Tzatziki

I got this recipe from my sister. She said the recipe was hand written, so this recipe could be from anywhere. Thanks to the nameless person who gave it to her!

Ingredients
2 cups of Greek yogurt
3 cloves of garlic
One cucumber
Salt
Pepper

First, I peeled the cucumber and started to slice it into rounds. Then I remembered to look at the instructions from my test message and sliced the cucumber lengthwise so I could scoop out the seeds. This was pretty easy, as running the bowl end of the spoon down the center of each side of the cucumber got them all out! I chopped up the cucumber into small pieces and added them to the yogurt in the bowl. My sister mentioned that some people put the cucumber into a food processor to get the cucumber bits finely chopped, but she doesn’t mind bigger chunks of cucumber. Since I don’t own a food processor and wanted to eat dinner as soon as possible, I opted for the bigger chunks as well. She also mentioned preferring whole fat or 2% yogurt over the nonfat kind. Since they only had plain nonfat Greek yogurt at the grocery store I visited and fruit flavored Greek yogurt sounded pretty awful in this recipe, I went the nonfat route.

After peeling the garlic cloves I minced the garlic as small as I could with a knife. I really need to practice this skill so I had some larger bits of raw garlic than most people would prefer. I mixed it into the yogurt and cucumber and then used the salt and pepper grinders, about ten twists for the salt and five for the pepper. I served it with slices of orange bell pepper and celery. My two year old went to town with it. She dipped her steak into it as well as the vegetables, which was a genius move and tasted quite good! She even told her Grandparents she liked the white sauce, so we have a winner. **Warning, if you are serving this to a two year old and lack garlic mincing skills, have some milk handy for when they strike a garlic nugget!

The Tzatziki travelled to work for lunch well so the leftover is being used. I think the next time I make this I might add some dill to see how it tastes. Anything that encourages vegetable consumption in the toddler set has my vote!

I cut this recipe out of the Virginian Pilot which is, as one would imagine by now, the only physical newspaper I receive! It sounded good as written, but I made a few modifications. I am capable of following directions, just unwilling to do so!

First, I reduced the oil to approximately ½ a teaspoon. The article that accompanied this may have indicated you can just use zero calorie cooking spray as well. Next time I might do that to limit the fat and calories. It would be important to heat the pan first. I have burned plenty of garlic in my life trying to get the pan hot after putting the garlic in!

I used a cherry red pepper that was diced more than thinly sliced. I did remove all of the seeds of the pepper. I also used a tablespoon of pre-chopped garlic. Hungry two year olds do not wait for fresh chopped garlic! I added both to the hot pan. Once I could smell them cooking I added a bag of spinach, after rinsing it off. It cooked up in a couple of minutes like the recipe said, stirring continuously. If you don’t some will wilt and some will not, so the dish will look funny. It should also be noted that a bag of spinach wilts into two adult servings so if you are cooking for a crew, you need to make more!

Once I took it off the stove, I added some salt and garnished with a lemon (see photo). Once we sat down to dinner, I discovered two things:

1.      Dicing the pepper instead of thinly slicing keeps the spice form permeating the spinach. In my case, this was ideal since my two year old doesn’t care for spicy things yet.

2.      The lemon makes the dish. Adding it offsets the spice a bit and goes great with the spinach. This should be the first ingredient in the recipe!

My two year old ate the spinach without the pepper (and most of a lemon wedge, kids are funny). I squeezed the lemon over the leftovers and ate them the next day and the flavor was intact. Another one for the keeper file!

Pear Tart (with Strawberries)

Hello everyone (everyonebeing my sister!)

I clipped the pear tart recipe out of Parade Magazine. The author is Gail Simmons, who was on Top Chef Just Desserts. I haven’t seen the show or heard anything about her, but the recipe looked delicious and I have a tendency to make dry, bland, marginally okay tasting pastries at best, so I need something in my arsenal to feed my parents when they come to visit their grandchild.

