Any Season Angletti

It's pretty well known that I hate baking. I mean hate it. I don't like being exact with my measurements (if you ever saw me cook, you know that already) and I just don't have the patience for it. But, each Christmas, I make a few new cookie recipes, searching for my one "best" recipe I'll contribute year after year.

Last Christmas, I finally made this Angletti recipe I found in Real Simple a few years ago. It's really is simple (hah), delicious and pretty! The cookies are soft and not overly sweet-- perfect for a sweet treat with tea or evening coffee, but won't give you a cavity like more traditional holiday cookies. I plan to experiment adding orange or lemon zest to these to play with flavors.

Why am I posting about these in May? Because since the finishing touch is a few shakes of sprinkles, you can play with the colors and make them year round! These are great for Easter, Mother's Day or just to brighten someone's day. Have fun!  

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling the dough
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Glaze:
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 Tbsp  pure vanilla extract
• Warm water (to thing the glaze, if needed) 
• 6 tablespoons multicolor nonpareil sprinkles, for decoration 
• Note: you can add food coloring to the glaze if you like as well

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375° F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and eggs until blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined (do not overmix).
3. With floured hands, roll level tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and the bottoms are pale golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
4. Make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons water, and the vanilla until the mixture forms a thick but pourable glaze (add more water if necessary. You want a thicker consistency, sort of like white school glue). Add the food coloring here if you are using.
5. Dip the top of each cookie into the glaze and let set, rounded side up, on a rack set over a piece of parchment paper. (I take each cookie and roll it around the icing. It doens't need to be perfect. The glaze will reset itself and harden to a beauitful, smooth finish.) 
6. When cookies are still wet with glaze, sprinkle with non-pareils, if using. (I take a bowl of them and sprinkle them over the cookies with my fingertips. It's messy, but it gets the job done.
7. Allow the glaze to set, about 20 minutes. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. 
8. Enjoy! Impress your guests! Look like the hostess with the mostest! 

Our New Saint Patrick's Day Tradition-Colcannon

If you know anything about me, chances are you know I'm super Irish and super proud. Since my mom was a child, our family has been celebraing Saint Patrick's Day with the same foods-- corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots broiled in the corned beef water with rye bread on the side.

This year, I wanted to contribute a dish instead of a bottle to our festivities and decided to bring colcannon, a traditional Irish dish. The original recipe is fairly bland and is made with kale or cabbage, so this is a combination of my research online about the traditional recipe and some newer recipes I found.

The dish turned out amazing and even started a new tradition. Next year, Mom won't boil her potatoes, we'll serve the colcannon on the side instead. So thrilled to help shape my family's history!

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes
3/4- 1 cup warmed milk (I used fat free, but you can use anything- especially cream!)
4-6 T butter, divided (or more-who are we kidding?)
1/2 onion, chopped  
1/4 of large green cabbage, shredded
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and grease reserved
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Scrub, peel and dice potatoes and place in large pan of boiling water. Cook until you can pierce easily with a fork.

While potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from the pan, reserving the grease.

To the greased pan, add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes. Once it's started to soften, add the shredded cabbage. Keep stirring for about 5 additional minutes until onions and cabbage are soft. (Careful not to burn the cabbage.)

When the potatoes are done, drain them. Immediately add half of the butter and warm milk to the drained potatoes (start with 1/2 cup and add more to your desired consistency)  and mash quickly with a potato masher. You can use a handheld mixer, but I wanted some lumps for a more homestyle dish. Adjust the salt and pepper of the mashed potatoes. (Don't oversalt. The bacon and bacon grease will add plenty of that!)

When the potatoes are mashed and have the desired consistency and flavor, add the onions and cabbage from the pan and give a stir to combine.

At the last minute, add the crispy bacon and stir once more. Make a hole in the center of the potatoes and add remaining butter. Of course you can skip this step if you're being calorie conscious, but WHY? 

Here's cooking me on St. Patrick's Day, and the REAL me on St. Patrick's Day: :)

A Very Non-Valentine's Dinner

Boyfriend and I aren't Valentine's Day fans. At all. So when we realized we had scheduled a dinner party for "Valentine's Weekend," we weren't all that upset.

I thought about making a more intimate dinner for the four of us (steak, potatoes, the works), but I gave up red wine for Lent (I KNOW. Don't say it) and our guest gave up chocolate! So, I settled on something totally not associated with the big day- shrimp creole!

