I was just reading an article on summer diet blunders and they mentioned frozen yogurt which I have just discovered. Let me talk you through this discovery.
Several weeks ago, the boyfriend and I went to Arundel Mills to see Medieval Times. We had a blast and after the show we wanted to chat with our friend, one of the knights, who still had some stuff to do. It was late but a lot of the mall was still open so we wandered around for a bit. After going and hanging about FYE for a while, I thought it would be nice to check out "Yogurt Mountain" that we had passed on our way to FYE.
I think these places are popping up all over the place - more on that in a second- but "YoMo" is a frozen yogurt place, as you would imagine. Along the wall are soft serve machines with the frozen yogurt inside in all kinds of tasty flavors- vanilla, cheesecake, rocky road, red velvet, cappuccino, snickerdoodle, mint, and even no sugar added varieties. The flavors change depending on the day. You can also mix two flavors that share a machine together- for example snickerdoodle and cheesecake. Sounds great, no?
They have these (huge) cups at a kiosk or bar and you serve yourself how much you want. Then there is a toppings bar. YoMo had the best selection I could readily see with cereals of all kinds (Fruity Pebbles?!), fruit, syrups, candies, candy bars... so good. When you finish making your cup, they weigh it and charge you per ounce.
The boyfriend and I were ALL about it. He filled his cup, I layered the bottom of mine (portion control, kids!) and we loved it!
Here are the benefits of frozen yogurt over ice cream, in case you were curious:
-Lower in calories- Try 100 calories per half cup serving and compare that to your Ben and Jerrys.
-High in probiotics- wait, this dessert is even good for you?
-Lighter without sacrificing flavor- Ice cream can feel heavy on your tongue/palette. I can finish a nice cup and not feel bad about it... even desperately wanting more!
Depending on where you go determines how good the yogurt is. For example, YoMo doesn't tell you much about the yogurt. Yesterday, the boyfriend, the youngest sister and I went to a new place that had opened up by us called YogoLaada. We walked in and realised it was the exact same kind of thing as YoMo with a cereal bar attached. They have all different kinds of cereal that you can top with whatever they have on the bar. One of the employees happened to know the boyfriend and she explained that a lot of FroYo places have powdered yogurt that they put in their machines. YogoLaada gets huge frozen blocks of the yogurt that are put directly in the machines. They also have proudly displayed on their walls all the information about why FroYo is so good for you with a lot more reasons than I listed above.
These places seem to be popping up all over the place and go by different names. Yogurt Mountain. YogoLaada. There's a new place opening up called USpoon that is billing itself as a yogurt and cereal bar. Sounds like FroYo to me and I can't wait for them to open and to try it out!
If you have apprehensions about FroYo, here's a little more info for you. If you're lactose intolerant, the bugs that make yogurt yogurt eat the lactose that causes tummy aches. It's a great way to get calcium and go out for a frozen treat without getting sick. If you don't like yogurt because of the tang (I love yogurt and the tang can get overbearing for me too), the freezing process seems to get rid of that tangy something. It seriously tastes like ice cream, just less heavy.
So please give it a shot. The fact that there are so many of these places popping up all over the place is a good thing. Healthy creamy yummy snacks! How AWESOME is that?!
PS: I'm still working on that green kitchen cookbook. I haven't been in much of a mood to read it lately.
Until next time!
07 July 2011
28 June 2011
Ignore the Ideologies
I visited the library again last Friday so I thought it time to update.
First of all, in the French Women Don't Get Fat cookbook, there was only one recipe that wasn't a dessert that I really wanted to try- Farfalle with Yogurt-Basil sauce. I thought "Savory, creamy sauce... delicious!" ... Not so much.
The recipe started innocently enough with shallots and garlic. Then you add lemon juice and zest... and then the yogurt. Before adding in the pasta, I decided to taste the sauce. ... Yuck. Maybe I'm just not a fan of lemon in my sauces... but it was really unpalatable. I tossed it and instead added peas to the pasta and some alfredo sauce and called it a night.
My ultimate decision on the French Women Don't Get Fat cookbook is that it has a lot of lifestyle ideas and is a really good read and the recipes had a lot of good ideas... but it just wasn't good for me, particularly since I don't cook meat/fish at home. But I definitely recommend it. Does that make sense? I hope so...
When I returned that book, I picked up two new books! Today I will be discussing the Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual and Lore by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt (second edition).
Background: I was looking for something seasonal to give me inspiration at the moment. What better way to inspire than to cook and read, right? I am a creature of the earth and lean towards Wiccan sentiments at times so at the very least I thought it would be a good read.
For those who don't know what Wicca is, here is a really brief summary: Earth-based, medievally based religion that was started sometime around the 60s as a harkening back to the "old ways." Based on Mother Earth, the Consort, solstices, etc.
And it is. Well, if you're really interested in looking at Wicca, the introduction is great for you. But I already knew that information so I skipped it a lot. There is a section about the medieval kitchen which was pretty interesting but, being a student of medieval history, I already knew that too.