I did actually review the recipe before I started so I am improving! The first step is to butter a 9” springform pan. After Googling “springform pan” and learning it is a pan where the sides come off so you can magically slide out beautiful desserts, I decided to be cheap and just use a round cake pan I already have. In the grand scheme of things, I am not selling my baked goods and they are going to get eaten (please be eaten in lieu of thrown in the trash as inedible)!

I peeled the pears in advance of starting. This is of course where I discovered that if you buy pears five days before you use them, one will go bad in the fridge. The good news is, I had some strawberries as a back up for this recipe and I pat myself on the back as I decided to make a strawberry pear tart. As an important note, the recipe says a pound of pears cut ½” thick. I used one pear with the slices cut ¼” thick, give or take since my slicing skills aren’t that honed, and about five strawberries. In short, don’t slice up a bunch of pears or you will have pear sliced wilting in your fridge in no time. The recipe didn’t specify peeling the pears, but I did. I took half a lemon and squeezed what I think was about half of the juice over the fruit. Since the rest of the juice also ends up over the fruit later in the recipe, dividing it seems like a waste of effort.

Mixing the dry goods and setting aside was a no brainer (I did stop as I talked on the phone so I wouldn’t lose track. I’ve made that mistake before!) I started creaming the butter (which I was so proud I remembered to thaw from the freezer) without cutting it up first. This made for a slight splatter on the countertop, but I stopped, cut up the butter into little chunks and continued. The eggs blended in without drama and once the dry goods were added, sticky dough appeared. I scooped the dough into the pan with a spoon and spread it around. It ended up in the fridge uncovered so I could run to set the DVR for Mad Men. I have priorities!

Once I arranged the fruit and sprinkled on the cinnamon sugar mix (I used a heaping half teaspoon of cinnamon, who doesn’t love cinnamon?) I put the tart in the oven. I checked it at 45 minutes using a toothpick in the center and it needed more time. I gave it 5 more minutes and pulled it out of the oven and let it cool. Once it cooled for about 20 minutes I took a picture and cut into the tart. It came out of the pan cleanly after running a knife around the edge. Really, you wouldn’t even need to separate the edge from the pan if you kept the fruit from touching the pan’s edge. This is something I would watch next time. I sat down with Don Draper and wow! The tart portion is light and moist and the lemon gives the overall tang to offset the sweetness. I had two pieces (Mad Men encourages excess, you should never eat and watch simultaneously) and went to bed. This morning I brought the rest of the tart to work to avoid consuming more and it got good reviews. I guess Top Chef is Top for a reason!

Sweet and Spicy Edamame

This recipe is easy and quite tasty. I went ahead and purchased shelled edamame and boiled it as directed. I think using the steam in the bag edamame from the freezer section would work without a problem and save you the use of a pot! Anyway, I added all of the ingredients listed to the edamame except the chile sauce and then separated the mix into two bowls. I added the chile sauce to one and left it out of the other (my two-year-old is not hip to spicy foods just yet!) They both tasted good and I was able to add a little extra chile sauce to mine for god measure. This recipe is going to get several repeat engagements in my house!

Chocolate Chip Scones - The follow up

I did manage to add chocolate chips to the rich scone mix previously posted. I added a mix of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips and they were an excellent choice! I even purchased little rock sugar crystals (pink on the advice of my two year old) and put them on top. Instead of sprinkling them on top next time I may apply the cream to the top of the scone dough and then take each round and flip it onto a plate with the sugar on it for more even coverage. I would suggest that if you attempt these scones, you use a pan with sides. Some of the butter dripped out of the scones and dripped to the bottom of the oven where they made a mess I have yet to fully remove. It’s always something!

