Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Compliments of JennaDish
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
In food processor, combine garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini, and lemon juice. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add roasted peppers and basil, process until peppers are finely chopped. Season w salt and pepper. Transfer hummus to small bowl, cover and chill.
These are the hot wings Alyssa made this year on New Year's Day. Delish.
I got fancy with the empty Frank's RedHot bottle.
Baked Buffalo Wings
Compliments of JennaDish
from Leesah on Allrecipes.com
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 chicken wings
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®)
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and lightly grease with cooking spray. Place the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt into a resealable plastic bag, and shake to mix. Add the chicken wings, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the wings onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the wings into the butter mixture, and place back on the baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes. Turn the wings over halfway during cooking so they cook evenly.
Evidently banoffee is a British term for a dessert that includes bananas, cream and toffee (we go by caramel in the U.S.). Bananas + toffee = banoffee. Unless Wikipedia is wrong. But I don't think so. When I was in graduate school, we were thoroughly warned about the evil Wikipedia and how it can't be relied upon for research. But I don't think it's a big stretch to trust that someone in England decided it would be cute to call bananas and toffee ban-offee.
Either way - this was great. Didn't have much of a banana taste, which I will take responsibility for. I was supposed to use overripe bananas but I had none. I had to buy new ones and hope they would ripen a lot overnight....
They didn't do too bad. These front bananas looked like the back bananas when I bought them. To hasten the ripening process, put the bananas in a closed paper bag with an apple. Put them in a warm place but not necessarily over an open fire, or else you'll have a flaming bag of bananas.
Did you know you can freeze bananas? Oh yes. Yes, you can. I toss them in the door of my fridge whole, peel and all. Turns black. When ready to use, just thaw on counter for 15 minutes or so and unpeel. They will be very mushy but perfect for recipes like this one or banana bread.
Wow this was close. I think I might need a bigger food processor.
This was the star of the show, though.
The caramel sauce is made from Lyle's Golden Syrup (tastes like a thick, mellow honey) and brown sugar and butter. Triple yum.
This is a make-the-day-before recipe because it needs to sit in the fridge overnight. When you are ready to bake, all cold ingredients should be room temperature, so put the cream cheese out in a bowl, sans wrapper, about an hour ahead. You can take the chill off eggs by putting them in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 10-15 minutes.
Banoffee Cheesecake
Compliments of JennaDish
from Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson
SERVES 10
for the base:
18 sheets graham crackers, crushed (for 2 1/2 cups crumbs)
6 Tablespoons soft unsalted butter
for the cheesecake:
4 overripe medium-sized bananas
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 8-ounce bars cream cheese, room temperature
6 eggs
3/4 cup (packed) plus 1 Tablespoon light brown sugar
for the caramel sauce:
7 Tablespoons soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup golden syrup (such as Lyle's Golden Syrup)
1/3 cup light brown sugar
A 9-inch springform cake pan
A roasting pan, for a water bath
Preheat the oven to 325o and put a full kettle on to boil (measure amount of water you'll need for water to go 1/2 way up the round pan in your roasting pan- I need more like 2 kettles full). Wrap the outside (underneath and sides) of your springform pan with a double layer of plastic wrap, then cover that with a double layer of aluminum foil. (No, the plastic wrap will not melt.) This will act as a waterproof casing to protect the cheesecake as it sits in its water bath.
Process the graham crackers (I put them in a plastic zip bag and crushed them with a rolling pin first because my current food processor doesn't do a great job with crackers) with the 6 Tablespoons of butter until you have a sandy rubble that is beginning to clump, and press into the bottom of the prepard pan. Set this in the refrigerator and clean out, thoroughly, the processor bowl - no crumbs.
Mash the bananas well with a fork (I used a potato masher), add the fresh lemon juice, and set aside.
Process the cream cheese until smooth, then add the eggs and sugar. Last, add the mashed bananas with lemon juice, processing until you have a smooth mixture.
Put the wrapped springform pan in the middle of the roasting pan, and pour the cheesecake filling into your springform.
