinse rice. In medium saucepan, bring rice, broth, and 1/4 tsp salt to a boil. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, with some grains split open, about 45 to 60 minutes. (I used the Archer Farms from Target wild rice and it was done in 45 minutes, but check the directions on your container for specifics!) Transfer rice to a large bowl.

Cut off squash ends if necessary to stand them upright, cut them in half lengthwise, and seed. (Use an ice cream scoop to easily remove the seeds and stringy pulp. I love the multi-functionality of ice cream scoops and think no kitchen should be without one, but I digress.) Line a baking sheet with foil. Brush the outsides and insides of each squash with oil and place cut side down on baking sheet. Bake until tender, 35 to 45 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325.

In saute pan, heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion until soft. Add chorizo and sage and cook about 5 minutes. Add to bowl with rice.

Scoop out squash so edges are 1/4 inch thick and add pulp to bowl. Stir in parsley and cranberries and add salt to taste. Mound stuffing into squash halves and drizzle with maple syrup. Put them into a foil-lined baking dish. Bake until heated through, about 25 minutes. Makes 8 servings.


Apparently, Jeremy's father specially requested that my leftover stuffing be served as part of their day-after-Thanksgiving leftovers dinner, and I felt so loved. Hurrah! Do share your traditional and not-so-traditional meal ideas!

Here is a (slightly dark) picture of my stuffed acorn squash. Noms!

The lowly sprout, elevated to the greatest heights

Brussels sprouts! They're like tiny cabbages! They're like little gems of goodness! They are underappreciated and sometimes hated, often wrongfully so, because people cook the living bejeesus out of them and they end up tasting sulfurically of dirty socks!

I personally LOVE Brussels sprouts, and am fortunate to have a partner who also loves them, but I was woefully underfed them growing up, mostly because my nutty father likes to have everything cooked to within a mushy inch of its LIFE. (Either that, or he likes it raw. Raw or mushified--for him there's no in-between.) Anyway, I fully embrace sprouts and love to cook them. I've learned that the proper way to cook them is to take care not to OVER-cook them. As long as you keep an eye on them and remove them from whatever heat source you've got them over or in just after they become fork-tender with a nice bit of give, you won't have mushy, smelly, travesty-of-a-sprout sprouts.

A few years ago, my friend Frank made some sprouts with bacon (NUM) and apple cider vinegar. OMG HEAVEN. It was the perfect combo. So recently, when we had some sprouts, leftover bacon from a soup we'd made, and some spiced apple cider, I decided to try for my own version of Frank's magnificent dish.

Take about a pound of sprouts, clean them, remove the stems, and halve them if you wish. I like cutting them in half lengthwise because I feel like they cook faster and you can thus remove them from the heat more quickly. This also makes them easier to eat.

Put two or three thin-sliced strips of bacon in a pan and fry them up over medium heat until they're nice and crisp. Remove them from the pan and drain on a paper-toweled plate. Leave the lovely bacon fat in the pan and leave the heat on. Immediately dump in the sprouts and stir frequently, allowing them to quickly fry and heat up. Then add some apple cider to the pan and a few splashes of red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar and stir. The amount of cider you add is up to you, but I probably put in about 3/4 of a cup and just a splash of vinegar. Lower the heat and cover. Allow the sprouts to braise for a few minutes. I think I left mine in there for 7 or 8 minutes. Check the state of the sprouts with a fork and remove them when they're at your desired balance of tender and firm.

Remove the sprouts from the pan with a spoon--I stashed them in a small covered Corningware dish. Then add a bit more apple cider and another dash of vinegar to what's left in the pan and continue to cook on low, deglazing the pan. Scrape up all the lovely bits of fat that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. I cooked the liquid down until it was about half the amount it originally was, so it was slightly thickened, then I spooned it over the sprouts. I crumbled the bacon on top.

PERFECTION. DELICIOUSNESS. OMG-NESS. It was so good! The sweetness of the cider, the gentle tang of the vinegar cutting through the appleyness, the crisp bacon, the perfectly cooked sprouts. It was a good time. Of course, you can veg this one up by using butter or olive oil instead of bacon fat, but if you eat meat, trust me: Brussels sprouts and bacon are one of those deliciously satisfying combinations you don't want to miss.