Arrivederci!

Well, this is it. It is the day before I leave for Sicily and I must finally buckle down and get ready. I still have last minute errands to run and some very tricky packing to do (any advice on squeezing clothing for two weeks into a small suitcase, along with guidebooks and a large-ish Italian dictionary and still having some room to bring souvenirs home?).

I am so excited about this trip, but quite unprepared. The trip has been in the works for over a year and a half, but I still feel like it snuck up on me. In preparation for my last trip to Italy I read everything I could get my hands on and studied the language a little on my own. This time my preparation has consisted mostly of dreaming!

I plan to take copious notes and oodles of photos, so I'll have lots to tell you upon my return! For now I leave you with a picture of Bob and Chuck's life-like realization of me, the Greek Theatre in Taormina, and Mount Etna executed in sugar cubes, construction paper and photo snippets. Arrivederci! See you back here on May 14th!!

Dining with the Bloggers - April 27th

Nothing like a little serendipity. When Zarah and I decided to schedule our Dining with the Bloggers themes in advance, we picked a bunch of themes and assigned dates without giving it much thought. As it turned out, the theme for this week - my last Dining with the Bloggers post before leaving for my vacation in Sicily - is Pasta!

I have two pasta recipes to tell you about this week. One is an old favorite and the other was new to me this week, but is destined to become another favorite.

My old favorite is probably the first recipe I ever made from a food blog - well before I started my own. It is Spicy Lentil Sauce from the hungry tiger. Come to think of it, this recipe was probably my introduction to red lentils. They are so cheap, cook so quickly, and taste so good! I've made this recipe several times now and really enjoy it. There are no specific amounts given, so you feel like you're winging it - which is kind of fun! A real advantage of this recipe is that if you keep some red lentils around, you can make it on the spur of the moment. You're likely to find all the other necessary ingredients in your pantry.

My new found favorite, from Rowena at **Rubber Slippers in Italy**, is Spaghetti con Agnello e Cipolle (spaghetti with lamb and onions). Rowena is from Hawaii and is now living in the Lombardia province of Italy. I love reading about her experiences in Italy and enjoy delving into her archives to find posts about a visit to an interesting small town, a wonderful bakery, or a new find at the market. I recently found this spaghetti recipe which sounded easy, and as luck would have it turned out to be a recipe that let me use up a number of things. I cheated a bit and used ground lamb - this made the prep work a little simpler and also allowed me to buy just the amount I needed. Everything else was on hand. I used up that big old red onion I bought for a long forgotten recipe, the tail end of a bottle of white wine, and the ends of two boxes of spaghetti (one regular, one spelt). In addition to the above mentioned ingredients, this dish also has a moderate amount of curry powder in it. All in all, it is a beautiful medley of flavors!

Be sure to pay a visit to Zarah to see what she's cooked up this week. My next Dining with the Bloggers post will be on May 18th, but I believe Zarah will be sharing some interesting finds while I'm away.

Mondays with Maida - 24-Karat Cookies

Page 50 in the old book / page 83 in the new book

I swear it was an honest mistake. I forgot to give Phil his cookies this week. It had nothing to do with the fact that these were the worst cookies I've ever made from this book - bland and not at all sweet. Nor did I fear the sweetly scathing remarks that the cookies might have provoked. We were only in the office at the same time one day this week and I neglected to tell him about the two cookies I had placed in the freezer for him.

But if I anticipated that Phil would not like these cookies, I should have known that Suzanne would hate them. I had just been tending to something around the corner from Suzanne's office and was headed back to my own office. As I rounded the corner I came upon Suzanne standing outside her office. She had just taken her first bite from a 24-Karat cookie and had such a look on her face! I would describe it as shock mixed with distaste.

I was actually looking forward to these - thinking that they might be like little carrot cakes. They have grated carrots, raisins and walnuts in them. However, the only sweetener is half a cup of honey, which just isn't enough to make the cookies sweet. I don't think I'll be making these again, but if I did I'd be seriously tempted to top them with some cream cheese icing.

So here's the cookie panel with their thoughts ...