Now put the roasting pan with springform into the oven and pour the recently boiled water into the roasting pan so that it comes halfway up the springform. Cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes, checking after 1 hour. The very center of the cheesecake should still have a hint of a wobble, but should seem set on top. (In my oven, this took 1 hour and 15 minutes total - heed the "hint of a wobble" more than the exact time).
Remove from the oven and, still wearing your oven mitts, take the springform out of the water bath and place on a cooling rack. Gently and carefully peel away the outside layers of plastic wrap and foil, and let the cheesecake continue cooling on the rack. (Do not unmold until after refrigerated overnight).
Put the cheesecake into the refrigerator but dont' cover it till it's fully chilled, then leave overnight - and remember to remove it from the refrigerator about 1/2 hour before you want to eat it. (Actually mine sat out only 10-15 minutes and it unmolded beautifully.)
To make the sauce, melt the butter with the golden syrup and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat until everything comes to a bubble, then let it bubble, keeping an eye on it for 1-2 minutes. It will be a foamy, amber mixture like liquid honeycomb. Then let it cool slighly before pouring into a small pitcher and leaving to cool further; it will thicken as it cools.
To help unmold the cheesecake, work a thin, flexible spatula around the top edge, before unspringing from the pan, then put it on a serving plate, preferably one with a lip. Whisk the caramel sauce in the pitcher and drizzle some over the cheesecake, leaving the rest for people to add greedily as they eat.
This soup tastes great, and is one of the dishes that has helped me eat and feel full, while losing weight.
Also makes a great sauce for dry foods such as a baked potato or rice.
Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
Compliments of JennaDish
from Whole Living Magazine Jan/Feb 2012
Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves and cook until tender, 6-8 minutes. Add 1-inch grated fresh ginger (2 Tbsp), 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cardamom, and dash ground cloves and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add 2 peeled and chopped carrots, 1 peeled, quartered, and chopped tart apple, 4 cups chopped butternut squash, and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil; cover partially and reduce to a simmer. Season with coarse salt and pepper.
Cook until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly
Working in batches, puree until smooth in a blender. Adjust seasoning, if necessary.
Freezes well.
"This is the simplest of all sauces to make, and none has a purer, more irresistibly sweet tomato taste. I have known people to skip the pasta and eat the sauce directly out of the pot with a spoon.
- Marcella Hazan
This is true. Delicious. A game changer (finally!) for pasta. So good, I even forgot to add the freshly grated cheese. I ground some herbs de provence over it and it was wonderful.
And this is what Alyssa was doing while I was finishing up the sauce...
Steering her new remote-controlled helicopter toward my head...
Recommended pasta with this sauce: Potato Gnocchi (prounounced like NYO' KEY). The best gnocchi, beside homemade, that I've had is frozen. I've had the vacuum-packed kind and it was rubbery.
UPDATE: I made this sauce a second time and tossed it with a pound of campanelle pasta which was NOT great. If there's a lot of pasta, and the pasta has grooves in which the sauce hides to make it even worse, then the sauce is too sparse and tasteless. You need the dish to be saucy to taste the subtleness of the butter, onion flavors.
Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Compliments of JennaDish
MAKES 4-6 SERVINGS
from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes,prepared as described below* OR 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up with their juices (I used canned, certified San Marzano tomatoes)
5 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt
1 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table
Put tomatoes in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats fre from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta.
Great the next day also. Leftover sauce is good for supplementing other tomato-based dishes such the Cioppino I made. Really took it up a notch.
* To blanche tomatoes, plunge tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or less. Drain them and , as soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin them, and cut them up in coarse pieces. Some people like to lightly cut an X in the top of the tomato before boiling, to make it easier to peel.
I wanted to take on the project of learning how to make Pot Stickers the old fashioned way. No store-bought wrappers. Went to the library and borrowed Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen. Since I'm a total newbie at this, it took a total of about 2 1/2 hours with constantly reading the cookbook and checking myself, so in the future the time should be cut way down. Overall, I didn't mind spending the time on this project - it was actually fun.
