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102 March 5, 2013 Dessert

30-Second, 3-Ingredient, Microwave Hot Fudge

A while back I tweeted that I had come up with a foolproof method for making a single serving of hot fudge in 30 seconds in the microwave. I got an immediate response (“share now!” “I wanna know how to do this, but then also I don’t…”) so I promised that I would write a blog post about it. I’ve double checked the recipe a few times since then – quality assurance, you know, nothing to do with the fact that hot fudge is delicious – and I feel comfortable handing it over to you all now.

You should know that I’m a very picky hot fudge eater. My ideal recipe is the Ben & Jerry’s one – but that takes a good hour and a half to make, which is typically way too long to wait given the intensity of my hot fudge cravings. It also makes 2 cups of sauce, which is a problem in and of itself due to my lack of age-appropriate self-control. So I started experimenting with the microwave. Chocolate chips by themselves are obviously not ideal – too easy to burn, and they freeze again as soon as they come into contact with the ice cream. Chocolate chips and cream didn’t quite have the richness or consistency that I’m looking for. But chocolate chips, butter, and cream? Perfect – a thick, fudgey sauce that is liquidy when hot, and viscous at room temperature, but doesn’t freeze solid on the ice cream. (P.S. It’s even better with cinnamon butter, as I found out when I had a lot of leftover cinnamon butter from making monkey bread.)

Please, I beg you, use this recipe responsibly. We all love a big bowl of ice cream with thick and gooey hot fudge every once in a while, but I don’t want to feel responsible for anyone’s 30-pound weight gain that will decidedly occur if you make this every night. I’m trusting you.

30-Second Microwave Hot Fudge

Serves 2.

1 TBS butter
3 TBS chocolate chips
1 TBS heavy cream

Place butter on bottom of small microwaveable dish. Top with the chocolate chips. Microwave on high for 10 seconds, then remove, and stir until texture is even. Add heavy cream and stir. Microwave on high for another 10 seconds, then remove and stir until smooth. Serve immediately.

21 March 3, 2013 Cookbook

Book Club: The Little Paris Kitchen // Chicken Dumpling Soup

To so many, Paris is the ultimate destination – timeless, elegant, romantic and confident in its own charms. It’s the city of lights, the city of love and, one might argue, the ultimate city of food. Centuries of tradition have defined French cuisine as the haute cuisine, with dishes such as duck a l’orange, boeuf bourguignon, and chocolate souffle being practically synonymous with fine dining for many years. But classic French cooking doesn’t have to be intimidating and stuffy. As Rachel Khoo shows us in The Little Paris Kitchen, French food can be simple, wholesome, and yet still remain effortlessly chic.

Rachel is an all-around food personality – she has a pastry degree from Le Cordon Bleu, has written three cookbooks, and been the star of a cooking show. She’s more of an European personality than an American one, but I think the release of a US version of The Little Paris Kitchen, may change that. The book is a little glimpse into Rachel’s life in Paris, as shown through the food she makes to feed herself and her friends.

The recipes included are universally appealing, not in a way that made me think “Oh, I’d love to make that someday,” but in a way that made me add three recipes to my weekly menu after only 20 minutes flipping through the book. The fact that the food is simple but also interesting makes it easy to visualize incorporating into your everyday routine. Recipes such as Tartiflette Muffins, Onion Creme Brulee, and Cassoulet Soup with Duck-and-Sausage Dumplings are examples of the hearty, soul-warming food in this book that will probably be on my dinner menu soon. There are plenty of lighter, more elegant recipes that caught my eye as well – Champagne Sabayon with Strawberries and Cherry Tomatoes, Rosemary, Lavender, and Chevre Fougasse, and Cherry-Tomato Vanilla Jam are a few. In general, there’s a nice balance.

I should mention – this book has lots of pictures. And they’re beautiful pictures. In fact, every single recipe is accompanied by a full-page color photograph, a cookbook characteristic that I love – it makes it so much easier to decide what to cook when you can see the end result. There are also a lot of pictures of Rachel – Rachel shopping, Rachel riding her bike, Rachel holding a glass of wine and looking pensively into the distance, Rachel having a picnic with her attractive Parisian girlfriends. I think perhaps this would have stuck out less to me if I already knew more about her; as I didn’t, I found it a touch over-done. Just a personal thing. I will say that, along with the curly font and the pink text, the pictures of her out and about in pretty dresses definitely contributes to the overall girliness of the book’s style. It’s not over the top, but it’s definitely not gender neutral.

