Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year, among many other blessings, I am thankful for good food, and family and friends who know their way around the kitchen so I don't have to cook it all.

Mom's Brown and Serve Wheat Germ Rolls
Butternut squash bisque
Whole berry cranberry sauce
Garlicky ginger cranberry relish
Green beans with lemon zest
Baked pearl onions
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes anna
Shaved brussels sprouts with lemon and hazelnuts
Frissee salad with pear, manchego and pomegranate seeds
Wild rice, lentil and mushroom timbales
Mushroom gravy
Chestnut stuffing
Tony's grandmother's bread stuffing with lemon zest and parsley
Turkey and turkey gravy
Pumpkin pie
Cranberry almond crostata

Happy Thanksgiving!

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posted by Caroline @ 4:50 PM  

Friday, November 21, 2008

Appetizer, Dinner, Dessert

The new season of Top Chef has begun, and Tony and I are once again glued to the couch on Wednesday nights. It took me a little while to get in to the show; the original host was fairly insipid, and the fact that you could only see, but not taste nor smell, the dishes seemed a fatal flaw. Still, we watched, because we do love to watch people cook, and seeing chefs handle challenges like assembling delicious-looking dishes out of vending machine purchases slowly won me over. I've even come around to the new host, Padma Lakshmi, who doesn't trumpet her cooking abilities but is more than just a pretty face -- she knows her stuff.

This week's challenge -- a pretty straightforward appetizer, dinner, dessert; no unusual requirements or last-minute restrictions-- had me shouting at the contestants. They're only two weeks into the show, sure, but this is the fifth season: surely they've watched it before? They should know better than to attempt a dish with an unfamiliar ingredient (ostrich egg quiche, anybody? You didn't have to taste it to know it was not a success.) They should know to ditch something and start over when they -- and all their fellow contestants -- think it's too sweet. I've never seen Padma spit something out into her napkin before, but she couldn't even swallow a bite of her lemon meringue martini with cherry surprise. Who can blame her, really? I'm not sure I would put anything called "surprise" in to my mouth.

Now I'm no Top Chef and have no aspirations to be, but I can find my way around the kitchen, and so can my Lisa, my coeditor over at Learning to Eat; recently we both happened to write about appetizer, dinner and dessert, so head on over there for some recipes. And in the meantime, I'll keep watching what those Top Chef contestants are up to.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:48 AM  

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas

When I switched blogs (over two years ago now!) I thought I would transfer all those old recipes over to this blog. Good intentions and all that. But this, an invention of Tony's is a good one (even though our kids won't eat it); it's a nice meal for crowds (it's very easy to scale up or down) or, as I'm doing tomorrow, to bring to a family who needs some meals in the freezer.


3 sweet potatoes, medium-sized
1 15 oz. can black beans
10-12 Flour tortillas
1 package jack cheese, grated (grate it as big as you want -- truly whatever is fastest and easiest... it's all going to get melted)
1 big (28-32 oz.) or 2 small (~15 oz.) cans of plain tomato sauce (just not "Italian flavored)
1 jar of salsa ... thinner is actually better than thicker -- I use "Mrs. Renfro's" which is in a lot of supermarkets
(or if you find a can of "enchilada sauce" that would be fine too)
ground cumin
dash of cayenne pepper or hot sauce, if desired



Peel 3 medium sweet potatoes. Cut them into large chunks and boil them until you can easily stick a fork in them. You're going to mash these, so they're pretty forgiving.

Drain the water, and put them back in the pot or into a big bowl. Mash the potatoes well, with a fork or potato masher.

Drain most of the water from a can of black beans and add them to the sweet potatoes

Add a liberal amount of cumin (maybe 2-3 tablespoons? Start with two and you can taste it and add more if you like )

If you're so inclined, you could add a little heat -- a dash of hot sauce or cayenne pepper. That's the filling.


The sauce I usually just make from plain old canned tomato sauce (since it really kind of wants to be thin... not all homestyle-y like a good homemade pasta sauce). But you do want some kind of mexican flavor in there... so essentially I just spike it with something...

Some salsa from a jar (Mrs. Renfros, enchilada sauce, or some other not-too-chunky salsa) It doesn't need a ton --just a little something, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cup. As far as quantity goes, for a big dish of enchiladas, you probably want like a 32 ounce can of sauce to start with. That's the sauce. NOTE: you don't even have to cook this... just mix the plain tomato sauce and whatever you're spiking it with into a bowl.

Then it's just putting filling into flour tortillas (I'm sure corn would be great, too, but we usually do flour just for size, if no other reason) -- maybe 1/4 cup or so... add a little bit of grated cheese (jack is what we usually use), roll 'em up and tuck them in real close to each other in a big rectangular baking dish with the seam down.

It's nice to have a tight fit... sometimes I use baking dish that's a little smaller than the tortillas and just slice of 1/2 inch from two sides of the tortillas to "square them off" --but that's not really necessary. Pour the sauce over and around... add some more grated cheese on top.

You can easily split this into two pans if need be... I probably get maybe 8 enchiladas in a big baking dish.

Then just bake it until it's nice and bubbly... maybe 30-40 minutes at 350 or so... it's all cooked, so you really just need to get it nice and hot.

I usually start with it covered with foil and then sometimes finish it with a few minutes under the broiler to let the cheese get nice and brown. The broiler's not necessary, but you could at least just take the foil off for the last 5 minutes or so.

---------------------
We usually have this with Slammin' Rice -- a really simple spanish/mexican rice.

I'm showing 3 cups of rice here, which is a lot... good if you're serving 8.


