Easy And Delicious From Homemade With Love
Apr 10, 2013 Food
I’ve already written about the lovely launch party I went to last week for my friend Jennifer’s new cookbook Homemade With Love. And the baking lesson I took Fiona to and the wonderful cheese crackers the kids and I made. It was all fun and delicious.
But here’s a little confession: as fun as it can be to bake with my kids, what I really love is to be in my kitchen all alone. It’s my happy place. The TV is on in the background playing something I’ve seen a million times and don’t have to pay much attention to, like an old sitcom (no Maddow or Daily Show or Colbert – I don’t want to get angry while I cook!). All of my ingredients and tools are lined up and waiting. By the time I’m done the place is usually a disaster, but I like to start with things neat and clean.
I started Saturday night by putting together the Baked French Toast. I’m always looking for breakfast recipes that I can make the night before – so much easier when company is coming over, or relatives are staying at my house. This one was really simple to put together. The hardest part is always finding room in my fridge for a 13×9 pan. :-)
A note about using vanilla beans: Do it! I’d never used one until a couple of weeks ago when I was making this banana pudding with pistachio topping. The first time I make any recipe, I always try to make it EXACTLY as written. The recipe said vanilla beans, so I bought vanilla beans. They are very easy to work with: just cut them in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds with a spoon, add the seeds to your recipe, and enjoy the wonderful smell on your fingers!
The next morning all I had to do was put it in the oven, and serve. It was a hit!
I prefer my French toast a little drier, so I casually suggested that I might reduce the liquid a bit next time or bake it a little longer, and my husband agreed. Fiona said no way, it should be even moister! Then Jake chimed in with “Don’t change anything, it’s perfect.” Now, I don’t want to discount the opinions of my husband and daughter – I want them to like what I make and I’m thrilled when they do. But when my cooking pleases Jake, well, that gives me a special thrill, because he’s the pickiest in the house. Score! I think I’ll keep everything the same for next time.
I then moved on to making Creamy Homemade Ricotta. If you’ve never had fresh ricotta spread on a little piece of crusty bread, go do it now. I’ll wait.
Divine, right?
Making ricotta isn’t like making a solid cheese, which can be difficult and involves all sorts of equipment and exact temperatures. Ricotta is easy-peasy. There’s lots of room for error. And here’s a little cheat for you: if for some reason you’re just not getting curds, add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar. Fixed!
I wanted a dryer ricotta. The longer you drain it for, the dryer it will be. After draining for about thirty minutes, it looked like this:
I was making the ricotta to use in the Crispy Spinach-Ricotta Latkes. I love just about anything potato based, but have never made latkes, so I was dying to try this recipe. It has very few ingredients, and I was able to throw it together quickly. I used frozen spinach, and was able to microwave and drain that and shred the Parmesan while the potato water was resting.
They were perfect! Unfortunately I only got to eat two of them. :-/ Fiona and my husband gobbled up most of the rest, and then Fiona claimed the leftovers for the next day’s school lunch before I could get to them. Darn it! Next time, double recipe.
Crispy Spinach-Ricotta Latkes
(Reprinted with permission from Jennifer Perillo and Running Press)
Makes 10 to 12 latkes
Ingredients:
1 large russet potato, peeled
1/2 cup (95 grams) packed, very well-drained steamed spinach, chopped
1/2 cup (100 grams) Creamy Homemade Ricotta, well-drained (see page 32 in Jennifer’s book)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons (14 grams) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil, for frying
Directions:
Fill a large bowl with ice water. Shred the potato into the bowl of ice water. When done, use a strainer or slotted spoon to transfer the shredded potato onto a kitchen towel – do not discard the water in the bowl. Gently squeeze the towel around the potatoes to absorb ay excess water. Let the reserved liquid sit undisturbed in the bowl for 10 minutes so the starch can settle to the bottom.
Meanwhile, mix together the spinach, ricotta, egg, and Parmesan in a deep bowl. Add the nutmeg, and season with the salt and pepper to taste. Carefully pour out the water from the reserved liquid bowl, making sure to save the starch that has collected at the bottom. Spoon the starch into the bowl with the spinach mixture. Add the shredded potatoes and give it a good stir to combine.
