Severed Finger Cookies!!

The October issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine featured some really neat Halloween recipes.  For whatever reason, I could not resist the severed finger cookies.  They seemed simple enough, they sounded tasty, and they looked, well... pretty cool.  With Halloween right around the corner, these cookies are the perfect thing to bring to a Halloween party - for both adults and children. 

I was getting together with my girlfriends recently, and said I'd bring a dessert.  Since I wanted to make these cookies so bad, I determined that girls' night was the perfect occasion. 

Perfect?  Really?  Yeah, okay.  So a small group of 30-something women are probably not going to go crazy over a cookie clearly designed for a child or a Halloween party.  But I wasn't going to let that deter me.  (And as a last minute bonus... I did learn that my friend's 5 year old son was going to join us, so this dessert turned out to be thoughtful, and even a little genius.)

Here's the recipe...

Ingredients

·        1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

·        1 cup confectioners sugar

·        1 egg

·        1 t pure vanilla extract

·        2 3/4 cups flour

·        1 t baking powder

·        1 t salt

·        1/2 cup sliced almonds

·        Raspberry jam

Method

·        In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy.  Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla, then mix in the flour, baking powder and salt.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

·        Preheat the oven to 325°.  Using your hands and working quickly, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a finger shape.  Place the fingers about 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  If the dough gets sticky and hard to work with, re-chill it in the refrigerator.

·        Stick a sliced almond on 1 end of each for the fingernails.  Use a table knife to make three crosswise knuckle marks in the middle of each cookie.  Bake until lightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes.  Transfer to a rack to cool.

·        Meanwhile, in a saucepan, cook the jam over low heat until it reaches a saucy consistency.  Once liquefied, remove from the heat pour into a small bowl; dip the "severed" end of each cookie into the sauce. 

Here's a photo of Rach's cookies (on the left), along with one of mine (duh, on the right).

A couple of comments... Clearly, the folks at Every Day with Rachael Ray have a better photographer than I do (me).  And I blame my iPhone.  My screen is all messed up, and it's hard to see if the pictures come out good or not.  (I gotta get that fixed.)  Aside from that, I'm pretty impressed with mine.  My fingers are definitely severed from a person who was probably a little more chubby and stocky, but they still look good.  My only complaint is that the cookies were a little dry - even though they were a little bigger than they should have been.  I baked them the full 25 minutes because they weren't getting lightly golden.  If you try these yourself, I would recommend making them smaller, and watching them carefully to avoid over cooking.  Fortunately, they are good dipping cookies, so all was not lost. 

As luck would have it, my girls' night got canceled because poor little Jack was sick, but all was not lost.  I managed to eat about half of the cookies myself before I brought the rest to my parents house (to get them away from me!!).  Watching my ten month old niece eat a severed finger was priceless. 

All Things Pumpkin

It’s definitely that time of year again – pumpkin time. There are lots of things I love about the fall… the return of cozy sweaters and Uggs, Sunday afternoon football games, and a warm fire in the fireplace. But one of my most favorite things about fall is all the pumpkin flavored food things.

This past weekend, B and I went apple picking and pumpkin shopping. Even when I lived in my tiny condo, I would always buy a pumpkin. It never felt right to not have a jack-o-lantern on Halloween. And I can’t resist roasting the pumpkin seeds and snacking on them for as long as they last, which usually isn’t very long.

Okay, if I’m being honest, the jack-o-lantern is probably more of a by-product of the pumpkin seeds rather than the other way around.

Now that we have a house, I’m super excited to decorate it with not one, but three pumpkins – two on the front steps (with some beautiful yellow mums) and one under a tree in our front yard (accompanied by a pot of deep burgundy mums). But the true glory of the day was all the pumpkin flavored stuff I got to eat and drink.

It all started with a Pumpkin Spice coffee. This was of the Green Mountain k-cup variety, and not, sadly, of the Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks variety. But it was still very good.

Then, I decided to mix some pumpkin puree into my oatmeal for an extra flavor and nutrient boost. Not a lot – just a spoonful or so. Throw in a dash of cinnamon, or maybe even pumpkin pie spice if you are so inclined, and you got yourself a yummy, hearty, and nutritious breakfast.

When we purchased our pumpkins, I was distracted by a display of locally made fudge, and naturally they had pumpkin fudge. I bought a piece and threw it in my bag to save for later.

From there we had lunch, which I enjoyed with a pint of Shipyard Pumpkin Ale, served with a cinnamon and brown sugar rimmed glass. Yum.