Suzanne: "Blah! Blah! Blah! After my initial shock that the cookie was soft and bland, I unsuccessfully tried to pick out the "RAISINS" (boo raisins) to salvage some part of the cookie. It wasn't worth the effort. This isn't Cathy's fault. Cathy is a great baker. It's the recipe. Rating - 0"

Denny: "Well Cathy you finally missed one or more likely the recipe did. It was OK but the nuts were barely detectable and it wasn't sweet enough. I did taste a bit of honey. I'd give it a 3 but will still check back later for any leftovers. Rating - 3"

Laura: "Tastes like carrot cake in a cookie! I especially love the walnuts & raisins/currants. Rating - 4"

Phil: I forgot to give Phil his cookies before he left on vacation - sorry!

Overall rating by the panel - 2.3

Mondays with Maida will be taking a little break, but will be back on May 23rd with Indian Figlets.

Nutrition Facts

Using it up...

If you're looking for my IMBB entry, sorry - I'm leaving on vacation in a few days and taking a break from IMBB, cookie baking, and the like. (Though I will have a couple more posts before I leave.) I'm using the weekend to get ready for my trip. In theory I'm cleaning the house (ha ha), doing the laundry, running last minute errands, etc. In actuality, I'm still spending an awful lot of time keeping tabs on all my favorite food blogs.

Anyway, my cooking this weekend and for the next few days is centered around using it up, which put me in mind of a story...

One summer many years ago my family spent a leisurely couple of weeks staying in a cottage on a lake. As the end of our stay neared, our supplies dwindled and my parents were naturally trying to use up the things we had left. I believe it was the day before our departure when my Dad for some reason took charge in the preparation of our lunch.

My Dad seldom cooks, though there are a few things he is quite adept at. He was known in our family as the one who cooked the fried rice (though my Mom did all the prep work), he often prepared breakfast, and he was a master at peanut butter pairings (peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches...mmmmmmm...try it!). My Dad is an electrical engineer. He is a logical, practical man. On this particular day, though, I think he checked his culinary common sense at the door.

We were all seated around the table and my Dad set down a platter heaped with sandwiches - salami and relish sandwiches. Grocery store salami (not even Hebrew National) and sweet pickle relish. Yuck. There were lots of them too - I think we were each expected to eat more than one. Even my Mom was whining.

So tell me dear readers, what has "using it up" driven you to do? What's the worst combination of foods you've ever eaten or the most atrocious thing your parents ever made you eat?

Sugar High Friday - Indian Pudding

Ahhh... Indian Pudding. I love the smell of it baking, its homey taste, its warmth. It is comfort food of the highest order. Why, oh why have I waited all these years to make some for myself?

Indian Pudding, like baked beans, made frequent appearances at the dinner table of my childhood. I have always loved it, though I don't think it is quite so fondly remembered by my siblings. When I mentioned to my brother Bob that I would be making it for the upcoming Sugar High Friday (which, by the way, has a theme of Molasses this time around and is hosted by Derrick of An Obsession with Food) and said that I thought I remembered that I was the only kid in our family that liked it, he remarked, "I remember that I liked the vanilla ice cream on top."

I couldn't find any definitive history of Indian Pudding, but it does seem to be generally accepted that it came to the early New England settlers by way of the native Americans. I learned from this article in Native Peoples Magazine that the Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes traditionally ate their main meal in the morning and that it often included a savory or sweet corn meal porridge. It sounds as though molasses may have been a later addition.

If you're not inclined to make your own Indian Pudding, your best bet might be to try some at Durgin Park next time you're in Boston. I've never eaten there, but I remember my parents speaking of it fondly. Believe it or not, you can also buy Indian Pudding in a can!

My recipe for Indian Pudding was given to my Mom by Auntie Bee. It is simpler and plainer than others I've seen. It has no butter, eggs, or raisins. I made it with skim milk which resulted in a rather thin, but still very tasty, porridge. I believe my mom always made it with whole milk. This keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days and can be reheated in the microwave.

Baked Indian Pudding

1 quart milk
1/3 cup corn meal
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 tsp ginger
a pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased baking dish. Cook in a slow oven (275 F) for 2 hours. Stir pudding 3 or 4 times while cooking or until it is well blended. (My note: stir fairly often in the beginning to avoid lumps.)

Dining with the Bloggers - April 20th

So what was that I was saying last week? Oh yeah, "I'm going to be good". Ha! This is one of those weeks. It started with a cookout at my parents, followed the next night by dinner out with my family to celebrate three birthdays, and then I had to make a cake. Yes, following close on the heels of cheese week, this week our Dining with the Bloggers theme is "A Cake".