3 cups plain-old white rice... ideally medium or long-grain rather than short grain like you might use for chinese food.
1/2 onion chopped fine
1-2 cloves garlic chopped fine (if you want)
olive oil
3 cups veggie stock
2 1/2 cups plain tomato sauce (just like above for the enchiladas)
1/2 cup "thin" salsa, enchilada sauce, Mrs. Renfro's -- again same as above... you're just "spiking" the plain tomato sauce with a little flavor.

(the key is 6 cups liquid for 3 cups rice... and you're essentially doing half veggie stock and half spicy tomato sauce...)

So, this starts out like risotto, but just gets a lot easier because you don't have to stir. Essentially you're just making plain rice with 1/2 stock and 1/2 tomato sauce instead of water.

In a good size pot, saute the onion in olive oil (medium heat) until it starts to get brown. Add the garlic, if you're using it and just saute that for a minute. You might need to add a touch more oil when you put the garlic in so it doesn't stick.

Add the rice to the onion and garlic... stir them together and cook for 15-20 seconds.

Add all the liquid: stock, tomato sauce, and whatever you're using to spike it (the key is to use 6 cups liquid total)

Cover the pot, turn the heat to medium high until it starts to boil, give it a good stir (Scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon and make sure nothing's stuck) and then turn the heat really low and cook for 20 minutes with the lid on.

After 20 minutes, take the lid off, give it a good stir and scrape and see if the rice is cooked. If it seems like it needs a little more time that's fine... once the rice is all cooked you can just leave this on the stove with the lid on and it will stay hot for awhile.


You can garnish this with the obvious -- sour cream, guacamole, chopped cilantro -- whatever sounds good.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:32 PM  

Monday, May 19, 2008

Granola today

I've been making granola weekly for over two years now, ever since Trader Joe's discontinued my favorite fruit & nut combo. I started with a recipe from Nigella Lawson's Feast, which I posted over on the old blog, and then I posted my adaptation here, but I keep changing it (continuing to cut down the sugar, and adding more seeds and grains) so it's time once again for an update! Besides, Gail asked me so nicely.

6 c rolled oats and/or raw multigrain cereal flakes (Trader Joe's carries a nice barley-oat-rye-wheat flake mix that I use)
2 c raw slivered almonds
1 c raw pumpkin seeds
1 c raw sesame seeds
1 c raw sunflower seeds
1/2 c ground flax meal
1/2 c wheat germ
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 scant c honey, rice syrup, maple syrup, or some combination thereof (I use half brown rice syrup and half honey)

Preheat oven to 320. Stir together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. Add the oil and honey or syrup, and combine well. Pour into two large, lightly oiled baking pans (I use two metal roasting pans) and bake for 45 minutes, stirring two or three times along the way. Remove from the oven then cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:48 PM  

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Strawberry-Rhubarb Spoonbread for Spring


I'm not sure I'd make this again -- somehow it used every mixing bowl in the cupboard -- but it tasted great, and looks beautiful. I think next time I'll just make the compote to serve on biscuits or with cookies.

Here's the recipe, as published originally in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Serves 8

The compote
* 1 pound rhubarb, cut into 1-inch chunks
* 2/3 cup sugar, or more to taste
* 1 pound strawberries, hulled, cut in half and sliced
* -- Lemon juice, to taste

The spoonbread
* 2 cups diced strawberries (from about 3/4 pound fruit)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 3 cups milk
* 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
* 6 tablespoons butter, softened
* 6 eggs, separated
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* -- Whipped cream for serving

For the compote: In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, cook rhubarb with 1/3 cup sugar, stirring occasionally, until fruit is softened, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, toss the strawberries with the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and set aside to macerate while the rhubarb is cooking. When the rhubarb is done, combine with the strawberries, and add lemon juice to taste.

For the spoonbread: Preheat oven to 375°. Generously butter a large oval souffle dish or 13-by-9-inch baking dish.

Toss the strawberries with 1/4 cup of the sugar, and set aside to macerate.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, scald the milk until it is just about to boil. Whisk in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cornmeal in a steady stream, and continue to whisk constantly until the mixture is smooth and thickened, about 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Mix in butter while the cornmeal mixture is still warm. Set aside and cool to room temperature.

Beat egg yolks lightly and whisk into the cornmeal mixture along with the baking powder, salt. Combine well. Fold in the strawberries and their juice.

In a clean bowl of a stand mixer, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in a quarter of the egg whites to lighten the batter, then fold in the remainder. Spoon into prepared dish and bake until golden and puffy, about 40-45 minutes.

Serve with the compote and whipped cream.

Per serving: 435 calories, 11 g protein, 63 g carbohydrate, 16 g fat (9 g saturated), 195 mg cholesterol, 407 mg sodium, 5 g fiber.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:46 PM  

Friday, January 25, 2008

Roasted Sweet Potato & Leek Pasta for a Winter Night

I found this recipe in Real Simple (where I also snagged the picture because we ate ours all up before I could get out the camera). So although I'll link to the original since that might be easier to print, I've made some changes below: roasting the sweet potato rather than sauteeing it (it takes longer, but it's no more effort, and I think it tastes better), and also deglazing the pan with some white wine.

Of course, only Tony and I ate it as written; Ben ate his pasta sprinkled with nuts, the sweet potatoes on the side, and Eli, having rejected the sweet potatoes and the leeks, ate pasta with grated cheese and sprinkled nuts, but at least we all ate versions of the same thing. I'll call that a success!

2-3 small sweet potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces, or an equal amount of winter squash, peeled and diced

12 ounces penne (whole wheat or multigrain pasta is especially nice here)

3 leeks (white and light green parts), cut into half-moons
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 T white wine
3-4 T olive oil
1 or 2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped

salt and pepper
toasted pumpkin seeds or slivered almonds
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400 while you peel and chop the sweet potatoes or squash. Oil a roasting pan and toss the sweet potatoes/squash in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil and some of the chopped sage. Roast the vegetables, turning once or twice, for 15 minutes, or until tender and caramelized.