The book also has a section on growing herbs which is great... except I kill everything... as my boyfriend so kindly pointed out to me today. But it definitely had some good info and gave the whole ideological treatise on why it's good to get close to the earth and to always have fresh herbs on hand, yadda yadda yadda.
But the RECIPES, that's the important thing. The book is specifically Wiccan because there are intros to each recipe and some come with spells and blessings. Again, pretty neat, but nothing I'm planning on following through on.
The recipes are split into the different holidays and solstices and each section gives background to the holiday, flowers, colors and herbs of significance, etc. It's really a seasonal cookbook through a Wiccan/Pagan lens.
It just having turned summer, I looked at the Summer Solstice section and found the recipe that I wanted to try, Lillith's Lily Fair Soup- a chilled melon soup. My friend Hilary recently discovered Gazpacho but I am not a fan of cold tomatoey soups... my savory things should be warm most of the time... but I thought this melon soup would be a nice compromise so this one goes out to you, Miss Wayward! I don't want to post the recipe here (I really don't want to get into copyright issues...), but it does exist on the web if you just copy and paste that into your search engine. I promise you will find it.
The basics of the recipe are two components- the melon part and the raspberry part. Puree the honeydew melon, mango and orange juice, chill. Puree raspberries, sugar and Grand Marnier, chill. Serve separately.
What really happened:
I didn't have any Grand Marnier for the raspberry component, sad to say. So I improvised! I had Chambord (raspberry liqueur) on hand and Amaretto (almond liqueur) as well. So I splashed them both in to substitute. It turned out fine.
When I served it, I put the melon in a bowl and then floated a spoonful of the raspberry on top and my sister and I mixed it as we ate. I would advise not mixing it in together, though, as we learned at the end. The raspberry component is a nice and vibrant red, but the melon is a green/yellow mixture and once they mix it looks kinda brown and not appetizing no matter how delicious it really is.
On the whole I really like the recipes in this book and will probably take it out again when I'm specifically looking for something to hit the soul just right. :)
The other book I took out is a Green Kitchen kind of cookbook so I'm interested in devouring that one too.
OH! And make sure to like my new Facebook Page so I know who's reading! :D
18 June 2011
Getting Back into the Swing of Things
I am ashamed to say that I have not properly cooked in about a week. I have good reason. Bed bugs. My apartment's contents are in the center of each room and though I did not have to dismantle my kitchen, it has left me not wanting to touch it since I can't touch the rest of my apartment. Dishes have been piling up and I have not been wanting to even look at the kitchen.
I've been quietly on the up swing lately, though.
I decided to try making bread from scratch. I will not post a recipe because it didn't work right. Bread is a funny thing. There's yeast and proteins and... yeah. Something didn't work right. It didn't rise properly and was super dense. I could have killed someone with it. Until I get it right, I won't post bread here. I will satisfy myself with buying nice bread at the store and I'm really okay with that.
However, my AWESOME find came to me yesterday. I had a chunk of spare time, not enough to go anywhere or even to go home and relax (I was out running errands) so I decided to check out the library. I had registered for a card ages ago and never picked it up and I had the perfect amount of time to go.
My library is awesome. Not only does it have super high tech stuff (a mat I put the books on and it knows EXACTLY what books I'm taking out) but it has a COOKBOOK section.
It never occurred to me to go to the library for cookbooks, probably because the libraries I grew up going to had everything but cookbooks. My library has Giada deLaurentiis, Ina Garten, green cookbooks, vegan cookbooks, Mario Batali and pretty much any cookbook I could want. I almost got every single one that looked interesting. I did manage to hold some restraint and just walk out with one book, picked out by my sister, who was with me.
I love that my library has these because what I find I do with cookbooks is I buy them, read them and look them over once, and then they sit there until I remember they are there. Considering minimum they are going to be $15 and more likely closer to $30, that's not an effective use of my monies.
In light of my newfound access, I shall now start reviewing cookbooks! Here's my first find:
The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano.
The title intrigued me enough (I've been losing weight [on purpose]). In fact, when I told my boyfriend he said "Is this a work of fiction...?"
I'm not typically into French food simply because I don't know much about it. I know pastries, bread, cheese and butter. That's about it as far as my personal knowledge goes. Don't get me wrong. As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts I talked about a simple lunch of bread, cheese and fruit.
It's a quick read if you glance over the recipes (I read it yesterday afternoon) and has a lot of really good tips about life in general. Two light meals, one larger meal a day, fruit-centered desserts, some wine, champagne and enjoying life and food. I really feel like I took a lot away from it. She stressed fresh and flavorful ingredients (definitely good) and moderate exercise. A lot of culture was brought up (she grew up in France) and I'm liking the idea of a big meal at lunch. That might be something nice to do this summer while I'm out of work.
