Simple Drop Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter + 2 Tbsp for pan

Method:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and melt 2 Tbsp butter in a glass baking dish in the oven.  When butter is almost totally melted, remove pan to have ready for biscuits.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Melt butter, mix with milk, and pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Mix until just moistened.  Drop by large filled tablespoons into the buttered baking dish, or use an ice cream scoop with a trigger mechanism for a rounder, more uniform biscuit.  Bake 8-12 minutes til biscuit tops begin to brown and the bottoms are golden brown.  Makes about 8 medium-sized biscuits.

Beer, Herb, and Cheddar Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dried parsley (1 Tbsp fresh)
3/4 tsp dried rosemary (2 tsp fresh)
3/4 tsp dried thyme (1 Tbsp fresh)
1 1/2 cups or 1 bag shredded cheddar cheese blend
12 oz beer of choice

Method:

Combine flour, soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add herbs and most of the cheese (reserve a good handful to top the loaf before baking) and combine once more.  Pour in beer slowly and mix all til just combined, making sure all flour has been incorporated.  You may need to turn the dough with your hands a couple times to do that.  Press dough into a greased loaf pan, stretching to the corners and leveling the top.  Cover with the remaining cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-60 minutes until loaf is browned and sounds hollow when tapped.  Cool before slicing and use a serrated knife.

Butternut Bread with Walnuts and Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:
*1 cup butternut squash purée
2 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp orange extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease (vegetable shortening or butter) and flour one 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl (KitchenAid mixer with paddle attachment), mix together the butternut squash puree, eggs, oil, water, orange extract, and sugars until thoroughly combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Stir the dry ingredients into the butternut squash mixture in two additions. Combine just until incorporated; do not over mix. Mix in walnuts and chocolate chips gently.  Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 65-75 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

*I prefer to roast my own honeynut butternut squash for the best tasting bread.  Those little dickens can be hard to find, so you can substitute canned butternut, pumpkin, or sweet potato puree with similar, delicious results.

Chicken Corn Chowder in the Slow Cooker

• Ingredients:
• 1-1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 
  
• 12 ounces red potatoes, sliced and diced thin
• 1 sweet onion, diced thin
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced thin
• 2 cups corn kernels, frozen, canned or roasted
• 
  
• 4 cups chicken broth or bone broth
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 
  
• 1/2 cup half and half (milk mixed with heavy cream)
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 1 package of bacon, baked in the oven til crisped and browned, then diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives or scallions
• shredded cheddar cheese
• a crusty, crackling baguette

• 
  

This will be a 7-8 hour event, with 3 hours of slow cooking the chicken, then 4-5 hours slow cooking the soup.

I started with putting uncooked chicken breasts in my slow cooker, then poured about a cup of bone broth on top of them. Take the 3 cloves of garlic and sprinkle/spread on top of the chicken. Add some salt and pepper on top, then close the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours. I turned my breasts twice while cooking because I can't let things alone, but it's not necessary to do that.

With about 20 minutes left on the breasts, I chopped up all the veggies. I used a bag of mixed baby potatoes, so there were red, gold, and purple in there. You can use all red if you like. I always dice onions and celery very small and thin, so that upon cooking they kinda melt away into the liquid, or at least you never bite into a big chunk. Usually I keep the shredded carrots on hand, because peeling and chopping them is just another thing that takes time. Whatever carrot shape you like works here -- shredded, waffle, or thin rounds.

When the chicken is done, put the breasts on a plate and shred with two forks. The goal is medium bite-sized pieces. You can leave some bigger pieces, because that's fun. However, refrain from turning it into confetti -- not really what we're going for.

Dump all the things back into the slow cooker -- chicken, potatoes, celery, onions, carrots, and frozen corn. Pour the rest of the broth in. Sprinkle in the thyme, oregano, paprika, salt, and pepper. Give it a few tosses with a large spoon to mix the seasonings and the veggies. Cook on high for 5 hours, stirring every hour.

The last 30 minutes of cooking are when you add the last ingredients to make the soup thick and creamy. Stir the half and half, cornstarch, and butter in a small bowl. When it's totally smooth and combined, stir it into the crockpot. If your soup seems too thin, you can add little amounts of cornstarch to thicken it. Always go slow when adding things to thicken soups, and give it a few minutes rest to absorb and recheck. Your soup may thicken suddenly after a minute and could end up TOO thick if you added too much.

Now is a good time to cook the bacon in the oven. Carefully line a large pan with foil, making sure the foil comes up the sides of every side of your pan. That keeps bacon grease from leaking under the foil and making a mess. Lay bacon strips flat side-by-side, and cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes until brown and crispy. After baking, crumble or dice the cooled bacon for the top of the finished soup. This will be a lot of bacon -- save some for tomorrow! Also -- now is the time to chop your scallions or chives.

Serve hot chowder with crumbled bacon, chopped scallions, sprinkles of your favorite cheddar cheese on top, and a hunk of a crusty, crackling baguette on the side. Cool the leftover chowder and freeze in small containers to have simple meals ready for reheating later.

