Culinary in the Desert

Feta, Roasted Pepper and Basil Muffins

2009-11-19T18:20:00.001-06:00

I apologize for all this downtime on the website. Jeff's Mom had some serious complications with her surgery and has a very, very long recovery ahead of her. We were planning on staying for two weeks, but we may have to extend that due to these circumstances - we can only take it hour by hour at this point. However, before we left, I was able to make quite a few recipes that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet and I'm going to post as I can... like tonight!

We've made plenty of savory biscuits before to serve along side for dinner and while I almost opted to make one of them again one evening, I decided to go a slightly different route and try out these Feta, Roasted Pepper and Basil Muffins!

That's right, muffins don't always have to be sweet and in fact, there isn't any added sugar at all in these! I did use my usual flour combo though, using half all-purpose and half whole-wheat pastry flour to nudge up the nutrition. You can use completely all-purpose, use white whole-wheat flour or even regular whole-wheat, but with the last option, the muffins will end up a little more dense.

Now, instead of mixing in some sort of chocolate, nuts or other sweet things you'd normally find in a muffin, these use crumbles of salty feta cheese, chopped roasted red bell pepper and fresh basil! If you use a jarred red pepper, be sure to pat it dry before tossing it in - you don't want excess moisture from them running into the batter. You could just fold those ingredients in separately at the last moment and not dirty another bowl, but I stirred them together beforehand as I wanted to make sure they would be evenly distributed.

One would typically use butter for sweet muffins, but this called for rich olive oil, along with buttermilk and an egg to moisten the dry ingredients. The easiest way to get the batter into the baking tin is using an ice cream or cookie scoop - this way you have much better control on how much gets into each muffin well. When they test done, checked easily by a toothpick or pressing on the top of a muffin to see if it springs back, leave them in the tin for just about five minutes before trying to tip them out. These muffins are very tender and need those precious minutes to firm up before being manhandled.

We both thought these were quite good as savory muffins, especially with those nuggets of feta inside, and was an admirable accompaniment to the soup we had. If you don't have the buttermilk called for, you can sour regular milk (or soy milk if you like) by adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the cup of milk. The basil was a welcomed addition, but fresh thyme (cutting the amount back to a tablespoon) would also be an excellent herb to use.

Recipes
Feta, Roasted Pepper and Basil Muffins

A little crazy...

2009-11-15T20:38:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the downtime - things are kind of crazy around here! We found out a couple weeks ago that Jeff's Mom was having some heart issues. It turned out she needs surgery, so Jeff and I spent Saturday, with Gus in toe, driving from Minneapolis out to Pennsylvania. We are taking her in Monday morning (tomorrow) and she'll be in the hospital for close to 5 days. With us out here, we can take care of things during her long recovery time - we expect to be out here for at least two weeks. Gus is excited to be Mr. Therapy Pup!

I do have quite a few recipes to get posted that we've made over the past few weeks and I'll get to them as soon as I can. Stay tuned for updates...

Edamame-Ginger Dip...

2009-11-12T19:35:00.000-06:00

We often make sweet treats to snack on, but I had a wicked craving for something savory yesterday afternoon and I never found anything to satisfy that. A few hours after lunch today, that same tug came back... but this time I was prepared as I found this Edamame-Ginger Dip in my stacks of to-try recipe piles last night.

You'll need shelled edamame for this, which isn't as hard to find as it was just a few years ago - I always pick up a few bags to keep in the freezer when we make the haul to the Trader Joe's close to downtown Minneapolis. The little soybeans, rich in both protein and fiber, don't require a lengthy cook time - a quick three to five minute dunk in boiling, well-salted water is enough to cook them through.

The cooked bright-green beans were then tossed into our trusty food processor (I use this way more often than I thought I would!), along with vegetable broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, tahini (sesame seed paste), a full tablespoon of pungent minced ginger and a garlic clove. Once it was combined, we added salt to taste and for a little zip, a few dashes from our favorite cayenne pepper sauce. You don't need much - you could leave it out if you wish as the ginger brings some heat, but you know us and our love of spice!

This won't be an ultra smooth puree as there is only enough extra moisture from the broth to process the beans to bits - however, we found this to be a benefit, rather than a hindrance. The resulting dip had texture and enough thickness that when we dipped in with homemade crispy pita chips we were able to grab up enough of it, yet it didn't break the chips or run off either. Be sure to give the dip a quick taste before you toss in the salt and hot sauce - with the salty soy, you won't need much and you may not want to add any extra if you are salt sensitive. Also, this benefits from a rest in the refrigerator before you dig in - this gives the ginger, tahini and garlic time to mellow and permeate through. If you wanted to be especially good and skip the chips or crackers, this would be an excellent dunker for crunchy fresh vegetables!

Recipes
Edamame-Ginger Dip

Chocolate Caramel Espresso Chews

2009-11-10T19:30:00.001-06:00

Just like last week, I browsed through one of the new holiday baking magazines to figure out what we were going to make for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day. Though, this week, Jeff needed to bring the treats in this morning as his office will be closed tomorrow... so, it was technically a Tuesday Treat Day!

In the center of these Chocolate Caramel Espresso Chews hides a delicious candy that just happens to be one of my favorites - Rolo's! You know, those small chocolate covered caramel bombs that one (meaning me) could endlessly unwrap and pop in my mouth if I didn't worry about having a sugar coma.

The dough for these two-bite cookies is devilishly dark, rick and laced with dissolved espresso powder, not only beefing up the chocolate-ness, but adding a very mild coffee zing. The recipe didn't state which cocoa powder to use - natural or Dutch-process, but we happen to enjoy the smoothness of the latter. That isn't to say that these wouldn't be just as good if you used a natural cocoa powder - use whichever you have in the pantry. When combined, the dough was soft and pliable, almost on the verge of being sticky, but I was still able to divvy it out and roll the dough into balls without it sticking to my hands. I did use a tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the dough, which ended up giving me just the right size pieces. If you find the dough to be a little sticky for you, keep your hands dusted with flour when rolling and that should help move the process along.

To contain the cookies and give them height to be able to stick the candy inside, the ping pong-sized rounds were plunked into a miniature muffin tin and sent off into the oven to bake. The key to these is to not over-bake - take the tray out when the cookies have puffed up and the tops are set, yet if a toothpick is placed into the center, it may come out cleanly. If the toothpick comes out with raw batter, give them another minute or so, but don't worry if there are a few sticky crumbs. As soon as they were ready, we then took the chocolate covered caramels and gently pushed one into the center of each cookie.

They are fairly delicate while warm, which means you'll want to leave them in the muffin tin for at least ten minutes before pulling them out. Once they had finished cooling, each cookie is topped off with a sweet, espresso-spiked drizzle made from confectioners' sugar, espresso powder and just enough hot water to thin. Thankfully, the full batch made a ton of cookies, because there was no way either of us was going to stop at just one!

Recipes
Chocolate Caramel Espresso Chews

Moroccan Pita Sandwiches...

2009-11-09T19:24:00.004-06:00

Since we had an unseasonable warm up this past weekend, Gus spent countless hours romping around the backyard...

