Justa Pasta Cheesecake

I should, but do not, have a picture of this. I have made it several times and each time am flabbergasted by how good it is. It is not like other cheesecakes (flash of Michael Jackson saying, "I'm not like other guys" in the Thriller video), and no one ever leaves any on his or her plate, no matter how much they might not usually like cheesecake. The one change I might possibly suggest would be to use the juice of half a lemon instead of a whole.

Justa Pasta's Cheesecake
as printed in the Oregonian in September 2004 (thanks to Sara Perry for sending it to me after I struggled accessing the archives!)

Makes one 10-inch cake, serving 14 to 16 (or more; 21 1.5" slices have 386 calories each)

Crumb Crust
3 cups graham cracker crumbs (19-20 whole cracker sheets)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

Filling
Four 8-ounce packages (32 ounces total) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, preferably baker’s
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg, at room temperature

Topping
2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Juice from 1 medium lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Drop of almond extract

Do not preheat the oven.

To make the crumb crust: Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until well blended and crumbly (my Cuisinart had the softening cream cheese in it, so I put the crushed-slightly-with-my-fingertips crackers in my Kitchenaid with the butter and brown sugar, and it worked just great to break them down further). Transfer to a 10-inch springform pan and firmly press the mixture onto the bottom of the pan (I use my straight-sided metal one-cup measure). Chill the crust while making the filling.

To make the filling: In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond extract until creamy and smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the egg until fully blended. Pour into the springform pan and place it in the center of the cold oven. Turn on the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.

To make the topping: Meanwhile, mix together the sour cream, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract until blended. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and gently (very! one time I made this I wasn't so gentle, and made a big divot in the filling from the topping waterfall) spread the topping over the cake. Lower the oven to 300 degrees and bake for 15 additional minutes. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Using a paring knife, loosen the sides from the inside edge of the pan. Slice and serve.

Witches' Fingers

I almost couldn't find the paper this recipe was written on, leading to a moment of panic as I realized I hadn't yet posted it here, and I really, really wanted to make them.

Witches' Fingers
courtesy of Arta Johnson

1 C butter, softened
1 C powdered sugar
1 egg
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
green food coloring
2 3/4 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 C whole blanched almonds
1 tube red decorator gel

Cream butter and sugar, then add egg, extracts, and food coloring, scraping bowl so color distributes evenly. Stir in dry ingredients until well mixed. Cover and refrigerate (not too long--the dough breaks apart during shaping if it's too cold).

Roll a small ball (heaping teaspoon) into a snake about three inches long and no more than half-inch in diameter. Bend to oblique angle as shown, pushing dough a little toward bend, so the knuckle is slightly fatter. Press almond into one end for fingernail, then use paring knife to slash wrinkles at the knuckles.

Bake on parchment paper 20-25 minutes (uninsulated v insulated baking sheets) at 325. Let cool on trays 3 minutes, then carefully lift almond, squeeze a dab of decorator gel underneath, and press back in place so the gel just squeezes out around the edges. Remove from sheets and let cool completely on racks.

Happy (Belated) Purim!

Purim fell during spring break, and though I had grand plans of making Smitten Kitchen's hamantaschen at my mother-in-law's house, it just didn't happen. I finally got around to making them a couple of days ago, and yum! I omitted the lemon zest from the dough, because I just wanted to taste the butter, and used two fillings I had on hand: Nutella topped with a few diced roasted hazelnuts, and homemade rhubarb-ginger jam. Deb from Smitten Kitchen recommends baking 15 minutes, but on insulated sheets and after refrigerating the shaped cookies, mine weren't nearly done after that long. The jam-filled ones, the paler ones in the picture below, were in for 20 minutes, and the Nutella batch probably five minutes more than that. I recommend really letting them get golden for optimal flavor and texture. For ease in handling the dough, let it warm back up almost to room temperature before rolling, but still try to minimize handling.

Thanksgiving sides and desserts

Thanksgiving was at J&J's house this year, so they provided turkey and trimmings, and we brought side dishes and a dessert. I brought three sides: Roasted Green Beans, Cocoa-Roasted Butternut Squash and Cauliflower and Brussels Sprout Gratin. The beans and gratin were total winners (thanks to my sister for pointing me toward the gratin recipe!), but the squash wasn't nearly as good as it sounded.

