No, I do not eat from scratch 5 course meals all the time.

No, this is not a product placement, although all of these were pretty good.  The picture is to illustrate a couple of things.  

1. Why I haven't had a blog in over a week with some new fabulous recipe.  The answer is simple:  the only thing I've cooked from scratch this week is Rice Krispy treats.  Other than arm strength, RK treats require no special skills.
2. Yes, I really do like brussel sprouts, even the frozen kind.  However, for all those brussel sprout haters out there, try making them fresh.  I can buy them fresh in the grocery store and farmer's market here for quite awhile.  I tend to buy extra and freeze them myself in ziploc bags uncooked, and that keeps them pretty well for when they aren't in season.  To make very tasty fresh brussel sprouts, just cut them in half and saute them in a tablespoon or two of olive oil.  Season with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, one clove of minced garlic, and the juice of about a half a lemon (around 2 tablespoons).  This takes about 15 minutes and made a brussel sprouts convert out of Daniel.
3. No, I do not eat gourmet all the time.  Like everyone else, I don't always want to cook.  When I was working, I pretty much never wanted to cook.  I eat plenty of lunch meat sandwiches, PB & J, and frozen pizza.  I even like bologna, hot dogs, and Spam.  I do, however, draw the line at Hot Pockets.  As Jim Gaffigan says, "Did I eat that, or did I rub it on my face?"  I do like to cook nice things when I share a meal with friends.  They are dear people, cooking is something I can do, so I try to love on them by feeding them good food.  I cannot fix things and I'm not particularly helpful in a move either, as I can't lift much.  So, feeding people is my thing.  However, I think over time people have begun to suffer the misconception that I eat five course meals all the time.  I don't.  For that matter, I doubt Tyler Florence, Paula Dean, or Emeril do either.  I bet they all have a frozen dinner lurking in their freezer somewhere.  I know I do.

Ricotta Tart with Tomatoes, Basil, and Olives

So this was another great Tyler Florence recipe (can you tell I got a couple of his cookbooks for Christmas?) and one that my sister and I were supposed to make together. It was pretty straightforward and easier than most quiches I have made, with amazing flavor. I have come to expect great things from Mr. Florence, but his recipes continue to surprise and delight me. I had a bit of a dilemma of what I should serve for side dishes, but eventually decided to do a breakfast theme and went for hash browns and fruit smoothies. That seemed to be well received. Sarah seems to have a hash brown radar, so she came downstairs smelling it and exclaiming approval for my tart/potato pairing.

A bit of a shortcut on the crust: He says to let the crust refrigerate for 30 minutes, then rest for 15, roll, blind bake, and then bake with filling. Of course, I was starting dinner way too late for all that waiting. I made the crust and then I just immediately smushed it into my tart pan. I don't have a traditional metal one with the removable bottom, just a white ceramic Corningware one that is all one piece. When I'm trying to make a pretty dessert tart that I want to display on a cake stand, I curse my cheapo one piece deal. But if I don't care how it looks, and I don't want to mess with all the rolling and flour all over my kitchen, I can directly throw the dough in my tart pan and smush it around with my fingers until it covers the bottom and up the sides. I then put it in the freezer until the oven was preheated (maybe 10 minutes) and then immediately skipped to the blind baking step, thus saving me at least a half an hour.

Ricotta Tart with Fresh Tomatoes, Basil, and Black Olives

Pastry

· 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting (this works just fine with whole wheat pastry flour, too)

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 1 teaspoon sugar

· 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks (Smart Balance baking sticks work fine)

· 1 egg, separated

· 3 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

Ricotta Filling

· 1 head roasted garlic (see Note)

· 4 eggs

· 1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese

· 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

· 1 teaspoon sea salt

· Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh Tomato Salad

· 4 ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

· 1/2 cup pitted and sliced kalamata olives

· 5 fresh basil leaves, hand-torn

· Zest of 1 orange, finely grated

· Extra-virgin olive oil

· Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Using a food processor to make dough is a modern timesaver. The downside is that the blade can really overwork the dough; so be sure to use short bursts of power, not long, sustained ones. Pulse the flour, salt, and sugar together in a food processor. Put in the chunks of butter, a little at a time, and pulse just until the dough resembles cornmeal. Add the egg yolk and the ice water; pulse again for a second just to pull the dough together. Lightly dust the counter with flour. Dump the dough out and briefly knead it by hand into a ball. Again, do not overwork the dough or it will become as tough as shoe leather. Wrap it tightly in plastic and let it rest and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or even overnight. This lets the protein in the flour relax and also firms up the butter particles.