Doesn't he look all ready for summer again? I'm sure he will be shocked back to reality in a few weeks when the snow comes back!

Before we went on vacation a few weeks ago, I picked up a bag of pitas and had good intentions to use them. However, I ended up tossing them into the freezer as time flew by and I never got around to them. I forgot about the little buggers until I did a quick sweep of the freezers to update the inventory list and figured it was time this week to bring them back out. I moved them to the counter this morning to thaw so we could make these Moroccan Pita Sandwiches for dinner tonight!

To prepare the patties we were going to slip into the soft pita breads, we worked quite a few ingredients into lean ground sirloin - finely chopped onion, a couple dollops of concentrated tomato paste, an egg, ground coriander, crushed fennel seeds, smoky cumin and two spices one might be more comfortable using in baking and not so much with savory meat.... cinnamon and ground ginger! Even if it seems too odd for you, go with it for now... you just might be surprised!

Shaped into small rounds, if you have a large enough skillet, which we do, brown all of the patties at once, then slide them into the oven for a gentle heat to finish them through. If you have a smaller skillet, opt to do these in two batches so you give them enough room to cook in the pan. Since they finish in the oven, doing a couple batches isn't a problem as they will all end up being warm in the end. You could probably even do them all on the stove if you like, but we stayed close to the recipe this time and liked the even results we got from the quick oven trip.

To add some moisture to the pitas, we whipped together a zesty sauce to spoon inside. Greek-style yogurt gave us a thick base to start, to which we added tahini, lemon zest, lemon juice and a single clove of minced garlic. For a bit of freshness and pop of color, thinly sliced tomato and little lettuce joined the party inside the pitas and we were set for dinner! Well-seasoned, with an interesting, complex twist from the sweet spices, the patties held together and stayed moist, but they were a bit on the small side for us. Both of us did comment how well we liked pairing the spiced burger with the sauce - so clean, refreshing and tangy!

Recipes
Moroccan Pita Sandwiches

Apple Cupcakes...

2009-11-07T12:54:00.002-06:00

Those cupcakes we made for that Wednesday Treat Day not too long ago started a monster in my stomach that has been evil, annoying and loud enough that I caved and made more cupcakes (which we are greedily keeping to ourselves!). I was able to dig into our overflowing apple supply though, which made me feel a little better about making these Apple Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Marshmallow Frosting.

It also pushed me to get in gear yesterday and dehydrate a few trays worth of sliced apples as the recipe called for them! We tossed just a bit of those diced, pliable dried apples with shredded fresh apples (Honey Crisp and Golden Delicious in our case) with a few tablespoons of brown sugar and cinnamon to stew while the rest of the ingredients came together.

One of the bonus points for these cupcakes is how quickly the batter comes together - instead of waiting for butter to soften enough to cream, this recipe uses canola oil instead and pairs it with brown sugar for a rich depth. Lightened with a couple eggs and a splash of vanilla, the creamy concoction was primed for the dry ingredients - cake flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda for lift. Whisked together ahead of time, those ingredients were alternately added with thick, tangy buttermilk to smooth the batter out. The apple mixture that had been marinating is finally folded in, creating the cupcake batter we scooped into our muffin tin.

After baking and giving the cupcakes plenty of time to cool, it was time to start on the soft, caramel-esque marshmallow frosting. Unlike that lengthy, but luscious and butter-rich Swiss Meringue frosting we made for those other cupcakes, this frosting is made much like your classic seven-minute frosting in a bowl set over simmering water. This one uses brown sugar though and is speckled with our favorite Vietnamese cinnamon to echo the flavor in the cupcake. As these cupcakes were just for us, I just went ahead and used a couple of fresh egg whites - if you're worried about using those, you can replace them with dried egg whites, reconstituted according to the package to the liking of two egg whites, or try using pasteurized eggs instead.

Once beaten together, the frosting ends up being fluffy and thick, with a delightful shine to it, and indeed tasted just like an unset marshmallow (without the stickiness I might add!). My plan was to smear the cupcakes with the frosting using a spatula, but when I noticed how it retained the track marks from the mixer, I grabbed a pastry bag from the cupboard, fitted it with an open star tip and went to town! I feared it was just going to turn into a squishy pillow as it sat since the frosting was a little too soft to keep definitive sharp lines, but it actually set up and didn't fall! Keep that in mind though, if the frosting itself sits for too long, it will begin to firm and be harder to work with - make the frosting right before you are ready to frost them all.

Remember how I talked about using canola oil instead of softened butter? That did speed up the prep time, but using that resulted in a texture that reminded me more of a moist muffin than a cupcake. I wouldn't say that detracted from the overall picture though as these apple-filled treats were the essence of fall all wrapped up in a compact edible package.

Recipes
Apple Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Marshmallow Frosting

Green Pizza...

2009-11-06T19:48:00.000-06:00

I was itching for tonight to come along so we'd be able to try out a new recipe for this evening's Friday Pizza Night. While the name, Green Pizza, certainly describes this pizza to a "T", I do have to admit it doesn't exactly get the taste buds juiced up. With that, it certainly made up for it taste wise!

I fell back into my usual groove and hauled out the food processor to whirl together our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough with ease. While the dough was off relaxing, letting the yeast become happy and fed, I didn't have much prep work to do. This pizza calls for pesto, and I already had plenty in the freezer as I made sure to get a ton prepared when our basil plants were going crazy this summer. If I didn't have any already or didn't feel like throwing together a batch myself (though it only takes a few minutes!), I would certainly take the help and pick up a jar or tub from the market!

While I didn't have to make the pesto, I did hack away at a stalk of broccoli to chop the florets, slice up a mound of arugula and grate almost a full block of mozzarella cheese! Whew... what a work out - hee hee! When the dough had risen, we stretched it out into a large, but thin round, and slid it right onto a heated baking stone to start browning the crust. Because the broccoli and arugula will be lightly steamed, the pizza only needs to be baked long enough to melt the cheese... which wouldn't be enough time for the crust to get crispy!

On the top of the partially baked crust, we slathered over the sharp pesto - which to me, at first, almost looked like an excessive amount. Before scattering the crisp-tender broccoli and wilted arugula (which was just done quickly in a skillet while the crust was baking) on top, I did double check to make sure it was well-seasoned with salt and fresh ground black pepper to ensure they would pop. The mozzarella was feeling left out of the love, so we took care to gingerly arrange each white shred to melt just right over the vegetables. Well, ok - you got me... that's a bit over the top and we did not do that... but it sounded good!

I figured as much, and Jeff let me know before hand, that he wasn't expecting much with all those "good for you" ingredients smattering the top of this pizza... but you know what? While I did think that pesto layer was a bit heavy going on, the combination of the dynamic arugula and broccoli with the pesto made for a dinner that was not just healthy, but down right delightful! Jeff even gave it two big thumbs up and suggested this stay near the top when we have another repeat night. I thought about using a more assertive cheese, but we appreciated the mildness of the mozzarella. If the peppery arugula just comes across as being too bitter to you, don't skip this because of that - just use a milder spinach instead (though I would suggest a dash or two of crushed red pepper to add a zing).

Recipes
Green Pizza

Pork and Bok Choy Stir-Fry...