On the way home, B and I shared the fudge. Had I had any idea how good this was going to be, I would have bought a pound instead of just a piece. It was fantastic. It had all the deliciousness of pumpkin pie with the comforting, delectable texture of your favorite kind of fudge. It was the perfect combination. (And even though I love all things pumpkin flavored, I really do not like pumpkin pie. I think it’s a texture thing.)

Later on that evening, not in front of a warm, crackling fire since it was eighty-something degrees out on Columbus Day weekend, I enjoyed a pumpkin spice martini. I found a recipe for this drink somewhere (I honestly can’t remember), and decided to google some different executions. From the results of my search, I came up with a few concoctions of my own and proceeded to the test bar to get mixing and determine a winner.

The end result is a delicious drink that I had to share with you all.

In a shaker filled with ice, combine 2.5 oz vanilla vodka, 1 T pumpkin pie syrup (I use Torani’s sugar free version), 2 T pure pumpkin puree, 2 T half & half, and 1/8 t pumpkin pie spice. Shake like crazy (you want to make sure the pumpkin puree is fully incorporated). Rim a cocktail glass with a mixture of brown sugar and graham cracker crumbs (I used simple syrup to get the stuff to stick, but I think maple syrup will work way better). Strain the drink into the glass, and enjoy responsibly

See how yummy it looks!!

If you don’t have, or don’t want to get, the pumpkin pie syrup (you can buy it online, which is what I did… I was going for homemade pumpkin spice lattes), you can swap it out for some Bailey’s Irish Cream (you may want to use 2-3 T, and get rid of the half & half since you will get the creaminess from the Bailey’s).

And yes, if you caught my Five O’Cocktail piece, you are correctly guessing that I am breaking my own rules by calling this drink a martini. It’s really a cocktail, but when in Rome… You can’t win ‘em all.

PS – check out one of my early pieces comparing canned pumpkin to fresh pumpkin in pumpkin bread if you’re interested in which is the better option (it's under "Saturday").

Mixing It Up

After my foray into salts, I got to thinking.  What else can I mix up?  Sure, this line of food prep isn't very culinarily exciting but sometimes really great flavors come from really simple things.

My family was coming over for brunch one Sunday to see the new house.  I wasn't making anything really fancy (generally because nobody ever eats anything and when they do, they all of a sudden morph into New York Times food critics), but still I needed to feed them something.  I stuck with bagels, english muffins, fruit and a banana bread.  Not to forget coffee, and since it was my family, morning booze was a must.  Bring on the Bloody Marys and Mimosas!

Instead of just plain old butter and cream cheese I wanted to do a little something more.  Back in my working days, when I needed people to leave me alone so I could get work done, my go to breakfast was an onion bagel with bacon and scallion cream cheese.  (Worked like a charm, in case you're interested.)  Yes, it was smelly.  But even better - it tasted really good. 

While I didn't invite my family over to leave me alone, I still wanted to make this cream cheese.  It was really simple... an 8 oz. tub of plain whipped cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of minced chives (I opted for the herb over the scallion), and 2 T chopped bacon (like I did with the bacon salt, I opted for Hormel's real bacon bits... okay, I confess - I bought a giant bag of this at BJ's Wholesale Club on impulse and I'm looking for ways to use it).  Mix together, and chill for a couple of hours before serving to allow the flavors to blend. 

I'm proud to say it was a hit.  In fact, I don't think anyone touched the plain cream cheese.

I've lately been intrigued by compound butters, and have wanted to make some but haven't quite gotten around to it.  Usually when I see or hear of compound butters, it's generally for savory dishes.  I wanted to make something for breakfast, and remembered how much I love to sprinkle cinnamon sugar on my buttered toast or english muffin.  Why not eliminate a step and turn this into a compound butter?

So I took a stick of softened butter, 2 T light brown sugar and 1 t ground cinnamon and mixed them together.  Once fully incorporated, I put the butter in a ramekin and chilled in the fridge. 

Let me tell you, it was better than I ever imagined.  When that butter melted on the freshly toasted bagel or english muffin, I mean... words cannot describe.  (Well they probably can, but I need to be a much better writer.)  There was sugary cinnamon in every bite, with a slight toffee hit from the brown sugar, mixed in with delectable melted butter.  It was just oh. so. good. 

That butter is hard to resist, and so is the cream cheese.  The leftovers are mocking me every time I open the fridge.  But hey, breakfast happens once a day, so I suppose I can indulge for now. 

