The Intuitive Cook

25 Random Food Facts About Me

2009-04-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

Unless it's cooked in sauce for a long time, as in baked macaroni and cheese or lasagna, I don't like dried pasta. Fresh pasta, like in ravioli and tortellini, is fine but not exciting.
I don't mind at all being completely out of meat or even cheese, but if I'm out of any of the ingredients to make my famous brownies, I feel a little off.
I love marshmallows, even plain out of the bag.
I put a splash of vinegar in nearly every meat dish I make. I guess it might be my grandmother's Panamanian influence.
My favorite cooking smell is onions frying slowly in butter. I think it's way better than the smell of bacon (which I also like).
I probably eat red meat once or twice a week on average, and when I do, it's usually a very small quantity, like one slice of beef tenderloin or half a burger. This has nothing to do with a desire to be healthy or a dislike of meat; I just don't want it more often than that.
I love sweet and salty things together. I almost never eat meat or chicken without some sort of fruity accompaniment, like chutney or jam.
I love all kinds of seafood, but lately my stomach doesn't. I seem to be able to eat crab and bivalves, at least in small amounts, and canned tuna, but fresh fish doesn't work well. I'm really, really hoping this is a temporary thing.
I love to bake. The best things I bake are the aforementioned brownies and my lemon bars, but my favorite thing to bake is cupcakes with buttercream frosting. I love experimenting with different flavors of cake and frosting.
I don't own a stand or hand mixer, but my whisk gets a whole heck of a workout.
I love reading cooking blogs, but I never try any of the recipes on them. Ever. Although I bookmark hundreds of them just in case I change my mind.
One exception to that rule is when I have a specific dish in mind, Google it, and find a promising-looking recipe on a cooking blog. So I guess what I should have said is that I never make a recipe because I see it on a blog.
My staple meal is an egg and cheese sandwich on toast with some sort of fruit on the side. I most often eat it for dinner.
I like cereal, but only as a snack.
I have the amazing ability to spend half an hour at Whole Foods and spend less than $30.
I love living alone, but I wish I had more people to cook for.
My favorite food in the world is spanakopita. My parents and I used to go out for Greek food a lot when I was really little, so it's comfort food. My mom taught me to make it, and now I can knock one out in less than half an hour, including messing with all the phyllo dough.
My favorite vegetables are spinach, green beans, eggplant and broccoli. I'm supposed to avoid all of them for health reasons. I sort of mostly do, but man, I miss eggplant parmigiana.
I can only think of a few foods I truly dislike, other than pasta, which I'm just not into. Raw celery, canteloupe, honeydew, beef liver, gorgonzola cheese and olives are the only ones I can think of. Although I'll eat canteloupe and honeydew, I like olives fine if I only eat one or two, and gorgonzola is okay if there's just a little of it mixed with other stuff.
The best dessert I've ever had is the rice pudding at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh. It's super-creamy (undoubtedly catastrophically bad for me), and they serve it with whipped cream and blackberries.
I can't stomach any discernable fat on meat. I don't care how delicious it's supposed to be; if the fat's not rendered, I will cut a wide swath around it to avoid getting even a tiny bit of it in my mouth. But I'm fine with burgers and hot dogs, because the fat is mixed in.
I could easily eat a nectarine every day of my life and never get sick of them. I wish they were in season more than a few weeks a year.
I love every kind of capsicum, from pepperoncini to wax peppers to peppadews. Generally, the "greener-tasting" the better, but I do love habanero jam.
I love both lemon and ice water, but not together.
My alcohol preferences in brief: non-yeasty beer; red wine; Bombay gin in the summer; whiskey in the winter. And everything in small quantities.

Chicken with Raisins, Olives and Red Wine

2009-03-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

This is probably weird, but I do a lot of meal planning in the wee hours of the morning when I can't sleep. I have so many restrictions on what to cook that it drives me a little nuts. I need food that won't upset my stomach (a good trick in itself), and I'm moving in less than two months, so I need to clear out the freezer and fridge, and as much of the pantry as I can manage.

I looked in the freezer the other night for some ice cream that I knew wasn't there, but I was craving it, so I looked anyway. I saw that I had some chicken breasts in there that I needed to use up, so I pulled one out and put in in the fridge to thaw. Then, last night, when I couldn't sleep, the gears started turning. What should I do to make the chicken interesting? Well, I had an onion I was pretty sure was about to go bad, so I should use that. And I had a glug of red wine, maybe half a cup, that I wasn't sure I was going to drink. Okay, chicken, onions, red wine. Raisins? I always have golden raisins around. Then I got the idea that olives would taste really good with that combination of flavors, but I didn't have any olives. (I ended up buying six oil-cured olives at the Whole Foods olive bar this afternoon for under $1.)

Then I realized I had a bowl of chicken soup in the fridge that I'd thrown together the other day when I wasn't feeling well. It was nothing but chicken broth out of a carton, frozen peas and egg noodles. I decided I could probably pour all of that into my chicken dish too, and use up an extra leftover in the process.

