{made for dinner} Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

We made this for dinner last week and it was so good I thought I'd share. We've been trying to add more pork into our dinner rotation as a way to mix things up, and when I saw this on Pinterest I knew we had to try it. It's definitely sweet, so if you don't like sweet meat it'd probably not for you, but otherwise I recommend giving it a go. Time is really the only factor here (it's a slow cooker recipe), but it couldn't be easier (just throw everything into the crock pot). Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) boneless pork tenderloin (or regular pork loin)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:

Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.

Recipe courtesy of Let's Dish.

our (secretly dairy-free) Thanksgiving

I was really (realllly) hoping Emma would be able to tolerate dairy in time for Thanksgiving, but it sadly wasn't meant to be. Jared and I debated our options - make everything as we normally would (chock full 'o dairy) and deplete my pumped reserves so Emma could still get dairy-free milk for a couple of days, or try to do Thanksgiving completely dairy-free. Neither option was all that appealing, and in the end we decided to chance it and have a dairy-free Thanksgiving. The only thing was that we had to be able to fool my dad - a man who for the past two years has scowled when we told him we got an organic turkey. Having to explain that he wouldn't be able to tell the difference thanks to "vegan buttery sticks" and almond milk would have gone over about as well as raisins on Halloween... so we decided it was best to just not tell him. And by some miracle, we actually managed to fool him! (Shhh!) Here's what we made:

• The same turkey as last year but with Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks (EBVBS) instead of butter
• Whole berry cranberry sauce from Whole Foods (canned... yes, I'm a cheater)
• Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing - I used this recipe for dairy-free cornbread, and substituted EBVBS for the butter and MimicCreme Almond & Cashew Cream for the heavy cream. It was a little on the dry side, so I added some more chicken stock and that did the trick.
• Not Your Mama's Green Bean Casserole - This was easily my favorite dish of the whole meal. I wouldn't shut up about it. Dairy or no dairy, it's the best green been casserole I've ever had. Like most of the reviewers, I ended up using French's Fried Onions after burning the onions the way Alton says to cook them. Once again, I subbed EBVBS for the butter and MimicCreme Almond & Cashew Cream for the half and half. We definitely couldn't notice the lack of dairy in this one.
• Creamy Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes - These were the real low point of our dairy-free Thanksgiving experiment. The recipe called for faux sour cream, and we used Wayfare "We Can't Say It's Sour Cream." It also called for white potatoes instead of russet, and ours were a little more green than white. The whole thing turned into a green, tangy mess. We told my dad that we had tried a new recipe and it didn't turn out so well (not a lie) and he was a sport and tried them anyway. Jared and I didn't even bother. That's how bad they were.
• Pillsbury Crescent Rolls - Dairy-free! Who knew?!?
• Vegan Pumpkin Pie - This was my first time making pumpkin pie from scratch (well the filling anyway) so my only comparison is store-bought, but it was really yummy. Vegan baked goods can sometimes have that "not quite right" taste or texture to them, but that wasn't the case with this recipe at all.

Hopefully that's the last time we ever have to have a dairy-free Thanksgiving, but it's good to know that it can be done and still be super tasty. Besides, this funny little one is totally worth it...

{made for dinner} recipe round-up

I've been too busy this week to keep up with my Google Reader (and even Pinterest - gasp!), so instead of Link Love I thought I'd recap a few of the recipes we've made lately. I found all of these on Pinterest, and am happy to report that they all turned out very well.

• Avocado Pesto Pasta on Chef Chloe - Good dairy-free pasta recipes have been surprisingly hard to come by, so my taste buds perked up when I saw this unique take on a traditional pesto pasta. It's super easy to make, and the avocado makes it very smooth and creamy. I was worried the dish would end up tasting too much like avocado, but it's surprisingly subtle and is balanced very nicely by the basil. It does make the pasta pretty rich, though, so small servings are more than enough.

• Pasta with Asparagus, Pancetta, and Pine Nuts on Cooking Light - This pasta is also very tasty, even without the parm (Jared added it to his... lucky guy). The pine nuts and pancetta cook while the water and pasta are boiling, making this a fairly quick weeknight dish. And you could easily substitute bacon for the pancetta.

• Baked Turkey Teriyaki Meatballs on Tasty Kitchen - These are supposed to be little appetizers for a party, but we made them regular sized and served them over rice and steamed broccoli for dinner. I especially loved the teriyaki sauce, which could be used in a lot of different applications. I'd be interested to try these with ground pork, for a slightly less healthy but tastier alternative.

I hope you all have a great weekend! We're heading up to Seattle for the going away party of two very dear friends who are leaving the rainy Pacific Northwest for sunny California. I'll be very jealous of them until approximately next July. Oh, and I had a wonderful 30th birthday. Pics and a party recap coming soon! (While I'm still 30, I promise.) :-)

Halloween sandwich cookies

Hold on to your hats, folks... this may or may not be the start of me getting back to regular blogging. I'm putting it in writing so that it might come true. I'm really trying hard to find time to sew, craft, bake - whatever gets my creative juices flowing and doesn't take a lot of time - which means I may actually have stuff to blog about. Hooray!

