Dinner Love.

Dinner Love Address Change!

2009-05-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I'm just letting you all know that I have changed Dinner Love's web address from dinnerlove.blogspot.com TO dinnerlove.com. I decided to host dinnerlove.com on a different server, which is why blogger will not automatically redirect to the new site.

I will post blogs on both sites until May 12, 2009 (Tuesday).

So please, update update your bookmarks, etc, because I have a schnazzy new site (complete with all old material) over at:

www.dinnerlove.com

Thanks!

<3 Stef

Recipe: Chicken and Zucchini Layered Enchilada

2009-05-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today is the day! Enchiladas made, Mexican feast delivered, Rubik's cube solved. Perfection.
Ok, I didn't solve the Rubik's cube. But everything else is true. Scout's honor!

Enchiladas are crazy easy to make, especially when you make them casserole-style (as I do). You can use nearly anything for a filling, just add some enchilada sauce, cheese, and tortillas and BAM! Enchilada madness. These are made with leftover chicken and zucchini. Leftover chicken because I had it, and it needed to be used. Zucchini because I received some in my CSA box and it's extremely important to me to use fresh, local produce. I'm lucky because I live in California, which means that some kind of produce is available year-round. In August I'm moving to Boston for grad school, and I'm already wondering what kind of CSA boxes are available, or if anything even grows in Boston in the winter! I've never lived on the east coast, so I have no idea what to expect.
You can make these vegetarian really easily by leaving out the chicken and the chicken broth, and doubling the amount of zucchini (or squash of your choice) and substituting veggie broth.
If you're looking to turn your enchiladas into a full-blown fiesta, add some pico de gallo and a margarita or two!

Sauce:
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 C chicken broth
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp flour
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan.
Allow to simmer 10-15 minutes, until sauce has reduced by about 1/2 C. While you are waiting for the sauce to reduce, start on the enchiladas.

1 medium zucchini
1/2 lb of chicken
quarter of an onion, diced, about 1/3 C
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 TB olive oil
4 turns black pepper mill
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 C jack cheese
corn tortillas

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the garlic and the onion, saute until fragrant. Add the zucchini, the pepper, and the salt.
Cook until browned on the edges. This is total zucchini porn. This is when you know it's getting good-when it get brown and slightly caramelized. Delicious!
Add the chicken. If you're using leftover chicken, cook a few minutes just until the chicken is heated through. If you're using raw chicken, cook until the chicken is cooked through.
Turn off the heat, and assemble the casserole.
First spoon a very light layer of sauce on the bottom of a pan 8x8" W and approximately 2.5" D. Then add a layer of tortilla, followed by chicken and zucchini mixture, sauce, and cheese. Repeat. Then add a final layer of tortilla, sauce and cheese.
Your casserole should be:
Little bit of sauce
tortilla
chicken and zucchini
sauce
cheese
-
tortilla
chicken and zucchini
sauce
cheese
-
tortilla
sauce
cheese
At this point, you can either cook it or store it to cook at a later date. It will keep for about two days in the fridge, or if frozen it will keep for at least 4 months, possibly longer.
If you cook it immediately, put it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. After refrigerating, cook at 350 for about 30-45 minutes. After freezing cook it at 350 for 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered.

So. Good.

<3 Stef

Mexican fiesta on hold.

2009-05-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I had this amazing Cinco de Mayo enchilada extravaganza planned for yesterday, but the fates conspired against me. I ended up being just to busy to pull something adequate together! Sorry about that.
Never fear, however. I will absolutely, definitely post the Mexican enchilada feast on Thursday, followed on Friday with a Mother's Day brunch special.

Thanks for being patient!

<3 Stef

Recipe: Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies

2009-05-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

My birthday was last weekend, and my one request to my boyfriend was that he procure a birthday cake-specifically carrot cake-by any means necessary. I bought my own birthday cake last year, and it was a little depressing! I told him that I didn't care if he bought the cake or used a box to make it, as long as I didn't have to get it myself.
He surpassed my wildest expectations when I discovered him in the kitchen, making me cupcakes from scratch.
This is photo documentation of the first baked good he has ever made! He's measuring and everything.I don't have pictures of the final product, but let me assure you that they were delicious. I mean seriously. I had to fight people off of my cupcakes. Well, okay, the cupcakes were for sharing. But I wanted more than one! (I ate three. Maybe more. It's all a haze. . .)

The frosting was a maple-cream cheese frosting and while it was extremely tasty, there was an absurd amount of it left. I don't know who wrote the recipe but they are insane if they think that 2 dozen cupcakes require 3 cups of frosting. We have tons of frosting left.

Exhibit A.
This tupperware contains nearly 2 cups of frosting. Which brings me to my brilliant leftover frosting cookie idea.

Gingersnap sandwiches! Yessssss.

Ginger Cookies
Recipe modified from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (1963 edition)
Ingredients:
3 TB butter
1/4 C sugar
1 egg
1/4 C molasses
1 TB milk
5/8 C (1/2 + 1/8) flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp coriander
1 tsp vanilla

Maple-cream cheese frosting
Recipe from smitten kitchen. I cut the entire recipe in half and increased the maple syrup. This should make a little less than 1.5 C of frosting.
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350˚.
Let the butter (for both the cookies and the frosting) come to room temperature. This is really important! I usually try to speed things up by putting it in the microwave, but that never works as well as you think it does. Melted butter actually is much different from softened butter. This is a lesson that has taken me years and dozens of flat, melty cookies to find out.
Cream together the butter and the sugar.
Add the egg, molasses and milk and stir well. Mix in all of the dry ingredients, and the vanilla. Mix until the batter is smooth.
Chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or until the dough is firm. Spoon the dough onto a cookie sheet using a small spoon, making sure they are spaced at least 2" apart.
Bake for 15 minutes. While you wait for the cookies to bake, make the frosting.

Cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. When all of the sugar has been thoroughly mixed in, add the maple syrup and stir again to combine.

When you remove the cookies from the oven, allow to rest for a few minutes before removing. My cookies became attached while baking. Touchy cookies.
Pick a few pairs of cookies that are approximately the same size and shape. I choose four, to make a cookie sandwich for me and one for boyface. I prefer to create sandwich cookies as I go, as opposed to making a bunch of them and having to store them in their delicate frosted state. I also assumed that I would eat less of them at once if I didn't have a dozen on a plate staring at me.
Anyway, find matching-ish cookie pairs.
Turn them on their backs.
Fill a plastic bag with frosting and cut off the corner. Or, use a pastry tube. Squeeze frosting out onto one of the cookies.
Now cover with the other cookie. Mmmm.
Way better than any oreo.
The cookie recipe turned out to be completely perfect for this use because they bake flat and have crispy edges but soft chewey centers. Frosting will likely fall out of your sandwich while you eat. It's worth it.

<3 Stef

The BrokeAss Gourmet Good Vibes Giveaway Post: Recipe: Asparagus with Lemon, Parmesan and Prosciutto and Rolled Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

2009-04-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

I am so very, very excited to have won! You can read all about the contest and the prize at both BrokeAss Gourmet and at Good Vibes. OMG!

Anyway, I wanted to write a more detailed post about my submission. So, here you have it! The step by step instructions, pictures included, of how to make my winning 3 course sexy locavore meal! (Well, 2 courses, anyway. The Molten Chocolate Cake has already been published in my blog. You can find the recipe here.)

Oh, and just a quick note, I have the recipes listed here in order of course, but if you actually make all 3 courses you should make the lasagna first, pop it in the oven, then start on the asparagus. If you plan on making dessert, I'd cook the cakes halfway then put them in the oven after you eat the asparagus so that by the time you're done with dinner, the cakes are ready to go!

Asparagus with Lemon, Prosciutto and Parmesan

Ingredients:
1 small bunch asparagus tips
1/2 lemon
2 thin slices prosciutto, chopped into big pieces
1-2 TB parmesan, to top
salt
pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Cut the very bottom off of the asparagus, but leave whole otherwise.
Cook in a shallow pan with 1" of water for 3-5 min, just until bright green. This is about what 1" of water looks like.
This is what they will look like when you need to turn off the heat. Bright green! See the color difference?
Strain the water. Add 1/2 lemon of juice and about 1/4 tsp salt and a few turns of a pepper mill. Cook for another 3-5 minutes, until asparagus is cooked as you like it. (I like mine crisp, so I would cook for about 3 min, but you may like yours more well done.) Remove to a plate. Crisp prosciutto in the pan for about 1 minute. Top the asparagus with the prosciutto, parmesan, cracked pepper, and the olive oil. Serve. Yes, it tastes as good as it looks!

Rolled Lasagna with Bechamel

Ingredients:

Lasagna Rolls:
1/3 C chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 C ricotta
1/2 C jack cheese
1.5 C uncooked chard, leaves and stems
2 oz prosciutto (3 thin slices)
6 lasagna noodles
1 TB olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
pepper

Sauce:
1 TB butter
1 C milk
1 TB flour
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
pepper

Rolls:
Set oven to 400. Cook noodles according to package directions, cutting the cook time by about 1/4. We don't want the noodles to be cooked all the way, because we will be finishing the dish in the oven.
Mix together ricotta, jack cheese, salt and pepper.
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. When translucent, add chard and 1/4 C water.
Cook until reduced by half. Add more water throughout cooking if needed. Cut the prosciutto pieces in half lengthwise. When the chard and noodles are done, you're ready to roll. (Ha!) Lay the noodles on a flat surface.
Divide all ingredients by 6; there should be about 1 TB for each noodle. Smooth 1 TB of cheese, 1 TB chard, and a piece of prosciutto on the noodle.
Gently roll and place in an oiled casserole dish seam side down.
Make sauce.

Sauce!:
Melt 1 TB butter in a pan. Add 1 TB flour; whisk to make a roux.
Slowly add 1 C milk, allowing ingredients to incorporate before adding more. This is what the sauce will look like when you add the milk.
Then you should whisk to fully incorporate the milk, and it will look like this.
Then add some more milk, and repeat until you've added all the milk. When you've added all the milk, add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. When adding the nutmeg, remember, a little really does go a long way! Don't over do it or the sauce will taste like Christmas, which isn't what we're going for here. :-)
Allow sauce to simmer for about 5 min. You want the sauce to be thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
Turn off heat, pour sauce over noodle rolls. Top with parmesan.
Bake for 20 min. After 20 min, turn heat up to broil and bake for another 5 min to brown the top.
Yum! Serve, and enjoy!
I adore lasagna rolls. They feel so much more fancy than normal lasagna, and they are actually really easy (and cheap!) to make.

Thanks again to everyone heading over from BrokeAss Gourmet and Good Vibrations Magazine. If you had any questions about the recipes, please don't hesitate to email me at sefarros at gmail dot com.

Happy Eating!

<3 Stef

Hello, hello!

2009-04-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hello to anyone who may be here from BrokeAss Gourmet! I am so excited to have won their Good Vibrations Giveaway with my sexy 3 course meal idea.

My blogging schedule is typically Tuesdays and Fridays, but in honor of my victory I am planning on doing a detailed write up of my winning recipes, with a lot more pictures than are posted on the BrokeAss site, later today. I figure I will have everything written and ready by 3pm.

If you would like to see the Molten Chocolate Cake recipe, that recipe was featured on Friday, April 10th. You can get to it by either using the Blog Archives on the right, or just scroll down.

