A new twist on an old favorite

I was searching for our many many, many posts on brie bites - is it possible we don't have any?! How has this tragedy happened, because I know they are made often.

Last night I reverted back to the complete baked brie - and not the bites. I was attending a "Scotch Night", that has become an end of semester tradition for the Cognitive Psychology PhD students at UT, and brie seemed like the perfect accompaniment to scotch. It's actually very simple. One wheel of brie. A few sheets of thawed phyllo dough. Some kind of jam/jelly. A little melted butter. Done. I'm partial to putting apricot preserves on the brie, I'm not sure why. I think apricot is a nice flavor with the cheese, it adds a little sweet, but can also be very savory. Last night when I opened the fridge to pull out the cheese and preserves I spied a package of fresh rosemary, and the wheels began turning. I chopped up some of that fresh rosemary, and mixed it into the preserves. And, this was maybe the best choice I've made all week! Delicious!

Obamamuffins

In honor of the changes slated to occur tomorrow morning I've made Obamamuffins!  We're having a viewing party at school, and since I'm semi-famous for my "Yes we cake", I needed to prepare something! I present to you, my own special recipe, however the idea was a joint effort (thanks Mel!)

We Want Change Muffins*

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

3 tablespoons vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

8 ounces crushed pineapple

Topping:

1/3 cup flour

3 tbsp butter, melted

4 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin tins.  Beat eggs until fluffy, add sugar, oil, and vanilla.  Blend well.  Add zucchini.  Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add to batter and mix well.  Stir in pineapple.  Pour into muffin tins, about half to three-quarters full.  For topping, combine all ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle over the top.  Bake about 20 minutes, and brace yourself for a brand new day!

*admittedly, the concept here is a little more discrete than the half chocolate, half vanilla Obama cake I made, so here's the hidden meaning.  The pineapple is a nod to the Hawaiian background, and the zucchini-pineapple flavor is an attempt to make a muffin that perhaps no one has had before, bringing a new flavor to fix the old problems, pushing the muffin-flavor envelope, if you will.  I'm hopeful they will make breakfast a more pleasant experience.

Thanksgiving a la Mel

Overall, Thanksgiving was quite successful here at my place. Everyone was really helpful with their contributions, from side dishes to desserts to even cleaning up. Here's what was on the menu (if you'd like any of these recipes, let me know and I can write them out):

We started out with just a couple of appetizers. There was fruit as well as Jenni's famous brie bites that I made with homemade cranberry sauce instead of jelly. The fruit:


Mmmmmm. Thank you, Whole Foods! We had a few beverage options, but when people arrived, they mostly went for the hot beverage: mulled cider. I kept this warm in the crock pot, which was great because it eliminated the need of an additional large pot (my only one was already in use). I get the mulling spices from Williams Sonoma. It's quite delicious! I also made a Sangria with a mulled simple syrup, Spanish rose wine, red port, and triple sec. That was a new recipe, from Food and Wine magazine, and it turned out really great! Definitely a keeper. In addition, there was red wine and the left-over port from the sangria available.

For the meal, we did NOT have turkey because my brother-in-law is allergic (which is great for me because I wasn't about to cook a bird in MY oven!) so my parents brought ham instead. We also had delicious mashed potatoes that my brother-in-law made here with tons of garlic, cranberry sauce (that I forgot to put out with the meal. . . oops), onion tart c/o Michelle that was incredible, stuffing c/o Diane that was also incredible, roasted root vegetables with pine nut pesto that I made (another new recipe from F&W and it was super yummy if I do say so myself!), corn bread, roasted asparagus, and I believe that was it. For dessert, we had apple pie (that my mother-in-law made and has become quite famous in the family), cranberry pie (thanks to Leah!), and I made vanilla bean ice cream for the first time that was really rich but from what I heard pretty good, and pumpkin cheesecake that did NOT crack! Yeah! I was so proud that I took a picture:


Well that pretty much sums up the day! I wish I had taken more pictures, but what can you do. I was a little busy I guess! I'm glad that my new recipes weren't a disaster. I know you're not suppose to test out new recipes for a holiday (so say many chefs on TV. . . ) so while it was risky I have to say, "HAHA, Suckers!" I was suppose to have an additional dessert that was also a new recipe, but I'd like to forget that it ever happened. For those of you thinking about making Linzer Cookies, I have to advise against it. . . even if the pictures on the package are really cute and hard to resist, don't give in. And that is all. I hope your Thanksgivings were as wonderful as mine! Next up, Christmas! You better believe I'm already excited and looking forward to my Christmas baking (and I'm sure you are too, Jenni!) Happy Holidays!