To test out the food, I started with two recipes – a roast vegetable salad with goat cheese mousse, and a chicken-dumpling soup. I’ll share the salad later this week, but for now let’s focus on this soup, which was even better than I was expecting it to be. The dumplings, also called quenelles, are made from ground chicken, soft white bread, and cream, and are then simmered for just a few minutes in a pot of chicken broth. The only other ingredients are a handful of just-cooked carrots and mushrooms and a sprinkling of fresh parsley. The result is a lovely bowl of super-comforting soup filled with soft, fluffy, deeply savory dumplings, the kind of soup that you wish someone would make for you every time you’re feeling down. (Solution: make some for yourself when you’re feeling good, then stick a bunch in the freezer for those days that you need to feel loved). It reminded me of matzoh-ball soup, but richer and more chicken-y (well, duh Katie). I loved it. I made a double-batch of the dumplings, and I’m saving the rest for the suggestion Rachel includes at the bottom of the recipe – broiling the poached quenelles with bechamel and grated cheese.

The bottom line: The Little Paris Kitchen is a book that makes classic French cooking an everyday affair. It’s a bit girly, and the author, Rachel, is strongly featured throughout the book (a la Giada or Rachel Ray), but the recipes are solid and the photography both beautiful and abundant. I can see this book quickly becoming a weeknight go-to for me with plenty of recipes that are quick and satisfying.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of The Little Paris Kitchen free of charge from Chronicle Books. I was not otherwise compensated and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Chicken Dumpling Soup / Bouillon de Poulet avec Des Quenelles de Volailles

Recipe from The Little Paris Kitchen. Serves 4.

6 1/2 c. chicken stock
2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
7 oz boneless skinless chicken breast or ground chicken
3 1/2 oz. white bread, no crusts (I used burger rolls)
6 1/2 TBS of half and half
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
5 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 bunch of fresh parsley, leaves roughly chopped

Bring the chicken stock and chopped carrots to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Boil for 10 minutes, or until carrots are tender.
In a blender, combine the chicken, bread, half and half, egg, egg yolk, salt, pepper and nutmeg, and blend until you have a smooth and sticky paste. Use a spoon to form the paste into dumplings of about 2 TBS apiece, and drop the dumplings into the boiling broth. Cook the dumplings for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute longer. Check the inside of a dumpling just to make sure it is cooked all the way through. Serve the soup immediately, with a generous sprinkling of chopped parsley stirred in.

3 March 1, 2013 Food

N.E.E.T. Magazine Feature // Strawberry-Balsamic Salad with Candied Pecans and Goat Cheese

Happy Friday everyone! This week was long, but it’s ending on a high note – the release of the spring edition of N.E.E.T. magazine, in which I’m thrilled to have a feature! N.E.E.T. is primarily a fashion magazine, but the back of each issue contains a “N.E.E.T. eats” section (this one starts on page 141). This issue’s theme is spring salads, so I’ve contributed a light and sweet strawberry-balsamic salad, topped with sugary candied pecans and creamy goat cheese. Even though flip flops and lemonade are a long way off, the longer days and melting snow are promising signs that spring is on it’s way, and this salad is a great way to jump the gun a little on spring flavors. ~~I encourage you to take some time and flip through the whole issue, as it’s a lovely publication, but if you’re in a hurry to get to the recipe, you can find it as a stand-alone PDF here.~~

Update 8/2013: N.E.E.T. magazine is currently on a hiatus and their online content is unavailable. For the time being, I have published the recipe below!

Balsamic Strawberry and Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans

Serves 4.

1 lb. strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
1/2 c. + 2 TBS sugar, divided
1 1/2 TBS balsamic vinegar
4 sprigs fresh mint, finely minced (about 1 TBS minced)
1 c. pecan halves
5 oz. baby spinach (1 standard clam-shell container)
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

In a small bowl, combine the sliced strawberries, 2 TBS of the sugar, the vinegar, and the minced mint and stir gently together. Let sit for 10 minutes while you prepare the candied pecans.
To make the candied pecans: Mix the remaining 1/2 c. sugar with 2 TBS of water in a large frying pan to make a thick paste. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then stir gently a few times. Let cook until just beginning to turn golden, then add pecans. Stir to coat the pecans with sugar. As you stir, the sugar should begin to crystallize on the pecans. Continue to cook, stirring, for about 3-4 minutes to toast the pecans. Remove from heat and let cool. If pecans are stuck together in any places, break apart with a wooden spoon.
To serve the salad, divide the spinach between four plates. Divide the strawberries into four portions and arrange on top of the spinach. Spoon some of the balsamic-strawberry juices over the spinach leaves as well. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the candied pecans over the top of the strawberries, then dot the top of each salad with 1 oz of goat cheese crumbles.

0 February 27, 2013 Winter

January, February

Now that two whole months of 2013 have passed, I just wanted to check in and share some of the things I’ve been doing, reading, eating, and loving, that may not have made their way onto the blog. I’m glad that it’s almost March, because March means spring, but there have been some good things about winter, too, and it would be a shame to forget about them.