Again, thanks so much to everyone, and I hope you enjoy what you see here! If you have any questions about any of the recipes posted, or about the ones I wrote for the BrokeAss giveaway, please don't hesitate to email me at sefarros at gmail dot com.
Wooden spoon meditation.

<3 Stef

Special "OMG It's HOT" Duo: Recipe: Pico de Gallo and Margaritas

2009-04-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

It has been ungodly hot in San Francisco the past few days. As a result, I haven't felt like turning on the stove. Or the oven. Or anything that produces heat, really. I've subsisted on pico de gallo and margaritas.

Ok, that was a lie. But I am eating/drinking them right now, and I have to admit that the combination might just be the perfect summertime pair. Even though, technically, it isn't summertime.

Margarita (serves 1):
1 TB powdered sugar
1/4 C water
1 lime
1/2 orange
3 oz tequila
1.5 oz triple sec

Grab a cocktail shaker and put the sugar and water into the shaker. Squeeze the lime and orange into the shaker with the sugar. I use my handy dandy lemon squeezer apparatus.
Squeeze it! Squeeze them citrus fruits!
Add the tequila and triple sec. Now give the shaker a few good shakes, and pour the mix into a glass with ice.
Oh yeah.

Pico de Gallo!
3 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 lime
1/4 of an onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove
1/4 C (or more, depending on your taste) of chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper

Chop the onion, garlic, and cilantro and put in a bowl. Add about 1/2 tsp salt, and a bit of pepper. Chop up the tomatoes and add them to the bowl, then add the lime. Use the same lemon squeezer thingamagig that you used for the margarita.
Stir the salsa to combine, and eat with corn chips!
Or, if you would like to be a bit more healthy, another good idea is to eat with thick cut cucumber slices.
So. Good.

<3 Stef

Friday's Post-April 17

2009-04-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

I regret to inform you all that I will be unable to post anything this Friday. I'm up in Portland visiting my friend Bryna who just had a baby. She (Bryna, not the baby) can make chocolate chip cookies without a recipe. She is the only person I know who can do this. She's kind of my hero.

I meant to prepare a post before I left California but it just never came together. I hope you enjoy my faux hostess cupcake recipe, though!

I want to make this up to you. So, I'm taking suggestions. My next post will be next Tuesday, April 21. So what would you like to see me make? The idea I like the best will be be the one I execute.

Aaaaaaaand go!

<3 Stef

Recipe: Faux Hostess Cup Cakes

2009-04-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a sweet couple of days. I usually emphasize savory dishes in this blog, because I don't have any original baking recipes (sorry, but I have to use a recipe to make chocolate chip cookies!) and because I'm not usually a big fan of sweets.
But I had this idea. I want to create the perfect cupcake. I bought some vanilla pudding mix (I feel that adding vanilla pudding mix to cake batter will make it more moist) and I already had marshmallow fluff from last Friday's post, so I decided to experiment.
I mean, even a failed cupcake is a cupcake, yeah?
Fortunately, these cupcakes did not fail. They were quite delicious, actually. And though they do not, in fact, contain vanilla cream in the middle, like Hostess Cupcakes do, they have marshmallow fluff.
Which might be better, actually.

Recipes borrowed and slightly altered from their original versions in "Perfecting the Cupcake" from the Food and Wine May 2008 issue.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake:
4 TB butter
1/2 C veggie oil
1/2 C water
1 C flour
1 C sugar
1/4 C + 2 TB unsweetened cocoa powder - I used sweetened cocoa powder that I had laying around the house, and cut the sugar in half.
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 C buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TB instant vanilla pudding mix
1 TB marshmallow fluff per cupcake.

Frosting:
6 TB softened butter
2 C confectioner's sugar (powdered)
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2 TB milk, half and half, or cream
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 350˚.
Melt the butter with the oil and the water over low heat.
Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and pudding mix.
Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. I am your butter river, carving up your valleys.
Mix mix mix.
Add the egg, buttermilk and vanilla and mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Oh, shiny!
Pour the batter into lined muffin tins, about half of the way full. Add 1 TB of marshmallow fluff to each tin.
Cover with the remaining batter.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes.

While you wait for the cupcake to bake, make the frosting. I, regretfully, do not have any frosting pictures. Use your collective imagination. Thick, creamy, chocolatey. . .mmmm.

Melt the chocolate and allow it to cool down before you cream it together with the butter. Mix the two ingredients together until they are smooth.

Mix in the sugar, vanilla, and salt, and mix until smooth. Add the cream, milk or half and half and beat until fluffy.

When you take the cupcakes out of the oven, make sure they have time to cool down before you frost them or the frosting will just melt all over the place.
This is the most artistic cupcake picture I have ever taken.
Yum yum yum!

Do your best to share. It will be difficult. These cupcakes are very, very good.

<3 Stef

Recipe: Molten Chocolate Cake

2009-04-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

This recipe hails from the September 2008 issue of Food and Wine magazine. These mini chocolate cakes are extremely easy to make and sinfully delicious. One of the coolest things about them is their versatility--you can use almost anything you like for the filling (I used marshmallow fluff and strawberry jam) or if you don't have a filling at all, the cake naturally creates its own molten chocolate center. Yum.

