June 15th, 2011
I tried this recipe (kind of) one night this week, and it was great! I hadn’t been to the grocery store in a while, but I had two huge potatoes in a drawer, a few inches of BBQ sauce in the fridge, a cold kitchen that didn’t mid 60 minutes of heat from the electric oven, and a husband who wanted to grill Big Steaks.
Viola! Sunday Dinner included seasoned potatoes! I cut the potatoes like a fan, brushed them with butter, and then bathed them in my favorite bottled BBQ sauce (but their pictures are WAY better than mine. It’s no reflection on the absolutely perfect flavor and texture of the dish). These potatoes didn’t need any sour cream or cheese to be flavorful, so I felt kinda good about my meal.White potatoes are fat- and cholesterol-free, very low sodium, a good source of fiber, and high in vitamin C.
No Comments | In: Recipe Review, sides | tags: BBQ, potato. | #
February 7th, 2011
First off, let me just say how proud I am that these cookies look like the ones online! They crackled exactly as they were supposed to, and for the first time in a L-O-N-G time my products looks like it is ready for a photo shoot. I can not express what this means to my ego.
Now, on to the taste. They. Are. Perfect. They pair with milk. They are wildly chocolaty (I used half semisweet chips and half milk chocolate chip, because that’s what I had in the ‘fridge, not the bittersweet Dorie called for), but not bloatedly so. The spice makes them sophisticated and fancy, and I love them. They need nothing.
So, how can I justify eating them for breakfast? Let’s turn to the fine folks at Hershey:
Antioxidants like those found in dark chocolate and cocoa, called flavanols, have also been linked to some of the hallmarks of good cardiovascular health such as enhanced blood flow, healthy cholesterol levels and, in some cases, reduced blood pressure.
Dark chocolate and cocoa contain cell-protecting flavanol antioxidant compounds. Two tablespoons of natural cocoa have more antioxidant capacity than 3 ½ cups of green tea, ¾ cup of blueberries and 1 1/3 glasses of red wine.
So, I can eat chocolate cookies for breakfast because it’s better than being hammered at work?
Thanks, Laurie and Julie, for picking this treat and for hosting the Tuesdays with Dorie site!
1 Comment | In: Recipe Review, dessert | | #
February 1st, 2011
How many different ways can I serve a sour cream bundt cake? Breakfast in the car, after dinner on a plate with a linen napkin, after a take-out lunch of Potbelly sandwiches with the in-laws. It was THAT good. The cake was dense but not heavy, not too sweet, delightfully moist and terrifically pleasing. Many, many thanks to Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort for her selection.
The chocolate and cinnamon swirl was delish, except the fruit seemed horribly out of place. Skip the raisins.
But the lunch with the in-laws got me thinking. It seems the cake reminded one of us of another one of us’ favorite cake, the one his mother always made for his birthday and that he still requests as a 40-plus-year-old-person: a sherry raisin cake.
Really? Sherry raisin for or a kid’s birthday? It’s not the alcohol I question, it’s the something-other-than-chocolate-or-vanilla issue that makes me raisin an eyebrow. I doubt I would have liked that as an 8-year-old.
Apparently his brother’s birthday cake was pineapple upside down cake.
? Again, something I really enjoy now at 30+, but not something I’ll whip out when my baby has a b-day.
Does anyone else think this is odd, or do you share this untraditional birthday tradition?
No Comments | In: Recipe Review, TWD, dessert, fruit | tags: bundt cake, Dorie, sour cream. | #
January 19th, 2011
Dorie has done it again and brought such simple joy! These were fabulous on so many levels:
1) The crisp, tight flavor of fresh lemon was great after so many gray days of temperatures below 20 degrees, and anticipated wind chills FAR below zero.
2) The sour cream in the better makes the muffins wonderfully moist. They popped out of the muffin tin without a crumb left behind, and the few crumbs I spied on the napkin that I ate off of at my desk this morning easily came together with my fingers as I hurried to mop up every. last. one. Seriously.
3) The smell of lemon pastry really freshened up a house that hasn’t seen an open window in months. I should bake these weekly just for the emotional high that brought.
I thought these were wonderful, and I don’t think I’ll ever eat a lemon muffin from the office cafeteria ever again. There must be both health and financial benefit in that. The Other Eater, on the other hand, merely thought they were “good.”
But my baking experience left me with a question for my fellow cooks. I made 6 muffins with paper muffin cups for sharing with others, and six straight in the muffin tin for eating at home. The paperless muffins for a lot taller than the paper-wrapped muffins, and I’m wondering why. Any ideas?
