Grandma's Ginger Crisps

I'm searching for the perfect ginger snap.  I tried these tonight.  I love the texture - crisp and soft in the middle.  Very buttery - yum!  The cookies could be spicier.

I'll continue to look.  Obviously right butter to flour ratio.  Just want more molasses and spices.

found on The Cast-Iron blog

Ingredients:

3/4 c shortening
1 c white sugar, plus a bit extra
1 egg
1/4 c molasses
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger

1. Cream the shortening and 1 cup of sugar; add the egg and molasses and mix until creamy.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together and add the dry to the wet and mix until you get something that looks like cookie dough.

3.  Lightly grease a couple of baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Make 1.5 tbs balls of dough and roll in some white sugar. Place the dough balls about 1.5" apart on the baking sheet. Press each ball down gently with a fork.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes (watch them after 10 minutes!) in a 375ºF oven. Let cool, then devour them all and share them with no one. No no. I didn't mean that. I mean wrap them up and give them to friends and family in the spirit of the season.

Bombay Aloo

(I'll post photos of the delicious blackbean pumpkin soup shortly--after congealing in the fridge overnight it was like baked black beans! So yummmmmmy.)


Although I've seen so many soups that look irresistible, we currently have lots of soup in the fridge and are running out of pots to hold them.  Also, I still have a lot of that garam masala I made so I figured why not put it to use with this recipe:

Bombay Aloo (Serves 4)

3 potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces

2 tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2" piece fresh ginger, grated

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 tsp garam masala (I use homemade)

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 onion, sliced

1/2 green capsicum, deseeded & sliced  (apparently this is just a bell pepper, she's a Brit living in Spain, they make words up over there I hear)

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tomato, skin & core removed, cut into 8 pieces

4 tbsp chopped coriander

Boil the potatoes in water with a little 2 tsp salt and the turmeric until cooked.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a karahi or deep frying pan and fry the finely chopped onion for about 3 minutes, until translucent.

Add the ginger, garlic, garam masala, cumin and chilli powder, stir fry for 2 minutes.

Add the 1/2 tsp of salt, the sliced onion, capsicum, tomato puree, lemon juice and cut tomato, stir fry for 2 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and add to the pan. Mix well and serve immediately sprinkled with coriander.

Note: This dish can be made ahead and re-heated.

from http://debskitchencreations.blogspot.com/2010/11/bombay-aloo.html


Sounds easy enough, right?

Pumpkin Blackbean Chili

First plate served - pretty on pink

On the table

On the stove

Prepared the chili Saturday afternoon.  The roasted pumpkin added a delicious flavor to the chili.  Danny Barnes provided the perfect sound for cooking.  Didn't use a slow cooker.  Cooked the whole thing on the stove using black beans I'd cooked earlier in the week.  Next time, and yes, there will be a next time, I think I'll add peppers.  Definitely could have used an additional punch.  Nice way to give a fall flavor to chili.

A Poem

Sisters
Janet Wong

She calls me tofu
because I am so soft,
easily falling apart.

I wish I were tough
and full of fire, like ginger-
like her.

Looky here...

Recipe for this love dip: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/02/looking-for-love-dip.html

Get ready for this: Pumpkin Blackbean Chili!

Pumpkin and Black Bean Chili (Slow Cooker)

(from the Guilty Kitchen blog)

1 large onion, diced
1 lb ground beef (I'm going to use the morning star vegetarian meat, the blogger says it can be left out entirely, maybe another type of bean?)
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 19 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, preferably no salt added
1 7oz jar of tomato sauce
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp instant coffee
2-3 tbsp chili powder
2 Tbsp hot sauce (like Cholula Chili Garlic)
1-2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 buttercup squash or small pumpkin
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped fine

1. In a large frying pan on medium heat, sauté the ground beef until thoroughly browned. Place in bowl of crock pot and set aside.
2. In same frying pan, sauté onions until translucent and then add those to the beef in the crock pot bowl.
3. Add remaining ingredients, except whole squash and cilantro to crockpot. Stir and mix and turn to low.
4. Cook on low for at least eight hours.
5. To roast squash preheat oven to 400°F. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds. Slice into small crescents about one inch in thickness, brush with a small amount of oil and bake on baking tray for 20-25 minutes.
6. When squash is done, cut into large cubes and stir into chili just before serving.
7. Garnish chili with chopped cilantro and a dollop of sour cream if desired.

