Carrot Cake

With this belated post, I will finally be done sharing all the recipes I made for the football party last week!  Sorry it is so late: Dad was sick, and then I was sick, and I am just now starting to feel like a human enough to discuss baked goods.

Anyway, I told Kenzie and Mom to choose a dessert for the party.  I already had plans to make all the things I have posted this past week, but I had nothing sweet in mind.  Kenzie weirdly decided on a carrot cake.  I say weirdly because carrot cake really doesn't scream Kenzie.  Oreos?  Yes.  Gummies? Definitely. Carrot cake, not so much.  But hey, she and Mom were excited, so I agreed.

Luckily I had my food processor to help me grate the carrots, since it calls for 2 3/4 cups grated carrots!  That made this recipe pretty quick.  The cake is spiced with ginger and nutmeg, and flecked with carrot and pecan.  And it's pretty tall: you make three layers and frost it all with cream cheese frosting.  Note about the frosting: the recipe weirdly calls for 2 pounds of sugar.  I thought that was ridiculous and so I used maybe a fourth of that.  I kept adding little bits and tasting it until it was just right.  Yeah, it was a tough job to taste test all that frosting, but somebody had to do it ;)

The end result was a huge hit.  Everyone loved it, and that is pretty special for a party of about 10 people!  In fact, Tracy said she doesn't even like carrot cake, but she loved this one.  Mom may or may not have eaten multiple pieces every day until it was gone.  I had a piece myself, and though I am not a cake person, it was pretty good.  The cake was spicy and sweet, and the cream cheese frosting might just be the best tasting stuff on earth.  The idea of pressing chopped pecans into the frosting on the sides of the cake is rather great because it makes the cake look so pretty - rare, for something I baked!

And so, while I had my doubts about a carrot cake being the sole dessert at a football party, I now am a believer in the power of the carrot.

Recipes:

carrot cake
from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 pound carrots (8 to 10 medium carrots), peeled and shredded on a box grater or in a food processor (about 2 3/4 cups)
• 2 cups pecans (1 cup finely chopped for batter, 1 cup coarsely chopped for decorating sides of cake)
• 1 recipe cream cheese frosting (see below)
• 
  
• Directions:
• 
  
• 1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper, and butter parchment. Dust with flour, tapping out excess. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and nutmeg.
• 
  
• 2) Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat 3 minutes. Add vanilla, water, and carrots. Beat until well combined, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture, then finely chopped pecans.
• 
  
• 3) Scrape batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around edges of cakes to loosen, and turn out cakes onto rack. Turn right side up, and let cool completely.  Meanwhile, make the frosting (see below).
• 
  
• 4) Using a serrated knife, trim rounded top of 2 cakes (mine were actually flat enough so I got to skip this step). Place one trimmed cake, cut side up, on a serving platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over cake. Top with second trimmed cake, cut side down. Spread 1 cup frosting over cake. Top with remaining cake. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides. Gently press coarsely chopped pecans onto sides of cake. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving (I did not do this!)

cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 pound (16 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
• 2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted (*NOTE: I used far, far less than 2 pounds of sugar.  I thought that was insane.  I maybe used a cup, maybe a little more, and just tasted it every now and then.  I thought it was perfect, so make sure you test as you go!)
• 
  
• Directions:
• 1) In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and vanilla until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. With mixer on medium speed, gradually add butter, beating until incorporated.
• 
  
• 2) Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add sugar, beating until incorporated.

Football Pizza Pockets

Let's be honest: I am one of the few New Englanders not in a total depression after Sunday.  I'm sure you all know that the Patriots lost in the... well, I don't know the name of the game.  Some very important championship.  In fact, it was the last game before the Super Bowl, and we lost, and everyone is sad and angry and... full!  Because I am an excellent football party hostess, and I have said this before, but I don't care at all about the game itself.  I would much rather spend my day in the kitchen than watching people run into each other.  So I guess in that regard, I am a little sad that football is over.  JUST KIDDING (did you get excited there for a minute, Mackenzie?)!  I can still cook and bake to my heart's content without men's gruff voicing yelling in the background.