In general I’m thinking that next time I’ll make 10 naked muffins for oversized indulgence, just so you know.
1 Comment | In: Recipe Review, TWD, Uncategorized | | #
September 24th, 2010
I started eating peanut butter out of the jar, with a spoon, when I was in college. It was one of those bad habits people develop when they stay up all night doing important things like writing 10 pages papers that count for 70 percent of their course grade and writing articles for the school paper about how many health code violations the dining hall had racked up that month. It’s not a habit I’m proud of, nor one that I’ve held on to (except for a brief period when I was pregnant, but that doesn’t count), but in dire moments that burst of protein did wonders for both my energy level and my mood.
But I still love a good peanut M&M, peanut butter cup or peanut butter cookie, so I was glad when Jasmine Cuisine chose them to bake with Dorie Sept. 7. They were quick and easy to assemble and I had high hopes because I ate a ridiculous amount of raw dough while I assembled them….and then I pulled mine out of the oven and thought that maybe they were too easy. My cookies were flat as pancakes! Still delicious and not too sweet and tender to bite, but not at all like the picture in Dorie’s book. Her’s looked more like a toasted English muffin, and mine were similar to manhole covers.
Was it because I left out the peanuts? Or because I sprinkled mini chocolate chips into the top? Would it have made a difference if I had chilled the dough before I rolled it into balls and then rolled the balls in sugar for baking? I’ll just have to try them again I guess.
1 Comment | In: Recipe Review, TWD, dessert | | #
September 3rd, 2010
What’s a girl who doesn’t like cucumbers to do when she receives a bumper crop of cucumbers from her father’s garden?
Make Pickles!
I found a slew of canning jars in said father’s basement and this recipe for quick pickles from The Spice House, and I was off to the races. Just about everyone I know right now is enjoying fresh pickles on their turkey sandwiches.
No Comments | In: Recipe Review, fruit, veggies | | #
August 24th, 2010
There are certain things I think everyone keeps in their pantry. Rice. Flour and Sugar. Olive Oil. Chocolate Chips. And when you run out of these staples, you know it has been FAR TOO LONG since your last trip to the grocery store.
That’s the wake-up call I got when I went to make the oatmeal bread that Oven Love selected for Tuesdays with Dorie and found myself short on oats. I used instant low sugar apple cinnamon oatmeal to make up for what I lacked, and it turned out just fine. I used a mix of dried cherries, cranberries, blueberries and golden raisins from Trader Joe’s golden berry mix, which I love.
This was a spectacularly moist breakfast treat that Another Eater and I enjoyed every morning last week on our ways out the door: mine was perched in my lap while I drove to the train station, his came in finger-full bites while he fed PT before daycare (which PT loves).
No Comments | In: Recipe Review, TWD, fruit | | #
August 23rd, 2010
Just like the Cookies on Friday blogger who selected this recipe last month, I love baking bar cookies. It’s a simple way to create a good volume of cookies (whether you are sharing them with others or simple curling up with a glass of milk after a bad day), and there is something unbelievably therapeutic about pressing batter into the corners of a pan and then licking it off your fingers when you have it Just Right.
Picking different flavors to add into the bars is too big a decision for me on most days, so I stuck with Dorie’s recommendations on this one: butterscotch chips, milk chocolate chip, walnuts and coconut. The only on I regret is the coconut, as it was really the only thing I tasted. Maybe it’s me - coconut isn’t my favorite thing - but it didn’t stop me from gobbling these up! The cookie base that carries whatever add-ins you choose is just perfect enough to make these irresistible, regardless.
No Comments | In: Recipe Review, TWD, dessert | | #
July 18th, 2010
I baked Tuesday and then worked late Wednesday, which means that when I got home after dark I found PT asleep and The Other Eater (is he now Another Eater, since there are three of us?) cooling off with a glass of milk and two brrrr-ownies.
And he seemed pleased with his find. I was glad, because they sure were unattractive when I finished slicing them. Dorie wasn’t kidding when she recommended chilling them before slicing, because they are sticky and sweet and the counter-cooled creations stuck to the knife like skin to vinyl upholstery in August. But fresh from the fridge at the end of another humid July day, Another Eater said they were perfect! Gooey but not sticky. Minty. Dense and chocolate-y. I’m looking forward to my snack after work tonight!
If you can see beyond my shotty slicing job, they look good, with the big white chucks peeking through the shiny dark chocolate. They are the perfect picnic treat, but they’d melt on the buffet. Hmmmmm…too bad I’ll have to hoard them in my own fridge this week! It’s hard being me.
No Comments | In: Recipe Review, TWD, dessert | | #