Pumpkin Sage Biscuits

• Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup pumpkin or butternut squash purée
• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp cane sugar
• 1/2-1 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp because I'm trying to lower sodium in our diets)
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, frozen
• 1 1/2 tsp dried sage (or go fresh!)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream or whole milk (I used milk)
• For the egg wash:
• 1 small egg
• 1 Tbsp milk

How to:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Using a box grater, grate the butter into the flour mixture.  Place this mixture in the freezer, bowl and whisk, while you prepare the wet ingredients.
2. In another bowl, mix the chilled milk/cream, pumpkin/squash purée, and finely chopped sage. Whisk together until smooth. In a third bowl, make the egg wash by beating the egg and 1 Tbsp of milk together.
3. Remove the dry ingredients from the freezer.  With a pastry cutter or your hands, make sure the grated butter is fully incorporated into the flour (it should look like bread crumbs).  Gently add the pumpkin/squash mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring just until the dough starts to come together. Using your hands, lightly knead the dough in the bowl, until uniform, but avoiding overhandling it.
4. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and press the dough out to 3/4 inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2 inch round or square cookie cutter, cut out the biscuits.  Place on a lightly buttered baking sheet.  Brush the tops with egg wash.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in a 400F oven, until golden on top.  Transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack and serve warm.

This should make about 12 biscuits.  Mine were a little thin and I got 15.  Make sure your baking powder and soda are fresh to get nice, tall biscuits.  Also -- handle the biscuit dough as little as possible -- the butter staying cold is also what makes great biscuits. 

I enjoyed these warm with turkey and white cheddar cheese as a sandwich, and also warm with butter and blackberry jam.  DIVINE.

Dark Gingerbread Cake with Orange Zest and Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses

1/2 cup honey

• zest of 1 large orange or 2 small
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 
  
• Frosting:
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 pinch salt
• 1-2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan. Set pan aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda and salt. Set aside.  In a large bowl whisk together coconut oil, sugar, and eggs until thick and pale. Stir in molasses, honey and orange zest.

Add the dry ingredients in thirds to the wet ingredients. Stir together until well incorporated. Add the warm water and gently stir until the mixture is silky smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake cake for 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

While the cake bakes, make the cream cheese frosting. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, blend the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Stop the mixer and add the softened butter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat over medium speed until smooth and incorporated. Add one cup of powdered sugar and blend until incorporated. Add vanilla extract (and the paste from inside the scraped bean, if using) and remaining cup of powdered sugar if you're using it. Beat until frosting is smooth and silky.

Allow cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and place on wire rack. Allow to cool completely before frosting the cake.  This cake can be stored, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days.

Carbonnade (Flemish beef and beer stew)

Ingredients:
2 lb. beef chuck, cut into 2″ x ¹⁄₂″-thick slices

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

¹⁄₄ cup flour

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

4 slices bacon, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced lengthwise

2 cups Belgian-style ale, like Ommegang Abbey Ale

1 cup beef stock

2 tbsp. dark brown sugar

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

3 sprigs thyme

3 sprigs parsley

2 sprigs tarragon

1 bay leaf

Bread, for serving

Steamed vegetables

Season beef with salt and pepper in a bowl; add flour and toss to coat. Heat 2 tbsp. butter in a 6-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add beef; cook, turning, until browned, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate; set aside. 

Add bacon; cook until its fat renders, about 8 minutes. Add remaining butter, garlic, and onions; cook until caramelized, about 30 minutes. Add half the beer; cook, scraping bottom of pot, until slightly reduced, about 4 minutes. 

Return beef to pot with remaining beer, stock, sugar, vinegar, thyme, parsley, tarragon, bay leaf, and salt and pepper; boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, covered, until beef is tender, about 1 ½ hours. Serve with bread and steamed vegetables.

Autumn Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Filling:
6-8 pearl onions
1 cup shredded carrots
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 cups chicken broth
1 medium Granny Smith or Honneycrisp apple, peeled, sliced in thin, small chunks
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups cooked pulled or roasted chicken
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

To make filling: Drop pearl onions into boiling water for 30 seconds; drain and peel. Steam pearl onions and carrots until tender.

In large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and ginger until smooth. Reduce heat to low and gradually whisk in chicken broth.

Preheat oven to 450°F

Stir in pearl onions, carrots, apples, cranberries, lemon juice and chicken. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Stir in salt and pepper. Spoon filling into deep, 10-inch ceramic or glass pie dish.

Cover filling with a premade pie crust. Trim and crimp edges. Use small knife to cut several slits in center of pie. (Alternatively, make decorative cuts in pie crust before setting it on top of pie.)

Set pie on baking sheet and place in oven on middle rack. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 400°F and continue baking for an additional 20 minutes, or until pie bubbles around edges and top is nicely browned. Serve piping hot.

For added flavor, serve with goat cheese crumbles.

Turkey Chili with Pumpkin and Black Beans

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped (5-6 pearl)
• 1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained, or 1 small can tomato paste
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped flat parsley
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Cubed avocado, shredded cheddar, sour cream, or thinly sliced scallions, optional for serving

Saute onion and pepper over medium-low heat til softened and slightly browned.  Add garlic and cook all for another 2-3 minutes.  Push all veggies to side of pan, heat to medium, and brown the ground turkey in the pan, occasionally breaking apart the turkey and stirring the vegetables in.

When turkey is browned completely, stir in beans, pumpkin, tomatoes or paste, and chicken broth.  When well combined, add seasonings.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.  

Serve over rice with desired toppings and a side of cornbread.  For extra heat, top with your favorite hot sauce or buffalo sauce.