I made the filling first, then made the dough. In the future, I will do the opposite. If you make the dough first, it can sit in a bag softening while you make the filling. The recipe says to let the filling sit out for 30 minutes at room temperature to allow the flavors to meld, but believe me, it will sit out and meld as you make the wrappers.
The following photo captions won't make much sense until you read through the recipe. But if you try the recipe, looking back at these photos may help to make sense of the instructions.
After water was drawn out of this Napa cabbage, squeezed by hand and then with a clean cotton cloth.
If you are thinking of leaving out the shrimp, that's fine, but don't even think about leaving out the pork. It's fat is necessary for the method of cooking it requires.
My dough is probably a little on the dry side, probably because I used King Arthur's flour which oftentimes requires a bit more liquid than other flours would need. But it still worked out fine...
Although I was concerned about my dough being dry, the recipe author explains that the dough should bounce back slowly when you press it with your finger, which it did.
And what I didn't realize was that because the dough is made with hot water, when you leave it in the bag with the air expelled, it softens from the moisture and becomes easy to work with.
I cut the top off a zip-top bag and put a little flour in it or otherwise the dough sticks. Then I put the little dough ball in the bag and used a saucepan to flatten the disk as flat as I could, about 1/8".
Then you take each wrapper and, leaving a thicker "belly" in the center, roll the edges toward you while rotating the circle around 1/4 turn.
Mine turned out to be somewhat irregular circles but it worked out just fine, especially for a beginner. Pot stickers don't have to be pretty, nor perfect, to taste good. The smaller disk in the back of this photo is one that hasn't been rolled out yet. This shows the size difference you can expect.
The flavors of this filling were awesome. Bought many of my Asian ingredients at Jungle Jim's over the weekend.
Not as beautiful as some, but certainly tasty.
Japanese Pork and Shrimp Pot Stickers
Compliments of JennaDish
from Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen
MAKES 32 DUMPLINGS (4 as main course, 6-8 as appetizer)
FILLING
2 cups lightly packed, finely chopped napa cabbage, cut from whole leaves (about 7 ounces or 3 leaves)
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced and crushed into a paste (I minced only)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons chopped Chinese chives or scallions (white and green parts)
6 ounces ground pork, fattier kind preferred, coarsely chopped to loosen
1/3 pound medium shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped (4 1/2 ounces net weight)
Scant 1/4 teaspoon sugar
Generous 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons Japanese soy sauce or light (regular) soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sake (I used Sherry)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
BASIC DUMPLING DOUGH
10 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
About 3/4 cup boiling water
Canola oil or sesame oil or a combination of both, for panfrying
DIPPING SAUCE
5 Tablespoons Japanese soy sauce or light (regular) soy sauce
2 1/2 Tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon chile oil (optional)
Japanese hot mustard, Chinese hot mustard, or Colman's English mustard for dipping (optional)
TO MAKE THE FILLING
In a large bowl, toss the cabbage with the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside for about 15 minutes to draw excess moisture from the cabbage. Drain n a fine-mesh strainder, rinse with water, and drain again. To remove more moisture, squeeze the cabbage in your hands over the sink, or put into a cotton (not terry cloth) kitchen towel and wring out the moisture over the sink. You sould have about 1/2 cup firmly packed cabbage.
TRANSFER THE CABBAGE to a bowl and add the garlic, ginger, Chinese chives, pork, and shrimp. Stir and lightly mash the ingredients so that they start coming together.
IN A SMALL BOWL, stir together the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, the sugar, pepper, soy sauce, sake, and sesame oil. Pour these seasonings over the meat and cabbage mixture, and then stir and fold the ingredients together. Once you have broken up the large chunks of pork so none are visible, briskly stir to blend the ingredients into a chohesive, thick mixture. To develop the flavors, cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes. You should have about 2 cups of filling. (Can prepare filling 1 day ahead - bring to room temperature before assembling the dumplings.)
MEANWHILE, form 16 wrappers from 1/2 the dough. Aim for wrappers that are about 3 1/4 inches in diameter. (This is where I found a glitch in this recipe. It never mentions again to make another 16 wrappers with the remaining dough - but you WILL need to do this to use up all dough and filling. When using only half the dough in the beginning, place the other half back in the plastic bag and remove all air, letting sit until needed.)
