There is something to be said about waking up early. I have always been a night owl myself, staying up late, often doing nothing on the internet, and eventually going to bed because I know I should, not because I'm necessarily tired. The mornings are the time when I'm not talkative, but I'm never really grumpy. Lately I haven't been sleeping as well or as long. I woke up this morning sometime between four or five when an ambulance drove down my street. I tried watching a movie, thinking I would fall back asleep, instead watching it through and feeling awake. So I got up, got ready and headed to the grocery store. Walking in the city at 7 am on a Sunday is this crazy thing. The street that is normally filled with speeding cars is still and silent. It feels almost like it all belongs to you, as you feel like the only one around for miles. As the sky lightened the crows called out to me. Even the grocery store felt different. When I arrived the store the employees were stocking the shelves, and I felt almost as if I shouldn't be there. I always associate early mornings with travel, as it seems to be the only time I wake up early. So mornings to me are filled with adventure, unsure of where the day is going to take you.
My plan when I went to the grocery store was to get ingredients for macaroni and cheese. I wanted to make a recipe I knew and something I could make ahead of time and then put in the oven without me having to fuss over it as I was going to watch the Academy Awards with some friends. I've taken them pretty seriously over the years, filling out my ballot for who I want/think will win. I tear up when I watch certain acceptance speeches, and watch them on youtube for fun sometimes. So yes, the Academy Awards are a big deal to me. There are many similar homemade macaroni and cheese recipes out there, mine is adopted from Ina Garten's. I was especially excited to make it this time because Trader Joe's just started selling a Cheddar-Gruyère Mélange.
Ina Garten's Macaroni & Cheese
(Serving Size: 4-6)
Ingredients:
1/2 lb macaroni
1 pint whole milk
5 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 oz Gruyère cheese, grated
4 oz extra sharp cheddar, grated (or use 10 oz. of the mélange)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp salt
4-5 slices of fresh white bread crumbs.
Preheat the oven to 375°. Boil pasta. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small sauce pan, until it begins to steam, don't let it boil. Melt 3 tbsp of butter in a large pot and then add flour (also known as a roux). Cook over low heat for about 2 minutes, whisking. Continue to stir while adding in the hot milk, cooking for a minute or two more. It should be smooth and slightly thickened. Take off heat, add cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well, coating all the pasta. Pour into glass baking dish. Melt the remaining butter, combine them with fresh bread crumbs, slightly browning. Sprinkle on top and bake for 30-35 minutes. If made ahead, add the breadcrumbs right before baking, and bake for an additional 10 minutes or so.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
A Day Off In The Kitchen
First: My new favorite "midnight" snack (as in I come home from work at 9pm and am still hungry after being fed dinner) is sautéed medjool dates in olive oil and then sprinkled with fleur de sel, or if you're me and the two grocery stores you go to don't sell it, coarse kosher salt. Last week at my work we had a special event and served them as a sort of amuse-bouche, a precursor to the first course that each table got a bowl of. After the dinner service I was snacking on them and they were easily my favorite thing of the night (and that's saying a lot as there was fried kale and spicy tuna rolls). So I had to make them myself. And I had to add a cheese to accompany it, so I went with manchego. It's pretty mild as far as cheeses go, but I think it went well with the dates.