• 
  

Fall Time Is The Best Time

Well hello!  It's been a nice four month break!

Since last posting, I have been busy.  Busy doing too many things other than cooking and baking!  So now that all that nonsense is basically over, we're now in a rental house that has a really big kitchen.  It's the biggest kitchen I've ever had in a house.  There are so many cabinets, literally every kitchen gadget/appliance/pan that I own fits somewhere.  This is a new feeling for me and I enjoy it.

I bought a new fall cookbook -- $3.99 from Ollie's -- "Quick and Easy Autumn".  I want to say these are the same authors that put together the crock pot cookbooks that are spiral bound.  I used them a lot growing up, because my mother loves a good crock pot recipe.  ANYWAY.  My four-year-old loves all the illustrations in this book and really really really wanted to make something.  Disclaimer -- almost nothing in this book is healthy, which is okay for today.  Page 40 of the "Snacks and Appetizers" section was a winner for limited ingredients and no actual cooking or baking -- Creamy Pumpkin Spread!

Creamy Pumpkin Spread
(I would rather call it Pumpkin Cookie Dip)

8oz cream cheese softened
7oz marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix all these things together.  I put it all in the mixer because cream cheese can be lumpy and the fluff is sticky.  I even have a silicone spatula and STILL the fluff was getting the best of me.  But in the end it was all okay, and it was fluffy, creamy, orange, and speckled with cinnamon and nutmeg.  It may also be a little soupy, so chill it in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours before you eat it.

And what do you eat it with?

COOKIES.  Shortbread, ginger snaps, and graham crackers!  I thought this would be a good time to look at the fancy cookies in the grocery store, the stuff no one seems to buy.  I found some great ones.

Verdict -- the ginger thins are my favorite because they are delicate and crisp.  My husband loves crunch of the French shortbread.  But overall, we love both cookies with the pumpkin spread.  Feel free to spread or dip!  My husband suggested making them mini ice cream sandwich-style and freezing them.  He's a genius.

Also good dippers could be Biscoffs, waffle cookies, anything almond, something with caramel, and definitely graham sticks or crackers.  And now that I'm thinking about it, you could literally go nuts with this recipe and add nuts or chocolate chips.  My favorite chips for baking are the Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chips:

We don't have allergies, we just love them.  Excellent flavor, perfect teeny size.

Enjoy!

Granola Bars

I'm going to try the Pioneer Woman's granola bar recipe at some point.  I like the use of molasses and wheat germ in these.  My variations will be apricot cashew, raisin cinnamon pecan, and cherry almond (maybe with coconut).  I will likely add pumpkin seeds and split the wheat germ with flax seed meal.

Granola Bars via The Pioneer Woman

Muffins Two Ways

Today is muffin day:

Bakery-Style Blueberry Lemon

Brown Sugar Banana Clementine

And off I go to bake!

Refrigerated Doughs

Ahhh... the world of refrigerated doughs.  I have experimented in the past with different doughs from the freezer and fridge sections in the grocery store with sad results.  I used to think it was me, but I have come to realize that it is likely the ingredients and the way the dough was processed.  But I'm always up for a new baking adventure, so I saw a new brand in the grocery store and went for it.

Wewalka makes four types of doughs that are rolled in parchment paper and sold in colorful tubes -- croissant, puff pastry, bistro pizza, and family-style pizza.  We tried the croissant and puff pastry dough over the last two days.

Because my children are 2 and 4, the first meal involved nitrate-free beef hot dogs "pigs in a blanket"-style.  I cooked the hot dogs completely, then rolled them in the dough triangles.  For best results, cool the cooked hot dogs before wrapping and don't take the dough out of the fridge til you are absolutely ready to wrap.  Doughs like these depend on the butter in the dough to make the flaky layers, so putting super hot meat in there or leaving it out to get warm will change the texture, as the butter will melt.

They baked at 350 for about 15 minutes and came out perfect!  I wish I had thought to take a picture. Perfectly puffed, golden brown, and the triangles were just the right size to wrap a whole hot dog. And the dough TASTES great!  No rubberiness or chemical aftertaste.  One package has 6 croissant triangles, for 6 pigs in a blanket.

Dinner the next night was perfectly imagined by my husband and perfectly timed for the Outlander premier last night.  We took the meat mixture from my cottage pie and wrapped it in the puff pastry dough.  High fives for that idea.  Same lessons apply from the croissants -- protect the butter in the dough by keeping it cold til ready to use, and cool the meat before loading up the dough.  We wrapped it in a log shape, sealing seams with an egg wash, then Eric tenderly egg washed the whole thing.

It baked at 425 for 18 minutes, and when I went to pull it out of the oven, I swooned.

Look at this brown beauty!  I could hardly wait to slice into it!  So I did -- with a serrated knife, so as not to mangle it:

Amazing.  In hindsight, I could have stuffed all the meat mix in there -- we conservatively tried with half, to make sure the dough would close.  There's totally room for more in there.  Good thing I have one more roll of croissant dough!  And I was so excited to bake this, I forgot the cheese.  When have I ever forgot the cheese??  So the next one gets cheese.

So we celebrated the Outlander premier festively with this!  Yay to Outlander being back on TV... gives me something to look forward to every week.