BEFORE ASSEMBLING the dumplings, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (If you plan to refrigerate the dumplings for several hours, or freeze them, lightly dust the paper with flour to avoid sticking.) For each dumpling, hold a wrapper in a slightly cupped hand. My simplified instructions: Scoop up about 1 tablespoon of filling and place in the center leaving just enough edge to pinch together - no fancy pattern. I chose to make 24 fat dumplings so I put at least 1 tablespoon in each 3 1/4" diameter wrapper, and even when the filling oozed to the edge, the dough still pinched together just fine.
When finished with the first half, cover with a dry kitchen towel while making the other 16 (or 8) wrappers and filling.
ONCE ALL The dumplings are assembled, they can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for several hours; they can be cooked straight from the refrigerator. For longer storage, freeze them on their tray until hard (about 1 hour), transfer them to a zip-top freezer bag, seal well, and keep them frozen for up to 1 month; partially thaw, usingyour finger to smooth over any cracks that may have formed during freezing, before cooking.
TO PANFRY the dumplings, use a medium or large nonstick skillet (using skillets or pan with fitted lids work best), if both sizes are handy, cook two batches at the same time. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat and put 1 1/2 - 2 Tablespoons oil (canola or 2 parts canola to 1 part sesame oil) in each pan. Add the dumplings one at a time, placing them sealed edges up in a widing circle pattern or straight rows. The dumplings may touch. Fry 1-2 minutes until they're golden brown on the bottom.
HOLDING THE LID over the skillet (ready to protect yourself from the steam that is to come) add about 1/3 hot water to each skillet. It will boil and sputter dramatically. Put the lid on each skillet and lower the heat to medium and let the water bubble away until it si mostly gone, 8 to 10 minutes. After 6-8 minutes, move the lid or foil so that is is slightly ajar to allow the steam to shoot out from underneath. This lessens the drama of condensation dripping down onto the hot oil when you remove the lid.
WHILE THE DUMPLINGS cook, combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and hile oil in a small bowl to create a dipping sauce. Taste and make any flavor adjustments.
WHEN THE BUBBLING noise in the skillet turns into a gently frying sound (a sign that most of the water is gone), remove the lid. Allow the dumplings to fry for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until the bottoms are brwon and crisp. Turn off the heat and wait until the sizzling stops before transferring the dumplings to a serving plate, using a spatula to lift up a few of them at a time. Display them with thebottomsup so that they remain crisp.
SERVE IMMEDIATELY with dipping sauce in a communal bowl or divided up among individual rice bowls or dipping bowls. If serving hot mustard, use a separate bowl for this.
**********************************************************************
TO MAKE THE DOUGH (with food processor)
Put the 10 ounces (or 2 cups) flour in the work bowl of the food processor. With the machine running, add 3/4 cup of water just-boiled water in a steady stream through the feed tube. As soon as all the water has been added, stop the machine and check the dough. It should look rough and feel soft but firm enough to hold its shape when pinched. If necessary, add water by the teaspoon or flour by the tablespoon. When satisfied, run the machine for another 5 to 10 seconds to further knead and form a ball around the blade. Avoid overworking the dough.
Transfer the dough and any bits to a work surface; flour your work surface only if necessary, and then sparingly. Knead the dough with the heel of your hand for about 30 seconds. The result should be nearly smooth and somewhat elastic; press on the dough; it should slowly bounce back, with a light impression of your finger remaining. Place the dough in a zip-top bag and seal tightly closed, expelling excess air. Set aside to rest at room temperture for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours. The dough will steam up the plastic bag and become earlobe soft, making wrappers easy to work with.
After resting, the dough can be used right away to form the wrappers. Or, refrigerate it overnight and return to room temperature before using.