This just looked to good to ignore! Laura did you tell me about this blog? I love it, this woman is smart and creative, jeeez. And talks about this recipe book based collected from blogs, cool, called "Foodies of the World" that was just published!

Alright you two, deadline is going to be extended to Tuesday because of the delayed posting, and its a good recipe for a workday. However I want to make asap!

What do we have here?

Click it. I dare you.

And now that I know they're called Alfajores? I'm making 'em myself!

Mexican Pepper Casserole

So sour cream freaks me out so I used Greek yogurt instead (0% fat) and it was delicious! So creamy (and eggy, Mom). A really easy, versatile dish too.

The whole.

The part.

I'm excited to hear about this weeks recipe! I made delicious cinnamon rolls for breakfast today (started them last night) from scratch! Here's a little peek at those:

Mexican Pepper Success!

Yummmmmm. So yummm I forgot to take pictures before eating oops. This was so delicious, the custard thing worked out really nicely. I also forgot to cover it while cooking and did not have flour to throw in (for texture I imagine?) but neither seemed to effect the casserole structure. I imagine you'd be safe getting rid of the two tbs. of butter and replacing it for some extra oil. And with out the flour, I ended up draining the peppers after sauteing them because there was lots of leftover oil and continuing to cook them would have made them too soggy (I imagine a range stove opposed to my electric would have helped this factor...)

Anyways, the meal was delicious after having a fulfilling day filled with planting trees and reading permaculture books (my two new favorite things.) Can't wait until we're together again and I can talk more about how amazing permaculture is and everything involved, yay December is coming soon!

Also, the next two days will be busy for me, but once I get through them I'll have this week's recipe up!

Mexican Pepper Casserole

6 medium bell peppers

1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced onion

2 tbs each butter and olive oil

3 medium cloves crushed garlic

1 tsp salt, cumin, coriander

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp each black and red pepper

2 tbs flour 

1/2 lb medium sharp cheddar thinly sliced

paprika

for custard

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cps sour cream (you can use some yogurt)

Slice peppers in thin strips.  Heat butter and olive oil together in a heavy skillet.  Sute onions and garlic with salt and spices.  When onions are translucent, add peppers.  Saute over low heat for about 10 minutes.  Sprinkle in the flour.  Mix well and saute until there is no extra liquid.

Butter a deep casserole.  Spread half the saute, topped with half the sliced cheese.  Repeat these layers.  Pour custard over and sprinkle with paprika.  Bake 40-45 minutes at 375.  Uncover for last 15 minutes.

Recipe from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook

For dining this week.

Garam masala

Also from the Vegetarian Epicure

1/4 cup caradamom pods
2 tbs peppercorns
2 tbs cumin seeds
2 sticks of cinnamon, each 2 inches long
2 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp ground mace
2 tbs ground coriander
1 bay leaf

Spread spices out on a large metal pan and roast them in a 200 degree oven for about 20 minutes, stirring them often and making sure they don't scorch.
Remove them from the oven and shell the cardamom seeds, discarding the pods.  Crush the cinnamon sticks by wrapping them with a wooden mallet or other blunt instrument.
Combine all spices and grind them in batches if necessary in an electric blender or food processor, until they are a powder.  If you don't have a blender, you can grind the spices in a stone or ceramic mortar and good luck to you.

Keep the masala in an airtight container, at room temperature.

Here it is! Aren't you proud? Rachel finally read the blog. Made it with some lentils (kind of Dal like...as close as I could come with my cupboard), some parmesan toasted on tandoori bread, as well as some slice heirloom tomato to add to the bite. I made this for some friends, one of which who'd been hopping couches for the past week, you should have seen their grateful faces, like they were eating the first home cooked meal in their lives.