Something she recommended was a bit of a surprise- a leek broth detox. Stay with me now. The idea is that you make a whole big bucket of leek broth (water and leeks, that's it) and eat that for a day or two, culminating in a light meal. She doesn't recommend doing it any longer than a week (I love leeks but I think I would get sick of it by then...) and you'll lose a few pounds. Sounds interesting, but nothing I'd really be interested in trying anytime soon.
I liked the last chapter the most- it was basically a FAQ. Things like "My husband eats like a pig!" and how to get junk eating kids to realise what they're putting in their bodies. She also includes what she keeps in her kitchen. Lots of helpful stuff to think over. I liked it quite a bit.
The only thing I didn't like is that she stressed eating fish. There's no doubt that eating fish is really good for you. Omega 3s are awesome and do lovely things for you. Here are my two problems with fish.
1) I don't like it much. I had fish when I was little with a definite species and I threw up that night. From that point on I ate fish sticks if I ate fish at all (because fish sticks don't have a species...). When I lived in Scotland I did develop a taste for fish... to a point. I'd pick up my chippy (fish and chips) and eat it with glee... and then I guess my brain would catch up with me and I couldn't eat any more. It happens to this day with fish.
2) It's really expensive. I went to pick up some fish steaks at the grocery store and it was expensive as heck. I decided I would let it go by.
So what do I do, especially when my doctor suggested I eat more fish to keep inflammation down? I bought fish oil pills. Odorless ones. They're huge, but they do the job. I get the oils and don't have to eat fish. Win win!
So all in all I LOVED the book and will probably peruse it once again before I bring it back on Monday, copy down the recipes I want to try, and then send it on its merry way and pick out a new one!
Tomorrow I shall be trying a new one (farfalle in a yogurt sauce) and I will most definitely let you know how it goes!
Here's to getting back on track!
I've been quietly on the up swing lately, though.
I decided to try making bread from scratch. I will not post a recipe because it didn't work right. Bread is a funny thing. There's yeast and proteins and... yeah. Something didn't work right. It didn't rise properly and was super dense. I could have killed someone with it. Until I get it right, I won't post bread here. I will satisfy myself with buying nice bread at the store and I'm really okay with that.
However, my AWESOME find came to me yesterday. I had a chunk of spare time, not enough to go anywhere or even to go home and relax (I was out running errands) so I decided to check out the library. I had registered for a card ages ago and never picked it up and I had the perfect amount of time to go.
My library is awesome. Not only does it have super high tech stuff (a mat I put the books on and it knows EXACTLY what books I'm taking out) but it has a COOKBOOK section.
It never occurred to me to go to the library for cookbooks, probably because the libraries I grew up going to had everything but cookbooks. My library has Giada deLaurentiis, Ina Garten, green cookbooks, vegan cookbooks, Mario Batali and pretty much any cookbook I could want. I almost got every single one that looked interesting. I did manage to hold some restraint and just walk out with one book, picked out by my sister, who was with me.
I love that my library has these because what I find I do with cookbooks is I buy them, read them and look them over once, and then they sit there until I remember they are there. Considering minimum they are going to be $15 and more likely closer to $30, that's not an effective use of my monies.
In light of my newfound access, I shall now start reviewing cookbooks! Here's my first find:
The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano.
The title intrigued me enough (I've been losing weight [on purpose]). In fact, when I told my boyfriend he said "Is this a work of fiction...?"
I'm not typically into French food simply because I don't know much about it. I know pastries, bread, cheese and butter. That's about it as far as my personal knowledge goes. Don't get me wrong. As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts I talked about a simple lunch of bread, cheese and fruit.
It's a quick read if you glance over the recipes (I read it yesterday afternoon) and has a lot of really good tips about life in general. Two light meals, one larger meal a day, fruit-centered desserts, some wine, champagne and enjoying life and food. I really feel like I took a lot away from it. She stressed fresh and flavorful ingredients (definitely good) and moderate exercise. A lot of culture was brought up (she grew up in France) and I'm liking the idea of a big meal at lunch. That might be something nice to do this summer while I'm out of work.
Something she recommended was a bit of a surprise- a leek broth detox. Stay with me now. The idea is that you make a whole big bucket of leek broth (water and leeks, that's it) and eat that for a day or two, culminating in a light meal. She doesn't recommend doing it any longer than a week (I love leeks but I think I would get sick of it by then...) and you'll lose a few pounds. Sounds interesting, but nothing I'd really be interested in trying anytime soon.
I liked the last chapter the most- it was basically a FAQ. Things like "My husband eats like a pig!" and how to get junk eating kids to realise what they're putting in their bodies. She also includes what she keeps in her kitchen. Lots of helpful stuff to think over. I liked it quite a bit.
The only thing I didn't like is that she stressed eating fish. There's no doubt that eating fish is really good for you. Omega 3s are awesome and do lovely things for you. Here are my two problems with fish.
1) I don't like it much. I had fish when I was little with a definite species and I threw up that night. From that point on I ate fish sticks if I ate fish at all (because fish sticks don't have a species...). When I lived in Scotland I did develop a taste for fish... to a point. I'd pick up my chippy (fish and chips) and eat it with glee... and then I guess my brain would catch up with me and I couldn't eat any more. It happens to this day with fish.