So I went about fixing the dinner. Normally I would butterfly and pan-sear the chicken, but I was feeling too lazy, so I set the oven to 375 while I worked on the sauce. One corner of the onion had started to get moldy, but I cut that out and the rest looked and smelled beautiful, so I sliced it thinly and started cooking it down over medium heat in some olive oil. I stirred the onion constantly so that it didn't burn.

While the onion was getting nice and brown, I seasoned the chicken breast lightly with salt, pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, Mexican oregano and ground ancho pepper, and I popped it in the oven. I ended up cooking it for 12 minutes on one side and 5 on the other.

Back to the sauce. When the onions were brown pretty much all over, I added a tablespoon or two of white wine vinegar and stirred the onions around to deglaze the pan. (Do NOT inhale the vinegar while it's deglazing, or you'll be sorry.) Then I threw in the half-cup or so of red wine and a small handful of golden raisins, maybe 40 or so. Next I chopped my six olives into approximately raisin-sized pieces and threw those in. Then I added the chicken broth from the soup (maybe 3/4 cup), turned the heat up to medium-high, and waited for the sauce to reduce.

When it started to thicken, I gave it a taste. It tasted a little too bitter and definitely salty enough. I added a teaspoon or so of sugar, a splash of lemon juice, and a small sprinkle of garlic powder. That did the trick. I dumped in the egg noodles and peas from the soup, then chopped the chicken breast into biggish chunks and tossed those in too.

It sounds so weird, but it was so delicious. I'm excited that I saved half and get to eat it tomorrow.

Who knows what my barely-conscious mind will come up with tonight.

Top Cheffing It at Home

2009-02-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'm moving in three months, so I'm in full-on cleaning-out-the-kitchen mode. I've always hated moving food. It's heavy, much of it is perishable, and I never feel like dealing with my old food when it's time to unpack in my new place. But when moving day comes along, it's move it or throw it out, and I'm ashamed to say how much I've thrown out during past moves. This situation is more dire, since my choices are going to be putting it in storage for seven months or taking it on a ten-hour drive on what's sure to be a roasting day. (Which reminds me that I need to get my car a/c fixed before May.)

So how do I use up random odds and ends of food? What am I going to do with, say, a can of fried onions, which I've only ever used for green bean casserole? Well, I could go out and buy cream of mushroom soup and frozen green beans, I guess. Or I could use them as topping for a baked macaroni and cheese, since I have two cans of evaporated milk and a box of elbow macaroni to use up. Or I could crush them, mix them with bread crumbs and herbs (also in the pantry), and use them as a coating for the chicken breasts I have in the freezer. There are a lot of options.

Today I was more concerned with things in the fridge than with things in the pantry. I have half a package of tortillas, which I bought to make quesadillas with because I needed to use up a package of reduced-fat 4-cheese Mexican blend (not recommended, by the way). I don't really like flour tortillas in most contexts, so I decided on another quesadilla, but I'd have to be creative. I had some "seaside cheddar" cheese from Whole Foods, which is sharp, nutty and a little bitter. I also had half an onion, the other half of which had made its way into a quick marinara sauce and a tofu stir-fry. I decided to slice a bit of onion very thinly and caramelize it in butter, which took almost half an hour, but hey, it's Sunday, and I'm in no rush. Then I warmed a tortilla in my cast iron skillet on medium-low, sprinkled it with grated cheddar, and added the caramelized onions.

I needed some sort of dipping sauce. I might have gone with a savory sour-cream-based topping if I'd had anything like that, but I didn't. I did, however, have half a jar of Seville orange marmalade. Its bittersweet, floral flavor seemed like it would go well with the cheese and onion, but it needed acid. With my canned goods I found a jar of tiny hot peppers in vinegar. I stirred some of the spicy vinegar in with a big spoonful of marmalade and warmed the combination in the microwave for a few seconds.

The crunchy tortilla, rich cheese and savory onions paired incredibly well with the bitter, sweet, acidic and spicy flavors of the dipping sauce. I would serve this dish to other people, if I had any other people around. But living alone and cooking only for myself gives me the freedom to try things without any pressure and to develop my skill at creating new combinations. And needing to use up the contents of my kitchen gives me a framework for my ideas, as well as motivating me to stay home and cook rather than grabbing a quick burger or bagel.

Definitely more fun than throwing all this food in boxes or trash bags.

Pancake Education

2009-01-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

I am a bit addicted to learning. I can't think of a way to say that that doesn't sound incredibly cheesy, but it's true. If I have a free day I most often spend it reading the New York Times, looking things up on Wikipedia and trolling food blogs, not so much for recipes as for new cooking ideas and solutions to cooking problems that have been plaguing me.

One thing that's been bugging me for ages is Mark Bittman's pancake recipe from How to Cook Everything, a book I once adored but found inconsistent as I explored it further. I've used this recipe for every batch of pancakes I've made for the past two years. Sometimes they come out glorious: fluffy, tender, cakey. Other times (most times, in fact), they're thin and sad, nothing but a vehicle for maple syrup.

Tonight I made myself pancakes for dinner. I'm moving in less than four months and I'm starting to get a little anxious about using up all the food I've stored up since I started law school, especially things that can't be stored without refrigeration. Like maple syrup. Honestly, I could have picked something to fix for dinner that would have used more things up, but pancakes sounded good.

