Spaghetti with Frisée and Fried Egg

Rather than just having a bowl of spaghetti and sauce for dinner, why not spruce it up and take the noodles for a spin in a different direction? That's what we did with this Spaghetti with Frisée and Fried Egg we prepared this evening.

As we dropped the pasta, our knife went to work slashing a few strips of bacon into pieces, then tossing them in a skillet to start rendering out. As we used a good amount of bacon, it produced plenty of drippings as they cooked - halfway through, we took the time to drain away most of the excess fat and reserved it for later use. Why let it go to waste? Wicked and probably a little naughty for sure, but you'll see in a minute what we did with that crazy liquid. Besides, we did our good deed by using healthy whole-wheat pasta, right? Hee hee!

After taking the now-crispy bits of salty bacon out of the skillet, we quickly followed up with a hefty amount of chopped, slightly bitter greens, frisée to be exact. Just as it began to wilt, we shocked it with a shot of sherry vinegar to envelop the greens with a sharp note. Scooped into a bowl with the drained pasta and a scoop of the starchy water it cooked in, we used the same skillet for the third time (hurray for less dishes!) to work on the last touch for this dish.

Pouring in enough of the reserved crazy liquid, aka bacon fat, to cover the skillet and heat back up, we then cracked in a couple eggs to fry. Sizzle the eggs to your liking, but for us, I let them cook until the whites had just set, the edges were ever-so-crispy and lightly golden, yet the yolks retained a silky softness that when pierced with a fork, let loose a golden flow of decadence. Twirling the noddles, strewn with the tender greens, into a nest on the plate, scattering the top with bacon and sliding the fried egg on top, one would think we'd be set to eat, yes? Not so... since we'd already started down a slippery slope with all that bacon, we figured we might as well throw caution to the wind and top off the plate with freshly grated shreds from a quality block of Parmesan cheese.

On the plate in just about 20 minutes, this is one of those simple, yet satisfying dishes I will definitely keep handy for those nights when we have a house showing or errands that keep me out of the kitchen. Maybe not as often as both of us would like, but it won't be long before this graces our table again!

Recipes
Spaghetti with Frisée and Fried Egg

Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies

Since we did an apple treat last week, we thought we would keep the fall theme going and follow up with these Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day!

These brownies were not so much of a challenge to make, but there are a few somewhat messy steps to get the batter in the pan and ready to bake. Starting out with a single base, made from flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla and baking powder, the fairly fat-less batter is divided between two bowls to get gussied up. Oh, there was one more ingredient, but I'll wait (unless you cheat and jump to the recipe!) to divulge what that was... sneaky, I know! But you'll like it!

Into one of the bowls, we gingerly stirred in a decadent melted duo of bittersweet chocolate and butter. I know, one whole, buttery stick... but these are brownies - resist trying to lighten with applesauce! With that pale batter transformed to a dark, delicious pool, the other bowl was given a shock of color with mashed pumpkin, along with a smidge of canola oil. With all that pumpkin added, this one needed a couple spices to accentuate the sweetness - cinnamon and a few fresh grates from one of the whole nutmegs we have in the pantry did the trick. Add a half cup of chopped, toasted nuts if you like, but we left them out of this batch.

The two batters are then alternately layered into the baking pan, so you'll end up with 4 total, into which you'll stick a knife to swirl them together creating a lovely marbled effect. I do have one tip - once the batters are combined, work as quickly as you can to get them layered into the pan and swirled. The pumpkin batter was fine, but the chocolate will start to firm and set if you wait too long. Use a trusty wooden skewer or toothpick to test for doneless - you'll want to take them out when there isn't any wet batter left, but there are still sticky crumbs to be found. If it are passed that point, they won't be bad, they just will be a bit more cake-y.

While I wouldn't classify them as cake-style brownies myself, I don't think they quite fit into the fudgy mold either. When I think of describing them, dense, rich and moist come to mind, along with a nice chew that rounds out the texture. We also noted a slight tingle coming up our throats after a couple bites... remember that special ingredient I was holding back? It's cayenne pepper! Not much, a puny quarter teaspoon, which one probably couldn't point out as it doesn't scream its existence. However, we liked the complexity it added to these brownies. I wondered how prevalent the pumpkin would come across - it was definitely there, highlighted by those warm spices, but it played with the chocolate well enough to come across as a complete package without one competing with the other.