2) It's really expensive. I went to pick up some fish steaks at the grocery store and it was expensive as heck. I decided I would let it go by.
So what do I do, especially when my doctor suggested I eat more fish to keep inflammation down? I bought fish oil pills. Odorless ones. They're huge, but they do the job. I get the oils and don't have to eat fish. Win win!
So all in all I LOVED the book and will probably peruse it once again before I bring it back on Monday, copy down the recipes I want to try, and then send it on its merry way and pick out a new one!
Tomorrow I shall be trying a new one (farfalle in a yogurt sauce) and I will most definitely let you know how it goes!
Here's to getting back on track!
15 May 2011
Roasted Red Peppers
This morning I was in the grocery store, in the produce department and there was a display of red peppers. Red peppers are something I've really gotten into recently and are absolutely delicious so I thought "Hey, I'll pick some up and make a red pepper sauce!"
Background on the sauce (don't worry, the recipe will follow):
Several years ago, I was living with my friend Nedra. Nedra, if you do not know her, has food allergies, most importantly, to citric acid. It's something your body needs, yes, but she can't have more than that baseline or she kind of... vomits everywhere and goes into a semi coma.
This means she can't have regular tomato sauce. She developed this recipe so she could have red sauce on pasta. It tastes remarkably like tomato sauce, if not as acidic, and even people do don't like red peppers (like the boyfriend) find themselves loving this recipe.
Aaaaanyway, as I was getting a bag, a woman next to me was looking for some peppers, picking through them. I offered her a bag and she said that she wouldn't need one. She was probably going to eat them right away. I mentioned I was going to make pasta sauce and she kind of went "Whaaaaaa?"
So I started to explain the process, stopped, and she urged me to continue. Here's how you make it.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
6 red peppers
olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic
1 T dried parsley
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried basil
1 t dried rosemary
1 t dried thyme
a splash red wine vinegar
salt
pepper
Directions:
Roast up those peppers!- there are several ways to do this. If you have a gas range like me, stick them straight on the flame until they are completely charred. If you do not, coat the peppers with olive oil, put them on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven until they are all charred, rotating them if necessary. Once they are roasted, put them in a bowl and cover with a towel to cool and steam to make those skins easier to take off.
While your peppers are roasting/steaming, chop up the onion and start them sweating in the olive oil with some salt and pepper. Add in the dried herbs and garlic (you can chop up the garlic but I used my microplane to grate it in there... because I have it and I wanted to....) and saute until everything is all nice and translucent. Add in that splash of vinegar. Why the vinegar? I was going to use wine... but I didn't have any. So I used a splash of vinegar instead.
Now the fun part with the peppers. Peel off the skin. It's messy. So messy. But worth it. Don't fret too much about making sure every last bit of char and skin is off. The more char you leave in, the smokier it tastes and I'm a fan of a high carbon diet so it's up to you. Just make sure you pull out the stems and seeds.
Then toss everything in a blender, the peppers, the onion mixture, have a blast! If it's too thick and not blending properly, splash some water in. How chunky you want it is up to you. You can have it fairly thick or smooth. I won't know. :)
Now you have this excellent sauce! What can you do with it? Well, you can use it just like tomato sauce, over pasta with some parmesan. Or maybe in place of sauce on pizza. Or a dipper for garlic bread. Yummm.
So enjoy the sauce and here's to some summer eating! I plan on writing more often now it's summer. That seems to be when I'm most inspired.
Happy eating!
29 April 2011
A Foray into Italy
The weather this week has been fantastic here in the Mid Atlantic region. Nice and warm and sunny.... I was inspired.
Now, I didn't do a lot of recipe creation, more like tweaking. And I tried a new recipe.
Tuesday ended up being Italian Villa day at my apartment. I got out early from work, had time to stop by the store and pick up a couple things and make it home. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, it was warm... amazing day all around.
First thing I did when I came home was some baking. If you have Cooking Channel, you are probably familiar with Extra Virgin. If you don't have the channel or are not familiar with the show, here's the basic run down. It's hosted by actress Debbie Mazar (Goodfellas, among other things) and her husband Gabriele, who is from Tuscany. It takes place at their house and their two girls are involved, it's a really cute show with some really nice, authentic recipes.
One such recipe looked really good when I saw it- Schiacciata Alla Fiorentina- an orange cake simply dusted with powdered sugar. Since this is not my recipe, I will not copy and paste it here, but here's the link- http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/debi-mazar-and-gabriele-corcos/schiacciata-alla-fiorentina-recipe/index.html- if you're interested.
