Pasta ala Fridge

Sometimes you don't really plan meals.  You don't have time to shop and you just have to go with what you've got.  Like last night.  We had just come home from a short trip to Colorado, it was dinner time and we were all wiped out.  I looked around the kitchen and pulled together what we had.  And it worked.  In fact, Little Dog gave it a thumbs up.  I thought I'd try to transcribe the recipe here so I could make it again since Little Dog made a point of telling me how much he loved it.

Pasta ala Fridge

1 lb rigatoni (or other pasta, I just happened to have rigatoni)
2 lbs cauliflower florets
1 Tbsp olive oil
kosher salt
1/2 c grated Parmesan
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup bread crumbs
4 eggs


Toss the cauliflower florets with olive oil and a healthy dose of kosher salt.  Spread them on a cookie sheet and roast them in a 400 degree oven until they are tender and golden brown on the edges.  This should take about 20 minutes. 
Meanwhile, prepare your pasta according to the package directions.  Given the boiling and cooking time, this should also take about 20 minutes total so you should have cooked pasta about the same time your cauliflower is finished cooking.  Handy that.
Drain the pasta and in the cooking pot, melt 2 Tbsp of butter and toss with the pasta.  Add the cauliflower and cheese and toss together until it is all mixed up.  In a small frying pan, melt your last tablespoon of butter and toast the breadcrumbs until golden brown.  It should only take a minute or two over medium-high heat.  Add these to your pasta and toss again.

Fry the eggs, making sure to leave the yolks runny.  (I cook them sunny-side up, but if you prefer over-easy, so be it)

Serve the pasta in a bowl and top it with one fried egg per serving. 

Next time I might add some kind of bean to the mix.  Lentils or chick peas might be nice.  A bit of garlic might also be nice, but it was also well received as it was, so I could just leave it well enough alone.

Dinner born of desperation

Sometimes I have no idea what to cook.  Sometimes I don't have what I want to cook in the house and sometimes it is a perfect storm of both.  The problem is that we recently lost our local grocery store.  It was a smaller local chain with tons of local products, the nicest employees in the world that also happened to be right on my way home.  Well a big mega-chain store has been wrangling to take over for a while and they finally won.  The local grocery is gone and the mega-store is preparing to gobble up all of the surrounding real estate and open with a giant shiny store at some point in the future.  Thing is, I won't shop there.  I liked my market and they killed it.  And I hold grudges.  But this is all neither here nor there.  Fact is that when I got ready to cook dinner the other night, I had no idea what I wanted to make.  And then it hit me, fried rice.  The idea hit me, not the rice.  That would have been messy.

Fried rice is tasty, quick and surprisingly kid friendly.  I also managed to have everything on hand to whip up a batch in no time flat.


Fried Rice Out of Thin Air

1 cup uncooked rice
2 Tbsp oil
1 medium sweet onion finely chopped
2 cups chopped or shredded veggies (I happened to have a package of Trader Joe's broccoli slaw on hand so I used that.  Incidentally, this is great for throwing into soups, sloppy Joe's, scrambled eggs or anywhere else you want to add a little veg.)
1/2 lb frozen shrimp (mine was still frozen and it worked out well, but feel free to thaw it if you prefer)
2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
4 eggs
 
Cook the rice according to the package and set it aside.  
In a large pan, heat your oil.  Once heated, add your onion and cook until slightly soft. (I call for  a sweet onion, but a regular onion would probably work just as well.)  Once that is done, throw in your veggies and shrimp.  Stir constantly until the veggies start to soften slightly.  If you are not using your shrimp frozen, you'll probably want to cook the veg a bit before adding the shrimp or they'll get over cooked.  Once everything is all tender and cooked, add the liquid ingredients and toss them together.  Then dump in the rice and stir until it is all coated in the delicious sauce.

Cover your pan and in a frying pan with a bit of oil, fry your eggs.  Serve the rice mixture in bowls with a freshly fried egg on top (or you can scramble them and mix them in, I just think this looks a bit more like a proper meal).  If you have a kimchi lover in your house, heap some on top and if they're anything like Mr. Dog they'll probably squeal "Kimchi!" with delight when you serve them.

This makes 4 big portions or 6 smallish portions.  You can add more veggies to it if you want to add volume and cut the caloric density. 

