IMBB/SHF: Biscuits de potiron et de farine d'avoine

Thanksgiving's over and in order to celebrate the upcoming holiday season, Jennifer from The Domestic Goddess (also the founder of Sugar High Fridays) and Alberto of Il Forno (the founder of Is My Blog Burning?) have joined forces to create a Cookie Swap. They're asking food bloggers to post their favorite holiday cookie recipes so the rest of us can try them out once the Holidays roll in--kind of like a virtual cookie exchange.

The main point of this event, was that people shouldn't have to go crazy looking through cookbooks, but instead should pick their real tried-and-true recipes. Unfortunately, I don't have any. I'm not a baker and I have no idea what recipe I used the last time I made holiday cookies. When we celebrate the holidays in my house, we make potato latkes and roast a goose, stopping off at Ecce Panis to buy sweets. That's the way we've done it for years and I haven't heard complaints yet.

But I haven't made cookies in years and drop cookies are supposed to be easiest, so I made these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, using a recipe from The Classic Zucchini Cookbook for some basic inspiration. The result? They're not pretty (my uncle said they looked more like meatballs than cookies) but they are good. Not too sweet, but with a nice hint of exotic from the Cardamom I threw into the batter on a whim. Also, because Mom doesn't eat chocolate, I made half without the chocolate chips.

Biscuits de potiron et de farine d'avoine

1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
Seeds from 7 pods of Cardamom (a little over 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 large Egg
2 cups Pumpkin Puree
1 1/3 cups Rolled Oats
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips (optional)
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
1 cup chopped Walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together Flour, Cinnamon, Cardamom Seeds, Baking Powder and Baking Soda until well-combined.

In a large bowl, beat Butter, Granulated Sugar, Brown Sugar, Egg and Vanilla until creamy. Continuing mixing on low speed, add the Flour mixture a little at a time until all incorporated. Mix in Pumpkin Puree, Oats, Chocolate Chips (if using), Cranberries and Walnuts.

Take heaping tablespoons of the dough and form it into balls. Drop onto ungreased Baking Sheets, keeping Balls about 2 inches apart from each other (they do expand in the oven).

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until a toothpick comes out dry (or virtually dry if you like your cookies soft).

Allow cookies to cool slightly before removing them from baking sheet.

Makes about 30 cookies.


Food and Baking and Recipe and IMBB #21 and SHF #14 and Cookie and Dessert and Vegetarian and Dairy

Imagine: Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

Usually, if I'm going to have a meal worth blogging about, I make it from scratch, especially if it's something cooked. But every so often, I'm lazy. I want a warming and filling bowl of soup, but without going through the trouble of making a whole pot of it, especially if I'm the only one eating it. Often I ignore such feelings and just make a soup, freezing leftovers or convincing some innocent soul to eat with me. But other times the microwave calls and I just nuke a bowl of packaged, prepared soup.

Most of the time, this soup is unflavorful and generally forgettable. However, I've finally found a brand I like--Imagine, a natural, organic brand that makes many wheat, gluten and dairy-free foods, made with real ingredients. Specifically, I had their Creamy Butternut Squash Soup, which I bought at Trader Joe's. While the soup itself had a very pleasant flavor, I found it was even better with a dollop of Greek Yogurt and some Cinnamon stirred in. Also, because I had a Spinach Salad on the side, I threw in a few spinach leaves to make it more interesting.

The result? Heavenly. And, perusing the Imagine website, I see they even have a recipe for Shells with Creamy Butternut Squash Sauce. That'll have to be for a day I do feel like cooking.


Food and Products and Prepared Food and Soup and Salad and Lunch and Quick Recipe and Vegetarian and Kosher and Dairy

Sunday Breakfast: Egg & Onion Matzo with Cream Cheese

Andrew has come up with a breakfast meme. He wants to know what everyone had for their Sunday breakfast today!

