The sage bread came out of the oven this morning. I don't know what shape it was supposed to have, but it ended up with a large round loaf with a pretty good crust.
It's tasty, but hard to find condiments for as sage doesn't really mesh with not-butter, peanut butter, or mustard (I didn't even try jam). The bread was still so delicious that I had to put the rest in the freezer to keep from eating the loaf.
Showing posts with label butter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label butter. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Risotto Stories
Last night I broke the faucet. Again.
Or, more accurately, the faucet broke while I was handling it, trying to clean butternut squash risotto out of our large pan. It then sprayed me in the chest with hot water, and when I moved out of the way, shot a jet straight out of the kitchen that left a big puddle in front of the entryway.
The risotto was worth it, though. I would say that it came from the Washington Post's most recent Food section, but I doubled the recipe as there's two of us in the house, except not really, as there was only one shallot at the Teet, I have no idea whether the two butternut squash from the CSA were bigger or smaller than required, and I had just slightly more Wolfgang Puck organic vegetable broth (yes, as my brother says in his Dadaist way, I get the Nazi discount at Spago) and arborio rice than would strictly double the recipe, but I added it anyway. Also a bunch of Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend which may not have been exactly doubled. Or the fact that I couldn't get unsalted shelled pistachios at the Pentagon Row Teet.
But thanks to patience and the indestructable tastiness of butternut squash and toasted coconut, I came away with a tasty risotto, which is now in the fridge waiting for future risotto meals.
The only thing I would absolutely change in the future is to mash up the butternut squash instead of merely scooping it out and throwing it in; it was a little clumpy. Still tasty, though.
Or, more accurately, the faucet broke while I was handling it, trying to clean butternut squash risotto out of our large pan. It then sprayed me in the chest with hot water, and when I moved out of the way, shot a jet straight out of the kitchen that left a big puddle in front of the entryway.
The risotto was worth it, though. I would say that it came from the Washington Post's most recent Food section, but I doubled the recipe as there's two of us in the house, except not really, as there was only one shallot at the Teet, I have no idea whether the two butternut squash from the CSA were bigger or smaller than required, and I had just slightly more Wolfgang Puck organic vegetable broth (yes, as my brother says in his Dadaist way, I get the Nazi discount at Spago) and arborio rice than would strictly double the recipe, but I added it anyway. Also a bunch of Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend which may not have been exactly doubled. Or the fact that I couldn't get unsalted shelled pistachios at the Pentagon Row Teet.
But thanks to patience and the indestructable tastiness of butternut squash and toasted coconut, I came away with a tasty risotto, which is now in the fridge waiting for future risotto meals.
The only thing I would absolutely change in the future is to mash up the butternut squash instead of merely scooping it out and throwing it in; it was a little clumpy. Still tasty, though.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Cheese Overload!
We have made and eaten some pretty awesome foods this week.
Last night I made tomato cobbler from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian; like any cobbler, it's chopped up fruity stuff with a batter topping. Unlike fruit cobblers, the tomato is mixed with salt, pepper, and cornstarch, then covered with a flour and cornmeal batter. It was pretty good, but not as good as I'd hoped; probably because I didn't add enough cornstarch and so the tomatoes didn't sufficiently gel.
I hate cornstarch. Every time I open the box up, the silken powder gets everywhere. It sticks to my hands, won't measure easily, and doesn't wipe up or wash off without work. So I try to avoid it as much as possible.
This morning I made scones again, and again with chocolate chips. The recipe from Quaker Oats is wrong about adding raisins (or chocolate chips) halfway through the process; if you do that, the raisins or chips will end up mostly on the edge of the scones, and will become burnt into bitter carbon. The rest of the scones turned out fine, though.
Dinner tonight was fondue, from our Barnes & Noble fondue cookbook. It was easy - chop an onion, sauté in a hunk o' butter, add flour and sour cream, then stir in gruyere and cheddar until gooey deliciousness achieved. It was so awesomely cheesy tasty, and none of us should have eaten as much as we did, even using broccoli and cauliflower florets as a nod to balanced nutrition.
