TWD: Coconut Butter Thins

In my next life I'm coming back as a surfer girl. Just so you know. When I tell people this, they look at me like I'm crazy because why wouldn't I just drop everything and do that right now? Meh, I don't have the dedication to my surfer-girl cause, I'd rather do other things. But next time? It's on. I have a hazy idea of me, a beach shack, a surfboard, and a beautiful beach and I love it. I love the beach. And at this time of year, when I'm dying for long, hot days I especially love thinking about the beach.


Summer fever -- I have it, big time. And these Coconut Butter Thins were the perfect cookie for me this week. First of all, I love lime. I love the way that it smells, I love to cook with it, I love a margarita, and I adore a mojito. Oh, I also find a twist of lime very necessary in a vodka tonic and it's delicious in a coke or a diet coke (but none of that diet coke with lime stuff for me, that's just weird). I like lemonade a lot but I like limeade so much more. So, as I was rubbing my lime zest into the sugar I was just really, really excited about these cookies. I had images of sandy beaches, blue skies and sunshine, and tropical drinks floating through my head.

The recipe calls for macadamia nuts and I didn't have any macadamias on hand. They're not really a nut that I enjoy and I've heard that they're very expensive so I decided to substitute another nut. I had: peanuts, pecans, blanched almonds, and a can of marcona almonds. I went with the marcona almonds because I thought that they would work well with the coconut and lime. And, the picture of the Spanish village on the front of the can made me feel like they might add a sort of sunny, warm aspect to the cookies. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. These cookies are insanely easy to make and they're very, very similar to the pecan shortbread recipe. I just love the rolling of the dough in the ziploc bag. It's so simple. I ended up chilling mine overnight and then I cut and baked the cookies the next morning. I didn't have the problem with spreading that some people mentioned on the P&Q and I'm so curious to see pictures of the lacy cookies that some of the TWDers got this week. I have no idea whether or not mine turned out how they're supposed to but they're delicious!! The coconut and lime are very subtle and the marcona almonds worked really well in these cookies. I did add squiggle of white chocolate to about half of the cookies, just to see how the flavor of the white chocolate works with them, and I loved it. Thanks to Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch for picking this week's recipe. Check out her blog, it's absolutely fantastic!

Baked Root Beer Bundt Cake

Does anyone remember Sweet Pickles? We had these books when I was little. There was an animal for every letter of the alphabet and each animal had a particular characteristic that drove home the point of the story. My dad's favorite was Hippo Jogs for Health because that was in the 80's when my dad used to go run with his heavy hands and his sweatband. Well, lately I've started to feel like Immitating Iguana. She wanted what everyone else had so I remember that in the story she saw Zebra's stripes and she said, "me too, me too, I want stripes too." And then she wanted feathers like Goose and a trunk like elephant. If I recall correctly, the moral of the story was that she needed to be comfortable and happy with who she was. Well, I'm very happy being me but with all of these super fun recipes and groups running around the blogosphere, I definitely find myself saying, "me too, me too, I want to make that too." Case in point, the Baked Root Beer Bundt Cake.


I posted about the Baked Lemon Cake and how much I love the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and Megan, from My Baking Adventures, left me a message that for Bake Along 5 they were making the Root Beer Bundt Cake. Well, I love root beer and I've been eying that cake and before I could stop myself I asked if I could join in on the fun this time. The only reason that this is problematic, aside from the fact that my parents are in town this weekend and I have zero time to bake, is that I gave up chocolate for Lent. I couldn't eat this yummy cake . . . and let me tell you, I think that was a serious test of willpower. I am the girl that constantly sticks her finger in the batter to try it and I had to forgo that this time. I popped gum into my mouth to make sure that I wouldn't just unconsciously go for it. I wrapped this up and got it out of my house just as quickly as I could so I can't tell you whether or not it's good, you'll have to check the other bake along blogs for that info. Here's what I can tell you, it appears to be super moist and chocolatey, it's not at all difficult to make, and I can't wait to make this again and next time I'll be eating it too! It makes a ton of chocolate icing and I don't think that I put enough cocoa powder in mine because it's not near as dark as the picture in the book. Honestly, I don't really rock on icing a bundt cake because they're so pretty to begin with so I think that next time I'll 86 the icing and try to make some sort of root beer glaze.

I'm so glad that I got to bake along for the root beer bundt cake!

Chicken with Mango Barbeque Sauce

This is my first week cooking along with the gang at Craving Ellie in My Belly. I've been reading all of the CEiMB blogs for quite awhile now and every week the food looks so great that I finally had to join in. Honestly, this is a group that I never thought I'd join because Ellie just sort of bugs me when I see her on the Food Network. However, whether or not I like her show is irrelevant at this point because her recipes look great and I have the CEiMB group to thank for that! So, I happily joined in to make the Chicken with Mango Barbeque Sauce this week.

I followed the recipe exactly to the letter except that I didn't broil the chicken. My oven is old, and although it works out, I'd be really nervous to broil in it. The oven is missing key things, such as the arrow that actually points to the temperature of the oven. It's just dots between 300-400 degrees so I just sort of guess where 350 or 375 is and it works out. I was also raised in Houston where we can grill 365 days a year and in my family I'm guessing that we must use the grill at least 300 days of the year. I don't have a grill but my mom did get me this awesome Breville indoor grill/panini thing for Christmas and I love it. Dudley, being a good and proper Texas caveman cowboy, is completely baffled by the notion of gilling things indoors but I say, when it's freezing cold outside and you don't have a grill anyway, party on.

So, the first thing to do was make the sauce because it's needed to marinate the chicken. I was a little nervous about the mango in the sauce but my favorite barbeque sauce ever has pinapple juice in it so I thought that this mango might be ok. Remember, I'm entering this recipe with a little bit of BBQ sauce baggage because a) I'm from Texas and b) I love BBQ sauce (as opposed to the people who really and truly believe that sauce should have no part of barbeque). So, that said, I liked this sauce, it was yummy and it did great things for the chicken, but it's NOT barbeque sauce. No way, no how.

