Category Archives: The Internet

Coconut Granola

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I haven’t been baking much, and I’m still trying to decide on my next cookbook. The one thing that I have been doing is making this granola at least once a week. It’s nutty and toasty and full of crunchy things. I’ve been eating it on yogurt and straight out of the jar by the handful. I liked it so much, that I included it in my Christmas candy packages to friends and family.

The original recipe is from the Tasty Kitchen website. So far, the only change I’ve made is to not include the dried cranberries or chocolate. Honestly, I like it plain. It is plenty sweet from the brown sugar and agave syrup. One of these days, I’d like to try using honey or maple syrup instead of the agave syrup, and I’d like to experiment with different combinations of nuts and seeds. Recipe after the jump.

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What’s cooking in my kitchen

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Here’s what I’ve been cooking and we’ve been eating over the past few weeks.

Key Lime Pears from Michael Recchiuti’s cookbook Chocolate Obsession. I’ve been making these for Christmas for the past few years, and it’s my go-to recipe when I have an excess of pears. My friend Missy gifted me with a box (a BIG box) of the fruit last week, and I’ve been struggling to use them all before they go bad. I’ve lost count of how many batches of these key lime pears I’ve made, but we keep eating them faster than I can make them. You take green, very firm pears and slice them thinly, then soak the pear slices in a key lime sugar syrup. The pear slices are then baked (I use a rack set over a cookie sheet, but Recchiuti just lays them on a silpat-covered cookie sheet) until crisp. Recchiuti dips them in chocolate, but I prefer them plain. I think the chocolate overwhelms the pear/key lime flavor.

Pear Bread from Bake or Break. When the pears got too ripe for key lime pears, I decided to give pear bread a try. This is like zucchini bread, except with pears. There are lots of pear bread recipes floating around, and the only reason I picked this one was because I had all the ingredients on hand. I made a few changes. First I substituted brown sugar for half of the sugar, and I added about 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg. Finally, I left out the nuts because I didn’t have any. I ended up with two loaves of fragrant, sweet, dense quick bread. I didn’t really taste pears, unfortunately. I’m going to keep playing with this recipe, especially as my pears continue to ripen.

Corn with Tons of Herbs from Dana Treat. One night I was looking for a side dish to serve with dinner, and I remembered reading about this dish. Corn sauteed with butter, shallots and a ton of herbs, basil and cilantro in my case. Use the best corn you can and fresh herbs only, please. I liked the basil here, but not the cilantro. Thyme would be lovely as would dill.

Cherry Tomato Orzo Salad from Simply Recipes. We’ve been living off of this salad for the past few months, and every time I make it, I make it a little bit different. I’ve moved away from orzo and now use macaroni pasta; its a little more substantial. I also like this with parmesan instead of feta, and I don’t limit myself to just cucumbers and green onions. Any veggies I have languishing in the fridge tend to make their way into this salad. I especially like bell peppers, frozen peas and avocados.

Recipes from Other Blogs

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I haven’t quite decided on my next book; I’m leaning towards alternating between David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop and Cooks Illustrated’s Slow Cooker Revolution. In the meantime, here’s a couple of recipes that I’ve tried from other blogs.

Sweet Potato Tian from danatreat.com. Bryan doesn’t like sweet potatoes, and I keep trying to change his mind by cooking them different ways. I think this dish finally swayed him, a little. This tian was hearty enough for a vegetarian meal, but I can see serving it as a side dish as well. It was sweet from the potatoes, bell peppers and onions, and the garlic mellowed out significantly. Leftovers, although a little soggy, were terrific. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Creamy Roasted Carrot Sauce from www.travelerslunchbox.com was another terrific dish. It uses ingredients you likely have on hand, and it comes together quickly. The only problem I had was that the sauce was a little too thick. I used some of the pasta cooking water to thin it out. Once again, the leftovers were just as good. We added some grilled chicken to the pasta on the second night which took the dish to a whole new level. If you are looking for an alternative to a tomato-based pasta sauce, look no farther.

And finally, Big Mouth Burgers from cheekykitchen.com. I just couldn’t pass these up. Whenever I see mushrooms as a primary ingredient, I have to give it a try because the fungi are one of Bryan’s favorite foods. And, I was intrigued by this recipe. The burgers were pretty good, but they puffed up like balloons while they cooked and were very dense. I suspect I ground my mushrooms a little too finely. The burgers definitely tasted like mushrooms, but they were juicy and had good flavor (if you like mushrooms, that is). Not a bad recipe, and something I’ll keep in mind if I find myself drowning in mushrooms.

Coconut Rice Pudding

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Rice pudding isn’t the prettiest or most elegant dessert, but it is one of the most comforting. And since winter refuses to go away here in North Idaho, I’ve been very much in need of comfort food.