Chocolate Chip Gelato

One of the things I have in the kitchen that I don't use as often as I should is my KitchenAid ice cream bowl.  It's a bowl that fits on your mixer, which you freeze a day ahead of time and then mix ice cream in.  It has a special ice cream paddle attachment that comes with it and a recipe book.

Home-made ice cream is great because you get to control the quality of the ingredients and pick your mix-ins.  The first time we used the bowl, Eric made amazing (and organic!) pumpkin pecan ice cream that we enjoyed with marshmallow topping.  YUM.  I think we had it in July or August, so we were nowhere near pumpkin time (I blame pregnancy cravings).

Tonight I made simple chocolate chip gelato.  Gelato is a creamier version of ice cream -- denser because less air is whipped into it.  The higher fat content with the added cream is where the creaminess comes from.  It's rich and delicious!  All this required was milk, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips.  As usual, I like to use organic ingredients where possible.  I used this recipe from Allrecipes, then added about a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a cup of chocolate chips at mixing time.

The gelato base is cooked, cooled for 3-4 hours in the fridge, and then added to the frozen ice cream bowl for mixing.  After 20-25 minutes of slow stirring, the gelato is finished.  It has a soft-serve consistency, and if you're impatient, you can totally eat it now.  However, if you can wait about 6-24 hours, put the whole mixing bowl back in the freezer for firmer gelato.

The eggs and vanilla gave an overall effect of french vanilla ice cream, which I love, but some people may not love.  I'll have to experiment with other recipes to find one that doesn't taste so much of eggs.  And likely involving hazelnuts.  But in the meantime, I have home-made chocolate chip gelato.  Buon appetito!

Blueberry Super Smoothie

1/2 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
1/2 banana
1/4 cup creamed coconut
1/4 cup pureed sweet potato
about 2 cups ice
cold water as needed

Blend all ingredients until smooth and ice is completely crushed.  Add water 2 tablespoons at a time for easier blending.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

I am pretty good at baking a lot of things, but biscuits from scratch is not one of them!  I watched a good tutorial recently about making cut out biscuits, which was very enlightening, but I was still afraid to try it.  Then I came across a wonderful drop biscuit recipe from Outlander Kitchen and thought, it seems so simple... I could probably do this.

I followed her recipe exactly, using 2 cups all-purpose flour instead of 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup cake flour.  I also clabbered whole milk with lemon juice instead of using buttermilk.  This is also the first time I put my cast iron griddle pan in the oven and probably the first time I've ever baked anything at 475 degrees F.

Note that my pan has ridges in it -- but it made no difference.  The biscuits baked PERFECTLY and did not stick one bit.

After baking -- minus one because Eric had to taste-test right out of the oven.  He was bowled over! Perfect, tender, buttery, restaurant-quality biscuits.  It was a great side for a beef stew I made in the crock pot.

Mrs. Bug's Buttermilk Drop Biscuits from "The Fiery Cross" via Outlander Kitchen

Eeleen's Hummus

My great grandmother's favorite hummus recipe:

1 15oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1 clove minced garlic
1 green onion, chopped fine

Process beans and sesame seeds til smooth.  Add all other ingredients and process again til smooth. Serve on crackers or as dip for vegetables.

Laundry room remodel

Two years ago I started my laundry room remodel.  We took out the lame wire storage shelf over the washer and dryer to put in oak stock cabinets from Home Depot.  We bought a matching 24" sink cabinet for a new stainless, undermount sink, and a decent American Standard faucet with the pull-down sprayer.  This is all to coordinate with the kitchen, where we had black galaxy granite counters installed, a large undermount single bowl 18-gauge stainless sink, and a Moen touchless faucet with a pull-down sprayer.

I had the best of intentions, but we did not get around to installing the sink cabinet and the fancy new sink.  They have been sitting in the garage for years now, and the gross, white, fiberglass laundry sink has been offending my eyes every day.

Well now the house is going up for sale, so the time to complete the project is now.  I would crumble with embarrassment for anyone to see my laundry room with the filthy sink as it is now.  So with a couple tools and parts in hand, we are ready to do this!

The only difficult part of this is building a 24" countertop for the sink to mount to. I would have cut down a stock piece from home depot that was already laminated, but it was almost $80, and I had the black laminate sheet in the garage ready to go.  So we bought some 3/4" MDF for $15, adhesive, and some carbide bits for our router.

At home, I cut a 24" piece of MDF for the counter and a 5.5"X24" piece for a backsplash.  I screwed the two pieces together.  I though about how the edges would be laminated and though that I wouldn't be able to cut such slim pieces of laminate with my table saw, so instead I banded them with 3/4" birch hot melt edge veneer, which I will paint matte black to match the laminate.  This is a wood veneer tape with heat-activated glue on the other side.  It can be heated in place with a standard iron.  It was incredibly easy to do!  After it was applied, I filed the edges and corners with a straight file and it looked SHARP.  At this point I was impressed with myself.

Til this point, I was thinking of taking the easy way out and doing a drop-in sink instead of undermount.  But I was feeling super confident after the veneer tape, so I thought, I can do this!  Let's do undermount!  So that means cutting a different sink opening with a very even, clean cut, and laminating the interior edge.  I figured between my jigsaw and router I could do this.  After it's cut, a thin piece of laminate covers the whole edge, then the top of the sink is laminated.  The final sink cut out in the laminate is done with a flush trim router bit with a bearing on it to follow the interior edge.

