Light & Delicious Gingerbread Cookies

I've always liked the idea of gingerbread cookies but never cared much for actual gingerbread cookies - they always taste heavy with molasses and too strongly spiced with cloves for my liking.  When Rebecca asked me to make cookies for her kindergarten class (after a minor baking cataclysm deprived them of cookies the week before) I went on the prowl for a recipe that might make cookies that tasted delicious instead of like somebody working in the clove industry came up with them.

Using the awesome snowflake cutter the Fords bought us, long ago

 

2 large ginger-men, a snowflake, and a S for Sydney!

 

Final product.  A delicious, unique, and beautiful snowflake.

Dry Team:
3 cups all purpose flour (plus additional for work surface / rolling pin / etc.)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Team:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses

whisk together the dry team in a mixing bowl and set aside.  In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until well combined.  Add the molasses and continue mixing until thoroughly integrated.  Working in batches, add the dry team and stir together on low until all ingredients are mixed.  You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water if the dough is having trouble coming together.  Cover the dough and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Working on a well floured surface, roll the dough out to ~1/4 inch thickness and cut into your desired shapes.  Bake for 7-10 minutes and allow to cool before decorating (or devour, warm, as is.)  Makes ~30 small ginger-men or about 36 small cookies.

The cookies taste almost bland at first but have a wonderful gingery taste with a hint of clove and cinnamon in harmony.  They received universal acclaim in our household, as well as in Rebecca's classroom.

Best Sauteed Zucchini

This recipe is from a Jamie Oliver cookbook my friends the Foxes gave me for Christmas a few years back.  It has a lot of really interesting recipes in it (although unfortunately, a fair number of them require ingredients that are hard to come by in Central Texas, or at least at reasonable prices)

Rebecca asks me to make this all the time.  It's absurdly quick and easy, and a big serving of the resulting dish has something like 75 calories, so bon appetit!

Hardware
Big non-stick skillet or saute pan
Mandoline slicer (if you have one)
Medium mixing bowl
Colander (optional)

Software
4-6 zucchini squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch red pepper flake
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and black pepper to taste

Slice the zucchini evenly into thin (1/16th inch) slices - this is quick and easy if you have a mandoline or something similar.  Toss in the mixing bowl with the red pepper flake and garlic, set aside.

Heat the oil in your pan over medium-high heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add the zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to lightly brown around the edges (4-5 minutes.)

Add the butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until most of the juice has cooked off and the zucchini is browned and cooked through (3-4 minutes)

Season with salt to taste and serve hot.

Interesting pro tip:  if you have time, you can improve the texture and flavor of the final product considerably by 'koshering' the zucchini.  After slicing them, place in a colander and toss with a couple of heavy pinches of kosher salt.  Let rest for at least 15 minutes (30 is better) then rinse and pat dry.  The salt will pull a lot of the moisture out of the zucchini, making the final product much tastier.

Red Beans and Rice

Another recipe courtesy of Alton Brown - this one is healthy and delicious.  Its flavors improve significantly after cooking - it's actually best if you make it, store it in the fridge for 2 days, then reheat and serve.  Not that it's bad right out of the pot...

If you don't want to make homemade pickled pork to go in your beans you can use a pound of andouille sausage instead, but it won't be as good  :)  Technically you can also use bacon but if you're going to go that route, I prefer the sweet smokiness of the Baked Bean.

Hardware:
Large dutch oven or stock pot
knife and cutting board

Software:
1 lb red beans, rinsed and picked over for rocks
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 large bell peppers, seeded and cored, diced
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
12 -16 ounces homemade pickled pork (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon tabasco sauce (or similar)
additional salt and black pepper to taste

Add a splash of vegetable oil to your pot and place over medium-high heat.  Add the celery, onion, bell pepper and salt and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes.  Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover.  Cook covered for 90 minutes or until the beans are tender, then continue cooking uncovered until desired consistency is reached.  You can use a potato masher or immersion blender to help speed along this process. 

Serve over warm white rice with extra tabasco sauce for those who like it hot.