Cocoa-Roasted Butternut Squash
adapted (mostly to shrink quantities--the original recipe would feed an army) from a recipe printed in Oregonian FOODday, November 16, 2010

3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t salt
pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
scant 1/4 t cinnamon
1 t granulated sugar
2 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into one-inch chunks
1 1/2 T vegetable oil
1/4 C toasted slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 375. Combine cocoa, salt, sugar and spices in a small bowl. Toss squash with the oil, then with the cocoa-spice mixture. Arrange squash on foil-lined baking sheet, then roast for 40-45 minutes or until tender. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with almonds.

Perhaps I ended up with a particularly flavorless squash, but this didn't taste like mole sauce (as the article had promised). If I were to try it again, I would use less cocoa and swap the teaspoon of white sugar for a couple tablespoons of brown.

The dessert was a much less equivocal success. A few years back, a friend sent me a recipe, originally from Fine Cooking magazine, and I finally got around to making it.

Chocolate-Glazed Peanut Butter Tart
adapted from Fine Cooking Winter 2005

Crust:
1 C cookies ground in a food processor (about 25 chocolate wafers, 8 whole graham crackers, 35 Nilla wafers)
2 T granulated sugar
3 T unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Mix crumbs, sugar and butter until well blended (I do it all in the food processor to avoid dirtying another bowl). Press crumb mixture into a 9.5-inch tart pan, using a straight-sided steel measuring cup. Bake about 10 minutes, then let cool.

Filling:
1 1/2 C whole milk
1/4 t salt
3 egg yolks
1/3 C light brown sugar
4 t flour
1/2 C creamy natural peanut butter
1/2 t vanilla

Bring milk and salt to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, brown sugar, and flour until well blended. Slowly add hot milk, whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into saucepan, and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a full boil. Boil one minute, then remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour hot custard into the crust and spread evenly. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cold, at least two hours.

Glaze:
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 C unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 T light corn syrup

Melt chocolate and butter in a double-boiler or bain-marie, then whisk in corn syrup until smooth. Carefully remove plastic wrap from filling, then drizzle the glaze over the filling and spread to cover whole surface of tart. Refrigerate until glaze is set, at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours.

Creepy Treats, anyone?

Witches' Fingers

1 C butter, softened
1 C powdered sugar
1 egg
1 t almond extract
1 t vanilla extract
green food coloring
2 3/4 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 C whole blanched almonds
1 tube red decorating gel

Beat together butter and sugar, then beat in egg, extracts and food coloring. Stir in dry ingredients, then chill.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll one-inch ball of dough into a finger shape--thin with a thick knuckle. Press almond into one end for fingernail. Cut wrinkle slashes into knuckle with sharp paring knife.

Bake on parchment-lined cookie sheets 20-30 minutes (longer time for insulated sheets), until just starting to color. Let cool five minutes, then lift almond and squeeze gel underneath. Let cool completely (and gel set) before moving into a tin for storage.

Mixed Bag

I should have made it on New Year's Day, of course, but I got around to making Hoppin' JaneAnne, and this time I took pictures! It was only a mixed bag because Newton didn't like the squash, the Wizard didn't like the black-eyed peas, and Cindy Lou was pretty dubious about the whole thing. I thought it was delicious.

The black-eyed peas, a little overcooked because I forgot to turn the crock pot to low before going shoe shopping.


The bacon.


The butternut squash, peeled and cubed.


The onion, chopped in the Cuisinart.


Sautéeing the bacon.


Sautéeing the onions and celery in a little bacon grease.


Carrot, julienned with the mandoline.


Baby spinach, stemmed and roughly chopped.


Spinach sautéed with the wilted and browned onion and celery.


Toasting the rice in a little bacon grease.


Simmering the rice, carrot and squash covered in chicken broth.


The finished product, after folding in the bacon, sautéed veggies and black-eyed peas.

Orange Latkes

Just as the Orange Mashed Potatoes have nothing to do with oranges, likewise with the Orange Latkes.

But first, the rest of dinner. I made the French Roast Chicken in a Pot I previously posted about with no pictures. Here's what it looked like during the stovetop part of the process:



I also made the Simple Crusty Bread, and realized as I was looking back that I never put my preferred method all in one post. Here it is:

Simple Crusty Bread
(no-knead variety)
adapted from several sources

6-6 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour, or combination of all-purpose and whole wheat (not more than 1/2 whole wheat)
3 C warm tap water (100-110 degrees)
1 1/2 T active dry yeast
1 1/2 T kosher salt
1 1/2 T honey (if using whole wheat flour)

Put water in a large bowl. Add salt and honey, then sprinkle yeast over top and let soften for a couple of minutes. Stir until everything is dissolved, and then add flour to make a thick, sticky dough. Cover with a slightly-dampened kitchen towel and let rest at room temperature for 2-5 hours. Then either cover and refrigerate, or start making loaves.

