Thursday, May 29, 2008

Them Bones, Them Beautiful Bones

Ever since I read about the Beautiful Bones event, I knew I would participate. I even knew right away what dish I would be making. Why in the world then am I waiting until 2 days before the deadline to post my recipe?

I’ve been thinking about the way I would approach this post for almost a month. You see, my father suffers from osteoporosis and recently broke his hip. He’s been in the hospital for over a month now as he’s also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His quality of life has greatly diminished over the last few years, but he tries very hard to stay strong. I think it’s wonderful that bloggers like Susan, of Food Blogga, put together events such as this one, to raise people’s awareness of diseases like osteoporosis. Without becoming an alarmist, I think we (myself included) should all realize that what, and how we eat greatly impacts what we become later in life.

This salmon loaf is a wonderfully easy recipe. Just mix all the ingredients together, bake for a little while and you get a calcium rich dish that’s also very delicious! I promise, even my kids love it!


Salmon Loaf
From “Qu’est-ce qu’on mange?

2 eggs
2 – 7 oz cans salmon, drained, bones and skin removed
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 carrot, grated
1 celery stalk, chopped finely
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined.

Place mixture into the prepared pan and pat it down lightly.

Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes.

Let the loaf rest 5 minutes before slicing.

Serve as is or with a béchamel sauce.

Béchamel Sauce
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg (optional)

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour, mix well with a whisk, and let it cook for about 2 minutes. While whisking, add the milk. Keep whisking until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and season to taste.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

I’ve discovered lately that having a food blog gives you an excuse to do things you would not normally do. Take brioche dough, for example. I’ve wanted to make brioche since I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa in which Ina Garten makes the cutest little breakfast treats I’ve ever seen. I checked out the recipe, and as with most of her recipes it contains an alarming amount of butter. So I had put off making brioche dough because, well, I had no excuse really!

Until last Friday when I started on Madam Chow’s pick for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie, Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. Oh, yes, now I had the perfect excuse. And my best friend, Empire Red, was real happy to help me out. He even danced a little dance of joy on my kitchen counter while kneading the dough! He got quite the workout, but he’s OK, and real happy to have used his dough hook for the very first time.

After a night’s rest in the refrigerator, the dough was ready to be used to make the buns. Last Saturday morning, we had one of the sweetest and most indulging breakfast we’ve had in a long time! These buns are out of this world. So tender and flaky and meltingly delicious! Now I know what I’ve been missing! They are really easy to put together once the dough is done, and with a mixer, making the dough’s pretty easy too!

The only change I made to the recipe was to use maple syrup instead of honey in the glaze, I couldn't help it, I had to change a little something! Intrigued as to what the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie gang thought of these gorgeous breakfast treats? Well, click on over there and check out the blog roll! Have fun!

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
From Baking from my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Makes 15 buns

For the Glaze:
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup honey
1-1/2 cups pecans (whole or pieces)

For the Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the Buns:
1/2 recipe dough for Golden Brioche loaves (see below), chilled and ready to shape (make the full recipe and cut the dough in half after refrigerating it overnight).

Generously butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan (a Pyrex pan is perfect for this).

To make the glaze: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, and honey to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Pour the glaze into the buttered pan, evening it out as best you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle over the pecans.

To make the filling: Mix the sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl. If necessary, in another bowl, work the butter with a spatula until it is soft, smooth and spreadable.

To shape the buns: On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you. Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can. (At this point, you can wrap the dough airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months . . . . Or, if you want to make just part of the recipe now, you can use as much of the dough as you'd like and freeze the remainder. Reduce the glaze recipe accordingly).

With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. (Because you trim the ragged ends of the dough, and you may have lost a little length in the rolling, you will get 15 buns, not 16.) Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them.

Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns have doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and, in all likelihood, touching one another.

Getting ready to bake: When the buns have almost fully risen , center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden; the glaze will be bubbling away merrily. Pull the pan from the oven.

The sticky buns must be unmolded minutes after they come out of the oven. If you do not have a rimmed platter large enough to hold them, use a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or buttered foil. Be careful - the glaze is super-hot and super-sticky.