Fill a skillet with 1/4 inch (0.75 cm) of canola oil and heat over a medium flame. Drop generous tablespoonfuls of the spinach-potato mixture into the heated oil. Cook until golden, about 4 to 5 minutes, then flip and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes until golden on the other side. Transfer to a parchment or paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt immediately, if desired. Serve warm.
Make Ahead: These also reheat with delicious results in a preheated 350 degree F (180 degree C) oven for about 6 minutes. Just flip them over halfway through. If you really want to plan ahead, make a double batch and freeze the cooled leftovers in a sip-top plastic bag. I’d also suggest these for brunch parties instead of roasted potatoes or home fries, since they’re an easy dish to prep in advance.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: cooking, Food, Homemade With Love
Baking With My Kids From Homemade With Love
Apr 8, 2013 Food
On Saturday I took Fiona to a great event celebrating my good friend Jennifer Perillo’s new cookbook, Homemade With Love. It was hosted by KidzVuz, an amazing video review site for tweens and young teens owned by two other good friends of mine (do I have the most amazing friends, or what?). Fiona and I headed up to 92nd street to an adorable kids’ cooking space, Chef Toni’s Cooking Adventures.
Jennifer is adamant that cooking from scratch is not complicated, and Saturday proved that it’s so easy, even kids can do it. The group started out making a basic baking mix that Jennifer keeps on hand to speed up her scratch cooking. Then the kids got to decide what to turn that in to: cupcakes, waffles, or pancakes. Fiona and Isabella (her cooking partner and Jennifer’s older daughter) chose to make Deep Chocolate Cupcakes.
The great thing about cupcakes is that they’re quick. Most of my favorite cookie doughs have to rest in the fridge for at least an hour. In fact, my favorite cookie recipe happens to be one of Jennifer’s, and that one has to rest at least overnight – torture! Cakes and quick breads don’t have to rest before baking, but they take a lot longer in the oven.
Cupcakes, however, are perfect for kids because they can go from ingredients to mouths in under an hour. Plus, they’re so much fun to decorate!
Fiona and Isabella
Fiona munching on her cupcakes
Fiona didn’t expect anything out of the event other than a cooking lesson, so she was thrilled when Jennifer gave her a cookbook to take home! She wants to make every single thing in it.
On Sunday while Fiona was at a friend’s house, I mentioned to Jake that I was going to make Homemade Cheese Crackers. Now, Fiona loves to cook with me, but Jake hardly ever wants to. I knew he’d want to eat the crackers – he’s addicted to Cheez-Its – but I was floored when he begged to make them! Of course I said yes, and we got to work.
Actually, Jake got to work. First, he shredded the cheese and the butter. And yes, he’s wearing my cut-resistant glove. I have a tendency to shred my fingertips, and no recipe needs that.
When we were gathering the ingredients, Jake crinkled his nose at the paprika and dry mustard. He said he didn’t think he would like something with those in it. I told him to go look at the ingredients on the Cheez-It box, where he found paprika, plus several things he couldn’t pronounce. “Oh” he said. “OK.” A simple, but important, revelation for my picky son: lots of flavors go into the things you think just taste like one thing. And this time, you know every single thing that’s going in. (He did not, however, notice that the flour was whole-grain, and I did not point it out.)
After mixing everything up in the food processor, Jake rolled out the dough, then cut it with a pizza slicer. Thanks to Jennifer’s excellent directions, the cracker dough came off of the parchment paper with absolutely no trouble.
Jake even decided to make some “mutant” crackers:
Luckily, Fiona got home before all of the dough was rolled out and was able to do some too (after getting over me baking with Jake instead of her – seriously, she was pissed when she walked in and saw us!).
I can’t even tell you how many crackers we produced, because a lot of them were eaten straight from the pans and many, many more were grabbed while they were cooling.
By the time they were all cooled and put away I think we only had about a third left of what we’d made. Seriously addictive!
Jake has declared these crackers better than Cheez-Its, and told me that if I’m willing to keep making them, I don’t have to buy Cheez-Its anymore. These were so easy to make, I think that’s a deal. And I bet if I got him more comfortable with using the food processor (this was his first time), he could make these start-to-finish by himself. They’re that easy!
Many thanks to Rebecca and Nancy from KidzVuz for hosting the event on Saturday, Chef Toni for providing the space, and of course to Jennifer for providing us with these wonderful recipes and experiences!