To make a loaf, sprinkle the dough with a little flour and use a serrated knife (my tomato knife works great) to cut off 1/4-1/3 of the dough. (Unless baking multiple loaves, cover remaining dough and put it in the fridge.) Knead on a flour-covered board just one or two times, to smooth the surface a little and get a little flour on the outside so it sticks less. Then form the dough into a round loaf shape, holding the dough between your hands and stretching it with your thumbs while pushing it back in on itself with your fingers. Turn it over and pinch the pushed-in parts together. Cover the board generously with flour, place loaf on board pinched side down, sprinkle with more flour, and cover loosely with a tea towel. Let rest 40-60 minutes.

One half-hour before baking, turn oven on to 450 degrees and put dutch oven (cast iron and stainless steel both seem to work fine) in to preheat. When ready to bake, take pot from oven and remove lid, slash a deep (1/2-3/4") cross in the dough, and carefully transfer dough to hot pot. Replace lid and put back in oven to bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove lid and let cook 10-30 minutes longer, until brown, crusty, and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom. Let cool, slice, and serve with good butter.

Now for the latkes. I originally heard this great recipe on NPR several years ago, and have made it several times since. This year I decided to see if adding garnet sweet potatoes would make as large an improvement to the latkes as it did to the mashed potatoes, and the answer is oh, yes, yes, and YES. Here is the recipe with my adaptations (HIGHLY recommended, though of course if you're allergic to sweet potatoes you can follow the original).

Orange Latkes
adapted from Judith Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America

1 lb russet potatoes
1 lb garnet sweet potatoes
1 bunch scallions, chopped (all the way up, not just the light parts)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
canola oil for frying
applesauce and sour cream for serving

1. Peel russet and sweet potatoes, and skin, trim and halve onion, and grate in a food processor (theoretically you could do this by hand, but it sounds awful, doesn't it?). Dump all grated vegetables in a bowl and mix with 3/4 t kosher salt. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, then put in a tea towel and wring out as much liquid as you can.

Let squeezed liquid sit in bowl for another 10 minutes or so (leaving veggies in towel to minimize exposure to air), then carefully pour off, leaving white potato starch behind in the bowl.

2. Add the veggies back into the bowl, and stir in scallions, egg, a little more kosher salt, and a good amount of freshly ground black pepper.

3. Heat about 1/4" or a little less canola oil in an electric frying pan to 350 degrees. Use a medium-large portion scoop (a couple of tablespoons) to scoop up some of the potato mixture and place in pan, flattening with the back of the scoop.

Cook until golden, then flip to brown the other side.

Put on paper-towel lined plate and keep in 170-degree oven until you have a few layers saved up.

Call everyone to dinner and serve with sour cream and applesauce.

Bûche de Noël

We had a lovely Christmas Eve. My family traditionally does the big meal on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. I planned a simple menu, and farmed out most of the side dishes, so I could concentrate on dessert. And what a dessert it was!

But first . . .

Here are the boys, decorating makeshift paper-bag Christmas stockings so Santa would have some place to put the small amount of candy he was able to purchase at Fred Meyer on our wild snowy four-wheel-drive ride on Monday. I have the materials to make wonderful stockings for the whole family, but haven't yet gotten around to putting them together. You know how it goes.


Here is the grownup table, decorated with pine cones, velvet cord and bows, and red glass votives and bud vases, the vases filled with snippets of fir.


And here is the kid table, complete with kids (oldest nephew Rico was sitting with the grownups, along with his sister). Don't you just love how proto-teenager Newton refuses to smile for pictures? Grr. Hope Santa puts a little piece of coal in his stocking for the sour puss he's got in every picture lately.


Finally, here is the bûche! I didn't take any pictures of the process, because frankly there were about ten times when I was convinced that it wasn't going to work. But it did, more or less. I followed Julia Child's instructions in The Way to Cook, baking a French sponge cake in a jelly roll pan, and filling and frosting the cake with a chocolate mousse based on an Italian meringue. I also used the meringue to make the mushrooms. (I did skip the caramel veil.) Next year I'll make a different cake (there wasn't enough of this one to balance out the mousse), but the mousse was pretty divine. And having it based on meringue (though it didn't taste at all meringue-y) meant not having to make a separate meringue for the mushrooms, which I think are essential. If anyone's interested in the meringue/mousse instructions, let me know and I'll edit this post to add them.