Well, I can't complain too much. Any excuse for a cake is good enough for me and you don't have to search too hard among all those food blogs out there to find some mighty tempting cake recipes. Actually, this week I didn't have to search at all as I found this recipe in the course of my regular wanderings several weeks ago. It is Deb's (of In My Kitchen) recipe for Chocolate Gingerbread Cake. I love chocolate anything, but this combination of chocolate and ginger sounded especially appealing to me. The cake is a spicy gingerbread with additions of cocoa and chocolate chips. The cocoa gives the cake a nice undercurrent of chocolate, while a generous amount of ginger and other spices (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, pepper, and nutmeg) give it some zing. All this is punctuated with a smattering of chocolate chips - yum! Deb added a cardamom cream cheese icing, but since most of my cake was bound for the freezer, I decided to omit the frosting. The cake is delicious as is, but I'll bet it is stunning with the icing. I've always liked gingerbread, and this is a variation that I know I'll be making again.

Now off you go to Zarah's, where another yummy cake awaits!

Mondays with Maida - Nut-Tree Walnut Jumbles

Page 49 in the old book / page 82 in the new book

As you may have already guessed from last week, I'm starting to have trouble thinking of something new to say about all these drop cookies. Don't get me wrong... I do like drop cookies, and they are easy to make, it's just they're not that interesting to write about... or so it seems by the time you get around to the 23rd variety of them.

The one thing that I found interesting this week, was that there is sort of a progression from the Praline Wafers, to the Farmer's Wife's Pecan Cookies to these cookies. When I started this project, one thing I was hoping to gain from it was a better understanding of the chemistry of cookies - how different ingredients in various amounts affect the outcome of a cookie recipe. I think it would be fun to spend a day or two experimenting with slight variations on a single recipe, but I'm not sure when or if I'll ever get around to that. In the meantime, though, I can notice the similarities and differences in Maida Heatter's recipes and try to figure out cause and effect. These cookies have more flour, less sugar (and use dark rather than light brown sugar) and have some sour cream, resulting in a not quite chewy and almost cakey cookie, or what Maida Heatter calls semisoft.

I thought these cookies were nice, but nothing special. They're supposed to be topped with a walnut half, but I didn't have any walnut halves or even any attractive pieces, so I omitted them. It also seemed to me that they had plenty of nuts on the inside and didn't really need a piece on top (OK, and I couldn't help but recall Phil's comment about the Farmer's Wife's Pecan Cookies).

The cookie panel had quite a variety of ratings for these...

Suzanne: "Perfect cookie with a cup of coffee. This is a cakey cookie. You can really taste the brown sugar. This along with the walnut pieces inside make this a perfect cookie. This would also be good with vanilla ice cream. Yeah, no raisins!. Rating - 5"

Denny: "Very good Nut-Tree Walnut Jumbles. Rating - 4"

Laura: "Chewy cookie with yummy nutty crunch. Rating - 3"

Phil: "Cathy, quit your day job – perfectly cooked cookies – moist, puffy, and nicely textured. But put your considerable skills to another recipe – too nutty and not sweet enough for this sweet tooth. Rating - 2.8"

Overall rating by the panel - 3.7

Next week – 24-Karat Cookies

Nutrition Facts

Dining with the Bloggers - April 13th

The theme this week is cheese. I confess that this is my doing - it was a choice made several weeks back and by the time "cheese week" rolled around, I was wishing it was "lettuce week" or some such. I've been indulging a bit too much lately and with my trip to Sicily rapidly approaching, I feel the need to good (so that I can be bad in Sicily, of course).

With cheese I didn't see many options for being good (as in eating healthfully), so I just went for being good (as in delicious). I thought about pizza, but then came across Santos' Tomato Tart. If you take a look, you'll see...this is what pizza wants to be when it grows up.

Santos has a breezy way of describing how she cooks that makes it sound so easy. For the pastry she "...added all these little bits and bobs of cheese i had in the fridge...". She used a combination of parmesan, gruyere, fontina and pecorino. Yum. I looked in my fridge and found parmesan, leerdammer, and jack. Oh dear... do they even go together? I hemmed and hawed about which to use and which to leave out, but finally decided (in the spirit of "bits and bobs") to use them all.

