Tuesday, October 4, 2011
No recipe post today, but I had to share news about an upcoming event. I’m going to be competing in the Music City Chili Cookoff. This will be my second time competing in a cookoff, the last was also a chili competition. I failed miserably lost admirably when I competed back in 2009. This competition will be done a bit differently as all the prep & cooking is done at home. You just show up with your finished product. (I can’t even begin to tell you what a relief that is.)
Entry fee is a mere $30, and the prize money is $200 for first place, $100 for second, and $50 for third. Not too shabby! But, this isn’t just an event for competitors. It’s a full family event! There will be a bounce house for the kids, live music, and a beer garden. The cookoff will benefit the Community Shares and TN Literacy Coalition. The fee to attend the event is a minimum $5 donation, and that small price means that you are a judge! Yup, that’s right, no panel of judges. Everyone who attends the event gets to sample and vote!
Also, they will have a Beer Garden set up by Yazoo & Ole Smoky Moonshine. For $15 you get six 8oz glasses of beer, and two shots of Old Smoky Moonshine’s Apple Pie Moonshine. Is that a fantastic deal or what!? So when I lose, you might want to look there for me to be drowning my sorrows! ;)
For more info, check out their website. I hope to see you there!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Remember these Nutella Cookies? Well, you could have the opportunity to bid on a batch of these cookies to be made and delivered (via US mail) by me! A super nice blogger, (with a great name), Erin at The Spiffy Cookie is hosting a bake sale, and I contributed these cookies. The bake sale benefits a young man who was in a motorcycle accident, and now needs a prosthetic leg. Erin is friends with his twin sister, and as it turns out, I know one of this other sisters.
Please hop on over to the bake sale, but you must act FAST, because you only have until TUESDAY October 4th, at 8am CST to vote! Even if you’re not interested in these Nutella Cookies, there are MANY other delicious treats up for auction!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Alton Brown told me to stick my hand in this ice cream. Really. He did. Alright, so maybe that’s a stretch, but he did tweet at me to offer me relief on my burning hands after chopping peppers. His advice to soothe capsaicin burn was fattening dairy. It just so happened the fattest dairy I had on hand was this ice cream. So into a bowl of it my hands went.
You may or may not remember last year I made a White Chocolate Ice Cream with Spiced Pumpkin Swirl. I made it because I wanted to use the pumpkin butter I love so much from Trader Joe’s. Recently on a Trader Joe’s grocery trip I was checking to see if their pumpkin butter was out yet this year. It wasn’t, but they had fig butter! I love fresh figs. Unfortunately they only appear at select grocery stores for a really brief time here in Nashville. I was surprised this fig butter was so affordable, and it was delicious! I found myself enjoying it most frequently on toast, with a bit of honey swirled on. Before long I knew I wanted to swirl it into an ice cream. My first thought was honey ice cream, but almost immediately after that, I thought of honey goat cheese ice cream. I already know those flavors work well together from when I made Goat Cheese Stuffed Figs that had honey drizzled on top. Furthermore, I knew that goat cheese was a flavor I liked in ice cream after trying it at Jeni’s on my first visit! The Jeni’s flavor I had was Goat Cheese & Red Cherries.
As with the Blueberry Goat Cheese Muffins I made this year, the goat cheese flavor is very subtle. It just adds a hint of tang, and results in a really distinct flavor profile. I would say the honey flavor is more prominent than the goat cheese. I also love that the goat cheese cuts the sweetness of the ice cream. The fig butter swirled in is like the icing on the cake. It makes for an interesting contrast in texture, as the ice cream is incredibly smooth, and the fig butter a bit gritty. This is a classic flavor combination, but unique in ice cream. To say I enjoyed this ice cream would be an understatement! I definitely preferred eating it, as opposed to sticking my hand in a bowl of it.
PS. Did you know September is National Honey Month? Yeah, that’s right, I hit a food holiday. That rarely happens.
Honey Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Fig Swirl
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey
4 oz goat cheese
approximately 1/3 cup fig butter (I just kept dolloping in tablespoons until I was happy with the amount)
Directions:
Add the cream, milk, and honey to a medium saucepan. Stir to dissolve the honey. Heat over moderate heat, stirring from time to time, just until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan, 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir or whisk in goat cheese until dissolved.
Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. (Overnight is recommended)
Before churning, stir mixture briefly to reincorporate ingredients. Churn according to ice cream maker instructions until fluffy. Transfer about 1/2 of the ice cream to desired container, dollop in some of the fig butter, repeat with remaining ice cream & fig butter. Using a butter knife swirl ice cream & fig butter a few times. Cover and freeze until hardened.
Monday, September 19, 2011
As excited as I am about the return of all things fall, including pumpkin purchasing, pumpkin eating, cooler temperatures, bright tights, warm scarves, changing leaves, windows open, and fall veggies, that doesn’t mean I’m not grasping tightly to the last bits of summer produce.
We were invited over to our friends’ house for a cookout, and of course my first question was “What should I bring?”. The friends are owners of a really awesome meat & 3 lunch spot here in town. (Iron Porkchop, if you haven’t been, GO! Delicious, fast, affordable! Get Banana Pudding for dessert. Trust me.) I knew he was gonna throw down on the meat, and he requested we bring a side. I know they aren’t picky eaters, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use the okra I recently scored at work.
