Hot cross buns

Hey! Life is super duper crazy, more so than usual. Oof! Anyway, real fast, my sister is here visiting for a second and I wanted to make something delicious, then I remembered about hot cross buns! Oh yeah, they're delicious. I haven't had them in ten years or something, and these are what I wanted. Happy Easter!

Hot cross buns


Ok so I'm not going to post the recipe, really, because it's just this recipe, but without the apricots and plus:
3/4 c raisins
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t cardamom
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
zest of 1 orange

Add the spices and zest with the other dry ingredients, then after beating the dough stir in the raisins. I scooped the dough into muffin tins instead of trying to shape each glob nicely. Makes a little under 2 dozen.

For the crosses
1 T milk
1/2 c powdered sugar

Stir together, and spread over the top with spoons onto the cooled rolls.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

As someone who's totally not Irish in any way, I don't really feel anything special about St. Pat's day, except that it means two things. One, my birthday is in a little over 2 weeks (it was supposed to be today), and two, it's corned beef season!!! I love corned beef. It's my favorite food. When I was younger, I used to always ask for corned beef for my special birthday dinner. Technically, I made New England boiled dinner, which is easy easy easy, and good. Not terribly nutritious, but it could be worse. I could have deep fried it.

New England boiled dinner


3-4 lb corned beef
1 onion, quartered
2 heads garlic, peeled
2 bay leaves
1 t peppercorns
1 T pickling spices (or the packet that came with your corned beef)
4-6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1" pieces
4-6 red potatoes, halved
1 head of cabbage, cored and cut into eighths

Combine corned beef, onion, garlic, bay, peppercorns, and spices in a large pot. Cover with cold water, bring to a lot boil, cover with a lid, and lower the heat to medium-low. Cook about 3 hours, until it's not too hard to stick a fork into the meat. Add the carrots and potatoes and a little more water if you need to (you shouldn't), cover back up, and cook 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the cabbage, cover, and cook another 15 minutes. Done! Serve meat sliced, with vegetables and broth.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even though I think we should love each other all the days and not just Valentine's day, I do love the beautiful bouquet Alex got me today (and thanks Jakkie!). Sorry for the shortage of posts lately, we're working 9 days straight and then going back to Philly to visit friends and with all our free time we're looking at houses. We're buying our first! Eventually. So life is crazy, I hope you kissed your husband or girlfriend or dog on the mouth today and maybe even bought your mom flowers today, and I'll see you guys soon when I get a break for cooking!

ps: Love this guy:

Cardamom bread

Every Christmas, no matter where I am, it's important to my sisters and I that we have cardamom bread.We grew up having it every year, and have struggled a bit to make it gluten-free. One year we used a Bob's Red Mill mix and added some cardamom, but this was better. Add as much cardamom as you are comfortable with, some people can't stand it, so in that case, you could make this a good cinnamon loaf. I wouldn't though, this is too good and special. The loaf should be braided, but I just plopped it on a pan and let it do its thing. On the top should be pearl sugar, a large-grained sugar that doesn't dissolve during baking. I used regular granulated sugar because I forgot to get the special sugar, but it's really best with the good large kind. I wish we had Christmas more often so we could have this more often, but I don't want to eat it more and ruin the specialness.

Cardamom bread
I used the recipe for the best gf bread I've found, just baked into a loaf. 

3 eggs

1/4 c oil

1/4 c sugar plus 1 t plus 1 T

1 t cider vinegar

2 t vanilla

1 1/4 c milk, warm

1 t salt

1 T xanthan gum

1/3 c potato starch

1 1/2 c rice flour

1/2 c sorghum flour

1 c tapioca starch

1/3 c teff flour

1 T yeast

2 t cardamom

large grain sugar

Combine yeast, 1 t sugar, and milk in a bowl and let sit until foamy. Beat eggs in the mixer until combined. Add in oil, vinegar, and 1/4 c sugar. Dump in all the dry ingredients and the foamy, yeasty milk, and mix until everything is moistened. Scrape down the bowl, and then turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat for 4 minutes. 

Scrape the dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, and nudge around to form a loafy shape. Let rise for half an hour or so until doubled in size, then sprinkle with large grain sugar. Preheat the oven to 375, and place a pan with 1/2" of water on the bottom rack. When the oven is hot, bake about 30 minutes, or until bottom is well browned and loaf sounds hollow and looks done.  Serve on Christmas morning. 

