Happy Birthday Jeff!

Arrr, tis' that time o' the year again... tis' Jeff's birthday today, argh!

Sorry... I couldn't help it - Jeff's birthday just happens to fall on the official Talk Like a Pirate Day (which also happens to be some inside joke at his office with him)! I'm sure he'd love a full post of pirate speak, but I'd go crazy having to type it all out... so we'll just do a pirate themed birthday instead.

Anyway, Jeff has been asking for a creamy wild rice soup for some time now - so for his birthday dinner tonight, I made this Chicken and Ham Wild Rice Soup.

This creamy soup starts by melting a couple knobs of butter and tossing in a mirepoix to soften - this is just a fancy name for the combination of carrots, celery and onion. To help tighten the soup later on, a few tablespoons of flour are stirred into the vegetables and allowed to cook for a minute to remove that raw flour-y taste. Half-and-half, chicken broth and a shot of sherry to perk things up are stirred in, followed by cooked wild rice, shredded chicken and cubes of cooked ham. After the liquid dances and grooves in the pot for a few minutes to bring all the ingredients up to temperature, I tasted and added a bit of salt and fresh ground black pepper to enliven the flavor. While served in a soup bowl is certainly reasonable, to make this a bit more special, I carved out the innards of a crusty pretzel bread bowl and served the soup inside!

Using a combination of chicken broth and half-and-half blessed the soup with a voluptuous body, while still keeping it fairly light and flowing. The cooked ham added a salty and slightly smoky flavor while the chicken added extra protein and texture. Tender, yet chewy black grains of Minnesota-grown wild rice added to the hearty nature of this soup, also lending a distinctly nutty essence.

Wild rice, if you've never made it before, is cooked in a large volume of broth (or water) for a fairly long time - usually around 40 to 60 minutes, depending on the variety and size. Look for the cooked grains to just begin to split and puff open, exposing its translucent innards - too much longer after that and it can get a little mushy. To get the amount needed for this recipe, use roughly 1 cup of the dry grains. Wild rice is considered a whole grain - it is rich in fiber, protein, lysine and also has the benefit of being gluten free! Still not convinced you would like it? Try using mixture of half wild rice and half brown rice the next time you cook up a pot for a pilaf or side dish and see what you're missing!

And yes, he got some special treats too... we'll talk about those tomorrow though - here is a sneak peek!

Recipes
Chicken and Ham Wild Rice Soup

Friday night pizza... on Thursday!

Due to an occasion tomorrow and since we still wanted to do a pizza this week, I had to prepare the Friday Night Pizza a day early... woo!

While I'm a big fan of our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough, tonight's pizza, Tomato Polenta Pizza, went in a different direction in the crust department. A smooth, firm layer of "polenta" forms a creamy, set base to adorn the top with luscious slices of fresh plum tomatoes and thin strips of mozzarella cheese.

I say "polenta" because this version doesn't actually use cornmeal, which is what I go to when I think of polenta. Instead, this version uses fine semolina - a.k.a pasta flour - which is finely ground durum wheat. Semolina has the benefit of a very fast cook time and while it doesn't necessarily have the same exact flavor, we didn't think it was that much of a stretch! Rather than using water to cook the semolina, we used milk for an ultra creamy texture - once you drizzle the fine grains into the pot, don't stop stirring because it will thicken almost instantly. Since the mixture is fairly dense at this point, a couple eggs are stirred in to lighten the mixture, along with a handful of fresh grated Asiago cheese to melt in for a nutty flavor.

We spread the mixture in a large pizza pan - if your pan has holes in the bottom, line it first with foil or parchment paper so it doesn't get pushed through them. If it seems difficult to spread evenly, lay a couple strips of saran wrap on top and just used your hands to push it around. You'll want to do this at least a couple hours ahead of time so the mixture firms up and holds its shape. Before we layered on the tomatoes and cheese, I crushed a bit of dried basil leaves and scattered them on top. The original recipe called for seasoned breadcrumbs to be scattered on top before the assembled pizza went into the oven, but I smashed a few garlic-and-herb seasoned croutons to use instead.

Baked until the cheese is gooey and golden brown, I was easily able to slice the pizza into wedges and the slices were sturdy enough to pull out each without falling apart! The acidity from the fresh tomatoes on top was a nice, sharp contrast to the velvety base - I didn't know if the "crust" would end up being tough due to the second bake after being already cooked in the pot, but the semolina held up quite well and my concern was for naught. The eggs worked well to give the semolina mixture lift and retain a light texture. I also thought the use of the breadcrumbs (well in our case, seasoned croutons) on top was an awesome idea and one I'll be using again.

I have a killer plan for lunch tomorrow now - I think I'm going to heat a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil inside and add the pizza slices - this way the semolina bottom gets golden and crisp while the cheese and tomatoes can gently rewarm from the bottom up... hurray for leftovers!

Recipes

Tomato Polenta Pizza

Meat and potatoes... but with a few twists!

Our dinner tonight? Meat and potatoes... but with a few twists!


Taking a knife to a few russet potatoes and slicing them into sticks was the first order of business tonight for this Steak Frites with Shallot Pan Reduction dish - peel first if you want, but we rarely do that for most potato dishes. While the original recipe called for a spritz of cooking spray before cooking, we went with a drizzle of canola oil instead as we've gotten better results that way. If your baking sheets are small, feel free to spread the sticks between two sheets and rotate the pans halfway through - we used a single half sheet pan and there was plenty of room in between.