I hope you all had a lovely, treat-filled Halloween. I did my best to get into the spirit of things, which was a lot easier this year now that I can deflect my costume wearing obligations onto my daughter. (Reason #143 to have a kid.) The mom's group I belong to had a Halloween get together on Sunday, and we signed up to bring Jared's suuuuper yummy chili and a dessert. (I swear I've blogged about the chili before, but I can't seem to find it, so you'll have to trust me on its awesomeness until I can get the recipe posted.) I'm still doing the no dairy thing, which makes dessert a bit challenging, but I've been determined to make a dairy-free version of the funfetti sandwich cookies that are all over Pinterest, and thought this would be a perfect opportunity. Here's my version...

Ingredients:

• 1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix*
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Chocolate sprinkles
• Halloween sprinkles
• Duncan Hines chocolate frosting*

*You can use a different brand if you don't need them to be dairy free. Duncan Hines just happens to be dairy free. (Yay!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, mix cake mix, eggs, oil, and baking powder with a wooden spoon until combined. Add sprinkles and mix. Drop a teaspoon of dough onto the prepared sheets, leaving an inch between each cookie. Bake for 7-8 minutes until cookie has set but has not yet browned, rotating the pans halfway through the baking. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Frost bottom cookie, place 2nd cookie on top. Roll in assorted sprinkles.

They turned out very yummy, and if I hadn't made them I wouldn't have guessed they were dairy-free. And the recipe would be super easy to adapt for a variety of holidays. I'm still looking forward to making the original Funfetti cookies, but these are a nice alternative until I can have the real thing.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Emma was a duck for Halloween... and if I do say so myself, she's pretty much the cutest little duck I've ever seen.

no moo for me

I mentioned in my Link Love post a couple weeks ago that I had to give up dairy for a while because Emma is super sensitive to milk protein. We thought we just had a really fussy baby on our hands, but after describing her symptoms (I'll spare you the details) my lactation consultant suggested cutting out dairy to see if they improve. A life without dairy sounded truly awful. Just look at my bio... cheese and ice cream are among my favorite things in the whole world! BUT, this is my baby we're talking about - and if cutting out dairy meant a happier, less gassy, etc. (trust me you don't want me to elaborate) baby, then it was worth it. So off I went, kicking and screaming (okay, mostly just whining and pouting) into the land of the dairy-free. And within 48 hours, Emma was like a whole new baby. She slept better during the day, she fussed WAY less, and her diapers were far more pleasant to change - well, as pleasant as that sort of thing can be. As much as I hated cutting out dairy, I found myself wishing we'd known to try it much sooner than 2 months in.

So what can't I eat? More than you'd think... milk, butter, cheese, ice cream... the list goes on and on and on. My biggest challenges so far have been eating out and traveling. I now have to be that person who asks what stuff was cooked in, does it have this, does it have that. It's not the asking I mind so much, it's the having to make sure all the things I really want to be included are left off the plate. It's amazing how much stuff includes dairy. Stuff you wouldn't think - like BBQ potato chips. I will say that the FDA has done a fantastic job of updating the labeling requirements for packaged foods. It very clearly states on most foods "CONTAINS MILK." Very helpful.

Where does that leave me? Well, wouldn't you know it - Emma's also sensitive to soy (which is fairly common among babies with a milk protein intolerance), which is unfortunate because there seems to be a soy substitute for almost every dairy thing you can think of. So, I replaced regular milk for almond milk in my cereal. My favorite brand I've tried is Almond Breeze (Original.) I replaced coconut ice cream for the real thing (a poor substitute, but it helps partially fill a gaping void.) If we absolutely have to use butter in something we use these Earth Balance vegan "buttery sticks." I've found myself pulling Elie Krieger's book The Food You Crave off the shelf quite a bit because healthier recipes often get that way because they exclude dairy.

I'm nearly 2 months in, and while it has gotten easier, I still have to fight the urge to start gnawing on the big block of Tillamook cheddar that's currently in our fridge. I thought an upside to all this would be that the rest of my pregnancy weight would fall off, but I've been hitting the coconut milk ice cream pretty hard in an effort to curb my dairy cravings, so I've only lost another pound or 2. I really am going to have to start working out again. Depressing.

I've read that a lot of babies grow out of their milk protein intolerance around 6 months, which would be just in time for the holidays. I've already let Santa know that all this girl wants for Christmas is a pint of Haagen Dazs in one hand, some baked brie in the other, and a gigantic chocolate milkshake to wash it all down with. Yep, definitely going to have to start working out again.

