Random (but not really)

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Tasty Tuesday: Butternut Squash Risotto

I’ve been trying for the past several months to make really delicious risotto. Since I started this in the autumn, butternut squash was the perfect add-in.

The base recipe is from Simply Recipes but I found it kinda boring, so I’ve been modifying to get something with a stronger flavor, more to my tastes.

Yesterday, I succeeded.

Butternut Squash Risotto
generously serves two for dinner with leftovers for two the next day for lunch
4 cups chicken stock (I make my own stock, so sometimes it’s chicken, other times it’s vegetable)
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
~1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups butternut squashed, peeled and chopped
1 cup arborio rice
1 single serving bottle of white wine (I don’t drink wine, so I buy single serving bottles to use in cooking)
~1/2 cup Parmesan cheese / Asagio cheese
Sea salt

Heat the stock over medium/low heat. I use frozen stock, so I start it on medium until it’s all melted and then drop it to low heat.

Microwave the squash for a few minutes over medium heat until it’s slightly softened. I actually microwaved it to cooked today, and it turned out fine. But you want it at least a little soft, else you get crunchy squash in your risotto. Which is wrong.

Mince the garlic into olive oil and let it rest while you’re sauteing the rice.

Melt butter in large saucepan, add onion and squash, and saute over medium heat (~5 minutes). Add the garlic and olive oil.

Add rice to the onion and squash, and cook about two minutes. Pour in the wine, and cook, stirring, until wine is absorbed.

Add enough warm broth to cover the rice and squash. Cook, stirring, until broth has been absorbed. Continue to add broth, 1/2 cup or so at a time, cooking and stirring, until all the broth has been added and the rice is tender. The original recipe says about 15 to 20 minutes. I have no idea if this is correct, because I’m listening to the radio and not paying attention to the clock.

Add salt to taste–I add a fair amount of salt–maybe a teaspoon or so. Add cheese and mix until incorporated.

Serve with fresh bread and butter.

This recipe has more fat than the original, and I added the garlic, because I found the original recipe entirely too bland. Feel free to mess around and tell me what works for you, if you try this.

Written by Michelle at 8:00 am    

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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Belated Tasty Tuesday: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Forgot to post this Tuesday…

Saturday since it poured rain all day, we stayed home and I baked all day: pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, Italian bread, and something new: Pumpkin Sweet Rolls from the King Arthur Flour site.

I made cream cheese frosting instead of glaze, which was, of course, delicious.

Next time, I think I’ll make an additional change: The filling was only sugar and cinnamon (I actually used brown sugar instead of white sugar), and I found the rolls a tad drier than the sweet rolls I normally bake.

I think using my typical filling, which is brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, might be nice.

Next time, butter into the filling:

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Before rising:

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After rising:

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After baking:

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Before eating:

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Written by Michelle at 6:00 am    

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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Still Strawberries at the Farmer’s Market!

Last of the year? Maybe, so we need to make the best of this!

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I ate two.

Written by Michelle at 7:00 am    

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Tasty Tuesday: Last Cobbler of the Summer?

This weekend I made what might be the last peach and berry cobbler of the summer, as well as Italian bread. I tried a different bread recipe this time.

As previously, I used Nancy Baggett’s The All-American Dessert Book: High-Summer Cobbler with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust, using peaches and raspberries. And I added ginger and nutmeg, which the original recipe doesn’t use, but I do, because I LOVE nutmeg.

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The Italian bread was from by Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. It’s quite different from the recipe I usually make, from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook A James Beard Award Winner (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks).

I’d meant to make pasta Monday night, so we could have Italian bread, but I forgot I had a haircut, so, perhaps today.

Written by Michelle at 7:00 am    

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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Tasty Tuesday: English Muffins & Zucchini Bread

Decided to fiddle with the Zucchini Bread recipe to work in some whole wheat flour. And to use the zucchini I bought so I’ll have zucchini bread this fall and winter.

I made two batches, one where I let the zucchini drain while I put the other ingredients together. I think I should definitely do that again.

The base recipe is The New Settlement Cookbook.

Zucchini Bread
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnut, chopped
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups zucchini, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two small bread pans.

Sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and walnuts.

In mixer, beat eggs until light and fluffy, then add in vanilla and oil. After well mixed, add in the zucchini.

Mix in the flour mixture until it’s thoroughly moistened. A couple of dry spots are fine.

Put into bread pans and immediately bake for about an hour. A cake tested should come out clean.

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I also made English Muffins, from Marcy Goldman‘s The New best of BetterBaking.com: 200 Classic Recipes from the Beloved Baker’s Website

I used more whole wheat flour than her sponge called for, and perhaps because of that, perhaps for another reason, the batter-dough was really really wet. Far more a batter than a dough. Rolling was out of the question, but I did scoop about 1/3 cup to rise.

What I may do next time (besides adding more flour) is to skip the second rise, and just put the batter-dough straight into the muffin rings on the griddle. That might reduce some of the mess. We’ll see.

No pictures of the English muffins yet–they went straight into the freezer so they’ll last for a couple months instead of a couple days.

Written by Michelle at 6:00 am    

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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Tasty Tuesday: Cobbler Redux & Zucchini Bread

This (long) weekend I baked fresh fruit cobbler and zucchini bread. I actually made two zucchini bread recipes, one of which I didn’t like at all, hence this post to remind me which one is good.

From Nancy Baggett’s The All-American Dessert Book: High-Summer Cobbler with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust, with raspberries, blackberries, and peaches.

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The top crust is unsweetened biscuit; I vanilla sugar (as opposed to regular granulated sugar) on the top before baking.

I tried two zucchini bread recipes, one from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking and one from The New Settlement Cookbook

I actually disliked the first loaf, from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain book. The loaf was pale (for zucchini bread) which seemed strange, since it had whole wheat flour, and it was just… off.