Well, let me tell you.  I have the wrong jigsaw blade and the wrong router bit to cut the MDF.  After more than an hour, I only finished half of the sink cut out and it was nerve-wracking the whole time. The jigsaw blade kept falling out and the router bit chewed the edge.  I probably inhaled a 1/4 pound of made-in-China MDF dust (next time -- mask).  Seeing as it's Easter Sunday, I'm waiting for tomorrow to get the right blade and bit to finish the sink cut out.

Overall, this may have been easier if I went with plywood over the MDF, but this is my first countertop, so I guess you live and you learn.  Hopefully with the right tools, the rest of this will be easy and we get the sink finished before anyone comes to look at the house!

*Cut out sink hole and faucet hole
*Laminate interior edge of sink
*Laminate top of counter and backsplash
*File all edges
*Paint veneer trim black and seal with matte sealer
*Mount sink under the counter with clear silicone and screwed brackets
*Liquid nail the countertop to sink cabinet
*Install faucet
*Make sure all plumbing connections are correct
*Caulk with clear silicone at backsplash joint and sink juncture

Basil Spinach Cashew Pesto

I love fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, and cheese.  These things when combined with spinach, cashews, and salt, make the most delicious pesto.  So quick and so fresh!  This makes enough for two or three portions.  You can easily double this for a larger family.

3 oz of fresh greens like basil and spinach

1/4 cup unsalted cashews

1/4 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

1/8 tsp salt

Notes:  

*You can use other fresh greens like kale and chard.  Do not use dried.

*You can use other nuts like pine nuts or almonds.

*You can sometimes substitute cheeses, like another hard Italian cheese.  I used a shredded Italian 6 cheese blend (not technically all hard cheeses) with great results.

*The best olive oil is cold-pressed, non-GMO types sold in dark bottles.  After you have the good stuff, other olive oils will taste cheap with a bad aftertaste.  It's worth it to try the good stuff.

*I almost always use pink Himalayan salt for the extra minerals.

The easiest way to mix this up is in a food processor.  Just throw everything in, and in under 30 seconds you will have perfect pesto.  A blender could work in a pinch -- just pause and scrape down the sides every few pulses to be sure all ingredients get chopped and blended.

I like to eat this over fresh pasta with grilled chicken.  This would also be great on flatbread with fresh mozzarella slices and sliced Roma tomatoes and a balsamic drizzle.

Banana, Coffee, Cashew, Cocoa Smoothie

This one sounds like a winner!  Dates are actually quite great.  I have almost all these ingredients on hand, including the best cocoa I've ever found -- Callebaut from Belgium.  There is some evening prep, but it seems easy enough.  I'll post what I think of this after I try it.

Banana, Coffee, Cashew, Cocoa Smoothie

Stew Beef

The weather's warming up, but I just want some beef stew...

Beef stew with carrots and potatoes

Jackson's Honest Chips

I just saw these on someone's blog and want to try them!  When I used the locator on their website, it said the closest chips are 38 miles away.  Oh well.  They sound great, anyway.

Jackson's Honest Potato Chips

Hazelnut Plum Crumb Tart

I saw this recipe a couple weeks ago and had to make it because it just SOUNDED so good.  Say it out loud with me -- "Hazelnut. Plum. Crumb. Tart."  How could something that sounds so good possibly be bad?  Well... it's freaking fantastic.  My husband said he felt like he was eating something from Redwall.  If you didn't read those books, I'm sorry.

My springform pan was too large, so my tart was very shallow and had no side crust.  Didn't mean it was any less delicious.  You could probably just combine the crust, fruit, and custard in a cereal bowl and it would still taste amazing, though certainly would be less pretty.

Use 2 or 3 different plums if you can find them.  It makes life more interesting.  My next version will feature apricots.

Hazelnut Plum Crumb Tart via smitten kitchen

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is the amazing muffin recipe I made a couple weeks ago and added the chopped hazelnuts to. Perfect with or without the nuts!  I like how puffy these bake up, making really great LOOKING and great TASTING muffins.

My muffins straight out of the oven.  Chopped hazelnuts pressed on top before baking.

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins via Little Sweet Baker

Brioche Bread

If you're up for a bread challenge, this is the one that will be worth the effort and knock your socks off.  My kids LOVE this bread.  It's enriched with eggs and butter and bakes to a heavenly yellow color inside.  So tender, so buttery, so wonderful.

Notice that some bakers use ingredient weights instead of cup measurements.  Weight is much more accurate when it comes to baking.  Invest in a small digital kitchen scale and you will be baking like a semi-pro!  Otherwise, there are conversion tables you can google for measurements and oven temperatures.

Brioche loaf via Simply Delicious

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

I made this great recipe recently.  It was creamy, delicious, and filling.  I changed only a couple things because of what I had in my pantry -- where it calls for "onion", I used a sweet onion.  Where it calls for "wild rice", I used white rice.  Where it calls for "cream", I used 2 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup cream.  It would be tastier with wild rice, for sure.  It also made plenty, so I ate it for lunch every day for a week.  With fresh cracked pepper on top -- perfecto!

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup via The Pioneer Woman

Irish Soda Bread

Yes, St. Patrick's Day has passed us by, but Irish soda bread can still be baked and eaten any old time of the year!  I did make this a few days previous to St. Pat's, but didn't start my blog til a couple days ago.  While the paper recipe is still here, I thought I would transcribe it to the blog, so it's searchable and handy for the next time we want to make it.