The Great Boston Cream Pie Cake Adventure

I think it might have been my birthday, another year older but clearly no wiser, that dictated the attempt of a recipe several levels above my current skill set. The recipe (clipped out of the Virginian Pilot) was featured as part of a SuperBowl cooking face off and this was the winner. The article made it sound delicious but the recipe was intimidating. I clipped it and let it sit on my desk for a couple of weeks. Then it moved to the maybe pile on the counter. Finally, I decided that cake was necessary for a birthday celebration (my two year old agreed) so I purchased the ingredients. As you can see from above, there are a lot of them. There are a few items the recipe neglects to mention:

1. I used eight bowls of various sizes for this recipe, and cleaned a couple and reused them. You will also need a half dozen extra spoons and two or three knives, because they start to hide under item number 2.
2. I used an entire roll of paper towels. This may not be necessary for a normal cook but if you are challenged, this should be at the top of your grocery list.
3. The sugar and cornstarch for the pastry cream and the whipped cream are in ounces, not teaspoons or cups. As my sugar encrusted computer keyboard can attest, one ounce of sugar is approximately 7 teaspoons (28 grams) and one ounce of cornstarch is approximately 10.5 teaspoons.

I did remember to set out the eggs to get them to room temperature. I should note that I bought a half dozen eggs, realized I was going to be short an egg, and used an egg beater for one of the whole eggs. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to matter.

The first thing I encountered was that I forgot to purchase parchment paper. So much for reading and following the directions! I did grease the pans and then decided this might make the cake greasy on the bottom, so I coated them with flour. I also remembered to le the oven vent by removing the burner cover. At this point, I am feeling on top of the situation. This is never a good sign.

I mixed the dry goods and set them aside. I heated the butter and milk and then set it aside with the cover on. I made it look easy. That is if one interprets flour from the greased pans on one countertop and a small sugar spill on the other countertop along with a myriad of ingredients and the directions for the new electric hand mixer on the other countertop as easy. I had mini bowls out to separate the eggs and some shell may have landed on the trashcan instead of in but I was on a roll.

Now, this next part needs a bit of clarification. I did attach the beaters and test them before starting. One flew off and I caught it mid-air like a Food Network pro. I started to beat the eggs and all was well.  About three minutes in I wanted to take a look at the progress so I switched off the mixer while lifting it up. For future reference, the eject button is not the same as the off button. So one beater landed in the bowl (it didn’t crack fortunately, way to go Crate & Barrel) but the other one flew at an angle and hit the wall above the sink. No permanent damage, but it added to the mess considerably. Since I was already in the middle of it, I decided to press on. Fortunately, I had pre-grated the orange zest and had it ready to go. Back on track!

The egg white mixture went off without a hitch. Once I got the hang of the higher speed of the mixer it was pretty easy to get the white peaks to appear. It should be noted that if someone tried this by hand their arm would fall off and scream for mercy. Flying beaters aside, I do love the mixer. I stirred it into the other egg mixture and things were moving along. I didn’t have a sifter (seriously, where do people keep all of these things in their kitchen?) but I gradually sprinkled in the dry mixture. The sprinkling did the same thing, which is keeping the mix from becoming a chunky mess! Slow and steady it was.

The pastry cream mixture is where things get dicey. I thought I had worked around this by mixing the dry goods first and then boiling the milk and egg mixture. Turns out, while I was trying to beat the other egg the milk boiled over. Wow does that happen fast. There was milk up the handle, down the burners and starting to scorch. At this point, the kitchen looks like the Korean Demilitarized Zone. No time to worry about that now, I had to add the egg mixture to the milk mixture and avoid curdling. I used a soup spoon to add a little at a time and stir and this seemed to work. Since I didn’t have a strainer, I poured it into a bowl I set in a bigger bowl of ice. I thought about putting the whole thing in the refrigerator but decided against it. In retrospect, it might have made it thicker which would’ve been better. Then it was time to start on the whipped cream.

