Rah Cha Chow

Penfield Cupcake Shop on Cupcake Wars!

2012-02-12T11:12:00.005-05:00

Trends -- whether they be food or fashion -- seem to be slow to hit Rochester. Case in point: cupcake shops. Cupcake shops had been around for years before they came to Rochester. Now, cupcake shops seem to be all over the place. In fact, the town of Penfield has three cupcake shops in the span of a few blocks. And one of them is going to be on Cupcake Wars!

Dollop was the first cupcake shop to arrive in Penfield -- it opened in June of 2010. (It's located on busy Route 441, which makes it hard to get a good picture of it.) It has an unusual take on cupcakes. It has a cupcake bar, where you pick your cupcake, frosting, topping and filling, and they prepare your cupcake to order. It's kind of like what Coldstone Creamery does with ice cream. The shop is pretty much a carry-out place -- there's not much seating.

Truth be told, we're not the kind of family to routinely go to a cupcake shop to spend about $10 for three cupcakes, because we do a lot of baking ourselves. But we did stop in awhile back to give Dollop a try. I had a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate chunks. One son had a vanilla cupcake with cookie dough topping. The other son had a chocolate cupcake with coconut topping. Neither son recalls the flavors of their frostings. We all enjoyed our cupcakes, but it's not like any of us have been itching to go back.

I think the Dollop approach is great for fussy eaters and people who like things just the way they like them. I personally prefer a more artfully decorated cupcake with a perfect balance of textures and flavors. That balance is more likely to happen when a chef carefully prepares all the elements to work together. But that's just me. Coldstone Creamery is clearly a popular place, so Dollop may be on to something.

All in all, I want to see local businesses succeed, so I'm pulling for Dollop in Cupcake Wars. The episode is on a week from tonight, on February 19. (The name of the episode is "Monster Jam.") Best of luck to Dollop -- I'm hoping for a win!

Mandarin Pancakes for Moo Shu Pork: Step-by-Step Stand Mixer Directions

2012-01-23T22:42:00.001-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year!

I love Chinese food, but truth be told, I just don't have a lot of good luck cooking it. My latest Chinese cooking adventure was Moo Shu Pork, which is probably my favorite dish to eat out. I used this recipe from Cooking Light with mixed results.

Napa Cabbage

I had trouble figuring out the directions for the filling. First, it called for 10 dried shiitake mushrooms. My bag of dried mushrooms was comprised of small shards. Ten of those made no sense, so I used about 1/4 cup. It also called for equal parts Napa cabbage leaves and Napa cabbage stalks. Look at the Napa cabbage to the right. is the thicker part of the leaves considered stalk? It's not apparent, so I ended up just cutting up the leaves. Finally, the sauce in the mixture never thickened -- I wonder if there was enough cornstarch. All in all, the recipe had potential but needed a lot of tinkering, so I won't print it here.

The mandarin pancakes, though, turned out great. I used my stand mixer to make it easier. Here's how I made them.

I added boiling water to flour in the bowl of the stand mixer.

I kneaded with dough hook until a soft dough formed.

I kneaded by hand until the dough was smooth.

When I weighed the dough, it weighed 1 pound. That made it easy to figure out how to divide it into 16 pieces.

To divide into 16 equal balls, I just weighed them.

Sixteen1-ounce balls of dough.

I rolled into 6-inch circles on a floured surface. They weren't perfect circles.

I brushed 8 pancakes with sesame oil.

I topped each of those with another pancake.

I cooked one sandwich at a time in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. It took about one minute on each side to cook them.

They were slightly puffed when they were done. I used them the way you'd use flour tortillas in Mexican cooking.

Here's the recipe for the pancakes.

MANDARIN PANCAKES - Stand Mixer Version
Adapted from this Cooking Light recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir, using the dough hook, until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 3 minutes). Divide the dough into 16 equal portions. (I found the dough weighed exactly one pound, and weighed out 16 one-ounce balls). Roll each dough portion into a 6-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Brush 8 pancakes evenly with oil. Top each with one of the remaining pancakes, gently pressing together.

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place 1 pancake stack in pan, and cook 1 minute on each side or until slightly puffed. Remove from pan, and cool. Peel pancakes apart.

Fill with your favorite Moo Shu filling. I don't have a reliable favorite to share just yet.

If you are on Weight Watchers, the pancakes are two Points Plus each.

Peanut Butter Blossoms and Other Christmas Cookie Favorites

2011-12-13T23:43:00.005-05:00

45 Dozen Christmas Cookies

Last week, a group of coworkers gathered in the barn at Wickham Farms to bake cookies. In five hours, we baked more than 45 dozen cookies, and had a blast in the process.

I had agreed to coordinate the recipes, and when I got to the barn, I realized I had forgotten the recipes I had printed out. Not to worry -- my blog is my handy dandy online recipe box! I used my easiest cut-out cookie recipe as well as the peanut butter balls in this post. But I hadn't posted the recipe for my youngest son's favorite Christmas cookies -- Peanut Butter Blossoms. I found them on the Hershey's website, but I like to have my recipes here as well. So here's the recipe, even though I admit it's one just about everyone already has. For more unusual recipes, take a look at the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies and Sweets blog event links below.

Peanut Butter Blossoms
From Hersheys.com (with minor adaptations)

Peanut Butter Blossom (aka Kiss Cookies)

48 Hershey’s Kisses chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

Gently press those Kiss chocolates!

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven, then quickly but gently press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

About 4 dozen cookies.

12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies: A Magical Bar for all Seasons

2011-12-04T13:49:00.002-05:00

Awhile back, I signed up to take part in a blogging event called "Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies & Sweets." It seemed like fun to share our favorite holiday recipes over the course of 12 weeks. Sometime in October, I sat down to write my first post for the series ... and I just couldn't finish it. I felt that I was like one of those stores who puts up Christmas decorations before Halloween. It was too soon for me.

So I'm just now finishing that post and participating in the Blog Hop. I hope to make 12 contributions, just not over 12 weeks. The first is The Magic Cookie Bar, or Seven Layer Bar, or Hello Dolly bar, depending on where you're from. I go for the magical title myself.

I know they're in just about every cook's arsenal, but with some imagination, you can make them creative and appropriate for any season:
- They are fairly flat when they are made as written (shown above). If you like a thicker bar, just use a smaller pan.
- I have a friend who uses food coloring to color her coconut to make her bars more festive. You could also use other flavored chips instead of the butterscotch chips.
- You can also use different kinds of nuts (I don't like leaving them out because the nuts help keep them from being cloyingly sweet).
- Another great variation is this banana cookie bar recipe, created by Anna at Cookie Madness. She used a chocolate shortbread crust and adds banana to the topping.

Magic Cookie Bars

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or try a different cookie crumb)
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips (or use different chips)
1 -2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup nuts -- I love whole walnuts but you can use pecans or another favorite nut

Preheat oven to 350°. Melt butter in a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. (If you like them thicker, try a 7 x 11 pan.) Sprinkle crumbs evenly over melted butter; pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top evenly with remaining ingredients; press down firmly. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool magic cookie bars before cutting. My favorite way to eat them is refrigerated.

Aubergine Caviar (Michael Symon)

2011-09-24T11:42:00.000-04:00

My Cooking Light Group recently had a dinner with the theme of cooking a dish from a favorite chef. I love that theme! I wanted to cook a Michael Symon recipe because the meal my son and I had at his Lola Bistro in Cleveland was outstanding. Plus, I like Symon's personality, and respect his choice of staying in the Cleveland area instead of heading to a bigger city.

The trouble is, very few of Symon's recipes are appropriate for a Cooking Light Group. I finally found one for Aubergine Caviar on the Food Network website. It doesn't seem like the food he's known for, but it fit the bill for the dinner. Plus, it incorporates a lot of the veggies that are in season now -- eggplant, tomatoes and peppers.

It turned out OK -- the flavor was pretty mild. To be honest, I prefer my own recipe for Melitzanosalata (Greek Eggplant Dip), which is ironic, since Symon is of Greek descent, as well as an Iron Chef. I suspect the dip tastes better when he makes it.

Aubergine Caviar (Michael Symon)

Olive oil – enough to brush veggies with it
2 pounds eggplant
2 yellow peppers
2 tomatoes
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoons ground coriander
A drizzle of olive oil
1/3 cup yogurt
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons flat leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. Place them on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and place them in the oven. Roast until soft, about 20 minutes. (These weren’t soft at this point so I increased temp to 400 degrees and baked another 10 minutes. In the future, I’d do them at 400). Peel eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.

Saute the garlic and onions in olive oil (season with salt and pepper) over medium-low heat until they are translucent and aromatic.

Put mixture in food processor and add garlic-onion mixture, vinegar, orange juice, coriander, olive oil, yogurt and salt and pepper. Fold in chopped parsley.

Season, to taste, with salt and pepper, and serve with pita wedges. (I brushed the pita wedges with olive oil and toasted thems).

Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Bruschetta

2011-09-04T13:42:00.000-04:00

Someone has deemed it locavore month in Rochester, so here's a recipe that takes advantage of the season's wonderful tomatoes and basil, which came from my own garden. This recipe is only good when tomatoes are in season locally -- winter supermarket tomatoes just don't cut it.

This recipe is from Mario Batali, although my friend Melissa makes something almost identical. If you have a grill going, you can grill the bread. I usually just brush the breads with some olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt & pepper, then bake the breads at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. Either way tastes great.

Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Bruschetta
Recipe adapted from Mario Batali Italian Grill

1 pound ripe tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch dice
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into ¼-inch dice
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (next time I'd blanch these to temper the raw garlic flavor)
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled (I used fresh)
12 medium fresh basil leaves, cut into chiffonade (thin slivers)
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt (or table salt)
Eight ¾-inch-thick slices Italian peasant bread (I used slices of Wegmans baguette)
Coarse sea salt

Serves 4

Preheat a gas grill or prepare a fire in a charcoal grill (or preheat oven to 400 degrees).

In a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, mozzarella, garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and oil and toss or stir gently to mix. Season lightly with salt and mix gently again. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Set aside.

Grill the bread until dark golden brown lines form on the first side, 1 to 2 minutes, then turn over and repeat on the second side. (Or brush bread with olive oil, salt & pepper and bake at 400 until light golden brown.)

Arrange the grilled bread on a platter, top with the tomato mixture, and sprinkle with coarse salt. Serve immediately.

Mixed Greens and Nectarine Salad with Walnut Oil Vinaigrette

2011-08-19T11:02:00.002-04:00

This simple salad highlights the sweet, juicy nectarines that are so wonderful this time of year. I've made a few variations -- I've made it with peaches, added pecans, added goat cheese, added grilled chicken -- and it's great every time.

It calls for walnut oil, which is an ingredient that always elicits a guffaw from my husband, Tom. Here's why.

Shortly after my husband and I were married (almost 20 years ago), we invited another couple, Karin and Steve, over for dinner. They were the first "couple" friends we had made together, and we enjoyed spending time with them. I admired Karin's cooking, which seemed so much more sophisticated than mine. She never used things like canned cream-of-something soup or bottled salad dressings, both of which were integral items in my culinary repertoire. And she very rarely followed a recipe exactly -- a practice that was foreign to me.

For my menu, I turned to a wedding gift, The New Basics Cookbook -- a cookbook from the Silver Palate series. (I still use it regularly.) I prepared an autumn-themed dinner, and the salad was Pear and Blue Cheese Salad, which was served with a walnut oil vinaigrette.

I sent Tom to Wegmans with a long list of ingredients, and he returned home with most of the ingredients, but said that he asked a few different Wegmans employees where the walnut oil was, and they all looked at him like he had two heads. After lots of searching, he concluded that walnut oil was nowhere to be found.

At that point, I was in no condition to change my menu and I, unlike Karin, followed each recipe to a tee. So I sent my poor new husband on a wild goose chase all over the Rochester area to find walnut oil. Hours later, he returned home with the prized walnut oil. He had found it at a gourmet food shop in Pittsford, Cook's World (it's still in the same location, and looks pretty much the same as it did then). I was shocked that the oil cost $12!

So we served the salad and Tom, of course, regaled them with the story of the hunt for the walnut oil. Karin laughed and said, "you could have just substituted olive oil." That truly had never occurred to me! Luckily, Karin and Steve loved the salad -- so much so that they served it at Christmastime that year (although I don't know whether she used walnut oil). Tom, on the other hand, took a few tentative bites and said, "I'm sorry, but these flavors just don't go together." To be honest, I was somewhere in the middle -- didn't love it, didn't hate it.

Almost 20 years later, Wegmans now carries walnut oil, so I use it in this recipe, with fond memories of the times we had with Karin and Steve.

Mixed Greens and Nectarine Salad (with some variations)
(Adapted from this Cooking Light recipe)

4 cups salad greens (I used green leaf and red leaf lettuce)
2 cups thinly sliced nectarines (about 2)

Walnut Oil Vinaigrette Ingredients:
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 tablespoons walnut oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all vinaigrette ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Store in refrigerator for up to 1 week. Yield: 2/3 cup (serving size: about 1 tablespoon)

Place greens and nectarines in a large bowl. Drizzle sparingly with Walnut Oil Vinaigrette; toss gently to coat. You will not need very much vinaigrette.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)

Variations I've tried:
- use peaches instead of nectarines
- Add nuts, goat cheese and/or

Delicious Salads to Beat the Heat

2011-07-22T21:30:00.004-04:00

With the heat we've been having, who wants to cook? I sure don't, but I love all the fresh produce that's in season right now. That's why it was so perfect that our most recent Cooking Light Group dinner had a "beat the heat" theme. Three of the dishes were refreshing summer salads that I truly enjoyed.

The main dish grilled chicken salad combined grilled chicken, sweet nectarines (peaches would be good too), goat cheese and pecans. The next time we grill chicken, I'll make extra so that we can have this salad the next day. Nancy, our hostess, served it on a gorgeous square platter, which made it even more appetizing. Jackie's colorful crunchy corn medley was downright addictive -- I gobbled it up for lunch the next morning. And Chrissy's celery and feta cheese salad benefited from using very good ingredients, including an excellent Greek feta cheese.

Grilled Chicken and Nectarine Salad
Adapted from Sunset Magazine

2/3 cup pecan halves
2 quarts salad greens (8 oz.), rinsed and crisped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup walnut oil (or more vegetable oil; see
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
4 boned chicken breast halves with skin (2 lb. total), rinsed, patted dry, and fat trimmed
Salt and pepper
2 firm-ripe nectarines (12 oz. total), rinsed, pitted, and thinly sliced
5 ounces fresh chèvre (goat cheese), crumbled

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread pecans in a baking pan and bake until golden under skins, about 10 minutes. Let cool, then coarsely chop.

In a small bowl, stir vegetable oil, walnut oil, and vinegar to blend. Set aside.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Lay on a lightly oiled barbecue grill over a solid bed of medium-hot coals or medium-high heat on a gas grill (you can hold your hand at grill level only 3 to 4 seconds); close lid on gas grill. Cook chicken, turning occasionally, until meat is no longer pink in center of thickest part (cut to test), about 15 minutes total. Transfer chicken to a cutting board. Remove skin if desired.

Mound salad greens on a large platter. Slice chicken across the grain 1/2 inch thick; arrange over greens. Tuck nectarine around chicken. Scatter goat cheese and pecans over the top. Stir dressing; pour over salads. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Crunchy Corn Medley
Of course you can substitute fresh for canned, but the canned sure is easy! She reduced the amount of salad dressing from the published recipe in a magazine.

2 cups frozen peas, thawed
1 can (15-1/4 oz.) yellow corn, drained
1 can (15-1/4 oz.) white or shoepeg corn, drained
1 can (8 oz) water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 jar (4 oz) pimientos, drained and diced
8 green onions, thinly sliced
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

Dressing:
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground pepper

Mix altogether. Chill for at least 3 hours. Stir before serving.

Celery Salad with Feta and Mint

Combine 6 large stalks of celery, cut into 1/2 inch slices, and 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced. Add 2 tbsp each extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice. season with coarse salt and ground pepper. sprinkle with 1/3 cup crumbled feta and 3 tbsp thinly sliced fresh mint leaves.

serves 4 102 cals, 9 g fat, 2 g protein, 3 g carbs, 1 g fiber for those of you who count these things

I'm at Frosting for the Cause Today

2011-07-05T07:29:00.000-04:00

This is my son's Easy Crumb Cake - so delicious. Read all about it at Frosting for the Cause today!

Creamsicle Cupcakes

2011-06-25T19:05:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, as I was preparing for my good friend's 50th birthday party, my Mom and I were chatting about the party plans. I mentioned that I had spent a few hours making three different kinds of cupcakes for dessert.

"I don't know why you spent so much time on dessert," she said. "Nobody ever eats dessert."

My Mom and I clearly travel in different social circles.

These Creamsicle cupcakes in particular were a hit. One guest took a cupcake home (with my blessing) and hid it from her husband. I got emails the day after the party asking for the recipe. So here it is -- my own creation. It's my favorite yellow cupcake recipe (from Cooks Illustrated), with a cream filling and orange icing. The orange icing is something I created by adding ingredients until I got a taste to my liking. I'm sure you could achieve a similar result with fewer ingredients, but that's what I did.

And, for the record, I'll continue to spend time making desserts for get-togethers. Hey, if people don't eat them, at least I can enjoy the leftovers from my favorite part of the meal.

CREAMSICLE CUPCAKES

Makes 24 cupcakes

One-Bowl Yellow Cupcakes (adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

3 cups (13 oz/375 grams) all purpose flour
2 cups (14 oz/400 grams) granulated white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (cut into pieces)
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt on low speed to combine. Add the butter, eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Beat at medium speed until the batter is smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. If necessary, stir the batter with a rubber spatula until the flour is fully incorporated.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter (I used the largest Pampered Chef scoop) and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until pale gold and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

To assemble the Creamsicle cupcakes, I used the small end of a melon baller to scoop a hole in the cupcakes, then piped cream filling in the hole. Then I frosted with the orange frosting.

Cream Filling
Fills 24+ cupcakes

2 tsp very hot water
1/4 tsp salt
1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow cream
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Dissolve the salt in the hot water and allow to cool. Whip the marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla until it begins to get fluffy. Add the salty water and whip well. You will have some filling left over after filling the cupcakes. It's great as a fruit dip or a dip for cinnamon graham cracker sticks.

Orange Frosting
(Rah Cha Chow recipe)
Frosts 24 cupcakes

1 cup butter, room temperature
4 cups (500 grams) powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 teaspoons orange extract (I used about 3)
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2 Tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Yellow and red food coloring (to make an orange colored frosting)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined. You may want to start with 2 teaspoons orange extract and then taste – add more if you think it needs it. Also add yellow and red food coloring until it’s the color you like.

See more sweets in:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2011-06-09T08:57:00.002-04:00

Picture this: it's my friend's 50th birthday party, held in my back yard around the in-ground pool. It's a beautiful evening, with good music and fun people. We've had a nice dinner and I bring out platters of cupcakes. The guests gather round and sing an enthusiastic chorus of "Happy Birthday." To everyone's amusement, the balmy breeze keeps blowing out the candle for the guest of honor. Amid oohs and ahhs, the guests eagerly reach to snatch a cupcake and ...

"WAIT! I forgot to take pictures of the cupcakes!"

Everyone freezes as I snap a quick shot of my cupcakes. Welcome to a party thrown by a food blogger.

In the end, the picture above was the only picture I got of some of my cupcakes. Guess I won't be submitting this post to Tastespotting.

So on to the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes in the foreground. They were inspired by my recent visit to local cupcake shop, Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe. I loved the way their chocolate peanut butter cupcakes looked but thought the peanut butter frosting and filling overwhelmed the flavor of the chocolate cupcake. My version: my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe (which I got from the awesome Julie) topped with a generous amount of peanut butter buttercream. No filling.

Well, guess what?

The peanut butter frosting, which was divine, still overwhelmed the chocolate flavor of the cupcake. I was surprised because those cupcakes were really chocolatey. Next time I may devise a chocolate filling to really bring out the chocolate flavor.

All in all, the party goers were very happy with them. I even caught one person licking the wrapper. But the party favorite will come next.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Makes 36 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups hot strong coffee
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 (313 grams) cups flour
1 ½ (138 grams) cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Peanut Butter Buttercream, below
Mini peanut butter cups, cut in half.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line cupcake cups with paper liners.

Mix the hot coffee with the chopped chocolate, stirring occasionally until the mixture is smooth.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs until they are slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Slowly add the canola oil, and mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar, mixing until well combined. Slowly add the buttermilk, coffee mixture and vanilla, and mix until blended.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in three additions on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. The batter will be liquidy.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean, 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean.

