Eggs Benedict!

I have always been a breakfast lover, which is too bad because my family doesn't do big breakfasts (now, that is - don't worry, Dad; I remember your huge made-to-order breakfasts on Sundays!) and also because I don't usually even have time to eat my favorite meal.  On weekdays, I grab a yogurt or some cereal in a baggie (and those are the good days); on weekends, frankly I sleep late enough to consider my first meal lunch.  So breakfast for dinner is a very appealing topic for me.

Imagine my joy when I stumbled upon a recipe for eggs benedict casserole! I love eggs, I love hollandaise sauce, and I love casseroles.  Apparently I do not love reading recipes before  I run out to buy the ingredients, because when I got home, I noticed that it said "refrigerate overnight."  Crap.  But my heart was set on eggs benedict, so even though the casserole is significantly easier, I decided to try the real deal.

I made the hollandaise sauce first.  Who knew that you could make something so delicious out of a few ingredients?  I did have a moment of panic when I thought I had ruined the sauce.  You have to whip together egg yoks and lemon juice, then put that over a double boiler and whisk melted butter into it.  If you let it get too hot, you end up making scrambled egg yolks with lemon juice, and I was 100% sure that had happened.  It looked gross: curdled and clumpy and so not like hollandaise.In the picture, look at the sides of the bowl.... that is what it all looked like! I kept whisking it like crazy, in sheer denial, and before my eyes it actually turned into thick, glossy hollandaise sauce!  I was thrilled.  And this was by far the best part of the meal.  You could taste the hint of lemon, and it was so buttery and rich... I will definitely be making this sauce again.

Then it was time for the eggs, and that was a bit tougher.  I am not a fan of runny egg yolks.  In fact, I am not even a fan of yolks themselves.  Dad used to make me my egg sandwiches without yolks :) So, traditional runny-yolk eggs benedict is not my idea of something to go with my amazing hollandaise.  I was planning on just frying my eggs, but Mom was in the mood for real deal benedict.  We decided to work together on poaching our first eggs!  It was certainly an interesting process.  We boiled water in a skillet, and cracked eggs into it!  Then we realized that resting slotted spoons in the boiling water helped the eggs stay a little more together, hence the crazy photo to the right.  Bizarrely enough, it worked!  We tried to poach mine a little extra, but it was still a bit runny. I will stick with eggs fried hard from now on, but Mom and Alex both liked theirs just the way they were!

Unfortuntely, traditional eggs benedict calls for Canadian bacon, which our local grocery store did not have, so I bought ham steaks and cut them up.  Not the prettiest thing in the world, but it did the trick.  I tossed them and buttered English muffins into the oven and broiled them, and then assembled our dinners. 

Like I said, Alex and Mom were both very happy with all parts of the meal.  Alex even had 2 helpings!  I wished my eggs were fried, but Mom and I loved the dinner too.  Rachael said she "wasn't sure" about it, but she has never been a big eggs benedict fan.  All in all, I would say this dinner was a success. 

Recipes:
hollandaise sauce
eggs benedict

Kitchen Extravaganza

Now that I am back, I am back with a vengeance!  I've really missed being in the kitchen, and I think it is obvious in the fact that in the last 24 hours, I have made 3 different things!