Did you know I got my very first smartphone in January? Yeah, I know, I’m 3 years behind. Still, it’s awesome, and I may have been going a little bit overboard with Instagram… it’s just so fun! It turns out that most of the pictures I’ve taken recently are of gardening – one of the best things about this time of year is planning ahead to the summer and watching all the little tiny seeds burst into a much needed flourish of green:

1) Seeds arrived! All from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. 2) T planting the first batch of seeds. 3) First sprouts! Basil seedlings. 4) Eggplant, onions. 5) Impulse buying a key lime tree and an orange tree on a recent trip to Mahoney’s. 6) Peppers, varieties might be named after Game of Thrones. 7) Blossoms on my Meyer Lemon. 8) My Christmas present – an olive tree – before it lost all it’s leaves (don’t worry, I’m nursing it back to health)

It also feels like we got a never-ending amount of snow these past two months. First there was the blizzard (Nemo, if you must call it that), which mostly involved shoveling (and was the beginning of two full weeks of being sick for me), and it seems like every few days since then we get another few inches. I don’t mind snow, but in the city, it gets so slushy and gross so quickly. I’ve had my fill for this year.

1) More snowflakes, sigh. 2) Trevor preparing to face the blizzardy streets. 3) Boston common in the snow and fog. 4) Pretty on the trees, if only briefly.

To stay warm, I’ve been filling up on plenty of hearty foods. A spicy chicken soup Trevor made for me, this vegetarian chili with chocolate from Green Kitchen Stories that I made for the Superbowl (during which I may or may not have watched an Anne of Green Gables marathon instead…), sausage and tortellini soup from Handle the Heat, and plenty of hot chocolate with Bailey’s.

And books! I’ve read a few really great ones recently. I just finished Exit the Actress tonight and it’s the only book I’ve read in a while that has had me up late at night reading. It follows the life of (real) historical figure Ellen Gywn, an orange-seller turned actress turned King’s favorite mistress. The characters and story are so compelling. I also read Pretty Birds, a deeply moving but disturbing account of the Bosnian War, told through the eyes of a female sniper. I think it had such a profound impact on me because it was so recent. A worthwhile read. Last, Fearless, which chronicles the journey of Freya Hoffmeister as she circumnavigates Australia in a kayak. Fascinating, and kind of makes me never want to go to Australia – too many ways to die. Now, she’s 407 days into her journey around the entire continent of South America – you can track her progress daily on her blog.

I’m realizing that this post makes me seem like I might be the most tame 23 year old on the planet – gardening, snowstorms, reading. I don’t have any pictures to prove otherwise, but I promise I did spend a couple nights out doing fun things as well. I even stayed up past 2am last weekend. Crazy. I’ll try to get some proof for you in the next few months that I’m not a little old lady. Until then!

0 February 26, 2013 Food

Blue Apron Meals – Review and Giveaway

I have something really exciting to introduce to you today – and an equally exciting giveaway to go along with it. A few months ago, Kelli from Blue Apron Meals reached out to ask if I’d be interested in reviewing their weekly meal service. I was hesitant at first – I mean, I write a food blog after all, half the fun is in coming up with my own recipes to share with you! But as I thought more about it, I realized that Blue Apron might be just what some of you are looking for. In particular, I was thinking about all my 20-something friends just setting out on their own – the ones who tell me they want to learn how to cook but don’t know where to start, the ones who ask me what they can make that’s both healthy and easy, and the ones who just don’t have the time to think about what to make and when they’re going to get groceries and how to carry them back to their apartments. So I decided to give it a try – and to give one of you the chance to try it out for yourself, as well.

So how does Blue Apron work? It’s easy. They send you a box full of pre-measured, clearly labeled ingredients, along with three recipe cards. Each box has enough to make three meals with two servings each, and the cost is $10 per person per meal (so, a $60 weekly minimum). The only ingredients you need to supply are olive oil, salt, and pepper – everything else comes with the box, including tiny bottles of maple syrup, little containers with pats of butter, and pre-measured spices. You can choose either the vegetarian or meat and fish box, and all that’s left for you to do is cook! You will need to know some basic techniques (peeling, chopping, searing), and to have a basic set of kitchen implements (I needed a cutting board, knife, pot with lid, saute pan, roasting pan, and zester/grater for this week’s meals), but the instructions are clear and each step is illustrated with photographs.