I like lazy Sundays--waking up late, sitting with a big cup of coffee and catching up on my news (serious, frivolous and blogs). When my stomach starts to growl, I like a nice big breakfast, usually with eggs and sometimes some kind of breakfast meat as well.

Some Sunday mornings, however, I have no time to be lazy. This morning, for instance, I had a rehearsal at 9 AM. I work as a stage manager, which means that if a rehearsal starts at 9, I have to be there at 8:40 at the earliest to unlock and set up the space so that we can start at 9. Of course, all of this means that I spent my Sunday morning waking up at 7:15 AM.

While reading my e-mail and glancing at headlines, I needed something quick to eat that would still give me a boost of energy. Normally I have a yogurt, but I had bought some Egg & Onion Matzos in the Kosher section of Ralph's a few weeks ago and I wanted to try them out. I thickly smeared the Matzo (which invariably crumbled into several pieces) with Cream Cheese. It was delicious! The Egg & Onion Matzos are a little salty (with just a hint of spice from the Onion Flakes), so the Cream Cheese mellows them out nicely.

Even though I prefer to wake up at a normal hour on Sundays, this was quite tasty.

Food and Sunday Breakfast and Breakfast and Vegetarian and Jewish and Kosher and Dairy

Update: Andrew has posted a round-up of everyone's Sunday morning breakfasts!

Donna Hay: Cashew Butter Cupcakes

Picture taken by J. Dell'Era and cupcakes decorated by Miss Dell'Era and J. Vinogradsky

According to Nic, Donna Hay is the Australian Martha Stewart. This was my first encounter with her, but regardless, she knows how to make some damn-good cupckaes. Barbara, from winosandfoodies, has started a meme for Donna Hay's self-frosting cupcakes. The original recipe calls for peanut butter frosting , but various people have been playing around and Nutella seems to be the frosting of choice.

I decided, since Miss Julie, one of my lovely ladies, is on a nut binge lately, to play with a more exotic nut butter than peanut butter, but still stay in the chocolateless family. Of course, dark chocolate pastilles were added to beautify the cupcakes, but the taste still stayed quite nutty. What was my "exotic nut," you may ask? Why, cashews!

To make Cashew Butter, simply blend 2 cups of Roasted Cashews with 1-2 tablespoons of Oil. This is easy and delicious! I now have a little tub of Cashew Butter to spread on Toast in the mornings or for a midnight snack.

And, perhaps more importantly, the cupcakes? They were delicious, especially with a tall glass of Milk!

Cashew Butter Cupcakes

10 tablespoons Butter
3/4 cups Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Pinch Cinnamon
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
Cashew Butter

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a 12-muffin tin with paper cups.

Cream Butter and Sugar. Add Eggs, one at a time, and mix until well-incorporated. Add Vanilla. Stir in Flour, Salt, Cinnamon and Baking Powder. Mix until fully combined and no specks of Flour remain. Fill each Muffin cup about 3/4 full of batter. Mix in a spoonful of Cashew Butter, swirling it into the Batter.

Bake 20 minutes. Let cool completely before eating.

Optional: Smear a little more Cashew Butter on top of Cupcakes and stick a Cashew and/or a Chocolate Pastille into the Cashew Butter topping.

Update: Check out Barbara's round-up! And congratulations to Glutton Rabbit for the prettiest picture.

Food and Baking and Recipe and Dessert and Donna Hay and Dairy

The Great Pumpkin Carve-Off: Pumpkin Pie with Pumpkin Seed Crust

I know. After announcing I'm not a baker, I bake. Again. But this time I have an excuse! Elise, of Simply Recipes, is (was) holding a contest for creative and delicious uses of the left-overs from carving a pumpkin. I haven't carved a pumpkin in years, so this seemed like as good an excuse as any. Also, I was back in New York for the weekend, which meant the Boy joined me in pumpkin carving. And since pie is one of his absolute favorite foods, I decided it was only fair to make him one.

