Weekend Cat Blogging 23

If you have not yet heard about what happened to our fellow food blogger Clare over at Eat Stuff, please jet over there and send some good wishes. Miss Kitty has been very sad ever since she heard what happened. Clare hosts WCB each weekend where food bloggers from all over post pictures of their kitties and she brings them all to one spot. Miss Kitty would like to offer this to Clare and Kiri. We hope you are able to join us again soon! Boo at Masak-Masak is guest hosting this weekend, so if you get a chance go see what all the kitties are doing!

Chicken salads as always tonight since it is Saturday. Netflix saved the day by making sure we had movies to watch this weekend. Tonight it will be Kingdom of Heaven. I will be going through the recipe piles again after dinner to see what I can come up with for the menu this week. Stay tuned!

Favorite flavor combination...

In Monday's post I mentioned that I was busy making some dough that went into the freezer. Below is Chocolate Peanut Butter Ribbon cookies. These are made from two separate doughs, cut in half, then layered into a loaf pan. After being frozen, they are easily cut into strips and then baked to make these tasty cookies.

Chocolate and peanut butter is probably one of my most favorite flavor combinations. These cookies have a great balance of each flavor, without one dominating the other too much. I found the cookies to be sturdy, not quite crispy, soft, but not cakey. They are chewy and the bits of crushed granola inside the peanut butter dough gave some additional interest. You could store this in the freezer for awhile and just cut of slices (or pre-cut all at once) and then bake whenever you want fresh cookies. Each dough is also good on it's own if you would like a good basic cookie.

For the dinner dish tonight, the recipe called for Tomato Chutney. I gave 4 stores a shot to find it, but none of them had just tomato chutney. It was either Mango or some other flavor and was pretty expensive for a small jar. I decided to just make it, rather than continue searching, so it was cheaper in the long run and without all the added stuff they put inside.

Cheddar Rice Casserole with Tomato Chutney is a dish you can make up the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. It does take a while to bake, but being able to do everything before hand makes up for it. This was a surprise hit as we didn't know if all the flavors would blend enough for us. The casserole cut cleanly and had a hearty comforting taste to it. I imagine this will freeze well and can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch next week.

Recipes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ribbons
Cheddar Rice Casserole with Tomato Chutney

Sometimes the taste is not what you expected...

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to use different types of squash. This recipe, Butternut-Cheese Pie looked good, but it's not something that we would usually have. In an effort to keep expanding what we eat I went ahead and gave it a go. Working with the phyllo dough was easier than I thought it might be, but I would rather use melted butter instead of the cooking spray that CL uses in between the layers. I doubt I would ever make this again, the flavor was just okay. Sweetness from the squash against the bite in the cheese was nice, but it just didn't do it for us.

I did liked how it ended up looking at least! I have a bunch of phyllo to use up now though. I did make our favorite Sour Cream and Cheddar Drop Biscuits to go along which always goes over well.
I was asked by one of Jeff's co-workers if I would make up the Decadent peanut butter cups for some family that was coming into town. So I didn't get anyting new baked goods from the kitchen today. I got them finished and packaged up for tomorrow.

Recipes

Butternut-Cheese Pie
Sour cream and Cheddar Drop Biscuits

New type of brittle....

This time of the year, I love to make hard candy type treats. Nut brittle, roca's and other candy usually make up a big part of our holiday baking. When I saw this recipe, Popcorn Brittle, I kind of rolled my eyes and thought "that's one I'll just skip over".

Going over the recipe again today I figured I might as well give it a chance since I had everything on hand already and I was looking to fill some time. The recipe called for Corn Syrup, but I'm trying to get away from using it so I used Brown Rice Syrup instead. This is a typical recipe where you bring the sugar mixture up to 290 degrees - just above soft crack stage. The end result has the taste of caramel corn with the crunch and texture of a brittle. This turned out to be a great combination of a lightly salty and sweet snack.

Dinner tonight.... Chicken with Mango Salsa, Edamame, and Coconut Rice is quite a blend of flavors. I can certainly say we have never tasted something like this before. The ingredient list is kind of daunting and it made for a lot of dishes to clean up. The rice was just bearly done when the liquid was all gone so I might add some water next time to help fully cook it. I used an edamame succotash from Trader Joes and paired with the salsa which is sweet and minty with a nice kick from the jalapeno. A nice combination against the rice and chicken. Each spoonful is filled with a new taste combination - very interesting!