2009-11-05T19:25:00.001-06:00

After an afternoon filled with errands and running around, I made sure to pick a recipe for dinner tonight that wouldn't involve too much, hoping to leave us with time to sit down and relax! A snazzy stir-fry sounded good when I was menu planning and I was only going to need to pick up one ingredient to get this Pork and Bok Choy Stir-Fry on the table this evening.

Once the sliced onions had enough time to take their raw edge off, the ingredient I needed to pick up, bok choy, was stirred in to soften. Before tossing it in, we trimmed the bok choy and sliced the vegetable into long, thin strips. Besides helping the strips to cook evenly, having it in this shape will mimic the noodles, allowing the two to evenly combine and unite together. The pork is added next, but to help the protein cook quickly, we first sliced the lean tenderloin into thick matchsticks. Along with the pork, a few cloves of chopped garlic and dollop of chile-garlic sauce were added right in.

With the pork in strips, it took just a couple minutes before it had cooked enough to bring the sauce into the party, which was a slick combo of water, Shao Hsing, soy sauce and a touch of cornstarch. Shao Hsing, in case you didn't know, is just a rice wine - you should be able to pick up an your local Asian market or even the international section of your grocery store, but if you can't seem to get your hands on a bottle, dry sherry would be a good swap.

As soon as the sauce had thickened, clinging itself to the pork mixture, we finished the dish by pouring it over a mound of nutty soba noodles. Because the stir-fry comes together in a flash, plus we wanted to keep our attention focused, we actually cooked those noodles just before starting the dish and rinsed them in cool water so they wouldn't end up clumped together.

I thought this was pretty good, but I do think there could have been a couple extra steps added that would have made a difference. If I were to do this again, I think I'd work with the strips of pork first, browning them a bit, then take them out and add them back in with the sauce to warm through. As instructed, the meat is fine and tender, but with it being cooked in a fairly juicy mixture, it lacked a depth that could have easily been attained. I also think a textural crunch would have been nice - maybe solve that with some chopped peanuts thrown on top before serving? Even though we've had bok choy once or twice, Jeff couldn't remember if he liked it or not, so he was a little apprehensive about it at first (he said it "looked slimy" - I think that had to do more with the fairly clear sauce though...). He changed his tune after trying it and gave it a thumbs up!

Recipes
Pork and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Three-Cheese Skillet Lasagna...

2009-11-04T19:35:00.001-06:00

Preparing a simple tomato sauce was on the agenda one late afternoon earlier this week, which would give us the moisture we needed to get this Three-Cheese Skillet Lasagna on the table in time for dinner.

Using a couple cans of whole, peeled tomatoes, we tossed them into our food processor and with a few touches of the pulse button, the tomatoes had broken down into a chunky puree. Could you get away with just using crushed tomatoes? Probably, but we liked the ability to control the texture of the sauce. Instead of just tossing all the components into the skillet, we first heated up a good layer of extra-virgin olive oil, then slipped the four cloves of finely chopped garlic in to briefly toast. The coarse puree was then poured in and once the tomatoes had come up to a rolling bubble, we eased off the heat and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes to let some of the excess liquid evaporate, tightening up the sauce.

You'll want to do this in a large, deep skillet (rather than smaller saucepan) for two reasons - you want the depth so the mixture doesn't bubble all over you and the stove as the sauce simmers, but you'll also be assembling this lasagna right in the same skillet! When the tomatoes were ready, the sauce was poured out with a scant cup being added right back in to cover the bottom. A single layer of those functional no-boil lasagna noodles was arranged over the top of that sauce, breaking them to fit as needed, followed by a mixture of ricotta cheese, a golden egg yolk and of course, the obligatory salt and fresh ground black pepper to season.

Another layer of noodles came after that, but this time a couple ladles of sauce was poured over before the third line of noodles were put in place. The ricotta came back into the show on this layer, followed by any remaining noodles we had scattered about and the last of the sauce. Since there had only been ricotta added at this point, we of course needed more cheese - a lofty amount of shredded fresh mozzarella was amassed on top, along with just a bit of grated pecorino for a final sharp component. We've mentioned this a number of times, but I think it's worth mentioning again - fresh mozzarella is pretty soft and can be difficult to shred, but a quick 15 to 20 minute trip in the freezer usually firms up the cheese enough to solve that issue.

Baked right in the skillet long enough to cook the noodles through, you'll want to give this at least at ten minute rest before you start to portion it out if you want it to hold together. What this gives you is a very basic, mild-tasting lasagna that is clean, homey and definitely pretty quick to throw together. It is also a fairly blank slate if you want to ratchet up the flavor - doctor up the sauce with your favorite herbs, spices or crumbled browned sausage or meat. The ricotta mixture could also be tapped to add your own unique spin!

Recipes
Three-Cheese Skillet Lasagna

Double Decadence Bars...

2009-11-03T19:30:00.003-06:00

Have you picked up any of the latest holiday baking magazines that have been flooding the market the past few weeks? I've nabbed a couple, but not nearly as many as I usually do - it seems there are lots of repeats from the past just being recirculated. I browsed through them this weekend and while I've earmarked a few to try for our Christmas Baking Spree, I noticed these Double Decadence Bars and thought they would be a good match for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day!

With these bars, you create one complete batter that you split off, leaving one half as is and darkening the other to get a duo of color and flavor. Before splitting the batter in half, we stirred in chopped salted peanuts and a full cup of crunchy toffee pieces. For that toffee, you can either whack a few bars of the chocolate covered candy to break them up or go for the bagged versions - which, conveniently, come plain as just toffee bits or come covered in milk chocolate. Since we already had a bag of the plain bits in the pantry, we went that route as I didn't want to add more sweetness in the form of milk chocolate.

Once all the ingredients were combined, we scooped out half into a small bowl and stirred in a mess of melted bittersweet chocolate to richen the tan batter. Try to melt the chocolate at least a few minutes before you stir it in - slightly warmer chocolate will work itself in better, but you also don't want to start cooking the batter before it even gets in the pan. To layer the batters, the tan batter is spread over the bottom of the baking pan, followed by dollops of the chocolate batter that are then connected together to evenly cover. If you wanted to be different, are patient and yearn for a flashy appearance, one could always alternately spoon the two batters back and forth into the pan to end up with more of a two-toned block effect.

When you test for doneness, use a toothpick and go towards the center of the pan - while you don't want to see any wet batter, a few moist crumbs attached is good. What I found with these bars is they are kind of a cross between a dense brownie/blondie and a good ol' sturdy bar cookie. They are chewy and crunchy, from the crumb of the bars and the chunky add-ins, and have a moistness to them that doesn't come across as gooey, yet they are not cake-like either. Confusing? Maybe a little, but "double decadence" definitely fits - I found myself especially attracted to their salty edge. While the peanuts matched well, Jeff thought cashews would be another nut that would be a notable pairing against the sweet bits of caramel-esque toffee bits.

Recipes
Double Decadence Bars

Chili Mac...

2009-11-01T19:30:00.001-06:00

Since I knew we were going to have a busy week ahead of us, I needed to make a hearty casserole-type dish that would keep us fed for a few days in case we were short on time during the evening to make dinner. I thought a big batch of chili would fit the bill, but I wanted a little more oopmh, which we found in this Chili Mac I ended up making!