Recipes
Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies

Another yearly apple trip!

Brrr! It was a cold, blustery trip yesterday, but Jeff, Gus and I bundled up and drove down to join my family at our meet-up spot in Winona to do our annual apple picking trip! The first trip we talked about on the blog, you'll notice that we were in shorts. This year? I'll let this picture do the talking.

That would be three layers up top, two pairs of socks (with one of them being wool...) and gloves to try and keep me warm, and I was still bouncing all around trying not to freeze (I get cold so easy!). Lucky for Gus, he has all that long hair to keep him toasty!

Depending on where exactly we go, we tend to travel back and fourth, weaving in and out of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Here we enter Wisconsin for the first time, just outside of Winona.

Jeff was playing with the camera and I'm sure this will be no surprise to you that we have this hanging in the car.

Shocking, I'm sure!
Our first stop is always to the hilly Decoraland, which is where we do most of our picking.

See? One stop shopping! It's a small list compared to the variety of trees they actually have to choose from. We put our hands to use and snatched off Golden Delicious, Fireside, Zestar and of course, the ever sweet and crispy Honey Crisp.

I can't believe how much we ended up with - 68 pounds! Those darn bushels fill up so fast. Now we just have to figure out what to do with them all - any suggestions?

Besides going for apples, the other reason we go to this area is simply all about gawking at the absolutely stunning scenery... though, sadly, this year the colors were quite muted compared to other trips.
That doesn't mean it wasn't still beautiful (note the trees growing out from the rocks!).

The little markets and shops along the way are what really make the trip special - here's one we never miss.

Pumpkins galore were found here...

All shapes and sizes, along with funky gourds one would expect to find!

They also had loads of pie pumpkins, just aching to be cooked and mashed for the first pumpkin pie of the season!

And yes, the kitchy Halloween displays were ever-present... here's just a snap of the many!

This is from a set of furniture made right from twigs and logs -Mom especially took her time snooping around this area to try and figure out how to make them herself!

We stopped at a few other spots, but we were too enthralled with the offerings that we got caught up and left the camera in the car. What a great way to spend the day - we can't wait until next year's jaunt!

Mexi-Pizza...

That was interesting! I had our pizza post all ready to go after dinner last night... but when I went to hit publish, I looked down to see our cable modem was out! It just came back a few minutes ago, so I apologize for the tardy pizza!

However, it does give me a second to show you what we woke up to...

Get ready, winter is coming early! Actually, it wasn't much more than a dusting, but it is darn cold out here!

With inspiration from south of the border, we needed to do a little extra work to get last night's Friday Night Pizza on the table. Instead of buying prepared chorizo for this Mexi-Pizza, we went ahead and tried our hand at a quick homemade version!

I went with this pizza mainly because I had a scant pound of pork I needed to get used up - you can use already-ground pork if you like, but I cubed what I had on hand and whirled it in the food processor to grind it down. When you grind meat like this, you want the cubes to be cold and on the smaller side, about 1/4" to 1/2" or so in size. Using the pulse button is best as it goes pretty quick and you want some control on how ground it ends up - you are not looking to make meat paste after all! When the blade had diced the meat into fine pieces, we added the seasonings - three cloves of minced garlic (which can be dropped in the food processor first... let it do the work!), an ample amount of paprika (smoked - for not only is robust color, but depth), cumin, oregano, crushed red pepper for heat and a tiny pinch of cinnamon.

While we let that hang out for a few minutes to mingle, we took a few poblano peppers and set them under the broiler until they were well-charred all over. We don't have a gas stove, but if you do, you could blister them on top using a burner - just note that the peppers will be crisper and not as "cooked-through" as they get when you roast them in the oven. Done to make the skins slip off the peppers, this also gives them a bit more character with a slightly sweeter, smokier aspect. When you pull them out of the oven, stick them in a heat-proof bowl and cover them with plastic wrap (tossing them in a heavy zip-loc bag works too) - this traps in the moisture, creating a warm steam bath to make the skins practically fall off. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to pull off each and every dark bit - if it comes off, great, if some are stubborn, C'est la vie. Just don't run them under water - you'll be washing your work down the drain!