To make this pie, I got my idea from another recipe in Canyon Ranch Cooks. Their recipe was for a Pumpkin Pie with a Pecan Crust. Looking at my ever-growing pile of Pumpkin Seeds, I decided to make the crust with a combination of ground Pumpkin Seeds and Graham Crackers instead. Not very sweet, it came out with a "homey" taste, something you'd expect a grandmother to serve. I think it would be best with whipped cream, though we loved it straight. You can substitute canned pumpkin puree for the fresh puree I made by steaming peeled pieces left over from our Jack O'Lanterns.

Pumpkin Pie with Pumpkin Seed Crust

10 Graham Crackers
2 tablespoons Pumpkin Seeds, toasted in 250 F oven.
1 tablespoon + 1 cup Pumpkin Puree
Oil to coat pie plate
2 Eggs
3/4 cup Evaporated Fat-Free Milk
1/4 cup Apple Juice Concentrate
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
3 Cloves, ground
Pinch Salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a food processor, combine Graham Crackers and Pumpkin Seeds until all crumbs are more or less of the same texture. Move to a medium bowl and add 1 tablespoon Pumpkin Puree. Mix well. Grease 9" pie plate (I used Peanut Oil), then press Graham Cracker and Pumpkin Seed mixture into bottom and up sides.

In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients, including 1 cup Pumpkin Puree. Blend well.

Pour Pumpkin mixture into pie crust.

Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Once cooled to room temperature, refrigerate pie.

Serve chilled.

Update: The results are in! Check them out and congrats to the winners.

Food and Recipe and Pumpkin Carve-Off and Dessert and Vegetarian and Dairy

Strawberry Muffins

I would never even begin to consider myself a baker, but there is something wonderful about making a batter, putting it into an oven and watching it puff up into something sweet and delicious. I always feel such a sense of accomplishment after baking and I find it more magic than cooking. I know what will happen to a roast or a fish when I put it in the oven. It will cook and the meat will be flavorful and (hopefully) moist. When you take a trout or a duckling out of the oven, it looks browner, but not much different from when you put it in.

Baking is different. You have to measure everything exactly; no "a pinch of this and a spot of that." At least for me, I have to follow a recipe almost to the letter and not improvise as I go along. However, in some ways, the payback is greater. I'm never really sure what's going to happen, so when it works, it's even more exciting than cooking savory foods.

Sunday was a particularly unproductive day for work, so I decided the only way to fight my feeling of uselessness would be to bake. I had some strawberries languishing in the fridge from my Fruit Salad and a muffin tin that was just waiting to be used. So I decided to make Strawberry Muffins, using my newest cookbook (and as of then untested), Canyon Ranch Cooks. This cookbook has gorgeous pictures and has foods that remain more or less healthy, so the recipe called for half Whole Wheat Flour, half All-Purpose Flour and there was Non-Fat Yogurt and no Butter. Because I had no Whole Wheat Flour, I used only All-Purpose. Other than that, I remained very faithful to the recipe. The muffins came out delicious. While not sweet, they made a wonderful breakfast and would have been perfect with tea and a little cream. But I suppose that defeats the purpose of being Healthy Food.

Strawberry Muffins

1 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
1/3 cup Milk (I used 2 %)
1/3 cup Nonfat Plain Yogurt
2 tablespoons Canola Oil + for coating muffin tins
1/3 cup Turbinado Sugar
1 cup Strawberries, chopped and hulled

Preheat oven to 350 F. Dampen a paper towel with Canola Oil and coat cups of a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, combine Flour, Baking Powder and Salt

In a medium bowl, combine Egg, Milk, Yogurt and Canola Oil, then add Sugar, mixing well.

Create a well in the dry ingredients, then slowly add the wet. Mix well until everything is combined well and there are no lumps. Add fruit and stir until evenly distributed throughout batter.

Place 1/4 cup of batter in each muffin tin and bake about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Remove muffin tin from oven and place on a rack to cool. If desired, sprinkle muffin tops with a pinch of Cinnamon and/or some Sugar for a burst of added flavor.

