Guac is Love

I cannot be controlled around guacamole.  I find it absolutely divine.  Even when it's not that great, it's still amazing.  However, that being said, I can only think of two places I've had guac that is like, HOLY CRAP, that was amazing!  Anywhere else I've had guac is still edible and I definitely have to be restrained from licking the bowl - but these places REALLY stand out. The first place is Sol Cucina in Newport Beach.  The Guacamole Sol is unlike anything I've had before - it has mangos, pepitas, and goat cheese in it.  Crazy combo, but boy does it work.  Add in a margarita and my life is complete.  The other place, which I just tried last weekend, is La Sandia in Santa Monica.  I knew it was going to be good when they asked how hot we wanted it.  And I was beyond thrilled when all 3 of us at the table agreed on HOT.  None of that pansy mild crap that's as spicy as ketchup.  I like everything spicy!  Anyway, there wasn't any fancy ingredients in it other than whatever hot sauce they used, but it was definitely delicious enough that I will likely remember it and want to go back there.

Anyway, I finally started making my own guac a few months ago.  And at first try, I basically made the Best Guac Ever.  My second batch got me a high five from a random person that sampled it.  Tonight was my third batch, and it is Dinner.  And an amazing dinner at that.

My only problem with making guac is that it's sorta depressing to see how little guac 3 avocados actually makes because I have definitely consumed more guac than that in one sitting before.  Yikes.  Also its pricy but luckily my fabulous roommate has access to an avocado tree so its much cheaper than normal for me to make.

How I do it...keep in mind, I don't measure...I just make it look & taste right:

3-5 avocados
2-4 Roma tomatos
1/2 or more Red Onion
2 or 3 Limes
1-2 Jalapenos or 1 Serrano pepper
A bunch of cilantro
Seasoned Salt

Split the avocados in half, take out the pit, use a spoon and remove from the skin.  Mash 'em all up in a bowl with a potato masher.  Cut the limes & squeeze all the juice in, mix together before the 'cados turn brown.  Dice the onion very finely (I don't like big chunks of onion), add in and mix.  Slice the tomatoes and remove the seeds and juice before dicing.  Dice the peppers...today I use 2 Jalapenos but last time I used 1 Serrano.  Chop up the cilantro.  Sprinkle on some seasoned salt.  And then some more because it's really good.  Mix it all up.  Enjoy!

Mmm....dinner :)

Back in the kitchen!

Wow, I've been slacking.   A month and a half since my last post?  I truly have not cooked much since then.  10 days of my college roomie in town (although I did cook twice - shrimp & pasta concoctions), an unexpected 2 week trip to Michigan, my mom visiting (we made a pizza together, it was delish) and during her trip, an unexpected killer sinus infection that knocked me out for the last 2.5 weeks.  I have basically been eating cereal, yogurt, veggie burgers, and take out Combo salads from Hosum Bistro.  Last weekend I was feeling somewhat better and bought a few ingredients intending to make some sort of Pineapple Fried Rice....yesterday I threw out a moldy pineapple  *sigh*.  I did manage to make some cupcakes in the brief window I was feeling better...those are below.

Well, today was the day.  I finally feel about 95% better and I want to make my OWN food.  Plus I have nothing left in my freezer for lunches.  I had found numerous recipes for Pineapple Fried and liked parts of each one but wanted to make it my own way.  Some had shrimp (yum), red peppers (holy expensive), curry powder (I can handle it), but there wasn't once recipe that totally caught my eye.  So here's what I did for what turned out to be tonight's dinner & 4 extra servings for lunches:

3/4 lb chicken breast
Dry Jerk seasoning
1 cup brown rice (dry)
1 15 oz can black beans (drained & rinsed)
1 20 oz can pineapple (drained, liquid reserved)
1 10 oz bag of matchstick carrots
1/2 red onion, diced
soy sauce
red pepper flakes
salt
pepper
minced garlic (from a jar)
cilantro

I actually cooked the rice last weekend and when I realized I wasn't going to do anything else with it, I stuck it in the freezer until yesterday.