Okay anyway, I might be the only one celebrating the end of football, but the day of the big game, even my family was celebrating because I kept them well fed.  In addition to pasta fagioli and cheese bread that I posted about, I made a few other things, and one of them was what looked to me to be the best football appetizer ever: football pizza pockets.  You take either pizza dough or pie crust, cut it into little football shapes, stuff them with pizza makings, top them with another football, seal them, and cut "football laces" in the top (and yes I had to look at pictures of football to know what the laces looked like).  Then brush on some egg wash, bake them, serve them with marinara sauce, and you officially have the most adorable little snack ever.  And pretty tasty, if I do say so.  And pretty easy as well.  All-around fabulousness.

I ended up using pizza dough for my footballs, mostly because I love dough and because my mom requested it.  However, in this instance, I think that pie crust would probably work better.  The dough puffed up and made the footballs into slightly mis-shapen enormous puffballs.  Still cute and delicious, but not neat, tidy little sporty shapes.  And my well-researched football laces kind of disappeared in the puffiness.  Such a shame.  So when - not if - I try these little guys out again (I could totally make them into basketballs... or baseballs... or maybe hockey pucks!?), I would make a pie crust instead of pizza dough.   As for fillings, I put some pepperoni into some, but I mostly just used sauce and mozzarella, because that's more than enough goodness if you ask me.  Of course, the beauty is that you can fill them with whatever you want.  You want onions, peppers, mushrooms?  Go for it.  Just make sure you research what football laces look like, and you're good to go.  Thank you, Pinterest, for this little gem!

Recipe:

football pizza pockets
from Picture the Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pack pie crust or pizza dough (I recommend pie crust, and I recommend making your own!!)
1 jar pizza sauce

Fillings which may or may not include:
pepperoni
mozzarella cheese

1 egg (beaten with a tablespoon of cold water)

 

 

Instructions:
1) Roll out your pie crust. Using a round larger cookie cutter, cut round circles of the pastry. Then cut them into football shapes. Once you have, one it’s easy to use it as a template and cut the rest out. Re-roll the scraps and cut out as many football shapes as you can.

2) On a football cutout, place a couple pepperoni slices, a piece of mozzarella and a little pizza sauce (personally I started with the sauce but I don't think it matters).

3)  Brush a little of the egg wash around the edges and place another football shaped cutout over the stuffing.  Seal by pressing down on the edges.

4) Using a fork, crimp the edges around the pizza pocket and make slits in the top to resemble football laces (Googling "football laces" if necessary ;) ).

5) Brush the tops of each pizza pocket with the egg wash and place them on a baking sheet.  Bake in an oven pre-heated to 425 degrees for around 10-12 minutes, or until the pizza pockets turn a golden brown. Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.

Pasta Fagioli

Today I had all these great plans to make a recipe that I was super excited about, until I noticed it requires an overnight step.  Damn.  Don't worry - you will see this recipe soon.  So for today, I had to change courses.  Kenzie helped me come up with a new idea: a soup called pasta fagioli.  Literally it means pasta and beans in Italian, so what is not to love there?!

Dad used to make this soup when we were kids, and it's amazing.  But beware: it is one of those recipes that is very different based on whose recipe you use; I often order it when I am at an Italian restaurant, and I get mad when it has weird things like sausage or ground beef in it (okay those things make me mad no matter what).  The pasta fagioli Dad used to make had ditalini pasta, cannellini beans, and onions in a delicious garlicky tomato broth, and that was it.  I wanted to be picky with my recipe, and when I found one from Skinny Taste, it passed my close inspection.  It did add chopped carrot and celery, which as far as I can remember Dad did not, but I think that they would be a welcome addition.  What really made me decide to try out this recipe in particular was all the spices: whole tablespoons of parsley and basil flakes, plus a teaspoon of oregano.  I knew it was going to be good.