Ingredients:
Note that I cut this recipe in half in order to only make two cakes. My boyfriend and I don't need any more excuses to pig out than we already do!
1 stick of butter, plus melted butter for brushing
1 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 C plus 1 TB flour
6 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 C sugar
3 large eggs
Pinch of salt
Your choice of filling, about 1 TB per cake. Some options:
Fruit jam
Marshmallow fluff
Caramel (with or without a bit of sea salt)
Peanut butter (mixed up with about 1 TB of powdered sugar)
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease two ramekins. The recipe says to use melted butter for this, but I used veggie oil. Why? I'm a rebel. Also, the point of this is to ensure that the cake doesn't stick to the ramekins. I figured that veggie oil would work just as well. (It did.) I'm also lazy. Very, very lazy.
Mix together the cocoa powder and the 1 TB flour, and dust the greased ramekins.
Chop the chocolate and melt over low heat with the butter.
While it melts, whisk together the egg, sugar and salt until thick and pale yellow.
Gently fold the melted chocolate into the egg and sugar until there are no visible chocolate streaks.
Do the same for the flour.
Fill the ramekins 2/3 of the way with the batter, then spoon 1TB of your filling of choice on top, and cover with the remaining batter.
Put the ramekins onto a cookie sheet, and bake in the center of the oven for 16 minutes, until the tops are cracked but the center is still slightly jiggly. Look at the crazy marshmallow fluff cake! You will have to take my word for it when I tell you that they had jiggly centers.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cakes to loosen, invert onto a plate, and serve. Top with powdered sugar, if you like. Yummy yummy yum!
I lived every child's dream tonight, as I gleefully ate dessert before dinner.

Hahaha!

<3 Stef

A Meditation on Blueberry Muffins

2009-04-04T12:09:00.001-07:00

I'm participating in the Omnomicon Blueberry Muffin Recipe Round-Robin. I submitted a recipe myself, and I can't say which recipes I'm trying (that would be against the rules) but I want to say that the muffin that I just ate was AMAZING. There is no way I am winning this thing. Once the contest is over all will be revealed, but for now, know this:
Yum.

Recipe: Chicken Pho

2009-04-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

I am a Pho lover. LOVER. I eat mine with hoisin, basil and lots of lime. I typically get the rare beef stuff when I get it out (because I like my meat to be nearly raw) but I make chicken pho when I'm at home.
This isn't my recipe, sadly. It is the first one I found when I looked up "Chicken Pho Recipe" on google a few months ago. You can find the original on Food and Wine's website.
I want to mention a few things about this recipe before I get into all the messy stuff. First, you have to be prepared to spend at least 3 hours on this recipe if you follow the instructions and make the broth from scratch. You don't have to do it that way, in fact I usually don't. If you decide that you are lazy, you can use regular chicken broth and simmer it with chopped boneless, skinless chicken, the roasted veggies, salt, and sugar for like 30 - 45 minutes.
Second, if you decide to go all out and make the chicken broth, you will need either a whole chicken or a whole chicken already cut into pieces. If you don't have very good knife skills, don't have sharp knives, or are altogether unfamiliar with chopping up whole chickens, I suggest you buy the chicken already in pieces or have your butcher chop it up for you. Eventually I'll write a blog about knife skills, but until then, I'd prefer if no one loses a finger. Capiche?
Good.
Ingredients:
2 unpeeled yellow onions, quartered
3 1/2 inch thick slices of ginger, smashed
4 qt water
One 3.5 lb chicken
1 TB salt
2 tsp sugar
1/4 C fish sauce (do not be afraid of fish sauce!)
1 lb dried rice noodles
Garnish (all of this stuff is optional):
mung bean sprouts
basil leaves
lime
jalapeno
chili-garlic sauce
hoisin sauce
First quarter the onion and smash the ginger, and roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.
While the veggies are roasting, quarter the chicken (if you need to). First remove the chicken insides from the cavity. The chicken insides include the liver, heart, and neck, among other things. There they are, in the bowl in the back!
Now cut the entire chicken in half lengthwise. Yeeeah, raw chicken insides, woo!
Now cut each of these chicken halves in half again. I find it easier to flip them skin side up for this part.
There should be a picture of this, but I forgot and by the time I remembered the chicken was already boiling away. Oops.
Remember to always wash your hands when you handle poultry!
Now we are going to make a chicken insides bundle using cheesecloth and the chicken innards. This will be awesome for the chicken broth. First cut a length of cheesecloth.
Put all of the innards into the middle of the cloth. If you have any frozen innards from previous chickens, use those too. Yes, I save chicken giblets. You should, too.
Wrap the cheesecloth around the innards to make a bundle. I use thread to stitch it up very loosely, but kitchen twine or anything like that would work just as well.
Take the roasted veggies from the oven. Mmmm, don't they look amazing?
Put all of the veggies, the chicken pieces, the innard and cheesecloth bundle, the salt, the sugar, and the water in a big soup pot and put it on the stove over medium high heat for 30 minutes. The idea is to cook the chicken.
Remove the chicken from the pot and separate the meat from the skin and the bones.
Put the skin and the bones back into the pot, and the meat in the refrigerator. Simmer the broth for 2 hours. Strain the broth using a colander and a very big bowl. This bowl was not big enough. I burned my finger. Use a very, very big bowl. And your common sense.
Return the strained broth to the soup pot and set to boil for a further 20 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce. Bubbly bubbly.
While you wait, soak the rice noodles in warm water for 15 minutes. This time may be different, depending on the noodles that you bought, so make sure you read the instructions on the box.
After the noodles are done soaking, drain the water, and add new salted water to the noodles. Bring the noodles to a boil, and then allow them to boil for about 3 minutes. Drain them.

Shred the chicken into the broth and simmer until heated.
Serve by putting a big bunch of noodles into a bowl, and then pouring the broth and the chicken over the noodles. Serve the soup with your choice of condiments listed above.
Yum! The best thing about making this recipe is that you have pho for days. Just make sure not to mix the noodles with the broth when you store it, otherwise the noodles will get all soggy.

<3 Stef

Recipe: No-Knead Bread

2009-03-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

This is the infamous NY Times No-Knead Bread recipe, and all of the rumors are true. It is the most amazing bread recipe EVER.
No, I've never made bread before. This was my first try. But aside from having an absurdly long rise time (18 hours), I love everything about this bread. Even the rise time isn't that big of a problem if you time it right-you could mix up the ingredients right before you go to bed at night and then bake it when you get home from work the next day. It would totally be worth it.
The only warning I want to issue is this: the dough is incredibly sticky. I mean, very, very sticky. You need to flour anything that touches the dough, including your hands, if you want to avoid getting dough bits stuck everywhere. The plus side to this is that it is the super-wet dough that allows the bread to be so low-maintenance and yet so delicious. The exterior is crusty, the interior is fluffy and chewy.
So do not be afraid of homemade bread! It is easy, I promise. Now go, bake and prosper.