I used cherry tomatoes, cut the pastry recipe in half, and made individual tarts. I had enough pastry for three but stuck one blob in the freezer for later and made just two tarts. They came out beautifully. It was delicious too - the rich cheesy crust and sweet roasted tomatoes were both wonderful. I have one more tart waiting to be reheated tomorrow...then I'm going to be good.

Zarah tried some pretty elegant mac 'n cheese. Oh my gosh that sounds good!

It's still me...

When I first stuck my toe in the pool that is blogdom, I was very concerned about anonymity. As I have gradually acclimated, I've become comfortable with revealing bits of myself here and there. It seems funny to me now that when I started this blog I didn't even want to reveal my first name, so I used my initials (cai) as my "display name" in Blogger. For quite some time now I've been wishing I had just used my first name, so I finally changed it. So when you see comments and posts signed "Cathy" ... it's just me!

Mondays with Maida - Route 7 Raisin-Nut Cookies

Page 48 in the old book / page 81 in the new book

You know, a year or so from now, I'll be wishing for the good old days when all I had to do was mix up some dough and drop it on a cookie sheet. Making cookies every Sunday evening has become my routine since I started Mondays with Maida, and a rather painless one at that. I still have months of "easy" cookies to go - there are 17 more drop cookies - but then the degree of difficulty will start to inch up. There will be many more simple cookies, but multi-layered bar cookies will make occasional appearances amidst the more ordinary brownies, then icebox cookies, and then *biting my knuckles* rolled cookies. Yes, cookies will be taking a bigger bite out of my weekend when I finish up this chapter, so I will give thanks for the drop cookie...in all its simplicity!

Maida Heatter describes these cookies as traditional cookie jar cookies and I would characterize them that way as well. They are mildly spiced cookies that are crunchy on the outside, somewhat cakey on the inside, and loaded with walnuts and raisins. They are not unusual in any way, but they are very good.

And now a word from the cookie panel...

Suzanne: "BOO -- Raisins! The nuts were great and the cookie was crunchy. I'm not a fan of spice/raisin cookies, so I'd rate this one as a 3. I'm showing my age, but I've decided to rate the cookies as the kids did on 'American Bandstand' in the 1950 - 1960's. Rating - 3 1.5" ***

Denny: "The 'Route 7 Raisin Nut Cookies' were very good. Rating - 4"

Laura: "Yummy and crunchy! I love the cinnamon and nutmeg flavors. Rating - 4"

Phil: "Not sure what to expect from a Route 7 cookie. Figured on some variant of road food - ample, stick to your ribs and average. Was pleasantly surprised by this combination of raisins and nuts in a slightly sweet, perfect puffy size cookie (a little more than a bite size but not too big). Rating - 3.5"

Overall rating by the panel - 3.6 3.3 ***

*** UPDATE *** Late breaking news...I was talking with Suzanne today and asked about the American Bandstand reference in her comments because I didn't really get it. Turns out she had forgotten that I wanted her to provide a rating on a scale from 1 to 5 and was (she thought) providing an unsolicited numerical rating on a scale of 1 to 10, which she explained through her reference to American Bandstand. So, she didn't really mean to give the cookies a 3. On a scale of 1 to 5, she felt they only merited a 1.5, making the revised average for the panel 3.3.

Next week – Nut-Tree Walnut Jumbles

Nutrition Facts

Dining with the Bloggers - April 6th

So what exactly is the relationship between Mr. R. and Miss A.? Will Mr. R. take Caryn on the upcoming shoot and where will it be? But most of all, who is Mr. R. and is Caryn really his personal chef??? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't had the pleasure of reading Delicious! Delicious!, Caryn's lovely and entertaining food blog. Caryn says that only the food is real, but one can't help but wonder...

I have to thank Barrett for pointing me in the direction of this blog. Although I had noticed the name of it somewhere, it wasn't until Barrett included it in a recent Posts of the Week that I actually visited it. I was immediately hooked. Each post is a brief scene written as a screenplay and includes a gorgeous photograph. Most are also accompanied by a recipe. So if you aren't already up on Caryn's adventures, you must start from the beginning and catch up! This week, the recipe that caught my eye was the one that had brought me there - Bierocks.