Keeping me guessing, aka Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

I never know what's going to be a hit with the boys.  I think I know, then it usually flops.  Other times I make something that may or may not work and the gobble it up and demand more.  Tonight was one of those nights.  My friend Sheri over a Pork Cracklins posted this recipe for Shepherd's Pie and it planted a seed.  Later when I was looking for dinner ideas in my cookbooks, I found a recipe for a vegetarian version in the Vegetarian Family Cookbook.  I decided to put it on the menu.  I started from that recipe, but made some adjustments. These are captured below.

Modified Shepherd's Pie

6 medium sized russet potatoes
1 Tbsp butter
 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion (I used a sweet onion because I do love them so, but a plain onion would be fine too)
2 medium carrots (I approximated with baby carrots since I have them on hand at all times)
1/2 medium cauliflower (I used a bag of cauliflower florets from Trader Joe's because that's how I roll)
1 cup frozen corn
8 oz vegetarian ground "meat" (from Trader Joe's, where else)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tsp Vegetable Better than Bullion
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Peel and cube the potatoes then boil until tender.  Once they are tender, drain and mash with butter and milk until fluffy.  Add the shredded cheese to the mashed potatoes and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Finely chop the onion and slice the carrots and add them to the pan.  Cook until the onions start to turn golden.  Finely chop the cauliflower and add it to the pan.  Cook until it starts to become tender.  Add the frozen corn and the soy meat and the Better than Bullion (in the paste form, don't add water).  Cook until heated through.  Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Add about 1/2 cup of the mashed potatoes and stir until mixed in.

Put the vegetables into the bottom a a casserole and top with the mashed potatoes.  Smooth the mashed potatoes on top into an even layer.  I like to use a fork to make a nice texture on top of the potatoes, but you don't have to do that if you don't feel like it.

Bake the casserole for about 20 minutes until it is bubbling around the edges and the potatoes have begun to turn golden brown on top (at least along the textured ridges if you took that step).

Eat and enjoy. 

Lunchbox #7

The sushi lunch was a big hit with Big Dog.  He asked for an immediate repeat, but he did tell me to "go easy on the sushi" since apparently a 9 piece lunch is too much for him.  Right-sized, this lunch went over well the next day.

Avocado sushi rolls and baked tofu
Edamame
Freeze dried strawberries
Sliced mango
Dark chocolate square

Lunchbox #5 and #6

Little Dog has been tricky to pack lunch for lately.  He shuns all sandwiches other than his beloved peanut butter and jelly.  He won't help me with ideas about what he might like to be eating, so I'm guessing.  Over the weekend the boys helped me make a roast chicken inspired by Fanny at Chez Pannise and they couldn't get enough of it.  I decided to try packing that for lunch and sure thing, it was a big hit.

Little Dog has asked for a repeat so I did a second lunch working with the same theme

Lunchbox #5
Roast chicken and jasmine rice
Snap Peas
Sliced gala apple
Yogurt tube
chocolate chips

watermelon chunks in snack container.

Lunchbox #6
Porkchop and jasmine rice
Edamame
Sliced mango
Freeze dried strawberries
Dark chocolate

Lunchbox #4

The night before, I'd been out to dinner for a work function.  Mr. Dog took the boys out to dinner as well.  Big Dog wanted sushi, as usual.  Little Dog wanted to go to Bick's, mainly for the "Mousse in a Mug" dessert, but because Big Dog chose last time, it was Little Dog's turn to choose.  After feasting on smoked duck quesidillas, a hamburger and mousse in a mug, Big Dog was no longer complaining, but it did give me an idea for their lunch.  I got up early to make sushi rice and gave them a lunchbox surprise.

Avocado sushi rolls
edamame
baked tofu (from Trader Joe's)
sliced pear
white chocolate chips

Lunchbox #3

Let's just say I'm going to file this one under both "head scratchers" and "lessons learned."  See, I have two bagel-loving kids.  I thought bagels would be a slam dunk. Even when I was packing lunches up, Big Dog told me just how delicious the bagel looked.  So imagine my WTF moment when I opened the lunch boxes tonight and found each bagel only had about three bites in it.  Weird.  The multicolor cauliflower was also largely uneaten despite the boys gobbling it down at home.
I'm not really sure what happened with the bagels.  Too big for polite school eating maybe?  But I have to remember the boys both bow to peer pressure.  The cauliflower was probably a casualty of nearby "yucks" from lunch table neighbors.  Big Dog has given up favorite lunch foods based on the criticism of his peers in the past, I guess I should just expect it.