A mess of onions, roughly two medium's worth, gave us a running start, along with a couple jalapeños for a little heat. When you add the onions in, go ahead and season generously with salt to help the onions along in the softening process - two teaspoons may seem a lot at first, but don't stress as this gets stretched out quite a bit. Lean ground sirloin was the meat of choice for us to add into the pot, however ground turkey, pork or chicken would be options to think about. The original recipe did call with two whole pounds, but we scaled that back by half a pound as we thought that may be excessive for us - feel free to knock that back up if you wanted a beefier result.

Keeping the yield in mind, we kept the aggressive theme going with the seasonings, stirring heaps of Mexican chili powder, Mexican oregano and six large cloves of garlic, minced, in along with the beef. After giving the meat some alone time in the pot, the rest of the chili ingredients were tossed in - juicy canned whole plum tomatoes (coarsely chopped or broken with your hands), kidney beans and a little water to get a bubbly groove on.

As the chili simmered away, we had another pot on the stove coming to a boil - we needed this to start cooking the protein-rich multi-grain elbow macaroni. This can be done before the chili is ready for it though - just rinse the noodles off in cool water to stop them from cooking. When the chili had thickened, the noodles and a handful of white cheddar were tossed into the pot... but we were not done just yet! The pot, which was now very heavy being completely full, was tipped into a large casserole dish - which at first, didn't look like it was going to hold all this chili mac! Smoothing it out with a spatula (and pressing it down a bit) allowed it all to fit it, albeit very snugly, but then I started to think about spillage... a baking sheet underneath was called for just in case - cleaning oven messes is no fun at all!

As with most casseroles, we needed a cheesy topping, which came in the form of more sharp white cheddar scattered all over before this went into the oven to bake through. To be completely honest, the original recipe did call for a whopping pound of cheese -but again, for us, that seemed way over the top. If you're a cheese hound, by all means add as much as your heart desires, but yes, we scaled that back and didn't find the dish suffered at all.

We ended up dividing this out into eight portions, which left us completely stuffed to the brim and happy with plenty of leftovers for the week. However, I think this could easily stretch to at least 10 portions and still be satisfying. You'll see how neat and tidy some of the portions we plated were - this was after letting the dish rest about fifteen minutes. We first let it rest about 5 minutes and pulled out the first piece, which resulted in this - a little messy, but the rich aroma started our stomachs rumbling and we just didn't want to wait!

Recipes
Chili Mac

"Candy Corn" Pizza...

2009-10-30T19:31:00.000-05:00

If you were around last Halloween, you'll remember that it just happened to fall on one of our Friday Pizza Nights and we ended up making that Pumpkin-Shaped Pepperoni Pizza. Even though this year Halloween isn't until Saturday, we figured why not do another holiday-themed pizza night? How about a "Candy Corn" Pizza?

Okay, you got me... this is more based on the look - we didn't actually go as far as putting that sugary candy on a pizza (although you never know... we may explore that at some point for a wicked dessert pizza!).
Any pizza base would work here - we did use our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough, but a pre-baked crust from the market or a purchased dough would be fine. Because this is basically just a cheese pizza, I wanted to give the dough a little lift by brushing it first with fruity olive oil, then crushing a small pile of dried basil (use your herb of choice here!) and sprinkling that over the top. As you know, we are fans of crispier crusts, so we slid the glistening dough into the oven for just a few moments to give it a head start. If you like a softer crust or are using a purchased baked one, keep the oil and herb additions, but skip the first bake.

To make the design on top, we scattered a circular mound of mozzarella in the center of the crust, then made a thick ring around that with a sharp yellow cheddar. We now needed to darken this ring a bit, so to add some depth, we spooned a favorite spicy homemade pizza sauce (marinara would work too) over the cheese. Around that ring went the same yellow cheddar, but this time it was just the cheese to get the color contrast. Once baked to get the full effect, all you need to do is divide the pie into wedges and there you go - cheesy "Candy Corn" slices! If you're not too fond of a cheese-only type of pizza, you could certainly try to hide all sorts of toppings underneath the cheese to retain the same effect.

And, just on the off-chance you were wondering, I did make another round of those Butterfinger Eyeballs yesterday for Jeff to bring into the office this morning! I thought about making a batch of Cinnamon Fudge instead, but when I heard there were a few people hoping to see those groovy eyeballs again, I didn't want to disappoint!

Recipes
"Candy Corn" Pizza

Linguine with Shrimp and White Wine

2009-10-29T19:32:00.000-05:00

The other night for dinner, we made this Linguine with Shrimp and White Wine dish - this is one of those recipes that could easily scale down to one serving, or double what we did and come up with a meal for four. Because I had ideas for the next days lunch, I only wanted to prepare a dish that left us with two servings.

Just as the salted water came up to a boil for the pasta, I had another skillet right next to it melting a couple pats worth of butter. Once the quarter pound of pasta was dropped, we slid minced garlic and a generous pinch of crushed red pepper into the pool of butter and waited for their pungent fragrance to release.

Turning up the heat to get the action started, the skillet was ready for a couple glugs from a bottle of dry white wine. Giving it a couple minutes to bubble away, the wine concentrated down by a third and was ready for the next ingredient - shrimp! Now, you know I'm not the biggest seafood fan, but I'm still plugging away on broadening my horizons (though I think I'm at a point where I should stop saying that because I've warmed up to it quite a bit) and besides, Jeff loves his shrimp!

Seasoned judiciously with salt and fresh ground black pepper, a touch of fresh lemon juice and a bit of cold butter was swirled in to finish this off with a sharp richness. The cooked pasta was tossed in to coat, then we divvied the skillet between two plates and topped each off with a bit of chopped fresh parsley.

With a pleasant, slight burn from the crushed red pepper, there really isn't much more to say other than we found this to be such a simple and clean meal that it didn't take us long for the noodles and succulent shrimp to vanish off our plates. Besides the few minutes of prep to get the ingredients together and water to a boil, this zippy shrimp dish was practically ready by the time the pasta timer went off - bonus points on that alone!

Recipes
Linguine with Shrimp and White Wine

Barley and Roasted Tomato Risotto

2009-10-28T19:30:00.002-05:00

I remembered another dish I have to share that we made before we went on vacation - it was more out of necessity, though, because I couldn't let the tomatoes go to waste outside! When I went out to the plants, I found I just barely had enough ripe Roma tomatoes we needed for this Barley and Roasted Tomato Risotto, but I did notice there were plenty of green ones still that were just beginning to turn. Thankfully, we had a few friends who stopped by and grabbed the rest when they were up to snuff so they didn't sit and rot!

After taking the tough skins off the Romas (which I know isn't the most fun job in the world), each one was sliced into wedges, then drizzled with good olive oil and simply seasoned with salt and fresh ground black pepper. You don't need a bowl for this - lump the tomatoes together, then dig right in with your hands to gently toss them around, allowing each edge to get a piece of the oil action. To allow the tomatoes to cook evenly, just be sure to then arrange the wedges in a single layer on the sheet.