My first memories of pesto are from when I was very young. When we would have family over for a dinner in the summertime, my dad would grill salmon and make pesto to top it with. I liked salmon from a very young age, but to put a green sauce on top of it was something gross to me. Somewhere down the line I fell in love with pesto on pasta and eventually tried it on salmon. A year or two ago I was spending a Sunday afternoon going through my parents cookbooks and flagging recipes, a common event I would partake in (but rarely executed making the recipes). This was around the time that I fell in love with the Joy of Cooking, and saw a recipe for pesto lasagna. It was like a lightbulb went off. Why had I never thought of combining these two wonderful things? On Monday I had both school and work off for the holiday so I decided to spend it in the kitchen. When I looked in my copy of Joy, an older version, it lacked the recipe, but, with no fear, I concocted my own and I present it to you here:
Pesto Lasagna
Ingredients:
(Serving Size: 6)
11 oz. pesto (Fresh pesto is great, but if you're in a rush/lazy like me, use Trader Joe's Genova Pesto)
1/4 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup marinara sauce (optional, but it adds a nice additional flavor)
1 1/2 cups ricotta
5 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano
12 oz mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb. lasagna noodles (I used Trader Joe's No Boil-Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles)
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small sauce pan, add pesto and half-and-half on low heat. This is to thin out the pesto slightly. Keep a close eye on this as the oil will begin to separate if heated too long. While waiting grate cheese. Once finished, pour a thin layer of sauce into a 7x11 glass baking dish. Then add a layer of noodles. Next add the ricotta, spreading evenly, followed by the two other cheeses. Pour a layer of sauce over the cheese, add noodles, cheese, and repeat for three or so more layers. The top the lasagna should be topped with sauce (I used store bought marinara sauce) and a little cheese. A small amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano should be saved to sprinkle over the top later. Let sit for ten minutes to allow noodles to absorb liquid. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Around 25 minutes, sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese.
For dessert, I made Molly Wizenberg's Winning Hearts & Minds Chocolate Cake, and it was as heavenly as she had described it in her book. (unsalted butter and Ghiradelli 60% chips both work for this recipe)
My first memories of pesto are from when I was very young. When we would have family over for a dinner in the summertime, my dad would grill salmon and make pesto to top it with. I liked salmon from a very young age, but to put a green sauce on top of it was something gross to me. Somewhere down the line I fell in love with pesto on pasta and eventually tried it on salmon. A year or two ago I was spending a Sunday afternoon going through my parents cookbooks and flagging recipes, a common event I would partake in (but rarely executed making the recipes). This was around the time that I fell in love with the Joy of Cooking, and saw a recipe for pesto lasagna. It was like a lightbulb went off. Why had I never thought of combining these two wonderful things? On Monday I had both school and work off for the holiday so I decided to spend it in the kitchen. When I looked in my copy of Joy, an older version, it lacked the recipe, but, with no fear, I concocted my own and I present it to you here:
Pesto Lasagna
Ingredients:
(Serving Size: 6)
11 oz. pesto (Fresh pesto is great, but if you're in a rush/lazy like me, use Trader Joe's Genova Pesto)
1/4 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup marinara sauce (optional, but it adds a nice additional flavor)
1 1/2 cups ricotta
5 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano
12 oz mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb. lasagna noodles (I used Trader Joe's No Boil-Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles)
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small sauce pan, add pesto and half-and-half on low heat. This is to thin out the pesto slightly. Keep a close eye on this as the oil will begin to separate if heated too long. While waiting grate cheese. Once finished, pour a thin layer of sauce into a 7x11 glass baking dish. Then add a layer of noodles. Next add the ricotta, spreading evenly, followed by the two other cheeses. Pour a layer of sauce over the cheese, add noodles, cheese, and repeat for three or so more layers. The top the lasagna should be topped with sauce (I used store bought marinara sauce) and a little cheese. A small amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano should be saved to sprinkle over the top later. Let sit for ten minutes to allow noodles to absorb liquid. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Around 25 minutes, sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese.
For dessert, I made Molly Wizenberg's Winning Hearts & Minds Chocolate Cake, and it was as heavenly as she had described it in her book. (unsalted butter and Ghiradelli 60% chips both work for this recipe)
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Christmas Cookies, Take Two
First, I wanted to share two other recipes I tried in the recent weeks that I didn't blog about but recommend: Rosemary Lime Cocktails and Chai Glazed Muffins. My housemate loves Joy the Baker, and really, how can you not. My housemate swears by her recipes, and one day, while looking for dessert, stumbled upon this. When I came home from work with the ingredients I was incredibly impatient with the rosemary syrup part as it had to cool and I wanted the drinks pronto. But they were worth the wait. I baked the muffins on the night I finished my finals as a form of indulgence and reward after the week of studying and overall dislike. The reason I didn't blog about them was because they didn't taste like chai to me, instead like spice cake, which is also good. So they're tasty, just not as wonderful as I was expecting.
