The Beginnings of My Summer Garden...

Not too much to blog about these days, but there is something I am quite excited about. This past weekend I started my summer garden.

On the left we have basil, and on the right we have tomatoes (they're in there, somewhere). The tomato planter is a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. I'll keep the basil in its original planter, and when the tomato seedlings grow to about 5"-10", I'll transplant to a bigger container. For now, they'll rest in a warm spot here in the office where there is AMAZING sunlight in the morning and afternoon. They'll stay inside here until it gets warm out. This is my first time planting anything from seeds, so I really hope they grow successfully. Keep your fingers crossed for me!  I hope to be making plenty of pesto and caprese salad with the fruits of my labor. I hope to also plant thyme, rosemary, mint, sage, oregano, and of course cilantro...my all-time favorite herb. Hopefully some peppers, too. And flowers, of course, 'cause they're pretty. :)

One last thing I'd like to share... there are few things more delightful than treating yourself to a nice, quiet, solo sushi lunch.

Miso soup.

California roll (goin' back to the basics), tuna roll with cream cheese & avocado, tuna roll which was supposed to be yellowtail but oh well, and salmon roll. After I finished my rolls and tasting how fresh the salmon was, I ordered some salmon sashimi, but I devoured it before I could remember to take a picture. Whoops.

I love that no matter where you go for sushi, or how simple your order is, the chef always takes the time to place the food so artfully on the plate. It makes the experience of eating your favorite food so much more enjoyable. :)

Cheers,
L

Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

At work, the word "meeting" usually makes people groan, but when they involve a smorgasbord of delicious lunch and dessert, as they often do at my workplace... my eyes light up. We have a lunch meeting this Monday, and I eagerly volunteered to provide a homemade dessert. Lately, I haven't so much as stepped foot in my kitchen other than to whip up a PB&J for lunch or heat up a quick dinner. This was a perfect opportunity for me to get back in the game.

This winter has been particularly crummy (and I'm not just referring to the weather), and I wanted to make something that evoked sunshine. These cupcakes just seem to scream spring. This morning started out dreary and gray, and as the hours spent in my kitchen wore on, the sun came out and the sky is now as blue as can be. A day like today... just me, my sunlit kitchen, and powdered sugar all over the place... was long overdue.

I've made this strawberry frosting a couple times before with fantastic results. I tell everyone it tastes like strawberry ice cream. I love, love, love it. It just makes me smile. This time I paired it with a basic vanilla cake. I'd love to pair it with a chocolate cake or brownies sometime.

And might I add... my blog's header is a huge photo of a cupcake. It's about time I wrote a cupcake post.

Strawberry Frosting (adapted from Sprinkles)
makes enough for 12 cupcakes (I doubled the recipe for 24 cupcakes... seven cups of sugar! ahhhhhhh!)

• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup unsalted butter, just barely cool but still firm
• pinch of salt
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Process the strawberries in a food processor until a smooth puree forms.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Lower the speed on your mixer. Gradually add the sugar and mix well.
4. Add the vanilla and 3 tbsp of the strawberry puree. Mix well. You can mix just until blended for a dense frosting, or you can keep going and incorporate more air for a fluffier frosting. It's up to you. I went fluffy this time.

Note: I added a lot of extra strawberry puree this time around because the berry flavor wasn't strong enough. I think it's probably because they're not in season yet. Just add however much strawberry fits your taste.

Butter...butter...and more butter.

Glorious buttercream...

Glorious buttercream after the addition of strawberries.

Darn right I licked the beaters!

This is how you get popular at work. Just kidding. Kinda.

How did you spend your Sunday?

Cheers,

L

P.S. My poor little hand mixer. It's an off-brand, sorta chintzy mixer I got for like 7 bucks at Kmart about 4 years ago. I thought it (not to mention my arm) would die today, with the amount of frosting I made. But it was the little engine that could! Still, it made me yearn for one of these beauties.

Photo Blog: What I've Been Up To...

It's been a while since my last blog because, well, sh*t life happens. Here's what I've been up to food-wise since then, in photo form :)

My "inventive" curried tofu and sweet potato stir-fry, served over thin rice noodles.

My mom's cherry congealed salad.

My mom's savory chicken casserole. Yum!

Savory chicken casserole and rice.

Glorious sushi!

Everything was so, so, so good.