Whole wheat bagel with low fat cream cheese
Multicolored cauliflower (steamed since they don't really like raw cauliflower-or at least I don't and I project that upon the boys)
Sliced red plums
YoKids yogurt tube
dark chocolate square
Snack container: green seedless grapes

Lunchbox #2

Well there were going to be mini sandwiches on these adorable little artisan slider buns, but as soon as I put them on the counter, Little Dog told me he hated them.  So I tried to come up with something else. I asked for suggestions and he requested deviled eggs.  Perfect!  Well, it probably would have been more perfect if the eggs were store bought instead of our own eggs that are fresh and thus resist being peeled without shredding into a thousand pieces.  Anyhow they might not be beautiful, but they were tasty.  So, today's lunch was as follows:

Deviled eggs
Berries (raspberries and blueberries)
Heirloom cherry tomatoes
English cucumber in rice wine vinegar (in the small container, turns out it is just about the perfect size for this)
Yo Kids Squeezer
A couple of Trader Joe's Gummy Tummies

Snack container was filled with sliced pluots (not pictured)

Basic Deviled Eggs

2 hard boiled eggs
2 tsp mayonnaise
2 tsp sweet relish
1/2 tsp vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar because I had it on hand, I usually use apple cider vinegar for this)
1/2 tsp brown mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the hard boiled eggs in half, remove the yolks and put them into a bowl with all of the other ingredients.  Use a fork to mash the ingredients into a more or less smooth mess.  Scoop it back into the cooked egg whites.

To keep them from sticking to the lunchbox, place a piece of waxed paper on top of them before closing the lid.

A cavelcade of lunches

We got new fancy lunch boxes this year.  Stainless steel, dishwasher safe, decorated with magnets and just plain awesome.  And as I started packing them up, I realized how nice it would be for me to have a record of what was in them each day.  Mostly I think it will be handy to track what was eaten and what came home untouched.  So here we go, the first day of a new line of work on this blog.

Lunch #1 (for the blog, #5 if you count the ones that didn't get photographed)

Peanut butter and strawberry balsamic jam on whole wheat bread.
Snap peas and heirloom cherry tomatoes
White nectarines (Big Dog brought them home claiming the darkening was "rot")
Trader Joe's organic yogurt squishers
Dark chocolate
Side container snack: black plum

I originally cut the sandwiches into heart shapes, which caused Big Dog to say, "Mama, really?" making me feel like a bit of a dunce, so I cut his in half.  I left Little Dog's as is.  When I picked him up from school he asked, "Was that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Then why was it shaped like a heart?"
"I thought you might like it," I said.
"I didn't like it."
"You didn't?" I asked, a bit surprised.
"I loved it.  After I hated it."
So at least we cleared that up.

Lunch as planned.

And if you're too cool for heart-shaped sandwiches.

Changing it up

So this blog is sadly neglected.  Why?  I don't know.  Well, I do.  I don't seem to know quite what to do with it. Or rather, I didn't.  But lately instead of cooking for the boys, I've been cooking with the boys and that has me inspired.  See my friend has this awesome blog Pork Cracklins where she cooks, reviews the recipe and links to it someplace.  Nice, right?  Well, now that I'm doing more recipe based cooking, cooking with the kids, I've decided to steal her style, add some kids and change the formula of this very blog. 
What you'll be seeing here now will be cooking experiences with the boys.  We've invested in a couple of cooking for kids kind of cookbooks and working our way through those, we'll be keeping track of what we liked, what we didn't like and what alterations we made.  And hopefully with that new format, I'll actually start posting about my cooking more than once a year.

Celebrating their first pot luck win

Tonight was National Night Out, the national get out and meet your neighbors event that our block celebrates with gusto.  Each year we have a big BBQ with the kids running amok and the parents drinking beer saying just how much we should do this more often and remembering how we said the same thing last year.  We generally stay out on the street until the kids beg to go to bed and the parents finally give in.
As you know, I approach all pot lucks as competitions.  I go for the win or I don't bother going.  I usually bake something.  Baked goods tend to look great and since most people don't do a lot of baking they usually have no idea how little effort it takes to make something that looks and tastes amazing. This year it was S'more cupcakes, but that's not what I'm writing about.  No, the big win today was made by the boys.