Next time I'll probably use smaller measurements of the spices, the sweet potatoes helped on the spiciness but we all agreed the spices were a bit over kill...I have yet to understand this Garam Masala thing. I'm trying to decide on a recipe for this week, either a good veggie crock pot chili or a green chili corn chowder? Something warm, but also I'm poor so something cheap. Any ideas?

This was successful, I'll attempt to keep it up!

Laura's Smothered (Sweet) Potatoes

Smothered sweet potatoes

So this was the last of 3 portions...I got a little too excited and completely forgot to photograph the food! Yum!

Also, here's a picture of what the storm did to a tree up my street while I was either a. battling the torrential downpour/hail on the highway or b. making garam masala.

Tree down! It's actually leaning on the Governor's Mansion fence.

And for you momma...

Nearby community garden's eggplant

What's this week's recipe? I have sooooooooo many French breakfast radishes and about as many poblano peppers.

Smothered potatoes

Smothered potatoes just out of the oven

The happy cook

s

Smothered Potatoes

2 lbs potatoes (sweet or not)
2 tsp turmeric
1 TB Garam Masala
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup yogurt
3 TB butter
2 bay leaves
1 tsp crushed dried red pepper
1 tsp sugar

Peel potatoes, cut in one-inch chunks.
Boil in salted water until they're half down, 8-10 minutes. Drain them, prick them with fork.
Make a paste of turmeric, garam masala, salt, cumin, black pepper and yogurt. Roll the hot potatoes in the paste until they are thoroughly coated. Melt butter in a medium-sized, shallow, fireproof casserole and add bay leaves and red pepper. Stir over low-heat for a few minutes. Add sugar. In a few minutes, when the sugar begins to caramelize, add the potatoes. Stir and toss gently for a few minutes. Cover casserole tightly, bake in preheated, 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

From The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two by Ana Thomas.

Rachel--
Assignment: make this dish. Before Sunday (Halloween--31 October). Obviously you need to photograph the dish before eating it all.

Grandma Etta's cheese blintzes

As prepared by my mom.

Beat up one egg, 1/2 tsp. salt, add one cup of water and one cup of sifted flour, beat until smooth.  grease a frying pan very slightly with butter, pour in two tablespoons of the batter, tilting the pan so as to allow the batter to run all over the pan.  Fry over slow heat on one side only, turn out on a clean cloth; let cool. 

For filling, use 1/2 pound of pot cheese (farmer cheese), a piece of butter the size of a small egg, add one egg, pinch of salt, a little cinnamon and a TBS (or more) of sugar to taste, and gratged lemon peel.  Spread the mixture on the cooled dough, fold over and tuck the edges in as well.  Then  sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon and fry in plenty of butter.  Serve hot.



1 1/2 times batter recipe makes 18 and 2 1/2 lbs or 5  7 1/2 oz pkgs. made 12 blintzes.

Sweet potato okra enchiladas with roasted fig and black bean sauce

This was a surprisingly successful experiment. Surprising because I ended up wanting more fig than I had put in (and less hot peppers...rarely a desire of mine) even though I worried all day that the downfall of the dish would probably be too much fig. Also, this recipe might have come to me as I was trying to fall asleep two nights ago and was so exciting to me that I had to get up, write it down, and start looking through the internet for other people who might have tried this combo. No one had but there were many black bean fruit sauces. I figured if they're all in season at the same time it couldn't be too disastrous, right?

The dish came together quickly despite the several steps I decided to work through. I started out by chopping up a sweet potato (skin on) into pretty small, bite-size pieces so it would bake quickly. I mixed the potato with a little olive oil, a few chopped cloves of garlic, about 1/2 of a chopped red bell pepper and a couple of roasted hot peppers I've had in the fridge for a few weeks now and some salt and pepper. I would have added onion but I only have purple ones right now. I roasted this in a cast-iron skillet at 400 degrees F for about 15 minutes.

