Baked salmon

A nutritious dinner that is ready in 30 minutes: baked salmon, roasted veggie cold salad from Whole Foods, and a Seeds of Change brown rice-quinoa blend (I buy it at Target or Costco).

This recipe for salmon is so simple and so good!

Baked Salmon

Ingredients:
2 fillets salmon
1/2 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
 
Directions:
Coat the bottom of a glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place salmon in pan and drizzle liberally with olive oil (I like flavored olive oil like the mushroom-sage one from All Spice). Squeeze half a lemon over the fillets and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (start checking the fish at 20 minutes if your oven runs a bit hot, since you don't want to overbake it!).

Strawberry-spinach-avocado salad

I'm sure there are a hundred different permutations of the strawberry-spinach salad, but I'll add this one to the list.  We've been trying to eat more healthily throughout the month of February (all the regular advisements: eat more fruits and veggies! drink more water! get enough protein!).

I recently made this salad as a (substantial) side dish for some salmon we had for dinner. Typically, I put some sort of cheese (feta or blue) in a strawberry-spinach salad, but since we've temporarily cut out dairy, I substituted avocados to try to keep the creamy texture that cheese usually brings to the salad. Don't skip the spiced nuts; they are the best thing about this recipe (in fact, they're a great snack all by themselves). Enjoy!

Strawberry-Spinach-Avocado Salad

Directions
For each individual salad, toss together:
A couple handfuls of baby spinach
2-3 strawberries (sliced)
1/3 - 1/2 avocado (cubed)
2 Tbsp. vanilla-spiced nuts (see recipe below)
Balsamic dressing (homemade or store bought*), to taste

* We really like this Bolthouse Farms balsamic vinaigrette

(found in the refrigerated produce case at Target).

Vanilla Spiced Nuts
Recipe from Cooking Light

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg white
3 c. nuts (use any combination you like of the following: almonds, pecans, or macadamias; I really like pecan halves)
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Directions
Whisk together egg white and vanilla in a large bowl until foamy. Add nuts and spices and stir mixture until nuts are well coated. Spread out on parchment paper on a baking sheet or jellyroll pan and bake 15 minutes at 325 degrees. Pull out of oven and break apart any large clumps of nuts. Turn off oven and return pan to oven for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool completely; nuts will get crisp as they cool. Store in an airtight container.

 

White chocolate chip cookie bars

 * Not good for you. Very yummy. *

White Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

1 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. white chocolate chips

Directions:

Beat butter with sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda and gradually add to butter-sugar mixture, beating until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread dough evenly in bottom of a 13x9 glass pan coated with nonstick cooking spray.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool completely and cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Apple caramel pecan muffins

Happy fall to you all!

I'm sorry for posting so sporadically lately; work (and life in general) has been keeping me busy.  I have been able to indulge in a few signs of the season: football games, sweaters and jeans, my first batch of apple cider, and some fall baking.

 Apple Caramel Muffins

This recipe stars three fall favorites--caramel, apples, and pecans.  I took these muffins to work last week and got lots of positive feedback.  I will say that the use of the word "muffin" falsely implies that these might be good for you; they do, however, taste great.  Here's the recipe.

Enjoy!

Peach pie

September is such a great month for produce. It seems like a lot of my friends and family have excess veggies and herbs, and I am happy to help them with that problem! So I've been doing a lot of internet searching to find ways to use 6 cups of cherry tomatoes, 4 zucchinis, etc. I had a big bag of the world's fuzziest peaches and decided to make them into a pie. Recipe below...

Boil a large pot of water and drop peaches in for about 30 seconds to loosen the skins:

Immediately remove them from the boiling water to a big bowl of ice cold water:

Slip the peels off, then slice the peaches and toss together in a bowl with:

1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar (or more, depending on how sweet the peaches are)

1/2 - 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. allspice (I usually go heavy on the spices)

1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp. cornstarch

(I used a pretty big pie pan, so I had a lot of peaches and scaled towards the upper end on the ingredients above.

