Sunday, September 4, 2011
Y’all, every time I begin to type the word pumpkin, it ends up pumpking. Then I backspace the g. Seriously, every time.
As you know, if you’ve followed my blog, pumpkin really is king around here. From savory, to sipping, to sweets, I can’t get my hands on enough pumpkin in the fall. Now, let me be the first to say, we’re barely into the beginning of September, and it’s been blazing hot here in Nashville. So I’m not quite craving the fall foods just yet, but trying to squeeze out the last bit of goodness from summer (corn on the cob, watermelon, okra, etc). However, due to the wonders of Pinterest, lots of autumnal treats & decorations have been getting pinned since at least mid-July! Heck, even I’m guilty of some pumpkin pinning of my own.
I’ve been on the receiving end of pumpkin pins on pinterest (try saying THAT one 3x fast!), as the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles I made in my inaugural year of blogging have been getting a lot of hits from Pinterest lately. When I went back to reread the old post, the first thing that I cringed at was the photos! Eeek! They were done with my point & shoot. While they aren’t awful, they are quite up my current standards. Those little balls of pumpkin, white chocolate, graham cracker, & cream cheese goodness deserve better! And while I would normally hold off on posting pumpkin stuff this early, by golly you got to give the people what they want! And the people want pumpkin! *cue crowd cheers*
So head on over to the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffle post to get the recipe, and happy pinning! (PS. If you have no idea what Pinterest is, and want an invite, just fill out my contact form and I’ll invite as many people as I can.) Or if you’re interested in more pumpkin goodies, check my pumpkin tag to see ALL pumpkin related things in my blog. Here’s just a sampling of some of the things I’ve made & enjoyed!
Turkey Bean Pumpkin Chili
Pumpkin White Chocolate Blondies
Pumpkin Scones
White Chocolate Ice Cream with Spiced Pumpkin Swirl
Pumpkin Spice Latte Martini
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I need to be better about posting dinner recipes. After all, those are the kind I seek out most frequently. It’s just usually at dinner time I’m in a huge rush, or I think I’ve lost the light, Nathan’s starving, wah wah wah. As soon as I mentally concocted this flavor combo, I knew I’d want to put it on the blog. I’ve been inspired to get a little more creative with our pizza toppings after two recent visits to Porta Via here in Nashville. If I’m going to eat pizza, I want the real freaking deal. Porta Via has really great pizza, and really great gelato!
On to this dish… Rather than make my own pizza dough, I kept this super easy, by using dough I purchased at Trader Joe’s. I roasted some eggplant, and chopped up a large jalapeno, both veggies from my CSA box. Then I tossed on some sliced & slightly roasted jalapeno chicken sausages (also from Trader Joe’s), and soft & creamy goat cheese. I loved the combination of the spicy jalapeno & chicken sausage when paired with the goat cheese & mild eggplant. To give it extra kick, sprinkle on some red pepper flakes!
Spicy Eggplant Goat Cheese Pizza
Feel free to use this as more of a flavor guide. Top your pizza with the amount of each ingredient you'd like. I ended up not needing all of the toppings I had prepared.
Ingredients:
1 ball of pizza dough
flour for dusting & rolling out the dough
1 small eggplant
1 jalapeno
2 chicken sausage links (I used the jalapeno variety)
1/4 cup marinara sauce
1/4-1/3 cup mozzarella cheese
1 oz goat cheese
cornmeal (optional)
olive oil (optional)
italian seasoning (optional)
cracked pepper (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Slice eggplant thinly (about 1/4"), then quarter the slices. Arrange on a baking sheet, toss with olive oil, and sprinkle with cracked pepper. Roast about 15 minutes, turning halfway though. While eggplant is roasting, slice jalapeno in half, remove seeds, and slice thinly. Set aside. Slice chicken sausages, and roast about 5-7 minutes, remove right as they begin to turn golden.
When eggplant & chicken sausage are done roasting, put your pizza stone in the oven (if you're using one), and turn the heat up as high as you can get it. Let the stone warm up. I take this time to assemble my ingredients into an assembly line so I can prepare the pizza as quick as possible.