Is It 5 O'Cocktail Yet?

Ever since I went to bartending school, I can't wait for 5 o'clock to roll around so I can have a cocktail. 

Okay, fine.  Keep it down now.  I'll rephrase...

Ever since I went to bartending school, I have a good excuse to indulge in a cocktail every evening.  I need to maintain my skills.  (That's all you're getting out of me.)

Truth be told, since I left my job, the clock slowly ticks along and sometimes I find myself finished with the house work and looking for that drink to start to wind down.  Only to realize it's 10:30.  In the morning.  It's pretty pathetic. 

For everyone who says "it's 5:00 somewhere," there is someone else who says "it's noon somewhere."  I've always been the one to say the latter, but I am fully aware that if I start drinking at noon, at home all by myself, I'm screwed.  So I diligently wait for my husband to come home from work so we can enjoy a drink together before dinner. 

For a while, I was experimenting with martinis.  B is a gin guy, and he's fairly straightforward with his drinks.  He likes his martini up, dry and with three olives.  In the summer he'll switch over to Hendricks, and he'll swap his three olives for a cucumber garnish if they have it.  I got him to give the lemon twist a try as I thought it would be a nice complement to the cucumber flavored gin.  (He's a convert!) 

Me, I'm a vodka girl.  Grey Goose specifically.  I prefer my martinis straight up and dirty, with three olives.  But depending on my mood, I'll mix it up a little.  A very little.  Sometimes I'll ask for it on the rocks, sometimes I ask for it extra dirty (generally that's only at places that seem to think that "dirty" means add olives, not olive brine). 

I've come to the conclusion that the only place I can consistently order a good Dirty Martini is at Grill 23 in Boston.  And to be honest... Adam needs to be the one who makes it for me.  (I'll throw some love Chris's way too, but he moved to the left coast a while back and Adam's the only one I can count on now.)  As a result, I've made my move towards Gimlets. 

Here's another drink that consistently gets screwed up.  I swear on my husband's life that one time I ordered a Grey Goose Gimlet, on the rocks, and it was served to me in a brandy snifter.  A brandy snifter.  (Hello, rocks glass, anyone?) 

But I'm getting off track... the point of this column is to talk about the martini experimentation I've been doing.  And by martini, I mean a martini - not a cocktail.  I do not agree that a Cosmopolitan or a Lemon Drop is a martini.  Just because you serve it in a martini glass doesn't mean it's a martini.  A martini is gin or vodka, maybe with a dash of vermouth, maybe with a dash of something acidic (like lime juice, or olive brine... even though technically lime juice makes it a gimlet, which is not a martini, but it's closer still than a Cosmopolitan, or heaven forbid, an Appletini).  A martini is not pink.  Or blue, or green, or yellow. 

Since I tend to love the acidic martinis, I wanted to see what else I could come up with.  I so far have tried four variations on my beloved Dirty Martini/Gimlet.

·        Dill Pickle Martini:  vodka with pickle brine, garnished with a pickle slice.  Good idea in theory, not so good in execution.  Maybe sweet pickles would work better, but I don't like sweet pickles so I'm not going to try it.

·        Greek Martini:  vodka with kalamata olive brine, garnished with feta stuffed kalamata olives.  Honestly, not too bad, but could be better.  In my haste, I bought a jar of kalamata olives that were pre-stuffed with feta cheese.  I think if I went to the olive bar, and bought some good feta, this could be a real crowd pleaser.

·        Caprese Martini:  vodka with balsamic vinegar, garnished with a petite skewer of cherry tomato, fresh bite sized mozzarella and two basil leaves.  The balsamic vinegar colored the vodka to the point that it looked like bourbon, so it felt like I was drinking a real effed up Manhattan.  Not terrible per se, but I didn't really like it.  I think if I reduced the balsamic into a syrup and dressed the glass with it, it might have been better.  I'll keep working on this one.

But the piece de resistance, my pride and joy, my absolute go to drink, the drink I can't live without, the one that makes me fear getting pregnant and having to quit drinking for the better part of a year and the one that makes me watch the clock all day... 

·        Pepperoncini Martini: vodka with pepperoncini brine, and garnished with a pepperoncini.  (For those who don't know, a pepperoncini is a pickled hot Italian pepper.)

And hold off on the cute names.  It's not a Pepperontini.  Nor is it a Pepperoncini-Tini.  And it's not a Hot and Dirty, as I've heard it is called in places that have had similar genius as I.  (As you can probably glean from my earlier comments, I do not think martini and cute go together.)