While the potatoes were baking away, we took a big 'ol hunk of lean sirloin steak and seasoned it generously with salt and fresh ground black pepper. The steak went into a skillet with a touch of oil just long enough to caramelize both flat surfaces, leaving the inside a juicy bright pink. As it rested, a couple tablespoons of finely chopped shallots were tossed in, followed by a couple splashes of brandy to pull up those intensely flavored browned bits left behind from the steak.

Beef broth, swirled with Dijon mustard, is then poured into the skillet, along with a sprinkling of fresh thyme. A bit too saucy as is, the broth is left to simmer, creating the savory reduction that was hard to resist sneaking spoonfuls of for "quality control". To give the reduction a bit of sheen and richness, just a couple small knobs are snatched from a stick of butter and whisked in at the end.

Once the fries were golden and crisp, with tender moist insides, they were hit with a scattering of additional fresh thyme, releasing its brilliant aroma as it hit the hot potatoes. To serve, we thinly sliced the steak and the tender strips through the shallot reduction to pick up the flavors - since there was still quite a bit of the sauce left, I poured it into small bowls to serve on the side. So, while this was "meat and potatoes", it certainly brought a whole delicious new perspective to it!

Recipes
Steak Frites with Shallot Pan Reduction

Short stack... but not pancakes!

For this week's Weekly Wednesday Treat Day item, we decided to keep it simple, clean and studded with pistachios!

There are very little ingredients in the recipe for the Pistachio Shortbread I made today - simply flour, powdery confectioners' sugar, cubes of cold butter, toasted pistachios, a single egg yolk and a splash of sweet, fragrant vanilla are used to create the dough. What's even better? The whole shebang is done in a food processor!

The dough will be slightly soft after working with it, so you'll want to give it plenty of time to firm back up in the refrigerator. Being soft, the logs tend to turn flat on the bottom if you don't roll the logs often as they chill out - to solve this, just slip the wrapped dough in a old tube from a roll of paper towels. This works quite well and can be used for other types of slice-n-bake doughs that need to be chilled - if the dough is too big to slide into the paper roll, just make a slit down one side so you can wrap it around like a hot dog in a bun! You could freeze the dough at this point if you want to make it weeks ahead of the time you want them - however, you could also keep it in the refrigerator for a just about a week and just hack off a few slices at a time for freshly baked gems!

Bake these dainty cookies just until they begin to take on a lovely golden hue around the edges and let them cool right on the baking sheets. Tender, a little crumbly, oh-so buttery and just sweet enough to cut the richness, these pistachio-studded cookies would make a fine treat for any occasion. Toasting the raw pistachios before-hand allows their true nuttiness to bloom - adding them to the food processor at the beginning allows them to be evenly distributed into the dough with pebble-sized pieces. While you do loose a bit of their green color this way, it is definitely worth that sacrifice. If you want chunks of pistachio, you may want to add them just at the end and pulse them in. I'd love to try these again during the holiday season - maybe using some chopped and dried tart cherries or cranberries inside the dough and chopping up the pistachios to roll the outside of the dough in for a fun green and red flare.

Fresh pears are one of the foods I love to get at the market when fall rolls around - combined with a bit of cheese, a few chicken breasts and a healthy bunch of mature spinach, I couldn't wait to make this easy weeknight dish of Chicken Breasts with Spinach, Pears and Blue Cheese for dinner this evening.

Chicken breasts, seared to a golden brown finish on each side, are transferred into the oven to cook through, freeing up a spot on the stove to begin softening a bit of chopped mild red onion. A bunch, literally, of fresh mature spinach (you want that hearty texture and developed flavor to the leaves that mature brings, so try not to use baby spinach) is tossed in and around with the onions until the heaping mass wilts down to a manageable size. You may have a bit of liquid at this point, so you may want to drain some of it away so the spinach isn't too wet. The warm spinach is transferred to a few plates to form a bed, while the same skillet is used again to heat thinly sliced pears in a pool of tangy apple cider vinegar and a shot of extra-virgin olive oil. To freshen them up, a light scattering of fresh parsley is also added.

By this time, the chicken should be cooked through - sliced on the bias and arranged on top of the spinach bed, the juicy chicken is topped with the crisp-tender pear slices and warmed cider vinegar dressing. While we could have just dug in now, we couldn't forget about one of the most important ingredients - the cheese! Those crumbles of creamy, pungent blue cheese strewn randomly on top brought a notably aggressive bite, yet still allowed the rest of the flavors to come through. Not into pears? I bet this would be good with slices of crisp apples too!

Recipes
Pistachio Shortbread
Chicken Breasts with Spinach, Pears and Blue Cheese

Stuffin' peppers with sausage and millet...

Last week I told you that I needed to pick up a couple extra peppers this weekend to make that pesto again to stash in the freezer. When we went to the market, they looked so good that I got a few more than I needed so I could make this Millet and Sausage Stuffed Peppers dish for dinner tonight!

Have you cooked with millet before? If you haven't, scour the bulk bins for it at your local natural or health foods store - you may even find it in the organic section of your grocery store nowadays! Millet are tiny golden spheres that are rich in protein, fiber and magnesium - we've used it before in a delicious side dish and in a Mediterranean veggie burger.

While we were waiting for the millet pearls to cook, I started browning a few hot Italian turkey sausages. After they were done and transferred to a plate to drain, we started toasting a handful of buttery pine nuts in a small pool of canola oil. Chopped onions, a couple cloves of minced garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes and a surprise pinch of fragrant cinnamon are added to the now-golden pine nuts. Once the onions had softened, the mixture is tossed with the fluffy cooked millet, cooked crumbles of spicy sausage and chopped fresh basil leaves. The mixture is then mounded into a couple colorful sweet bell peppers - fitted snugly in a baking dish to hold them together, a little water is poured in around them and the dish is covered to finish cooking them in the oven.