Meanwhile, dust your work surface with flour and roll out your dough. When stone is ready, remove from the oven, sprinkle with cornmeal (optional), and transfer dough to the stone. If you'd like, brush the edge of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with italian seasoning.. This is just optional, but I think it helps create a delicious golden crust. Next spread on the marinara sauce, followed by the mozzarella cheese, eggplant, chicken sausage, & jalapeno. Dollop on the goat cheese, and finish with a sprinkle of cracked pepper & red pepper flakes. Transfer pizza stone back to the oven, and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden, and finished.
One of the other things that inspired this pizza, was a special delivery I’d just gotten. The wonderful people I met at BlogHerFood ’11 from Barilla Pasta introduced me to their new pasta sauce. They were nice enough to send a few jars to me to sample. While they created this line of sauce intended to “hug pasta” (their words!), I decided to crack open a jar and spread it on my pizza! I can’t wait to explore more recipes to share with you in the future! On that note, I’ll go ahead and let you know, I’m not being paid by them, only provided with some of their new sauces to sample. :)
Monday, August 22, 2011
It’s pretty evident I love cocktails. But I don’t often talk about how much Nathan & I love trying new beers. He’s definitely a bigger beer enthusiast than I am, but I do love a good craft beer too. One of our favorite Nashville experiences was the time we went to the Yazoo taproom, had some pints, and went on a tour of the brewery. (This was back when they were in Marathon Village, not in their new Gulch location.) Yazoo is Nashville’s own brewery, started in 2003. All the people who work at the taproom are super friendly, cool people, and we’ve always loved going there. Nathan is a fan of their Pale Ale, and I prefer their Hefeweizen.
One recent Friday afternoon, when my duties at work were done for the day, I opened up my Google Reader to check out the blogs I follow. Jen, over at Beantown Baker, has been doing a really cool series called “Friday Faves” where she asks some of her favorite bloggers to guest post. As soon as I saw the post that Cupcake Project posted for Hefeweizen Cupcakes, I knew I was making them as soon as I got home! *Note: I thought I had all the ingredients on hand, but I didn’t notice the malted milk powder. And after a quick trip to the grocery, I still couldn’t locate any malted milk powder. Luckily dry milk powder was a perfectly suitable substitute.
This recipe made exactly 9 cupcakes for me. I love a recipe with a small yield! Even with that small of an amount, I still knew we would need to share them. So I tweeted to all the Yazoo people on twitter (I think there’s about 3 of them) to see if they wanted them, and sure enough they did! Nathan was in need of a growler refill anyways, so we loaded up some cupcakes and headed over to the taproom to share. I’m kind of a shy person, and I felt a little silly walking in with my cupcakes, but these were definitely well received! In fact, I kind of felt bad only bringing four.
Now, just a word of advice, these are most definitely a beer-lovers cupcake! NOT FOR CHILDREN. (duh) And not for people who don’t like beer. The wheat flavor of the beer really shines through in the cupcake and the glaze. These had a great texture, really spongy & moist. I was worried the glaze would be too runny, but it actually had a pretty thick consistency. It added an extra sweetness to cap it off. I loved these cupcakes, and Nathan definitely gave them two thumbs up!
Hefeweizen Cupcakes
Yield: 9 cupcakes
Ingredients:
CUPCAKES:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
zest of one large lemon or 2 small lemons
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Hefeweizen or other wheat beer
GLAZE:
1/2 cup malted milk powder *dry milk powder is an acceptable substitute*
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup hefeweizen or other wheat beer
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
CUPCAKES:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually mix in the sugar.
Mix in baking powder, baking soda, vegetable oil, zest, and milk. Mix in half of the flour. Mix in the beer. Mix in the other half of the flour.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until cupcakes bounce back when lightly touched.
GLAZE:
In a double boiler, combine all the ingredients except for the butter and sugar. Melt the mixture, stirring continuously until it's thick - about 12 minutes.
Strain the mixture to remove lumps. Cool completely.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix the cooled malt mixture with the butter. Mix in the powdered sugar. The end result should be a thick and sticky glaze.