My experience using Blue Apron Meals was very positive. I got to try three tasty, healthy meals – Minute Steaks with Picadillo Sauce and Yellow Rice, Chicken with White Beans, Escarole, and Meyer Lemon, and Maple and Ginger Glazed Salmon with Watercress Parsnip Salad (you can find the full recipes for any dish, which would be easy to recreate even without the service, on Blue Apron’s site). Each dish took between 30 and 50 minutes from start to finish, and all were generously portioned (I got 3 full meals out of the steaks). The best parts of the service for me? Not having to go to the grocery store, not having to decide what to cook and find a recipe, being able to turn your order on or off based on that week’s meals (which are announced ahead of time), and knowing that the meals are healthy and balanced. And although I received this week’s box for free, I think the service is affordable. If I were to have made three meals with different proteins – steak, chicken, and salmon – I would have spent close to $30 on the meat alone, especially since it’s hard to buy proteins in a size appropriate for a single meal.

That being said, there is always room for improvement. While the meals are tasty and home-cooked, they are not as exciting as the typical dinner I make at home – in each dish, I was left wanting a little bit more contrast of flavors – more olives and raisins in the Spanish rice, more seasoning on the chicken, more oranges for the watercress salad. (My friends and family will be shocked to hear that I thought the salmon was actually the best dish, since I’ve long been a self-proclaimed seafood hater! So here’s to expanding horizons.) Also, the ingredients were high quality, but I was a teeny bit put off to find a few small snails in the watercress. Harmless, I know, and they do tell you to wash all your veggies, but it still made me a touch squeamish.

The bottom line: Overall, I would heartily recommend Blue Apron Meals, especially for those of you who want to cook more at home but either don’t have time or don’t know where to start. I’m considering signing up so that for weeks when I know ahead of time that I’ll be crazy busy, I can turn this on and know that healthy, tasty meals for the week will be taken care of.

Giveaway details: Blue Apron has generously offered to send one reader a week’s worth of meals (that’s 3 meals at 2 servings each)! Unfortunately, this giveaway is only open to readers within their current delivery range (CT, DE, IL, IN, KY, MA, ME, MD, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, TN, VA, VT, WV and some parts of AL, AR, GA, IA, MI, MO, MS, NC, SC, WI… for a more precise definition of whether or not you’re eligible, see their delivery map). Directions for how to enter the giveaway are:

Mandatory Entry: visit Blue Apron’s recipe book then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which recent recipe you think sounds the best.
Additional Entry #1: Like both Blue Apron Meals and Katie at the Kitchen Door on facebook, then return here and leave a comment letting me know you did so.
Additional Entry #2: Follow @BlueApronMeals and @Kitchen_Door on twitter, tweet “Win a week’s worth of healthy and tasty meals from @BlueApronMeals and @Kitchen_Door via http://wp.me/pMUN2-Yj”, then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

That’s all! The giveaway will be open until Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at midnight, at which point I will randomly select a winner. Good luck to everyone.

Disclaimer: I received a week’s worth of meals from Blue Apron free of charge, and they are hosting this giveaway. All opinions are my own, and I was not otherwise compensated to write this post.

1 February 20, 2013 Asian and Indian

Greatist Collaboration: Sesame Chicken Bowl

My shelf in the fridge is kind of a disaster right now. There’s leftover tamarind and palm sugar from three batches of Pad Thai, dark mushroom soy sauce and Chinese broccoli from Gong Bao Chicken, tahini from Roasted Carrot and Tahini soup, failed grapefruit and ginger bars (a precursor to these cookies) that I don’t want to eat but can’t bring myself to throw out… it’s crowded in there. I love having all these fun condiments available, but when you’re sharing a fridge with four people (read: four bottles of milk, four cartons of eggs, four bottles of soy sauce, etc.) it can feel like they’re taking up room for real food. You know, like vegetables, and chicken. The fridge situation is complicated by the fact that tonight, I’m getting my first delivery from Blue Apron, with ingredients for 3 delicious meals that will also need to make their way into the fridge. Conundrum.

So when I was thinking about what to make for Greatist this week, I knew it couldn’t require anything that wasn’t already in my fridge/freezer/pantry. As I thought about it, I realized that this is a way I should try to eat more often – using up what I have instead of always running out to get something new in order to make something just so. It’s less wasteful. So I mixed up a delicious tahini, soy sauce, and honey sauce, marinated some chicken I had waiting in the freezer in it, added some blanched Chinese broccoli, and cooked it all up in a frying pan with rice. It came out amazing – sweet and salty and satisfying – and just goes to show you that a good sauce can go a long way! Head on over to Greatist for the recipe – and feel free to use it as a blueprint for using up whatever you have languishing in your fridge.