Hope your holiday food is delectable, too! Later this week I'll try to make (and post about) the most fantastic latkes. This year my experiment will be adding a little red sweet potato and seeing what happens. Mmmmmm. I'll also make my Split Pea Soup from the hambone left from today's dinner (which also included Mormon classic funeral potatoes and roasted green beans with shallot and lemon zest and pecan-pumpkin seed rolls, none of which were of my making).

Happy Easter!

Newton, the Wizard (Whizzer?) and Cindy Lou. The reasons for calling the bigger guy Newton I think are pretty obvious. Plus our street used to be called Newton Street before the big renaming/numbering going on 100 years ago. The little guy's name needs a little more explanation. One of his favorite things is to "talk 'bout wedders." He'll say each letter of the alphabet and then one to several words starting with that letter. The first time he said, "Ell, wizard," it kind of threw me for a minute. The boys' shirts and the baby's sweater were all purchased at resale. Yay for reuse!

We hosted Easter dinner with J&J and fam, plus a couple of other friends. I made the classic ham (because it's easy!) and scalloped potatoes, J brought broccoli, and for some reason I thought we needed three desserts: ganache-filled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chocolate pots, and spritz cookies. Often when I am overambitious like this one or more gets tossed by the wayside, but this time I finished all three without feeling like a stress case. Helps that they were all really easy.

The chocolate pots were a recipe from Real Simple from a while back, basically just a scratch chocolate pudding. I put them in adorable Easter egg-shaped ramekins I got from the Crate & Barrel outlet a few years ago.

Chocolate Pots

2/3 C sugar
2 T cornstarch
1/8 t kosher salt
3 C whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 t vanilla
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
cocoa powder for garnish (optional)

Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in medium saucepan. Add 1/3 C of the milk, whisking until smooth, then add remainder of milk and egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly (or nearly so) until thickened, about 180 degrees. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla and chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted. Pour into ramekins and chill 2-48 hours. Sprinkle with cocoa powder before serving if desired.

The recipe calls for 8 4-oz ramekins, but as you can see in the picture, I used 11. I don't know if the recipe testers just filled them fuller, or if my ramekins are slightly smaller than 4 oz.



The cupcakes were a redo from a while back, only this time I decided to frost them with cream cheese frosting, tinted pink. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of the finished product--I actually went to the effort of piping the frosting, and then they were topped with these cute Easter sprinkles I've had hanging around in the cupboard for just such an opportunity (along with the Easter-egg printed wrappers hidden by the tin). I'm not sure whether I like them better with the frosting or the ganache. Certainly the frosting is more seasonally adaptable.



The spritz cookies are from a basic recipe I got from my mom. It's not the one in the Betty Crocker Cookie Book--that one has never worked right for me. The color (from violet gel food coloring) turned out a little odd--I wonder if it would have been nicer if I had used bleached flour? Not that I generally would use bleached flour for anything (although the cupcake recipe calls for cake flour, which is usually bleached).



The scalloped potatoes came from Cook's Illustrated, only doubled and some of the potatoes substituted with garnet sweet potatoes. Here's how I made it:

Scalloped Orange-and-White Potatoes
makes a 10x14 inch Pyrex pan's worth

I used the food processor for the onion, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and cheese, scraping but not rinsing in between. Very efficient.

2 T unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 medium cloves garlic, pressed
1 t fresh thyme leaves
2 1/2 t salt
1/2 t ground black pepper (accidentally omitted)
3-3.5 lb russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
2 lb garnet "yams," peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
2 C chicken broth (from about 1/2 C homemade concentrated stock)
2 C heavy cream
2 bay leaves (again, accidentally omitted)
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in large Dutch oven (my favorite 6-qt one was a bit small to hold everything and still allow for stirring) over medium-high heat until foaming subsides. Sauté onion until soft and beginning to brown, then add garlic, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, liquid and bay leaves and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover, and cook until potatoes are not quite done (barely pokable but still on the stiff side). Transfer mixture to baking dish (removing bay leaves), sprinkle with cheese, and bake until slightly browned and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

They turned out a bit runnier than I would have liked--next time I think I'll reduce the chicken broth. They also got a bit overcooked because the oven (from which we had just pulled the ham) wasn't quite ready when they were, so they cooked on the stove a bit longer. The sweet potatoes were fabulous in there, though--next time I think I'll try an even larger percentage substitution.