And tonight they were transcendent. I think they owe their success to two things. First, I used whole milk, which I almost never have on hand but which I had bought to use in the Steelers cake I'm baking for the Super Bowl on Sunday. And second, after reading a pancake primer on Smitten Kitchen, I decided I had been cooking my pancakes for too short a time in too hot a pan. The same article mentioned the challenges of cooking pancakes in a skillet rather than on a griddle, and as I am similarly griddleless, I decided to ditch my usual two-per-batch method in favor of single-pancake cooking. So I had fewer, bigger pancakes. I don't know whether that made any difference, but it's easier in any case, so I'll probably stick to it.

I won't repeat the recipe, since I've linked to it above, but I will add a few notes. I always make a half batch of these pancakes, and of course I use one egg (which would translate to two eggs for a full batch). I note this because Bittman gives a range. I think whole milk is probably essential, though thinned yogurt would probably work. I'm not making these with skim milk anymore unless I mix it with half-and-half or something. I almost never have to add more than 3/4 cup of milk, but I will add extra if the batter is too thick to pour. Also, I don't think the recipe calls for enough salt. I used salted butter in the batter and added 1/4 tsp of salt (for a half recipe), but I think more salt would have been much better. Finally, I minimize dirty dishes by melting the butter in a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave (25 seconds on 50% power in my microwave), then letting it cool while I measure the dry ingredients into a bowl. Then I whisk the egg into the cooled butter, note the resulting volume of liquid, and add 3/4 cup of milk to the same measuring cup. I whisk that all together, then add it into the dry ingredients.

I found that these were ready to flip when the tops looked like they wouldn't stick to my finger if I touched them. Not totally dry, but skinned over, like pudding when it sets. They were done cooking on the second side when they puffed up noticeably in the pan.

Post-Thanksgiving Deliciousness

2008-11-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

My mom made a very orangey cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving dinner: along with the cranberries (I'm not clear whether she used one bag or two) she put in the rind of two oranges, and made the sauce with orange juice instead of water. She also sweetened it with brown sugar, which I never personally do but really enjoy. I served as her taste-tester, but didn't actually get to eat the cranberry sauce at dinner, since I was up in New Jersey having Thanksgiving with my dad, his brothers and my grandpa.

So last night after a dinner of leftover bacon-and-onion quiche, I wanted a little something sweet, and went for the cranberry sauce. I put about half a cup of plain yogurt in a custard cup, topped it with a few tablespoons of cranberry sauce, and sprinkled on some chopped walnuts. It was one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had. I'm thinking about variations on it: I bet it'd be delicious with lingonberry preserves instead of cranberry sauce, and as I have some on hand, I can find out. This would even make a good breakfast: yogurt, nuts, fruit, not too much sugar.

Lime Bars and Quesadillas

2008-07-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

I made a batch of lime bars today, using the lemon bar recipe I posted back in April, and they came out amazing. I just used lime juice instead of lemon juice, the finely grated zest of one lime instead of the lemon extract, and powdered sugar in the filling instead of granulated sugar. This last change was born of necessity, because I didn't have any regular sugar in the house, but I think I'm keeping it. Because the two sugars don't substitute freely (supposedly 1 3/4 c of powdered sugar is equivalent to 1 c granulated), this version was less sweet. I think the cornstarch in the powdered sugar may also have helped the filling jell, as it was done in exactly 20 minutes without being at all browned on top. Deliciously sweet and tart and summery. The bars (except the one I swiped for quality control) are chilling in the fridge, waiting for dinner.

Dinner is chicken quesadillas. The chicken breasts are thawing now, and then I'm going to marinate them for a couple of hours with lime juice, salt, pepper and Penzeys chili con carne seasoning. I'd probably do something more elaborate if I had my whole spice collection here, but I'm sure this will do fine. And to go in the quesadillas along with them, I'm frying up some onions and jalapeños. Who would have thought it: pickled jalapeños, right out of the jar and into the skillet with some onions and canola oil, cooked till they brown and shrivel up, are incredibly delicious. The sweet, vinegary, vegetal and hot flavors all meld together. It's irresistible. But it's also somewhat toxic: the peppers release capsaicin as they fry. So do this under a really good stove hood, with the window open, and/or get yourself a face mask. The fumes are pretty intense. That's why I'm doing it hours before my dinner guest arrives, and why I'm spending most of the cooking time in another part of the house, going in every few minutes (holding my breath!) to stir them up.

When we're about ready to eat, I'll pan-fry the chicken breasts, probably in canola oil after dredging them with flour mixed with more of the chili seasoning. Then I'll chop them and layer them on a flour tortilla with shredded sharp cheddar and the peppers and onions, and cook the tortilla slowly in a cast iron skillet until the cheese melts, when I'll fold the tortilla in half and slide the whole thing onto a plate. We'll eat the quesadillas with chipotle salsa, beer to drink, and have the chilled lime bars for dessert.

Though at this rate we're going to be eating in the backyard. It's July, and the house is hot. Having the oven on can't have helped, either, but the results are worth it.

Tart Lemon Tart

2008-04-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

I went back and tweaked my brownie recipe, so you can now follow it knowing that it will create some really amazing brownies.

