Sweet Yet Sour

Summer means shortcake…

Monday, June 29th, 2009 | Cooking | 5 Comments

Now that strawberries, peaches and other delectable fruits are in season, it’s time for shortcake.  I never understood why people use angel cake or those crappy little cakes you can buy at the store for this dessert.  Shortcake is called “short” cake for a reason – it’s really easy to make and takes no time at all.  This is my mother’s recipe and we used to spend most of the summer piling peaches or strawberries on top of it with freshly whipped cream.

Last time I made it I got creative with the layering…

Strawberry Shortcake

See? Don’t you want some now? Good! Here’s the recipe…

Shortcake

Sift together:

1 and 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

Mix together (I usually just do this in a 2 cup liquid measure):

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until well mixed and there are no more dry spots.  Spread into a greased 8 x 8 pan (glass is best) and bake for 20-25 minutes at 400.  The shortcake will get golden brown on the top – don’t let it burn!

Once it’s baked, let the shortcake cool briefly before serving – it’s great warm, but I’ve also had it cold for breakfast.  Did I mention that I love shortcake?

While the cake is baking I usually cut up the strawberries (or peaches) and throw some sugar on them to make them nice and juicy.

Shortcake tastes best with homemade whipping cream, but the spray can stuff is just as good.  And if you’re like my husband, the spray can stuff is best enjoyed sprayed directly into your mouth, which you can’t really do with the homemade whipping cream.  Either way – bon appetit!

Summer Garbanzo Salad

Saturday, June 6th, 2009 | Cooking | 1 Comment

The parsley in my recycled garden is nicely always ready for harvest.  To celebrate this and the fact that summer is here – the perfect time for cold salads- I made my favorite garbanzo bean salad.  This is a cool salad that uses my fresh parsley well and is quick and easy.

Garbanzo Salad

I must thank my sister’s friend Lata for this recipe.

Combine in a bowl and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes:

2 14oz. cans drained and washed chickpeas/garbanzo beans

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 chopped garlic clove

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

cracked black pepper and sea salt to taste

After the salad has marinated serve it on a bed of baby spinach.

Orange Ginger Cheesecakes

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | Cooking | 5 Comments

I’m always on the hunt for desserts that I can serve to my sister who has a wheat allergy.  I found this recipe in my new favorite book, “Short and Sweet”, by Melanie Barnard.  I made these for the first time for Anna’s birthday and then again on Sunday when my bookclub came over.

Mini Cheesecake

It was easy enough to make these wheat free for my sister by using gluten free ginger snaps.  I doubled them both times I made them to make 12 little cheesecakes.  I’ve modified the instructions for the recipe to my own specifications, but not much.  The best part is, these are “no bake” – two of the most beautiful words in cooking!

Orange Ginger Cheesecakes

3 oz ginger snaps

1 tablespoon butter – room temperature

1 large orange

1 8 oz package cream cheese – cut into eight pieces

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

Place 6 cupcake liners in a muffin pan.  Put the ginger snaps in a food processor with the metal blade and crumble.  Add the butter and mix again briefly until well blended.  Place about one tablespoon of the crumbs into each muffin tin and press into a crust. Put the muffin tin into the freezer for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile grate about 2 tablespoons of orange peel into the food processor and then juice the orange, which should result into about 1/2 cup of juice into the processor.  Then add the cream cheese, sugar, and cream into the processor.  Mix until well blended, stopping a few times to scrape down the sides with a spatula.

Divide the cheesecake even between the cupcake liners – the mixture will be thick and will probably require you to use a spatula.  Sprinkle a few crumbs of the leftover gingersnap mixture on top.  These can be refrigerated if you’ve made them a day ahead or can be placed in the freezer if you will be serving them that day.  They should be in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before you serve them, but allowed to thaw for a few minutes so that they are edible.

Sour Cream Cookie Bars

Saturday, April 25th, 2009 | Cooking | 1 Comment

As most of you have probably not noticed, I had Mike take the Denver Restaurant Review Club website down a while ago.  No one visited it, I got a lot of spam on it and well, there isn’t any more RRC meetings.

But, I don’t want to deprive anyone of the recipes that were on there, so let me know if you need one that I posted there.  Just in case you’re like Rena and bought a tub of sour cream for yourself, here’s a good way to put that stuff to good use.

Sour Cream Cookie Bars

1 cup sour scream

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 and 1/4 cups flour

Mix together all ingredients until well blended and spread in greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar after baking.

Lemon Mousse

Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | Cooking | 4 Comments

The other day when Mike and Nate were brewing the latest batch of beer Mike added some lemon zest to the brew.  When he asked what he should do with the lemon, I told him to keep it and I would make him some lemon mousse.  Mike’s eyes seemed to brighten at that proposal..

This is a recipe that I got from my “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman.  It’s easy and a lovely light dessert.  I usually put blueberries or raspberries on top and a little whipped cream as well.

Lemon Mousse

1 package unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Put the lemon juice in a saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the juice.  (Don’t turn the heat on under the pan at this point. )

Beat the eggs, zest and sugar in a bowl with a mixer on medium until light lemon and slightly thickened.

Turn the heat under the saucepan and stir occasionally until the gelatin is dissolved – only one or two minutes.  Take the pan off the heat and let cool for 1 minute.  Add to the egg mixture and stir thoroughly.