With that added water, a hot and steamy environment is created, keeping the nutty stuffing moist, while allowing the texture of the peppers to turn soft and tender. You certainly can use one color of pepper, but the combination adds some fun to the visuals! The stuffing was nutty, meat-y and the sun-dried tomatoes added a luscious depth. The cinnamon was just a little tingle on the tongue that made you go "hmm... what is that?", but you wouldn't know it was in there. Jeff wasn't too crazy about the pepper part itself - however, I was expecting that. He did finish the more mild yellow pepper, but left most of the red behind, scooping all of the stuffing out! *shrug* What can you do? Oh well, more for me! If you can't find millet, I bet this would be just as good if you used quinoa, bulgur, whole-wheat couscous or even brown basmati rice!

Recipes
Millet and Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Apricot Cheesecake French Toast...

This week brought us 9 new recipes from the kitchen - Jeff picked out the favorites this time and chose the Venison, Sausage and Black Bean Chili, Nutella Biscotti and those Double-Cheese and Prosciutto Calzones from Friday night.

For our meal this evening, I went the breakfast-for-dinner route and prepared this Apricot Cheesecake French Toast. I used slices of whole-wheat bread tonight, but if you wanted to make these more special, use hefty slices of egg-rich challah bread.

On each slice of bread, we smeared a thin layer of softened cream cheese that we mixed with a spoonful of granulated sugar and amaretto to infuse an almond-y flavor. If you don't want to use alcohol, I would suggest using orange juice instead to add a little boost. On half of the smeared slices, we added an even layer of apricot jam and then sandwiched them together with the other cream cheese-laced bread. Be sure to put a bit a pressure around the edges to create a seal to prevent any leaking from the jam.

Keeping with the French toast theme, the assembled stuffed sandwiches are soaked in a mixture of beaten eggs, milk, another spoonful of sugar and a few drops of almond extract. You'll probably have a little of the eggy liquid leftover, so just drizzle that over the tops of the sandwiches. We didn't have much, but there was just enough extra that we didn't want to waste it and the bread drank it right up. Since these individual "stuffed" French toasts are a little delicate to handle, they are baked in the oven, rather than trying to deal with them on a griddle. This also gives the cream cheese filling plenty of time to marry with the apricot jam hidden inside.

The trip in the oven gave both sides a rich golden color - the outside of the bread was a little crispy, while the center was warm and moist. We were both pleased that they were very much not soggy at all, especially since Jeff has texture "issues" with mushy things (which is why you rarely see me making something like bread pudding... *sigh*). To pair with the amaretto in the cheese spread and the almond extract in the soaking liquid, we scattered the top of each French toast sandwich with toasted sliced almonds. We found these sweet enough as is, so a simple dusting of confectioners' sugar was just right for us, but I certainly wouldn't turn away a drizzle of pure maple syrup on top! I'd love to try this again with cherry jam since cherries and almonds play well together - or how about blueberry jam and toss in some fresh lemon juice and lemon zest? If I was feeling especially indulgent, I might think about switching the jam all together with a healthy spoonful of Nutella!

Recipes
Apricot Cheesecake French Toast

Good enough to just lick off a spoon, but Nutella also works well in biscotti!

We wanted to send an edible gift in hopes of lifting the spirits of a friend who lost someone dear to them - earlier this week I made a batch of these Nutella Biscotti that Jeff and I thought would be sturdy enough to make it.

I found the recipe in my cookie pile of recipes to-try, but apparently forgot to mark down where it came from. After a little research, I finally figured out where I got it - Nic @ Baking Bites. I remembered reading about it on her site and don't know why it took me so long to try it out!

Nutella, a chocolate hazelnut spread that is dangerous to have around (especially with a lone spoon in reach), along with a couple tablespoons of slightly bitter natural cocoa powder give this biscotti dough a very dark color. I did use a bit of whole-wheat pastry flour, but as usual, you can use entirely all-purpose flour if you wanted. To add another dark layer of chocolate-y goodness (Jeff's words...), a handful of chopped bittersweet is also tossed in.

I found the mixture to be quite sticky and a little wet, which some biscotti dough is certainly known for, so keep your hands floured when worthing with it. Usually I would just keep my hands moist to keep it from sticking, but I thought the extra flour wouldn't hurt this dough. If you find floury spots on the dough when you transfer it onto the baking sheets, do be sure to brush any excess off before you bake them.

After cooling a bit from the first bake, lightly spritz the tops of the loaves with water - this will slightly soften the outer crust just enough to make slicing easier and make them not crumble as much. For the second bake, you'll want to let them go long enough to begin drying them out - the edges will crisp up, but the centers may still be a little soft after you take them out of the oven. As the dark slices cool on a baking rack, those centers will crisp up and become crunchy, yet not rock hard, leaving you with the option to dunk or not! If you really want to highlight the flavor from the Nutella, a handful (1/2 cup or so) of toasted, skinned and chopped hazelnuts would be a fantastic addition when you add in the chunks of bittersweet chocolate.

Recipes

Nutella Biscotti

Pizza... folded over.

Friday... Pizza! Friday... Pizza! That's all I heard when Jeff came home from work late this afternoon (and typing that out reminds me of Little Caesars - I used to love their pizza growing up!). So, I guess someone has certainly gotten comfortable with this pizza Friday idea!

