tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16725685466373505592024-03-18T23:51:58.135-04:00blue skies and a squeeze of limehere to post recipes and other good thingsKristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.comBlogger281125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-24220002262512295242017-09-26T08:19:00.000-04:002017-09-26T08:19:18.986-04:00give it a go: the very best focaccia <br />
Well, now that I dusted off this situation let's see what else has been lingering in draft form. Here's a great tragedy, you could have been baking this ridiculously good focaccia for the last few years. But unless you also own the excellent cookbook from Flour in Boston, well, you have been missing this recipe for easy and amazing focaccia. We are here today to remedy the situation. Homemade focaccia should be started mid day for serving for dinner. It will take you about 20 minutes to make the dough followed by at least an hour and a half to rise and less than half an hour to bake. It can be on your table in just under 3 hours. So worth the small effort and short wait. <br />
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You really need to be comfortable with olive oil as an ingredient. So much information out there about cooking oils. Oh, and flour, because you know this is bread so it is mainly flour. Clearly I am not afraid of either. Anyway, you use a half-cup of olive oil here which I guarantee is the reason this recipe is so good. Find yourself an olive oil that you really enjoy because it's flavor will be front and center here. Try some smaller producers. Maybe shop around where they let you taste test. Make a pilgrimage to Zingerman's in Ann Arbor where you can truly try anything. And you should. Trust me. Try all the foods. Go hungry. For my Australian friends, Harris Farm offers an olive oil from the Hunter Valley, Rosto, which is not too dear but is a workhorse in my kitchen. I usually buy the "mellow" variety. This is the same olive oil I use for my olive oil cake. Well, it's the same one I use to dip my fresh bread in, the one I toss in my pasta and the one I usually use for salads (we never ever have bottled salad dressing, it's just a thing for me). I stock up within reason when it is on sale, but it's not wine and does not benefit from resting, so keep that in mind. <br />
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What I like about this recipe is the tender crumb. It's very soft when baked, but you can easily slice or tear it. You can even slice it horizontally to use for sandwiches or paninis. I love to make it and then serve it with a super easy warm dish of marinara/pasta sauce topped with rounds of goat cheese and maybe a few matching fresh herbs and baked until bubbly. It will last a couple of days at room temperature, but freeze or refrigerate it after that if by some strange occurrence it has not all been consumed. I made this batch mainly for photos for this blog and half of it is in the freezer because I could easily finish it off and no amount of ocean swimming and headland hikes can balance out an entire focaccia for one person. <br />
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A note on the flour: I use all-purpose flour, but look for one with a fairly high protein content. Here in Australia, Healthy Baker all-purpose flour has about 10 grams of protein which is a similar protein profile to bread flour. The original recipe calls for 3 cups all-purpose flour and 1cup bread flour which I have used to good results in the states. But I just don't keep bread flour here. We battle things like small pantries and the dreaded pantry moths, so keeping all-purpose and whole-wheat flours is enough for me. (the little nuisance pests here are more worrisome than all the ones that can kill you, I know you've seen the Buzzfeeds about how everything in Australia will kill you. Maybe, but your more likely to be annoyed by the ones that are not lethal). Now, I do buy a lower protein flour if I'm baking fine layer cakes that do not need the structure high protein flours bring to bread recipes. In Australia, White Wings flours are generally low protein (around 3-4 grams). A little science for you. Also note: don't let me fool you into thinking our small pantry isn't really half-full of baking things, it totally is even without the bread flour. <br />
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You can make this using a stand mixer, but I don't have mine (it is being well-loved in the kitchen of a dear friend while I am away) with me and have turned out lovely ones with just stirring and kneading by hand. Not hard. Just take off your rings (and please put them somewhere safe that you will remember where you put them, not saying this is a problem for me or you but....). Depending on the weather (really, the heat and humidity have a whole lot to say about yeast breads), it takes about 5 minutes or less to knead the dough by hand in the bowl until it feels even and smooth and a little sticky. <br />
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Give it a go. You'll make it all the time. Feel free to top it with herbs or cheese or knead some in if you like. I like it plain, but that's just me. Well, not really. I'm hardly plain. But this recipe is very nice in it's simple form. <br />
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The Very Best Focaccia<br />
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1 tsp active dry yeast<br />
5 tsp sugar (caster sugar), divided<br />
4 C all-purpose flour<br />
2 tsp kosher salt (sea salt)<br />
1/2 C olive oil (120 ml)<br />
small handful of fine cornmeal or semolina for dusting the baking paper/sheet<br />
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Measure 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) tepid water (very warm, just hot, not boiling) and stir in the yeast and 2 teaspoons of the sugar. Let rest for a couple of minutes until it starts to build bubbles and foam. If this does not happen, you may need fresher yeast or a little water temperature adjustment. <br />
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In a large bowl, measure out the 3 cups of the flour, remaining 3 teaspoons sugar and salt. Stir or whisk to combine. Add in the bubbly water mixture and stir (or use that stand mixer) until mostly worked in and shaggy. Slowly add in olive oil and stir (or mix). Don't worry, you will knead it all together. Add in maybe half of the remaining cup of flour and start kneading. Just grab that dough and pull it around and push it down and do it again. If the dough gets too sticky, add the remaining flour in a little at time. I like my dough just a little sticky, workable but not dry. I do not always use all of the flour (really depends on a lot of things like heat and humidity). This dough seems super forgiving. I don't think you can do it wrong. I usually work it around for 5 minutes give or take until it's smooth. If you don't generally knead bread, keep going. Look at the dough and feel it. It really does smooth out as you go along. <br />
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Lift up the ball of dough and pour a little olive oil on your hands and grease the side and bottom of the bowl a bit so the dough does not stick when it rises. Place the dough ball in the oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (not essential if you are opposed to single-use plastics and you should be, take it from someone who swims in the ocean every day) and/or a tea towel. Place covered dough in a warm draft-free place to double in size (at least an hour and a half). Here's a little hint, our house herein be very cold with early spring and no heat (that's right, no heat and let me tell you how many times you wake up and think, turn up the thermostat, hahahahaha) so I usually turn the oven on to a low heat for just a couple of minutes (really maybe 3 minutes enough to take the chill off, don't get it hot so you cook the dough), turn off the heat and place the covered dough in the very slightly warm oven to rise. <br />
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When the dough is doubled in size, uncover it and punch it down in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment/baking paper. Lightly sprinkle the paper with a little flour, fine corn meal or semolina (which, as far as I can tell is another name for fine corn meal). Lightly flour your hands to and press the dough into a rectangle about 8 x10 inches/20 x 25 cm. Fold the top edge down to the center of the square and bring up the bottom edge to meet in the center. Press and seal the seam a bit. Now fold in the left side to the center and the right side to meet it. Press the seam again. Flip the folded dough over and shape it into a big rectangle about 12 x 18 inches/ 30 x 45 cm or really however you would like it. Make it into an oval, a circle, two squares or whatever. Let it rest and rise again covered loosely with plastic wrap and or a tea towel for about an hour. (Note: if you are in a hurry or have run out of time you can bake it now without a second rise). <br />
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Preheat your oven to 400 F/ 200C. When the dough has risen nicely (it really will look like a pillow), use your ringers to press and poke the top of the dough for a pebbly texture. Bake for 30 min (up to 45, check it first around 25 min and if it's browning too fast on the top loosely cover it with foil) until the top and bottom are completely golden brown (it's easy to pick up a corner and check the bottom, just use a hot pad or something to protect your fingers). Cool on the pan on a wire rack for a bit before slicing. The focaccia will keep in a closed paper bag on your counter for 2-3 days or it can be tightly wrapped and frozen for a couple of weeks. It's good toasted to refresh it if you have leftovers. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZgh4TswDbmYMe4BR7gNON6wjf5NKEpDkIthVktCgYzcpFXaswWCFkeu-wFGm9NQJ4gKhYOO7vGOZk-fKAWzqtV1dPIswVybLPLDcFmhaIU_vtblkmwwBcY0I4BfB6DhxhtRhLwfHr8c/s1600/FullSizeRender+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1283" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZgh4TswDbmYMe4BR7gNON6wjf5NKEpDkIthVktCgYzcpFXaswWCFkeu-wFGm9NQJ4gKhYOO7vGOZk-fKAWzqtV1dPIswVybLPLDcFmhaIU_vtblkmwwBcY0I4BfB6DhxhtRhLwfHr8c/s400/FullSizeRender+9.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">really poor photo of yeast and sugar bubbling in the tepid water<br />proofing yeast just like it is supposed to look, only a little blurry</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Mzrv6k6EX51CQqu74AvoTck90CJieqSLRXbdKD43LdUzq8XlBwM0q-vjVZv7Zql1u6V1uCQ0G89fwVBJVQelUQnl3w4fqxR_Jj81VK89xVnCcHkDLsxsWmSYx2dm7ZtwB7zT4vvKmXE/s1600/FullSizeRender+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1475" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Mzrv6k6EX51CQqu74AvoTck90CJieqSLRXbdKD43LdUzq8XlBwM0q-vjVZv7Zql1u6V1uCQ0G89fwVBJVQelUQnl3w4fqxR_Jj81VK89xVnCcHkDLsxsWmSYx2dm7ZtwB7zT4vvKmXE/s400/FullSizeRender+8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">stirring</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjariUwjdUpYeO89tRPInHbAevo4CvC5mDjHYAkD9aFsjaw97AwiZv-oZYqB4M7TyEwLmPvN3oUP3ncCGUN4HVQJhcQqLvdvW6CVrECYop6GIziZivl3LdEBtErixAC5h1XSHGj-uBRKQ/s1600/FullSizeRender+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1453" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjariUwjdUpYeO89tRPInHbAevo4CvC5mDjHYAkD9aFsjaw97AwiZv-oZYqB4M7TyEwLmPvN3oUP3ncCGUN4HVQJhcQqLvdvW6CVrECYop6GIziZivl3LdEBtErixAC5h1XSHGj-uBRKQ/s400/FullSizeRender+11.