When completely cooled, frost with peanut butter buttercream (for 36 cupcakes you'll need to multiply the recipe by 1 1/2). I used a Wilton 6B decorating tip to pipe on the frosting. Garnish with a half of a mini peanut butter cup.

Peanut Butter Buttercream
Frosts about 24 cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons milk

Beat butter and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and mix until combined. Add powdered sugar in one cup increments. Add milk and beat until fluffy.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

2011-06-02T22:23:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, I hosted a 50th birthday party for a close friend. Before the party, I asked her if she had any special requests (the party wasn't a surprise, which made it much less stressful for me). Her only request was cupcakes for dessert. Great! I love making cupcakes.

I served three flavors, which I'll cover in three different blog posts. First up: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. I originally found the recipe on a food blog, but then I spotted the same cupcake recipe in a past issue of Cooks Illustrated. I was missing one of the spices called for in the recipe, so I substituted pumpkin pie spice -- it contained all of the spices listed in the recipe.

In the end, the cupcakes were good but nothing I'd swoon over. My guess is that Cooks Illustrated was going for a recipe that focused on the carrots, but I'd prefer more going on -- more spices and maybe some coconut and/or walnuts. The cream cheese frosting was my tried and true.

Some details: I frosted the cupcakes using a Wilton 6B decorating tip and a large coupler. I got the cute cupcake liners from this online Esty shop. The liners were said to be greaseproof, but maybe 1 1/2 cups of oil was too much for even greaseproof liners.

Next up will be the cupcakes that were the real hit of the party!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I'd use more spice next time)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lb. (6-7 medium) carrots, peeled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups canola, safflower or vegetable oil
(I'd also add coconut and/or chopped walnuts next time.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with 24 baking cup liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt; set aside.
In a food processor fitted with a shredding disk, shred the carrots. Dump the carrots on top of the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside. Wipe out the bowl of the food processor and fit with the metal blade.

Process the sugars and eggs until frothy and combined, about 20 seconds. With the machine running, add the oil in a steady stream through the feed tube. Continue to process until the mixture is light in color and combined, about 20 more seconds. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.

Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake 20 to 24 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature. Frost with cream cheese frosting, below.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Frosts about 24 cupcakes

1 8-ounce package of regular cream cheese, cold
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar

Blend together cream cheese and butter. With mixer on low speed, add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar until completely incorporated.

Cupcakes from Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe

2011-05-15T16:30:00.000-04:00

I had two wishes for Mother's Day: a new garage door opener (I'm nothing if not practical) and to try the cupcakes at Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe. So on the Saturday before Mother's Day, while my husband and 16-year-old son worked on the garage door, my younger son and I headed to the trendy Park Avenue area to pick out cupcakes.

Oh, the place was charming! The building houses two businesses -- a Victorian tea room during the day, and then it turns into Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe at 5 p.m. It's unusual for a bakery to open at 5 p.m., but I can see why it could work in the Park Avenue area, which is home to lots of young adults. I'll bet they pick up cupcakes on their way home from work, or stop in for coffee and cupcakes with friends. (They also serve food but I didn't pay much attention to the menu.)

The building has small rooms. Some are decorated in a Victorian style and some have a more current look. There's also a cute front porch -- I'd love to go there with friends.

They bake a lot of different flavors -- their website says 85 -- and different ones are on display each day. Or, you can order a dozen or more of your favorites with 24 hours notice. Each flavor was frosted differently and every one was gorgeous. It was tough to decide which eight to choose (we picked two for each of us -- one for Saturday and one for Sunday). Here's what we eventually selected:

Devil’s Twist : Dark chocolate cake with a white cream filling, dipped in chocolate ganache -- it looked like a Hostess cupcake.

Cookies and Cream: Dark chocolate cake with a chocolate cookie crust filled with white cream, topped with white chocolate buttercream and chunks of crushed chocolate cookies. My 13-year-old son devoured it the moment we got home on Saturday. I barely had time to snap this picture..

Cappuccino: Chocolate espresso cake filled with mocha ganache, topped with coffee buttercream. My 16-year-old son gave it a thumbs-up.

White Russian: Vanilla cake baked with kahlua and vodka, filled with kahlua chocolate ganache, topped with mocha buttercream. This was my favorite -- my husband's, too.

Chocolate Peanut Butter: Dark chocolate cake with peanut butter cream filling, topped with peanut butter buttercream. I thought the peanut butter filling and frosting obliterated the flavor of the chocolate cake.

What I didn't love:
- The cakes. They were light and a bit crumbly. My personal preference is a denser, moist cake. And I felt that the chocolate flavors could have had a more pronounced chocolate flavor.
- If I'm really being nitpicky, the cakes had "muffin tops." While I like them on muffins, I thought they made the cupcakes a little awkward to eat. But that's truly nitpicking.

What I loved:
- The way they looked. You eat with your eyes first, and these were artfully done.

- All of the fillings and frostings. They were light and fluffy, not as sweet and heavy as typical bakery buttercreams.

Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe set a benchmark for my upcoming cupcake baking projects -- I'm going to give more thought to how I decorate various flavors. I'll also be sure to go back with a friend and enjoy a cupcake on their porch in the summer.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-04-26T22:58:00.002-04:00

I had to make a dessert for a church pot luck dinner, and as usual I had a few verging-on-overripe bananas on the counter. What to make with those bananas? I was banana cupcaked out, and banana bread wasn't desserty enough, so I searched the Web for some ideas. The recipes that caught my eye: Banana Whoopie Pies.

Mmmm ... they sounded so good. But Banana Whoopie Pies for a church function? Wouldn't that sound a little risque?

I had never made whoopie pies before, or even tasted them, but they sounded so good that I decided to risk it.

Ohhh ... they turned out sooo good. Two cakey cookies that tasted like banana bread, sandwiched together with a generous dollop of fluffy, sweet, tangy cream cheese frosting. At the church dinner, I heard no complaints. Just a few "mmm's" and "oohs." I'll be making whoopie pies again for sure.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Cookies adapted from Taste of Home; filling from Martha Stewart

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (1 large or 1 1/2 medium bananas)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Filling (from a Martha Stewart recipe -- you'll have some left over):
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine banana and buttermilk. In a third bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with banana mixture.

Drop by tablespoonfuls two inches apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. (At this size, you will make about 50 cookies.) Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until set. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

For filling, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, and butter until fluffy. Beat in confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth. Use a pastry bag with a large star top to pipe a generous dollop of filling on the bottoms of half of the cookies. Top with remaining cookies and press together gently. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving; store in the refrigerator.

Makes about 25 cookie sandwiches.

Orange Kissed Cheesecake Cupcakes with Strawberries

2011-04-13T18:27:00.002-04:00

My thoughtful mother-in-law is always telling me not to "fuss" when I'm planning a family gathering. Since I enjoy what she terms "fussing" -- making a nice meal and dessert -- I often don't heed her advice. But last week, when we celebrated her birthday, my hectic schedule made me give in. We called out for pizza and wings ... but I did manage to make a reasonably nice dessert. Since she likes cheesecake, I made these cheesecake cupcakes, which I adapted from a recipe from Family Circle magazine. I was happy with the way they turned otu -- they had a subtle orange flavor and were just a tad firmer than I usually prefer for cheesecake.

The little cheesecakes form a dome on top as they bake, just like regular cake cupcakes, and then sink down as they cool. Don't make the mistake I did, and put too many graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of the cupcake liner. When I went to add the topping, there just wasn't room for it, so a fair amount of it spilled onto the outside of the cupcake liners. (That's why my photos show the opened cupcakes.) If you like a thicker crust, or just want to make sure your cupcakes look tidy, you may want to make a 13th cupcake or a few mini cupcakes. (Note: a friend made these after my original post. She made a few more than 12 and found them to be too small. Don't make this into more than 13 cupcakes. She used raspberry jam and raspberries and liked the flavor.)

My mother-in-law enjoyed the cupcakes, and also mentioned that she appreciated the portion control (as did I). They'd also be a good dessert to have for Easter. Speaking of which ... I won't be posting again until after Easter, so I'd like to wish my friends, family and readers who celebrate Easter a joyful day!

Orange-Kissed Cheesecake Cupcakes with Strawberries
Rah Cha Chow recipe

12 graham cracker squares, crushed
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Foil cupcake liners

Topping/garnish:
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons strawberry jam (could use raspberry instead)
12 large strawberries, for garnish (could use raspberry instead)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 12-13 muffin pan cups (or 12 muffin cups and a few minis) with foil cupcake liners. (Yes, you really need them to be foil -- but there are some cute and colorful foil liners out there.) Place 1 scant tablespoon of graham cracker crumbs in each -- just enough to coat the bottom.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and beat until blended. (Be sure to keep scraping the bowl throughout the mixing process to keep the mixture smooth.) Beat in sour cream, juice, zest and vanilla. On low speed, beat in flour and salt.

Spoon about 1/4 cup batter in each cup (I use an ice cream scoop). Bake at 325 for 35 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, stir together the sour cream and jam. After 25 minutes, spread about 2 teaspoons of the sour cream mixture on top of each cupcake and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes to rack to cool completely.

Slice strawberries without cutting all the way through the stem end (see picture). Fan out strawberries and place on top of cupcakes.

Roasted Garlic Bread

2011-04-08T18:55:00.001-04:00

This bread, which I served with lasagna for my son's 16th birthday, is absolutely divine. As usual with Paula Deen's recipes, it had an obscene amount of butter, which I cut back by a fourth, and it was still decadent and delicious. It's definitely a repeater recipe, but to avoid a heart attack it's for special occasions only!

Roasted Garlic Bread
Adapted from this Paula Deen recipe

1 head garlic, unpeeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 loaf Italian bread, split horizontally

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. (If you have a toaster oven and aren't cooking anything else at the same time, use that.)

Cut top off garlic head. Place garlic on a piece of aluminum foil; drizzle with olive oil. Fold edges together to seal. Bake 30 - 40 minutes. (To see if it's done, squeeze the sides while holding a kitchen towel, The garlic should give easily and feel soft). Cool.

Squeeze cooked garlic into a medium bowl. Garlic will be soft and sticky. Add butter, salt and pepper, stirring to combine.Spread cut halves of bread evenly with garlic butter mixture. Broil 5 1/2 inches from heat, with oven door partially opened, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until butter melts and bread is toasted. Cut into slices to serve.

Searching for "My" Recipe for Lasagna

2011-04-03T00:14:00.001-04:00

My older son recently turned 16, and I'm starting to envision a time where he no longer lives at home. He'll decide for himself how much time he'd like to spend with his Mom -- and since I love the kid, I'd like to see him choose to spend some time with me. I figure that one way of ensuring this is by having recipes that I make the best (at least in his eyes). A meal I continue to tinker with is one of his favorites -- lasagna and garlic bread.

I've made both fairly often and I usually cook them without a recipe. Because of this, they come out different every time, and very rarely a "wow.' The lasagna has a tendency to be dry and not flavorful enough, and the garlic bread ranges from not enough garlic to too much.

My most recent attempt at the meal was from Paula Deen -- not because I think she's the greatest Italian cooking, but because her recipe is along the lines of how I usually make these dishes. In her lasagna, she uses a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage, which is what I usually do. I substituted 1/2 pound of turkey breast for ground beef in an attempt to lighten the dish a bit, which didn't do much to help the flavor or texture. She uses cottage cheese, which I changed to ricotta. She called for oven-ready noodles, but I use regular. The lasagna was good -- my son and husband ate quite a bit -- but wasn't exactly what I'd want my son to call "Mom's Lasagna." The meat overwhelmed the dish and made it really heavy. It's a good starting point, though. Next time I'll try it with less of the meat and see how that goes.

Next post: Paula's DIVINE garlic bread.

Meaty Lasagna
Adapted from this Paula Deen recipe

1 pounds 90-95% lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground turkey (or you can use a total of 1 1/2 pounds ground beef)
1 pound ground Italian sausage
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons Penzey's pizza spice (or you could use oregano)
1 teaspoon ground basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups Ricotta cheese (Paula's uses small curd cottage cheese)
5 ounces grated Parmigianno-Reggiano
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
9 lasagna noodles, boiled to al dente
2 (8-ounce) packages shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large saucepan, combine ground chuck, sausage onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat until meat is browned and crumbled; drain.

Return meat to pan and add oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 to 45 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine Ricotta, Parmesan, parsley, and eggs.

Spoon 1/4 of sauce into bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan. Place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on top of sauce. Do not overlap noodles. Spread 1/3 of the Ricotta cheese mixture over noodles, top with 1/4 of sauce and 1/3 mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, ending with sauce, reserving 1/3 of mozzarella cheese.

Bake 45 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and bake 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-03-25T19:05:00.001-04:00

Last week, one of my blog posts noted that the chocolate cupcakes I made weren't quite up to my expections. Within minutes, cooking contest buddy, Julie, pointed me to her favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. Since she's a contest winner, food blogger and granola goddess, I had no doubt they'd be delicious. I made them for my son's cast party, and boy did they live up to my expectations. They were tender, moist and very chocolatey. Plus, they made 30+ cupcakes, which was perfect for feeding a crowd of high school performers. Definitely a keeper recipe -- I'll be making this one again. Thanks, Julie!

Julie’s Chocolate Cupcakes - Large Batch
(Adapted from Julie's recipe.)
Makes about 36 cupcakes. To make as a cake, check out Julie's blog!

1 1/2 cups hot strong coffee
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
3/4 cup (600 grams) canola oil
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 (313 grams) cups flour
1 ½ (138 grams) cups good-quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line cupcake cups with paper liners.

Mix the hot coffee with the chopped chocolate, stirring occasionally until the mixture is smooth.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs until they are slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Slowly add the canola oil, and mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar, mixing until well combined. Slowly add the buttermilk, coffee mixture, and vanilla, and mix until blended.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in three additions on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. The batter will be liquidy -- don't worry!

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean, 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean. (For me, mini cupcakes took 20 minutes; regular took closer to 22 minutes, but I think my oven is slow.) Frost when completely cooled.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockyli

9 ounces chocolate chips (I used semisweet -- I might use a mixture of milk & semisweet next time)
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar

Put chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl (I used the bowl of my electric mixer). Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, then pour cream over the chocolate. Let sit for one minute, then stir until combined. Add butter and vanilla and stir until combined. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Dump powdered sugar into the mixture (you're supposed to sift it but I never do). Beat until combined. Continue to beat with an electric mixer until lighter in color and creamy. I used a pastry bag with a large star tip to ice the cupcakes.

Banana Cupcakes, Three Frostings

2011-03-22T00:12:00.000-04:00

Boy, did I make a lot of cupcakes during the past week! I made seven dozen for a late night of rehearsals of my son's high school play, "Once Upon a Mattress." A few days later, I made another four dozen for the cast party. It felt good when one of the leads stopped me at the cast party to tell me how much he enjoyed my cupcakes -- these banana cupcakes in particular. When he makes it big, I can say he liked my cupcakes.

I've made these banana cupcakes several times. They are moist and full of banana flavor. If you're like me and wind up with a lot of black bananas, they are a welcome alternative to banana bread. I've played around with various frostings and found that some work better with banana than others. Here are three I like best.

Since the cupcakes are quite sweet, I think they are best with a frosting that's not too sweet. One great alternative is a classic cream cheese frosting, pictured above.

My favorite frosting in terms of taste is caramel frosting. The drawback, though, is that it's hard to make the frosting look pretty. Because it's cooked, you need to let it cool to just the temperature to be able to pipe it. Too warm and it will not hold its shape; too cool and it will be too stiff to flow through the piping bag. I managed to pipe the frosting in the top photo. I added a little dollop of chocolate ganache in the middle. It didn't look that great, and the chocolate competed with the buttery frosting. I wouldn't do that again.

For the cast cupcakes, above, I just spread the frosting. I should have waited a bit longer for it to cool because it oozed down the sides a bit. I tried to gussy them up with some sparkly sugar and a candy pea (because the play was a spoof on The Princess and the Pea). They didn't look terrific but they sure were delicious.

I also tried to make a vanilla buttercream with chocolate swirled in it. The effect wasn't as attractive as I had hoped, and I thought it was too sweet to be paired with the banana cupcakes. The cast enjoyed them, though, so I included the recipe below.

I got the cupcake recipe from a food blogger named Evan, who also made these cupcakes with three frostings, but three that were completely different from mine -- Honey-Cinnamon Buttercream, and Peanut Butter Buttercream. So if you want to try those, go to her post.

Large Batch Banana Cupcakes
Adapted from Hello Cupcakes! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. I found the recipe on this blog post.

Makes 36 standard cupcakes (or 30 regular and a bunch of minis)

3 1/3 cups (417 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I used ¼ tsp because I only had salted butter on hand)
6 medium ripe bananas
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
2 1/2 cups (500 grams) sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

You'll need three good-size mixing bowls. In one, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In the second bowl, mash bananas and buttermilk.

In your third bowl – the stand mixer bowl, if you’re using one -- beat butter and sugar until fluffy. (If you don’t have soft butter, just let the stand mixer do its thing until the butter is room temperature.) Add the eggs, one at a time.

Add the flour mixture, alternating with the with the banana mixture in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in vanilla.

Spoon batter into paper lined muffin tins. If you happen to have Pampered Chef scoops, I used the large for the regular cupcakes, and the smallest for the mini cupcakes. Pop the pans into the oven.

Bake until light golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out with a couple of crumbs. My mini cupcakes took about 15 minutes to bake. The regular cupcakes took about 20 minutes.

Classic Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-ounce package of regular cream cheese (I think this works best if it's somewhat cool)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Blend together cream cheese and butter. With mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, then gradually add the powdered sugar until completely incorporated.

This frosts about 2 dozen cupcakes. I used a large star tip to pipe the frosting.

Caramel Frosting (I've also seen this called brown sugar frosting.)
This frosts about a dozen cupcakes, so you’ll need to double (at least) to frost a large batch.

6 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (I prefer dark but light works fine)
6 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the sugar and the milk. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 1 minute (it's in bold because I often forget this part). Remove from the heat, add the vanilla and gradually mix in the powdered sugar. Let cool until slightly thickened. If you want to pipe it, you'll have to keep checking until it's at the point where it holds its shape but isn't too stiff. It's easier just to spread.

Swirled Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream Icing
My own concoction. Use this with the banana cupcakes only if you like things really sweet.

2 1/2 ounces (or so) bittersweet chocolate chips
3 cups (375 g) confectioners' sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I sometimes go up to 3)

Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30-second increments. Let cool while you make the vanilla icing.

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream. Continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for desired consistency.

Mix one cup of the frosting with the melted chocolate chips. Using a long icing spatula, make a stripe of chocolate icing down one side of a pastry bag. Fill the rest with the vanilla buttercream. When you pipe the frosting (I used a star tip), it will swirl.

Frosts 24 cupcakes with a generous amount of frosting.

Chocolate Cupcakes for the Cast

2011-03-18T10:04:00.002-04:00

This is the second of the three kinds of cupcakes I made for the cast of "Once Upon a Mattress," playing at Penfield High School through Saturday. The musical is a funny variation of the princess and the pea story, which is why they have candy peas for a garnish.

The cupcakes had a light, fluffy texture and a mild chocolate flavor. I'd prefer a denser cupcake with a more pronounced chocolate flavor, so I'll keep looking for my ultimate chocolate cupcake recipe. The frosting, on the other hand, is a keeper. Creamy and shiny with an intensely chocolate flavor, I'll use this recipe again and again.

Large Batch Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from "A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes" by Dede Wilson. I found the recipe in this article. It's very similar, BTW, to the one in the red & white check Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.

(Makes about 24 – I got 27)

2 1/4 cups (281 grams/9.9 oz) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (69 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces

2 cups (400 grams) sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk, at room temperature

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down after each addition, allowing each egg to be absorbed before continuing. Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour. Begin and end with the flour mixture, and beat briefly until smooth on low-medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake wells. Bake for about 22 minutes (15 minutes if you bake mini cupcakes), or until a toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs. Cool pans on racks for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to cooling racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Adapted from a recipe on Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit

9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (or a mixture - semisweet will make it sweeter)
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar

Put chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl.

Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined. Add butter and vanilla and stir until combined. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixture and let cool for 10 minutes.

Add powdered sugar into the chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Continue to beat with an electric mixer until lighter in color and creamy.

Frosts 24 cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes for the Cast

2011-03-16T23:04:00.001-04:00

My son is in the cast of "Once Upon A Mattress," playing at Penfield High School this weekend. The cast puts in late nights the week leading up to the play, so a group of parents have been bringing in dinner for the cast each night. On Monday, I was assigned the task of dessert for all 70 members of the cast and crew. No problem! I love baking desserts. I made three big batches of cupcakes and I'm happy to report that they were some of the best cupcakes I've made.