For the chicken, I seasoned with the Jerk Seasoning (bought a pre-made mix but I probably could have made my own), salt and pepper.  Browned and cooked it through in a skillet, and slice into thin strips.

Heated large skillet, used just a little bit of cooking spray, and added the diced onion.  Cooked until soft, added one heaping spoon (probably about a TBSP) of the minced garlic.  Added the black beans, pineapple chunks (not the juice) and carrots.  Sauteed for a bit, then added about half of the pineapple juice to help soften the carrots.  Added some red pepper flakes (I like HOT), soy sauce (maybe a TBSP or two), and let everything cook down until the carrots were almost done, and then added the chicken.  I had cooked it earlier & let it cool so it needed to warm up again.  Then I took everything out of the pan, sprayed it with cooking spray again, and added in just the rice and let it sizzle for a bit.  Not exactly "fried" since I didn't use any real oil but whatever...I prefer to cook healthy.  Then I added everything else back in after a few minutes, stirred it around, and added the rest of the pineapple juice, and salt & pepper.  Tasted it...not bad...added cilantro, and dang, it was pretty good.  I also made some broccoli on the side to get some extra veggies.  I feel like overall, it could use SOME work - I had ginger & forgot to use it, but I'm not sure yet what else I would do differently.  It was definitely spicy but it could use some depth instead of more spice.  I'm definitely willing to play around with it and make another variation, probably with shrimp.  All in all, I liked it, AND it was really healthy.

And of course I had to bake.  I wanted to something simple, no fancy cupcakes or multi-step cookies like I've been doing.  I found this recipe for Marshmallow Blondies and decided they sounded easy and tasty.  Not much to really say about them since it was the most basic recipe ever.  The only thing was that I baked them for longer than the recipe indicated (probably about 28 minutes) and I discovered they were definitely too soft in the middle of the pan.  They're super sticky regardless, but the middle of the pan was hard to cut and I was forced to eat that part.  Here's a pic of my new dough scrapper from my Favorite Cooking Store (as in, if you want to get me something for my upcoming birthday...gift cards are welcome...) stuck in the middle of the baked Blondies.  Verdict:  slightly undercooked & super sticky but really tasty.

The one project I did manage last weekend was Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting.  I had to find a new ingredient for these - freeze dried strawberries.  I happened to look through the Trader Joe's ad last week and saw they had them so I stocked up there.

I also needed fresh strawberries...mmm....I love strawberries.

So the batter had pureed fresh strawberries AND the freeze dried, which were pulverized in my mini food processor.  When I was making the batter, I thought it was too thick - and after they were baked I'd still agree.  One thing I need to learn is that while I can identify what might be wrong with a recipe, I don't know how to fix it.  The batter was very thick & dense - I don't know if more eggs (or beating the whites separately) would have helped?  I meant to try again because I ended up with leftover frosting, but that hasn't happened yet.  Here's the super thick batter:

Pretty & pink!  And the baked cupcakes, pre-frosting:

So I think the frosting was the best part.  The dried strawberries, butter, powdered sugar, and cream cheese.  There was no way that wouldn't be good.  Since I haven't used the extra yet and it is probably actually still good, I should probably just buy more fresh strawberries and dip them in the frosting goodness.  And here's the finished product:

And a whole bunch of 'em:

Pretty!

So I have zero plans to cook anymore this week.  Lunches are made.  At most I may make some guacamole tomorrow and call that dinner.  I fly to NYC on Thursday morning and will spend my weekend eating, drinking, and running my way through the city.  Maybe next week...

Babka Babka Babka

Boy oh boy, did you know babka tastes really really good? I mean, really good, like eat-the-crumbs-off-the-floor good? It took an afternoon of lessons learned, but I finished baking a babka loaf in time for dessert on Sunday. Christine was home in time for the tasting and I'm pretty sure she liked.

I did some research and discovered Martha had the best recipe, but it made three loaves. I reduced the recipe to make just one loaf, and I've retyped and added my personal additions (vanilla!) to the recipe below. This is by no means an every day indulgence. The amount of butter and chocolate in this recipe will my close arteries and my bank account if made every week, however after making this rich treat, I am one personal step closer to buying my new toy.

