Recipes

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies
Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies

Last night I was like “It’s COOKIE TIME!!!!” I may or may not have a problem. Last week I was surfing Smitten Kitchen (like you do) and happened upon these delicious looking nutmeg maple butter cookies. If you still haven’t visited her website, Deb (the author of smittenkitchen.com) is pretty hilarious, and writes very informatively about the food she makes. It’s splendid. Check it out. Anyway, I wanted something easy but not so simple as just a sugar cookie, so I pulled up this recipe.

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 large egg yolk
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (because it packs more tightly)
1 teaspoon table salt

Instructions

In an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar, mix together until light and fluffy. With the mixer still mixing, add yolk and slowly drizzle in maple syrup. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, nutmeg and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until just combined. The dough will be in loose clumps. Gather them together into a tight packet with a large piece of plastic wrap and chill dough for at least two hours until firm. I’ll say that I had some trouble with this. My dough was moist in parts and really dry in others, and was really crumbly, making it difficult to pack it into a nice package and wrap up. Also, once I took it out of the fridge I had to wait for it to warm up a significant amount before I could roll it out without it crumbling all over the place. So be warned: mix VERY thoroughly.

Once you remove the dough from the fridge, preheat oven to 350 degrees and either butter a cookie sheet or cover with parchment paper. Jonah and I save the little papers our butter comes in and keep them in the fridge. They’re great for greasing pans, and they’re free with your butter, unlike parchment paper. Roll out 1/4 of the dough at a time, you’ll have plenty to work with (it’s a lot of dough). Roll to about 1/8 of an inch thick, and cut into whatever shapes you want! I just did circles because…well…I don’t have any other shapes.

Arrange the cookies on baking sheets and bake for 8-11 minutes. They don’t really spread, so they can be pretty close together. Here’s a word about baking time: If you want crunchier edges and harder, chewier cookies, bake closer to 10 or 11 minutes. If you want them a little bit softer and not crunchy edges and bottoms, bake closer to the 8 minute end. I liked them crunchier, Jonah liked them softer, so we did a few batches of each. Transfer to racks or a plate to cool. According to Deb, the cookies keep in an airtight container for a week, or in the freezer till…well, till they aren’t good anymore.

Jonah took some of these into work today, and they were a big hit. I am planning on bringing some to my rehearsal tonight, where I am quickly becoming the cookie lady (or will be after I bring these in). But whatever, everyone in the show is too skinny anyway. They need some butter and sugar.

French Toast (with a secret ingredient)

French Toast

French Toast
French Toast

This past weekend my mom came to town to hang out, and we had her, her boyfriend, and his son over for breakfast on Sunday morning. I thought it would be nice to make the french toast that she used to make for me growing up. Hopefully my mother doesn’t kill me for posting her secret ingredient online for all the world to see.

French Toast

Ingredients

Bread of some kind – we used a baguette cut into thing pieces at a diagonal so they were bigger. If the store had challah, we would’ve used that, but they didn’t.
VANILLA ICE CREAM
Eggs
Cinnamon and whatever other spices you want – we used a pinch of nutmeg.

Instructions

Melt 1 1/2 – 2 scoops of ice cream in a wide, shallow bowl (like the one Jonah is using in the pictures above and below). Wait until the ice cream soup has cooled from melting, and add 2-3 eggs. Whisk together. Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. Soak your bread in egg mixture: we press it down to make sure it gets nice and wet. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat, and add bread. Cook until lightly browned on both sides.

The key, in my opinion, is having the toast perfectly done on the outside but still making sure that all the eggy stuff is cooked on the inside. Sometimes it helps to pop them in the oven on a low temperature: 1) it keeps the toast warm while you’re finishing up the cooking and 2) it helps cook the inside.

We served the french toast with syrup, greek yogurt, and fruit. It was quite delicious, and I think everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. I can also see replacing the ice cream with eggnog for the holiday season (because what isn’t good with eggnog?)!

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops

Pork Chops

I made these great pork chops for dinner the other night (actually, the other week by now). It has a wonderfully sweet-and-tangy dark taste. They were really yummy, but to be perfectly honest, they didn’t look the greatest.  Also to be perfectly honest, I had a little trouble making them, although they came out fine in the end.  This happens to me sometimes when I make meats that you fry in pan (or bake… or prepare with heat in any way) with some sort of sugary sauce.  Sugary sauces always seem to start burning really quickly (because of the sugars, duh!), so when you make them — just watch out for the smoking and potential charring.  Turn on the fan above your stove.