PS... did you know that Oreos are completely dairy free??! It's sort of frightening that a chocolate wafer and cream cookie has zero dairy in it... but not so frightening that I won't eat them. Let's not get crazy here, folks.

grill, baby, grill

The weather in Portland lately has been absolute perfection, so we've been grilling a ton.  Or should I say Jared has been grilling a ton. Did I mention he cooks dinner for us pretty much every night? Did I also mention he's the best husband ever? I did?  Well, it bears repeating after the deliciousness he cooked up this week. We have a nice arrangement really... I pin new recipes to try, and he makes them for us. Here's what he made...

• Chicken Parm Burgers from Annie's Eats - Jared looooooves Chicken Parm, so when I saw these I knew we had to try them. They were soooooo good and easy enough for a weeknight meal. (A note about using ground meat - if you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I HIGHLY recommend getting the meat grinder attachment. We started grinding our own meat a couple years ago and it makes a huge difference. In our experience, freshly ground meat stays much juicier when cooked than store-bought ground meat.)

• Garlic Lemon Chicken Kabobs from Annie's Eats - Clearly I've been a little obsessed with Annie's Eats lately, but for good reason - she makes some darn good food! And these kabobs were no exception. So juicy and flavorful. The garlic isn't too heavy if you're someone who doesn't like a ton of garlic. We had them with rice pilaf, but skipped the tzakiki sauce because Jared's not a fan (I, on the other hand, am a BIG fan). Anyway, just make 'em... you won't be disappointed.

photo courtesy of Annie's Eats

• Ginger Soy Lime Marinated Shrimp from Bobby Flay - We usually do an herb marinade when we grill shrimp, but we were getting pretty bored with that so we set out to find another recipe that would be just as easy and just as tasty. This recipe definitely fit the bill. It may even replace the herb marinade as our go-to for shrimp. The combination of flavors was really pleasing - not too sweet, not too salty.  Just perfect, really. We'll be making these again very soon.

image courtesy of Food Network

PS... sorry for the lack of a Link Love post last Friday. Emma decided she didn't want to nap last week so I didn't get much done. She's napping in the Moby as I type this so hopefully this week will go a bit more smoothly! :)

link love - 8.5.11

I got way behind on my Google Reader this week so instead of my usual recent links I'm going to share with you a few recipes we made this week from Annie's Eats - one of my absolute favorite food blogs. She has a whole category for quick weeknight meals aptly labeled, "Quick Weeknight Meals," which I pinned a bunch of stuff from last weekend because we were getting pretty bored with our standard weeknight fare. Here's what we ended up making...

• Chicken Artichoke Pesto Calzones - These were really really good, but they weren't exactly quick. I think the thing that made this a tricky weeknight recipe was having to go back and forth between the outdoor grill and the kitchen. It would have been a lot easier if we'd grilled the chicken the night before. (The recipe doesn't say how much chicken you need.  We grilled 2 pieces but only needed 1.)  Also, we didn't have a pizza stone (we try not to have anything in the kitchen that only has one use) so we used the back of a baking sheet. Be sure to put something underneath the sheet while you're cooking in case any of the cheese drips out. We learned that one the hard way and nearly set off the smoke alarm.

• Pasta alla Vodka - The next thing we made was this yummy and simple pasta. You can use any type of noodle you want, so we used fettucini. The sauce was delicious, and while the dish didn't blow me away or anything, it does make for an excellent go-to weeknight pasta.

• Teriyaki Grilled Pork Chops - These were definitely my favorite of the 3 new meals. They were super easy and super tasty.  We both agreed they were the juiciest pork chops we've ever had. Such a nice break from chicken and an absolutely perfect summer weeknight dish.

I scream, you scream...

With all this talk about ice cream, I figured it was time to share with you my all-time favorites.  If you're dieting or trying to cut back on sugar or just generally hungry and nowhere near any ice cream, please forgive me.

• Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip - Ahhh, an oldie but a goodie.  This one definitely wins in the nostalgia category. It's what we grew up eating, fighting over who had dibs on those last precious spoonfuls. The ice cream is incredibly creamy and the way the chips get stuck in your molars is like a little chocolate gift that keeps on giving. It's the ice cream of my childhood and it will always hold a special place in my heart - and my freezer.

• Edy's/Dreyer's Mint Cookie Crunch - Clearly I have a thing for mint chocolate. This flavor started out as a limited edition American Idol flavor called Mint Karaoke Cookie. Jared and I loved it so much we would buy 2 or 3 cartons at a time because we feared they'd stop selling it. They eventually re-released it as a regular flavor. Whew! The ice cream in this one could be a little denser if they really want to achieve ice cream perfection, but overall the combo of Oreos and the mint ice cream is truly fantastic.

• Haagen Dazs Five: Milk Chocolate - This ice cream is exactly what chocolate ice cream should be. Simple, creamy, not too rich, not too sweet. I have yet to find a better grocery store chocolate ice cream.