Homemade Cheese Crackers
(Reprinted with permission from Jennifer Perillo and Running Press)
Makes 11 to 12 dozen
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (216 grams) whole wheat pastry flour, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) dry mustard powder
2 cups (170 grams) shredded Cheddar cheese
1 stick (112 grams) very cold unsalted butter, shredded using a box grater
2 tablespoons (15 ml) cold seltzer
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (200 degrees C). Line two 9-inch x 13-inch (22-cm x 33-cm) baking sheets with parchment paper.
Add the flour, salt, paprika, and mustard powder to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse once or twice to blend. Add the cheese and butter. Pulse until the mixture forms a sandy texture. Pour in the seltzer and pulse a few more times, just until a ball of dough forms.
Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Place half between two sheets of parchment paper and set the other half aside. Roll out to an 1/8-inch (0.31-cm) thickness. Lift one side of the parchment, and sprinkle it with a bit of flour. Place the parchment back on top. Flip the dough over, still keeping it between the parchment sheets, and peel off the top layer of paper.
Use a pastry wheel or sharp paring knife to trim the sides to form a square (save the scraps to re-roll). Cut the dough into 1-inch (2.5-cm) squares – you can use a ruler or just cut them free-form. Transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheets (they can be placed pretty close to each other since they won’t spread). Use the tip of a metal skewer or toothpick to pierce a hole in the center of each cracker. Bake 9 to 10 minutes until fragrant and the edges are golden. Keep a close eye on them, as they go from done to burnt pretty quickly. Let the crackers cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then use a small offset spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Store the crackers in an airtight container for up to 3 days (if they even last that long – Mikey always seemed to eat them quicker than I could make them).
Make ahead: Place the cut-out, unbaked crackers onto a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Place the sheet in the freezer to let the crackers flash-freeze, about 1 hour. Transfer the frozen crackers into a plastic zip-top bag. Follow the baking instructions as directed in the recipe – surprisingly, you don’t need any extra time to cook the frozen ones.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1 (Fiona’s cookbook). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Food, Homemade With Love, Kids
How To Get A Big Dinner On The Table
Nov 21, 2012 Food
I’m not known for getting meals on the table in a timely manner. With a normal dinner – we’re talking one easy main dish, one side – my kids are usually whining about being starving as I yell “Ten more minutes! I swear!” If I say dinner’s at seven, my husband is smart enough at this point to expect it no earlier than eight.
However, I do much better with big holiday dinners, and the reason is simple: I make a schedule. First, I gather all of the recipes I’ll be using and figure out how long each one takes, making a note of whether any part can be done ahead of time. Then, starting with the time I want to serve dinner and working backwards, I make a schedule of everything that has to be done.
I swear, the fifteen minutes it takes me to do this prevents about a dozen problems and keeps things on schedule. I don’t forget a side dish in the fridge, because it’s on the schedule. I don’t start the mac & cheese late, because I know how long it takes to make. I don’t end up with too many dishes in the oven at the same time at different temps, because it’s all been worked out.
Do this, print it out, and cross things off as you do them. You won’t be sorry.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Fiona’s Unicorn Poop Cookies
Sep 3, 2012 Food
A while back I found this recipe for Unicorn Poop. What an awesome, twisted mind these came from! I tried it almost immediately, with roll-out cookie dough and nothing sparkly. I tried putting the little candy pearls I had in one, but that just looked weird. Like the unicorn had eaten a bunch of oysters. But still, they were cute.
Fiona wanted to make them today, and we had made some cookie dough last night, and I now had candy stars and sparkle gel. She had a lot of fun.
Mixing the colors
Seriously, this might be the most PITA project ever
Luckily, Fiona has patience
Going into the oven
Painting on the sparkle gel
Mmm, shimmery poop!
But I need to take this to the next level. We still need the rainbow disco dust, neon food coloring, and some shiny candy balls (and the only ones on Amazon cost almost as much to ship as the balls themselves cost!), so I have a little shopping to do. Plus, we really need to make the sugar cookie recipe listed in the instructions, and do this right (the roll-out dough breaks too easily).