The Pepperoncini Martini has ruined me for other martinis, to the extent that I will order a Gimlet instead of a Dirty Martini every time I'm out because the olive flavor cannot hold a candle to the pepperoncini flavor.  At least in my humble opinion.

I'm actually at this minute trying to determine how inappropriate it would be to bring a little plastic container of Pepperoncini Martini fixings to Grill 23 later this week... Pretty inappropriate, huh?  I mean, it is a nice, upscale restaurant.  Let me give it some more thought.

Stuff That Tastes Like Other Stuff

Over the last week or so, I got the urge to mix things up.  You know, make things taste like other things.  For some reason, it started with salt.  I wanted to make salt taste like lemons.  When I was in North Carolina for vacation this summer, I had lunch at a restaurant that seasoned their french fries with lemon salt.  They were delicious.  I also bought this little bottle of lemon lime salt that you are supposed to pour in your beer (it's Corona's new best friend... sorry lime). 
 

Being as optimistic about my culinary skills as I am, I said to myself "self, you can make this at home."  So I gave it a try. 

I wasn't content to just make lemon salt.  My version needed to have something more, something really different.  A-ha!  Lemon PEPPER salt.  Totally unique, truly a seasoning for the ages. 

After a couple of experiments, I came up with a good recipe. 

·        5 T coarse sea salt

·        3 t fresh ground pepper

·        Zest of one lemon, grated with a microplane

Combine all of the above in the work bowl of a food processor or a spice blender and process until the salt is fine and the zest and pepper is fully incorporated.  Add more or less pepper to your specific taste.

I seasoned a lovely piece of cod with this and baked it.  It was quite good, but a word of caution.  Use it as you would salt, not an herb blend.  Or bread crumbs. 

Since I had lemon pepper salt under my belt, I wanted to see what else I could come up with.  And I came up with bacon salt.  Everything tastes better with bacon, right?  Hell knows what I'll use this for (oh, come on - french fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, any kind of potatoes, scallops, pizza, the list goes on and on). 

The recipe for bacon salt was way too easy. 

·        1/2 c coarse sea salt

·        3 T chopped bacon (I used Hormel's real bacon bits... you don't have to worry about making the salt too greasy, and all the work is done for you)

Combine in the work bowl of a food processor or a spice blender and process until the salt is fine and the bacon is fully incorporated.

Careful, you will be tempted to eat this one with a spoon.

Finally, I needed to step up my game.  I needed a real challenge in the salt department.  How about some homemade garlic salt?  Sounds good to me.

I consulted the internet for this one, and found a few recipes that mostly called for combining garlic powder and salt.  Not for me.  Too amateur, even for someone who really can't cook.  Finally I found a recipe that taught me how to use real garlic. 

·        3 T coarse sea salt

·        3 lg. garlic cloves, minced or pressed

Combine the garlic and salt, choppity chop chop until the garlic gets really pasty and is blended with the salt.  Spread on a sheet pan and dry in a 100-125° oven, stirring every 15 minutes for 6-7 hours until completely dry.

So I had a few problems with this one.  First of all, my oven doesn't go any lower than 170°.  Second of all, I had maybe 45 minutes to tend to this - not 6-7 hours. 

I set my oven to 170°, and stirred it every 15 minutes for a half hour.  Then I tossed it into the food processer to better incorporate and crunch up the large salt crystals.  That didn't really work.  So, later that night, I found myself in Williams Sonoma looking for a spice grinder.  $40 later, I'm at home trying to grind up the salt in my new spice grinder (I somehow got B to believe it was necessary and would save us money on garlic salt in the long run... we seriously hardly ever use garlic salt).  This didn't work either.

My conclusion was that garlic is really sticky and needs to be dried out in the oven for 6-7 hours at a really low temperature, being stirred ever 15 minutes.  Better luck next time, right?

At the end of the day, I have a bottle of very yummy lemon pepper salt that I can't wait to try on french fries, some bacon salt that would probably have been really good on that turkey sandwich I made B for lunch today, and a bottle of fairly useless garlic salt.  Actually, I did use some of that very sticky garlic salt in the spaghetti sauce I made the other day, so I'm pretty sure it won't go to waste. 

I'm sure there are many more salts in my future... I'm currently strategizing on how to make buffalo salt.  Do stay tuned.