I also made my first attempt at lemon bars this weekend, and they came out fantastic, so I thought I'd share the recipe. These come out significantly more tart then lemon bars usually are, so you could reduce the amount of lemon juice if you like.

Tart Lemon Tart

1/2 stick (1/4 c) salted butter, softened
1/4 c powdered sugar
1 1/4 c flour
3 eggs
1 3/4 c sugar
1/2 c lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

Preheat oven to 325°. Line an 8x8 Pyrex cake pan with nonstick aluminum foil. In a bowl, combine butter, powdered sugar and 1 cup of flour with your fingers until crumbly, then press it into the pan as evenly as possible. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until dry but not browned. Meanwhile, using the same bowl if you like, beat the eggs until foamy, then mix in the sugar, remaining flour and lemon juice and extract. Pour this mixture over the crust and bake for another 20 minutes or so, until the lemon custard is set in the center. While the bars are still warm, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top. Let cool for at least an hour before cutting.

I was actually really surprised how easy it is to make these and how delicious they come out. I'm sure they would also be delicious with key lime juice rather than lemon. You could also make this in a round cake pan and cut it into slices, to make it more like a tart.

Best Brownies Ever, Take... Several

2008-04-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

I've tweaked my brownie recipe again, in response to Aaron's suggestion. I asked him how I could make my brownies better, and he said, "More kinds of chocolate." So I added two more kinds of chocolate, and I'm extremely pleased with the results. The texture is moist, fudgy, almost gooey, but without being dry.

Triple Chocolate Brownies

1 stick salted butter
1/2 c Dutch process cocoa
1 1/3 c sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp Hershey's syrup
2 tsp Mexican vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c flour
1/2 c Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate morsels

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9x9 square pan (I use Pyrex) with nonstick aluminum foil. Put the butter in a metal mixing bowl and stick it in the oven just long enough to melt. Whisk in the cocoa, sugar, and eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition. Whisk in the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Then switch to a wooden spoon and gently stir in the flour and salt. Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the chocolate morsels evenly over the top, then press them slightly into the batter using the wooden spoon. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife in the middle of the pan comes out almost clean.

I think I've finally achieved the perfect (according to my taste anyway) brownie. It's all I can do not to bake another batch tonight.

Best Darn Yellow Cake Period

2008-03-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should have titled this blog "The Intuitive Baker." I really do cook; I just have been leaning toward baking recently because I don't have many occasions to make non-desserts for a crowd. Today is an exception, though, being Easter. My friends are having a potluck, and I'm excited. There will be paczki, which I've heard of but never tried (I've actually never even had a regular old jelly doughnut, to be honest), and maraschino cherry cupcakes, and other than that I know not what. But the dessert spots were quickly claimed, so I decided to bring potatoes au gratin, keeping up my streak of cooking things for large groups of people that I've never made before.

If they come out great, I'll post the recipe, of course. But for now, here's one I promised a while ago. I adapted this recipe from an edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from the early 1940s.

Best Darn Yellow Cake Period

½ c butter (I use salted), at room temperature
1 c sugar
3 eggs
½ c milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla
¼ teaspoon almond or orange extract (optional but delicious)
1½ c flour, plus a little
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy (much longer than you'd beat them for most cakes), then add the milk and vanilla, as well as the almond or orange extract if you're using it. Whisk to combine, then add the wet ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, whisking until most of the lumps are gone. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and gently stir (spoon will probably work better than whisk at this point) until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Pour into a 9x9 square pan (you can line it with nonstick foil if you like, but I've never had this cake stick) and bake until golden brown on top, about 40 minutes.

Quick Buttercream

In a medium bowl, start with ¼ c softened butter and about 1 c powdered sugar. Whisk until combined. Now you have to decide what flavor buttercream you want. For chocolate, get some cocoa; for mocha, cocoa and coffee; for orange or lemon or lime, that flavor juice; and so on. The possibilities are basically endless. Add more dry ingredient—cocoa or powdered sugar, most likely—until the mixture feels stiff when you stir it, and then dribble in the wet (you can use milk or water if you aren't trying to add flavor with the liquid) until the mixture is a little more liquid than you want it. Taste it and see if the flavor is strong enough; if not, add more flavoring of whatever sort, making sure that your ending consistency is a little more liquid than you want your final product to be. Finally, whisk in more powdered sugar until your frosting is soft, but spreadable. Starting with this amount of butter should produce about enough frosting for the above cake, unless you get fancy and cut it into layers, in which case you'll either need more frosting, or else some kind of filling.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Use the above recipe for yellow cake, but replace the milk with pineapple juice (one can of rings will provide enough) and add 1½ teaspoons of amaretto to the batter if you have it. Before you make the batter, melt 1 stick of butter in the pan (just stick it in the preheating oven for a minute or two), stir in 1½ cups brown sugar, and lay down 1 can of pineapple rings with maraschino cherries in the holes. Make the cake batter and bake the cake as in the above recipe. Make sure to let the cake cool for at least half an hour before turning it out onto a cookie sheet or platter.

This cake is what made James tell me that I'm officially his house baker. I might still let him make cookies, but when it comes to cakes, I'll happily do the work if I get to eat this cake as my reward.

