I just sat down to write up this post and suddenly realized (2 days later…) that I completely forgot to add the ginger.
Oh well, it’s not my favorite in baking so I never missed it.
I halved the recipe, and had the perfect amount to fill one mini-bundt pan. These were fantastic! Cranberries, apples, pumpkin, and a few pecans (or in my case, walnuts) for good measure. Honestly, what more can you ask for this time of year?
Britin from The Nitty Britty picked the recipe this week. It’s a great one for the holidays, so if you want to make it you can find the recipe posted on her site!
Fear.
Some people are afraid of the dark. Some, are afraid of heights. Public speaking, we all know, is a very common fear.
Me, I am afraid of making rice. (Although, I admittedly fall into the first category as well.) This explains why I waited until the last minute to complete this challenge. But it was a full success!
Nigiri Sushi, tuna.
Spiral roll with pickled kohlrabi and cucumber.
Caterpillar roll with peppered tuna and cucumber on the inside, rice and avocado atop!
All in all, a great challenge!
Just in the nick of time!
I actually have made this twice in the past 3 days!!! It’s so easy especially when you make extra crumble the first time around 
.
The second time around I used dried blueberries instead of dried cranberries for no reason other than that I opened my cupboard and they looked so yummy.
In my crumble, I did not use either ginger or coconut (for no reason than that I opened my cupboard and these were not inside…). So I doubled the cinnamon–you can never go wrong with extra cinnamon–and threw in a dash of nutmeg. mmmm.
Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef picked this recipe, and in my humble opinion, it is a must make. You can always get the recipe from the book (pg 422), but Em also has it posted here.
I like to think of myself as a kind, generous, giving person, but if I am really, truly honest with myself, I am forced to admit the horrible untruth of it.
In college, I was not the one who made a cake every Halloween for the masses. I was not the one who baked delicious bread to share nor the one who built kites for everyone to play with. I like to think of myself as giving, but I was not the one who gave us a pre-finals fondu night nor the one who brought the movies for Friday night or hosted the parties.
If I look back upon myself with complete and brutal honesty, I realize that I have a lot to learn in the ‘giving’ department. Sometimes, I like to think that since I have started baking I have become more generous because I give away all sorts of desserts, yet when I look upon the facts, I see that maybe the truth is that I just bake way more than one girl should eat. So I pass it along.
But I had never, never created anything that I couldn’t at least enjoy in part. Why would I bake something that I know I won’t enjoy? It sounds just silly.
So when the November TWD selections were posted, giving us the freedom to bake in whatever order we wanted, I knew I would be skipping the molasses cookies. Molasses: ick. I’ve never liked it. (Apologies to all you molasses lovers out there.) And I knew my week for not doing the molasses cookies would be this week. A test, my first research presentation, a need to get out of the apartment and relax for a few minutes: This week I could skip.
Then I told the bf of my plans not to do the molasses cookies and try though he might to hide his disappointment, the disappointment showed through. But it wasn’t until he sincerely muttered those fateful words “No, don’t do it. I’m sure I don’t need the sugar anyways…” that I was hooked. I mean, how could you turn that down? Well, and then Caitlin and Nancy conned me into it via twitter…
And, of course, the cookies were decent. (Yes, I tasted them, of course.) The aftertaste tasted terribly of molasses and required a chaser of apple cider, but the cookies themselves were not horrible. Trust me, coming from me, that’s saying something. The bf, of course, loved them.
Sometimes all it takes to jump start a new behavior trend is one simple act. A simple act and a brutal evaluation. It may sound silly, but for me these molasses cookies now symbolize the spirit of giving, the spirit of thinking of others first. The spirit of going out of my way to help a neighbor.
Of course, one simple act is not enough to completely change a life style. Thinking something and living it are two entirely different things. How do you show your appreciation? A treasured family pie for friends? A casserole to a family in need? Working at a soup kitchen? Playing with your children on the floor when, really, you’d rather take a nap?
Molasses cookies. It’s the new slang for stopping to see the difference I can make.
I would say that with this recipe, I was roughing it, but “roughing it” doesn’t usually involve mascarpone. Me? I was merely without a spring-form pan.
So I poured the batter in thoroughly greased muffin tins and baked away. I had a little left over, so I poured it in a cake pan. Unfortunately, there is definitely a reason to make this in a spring form pan–the cooked cake is quite delicate! None of my little cupcakes came out whole! Fortunately, the cake did survive!
