Warming Meal I

Greetings Friends!

It's come to my attention that the weather lately has been so uncertain, I don't know if it's going to rain or instantly become BBQ weather AKA drinking Rosé during the daytime AKA bikini season.

That last one puts me into a cold sweat.

I become paranoid.

I start thinking my cat is reading my diary.

Ok, that last one was a reference to Glee.

On to the warming meal!

For those of you who don't know, my sister and I are famous for creating "warming meals" and we even have our own thriving business.*

*if by business, you mean one day we got bored and created a warmingmeals@gmail.com google account, then, yes, we do have a legitimate business.

Warming Meals can be defined as: any homemade meal that makes one feel that they are getting a hug. Said meal does NOT have to be warm in temperature, but it should warm your heart and you should share it with someone you care about. Do not serve a warming meal to someone you secretly hate. Every time you do that, the WM stock takes a major hit.

Past Warming Meals have included:

Risotto, shroom

Turkey Meatballs

Bucatini Cacio e Pepe

Rigatonis (a satellite Rigatoni WM can be had at Palominos as well)

Chicken Caesar Salad with homemade croutons

Summer Corn Salad

Beef Stew

Whole Wheat Pasta

As this indecisive spring weather continues, (is the phrase "indecisive spring weather" a double negative?) I decided to make a combination spring meal and cozy (fall?) desert.

Roasted Cauliflower/Broccoflower Soup and Almond Cake (see WM II post)

Start with a bunch of veggies! I have shallots, leeks and yellow potatoes in as a base for my soup. I chose cauliflower and broccoflower as my main components. Look at this guy below guy!! That crazy 'ol broccoflower. I have been wanting to cook one of these for a while... A broccoflower is a type of cauliflower, also called a "green cauliflower" but actually, the name "broccoflower" is trade marked. bahaha. It should not be confused with Romanesco Broccoli, which is more horned and WAY COOL looking.. You can see if you look close, the broccoflower has a tiny horn.

As a general rule for starting any soup, start by softening your base ingredients with olive oil and perhaps a knob of butter. The knob can be as big as a doorknob…or it can be a a more reasonable 2 tablespoons. I can't believe you were considering putting a doorknob sized portion of butter in this soup!

It roasts the cauliflower and the broccoflower, or it gets the hose again.

Now, combine the goodness into your pot!

For this recipe, I used the following:

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced thinly

3 shallots, sliced thinly

2 yellow potatoes, cut into small chunkers

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets and roasted

1 head broccoflower, ditto

6-7 cups chicken stock

dash of sherry vinegar

S&P to taste

'lil butter and a 'lil olive oil

I used a fancy immersion blender, but you can use a regular blender or a food processor to make as smooth or as rustic chunky as you would like. I opted for the rustic chunky, and I left a few whole pieces of cauliflower in for mouthfeel. Plus, it was really hard not to gobble all the roasted flowers…with their salt-pepper-olive oil crunchy bits.

A note about the color….if you want a pure pedigree soup of a more vibrant color (green or white) use broccoflower or cauliflower respectively. I, however, was confident in the flavors so I did not mind that it was an indecisive color of spring.

You like how I tied that phrase again in, don't you. hehehe.

Sprinkle with a rare salt, a turn of pepper, and drizzle with your finest oil. I used a coveted bottle of olive oil that I received as a gift last summer in Tuscany: oil made from the olive trees at Tenuta la Bandita. Some krispy fried shallots might be good on top or ideally, a drizzy of white truffle oil. Word.

Eating Garbage: COMPOST COOKIES!

Since when, dear friend, I am getting recipes from the Regis and Kelly Show?

What madness is this?

Oh wait, I did get that one amazing Guinness braised pork shoulder with cherries and sweet potatoes…

In the show's defense, sometimes they channel Martha and have a spotlight on a celebrity chef or someone who is not all that talented but it's funny to see them in a kitchen environment. My point is, the Pork recipe listed above is from Daniel Boulud and I apparently watch a lot of daytime TV.

Not long ago, Reeg and Kelly had done a profile on a cookie that is made at Milk Bar in NYC. It was PURE genius.

Peep This:

Make a sugar cookie base and then add in SNACKS!