One item from dinner that didn't make it into the photo was my family's traditional Ham Sauce, made from sweetened whipped cream, a little mayonnaise, dry mustard (for kick), and yellow mustard (for color). Nothing like fat and sugar to make everything taste better, right?

Dandy Dinde

We had a crazy crowd chez Chovy yesterday. We hosted three other young families, so there were children aged 7, 7, 5, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, and zero (yes, that means the adults were outnumbered--a childless couple did show up for desserts, which made things briefly even, at least on paper). My idea was that more guests => less for any one person to prepare, which turned out to be just right. And the kids made less chaos than I had feared (thanks to starting at a regular dinner hour, being pretty well prepared, and having a favorite movie for them to watch after they had inhaled their dinners and the adults were still eating).

I made the turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Others brought the green beans with slivered almonds, yam souffle, rolls, pecan pie, apple pie à la mode, mint brownies, fruit pizza, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Everything was delicious. We had a two-year-old table (the coffee table with kid chairs, moved into the dining room bay window--Number Two was the only toddler who actually sat and ate for any appreciable amount of time), a kid table (all boys!) in the breakfast room, and a grownup table set with my grandmother's sterling and linens.

I thought the turkey turned out fabulously well this year. I bought a natural turkey, but did absolutely nothing special to prepare it (I have a newborn, remember?), just loaded the stuffing, put it on the roasting rack and shoved it in the oven at 425° for a half-hour, then lowered the temp to 350° for most of the duration. I tried to use my oven's probe so I wouldn't have to keep checking the temperature, but had a hard time finding a good spot to stick it because (this year's big experiment) I put the turkey on the rack breast side down, AND LEFT IT THAT WAY THE WHOLE TIME. There are lots of recipes that recommend putting the turkey prone for part of the cooking time, but they all say to turn it supine at some point so it looks better. Well, I don't care what it looks like! What with resting and carving ahead of time, no one other than me and the carver sees it whole. I only care what it tastes like. So, I would say this experiment was an unqualified success. With no brining, and no basting, I had breast meat that was juicy--hooray!

The stuffing was also primo. I made a loaf of plain white bread in my bread machine (remember how trendy these used to be? now I only use it once a year), cut it into half-inch cubes, and dried it in the oven. Right before loading, I sautéed in a few tablespoons of butter a large onion and four or five ribs of celery, finely chopped, and added a lot of finely chopped herbs (a whole bunch of parsley, and fistfuls of thyme and sage from the garden) at the end. After tossing the veggies/herbs with the bread cubes, only about half of it fit in the turkey's two cavities, so the other half got tossed with two cups homemade chicken broth and put into the crock pot on low. Before serving, I mixed both parts together. Yum--the stuffing was the one dinner item I didn't parcel out to send home with the guests; I just like it too much to share.

As I mentioned, the pie crust using part leaf lard (4 T, with 6 T butter) turned out flaky and fine. I can hardly wait to use it in a crust I'll be eating right away, and not the next day. The filling was the good old stand-by, the recipe straight off the side of the Libby's can. To me, it just tastes how it oughter.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Oink Oink

Mavis had a birthday this week, and requested something piggish for dinner. I told him to check in the basement freezer, and from the available options, he chose a pork loin roast (other alternatives were a Boston butt, chorizo and andouille sausages). I then gave him the option of herb-crusted or maple-glazed, and he opted for the herbs, with a side of polenta and peas.

No pictures, sorry--the camera batteries were dead and I was disinclined at that moment to fetch more. Besides, it tasted better than it looked.

I used a recipe from the March-April 2007 Cook's, deviating slightly, which in retrospect I wouldn't recommend. Well, I also deviated in not brining the meat, which I don't regret in the slightest. I get my pork from a guy who raises heirloom pigs, and this roast was heavily marbled and not in the least lacking in moisture or flavor. Where I shouldn't have deviated was in trying to take a shortcut in making the crumb mixture for the top of the roast, which shortcut resulted in a kind of bread paste instead of a crumb coating. Tant pis.