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">kneading</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcgo35GWORoZXJnSmsYBQXEdleUQ7HiW_vZs7i5EVqA3dcLe1yeWwTShnCDpn9xG6Jt4DiOQMWBaIWAwymwOu8DOQqQO6tqwLj09m8BmbvwhJG-2mT3vCXqr7B0nJ8Cb5PppmSxXnAW4/s1600/FullSizeRender+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1565" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcgo35GWORoZXJnSmsYBQXEdleUQ7HiW_vZs7i5EVqA3dcLe1yeWwTShnCDpn9xG6Jt4DiOQMWBaIWAwymwOu8DOQqQO6tqwLj09m8BmbvwhJG-2mT3vCXqr7B0nJ8Cb5PppmSxXnAW4/s400/FullSizeRender+10.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">see, the dough is even and smooth now at the end of kneading</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDyiwar4BwAsgzI68tbE1YK8KWSQv0tCvTBZ_-9UFuBchhVH566sN98FvYa8UHFvG3v9kF0Ce1XA92fCr_yMcmcZMUmskTRiDmqsrN1Q2yCcOrxouKbomX1huMIxVbNVxbjV0RdzBS_mE/s1600/FullSizeRender+19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1062" data-original-width="1387" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDyiwar4BwAsgzI68tbE1YK8KWSQv0tCvTBZ_-9UFuBchhVH566sN98FvYa8UHFvG3v9kF0Ce1XA92fCr_yMcmcZMUmskTRiDmqsrN1Q2yCcOrxouKbomX1huMIxVbNVxbjV0RdzBS_mE/s400/FullSizeRender+19.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">covered bowl with rising dough</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2AB65ycaSQ2hF8JA6NtRlFQIGL1OtQ9JoqQe-EeFxELwfNjvVHRbor5YIxAv4Q7vatFW5Zs1prpYthZdzhZ7U_Fk0zlszMqXbF23WyEjGQWhpu8FtlVRDtaAdqzRuxm9DZLRddFixJ0/s1600/FullSizeRender+17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="1474" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2AB65ycaSQ2hF8JA6NtRlFQIGL1OtQ9JoqQe-EeFxELwfNjvVHRbor5YIxAv4Q7vatFW5Zs1prpYthZdzhZ7U_Fk0zlszMqXbF23WyEjGQWhpu8FtlVRDtaAdqzRuxm9DZLRddFixJ0/s400/FullSizeRender+17.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">risen dough (it is sticky, flour your hands to dump it out and to shape it)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WD8w_sLhC9zXGCrjSYJE-3P7FvF_XyK6pf7eU4D77jKCfbPjMd9Bg337QO6YShx4nKICxxA97ltaNxYJ_fj63HMlz9vvXXeGWi2D0oCLrv9ABXCVTUgpllPQ9lyx95UdEgmwvAjefn8/s1600/FullSizeRender+16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1233" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WD8w_sLhC9zXGCrjSYJE-3P7FvF_XyK6pf7eU4D77jKCfbPjMd9Bg337QO6YShx4nKICxxA97ltaNxYJ_fj63HMlz9vvXXeGWi2D0oCLrv9ABXCVTUgpllPQ9lyx95UdEgmwvAjefn8/s400/FullSizeRender+16.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">folding in the sides</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFG7RFD2wnrEv9ZUc2aSbBiCLqzJHPK8cKkY1RXjJIDYgf94ONmNjDvG0xuSacS2E3aDczKugmkK6zIbws4nwAg0i8vuyNCBbkJcIghv-wtEmiJ0WtpPFeeoeV90aA7c343I9jAtGuQtg/s1600/FullSizeRender+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="988" data-original-width="1398" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFG7RFD2wnrEv9ZUc2aSbBiCLqzJHPK8cKkY1RXjJIDYgf94ONmNjDvG0xuSacS2E3aDczKugmkK6zIbws4nwAg0i8vuyNCBbkJcIghv-wtEmiJ0WtpPFeeoeV90aA7c343I9jAtGuQtg/s400/FullSizeRender+13.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">folding down the top </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2_b25n64IP5DqCfTTDtT86Tc9I-56TSuGLnjxzwHdY8pOSnDsFUHvHi59io-iIPzz3zcacfE67Oi4yc7VRaSYShGHpIMR0q0mq0XUFHgm4HQmgIcgmkg1syGxerK-Ge_WHLNdYwOOXA/s1600/FullSizeRender+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1433" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2_b25n64IP5DqCfTTDtT86Tc9I-56TSuGLnjxzwHdY8pOSnDsFUHvHi59io-iIPzz3zcacfE67Oi4yc7VRaSYShGHpIMR0q0mq0XUFHgm4HQmgIcgmkg1syGxerK-Ge_WHLNdYwOOXA/s400/FullSizeRender+14.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bottom folded up, that's just about as sealed as the seams need to be</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6XdsIRN2CzSqU2y2GgQIs4qAlfA0wF7SU4VMet85WXIAwTWiF7FOYgk0Y3VkkInH_xT13sP0gSPOBsS831Lh3SWp3xqnTmsxmqcHZodDCkpxs8zVjRbseRccasSf7Aiqg9UurGN19Myk/s1600/FullSizeRender+18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1049" data-original-width="1468" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6XdsIRN2CzSqU2y2GgQIs4qAlfA0wF7SU4VMet85WXIAwTWiF7FOYgk0Y3VkkInH_xT13sP0gSPOBsS831Lh3SWp3xqnTmsxmqcHZodDCkpxs8zVjRbseRccasSf7Aiqg9UurGN19Myk/s400/FullSizeRender+18.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">after poking with all of my fingertips </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodRW3us5bjNfzKfX7AZW311f6LrVWlb-8m3QhBKmmeWxhyphenhyphenL7bbbOtVLXwn1G2xtNKCw8utHEfdJqzyP-DeHwYX-67bIIfs3GgVAcycIBgNNp_HbEW331u_iwdkVspwuhHNVPK3IbuN7A/s1600/FullSizeRender+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1430" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodRW3us5bjNfzKfX7AZW311f6LrVWlb-8m3QhBKmmeWxhyphenhyphenL7bbbOtVLXwn1G2xtNKCw8utHEfdJqzyP-DeHwYX-67bIIfs3GgVAcycIBgNNp_HbEW331u_iwdkVspwuhHNVPK3IbuN7A/s400/FullSizeRender+12.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">golden brown </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggi_iioaDZHDWbBO0IhrBsOiPAaEZoZQ0vNjdKww-jVF0KcrkAO05I5rT27eGWLLGvFVUFyHEzOntqrN0ENRGM5I2vRLhYVFOuk7P3N_C0v33YnkuqlQq36cD5tJt1GikGXIRTU4MErhg/s1600/FullSizeRender+15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1495" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggi_iioaDZHDWbBO0IhrBsOiPAaEZoZQ0vNjdKww-jVF0KcrkAO05I5rT27eGWLLGvFVUFyHEzOntqrN0ENRGM5I2vRLhYVFOuk7P3N_C0v33YnkuqlQq36cD5tJt1GikGXIRTU4MErhg/s400/FullSizeRender+15.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yum</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-15363904748339714882017-08-31T04:06:00.000-04:002017-08-31T04:06:50.830-04:00Look, I remember how to do this: apple galetteHello. <br />
<br />
Time for a little post (ha, well past time) because this one has been sitting in draft stage for literally two years and every time I bake it I have to click my way through my working blog pages slightly annoyed at myself for not ever finishing the recipe for a fairly easy and really delicious apple galette. For the record, galettes and crostatas are the same thing as least to me, rustic fold-over one crust vehicles for cooked fruit and possibly savory things. The fastest way to pie and just the right amount for 4 to 6 people, well 8 people, if your people are the "just a little slice" type. No judgement on those people, but they'll probably want more if they take just take a little slice. I recently served this after a big dinner and cleverly had enough leftover for a breakfast/coffee treat. I have my ways. <br />
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You can make your own pie/galette dough and it is completely worth the small effort required. This galette dough recipe is really about the technique. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse surely knows her pastry so I have not adapted it really at all. I usually make half a recipe because I have a small freezer m my small refrigerator, but if you have the room go ahead and make the full recipe and freeze one half of the dough for another galette of whatever flavor whenever you feel like it. Buy nice unsalted butter, I find a big difference in taste here in Australia. My go to brand here is Devondale. Quite nice. You can see from my photos that I still have large bits of butter as I roll out the pastry. Big bits of butter make for the flakiest pastry, and under-worked is much more tender than over-worked pastry. I have dough ready for chilling in maybe ten minutes. Give it a go. <br />
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The apple filling is based on a recipe from Ina Garten. That woman knows her desserts, so who am I to change the recipe much at all? Sometimes I slice the apples thinly, but cutting them in chunks is a nice switch. Australian markets offer fewer apple varieties (they are completely missing out) and it's almost spring so not actually apple season down under. But in America, you are all ready for the abundance of Autumn harvest and will be spoilt for choice, as they say here. So mix up your apples. Go pick some and or buy some that are marked good for baking. Use a couple of each variety. Here I used all Granny Smith (told you the varieties were lacking). The apples are tossed with orange zest (oranges are in season here and so I used a nice big blood orange) and then sprinkled with a streusel. Quite nice. <br />
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Serve your galette warm. Make it early and leave it on your baking sheet to easily reheat it before serving or slide it in the oven before you sit down to dinner and have it ready and waiting for a little scoop of vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt or gelato. Australians might serve it with double cream which goes on in a dollop. Also quite nice. <br />
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Writer's note, after almost three years here in The Lucky Country, I feel the need to make some notes and conversions. I also say things like "quite nice" and "give it a go" which are delightfully Australian to me. I am well and truly at home here, but still switch very easily to whatever variety of the English language is spoken around me. If only the math (maths as they say) conversions were as natural. <br />
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<br />
<br />
Apple Galette<br />
<br />
Galette dough (yields two 12-inch galettes)<br />
2 C all-purpose flour<br />
3/4 tsp granulated sugar (caster sugar)<br />
1/4 tsp kosher salt (sea salt)<br />
1/2 C ice water<br />
10 T cold unsalted butter, cut in 1/2 inch pieces (160 g)<br />
<br />
Again, this makes enough for two, so make a half batch or use one half and freeze the other. <br />
Let the cold butter pieces soften just a bit (just minutes). Test by pressing your finger on one of the pieces and if it presses easily but still remains cold and does not leave butter on your finger you are good to go. If it's too soft, put it back in the refrigerator for a few minutes. This is all for flakiness, but don't get too worked up about it. <br />
Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter to the flour mixture and toss to coat the pieces. Press the butter pieces with your thumb and forefinger one by one to flatten them. When all the pieces are flattened, drizzle in half the water, mixing all the while with your fingers spread and curved a bit, raking the dry mix from the bottom to the top to evenly incorporate the water. Continue this way until the dough starts to come together, breaking apart any large lumps of butter as you go. try not to squeeze the dough together, as this activates the gluten in the flour and can make the dough tough. Drizzle water over one tablespoon at a time and keep drizzling and raking until the dough looks moist and ropey with very little dry flour. It will be forming a good ball by now. <br />
Divide the dough in half (unless you halved the ingredients), shape into a ball and flatten into a disc pressing in any random lumps of butter. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least an hour and up to a day. Extra dough can be stored in the freezer for a month or two. Thaw frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using. <br />
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Apple Filling (for one galette)<br />
1 1/2 pounds (750 g) pie apples (Granny Smith, Macintosh, Empire, Jonathon, Honeycrisp, etc)<br />
1/2 tsp freshly grated orange zest (lemon would work too)<br />
1/4 C all-purpose flour<br />
1/4 C granulated, superfine or light brown sugar (caster sugar or light brown sugar in koala land)<br />
1/4 tsp kosher salt (sea salt)<br />
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon<br />
1/8 tsp ground allspice<br />
4 T cold unsalted butter, diced (56 grams)<br />
1egg white and a couple of T of milk along with a good sprinkle of sugar (coarse is pretty) for an optional egg wash and sugar sprinkle<br />
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Preheat oven to 425 F/ 200 C. <br />