Cooked in a hot skillet to crumble the chorizo, we scattered the meat over our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough, partially-baked, giving us a solid platform for this pizza. Finely chopped red onion went on next, followed by shredded Monterey Jack cheese and the roasted poblanos that we chopped. Jeff can be funny about peppers, so slice the peppers how you like - if they are left in strips, he's more likely to just pick them off... so chopped it was! Baked to melt the cheese and finish crisping the crust, when we pulled the pie out of the oven, we gave the pizza a more cheesy note by throwing on little pebbles of queso fresco! If you've never had this type of fresh, snowy-white Mexican cheese before, it is a little salty, a touch tangy and very crumbly - great for salads and quesadillas as well! If you can't find this, a firm, block-style ricotta salata could be used instead.

Dandy as is, we still had one more ingredient to use on this pizza - fresh lime juice! It fits with the theme and all I guess, but you don't often see it used on pizza, that's for sure! The juice cut through some of the richness in the cheese and chorizo, while adding a delightful zip that was refreshing and clean. We used the twelve ounce version of our dough recipe, which gave us a crust that was fairly thin and crispy - if you wanted a base that was thicker with a bit more chew, try using a pound of dough instead.

Recipes
Mexi-Pizza

Melon Panzanella...

Panzanella is traditional known as a bread salad that has fresh tomatoes in it, but recently we made a version of the popular dish that swapped out the tomatoes for an unexpected ingredient. While playing on the sweetness the tomatoes would have added, this Melon Panzanella called for using any type of firm, ripe melon - in our case, it happened to be cantaloupe!

Honeydew, casaba or even watermelon were recommended and while our market had most of them on sale, the scent and texture of the pale tangerine fleshed cantaloupe was the best of the bunch. Rather than using stale bread, we took a few slices of a hearty whole-wheat, cubed them and let them dry out in the oven set at a fairly low temperature. You're not looking for them to gain color and toast, but just firm up and dry out enough that they can absorb a dressing and not turn into mush.

To give the oil used in the dressing a bit more bang-for-the-buck, it was first heated and used to sizzle strips of salty prosciutto, turning them light and crispy. This also gave us a chance to remove the raw harshness from a couple cloves worth of minced garlic by tossing them in to soften when the prosciutto was done. The warmed dressing was then completed by stirring in red wine vinegar and seasoning it with salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Tender leaves of baby spinach were our green of choice, though peppery arugula would be an excellent option if you can find it in your market. Tossed with the melon, sliced into cubes, the salad was completed by adding in chopped fresh basil, the barely toasted bread and the prosciutto mixture. To give the magic of the dressing time to work, you'll want to set the salad aside, giving the bread time to soak in the flavors and soften slightly - which comes in handy when you need extra time to give the main dish attention! So refreshing and light, I loved the excitement this produced when we served this to a couple friends we had over - different enough that one is surprised, yet still familiar that was is comforted and inspired by the simplicity!

Recipes
Melon Panzanella

Jalapeño Popper Mac 'n' Cheese

For dinner tonight, we worked two types of chiles into one of our favorite pasta dishes... Mac 'n Cheese! Besides the intriguing use of chiles, the method used to make the cheese sauce is definitely not your typical fashion either... let's jump right on in and see what we had to do to turn out this Jalapeño Popper Mac 'n' Cheese!

After we dropped the long, curly pasta called cavatappi (which also conveniently has ridges on it to grab onto the sauce) into the salty sea of boiling water, I had another skillet going to take care of the chiles. The amount may seem excessive once you see your pile from slicing the jalapeños and serranos, but don't be alarmed! The duo won't be added in raw - they are softened first in a slick of oil, along with a couple cloves of garlic, which will help pull their rich chile flavor out and tame their heat levels (though a bit too much in our minds... you'll see in a minute!).