Also a frequent dunk into the cheese goodness was Cook's Illustrated's "Almost No-Knead Bread" recipe, which is sadly no longer online for free. It's a variant of Bittman's loaf, with a little tweaking for a higher rise and tangier inside. And it worked, despite all my attempts to ruin it with inaccuracy (I'm not sure I added enough flour), shortcut-taking (we didn't let it cool for two hours because we were too hungry), and my complete inability to knead. The crust is crunchy, the inside soft and tangy, and it tastes like something you get at a restaurant. Next time, we're making it with whole wheat flour.
Last night I made tomato cobbler from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian; like any cobbler, it's chopped up fruity stuff with a batter topping. Unlike fruit cobblers, the tomato is mixed with salt, pepper, and cornstarch, then covered with a flour and cornmeal batter. It was pretty good, but not as good as I'd hoped; probably because I didn't add enough cornstarch and so the tomatoes didn't sufficiently gel.
I hate cornstarch. Every time I open the box up, the silken powder gets everywhere. It sticks to my hands, won't measure easily, and doesn't wipe up or wash off without work. So I try to avoid it as much as possible.
This morning I made scones again, and again with chocolate chips. The recipe from Quaker Oats is wrong about adding raisins (or chocolate chips) halfway through the process; if you do that, the raisins or chips will end up mostly on the edge of the scones, and will become burnt into bitter carbon. The rest of the scones turned out fine, though.
Dinner tonight was fondue, from our Barnes & Noble fondue cookbook. It was easy - chop an onion, sauté in a hunk o' butter, add flour and sour cream, then stir in gruyere and cheddar until gooey deliciousness achieved. It was so awesomely cheesy tasty, and none of us should have eaten as much as we did, even using broccoli and cauliflower florets as a nod to balanced nutrition.
Also a frequent dunk into the cheese goodness was Cook's Illustrated's "Almost No-Knead Bread" recipe, which is sadly no longer online for free. It's a variant of Bittman's loaf, with a little tweaking for a higher rise and tangier inside. And it worked, despite all my attempts to ruin it with inaccuracy (I'm not sure I added enough flour), shortcut-taking (we didn't let it cool for two hours because we were too hungry), and my complete inability to knead. The crust is crunchy, the inside soft and tangy, and it tastes like something you get at a restaurant. Next time, we're making it with whole wheat flour.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
We want you! We want you!
Recently, one of my favorite political bloggers mentioned a foodstuff I'd never heard of: bean pie.
The country group Alabama had made me aware of sweet potato pie (and its silencing qualities); I had heard of rhubarb pie from Sesame Street (and then subsequently warned off of it by my rhubarb-skeptical parents, as well as Jack Nicholson); I am even familiar with shoo-fly pie (although, honestly, just from the song, and without Google I wouldn't know what the companion food was).
But back to bean pie. According to what appears to be the Nation of Islam's recipe (no, I am not kidding), bean pie is navy beans pureed with enough traditional piestuffs (condensed milk, vanilla, nutmeg, butter) that the beans cease to be vegetable and become merely starch for a pie filling. In theory, I think I approve.
A blogger who tried a packaged version said they tasted better than OK. Personally, if I were to have a bean pie, I'd make one. We do have a lot of navy beans lying around that we have no use for, so I wouldn't even need the commercially available bean pie mix.
Now, the real question is whether I make my own pie crust, or let Keebler do the low-fat cooking?
The country group Alabama had made me aware of sweet potato pie (and its silencing qualities); I had heard of rhubarb pie from Sesame Street (and then subsequently warned off of it by my rhubarb-skeptical parents, as well as Jack Nicholson); I am even familiar with shoo-fly pie (although, honestly, just from the song, and without Google I wouldn't know what the companion food was).
But back to bean pie. According to what appears to be the Nation of Islam's recipe (no, I am not kidding), bean pie is navy beans pureed with enough traditional piestuffs (condensed milk, vanilla, nutmeg, butter) that the beans cease to be vegetable and become merely starch for a pie filling. In theory, I think I approve.
A blogger who tried a packaged version said they tasted better than OK. Personally, if I were to have a bean pie, I'd make one. We do have a lot of navy beans lying around that we have no use for, so I wouldn't even need the commercially available bean pie mix.
Now, the real question is whether I make my own pie crust, or let Keebler do the low-fat cooking?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Return of the Cookie Press
Some people may remember my desire for, receiving of, and then trials and tribulations of the William Sanoma Cookie Press.