Homemade Pickled Pork (shockingly easy)

Hardware:
saucepan
zip top bag
plastic bin for containment

Software
1-2 lbs pork shoulder (aka boston butt) cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon celery seed
dozen black peppercorns


Bring all ingredients except the pork to a boil in your saucepan.  Kill the heat and add ~2 cups ice.  Once cooled, place your pork shoulder in the zip-top bag and pour the pickling solution over it.  Press as much air as possible out of the bag and close.  Store in the refrigerator (turning occasionally) for a minimum of 2 days and a maximum of 2 weeks (after that, you can drain off the solution and freeze it)

Scratch Buttermilk Pancakes

Never made pancakes before. I have a vague memory of my mom making little 'silver dollar' pancakes occasionally when I was a child, but as an adult I've never been much of a pancake eater and as such I've never bothered to try making them.

So why did I make them, then? That's a long story involving the lovely and thoughtful Mrs. Ford and my picky-eating, stubborn son John.

John only likes to eat carbs. Pop tarts if he can get them, bread/crackers/goldfish if he can't. The only things I cook that he will regularly eat are homemade pizza and homemade bread (I'm not counting desserts like chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes here, obviously...) Lots of evenings if I have made something that I think the kids ought to eat (pasta, rice, lentils, beans, etc.) John goes to bed with no dinner because he refuses to even try a bite of any of the above things.

The Fords came over for dinner this most recent Saturday and got to see the sad sight of John morosely glaring at a plate of buttered tagliatelle while the rest of us feasted on said tagliatelle with meatballs and roasted tomato sauce. When Rebecca pointed out that he really only like breakfast foods Mrs. Ford replied 'we used to eat breakfast foods for dinner sometimes as kids.'

The next day I was pondering dinner options (and honestly, planning on leftover meatballs for me!) and I remembered what Mrs. Ford said. Then I remembered recently reading a Good Eats recipe for scratch buttermilk pancakes (ironically from a cookbook that the Fords gave me for Christmas) and I decided to see whether or not flipping pancakes is really that hard. (the answer, by the way, is 'no, not really') Sydney was as usual a big help - she did much of the mixing and stirring (and egg cracking) and got to enjoy the final product too.



The below recipe can be scaled up or down as you see fit; made as written, it will make about a dozen medium-sized pancakes. You can also make a big batch of the dry team and store it for months in an airtight container if you want to save some time for future pancake making.

Dry Team (aka homemade pancake mix)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar

Wet Team
2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, separated

Whisk together the dry team in a large mixing bowl, set aside. Mix the egg whites with the buttermilk and the egg yolks with the melted butter, then combine. Pour the wet team into the dry team and stir to combine - don't overmix, the batter should be somewhat lumpy. If it looks too thick add a splash more buttermilk to loosen it (it should be thicker than cake batter but thinner than brownie batter, if that makes sense.)

Heat a non-stick skillet or a griddle pan over medium heat. You want a cooking temperature of about 350 degrees, which should cause a drop of water to dance on the pan. Lube the pan with a rub of butter or spray of oil and pour a ladle of batter into the center of the pan. They should set up fast - when the edges start to pull away from the pan and bubbles have formed around the top edge, use a large spatula to flip the pancake and cook until the other side is golden brown. For me this was faster than I expected (I burned the first one, and slightly overcooked the second one) - each side only took about 2 minutes. Serve immediately or remove to a warm (200 degree) oven covered with a towel while you make the rest.

Serve with real-deal grade A amber maple syrup (in one of those weird synchronisity moments, this was ALSO a gift from the Fords) and maybe a hint of butter.

So what did John think? He devoured two of them, literally laughing with glee the whole time.



I think I will be making a lot more pancakes going forward.

Special shout-outs to my good friends the Fords for the cookbook, the maple syrup, and most importantly the idea for this experiment!

Cornbread Muffins

A fun and easy recipe.  Sydney likes making this one with me (in large part because she gets to lick the extra honey out of the measuring cup afterwords) and is actually quite skilled at spooning the batter into the muffin cups.  Eat while piping hot with a generous amount of butter!

Hardware:
12-muffin muffin tin
2 medium sized mixing bowls
balloon whisk
ladle


Software (Dry Team:)
1 cup corn meal
1 cup AP flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Software (Wet Team:)
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Grease muffin tin with nonstick spray.  Whisk together Dry Team in one bowl, set aside.  Whisk together Wet Team in second bowl until honey and oil are fully incorporated.  Stir Wet Team into Dry Team until well combined.

Ladle into muffin tin (these don't rise a lot, so you can fill the cups about 3/4 of the way with no overflow problem) and bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Best Baked Beans

This is another recipe courtesy of Alton Brown - easy, delicious, filling.  They do take a fairly long time to cook, so plan accordingly.