First, today Tuck and Linda came to visit! We have not seen them in months (damn Florida!) so this was a perfect way to spend Memorial Day.  Tuck is on a bizarre diet because of his diabetes.  Basically he cannot eat anything delicious: no breads, pastas, fruit, sugar - essentially my favorite things.  Apparently everything is full of carbs, and carbs are really bad for diabetes.  So feeding him is always a bit tough.  Kenzie and Mark were in charge of lunch - grilled chicken and salad (and baked potatoes for the rest of us!) and I was in charge of his request for dessert of a low carb cheesecake.  Little did I know that low carb cheesecake means you make your own crust out of macadamia nuts, and you use Splenda!  Blegh.  But I love Tucky so I did it :)  Even though that meant dragging out the ancient food processor that my parents got for their wedding 34 years ago to get the macadmia nut crust, or blending together cream cheese, mascarpone, and ricotta, or zesting an orange....  not to mention baking the entire thing in a water bath.  I had to find a roasting pan big enough for the spring form to fit in, and fill the pan with water, but make sure that I had wrapped the spring form with enough aluminum foil to keep the water out.  Apparently, baking cheesecakes in a water bath is a must because the gentle heat prevents the cake from cracking.  Mine still had little dents, but no cracks.  The end result?  Well, I might be biased because I was so repulsed putting Splenda in it, but Tuck enjoyed it, and weirdly enough, so did Kenzie.  Mom ate only the crust.  It was not as sweet as a regular cheesecake, but it was refreshing with the orange zest and triple sec.  Definitely not something I care to make again unless Tuck requests it, but I was happy to make him something sweet that he could eat :)

Water bathing!

Then I knew I had to make something for Linny, and I remembered that she, as an avid blog reader, often texts me when I have made something that she wants to try.  I scrolled though my texts and found that she wanted to try my strawberry shortcake cookies.  Those are fairly easy, and we had strawberries, so I made those last night as well.  They are just as delicious as they were last time.  We all agree they are more like scones than cookies, which makes sense because the dough is very similar to scone dough (like you use the pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour and everything!).  I love these cookies; they are great for a summer lunch.

Tonight I had no plans to make anything else, but Linny needed my laptop for something.  I passed it over, forgetting that I had left open my beloved Annie's Eats blog.  She spied in the "recommendation" corner mac and cheese bites, and immediately asked why I hadn't made them yet.  Since Annie posted them Monday, I have been very intrigued by these, so I thought it was a perfect time to try them out.  They are easy and quick to make, and very delicious.  You'd think they would be dry, but they really aren't.  The recipe calls for Boursin garlic and herb cheese, but our little grocery store didn't have any.  I bought our local Smith Country Cheese's garlic and herb gouda spread, which worked out absolutely perfectly.  I also used whole wheat Ritz crackers in a half-hearted attempt to give some health factor to these babies.  With a whole stick of butter and 3 cups of cheese, they are far from healthy, but they are fine for a splurge every now and then :)  Unfortunately when I ran to the store for ingredients, my family called for Chinese food, so they filled up a bit before the bites were done.  I ate one, and it was great: so cheesy and gooey and delicious.  Lots of leftovers! The recipe said it yields 18, but I easily made 24.  Who wants to come over for mac and cheese bites?

Recipes:
low carb ricotta cheesecake
mac and cheese bites

strawberry shortcake cookies
from http://jessicaburns.com/2012/02/strawberry-shortcake-cookies/

Ingredients:
12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch dice or sliced thin  (2 cups)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream (if your dough seems really dry, I have added another 1/3 cup)
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.

2) Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 7 tablespoons granulated sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in strawberry mixture.

3) Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing evenly apart.  My dough always needs a bit more working, so I make balls with my hands.  Work quickly though - you don't want to melt the cold butter that you cut into the dough, so this way is not the best!

Sprinkle with sanding sugar, and bake until golden brown, 24 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool. Cookies are best served immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

I'm BACK!

Great news: I am no longer on death's door, and that means that I finally can get myself back in the kitchen!  It has been a long, horrible, salmonella- and parasite-infested two weeks, but I'm back!  As soon as I was eating again, I went right back to my long lost Kitchenaid Mixer!

Yesterday I made red, white, and blueberry cheesecake cupcakes.  I was in the mood for baking a dessert, and since it is Memorial Day weekend, I thought these were perfect.  Even better, they are actually low fat, from the Skinytaste blog (definitely one to check out if you want delicious but low-fat food!)  You use low fat cream cheese and Greek yogurt, and only 1/4 cup of sugar.  The bottoms are vanilla wafers.  They are really easy to whip together too.  The only problem was that they are supposed to be mini cupcakes, but I didn't have any mini cupcake wrappers, so I ended up making only 9 regular-sized cheesecake muffins.  I love them.  They are not super sweet, and the fresh strawberries and blueberries on top are so pretty and patriotic!  I definitly recommend these little guys.