After last summer's debacle, I was talking to a friend of The Pedant (and an avid cookie baker) who suggested trying to make cookie press cookies in the winter (less humidity) and storing them in the fridge overnight (also good for any cookie). So, I decided to try them. Some friends were coming over, I could make Christmas Tree and Santa cookies (it is December, the longest holiday season ever) and I acquired some extras: a stand mixer, extra inserts from Sort-of-Grandma (who had extras), a different recipe (complete with MORE butter), and more time.
Turns out, I am in a fight with the WSCP. Again.
It just didn't work - nothing stuck to the cookie sheet. The recipe suggested adding 2 tablespoons of flour if the dough is too soft. Didn't work. I was pretty pissed. I wanted to press cookies but nothing! I called SOG, told her I was coming up for a visit and bring the devil that is the WSCP. We will attempt to make cookies together. If it doesn't work (she's been instructed to bring her cookie press as a back up), I will be throwing out the WSCP, saying good riddance and maybe buying a piping bag for a new recipe.
After last summer's debacle, I was talking to a friend of The Pedant (and an avid cookie baker) who suggested trying to make cookie press cookies in the winter (less humidity) and storing them in the fridge overnight (also good for any cookie). So, I decided to try them. Some friends were coming over, I could make Christmas Tree and Santa cookies (it is December, the longest holiday season ever) and I acquired some extras: a stand mixer, extra inserts from Sort-of-Grandma (who had extras), a different recipe (complete with MORE butter), and more time.
Turns out, I am in a fight with the WSCP. Again.
It just didn't work - nothing stuck to the cookie sheet. The recipe suggested adding 2 tablespoons of flour if the dough is too soft. Didn't work. I was pretty pissed. I wanted to press cookies but nothing! I called SOG, told her I was coming up for a visit and bring the devil that is the WSCP. We will attempt to make cookies together. If it doesn't work (she's been instructed to bring her cookie press as a back up), I will be throwing out the WSCP, saying good riddance and maybe buying a piping bag for a new recipe.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Quick Thoughts Before Real Blogging
The Sherbs and I have realized that we have to get our post count back up, so we'll be doing a couple posts today. The first of mine is one of those "scattered thoughts" posts.
1. Went out for Ethiopian again last night, to a local place called Harar Mesob. It's right across the street from an Eritrean restaurant, but unlike the Horn of Africa, there appear to be no threats of armed conflict between the two. The Sherbs will give the definitive post on the place, but I must say I found it teff-riffic.
2. I was clipping coupons from the newspaper the other day (we got a good deal on the Washington Post's Sunday edition), and I found that there are few good manufacturer's coupons anymore. Most of the products were for things I wouldn't ever buy, and even for the ones that were closer, the terms were onerous.
$1 off two "I Can Darn Well Believe That This Is A Butter Substitute"? We do use a flax oil butter substitute, but one smallish tub at a time. We don't need the gallon size of Country Fraud. We're still not sure what we're using the second tub of Breakstone's sour cream for (another "buy two and get a lesser amount of cash off"), although the first one will likely be a stroganoff-style meal tonight in the slow cooker.
3. The Sherbs made a great couscous, cheese, garlic, and asparagus dish on Thursday.
1. Went out for Ethiopian again last night, to a local place called Harar Mesob. It's right across the street from an Eritrean restaurant, but unlike the Horn of Africa, there appear to be no threats of armed conflict between the two. The Sherbs will give the definitive post on the place, but I must say I found it teff-riffic.
2. I was clipping coupons from the newspaper the other day (we got a good deal on the Washington Post's Sunday edition), and I found that there are few good manufacturer's coupons anymore. Most of the products were for things I wouldn't ever buy, and even for the ones that were closer, the terms were onerous.
$1 off two "I Can Darn Well Believe That This Is A Butter Substitute"? We do use a flax oil butter substitute, but one smallish tub at a time. We don't need the gallon size of Country Fraud. We're still not sure what we're using the second tub of Breakstone's sour cream for (another "buy two and get a lesser amount of cash off"), although the first one will likely be a stroganoff-style meal tonight in the slow cooker.