Spread onto cooled cupcakes.
Monday, August 15, 2011
I credit my amazing friend Beth as being one of the people to spike my interest in the ginger flavor. She’s raved about the flavor many times. Since I began to dabble with this flavor, I quickly jumped in full force. In fact, these Double Ginger Crackles rank really high on my list of favorite cookies. I’ve made not one but two different muffins involving the ginger flavor (#1 and #2). The flavor goes well with salmon, shrimp, chicken and more. And OF COURSE… in cocktails. So many amazing drinks I’ve been enjoying involve either ginger syrup, ginger beer, or even candied ginger. Like ones I’ve had at Tavern (1920), Holland House (Pimm’s Cup), and No. 308 (Whiskey Ginger), as well as the ever faithful Jackson’s (Misery & Gin) & Rumba (Cumberland Sidecar, Kentucky Karma, & many more).
Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, last fall I was tipped off to a specialty latte being made at my former neighborhood coffee shop, and one of my favorite places, Dose. I can’t remember if it was Kelly or Kira that first mentioned Dose’s Ginger Latte, but I kid you not, I drove over there that.very.day to experience it for myself. It was every bit as good as I imagined. I’ve ordered quite a few since then, and as the weather turned warm this past spring, I switched to iced coffee with ginger syrup. As I began to transition into my Starbucks Iced Via addiction I really wanted to add that ginger flavor to my coffee at home. So finally I set to it, and made this ginger syrup. And then I immediately made another batch. I’m not kidding. I quickly realized between the coffee & the cocktails, I’d go through this pretty quick. Plus, I wanted to make some extra to give as a birthday gift to the girl who kickstarted my love of ginger! Though I was about 2 months belated in my gift giving, I think Beth still appreciated the syrup!
This syrup tastes GREAT in my morning iced coffee, or in fresh squeezed lemonade, and of course cocktails. Quite a few times I’ve had bourbon, over ice with a dash of this syrup, and a splash of Domain de Canton Ginger Liqueur. If you’re looking for a cocktail to whip up with this ginger syrup, I can highly recommend the Ginger Rogers, on Beth’s blog!
Ginger Syrup
Yield: 2 cups
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 six-inch piece fresh ginger, finely diced
Directions:
Place sugar, ginger, and water in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook about 1 hour, until ginger flavor is quite strong. Remove from heat, cover and let cool. Strain before using. Refrigerate.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
I don’t really have a quick or witty story to tell to relate to this sangria, I just wanna say “Make this sangria… it wuz good.”
Just kidding.
Seriously though, this was a mighty tasty sangria. For some reason I’m more drawn to white sangrias than I am your typical red sangria. Way way way back in 2008, I made a Peach White Wine Sangria. I think perhaps I just prefer the lightness of a white wine sangria. I made this for my neighbor’s 4th of July party and it was VERY well received. And all of his friends have VERY good taste in potluck party fare. Seriously, I was so happy at the first party of his we attended to discover couscous and fresh veggie salad, fresh caprese skewers, my favorite local goat cheese, and more delectable dishes.
I knew I’d be making this for a crowd, so I multiplied the recipe to use a 3L bottle of wine. I went ahead and added the mint and orange slices to the sangria and poured it all into my lovely new drink dispenser! This sangria was gone WELL before the sun set for fireworks. I like that it’s not sickeningly sweet, and the fresh mint really adds a herbal zing to please the palate. Here in Tennessee it’ll be hot well into September, so luckily we have plenty more opportunities to enjoy this refreshing drink!
Pineapple Sangria
Yield: Makes 8 servings
I doubled this recipe to serve a crowd.
Ingredients:
3 cups pineapple juice
1 bottle dry white wine, such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc
1 cup brandy (pear brandy or apricot brandy will work)
1 ripe pineapple, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup pineapple soda
1 bunch fresh mint, roughly chopped
1 orange, sliced
Directions:
In a pitcher, combine the juice, wine, brandy, pineapple, and soda with ice and stir. Pour into large wineglasses and garnish with the mint and orange.
PS. If you’re interested in a traditional red wine sangria, check out this one over at The Novice Chef!
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