My two main alterations to Mr. Brown's recipe are the use of the slow-cooker (instead of the oven) and a slight reduction in the amount of bacon.

Hardware:
Large skillet or saute pan
Large (4qt) slow cooker

Software:
1 lb great northern beans, rinsed and picked, soaked in cold water for at least 24 hours
12 oz smoked bacon, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and cored, diced
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
(optional) 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Assembly:
Set up your slow cooker to run for 6 hours at 'High' temp.  Add the beans, sugar, molasses, tomato paste, and vegetable broth to the crock.  Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook the bacon until mostly done (and some of the fat has rendered.)  Add the bacon to the crock and saute the onion and pepper in the remaining bacon fat with a healthy pinch of salt.  Add to the crock along with several grinds of black pepper and another pinch of salt, stir to combine, cover and cook.

After 6 hours the broth should be mostly absorbed and the beans should be tender but still 'distinct' thanks to the molasses.  Check seasoning and serve warm.

Goes really, really well with honey cornbread muffins or southern-style biscuits.

Coq au Vin!

Les américains ne peuvent pas faire coq au vin correctement!

Sadly this turned out to be somewhat true - I was not overly impressed with the outcome of this experiment.  The resulting dish wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything special either, and it was fairly labor intensive for something so mediocre.

It was partially my fault - I've wanted to make this ever since seeing the relevant Good Eats episode but I wasn't all that interested in the rather extreme prep time (2 days, really?) and couldn't get my hands on a couple of the suggested ingredients... so I went with a much quicker and easier recipe.  I made some modifications (like omitting the mushrooms, since I didn't have any on hand)

Hardware:
1 large oven-proof dutch oven or similar

Software:
4 ounces bacon, diced
1 (3 to 4-pound) chicken, cut in 8ths
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1/2 pound celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bottle (375 ml) dry red wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
Thyme (fresh is better, otherwise 1 tablespoon dried)
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.  Cook the bacon in your dutch oven over medium-high heat until browned; remove to paper towels to drain.  Working in batches, season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown in the pan, removing to towels to drain.  Once all the chicken is cooked, add the mier poix to the pan along with a heavy pinch of salt and cook over medium heat until the onions are translucent.  Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more, then add the wine, the broth, the herbs, and return the chicken and bacon to the pan.  Cover and remove to the oven, baking for 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove to the stovetop.

Melt the butter in a bowl and whisk together with the flour.  Stir the mixture into the dish, check seasoning, serve. 

Can be served over egg noodles or rice, or with hearty bread.

Like I said above, the final product wasn't terrible, but was pretty 'meh' especially considering the effort involved.  I may try again someday and make the 'proper' 2 day version just for comparison, although it would have to be pretty fantastic to justify that amount of work. 

Chicken Enchiladas Suizas

These are my non-traditional, quick and easy, slightly healthier chicken enchiladas.  They have a lot in common with King Ranch Casserole in terms of prep and construction, but are different enough in taste and texture to warrant their own place in my recipe collection.

Hardware:
9x13 glassware baking dish
aluminum foil
mixing bowl

Software
1 lb cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1 small onion, diced
4 cups verde salsa
1 cup sour cream
24 corn tortillas
3 cups shredded cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 3 cups of the salsa, the sour cream, and approximately half the cheese in the mixing bowl.  Dice or shred your cooked chicken and add to the bowl.  Sweat the onion over low heat in a splash of oil and a pinch of salt and add (this step, and the onion for that matter, are optional) and add.

Place 6 tortillas in the bottom of your 9x13 baking dish.  Ladle on approximately 1/3rd of the filling mix, then top with another 6 tortillas.  Repeat this process until you have 4 layers of tortillas sandwiching 3 layers of filling.  Top the last layer with the remaining 1 cup salsa and the remaining cheese.

Cover with foil and bake approximately 1 hour or until cooked through.  Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes to brown the top.

As with king ranch casserole, lots of possible alterations here.  You can use roasted chicken breast, rotisserie chicken, boiled picked chicken, leftover turkey, etc.  You can also experiment with different salsas (including homemade, although it's time consuming.)  Avoid 'homestyle' tortillas as they are too thick and will soak up all your salsa.