Today is Alex's graduation party, and Rachael asked me to make something sweet to bring.  I looked through my dad's old recipe files, and found the recipe for Betsy's black bottom cupcakes.  These are famous in my family, and they were handwritten both by my mom (the directions) and my dad (the ingredients), so I thought that  was cool.  They were fairly easy to make, although you have to make the black bottom cake batter, and the cream cheese topping.  I added the nuts and sugar to some of them to make Mom happy.  The recipe is a little weird (it has things like vinegar in it!). 

They just came out of the oven, and it seems like something has gone a bit wrong.  I am not sure what, but the tops of the muffins taste chemically somewhow.  And it's only the very tops!  No idea that this means.  I am perhaps a bit rusty in the kitchen :(  Hmph.


Recipes:
red, white and blueberry cheesecake yogurt cupcakes


Black Bottom Cupcakes

Ingredients:
6 ounces cream cheese
1  1/3 cup cugar, separated
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoo salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional nut topping:
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup nuts

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 18 muffin tins.

2.  In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, and egg.  Mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

3.  In a large bowl, mix flour,  remaining 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.  Beat 2 minutes on medium speed.

4.  Fill cupcake tins with black mixture 1/2 full. 

5.  Top with 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture. 

6.  Mix sugar and nuts and sprinkle evenly on each cake.

7.  Cook 20-30 minutes.

Not Forgotten!

Hello dear blog. Just a quick update to explain my absence. I have not forgotten about you, but I've had a stomach bug for basically a week! I have been sick since Tuesday and not wanting to eat, never mind cook. I'll be back later this week I hope. In the meantime, browse www.annies-eats.com . She's my blogging idol and always has excellent recipes.

Southwestern Pizza

Tonight I finally got around to making the pizza that I planned on making last Thursday.  I bought all the ingredients last week, so I didn't have to run to the store (and that type of planning-ahead never happens, so it was  nice!).  I made the dough, which is actually two doughs, but like last week, I decided to use both in one pizza.  It makes for such a soft, puffy crust, and I didn't have the ingredients for two pizzas, so one big one it was!

The good news is that this pizza comes together pretty quickly.  You sort of make your own refried beans by mashing black beans with spices, and spreading that onto the pizza with red onion, corn, tomatoes (except I used them all in the salad yesterday, so no tomatoes for us), and cheddar and monterrey jack cheese.  After it bakes, you add fresh cilantro (my love) and an avocado cream sauce.  I added a tiny bit too much lime juice so my sauce was a bit too limey, but it was really refreshing.  Since it was sour, I didn't spread it all over the pizza like I was supposed to, but I dotted it on and left the bowl  out on the table.  I was surprised when my picky mother not only liked the sauce, but added more!  There aren't many pieces of pizza left, so I think it was a hit.

With the thought that I only have 3 Mondays left of work, I will hopefully be able to limp my way through this last week of MCAS testing.  Here's to warmer weather, and more time both sleeping and cooking! :)

Recipes:
pizza dough
vegetarian southwestern pizza

Happy Mother's Day!

It has certainly been a busy few days, but never fear: I have not abandoned the kitchen.  I spent a lot of time in there yesterday, in fact getting ready for our Mother's Day party at Gram's today.  I have two recipes to share today: our family's favorite old pasta salad recipe, and a new lemonade cake!



2 colors of cake!

First, the cake.  I wanted to bake something for the party that would honor the moms, feed everyone, and look amazing.  So when my mom got her issue of Better Homes and Gardens and I saw the cover, I knew I had found my cake: the pink lemonade cake.  The cover shows a tall white-frosted cake with four layers, alternating light and dark pink in color.  It was beautiful, and lemonade flavored, so my mind was made up. 

