But also because both of us have been kindly asked by the ladies of Aiming Low to present some of our easiest peasiest recipes….and we have been more than [...]]]> I know, I know! Both of us have been bad about posting over here, partly because, well you know: LIFE. It gets in the way of things!

But also because both of us have been kindly asked by the ladies of Aiming Low to present some of our easiest peasiest recipes….and we have been more than happy to oblige them. So if you’d like, you can check out Daisy’s  risotto and Katie’s chocolate oatsies….we promise to be back soon with some new things on this page!

Growing up my Mom made the best chocolate chip cookies ever. No matter where we lived and what school I went to,  my Mom’s cookies reigned supreme. They were the perfect amount of chewy and tasty and my friend’s mom’s would ask for the secret recipe. Mama would always tell them “It is on the [...]]]>

Growing up my Mom made the best chocolate chip cookies ever. No matter where we lived and what school I went to,  my Mom’s cookies reigned supreme. They were the perfect amount of chewy and tasty and my friend’s mom’s would ask for the secret recipe. Mama would always tell them “It is on the back of the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag.” And then they would make them and sure enough, it was never to the same result. Turned out my Mom  forgot to tell them about the “changes” that seem minor but really aren’t. Before we get there though we should mention a few other things:

Chocolate chip cookies are like mattresses: everyone has a different preference. Some like thick and chewy, some like crispy and flat. To add nuts or not to add nuts? Milk chocolate or semi-sweet? These are answers you have to come up with for yourself, but in the meantime, it is important to note the following:

• Sugar affects chewiness or crispiness of a cookie. Rather, sugar moisture. White sugar v. Brown sugar is going to change the chewiness of a cookie- white sugar will make them more granular and crispy, brown sugar is going to add chewiness.

• Temperature of ingredients will affect how much they “spread” out. I like to use cold eggs to keep a firmer dough to keep the cookies a little thicker. If you like a thinner cookie, use room temp eggs and drop the cookies onto a hot cookie sheet.

• Your cookie pan will affect the crispiness as well. They will cook faster on a darker pan, so if you like a chewier cookie, don’t use a dark coated cookie sheet. A greased baking sheet will also allow more “spread” to a cookie so those of you who like them crispy should grease the pan before.

And now onto my three tricks:

Flour: Depending on the temperature and humidity outside and in your house, as well as other awesome factors I can’t begin to explain like sea level and if the President drank his prune juice on that particular day, the flour you need in your recipe will vary, almost every single time you make it. My Mom and I call this the “touch” test. Flour is the last ingredient you add in before the chocolate & nuts, so you begin by adding it in 1/2 a cup at a time. Add 1/2 a cup and mix. Add 1/2 a cup and mix. After each 1/2 cup is mixed in completely, observe & touch the dough. If the dough is dripping off the mixer and sticks to your fingers, you don’t have enough. Too much flour and the dough will stick together in one big glob and will stick to the mixer that way- and it won’t adhere to your finger, instead you will leave an indent in the dough. The perfect amount of flour is when the mixture is still sticky- you touch it and the dough “draws towards you” and it sticks to your finger a little but at the same time, isn’t coating your finger. If you lift up the mixer out of the dough, some of the dough will stick to the mixer but it won’t drip or run off. This is the texture you want in your dough.

Butter or No Butter: Ok here is my guilty secret. I don’t use butter. If you like a crispy, flat cookie, by all means, use butter. But I like a fluffy cookie, with chewiness and some density to it. And so I use….butter flavored Crisco. It is a lot like Velveeta: It is embarrassingto buy, you don’t want to admit you ever cook with it but you have one or two signature recipes that need the chemical concoction found in the item. I typically hide the butter flavored Crisco at the bottom of my cart, under the broccoli and far away from the European cheeses I adore. It is like a red headed stepchild that Crisco. But, if you prefer a chewy cookie it is necessary. I promise. Use the same amount that is called for butter, but instead use Crisco. You will never be the same.

Out-of-the-Oven Technique: Like many things, a cookie that comes out of the oven and stays on the hot pan will continue to cook. I take my cookies out as they begin to turn golden brown and not a minute later or else I think they lose some of the chewiness. And then here is the trick: as soon as remotely possible, I take them off the pan with a spatula and place them upside down on clean kitchen towels. This allows them to cool quickly so they retain that chewy, almost gooey (but not quite) texture. If you cool them face up, they will continue to cook because they will cool more slowly, which results in a dryer cookie. I’m sure all you physics majors will agree with me on this one.

And finally, don’t put your cookies into a cookie jar or Tupperware until they are truly fully cooled- give them an hour or two so they don’t get any condensation in their storage container.

