Chocolate Chip Espresso Muffins

Photo from SeriousEats.com

Please excuse my extreme laziness and enjoy the pretty photo that I did not take!

I had been craving a chocolate muffin for whatever reason, so instead of buying one, I decided to make a batch to satisfy my craving and provide a treat for my co-workers. 

I found this recipe on Serious Eats and am mostly happy with the results. The top of the muffin has more flavor and a better texture than the bottom, which is a little dry. I left them in the oven for 17 minutes, as the recipe suggests, but should have pulled them at 15 or 16 minutes. I am still getting used to my new oven which holds heat like a champ. I didn't fill my muffin tins as full as the recipe's author did, so my yield was 18 muffins instead of 12. 

Salted Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

The photographer was a slacker and took this photo with her Blackberry, which accounts for its terrible condition.

Our new range is installed and I have been able to start cooking and baking again! Marshal Mike's first request was salted oatmeal cookies. While I was making the batter, a bag of peanut butter chips serendipitous fell out of the cupboard and I thought, adding peanut butter chips to salted oatmeal cookies sounds delicious! Luckily, I was right.

The first thing I learned about baking with our new range is that there is going to be a learning curve. The ovens get to temperature quickly and hold the temperature. I practically burned the first sheet of these cookies because the recipe says 15 minutes, and my old oven used to take 16, 17, 18 minutes depending on its attitude that day, and these were easily done in 13 or 14 minutes. A-maz-ing.

Photos of our new kitchen will be coming soon!

Update

My dearest readers, I know I have been delinquent with my postings this month, but truthfully, I haven't been cooking very much. One of the reasons is that MM and I became first-time homeowners earlier this month! As if having a new home (and all the little surprises that come along with it) and packing up our current rental wasn't enough, we decided to be totally crazy and remodel the kitchen! I am excited to share the before and after photos with you and will do so as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I suggest trying this great Roasted Sweet Potato and Lentil Salad from GOOP (scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page).  It is truly phenomenal: hearty, earthy, satisfying, and delicious. I omitted the red chili flakes, the thyme, and the parsley because I didn't have any and I only used 1 cup of lentils and 2 cups of vegetable broth (instead of water). The best part is that this dish reheats beautifully.

Roasted Cauliflower and Barley Salad

As I mentioned yesterday, I am trying to use up pantry, fridge and freezer items and a bag of pearled barley was next up to the plate. I had purchased a head of cauliflower (on sale!) and knew I had to use it before Marshal Mike got home from his Army-mandated trip to Georgia because he insists that he doesn't like cauliflower. (I still try to make him eat it every now and then.)

I found this gem of a recipe on Food52. I didn't make the basil croutons because I didn't have any basil on hand, so I just toasted some breadcrumbs from the freezer. Also, I found my barley didn't take 45 minutes to get tender - more like 30-35 minutes and my cauliflower took 25-30 minutes to get brown and tender. I also used parsley instead of celery leaves and forgot the pine nuts. This dish keeps well and tasted even better two days later for lunch.

Repeats

I made a couple good repeat dishes this week and I thought I would remind you about them in case you are searching for something to make for dinner!

Forbidden Rice with Roasted Vegetables: This time around I used 2 medium sweet potatoes, 2 large parsnips and 1 carrot, which was about 5 cups of vegetables. There didn't seem to be quite enough dressing for that amount of vegetables, so it was a little drier than last time.

Farfalle with Kale and Lentils: This recipe never disappoints. I followed my own advice and added diced carrots to the lentils and simmered both in broth instead of water (I used the leftover beef broth from the Guinness Braised Beef, but vegetable or chicken broth would work just as well).

Cashew Chicken: I was convinced that I had written about this dish before, so I didn't take a picture, but alas, I haven't. It is a pity because it really is delicious. I found the recipe on the Bitten Word blog, but it is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. This dish comes together really quickly; the most time consuming part is marinating the chicken for 30 minutes. I served the chicken with brown rice and it doesn't mention this in the recipe, but after toasting the cashews, I roughly chopped them.

Enjoy!