I have a good chocolate cake recipe to share, too, but it's not the rich, über-chocolatey cake that many people think of, and I'm searching for a recipe for that so I can present the two together as delicious alternatives. Feel free to let me know if you have a good recipe for moist, dark chocolate cake: the sort you can imagine filling with raspberry preserves and covering in chocolate ganache.

Raisin Scones

2008-02-23T08:56:00.001-08:00

I don't know why I never tried making scones before. I guess I haven't really been into baking for long, and I generally bake for events rather than for myself, and really, what would people think if I showed up to a potluck dinner with a basket of scones? But I might have to do just that sometime soon, because these scones are too good and too easy not to make often.

I started with Alton Brown's recipe and tweaked a few things: butter for the shortening (vegetable shortening grosses me out) and milk for the cream (just because I didn't have any cream), a bit of extra salt for that great salt/sugar balance, and there's no way I'm rolling out dough this wet, so I did them like drop biscuits and they were awesome. Unfortunately, I forgot to preheat the oven, so mine turned out rather flat because the egg and baking powder reacted too long before they went in the oven. Don't be like me.

Raisin Scones

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt (less if using iodized salt)
1/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons very cold butter, cut into small bits
3/4 cup 2% milk
1 egg
Generous handful golden raisins
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, mix together the first four ingredients. Add butter and combine with your fingers until the mixture (as recipe authors always say) resembles coarse meal. This means smooshing all the butter pieces as you mix. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the egg and milk, then add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Throw in the raisins and mix again. Drop onto a cookie sheet or two (I used nonstick foil on mine, but the batter is buttery enough that they probably didn't need it) in roughly 10-12 biscuit-sized pieces. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 15 minutes.

I'm sure there are plenty of awesome variations on this recipe, but I have such a weakness for raisin scones that I may never try them.

Smoked Sausage Thingamadoo

2008-02-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

I've been eating the same thing for dinner pretty often recently, and as it's delicious, healthy and easy as pie, I figured I should mention it. I have no idea what to call it, but here it is. Core and thinly slice one apple (I used Fuji apples) and 1/4 of a large sweet onion. Throw them in a nonstick skillet with about a teaspoon of butter and cook over medium-low heat for about five minutes. Toss or stir occasionally so that nothing sticks, but keep a lid on the pan most of the time so the apples soften faster. While the apple and onion are cooking, slice two Johnsonville Smoked Turkey Sausages on the diagonal into bite-size pieces. Add them to the pan, turn up the heat to medium, and cook everything together, stirring every minute or so, for about five more minutes.

That's it. No seasoning except what's in the sausage. Takes ten minutes and very little thought, and since it's so easy to make in individual portions, no leftovers. (I hate leftovers.)

The Perfect Brownie?

2008-01-26T08:32:00.001-08:00

I'm on a quest for the perfect brownie, so I've been trying out a few recipes. So far, my favorite is a variation on one I invented myself a few years ago. I'm not 100% sure its perfect, but I thought I'd post it here in case anyone needs a good brownie recipe (I can promise you, it's very good).

The Perfect Brownie?

1 1/3 sticks salted butter
1/2 c cocoa powder (I used Dutch process this time, although normally I don't)
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I prefer Mexican)
1/4 tsp almond extract
dash salt
2/3 c flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a medium-size microwaveable bowl, or over medium-low heat in a medium-size saucepan. Turn off heat and whisk in the other ingredients in order, making sure that the batter is smooth after each addition. Don't overmix once you've added the flour.

Pour into an 8x8 square pan lined with nonstick aluminum foil (Reynolds Release Wrap is the sine qua non of baking in my kitchen), or parchment would probably work too. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out almost clean.

These need to cool for an unusually long time before being cut, or they will fall apart into mush (sweet, delicious mush). Allow at least an hour for cooling, and cut carefully. Makes 16 very rich brownies.

I also think I've cobbled together the perfect pineapple upside down cake recipe, but that'll have to wait.

Real Banana Bread

2007-08-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

This is the first thing I think of when my bananas start getting speckly. Mom used to make it when I was a kid. It's based on a recipe in an old edition of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, though if I remember correctly, the recipe in newer editions is different.

This isn't a banana cake, moist and dense and buttery, as many "banana breads" are. This one contains no butter or oil, its texture is similar to Boston brown bread, and it's only moderately sweet. I like it best toasted and spread with cream cheese.

Real Banana Bread

3 ripe or overripe bananas
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda (so says the recipe; I used 1-1/4 teaspoons of baking powder)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
(optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium or large bowl, mash the bananas with a potato masher or a fork (lumps are okay). Add the eggs and whisk well. Add the dry ingredients and stir until combined, adding a bit of water if necessary (my batter was too thick to stir at first, but a tablespoon of water fixed it right up). Stir in nuts, if you like. Spread in a greased loaf pan and bake for one hour.

That's it! One of these days I'll try making it with semisweet chocolate chips, like my godmother does with her banana bread (though hers is much sweeter than this one).

This would be a nice thing to whip up if you have company coming for breakfast or weekend houseguests: it takes about five minutes to put together and an hour to bake, and is actually better the next day.