The good news is that the cake looks much more difficult than it actually is.  It's flavored with lemonade concentrate and lemon extract.  It gets red food coloring added to make it a light pink; then you pour half the batter into a cake pan, and add more coloring to the other half. Once the cakes are baked, each layer is cut in half horizontally to make 4 layers (thanks to Mom for help with that!  I would have made a huge mess out of it).  The frosting is also easy, because it tastes like and looks like a meringue buttercream, but with a shortcut: there is no simmering on the stove,  no whipping egg whites.  It's made with Fluff, butter, confectionary sugar, and lemon extract!  Easy, tasty, and beautiful?  I like that.  And I am happy to say that the cake was a hit.  Most of it went, and I got compliments from everyone except my youngest cousin, whose complaint was that the cake was for girls because it was pink :)

Then I also made pasta salad this morning.  We make this salad any time there is going to be a big cookout, party, or any time we are craving a delicious and healthy pasta salad.  No gross mayonnaise here!  It's made with a garlic vinegar olive oil sauce - way better than mayo.  Mom got the recipe out of a magazine about a zillion years ago, and we've made it (and doubled it) so much that Mom even has notes written on it (like the fact that it's better when you add a shredded carrot, and that you can use chives or scallions).  She has even written the measurements for doubling the salad, which we do nearly every time we make it.   The best part about it is that you can exchange or add ingredients; for instance, it calls for black olives but since we didn't have them, I added green (mmmmm.)  Last time we had it, we added radishes.  Basically you can be creative.  Make this the next time you have to bring a pasta salad anywhere, and people will be pleasantly surprised.

My 2 contributions to the party

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  I am very lucky to have the mother that I do, and also to be the "mother" to two gorgeous dogs, one sweet mouse, and a tiny snail:)

Recipes:

Pink Lemonade Cake
from Better Homes and Gardens May 2012 Issue

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4 eggs
3  1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
red food coloring
1 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 recipe Lemonade Buttercream (see below)

1.  Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, grease 2  9x2-inch round pans.  Line bottoms with parchment; grease paper.  Flour pans, tapping to remove excess.  Set aside.  In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In extra-large mixing bowl, beat butter with mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds.  Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium until well combined.  Scrape sides of bowl; beat 2 minutes more.  Add 1/8 teaspoon red food coloring; beat to combine. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3.  In bowl, stir together milk, lemonade concentrate, and extract (mixture will look curdled).  Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, beating on low after each addition until combined.  Remove half (4 cups) of tinted batter; spread in one pan.  In remaining batter in bowl, stir in 1/4 teaspoon red food coloring.  Spread in second pan.

4. Bake about 35 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly touched.  Meanwhile, prepare Lemonade Buttercream.

5.  Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove layers from pans; discard paper.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Trim off domed tops of layers so cake is flat.  Cut each layer horizontally in half to create four layers.  Brush crumbs from layers.

6.  Place one dark pink layer, cut-side down, on a plate,  Spread 1 cup frosting just to edges.  Stack final light pink layer following by another dark pink layer, frosting each just to the edges.  Stack final light pink layer, cut-side down; spread frosting on top and sides as desires.  Makes 18 servings.



Lemonade Buttercream
from Better Homes and Gardens May 2012 Issue

Ingredients:
3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (no, that's no a typo... 6 sticks of butter. It's worth it.)
2  16-ounce jars marshmallow creme
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract

1.  In very large bowl, beat butter with mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds.  Add marshmallow creme and lemonade concentrate.  Beat until smooth, scraping bowl sides.  Add powdered sugar and extract; beat until light and fluffy.  If frosting is stiff, soften in microwave for no more than 10 seconds, then beat until smooth.  Use to frost pink lemonade cake.

The Best Pasta Salad
(that is literally the name... and I don't know where it's from.  I am giving the original-ish recipe, with some of our additions [like the carrot].  You probably don't need Mom's notes about how to double it, but if you plan on it, use 2 boxes of pasta, and do not double the oil)

11 ounces small shell pasta
3 cloves garlic
1/2 pint yellow cherry tomatoes
1/2 pint red cherry tomatoes (regular tomates are okay too)
1 handful of black or green olives, pitted
2 tablespoons fresh chives (or scallions)
1 handful of fresh basil
1/2 a cucumber
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 shredded carrot

1)  Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil.  Throw in the pasta and cloves or garlic.  Boil until al dente.  Drain and run under water to cool.  Put the garlic to one side to use for the dressing. Put the pasta into a bowl.