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle. Carefully roll the dough up onto the pin (this may take a little practice) and lay it inside a 101/2-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the edges into the sides of the pan. It is important to press the dough evenly into every nook and corner of the ring, especially the scalloped edges. Fold the excess dough inside to reinforce the rim. Put the tart in the fridge for 15 minutes to relax.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prick the bottom of the shell with a fork. Lay a piece of aluminum foil on the bottom of the tart shell and fill it with 1 cup of dried beans. The weight of the beans will keep the pie dough flat so it doesn’t bubble when hit with the initial heat. Bake for 30 minutes. Lift out the beans in the foil, return the tart shell to the oven, and bake for another 10 minutes, or until lightly golden.

Beat the egg white with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the bottom and sides of the pastry with the egg glaze to seal any tiny holes; it also gives the tart a nice sheen. Your tart shell is ready for filling.

Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins into a large bowl. Beat in the eggs and ricotta and Parmigiano cheeses; season with salt and pepper. Place the tart shell on a cookie sheet. Pour the egg mixture into the shell, filling it three-quarters of the way. Carefully transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The tart should still jiggle slightly in the center; it will set up as it cools.

Mix the tomato slices with the olives, basil, and orange zest. Drizzle with a 2-count of oil; season with salt and pepper and fold everything together.

Carefully lift the tart out of the ring and slide the tart off the base and onto a plate. Let the tart cool to room temperature. Cut it into wedges and drizzle with a little olive oil and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper. Spoon some of the tomato salad onto each plate and put a slice of tart on top.

Note: To roast the garlic, bang the garlic head on the counter to loosen the cloves. Put the separated cloves in a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, and close up the pouch. Bake for 30 minutes (you can bake them with the tart shell). The garlic should be soft.

No Knead Bread

I started making my own bread about a year ago. Yeast had always scared me, so while I could whip up four layer mousse cakes with ganache or authentic Indian curries, attempting a simple dinner roll made me sweat bullets. I had some time on my hands, though, so I decided I was going to conquer bread. Turns out, it was almost laughably simple. Oh sure, there are some techniques and breads that are indeed pretty difficult, and you can fuss over the perfect crust and crumb for years, but making a loaf of bread that will taste better than any store bought bread is nothing to fear. I, myself, am very partial to the flavor of sourdough breads (another post to come), but I know not everyone wants to baby sit a starter.

My mom recently asked for a simple whole wheat bread recipe. I looked at my absolute favorite bread site, King Arthur Flour, and found a couple of no knead recipes and decided to give them a whirl to see if they might work for Mom.

The first is a no-knead whole wheat sandwich bread. This is hands down the simplest bread recipe I have ever seen. You can mix it in about any mixer, probably even a hand mixer because it's not a stiff dough. There's also only one rise, instead of two. The flavor and texture are pretty good for a 100% wheat bread--I tend to like a 1:1 ratio of whole wheat to bread flour. I do recommend using King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour if you can find it. It has a nicer texture and flavor for those of us who really would prefer to be eating white bread, but know the whole wheat is good for us. KAF is based in Vermont, so it's pretty easy to find it in East Coast grocery stores, but I know it's harder to come by the further west you live. You can order it online, or just substitute what you can find.

· 1 cup lukewarm water
· 2 teaspoons instant yeast (If you don't have instant yeast, which I've only ever seen from bread companies, the Fleichmann's you get at the grocery store works fine, too. Just make sure you let it dissolve in the cup of water for 5-10 min. before adding to the dough. If you can find instant yeast, it's great as you can just throw it in your dough without proofing it.)
· 1/4 cup orange juice
· 1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil (I used butter.)
· 3 tablespoons molasses or maple syrup (I used molasses.)
· 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
· 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
· 3 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour, white whole wheat preferred

Directions

1) Heavily grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. This loaf tends to stick, so be sure to grease the pan thoroughly with non-stick vegetable oil spray.

2) Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the mixture vigorously for about 3 minutes; an electric mixer set on high speed works well here. You should have a very sticky dough. It won't be pourable, but neither will it be kneadable. Scoop it into the prepared pan.




3) Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes; it should just about rise to the rim of the pan, perhaps just barely cresting over the rim. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F. I got kind of impatient here and didn't let it rise all the way to the rim, hoping it would be one of those breads that gets bigger as you bake it. Turns out it is not one of those breads, so let it rise to the height you want it to be or use a smaller bread pan. Mine's pretty big.



4) Uncover the bread, and bake it for about 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it with aluminum foil after 20 minutes. The bread is done when it's golden brown on top, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers between 190°F and 195°F. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired; this will keep the crust soft. Cool the bread completely before cutting it. I know that last instruction is hard because the bread smells good and who doesn't like warm bread, but resist! If you cut it right away, you compromise the structural integrity of your bread, and it kind of smooshes down.




The second bread I tried was a no knead Harvest Bread. It's good, but I think they made it a bit more complicated that necessary. I'll note where I think you could make it simpler.

  3 1/4 cups KA Bread Flour or King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
· 1 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
· 2 teaspoons salt
· 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast (again, if you have regular yeast, just dissolve it in the water)
· 1 3/4 cups cool water
· 3/4 cup dried cranberries
· 1/2 cup golden raisins
· 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions
1) Mix the flours, salt, yeast, and water in a large bowl. Stir, then use your hands to mix and form a sticky dough. (I just did it in my Kitchen Aid for steps 1 & 2, but if you don't have a mixer than can handle bread dough, do it by hand as they suggest.)

2) Work the dough just enough to incorporate all the flour, then work in the fruit and nuts.



3) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature overnight, or for at least 8 hours; it'll become bubbly and rise quite a bit, so use a large bowl.



4) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and form it into a log or round loaf to fit your 14" to 15" long lidded stoneware baker; 9" x 12" oval deep casserole dish with cover; or 9" to 10" round lidded baking crock.



I did it in my cast iron Dutch oven, but honestly, I think in the future at this point I’ll divide it into two smaller round loaves and bake them on a cookie sheet at 425 for about 25 minutes instead of all the rigmarole that follows.

5) Place the dough in the lightly greased pan, smooth side up.

6) Cover and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, until it's become puffy. It should rise noticeably, but it's not a real high-riser.



7) Place the lid on the pan, and put the bread in the cold oven. Set the oven temperature to 450°F.

8) Bake the bread for 45 to 50 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to bake for another 5 to 15 minutes, until it's deep brown in color, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers about 205°F. Remove the bread from the oven, turn out onto a rack, and cool before slicing.

Moroccan Chicken

My sister visited recently and wanted some suggestions for chicken and seafood recipes, so I went digging through my cookbooks, and came up with a few we wanted to try. However, we were distracted from our culinary aspirations by outlet shopping, and never got around to making them while she was here. I decided to go ahead and make a few, though, starting with this Tyler Florence recipe. The flavor was really good. Two thumbs up from all who ate it.

I had never actually cooked a whole chicken before, just Thanksgiving turkeys. The prep wasn't bad, but boy is cutting it up a bear. I clearly need to watch a carving YouTube video. I had an earlier version of this recipe in a cookbook, but this one from Food Network actually calls for you to just pull off the meat, which I think is a better idea. A word of advice: stuff the cavity before you put on the spices, not after, as you end up rubbing off a decent amount of the spice rub wrestling with the chicken. I also tried to get as much of the rub as possible under the skin as we take the skin off before we eat it. I took a picture of that so you can see what I mean.