A Healthier Carbonara

For the last five and half months, I've allegedly been on a cholesterol lowering diet.  I say allegedly, but I probably should say that for the last five and half month, I was supposed to be on a cholesterol lowering diet.  For the most part, I eat fairly healthy.  However, I do have a love affair with foods like bacon, eggs and butter.  And red meat.  I'll find out in a couple of weeks how much trouble I'm really in.

But, I really do need to start taking this seriously, even if the risks are more long than short term for me.  So last night I decided to make spaghetti carbonara.  I know, I know, just hear me out... I took a basic carbonara recipe, and transformed it to a heart healthy recipe. 

And it was really pretty good!  I'd even go so far as to say damn good.  It was also pretty easy to make.  All it took was a few swaps and one splurge.  Here are both the original and my altered recipes:

Original Recipe	Wannabe Foodie Recipe
·        3 large eggs ·        1.5 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (3/4 cup) ·        1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese ·        3 cloves garlic, minced ·        8 oz. bacon (8 slices), chopped fine ·        1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil ·        1/2 cup dry white wine ·        Salt ·        1 lb. spaghetti ·        Pepper	·        3/4 cup Egg Beaters ·        1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese ·        3 cloves garlic, minced ·        6 oz. Canadian bacon, chopped fine ·        1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil ·        1/2 cup dry white wine ·        Salt ·        1 lb whole wheat spaghetti ·        Pepper ·        2/3 cup frozen peas ·        2 T chopped fresh basil

In a nutshell, I swapped out real eggs for Egg Beaters (eliminating the fat and cholesterol), skipped the Pecorino Romano in favor of a high quality parm, used Canadian bacon instead of regular (tastes more like ham, but so much more lean and healthy, sad but true), gave up the white pasta in favor of a fiber reach whole wheat pasta, and added peas and basil.  The peas and basil were added for color, for the most part.  Without that nice splash of vibrant green, the dish would have lacked some visual appeal.  Very bland looking indeed. 

As far as preparing the dish... I sautéed the Canadian bacon in the olive oil until it crisped up and then added the wine, which I let simmer for 3-5 minutes.  The eggs, cheese, and garlic were whisked together.  Once the pasta was cooked, I immediately added both the bacon and egg mixture to the hot pasta, along with the frozen peas (that I let defrost a little on the counter while everything else was being prepped).  Season as you wish with the salt and pepper.

The hot pasta heats the peas and cooks the eggs (which are pasteurized, so they are totally safe if they don't cook thoroughly.  But they do, so stop worrying).  You should also make sure to reserve a 1/2 cup of the pasta water in case the sauce is too thick and needs to be loosened up a bit.  Then, top the pasta with some more cheese and the chopped basil and serve immediately.

You see why I needed to add the peas?  Trust me, it was good!

And there you have it.  A yummy, creamy, heart healthy version of a dish that would formerly kill you.  (But don't tell my doctors that I served it with garlic bread that was not at all good for me.)

Holy Mozzarella

For a while now I've been thinking about making homemade mozzarella.  I read an article in a magazine (I believe it was Tyler Florence's recipe in Food Network Magazine), and it sounded fairly straightforward.  And I did have a successful effort of fresh ricotta under my belt.  So why not?

Naturally, I never got around to it.  I had to order the stuff online, and then I couldn't remember which month's issue had the recipe, blah blah blah.  But the other day while I was grocery shopping, I came across a mozzarella cheese making kit from Roaring Brook Dairy.  The kit was $16 and it included all the internet supplies (plus a thermometer and rubber gloves) to make 4 pounds of cheese.  All I need to bring to the table is a gallon of milk.

I decided to give it a shot.  The price seemed fairly right after all, as long as I donate my time for free.  A pound of domestic mozzarella at this same grocery store was anywhere from $8-$10 per pound.  The gallon of 2% milk, which will yield you approximately one pound of mozzarella, was $4.39.  That makes the kit $8.39 per pound + an hour of my time.  Not too bad.  (Way better than the cost effectiveness of the homemade ricotta.)

I'm not going to get into all the details, but the process involves heating the gallon of milk, adding citric acid and then some rennet, draining, microwaving and kneading the curds, adding special cheese salt and stretching and shaping the mozzarella.  Then let it chill in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes (unless you want to eat it warm), and there you have it.  Fresh mozzarella. 

In order to judge the results, I whipped up a couple little caprese skewers with basil from my garden and some cherry tomatoes from a local farm stand.  I dressed the skewers with some balsamic vinaigrette.   