And finally, yes, I use the recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bag. I like to use a nicer/smoother brand of chocolate chips though (Ghirardelli being my favorite) and I’m a semi-sweet, no-nuts kind of gal. I use REAL vanilla extract, not imitation & a high-end baking flour and rich, dark brown sugar- all of which leads to a delicious, fluffy, chewy moist cookie.

(And? The Friends episode where Monica seeks to make the best chocolate chip cookies ever and Phoebe tries to help her and it turns out it is all just the recipe on the back of the Nestle bag? My favorite. Episode. Ever.)

So, the great irony of my really inexcusable absence here is that I have done more baking in the past 5 months than in the last few years. Which means that I really have no reason for not posting any recipes. Except, uh, I was perfecting them. [...]]]> Ahem. Yea. Um. Hi?

So, the great irony of my really inexcusable absence here is that I have done more baking in the past 5 months than in the last few years. Which means that I really have no reason for not posting any recipes. Except, uh, I was perfecting them. Yes, that’s it. Clearly.

Since summer is approaching, it’s time for one of my favorite summer treats- strawberry shortcake. I know many of you like those really terrible sponge things you buy at the grocery store, but until you’ve had a biscuit-based strawberry shortcake, you haven’t lived. It’s something altogether different and wonderful.

This recipe is one I’ve used forever. It’s a small variation on the Bisquick recipe and has never failed me. My only warning is to make sure you have a thickish cookie sheet to bake on because the bottoms can burn. They’re still salvageable if you saw off the bottoms, but let’s face it, no one wants to perform surgery on their shortcake.

So, let’s go.

Shortcakes
Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups Bisquick or other buttermilk baking mix (dudes, do not use the kind in the add water and shake bottle. It will not work. Plus, that’s just horrible stuff.)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
3 tbsp butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

2. Mix all the ingredients together: beware- if your melted butter is really hot, it’ll mess up your milk. So I usually mix the milk into the bisquick a little before adding the sugar and butter. But don’t over-mix. It’s a delicate balance. Or just melt your butter a little early so it isn’t so hot. That’ll work too.

The dough will be sticky (and also, in case you wondered, really tasty…)

3. Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. I line mine with aluminum foil or parchment paper, but that’s because I’m lazy and can go longer without washing them this way.

4. Sprinkle the tops with sugar.

5. Bake 10-12 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. Don’t overbake, but make sure the centers are set enough that they aren’t gooey later. (Of course, I didn’t manage to take a picture of them finished. See, despite my absence, nothing has changed.)

Fruit!
I usually use a mix of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. But you can add any fruit you want. Peaches are also delicious, even mangoes.

To get the berries/fruit to give off the juice that makes this dessert so good, you need to add sugar and let it sit for a while in the fridge. You can sweeten to your taste, I usually use around 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar, depending upon how much fruit I have and I let it sit for at least 2 hours. The longer you let it sit, the more juice there’ll be. And trust me, the more juice, the more deliciously wonderful.

Serving!
To serve, put a shortcake in a bowl, pour fruit and some of the juice over, top with whipped cream (homemade if you have it, coolwhip if you don’t) and enjoy.

And here’s where I promise to blog more. Coming soon, red velvet cake, cake balls and maybe, if you’re lucky, my four layer chocolate cake with almond filling and chocolate ganache.

Maybe, I said.

Bruschetta in any form is tasty, but when we lived in Europe my Mom didn’t have access to fresh mozzarella cheese so she came up with this easy “American” version instead. It whips up quickly and is best when you make it with fresh tomatoes and basil, which are the mainstay of the dish.  The [...]]]>

Bruschetta in any form is tasty, but when we lived in Europe my Mom didn’t have access to fresh mozzarella cheese so she came up with this easy “American” version instead. It whips up quickly and is best when you make it with fresh tomatoes and basil, which are the mainstay of the dish.  The combination of toasty bread, cream cheese and the bite of the fresh onion and basil with the tomatoes is just divine! A plate of these will be gone in no time, which is good because if they sit around too long they tend to get a little soggy from all the delicious toppings.  It is also a vegetarian appetizer, which is always nice to have on hand and it tastes just as good with light cream cheese (just make sure it is onion or chive) than full fat. They couldn’t be easier or more festive!

• 1 container of chive/onion cream cheese
• 1 skinny loaf of French (or French style) bread from the bakery department
• 1 small white onion
• 1 or 2 green onion stalks
• olive oil
• 4 to 5 ripe tomatoes (more meat, less juice if you have options)
• 5 leaves of fresh basil

Turn the broiler in your oven on & slice the loaf of bread into thin slices and arrange on a cookie sheet. Brush or mist lightly with olive oil & pop under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes, watching closely, until they are toasted. Remove from the oven. (I often make 2 loaves and usually this step takes two cookie sheets of bread slices to finish all of it.)