Moroccan Spice Mix:

• 1 cinnamon stick, chopped in pieces
• 8 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 teaspoons cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• 11/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

Chicken:

• 1 (31/2 pound) whole chicken
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1/4 bunch fresh cilantro
• 1 head garlic
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

To prepare the Moroccan Spice Mix for the Chicken: Combine the cinnamon stick, cloves, cayenne, cumin, fennel, coriander, and paprika in a dry skillet over low heat and toast for just a minute to release the fragrant oils; shake the pan so they don't scorch. In a spice mill or clean coffee grinder, grind the toasted spices together, with 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt and the brown sugar.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Rinse the chicken with cool water, inside and out, then pat it dry with paper towels. Massage the chicken skin with the spice rub; make sure you don't miss a spot. Season the inside of the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Stuff the lemons halves, cilantro, and garlic in the cavity and place the chicken in a roasting pan fitted with a rack. Fold the wing tips under the bird and tie the legs together with kitchen string. Drizzle the oil all over the chicken. If you have time, let the chicken marinate for 30 minutes to really get the flavors down deep into the meat. Roast the chicken for 1 hour; pop an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh; if it reads 160 degrees F, it's done. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes so the juices can settle back into the meat. Remove and discard the skin from the chicken. Pull the chicken from the bone and shred the meat, with your fingers or 2 forks. Put the shredded chicken in a large bowl and squeeze the lemon halves that have cooked inside the bird over the meat to moisten.

If you'd like to try this with chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, mix the spice mix according to the directions, and then rub it in on the front and back of 6 whole breasts.  Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper.  Mix together in a small bowl about 3 tablespoons each of lemon juice and olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic minced.  Drizzle over the breasts and top with about a 1/3 cup of chopped cilantro.  Let set for a half and hour then bake at 400 uncovered for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Chocolate Cardamom Tart

Several years ago, a friend of mine made a chocolate cardamom tart that was fabulous. It was the first time I'd ever had that spice paired with chocolate, and I have never had them together since, much to my dismay. So I had a cream cheese crust leftover from my rhubarb recipe and I thought I'd make a chocolate filling for it. After all, chocolate and cream cheese are a duo made in heaven. Then I thought of that other smashing chocolate duet I'd had and I knew that's what I wanted. I had a very hard time finding a recipe for a chocolate cardamom tart, though. I kept getting all these links to a recipe in the London Times, but that was it, and they were in metric (boo!). While I am capable of doing metric conversions, I was irked by the idea that the British, who are not known for their culinary prowess, were the only ones in on the whole chocolate/cardamom thing. So, I decided to figure out something myself. I started with a normal chocolate tart filling from Tyler Florence and went from there. Here's what I ended up with:

Chocolate Cardamom Tart

Cream Cheese Crust (1/2 the recipe from the Rhubarb tart)

Filling:

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup skim milk (got to make up for that heavy cream somewhere)

10 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

10 whole cardamom pods (cracked and the seeds taken out and ground), or 1 teaspoon of freshly ground cardamom seeds (in a coffee grinder), or just a teaspoon of ground cardamom if that is all you can find, but it won't have the same zing. Some places that sell bulk spices (think Whole Foods or Earth Fare) will have the pods. To get the whole seeds you'll probably have to go to an Indian foods store, but it's so worth it. The freshness of the pods, without having to fish it out of that green husk.

REAL whipped cream

2 cups heavy cream (I know, I know more heavy cream, but Cool Whip is so not the same)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Roll out crust and put in greased tart or pie pan. You are going to have to blind bake it first before you put in the filling. For this, first prick the crust several time with a fork so it won't puff up as much. Then, I put a big piece of foil over the crust and dump a bag of dried beans in it so the crust can hold it's shape. Bake for about 20 minutes, then take it out, dump your beans back into a ziploc for later use, and remove the foil. Bake 8 minutes more without the beans or the filling.

While the crust is cooking, make the filling. Heat the milk and cream with the cardamom pods, ground seeds, or the plain store bought spice in a saucepan. Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat and add in the chocolate chips, sugar, and salt. Once everything is all creamy and glossy, pour some of the hot chocolate mixture into your bowl of two eggs to temper the eggs. If you just put them in straight, they'll cook and you'll have chocolate egg drop soup. Mix the eggs some with the hot liquid in the egg bowl a bit more at a time, until the eggs are closer to the temperature of the chocolate mixture. Then dump the tempered egg mixture into the saucepan and whisk them into the cream/chocolate mixture. Now you can pour the filling into your blind baked crust. Return tart to the oven and bake about 20-30 minutes more, until it sets.