S: sugary

N: not approved for daily use

A: addictive high fructose corn syrup

C: candies

K: krunchy

S: salty

Momofuko's Compost Cookies

1 cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Corn Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Large Eggs
1 3/4 cups AP Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Kosher Salt
1 1/2 cups Your favorite baking ingredients!
(Kelly used mini chocolate chips, raisinettes, rollos & cocoa krispies)
1 1/2 cups Your favorite snack foods (chips, pretzels, etc)(Kelly used goldfish, ritz, & fritos)

Here is what I used:

• Coco Pebbles
• Animal Crackers
• Goldfish Crackers (original flavor BUT there were basketballs mixed in with the fish. Stupid March Madness)
• Peanut Butter filled Pretzels (a Costco oldie but goodie)
• Corn Nuts
• 1 Twix
• 1 Almond Joy
• 1 Snickers
• 1/4 cup of Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate discs, chopped (thought I would class it up here)

You may find the actual directions on the link provided above. I must say that the base is quite ordinary with the exception of creaming the butter and the sugars for 10 full minutes.

THIS is what makes the fluffy nature of the cookie. The batter allows all the scrumptious goodness of snacks to shine with some sort of junk food umami sensation. That, and you have successfully compacted 8-10 junk foods into your mouth in a doughy sugary vehicle.

The reason I mention umami is because after serving these at a certain law firm in Wenatchee, a person commented that I MUST have put a butterfinger bar in these cookies. No, friend. I simply created a magical usage of different snacks that were so complex, not even a great legal mind could comprehend them.

BTW, this batter is HIGHLY addictive. I have not tasted such good raw cookie batter since the first time I tasted cookie batter. So….

It is imperative that you refrigerate the dough before baking. These cookies are so laden with snacks that their integrity would be compromised if they were simply thrust into the oven at room temperature.

On my next batch, I am DEFINITELY going to use the following in no particular order or quantity:

Cheese Its!

Potato Chips

Mamba?!

Butterscotch chips

Golden Grahams

Rice Krispies

Cut up Easter Peeps (for some color)

Mini Jawbreakers

Werther's Original

Sour Cherries

The possibilities are endless!! The sugar high is inevitable.

Make these.

Bye!

Pickle Me This!

Ciao Amici!

Che la sono facendo oggi? Per me, scrivo il BLOG!

Yesterday, I whipped up a veritable smorgasbord of delicacies! Bore levels were high, so I set off to the store for some red onions. I have been wanting to make pickled red onions since last summer, when I worked at Columbia City Bakery. On our breaks, we would have the most delicious sannies made with a CCB roasted potato roll, chipotle mayonnaise, thinly sliced red onions, red bell peppers, turkey, and PICKLED RED ONIONS! By the time we were able to take a break, I was so ravenous the sandwich barely lasted 1 minute in my hand.

The pickled onions at CCB were made simply with red wine vinegar and sugar, which I might try next time. The recipe I chose to adapt today is from one of my favorite fancy blogs;

David Lebovitz

Pickle Me (Nelle) Onions

4 Red Onions, peeled and sliced thinly on a mandolin

3/4 C Sugar

3 C White Vinegar

Aromatics:

red pepper flakes

cinnamon stick

4 garlic cloves, smashed

black and white peppercorns (OMG wouldn't PINK peppercorns be so good in here?!)

fennel seeds

whole cloves

3 bay leaves

Combine the sugar, vinegar, and aromatics in a non reactive pot and bring to a boil. Add in onions. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer for a minute or two. Remove from heat and cool.

These will keep for months in the fridge. Think of the possibilities… revel in the hot pink color and lifeless shape…then taste!

Now, you may use these hot pink lovelies on almost anything! Great with meats of all kinds, turkey sandwiches of course, and salads! I chose to recreate a fantastic salad I ate a lot of in Italy both when I studied there in college and while in Tuscany last summer with my mom.

Insalata con Tonno

As MANY know, Italians prefer to use oil packed tuna, not watery dry tuna. Last Christmas, I received a gift of said oil packed tuna in my stocking! I think Santa Claus is actually Pat McCarthy from DeLaurenti. The tuna that I used was actually locally troll caught albacore, to be precise.

Todd actually quizzed me in his typical fashion about what trolling was;

Nelle….do you even KNOW what troll caught means?

HAHAHAHAHAHAH. yes.

My dad used to take us fishing all the time when we were little and we would troll for salmon on our sailboat sometimes.

Take THAT, Todd.

Um, sorry you had to see that.

Back to the insalata!