•  Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache at Salt & Straw - This picture doesn't even come close to doing this ice cream justice. I dare say it's the best ice cream I've ever had. Salt & Straw is a new ice cream stand here in Portland, and for better or for worse it's located only one neighborhood over from mine. Their claim to fame is being "farm to cone" - so very Portland. The unconventional ice cream flavors garnered a lot of hype when S & S first opened up, but this place - and this flavor - completely lived up to the buzz. This ice cream alone might be worth a trip to Portland. The chunks of homemade almond roca combined with the ribbons of chocolate ganache make for the perfect marriage of crunchy and smooth. It's just ridiculously good. No words will do it justice. (PS... try it by itself on a cone the first time.  The second time, pair it with a scoop of the Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons. Your mouth will thank you.)

memorial day desserts

We went over to our neighbors' for a bbq Sunday, which gave me a much needed excuse to make a couple of the yummy desserts I've found on Pinterest.  The first thing I made was S'Mores Cookie Bars, and they were even tastier and gooeyer than I hoped they'd be (my next door neighbor actually described them as "life-changing.") One thing I recommend doing is spraying your spoon or spatula with Pam before spreading out the marshmallow fluff... it made it MUCH easier to spread.

The second thing I made (because one dessert just wasn't enough) was Peanut Butter Cup Brownies. They're pretty much exactly how they sound - like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but with the added deliciousness of brownies. These were pretty easy to make, and though my centers didn't fall during cooling, I used the back of a 1/2 teaspoon to depress each one and that worked really well. They might be Jared's new favorite thing I bake, and my sister has made me promise to make them for her when she comes to visit later this month.

Overall, I loved both of these desserts and would definitely make them again. I highly recommend either one for your next get together, baking whim, or pregnancy induced sugar craving.

Peep strawberry cupcakes

My block had a potluck Easter dinner this year, so - naturally - I signed up to bring dessert.  And, as with most things, I went a bit overboard.  (Hey, I gotta take advantage of having time to take on crazy baking adventures before the baby comes!)

I'd been wanting to make Sprinkles strawberry cupcakes for a while now, and they seemed a bit Easter-ish, so that's where I started. You apparently have to follow the recipe from this YouTube video (click on "show more"), because the recipe posted on MarthaStewart.com and elsewhere is wrong.  Overall, I really liked the taste of these cupcakes - though I probably could have taken them out a minute or two earlier.  The frosting, on the other hand, was aaaaa-mazing.  I doubled the recipe for both the cupcakes and frosting, and instead of 7 cups of confectioners sugar I only used 6.  There, it's in writing... one time in my life I used less sugar than I was supposed to.  Any more and I felt like the sweetness would have overwhelmed the strawberry flavor.

Once everything was baked and mixed, it was time to decorate.  My mom has always made a Peep cake for Easter, so I decided to carry on the tradition - with a twist.  I smeared a bit of frosting on the bottom of a Peep, stuck it to the cupcake, piped drops of frosting around the Peep using an Ateco #32 piping tip, and finished with a pinch of sprinkles.

Since not everyone is a fan of Peeps, I made half with fresh strawberries on top instead of Peeps.  (While I may never understand these Peep-haters, I still want them to eat my cupcakes.)

I used the same basic approach to decorating the strawberry version...

I'm not going to lie, I took a break in the middle of writing this post to eat the very last Peep cupcake.  So sad to see them go.  Until next year my Peep friends...

{made for dinner} penne with two tomatoes and mozzarella

Finally, another post in this series!  I'm so excited to share this recipe with you because it's one of my all time favorite weeknight pasta dishes.  Penne with two tomatoes and mozzarella has all the ingredients for a perfect weeknight meal - simple, quick, and delicious.

Here's what you'll need:

• 6 oz fresh mozzarella cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 12 oz penne rigate
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes (I prefer cherry, but either will work)
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced (usually found in the produce aisle by the tomatoes)
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1/4 cup snipped chives

Place cheese pieces in the freezer (this will help the mozz keep its shape once you add it to the pasta later.)  In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente.  Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water; drain pasta and set aside.

In pasta pot, heat oil over medium-high.  Add the cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and pasta water.  Cook until cherry tomatoes soften, 2 to 4 minutes.

Add pasta, chilled cheese, and chives to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine.

That's it!  So easy.  The recipe usually makes enough for both of us to have a healthy portion, and for me to take some to work the next day for lunch.  It pairs great with a small side salad with balsamic dressing and bread (though it's filling enough we usually just have it on its own.)

Original recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart.

gooey corn flake holly wreaths

I first had these in the 2nd grade when I traded for them in the lunch room.  My mom tended to make fancier cookies (nut balls, thumbprints, etc.)... nothing as gooey and colorful as what my friend Melissa pulled out of her lunch bag.  It should tell you something that one of the many things I looked forward to about adulthood was getting to choose which Christmas cookies to make during the holidays, knowing that these would always make the list.