2.  Chop the tomatoes, olives, chives, basil and cucumber pieces about half the size of the pasta and add to the bowl. 

3.  Squash the garlic cloves and mush in a mortat and pestle.  Add the vinegar, oil, and seasoning.  Drizzle this over the salad, adding a little more seasoning to taste.

Happy News for the Andersons

Today, we have a lot to celebrate.  We found out that my uncle's lymphoma is in total remission!  With amazing news like that, there was an immediate need for a celebratory dessert. It took me a while to find one I wanted; I knew I wanted to stick with my favorite blog, Annie's Eats, because she's never steered me wrong .  I also knew I wanted cupcakes or cakes, because I felt they are more festive than cookies or brownies.  Lastly, I felt like a challenge; today the kids had MCAS and so basically I sat around all day watching them (struggle), and I felt an urge to prove that I am not a waste of life!  Hence, we have the caramel peanut-topped brownie cake: a chocolate, bowl-shaped cake, topped with homemade caramel sauce and honey-roasted peanuts.  7 paragraphs of directions could not frighten me tonight!  Although, maybe they should have...



Looks perfect... tasted awful!

Looks too light... but tasted perfect!

The cake itself was simple enough; with a little bit of double boiling action to melt the chocolate and the butter.  That went into the oven in no time.  Then the caramel... I followed Annie's directions perfectly, boiling the sugar, water and corn syrup without stirring, and waiting for the color to turn to "dark amber."  When the color matched the picture on the blog, I turned the heat down and added butter and cream like the recipe said.  I mixed in the peanuts, and voila!.... burned caramel sauce.  It looked 100% like the picture, and yet it tasted chemically and bad... and burned.  I was depressed, but refused to let the celebratory spirit leave me just yet.  In fact, if I may be honest, I had earlier loudly bragged that I enjoyed baking difficult cakes, so even though Mom urged me to just top it with whipped cream, I went to the store for more ingredients to try again.


If you every decide to make this cake, here is what you need to know.  Do NOT let your caramel turn the same color as Annie's picture.  If you do, there is a teeny tiny fine line between perfection and burned horribly.  The second time around, a nervous Mark forced me to stop boiling the caramel earlier than I expected; it was still lighter than Annie's pictures, but we did not want to ruin another batch.  Once I poured it on top of the cake, it still looked a little lighter, but I can promise it tasted better!  So even though my beloved Annie says not to be afraid to wait till your caramel gets dark, I'd have to disagree!

Success!  A lighter caramel color meant a MUCH better taste

As someone who does not love sweets, I actually didn't even try a piece of this, but I ate a bite of Susie's, and it's pretty great!  The cake is soft and fudgy and turns slightly caramel-soggy.  The crunchy peanuts on top are a great texture contrast to the gooey caramel.  It was a big hit, and I am really glad I made it for the Andersons tonight.  Congratulations, you guys!  Love you :)

P.S. In between baking cakes and making caramel sauces,  I also made my favorite pizza dough recipe.  Mark made the pizzas for me so I could focus on my rather involved cake! He ended up making one pizza with both doughs; it was so soft and fluffy and delicious!  Nice work, honey!

Recipes:
caramel peanut-topped brownie cake

pizza dough

adapted from Bobby Flay at foodnetwork.com

This recipe makes 2 14-inch pizza crusts

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour, plus more for rolling (Using bread flour will give you a much crisper crust.  You can substitute it with all-purpose flour if you want a chewier crust.  That is the type I prefer!)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 envelope instant dry yeast (or 2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups water, 110 degrees F
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons

Directions:

1) Combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine.

2) While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and beat until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a solid ball. If the dough is too dry, add additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

3) Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead into a smooth, firm ball.

Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm area to let it double in size, about 1 hour.

4) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cover each with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.