Fallen Souffle

It’s December 31, you have just been invited to an impromptu New Year’s Eve party. Your fridge is stocked full of holiday leftovers that are on their last leg, you haven’t been to the grocery store since Christmas and you have no desire to go today. You flip through cookbook after cookbook and surf the internet for an easy but crowd pleasing appetizer but have come up with nothing. Velvetta and Rotel? Too predictable. Crockpot meatballs? Not enough time. Chips and leftover bean dip? Shame on you for even considering! Finally there is a glimmer of hope! INA! The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook ofcourse how could I neglect! The New Years Eve party is saved…and so is your dignity!

Ok so that’s kinda dramatic but I just realized yesterday that I needed to bring something to a get together tonight. I brought a dessert bread home but wanted to bring an appetizer that everyone could munch on. I am down to slim pickins in the pantry and I really don’t want to go to the store until next week. While Evan was out watching the Pack play I perused my cookbooks and found this yummy recipe from Ina’s cookbook. With a quick check of the fridge I discovered I had all of the ingredients! What luck!

I posted my adapted version because let me just tell you..this woman loves some fat. I mean not that it was a huge secret or anything but this recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of butter as well as 1/4 cup of oil. Happy New Year, here is your heart attack! I was literally ladling oil out of the pan so the onions wouldn’t be suffocated in this artery clogging pool. I kept the butter for flavor but cut down the oil to couple of tablespoons, yeah it was that much oil. Another tip, use a mandolin for the onions! My husband thought one of the dogs died on the kitchen floor with as much as I was weeping and dripping…it was not pretty.

I used all lowfat ingredients except the butter, I know so un-Ina but I would like to live to have children. The flavor comes from the onions anyways so I didn’t notice the difference. I will serve this with some toasted Farmhouse White Bread from the bakery. So good!

Pan Fried Onion Dip
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

3 cups thinly sliced white or yellow onions (about 3 medium sized)
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (add more if your onions are burning)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 ounces of room temperature cream cheese (I used the 1/3 fat)
1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used light)

1. Heat butter and oil in large saute pan on medium heat. Add onions and spices and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow onions to cool.

2. Cream together cream cheese, mayo and sour cream with a hand mixer using the paddle attachment. Add onions and mix well. Season to your taste.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that tomorrow is 2006!

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I confess, I have started on the “eat good for the New Year” bandwagon. There is something about starting fresh and clean after gorging for days over the holidays. OK I didn’t gorge that much but I ate a lot of desserts. So I have been trying to eat a balanced diet and getting plenty of calcium and a serving or two of soy. While grocery shopping I got a hankering for yogurt and granola. I was about to buy a box of low fat granola when I realized it would be cheaper and healthier to just make it myself. Though I have issues with most granola recipes as they call for crazy amount of oil or butter totally defeating the purpose in my book. So after some research I came up with this recipe inspired by my Good Housekeeping Cookbook. Throw it on top of some vanilla yogurt and you got yourself breakfast.

The good thing about granola is that you don’t have to measure too much and you can throw just about anything into it. I would stick with the measurements for the wet ingredients and the oats but after that, have at it. I threw in some sesame seeds which were really yummy. I would have liked to have had more nuts in this, but I didn’t have any so like I said just use this as a reference and adjust to your liking.

Healthy Granola

3 cups old fashion oats
3/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon of melted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 package of dried fruit (I used the package of chopped mixed fruits)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment and spread oats to a single layer. Toast for about 15 minutes until slightly browned, stirring once you will be able to smell them. Let cool.

2. Mix wet ingredients and in a large bowl add oats and nuts and seeds of your choice. Spread mixture onto baking sheet and toast in oven for about 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Keep an eye on this after about 12 minutes because it doesn’t take too much for it to burn. After nicely toasted let cool completely.

3. Break up pieces and stir in dried fruit. Store in air tight container.

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I don’t know what I looked forward to most…opening presents, visiting my family, or going to Trader Joe’s. It may very well be a three way tie! I have been talking about this trip since I read that TJ’s opened up in Newport News, a mere 30 minute drive from my parent’s house. I could not wait to go the day after Christmas, I leaped out of bed like it was Christmas morning all over again!