I'm having it for dinner.

Humble Omelet

2007-08-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

I've been MIA for what I would consider a valid reason: I've been having trouble eating. I didn't cook for probably about a month. I was mostly consuming Vitamin Water, Luna bars and Easy Mac, with an occasional restaurant meal in there because when I felt good enough to eat, I wanted to cram in the calories.

I write now because I'm on medication, and it seems to be working at least some, so I cooked myself dinner tonight, and I'm really, really happy about it. Nothing fancy at all, but it's food, and I made it.

Humble Omelet

2 eggs
about two ounces of thinly sliced deli ham, cut into thin strips
1/4 large white or yellow onion, sliced very thin
salt
pepper
dill weed
butter

In a small skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring often. While the onions are cooking, beat the eggs in a small bowl together with the salt, pepper and dill. When the onions are very soft and browned, stir in the ham and continue to cook a couple more minutes, until your kitchen smells like ham. Set this pan aside and replace it with a larger skillet or omelet pan (nonstick is nice). A little butter in the pan is a good idea. Keeping the heat medium low, pour in the egg mixture. Let it cook just until, when you tilt the skillet, the eggs don't run. Don't wait for the omelet to look dry on top, or it will be overdone. Add the onions and ham to the pan in a strip down the middle of the omelet, and fold over both sides to cover the filling. Cook for another minute, then serve.

I've made this omelet a couple times now, and it's awesome. I'm only just discovering omelets without cheese. I went to Blue Moon Diner maybe six months ago and saw that they had smoked trout as an omelet ingredient. Now, I love smoked trout, but I couldn't imagine what cheese would go well with it. I asked our waitress, and she crinkled up her nose and thought but didn't come up with anything either. So I went with just smoked trout and caramelized onions, and I probably don't need to tell you that it was awesome.

Actually, most of the things I cook are rip-offs of things I eat in restaurants, although occasionally my brain will invent something seemingly out of whole cloth. I don't mind being derivative as long as the food tastes good.

I'm just so happy to be able to cook myself dinner again.

Cherryberry Pie

2007-06-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

Another week, another trip to City Market. Unfortunately, I have a cold, which makes wandering around the hot, crowded market somewhat less fun. Still, I got blackberries, yellow cherry tomatoes, a gorgeous banana pepper (for a dime!), broccoli, Bibb lettuce and eggs. The produce is cheap and good and it's from my very own county (mostly—there's some from neighboring counties, but that's almost as good), and I love watching the offerings change from week to week. This was the first week there haven't been any strawberries, and the summer squash is now ubiquitous. One of these weeks I'll have to pick some up and see if I still dislike it...

So since it was market day today, I had to use up the last of last week's market finds yesterday. That involved baking a pie with sour cherries, blackberries, and strawberries (yes, all in one pie). Considering how dubious I was of what I put in the oven, it came out fantastic. In a fit of laziness, I used pie crust out of a box. Betty Crocker, I have to say, just did not work for me. I followed the directions (put mix in bowl, add water, mix, roll out, put in pan) and everything went wrong. The crust stuck to my nonstick rolling pin as well as to my Reynolds Release nonstick tinfoil, and I've never seen anything stick to Release before. Transferring it to the pie pan didn't work out so well either. I decided to scrap my plans for making a top crust (no way was I doing that again) and make streusel topping instead. Again, I faithfully followed the streusel directions in How to Cook Everything, but I think I let my butter soften too much before starting, because it wasn't exactly crumbly. So I just pinched off blobs of topping and distributed them as evenly as I could over the top of the pie.

That's two potential disasters so far: crust and topping. Are you keeping track? The third is that I didn't have enough fruit. The recipe called for five cups. I had five, but that was before cleaning and pitting and all that. The fourth is that I had to cobble together recipes because, of course, no one writes a recipe for cherry-strawberry-blackberry pie. They all have different amounts of cornstarch and lemon juice and the streusel topping option involves a lower oven temperature and oh, I was sure the pie was going to be inedible, but actually, it was very good. Therefore, I give you:

Cherryberry Pie

about five cups altogether of sour cherries, strawberries and blackberries
3/4 c sugar
3 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon (cassia is best)
pinch nutmeg
pinch salt

For the filling, mix all that stuff together and stick it in the fridge. Then set the oven to 375° and let it heat up while you make the streusel. (It goes without saying that you should have some sort of bottom crust. Given my Betty Crocker experience, I would say that the more kitchen-inclined among you should make your own, and everyone else should buy the ones that come frozen in disposable tins. There's at least one brand that's made with lard rather than vegetable shortening—Pillsbury, I think? I recommend that one.)

1/2 c (1 stick) butter, slightly but not overly softened
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c walnuts or pecans
1 T lemon juice
up to 1/2 c flour

Cream the butter and sugar together until well combined, then add the cinnamon, nuts and lemon juice and mix well. Add the flour a little at a time, mixing with a fork, until the mixture is crumbly. I think if it doesn't get crumbly with 1/2 c of flour in there, rather than adding more flour, you should probably just stick it in the fridge for a little while and then mix it up again.