After starting the filling I moved onto the sauce, slicing about 6 figs in half (next time I might even try doubling this? Maybe I should just go to 10?) and threw them in a smaller cast-iron skillet, and started roasting them in the oven too. Probably 5 minutes later I pulled the figs out to check on them, sprinkled some cinnamon and olive oil on top and stuck them back in the over for at least 5 minutes...maybe 10? I know if you leave them long enough they'll start to break down which I could have waited for but I just let them puff up and brown on the bottom a bit.

I then stuck the figs on the stove top (reason #17 why I love cast-iron skillets), threw in some chopped garlic and more chopped hot pepper (probably should have only thrown 1 in...not 3)let all that start to sizzle, then poured about 4/5 can of black beans in (because I was trying to keep the ratio even-ish with figs). Let that cook down for about 7 minutes. Next time I'll leave a little more of the black bean liquid in there or try adding yogurt or something else maybe to create a more liquid-y consistency. Also, had I had cumin I might have sprinkled a bit of that in too but I, distressingly, do not...have to make yet another grocery run this week.

While everything's cooking and roasting away I: grease a pyrex dish, pull my corn tortillas from the fridge--microwaved, and chop a few okra. (If you were adding cheese I'd go ahead and get that ready for assembling.)

To finish off the sauce I blended most of it with a little added water and returned this to the skillet with the remained black beans (just because I like some of my black beans whole).

Assembling was pretty self-explanatory. The amount of each component worked perfectly for 6 tortillas which pretty much filled my dish anyway! Then I poured the black beans on top. Baked at 350 for about 20 minutes, or however long it took to do a couple days worth of dishes...

The end result was delicious. In the future though, I'll definitely add more fig and something to make the black beans more saucy. Maybe some lime juice too. Also, I thought about picking up some cojita to crumble over the enchiladas which I'm sure wouldn't have negative effects...I almost thought about spreading a little goat cheese down the middle of the tortillas before loading them up but that seemed too indulgent. Instead I spent half an hour standing in the kitchen spreading goat cheese ajavascript:void(0)nd jam on that Irish brown bread two hours later...

Will add photos later!

Lemon Squares

1 cup butter melted
2 cups and 4 tbs flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 scant cup confectioners sugar
4 eggs
6 tbs lemon juice

Combine butter, 2 cups flour, 1 cup confectioners sugar.  Pour batter into buttered 13 x 9 x 2" pan.  Bake 20 minutes at 350.

Beat eggs, 2 cups sugar, baking powder, remaining flour and lemon juice  Pour over baked crust and bake 30-35 minutes more.  Make square marks and then let cool.  Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

recipe de ma mere

Sweet potato, black bean, okra scramble

Ever since visiting Rachel in Portland and making an amazing scramble the morning after the Fourth I've been meaning to throw one together myself. Definitely a good crisper emptier and so easy to alter for multiple meals. Since okra made an awesome appearance in Friday's dinner scramble (with red bell pepper, onion, garlic, and green beans) I made sure to grab some from the market.

I sautéed a few cloves of garlic (CLG), about half of a yellow onion (CLG), a fresh pepper from my prof's garden and a couple of roasted hot peppers (CLG), and a sweet potato (Kroger: local section) in olive oil on medium heat until the sweet potato was thoroughly cooked. I threw in a can of black beans (drained of course) and seven sliced okra (okras?). At this point I took about 3/4 of the food out of the pan (tupperwared for tomorrows breakfast, lunch and dinner?) and then cracked an egg (local to AR) into the pan. Stirred the mixture a bit, let two corn tortillas start to warm up on one side of the skillet, took off the stove once the egg looked thoroughly cooked.

So filling and tasty with the many fresh ingredients. Plus, got my breakfast taco fix for the day and I didn't even need to throw salsa or hot sauce on top--though I'm sure I'll do that tomorrow!

Irish Brown Bread

Two weeks ago I bought buttermilk for the OA intern potluck. My plan was to make Irish Brown Bread from Alice Waters' new book, however the potluck was cancelled...and it's hard enough to find a recipe for buttermilk...I used half for the lemon buttermilk cake and last week I used the other half for, what else, Irish Brown Bread. For some reason it never occurred to me that I could make Waters' bread despite the cancelled dinner, but it made for a pleasant Thursday evening activity. I used a recipe from one of my latest blog finds: Kiss my spatula.