I just about ran into the store, missing the front displays and going for the first aisle, the meat, cheese, and bread aisle. Not a bad start. My Mom, sister, and I shared one cart which was a bad idea because we were all throwing things in like we were kids in a Toys R Us. My sister got mostly vegetarian items as her boyfriend is not a meat eater and she is trying to wean him off of his Taco Bell habit by cooking for him. My Mom went for all healthy foods; whole grain cereal, light cheeses etc. I had no restraint and bought anything I thought I would possibly use in the next couple of months. My bounty included dried cherries, white tea, salami (for Evan), fontina, parmesan, white balsamic vinegar, garlic mustard, chocolate soy milk, a hunk of Ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate and 5 bottles of wine

I also got some artisan french rolls which made a killer sandwich with leftover Christmas ham and the garlic mustard.

Lisa from Comfort Food gave me a few suggestions, all of which I forgot about in the excitement of things, but I will be sure to pick them up when I am in VA next, which may be alot sooner than I had originally planned

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This shall be my last post before the holidays. Two more days to work at the bakery and then I can enjoy myself finally! This week has been exhausting; finishing the shopping, wrapping and baking while working everyday and still trying to stay in the holiday spirit! Yesterday it finally clicked and it really felt like Christmas. I was making pies in the bakery and I looked around at all of us buzzing around and it was like we were little elves. I decided to not take these next two days to serisouly and just enjoy them, sure I have to work and we will probably be swamped but I am wearing one of Evan’s Santa hats, who can get mad at someone in a Santa hat!

I finished my baking for the families, 2 pies, a cheesecake and an ice cream cake. I will have write ups on them next week…since these are all new recipes for me!

I just finished wrapping the last give and our tree has a heap of presents underneath! Evan and I are having our Christmas tonight. We were engaged on Christmas Eve Eve two years ago so I always like to exchange our gifts that night, away from all of the craziness. We will make a nice steak dinner and hopefully I can con him into watching Charlie Brown Christmas and taking me out to look at lights

So from my family to yours, have a safe and happy holiday!

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I have been cooking up this recipe in my head for about a week now. We were experimenting with apple pies at the bakery, adding different things to the filling and making different toppings. We finally decided on one but I thought it could be better. So I finally had a day off to try it. It’s a simple apple pie but with whole cranberries added to the filling and a brown sugar streusel topping. We tried dried cranberries at the bakery but they were too gummy. Our final product had walnuts in the topping but no one in my family is too crazy about nuts so I added rolled oats instead.

I tried to make the crust from scratch, I don’t know why but I get so nervous about pie crusts. I don’t know if it’s the recipes I am using or I just don’t know the technique but they never turn out. The one today seemed too crumbly. I am afraid to roll it out, I know it will just fall apart. So I resorted to the refridgerated ones that you just roll out into your pan, they seem ok to me, but I really want to perfect a home made crust. Pass along any tips or recipes for a fail proof pie crust!

Anywho, this pie turned out great regardless of my crappy crust attempts. The topping hardened just right, almost like having a double crust. The tartness of the granny smith apples and the fresh cranberries was just right. And this is a perfectly festive pie for the holidays, now I just have to decide whether to make it for the in-laws house or the parent’s house!

Jen’s Holiday Apple Cranberry Pie

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 small, peeled and wedged granny smith apples
6 ounces (half a bag) of fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
1- 9 inch pie crust unbaked

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In large bowl combine dry ingredients, then add apples and cranberries, tossing to coat. Pour into the prepared pie crust and top with streusel (see recipe below).

2. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 50-55 minutes until the filling begins to bubble and the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes to allow juices to thicken before slicing.

Brown Sugar Streusel
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup old fashion rolled oats
5 tablespoons of chilled butter cut into cubes

Combine all ingredients with a pastry blender or with your fingers until a coarse consistency is obtained.

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I have never been “tagged” before for a Meme, but the lovely Jaay from Culinarily Obsessed bestowed the honor unto me. I have to decide on ten and only ten of my favorite foods. This seemed like a simple task at first but then I realized that I have some crazy cravings. These cravings are intense and often change rapidly and are based soley on my moods. Yes I am a moody eater, which can get me in trouble sometimes.