Once you've achieved crumbliness, get the filling out of the fridge, put it in the pie shell, and top it with the streusel. Then stick it in the oven for 45 minutes. It's done when the crust and topping are lightly browned and the filling is bubbly. It might need a few more minutes.

So I'm still feeling kinda too sick to cook, but the next time I'm up to it, I'm going to try a stir-fry. I know stir-fries are supposed to be the easiest things in the world, and even people who don't cook make them, but for some reason, I never have. But I have chicken and a bell pepper and onions and the aforementioned broccoli to use up, and I'm trying to cultivate a greater appreciation for rice, and I have all kinds of fun Chinese sauce-making ingredients in my cupboard, and I finally have cornstarch with which to thicken my hypothetical Chinese sauce, so I really have no excuse. We shall see how it goes.

Bits and Pieces

2007-06-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

The picnic food was a big hit. I'm still working through the last of the leftover lentils and chutney—what a chore! No, they're delicious. And, having been a burgers-and-pizza girl for a couple of years now, I'm kind of amused to find myself so heartily enjoying eating things like lentils. And I'm eating a pint of local strawberries for breakfast with my coffee-and-soy-milk, and keeping cherry tomatoes on my kitchen counter for snacking purposes. I swear I haven't turned into either a hippie or a vegetarian.

I'm now on day six of my dairy-free diagnostic process. This morning, just before waking up, I dreamed that I was eating an entire Splendora's sampler by myself—that's eight small scoops of gelato, for the uninitiated. Then I started popping bocconcini (little bite-size balls of fresh mozzarella), since I'd already messed up. I remember thinking, "Well, if I get sick, then I know I'm lactose intolerant... but it's worth it!" I guess the cheating-on-your-diet dreams happen even when the diet isn't the weight-loss kind. I'm going to give it a couple more days and then add dairy products back into my diet. I haven't noticed that my stomach's been behaving particularly differently this past week, so we'll have to see.

I had a salad at Chipotle yesterday, and have since been contemplating their chipotle-honey salad dressing. Supposedly, it's red wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, oregano and adobo. I'm going to have to make my own at some point, but I don't think I'll use olive oil—not neutral enough—and I'll probably add some lime juice. I love that dressing, and I have a big package of organic salad greens that I have to finish in the next couple of days.

I'm also thinking about buying a small food processor. Vanessa brought this cannellini bean dip to the picnic, which was essentially hummus made with white beans instead of chickpeas and fresh parsley instead of cumin. I was eating it by the spoonful, and I'd like to be able to make it myself. Not to mention hummus, pesto, and so on. Perhaps a voyage up Route 29 to Target is in order...

Golden Raisin Chutney

2007-06-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

I'm doing it: my brilliant Latin-Indian fusion food idea will soon be realized. I've made a batch of chutney and fried up the plantains, and I'm working on the lentils now. I decided on lentils rather than black beans because I felt like I was leaning too far toward the Latin side of things. Then I discovered that I have Goya lentils, and the packaging is in Spanish. I'm calling them a crossover food. I'm thinking saffron rice. This would be a lot faster to do if I had more pots. Oh well, making do with what I've got is part of what makes cooking a challenge, and the challenge is what keeps me interested.

A word about plantains: good heavens, they are delicious. Why are they so cheap? I think I paid 79¢ a pound for the one I bought at Harris Teeter last week, regular price. I am going to eat plantains all the time.

A bunch of us headed over to City Market this morning, which is always a joy. I enjoy going alone, but I think I do better when I go with people. They notice things I don't, and they encourage me to slow down so I can think more carefully about what I want to buy. Today I ended up with string beans, blackberries, new potatoes, strawberries, sour cherries and some absolutely gorgeous cherry tomatoes. I've been avoiding tomatoes all year, having made a vow only to eat them when they're in season, because they're so disappointing otherwise. These tomatoes were worth the nine-month wait.

I also got my obligatory cinnamon sugar cake donut from the donut guy. He must have just finished a batch, because mine was almost too hot to eat and falling apart in my hands. They're the only donuts I eat, and well worth a dollar apiece.

It occurs to me that if my herbs get robust enough to start cooking with at some point while tomato season is still on, I'm going to make some killer salsa fresca.

I'll let you know how the experiment turns out. I think it's going to be picnic food, since it's all vegan and should taste great at room temperature.

All right, I just tasted the chutney after letting it cool for a while on the counter, and it is fantastic, and definitely recipe-worthy. Here you go:

Golden Raisin Chutney

1/4 c white wine vinegar
3/4 c water
1/4 c sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp minced ginger (I use stuff from a jar by "The Ginger People")
1 tsp ground ancho pepper
cayenne pepper to taste, or leave it out
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, minced
1 c golden raisins

Throw everything but the raisins in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about five minutes. Then add the raisins and cook until almost all of the liquid is gone (it took me somewhere between twenty minutes and half an hour, I think). Cool to room temperature or throw it in the fridge for later.

The basic chutney idea (water, vinegar, ginger, peppers, onion, fruit) is swiped from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, which is where I go when I think, "Hey, how would one go about cooking THAT at home?" Except when I'm baking, I use recipes more to check whether I'm on the right track or not than to dictate exactly how I should cook. I'm afraid that the intuitive approach to, say, cake or bread baking is several years down the road...