This time, I went the individual pizza route and prepare these Double-Cheese and Prosciutto Calzones. Because of the amount of filling I needed to stuff inside, I decided to throw together the one-pound version of our our favorite whole-wheat dough. What? You have not tried it yet? What are you waiting for - it is dead easy and takes no time to make since all the work is done in a food processor. Although, if you feel the "knead" for a work out, you could certainly prepare the dough by hand.

I divided the dough into quarters and once stretched out into small circles, I piled on a mound of ingredients consisting of mozzarella, soft goat cheese, chopped prosciutto, a big ol' clove worth of minced garlic, flakes of crushed red pepper and a smattering of tiny fresh thyme leaves. Be sure to leave the edges of the dough clean so they can stick together when you close the calzone. If you want to make them fancy, crimp the edges by turning the dough onto itself or just take the easy route, as you can see that we did, and press down with a handy fork.

They will puff up and turn golden when the are baked enough - as soon as you slide them out of the oven, lightly brush each hot calzone with extra-virgin olive oil to give them a shiny coat and a bit of flavor. Despite my quick effort to seal them, apparently I didn't press down hard enough on this lone calzone, so a little of the cheesy molten filling began to ooze out. I was sold as soon as the more mild mozzarella, tied with the tangy goat cheese and salty prosciutto, passed my lips and hit my anxious tongue. The thyme was pungent enough to stand up the stronger flavors, but not so much that it overpowered the cheese's - its freshness was tantalizing, especially when combined with the garlic. If you want to make this a little easier or to serve it family-style, you could make one giant calzone and simply slice it up when serving.

Recipes
Double-Cheese and Prosciutto Calzones

Venison, Sausage and Black Bean Chili...

The times when the drops of rain were not being released from the clouds today, it was very overcast and generally pretty icky outside - not warm, not cold, but just that "blah" in between. By luck, I had this Venison, Sausage and Black Bean Chili already on the menu to make tonight - chili is perfect for this type of weather!

To start out with a bang, hot Italian turkey sausage is cooked and crumbled with a plenty of aromatic chopped onion and minced garlic. When the onion had softened, chunky pieces of trimmed venison loin are tossed in and allowed to begin caramelizing their lean surface. To richen the concentrated flavor in the tomato paste, it is now added before any liquids to give it plenty of contact with the bottom of the pot. Now I know I harp about this a lot, but it is a step worth doing to highlight some of those flavorful notes found in the paste.

Broth, chopped tomatoes, a bit of water and smoky cumin loosen the chili and season up the meat. Also added is ancho chile powder, which I thought this was key to this dish. If you've never had it before, it is certainly worth seeking out - it doesn't have much heat at all, but what it does provide is a rich, mildly sweet flavor that has undertones of what you might find in paprika. At this point, the chili will simmer for a long hour and fifteen minutes, giving the venison plenty of time to turn very tender with a melt-in-your-mouth quality. The black beans are held back until that point and only need to be heated through to keep their firm texture. To serve, we scattered the top of each bowl with cooling creamy crumbles of goat cheese and thin slices of fresh jalapeño - don't groove on goat cheese? Sour cream would also be a nice addition to curb the spice from the turkey sausage and what little heat the chile powder adds.

The texture lands somewhere in between a broth-y chili and a thick, heavy chili - it was still light enough to be refreshing, but still filling. We very rarely use venison as we've had some recipes that ended up being fairly game-y tasting, but I was surprised with how well everything melded together and neither of us noticed anything off at all! The venison does have a robust flavor, but combined with the two forms of tomatoes, chile and beans, Jeff has declared this his favorite chili-of-the-moment. I reminded him of some of the past favorites we have made before, but he is firm in his stance that this has climbed to the top of the list.

Recipes
Venison, Sausage and Black Bean Chili

Making pesto red...

I was looking for a different kind of side to serve with a pasta dish I was making for dinner tonight - when I was menu planning this past weekend, I came across a tempting recipe for these Parmesan Spinach Cakes that sounded good!

We tossed handfuls from a bountiful bunch of trimmed mature spinach (you could use baby spinach, but we wanted a stronger flavor for this) into a food processor to finely chop it - do yourself a favor and do this step in a few batches. If you just packed it all in there, the blade would just spin and nothing much would happen.

To the green mound, we added ricotta cheese, sharp Parmesan cheese, a couple eggs and a garlic clove. Because I wanted to boost up the flavor, I also added a few flakes of crushed red pepper and a pinch (don't go crazy!) of fresh grated nutmeg (nutmeg goes surprisingly well with spinach). You could certainly bake these in a muffin tin, but I used those silicone baking cups that I got back in '05. I like using them for recipes like this that tend to stick, chocolate work or to bake eggs in - I do occasionally use them for muffins or the like, but they don't brown the baked goods as well as a regular muffin tin would. If you do use a muffin tin for these, pour a little water into the empty wells so they don't scorch in the oven.

They rise up as they bake, but will deflate a little once taken out from the heat of the oven, so they are fairly dense, yet the eggs still give them a fluffy quality. You don't necessarily taste the nutmeg we added, but it rounds out the earthy flavors from the spinach. With just a few grates of fresh Parmesan on top to serve, Jeff has already requested that we keep the recipe for these savory and quick cakes handy to make them again soon. If you want to chance things up, how about switching out the Parmesan for feta cheese or using cottage cheese instead of the ricotta? It's also worth thinking about making them in a miniature muffin tin for a more appetizer-sized portion!

The basil plants are not lookin' too hot after the drop in temperatures lately, so I made sure to get this Angel Hair Pasta with Red Pepper Pesto and Basil made before I strip the rest of the leaves off for other uses.