This is a pretty fast soup to make.  You just saute the onions and garlic, and basically then add everything else and simmer.  The recipe says you can puree the beans to hide them from picky eaters, but I wanted my beans to stay whole.  It simmers for 20 minutes once you bring it to a boil, so I even had time to start my favorite cheddar cheese bread while it was cooking.  I like dinners that have a little down time built in. 

I doubled the recipe and ended up using little elbows instead of ditalini, which I was sad about but it was all my grocery store had.  And I ended up using a whole pound of the pasta, rather than the 12 ounces that doubling it would require.  Other than that, I stuck to the recipe, and it was a good plan.  The soup is very hearty, healthy (less than 260 calories for 2 cups!!), and very delicious.  A sprinkling of parmesan on the top just brings out the wonderfulness of the soup.  It was very popular with everyone here, and we had quite a housefull tonight.  I will be happy to have it for lunch this week.

I spent this whole football-y day in the kitchen making this soup, the aforementioned cheese bread, and two other recipes as well.  You will have to wait for those though; I am trying to be like a true food blogger and only post one recipe at a time.  Trust me: they're worth waiting for.

Recipe:

pasta fagioli
from Skinny Taste

Servings: 5 • Serving Size: about 2 cups • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 6 pts
Calories: 254.5 • Fat: 3.4 g • Protein: 10.3 g • Carb: 47.5 g • Fiber: 6.8 g

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 15 oz. can cannellini beans
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 large bay leaf
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
2 (14 oz. each) cans fat free chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
6 oz dry ditalini pasta or other small pasta
grated parmesan cheese for topping (optional)

Directions:

1) In a deep pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.
2)  The can of beans with one can water in electric blender until almost smooth.

3) Add blended beans to pan then add the can of tomato sauce, celery, carrots, chicken broth, basil, bay leaf, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Add1 cup water and bring to slow boil. Let simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is al dente, according to pasta directions.

4) Ladle soup into bowls and top with grated cheese (extra).

Tortilla Soup with Black Beans

Tortilla soup with black beans.  Sounds amazing to me.  A Mexican, tomato-based soup, chock full of black beans and corn, with crushed tortilla chips, and lime juice giving it a little zing.  To make it sound even better, it's Martha Stewart's recipe, and it was under her "quick soup" category.  After a long and painful meeting for an hour and a half after school, making a quick soup for dinner was something that sounded perfect.

Ad now, this soup is one big controversy in my house.  We cannot seem to agree on whether it is great and delicious, or "the worst thing ever made" (yeah that is a real quote).  I guess the only way you will find out is the make this soup for yourself.  Let's see the players on both sides of this debate:

In group 1, the people who find it amazing: me (shocking, right?), Kenzie, Cathleen (Kenz brought her some at work), and Mark (who requested seconds today!).  In group 2?  Well, just my mom.  But she is so vocal about her hatred for this soup that she can comprise her own group.  She literally has said that it is the worst thing I ever made.  Some of her reasons are: too much corn, no chicken, tomatoes cut too large, tortilla chips got stuck in her teeth.  The rest of us completely disagree, but again, the only way to know is to try this out yourself!  I for one will certainly be making it again.  The lime juice really makes the soup bright, and the crunchy texture contrast of the tortilla chips is great and kind of fun.  The beans, corn and tomatoes give a nice meatless soup lots of heartiness.  And Mark ate two bowls of it!  So please ignore my hater mother and give this tortilla soup a try :)  It is really easy and tasty. 

I will add this: the soup is more flavorful on the second day, but the tortilla chips have turned to total mush, which frankly I like.  The first night, Kenzie and I also added just a little shredded cheddar cheese to our bowls and it brought the soup to a whole new level!  I also decided to double the recipe but perhaps should not have done this before checking that I had everything I needed.  I ended up having to use a very weird mixtur of things, including kidney beans, tomato sauce, and stewed tomatoes, but it all worked out okay in the end - if you ask anyone but my mom, that is :)

Recipe:

tortilla soup with black
from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes in juice

2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 cup crushed tortilla chips, plus more for serving (optional)

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving

 

Instructions:

 

1)  In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Cook garlic and chili powder until fragrant, about 1 minute.