I used the stick blender to make the sauce. It's not the most appetizing thing to look at but the mango and jalapenos give it a sweet-spicy kick that I like.

Here are the chicken breasts, awaiting a final douse of the very-good-but-not-barbeque sauce.

And, the verdict? Delicious. Even Dudley liked it and he doesn't like fruit in anything savory (of course it helps that I didn't tell him what it was) and he doesn't like chicken. I loved it and I would definitely eat it again. I served it with green chile cornbread and coleslaw. I'm not sure if these were the best choices for sides but I was lacking ideas and it seemed to work.


Thanks to Aggie, of Aggie's Kitchen, for hosting this week's CEiMB. Check out her blog because I just looked at it and it's fantastic.

Baked Lemon Drop Cake

Part of the reason that I went to Houston for spring break was to make sure that I was home for my grandfather's birthday. My mom's parents are so much fun. I'm lucky enough to be the oldest child of their oldest daughter so they were very young grandparents for all of my childhood. They've aged a little bit but they're still very active. They live and die by their tennis schedule and my grandfather is especially obsessed with the sport. He even changed his cable provider to make sure that he could get the Tennis Channel! That's some serious dedication. As you might imagine, both of my grandparents tend towards the "health nut" or "exercise freak" type. In the 80's they went through the same juicing fad as the rest of America and I have vivid memories of being forced to drink some crazy combination of vegetable and fruit juices with a really thick layer of oh-so-not-appetizing foam on top. Ugh. But once a year, on my grandfather's birthday, all pretensions towards the healthy life cease and my family gathers for what has become a sacred tradition: Kentucky Fried Chicken. My grandfather eats it one day a year and he says that he loves it because it's the closest to the fried chicken that his grandmother used to make when he was a little boy. The KFC is the same every year but other things are open to change, like the cake.

The Baked: New Frontiers in Baking cookbook has been making rounds in the blogosphere for months now. I read about it and thought that it looked like a great book but there was no way that I was going to buy it. The last thing that I needed was another book to encourage me to bake more desserts. Otherwise, I'm going to have to buy a juicer and go on a liquid diet and I still haven't lost my fear of that foam. As luck would have it though, I received a gift certificate for Christmas and I got the book. And I love it. I love to read about all of the delicious desserts inside and I wish that I lived closer so that I could walk andn buy a piece of something, because the recipes in this book make HUGE servings! If you cut the recipe in half, you end up with a normal serving size. This means that for one or two people the recipe really needs to be cut into quarters. I was an English major, ok? Sometimes I still have these little moments of unexpected bliss where I think, "I never have to take another math class as long as I live!" I can do the math . . . but I loathe doing it. So, I mostly ogle Baked when I'm all by myself. But, for a celebration, a birthday celebration, this is your book! The cakes in here are amazing and I quickly decided that because my grandfather loves lemon, I was going to make the Lemon Drop Cake for his birthday.

I made the cake layers the day beforehand and the lemon curd as well. The recipe calls for three 8" pans but I only have two so I baked two and refrigerated the batter for the third layer, then I baked the third layer. I have trouble eyeballing the batter (and heaven forbid I should measure it out) so I ended up with one thick layer and two thinner layers. No matter, I decided that I'd just split the thick layer and make a 4-layer cake. I made 1 1/2 times the amount of lemon curd and frosting to make sure that I'd have enough to deal with all four layers. I went over to my grandparents' house to assemble the cake and make the frosting because that way I could spend time with my grandmother too. Well, I suppose that being by myself in Washington has had some negative effects because it was hard for me to deal with all of the scrutiny while I was putting the cake together. Especially when disaster struck. You see, I split the thick layer and proceeded to start assembling the cake. And then I turned around and I could just hear sirens in my head as I saw the third layer of the cake falling apart and oozing out of the lemon curd and the sides. This is the carnage of my layer:

And then my grandmother, I just love her, but she's sort of giving me a running commentary: "Wow, Jessica, I've never seen that happen to you before. Oh my goodness, what are you going to do? You're not going to throw it away, are you? What are you going to do?" And, when it's already hot in the kitchen and you're sort of freaking out because one layer is toast and the top layer looks like this:

Those are the times when it's nice to be alone in the kitchen to troubleshoot. It's not always fun to have your nearest and dearest in the kitchen with you. So, with my grandmother hovering right behind me, asking me all the while what I was going to do, I glued the giant fissure back together with frosting, crumb coated the cake, and all was well. This cake is very, very moist, which is a good thing, but I think that it also makes it succeptible to cracks and such. And, it was all downhill from there. I finished up the cake and proceeded to make a batch of margaritas because darned if I didn't need a cocktail by then!

The verdict on the cake? It's excellent! The lemon flavor is in every element of the cake and it strikes the perfect balance between sweet and tart. So, I can say that the cakes in the Baked cookbook are beautiful but they're also moist and tasty and that's the most important thing!


If you would like the recipe for this cake I highly recommend you look at Baked:  New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. It is well worth the cost! If you would like a test run you can check out your local library.

TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

I made the blueberry crumb cake while I was in Houston for spring break. I knew that I'd be doing this and I was just thrilled because it meant that there would be many extra mouths to help me eat this. I wouldn't have to worry about cutting it in half or modifying the recipe, I could just go for it. There was just one problem: getting the recipe home with me. When I went home for the holidays I brought BFMHTY with me. But, I have quite a few irons in the fire right now and I knew that I'd be bringing quite a few books home with me to *work* over the break (seriously, I could have saved myself the trouble of lugging them around, I got almost nothing done over the break) and BFMHTY is an awesome, amazing cookbook but it's large . . . and heavy. So, for awhile I thought I'd bring the book to class with me one day and make a copy of it while I was at school . . . but the thought of lugging it just 12 blocks made my shoulders sore just thinking about it. So, I wrote it out. This brought me back to my days of having to write up pre-labs before the labs. You know, I never understood why I had to do that -- it didn't bother me but I never understood -- but now I do. If you've read a few of my past posts (Chocolate Armagnac Cake in particular but not exclusively) then you know that I have a tendency to skim the directions. And sometimes I miss an important step . . . or a couple of important steps. So, while I was copying down this recipe I told myself that this was for the best, it would make me pay attention to the directions. I'm not sure that writing out the recipe is 100% why I didn't make any little mistakes with the crumb cake but I know that it didn't hurt. That said, I don't think I'll be doing it every week.

I used orange zest just because I was ready for a little break from lemons (I did some other lemon baking while I was home) and I used a combination of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries because I had my heart set on this being a berry crumb cake rather than a blueberry crumb cake. I had pondered using frozen mixed berries but it turns out that they don't sell frozen berries without strawberries. Dorie says that strawberries are pretty much the one berry that really won't do well in this cake so I wanted to heed her advice and stay away from them. That said, I certainly wasn't going to pick through the frozen berries to stay away from the strawberries so fresh berries it is!

I was a little bit confused by the crumb topping. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be turned into a pie dough, brickish thing because Dorie says that you break it up to crumble it over the top. Or, was it supposed to be streusel-esque? I still don't know but this is what I ended up with:

Flour-coated berries don't sink to the bottom of your batter.

Ready to go into the oven:

Et viola! The finished crumb cake. My crumb topping sort of baked together but it was crumbly when cut.

The verdict: I liked this cake quite a bit. It's not too sweet but it's very moist and the crumb topping makes it buttery and rich. Walnuts in or on baked goods are really not "my thing" so I sort of wish that I'd used pecans instead or actually left them out. This cake smells absolutely fantastic while it's cooking. I thought that the true test of how great it smells would be these pictures I took of Duke, the family dog who used to be a complete spazz but he's mellowed slightly at the ripe old age of 10.

He loves to help in the kitchen but he's not the most dedicated sous chef. Here he is at the beginning:

Poor Duke got tired so he had to lay down in the dining room to watch me. But gosh, it sure smells good and here's Pavlov's dog with a GIANT strand of drool (ewww!) because it smells so good. (Not to worry, I cleaned that up right after I took that picture!) So, if you have a burning desire to test out Pavlov's theory, this is a good recipe to use.

Thanks to Shihan of Befuddlement for choosing the Blueberry Crumb Cake this week!

Spring Chick Cupcakes

Happy first day of spring! I adore spring and it's always a toss up as to which is my favorite season, spring or summer. I'm a weirdo (by most standards at least) and Easter and 4th of July are my favorite holidays. I love everything about Easter and 4th of July is just great because it's so laid back and festive. I really like all holidays, any excuse for a little extra celebration is fine by me, so it's not like I hate Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just hate to be cold so winter holidays are starting at a disadvantage with me. In Houston spring is generally very warm, perfect in my opinion, and there are flowers and blue skies (except for the years when it rains from February all the way through July, not kidding). In Washington, I have a feeling that spring is a little bit different -- it's cold outside right now (booooo!). I love having all of spring to look forward to summer. It's sort of why Thursday is my favorite day of the week, because then you have all day to look forward to Friday and the weekend. At any rate, it's the first day of spring and I'm in the throws of some spring fever, I thought it'd be fun to post these Spring Chick Cupcakes.

So, I'm on a Martha kick right now because that's where this recipe came from. Of course hers look about 100% cuter, mine are sort of missing the bottom half of their figure. They're super easy to make. I used chocolate cupcakes and then you frost them with 7 minute frosting and use toasted coconut to make their fuzzy feathers. Seriously, I'm not sure why they decided to give chicks the crown that roosters have but I went with it. I couldn't find red licorice laces so I used the Twizzlers Pull&Peel. Those are really hard to "pull and peel" in one strip, thus the two pieces on the crown. Other than that the only issue that I had was that 7 minute frosting is very sticky and it's sort of messy to coat the chicks, that's why mine don't have a very defined lower figure. It was just easier that way. Here's the link if you feel like making them!

Beef Bulgogi

I talk to my mom every morning. She's one of those amazing people who just doesn't stop so I joke that if I don't call her before she gets going I'll never get in touch with her. She's sort of like a very controlled Tasmanian Devil, all of the energy without the havoc. Anyway, we chat about this and that but she almost always asks me what I'm going to have for dinner that night. At least half of the time I have no idea what I'm going to have but often I'll give her an update on what I made the night before. When I was telling her about this dinner I could not, for the life of me, remember what on earth it was called. I was trying to describe it and the best I could come up with is "this Korean beef dish, I got the recipe from Martha Stewart, beef something-or-other, I think it starts with a K?, maybe a G?, a B? And my mom was sitting at her computer trying desperately to find the recipe as I'm telling her: "oh, it's super simple, you just add beef and soy sauce, some garlic and some chili sauce and mix it all up." And give my mom an A for effort, when she couldn't find the recipe online (because it's Pork Bulgogi online, Beef Bulgogi in the Everyday Food Fast Cookbook) she followed my incoherent, inane directions and made "Beef Something-or-Other" for dinner that night.

The Beef Bulgogi is delicious and its definitely true to the Everyday Food Fast idea. I got this together in 30 minutes before class and I cooked it in about 20 minutes after class. It tastes fantastic and I'm sure that pork, chicken, shrimp, or just vegetables could be used in place of beef. The original recipe doesn't call for bean sprouts or red bell pepper but I had some of both in the refrigerator and I decided to throw them in.