Roasted until they shrivel and begin to brown, concentrating them down into sweet, dark ruby strips, take a few of them and set them aside. No, you didn't do all that work for just a garnish as most of them will go into the risotto, but a few draped on top of each is a nice way to gussy up the servings and to clue your guests into what they're about to enjoy!

For the base of this dish, shallots took charge by being softened in a bit of oil, followed closely by pearl barley that was tossed into the pan to start toasting. To give the grain a chance to soak in an acidic note before we start ladling in warmed broth, we added a couple shots worth of white wine and gave it a minute or two to absorb. If you've never used barley before, I wanted to note that you check out the total cooking time once you start working with the broth for this risotto. Unlike arborio rice, which ends up taking about 20 minutes or so, you will need to set aside a good 45 minutes or so to give the grain enough time to soften.

Plenty of broth (which happens to be vegetable in our case this evening) and a work-out worthy stint of stirring later, once you have worked in the liquid and pulled out some of the starch in the grain, this plain-looking dish was given a face lift by adding the roasted tomatoes, along with fresh basil, thyme, parsley and enough Parmesan for a sharp finish. We added the reserved tomato strips on top, along with a few small basil leaves and a touch of extra cheese just before serving. Now, you won't get as creamy of a result like you do when using rice, but with the barley ending up plump and chewy, making for quite the hearty, textural dish, all we could do was smile at each other as we were all too busy eating to comment! While this was nothing new, our guests and I found the combination exciting, very nutritious and just different enough that we were a little sad there wouldn't be any leftovers for the next day!

Recipes
Barley and Roasted Tomato Risotto

Brain Cupcakes...

2009-10-27T19:50:00.003-05:00

Jeff came to me this weekend with a Halloween-themed idea for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day that he saw on Martha's website. Since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, he wanted to bring in a themed treat a few days early, which is why you see these Brain Cupcakes here today (you may need to use a little imagination here...)!

We did use a different cupcake and frosting recipe than what was attached on their website, but the basic idea is what's important! For the cupcake, I went with the dark and chocolate-y recipe we used when we did that cupcake bar back in March. We opted for this one mainly because it was simple, tried-and-true and even better than that, used pantry ingredients we always have in stock!

The frosting recipe is a basic Swiss Meringue Buttercream, flavored with a few dashes of vanilla. This type of frosting can be a little fussy, but the silky texture and taste is outrageously good. It also has the benefit of not being as super-sweet as some buttercreams can be, which we thought would match well with the dark cupcakes underneath. The one tip with this type of buttercream is not to freak out if it looks curdled and sloppy once the butter starts to go in - just keep beating and you'll see it transform right before your eyes. When the frosting is completely smooth and combined, run the mixer on low for a few minutes - this helps to run out those annoying air bubbles that pop up.

As the cupcakes don't have tall crowns to them, to give the "brains" some dimension, build up a small mound in the center with the frosting, then use that as your base to trace around. The best way to describe what we did is this - look at the top of the frosting mound and imagine the two halves of the brain. Pipe a straight line, slightly off-center, from the top to the bottom - follow that back up around the edge of the cupcake rim to meet back at the point you started. When you hit that spot, fill in that outlined half with back-and-forth squiggles and repeat on the other side.

If you wanted to take this farther, try tinting the frosting a gruesome color, or stripe the inside of your pipping bag with a bit of red food coloring for a bloody brain. While this did take quite some time from start to finish as I baked a full batch of twenty four cupcakes, it was fun to do and hopefully not something they expect to see tomorrow! Oh... and apparently someone thought his Halloween Mickey he picked up during our Disney trip had to make an appearance - I'm surprised he didn't slip this in sooner!

Recipes
Brain Cupcakes

Those darn sneaky mushrooms...

2009-10-25T19:13:00.000-05:00

After that last mushroom incident where Jeff was being a little rascal, I was more determined that ever to see what else I could manage to slip that fungi without him causing a ruckus. Thankfully, I was able to get to the market today, without said helper, to grab what I needed to make this Turkey Meatloaf with Smoked Gouda and Mushrooms for dinner.

I might be fighting a losing battle, though Jeff has eaten mushrooms a few times now and did enjoy the meal, but for some reason he is being stubborn. I can be just as stubborn though, so maybe he'll change his tune eventually... he did with tofu! What I thought might pass the muster with this recipe was how the cremini mushrooms where prepared - instead of just lightly sautéing them, the slices were left alone in the pan, being stirred only once or twice, until both sides had seared to a rich, golden brown color. While they won't turn crispy, which would probably solve Jeff's texture issue, I thought the development of flavor that happens would draw him in and show that they don't have to be flavorless sponges (his words!).

After doing a couple batches of the shrooms, I kept them aside in a bowl while I used the same skillet to soften thinly sliced leeks and three cloves worth of minced garlic. Scooped into the bowl with the mushrooms, I let the vegetables cool down, allowing me to stir in the shredded smoked Gouda, cubed day-old bread, an egg and tablespoon of chopped fresh sage. As we were using turkey in this meatloaf, I used a combination of light and dark that I coarsely ground - if you're using a purchased kind, aim for one that is labeled 93% lean as that little bit of extra fat does wonders to keep this moist. You could get away with all ground turkey breast if you must, but I do recommend the mix.

Instead of using a pan to cook this in, all we did was place the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking pan and free-formed it into a large loaf. Just as you would if you were cooking a whole piece of meat, you'll want to let this loaf rest once it has baked so all the juice inside doesn't drain out before it has a chance to redistribute. The original recipe called for using a milder fontina cheese, which is option if you already have some in the refrigerator. However, I was looking for a more assertive, robust flavor to keep Jeff interested, which is why I went with the smoked Gouda.

I already had a feeling I was going to enjoy my dinner, but I was way more interested to find out Jeff's opinion as I didn't grind down the mushrooms or anything (conveniently he wasn't home while I was preparing it!) - and they were quite visible in the slices. Before I handed him his plate, I did take a forkful and asked him to taste it and check for seasoning (he said later he didn't even think twice because I told him it was just meatloaf after all)... he mentioned an smoky, earthy flavor that struck him right away, but then said it was quite good! He took his plate, sat down to eat and that's when the picking started to figure out what was in it. Yes, a groan that was loud enough to hear around the world, was bellowed out and followed by "Mushrooms! Nooo! You did it again!". I figured he was going to pull out the pieces he could see, but, you know what? He kept eating and went back for an extra slice! Yeah!

Recipes
Turkey Meatloaf with Smoked Gouda and Mushrooms

Double Oat and Peanut Butter Cookies

2009-10-24T13:10:00.001-05:00

I know we just made a batch of peanut butter cookies a few weeks ago, but we quickly demolished those and since I couldn't help myself this morning, I made more cookies with peanut butter. Besides the size between the two, there are quite a few differences between those cookies and the Double Oat and Peanut Butter Cookies I prepared today!

With butter and creamy peanut butter being whipped together for a perfect marriage, we sweetened the combo with an even ratio of granulated sugar and brown sugar - this gave us a level playing field for texture, playing between crispiness from the granulated and moist chewiness from the molasses-backed brown sugar. Egg, water and a generous splash of vanilla later, the mixture was ready for the dry ingredients - all-purpose flour, old-fashioned rolled oats and a little baking soda for spread.