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Peel, core and cut the apples in small chunks (cut each apple into maybe 4 wedges and chop each wedge into about 12 pieces, the number being unimportant what you want is relatively uniform chunk size. Toss the apple chunks with the zest and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Toss the butter into the mix and use your hands to work the butter into the mixture until you form little clumps about the size of peas. Easily done in a food processor, but I make this in a low-tech, easy clean-up way. <br />
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Line a baking sheet with parchment/baking paper. Lightly dust the paper with flour and lightly dust the disc of dough too. Roll out your pastry into a circle about 14-inches in diameter. Top the pastry with the apple chunks leaving a few inches around the edges (you will be folding up the crust to cover at least half the apples). Top the apples with the streusel mixture Work your way around the circle, gathering as you go and fold up the crust around the apples covering at leas half of them. Use a fork to beat an egg white with a couple of tablespoons of milk and then brush the pastry with the egg wash. Sprinkle the egg wash with some sugar. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until crust is golden and apples are tender (if the crust is browning too quickly, loosely cover with foil and continue baking). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">rolled galette dough topped with apples</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">topped with streusel<br />see how it's not perfectly shaped? that's what's perfect about it</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">sides folded up and gathered</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">egg washed and sprinkled with coarse sugar</td></tr>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-29552944060557677112016-09-25T01:28:00.000-04:002016-09-25T05:45:06.331-04:00the Aussie edit: Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake My little tiny Aussie oven needs two things: a rest and a cleaning. Apparently it is swimmer birthday season and that has meant many warm hours of baking for my wee oven. Pretty sure the baking of treats has contributed very little to the need for a good cleaning, but it's time. And the self-cleaning function is conspicuously absent on the dial. Time for some Google searching of environmentally safe ways to clean an oven that can't clean itself. Poor thing, can't take care of itself. Old school oven cleaners could be the death of me, I don't remember them and their fumes fondly. When you spend 40 minutes every day cruising the gorgeous ocean, you get a little more environmentally responsible. <br />
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Here's a little rundown of good things that have come out of my oven recently: Fig Bars (because Fig Newtons are not a thing here and I kind of love them), <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2011/07/birthday-banana-rum-cake.html">Birthday Banana Rum Cake</a> (because boozy cakes are fun), <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2011/02/crumb-cake-recipe-i-never-share.html">Crumb Cake</a> (my original claim to fame-an updated version with a better cake layer and improved crumb to be posted), Mushroom Leek Lasagne (oh hey, sometimes I actually make a main dish and yep, need to post this one too), Mini Chocolate Chocolate Chip <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2015/12/browned-butter-goodness-chocolate-and.html">Donuts</a> (add some chopped chips to the basic recipe and dust with icing/confectioner's sugar because your friend's little ones get ridiculously excited when you bring them), Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake (the eventual recipe in the post) and Blueberry Brioche (because everyone needs a challenge and blueberries were relatively inexpensive last week and I do mean relatively because they are about 10 cents US a berry and yes, no post for this yet it was an experiment). <br />
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Logistically, baked goods are easier to share. And holistically they need to be shared, that list up there would demand more kilometers in the water than is humanly possible. And baked goods go well with coffee after a swim in chilly (or fresh, in Australian) water. It took me years to share the recipe for my original version of crumb cake. There was some magic in being the one swimmer mom with the recipe. It was a bit selfish. I'll own up to that. But now I share pretty freely. Especially easy to share with my Australian friends who keep trying to rename things I bake because a lot of American baking barely translates. Bars are slices. Sure they are. A donut shop just opened in Manly and one donut is $6. Sure they are. Donuts are not $6 baked goods, just so you know, you crazy people. Even the one that looks like a certain US Presidential candidate with fairy floss (cotton candy) for hair. I should be careful who I call crazy. <br />
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Let's update the olive oil cake recipe, shall we? As previously discussed, this olive oil cake is the result of a quest begun after Kelly sent me the most amazing cake from the most amazing <a href="https://www.zingermans.com/?utm_source=mailorder&utm_medium=zinglink&utm_campaign=zcobbar">Zingerman's</a> in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a birthday when she lived in LA and I lived in Indianapolis. Look them up online and especially if you ever visit Ann Arbor. They too do more than bake. (But side note: as I was looking up Zingerman's mail order I noticed two things: 1. It's Rosh Hashanah next Sunday and an early Shanah Tova to my Jewish friends and 2. Zingerman's makes a Buckwheat Honey Cake and I think I need one, whatever it is). This is now olive oil cake version 4 from my kitchen. Blood orange season is sadly almost over in Australia. Any citrus would work, but I have found consistency in sweetness of zest and juice with blood oranges where with lemons and other orange varieties bitterness sometimes shows up when I least like it-maybe the bitter white pith is too easy to nick when zesting, not sure). If you have tasted a nice blood orange olive oil from a small batch producer at a market or in your travels and you happen to have some in your pantry you can sub out maybe 1/4 of the plain fruity olive oil for the flavored oil. You probably paid a bit of a dear price for that oil, so keep that in mind. I always have at least two plain olive oils on hand. If the label uses "fruity" as a descriptor maybe buy some and give it a try if it's not too expensive. Bold and peppery oils are not what you are looking for in this sweet recipe. <br />
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Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake (or Olive Oil Cake V4)<br />
<br />
2 cups all purpose flour<br />
1 C almond flour (you can use 3 C all purpose flour, but this is V4 for a reason)<br />
1 1/2 C sugar (castor sugar for my Aussie friends)<br />
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt (sea salt for the Aussies)<br />
1/2 tsp baking soda<br />
1 tsp baking powder<br />
1 C fruity extra-virgin olive oil (or 3/4 C fruity extra-virgin olive oil and 1/4 C blood orange flavored small batch olive oil)<br />
1 C milk (any fat content, I use skim because that's what is in my refrigerator)<br />
3 large eggs (I use 600g eggs, but the more common 700g eggs here are probably fine)<br />
2 T grated blood orange zest (rinse and dry the skin and zest your orange before you juice it)<br />
juice of one small blood orange (no seeds)<br />
1/4 C Grand Marnier<br />
3/4 C sliced almonds (almond flakes)<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350F or 180C. Spray a 9 or 10-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a medium bowl whisk together the olive oil(s), milk, eggs, juice, zest and Grand Marnier. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together until just combined, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and whisk quickly again. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with the almonds. Bake for one hour, until top is golden and cake tester comes out clean (or center of cake bounces back when lightly pressed). I usually have to tent my cake with foil about a half hour in because that cute little oven of mine only holds a steady temperature on the convection setting and I didn't go to all the trouble and expense to burn the top of the cake-so check your cake about half way through (also, use your nose it will probably tell you something like, "Hey your cake might be about to burn, smell it getting nice and toasty?). Transfer the cake in the pan to a cooling rack and let it cool 30 minutes. Run a knife around the pan and invert it onto a serving plate if desired. If you keep it in the pan, it will steam a bit and this is really kind of a good thing. It's a moist cake regardless. <br />
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I recently stored my leftover cake covered in the refrigerator and reheated already sliced pieces on a baking tray at 300F/155 C and the pieces got a bit crisped up on the edges and it was pretty nice that way, so you could toast it but I wouldn't count on slices holding together in a toaster. Use a baking sheet and parchment or foil for maybe 10 minutes. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is Version 3, but Version 4 looks just the same. Cheers. </td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-46716837813865318952016-06-13T18:07:00.001-04:002016-06-13T18:07:24.755-04:00the most gorgeous coconut cake<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Perhaps you've seen the posts of this gorgeous cake of mine. I mean......the cake that is to date the very best cake I have ever baked and I don't think it's just because I served it on a sunny winter morning at the beach with champagne and raspberries although those are a fantastically good circumstances. Cheers to one of my best swimming friends, Dee and to her husband Peter's brilliant suggestion of a coconut cake with some fruit flavor for her birthday celebration. The big day is also World Ocean Day which brings the whole thing rather full circle. <br />
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I have never baked a coconut cake, but have tried many so I knew what I wanted to happen but had no idea I'd pull it off on my first attempt. I combined at least three recipes for this one. The cake batter was fairly easy and would be good on it's own or with some other icing arrangement. The lemon curd is standard and easy as long as you do not get distracted (you can focus on one thing for 10 minutes, I assure you, or you'll have to zest and juice again plus who keeps that many lemons around unless you have a tree like many people do here and I am jealous). The real buttercream is worth the effort and a little counterintuitive. More butter than sugar unlike quick buttercream with powdered/confectioner's/icing sugar, but here it is absolutely a good measure of the success of this recipe. I did bake this cake and make the curd in the afternoon and then returned to the buttercream and assembly in the evening post pre-birthday bubbles and it still turned out beautifully. Allow a good 40 minutes or so for the buttercream making and cake assembly, you may not need it but not being rushed would help. <br />
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Since I baked this on a dreary day and finished it at night in my already dark kitchen, there are no process photos. I could bake another one this week just for the pictures, and I might. But we are just one week past a huge storm that left the ocean unfit for swimming and if I'm not swimming a mile every day, I possibly do not need a gorgeous cake in the house. Possibly. It's very chilly here this morning so there is a high probability that baking will happen if for no other reason than to warm up the house. Or I will do what I'm doing now, snuggled up to an outdoor heater at my cafe home writing and not being cold. Such a different life I have right now. Kind of like it if you haven't heard.<br />
