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!

Sunday Dinner: Penne a la Vodka

This Sunday night Anne and I made simple and tasty Penne a la Vodka. We made it just for the two of us as we'd all already eaten free BBQ earlier in the day, but this would be the perfect recipe to serve up to a big group of friends. We think there was just a little something-something missing from the final product- the sauce needed some extra spice. It was still totally delicious, but not as exciting as it could be. Ideas?

You will need:

1 lb penne pasta

6 cloves of garlic

28 oz crushed tomatoes

1 cup heavy or light cream

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vodka

Sprinkle of crushed red pepper

Grated Parmesan cheese

Parsley

[Adapted from http://aprondays.blogspot.com/2011/09/whole-wheat-penne-with-vodka-tomato.html]

Combine the oil, salt, pepper and garlic in a pan. Before garlic starts to brown, add tomatoes and some chopped parsley and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down and let it simmer. Meanwhile, boil water for pasta and cook penne. Once the pasta is cooked, combine it with the red sauce. Still on the heat add the vodka, then the cream. Keep stirring (and tasting) for a while. Add peas (optional) at the very end. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and a sprig or two of parsley. Eat way too much.

Serves 3-4, or more as a side dish.

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Can't resist a little taste before adding the vodka and cream:

 We highly recommend adding a large amount of peas to your pasta (we added a whole bag, and it was the best).

  Heart shaped ice cubes make water an extremely exciting beverage:

 

 

Quinoa Two Ways

 I swear this is the last pesto/tomato post from me for a while. But I have a giant bag of quinoa sitting in my cupboard and it just kept looking at me helplessly from its shelf, longing to be united with my leftover pesto.

Since this is my first time making quinoa, I decided to split the batch in half and try it two ways.  I ran quickly ran into my first dilemma. The package said to rinse the quinoa before you cook it. Because the quinoa is so small I initially ruled out the colander. Instead I tried tried an assortment of cups and bowls, and then in desperation a colander over a pot, which just turned into a giant mess. I just couldn't seem get that rinsing effect. By the end I think I had pretty much just drowned it before I gave up and threw it into the pot.

BUTTER AND GARLIC QUINOA:

This first recipe is the result of attempting to translate a plain pasta with a butter and garlic sauce into quinoa form. It was quite tasty, but definitely leaves a lot of room for experimentation! Next time I am going to try cooking the quinoa in vegetable or chicken stock instead of water in order to make it a little moister and add a little extra flavor.

 

You will need:

1 c. quinoa    

1-2 fresh tomatoes with basil (or try adding roasted veggies instead!)

2 cloves of garlic

Half of a small onion, finely chopped

Butter or olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Follow the cooking instructions on your bag of quinoa. Saute onions and garlic in butter or olive oil and add to the quinoa with the parmesan cheese. Remove from the heat, mix in the tomatoes and garnish with the basil. If it feels a little dry, try adding a little more olive oil or butter, or a little water, to loosen up the quinoa. 

Serves 3-4

PESTO QUINOA:

 

You will need:

1 c. quinoa

1 batch of Amy's Superfluously From Scratch: Basil Pesto

1-2 Tomatoes

Half of a small onion, finely chopped

Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Pine nuts (optional)

Follow the cooking instructions on your bag of quinoa. Saute onions in olive oil and add to the quinoa with the pesto. Remove from the heat, and mix in the tomatoes. Garnish with the parmesan cheese. YUM!  Try topping with some toasted pine nuts for an extra crunch!

Serves 3-4

Scrounging with Leftovers: Israeli Salad

Things that are good: buying ingredients that work for multiple dishes.This seems to be my theme of the week, and the great thing is that this gets you to do a lot of experimenting (and gets you the biggest bang for your buck!) 

Woes of a not-vastly stocked kitchen - everything is apparently red

Almond slivers instead of pine nuts? Well how about an almond pesto and toasting up the rest to use with the sauteed string beans. Tomatoes, basil and mozzarella? The possibilities are almost endless: paninis, caprese salad, classic pizza, pasta salad, and more, yum.

Originally I had wanted to use the leftover basil and mozzarella for an heirloom tomato salad (and since I now still have extra basil, I'm thinking marinara sauce later this week). I was hoping to find some gorgeous little red, yellow and orange tomatoes, perfect for the end of summer, at Shop and Stop, but sadly they don't seem to carry them. Plus I ran out of mozzarella after the pizza. So instead of the colorful tomatoes and creamy cheese, I substituted red onions, cucumbers and a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese (okay fine it was Kraft from a box, but you should freshly grate if you have the time!).

You will need:

Fresh Basil

Tomatoes (cherry or vine tomatoes work great!)