I put a little less cream in mine because I wanted to make sure it stayed thick enough to spread on (ie no springform pan).
The resulting taste and texture I found quite delicious; however, I don’t think I will be making this one again until I have acquired the spring form pan.
If wanna give this one a try (it really is quite tasty), the recipe should be up on April’s blog Short + Rose sometime today. Or, of course, you could refer to page 284 of BFMHTY.
Even when it’s just for a short weekend, just getting out of town sometimes feels marvelous. That’s why I love vacation.
I just love the animals, don’t you?
The only problem with vacation is the part just before. The part where everything must get done or the world, it seems, will surely end. The part where you think to yourself, “I’m only going away for a Saturday and Sunday how could I possibly have this much to do?” The part where you decide not yet to post the delicious recipe utilizing chestnuts you promised a while ago for the sake of maintaining your own sanity.
But it is also the part filled with anticipation of the fun and relaxation to come. The part where everything seems possible.
Needless to say, the trip up to Massachusetts was wonderful. I even got to take my first trip to an apple orchard! (I can’t believe I’d never been either.) Although picking up a load of beautiful apples when you are a plane flight from home might not come highly recommended. Don’t worry: it was pretty chilly up there (even snowed at the end!) so there were plenty of sweaters to cushion the beauties.
So now, I find myself with a wealth of apples to use up and much belated post to write. A post about spinach. Spinach sauteed in apple cider. Delicious.
Sauteed Cider Spinach
A few notes: there is a local place near us that has wonderful ciders. My favorite for this is cherry-apple cider, but it is also great with apple or pear ciders. Also, chestnuts are very easily replaced by almonds, walnuts, pecans, or even sunflower seeds in a pinch. It’s pretty easy to make it work with what you’ve got.
Also, my mom just phoned and when I told her about this post she let me know that the apples make it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients in the spinach. Something about acidity levels or something. She gave that to us for free.
1 c apple/cherry-apple cider
14 oz spinach (1 bag)
1/4 c roasted chestnuts, chopped
pinch of sea salt
In a saucepan, reduce the cider to 1/4. Add spinach, chestnuts, salt. Toss until wilted. Serve immediately.
Do you love sweet potatoes? I never did. That is, until one day when I was given a baked sweet potato with a little butter, salt and pepper. That’s all. Then I loved sweet potatoes.
Until that day the only sweet potatoes I was every served were doused in brown sugar and marshmallows. Not that brown sugar and marshmallows are a bad thing. I just don’t like them in my sweet potatoes.
So while I waited until an embarrassingly late age to realize that sweet potatoes can be served without all the added sweet, I now adore the things. So I was super excited when Erin of Prudence Pennywise chose the sweet potato biscuits for Tuesdays with Dorie! These were not the huge uber-fluffy biscuits we have become accostomed to, rather they are smaller but still light feeling and packed with sweet potato flavor! I liked mine with a little butter and honey.
You can head on over to Prudence Pennywise for the recipe or buy the book…
My stomach is grumbling just writing this post. I really love pho.
Back when I was in Texas, College Station was a small town with a high population of international graduate students. What do those two things have to do with pho? Let me tell you: there was a really great pho place the Vietnamese kids would take me to when working on school projects. It was easy to find because it was a small town.
Their parents would beat their hands when they were first learning to use chopsticks and held them incorrectly. Consequently, their chopstick form is far superior to mine. But I don’t care because I still enjoy using chopsticks but I didn’t have pain to go along with it.
I was going to say that the best part about pho is the toppings. But then I remembered the broth. I love pho broth. But I love pho toppings. I don’t know which is the best part.
Maybe the best part is that my mom (who is allergic to everything…even celery) can eat pho. It is hard to make tasty chicken stock without celery. Enter pho. And I never even realized this until I made pho myself this month which got me really excited!!!
No, I think it’s the toppings. I have so much fun just adding them!
As you might have noticed, this month’s Daring Cooks challenge was to make Vietnamese pho and I loved it! Jaden over at the Steamy Kitchen hosted the challenge in celebration of her new cookbook. The cookbook (I’ve heard) has a lot of really great, quick Asian-inspired meals in it, and it has a faster pho recipe in there. But if you want to take the long route, you can head over to this recipe on Jaden’s site. I made the long one and absolutely loved it.