Recipes

Popcorn Brittle
Chicken with Mango Salsa, Edamame, and Coconut Rice

Chocolate with Bananas and the ever elusive Cinnamon Chips....

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So it's Tuesday... that means I had to figure out what Jeff could bring in tomorrow for Wednesday Treat Day. I picked two bread recipes, 1 I have made before and the other is a new one. Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread and Cinnamon Bread are the two I picked. The cinnamon bread I have done many times before but I like chocolate and bananas together so I had to make that one too!

The cinnamon one is almost a cross between a batter bread and a regular loaf. There is really no kneading, but it does rise for 1 hour. There is no second rise, but it still gets quite high in the oven from the baking powder added at the end along with the yeast. This has an amazing cinnamon flavor and toasts up quite well. One day I will make french toast out of this loaf if it would ever make it that long!

The cinnamon chips can be very hard to find depending on where you live. Some places carry them as a seasonal item and some have just never heard of it! Whenever we find them, we stock up and put some in the freezer!

The second loaf is a moist banana bread with swirls of chocolate throughout. I was afraid the chocolate might overpower the banana flavor, but I used *very* ripe bananas and I could taste both well enough to know what was in it. I thought about just adding the chips instead of melting them but I'm glad I went ahead because I like the look of it.


Now we can move onto dinner. This recipe from EW, Spaghetti alla Carbonara, caught my eye because the eggs are cooked separately in a double boiler. This gently cooks them into a creamy sauce without scrambling them. A lighter recipe with prosciutto and broccolini along with whole wheat spaghetti makes this a pretty healthy dish. A shaving of fresh grated parmesan covers the top and brings a nice finish to the pasta.

Recipes
Cinnamon Bread
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread

And so begins another week....

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No baking done today... well I did make some dough that is currently chilling out in the freezer until later in the week. It was pretty fun to work with and put together so make sure to check back and see what becomes of it!

Diving right into dinner... Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf served with Blue Cheese and Bacon Twice-Baked Potatoes was on the menu tonight. A little time consuming to do both but at least they are cooked at the same temperature. Someday I will have double ovens!
The meatloaf was pretty much a standard turkey loaf, I sometimes find they can be a little drier than I like, but this one stayed pretty moist. The difference with this is a layer of gooey mozzarella cheese in the center. The loaf is firm and cuts very clean even with the cheese. Cayenne pepper gives this a nice spicy kick.

Twice-Baked Potatoes has been on my list to make for the longest time. I've had my fair share of baked potatoes mind you, but never have I actually made twice-baked. The mashed center is creamy with a nice twang from the buttermilk. Smokey bacon and a pungent blue cheese lend great flavor to the mash. The texure against the creamy inside while the outside remains crispy and the top a little crunchy, from the second bake, makes this so good!

Recipes
Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf
Blue Cheese and Bacon Twice-Baked Potatoes

WDB #8

Let's recap what happened this week. 11 new recipes came out from the kitchen and the stand-outs were Pasta Margherita for savory and Creme-filled Chocolate Snaps for sweets. The recipes in the left sidebar have also been updated.

Max has been begging for another picture to be put up for the Weekend Dog Blogging event that Sweetnicks hosts and recaps every Sunday night. He looks so innocent... If I only knew what devious plan he had going through his head while we took this picture.

Netflix sent us Saving Face to watch along with dinner tonight. I have no idea what this one is suppose to be about... one of the "surprise! Let's see what this is" kind of movies. Last night's selection of Monster-in-Law was really good! Funny, not too long and Wanda was so good!

I finished the menu up for this week early in the morning, but I'm not exactly sure which day we will be having what. Lots of appointments happening this week so it will depend on when I have time - keep checking back to see what we can come up with!

Trying to find a replacement...

Trader Joe's used to carry a Granny Smith granola blend that I bought every couple weeks or so. They stopped selling it about a month ago and I've been looking for something I could just make at home rather than going out to buy it. I've tried a couple but we have liked this one the best so far.Apple-Cinnamon Granola has a crunchy blend of oats, oat bran, walnuts and a surprise ingredient of cheerios! This is not a clumping type of granola, but that is something we prefer. I used Penzey's Extra Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon and fresh ground cardamom. I usually have this over yogurt - very good!

Keeping with our ritual Saturday night Chicken Salads for dinner. The Netflix movie of the weekend night will be Monster-in-Law with Jennifer Lopez and Michael Vartan. I admit, we really put it on the list just so we could see Wanda Sykes - she is such a great comedian!