While the vegetables are roasting, bring a big pot of water to boil and cook the pasta. When it's done, drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

While the pasta's cooking, heat a couple tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and a bit of sage and cook 2 minutes. Add the white wine and cook another minute or two.

At this point, you can turn off the heat under the leeks until the pasta and roasted vegetables are finished. Once all three elements of the dish are cooked, add the pasta and roasted vegetables to the leeks in the skillet, add the sprinkle of nutmeg and stir, adding a bit of the pasta-cooking water if it seems too dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with grated parmesan and the slivered almonds and/or pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top.

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posted by Caroline @ 9:46 AM  

Friday, December 14, 2007

Salted Chocolate-Pecan Toffee


This was a fine way to end a busy week, or start a busy weekend. Ben and Eli both helped, Ben marveling at how much sugar the recipe called for, and both boys loving the sight of me wearing heavy-duty work gloves when it was time to stir the vanilla into the boiling sugar (somehow we don't have oven mitts). When I asked Tony if he wanted a taste (we'll give most of it away) he said, "Are you kidding? I saw everyone in my family throw a stick of butter into the pot. Yeah, I want a taste." I've never made candy before, but it turns out to be a lot less work than an equal amount of cookies, and needless to say, it's plenty delicious. We might be trying out some more recipes during this holiday baking season. Stay tuned.

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posted by Caroline @ 10:41 PM  

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Ben's Whole Wheat Bread

Ben's been reading cookbooks lately, really reading them, like bedtime stories. After our bedtime routine of two picture books and a chapter of (currently) A Cricket in Times Square, Ben reads aloud to Eli, who is very patient about being read to sleep with recipes for pesto and salad dressing (though I do sometimes wonder how this affects his dreams).

And because Ben's a reading and writing kind of guy, it didn't surprise me that reading cookbooks would lead him to write out recipes, but now he's also starting to invent his own. He didn't get very innovative with his recipes for guacamole or roasted potatoes (both of which he made for the extended family over Thanksgiving), but the other day he wrote out a recipe for bread that he's been begging me to help him make.

I was torn. On the one hand, I want to encourage his kitchen adventures. On the other, it just didn't look like a recipe that would turn out very well. I didn't want him to be disappointed, and I didn't want to waste food. So we sat down and compared his recipe to a similar one from his cookbook, we talked about the chemistry of baking, and we talked about not wasting food. He took it all in very seriously, but was ultimately not swayed. He wanted to bake his bread recipe, as written. So we did, and I'm happy to report, it turned out just fine -- a nice, wheaty soda bread. So here's the recipe, exactly as Ben wrote it, with my comments in brackets.

Whole-Wheat Bread

You'll Need
¾ c + ½ c whole-wheat flour
½ c warm water
1/3 c cornmeal
1 package (1/4 ounce) dry yeast [not really doing anything in the recipe, so you could cut it]
3 tablespoons + ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons + ¼ teaspoons wheat germ
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter [I talked Ben down from a full cup of butter, so we used 1/2 cup, melted]

Equipment
Measuring cups & spoons
Bread pan
Cooling rack

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Measure the flour, cornmeal & butter into the bread pan
Add the yeast and salt
Now add the water, sugar, baking soda & baking powder
Add the wheat germ
Bake up to ½ hour [it took exactly half an hour. This surprised me almost more than how good the bread tasted]

Note: This bread will taste good with some raspberry jam (page 77) [a reference to the jam recipe still to come in his hypothetical cookbook]

Edited to add: we ultimately halved the recipe (which delighted my fraction-loving boy) so a full recipe might need to bake longer than half an hour. Bake until the top is browned and a tester comes out clean.

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posted by Caroline @ 3:26 PM  

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ben's Chocolate Honey Cake

Eli and Ben were both very busy in the play kitchen today before dinner. Eli was making "salad," tossing the wooden vegetables into the salad spinner, and then sitting on the plunger to make the thing spin with his butt (I use a different salad spinner).

Ben was making cake, which he presented to me with a flourish, and then offered to write the recipe out for me. I don't have a picture of the cake, because I was given an empty loaf pan from which to taste, but here's the recipe. Enjoy!


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posted by Caroline @ 11:28 PM  

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Breakfast, or Art Project?


Now that weekday breakfasts are a rush job, I'm savoring our lazy weekend mornings and looking forward, throughout the week, to making special breakfasts. Yesterday, we made pancake faces, inspired by a picture in a magazine my parents gave to Ben. Both boys took turns measuring ingredients and of course were fascinated by seeing what happened to the egg whites after a few minutes in the KitchenAid (No, you don't normally separate the eggs for pancakes. Yes, the pancakes turned out to be particularly light and delicious for the extra effort. No, I won't be doing it this way again!) We made the faces with banana chunks, shredded coconut, dried blueberries, grapes, orange slices and apple slices. It made a big mess, but everyone left the table happy.

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posted by Caroline @ 12:44 PM  

Friday, September 14, 2007

Family Sushi Night


Why didn't we do this sooner? Recently I noticed a few moms handing out sheets of toasted nori to their kids and was reminded what a good snack it is; plus, we go out for sushi every month or so -- why not make it at home?

