Truffles: The Fancy Pants No Bake Dessert

Some oven-free desserts are just a little bit classier than others. Consider rice crispy treats, no bake cookies or even puppy chow. All are tasty but certainly not chichi.

Now what about chocolate truffles? They evoke visions of glass cases, tiny gift boxes and high prices, and they're usually prepared by a chocolatier. But why? It turns out they're easy to make at home and just like rice crispy treats, they're no bake. You can even skip the mess of dipping the truffles in molten chocolate and instead, roll them in cocoa and chopped nuts, like I did. 

I followed the Cooks Illustrated recipe and used Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate (instead of bittersweet) to form these beauties. The author of the recipe set out to develop a smooth, non-grainy truffle with the perfect mouthfeel and she achieved it. A few extra things helped in that endeavor. One was the addition of small quantities of corn syrup and butter and the other had to do with the cooling process (2 hours cooling on the counter before putting the ganache in the fridge.) All in all, pretty minimal effort. One thing I did change was the size of the truffles. I prefer mine slightly larger than directed by the Cooks Illustrated recipe and changing that was not a problem. 

Rustic Rolled Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients

The Ganache

• 2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened

The Coating

• 1 cup (3 oz) Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1/4 cup (1 oz) confectioners' sugar

or

• Diced almonds, macadamia nuts etc. (These should be toasted quickly in the oven first for the best taste)

Directions

1. Lightly spray 8-inch baking dish with oil. 
2. Cut two pieces of parchment paper that are approximately 8 inches wide. They should be laid down in the pan perpendicular to eachother so that excess parchment paper comes up over all four sides of the baking pan. This forms the sling with which the formed ganache will be lifted from the pan after solidifying.
3. Microwave chocolate in medium bowl at 50 percent power for 2-3 minutes. Most chocolate should be melted with a few chips retaining their shape.
4. Next, microwave cream for about 30 seconds. Stir in corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Pour mixture over the chocolate. 
5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 3 minutes.
6. Mix the chocolate and cream mixture by hand with a spoon (will prevent air bubbles from forming and making ganache less smooth)
7. Slowly stir in butter one piece at a time until fully incoorporated.
8. Using a rubber spatula, transfer mix to prepared baking dish. 
9. Allow to sit on counter for 2 hours.
10. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
11. Remove ganache block from baking dish using parchment slings.
12. Cut ganache into 30 pieces (rows of 6 by rows of 5)
13. Combine cocoa and confectioners' sugar, sift through fine mesh strainer twice to remove lumps.
14. Using resulting mixture to dust hands, then form each ganache square into a ball.
15. Roll the balls in cocoa/confectioner's sugar mix or in toasted, diced nuts. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to a week. Allow truffles to sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Mmmmmachaca! An Ode to Carolina's

Has any food ever brought tears to your eyes? Not the kind of stinging, onion-induced variety but real, honest-to-goodness tears?  Me neither...until the night I left Phoenix.


The day had been a long one, filled with packing, cleaning and preparing for the 1300 mile haul to Portland. While disappointed with our sluggish departure, there was a silver lining to that cloud: If we rushed, we could enjoy one last meal at Carolina's on our way out of town. Carolinas is a divey little Mexican restaurant in south Phoenix that serves up the best damn machaca this gringa has ever eaten. Oh, and having lived in Phoenix for the last seven years, I've eaten a lot! 


The machaca at Carolina's is hot, wet and a little bit spicy. If there are onions or peppers still in the meat, they're so cooked down I haven't noticed them, unlike at some other taquerias, where they constitute half the filling. Tightly wrapped in a soft, handmade tortilla and served with Carolina's addictive salsa, the machaca burro (or burrito to the rest of you) is not to be missed. It is the perfect farewell Phoenix meal and my stomach was screaming for it by the time we locked up the apartment and closed the roller door on the U-Haul. 


Unfortunately, time was tight and I knew that if I was going to score a couple of machaca burros, it was going to be right before closing time and I was going to have to race for them. Although the drive there is a bit of a blur, I know I pulled some Andretti-like moves in my little white Versa while Martin followed distantly in the cumbersome moving truck. Then, just before 7:30, I got stuck at the stoplight directly in front of Carolina's. It was 7:29 when I finally parked so I tried the door. Joy of joys, it was open! 


"Two machaca burros, please!" I said panting.


"Sorry, Mam, we're closed," said the man behind the register.