Bierocks are rolls filled with a meat and cabbage mixture. For a yeast bread, this was surprisingly quick and easy to make. The dough is mixed and kneaded in the mixer, though I kneaded it a little by hand at the end. The dough was easy to handle and stuffing the rolls was a snap. I used ground pork for the filling and decided to add a pinch of red pepper flakes and some fennel seeds. I ate my first bierock warm from the oven - it was heaven! The bread was fluffy and slightly sweet and combined with the pork and cabbage filling it made a perfectly yummy little sandwich. It wasn't until I reread Caryn's post just now that I noticed the mention of serving these with mustard, so I'll have to try that next time. I have frozen most of them and plan to use them for bag lunches in the near future. I really like this idea of making filled rolls - they're delicious and make such convenient little packages.

Oops, almost forgot to mention - the theme this week is "lunchbox", so stop by Zarah's and see what she has packed for you!

Mondays with Maida - The Farmer's Wife's Pecan Cookies

Page 47 in the old book / page 81 in the new book

What a difference a cup or so of flour makes! These cookies have the same ingredients as last week's cookies, but with more flour, less sugar and less butter. While last week's Praline Wafers were thin and candy-like, these are thicker, more traditional cookies that are very crunchy.

These cookies are super easy to make. You melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the other ingredients right in the pan. Making them was blessedly uneventful - no cookies sticking to foil this week!

I liked the cookies very much; they're quite sweet and VERY crunchy. They are also rather pretty, with a nice sheen and pecan half perched on top.

Here's what the cookie panel thought...

Suzanne: Suzanne was busy taking care of her brand new grandson, so didn't get a chance to try the cookies this week.

Denny: "Farmer's Wife's Pecan Cookies were very good. Rating - 4.22"

Laura: "Deliciously crunchy and incredibly tasty. Rating - 5"

Phil: "Not a soft cookie, crunchy at the edge and more chewy as you approach the middle - crowned with a textured pecan great for cookie aesthetics but not so good for enhancing the tasting experience. A serviceable cookie and if exposure time (time to disappear from the container after staff are advised there are cookies) is any indicator, one of the quickest to disappear. Rating - 3.75"

Overall rating by the panel - 4.3

Next week – Route 7 Raisin-Nut Cookies

Nutrition Facts

Dining with the Bloggers - March 30th

From the moment I laid eyes on Barrett's photo and recipe for his Mexican Black Bean Tart With Cornmeal Crust, I knew I was going to have to try it. I loved everything about it...from its ingredients (especially the black beans) to its being a tart. With this week's Dining with the Bloggers theme being "Pies and Tarts - Sweet and Savory", the time had finally come (yay!).

Since I was preparing this just for me and I wasn't sure how well it would do as leftovers, I decided to cut the recipe in half and cook it in 10-cm individual tart pans. I made 3, but I think I could have made 4 without much trouble. I found that the timing provided by Barrett worked perfectly for these smaller tarts as well. I didn't attempt to locate Chihuahua cheese and instead used the suggested substitution of mozarella and jack cheese.

Barrett commented in his post that he was particularly proud of the cornmeal crust, and rightly so. It is delicious in its own right, but it is also a perfect accompaniment to the spicy black bean filling. It is corny, buttery and wonderfully crisp. The finished tarts were beautiful and delicious - absolutely perfect in every way. I even relished the leftovers which I reheated in the microwave. Although the crust was not as crispy, it did not get at all soggy and the flavors and textures were still incredible. I was sorry to see the last one go! I have no doubt that I will be making Barrett's tart again!

I wonder what Zarah found ... maybe something sweet for dessert?

Mondays with Maida - Praline Wafers

Page 46 in the old book / page 77 in the new book

These are very thin, crispy, candy-like cookies that are supposed to be reminescent of New Orleans pralines. They are very sweet and have brown sugar and pecans in them, but to my mind the similarity ends there.

I had a terrible time making these because I made one very big mistake. I've been successfully using parchment paper for years and never thought twice about using something different (although I do have Silpat mats that I use from time to time, I feel that parchment is less fuss). You may recall I mentioned way back when that the old book routinely calls for lining the cookie sheets with foil, while the new book specifies parchment. I knew that these cookies were going to be extremely thin and fragile and for some reason got it in my head that maybe the foil might be a better bet. DO NOT use foil to line the cookie sheets for these cookies! I ended up tossing a good deal of the first batch in the trash, still attached to the foil.