Red onions

Cucumbers - peeled and thickly chopped

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan (or maybe feta!) cheese (optional)

Chop the vegetables and toss in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with the chopped basil. (You can dice the salad more finely if you like, but I like to keep it on the chunkier side). If you can, refrigerate the salad for 30-60 minutes, this allows all the ingredients to blend together and really brings out the flavor, but if your pressed for time, Enjoy!

First Week Back: Basil Pesto Pizza

What better way to start the year off than to whip up a gigantic batch of pesto (think 6 packages of basil big) to store away for all those late studying nights when there's no time to make a fancy dinner. This is our first pesto recipe of what I'm sure will be many, and once you have your batch made up it's so easy to make!

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You will need:

1 cup of Amy's Superfluously from Scratch Basil Pesto

Pizza Dough - we used Pillsbury because it's fast (though mostly because it makes that fun POP when you open it) but bonus points if you make your own crust!

2-3 Tomatoes

Mozzarella Cheese - shredded or sliced

Extra Basil for Garnishing

Slice tomatoes and Mozzarella. Follow the instructions on your pre-made dough-of-choice package. (This usually involves pre-baking the crust for a few minutes before adding the toppings). For Pillsbury: preheat the oven to 400 degrees and pre-bake the crust for 8 minutes. Add the toppings and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes until the crust is lightly golden brown.

Garnish with fresh basil after it comes out of the oven (otherwise it will get all dried up). We completely forgot to do so because we were too busy salivating over how amazing it smelled

Half Almond, Half Pine Nut Pesto

Delicious both straight out of the oven and cold a day later!

Serves 3 really hungry people, or 4 if you have some veggies on the side 
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For something so simple, this pizza is unbelievably delicious. We actually made half the pizza with the almond and half with the pine nut pesto. Both were incredible. I swore after my first slice of almond pesto that I was never going back, but then I had a pine nut slice and, well, that resolution went out the window.

We had ours with green beans adapted from my new favorite cookbook, Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." We lightly steamed the beans, "shocked" them in ice water to stop the cooking, sauteed the onions and beans separately in oil and butter, and sprinkled leftover almond slivers on top.

Things we learned:

Make sure to keep your mozzarella refrigerated and cold until you use it! Otherwise it starts to melt, gets a little gooey and then leaks cheese water all over your pizza once it starts to cook in the oven! (Thankfully this was easily blotted up with a paper towel)

1 Day, 2 Cakes, 3 Birthdays

 

This is the summer of cakes! For my birthday in June I finally got to make my first layer cake: a basic, yet incredibly good chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. It was my first real soiree with making a cake from scratch, and while the cake was delicious, the frosting left a little to be desired. For Will’s birthday I made the same cake with a few minor alterations, and totally redeemed myself on the frosting front. It was a cake worthy of being eaten for breakfast (which of course it was…multiple times). (Chocolate Cake recipe coming soon!)

And now there are three more special birthdays! My wonderful sister, Emily, my lovely housemate, Alycia, and my blogging mate herself, Amy. The cake and decoration possibilities were almost too much to handle, but I decided to go BIG:

For my sister and her friends, who are all coming over for the Labor Day weekend, a 4-layer Chocolate Blackout Cake with a chocolate pudding filling, and a to-die for chocolate buttercream frosting (which my entire family is currently snacking on). And for Amy and Alycia, a 3-layer Carrot Cake with a full pound of carrots, and a sweet, cream cheese frosting.

The frostings

With all of the packing and last minute shopping to be done before going back to school on Sunday, I had a 24-hour window for cake making, so I divided and conquered. Last night was the frostings and fillings. The chocolate pudding for the Blackout Cake needs to cool for at least 4 hours in the fridge, so I thought I would let it sit overnight, bake the cakes in the morning and allow myself the bliss of decorating in the afternoon.

This morning I got up at 6:30 to bake the cakes. I’m actually only writing right now because I may have just blown out the pilot light in my stove while making the blackout cake and need to wait for my super-mom to wake up so she can rescue my baking venture. As romantic as it is to wake up with the sun and bake in your quiet, rosy house, I highly recommend saving the baking for when you are a little more awake. As I attempted to boil water, somehow not even half of it made it from the measuring cup into the pot; consequently flooding the burner and quenching the flame. But while I wait, here are the recipes!

CHOCOLATE BLACKOUT CAKE:

Adapted from The Week
 

This is a deeply indulgent and delicious cake. It might be the best chocolate cake ever. Creamy pudding layers with an oh so moist cake and insanely rich frosting; this is hands down a sure to impress Chef Ramsay recipe. My sister, her friends and my parents all fell in love at the first bite. Many sounds of unbelievability and taste-bud bliss were made. If you are like me, and spend hours of your life searching through blogs, recipes, and comments for the perfect version of a recipe, search no further. This is it. Thank goodness it is ridiculously rich, otherwise I would eat the whole cake. It's really that good.