"But it's not 7:30 yet!" I cried.


"It's 7:31," he said, nodding towards the restaurants's clock.


"Please!" I begged "I'm moving and I have to have one last machaca burro!"


"Sorry, the registers are already closed," he said patiently.


I finally gave up and slunk out to the car, defeated. "I didn't make it," I told Martin over the phone, my eyes beginning to water. "I just really wanted one last machaca burro."


The ridiculousness of the whole thing didn't strike me until later and although I know moving can be a stressful time, I maintain that the machaca burro is a special food, if not a tear-worthy one. 


The following recipe is my own tweaked version of Big Dave's Beef Machaca and, despite the name, it comes astoundingly close to Carolina's machaca. We had it for dinner on Christmas Eve as a sort of tribute to our Christmases in Phoenix.


Beef Machaca

Ingredients

• 3-4 lb Chuck Roast

Marinade

• 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil

Additional Ingredients

• Additional vegetable or olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion-cut into large chunks
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup beef broth
• 1/2 a 28 oz can of Las Palmas Red Chile Sauce (or other sauce)
• 1 small can whole green chile peppers
• Dash of Tabasco Sauce
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon oregano

Directions

1. Slice chuck roast into 3" pieces. Trim larger portions of fat off and discard.
2. Combine marinade ingredients, add meat and marinate overnight.
3. Heat a small amount of olive oil or vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat on the stove.
4. Remove beef pieces from marinade, dry with paper towels. Working in batches, brown beef in hot oil. Do not crowd pan or beef will steam instead of brown. Remove beef from pan. If necessary, add a little more oil. 
5. Add onions and saute for approximately 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for an additional minute.
6.  Return beef to pan. Add broth, chile sauce, chile peppers, Tabasco, cumin and oregano. 
7. Bring to a boil, scraping browned bits off the bottom of the pan. 
8. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours.
9. Remove beef from pot. Allow to rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes. 10. Meanwhile, strain pan juices through strainer into a bowl. Discard onions and chile peppers in strainer. Pour strained sauce back into Dutch oven. Note: This step can be omitted if you would like onions and chiles mixed in with the final machaca.
10. After its 10 minute rest, use two forks to shred beef pieces.
11. Return shredded beef to sauce in an uncovered Dutch oven.
12. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and continue cooking until much of the sauce has cooked off and mixture is just slightly wet.
13. Season with salt and chile pepper flakes as desired.
14. Serve rolled in warm tortillas with cilantro. Provide salsa on the side.

Perfect Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

I'm three-quarters Swedish so maybe there are some things I'm just destined to like: meatballs, volvos and particleboard furniture. Genetically predisposed or not, one Swedish thing I'm definitely crazy about is the oat crisp. Waifishly thin with a delicate, lacy appearance and a sweet, buttery crunch, it's hard to resist. Over time I've only fallen more deeply in love with this unassuming little cookie. 


My first introduction was made a number of years ago by the Swedish cultural ambassador Ikea. There was a store just a few freeway exits away from the house where I lived in Phoenix, so popping in for a box of my little crisps was never a problem. The size of the box was another story. It was really more of a giant cardboard flat of them than anything else. It may have been designed for those people who rent a U-Haul trailer and drive to Ikea from hours away for an epic shopping journey rather than for the casual shopper, like myself, just dropping in. Anyway, the point is, the box was darn large and would either lead to an out-and-out cookie binge or to a slow and steady cookie consumption that threatened to leave me nutrient-deprived, uninterested in actual food. Such was the appeal of these treats. 


Fast forward to last year when a Swedish restaurant opened in Tempe and took my affection for the oat crisp to a whole new level. The cookies, like everything in the restaurant, were homemade. These cookies were much larger than their Ikea counterpart and were sandwiched together with a cold lemon cream filling between them. I'm not much of a cream fan but the cookies, oh, the cookies… 


Now with December well underway and cookie season in full swing as we approach Christmas, I've been thinking more and more about the oat crisp. Sure I could have just popped into the Ikea here in Portland or checked out the town's token Swedish restaurant but instead, I wanted to make some myself. Amazingly, I got lucky and stumbled onto what ended up being an excellent recipe on my first try. 


