Soft pretzels

Today I made soft pretzels for my friend Mehal as part of my bread challenge. Unlike most who requested bread, Mehal had a specific bread in mind, so a specific bread he received!

The recipe is from Better Homes & Gardens, like most of my bread recipes, but it is different than most of my bread recipes. (You'll see.)

First, you make the dough like any other dough - mix, rise, punch. But here's where it gets a little different: you roll the dough out, cut it into strips, shape into pretzels, and allow to rise again.


Then here's where it gets really weird: you boil the pretzels in a salt water bath for two minutes.


Weird! Then you let them dry for a second, brush them in egg wash, and sprinkle with whatever you want to sprinkle them with. I used sesame seeds (which get toasted during baking), but you can also use coarse salt, cinnamon and sugar, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, or any number of toppings. Salt, however, messes with the pretzels' moisture over time, and I knew I was shipping most of them, so I didn't do any ones with salt.

After baking, they are deliciously golden:


I have to say, this was the best pretzel I've ever had in my life. I'm definitely going to make these again.


It would be great to make these for a German food fest and dip them in mustard. Mmm. Success again!

White chocolate risotto and roasted fennel

Several factors came into making tonight's dinner. Number one, I've wanted to make white chocolate risotto ever since I bought my Hershey, Pennsylvania Cookbook. I've made some sweet dishes from the book, but never savory. Then, also, I've been trying to eat more vegetables, and I happened to pick up a pair of fennel bulbs at the market the other day, so I decided that the delicate flavor of the risotto would blend well with roasted fennel, which I saw Ina Garten make on TV the other day.

The fennel had to be started first; basically you just cut a fennel bulb into wedges and roast with olive oil, salt, and pepper. (The bunny ate the fronds and tops of the fennel - such a nice veggie disposal unit!)

Then, you shave some fresh parmesan cheese, and as I happen to have a block of Parmigiano Reggiano in the fridge, this was easy.


The risotto was easy, just sautee some onion in butter, then add the rice...


Then slowly mix in small amounts of heated chicken stock until the mixture is nice and fluffy. That's when you add salt, pepper, and...white chocolate. Mmmmmm.


I used Ghirardelli white chocolate squares, although the recipe naturally called for Hershey's white chips. The white chocolate made the risotto a tad too sweet for me; I like my risotto nice and savory. So I guess the rest of the package will just have to be eaten by me separately...

As for the fennel, I was truly pleasantly surprised. Fennel is never one of my favorite foods, but the roasted version was so sweet, crispy, and delicious. That's definitely the way to do fennel, for me, from now on.

Chocolate mousse

I had a birthday movie-a-thon today, and I decided to bring a chocolate mousse. I've never done a legitimate one before, so I was pretty excited.

First, chop up and melt 1 pound of semisweet chocolate.


Awesome. Then you let it cool and mix in 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks. At this point, it is a big, dark, sticky mess.


Then you whip 2 cups of heavy cream, and in another bowl, whip 4 egg whites. You alternately fold each into the mousse. It starts to get lighter and more fluffy at this point, but it is still pretty messy.


Then pour into a mold or dish. I used a 1.5 quart dish, but there was a little extra overflow (which I had with breakfast). Plus, I actually didn't whip my egg whites, and if I had, I'm sure it would have been much closer to a 2 quart container.


At any rate, it came out smooth, creamy, and amazing. I'm very pleased with this recipe, which came from my Hershey, Pennsylvania Cookbook. Apparently it's a recipe from a famous store, Breads 'n' Cheese of Hershey. I can see why it's famous!

Apple butter

Yesterday I bought a huge amount of apples at my local produce market, because they were on price reduction (i.e., about to go bad). I decided I could make apple butter, apple tarts, and applesauce with them. First on the list: apple butter.