I did a couple different things with this recipe. 1)I added vanilla. I don't know if vanilla isn't Tuscan or anything, but I felt it needed to be added. Vanilla makes everything awesome. 2) You're supposed to make it in a great big cake (Gabriele has a fleur de lis stencil he used to form the powdered sugar. It looked fantastic) but I don't have regular cake tins. I mostly have cupcake tins. And I love portion control. I also have a tin I don't use often- it's a square cupcake tin. Just like regular cupcakes... but square. So I used that. I even had a few leftover so I made regular cupcakes. 3) I used applesauce instead of oil to cut out a few calories. I've never done this before but I figured any slight flavor difference would be hidden with the orange so I called it a day. The cake turned out amazingly moist and even now, a few days later, no moisture has been lost. The humidity helps, I'm sure.
So I made that, set it aside and started with dinner.
Dinner started with my Champs Ulysses mix salad- it's a bagged mix from Trader Joe's with raddichio, carrots, baby spinach, frisee and some other lettuces- topped with feta and my standard vinaigrette. It was somewhere around 4 so I thought it a little early to have dinner proper. The boyfriend and I ate our salads nice and happily.
The main course, however, was a Panini Caprese. What does that mean? Tomato, basil and mozzarella. That simple. You can get it anywhere and everywhere. I had an amazing variant on my trip to Vermont a week ago that was a wrap with fresh mozzarella, tomato, pesto, baby spinach (I think) and caramelized onions that was then grilled. AWESOME.
My version starts with an Italian bread. I picked up a loaf of Pane Bello from Trader Joe's. It had everything I wanted and the leftovers are going to be great with my kielbasa soup tonight.
What I decided to do was take a hint from a lot of places and use pesto instead of fresh basil. I have bad luck with fresh herbs. I need to get them the day I need them or they are brown. I've always used dry herbs. They last longer and I don't have to worry about it much.
Pesto has all the lovely basil flavor along with salt, pepper, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil AND it's easy to spread. So I did, on the inside of my bread. I then sliced up a tomato and some fresh mozzarella (and ate a bunch of it) and stuck the two sides together.
Now, you can have a panini press or a George Foreman grill to grill your sammich. I don't have it so I go old school. I heated up my grill pan on medium heat. The goal here is not so much to make a grilled cheese, but to heat up the bread and make it crispy. If your mozzarella and tomato are room temperature though, they will probably get nice and warm too.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the point of a panini is for it to be pressed as well. If you don't have a fancy grill press, cheat... like I did. All I did was stick a heavy skillet on top of my sandwich. If I had worked it out better, I would have also put a can in the skillet to make it press the sammich further. But that's neither here nor there.
The point is that I flipped it, grilled it and ate it. And it was perfect, especially when accompanied by a glass of cold sparkling limeade and eating on my balcony with my sweetie. That is lovely eating right there.
And that Schiacciata Alla Fiorentina, dusted with powdered sugar, was a lovely way to end that meal.
So try out this meal. The warm weather is here. Let's embrace it! With delicious food!
-Merry
PS: Two posts in a week's time?! CRAZY!!!
PPS: I edited my last post with the royal icing and a note about humidity. Please go back and check it out.
Now, I didn't do a lot of recipe creation, more like tweaking. And I tried a new recipe.
Tuesday ended up being Italian Villa day at my apartment. I got out early from work, had time to stop by the store and pick up a couple things and make it home. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, it was warm... amazing day all around.
First thing I did when I came home was some baking. If you have Cooking Channel, you are probably familiar with Extra Virgin. If you don't have the channel or are not familiar with the show, here's the basic run down. It's hosted by actress Debbie Mazar (Goodfellas, among other things) and her husband Gabriele, who is from Tuscany. It takes place at their house and their two girls are involved, it's a really cute show with some really nice, authentic recipes.
One such recipe looked really good when I saw it- Schiacciata Alla Fiorentina- an orange cake simply dusted with powdered sugar. Since this is not my recipe, I will not copy and paste it here, but here's the link- http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/debi-mazar-and-gabriele-corcos/schiacciata-alla-fiorentina-recipe/index.html- if you're interested.
I did a couple different things with this recipe. 1)I added vanilla. I don't know if vanilla isn't Tuscan or anything, but I felt it needed to be added. Vanilla makes everything awesome. 2) You're supposed to make it in a great big cake (Gabriele has a fleur de lis stencil he used to form the powdered sugar. It looked fantastic) but I don't have regular cake tins. I mostly have cupcake tins. And I love portion control. I also have a tin I don't use often- it's a square cupcake tin. Just like regular cupcakes... but square. So I used that. I even had a few leftover so I made regular cupcakes. 3) I used applesauce instead of oil to cut out a few calories. I've never done this before but I figured any slight flavor difference would be hidden with the orange so I called it a day. The cake turned out amazingly moist and even now, a few days later, no moisture has been lost. The humidity helps, I'm sure.
So I made that, set it aside and started with dinner.
Dinner started with my Champs Ulysses mix salad- it's a bagged mix from Trader Joe's with raddichio, carrots, baby spinach, frisee and some other lettuces- topped with feta and my standard vinaigrette. It was somewhere around 4 so I thought it a little early to have dinner proper. The boyfriend and I ate our salads nice and happily.