The green lights were actually very bright and flashed like strobe lights. A bit distracting, but cool. It was New Year's Eve, so I guess the chef figured, "why not?"

Red = Ahi tuna. Light pink = a fish we never quite figured out. Still tasty though!

Happy New Year! More posts in 2011. :)

Cheers,

L

Granola

One of my favorite snacks is granola, and has been for a long time. Stir it into yogurt, eat it in a bowl with milk like cereal, sprinkle it on ice cream or frozen yogurt, eat it plain as a snack...  But I've never made my own, until today. I wanted to make a real simple, healthy recipe. This does have some sugar content (3/4 cups of brown sugar for a recipe that yields 6 cups of granola) but there is no butter or oil involved. It is delicious, has just a hint of sweetness -- and is incredibly addicting! The pan of granola was sitting out cooling while I was making dinner, and Paul and I kept sneaking handfuls even though we were about to eat.

I look forward to making this cheap, easy recipe again and again so that I can always have some granola on hand. Tomorrow morning for breakfast, I'm making yogurt/fruit/granola parfaits. Plain Greek yogurt (snagged the big container on sale!), blueberries I have stashed in the freezer (thawed, of course), granola, and a drizzle of honey. Yummmm. I can't wait for tomorrow morning, just for this breakfast.

This is a pretty basic recipe so feel free to add extras if you wish... dried fruit, chocolate chips, coconut, etc.

Pre-baking.

Finito!

Granola!
adapted from Kathleen Daelemans' Food Network Recipe

Makes about 6 cups of granola.

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups chopped nuts (I used 1 cup pecans, 1 cup walnuts)
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
2. In a 2-cup microwave-safe bowl or measuring cup, combine brown sugar, honey, and water. Microwave on high for 2 1/2 minutes, or until sugar is melted. (If you double the recipe, use a bigger vessel in the microwave! The mixture bubbles while heating.) Stir the vanilla and salt into the brown sugar syrup.
3. In a bowl, combine the oats, nuts, wheat germ, and cinnamon. Add the brown sugar syrup and mix well.
4. Spread onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or greased), and bake for 45 minutes. Stir the granola every 15 minutes during baking. Let cool and store in an air-tight container.

Cheers,

L

Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Pancakes

So, this post concludes what I've officially named Pumpkin Week. Last night, thanks to Paul's suggestion, I made pumpkin soup to accompany our dinner of pierogies and roasted veggies. This morning, I made pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Amazing fact: all four pumpkin recipes I've written about in the last few days (pasta, bread, soup, and pancakes) were made from only one 29 oz. can of pure pumpkin puree. How's that for economical? Ah, the joys of cooking for only two!

This soup was absolutely delicious. Reminded me of a butternut squash soup I had at one of our favorite Philly restaurants, La Viola.

Pumpkin Soup
adapted from Cream of Pumpkin Soup, allrecipes.com

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp butter, melted
• 14 oz chicken broth
• about a cup of pure pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp hot sauce (optional)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup 2% milk

1. Saute the onion in butter in a saucepan until tender. Add 7 oz. chicken broth, stir well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. By either transferring broth back & forth between a blender or food processor, or using an immersion blender in your saucepan, process until smooth.
3. (If using regular blender, return mixture to saucepan). Add remaining broth, pumpkin, hot sauce, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper. Stir well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in the half-and-half and milk and heat through - do not boil. Ladle into soup bowls and serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg on top.

Now for the pancakes...

Morning sunlight makes for the best pictures. :)

GOOD morning!

Pumpkin Pancakes

adapted from Easy Pancakes, allrecipes.com

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tbsp wheat germ (optional)
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped nuts of your choice (optional)

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the egg, milk, oil, and pumpkin. Whisk together just until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips or nuts.
2. Heat a non-stick griddle over medium-high heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve with any of the following: butter, maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, chopped nuts. 

Sick of pumpkin yet?

Cheers, 

L

Pumpkin Loaf

Consider this a continuation of last night's pumpkin post. As mentioned previously, I've been craving a good pumpkin quick bread. After conducting extensive scientific research in order to locate the perfect recipe, I decided on smittenkitchen's pumpkin muffin recipe. With my own tweaks, of course. I obviously changed it to a loaf recipe, omitted the cinnamon sugar topping, and because I refuse to spend money on "pumpkin pie spice" when I already have all the individual ingredients on my spice rack, I changed -- and increased -- the spices. I like my autumn cakes/muffins with lots of spices, but not to the point of overkill.