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops

Ingredients

2 pork chops
Salt and pepper
2 Tb. olive oil
4 shallots, pealed and quartered
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 t. sugar

Instructions

Sweet! Only 6 ingredients!

Sprinkle pork with s + p, let it sit out on the counter for 10 minutes to come to room temperature.

Heat olive oil in a skillet.  Add pork and shallots, turning pork until both pork and shallots are browned, about 5 minutes.  Remove the pork to a plate, leaving shallots.

Add the balsamic vinegar, sugar, and some more salt and pepper, and cook.  Stir a lot so sugar dissolves, and let it thicken for about a minute or two.  Put the pork back in there and coat with the sauce.  Cook, turning the pork over once, until its cooked through to your liking, about 3-5 minutes.

Take the pork back out and put on a plate, letting sauce thicken 1-2 minutes more.  Pour sauce over pork, and eat!

Soy Glazed Salmon and Asparagus with Miso

Soy Glazed Salmon and Asparagus with Miso

Soy Glazed Salmon and Asparagus with Miso
Soy Glazed Salmon and Asparagus with Miso

Soy Glazed Salmon and Asparagus with Miso

The other day Jonah and I were feeling up to cooking a big fancy meal. I picked the menu: Soy Glazed Salmon, Eggplant with Miso, served with rice. We got to the store and they didn’t have eggplant though, so I picked up some asparagus instead. Not sure why. But it was the right decision. This salmon is so unbelievably easy. Boil some delicious stuff in a put, put it on a hunk of fish, cook it, put on more stuff, and then eat it. Oh my goodness.

While Jonah was making the salmon, I had to find a new recipe. Lucky for me, I types in “asparagus with miso” and I quickly found a delicious recipe on…Oprah.com. I adjusted ingredients based on what we had as well as some of the eggplant recipes I’d read.

This meal was honestly one of the easiest, most delicious meals I’ve had. I have a tendency when I cook fish to put too much sauce or whatever on it so that it doesn’t really tasted like fish anymore. This salmon still tasted like salmon, but with a little kick of salty and sweet, it was perfect. And the asparagus had little charred bits (which I love) and was a little sweet, a little spicy, and a little tart. They tasted delicious together too. I highly recommend cooking this meal when you want to impress but don’t want to do too much work.

Soy Glazed Salmon with Miso Asparagus

Ingredients

Soy Glazed Salmon

1 lb salmon
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup maple syrup

Miso Asparagus

1/8 cup miso paste
1-2 clove garlic , minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger (I didn’t have fresh ginger, so I used about half a teaspoon of powdered ginger, I’m sure more than that would be good too)
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 tablespoon sugar (to make it caramelize a little bit)
1 tablespoon mirin
3/4 pounds asparagus , bottoms trimmed
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of salt

Instructions

Soy Glazed Salmon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. The recipe (from the Gourmet Today cookbook which we got on sale at Powell’s for $15) says to line a broiler pan with foil and then oil the broiler rack. We don’t have those things, so we just used an oiled pyrex baking dish, which worked just fine.

Bring the soy sauce and maple syrup to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, uncovered, and boil until it reduces to a little more than half (of what you originally had). Put salmon skin-side-down in the dish or on the pan or whatever and pat dry. Set some of the glaze aside for later, and brush the salmon generously with the remaining glaze. Let stand for 5 minutes, then brush again with glaze. Roast the salmon for 10 minutes in the oven. Turn on broiler, brush salmon with glaze again and broil close to the heat (think 6 inches or so, no need to be terribly exact) until cooked through, 3-5 minutes. Once you take the salmon out of the oven, you can brush on the remaining glaze.

Miso Asparagus

Preheat broiler. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients EXCEPT asparagus, olive oil, and salt. Stir well and set aside. On a baking sheet, toss asparagus with olive oil and salt. Cook close to heat (about 6 inches) for about 3 minutes (if you like softer asparagus, like me, cook for 4 minutes), then remove from oven. Spread miso mixture over the asparagus and place back under broiler for 3-5 minutes.