I found an awesome recipe online that uses the whole apple - peels, cores, and all - and it seemed super spicy and delicious. Basically I boiled apples in water and apple cider vinegar, and then mashed them up with my brand new food mill. I've been meaning to get one of those for a while, since several Ina recipes call for it, but I haven't gone for it until now.

After you mill the apples through, you re-heat them with ground cloves, ground allspice, and ground cinnamon. You can also add lemon, although I didn't have any and left them out. (I'll put them in next time.) After they've been stewing for a long time, the fruit breaks down and the mixture becomes thick, but smoother than applesauce. The clove smell permeated the house and reminded me strongly of fall.

Then began the canning. You heat the jars and lids (I boiled the lids, heated the jars in the oven), then fill them with the apple butter and seal. After that, you boil them for ten minutes to set the seal.


This is the first time I've ever canned, so I don't know if it worked, but I'm hoping it did. The jars didn't explode, rupture, or leak, so that's something. They look good, anyway - nice and dark, and the product was smooth. I am hoping it will thicken up as they cool, and tomorrow I'll know for sure whether the seals took.

If this worked, I see a lot of apple butter in my future. I also have a neat recipe for orange marmalade that I've been wanting to try, so the next time oranges are on sale, I'm going for that, too. Yay for canning!

Date-orange coffee cake and hummus

Today I made a nice coffee cake and delicious, homemade hummus for dinner. Mmm.

Date-orange coffee cake

I have enjoyed having fresh-baked breakfast breads lately, so I decided to use up some dates with date-apple coffee cake from the Better Homes & Gardens binder.

This one uses up a lot of dishes and bowls. In one bowl, you put flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, you mix an egg, some cooking oil, and milk. In yet another bowl, you mix chopped dates, orange peel, and orange juice. Then you mix it all together and put it in a smallish baking pan (recipe recommended 11 x 7 - I think mine is that measurement).

Then, in yet another bowl (or you can re-use one of the previous bowls), you mix together butter, cinnamon, walnuts, and brown sugar for the streusel on top.


Looks pretty awesome. I put it right in the oven, because as a quick bread, it required no yeast or rising time. It baked up really fast, so I think this would be a perfect bread to make before a brunch.


Mmm. The bad thing is that I think I need a new egg timer, as I almost burnt the coffee cake because mine didn't go off. I've had my cow-shaped one since college, but I think it stopped working. It's making funny clicking noises and doesn't ring anymore, so I guess it's time to retire the cow.

Hummus

In the evening, I also made a delicious batch of hummus by Ina Garten. Her hummus is somewhat unusual, and rather zingy: chick peas, grated garlic, tahini, lemon juice, hot sauce. I don't have a food processor, but I used my blender and it was fine.


Top with some paprika and extra-virgin olive oil and you have a delicious and amazingly healthy little dip! It was so good that I don't think I will ever buy hummus again.

Chunky banana bran muffins

This weekend Dave has a big run, so I decided to make some healthy breakfast food for him (and me): chunky banana bran muffins.

This is another Ina recipe, from Barefoot Contessa at Home. It has a lot of ingredients, but it's worth it to make this awesomely healthy muffin.


Look at that beautiful thing. You can actually SEE the banana chunks.

Anyway, you take wheat bran (I got mine from Whole Foods) and mix with buttermilk, then mix all the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl (butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and molasses). Then you add in the buttermilk/bran mixture, mix, and sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. After it's just mixed, you fold in chunks of banana, tons of raisins, and chopped walnuts.

Yeah. Like I said, this recipe has a ton of healthy stuff in it. Dave and I split one of these for dessert, and it was pretty happy. We'll probably have a couple for breakfast tomorrow and Sunday, and they'll be easy to bring to the hotel. (Our friends got a free hotel to stay downtown for the race, so we're all pow-wowing together and getting up at 5 a.m. or whatever it is. Yay for portable (and delicious!) muffins!

Healthy seven-layer dip

Dave needs lots of protein and veggies this week in anticipation of his 8k run on Sunday. Because other days ended up being pretty meat-heavy, I chose a bean-based dish for tonight's dinner: seven-layer dip.

