Wilted Spinach Salad

I've never had a wilted salad that didn't have bacon in it, so I kept looking for when I was supposed to cook the bacon and use the grease, and finally remembered that this was a vegetarian cookbook, and there wasn't ever going to be any bacon.  So this is a decidedly healthier wilted salad, and still very good.  This is from Everyday Greens by Annie Somerville.  It says it serves four, and I when I looked at the amount it made I thought maybe she intended them to be main dish salads. I suppose that is possible, but Daniel and I had no trouble gobbling our allotted serving even though we were also eating fish and some roasted potatoes that night.  I will say, though, that if you don't think you're going to eat it all in one setting, don't dress but what you are going to eat, because like most wilted salads, they are soggy and not as good as leftovers.  I was skeptical that 1/4 cup of oil was going to wilt 14 cups of spinach, but it was fine, but it doesn't wilt quite as much as other similar salads I've had, but I actually liked it better that way.  This has quite a few steps for a salad, so don't expect to throw it all together when the rest of your dinner is almost done.

1 1/2 cups roasted Portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 a medium red onion, thinly sliced, about 1/2 cup
14 cups spinach, or if you can find it, 12 cups spinach and 2 to 3 cups escarole (a bitter green)
3 T balsamic vinegar (Daniel and I agreed next time I'd try 4 T as we like a bit more zing)
1/2 tea. minced garlic
1/2 tea. salt
freshly ground pepper
pint of grape tomatoes
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1 T chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated, about 1/3 cup

To make the roasted mushrooms, preheat your oven or toaster oven to 400.  Place the sliced mushrooms on a baking sheet and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook for 10 minutes, flip them over, and cook for another 10.

Cover the onions with cold water and set aside for 10 to 15 minutes.

Toast your pine nuts either in a toaster oven or in a small skillet.  You just want them to turn a little brown and they'll start to smell nutty.

Wash and dry greens if not already prewashed bagged spinach.  Drain the onions and give them a good shake to remove excess water.  Combine the vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and mint in a very large bowl.  Whisk it around a little bit.  Add the greens, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and pine nuts.  Heat the oil in a small skillet until just below the point of smoking, when the first wisp of vapor appears.  Pour it over the salad, using metal tongs to toss, sprinkling in the Parmesan as you go. Serve immediately.

Spicy Red Sauce

A housemate of ours introduced us to this and made me a copy of the recipe written out by her mother.  It was more of an ingredient list than anything, without measurements for most of the ingredients or directions.  I've been fussing and tweaking it for years now.  I was committed to making it work because it's so good, and I've never seen a recipe similar to it.  It is spicy, so if you don't like a little heat, it's not for you.  It's best served with bread to sop up all that tasty extra sauce.

1 lb sweet Italian sausage (I like Johnsonville)
2, 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
15 oz dry red wine (just fill up one of the empty diced tomato cans)
1 cup of sliced pepperoncini rings with juice (measure this in a liquid measuring cup, as it's important you get the juice, not just the pepper rings)
1 cup sliced green olives with their juice (same method as the peppers)
1 tea. garlic powder
1 tea. basil
1/2 tea. oregano
1/4 tea. rosemary
1/4 tea thyme
a generous sprinkling of freshly ground pepper

Brown the sausage in a large deep skillet, either crumbling it up or if you got it in link form, you can just slice it thinly and cook it.  Drain thoroughly.  Sausage can get pretty greasy, so I even line a plate with paper towel, dump the cooked sausage on it and pat it down with more paper towel.  Then I wipe out the skillet before returning the sausage to it to finish the sauce.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and simmer together for about 20 minutes.  Serve with pasta of your choice.  This makes a lot, so either freeze some of it, or you'll have to probably make two boxes of pasta.

Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake

I'm a cookbook nerd.  I can sit and read them page by page like a novel.  Every so often I check several out from the library.  Admittedly, I end up returning them sometimes with with a few spots, but I do try to keep them clean.  I recently checked out Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.  She also wrote The Cake Bible 20 some years ago.  I guess that title wasn't much of an exaggeration, as a lot of people see it as the definitive word on cakes.  She's good at explaining why you should do things a certain way or use a certain ingredient, which I appreciate and gives me a better understanding on how the recipes work.  I've already made three of the cakes, but this was the first I tried, and it tastes just like those thick buttery slices you can get at a good breakfast restaurant.  

