Monthly Archives: March 2010

Chocolate-Chip Squares

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Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip Squares

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut into 24 squares.

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If you like pumpkin and chocolate chips then you will definitely like these. Make sure to have a glass of milk with them because they’re really sweet!  My grandma and grandpa are coming over tomorrow night to leave for Nebraska with my Mom on Thursday morning. I get to watch the dogs all weekend.I am going to bring these over for desert since we are having super over at my Mom’s place tomorrow. I think I may even try and tempt them to bring some on their 7 hour drive there. I wish I could go with, but I’m trying to save up my vacation hours. :) Lincoln, is a nice town and I haven’t seen my aunt and cousin for awhile.

For some reason I was thinking these would be more bar like instead of  like a cake. Oh well, it’s still good. Another Martha Stewart recipe.

This picture was taken outside on our balcony tonight.

Food coloring 101

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I’ve had this red cabbage sitting in the fridge for about a week now. I had bought the red cabbage to make the Tilapia Tostadas, see post below this one. It was good and everything, but there was a lot of cabbage left over. Buying a whole cabbage isn’t worth it for only 2 people, so I looked for the smallest one that was at the grocery store. Last night, I was looking for recipes that had red cabbage and couldn’t really find any that looked good.

Instead, I found a natural recipe to make purple food coloring using red cabbage. Easter is next weekend so why not dye some hard boil eggs and try to create some neat looking patterns? This is my challenge this week. To make neat looking decorated dyed Easter eggs. You can also use other different veggies or fruits to make different colored dyes.

Blue: 4 cups red cabbage, 4 cups water, 2 tablespoons white vinegar

Purple: 4 cups cranberries, 4 cups cranberry juice, 2 tablespoons white vinegar

Lime Green: 2 (10-ounce) boxes frozen chopped spinach, two cups water, 2 tablespoons white vinegar

Red/Pink: 2 cans beets, 2 tablespoons vinegar

From these lists just bring the ingredients to make the certain color to a boil for about 30 minutes. That is it! Look for my colored Easter egg posts soon to see what I come up with.

Fish and White Bean Tostadas

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1 lime, zested and juiced, plus lime wedges for garnish
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for baking sheet
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound white fish fillets, like tilapia, flounder, sole, skin discarded and cut into finger-sized pieces
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
Sauteed White Beans, recipe follows
1/2 cup shredded purple cabbage
Pineapple and Avocado Salsa, recipe follows
Sour cream, for garnish

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, zest, garlic and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Put the fish in a baking dish and pour the marinade on top. Marinate for no more than 15 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the broiler or grill. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil. Remove the fish from the marinade and arrange on the baking sheet, making sure to leave space between the pieces. Broil until just cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saute pan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Fry the corn tortillas, 1 at a time, just until crisp, flipping halfway through to brown both sides. Drain on paper towels and salt while still hot.

To assemble the tostadas: Layer each tostada first with Sauteed White Beans, then the fish. Top with the shredded cabbage and Pineapple and Avocado Salsa. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of a lime wedge.

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I am really starting to like Melissa D Arabian’s recipes more and more. She won the last season of the next Food Network star. Jeffery would have also been successful with his show, that I think they should of just used both of them.  So far, I have tried her recipes for potato bacon tort, orange chicken and this one. Later on tonight I’m going to try her sauteed bananas for desert.

These tostadas were really good. It reminded me of a fish taco, but with beans added in. I remember this particular episode that she said “If you don’t like beans, you will like beans after you try this recipe.” Well, it worked on me. I don’t mind white beans now and I never used to like them before. The marinade for the fish was really good and easy to make. This whole recipe was easy to make. It had a lot of steps, but if you are fast with chopping then you should be fine. This would be a very filling dinner without the cabbage and corn tortillas. Just eat the fish with the pineapple salsa on top, and have the beans on the side.

Sauteed White Beans:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 white or yellow onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups cooked navy beans
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried)
Freshly ground black pepper

In a small pan, over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot add the onion with a pinch of salt and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Raise the heat and add the white wine. Cook until the wine has reduced by half. Stir in the beans and oregano and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook gently for 15 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

Pineapple and Avocado Salsa:

1 (14-ounce) can sliced pineapple in juice, drained and juices reserved
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small jalapeno, seeds removed and diced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 medium avocado, halved, pitted and flesh cubed
2 tablespoons minced cilantro leaves

In a medium bowl, make the dressing by mixing 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice with the lime juice, honey, oil and jalapeno. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the pineapple and onion. Gently fold in the avocado and cilantro. Let the flavors blend for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Strawberry cupcakes

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Martha Stewart’s Strawberry Cupcakes

Makes 34

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg white
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups finely chopped strawberries, plus small strawberries for garnish
Strawberry Buttercream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

2. Reduce speed to low. Mix any remaining wet ingredients in a bowl if needed. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

3. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks. Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to 3 days, unless otherwise noted.