Simply dressed with an anchovy caesar-like vinaigrette, I started with romaine and radicchio and added some sweet cherry tomatoes, tuna, and pickled onions. Finished off with a spritz of lemon, crackle of pepper, and a drizzle of fine olive oil….Buonissima!

Irish Eyes for Soda Bread

Surprise! It's me again, so soon. So soon.

I thought I would share a little creation that I adapted from Noreen Kinney's "A Baker's Odyssey." My dearest friend in SF tried the recipe yesterday, so it was only natural for me to try it today, and on St. Paddy at that… HA, can you BELIEVE how that worked out?

This recipe is super easy, as you only must mix the dry ingredients with the wet, and there is no yeast involved. It comes together in a matter of minutes. Do you know what that means for me?It means that I made two loaves AND two batches of tomato jam with all my spare time. Good golly think of all the free time.

I took the liberty of substituting (from the og recipe) regular granulated sugar for honey, adding bee pollen for pizzaz and pumpkin seeds for that bit of green kick.

Irish Soda Bread

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour, plus more for shaping

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/4 cup oat bran

1/4 cup untoasted wheat germ

2 tablespoons flaxseed

2 tablespoon bee pollen

1/8 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1 large egg

Appx 1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 425°F. Coat a heavy baking sheet with vegetable cooking spray or line it with a silicone baking pan liner or aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the fat particles are very fine.

Stir in the baking soda, salt, honey, wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ, flaxseed, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds and bee pollen.

Beat the egg lightly with a fork in a 2-cup glass measure. Add enough buttermilk to come to the 2-cup line and stir with the fork to combine well. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the dough gathers into a thick, wet-looking mass.

Sprinkle your work surface with whole wheat flour and scrape the dough onto it. Dust the dough with a bit more whole wheat flour. Pat the dough into a circular shape about 7 inches across and 2 inches high and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet. Make a cross-shaped indentation on top of the loaf going right to the edges. I used my offset spatula and pressed it into the dough very gently; don't actually slash the dough. During baking the indentation expands, giving the top of the loaf an attractive pattern.

Bake the bread for about 35 minutes, until it is well browned and sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. You will smell the nutty aroma wafting out of the oven when it's done. Cool the loaf on a wire cooling rack, and serve warm or at room temperature. Cut into quarters and slice each quarter with a sharp serrated knife. Delicious with butter, jam, tomato jam….and of course, cheese! I enjoyed mine with some Beecher's cheddar.

Tartish

Blog!

Hello fans, friends, fowl, and family! Today is going to be a spotlight on the idea of eating tarts all the time, especially for breakfast (as I currently do now) and the sunny inspiration of this wonderful sunny pleasure below:

Alyson's Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil

For those of you who may not know, my little sister got married last weekend! She and her betrothed are sunning it up in Cancun and basking in margaritas, chips/salsas, and newlywed bliss.

As part of the day of preparations, my mom and I decided to fortify the bridal party AND the crew (Hairdresser Lisa, Cameraman Spencer, Makeup Artist Annabelle) with one of Alyson's favorite lush meals, chicken caesar salad. My mom also made a lemon tart to go along with…BUT the sea was angry that day, and the curd did not cooperate. It sadly was thrown to the wayside and an emergency trip to the store was made for JARRED LEMON CURD

Lets just say, if you want to eat a tart filled with a gelatinous matter that exists in a jar for 13 months, then you will eat a vienna sausage or some spam.

Wedding Crew

I do want to say that Nancy is a SAINT and everything she makes is gold. Also, Kaitlyn Kirkwood is a saint too, because she was the one who tried the jarred tart. Bless their souls.

No matter! I have remedied the malady of the jarred tart with this procedure, courtesy of Gourmet Magazine.

Step One:

Tart Dough! This dough was enriched with a glug or two of olive oil, Kerrygold butter (heh, St Patty's day is coming up) and ground almonds. A nutty, buttery, rich, and crumbly crust is highly desirable, yes?

Step Two:

Press the dough into a tart pan with removable bottom. There will be fingerprints on the tart. This proves you are human and not a cyborg that creates perfectly smooth tart bottoms with an offset spatula.

Step Three:

Blind bake the tart until golden brown. Lightly grease a sheet of tin foil and cover the tart. Then, fill the tart to the brim with cheap pinto beans you purchased at the Food Pavilion. Next, trick your boyfriend into thinking you made a bean pie. Laugh hysterically as he does not get the joke, nor does he understand why you are taking a bean filled tart out of the oven.