This week the boys have started cooking camp.  Little Dog has had a long fascination with cooking, I suspect it has a lot to do with his desire to learn to make his own cookies so I no longer play gatekeeper on his favorite food, but I'm happy to have him in the kitchen.  Big Dog likes to cook, but perhaps more because he likes to help.  I have to admit, most days I ban them from the kitchen when I cook.  Our kitchen is not well laid out for more than one cook at a time.  I also tend to think of my time cooking or baking as a reprieve from my busy life.  I like it quiet and controlled.  I should probably include them more, but I don't.  Sue me.

Tonight was different.  I came up with something they could pretty easily make on their own, but something that would also be delicious and look great.  I also knew it would be a winner since I made it as a last minute pot luck entry a couple of years ago and it was gone within minutes of being set down.  What is this easy dish you ask?  Caprese salad.  Or at least a pot luck friendly version of it.
In this version I use mixed color heirloom cherry tomatoes, bocconcinni (little mozzerella balls) and loads of fresh basil.  I get all of these ingredients at Trader Joe's so it makes it easy to pull together on short notice as well.
I set the boys up with some kid friendly knives, a pair of kitchen shears and good directions and they did the rest.  The salad was beautiful and I received repeated compliments which i redirected to the boys.  They were very proud, but maybe their first win came a little too easy.  They didn't seem to want to run victory laps around the folding tables, instead they insisted on playing in the sprinklers with the other kids. 
  
Super Easy Pot Luck Killer
3 lbs heriloom cherry tomatoes (a variety of colors works best, but in a pinch good basic cherry tomatoes work too)
2 containers of bocconcini (these are just a great size to work with the tomatoes, but if you can't find them use a larger fresh mozzerella and cut it into pieces about he same size as your halved tomatoes)
1 big bunch of fresh basil cut into pieces (I aim for nice evenly-sized strips, but that was not what the kids delivered.  Let's just call their approach more...rustic)
Good Olive Oil (no specific measurement here, but a good slightly heavy handed drizzle over the ingredients to pull it all together and the nicer olive oil you use, the nice the flavor of the salad)
Sea salt (again, no specific measurement, just a few good pinches until the tomato flavor really pops.  You'll know it when you taste it)
Fresh ground pepper (a few good grinds, just don't go too nuts)

Cut the tomatoes and cheese, or better yet get your kids to cut the tomatoes and cheese in halves and put them into a bowl.  Add the cut basil and toss it together.  Add the heavy drizzle of olive oil, use a little more than you think you need.  Add the salt and pepper to taste and toss again.  That's it and yes, it is a winner. 

From the oddly stocked pantry

Sometimes I don't really plan meals, they spring forth from my cupboards, pieced together from odds and ends of my various shopping trips.  I don't think my pantry is quite usual since I pick up things that sound good or look good and if they're storable, it is likely that they will sit on my shelf until a night like tonight.  We are just back from a family trip and I have not done the usual shopping run.  I did manage to pick up some salmon last night, but that's about it, so I went to the cupboard, and this is what I ended up with.

Wild Yam Noodles with Peanut Sauce

1 12 oz package of Wild Yam Noodles (purchased on a whim at the local international market)

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 of a medium sized shallot
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger (fresh would probably be better, but I didn't have it so there ya go)

Cook the yam noodles according to the package (in this case, the quaintly worded package that urged me to "Please do stir the noodles with chop stick").  While they are cooking put all the other ingredients into your food processor and process until smooth.  When the noodles are cooked, drain and toss with the peanut sauce.  Yep, that's it.

I served mine with broiled salmon that had been brushed with soy sauce and mirin and added a side salad of butter lettuce dressed with rice wine vinegar and olive oil.

Enjoy.

Now if this isn't neglect...