Ingredients:
3 C flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 5/8 C water (5/8 C = 5 ounces)
Put the flour in a large mixing bowl and add the yeast and the salt. Make sure you use a big bowl because the dough is going to double in size.
Add the water and stir just to combine.
Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and let sit for 12-18 hours in a warm place.
After at least 12 hours has elapsed (I usually wait 18, but it's your call), the dough will have doubled in size and will be very bubbly.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and fold it over onto itself once or twice. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, flour your hands and quickly shape the dough into a ball-ish shape. While you are doing this re-flour the cutting board (or wherever you have the dough resting.) Cover with a floured towel and let sit for another 2 hours. If rest the dough on a towel like I did, make sure you flour the towel really well or the dough will stick to the towel. Also, don't use a terrycloth towel. If you do, the little nubs on the towel will likely become embedded in the bread and we don't want that!
Half an hour before the 2 hours are up, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees and place a heavy covered pot (I use enameled cast iron, but anything heavy like pyrex will work) into the oven to warm up. Turn the dough into the heated pot.
Bake covered for 30 minutes. Half-way done bread! At this point, your kitchen will begin to smell delicious. You will feel unexpectedly happy and secure. This is all part of the plan.
Now bake uncovered for another 30 minutes. The crust will be dark and golden.
Mmmmm, bread!
See all of those lovely air pockets?
I recommend you eat at least a slice while it is still warm from the oven. Butter is (obviously) delicious, but you could dip it in olive oil and balsamic, too. Mmmm.

Another quick note-please make sure you don't put your very hot pan on any uncovered wooden surface. I'm usually very good about this but I accidentally burned my wooden countertop the second time I made this bread. Very sad. Learn from my mistake! Cover your wood!

<3 Stef

Recipe: Blueberry and Cheddar Pancakes

2009-03-27T10:48:00.001-07:00

I have to be honest and say that this recipe isn't mine. I stole it from Aleta Meadowlark (which might just be the coolest name EVER), who runs the blog Omnomicon. She stole it from The Joy of Cooking. I took it and made it fit for the lazy person in your life. The original recipe involves making the pancakes from scratch. This is not difficult by any means, but I always use Bisquick for my pancakes. Bisquick is always what my father used, and I always thought that his pancakes (made with Bisquick) were much better than my mother's pancakes (made from scratch.)
Anyway, to view the original recipe, go check out Omnomicon. For my lazy version, read on.

Ingredients:
Bisquick (2 C)
2 eggs
1 C milk
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 C frozen blueberries
1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese

You are going to make two batches of pancakes-a cheddar batch, and a blueberry batch. This way you can eat the cooked pancakes together, for maximum delicious. Get out two medium sized bowls, and put 1 C Bisquick, 1 egg, 1/2 C milk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla in each.
Mix the ingredients together half way. Alton Brown (my idol) says that Americans have a tendency to beat batter into oblivion, and that we should all chill out and leave well enough alone. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but he has a point. So resist the urge.Measure out 1/2 C of the frozen blueberries and choose a batter bowl to add them to. I chose the red bowl. You are supposed to thaw and drain them, but I didn't bother. This didn't seem to affect the pancakes in any way, but you can feel free to take the extra step if you like.
Shred 1/2 C of cheddar cheese, and add it to the other bowl.
Mix both bowls again so that the additional ingredients are distributed. Purple pancakes? Awesome!Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat, and add about 1/2 tsp of veggie or canola oil. Once the pan is hot, drop about 1/4 C of batter per cake. Flip when the tops get bubbly. Repeat as needed.
Forthcoming-Pancake Porn.

Mmmmmm.Oh yeah.

Serve stacked on top of each other.
I LOVE the way they look like this, all colorful, stripey and fun! I think this will be my new desktop image. I admit, seeing them stacked on top of each other is part of the reason I decided to make them to begin with. That, and cheddar cheese in pancakes sounded way too good to pass up.
Can you imagine serving these for breakfast? MAJOR points, people. Major points.

<3 Stef

How to Read Recipes: Measurement Abbreviations

2009-03-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've been writing this blog for a bit now, and it recently occurred to me that not everyone may be familiar with the measurement abbreviations found in many recipes, including mine.

I started this blog in an attempt to spread around my cooking philosophy--basically, it's easy, quick, and fun, and anyone can do it! In this spirit, I've decided to start posting little mini-tutorials on basic kitchen tasks, like proper knife handling technique and how to peel garlic effectively, all of that good stuff. The first one, as you may have figured out from the title of this blog, is how to read recipes effectively by deciphering those pesky measurement abbreviations.

The three used the most are for cup, teaspoon, and tablespoon. These are abbreviated as:

C for cup
tsp for teaspoon
TB for tablespoon

A few more:

lb = pound
oz = ounce
gal - gallon
pt = pint
qt = quart

You might also find liter, which is:

L

You probably won't find many recipes in liters in the US, but it never hurts to know. Learning is half the battle, after all.

These are the basics. If you feel I've missed anything, or have any questions, leave it in the comments!