<br />
Coconut Cake<br />
6 egg whites at room temperature (reserve two of the egg yolks for the lemon curd)<br />
1 1/3 C coconut milk (basically a can's measure)<br />
2 tsp vanilla<br />
4 C flour (all purpose is fine, cake flour works too)<br />
2 C sugar<br />
5 tsp baking powder<br />
1 tsp salt<br />
16 T (228g) unsalted butter, room temperature<br />
Lemon Curd<br />
Buttercream<br />
Sweetened flake coconut to decorate (at least 2 cups)<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350F or 180C. Prepare two round cake pans (8 or 9-inch, whatever you have) lining the bottoms with parchment and then spraying bottom and sides with non-stick spray. <br />
In a medium bowl whisk together the egg whites, coconut milk and vanilla until combined. Set aside. In a stand mixer (oh, how I miss my KitchenAid) or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer (current state of affairs), combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt at low speed. Add in the butter at low speed increasing to medium. Note: this did not work for me with my hand mixer, but maybe my butter was too cold so I had to add a little of the liquid mixture to get everything working. Add in the liquid mixture in three parts, scraping down sides and beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape batter into prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake cakes for 30-40 minutes or until a tester in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes and then invert onto baking racks to cool completely. <br />
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Lemon Curd<br />
2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks<br />
3/4 C sugar (caster sugar in Australian terms)<br />
1/3 C (80g) cold unsalted butter<br />
zest and juice of 2 lemons<br />
<br />
Whisk eggs, yolk and sugar in a small saucepan until smooth then turn the heat to low. Add in the butter, juice and zest and stir to melt butter. Keep whisking continuously over low heat until thickened, maybe 5-10 minutes. Curd will thicken a bit more upon chilling but get it good and thick over the heat first. Strain through a sieve into a bowl or jar. Cover and refrigerate until needed. <br />
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Buttercream<br />
<br />
1 1/2 C sugar<br />
1/3 C flour<br />
1 1/2 C milk (I used skim because that is what I had)<br />
1/3 C heavy cream<br />
1 1/2 C (340g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened at room temperature<br />
1 tsp vanilla extract<br />
<br />
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the flour and sugar. Add the milk and cream and whisk frequently over medium heat until mixture comes to boil and thickens or about 10 minutes. Transfer the hot mixture to a stand mixer bowl (or mixing bowl with hand mixer) and beat on high until cool, about 8-10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add in the butter a few pieces at a time until fully incorporated. Add in vanilla. Turn up the speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy. Note: I actually had to add in 1/2 C or powdered sugar to get the consistency I wanted but that could have just been me and my hand mixer problems.<br />
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Assembly<br />
Place one cake layer on serving plate. Thickly cover with lemon curd stopping before the edges to allow for the second layer to spread the curd a bit. Top with the second layer. Frost with buttercream and a spreader thickly coating the top and sides of the cake. Press on coconut. This is messy business, keep at it and clean up the cake plate at the very end. Keep refrigerated. <br />
<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-88367451670910869492016-06-04T06:15:00.001-04:002016-06-04T06:22:17.983-04:00winter baking: pumpkin olive oil cake with browned butter glaze<div>
So very blustery, so very dark on an early winter's night along the Tasman Sea with an East Coast Low angrily rolling through this weekend. Finally settling in for the evening after spending much of the day securing our property because our patio furniture is menacingly moving every which way, the party lights are swinging off the tree and the wind and rain are blowing right through our big sliding glass doors. Here's something you don't think about when you move around the planet: you have no old towels to use as rags. No ratty t-shirts when you get into something messy. No old shoes to slog through a muddy trail. Now, we've been abroad 20 months and thanks to a brutal old washing machine and countless hikes we've got some things we can sacrifice. But not heaps. It's too dark to worry about it. As Greg said (from summery Shanghai), it's a good night to live in a concrete bunker on a cliff. That is a fairly accurate assessment right now of our apartment that on summer days would be really offended by that description. In other words, I'm hunkered down (praying for daylight, as the family saying goes) with time and inclination to finish this post I started last week. </div>
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Last week when I was winding down autumn and you were most likely welcoming summer heat. Let me review, seasons here do not officially change with the sun and the moon, but rather with the first of a month on a quarterly basis, hence the very practical start of winter in Australia is June first instead of the more traditional (to Americans) June twenty-first (you know, the one based on actual science of the earth's tilt and rotation). So it's chilly and it's pumpkin season, but pureed pumpkin is not sold in cans (or tins) here so to bake anything pumpkin you first need to roast a whole pumpkin and then puree it yourself. It's not hard, but it's certainly not as easy as opening a can or tin, as they are called here. So far every tin I have encountered has a pull top so you wouldn't even need a can opener for your pumpkin puree if it could be bought, which it can not so never mind how easy that would be. </div>
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So I bought a pumpkin, cut it in half, scraped out the seeds, brushed it with a little bit of canola oil and roasted it face up in a medium hot oven (400 F or 200 F) for about half an hour (until tender when the flesh was poked with a fork). After about 10 minutes, the flesh could be scooped out and then pureed with a stick blender (or stand mixer or blender or whatever you have). Pumpkin baking crisis averted. </div>
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The whole baking with browned butter thing is still a very strong trend at my house. The single-layer cake gets all trendy with olive oil in the batter and browned butter in the icing. Slice by slice, it's disappearing rapidly being delicious with breakfast, tea of as a dessert. If it's just about summer where you are, file this one away and bake it up in a few months. Enjoy your summer and all the fresh fruit desserts. Have something with luscious ripe peaches for me. </div>
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Cake</div>
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1/2 C white sugar (I know white sugar is the devil, substitute if you must)</div>
<div>
1/4 C light or dark brown sugar</div>
<div>
3 eggs</div>
<div>
3/4 C pumpkin puree</div>
<div>
2 T milk</div>
<div>
1/2 C nice fruity olive oil</div>
<div>
1 C flour (also the devil, substitute away)</div>
<div>
1 C whole wheat flour </div>
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1 T baking powder</div>
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3/4 tsp ground cinnamon</div>
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1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg</div>
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1/8 tsp ground cloves</div>
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1/8 tsp ground cardamon (optional)</div>
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1/2 tsp salt</div>
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Glaze</div>
<div>
3 T unsalted butter</div>
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1-2 C powdered/icing sugar</div>
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2 T milk</div>
<div>
pinch of salt</div>
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Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C. Line an 8 or 9-inch round cake pan with parchment and spray with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamon (if using). Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, using a stand or hand mixer on medium high speed beat sugars and eggs together until pale and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in pumpkin puree and milk until combined. Lower the speed of your mixer to avoid a big splashy mess, and slowly add in the olive oil. Scrape down the sides and slowly mix in half of the flour mixture. Scrape again and add the other half of the flour mixture until well-combined. Pour batter into prepared cake tin (see, I've been here a while automatically typing tin instead of pan). Bake 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean from the center of the cake. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully invert the cake onto the wire rack to finish cooling.</div>
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Prepare glaze by melting butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring a bit and watching it carefully until it just starts to smell nutty and turn chestnut brown (this might happen in just one part of the pan, that's good enough). Turn off heat and take pan off burner to avoid scorching the butter. Cool slightly. Whisk together powdered sugar, browned butter and pinch of salt (just a little one to bring it all together and cut the sweetness) adding milk a tablespoon at a time until the glaze is pourable or spreadable (however you like it). Pour or spread over cooled cake. Can be stored at room temperature. </div>
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Try not to eat the whole thing in one day. I think it took us two days with some help from lovely guests and great restraint on the part of all four of us. Sorry for the lack of photos, it's very dark in my kitchen this time of year and well, we ate the cake so quickly I only got a good photo of the very last piece. </div>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-38460643619351929672016-04-22T08:10:00.002-04:002016-04-22T08:10:54.207-04:00purple rain day: maple oatmeal coffee break breadHere I type in the middle of a moody grey afternoon in paradise, after a wake-up text I didn't see coming that just knocked me a little sideways and left me tuned into Double J's commercial free Australian state radio all-day, all-Prince broadcast. The first time Greg and I saw him live was the night after he won the Oscar for Purple Rain. Man. 1985. The year I graduated from Purdue. I was supposed to be lining up interviews in downtown Hartford, Connecticut so I put on my interview suit and pumps and went straight to stand in line at Ticketmaster for two tickets that were barely in the newlywed budget. Don't worry, I graduated with a job but first we went to a crazy good Prince concert. Fast forward 31 years to our second Prince concert just two months ago at the Sydney Opera House. This time I was supposed to be getting my morning rice milk flat white, which I did but shortly thereafter I found out he was playing his "Piano and a Microphone" tour that night and within minutes I was online buying two tickets that were probably still out of the budget but, you know. <br /><br />Let me give you a visual. The small stage is dark with just a few cast iron candelabras on the periphery. A golden light shines through the stage door with a silhouetted Prince in all of his Prince glory with a cane by his side. And that's all he had to do. Appear. We were spellbound for the next two hours. He'd stop mid-song and just strut the stage with his light-up shoes like my kids loved when they were little. He had a wicked sense of humor. He was ridiculously prolific, so we didn't know all the songs but it mattered not at all, we were completely immersed in the magic. <br />
