Chocolate Covered Strawberries for Christmas

The blog has returned! After a month-long break from both blogging and cooking (well cooking anything that wasn't rice in a box) for the sake of my thesis, and an entire week of post-finals sleep, I'm back in the kitchen! Here is a deliciously simple recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries to ease back into things (and procrastinate from the job hunt). Only 2 ingredients required, and I bet you can guess what they are!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Ingredients:
Nestle's Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
Strawberries

Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Melt chocolate chips using a double broiler, stirring constantly. Turn down the heat and swirl the strawberries around in the chocolate until coated. Place on the wax paper and refrigerate until ready to eat (let them come to room temperature for a few minutes before serving.) Or eat them right out of the pot!

Jazz them up by drizzling melted dark or white chocolate on top, or adding sprinkles, crushed nuts, or other candies!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

While this bread was delicious, next time I am going to try a simpler recipe. Quick breads just shouldn't require five bowls to prepare the ingredients. This is definitely a spend more time cleaning up than baking recipe, and while it was wonderful, it didn't quite justify all the extra work.

Special thanks to Alycia for lending me her fancy camera!

First Snowstorm: Easy Carrot and Ginger Soup

This recipe is perfect in every way. It's healthy, creamy, tastes like Fall, and, most importantly, so simple to make. Even better, the forty-minute wait is the perfect amount of time to let you catch up on the latest episode of your favorite show! (How is the Downton Abbey finale already here?)

{Recipe Adapted from http://www.simplecomfortfood.com/2011/01/17/carrot-soup/}

You will need:

2 large yellow onions, diced

2 pounds of carrots, peeled, and roughly chopped

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

2 tbsp unsalted butter

6 cups of chicken stock (or vegetable)

2 tbsp ginger,

1/2-1 cup of light cream (or 2% milk)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper

Add the butter, onion, carrots, garlic and ginger to a large soup pot and cook for about 8 minutes. Add in the stock, bring to a boil and then lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer for about 40 minutes.

Use a hand blender or toss the mixture into a blender/food processor to puree the soup. Then add in the pepper and cream to your liking (add the cream in slowly and taste as you go, I only needed about 1/2 a cup. Top with Parmesan Cheese. Enjoy!

Halloweekend: Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

I first made these cupcakes with a friend last year in Copenhagen out of our mutual, hopeless love for all things fall. Of course when you are living in a foreign country for a short time, there is a lack of things kitchen-gadgety. But not even a dearth of muffin tins could keep us from this cupcake recipe. Driven by a passion for pumpkin our clever ingenuity led us to putting all our cupcake wrappers in a baking pan, ultimately leaving us with flat little amoeba cupcakes. #StudyAbroadProblems

Of course they were still the most delicious cupcakes in the world. It was sworn never to be repeated how many of those cupcakes we ate, but I’m pretty sure they were all gone by the next morning. Addictive. The maple cream cheese frosting is a must. You will die a glorious fall-scented death.

{Recipe Courtesy http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/11/pumpkin-cupcakes/}

Cupcakes:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing pans
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with 18 liners.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl.

Add the eggs 1 at a time to the sugar/butter mixture, scraping down the sides after each addition. Then, alternate adding in the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the pumpkin until smooth.

Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners so they are about ¾ of the way full.

Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on racks completely.

Frosting:
Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy.

Makes 18 cupcakes

 

  HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Last Night of Break: Mac and Cheese

This recipe has it all folks, 20 glorious ounces of cheese, crunchy shallots, warm nutmeg, baked crispy breadcrumbs on top and ooey-gooey sizzling hot stringy cheese underneath. We ate this with snowpeas cooked in the cheesy remnants of the pasta. It served the two of us and three of our friends with no leftovers, but it would have been lovely to have leftovers!

I dare you not to eat this. We waited a good 20 minutes for our friends to show up, and we did not manage to avoid pulling pieces of pasta out and having a "pre-dinner snack."

{Recipe Adapted from http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/03/four-cheese-baked-skillet-rigatoni/}

While the original recipe calls four cheeses, buying too much cheese can get rather expensive for us college kids (just realized my campus research assistant job pays me a whopping 10 cents above minimum wage). Instead, we recommend just using two cheese, the Cheddar and the Fontina, and then adding in any extra fresh Parmesan you have lying around at home, which gives the dish an nice sharpness. We have made it both ways, and Parmesan version is just unbelievable.

Three Cheese Baked Skillet Rigatoni

serves 4-6

1 pound mini rigatoni pasta

1 shallot, diced

2 garlic cloves, mince

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

5 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

8 ounces freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese

8 ounces freshly grated fontina cheese

4oz Parmesan cheese (roughly)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grate cheeses, placing them together in a large bowl. Boil water and prepare pasta according to directions, cooking for 3-4 minutes less than called-for time.

Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add in olive oil and butter, then throw in shallots with a pinch of salt. Stir to coat and cook for 2-3 minutes, until soft. Add in garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add flour to the skillet then whisk constantly to create a roux. Let cook for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Pour in milk, stirring continuously for another 1-2 minutes. 

Add in almost all of the grated cheeses, reserving about 1/2 cup for the topping. Stir continuously until mixture thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, then taste-test (this is the most important step - make sure you taste it again...and then again with a rigatoni or three...). Add pasta to the skillet and toss thoroughly to coat.

(If your skillet is not oven safe - transfer mixture to a large baking dish) Sprinkle the top of the mixture with remaining cheeses and breadcrumbs. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until top is golden brown and bubbly. Enjoy!

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes

You know your stress level has reached a dangerous point when you start consuming more than one box of Double Chocolate Milano’s per week. For the first few weeks of school I would run out the night before our weekly Sunday grocery store run, then buy a new box and be set for the week. Now I’m out by Thursdays (we all have our vices). Clearly that double chocolate layer just wasn’t doing it. Thus enters the ultimate chocolate molten lava cake.

This time I cut the recipe down for two people (since between the two of us we could probably almost finish all four of them in a day). Cutting recipes is always a tricky feat when you have an odd number of eggs, so I just whisked together two eggs and then spooned out a little bit into the trash, but I bet it would still work if you just used either 1 or 2 eggs. 

It's sinful how easy to make these are. You will want to make them everyday. Don't.

Vanilla ice-cream is completely necessary.

 

[Recipe from http://deliciousshots.blogspot.com/2010/12/chocolate-molten-cake.html]

You will need:

8oz Bittersweet chocolate

8 Tbls butter (1 stick)

3 eggs

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c flour

1 tsp vanilla

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Generously butter four 6 ounce ramekins. Place the prepared molds on a baking sheet and set aside.

Melt the chocolates and butter in a double boiler. Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until pale, about two minutes, then beat in the vanilla. Stir in the egg mixture into the chocolate and then add the flour, mix well.

Divide the batter among the prepared ramekins and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, the edges should be firm and set but the center will still look a little wet. 

Chocolatey goodness? Meet ice-cream mountain.

Your life needs this right now:

 

High Tea in TA Fifty-Three

For the British premiere of the third season of Downton Abbey, we hosted a tea party complete with homemade scones and fancy jams in Amy's apartment. We attempted 3 types of scones: plain, blueberry, and pumpkin. The recipe for the plain/blueberry scones was a bit of a failure (everything ended up tasting fine, but it was all a bit wonky as the Brits would say). The recipe for Anne's pumpkin scones is below, and until we sort out the kinks with the others you'll just have to satisfy yourself with these tasty pictures.

Can we please just take a moment to appreciate Maggie Smith as Lady Grantham?

(image courtesy http://twicsy.com/i/bLYRrc)

Fancy Teas, courtesy of Anne's amazing sister

Classy saucers and cake platters

 It's authentic guys.

 

Pumpkin Scones:

[Recipe Adapted from http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/PumpkinScones.htm]

You will need:

2 1/4 c flour
1/4 c firmly-packed light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (with no additional spices)
1/3 cup milk
1 egg 

1/3 to 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease a large baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. With a pastry blender, two knives, or my favorite method, your fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture until you get a crumb-like consistency; stir in raisins (optional)

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, 1/3 cup milk, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. stir just until mixed. (I know it's tempting, but don't over mix the batter or you will get tough scones!)

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet (be careful not to pat down the edges, they should be rough so they form nice layers). Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. 

~*~Serve with fancy teas and swoon over Matthew Crawley as you watch Downton Abbey~*~

Makes about 10 scones

(image courtesy http://twicsy.com/i/bLYRrc)

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

There is something about bake sales that requires a perfect chocolate and peanut butter cookie. These delightful little cookies will be irresistible to your stressed-out friends attempting to survive midterms week. They are actually quite possibly the absolute best peanut butter cookies I have ever had, with just the right amount of peanut and slightly melted chocolatey flavor. 

While I usually stick to smooth peanut butter for my cookies, this time I used chunky and am never going back, it just gives the cookies a little something extra. And after four hours of Procrastination Baking for our Habitat Bake sale we raised a lot! Thank you to everyone who helped support us! Look out for our next bake sale during finals!

 

[Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Adapted from http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/12/peanut-butter-cookies/]

 You will need:

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c chunky peanut butter
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbls whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

extra sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Add in the flour mixture and beat thoroughly.