The recipe follows the same basic approach as making Rice Krispie treats, but the corn flakes and shape create a much more tender, though no less crunchy, texture.  And the Red Hots give it a nice seasonal twist.  Here's what you'll need:

• 1 (16 ounce) package large marshmallows
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring (much less if you're using gel food coloring)
• 4 1/2 cups cornflakes cereal (about half a box)
• 1 (2.25 ounce) package cinnamon red hot candies

The first step is to melt the marshmallows, butter, and vanilla over low heat.  You could add the food coloring at this point, too, but I prefer to wait until everything has melted together so I have better control over the color.

Go ahead and add the food coloring now if you haven't already.  Be sure to use less than the recommended amount if you're using gel food coloring.

Now you're ready to add the corn flakes.  (Mix them in gently.)

Here comes the tough part.  You'll want to work fast, and keep the mixture over very low heat while you work so it doesn't cool to a big clump.  There are two ways of going about assembling the wreaths - the over-achiever way, and the lazy way.  I opt for the lazy way, but if you're feeling up for a challenge, the over-achiever way produces some very cute treats (that actually look like wreaths.)

Here's the over-achiever way:

Portion warm cereal mixture evenly by using a 1/4 cup dry measure coated with cooking spray. Using sprayed fingers, quickly shape into individual wreaths. Dot with cinnamon candies, using prepared frosting to hold candies in place.  Store in single layer in airtight container.

Here's the lazy way (aka my way):

Take a spoonful of the mixture and drop it onto wax paper.  Stick the candies on while the mixture is still warm (so they'll stick).  Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container with wax paper between layers so they don't all stick together.

Whichever way you choose, they'll be delicious.

{Christmas 2010} food

Christmas food for us is all about tradition.  Well, sort of.  For the past few years we always had our fancy Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  It started out that way because we had to travel the day after Christmas and didn't want to deal with dishes and leftovers.  But since we weren't traveling this year, we decided to switch things up a bit.  Our fancy dinner (white bean tuscan soup followed by beef wellington) got moved to Christmas day, making room for a new tradition on Christmas Eve: Santa-boli!

Santa-boli is our usual stromboli with a couple dough cut-outs in holiday shapes.  (We discovered that cookie cutters are an excellent way to make a favorite meal into a holiday meal.)

For dessert, we had Christmas cookies:

Corn Flake Holly "Wreaths" (These will be getting a post all their own tomorrow)

Roll-out cookies with piped royal icing

I tried something a bit ambitious for the roll-out cookies this year... piping and flooding with royal icing.  They turned out great, but I don't know if I'd do it again next year because, holy moly, was it a pain in the rear.  I started with homemade white royal icing, then colored it in batches of green, red, and blue.  I thought I'd save myself a lot of hassle rinsing out the piping bag by using little squeeze bottles, but actually getting the icing into the bottles took forever.  There was also a lot of planning involved because I had to do all the piping first, then dilute the icing with a tiny bit of water to do the flooding.  If I wanted to pipe on top of flooding I had to make sure I hadn't already diluted that color.  Despite all this, I was still pretty excited about how each one looked as it was finished.  Very fancy and professional.  Not to mention delicious.  But I'm guessing next year with a 6 month old baby I'll be lucky to slap on some buttercream and sprinkles. :)

Fluffy White (the best frosting ever)

My mom has been making cakes with this frosting for pretty much my whole life.  For a girl who has a mild addiction to marshmallows, it really doesn't get any better than Betty Crocker's Fluffy White.  It's got a marshmallow fluff flavor but the texture is so light and well, fluffy... more meringue than melted marshmallows.  It's seriously, blissfully good.  But out of nowhere several years ago groceries stores stopped carrying it!  We searched high and low but couldn't find it anywhere.  (This, of course, only added to its appeal.)  So after a couple years of going without it I decided enough was enough, and scoured the internet for a retailer.  Thankfully, Amazon came through for me - the catch: I had to buy a whole case, which I gave to my very excited mother that year for Christmas.  It's is apparently the only way you can get the Fluffy White goodness anymore.  But of all things to have to buy by the case-ful, you could do a lot worse than this frosting.

While I was home for a few days in mid-December, my mom made sure to make our favorite childhood foods, including yellow cake with Fluffy White frosting.  This time, I documented the occasion...

One of the many beautiful things about this frosting is how easy it is to make... all you do is add boiling water to the mix, beat in the mixer, and voila - frosting perfection.

After much beater and spatula licking, it was time to frost the cake.  My mom put a layer of frosting between the cakes, then frosted the whole thing, making vertical stripes along the sides with the frosting spatula.

She topped off the cake with some coconut and raspberries to give it a nice holiday feel...

Dinner was great, but the cake was even better.  Trust me... order a case.  You won't be disappointed.

martha's super fudgy brownies

Sorry for not posting much over the past few weeks!  Life has been a little chaotic.  More on that later... Right now, it's brownie time.  Super Fudgy Brownie time, to be exact.  I first tried this recipe a couple years ago when I challenged myself to make brownies from scratch (the box kind is so tasty there seemed little need to go through the all the effort of homemade.)  If you've never had brownies from scratch before, the best way to think about them is like how you felt about cupcakes from scratch the first time you tried them.  Richer, denser, more luxurious... excellent, but lacking in the nostalgia of the ones your mom made courtesy of Duncan or Betty.  That being said, I haven't made brownies from a mix since I started making these, so that should tell you something about how good they are.