And yum.  The cheese was actually really good.  It was a little firmer than the mozzarella I would buy for caprese skewers, but I can solve that problem by stretching the cheese less next time.  Nonetheless, it's the perfect texture to shred for some homemade pizza or yummy lasagna.

Oh, that's it.  I'm going to have to make that fresh ricotta again and whip up some lasagna with the fresh mozzarella.  I already can't stop thinking about it.  (Come on fall, get rid of these 85 degree days so I can bake me some lasagna!!)  Stay tuned for that success story.  That's right.  I'm already calling it.   

All in all, it was a fairly easy process.  The biggest pain was microwaving the curds.  And that was only because my microwave is in the basement, so I had to lug it up to my kitchen.  (Three plus months in the new house, and I do not yet miss my microwave.) 

If you would like to find out where you can buy Roaring Brook Dairy's mozzarella cheesemaking kit,  click here for their website. 

Vacation is Over

Well, it's time to get back to work.  We're settled into the new house, and the kitchen has been organized and re-organized.  With the weather starting to cool down, the kitchen is going to start heating up. 
 

And, since football season is officially underway (the Patriots kick off their quest for the Lombardi trophy tonight and my other favorite team, the Colts, will begin their quest next year - get well soon, Peyton), the Wannabe Foodie culinary adventures can begin.  I can't really explain why, but there is something about football that really makes me want to get in the kitchen and cook big, hearty meals.

Don't get me wrong - I did cook this summer.  My poor husband didn't starve.  We primarily took advantage of our new grill, with the occasional rainy day pasta boil.  I love, love, love cooking on the grill - tender and juicy meat, seasoned perfectly, and with the right amount of char.  Hmm... I'm going to have a hard time using the oven after that. 

But, cooking on the grill can get kind of boring.  Or at least, I got kind of boring.  I opted for lazy straightforward meals (meat, salad and baked potato or corn on the cob), and didn't try anything new.  But, there were a few highlights, a few questions, a few missed opportunities, and a few lessons learned.  Here's a brief rundown:

The new grill has a rotisserie burner, and the rotisserie accessory is one of our new favorite toys.  Rotisserie chicken cooked on the grill is perhaps the best way to cook a bird.  (Sorry, Ultimate Chicken Roaster, I had to say it.)  This will be our method of choice for a whole chicken all year round - even if that means that B has to stand outside in a blizzard.  It's just that good.

Why does everyone always talk about preventing flare ups?  All the cooking shows and cookbooks are always telling you how to cook things without flare ups.  Flare ups are my favorite part.  Flare ups improve the char.  Char is good.  Therefore flare ups are good. 

The grill also has a sear burner, which does a nice job of searing a steak before it goes on the grill to finish cooking.  Only problem is that the rotisserie attachment blocks the lid of the burner from opening, and then we can't use it.  Hopefully B realizes that I removed this part of the rotisserie before he next goes to use it.

Yesterday I made buffalo wings.  And I did them the right way - I cooked the wings and then tossed them in the buffalo sauce.  But they didn't come out so good.  I was disappointed - the wings were perfectly seasoned too, with fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, onion powder and garlic powder.  They didn't get a lot of char (again, my favorite part) and the sauce didn't stick so well.  Next time, I'm going to toss them in the sauce first, which I'm hoping will increase the char and caramelization (seriously - no idea how to spell that), and then toss them in the sauce again.  I'll keep you posted... I have not given up yet.

Our big missed opportunity was beer can chicken.  We have this every summer, down at the beach in North Carolina.  It's a specialty of a family friend, and it is delicious.  According to B, the dark meat (aka the part of the bird that is closest to the can of beer) really takes on the beer flavor, and the white meat (obviously, further away from the beer can) not so much - still absolutely moist, tender and delicious, but not so beery.  We had the idea to inject the white meat with some beer prior to cooking, and ran out to buy a beer can chicken roaster once we got home from vacation (one of those cheapo, $3 contraptions, not the high-fallutin' Williams Sonoma variety).  Sadly, we never got around to using it.  But, fear not, there is still time.  Consider this a delayed opportunity, not one missed quite yet.  And yes, I realize this flies in the face of my proclamation to only ever use the rotisserie to cook a whole chicken.

So that's about it for now.  I've got a lot of great things on the menu this month, along with a decent amount of time on my hands, so you can expect some interesting reads in the next few weeks. 