Let cool a bit otherwise the tart will lose some of it's stability. I know it's hard because it smells good, but wait! Distract yourself by making the whipped cream. Dump the two cups heavy cream into a mixer and with the whisk attachment, beat it until stiff peaks, adding the powdered sugar after about a minute. Serve over tart.

Viola! an American Chocolate Cardomom Tart.

Rhubarb Tart with Almond Streusel

This was a new one I discovered in the Everyday Greens cookbook by Annie Somerville. It's a good cookbook, and one of the prettiest cookbooks I've seen. I'm a rhubarb fanatic, so as soon as I saw those hot pink stalks appear this spring at the grocery store, I bought a bunch and made this. I've had a lot of rhubarb desserts in my life, but I think this might be my favorite. I topped it with a bit of whipped cream (makes everything better), but Daniel liked it with some ice cream on top.

Rhubarb Tart with Almond Streusel

Cream cheese crust (this made enough for two tarts or pies. I used the extra to make a chocolate tart for a dinner party)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup fine cornmeal

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, chilled and cubed

8 oz cream cheese

Sift the dry ingredients together in the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor. Cut in the butter. Add cream cheese and work in just until mixed. I had to add some cold water to mine to get to to come together, maybe a 1/3 cup. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Almond Steusel

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped

pinch of salt

6 tablespoons of butter

Combine all but butter in a bowl and mix. Cut in butter. Again, this is easier in a food processor.

Tart filling

3 lbs rhubarb, cut up (about 9 cups)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon orange zest

6 tablespoons tapioca starch (I had to hunt for this, but discovered that Bob's Red Mill makes it and can be found at Harris Teeter)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine 3 cups of rhubarb, vanilla and 1 cup of sugar in a saucepan. Cooke over medium heat until the rhubarb releases its juices and they thicken to a syrup, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool. It will continue to thicken as it cools.

Roll out crust and place in tart or pie pan.

Toss the remaining rhubarb and sugar in a large bowl with the orange zest, tapioca starch, and the cooked rhubarb. Pour over crust. Top with streusel and bake for around 40 minutes, or until nice and brown and the filling starts to bubble through a bit.

Honey Glazed Salmon with Spicy Tomato Relish

So, this is the recipe that started it all, Bobby Flay's Honey Glazed Salmon with Spicy Tomato Relish.

Salmon: 1 cup sherry or sherry vinegar
1/4 cup Dijon or honey mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 Tablespoons chili powder (It actually calls for ancho chili powder, but good luck finding that. Also, I know that sounds like it's going to be really spicy, but all the sweetness tones the chili powder down)
salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 salmon steaks or fillets

Relish:
2 med. tomatoes, chopped
2 Tablespoons diced red onion
1 Tablespoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Salmon: In small saucepan over high heat, reduce sherry to 1/4 cup. In a mixing bowl, combine reduced sherry, mustard, honey,chili powder, salt and pepper (to taste). Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Heat Tablespoon of oil in skillet until almost smoking. Dip salmon in glaze then brown on each side in pan. Place in baking dish, pouring remaining glaze in the pan and put in oven at 350. Continue baking for 5 to 6 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through.

Relish: Combine all ingredients and let rest 30 minutes at room temperature. Serve with salmon.

Recipe Requests

My first attempts at cooking were abysmal failures. So much so, for a time I was given the nickname "Torch" and my great aunt sent me a timer on a chain I could wear around my neck so I would stop burning food. My mother tried in vain to teach me while I was still at home, but I wasn't having it. Then I got married and suddenly I had to start feeding someone else. I love Daniel, so I didn't want to poison him with bad food. So, partly for help and partly just because I was enthralled with all those cable channels I never had before growing up the in boonies, I started watching the Food Network. I made a Bobby Flay Salmon recipe (still one of our favorites), and it snowballed from there. Now I'm a bona fide foodie, with a passion for cooking. Since my cooking has improved tremendously since my first efforts, I get a lot of recipe requests. I decided it would be a lot easier to just break down and do the blog thing than to continue to send lots of emails.

I thought as long as I'm entering the blogging world, I might as well share some of my other passions, including all things Durham, art, and travel. This will be the blog I use while we are houseswapping in Australia and New Zealand. I solemnly swear to keep the cat pictures to a minimum :)