The name of these brownies couldn't be more accurate - they're like fudge in cake form.  So if you like fudge, you'll definitely like these brownies.  Here's what you'll need:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (see my note about chopping the chocolate in Step 3 below)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs

To make the brownies:

1 ) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter.  Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside.  (This step may seem like Martha's just over-complicating things, but I promise it's worth it.)

2 ) In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3 ) Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan.  (I've experimented with several different ways of chopping the chocolate and I've found the best way is to leave each square in its wrapper and give it a good whack with the flat side of a meat tenderizer - then empty the contents of the wrapper into the bowl and repeat with the next square.)

4 ) Add sugar; mix to combine.

5 ) Add eggs, and mix to combine.

6 ) Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix)

7 ) Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

8 ) Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes.

9 ) Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper).  (This is the point when you'll be glad you went through all that effort of prepping the pan!)

10 ) On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Enjoy!  :)

thanksgiving redux

If I had to score our Thanksgiving dinner this year I'd give it a solid B+.  There were a few things that could have been better, but I feel like we're getting much closer to a solid t-day lineup.  Here's the menu:

• Appetizers: Bonnie's Cheese Ball (see below for recipe) & Beecher's Cheddar with crackers
• Mashed potatoes
• Creamed Spinach
• Luby's Cornbread Dressing
• Cranberry Sauce
• Parker House Rolls
• Turkey (cooked in the Big Easy again)
• Dessert: Kentucky Pecan and Spirited Pumpkin pies from Random Order Coffeehouse

Bonnie's Cheese Ball...

I don't know if this is the real name of the recipe but we got it from my mom's friend Bonnie and that's what we've always called it.  It's so simple, yet so delicious.  I love any and all cheese, but this cheese in particular works really well as a Thanksgiving dinner warm-up act.

Basically all you do is mix together green pepper, onion, pineapple, and cream cheese then roll it in chopped pecans.  Easy peasy!

Here's the recipe:

• Ingredients:
  • 2  8 oz packages of cream cheese
  • 8 ¼ oz can of crushed pineapple (drained really well, using paper towels or a potato ricer - this step is very important or the cheese will be watery)
  • ¼  cup chopped green pepper (chopped small)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped onion
  • ½  teaspoon salt
  • Chopped pecans

1. Bring cream cheese to room temperature.
2. Add all ingredients.
3. Roll in chopped pecans.

Makes one big or two small balls.  Can be made up to 2 days in advance of serving.  Also freezes well.

Creamed spinach...

The mashed potatoes were kinda m'eh, so I won't bother writing about them.  We'll try again next year with those.  Onto the creamed spinach...

I've never been a big green bean casserole or brussel sprout fan, so I set out this year to find a good alternate green.  I hadn't really thought of spinach as an option, but we had creamed spinach during our amazing dinner at Lahaina Grill in Maui, and when I saw it listed under the Thanksgiving sides on Food Network I was sold.  The only thing I'd change about this recipe for next year is to use half of the red pepper flakes.  I like heat, but it overpowered the dish and left a pretty strong after burn.  Other than that, though, the dish was super tasty and I definitely plan to make it again next year.

Luby's Cornbread Dressing...

My friend Sarah is going to be disappointed to read this, but I wasn't crazy about this stuffing.  I prefer my stuffing to be more bread-like, with visible chunks of moist bread, and this was more like a casserole or egg bake (you add eggs to mixture before you pop it in the oven.)

Maybe I just didn't make it right, I don't know.  The flavor was really good, I just wasn't crazy about the texture.  I think for next year I'll go back to the last year's stuffing, Tyler Florence's Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing.

Cranberry Sauce...

I grew up eating canned cranberry sauce, so I wasn't quite sure what would be involved in making the real stuff from scratch.  Thankfully it was super easy.  The orange zest overpowered the cranberry flavor a bit more than I would have liked, so next year I'll probably reduce it to half an orange.

Parker House Rolls...

I loooove me some Flaky Grands, but when I saw this recipe in Food Network magazine for pull-apart dinner rolls from scratch I had to try them.

Oh man were these good.  They were so tasty and filling... like a little meal all by themselves.  The recipe made at least double the rolls we actually needed, so if you're not cooking for a lot of people I recommend halving the recipe.

Turkey...

Jared added a twist to his Simon & Garfunkel butter this year... bacon.  That's right - parsely, sage, rosemary, thyme, and bacon.  Yum!

After the butter was shoved under the skin, Jared popped it in the Big Easy for about an hour and a half... and voila!

Deeeeeelish.

Random Order Coffeehouse pies...