If you want traditional 'rolled' enchiladas you will need to add an extra step.  Heat a 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet over medium-low heat, and dip each tortilla in it for a few seconds.  This will soften the tortillas enough to allow you to roll them around a small amount of filling.  Personally, I don't think this tastes any different, and it is a lot more work (and slightly more calories) than the stacked method above.

Capellini Pomodoro (aka Floopy Noodles)

It's been a while since I posted anything since I have been making all the recipes already on here for the last few weeks (or experimenting with things that didn't quite turn out.)  Yesterday, though, Sydney requested I make 'that pasta with the long flooping noodles and no sauce' and after a few seconds I realized she meant 'capellini pomodoro' - one of the few things I cook that she really likes.

This is a really simple, quick dish with almost no prep time involved.  It's also easy to keep all the ingredients on hand (as they are all long-term-storage items) and it goes well with lots of other things - from pasta e fagioli to salad to chicken piccata.

Hardware:
large stock or pasta pot
large saute pan or high-sided skillet
colander(s)
chef's knife
cutting board

Software:
1lb dried capellini (aka angel hair) pasta
1 large (28oz) can whole plum tomatoes, 1/4 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
handful of fresh basil, chiffonade (or 1 tablespoon dried basil)
salt and pepper to taste

Salt 6-8 quarts of water in a large pot and set to boil.  Peel and crush or mince the garlic, set aside.  Drain the tomatoes, reserving 1/4 cup of juice.  Pop the tomatoes under running water and try to remove the majority of the seeds, then roughly chop and place in a colander to drain. 

Once the water is boiling add the pasta.  Heat the oil in your saute pan over medium heat; add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Once the garlic is turning golden add the tomatoes and basil, season with salt and pepper, and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Kill the heat and drain the pasta (which should be al dente at this point) then return to the stock pot.  Add the sauce mixture and the reserved tomato juice and toss to combine.  Add the parmesan and additional salt to taste (this dish takes a LOT of salt to fully season) and serve immediately.

Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions

A very simple, quick and easy one-pot meal. A little on the plain side but tasty and unbelievably filling, in addition to being low-calorie and nutritious!

Hardware:
4-quart or larger saucepan/stock pot with lid
large skillet

Software:
2 cups lentils, rinsed and picked over for rocks
1 cup rice (long or short grain is fine, I used Texmati)
6 cups (i.e. 1.5 quarts) chicken, beef, or vegetable stock
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 Large onions, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
Sweat the diced medium onion in the tablespoon of oil in your stock pot over medium-high heat. Once the onion is translucent (~5 minutes) add the garlic, cook another 3 minutes. Add the lentils, cumin, and broth (as well as a hefty pinch of salt) bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils begin to soften, then stir in the rice and cover again. Cook 15-20 minutes or until the rice is done. If the consistency is too thin once the rice and lentils are at the correct texture, simply uncover and keep at a simmer to evaporate the extra liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.
For the caramelized onions, simply cook the sliced onions in the skillet with the remaining oil over medium heat for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. You want them to be darkening but not burned. Serve garnishing the lentils and rice.

Ratatouille

This was a fun experiment for me given that I've never actually had ratatouille, despite the fact that the Pixar film of the same name is one of my favorite movies.

I wasn't awestruck by it (in part because of the inclusion of eggplant, which I hate, and keep trying because so many people whose taste I respect claim it is good) but it was very tasty, and remarkably healthy (basically all of the calories in the entire dish are from the olive oil.)

Rebecca found the herbed oil in the bottom of the dish to be a great dipping sauce for fresh bread, and Sydney enjoyed a record amount of participation in the making of it - she chopped zucchini and peppers, helped peel garlic cloves, and then pitched in on the final assembly.

Hardware:
Massive casserole dish (a normal 9x13 pyrex will not be big enough)
Massive mixing bowl
Good sharp chef's knife (you will be doing a LOT of chopping)

Software:
4-6 medium zucchini squash, salted and rinsed, cut into bite sized pieces
1 medium eggplant, salted and rinsed, cut into bite sized pieces
4 red bell peppers, seeded and cored, cut into bite sized pieces
4 plum tomatoes, diced (canned is fine)
2 medium onions, sliced
10 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon each dried thyme, rosemary, and basil
salt and pepper to taste

Assembly:
Prep all the vegetables and toss into your giant mixing bowl. Add the herbs, a good dose of salt and pepper, the oil and vinegar, and toss to combine. Move to your giant casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 30 minutes (approximately) stirring occasionally. Let rest ten minutes and serve with additional salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste.