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This has virtually nothing to do with this recipe other than the fact that I'm so intent on enjoying the Prince thing they've got going on the radio that I might as well write. It's autumn here in my current hemisphere and warm enough to swim, but cool enough to bake. And so yesterday morning I baked two dozen of my famous buttermilk mini donuts (one dozen chocolate-espresso with powdered sugar and one dozen vanilla with a bit of nutmeg dipped hot into melted butter and cinnamon sugar) to share with my swim friends as we sat and drank our coffee and warmed up in the bright sun. Yesterday evening I roasted cauliflower for dinner, kept on roasting and threw rhubarb/vanilla bean/orange juice/brown sugar in a pan for muesli topping and lowered the heat for today's cake recipe. The flavors or maple and oatmeal just sounded good (because it does get chilly in Sydney, it's paradise but we have seasons). I had buttermilk that I couldn't open properly for the donuts and felt compelled to use it up rather than repackaging it after I had to slice open the top (hate that). I had some nice walnuts to toast and searched for some ideas online. It was getting late, so something one bowl, no mixer and one pan baking would be just right. It's dark now by 5:30, so my ability to stay awake (even without the jet-lag) without Greg home to nudge me, is seriously in doubt past 8:00. With this soundtrack, I'm good to go tonight. I'll get some words down with the occasional dance break. You can't sit when they play "Let's Go Crazy". Well you can, but why would you. Almost my entire life here in Australia is of the "dance like no one is watching" theme. If they're watching, I hope they can hear the digital radio. It would explain a lot. <br />
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So here you go, this is a hybrid of things I found online and things I bake often. It's a good little loaf that could be toasted. It's definitely made for coffee and or tea. It's not too sweet. It's not overly indulgent. Pretty sure it will keep nicely if that's something that actually happens at your house. <br />
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Rest in peace, Prince. Thanks for the soundtrack to my 20's that's carried on through to my 50's nicely. Thanks for being. Thanks for that Super Bowl halftime show. You'll be missed. Too bad you could never stop by for some cake. "Oh no, let's go....."<br />
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Maple Oatmeal Coffee Break Bread<br />
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2 C old-fashioned oats, not quick cooking<br />
1 1/2 C flour (white, whole wheat or mixed)<br />
1/2 tsp baking soda<br />
1 1/2 tsp baking powder<br />
3/4 tsp salt<br />
1/4 C maple syrup<br />
1 C buttermilk<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
2 eggs<br />
1/4 C brown sugar<br />
4 T melted and lightly browned butter (melted butter, not borwned is fine too)<br />
1/2 C walnut pieces, lightly toasted<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C. Coat loaf pan with non-stick spray. <br />
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While warming up oven, lightly toast walnuts on parchment paper on a baking sheet (5-10 minutes, keep a watch on them) or lightly toast them in a dry non-stick pan over medium heat on a cooktop. Cool slightly and quickly chop them in the food processor. <br />
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Process the oats until coarse, maybe 30 seconds. Empty into large mixing bowl, leaving about 1/2 C in the food processor to process into a finer flour texture. Pour into the mixing bowl and whisk together with the flour(s), soda, baking powder, and salt. <br />
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Measure maple syrup into a liquid measuring cup and add buttermilk, vanilla and eggs. Whisk together and pour into flour mixture along with the browned or melted butter. Whisk or stir together the batter until just well-combined. Stir in the walnuts. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.<br />
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Bake 45-50 min or until tester in the center comes out clean. Remove pan from oven and cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Turn out onto the rack and turn again to finish cooling right side up. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sydney Opera House sails lit purple at dusk on our ferry ride in for the Prince concert 20 February, 2016</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-64987932227038538362015-12-19T06:50:00.001-05:002015-12-19T06:50:17.474-05:00Browned butter goodness: chocolate (and chai) buttermilk mini donutsIn preparation (and as therapy for the waiting) for our girls (plus one boyfriend) arriving Christmas morning dozens of little donuts have popped out of my oven spreading Christmas cheer around paradise. Assuming all the ingredients are in my kitchen (because honestly, last Saturday they were not and I made 3 trips down the stairs past the beach and to the grocery all before noon but I was also baking cookies for which I kept forgetting something too), they take me less than half an hour to turn out. So they are ostensibly quick, but it's the softness, the taste and the cuteness that keep me experimenting. I started with chocolate with peanut butter glaze. Peanut butter is particularly American; so when I asked one of my pint-sized Australian friends which flavor she would like, she chose chocolate with chocolate glaze (with snowflake sprinkles). Then I wanted to try a little chai and almond flour riff on the Mexican wedding cake/Russian tea cake or whatever your family calls those little balls of flour, butter, sugar and nuts rolled in powdered sugar (which is icing sugar here, in case you need to decode the many sugar choices), I made a chai version. Because when you are measuring out a bunch of spices, you might as well do it twice. <br />
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I am killing it on the parentheses in this post. Sorry. This is what happens when I take a big break from posting. Words just everywhere. Literally everywhere. We are one year into this fun study abroad program also known as my husband's international assignment. One year and maybe three posts? Not exactly crushing my goals for keeping this little project going. I honestly think if I had a gorgeous kitchen, I'd be posting more. But maybe not, it's hard to say. I definitely would have posted more if my MacBook didn't spend the last few months in slow decline/barely functioning/getting almost completely rebuilt (under my Apple Care warranty, phew). But maybe not, it's hard to say. <br />
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And it matters little why, because I'm writing now. You need this donut recipe in your life. You also will then need a little mini donut pan. I had mini and regular-sized donut pans in the states, but did not move them. My oven here is possibly not as wide as your microwave, so it's just as well that they are in storage. I bought a cute little mini one made by Wilton here at Big W which is the general merchandise branch of Woolworth's which is a grocery chain in Australia. You need the pan. You might need a pastry bag, but I left that at home too so I use a ziploc bag with the corner cut at an angle to pipe the batter into the pan. But I have used too many ziplocs, so I'll be buying a new pastry bag (saving the planet, as you do). You also need buttermilk. You may not regularly buy buttermilk, but it makes lovely moist baked goods, is tangy and light in smashed/mashed potatoes and makes a great marinade with onion, garlic and spices for chicken. I'm a big fan. Buy a small carton and mind the expiration date. In the states, buttermilk is usually labled lowfat (good for a lot of reasons) and usually has a long life in the refrigerator. Neither is a given here so I always buy the little carton and sometimes that means I have to run to the store one more time. <br />
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But the game changer here is the browned butter. The nutty, caramel taste of the browned butter has radically improved these little baked donuts. So much so that I baked a peanut butter snack cake last week just to see if substituting browned butter for the canola oil would be as good as it sounds like it would (it was). Heat your butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat and keep an eye on it, maybe stir it but maybe not. Just as soon as it starts to brown (you will see small flecks of brown in the otherwise golden butter), remove it from the heat. You can miss the golden brown, toasty flavor stage and careen towards an undesirable burnt appearance and taste pretty quickly. It's not hard, I'm just telling you not to multitask away from the stove while you are browning the butter. I'm making the assumption you have kitchen/housework ADD like me and can't simply stand at the stove and watch the butter brown with out some pain. Put on some good music and stand there, well you can dance while you wait you don't just have to stand there for the 2-4 minutes this might take. <br />
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I have made these donuts so many times recently, I have the recipe all straight in my head. It's baking so you actually have to measure correctly. Cooking for me now rarely means a recipe or measuring, but baking demands precision. I don't even double baking recipes very often. I generally question the results if I were to exactly double the spices or double the leavening. I'd rather make two batches and have them much more likely to turn out as expected. <br />
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As a little bonus here, keep scrolling through for Chai Spiced Buttermilk Baked Mini Donuts since the only process pictures I have are from that little experiment. You would be wondering why my chocolate donuts are so blonde. One little aside here on being blonde in Manly: there are so many lovely Swedish students and expat families here. As they do, on the 13th of December the Swedish cafe here hosted their Lucia celebration. Had to go. I've read of St. Lucia and heard the carol they sing as the young girls in white dresses with red ribbons wear the crowns of candles on their pretty heads. One girl was passing out the lyric sheets before the procession and spoke to me in Swedish as she handed one to me. Not Swedish, just blonde. But thank you just the same. <br />
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Chocolate Buttermilk Baked Mini Donuts<br />
<br />
1 C flour<br />
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa<br />
4T packed brown sugar<br />
1/2 tsp baking soda<br />
1/4 tsp salt<br />
1/2 C buttermilk<br />
1 large egg<br />
4 T (57 grams) unsalted butter, heated until just browned<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
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Preheat the oven to 325 F (160 C). Spray the cups of a mini donut pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through salt). If you have one, use a 2-cup liquid measuring cup to measure out the buttermilk then whisk in the egg and the vanilla. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and whisk to begin to combine then add the browned butter to combine thoroughly. <br />