The main course, however, was a Panini Caprese. What does that mean? Tomato, basil and mozzarella. That simple. You can get it anywhere and everywhere. I had an amazing variant on my trip to Vermont a week ago that was a wrap with fresh mozzarella, tomato, pesto, baby spinach (I think) and caramelized onions that was then grilled. AWESOME.
My version starts with an Italian bread. I picked up a loaf of Pane Bello from Trader Joe's. It had everything I wanted and the leftovers are going to be great with my kielbasa soup tonight.
What I decided to do was take a hint from a lot of places and use pesto instead of fresh basil. I have bad luck with fresh herbs. I need to get them the day I need them or they are brown. I've always used dry herbs. They last longer and I don't have to worry about it much.
Pesto has all the lovely basil flavor along with salt, pepper, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil AND it's easy to spread. So I did, on the inside of my bread. I then sliced up a tomato and some fresh mozzarella (and ate a bunch of it) and stuck the two sides together.
Now, you can have a panini press or a George Foreman grill to grill your sammich. I don't have it so I go old school. I heated up my grill pan on medium heat. The goal here is not so much to make a grilled cheese, but to heat up the bread and make it crispy. If your mozzarella and tomato are room temperature though, they will probably get nice and warm too.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the point of a panini is for it to be pressed as well. If you don't have a fancy grill press, cheat... like I did. All I did was stick a heavy skillet on top of my sandwich. If I had worked it out better, I would have also put a can in the skillet to make it press the sammich further. But that's neither here nor there.
The point is that I flipped it, grilled it and ate it. And it was perfect, especially when accompanied by a glass of cold sparkling limeade and eating on my balcony with my sweetie. That is lovely eating right there.
And that Schiacciata Alla Fiorentina, dusted with powdered sugar, was a lovely way to end that meal.
So try out this meal. The warm weather is here. Let's embrace it! With delicious food!
-Merry
PS: Two posts in a week's time?! CRAZY!!!
PPS: I edited my last post with the royal icing and a note about humidity. Please go back and check it out.
22 April 2011
Happy Easter!
Whoa. 2 months. So sorry!
I haven't been inspired in the kitchen much lately so I haven't done much experimentation in the kitchen lately. And life is getting busier and busier so less time for cooking, unfortunately.
However, with Easter being almost here and a family gathering with the boyfriend, treats had to be made. So I pulled out the Martha Stewart Cupcake book that I got for Christmas from my sister a couple years back and I went hunting for something fun to present.
There were some that I definitely did not want to put the effort into. For example a white fondant embossed bunny on a carrot cupcake. I almost made these adorable sheep with mini marshmallows.
But I found something much simpler and loads more fun, if not messy. They're called Easter Eggs and silly me, I didn't take pictures of the process. D'oh. But this is what the batch looked like in the end!
I used Martha's basic One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe which is my go to recipe when I need to make cupcakes. Few dishes, one bowl, easy instructions and a never-fail cupcake. I can live with that. Or you can use a box mix of whatever cupcake you want. Up to you!
Instead of a mound of delicious buttercream, this involves royal icing. Royal icing is a harder version of plain icing (powdered sugar and water) with the addition of egg whites or merengue powder. This is basically dehydrated and powdered egg white that does not carry the potential for salmonella. I have no problem with egg whites personally but Martha does so I went out and got some. It was available at my Walmart for 4.50 for 4 ounces.
What happens with royal icing is that it forms a matte finish and can be quite elegant. I know Nigella Lawson has a cupcake recipe where she coats the top in white royal icing and then puts a candy flower on top. Tres chic.
This is a bit more labor intensive. But SO COOL.
The recipe I was given was:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon merengue powder
a "scant" 1/2 cup water
I added in a splash of vanilla to give it a little flavor aside from... sugar. I then beat this all together in my stand mixer until it was nice and smooth. I added a little extra water so it would be a little easier to work with.
In three disposable cups (I don't like having to clean) with three disposable knives I put in a dab of gel food coloring and I really should have used less. These are less "Easter Pastel" and more "Easter Technicolor" but... whatever. I then divided the icing between the three cups and mixed it together with the color. Pretty sweet, no?
I then put them into three lunch ziplock bags (or pastry bags but re: I don't like to do dishes) and snipped the tip off. Make sure to grab a toothpick or bamboo skewer or something equally small and pointy for swirling.
Because royal icing likes to start drying as soon as it's still, you should really only do one cupcake at a time. No assembly line here. Each will be hand crafted, beautiful, and delicious.
Start with a base circle all filled in. Martha suggests meticulously filling it in in a spiral like motion. I say start with the circle and do an approximation of that and then smooth it out with a butter knife. Make sure to wipe it off for the next cupcake though. Then the fun starts.