Check one for oats, but where does the "double" come in? From toasted oat rounds, of course (yeah, I just used Cheerios!). A handful of golden raisins followed the cereal, along with a half cup of peanut butter chips to echo the peanut butter already in the dough. You can play around with that if you like - use dark raisins and chocolate chips, or just entirely raisins or chips if you like. Just try and keep the total to around a cup.

Not only are they big because they are stuffed with add-ins, but I also dropped the dough onto the baking sheets using a quarter cup scoop! A couple tips here - these do need some help to bake, so you'll want to level them by flattening the dough balls with moisten palms (this will keep it from sticking). Also, give the cookies plenty of room between them - I spaced them roughly 3" per apart.

Even though they are of decent size, it won't take them long to bake - you'll want to whisk them out of the oven when the edges have taken on a light golden hue. However, don't try and move them right away - leave the thick cookies on the baking sheet to set and cool for a few minutes first. Besides adding a great chunky texture, the cereal stretched the dough out to give you hearty cookies that are fairly large, but not necessarily too heavy in the calorie department.

Recipes
Double Oat and Peanut Butter Cookies

Oops, I did it again...

2009-10-23T19:16:00.001-05:00

Forgive the title... I just couldn't help myself! You know that Friday is pizza night around here, but this time Jeff had a request that we dig back through our files and make one we first did back in July '08 - just before we decided to do this as a weekly gig.

I already had a new recipe planned out, but luckily I hadn't pick up the ingredients just yet. The new recipe has been shifted to next week, leaving tonight open to make the Malaysian Chicken Pizza he was asking for. I didn't bother with a new picture, but here's a snap from last time to refresh your memory!

He made a good choice for a repeat dish - this was just as good as we both remembered!

Chipotle-Corn Mashed Potatoes...

2009-10-22T19:35:00.003-05:00

Before we left for Disney, we made these Chipotle-Corn Mashed Potatoes as a side to dinner one night, but I just never found the time to get them posted! Better late than never - right?

Shucked ears of corn, rubbed lightly with a bit of oil, were set over the grates on the grill and left to cook, turned often of course, until most of the kernels had taken on a light golden hue with a few scattered dark spots for the most flavor. Removed and set aside to cool until I could hold them (without dancing around because they were still too hot - oops!), we sliced the kernels off and set them aside to be used in a bit.

While that was off working, chunks of russet potatoes were placed in one of our largest pots and covered with enough water that all of them were submerged. You do want to season the water at this point - I don't measure when adding it to potato (or pasta) cooking water, but you don't want to be skimpy... a few healthy pinches is usually enough. When they had come to a fierce bubble and cooked through until tender, we drained away the water, but put the potatoes right back into the empty pot. We do this, with the pot set of low heat, to evaporate any of the excess liquids hiding with the potatoes so they end up fluffy and light.

While that is one tip we always use when doing mashed potatoes, another one we follow is heating the milk and butter a bit before tossing them in. If you use cold milk and cold butter, they will eventually warm up and melt into the mix, but then you'll be left with cold potatoes. We've just found that warming them first helps the whole mix blend well and stay warm. We leave the skins on for the nutritional boost, and frankly, we just like them, but it is best if you then just mash them with a potato masher and keep them a little coarse. If you prefer your potatoes to be silky smooth, you'll want the peels off and use a potato ricer or mixer to whip them together.

When they are at the texture you like, the roasted corn is folded in, along with minced chipotle chiles and a little of the adobo sauce they are canned with. 2 chiles were just right for us, giving us the heat we crave, without making us sweat, but a single chile or even just some of the adobo sauce would be good for the smoky edge without the bite. Made as is, we got a generous 10 servings - way too much for us, but we froze a few servings and found they reheated up quite well! Unless you're serving a crowd, or love leftovers like we do, this recipe is one that would work just as well using half the amounts to pare it down.

If you're a person who never let their corn touch the mashed potatoes on their plate, then this might not be for you... but if you swirled them together, don't let this pass you by! Well, even if you like your foods separate (Jeff and I both used to do that growing up), you may want to give this a try anyway - you just might surprise yourself! Depending on where you are, you might be out of luck to find good, fresh corn in your market. If that happens, you could trying using thawed frozen corn kernels - try spreading them out on a sheet pan and placing them under the broiler to give them a bit of color for a similar (but not quite as exciting) taste.

Recipes
Chipotle-Corn Mashed Potatoes

Thai Beef with Chiles...

2009-10-21T19:35:00.001-05:00

I don't have a ton of experience cooking ethnic cuisine, though we are trying to incorporate it a bit more, which means I can't claim just how authentic recipes are when they fall into that realm. I do enjoy the process of trying them, if for no other reason than it pushes us and expands what we are willing to try, especially during the times we travel and are eating at restaurants. It gives us a small idea of what to expect at least!

Just like this Thai Beef with Chiles and Basil Over Coconut Rice we had for dinner tonight - I wouldn't know for certain if it was more of a technique or if the combination of ingredients is what made this recipe be labeled "Thai". It could also be overzealous labeling to make it sound fancy or complicated too... hee hee!

While the coconut rice follows the beef in the recipe title, we needed to get working on that before we started on the protein. You know how much of a fan I am of using the pasta method to cook rice (especially brown), however as this recipe calls for using coconut milk, cut with water, we went with the regular absorption method. There isn't anything to be scared about using this way to cook the rice though - the key I've found is to keep the temperature low enough that the rice has time to cook, yet not too high that the bottom dries out and burns. While the original recipe calls for cooking the aromatic jasmine rice on the heat for 25 minutes, I find we get better results, as we did tonight, by leaving the pot over the heat for 20 minutes, then turning the heat off and letting it sit, covered, for an extra ten minutes to gently steam the rice through.

A few red jalapeños, seeded and sliced into sticks, along with chopped garlic went into our trusty heated cast-iron skillet that was lined with just enough oil to cover the bottom. Just a few seconds later, their pungent aromas climbed up to my nose, letting me know it was time to slide in our protein of choice this evening, ground sirloin - however, think about using ground lamb, turkey or pork instead to look at this with a new light. Once you scatter the meat in the pan, try to resist diving right in with a spatula to break up the meat into crumbles. Since the skillet is pretty hot, give the meat a chance to actually begin to caramelize and gain that brown color, rather than smashing the juices out trying to get it into smaller pieces and end up with stewed meat with little developed flavor.

A combo of soy, fish sauce and a dash of sugar is then stirred into the mix to not only season the meat, but add some liquid to pull up any of those sought-after browned bits that stuck to the pan. We reserved a few of those jalapeño sticks and stirred them in at the end, along with a fistful of torn fresh basil. Scooped over a bed of the coconut rice, don't forget to add a wedge of lime on the side for each guest to squeeze a little tart note on top just before eating.