I'm not sure I know what is!  I can't believe I haven't posted here in a year and a half.  I guess I haven't been doing that much cooking that needs to be documented lately.  In a rut, uninspired or just too plain busy to blog about it.  Anyhow, tonight I made up a recipe and I want to document it. Mark your calendar.
If you're in a marking your calendar mood, go ahead and mark July 30th for the day my new fancy induction range is being delivered!  I'm so giddy I can hardly sit still.  Quite a plunge considered before this morning I had never cooked on an induction ANYTHING.  But since we'd been talking about it, I got an induction counter top burner...ok, it's a fancy hot plate, but it is awesome and I'm putting it through its paces in prep for the big jump to a range that doesn't just flat out suck.
Tonight it was quesedilla for the veggie among us and steak to go with it for those who love their meat. Little Dog saw the sliced up stead on the serving plate and immediately started to complain, "What?!?! I don't get any meat?" but I reassured him he did and peace was restored to the dinner table.
Anyhow, on to that recipe.  I'm going to call it Mexican Pesto, though I just made it up.  I wanted something other than salsa to grace my quesedilla.  I armed myself with the food processor and before you know it, I had a really tasty pesto that made it look like dinner was super fancy instead of just things cooked in my cast iron skillets on my new hot plate.

Mexican Pesto
1 big bunch cilantro washed and the tough stems cut off (tender stem are welcome to stay)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 a medium sized jalapeno, seeded and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup toasted and salted pepitos
salt to taste (it probably takes more than you expect, unless you expect it to take a lot- then you'd be right)
Toss the cilantro, garlic, jalapeno, lime juice and pepitos into the bowl of your food processor (or robot culinaire as they call them in France- doesn't that sound so much cooler?) and slowly add the olive oil until it looks like pesto.  Taste it then add salt to cut the bitterness. 
That's it.  Don't expect the kids to eat it, or at least don't expect my kids to eat it.  Little Dog tasted it and decided it was "disgusting"  as many things are lately.  The grown ups loved it though so I'm taking the "more for me" attitude about it.

Starting the year off right. Yes, that means fried dough

When I was a kid, my family lived in New Mexico. By the time we moved to Portland, Oregon I had developed a taste for green chilies, an addiction to sopapillas and New Mexican accent. If you aren't in the know, sopapillas are fluffy pillows of fried dough that puff when they are cooked leaving an open space in the middle that is the perfect place to squeeze a big gob of honey. Delicious, I tell you.While the accent faded and the taste for green chilies grew into an obsession, the sopapillas just weren't available so the addiction faded. Still, when I think of New Mexico they are in the top 10 list of the things I remember vividly.

I have no idea what made Mr. Dog think of sopapillas this morning, but when I looked over at his laptop a golden sopapilla was staring back at me. Well, as much as a piece of fried dough can stare back without eyes or anything. Mr. Dog grew up in Colorado, so his childhood is similarly peppered with these golden puffs of fried goodness. We talked about them, and salivated over them, then he asked me to make some. I've never done that before. Even when we lived in New Mexico, I don't think my mom made them from scratch, I seem to remember a tub of mix. And I don't remember them turning out quite as delicious as they were at our favorite New Mexican restaurant (that happened to be owned by our neighbors!) Anyhow, with the determination of someone who once had a sopapilla habit, I googled a recipe, adapted it and made a big batch of fried goodness.

Drizzled with honey, served with scrambled eggs topped with cheese and green chilies, they were perfect. I see many more in my future.

Most of the recipes I found online were similar, I made a couple of modifications, making them with whole wheat flour and frying in canola oil in an attempt to...um, make them even slightly less sinful. My recipe is below.

Whole Wheat Sopapillas

3 cups white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat flour)

2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

6 Tbsp butter

1 1/4 cup warm milk

canola oil

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients, cut in the butter. I use my fingers and mix until the butter and flour mixture is like slightly lumpy sand. Pour in the warm milk and mix with a fork. Once the dough has come together, turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is no longer sticky. For me this was about 2 minutes, it might be less for you. Set the dough aside for 15 minutes, covered with plastic wrap to prevent it drying out.

In a heavy pan, heat 3-4 inches of canola oil (or you could use a deep fryer if you have one) to 400 degrees.

When the dough has rested, cut it in half keeping one half covered with plastic while you work with the first half. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a rectangular sheet about 1/8th inch thick. Cut in half lengthwise, then cut into triangles about the size of a Starbucks scone (hey, I'm measuringly challenged).