Recipes
Apple-Cinnamon Granola

Sweet juicy blueberries...

Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes is the second recipe that I have made from the One Smart Cookie book I received a few weeks ago. I did modify it a bit as it orginally was to be made in an 8X8" pan for squares. Instead I made them in regular muffin tins as my square pan was already busy with something else.
Creamy cheesecake on top of a crunchy almost caramel tasting (from the Golden Syrup) graham cracker crust. Topping the batter with small organic wild blueberries gives a nice hue to the top and gave a sweet balance to the cheesecake.

Leave them plain or serve with mounded blueberries on top.

Recipes
Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes

Using up extra sour cream...

I had some extra sour cream that didn't have a use yet and I came across a recipe for Sour Cream Muffins with Poppy Seed Streusel. These muffins baked up with a nice dome and they have a light and tender texture. I used half whole wheat pastry flour, as I sometimes do, to try to improve the nutrition a little. I don't think it affected the texture at all. The streusel topping is very good and unlike some recipes there is just enough to cover, but not so much that it all falls off when you eat it. I like my muffins to have a nice crust so I tend to not use muffin liners.


Serving up dinner tonight with Pasta Margherita. Topping the pasta is a mixture of fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic and green onions. The addition of fresh mozzarella reminded me a lot of a margherita pizza except the crust here is the noodles. This was a fast, very flavorful and filling meat-free option for dinner.

Recipes

Pasta Margherita
Sour Cream Muffins with Poppy Seed Streusel

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Pumpkin Pie Cake (Adapted from CL)

For the batter

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
2 egg whites
15 ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree

For the frosting

2 tablespoons butter, softened
8 ounce package cream cheese
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons fresh orange juice
crushed graham crackers or toasted chopped nuts to garnish

Preheat oven to 325

To make the batter

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice and nutmeg.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together granulated sugar, brown sugar and oil until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated - mix in egg whites. Add pumpkin and mix until combined.

Add flour mixture gradually to the wet ingredients - mixing just until combined. Evenly divide batter between 2 8" round baking dishes lightly coated with nonstick spray.

Bake until the top springs back when lightly pressed in the center or a toothpick comes out mostly clean - about 25 - 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove cakes and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating only until combined. Mix in orange juice.

Place the bottom layer on a cake place and spread about 1 cup of the frosting on top. Place the other cake on top and spread the remaining frosting on the top and to the edges of the cake. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs or toasted chopped nuts.

Just found the recipe? Click here to see where we talked about it!

New magazine...

I had to run to Sprouts today to pick up a few items and noticed that they had Martha's new Holiday Cookie magazine. I have been looking for this for a week or so and no one had it. I have not read through it, but flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures it does look well done! Every recipe has a picture and I love that the index also has a thumbnail picture by each cookie name.
Soup and a salad for dinner tonight. Turkey Noodle Soup and Mexican Salad with Pomegranate-Lime Dressing turned out to be a very comforting and filling meal. I have been waiting for an excuse to buy some pomegranates and glad I found this recipe. Juicing the seeds turned out to be much easier that I feared. The fresh pomegranate juice helps calm the tart lime and the dressing brightens up all the flavors in the salad.

This is the first time I have used Jicama, the taste is like a sweet apple with the texture of a potato. The original recipe called for pine nuts and arugala, but I used toasted sliced almonds and baby spinach.

This was a perfect night for soup. All the windows were open and the cool breeze (75 is cool nowadays...) brought the temperature in the house down. For being a quick soup, the flavor bursted out at the first spoonful! I used Trader Joe's chicken broth and with a small amount of prep time the soup was done in just a few minutes. Definetly a nice warm comforting soup with lots of turkey and noodles.

Recipes

Turkey Noodle Soup
Mexican Salad with Pomegranate-Lime Dressing

Breakfast for dinner!

Tuesday came upon us fast this week and I needed to come up with something for Jeff to bring into the office for the weekly Wednesday treat day! This time I went with Creme Filled Chocolate Snaps.

These thin and crispy cookies remind me of the "famous" chocolate wafer cookies that you can find in the grocery store. Because of the dutch cocoa, they are very dark and have a deep depth of flavor you would not quite achieve if you used regular cocoa. These would be great as a cheesecake crust, ice cream dessert or just to snack on! We decided to fill these oreo style. 1/3 are filled with a vanilla creme, 1/3 are filled with a chocolate creme and 1/3 are filled with a half vanilla half/chocolate mixture. The snaps are just crispy enough to give a nice crunch, but not so hard that the filling squeezes out when you bite into them.