Dice your onion, basil, and tomatoes as fine as you can and mix together, (salt and pepper to taste) and set aside.

Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on each bread slice and arrange on a platter. Top each slice with a teaspoon to two teaspoons of tomato/basil/onion mixture.

Serve & enjoy!

Lasagna is one of those dishes that is so awful when it isn’t done well (and most people have been subjected to bad lasagna) that a lot of home-cooks decide not to attempt it. Lasagna really isn’t that hard, even delicious lasagna, it just requires some prep work. It isn’t a dish to rush home [...]]]>

Lasagna is one of those dishes that is so awful when it isn’t done well (and most people have been subjected to bad lasagna) that a lot of home-cooks decide not to attempt it. Lasagna really isn’t that hard, even delicious lasagna, it just requires some prep work. It isn’t a dish to rush home from work & whip together- it takes about a half an hour to get all the ingredients ready to go, about ten minutes to assemble it, an hour to bake, and another ten minutes of resting. So: make lasagna when you have time & prepare – and you’ll be rewarded with a wonderful dish that will feed a very full table. Feel free to change ratio’s depending on your family preferences – less ricotta, more ricotta, more sauce, less sauce. Remember: homemade lasagna is a little messy- see the above pan. It is delicious, but rarely is it a gorgeous centerpiece. It is homestyle comfort food!!

Now, a few principles of my lasagna: yes, I put ricotta in it, but the ricotta is mixed with milk and one egg for creaminess & spreadability – it stays moist, and doesn’t dry out. I use REGULAR noodles, none of that “no-boil” nonsense, which in my opinion renders a lasagna that isn’t tasty. Finally, sometimes I make it with ground beef, other times turkey. It is yummy both ways! Some lasagna rules of thumb:

1. Don’t over cook the meat – it is going in the oven for another 45 minutes. As soon as it is done, take it off the heat.

2. Don’t over boil the noodles – they will also be in the sauce and cheese in the oven and will get mushy. Boil until al dente & remove.

3. Again. Don’t over cook the meat & noodles. I can’t say this enough.

4. Reserve a small amount of sauce until the very end – it goes on top of the final cheese layer & prevents the foil from sticking to the cheese/top. That is why my lasagna looks a little messy, the final sauce dollop is rarely even and beautifully centered – but it does its job!

5. The recipe calls for nine wide noodles. I always boil ten, in case one rips. Trust me, the one time you only boil nine, one of the noodles will be rendered useless and you’ll kick yourself. Boil an extra!

6. When in doubt, make extra filling. The worst lasagnas are over cooked or skimpy on the filling. It is better to have a little left over at the end than to run out after the second layer.

You will need, in addition to tin foil & one 9 by 11 baking dish:

• 9 wide regular lasagna noodles, boiled & drained
• 1 LARGE can of Hunt’s tomato sauce,
• For sauce: 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning & 1 tablespoon chopped garlic/1 tablespoon chopped basil
• 1 pound of ground beef/turkey, browned with 2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning, drained
• 4 cups grated mozzarella cheese (grate it yourself, the preservatives to prevent clumping in the pre-shredded make it melt oddly)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 pound of ricotta cheese (part skim if you like)
• For the ricotta: 1 egg, beaten & 1/4 cup of milk
• Spinach- about 2 cups

Get all of your ingredients prepped & ready to go and set it all up on a big, clean work station with a 9×11 baking dish. Lightly mist the baking dish with olive oil. You’ll want your meat browned and seasoned, your sauce simmered for about 10 minutes with the spices, garlic and basil in it, your ricotta mixed with the egg & milk and your cheeses grated. (Please. Grate it yourself. It really does make a much, much tastier dish.)

Start by laying three lasagna noodles across the bottom of your baking dish: Now, lightly spread about 1/3 of the ricotta/milk/egg mixture across them- use your fingers if need be. This part can be a little messy:

Excellent! Now sprinkle about 1/3 of your meat over the ricotta cheese and noodles (I used turkey which is why it looks a little pale):

Now ladle 1/3 of your sauce over the noodle/ricotta/meat layers:

It doesn’t have to be perfectly spread around, it will spread out more during baking & each layer has sauce, so it all evens out. Next up, your spinach layer:

The first “layer” is almost done- just add 1/3 of each of your cheeses:

Now you’ll want to repeat this entire “layer” – noodles, ricotta, meat, tomato sauce, spinach and cheese two more times.  Here we are, adding the sauce to the second layer of lasagna:

Your final layer will be cheese, but you’ll want to reserve a small amount of your sauce and drizzle it over the top cheese layer at the end- it will prevent the tinfoil from sticking to the cheese while it bakes.