The third time will be the charm!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Food, Kids, Unicorn Poop
In Search Of The Perfect Homemade French Fry
Aug 30, 2012 Food
Yesterday the kids and I cracked out our new deep fryer. I’d already cut some potatoes and stored them overnight in the fridge in cold water. Fresh, crispy fries are a beautiful thing, and I was giddy with anticipation! I had two methods I wanted to try. My lovely and eager assistant Fiona dried the potatoes while I put the oil in the fryer.
My sister had sent me a method she was curious about:
Amy, I am counting on you to try this French fry technique and report back.
@bonappetit@selfishmom bonappetit.com/blogsandforums…— Una Traynor (@utraynor) August 21, 2012
I told her I was on it! Since this method starts with cold oil, it would be the first I would try.
But after about ten minutes I knew that the cold start method was going to be a bust – there was no way I’d be able to cook these for an hour. The fries were cooking way too fast! This method was meant to be done in a pan, where you could regulate the flame. I’ve always been too chicken to deep fry over a flame.
This first batch of fries were dark brown on the outside after only 15 minutes while still being undercooked on the inside. I have no doubt that the recipe works, but not with my deep fryer. I mean, I suppose it would be possible to figure out which temperature to set the fryer to for how long to approximate what you could do with a pan, but that seemed like a lot of trouble. Next!
Now that the oil was hot, I tried just putting the potatoes in and frying until golden. Well, when they were golden outside (after about five minutes) they were still raw inside. I let them go for another five minutes, until they were as dark as I thought I could stand them. They were cooked on the inside by this point, but limp and soggy.
Crap.
Had I bought a deep fryer for nothing? If I couldn’t even make a simple French fry, would I ever use it again?
I googled “how to make crispy french fries” and clicked on the very first result.
If I ever meet the guy who wrote this post, I will kiss him on the mouth. (I hope his wife doesn’t mind – my lust is completely food and science related.) He’s an MIT grad and chef, and I think I love him.
He set out to make McDonald’s type fries, even going so far as to get a hold of frozen McDonald’s fries for studying (not an easy task!) and made dozens of batches in his quest to get it right.
I followed his instructions as closely as I could. My fries were already cut to 3/8 inches – the smallest my potato slicer goes – instead of the McDonald’s-like 1/4 inches. I also couldn’t get my oil quite as hot as his (it never got above 340 degrees). Consequently, I had to cook for a bit longer at each step, but it worked wonderfully.
His first step calls for boiling the potatoes in vinegar water. Don’t worry, there isn’t much vinegar (we couldn’t taste it at all in the finished fries), just enough to keep the potatoes from falling apart while cooking. I had to boil mine for an extra three minutes to get them cooked through.
post vinegar boil
Then you fry them for 50 seconds (I did mine for 75). At this point you can either let them cool and move on to the final fry, or freeze them. This is genius, because you can freeze a big batch, then just take them out and do the final fry as needed – just like McDonald’s!
Finally, you do another fry. I did mine for four minutes. I let them drain, then patted them with paper towels. I threw on some salt. I was almost afraid to taste them, because if this didn’t work I wasn’t sure I wanted to try again.
They. Were. Awesome.
I called the kids over to taste them, and Jake, in his über dramatic fashion, literally bowed down to me. Then he got up, hugged me, and told me that he was never going to eat McDonald’s fries again! Success!
I somehow limited myself to six of these wonderful fries (I’d already had four during the other tests, and believe it or not, I’m deep frying on a diet).
I moved on to hush puppies, something I fell in love with when I lived in North Carolina. There were a few restaurants we frequented that put them on the table as soon as we sat down, instead of bread. Man, I miss NC.
I went straight to Paula Deen for this one, figuring that she wouldn’t let me down with a fried food recipe. Sure enough, it worked great on the first try. I didn’t have self-rising flour or self-rising cornmeal (I’d never even heard of the second one), but it was easy enough to make substitutes by adding baking powder and salt (google it).
I left the onions out, since I knew my kids would want to add some powdered sugar. They tasted like little cornmeal doughnut holes – perfection! I limited myself to three small ones, and we were done frying.
