roasted broccoli

remember what i told you about roasting lima beans? turns out you can do the same thing to broccoli and it’s equally as tasty (and probably a titch healthier).

cut your broc into florets and toss in a bowl with plenty of olive oil.

spread out on a baking sheet, leaving lots of space. do two batches if you have to. crowding leads to steaming and you want browning!

sprinkle with salt, pepper, some red pepper flakes and garlic powder.

roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, toss, and bake for about 10 minutes more.

scrape into a bowl, complete with all the oil/salt/seasonings on the tray, and top with plenty of lemon juice and parmesan.

what else can i roast??

shout out to ms nag for the inspiration.

pancake lesson

as you know, i make a lot of pancakes when we go to new hampshire. what kind, you ask? boxed. since it’s hard to maintain a fully stocked pantry in a summer home shared with others, we keep bisquick or stonewall kitchen or another box of pancake mix around at all times. flavor-wise, i don’t like “plain” pancakes, so i’m always throwing something in them, like (fresh-picked) blueberries or apple chunks.

anyway, to the point – i have finally learned two important lessons to make my pancakes come out well. and let me tell you, i learned these the hard way, making the same mistake time and time again. but now i think i’ve got it.

the ongoing problem is that my first batch of pancakes always comes out like this:

AWFUL, right? thin, pale and all together not appetizing.

my second batch comes out like this:

golden and puffy. that’s the same batter, i swear.

so, new rule one: mix up your pancake batter and let it sit for 10-15 minutes before cooking. i’m not exactly sure why, but i bet it has to do with letting the leaveners in the pancake mix do their thing.

new rule two: let your griddle heat up that whole time, as well. i always use the when-the-sprinkle-of-water-boils trick to know that the griddle’s hot, but if you think about it, sure the center of the griddle is hot, but you don’t cook all your pancakes in the center of the griddle! to get the whole thing at the temp you need, you need to wait 10-15 minutes.

it’s worth it. especially with an egg. mmm

did you know all this already and i’m late to the party? any other pancake tips you haven’t told me?

in any case, i can’t wait until the next time i make pancakes and get it right the first time out!

fried polenta

polenta is great side dish or foundation to serve with a variety of sauces/glops. one of my favorite go-tos, of course, is white beans and tomatoes.

sometimes i make a pot of polenta and serve my glop on a puddle of it, or sometimes i fry up little cakes. sometimes i just slice the polenta tube that comes from the grocery store and go from there.

this time, i started from scratch. i cooked one cup of dry, coarse corn meal in 4 cups of boiling water, some salt and a glug of olive oil.

make sure you whisk it well at the beginning so you don’t get clumps.

when it was cooked, i took it off the heat and added a tablespoon of butter, about a 1/4 cup of grated parm and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

spread it into a (very well greased!) jelly roll pan (that’s a cookie sheet with an edge) and let it cool.

when cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill.

when you’re ready to use it, cut squares or rectangles (or circles or hearts!) and fry up in a cast iron with a little oil.

instead of topping with glop, this time i put the polenta on top, because he always complains that the glop makes the crispy fried polenta soggy.

note: he also discovered that if you don’t want to go to the mess/trouble of frying it, you can drizzle with a little oil and put under the broiler in the toaster oven for a similar result.

crispiest pizza crust

the biggest challenge to the home pizza chef is perfectly crispy crust. without one of those rip-roaring brick ovens, crust at home tends to come out soft.

of course, you could buy a pizza stone and a peel and all that, but honestly, i don’t make pizza enough to make that investment (or give up the storage space).

so i’ve tried a number of things, usually based around heating up the pan in the oven and doing some kind of fancy slide of uncooked pizza off the counter onto the hot pan. not only is this dangerous (to you and pizza) it requires that the pizza be on parchment, silpat or something else to slide it. but of course, having a layer of something between the dough and the pan minimizes crispiness, too.

here’s what i’m doing now: use two cookie sheets or jelly roll pans. one goes in the oven (upside down if it’s a jelly roll pan so you have a flat surface), which you preheat as hot as your oven goes. for me, this is 550 degrees.

use the other pan to build your pizzas. i scattered a little cornmeal on the pan first, but otherwise, no need to grease it.