<3 Stef

Recipe: Cheese Tortellini with Lemony Chicken and Asparagus

2009-03-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

I usually post Fridays, but I am flying to Seattle this evening for an interview with Seattle Pacific University. I didn't want to deprive you of my culinary genius for a whole 24 hours, so I thought I would just list my recipe early this week. ;-)
This recipe is very easy and super delicious. I tend to cook a lot of pastas and soups, for a few reasons.
1. I'm broke.
2. They are easy to make, and require minimal clean up.
3. My boyfriend is much pickier than he would have you believe.
I elected not to use a cream sauce for this dish, because I am trying (half-heartedly) to eat healthier and lose some weight.
This recipe can very easily be made vegetarian. Just use a whole pound of asparagus and eliminate the chicken, and substitute veggie broth for the chicken broth.

Ingredients:
12 oz cheese tortellini. I used fresh; you can use dried or frozen, whatever. The only thing it will impact is your cooking time.
1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/2 lb asparagus tips
1 TB crushed and chopped garlic
1/3 C chicken broth
Juice of 1 small lemon, approximately 1/8 C
1/2 tsp flour
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper
grated parmesean, to garnish
Instructions:
Set a pot of water to boil for your pasta. While you wait for the water to boil, you will be making your sauce.
First, chop your veggies and the chicken. You want to slice the chicken into little strips.
Chop the asparagus into quarters.
Next, crush the garlic with the flat of your knife and chop into tiny pieces.
Heat 1 TB of olive oil in a pan on the stove over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until slightly brown, but not burnt.
At this point, add the chicken and cook until half cooked. This is what partially cooked chicken looks like.
Add the asparagus, chicken broth, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. It is important to add the asparagus while the chicken is only halfway cooked because you otherwise run the risk of overcooking the chicken. Dry chicken is just as bad as undercooked chicken. Perhaps worse, actually, because once it is overcooked it is difficult to talk down from the ledge.
Yum yum yum. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and stir. Allow to simmer for a further 2-3 minutes, then turn off the heat.
Add the chicken and the asparagus to the cooked tortellini, reserving the sauce in the pan.
Next, you are going to reduce the sauce by half. Boil the sauce over high heat for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Bubble bubble bubble.
Be sure to watch the sauce, or it will reduce too much and you will have too little sauce! This is just about perfect, but even then I think I reduced it just a little too much.
Not exactly the most flattering picture, but tasty just the same.
Add the reduced sauce to the tortellini, chicken and asparagus. Stir to coat and serve with lots of parmesean.
Mmmm. Doesn't this look lovely? The end result is slightly lemony, which is perfectly complemented by the parmesean.
I should note that this recipe is meant to serve two people. You could probably serve 4 if you don't eat very much. My boyfriend and I polished off the whole thing ourselves, but we had seconds. We're eaters.

<3 Stef

Recipe: Chicken, Pea Shoot and Fennel Soup

2009-03-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

I invented this in a moment of brilliance. To be honest, I'm not really sure what I was thinking. I had a bunch of veggies from my produce box, and I knew I wanted to use the pea shoots. They were getting wilty.
So, I threw a bunch of ingredients together and as I was chopping onion and meditating on the flavor of the pea shoot, I thought to myself, "Hm. I should put some fennel in this!" So I did. And it was good.

Serves 2.
Ingredients:
1/2 LB of chicken breast, boneless/skinless, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, smashed and diced
1 large bunch of pea shoots, enough for 2 cups, leaves and outer stems ONLY**
1 TB fennel leaves
1/4 C dry sherry (you can leave this out if you prefer)
5 C chicken broth
1 TB olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

**Note about pea shoots:
Pea shoots consist of three parts--the stalks, the leaves, and the outer shoot. The outer shoots are the bits with the leaves attached. The only parts you want to eat are the leaves and the outer shoots. The stalk is way too tough. Believe me, I tried to eat it! Strip the stalk of the shoots and leaves, then roughly chop them.

Directions:
Chop all of the vegetables and the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot. Add the diced onions and garlic and heat until the onion is translucent. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Add the stock and the fennel and bring to a boil. When the stock is boiling, add the pea shoots. Let boil for about 3 minutes, then add the sherry and turn off the heat. Check seasonings, and add salt and pepper.

Recipe: Winter Chicken Pot Pie

2009-03-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

Oh no! I nearly forgot all about my weekly DinnerLove recipe post. Lucky for you I have remembered just in time!
I call this "winter" chicken pot pie because I use a wintery vegetable mix of leek, carrot and potato instead of your basic pot pie veggies like corn and peas. This is yet another recipe of mine in which cream sauce plays a vital role. I'm telling you, all you need is a basic cream sauce recipe and you can make nearly anything.

1 pre-made pie crust (say what you will. I use pre-made crust because it is EASY.)
1/2 LB skinless, boneless chicken, light or dark, depending on your taste
2 small or 1 medium leek, cleaned, split and chopped
1 C chopped carrot, around 2 large carrots
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 large clove garlic, or enough for 2-3 tsp, chopped
2 tsp salt
ground pepper
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 TB butter
1 TB flour
1 C milk

Pre-heat the oven to 350˚.
Melt the butter in a pot on the stove. Add the garlic and leek, saute 5 min. Add the potatoes, carrot, and about 1/4 C of water. Lower heat to medium, cover, and cook for 10 min.
While you wait for the veggies to cook, dice the chicken. Add the chicken, rosemary, and thyme. Cook for 5 min. Add the flour, stir to coat, and add the milk. Let the sauce thicken at medium heat for about 5-10 min, until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add the salt and the ground pepper. Pour the mixture into a pie plate (or a medium-sized casserole dish) and cover with the pie crust. Flute the edges and cut several vents into the top of the crust. Put into a 350˚ oven for 40 min.
The crust should be golden brown and slightly crispy. Make sure you let the pot pie sit for at least 10 min before you cut into it because it is going to be very hot. If you can't wait (I never can!) just be very careful. Getting your mouth (or hands) burned is no fun at all. Other than that, enjoy!

If you have any questions about this recipe, feel free to contact me!