We used:
2 c cooked short grain white rice, tossed with rice vinegar, sugar and salt
one slivered avocado
one slivered carrot
one slivered cucumber
2 slivered sweet potatoes, roasted with sesame oil and soy sauce
1/4 lb shitake mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in a bit of sesame oil
2 eggs scrambled with a bit of rice vinegar

I meant to fry up some tofu, too, but forgot. No matter--we had plenty of fillings, and even some leftover. Making sushi with two kids is a bit of an art project, but they ate a ton and are already dreaming of creative sushi fillings for next time (roasted broccoli! spinach! edamame!)
It's a good, cheap dinner that everybody likes.

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posted by Caroline @ 7:24 PM  

Friday, August 24, 2007

My Son Cooked Dinner

Let's say it again, shall we? My son cooked dinner! And for those of you who are new here, or maybe just a bit inattentive, I'll point out that he's five.

Hats off to the Spatulatta girls, who provided the inspiration and recipes.

The menu: rigatoni with pesto, sauteed spinach (ok, Tony made that), and chocolate covered bananas.

Eli kept marveling, "No Da-da make dinner. No Mama make dinner. Mama hehp Buh-buh make dinner. Buh-buh make dinner!" And Ben was a very proud chef, indeed, telling Tony, "You're not going to believe how delicious this is, Daddy!"

And indeed it was.

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posted by Caroline @ 2:51 PM  

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Scenes from Spatulatta


Well, the arrived earlier this week and the kids are eating it up. This is not the first kid's cookbook we've encountered; in fact, among the over one hundred cookbooks on my kitchen shelf, five are for children. We've got the classic, Mollie Katzen's sweetly illustrated ; we've got Linda Collister's beautifully photographed , plus the retro-looking , by Tina Davis. We've got my childhood favorite, , which is full of recipes to make for your dolls and stuffed animals in the backyard. And then we've got a real treasure, Michel Oliver's , with an introduction by Jean Cocteau. This was given to Tony by his grandmother, and is inscribed thus:

"This is to mark your very first birthday--and I hope you will emulate your Mamma and Papa in the preparation of gourmet foods--I will look forward to your first efforts--and I hope it will be a souffle--that's my favorite."

Nothing like setting a child's sights high! (And in fact, with such familial encouragement, Tony embarked on a culinary career that included, as a kid, chicken kiev and lemon meringue pie, and now covers most of our family dinners). We don't use this cookbook much -- it weighs about ten pounds, for one thing -- but I love a cookbook for kids that includes such basics as coq au vin, pain perdu and sauce bechamel.

We use all these cookbooks, but what sets Spatulatta apart is that it is written by kids, the two girls behind the Spatulatta website, Isabella and Olivia Gerasole. As a serious cookbook reader, I was worried that this might translate into some cutesy, written-by-adults-to-sound-like-kids tone, but that's not the result at all. The recipes are peppered with little comments like "Pretty neat, huh?" and "This is the fun, slimy part..." and Ben, a brand new cookbook reader (let alone reader) was delighted at these remarks aimed at him. I like that each step in a recipe is explained clearly enough for a five year old to understand, with cooking terms marked in bold and keyed to a glossary in the back. It's a smart cookbook, too, with its spiral-bound, coated pages that wipe clean, tabbed section dividers and plenty of room to write in notes. The people who designed it know what they're doing.

In our first 3 days with this cookbook, we made Extra E-Z Fudge, Heart-in-Hand Cookies, and Berry Dip & Roll, which were all a tremendous success and are not at all a representative sampling of the recipes in the book, which are seasonally organized and include a nice section of vegetarian recipes. I let Ben call the shots, and he went for the sweets; we'll get to the Bunny Salad, Black Bean Chili, and other healthier choices another day. The one surprising omission from the cookbook, I think, is breakfast! Pancakes, french toast, and muffins tend to be a staple of most kid's cookbooks, for good reason: they're simple and plenty good for you. Spatulatta leans more toward lunch and dinner foods, when I'm less inclined to think of involving the kids in the cooking in favor of getting a meal on the table promptly. But of course, the more I include the kids in the kitchen, the less of an art project cooking will be for them, so I like that Spatulatta will help nudge us this direction. My kids, at 5 and 2, are definitely younger than the target Spatulatta audience, but this cookbook will grow with them, and I'm looking forward to the meals along the way.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:37 PM  

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Pasta with Fresh Corn and Shitake Mushrooms

We have Tony to thank for this recipe; he was inspired by the fabulous corn and shitake side dish served at the Slanted Door, and turned it into a dinner (with some carmelized tofu) that the whole family loved.

Pasta with Fresh Corn and Shitake Mushrooms

4 ears corn, removed from the cob
12 oz. shitake mushrooms
1 lb short pasta (campanelle or something ideally with a little "scoop" to it... orecchiette would also be good)
2-3 stalks lemongrass (optional, but good)
1 "thumb" of fresh ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
soy sauce
peanut or canola oil
ground black pepper to taste

Sauce
1 ounce soy sauce
2 ounces sherry
2 tsp sesame oil
6 ounces veggie stock
1 1/2 tbsp. corn starch, dissolved in a little water


Put up a big pot of water to boil for the pasta.

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a Pyrex measuring cup -- total liquid should be just a little more than a cup.

Trim the stems off the mushrooms and wipe off any excess dirt with a paper towel. Slice the mushrooms into 1/4 inch strips.

Take the lemongrass stalks and cut them into 1 inch pieces. Crush the pieces with the handle of your knife.

Add the pasta to the water and cook as directed by the box, testing frequently.

Heat about a tbsp of oil over medium high heat in a large skillet and add the mushrooms. Stir them often. After a few minutes they'll start to give off some liquid and reduce in size. Add the lemongrass, if using. After another few minutes, add all the garlic and half of the ginger and stir constantly for another minute or two. Add a generous dash of soy sauce, stir vigorously for about 10 seconds and remove to a bowl.

Add another tbsp of oil to the pan, and when it's hot, add the corn, stirring frequently. Cook for just a minute or two.