Goes great with a hot loaf of homemade bread to sop up the herby oil.

Pro Tips:
Next time i will probably omit the eggplant entirely and add extra zucchini, or maybe some thinly sliced carrots.

If you do use eggplant, make sure to liberally dose with kosher salt and let sit in a colander for 45 minutes to an hour, then rinse and pat dry. You can do something similar to the zucchini although it's not as necessary (and doesn't take as long.)

Update 3/15/2012:  I made this recipe again with the following changes:  omitted the eggplant, added yellow squash, crushed half the garlic, and used fresh thyme and basil.  It was both MUCH tastier and much 'drier' which added to the roasty flavor, I'm sure.  My campaign against the enemy of good eats, Eggplant, continues!

Homemade Bread...

...using a bread machine. I actually want to try making the 'no-work' artisan bread that I recently read about in How to Cook Everything (my father's day gift from my mother) but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Incidentally, the Bread Machine (a very nice stainless Cuisinart model) was ALSO a gift from my mother. It has seen a LOT of use in the last couple of years between making bread and making pizza dough and is still going strong.

Bread!

Hardware:
1 Bread Machine or a Stand Mixer

Software:
1.5 cups water, 90 degrees (filtered if your municipal water is high chlorine)
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
4 cups bread flour
1 packet active dry yeast
(Optional) 1/4 cup dry nonfat milk

Put the ingredients into your machine (don't forget the mixing paddle!) or your mixer's workbowl (use the bread hook attachment) in the order listed above.

If using a bread machine, simply choose 'regular white bread' or whatever the equivalent setting is and '2 lbs' loaf size, and walk away!

If using a mixer, knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, then cover and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour. Punch down, let rise again for 1 hour. Turn out, shape into a round loaf, and place onto a pizza stone in an oven preheated to 400 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes or until the bread reaches an internal temp of 205 degrees.

Either way, let the bread rest for at least 30 minutes before devouring.

So what's up with the dry nonfat milk, you ask? Basically, adding the milk proteins helps the bread to have a very consistent internal structure without a lot of giant steam bubble tunneling. In other words, it will make your bread look more like 'store bought' and be easier to slice for sandwiches and the like. It is completely unnecessary in terms of baking a good loaf of bread.

As for the flour, you can replace up to 50% of the bread flour with whole-wheat flour (although I don't really see the point myself)

40 Cloves and a Chicken

Hope you like garlic! Preparing this will protect your home from vampires for at least a week, and it is delicious to boot. The crazy thing about it is that it really isn't 'garlicky' at all - the long, slow cooking turns the garlic into this smooth, creamy, sweet spreadable stuff that is like mild garlic butter. Obviously it is best if you have some delicious homemade bread to spread it on!

Hardware:
Large oven-safe skillet or saute pan with tight-fitting lid

Software:
2-3 lbs chicken pieces
40 cloves of garlic, peeled (about 3 bulbs worth)
1/4 cup olive oil (NOT virgin)
bundle of fresh thyme sprigs
salt and pepper

Start by peeling lots of cloves of garlic. Supposedly some megamarts will sell pre-peeled cloves but I haven't seen them in my neighborhood H.E.B.

Once you have your 40 cloves, take your chicken pieces and toss them in a splash of olive oil and salt & pepper.

A side note about the chicken - you can do this a LOT of different ways. The cheapest is to buy a whole chicken in the 3lb range and butcher it yourself; I tend to go the route of buying de-boned chicken thigh 'fillets.' You can also use the standard boneless skinless breasts for this dish but they won't taste as good as the darker, fattier cuts :)

Regardless, preheat your oven to 350 and heat your skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken on each side (will take 5-10 minutes if using thighs.) Add the garlic, the oil, and the thyme sprigs, cover, and move to the oven. Bake at 350 for 1.5-to-2 hours (depends on what cuts of chicken you are using.) The chicken at the end will be nicely browned with a crusty roasted exterior and falling-apart tender.

I recommend serving the oil and garlic on the side as a dip/spread for the fresh homemade bread you should have made to go with this :)

How healthy is it? I guess that depends on your definition of healthy - this is fairly high in fat, but it's 'good' fat from the olive oil, and garlic is really good for you. A couple of deboned thighs with a hearty slab of homemade bread is probably 600-700 calories, so it's definitely not 'light.'