Christmas cookies hold tradition with multiple members of my family. Before my uncle, it was with my mom, and to this day I still make cookies with her. As a child, I loved brown sugar, plain and from the bag. There was something mystical about it to me, like it was this whole other entity from "regular" sugar. It was sticky, it was sweet, and would ball up in the bag but fall apart at a pinch. My mother recently told me a story that when I was very young, she was in the kitchen, baking cookies, and all of a sudden she saw this small hand reach up and grab some brown sugar. So she picked me up and put me on a chair so I could help her with the cookies, all the while sneaking more brown sugar. These cookies however, do not contain brown sugar. The "secret ingredient" is peanut butter, something that my mom loves as much as I love brown sugar. They are by far one of the easiest things to make with the highest expected outcome. The only tricky part is getting the cookies out of the pan and onto wax paper before they harden, because they harden fast.
Chocolate No-Bakes
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
7 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 1/2 cups quick oats
In a sauteuse pan, add the butter, cocoa, milk and sugar. Turn the stove on medium/medium-high, to melt and combine, stirring. Bring to a boil for one minute, then add peanut butter, constantly stirring. Remove from stove and add oats, while still stirring. (It often helps to have the peanut butter and oats pre-measured so you can move quickly.) Spoon onto wax paper and let dry. These cookies tend to stay moist, but can be dry and crumbly on the edges, so be careful with that.
Christmas cookies hold tradition with multiple members of my family. Before my uncle, it was with my mom, and to this day I still make cookies with her. As a child, I loved brown sugar, plain and from the bag. There was something mystical about it to me, like it was this whole other entity from "regular" sugar. It was sticky, it was sweet, and would ball up in the bag but fall apart at a pinch. My mother recently told me a story that when I was very young, she was in the kitchen, baking cookies, and all of a sudden she saw this small hand reach up and grab some brown sugar. So she picked me up and put me on a chair so I could help her with the cookies, all the while sneaking more brown sugar. These cookies however, do not contain brown sugar. The "secret ingredient" is peanut butter, something that my mom loves as much as I love brown sugar. They are by far one of the easiest things to make with the highest expected outcome. The only tricky part is getting the cookies out of the pan and onto wax paper before they harden, because they harden fast.
Chocolate No-Bakes
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
7 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 1/2 cups quick oats
In a sauteuse pan, add the butter, cocoa, milk and sugar. Turn the stove on medium/medium-high, to melt and combine, stirring. Bring to a boil for one minute, then add peanut butter, constantly stirring. Remove from stove and add oats, while still stirring. (It often helps to have the peanut butter and oats pre-measured so you can move quickly.) Spoon onto wax paper and let dry. These cookies tend to stay moist, but can be dry and crumbly on the edges, so be careful with that.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
New Year, New Thoughts
A goal I have for this year is to cook and blog more. Each time I do it, it's rewarding for me, so I want to try and be more consistent. I have been cooking these last three months, but some things just haven't turned out wonderful. Not to say they were bad, they were just less than inspiring, thus not blog worthy. But I have read on more than one occasion that those experiences are just as important to document, so I will try.
I have just started reading Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. I first stumbled across a photograph of hers on flickr about nine months ago, which lead me to her blog, Orangette. This must make me seem very out of the game as far as food blogs go, as she had had hers for eight years and her book was published just over two years ago, but nevertheless, I found it, I found her, and am now greatly enjoying her book. Reading it has made me want to write more, cook more, eat more, and with the new year it's time to do it!