I've been meaning to make this for years now and since boyfriend and his friend got back from New Orleans fairly recently, I figured they'd be good judges. Most of the recipes I looked at were super time intensive and complicated, so I adapted this one from skinnytaste. I served it over white rice (cooked in chicken broth and garlic to give more flavor) with really crusty bread on the side.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup plus 1T olive oil (divided)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 7 cloves of garlic, minced, divided
• 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• red pepper flakes to taste (I totally overdid it)
• 1/4 tsp Cajun Seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp of all purpose flour (1 tsp corn starch for gluten-free)
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 lb of large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp hot sauce, to taste
• Scallion and pasley for garnish
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

First, peel and devein your shrimp (if not done already). Then, combine olive oil (about a quarter cup) and 5 chopped garlic cloves in a large Ziploc bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for ~3 hours.

While shrimp is marinating, you can make the tomato base. Heat the tablespoon of olive oil and add the garlic and onion. Once that's fragrant and the onions are turning clearer, add the green bell pepper, garlic and celery and saute until tender. Next, add the tomatoes and tomato sauce, spices, bay leaf and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 40 minutes.


While the tomato base is simmering, take the shrimp out of the bag and dump onto a large baking tray. Cook at 350-375 for about 6 minutes until opaque and no longer pink. Season with a bit of Cajun seasoning when they are hot out of the oven and set aside.

When the tomato base has simmered, combine the flour and water in a small bowl, and then dump into the tomato mixture. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Add Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce; stir together.



Add the shrimp to the dish and adjust seasonings to taste. Top with parsley and sliced scallions.


The evening was complete with Irish coffees with homemade whipped cream-- complements of B, who had never made it before! Look how proud this girl is!

Mom's "Reliving Her 20s" Best Quiche Recipes

One of my favorite things is going home for Sunday dinner. It grounds me, lets me spend time with my family and get back to things that matter.

When I was making my 52 Weeks of New Food list for 2013, I originally said I wanted to make a killer quiche, inspired by a trip to Morristown with my friend Samantha. My mom read it and said she had an amazing crab quiche recipe she and her best friend used to make when they shared an apartment together in their 20s.

We spent the larger part of a rainy afternoon going through all of her recipe books and pulling out the best recipes (one of our goals for 2013, and a post for another day!).

Her quiche recipe (from a 1978 issue of Better Homes and Gardens), and she had handwritten notes all over it. The recipe makes enough egg and Swiss filling for two pies, so we made a spinach quiche and a crab quiche.

They were AMAZING, and she said they tasted exactly like she remembered. Definitely not low cal, but who cares- they're worth it. (Ignore the photo. I was so excited about these that I started to cut it before I took a photo!)

Thanks for this recipe, Mom! It's a keeper!    

Mom's Quiche (Makes enough filling for 2 quiche)

Ingredients:

2 refrigerated pie crusts (or premade crusts)
2 cups heavy cream
4 eggs
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
~2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded
 6oz. crab claw meat
10oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained 
Salt, pepper (can use white pepper), cayenne, nutmeg to taste

Directions: 

Cook the pie crusts per the directions on the package for about 8 minutes. You want the crust to be a tiny it brown, but not burn when you put it back in the oven. When pie crusts are done, turn oven to 325.

In a bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, eggs, and Swiss cheese.

In the meantime, heat the butter over the stove, and add scallions until they shrink just a bit, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions to the egg mixture. Then, divide the egg mixture evenly into two bowls.

For spinach quiche:
Add the thawed spinach to the egg mixture. I love a lot of spinach, so this was OK for me, but you can add half if you like. Add in a sprinkle of nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir.

Pour into the pie crust and bake at 325 for 45 minutes (until a knife comes out clean if you put it in the middle). Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

For crab quiche:

Add the crab claw meat to the egg mixture, followed by a sprinkle of cayenne, salt and pepper.

Pour into the pie crust and bake at 325 for 45 minutes (until a knife comes out clean if you put it in the middle). Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Announcing...52 New Weeks of New Food 2013

Hot on the heels of my Year in Review, announcing...my 2013 list of new foods! I already have three under my belt, and I think I'll be able to add 49 more before the end of the year.

Here's to new recipes, old friends, great wine and beautiful new traditions!