Supposedly, when the cookies have been baked the correct amount of time, they will come off the foil easily. I was able, with great difficulty, to remove the first sheet of cookies (which I think was probably slightly undercooked) from the foil. I put the second sheet back in the oven for a couple of minutes and then they came off easily enough, but the next two sheets never came off the foil. I put them back in the oven over and over again, but they were stuck fast. I switched to parchment for the last sheet of the first batch and all of the hastily prepared second batch and had no trouble with sticking. Live and learn!

Given my history with these cookies, I was probably a harsh critic. They are good, but I didn't find them particularly satisfying as a cookie. With only two tablespoons of flour (for 28 cookies), they really are more like candy than a cookie. They are incredibly easy to make, though. They take about three minutes to mix in a saucepan, shaping is not much of an issue (just be sure to distribute the pecans), and removing them from parchment is not a problem.



However, judging by how quickly they were consumed in my office and the responses of the cookie panel, you might want to disregard my opinion!

Suzanne: "At first taste, I thought the cookie was too sweet. Then I realized it tasted like a crunchy, chewy, pecan pie. The cookie was thin and lacey. Rating - 3.5"

Denny: "Another one that I wouldn't normally like, but did. Rating - 3.8"

Laura: "Yummy! Melts in your mouth with just the right amount of crunch! Rating - 5"

Phil: "More a wafer than a classic cookie - thin, chewy, sweet, with an occasional ripple of pecan. Tends to stick to those back molars for further snacking. For weight watchers may be one of the more lethal cookie varieties since it appears such a slim wafer is not very caloric. Rating - 4.5"

Overall rating by the panel - 4.2

Next week – The Farmer's Wife's Pecan Cookies

Nutrition Facts

IMBB 13 - Peanut Butter (or muffin)'s

IMBB 13 almost snuck past me this month - falling on a Thursday for the first time and coming so close on the heels of SHF 6. But luckily I was checking on a few of my favorite blogs last night and saw an early entry. I didn't want to miss this one - Maki of I was just really very hungry is hosting the 13th edition with the theme, My Little Cupcake (or muffin) - so I made myself some (or muffin)'s.

By all rights these shouldn't have turned out at all, and while I think they still need some adjustments, they came out surprising well. My approach was slap-dash at best. While I was eating my dinner this evening I looked at the muffin recipes in two cookbooks to get some general guidelines for amounts of dry ingredients, wet ingredients, eggs, and leavening. Then I took my idea - a savory peanut butter muffin with cornmeal and whole wheat flour - and wrote down amounts that seemed in line with the other recipes.

They are not very sweet at all, with a nice light texture and a little crunch from the cornmeal. On the down side, they were a little dry and the flavor was a little more subtle than I'd hoped for. I had originally planned to use a quarter teaspoon of cayenne, but chickened out and used only an eighth. I would increase the cayenne next time. I think I might also try increasing the peanut butter slightly - perhaps to half a cup. I had originally planned to use peanut oil, but I didn't have any. Once long ago I had some roasted peanut oil and I think that might be very nice in this recipe.

Peanut Butter (or muffin)'s

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup natural peanut butter (salted)
2 tbs canola oil
1 cup milk
sesame seeds and fleur del sel for sprinkling on top

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Mix in the brown sugar, then the peanut butter, then the oil, and finally the milk. Using a spatula, stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups and sprinkle with sesame seeds and fleur de sel. Bake at 375 F for 25 minutes.

Dining with the Bloggers - March 23rd

I hate to rush through this post - the recipe I found this week is really wonderful. And just look at that lovely Dining with the Bloggers logo that Zarah made. It's just that it's late and I really must get to bed...

Our chosen theme this week is Rice. I looked all over and for some reason had a little difficulty finding something that appealed to me. I think part of the problem was that my criteria extended beyond taste...I wanted easy too. I knew I wasn't going to fit the cooking in this weekend, since I had other cooking projects planned, so I needed something quick and easy. When I get home in the evening (usually around 7:30 or so) I'm ravenous and if I can't get dinner together quickly I start stuffing my face with whatever munchies I can lay my hands on.

Fortunately, when I came to Deb's blog, In My Kitchen, a search for "rice" turned up a simple and delicious recipe for Asparagus & Rice Soup with Pancetta and Black Pepper (and I just realized that I completely forgot to put in the black pepper!). Besides sounding yummy and being easy, this soup had asparagus in it. I had just been admiring the asparagus this weekend at Whole Foods - seeing those slender little sprouts only served to further whet my appetite for Spring. So Monday evening after work I made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some asparagus and then rushed home to whip up some soup. I'm not exagerating when I say I had dinner on the table 45 minutes after I got home, and before starting the soup I went through my mail, checked my email and fed my cat. The soup couldn't have been easier - but do pay heed to Deb's warning about overcooking the asparagus. It happens fast!