The cookies were the picture of perfection by themselves but then, I had an epiphany (pause for dramatic effect). This is the best cookie the world will ever know for use in an ice cream sandwich. What makes them so perfect? They are sweet, crunchy and brittle, like the top of a perfect crème brûlée. When you sink your teeth through cookie into ice cream, it's the same feeling you have when you tap the edge of your spoon through caramelized sugar into creamy custard in a crème brûlée. Maybe it's just that I love crème brûlée that much but these ice cream sandwiches are awesome! 


I used Eating Right's Black Cherry Chocolate Chip Low Fat Frozen Yogurt for the filling because it was already in the freezer, however, I highly recommend it. I also used a slightly thinner layer of filling than you would in a sandwich with thicker cookies. I feel it yields a better cookie-to-ice cream ratio. Additionally, although I didn't have any around, Nutella would probably have made these ice cream sandwiches even more amazing. (Really, is there anything Nutella can''t improve?) Just try spreading a thin layer on one of the cookies before you assemble the sandwich. 

Swedish Oat Crisps (Havreflarn)


Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/4 cups oats (I used quick oats)
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a pot on the stove
3. Stir oats into melted butter
4. Mix eggs and granulated sugar together in another bowl.
5. Add flour and baking powder to the egg and sugar mixture, then mix everything into the oat and butter mixture.
6. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat mats.
7. Drop 1 teaspoon of batter for each cookie, spaced 3 inches apart on baking sheets.
8. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Middle will have developed a lacy appearance.
9. Remove from oven, leave cookies on cookie sheet for approximately 1 minute.
10. Carefully remove with a spatula or knife and place on cooling rack and allow to cool and harden. 

Recipe credit: Delishhh

Notes

• More batter can be used to make larger cookies. If so, space further apart, use a spatula to spread batter out and bake for slightly longer than with smaller cookies.
• Do not allow batter to sit before making cookies. Use immediately, otherwise oats will begin to absorb moisture from the batter and cookies will not spread out properly when baking.
• If desired, rather than transferring cookies to cooling rack, cookies can be place on rolling pin and allowed to harden. This will yield curved cookies. 
• Half of each cookie can be dipped in chocolate for a special treat. 

(Probably) Not Your Grandma's Chicken Salad

Minnesota is full of many things: Mosquitoes, lakes and my relatives, to name a few. Every year, during the muggy Iowa summer when school was out and sweet corn was plentiful, we'd pile into the green family hatchback and make our pilgrimage north.

This was the land of my mom's childhood and of my grandma's cooking, home of hotdish and the ham sandwich. All the traditional Midwest dishes that my mom turned her back on forever when she left Minnesota were there for my discovery. What most people would call comfort food was completely foreign to my childhood palate. The fact that I was born in San Francisco to a couple of health-obsessed granolas whose only form of transportation was a camper, explains a lot.

The strange intersection between international and healthy is squarely where my mom's cooking resided. Hummus, pan-fried Falafel, and whole grain pitas were her answer to creamed corn and casserole. Wheat germ cookies and chocolate meringues stood in for Rice Krispie Treats and Jello salad. I only knew about Kool-Aid from camp, commercials and hanging out with friends. Until the day I moved out I was expected to drink a glass of pureed vegetables, affectionately dubbed "Veggie Drink" by my mom, with each meal.

To say my diet was non-traditional is putting it mildly so when we visited my grandparents I felt more like we had crossed an international border than just a state line. I was a tourist taking in the local fare at every meal. Buttered white bread? Sugar cereal? Don't even get me started on the things my grandma could do with a can of cream of mushroom soup! Of course there were, as I later discovered, Swedish dishes like rice pudding mixed in with the Midwest comfort food but I loved them all.

When it was finally time to leave, my grandma would pack us a lunch for the drive home. It usually included either egg salad or chicken salad sandwiches. Although both were pretty standard food, to me they were a special treat. My palate has changed since then but I still appreciate a good chicken salad sandwich. I especially enjoy this curried version, which I like to think is a fitting combination of my grandma's traditional fare and my mom's flair for the international.

In this salad, apples and raisins sweeten up the chicken nicely while the addition of curry powder is an incredibly simple way to amp up the flavor and give it an enticing saffron color. With the use of olive oil mayonnaise in place of regular mayonnaise it's relatively healthy too unless, of course, you serve it on a buttery croissant like I did. Make it and you're sure to curry favor from the members of your household.

