Waffles!

Surabhi and Ziga thoughtfully gave us a waffle maker and a teapot as a wedding gift and they have been serious workhorses in our kitchen.  I don’t think a day goes by where we don’t use the kettle, as I am a tea fiend (and slowly turning Martin into one!).  We may not use the waffle iron as much, but I get just as much enjoyment out of it.

Martin isn’t too much of a waffle fan, so if I make waffles, I’m pretty much making them just for me.  Far and away my favorite recipe is the Light, Crisp Waffle from Fine Cooking, introduced to me by Brian.  He and I both love the same style of waffles and I consider Brian a discerning food individual, especially when something as important as WAFFLES are on the line, so I knew this would be a winner.

As Brian points out, the recipe is a little extra work since you have to beat an egg white.  For the record, one time, I accidentally separated my whites into the milk mixture, so I couldn’t beat it before adding it to the batter.  I didn’t feel that the waffle lost a significant amount of lightness, though the batter was a bit runny.  So if you are ever so anxious for waffles that you speed through the recipe too quickly and accidentally drop the egg whites into the milk, it will all work out – take it from me!

The smell of freshly cooking waffles is one of my favorite smells.  I feel like the vanilla really comes out and it’s as addictive as the smell of fresh baked cookies, with the added benefit that you get to eat one every three minutes hot off the iron.

The cold, hard (or hot, crispy??) truth is that I love these waffles so much, I will unashamedly eat them standing by the waffle iron.  Having no pressure to share with anyone, I pop them out of the waffle iron, immediately start cooking another one and dig into my hot, hot waffle.  I don’t even add any toppings or anything – I just pull them apart into their quarters and chomp away.  It’s the best feeling in the world.

I use a heaping 1/3 cup of batter per waffle and this makes more than 5 waffles … probably along the magnitude of 8, which I can actually eat all in one sitting.  Also, following Brian’s recommendations are key.  I found that using my own timer, using a quick blast of cooking spray and making sure it always stays on the lowest setting consistently produced amazing waffles.  My timing preference is 3.5 minutes, I like them a bit more crisp.

Fresh Chinese Noodles

Wouldn’t it be great if I could say that I made these?  I wish, though … I don’t know the first thing about the proper technique behind making noodles.  This is something I’ve wanted to learn ever since I saw someone doing it as a young girl.

Here is a video of someone making them.  To me, it is like magic.  Twirl, twirl, twist, stretch … noodles?  How on earth does he make it look so effortless?

Tuna Melts

My new favorite tuna melt recipe consists of:

Mixing together
2 cans oil-packed canned tuna
2 ribs celery, very finely diced
2 spoonfuls kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1 small dollop mayonnaise
1 generous squirt Dijon mustard
1 splash lemon juice (to brighten the flavor)
Pepper to taste (the olives will provide plenty of saltiness!)
Garlic powder to taste

Then layering on top of lightly toasted sourdough bread in the following order
Thinly sliced tomatoes
A layer of tuna salad stuffs
Mixed lettuce greens (thin and flat leaves – there’s no room for curly and voluminous!)
A slice of Provolone

Broil in the oven until cheese is melted and browned. Makes approx. 5 open-faced sandwiches.

Toasting the bread first ensures that the bread won’t become soggy from the tomato while broiling.

To keep  Martin on his toes in the future, I could see myself adding chopped boiled egg, diced red onion or capers for success.  Or profit.  Whichever one floats your boat more. 

Chocolate Pecan Pie

As you may have gathered from reading this blog, I love pie but, sadly, PIE DOES NOT LIKE ME.  No matter how gently or carefully or nicely I try to coax a pie crust out of me, I usually get a huge pile of failure.  In fact, one time I became so frustrated (tears may or may not have been produced) that Martin declared that I should never EVER be allowed to make pie again.  Pie is serious business.  As in, it seriously thinks I suck.

Sufficient time had passed for me to forget how much pie really hates me, so I decided to take another stab at it.  I chose chocolate pecan because we were going to Rob’s birthday party and his wife told us that was one of his favorite pies.  She also said his tastes change a lot, so I knew going in that it might be hit or miss.

This time around, I decided to try a new method of pie-making:  utilizing a food processor.  Martha Stewart makes it look effortless, but is that really that surprising?  So I set up our food processor and broke out my standby pie crust recipe, Pie Crust A La Brian.