Right now a million things are coming to me that I want to say that are not entirely related. At the moment I just finished a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs with a slice of pound cake. Pound cake is something I continue to forget about and then am reminded again of its simple and delicate taste that is perfect for so many different recipes and occasions. I have some leftovers of it as I made a chocolate fondue on new years and cut up cubes for dipping. The fondue was a simple recipe of semi-sweet chocolate chips and evaporated milk, melted in a sauce pan and then transfered to a fondue pot complete with tea light. But I must of over cooked the chocolate initially as it started to burn in the fondue pot. A standby recipe I have been making every two weeks or so is Parmesan Crusted Chicken. My grandmother first made it when my mother was in the hospital. It was one of those aha! moments when you realize that even your grandmother uses recipes as simple as those printed on a mayonnaise jar. I also made a recipe from this, which involved 40 cloves of garlic and chicken, and it turned out okay, except the recipe was wrong and the chicken had to cook an additional 30 minutes, which was just frustrating. There may have been a smattering of other recipes as well, but nothing comes to mind. I remade some recipes, like the scampi, which I also find to be important. The more you make something, the more you get to know it and allows for creativity once the knowledge is built. Last night I made a recipe I created myself (with my job as inspiration) which was Honey Mustard Chicken. But, as with many first tries, it's not quite there yet. The sauce didn't adhere to the chicken as well as I had hoped and I had to add additional sauce to the top after baking to add flavor. Working at the Jewish retirement home and eating dinner at the end of my shift is something I never expected to enjoy. Yes, the food can be bland and dull at times, but when the chefs get it right (as in make something the residents probably won't like) it's great. Plus I have been introduced to so many dishes that I had never heard of or finally tried things I just had never tasted (lamb kofta, corned beef).
With these thoughts, I bid you adieu, and hope to be writing again soon.
I have just started reading Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. I first stumbled across a photograph of hers on flickr about nine months ago, which lead me to her blog, Orangette. This must make me seem very out of the game as far as food blogs go, as she had had hers for eight years and her book was published just over two years ago, but nevertheless, I found it, I found her, and am now greatly enjoying her book. Reading it has made me want to write more, cook more, eat more, and with the new year it's time to do it!
Right now a million things are coming to me that I want to say that are not entirely related. At the moment I just finished a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs with a slice of pound cake. Pound cake is something I continue to forget about and then am reminded again of its simple and delicate taste that is perfect for so many different recipes and occasions. I have some leftovers of it as I made a chocolate fondue on new years and cut up cubes for dipping. The fondue was a simple recipe of semi-sweet chocolate chips and evaporated milk, melted in a sauce pan and then transfered to a fondue pot complete with tea light. But I must of over cooked the chocolate initially as it started to burn in the fondue pot. A standby recipe I have been making every two weeks or so is Parmesan Crusted Chicken. My grandmother first made it when my mother was in the hospital. It was one of those aha! moments when you realize that even your grandmother uses recipes as simple as those printed on a mayonnaise jar. I also made a recipe from this, which involved 40 cloves of garlic and chicken, and it turned out okay, except the recipe was wrong and the chicken had to cook an additional 30 minutes, which was just frustrating. There may have been a smattering of other recipes as well, but nothing comes to mind. I remade some recipes, like the scampi, which I also find to be important. The more you make something, the more you get to know it and allows for creativity once the knowledge is built. Last night I made a recipe I created myself (with my job as inspiration) which was Honey Mustard Chicken. But, as with many first tries, it's not quite there yet. The sauce didn't adhere to the chicken as well as I had hoped and I had to add additional sauce to the top after baking to add flavor. Working at the Jewish retirement home and eating dinner at the end of my shift is something I never expected to enjoy. Yes, the food can be bland and dull at times, but when the chefs get it right (as in make something the residents probably won't like) it's great. Plus I have been introduced to so many dishes that I had never heard of or finally tried things I just had never tasted (lamb kofta, corned beef).
With these thoughts, I bid you adieu, and hope to be writing again soon.
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