The first was what I figured was the safest bet for making kids happy -- vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing. Normally, these wouldn't be my cup of tea because they can be incredibly sweet. Those that aren't can be on the blah side. But these, from Cooks Illustrated, were so delicious that we were nibbling on them before they were even frosted -- and I generally consider frosting to be the best part of the cupcake. In fact, they were so good that this will be my go-to scratch recipe for vanilla cupcakes and vanilla frosting.I don't need to look any further. (Normally I'm funny about including recipes from Cooks Illustrated, because they are protective of their recipes, but this one is all over the internet.) The frosting was a tried-and-true recipe that I've used in the past.

Because "Once Upon a Mattress" is a funny take-off on the "Princess and the Pea," I garnished them with some sparkly sugar and a Runts pea. Although now that I look at them, they'd be kind of cute to serve on St. Patrick's Day. Speaking of St. Patrick's Day, tomorrow is opening night -- tickets are still available!

Large Batch One-Bowl Yellow Cupcakes
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated. If you want to make just a dozen, follow this recipe from Joy of Baking

3 cups (13 oz/375 grams) all purpose flour
2 cups (14 oz/400 grams) granulated white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (cut into pieces)
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt on low speed to combine. Add the butter, eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Beat at medium speed until the batter is smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. If necessary, stir the batter with a rubber spatula until the flour is fully incorporated.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter (I used the largest Pampered Chef scoop) and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until pale gold and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. These cupcakes are best the day they are made, although they will keep for a few days at room temperature.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Icing

3 cups (375 g) confectioners' sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I sometimes go up to 3)

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream. Continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for desired consistency. I used a large star tip to pipe the frosting on the cake.

Frosts 24 cupcakes with a generous amount of frosting.

Le Bon Vie in Penfield

2011-02-25T19:21:00.002-05:00

If you're like a lot of people living in Penfield, Gananda, Walworth and so on, you may have zoomed by this little building on Route 441 hundreds of times. If so, HEY! -- the speed limit there is 35 MPH! SLOW DOWN! But I digress...

When we moved to Penfield in the 1990s, the little building was home to a restaurant that had a lot of motorcycles in the parking lot, and regularly had signs near the street that said things like "ham dinner - $5.95." We lived walking distance from there, but we were never inspired to stop in. Next it was Legends, a restaurant we enjoyed but didn't frequent (the kids were little -- we didn't go anywhere very often). Alas, Legends didn't seem to be able to make a go of it. Now the little building is home to Le Bon Vie -- an Americanized spelling of a French phrase that roughly translates to "the good life."

This seems to be a budding trend in restaurant names in the eastern 'burbs of Rochester. East Rochester is home to Lemoncello, an Americanized spelling of the Italian beverage Limoncello. Some people are offended by these creative spellings. Lighten up, I say! Say la vie! (Get it?)

At any rate, the dining room of Le Bon Vie is cozy and more upscale than you'd expect from the exterior. The dining room was full when we were there on a Saturday night. We told the waitress we were headed to a movie after our dinner, and she kept things moving at a good clip for us.

I started with an arugula salad with beets and goat cheese ($8). The menu said it also had pecans on it -- I found one little pecan piece and a few crumbs. I enjoyed the salad -- I love the combination of beets and goat cheese -- but would have liked it even better with a few more pecans.

My friend and I both ordered Chicken and Artichoke French ($15), noting that you usually had the choice of chicken or artichokes and it was nice to see them served together. It was served in a bowl with angel hair pasta and a lot of brothy lemony sauce. All the brothy liquid caused the eggy coating to separate from the chicken and artichokes (plus it dripped on both of our shirts). The flavor was good, but I would have preferred a thicker sauce.

All in all, we enjoyed our dinner at Le Bon Vie. I'll likely return, because I'd like to see a decent restaurant stick around in that spot, but will probably try a different entree. If you'd like to check out the menu or look at more pictures (I just don't like taking pictures while I'm dining), click here.

Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes with Light Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-02-20T13:31:00.005-05:00

Did you catch the mini cupcake episode of "Throwdown With Bobby Flay?" (I'm hooked on that show -- I think I've seen every episode since it began.) Those mini cupcakes looked so cute that I wanted to try making them the first chance I got. I made them for a dinner party that happened just before Valentine's Day.

When I checked out Bobby Flay's mini cupcake recipe, it looked like a lot of bother. Plus, I had people coming and the house needed cleaning! I turned to the recipe that served me well with the Big Top Cupcake. I figured if it worked well for a big cupcake, it would also work well small. And it did, for the most part.

The only problem I had was that I have three different mini muffin pans (I pick them up when I see them at a garage sale or thrift shop). Each pan is a little different.

The one on the top left was the deepest, and the liner nestled down in the cup. The pan on the right had the widest cups, so there was wiggle room around the liners. The one on the bottom left was shallow, so the liners extended above the top of the pan. They baked at different rates, so I had to take each pan out of the oven at different times. Which came out best?

The deepest pan produced cakes that were tall and skinny. The pan with the widest cups produced squat cupcakes, and the liners separated from the cupcakes in places. The shallow pan, in which the liners extended above the pan, produced cupcakes that were just the right shape and size.

Bear in mind that the pans you see above accommodated half of the dough. I didn't want to make 96 mini cupcakes, so I made the other half of the batch into a dozen regular cupcakes, which we enjoyed on Valentines Day.

I frosted the cupcakes with a lightened cream cheese icing. It's an amalgamation of a recipe from The Best Light Recipe (my current favorite cookbook) and another I saw in Cooking Light. All the guys in the family were begging the lick the bowl -- shhhh, we won't tell them it's light.

If you're following Weight Watchers, each mini cupcake with a little dollop of cream cheese icing is 2 Points Plus.

Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes

(Makes 96 mini cupcakes - 1 Weight Watchers Points Plus each)

Vegetable spray
1 18.25-oz. pkg. red velvet cake mix
1 cup milk (I used 2%. If you're not watching your weight, whole tastes best.)
8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, melted
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well blended.

Scoop the batter into the liners. They should be about 3/4 full. (If you happen to have the Pampered Chef scoops, the smallest one is perfect for mini cupcakes). Bake the cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, about 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes. (If you are baking regular size cupcakes, start checking them at 18 minutes.)

Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(Frosts 96 mini cupcakes - 1 Weight Watchers Points Plus per serving)

18 ounces Neufchatel (1/3 less fat) cream cheese, softened but still cool (This is a weird amount -- a bit over 2 packages -- because I increased the recipe by 1 1/2. You probably could get by with 2 packages, which is 16 oz.)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (9 ounces) confectioners (powdered) sugar

Combine cream cheese and vanilla in a stand mixer bowl. Mix on stir until just combined. Add sugar and mix until combined but still lumpy. Finish stirring with a rubber spatula. (If you mix too much with the stand mixer, it will become too soupy).

I frosted with pastry bag and large star tip (Wilton 6B).

For tons and tons of other sweets ideas, check out this post, from Sweet as Sugar Cookies.

Humphrey House in Penfield

2011-02-09T12:34:00.001-05:00

There's something about cold, snowy nights that make even the most hardy Rochesterians stay close to home. That's the primary reason a group of friends from the eastern suburbs chose the Humphrey House (on Route 441 in Penfield) to meet for dinner and drinks. It turned out to be a good -- but not perfect -- choice.

The Humphrey House has been a Penfield institution for as long as I can remember. My husband and I went there years ago (in the 1990s?) and I remember it having a dark atmosphere, heavy menu and gray-haired clientele. Since then, the restaurant has gone through some ownership changes. In the process, the decor was brightened and updated. The menu also changed to lighter, more casual fare, including wood-fired pizzas.

We went on a Friday at 6:30, just in time to take advantage of the buy one/get one happy hour for beer, wine and well drinks. We spent awhile visiting at the bar, and by the time we were seated for dinner, we all were in a great mood.

The dining room is quiet and cozy, with a fireplace, lots of exposed wood and interesting antiques. Most of the tables were couples or foursomes, all adults in their 40s and up, so our table of eight women was by far the loudest in the place. It made me a bit uncomfortable. (Although there's a kids menu, I can't imagine taking kids there unless they are exceptionally quiet and well behaved.)

The service was a bit slow. When our waitress came to take our order, we asked her to return in a few minutes because everyone hadn't decided. We waited several minutes and finally had to flag her down. But once we got our food, everyone was happy. Several people ordered wood-fired pizzas and liked their choices. I had a special shrimp and pasta dish, which a few others ordered. Often when I order pasta at a restaurant, the portions are so huge that I feel like I could roll out of the place. This dish was just the right size that I was satisfied but not stuffed ... and I ate every delicious bite. We agreed we'd order it again.

After dinner, a few of us were intrigued by the antiques throughout the dining room and bar and went to inspect them close up. It turns out that the house used to be owned by Doc Humphrey, and the antiques were memorabilia from him. It was fun checking them out.

By the time we left at just past nine, the dining room was empty (although the bar wasn't). I've come to notice that this isn't unusual for Penfield restaurants. I'm guessing the people in their 20s and 30s, who go out and stay out later, tend to head to the city. That could be a clue as to why so many Penfield restaurants seem to come and go. I do hope the Humphrey House sticks around for awhile. Because of the quiet atmosphere, it's probably not the place I'd choose for another ladies' night out, but I'd certainly return for a quiet dinner with my husband.

Guy Food for Super Bowl Sunday

2011-01-31T21:07:00.001-05:00

This week will probably be the only time I'll utter the following two words in succession:

Go Packers!

Feels strange. Maybe if I keep writing it and saying it, I'll mean it come Sunday.

Cheering for the Pack is tough, because I'm a life-long Bears fan. But I'm getting on board to cheer for the favorite team of my Mom and my Grandma Host. I sure do hope they get the game in heaven for Grandma.

We'll be heading to our friends' house for the game and everyone will bring a dish to pass. In the honor of the Packers, I'll take one of my husband's favorite appetizers, Sausage Cheese Balls. They have meat in the form of sausage, for when the Packers were called the Meat Packers. And they have cheese to honor the Packers cheesehead tradition. And meaty cheesy things are what I consider guy food.

Go Packers! (I'll get there by Sunday...)

Sausage Cheese Balls

1 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 pound bulk sausage (my husband likes Bob Evans original), uncooked
3 cups dry biscuit baking mix (aka Bisquick)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large saucepan, heat together sausage and shredded cheese. Stir together with wooden spoon until cheese has melted.

Stir in biscuit mix until smooth. (You'll need to put some muscle into it.)
Chill for about 30 minutes (so you don't burn your hands when you're forming the balls).

Shape into small balls about the size of a quarter. Place on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Place on paper towels to drain. Serve warm. Makes about 4 dozen.

These freeze very well, so you can make them in advance. Just bake them up, let them cool and pop them into a freezer bag and freeze. When you're ready to use them, you can take them out of the freezer, plop them on a cookie sheet, and bake them until they are hot.

Yummy Sandwiches from Leftover Ham

2011-01-22T14:50:00.002-05:00

Whenever I cook a ham, I'm left with odds and ends that don't add up to much, but I don't want to waste. That's when I make these yummy open-faced sandwiches. I eyeball the ingredient measurements and use what I have on hand -- odds and ends of cheese, various mustards, sometimes something onion-y, sometimes not. Just be sure to use a sturdy, flavorful bread. I especially like this with Dakota bread from Great Harvest Bread Company (which we Rochesterians knew originally as Montana Mills).

I got the recipe from my mother-in-law, who lives in the Buffalo area. I thought the name -- Open-Faced Chicago Sandwiches -- was funny, because I'm originally from the Chicago area and never had anything like them there. But since that's the way it came to me, I'll use it here.

Open-Faced Chicago Ham Sandwiches

1 cup Cheddar cheese, divided (I've also used half Swiss and half Cheddar)
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper (I often use more)
chopped scallions, to taste (optional)
1 cup chopped ham
2 teaspoons prepared mustard (I like Dijon but ballpark yellow works too)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
mayonnaise
5-6 slices rye bread (also great on Montana Mills Dakota Bread)

Mix together 1/2 cup cheese, green pepper, scallions (if using) and ham. Add mustard, Worcestershire, and just enough mayo to lightly coat the mixture. Spread on rye (or Dakota) bread and top with remaining cheese. Place under the broiler (or in the toaster oven on "broil") until the cheese melts, about 4-5 minutes. Makes 6 or so open-faced sandwiches.

Mom's Layered Mexican Casserole

2011-01-20T08:36:00.000-05:00

With the varied palates in our household, I've given up on the notion of making everyone happy at every meal. When we entertain other families, though, I like the meal to please our guests as well as my family, so that everyone can have an enjoyable evening. One of my tricks to accomplish this is to serve a relatively basic dish that is served with several condiments. That way, everyone can make it to their liking. This recipe, which I got from my Mom, fits the bill. It's the familiar ingredients you'd find in Americanized tacos, but layered in a lasagna-style casserole and served with various condiments.

The last time I served it, everyone -- parents and kids alike -- cleaned their plate. (Which, by the way, is the reason for the lousy quality of this picture -- I only had time to get off a shot or two, and didn't bother gussying up the plate.) I made the casserole, popped it in the oven as my guests arrived, and I was able to enjoy my guests instead of fussing in the kitchen. It was a fun evening for everyone -- even the cook! Mission accomplished.

Mom's Layered Mexican Casserole

2 pounds ground beef (or 1 pound ground turkey and one pound ground beef)
1 1/2 16-ounce jars medium-hot taco sauce (or to your taste)
16 ounces sour cream
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, sliced or shredded
8 ounces Mozzarella cheese, sliced or shredded
1 package flour tortillas, cut into eight triangles
Condiments: I usually use salsa, chopped tomatoes, guacamole, crushed tortilla chips and green onions, but you could use other Mexican-type ingredients like cilantro, pico de gallo, jalapenos, black olives, jicama, etc.

Brown meat and drain. Add taco sauce and simmer 10 minutes.

In a 13" by 9" pan, layer half of the tortillas, half of the meat mixture, half of the sour cream and half of the cheese. Repeat.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Serve with condiments.

Casserole can be made ahead and reheated. It also freezes well.

Cornmeal Crepe, Mushroom Ragout and Fried Egg

2011-01-08T19:22:00.005-05:00

Every so often I have a hankering for a fried egg, over easy with a runny yolk. That's why this recipe, which I spotted in a Serious Eats newsletter awhile back, caught my eye. Not only did it look delicious, it was also a cheap supper. (I can't be the only one recovering financially from Christmas.)

I haven't made crepes often, but these were easy. They only thing I'd change to the recipe is to add a pinch of sugar to enhance the flavor of the corn. I might also like some diced ham added to the mushrooms if there was any in the fridge.

My version of the recipe is below. I'd encourage you to read the original Serious Eats post, though. It has a good story, plus the photos are better than mine. When you're about to eat a perfectly cooked fried egg, there's time for just one shot before you dig in.

Cornmeal Crepe, Mushroom Ragout and Fried Egg

Adapted from Serious Eats, which adapted from Gourmet

Be sure to plan a bit ahead -- the batter needs to rest for 30 minutes. The batter makes 10 to 12 crêpes, which is more than you'll need, but you'll have some wiggle room if the first few don't turn out right. Extra crepes can be refrigerated for a couple days or frozen for about three months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before using.

Cornmeal Crepes:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
(A pinch of sugar, if desired)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk (I used 1% because that's what was in the fridge, and it worked fine.)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil or melted butter for greasing skillet

1. Blend flour, cornmeal, sugar (if using), salt, milk, eggs, and melted butter in blender until smooth. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. (You can make the mushroom ragout while you're waiting.) Consistency should be that of whipping cream; if needed, thin with a little bit of cold water.

2. Lightly brush a 10-inch skillet with melted butter or vegetable oil, and heat over medium heat until hot but not smoking.

3. Hold the skillet off the heat and ladle about 1/3 cup of batter onto the pan, swirling to coat. Return skillet to flame and cook until crêpe is set and turning golden around the edges. Loosen sides with rubber spatula and carefully flip over. (I'm not a good flipper so I usually did that with my fingers - ouch! You also can slide the crepe onto a dinner plate, invert the pan over the plate, then flip so that the pan is on the bottom and the plate is on the top.) Cook until underside is set, about 20 seconds more.

4. Repeat with remaining batter, re-oiling the skillet between crepes. Stack crêpes on plate as they are finished.

Mushroom Ragout:

Fills 4-6 crêpes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 shallots, minced
1 1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms, trimmed if necessary, thinly sliced (I used inexpensive button and Baby Bella mushrooms, but the recipe would be even better with more exotic mushrooms.)
Salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I keep a tube from Williams Sonoma in the fridge for this kind of thing.)
1/3 cup sour cream
Freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large, heavy skillet, heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat until butter is melted, and pan is hot but not smoking. Sweat the shallots in oil and butter until translucent. Add mushrooms and large pinch of salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the liquid that the mushrooms give off has evaporated, 6-8 minutes.

2. Add tomato paste and stir to coat mushrooms. Cook for 1 minute.

3. Reduce heat to low, add sour cream and cook until warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Putting it all together:

Allow two crêpes per person, and one egg per crêpe.

1. Fry the eggs sunny-side up or over-easy. (I used just a smidge of butter in the pan, and salt & peppered the eggs.)

2. While the eggs are frying, spoon desired quantity of warm mushroom ragoût just below the center of each crepe, leaving a one-inch border on each side.

3. Top with fried egg. Fold in sides of crêpe over filling, then fold top and bottom to enclose filling. (This wasn't my strength ... but don't worry, even if they aren't perfect, they will still taste good!)

4. Serve crêpe fold sides down. Top with sour cream or chopped fresh herbs, if you want to be fancy about it -- I left them plain for our weeknight meal.

The Secret to Grandma's Extra-Special Party Mix

2011-01-04T18:28:00.000-05:00

Whenever I'd visit my Grandma in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, she'd quickly put out "nibbles" for us to snack on. Often it was crackers and Merkts Cheese Spread, which was yummy (to our family's delight, it's now being sold in Rochester at Tops Friendly Markets). But even better was her party mix. And, like so many other things she made, her mix was better than anyone else's. I often got my Mom's evil eye for eating more mix from the bowl than was polite.

When I was making my goodies for Christmas, I thought I'd make a batch or two of her mix, but a search through her old recipe box turned up only The Original Chex Party Mix. That's good stuff, but Grandma's always had a square of something that tasted the best. Luckily, my cousin Erin immediately knew the secret ingredient: Quaker Oatmeal Squares in the blue box. In fact, Erin said Grandma used to make her batches of just Oatmeal Squares and the coating. Sure enough, Erin was right on the money. They add a slightly sweet flavor and a great texture to the mix.

For the rest of the ingredients, Erin and I had different recollections. I remembered Cheerios and she didn't. I also remembered things like cheese Goldfish and sesame sticks. We concluded that Grandma, being frugal to the core, probably used up things she had in the cupboard. So with her in mind, I'm calling her party mix...

Grandma's Extra-Special, Use-Up-The-Box Party Mix

3 cups Quaker Oatmeal Squares
4 cups Chex® cereal, preferably 2-3 flavors (wheat, rice, corn)
2 cups of whatever other sturdy cereal is in the cupboard (Cheerios, Crispix, mini Shredded Wheat, or more Chex)
1 cup assorted nuts (I prefer peanuts and cashews, but dump in whatever package is open. If there's an allergy, just add another cup of salty snacks.)
2 cups bite-size salty snacks (This could include bagel chips, pretzels, sesame sticks, Goldfish crackers. It's nice to include some cheesy crackers for flavor and color.)
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Heat oven to 250°F. In ungreased large roasting pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in seasonings. Dump in the crunchy stuff and stir it until it's evenly coated. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

Sweet (and Lucky?) Black-Eyed Pea and Corn Caviar

2011-01-02T12:01:00.001-05:00

I've never bought into the idea of eating lucky foods on New Year's Day, but this year I can use all the help I can get. That's because my older son turns 16 in a few days. He's in no rush to get his learner's permit -- he may be intimidated by upstate New York's snowy winter roads -- but he'll be behind the wheel sometime in 2011. I remember what I was like as a 16-year-old driver. All I can say is, yikes.

So which lucky dish to eat? Hmmm ... my in-laws eat canned herring on New Year's Day, but that doesn't appeal to me. I've heard about cabbage being lucky, but I only like it in coleslaw and I had that a couple of days ago. I settled on black-eyed peas, because they were in a yummy appetizer I ate at picnics last summer. It was a mosaic of colorful veggies in a marinade that reminded me of my favorite bean salad, and was served with scoop-type chips. I was told it was Texas Caviar ... or maybe it was Cowboy Caviar.