1.       Creamed Onions

2.       Gut a fish/Salt fish

3.       Bread from scratch

4.       Souflee

5.       Mom’s Crab Quiche

6.       Pasta from Scratch

7.       Flourless Chocolate Cake

8.       Rutabega recipe

9.       Homemade pizza

10.   Sweet and sour tofu

11.   Mushroom tartlets

12.   Cream of mushroom soup

13.   Salisbury steak

14.   Colcannon

15.   Shepherd’s Pie

16.   Enchiladas Suizas with Green Chile Sauce

17.   Mole sauce

18.   Gnudi

19.   White wine sangria

20.   French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons

21.   Scarpetta Tomato and Basil Sauce

22.   Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

23.   Gravy

24.   Scotch Eggs

25.   Tamale

26.   Black Cod Recipe from Yellowstone

27.   Wild game pot roast (from a butcher)

28.   Maple fudge

29.   Cream of Leek Soup

30.   BLT Cheesecake

31.   Onion Tart

32.   PB Cup pie

33.   Feta Salad Dressing

34.   Chicken and Brown Rice with Spinach and Baby Portobello Casserole

35.   Carnitas

36.   Thai Chicken and Basil

37.   Irish Beef Hand Pies

38.   Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Walnut Mushroom Cream

39.   Pasta with Mushrooms in Pumpkin Gorgonzola Sauce

40.   Southwest Pasta with Bacon

41.   Pepperoni Pasta Bake

42.   Butternut Squash Risotto

43.   Prune cake

44.   Carbonara

45.   Mushroom Ragu

46.   Shrimp Creole

47.   Sesame Lime Tuna

48.   Sherried Tomato Soup

49.   Sweet Corn Soup with Crab

50.   Scalloped Pumpkin and Spinach

51.   Broccoli Blue Cheese Bake

52.   Mashed Turnips with Parmesan

2012 Year in Review

[To put my PR hat on for a minute:]

Every year, we do a year end review for our clients. We create elaborate decks to review our progress, brag a bit, and look back at what we set out to do. Why not do it for my blog?

I think 2012 was the year that cooking turned from a fun hobby to a true passion. I had my list of foods I wanted to cook during the year, almost all of which were challenging and new. I wanted to push my culinary boundaries and further refine my tastes and flavors. I think I succeeded!

Of the 52 foods I set out to make, I made 31 of them. A bit over half, BUT I don't consider that bad! Here's why: when I made the list (my very first one!), I picked dishes with really out there techniques or really interesting ingredients. (I think I was having wineand watching Chopped when I made it, actually.) Some of them just weren't smart (for instance, I HATE chicken wings. Why did I put them on there?), and others I just ran out of times to make them (you can only have so many dinner parties!).

One of the most interesting things was that some recipes I didn't want to make or change. My dad always makes our Easter babka and my Grandma always makes it at Easter. We always have golumbke (stuffed cabbage), but my mom's family always makes them. Making these things myself means they're not as special anymore, that I can have them anytime I want. I wasn't ready for that! Thanksgiving rutagega is always made with lemon and butter, it didn't need a recipe makeover. I'm sad I even added that!

So as I continue scouring my best blogs, recipe books, family recipes and reinvent restaurant dishes, I'm coming up with a great, more manageable list of 2013. Some will be hard, others will mean something to me or those I love and still others will be recipes I just can't wait to try.

I can't wait to share them with you!

Healthy Eggplant Parmesan (And a Weeknight Made Easy Trick!)

My commute can be anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours on bad traffic days, so I need to make many of my dinners (or at least parts of them) in advance, so I don't head straight for the ice cream when I walk in the door. (Only sometimes.) 

This past weekend, I made a giant pot of tomato sauce from this Martha Stewart recipe. I think I have a new go to! (I used crushed tomatoes instead of whole and also threw in some crushed red pepper flakes and fresh basil.) I used the sauce as my "base," and planned my meals for the week around it: spaghetti, chicken meatballs, and eggplant parm.

It's funny-- I'm not a fan of the meat versions of some dishes (like chicken parm), but I love their veggie equivalents! They're lighter, more calorie friendly, and can last longer in the fridge or freezer.

I washed and sliced my eggplant, placed the slices on an oiled (sprayed with Pam) cookie sheet and then sprinkled the slices with Kosher salt and pepper. I threw the entire sheet into the fridge for about 2 hours. This helps to get some of the water out of the eggplant so they eventually absorb more of the sauce and don't ruin the breadcrumb coating.

Once I blotted the eggplant slices with a paper towel, I set up my "dipping" station and went to work. (That's what my kitchen really looks like. I want you to think it looks like this.) Bowl 1: Whisk two eggs together with one Tbsp of water; Bowl 2: combine 1 cup of breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and some salt. Dip each slice in the egg mixture, then immediately into the bread crumb mixture.  

Place the breaded slices on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 25 minutes. When the eggplants are nice and crispy, flip and give them about 5 more minutes. (I forgot to take a photo, but even I was impressed with how pretty they were!)

(At this point, I let mine cool and put them in the fridge, but you can just continue with adding sauce and cheese.) When I came home tonight, I took them out of the fridge, put them in a pan and into the toaster for about 10 minutes so they got crispy again (they were a bit sorry from the fridge), then covered the hot eggplant with my sauce and mozzarella cheese and popped back in the toaster for about 10 minutes. Dinner was on the table in 20 minutes, and I was saved from eating my weight in bad-for-me-food. Perfect.