I prefer the American-style bread, which includes a little more sugar and raisins.  When I was younger, I did not like raisins in bread.  My kids currently feel the same way.  But somewhere along the way I decided I DID like them.  In this bread they are GREAT.  They add a little bit of juiciness to an otherwise dry bread.  There are different colors of raisins, and I encourage experimentation.  Since as far as anyone knows, we only go around this good green Earth once, so why NOT try colorful raisins?

Second important thing to note is the use of CAKE or PASTRY flour.  Flour is made from different kinds of wheat, some are harder and some are softer.  The softer wheats have a lower protein content, and therefore bake lighter.  All-purpose flour is a blend to reach a certain ratio of protein that works well in most recipes.  As you gain more experience with baking, you will start to understand why pastry flour is needed in some recipes and how it performs.  The opposite would be BREAD flour -- heavy, more proteins.  Some kinds of wheat also make flour that are appropriate for pasta.  Oh, the wonderful world of wheat!

Third note is buttermilk.  That is just not something I use regularly enough to have on hand in the fridge, so I usually "clabber" regular milk.  For every cup of milk, add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar, and let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes.  The acid will clump or "clabber" the milk to be something like buttermilk.  It will not be as thick, but it will do the job.  The job that buttermilk does is to react with the baking soda and powder in this recipe that adds air and tenderness to the bread.  It's very necessary.  Without the right kind of flour and the buttermilk, you might bake a nice brick with raisins in it.

3 cups sifted cake or pastry flour (sifting adds to air and lightness, too)
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup raisins
1 1/3 cups buttermilk (or clabbered milk)

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir.  Add raisins and buttermilk and stir gently to combine.  I say gently because I use scooping motions to press the mix together, turning and scraping the bowl to incorporate all the dry bits.  Don't undo all your hard work from sifting and using light flour by beating the mix to death!  Over-mixing will toughen your dough.

When the sticky dough is just combined, turn it out on a floured surface and knead it up to 10 times to smooth it out.  Prep a 9" round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper in the bottom.  Perfect circles are not required.  Spread the dough to fill the pan and mark the top with a really cool "X" using a knife and cutting not more than 1/4" deep.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 65 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  This bread does not keep well, so eat it within a couple days (no problem, right?).  Store it in a cool, dry place out of the light.

Bonus -- great with coffee!

Quick Dinner -- Flatbread Pizzas

There's new flatbreads in my grocery store -- Brooklyn Bred pizza crusts that are pre-baked and ready for toppings.  About the easiest thing I can do for lunch or dinner at home is rip open a package of these, spread on some sauce, and sprinkle on any other toppings.  The whole thing goes into an oven at 425 for 8-10 minutes, and we're ready to eat!

I like the shape of them.  One fits great on a baking sheet.

The crust is versatile -- you don't necessary have to top it as "a pizza".

Non-GMO -- thank you!

Again, it's a really fast way to get dinner on the table!

We usually have a lot of grilled chicken on hand, which is an easy addition that can work with many sauces.  Variations we have made:
Pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, and pizza seasoning
Pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, chopped nitrate-free pepperoni
Pizza sauce, mozzarella pearls, diced tomato, and fresh basil
Garlic cream sauce, grilled chicken, feta cheese, and spinach
Ranch, buffalo grilled chicken, shredded mozzarella, diced tomato, arugula
BBQ sauce, grilled chicken, shredded mozzarella, diced pineapple
Ranch, grilled chicken, shredded mozzarella, bacon crumbles
Thai peanut sauce, grilled chicken, chopped peanuts, scallions

As I type this, lightning has just struck my brain.  I think I'm going to have to try a breakfast recipe, maybe with some combination of eggs, bacon, and cheese.  YES.

English Muffin Bread

Recently I realized how great home-baked bread really is.  It smells great, it's great warm from the oven, and it's fun to make.  At some point I will be buying the Breville BBM800XL Custom Loaf Bread Maker because I have three other Breville appliances in my kitchen that I love.  At the moment I can make great loaves with my KitchenAid stand mixer (now going on 13 years old) using the dough hook, or with just a bowl and wooden spoon.

Bread is new territory for me.  The multi-step process seemed intimidating.  Rising dough and warm spots in the kitchen and refrigerating overnight and hollow noises -- I mean really, just too many steps that I didn't fully understand.  But I have become a more confident baker, and King Arthur Flour has a lot to do with that.  Two main ingredients have really taken my baking to the next level --King Arthur flours and Kerrygold butter.  Once my recipes started TASTING so amazing, I started paying more attention to technique and nuances to make things I'm really proud of.

I started with boxed bread mixes from King Arthur.  I had good results with those, so now I'm trying recipes from scratch.  First I tried brioche, then a country white loaf, and tonight I'm making English muffin bread.  Brioche was pretty challenging, so I think this bread I'm making tonight will be much easier.  This recipe makes two loaves in smaller pans (8X4).

5 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup warm water
cornmeal

In my KitchenAid mixer I added the yeast, sugar, salt, milk, and water.  I gently stirred in half the flour.  Let this sit for 5 minutes for the yeast to activate.  The activation happens from the warm liquids and the yeast eating up the sugar.  You will see bubbles forming in the dough.  This is perfect.  If you aren't seeing bubbles, you may need to set your bowl in a warm place in the kitchen to encourage the reaction.  When the top is completely covered in bubbles, add the remaining flour in 2-3 additions.  This will be easier if you use a wooden spoon at this point, as the dough gets quite sticky and thick.  Using the mixer will probably OVER-mix the dough, which will make tough bread.  Stir gently to incorporate all the flour.