So I had my first dose of Spring and it was good. It was very good!

Don't forget to stop by Zarah's to see what she found. Good night!!

Mondays with Maida - Lemon Walnut Wafers

Page 45 in the old book / page 78 in the new book

These are small lemon flavored cookies with walnuts. They are crispy around the edges and slightly soft in the middle. They were very easy to make and especially good just out of the oven. My mom loves all things lemon and I think I'll be making these next time they come to dinner.

This week the newly convened "Cookie Panel" gives me a hand evaluating the cookies for the first time. When I asked them help me out with this, I never dreamed that any more than the recipe would be critiqued. Turns out, though, that my execution of the recipe is also the subject of their evaluation! I was tempted to go back to them and ask that they only consider the recipe, but I think that the problems that I had with this recipe (and any recipe) are probably worth discussing, since others may have similar difficulties.

My main problem (again) was with timing. These are very small cookies and you really don't want them to have too much color. The cookies in my first batch were a little too large (based on the number of cookies the recipe specified), but these cookies were favored over the smaller ones by those that had one of each. I think making the cookies a little bigger would also make them less likely to overcook.

The greatest strength of these cookies is their surprisingly intense lemon flavor. They have both lemon juice and lemon rind in them and these provide a wonderful citrus taste that you seldom find in a cookie or cake unless it has been doused with a syrup or glaze after baking.



So now the Cookie Panel will tell you what they thought...

Suzanne: "Intense lemony flavor. Crunchy with soft center. Great with vanilla ice cream. Good with coffee. Rating - 4"

Denny: "Lemon Walnut Wafers are not on my list of favorites but I'd still rate these a 4. Very good. A few were baked a little too long but no noticeable burned taste. Rating - 4"

Laura: "Very nice and lemony! Rating - 3.5"

Phil: "Strengths - distinct lemon flavor nicely tempered by walnut chunks. Weaknesses - more like a cookie than a wafer. Some variability in texture and flavor for two cookies sampled. One a bit dry, the other just right. Happened to chill half of the preferred cookie having to rush off to a meeting. Chilling seemed to diminish the lemon flavor a bit. Rating - 3.5"

Overall rating by the panel - 3.75

Next week – Praline Wafers

Nutrition Facts

Meet the Cookie Panel

If you’ve been reading my regular Mondays with Maida series, you know I’ve been bringing cookies into my office nearly every week. I decided to enlist the help of a few of my coworkers in evaluating the cookies each week. That way you’ll get several points of view. I’ve asked that each week they rate the cookie on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 being the best possible score) and give me some brief comments. After collecting their ratings and remarks for the first cookie (to be posted tomorrow), I think I can say they won’t be afraid to tell it like it is!

I asked each panelist to jot down what they like in a cookie. Here are their responses:

Suzanne: “1. Anything chocolate or with chocolate chips; 2. Anything with nuts; and 3. I prefer a crunchy cookie rather than a cake textured cookie.”

Denny: “I am honored to be on the CCC (Cathy’s Cookie Committee). I generally like Chocolate & Nuts or Nutty.”

Laura: “Depending on my mood and taste at the moment, I like all kinds of cookies (crunchy, chewy, thin, thick, with nuts, without nuts, etc…).”

Phil: “Willing to try just about any type of cookie with the exception of the really unconventional (e.g. cicada cookies or anything with bugs in them). Generally biased in favor of cookies that aren’t dry. Favorite ingredients include: chocolate, most nuts, cranberry, prune, or a noticeable hint of interesting spices.”

Lest you think that Phil has been watching too much “Fear Factor”, I should explain his remark about cicada cookies. During last spring’s Brood X cicada emergence, another coworker actually baked some cicada cookies. I didn’t hear about these until after the fact, but I’m with Phil on this one. I like cookies, but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere!

SHF 6 – A Tale of Two Puddings

It’s Sugar High Friday once again. This time it is hosted by Debbie of words to eat by and the theme is Stuck on You (Caramel). Up until today I had never caramelized sugar. It was one of those things I was sort of afraid to do. If nothing else, at least I have cleared that hurdle.