3 February 18, 2013 Cookbook

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, Revisited // Stuffed Quail with Marmalade, Whiskey, and Bacon & “Hot Lightning”

After spending a few months last fall really diving into cookbook reviews (and recently picking it up again), I’ve come to recognize the things I truly love in a cookbook. Before, when I picked up a book and flipped through it, I had some immediate reaction to it which was either positive, negative, or neutral, and I bought the ones I felt positively about over multiple visits to the bookstore. I did sort of identify that the books that fell into the negative category were the ones where I said “eh, I’ve seen this before,” and my favorites were the ones with the most to teach me. But after writing 11 reviews since October, I’ve developed a whole new thought process for analyzing and talking about cookbooks – and, while I’ve discovered some really wonderful new books, it has also strengthened my love for some of my old favorites.

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, is one of those favorites. It has everything I love in a book – a touch of whimsy, delivered via lovely quotes (the fact that this book opens with a Laura Ingalls Wilder quote probably sealed the deal for me before I even started reading it); a few travel stories, just compelling enough to make you close your eyes and envision another place; photographs evocative of both food and place; a strong voice that’s personal but not oppressive; and last, but most important, recipes that are new to me and make me want to eat them right away. Oh, and the fact that the first chapter is entirely devoted to cheese-based recipes doesn’t hurt either.

Since I wrote a full review last year, I won’t go into any more detail here. But I wanted to bring it back up to the top of my pile, since I always find myself flipping through it in the summer, dreaming of steaming mugs and rich stews, and well, winter is almost over, so now’s the time!

Trevor and I made this lovely meal for lunch on Sunday, while the snow was whipping around outside. I love the idea of a Sunday roast, and since Trevor’s good friend Merges got him a gift certificate to Savenor’s for Christmas, he decided to get something a little out of the ordinary to pop in the oven – six little quail (which he lovingly shared with me, like the good boyfriend that he is). The recipe we used called for whiskey and marmalade, for which we substituted the last of the grapefruit jam I made last week, as well as a large amount of bacon. A frighteningly large amount of bacon, which served to keep the quail moist and flavorful. I also made a side dish called “Hot Lightning” – a mix of potatoes, apples, pears, and, yep, more bacon. Both the quail and the veggies were really delicious, a treat on a winter afternoon.

While this was a comfy, cozy meal, and I’m glad I got the chance to make a few more wintery dishes from this book, I still kinda can’t wait for spring. Bring on the asparagus and fava beans, I’m ready for them.

Stuffed Quail with Marmalade, Whiskey, and Bacon

Recipe from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Serves 4.

1/2 c. marmalade (or grapefruit jam)
1/2 c. plus 2 TBS whiskey, divided
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
salt and pepper
8 quails
10 slices bacon, divided
1/2 small onion, finely minced
1 TBS butter
2 oz. fresh breadcrumbs
1 TBS finely minced fresh parsley
1 egg, beaten
1 3/4 c. strong-flavored chicken stock

Whisk together the marmalade, 1/2 c. of the whiskey and the thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the marinade over the quails, cover loosely and let marinate for at least one hour up to overnight (if marinating for more than 1 hour, do so in the fridge).
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Take 2 slices of the bacon and finely dice them. Add the bacon, the onion, and the butter to a frying pan and saute over medium heat until bacon is crisp. Add the breadcrumbs and saute until golden. Remove from heat, and stir in the parsley and the beaten egg. Use this stuffing to stuff each quail. Cut the remaining 8 strips of bacon in half, and lay criscross on top of each bird. Season with pepper. Put the birds in a pot in which they fit snugly, and spoon the marinade over them again. Roast for 25-35 minutes, until quail is cooked through, spooning the juices and marinade over the birds every 10 minutes. If bacon is not crisp but quail is cooked, broil on high for 2-3 minutes to finish. Serve 2 birds per person.
While the quail is roasting, reduce the chicken stock by half over medium heat, or until it is slightly syrupy. Add the remaining 2 TBS of whiskey. Serve gravy with the quail.

“Hot Lightning” – A Dish of Roast Potatoes, Apples, Pears, and Bacon

Recipe adapted slightly from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Serves 4.

Notes: I changed the cooking time and temperature of this dish so that it could be made at the same time as the quail – the original recipe called for 30 minutes at 325°F. I also reduced the amount of bacon since we would already be consuming so much with the quail! I didn’t think it needed any more bacon than we used. If you have slab bacon, cooking that in 3/4-inch cubes in place of the strips would be lovely. You don’t need to peel the potatoes or the fruit, but do take care to wash them well.

1/2 stick butter
2 lbs new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
8 strips bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, then thinly sliced lengthwise
2 pears, cored, then thinly sliced lengthwise
3 TBS light brown sugar
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Melt butter in a large oven-proof and gas-proof casserole dish over medium heat. Add potatoes and bacon, and saute, stirring, until bacon is crisp and potatoes have begun to turn golden, about 10-15 minutes. Add the apples and pears and turn over in the buttery juices. Season with the sugar, thyme leaves, and salt and pepper and stir to combine.
Remove the dish from the flame, cover with a lid or tin foil, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot.