*A traditional blackout cake is frosted with the same chocolate pudding used for the in-between  layers and covered with chocolate crumbs. As I was dying to make the buttercream frosting again, and it is easier to decorate with, I went for a less traditional (and overly indulgent) exterior.

Four chocolate layers smothered in pudding heaven

Chocolate Pudding Filling:

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup whole milk
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I recommend Baker’s, you get twice the chocolate for the price of Ghirardelli)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk sugar, cornstarch, salt, half-and-half, and milk in large saucepan. Set pan over medium heat. Add chocolate and whisk constantly until chocolate melts and mixture begins to bubble, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla and transfer pudding to large bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Cake:
1 stick unsalted butter
1-1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 c strong black coffee (or substitute 1 to 2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1c boiling water)
1 c buttermilk
1 c packed light brown sugar
1 c sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in cocoa and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Off heat, whisk in coffee, buttermilk, and sugars until dissolved. Whisk in eggs and vanilla, then slowly whisk in flour mixture. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool layers in pans 15 minutes, then invert onto wire rack. Cool to room temperature, at least 1 hour.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

(makes about 2 cups) – I had to make a second batch to finish making all the rosettes

1 stick butter

2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Melt the butter. Stir in the cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla.

Practice rosettes

Assembly:

Cut each cake in half horizontally. I like to do this by using a piece of thread: hold each end, and starting at the side of the cake opposite you. Pull the thread slowly towards you, slicing the cake in two. Use a knife to help you lift the top layer off.

 

You can either make a 3-layer cake and crumble one layer into medium crumbs to set aside for decorating, or use all the layers to make a 4-layer cake. If using the crumbs, sprinkle evenly over top and sides of cake, pressing lightly so crumbs adhere. 

Refrigerate for up to 2 days, serves 8-10

 

CARROT CAKE:

Recipe adapted from http://redstartolonestar.blogspot.com/2012/08/carrot-cake.html

Fresh from the oven

This cake is as unbelievably delicious as the blackout cake. There are a few dishes in this world where, with each new bite, you cannot actually believe how good what you are eating is; every bite is like a revelation. This recipe is one of those. It's so moist and light, with just the right amount of sweetness and crunch, you simply cannot go wrong. And it is much easier to prepare than the blackout cake!

Carrot Cake:

2 c sugar

1 1/2 c vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

3 c finely grated carrots (about 1 lb) (make sure you buy big, thick carrots, it makes grating much easier)

1 c pecans, chopped (if you have extra use them for garnishing!)

* add raisins or coconut for a little something extra!

  

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter and flour (or spray) three 9-inch pans. Using an electric mixer, combine sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Sift dry ingredients into the mixture and mix until incorporated. Mix in carrots and pecans. Divide batter evenly between pans, bake about 45 min, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let sit in the pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

(I used three 8-inch pans, and they cooked for about 30 minutes)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

About 3 c powdered sugar

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

1-2 tsp vanilla extract

Blend all the frosting ingredients with an electric mixer. Because Cream Cheese frosting can be so sweet, how much powdered sugar you add is up to your personal preference, the more you add, the tamer it will become, add 1 cup at a time and taste-taste until it clicks!

*For a Maple Cream Cheese Frosting add ¼ c Maple syrup instead of the vanilla extract

Keep Refrigerated

About 8 hours, four massive kitchen cleanings, two grocery store runs, and one extra frosting batch later (plus an extra shower to scrub all the chocolate off me) I’m done! It was utter chaos but I loved every second of it. These are my first two hard-core decorated cakes and I couldn’t be prouder! Happy Birthday to my bestest friend and sister! And Happy Birthday Amy and Alycia, here's to starting off a sweet senior year!

New Orleans-Style Jambalya

I'm all for making dinner from as close scratch as possible, but let's face it sometimes a mix is just too perfect to pass up. Zatarain's is a New Orleans institution, and since I brought this mix back from the Big Easy itself I think it's okay. (You can also find it at Stop & Shop...) 

This tiny box has kept me in lunches for about 6 days-- it's just as good heated up. It's also incredibly cheap- just about $2 for the mix, and $6 for these sausages.

There are literally three steps to this dish. All the specific instructions are on the box.

1. Slice the sausage:

2. Boil the water and oil on the stove:

3. Pour the mix and sausages into the pot. Cook. Dunzo. 

(Look at our cute little Tabasco pot holder, also from New Orleans!)

Served with french bread and salad (with oil and white wine vinegar...not a big fan of balsamic). It is freaking delicious. You can also put chicken or shrimp in it, but I like the sausage because it's pre-cooked. Meat protein without having to deal with raw meat = the best.