While the corn cooks, pick out the lemongrass stalks from the mushrooms and discard.

Add the remaining ginger and black pepper to the corn if desired. Cook for about another minute, and as with the mushrooms, add a dash of soy sauce and stir vigorously for 10 seconds. Return the mushrooms to the pan just to get them hot again.

Pour in the sauce and cook for just another 30 seconds until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it well and return it to the pot. Add the corn and mushroom mixture and the cilantro to the pasta and combine thoroughly.

Enjoy!

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posted by Caroline @ 12:09 PM  

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Pizza Dough


This is the best recipe I've made yet for pizza that you grill; try it out!

1 1/4 oz envelope yeast (or 2 1/4 t)
3/4 c warm water
1 3/4 c flour
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t olive oil

Stir the yeast, 1 T flour, and 1/4 c warm water together in a small bowl and let sit until it's bubbled up and creamy-looking, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 c flour and the salt; then add the yeast, oil and remaining 1/2 c water. Stir until smooth.

Stir in enough additional flour (about 1/2c) so that the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, then turn it onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Let rise on a generously floured surface until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/4 hours (or stick it in the fridge, in a bowl, and let rise all day; bring to room temperature before shaping).

When you're ready to shape the dough, don't punch it down but dredge it in flour and then hold it up with both hands moving around the circle of dough like a steering wheel, letting gravity pull the dough down. Once it's stretched to about 7" around, lay it on a well-floured board or pizza peel and stretch it out to about 9".

Let the dough rest 10-20 minutes before grilling.

When you're ready to make pizza, preheat the grill on high for 5-10 minutes, then oil well. Slide the dough onto the grill and bake until browned on the bottom (about 5 minutes). Remove from the grill, turn the dough over, and put your toppings on the grilled side. Now turn the grill down to medium, slide the topped pizza dough back on to the grill, and close the grill to cook the pizza. Check after 5 minutes, and continue grilling till the cheese is bubbly and the bottom of the crust is browned.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:06 AM  

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Kids in the Kitchen


I am all about encouraging kids to cook, to experiment with food, to hang out in the kitchen with me as much as possible. This often means creating a big mess, but I think the long-term gains (kids with healthy attitudes about food) are worth it. At the moment, my boys eat well, have strong opinions about food, and are happy to watch the Food Network with me when we fly on JetBlue. So far, so good.

So I was happy to learn about Spatulatta, a cooking show by and for kids. It's not on network tv yet, just on the web, but they're aiming more broadly. It's a sweet show, with recipes and videos demonstrating essential kitchen skills, from separating an egg to arranging a Mother's Day breakfast tray! If you agree that the show offers good, educational entertainment for kids, click on the survey at the website; the results may help them get their own PBS show!

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posted by Caroline @ 1:01 PM  

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Triple Citrus Poppy Seed Coffee Cake

I haven't posted an actual recipe in a while, and this is a delicious one. It's based on one I tore out of a Martha Stewart Living a few years ago, and it doesn't seem to be on her website any more so I'm doing you all an enormous favor by posting a simplified version of the recipe here. My main edit is to change the ridiculous first ingredient, which she list as "1 5/8 cups (13 tablespoons) butter" -- as if either of those measurements are at all simple to calculate. Further, you actually only need one stick of butter in the dough; the remaining tablespoons of butter are added at various points -- to grease the bowl, to brush the dough before its rise, to brush on the loaves before their rise. And you can take or leave those. In fact, you could just grease the bowl with the butter wrapper and be done with it. Next time I make this, I'm going to leave the egg yolks out of the filling (mostly because it's annoying to have 2 leftover egg whites), and I'll report back on how that works.

For the dough:
½ c warm water
2 T active dry yeast (2 envelopes)
1 t sugar

½ c butter, melted and cooled (plus some more to grease the bowl)
2/3 c sugar
1 c orange juice
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lime
zest of 1 orange
1 t salt
5-6 c flour

For the filling:
1 pound cream cheese (room temperature)
1 c confectioner’s sugar
2 egg yolks
2 t vanilla
1 c dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dried currants (or a mix)
2/3 c poppy seeds

For the egg wash:
1 lightly beaten egg

Stir together the water, yeast and 1 t sugar in a large bowl until yeast dissolves. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Now whisk in oj, eggs, remaining 2/3 c sugar, melted butter, zests and salt. Stir in flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and forms a ball.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until just slightly sticky, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a buttered bowl and turn so that the dough is lightly coated with butter. Loosely cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, either at room temperature (about 1 ½ hours) or in the refrigerator overnight.

Meanwhile, stir together cream cheese, egg yolks, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add poppy seeds and dried berries. Set aside (at room temp or in the fridge, wherever your dough is).

When you’re ready to shape and bake the coffee cakes, butter 2 baking sheets and set aside.

Punch down dough and divide in half. Roll out one half into an 11 x 15” rectangle. Spread half the filling evenly over the dough, leaving a 1” border. Beginning at one long side, tightly roll dough into a log, encasing the filling. Pinch seam to seal. Carefully transfer log to baking sheet. With a sharp knife, make cuts about 2” apart along one long side of the log, cutting just three-quarters of the way across. Lift the first segment, turn it cut side up, and lay it flat on the baking sheet. Repeat with the next segment, twisting it so it sits on the opposite side of the roll. Continue down the log, alternating sides.

Roll out, fill and cut remaining dough.

Preheat oven to 350. Loosely cover dough and let rise until almost doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes. Brush dough with egg wash, avoiding the filling. Bake until cooked through and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Carefully slide coffee cakes onto wire racks, and let cool completely before slicing.