What You'll Need for the Golden Brioche Dough
(this recipe makes enough for two brioche loaves. If you divide the dough in half, you would use half for the sticky buns, and you can freeze the other half for a later date, or make a brioche loaf out of it!):

2 packets active dry yeast (each packet of yeast contains approx. 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm

What You'll Need for the Glaze
(you would brush this on brioche loaves, but not on the sticky buns):

1 large egg
1 tablespoon water

To Make The Brioche: Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and fit into the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one. Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can-- this will help keep you, the counter and your kitchen floor from being showered in flour. Turn the mixer on and off a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour (yes, you can peek to see how you're doing), then remove the towel, increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for a minute or two, just until the flour is moistened. At this point, you'll have a fairly dry, shaggy mess.

Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You'll have a dough that is very soft, almost like batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (or wash out the mixer bowl and use it), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.

Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight. (After this, you can proceed with the recipe to make the brioche loaves, or make the sticky buns instead, or freeze all or part of the dough for later use.)

The next day, butter and flour two 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch pans.

Pull the dough from the fridge and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cut each piece of the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece into a log about 3 1/2 inches long. Arrange 4 logs crosswise in the bottom of each pan. Put the pans on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat, cover the pans lightly with wax paper and leave the loaves at room temperature until the dough almost fills the pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Again, rising time will depend on how warm the room is.)

Getting Ready To Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

To Make the Glaze: Beat the egg with the water. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the loaves with the glaze.

Bake the loaves until they are well risen and deeply golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pans and turn the loaves out onto the racks. Invert again and cool for at least 1 hour.

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Saturday, May 24, 2008

Pretty in Pink Frosting

I want to start this post by thanking all of you who left Olivia and I such wonderful birthday wishes. Be sure that I appreciate each and every comment. It boggles the mind how much love there is out there on the blogosphere! Thank you guys so much!

Now for part one of the birthday desserts... What could be better than pink frosted cupcakes for a little girl's birthday? My oldest daughter would argue that a Bratz cake is way better but she's 7 years old, not 1! So cupcakes it was for Olivia and let me tell you I had fun with these! I am usually a total clutz with a piping bag but I guess I found the right frosting recipe because I could have frosted cupcakes all day. Really, I wish I'd had loads of people over for a party so I could have baked dozen after dozen cupcakes. So much fun!

The cupcake recipe I used from Epicurious was really simple and easy. They were very good too, in a simple vanilla cupcake sort of way! It was Olivia's very first taste of cake and I have to admit, she was a lot more fascinated with the pretty candle than with the cupcake itself! She did have a small taste though and she liked it well enough. Annabelle and Thomas both loved them. Thomas even forgot to tell me they were too girlie, he was so busy eating!

So Olivia's birthday dessert went over well, now I have to decide what I'll make as my special dessert. Well, I couldn't do it all on the same day, now could I? And there are so many options out there I've bookmarked or printed out, I don't know what to choose! I'm not good with decisions, I'll let you know how it turns out... In the meantime, please have a cupcake!

The cupcake recipe is from Amy Sedaris and can be found on Epicurious.

Pink Buttercream Frosting

Adapted from
The Cupcakery

4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

4 oz. Vegetable Shortening

5 cups powdered sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

2 to 3 tbsp whole milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Red food coloring


1. With an electric mixer, cream the butter, shortening & salt for about 30 seconds.

2. Add half of the powdered sugar and the milk to the butter mixture and beat again until combined. Scrape down the bowl.
3. Add the remainder of the powdered sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat until combined. Scrape down the bowl again.
4. Beat on high speed for 5-6 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy. Add red food coloring, a few drops at a time until desired color is achieved.

5. It is preferable to use the frosting on the same day you make it, but it can keep in the refrigerator for 3 days if tightly wrapped. Make sure and stir the buttercream well before using to get the air bubbles out of the frosting and then pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.


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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is Olivia's Birthday, she's one year old, imagine that! It seems only yesterday I was holding the tiniest little girl in my arms and now, she's just about to start walking around! All you mothers out there will know what I mean when I say that they really do grow up too fast!

