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Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

Posted on August 12, 2010 by amydeline

The summer night is quiet. A couple rests peacefully in their comfortable feather-topped bed. The windows are open; the low hum of a fan filling the air as it sends a soothing breeze throughout the room. The couple has drifted off into a tranquil dreamland, never suspecting what lie ahead.

Down the hall, a door swings open; the constant murmur of the fan providing cover to the sound.

Tap.

Tap. Tap.

Tap, Tap, Tap.

Taptaptaptaptaptap.

The sound of small, bare feet on hardwood floors.

She doesn’t feel the breath upon her face. She isn’t aware that she is being watched. Until it yells, Snuggle up!

The Snuggle Monster (post watermelon feast)

Startled and confused, she reaches over and lifts the small, warm person into bed and does as he commands. Snuggle up. And they begin drifting back to sleep; the midnight snuggle attack a roaring success. Until the small person begins talking. Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? At which point the slumbering man awakes and demands that the small noisy person return to his bed.

Don't be deceived by the snuggle monster's cute ploys.

Thus began a mostly sleepless night.

And so it is a great joy to me that today’s post was actually last night’s dinner. Cooking complete. Food taste-tested. Photos taken. Recipe written. Just a matter of a few edits and done for the day. Leftovers for dinner…

Above all else, tasty food starts with tasty ingredients. Fresh ingredients at their prime require minimal fuss to produce outstanding results. When it comes to homemade tomato sauce, most of the year, your best bet may be canned tomatoes. Has lack of sleep made the gourmand mom lose her mind?? But, no. Tomatoes are canned at the peak of their ripeness at the peak of their season, their flavorful prime. You’d be hard-pressed to find fresh tomatoes nearly that tasty mid-winter. When tomatoes are not in season, canned crushed or whole tomatoes will offer you the most flavorful, nutrient-rich option.

But, there is a window of time when the ripe tomatoes, fresh from your garden, the farmer’s market, or your local grocery store are bursting with flavor. And in the Northeast, that time is now.

We’ll start with ripe, fresh tomatoes. (Taste one to ensure that they have vibrant, sweet tomato flavor.) Use a knife to make an ‘x’ at the bottom of each tomato. This will allow the skins to slip off easily.

Drop a few tomatoes at a time into a pot of boiling water. Allow them to sit in the boiling water for about 30 seconds.

Use a slotted spoon the remove the tomatoes.

Immediately place them into an ice bath to cool. The skins should begin slipping off on their own. Use your fingers to peel the tomatoes.

Once the tomatoes have been peeled, they’ll only require a few simple steps and a handful of fresh ingredients to become a flavorful marinara sauce. Make a big batch and freeze a few containers for some fresh tomato sauce, post peak tomato season.

Serve the sauce over pasta as is, or add a few more ingredients to make your own tomato sauce variation. Try olives, ground meat, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, or roasted garlic.

Basic Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 pounds ripe Plum/Roma Tomatoes
  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 4 cloves Garlic, smashed
  • 2 small Onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup Basil, chiffonade*
  • Salt (about 1 1/2 tsp)
  • Crushed Red Pepper, to taste

*Click here to see my photo guide on How to Chiffonade Basil.

Directions

Cut the top off of the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in half. Squeeze the seeds from the tomatoes into a strainer. Reserve the strained tomato liquid. Rough chop the tomatoes. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and smashed garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato liquid to the pan. Cook for about 25 minutes over medium heat, until the tomatoes have broken down. For your safety, allow the mixture to cool slightly. Then, use a blender, food processor, or immersion blender to blend the mixture to your desired consistency. Be careful while blending hot liquids. Add the basil and season with salt and crushed red pepper. Continue cooking for about 10 more minutes to allow the flavors to blend and condense.

**You can make this recipe using canned tomatoes too. Look for canned whole or crushed tomatoes with no added salt. If you really want to use fresh tomatoes, but they’re not at their flavorful best, try adding a bit of tomato paste. The concentrated tomato flavor will do wonders for your sauce!

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Peppermint Chocolate Chip Oreo Ice Cream

Posted on August 9, 2010 by amydeline

Gotta show the ice cream maker a little love. We don’t want it to become angry again.