This was my favorite part. Not only did the mixer make the cream thicken up like it was supposed to, you would sample it because there was no raw egg in it! I added the Grand Marnier very slowly and it blended well. Then, I looked around my kitchen. Since all was lost for a cleanliness standpoint, I decided a little nip was in order. Future happiness moments might be made just making the whipped cream….mmmmm.

Then, back to reality. I had the cakes out of the oven and cooling in the pans on the burner covers on the counter since the stove was ravaged. They stuck at first. I placed a hand on top of one to try and guide it out and came away with a hand covered in cake and a perfect handprint outlined on the cake in the pan. I got a knife and loosened the sides and a small spatula to help loosen the bottom. Then they came out pretty easily. Before I got the second one out, I put the cream in the middle. After I puts what seemed like a lot of cream down as a layer, I added the other cake layer. My aim leaves something to be desired and the cake is pretty delicate, so a lopsided cake it was. I also had 50% of the cream left over. Incidentally, at this point my two year old woke up from her nap, walked into the kitchen and asked “what happened”. Sigh.

Finally, after filling the dishwasher and trying to find the counter tops, I started on the chocolate ganache. I needed a huge pot since the mixing bowl that will hold five cups of chocolate chips is also ginormous so I added two extra cups of water to the pot. The double boiler worked and the chocolate melted. I wasn’t sure if I should let it cool off or glaze it warm. I opted for warm. The chocolate adhered to the cake and stayed in place so it was fine, but there was a lot of extra. Some dripped over the edge and pooled on the cake plate (see photo) and the rest ended up as left over (maybe an extra cup or more). I put the whole thing in the refrigerator to cool.

The moment of truth had arrived. We got the cake out and cut it. My faithful two year old and I tried it. She loved it and asked for more. I remembered that I don’t like the cream in Boston Cream Doughnuts and perhaps that should’ve been a tip off that this would not be my favorite. The cake and chocolate were good though, and if you like Boston Cream Pie then it would be a winner. If you can stand the mess that is! Overall though, Happy Birthday to me!

Chunky Avocado & Feta Dip

Somehow I managed to write out this whole post, publish it, notice an error in the title and accidentally delete the whole thing. Arrgghh. So, take two:

While I know I didn't "cook" so much as assemble this, the results were fantastic! I managed to determine in my mind (and for the Mom next to me in produce who asked me) that a spring onion is the same thing as a scallion. I clipped off the end with the roots and discarded the top third or so of the green part, and was then unsure if that was correct. To compensate, I used two instead of one! I used half a lemon instead of measuring out two tablespoons and used a handful of dill and chopped it up pretty small so it would be evenly distributed. The newspaper recommended eating this as a dip with pita chips or vegetables, but we ate it as a salad with a fork. My two year old asked for more, so we have a winner!

The greatest part about this recipe is I made it while waiting for my acorn squashes to destroy themselves, I mean bake. The left over Moroccan spiced beef that did not commit suicide with the squash (see previous post) went with this perfectly. I put them together in a pita and a Dagwood worthy sandwich was invented. Ta-da!!

Stay tuned though, I am pretty sure I have a chocolate chip scone and a Boston Creme Cake catastrophe in the works for the coming days. Until then!

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Moroccan Spiced Beef

When I clipped this recipe out of the newspaper, I had never purchased an acorn squash before. It intimidated me. It sat in the refrigerator while I gathered the courage to try this recipe out. Since I was not sure about the acorn squash, I decided to purchase just one in lieu of the two indicated in the recipe. As it turns out, this was a wise decision.

I got all of the spices (the cumin and turmeric were new purchases as well) and heated them in the pan. I didn't see them change colors but the aroma from them increased with the heat so I figured I was set. Cutting open the acorn squash wasn't an issue, but after scooping out the seeds and "guts", they were on the small side. I mixed together the meat, onion and spices and scooped some into each side of the squash. Only about a third of the mixture fit into the two sides. I placed them in a ceramic baking dish with an inch of water in it and got it in the oven. This was a bit tricky since the squash didn't balance very well due to its uneven rind.