Vichyssoise (a.k.a. Potato-Leek Soup)

Ah, vichyssoise. Not actually French, interestingly enough - it was invented by the (French) head chef at the Ritz-Carlton in NYC around the turn of the 20th century. He named it after his hometown of Vichy, and until the 30's the Ritz's menus were published in French - hence, vichyssoise!

Despite the hard-to-pronounce name and somewhat pretentious history, it is very easy to make provided you have an immersion blender (sometimes called a stick blender.) You can technically puree the soup in an upright blender but pouring a gallon of hot soup is not my idea of fun (or safe.)

Hardware:
large stock pot with lid
good potato peeler (I actually recommend the Titan peeler of infomercial fame)
immersion blender

Software:
Approximately 1.5 cups of diced leeks (the yield from 2 large or 3 medium leeks, white and light-green parts only)
Approximately 4 cups cubed russet potatoes, peeled (the yield of 5-6 medium potatoes)
1 quart good quality chicken broth or stock
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup whole milk (or half & half, or cream)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
salt to taste
dash ground cayenne (optional)

Remove the leafy green heads and root ends of the leeks. Starting where the stalk turns light green, split and chop the leeks into half-rings. Peel the potatoes and cube, set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in the stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced leeks and a pinch of salt; cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent and softened. Add the potatoes and chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork-tender.

Turn off the heat and stir in the butter, milk, parmesan, vinegar and spices. Once the butter is melted, use your immersion blender to puree the potatoes and leeks until smooth and creamy. Season to taste and serve immediately, or chill and serve with a splash of milk to loosen the soup (it will be slightly thin when hot, but will thicken considerably as it cools to room temperature.)

The 'traditional' preparation adds a splash of brandy or cognac at the end but I find it to overpower the subtle flavors of the soup.

If you are using good quality chicken broth (which is lower in sodium, generally) you will find that this dish takes a LOT of salt to taste right. If it tastes bland after adding the spices try adding more salt before adding more spice.

Asparagus with Garlic-Lemon Vinagrette

I picked up this recipe from Alton Brown's fascinating travelogue, Feasting on Asphalt: the River Run. Somewhere in the Midwest he and his troupe came across a 'pick and pay' field of asparagus and that night his French cameraman prepared it this way. I concur with Mr. Brown that this is the best asparagus I've ever tasted.

Hardware:
Large saucepan or small stock pot, with lid
Steamer basket
small mixing bowl
balloon whisk
(optional) garlic press

Software:
1lb fresh asparagus, woody ends removed
2-3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup good quality olive oil

Preparation:
Place your steamer basket in a pot with 3/4 inch of water and set to boil.

In a mixing bowl, crush the garlic and salt together until they form a paste. Add the lemon juice and mustard, whisk until combined. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture, whisking vigorously, until they form an emulsion.

Steam the asparagus for 3-5 minutes (depends on how thick the stalks are.)

Remove cooked asparagus to a serving bowl. Toss with vinagrette. Serve immediately!

Goes really well with steak (and if you're like me, you will find yourself using the remaining vinagrette in the bottom of the serving bowl as a steak sauce - yum!)

I was really impressed with Sydney's ability to help make this. She snapped off the ends of the asparagus stalks, mixed together ingredients, and insisted she could be careful enough to pour the oil into the vinagrette. I was skeptical but i shouldn't have been - she did perfect. Too bad she wouldn't try the final product :)

Pasta e Fagioli

This recipe is one of my very favorites. Serves a small army (or gives lots of leftovers, which freeze very well) is surprisingly healthy, and easy to make.

I reverse-engineered this recipe from the Olive Garden's dish of the same name. When Rebecca was pregnant with Sydney she craved pasta e fagioli constantly, and I'm not really a big fan of Olive Garden. After several long waits for a table at the nearest franchise I said to myself 'surely I can figure out how to cook a soup' and after a couple of tries, I came up with this.

Hardware:
Large 12-quart stock pot with lid
cutting board
chef's knife
colander
garlic press (optional)

Software:
1lb ground beef
several stalks celery
several cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
1.5 cups matchsticked carrots (I buy them pre-cut in a bag)
1 cup orzo pasta
2 cans red kidney beans
1 large 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 jar marinara pasta sauce
1 quart beef broth
1 teaspoon tabasco pepper sauce (optional)
3 bay leaves
several pinches each dried basil and thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Dice the onion and celery, crush or mince the garlic, set aside. Pour a splash of oil in your stockpot and add the beef, garlic, salt, pepper. Brown over medium-high heat. Add celery, onion, carrot and continue cooking until slightly softened.