I know what you're thinking... store bought pies?  I have a blog about all things DIY and I went and bought pies instead of making them myself.  But I firmly believe that every good DIYer needs to know when to admit that something is over their head.  I don't know what it is about pie... I've made pies in the past and never been wowed.  Maybe it's the crust, maybe I'm just not patient enough.  I don't know.  But I do know that Random Order here in Portland makes a heck of a good pie.   In addition to ordering these bad boys for Thanksgiving day, we also stopped by earlier in the week to pick up a few pieces of their Oregon Cherry pie and man oh man... these people know their way around a pie.  If you're ever in Portland I highly recommend stopping by and getting a piece.  Of anything.  I don't think they make a bad pie.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh right, thanksgiving pies.  Here you go...

I had never actually had Pecan Pie before this Thanksgiving... crazy, huh?  Well I am a convert.  Holy moly was this pie good.

So there you have it.  Thanksgiving 2010.  I'm full all over again.

{made for dinner} tortellini soup with spinach & tomatoes

This first recipe in my {made for dinner} series is as easy as it is tasty, and perfect for a time-crunched weeknight. It's one of the first recipes we made from The Scramble and has been one of our go-to dinners for the past 3 years. Here's what you'll need:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil (not pictured)
• 1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 32 oz. chicken or vegetable broth
• 9 oz. regular or whole wheat cheese tortellini
• 15 oz. diced tomatoes with their liquid
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, or to taste

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic for one minute, then stir in the broth. Bring it to a boil, then add the tortellini, tomatoes, pepper, basil, and oregano.

Reduce the heat to keep it at a low boil for 7 minutes, then add the spinach. Simmer it for 2 more minutes, then remove it from the heat and serve it immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese.

Prep + cook time = 20 minutes

Servings = 4 (approximately 254 calories per serving)

the binder

This is the binder. It's not pretty, it's not fancy, but it's where we store all our recipes... and over the years it's become a sort of litmus test for whether or not a recipe gets our nod of approval. If we know we won't make it again, it doesn't go in the binder. Simple, efficient, the binder represents one of the more blissfully organized aspects of my life. (Trust me, there aren't many.) It's organized into 10 different tabs: Chicken, Pork, Beef, Fish, Vegetarian, Pasta, Soup / Chili, Side Dishes, Breakfast, and Dessert, and clear sheet protectors help to keep the recipes splatter free while we're cooking.

Jared and I started collecting recipes early on in our relationship when we found ourselves cooking dinner together most nights. To help us get started we signed up for The Six O'Clock Scramble, an online seasonal weekly menu planner. Every week they sent us 5 new meals and a grocery list, and we could swap out any meals we didn't like. It was really helpful and I highly recommend it if you want to cook dinner at home more often but aren't sure how to get organized. We started supplementing The Scramble recipes with ones we got from Food Network and Martha Stewart, and it didn't take long before we had amassed enough recipes that we needed a way to keep them all straight... hence, the binder was born.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, it seems to me like the tradition of home-cooked weeknight family dinners has become a bit of a lost art. In the age of processed and prepared foods, I think a lot of people choose not having to think about it over flavor and nutrition. But what those people don't realize is how easy and quick dinner can be if you just take a little time to plan our your meals. So that's why I'm sharing our process with you. It works really well for us and maybe it'll work well for you, too.

Here's how we tackle meal planning... every Sunday morning we sit down with the binder, a notepad, and pen. We take a quick inventory of what we have in our fridge and pantry from last week's meals that we didn't use up (usually things like tortillas, heavy cream, chicken stock, and veggies) and use that as our starting point for meal selection. Meals that feature ingredients we need to use up or already have get chosen first. Then we look for stuff that we haven't made in a while or that will be quick if we have something going on a particular night that week. We also try to pick meals that feature seasonal ingredients (Epicurious has a great tool for finding out what's in season where you live.) The final list of meals for that week goes on a magnetic pad that we keep on our fridge. As for which meals get cooked on which nights, we usually decide that day based on how we're feeling.

So there you have it... the binder, our system, and my two cents about the benefits of cooking weeknight dinners. I'll be posting recipes and tips for some of our favorite dinners in a new regular feature called {made for dinner} (I know, real original) so stay tuned.

basil lime sorbet

After a cold spring during which most of our veggies and herbs died, our basil has made quite the comeback over the past couple of months. It's basically a basil bush now. We've made a variety of pastas, pestos, and caprese salads, but we can't seem to make a dent in it. So I got a little excited when I came across a recipe for basil lime sorbet. It sounded a bit strange, but I figured it was worth a shot. I'll take any excuse I can get to make sorbet, ice cream, or really anything that calls for a large amount of sugar.

I decided to double the recipe to use up even more basil, so it took about 9 small organic limes to get 1 1/2 cups of fresh lime juice.

Our basil leaves were bigger than what we normally get from the store, but I didn't want to deviate from the recipe on the first try so I used the full 40 leaves (recipe x 2).