Cinnamon Crumb Topping:

1 cup walnuts

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 T sugar

1 1/2 tea. cinnamon

1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sifted all purpose flour (or 2.2 oz)

4 T butter

1/2 tea. vanilla

In a food processor, pulse the walnuts, brown sugar, regular sugar, and cinnamon until the walnuts are coarsely chopped.  Remove and set aside 1/2 cup to use for the filling.  To the remainder, add the flour, butter, and vanilla and pulse briefly to form a coarse, crumbly mixture.  Scrape into a medium bowl and refrigerate it for about 20 minutes to firm up the butter and make it easier to crumble.

Batter

1 tart apple such as Granny Smith

2 tea. lemon juice

2 large eggs at room temperature*

2/3 cup, divided, of sour cream

1 1/2 tea. vanilla

1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour (7 oz)

1 cup sugar

1/2 tea. baking powder

1/2 tea. baking soda

1/4 tea. salt

12 T butter (65 to 75 degrees)*

*Rose uses a different technique for mixing than I've ever seen before that is supposed to both be a little bit faster as well as produce a finer, more velvety crumb.  However, the key to making it work is room temperature eggs and butter at 65-75 degrees.  Thankfully, both are pretty easily achieved.  To bring eggs to room temp, just place them in a bowl of hot tap water for 5 minutes.  Microwaves vary, but for me, taking butter out of the fridge and zapping it for 10 seconds brings it to that magical temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350 for at least 20 minutes.

Peel, core, and slice the apple 1/4 inch thick (should be a heaping cup).  Sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, 3 T of the sour cream, and the vanilla just until lightly combined.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on low speed for 30 seconds.  Add the butter and the remaining sour cream and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1.5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Starting on medium-low speed, gradually add the egg mixture in two parts, beating for 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Using a silicone spatula, scrape about two-thirds of the batter into a greased 9 inch springform pan and smooth the surface evenly.  Using your fingers, sprinkle lightly with the reserved 1/2 cup crumb topping and top with two rows of overlapping apple slices.  Drop the remaining batter in large blobs over the apples and spread it evenly.

Bake the cake for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, use your fingertips to pinch together the refrigerated crumb topping, breaking up the larger pieces so that about one-third of the mixture is formed into 1/4 inch balls or clumps and the rest is in small particles.  Let them fall onto a large piece of parchment paper and add the rest of the lightly pinched crumbs.

Remove the pan from the oven after it has cooked for 35 minutes.  Using the parchment as a funnel, quickly and evenly strew the surface with the crumb topping.  Return the pan to the oven and continue baking for 20 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes then remove the sides of the springform pan.  It will take 1.5 hours to cool completely, but we like ours a bit warm still.

Deviled Eggs

The women of my family know how to make a mean deviled egg.  My mom tried to teach me how to cook multiple times as a child, and I had no interest in paying attention.  However, with deviled eggs she did not take no for an answer, mostly because she needed my sisters and me to peel all those eggs.  This skill ended up serving me very well once married.  Our family's skill for making deviled eggs can only be rivaled by the Chase men's passion for eating deviled eggs.

I think mine is a little bit different from my mom's, but it's very similar and the process is the same.  There are a few tricks my mother imparted to me over the years while cracking and peeling all those eggs.