After scooping the chiles and garlic out, we used the same saucepan to create the simple sauce by heating together milk and cubes of cream cheese. Yup, that's all it takes! Well, almost. For a little onion-y bite, a couple tablespoons of dried minced onion are also tossed in - however, if you wanted to use fresh, just grate a bit of onion in. This way you'll end up with mostly juice and tiny bits of onion, which won't end up as crunchy uncooked nuggets. When the cubes of cream cheese have melted in, thickening the mixture to create a velvet-y smooth sauce, it was combined with the now-drained pasta and chiles.

This is a Mac 'n Cheese after all, so you know cream cheese can't be it, right? You know it and another half pound of cheese was added in the form of mild Mexican-blend cheese! Monterey Jack would also be work well (and was originally called for), but I used what we had in the refrigerator. Now, you could have this as is out of the saucepan, but to give the top a bit of color, the cheesy concoction was placed into a dish and set under the broiler for just a few minutes.

So, back to that mound of chiles... did it make this too spicy? Quite the contrary! By removing the seeds and ribs of the chiles, you are left with their potent flavor, yet you won't have to deal with the fiery punch if you would have left them in. However, it almost seemed a bit too mild for us and we would have liked a touch of spiciness - maybe if we chopped one of the chiles whole it would have satisfied our lust for heat? When we go to make this again, there is one more thing I would do different - a crunchy breadcrumb topping (probably using panko) would be an excellent way to dress this up and provide a bit of contrast to the lush creaminess underneath.

Recipes
Jalapeño Popper Mac 'n' Cheese

Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake...

We've been without the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day for now, what, two weeks? I was excited to jump back in, but what to make? With fall definitely showing its color and cool attitude around here, along with its bounty of apples flooding the market, it wasn't a tough choice once I came upon this Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake!

Because this cheesecake is fairly substantial, we needed a solid crust to give it sturdy legs. A graham cracker crust would be nice, especially using ones already laced with cinnamon, but we went with a spicer route and ground up crunchy gingersnaps! If either of those two wouldn't work for you, we've used animal crackers before with much success. With a touch of brown sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt added to the crumbs, we moistened the mass with just enough melted butter to bind. Pressed over the bottom and up the sides of a large springform pan, we placed the pan into the freezer while the oven heated up. The crust then needs to slip into the oven for just a few minutes, setting the crust and turning it a light golden hue.

Before I could get my hands dirty making the cheesecake batter, we needed to deal with autumn's natural sweet treat - the apples! Using peeled and sliced Golden Delicious apples (try Fuji here if you like), we tossed half the amount into a skillet of melted butter and left them to cook briefly, turning just a single time, until they gained a touch of color. A very light dose of brown sugar later, the apples were ready to be turned out onto a plate to start cooling down with the next batch going in to cook. Be sure the second batch has enough time to cool as you don't want to try and layer hot apples into the batter!

Luxuriously smooth and dotted with specs from our favorite fragrant Vietnamese cinnamon, the cheesecake batter is an extravagant combination of cream cheese, sour cream and heavy cream, sweetened with brown and granulated sugar. Along with the aforementioned cinnamon, vanilla and a shot or two from our fall staple, apple cider, were also blended into the batter with a few eggs to finish it out. Once the first egg is dropped in, mix the batter long enough to just mix the egg in before adding the next - you don't want to overwork the batter at this point.

Enough of this tan, thick liquid is poured into the cooled crust to cover the bottom, then those caramelized apples are arranged over to form a hidden surprise layer inside. The rest of the cream cheese mixture is added into the pan and sent off to bake in the oven until the cheesecake is almost completely set - you should have just a bare jiggle in the center when it's ready. Plenty of cheesecakes are baked in a water bath for a gentle heating, but I've had a few that even being well-wrapped with heavy duty foil still end up with a soggy crust from water somehow leaking inside. I've gone to a method here where you simply put a pan of heated water on the rack directly below the cheesecake and let it work its magic - however, if you are more comfortable with setting your wrapped pan in a direct water bath, feel free!

