banana coconut muffins!

i was aiming for another breakfasty muffin, but this one is way more like a cupcake, so i felt obligated to dress them up with a cream cheese icing..

for the cakes:
creamed together 1 1/3 c. sugar and 1 c. melted butter. added 2 eggs, 4 mashed bananas and 1 teas. vanilla. mixed in the dry stuff- 2 1/2 c. ap flour, 2 teas. baking powder, 1/2 teas. salt. i added enough coconut that the batter was spiked with it. about a cup of chopped pecans and a few handfuls of golden raisins.

for the icing:
8 oz. package of cream cheese and 1/4 c. butter at room temp. powdered sugar and vanilla. i use a wonderful vanilla bean paste- it leaves flecks of the bean in the white icing. yum. mixed until smooth and creamy.

smear the icing on the cakes and roll the tops in more coconut. a really nice sweet treat that goes down so nice with morning coffee!

believe it!

this is my friend, bill's food blog. his is far superior to mine, as he is a much more adventurous cook. he also takes better pictures and is a better writer. i hope that you guys will follow his blog too! i do, for inspiration and for appetite stimulation!

http://billievethat.wordpress.com/

comfort food

i'm a little behind on the blogging. this is from just about two weeks ago. a super rich mac and cheese. turns out we were carb loading for the home stretch...

cleaned up a bunch of chard. tore the stems from the leaves and blanched them separately. boiled the pasta in the same salty water.

meanwhile, i softened a bunch of onions and garlic in butter. chopped up the chard stems and did those too. made a roux in the same pan using about the same amount of flour that i had started with in butter, maybe about 1/2 c. once the roux had cooked a bit, i added about 2 c. milk and whisked everything together. at this point, you just wanted to be heating the milk- not letting it boil, so i took things off the heat and let the pan do the warming. added three kinds of cheese- smokey gouda, swiss and some manchego. i let all this melt into a sauce and poured it over the pasta.

in the casserole, i layered the cheesy pasta with the chard leafs. and topped the whole thing off with my new favorite breadcrumbs! (ran stale bread thru the processor and toasted in olive oil and garlic, then tossed with fresh parsley). baked the whole thing for about a half hour and it was soooo good.

sunshine and sad

i am just now today, on thursday, starting to realize what this means for me. i am sure that it will hit harder at different points along the way, but today, after all my friends are gone and things are starting to return to a bit of a daily routine, i am feeling how big it is that i can't call her and tell her all about the past weekend. about how many people came out to love on her and me and our family.

i have a hard time feeling so sad about this. i have a tendency to go down down down when i feel sad, and i am trying to make a conscious effort to stay alive and kicking and not to let myself go there. i guess i will have to heat up my new favorite thing ever! and cook myself happy.

cran/raspberry sorbet

getting back into a little bit of frozen sweet fun.. used some fresh cranberries from the holidays. cooked in sugar, pureed and strained. added an equal amount of raspberry puree, some fresh ginger, zest and juice from one orange, chambord liqueur and orange bols, a few sprigs of rosemary and let it hang tight overnight. before churning, i strained all the stuff and added a bit of simple syrup, then churned.

white beans: 2 of 2

so now i have cassoulet for days! as i did everything the long way, this took about four days to complete, i'll go through the different stages.. but let me start with: its so good and worth every step!

-BEANS! as i mentioned earlier, i soaked dried white beans (the cannellini kind) overnight with water covering. the next day, i stewed the beans in stock with lots of chopped onions, garlic cloves, a bouquet of herbs- parsley and rosemary- that's what i had. and also tossed in some dried thyme, crushed red flakes, a few cloves, quite a bit of salt and pepper. it took about two hours for the beans to be soft and flavorful.

-DUCK CONFIT! the next day i walked my self over to findlay market in hopes of finding somebody selling duck. i'd only ever bought duck at jungle jims and i've been trying to stay closer to home lately... so i was very please when i checked in with my old culinary school bud at luken's poultry fish and seafood stand. he hooked a girl up with the whole bird. i got home with it and butchered it into breasts, legs and wings. roasted the chunks. i guess technically not a confit- as i didn't use supplementary duck fat, but i'll tell you that the bird gave off a huge amount on its own and was quickly cooking away in a very clear, pungent fat. yum. made duck stock of the cavity, bones, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, herbs. reserved the fat. (breakfast today was red potatoes roasted in the duck fat. genius) after cooking and cooling, i chopped the breasts into smaller chunks and added to the beans.