 

2)  Add tomatoes (with juice), beans, broth, corn, and 1 cup water; season with salt and pepper.

 

3) Bring soup to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Add tortilla chips; cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in lime juice, and season with salt and pepper. Serve soup with lime wedges and, if desired, more chips.

45-Minute Cinnamon Rolls

Pre-rolling

Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls?  Even I like them, and I am not big on sweets.  I have made them before, but they aren't quick by any means; they involve yeast and rising and lots of waiting, which can be hard to do when you cannot stop thinking about gooey warm cinnamon rolls.  So, when Kenzie found a recipe for so-called "45-minute cinnamon rolls" (from scratch!!! No refrigerated dough!), I knew it had to be done.  On Sunday for the football game, I made these rolls, along with big soft pretzels (I've blogged about them before.  Sooo good!).  I have said it before and I will say it again: I am the best person to host football parties because I could not possibly care less about missing the game!  The best news is that there are only like 2 football games left this season!  WAHOO!

Anyway, back to the rolls.  They really are fast!  They have no yeast, which makes the bread part of the roll a little softer and less... well, bread like.  They are basically buttermilk biscuits, rolled around a filling of brown sugar, nutmeg and lots of cinnamon.  And butter.  Lots and lots of butter.  As in one whole stick of melted butter.  I was feeling a little bit fat that day, so I decided not to make the cream cheese glaze for the top (I could not bear to melt 3 more tablespoons).  I do actually wish that I had made the glaze though, because they really could have used something saucy on top (and although these rolls were quite popular here, the glaze was requested), but even without it, these are good.  The filling is so spicy and melty and amazing, and the bread is soft and sweet. And they take less than an hour!!!  The dough is certainly not as easy to work with as a yeast dough; be prepared to use a bench scraper because you will not be able to roll it or get it off the counter very easily; but it is worth it.

Before baking (and puffing up like crazy!)

Recipe:

 

45 Minute Cinnamon Rolls

From Cooking Classy, originally adapted from The Quick Recipe by Cook's Illustrated

Total Time: 45 minutes

The finished product!

Yield: 8 servings

 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

6 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt, divided

8 Tbsp salted butter, melted

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1 recipe Cream Cheese Glaze, recipe follows

 

Cream Cheese Glaze

3 oz cream cheese, softened

3 Tbsp butter, softened

1 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

 

Directions

1)  Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush a 9-inch cake or pie pan with 1 Tbsp melted butter, set aside. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt, set aside.

 

2) In a separate mixing bowl whisk together light-brown sugar, remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 tsp salt. Add in 1 Tbsp melted butter and blend mixture together with your fingertips or a fork until mixture is well blended and evenly moistened, set aside.

 

3) Measure out buttermilk into a liquid measuring cup and stir in 2 Tbsp melted butter. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms and liquid has been absorbed, then knead mixture in bowl by hand just until smooth, about 30 seconds (dough will be sticky).

 

4) Sprinkle a clean work surface with a fair amount of flour. Pat the dough with your hands into a 12 x 9-inch rectangle. Brush top of dough with 2 Tbsp melted butter then sprinkle evenly with brown sugar mixture, coming within a 1/2 inch of the border on all sides. Press the brown sugar filling into the dough (they stated "firmly press" in their recipe which didn't make sense to me because then you are flattening your dough and releasing some of the rise the baking powder has already given so I only lightly pressed). Starting on the long side, roll dough (using a bench scraper or metal spatula to loosen dough from work surface if necessary) snugly and gently to opposite end. Pinch the end seam to seal. Roll the log seam side down and cut dough into 8 equal portions.