When the dough is ready, take out, cut in half and work with the first half while the 2nd half goes back in the bag to keep soft. Roll the dough you are starting to work with into a 1" log as even as possible. Cut into 16 even pieces, shaping the dough into somewhat of a ball. One by one, put the ball of dough between two pieces of wax paper or in a freezer bag dusted with a little flour, place on table and find a flat item such as a saucepan to flatten into a circle 1/8" thick. Lay aside each round on non-stick paper until all are finished.
Going back to each round, take a small rolling pin or dowel and, keeping away from the very center (leaving a nickel or quarter size area of thickness in the center), roll the wrapper from near center toward you, spin 1/4 turn, do the same all the way around until it's about 3 1/4" in diameter with a slightly thicker "belly" than the rest of the circle.
This Thanksgiving my mom requested that I bring canned cranberry sauce. She reminded me of "that stuff you brought last year" - an overly-gingered sauce with oranges and nuts. Way too uppity for mom.
So I thought what she REALLY would like is a homemade sauce, but toned down to the most basic. No additions.
Well, my mom didn't seem impressed (again). My dad (80 years old) said it was too sour. Hmmm. I guess what she REALLY wanted was exactly what she said. Canned sauce. So I trucked my sauce back home.
And the next day it was so good, I ate half the bowl for lunch.
LESSON LEARNED #1: Don't make and take the same day. Sitting in the fridge sweetens it up so that you want to shove it in your face.
LESSON LEARNED #2: If you throw a bag of fresh cranberries in the pan to boil, along with a smaller amount of frozen cranberries, then you cook until they pop as directed, you are likely to think they've all popped when really the frozen ones didn't. Then the next day, you will have a sauce with most cranberries broken down, and a few cranberries that will pop lightly in your mouth. FUN! Notice in the photos that some are smooshed and some are more whole. On the day of cooking, I think the ones that pop in your mouth were what was making the sauce sour. But wait til the next day and they will pop, but no longer be sour. That's my experience, anyway.
LESSON LEARNED #3: Compromise. Make your fancy fresh sauce but take a can of sauce just in case it sucks.
CRANBERRY SAUCE
Compliments of JennaDish
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
12 oz. bag fresh cranberries
Rinse cranberries and remove any twigs.
Put water in saucepan on med high heat and bring to boil. Stir in sugar. Add cranberries return to a boil or near. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 15 minutes or until cranberries burst.
Let cool then cover and place in refrigerator overnight.
Quick Pickles!!! These are the best-tasting, crunchiest, easiest pickles to make.
And this recipe does not require any stovetop work, unlike most of the other quick pickle recipes I've seen. Make these a day ahead of your planned eating time.
Got this recipe from a veggie burgers cookbook...
...and got my cucumbers from a friend's garden. Thanks Adrienne!
And if you have a wavy slicer from Pampered Chef in your kitchen drawer, patiently waiting every two years to be used because your kids are grown and you no longer need to make raw veggies or cheese fun-looking in order to get them to eat it ... now's the time to get it out.
Quick Pickles
Compliments of JennaDish
from Veggie Burgers Every Which Way by Lukas Volger
MAKES 1 QUART
4 Kirby cucumbers (I only used 2 pickling cucumbers)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 Tblsps kosher salt
2 Tblsps sugar
3 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Cut the cucumbers into whatever shape you want. Mine are 1/4" wavy rounds.
Combine 2 cups water, the vinegar, salt, and sugar in a nonreactive bowl or jar that comes with a lid, stirring to dissolve. Add the cucumbers, ensuring that they are completely submerged, adding more water if necessary. Cover the bowl or jar and let stand at room temperature overnight, or for 12 hours.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the cucumbers to a colander and rinse with cold water. Divide the cucumbers, garlic, peppercorns, and mustard seeds between 2 pint jars or place all in 1 quart jar. Pour the brine over, ensuring that the pickles are entirely submerged. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Can be kept, refrigerated, for about a month; the flavors of the garlic and other aromatics will be enhanced over time. UPDATE: I would take the garlic out after a couple of days. It becomes overpowering in my humble opinion.
This is super delicious - a cross between cheesecake, angel food cake, and custard.