Step Four:

Make the curd while the tart shell cools. Begin by artfully laying out lemons on the table. Go ahead, play with the shadows cast by the fruit in your own crazy sugar induced photo shoot.

Zest and juice lemons, and combine with your eggs, sugar, olive oil, and cornstarch (for thickening). Bring to a brief boil on the stove and watch before your very eyes as the eggs and starch thicken the mixture into a smooth and creamy lemon dream.

In summary, there is no substitute for a fresh lemon taste. There are attempts made by the taste of Lemonhead brand candy, but other than that, you must use the real thing.

I must say, I am a sucker for anything that uses a fine oil in its title. Therefore, does anyone have any other suggestions for me? I am dying to make Otto's Olive Oil Gelato….

Alyson's Creamy Smooth Lemon Dream Tart slice, signing off.

Lady Meyer Lemon Marmalade

O Sunny Day!

Hi!

Its been, what, a fortnight since my last post?

I have been trying to "fit in" around here, so that has taken much of my time. Plus the Jennifer Anniston arm campaign has been working well for me. I have also taken to jumping rope, as well. It really elevates the heart rate lickity split.

Well, for my most current project, I have decided to take on canning, or as a good Yankee woman would say, "puttin up____" (fill in the blank with whatever you got that day.) You got baby corn? Pickle it and sell it to Godfathers for their salad bar. You got a patch of blackberries? Put on your overalls and make you some hooch. You got a case of Meyer Lemons at Costco for your sister's bachelorette party last weekend? Make some Meyer Lemon Marmalade!

I decided to use a microwaveable method, as this project was quite a small one. The cook time is only about 11 minutes total. But we are talking about micro-waves….

Onward to my sunny project! Though it was quite gray and misty here, this project allowed me to buzz about and forget about some of the recent humbugs of the week. The recipe is from one of my new favorite sites, Put Up or Shut Up

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

4 lemons

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean pod, cut up

Prepare a hot water bath and make sure your jars and lids are sterilized. remember, don't heat the screw caps, just the jars and the seal.

Slice lengthwise into quarters and trim away the white membrane near the core and remove all the seeds.

Combine lemon slices and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Puree the mixture until a sunny, chunky broth is formed. This will be QUITE sticky and liquid. The meyer lemon is a thin skinned citrus, so there will not be noticeable rind as in a traditional marmalade.

Pour into a high-sided microwaveable bowl adding vanilla bean cut into a few pieces. Cover tightly with saran wrap that you have pierced a few times to vent.

Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Stir; remove saran wrap and return to microwave for 5- 7 minutes. Remove, stir and check thickness. At this point, depending on the juiciness of your fruit you may want to return it to the microwave for another 2-3 minutes. It continues thickening as it cools.

DO NOT fear as this concoction will bubble and toil in the microwave. Just be patient and remember you are dealing with citrus lava flow.

Stir again and pour or ladle marmalade into your prepared jars, leaving 1/2-inch headroom and removing any air bubbles. Wipe rims and place lids on screwing on lightly.

Place jars in canner making sure they are submerged. Return to a boil and process 5 minutes (timed from the boil) for 4oz jars and 10 minutes for 8oz jars. I used 80z jars because I felt the 4 oz portion ones could be eaten, literally, with one spoonful. Thats no way to live, when you eat the whole jam jar in one sitting. Unless you are someone I know... Love you dad!!

Remove lid and wait 5 minutes before carefully removing jars. Place jars on towels or a cutting board to cool. Label, date and enjoy.

Notice the flecks of vanilla in the 'lade. Whenever I see those flecks, I know whatever it is I am about to eat is going to be lush. I left a little keepsake vanilla pod segment in each of the jars, to add flavor and intrigue….what is the black speck in my jam, dammit!

I made 2 batches of this marmalade and yielded 5 jars. Please do note, however, that I did not double this recipe, I just made it twice. The microwave will revolt with a molten sticky serum bomb all over your house if you dry to double the batch.

The jar above was a bit on the low side, so I decided to keep that one for the fridge and consume in the next couple of days. Normally, you would want to fill the jar up a little more. I only had 8 lemons ok?!!

As a side note, my grandmother once bought me a meyer lemon tree, but it was overcome by some sort of citrus spider. I shall acquire another one, someday.