As with most cheesecakes, this one too is best left to rest at room temperature until completely cool, then stashed away in the refrigerator overnight to completely chill down. You can get away with a 6 or so hour stint in the refrigerator, but the extra time allowing the flavors to develop and letting the texture settle down is worth it, in my opinion.

Dense, so creamy and seriously pleasing, Jeff and I decided to share a piece so he would have more to take in. Talk about a war with forks - it was a battle between savoring each forkful, before realizing that if you didn't get your next bite ready, all you might hear is the clank when the tines hit an empty plate! As if the cheesecake wasn't enough, that layer of soft buttered apples inside was just what this guilt-inducing cake needed to round it out. It you want to fancy up the top, warm up a few tablespoons of apple jelly and brush the top for a shiny glaze. With as good as this was, neither of us gave it a second thought as to what it looked like though!

Recipes
Brown Sugar-Apple Cheesecake

Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes...

We had both been craving a breakfast-for-dinner night for a couple weeks now and I got around to working one into the menu. I was originally leaning towards waffles, but Jeff swayed me to pancakes... which is why I ended up making these Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes tonight!

One of the main reasons I decided on this recipe was it had a large yield, meaning I knew we would have plenty of leftovers to pop in the toaster oven for quick breakfasts! Rather than using completely all-purpose flour for the dry ingredients, which one can certainly do, I swapped half of it for whole-wheat pastry flour to nudge the nutritional value up. If you have access to it, white whole-wheat flour would also fit in well here without worry about weighing the pancakes down.

You may look through the instructions and wonder what's up with calling for a food processor... why the use of heavy duty equipment for just pancakes? To make them a bit more hearty, a couple cups of oats will be added into the mix. However, a portion of the oats are added with the dry ingredients and are then whirled in the processor to coarsely grind them down. This way, you'll end up with contrasting textures between the ground oats and ones left whole.

To create the batter, milk, eggs and a little oil were swirled into the dry ingredients, which we did while we waited for our griddle to come to temperature. You can make these plate-sized pancakes with a couple extra minutes on the pan, but we kept them smaller - using around three tablespoons of batter, we ended up with pancakes that were roughly 3 1/2" to 4" across... about the size of my palm.

The pancakes do have a heft to them from the oats, but they weren't too dense or gummy - they cooked to a decent thickness with a fluffy interior. If you wanted to embellish them a bit more, cinnamon chips to echo the flavor in them already or even a handful of chocolate chips (um, yes!) would be nice to toss in. Or, once you drop the batter onto the skillet, arrange some sliced bananas over the top! Even without any of those add-ins, as we did tonight, these pancakes did not disappoint with their nutty notes - a pat or two of butter and a drizzle of pure maple syrup later and our stomachs were happy and content!

Recipes
Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

With all that time off from our kitchen while we were in Disney, I'm sure you can imagine that I couldn't wait to jump in and get to work! We haven't had a chance to hit the market yet, so I knew I would have to ensure I would only need pantry staples to get a treat together. I was aiming for cookies and was happy to find we already had everything to get a batch of these Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies in the oven!

You'll always find copious amounts of butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar here as I keep us overstocked in that department and the only other ingredients I needed for these cookies were flour, baking soda, salt, an egg, vanilla and peanut butter, of the crunchy variety. Yep, I always have those somewhere too - though not always the crunchy peanut butter as we are really creamy fans (it was on sale... couldn't help it!). I do actually make our own peanut butter for everyday uses, however for baking purposes, I usually stick with commercial brands as the natural peanut butter I turn out (just peanuts and salt) doesn't always react the same in recipes that are not tailored for it.

After bringing the dough together using our stand mixer, I noticed the dough was soft enough that one could just as well use a single bowl and a sturdy wooden spoon - besides, it'd be a good workout for your arm muscles! Using a tablespoon cookie scoop to turn out balls of the peanut dough, we then made the classic criss-cross topping to the cookies by smooshing (technical, huh?) the balls down using the tines of a fork. You can use the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar, if you like or even whip out a potato masher and go to town for a more unique topping - you're just looking to flatten the dough.