The easy way to start is to draw three parallel lines in an alternating color... or two. Pick up your swirling device (toothpick, etc.) and draw some perpendicular lines to those colored lines. The result is approximately this:
Another option is to go for an abstract swirl. Draw some squiggles (or dots and dashes, whatever) with an alternating color to your base. Then just squiggle around with your toothpick and it will look something like this:
One idea that was NOT in the book was I made a spider web kind of design by making a star burst with four lines and drawing circles like this:
One thing Martha mentions in the cookbook is that you can use different colors for different occasions. For example, red and green for Christmas, black and white for a Black Tie party, blue and white for Hanukkah, red, white and blue for Fourth of July, orange and black for Halloween... really use your imagination on this one. That's the best part!
A few days later...: When I wrote this, it was just after making them. After about a day, we got a massive, humid warm front in. The cupcakes that were all flat and pretty and matte ended up getting lumpy and bumpy. Humidity messes with sugar (anyone who has ever watched Ace of Cakes knows this). The cupcakes still looked okay but they were bumpy and the colors started to bleed. I think this was because of the massive shift in weather. So either make them the day of or make sure to check your humidity levels before embarking on this endeavor.
I promise I will have more time in about a month to experiment with food again so give me ideas! I'm going to revisit my Arabesque cookbook and see what I can come up with there for ya!
So until next time, happy eating!!!!
I haven't been inspired in the kitchen much lately so I haven't done much experimentation in the kitchen lately. And life is getting busier and busier so less time for cooking, unfortunately.
However, with Easter being almost here and a family gathering with the boyfriend, treats had to be made. So I pulled out the Martha Stewart Cupcake book that I got for Christmas from my sister a couple years back and I went hunting for something fun to present.
There were some that I definitely did not want to put the effort into. For example a white fondant embossed bunny on a carrot cupcake. I almost made these adorable sheep with mini marshmallows.
But I found something much simpler and loads more fun, if not messy. They're called Easter Eggs and silly me, I didn't take pictures of the process. D'oh. But this is what the batch looked like in the end!
I used Martha's basic One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe which is my go to recipe when I need to make cupcakes. Few dishes, one bowl, easy instructions and a never-fail cupcake. I can live with that. Or you can use a box mix of whatever cupcake you want. Up to you!
Instead of a mound of delicious buttercream, this involves royal icing. Royal icing is a harder version of plain icing (powdered sugar and water) with the addition of egg whites or merengue powder. This is basically dehydrated and powdered egg white that does not carry the potential for salmonella. I have no problem with egg whites personally but Martha does so I went out and got some. It was available at my Walmart for 4.50 for 4 ounces.
What happens with royal icing is that it forms a matte finish and can be quite elegant. I know Nigella Lawson has a cupcake recipe where she coats the top in white royal icing and then puts a candy flower on top. Tres chic.
This is a bit more labor intensive. But SO COOL.
The recipe I was given was:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon merengue powder
a "scant" 1/2 cup water
I added in a splash of vanilla to give it a little flavor aside from... sugar. I then beat this all together in my stand mixer until it was nice and smooth. I added a little extra water so it would be a little easier to work with.
In three disposable cups (I don't like having to clean) with three disposable knives I put in a dab of gel food coloring and I really should have used less. These are less "Easter Pastel" and more "Easter Technicolor" but... whatever. I then divided the icing between the three cups and mixed it together with the color. Pretty sweet, no?
I then put them into three lunch ziplock bags (or pastry bags but re: I don't like to do dishes) and snipped the tip off. Make sure to grab a toothpick or bamboo skewer or something equally small and pointy for swirling.
Because royal icing likes to start drying as soon as it's still, you should really only do one cupcake at a time. No assembly line here. Each will be hand crafted, beautiful, and delicious.
Start with a base circle all filled in. Martha suggests meticulously filling it in in a spiral like motion. I say start with the circle and do an approximation of that and then smooth it out with a butter knife. Make sure to wipe it off for the next cupcake though. Then the fun starts.
The easy way to start is to draw three parallel lines in an alternating color... or two. Pick up your swirling device (toothpick, etc.) and draw some perpendicular lines to those colored lines. The result is approximately this:
Another option is to go for an abstract swirl. Draw some squiggles (or dots and dashes, whatever) with an alternating color to your base. Then just squiggle around with your toothpick and it will look something like this:
One idea that was NOT in the book was I made a spider web kind of design by making a star burst with four lines and drawing circles like this:
One thing Martha mentions in the cookbook is that you can use different colors for different occasions. For example, red and green for Christmas, black and white for a Black Tie party, blue and white for Hanukkah, red, white and blue for Fourth of July, orange and black for Halloween... really use your imagination on this one. That's the best part!
A few days later...: When I wrote this, it was just after making them. After about a day, we got a massive, humid warm front in. The cupcakes that were all flat and pretty and matte ended up getting lumpy and bumpy. Humidity messes with sugar (anyone who has ever watched Ace of Cakes knows this). The cupcakes still looked okay but they were bumpy and the colors started to bleed. I think this was because of the massive shift in weather. So either make them the day of or make sure to check your humidity levels before embarking on this endeavor.