0 February 16, 2013 Cookbook

Book Club: Breakfast for Dinner // Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast

For this week’s book club, I’ve got a copy of Love and Olive Oil’s newest cookbook – Breakfast for Dinner. I’ve been looking forward to this book since Lindsay announced that they were working on it. Her first book, The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook, wasn’t really my thing – while cookie dough is undoubtedly delicious, it makes me feel a little queasy to think about eating it in large quantities (this is probably the result of actually getting queasy from eating too much cookie dough). Breakfast for dinner, though, is something I can whole-heartedly get behind.

Breakfast for Dinner is a cute, approachable book. While I’ll never escape the part of me that, as a little girl, used to like nothing more than to page through encyclopedias, atlases, and 1,000 page collections of literary classics, I’ve found that I tend to actually use physically small, focused cookbooks much more than the huge glossy tomes I like to collect. At 160 pages, Breakfast for Dinner fits this bill, and is small enough to throw in my purse (yes, I sometimes travel with cookbooks as reading materials). It is also beautifully designed – between the type, the layout, the paper, and the beautiful full page photographs that accompany every single recipe, it’s a pleasure to read.

The recipes included in Breakfast for Dinner are divided into three categories – Main Dishes, Sides & Starters, and Drinks & Desserts. Since I was expecting a lot of truly breakfasty recipes scaled up for dinnertime, I was pleasantly surprised to find a much broader interpretation of “breakfast for dinner.” In particular, I loved the inclusion of recipes where typical breakfast staples (cornflakes, breakfast sausage) are re-purposed in decidedly dinner-like meals (cornflake-crusted chicken, breakfast-sausage ravioli). The recipes run the gamut from tried-and-true breakfast staples, such as Steak and Eggs Benedict, to more creative dishes, such as Grapefruit Risotto with Seared Scallops. One thing all the recipes have in common is that they are crowd-pleasers – I can’t imagine you’ll find many people who would turn down Bacon Fried Rice, Burgers topped with Fried Eggs, Hashbrowns, and Apricot Jam, or Mocha Ice Cream Pie with Biscotti Crust. (Except, in retrospect after writing that list, maybe vegetarians. Don’t worry, they’ll probably go for the Polenta Cakes with Shiitake Mushrooms and the Parmesan Beignets).

To test out this book, I made two recipes, one sweet, and one savory. On the sweet side, I made Chocolate Brownie Waffles with Blackberry Sauce. Sounds amazing, right? Sadly, I couldn’t get the waffles to come out right – the batter seemed very thick, and once it went into the waffle iron, I couldn’t get any waffles to stay together. They were super delicate, and at the same time dried out quickly. So, not perfect, although my roommates were happy to devour the waffle crumbs. As I started the savory recipe – Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast – I was a little nervous. Would this one work? Thankfully, it came out great. I could barely stop myself from eating all the lemon-scented spinach and ricotta filling before stuffing the bread, and the marinara sauce was easy to make and well-spiced. It was a little tricky stuffing the toast, but I eventually got the hang of it. I also tried it grilled cheese style, and by just toasting the bread and then spreading it with the ricotta – all three ways worked great. Served with a green salad, this would make a fantastic family dinner recipe, especially if you’re tired of spaghetti and lasagna but still craving Italian food.

The bottom line: Breakfast for Dinner is a cute, focused, well-designed cookbook full of crowd-pleasing dinner and dessert recipes that utilize traditional breakfast ingredients, like bacon, eggs, coffee, and maple syrup. Lindsay and Taylor, who are also the duo behind the popular blog Love and Olive Oil, create tasty, easy, and accessible recipes and stunning photographs. I did have a little trouble getting one of the recipes I tested to come out right, but the second recipe was phenomenal. Recommended for beginner cooks looking to expand their repertoire and those looking to mix up their daily dinner routine with some delicious comfort food.

Disclaimer: Quirk Books sent me a copy of Breakfast for Dinner free of charge, but I was not otherwise compensated and all opinions are my own.

Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast

Recipe from Breakfast for Dinner. Makes 8 slices (serves 4).