I asked my visiting niece what her favorite ice cream flavor was. Mint Chocolate Chip was her reply. For good measure, we decided to throw in some crumbled Oreo cookies too. Hard to go wrong with that combination!

All of the kids enjoyed mixing up this tasty batch of homemade ice cream. My niece was especially intrigued. She intently watched the ice cream churn for several minutes before finally asking when it would turn green. She was visibly disappointed when I explained that it would not be turning green. So, we added a few drops of food coloring. The ice cream turned a lovely pale green, which delighted my niece. The color was lost after we added the cookies, but by that point, the color didn’t seem to matter as much.

All of the kids enjoyed taste testing the ice cream. They were also quite willing to take care of the extra cookies. Our labrosaurus rex would’ve helped too, if given the chance.

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Oreo Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup Milk
  • 1 1/2 cup Light Cream
  • 2/3 cup Sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract
  • 1/2 cup Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
  • 10 Oreo Cookies, crushed

Directions

Combine milk and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add cream and peppermint extract. Stir. Pour into your frozen ice cream bowl and freeze according to your machine’s directions. Once the ice cream begins to thicken, add the chocolate chips and cookies. Allow the ice cream to continue mixing in the ice cream maker until the chocolate and cookies are well blended and the ice cream is thick.

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Berry Pickin’

Posted on August 8, 2010 by amydeline

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect yesterday. It was warm, but not too hot. The sun was out, but it was not scalding. A refreshing breeze passed through the air. So, we took the boys and our niece berry picking. The beauty of living in an area which offers us the comfort of a quiet neighborhood, the convenience of being able to walk to the grocery store, and fields full of fresh berries within a few minutes drive is not lost on us.

We had the blueberry fields all to ourselves.

It was quiet, breezy, peaceful. A few shiny bugs were our only companions.

The kids enjoyed filling their buckets with the sweet berries.

More than a few berries were sampled by sneaky children.

But we managed to bring home enough berries for some fresh berry shortcake dessert.

I used an Alton Brown recipe for the shortcake, found here. I added about 1/4 cup additional milk to give the dough the right consistency. Next time, I’d also add a bit more sugar, but it was otherwise delicious!

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What a Watermelon Roll!

Posted on August 3, 2010 by amydeline

My ice cream maker hates me. Honestly, I don’t blame it. It’s been sitting in my basement, neglected for years. My husband bought it for me several years ago. I was thrilled at the time. I opened the box and tenderly caressed my new toy. I had big plans. I was going to be an ice cream maker extraordinaire, put Ben and Jerry’s to shame, give Mr. Baskin and Mr. Robbins a run for their money. And you know what? In all the years I’ve had the ice cream maker, I haven’t made even one single batch of ice cream.

Sort of reminds me of the summer my dad decided he was going to become an amateur fisherman. He went out and bought all of the supplies; a couple rods, lures, and a box to keep it all in. He fished for a summer, which is more than I can say about me and my ice cream maker. But then the fishing supplies got packed away alongside the abandoned bread machine and juicer. My sister blames Price Club for all of their tantalizing deals, which repeatedly sold our father on new hobbies alongside large tubs of mayonnaise and 100-packs of toilet paper.

But this post isn’t about fishing, juice-making, or other neglected hobbies. It’s about ice cream. I was inspired to give my ice cream maker its maiden whirl by a friend of mine, who recently started a wonderful blog with her sister, www.weknowstuff.us.com. They write about all sorts of interesting topics, including childcare, healthy eating, caring for an elderly relative, and my favorite topic, recipes! In one of their recent posts, they shared a step-by-step recipe for Watermelon Ice Cream, slightly modified from an Emeril Lagasse recipe. The little chocolate chip seeds are what really sold me. I was instantly reminded of the delicious Friendly’s Wattamelon Roll, which my husband goes gaga for, and set my mind on making one.

There’s a long story here, involving the mutilation of multiple innocent watermelons, an angry and uncooperative ice cream maker, and four (yes, four) batches of watermelon ice cream/sherbert and one batch of lemon sherbert. There are tales of too icy, too creamy, and too sweet. There are tales of repentance and forgiveness. I could regale you with stories of watermelon water content, ice-crystallization, cream vs. milk, and no-sugar added. I could explain why I chose to make a sherbert instead of an ice cream. But, I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, the ice cream maker and I are now the best of friends and I mastered two beautiful, melt-in-your-mouth sherbert recipes.