3. The Sherbs made a great couscous, cheese, garlic, and asparagus dish on Thursday.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Soups
As the cheerful receptionist at the pest control people warned, the bugs are back. Not as many visible this time, except for last night when I found some examples on me. Out came my portable chemical arsenal. We haven't seen any since.
Before the holiday and the recurrence of our bloodsucking nemeses, we made many tasty soups. Actually, the Sherbs made many tasty soups, with my input being limited to menu selection and ingredient procurement. We (she) remade one of our old favorites, the beer and cheese soup, which is a soup that (as my father says) is better the next day. Also when you disregard what the low-fat cookbook says and sautée the vegetables in butter as opposed to just trying to make a weak vegetable stock with them. The beer choice is critical, though - a more bitter beer will leave the soup bitter.
Also made was another old favorite - the One Pot Cookbook's parsnip soup. Parsnip is a good major flavor - better than potato. It was a good soup, too.
Of both soups, we have plenty frozen up, so I don't expect we'll need to cook too too much over the next week. We're entertaining tomorrow night (hopefully they'll drink some of the wine!) and we're not eating the frozen soup then. Instead, it'll be something with udon.
Before the holiday and the recurrence of our bloodsucking nemeses, we made many tasty soups. Actually, the Sherbs made many tasty soups, with my input being limited to menu selection and ingredient procurement. We (she) remade one of our old favorites, the beer and cheese soup, which is a soup that (as my father says) is better the next day. Also when you disregard what the low-fat cookbook says and sautée the vegetables in butter as opposed to just trying to make a weak vegetable stock with them. The beer choice is critical, though - a more bitter beer will leave the soup bitter.
Also made was another old favorite - the One Pot Cookbook's parsnip soup. Parsnip is a good major flavor - better than potato. It was a good soup, too.
Of both soups, we have plenty frozen up, so I don't expect we'll need to cook too too much over the next week. We're entertaining tomorrow night (hopefully they'll drink some of the wine!) and we're not eating the frozen soup then. Instead, it'll be something with udon.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Mixed Food-Like Liquids With More Than Dr. Pepper
Weirdest Dr. Pepper recipe concept so far: "root beer jelly" with Dr. Pepper substituted in. Pectin makes any beverage a spreadable treat!
In more palatable foods, evidently Elvis Presley liked a tablespoon of beer mixed in with his maple syrup while it was being heated. I think the earthy taste of beer syrup would go well with whole wheat or buckwheat pancakes, although I'd still like to put a giant unhealthy pat of butter (or a moderately-sized pat of I Can Believe It Is Simulated Butter) inside the stack to melt milk-fatty goodness throughout.
In more palatable foods, evidently Elvis Presley liked a tablespoon of beer mixed in with his maple syrup while it was being heated. I think the earthy taste of beer syrup would go well with whole wheat or buckwheat pancakes, although I'd still like to put a giant unhealthy pat of butter (or a moderately-sized pat of I Can Believe It Is Simulated Butter) inside the stack to melt milk-fatty goodness throughout.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Today's Google Alert Contributions
News from the internet -
The biggest thing I learned today: evangelical Christians, the kind Mandy Moore is not sorry she made fun of, have an alternate MySpace called "DittyTalk." On which they semi-coherently extol/debate the virtues of Dr. Pepper.
Another one of the alerts I have is for "steak diane," a dish which combines both slabs of meat and flambé cooking. There is a recipe on this site which uses both margarine and butter, for reasons I cannot understand. If it just had margarine, it seems, it would be kosher. It wouldn't taste as good, but why use margarine in any part of the recipe if you're not restricted by kashrut? I mean, you'd have your choice of butter or leaf lard, both awesomely tasty solid fats.
The biggest thing I learned today: evangelical Christians, the kind Mandy Moore is not sorry she made fun of, have an alternate MySpace called "DittyTalk." On which they semi-coherently extol/debate the virtues of Dr. Pepper.
Another one of the alerts I have is for "steak diane," a dish which combines both slabs of meat and flambé cooking. There is a recipe on this site which uses both margarine and butter, for reasons I cannot understand. If it just had margarine, it seems, it would be kosher. It wouldn't taste as good, but why use margarine in any part of the recipe if you're not restricted by kashrut? I mean, you'd have your choice of butter or leaf lard, both awesomely tasty solid fats.
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