I think I’m going to try vegetables next. I’d originally ordered the fryer a couple weeks ago after craving vegetable tempura. Oreos and candy bars can’t be far behind. :-)
The best part? The scale didn’t move between yesterday and today. If I can conquer moderation with a deep fryer in the house, I can do anything.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Deep Fryer, Food, French Fries
Weight loss-Friendly Cauliflower Bake
Jul 25, 2012 Food
If you were to look at the list of foods I’ve eaten in the past ten days, you probably wouldn’t believe I’m trying to lose weight. I have this crazy goal of weighing 140 pounds by the time I turn forty towards the end of October. Why 140? Aside from the almost-symmetry of weight and age, that’s the last weight I remember feeling satisfied with. The last time I would go clothes shopping without getting frustrated. The last time I didn’t stress about packing for a trip. Actually, I think most of my weight-loss motivation may have to do with clothes.
Anywho, I also have another, shorter-term goal: to take full advantage of my kids being at sleepaway camp. The first week they were gone I think my husband and I went out to eat together four times. Four glorious, babysitterless times. Then the DietBet started, and I needed to find a way to enjoy this time with my husband and still lose some weight. So far, so good. In fact, we ate our way through Montreal this past weekend without doing too much damage to my weight loss: I’ve lost two pounds since the competition began.
Tags: cauliflower, Food
A quick, healthy, solo pasta lunch
Jul 19, 2012 Food
I’ll freely admit something that my foodie friends find awful: I love frozen food. Love it. I eat frozen meals frequently and it has nothing to do with weight loss (although they really do help me out with portion control, my main food problem). Lunch for me is often a package of frozen vegetables over pasta.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m usually eating lunch alone. I hate making a mess and taking time just to make one serving of something, but I know from experience that if I make a lot thinking I’ll save it for later, I’m more than likely to just eat it all.
But occasionally I get the urge to cook for myself, like today. Looking in my fridge I noticed I had a lot of grape tomatoes, and I needed to do something with them. Luckily, I’d seen this recipe yesterday for tomato cream sauce made with cherry tomatoes, cream cheese, and just a few other ingredients.
It looked really quick and easy, without too much prep (just slicing garlic and halving tomatoes). I just love finding recipes that use fresh ingredients that I don’t have to slave over for ninety minutes. So I went for it.
I wish I could show you a bigger picture of it, in the bowl perhaps, but I had scarfed down half of it by the time I thought to take a picture.
This recipe took me exactly thirty minutes, from idea to mouth. I made a few small changes from the original: I only made half, because I knew I would eat whatever I made. I used grape tomatoes, because that’s what I had on hand. I used basil from my garden instead of parsley, because I like the taste better. And I added some crushed red pepper flakes, for a little kick.
I mixed it with two-and-a-half ounces of penne pasta, and the entire bowl came to just 420 delicious, filling calories. Can’t wait to make this again!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
A Heaping Bowl of Double Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Jul 15, 2012 Food
Last night I showed my husband a recipe in the latest King Arthur Flour catalog for Double Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, and he wanted me to make it immediately. He even went to the store for the sour cream that we didn’t have and the egg that I dropped on the floor while taking it out of the fridge. But after all that, I ended up being too tired to make it, and went to bed.
Luckily (or unluckily for me, as I was hoping to sleep in) I woke up early this morning, and made it for breakfast, hoping to have a nice surprise waiting for The Ass when he woke up.
Whenever I make a recipe for the first time I tend to follow the instructions completely, saving any experimentation or second-guessing for the next time. This often leads to first time disasters. Like these things below that look like pizza crusts, but were supposed to be ciabatta rolls. I knew the dough was too wet, but followed the instructions anyway, and ended up with bready hockey pucks.
So, even though my instincts told me to do more than lightly oil my bread pan as the recipe called for, I followed the directions. The bad news is, my instincts were spot on and the bread stuck to the bottom of the pan. It fell out into a warm lump.
The good news is, it tastes freaking amazing! Seriously, best loaf of anything I’ve ever made. It’s moist and chocolaty and, on this first day of my latest Diet Bet, dangerous to have around. I ate a heaping bowlful. My husband came downstairs right around the time it fell out of the pan, and attacked it as well, declaring it “f***ing delicious.”
I will absolutely be making this again, but will either put parchment paper on the bottom of the pan or use Wilton Cake Release. The rest I will do the same: my butter and egg were room temp, my sour cream was cold, and my chips were mini. I did it all by hand and it was very easy to mix with a spoon – a great advantage if you want to make something for breakfast while others are still trying to sleep.
If you know me, expect me to bring this to brunches and pot-lucks and bake sales. A lot.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: baking, banana bread, chocolate