Enjoy either recipe on its own or use the two recipes together to make your own watermelon sherbert roll with all the same flavor of the original Wattamelon Roll, minus the Disodium Phosphate, Red 40, and Blue 1.

But first a few tips from my weekend of ice cream making:

  • Make sure your ice cream bowl is completely and thoroughly frozen. I turned the temperature down on my freezer to get the bowl to get the bowl cold enough.
  • Leave the ice cream bowl in the freezer until the last minute. It will begin defrosting quickly once you remove it.
  • Chill your ice cream mixture before pouring it into the ice cream maker.
  • You can make ice cream or sherbert with milk or cream, but what you use will affect the texture. Choose wisely. The recipes I have provided are what I found to be the best balance of texture and taste, while keeping waistlines in mind.
  • If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make a decent sherbert by allowing the mixture to freeze for 30 minutes or so, then blending the partially frozen mixture in a blender. Allow it to partially freeze again. Blend again. Then, allow it to completely freeze. This process will introduce some air into the mix as it freezes and breaks up some of the ice crystal formation. It will produce a tasty sherbert but the end result won’t be as creamy or smooth as with using an ice cream maker.

Lemon Sherbert

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Light Cream
  • 1 Cup Milk
  • 1/2 Cup Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed, if possible)

Directions

Combine the cream, milk and sugar until completely dissolved. Add the lemon juice. Stir to combine. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to your machine’s directions.

Watermelon Sherbert

Ingredients

  • 4 cups Seedless Watermelon, chopped
  • 1 cup Light Cream
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 1/4 cup Sugar
  • 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 3/4 cup Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions

Puree the watermelon until it’s liquid. You should have about 3 cups of watermelon liquid. Pour the liquid in a saucepan and simmer until the liquid reduced to about 1 cup. It will appear thick and syrupy. Cool the liquid completely. In bowl, combine the milk, cream, and sugar. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the watermelon mixture to the cream mixture. Add the lemon juice. Stir to combine.  Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to your machine’s directions. When the mixture has thickened, add the chocolate chips to the machine.

To create a watermelon roll, press lemon sherbert onto the bottom and sides of a round bowl. Fill the center with watermelon sherbert and freeze. If desired, paint the exterior with green food coloring.

Another alternative is to create watermelon pops.

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Ratatouille Repentance

Posted on August 2, 2010 by amydeline

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s all about balance.

Yesterday, I served you a heart attack on a bun and called it a burger. I have to admit that I used my healthy side of steamed broccoli to wipe up the cheese, chili, and egg yolk, which dripped from my burger. But, today I’m making up for it with a delicious, fresh spinach salad for lunch and a healthful dinner, chock full of vegetables and oozing with nutrition. That, and a nice long run should set us right back on track.

Months ago, while watching the Disney-Pixar movie, my son asked me to cook him ratatouille. Now, what mom is going to say no when their son requests a dish that is completely loaded with vegetables? Then I lost track of his request and the months went by, until last week, when I spotted the most irresistible package of vegetables at the supermarket.

Instantly, I knew I would be cooking eggplant very soon. I started running through my mental library of eggplant recipes. My first thought was Eggplant Parmesan, one of my favorite dishes, but it seemed sacrilege to cover those beautiful baby eggplants with bread crumbs. That’s when I remembered the pending ratatouille request.

In the big climax of the movie, Ratatouille, little chef Remy, decides to serve a dish of ratatouille to the most discriminating food critic, Anton Ego. Chef Collette is appalled. But, it is a peasant dish, she exclaims. Remy astounds everyone by transforming this traditional Provencal stewed vegetable dish into something elegant and mouthwatering, which pulls Ego back in time to warm memories of his childhood. The culinary genius of a mouse saves the restaurant with his comfort food makeover.

The real-life chef mastermind behind Remy’s ratatouille is famed chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in Napa. For the film, he designed a layered version of ratatouille inspired by the Turkish dish, Confit Byaldi; same flavor profile of a traditional ratatouille, same slow-cooked flavor, prettier presentation. In his version, a pipérade of roasted peppers, onions, and garlic is spread in a baking dish, topped with layers of fresh eggplant, tomatoes, and squash, then slow cooked until the vegetables are tender and sweet. The final dish is topped with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.