Drain and rinse the beans in a colander. Drain the tomatoes. Add beans, tomatoes, pasta, beef broth, and pasta sauce to the pot, stir to combine. Add bay leaves, tabasco sauce, other spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Serves 6-8 adults as a standalone dish, or serve as a soup course before your favorite Italian entree.

Surprisingly, a 1.5 cup (12oz) bowl of this only has about 300 calories, and it is VERY filling.

Baked Ziti

Unlike King Ranch Casserole, this is one my kids will actually eat. On the other hand, they can't do much of the work on it either...

This is a delicious, easy, fairly quick meal that serves a lot of people - easily 5 or 6, maybe more. It reheats best in the oven (cover with foil and bake at a low temp.)

Hardware:
9x13 baking dish
foil
large pasta pot
colander

Software:
1lb penne pasta
2 jars pasta sauce of your choice (I like to use a basil, garlic and olive oil tomato sauce, but any tomato-based sauce will work)
4 cups shredded italian cheeses (mozzarella, parmesan, asaigo, romano, etc)
(Optional) 1 cup ricotta cheese
(Optional) 1 teaspoon red pepper flake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pasta pot, boil 6 quarts of water and a pinch of salt. Cook penne pasta, drain. Return to pot and stir in pasta sauce, 1/2 the shredded cheese, and the ricotta and/or red pepper flake (if using.) Spoon the pasta mixture into the 9x13 dish and cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour or until the center is thoroughly heated. Remove foil and top with remaining cheese; return to oven for 10-15 minutes. Allow to rest 15 minutes before serving.

Pro Tips:
I find that the ricotta adds calories, and little else.
The red pepper flake adds some needed zing to the dish, which can taste flat without it.
Some recipes for this use a ragu (meat sauce) or add finely diced pepperoni or some other cured meat to the dish. I have tried this but found the final product to be way too greasy.

Homemade Pizza Dough

The nice thing about homemade pizza dough is that it freezes really well! Pressed into a 3-4" disc in a ziploc bag, a pizza's worth of dough can be thawed out in about an hour on a countertop or overnight in a refrigerator.

We will address the baking of pizzas in a separate post :)

Best Pizza Dough

Wet Ingredients:
1 and 1/3 cups warm water (90-100 degrees F)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Dry ingredients:
4 cups bread flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (i.e. 1 packet)

Hardware:
either a Bread Machine capable of handling 2 lbs of dough OR a Stand Mixer with a bread hook attachment.

Procedure:
Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients in the pan of your bread machine (make sure the stirring paddle is in place.) Set to the 'dough' setting and for '2 pounds' if your model allows for varying recipe sizes. while the machine is mixing the dough, scrape down the sides of the pan occasionally. You may need to drizzle in a small amount (1 to 2 teaspoons) of additional water onto the dry flour if it is having trouble merging with the ball of dough.

Once the dough is mixed, either leave it to rise for 90 minutes in the machine, or if using a mixer, remove to a large bowl and cover at room temperature for 90 minutes.

After the first rise, punch the dough down (i.e. fold it in on itself several times, squeezing out the large bubbles of CO2 that have formed.) Form the dough into a tight ball, place in the large bowl used for the initial rise, toss in a drizzle of olive oil, cover, and place in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours. This stage is called the 'cold rise' and gives the dough its tangy, yeasty, chewy texture and flavor.

After the dough has cold risen you can either use immediately to make pizzas, leave in the fridge for another 2-3 days, or freeze. The recipe makes enough for 4 small (~10-12 inch) pizzas

For best results with freezing, separate the dough into portions, place in small ziploc bags, and press the dough into a flattened disc shape. This will make for MUCH faster thawing than a tight ball.

Pro Tips:
Use bottled or purified water if your tap water has a LOT of chlorine in it, as the chlorine will kill the yeast before they have a chance to chow down on the sugar.

You can substitute up to 1/2 the total flour with whole wheat flour, if that's your thing. I find it messes up the chewy, yeasty texture that I like, though.

I have had terrible luck over the years with the 'jars' of instant yeast - no matter how I store them, they seem to become ineffective very quickly after being opened. I have turned to buying the individual use packets as I have had very high rates of success with those, even though they are technically more expensive per usage.