I promise I will have more time in about a month to experiment with food again so give me ideas! I'm going to revisit my Arabesque cookbook and see what I can come up with there for ya!
So until next time, happy eating!!!!
22 February 2011
Moodular Cooking
I'm a pretty random person. I readily admit that. I go from one concept to another without a seeming segway. But it's cool. I use my forces for good.
You might have noticed that I haven't been posting in a while. Guilty as charged. Life got really busy. The boyfriend had work stuffs, it was cold, I had my birthday (got a new microplane, cutting board and vinaigrette bottle, among other things) and I frankly wasn't in the mood to cook. We have been eating out a lot and I've ended up simply making pasta or something equally simple just to put some foods in my belly.
But I feel a swell of inspiration coming about.
My birthday graced me with lovely weather, sunny in the 60s. In case you haven't noticed, my birthday is in February and I've lived in the northern part of the US for the bulk of my life. 60 degree weather simply doesn't happen normally for my birthday, even down here in the Mid-Atlantic states. I got to sit on my balcony, knitting and enjoying the nice weather.
Today I was greeted with a snow day, which was equally pleasant. Especially since all the bad weather happened last night and it's nice and sunny, if cold, right now. Then I turned on the TV to watch some Barefoot Contessa and the two episodes were all about France and simple French food, something I'm not too familiar with but love the romanticism of.
But I always seem to start with basics when I'm resetting, which I need to do occasionally. One of my first posts was about a farmer's lunch- bread, cheese, fruit, etc. That was my planned menu for tonight but with a bit of a twist.
The Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer came out on Friday and I found an interesting gem- frozen mini croissants. You proof them overnight (they puff up quite a bit) and then you bake them. So far they look and smell lovely. I am substituting them for the bread in my lunch equation.
Pair that up with my boyfriend and a move and it looks like I'm in for a pleasant evening... if I can pull the man away from his horror movies in his studio with one of his friends. :)
From this inspiration, who knows? Sandra Lee had an interesting recipe this past weekend that I'm going to try out for my traditional Friday casserole night. I might get back on that Middle Eastern kick. I might try a curry, even though I pretty much dislike curries across the board.
The point is that I like to learn and grow as a cook and as a person simply based on environmental factors. "Hey, it's really nice outside! I think I'm going to make an asparagus risotto!" "Hey, it's really cold outside! I think it's time for some onion soup!" "I've been watching ___ recently! I think I'm going to make ___!" Taking inspiration and just running with it I think is an amazing way to live, grow and escape the doldrums of our regular lives.
And if a simple plate of bread and cheese can make me feel like I'm in a meadow on a nice spring day when I'm actually in my apartment in the middle of winter, I'll take it.
You might have noticed that I haven't been posting in a while. Guilty as charged. Life got really busy. The boyfriend had work stuffs, it was cold, I had my birthday (got a new microplane, cutting board and vinaigrette bottle, among other things) and I frankly wasn't in the mood to cook. We have been eating out a lot and I've ended up simply making pasta or something equally simple just to put some foods in my belly.
But I feel a swell of inspiration coming about.
My birthday graced me with lovely weather, sunny in the 60s. In case you haven't noticed, my birthday is in February and I've lived in the northern part of the US for the bulk of my life. 60 degree weather simply doesn't happen normally for my birthday, even down here in the Mid-Atlantic states. I got to sit on my balcony, knitting and enjoying the nice weather.
Today I was greeted with a snow day, which was equally pleasant. Especially since all the bad weather happened last night and it's nice and sunny, if cold, right now. Then I turned on the TV to watch some Barefoot Contessa and the two episodes were all about France and simple French food, something I'm not too familiar with but love the romanticism of.
But I always seem to start with basics when I'm resetting, which I need to do occasionally. One of my first posts was about a farmer's lunch- bread, cheese, fruit, etc. That was my planned menu for tonight but with a bit of a twist.
The Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer came out on Friday and I found an interesting gem- frozen mini croissants. You proof them overnight (they puff up quite a bit) and then you bake them. So far they look and smell lovely. I am substituting them for the bread in my lunch equation.
Pair that up with my boyfriend and a move and it looks like I'm in for a pleasant evening... if I can pull the man away from his horror movies in his studio with one of his friends. :)
From this inspiration, who knows? Sandra Lee had an interesting recipe this past weekend that I'm going to try out for my traditional Friday casserole night. I might get back on that Middle Eastern kick. I might try a curry, even though I pretty much dislike curries across the board.
The point is that I like to learn and grow as a cook and as a person simply based on environmental factors. "Hey, it's really nice outside! I think I'm going to make an asparagus risotto!" "Hey, it's really cold outside! I think it's time for some onion soup!" "I've been watching ___ recently! I think I'm going to make ___!" Taking inspiration and just running with it I think is an amazing way to live, grow and escape the doldrums of our regular lives.
And if a simple plate of bread and cheese can make me feel like I'm in a meadow on a nice spring day when I'm actually in my apartment in the middle of winter, I'll take it.
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