I wouldn't say Jeff was jumping for joy when he saw me bring out the can of coconut milk for this dish - it's not that he dislikes coconut, but for him, especially with the milk, he feels it can often overwhelm. Using it with the floral rice though seemed to strike a delicate balance and he quite enjoyed the fluffy combo! Neither of us found the juicy beef mixture overly spicy, but the flavor from the chiles was noticed and nice - however, I think we could have gotten away with leaving the seeds with one of the chiles to jack in a little extra bite!

Recipes
Thai Beef with Chiles and Basil Over Coconut Rice

Sour Cream Apple Bars...

2009-10-20T19:35:00.003-05:00

I'm sure you can imagine after picking all those apples, this week's Wednesday Treat Day would work at least a couple of them in! I rummaged through the humongous box in the garage to figure out what two apples to use in these Sour Cream Apple Bars and ended up pulling out Honey Crisp and Golden Delicious.

To give us a firm, solid layer to hold up to the creamy filling, we started with a mass of creamed butter and rich brown sugar, into which we mixed in oats, flour, chopped walnuts, baking soda, cinnamon and just a touch of allspice for a rounded aroma. I used quick-cooking oats as I had them on hand, but you could use the thicker, old-fashioned rolled oats if you like - you may just want to blitz them once or twice in a food processor or blender to break them down a bit. Walnuts can just be tossed in naked and chopped, but do yourself a favor - toast the nutty nuggets for a few minutes. Toasting pulls the natural oils to the surface and intensifies their flavor while also crisping them up for an increased crunch.

We took about half of the crumbly mixture and placed it in the baking pan, pressing it down to create the crust. Before the filling can go on though, we needed to give the crust a head start, resulting in a golden color and building the structure of the bottom. You'll be wanting to put the filling on as soon as the crust comes out from the oven, but you may be surprised with just how simple it is. The filling is composed of 5 ingredients - sour cream, granulated sugar (use vanilla sugar if you have some stewing in the pantry!), a couple spoonfuls of flour, an egg and two shredded apples. You can peel them if you must, but you really don't need to bother wasting time with that - we left them on because the flecks of color was nice and the peel would soften enough that it would not become obtrusive texturally.

As we only used half of the oat crumble on the bottom, after we scooped the filling onto the hot base, we sprinkled the rest of the fragrant crust mixture over the top to create these layered bars. Since you can't really use a toothpick to check for doneness, the best way to tell when to take them out is by sight - the top should be evenly golden and the center should feel and look set.

Sandwiched between two oat-y cookie layers, the filling of these bars is tangy, with a gentle sweetness, which we found to be somewhat akin to soft cheesecake. Because of those toasted nuts and warm spices in the crust, the mixture comes across more than just a buttery encasement - it had depth and crunch, yet wasn't tough or overpowering - meaning it did its job without overs-shadowing the more delicate apple filling!

Recipes
Sour Cream Apple Bars

Baked Rigatoni Cake

2009-10-18T19:16:00.002-05:00

Tonight's dinner happened to be made in a springform pan and does have cake in the title, but let me assure you it is far from dessert! Even though this wasn't a sweet treat, I'd still label this Baked Rigatoni Cake as a show stopper and makes for one dramatic presentation!

You'll need a pound of ground meat to get the sauce started - be it beef, pork, chicken or turkey... even a mix of those would be good. Because this is going to be fairly heavy with the pasta and cheeses, I went the lighter route by using turkey, but I decided on a combo of ground turkey and hot Italian turkey sausage to juice up the mix. Browned in a slick of oil, we tossed in a couple cloves of garlic and a mess of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes. Brought up to boil to get the process started, the heat was then lowered to a bare simmer and we let the pot bubble away until the sauce had thickened.

While that was happening, I used the downtime to drizzle a pound of rigatoni, that we cooked and cooled down, with olive oil, then tossed it around with a generous shower of fresh grated Parmesan cheese. Those coated tubes were then packed into the mentioned springform as tightly as possible, standing each on their flat side, taking care not to collapse any of them.

You want the tubes open and waiting because we're about to take a couple cups worth of the meat sauce we prepared and slather it all over the top, using lots of pressure to fill up the centers of the rigatoni! You don't need to try and push all of sauce in, just use the amount called for - yes, you'll have some leftover, but don't worry, we'll be using it later! About halfway through the total time needed to bake this pasta cake, we took out the springform pan and concealed the sauce on top by scattering over coarse shreds of mozzarella cheese. Bake again to melt and brown the cheese. Plan on giving this at least 15 minutes to cool down before you try and serve - this will give the dish time to set, allowing you to remove the sides of the pan and pull out tidy pieces that don't fall apart.

Besides the fact that this won us over on taste alone, taking the entire piece to the table and having the "wow" factor of cutting it to serve, with that layer of gooey cheese on top, was worth making this dish by itself! I do have a couple notes on the sauce - it is fairly mild and did end up being fine as the hot Italian turkey sausage did wonders for the background. However, I do think it could easily be tinkered with - crushed red pepper, a little red wine and throwing in basil, oregano or your favorite marinara seasonings would help to add a little pizazz. I didn't forget about that leftover sauce either... warm that sucker right back up and serve it over the top!

Recipes
Baked Rigatoni Cake

Cinnamon-Swirl Pumpkin Rolls...

2009-10-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

When we travel down to pick apples with my family, I try to bring along a treat to share when we are off driving around trying to get to our next destination. One year it was those Lemony Almond bars and another time we brought a batch of those Chocolate Malted M&M Cookies. With this trip, I decided on these Cinnamon-Swirl Pumpkin Rolls!

I was actually planning on doing just your ordinary cinnamon rolls, but when I saw PJ post about these pumpkin rolls, they were was too tempting to pass up! While you can certainly prepare this dough by hand as you would any other bread dough, I put our stand-mixer to work as I was busy working on another project at the same time.

The best part about that was all of the dough ingredients were just dumped into the bowl and brought together using the paddle attachment. You should note we used white whole-wheat flour as a part of the dry ingredients for its nutrition boost - if you don't want to buy that, you can either use completely all-purpose or even regular whole wheat flour. If you use the latter, expect the rolls to be a little more dense. As soon as the dough started to come together, I swapped the paddle for the dough hook and let it go until the dough was soft, supple and smooth. It is (and should be) on the sticker side, another bonus for using the stand mixer, and the dough will cling to the bottom of the bowl - however, it shouldn't be so wet that the dough doesn't hold its shape. Don't be afraid to adjust with water or flour as needed.

Left to rise until it had doubled in bulk, we turned the dough out onto our work surface and let it rest briefly before rolling it out into a large rectangle. You can dust the surface with flour to keep it from sticking if you wish, but because we didn't want to keep the rolls light and not add any more flour, we simply sprayed our counter with cooking spray - try it, it works well! The original recipe did call for a purchased filling mix, but it wasn't needed as a combo of granulated sugar and a liberal amount of fragrant cinnamon did the trick. To give the filling a unique twist, on top of that sweet bed of sugar, we scattered over chopped dried cranberries, along with a handful of minced crystallized ginger for zing.

Back to the original recipe, PJ rolled the log starting at the short end to end up with just a few big, fat cinnamon rolls. I wanted to stretch a few extra rolls out a bit, so we rolled the log up using the long side of the rectangle as our starting point. You can use a serrated knife to divvy the log up, but plain, unflavored dental floss works like a dream... just like a hot knife through butter! If you've never used it before, slide the floss under the log, crisscross the thread over the dough and pull the ends firmly to cut through - easy and no squishing of the dough!