This was an incredibly simple salad to prepare. It takes a little bit of time (inactive time roasting in the oven), but minimal effort. The fresh rosemary gave it a burst of herbal flavor. The lemon juice added hint of tang. As you know I love to roast any vegetable; that’s one of my favorite ways to eat potatoes, and okra as well. If you avoid okra because of the potential for “slime”, then you should really consider this recipe, or any other one that involves roasting it. Everyone really enjoyed this salad, and commented on how it was really different. I felt like I had one foot in the door of summer, and one foot in the door of fall. Foods like this make me on happy gal.
Roasted Potato & Okra Salad
Ingredients:
2 lb small potatoes such as fingerling, red, or yellow-fleshed
1 large bunch scallions, halved lengthwise and roughly chopped
2 large fresh rosemary sprigs, plus 1/2 teaspoon chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 lb small (2- to 3-inch) okra, heads removed
1 cup fresh corn (from 1 to 2 ears, I used a combo of frozen kernels plus 1 ear of corn)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
Directions:
Roast potatoes and okra:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.
Halve potatoes lengthwise and toss with scallion pieces, rosemary sprigs, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Spread potato mixture in a large roasting pan and roast, stirring once, 20 minutes. Stir potatoes and add okra to pan, tossing to coat. Continue to roast until okra and potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes more.
Cook corn while potatoes roast:
Cook corn in 1 quart of salted boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Make dressing and assemble salad:
Whisk together lemon juice, shallot, chopped rosemary, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl until combined. Discard rosemary sprigs, then add hot potatoes and okra to dressing along with beans, corn, and salt to taste, tossing to combine. Serve hot or warm.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
I have really struggled trying to figure out how to write this post. What I really want to say is “OMG! THESE ARE THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIPS COOKIES EVER!!” But I feel like most every chocolate chip cookie recipe you see says that. Up until this recipe, I thought I had found the best recipe. It was back in my early days of blogging, right around the time the NY Times posted a recipe involving multiple flours, specific chocolate disks, and most importantly the step of letting the dough “rest” in the fridge. The main part I took away from that was the resting. It really does make a world of difference.
I’ve made a handful of chocolate chip cookies on this blog. Everything from Alton Brown’s The Chewy (good but too greasy), Soft & Chewy from Martha Stewart Cookies Cookbook (too puffy), and my previous favorite adapted from Smitten Kitchen. But something began to happen with my previous favorite. I had multiple cookie fails in a row. So, in search of a new recipe I went. I didn’t have to look too far to find a recipe I wanted to try. Our wonderful realtor got us (ok, me) the Williams Sonoma Baking Book as a closing gift. She knew me pretty well I guess you could say!
This is the recipe from that book, doubled (because as written it didn’t make nearly as many cookies!), with the added step of letting the dough rest 24 hours. And holy cow, these cookies really & truly are the BEST chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! They are better than the previous favorite, even when they turned out right! I like to bake these using either my smallest cookie scoop, or my medium cookie scoop. However I will say, when you use the medium scoop they turn out even better because they are thicker! I’ve made many many batches of these. It’s funny I was never in a rush to photograph them, because I knew I’d be making another batch again soon! Often, once the dough has rested and been scooped into balls, I only bake 1 cookie sheet. The rest of the balls I freeze, for on-demand baking later on. To do this, just set them on a cookie sheet as close as you can get without them touching. Then stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or so. Transfer the dough balls to a freezer safe ziplock bag and return them to the freezer. You never know when that chocolate chip cookie craving will hit!
These cookies have the perfect texture, and amazing flavor. They stay soft & gooey on the inside, but have a slight crunch on the outside. I’m usually not that much of a nut fan, but the second time I made these I decided to go ahead and toss them in. I’m so glad I did, because the toasted walnuts really do add depth and flavor to this cookie. I chop them pretty small, and toast them just until they begin to release a nutty aroma. I like to use chocolate chunks in this recipe, as opposed to chips, because Nathan & I both like a big gooey burst of chocolate in our cookies. I sprinkled these with a bit of fleur de sel, but it didn’t add as much to the cookie as I thought it would, so that’s just an option.
I hope I’ve convinced you to give these cookies a shot. I know I’ve tried many different chocolate chip cookies, and these are definitely my favorite, fail-proof recipe. I would love to know what you think! Let me know if you try them!
Chocolate Chip Cookies
I doubled the original recipe, but didn't double the amount of nuts. To me, this keeps the cookies from being overly nutty, and yields a larger number of cookies. I can't even begin to tell you how many though, because between the bites of dough we sneak, and how fast these cookies get eaten, I'm never able to get a good count!
Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
fleur de sel (optional, for sprinkling on cookies before baking)
Directions:
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, cream the butter until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and continue beating until the mixture smooth and sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed until blended, occasionally stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until blended. Add the chocolate chunks and walnuts, if using, mixing or stirring until blended. Press plastic wrap onto the dough, and refrigerate 24 hours.
Once 24 hours have passed, preheat the oven to 350. Using a cookie scoop, or dampened hands, shape the dough into 1-inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. (Optional: You can sprinkl the cookie dough balls with fleur de sel, for a bit of salty flavor) Bake the cookies until golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes (or 8-9 minutes if using a smaller scoop). Let the cookies cool briefly on the pans on wire racks before transferring them to the racks to cool completely.
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