Makes 12 Muffins.

Update: Barbara, from Winos and Foodies, liked these so much she made them over the weekend, with a spoonful of Nutella inside.

Recipe and Breakfast and Vegetarian and Dairy

EoMEoTE #11: Hotel Fruit and Cookie

(sung to The Eagles' Hotel California)

In an over-heated room, no wind coming in
Cool smell of oranges and strawberries and gin
Suddenly inspration, a fruit salad to chill us
Oranges, strawberries, papaya
Won't even be a big fuss

Fruit all cut and in a bowl; drizzled amaretto
Marinate for an hour in the fridge let the flavors together go
Then I whipped up an egg white, added it to yogurt
Break cookies to make it an entry, and look what you have made:

Welcome to the Hotel Fruit and Cookie
Such a lovely place, such a lovely taste
Plenty to eat at the Hotel Fruit and Cookie
Any time of year you can find it here.

For this month's EoMEoTE, hosted by Dispensing Happiness, the theme is Seventies Song Lyrics, so this is my attempt. Needless to say, I'm no songwriter but Hotel California is a special song to me, so I decided that, if done in love, it was ok to butcher it just a little.

Fruit and Whipped Yogurt

1 Orange, peeled and sectioned
1/2 Papaya, peeled, seeded and diced
15-20 Strawberries, hulled and halved
4 tablespoons Amaretto
1 Egg White
1/4 cup Non-Fat Plain Yogurt
1/4 cup Cottage Cheese
4 Molasses Cookies, broken into quarters

Place Fruit in bowl and drizzle with Amaretto. Combine well. Marinate for at least 1 hour.

Whip Egg White. Beat together (you can use a blender) Yogurt and Cottage Cheese until thoroughly combined and curdles are diminished. Slowly add Egg White, continuing to beat as you do so.

Place Cookies on plate, top with Fruit and add a dollop of Yogurt-Cottage Cheese. Serve.




recipe and EoMEoTE #11 and Salad and Vegetarian and Dairy

Salade Grecque

Shortly before I left San Francisco, I was suffering from a surfeit of lemons. My first trip to the astounding Trader Joe's my second day in San Fran, I bought a gigantic bag of lemons. I had used one or two, but it was time to base my dinner around the remaining ones. I also wanted something light and easy to prepare, since we were leaving early the next morning to drive south to LA.

After searching online for something that met all my requirements, I stumbled upon a recipe from Elise, of Simply Recipes fame. It was her Dad's Greek Salad Recipe and it looked light and refreshing, not to mention the fact that it included lemon juice. So, I made it. The result? Fabulous. Here's how I made it, staying close to Elise's Dad's recipe, but of course making my own adjustments, as per usual.

Salade Grecque

3 tbsp Olive Oil
Juice of 1 Lemon
1 clove Garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Cabernet Sauvignon Vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Dried Oregano
1 sprig Dill, chopped
Salt and Cracked Black Pepper
2 Plum Tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 small Zucchini, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 small Yellow Onion, peeled and chopped
1 small Red Bell Pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup pitted Kalamata Olives, chopped
Feta Cheese, crumbled, to taste (I used about 1/4 cup of Goat's Milk Feta)

Mix together Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Garlic, Vinegar, Oregano and Dill until well combined. Season to taste with Salt and Black Pepper. Let rest while preparing Salad. Before serving, give Dressing a final mix before serving.

Toss Tomatoes, Zucchini, Onion, Pepper and Olives together in a bowl. Add dressing. Sprinkle with Feta Cheese and serve.

recipe + Vegetarian + Salad

Quesadillas d'aioli, tomates et mozzarella

Three beauties of one gender.
Put eggs in the blender--
Too much oil, we need a mender!
You can add another yolk,
You can make a joke.
You can sip a glass of Coke
Or call your folks
And give a poke.
Add some tomatoes and some cheese
And broil it in the oven, please.