I still ended up with twelve rolls that were plenty large - instead of baking them all together in a baking dish, I placed the rolls snugly in the wells of a muffin tin. They do need to rest once more before being baked, but the good news it it doesn't take quite as long as the first rise! Baked until the rolls pop up and brown, we took them out and let them cool off completely before drizzling on a smashing glaze made from confectioners' sugar, butter and milk. I waited for these spiral gems to cool because I wanted the striking contrast between the rolls and the glaze, but if you like, drizzle the rolls while they are still warm and it will slowly melt in.

Besides adding a subtle pumpkin flavor, that orange mash gave these rolls a moist, tender quality that we noticed right off the bat. I didn't mention it in the beginning, but the dough did flirt with a few spices in the dry ingredients to add to the richness - cinnamon, ginger and a touch of ground cloves were the ones we went with. You don't have to add the cranberries and crystallized ginger, but we thought the tangy, sweet heat those two wiggled in were just the right notes to play off the pumpkin essence in these rolls. Now, I'm one who unravels cinnamon rolls and eats them from the outside in, while Jeff decimates them by taking out big bites - how do you eat yours?

Recipes
Cinnamon-Swirl Pumpkin Rolls

Deep-Dish Pizza...

2009-10-16T19:30:00.002-05:00

Today brings us to yet another weekly Friday Pizza night and guess what? I didn't bust out our snazzy whole-wheat pizza dough! Yeah, yeah... I know I almost always fall back to it regardless of the recipe, but this time we stuck with what was called for because we needed a greater volume of dough and this one included a special ingredient!

With this Deep-Dish Pizza we were making, the dough is actually very straightforward to prepare with just flour, yeast, a dash of sugar, salt, water and a bit of oil as the ingredients . However, what made this dough a little different was the inclusion of cornmeal to try and recreate texture without the need of excessive amounts of oil later on. You could probably use your food processor, just like our other favorite dough, but I didn't feel like cleaning the machine up and just went with my hands.

When the dough had risen sufficiently, we punched it down, gave it a quick respite to relax and then rolled it out to a size a bit larger than the baking dish we were using. Now, normally with deep-dish pizza, one would oil the pan the dough was going to be heading in generously, giving it flavor and a crackly crispness to the outside. As this is a lighter recipe, the recipe calls for using that cornmeal in the crust to give you a little crunch, then only used cooking spray on the baking dish to keep things moving. You could still do that, but what we ended up doing was drizzling in a rough tablespoon of oil into the dish and smeared it around - this way we aimed to get the best of both worlds, yet not add too many extra calories.

Once we fitted the dough snugly in the dish, paying careful attention to ensure the dough was plenty high up on the sides, we seasoned the bottom with dried basil and oregano, then scattered with plenty of shredded mozzarella cheese. No sauce first? Nope, not on this type of pizza - you want most of the cheese underneath because of the length of time it takes to bake the crust through. This way you'll end up with a gooey layer of cheese underneath that slowly oozes as you slice into it. Then, on top of that mess of cheese, we scattered over chunky cubes of chicken sausage.

While we set that aside to rest and rise a bit, we chopped up a can of drained whole tomatoes and mixed into them fresh basil and oregano to echo what we put on top of the dough. This mixture is then left to continue draining (we don't want a soggy top!) while the oven was busy preheating and we softened the red bell peppers we were going to add. The original recipe called for mushrooms, but once again, Jeff saw me try and hide them in the shopping buggy and snatched them out when I wasn't looking. Sigh. See what I have to put up with? If you don't have that problem, sauté up a couple cups of sliced mushrooms first, then add the peppers and let them go. A couple other suggestions - if you have a hankerin' for green bell peppers (neither of us care for them), swap half of the red bells for those. If chicken sausages don't strike your fancy, then go with good ol' pepperoni instead - or, just leave them off for a veggie-friendly pizza!

Just to add some pizazz, after spooning the herbed tomato and cooked vegetables over the top, a little more mozzarella sprinkle over never hurt anyone, so on it went! This took just short of half an hour to completely cook the crust through and warm those toppings up. Slice it in the pan if you like, but one can make a more dramatic presentation by moving the whole shebang out onto a cutting board - don't worry, it just slides right out! The golden crust was hefty enough to hold up to all those ingredients on top, but we didn't find it too bread-y, except maybe the corners that ended up pretty beefy. The bottom of the crust retained some crunch as advertised (helped by the oil we added I would guess), but do realize it won't be as lush and rich as one gets from their local pizza joint.

We sliced this into six liberal squares, but really, eight probably would have been more appropriate as we ended up pretty stuffed! I think the only thing I would have done differently would be to mix in a bit of crushed red pepper into the tomatoes for a little kick.

Recipes
Deep-Dish Pizza

Minestrone with Endive and Pepperoni

2009-10-15T19:25:00.002-05:00

I was determined to work a soup into the menu this week, but had a hard time narrowing it down to a recipe... that is, until Jeff came by, saw one of the options had pepperoni and declared it the winner. I guess I should have just asked for his input to begin with because he definitely picked a winner in this Minestrone with Endive and Pepperoni.

Stirring a bit of chopped red bell pepper, or any sweet bell color you like, around in our Dutch oven was where I turned attention first to start bringing this soup to life. Broth, of the beefy variety, was poured in when the peppers had softened, with dried oregano and thyme added for good measure. When the broth had come up to a rapid bubble, elbow pasta was stirred in (I used this multi-grain pasta for those wondering) and left to cook until it was a few minutes short of actually being done.

Besides being a soup, what else attracted me to this was how fast it could be thrown together, especially since it called for using frozen mixed soup vegetables - we found a bag that had potatoes, carrots, celery and onion. Of course, one could certainly use fresh vegetables with a little extra work - just add the carrots, celery and onion as you normally would in the beginning. Then, either par-boil the potatoes separately and add them when called for, or toss them into the broth to cook before you add the pasta. The original recipe also called for frozen baby lima beans, but we swapped in edamame instead as we already had some in the freezer.

When the vegetables had almost cooked through, fire-roasted diced tomatoes were brought into play, along with diced pepperoni (Jeff did a little cheer as they went in!) and coarsely chopped endive for a little green boost. Chard would also work well here, just be sure to pull away the tougher stems. Just before serving, give the soup a quick taste - you'll most likely want to hold off on adding more salt (more on that in a second), but plenty of fresh ground black pepper is definitely appropriate.

With the broth and pepperoni seasoning this minestrone with a salty edge, right before we dug in, we took a knob from our block of Parmesan cheese and showered each bowl with just enough to compliment (hence why we held back on adding even more salt.). With a decent ratio of broth to vegetables and pasta, we found this to be very filling and it definitely warmed our stomachs up on this chilly fall evening. Pepperoni isn't what one might necessarily expect to find in this type of dish (at least I didn't think so), but it brought a mild spice that we both thought perked up the soup.

Recipes
Minestrone with Endive and Pepperoni