Here's really the only tricky part: however you manage it best scrape the batter into a quart ziplock bag or a pastry bag. I use my silicone spatula, but if you had a helper it would be easier for someone to hold open the bag while you scrape. Alternately, you could scoop out the batter. But work in a timely manner, once you have combined wet and dry ingredients you need to get them baking to maximize the rise and keep the finished donut light. It's not a race, I almost hesitate to put that in there, but keep moving. You can have donuts start to finish in 30 minutes. Pipe the batter in cute little circles in the prepared pan. This is super easy until the last 3 or so when the batter level gets low. No worries, just scrape it in there and make sure the wells are equally full. You can move the batter around a bit with a knife or spoon. Pop them in the oven for 8 minutes. If they smell done at 7 minutes, go check them. If the batter has begun to pull away from the sides and the donut springs back to a light touch, they are done. With hot pads, flip them onto a wire rack to cool. Or just eat them now because warm donuts are delicious. <br />
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Sprinkle the cooled donuts with powdered sugar or ice them with the following glazes. Glaze or sugar the donuts with the bottom side up (nice and rounded side which looks very donut-like). <br />
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Peanut Butter Glaze<br />
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3/4 C powdered/confectioners/icing sugar<br />
2 T creamy peanut butter<br />
pinch of salt<br />
2-3 T milk<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
sprinkles, if desired<br />
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, peanut butter, salt, 2 T of the milk and the vanilla until smooth. If mixture is too thick, thin with another T of the milk. Dip donuts in the glaze or make the glaze a bit thicker so you can spread it on the cooled donuts with a knife or spreader. Sprinkle on sprinkles, if desired. <br />
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Chocolate Glaze<br />
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3/4 C powdered/confectioners/icing sugar<br />
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder<br />
pinch salt<br />
2-3 T milk<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, pinch salt, 2 T milk and the vanilla until smooth. Whisk in another T of milk if needed to thin. Dip donuts to glaze or make the glaze a bit thicker to spread on the cooled donuts with a knife or spreader. Sprinkle on sprinkles, if desired. <br />
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Chai Spiced Mini Buttermilk Donuts<br />
<br />
1 C flour<br />
4T packed brown sugar<br />
1/2 tsp baking soda<br />
1/4 tsp salt<br />
1/2 tsp cinnamon<br />
1/2 tsp ground cloves<br />
1/2 tsp ground ginger<br />
1/2 tsp ground cardamon<br />
1/2 C buttermilk<br />
1 large egg<br />
1tsp vanilla<br />
4 T (57 grams) unsalted butter, heated until just browned<br />
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Follow directions above for Chocolate Buttermilk Baked Mini Donuts whisking together dry ingredients, whisking together wet ingredients (buttermilk, egg, vanilla) and combining both with the slightly cooled browned butter. Pipe into prepared pans and bake at 325 F (160 C) for 8 min. Flip onto cooling rack and dust generously with powdered sugar when cooled. They would also be good with espresso glaze (whisk together 3/4 C powdered sugar, pinch salt with 2 T cooled espresso). <br />
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clockwise from yellow bowl: browned butter, dry ingredients, buttermilk and egg</div>
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mini donut pan ready to go</div>
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piping the batter with a ziploc bag</div>
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baked donuts in my tiny oven </div>
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flipped out onto cooling rack </div>
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powdered sugar goodness</div>
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Lucia carols at Fika </div>
Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-32770710422761494392015-08-31T18:15:00.001-04:002015-08-31T18:16:34.561-04:00Going Pro: All About the Crumble Muffins (and Crumble Granola)Woo hoo! Sold my first cake (writer's note: now I've sold three)! Going pro after all these years of amateur status. I bake for many reasons (the order of importance varies widely): to show love, to make friends, to feed hungry people, to feed me, to do something productive, to feel accomplishment, to change my mood, to calm me down, to taste the batter, to challenge myself, to try something new, to justify a cookbook purchase......I could go on. I'm living in basically paradise, but winter's just over and spring is new and even though it's mild (usually 60-70 F during the day) it's almost always cold in our apartment without central (or any, really) heat. It's nice to run the oven just for a little extra warmth. It's also good to work in the kitchen in the evening so I don't just fall asleep watching television or Netflix (currently binge-watching Parks and Rec). And no matter the weather, I can always use more friends. Baked goods are excellent ice breakers. Plus, I definitely need someone to eat most (if not all) I bake because paradise requires wearing swim wear and Australian paradise pretty much requires that to be of the two-piece variety or a wetsuit which is possibly even less friendly than a bikini. <br />
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Anyway, I've never baked for profit to this point. And even though I'm selling baked goods to my favorite cafe on a pretty casual basis, going pro in a highly semi-pro way, it's clearly not about the money. A little pocket money will be fun, but baking for resale will be something new to do and truly it will simply be something to do. Currently weekly orders of <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2015/04/new-addiction-peanut-butter-snack-cake.html">peanut butter snack cake</a> and weekend dinner service orders of <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2011/08/balance-or-lack-thereof-amazing-creme.html#uds-search-results">creme brulee cheesecake</a> are on my baking schedule (along with these muffins because they are favorites). You would think with all this free time my empty nester expat life affords that I might have written a few more blog posts. Up until a few weeks ago, I just couldn't get comfortable in my apartment kitchen. But I've been back from two trips home to the states for over a month now and the whole thing is feeling more like home, not just the kitchen. It's still a very dark and fairly ugly space, but the appliances and I have a better relationship now and I'm pretty good at overlooking things I can not change. I have yet to find attractive options for photos, so for now you will get mainly photos off my iPhone. I need to construct a good white space for photography and that just may never happen here. The joys of living some place that's not your own.<br />
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But I do have a warming drawer. There's that. I love that thing. Since most of you are about to enter the cool weather, here's a semi-pro tip for you: warm your plates (and serving bowls, if appropriate) before serving dinner. The warming drawer is perfect for this, but a quick microwave (if microwave safe) or a good running under hot water works too. You've bothered to assemble a delicious hot meal and it would be tragic to have it quickly cooled from a cold plate. That is for sure my favorite thing about my kitchen. Well, that and my kitchen is just a few hundred yards from the Tasman Sea/Pacific Ocean. <br />
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Do you want a recipe? You know, I might get around to that for you. That is the whole point of this blog. (I do have the other one for expat musings). One of my cookbooks that made the trip down under, is "Huckleberry" from the cafe/bakery in Santa Monica. The cover features a brioche loaf with a fresh blueberry swirl which I have yet to make because that swirl would cost me about $20 here (blueberries are crazy expensive no matter the season). But I have made the brioche which is lovely. And I've made a vegetarian tartine with a brilliant bechamel sauce that employs a jalepeno. I will share it. You may have to remind me. The current favorite from the book is this muffin. I've changed it just a bit based on ingredients I can easily find. The muffins are not too sweet and are full of nutty tasting good things, but the best part is the crumble topping. It's so good, I've actually made it into a granola recipe which is a little bonus at the end of the post. Because the tops crumbled into my morning yogurt with fresh blood oranges and strawberries were a happy accident that is now a regular routine. Don't let the millet put you off. It is pretty funny that I spent lots of money buying deluxe bird food for our backyard birds in Indiana, deluxe usually meaning a low percentage of millet, and now I am buying lowly millet it from the bulk bins to use in my baked goods for humans.<br />
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One more little side note. I can not find kosher salt in Sydney. Closest thing would be sea salt, but the crystals are massive and I think must be ground to add to baked goods. On the other hand, finishing salts are plentiful and not expensive. Maldon flaky sea salt is actually much cheaper here. Neither here nor there, but an interesting side note (at least to me). Bake on.<br />
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All About the Crumble Muffins<br />
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Crumble Topping<br />
1/2 C oats, preferable old-fashioned (not quick) oats<br />
1/4 C whole wheat flour<br />
3 T unsalted butter, slightly softened<br />
2 T brown sugar<br />
1 T honey<br />
1 T millet<br />
1 T chia seeds (poppy seeds are also good, but one or the other)<br />
1T flax seeds<br />
1T wheat germ<br />
1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt<br />
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Muffins<br />
1 1/4 C whole wheat flour<br />
2 T almond flour<br />
1 T wheat germ<br />
1 T millet<br />
1 T chia or poppy seeds<br />
1 T flax seeds<br />
1 T oats<br />
2 tsp cinnamon<br />
1/2 tsp baking powder<br />
1/2 tsp baking soda<br />
1/4 C brown sugar, lightly packed<br />
1/4 C granulated sugar (I like superfine, here that is called caster sugar)<br />
1 tsp kosher salt or sea salt<br />
4 T unsalted butter, melted<br />
1/2 C buttermilk<br />
1/2 C canola oil<br />
1 egg<br />
1tsp vanilla<br />
1 large apple, peeled and coarsely grated<br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray or line muffin cups with papers (which just seem silly if your baked goods are being consumed at home). <br />
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When you are measuring out dry ingredients for the crumble topping, go ahead and measure out the dry ingredients for the muffins too because there are a lot of duplicates. Just a timesaver.<br />
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Make the crumble topping combining all crumble ingredients in a small bowl and blending them with your hands (warms up the butter) and helps form the crumbs. Set aside. You will have to wash your hands with nice hot soapy water (which you should already be doing in the kitchen), but before you do, feel free to have a taste of that crumble. Yum..<br />