And voila my Doctor Seuss parody which the crazy Cook Sister! requested for this month's EoMEoTE. Unfortunately, we didn't find a mender for my liquidy aioli, so we drizzled it on our tortillas instead of smearing it on like mayonnaise. They were still delicious!

Next time, I would use one lemon, instead of two and considerably less olive oil. I have included the recipe I believe would work perfectly.

Quesadillas d'aioli, tomates et mozzarella

Aioli

3 Egg Yolks
1 cup Olive Oil
Juice of 1 Lemon
4 cloves Garlic, peeled
Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

Beat Egg Yolks in blender. If possible, depending on your blender, add Olive Oil while blender is on. If not, add it slowly, combining it and the Egg Yolks fully before adding more. When thick, add Lemon Juice and Garlic. Beat again, until Garlic is finely chopped. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper.

Quesadillas d'aioli, tomates et mozarella

8 Whole Wheat Tortillas
Aioli
4 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
Generous amount Mozarella, broken into 20 hunks
Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

Pre-heat broiler. Spread 4 Tortillas with Aioli. Place Tomatoes on top, spreading around evenly. Add 5 pieces of Mozzarella to each Tortilla. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Top each with another Tortilla. Broil for 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Serve warm.

recipe + EoMEoTE + Vegetarian

Hermione's Egg Custard Pie

As usual, Harry was spending the summer with the Weasleys at the Burrow. Hermione had joined them all for the weekend and they were hungry and anxious for a snack. Unfortunately, however, Mrs. Weasley was not at home and Harry, Ron and Hermione were not yet allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts. They asked Mr. Weasley to make them a snack with magic, but he had another idea. He had just discovered a cache of muggle kitchen supplies and wanted to try them out--an electric egg beater, a stove, a refrigerator and an oven. He brought the appliances in and turned to Harry and Hermione for help.

Luckily, Hermione knew her family's recipe for egg custard pie by heart. Better yet, it used all four tools. She divided up the recipe and gave everyone a job. But no one knew how to make a pie crust! So Mr. Weasley created one with magic.

After several extra eggs flew onto the floor (Mr. Weasley wasn't used to cracking them by hand and refused to use magic to help him), they finally got the pie into the oven and then into the refrigerator to chill. And when Mrs. Weasley came home and they all tasted it together, even she was impressed by how good it was!

Update: Jeanne has posted a specatcular round-up! Check it out!

Hermione's Egg Custard Pie

1 flakey Pie Crust (created by magic or otherwise)
4 Large Eggs + 1 Yolk
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 cups Milk

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Brush Pie crust with Egg Yolk and put in oven for 10 minutes. If preparing the custard takes more time to make, keep crust in oven for longer; it should be warm when you pour the custard in.

Beat Eggs with an electric mixer until frothy. Add Salt, Sugar and Vanilla Extract and mix until well-combined. Heat Milk on stove until simmering. Pour it into Egg mixture and mix. Pour the new mixture into the warm Pie Crust and place it in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, until center of pie has a gelatin-like consistency. It will harden more as it chills.

Let Pie cool, then chill in refrigerator. Serve chilled.

EoMEoTE #7: Mom's Chopped Eggs and Onions

Chopped Eggs and Onions on Toast

There once was a meme for eggs on toast
That a South African gal did host.
Chopped onions and eggs,
Soon there'll just be dregs.
Now both poem and recipe I post.

This being the limerick edition of EoMEoTE (End of Month Eggs on Toast Extravangza), hosted by Jeanne of Cook Sister!, I have begun the post with a limerick.

Chopped eggs and onions is my family's version of egg salad. Mom's family served it instead of hard-boiled eggs dipped in salt water on Passover seders, but Gomps (Mom's Dad) liked it so much that I think of it as a year-round food. The raw onions give it a nice bite and you should definitely add generous amounts of salt and pepper. It's a great snack, breakfast, whatever! And, which I discovered because of this meme, delicious on toast!