Grease the bread pans on all sides with whatever spray or oil you like.  I use organic vegetable shortening.  Once they are greased, sprinkle cornmeal generously all over the sides to coat the pan.  Your oil or butter will help it adhere.  Tap out the excess.  Divide the dough in half and roughly shape a loaf that fills the pan from end to end.  It will be a bit sticky, but it's okay.  It may even look a bit ugly, but it's still going to be okay.  First we work on taste and then we work on presentation.  Do the same with the second loaf.

Cover the loaves and put them in a warm spot to rise.  I preheat the oven to 400 degrees F at this point and put the loaves on top of the oven covered with a clean dish towel.  The heat from the oven helps the loaves rise.  The loaves are ready to bake when the volume has doubled in the pan or the dough rises higher than the top of the pan (30 minutes to 1 hour).  Just before you are ready to put them in the oven, sprinkle more cornmeal on top.

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  The bread will brown nicely and has a nice hollow noise when you tap it.  Cool the loaves completely on a wire rack.  I actually put on oven mitts and removed the loaves from their pans to cool.

Cut loaves with a long serrated knife.  This type of bread will be great with butter and jelly, or my daughter's favorite of peanut butter and honey.  Mmm, nooks and crannies...

*Evening edit:  We couldn't wait to taste it, so we all had a warm slice.  My daughter and I had ours with butter and Bonne Maman strawberry preserves, and Eric smeared his slice with Stonewall Kitchen's fig and walnut butter.  We are impressed.

Lemony Sugar Cut-out Cookies

Easter is just around the corner, and we haven't properly celebrated any holidays since Christmas.  It's time we made some festive cut-out cookies here.

I really like the lemon flavor in Panera's sugar cookies, so I added a lot of lemon to this recipe.  The lemon could be left out or substituted with something else like almond extract.  I also try to use fresh, organic, or non-GMO ingredients when possible.

1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature butter (Kerrygold is my go-to)
2/3 cup sugar
1 room temperature egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour (King Arthur All-Purpose is a great choice)
Cookie cutters

Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer.  When it's pale and fluffy, beat in the egg, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and salt.  When that is well combined, mix in 1/2 cup flour at a time, waiting to add more until the flour is thoroughly incorporated.  You should have lovely soft dough that smells buttery and lemony, and pulls together away from the sides of the bowl.  If it doesn't come together from the sides of the bowl, you may need just a bit more flour.  Take your beautiful dough and refrigerate it covered for at least 4 hours or overnight.  You need firm, chilled dough to roll out for cutout cookies.

When you are ready to roll out the dough, gently flour your surface and rolling pin.  I am lucky to have granite countertops, which are good for rolling dough and keeping it chilled.  I also sometimes use a plastic pastry mat for easy clean up.  Turn your dough a quarter turn every couple rolls to keep the size even.  Lightly flour the surface of the dough if your rolling pin is too sticky.  Roll to a thickness of about 1/4 inch.  For best results with your cookie cutter, pile flour in a shallow dish and dip your cutter between every cut.  Cut your cookies straight down with just a little wiggle to release the shape.  I have a handy Wilton cake lifter that is good for scraping up large cutout cookies to transfer to a baking sheet, but a flat metal spatula would work well, too.  I also like to bake cookies on a Silpat or parchment paper.  Silpats are great for nice, even, non-stick baking.  It's one of those things that once you use it, you don't know what you did before you had it.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes.  The cookies should be just barely colored from baking when they are done.  If they get too golden, when they cool they will be too hard.  Wait a minute or two after they come out of the oven to transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.  Patience pays off here because intricate cut-out shapes will break if you move them too soon.

Frost your cookies only when they are FULLY cooled.  Warm cookies just melt icing -- it's a total mess.  Any icing will work here.  Colorful icing, sprinkles, colored sugars, the works!

Here's a smooth icing you can whip up quickly:

3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar (lumps are the devil)
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Optional: food coloring

Shepherd's or Cottage Pie

One of the best things my mom made while we were growing up was mince and totties (which should actually maybe have been called tatties), which was about the same thing as shepherd's pie.  True shepherd's pie is made with lamb, so the appropriate name for beef or chicken would be "cottage pie".  I have read different versions of this with varying spices and other additions, and have come up with my own version.  I like my cottage pie with beef and will test a chicken or turkey version soon.

Also, my husband really wanted this in a pie form with crusts like a chicken pot pie.  We tried this and I think with the potatoes, it's just too much.  The meat mixture alone in a pie crust would probably be great, either in a pie dish or as empanada-style hand pies.

Mashed potatoes:

4-5 small to medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) of salted butter (Kerrygold is my favorite)

1/4-1/3 cup milk

Additional salt to taste

Meat mixture:

canola oil

1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

1 cup carrots, chopped into small pieces.  You could use shredded or crinkle cut carrots and chop those.