My favorite part of this bread was the whole wheat flour. I finally put my
CLG flour that I've been stocking up on to amazing use! The bread came together fairly quickly and I was afraid to over-knead it so I ended up under-kneading I think...next time I'll use less salt, knead it more, and make more shallow cuts in the top of the bread. Fresh out of the oven, with a little CLG butter melting into the bread, very satisfying. I also wanted to add something into the dough like flax or poppy seeds but I'm not sure if they'd act funny?

Incredible Sautéed Jalapeno Corn with Tempeh

So this is a recipe I tried from Alice Waters' newest book In the Green Kitchen but I added tempeh so that I could turn it into a meal.

1/2 tsp cumin seeds
olive oil
coarse salt
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 a jalapeno, chopped
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off ear
1/2 package of tempeh (4 oz)

Toast cumin seeds for about a minute. She asks you to grind the seeds with salt with a mortar and pestel...I chopped them on my cutting board, working just fine I think. Coat the pan with olive oil, add garlic, saute until sizzling, add jalapeno and cumin. Here's where I added the tempeh too and let it cook for a few minutes. Then add corn, stirring constantly--it cooks pretty quickly, ~3 minutes--you can add water if necessary.

I added cherry tomatoes from P. Allen Smith's farm that I slow-roasted for about 4 hours a couple of weeks back. So yummy and filling and easy!

The baking-est weekend

So I thought I'd share the things I made this weekend since all I've done with myself is bake and cook!

(this is actually from Thursday night but it's close enough...)

I made Blackberry buckle courtesy of Bless her heart's blog--I just found this blog that a woman, also in Austin, writes and I love her simple, impassioned dishes that use lots of fresh, local ingredients.


What inspired this endeavor is the wild blackberry bush I discovered today on my walk back to the apartment. On the edge of a vacant lot sits a massive, winding, spiky blackberry bramble with so many delicious berries. I scraped up my legs pretty nicely but after picking a few cups of berries I knew I had to bake them into something. Needless to say, it's all gone. It was delicious and came together so quickly that I honestly thought I screwed it up because it took not even 5 minutes to throw together!


Yesterday really was all food all day. I woke up, walked the dog (Rupert) to the farmer's market. In between the time that people gawked and petted and asked about Rupert I managed to pick up some banana peppers and turnips and I ran into Ben who said he'd come cook with us when he was done working. The plan for the day was pickling some cucumbers I got Friday through Conway Locally Grown. Although, I was originally inspired to pickle from this recipe at Smitten Kitchen I couldn't find it for some reason and used another. After some alterations and halving the found recipe it ended up looking a lot like this recipe anyway though. I ran out of white sugar so I topped off with brown (which I prefer anyways, hopefully it won't screw anything up too monumentally). I also have found very mixed opinions on when to eat the pickles. One source told me 6 weeks, another 1 week and another just a few hours! As much as I'd like to go with the latter I think I'll try to wait it out--if I can!

We braised the leftover pickling cucumbers, just like Julia Child, but they weren't all that so I chalked it up to being the wrong kind of cucumber which was pretty accurate since we tried it again at dinner with some cucumbers picked from the Hendrix garden and they definitely were all that.

For dinner, a friend came over with a backpack full of ingredients. Ben had instructed him to bring whatever he wanted but not to think about an endpoint, just bring whatever he felt like bringing. We decided upon assessing the situation (and with an added request (to use the casserole dish you gave me last year) to make a tortilla casserole. We stir-fried squash, onion, leftover sliced veggies (carrots, cucumber), with spices (cumin, paprika, red pepper), garbanzo beans (that had been seared in a separate pan). Then we layered tortillas, the stir-fry, local jalapeno cheddar cheese and slices of heirloom tomatoes from Ben's farm. Baked for 15 minutes in 350 degree oven. SO DELICIOUS.

Right now I'm waiting for my Foccacia bread to rise.

I think that about wraps it up. I highly recommend the buckle and I'll let you know how the pickles turn out in a week!