Taking the cookies to the point where they are just golden on the bottom, while leaving the tops with barely any additional color, gave us cookies that had a slight crispness around the edges, leading to their centers that were soft and chewy. While creamy peanut will always have its place, I do have to mention how much we enjoyed the nibblets of nuts from the peanut butter - they imparted a nice contrast with their crunch and made the cookies feel more hearty.

Recipes
Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

Disney 2009...

As we decompress from the trip down to Florida, we thought we would take some time and share a few random pictures from our trip to Disney! Back to the food world tomorrow.

Here is where we stayed - the Beach Club resort. Beautiful location with a couple minutes walk to Epcot and a short jot to Hollywood Studios. Excellent pool and we took advantage of the movies at night time shown on the beach - too cool!

I did arrange for a special surprise when Jeff walked into the room - it seems Mickey had some extra time on his hands to come by and drop off some gifts! In addition to the items in the picture below, he also had a huge gift box with a stuffed Mickey, a Happy Birthday banner on the wall and a special light-up lanyard that let the world know it was his birthday - Jeff got a kick of all the attention he was getting from that and his birthday button! Inside the small white box was a two-tiered chocolate "cake" (and I mean literally it was just all chocolate!).
Just to make sure Jeff knew it was the mouse who came to visit, Mickey left behind some footprints...

We were lucky enough to score tickets ahead of time to go to a party!

This event - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - happens several times (it is held at nighttime) through the months of September and October. They "close" down Magic Kingdom and only let people who purchased the event tickets stay to enjoy the activities and rides, so it was a much smaller crowd. They even made sure to dress up the place for the occasion - also to be seen was a new parade and fireworks show.

They had all sorts of new statues out too in celebration...

Here's the castle - see what I mean by smaller crowds? We were able to get a shot without a thousand people in front of it!

Being a Halloween celebration, they encouraged anyone and everyone to grab a trick-or-treat bag and load up on the candy! We were surprised by how much candy we ended up with - just about 6 pounds worth! They did make sure to give out plenty of raisin boxes, you know, to off-set the good stuff. We even got a couple of snazzy electric toothbrushes in our bags to clean all that sugary goodness away!

In all our trips, we've never seen this guy at Magic Kingdom...

So, Jeff definitely made a point to stop and get a handshake and picture with the mayor! And before you ask, yes he wore those darn pirate ears almost the whole trip! They were even hand carried on the plane so no chance of being damaged (his birthday does fall on International Talk Like a Pirate Day after all).

I also convinced Jeff to finally check out this place... he enjoyed the show and wondered why he never wanted to go before!

They also had a celebration parade during the day where we snapped this picture.

They had everyone who was celebrating come out and dance! I tried to push Jeff out there, but he wasn't having any of that - too bad, would have been an excellent picture for black mail! Hee hee!

We went on this so many times... and each trip was just a little bit different. Never a dull moment!

Last year, they opened the new Pixar area in Hollywood studios, but we were there just before they let people in. We got to check it out this time!

There isn't a ton of stuff there, but the most popular place was this...

You can't see it, but the wait time for the game was 60 minutes... and this was an hour after they opened the park with the "fast pass" tickets almost all gone for the day by 11am!

We ate at way too many places to talk about, but I think the highlight of the trip was the birthday meal at the California Grill at the Contemporary Resort. Jeff had the Oak-fired Filet of Beef while I had the Stone Bass with hazelnut romesco, fire-roasted tomatillos, fregola pasta, madjool dates with a Serrano ham dust. No photographs because we simply devoured it too fast and thought about it afterwards. Definitely a "show stopper" type of dinner.

We ended up with just about 800 pictures, but we don't have the time or space here to talk about most of them. We may put up a link to our Flickr account like we did last year if you care to browse through the rest of them. Needless to say, it was quite the trip (10 days!) and we definitely needed the break from the daily grind. We even spied Mickey and friends taking some time off to relax!

And for those who were wondering, we haven't sold the house - while we have had a little activity, nothing promising has come along yet. We won't be buying until we get a bite on this house, so this whole process may take quite some time unlike our other moves!