Usually seven-layer dips are full of lard-laden refried beans, sour cream, rice, and other Tex-Mex ingredients. However, this one consisted of the following layers, from bottom to top:

• Vegetarian refried beans
• Sauteed poblano peppers
• Smart Balance sour cream mixed with chili powder
• Pinto beans
• Homemade guacamole
• Natural cheese blend
• Chopped red onion
  

We put it in toasted whole wheat tortillas and also dipped in some good tortilla chips. Mmm! It was very good, and relatively guilt-free.

Roasted asparagus and scrambled eggs

Asparagus just came into season, so I got excited and bought a U.S.-grown bunch at the produce market this weekend. It's kind of strange how you are supposed to store it: you put it in water like fresh-cut roses. So, since Sunday, I've had a bunch of asparagus sticking out of Dave's Souvlaki cup in the kitchen. Not as pretty as roses, but oh well.

Ina says to roast them. So I roasted them. It really couldn't be easier: line them up, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then roast for 15-20 at 400 degrees.


Toss over some scrambled eggs (in my case, mushroom and cream scrambled eggs) and you're golden.


I served it with a piece of egg bread (homemade, of course) spread with herbed butter (again, homemade). It was a nice breakfast as a treat during the week, as I usually do not cook like this for breakfast except on weekends. It's part of me trying to load Dave up with protein and good carbs in preparation for his 8k on Sunday.

However, I'm definitely convinced that this is THE way to cook asparagus. You should be locked up in prison for boiling these beauties, especially when the olive oil makes the ends so crispy and delicious.

Ham & pineapple slices

Short post today, but really exciting: pineapple with roasted ham.

Pineapple just came into season, so Dave bought a big one and I cut it up. I also happened to have some Canadian bacon, so I threw some slices of the ham onto a grill pan and heated them up.


Beautiful, delicious, and good for you. I can tell I'll be buying a lot of Canadian bacon during pineapple season this spring...

Burek

No, not Borat - burek is a traditional Turkish appetizer / side dish that consists of phyllo dough and some kind of filling, in this case a Feta cheese mixture. (Other recipes call for mince meat.)

Borek can either be served like baklava - in layers - or rolled like a cigarette. The recipe I used can be found here. You just tear some wide strips of phyllo dough, butter the sheets, and roll with filling.


I made these recently for a group party, and they were a big hit. However, I forgot to take pictures at the time, so I made them again this week just for Dave and I. They were very tasty, but I have plenty of leftover phyllo dough, so I'm probably going to have to do some baklava, but in a smaller pan. Oy...

Cream of wild mushroom soup

Mushroom-palooza continues, tonight with cream of wild mushroom soup. You start with almost a pound of wild mushrooms, and I had some baby portobellos and shiitakes left over from yesterday's dish:


This was kind of a complicated soup. You make a mushroom stock with the stems, onions, and carrots, and then blend it with another mixture of leeks, mushrooms, wine, and cream.


The thyme and cream blended to make a nice wintery flavor.


This soup wasn't my favorite - it certainly doesn't compare to my all-time favorite, Italian wedding soup - but it was fine. Still, if I have wild mushrooms around, I think I'll be making risotto.

Wild mushroom risotto

Dave and I visited a winter farmer's market in Oak Park on Sunday, where we picked up some cheese curds and a huge bag of mushrooms. I decided to use those mushrooms for some wonderful new Ina Garten recipes this week. Tonight: wild mushroom risotto (from Ina's Back to Basics cookbook).

I have never made risotto - I have always wanted to, but I have been really afraid that I would end up with a big glob of gluey, inedible rice. No more! I have to tell you that this was one of my favorite Ina recipes of all time. And that's saying something.