Beef Bulgogi
Adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food: Great Food Fast Cookbook

• 4 small garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• 2 teaspoons ginger, freshly grated
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 pound flank steak, very thinly sliced crosswise (it helps if you freeze it for 15 minutes)
• 1 large onion, cut into 12 wedges
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, combine garlic cloves, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, ginger, and ground pepper.
2. Add flank steak and onion wedges (also peppers if you use them); marinate at least 10 minutes (I marinated mine for a few hours).
3. In a 12-inch skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. In three batches, brown pork and onion, 3 to 5 minutes per batch. Discard marinade.
4. Return all pork and onion to skillet; cook until warm. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, if desired.

The recipe states that this dish is traditionally served with lettuce leaves to wrap up the beef in. I didn't have any lettuce that was big or sturdy enough to do this so I served it over rice. It tastes wonderful and it's indredibly simple to make; I know that this will be a repeat recipe.

Coconut Swirl Brownies . . . Sometimes You Don't

Sometimes you feel like a nut . . . and sometimes you don't. I don't like Almond Joy or Mounds but I think that everyone must remember that commercial. And if you don't feel like a nut then my guess is that these brownies would be right up your alley. I'm currently in my annual Lenten, chocolate deprived state but I made these brownies before Lent and, the lazy schlub that I am, I'm just now posting them. I made these for Dudley one Saturday because the boy loves coconut. He's smitten with my baking goodies . . . like a 5 year old would be. He can't get over the array of chocolate chips and sprinkles and then there's the coconut in there. And he will just have a spoonful of the coconut all by itself, something I'd never do.

I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart's Cookies book when I was flipping through looking for Christmas cookies to make and I made a mental note to try these brownies. They're slightly more time consuming than your average brownie but they're not tedious and the end result is a very moist, chewey brownie with a scrummy coconut swirl running through it. They're also just halfway between cakey and fudgey -- my perfect brownie.

Coconut Swirl Brownies
Martha Stewart Cookies
Makes 9 large or 16 small

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 large egg white
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with parchment, allowing a 2-inch overhang. Butter lining (not overhang).

Stir together 1 tablespoon of sugar, the condensed milk, coconut, egg white, and 1/4 teaspoon of the vanilla in a bowl.

Put butter and both chocolates in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Let cool slightly.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Whisk remaining 3/4 cup sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs; whisk until mixture is smooth. Stir in remaining 2 teaspoons vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until well combined.

Pour one-third of the chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Spread evenly with an offset spatula. Drop dollops of the coconut mixture (about 1 tablespoon each) on top of batter, spacing about 1 inch apart. Drizzle remaining batter on top, and gently spread to fill pan. Drop dollops of remaining coconut mixture on top.

Gently swirl coconut mixture into batter with a butter knife, running the knife lengthwise and crosswise through layers. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the brownies comes out with a few crumbs, but is not wet, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift out; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

By the way, the Cookies cookbook is great. I had my doubts about it and I didn't buy it for awhile. Then, in a moment of weakness right before Christmas I saw it on sale and I purchased it. I have to say, I love this book. The cookies are separated by texture which, in my humble opinion, is a wonderful idea! The pictures are great and there are recipes in there, such as this one, that are not available on the website.

TWD: French Yogurt Cake

I was so, so, SO happy when I saw that the French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze had been picked for March. I love yogurt and I made some tangerine-vanilla bean marmalade in January that I wanted to use up and I've been eying this recipe longingly in the book. I know that I don't have to wait for TWD to make something in Baking From My Home to Yours but there are so many recipes that I still need to rewind that I always feel guilty when I ponder making something new. And, quite honestly, it's so much more fun to bake along with everyone else.


So, on to the cake. This is the second week in a row that we've had a nice and simple Dorie recipe to make. The Kitchen Aid got another rest this week -- you have to love a cake that you can mix together with a bowl and a spatula. I used 2% Greek yogurt because I didn't have any normal plain yogurt on hand. It's so much thicker than regular yogurt that I was a little worried about the moisture content but it seemed to work out fine. I used lemon zest and immediately after I scented my sugar I wished that I'd used vanilla bean so that it would pick up the vanilla bean scent of the marmalade, next time, Gadget! Next time!


The only real issue I had was the pan. I was all set to go for the loaf pan but then I saw the beehive pan sitting there in the cabinet. This pan was a gift and I think it's adorable but I think that I've used it once in the 2 or 3 years that I've had it (can't remember). So, I thought that this cake would adapt well to the beehive and it's a fun, spring-ish cake (and I have spring fever right now) so beehive it is. The cake browned a whole, whole lot in the beehive pan (as you can see) and it got quite the crust too. The deeper parts of the cake (at the bottom) were perfect and moist and the top part was really sort of dry. So, if I were going to use the pan for this cake again (not sure I would though) I'd a) make a double recipe because it only made enough for half a hive (which is plenty for me!) and b) poke holes in the top of the cake and make sure that the dry part gets moistened with something because just the marmalade wasn't enough. I feel sure that the use of something to moisten the top part of the cake must be part of the beehive's MO. I don't understand how the top won't be dry every time . . . and I don't remember if it was a problem or not last time.

The cake was 100% delicious straight out of the oven (of course I tasted it right away). It's a very flavorful, moist pound cake and I would definitely make it again -- just maybe not in the beehive. The top part of mine didn't get dry until the next day. I I served it with some sweetened Greek yogurt and fruit and it was delicious! Thanks to Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for picking this recipe! Be sure and visit her gorgeous blog for the recipe.

How I Ate Down My Fridge

The pretty much empty fridge . . . want a beer? or some jam? a different condiment perhaps?


I made it to the end of the week. As I said, I don't really beebop over to the grocery store all that often but, just like Mother Hubbard, my cupboards are bare right now! I'm am off on a major food run to restock this joint. I don't think that I ever would have made it through the week though if I didn't have plenty of eggs, milk, and cheese around. The meat that I had in the freezer helped too. I also think that it must have been easier for me because I'm cooking for one (or two when Dudley's around) and it just means that I'm less likely to run out of something unexpectedly. I have a feeling that it'd be so much harder if I had a household full of people!