Place your bottom pie crust in the pie pan and spoon peaches into the pan. Dot with about 2-3 Tbsp. of butter (cut into small pieces):

Place top pie crust over peaches, crimp the edges together, and cut a few slits in the top for steam to escape while baking. Brush top crust with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes. Pie top should be a pretty golden brown:

Don't forget to serve with a good vanilla ice cream. Such a great dessert for the end of summer / beginning of fall!

p.s. - I also made these shrimp rolls recently. It's pretty much like a lobster roll, but cheaper. I cobbled together the recipe, but essentially just cook the shrimp, then chop and add some onion, lemon juice, parsley, and Old Bay seasoning. Taste until you get the proportions right. Again, looking for ways to use up free tomatoes and herbs. Yum!

"Use what you have" recipes

Most weeknights I am looking for something quick and easy for dinner.  Lately I've been trying to use up ingredients in our pantry and fridge, so I thought I'd share the entree and dessert I made recently.  Both are easy to make and taste great!

What I had: a bag of frozen shrimp, a clove of garlic, and a packet of yellow "Spanish" rice

What I made: sauteed shrimp, yellow rice, and broccoli

Shrimp recipe (via Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything):

1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 pounds raw shrimp, peeled
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. paprika

Heat olive oil over to low heat in a large skillet and add garlic slices, cooking until golden brown.  Add shrimp and spices and stir, increasing to medium-high heat and cooking 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Can sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley as garnish.

What I had: a box of brownie mix and a packet of cream cheese left over from a cheesecake I made over the weekend

 

What I made: black-and-white cupcakes

Cupcake recipe (from Ghirardelli):

(makes 16 cupcakes)

1 box Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownie mix

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together the brownie mix, water, oil, and 1 egg.  Spoon batter into muffin tin with cupcake liners (spray paper liners with nonstick cooking spray first). In separate bowl, mix cream cheese, remaining 1 egg, and vanilla together with electric mixer until smooth.  Drop a large spoon of the cream cheese mixture onto the top of each cupcake. Bake 28-32 minutes.

Iced coffee

I never drink iced coffee, but Josh really likes it in the summer and has been making one to take to work most mornings.  That's why he was so excited to find these ice cube trays at World Market last week.

Every few days, I pour the last of my morning pot of coffee into the little tray, pop it into the freezer, and voila...coffee ice cubes!  You could use any old ice cube tray, of course, but this one makes ice in the shape of coffee beans:

Fun!  And no more watered down iced coffee!  

 

You can buy these trays at World Market stores or online here.  And we make our iced coffees using our Nespresso espresso machine and the accompanying frother (which can froth the milk and keep it cold or heat it up for warm drinks).

M&M cake recipe

 Made this M&M cake today and thought I'd share.  If anyone is looking for a super simple birthday cake, this is it.  (I should clarify, if you are looking for a cake made from scratch but easy to decorate, this is it.)  I used a Barefoot Contessa recipe (HERE).  It's easy because there are no layers to work with (no trying to figure out how much frosting to ration out, no worrying about the cakes sticking in the pans, etc.).  In fact, if you buy this pan, you can just decorate the cake in the pan, pop on the cover, and go.

James and I opted for some sort of abstract pattern with the M&M's, but his first idea was to spell out his name in M&M candies, which would have been fun, but perhaps a little egocentric.  I pointed out that a giant "JAMES" made out of candies might be construed as self-centered, but he said it was practical because "that way everyone knows who made the cake."  Fair point.

A couple notes: After baking, I cut across the top of the cake to level it.  We also used dark chocolate M&M's because they're our favorite, but any kind would work (or even Reese's Pieces?).  This is a white cake with a subtle lemony flavor, and the frosting leans more toward dark chocolate.  If you like milk chocolate, you can't go wrong with this fluffy chocolate frosting recipe (it's my go-to for birthday layer cakes and would work well for this cake too, I think).