Peppermint chocolate crinkles

These are a family favorite, but I've never made them peppermint before. They're really good! Next time, I might smash up some candy canes and toss them into the powdered sugar before rolling the cookies in them. YUM. I also didn't have any bakers chocolate so I used cocoa powder and vegetable oil, which worked out well. These are a little crunchy outside, and soft and brownie-like inside.

Peppermint chocolate crinkles
3/4 c cocoa powder
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 t peppermint extract
2 c rice flour mix
1/2 t xanthan gum
1/4 t salt
1 1/4 t baking powder
confectioners sugar, for rolling

Combine the cocoa powder and the oil, stirring until combined, then microwave for a few seconds until smooth and melty looking. Add the sugar, eggs, vanilla and peppermint and stir well. Combine the flour mix, xanthan gum, salt and baking powder in a small bowl, then stir into the chocolate mixture. Chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. When you're ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 350. Roll into small balls and coat with confectioners sugar, then line up on your linked baking sheet. Leave some space between, but these won't spread that much when they bake so don't worry. Bake 10-12 minutes, until they hold their shape when you poke them gently. Makes a whole bunch, a few dozen.

Latkes, with some things on top

Happy Hanukkah! One of the reasons I'm lucky that I married Alex is that he makes the best potato pancakes. Plus, he makes them whenever I ask him to. He's so helpful and great. 

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah! 

You should make latkes, and then top them with sour cream, then smoked salmon, then a poached egg. Possibly a sprinkle of salt and pepper. This is a good idea. I promise. 

I'm not going to repost how to make latkes, go HERE and look at the recipe, posted two years ago! Once you've made them (or gotten your wonderful husband to make them for you), eat them with apple sauce, or with sour cream, then smoked salmon, then poach an egg and plop it on top. So delicious!

How to roast a turkey

Turkey! Cooking a turkey isn't that hard, you guys. It's just like a big chicken!
The most important thing when cooking a turkey is to make sure it's totally thawed out before you try to cook it. The first year I cooked a turkey I was all ready to get it into the oven when I remember it was frozen solid. Ice cubes, man. It was a disaster. I ran it under cold running water for a long, long time until it was thawed enough to cook, but let me tell you, that was a mistake I won't do again.

This is the most basic of turkey recipes. I didn't do crazy things like rub it with herby butter, brine it, or stuff it. Well, I did stuff some herbs and a lemon into it, but not stuffing. My turkey was 10 pounds. Yours might be bigger.

Turkey


1 turkey, whatever weight yours is
1/2 stick butter (4 T), melted
a handful of herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)
1 head of garlic
1 lemon, halved
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 350. Remove the guts from your turkey, and stick them in the fridge for now. We'll deal with them some other time when we make gravy. Rinse the turkey, then pat dry. Stuff the herbs, garlic, and lemon into the cavity of the bird. Smear some of the butter of the turkey, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Tie the legs of your turkey together, and if you want, tie the wings down too. Place the turkey breast down and stick in the oven. Baste with melted butter every 30 minutes until the butter is gone, then baste with the pan juices. Flip the turkey after an hour. Cook 10-12 minutes per pound, until a thermometer reads 175-180 when stuck in the thigh. Let sit for 15 minutes or so before carving.

Chocolate pecan pie

Holy crap. This is delicious. It's like, pecan pie, but CHOCOLATE. You can't beat that. This was just a side note in the Joy of Cooking after the pecan pie recipe, but it caught my eye. The recipe called for semisweet chocolate, but I didn't have that so I did some finagling and used cocoa powder. This is so good that I ate it for breakfast this morning.

Chocolate pecan pie
From the Joy of Cooking


1 pie crust (I used frozen, but you can make one from scratch pretty easily)
2 c pecans
3 eggs
1 c sugar
1 c corn syrup
5 T melted butter
1/2 c plus 1 T cocoa powder
1 T rum (or 1 t vanilla)
1/2 t salt

Preheat the oven to 375. Toast the pecans for 5-10 minutes. Beat the eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, cocoa, rum and salt until completely combined. Sprinkle the nuts over the pie crust, then pour in the chocolate egg mixture. Bake 35-45 minutes, until edges are firm but the center is set but still a little quivery (like Jello). Cool completely before serving. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just as is!

Green bean casserole

Are you ready for Thanksgiving yet? Me neither. The good news is that I made green bean casserole. This is easy, if you can find the gf condensed soup. I've bought it at Wholefoods, but you can buy it online as well. Pacific Natural Foods makes a gluten free one, it runs about $3 a box, so it's a special treat. I made the crispy onions myself, I haven't found a gf store-bought version. 