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posted by Caroline @ 6:46 PM  

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Recipics


I'm not sure these text-free recipe diagrams would work for me; after all, after however many years, I still don't understand what those little laundry labels in my clothes mean. I am definitely a word person, not an image person. But the pictures are appealing; I could imagine a poster decorating my kitchen wall...
Meanwhile, the designer is apparently still working out some of the bugs in this system: "The ingredients are still a work in progress," she said in the New York Times; "For example, it's hard to explain the difference between flour, baking powder, anthrax and cocaine without words."
OK! Let me know when you work that out...

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posted by Caroline @ 7:14 AM  

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Muffins Waiting


One of the (many) reasons we renovated our house last year was because our little Edwardian, with all its chair rails and moldings, didn't have much open wall space for Tony's late father's enormous paintings. Now, we've been able to hang several of the fabulous, gorgeous canvases... but as it turns out, Ben needs plenty of display space, too. He's taken to taping his pictures (right now it's all trains, all the time) to the half-wall over his art table, to doors, and now to the front window.
On the far right, you see an Amtrak train ("toot!!" it says,) its pantograph carefully connecting it to the electric wires above. The sign on the bottom says simply, "Ben Love Tony." And this morning's addition, after we'd baked banana coconut muffins, welcomed friends for a playdate: "Muffins Waiting."

I'm so happy to live in this house!

(a note about the muffins: you can replace half the butter with 3/4 c ground flax seed and feel virtuous about eating two or three...)

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posted by Caroline @ 2:16 PM  

Monday, April 30, 2007

Chocolate Honey Cake


For my honey, of course, on his birthday.
This is Nigella Lawson's chocolate honey cake (scroll way down for the recipe), from the chocolate cake hall of fame in Feast. It's moist and rich, you can mix it all in the food processor, and those little marzipan-almond wing bees are fun to make, like edible play-doh (Wait, says Eli, play-doh isn't edible?). And they taste good, too.

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posted by Caroline @ 5:36 PM  

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Gougeres (Cheese Puffs!)


These are just easy and good.

1/2 c butter (1 stick)
1 c water
1 c flour
5 eggs
1 c grated gruyere
1/2 c grated parmesan
2 t dijon mustard
fresh black pepper

Preheat oven to 425.
Heat butter and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted and mixture comes to a simmer.
Turn heat to low, add flour and stir until mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the pan (about a minute).
Remove pan from heat and add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each (dough will separate at first, but keep stirring and it will form a smooth paste).
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Drop mixture in heaping tablespoonfuls onto 2 greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. (At this point you can freeze them until you're ready to bake).
Bake until puffed and brown, about 30 minutes. Cut slits in sides of puffs, return to oven and lower the heat to 350. Bake 10 minutes more.

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posted by Caroline @ 4:24 PM  

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

MotherTalk: the food!


I will post recipes as I've got time, but here for now is a list of what I served; I should have taken a picture, since it all looked so pretty spread out on the table, but here instead is a picture of the cleared-off table the next morning...

brownies
apricot crumble bars
pistachio-cranberry cookies
spiced nuts
cheese gougeres
white bean-pesto spread
hummus
cheese, crackers, baguette
satsumas

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posted by Caroline @ 7:25 AM  

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A Good Day (with biscuits!)

A bad day can always be redeemed with biscuits, although who's going to make themselves biscuits at the end of a rough day? Until I learn the biscuit recipe that involves melted butter and no rolling pin (Libby?), not me.

But today was a good day, and that included time to roast artichokes and then, when I saw the beautiful ripe strawberries in our produce box, make biscuits for a strawberry short cake.

2 c flour
1 t salt
1 T sugar
2 1/2 t baking powder
4 T cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 c cold shortening, cut into small cubes (didn't notice this until transcribing the recipe just now, left it out, and the biscuits came out just fine...)
1/2 c cold milk, half and half, or cream
1 egg

Using a food processor, mix the dry ingredients. Add the butter (and shortening, if you remember), and pulse a couple of times until the mixture has the texture of coarse grain. In a small bowl, beat the egg into the milk (the fattier the milk you use, the richer the biscuit), then add to the mixture in the food processor and pulse again until the dough just starts to come together.

Turn the dough out on to a floured dough and knead just a couple times, to bring the dough together. Now shape it into a roughly 6" x 6" square, approximately 1/4" thick, and roll across the top once or twice with a rolling pin to smooth it out. Wrap in plastic, and freeze for an hour.

Toward the end of the hour, start preheating the oven to 400. Take the dough out of the freezer, unwrap it, and slice with a very sharp knife (so that the biscuits will rise well) into 9 2" squares. Put the squares on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.

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posted by Caroline @ 10:02 PM  

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Lemon Cake

I keep experimenting with recipes that use whole lemons (peel, pith and all) and having made this twice now (once for my parents, once for my sister and her family, so both times for excellent baking critics!) I think this Meyer Lemon Cake is a winner. You boil the lemons (regular ones or the milder Meyer variety) for thirty minutes or so and then seed and puree them so that you don't have any big chunks of peel, just lots of intense lemon flavor in a moist cake which uses ground almonds in place of most of the flour.

Try it and let me know what you think!

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posted by Caroline @ 10:03 AM  

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

What We Did On Our Vacation

OK, technically only my parents were on vacation, but what with Ben's birthday and all, it began to feel like we were all on break. Which is really not so bad (except that I need to be writing my next column right now...)