Anyway, you make a crumb coating with about 1/2 C bread crumbs, a minced shallot, a couple tablespoons of grated parmesan, salt and pepper and about a tablespoon of olive oil. You also make an herb paste with a couple cloves of garlic, about half a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, one sprig's-worth minced rosemary, about ten sprig's-worth minced thyme, 6 T grated parmesan, 3 T olive oil and salt and pepper. You butterfly the roast (I used a boneless blade-end loin roast, as specified in the recipe, though the proportions on mine were different than the one pictured in the article), and spread about 3/4 of the herb paste inside. Tie it with a few pieces of string, then brown all over in hot oil. Then the recipe says to remove the strings (which I don't think I would do again--it kind of flopped apart in the oven as it cooked), spread the rest of the herbs on top and cover with the bread crumb mixture, then roast at 325 until the thickest part measures 145.

It was delicious, and a side bonus was that I figured out and got to use the meat probe that came with my stove. Very nice not to have to keep opening the oven to take the meat's temperature with an instant-read, when instead you can just check it on the oven's display.

For the polenta, I use this stuff from Bob's Red Mill, a local miller whose products are widely available. The package has instructions for both a slow, traditional cooking method, and a quick, easy one. Guess which one I always use? Then just stir in a bunch of grated parmesan, some unsalted butter, and frozen petite peas after taking off the heat, and voilà.

On a completely unrelated note, I had a great sandwich for lunch today, a salmon egg salad made from a couple ounces of leftover roast spring chinook, an Easter egg, chopped capers and dill, mayo and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Mmmmmm.

I've Got Balls

I had all sorts of grand plans for Easter candy this year, including trips to the houses of Leonidas, teuscher, and possibly Bernard C., but scheduling difficulties resulted in one quick trip to Cost Plus World Market on Saturday afternoon for both small toys and chocolates. You see, I knew that CPWM has the best local selection of the large bags of Lindor Truffles. Did you know that Lindt now makes a Lindor ball with 60% cocoa? They come in black wrappers, and they're just simply divine. I also purchased the standard blue-wrapped dark chocolate balls, plus mint (green), hazelnut (brown) and peanut butter (orangey-brown). No, no red (milk chocolate) or gold (white "chocolate") balls were purchased, though I admit I did purchase some for a big dinner party in January, because they matched the decor. And never ever will the raspberry (pink) or orange (orange) balls cross my doorstep, because fruit with chocolate is an abomination. But look--how handy. Now I don't even need to get my Hugh Jass out from in front of the computer.

Repurposing Leftovers

Even though spring has fully sprung now, I haven't fully satisfied my craving for hearty soups. The leftover meaty lamb bones from Sunday provided a perfect opportunity to try something new. Instead of looking through my collection for a suitable recipe, I just punted, and it turned out great.

I started with a thinly sliced onion, two peeled and sliced carrots, and one rib of diced celery. I sauteed them in a little olive oil (with a little salt and pepper) until the onion had softened and started to brown, and fond was accumulating at the bottom of the pan. Then I deglazed with some homemade chicken stock (a little less than a cup), added the meaty bones and water to just cover (3-4 quarts, I'd guess), a bit more salt and pepper, and a pound of French green lentils.

I simmered for about two hours, then pulled out the meat and bones and picked through it to remove the bones, gristle, and random oogy parts I didn't think the kids would like if they happened upon them in their bowls. Then I adjusted the saltiness, tossed in two russet potatoes (peeled and cut into one-inch pieces), and simmered until the potatoes were tender. At this point the lentils were fully cooked and lending some of their thickening power, augmented by the starch leaching out of the potatoes. A final check of seasonings, the addition of two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and the last quarter-cup or so of the wine-onion reduction from Sunday, and voilà! I heated the last few leftover rolls in the oven in foil packets at 300 and served them alongside. Number Two ate two whole bowls full of soup!

Palm Sunday Feast

Typically this would have been an Easter Feast, but with our hideous 3-6 pm church schedule (2-6 if you count choir practice, pretty mandatory for us), I knew there was no way I could make it work for Easter. Today was General Conference, so no regular church meetings => stay home and cook all day and eat dinner at an earlier, holiday hour.

The meat was the same as last year, except that I thought ahead and purchased a locally-raised leg of lamb before the end of the farmers' market last fall (last year I was scrambling and ended up with one from New Zealand--the Australian ones were too big to fit in my roasting pan!). I added a vegetable recipe that appeared in the paper (some time in the undetermined past--it didn't show up when I searched the paper's website), par-for-the-course orange and green mashed potatoes, a fruit salad provided by my sister-in-law, and rolls (those ultra-buttery ones that separate into flaky layers) from my great-grandma's recipe made by my mother.