1. Use old eggs.  I know, that sounds weird.  I'm not talking spoiled, but they should be at least a week old, preferably two.  Older eggs are much easier to peel that fresh eggs.  We eat eggs pretty quickly in our house, so occasionally I've made them with fresh eggs, and despite a lot of egg peeling practice, they end up looking like a beaver went at them.
2.  When you hard boil eggs, bring the water to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer for 17 minutes.  I used to full boil them for 10 minutes, which denatures the protein in the yolks, turning them gray and giving off a sulfur-like smell.
3. When peeling eggs, it's best to smash (gently) the egg all the way around against the side of the sink so that the only thing holding all those pieces together is the thin membrane between the egg and the shell.  Then start at the bottom of the egg where there is often a little air pocket, especially if the eggs are older.  It's easier to get under the membrane there, and you can sometime get the egg to peel off in one long spiral that way, sort of like peeling an orange.
4.  People often tend to want to make their eggs look pretty by piping the filling just enough to fill in the hole where the yolk was.  They may look nice, but they never taste as good.  The key to a good deviled egg is to put as much of the filling as possible on the egg.  As you can see from the picture, I'm not shy about this.
5.  Never put pickle relish in your filling.  Ever.  I mean it; just walk away from the jar.
6.  Use Grey Poupon.  I have tried many, many different kinds of mustards in this from champagne mustard to to whole grain to a garlic mustard.  I've also tried multiple Dijon mustards.  My mom uses regular yellow mustard, I think, and manages to make them taste good, but I think they taste absolutely the best with Grey Poupon.
7.  Lots of paper towel.  I remember my mom doing this but it took me awhile to understand why and follow her example.  As you peel the eggs you tend to have to rinse them off, making them wet.  This water seems to just keep coming back.  If you don't get your eggs dried well, they tend to get really rubbery. Once you peel the eggs, set the whole eggs on paper towel for the first dry-out.  Replace that paper towel, and put more down as you slice the eggs.  Put the halves down on the paper towel while you make the filling to let them dry again.  Then, as you start to refill them, wipe each yolk hole with yet another paper towel, as some water has likely pooled there.  Finally, if you don't have a deviled egg try that has the egg-sized dips in it, place the eggs on more paper towel in a Tupperware before refrigerating.  I am amazed at how the paper towel seems to continue to get wet.

Here then is the actual recipe:

18 hard boiled eggs
1 sort of overfull cup mayo (I prefer Dukes)
1/3 cup Grey Poupon
1-2 teaspoons kosher salt (start with one teaspoon and season to taste from there.  I like them on the salty side, but not everyone does)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (preferably freshly ground)
Paprika

Peel the eggs and slice them in half.  Remove the yolks and place them in a medium sized bowl.  Mash the yolks thoroughly with a fork.  Add the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper and mix well.  Using a butter knife, put the filling back in the hole and cover the whole top of the egg, smoothing the top.  Sprinkle the eggs liberally with paprika.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Strawberry Suspension Cake

I apologize but several of the next few posts have really terrible pictures.  I have been rather half-hearted in making the food look pretty lately.  It's been sort of an effort to just make sure it's documented.  There were a couple things I made in the last month that I couldn't even be persuaded to go find the camera and even do that.    It's a shame, because this one in particular was actually sort of impressive looking.  My friend Elizabeth had a birthday and I asked her what she wanted.  She said her absolute favorite thing was strawberry suspension cake.  She had eaten at Lulu's Chocolate Bar in Savannah Georgia and didn't realize that's the only place in the world that it exists.  She had suggested a few other things, but as I like challenge, I was going to try to do my best to figure out this cake.  The recipe is apparently a state secret so there weren't any copy cat recipes I could find, but I did find a reviewer that had a particularly good description of it.  So, I've never actually tasted Lulu's original, but Elizabeth said I got pretty close.

First I made a two layer chocolate cake.  I just used the recipe on my Ghirardelli Cocoa can, but honestly thought it was sort of a dry cake.  If you have a chocolate cake recipe you like better, or even just want to use a box mix, that will work.  However, here it is:

Ghirardelli Grand Fudge Cake

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

1 1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour two 9 x 1.5 inch round cake pans.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda and salt and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition.  Alternately add flour mixture and milk (starting and ending with the flour mixture), while mixing on low speed.  Continue to mix until smooth.  Pour into prepared pans.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the mascarpone mousse filling.

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup granulated sugar
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the whipping cream and 1/3 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, cream the mascarpone cheese and remaining 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add the cheese mixture to the whipped cream mixture.

Nose and slice a quart of strawberries and gently fold them into the mascarpone mousse.

Place one cooled chocolate cake layer on a platter.  Top with all of the mousse (it's supposed to be really thick), then the second cake layer.  Melt 6 oz of your favorite chocolate (dark, milk, bittersweet) with 2 tablespoons of Crisco.  Pour over the top of the cake.  Refrigerate the cake long enough for the chocolate to  harden (a la Magic Shell) before serving. 

Here's the birthday girl enjoying her cake and Amber making a face, of course, behind her.