(for those interested in the actual pizza, it’s a homemade whole wheat crust topped with olive oil, capers, anchovies, mozzarella, vidalia onion, blanched broccolini, grated parm and crushed red pepper. his is similar with red sauce)

once the oven is all hot, put your pizza’d pan in the oven on top of the other pan. this transfers heat MUCH faster than air, so the pizza crust bakes quickly, which is what you want.

if your oven is higher than 500, turn it down to 500 after you put the pizza in.

we were both really impressed with how crispy the bottom crust was.

any other tips for achieving satisfying crust at home?

fresh pasta again

something about a snow storm makes me want to make fresh pasta.

e.g.: snowmageddon in 2010

this time, i tried a recipe from lidia bastianich. you make it in a food processor, rather than with your hands and a pile on your kitchen counter, which is cleaner, yes, but maybe not quite as much fun?

i used 2 cups semolina flour, one cup regular, 3 whole eggs (2 large, one extra large. bad, i know, but it was what we had), 1/4 cup olive oil, 7 tablespoons of water and a large pinch of salt.

besides the fact that the dough has to rest for 30…

it really doesn’t take that long. and if you weren’t using sauce from a jar, you could take that 30 minutes to make your sauce.

my point is that making fresh pasta doesn’t take a lot of effort, doesn’t take all day, doesn’t take any skill at all and is totally not as scary as it sounds.

ok, the rolling out and cutting is a little challenging, but only if you care deeply about even thinness and width (hint: i don’t!)

i folded it to make the cutting easier.

here’s the only thing – if you don’t roll it paper thin, it takes longer to cook than regular fresh pasta (1-3 mins). mine took almost 8.

i have to say, the texture was a little more… toothsome than store-bought pasta, but i don’t dislike it.

for toppings, i tossed the hot pasta with a little butter, seasoned artichoke hearts and chopped broccolini.

yum! i love snow storms!

frozen yogurt

it is beyond time to get out the old ice cream machine.

this time, i decided to try frozen yogurt. i thought the tanginess would go well with a certain baked good i had in mind…

in a bowl, i combined 6 ounces of regular vanilla yogurt and ten ounces of plain, non-fat greek yogurt.

i wanted it tart, not super-sweet, so i only added two tablespoons of light corn syrup. you could add more if you wanted. and a pinch of salt, please. you could also use honey instead of corn syrup, if that was a flavor you liked. oh! or maple syrup! yum!

(note that in my experience, things taste less sweet after they are frozen, so keep that in mind.)

mix everything well.

not too exciting… bowl full of white…

there she is!

get the machine going and pour the mixture in. churn for 5-10 minutes.

when it first comes out, it’s soft like soft serve. top with berries, etc for your own homemade pinkberry. or put it in the freezer to get hard like ice cream.

this was the easiest thing i’ve made in that machine. i had read all sorts of nonsense about draining the yogurt before using it blah blah blah that scared me off, but this worked just great. will definitely make again, and try new flavors!

candied orange peel

this is an old post from christmas time-ish that never made it up. although candied orange peel is definitely something i make more around the winter holidays than other times, it is by no means only a seasonal ingredient. you can put it in baked goods, or munch on it dipped in chocolate all year ’round.

i thought it would be a good idea to put pieces of candied orange peel in my christmas stollen along with dried cherries and apricots soaked in brandy.

turns out it was an awesome idea.

these sugary, tangy bits of heaven would also be super in chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, or muffins. they also weren’t half bad straight up by the handful.

start with an organic orange that you have washed very very well. in my opinion, it’s important to use organic for this technique because most of the bad chemicals get on or in the rind, which matters not when you’re tossing the peel. but here, you’re eating it.

cut a small piece off the bottom of the orange so it sits flat on your cutting board, and carefully use a knife to cut the peel off of the flesh. it doesn’t matter if there’s a little orange left on it, but you don’t want too much.

put the peels in a small pot covered in cold water and bring to a boil. drain, cover in cold water, bring to a boil again. repeat a third time. this extracts the bitterness and softens the peel.

next, the standard method is to cut the peel into long strips, candy them, and dip half in chocolate. you may have seen these at the godiva store.

instead, i decided to cube them, since i was going to cube them eventually anyway.

mix your sugar and water and bring to a simmer for a couple minutes. then add the peel and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the peels are translucent.

wait, how much sugar and water, you ask? it depends. the recipe i was using for guidance called for six oranges with a water to sugar ratio of 1:3. if you’re only using one orange like i did, make as much as you need to pretty much cover the peels in the pan following that proportion.

once they are translucent, remove with a spoon and toss in a little more sugar to coat.

make sure they are laid out in one layer, and let dry. it will take a couple hours. try not to eat them all in the meantime. yum!

raspberry-tinted frosting

sure, you can color buttercream frosting with food coloring… but how much cooler to do it naturally? plus you get the added benefit of a delicious berry flavor.