I made lasagna one night and that used up the rest of my ricotta cheese that was hanging around from the super-awesome pancakes (as well as some mozzarella cheese and spinach). For my last foray into cooking down the kitchen, I made chicken marsala. I had some crimini mushrooms hanging around, just desperate to be used. I put some of them in the sauce for the lasagna but that still left me with about half of them. I was trying to ponder recipes that call for mushrooms and I came up with quiche, risotto, and chicken marsala. Now, I like mushrooms but I certainly don't love them so I decided that chicken marsala was the way to go. Besides, I'd gotten a bottle of Marsala wine a while in anticipation of making this meal . . . and I still hadn't made it . . . it was just time. Problem: 6 crimini mushrooms do not chicken marsala make. No matter, I just added some onions. I served the chicken over egg papperadele from Trader Joes and I thought it was absolutely fantastic. The true test: Dudley, the chicken-hater extraordinaire raved about it. I'm pretty sure he wished I'd used some form of red meat rather than chicken but he loved it nonetheless. I'm also confident that my chicken marsala is supremely not authentic. For one thing, I'm nearly positive that I added too much tomato paste and bacon. I was overwhelemed with the spirit of using up things at that point, what can I say? For another, as I mentioned before, my sauce was comprised of equal parts onions and mushrooms. Lastly, I didn't have a shallot. Maybe this isn't such a big deal but I love shallots and I think that it would have been even better had I been able to use them. However, there will definitely be a next time because I loved this dinner.


Note: I actually had this post ready to go with the recipe included and then I read Mary's (the Food Libriarian) post about Cook's Illustrated and their bajiggity-ness about their recipes. I like the magazine but I think that the cookbook offers more bang for the buck. Anyway, this recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated's The New Best Recipe if you're interested in making it. Or, you can google "Cook's Illustrated's Chicken Marsala" and get the recipe from people who have asked for permission to print it exactly as is (I fiddled with the recipe, apparently a big no-no in CI land so I can't do that). Or, you can just email me and I will gladly send you the recipe.

EDF: Potstickers

Eating Down the Fridge has been a challenge in a sort of different way than I thought it would be. Honestly, I don't run to the store that often. This is 50% because I'm lazy and I loathe going to the grocery store. It's also 50% because even though I can walk to Safeway in 4 minutes and 53 seconds (Dudley clocked it) the Social Safeway is a nuthouse. Well, the people in there may or may not be crazy but I can pretty much guarantee that if you go there any time after 5:30 in the evening you'll be crazy by the time you leave. The lines . . . oh my goodness . . . the lines. They back up through the aisles and there is no respect for an express lane. One night I didn't feel well and all I wanted was grilled cheese and soup. So, even though it was 7 pm on Saturday night (no, date night does not preclude frenetic shopping excursions to the Social Safeway) I went to Safeway to purchase 3 things: soup, bread, and cheese. It took me about 8 minutes to get said items and 30 minutes to check out. There were two guys on a beer run behind me (bad choice by the way, definitely go to the liquor store to get beer on a Saturday night) having a great conversation about people who violate the 15 item limit for the express lane. They started to count the items in the carts as people would put them on the belt (all blatant violators of the rules). Where was I? Oh, I don't go to the grocery store that often anyway. I do, however, buy things thinking that I'm going to make a specific dish that I have on my list and then I never get around to it . . . like these potstickers.

I looked for wonton wrappers forever and ever because I read Mary Ann's, of Meet Me in the Kitchen, post about her Chinese New Year dinner and I wanted to make the potstickers that she always makes. I finally found them and then they sat in my refrigerator. I just never got around to making them. So, this week was the perfect opportunity. I had a a little bit of savoy cabbage leftover from something else, luckily I always try to keep some fresh ginger around, and ground turkey in the freezer, tada! I served them with dumpling sauce and fried rice. The fried rice helped me use up a bunch of veggies that I had hanging around in the drawer.

Turkey Pot Stickers adapted from Cooking Light
from Mary Ann's blog: Meet Me in the Kitchen

2 teaspoons canola oil

2 cups angel hair coleslaw with carrots (I used 1/4 a head of Savoy cabbage)

1/2 cup water

1/2 pound ground turkey breast

1/3 cup minced green onions

1 tablespoon minced peeled gingerroot

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1 egg white

1 garlic clove, minced

30 won ton wrappers

2 teaspoons cornstarch

4 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

1 cup water, divided

Heat 2 teaspoons canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add coleslaw; cook 9 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. While cabbage cooks, add 1/2 cup water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to keep cabbage from sticking to pan. Spoon cabbage into a medium bowl; let cool completely.

Add chicken and next 6 ingredients (chicken through garlic) to bowl; stir well.

Working with 1 won ton wrapper at a time (cover remaining won ton wrappers to keep them from drying out), spoon about 1 tablespoon chicken mixture into the center of each wrapper. Moisten edges of wrapper with water, and bring 2 opposite corners to center, pinching points to seal. Bring the remaining 2 corners to center, pinching points to seal. Pinch 4 edges together to seal. Place pot stickers on a large baking sheet sprinkled with cornstarch; cover loosely with a towel to keep them from drying out.

Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place half of pot stickers in bottom of skillet; cook 3 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Add 1/2 cup water to skillet; cover and cook 3 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Place pot stickers on a serving platter; set aside, and keep warm. Wipe skillet with a paper towel. Repeat procedure with remaining vegetable oil, remaining pot stickers, and remaining water.

You can freeze uncooked potstickers- just place on a baking sheet, place in the freezer until frozen and transfer to a Ziploc freezer bag. When ready to cook, thaw and repeat cooking procedure. You can also cook them from a frozen state, it just takes a few more minutes to get them cooked through.

