Balsamic Strawberries

This has totally been done before so hopefully you aren't freaked out by the vinegar/strawberry combo, but if you are, when reduced the vinegar's natural sweetness comes out so you have this play of tart and sweet. It's pretty damn enjoyable. This is just something I kinda threw together to take to a friend's dinner making party. It's a great way to use strawberries and I had a rough idea of what to do since we made this at one of the restaurants I worked at in Lexington, Ky.

Oh, and the whipped cream is totally supposed to be combined with mascarpone cheese, but this was in a pinch so I just used cream cheese.

Balsamic Strawberries

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp lime juice

Strawberries (about 2 quarts)
1 tbsp sugar

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp sugar

For the balsamic reduction, combine the vinegar, honey, and lime juice in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir or whisk until the honey is dissolved and bring to a boil. Let it boil for only about 2-3 minutes, it should thicken in a syrupy sort of way.

In a bowl toss the strawberries (hulled and halved) with the sugar and let it set while the reduction is cooling. Once cool, toss the reduction with the strawberries.

In a separate bowl mix the cream cheese and vanilla with just a little cream to thin the mixture. Add the sugar and the rest of the cream and whisk until medium peaks form. Thanks to the cream cheese they'll hold just fine. Serve with the strawberries. YUM!

And darn it! in my haste, once again, no pics :-(

Quickie

Healthy breakfast?

Crazy Smoothie
1 cup grape juice
1 banana
1 shitload strawberries (I used about 8 since they were nearing the too-ripe phase

Blend the heck out of it.



This bad boy is waiting for me in the fridge for breakfast.

Oh, orange or apple juice would work well too, I'm sure, I just happened to have some grape juice left from the bolognese entry below.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Or... why didn't I take PICTURES!!!???

This actually comes with a story. I've been to Italy twice, but the best bolognese sauce I've ever had my friend Mallory made in undergrad. A bolognese is a style of ragu. Ragus, by and large, are made out of vegetables and meat with only a little tomato. A way to think about it is a ragu is a meat sauce with tomato, not a tomato sauce with meat. Anyway I discovered the secret to Mallory's recipe: grape juice. Like, instead of wine.

It sounds weird, I know.

But we were in the dorms, and wine wasn't allowed. The sweetness of the grape juice mellowed the sauce and really brought out some of it's richness. I was shocked. But I still remember it something like 6 years later. So, I remade it.

I doubt I got it exactly right and, truthfully, I looked at like 4 recipes to try and come up with some cohesive formula for bolognese. I've organized the recipe in steps since it's rather involved.

Spaghetti Bolognese

6oz bacon, chopped
1 cup celery, small dice
1 cup carrot, small dice
1 1/2 cups onion, small dice

In a large (6 qt) pot cook the bacon over medium-high heat until it's crispy and all of the fat has rendered. Add the celery, carrot, and onion and cook over medium to medium-high heat until browned. Be patient, it will take about 15 - 20 minutes but you'll get so much amazing flavor developed here.

1 lb ground pork (well... maybe not pork anymore)
1 lb ground turkey
12 oz can tomato paste
1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic

Once the veggies are browned add the meat. Again make sure the meat is browned - it will take another 15 - 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once it's brown and broken up into tiny delicious bits, add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for another 4 - 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

1 cup grape juice
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup whole milk
water
2/3 cup heavy cream

Add the grape juice and let it cook for a few seconds. Then add the broth and milk. The mixture should be fairly think at this point and, thanks to the milk reddish orange. You'll want this to boil and cook down, so keep the heat about medium-high until it boils and add about a cup or two of water, just to make sure there's plenty of liquid. Once it's boiling reduce the heat to low. By all means add more water during the cooking process if it gets too thick, but don't add it all at once. Gradual is the key. The reduction process will probably take about 1 - 2 hours.

On another burner set the 2/3 cup heavy cream over low heat and let it reduce by half. Once the sauce has reduced, add the cream and BAM sauce!

I served this with some delicious whole wheat pasta and garlic bread. I am slacking on the pictures though :/ Oh, on a side note, I cooked an entire box of pasta and it was the perfect amount for the amount of sauce, to give you some kind of gauge.

Enjoy! This weekend??? who know... but cookies will definitely be involved!

This Weekend...

Is my grandmother's 80th birthday!!! So I won't be cooking on Saturday. However I am going to be trying this cleanse. I've felt my eating habits getting a bit out of whack lately and I feel like I need something to bring everything back down. Originally I was thinking of a 2 or 3 day fast, but I'm always wary of those, even if you drink tea or whatnot.

And don't get me started on the creepy/shadyness of the master cleanse's honey/lemon/cayenne concoction.

I do know of a couple tricks that should help though, and, hey, I still get to eat. I'll probably post these and results for future reference. They basically entail boiling a bunch of fresh veggies, drinking the water early in the day and eating the veggies throughout, and refreshing myself with a cucumber mint basil water. A couple days/ a week of that, and regular intake of fruit should help even things out.