What's been going on with you guys?  Cook anything good this summer?  What were your grilling highlights and lowlights?  How do you feel about char?  And flare ups? 

Now Showing Elsewhere on the Web

I have two new posts up elsewhere on the internet... check them out!

http://wannabefoodie.hubpages.com/hub/Confessions-of-a-Wannabe-Foodie

http://wannabefoodie.hubpages.com/hub/From-Grill-to-Simple-Marinara

Homemade Vanilla Extract

In my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie post, I offered to share my homemade vanilla extract recipe with anyone who asked for it. And lo and behold, Michele asked for it!

The problem was, I couldn’t find the recipe. I knew I got it from a magazine, and I assumed it was Food Network Magazine. But after scouring six months worth of back copies, there was no trace of the recipe.

Then I googled it. A whole bunch of recipes came up, but none of them was the one I used. I knew this because every one called for a liter of vodka, and I don’t care how much I want to make my own extract, I am not giving up an entire liter of vodka to make that happen. (Note: this is also the reason why my attempt at homemade red wine vinegar failed.)

I resolved to e-mail Michele and let her know that I spoke too soon, and share one of the other recipes for her. But before I did that, I had to make a little progress on packing for my upcoming move.

And guess what I found? Yup, you guessed it – the recipe! For some reason, I determined that the logical place to put it was in my coffee table. Not my recipe box. Nor that folder where I keep random recipes. Not even written in the inside of a cookbook. My coffee table.

So here it is.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Courtesy of Martha Stewart and Martha Stewart Living magazine.

Ingredients

• One vanilla bean
• 1/2 cup vodka
• Glass vessel with a tight seal 

Method

• Split the bean lengthwise with a sharp paring knife, and then use the tip of the knife to loosen the seeds by gently scraping inside the pod.
• Pour the vodka into a clean glass jar with a cork stop or screw top lid.
• Submerge the pod and the seeds, and leave them to soak at room temperature for one to two months.
• Once the extract is ready, discard the beans and store the jar in the refrigerator.
• It will keep for up to a year.

Generally speaking, it is probably not very cost effective to buy a vanilla bean for the sole purpose of making the extract. At my grocery store, it costs about $8 for a package of two beans. It also costs about $8 for a jar of good vanilla extract.

However, I have found that whenever I’ve needed a vanilla bean for a recipe, I’ve never needed more than one (usually only 1/2), so this is a great way to make use of the extra bean(s) before they dry up.

I did do a blind smell and taste test between my extract and the store bought extract (the good stuff – not the cheap, imitation kind) and the homemade version was much more fragrant and subtle in flavor. In fact, I assumed it was the store bought one because I couldn’t believe something I made at home would actually be better.

If you’re like me, and want to get a jump on planning your holiday gifts, Martha suggests beanilla.com as a resource that charges $13 for 10 vanilla beans. They also feature glass jars in the $4-$6 range. I used the 8.5 oz version of this jar available at The Container Store for $2.99.

Happy baking!

Cook's Illustrated's PERFECT Chocolate Chip Cookies

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you know how fond I am of all things America’s Test Kitchen. So imagine how excited I was to learn about their new Cook's Illustrated Boston Blogger Cookie Challenge.

Yup, you guessed right – seriously excited!! The challenge was pretty straightforward. Bake a batch of their Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, take some pictures, and blog about it. I could not wait to get started…

Yesterday was the day. I went to the market to pick up the ingredients (fresh is best!), charged the batteries in my new fancy camera, and got to work.

The first step, as always, is mise en place – getting all my ingredients measured, prepped and ready to go. I’m still surprised at just how much easier the entire cooking process is when I do this. No rushing to chop or measure something before it’s too late, no realizing you don’t have enough of some ingredient, and it even makes cleaning up easier. Not to mention, 9 out of 10 times, the food comes out better in the end.

Okay, mise en place done and now I’m ready to go. Just look how organized everything is!

The first step is easy – whisk the baking soda into the flour and set aside. Check. Even I can’t screw that one up.

Then come the steps that were a little new to me. I’ll confess, when I make chocolate chip cookies, I buy a bag of Nestle chocolate chips and follow the recipe on the bag. Other than throwing in some toffee chips and maybe some peanut butter chips to give it a little something extra, I normally stick to the tried and true. Why deviate from what you know works, right? (Blogging challenge, that’s why!)

First up is to melt the butter. What? Softened butter sure, but melted? That seems odd. But like I’ve said before, these guys know what they’re doing. Just go with it.