(Saturday when I made this, I totally flubbed this step and it still turned out just fine.  This is why I burn toast – I’m just too busy doing other things. I left the pan on longer than 2 minutes and forgot the “cool” step.  I took the pan off the heat after realizing I had left it on there too long, and then immediately added it to the egg mixture.  Duh! But it still set up just fine!)

Whip the cream until soft peaks form and stir into the egg mixture.  Once well mixed, pour into ramekins and refrigerate. The recipe makes 6 small ramekins.

The recipe asks that you refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours “stirring occasionally”. I ignore this and just leave it in the fridge – I just don’t have time to tend to a needy mousse.

A tip for whipping cream that I learned from my mom – it whips more quickly (which is key with this recipe so that the gelatin doesn’t set) if whipped in a cold metal bowl with cold beaters.  I generally put the bowl and the beaters in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before I need them.

Dinner with Friends

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 | Cooking, The Daily Special | 2 Comments

We Munhalls needed a break and a nice evening with friends and we got that on Saturday night.  Nate and Laura came over, we had a great time and we had some good food too.

Once they arrived, Mike and Nate went off to buy supplies for Mike’s latest hobby, home brewing beer.  I’m sure I’ll be posting later about the smell that this produces in our house, but for the moment Mike and Nate are really excited about sharing this fun.  And since Nate has recently won an award for his home brewing efforts, I’m sure he’s the best person for Mike to ask when he needs advice.

While Mike and Nate were gone, Laura and I went through the four bins of maternity clothes I had for her to look through.  Anna helped by pulling things out of the storage bins or sitting in the empty bins while we packed clothes around her.  By the way, it’s not like I really had all those maternity clothes, two of the bins belong to my sister; I wanted Laura to have the full benefit of plenty of clothes to borrow.  It’s silly to buy clothes for a fairly short period of life when you will wear and look good in maternity clothes.

Before Anna went to bed I started the pizza crust for dinner; my plan was to simply make pizza crust and have every possible pizza topping (except anchovies) available for us to put on the pizzas.  The pizza crust is really simple to do and is made quickly in the food processor.  It really doesn’t take that long to rise, only an hour to an hour and a half.  Here is the recipe:

Food Processor Pizza Dough:

In a small bowl let sit until the yeast blooms:

1 Tablespoon yeast, 3/4 cup warm water and a pinch of sugar (this works best when you put the sugar on top of the dry yeast and then add the water)

In a food processor mix together:

2 1/2 cups flour and 1 tsp salt

Once this is mixed, add while the food processor is going:

3 Tablespoons olive oil, the yeast/water mixture and cold water.  The tricky part here is to add the water 1 Tablespoon at a time, slowly, until the mixture begins to form a ball.  Add the water, let the mixture whirl around and then add another tablespoon of water if it hasn’t formed a ball.  The amount will depend on how moist the air is, etc., so it’s hard to judge how much you will need to put it in the processor.

Once the ball has been formed, take it out and put it into an oiled bowl (this is best done by pouring a little olive oil in a bowl and then swirling it around or spreading it with a paper towel).  Let it rise until double.  Roll out and put onto a greased pan and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes and then top.

In addition to pizza we made a salad to get some veggies to balance out all that cheese we were having on the pizza (along with the pepperoni, etc.)  Nate and Laura really liked the honey-mustard dressing that I had made, so I’m including that recipe as well.  This is good as a salad dressing as well as a dip for chicken nuggets, etc.

Honey-Mustard Dressing:

Mix together: 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup prepared mustard, 1/2 cup honey and a dash of worchestire

Dinner at my house is not complete without dessert.  I really feel like I am best at dessert and every once in a while I think if we win the lottery I’d open some sort of dessert or pastry business.  I like experimenting with new dessert ideas when people come over and Saturday was no exception.

I made my chocolate sourdough cake in two 9″ layers (sorry, I’m not going to include the recipe since you need sourdough start for this) and then once they were cooled, I cut them in half.  In between the two halves I spread Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) and in the middle I spread apricot all fruit spread.  So from the bottom the cake went: cake layer, Nutella, cake layer, apricot spread, cake layer, Nutella, cake layer.  To top it all off I frosted it with ganache.  Ganache is an easy and yet pretty way to top off a cake, and after all that work with the cake layers, I went the lazy way with the ganache.  I got this from the Joy of Cooking and it’s the best:

Chocolate Ganache:

Warm in a heavy sauce pan on medium heat until just boiling: 3/4 cup heavy cream.

Once the cream is boiling, remove the pan from the heat and add: 8 oz semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate chopped into small pieces (chocolate chips will do just fine). Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is a smooth and shiny.  Let it sit out or in the fridge for a few minutes to allow it to be spreadable, otherwise, it will simply be to liquidy to use as frosting.

Here is what was left of the cake after Nate and Laura left:

Yummy cake

We sent them home with both cake and pizza, but there was obviously plenty of cake left for us to devour.  I just finished the last piece while I watched The Biggest Loser. If that doesn’t say anything about my motivation to lose weight (almost nil), I don’t know what does.  I don’t think I’ll make this cake a lot, not because it wasn’t good, but because it was so good that I couldn’t resist the temptation.

After a long evening, especially for the poor pregnant Laura, who really should have been in bed by 8, we shipped them off with clothes, pizza and cake.  It was a lovely evening!