Recipe: One Pot Roasted Chicken & Potatoes

2009-02-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

This is an awesome one pot meal idea. My boyfriend always yells at me for using multiple pots when I cook (in my kitchen, I cook and he cleans!) so I created this specifically to use only one pot. The chicken is first seared in the pan and then finished in the oven with a liquid. I use beer--but you can use broth if you don't want to use alcohol.
A quick note about chicken--I used boned and skinned legs and thighs for this recipe. You can use any chicken cut that you like, but be aware that the cooking and searing times will be lessened if you use a skinless and/or boneless cut. In addition, white meat cooks much faster than dark meat. So, for example, if you were to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, you would want to cut the searing and cooking times in half. I would sear the breasts for 1-2 minutes, remove to a plate, cook the veggies as directed for 30 min in the oven, and then add the chicken breasts when you add the flour and cook another 30 min.

Ingredients:
- 2 legs and 2 thighs, with skin and bones
-Small yellow potatoes, cubed, enough for about 1-1.5 C
-2 medium to large carrots, cut into sticks
-1 TB olive oil
-2 tsp rosemary
-1 tsp thyme
-1 TB crushed garlic
-1/2 C of beer, an ale, I used Newcastle
-1 tsp salt
-pepper to taste
-1 TB flour

Directions:

Heat oven to 350˚.

You will need a pan that can be used both in the oven and on the stovetop.

Put the olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic in a dutch oven on the stove. Turn heat to medium and saute the garlic. Add the chicken pieces skin side down and sear for 5-10 minutes. We want te skin to get nice and crispy!
While the chicken is browning, cube the potatoes and the carrots. Add to the chicken, along with the rosemary, thyme and beer. Turn off the heat. Cover the dutch oven and put in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, take out and uncover. Add the flour and stir (as much as is possible, we just want to evenly distribute the flour). Put back in the oven uncovered for another 30 minutes. Take out of the oven, check seasonings, plate, and enjoy!

Recipe: Potato and Kale Gratin

2009-02-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

What is kale, you ask?
Kale is a leafy green vegetable that, once upon a time, you would have hated but your mother would have made you eat anyway. Now that you're grown, kale is a leafy green vegetable that is sort of strange (what does one make with kale?) but you keep getting it in your produce box because it is in season. So you have to find SOMETHING to do with it because you are not going to let it go to waste (that wouldn't be very responsible of you) and besides, kale is very good for you. It is leafy, and green. That is almost the definition of "good for you".
If you are anything like me, you take veggies that you are unsure of and turn them into gratin. There is no vegetable that a little butter and cheese will not cure.

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, thinly sliced.
1 bunch kale, stems and inner ribs removed and leaves chopped.
1 medium to small onion, thinly sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic
Parmesan cheese

Sauce:
1 TB butter
1 TB flour
1 C milk
Pinch of saffron
Salt and pepper

A quick note about kale--you have to make sure that you wash the leaves very well. Buggies love to hide in kale leaves. For example, I just had a photo shoot in my bed with my kale bunch so I could get the Still Life with Steffany and Kale shot, above, and now there are bugs in my bed. Boyface is going to be upset. Moving on.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375˚

Chop all of the vegetables and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the garlic and onion and saute around 5 min, until the onion is starting to become soft. Add some ground black pepper. Add the kale and the saffron, and cook until the kale has reduced to about half of its original size. While you are waiting for the kale to cook, line the bottom of an 8x8 in pan with the potato slices, reserving enough potatoes for a second layer.
Return to the kale, add the flour, stir, then add the milk and simmer the entire mixture until thick. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle a layer of parmesan cheese over the potatoes, add the greens, then sprinkle another layer of parmesan. Add the final layer of potatoes on top of the greens, then add more parmesan on top of the potatoes. Cover, and put in the oven. If you don't have a lid for the dish you are using, you can use a cookie sheet or some foil.
Bake for 30 minutes covered. After 30 minutes, uncover, and cook for a final 15 minutes. You want the cheese on top to be browned, and the potatoes to be tender.
Remove from oven and let cool before slicing.

Yum!

Recipe: Poached Eggs with Dijon Dill Sauce

2009-02-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

I've been really lazy lately--not posting anything, and I haven't taken any pictures in awhile, either. I'm going to try to start posting a new recipe every Friday, but I can't promise I'll have a bunch of pictures to match. I try; but it is really difficult to cook and photograph at the same time!

Poached Eggs with Dijon Dill Sauce, for 2

This is something I invented myself last Saturday morning while I was trying to figure out what to make for breakfast.

Ingredients:
2 slices of toasted Ciabatta bread, 1.5-2" thick.
2 slices of honey ham
1/2 C. shredded, steamed chard
2 eggs, poached

For sauce:
1/2 TB of butter
1/4 tsp of flour
1/3 C of half and half
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp honey dijon mustard
A bit of dill, around 1/8 tsp, just a few gentle shakes of the spice jar
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Toast the bread, top with the ham, and put in a 250 degree oven to keep warm. Prepare the chard by removing the stems and center vein and slicing into ribbons. To steam, put in a pot with 1/2" of water and cook until the chard is bright green, around 5 minutes. Put aside.
Poach the eggs. Fill a pot with water, enough so that the cracked eggs will be completely submerged. Add 1 TB of white vinegar to the water. Bring to a boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil, make the sauce (recipe below). Crack the eggs into the boiling water. Reduce the heat to medium and cover. Cook for 2-5 minutes, depending on how well done you like your eggs. I usually cook mine for about 3 minutes, and I like them slightly runny.

Sauce:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add the flour and stir to combine. Add the half and half and stir again until slightly reduced. Add the garlic powder, dill, and a little bit of pepper. Turn off the heat and add the mustard, stirring until completely combined. Taste and add salt if needed.

To assemble:
Take the bread and ham out of the oven and plate. Divide the chard evenly onto both slices, top with the poached eggs and the sauce, and enjoy!