Unfortunately I never got the recipe last summer. Online searches turned up spicy concoctions and I wanted something sweeter, with just a bit of heat. So here's the version I put together. I'm calling it Sweet Black-Eyed Pea and Corn Caviar because because Texans would probably disavow this sweet version, and it's certainly unlucky to tick off a Texan. If you would prefer a more authentic Texas version, I suggest you try this one, from native Texan and fellow contest cook, Barbara Hahn.

Sweet Black-Eyed Pea and Corn Caviar

This dip is great for parties as it can sit out for several hours without refrigeration.

Vinaigrette:
1 cup sugar (or to taste - I may reduce next time)
1/4 cup salad oil
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Veggies:
A few green onions, finely chopped (red onion would be good, too)
1 medium pepper, finely chopped (I used an orange one this time)
1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed (or use a second can of black-eyed peas)
2 (15 ounce) cans bread & butter corn, drained
1 (15 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, well drained
2 rings of jalapenos, from a jar of jalapeno rings, or more to taste

1 bag Baked Tostitos Scoops (or another scoop-type corn chip)

Mix together the vinaigrette ingredients. Stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved.

Mix together the veggies. Gently stir in the vinaigrette and and let marinade 2 or more hours. (Overnight is best.)

To serve, it looks nicest to use a slotted spoon to take the veggies out of the marinade and into a nice serving bowl.

Serve with chips.

Positively Addictive Popcorn Mix

2010-12-31T14:00:00.000-05:00

Need something quick to take to a New Year's Eve party? This festive mix of popcorn, peanuts and M&Ms, lightly coated with white chocolate and peanut butter, takes about five minutes to throw together. You may even have the ingredients in your cupboard from your holiday baking. (I did.) People will beg you for the recipe.

I got the recipe from Beth Royals, whose recipes always are diabolically addictive. (See her recipe for Chocolate-Peanut Butter Eggs as another example.) That's probably the reason she's won a jillion cooking contests.

Happy New Year to my friends, family and faithful readers! Be safe!

White Chocolate & Peanut Butter Popcorn Mix

12 cups popcorn (I used air-popped popcorn. Beth uses "natural" flavor microwave popcorn.)
1 cup cocktail peanuts (salted)
1 1/2 cups M&Ms
14 oz white candy wafers (the discs in the candy making aisle of the store)
2 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter

Put the popcorn, peanuts and M&Ms in a large bowl. In another bowl, melt the wafers/discs and peanut butter together in microwave. (I microwave for 1 minute and stir. Then micro for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30-second interval, until melted.)

Pour the melted stuff over the popcorn mixture. Stir gently to coat. Spread on waxed paper or parchment paper to harden. If you're hurry, put it in the fridge so it hardens faster. Break into pieces.

Eggnog Pancakes Three Ways

2010-12-26T21:08:00.002-05:00

Let me just say up front that this isn't a post I'm particularly proud of. It certainly doesn't make my family look like healthy eaters. But I'm doing this for the practical reason of sharing a recipe for using up eggnog that's left over from the holidays.

My 13-year-old had been after me to let him make eggnog pancakes for dinner because he's crazy about eggnog. (I, personally, don't like the stuff). So on a busy night, he made the pancakes and I completed the meal by making bacon and putting bananas and maple syrup on the table.

I topped my pancakes simply with maple syrup. And that's everyone else would have done, until my husband got up from the table, fished around in the fridge, and returned with...

a can of whipped cream. I swear, I didn't even know the stuff was in there. I don't recall buying it or what I used it for. But in any case, my husband ate his pancakes with whipped cream, and my sons ate theirs with maple syrup AND whipped cream. To add a modicum of health to this dessert disguised as a meal, I suggested slicing bananas on top. That fell on deaf ears. And then my 15-year-old son took the decadence to another level.

He put some bacon on his pancake, drizzled it with maple syrup, topped it all with whipped cream and...

... ate it like a taco.

Now, THIS got him scolded by his Dad. Huh? The meal, which was never a model of nutrition, deteriorated precariously toward junk food when Dad entered the canned whipped cream into the equation. I wouldn't want my son to do this if he were visiting a girlfriend's house for dinner, but the recipe developer in me thought it was kind of clever. What do you think?

Eggnog Pancakes
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional - we didn't use)
2 eggs
1 1/2 - 2 cups eggnog* (The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups. My son increased to 2 cups for extra eggnog flavor. I thought this made them a little dense but they weren't bad.)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
Maple syrup, whipped cream, bacon and/or sliced bananas -- all optional, for topping or rolling into a taco of sorts

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg if desired. In another bowl, beat eggs, eggnog and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle. (If you have an electric griddle, set it to 350 degrees.) Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until second side is golden brown. (Because of the high sugar content, these brown quickly. Keep an eye on them. You may even want to turn your griddle to 325 degrees.)

Nutter Butter Santas

2010-12-24T09:01:00.006-05:00

Happy Christmas Eve!

Need a semi-homemade treat for your Christmas celebration? Or something to keep the little ones busy on Christmas eve? These Nutter Butter Santas (no, they are not babies in diapers) are quick, easy and fun.

I got the idea and directions from this blog post. Hers are a bit cuter than mine, I think.

At any rate, here's how to make them:

Nutter Butter Santa Claus cookies.

You'll need:
1 package of Nutter Butter Cookies
About 3 cups of vanilla melting wafers (you could also use vanilla bark, or maybe white chocolate chips, but I can't get those to melt as well)
About 1/4 cup of red sugar
A handful of brown mini M&Ms (or mini chocolate chips)
A small handful of red mini M&Ms (or red hot candies)
Equipment: A plastic Baggie (or squeeze bottle or pastry bag with writing tip)
Parchment paper or silpat, to put the cookies on

Melt your white chocolate in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, until you have nice, smooth, creamy white chocolate. (Pour some into the tiny squeeze bottle if you have it and set aside, otherwise, leave it all in this measuring cup.)

Dip 1 Nutter Butter and dip it into the melted white chocolate about 1/3 of the way and pull straight back out. Shake off any excess. This is for the hat. If desired, do the same thing on the other side for his beard. (This wasn't on the original directions, but I thought he needed a beard. My younger son thought this looked like a diaper. I think I didn't dip them deep enough. At any rate, it's up to you as to whether you want to dip both ends.)

Dip one dipped end into the red sugar (for the red part Santa's hat), leaving some white showing, and lay it onto your parchment paper.

I put some of the melted stuff into a Baggie and snipped a corner ... but you could use a squeeze bottle or pastry bag with writing tip. Make three dots for his face (two for the eyes and one for the nose) and then one on the edge of the hat (for his tassle). Press the appropriate candies on the nose and mouth.

When you're done, put the tray in the fridge for about 15 minutes to harden and you're done!

Hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Maple Nut Goodie Bars

2010-12-23T23:08:00.006-05:00

When I was about 10 years old, I discovered a delicious candy while on vacation in Michigan. The Maple Bun, a melt-in-your-mouth maple cream encased in chocolate and peanuts, was my favorite candy bar from then on.

Fortunately or unfortunately for me, I could never find Maple Buns in my hometown of Waukegan, Illinois. Every now and then I'd spot a Vanilla Bun, but those weren't nearly as tasty as the maple. As a result, whenever I'd find a Maple Bun, I'd buy one.

Imagine my surprise when they started carrying them in Wegmans, in the bulk department where they sell the nostalgia candy. I bought one the first time I noticed them there, but now that I can get one all the time, I rarely buy one. There's probably a marketing lesson here about creating an impression of scarcity, but that's not where I'm going with this story.

An email newsletter from Pillsbury arrived in my inbox with a recipe for Maple Nut Goodie Bars, and the boy did the flavors sound like Maple Buns (I have since learned that there's a candy called a Nut Goodie, made by the same company as the one that makes the Maple Bun). I couldn't resist adding them to my holiday baking list.

The flavors were similar to my childhood treat, but the textures a bit different. Cold, the chocolate bottom layer and chocolate/nut top layer contrast with a softer maple filling. At room temperature, the bars are like a soft fudge. Both are yummy but my preference is to eat them chilled.

The only challenge about this recipe was cutting it into bars. If it was too cold, the bottom chocolate layer tended to separate from the softer maple middle. If it was too warm and soft, the peanuts made a mess of things. The best temperature for slicing is somewhere in the middle.

Maple Nut Goodie Bars
Slight adaptation from this Pillsbury recipe
I think these are best served cold. At room temperature they are a bit softer than fudge.

1 (12-oz.) pkg. (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
1 (11.5-oz.) pkg. (2 cups) milk chocolate chips
2 cups butter (yes, that would be 1 pound)
1 cup peanut butter
1 (12-oz.) can (2 1/2 cups) cocktail peanuts
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 (3-oz.) pkg. vanilla pudding and pie filling mix (not instant)
1 (2-lb.) pkg. (7 1/2 cups) powdered sugar
2 teaspoons maple flavor

1. Line 15x10x1-inch baking pan (jelly roll pan/cookie sheet with
sides) with foil. Butter or spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. In large saucepan, melt chocolate chips and 1 cup of the butter over low heat, stirring frequently. Remove saucepan from heat. Add peanut butter; mix well. Spread half of mixture in buttered foil-lined pan. Freeze 10 minutes or until set. Place pan in refrigerator.

2. Meanwhile, stir peanuts into remaining chocolate mixture. Set aside.

3. Melt remaining 1 cup margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Stir in pudding mix. Cook until mixture is slightly thickened, stirring constantly. DO NOT BOIL. Remove saucepan from heat. Add powdered sugar and maple flavor; mix well. Cool about 10 minutes or until slightly cooled.

4. Carefully spread pudding mixture over chilled chocolate layer. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

5. Stir reserved chocolate-peanut mixture. Drop by spoonfuls onto chilled pudding layer; spread to cover. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or until firm. Cut into bars. (If the bottom layer wants to separate from the maple layer as you are cutting, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes -- but do not try cutting this at room temperature, as it is too soft.) Store in refrigerator.

Makes a big tray of candy! It is sweet and rich, so cut into smallish pieces. Original recipe says 64 servings, which is probably about right.

Three-Layer Creme de Menthe Bars

2010-12-22T17:56:00.003-05:00

I found this new-to-me recipe as I was nostalgically flipping through my late Grandma's recipe box. I remember her making this (or something like it) when I was a child, and wishing there wasn't coconut in the crust because I didn't like coconut at the time. Now, I like the texture and flavor of the coconut in the crust, but my husband isn't crazy about it. If you're not a fan of coconut, I'm sure you could leave it out with no trouble.

Give yourself a few hours to make these because there's cooling time between each layer, but the hands-on time is pretty low.

Three-Layer Creme de Menthe Bars
From a clipped newspaper article in my Grandma's recipe box, with some alterations from me.

Crust:
2 cups graham-cracker crumbs (about 28 squares)
1-1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts (I use the shelled walnuts because they will get chopped in the food processor. I put them in the microwave and toast for 30 seconds at a time until they are fragrant)
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Creme de Menthe Layer
1 package (1 1/2 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
4 tablespoons creme de menthe liqueur
1 Tablespoon milk
Green food coloring, if desired

Glaze:
1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

For crust, stir together graham cracker crumbs, nuts, coconut, the 1/2 cup powdered sugar, the cocoa powder, 3/4 cup melted butter, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large bowl until well combined. (I did this all in a food processor, which helped chop the nuts and make the coconut a little smaller. Press into ungreased 9X13" pan (the dough will seem wet and your hands will be covered with melted butter). Bake at 325 degrees 10 to 12 minutes. (It will look wet on top when you take it out of the oven.) Let cool.

2. For Creme de Menthe Layer, beat together 4 cups sugar, pudding mix, 1/2 cup soft butter, creme de menthe and milk in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until smooth. Add food coloring, if desired. Spread evenly over crust (a large offset spatula helps with this). Chill until firm, at least for 30 minutes.

3. For Chocolate Layer, combine the chocolate and 1/2 cup butter in a small bowl. Microwave at 30-second intervals until softened. Spread evenly over the Creme de Menthe Layer. Refrigerate bars 1 hour or until chocolate sets.

Makes 6 dozen bars, depending on how you cut them.

Make-Ahead Tip: Store cookies in an airtight container in freezer up to 1 month.

(Many thanks to Tastespotting for running this. Always a thrill to be included in that beautiful site.)

Peanut Butter Temptations

2010-12-21T10:10:00.005-05:00

This is an oldie but goodie recipe from my Grandma's old recipe box. The card is covered with lots of splotches, so you know it's a good one that was used a lot.

It's peanut butter cookie dough in mini muffin cups, filled with a mini peanut butter cup. I used to love these, and now my own kids do.

Peanut Butter Temptations

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 miniature peanut butter cup candies, unwrapped
Mini muffin cup liners, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add the white sugar and brown sugar and mix well. Add the egg and vanilla and mix. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir into the peanut butter mixture until the dough comes together. Shape into 1 inch balls and put in the cups of an ungreased (or paper-lined) mini muffin pan. (I just use a small cookie scoop and drop them into the cups.)

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press a mini chocolate covered peanut butter cup down into the center of each cookie until only the top is showing. Let cool 10 minutes, then remove from pans. Store in airtight container.

Cranberry Streusel Shortbread Bars

2010-12-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Why is it that every time I double a recipe, I screw it up?

When I was young, I was good at math. Seriously good. When I was a Marquette University undergrad, I took calculus and got a good grade without too much trouble (can't remember any of it, though). But somehow my math escapes my brain when I get in the kitchen.

Take this recipe, for Cranberry Streusel Shortbread Bars, from Fine Cooking. I had two packages of cranberries in the freezer that I wanted to use up, and since this recipe called for one bag, I doubled it to make two 13" by 9" pans. The crusts and streusel topping went fine, but when it came to making the cranberry filling, I used one cup of sugar when I should have done two. Luckily, it wasn't a disaster. The filling was tart, but not unpleasantly so. In fact, some people may prefer this filling with less sugar.

I (deliberately) made a couple of other changes to the recipe. I adding a bit of orange to the cranberry filling, because orange always tastes good with cranberries. And I used my hand-held stick blender to make the filling smooth.

A recipe that tastes good, even when you screw it up. I call that a keeper.

Cranberry Streusel Shortbread Bars
(Adapted from this recipe in Fine Cooking If you don't have an orange handy, use the original recipe.)

For the crust and streusel:
10-1/2 oz. (1 cup plus 5 Tbs.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to just warm
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
3/4 tsp. table salt
2 large egg yolks
14-1/4 oz. (3 cups plus 3 Tbs.) unbleached all-purpose flour
(Tip: For the best results, always measure your flour by weighing it.)

For the cranberry filling:
12-oz. bag fresh or frozen cranberries, picked over, rinsed, and drained
1 cup granulated sugar (if you like tart fillings, you can reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup)
Zest of 1/2 of an orange
2 Tablespoons orange juice
2 Tablespoons water

Make the crust:

Line a straight-sided 13x9-inch metal baking pan with foil, letting the ends create an overhanging edge for easy removal. In a medium bowl, stir together the butter, 3/4 cup of the sugar, and the salt. Whisk in the egg yolks. Stir in the flour to make a stiff dough. Transfer about 2 cups of the dough to the prepared pan, and press the mixture evenly into the bottom. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Refrigerate the pan for 30 minutes (or freeze for 5 to 7 minutes), until the dough is firm.

Meanwhile, position a rack near the center of the oven and another near the top. Heat the oven to 325°F.

Bake the dough until the crust begins to set but does not brown at all on the edges (the center will not be firm yet), about 20 minutes. While the crust bakes, prepare the streusel and the topping.

Make the streusel:

With your fingers, combine the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar with the reserved dough until crumbly. The mixture should hold together when pressed, but readily break into smaller pieces.

Make the cranberry filling:

In a medium saucepan, bring the cranberries, sugar, orange zest, orange juice and water to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium high and continue to boil until the liquid is reduced to a thick syrup, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool 5 to 10 minutes—the syrup will continue to thicken as the mixture cools. (I used a stick blender to puree this mixture.)

Spread the cranberry mixture evenly over the hot crust. Scatter the streusel over the cranberries (don’t crumble the streusel too much). Increase the oven temperature to 350°F and bake the bars near the top of the oven until the streusel is golden and set, about 25 minutes. (I don't think the streusel needs to be very golden -- just set.)

Place the pan on a metal rack to cool until the crust is completely firm, at least 1 hour. (For faster cooling, put the bars in the fridge once the pan is no longer piping hot, or even outside in winter.)

When the bottom of the pan is cool, carefully lift the bars from the pan using the foil sides and transfer them to a cutting board. Separate the foil from the bars by sliding a spatula between them. Cut the bars into 1-3/4-inch squares.

Make-Ahead Tips
The bars will keep at room temperature for one week. I froze them.

From Fine Cooking 82, pp. 75
December 1, 2006

Our Gingerbread House 2010

2010-12-17T22:45:00.025-05:00

The year 2010 will be the year remembered as the year Mom lost her sense of humor about our gingerbread house.

I arrived at our friends' house for our afternoon of gingerbread with our house assembled, royal icing ready to go (foolproof recipe here) and edibles for decorating the house purchased. As our friends peacefully created their beautiful farm (previous post), my teenage sons started their annual ritual of creating stabbed snowmen, snowmen with their heads blown off, and the like. In past years, I was amused. I even joined in. But this year I had had enough (and my husband didn't like the sick humor in the first place). I put my foot down.

In retrospect, I should have told them in advance that it was time to think of another way to express their creativity. I wouldn't have minded a funny theme, but in my book, violence isn't part of the Christmas spirit.

My 15-year-old son, who avoids unpleasant situations and especially irritated Moms, resigned himself to putting waffle-shaped pretzels on the roof and arranging Peeps Christmas trees around the house. He spent about a half hour on the house and wandered off. My 13-year-old son would not be dissuaded, and created a few things that he found amusing. I gave in and let him put it on the board, but Mom gets her way in the end. I'm not showing his stuff on this blog post.

So let's move on. Did you spy a doghouse in the background? Why yes, my friends, it was Snoopy's doghouse. It was a piece of unfinished business I had related to gingerbread.

A few years ago, we tried to create a Snoopy gingerbread house, and failed. An epic fail, the boys would say. I chronicled it here. But I always thought it was a cute idea, and wished we had pulled it off.

Instead of having a big Snoopy house, I thought we could have a little doghouse behind the regular size gingerbread house. (That makes our big house Charlie Brown's house. In my memory, his house is nondescript so I figured we had creative license.) I made Snoopy's house from graham crackers and sculpted Snoopy out of regular and vanilla Tootsie Rolls. His Christmas lights were black licorice strings and mini M&Ms.

To make the house red, my husband adhered red Fruit by the Foot to the crackers with royal icing. It was a messy process and as a result he got royal icing fingerprints all over the place. (I tell myself it's snow.) A better idea may have been painting the crackers with red food color, the way our friends did for their barn in the previous post. The black for Snoopy's door was a concoction our friends had made for their barn roof. My husband fashioned a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, complete with a pink blanket around the bottom, and put it next to the house. (Although come to think of it, wasn't Linus' blanket blue?)

I made Woodstock out of a lemon Tootsie Roll. It's hard to make Tootsie Rolls look like feathers. He looks like he has horns on his head instead of feathers. He's sitting on a Tootsie Roll log next to the pond in front of Snoopy's house. The pond was actually a reject from our friends' barn, made from melted blue hard candies.

My husband made a cute back porch of various pretzels.

Pay no mind to the snowman with red splotches on the ground next to it.

Our Friends' Gingerbread farm

2010-12-16T21:52:00.010-05:00

Our family had our traditional day of gingerbread house decorating with another family, whose creations get more and more beautiful every year. Their creation this year was my favorite -- a gingerbread farm. Here's what they created, along with some of their techniques.

When we arrived, they had several elements ready to go.

Wegmans sells a package of unadorned, pre-baked gingerbread house pieces for about $5, and that's what they used. They trimmed the front pieces and cut the roof pieces in half lengthwise to make a Gambrel roof. They cut holes in the side pieces for windows. I wasn't there for this step, but my guess is that they used a Dremel tool to do the cutting.

They stained the barn pieces red by painting them with food coloring. They made some sort of a thick black concoction for the roof.

They used a glue gun to put the barn pieces together. That wouldn't fly in a gingerbread competition, but this wasn't a competition. It was more dependable and less messy to use than royal icing.

They also had made a pond by putting hard candies on parchment and baking them until they were melted. Then they shaped the pond to their desired shape.

The husband of the family and their 13-year-old daughter have become sophisticated in their molding of various figures, and their tools have followed suit. They used retired dental tools (scored from a family member who is a dental hygienist) to shape their figures.