Quinoa with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Feta

Our second quinoa dish was an even bigger success than the first one! I found this recipe on the popular food blog, Amateur Gourmet, and it is rightly named "The Quinoa Converter." You can't not like quinoa after trying this recipe. Similar to the rice dish I made two weeks ago, this is basically a salad with vegetables. My variation on the Amateur Gourmet's recipe is below:

Quinoa with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Feta
Adapted from the Amateur Gourmet
Serves 3

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups water
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup walnut halves, toasted and then chopped
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1 handful parsley, chopped
1-2 tablespoons chopped thyme

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the sweet potatoes in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned and soft. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, bring 2 cups of water to a boil; salt generously. Add the quinoa and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. While the quinoa is cooking, make the dressing. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mustard, honey and vinegar. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Pour half of the dressing over the still warm quinoa and mix with a rubber spatula. Add the sweet potatoes, walnuts, feta and herbs. Stir and add more dressing to taste. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. When packaging up my leftovers, I added a bit more dressing to the tupperware, so it wouldn't dry out and I still had about 1/2 cup dressing left over.

Risotto with Roasted Parsnips and Kale

MM and I recently went out to eat at a restaurant that we used to love, but which has gone down hill within the past couple years. It appears to be making a slight rebound as MM loved his steak. I ordered seared bay scallops, which came with lobster risotto, and was looking forward to having two seafood items that I don't make for myself at home. The scallops were great, but the risotto was terrible. The rice was mush and there was no lobster to be seen. Just tiny pieces of tomato and some spinach.When I asked the waiter about it, he said, "Oh, it is made with lobster stock, there isn't supposed to be pieces of lobster in it." Excuse me? If I make risotto with chicken stock I don't call it chicken risotto. Let's call tomato and spinach risotto what it is!

So I decided that I had to make a satisfying risotto at home. I had some parsnips and kale in the fridge that I needed to use and stumbled upon this recipe for Risotto with Parsnips and Greens in the NY Times. The recipe was created by David Tanis who is a chef at Chez Panisse and has two award-winning cookbooks, A Platter of Figs and Heart of the Artichoke. I bought Heart of the Artichoke on Gilt for a really good price and while I haven't made anything from it, the pictures are incredible and Tanis's storytelling is top-notch.

This recipe turned out well and did satisfy my craving for good risotto. I altered it slightly to be more to my liking (I prefer a higher ratio of vegetables to rice) and more streamlined for a home cook. I find that when professional chefs try to create (write) recipes for home cooks, you can still tell they are coming from a professional origin and usually use more pans than necessary and are a little fussy. (Although my adaptation still uses 3 pots and 1 baking sheet. Sorry!)

Risotto with Roasted Parsnips and Kale
Adapted from David Tanis, NY Times
Serves 4 generously

Approximately 3/4 lb parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Approximately 3/4 lb kale, leaves torn from the stems and cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup vialone nano or arborio rice
1/3 cup dry white wine
4 cups vegetable broth
1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss the parsnips with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast until slightly browned, about 20 minutes.

2. While the parsnips are roasting, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the kale until bright green and tender, about 3 minutes. Drain, cool and set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, bring the broth to a low simmer and maintain the simmer.

4. Warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and saute until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring continuously for about 2 minutes. Add the wine and stir until it has evaporated. Add 1/2 cup broth to the rice and stir until it is absorbed. Continuing adding broth 1/2 cup at a time, until it is all gone and the rice is al dente. This will take about 20 minutes. I usually start tasting the rice around the 15 minute mark. The rice should have a bite, do not overcook your risotto.

5. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, parsnips, kale and some cheese. Taste for seasoning and serve with more cheese.

Farfalle with Beets, Kale and Pine Nuts

Pink pasta!

I am usually a very thoughtful and rational person, but for some reason I have this rather delusional reaction every time MM tells me that he doesn't like some food item (usually a vegetable). I always say, "Oh, well, you'll like it this time. Just try it." And MM will be a trooper and try it, all while making a face, choking down his dinner and strategically planning how he can feed his dinner to Patton without me noticing.

Beets happen to be one of those vegetables that MM does not like and this pasta dish from the January 2009 issue of Bon Appetit happens to be one of those recipes that I ever so gently coaxed him into eating even though I knew he probably wouldn't like it.

As you can see, I couldn't find golden beets, so I used regular old red ones, and I used kale instead of the beet greens because I happen to hate beet greens. For anyone who likes beets, you will like this recipe. If you don't like beets, this recipe won't convert you.