So this is what we did:

Read many different books, including The Gypsy Madonna; Special Topics in Calamity Physics; What is the What; Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq; slave narratives; and Cold Mountain (all of us, though mostly my parents);

Read one book, , over and over (Eli, with his patient granddad);

Read one other book, The Daylight Limited, over and over (Ben, with Tony and me);

Bake (me! Cooks Illustrated's Best Chocolate Layer Cake, which is more complicated and less delicious than Chocolate Carrot Cake and therefore won't be made around here again; the fabulous and easy Apricot Crumbles; my new favorite lemon dessert, Meyer Lemon Cake; and brownies);

Add words to our vocabulary (Eli: "cake" and "dessert");

Add lines to our epic poem, even at the playground (Dad, who is working on a paraquel to Beyond Beowulf);

Learn to play catch (Eli, with his granddad);

Build with his new lego sets (Ben);

Look at old family photos;

Take more family photos;

Make plans for the next visit.

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posted by Caroline @ 9:13 PM  

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Day Three

It's always a good day when you get to visit two bookstores and eat a nice dinner out.

My parents have visited San Francisco often enough that they don't need to travel the tourist circuit at all. Instead, there are a couple bookstores that always require a stop, and since we are celebrating a big birthday soon, we even had a legitimate excuse to spend money.

In the evening, the boys' beloved caregiver came over and the adults went out for a fine meal at the lovely Woodward's Garden. This restaurant has been on my radar since I first moved to San Francisco, and I'd never eaten there before! It was worth the wait. Nothing fancy, nothing stacked or foamed (and thank goodness, really), but all of it -- from the seared scallops with celery and jerusalem artichoke puree, to the truffled mushroom risotto, to the chocolate ganache-bosc pear tart--was creative and delicious.

Today, we're off to the farmer's market to find today's dinner, and then, tonight, the birthday feast cooking begins in earnest!

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posted by Caroline @ 7:12 AM  

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Day One

The grandparents (my parents) arrived today and everybody is very happy.

Ben made a sign (spelling all the words himself!) that said "Welcome to California! I love you! Love Ben!" and has a picture of a train with a heart on it. After dinner, he lured his granddad up to his bedroom to talk trains and build Lincoln Log structures.

Eli clutched his picture of the six of us (from my parents' last visit here) and ran back and forth from his Grandma to his Granddad, pointing out everyone in the photograph to them very carefully. He's added two new words to his vocabulary: Gu-guh and Guh-gah. Context is all with Eli, because those same words also refer to granola, Grover, and Gordo's Taqueria. We'll try not to get confused.

And I made dinner! Which I do often enough, but my parents give me an excuse to try breaking out of the "pasta with ..." rut. Tonight it was risotto with balsamic glazed mushrooms, a green salad, and braised pears with caramel sauce. Mmmm.

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posted by Caroline @ 8:18 PM  

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Yeasted Sugar Cake

How could I not make this cake? It has 3 of my Top 5 Favorite Food Words in its name! (The other two, for the record, are glazed and chocolate.) And I'm sorry I didn't think to take a picture before we'd eaten half, but here it is anyway, in all its crackling-sugar-crusted glory. Yum.

I thought to make this after last week's olive oil cake, the recipe I could have (but didn't) find in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone; I was reminded that she's got some nice looking cake recipes in that cookbook. Which I've never tried! So now I'm going to try them all (there are only five, so it's a much easier project than baking one's way through Nigella's chocolate cake hall of fame, a chocolate-y journey in which I am stalled, because of the chocolate fruit cake, half way through...)

Anyway, this is a very nice cake. It's really not terribly sweet, and because of the yeast and eggs, it turns out tasting rather breakfasty, which is to my mind an excellent quality in a cake. I think maybe next time I'll stir it together in the evening, let it do the first rise in the fridge over night, and then bake it in the morning. It is the kind of cake you want to serve with something, though. I made an orange compote, which was good but would have been better if I hadn't been so lazy about cutting away all the pith. Warmed-up raspberry or blueberry jam would make a fine sauce for this, and a dollop of whipped cream wouldn't hurt, either.

The Cake
2 1/4 t yeast (1 envelope)
1/4 c sugar
2 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 c warm milk
2 eggs room temperature
4 T butter, at room temperature

other nice additions to stir in with the eggs: 1 tsp lemon or orange zest and 1/2 t vanilla; or 1/2 t crushed anise; or 1/2 c ground almonds and/or a drop of almond extract

The Topping
2 T butter, softened
1/4 c light brown sugar

Stir the yeast and 1 t of the sugar into 1/4 c warm water and let stand until foamy (about 10 minutes). Whisk together the flour, remaining sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast, milk, and eggs and beat until smooth. Add the butter and beat vigorously until the batter is silky. Scrape down the sides, cover, and let rise till doubled, about 45 minutes.

Lightly butter a 9" tart or cake pan. Stir down the dough. Now Deborah Madison tells you to turn the dough out onto a floured counter, shape it into a disk, and place it in the pan. My dough was, well, it was batter -- way too runny to handle like that. So I just poured it into the pan and it was fine. Either way, once the dough/batter is in the pan, dot or spread the top with the softened butter, sprinkle the whole with the brown sugar, and then let rise for 30 minutes. During the last 15 minutes, preheat oven to 400.

Bake the cake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes; the surface should be covered with cracks. Let cool briefly, then unmold and serve, still a bit warm, with fruit and ice or whipped cream.

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posted by Caroline @ 10:53 PM  

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Fried Egg Pasta

Tony and I found this recipe in the Sunday Times magazine a few years ago; the first time we made it, we realized halfway through that neither of us really knew how to fry eggs! A quick consult with Irma rectified that situation, and now this is a standard part of the dinner repertoire. It’s particularly quick if you happen to have roasted red peppers and capers in your pantry.

2 red bell peppers
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1/4 c finely chopped parsley
3 tbsp bread crumbs
1 lb spaghetti
5 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
grated parmesan

Roast the peppers, peel and slice into thin strips.