Their sculpting medium: Tootsie Rolls candies. Wait until you see the things they can do with Tootsie Rolls!

Cat, along with some stacked Tootsie Roll logs.

Pigs.

Ducks and turtle on the pond.

And (my favorite), dogs.

Here's the barn, almost done (every time I thought their masterpiece was complete, they added embellishments). The silo was made adhering a mixture of dried beans to an empty food container with royal icing. Again, this wouldn't fly in a gingerbread competition but it looked great. The path leading up to the barn also made use of the dried beans, and was lined with colorful small candies.

The trees were made by covering sugar cones with green frosting. Each had a Tootsie Roll bird on top.

Note the use of white space. Because they didn't feel the need to cover every bit of snow, you can appreciate the details.

Here's a shot the finished barn from the side. Note the garland and the bird on the roof. Do you see the horse looking out the window and his hay (Chinese noodles) on the ground?

Want to see some of this talented family's past creations? Here are some:
The Zoo from 2009 (Some photos are missing. I will try to remedy that.)
The Pretty House from 2007
Another Pretty House, from 2006

Eggnog-Filled Cookie Cup

2010-12-15T09:44:00.016-05:00

Note that the title of the post is Eggnog-Filled Cookie Cup, not Cups. That's because exactly one of this recipe came out. This is it.

It's irritating whenever a cooking disaster happens, but it's especially so whan it happens to a 13-year-old cook. Young cooks don't have the experience to know that when a disaster happens, it's as likely to be the fault of the recipe as it is of the cook. I'm fairly convinced that this is the fault of the recipe because I was around when he was baking.

My son loves eggnog (I don't) so he was excited about making this recipe, from his own cookbook, Best-Loved Cookies and Bars, published by Taste of Home. It consisted of two elements: an eggnog pudding and cookie cups.

The first task was making the eggnog pudding, which consisted of pudding mix, eggnog, milk and vanilla extract (which he used instead of rum extract). The instructions said to bring the mixture to a boil. Because the mixture was foamy, it was hard to tell when it was boiling, but eventually some fat, thick bubbles broke the surface.

The pudding was put in a bowl, covered with wax paper, and cooled. THAT part of the recipe my son loved. But then came the cookie cups, which were pretty fussy.

You make a dough (which I noticed was very soft), form it into balls, roll the balls in a sugar/allspice mixture and put them in mini tart pans. (We sprayed those tart pans well with cooking spray.) The directions said to use floured fingers to press the dough up the sides of the pan, which is not an easy task. Luckily, I had this handy dandy mini-tart shaper to make quick work of it. (I purchased it from Pampered Chef, and I mention it here because I like it; they did not compensate me in any way to mention it.) He needed to dip it in flour each time so that it didn't stick to the soft dough.

When they came out of the oven, they had filled in quite a bit, so he used the tart shaper to gently push down the middles a bit. Would this have caused what came next? I truly don't think so.

These buggers would not come out of the pan. He tried right when they came out of the oven, as directed, and they fell apart. Then I stepped in. We tried waiting a few minutes, and they stuck to the pan. When we did manage to get them out of the pan, they still fell apart. We tried waiting until they were completely cool. They completely stuck to the pan, so we tried running a knife around the outside of each cup. That caused them to crumble right in the pan.

I'm not printing the recipe here because I don't want anyone to experience the same frustration he did. If, for some reason, you want to try it, you can find it here, on the Taste of Home website. (I noticed that the two most recent reviewers had the same trouble he did.) If you come up with better results that he did, please let me know and give us a clue as to what went wrong. I will post my son's version of the pudding because he enjoyed that:

Danny's Eggnog Pudding
Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

1 package (3 ounces) cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 cups eggnog
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, combine the pudding mix, eggnog and milk. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in extract. Transfer to a small bowl. Put a piece of waxed paper right on top of the pudding so that it doesn't form a skin. Refrigerate until chilled.

Salted Peanut Chews

2010-12-10T12:30:00.004-05:00

The past year was the busiest I've had in terms of writing/PR work. I'm grateful for the business, particularly in the midst of a difficult economy, but it didn't leave me a lot of time for cooking or blogging. I thought I'd try to catch up by posting a few new (to me) successful recipes that I managed to photograph.

The first is for the chewy and nutty Salted Peanut Chews, which would be a great addition to anything from a picnic to a holiday cookie tray. I enjoyed them, although I think my favorite nutty bar cookie would be the similarly named Salted Nut Bars.

Salted Peanut Chews

Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks
3 cups miniature marshmallows

Topping:
2/3 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup margarine or butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 pkg. peanut butter chips (10-oz.)
2 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups salted peanuts

1. Heat oven to 350F. In large bowl, combine all crust ingredients except marshmallows at low speed until crumbly. Press firmly in bottom of ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Bake at 350F. for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown.
2. Remove crust from oven. Immediately sprinkle with marshmallows.
3. Return to oven; bake an additional 1 to 2 minutes or until marshmallows just begin to puff. Cool while preparing topping.
4. In large saucepan, combine all topping ingredients except cereal and peanuts. Heat just until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in cereal and peanuts. Immediately spoon warm topping over marshmallows; spread to cover. Refrigerate 45 minutes or until firm. Cut into bars.

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

2010-12-08T07:23:00.013-05:00

My 13-year-old son surprised me at the grocery store.

He spotted one of the small magazine-type cookbooks that are sold near the checkout, and it contained nothing but Christmas cookie recipes. He asked me to buy it. That was hardly a surprise -- he asks for stuff all the way through the grocery store, and he's got an insatiable sweet tooth.

"I've got more recipes than I can make in my entire lifetime," I said firmly. "I'm not buying another cookbook."

Here's what surprised me: he decided to use his own money and buy the book for himself. It was only $4.99, but this is a kid with a limited income, and he usually uses it to buy video games or Nerf gun darts.

The book is called Best-Loved Cookies & Bars, and it's published by Taste of Home. He has systematically gone through the cookbook and bookmarked the recipes he'd like to make.

The first recipe he tackled was just before Thanksgiving (I did spring for the ingredients). He took his Chocolate-Mint Sandwich Cookies to our family's Thanksgiving celebration, and received great reviews. The cookies were chewy and the filling was quite minty.

Considering all the surprises that can come from a 13-year-old boy, I'm thankful for this one. I'm looking forward to tasting more experiments from his surprise purchase.

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies
From Taste of Home, with minor changes

Cookie Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter, cubed
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Filling Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1-2 drops green gel food coloring
Dash salt

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, water and chocolate chips. Cook and stir over low heat until chips are melted. Cool. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the chocolate mixture.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. (Danny used a small cookie scoop). Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a large bowl, combine filling ingredients until smooth. Spread on the bottoms of half the cookies; top with remaining cookies. Yield: about 2-1/2 dozen sandwich cookies.

Delicious, Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins ... From a Mix!

2010-12-07T11:05:00.009-05:00

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I tend to be skeptical when I see labels with words like, "all-natural" and "multi-grain." Experience tells me that makers of those products tend to sacrifice taste for nutrition. But I've been seeing mixes from Allens Hill Farm around town and hearing positive reviews. I decided to give their 8 Grain Chocolate Chip Muffin mix a try, but I honestly didn't have high expectations.

One of the reasons for choosing that particular mix is that I'm not very good at making muffins. I make a mean scone, but my muffins seem to turn turn out dense and leaden. I know the secret is not to over mix the batter, and I don't think I do, but in any case, nobody clamors for my muffins.

Most muffin mixes, though, may as well be cake mixes. They are so sweet that when I use them, I feel I may as well give my kids cookies and cupcakes for breakfast.

I doctored up the Allens Hill Farm mix to suit our family's tastes. I thought the amount of chocolate chips seemed skimpy, so I added another half cup, plus sprinkled a few on top of each muffin. I also sprinkled the top of the unbaked muffins with a little Turbinado sugar.

The muffin baked up nicely -- better than most of my homemade attempts. The mix yielded the perfect amount for 12 muffins, and rose just above the height of the muffin cups.

The muffins were just sweet and light enough to be a hit with both of my teenage boys -- even the one with an uncontrollable sweet tooth. I also enjoyed them -- they weren't as sweet as a cupcake -- and I'm delighted to know that we're all getting some fiber and nutrition from the eight grains.

In fact, I've been a bit hesitant to post a review because I don't want them to find out that the muffins are "healthy." Shhh ... it will be our little secret.

I got my mix at Wickham Farms, but I've also seen the mixes sold at the Fairport Farmers Market. Since those are both closed for the season, you can check the Allens Hill Farm website, which has retail locations (under "links") and an online store (click on "products").

(In full disclosure, I did not get paid for writing this review. The Allens Hill Farm people don't even know about it.)

Nana's Butter Rolls

2010-12-03T22:06:00.009-05:00

I have one explanation for making what our family calls Nana's Rolls: I'm a sucker for tradition and family history. My great-grandmother, Nana, made them often. I remember them being on the table of every holiday gathering at my Grandma Host's house, and Grandma taught me how to make them. The rolls are soft, buttery, somewhat sweet and (if all goes right) delicious.

Still, I'm not sure I'd go to the trouble of making them if it weren't for tradition. The dough is sticky and I'm never certain of whether I've added enough flour or kneaded it for the right amount of time. Since the rolls rise three times, I'm tied to home for several hours. The good news, though, is that one batch of rolls yields six pans, so I end up with two pans for Thanksgiving, two to freeze for Christmas, and two to give away to friends.

A variation of the recipe is to make them into sweet cinnamon rolls that you can serve for breakfast. Also yummy, although I don't do this as often.

I post the recipe here mostly for any family members who want to continue this tradition. Because the written directions were sketchy (like most old recipes), I've added some notes of my own. If any non-family members wants to try them, I'm sure Nana and Grandma would be pleased. If not, you'll likely find some great holiday bread ideas on the upcoming Holiday Bread Roundup on Wild Yeast.

Nana's Butter Rolls

4 large eggs, room temperature
1 scant cup sugar
2 cups whole milk, heated to foaming around the edges but not boiling - about 140 degrees
3/4 cup soft unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 Tablespoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons SAF instant yeast
7 1/2 to 8 cups flour

Beat eggs. Gradually add sugar, then milk, butter, salt and yeast.

Add enough flour until the dough can be easily handled but sticky. (I find it's best to err on the sticky side. The dough will get less sticky as it rises. If you are using a stand mixer, it will not form a ball and clean the side of the bowl.)

Knead a bit. (Yep, that's all the recipe says. I really don't have any idea of how to tell when you're done kneading.)

Put in a greased bowl or pan, covered. (I coat the top of the dough with butter or cooking spray.) Let raise in a warm place until doubled. Punch down and let rise again. Form rolls in 6 greased pie tins or round cake pans (8-9 golf ball-size rolls per pan). Let raise until double (I consider them ready when they touch). Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Brush with a little butter afterward.

These freeze well. Cover each pan of rolls with foil, then put in a gallon sized resealable bag.

Nana's Sweet Rolls

4 pans butter rolls, from recipe above, not risen for the final time
1 stick butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze: Mix together 2 Tablespoons milk, 1 cup powdered sugar, a little vanilla.

Mix together cinnamon and sugar. Dip each roll in butter, then roll in the cinnamon & sugar. Put in pans as above and let raise until double. Bake at 400 degrees 10-15 minutes. Pour glaze over cooled rolls.

Note: For her cinnamon rolls, my Aunt Cathy rolls out the dough, then puts the cinnamon and sugar on top. I think she may add nuts too. She rolls this up like a jelly roll, slices, put cut side up on the pan, then bakes.

The Great Pumpkin Seed Experiment

2010-11-09T22:25:00.001-05:00

When we carved our Jack-o-Lanterns for Halloween, I decided to experiment with various ways of preparing pumpkin seeds. Here's what I discovered in the process.

1. Water makes it easier to separate the seeds from the pulp.

I tried Alton Brown's technique of putting the scooped-out mess in water to help separate the seeds from the pulp. It worked well. The seeds float, so you can skim them off with a slotted spoon (or small strainer, as Alton does). Some seeds do remain stuck to the pulp, so you have to stick your hands in the goo and separate them, but they come off easily.

Alton does all of this in a sink. I wasn't sure what any errant pumpkin seeds would do to my garbage disposal, so I did mine in a big bowl. When I was done, I dumped it all in a strainer. I let the water go down the drain, then threw the stuff left in the strainer into the garbage.

2. Drying the seeds on a paper towel is not a good idea.

In the video above, Alton Brown called for spreading the seeds out on a paper towel and letting them dry overnight. When I tried this, the seeds stuck to the paper towels. I spent a few minutes trying to pick bits of paper towels off the seeds, then wound up tossing that bunch of seeds in the trash.

In my experience, a quicker and easier way of drying them is to put them on a greased cookie sheet and bake for an hour at 200 degrees.

3. Boiling the seeds: jury is out.

I've seen a few recipes, including this one, that called for boiling seeds in salty water. I liked this idea because I thought the flavor could permeate the seeds instead of resting on the outside. I tried this twice and I'm not sure it made a significant difference in flavor or texture. My sense is that the water would have to be saltier than the 1/2 Tablespoon for every 2 cups called for in the linked recipe so I quadrupled it in the next batch.

I've heard of people soaking the seeds overnight in various solutions ranging from salty water to liquor. All are worth exploring.

4. Low and slow is the way to go.

The 400-degree, 10-minute baking time in this recipe seems speedy and convenient, but it didn't result in a tasty pumpkin seed. I think that most people would agree that the color of the pumpkin seeds to the left doesn't look anywhere near overdone. When my 15-year-old son tasted them, however, he remarked that they tasted like "burnt toast" -- which was an apt description.

My final try was a combination of boiling them in water, combined with my tried and true recipe. That fared the best, although I'm not convinced boiling them in the water made a big difference. The final recipe is at the end of this post.

5. Snack Jack seeds are still the best.

Although the Jack-o-Lantern seeds weren't bad, they still had a chewy, fibrous texture I found unappealing (although my 15-year-old thought they were great and ate the whole bowl). If I was to make the ultimate pumpkin seeds, I'd get some Snack Jacks and follow the directions in this post. For Jack-O-Lantern seeds, the following recipe is the best -- so far.

Cajun Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup seeds from 1 -2 large Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins
4 Tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

1 Preheat oven to 200°F. Cut open your pumpkins and scoop out the insides. Put the whole mess in a large bowl of water. Skim the seeds floating in the water with a small sieve or slotted spoon. Separate the rest of the seeds from the stringy orange stuff. Discard the orange stuff.

2 (Optional:) In a saucepan, add the seeds to 4 cups of water. Add 4 Tablespoons of salt. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

3 Spray a couple of baking sheets with cooking spray, and spread the seeds on the pans. Bake at 200 degrees for about an hour.

4 In a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon canola oil, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire and 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning. Pour over seeds and stir to combine. Bake at 275 for another hour.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T11:01:00.003-04:00

Our Halloween tradition has been to go to a friend's for a Halloween party complete with a pumpkin carving contest. The family decided to call it quits this year, and we thought the holiday wouldn't be the same.

Instead, we each carved a pumpkin (I did have to help my younger son when he decided on the most complicated design of the bunch -- our school district's athletic logo). It was fun and it may be a new tradition for us!

I'm spending the day experimenting with pumpkin seeds. First batch "tasted like burnt toast," according to my son, but I have high hopes that I'll have a good recipe/technique to share by the end of the day.

Hope it's a good one.

Dinosaur BBQ Tomato Cucumber Salad

2010-09-15T11:55:00.001-04:00

This has been a banner year for tomatoes, and I'm enjoying them as much as I can before the frost sets in. Since my 2008 post on the macaroni & cheese from popular local restaurant the Dinosaur Bar B Que has been one of my most well read, I thought I'd try making the restaurant's Tomato Cucumber Salad. As expected, it was great grub -- and thankfully not nearly as decadent as the mac & cheese.

Tomato Cucumber Salad
From The Dinosaur BBQ Cookbook

Salad
1 ½ lb tomatoes
Pinch each of kosher salt and black pepper
Pinch of sugar
2 medium cucumbers
1/2 large red onion
30 small fresh basil leaves

Dressing
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
Black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Core the tomatoes and cut lengthwise into 6-8 wedges. Cut each wedge in half crosswise. Place the tomatoes in a large bowl and wake them up with a big pinch of salt, pepper and sugar. Cut the ends off the cucumbers and use a vegetable peeler to make long stripes in the skin. Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/4-inch slices. Add to the tomatoes. Peel the onion and cut lengthwise into slivers. Dump the onions in with the tomatoes and cucumbers and give everything a good toss.

Clean and dry the basil leaves. Stack them on top of one another and roll lengthwise into a tight cigar. Cut crosswise into thin strips and stir into salad.

Throw together a batch of dressing. Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl. Pour over tomatoes and cucumbers. Marinate the salad at room temperature for several hours. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Recipe says this feeds six -- I suppose that's if you don't have a lot of sides.

Melissa d'Arabian's Pan Con Tomate

2010-09-02T20:02:00.006-04:00

Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d'Arabian has been the source of more recipes on my family's table than any other show on the Food Network. Her recipes are easy, approachable ... and, frankly, they're cheap! The reviews of her recipes on the Food Network website, however, are filled with debates about whether or not her menus fulfill the show's promise of feeding four people for ten bucks. Enough already. There's a wide disparity of food prices across this country of ours, so even a tightwad like me can give the woman some leeway.

For this reason, this review is only about the food, specifically her recipe for Pan Con Tomate from a recent episode. I served it once for lunch and another time for a light dinner with a salad.

The recipe comes together in less than 15 minutes. First, you toast baguette slices, then rub them with fresh garlic and tomato. I was surprised at how much garlic flavor came through with this technique. What was even more curious about this recipe was sauteeing deli ham in olive oil to substitute for the traditional (and more expensive) Serrano ham. I used thinly sliced "ham off the bone" instead of the boiled deli ham -- it's what I had on hand -- and wow, did it have a lot of flavor! I even used a crappy baguette purchased from Tops, and the recipe was delicious. I'm sure I'll make this again, particularly when tomatoes are in season and ham is hanging out in the fridge.

Bread with Tomato: Pan Con Tomate
Original recipe by Melissa d'Arabian

Serves: 20 toasts

1/2 French baguette
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
5 thin slices ham (she used boiled ham -- I used Wegmans "ham off the bone")
2 Roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400. Slice the bread at an angle into 20 thin pieces. Using 3 tablespoons olive oil, brush both sides of each slice of bread. Place on a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, then flip until the other side is lightly toasted, about 5 minutes per side.(Melissa grilled hers -- see her original recipe if that's what you want to do.)

Cut each slice of ham in quarters. In a small saute pan, add the remaining tablespoon olive oil and cook the ham until crispy. Remove the ham to a paper towel to remove the excess oil.

While the bread is still warm, rub a clove of garlic on each slice of bread. Cut the top off the tomatoes and rub the tomato on the slices of bread. (She drizzled olive oil on each piece -- I skipped that step). Sprinkle with kosher salt. Top with a piece of ham.

Bunco Broccoli Salad

2010-08-26T19:38:00.001-04:00

When my kids were younger, I belonged to a Bunco group. It was an excuse for a dozen women to get together once a month to eat, drink, eat, gab, and did I say eat? And oh yeah, there was a mindless dice game thrown in for good measure. The group fizzled out after a few years, but I still have a bunch of fun memories, not to mention good recipes, from our time together.

Here's an easy recipe that I got from with Jodi, one of the better cooks of the bunch. I like taking it to cookouts because it doesn't get soggy as quickly as a tossed salad will. The honey roasted peanuts are the ingredient that elicit remarks like, "mmm .... who brought this salad?"

Broccoli Summer Salad

Dressing ingredients:
1 c. mayonnaise
3 T. cider vinegar
1/2 c. sugar

Salad ingredients:

1 red onion (this can be omitted but I like it)
2 fresh broccoli heads, washed and cut into bite-size pieces
1 pound bacon, cooked and crushed (crush in a paper towel when cooled)
1 can honey roasted peanuts

Mix together the ingredients for the dressing ahead of time. Twenty minutes before serving, combine the onion, broccoli, bacon and salad dressing. Mix well. Garnish with the honey roasted peanuts just before serving.

Muhamarra (Syrian Roasted Red Pepper Dip)

2010-08-24T19:07:00.011-04:00

Every summer, I like to have a "go-to" dish that I can take to cookouts and picnics. Ideally it is something that's a bit different and holds well in the hot weather. This year it's been a dip called Muhamarra, which I discovered on Camilla Saulsbury's blog, Enlightened Cooking.