Once you oil is up to heat, drop one dough triangle in and cook each size until the dough turns a beautiful golden brown, then flip and cook the other side. It really doesn't take long a minute or two each side. And they don't like to be flipped, so be prepared for a tiny battle each time. Once they are golden and crispy, take them out of the oil and stow on a cookie sheet that has been lined with paper towels or some kind of rack to keep them from sitting in their excess oil. I put this pan in a 200 degree oven to keep them all warm and delicious until they were ready to be served.

To eat, bit off a corner and put a big spoonful of honey inside. They're delicious.

We had leftovers and I thought they were still pretty tasty nuked for about 45 seconds when I came back to them this afternoon. Mr. Dog says they were also delicious filled with cheese and green chilies when he ate some for lunch.

Cherry Ice Cream, Smile. I suppose it's very nice.

No supposing here. It rocks. I've made it twice and seriously, yum.

Since we were swimming in cherries after our cherry tree decided to go into overload mode this year, we started thinking about what to do with the bounty. We at about as many cherries as human beings can eat. I made jam. I canned cherries. I canned brandied cherries. I made pies. And in the end we pitted and froze about 5 more lbs of cherries. Mr. Dog suggested ice cream, and me being the sweet and lovingly compliant wife I am (quit laughing), I did my best to come up with a recipe. I found one on line, and as I started, I decided it wasn't sumptuous enough for my sexy husband. I mixed it up a bit and in the end came up with a bowl of deliciousness.

Sexy Husband's Ice Cream

1 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%, but feel free to play with this)

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg yolks

1 cup frozen cherries, finely ground in the food processor

1/2 cup chocolate bite sized chunks (I used good quality chocolate chips, and chopped them to make them slightly smaller)

1/2 cup toasted almonds, chopped into bite sized pieces

1 cup frozen cherries, chopped into chunks

In a saucepan, combine milk, cream and sugar. Heat over medium heat until steaming hot. In a small bowl whisk egg yolks until creamy. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of the heated milk until it is well incorporated. Go slowly though, you don't want to cook the yolks. Once this is all mixed together, add the yolk and milk mixture back to the saucepan and heat until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add the vanilla and the ground up cherries. Pour into a lidded container and let cool overnight in the refrigerator. The following day, pour the custard into your ice cream maker and follow your machine's instructions.

Once the ice cream has reached the soft serve consistency, add the chopped almonds, cherries and chocolate chunks. Put in your freezer safe container and let chill for at least 2 hours. You can thank me later.

Dessert like you mean it

It's been a while since we've seen NE. She's been busy helping with a friend's wedding. And she's young, hot and single. As much as she loves us, she's got other shit to do that doesn't involve dinner with the family she used to nanny for. Luckily sometimes it does involve us. We get to catch up, I used to joke that I was old enough to be her unwed teenage mother, but in some ways she feels more like a little sister. And she gets to see the kids. They climb all over her, they demand her attention and they never seem to get enough of her. Unless there's cake (or quiche). This time there was both. Then she gets a minute or two of peace while they eat.

So here's a little dessert I like to call "Instant quiet for both kids and parents."

I used Nigella Lawson's Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake recipe from "How to be a Domestic Goddess". A quick aside, I bought this book after watching her food porn on TV and developing more than a little girl crush on her whole approach to food. I also loved the title of the book, how could I resist. Turns out it is a kick ass cookbook. I have made many of the recipes and loved them all. I highly recommend it if you are a baker. Now go buy it. Anyhow, back to the dessert.

Nigella's Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  
• 1 2/3 cups dark brown sugar
  
• 2 large eggs, beaten
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted (I know it doesn't sound like enough, trust me)
  
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
  

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Grease and line a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Don't skip lining the pan, it really needs it.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla and beat in well. Melt the chocolate then mix it into the butter, sugar and eggs mixture. Add the flour and baking soda. She says to alternate the flour and boiling water spoonful by spoonful, but if you're like me, you've skipped that part of the instruction and now just dump them in individually. It works fine that way too. The batter will be really fluid. I thought I'd screwed something up, but really it's fine. Pour into the lined loaf pan, and she says to bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 325ºF and cook for another 15 minutes. Here is where I think Nigella is on crack. Mine wasn't anywhere near done at 45 minutes, it took over an hour. Probably close to 70 minutes, but keep an eye on it, it will appear set.