Since Olivia and I share the same birthday, I also get to be a year older today, 35 years old to be exact. It feels weird saying that, I don't feel 35, but then again, what should 35 feel like? I guess it's different for everyone. Since I don't want to dwell on the fact that I'm getting older, ahem, today is going to be all about Olivia!
I'll be posting our birthday desserts a little later this week, I can't tell you everything today, where would be the fun in that! So I leave you with our birthday breakfast, a sweet treat in the form of Cranberry Orange Scones with an Orange Glaze. I'm sending this over to Helen, otherwise known as the lovely Tartelette, for Sugar High Friday #43-Citrus. Hope you all have a wonderful day!


Cranberry Orange Scones
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
finely grated zest of one orange
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cranberries and orange zest. Add milk, one egg and one egg yolk (reserve the white). Mix until blended. Drop dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead delicately about 20 times. With floured hands pat dough into a 1/2 inch thick circle. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and with a sharp knife, score dough into 12 slices (as with a pie). Brush top with reserved egg white and sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake in preheated 425°F oven for about 20 minutes. Serve warm, topped with glaze.

Orange Glaze
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 to 3 tsp orange juice

Sift confectioner's sugar into a bowl. Add orange juice and mix until thoroughly blended. Add more orange juice to adjust the consistency. Spread onto scones.


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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Traditional Madeleines

I haven't participated in the last few Tuesdays with Dorie for a couple of reasons but mostly because time has been flying away from me quicker than ever lately and I can't seem do everything I want or even need to do. But when I learned the recipe Tara, of Smells Like Home, had chosen for this week was Traditional Madeleines, I was totally there.
I got a Madeleine pan a few months back, and a friend of mine gave me a mini-Madeleines pan recently as well. I had used them only once to ordinary results, so I wanted to see how Dorie's recipe would do. I learned a few things from my first Madeleine experience though, like don't overfill the pans because these babies rise! I wanted dainty little Madeleines so I went easy on the batter and they turned out a lot better than my first ones. Also, you need to butter and flour the pans really well because the Madeleines tend to stick to the molds. Other than that, this is a really easy recipe and the batter needs to chill so it can be made up to a few days in advance. The resulting cakes are lemony, spongy little bites of heaven and even though recipes for Madeleines usually say these are better served the same day, I had some the day after I made them and they were still delicious. The cuteness factor here, to me, justifies the purchase of the special pan, but I've heard you can also make these in mini-muffin tins. I'll definitely be making these again, and I can't wait to try many, many different variations. What did the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers think of these little beauties? Check them out and see! You can find Dorie's recipe for Traditional Madeleines on this site.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Desperately Seeking Inspiration

I feel like I have very little creativity these days, and when Martin came home from the grocery store this weekend with a package of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, I had no idea what to do with them. No idea, at all. So I turned to my trusty little Food Blog Search and typed in Chicken Tetrazzini.

I've never had Chicken Tetrazzini, I probably watched some Food Network show lately that featured it and the name stuck in my head or something. In any case, I found the perfect recipe for a few of my boneless, skinless little friends. Gretchen, over at Canela & Comino, has this great, lightened up version of Chicken Tetrazzini, and it's just perfect! I added some peas, for color, and some garlic because I love garlic, and I might have used a bit more pasta than was called for in the original recipe, but aside from that, it's perfect as is. I know I've said this before, but thank goodness for bloggers, I don't know what I'd do without you guys inspiring me! So go visit Gretchen, and get inspired!

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Thursday, May 8, 2008

Macarons Obsessed

Why is it that I am obsessed with macarons? They seem to be everywhere I turn, in my virtual blogworld, and they are so darn cute! Months ago I decided I would try my hand at making macarons. So I researched, and read, and studied, and compared recipes.

All the while getting more and more stressed out about it. Would they turn out? Would they have those little feet that make them so cute? Would they be good? What do they even taste like? I bought a kitchen scale for the sole purpose of making my first macarons. Well, okay, I must admit, it was the perfect excuse to get one and I love it to bits! A few days ago I decided I had researched enough and got to work.