Curried Chicken Salad with Apples and Raisins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 cup chopped skinless, boneless chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper or lemon-herb
• 3/4 cup chopped Braeburn apple (about 1 small)
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 3 tablespoons raisins
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Combine mayonnaise, curry powder and water in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add the chicken, chopped apple, celery, raisins and salt, stir mixture well to combine
2. Cover and chill
3. Serve between a halved croissant, two slices of bread or with a side of crackers. 

This recipe is from My Recipes

Mini Champagne Cakes

One of the funniest novelty cookbooks I've seen is the one my parents presented to my brother when he moved into his own place. It's called A Man, A Can, A Plan and it's constructed of the sort of thick cardboard normally reserved for children's picture books. My brother's edition even came with its own can opener.

The beauty of the book lays in its caveman-simple directions and the use of no-muss no-fuss ingredients that could be found laying around a bachelor pad. One ingredient that figures prominently, unsurprisingly, is beer. The instructions for a recipe might go something like this: "Dump half a can of beer into a pot, then drink the other half..."

When I was making these Mini Champagne Cakes, I kept thinking about A Man, A Can, A Plan. "Dump half a bottle of champagne into a bowl, then drink the other half..." It was tempting but then again, so are these Mini Champagne Cakes and I needed all but about a glass for the recipe. So what was this sober cook rewarded with in the end? Light and delicate mounds of champagne-infused bliss, perfect for a festive occasion. Luckily, I already have an event in mind. My friend Sarah is having a baby girl this fall and her upcoming shower motivated me to test out some recipes, including this one. 

To be honest, I've actually made Mini Champagne Cakes a couple times before and have always adored them. Unfortunately, the last time I made them they got horribly stuck in the pans and while they were still delicious, they weren't exactly the sort of thing I would want to present to an expectant mother and all her friends. I decided to do a test run to see if I could remedy the sticky situation. 

This time I greased the pans well, floured them and only filled them about two-thirds full. I let the cakes cool in the pan and then inverted them onto a flat wire rack which I menacingly banged against the metal sink edge a few times to help the cakes release. Guess what? It worked! I hope the ladies at the shower like boozed up cake! 

Disclaimer: Men can't control themselves around these cakes. If you wish to save them for a photo shoot or a special event, consider making a sign since verbal warnings may prove insufficient. In fact, some men may interpret anything you say regarding these cakes as an invitation to eat one. 

Mini Champagne Cakes

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cups shortening
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• A few drops of red food coloring (optional)

• 6 egg whites

• 2 cups champagne

Directions

1. Let egg whites stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. Grease and flour 12 mini bunt cake pans (they come in groupings of six.) Grease and flour 4-6 muffin cups for the extra batter. 
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla, and if desired, 8-10 drops red food coloring. Slowly add egg whites. 
5. Alternately fold in flour mixture and champagne to shortening mixture until just combined- Avoid over-mixing as this will make the cake tough. 
6. Spoon into prepared bunt pans to a height of 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool, then invert on a wire rack and thump against counter to release. 
9. Drizzle with Champagne Icing and allow to dry. 

Champagne Icing

Ingredients

• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons champagne, plus additional
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Red food coloring, if desired

Directions

1. In medium bowl, combine all ingredients. 
2. Slowly stir in more champagne, one teaspoon at a time, until icing is a drizzle-able thick glaze consistency. 

Recipe Credit: From Simply Perfect Celebrations, 2003. I can't find any record of this publication. I'm not sure if it was a book or a magazine, all I have is the stained, photocopied pages the recipe appears on. 

Easier-Than-Pie Grilled Peaches

Sometimes, I've found that being too much of a perfectionist about things can lead to not doing them at all, whatever the project may be.

For just that reason, I was putting off fixing up a rustic dining bench I bought. Finally, I decided to just slap on a couple coats of white paint and call it a day. It looks beautiful now and I love it. Sometimes good just has to be good enough. The same thing can go for cooking. Planning something overly ambitious when a simple solution will do the trick can be a recipe for failure. 

Speaking of, I've had a few cooking failures lately, including an aborted attempt at late-night meringues, so when we grilled out Saturday night I wanted to make something extremely simple for dessert. We had a couple peaches laying around so I did a quick Google search and found a recipe from Salon that uses only three ingredients: peaches, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. It doesn't get much easier than this folks. Sweet brown sugar paired with the tangier notes of balsamic vinegar gives them a subtle complexity that pairs well with the grilled smokiness.