I started to get a little concerned about the end result after blending all the ingredients together.  The color was similar to mushy peas.

But the taste was interesting... and not in a bad way.  So I stuck with it.  After the blending I had to stray from the recipe because I wanted to use my ice cream maker instead of the freeze and chop method they suggested.  I let the mixture sit out on the counter for 30 minutes to let it cool a bit, then covered it and put it in the fridge until the temperature reached 40 degrees.  Once it reached the right temp, I put it in the ice cream maker and let it churn for about 25 minutes.  Then I scraped it into a bowl, covered the sorbet with wax paper, and put the air-tight cover on.  I stuck it in the freezer to finish hardening for a few hours, then it was time to try it out...

So here's the thing about this sorbet... despite it's strange color - it's good.  It might be really good.  If it was part of a prix fixe meal at a fancy Italian restaurant I'd probably be really impressed.  The basil and lime were surprisingly complimentary, and it was a great way to use up a ton of basil.  But it's not something I'm going to crave - which is probably a good thing considering we're going to Hawaii in a few weeks.  It's kind of like Red Vines.  It's really close to what you want (Twizzlers), but it doesn't quite hit the spot.  It leaves you wishing you'd saved those calories for the treat you really wanted (in this case a huge honkin' bowl of chocolate gelato.)  But the recipe gets great reviews on AllRecipes.com, so maybe you'll love it.  If you have your own basil bush in your backyard, or you just really love basil, give it a try...

Basil Lime Sorbet

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 20 fresh basil leaves, minced

Method:

1) Make a simple syrup by bringing the sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan; allow to boil 1 minute; remove from heat.

2) Combine the syrup, lime juice, and basil in a blender; puree.

3) Pour the mixture into a container and cover; store in freezer until completely frozen, about 2 hours.

4) Break the frozen mixture into pieces and place in the blender; blend until smooth. Return to the container and cover. Store in freezer until ready to serve.

OR, if you're going to use an ice cream maker...

3) Pour the mixture into a container and set it on the counter to cool for 30 minutes.  Then cover and place in the refrigerator until the mixture reaches 40 degrees or colder.

4) Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and churn according to the machine's instructions.  Scrape into an air-tight container, cover with wax paper and then the bowl cover, and place in the freezer for at least an hour to let it harden.

the secret to perfect hash browns

My husband is a bit of a hash brown connoisseur. Perfect hash browns to him are golden and crispy on top, light and buttery underneath. These hash browns exist at Dockside here in Portland. (Don't be fooled by the dive bar atmosphere... the breakfast is delicious.) But we could never get them to turn out right at home. They always congealed and turned grayish and kinda chewy. Tasty in a weird way, but not quite right. Then we came across this recipe that said the only way to get them perfect is to use a potato ricer to squeeze all of the moisture from the shredded potatoes. Now, Alton Brown taught us to never buy a kitchen gadget that can only do one thing (a rule that likely saved our wedding registry and subsequently our kitchen drawers.) But the idea of being able to make perfect hash browns at home was so tempting! Thankfully we came across a recipe in a recent Food Network Magazine that said you needed a potato ricer to make homemade gnocchi. Hash browns AND homemade gnocchi! Even AB would understand. So we caved and bought the Cuisipro potato ricer. (There are less expensive models, but all the reviews I read said that the quality of this one made it worth the extra money.) I'm happy to report that we tested it out this past Sunday and it was, well... see for yourself:

We followed the recipe I mentioned above, and they were so so so good. Just the right amount of crispiness. We had them with bacon and scrambled eggs with fried shallots. I'm thinking there will be a lot more brinners in our future (breakfast for dinner = brinner) so that we don't have to wait a whole week in between making them.

I'm tempted to try making the hash browns with butter next time instead of oil... I know it would make them a bit worse health-wise, but really - when you're going to serve them with bacon anyway, you might as well go all in.

Here's the recipe (courtesy of Elise @ Simply Recipes):

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil, canola oil, or grapeseed oil
• 1 lb Russet baking potatoes, peeled and grated
• Salt and pepper

Equipment needed:

• Large frying pan (at least a 9" diameter bottom)
• Potato ricer

Method:

1) Heat 3 Tbsp of oil in a large frying pan on medium high heat.

2) While the pan is heating, squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the grated potatoes. It's easiest to do this with a potato ricer, using it much like you would a garlic press, except you don't force the potatoes through the ricer. You just press out the moisture. If you don't have a ricer, use paper towels to squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the grated potatoes.

3) When the oil in the pan heats up to the point of shimmering, but not smoking, add the grated potatoes, spreading them out along the bottom of the pan. The potatoes should not be too thick in any one place, no more than a half inch thick. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the potatoes. After a few minutes, lift up one edge of the potatoes and see how done they are. If they have fried to a golden brown they are ready to flip. Use a large spatula to flip the potatoes over all at once, or divide the large potato cake into halves or quarters and flip. Continue to cook until they are golden brown on the bottom.

Serves 4.