Instead of being basil heavy, the weight in this pesto comes from three medium sweet red bell peppers. To intensify their flavor and remove their thick skins, I set them under the broiler until they were well-charred on all sides - you could also do this on a grill or even over the gas flame on your stove (I wish... I'm stuck with an electric cooktop). While they are now blackened, you do need to set them into a bowl and cover it for a few minutes to give the steam from the hot peppers time to release the skins. When you remove the skins, don't fret if there are some black spots - just think of it as more flavor and whatever you do, do not run them under water to try and wash the bits off. You would be washing all the work down the drain!

The pesto is created by placing toasted pine nuts (walnuts or pistachios would be good in this too), the softened peppers, garlic and the fresh basil leaves into a food processor and pulsing just until the ingredients have been coarsely chopped. Extra-virgin olive oil is added in a steady stream and you'll want to process just long enough to incorporate it - leaving the mixture a little chunky is good for texture. We tossed the fresh pesto with thin angel hair pasta and once plated, weaved in shavings of nutty Asiago cheese. Saucy enough to thoroughly coat the pasta, yet not be downed in it, you could add a little of the starchy cooking liquid from the pasta if you wanted to thin it out - we thought it was fine as-is though.

I think I'll be at the market this weekend picking up more peppers so I can make the pesto again just to freeze - it would be good for a spread on pizza, on sandwiches or even added to the soups we plan on making when winter sets in to remind us of the sweet rewards produced by the warm summer weather.

Recipes
Parmesan Spinach Cakes
Angel Hair Pasta with Red Pepper Pesto and Basil

The wonderful world of browned butter...

Tomorrow brings us to another Weekly Wednesday Treat Day - the treat I choose is pretty simple, but I added another step to these Browned Butter Oat 'N' Toffee Grahams that brings a new dimension to them.

The original recipe just called for melted butter, but I took that a little further and let the butter bubble away until its color slightly darkened from its natural golden blonde color, releasing a very nutty aroma. If you follow this step (highly recommended!), keep the butter over medium to medium-low and don't wander too far away from the pot - when it is ready, you'll see that some of the milk solids have fallen to the bottom and turned very golden. Don't forget to scrape those bits out of the pot as they are full of intense flavor.

Underneath these bars are simply sheets of honey graham crackers all lined up neatly on a big baking sheet. The next layer is very oatmeal cookie-like - when you drop the thick oatmeal batter on top of the graham crackers, be sure to spread it all the way to the edge of the baking sheet (there will be a small space between the edge of the baking pan and the graham crackers) as you don't want any crackers exposed. After being baked until the cookie layer is bubbling and lightly browned, a generous amount of chopped bittersweet chocolate is scattered over the top and placed back into the oven briefly to soften. This creates a slick of chocolate frosting to coat the rich cookie layer - to gild the lily, a smattering of toasted, sliced almonds is added while the chocolate is still warm as the finishing touch.

The texture between the crisp grahams, the firm cookie-like center and the chocolate/almond topping was exciting! Browning the butter just took these bars to a new level - while they are rich and fairly sweet, the flavor wasn't over the top and kept my taste buds dancing in anticipation of the next bite. If you are a fan of the salty and sweet combination, which we decidedly are, Jeff and I thought swapping the toasted almonds on top for crushed salty pretzels would be a fun twist to these bars. Or, if you wanted to satisfy all tastes, top a third with the almonds, another with pretzels and leave the last plain - then you could see which you like best (sigh - I wish I had thought to buy pretzels this past weekend so I could have tried!).

I guess they weren't kidding around when they talked about the cooler weather coming in - it was a nippy 38 degrees when I woke up this morning! The temperature did bounce back a little after the warming rays from the sun took away the chill... but it certainly wasn't balmy!

To warm us up this evening as it started to cool down again, I went the very hearty route with a Beef and Polenta Bake I made for dinner.

The bottom of this dish is a thin layer of creamy homemade polenta that we spiked with sharp Parmesan cheese. The polenta is prepared first so it has time to set up while you make the beef topping. The timing for cooking the polenta will be determined by how coarse or fine the texture of your cornmeal is - if it is pretty fine, it might be ready in 5 or 10 minutes. However, I like to use a coarser meal, so ours took almost 30 minutes to thicken - I prefer this because we just find it has a better chance to develop more flavor the longer it cooks.

Once that was out of the way, I browned up a pound of ground sirloin and added a chopped onion, a few cloves worth of minced garlic, finely chopped carrots, chopped celery, finely chopped mushrooms and then sprinkled the mess with an Italian blend of herbs. Yes, mushrooms were included and oops, I didn't mention that to Jeff... in fact he is probably finding that out while reading this post! You don't have to finely chop them, but I do what it takes... hee hee! They added a pleasant earthy background and "beefed" up the dish, for lack of a better word. Tomato paste is stirred in and allow to caramelize - once toasty, we stirred in a few splashes of red wine (which could be swapped out with a rich beef stock if you don't cook with alcohol) and a can of fire-roasted whole tomatoes. To break up those red, juicy whole tomatoes, we used a potato masher while the mixture was coming up to a boil.

After the liquid was given time to evaporate to tighten the mixture up, the sauce is livened up with fresh parsley and then spooned over the now-firm polenta in the baking dish. Scattered with provolone cheese, the dish is baked just long enough to heat the polenta layer and melt the shreds of cheese. Jeff was sitting at the island with a fork and threatening to dig in (though, he probably would not have if he had known about those mushrooms!), so we didn't wait for it to rest a bit as we usually would.