Inspired by that package of beautiful eggplant, I decided that we would make Keller’s version of ratatouille. I told my son that we were going to make a fancy ratatouille, just like in the movie. His response was, I don’t want to make a fancy ratatouille! I want to make a smiley-face ratatouille! Where in the world does he get this stuff?? Anyway, we met in the middle with both a fancy and a smiley faced ratatouille. We’re serving our ratatouille with balsamic vinaigrette marinated, broiled fillets of salmon.

For the complete recipe, as published a few years ago in the New York Times, click here.

Here’s what we did…

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut a red, yellow, and orange bell pepper in half. Remove ribs and seeds. Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice up some baby eggplant, plum tomatoes, and yellow squash.

When the peppers have finished roasting, place them in a ziploc bag or cover with plastic wrap. This will help the skins to separate as they cool. When cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the peppers. Chop into small pieces. Turn the oven heat down to 275 degrees.

In a pan, heat a little olive oil. Cook a chopped onion until softened. Add minced garlic and thyme. Cook a few minutes more.

Add the chopped peppers, cook for a few more minutes. This your pipérade. Spread the pipérade in an even layer on the bottom of a baking dish.

Arrange the sliced vegetables in an overlapping pattern on top of the pipérade.

The kids worked on their smiley-face version of ratatouille.

Drizzle a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper over the vegetables.

Cover with foil and bake in a 275 degrees oven for 2 hours. Remove the foil and cook for 30 minutes more.

**If you have leftover sliced vegetables, toss them in a bit of the oil and garlic and arrange them on a baking sheet. Place them in the oven for about 45 minutes. You’ll have some delicious roasted vegetables, which make great roasted veggie sandwiches with a bit of fresh mozzarella.

This dish is best made a day ahead of time and reheated in the oven before serving. Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette and enjoy.

The kids enjoyed tasting their smiley-faced ratatouille.

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Chicken and Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Posted on July 30, 2010 by amydeline

This post almost didn’t happen. This post was almost a picture of a salad from Panera or burger from Five Guys. I’d begun gathering what I needed for dinner, my mise en place, if you will. It wouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to prepare. But 15 minutes was apparently way too long for my littlest guy. As I moved about the kitchen, he was on my heels, quick as a cheetah and loud as lion. Hold my hand. I’m ready to snuggle up. He roared. He screeched. He howled. And I surrendered to my little master. The kids’ dinner became a quick PB&J and microwaveable mac and cheese. The screaming stopped. I packed away the ingredients for tonight’s intended dinner. I’m not proud. But hey, I never claimed to be supermom.

Once everyone had their fill of snuggle and food, I had the chance to prepare the dinner I’d planned; breaded chicken with a spicy peanut sauce. Honestly, this is all about the peanut sauce. The chicken is merely a vehicle to transport the sauce to my belly. It’s sweet, it’s spicy, it’s salty. This sauce is also magic with skewered, grilled chicken and shrimp.


Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
  • 1/4 cup Brown Sugar, loosely packed
  • 1 Tbsp Lime Juice
  • 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
  • 1 tsp Minced Garlic
  • 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (plus more, if desired)
  • 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
  • Chopped Peanuts and Sliced Scallions, for garnish

Directions

Place the peanut butter in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave for a few seconds to soften the peanut butter. Add other ingredients and stir to combine. Add small amounts of warm water and stir until the sauce reaches your desired consistency. Taste and add more cayenne, if desired. Top with the chopped peanuts and/or scallions.

Delicious served with chicken or shrimp!

For the chicken:

Season chicken tenders or chicken breasts cut into strips with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. In a small bowl, beat a couple eggs. Dip the chicken in the eggs. Then roll the chicken in seasoned bread crumbs until well-coated. In a pan, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned and cooked through.

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Vanilla Carrot Bisque

Posted on July 29, 2010 by amydeline

A few weeks ago, my three-year-old asked me to make him Vanilla Soup. Hmmm…vanilla soup? Never heard of such a thing, but who am I to argue with the kid whose binoculars can transform into a jetpack; the kid who calls the fan a Bloominator; the very same kid who decided he’d prefer to be called Gastack and has been introducing himself as such ever since; the kid who, as I write this, is stomping around the living room in robot fashion, shouting Robot, Robot, Robot Secrets as he cleans up his toys. Vanilla Soup it is!

