Blueberry Cobbler

This weekend my boyfriend took me out to eat, and he usually likes to order a dessert afterwards, even if it is 8 or 9 dollars. So I thought I would surprise him with a nice treat that we can have once we got home and let our tummies rest. (He took me to Stella's Fish Cafe-amazing food, I had the chef's special and ate the entire entree, I was so full.) I decided to look through Mark Bittman and find a dessert in which I have never baked. My eyes fell on Blueberry Cobbler and my decision was made! You can find this recipe on page 630(soft cover). It turned out well, a little dry, I think I could have taken it out a few minutes sooner. I complimented it with vanilla ice cream, which I intend to learn to make someday soon, and it was definitely a sweet treat! And it was less than a 9 dollar dessert, and 4 times as much :)

 

International P-Bear Day!

This Wednesday was International Polar Bear Day, and I decided to celebrate by making delicious gingerbread polar bear cookies. This recipe is from a good friend of mine, and I thought I would share it :)

Gingerbread Bears

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
3-4 tbsp. milk


1. In food processor, combine flour, sugars, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Add butter, egg, molasses and vanilla and process until a snooth dough forms. Shape into 4 1-inch thick disks.

2. Roll each disk of dough between 2 sheets of wax or parchment paper to 1/2-inch thick. Refrigerate until firm. 

3. Heat oven to 350 degrees, line baking sheet with parchment paper. Using floured cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Place cookies on prepared sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Re-roll and repeat until dough is used up.

4. Bake until set, 8-10 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile, mix together the powedered sugar and just enough milk so that frosting is spreadable. Pread frosting onto cooked and dip in sprinkles. Enjoy! 


The original recipe says to dip into white sprinkles immediately after icing the cookies, I did not have sprinkles, but found cinnamon candies in my pantry, and they were used for the eyes! Not only did I bake for International P-Bear Day, but I also celebrated by turning down the thermostat a few degrees to lower carbon emissions which is always eco-friendly. You can always do the same to help save polar bears!

DOUBLE BATCH!

So this week, I am posting what I cooked on Sunday night, as well as what I made and neglected to post the Thursday of the previous week.

The recipe for humus can be found in the Bittman book on page 93. It was very simple to do!

 The food processor I had access to made things incredible easy. It was really just dump in all the ingredients and pulse to the desired consistency. After the first orund of processing, I added in a little extra lemon juice.

I've since made this humus a second time, and will probably be keeping a can of chick peas on hand, so when the urge for humus hits--I'll be prepared.

This past weekend I ate rather unhealthily, so by Sunday night I felt like I had to compensate.

I found a recipe for Kale with Tahini (which I conveniently had left over from the humus) on page 309. It was really simple, just adding some garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to the chopped kale while its cooked on the stove top.

 Kale typically has a pretty strong flavor (as far as greens go), and the simplicity of the recipe really helped to let it come through and compliment it, as opposed to covering it up or fighting it. I just about force fed it to everybody I could find, and people generally thought it tasted good. My vegetarian roommate said the tahini didn't really come through, so I will definitely consider increasing it when I make this again.

Classy Ramon Noodles

Although this is not in the cook book, I thought to go off our last discussion in lab, so I used the most common noodles in a college student's food cabinet: Ramon Noodles. However, to make it worth a meal I used the
Frozen Greens
Spices
Honey
Carrot
Onions
Red pepper
Garlic
etc,

Then, to finish my meal off I made cheesy bread for me and all my roommates with tomato sauce on the side. I used this recipe to show how great Ramon can be as a foundation to make a great, creative soup. Plus, its cheap and easy to make, and quick!

Roast Turkey with Cabbage

I recently bought a cabbage. It's not something I usually buy, and I didn't have a plan for it when I bought it; it was sort of an open-ended challenge to myself. The recipe I ended up going for appears on page 700 of Bittman. It's meant to be done starting with a raw turkey breast. I chose to instead use some leftover shreds of smoked turkey that have been sitting in my freezer for some time.

The recipe also requires 2tbs minced garlic (though I used maybe double that), 2 tbs minced ginger (though I probably only had half that much on hand), sesame oil, salt, and pepper.



You want to end up with two cups of roughly chopped cabbage and two cups of finely chopped cabbage. I had probably 3 cups of bite-sized smoked dark meat turkey.

The coarsely chopped cabbage (and, in my case, the turkey) go in a frying pan for about fifteen minutes. Halfway through that the garlic and ginger get added. This should be set aside while you wait for the other half. The recipe suggests cooking the turkey with the other half of the cabbage but since mine was frozen instead of raw I felt I would have better control over it on the stovetop.

The small shreds go on a pan in the oven with salt and pepper at 450F. Bittman says to put them in for 25-30 minutes. That's wrong. My smoke alarm went off after 20 because the cabbage bits were completely obliterated. I threw them out, chopped some more, and had better success with 10 minutes.



When the cabbage comes out of the oven it should be starting to get crispy. Throw everything from the frying pan on top of it and return it to the oven for five minutes.



This probably made about four meals' worth of food, if eaten with some sides. And in fact it would be tough to eat by itself. I had forgotten how salty smoked turkey already is so when I tried the finished product it was VERY salty. Still edible. Just not great.

Herb-Roasted Chicken

For this week, I prepared Herb-Roasted Chicken Cutlets (672). The only alterations I made to the recipe were some added oregano and garlic. The steps were pretty simple. just rolling the chicken in the herb mixture, oven baking with butter and chicken stock, and letting the liquid thicken. I used a little corn starch to give the stock a gravy like consistency.

Pre-bake

After baking

The remaining chicken stock mixture

Final product

With a vegetable mixture on the side, this made for a pretty great recipe. Although somewhat simple, it reminded me of some of my parents cooking. I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for a heavy home-style meal.

Free-formed Apple Tart

Free-formed Apple Tart

My kitchen was overflowing with apples that were on the verge of going bad, so decided to make a Free-formed Apple Tart (848). I decided to take one of Bittman’s tips and tossed the apples in cinnamon before putting them in the tart. I have to say that the Sweet Tart Crust (929) was the best homemade crust I have ever made. It was flaky and buttery! What a perfect compliment to the soft and sweet apples. This was surprisingly easy and simple to make, and it is a great way to make a quick, homemade dessert. 

 The crust mixture before it was formed into a ball

The apple mixture

The final product