Dumpling Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon ginger, chopped fine
• 1 garlic clove, chopped fine
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili oil

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

These potstickers are outstanding! They're insanely good and they're a little labor intensive because you have to make each individual potsticker but the result is definitely worth the effort. I was really, really reluctant to cook the cabbage because I hate the smell of cooked cabbage but I did and I was glad that I did. Dudley absolutely loved them and he is not a ground turkey sort of guy at all. I asked him after he went on and on about how great they were if he knew what kind of meat I used and ground turkey was his last guess. I will definitely make these again . . . as soon as I get back to the store to buy more wonton wrappers!

EDF: Ina's French Onion Soup

I am always just intrigued with recipes like French Onion Soup. These sorts of concoctions that use up what's left over, like fondue or hash, just amaze me. This is probably my generation Y mentality rearing its ugly head but hey, at least I can appreciate the art in taking stock, onions, stale bread, and some cheese for good measure, and making a lovely and satisfying soup. I talk about my list of "things to make soon" and it's literally a list that I write whenever I'm feeling particularly motivated. My mom makes so much fun of me and my lists but that's a different story for a different post. At any rate, this soup has been on my list since the beginning of January and what better time to make it than eating down the fridge? I've had a couple of ciabatta rolls languishing forever in my fridge (no mold but they were really and truly stale), I bought that beef stock forever ago, and I had plenty of onions. The debate was over the recipe. In my family we always, always make Julia Child's recipe. In fact, my brother's old girlfriend gave me The French Chef on DVD a few years ago and I recently watched the onion soup episode in anticipation of making this. But, then there's the Barefoot Contessa's recipe and I was so tempted to try something new. In the end, Ina won out. It's a super booze-tastic recipe -- it calls for white wine, cognac, and sherry -- and rich with veal stock and beef stock. Well, in my efforts to avoid the store this week, I had to make some adjustments. I used white wine and Armagnac and killed the sherry. I didn't have veal stock (really, who does?) so I used all beef. And, the saddest part, I didn't have any gruyere. Ina calls for parmesan but I'm a firm believer in using gruyere with FOS and it took all of my willpower to prevent me from making a trip to Safeway to get that cheese. I am, however, a cheese fanatic and I had: mozzarella, provolone, muenster, goat cheese, herb goat cheese, blue cheese, and cheddar in the cheese drawer. Hmmm, I think that I need to use up some cheese. It came down to provolone or muenster and I picked the muenster. In a pinch it was a great sub for the gruyere but I think that I'll stick to the classics in the future. So, Ina vs. Julia? Ina's recipe is a little deeper than Julia's version but they're both excellent. I was worried that the alcohol would be overwhelming but it mellows out really nicely and adds nice depth of flavor to the onions. I loved this soup. I still love Julia's so I suppose I'll just alternate making one every other time!

Barefoot Contessa's French Onion Soup
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
2 1/2 pounds yellow onions, halved, and sliced 1/4-inch thick (8 cups)
1/4 pound unsalted butter
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup medium-dry sherry
1/2 cup brandy or Cognac
1 1/2 cups good dry white wine
4 cups beef stock
4 cups veal stock
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan

In a large stockpot on medium-high heat, saute the onions with the butter and bay leaf for 20 minutes, until the onions turn a rich golden brown color. Deglaze the pan with the sherry and brandy and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the white wine and simmer uncovered for 15 more minutes.

Add the beef and veal stocks plus salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, taste for salt and pepper, and serve hot with grated Parmesan.

Yields 4-6 large servings. I halved the recipe and it made 3 very large servings.

TWD: Vanilla Bean Cup Custard

This week we went to the back of the book, home of the "spoon desserts," for Lemon Cup Custard. Dorie has several variations available and, while I love lemons and lemonade, lemon desserts aren't my favorite, so I decided on a vanilla bean variation of this custard.

OK, so I think that I've mentioned before that I was an extremely picky child and one of the only things that I liked to eat was scrambled eggs. I ate them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for years when I was about 3-4 years old (maybe longer, I'm not sure). And then one day, I stopped liking them. In fact, I hated eggs. I'd eaten enough eggs to last me the rest of my life and darned if I was going to eat another scrambled egg. I think that lasted until I was in college. I now like scrambled eggs, omelettes and the like, but I will admit that I can't stomach them for breakfast, I much prefer to eat them for dinner.


So, eggy things still aren't precisely my cup of tea and I'll admit that I wasn't expecting the "eggy factor" in this custard. However, that said, I think that my decision to choose vanilla bean made the eggy-ness much more pronounced. Vanilla souffles are always sort of eggy and lacking in the flavor department, in my opinion anyway, and this custard sort of had the same effect. I think that I'd have liked it so much more if I'd made the espresso cinnamon version but, unfortunately, I didn't have any cinnamon sticks lying around and I didn't want to make a special trip to get them. I knew that this wouldn't end up like creme brulee because, well because it's custard. And Dorie has a separate creme brulee recipe so I'm sure that she was looking for something else with this recipe. So, if I were to make it again I'd definitely pick a much stronger flavor for the custard. I think that the strong flavor is absolutely essential here. I made up for the lack of flavor by adding strawberries and it was sort of like vanilla strawberry custard. Sort of . . . but not really.

It's hard to get really bent out of shape about this recpe because it's really easy and it has a whopping total of 4 ingredients. There aren't a lot of dishes to get dirty, it's not super technical, and it's not time or labor intensive. The most painstaking thing that I did was to take a skewer and pop all of the little bubbles that I didn't manage to skim off of the top of the custard base. But if I'd been in a hurry I'm sure it would have been fine anyway. I thought it was fun and I can't wait to see the other really great flavor combos that all of the uber-creative TWD-ers came up with. Thanks to Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles for picking this weeks recipe!

One last note, I made this last week so it's not part of Eating Down the Fridge but I definitely think that it could be. Eggs, milk, sugar, flavor. I almost always have those things on hand!