The next time I make a pie crust, I will make sure to cut my butter and shortening into fairly uniform sized (and small!) chunks.  This time around, they were pretty large and, pulsing my food processor, I quickly got to a point where i had large chunks of butter (we are talking pat-sized pieces, not pea-sized) mixed in with butter that had already reached a cornmeal consistency.  So I kept pulsing to fix that and the next thing I knew, the moisture from the butter was already pulling the flour together.  This is about when I started to worry, because overprocessing pie crust can make it tough and crunchy – I knew that from experience!

I added some water (even less than Brian’s recipe called for!) and came up with a pretty wet pie dough.  I flattened them into disks, wrapped them in saran wrap and put them in the refrigerator to chill.

I was so worried about what was going to happen with the pie crust that I actually baked BOTH pie crusts, even though I only needed one for pecan pie.  You can see it here:

It’s like looking at Beauty and the Beast!

Maybe in a way it worked out … the first crust (guess which?) fell apart because I didn’t flour the countertop generously enough.  It needed a lot of flour to keep from sticking.  I used that one as a test run to see how it would roll out and (more importantly!) how it would taste once baked.

I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled out my deformed pie crust.  It wasn’t the best pie crust I’ve ever eaten but it had a buttery texture.  It was also very crumbly (is that normal???) and not as flaky as I would have liked.  But it tasted like a pretty decent pie crust and it was surely the best I’ve made without having Brian hovering over my shoulder.  So I forged on with the next crust and made sure to flour the countertop even more than before.

So now that I have rambled for a very long time about the pie crust: the filling.  I basically typed in ‘chocolate pecan pie’ and picked a recipe that called for sugar/ corn syrup as opposed to cane syrup / corn syrup (where does one buy cane syrup?  I could not find it!).  This is the one I chose, though Emeril has about 5 variations of the same, the only difference is the way they are garnished.

It was really sweet and a bit chewy.  I think I might have liked it more if the pecans were chopped instead of whole.  In the future, I’ve decided that pecan pie tartlets are the way to go.  There is a better crust to filling ratio.  Also, reviewers of the recipe stated that it looked almost burnt but to me, that looks like a pretty normal pecan pie.  I did cover the edges of the crust with aluminum until the last 5 minutes of baking, to ensure no burning.

I count this as a quasi-success.  It actually came out resembling a pie (WIN!), but only half of it was eaten at the party [LOSE ].

Quinoa Pilaf with Mushrooms

Martin and I both love quinoa.  For me, I think it’s a matter of pronounciation … it just sounds so exciting!  Quinoa.  Keen-wah.  KEEEEEEEEN-WAH.  For Martin, I think his reasoning is more practical:  he loves all the health benefits and food-awesomeness that this little grain contains.  I bet eating it makes him think to himself, “I’m doing good by my body.  GO ME.”

And it really is amazing that this little grain can contain so much.  It’s a great source of protein and has a balanced set of amino acids, making it a great complete protein source.  It also is jam packed with fiber, is gluten-free and easy to digest.

And on top of that, quinoa has this super fluffy texture when cooked, which is great for when you want a nutritious but light side dish.  Sometimes, it is hard to find recipes to use quinoa in … I don’t always feel comfortable substituting it for rice or some other kind of grain, depending on the dish.  I worry that bogging down the quinoa in excessive liquids, like in casseroles or soups, will just create a sort of paste-y, undesirable texture (and remember, mouthfeel = key!).

So while I still figure out this thing called quinoa, I’ve been trying to stick to recipes and I’ve been surprised at the lack of recipes around.  Despite there not being very many, they’re also mostly variations of the same: prepare like rice, add vegetables or proteins, serve.

This dish, Quinoa Pilaf with Mushrooms, is actually no exception, but I think it paired really well with the salmon to create an overall healthy and filling dinner.  You can’t tell in my poorly shot, fuzzy camera photo (though you wouldn’t have been able to in a well shot, sharply focused photo too), but there are actually mushrooms and shallots in there.  Let’s just say I got a little too enthusiastic with the chopping.  :)  Note how my quinoa looks nothing like the quinoa on the recipe page.  Oops!

This was really quick to prepare and, on a night that I had a late evening phone call and started dinner later than usual, that is a plus.  I believe I pulled this dinner together in about 40 minutes and that is only because the quinoa took 25 minutes to absorb off all the liquid (rather than the called for 15) and 10 minutes to rest.