i have only tried this with raspberries and blueberries (although the berry-prepping technique was slightly different, the most important step is the same), but i would imagine blackberries would be devine, and strawberries would definitely work, too.

i started with 4 dozen of the tiniest vanilla cupcakes you’ve ever seen.

the scale is totally off in that picture. that is a mini muffin tin, a mini scoop, and a mini spatula. seriously, the pan isn’t more than 6 inches long. it makes cupcakes that are less than one bite. i love it.

anyway, bake all those up.

for the frosting, i simmered about a cup, maybe a little bit more, of frozen raspberries (you could use fresh if they were in season, but for the price, frozen might be a better deal) until they broke down and got all juicy.

then i worked them through a fine sieve to separate out the seeds. i don’t think this step is absolutely necessary, but i was making these for elderly ladies, and i didn’t want to cause them any dental problems!

the key to adding berry syrup (or pureed berries, in the case of my blueberry example) to frosting is to whip it into the butter before you add the confectioners sugar.

if you add it after, it gets too wet and you never end up with the right “frosting” consistency. also, it might separate, which would be bad, too.

so beat a tablespoon or so of butter with about half the raspberry puree. then start adding confectioners sugar until the texture is right. you’ll probably end up using about one box, which is enough for a layer cake, two dozen cupcakes, or an army of mini ones.

if you need to add more liquid, use the raspberry – just a little at a time. i didn’t use any milk at all, which is the traditional liquid to soften frosting.

look at how pretty they turned out!

happy 90th birthday tea party, grandma!

(i also made her a mini layer cake, with raspberry jam between the layers.)

skillet lasagna

this recipe-slash-technique sounded super intriguing to me, because i love all the qualities of lasagna, except all the work putting it together perfectly. (and it never comes out perfectly anyway, so why bother, amiright?)

unfortunately, i don’t have a large enough oven proof skillet, so i had to improvise.

you start by breaking up your (whole wheat shh!) noodles, which i already like more than regular lasagna

and cooking them until al dente.

meanwhile, in your oven-safe skillet (if you’re doing it one-pot style, or in a regular skillet if you’re not), cook up your mushrooms and onions. i also added artichoke hearts because… um yum.

already you can see that my wee skillet is no match for this recipe.

so i dumped the mushrooms/onions/artichokes into a large baking dish, and tossed some blanched asparagus in there, too.

then i sauteed two garlic cloves and some frozen spinach. fresh would probably be better, but i happened to have a lot of frozen in the fridge.

that goes in the dish, too.

oh! while all this is going on, i’m also making a bechamel sauce with one tablespoon butter, one tablespoon flour, 1 1/2 cups milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a splash of wine.

i also added a handful of shredded mozzarella.

yum! who doesn’t love wine-y, cheese-y bechamel sauce, right? gets me to eat my veggies any day!

so once the veggies are all done, toss them and the bechamel in your baking dish (or skillet). then the recipe says to “add in the cooked lasagna noodles and gently toss to distribute.”

much easier said than done.

at this point, mine is looking like a hot mess.

but with a topping of more mozz and scoops of ricotta, it can’t be too bad, right?

bake for 15 to 20 minutes (until bubbly and browning) at 450 degrees.

i thought it was delicious. he referred to it as “that thing,” but then ate tons of it. it was just as great – maybe better? – leftover and reheated.

hasselback potatoes

i had seen these all over and needed to try them. i mean, come on, how bad could they be??

everyone suggests that you start by setting the potato in a wooden spoon to cut it, and i have to agree that was easiest. i’m sure you could leave it on a flat surface, but you’ll probably go crazy trying to not cut it all the way through.

a cut the slices about 2 millimeters thick.

then i stuffed thin slices of garlic clove in between each or every other one.

then i rubbed them all over with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and dried rosemary.

then i put small pieces of butter on top.

see what i mean about how could this possibly go wrong?

the internet said to bake at 400 degrees for between 40 and 60 minutes, depending on the size and type of your potato. i used baking potatoes and it took about 90 minutes.

(ha! #ReflectionInOil)

you want the undersides soft and the top flakes starting to crisp, said the internet.

maybe i did something wrong, or maybe the pictures are lying to me, but they really didn’t turn out how i wanted.

instead of being crispy and chip-like on the outside, and creamy baked on the inside, they were just dry on the outside and flavorless inside.

i guess i have to say they weren’t bad, but they certainly weren’t as good as they looked on the interwebs. they looked so promising…

have you tried them? how did yours turn out? did i do something wrong?