 

5) Place 1 roll in the center of the prepared baking dish, then place remaining 7 rolls around it. Brush tops of rolls with remaining 2 Tbsp butter. Bake in preheated oven 22 - 25 minutes until edges are golden brown. (After baking you can invert the rolls using a plate onto a wire rack). Serve warm drizzled with Cream Cheese Glaze. Store in an airtight container and reheat in microwave if desired.

 

Cream Cheese Glaze

In a mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer set on medium speed, blend together cream cheese and butter until well combine and slightly fluffy, about 1 minute. Add in remaining ingredients and mix until well combine. Store in an airtight container.

Mini Banana-Maple Pancake Muffins

I know I already posted a blog post tonight, but I am attempting to be a true food blogger, only writing about one dish at a time, but I am starting to get backed up, and today is a Sunday before a very busy week, so I knew I had to get things accomplished! 

Last night was a wild and crazy Saturday.  It was the day after my birthday, so probably most new 28-year-oldswould be out partying or something, but I was having a wonderful evening home with just my mom.  We had big plans to watch Big Miracle on HBO, which we suddenly and mysteriously get now (shhhhh don't tell Direct TV!).  Right before we started it, we were saying that it would be nice to have something to snack on, and I grabbed the cookbook that Sammy got me for my birthday.  Last week I made beer rolls from the cookbook and they weren't great (I deem them not-blog-worthy), but then again I hate beer and the taste of it, so it wasn't too surprising that I wasn't a fan!  The recipe I flipped to was mini banana-maple pancake muffins.  I love banana, and I love maple, and also muffins.  Plus the recipe was quick and we happened to have some bananas - not overly ripe, but they would do.  I whipped these up really quickly; they were fast and easy and I had all the ingredients I needed - even buttermilk and real maple syrup.  I got to use my precious little silicone mini muffin pan, and then in about 30 minutes time total, I was turning out hot little banana-maple muffins!  I think they are called "pancake muffins" because the batter is similar to pancake batter, and you serve them with more maple syrup for dipping.

Mom and I were big fans of these little guys.  Not too sweet (only 2 tablespoons of sugar!) and lots of banana flavor, they were moist and hot and delicious.  We found that they were excellent dipped in syrup, but really didn't even need to be dunked.  We each ate 4, and Ross came over and ate 2.  The numbers are important, because when Ross came over to sell us squares for a football pool, we left the room... and the muffins.  And when we came back.... well, just see if you can infer what happened from the pictures.

"Oh, that looks good..."

"Hmmm...."

"I reeaaaaally want one of those..."

So, there were no leftovers, and we are all pretty sad about that.  Today I bought more bananas and plan on letting them get over-ripe so that I can make more mini muffins, and this time, I will only keep them on very high, dog-proof surfaces :(  Mom said they were "out of this world good."  RIP mini muffins.

Recipe:

mini banana-maple pancake muffins

from Home Baked Comfort by Kim Laidlaw (thank you Sammy!)
makes 2 dozen mini muffins (half of which will be eaten by Delilah)

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, plus more for dipping
2 tablespoons unsalted melted butter (cooled, or you will cook the egg!)
1 very ripe, large banana, mashed

Instructions:

1) Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350  degrees.  Generously grease 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or butter,

2) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl, stir together buttermilk, egg, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and the butter until just combined.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Stir in the mashed banana.

3) Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.  Bake until the muffins are puffed and golden, 10-12 minutes.  Let the muffins cool slightly in the pan on a wire rack, then unmold onto the rack.  Serve right away with maple syrup for dipping and do not let any basset hounds near them!!!!

It's just hard to stay mad at someone so cute...

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

In my never-ending quest to find meatless meals that my family won't complain about missing meat from, I have started meandering around some new and different blogs.  I stumbled upon A Couple Cooks, a husband and wife food blogging team with lots of Asian recipes because of their frequent philanthropic trips to Cambodia.  They have quite a few vegetarian recipes too.  The one I came across was actually Mexican, but meatless, so I was excited: sweet potato and black bean enchiladas.  Sonja and Alex wrote that this is one of their favorite recipes ever, which is pretty important for someone who blogs about food.  Plus, sweet potato and Mexican food is an insanely amazing combination.  There is a place in Keene, NH, called Armadillo's, that has a sweet potato burrito that has been one of my all-time favorite foods since high school.  So I knew this was a recipe I had to try.