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To make the muffins, in a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, almond flour, wheat germ, millet, chia/poppy seeds, flax seeds, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, sugar and salt. In a liquid measuring cup or in a small bowl, whisk together the butter, honey, buttermilk, canola oil, egg and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together with the grated apple just until combined. <br />
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Fill muffin cups to the top (or pretty close) and top with evenly distributed crumble. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean and or the center of the muffins springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before carefully lifting muffins out to continue to cool on a cooling rack right side up (you don't want to lose the crumb topping). <br />
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Makes 12 (delicious) muffins<br />
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Bonus recipe a modification of the crumble topping. <br />
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Crumble Granola<br />
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3 C oats, not the quick cooking kind<br />
3 T unsalted butter<br />
4 T brown sugar<br />
2 T honey<br />
2 T millet<br />
2 T chia seeds (poppy seeds are also good, but one or the other)<br />
2 T flax seeds<br />
2 T wheat germ<br />
1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt<br />
2 tsp cinnamon, optional<br />
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Melt the butter and stir in the sugar and honey. Toss with all dry ingredients and modify to taste. You may want to add some canola or other oil (coconut oil would be tasty) by the tablespoon if your granola is too dry. You can always replace the butter with oils of your choice. Add the cinnamon if you want. Add some almonds or walnuts or sunflower seeds. After baking, toss in some dried fruit of choice. <br />
Spread the granola evenly on a baking pan/sheet lined with parchment and bake in a 325 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, stirring so it evenly toasts but does not get too brown. Store in an airtight container. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Hehe. Note this whole bag of indoor bird food is $1 AUS. Look at all those little pearly grains of millet. <br />
Side note. Men's Speedos are aka as "Budgie Smugglers" in Australia. They are a funny lot. </td></tr>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-59260797906556028792015-04-30T17:37:00.002-04:002015-07-27T03:25:40.896-04:00new addiction: peanut butter snack cakeAhhh, even in paradise there are cool and rainy days in fall. My tendency to bake on dreary days continues even in my upside down world in Australia. It's such a compelling feeling in my gut on days like this. Must bake. Must warm up the kitchen. Must measure. Must move through the kitchen logically, economically, purposefully and rhythmically. Must produce something that makes me happy because it makes other people happy. The challenge here is to find someone with which to share the good things I am drawn to produce. <br />
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Today I made my second peanut butter snack cake in 10 days and I'm afraid it might become a small addiction. And I kind of had to make it because I have a week to clear out the refrigerator before I fly home and it's just me. What to do with the buttermilk? I could marinate some <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2012/02/weekday-basics-buttermilk-oven-roasted.html">chicken</a> (but then I'd have leftover chicken). Nah, baking is more fun and easier to share. I've boxed up some to take to my favorite couple behind the counter and behind the espresso machine at my favorite coffee place. And the two pieces I saved for myself are already gone. Challenge met. <br />
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Peanut butter is also not really a thing here. You can find bulk nuts of all kinds, but peanuts are not always amongst your selections. Have yet to see a honey roasted peanut which is a little sad. I'd love to make some of my peanut butter. I might be able to change some minds. The natural peanut butters in the groceries are good, just expensive but you can say that about most food in Australia. <br />
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This little cake is a winner. I make it in an 8 x 8 pan so there are 16 cute little pieces. It's not overly sweet. You can eat it without utensils. It's not crumbly. It would be easy to pack in a lunch sack. But mainly it's just yummy. I haven't tried stirring in some chocolate chips, but I would imagine you can easily add some of the mini ones for extra deliciousness.<br />
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I do miss mini chips. I can certainly endure the bigger drops or disks here or chopping some bulk chocolate, but I may smuggle a few bags of mini chips back in. Shhhhh, don't tell. <br />
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You can make this cake in just over half an hour and in just one bowl and a few measuring cups. Finish this cake with a nice blanket of powdered sugar. Just for the happiness of it. <br />
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Peanut Butter Snack Cake<br />
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1 C sugar<br />
1 C flour<br />
3/4 tsp salt<br />
3/4 tsp baking soda<br />
3/4 tsp baking powder<br />
1/2 C lowfat buttermilk<br />
1/4 C canola or other neutral flavored oil<br />
1 1/2 tsp vanilla<br />
1 egg<br />
6 T water<br />
1/2 C natural creamy peanut butter (just peanuts and salt, no added sugar or whatever)<br />
powdered sugar for dusting<br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 x 8 pan (or an 8 or 9 inch round pan) with a square of parchment paper on the bottom and then spray the bottom and sides with non-stick spray. Set aside.<br />
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In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup measure the buttermilk and then measure the oil on top. Whisk in the vanilla and egg, water and peanut butter until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk or stir together until well-combined. Pour into the prepared pan. <br />
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Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden and a cake tester in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert pan and cake onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Dust generously with powdered sugar. Cut into squares and serve. Store in an airtight container (if you have any leftovers). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIk8P7i5RYRl9YzqDtEA3essCKfUoZd5X5fjkNstmeRYYRtmRwsxvcz866GxZGWc2H_ftok5txujuJinJCIwGgwvWYcG49lJLS8pWQvzAvwqWeGWj2GpcrPLx0YAHSTlKM01BX407Y2Vk/s1600/IMG_1766.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIk8P7i5RYRl9YzqDtEA3essCKfUoZd5X5fjkNstmeRYYRtmRwsxvcz866GxZGWc2H_ftok5txujuJinJCIwGgwvWYcG49lJLS8pWQvzAvwqWeGWj2GpcrPLx0YAHSTlKM01BX407Y2Vk/s1600/IMG_1766.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Australian versions of familiar American ingredients</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgsrDvpJcPcMBy9IT83yy7yOTQ97TuD7UzPYyq5hFa9opkLGFOmSl0oV5c5lQMKIgbH0-vqNu0A9eJmD7328_8GGwZgiFrwLDF1f1MGyR-GBREDOlzPG8aSc3qSe1GdpIMCpl9jmAvqs/s1600/IMG_1767.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgsrDvpJcPcMBy9IT83yy7yOTQ97TuD7UzPYyq5hFa9opkLGFOmSl0oV5c5lQMKIgbH0-vqNu0A9eJmD7328_8GGwZgiFrwLDF1f1MGyR-GBREDOlzPG8aSc3qSe1GdpIMCpl9jmAvqs/s1600/IMG_1767.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dry and wet</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWAhlHKspDzhTvmVaU7RauMBTlycgKllau1uKt31mvGAhSGVmcorpT6JLOeXCTjRMkijn25YUNv32C_OQob20X_l6fzgTvIGgNURmLxbwKpy9TG10gF1fM7_ZVEJ_na1yTEGsdTTgcIio/s1600/IMG_1768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWAhlHKspDzhTvmVaU7RauMBTlycgKllau1uKt31mvGAhSGVmcorpT6JLOeXCTjRMkijn25YUNv32C_OQob20X_l6fzgTvIGgNURmLxbwKpy9TG10gF1fM7_ZVEJ_na1yTEGsdTTgcIio/s1600/IMG_1768.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">still needs some whisking-see the lumps? you don't want lumps</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGL6O9KZFa19HHrN62audUvCHBpL7Rip2E1_So9SGG_KP30clhWatSk5cN77MtFMuFl0DBCVJ92ZnVvRvlOgbAUx0Cr3CfhW7KHJDvZVI4C0fLTj1NcMnEnKxF-1MsMEXbL74SJelVV8/s1600/IMG_1769.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGL6O9KZFa19HHrN62audUvCHBpL7Rip2E1_So9SGG_KP30clhWatSk5cN77MtFMuFl0DBCVJ92ZnVvRvlOgbAUx0Cr3CfhW7KHJDvZVI4C0fLTj1NcMnEnKxF-1MsMEXbL74SJelVV8/s1600/IMG_1769.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ready to bake</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkC5rcUFCMEhcQu3KhN7ilIOxliDYxv-VxQW42fqx4Sp5GQTk1ZTlqBu21PfIFgWdZkLZ003UIGMFNwTNGkShImPu7hya44kTgeXhHHBjAyboBEY3sWho396oHHR3tqj4aXIsBMUt4WM/s1600/IMG_1771.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkC5rcUFCMEhcQu3KhN7ilIOxliDYxv-VxQW42fqx4Sp5GQTk1ZTlqBu21PfIFgWdZkLZ003UIGMFNwTNGkShImPu7hya44kTgeXhHHBjAyboBEY3sWho396oHHR3tqj4aXIsBMUt4WM/s1600/IMG_1771.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">golden</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjdUjaOFM3jM2epMVJJNNnRBwThRnPH57P6M_NtPMQKYNKqyoIh7nHJN6OdOauukld8hUM3oN5B-yTcjsYHrdxrxvvjafxpect0CS2UBStkszCmGrP9oW8DrQugy2tx8KkHo81hA4c6Bg/s1600/IMG_1772.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjdUjaOFM3jM2epMVJJNNnRBwThRnPH57P6M_NtPMQKYNKqyoIh7nHJN6OdOauukld8hUM3oN5B-yTcjsYHrdxrxvvjafxpect0CS2UBStkszCmGrP9oW8DrQugy2tx8KkHo81hA4c6Bg/s1600/IMG_1772.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">inverted with the parchment-you don't need the foil, I had a scrap and was minimizing clean up, but I should have rotated this for you, although sideways is often appropriate for me</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0OEX9SWxh6qukpjQBOtoizzVtpD5qOEhwgCN-VhGqA_JXGCVDlbLtXGzEsepPX3333ZBpOmA3J4gNQPEvET3Qk6ij3RnxD1rwKMJqkla_4DM1qnndaEvfTWL2AGEB-dr8DseEb4DtqR8/s1600/IMG_1774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0OEX9SWxh6qukpjQBOtoizzVtpD5qOEhwgCN-VhGqA_JXGCVDlbLtXGzEsepPX3333ZBpOmA3J4gNQPEvET3Qk6ij3RnxD1rwKMJqkla_4DM1qnndaEvfTWL2AGEB-dr8DseEb4DtqR8/s1600/IMG_1774.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">again, do not use the foil, your cake will steam while cooling </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSOoJndheNyFnGcBiyu1yCNawu1v_VHu7cKglOcmwYrszhQ13qLBjz6oOhPNLczVWCerJhiQk_mmGfJ_Rk5loUX8TQJnJ8tbJ6vcnTGctVTD2XRSFeSXgJZNlDcDB_vwLTqjcPxLCxJjg/s1600/IMG_1778.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSOoJndheNyFnGcBiyu1yCNawu1v_VHu7cKglOcmwYrszhQ13qLBjz6oOhPNLczVWCerJhiQk_mmGfJ_Rk5loUX8TQJnJ8tbJ6vcnTGctVTD2XRSFeSXgJZNlDcDB_vwLTqjcPxLCxJjg/s1600/IMG_1778.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yum</td></tr>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-90920144643888282212015-04-25T08:16:00.001-04:002015-04-25T08:16:07.978-04:00my kicthen rules (well, kind of since I am a little under equipped): chocolate meringue cake<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPj-afAXm7YDxM92NS7wf_gxln0Dg0_AdLaPzuIFfCJYPMft-9jcgxIjbFmpOcfXMBCeZIEn9PY-uhtiZ2XN1rESr-D5qdTCAB0BgoDHCK_C7LkDeK3qmkEzLAzRT-EhJubbcntBS5BK8/s1600/IMG_1186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPj-afAXm7YDxM92NS7wf_gxln0Dg0_AdLaPzuIFfCJYPMft-9jcgxIjbFmpOcfXMBCeZIEn9PY-uhtiZ2XN1rESr-D5qdTCAB0BgoDHCK_C7LkDeK3qmkEzLAzRT-EhJubbcntBS5BK8/s1600/IMG_1186.