Forbidden Rice with Roasted Vegetables

This delightful recipe from David Lebovitz is easily one of the most delicious items to come out of my kitchen in 2012 and possibly 2011 as well. By the time I had finished eating it I was already thinking about the next time I could make it. I will admit, however, and my astute readers will be shocked to hear, that when MM heard we were having rice and roasted vegetables for dinner, he was not enthused. Luckily, this recipe is so delicious that it even turned meat and potatoes MM into a rice and roasted veggie lover. For one night at least.

I followed the recipe as written except I used black forbidden rice because I had bought some awhile ago and have been wanting to try it. It was a revelation; the texture and taste is so much better than white or brown rice. I cooked it using Lebovitz's instructions. For the vegetables, I roasted 2 carrots, 3 parsnips and 1 fennel bulb. They were only about 4 cups, instead of the recommended 6 cups, but the ratio of rice to vegetables seemed fine to me. Having less vegetables did mean that the recipe only made 3 servings. Lebovitz notes that the salad dries out when chilled, so you don't want a ton of leftovers. It was fine the following day for lunch, but I think the quality would deteriorate quickly after 24 hours in the fridge.

For the dressing, I omitted the garlic because I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like chopping it and instead of plain water I used the rice cooking water. I figured that's what I would do if it was pasta, why not for rice.

Quinoa and Kale Crustless Quiche

It seems like everywhere I turn - on the internet, in food magazines, talking with friends - someone is singing quinoa's praises. After finding this recipe for a Quinoa and Kale Crustless Quiche on Food52, I decided it was time to buy some quinoa and give it a try!

Overall this was a great dish: super healthy, and filling (I'd say we each ate about 1/4 of the quiche for dinner and the leftovers reheated nicely for lunch at work). The downsides to this recipe is that it takes about 1 hour and a half for a pretty simple end product (granted it is not 90 minutes of active time, but it is still time ticking away), and the recipe itself could use some editing. For example, it calls for 1/2 cup white cheddar cheese. Great, would you like that shredded? Cubed? Cut into thin pieces? I assumed it was meant to be grated, so that's what I did. It isn't a huge deal, except it takes a couple more minutes to think about it and find the cheese grater.

Another example is in the first step of the method, it says to bring the quinoa and water to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. "This will take about 20 minutes." No, it will not take 20 minutes to boil 1 cup of water. I assumed they meant that it will take 20 minutes for the quinoa to be tender. Mine cooked in just over 10 minutes. I bought Bob's Red Mill whole grain quinoa; maybe there are other kinds that take longer to cook?

Ultimately, I enjoyed my first foray into quinoa and will certainly try it again. Get ready MM!

Farro Salad with Winter Fruit, Pistachios and Ginger

One of the BlB household's goals for 2012 is to eat more vegetarian meals. (I tend to shy away from "resolutions" because I feel like they are made to be broken.) As most of my loyal readers know, I ate mostly vegetarian this past year while MM was protecting our freedom in Afcrapistan. Now, I am trying to get my steak and potatoes husband to enjoy meat-less meals.

This recipe from the current (January 2012) Food and Wine magazine is a delicious starting point. The farro is hearty enough that it fills you up and it is more nutritious than pasta, which is the usual vegetarian stand-by. The citrus, dried fruit and herbs work wonderfully together. 

I was a little nervous when the recipe said that it made 6 servings, but that has to be side dish servings. I reduced the amount of farro to 1 1/4 cups (I generally find that recipes don't have enough "stuff" to accompany the pasta, grain, etc) and it gave us just over 3 main course servings. I would also reduce the olive oil to 3 tablespoons next time and add more cherries. Another note about farro: start checking it at about 20 minutes. I think I drained mine at 25 minutes; part of its charm is its chewiness, so you don't want it to be mush.

New Year's Eve Lunch

As we did last year, Marshal Mike and I had his sister and brother-in-law over for lunch on New Year's Eve.

This year, we started with Roasted Fennel and White Bean dip on crostini.

The recipe is from Food52 and was superb. Since the fennel is roasted, the flavor mellows and sweetens and the resulting dip is creamy with a crunchy, slightly salty crust on top. It will delight fennel-lovers and haters alike.

For lunch I made Giada's Butternut Squash Lasagna, which is in her cookbook, Giada's Family Dinners. It was phenomenal. We couldn't stop eating it. MM's sister took some home and ate it for breakfast and lunch the following day!