Menu:

Slow-Roast Leg of Lamb with White Wine Reduction
Orange and Green Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus with Thyme, Blood Oranges and Pine Nuts
Salad of Kiwi, Strawberry and Pineapple
Buttery Flaky Rolls with butter and homemade marionberry jam
Rhubarb Cupcakes with whipped cream, diced roasted hazelnuts and crystallized ginger chips (repeat from last night)

I used rainbow chard for the greens in the mashed potatoes, chopping and adding the stems at the same time as the onions, and the leafy parts when the onions had softened and started to brown.



For the roast asparagus, clean a bunch of asparagus, snap off woody ends and snap remainder into two-inch pieces. Toast a handful of pine nuts in a dry skillet, and zest a blood orange, and set aside in a small bowl. Section three blood oranges, chop the leaves from a few sprigs of fresh thyme, and add them to the asparagus in a large bowl. Add salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil, and toss to distribute evenly. Roast in a single layer in a parchment-lined pan at 475 degrees for 10-15 minutes (10 was perfect for me), then toss with reserved pine nuts and zest. I prepared the pan of asparagus and oranges and set it aside until I pulled the lamb out of the oven. Just be on the lookout for kitchen "helpers" who steal raw asparagus (hi Mom! She's actually a really great sous chef, but she does have a weakness for snitching, as you can see below).



The potatoes just before transferring to their serving bowl:



Simmering the lamb sauce to reduce it further:



My plate, just before digging in (lookit all the pretty colors!):

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted Valentine's cookies, but didn't feel like rolling and cutting sugar cookies. So, pink heart spritz were in order. I recommend baking until starting to brown around the edges for better flavor and crispier/sandier texture.



And look what was waiting for me when I came downstairs today:


My husband rocks!

Great New Year's Day recipe

As you might have already guessed, I love the idea of themed and holiday food, so I was thrilled when my experiment this year with a black-eyed peas recipe turned out to be something I could feed my family for more than just New Year's Day. Assuming I'm still blogging come the end of the year, I'll try to repost this for your own New Year's 2008 celebrations.

The original idea was Hoppin' John, but I've never seen or eaten what I take to be traditional recipes, so I think it wouldn't be fair to call it that. Let's just call it

Hoppin' JaneAnne

1/2 lb good bacon
1 T olive oil

Cut the bacon crosswise into 3/8-inch pieces. Saute over medium heat until the fat is rendered and it's starting to crisp. Pour through a strainer over a Pyrex measuring cup and set aside.

1 med onion, chopped (I used the Cuisinart)
2 C loosely packed, coarsely chopped (1-in pieces at smallest) greens (I used 5 leaves, with stems, of rainbow chard, but just about anything would work)
salt and pepper

Add 1 T or so of reserved bacon grease back into pan (I used a 12-inch nonstick frying pan, but I think I would have used a risotto pan if I had one). When it is hot, add the onion. When it is just becoming translucent (longer if you are using a more delicate green), add greens and a little salt and pepper. Saute until greens are wilted and tender, then set aside (I pulled out the stems so I could cook them with the other ingredients since they were still crunchy).

1-1 1/2 C arborio rice
salt and pepper
1/2 C white wine
4-6 C chicken broth, preferably unsalted
2 C butternut squash, cut into 3/4-in cubes (about 1/2 of a medium-large squash)
1 can plain black-eyed peas, drained

Add a little bacon grease to the pan, then add the rice and a little more salt and pepper. Saute until the rice is starting to toast and become translucent, then add the wine. After the wine has been absorbed, add the reserved bacon, the squash, (reserved chard stems) and broth to cover (about a quart in my pan--lots more than I would normally add at a time when cooking a risotto, but I needed to cover the squash so it would cook at the same pace as the rice). Adjust heat so mixture cooks at a gentle simmer (so more of the liquid is absorbed than boils away), stirring occasionally and adding broth as necessary until rice and squash are tender.

Stir in reserved greens and onion mixture and black eyed peas, adjust seasonings and serve.

One thing I had planned to include in this recipe was a little chopped celery, which I would have sauteed with the onions and greens at the beginning. It was great without it, however. Kind of like a risotto (which Number One loves), but without the cheese (Number Two is allergic to cow's milk). Sorry there aren't any pictures!