Green bean casserole

1 1/2 lb frozen green beans

1 can (box) condensed soup (chicken or mushroom)

1/4 c milk

salt and pepper

1 t paprika

1 t gf soy sauce

1 onion, sliced thin

2 T rice flour or corn starch

2 T olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the green beans in the casserole dish. Mix together the condensed soup, milk, salt and pepper (a pinch of each), paprika and soy sauce. Pour over the green beans. Toss the onions in the flour, then fry in the olive oil until starting to crisp. Sprinkle the onions over the top the the green beans, and bake for about 45 minutes until bubbly and browned. 

Stuffing stuffed mushrooms

Remember yesterday when I made stuffing? Do you need something to do with your leftovers? You should do this. Actually, Alex made them, but you can too.

Stuffing stuffed mushrooms


some large stuffing mushrooms
some leftover stuffing
a few pats of butter

Preheat the oven to 375. Pull out the stems and scrape off the gills of the mushrooms. Form stuffing into little balls and place them into the mushrooms. Top with a pat of butter, and bake 20 minutes or so until browned. Eat! Maybe with cranberry sauce.

Stuffing from scratch

You may or not know this about me, but now you will: stuffing is one of my FAVORITE foods ever. I tend to forget about it once summer rolls around and all I eat are hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon, but as soon as it starts to get chilly, I start dreaming about stuffing.

Tonight I had the idea I would have stuffing and chicken, but realized on the way home I don't have my usual stuffing seasoning (Bells). So I checked out the Joy of Cooking and used the basic stuffing recipe in there, with some additions/subtractions (math!). And, obviously, with gluten free bread.

Stuffing from scratch
I guess this isn't technically totally from scratch, since I didn't make the bread. Shh.

1 1/2 loaves gf bread of your choice
2 carrots
2 ribs celery
1 onion
3 cloves garlic, smashed
4 T butter (1/2 stick)
fresh herbs, about a tablespoon of each: sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley
1/2-1 c chicken stock (or vegetable if that's what you have/want)
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Cube up the bread and spread between two cookie sheets, and pop in the oven. Bake about 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until your bread is toasty. Remove from the oven and set aside. Chop up all your vegetables, and melt the butter in a large pan. Cook the vegetables until starting to soften, about 10 minutes.

Toss in the herbs. Slowly pour over the stock, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stir. Add as much broth as you think you need, but be very careful not to over-moisten or the bread will fall apart into (delicious tasting) mush.
Bake, covered, for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake 10 minutes to brown the top. Serve with chicken, turkey, pork, whatever. And cranberry sauce.

the best of 2009

This year is over. Soon.

This was the year I got married, made some new friends, got a new job, bought a car, had to get rid of that car, bought a second car, went on a few adventures, went to a few weddings (besides my own), and didn't break any bones this year. Things are good. Everyone is healthy, I'm happy, and I hope you are too.

Here are some of my favorite recipes of the year, the 9 best of 2009.

(in no particular order)

1. Shrimp and feta. In tomato sauce. I love tomato sauce, shrimp, AND feta. Seafood and cheese sound weird, but totally work here.

2. Liver dumplings. These aren't really livery. Yes, they have liver, but they're like matzo balls. But gluten free, and using up that extra liver or two you have from roasting a chicken. The dumplings have a little extra special flavor from the dumplings, and I love them.

3. English muffins. Look at the nooks and crannies! Do I need to say anything else?

4. Quick, delicious bread. This is the bread I always make when I have some fancy cheese, want to make garlic bread, or just want some bread with butter.

5. Chocolate angel food cake with chocolate ganache and strawberries. Need I say more?

6. Butterscotch brownies. These are quick and easy and addicting and don't need any special ingredients. I grew up on these.

7. Chocolate pudding cake. This is bonkers. So good.
8. Lazy daisy cake. Another dessert I grew up on. This was a year about comforting, familiar food. Also, anything with lazy in the name is a dessert for me.

9. Pecan biscotti. I can't handle these, they're so delicious. Buttery, crunchy, nutty, awesome. Also, my mom used to make them when we were kids.

Be safe everyone, and see you in 2010! That sounds so weird.