When you're feeling fairly ambitious, make a peach pie. When you're feeling a little less ambitious, make a peach cobbler. When you don't feel like cooking at all, make these grilled peaches (or go through the McDonalds drive-through and get a hot apple pie.)

Easier-Than-Pie Grilled Peaches

Ingredients

• Fresh peaches, fairly firm, halved and pitted
• Balsamic vinegar
• Brown sugar

Directions

1. Halve and pit the peaches
2. Drizzle, face up, with Balsamic vinegar
3. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar
4. If possible, allow to soak for as long as an hour, although not necessary
5. Dab the grill with oil and place peaches face down on the grill. Turn after 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle more brown sugar on the flat side (now facing up.) Remove after a few more minutes when they're soft when poked with a fork. 

Serve as-is, a la mode, or sprinkle some granola on top for a satisfying crunch. Salon recommends enjoying them with a hefeweizen, which conveniently happens to be my favorite beer.

Note: These peaches can also be prepared in a frying pan. I heated up my cast iron pan today and made a second batch, thus the absence of grill marks in my picture. 

Diablo Burger Doppelgänger

Kirsten Veng-Pedersen

The Doppelgänger I made. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the original.

There are burgers and then there are burgers. One of the tastiest I've had lately is the DB House burger at Diablo Burger in downtown Flagstaff. It's a moist medium-rare blackened beef patty on a toasted English muffin with mixed greens, fresh pesto, tomato and an over-easy egg on top. Nom nom. 

If it sounds a little fancy shmancy, it is but don't hold that against Diablo Burger. Sure DB makes only Belgian-style fries they call "frites," and uses condiments like Homemade Hatch Chile Mayo but seriously, the place is pretty chill. Locavores and animal lovers will applaud their largely local ingredients including free-range hormone-free beef. I applaud their stellar burgers. 

Until recently, my only must-have food on a trip to Flagstaff was the piping hot cobbler at Bigfoot BBQ and a brew or two at Beaver Street or the Lumberyard. Now I've got Diablo Burger. Unfortunately my grand plan for a weekend trip to Flagstaff (and the obvious concurrent plan to sink my teeth into another DB House Burger) was thwarted by a pesky snowstorm in the north country two weeks ago. 

I was disappointed but my hunger pangs along with a food craving that rivaled that of a pregnant woman spurred me into action. I decided to get to the meat of the issue and thus begin my copycat quest with research into crafting the perfect patty. Various resources including NPR and Bobby Flay yielded the following tips: 

The Meat 

Start with 70-80 percent lean ground beef. The extra fat keeps the patty moist and flavorful. Some people prefer to select a cut of well marbled beef chuck or a combination of chuck and brisket and have them ground by the butcher. A little Worcestershire sauce can be blended into the meat but the salt and other seasonings should be reserved for the outside of the patty rather than mixed in. This will prevent the patties from becoming tough and allow you to taste the seasonings better. When forming the patties, the meat should be handled as little as possible to prevent toughness and the patties should be made larger in diameter than you want to allow for shrinkage while cooking. Pressing down on a patty while it cooks to flatten it out is a no-no. This expels the moisture and leaves you with a dry, flavorless lump. To keep the patty flat, some people advocate making a small depression in the middle of it to counteract the shape-shifting as it cooks and shrinks. 

The Heat 

You want to seal in the juices and produce a slight crust on the burger. This can be done like searing a steak. It's best to use a heavy-duty pan like a cast iron pan for this. The pan should be preheated. The patties should only be flipped once. To enhance the searing/crust formation, the patties can be brushed with melted butter before being placed in the skillet. (For blackened burgers, blackening spices are sprinkled on after the butter brush and before the searing but watch out for the smoke!) 

Diablo Burger Doppelgänger

Ingredients (Makes 4)

• 1 pound 70-80 percent lean ground beef
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 
• melted butter for basting
• Blackening Spice Mix (store bought or recipe below)
• spring greens or spinach
• tomato
• 4 eggs- cooked over-easy
• pesto (store bought or recipe below)

Directions

1.  Lightly mix ground beef with water and Worcestershire sauce
2.  Form into four patties.
3.  Refrigerate for 1 hour
4.  Baste patties with butter
5.  Sprinkle with Blackening Spice Mix to taste
6. Add to preheated cast iron pan on medium-high heat (pan is hot enough when a drop of water sizzles on the surface)
7. Cook for approximately 3 minutes per side. 
8. Toast English muffins and layer with spinach or greens, a slice of tomato, the patty, an over-easy egg and a dollop of pesto. 
9. Serve with a side of fries, fancy frites or veggie chips like I did.