Another note: quinoa is coated in saponins, which will create a bitter taste if not removed.  Cookbooks will tell you to soak it for awhile, pour off the water, re-soak and pour off the water again before boiling.  In my haste to cook the quinoa, I forgot to soak it, but the taste still came out fine.  I just read that most commercially sold quinoa in the US is pre-soaked to remove this coating, so that must have been the case for my quinoa.

Spicy Thai Steamed Mussels

This was a dish that I thought was just amazing and delectable and delicious … and Martin completely balked at.  Mostly because it had mussels.  He doesn’t like most seafood (except fish and even then, it’s hit or miss), but I grew up on it and prefer it to most land-based offerings.

My friend and fellow food adventurer Amy recommended it to me and when I skimmed over the ingredients and realized I had most everything (except the mussels – that would have been amazing if I just ‘happened’ to have those on hand!), I was sold.  Especially because the curry paste used was RED curry, my absolute favorite kind of Thai curry.  Red curry beats any curry in my book – yellow curry, green curry, purple polka dotted curry … I should probably branch out and try other dishes when I go to Thai restaurants but I can’t because I just love red curry too much.  Extra so if it has pineapple … mmm, pineapple red curry.  It’s like heaven, in a bowl, asking me to eat it.

Side note:  HAY A-MAY, remember how you were the first person to introduce me to Thai food?  And the restaurant served this awful, terrible, too sticky-sweet pad thai and I almost swore then and there to never eat Thai again?  But you convinced me to give it one more try?  Thank you.  For realz.

Okay, now that I’m done rhapsodizing about Thai food, I can return to the dish on hand:  spicy Thai steamed mussels.

Check out my big guns … err, I mean, mussels.  Ha ha!

So I did some reading on mussels and one site recommended that you cook mussels in a minimal amount of sauce / soup / broth.  In fact, steaming is considered the best, because it allows the natural flavors of the mussels to really shine.  Plus, as the mussels open while cooking, they will release liquid they had inside to help the cooking / steaming process.  This went a long way into explaining why you basically had about a cup and a half of liquid to a whole lotta mussels.  Luckily for Martin, I took Amy’s recommendation and only bought 2 lbs. worth, rather than the 5 the recipe calls for.

De-bearding the mussels (aka, ripping out the thing that they use to attach to rocks) was an issue for me.  I was constantly scared they would open up on me during the de-bearding process (maybe to yell at me or scream in pain?  Eek!) and so it wasn’t overall a pleasant experience.  But the mussels had little-to-no beard and so it passed with mostly no issues.

Also, for some reason, I forgot limes (the other ingredient I didn’t have on hand), but substituted lemon juice because I was too lazy to go to the store again.  As Amy pointed out, it was really only there to add a bright, citrusy note to the dish and so I felt that lemon juice was an acceptable substitution.  As was not including the cilantro.  Both Martin and I are not cilantro fans and we didn’t really miss it in this dish.

Amy described the soup that you make as a rather thin, watery soup and I was having none of that, mostly because I love love love thick hearty soups.  So I diced up a potato into very small cubes and boiled them in the soup mixture until tender.  After they were cooked, I pureed the soup with an immersion blender and it really did create this nice, thick chowder-like texture.  I’m really glad Amy told me that the soup was thin, as I think the thicker soup really brought it up to the next level.

Served with a freshly tossed salad and lightly toasted bread to sop up the soup, this was the BEST.

Caramel Popcorn

For Christmas last year, Michelle made this divine caramel popcorn.  We got a big bag of it, then I proceeded to eat about 50% of it in one sitting.  I felt immediately guilty for not sharing with Martin, so I put the rest of it away for him … but by the time he got to it, maybe only 33-ish% was left.  Sorry, Martin!  It was too delicious.

Michelle gave me the recipe but I’ve never made it, mostly because I’ve never had a big enough pan to bake 15 cups of popcorn in one sitting.  But I finally got a sheet pan and decided to go all-out for Emily’s Halloween party!  And it was seriously a thrill for me, I finally got to break open the bottle of Karo’s corn syrup that I bought specifically for this recipe (oh and pecan pie) and yet have never used.  And I may or may not have owned this bottle for 6+ months.  So yay caramel popcorn and using up corn syrup!

What can I say?  It’s the little things in life that make my day.