Butter Cream

4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, pureed

Directions

1. Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Remove from heat, and attach bowl to a mixer. Whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking well after each addition.
3. Switch to a paddle attachment. With mixer on low, add strawberry puree, and beat until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

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Can I just say, that Martha Stewart’s website is really addicting? The first time, I found her website I was looking for ideas for my wedding coming up in October of next year. She has a lot of color palettes to look at, table decorations, cakes, wedding favors, invitations, and more. And more indeed, she has TONS of recipes. Especially cupcake recipes. This week on Tuesday night, I think I spent at least an hour browsing through most of them. Then I started looking at all of her other recipes and I plan on trying out two this week.

All of her cupcake recipes look so mouth watering. The first cupcake recipe of hers that I tested was her Strawberry cupcake, because strawberries are on sale  for 1.28. Not a bad deal. I also like taking strawberries and letting them sit in sugar for awhile and put that over ice cream. yum!  This was my first time making butter cream frosting too. Any recipe that calls for eggs being heating up, I always get nervous about because of the curdling. It turned out pretty well, except for when the strawberries were added to the frosting it separated. It was still a good frosting and I was proud of myself for making butter cream.

Fresh strawberries in the carton.

Just thought, I’d take a random picture of eggs, since they were used in the frosting.

Macaron Part Dos

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After work today, I tried making some macarons again. The only thing I did differently was leave the egg whites out so that they were at room temperature when I got home. Also tried a different recipe. Same ingredients,  just different measurements. The first batch most of the macarons had cracks on the top of them and one single mac had started to develop that famous feet look that I see in most of the pictures. Anybody know why the cracks appear on the top of the cookie? I’d really like to know.I’m thinking my oven wasn’t the right temperature yet.

The second batch was a lot better. No cracks on the tops of the cookies and most of them looked like the picture above. Yeah! I was reading online that a lot of recipes call for the egg whites to be aged for at least 24 hours. So, the next time I  try making these that will be what I do differently. Thank god Sam’s club has a big bag of almonds for a reasonable price. 9 1/2 cups of almonds for about 9.00. These cookies are great with some pecan coconut frosting in the middle of them BTW. ;)

Note: The first time I made these the batter was a little bit runny. This time I stopped after the almond/powdered sugar mixture was folded well. I also had read online that if you go over 50 folds that is too many.

First Attempt at macarons

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I attempted the famous macaron cookie tonight that I’ve been seeing a lot of pictures of on foodgawker’s website. All the pictures of this cookie look so pretty and so good. My first attempt at making them wasn’t successful at all. I was disappointed when the first batch came out of the oven. The second batch wasn’t pretty either, all the cookies seemed to glue together somehow and I didn’t get a picture of them. :( My fiance thought that would be a good picture to take of, but I didn’t want to embarass myself too much.

The first thing I did was weigh every ingredient on our food scale. I am glad I got that by the way. One time I suggested to somebody on a message board to get a food scale and she told me to get a life. Can you believe that? This electronic device has been great.

After I pulverized the almonds into a powder like consistency, I then made the meringue. After making these I realized that after reading some other blog posts that I might have left out an important step. I never left the egg whites sit out for 3 days so they could start aging. My egg whites were not at room temperature also when I did this but I was very proud of getting the peaks that are always mentioned.

Next you fold in the powdered sugar mixture/almond mixture into the egg whites. I also added in some blue food coloring. No pretty macaron pictures for me tonight, but I will keep on trying to make these though. 3 eggs are sitting out on my counter right now waiting patiently to be made into macaron cookies. We (my fiance and I) did like the taste of the cookies though and they would be even better with some ganache in the middle of them. :) Here is the final result, don’t laugh.

Basic Macaron Cookie

Ingredients

225 grams icing sugar
125 grams ground almonds
110 grams egg whites (about 4), aged overnight at room temperature
30 grams granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
Procedure

1. On three pieces of parchment, use a pencil to draw 1-inch (2.5 cm) circles about 2 inches apart. Flip each sheet over and place each sheet on a baking sheet. [Note: You only have to draw circles on the parchment paper if you want absolutely even-sized macarons. If you're skilled with piping and don't mind eyeballing the amount of batter per cookie, skip this step.]