Bread Pudding (and friends to eat it)

Bread Pudding
Bread Pudding

Bread Pudding

Bread Pudding

About a week ago, Jonah and I bought a mini loaf of sourdough bread at the store because we were going to make garlic bread to eat with our spaghetti. But then we made the spaghetti and forgot about the bread. How silly. And then it sat on our counter for a few days and then it was ROCK HARD.

So I, being all resourceful and all, say “let’s make bread pudding!” I’d never made bread pudding before. In fact, I had rarely eaten it before I studied abroad in London, and when I was younger the idea of it kind of grossed me out. Let’s be honest, bread soaked in milk and eggs and baked in the oven doesn’t sound too appealing does it? After a little searching, I combined a few recipes, adding a few of the typical seasonal spices because really, you can add nutmeg and cloves to anything and it’s delicious, and got started.

Bread Pudding

Ingredients

4 cups cubed white bread (I used a crusty sourdough and a couple slices of whole wheat we had in the fridge)
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cube bread and put it in a large bowl. Combine milk and butter in a small saucepan, cook over medium heat until the butter is melted. Pour the butter/milk mixture over the bread and let stand for at least 10 minutes (I did a little longer because my bread was really crusty and really stale).

Add the remaining ingredients, mixing well (the spices tend to get kind of clumpy in the eggs, make sure they’re all spread out!). Pour it into a greased baking dish or pan. I used a pie dish because it’s what I had around. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until it’s set in the center.

We called a few friends (Mac, Carmelle, and Courtney) to come over and eat this delicacy with us. While we were waiting (impatiently) for the pudding to cool, Carmelle made some delicious whipped cream. All you need for whipped cream is whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla. Carmelle used my electric mixer, but I have also seen her whip cream by hand, and oh is it impressive. Start whipping the cream, add a little sugar and a little vanilla (think 1 cup cream to 1/4 cup sugar to 1 tsp vanilla), and whip till it holds its peak.

Serve the bread pudding with a dollop of whipped cream and enjoy!

Pizza Pizza

Pizza

Pizza
Pizza

Sometimes we don’t have time to make elaborate, fancy meals. I assume it’s the same for everyone out there. There are days when you want to eat something really delicious, but you just don’t have the time or energy. Enter: Pizza. A lot of grocery stores have pre-made pizza dough. And not the kind that are already in discs in plastic bags, the kind that is still in a gooey ball. Sometimes you can ask for it at the deli counter (like at Market of Choice) or sometimes it’s in the refrigerated section (like at New Seasons). Anyway, whoever decided to sell pre-made pizza dough at the store is a genius. Extremely quick, easy, and delicious, this meal is easily tailored to who will be eating with you and what you’re in the mood for!

If you are not feeling lazy and instead are feeling ambitious, you could make your own dough. This is something I am planning on doing soon, I swear. This recipe looks good:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html

This one also gives step by step pictures, which is really helpful!:

http://www.annamariavolpi.com/pizza_recipe.html

Cook on my friends!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

Jonah and I are nannies, and one of us has to wake up really early in the morning to take the kids to school in the morning. A few weeks ago, I thought that while Jonah was out taking the kids, I would sneak to the store and get ingredients to make pumpkin pancakes. It didn’t quite work though, because the store didn’t open as early as I thought, so he got home before me. So I made him go back to bed while I whipped these up. He still liked them and was, of course, very appreciative. They’re super good! I found the recipe by searching “pumpkin pancakes” on google and looking at a few recipes. This is a great way to kind of get the idea of how to cook a dish without actually using a recipe.

Pumpking Pancakes

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg

Instructions

In a bowl, stir together all the try ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients minus the butter. Fold the wet into the dry and stir well. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat, pour 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake and cook about 3 minutes per side. I think the best way to know when to flip a pancake is by the bubbles. All the bubbles come up to the top and pop, and when there aren’t anymore, you flip. Or just when the bottom is cooked enough. Whatever floats your boat.

Serve these bad boys with butter and syrup. I ate them with the balsamic fig jam which you can find in an earlier post on the blog. Enjoy!