In a small baking dish, combine peppers, capers, garlic and parsley. Season with salt &pepper. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top. Set aside until you’re ready to finish the dish (ie, this can sit all day…)

Bring pasta water to boil and preheat oven to 350.

Drizzle pepper mixture with 2tbsp olive oil and bake 10 minutes, while pasta cooks.

While pasta’s boiling and pepper mixture is heating, fry 2 eggs, sunny side up, until whites are set but yolks are still runny.

Drain pasta and pour it into large serving bowl. Toss in baked peppers & eggs, using a couple forks to break up the egg.

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posted by Caroline @ 10:35 AM  

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Banana Bread Now

Banana bread is just one of those things... I'm always making it (there's just not much else to do with an overripe banana), but I'm always looking for a new recipe. On our first, blind, date (a hike on Mt Tamalpais), I impressed Tony with an orange-flavored banana bread. Then for a while I was making it with mini chocolate chips. Recently, I spotted a recipe in The Baker's Dozen cookbook and had to give it a try. It's good, although I knew that with all that butter and sugar, it wouldn't make it into the repertoire without some changes. So I give you the original (very decadent and delicious), and my revised version (just as delicious, slightly less decadent). The recipe makes 2 loaves, but is easily halved.

Kona Inn Banana Bread

4-6 ripe bananas (about 2 cups, mashed)
2 1/2 c flour (I used 1 c white, 1 c whole wheat, and 1/2 c wheat germ)
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 c sugar (I used 1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 c shortening (I used butter, and will try reducing that next)
4 eggs
1 c chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease 2 8" x 4" loaf pans.

Mash the bananas in a medium bowl until pretty smooth.

Whisk the flour(s), baking soda, and salt into another bowl.

Using the flat whisk in a stand mixer, mix the sugar and butter well to make a stiff paste (you can also do this by hand, of course). Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the mashed banana. Stir in the walnuts, if using (don't worry if the batter looks curdled). Now add the flour mixture and stir until just blended (don't overmix or worry about a few lumps). Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pans.

Bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes to an hour. Cool on racks in the baking pans for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and cool completely.

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posted by Caroline @ 11:22 AM  

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Every month, I read through the new Gourmet, tearing out recipes that look appealing. I even have a couple of binders (a recent improvement over my ratty blue 2-pocket folder) that I slip the recipes into: one binder for sweets, one for savories.

The problem is, they tend to sit in those folders a long time, sometimes so long that by the time I look back at the recipe, I can't remember what ever seemed so appealing about it in the first place.

So this year, I'm resolving to make the recipes I tear out within a month of when I do. Now this is going to be a fair challenge, especially given that Ben lately only wants to eat penne with olives, but I'm going to try. It'll probably involve feeding our friends more often (and you know how I feel about that). Tonight, in fact, friends were planning to come over, but a big accident on the Bay Bridge interfered with those plans; we had to eat our lovely dinner all by ourselves. Tony made puttanesca, and I'd made a nice lemon-olive oil cake. The cake is lovely, fragrant with lemon and lighter than a pound cake. I made a quick blueberry sauce to go with it, but it really doesn't need anything.

Meanwhile, we've rescheduled with our friends for next week, so I'll start flipping through the binders soon to see what new thing to try next!

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posted by Caroline @ 7:32 PM  

Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year's Cooking


Four or five years ago, Tony and I started holding a New Year's Day party. We can't remember exactly when it began; we could chalk it up to Ben's birth and a sleep-deprived reluctance to stay out late on New Year's Eve, but in fact we'd never been big NYE revellers. It used to be a work night for Tony, back when he ran light shows at dance parties, and he's more than had his fill of drunken party-goers. Meanwhile, my most memorable New Year's Eves had involved arguing with my old boyfriend while we searched Manhattan fruitlessly for the kind of unrealistically glamorous party you see in When Harry Met Sally.

So Tony and I hunker down. Pre-Ben, we'd have people over for a fancy New Year's Eve dinner. One fabulous year, we were in Williamsburg visiting friends. We drank a 1990 Dom Perignon (one of their wedding gifts) and ate homemade napoleon, then stayed up very late watching an Iron Chef marathon.

And now we host a New Year's Day open house. We make a ton of food and invite all our friends and their increasing numbers of kids. Often we are still jet lagged from our Christmas visit east, but we still hold the party. We've carried on when Ben was recovering from pneumonia and also when we'd only been back in our house, post-renovation, for three days and didn't really know where the serving dishes were. One year, New Year's Day brought a huge rainstorm, and my Dad, proud New Englander that he is, watched admiringly as the water rushed down the street, rising high enough to float a canoe.

This year, I started some of the New Year's cooking before we left for Christmas, putting the dough for pistachio-cranberry cookies and cheddar crackers in the freezer. I've baked those (the crackers aren't worth the effort, fyi) and also made brownies, banana-coconut muffins and addictive parmesan-black pepper biscotti (to make up for the lame crackers). We'll make strata (for which I no longer follow a recipe, sorry), and Tony's mini stuffed peppers and shitake mushroom dumplings (two things he's made up, but I'll work on him to write down the recipes), and maybe some gougeres and polenta bites. There'll be candied peel (some plain, some dipped in chocolate) and satsumas and sweet potato fries and lots of different things to drink.

One year toward the end of the party, a friend noticed me rummaging in the pantry for something else to serve. "You know, Caroline," she said, "If you stop putting out food, we'll all go home." But of course, as she well knew, that's not the idea at all! I can't think of a finer way to ring in the new year than by gathering up as many good friends as possible and feeding them well. And to those of you who can't be with us, may the new year bring you peace, happiness, and many good things to eat.

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posted by Caroline @ 9:23 AM