The filling of the enchiladas is sweet potato, black beans, diced green chiles (I used half the amount because I didn't buy enough!), red onion, and cheese (it called for colby jack but I used monterey), spiced with cumin, chili and garlic powders, and salt and pepper.  They are topped with whatever you would like - salsa, salsa verde, enchilada sauce - I went with salsa because I had it- and served with cilantro and sour cream. 

These enchiladas are to die for.  I might literally die if I don't get to eat them soon.  The filling is a delicious mixture of slightly-sweet-and-savory-and-salty with all sorts of flavors going on; the sweet potato and the chiles and the red onion... topped with tangy sour cream and chunky salsa... oh my lord.  Mom even told me she was "in love with this meal," which is no small compliment coming from her!  I was more than happy to eat it for dinner and then again for lunch the next day, and by the day afte that when I went to the fridge for a third one, they were gone!  So my whole family clearly enjoyed it.  Alex was the only one to whine about wishing there was chicken in it, which there never will be, because there was no need. The black beans gave lots of protein and flavor, and they are filling; I was only able to eat one, and so was Mom. 

My final comment?  Make this meal.  These enchiladas are delicious, healthy, and need to be on your kitchen table ASAP.

Recipe:

sweet potato and black bean enchiladas

from A Couple Cooks

 

Ingredients:

2 medium to large sweet potatoes (3 cups diced)

15 oz. can black beans

8 ounces canned diced green chilies (about 1 cup; I used half of this)

1 medium red onion

½ tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

~2 cups salsa verde (or regular)

8 oz. Colby jack cheese, shredded

8 8-inch whole wheat flour tortillas (or 10 6-inch)

Sour cream

Fresh cilantro, to garnish

Instructions:

 

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

 

2)  Peel and dice the sweet potato. Place in a pot and cover with water; add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, around 12 to 15 minutes.

 

3) Finely chop the red onion. Drain and rinse the black beans.

 

4) In a large bowl, combine the cooked sweet potato, black beans, red onion, green chilies, ½ tablespoon cumin, 1 tablespoon chili powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ¼ to ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper. Mix to combine.

 

5) Warm the tortillas for a minute in the microwave, or in a pan for a few seconds per side. In a large baking dish, spread ¾ to 1 cup of the salsa verde. Fill each tortilla with a heaping ½ cup scoop of the filling, add a handful of cheese, and roll it up. Place the enchilada seam-side down in the baking dish. Repeat for the remaining tortillas. When all enchiladas are in the dish, top with the remaining salsa verde (about ½ cup or so) and the remaining cheese.

 

6) Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

 

7) Serve, garnished with sour cream (mixed with a tiny bit of water to loosen it) and chopped cilantro.

Tuscan White Beans with Spinach, Shrimp and Feta

I mean, it's over a year away, but still, I have to think about my wedding!  I am still planning the whos/whats/whens/wheres (okay I guess I know the who!) and it won't be until 2014, but I was not liking the way I looked in my clothing yesterday.  That's when I decided to pull up my favorite low fat blog, Skinny Taste, and search for something healthy (my family was begging for scalloped potatotes, and with all that cream, it's probably a good thing that Delilah ate the entire spiral ham from the refrigerator!).  I had already bought most of the ingredients for Tuscan white beans with spinach, shimp and feta, and I knew that Rachael was going to try out her new sushi kit, so I figured it was a perfect night to try out a new seafood recipe.