Fried Green Tomatoes Recipe

Ingredients

3 medium, firm green tomatoes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs or cornmeal
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Method

1 Cut unpeeled tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle slices with salt and pepper. Let tomato slices stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, place flour, milk, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow dishes.
2 Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Dip tomato slices in milk, then flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 4-6 minutes on each side or until brown. As you cook the rest of the tomatoes, add olive oil as needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

found at simply recipes

Summer Squash And Red Pepper Tarta With Basil Crust

courtesy of NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126911529#126911836
Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon ice water, plus more if needed

Filling

2 large red bell peppers

2 large summer squash

Olive oil for drizzling

Salt and pepper to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh basil as garnish

2 large eggs

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the butter with a pastry blender, food processor or your hands until the dough looks like coarse crumbs. Once it reaches the desired consistency, add the egg yolk and ice water, working it into the mixture. Pinch a section of the dough together between your fingers: If the dough is still crumbly and does not bind, add more ice water, a small amount at a time. You want the dough to bind without being too damp or sticky. When the dough has reached the right consistency, roll it into a ball and flatten it into a disk (this will help the dough cool faster). Then wrap the disk and place it in the refigerator for at least 30 minutes, ideally one hour.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Slice the bell peppers into quadrants and the squash into rounds 1/4 inch thick. Cover a baking sheet with foil and lightly drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper. Spread cut vegetables on top of seasoned foil. Drizzle again with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften, turning them over halfway.

While the vegetables roast, take the dough from the refrigerator. Lightly flour a kitchen board and roll out the dough into a 10-inch round. Drape the dough over a rolling pin and transfer it to a 9-by-9-inch baking or pie pan. Press the dough into the pan and trim the edges.

When the vegetables are done, lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees Prick the bottom of the tart crust with a fork and place it in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crust begins to brown. If it begins to puff, cover with foil and add pie weights, dried beans or rice to hold it down (or just push it down with an oven mitt or kitchen towel!).

Pile the vegetables into the pre-cooked tart crust, beginning with the red peppers, breaking the curled edges to let the pepper lie flat. Once the red peppers are arranged, whisk 1 egg and pour evenly over tart. Then place the squash slices and whisk the other egg and pour over the tart. Place the tart in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. If the edges of the tart begin to brown too quickly, cover them with aluminum foil. Once the egg is cooked through, the tart is done. Cool on a rack and garnish with basil before serving.

**I actually added roasted onion, banana pepper and sprinkled chard over the top--oh and rolled the leftover dough out very thin and baked it on top of the tart! Also, only threw in 1/2 of a bell pepper because that's all I had. This was so good though, very filling. (Also, I ate it for dinner...but will have leftovers for breakfast!) Not as eggy as a quiche but that may be due to my tiny local eggs...cute, but tiny.

Cosmo cupcake!

This week at a cupcakery in Seattle: "Cosmopolitan", Orange cake filled with cranberry curd spiked with vodka topped with cranberry italian buttercream with more vodka... just in time for the opening of "Sex in the City"

http://www.theyellowleafcupcake.com/

Pasta Recipe

Equal parts eggs to flour (use 2 eggs and 2 cups for a reasonable amount of pasta). Use olive oil or water to hold dough together.

yesterday in the garden

an artichoke is growing in the garden

Refried black beans

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• about 2 cups of black beans with liquid

Cook garlic in oil in a skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add beans with their liquid and mash with a potato masher or the back of a large spoon to make a coarse purée.

Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is hot. Stir in enough of water to thin to a creamy consistency. Add about a teaspoon of  cumin and coriander.

The consistency was great smoother than my mashed potatoes.