I thought about his request for a while; pondered how I’d go about making a vanilla soup. My sister suggested that I just melt a container of vanilla ice cream and pour it in a bowl. Voila! Vanilla Soup. That idea probably would have worked just fine for my little guy, but it didn’t gel well with me. If I were going to cook a vanilla soup, I was going to make a valiant effort at creating something that was both delicious and nutritious.

I’d need to select flavors which would showcase the vanilla, without overwhelming it. It should be sweet, but not necessarily fruity. My first thought was pumpkin, but that hardly seemed seasonal. I considered butternut squash for a while; a definite contender.I gave sweet potatoes their due consideration as well. And then I thought about carrots. Why, yes! Carrots would work nicely.

Carrots are loaded with natural sugars. To help develop their natural sweetness, I decided to give them a slow roast in the oven. I threw a couple apricots in the mix for added sweetness and a touch of tart. To the roasted carrots and apricots, I added light cream, infused with fresh vanilla bean. I pureed the carrots, apricots, and vanilla cream with a touch of honey and ground ginger. Finally, I added milk until the consistency seemed right. Simple as that. I chose not to add any other seasonings; not even salt…gasp! Let the vanilla be the star.

Turned out to be a very yummy soup; creamy and slightly sweet with a definite vanilla flavor. I adore the little specks of fresh vanilla bean running throughout the soup. My only complaint is that the texture turned out to have a slightly gritty feel; not entirely unpleasant, but definitely noticeable. I’m pretty sure this was a result of my decision to roast the carrots, which caused them to develop a slightly hardened exterior. I tried straining the soup, but my fine sieve was too fine and the holes in my colanders were too big. I knew I needed more strainers! My guess is that boiled carrots would probably produce a smoother, though less sweet soup. Despite the somewhat gritty texture, I think I’d stick with roasting.

This soup is best served warm. For a nice finish, top it with a drizzle of creme fraiche and some diced dried apricots or pumpkin seeds.

Vanilla Carrot Bisque

Ingredients

  • 1 8oz package Baby Carrots (about 3 cups)
  • 2 Apricots
  • 1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
  • 1 cup Light Cream
  • 1 1/2 cups Milk
  • 1 Vanilla Bean, split in half, seeds scraped with the edge of a knife
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Tbsp Honey
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss the carrots in the oil and arrange in an even layer on a baking sheet. Place the apricots in a small baking dish. Roast the carrots and apricots in the oven for about an hour. When cool enough to handle, cut the apricots in half, remove the seed, and scoop out the tender insides. In a saucepan, add the cream, vanilla bean, vanilla bean seeds, and vanilla extract. Heat the cream over medium heat until it comes to a gentle simmer. Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean. Use a blender, food processor, or immersion blender to puree the carrots, apricots, and vanilla cream until smooth. Add the honey and ginger. Puree for a few seconds more to combine. Add milk until the soup reaches your desired consistency. Taste and add more honey if desired.

To serve, warm the soup in a saucepan or microwave. Top with creme fraiche (or sour cream), dried apricot, or seeds.

Tasting his creation.

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Merry Christmas (in July)

Posted on July 27, 2010 by amydeline

I love Christmas. I mean, I really, really LOVE Christmas. Not like the way a normal person enjoys the holidays. Much more like an irrational crazy person. I love the lights and the carols, the smell of a fresh Fraser Fir Christmas tree, the warmth and aroma of cookies baking in my oven. I love shopping for the perfect gifts for my loved ones and wrapping beautiful packages with high-quality paper (I spend a lot of time thinking about the paper) and perfectly coordinated organza ribbons. I love the smiles on my kids faces as they see the tree filled with gifts for the first time. I love having a house full of people and cooking a big meal. I love planning the color schemes for our Christmas trees and dining room table; burgandy and gold or a peacock theme of bright blues, greens, and purples, or maybe silver with shades of green. Our storage room is overrun with bins of ornaments, lights, nativity sets, snowmen, and festive jeweled fruits. The entire season puts a skip in my step, a perpetual grin on my face, and an extra pitter-patter in my heart.