Tonight we felt like we were in the carribean having Baked Coconut French Toast with Tropical Fruit Compote. I prepared everything early this morning so it had plenty of time to sit in the refrigerator for the flavors to marry together. This sweet french toast is firm, not soggy, and the coconut adds a nice crunch on top. Using fresh fruit instead of syrup brings a whole new dimension to this dish. The original recipe had papaya in it, but I used grapes instead as I could not find a decent one this past weekend. The toast is good on it's own, but the compote puts this dish over the edge. Marking this one down as company-worthy!

Recipes

Baked Coconut French Toast with Tropical Fruit Compote
Creme Filled Chocolate Snaps

Gift report

On Saturday, I mentioned that I was molding some chocolate as part of a gift Jeff was doing for his team at work. I offered to do this in white chocolate so we could color it, but we opted to go with an easier approach. After tempering the Scharffen Berger chocolate we got from Whole Foods, I started in on the individual molds - here is the outcome... Chocolate Suckers!

The next item to bring in was a recipe I saw in a recent Taste of Home Holiday magazine. Black Cat Cookies have a deep chocolate cookie base from dutch cocoa and are shaped into kitty faces. The dough was pretty easy to work with and placing the wooden sticks in before baking made things much easier. Candy corn, red hots, and a fork impression (whiskers!) make up these cookies.

This is how we ended up finishing everything off to give out.

Okay... so on to tonight's dinner!

Roasted Cauliflower with Fresh Herbs and Parmesan served along side Turkey-Sausage Paella is what I made while we waited for the trick or treaters to start knockin'. Another use for the saffron we bought awhile ago. I increased the chorizo from the original recipe as 2 oz seemed to skimpy for 4 servings. This has quite a few flavors going on and it turned out very well. I used edamame instead of the peas, as that is not something we normally keep on hand. Using smoked paprika is key here as it brings a rich smokey flavor that accents the spice from the sausage.

The roasted cauliflower was a great side dish. From a quick prep and then a high heat roasting the taste seems to change as the outside gets a caramalized finish. The fresh herbs and lemon juice helps bring out a fresh vibrant flavor.

Recipes
Turkey-Sausage Paella
Roasted Cauliflower with Fresh Herbs and Parmesan

Giving goodies? What kind?!

10 new recipes this past week. The stand-outs for us were the Lasagna Rolls,"S" cookies and the Tassies. You can find all the recipes from this last week, along with the rest that we have done, on the left side bar.

Tomorrow is Halloween! Jeff did a pumpkin yesterday... we did save the seeds to do something with, but have not decided what yet! Here is the final result.

We have a lot of kids in the neighborhood so we tend to go through a lot of candy. On the off chance that there is any leftover (rarely happens) we tend to buy stuff that we would eat. In past years we have tried buying things we don't like, but that's the time we end up with a lot left over.... that's no fun! Do you buy what you like? What are you giving out this year? Here is what we will be "handing" out...

I'm going to be finishing up what Jeff will be bringing to his team tomorrow after I finish lunch today. Check back tomorrow to see the finished pictures - today it is a fun cookie to add along!

Hopefully we will still have time to get our Netflix movie in tonight. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one I have been waiting to come out on DVD. I'm surprised we got it this soon!

Another busy week in the kitchen coming up - stay tuned and see what comes out next!

New recipe source...

Today in the mail I received a new cookbook by Nick Malgieri called "A Baker's Tour". I have enjoyed his writing style in the past so when I saw he had a new book coming out I made sure it was first on my wishlist. I have not had a chance to read through it, but glancing over the pictures it sure looks good! Thanks to U30 (survey group) I only had to pay $2! Can't beat that...
I spent sometime in the kitchen this morning playing with almost 2 pounds of chocolate. I can't say what yet (I was tempering/molding it...) but they are for Jeff's team for Halloween gifts on Monday. Pictures to follow on that day in case they try and peak!

Dinner is our Saturday night chicken salads and being a weekend movie night Netflix brings us Robots with Robin Williams. Tomorrow is grocery shopping so who knows what new things we might bring home! Until then...

Using up the leftovers...

We often make frittatas as it is a great way to use up leftovers that have been sitting in the refrigerator. Dinner tonight, a Florentine Frittata, has a crispy hash brown crust topped with a spinach and egg combo then strips of roasted red bell peppers scattered over the top. Before serving, a sprinkling of cheeses is broiled until slightly crisp and melted. This is a quick meal that could be thrown together in a snap for a great breakfast treat too.