1 tsp minced garlic (I like the kind in a jar)

1 tsp salt (I like sea salt or pink Himalayan)

1/2 black pepper (from a grinder for optimal freshness)

1 pound ground beef  (could also try substituting ground lamb, ground turkey, or diced chicken breasts)

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp Dijon mustard (yellow mustard works in a pinch)

1/3 cup beef or chicken broth (my mom would have used Oxo cubes and water)

up to 3 Tbsp flour

1/2 cup peas

Additionally:  cheese, preferably cheddar, either pre-shredded from a bag or chunks cut off a block.  The amount depends on how much you like cheese.

First, boil salted water in a large pot for the potato pieces.  Potatoes are done when a fork passes through the cooked chunks easily.  Drain away the water and mash the potatoes with butter, milk, and salt.  You may need more or less milk at this point.  If you like thinner potatoes that spread on top of the dish easily, maybe add a little more.  If you like them thick, hold back the milk til you've seen what the butter has done.  Alternatively, you can whip these in a stand mixer.  Taste the mixed product before adding extra salt.

For the beef mixture, heat a tablespoon of canola oil over medium heat in a pan.  When it's heated a bit, add the diced onions and carrots.  Sautee these until the onions turn translucent and the carrots soften.  Add the garlic, salt, and pepper.  When these are evenly distributed, add the beef.  Brown the meat, chopping it in to smaller pieces with your spoon or spatula.  Incorporate the veggies and let the flavors mingle.  When the meat is fully browned, you can now add the Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and broth.  Mix these in evenly to the meat and veggies, still cooking over medium heat.  Now you can add a bit of flour to thicken the mixture and make it into a"gravy".  Add a tablespoon at a time and mix it in well -- flour can clump in liquids.  Also, check thickness after each tablespoon --avoid OVER-thickening the broth.  You may only need one or two tablespoons of flour.  If it gets too thick, you can add more broth or water.  When it looks satisfactory, turn off the heat at this point and mix in the peas -- I just toss in frozen ones.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Assemble the dish in two layers in a glass baking dish, 8X8 or 9X9.  You can add cheese to this in a couple ways: between the beef and potato layers, on top of the potato layer, or in fun chunks pressed through the layers.  I have tried all of these and I liked stuffing chunks of sharp white cheddar in the baking dish after I layered in the meat and potatoes.  It's like a glorious treasure hunt of cheesy surprises when you go to eat it.  But it is easier to use a bag of shredded cheese, so do what feels right to you.  So, with your cheese plan in place, layer the meat mixture in the bottom of the dish, and then cheese and potatoes in the order that you wish. Bake uncovered for about 20-25 minutes, til the meat and gravy is bubbly and the cheese appears melted.  

Kilt and a stout brew are also optional, but would probably round out the experience.  Ith gu leòir!

My Morning Coffee

Eric and I have a favorite brand of coffee -- Baltimore Coffee and Tea.  There are a couple locations near us that sell the whole, roasted beans, but we also like to visit one of their shops in Timonium.  This location is also their roasting plant and it smells amazing in there!  Coffee bean freshness has everything to do with when the beans were roasted.  So we enjoy incredibly good espresso every morning because we are buying freshly roasted whole beans from a nearby location and grinding them as needed.  We have also tried ordering their coffee online and it arrived the next day.  Great company, great product.

We get the organic espresso blend of beans.  That goes in to the Breville BES870XL Barista Express Espresso Machine with Grinder, and out comes amazing espresso with golden crema.  The Breville espresso machine is not the kind of appliance that anyone can just open and use.  There is a learning curve that goes with it.  Barista skills would be helpful here.  I myself had no barista skills when I first used this machine, so we did make a lot of bad cups of coffee in the beginning.  Eventually we found the right grind size and amount for our freshly roasted beans, so now we almost never have to adjust those settings.  When it comes to packing the ground coffee into the portafilter, there is a science to how hard you do or don't tamp the grounds, and all of these things determine how well your espresso shots will turn out.  Eric mastered this process first, because he seriously enjoys overcoming challenges.  Now we can both make beautiful double shots of espresso.

Eric has been weaning himself off sugar, so he drinks his coffee with just a touch of sugar and sometimes without milk.  I drink coffee with less sugar in it than a Starbucks drink, but I still like it light and sweet.  Lately I have been liking a particular latte recipe:

double shot of organic espresso
2 teaspoons organic cane sugar
1/2 tablespoon of unsalted Kerrygold butter
1/2 teaspoon of blackstrap molasses
1/2 teaspoon of bourbon vanilla extract
8 oz of steamed and foamed organic whole milk

I think I stumbled on the butter idea about two weeks ago when I heard about Starbucks having a butterscotch latte.  What is butterscotch?  Butter, brown sugar, salt, and cream.  What is brown sugar?  Sugar and molasses.  So instead of going through the work to make butterscotch, I just added the same ingredients to my latte.  Everything goes into the bottom of the coffee cup, then the espresso is brewed on top.  Steamed milk is stirred in.  I am no fancy foamed milk artist, so I just top the whole thing with way too much foam.  It's just fun to drink all the foam -- kind of like how my four year old likes to blow bubbles in her milk.  

So this has become the morning ritual, no matter how I flavor it.  After drinking this at home, I don't care for the taste of any other coffee anymore, especially the gross Starbucks lattes.  They don't taste fresh anymore, are usually pretty weak, and have a chemical aftertaste.  YUCK.  Much better and cheaper to make it yourself at home, with all the pride and satisfaction that comes with creating something delicious and just how you like it.