Happy Memorial Day!

Fun times

How was your weekend?  I had an especially nice one, starting with having friends over Friday night for dinner and a movie.  We watched Midnight in Paris, so at least now I can say I watched one of the Oscar Best Picture nominees.  It's very uncultured of us, but the truth is that we mostly watch movies, not films.  I'm pretty sure there's a difference in semantics.

Also, my brother was in town this weekend to show off his new Land Rover see his family, so we had a great breakfast at Palmer's on Saturday morning (one of the best places for breakfast in Des Moines, in my opinion).  Then we went to Dillard's since they were having a great sale this weekend.  We got a few deals, including a couple sets of Bodum double-walled tumblers.  Josh and I have wanting to try these for a while, and the store had them marked down to $6 for a pair.

Don't the layers of espresso look great in these?  Apparently these cups are good for serving either hot or cold drinks and won't produce condensation on a cold drink.  I'll have to test that capability this summer, or rather, have a guest try it out since I don't use ice in drinks and prefer everything room temperature or hot.

To celebrate Kansas' down-to-the-wire win over Missouri on Saturday, we made these Nutella sandwich cookies.  James tasted one and said, "Wow, I like it! It's delicious!"  I'm not sure why he expected that he would dislike sugar cookies filled with Nutella!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging with family, building real-life Angry Birds sets, and going on a walk (our unseasonably warm winter continues!).

This surprisingly strong tower withstood seven direct hits from the yellow bird, and everyone knows he's the most effective of all the Angry Birds.

This week is going to be busy for me as we have something scheduled every night, plus I have a lot on my plate at work, so it was nice to have a leisurely, sunny weekend to get us well rested!  Hope you have a great week!

Side-of-the-cup cookies

If I am home during the afternoon, it's hard to resist a little pick-me-up of a cup of coffee.  If we happen to have some form of dessert in the house (a rare treat), even better!  I think this need for a mid-afternoon treat is perhaps a genetic thing, or at least a custom learned from my Guatemalan relatives, with whom we always pause for a little refacción between lunch and dinner when visiting.

James and I were browsing the baking section at World Market a couple months ago and ran across these curious looking cookie cutters. I couldn't figure them out until I read the description: "side-of-the-cup cookie cutters."  This is such a genius idea that I can't believe I haven't run across these before!

The little slot allows the cookie to rest on the side of a mug, getting warm and soft before you eat it.  I used this favorite sugar cookie recipe (also seen here).  You do have to be gentle with removing the cookies from the baking sheet since the slot makes them a bit fragile.

Such a simple idea! I think a group of these would look great resting around the edge of a straight-edged bowl for a party.

Perfect cut-out sugar cookies

Over the weekend we made some Valentine's Day sugar cookies to share with friends.  I have been on the hunt for a good sugar cookie recipe for a while.  I want them to taste buttery, but with too much butter the cookies don't hold their shape properly, making the batter useless for cut-out cookies.

I've finally found a recipe that seems to work well, and I like that it has lemon zest, almond extract, and vanilla extract, which gives the cookies a really good flavor.  I also found a dynamite icing recipe that dries glossy and not too hard.  All in all, this is my most successful attempt at cut-out cookies yet.

The sugar cookie recipe is helpfully calculated for either a huge batch or a more manageable number (which I used).  I do recommend rolling the dough out in batches, keeping the excess in the fridge at all times, and then briefly chilling the cut-out dough on cookie sheets before baking to help the cookies retain their shape.  Parchment paper also makes it easier to lift off the entire sheet of cookies onto the counter in preparation for icing.  I just used a small spoon to spread the icing, but I'd like to try using a pastry bag for a slightly more precise application.  After icing, I let the cookies sit for a couple hours for the icing to harden, then stored in an airtight container with waxed paper between layers.

Hope you have a fun Valentine's Day!  Ours will likely be snowy and cold!