The first problem I ran into was that Kenzie had picked up shrimp for me, but it was frozen cooked shrimp.  I needed raw shrimp in order to cook it!  So I just thawed it out and threw it in the pan to mostly just heat it up.  They never looked quite shrimp-like and pink and plump and pretty; they kind of stayed white and sort of ugly, so I was a little afraid.  Then I didn't have cannellini beans, but I had "small white beans" which I figured had to be close enough even if they were a little smaller.  Oh, and when it calls for 5 cups of baby spinach and you pour it into the pan and start to pani

The interesting thing about this recipe is that it calls for no salt.  Gina from Skinny Taste adapted the recipe from a salt-free cookbook.  Anyone who knows me or my sisters knows how much we love salt, and pour it on anything.  So it is extremely impressive if I tell you that I did not salt this dish while I was cooking it, and I didn't salt it when I ate it either.  The meal is flavorful enough, with a sauce of balsamic vinegar, chicken broth, garlic, onion, and fresh sage.  There are plenty of things going on in that mixture of flavors, and you don't even notice that the salt is gone.  I promise!

I really liked this meal, and so did my mom and Kenzie and Alex (no one else would eat shrimp).  I do recommend serving it over rice, which I know makes it a little less healthy, but it needed it.  And don't neglect to sprinkle the feta on top; it adds just the right amount of salt :)

Recipe:

Tuscan white beans with spinach, shrimp and feta

from Skinny Taste, adapted from The Salt Solution Cookbook

Servings: 4 • Size: 1/4th • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 7 pts
Calories: 282 • Fat: 6.9 g • Carb: 22.2 g • Fiber: 6.2 g • Protein: 32.5 g • Sugar: 0.2 g
Sodium: 390 mg

Ingredients:2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined (weight after peeled)
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup low sodium, fat-free chicken broth
15 oz can no-salt added cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
5 cups baby spinach
1 1/2 oz crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

Directions:

1) Heat 1 tsp oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp until just opaque, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

2) Heat remaining oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat and add onion, garlic and sage; cook 4 minutes stirring occasionally until golden. Stir in vinegar and cook 30 seconds.

3) Add broth, bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes. Stir in beans and spinach and cook until the spinach wilts, about 2 to 3 minutes.

4) Remove from heat and stir in shrimp. Top with feta cheese and divide in 4 bowls (and I recommend serving over rice!).

Roasted Cherry Brownies

I just wrote a lovely long post about these brownies and it disappeared.  Looked like it saved, I closed out... but it didn't.  I am throwing a hissy fit and just posting the recipe and going to bed.  Hmph.

These brownies are roasted cherry brownies, which is pretty interesting and delicious.  The dark chocolate (3 different types of choc!) and subtle cherry flavors (you'd better buy a cherry pitter because cutting them out took me forever) of this brownie are excellent, but the post is miserable.  I have a headache so I am allowed to be cranky. 

Plus I promise a good, healthy, low fat dinner post in your neat future, because I just ate it.  In the meantime, enjoy these brownies.

Recipe:

roasted cherry brownies

from Annie's Eats, originally from Baker's Illustrated and A Pastry Affair

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and halved
1¼ cups plus 2 tbsp. sugar, divided
5 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into quarters
3 tbsp. cocoa powder
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 450˚ F. Combine the cherries and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a small roasting pan and toss well to combine. Roast the cherries for 10 minutes, or until they begin to release their juices. Remove the pan from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350˚ F.  Line a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with foil. Lightly spray the foil with cooking spray.

2) In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Set aside to cool.

3) In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, remaining sugar, vanilla and salt; whisk until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk in the warm chocolate mixture until incorporated. Then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until just combined. Gently fold in the roasted cherries. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread with a spatula to make an even layer. Bake until slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, about 35 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours (ha! In what house do brownies last 2 hours to cool!?).

4) Remove the brownies from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares as desired. Store in an air-tight container

Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

Back in the good old days, Gram used to have her whole enormous family up to her house every Sunday, and she would make us lunch.  We'd all trek up there for 1:00 and enjoy her amazing cooking.  My favorites were her soups, from pea soup to beef stew, but I also loved her tetrazzini, spaghetti sauce (when she didn't make it too spicy!), and her "ham scallop," which is what we calle scalloped potatoes and ham.  This was my mom's favorite dish.  So, rightafter Christmas, when Mom wasn't feeling well and we happened to have tons of leftover ham, Kenzie and I decided that  a "ham scallop" dinner was a good plan!  She found a recipe for me from the Pioneer Woman, whom we both love because she has basset hounds.  I went to the grocery store and got what I needed, and for dinner we had scalloped potatoes and ham.