The topping was still a little loose, but neither of us cared in the end as we demolished our full plates! Using the tomato paste really added a punch of concentrated flavor whiled the veggies really stretched the meaty sauce - we got about 8 servings, which will be perfect to warm up for lunches! If you know you won't have time to make this the night you want, you could assemble it the day before up to the point right before you add the cheese - just cover and stash it in the refrigerator overnight. Uncover, top with the cheese and bake until thoroughly heated through the next night!

Recipes
Browned Butter Oat 'N' Toffee Grahams
Beef and Polenta Bake

Cuban Black-Bean Stew with Rice...

If you've been wondering how well Max and the new little pup, Gus, have been getting along, I think this picture says it all! They have become buds pretty quick and are chasin' each other all over the house. Don't they look happy?

Another week has come to an end - we prepared 9 new recipes this week and our tops this time were the Spinach, Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza, Yellow Sheet Cake with Chocolate Frosting, and that Four Cheese Baked Penne.

We know some people who don't feel like it's a meal if there is no meat on their plate, but neither of us are like that which gives us plenty of options for dinner. Just like this Cuban Black-Bean Stew with Rice I made tonight - while the dish is rich with protein, it just isn't coming from a meat source!

While I was letting the pot of brown rice do its thing (using the no-fuss method), I started the base to this stew by softening a sweet red bell pepper and a mild red onion in a shallow pool of olive oil. I tossed in a couple cloves worth of minced garlic into the mix and waited until its pungent, alluring flavor reached my nose before stirring in a couple cans of rinsed and drained black beans. Once the beans were in, I also poured a bit of vegetable broth into the pot, along with a splash of cider vinegar and a pinch of oregano.

As the mixture bubbled away, I used a sturdy wooden spoon to press some of the beans along the side of the pan, releasing their tender insides to create a creamy body to the stew. Once everything was in the pot, I probably let the mixture go a couple minutes longer than intended, but I wanted to give the flavors a chance to meld. As a result, it was not as "stew-like", but it still was fairly loose and saucy enough for us! I served this upon a bed of the cooked brown rice and adorned the top with peppery sliced radishes, a sprinkling of chopped cilantro and a wedge of fresh lime to add a fresh note. A meal in itself, I did serve this with a handful of baked tortilla "scoops" and used those in lieu of a fork or spoon for most of it - tasty! If you wanted to add a rich element to the dish, I think a few thin slices of ripe avocado would be a nice finishing touch.

Recipes
Cuban Black-Bean Stew with Rice

Do you need a reason for cake?

I woke up this morning and for no apparent reason decided we needed to have a cake today! Who knows why, but after a little browsing through my stack of recipes, I found this basic Yellow Sheet Cake with Chocolate Frosting that lured me into the kitchen to start working on it.

Since it is just two of us, I scaled the recipe down as cake sounded good, but we really didn't need a whole 9" x 13" pan of it (I'm sure Jeff would argue with that though)! Sour cream and buttermilk work their voodoo on this cake to make it very moist and light with a mild tang. I did use a combination of all-purpose and whole-wheat pastry flour, but using completely all-purpose flour would be fine. You often see me switch a part of the all-purpose flour with this because the lighter whole-wheat pastry flour will still give you a bit of nutrition from the wheat, but it doesn't weigh baked goods down like a heavier whole-wheat flour would. Scaling the recipe down, I baked the yellow batter in an 8" square baking pan instead - bake it just until the center springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick placed in the center comes out we a few moist crumbs attached.

For a striking contrast, we prepared a dark and luscious chocolate frosting to completely cover the tender cake. A combination of cream cheese and butter gave the fluffy frosting a flowing movement that held its shape when spread over the entire cake, yet firmed up a touch as it sat to create a soft crust. We used Dutch-process cocoa powder for its smooth flavor, but you could easily use natural cocoa if that is what you have. We both commented that the frosting was a little on the sweet side, but the cake did well to off-set that with its richness - I do think a bit of instant espresso powder would have been a nice addition to the frosting to add interest and enhance the chocolate flavor.

Recipes
Yellow Sheet Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Spinach, Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza...

I have yet another recipe to share for our weekly Friday Night Pizza (well, for now anyway)! I think a riot may ensue if I don't keep this up... someone has gotten quite used to it! Thankfully, there are endless ways to prepare pizza and this Spinach, Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza I made tonight is keeping in line with the "unusual" toppings for us! I take that back... maybe not as "unusual" to us anymore since we have really been branching out from the usual sauce, cheese and meat toppings!

To stand up to the weight of this pizza's toppings, we went with the one-pound version of our favorite whole-wheat dough. This gave us a bit thicker crust to work with and allowed me to form a decent rim around the outside to keep all those delicious ingredients in place.

Once I had whirled the dough in the food processor (again... so easy to do!) and set it to rest, I started crisping up a few slices of smoky bacon. I reserved a couple teaspoons of the flavorful drippings the bacon expelled in a small bowl and then tossed in a hefty amount of baby spinach into the skillet. When wilted down, I transferred the tender leaves out into a colander, added the dippings back into the skillet and threw a mess of thinly sliced onions into the pan. We want these to turn a rich golden brown and caramelize, so to help the process along, we also added a couple teaspoons of granulated sugar.

This process still takes a bit of time, so I also had a pot on the stove going to prepare a light, creamy and garlicky white sauce to use instead of a tomato-based sauce. To a couple tablespoons of bubbling melted butter, we added a couple cloves worth of minced garlic and let them cook to mellow their flavor. Flour, along with fresh ground black pepper, is tossed in and after a few seconds, milk is gradually whisked in so no lumps form. If, for some reason, you do gets lumps, don't be afraid to take a handy immersion blender to the sauce and smooth it out.