Place the loaf pan on a rack, and leave to get completely cold before turning it out. Makes 8-10 sliceSo I baked this dense, deliciously moist cake and served thick slices topped with sauce made from the brandied cherries I canned when our cherry tree went berzerk and produced about 50 lbs of fruit. If you don't have home canned fruit, and really, why would you? I've seen jars of morello cherries at Trader Joe's.

Cherry Sauce

Use about a 1/2 c of the cherry juice to create a slurry with about a tablespoon of corn starch Add it to the rest of the cherries and juice in a medium sized sauce pan on the stove over medium heat.

Stir and cook until the sauce thickens.

That's it. All that's left to do is ladle the still-warm sauce over the cake slices and enjoy the silence.

Kicking a little pot luck ass

So I may not have had a hands down win. We can blame it on a pan wardrobe malfunction. I ran out of parchment and substituted aluminum foil. Don't do that. Really. Just don't. It sticks. If you don't make my moronic mistake, I'm sure you'd kill at your pot luck. And if you don't learn from my errors, people will still lick the foil clean.

Heirloom Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart
2 pieces of puff pastry (find it in the freezer aisle at your grocery store)
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium sweet onions (yellow onions will work if sweet onions aren't available)
2 cloves garlic, smashed
3 Tbsp white wine
2 tsp fresh thyme
2 big juicy ripe as can be heirloom tomatoes (regular tomatoes will work too, but if you can get heirloom tomatoes, go for it)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese (just shave the chunk of cheese with a veggie peeler)
6 oz goat cheese (I used the herb and garlic chevre from Trader Joe's, it rocked!)
about 8 big basil leaves, sliced into thin strips (chefenade)

In a large pan heat 3 Tbsp of olive oil, saute the onion and garlic until they are slightly dark and caramelized. Add the white wine, thyme and a good pinch of salt and cook about 10 more minutes.

Thaw the puff pastry according to the package directions. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place two pieces of the puff pastry and roll with a rolling pin until the seam between the two merges.

With a sharp knife, score a line about half way through the depth of the puff pastry all around the sheet of pastry about 1/2 inch from the edge. Inside the scored line, dust the pastry with the grated Parmesan.

On top of the Parmesan dusted pastry, spread the caramelized onions evenly across the sheet. Slice your tomatoes and place them on top of the onions. Crumble the goat cheese over the top of the tomatoes. Sprinkle the basil across the top and then add the shaved Parmesan.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the top is too bubbly and golden to resist even one minute longer.

Eat hot or at room temperature.

How Facebook made me dinner

So I've been neglecting this blog a bit lately. I haven't been cooking enough to merit a big post, and when I have, I haven't really felt like typing out the recipe. And, I'm on a diet. I'm trying to get rid of some of this extra Laura I have hanging around here. I can't just drop it at Goodwill or post it on Freecycle, so I guess I have to do the work to get my body back.

Anyhow, the other day after dreaming of an old friend, actually dreaming of me and this friend at my wedding, I decided to look her up on Facebook. I found her, friended her and have spent the past few days perusing her amazing blogs. This friend just happens to be a photographer. One of her blogs is filled with photographs of celebrities, friends and other things, so stunning, so perfect, so...well, the whole thousand words more than applies here. And being a photographer of this significant level of talent would be enough for most people, but not this friend. She's also an outstanding cook. And she blogs about food. And photographs it. And this woman can write. All of this together makes me hungry.

So tonight, after reading this recipe, I modified it for my own dinner.

Romy's eggs, ala Laura

2 eggs
Trader Joe's Garlic and Herb Goat Cheese
a really ripe heirloom tomato
a little bit of shaved Parmesan cheese
fresh thyme
kosher salt
oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Oil a small oven safe bowl (Romy uses a ramekin, but I don't even own a ramekin). In the bottom of your bowl, place a slice of your juicy ripe tomato, crumble some of your goat cheese on top, then crack an egg over the top. On top of this add another slice of tomato, crumble some more goat cheese and crack your other egg on top. Add one more slice of tomato, more goat cheese, just enough Parmesan cheese to fleck the top of the bowl. As an afterthought I added a bit of fresh thyme. Why? Because if you have fresh thyme, you should.