And for dessert, I made Giada's Cornmeal and Rosemary Cake with Balsamic Syrup, which is in her cookbook, Giada's Kitchen.

This is a great cake: light in texture and it straddles the delicate line between sweet and savory. The balsamic syrup was the perfect foil; it added just the right amount of tang. I wanted to lick my plate, but restrained myself. We did have guests afterall!

Lemony Olive Oil Banana Bread

Just can't stay away...

Yup, I'm back on the banana bread kick! And as you can see from my color choices, I made this around Christmas; I just haven't really felt like writing about it until now.

This delicious-sounding recipe came from the popular blog 101 Cookbooks. The blog's author, Heidi Swanson, released her second cookbook in 2011 as well.

I say delicious-sounding because I love anything with lemon and I love olive oil cakes. Add in chocolate and banana and I thought this would be a home run. Much to my taste buds' chagrin, it wasn't.

Part of my problem is that I have never, repeat, never, been able to cook a quick bread in a 9x5 inch pan in the time suggested in a recipe. Never, in my entire life. I always have to reduce the temperature and cook for an additional 10-20 minutes to get the center cooked. The result is that the bread usually dries out and the edges end up overcooked. Now, maybe if I cooked the bread at a lower temperature for the entire time, I would have a more evenly cooked bread. And perhaps I will try that with my next recipe. Honestly, I always just hope that with each new recipe I try I will have better results.

This particular bread was great when it came out of the oven: the top was nice and crunchy and the inside moist and lemony. By day two it was dry and unappealing. You can see that I didn't make the glaze to drizzle over the bread; mainly out of laziness, but also because I knew I wasn't going to eat the whole thing in one day.

So I guess I will keep trying!

Baked Barley Risotto with Butternut Squash

Luckily, cooking attempt number 2 was wildly successful!

This recipe is from Real Simple's December 2011 issue and it is a keeper. I love barley and I love one-pot meals that don't require a lot of fussing. This is an excellent simple, but hearty dinner that is savory and fulfilling.

Nicole's Baby Shower

Over the weekend I was one of three co-hosts for my good friend Nicole's baby shower (longtime readers should know this is the same Nicole of birthday cake fame and a regular taster of BlB food).

We held the shower at a restaurant in the Ballston area of Arlington, called Rustico, but of course I couldn't help making some baked goods for all our guests.

For favors, I made a gingerbread mama and baby:

Gingerbread Mama and Baby

I used King Arthur Flour's gingerbread cookie recipe, and I don't think I will ever look for another gingerbread recipe in my life. These have just the right amount of spice, the center stays chewy and the edges are crisp. I used KAF's royal icing recipe as well. Meringue powder is really easy to find. I bought mine off of Amazon, but you can find it at AC Moore, or other craft stores that carry Wilton products.

I found the adorable gingerbread cookie cutters at CopperGifts.com. The mama is 4 1/2 inches and the baby is their mini size.

For our dessert I made red velvet cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcake

I used the same red velvet cupcake and cream cheese frosting recipe that I used for my friend Amy's bridal shower last year. (If you don't want to click through, the recipe can be found on Simply Recipes.) They were delicious!

Brunch menu and favor

Tower 'o' Cupcakes

Our crafty friend, Michelle, made this adorable diaper cake snowman. Nicole said she doesn't think she can stand to take it apart!

Diaper Snowman

Michelle also made these great, simple centerpieces.

She spraypainted branches silver and hung a couple small ornaments from them. They were pretty and festive!

Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes

Anyone who has ever been to an Indian restaurant with me knows that I always order aloo mutter (peas and potatoes). Even if it isn't on the menu, I order it and, luckily, the kitchen has never refused to make it. The other dish that always interests me is aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes). When I saw a recipe for Indian spiced cauliflower and potatoes on the Smitten Kitchen blog, I knew I had to try it.

The recipe is originally from Gourmet magazine and is really a keeper (oh, Gourmet, why did you have to fold!). I didn't cut my cauliflower small enough, so they didn't roast properly, but the potatoes were creamy and delicious. I didn't have any cumin seeds, so I used half fennel seeds and half caraway seeds. The caraway flavor didn't really work (it was a little too discordant), but the fennel! Oh, the fennel! It turned into candy! I might just roast fennel seeds for fun now that I know what a treat that they turn out to be! I also left out the jalapeno because I am mortally terrified of hot peppers. I did mean to throw some chopped parsley on top for color and a little bit of freshness, but I forgot. (Cilantro is the classic accompaniment to Indian food (the seed of the cilantro plant is called coriander), but I don't keep cilantro on hand.)