Christmas Tree 2009

My anticipation and yearning for the Christmas season is so strong that it physically pains me. I’m aching for it right now as I write this. You’ll never hear me complaining about stores decorating for Christmas in October or radio stations who start playing nonstop Christmas carols as kids are trick-or-treating. You can fully expect this blog to get a little Christmas crazy sometime in early November. I sure hope you won’t hate me for it.

The Boys, Christmas 2009

When I was younger, I took the idea of Christmas in July very seriously. Each December, I’d spend large chunks of my hard-earned babysitting money on Christmas decorations; cardboard cut-outs of wreaths and Santas, tinsel garland, and long strands of blinking, musical lights. I’d bathe my small pink room in Christmas. Then, I’d pack it up after New Years and wait. Until July rolled around. At which point, I’d drag out the bin and decorate every square inch of my room. My parents didn’t mind, as long as I kept the Christmas carols at a low volume and my door closed. I brought the bin with me to college, where I added a 6 foot artificial tree to my collection and had easily the most festive room in the whole dorm. Thank you freshman year roomie, wherever you are, for tolerating my insanity.

Brie with Apricot Preserves, Christmas 2009

I don’t decorate my house for Christmas in July. My husband wouldn’t be nearly as tolerant of it as my parents were. But, I couldn’t let July pass without celebrating just a little. So, I decided I’d cook something that reminds me of Christmas. I went through the mental list of all of the foods that remind me of Christmas. The huge turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and gravy my family makes every year. The pork loin with peanuts, ambrosia, and green bean casserole my grandmother-in-law would make. The roast beef with bordelaise sauce, ham with pilaf, scalloped potatoes and biscuits, or beef bourgignon with potatoes au gratin and quiche lorraine that I’ve made. Or perhaps a dessert, like my Dad’s apple pie or the Friendly’s Jubilee Roll my husband’s family enjoys each year. And then I started thinking about Christmas cookies…

Baked Brie with Homemade Cranberry Orange Relish, Christmas 2008

And that’s when I knew exactly what I wanted to make for our Christmas in July celebration. Something so incredibly simple and so irresistibly delicious. I’m pretty sure the only reason we don’t make them all year round is because they are so utterly addicting. These little treats may seem more appropriate for a Halloween celebration, but they ring Christmas to me. My grammy and mom make them every year as part of the Christmas cookie collection. And every year, they are the first cookies to go. Actually, they’re not really cookies at all.

Chocolate-Covered Spiders

They are Chocolate-Covered Spiders.

I always thought of this recipe as my grammy’s special recipe. After running a search online, I now see that this recipe has been out there for a while. Sometimes called Haystacks and each recipe using slightly varying proportions of chocolate chips to butterscotch or peanut butter chips, the basic concept is the same. And I’ll always think of it as my grammy’s recipe.

Chocolate-Covered Spiders

Ingredients

  • 1 package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
  • 1 cup Butterscotch Chips
  • 1 container Chow Mein Noodles
  • 1 cup Peanuts

Directions

Line a few baking sheets with wax paper. Melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring frequently. Fold in the chow mein noodles and peanuts until they are well coated in chocolate. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the wax paper. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until the chocolate has hardened.

Merry Christmas (in July)!

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Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

Posted on July 26, 2010 by amydeline

Today’s a very special day! Right now, at this very moment, you are reading my 100th blog post! Wow! One hundred posts! Where in the world did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that I was spending all of my free time tending to my imaginary mafia.

Change a diaper. Beg for untraceable cell phones and illegal transaction records. Play legos. Save up enough Thai Baht to buy a Nguhea Sniper Rifle. Clean up the play-doh that’s been rubbed into the carpet. Try to collect the last faberge egg for my Moscow collection. Console a crying baby. Spend 24 million rubles on a musk ox. All in a day’s work.

Then, I abandoned my mafia and entered the blogosphere. Now I alternate between toys, cooking, temper tantrums, food photography, snuggling, recipe writing, laundry, editing, bath time, and menu-planning. I suppose that being The Gourmand Mom is a much more productive role than Mafia Wars Mom.

So, you may be wondering what else has changed during these past 100 posts.