When I took them out of the oven an hour later, I was less than impressed (see the photo). The squash was still tough but the meat was drying out on the top. The meat under the top layer was okay, but it was kind of soggy. Essentially, this was inedible.

But all was not lost! I took the remaining meat mixture and put it in a skillet on the stove after the squash was in the oven. The spices smelled good as the meat cooked and they gave the onions a pretty yellow color. It tasted good too, and got the 2 year old clean plate award. Fortunately, this saved me for disaster, and ended up working with the other recipe I tried. So, to be continued next post!

Rich Cream Scones

RICH CREAM SCONES (This recipe was clipped from the Virginian Pilot newspaper.)

Makes 12
1cup cake flour (not self-rising)
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling and cutting
l/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 teaspoons baking powder
l/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups cold heavy cream, plus more for brushing
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Cut in
butter with a pastry blender or rub in with your
fingers. (The largest pieces should be the size of
small peas.) With your fingertips, flatten butter
pieces into small disks. Cover with plastic wrap,
and refrigerate until butter is very firm, about 20
minutes.

Combine cream and vanilla in a small bowl, and
stir into flour mixture with a wooden spoon until
almost absorbed and dough just comes together.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface;
roll out into an 8-by-10-inch rectangle. With a
short side facing you, fold rectangle into thirds,
as you would a letter. Rotate dough a quarter turn
clockwise. Repeat rolling out, folding and
rotating dough two more times.

With floured hands, pat out dough to a 1 1/4inch
thickness, and cut out as many rounds as
possible with a floured 2 1/4-inch round biscuit
cutter. Gather scraps, re-roll once, and cut out
more rounds.

Place scones 2 inches apart on parchment-lined
baking sheets. Brush tops with cream, and
sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating
sheets halfway through. Let cool on sheets.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

So I did try this recipe, but of course I didn't follow it exactly. What would be the fun of that? First of all, I didn't flatten butter pieces into small disks or put the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. I had a little girl singing "scones, scones, scones" so that wasn't going to work. Seriously, the word scones was uttered no fewer than 84 times throughout the course of making the dough. The second problem arose when the dough wasn't actually dough but a dry crumbly mess. No worries, my solution was to keep adding cream. At two cups of cream the dough worked just fine. I used a glass dipped in flour in lieu of a biscuit cutter. Do lots of people really own a special biscuit cutting device? I really just rolled out the dough until it was +/- 1/4 inch thick and away I went. I did brush cream on the top (using my fingers since I have no barbecue brush and using a blush brush seemed too outlandish) and some table sugar. Rock sugar would've been better, but it was not residing in my pantry. All in all, they turned out okay. The good news is, with two cups of cream in the dough, they lasted a week without a hint of dryness, and durable baked goods are plus in my book!

I tried this recipe a week later but changed it up to make cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel scones. Adding two teaspoons of cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg (approximately, since I really just dumped some in from the jars) worked just fine. Cutting up the Kraft caramels into quarters and dumping them in to the mix was not. They dripped out of the scones and gobbed onto the pan where they proceeded to burn into a hybrid caramel mixture that could replace steel in modern day building materials. One of my testers suggested more cinnamon and maybe toffee chips instead. To that I said "Dad, do you want to make them?" He smirked and drank his coffee.

I have a Moroccan spiced beef in acorn squash recipe that I have been afraid to attempt. Hopefully I will get to it this week. That acorn squash is blocking my access to the middle shelf of the refrigerator! A final note, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to take the stove burner covers off all of the burners before using the stove. I did remember to do this while cooking breakfast this morning. A good thing too, since I attempted to cook pancakes on one burner not realizing I flipped the back one on in lieu of the front. It only took a couple of minutes of the pancake not cooking and nearly burning myself on the hot burner to mess with the pancake to correct the error. See, challenged.