Whether you are intrigued with babka like I was after the infamous Seinfeld episode, or you are quite familiar with the pastry, I highly suggested making a loaf, or buying one, you won't be disappointing. Heck, ask me, I'll gladly make and share an extra loaf.

Babka Makes 1 loaf
Adapted from Martha

1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees
1.5 tsp active dry yeast
Squeeze of honey
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, divided
1 tsp vanilla
2.5 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbls butter, softened
12 ounces chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar

4 Tbls butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup flour 5 Tbls butter, softened

1. Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and squeeze of honey over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg.
   

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture and yeast mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add 6 Tablespoons butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.

4. Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

5. Place chocolate, 1/3 cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Using a fork, cut in remaining 4 Tablespoons butter until well combined; set filling aside.

6. Generously butter one 9-by-5-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pan; line with parchment paper. Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be 1/8 inch thick.

7. Brush edges with egg wash. Crumble the reserved chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Refresh egg wash if needed. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal. Twist 5 or 6 turns. Brush top of roll with egg wash. Bend roll in half and twist left half over right half. Fold ends under, and pinch to seal. Fit into prepared pan.
   

8. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash. Combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and 5 Tablespoons butter to make streusel topping. Crumble streusel topping over loaf. Loosely cover pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes.

9. Bake loaf, rotating halfway through, until golden, about 45 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until babkas are deep golden, 10 minutes more. Remove from oven, and transfer to wire rack until cool. Remove from pans; serve. Babkas freeze well for up to 1 month, but mine never made it to the freezer.
   

Peeeeeps!

So cute, and not stale!

I'm going on a sugar diet, which will consists of nothing but Easter candy until it's gone. I have to get it out of my apartment and office so I can go back to eating like a normal human being. I packed my lunch yesterday with my Easter basket of jelly beans, pixie stix, See's peanut brittle and mint patties, marshmallows, and some homegrown tangerines that taste like candy.

I don't think I helped the sugar shocked weekend when I decided to make Peeps. They are so cute but have such a bad reputation for being stale, so I figured homemade marshmallow peeps would be well received, and they were! I made two flavors, the classic vanilla Peep, covered in yellow sugar, and a gourmet Peep flavored with blackberry jam, covered in purple sugar. For the yellow Peep, I used my favorite marshmallow recipe from Alton Brown. For the purple Peep, I adapted Martha's strawberry marshmallow recipe and used blackberry jam instead of strawberry jam.

Peeps are simple. They are just marshmallows covered in sugar. Marshmallows themselves are just sugar melted and then whipped. Easy enough, except the piping! There were no action shots of this, as my hands were covered in go.

I use so much corn syrup for my candy making that I was delighted to see they now make a 32 oz jar of the stuff. The woman at Von's was about the card me though. She had never seen corn syrup sold like that and thought it was a bottle of Popov Vodka! With all the fuss about child obesity, I'm surprised they don't actually card for sugar.

Homemade colored sugar. I finally was able to use this superfine sugar I've been sitting on for a while. Just mixed it in a bag with food dye until all the food color was incorporated and a homogeneous sugar was created. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I've got all my ducks in a row.

Cinnamon Wine Cake

The crispy bottom of the cake is the best part.

I'll keep this post short and sweet, much like this recipe! Cinnamon Wine Cake is delicious yet mellow, moist yet crispy, and elegant yet simple. Quite a chameleon it seems. We've had this recipe in the family for years, and I'm not positive everyone in the family will be happy I'm posting this, but it's too good not to share, and it's just so darn easy.

Also, there's a mystery about this cake. For some reason, it always tastes better if someone else makes it for you.



Cinnamon Wine Cake

1 package yellow cake mix

1 small package vanilla pudding

4 eggs

¾ cup oil

8 oz sour cream

1/3 cup dry sherry

1/3 cup sugar plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat all ingredients, except sugar and cinnamon, for five minutes. Pour half of batter into a bundt pan. In a small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle half of sugar mixture on the batter in the pan: then add the other half of the batter to the pan. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.

Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes. Let cool, invert on a plate and dust with powdered sugar before serving.


Baker's Notes:
1. Do not use the large box of pudding, the cake will never set up. You don't want an unintentional cream filled cake. Similarly, choose the yellow cake mix without pudding in the mix.
2. Walnuts or pecans do not go well in this cake. Never mess with tradition.
3. This cake lasts for days, and is best after sitting a day or two.
4. Unfamiliar folk are surprisingly intrigued (and sometimes judgmental) with the cake after hearing "wine" in the name.

I like forks. Big ones.

In other news, besides being obsessed with taking better food photographs and being frustrated with photoshop, I seem to be addicted to making these super cute reversible aprons. Send in your orders, I may or may not take them seriously!

This is my super cute next door neighbor modeling my latest apron creation.

PB&J doesn't need bread

I'm getting lazy about posting.  I need to change my methodology and just post one thing at a time and save it for my "best" work, but not yet.  Because I think everything I make is the best, obviously, at least as far as baked goods are concerned.

First up...sweet treats!  Oatmeal Cookies!  Rarely do I want a cookie that doesn't include chocolate.  Or peanut butter.  Or both.  There are exceptions.  Molasses and/or Ginger cookies, those amazing frosted Lofthouse Sugar Cookies (or sugar cookies in general), the yummy pumpkin caramel cookies I make in the fall, and maybe a few of my mom's Christmas cookies.  Ok so that's a lot of exceptions but I can eat a lot of cookies.  Anyway, someone at work had a bag of Trader Joe's 100 calorie oatmeal cookies and I decided I needed to make oatmeal cookies!  I also randomly had some raisins last week and they tasted really good so I figured I needed to put them in a cookie.  I didn't change a thing about the recipe; it was perfect as is.  They were super soft and chewy and tasted amazing, despite having no chocolate.  I recommend baking & eating these immediately.

Then I had to make a treat to bring to my Cooking Matters volunteer class - where we teach the teens of El Monte, CA, how to cook healthful, affordable meals.  This week was graduation and we needed a treat to go with all of the awesome food the kids made (that could be another entire post that I am going to forgo.)  Anyway, kids pretty much love PB&J so I made these yummy bars, no bread needed.  Just 3 cups of peanut butter.  Super rich and delicious - although probably not so healthy.  I used raspberry jam (not seedless) from Trader Joe's but any flavor would work, it just wouldn't be as good.  I just happen to think there is no flavor of jam superior to raspberry.

In other new adventures, I made granola!  But not just any granola...Paleo granola.  That means no grains (or dairy or other things that don't go into granola anyway).  I had a taste of Steve's Original Paleo Krunch when I was in Michigan a few weeks ago and it was DELICIOUS!  While I zero intentions of going Paleo, this knock-off recipe is pretty good!  I found all of the ingredients except the unsweetened coconut at Trader Joe's.  I did find that the granola burned really easily so I would recommend doing a lower temp and stirring more often.  And since I refuse to go Paleo, I ate this granola on top of my berries and Greek Yogurt for breakfast.  Mmm.  I also may or may not have snacked excessively on it...

And finally, some cooking.  Some no recipe, figure it out as I go, easy pasta dishes.

For Sunday dinner & a few lunches this week, I wanted to do something to use up a bag of frozen artichokes.  I didn't measure a thing but it was something along these lines:

Chicken breast, cut in strips, salt & peppered, and browned
Bacon, cut into little pieces before cooking
Pasta (I didn't make it, sorry to disappoint)
Frozen artichokes
Chopped onion
Lemon juice
Capers
Parmesan Cheese
Romano Cheese

Cook pasta.  Cook bacon & remove from pan. Brown chicken in bacon grease.  Remove chicken from pan and add onions & artichokes.  Saute until warmed.  Add cooked chicken and pasta.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.  Add capers.  Grate cheese on top. Enjoy! Not bad at all!