Brownie Cookies with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

Brownie cookies

Brownie cookies
Brownie cookies

This past week, a friend of ours had her senior degree recital at school (she’s a wonderful singer) and for the after party, I wanted to make some cookies. So I went to the store and bought some ingredients, but it turns out I didn’t buy enough of what I needed (2 oz. of bittersweet chocolate when I really needed 5… oops). So then I searched my favorite food blog of all time, Smitten Kitchen, for a recipe involving ingredients I already had in my kitchen. I found these brownie cookies that looked like a perfect combination of a brownie and a cookie, and also they didn’t look too hard.

When the cookies came out of the oven, they were delicious, but a little bit dry in my opinion. I think they would have been greatly enjoyed by themselves, but I decided to whip up some buttercream frosting to put on them to add a little moisture. (My friend Carmelle, who is also a baker extraordinaire, and I decided later to add a little peppermint to the icing to make it a little more festive.)

Brownie Cookies with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

Brownie Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened (she uses one stick of unsalted, one stick of salted, but I used both unsalted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

1 stick of butter, softened
1 1/2 – 2 cups confectioners sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
up to 2 tablespoons of milk or cream
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Instructions

Brownie Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In a mixer (or large bowl) combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Slowly add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured surface until it’s about 1/4 inch thick (I used my counter because I don’t have a super large cutting board and, hey, it’s kinda fun to just roll dough out on the counter). Cut into desired shapes, place on a buttered baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 11 minutes until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

Beat the butter for a couple minutes in the mixture to get it nice and creamy. Add 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar and mix on low speed until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Add vanilla, salt, 1 tablespoon of milk, and peppermint and mix for a couple minutes. If the frosting is too thin, add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar a little bit at a time to make sure you don’t overdo it. If your frosting is too thick, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of milk.

These cookies were  a huge hit! And the recipe made plenty of them too. They were easy and you can easily add spices or other fun things to them to suit them to your tastebuds. I’m thinking a little cinnamon and chili powder to make them Mexican hot chocolate cookies, or some smashed candy canes for the holidays, or chocolate chips… So many possibilities!

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

This banana bread recipe came from my aunt Judy’s neighbor. It is honestly the best banana bread I have ever had in my life. And let’s be honest, anything my aunt thinks is delicious probably is because she really knows what she’s talking about. Why? Because she writes cookbooks. Yes, food and cooking runs in the family. Her latest book (which she wrote with her husband, my hilarious uncle) just came out and it’s wonderful, especially if you’re a fan of Mad Men. You can find info on the book and order it here.

Anyway, so Judy fed this banana bread to us one time and now it’s the only banana bread I’ll make.

Banana Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
4 or 5 mashed bananas
3 tablespoons of milk
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1-2 cups chocolate chips, optional
chopped walnuts, optional

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two bread loaf pans. In a bowl, combine baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. In a separate bowl or an electric mixer if you’ve got one, beat together sugar and vegetable oil. Add eggs and bananas. In a small cup combine milk and lemon juice, mix to curdle. Add this to the liquid ingredients along with the vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix well. Add as many chocolate chips and/or walnuts as you want (some people like it plain, some really chocolatey, some with just a few chocolate chips).

WARNING! When I mix in the chocolate chips before putting the batter into the pans, my chips always sink to the bottom. What I’ve started doing is just sprinkling them on top and mixing them in a little bit so they’re more evenly spread out.

Anyway now you can divide your batter between the two loaf pans and bake for about 50 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean (except for any melted chocolate…yum). Allow to cool.

These breads can be wrapped in foil and a freezer bag and frozen for a while. It’s good in case you are one of those people who can’t help eating stuff that’s around the kitchen, you can make one loaf disappear and save it for later.

Roasted chicken with root vegetables

Roasted chicken with root vegetables

Roasted chicken is, in my opinion, one of the easiest, most delicious meals you can make. Cut everything up, season it, put it in a dish, and stick it in the oven. I promise, anyone can do this. My mom used to make this dinner all the time because it was so simple and didn’t take too much time, and I remember when I finally got the recipe, I thought, “That’s all? Really?”

It makes a really good winter dish because it’s hearty, healthy, warming, and full of root vegetables (or whatever vegetables you want, really).

Roasted Chicken

Note: After the basics listed below, you can add whatever you want. Martha (Stewart… we’re on a first name basis now) adds prunes, which I’ve never done. Sometimes if I want lots of leftovers I do even more veggies. If I want more starch, I add potatoes. You could add turnips, parsnips, shallots, beets… Anything you can roast, you can put in this dish.