{RECIPES: Cut-out cookies, Icing}

{All photos mine}

Pancakes

Our son loves pancakes, so we make them a lot around our house--for lazy Saturday morning brunch or for a quick weeknight meal.  I recently bought a pancake pen*, which makes the process even simpler.  Just unscrew the bottom of the pen, add your ingredients, then turn it right side up and shake to combine (markings on the sides of the pen and on the green cap ensure that you don't even have to dirty a measuring cup).

The pen also makes it easier to create fun pancakes (we've used it to fill cookie cutters placed on the griddle to make star- or heart-shaped pancakes, or you can spell out letters--see our first try above).

Some nights when I am working late, Josh and James will make pancakes for supper, and the Log Cabin's new all-natural mix is a good fit for this.  It doesn't have any weird-sounding ingredients and is made with whole grains.  Add some turkey sausage and fruit and it's a healthy and quick meal!

After we make plain pancakes for James, Josh and I like to add toppings--usually the typical pecans or blueberries, but our most recent favorite is sliced bananas and coconut (we first started eating it during a trip to Florida, and it is SO good when the bananas get caramelized a little by the skillet).

On weekends, my go-to pancake recipe is an extremely buttery (and definitely not healthy) one from ex-Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl.  The Gourmet Cookbook is a booster seat of a cookbook, and everything I've cooked from its pages has been delicious, but the recipe I use the most is this one:

Buttery Pancakes

From The Gourmet Cookbook

1 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp. plus 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 tsp. baking powder

4 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

Whisk together milk, eggs, 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil, and melted butter.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Whisk in the egg mixture until just combined.

Heat a skillet and grease with 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil (or cooking spray) over medium heat.  Make pancakes using 1/4-1/3 cup batter per pancake, adding more oil or cooking spray to the skillet between batches.

How do you prefer your pancakes?  Hearty?  Fluffy and light?  Drenched in syrup?

* Get the Tovolo pancake pen online here, or buy it locally at Kitchen Collage in the East Village.  That's where I found mine; it's priced very reasonably at $10-ish.

Not 'quick and easy' cooking

The last week or so our whole family has been out with a horrible stomach virus.  It's bad to get sick any time of year, but it somehow seems worse when it's in the 70's and 80's outside, sunny with a light breeze, and when it's your last week of summer vacation.

All week I have been subsisting on Saltines and Sprite, but yesterday I began to feel I had to eat something real, something substantial.  Something that tasted like summer and that required time spent in the kitchen.

The Barefoot Contessa's Summer Garden Pasta fit the bill quite nicely, with simple ingredients that I already had on hand (tomatoes, Parmesan, fresh basil, olive oil).  A salad and a loaf of ciabatta with olive oil for dipping were easy accompaniments.  For dessert, I tackled something a little more time-consuming.

These shortbread bars were everything I don't have time for in the crush of a busy semester: they take several hours to make, they require your full attention, and they are definitely a "for fun" food (meaning, I do not need this to survive, and it carries basically no nutritional value, but it will be fun to cook!).  This is a good recipe for cooking when you have a slow day, when you can open the windows and listen to the birds outside while you're measuring and mixing.  Even the wording of the recipe is leisurely: the cook is advised to "heat gently" and "let the dough rest for an hour."  I followed the recipe to the letter: from 8:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon I smushed bits of cold butter into flour with my fingertips, ground up sea salt in a mortar and pestle, slowly swirled brown sugar and cream into caramel, and tempered dark chocolate over simmering water.  The dog slept in a pool of sunshine while the preschooler built a cave in the living room with pillows.  It was a good day.

Next week I will again be scanning websites and cookbooks for recipes with that magical set of descriptive phrases: "quick and easy," "kid-friendly," "make ahead," and "vegetarian."  But today, I'm making myself an espresso and cutting a large square of shortbread.

Happy cooking!