Oh, and this seems tangential and counterproductive, but I've already made the plans: Linguine Bolognese for dinner on Sunday! :)

Recipes and updates to come!

Fun WIth Booze!!! Bloody Mary Time

PLUS



EQUALS

Delicious.

I had some store bought veggie juice, and added some awesome stuff, and made a great Bloody Mary base. This is even better if you make it the night before...

Bloody Mary

2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp horseradish (or more...)
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp adobo sauce (from a can of chipotles)
1/8 tsp sambal olek (thai chili garlic paste)

I put all of this, except the adobo and sambal, on a cutting board and chopped the heck out of it. You could probably use a blender or food processor, but I lack both of those. It's nice to know it can be done by hand.

Next I removed a bit of juice, maybe half a glass, and replaced it with the celery/onion mixture. I then added the adobo sauce and sambal. At this point, check for taste; it shouldn't be too spicy, but, trust me, it will get spicier if it sets over night. You can always add more adobo or sambal if you like. Once you've got that tasting FANTASTIC, shake it and let it sit in the refrigerator over night. Pour into a glass of ice, add vodka at will (or don't - it's damn tasty, spicy veggie juice), garnish with some celery and olives and enjoy!

Clean-Up and This weekend's theme: *drumroll*

BRUNCH!!!

Anyone that's known me any amount of time should know of my fondness of brunch and hosting brunch.

This weekend's menu consists of potato latkes (recipe to come), scrambled eggs (recipe not to come so much because they're scrambled eggs), and bloody mary cocktails (part 3 in my fun with booze series... fyi I like them hot!).

Typically, I must be honest, my brunch fair consists of cinnamon rolls and quiche. However, it's getting warmer out and really, let's be honest, this whole meal is designed around getting to drink vodka at 9 in the morning.

Oh, and a note on cinnamon rolls - my recipe is old, I've been making it for like 6 years roughly, and I was the first to put mashed potatoes in my dough. Okay, maybe not the first, but when I saw a recipe containing my secret ingredient in this month's Bon Apetit I was disappointed :(

Also, I never updated my post for Easter dinner. I made an orange glazed ham (which turned into some pretty tasty ham salad), garlic and sage mashed potatoes, and tarragon peas. Sadly, due to my not being used to really making any of that it only turned out fair. I was happy with everything, but nothing WOW-ed me. Note to self: fresh tarragon + tarragon vinegar = good, round flavor on green veggies.

But onward and upward; stay tuned for BRUNCH!

Fun with Booze! Epic fail...

So I've had this idea a while. It started last quarter when I made some really spicy, really yummy hot toddies for I and some friends. Then the magic happened; I made those sage brown butter pecan cookies.

Gradually, I thought... what about a brown butter rum drink? It sounds damned tasty. Then I thought, why not pecans there too? The brown butter will already have this nutty taste going on, and I love the taste of pecans; this is just what a hot toddy is missing!

Well I made the pecan brown butter (then salted and nommed on some tasty pecans). I added the brown sugar and cinnamon, both requisites for a hot toddy. And, truthfully, I was afraid I may have even overbrowned the butter. However, when I used it to make the drinks, the taste of the alcohol really over powered it to the extent that you couldn't tell whether or not I had browned the butter - there was no nutty taste of any kind :(

So no, I didn't explode the kitchen, and thus maybe it was not an epic fail, but still... one day, I will fix this problem... one day.

YUM! Breakfast

So since I've been on this muffin kick, and I've given them away (for the most part) I figured I'd make some good muffins for breakfast this week. That and I've got just a wee bit of brown rice flour left and three ripe bananas to use.

Banana Nut Muffins

3 ripe bananas mashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar (I used half and half brown/white)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp espresso
1 1/2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat and half brown rice)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
pinch o' salt
1 cup pecans

These are great, almost-one-bowl muffins. Mix the melted butter and bananas together. Mix in the sugar well. Add the the egg, followed by the vanilla and espresso. Next add the flour, cinnamon, salt, and sprinkle over the baking soda to assure even distribution. Mix just until moistened. Fold in the pecans, fill your muffin tin (it made about 10 for me, but muffin tin sizes can vary). Bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes and you'll have some amazingly delicious muffins.


YUM! Breakfast!

Gluten-Free Cranberry Muffins

Guys, I'm pretty well convinced that brown rice flour is the cure to any and all of your gluten woes. In terms of baking, the texture is right on as flour - plus you can feel slightly better about eating it since brown rice has more protein than regular all-purpose flour. These muffins get delicious flavor both from orange zest and orange juice concentrate (a trick I learned from an orange buttermilk silver cake I've made before) as well as cranberries that are fully reconstituted in orange juice. They plump up and have great texture - your mouth feels like it's actually eating some fruit.

Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins

1 1/3 cups (=one package) dried cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice

2 1/4 cups brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp orange juice concentrate
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup milk (soy milk works just fine)

First thing's first; combine the cranberries and orange juice in a pot over medium heat. Let the mixture barely come to a boil, then cover and remove from the heat. You can let this stuff sit for hours - it's important to let the cranberries fully reconstitute.

Next, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In another bowl cream the butter and sugar. Next add the eggs and vanilla. Finally, drain the cranberries, combining the delicious liquid with the milk (the combined total should measure about a cup), orange juice concentrate, and orange zest.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk/orange juice mixture to the butter mixture. You should begin and end with the flour. Once that is complete, fold in the cranberries. Divide amongst 12 muffin cups and bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, but oven temps vary, so watch (funnily enough I just checked on my own muffins remembering that the back of my oven cooks much faster than the front).



And there you have it - the mixtures bit sound complicated but it's just like making a cake, and the reconstituted cranberries provide real, fruit texture instead of the dried, chewy texture. I was wary at first adding pure concentrate but it really makes a difference, although I'm sure they're orangey enough without if there are any purists out there.



A bit on the flat-top side, they are also very much on the tasty-as-hell side :D

failing at life and blogging

Well I've kind of failed at posting anything this week so far. It's needless to say that this quarter is getting busy early on.

But fear not!

This weekend will bring a delightful Easter dinner (well hopefully a delightful Easter dinner).

More fun with booze (I've been having this idea for a brown butter and rum drink similar to a hot toddy for a while now).

And even more gluten-free baked goods! Either cookies or cranberry orange muffins!!!

Oh, and the Easter dinner will include a delightful trip, and hopefully pictures, from the local farmer's market!

Lentil Soup

So continuing in the theme of cheap eats, Lentil Soup is a natural choice- it's easy on the wallet, incredibly hearty and pretty healthy for you as well. One bowl of this will make for one heck of a meal.

Lentil Soup

1 onion, diced small
2 stalks celery, diced small
3 medium-sized carrots, diced small
4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 quarts chicken stock
1 lb lentils, picked through and rinsed

Set a large pot over medium heat with about 2 tbsp olive oil in it. Once the oil and pan are warm add the mirepoix, saving the garlic fora bit. Sweat the veggies for about 5 minutes and add the garlic, continue sweating until the onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Once that's done, add the tomatoes, spices, chicken stock and lentils. Turn the heat up and get it just to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and let it cook for about 45 minutes. BAM, done... easy as pie.

mmmm pie... mmmm lentil soup (a picture may come tomorrow... I should note that cooked, pureed green lentils do not make an appetizing-looking soup, but they do make a damned good soup).

Gluten-free redux

So I purchased some brown rice flour since brown rice proved to be too difficult for my grad student mind, or my coffee grinder, to effectively process.

Ahem.

That's right, I'm trying to inject some humor into my blog. In lieu of a turkey baster, I'm using some parenthetical asides.

So anywho... banana muffins. They have a texture similar to banana bread, which is definitely pleasing. (Oh, the recipe is very similar to the previous Banana Peanut Butter muffins, but these have been the only ones tested with the store bought brown rice flour). I definitely consider these guys a success. I should note I used 2 cups of brown rice flour but, after baking, found the muffin sticking to the paper cup which, to me, says the batter was a little too wet, which I also thought as I was making. Hence, the recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups brown rice flour.

Gluten-Free Banana Crunch Muffins

2 1/4 cups Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup honey
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
2 bananas, one mashed, one chopped

Like all muffin recipes it seems, combine the dry and wet ingredients separately, then fold the wet into the dry making sure not to over mix. This should make about a dozen muffins. I actually made a streusel topping for the muffins as well, but it didn't really work out... rather than staying crunchy an separate on top, it melted into the top of the muffin. Either way, bake at 375 for about 18 - 20 minutes or until brown on top and firm to the touch.



This was definitely a successful experiment.

Up next, some delicious Lentil soup for our 'living cheaply' challenge... aww grad school

This quarter's challenges...

Well, due to funds being not as high as they have been, one of this quarter's primary challenges is living cheaply yet deliciously. I think this weekend we'll start with an amazing lentil soup, both filling, hearty, and easy on the wallet.

Another of the challenges came today in the form of gluten-free baked goods. I tried some gluten-free peanut butter banana muffins. They didn't turn out too bad, but I think I can do better. The current recipe I used (truthfully I started with a half recipe:

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

2 tablespoons honey
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs

2 bananas, one mashed, one chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry, mixing just until combined. Fold in the bananas and peanut butter. Fill muffin cups to the top (it should make about a dozen) and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until light brown and firm.

These guys turned out alright, like I said, but I made the rice flour at home by using my coffee grinder to grind brown rice. I posted the recipe hoping to come back and edit it once I either purchase some brown rice flour or maybe use another, similar gluten-free flour to make them.