One final note, if you have never worked with turmeric, it turns everything yellow (as you can see from the photo), so be careful what you stir it with, what kind of container you put the leftovers in, etc.

Roasted Golden Beet and Kohlrabi Farrotto

I woke up craving roasted beet farrotto the other day and luckily I had bought a bunch of beets the last time I was at the store. The golden beets may not have made a pretty pink dish like the red ones, but it was delicious regardless!

I used my second version of Mario Batali's recipe from Babbo. The beets only measured 8 1/2 ounces, so I chopped up half of a kohlrabi (from the CSA 3 weeks ago) to make a pound of vegetables.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread (Again)

I recently bought three bananas with the specific purpose of allowing them to ripen on my counter so I could try another banana bread recipe. Unfortunately, I did not purchase the other special ingredients that I would need for said recipes, so when the bananas proclaimed themselves ripe this weekend, I had to find a recipe that would work with what I had on hand.

I ended up choosing a recipe from my recipe binder that I had already tried once before, a fact which had slipped my mind. Looking back on my handy blog, I discovered that I made it in April and was pleased with the results. This time, I wasn't convinced. It still had a great crunchy top (and I may have picked the entire top off approximately 10 minutes after it came out of the oven, which is why there is no picture to accompany this post). But it was kind of flavorless otherwise. This time, I used 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips, and honestly, they didn't add anything (flavor, texture, nada) to the bread.

Another one bites the dust....

Kale Mac and Cheese

I have been craving mac and cheese for weeks, so this weekend, I finally decided to make a batch.

My thoughtful husband bought me two tickets to see Giada's cooking demonstration at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show this past weekend. My friend, Allison, came with me and we had a great time sampling cupcakes, cheese, granola, iced coffee, flavored olive oil and vinegars, peanut butter - you name it! After watching Giada's presentation, I was starving and started to work on this mac and cheese as soon as I got home.

I followed a recipe from a blog named The Kitchen Sink Recipes. I didn't have any goat cheese on hand (or any cheese other than a block of extra sharp cheddar and a tiny bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano for that matter), so I just used a larger quantity of cheddar. The resulting cheese sauce was (unsurprisingly) pretty one-note, and I was too impatient to get the sauce to thicken (I was whisking for 10 minutes!), so it wasn't thick and creamy. But, the kale worked wonderfully with the baked pasta and because I am all alone, I got to pick out each and every bit of browned crispy rigatoni sticking up out of the pan. Actually, I have been wanting to try this baking sheet mac and cheese from Food 52 because the crunchy pieces are my favorite!

Ultimately, this fulfilled my craving, but in the future, I think I would find a different mac and cheese recipe I liked and just add kale to it.

Winter Greens Soup

Work has been so crazy the past two weeks that I haven't felt like cooking when I finally get home from the office and I have been worried that all of my CSA produce will turn slimy and smelly, resulting in a one way ticket to the trash can. Last night, I decided this needed to change. I poured a glass of wine (a delightful Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon), cranked some music and started cooking!

My first priority was to do something with last week's kale and collards (especially because I got more this week). I found this soup recipe on the LA Times website and thought it sounded like a good starting point. I adapted the soup to use what I had on hand and I used vegetable broth, instead of water, because when you start dinner at 7:45pm, you don't have an hour to spare for soup simmering!

I was extremely happy with the results; the tiny amount of rosemary adds a large amount of flavor, so don't leave it out.

Winter Greens Soup
Adapted from the LA Times

Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
10 cups winter greens (kale, collards, mustard, chard, etc) de-ribbed and chopped
4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
2 cups water
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. In a large, heavy soup pot (Dutch oven), warm the olive oil over medium low heat. Add the onion and carrots, cover and cook until softened, about 12-15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.

2. Add the greens, a handful or two at a time, giving them time to soften slightly before you add the next handful. After all the greens have been incorporated, add the vegetable broth, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the rosemary and chickpeas. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes or until the greens are tender.

3. Stir in 1/3 cup cheese, season with salt and pepper and serve, adding more cheese to the individual bowls. (Be warned, soup that has been simmering in a cast iron pot for 30 minutes is HOT, please don't burn your tongue like I did. It hurts.)