4 TBS olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 c. fresh baby spinach (about 6-oz.)
1/2 c. whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
1 loaf soft french bread, cut into 8 slices 1-1/2 inches thick
3 egg
1/2 c. whole milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 c. marinara sauce (store-bought, or see recipe below)

Heat 2 TBS of the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, and saute for 30 seconds, then add the spinach, and saute, stirring, until it has all wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool, then coarsely chop.
In a medium bowl, stir together the chopped spinach, ricotta, parmesan, lemon zest, basil, and oregano until evenly mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
In a small baking dish, whisk together eggs, milk, garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Use a serrated knife to cut a slit into each piece of bread, and then use the knife to stuff 2 TBS of filling into each slit. Heat the remaining 2 TBS olive oil in the frying pan. One at a time, dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture for 30 seconds on each side. Add to the frying pan, but don’t overcrowd the slices. Cook for 3 minutes on each side. (Alternatively, if you’re having a tough time stuffing the bread, you can make these grilled cheese style, or simply dip and toast the bread, then spread with ricotta afterwards.) Serve with warm marinara sauce.

Easy Marinara

Recipe from Breakfast for Dinner. Makes 2 cups.

2 TBS olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and saute for 3 minutes, or until onion has softened, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Add tomatoes, 1/4 c. of water, basil, and oregano. Let simmer for 20 minutes, or until sauce has thickened slightly, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

2 February 15, 2013 Fall

A Day Off // Roasted Carrot and Tahini Soup with Chickpeas

I took today off, not to do anything in particular, but just to have a whole day to myself, to catch up on things, clean, get organized, write, etc. A one day staycation, if you will. I love days like this. It helps that the temperature got up to 50 (50! Spring! I can feel it!) and that after a full week of sneezing I’m finally feeling better.

I wanted to ask – how were everyone’s Valentine’s Days? Mine was just right. Trevor brought me flowers (yellow, my favorite) and chocolate and 9 little airplane bottles of booze with 9 accompanying packets of hot chocolate – boy knows how I like to drink. We had planned on going ice skating, but I got home from work too late. Instead, we meandered downtown just to see if we could find space at a bar for a few drinks. We ended up at Saloon, a very hipster-esque underground bar/restaurant. They were having a singles Swing Dance night, and it was fun to drink our fancy cocktails and nibble on sliders and watch people. It was even more fun to be with my favorite person and just talk and laugh. I feel so lucky to have that.

Sorry, enough schmaltz, back to my staycation. No day at home is complete for me without a little bit (or a lot) of cooking, and today was no different. I made another batch of these grapefruit and ginger thumbprint cookies (note to self, always make extra dough so you can whip up a batch of these in 10 minutes!), I worked on a spring salad feature for an online magazine (which you’ll have to wait to hear more about), I’m in the process of testing out Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil‘s new book, Breakfast for Dinner, and I made this roasted carrot and tahini soup, the perfect healthy and tasty treat for an afternoon lunch at home. I’ve tried a lot of different carrot soups over the past years, and never found one that I liked, until I realized that the trick was in roasting the carrots first. Now, I use this technique with most vegetable puree-type soups that I make. This particular soup was inspired by Smitten Kitchen – I used slightly different amounts and spices, I roasted the carrots instead of boiling them, and I went for a yogurt-tahini sauce instead of a thinner tahini-lemon sauce, but the gist of the two recipes is basically the same. The flavors are lovely and bright, the puree smooth and the crunchy spiced chickpeas addictive. I might just have another bowl for dinner.

Roasted Carrot and Tahini Soup with Chickpeas

Inspired by Smitten Kitchen. Serves 3-4.

1 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch slices
4 TBS olive oil, divided
coarse sea salt, to taste
1 small onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
3 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas, or canned chickpeas, drained of their liquid
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 6-oz. container plain Greek yogurt
4 TBS tahini

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss the carrots with 2 TBS of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast the carrots for 25 minutes, flipping once, after 15 minutes of cooking.
About 5 minutes before the carrots are done, heat 1 TBS of the remaining olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion, and saute for 3 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Add the minced garlic, coriander, and red pepper flakes and saute for 2 minutes longer, until the garlic and spices are fragrant. Add the roasted carrots to the pot along with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the cooked chickpeas to the same roasting pan you used for the carrots. Add the last 1 TBS of olive oil, to the chickpeas, then sprinkle with the cumin, paprika, and sea salt. Toss to coat evenly, then roast for 15 minutes.
Blend the soup in a blender until it is a smooth puree. If it is too thick, add more broth to the blender. Add the lemon juice to the hot soup and pulse a few times to incorporate. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon or salt if necessary.
Spoon the soup into bowls. Top each with a large spoonful of yogurt and 1 TBS of tahini, as well as a handful of the roasted chickpeas.

0 February 13, 2013 Uncategorized

Snowstorm // Grapefruit Jam and Grapefruit-Ginger Thumbprint Cookies

So, fellow New Englanders, how did the blizzard treat you all? I’m refusing to call it Nemo, because I can’t imagine sitting on my porch in 50 years and telling my grandchildren “I remember back when Nemo hit…” Nope. I’m gonna be sitting there grumping about the Blizzard of ’13. Because stoicism is a valuable quality in a New Englander.