Ugly Betty

My mom gave me her very old Betty Crocker cook book maybe a year ago. You know the one, like a big orange binder? Well, I may have taken it from her house. . . with some later permission to do so, but anyway, it had been in my possession for a while now and I hadn't used it, until recently.

Of course I wanted the book because of the cake recipes. Old recipes are usually good ones, right? They're classic. They're the ones you want to keep around for a while and share with others (or maybe not, depending on who your crowd is!) I figured if anyone was going to teach me how to make a great cake it would be Betty Crocker. And in my seemingly endless search for a moist yellow cake recipe, that I was convinced needed oil instead of butter, Betty had my back.

I found a lot of recipes in this great book that called for shortening. I think that's just plain gross, so those recipes were out. I mean, for decorator's frosting or even pie crust that's one thing, but otherwise, that's nasty. I kept looking and found Betty's recipe for Two Egg Chiffon Cake. By definition, I've now learned that a chiffon cake uses oil instead of butter. That's what I was looking for! What was also part of the process was separating the eggs. I whipped the whites to a meringue to be folded in later, which makes the cake light and fluffy. So we have moist. . . light. . . fluffy. . . all good things. I was excited!

After some minor issues whipping up the egg whites (humidity. . . ) the cake came out of the oven and luckily looked perfectly fine. The recipe recommended using a Pineapple Butter Frosting to top it off, so I did. It was just butter, confectioner's sugar, and drained, crushed pineapple. It's pretty hard to drain crushed pineapple completely though, so the liquid left in there is why I didn't need any milk. Other than being sweet, the frosting was really good! With the cake though, the whole thing tasted GREAT! Of course with the pieces of crushed pineapple throughout the frosting, I wasn't able to smooth it over and have it look anything close to even semi-professional. . . so I present you with "Ugly Betty. "

Happy Birthday....America!

While I was out yesterday afternoon watching the Red Sox Yankees game with some friends we devised our 4th of July fireworks viewing plan - to meet at a friend's house at 7:30pm and head over from there for the show starting at 8:30. By the time I got home from the game I had about 2 hours before I had to be ready to leave again, and I still had to go and walk the dog (as an aside, I've been dog-sitting for a week, and this dog likes to hike through the woods, where we see coyotes!!!) I left my house, headed for dogs house, and stopped at the grocery store on the way - I was not going to show up for pre-fireworks party empty handed. She likely doesn't know, but Melanie helped me devise this recipe while I was AT the grocery store. A few quick text messages back and forth and we'd decided on filling those little phyllo pastry cups with chocolate pudding and whipped cream. I decided to top them with strawberries and blueberries, for the full patriotic effect.

I must say, while this is like less homemade and more "semi" than what Sandra Lee would put on her show, they came out looking quite cute and being quite tasty. And, of course, the simple fact that I showed up with something in-hand made me quite pleased.

Happy and safe 4th to everyone!

Big Salad

Part of my May Resolutions involve not just eating better, but EATING. Like taking the time to sit and make myself something good for dinner, or lunch. For far too long I've been surviving (questionable) on special k red berries, graham crackers and yogurt. Sounds appetizing?!

So tonight I made a variation of my favorite salad recipe. It's a recipe that my mom started making years ago at Christmas, I believe it's called a Christmas Salad. I love it, but also crave it in the summer. I'd made an addition a few years back, including avocados (which, are also for lovers!) and they are now a permanent addition to my "Christmas Salad". Tonight, for the first time, I added some chicken - to make it more meal like, give me some protein, and hopefully stave off my recent ice cream cravings. And, it was...delicious.

The Salad includes baby spinach and butter lettuce (or Boston lettuce, or whatever really), sliced strawberries, balled honeydew melon, and Gouda or Edam cheese, and now, avocado. The dressing is a Lime Ginger dressing made with 1/2 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup honey, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and 1 teaspoon of ground ginger. Tonight, I made some extra dressing and marinaded a few chicken strips in it for a short while and then grilled the chicken. Everything tossed together, and viola - dinner is served. Resolution sustained.

How do you like them apples?

May I never eat another apple until mid-September at the earliest.