You start this recipe by sauteeing some shallots, pancetta, and mushrooms. I cut some corners because (1) our Jewel was out of pancetta, so I used Canadian bacon, and (2) the recipe calls for porcini and morels, but I used what was in our mushroom bag: baby portobellos, shiitakes, and oysters. I still think the recipe turned out amazingly well because of the quality of ingredients, since these were fresh-picked mushrooms, even though they weren't the type that Ina specified.


After you've sauteed all that in some butter, it starts to become incredibly aromatic. You toss in your arborio rice to coat with butter, and then pour in some white wine to soak into the rice and aromatic vegetables.


At this point, you start adding in heated chicken broth a ladle at a time, stirring the rice to agitate the starches off of the rice grains and create a creamy texture. When you're done, you toss it with some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. I happen to have a large brick of parmigiano by virtue of a sale at Whole Foods. Mmm.

I served this wonderful risotto with a salad of organic baby greens, which was also on sale at Dominicks. See how easy it is to eat well (and cheap)?!


I should also mention that I enjoyed this dinner with a kir and a small piece of dark chocolate with dried pear pieces. Are we food dorks, or what.

Anyway, it was an amazing dinner, and the risotto definitely makes it into the collection of recipes that I'm preparing. I want a cookbook of my favorite recipes for my own purposes, but I also plan to use the collection to raise money for charity. Next time, I would like to try morels (although I don't really care what other kinds of mushrooms go in, as long as they are fresh). This was an amazing recipe, and I'm so happy I made it.

Tomorrow, mushroom-palooza continues with cream of wild mushroom soup!

Applesauce brownies

Yesterday I had some people over and made my winter favorite, applesauce brownies, which are delicious and moist (and sort of healthy, or at least not as unhealthy as regular brownies).

When you use applesauce in a recipe, you're basically replacing part of the oil or fat with the applesauce. This calls for two cups, which is a pretty awesome amount of applesauce. Also, given that they are brownies, the recipe calls for a surprisingly small amount of chocolate - just a few tablespoons of cocoa powder (and cinnamon), and some chocolate chips on the top.

I've made these "brownies" a few times, so I thought for sure that I had blogged them already, but it turns out I have not. So, I would have taken pictures of the whole gorgeous thing in the pan, but it was eaten long before I realized I should have taken a picture. Therefore, all I have left is a few pieces:


You can see how moist and delicious it is, and also that it has a color maybe more akin to spice cake instead of brownies. I love these things oh so much more than regular brownies, too. But, to get the nice crispy brownie top, the secret is to sprinkle a small amount of sugar on top before baking. Mmm!

MEAT NIGHT

I am lucky to have friends who live in Lincoln Square, a German-centric neighborhood of Chicago. In this neighborhood are many wonderful bars, shops, cafes, and - most importantly - specialty European-style grocers. Two of my favorites are Gene's Sausage Shop and Lincoln Quality Meat Market.

I went to Gene's a few weeks ago, where we found some amazing things: local Kolsch microbrew beer, Manchego cheese, dark chocolate with pear pieces, and French green lentils. Val happy.

They have tons of meats and sausage, and my friends picked up some for a Star Trek / meat night combo at my place. Oh, and it was glorious.

First, I made a set of things from my own fridge, as well as things they brought.

On the left are some Italian sausages from Gene's. In the middle are some venison sausages (from my mom's coworker) and some turkey burgers are on the right. These were all good, although out of these three, my favorite was probably the Italian sausage. Look at those beauties.

Next I made a large set of bratwursts from Gene's, including a mix of regular brats and jalapeno cheese brats.

Uhhh so amazing. These were probably my favorites. Next time I need to bust out my sauerkraut.

So, the meat was a success, naturally. I made sides and appetizers to accompany all the meat, including guacamole, barley salad, applesauce brownies, and an apple crisp, all of which were delicious. (I didn't get pictures of the applesauce brownies or the apple crisp, so I'll blog them tomorrow.) Success, and I've already made a mental note to get all of my sausages from Lincoln Square grocers from now on.