Blackening Spice Mix

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon ground basil
• 1 teaspoon ground thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt (sea salt is better)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika

From Food.com

Basil Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (I used toasted blanched almonds)
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese (see Cook's Note)

Directions

1. Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
2. If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.
3. If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

From foodnetwork.com

Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli, Barefoot-Style

I love to read reviews. Movie reviews, new product reviews and even the occasional music review (yes Martin, I really do read some.) I don't like wasting my time or money and I see reviews as a big help in that endeavor. That's why when I'm wading through a sea of recipes online, I listen to what people are saying, like with this recipe for Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli.

It wasn't so much the sheer number of reviews (151 at the time of this writing) as it was the rabid endorsements and judicious use of the exclamation point in them that made me take note. Here are a few:

• Made me fall back in love with broccoli. 
• Not one floret was left in the bowl. Delicious! 
• Every time it comes out of the oven, I have to slap off the hands that try to sample right from the baking sheet. 
• After trying this, you'll never want to eat anything else for breakfast, lunch or dinner ever again. 

Living up to such overwhelmingly positive feedback is a tall order. Yes, I did try The Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli and yes, there are still many other foods I'm interested in eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner rather than just this broccoli. That being said, it was good and I would definitely make it again. Lemon juice and lemon zest along with basil give it a bright, fresh flavor paired with the sharpness of parmesan cheese and the nuttiness and crunch of toasted sunflower seeds. (I included these in place of the pine nuts, which I adore, but couldn't bring myself to spend 10 dollars on for a tiny container.)

Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 pounds broccoli 
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 
• Good olive oil 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest 
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted (or sunflower seeds, toasted) 
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil leaves (about 12 leaves)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. 
2. Cut the broccoli florets from the thick stalks, leaving an inch or two of stalk attached to the florets, discarding the rest of the stalks. Cut the larger pieces through the base of the head with a small knife, pulling the florets apart. You should have about 8 cups of florets. 
3. Place the broccoli florets on a sheet pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. 
4. Toss the garlic on the broccoli and drizzle with 5 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.  
5. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned. 
6. Remove the broccoli from the oven and immediately toss with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, pine nuts, Parmesan, and basil. Serve hot.

This recipe makes a very large amount. I quartered it when I made it for two. 

Bánh Chuối Nướng (Banana Bread Pudding)

Why is it so hard to keep the right number of bananas around in the right state of ripeness? It should be simple banana math, really. Somehow though, I invariably either end up bananaless or with a blackened fruit-fly attracting bunch. What's a girl to do?

Banana bread would seem to be the obvious answer for the overripe ones but lately, I've been craving dessert.

The Vietnamese restaurant a half-mile from my house makes an amazing banana bread pudding or bánh chuối nướng, which they hawk on a giant blackboard of specials. While I savor my pork spring rolls and delight in my mango chicken, it calls to me... and then, just before the check comes, I cave.

"Oh, could I get an order of the banana bread pudding in a to-go box, please?" I ask the server, fooling nobody. Never has this dessert made it out to the car in anything but my stomach.

I baked my own version today and was extremely satisfied with the results. It's a moist, delicious dessert comprised of bananas alternating with creamy coconut milk-soaked bread, a nod to it's eastern origins. After baking, a sprinkle of sugar and a couple minutes under the broiler yield a topping of caramelized banana bliss.

I served mine with a simple sauce made of coconut milk sweetened with powdered sugar thinned slightly with skim milk (not shown in my picture above.) This dessert can be served hot, cold or reheated. I got the recipe from Flavor Boulevard.

Bánh Chuối Nướng (Banana Bread Pudding)

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of banana
• Rum
• 1.5 loaves of old stale sandwich bread
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• butter (to grease the pan)
• 1 tbs vanilla (optional)

The original recipe called for an 8-inch pan. I halved the above recipe and still used an 8x8 pan along with one mini loaf pan for the extra pieces of bread. Grease the pan(s).

Bananas
Slice the bananas at a slight angle and mix with rum if you like.

Bread
Trim off the crust, dip the bread slices into a mixture of milk, coconut milk, beaten eggs, sugar and vanilla. Squeeze the bread between your palms to remove some of the liquid they soaked up. This is an important step, the dessert will be dry if too much liquid is removed, and fall apart if it’s too wet.