The second recipe was the winner. It is, to me at least, what zucchini bread is supposed to taste like.

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Of course, I made some changes, such as adding nutmeg (because everything is better with nutmeg), but it was pretty much perfect.

I’m tempted to make some more loaves to freeze, for fall and winter when there isn’t any farmer’s market zucchini. Though I’m considering substituting in some whole wheat flour, to see if I can get it to work.

Written by Michelle at 6:43 pm    

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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Tasty Tuesday: Peaches

So, it’s been a long time since I posted one of these, however, I discovered that I now have enough cookbooks, and have tried enough recipes, I’m never quite sure which recipe I preferred, or which cookbook that recipe came from.

Oops.

I’ve bought a fair amount of fruit from the Farmers’ Market, and frozen a good bit of it for fall, when it’s cool enough to bake, but some of this fruit is so wonderful I want to make something RIGHT NOW.

I’ve been trying several cobbler recipes, and the recipe I made the past two times was okay, but nothing fantastic.

This week, I tried a cobbler recipes from a book that almost never fails me: Nancy Baggett’s The All-American Dessert Book. I made High-Summer Cobbler with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust, using raspberries, blackberries, and peaches.

Peach and Berry Cobbler

Peach and Berry Cobbler

I do believe this is a recipe to make again.

The only down side is that my dutch oven is way too large. I bought to try out a technique for baking bread (which I haven’t gotten around to trying yet. Of course.) so it’s, I think, 4.5 quarts. But really, the only issue was that it was extra heavy. And the solution to that was to make Michael get it in and out of the oven.

The other new recipe (I also made my favorite sandwich bread, because if I was going to be heating up the house anyway, I may as well make bread) was from the The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion. I made Spiced Peach Muffins with (what turned out to be) white peaches.

Peach Muffins

Not too bad for a day’s work, although it’s pretty much the opposite of exercise.

Written by Michelle at 6:00 am    

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Wednesday Word Association: Ash Wednesday

Yesterday was Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) so today is Ash Wednesday. Time for repenting all the cakes and pancakes you ate yesterday. So today’s word is: fast

Written by Michelle at 6:00 am    

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Sunday, February 10, 2013

I Just Wrote An Amazon Review

for the SideSwipe for kitchen aid mixers.

Yes, Michael really DID laugh at me whilst I whimpered.

Written by Michelle at 4:49 pm    

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Today’s Happy

Today Jules came over and we made and decorated sugar cookies!

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Tried something new this year, edible tempera paint:

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But we still iced cookies the regular way as well.

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Written by Michelle at 8:26 pm    

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Tasty Tuesday: Apple Crisp

I’m finally getting around to using at least some of the apples we got. An apple crisp looked fast and easy–and more importantly–delicious.

Apple Crisp
1/2 cup flour, all-purpose
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 medium apples

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Butter 2 qt baking dish.

Melt the butter. Stir together flour, oats, walnuts, and 1/2 cup sugar. Mix in the melted butter for the topping.

Stir together 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.

Quarter and core apples, then chop quarters into four to six more pieces. I am lazy, so I never peel apples.

Apple Crisp

Mix together sugar-cinnamon mixture, apples, and orange juice, and pour into baking dish. Sprinkle on topping.

Apple Crisp

Bake at 350 for 75 to 90 minutes.

Apple Crisp

Yum!

Modified from Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich

Written by Michelle at 6:00 am    

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tasty Tuesday (Delayed): Zucchini Bread

Several times this summer I’ve bought zucchini in hopes of making zucchini bread.

Instead, I made compost.

This time, I actually MADE the zucchini bread, as prodded by Gina.

Recipe is from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, and I discovered I don’t have any whole wheat flour. (Also I opened my last bag of all-purpose flour, which seems inconceivable.)

Also, I had to double the recipe, since I had two zucchini. One loaf will go in the freezer unless someone is really really nice to me.

Zucchini Bread
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups milk, 2% lowfat
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch clove
pinch nutmeg
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9×5 bread pan.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Whisk together eggs, milk, and melted butter.

Gently add the liquid to the dry. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the zucchini and walnuts. Pour immediately into bread pans and bake for at least an hour.

My loaf didn’t get as brown as I expected, but then I’m used to pumpkin bread.

Written by Michelle at 8:55 pm    

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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tasty Tuesday: Peach Scones

Last month I had fresh peaches to use up, and one of the things I made were peach scones. I froze them before baking, so I could bake them when I wanted them. Sunday we baked two.

As usual, I only kinda followed the recipe I had, but I made some major variations here, making a two layer scone with the peaches in the middle.

Peach Scones
3 cups flour, all-purpose
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk, dried
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
salt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk, 2% lowfat
8 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1 large peach, sliced
Sugar
Fresh grated nutmeg
Lemon juice

Slice the peaches. Sprinkle with sugar and fresh nutmeg. Mix in a teaspoon or so of lemon juice.

Whisk together flour, sugar, buttermilk powder, salt, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and milk.

Cut the butter into the flour mixture.

Fold in the milk mixture until just combined. Divide the dough in half. On a very well floured surface, press or roll out half the dough into a disk.

Place the peaches on the disk, leaving an edge free.

Peach Scones

Press/roll out the other half of the dough into a similar sized disk, and place atop the peaches.

Neaten things up.

Peach Scones

Cut into eight scones.

Peach Scones

Before baking, preheat the oven to 450 F.

Bake for 7 minutes then turn off the oven without opening the door. Leave in the oven for 8 to 10 min longer.

Peach Scones

YUM!

Written by Michelle at 6:00 am    

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tasty Tuesday: Molten Lava Chocolate Cakes

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(more…)

Written by Michelle at 9:12 pm    

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