EDF: Carrot Muffins

Daylight Savings Time gotcha down? After years and years of being a night owl, I've finally programmed myself into one of those people who doesn't mind waking up early . . . except for the two-week period following Spring Forward when my internal clock is so messed up that I sort of stumble around, nodding at people when I really have no idea what they just said. I think it's this dragging myself out of bed in the dark of night that really gets me down and turns me around. Now is the time when my morning cup of coffee is completely crucial to my well-being. I resisted this java addiction forever. I loved coffee but it was always a treat for me. Then I moved to Washington and there was a coffee shop on every corner, and as I walk everywhere, they're constantly calling my name, begging me to stop in and get a cup. Pretty soon it was an every day thing and then I had to start making it at home so that I could avoid spending $3 a day (I get plain old coffee, no fancy drinks) and the rest is history. The coffee thing started the muffin thing though because muffins are perfect with a cup of coffee. And these carrot muffins are a great antidote for this morning darkness that I find myself currently living in. They're delicious and I think that they're at least a little bit nutritious. I am sure that you could up the nutrition factor with whole wheat flour and when I'm done Eating Down My Fridge I might just head to the store and get some to try it in these muffins. In the meantime, these muffins were a great way to use up some of the carrots and an apple that I had in my fridge. I don't have a food processor that will grate for me so you can bet that I was getting a little cardio in while I was grating my carrots and apple on the grater.

Carrot Muffins
Epicurious

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 pound carrots
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup corn oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 Granny Smith apple

Preheat oven to 350°F. and oil eighteen 1/2-cup muffin cups.

Into a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and whisk in sugar. Coarsely shred enough carrots to measure 2 cups and chop pecans. Add shredded carrots and pecans to flour mixture with raisins and coconut and toss well.

In a bowl whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Peel and core apple and coarsely shred. Stir shredded apple into egg mixture and add to flour mixture, stirring until batter is just combined well. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling them three fourths full, and bake in middle of oven until puffed and a tester comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool muffins in cups on racks 5 minutes before turning out onto racks to cool completely. Muffins keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days

Notes:

These muffins are my first submission for Eating Down the Fridge: a challenge to see if I, and all my EDF buddies, can last the week without heading to the grocery store. This necessitated a small change to the recipe, being that I used a gala apple rather than a granny smith because that's what was in my refrigerator. I think that any apple would be fine because it doesn't impart as much flavor as it does moisture.

I left out the pecans and raisins because I'm not fond of nuts or raisins in my muffins. I didn't think that the muffins suffered at all for the omission.

I also used one teaspoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon of Penzey's Cake Spice (a mix of China cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves) to add a little bit more depth of flavor with the spices in the muffins. I'm sure that the all-cinnamon variety is great but I think that one could feel free to play around with the spices in the muffins.

The Cream Puff's Ricotta Pancakes from Bill Granger

I'm just going to start this post with a "pardon me for the awful pictures" disclaimer. I will freely admit that my photography skills are sadly lacking. I'm the girl who always has her camera and loves to take pictures but they're never those gorgeous, artsy pictures. Digital cameras are thus perfect for me because I can delete 50% of the pictures that I take. I took my sister's fancy schmancy film camera with me to France when I studied there (don't you just love the authentic "click" sound that a camera shutter makes when it closes? It's one of my favorite sounds . . .) and I did manage to take some nice, artsy pictures there (of course they're film so I can't post them, you'll just have to believe me) and I don't know who was more shocked, me or my sister. I lived a block, maybe two, from this amazing market in the Croix-Russe section of Lyon and this market was everything a market should be. I used to love to go and just look at all of the fantastic produce and meats and cheeses that were for sale and one morning I took my camera and managed to capture the market in the right sort of light. So, the reason for that random story? Apparently I can take good pictures maybe once every 25 years, the rest are mediocre, and the following pictures are just plain bad.

Any time I'm trying to take a picture of what I'm eating for dinner that night it's bound to be bad. I start getting hungry around 6 pm. I get home from class at 6:30 and I usually end up eating around 7:30 or 8 pm and by that time I'm starving and I generally don't care about blogging or pictures, I just want to eat! If the pictures are bad I often just hit delete and the world will have to survive without knowing about my dinner. These pancakes though . . . they are so good! They're heavenly, wonderful, light and fluffy things and I had to post about them. I found the recipe on Cream Puffs in Venice under a post with one of the best titles I've ever seen, "My Kingdom for Pancakes!" I might not give my kingdom for a horse but I'd give my kingdom for these pancakes, they're just that good. The recipe comes from Bill's Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner and I loved the pancakes so much that I attempted to purchase it but it's out-of-print right now, and darn expensive used, so I'll have to live without it for the time being. I do have a renewed desire to go to Sydney though.

I made this pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. I grew up eating pancakes (and other breakfast treats) for dinner on Shrove Tuesday and I can't let that tradition die! I'm not the world's biggest fan of butter and maple syrup on my pancakes, I prefer strawberries and powdered sugar (or even better, whipped cream) but I'm also a big fan of chocolate chips too! I had Sorrento Whole Milk ricotta cheese that I used and it was perfect -- not too wet at all. I will say, this recipe isn't hard but it's another one that's long on bowls and other mixing paraphenalia. I wouldn't make it every night but I think that it's perfect for a time when you want the pancakes to be the star of the show (or you're really craving some heavenly pancakes!).

Ricotta Pancakes
Cream Puffs in Venice

1-1/2 cups ricotta (try to use a dry ricotta, otherwise drain your ricotta in a paper-towel lined colander overnight in the refrigerator)
1 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plus two tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. grated orange zestunsalted butter (for cooking the pancakes)

In a bowl, combine the ricotta, sugar, milk and egg yolks. Mix well and set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the ricotta mixture. Add the vanilla extract and orange zest and mix well.
In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites until they’re stiff.
Gently fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture.
Heat a pan or griddle and melt a few tablespoons of butter in the pan. Drop about a quarter cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
Cook for two to three minutes on the first side. The pancake will be golden. Flip and cook for an additional two minutes.
Serve warm with butter and syrup. Enjoy!