The original recipe called for jarred red peppers, but I prefer to roast my own. (Wegmans often has a great deal on red peppers -- a bag of six big ones for $4.99.) The easiest way in the summer is for my husband to toss them on the grill when he's grilling something, and turn them every so often until the skin is mostly charred. Then I put them in a bowl and cover them with plastic wrap. When they are cool, I peel them, get rid of the seeds, and chop.

The first time I made the dip, I found the 4 cloves of raw garlic in the original recipe to be too pungent. The second time, I blanched two cloves of garlic and it just right for my taste. The third time, I used jarred minced garlic and the garlicky flavor was nowhere to be found. Trust me, use the real stuff.

(P.S. I'm so excited ... this is on Photograzing!)

Muhammara (Syrian Red Pepper-Walnut Dip/Spread)
Adapted from this recipe on the Enlightened Cooking blog

2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 large red bell peppers, roasted and peeled (or 1 12-ounce jar)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Bring small saucepan of water to a boil. Skewer the 2 cloves of garlic and lower into water. Boil about 45 seconds. Immediately put under cold water to stop the cooking. Peel and coarsely chop.

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until a coarse puree forms. Season with salt to taste. Makes about 2 cups. Keep covered in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

I served this with wedges of pita bread. For more serving suggestions, check out the original recipe on Camilla’s blog.

Green Salad with Tortellini and Celery Seed Dressing

2010-07-07T11:17:00.009-04:00

One of my favorite salads to make at any time of year is a simple but delicious mix of crunchy greens, cheese tortellini and a celery seed salad dressing. Whenever I serve it -- and it's fairly often -- I get asked for the recipe.

I got the recipe from my good friend Stephanie and tinkered with it a bit (which I do with almost any recipe). The trouble is, I always seem to lose the recipe when I want to make it, and call our mutual friend, Marie, in a panic.

I've posted it here so that I don't have to bug Marie, and also so that I have a place to send people who .want the recipe.

Green Salad with Tortellini and Celery Seed Dressing

1 tsp paprika
2 tsp celery seed
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon ketchup
1 1/2 tsp grated onion or dried onion flakes
1/2 cup sugar

Mild mixed greens. (I usually use a combination of iceberg, Romaine and green or red leaf lettuce. Spinach also works.)

Cheese tortellini, cooked (Cook until they float. Drain, then rinse in cold water. Do not overcook.)

Directions: Mix all salad dressing ingredients together. Toss with mixed greens and cheese tortellini.

My Cream-Filled Rainbow Big Top Cupcake

2010-05-30T16:32:00.015-04:00

It was my mother-in-law's birthday last month so I thought I'd try out the Big Top Cupcake set that my son had given me as a gift awhile back. My mother-in-law doesn't go for chocolate and the rest of that side of the family has various dislikes. To keep everyone happy I made a yellow cake, filled it with a creamy white filling and frosted it with buttercream. So that it didn't look plain, I made a rainbow cupcake.

What didn't work: The rainbow thing. It wasn't a disaster but it wasn't exactly what I was going for.

The basic idea for a rainbow cake is to divide your batter into bowls, one for each color you're using. I had a set of four gel colors from Williams Sonoma, so that's how many colors I used. Color each bowl of batter with a different color. Drop one color of batter in the pan, tap it to let it spread a bit, then keep adding batter on top without mixing or swirling. In the end, the pan of batter looks like a multicolored bullseye. This batter, however, was thick so it didn't spread out like most thin cake batters. I tried using a spatula to get it to behave, but it didn't work exactly right. So the result was colorful, but not a rainbow.

What worked:

1. The cake, filling and frosting. I'd highly recommend all three recipes. The cake was one of the best I've made -- moist, somewhat dense, buttery, not too sweet -- not at all what you'd expect from a cake that started with a boxed mix. The filling tasted just like the stuff in packaged baked goodies -- maybe better. And the frosting -- yummy.

2. The Big Top cupcake set. It did look like a cupcake, although not as big as you might imagine. I've included some hints in the recipe, below.

Delicious Yellow Cake
(Makes exactly enough for a Big Top cupcake -- or two layers.)

Vegetable spray
1 18.25-oz. pkg. plain white cake mix
1 cup whole milk
8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, melted
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray the insides of the pans with cooking spray. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well blended. (If you want to do the rainbow thing, now is the time to do it, but since I don't think works well with this recipe, I'll just proceed with keeping it plain.)

Divide the batter between the molds, about 2 cups in each. Place the insert (which also has been sprayed with cooking spray) inside the bottom mold and make sure the insert overlaps the sides of the mold. Place on a cookie sheet and put into the oven. Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, about 45-50 minutes.

Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Unmold, then allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes more. If you have time, wrap with plastic wrap and freeze until firm to make it easier to fill and frost the cake. Then fill the cake, put the top on, and frost. I frosted only the top part to make it look like a cupcake.

Cream Filling

Makes a little more than enough for the Big Top Cupcake. Use the extra for a dip for fruit or graham crackers.

2 tsp very hot water
1/4 tsp salt
1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow cream
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Dissolve the salt in the hot water and allow to cool. Whip the marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla until it begins to get fluffy. Add the salty water and whip well.

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Icing

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream
Gel food color, if desired

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream (and gel food color, if desired). Continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for desired consistency. I used a large star tip to pipe the frosting on the cake.

Pillsbury Bake-Off category winners announced

2010-04-13T16:28:00.004-04:00

I think that once you've been a part of the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest, you're a fan forever. It's a great event. I didn't enter this year's contest, but I sure watched last weekend's activities with interest.

This year, Pillsbury is doing things a bit differently. They announced the four category winners yesterday. Those four winners were flown to Chicago (from the contest location in Orlando) and will appear on Oprah tomorrow, when the winning recipe will be announced. I was a category winner in 2004, and to be honest, I can't imagine waiting more than 24 hours to know if I won the million. I'd be a total wreck, but how exciting to be on Oprah!

Here's a link to the category winners. Most past participants I've chatted with online are betting the inventive fish tacos will win. Since my category has been appetizers both times, I'm going to put my money on the salmon appetizers. It's about time a good appetizer won! At any rate, congratulations to the category winners. Can't wait to see who wins!

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

2010-02-22T20:56:00.006-05:00

We're used to snow in our area, but our front yard shows that it's been especially snowy this year. We have a reindeer and sleigh Christmas decoration that's staked into the ground. By this time of the year, we've usually had a thaw that gives us a chance to get the stakes out of the ground and put the decorations away. Not this year. The reindeer and sleigh sit in a lot of snow and we're contemplating whether we'll have to hang shamrocks from the reindeer's antlers or put Easter eggs in the sleigh.

When it's cold and snowy, one of my favorite things to do is bake, and this recipe for Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars is one of my favorite new recipes. It comes together quickly -- just a little bit fussier than Magic Cookie Bars, because the shortbread crust bakes for a bit before you add the toppings and sweetened condensed milk. Because the toffee bits and sweetened condensed milk are very sweet, I like making them with a dark chocolate chips to offset the sweetness. They are sure to remain on my repertoire long after the reindeer and sleigh are hibernating in the rafters of our garage.

Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars
(From Hersheys.com)

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) dark or bittersweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg.) toffee bits, divided

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

Combine flour and brown sugar in large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg; mix well. Stir in 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips and nuts; set aside 1-1/2 cups mixture.

Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 10 minutes. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over hot crust; set aside 1/4 cup toffee bits. Sprinkle remaining toffee bits over sweetened condensed milk. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture and remaining 1/2 cup chips over top.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Top with reserved toffee bits. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. About 48 bars.

Turkey cupcakes for Thanksgiving

2009-11-17T10:00:00.007-05:00

Hooray for Thanksgiving! I love the holiday: great food, getting together with family, watching (and betting on) football, and the spirit of being thankful. I also love that Thanksgiving doesn't have the pitfalls of Christmas: the stress of getting everything done, the massive expense, and friendly greetings being scrutinized and politicized.

My kids don't share my enthusiasm for Thanksgiving. What's a holiday without presents? The food, not their favorite -- especially the desserts. They're not big fans of pies.

As a result, I usually bring a dessert for the kids to our Thanksgiving meal (and often catch the adults grabbing them, too). Last year I made these cute turkey cupcakes. I saw them at a local bakery, and a quick Internet search turned up these directions on the Family Fun Web site. As directed, the head and wings were from 100-calorie packs of Keeblers Sandies shortbreads. Our changes to the recipe were using blue jimmies for eyes and cutting the wattles from a piece of Twizzlers candy. The only problem was that I made them a couple of days ahead, and the cookies got soft, almost soggy, from the moisture in the frosting. If you do these, maybe you could have your kids decorate them Thanksgiving morning.

The cupcakes themselves were from the book I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. The only way I can describe the book is that it's a kooky mix of humor and cooking. The recipes are written a little strangely, as you'll see below. But the cupcakes were good -- not cloyingly sweet like boxed cake mixes, but not "OMG, these are the best cupcakes ever" either. Still, I'd make them again.

Tattletail's Vanilla Cupcakes
Adapted from "I Like You" by Amy Sedaris

Turn on oven to 375 degrees F.

You will need: unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, flour, milk, and cupcake liners.

Put 1 1/2 sticks of butter in mixer and beat at medium speed until smooth. Pour in 1 1/2 cups of sugar and beat well. Add 2 eggs. (Amy cracks eggs on the side of the bowl while it is moving, and admits to having thrown away batter from losing eggshells in the mix. That is sheer folly! I crack eggs into a bowl or a measuring cup already dirty from measuring something else. Check for shells before adding to batter.) Mix well. Add: 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla (I used artificial), 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/3 teaspoon of salt, 2 1/2 cups of flour, and 1 1/4 cups of milk. Beat until smooth. Use a spring-loaded ice cream scoop to drop batter into individual baking cups, until they are 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 18-24 cupcakes.

Butternut Brioche, the "good enough" way

2009-11-10T10:00:00.006-05:00

People who bake bread can have widely different approaches.

Take my friend, Bubba. Bubba is one of my online friends I've never actually met. I have a fair amount of those, which my husband thinks is hilarious. And kinda scary. Anyhoo, Bubba's recipe goes like this:

Bread
Ingredients: Flour, water, yeast, salt.
Directions: Mix, Rise, Knead, Form, Rise, Bake.
If it turns out badly, adds lots of butter and no one will notice.

At the other end of the spectrum is Susan, from one of my favorite food blogs, Wild Yeast. She is a scientist when it comes to baking bread. Her recipes are written in precise grams. She uses ingredients like vital wheat gluten (whatever that is). And she actually knows what Alton Brown means when he uses the term "baker's windowpane."

I fall somewhere between Bubba and Susan. I tried one of Susan's recipes, meaning to be as precise as she is, but quickly descended into half assedness. But even with my imperfect, imprecise ways, Susan's Butternut Brioche turned out pretty good! A little lopsided, but good enough that most people I know would say, "you actually made these?" And good enough, I think, to send to Susan's blog event, Yeastspotting.

I loved their pretty yellow color and the indentations made by my mini tart pans (a garage sale find that I finally got to use). The only downside was that I had hoped the squash flavor would be subtle, but they actually taste pretty squashy. So if you like the flavor of butternut squash, these would make a great addition to your fall or Thanksgiving table.

Her recipe -- and what I actually did -- is below. I converted it to cups for fellow Americans who, like me, are more comfortable with cups than grams (even though grams are the most precise way to go).

Butternut Brioche
A somewhat bastardized version of Susan's recipe on Wild Yeast

Yield: two 9-inch round loaves, or two 8-inch round loaves plus 10 rolls, or any combination

Desired Dough Temperature: 78 degrees F (I didn't notice this until after I had made the dough and it was rising. As a result, I didn't pay much attention to the temperature of the ingredients. Oopsies. Do as I say, not as I do. Read the explanation on her blog.)

Dough Ingredients:
840 g flour (roughly 5 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour)
60 grams egg yolks (yolks of 3 large eggs)
100 g whole eggs (2 large eggs)
34 g milk (about 2 Tablespoons)
480 g baked butternut squash puree (I halved it, took out the seeds, and baked it until soft. I pureed in the food processor and refrigerated. Nuked about 1 minute when I took out of the fridge so it wasn't cold. And I forgot to convert it to cups.)
1.5 g (generous 1/2 teaspoon) cinnamon
0.8 g (1/4 teaspoon) nutmeg
0.8 g (scant 1/2 teaspoon) ginger
10 g (3 1/4 teaspoon) instant yeast (Here's where I'm like Susan -- I love instant yeast. If you live in Rochester, get it at Niblack Foods in the regional market in Henrietta.)
14 g (2-1/3 t.) salt
water as needed (I didn’t use any)
126 g brown sugar (a heaping 1/3 cup, packed)
226 g butter (2 sticks), cut into half-inch cubes, softened (mine were still pretty cold)

Topping Ingredients:
one egg
finely chopped pecans (optional - I did not use)

Place flour, eggs and egg yolks, milk, squash puree, spices, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix at low speed for about 4 minutes. It is normal for the dough to be quite stiff at this point, but if the dough is too dry to come together, add just enough water to allow it to do so.

With the mixer in medium speed, add the brown sugar very slowly, in 5 or 6 increments. Mix for about two minutes following each addition. (If you add the sugar too quickly, mixing will take longer.)

I didn't notice the next step so I didn't do it. If I did notice it, I probably wouldn't know how to do it anyway. So do it if you understand it.: Continue to mix in medium speed until the gluten reaches full development, i.e., you can stretch a paper thin, translucent “windowpane” from the dough.

Turn the mixer back to low speed and add the butter all at once. Mix for a minute in low speed, then turn the mixer to medium speed and mix until the butter is completely incorporated. You should have a dough that is soft and satiny, stretchy but elastic. (Mine was also pretty sticky.)

Transfer the dough to a buttered, covered container. Ferment at warm room temperature (about 76F) for one hour, then refrigerate overnight (8 – 12 hours).

Divide the dough into 36 pieces of approximately 50 grams each. (I actually found it handy to be able to weigh the dough balls.) Squeeze each piece to get out any air bubbles. Form each into a tight ball by placing it on the counter with your cupped hand loosely around it, and moving your hand in a tight circle several times. Put in oiled brioche or tart tins. (You can also do a large round loaf -- if you'd like to, check out Susan's recipe.)

Brush the dough lightly with egg wash made from one beaten egg. Cover and proof for about an hour and 45 minutes at warm room temperature.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 380F.

Before baking, brush the dough again with egg wash. Sprinkle with chopped pecans if you like (I did some with and some without).

Bake at 380F for 15-20 minutes, until the brioche has reached an internal temperature (this is a great way to know if they're done. Use an instant-read thermometer) of at least 190F. The tops are meant to become a deep, dark chestnut brown, but if they become too dark you can lay a piece of parchment paper loosely over the top of the loaf after 25 minutes or so. (I didn't need the parchment. Mine looked like this.)

Cool loaves in their pans for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cleveland part 1: House of Blues and spotting Lola

2009-09-19T08:12:00.036-04:00

As our family headed into downtown Cleveland for a weekend vacation, I sighed to myself. Here I was, going to the city where Michael Symon (probably best known for being an Iron Chef on the Food Network) has two restaurants, and I wouldn't get to dine at either one of them. The impetus for our trip was for one son to see his beloved Minnesota Twins play the Indians at Progressive Field, and for the other son to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I reminded myself that our time with our sons was flying by, and trips were for having fun as a family. I'll be able to experience fine dining, I thought, once they were out of the house ... and through college, so that we could afford it ... and that was about 10 years from now. Sigh.

On Friday night, we checked into our hotel (the Holiday Inn Express on Euclid) and headed out on foot to find a place to eat. After a block or so, we spotted a bustling street strewn with twinkle lights, with lots of restaurants. We decided to check it out. The weather was perfect, in the 70s without much of a breeze, so we agreed that we wanted to eat outside in a restaurant that was fairly teen-friendly. We picked the House of Blues, which was one of the few outdoor areas where there wouldn't be a wait. (Word to the wise: you're not going to get the best meal by picking the least busy restaurant. We knew that, but we didn't want to deal with a long wait and frankly the ambiance of the street would make up for shortcomings with the food).

Right after we ordered our beverages, a photographer came by to take our picture. I knew we'd be hit up for buying an expensive package of photos. Our fault for picking a tourist spot, I thought.

One son ordered a turkey club, the other a burger, and my husband and I split a rack of ribs. (My husband and I don't usually share meals, but in this case the ribs only came in a full rack, and the waiter told us that people often split them). I also ordered what was billed as "Our Famous Rosemary Skillet Cornbread."

While we were waiting for our food, we unsurprisingly got the sales pitch for our pictures and spent about 12 bucks on a couple of prints.

We did some people watching and every so often spied the Goodyear blimp that was flying overhead (it was at the Indians game).

As I looked at the signs down the street, my gaze settled on the sign that said "Lola." (Way at the bottom of this picture, in an oval.) Lola, Lola, Lola ... I was trying to think of why that name sounded so familiar to me.

Then it hit me: that was Michael Symon's restaurant! And I was walking distance from it!

My 14-year-old son and I decided to take a quick stroll down there. It looked slick and sophisticated. We were both wearing tie-die t-shirts, but we summoned the courage to go inside and ask to see a menu.

When I saw the menu, I thought our family could go for lunch because there were many items that were approachable -- club sandwich, pulled pork, a burger, and fried bologna (a favorite of my husband's). But the friendly hostess told me that they didn't serve lunch on weekends, so that was out. She did say she had a table for two available at 6 p.m. the next day. I told her I'd think about it, and as we walked back to our table at the House of Blues, my son and I agreed we'd love to get a chance to eat there. I told my husband about the 6 p.m. opening, but said I didn't want it to disrupt our weekend plans.

Our dinner at the House of Blues arrived, and the food was unremarkable, neither great nor terrible -- except for the skillet cornbread. It is shown to the right, with my son's club sandwich in the background. The photo doesn't do it justice (it was dark, I used a flash, and I was just about to grab a slice out of the cornbread). It was thick, moist, sweet, and deliciously flavored with fresh rosemary. It came with some sweet butter -- I don't remember if it was sweetened with honey or maple. I'd be happy to go back there and make a dinner of that cornbread and an appetizer or side salad. (I found the recipe online, and realize that it would hardly be a light meal. It has lots of eggs and heavy cream. Yowza, no wonder it tasted so good.)

After dinner, our waiter offered to show us the room where bands played (they curiously don't have entertainment on Friday nights). It was a cool space with lots of folk art on the walls, and the stage had an interesting patchwork curtain. My son remarked that he'd love for 441 (his band) to be able to play a gig there someday.

As we left, my husband encouraged me to take the 6 p.m. opening at Lola with my older son. He and my younger son would go to a cool-looking place on the corner that was a combination restaurant, martini bar and bowling alley. It didn't take much arm twisting. I went to Lola made the reservation, almost skipping like a six-year-old as I left. More about Cleveland in my next post...

Bourdain coming to Rochester

2009-09-16T18:37:00.006-04:00

Anthony Bourdain is coming to Rochester on November 20. The lovable bad boy of the culinary world will appear at the Auditorium Theater. The articles say that tickets are $39.50 - $49.50. And that you can get VIP tickets to go to a meet-and-greet with him for $75. And that doesn't include the astronomical fees that Ticketmaster tacks on.

What the articles don't say is what the heck he'll be doing on stage. The acts I've gone to the Auditorium to see have been plays (Les Miserables, Cats) and music acts (Squeeze, Earth Wind & Fire, Sesame Street Live).

As far as I know, Bourdain cooks, writes, and travels. I can only guess that he'll get up there and talk about cooking, writing and traveling, because I can't imagine him doing a song and dance number. And he can fill up a huge auditorium by doing this? Sheesh, that guy has a great thing going, doesn't he? Sign me up for that career, please.

I'm a Bourdain fan, but I just can't imagine shelling out $40 to sit in a huge auditorium to watch him speak. Now, if it included some frites from Les Halles (I hear they are fried in duck fat), I'd consider it.

Seriously, has anyone paid that kind of money to go see Bourdain? If so, do you recommend going?

Top Chef Las Vegas: episode 4

2009-09-11T20:36:00.005-04:00

School has started for my two sons and life is flat-out bonkers right now. Top Chef is such a welcome escape on Wednesday nights -- and it's so much more restful to watch it if I'm not thinking of what to put in a blog post.

While our Rochester native, Laurine, seems to be running in the middle of the pack at this stage of the competition, she is proving herself to be an interesting and thoughtful writer with her blog. As a result, I'm going to defer to her blog for commentary on this week's episode.

Top Chef Las Vegas, episode 3

2009-09-04T22:25:00.004-04:00

No time for a recap this week as my family and I are having a whole bunch of family time before school starts. Just a couple of comments on our home girl, Laurine.

Laurine's QuickFire dish showed her chops. A burger made out of potatoes with portobello mushrooms as the bun? Cool. I thought she'd be on top.