Well…

Writing recipes feels a whole lot easier than the first few posts that I fumbled through. I hope they’ve become easier for you to follow.

I’ve baked more bread products than I ever did in my pre-blog life. In fact, I had to buy a new cover for my dining room table, since the old cover seemed to be harvesting yeast which my three year old so kindly scattered across the table.

I’ve gained back a couple of the pounds I worked so hard to lose. Going to have to fix that. But it’s been for a good cause and I had fun doing it. Perhaps I can file for some sort of blogger’s compensation for my troubles?

My love of cooking has been completely reinvigorated.  Having a forum for sharing recipes and stories about food has been truly fulfilling for me. Thank you for being my audience.

Having an audience has forced me to add even more variety to my cooking. Since I’m guessing you don’t want to read about the same recipes every week.

My children have become the most skilled toddler sous chefs. I think I need to find little aprons and chef’s hats for them.

Through practice, my photography has become more purposeful. Now, rather than taking a hundred pics to get five that are post-worthy, I take about fifty. Though I’m still quite the novice photographer, I’m getting better at judging lighting and approximating camera settings.

It’s been a fun hundred posts. I’m looking forward to writing a hundred more!

In honor of such a momentous occasion, I’ve been saving something special for you. My favorite food in the whole world is macaroni and cheese (or ‘Ronis and Cheese, as my little guy calls it). And I don’t discriminate. I love ALL macaroni and cheese, whether it’s frozen, from a box, or made fresh from the finest cheeses. I like it baked or creamy. I like it smothered with cheese and bread crumbs or not. Just give me any macaroni and some form of cheese and I’m a very happy girl.

Today is a special day though, so a special macaroni and cheese is in order. And I’ve got just the thing to turn something sort of pedestrian into something elegant and worthy of a celebratory meal. That’s right… Lobster!! Lobster makes everything fancy. Now, once we throw lobster into the mix, we need to pay special attention to the cheese selection. Now would NOT be the time for American cheese or Velveeta. They’ve certainly got their place in the world of mac and cheese, but it’s definitely not here. Now’s the time for smooth cheese with grown-up flavor. I’m using three of my all time favorite cheeses; Gruyere, Fontina, and Brie. You can substitute other cheeses, if desired. Try gouda, chevre, provolone, asiago, or sharp cheddar.

Our sauce starts as a basic Bechamel Sauce, which is simply a white sauce, made with milk that is thickened with a roux. (Check out my roux guide by clicking here.) The thickened milk is then seasoned with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Bechamel is one of the five French mother sauces, meaning that many other sauces can be made with a base of bechamel. To our bechamel, we’ll melt in the delicious cheeses. Finally, we’ll toss the macaroni with the sauce and warm lobster meat. If you feel like racing lobsters, go ahead and buy some live lobsters, steam them, and collect the meat. Or, do as I did and buy a container of frozen lobster meat. You grocery store may also sell lobster tails, which can be steamed.

Before we get to the recipe, I want to let you in on a little secret. I made the macaroni and cheese on Saturday when we had people over. And I actually sort of botched it. Not a complete botch, but a definite error of convenience. My prime focus at the time, was on the burgers. My intention was to submit the burger recipe for a contest. So, I wanted to be able to devote all of my attention towards working out the timing and flavor balance of the burger components. Then the storm came, which totally turned the burger plan upside down. Anyway, I prepared the macaroni and cheese earlier in the afternoon and stuck it in a baking dish, figuring that I’d bake it in the oven to reheat with a little extra cheese melted on top. As I should have anticipated, the pasta drank up most of the sauce during the baking. It was still very flavorful, but not the creamy mac and cheese I’d intended.

Never fear though. The recipe I’m writing for you does not include a baking step. So, your macaroni and cheese will be creamy and delicious. If you do want to prepare it ahead of time, I’d recommend tossing the pasta with just a bit of sauce. Then, refrigerate the bulk of the sauce and the pasta separately. You can reheat both and combine, along with the lobster, when you’re ready to eat.

This is good, good stuff. If there were a way to send food through the world wide web, I’d send you each a taste and a glass of celebratory champagne. But since that’s not possible yet, I’ll share my recipe instead. Then you can whip yourself up a batch of fancy ‘Ronis and Cheese.