2. Push almond flour through a tamis or sieve, and sift icing sugar. Mix the almonds and icing sugar in a bowl and set aside. If the mixture is not dry, spread on a baking sheet, and heat in oven at the lowest setting until dry.

3. In a large clean, dry bowl whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip to stiff peaks—the whites should be firm and shiny.

4. With a flexible spatula, gently fold in icing sugar mixture into egg whites until completely incorporated. The mixture should be shiny and ‘flow like magma.’ When small peaks dissolve to a flat surface, stop mixing.

4. Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch (1 cm) round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets, in the previously drawn circles. Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles. Let dry at room temperature for 1 or 2 hours to allow skins to form.

5. Bake, in a 160C/325F oven for 10 to 11 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to keep the oven door slightly ajar, and rotate the baking sheet after 5 minutes for even baking.

6. Remove macarons from oven and transfer parchment to a cooling rack. When cool, slide a metal offset spatula or pairing knife underneath the macaron to remove from parchment.

7. Pair macarons of similar size, and pipe about 1/2 tsp of the filling onto one of the macarons. Sandwich macarons, and refrigerate to allow flavors to blend together. Bring back to room temperature before serving.

Linguine with Clam Sauce

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LINGUINE WITH CLAM SAUCE

pound linguine
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 minced garlic cloves
1 ten ounce cans chopped clams, drained and juice reserved
3/4 cup white wine
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus lemon slices for garnish
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Grated parmesan

1. Cook the linguine according to package directions until al dente.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil and one tablespoon butter over high heat. Add garlic and clams and cook for 3 minutes.

3. Pour in the white wine, scraping the bottom of the pan with spoon. Cook for 3-4 minutes until sauce is reduced. Add remaining butter and stir to melt.

4. Reduce heat and squeeze in the lemon juice. Sprinkle in parsley and add the cream.

5. Add salt and pepper. Thin sauce with clam juice if needed.

6. Pour pasta into heated bowl. Pour the sauce on straight from the skillet. Toss to combine, and garnish with lemon slices and parmesan cheese

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Found this recipe at one of my daily visit blogs.  The recipe called for canned clams, but instead I decided to try it with some canned tuna. Man was this delicious! Even better with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top if it. Lemon and tuna go really well together I think. I’m going to have to do some searching for some more tuna recipes or maybe try and come up with some of my own. I get pretty sick of tuna sandwiches all the time.

I’ve been having that  a lot for lunch lately with some pickles. Low fat mayo of course. Like I said in a post below this one, that one of the grocery stores here has canned tuna for .$48 a can. What a steal that is. I picked up 5 cans of that so I’m pretty stocked up for awhile. Have any tuna recipes to share? Please do!

Granola and Yogurt Parfaits

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Ingredients

Weight Watcher Recipes 3 points

2  cups  regular oats
1/3  cup  ground flaxseed
1/4  cup  chopped walnuts
1/4  cup  chopped slivered almonds
2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
1/3  cup  orange juice
1/3  cup  honey
1/4  cup  packed brown sugar
2  teaspoons  canola oil
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/3  cup  dried cranberries

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl.

Combine orange juice, honey, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat just until sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in oil and vanilla.

Pour honey mixture over oat mixture, stirring to coat. Spread mixture in a thin layer onto a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 300° for 10 minutes; stir well. Bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Spoon granola into a bowl; stir in dried cranberries. Cool completely.

Note: Store completely cooled granola in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Nutritional Information (Serving Size = 1/2 of granola)

Calories:196 (31% from fat)Fat:

Fiber:3.6g

Fat:6.8g

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I’ve decided today that I’m not going to bake as much anymore. I’ve been baking a lot of yummy treats lately because that is what foodgawker seems to like. Instead, I’m just going to be baking healthier treats like this one. Granola! I love homemade granola now. Before, I made it and my fiance and I just ended up munching on it, since I didn’t have any yogurt at all.  For lunch this is what I had.

Tonight for supper, I am making a pasta dish that calls for canned clams but I am going to try canned tuna instead. I’ve been eating a lot of canned tuna recently. This week at our grocery store, tuna packed in water is only 48 cents for a can! Some time later on tonight, I will be posting this recipe. For, now I am off to watch New Moon.