Layering
Alternate 1 layer of bread, 1 layer of banana, another layer of bread, etc. until reaching the rim of the pan. End with bananas. Firmly and evenly press the layers down as you go so that the baked cake won’t be too spongy or crumbly.

Bake at 350F until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. For caramelization, just after baking, sprinkle sugar over the top layer of bananas and place on the highest oven rack under the broiler for a couple minutes. Watch closely and remove when slightly browned.

Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup

So this week I joined a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. The upside is you get a bunch of fruits and veggies at a good price. The down side is you don't get to choose the fruits and veggies. I made peace with these two facts and accepted the latter as a sort of challenge and an opportunity for serendipitous discovery to take place. So far so good.


This week's challenging veggie? Cauliflower. Well, I'll see your cauliflower and raise you two red peppers! In my search for a suitable recipe, I looked for something hearty, comprising the bulk of a meal. I also wanted something fairly simple with the kind of ingredients I already had in the kitchen (luckily red bell peppers were on special for 99 cents earlier this week.) This delicious Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup from Closet Cooking is what I found. It's relatively simple and very healthy.


The cauliflower thickens the soup without the need for an unhealthy roux. You don't have to compromise on taste either. The roasted veggies reward you with a surprising depth of flavor that far surpasses their uncooked counterparts. Add some onion, garlic and a bit of cayenne pepper to turn up the heat. What you have now is a flavor profile that reaches true perfection with a thick dollop of Greek yogurt on top. If you have some thyme on your hands, you can toss a sprig or two on top as a garnish as I did in the picture above. 

Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower (cut into florets)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 roasted red peppers
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
• 3 cups chicken stock

Directions

1. Toss the cauliflower florets in the olive oil with the salt and pepper.
2. Arrange the cauliflower florets in a single layer in a baking dish.
3. Roast the cauliflower in a preheated 400F oven until lightly golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.
4. Heat the oil in a pan.
5. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
7. Add the cauliflower, roasted red peppers, cayenne and stock.
8. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the cauliflower is tender, about 20 minutes.
9. Puree with a hand blender or food processor.
10. Serve garnished with Greek yogurt.

Kale is hot (and in this case crunchy)

Whole Foods has always struck me as a barometer of food fashions. While casual, comfy stores like Sprouts and Sunflower Market satisfy with their straightforward offerings, Whole Foods dazzles with glitz and glam. 

Looking for fancy cheese? Whole Foods has it, even cave-aged cheese. Looking for local produce? Whole Foods has that covered too. How 'bout an apple from Wilcox, only 272 miles from the store, according to their sign. Looking for a hot dinner? Forget about that rotisserie chicken. At Whole Foods you can have beef brisket, smoked in-house. Yes, Whole Foods gives the foodies what they want. And what do they want? Well, in the deli anyway, the answer seems to be kale. 

While drooling over things like portobello mushroom lasagna and orzo salad  today, I spotted no less than four, that's right, four different types of kale salad! Ladies and gentlemen, we are apparently in the midst of a kale craze. I have no idea when or how it began. Maybe it's like how after buying a new car, you suddenly notice that everyone else is driving the same car. I don't know, all I know is that I bought my first ever bunch of kale earlier this week.

Why kale? Well, I've been trying to eat healthier lately and if you don't already know, Kale is a bit of a health nut's wet dream, a "superfood," if you will.  It's high in vitamins, a powerful antioxidant, and has both cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory properties. Is there anything that this mighty cabbage can't do? Now that's one sexy veggie! But hey, it's still a veggie. That's why I was excited to find a recipe for kale chips. They're salty, wafer-thin, and have a satisfying crunch.


I made the bunch pictured above this morning and they were gone in no time. Just be sure to go easy on the salt. I didn't actually measure mine out and you can taste every grain on such a paper-thin chip. I got the recipe below from Allrecipes.


Baked Kale Chips


Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
2. Remove thick stems from kale and then tear into bite-sized pieces. Wash and dry kale thoroughly. In a bowl, toss kale together with olive oil and salt. 
3. Spread in a single layer on the cookie sheet and bake until edges are brown but not burnt, about 10-15 minutes.

Additional Information
Yields 6 servings. 
Calories: 58  
Total Fat: 2.8 
Cholesterol: 0