Bruschetta

This recipe comes from Whole Foods cookbook. To simplify their version, all you need to do is mix the following together and spread over toasts/baguette slices of your preference:
1 lb. plum tomatoes (chopped)
2 minced garlic cloves
1 sm. red onion (I once tried sweet onion, and it wasn't as good; while red onion usually bothers my stomach, I generally reduce the quantity here...but even a little bit of red onion works better than a lot of sweet or white onion)
1/8 c minced parsley (I never measure these things, but this is what the recipe says; my advice is just add to taste)
3 tbs fresh basil (see previous comment, though I feel like you can never have too much basil, so I usually just include the entirety of the basil bunch that I buy)
1/4 tsp. salt (um, I'm pretty sure I use more than this :)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper (ditto)
1/8 c. extra virgin olive oil
4 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbs. red wine vinegar

(McKim's annotations)

Depending on how much topping you put on each toast, you could probably have enough for one baguette here. Many servings, if an appetizer/snack.

Scallion Goat Cheese Muffins

Scallion Goat Cheese Muffins

Gourmet | January 1999

yield: Makes 12 muffins
This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Ingredients

* 1 cup whole milk
* 4 ounces soft mild goat cheese
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
* 1 large egg
* 1 bunch scallions

print a shopping list for this recipe
Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. and butter twelve 1/3-cup muffin cups.

In a small bowl stir together 2 tablespoons milk and goat cheese until combined. Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Melt butter and in another small bowl whisk together with remaining milk and egg. Finely chop enough scallions to measure 1 cup. Stir butter mixture and scallions into flour mixture until just combined. Divide half of batter evenly among muffin cups and top each with about 2 teaspoons goat cheese filling. Divide remaining batter over filling. Bake muffins in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Scallion-Goat-Cheese-Muffins-100599#ixzz0fSiqmcnu

Dr. McKim's suggestions: Whatever you do, don't line the pan with butter (blech), as there's simply no need if you're using a non-stick pan. Don't use paper cups either (I learned this the hard way), as all the fat from the butter congeals around the paper, and they're hard to peel. Pretty delicious, though. I used a pinch more salt than the recipe called for (imagine), as the first batch I made (last weekend) needed a bit of sharpening up.

And I haven't actually tried these but they sound pretty awesome....

Leek-Gruyere-Goat Cheese Tart

Simple Leek and Ricotta Tarts*

Epicurious | October 2007

yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

* 500 grams (1 pound) fresh ricotta cheese
* 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
* 2 eggs
* 600 grams (20 ounces) ready-prepared puff pastry
* 1 leek, trimmed and finely sliced
* 45 grams (1 1/2 ounces) butter, melted
* 2 teaspoons thyme leaves
* Sea salt and cracked black pepper


Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F). Place the ricotta, parmesan and eggs in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick. Cut into 4 x 15 cm (6 inch) squares and place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. Spread the ricotta mixture over the pastry squares leaving a 2 cm (3/4 inch) border. Place the leek on top of the ricotta mixture and brush with the butter. Sprinkle with the thyme, salt, and pepper and bake for 25–30 minutes or until the leek is golden. Serve with the fennel and parsley salad .

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Simple-Leek-and-Ricotta-Tarts-240504#ixzz0fRFh3B4e

*Dr. McKim replaces Ricotta with goat cheese (maybe about .75 lb.) and then 1/4 lb Gruyere per the reviewers on epicurious.com suggestions. She also says: Also, you can buy the puff pastry in sheets...and I find that it's easier to simply unfold those sheets and put the ingredients on top (as one big sheet of a tart) instead of making individual tarts. There's no need to brush anything with butter once assembled, fyi, though the recipe suggests it.

Lemon Curd

I make this recipe in the microwave.  It is very good and easy


1/4 lb. unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs

1.  Place butter, sugar, juice, and zest together in a 4-cup glass measure.  Cover tightly with microwave plastic wrap.  Cook at 100% for 4 min.

2.  Remove from oven, uncover and stir well.

3.  Whisk 1/4 cup of lemon mixture into the eggs to warm them.  Whisking constantly, pour egg mixtgure back into remaining lemon mixture.

4.  Cook, uncovererd at 100% for 2 minutes.  Remove from oven and whisk until smooth.  Cook 2 min. longer.

5.  Remove from oven and immediately pour into the workbowl of food processor.  Process for 30 seconds until smooth.  Cool before serving.

This is outstanding and you can also combine with whipped cream to ice cake.  I sometimes fill little shells and serve them