Cover the top in tinfoil & bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, or when the cheese and sauce is bubbly. Remove from the oven and LET IT SIT for ten minutes. If you don’t, you will have one very messy pile of good. By letting it sit, the dish “sets” and is much easier to serve.

Things have been woeful around these parts lately, but that isn’t to say cooking hasn’t been happening & new recipes are not on the horizon. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you that as of late we’ve been finding many tasty (and healthy!) recipes in both Fitness magazine & Cooking Light- [...]]]>

Things have been woeful around these parts lately, but that isn’t to say cooking hasn’t been happening & new recipes are not on the horizon. In the meantime, we wanted to share with you that as of late we’ve been finding many tasty (and healthy!) recipes in both Fitness magazine & Cooking Light- great resources for new taste combinations that are often done in 30 minutes or less.

Additionally, my cookbook favorites -some old, some new- include:

Silver Service  (macaroni & cheese: the end)

Good Eats: The Early Years  (part 1 of a trilogy that will inspire any home chef!)

Ad Hoc at Home (cannot wait to try the scallops recipe!)

Back to the Table (turkey shepherd’s pie and homemade biscuits…)

Electric Bread (honey whole wheat is just so good!)

Joy of Cooking (1965 or 1975) (The older versions are SO MUCH better than the new ones- scourt eBay, Amazon or your local bookstore for a well-worn copy rather than splurging on the new, not-as-good one!)

What about you? Where do you find your cooking inspiration?

You’ll [...]]]> King Cake…better late than never, eh? This recipe is an adaptation of an Emeril recipe & it turned out quite well- tasty, tasty! This recipe has two rising cycles so be sure to plan in advance when you are making this & make sure your oven is clear to allow the dough to rise in peace.

You’ll need:

Combine the yeast and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, and with the hook up, slowly add the melted butter and warm milk – warm, not hot. You don’t want to kill your yeast.  Beat at low speed for 1 minute.

Then, with the mixer running, add the egg yolks one at a time & then beat for 1 minute at medium-low speed…here are my separated egg yolks:

Mix the salt, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon zest in a bowl:

The trick to good lemon zest is to stop grating when you hit the white pith beneath the peel- the pith is bitter, while the rind provides essential oils & a subtle lemon flavor. Your lemon will look like this when you are done grating it for the peel:

Then add the lemon zest/nutmeg/salt mixture to your flour and bea until combined. Then, increase the speed to high and beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, forms a ball, and starts to climb up the dough hook. (If the dough is uncooperative in coming together, add a bit of warm water (110 degrees), a tablespoon at a time, until it does.)  At this point you’ll want your dough to be in a ceramic or wooden bowl to rise (lightly oiling the bowl is a good idea):

You want your dough to rise in a warm, draft-free place. A gas oven is perfect, as the pilot light provides a warm enviornment & the closed door keeps the drafts out. Be sure to cover it & let it rise for about 2 hours, or until it doubles in size:

While the dough is rising you can get your baby out & make the filling. A King Cake baby looks like this: In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, remaining cinnamon and 1 cup of the confectioner’s sugar. Blend by hand or with an electric mixer on low speed. Set aside.Your dough should be big and puffy like this:

Work it into a rectangle, about 30 inches long & 6-7 inches wide. The metal pastry cutter at the end is 6 inches wide:

Smooth the cream cheese filling in the center of the dough, leaving the edges free to be pinched together.

Then fold the dough over length-wise & pinch the dough together. You’ll have a long, skinny filled rectangle:

I like to put it on a round pizza sheet, covered in foil. You can put an oven safe bowl or empty coffee can in the center to help it keep its shape. The the baby into the cake. Wrap the dough into a circle & pinch the two ends together, smoothing the seam as much as possible:

Back in the oven it goes, but just to rise again! Let it sit for about 45 minutes & then brush with 2 tablespoons of milk &  bake, at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown: Let the cake cool completely & remove your bowl from the center. Transfer to a cake pan or serving tray & make the icing for it. Combine the remaining 3 tablespoons milk, the lemon juice, and the remaining 3 cups confectioner’s sugar in medium-size mixing bowl. Stir to blend well. With a rubber spatula, spread the icing evenly over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals, alternating colors around the cake.  (I only had gold sprinkles which didn’t photograph very well.) Try not to drip the frosting like I did- such a mess to clean up!  Booze pictured is optional

Slice into 2 inch pieces & serve to your guests. Who ever gets the baby gets good luck & has to make the first King Cake of the next season!