As a habitual over-mixer of muffin/quick bread batters, I really liked Deb's advice in her post:

A large wire whisk, when mixing by hand, really allows you to incorporate all of the drying ingredients quickly without mashing them up too much. It’s made it much harder to overdo it, despite my better efforts.

I found this to be totally true. Despite my efforts to gently fold in the flour, I've always unintentionally over-mixed my muffins and quick breads, leaving them to fall flat (literally) or become a giant sinkhole. This whisk thing sure does the trick!

Pumpkin Loaf
adapted from smittenkitchen.com

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9"x5" loaf pan or baking dish.
2. Whisk together the pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth and thoroughly combined.
3. Whisk in the flour and baking powder just until combined. Pour the batter into your loaf pan/baking dish, and bake until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

That last picture is the most flattering photo I could take of the finished product. I had a minor disaster while turning the loaf out of the pan -- things were not pretty (including the string of swear words that came out of my mouth in the process). But, although it doesn't look pretty, it is darn tasty, and that's all that matters. :)

Cheers,
L

Pumpkin! Pumpkin!! Pumpkin!!!

Welcome to autumn. It is officially that season where you see pumpkin (or the ever popular "pumpkin spice") everywhere -- muffins, quick breads, pies...all sorts of foods for that matter, lattes, coffee beans, coffee creamers, beer, candles, bath products, etc. For a few months, everyone deems pumpkin their favorite food and believes it is the best thing ever invented. Then the holidays are over and it seems everyone forgets about poor pumpkin until next year. I admit I am one of those people. I wish pumpkin was in season all year. Since October rolled around I've been dying to use it in the kitchen. I've had pumpkin spice coffee creamer on hand for the past month -- currently on my second bottle. When one store was out of said creamer, I went to another store to find it (success!). I am that desperate to grasp tightly onto the pumpkin craze before it disappears for another 10 months. Anyway, I haven't cooked with pumpkin yet this autumn. I have plans for pumpkin bread tomorrow, but tonight it was pasta.

My coworker recommended a Rachael Ray recipe and I'm glad I tried it. I altered the portions to serve two, and used half-and-half instead of heavy cream to cut the fat content, among other tweaks. The original recipe calls for sage, but I had none. So, if you have it, use it. But, word to the wise... follow Rachael's directions and USE WHOLE WHEAT PASTA! I only had regular semolina pasta on hand, and upon my first bite, my face lit up at the taste of the sauce but then I frowned a little. This pumpkin cream sauce needs the nutty richness of whole wheat pasta to bring out that autumn-y essence. Without it, the dish just lacks...something. I taste the pumpkin, the spices, but my palate is craving something else. One of the many reasons I love a really good quality (read: non-cardboard/sandpaper variety) whole wheat pasta is the depth of flavor it adds, and this is one of those cases.

I also want to mention that this would be a great main dish if you added chicken or sausage. Tonight, this was the "second course" of our dinner. Paul cooked the first course, and I cooked the second. I love when Paul cooks because his dishes always have his personality in them... from the seasonings he uses, to the tricks he's learned from his mom, to the very diligent, delicate, and patient way he chops up carrots into perfectly shaped little pieces. :) His first course was a salad consisting of romaine lettuce, carrots, apples, walnuts, and dried cranberries; topped with a pan-fried salmon fillet. Simple, yummy, and refreshing. This was a nice warm follow-up.


Pumpkin Lovers' Pasta for Two
adapted from Rachael Ray's Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta

• 1/2 pound whole wheat penne
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth (I used chicken)
• 7 to 8 ounces pure pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 tsp hot sauce (I used Sriracha)
• a dash of ground cinnamon
• a dash of ground nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste
• grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a sautee pan over medium heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and cook until soft.  Don't burn the garlic, like I did, and always will do.
3. Stir in the broth, pumpkin, and half-and-half. Add the hot sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Let simmer on low heat until thickened, about 5 minutes.
4. Toss pasta and sauce together, and serve with grated cheese and a dash of cinnamon on top.

Shallots & garlic cooking in olive oil. One of my favorite smells ever.

Simmerin' sauce.

Bon appetit!

Cheers,

L