I made chicken pho, but there is also beef and shrimp pho. My favorite eating out is the meatballs, but I don’t want to make this at home because I’m afraid to find out what they put in those amazingly tasty meatballs!
So you might think this post is winding down and coming to an end at this point…but if you do then you’re wrong! That’s because this month we had a bonus challenge: dessert wontons!
While base recipe was for chocolate wontons, we were highly encouraged to play around with fillings, and in light of the fall season, I decided to make Pumpkin Spice Wontons with Brandy Cream Sauce. Oh. My. These were good.
To make the wontons, I combined the following:
1 c pumpkin puree
1/3 c mascapone cheese
1/4 c dark brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmegpinch allspice
pinch salt
And then I just put a little in the wonton wrappers, folded them as per the picture on the back of the wonton wrapper package, and fried them in vegetable oil.
The brandy cream sauce is actually pretty easy to make, and a great use of leftover egg yolks! I’ll leave you with this recipe. Please make and enjoy!
Brandy Cream Sauce
1/2 c cream
2 T brandy
raisins (optional)
2 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
2 T butter, cut into 4 pieces
Bring the cream, brandy, and (if you’re using them) raisins to boil in a saucepan. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat egg yolks and suger until combined.
When cream starts to boil, slowly pour into the yolk/sugar mixture to temper. Pour this back into the saucepan and cook on low heat until it reaches your desired thickness.
Remove from heat, and wait approximately 10 s. Add butter and quickly stir to combine. (The sauce is allwed to cool slightly before butter addition to keep the butter from separating.)
Enjoy!
This is a difficult post for me to write. Difficult because it is hard to judge a recipe when you run out of butter. Yes. You heard me right.
Run. Out. Of. Butter.
Please don’t judge.
Anyway, I had the full butter in the muffins, but the crumb topping had a mere Tbsp of butter (rather than the 5 it called for).
The result? They were good. I ate and enjoyed them. Super easy to make (which is always a plus). But…(and take this for what it’s worth–I did run out of butter…) I have to admit they are not my favorite. I prefer pumpkin muffins. Or lemon poppyseed muffins. Or blueberry muffins. Strawberry muffins. Chocolate muffins. Apple muffins!
Oh dear. Now I have that ridiculous youtube muffins video in my head. You know the one? If not, don’t worry–your life is probably the better for it.
Until about a week ago, I did not know chestnuts were eaten by humans. In my mind, they were among the ranks of acorns. And those poisonous red berries that always look so pretty.
“But Charli,” you say, “There are whole songs written about chestnuts. Roasting chestnuts! On open fires! Did you not realize at any point in your lifetime of singing such songs that people eat the things?!” My answer, dear readers, is a humble “no.” To me, edible chestnuts were no different than “Frosty the Snowman,” a “Yellow Submarine,” or “Fuzzy Wuzzie” (the hairless bear): things that bring you much joy in the singing, but also things that obviously are not real. Obviously.
So you can imagine my shock to realize that yes, chestnuts are edible, and even more importantly yes, people do actually eat them. Unbelievable!
Upon this revelation, I did what any normal, computer literate person would do. I reached out to the internet to show me the way.
Apparently all it takes to roast chestnuts (once you have turned the oven on to 425) is to cut through their shell (which I found remarkable easy to do with just a steak knife. In different places on the internet, people tell you different things about this. Some places recommend cutting in an “X” while some just tell you to do a single straight line. I did about half and half, and as expected, it was easier to peel the ones with the “X.” A little bit more work at the beginning saves a little bit of work at the end, but really this is a matter of personal preference.
Then you throw the little suckers on a baking sheet and toss them in the oven for 20-40 minutes. To me, that sounds like a large time discrepancy, but a lot depends on the size of your chestnuts and your desired done-ness. After you pull them out, let them cool slightly and then peel them before they get completely cool. Word on the street is that they are harder to peel in the ‘completely cooled’ state. Also, you may have noticed (via my pictures) that I did this on a SilPat. In retrospect, this was silly and unnecessary, but you never know what might happen when cooking magical, mythical things like chestnuts.
So what do you do with roasted chestnuts (other than eating them straight, of course)? That’s what I’m aiming to find out. I’ll be posting my new favorite way to have them shortly but until then, tell me: How do you like your chestnuts?