Nonetheless I present to you my 10 Favorite Foods (for this week):

10. Feta Cheese
There is nothing like the saltiness of a chunk of feta cheese in a amazing greek salad or on a pizza. I also like to mix it with a bit of mayo and basil and spread it on bread with tomatoes (see number 4)…perfect!

9. Olives
Again, the saltiness. My husband says I am going to have the worst cravings when I am pregnant because I already have really intense cravings, and often times it is for olives. Kalamata olives are my favorites, but I will eat just about any kind. Dirty martini…yes please!

8. Tea
I don’t drink as much coffee as I used to, but I have become a tea freak! I got some new loose tea this weekend, French Vanilla Chai…I can’t wait to try it! It is so relaxing and calming to have a nice hot mug of tea especially on these cold days.

7. Baby Back Ribs
A reason Evan married me, my love for ribs. I like them slathered in a smokey BBQ sauce. My Dad used to own a restaurant that made the best ribs, unfortunately the recipe went with the cafe so we have now have to search for a new place for the perfect ribs…maybe a trip to Memphis?

6. Bread
Um…duh! I work in a bakery! Sure I get sick of some of the breads but I could never tire of our Farmhouse White Bread, the Asiago Pesto Bread or the Cranberry Orange bread. I see it everyday, I eat it everyday…and it just makes me happy.

5. Apricots
Though I have never had a fresh one, I adore dried apricots and use apricot preserves on just about anything. It’s sweetness mixes so well with a spicy mustard for a meat dish and it is perfect on coconut cookies.

4. Tomatoes
Fresh tomato sandwiches are why God created summer. I could eat them everyday. Tomatoes are also used quite often in my number 1 favorite food Oh and I take after my Dad and his love of Bloody Mary’s!

3. Peanut Butter
The go-to food when I am hungry at 11pm or need a protein boost while working. We eat alot of peanut butter and so do our dogs! Get them with an empty jar and you have never seen anything so humorous! I am making a peanut butter pecan pie for Christmas that I hope will be good enough to write about!

2. Cake
The reason I love weddings so much…well and seeing the bride’s dress ofcourse I am a cake snob and I am not ashamed to say that Evan and I had the best wedding cake ever. I like to jazz up simple white cakes with fruit preserves, creams and ganaches…yum! This is actually a picture of our wedding cake, courtesy of Jessica Claire Photography

1. All Italian Food
Yeah there is no way I could pick one Italian food. I could do a top ten of just Italian Foods! Pizza, lasagna, ravioli, paninis, baked penne, tirimisu…even the chianti! I dream of moving to Italy and just eating my way through, I didn’t eat nearly enough in the 3 weeks Evan and I were there! We have Italian food atleast twice a week but I honestly think we could eat it everyday and not get sick of it.

So there ya go! As concise of a list as I could on so little sleep!

So I hope Chan from lick the spoon hasn’t been tagged yet!

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I’m back! I slept for 10 hours last night and I am feeling rejuvenated! (Not to mention Evan comes back from his weekend with the boys in Atlantic City) My sister came to visit for the day with her ADD dog Lexi and she is just about to start her final exams and projects so I thought I would make her a treat when she came. I have had this recipe for about 2 years now and who knows why I have never made it. It’s a Paula Deen recipe so you know it must be good. It is so simple, cheap and I even made is fat free! Steph loved it and I have some leftover to enjoy this week. The recipe calls for vanilla but I substituted it for a bit of peppermint extract which was perfect! You must try this recipe for the holidays, it would be so good spiked with your favorite dessert liquor!

The cookie is one of the many I received from the fabulous Cookie Exchange I went to Friday night. I came back home with a cake box full of cookies! I had such a great time and it was just what I needed to get back into the holiday spirit! Thanks Tammy!

Paula’s Creamy Dreamy Hot Chocolate
1 can sweetened condensed milk (I used the fat free one)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of extract of your choice (vanilla, peppermint, or even orange would be yummy)
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 cups hot water

1. In a large sauce pan combine milk, cocoa, salt and extract with a whisk. Slowly pour in hot water and continue to whisk until combined. Heat with medium heat until warmed through but do not boil.