Western PA Meatballs

2007-06-15T09:35:00.001-07:00

I decided that I'd better start a food and cooking blog, basically because I think about this stuff all the time and it's cluttering both my brain and my main blog, Double Hoo. Every kitchen needs a junk drawer, and this will be my written junk drawer, where I stuff all my nascent recipes and half-formed ideas, gush about my triumphs, and talk through my failures.

Since this is day one of the blog, I'll start with one of each of those things. The nascent recipe isn't really mine; it's Jared's grandma's, kind of, and I'm pretty sure everybody in the state of Pennsylvania has eaten it as an hors d'oeuvre at least once. For lunch today, I've made sweet and sour meatballs (or "holiday meatballs," or "cocktail meatballs") glazed with chili sauce and grape jelly.

This all started because I went to the grocery store to replenish my supply of Gladware. I don't know where it all goes. I'm probably racking up days in purgatory just because of the amount of stuff I throw out. At the store, I saw that Heinz Chili Sauce was on sale. I don't even really know what chili sauce is, but I know it's used in these meatballs, and lo and behold, the label contained a recipe for them. So I picked up a bottle of the sauce and a pound and a half of ground turkey (the bottle said beef, but Jared's grandma uses turkey, and grandmas beat bottles any day), and got to work. I put in extra onion because I love onion, and used granulated garlic because I forgot to mince a garlic clove before washing the cutting board, and I'm lazy. Here's my (tweaked) recipe:

Western PA Meatballs

1-1/2 pounds ground turkey
2/3 c bread crumbs (or enough to make the mixture non-sticky enough)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp kosher salt
a bunch of cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp granulated garlic
1 small onion, minced

Throw all that stuff together in a bowl. (All measurements approximate, all spices from Penzeys.) Mix it up with your hands. Get your cast iron skillet good and hot over medium heat, coat the bottom with peanut oil, and drop the turkey mixture in in approximately 1-inch, approximately ball-shaped blobs. Turn them every minute or so until they're browned all over, then pull them out and drain them on paper towels. At the same time, in a saucepan, combine approximately equal parts chili sauce and grape jelly over low heat. When the jelly gets hot enough, it'll melt, and you can swirl it into the chili sauce. When all the meatballs are browned, turn the heat under the skillet all the way down, wipe the skillet out, put all the meatballs back in and pour the sauce over. Make sure the meatballs are good and coated, then throw a lid on there and simmer them over the lowest possible heat, stirring them up every ten minutes or so, until you're about ready to eat.

So that's the nascent recipe. (It's nascent because Jared swears it's much better with guava jelly, and because I don't really like the flavor of bread crumbs—I'll tweak the sauce and try cracker crumbs next time.) The half-formed idea started developing because I've been rewatching Season 1 of Top Chef, and there's an episode where the chefs have to create dishes that fuse Latin American street food with influences from other countries. The one that intrigued me the most was the Latin/Indian fusion. The dish they created didn't do anything for me, but I couldn't stop thinking about this burrito. I'd want to make the tortilla with chickpea flour—can you do that? I'd have to read about the structural properties of chickpea flour. Maybe combine it with masa. Anyway, I'd fill the tortilla with black beans and rice, then add a layer of curried or masala-spiced plantains. Top the whole thing off with a golden raisin and onion chutney, maybe with some ancho pepper in there? I'm determined to turn this idea into a recipe, but it's going to take more experimentation than I have the energy for right now, and I have to figure out the tortilla issue.

I just realized I don't really have a triumph to gush about. Or... hmm, okay, yeah, the salad I made the other night was pretty darn good. Just mixed baby lettuces, quartered strawberries, chopped walnuts, and golden raisins (I love my raisins), drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with cracked pepper (I love my pepper too). That's one I'll make again. Possibly again today...

And finally, the failure. I'm experimenting with not eating dairy products, in an effort to see whether my recent stomach issues are related to them. This means I can't eat the half gallon of delicious ice cream that's in my fridge, and leaves me at a bit of a loss, dessert-wise. So I decided to make some coconut rice pudding. I combined a can of light coconut milk with 3/4 of a cup of arborio rice and stirred that over medium heat until the rice was done. Then I stirred in sugar, the juice and zest of one small lime, and some garam masala. The pudding is good, but the coconut milk is just a little too fatty (even though it's light!), and there's too much sugar and not enough spice. I bought some unsweetened soymilk last night (Westsoy Organic Unsweetened), and while I won't be pouring myself a frosty cold glass of plain soymilk anytime soon, it's great with Hershey's syrup, and I think I'll try some in my next batch of coconut rice pudding. I do love the balance that the lime juice brings to the pudding, and the garam masala, despite containing not-so-desserty spices like cumin and coriander, is delicious. So I'll be trying this again, but the current batch is just too sweet to eat, and I may well toss it before it fossilizes in my fridge.

Time for lunch: the just-finished meatballs, some olive-oil-rosemary-garlic potatoes (frozen, out of a bag, but not bad, though rosemary kinda makes me think of church incense), and green salad with homemade sesame vinaigrette. And a Top Chef episode to watch while I eat...