Recipes here:

Summer garden pasta

Salted caramel and chocolate shortbread

Breaded zucchini sticks and mozzarella bites

Our friends Kara and Lance have a great backyard garden, so sometimes we are the lucky recipients of their extra produce.  We are growing tomatoes and herbs at home, but they have goodies like butternut squash and cucumbers.  This year they also had a mammoth zucchini plant, and when I was at their house recently Kara gave me what she thought would be just the first of its many fruits.

Sadly, the plant started rotting and had to be pulled out, leaving me with its one and only zucchini.  All of a sudden I felt the weight of responsibility every time I opened the fridge and encountered that one giant zucchini dominating the middle shelf, and I determined to make that zucchini something that our whole family would eat and enjoy.

My solution?  No, not zucchini bread or cake (James is a champion "green speck" detector).  My strategy was zucchini sticks.  I just cut the zucchini into wedges, dredged in eggs and breadcrumbs, and baked the slices until they were crispy.  To increase my chances of getting my veggie-phobic son to eat it, I peeled it first (but that's not necessary), and I also made some mozzarella bites with the same general technique to entice him into thinking that anything coated with breadcrumbs was yummy.

Look at this miracle:

He is voluntarily eating something I told him was a zucchini.  This from the boy who last week was forced to eat butternut squash, sauteed spinach, and mushrooms in one supper (poor guy!).  He took his first ever bite of mushroom, grimaced, swallowed quickly, and pronounced, "That's just wrong!"

His verdict on the zucchini sticks: "I really like the crunchy part!"  Still, I consider this a successful implementation of vegetables.  Read on for the recipes...

Zucchini Sticks

1 large or 2 small zucchinis

Italian breadcrumbs (about 1/2 cup)

Panko breadcrumbs (1/4 cup)

Freshly grated Parmigiano-reggiano (1/4 cup or less)

Salt and pepper (1/4 tsp. each)

1 egg

Cooking spray

Cut the zucchini into wedges.  Whisk the eggs in a bowl.  In a separate bowl combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, and salt and pepper.  Place a wire rack on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan and spray with cooking spray.  Dip zucchini slices in eggs first, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture.  Set on wire rack and spray top of zucchini with cooking spray.  Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until zucchini is tender and crumbs turn golden brown.

Set up an assembly line for the mozzarella sticks... 

...and the zucchini sticks

Mozzarella Bites

4 pieces of low-fat mozzarella string cheese

1 egg

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

Cooking spray

Cut each string cheese stick into four pieces.  Spray a small cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Use the same process as above, dipping each piece in egg and then in breadcrumbs.  I found it faster to do this in batches (put 5-6 pieces of cheese in the egg, then move them to the breadcrumbs individually).  Once all mozzarella bites are on the baking sheet, spray them lightly with cooking spray.  Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes (check starting at 3 minutes just to make sure they don't start melting or burning).

Serve with marinara sauce or sun-dried tomato pesto (we had both)!  I used these as our "sides" when we had spaghetti and a green salad.

And do you have any miracle recipes for getting kids to eat veggies?  I am certainly open to suggestions!

Guest post: how to make a dinosaur cake

Today's post comes from my preschool son, who is currently busy planning his upcoming birthday party.  In his mind, this will be a major extravaganza, the most important element of which is an elaborate dinosaur cake.  I can bake a cake, but I am not a cake decorator.  I thought I had come up with a compromise when he agreed to a cake with dinosaurs posed on top.  I was envisioning little plastic dinosaurs perched atop chocolate cupcakes when he wandered back into the kitchen to double check something: "Mommy, not toy dinosaurs, though.  Dinosaurs made of frosting."  Agh!  I was so close!  Unfortunately I do not know how to make a dinosaur out of frosting, so while I was spending some quality time with Google and the "how to make a dinosaur cake" search findings, he decided to spare me and draw out his concept cake.

Here's what he wants:

As I studied this drawing trying to imagine how to create this impossible cake, he again took mercy on me and decided to write out the recipe.  Here it is, in case you want to make a similar cake of your own:

Can't read the directions?  I've annotated the recipe below:

See?  How hard can it be?