Ch-ch-check it out:

Pop! goes the … popcorn.

Mixing it up was easy enough … the problem came because of proportions.  The recipe calls for 15 cups POPPED popcorn (and yes, my copy of the recipe really emphasizes that popped part!).  A single bag of the microwave popcorn I bought made 11 cups, so I made 2 bags and increased the caramel part of the recipe by 50%.

(May I take a moment to say WOWZA.  I have never been much of a popcorn gal, so I never realized how limiting your options are for popcorn when you DON’T want popcorn with butter, EXTRA butter or MOVIE STYLE ZOMG butter.  I spent a good 5 minutes analyzing the popcorn selection at the grocery store and came up with exactly 2 options for unbuttered popcorn, one of which was organic.)

And now returning to the recipe at hand:  Instead of increasing by 50%, I think that I should have just increased it by 25%.  I can’t believe I am about to say this but: I think there was TOO MUCH caramel topping!  I apparently like lightly coated caramel popcorn and not super sugary caramel popcorn – who would have ever guessed?

Also, I learned the accidental-oops way that throwing in the baking soda with everything else and not after everything is boiling will not adversely affect it too much.  I don’t know what adding the baking soda last would normally have done, though.  Maybe make it foam up?  When I make it right the next time, I will be sure to let you know!

If you are unable to spread the popcorn in a single layer in the pan (I wasn’t because I’d made so much!) be sure to mix it up real well and test popcorn from the bottom of the pack for done-ness.  I just tested the top and the bottom pieces were still a bit chewy.  I think super crispy is the way to go (there is a pleasant crunching sound that comes when you bite into a piece!) so I would definitely check a bit more carefully next time.

Caramel Popcorn
by Michelle

15 cups POPPED plain popcorn (salted is okay)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1.  Preheat oven to 200-degrees F.

2.  Mix together all ingredients BUT baking soda.  Bring to a boil.  Add baking soda and remove from heat.

3.  Pour over popcorn, carefully tossing to coat.  Spread onto sheet pan and bake in oven for minimum 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until popcorn is crisp.

Servings:  Lots of yumminess!

Mississippi Mud Cookies

Last time, I talked about (one of) Melissa and Mabel’s food contributions to Kjersti’s birthday party.  Well, this time, I am going to talk about my contribution.  Ha!  So generous of me!

I bet you’re wondering why I suddenly am posting so much.  And why I even have pictures with my post.  And I would lose that bet, because I’m sure no one’s noticed at all!  But I will tell you why anyway.  And that is because:  I finally got an iPhone.  The Flickr application is the BEST.  The photo quality isn’t up to food porn levels but then, my photos never really were, were they?  :)  It’s all about the baby steps … first, start posting regularly.  Then maybe think about improving on the photos.

Right before Kjersti’s birthday, I stumbled on this recipe for Mississippi Mud cookies.  I am pretty sure this came bundled in a packet trying to get me to buy the Southern Living recipe book for that year.  I didn’t buy the book, but I made sure to save the recipe, promising to “try it one day.”  So for Kjersti’s birthday, I picked up some mini marshmallows and went to town.

Here they are, all ready to bake!  The dough comes out quite sticky so it’s important to use some sort of parchment (or Silpat!) to prevent them from sticking to the cookie sheets.  They’re also this weird oblong shape because I decided to practice my quenelle technique which, by the way, needs lots of work.  My goal in life is to one day get this cool, the one-spoon quenelle technique!  The dough was too sticky to try that, so I used the easier (and cheating?) two-spoon technique.

Despite the oblong shape, they still baked up round:

Martin said the spots where the marshmallows melted looked like plastic and they definitely didn’t look like the pretty magazine photo.  But I thought they were yummy despite that!  The cookies had a nice chewiness to them and I am all about mouthfeel when it comes to food.

This recipe called for pecans and I normally don’t add nuts to my food if I know my friend Michelle will be around to eat them (because she has strong allergic reactions to nuts).  But I tasted the batter before adding the nuts and it was very sweet … I think without the nuts to balance it, it wouldn’t have been as good.  Also, I very finely chopped my pecans because I don’t like big pecan chunks but I think next time, I might keep it a bit chunkier.  The pecans were so finely chopped, they practically disappeared into the cookie, though you definitely got a good nutty aftertaste.