This is Mom's recipe, taken from her cookbook, Gefilte Variations.

Chopped Eggs and Onions

3-4 tablespoons good Olive Oil
1 Onion, thinly sliced
Salt and Black Pepper
1 Onion, finely chopped
6 large hard-boiled Eggs, cut into eighths.

Heat Olive Oil in a skillet over high heat. Add sliced Onion and saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden. Salt and Pepper, then return from heat to cool.

Scrape Onion and Oil from skillet into a bowl. Chop coarsely. Add Eggs and raw Onion and continue to chop until mixture is well-blended, but still chunky. Add generous amounts of Salt and Black Pepper. If the mixture separates too easily, add more Oil. Chill well, removing it from fridge at least 15 mins. before serving. It's great on toasted Pain de Campagne (country bread) or scooped up onto endives or lettuce leaves.

IMBB #15: Creme cannelle

Cinnamon cream reversed on a plate.

When I first saw the topic for this month's IMBB, (Is My Blog Burning?) I wasn't sure I would be able to participate. The topic was "Has my Blog Jelled?" and was conceived by the imaginative Elise from Simply Recipes. (You can see her gorgeous write-up here.) I have to admit, I've always been scared of Jello, and, therefore, anything that jiggles. It may be because my cousin convinced me it was alive and would eat me when I was about five. Either way, I have never happily eaten Jello and was afraid I couldn't come up with something tasty and innocuous.

But then I started reading recipes using gelatin and found it's used for all sorts of cream-based desserts, such as Panna Cotta. I came up with this Cream, delicately flavored with Cinnamon and a little Vanilla Extract. It's somewhere between a Panna Cotta and the un-burnt part of a Creme Brulee. And the best part? It's exceedingly easy, once you figure out how to use sheets of gelatin, which, I admit, took me two attempts and some advice from Barbara of Winos and Foodies.

The only thing to watch out for with this recipe is that it really does need at least four hours and preferably overnight to set. So be sure to make it in the afternoon if you want it for dinner!

Creme Cannelle

Serves 4.

3 sheets Gelatin (6 grams)
1/2 liter Whole Milk
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cinnamon stick
4 tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Egg Yolks

Place the Milk, Vanilla Extract and Cinnamon Stick into a saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Soak Gelatin in a cup of cold water for 5-10 minutes.

Remove Gelatin from water and squeeze dry. Remove Milk mixture from flame and strain out Cinnamon Stick and any skin that may have formed. Stir in Gelatin until it dissolves. Whip together Egg Yolks and Brown Sugar, then add them to the Milk while still hot. Cool slightly.

Pour into 4 individual molds (I used ramekins) and chill for at least 4 hours.

Les patates douces sont oranges

Fuzzy Patates douces

Intelligent as I am, it did actually take me until a few days ago to realize that sweet potatoes are orange, so mashed sweet potatoes would also be orange. Yeah, I know this kind of sounds like a cop-out, but the Boy left yesterday and I'm here with the Best Friend, or Brother, so I didn't want to do too much experimental cooking. Also, it was the Brother who took the photo, so don't blame me that it's fuzzy. And it would have been more orange if we hadn't mashed it with the skins.

Without further ado, here's my mashed yams, which, by the way, are Kosher for Passover even though I didn't happen to make them until after the holiday. And I promise I'll be better about the next IMBB.

Les patates douces fondantes

2 Sweet Potatoes
3 tablespoons Butter, melted
Salt and Black pepper
Pinch grated Lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
Generous pinch Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 200 C. Poke several holes in Potatoes with the tip of a knife and place in a pan in the oven. Bake until tender, about 60-75 minutes. Remove from oven. Mash with a fork (with or without skins, as you desire). Add Butter, Salt, Pepper, Lemon zest, Cinnamon and Brown sugar. Continue mashing until smooth all over. Serve warm.