I used turbinado sugar instead of white sugar. I used an 8" pan. My egg whites would not become stiff or glossy. So I just accepted it and moved on. Still came out great.
Although delicious, it needs something, a sauce or some fruit. I squeezed fresh lemon juice right on it which was great but if serving to guests, probably should go to more effort. There is a recipe for Vanilla Fruit Compote below.
Ricotta Cheesecake
Compliments of JennaDish
from Martha Stewart
Unsalted butter, room temperature, for pan
3/4 cup sugar, plus more for pan
1 1/2 pounds fresh whole-milk ricotta cheese, pureed in a food processor until smooth
6 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Finely grated zest of 1 orange or 2 lemons
1/4 teaspoon salt
Vanilla Fruit Compote
1 red or pink grapefruit (do not peel), preferably organic, washed well
1 navel orange (do not peel), preferably organic, washed well
1/4 cup water, plus more for pan
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved
Pinch of salt
Crispy french toast with bananas covered in a vanilla bourbon sauce with crushed walnuts.
Now this would work well for one of those special "Breakfast in Bed" dishes. Crush the walnuts or pecans the night before and any other steps that would help the prep go faster in the morning.
French Toast with Vanilla Bourbon and Caramelized Bananas
Compliments of JennaDish
Adapted from from Cook This Not That
You can easily halve or double this.
SERVES 4
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup bourbon (or rum or brandy)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup crushed walnuts (or pecans)
2 ripe but firm bananas, sliced into 1/2" coins
1 cup 2% milk (I used skim)
3 eggs (if you halve the recipe, use 2 eggs)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tblsp vanilla extract
8 slices sturdy whole-grain bread, day old is good
Heat the butter in a medium nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Add 2 Tablespoons of the bourbon and all of the brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Cook for 1-2 minutes until bubbly. Add walnuts and cook for an additional 2 minutes; add the bananas and heat through. Remove from heat, stir in 1/4 cup milk and keep warm
Whish together the remaining 3/4 cup milk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla and the remaining 2 Tablespoons bourbon Heat a cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat. The the skillet is warm, spray with a light coating of nonstick cooking spray. Working 2 pieces at a time, dip the bread into the bourbon-egg mixture. Let soak 30 seconds (if your bread is sturdy) on each side.
Add the bread to the hot skillet. Cook until golden brown and slightly crusty, about 3 minutes on each side. Serve with warm banana topping.
Dear Jillian
You walked yesterday in the 21st Annual Walk to Stop AIDS event with friends from school. StopAids is "dedicated to educating the community about the continuing risk of HIV infection and providing competent, compassionate service to those already impacted by HIV/AIDS." And this walk helps them get information out to people. I love to see you involved in your community and helping good causes.
I'm so happy we moved to the city to be closer to your school. I'm glad for all the the school has to offer, your friends, your awesome teachers.
I'm thrilled that MTV's Taking the Stage
is gone. Cute little show but the camera crew and shooting during school was a pain in the arse for teachers and students.
Well, anyway, Jillian. I'm glad you're you. Who's hungry?
I can't really explain why I was so excited to make my own chili powder.
It must be the novelty. But I was also drawn in by the people who raved about how much better it is than the canned stuff. I love to read comments from the people who discover something they can do better at home than what they can buy. They sound so empowered!
Homemade Chili Powder .... Power to the People!
Speaking of Chili Powder, who likes Sidewalk Chalk? I do! I do!
It's Streetscapes: A Street Painting Festival
in Clifton
Hello Lydia and Jill
You were baking in the sun, so Lydia's mom bought you some nifty straw hats
And there's Lydia's mom - not only practical, but talented.
Wow. Pride and Prejudice in chalk. That's crazy.
Ah. There's Zoe. Painting a car.
You see. Making street art is totally like making chili powder.
Let's make art with some chili peppers.
Here's how you do it. I took instructions from 3 sources, because 2 of the 3 were a tad short on details. They were Alton Brown/The Food Network, the cookbook Cook This Not That by Zinczenko and Goulding and the book Herbs and Spices by Jill Norman.