2. Serve with a liquor or mini marshmallows.

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I am so out of whack…I still feel like it is November even though I am surrounded by all things December. I literally did not know what the date was when I took an order today, I was lucky to know the day (even though I thought it was Monday until about lunchtime.) I am closing the bakery every day this week except Saturday and I am opening it that day at 6:30am. I need to bring my air mattress, it’s going to be a long two weeks. We are opening 6 days a week now until the end of the year and being that we are short staffed I will have to work everyday we are open. It’s not that I mind working- I really love it- I just don’t get to spend as much time with Evan and I don’t get to cook anything good for dinner. It’s either some crock pot concoction or an Evan creation, and the Evan creations have been far superior to my attempts. And the guest room is filled to the brim with presents that must be wrapped before we have guests over Thursday night. And somehow I have to squeeze in time to bake for a cookie exchange (which I am so excited about!) as well as two bridal showers! I am going to need lots of caffeine!

So needless to say I have less that inspired to cook anything worth posting about. So bare with me, I will post a few things here and there but hope to pick back up full speed after Christmas!

See…look how much my sweet Bella misses me…staring out the window…she is so cute!

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Damn you Food Network for giving me a craving for waffles, and Evan for that matter. The hubby and I were watching “The Secret Life of Waffles” this weekend and we both got a serious hankering for some Belgian waffles. But not for breakfast…for dessert!

So it made complete sense to us to run to the grocery store after we worked out and buy Nutella and marshmallows so we could make some S’more Waffles. Yep, a warm waffle, a slathering of Nutella (you can see Evan’s fondness of this product) a jumbo marshmallow, ice cream and whipped cream. Ok Evan added the last two ingredients just for kicks. I opted for a more subdued waffle with coffee ice cream and whipped cream. These were out of this world. It was so easy to make a quick half recipe of waffles in our handy dandy waffle iron then topping with whatever. And Evan has waffles leftover for breakfast now…hopefully sans the heap of Nutella.

This would be so fun to do when friends come over. Like making your own sundaes but with waffles!

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So two of my fellow foodie bloggers, Alicat from Something So Clever and Sara from i like to cook have developed an awesome idea for all of us that love to cook and collect cookbooks, the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. I don’t have nearly as many cookbook as some of these ladies do, but I confess I don’t use mine very much. I am much more into finding recipes online and sticking them in my gigantic, overflowing binder. Yet I do enjoying flipping through my few cookbooks for ideas and inspiration while the hubby is watching sports.

So this week’s challenge is to pull out our oldest cookbook, either oldest by copyright date or the one we have had the longest and make something new out of it. I have once again turned to my cookbook bible, the All New Good Housekeeping Cookbook from 1991. It’s not really new anymore, it isn’t even printed anymore, yet I do love all 831 pages of it.

I was actually going to buy this cookbook for one of my room mates in college for her birthday. She wasn’t the best cook and I figured this book covered just about every basic recipe you would ever want. It covers every type of meat, fruit, bread, cheese, appetizer, drink and jam you could imagine and then some. I was flipping through it in the store and just could not bare to give it to her. She wouldn’t appreciate such a gem, so I kept it for myself

I have all sorts of post it notes and other recipes sticking out of it. The pages for foccacia and lemon poppyseed pound cake are so sticky and stained and wrinkled from the many times I have made these recipes. It is my all time go to book for recipes.

So with that being said I had a hard time choosing a recipe to make. I am trying to make more unique dinner and not so many desserts so that narrowed it down to about 10 chapters. I bought a rotisserie chicken this morning but it was plain so it needed to be spruced up. I found the recipe for Apricot Glazed Chicken and figured this simple glaze would be perfect over the chicken. I am in love with anything with apricots though funny enough I have only had them dried or in preserves, maybe next summer. I will leave you with the recipe in it’s entirety yet I only made the glaze then slathered it over the chicken while it reheated at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. The glaze was awesome and easy and even the hubby liked it!

Apricot Glazed Chicken

1/3 cup apricot preserves
1 tablespoon chili sauce
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large bone in chicken breasts

1. Preheat over to 425 degrees. In small bowl combine first 4 ingredients. Arrange chicken in 13×9 inch baking dish and brush with glaze.

2. Bake, brushing occasionally with glaze, until chicken is tender and juices run clear, about 25-30 minutes.

PS- Only 338 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving! Eat up!

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