Now that the toppings have been all prepped (whew - a little more work than your average pizza for sure!), we easily stretched out the dough to a rough circle and turned over the outer edges to form a rim. We stretched the dough to probably around 13" and it was about 12" after we formed the edge. Before you layer the spinach, be sure to give it a few squeezes with your hand (or use a potato ricer as we've mentioned before!) to get rid of the excess moisture - you don't want a wet pizza! As this point, the creamy sauce, spinach and caramelized onions are the only toppings you want to add - this way you can let the thicker crust bake through, without having to worry about over-browning the cheese. Once the crust is crisp, the top is showered with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and the crumbles of bacon. After just a few short minutes back into the oven, the cheese has melted and the pizza is ready to go!

I loved how the sweetness from the golden onions, the savory nature of the garlicky sauce and the bright spinach harmonized together to set off the sharp cheese and salty bacon strewn on top of the crisp crust. Jeff was thrilled with the combination and decided to forgo any dessert (!) to have another slice or two later - so much for leftovers tomorrow (ok, so maybe it wasn't all his fault... I went back for more too!).

Recipes
Spinach, Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza

Cookies and baked pasta... what a way to warm up!

While I'm usually the one picking out recipes to make when I menu plan for the week, I do like to give Jeff a cookbook or two and see if anything strikes his fancy. Sometimes he finds three or four recipes, other times he doesn't find anything that sounds good, but this time he came across a cookie recipe that he wanted me to try.

These Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Drops didn't originally have peanut butter in them, but you know we love that combination, so I experimented a bit to see if I could squeeze some in. While the recipe called for nine ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate to be melted with a couple sticks of butter, I swapped about three ounces of those chunks with a few tablespoons of creamy peanut butter.

After I tested out a couple cookies in the oven right after mixing the dark dough, I was happy to see that I didn't need to chill the dough to control any spreading. The cookies baked into circular mounds that were not too thin or too thick. With a hint of cinnamon to them, the cookie's main flavor was decidedly chocolate, but we could both feel the peanut butter lingering on our taste buds. Though, I do wish it would have came through more! Think of an assertive chocolate brownie as far as the taste goes, but the peanut butter wrangles it down a notch with its own flavor.

I also played with the sugar - I wanted a little crunch to the cookies, so I switched some of the moist brown sugar for granulated. The resulting texture of the cookies was a little crumbly (in a good way) and crisp at the surface, while the amount of brown sugar and handful of rolled oats gave them a chewy inside. Since the cookies are so dark, they are not as easy see when they are done - look for the edges to have darken a bit while the centers will still be a little soft if you press on them. Since they are a little delicate right out of the oven, let them rest on the baking sheet for a couple minutes before sliding a spatula underneath to move them onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Jeff munched on his cookies happily and said to make sure we make these changes if we were to make them again - I think I would like to try and work on adding a bit more peanut butter flavor, but I was happy with the results!

Yes, another chilly day today, which meant it was a perfect time to warm us up from the inside out with a casserole dish stuffed with this Four Cheese Baked Penne.

I guess you could consider this a type of lazy lasagna as it has similar flavors - to a whopping pound of whole-wheat penne pasta that we cooked just short of al dente, we stirred in a quick homemade tomato sauce flavored with onions, garlic, oregano, rosemary and a dash of crushed red pepper. To this hot, saucy mixture, we stirred in a combination of cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and shreds of mozzarella cheese (this is where I thought the "lazy lasagna" part kicked in).

Now, if you knew Jeff well, you would know he would so snub his nose at the notion of using cottage cheese in anything. Why? Who knows... if I told you all the times he has eaten it without knowing, I could fill quite a few pages in a book! When we went shopping this weekend, I was able to sneak the container of it into the shopping cart and hid it underneath a few containers of yogurt. See what I have to go through? If I didn't, he would probably have a "veto moment" and would find someway to accidentally "lose" the container before checking out.

Anyway, before I tossed the now-heavy casserole dish into the oven, I scattered the top with additional shredded mozzarella and of course, the fourth cheese, Parmesan! Once it had a chance to thoroughly heat through and make the cheese on top all gooey, I let it sit for about 10 minutes to give it just enough time for us to pull out tidy slices, but not too long that it was cold by the time we sat down to eat.

This time I waited until he was about a two-thirds done with his piece of pasta to give them the look of "I know something you don't know...." - after rolling his eyes, he said "Alright, what is it this time? I don't see or taste anything weird and I love the flavor!". I then went into the refrigerator to present him with the empty container of cottage cheese and said "See - you do like it!". Hee hee - was that mean? Oh well, it was creamy, warming and our bellies were completely satisfied after our pieces. We were both so tempted (even with the evil hidden cottage cheese) to take another piece, but we had to save room for a couple more of those cookies!

Recipes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Drops
Four Cheese Baked Penne

Brr... the seasons are a changin'!

I wonder if Mother Nature has officially flipped the switch and swung us from summer to the cooling autumn season? We were just in the low 90's the other day with a mess of humidity and today I don't think we got much above 66 degrees. There is definitely a chill to the air and it doesn't look like it is going away!

Soups, stews, chili and lots of comforting pasta or casserole dishes, along with a nice heavy comforter for the bed (you know, the windows have to be open to let that fresh air in!), are the perfect way to ring in the changing of the seasons (even if it is still a bit early!). We started it off tonight with a Broccoli Chowder with Corn and Bacon I made for dinner.