And last but not least, a super easy but super tasty dinner for tonight.  It required zero skill and zero effort but tasted pretty awesome.  I just made one serving and this might be a new weeknight stand by (which right now is usually veggie burgers & steamed broccoli).

Cook pasta
Saute shrimp & remove from pan (it gave off some water because it was slight frozen so I rinsed out the pan before adding the sauce)
Add a spoonful of jarred Chimichurri sauce to pan, add back shrimp & pasta
Add a splash of lemon juice

I bought the Chimichurri from this super cute lady at Penman Springs Vineyard up in Paso Robles.  I really would like to make my own at some point for until I use my jar, I'll hold off.  Its so herby and delicious and was a nice simple dinner.  Little baby shrimp are so cute!!

Ok, phew, all caught up.  I have no idea what I'm making next.  I had a suggestion to make spaghetti squash and wanted to do that last week but Ralph's was fresh out.  I found a few recipes I want to combine so when I get a chance, I will definitely do that.  For baked goods, I'm thinking either something with ricotta (or else it might become gnocchi), Nutella, or Almond Butter.  But in the mean time, I have guests coming to town so I will likely be eating out instead of cooking, so maybe I'll get some inspiration for my next challenge!

Cupcakes with Pearls

Last week work asked me to pick up cookies during lunch to take to a meeting, this week they put me in charge of desserts for the department social. Life is good.

My original task was to grill some desserts. I found a bunch of recipes, but was lacking time and energy, so I defaulted to cupcakes. Don't you default to homemade cupcakes when you are running low on time and sleep? I love vanilla beans, so I added vanilla bean seeds to a basic white cupcake batter. For the frosting, you need the best, so I chose a Swiss meringue buttercream adapted from Ina Garden. Ina knows her stuff, but man does every baking recipe of hers make a lot. I reduced the recipe by one third. Needless to say, that extra third could easily have been consumed by Christine. I on the other hand need a sleeping pill after all that sugar.

The recipe makes 3 dozen cupcakes, and can easily be reduced, but why would you want to? I hope this is enough for work tomorrow.

Lined up and awaiting their pearls.

Another up close and personal shot of these cuties.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
adapted from Curious Cupcakes

6 large egg whites*
1 1/2 cup milk**

1 tablespoon vanilla

4 1/2 cups sifted cake flour

2 1/4 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon salt
18 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350F

Fill one 12-hole cupcake tray with cupcake liners, but you will need three total.

In a medium bowl, combine egg whites, vanilla and 1/2 cup milk.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, vanilla bean seeds, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Add the butter and remaining 1 cup of milk. Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed for 1.5 minutes. It will look like decadent ribbons of paper white lava being beaten around in the bowl at this point. Then add the egg, vanilla and milk mixture in three equal parts, beating for 20 seconds between additions.

Pour the batter into prepared cupcake tray with an ice cream scoop or pastry bag. Each cupcake wrapper will be about 2/3-3/4 full. Place trays in the oven for 15-20 minutes, remove when golden yellow and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream
Adapted from Ina Garten

10 ounces bittersweet chocolate
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup egg whites, at room temperature*
1 cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder, dissolved in 1/2 teaspoons water

Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan simmering water. Set aside until cooled to room temperature.

Mix the egg whites, sugar, tartar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Place the bowl of egg whites over the pan of simmering water and heat the egg whites until they are warm to the touch, about 5 minutes. No need for a thermometer, just make sure sugar is dissolved and not grainy. Return the bowl to the mixer and whisk on high speed for 5 minutes, or until the meringue is cool and holds a stiff peak.

Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, while beating on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl, add the melted chocolate, vanilla, and espresso, and mix for 1 minute or until the chocolate is completely blended in.

Chef notes:

*I intend to make 7 yoke pasta with the egg yokes left over from this recipe. You can also use them for any custard, like creme anglaise or creme brulee.

**I rarely have milk on hand, so I've been experimenting with those shelf stable milk boxes and dehydrated milk. Both produce fabulous results.

Do you dislike me for posting this? or for reducing Ina's buttercream recipe by one third?