Pop the bowl into your oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Then eat it and imagine you are having dinner with your buddy who inspired you to make this bowl of deliciousness. And it even keeps me on my diet!
Thanks Romy!

And that's what we call a pig in a dog, my friends

I make a lot of pizza dough. Really, it's kind of a problem. Except it isn't. I just tend to make a double batch when I mix it up and toss half in the freezer for an effort free dinner at some point in the future. All I have to do to get there is remember to put it in the refrigerator in the morning so it'll thaw and be ready to use at dinner time. Now that's the problem. I'm not good at that kind of planning. Ok, I'm great at it when it comes to work, but at home....not so much.

So Thursday morning I knew our former nanny was coming over for dinner. I also knew I had jury duty and would be in no shape to cook a real meal once I got home. With those two bits of knowledge on my side, I managed to toss three bags of frozen dough into the refrigerator before I left the house. One of them turned out to be doughnut dough...but that's a whole different story. And in the end, two bags of dough was too much. So we had one just laying around.

This morning Mr. Dog made breakfast, used the doughnut dough to make rolls...YUM! and this evening, he used to pizza dough to make another childhood favorite. Pig in a Blanket!
Though after he told Big Dog what he was making, Big Dog followed up by asking about his "Pig in a Dog" so I've renamed them, mostly because I can't quit laughing like a mentally impaired individual at this name.

Pig in a Dog

1 batch pizza dough
6 hot dogs (we used organic uncured turkey hot dogs, but if you live on the wild side feel free to go for any old hot dog you have handy)
cheese of your choosing (we used Swiss or goat cheese)

Roll the pizza dough out into a sheet about 1/2 inches thick. Cut into pieces about 4 inches by 7 inches. Wrap the dough around your hot dog and a slice of cheese. (technically mine just had goat cheese, no hot dog so keep that in mind as an option) Place on a baking sheet and cook at 375 for about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. My kids like katsup, but maybe yours like mustard or ranch dressing or something else for dipping.

Twists and turns on a Saturday afternoon

We've been busy today. I got the boys all pumped up to cook with me. I planned to make something easy for kids, but involved enough so we could make the better part of the day revolve around the process. I settled on Soft Pretzels.
I got the recipe from Alton Brown on the Food Network. I made a couple of modifications I've listed below and they were a giant hit. My only regret was that I only had one Guinness left in the fridge so I had to share with Mr. Dog.

Since the boys aren't big fans of mustard, I made a cheese dipping sauce for them. I used sharp cheddar and they gobbled it up. I opted for spicy brown mustard, which I could easily eat with nothing but a spoon. Love it.

Soft Pretzels ala Good Eats
1 1/2 cups warm water (I added 2 Tbsp more since I used white whole wheat flour)
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
22 oz (about 4 1/2 cups) white whole wheat flour (Alton used All Purpose flour)
2 oz butter, melted
Olive oil for the bowl and rolling surfaces
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk plus 1 Tbsp water mixed for an egg wash
pretzel or coarse sea salt.

In your stand mixer combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until it becomes foamy. Then add flour and butter and mix with the bread hook attachment for 5 minutes or until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Lightly oil the bowl and roll the ball of dough until all sides are lightly coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in a warm place until it doubles in size (about an hour).
In a big pot boil your 10 cups of water and baking soda.
Once the dough has doubled in size, cut it into 8 equal pieces. On a lightly oiled surface roll each out into a long rope about 2 feet long. Form your pretzel twist. I can't really walk you through that process, but if you kind of make a heart where the tail ends overlap then twist them over to form the center twist, that's about it.
Put the formed pretzels into the boiling baking soda water one at a time allowing each one to cook for about 30 second before taking them out. I used a slotted metal spatula to do this and it worked like a charm.
Place your boiled pretzels on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Paint on the egg wash and sprinkle with pretzel salt.
Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Alton says 12-14 but he must like eating charcoal.
After baking, cool for 5 minutes on a baking rack before serving.







Cheese Dipping Sauce
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup milk
4-6 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp spicy brown mustard

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour. Cook for about a minute then whisk in the milk. Cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Stir in the cheese, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Yep, that's it.