I knew she'd be in trouble when she and Preeti decided to make pasta salad. Those judges have never met a pasta salad they liked. The judges overreacted to Laurine saying she forgot she was in a competition. I'm sure she meant she had a job to do, wanted to please the people in the armed forces, and got into caterer mode. A big "whew" for Laurine not being eliminated ... and hoping she gets out of caterer mode and into competitor mode quickly.

Here's a link to her post about the episode.

GREAT recipe contest - deadline soon!

2009-08-31T11:21:00.010-04:00

The folks at Mezzetta are holding a GREAT recipe contest, called "The Mezzetta Make That Sandwich Recipe Contest" and the deadline is soon. September 7, to be precise. I've been around the block when it comes to contests, and have a list of criteria for what makes a great recipe contest. This contest meets them all:
1. It has a great prize. In this case, it's $25K and a trip to the Napa Valley. It doesn't get much better than that.
2. There's more than one winner. In this case, two other finalists win $1,000. Also not small change.
3. There's NO ONLINE VOTING. Enough said.
4. They have good taste. Last year's winner, by my good friend Edwina, was a Spanish-Style Grilled Cheese sandwich. It sounds divine but doesn't have too many ingredients or complicated steps. In fact, I've been meaning to try the recipe.

The folks from Mezzetta sent me a couple of their products to try -- olives stuffed with jalapenos and sliced peperoncini. Thanks, Mezzetta people! I'm thrilled with them both, because one son loves olives and the other loves peperoncini. I had planned to use them to work on recipes for the contest or the blog, but but the boys keep eating them right out of the jar. The olives in particular are disappearing quickly. My son says he loves the way they "start off tasting like an olive, and end up hot."

Off to snag what's left in those jars and start experimenting for the contest. If you'd like to enter, here's a link.

Whatcha Got Cookin in Fairport

2009-08-29T14:20:00.012-04:00

My husband and I were taking a walk along the canal in Fairport and caught a glimpse of a restaurant across the way.

I peered across the water and saw that it was called Whatcha Got Cooking. I remembered that it had been located in a gray building on the other side of the street, also on the canal. I remarked that the quaint new location seemed to be a better fit with its folksy name. A few days later, I went to dinner there with a friend of mine.

The old building had been decorated with an Americana flair. We snagged the last open picnic table on the front lawn. We went on a nice evening (which were unfortunately rare this summer), and a lot of people must have had the same idea. The servers seemed to be overwhelmed, and it was 40 minutes from the time we sat down until we got our food. We didn't mind, though, because it was a pleasant evening and location. My friend spotted a family she knew and invited them to join us at our table. We enjoyed chatting with them.

The food was worth the wait. I had macaroni and cheese, which was served in a crock. Its creamy, cheesy sauce was studded with bits of bacon, and the whole dish was topped with whole cheese crackers and melted cheese. The combination of flavors and textures was decadent and delicious, but I forced myself not to devour the whole thing so that I could take some home for my son to try. (That turned out to be a bad idea. He liked it so much that he now adds bacon and a cheese cracker topping whenever he makes mac and cheese.)

My friend ordered a Philly Steak sandwich with a side order of sweet potato fries. I doubt Philly natives would call the sandwich authentic, but my friend enjoyed it. I snatched a few fries because I've become a sweet potato fry aficionado. They were well cooked, but the sweet-on-sweet addition of cinnamon and sugar wasn't to my taste. (I seem to be in the minority, though, because I've seen that topping on several menus.)

Nice setting ... good food ... reasonable prices. I'll be back.

Top Chef Las Vegas: Episode 2

2009-08-27T00:25:00.022-04:00

Wow, we saw a lot of Laurine (the chef with local roots) in the second episode. She practically narrated the whole episode.

In the QuickFire challenge, the chefs rolled dice. The number they rolled was the number of ingredients the chefs needed to use (salt, pepper and oil were freebies). A fun way to do a QuickFire. Most of the chefs wanted a low number, but Laurine rolled a three. That's REALLY low!

She made an asparagus and leek soup with lemon, which sounded delicious. "Interesting," muttered guest judge Todd English. Talk about noncommittal. One of the brothers won the QuickFire.

The elimination challenge was catering a bachelor and a bachelorette pool party. The menu was dishes paired with the couple's favorite shots. I might have specified that the dishes needed to taste just as good coming back up, because that's what happened every time I did a night of shots. But I guess that would have been a little hard to judge. Maybe if they got bulimics to guest judge?

We saw Laurine shopping for lamb, which she said would pair well with a shot called "Golden Delicious."

"From a catering standpoint, people want familiar food to some level, and I think the boys are going to go off on some crazy tangents, so I think the girls are going to win," Laurine said.

I'm sure she knows what she's doing as a caterer, and that experience should help her in the competition. A lot of chefs were eliminated in previous seasons because they didn't consider which foods hold well. BUT ... the flaw in Laurine's logic is that the clients were not the people deciding her fate. And the judges aren't likely to be impressed by " somewhat familiar." It's actually one of the things I liked better about the format of "Top Chef Masters" -- the opinions of the diners were a numerical part of the scores.

The parties were on opposite ends of a huge pool area on a beautiful sunny day. Padma introduced the judges and Tom Colicchio looked downright grumpy. Why? He was in a beautiful setting, surrounded by gorgeous women, and about to eat some great food. Could it be that he was sweating in a dark shirt and a dark jacket when everyone else was dressed for a pool party?

Laurine's lamb chops got good reviews. They worked well with the shots and were perfectly tender. And nobody threw them across the room, which was an improvement over the previous episode.

"So we look over at one point and we see Ron with the chef coat open and the girls are kind of making commentary ... why are they taking their chef coats off? The next thing we know we see them jumping in the pool. We were a bit shocked," Laurine said. Her demeanor reminds me of Stephanie Izard from two seasons ago.

"At the end of the service, because of the positive feedback, we're feeling really good about our team and what we produced," Laurine said. Which usually is a sign that the team lost. And they did.

The winner was one of the brothers. They are playing up the sibling rivalry way too much. They are also playing up the gay thing too much.

The loser was the cute girl with the blond hair and sweet voice. Laurine says nice things about her in her post here.

Top Chef Las Vegas: Episode 1

2009-08-24T23:17:00.028-04:00

The first episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas was a blur of chefs, tats, and bleeped out obscenities -- and there wasn't anyone as cute and charming as Fabio -- so let's focus on our home girl, Laurine Wickett. (She hasn't lived in these parts for decades, but once a Rochesterian, always a Rochesterian.)

We first got a good look at her seven minutes into the show, as the cheftestants are lined up in the kitchen for their first QuickFire challenge. She says she was 23 when she started her catering business and she is "completely overwhelmed and intimidated by the whole situation." Uh oh ... the people who go far in this competition tend to be badasses who thrive on competition. Not a good sign.

In the QuickFire challenge, a mis en place relay race, Laurine is on a team with a chef who began the race by making a bloody mess of her hands as she shucked clams. Laurine, second in the relay, started peeling prawns way behind the two teams ahead of her. The brief shot of her with the prawns didn't give a sense for how fast she was, but it didn't seem like she gained a lot of ground. Needless to say, Laurine wasn't in the cookoff for the win and the $15 grand.

The next shot of her is her saying "thank you" as she checks out Whole Foods. Ah, a true Rochesterian. If memory serves me right, the city was named one of the most polite cities a number of years ago.

For the elimination challenge, Laurine made donuts. I had a couple of concerns about that idea:
- Desserts are tricky on Top Chef. For whatever reason, they don't seem to get the same respect as dishes with meat and seafood.
- Wolfgang Puck is the guest judge and his restaurants serve the best dang donuts my husband and I have eaten. (Bear in mind his pastry chef is the illustrious Sherry Yard.) Laurine had to live up to a very high standard for donuts.

All that being said, bacon donuts with a Belgian beer sauce and a chocolate sauce sounds pretty wonderful. And you've got to love a gal whose vices are donuts, bacon, chocolate and beer.

When the judges analyzed her dish, they loved the bacon and her sauces. Puck said the donuts were like golf balls and threw one across the room. Ouch. "The donut should be fluffy. The donut should be a cloud," Wolfgang said, and in fact, the donuts I had at his place were indeed fluffy clouds. Come to think of it, I've got to give making them another try.

Laurine wasn't shown at judge's table, meaning she wasn't the winner or the loser. Good enough for the first round.

The loser: Laurine's teammate, who bloodied her fingers during the relay race, cooked with seitan, and didn't unpack because it was unlucky.

Even though Laurine's photo makes her look like Sandra Bernhard, she seems like a girl next door. Likeable. I hope she does well, but I'm not sure she has the cojones.

Chef Laurine has a blog and is chronicling her experience. Her recounting of the first episode is here.

Go Laurine!

A wonderful Pom cooler (Surprise! It's nonalcoholic.)

2009-08-20T20:36:00.008-04:00

I consider beer to be the nectar of the gods, and no one likes fun alcoholic drinks more than I do. But for various health reasons, I rarely drink alcohol. In the greater scheme of things, this is not a big deal, because I certainly can have a good time without booze. But my non-alcoholic beverage choices are usually limited to soft drinks, which I'm tired of and usually have a lot of sugar or caffeine, both of which I try to avoid. And there's nothing like sipping a glass of ice water while the people around me are enjoying beers and colorful tropical drinks to make me feel like I'm not a part of the party.

When the folks at Pom Wonderful offered to send me some samples, I happily accepted, with the goal of coming up with a summery nonalcoholic drink that wouldn't have me staring wistfully at other peoples' strawberry margaritas. What I came up with is very simple and probably unoriginal. I just mix the pomegranate juice with diet lemon-lime soda, add a lime wedge, and it's done. The tart taste of the pomegranate juice makes the beverage refreshing and not too sweet. The juice even has health benefits. I've served it when people come over for dinner, and my kids always want one when I make them.

Now I have a nonalcoholic beverage that makes me feel like a part of the party. (Thanks, Pom Wonderful.)

Wonderful Pom Cooler
Makes 2

1 small bottle pomegranate juice
1 can diet lemon - lime soda
Ice
2 lime wedges

Divide the juice and soda between two glasses. Add ice and garnish each glass with a wedge of lime.

A Tivo Tip for Top Chef Fans

2009-08-20T09:40:00.006-04:00

I missed the first episode of Top Chef.

I thought I had my Tivo all ready to go for this season. (Have I mentioned that I love Tivo? I would go out and sell it. I love being able to watch my programs at my convenience and fast forward through all the commercials ... ironic, since I spent a huge chunk of my career working for advertising agencies.)

It was set to record "Top Chef," just like all the previous seasons. But NOOOOOO .... the folks at Bravo decided to call this season "Top Chef: Las Vegas," so my Tivo didn't pick it up. Grrrrr ... I have to wait until tonight to watch it.

So if you want to Tivo Top Chef, be sure to set it for "Top Chef: Las Vegas."

My ramblings about the first Las Vegas episode coming soon...

Top Chef Masters: I called it.

2009-08-20T00:44:00.007-04:00

I just finished watching the finale of Top Chef Masters, and I wanted to crawl through the television and eat that food. But for cripes sake, where did the tradition of ending a meal with dessert go?

I'm glad I didn't blog throughout this series because they wouldn't have given me a whole lot of interesting material. Everyone was so professional and congenial. I am now a huge fan of Rick Bayless and Hubert Keller. They are both brilliant and seem like genuinely wonderful people. Michael Chiarello proved that he can cook at this level, even after his years of being a "TV chef," which I wouldn't have expected. It's too bad that he came across as such a jerk in last week's episode, though.

Let me just say I called it! I don't want to spoil it ... but if you want to know who won, scroll down a couple posts to my post of July 14 and read through it. At the end is my spot-on prediction. Not that I'm bragging.

Wait ... I can't help myself from a couple of musings which are spoilers so don't read further if you don't want to know...:

Could Michael's attempt at humor with the Saveur pages have cost him the title? James gave Michael a full point less than the other two judges -- could he have been slightly miffed?

What would they have done in the event of a tie? Split the prize money?

Come back next week for more pointless blatherings about the new season of Top Chef.

Allez ... Chairman!

2009-08-18T13:49:00.003-04:00

Look who's going to be on "Dancing With the Stars" -- the Chairman himself!

The latest dancing star of the foodie universe is Mark Dacascos, known to us as The Chairman on "Iron Chef America." Given his martial arts background (he's renowned in Kung Fu), I'd guess he'd be in good shape and move well. If he has a sense of rhythm and a likable personality, I predict he'll last past our previous dancing foodie, chef Rocco DiSpirito, who was eliminated in Week 4.

The only question I have is, will all of his movements be accompanied by cheesy sound effects?

Grandma's Cucumbers in Sour Cream

2009-07-31T21:29:00.012-04:00

Several circumstances aligned to cause me to post today:
1. It's my Mom's 70th birthday today! Happy birthday, Mom!
2. My Grandma's Memorial Service is a week from tomorrow. I was searching through my recipe box for a recipe of hers that I could make for the gathering afterward, and came across her hand-written recipe for Cucumbers in Sour Cream.
3. Some of my friends have reported having a bumper crop of cucumbers this year.
4. My blogging buddy, Shelby, is hosting a blogging event I like called Family Recipes: Memories of Family, Food and Fun.

I was so happy to find the recipe written in her own handwriting. What a treasure it is. I almost never write recipes on recipe cards any more.

The recipe calls for salting cucumbers and draining them, which makes them denser and more crunchy. The creamy dressing gets its tang from sour cream and vinegar, sweetness from a little sugar, and is accented with some dill. It's old-fashioned but I love it.

Although the recipe is a treasure to me, her "chicken scratch," as she called it, would be illegible to anyone outside the family. She wrote recipes in kind of a shorthand and didn't use a lot of measurements. Here's my translated recipe.

Betty Host's Cucumbers in Sour Cream

4 medium cucumbers, sliced thin (Grandma peeled them but it's up to you)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Vinegar (Grandma used white)
1 Tablespoon sugar (or a little more -- I like a little more)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed (Grandma used McCormick's "It's a Dilly," which is discontinued. You could also use fresh dill - about 1 1/2 teaspoons)
Dash of pepper
Sliced red onion, optional

Put sliced cucumbers in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and sugar and toss. Add vinegar to cover. Let stand 30 minutes -- no longer. Drain well.
Mix the sour cream and seasonings.
Toss the cucumbers and onions, if using, with the sour cream mixture. Chill well.

Rochester Native to be on Top Chef

2009-07-14T01:51:00.006-04:00

Regular readers of Rah Cha Chow know that I'm a huge fan of Bravo TV's show Top Chef. During a bout of insomnia I surfed the Web and read up on the chefs competing in the upcoming season (it starts on August 26, not that anyone has it marked on her calendar). What do you know, one of the contestants is a native of Rahchacha! Wahoo!

Her name is Laurine Wickett and as far as I can tell, she graduated from Wayne Central High School in 1989. Her culinary education is from A.O.S Culinary Arts and the C.I.A. She currently lives in San Francisco and is chef/owner of Left Coast Catering. Laurine's Top Chef bio can be found here.

I'm a little concerned about her background, because catering chefs don't seem to fare as well in the competition as restaurant chefs. On the other hand, she's got a bit of a badass sneer on her face -- she reminds me a little of Sandra Bernhard -- so maybe she'll do OK. Either way, I'll be cheering for our native gal.

My insomniac Web browsing turned up a bit of bad news as well: Toby Young, the inane British judge who replaced Gail Simmons during her wedding, is back for another season. He was widely panned last season so I can't imagine why the powers that be at Bravo made that decision.

The show will take place in Las Vegas -- not a city that excites me at all. The memory of walking in a wind that felt like an enormous blow dryer shooting sand in my face isn't a pleasant one. But every time I've been to Las Vegas, it's been a business trip for a ginormous trade show, so maybe I haven't given the city a fare shake.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to another season of Top Chef. In the meantime, I thank the folks at Bravo for giving us Top Chef Masters to tide us over between seasons. I won't waste precious summertime writing recaps of that show, but for what it's worth, my money is on Rick Bayless.

Rosie's Layered Lemon Dessert

2009-05-11T15:41:00.005-04:00

This is my favorite dessert that Rosie, my mother-in-law, makes. It has a buttery shortbread crust, a light cheesecake-y middle, and a lemony topping. It's so pretty and delicious, you wouldn't know that it's easy to make and uses whipped topping and packaged pudding mix.

My attempts at making this dessert have never tasted as good as hers, and I couldn't figure out why. Last time I made it, Rosie figured it out. She uses a cooked pudding mix -- usually Royal brand -- and the only packaged lemon pudding mix that they carry at my Wegmans is Jello Instant Pudding. Once I tasted it by itself, we realized it wasn't very lemony at all. I looked at the nearest Tops Market, and they have several brands of cooked lemon pudding, so I'll head there the next time I make this dessert. I wonder if mixing in a jar of lemon curd may have been another option. In any case, here's an easy dessert for this time of year!

This recipe is going to Shelby and Laura for their family recipes blog event. I think family recipes are the best, and this one is no exeption!

Rosie's Layered Lemon Dessert

2 cups flour
1/2 pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
2 teaspoons sugar (if you like a sweeter crust, you can use as much as 1/4 cup)

1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8-ounce container whipped topping
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 package lemon pie filling, prepared as directed (NOT Jello instant lemon pudding)

Combine flour, butter and sugar. Pat into a 13 by 9-inch pan. Bake 18 minutes at 350. Let cool completely.

Mix together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in whipped topping and vanilla. Spread on top of cooled crust.

Prepare the lemon pie filling as directed. Spread on top of the cream cheese mixture. Chill before serving.

Easy sugar cookies and Beagle sitting!

2009-04-23T09:45:00.033-04:00

What a busy household I have this week! My two boys are home from school on spring break (they had a winter break in February and a spring break this week -- cuckoo, if you ask me). One of our friends went to New York City for the break, so we are taking care of their Beagle, Brady. Charlie just loves having a friend here! I love everything about having the two dogs, except for the barking. They both can get each other going over any neighbor coming or going, a dog being walked in front of our house, and any activity in the woods across the street. Between the two dogs and the two boys, it can be pretty loud around here!

My 11-year old loves to bake, so he has used some of his free time to whip up a couple of batches of his current favorite cookie recipe -- easy sugar cookies. These cookies are not only easy, they are delicious -- very chewy and buttery. The dogs were outside while he was baking, and they must have gotten a whiff of the cookies. Boy, did those dogs want a taste.

First, they tried staring and looking cute.

Next, Charlie tried barking. No luck!

Then Brady tried barking. No luck either -- we wanted the cookies all for ourselves!

Next, Charlie took a nap while Brady kept watch out the window.

Finally they both went to sleep. Aren't they cute? Still thinking cookies? Here's the recipe.

Easy Sugar Cookies
Adapted from a recipe on Allrecipes.com

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened (he prefers using salted butter for this recipe)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. In two batches, blend in the dry ingredients. Use a medium size Pampered Chef scoop to drop mounds of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 11-13 minutes in the preheated oven. My son prefers that they be set but not turning color at all -- I like them when they are a little golden around the edges. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Happy Earth Day (and a freebie)!

2009-04-22T08:38:00.007-04:00

These are the new reusable bags from Wegmans. Aren't they cute? I have some of their original reusable bags, which are plain black with the Wegmans logo. I've been eying buying some of the the new cute ones (just 99 cents each), but truth be told, I am not in a good habit of using them. Either they are in the car and I forget to bring them in the store, or I use them, bring in the groceries, and the bags remain somewhere in the house (which is the case right now).

Well, you can get one of these cute bags -- FREE! On Saturday, April 25, from 11 AM - 3 PM, Wegmans will be showing off their products and programs that promote sustainability through reduce, reuse, and recycle efforts. If you bring a tightly filled bag of plastic bags to recycle, they'll give you a reusable bag free! (Limit one per household.)

I've got my bag of plastic bags ready to go! Maybe having a cuter reusable bag will make me remember to use them more often.

Easter dinner recipes

2009-04-18T13:50:00.015-04:00

As I mentioned in my earlier post about Easter, I misplaced most of my usual Easter recipes so I tried a bunch of new recipes this year. Most were tasty -- good enough to share -- but none of them made me call off my search for my favorites. I served Baked Ham with Bourbon Glaze, which I liked but my husband didn't, because he doesn't like sweet sauces or glazes with meat. Grandma's Cheesy Potatoes are ubiquitous, I think, because Wegmans often seems to run out of the frozen hash brown potatoes. The Green Beans with Caramelized Onions was the best recipe of the bunch, but frankly I think caramelized onions are something you can put on just about anything and it will taste better. Oh, and I made a truly awful mustard sauce that looked and tasted something like paper mache paste. I didn't even put it on the table. Here are the recipes.