Anyway, the storm was fairly uneventful for me. I woke up Friday morning with a nasty cold, so leaving work early on Friday and getting to spend most of the weekend sleeping was actually fairly well-timed. I did spend about 3 hours shoveling on Saturday afternoon. It was kind of weird – I don’t think I’ve ever seen more people outside in my neighborhood at one time. People were chatting, playing music, commiserating. Even on Sunday, the streets were filled with people walking around carrying shovels, only a handful of cars crawling by. It felt old-fashioned, somehow. I was a little bit disappointed to find out that city/adult-life blizzards mean mostly shoveling, while country/kid-life blizzards have a lot more playing in the snow and sitting by the fire playing board games. Of course, being sick may have had something to do with that trade-off.

I’m still not feeling stellar, but, thanks to Trevor, I’ve eaten plenty of the world’s best homemade chicken noodle soup to speed me on my way back to health. With that taken care of, I wanted to make something a little sweeter. Specifically, I wanted to find a way to celebrate some of the super juicy grapefruits Trevor picked up for me during his trip to Texas last week. Grapefruit is a hard flavor to capture outside of eating it fresh – so much of what makes it wonderful lives in the refreshing burst of sweet-tart juice that it offers, and it doesn’t always translate well to desserts. Of the 6 grapefruit recipes I have bookmarked in my massive online recipe organizer, 5 of them are for frozen desserts, and the 6th is for a cocktail – neither of which I was in the mood for. I’ve had success in the past with concentrating the juice to be used in a buttercream, but I wasn’t feeling like cake, either. I wanted something juicy. So I made grapefruit-ginger bars, hoping for a smooth, tangy, filling that would be bursting with flavor and make me pucker up in delight. But, as you can see, there are no grapefruit-ginger bars pictured here – they just didn’t quite come out right. Option number 2? Jam. And cookies.

These cute little thumbprint cookies more than made up for the failure of the grapefruit bars. The buttery shortbread crust has just enough ginger to alert you to its presence without overwhelming the flavor, and the grapefruit jam is lip-puckeringly tart, without any trace of bitterness. Since Valentine’s Day is only two days away, and grapefruits are conveniently pink already, I made these cookies in a heart shape – check out Once Upon A Cutting Board for pictures that show you how to shape them. If you’re pressed for time though, or just don’t like schmaltzy heart-shaped things, they’ll be just as tasty in the standard circular form. I have plenty of jam leftover, and I’m most excited to try it out on scones. There’s just nothing like a scone with tart jam and thick cream. But until I get around to making scones, I’ll be trying to restrain myself from eating the rest of these cookies in a sitting. They’re really that good.

Grapefruit-Ginger Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe adapted from Not Your Momma’s Cookie and Once Upon A Cutting Board. Makes 24 cookies.

1 1/2 stick salted butter, well-softened
2/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 c. grapefruit jam (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and ginger until combined. Add to the butter mixture and beat until the dough comes together into a smooth ball.
Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls about 3/4 inch in diameter – you should get about 48 balls in total. Place the balls together in pairs on a baking sheet so that they’re touching (if it helps you envision this, they will look kind of like butt cheeks). Press your thumb into each ball at an angle so that your thumbprints make a rough heart shape. Pinch the bottoms of the two balls together to complete the bottom of the heart, then press the thumbprint a little deeper. The whole process is kind of like making a clay pinch pot. Fill each heart indentation with jam (don’t overfill or it may spill out during baking). Stick the baking sheet and cookies in the freezer for 5 minutes, then place directly in the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes, until lightly golden brown around the edges. Remove with a spatula to a cooling rack.

Grapefruit Jam

Recipe adapted slightly from Food in Jars. Makes one 1/2-pint jar.

3 large red grapefruits
3/4 c. sugar

Cut the peel off the grapefruits, completely removing all of the white pith. Squeeze the peels out over a large saucepan to catch the juice. Supreme (remove the segments from the membranes) the peeled grapefruits – my favorite way to do this is simply to peel the fruit away from the membrane using my fingers, but some people prefer to use a knife to cut between sections. Remove all seeds and set aside. Place the grapefruit segments and any juice in the saucepan. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Place the reserved seeds in a small cloth bag designed for cooking and tie-off – the seeds will add additional pectin to the jam.
Bring the grapefruit to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring regularly, until the jam reaches 220°F and passes the plate test/sheet test. Remove from heat and ladle into your storage container (if plastic, let jam cool slightly first). I didn’t can this batch since I was only making one jar, but if making a larger batch follow canning instructions on Food in Jars.