Place sprinkling sugar on a plate. Create rounded teaspoonfuls of dough, lightly roll them in the sugar and place onto cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately after they are removed from the oven press a Hershey’s kiss into the center of each cookie.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Rigatoni Bolognese

What says Fall better than a steaming pot of something beefy and delicious? This bolognese sauce is the perfect dish to warm up your cold toes (or, you know, to procrastinate finishing your thesis outline and annotated bibliography due tomorrow).  

[Adapted from: http://kitchentrialanderror.blogspot.com/2011/03/giadas-quick-bolognese-and-gnocchi.html]

Prep Time: 45 minutes

You will need:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 celery stalks, diced

4 carrots, diced

1 lb ground beef

28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

1/4 c parsley, chopped

1/4 c fresh basil, chopped

1/4 c freshly grated  parmesan cheese plus more for serving (a lot more)

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onion starts to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the celery and carrots and cook until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the meat and cook until no longer pink, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, and basil. cover and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook about 30 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and stir in the cheese

Serves 4-5 (but I highly recommend putting some aside for sloppy joes the next day...)

Midnight Biscuits

Sometimes you have a long and stressful week and you just need biscuits. If this is your situation, you need these incredibly soft, garlicky, flaky, golden, crispy and delicious biscuits. While I'm usually a little intimidated by trying to make pastries and flaky doughs that rise in gorgeous layers of buttery deliciousness, these are incredibly easy and yield fantastic results. If you can do laundry you can make these; the trick is all in the folding and stacking!

[Recipe Adapted from http://singaporeshiok.blogspot.sg/2012/09/stacked-garlic-biscuits.html#.UF_407LiZ9s&disp=181389]

You will need:

3 c flour

2 tsp cream of tartar and 1 tsp baking soda

     OR substitute 3 tsp baking powder instead of both

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

     OR substitute about 1.25 tsp salt and .25 tsp garlic powder

1 stick (1/2 c) cold firm butter

1 c cold milk (do not use buttermilk if using the cream of tartar)  

Preheat oven to 460 F and grease your baking tray
 
Whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda (or just the baking powder), sugar and garlic salt.
Cut in butter with a pastry blender/knives/finger tips until you forms large, course crumbs

Pour in milk and stir mixture together with a spatula only until the flour is moistened and mixture starts to come together - don't over-mix and don't knead the dough!

Turn the rough dough out onto a lightly floured board or work top and flatten slightly. Fold mixture into thirds and pat into a thick rectangle. Cut across into two squares and stack one on the other.

Pat down and out into a 1 in thick rectangle then cut into 12 squares with a sharp knife. Transfer biscuits to tray, putting them close together, and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 410 F and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Enjoy your midnight biscuits! (and then enjoy them again for breakfast)

Makes 12 biscuits

Two House Mushroom Risotto

Like our Penne a la Vodka, this is a wonderful recipe for two house-fulls of hungry housemates (just make sure you double all the ingredients). It is also a perfect dish for Thursday nights when you can polish off the white wine (and maybe a bottle of red) guilt-free as you cook!

The only ingredient that got photographed before we started cooking

This recipe was also a very happy accident. The original recipe called for sauteing the mushrooms and then removing them, adding them back in only at the last minute. I had made it once before this way, and it was delicious but the flavor wasn't quite mushroomy enough. After accidentally forgetting to take out the mushrooms, they cooked with the risotto the entire time, and it created the most incredible flavor. This risotto is unbelievably creamy and delicious, and will make you feel like you are back at home, curled up with a cozy blanket and your favorite book.

You will need:

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup of Arborio rice

1/2 cup of dry white wine

4 cups of low sodium chicken broth

3 tbsp of butter

thinly sliced white mushrooms (10-12)

3 tbsp of parsley or chives

1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan

salt and pepper

[Recipe Adapted from http://www.lepetitogre.com/2011/11/mushroom-risotto.html]

In a medium sauce pan bring chicken broth to a simmer then reduce the heat and keep warm. 

In a large sauce pan on medium-high melt butter till foamy, then add mushrooms and cook until soft. Add the olive oil, onions and garlic, leaving the temperature at medium high. Cook for a few minutes and then add the rice, stirring to coat with the oil. Once you've cooked the rice for a minute or so add in the white wine and stir until evaporated. 

Pour 1/2 cup of chicken stock into the sauce pan and stir constantly until broth is absorbed into the rice. Once absorbed, pour in another 1/2 cup, and stir until absorb, gradually repeat this step 1/2 cup at a time until all the broth is gone and rice is tender and creamy (about 20-25 minutes). When the last cup of broth is added stir in the parsley. Remember to stir constantly to allow the rice to release all it's starch.

Once all the broth is absorbed remove from heat and stir in Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. 

 Serves 3-4

Onions make everything better

Creamy and delicious!