We rendered a few slices of salty bacon to crisp them up and collect the flavorful drippings that slowly release as they cook. To grab the most flavor, the onions are then added to just a little of those dripping and allowed to soften. To give the chowder some body, flour is tossed into the pot, followed by a stream of chicken broth for volume. Chunky pieces of a starchy potato are added and the chowder simmers away until the potatoes are tender enough to let the tines of a fork pierce through them without effort.

In the meantime, we massacred a crown of broccoli, slicing the florets into bite-sized pieces and peeling, then thinly slicing the stalk so there was little waste. The disassembled broccoli, corn kernels (hmm... I don't think my stash of kernels I put in the freezer is going to last us long enough!), a sprinkling of thyme and a cup of milk are hurried into the chowder to let the vegetables cook just long to turn them crisp-tender. Topped with a sprinkling of those crisp slices of bacon, we loved how the chowder was thick enough to suspend the vegetables in the bowl, yet not so thick you could stand a spoon up or so thin it felt water-y. The milk added a creaminess, but kept it light, while the generous amount of vegetables filled us up.

Recipes
Broccoli Chowder with Corn and Bacon

Buttery homemade cinnamon sticks...

Have you ever seen or tried those crisp cinnamon twists at the market? We used to buy them years ago, but they got pretty expensive and we stopped buying them. Those were the first thing that popped into our minds when we took a bite of these Cinnamon Sticks I made for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day.

With an ultra buttery, yet not too sweet dough, these twists took some time to prepare, but the reward was more than worth it! Much like a pie dough, this has the addition of a tablespoon of sugar along with a whole egg and a splash of milk for tenderness. Keep the mixing down to a minimum - just work the dough long enough to barely hold together and give it plenty of time to rest in the refrigerator before working with it.

Once I rolled half of the rich dough out, we brushed a portion of it with milk and dotted the same portion with fragrant cinnamon chips. The plain half is folded over, the top is given another brushing of milk and the whole slab is doused with cinnamon sugar. Can't find those elusive cinnamon chips? Just use cinnamon sugar instead! Two to three tablespoons, instead of the chips, should be sufficient. For the cinnamon sugar, I use a ratio of 1/4 cup granulated sugar to 1 tablespoon of our favorite Vietnamese cinnamon, which is quite pungent, so you may need to add another teaspoon or so if your cinnamon is not as potent.

I needed to then work on the other slab of dough - after I quickly assembled that one, we rolled a handy pizza wheel down each to create sticks. Each cinnamon-laced stick is then twisted a couple times and baked until golden. Not quite as flaky as you would get with an ingredient like puff pastry, the buttery layers were still there and the texture was pleasantly light. Crisp, yet not dry, these just-sweet-enough twisted treats packed quite punch of cinnamon that had us going back for more! In fact, Jeff is already threatening to hide the sticks and not take them into the office tomorrow!

I have another fairly speedy recipe to share with you that I made for dinner tonight. I did need to poach a few chicken breasts to make these Open-Faced Chicken and Muenster Sandwiches with Apricot-Dijon Spread, but I did that late last night and stashed them in the refrigerator until I was ready to shred them. If you don't want to bother, you could certainly shred up a rotisserie chicken from the market!

The recipe didn't call for this next step, but before I started piling on the ingredients, I toasted the hearty whole-wheat slices of bread first. We just like the bread to be toasted in these types of sandwiches as it adds texture and flavor, along with making it a bit more sturdy. A tangy spread is smeared on top, consistently simply of grainy Dijon mustard and sweet apricot preserves. Next came a layer of onions and thin slices of a Fuji apple that we heated in a skillet until they began to soften. A couple cups of tender baby spinach are also added and allowed just enough heat to begin to wilt.

Onces those are placed on the toasted bread, a mound of the shredded chicken breast is added and the sandwich is topped off with a slice of Muenster cheese. If you've never had Muenster before, it is very mild, smooth and melts extremely well - also good to pair with a sharper cheese for a gooey grilled cheese sandwich! Although, if you happen to come across a traditional Muenster cheese made in France, that version is much more pungent in flavor and aroma than what we typically find here. This open-faced sandwich was simple, quick to make and tasty - I can see us making this again as a fast lunch anytime as it was filling, but didn't leave you with a heavy feeling afterwards!

Recipes
Cinnamon Sticks
Open-Faced Chicken and Muenster Sandwiches with Apricot-Dijon Spread

Black-Eyed Pea Cakes with Adobo Cream...

Tonight I was not going to have much time to prep for dinner, so I took a few extra minutes this morning to throw together these Black-Eyed Pea Cakes with Adobo Cream.

These bean-y patties are a mixture of black-eyed peas, breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, cumin and an egg, along with an extra egg white, to give them some strength to hold their shape. Before you dump everything in the bowl, give the beans a partial mash with a potato masher (or a fork) to add a creamy element.

I found the bean mix to be a little moist at this point, so I just divided the mixture into 4 parts, scooped them out onto baking sheet and shaped them into their round patty form with wet fingertips. Covered, I then left them in the refrigerator to chill until I was ready for them this evening. The original recipe didn't call for this step, but I think they benefited from the rest as they firmed up well, which made the cooking process a bit easier as they were not as delicate. Cooked in a slick of olive oil until each side is crisp, the savory cakes are topped with a little Mexican-blend cheese (Monterey Jack would also work well) that quickly melts from the residual heat. We liked how their crisp outsides yielded to a creamy, tender center without being mushy. While we thought they could stand alone as is, a dollop of sour cream, married with a touch of adobo sauce, brought an extra layer of flavor that we thought was a welcoming finish without adding a spicy distraction. We had this with a side of brown basmati rice, but feel free to dress them up as you like!

Recipes
Black-Eyed Pea Cakes with Adobo Cream