Mississippi Mud Cookies
from Southern Living

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels (accidentally put in semisweet here)
1 cup + 2 tbsp. miniature marshmallows

1.  Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.

2.  Microwave semisweet chocolate in a small, microwave-safe glass bowl at high for 1 minute and stir.  If not completely smooth, microwave at 30 second increments, stirring between each time, until completely smooth.

3.  Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy and smooth.

4.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

5.  Beat in vanilla and melted chocolate.

6.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and mix together.  Gradually add to the chocolate mixture, beating until well blended.

6.  Stir in chopped pecans and 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels.

7.  Drop tough in tablespoon-sized heaps and press 3 marshamllows into each portion of dough.  Bake approx. 10 – 12 minutes per batch.  Let cool on cookie sheets minimum 1 minute before transferring to cooling rack.

Yields 3 dozen cookies (which I don’t believe unless you use portion sizes slightly smaller than tablespoon-sized heaps).

Happy Birthday, Kjersti!!

Yesterday, I had the great fortune of doing two things I love: celebrating a friend’s birthday and eating fabulous cake.  The Birthday Girl was none other than K-J-E-R-S-T-I, KJERSTI!

Two of Kjersti’s friends, Melissa and Mabel, hosted her birthday party and also laid out the yummiest spread I have had in awhile.  Martin loved the pasta-that-tasted-like-pizza (that is exactly how he described it and exactly how it tasted, too!).  But I could not take my eyes off of the amazing cake, even though I wasn’t even the birthday girl!  (Sorry, Kjersti).

Take a peek:

Can I be forgiven if I somehow also managed to get a picture of the birthday girl WITH her cake?  I think I also had pictures when she was about to blow out her cake, but they came out a bit blurry.

Amazing looking, huh?  And amazing tasting.  This was a four-layer cake (2 layers each red velvet and almond) and made by Mabel and Melissa.  I can honestly say the red velvet was some of the BEST red velvet I have ever tasted and since it is my favorite cake and all, I have tasted many a dry, disappointing red velvet in my time.  This was not the case by any means and I was sad my stomach was already full from other food.  My stomach, however, was probably relieved I did not try to stuff more food into it (you got off easy this time, stomach!).

I love how you can see the texture in the frosting, even when taken by my iPhone camera!

I am definitely going to ask Melissa for the recipe, but I doubt that I will get the same results.  Cake and me don’t get along when it comes time to make it (eating it, definitely not a problem!) … I have never even made a layer cake in my life!  I am much better at other kinds of baked goods (cooooookies) and have learned to fill my cake needs elsewhere if I’m craving some (usually I stuff a brownie in my face and the world is good again.  HA!).

Would you be surprised if I said they opened up a bake store together, wonderfully named Sugar Therapy?  I really admire the fact that they are turning something they love into a business like that, especially because I don’t think I would be able to handle that kind of responsibility.  I think it is so cool!

So thank you, Mabel and Melissa, for being such gracious hosts!  And Mabel, for opening her home to us.  And also to Kjersti, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!  You have a beautiful heart and a wonderful joy for life that I think is just amazing.

My Yellow Beans, My Yellow Beans

It all started with an innocuous enough looking sign:  Green Beans, $2.00 / lb.  Only … the beans were purple!  Not just any purple – a deep, beautiful aubergine, in fact.  I honestly had no idea green beans could be so pretty or, really, any other color but green.  I asked the grocer, who said that they were a bit sweeter but pretty much exactly the same.

Same or not, I could not get over how lovely they looked.  I admit it, something as simple as a new look on an old vegetable can immediately impress me!  Don’t judge me for liking my food to taste good AND look nice!

Oh who am I kidding … judge away, I know you are!  I like yummy, pretty food and I’m not afraid to say it.

And so begins my love affair with any green beans that aren’t, well, green.  I took them home and prepared them my favorite way: I coat them in olive oil, spread them out on a baking pan and sprinkle them generously with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.  Then I roast them in high heat for a few minutes, enough so they’re still crisp but the sweet flavor can come out.

Disappointingly, after roasting, these ended up looking no different than their green cousins.  But they did not disappoint in the taste department and were very delicious.

This week at the Farmer’s Market yielded no purple green beans but I was able to complete the trifecta: YELLOW!  The minute I saw them, they called to me.  Knowing my love of all things yellow, how could I possibly not get these beans?

And then, having gotten them, how could I not eat them?

This is pre-roasting.  YUM.