Friday being the start of the weekend and Weekend Cat Blogging #21, Miss Kitty decided to make an apperance to wish Kiri from Eat Stuff a Happy First Birthday. Here she is offering Kiri one of her favorite shoestring toys! Clare hosts WCB every weekend where food bloggers come together and show off their kitties! Stop on over and see the cutie in a tie!

Recipes
Florentine Frittata

Cookie monster alert...

These cookies caught my eye while I was flipping through a cookie book, as it seemed like an unusual combination of ingredients. Cornmeal Maple Walnut Twists can be described as being crunchy yet somewhat chewy and almost slightly sticky while you eat them. A sweet coating of confectioners' sugar gives a nice powdery snow-like finish. I have used cornmeal before in baking but I don't think I have used it in cookies and the texture with these is very good! The author used pecans originally, but I don't always have them on hand so I used walnuts instead.

So let's get into dinner...

Tofu is something I never thought we would ever use. Until we tried it for the first time, I was pretty turned off by the look of it. When we found out it was not all that bad, we could actually use it and like it, I have been looking for recipes with tofu as a predominate ingredient.

Lasagna Rolls are something we have had before, but it always included some sort of meat. When I found this specific recipe I set it aside and thought "yeah if I ever get around to it..." Since I decided we needed to give tofu another try I bought some at Trader Joes this week for this recipe. This turned out to be a great vegetarian meal for us. Tender al dente lasagna noodles wrapped around a filling of tofu, spinach, cheese and garlic. I found this to be very filling, serving a simple green salad along side. This did make quite a bit, but I'm really looking forward to having this for lunch tomorrow.

Recipes

Lasagna Rolls
Cornmeal Maple Walnut Twists

So many cranberries, so little time....

The cookie report is in.... The tassies that we made yesterday went over well with the office mates. I think these will definetly be added to our holiday gifts this year!

We have made a tabbouleh dish before that we liked so I figured we would give it another go. I like working with bulgur as it is pretty fool proof and can be set aside while you are working on other things. Cranberry Walnut Tabbouleh originally called for dried cranberries, but since we still had some fresh in the fridge I decided to use them up. I chopped them in the food processor (so easy!) and this gave the dish a slight pink color. I was afraid that it might make the dish too tart but I think with the rest of the ingredients the flavors all mixed well and it fit right in. If you can find it, definetly use walnut oil as it boosts the nutty flavor. Lemon juice gives this a fresh taste and the small amount of mint lends a cool flavor.

Having the above as a side, I made Pork Chops with Apricot-Tomato Chutney for the main part of the meal. Searing the pork and then baking helps ensure that the inside is very tender and juicy. A thick chutney is served on top, made from fire-roasted tomatoes and dried apricots. The apricots plump up a little from the juice in the tomatoes and the heat from crushed red pepper add to the unique taste.

Recipes

Cranberry Walnut Tabbouleh
Pork Chops with Apricot-Tomato Chutney

Cookies - bite size

It's Tuesday... you know what that means if you have visited long enough! Today is when I make treats for Jeff to bring into the office on Wednesdays. The recipe I made today was a little labor intensive, but overall it went smoothly.

Fresh Cranberry-Pecan/Pistachio Tassies are fun little cookies/tarts that have a brown sugar filling and are then topped with fresh cranberries and nuts. I made 2 kinds - each has cranberries and then half have pecans while the other has pistachios. They are made with a cream cheese dough that was very easy to work with. You could fill these little pastry cups with a variety of fillings from lemon curd to brownie batters or even a pumpkin filling. Definite repeater for the upcoming holiday season.

Another soup night for dinner. This one is a little different and is Greek-inspired. Broccoli, Egg, and Lemon Soup with Chicken is a rich and creamy dish that uses a bunch of leftover ingredients to make this a comforting soup. You could change around the amounts or use different vegetables and meat and I'm sure this would still be a great meal!

I was looking to use up some potatoes and I was wanting to keep the comforting theme going so I made a Scalloped potato dish. This can be thrown together in a few minutes after prepping the potatoes. The tender creamy potatoes and layers of cheese meld into gooey squares with a crispy topping.

Recipes
Fresh Cranberry-Pecan/Pistachio Tassies
Broccoli, Egg, and Lemon Soup with Chicken
Easy Scalloped Potatoes