Sauerkraut Latkes

Yes, really. Alex and I are making sausages with sauerkraut for dinner, and had half of a bag left over. I was playing around on epicurious to get some ideas, and found this recipe. Genius! So I threw it together (seriously, about 2 minutes), fried them up in some oil, and ate them up. I am glad I only made four because I could have eaten a whole lot more than the two I ate.

Sauerkraut latkes

inspired by epicurious.com

1 c sauerkraut, drained well then squeezed between paper towels

1 egg

salt and pepper

2 T flour mix

oil for frying

Heat 1/4" oil in a frying pan. Combine sauerkraut, egg, salt and pepper, and flour mix in a bowl with your hands. Form patties, squeezing out any excess liquid. Fry latkes, browning well on one side, then flipping and browning on the other. Serve with apple sauce.

Stuffing!

After compiling all those recipes yesterday, I decided to use the little loaf of bread I baked to make stuffing. I had already bought a chicken, so I roasted it, made a pan gravy, stuffing, and green beans. It was a good idea.

Stuffing

1 small loaf gluten free bread (I made this one, with a whole ton of herbs mixed in, you can use half of a loaf of store bought bread if you want)

2 carrots

1 onion

2 ribs celery

5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

3 T butter

2 T poultry seasoning (more or less)

3/4 c warm milk (more or less)

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Cube the bread (or slice and tear into pieces), and toast lightly. Dice the carrots, onion, and celery. Melt the butter in an oven-safe pan, then cook the vegetables until softened. Add the poultry seasoning (I use Bells), the milk, and then toss in the bread cubes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes, covered, then uncovered for 10 more. Serve with lots of gravy.

Thanksgiving recipe ideas

I am getting around to writing a recap of our trip to VT/NH last week (so fun), but in the meantime, I realize Thanksgiving is SUPER soon. It's in a week and a half? Right? I've barely even thought about it, which is nuts. Instead of doing something new today, I've compiled a list of dishes I'd like to eat at Thanksgiving. I'm not including a recipe for turkey, but most everything else.

First, lets talk about appetizers. My favorite is the old standby, cheese and crackers. Feeling a little fancier? Here are a few other choices.

My favorite are deviled eggs. They're easy, super cheap, can be made ahead of time, and can be made without any fancy ingredients you don't have in the cabinet already.

Another favorite is chicken liver pate. Unfortunately, I never get a picture before I eat half of it.

Next, sides. This category includes vegetables and other interesting things.

Blue cheese green bean casserole. This is bonkers.

Next, sweet corn pudding. This is easy, you can mix it up ahead of time and bake it when you're ready.

Staying on the corn-based theme is something I love, polenta with blue cheese. This is easy and quick and simple and so good. This is the last blue cheese post, I promise.

Regular, plain old, delicious stuffing.

In the condiment department is my absolute favorite version of cranberry sauce. This is the one I used to make in school when I was little.

Breads are next.

First and easiest are biscuits. They're good for mopping up gravy.

Dinner rolls are always appreciated. These are full of herbs, but you can make them plain.

Want to bake your own bread for stuffing, or for sandwiches, toast for the morning, or just eating with butter? This is the loaf for you. Easy. Quick. So good. I have a loaf baking right now.

Last is my favorite course, dessert! Hooray.

Let's start with pies. Maybe my favorite of the desserts.

Drunk berry pie-tart. This one is killer.

Pecan pie! I just started my love affair with pecan pie last year. I didn't know I loved it. Oh I do love you, pecan pie.

For the gluten-free vegans, and my little sister who loves apple pie, here's an apple crumble pie.

Only serve this tart if you are having a lot of guests. This Snickers tart isn't something that is safe to have around the house.

Not a pie, but almost. Lazy person pumpkin pie bars.

I guess there are some people out there who don't like pie as much as I do. Or who want to go crazy and serve some weird dessert at Thanksgiving. Here are some choices.

Number one is this ridiculously good chocolatey cake. I'm literally drooling thinking about it. Pudding frosting? Chocolate cake? Count me IN.

Pumpkin roll. This is a nice fall dessert. Coat it with chocolate if you're feeling craaaazy.

Gingerbread cake with orange frosting. This is absolutely one of my favorites.

I make a cake like this every year for the holidays. Self-saucing brown sugar cake.

Last but not least is a really nice, grown up cold dessert, lime semifreddo and cranberry sorbet. Serve this after a huge meal and you won't kill your guests with something heavy. Save the pies for breakfast.

If you need some more ideas, check out my recap of Thanksgiving from two years ago.