I stumbled across this recipe here. While I don’t usually crave rice pudding, there was something about this recipe that refused to let me forget it. So I made it. And then I made it again. And again. Each time I made it, I changed the recipe just a little, and in the process, made a few discoveries.

First, I like this rice pudding made with almond milk instead of soy or regular milk. The almond milk gives the rice more flavor (I think) and a thicker consistency.

Second, I like cinnamon and vanilla bean (if you don’t have a vanilla bean, just use vanilla extract, stirring it in when the rice is finished) here and nothing else. No raisins, no pistachios, nothing.

Third, I use a bulk short-grain brown rice. I have no idea if it is arborio rice or not. And my pudding cooks for more than an hour, usually about an hour and fifteen minutes. I just cook it until the rice is as tender as I want it, adding more almond milk if it starts to look dry.

Hummus

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I’m on a hummus kick. First there was this Sweet Potato Hummus. I made it; we ate it. Then came this Edamame Hummus (pictured above). Completely taken in by the gorgeous green color, I made it and we ate it. Finally, I decided to try my hand at making my own hummus starting with dried chickpeas. Will I be kicked off the internet if I confess that using canned chickpeas is just as good and easier than using dried beans?

That edamame hummus up there? It was okay, very green tasting. I prefer traditional hummus. From a can.

Buttermilk Cluster Rolls

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While I still haven’t decided on my next cookbook, I’m leaning towards Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook. I’ve made a couple of recipes out of this 500-recipe tomb, so stay tuned.

I recently stumbled across a new website, ruhlman.com, and, in particular, this recipe for buttermilk rolls. I liked the rolls so much, I’ve made them several times since Christmas. These aren’t light-as-a-feather rolls. They are dense and soft, almost a bit heavy. They have fantastic flavor from the buttermilk, and they stay soft for days.

As I’ve played around with this recipe, I made a few changes. First of all, I halve the recipe and still get eight good-sized rolls out of it. The second thing I do is use a 13″x9″ pan to bake the rolls. I tried using a springform pan, but I had a hard time getting the rolls completely baked before the tops burned (did I mention this is a dense dough?). Spreading the rolls out helps them baking more evenly.

Salsa

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I’m taking a break from the sweet stuff to bring this salsa to your attention. The original recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman. You’ve heard of her, right? We’ve been eating this salsa just as fast as I can make it, and every time I make it, it comes out just a little differently. The really nice thing with this recipe is that you can customize it a hundred different ways. Hate cilantro? Leave it out. Want your salsa hotter? Add more jalapeno.

After making eight or nine batches, here’s my spin on the recipe:

We like our salsa less liquidy, so I briefly drain the tomatoes, and then add in some of the tomato juice at the end.

I also dislike getting chunks of raw onion and jalapeno in my salsa, so I process them into very small pieces first

And finally, I like more lime juice than the original recipe calls for, so I use the juice of a whole lime.

My version of the recipe is after the jump. Continue reading →

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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This might seem a little strange. Although I’m baking out of a cookie cookbook that has roughly seven chocolate chip cookie variations in it, I chose to make a recipe from the internet. I can’t help myself. When somebody calls this the “perfect” chocolate chip cookie, I can’t resist.

She may be right. This is certainly one of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. The cookies baked up crunchy on the edges and chewy in the center. The dough itself has flavor (so many chocolate chip cookie doughs are tasteless, relying on the chocolate chips for flavor) due to three kinds of sugar. They baked up fat and round without much spread. And a sprinkle of salt on the tops contrasts nicely with the sweet cookie.

Skeptical? Click on that link up there for the recipe and try it yourself.

Sticky Lemon Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

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Lemon with cream cheese. What’s not to love? These rolls are cinnamon rolls for people who don’t like cinnamon. Or for people who like lemon. Or for people. And maybe aliens.

Seriously, these are good. The sweet, tangy filling is encased by a soft, just slightly sweet yeasty bread. The lemon flavor is everywhere. There’s lemon zest in the dough. The filling is made up of sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. And the cream cheese glaze has lemon juice in it.

You can find the recipe here.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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pb_oatmeal_cc_cookiePeanut butter AND chocolate chips AND oatmeal? Overkill? I don’t think so. Neither did anybody who tried these cookies.

I found the original recipe on www.browneyedbaker.com and made my first batch exactly as the recipe was written. Then I decided to experiment a little bit.

My first change was to use chunky peanut butter instead of creamy. It increased the peanutty flavor and gave the cookies a little more texture. I also increased the amount of oatmeal because I thought the original amount (1/2 cup) was skimpy. I increased the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar and added an extra egg yolk. My final change was to double the recipe and refrigerate the cookies for a couple of hours before baking them. This batch was a keeper.

The cookies stayed on the thick side, with crunchy edges and chewy centers. Be careful not to overbake these. You want them to just start browning around the edges. The middle may look a bit undercooked, but the cookies will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.

Recipe is after the jump. Continue reading →