It helped that I had found Helen’s tutorial in Desserts Magazine, Issue #2. Our lovely Tartelette has given us all of the tricks she uses to come up with those wonderful little confections and I felt a bit like she was with me in the kitchen as I looked through her article. I whipped my egg whites, folded in the almonds, placed my pastry bag in a tall glass to fill it (one of Helen’s tricks), and then I noticed a lot of the batter was staying at the bottom of the glass. That’s when I knew I had given the batter a few strokes too many, it was too thin. Oh, well. I piped the little guys out anyway and threw them in the oven. There. I was sure they would lay flat on the baking sheet and turn out into thin little meringue cookies.

Imagine my surprise when they started growing little feet right before my very eyes. So the second baking sheet went in the oven and when all the macarons had cooled enough I noticed that the ones from the second batch were a little less fragile. Perhaps there’s a reason for the rest period after all!

My little macarons friends are certainly not perfect and I’m sure their fragility is also due to the fact that my batter was too thin, but I’m extremely proud of them all the same! That is why I am sending these to Minko over at Couture Cupcakes for her event Mad for Macarons in May. And now, I think I know why I’ve been macarons obsessed lately. It’s the process that intrigued me. All those questions I had to ask myself, all that research I did, that’s what I loved about these. I can’t wait to make my next batch! I might go easy on the caramel next time…

Macarons with Fleur de Sel Caramel Filling

For the macarons recipe, I’m sending you to Helen’s turorial in Desserts Magazine, it’s so well written and extremely helpful! For the caramel sauce, I used my usual one but added a 1/2 tsp of fleur de sel at the same time as the butter for a fleur de sel caramel.


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Saturday, May 3, 2008

Dueling Dishes

Lists are my thing, I love them. I usually make a list of the week’s dinners the weekend before. But I never make a list for lunches, I should, but it never works out. So I’m always wondering what to have for lunch. That’s when I start flipping through magazines, cookbooks, printouts that are lying around pretty much everywhere in the kitchen.

Last week I was browsing through my copy of the Fine Cooking Annual and I got inspired. This book is full of tempting recipes and fun to know techniques. And the photography is gorgeous. Which is good, because that’s what inspires me. I saw a photo of a zucchini side dish and I got to thinking this would be perfect over pasta. With a few adjustments of my own, of course! As I was chopping and dicing, I realized this would be the perfect dish to enter in Ginny’s Dollar Dish Duel. Yes, our Ginny of Just Get Floury is hosting her first blogging event and I absolutely wanted to participate. The dish should not cost more than 5$ so I started mentally adding what I was using, approximating most of the prices though as I had everything in the fridge and pantry already, and I got my dueling dish! Yes! It did feed 2 people, as in me, again, on the next day! And it was delicious!

So here are my ingredients and prices:
2 zucchinis: 1.50
Rotini pasta, half of a 375g box: .50 (the whole box was 99 cents on sale)
4 oil-packed sun dried tomatoes: .50
1 red onion: .50
2 cloves garlic: .50
freshly grated parmesan cheese: .50
Salt, pepper and olive oil from the pantry

Again, I approximated the prices so a few of the ingredients could be more or less than 50 cents but not a lot and it was easier to add up this way. I wanted to use pine nuts and I totally forgot but they would have been soooo good with this. Also, if you want to go over 5$ a bit, you could toss in some leftover cooked chicken and it would be delicious. There you go Ginny, I can’t wait to see the round-up!

Zucchini and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta
About 190 grams rotini pasta
Olive oil
2 zucchini squashes, quartered lengthwise, seeds removed and sliced on an angle
4 oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese for serving
Toasted pine nuts and cooked chicken, optional

Cook and drain the rotini pasta and set aside.

In a large sauté pan heat about a tbsp of olive oil, over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini, sun dried tomatoes and the onion. Sauté until the zucchini is golden and the onion is translucent. Add the garlic. At this point you can also add the chicken, if you wish. Toss together with the pasta, adding a little olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with toasted pine nuts, if desired and some grated parmesan cheese.

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