Recipe: Avoglemeno Greek Wedding Soup-Originally Posted 1.16.09

2009-01-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

My first soup recipe!

I originally got this recipe from Rachel Ray-her Greek Wedding Soup. I changed it just a little, added chopped kale and I made it avoglemeno. Avoglemeno is a traditional Greek sauce made of eggs and lemon that is added to soup. Avoglemeno soup is usually made with chicken and rice (that's how my Dad used to make it for me when I was little, anyway) but the sauce itself can be added to any soup that you like.

Ingredients:
5 cups of chicken stock (or beef, whatever you have on hand)
1/2 lb of ground beef
3/4 C orzo pasta
1 C chopped Kale (or other leafy green veggie, like spinach, chard, or collards)
2 eggs
1 lemon
1/2 C of breadcrumbs
1 tsp Parsley, dried
1 tsp Oregano, dried
2 tsp garlic
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Drizzle some olive oil (about 1 TB) into a pot large enough to hold 5 cups plus of liquid. Remove the inner stem (unless you're using spinach) from the leafy green of your choice and chop into small pieces. Saute the greens for about 5 minutes, and add the orzo. Saute for another few minutes, until the pasta starts looking like it is toasted (5 minutes max!). Add the stock and turn the heat to high. While you wait for the liquid to boil, make the meatballs.

Meatballs:
Mix together the ground beef, breadcrumbs, 1 egg, garlic, parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper. Once the stock is boiling, turn the heat to medium so that the liquid stays as a simmer. Form the meat mixture into balls with your hands and drop them one by one into the simmering liquid. Then, start on the avoglemeno.

Avoglemeno:
Crack the remaining egg into a medium to large sized bowl, and scramble. Add the juice of 1 lemon and scramble again. Next is the tricky part. If you have ever made egg drop soup, you will know that if you add egg to a hot liquid the egg will curdle. That is NOT what we want. So the trick is to mix the lemon and egg sauce with one hand while you carefully add little bits of hot stock, about a 1/4 cup at a time. I usually use a big soup spoon, or a small ladle. Continue to add the hot stock a little bit at a time until you have added at least a cup of stock (I prefer to add 2 cups just to be sure) to the egg mixture. Then, turn off the heat to the soup. While the heat is off, stir the soup with one hand and add the avoglemeno and hot stock mix with the other. Once the two have combined, turn the heat up again to about medium and let the soup come to a boil, stirring the entire time.

Turn the heat off and check the seasonings, adding more pepper, salt, lemon, what have you. Ladle into bowls and enjoy!

Recipe: Beef Stroganoff Skillet-Originally Posted 12.18.08

2009-01-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite meal idea right now. It's quick and super-delicious. I got the original recipe from foodnetwork.com but I don't use the actual recipe anymore, and the one below isn't verbatim.

Ingredients:
1/2 Lb ground beef
1 pkg (16 oz) of egg noodles
1TB olive oil
1 tsp (ish) of some kind of grill seasoning, like McCormick's or Old Bay
1/4 C of sour cream
2 cups of beef stock
1 tsp flour, optional
1 small onion (or half of a large one)
4-5 cloves of garlic or jarred equivalent
ground pepper
parsley
This dish is made on the stovetop, and all in one pan, so make sure you grab a pan large enough to fit everything. You'll also need either a lid or a lid-like device to cover.
Chop the onions. Pour the olive oil into the pan and set the heat to medium-high, then add the chopped onion. Sauté the onion until slightly translucent, then add the onion and the ground beef. Cook the beef until browned, but still pink.
Add the grill seasoning to the meat and stir. Add the egg noodles and the beef stock, lower the heat, and put the lid on.
Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the noodles have been cooked enough to be able to stir. Stir and cook until the noodles are tender. At this point, add the sour cream and stir again.
This is where the flour comes in! If the sauce looks too thin, add the flour to thicken. Simmer until the sauce is as thick as you would like. Add the parsley and stir to combine. Put the noodles into individual bowls and top with cracked pepper.

Yum!

This isn't exactly healthy, but it is SO DELICIOUS and hey, it's homemade! If you're feeling especially guilty you could serve alongside some steamed veggies like broccoli or green beans (I keep frozen green beans in my freezer for just this reason).

Enjoy!

My Sad Tomato-Orig. Posted 12.6.08

2009-01-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

I live in San Francisco. This summer, I wanted a garden very badly. So I picked up my copy of "You Grow Girl" by Gayla Trail, and read the sections on urban and container gardening obsessively.
On my fire escape, I had baby popping corn, strawberries, bell peppers, and tomatoes. They were all doing marvelously, until they all died.
The corn grew and grew until it came down with some kind of nasty fungi.
The strawberries never flowered, and thus never bore fruit, and eventually just kind of gave up and dried out.
The bell peppers were infected with aphids, and NOTHING I did cured them of this affliction. I eventually just threw them away.
But the tomatoes, oh the tomatoes.
They survived, somehow, and even managed to bear some fruit. One fruit, to be exact. This fruit.
Close up.
It's looking much more red now, but you get the idea. I am very protective of my little tomato. I put him on the balcony during the day so he can get some sun, and I bring the whole pot in at night when it is cold.
It's a little ridiculous, actually, but I refuse to let the damn thing die. I'm becoming a little attached, actually. I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to eat it!

In other news, I bought a christmas tree this year. It's not a real christmas tree, it's a rosemary bush trimmed to look like one.
See the tag?
I made the cranberry and popcorn garland myself. My boyfriend and I are having a foodie-themed christmas.
The rosemary has already come in quite handy (rosemary potatoes, anyone? Yum!) and I figure if I can keep it alive, I can just trim it back into a tree shape and use it again next year.

The problem with that logic is that I've never managed to keep rosemary alive for longer than a few weeks, so wish me luck!