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

  • 1 box Pasta, such as Campanelle
  • 1/2 cup Gruyere
  • 1 cup Fontina
  • 1/2 cup Brie
  • 3 cups Milk
  • 3 Tbsp Butter
  • 3 Tbsp Flour
  • 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp Cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 pound Lobster Meat

Directions

Cook the pasta al dente, according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside. In the same pot that you cooked the pasta, whisk the butter and flour together over medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. This is your roux for thickening the milk. It should have a pasty consistency. Remove the roux with a spatula and set aside. Add the milk to the pot. Bring the milk to a simmer. Then, begin to whisk in the roux, whisking until smooth. Allow the milk to simmer with the roux for a few minutes until it begins to thicken. Whisk constantly. Add the nutmeg, cayenne, and salt. Turn down the heat to low. Add the cheese and stir until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if desired. Add the lobster meat and the cooked pasta to the hot sauce. Stir for a minute or so until it’s well combined and hot.

I hope you’ve been enjoying this blog during these first one hundred posts. Let me know how you’ve liked it so far and if there’s any way I can serve you better! Thanks for reading!

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Posted in Cheese, Food, General Rambling and Such, Main Course, Sauces, Seafood, Things I Love and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

PB&J French Toast

Posted on July 23, 2010 by amydeline

In the three years and some odd months that we’ve been parents, we’ve been fortunate that our children have been mostly happy and mostly healthy. But during these past few weeks, our littlest guy has been sick. What started as a typical ear infection, treated with amoxicillin, led to an allergic reaction and two weeks worth of running back and forth between our doctor’s office, multiple emergency rooms, and specialists. As this week progressed, we thought we were through it. No more swelling. Very mild, occasional hives. No fever. No pain. Happy baby. Happy parents.

Until yesterday, when my momentarily healthy baby woke up from his nap with a scalding fever and complaining of pain in his leg; the opposite leg from the one which led us to last week’s all-nighter at the ER. Another visit to the doc revealed an angry red throat, seemingly unrelated to everything else. The poor little guy can’t seem to catch a break. A call to the orthopedist reassured us that the additional leg pain was a normal part of the reaction, if anything about these past few weeks can be called normal.

As I’ve learned during these past few weeks, there is nothing more nerve wracking for a parent than having a sick child. Watching our baby deal with all of the symptoms and the resulting medical tests and treatments has been so heartbreaking. The weight of trying to stay informed and make the best decisions for our baby has been emotionally draining. I wish I could just take the sickness away from him; put it on me instead. I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could.

With everything that’s been going on, I have to admit that I’ve been spoiling both of the kids a bit; a couple extra treats after dinner, little presents from the store, endless hours of snuggles. They need a little extra spoiling and I’m equally compelled to give it.

So, when it came time to make dinner this evening, I wanted to make something a little special for the kids;  a little treat at the end of a long week.  My first thought was breakfast for dinner, which is always a treat in my book. Perhaps some banana-nut pancakes or maybe chocolate chip waffles. Then, I started thinking about my comment yesterday, about my picky eater’s love for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And that is how we ended up eating Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast for dinner.

PB&J French Toast

Ingredients

  • 8 Slice of Thick-Cut Bread (like Texas Toast)
  • 6-8 Tbsp Peanut Butter
  • 4-6 Tbsp Jelly or Preserves
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1/4 cup Milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1/8 tsp Salt
  • 2-3 Tbsp Butter, for the pan
  • Syrup and/or Powdered Sugar, if desired

Directions

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter on 4 slices of bread. Spread jelly on the other 4 slices. Put the slices together into 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. In a small baking dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt. In a pan, melt some of the butter. Dip both sides of each sandwich in the egg mixture. Cook for a few minutes on each side until lightly browned and the eggs are fully cooked.

*If you’re making a large quantity and want to serve them all at once, heat your oven to about 250 degrees. As you finish cooking each batch, place them on a piece of foil or a baking sheet in the oven to keep warm until you’re ready to serve.

If desired, sprinkle with a bit of powdered sugar. You can serve the French Toast with syrup on the side, though it’s honestly sweet enough as is!

6 Comments

Posted in Breakfast, Food, Sandwiches and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
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