Baked Ham with Bourbon Glaze
Adapted slightly from The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook

1 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup bourbon
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 (6- to 8-pound) ham half

Microwave honey and molasses in a 1-quart glass dish at HIGH 1 minute. Whisk to bend. Whisk in bourbon, orange juice and mustard.

Remove skin and fat from ham; place ham in a lightly greased 13- by 9-inch pan. Make 1/4-inch-deep cuts in ham in a diamond pattern. Pour glaze over ham.

Bake on lower oven rack at 250 for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest portion registers 140, basting every 15 minutes with glaze.

Remove from pan, reserving drippings. Defat the drippings and serve with the ham. Yield: 12 servings

Grandma's Cheesy Potatoes
This was a recipe Grandma used to make, but I've seen lots of variations of this recipe. I've lightened these a bit from her original recipe ... also replaced chopped onion with dried onion flakes. They need to be cooked for about 90 minutes to get the potatoes soft, which is longer than the original directions.

2 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 Tablespoons dried onion flakes
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the reduced fat kind)
1 pint sour cream (I use light)
Salt and pepper, to taste (about 1 teaspoon of each)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 2-pound bag hash brown potatoes, thawed

Combine first six ingredients, reserving 1/2 cup cheese for the top. Mix in the hash browns.

Put in greased 9" by 13" Pyrex pan. Sprinkle top with reserved cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 90 minutes.

Green Beans with Caramelized Onions
Adapted slightly from The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook

2 pounds fresh green beans
2 large sweet onions (such as Texas Sweet, Vidalia or Walla Walla)
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
3 Tablespoons light brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Trim benas. Cook beans in boiling water to cover 5-12 minutes or until desired tenderness (remember they will cook a little longer with the onions). Drain and set aside, or cover and chill overnight, if desired.

Meanwhile cut onions in half, then cut into thin sliced.

Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, and add onions. Cook 8-10 minutes (stir only if onions are really scorching).

Continue cooking onions, stirring often, 15 to 20 minutes or until golden (reduce heat if they are burning). Reduce heat to medium; stir in remaining 2 Tablespoons butter and brown sugar.

Add green beans and cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Add vinegar; toss to coat. Yield: 8 servings

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

2009-04-14T10:24:00.025-04:00

I host Easter every year, and every year there seems to be some kind of a disaster. This year I faced a double whammy. First, I had a bad stomach bug early in the week, which shaved a couple of days off my preparation time. Second, and even worse, I couldn't find the recipes that have become my personal Easter favorites. I'm kicking myself for never posting my Easter recipes on this blog. I'm convinced the stack of recipe cards is stashed in a cookbook somewhere. Those two mini-disasters meant that this year's Easter dinner just wasn't up to par. I'll eventually post the recipes I made, but they just weren't my favorite.

The day did have one HUGE hit: homemade chocolate peanut butter eggs, a recipe from a cooking contest friend, Beth Royals. Beth and I were both in the Pillsbury Bake-off contest in 2004, but I really got to know her when she and I, as well as our sons, were in the AirBake Ultra Extreme Cookie Challenge together two years later. Her contest record eclipses mine, and since she gave the egg recipe rave reviews, I was confident it would be a hit.

The peanut butter filling came together quickly, and it was easy to handle as my son and I shaped it into three- to four-inch eggs (which are huge as candy eggs go). I refrigerated them overnight to set.

The dipping did not go as smoothly. I failed to notice that Beth had given specific instructions for dipping the eggs, and I just plunked them into the bowl of melted chocolate. Getting them into the chocolate was easy -- getting them out was another story. I used my usual candy dipping implement, a dinner fork, but the fork didn't support enough of the egg and the sides of the eggs chipped off into the melted chocolate. At this point a smart person may have checked the recipe to see if Beth had made any notes about dipping technique, but nooo, I have to figure these things out for myself. Next, I turned to a slotted spatula (of the pancake turner type). It worked better for getting the eggs out of the chocolate, and the chocolate dripped off nicely from between the slots, but then it was hard to get the eggs off the pancake turner! As you can see by the drips on the wax paper, it was a messy process.

The next step was decorating the eggs. Beth puts names on hers and decorates them with flowers. That had been my original intention, as you can see by the name on the egg in the bottom corner, but I didn't like the way it looked. Instead, I drizzled them with various colors of melting wafers, interspersed with chocolate. I probably went overboard with the drizzling.

I wrapped two plates for neighbors, and had planned to put one at each place on the table. At the last minute, though, I put them on a platter. When I served them, my sons and nephew just about pounced on them and grabbed one each. My sons managed to eat half of theirs, and wrapped up the rest to eat later. My nephew, however, downed just about the whole thing (his father took a few bites).

"You could put Reese's out of business with those things," my brother-in-law said. I can't believe my nephew didn't have a bad stomach ache from eating that!

My husband, mother-in-law and I divided one among us, because they slice neatly. The leftovers were sent home with my guests, and I kept a few. Even though my kids have plenty of Easter candy left in their baskets, they keep asking if they can have one of the peanut butter eggs. That's how good they are. We'll share the last one today.

When I was struggling through dipping the eggs, I didn't expect I'd want to make these again, but they just may become an Easter tradition. Next time, though, I'd probably make them a bit smaller, to make them easier to dip and less gluttonous to eat.

(These are on Tastespotting -- a wonderful place to look for recipes!)

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs
Courtesy of Beth Royals (my notes in parentheses & italics)

1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar, divided
3 sticks (salted) butter, room temperature
1 16-ounce jar peanut butter (plus 1/4 cup) (I used an 18-ounce jar)
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow cream
2 pounds *dark chocolate disks (I used milk chocolate and would do it again)

Combine about a third of the powdered sugar and butter in large bowl of electric mixer. Mix until well combined. Add peanut butter and marshmallow cream then gradually add remaining powdered sugar. Shape into eggs about 3-4 inches long trying to keep the bottom side flat. Refrigerate on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet to set (about 8 hours).

Beth's dipping directions, and you would be smart to follow them: Melt chocolate then coat eggs. I dip the bottoms first, only about 1/4-inch deep then chill to firm. Then I set them on a wire rack over waxed paper and pour just enough chocolate over them to coat, spreading to cover with a small metal spatula. Once dry I decorate with pastel colored royal icing, piping names of children, teachers, whoever you are giving them to. Next, I surround the names with flowers. (I just drizzled various colors of candy melts and chocolate.)

Servings: Varies depending on size you make the eggs. (Mine made about a dozen.)

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Glaze

2009-04-08T21:00:00.002-04:00

I like serving nice breakfasts on holidays and special occasions (like this coming Easter Sunday), but to tell you the truth, I am not a high-energy person in the morning. I prefer easing into the day with a cup of black coffee (or two or three) and reading the paper before I do anything productive.

I love breakfast recipes in which the work is done the day before, so I can just pop it in the oven in the morning. When my son asked for cinnamon rolls for his birthday breakfast in January (yes, I'm that behind in posting), I looked for recipes for cinnamon rolls that could be done that way. I ended up combining recipes from two trusted sources -- Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette fame) and Alton Brown (of Food Network fame). Both recipes had elements I didn't like. Molly's called for kneading by hand -- I got a KitchenAid stand mixer to avoid doing that -- and it seemed skimpy on the glaze. Alton's had buttermilk, which I didn't have in the fridge, and called for four egg yolks, and I hate discarding four whites if I don't have to. (Yes, I know I could use the whites for various things but they always wind up in the trash.) So I combined what I liked about two recipes.

The rolls weren't hard to make -- just remember that the dough needs a couple of hours to rise, so don't get started at midnight (something I tend to do). And I loved that they were coming out of the oven a little over an hour after I woke up.

When the rolls came out of the oven, they were divine -- soft and tender and loaded with cinnamon flavor. They were perfection -- for about the first two hours. Then they started to dry out. By the next morning, they were pretty close to stale (although they were ok reheated in the microwave, as long as you ate them right out of the microwave).

I'm way behind on my Easter preparations, but if I decide to make these for Easter morning, I'll probably either freeze one of the pans of the baked rolls, unfrosted, or freeze the dough of one of the pans before baking. I'll let you know how that works out.

In the meantime, I'm sending this to Yeastspotting, a great blog event devoted to yeast breads or recipes made with bread. It was started at Wild Yeast, a fantastic blog devoted primarily to baking bread, and is hosted this week by Zorra's blog -- head over there to check out other great bread recipes!

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Glaze

Rah Cha Chow Recipe (A combination of Molly Wizenberg's recipe on Epicurious and Alton Brown's recipe on Food Network)

Dough:
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/4 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast (from 2 envelopes yeast) -- I used SAF instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Filling:
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Glaze:
2 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons milk
6 1/2 ounces powdered sugar, approximately 1 3/4 cups

Dough:

Combine milk and butter in microwave-safe cup or bowl. Microwave on high until butter melts and mixture is just warmed to 120°F to 130°F -- it will feel like the temperature of a nice warm bath or shower -- mine took 1 1/2 minutes using cold milk and butter. Pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Beat on low speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Switch to dough hook. Add 2 cups flour. Beat on low for about 10 minutes until flour is absorbed and dough is moist and just barely sticky, scraping down sides of bowl. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls -- but you are better off having the dough a little too sticky than adding too much flour. It will become less sticky after it rises. Form dough into ball.

Lightly oil large bowl with nonstick spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

For filling:

Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.

Punch down dough. Transfer to floured work surface. Roll out to 15x11-inch rectangle. Brush much of the melted butter over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over butter. Gently press the filling into the dough. Drizzle with the remaining butter. Beginning with the long edge nearest you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Firmly pinch the seam to seal and roll the cylinder seam side down. Very gently squeeze the cylinder to create even thickness. With seam side down, cut dough crosswise with thin sharp knife into 18 equal slices (each about 3/4 inch wide).

Spray two 9-inch square glass baking dishes with nonstick spray. Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be little space between rolls). Arrange rolls cut side down in the baking dish; cover tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight or up to 16 hours.

Remove the rolls from the refrigerator and place in an oven that is turned off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3-full of boiling water and set on the rack below the rolls. Close the oven door and let the rolls rise until they look slightly puffy; approximately 30 minutes. Remove the rolls and the shallow pan of water from the oven.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

When the oven is ready, place the rolls on the middle rack and bake until golden brown, or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, approximately 30 minutes. (Molly said to remove from oven and invert immediately onto rack, then cool 10 minutes. Turn rolls right side up. I didn't do this but might do it next time.)

For glaze:

While the rolls are cooling slightly, make the icing by whisking the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy. Add the milk and whisk until combined. Sift in the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Spread over the rolls and serve immediately.

Remembering Grandma with her pizza burgers

2009-03-28T13:11:00.004-04:00

My beloved Grandma died last Sunday. She was 94, almost blind, almost deaf, and bent over from osteoporosis, but she hadn't lost her keen mind, her personality, or her quick wit.

She had told me she was "ready to go" -- several times -- so I thought I would be OK when she passed away. When I got the call, though, the feeling of grief and loss was overwhelming. To know I wouldn't hear her voice or her laughter again ... everyone who has lost a loved one knows the feelings, and yet, that doesn't make them any easier. Some people remind me that she is in a better place, but selfishly, that doesn't make me miss her any less.

Our family is scattered across the country, and one of her last wishes was for us to all get together and have a big party in the summer. She'd be there "one way or another," she said. As a result, a celebration of her life is planned for August, and I'm looking forward to it. But since I live far away from the rest of my family, last week had me feeling adrift and alone when it came to dealing with my sadness and my memories.

I played a game of Yahtzee with my younger son -- a game I remembered playing for hours at her dining room table in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (shown here, with three of her 15 great grandkids).

"If Nana is watching us play this game, she sure isn't giving us very good rolls," I remarked, and then my son rolled a Yahtzee. I swear I could feel her thumbing her nose at me.

I went and saw the flowers at the Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park, because she loved plants and flowers, both inside and outside. I remember going to Highland Park with her when she visited, and she had a keen interest in everything that grew there.

I decided to make a recipe that my cousins and I remember her making for us many times. It's pizza burgers, made with a combination of ground beef and hot dogs, a combination straight out of the 1960s. It's a retro recipe, and far from being health food, but it comes together very quickly and feeds a lot of people -- something important when you have 20 grandchildren that come to visit! In keeping with the retro dish, I served them with tater tots, which was a big treat for my guys -- I never buy tater tots.

I took one bite of the burger, was transported back to that Lake Geneva table, and the lump in my throat got so big that I didn't think I could swallow. Bad idea. Although my husband and one son enjoyed them, I've decided I'm going to keep this recipe on the back burner for now. Maybe someday I'll make it for my grandkids, and tell them about how my wonderful grandma used to make it for me when I was little.

For more recipes from special Grandmas, check out the Grandma's recipe event at The Spiced Life!

Betty's Pizza Burgers

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground bologna or hot dogs (Turkey hot dogs work fine. Just put them in the food processor and whir until the texture resembles ground beef)

Grandma's seasonings: 1 Tablespoon dried sage and 1 Tablespoon dried oregano OR
My seasonings: 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage, 1 1/2 teaspoons Penzey's pizza seasoning, and 1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 1/2 cups (or a 14-oz jar) pizza sauce
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (You can use mozzarella if you're out of cheddar, but cheddar tastes better.)

Brown ground beef and drain any fat. Add ground hot dogs, seasonings, and pizza sauce. Simmer for a few minutes. Remove from heat and add grated cheese. (You can do this ahead.)

Spread on halves of hamburger buns. Top with a little extra cheese, if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or so, until hot and cheese is melted. Makes a dozen or so.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T17:15:00.002-04:00

Our family has two St. Patrick's Day traditions:

1. Going to our friends' house for their annual party. They serve corned beef and cabbage and everyone brings a dish.

2. Having a Shamrock Shake at McDonald's. There are rumors floating around on the internet that there are no Shamrock Shakes in the state of New York. Not so! I got mine today in Penfield, at the McDonald's on the corner of Routes 250 and 441. It tasted really good, especially since I've had a sore throat/cold thing for the past week or so. Although I felt kind of gross afterward -- my body isn't used to that much sugar!

Hope you all have a good one!

Top Chef Season 5 Wrap Up: Reunion, Chat with Stephanie Izard, and Quaker Oats Challenge

2009-03-09T14:32:00.041-04:00

I'm way behind on posting, so let's wrap up Top Chef Season 5, shall we?

The Reunion Show

Just a few reactions to the reunion show:
- This year's T-shirts were boring. I "heart" Fabio? I love Fabio, but are you kidding me? No monkey ass, no creative monkeys, no "Hootie Hoo?"
- Speaking of Hootie Hoo, do you think Carla is ready to be over that? I would not be feeling the love if people went around yelling "Hootie" at me all the time.
- I still don't like Toby but he did two things on the reunion that endeared me to him. He asked about the camera work for the Hosea/Leah couch episode. As I suspected, the camera man was very sneaky -- he filmed a reflection on the window. Toby also asked Hosea about his sick dad, and it was too bad to hear he's not doing well.
- Hooray and congrats to Fabio for winning fan favorite! I'm not alone in thinking it would have been him or Carla. I hope we see more from both of them. I know we will from Fabio -- from this BravoTV blog post, it sounds like he has a lot in the works.

If you want to know what Hosea's life will be like next, let me move on to my ...

Chat with Stephanie Izard

A few weeks ago, the good people from Quaker Oats contacted me and offered me an interview with Stephanie Izard, last year's winner of Top Chef. I had a nice chat with her on the phone last week, a few days before the Season 5 finale had aired. She is as personable as she appeared in last year's season. Between my rusty interviewing/note-taking skills and a bad cell phone connection, I don't want to misquote her, so I'll just share these tidbits:

- Her new restaurant: She plans to open a restaurant, called The Drunken Goat, in Chicago this fall. She chose "goat" because "Izard" is French for a type of goat. I don't think I got a good explanation for "drunken" -- see, it's those rusty interview skills. To think I have a degree in journalism...

- Spending the $100K: Since she is working with investors for the new restaurant, she is spending her winnings on exploring new media opportunities. She is doing a podcast called "The Tasty Life" on her Web site. She is also working on a cookbook.

- Riding the wave: I asked whether the attention for winning Top Chef had died down since almost a year had past. She remarked that Jeff had asked her the same question (she met Jeff at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in February). Her answer to both of us: no, it hasn't died down -- and she intends to make the most from the opportunities that arise from it.

- The finale: With this year's finale on the horizon, I asked if she had practiced for her finale. She said she didn't practice at all, but before she went to Puerto Rico she bought a cookbook on that cuisine and read up on it. (So Ariane wasn't so off base on her cookbook comment earlier this season?) She mentioned that there had been about six months from the time she made the finale to actually going to Puerto Rico, so they had a chance to see most of the season before they went to the finale. That gap also made it a challenge for them to jump back into competition mode. This year's cheftestants didn't have as long of a gap, but they were able to watch a good part of the season before the finale.

- Top Chef recipes: I told her that I had made her banana bread that received accolades last season, and found it to be salty. I also mentioned that the original post of the recipe was full of mistakes. She explained that the cheftestants jot down the recipes while they are at the house, after the challenges are over. Someone from Bravo types them up and uploads them to the Web site. The recipes are not tested by the cheftestants. So if you decide to make a recipe from the Bravo Web site, proceed with caution.

- Visiting Rochester: This being a Rochester blog, I had to ask if she had been to Rochester. She said she grew up on the East Coast and had been to the area for some swim meets. Because it was so long ago, I didn't ask her what she recalled of the area or the food scene here ... this part of the interview was a little awkward so never mind ... moving on ...

- The Quaker Oats Viewer Quickfire Challenge: I asked if she had any tips for me if I wanted to enter the contest. "Have fun with it," she said, pointing out that oatmeal could be used for a lot more than a bowl of oatmeal. "Go for it." All of this was no help whatsoever, but I had to ask. Which leads me to...

The Quaker Oats Viewer QuickFire Challenge

So I entered this contest and I am not a semifinalist. And you know, I'm happy about not being a semifinalist, maybe in the same way Stefan is happy to not have won Top Chef. I don't have to go around begging for votes (a practice I hate), and I would be seriously stressed out about being one of the top three vote-getters who will go and compete in a QuickFire challenge.

I'm a little surprised at the semi-finalist recipes, because I would have expected Quaker Oats to stick to healthy fare and several finalist recipes are pretty decadent. In any case, many of the recipes look delicious and worth voting for. One is banana donuts, by Emily from Sugar Plum. Two others are the creations of contesting "pals I have yet to meet:"
- Denise, with Seacoast Scallop Cobbler, and
- Deborah, with Icy Oat Mochaccino

I think I'll divide my votes among the three of them. (You can vote daily.) Off to vote...

Top Chef TV Spottings

2009-02-26T16:57:00.004-05:00

I rarely watch daytime TV but I'm under the weather today so I'm relaxing and watching TV...

Fabio was on Ellen today. He was charming and adorable, as I'd expect. He made a simple dish of sauteed zucchini with tofu (ugh - I hate tofu), topped with greens with a vinaigrette and roasted almonds. He did a flambee with Grand Marnier. I'm not sure how it fit into the dish, but it was quite impressive. I do hope Fabio and Carla both wind up on TV somewhere -- I'd watch them in a minute.

Also, I saw a familiar Top Chef contestant on Iron Chef America. It was Amanda Freitag vs. Bobby Flay in Battle Alaskan King Crab. I would have LOVED to have been a judge on that episode -- the food looked amazing! Anyway, who was the sous chef for Freitag? Arian Duarte. Interesting because Ariane has her own restaurant... I wonder when the episode was filmed.

I have my short chat with Stephanie Izard to write up but my cold has me feeling dopey ... it's coming...

A new Top Chef - eh

2009-02-26T10:00:00.004-05:00

So another season of Top Chef is over ... and I just don't have much to write about the last two episodes, because they both were a letdown.

Oh Fabio ... wasn't his leather jacket and the pink scarf the coolest outfit ever? He was eliminated in the penultimate episode because his cooking wasn't Cajun/Creole enough -- but I think he did the right thing by staying true to his style.

In the finale, I had a hunch Carla would be sunk by listening to Casey's suggestions to sous vide the beef and to do a souffle. I was really bummed for her. But she did herself proud by competing "with love" instead of nastiness.

In the end, I found it unsatisfying when Hosea won. He and Stefan both have annoying personalities, so it seemed fitting that the chef who dominated throughout was the winner. And, by the way, I would happily eat Stefan's pedestrian dessert any day of the week.

In any case, I hope we see more from Fabio and Carla. I would happily watch either one on their own cooking show.

Coming up ... my chat with Stephanie Izard, last year's Top Chef!