-SAUSAGE! used a nice sausage that turned out to be pretty full of fennel, which i think is a wonderful quality in sausage. cooked them in the oven along side the duck. after cooling, i chopped and added to the beans.

-CASSEROLE! ladled the beans, sausage and duck into a casserole. topped with breadcrumbs- which deserve their own section. so easy and going to be a part of every casserole i ever make from now on:

-BREADCRUMBS!!! warmed duck fat on the stovetop. lightly toasted about 3 cloves of garlic. then i added about 3 c. of breadcrumbs. the loaf of bread i was working with was soooo stale that i was able to just shave off crumbs. added those to the garlic and fat and browned. seasoned with lots of salt, pepper, flakes and fresh chopped parsley.

with everything assembled in the dish, it just took about one hour at 350 to bake this guy to perfection. so rich and hearty and perfect for winter. wonderful side effects- stock and leftovers.

bananer muffins

made a few changes to my old standby- morning glory muffins. i didn't have apples or carrots, but i had some bananas in the freezer. swapped 3 bananers for the 1 apple and 2 c. carrots that i usually shred. seems like perfect substitution!

white beans: 1 of 2

this week i have been working on a great big cassoulet adventure. after the beans were done soaking and boiling in broth with bouquet garni, lots of onions, garlic cloves, etc- i fished some out and put over pasta. thru in some other stuff i had laying around- goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, rosemary, balsamic and lots of pepper flakes.

cheapo

heating water for this hydrated noodle business.. quick steamed the broccoli first, then brought the noodles back to life with the water. lots of sriracha and i think that i felt warm for the first time all week.

curry rice with kale

green peppers, jalapenos, onions, garlic sauteed. kale steamed in salty water. rice blend hydrated. almonds toasted. mixed it all together using the kale water to juice things up. seasoned with lots of curry powder and paprika.

the next night (in an effort to get excited about these leftovers) i made a quesadilla out of this mess. used pepper jack cheese and a tomatillo salsa and a mound of the rice. turned out tasting similar to a dilla from the comet with curry salsa. so not bad at all.

grilled cheese

there are a few things that i boast about being good at. one is rollerskating/blading and the other is making grilled cheese. you are probably better at everything else in the world. i'll let you have that.

having soup and grilled cheese on a cold day is the best. the soup has onions, leeks, garlic, shallots softened in butter, thickened with a bit of flour. add lots of water and potatoes and salt and cook till everything is soft. then i add a touch of cream.

the secret to the grilled cheese is BUTTER!

and i am starting to feel selfconscious about my winter eating habits. so i'm going to stop there.

turkey stock

this picture cracks me up, didn't get a good one from this batch with all the steam. i guess it is a shout out to my neighbor across the hall who reports "phantoms" in our building...

used the carcass from the holiday to make a really great stock. all the bones, carrots, onions, celery and garlic. with some random herbs. simmered on the stove for a few hours and strained. chilled overnight, actually over a few nights- then strained off the layer of fat that hardened over the top. used the stock to make soup. carrots, celery, leeks, potatoes, pine nuts and the really thick tongue coating stock. i used lots of basil, thyme and pepper.

curry

been cooking in december, i promise. i know it doesn't look like it on here- but its true. resulting from this past month's life shake-up, i have become a proud city dweller. i figured if i was going to stay put in these parts, i needed to be in my own space. i hadn't really expected to land in OTR, but have been loving being downtown. and you would think that i would be missing my mom's kitchen, but i have been pleasantly surprised by the workability of my kitchen. open storage, gas stove and a dishwasher! with the centerpiece being the butcher's block table that alaina helped me salvage from findlay market.

a huge part of the equation for having an apartment while not being fully employed has been trying to cook on a budget and to eat all my damn leftovers! i have always cooked for an army and not always been too keen on eating the same thing, day after day. but it is funny how being in my place and knowing if i heat up this curry again, i'll be able to pay my rent!

over jasmine rice (with peas mixed in, heavy on the peas!). onions, garlic, jalapenos sauteed in a hearty bit of butter. while steaming red potatoes, cauliflower, brussels, and carrots. tossed it all together with coconut milk, thai red curry paste, chili sauce, tons of hot curry powder salt and pepper. and more peas!