Frozen Yogurt

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Ingredients

Weight Watcher Recipes 2 points

2  cups  vanilla low-fat yogurt
1/2  cup  whole milk
1/4  cup  sugar
1  (10-ounce) package frozen raspberries in light syrup, thawed
Fresh raspberries (optional)

Preparation
Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir until sugar dissolves.
Place thawed raspberries in a blender; process until smooth. Strain puree through a fine sieve over a bowl. Discard seeds. Add puree to yogurt mixture.
Pour raspberry mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm. Garnish with fresh raspberries, if desired.
Nutritional Information

Serving size = 1/2 per serving
Calories:100 (12% from fat)
Fat:1.3g (sat 0.8g,mono 0.3g,poly 0.1g)
Fiber: 0.5g

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Here is a quick and healthy treat for you. I wish I had some fresh strawberries to put over this right now, but I don’t. Sorry, the picture is kind of dark, I was taking it close to 6 pm, when the sun was starting to go down. I am so happy for Day Light savings because that means more pictures can be taken in natural light! Woohoo! This one was taken on my apartment balcony, where most of my other ones are. In our new house we will have a porch where I will be able to take more pictures out there. I kind of want to get a picnic table to so I can just take some pictures on that, and eat outside of course.

Chocolate-Coconut Thumbprint Cookies

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Recipe from Pillsbury

INGREDIENTS

1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated sugar cookies
4 oz sweet baking chocolate, melted, cooled 10 minutes
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup coconut pecan ready-to-spread frosting
2 oz sweet baking chocolate
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. In large bowl, break up cookie dough. Using hands, stir or knead in 4 oz chocolate and the flour until well blended. Divide dough in half; cover and refrigerate one half until ready to use.

3. Shape remaining half into 18 balls. Place coconut in shallow dish; dip half of each ball in coconut to coat. On ungreased large cookie sheet, place balls coconut sides up 1 inch apart. Repeat with remaining half of dough.

4. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are set and centers are almost set. Immediately make indentation in center of each cookie with end of wooden spoon. Fill each indentation with 1/2 teaspoon frosting. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool until set, about 30 minutes.

5. In small microwavable bowl, microwave 2 oz chocolate and the oil uncovered on High about 1 minute 30 seconds or until chocolate can be stirred completely melted; drizzle over cookies.

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Recipe adapted from Pillsbury

My fiance doesn’t like coconut so I only put the frosting on cookies that I eat. If you have a box of chocolate cake mix you can easily make these cookies. The recipe calls for refrigerated store bought cookie dough. Or, you could always make your own cookie dough for these too. Do whatever floats your boat. All you need is a box of chocolate cake mix, one egg, and 1/3 of a cup of oil.

My favorite part of this cookie is the coconut pecan frosting!   This cookie reminds me of a German chocolate cake. I think its amazing what you can do with some of the store bought products like Pillsbury has. They even have contests that allow you to win up to a million dollars if you come up with an award winning recipe using their products. I think that would be very cool to win something like that.

Green Velvet Whoopie

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Happy St Patrick’s Day! Here are some Green Velvet Whoopie Pies with Chocolate Frosting for you! I’m sorry you can’t just take it out of the screen and grab it. That is something new they will have to develop along with that smell-o-vision that Food Network has been trying to get forever. My whoopie pies didn’t turn out very green like these did. I tried making the shamrock shape but my batter was too thick and not very green. Some of them even turned an army green color mixed in with a little bit of brown. I didn’t have any liquid green food coloring either and maybe that would have helped more. Instead of the normal, cream cheese frosting I decided to use chocolate frosting instead. There was already a big enough mess in my kitchen and I didn’t want to dirty any more dishes.

Note: Green Army colored whoopie pies

Shamrock Sandwich Cookies
Recipe adapted from Annie’s Eats

Cookies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 T light corn syrup
2 cups all purpose flour
2 T cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 – 1 oz green liquid food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, with pencil side down.

Beat butter and sugar in mixing bowl on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and beat until well incorporated. Mix in vanilla and corn syrup and beat about 30 seconds more.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a small mixing bowl. Add 1/3 of the mix to the batter and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Add 1/2 of the buttermilk and beat until just incorporated. Repeat with another 1/3 of the flour mix and the rest of the buttermilk and finally the last 1/3 of the flour mix. Scrape sides of the bowl as needed. Finally add food coloring, start with about 1/2 and mix until the color is uniform but do not over beat.

Transfer batter to a piping bag fitting with a large round tip and pipe onto parchment paper. Bake about 8 minutes until the cookies are set. Cool about 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.