I somehow got in my head I wanted to make caramel pudding. I was googling about and came across an old Fanny Farmer recipe for Caramel Junket. I’d heard of Junket before but wasn’t really sure what it was. While the term is commonly used to refer to the dessert itself, it is actually the brand name of the rennet tablets used to create the desserts. According to the maker of the tablets, desserts made by adding rennet tablets to milk are more properly called rennet-custards.



I managed to find Junket tablets at Whole Foods, so I gave the Caramel Junket (or should I say Caramel Rennet-Custard?) a try. Melting the sugar to make the caramel was easy enough, though I had some trouble when I added the boiling water. The caramel seized and I ended up with a couple of chunks that never did dissolve back into the syrup. Warmed milk, the crushed junket tablet, a little salt and vanilla are then added to the caramel syrup. The junket must be left in a warm place until it sets and then it is chilled.



It’s possible that I rushed the process – I was in a hurry to have a taste and get my photos. Or maybe using skim milk was not a good idea. In any case, I’m pretty sure something went wrong. My guess is that junket doesn’t have a firm set. It also doesn’t feel thick and creamy in your mouth. But I don’t think it should have been separating as badly as it was after I spooned some out of the dish. The caramel flavor was barely noticeable and I found the thin, jiggly texture totally unappealing.



So, back to the drawing board. I decided to combine the junket recipe with my favorite chocolate pudding recipe (a recipe that Debbie is also a fan of) to create my own caramel pudding. I followed the same procedure for making the caramel and had better luck this time around with getting the caramel completely dissolved after adding the boiling water. While the end result was much better than the junket, the caramel flavor was still a little weak. One thing I forgot to do that might help is to add a pinch of salt. I’ve included that in the recipe below. I was pleased to find out that the Moosewood chocolate pudding recipe from which my recipe is derived is very resilient and can probably tolerate quite a bit of fiddling. I’m thinking butterscotch, then maybe lemon …

Caramel Pudding

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
2 cups skim milk, warmed
3 tbs cornstarch
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Put the sugar in a heavy pan over medium-high heat and caramelize the sugar. Add boiling water (careful – it will bubble and steam ferociously when you first add it) and continue cooking until reduced to 1/3 cup. The caramel will seize when you add the water, but keep stirring and it should dissolve back into the syrup. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add a ladleful of the warmed milk and stir, then add the rest of the milk, the cornstarch and the salt. Put the pudding back over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously, until it starts to simmer. Reduce the heat and continue cooking and stirring for another three or four minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into serving dish(es) and chill.

Dining with the Bloggers - March 16th

It seems of late that many Blogger food-bloggers are taking matters into their own hands and creating some much needed "categories" or themed archives of their own. I keep hoping that Blogger will see the light and add support for categories, but deep down I know that I too will soon be setting up some sort of make-shift arrangement here at my little kitchen.

As I prowl about the constantly expanding food blog universe in search of good-tasting recipes, I am increasingly grateful for both the official and unofficial forms of these helpful indexes. Amy Sherman of Cooking with Amy has a particularly nice one. It sits right at the top of her home page and provides quick access to 76 different recipes (wow!) under six headings.

Quite conveniently for me, one of those headings corresponded with our Dining with the Bloggers theme this week - "Breakfast". I had been looking about for a granola recipe and was happy to find that Amy's granola sounded quite good and didn't have an extravagant amount of butter in it.

Until I started thinking about what to make for this week's Dining with the Bloggers, it had not occurred to me to make my own granola. But it turns out that homemade granola is as easy to make as it is delicious. It is also, as Amy points out, something that lends itself to improvisation. You can tailor it to your liking in so many different ways. I didn't venture far from Amy's recipe as written for this go-round, but look forward to being a little creative the next time. For this occasion I used the recommended oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and walnuts and then added the optional raisins and cinnamon.

I'd recommend that you definitely include the optional cinnamon. I tasted the granola before and after adding the cinnamon and I think it makes all the difference. This granola is not as sweet as most store-bought, but I found the more subtle sweetness to be just right - particularly if you're adding some fresh fruit. I've been eating it with cold skim milk and banana and enjoying it tremendously. I'll bet it would also be good stirred into some yogurt.

OK, time to go see what Zarah is serving for breakfast. Her weekend waffles will be a hard act to follow!