The Test Kitchen recommends not using a non-stick skillet for melting the butter because it’s difficult to gauge the brownness of the melted butter. Unfortunately, my non-stick skillet is brand new and my stainless steel skillet wasn’t quite camera ready after a bad experience with a veggie burger over the weekend. But I digress...

I watched the butter closely, taking the non-stick skillet warning very seriously, because I did not want it to over brown. If anything, it was probably slightly under-browned, but I think that’s better than the alternative.

I melted most of the butter in the skillet, then melted the remaining butter in the melted butter in a heat safe mixing bowl. (I will confess, I was not quite confident that my mixing bowl was heat safe, so I did clear the area in case an explosion occurred. Despite my history of kitchen accidents, this experiment turned out okay.)

When the butter was fully melted, I added the sugars, salt and vanilla to the bowl, then the eggs.  (Side note, I used my homemade vanilla. Vodka and vanilla bean - leave a comment if you want the exact recipe. This vanilla will stand up to anything you can buy in the store any day. I swear it.)

This stage of the recipe called for an interesting technique of whisking and resting, whisking and resting, and whisking and resting once more. Each whisk period was 30 seconds long, and then we would rest for 3 minutes. I used my oven timer to ensure I didn’t rush the rest period. At first, I found this a little bit annoying, but then I found the break really helpful as it gave me the opportunity to clean as I go without delaying the baking process.

Here are some pictures so you can see how the batter changes after each stage of whisking and resting. Also, my right arm could kick my left arm’s butt in a fight after the workout it got from all the whisking.

I couldn’t resist the temptation to taste at this point. Butter and brown sugar is kind of like heaven on earth – rich, buttery toffee flavors that are out of this world. Yum! I was starting to see (or taste) the genius of this recipe.

Now it’s time for the flour, then the chocolate chips. I opted to use chocolate chunks since I wanted to go for a bigger, gooier chocolate flavor.

The dough definitely looked and felt a lot more wet than your average cookie dough, but it made sense what with all the melted butter and all.

And it tasted pretty darn good.

Okay, it’s time to get that dough on the cookie sheets. Three tablespoons per cookie, and all I have is a two tablespoon ice cream scoop. I decided to use that ice cream scoop because even though it wasn’t the right size, it was still better than a spoon. I aimed for a 1 1/2 scoop fill, and it worked. I scooped out exactly 16 cookies – just what the recipe intended.

Time to bake. This is where I usually screw up. The recipe suggests 10-14 minutes per batch, turning halfway through. When I was a kid, I was told that you always bake cookies for less time than the recipe suggests. But in my older days, I have found recipe times to be far more accurate. So I split the difference and cooked the first batch for 12 minutes.

Halfway through...                    All the way through

You know, 12 minutes was slightly too long – at least it was in my oven. The cookies were still fine, just a tad darker than “golden,” if you know what I mean. I cooked the second batch for 10 minutes, and these came out perfect.

After a couple of minutes, I transferred the cookies to a wire rack to cool. This may sound like an odd choice, but I use a fish spatula for transferring still-warm cookies. It’s nice and thin, as opposed to all of my plastic and silicone spatulas which are pretty clunky and can do more harm than good. With the parchment paper on my baking sheets, there were no worries about scratching and the cookies transferred without issue.

Naturally, I couldn’t wait to try one. After I burned my mouth on some oozing melted chocolate, I decided to wait a few more minutes and try again.

Ah, this time I could actually taste the cookie. I think the “perfect” in the recipe title is an apt description. But let’s be fair. Here I am, awfully proud of myself. I may not be the best judge of my efforts.

Since there was no way I could fairly assess the outcome of these cookies, I had to wait for my favorite taster to come home. My poor husband barely got a chance to put his bag down before I was twisting his arm to try a cookie. He wanted to wait until after dinner, and there was no convincing him to eat cookie first, chicken later. (Um, hi, we’re grown ups – we can eat dessert whenever we want!)

But it was worth the wait. My husband’s verdict was music to my ears: crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, big chocolate flavor. Yea me!! Well, really “yea Cook's Illustrated,” but I at least executed the recipe correctly so I do deserve a little credit.

At the risk of being accused of brown nosing the judges of this blogging challenge, I can honestly say it is the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie recipe.

To try the recipe for yourself – and I highly recommend that you do – visit this link to the recipe on the Cook’s Illustrated website. Try it once and it will be your go to cookie recipe. I promise.

You can also learn more about Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen by clicking here, and visiting their website.