Side Note: Kim O'Donnel, who writes the food blog "A Mighty Appetite" for the Washington Post is hosting an Eating Down the Fridge Challenge next week. The goal is to use what's in your fridge, freezer, pantry for the week to 1) avoid a trip to the grocery store and 2) see how creative we can get in the kitchen when we can't run to the store. I'm going to give it my best shot and if you'd like to join up you can email her (the information is provided through the links on this post) and join in. It's not limited to the Washington D.C. area and people around the country have signed up!

TWD: Chocolate Armagnac Cake

I've spent a lot of time flipping through Baking From My Home to Yours. I've read the recipes and all of the fantastic anecdotes that Dorie gives throughout the book. So, when I saw that this recipe had been chosen I thought, hmmm, isn't that the cake with the prunes in it? And then I had a sort of Winnie the Pooh-ish "oh bother" moment pondering what on earth I was going to replace the prunes with. It wasn't going to be raisins because I've never liked raisins, not even when I was 5 and obliged to like raisins. You see, I have a general distaste for dried fruit (or meat for that matter, no jerky here) and I'm not specifically discriminating against the poor prune. I pondered dried cherries, I like those, and I pondered just leaving the fruit out. And then I thought, oh what the heck, I'm going to make this recipe precisely as it's written, just for the experience. First step, procure the Armagnac and the prunes. That's easy enough. My dad likes Armagnac so I went ahead a got a normal sized bottle of it. I figure I'll eventually need it again for cooking or hopefully it's ok for someone to drink. The nice man at Pearson's (by the way, the BEST liquor store in NW DC as far as I'm concerned and they're super duper nice to boot) assured me that I could cook with it and drink it.


Now, this wasn't a difficult recipe, per se, but there were so many steps . . . and so many pans and bowls!

First, a pan for the prunes to get their trial by Armagnac fire in. By the way, this was my first attempt at flambeeing and I loved it. In fact, I might start doing it just for fun. I was so excited that I took the pan upstairs to show it to Dudley while he was studying. "Look! It's on fire!" I think the response that I got was something to the effect that he never knew he was dating a closet pyromaniac. So, to those of you who might be a little hesitant to flame up something in your kitchen, try this recipe because it's not nearly as scary as I thought it was.

Next, a bowl for the boozified prunes to cool and steep in.
Another bowl for your nuts (I used pecans and I was just this close to accidentally turning them into pecan butter), flour and salt.
Next, a bowl to melt your chocolate in. I chose the double-boiler method because I love my double boiler and I have a scatterbrained tendency to forget the I'm melting chocolate in the microwave and next thing I know, it's burned. But, should the double boiler count as one bowl/pan or two? I'm counting two because I had to wash two things on this step.
Aaaand, a bowl to whisk your egg yolks and sugar together, then to add the chocolate, flour mixture, and prunes (that's what those gobs floating in my batter are). At this step I thought, hmmmm, no KitchenAid here? Mustang Sally gets a rest today?
Or so I thought, because here's the bowl with my egg whites.
And here's the mixer bowl with the beaten egg whites.
And, after many bowls and many steps, here's my 4" cake pan ready to go into the oven.

And, after many bowls and many steps, I had a cake. I neglected to add the bowl that I used to make the frosting (at this point I did stand by the microwave and melt my chocolate because I didn't want to wash the double boiler again. So, for anyone who cares, and I have to say that I don't really care but it's just too funny to me that my little 4" cake used (drum roll please . . .) 10 pans/bowls! This is how I know that it's a restaurant recipe! Because I needed one of those awesome sprayers and an industrial dish washer to get through the dishes afterwards.

My cake had a big sinkhole in the top but, meh, I just covered it with the frosting and it seemed fine to me. I wish that I could say that I liked this cake . . . but I didn't. For my taste, there was just too much of the Armagnac flavor that came through and the prunes just sort of threw me off. I had pondered cutting the prunes into smaller pieces and I think that would have a much better result for me because then it wouldn't be chocolate . . . chocolate . . . chocolate . . . PRUNE! Unbeknownst to me, Dudley cut himself a piece of this while he was doing the dishes and, even though I'd shown him the flaming prunes, he didn't know that they were in the cake. Now, he doesn't like fruit desserts at all so I intended to warn him to eat around the prunes but I didn't get a chance before he ate one. I walked into the kitchen and here's the conversation that ensued:

Dudley: Are there grapes in this cake?!
Jessica: No. Do you like the cake? Do you think it's good? How do you rate it?
D: It's really good but what did you put in it?! There's some sort of fruit in it? What fruit is in this cake?!
J: laughing way to hard to talk at this point.
D: Did you put PRUNES in the cake?! (In a really high pitched voice). You tricked me!

For the record, I didn't try to trick him and that made it so much funnier to watch his face and his reaction while he firgured out that there were prunes in the chocolate cake. He actually loved the cake once he learned to navigate around the prunes. I think that I would've liked it in a different setting, like at a restaurant. I didn't hate it . . . I just wasn't in the mood to have a really boozey chocolate dessert that night. Oh well. As I mentioned before, my dad loves Armagnac and he also loves prunes so I think that he'd really like this cake and I think that at some point I'll make it for him.

So, thanks to Lyb of Then I do the Dishes for picking this week's Chocolate Armagnac Cake. Honestly, even though I didn't enjoy eating the cake I was very amused while I was making it and it was a very memorable TWD pick!

Note: Of course, it's only after reading everyone else's posts that I realize that I was supposed to cut the prunes into little bits. Duh. Because that would've made so much more sense! Once again I'm caught not reading all of the recipe. Next time, next time!