What made this meal really, really quick was my beloved food processor.  You have to uniformly and thinly slice 3 pounds of potatoes.  Mark and I attemped to use our mandoline, but apparently this is why cheap mandolines are not so great: ours is dull.  Really dull.  But Mom came up with the great idea of using my food processor with its slicing blade, and in no time, those three pounds of potatoes were perfectly sliced!  I also used my shredding blade to shred the 2 cups of cheese from our leftover blocks from Christmas.  Lots of cutting and grating, done in minutes!  Thanks again Marky :)  Anyway, the one thing that did take me forever was cutting up 3 cups of ham into a dice.  Our ham - maybe all hams!?  - was gross and fatty and I had to do a lot of slicing and hacking and I got ham grease on my engagement ring, which was horrifying (I had to take it off to save it from any more upsetting meat juice!  Poor diamond!  Don't worry - I cleaned her up good).  Then again, I am very particular when I cut meat, and I can promise you that there was nothing gross in that casserole! 

When it came time to put everything together, I was a little worried because I didn't think it sounded like what Gram did.  Then again I never watched so I don't know for sure.  But, you end up with four different mixtures that need to be layered: ham and onion, sliced potatoes, the two cheeses, and half-and-half and cream (healthy! But so worth it!).  I had figured that the cheese and cream mixtures would have been combined, but what do I know?  Anyway I got a little overzealous in my layering; I was supposed to end with the liquid mixture, but I was all out; this resulted in the top layer of potatoes staying hard no matter how long I baked it, so be careful to pour the cream mixture over your top!

The end result was delicious, whether or not it's the way Gram does it.  By the next day, my family had eaten every bite, and that doesn't always happen, especially with a big casserole like that.  It was creamy, cheesy, potato-ey - and those three things just might be my favorites.  My whole family had rave reviews - and again, that is a pretty rare occurrence too.  This is definitely a meal that will appear again soon... and we currently happen to have another ginormous ham languishing in the fridge.  I think my family may have done that on purpose ;)

I hope you are all off to a fabulous start in 2013!  One change I am making to the blog, besides only posting new recipes, is to post every recipe right here on the blog.  I will always cite my source, but there is no need to make my readers click to other pages to see what the recipe calls for.  Enjoy :)

Recipe:

scalloped potatoes and ham
from the Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:
3 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes, Washed Thoroughly
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Yellow Onion, Diced
3 cups Diced Ham
1-1/2 cup Half-and-half
1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 cup Flour
Black Pepper To Taste
1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese
1 cup Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
Chopped Parsley (optional)

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large casserole dish.

2) Heat butter in a large skillet. Add onions and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until they start to turn translucent. Add ham and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and set aside.

3) Combine half-and-half and cream in a microwave-safe container and nuke for a minute or so, until no longer cold. Whisk in flour and black pepper until totally combined. Set aside. (You may add salt, but cheese and ham are salty, so add sparingly.)

4) Combine the two grated cheeses. Set aside.

5) Using a mandoline or food processor with slicer blade, slice potatoes into 1/8-inch slices (very thin.) Layer 1/3 of the potato slices in the buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle on 1/3 of the ham/onion mixture, then 1/3 of the cheese, then pour on 1/3 of the cream mixture.

6) Repeat this twice more, ending with a sprinkling of cheese and a pouring on of the rest of the cream mixture. Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes at least, or until bubbly and hot.

7)  Cut into squares and serve. Sprinkle on chopped parsley if you'd like!

(Note: To speed along the process a bit, you may boil sliced potatoes for 3 to 5 minutes before assembling the casserole. Just drain and slightly cool before assembling.  I did not do this step though)