Choose a variety of dried chili peppers. Above I have ancho chiles, the small brownish ones that have a mild, fruity flavor and New Mexican chiles have an earthy taste. A third kind that I will add later is a hot variety. You can choose chiles de arbol which are fiery hot.
Also common in the chili powder is cumin seed, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and dried oregano.
You can do this one of two ways. You can put the chiles and cumin seed in a dry skillet and toast them all together for 3-6 minutes (I did this and felt my cumin seed toasted much more quickly and might burn). Or you could toast the cumin seed and chiles separately. Toasting the chilis only takes about 5 minutes. It may not seem like they are truly toasted because they'll still be soft, however they will harden a bit after cooling.
Cut the chiles into smaller pieces with kitchen scissors. Put the chiles and cumin seed into a blender or coffee grinder and grind to a powder. In a small coffee grinder like mine, you will have to blend the chiles in batches. Add the remaining ingredients and blend all together.
Sprinkle a 1/2 teaspoon on popcorn and mix well, or put a Tablespoon in a pound of hamburger for burgers. When you smell the freshly toasted blend, you will understand why others say they throw out their little can from the store.
Homemade Chili Powder
Compliments of JennaDish
Inspired by Alton Brown, the cookbook Cook This Not That and the cookbook Herbs & Spices
6-9 dried chile peppers of a variety of heat - stemmed, seeded and sliced
(i.e. ancho=mild/fruity, de arbol= fiery hot, New Mexican=earthy)
2 tablespoons whole cumin seeds
1-2 tablespoons garlic powder (I used less because I don't like garlic powder)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Toast the chiles and the cumin in a nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Cook, shaking the pan to prevent burning the cumin, and turning the chiles, until you begin to smell the cumin toasting, approximately 5 minutes. Set aside and cool completely.
Once cool, cut the chiles into smaller pieces, place the chiles and cumin into a blender or coffee grinder, along with the garlic powder, oregano, and paprika. If using a coffee grinder, blend in batches. Blend or grind into a powder form. Store in an airtight container.
I just got back from Technology class at Xavier University. I wasn't looking forward to going tonight because I thought we were going to tinker around with movie editing software. Instead, I was introduced to Numa Numa. I have never seen nor heard of that YouTube video that the country grew to love just a few short years ago.
We also watched a presentation by Professor Michael Wesch to the Library of Congress about You Tube. He's an anthropologist at Kansas State University and it's pretty darned interesting and amazing. It's Amazeresting. Here it is. The Anthropology of You Tube.
It's pretty cool to look at the internet, YouTube, blogging, from an anthropological view. The movie discusses the concept of talking into a webcam. It's the same as writing on a blog, especially the beginning. You are talking to everyone, yet no one. I am explaining a recipe to everyone, yet no one.
What does this have to do with macaroons? I believe that 72.4% of those YouTube people would like these macaroons. And 87.8% of them could make this recipe themselves. Hey, that reminds me of one of my favorite lines: Did you know that 62% of statistics are made up?
I love that one.
You are 3 ingredients away from a wonderful Coconut Macaroon. Add chocolate, and that makes 4. Here's the recipe.
Rochers a la Noix de Coco or Coconut Macaroons
Compliments of JennaDish
MAKES ABOUT 30
from Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini
You can roll these into small balls (a heaping Tablespoon) or shape them into pyramids.
9 oz unsweetened dried coconut flakes (about 3 1/2 - 4 cups)
3/4 cup + 1 T. sugar (Clotilde and I use unrefined can sugar or raw sugar)
Pinch of salt (a fat pinch)
3 large egg whites (I needed about 1/2 an egg white more)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Combine the coconut, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the egg whites and mix them in with a fork. Scoop out rounded tablespoonfuls of this mixture and shape them into balls or pyramids, with your fingers. Place on baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until gold brown on the edges.
Let set on baking sheet out of oven for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For chocolate: melt 2 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate in a clean, dry bowl over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Dip bottoms of macaroons or drizzle over the macaroons. Place on waxed paper on baking sheet, and refrigerate 10 minutes to set.