Ingredients

2-4 bone in chicken breast halves (skin on!)
a bunch of carrots, peeled, halved, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
about 6 garlic cloves, quartered
a red onion, halved and cut into wedges
vegetable or olive oil
butter
salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Rub chicken with butter, place in a baking dish (I always use glass/pyrex). Toss vegetables with some oil and arrange around the chicken in the dish. Season with salt, pepper, and anything else you want (I’ve used thyme, rosemary, tarragon… try a different spice every time!). Jonah and I like to use the fresh bulk herbs at the grocery store in the produce section. They’re so cheap because they’re sold by weight, but a couple sprigs of thyme really weighs almost nothing.

So everything is in the dish, yes? Roast for 10 minutes, then toss the veggies and check on how everything is cooking. Continue roasting until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, usually 15-30 minutes depending on your oven.

See how easy that is? Now enjoy it with a good glass of wine (if you’re of age, that is).

Fall Salad (Ad Hoc style)

Fall Salad

I figure that for every couple of posts about baked goods and cookies, I should probably post something a little healthier. This recipe is also from the Ad Hoc cookbook I posted about earlier. This fall salad is simple and delicious. So so delicious. Jonah and I have started eating salad again, thanks to this. Yum. It’s full of parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and even persimmons, which I hadn’t ever had before this salad. Not sure I can say I liked them, but it was certainly an adventure.

Feel free to pick and choose which of these ingredients you want in your salad. For example, we didn’t blanch leeks, but replaced leeks with green onion (not really the same, but whatever floats your boat). Plus, it’s always worth trying something new. Who knows, you may love it.

Fall Salad

Ingredients

Mixed greens
Blanched leeks (I didn’t really feel like blanching leeks, so we used green onions… more on that later)
Persimmons, sliced
Prosciutto
Pine nuts
Parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

The recipe also called for a sherry vinegar vinaigrette, but I didn’t feel like buying a bottle of sherry vinegar just for this, so we just did a balsamic vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some minced garlic, and then also put the green onions in here rather than sprinkled on the salad… not sure why.

Now, the persimmons. They kind of tasted a little bit like pears, but with a thicker skin. I dunno if they were worth the money. I can see replacing the persimmons with something like a satsuma or another variety of small orange-type-thing that are available these days.

With or without the persimmons, this salad is both light and filling, and perfect for a fall dinner. It also would be a nice salad course to a fancier meal. Enjoy this healthy and delicious salad!

Eggnog Scones

Eggnog Scones

Eggnog Scones
Eggnog Scones

Thanksgiving is over, it’s Christmas time. I think it’s a little silly sometimes how much I love Christmas and the things that come with it (Christmas cookies, Christmas trees, Christmas music, etc.) given that I’m Jewish. My family has some weird hybrid holiday traditions: a few years ago we started getting a “Channukah bush,” which at this point has just devolved into a Christmas tree. Last year my mom knit a miniature Santa Claus outfit, long underwear and all, to hang on her tree. My dad, on the other hand, has started doing a “tree of irony” with weird, goofy ornaments and silly lights. My sisters (my little sister especially) are big fans of Christmas cookies, and we usually spend a few days of the winter in the kitchen covered in flour and sugar baking like 20 different varieties.

My mom has been making these eggnog scones for as long as I can remember. They’re a delicious wintertime treat, especially right out of the oven with a little butter and jam… oh man, my mouth is watering.

Eggnog Scones

Makes 16 scones

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus a little for sprinkling
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup eggnog
2 tbl milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in food processor. Add butter, pulse until course. Add eggnog, pulse until dough forms a ball. Dump dough out onto lightly floured surface, cut it in half, and form two 1-inch-thick rounds.

Cut each round into 8 triangles. Place the scones on a greased baking sheet. Brush them with milk and sprinkle them with sugar.

Now just stick them in the oven for 12 minutes, or until they’re puffed up and a little golden (see pictures below).

Also, my mom sometimes added cranberries, but I can’t remember if she used dry or fresh… Hopefully she’ll let me know and I’ll update the post. Enjoy! (These would be delicious on Christmas morning…)