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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Ahh, and we find an unposted draft. Hmmmm..... how did I miss hitting the publish button? It's always a good time for a chocolate cake post and this one is a good one. Small and different enough to serve for a celebration or just because you need little chocolate. When this cake was about to go in the oven, Greg texted me that an Aussie celebrity was getting his haircut in the chair next to him at the barber shop just down in town. So I hit the timer on my phone, jumped on my bike and waited until the haircuts were done to get a picture. There is a hugely popular reality series here, MKR or My Kitchen Rules, a home cook competition for aspiring chefs. The two-person teams come from all over Australia and from "instant restaurants" where teams decorate their homes and cook in their own kitchens for the other competitors and the very intimidating judges to cooking challenges including catering a wedding, cooking for an airline and feeding campers the teams have been reduced from 18 to 5. The team of "Poms" which is Aussie for Brits from Manly and nearby Mosman are still in the top 5. And my new friend here, Steve Flood (the Manly half of the duo) and his friend Will are clearly favorites to win. He was very gracious and we had a good chat about baking, Australian eggs, oven thermometers, kitchen scales and of course, MKR. Good on Greg for tipping me off. Greg loves the show and is now traveling and terribly sad to miss the finals. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVeKn0aI838HnhZjacpvgKF2JswCLaI6GHx6SzY5jBP3T1KA672gAD0Y35WmTyD2h2EbtMXgBHMpr4qsV1BU2PAqfs1krecaXoYWyOjYXDT6kJYxKVsyiL0h31GX0XPLPENF5CJ3a84A/s1600/IMG_1181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVeKn0aI838HnhZjacpvgKF2JswCLaI6GHx6SzY5jBP3T1KA672gAD0Y35WmTyD2h2EbtMXgBHMpr4qsV1BU2PAqfs1krecaXoYWyOjYXDT6kJYxKVsyiL0h31GX0XPLPENF5CJ3a84A/s1600/IMG_1181.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I own the ridiculousness of this brush with Aussie fame: MKR's Steve Flood of Manly and me</td></tr>
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This is the cake that was in the oven during that fateful afternoon. About a month ago we had a proper little dinner party for our Manly Airbnb hosts who in a very lovely way have become good friends. I wanted to bake an apple galette, but could not find pie apples (and it is fall here) at the shops I could easily reach on my bike. But I did find my favorite Belgian chocolate, Callebaut (good news for Sara who is coming to visit soon), on sale at a price less than what I paid in the states (but I bought it at Whole Foods, mind you). Chocolate in the house, I then fortuitously found a recipe for a single layer chocolate cake on Instagram from an Aussie lifestyle personality, Donna Hay who's not quite a Martha Stewart but that is clearly her goal. I tweaked it a little, but I do like how in many baking recipes here they include almond meal for part of the structure instead of all flour. The flours are different here with some milled coarser, some finer, self-rising being a popular thing and the like. I buy my almond meal from a bulk seed, nut, and etc. stand at our bi-weekly farmers market. It's fairly coarse, but works well. But even the grocery brands of almond meal/almond flour are less expensive than in the states probably because it is more commonly used. <br />
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The measurements here include grams and a close conversion. I actually brought a kitchen scale to Australia just for this reason. Easier and more precise to weigh, but you will be fine with my conversions. If you want to buy a kitchen scale someday, they are kind of cool to use. Surely better for baking measurements. This is another baking win all by hand. I even whisked the meringue by hand. Quite a workout, but after a while, glossy peaks did indeed form. <br />
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Anyway, this cake is yummy. The base is almost like a brownie. The base is baked first and then topped with a meringue and returned to the oven. Meringue topping trumps frosting in my book. It just kind of melts into the base layer and is a delightful texture. I served it with a bit of vanilla ice cream, but it's a good rustic cake that is good for snacking without a scoop of ice cream (or even utensils), if you have some leftover. I also bake a <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2012/01/little-meringue-cake-for-little-dessert.html">vanilla meringue cake</a> which is really nice with some macerated strawberries (berries tossed in a little sugar to release the juices) and Spring-y. Both are a nice one-layer size giving you just enough for dessert, but not too much. <br />
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Chocolate Meringue Cake<br />
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250 grams dark chocolate (ha ha, unless you have a food scale that's 8.8 ounces for you and don't sweat it the chocolate measurement is not the most important measurement and you can use milk chocolate or a combination of the two, if you like)<br />
180 grams unsalted butter (6.7 ounces or about 3/4 C)<br />
2 eggs<br />
4 additional eggs, used as yolks first for the cake layer than whites for the meringue layer<br />
1/2 cup brown sugar<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
1/3 C flour<br />
1/2 tsp baking powder<br />
1/3 C almond meal (almond flour in the states)<br />
1 C superfine sugar (here it is called caster sugar, ok)<br />
1 tsp cream of tartar<br />
2 tsp espresso powder (even finely ground coffee beans work)<br />
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2 T cocoa powder (dutch process if you have it)<br />
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of a springform pan with a circle of parchment paper and then spray the sides and the paper bottom of the pan with non-stick cooking spray. <br />
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Melt the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Set mixture aside to cool a bit. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, extra egg yolks, brown sugar and vanilla until pale and thick (yep, you can do this by hand too but it is way easier in a stand mixer). Add the melted and slightly cooled chocolate mixture, flour, baking powder and almond meal folding gently to combine (this is actually best done by hand). Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until a tester in the middle comes out clean and or the cake springs back when lightly touched in the middle. I'm a cake tester kind of girl, but when I baked this the light touch spring back method worked. So did my tried and true indicator of "when you smell delicious baked goods, they are probably done". Remove the cake and turn up the oven to 350 degrees. <br />
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Make the meringue layer by beating the reserved egg whites on high (or really get your forearms a workout and whisk it by hand) until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and beat until the meringue is thick and glossy. Stir in the cream of tartar, espresso and cocoa powders gently until evenly mixed through. Scrape the meringue out of the bowl and smooth evenly across the baked cake. Return the cake to the oven and bake another 20-25 minutes until the meringue is lightly browned (it's kind of hard to tell since it is chocolate, but 20 minutes should be enough). Cool on a wire rack until room temperature. Carefully run a table knife around the sides of the springform pan along the baked cake to release. Remove springform and place cake, covered loosely, in the refrigerator to cool for at least two hours. Cut in slices and serve with ice cream or berries, if desired.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9VGx-6EQSW1PnbxZ2vqaPzYu9QexpH2ZoTNquwcmxzGKKODs_otO9-nPtl_-zZWZL8V5nlCS7R6Ysp3nCbmQHl1OJ9xSTMXibrCxThoeWnQ-Wib5RCpsAJ2kUVB7NXxwwBxxBUpts0Mk/s1600/IMG_1182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9VGx-6EQSW1PnbxZ2vqaPzYu9QexpH2ZoTNquwcmxzGKKODs_otO9-nPtl_-zZWZL8V5nlCS7R6Ysp3nCbmQHl1OJ9xSTMXibrCxThoeWnQ-Wib5RCpsAJ2kUVB7NXxwwBxxBUpts0Mk/s1600/IMG_1182.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">baked cake layer</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkgDbhDxNqhwtJXRAZZE0kI8t63nRJykMjwISGmeugwuTyQRY6CEWyJmb5rlouT2Td2LlrlEcMMpiZ0wkX_HXuUVPJY1wAr19XSLc7DBCsITCr6ixpcarHJfRkOGzPJRbE2XRi-LyVA-Q/s1600/IMG_1183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkgDbhDxNqhwtJXRAZZE0kI8t63nRJykMjwISGmeugwuTyQRY6CEWyJmb5rlouT2Td2LlrlEcMMpiZ0wkX_HXuUVPJY1wAr19XSLc7DBCsITCr6ixpcarHJfRkOGzPJRbE2XRi-LyVA-Q/s1600/IMG_1183.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hand whisked meringue</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgujA2czF4vZFtFbhm9zZ-FEFPlMzJ7lcNl6lDUiFRtq_DoGNj2IN3hwqGD9k2QUZeXzfjcOgwh3ymau1V5rvpH6LJIey6P4ExfGLlR5nqDLDNXfr44mNYvEorAIhTu4CJJ6b-mUGDySx4/s1600/IMG_1184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgujA2czF4vZFtFbhm9zZ-FEFPlMzJ7lcNl6lDUiFRtq_DoGNj2IN3hwqGD9k2QUZeXzfjcOgwh3ymau1V5rvpH6LJIey6P4ExfGLlR5nqDLDNXfr44mNYvEorAIhTu4CJJ6b-mUGDySx4/s1600/IMG_1184.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">baked cake and meringue layer</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPj-afAXm7YDxM92NS7wf_gxln0Dg0_AdLaPzuIFfCJYPMft-9jcgxIjbFmpOcfXMBCeZIEn9PY-uhtiZ2XN1rESr-D5qdTCAB0BgoDHCK_C7LkDeK3qmkEzLAzRT-EhJubbcntBS5BK8/s1600/IMG_1186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPj-afAXm7YDxM92NS7wf_gxln0Dg0_AdLaPzuIFfCJYPMft-9jcgxIjbFmpOcfXMBCeZIEn9PY-uhtiZ2XN1rESr-D5qdTCAB0BgoDHCK_C7LkDeK3qmkEzLAzRT-EhJubbcntBS5BK8/s1600/IMG_1186.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ready to plate and serve</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-66148920165207181382015-04-22T08:47:00.002-04:002016-09-05T23:38:08.199-04:00comforting: mushroom and ricotta pasta<div class="p1">
Where did April and the sunshine go? Our first guests to our beach apartment have come and gone after three fun weeks of showing them our Sydney, wine country and our first domestic flight to explore the outback. You can read more about that on my expat blog. Mike and Tina arrived on Good Friday for what we thought was the rainiest Sydney weather ever until they left in the middle of what truly was the stormiest couple of days in decades yesterday and today. Gale force winds and driving rain for over 48 hours with the most impressive high seas I have ever seen (9-10 meter swells). Somehow, they safely got on their way back to the states and Greg made it to Kuala Lampur on Malaysia Airlines (the one carrier you really want to be on during basically a hurricane/cyclone). </div>
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It is well and truly fall here. The days are much shorter. Sadly, my tan is fading. The ocean is cooling a bit and my wetsuit (I really love that I have a wetsuit) has replaced all two piece options. The prevailing southerly winds (on normal days when it's not the storm of the century) are chilly (southerly winds are the cold ones which is just as strange as living on the Pacific Ocean and being on the East Coast). It's very strange and confusing to live with the opposite seasons. I completely stumble over seasons in conversation going between hemispheres. And unlike your excitement over the coming salad and grilling days, my cooking is going back to the warm comfort foods. This is not just because we have no heat in our apartment, but a warm stove or oven is tempting me to finally get back to the kitchen. I've really struggled to spend any time in there. It's still not feeling like mine and probably never will, but the spice rack is filling up and I'm getting a little rhythm to my food shopping and that's a good feeling. <br />
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For a pasta dish, this is not terribly heavy and is good with just a salad or a little grilled protein on the side. We buy little lamb cutlets from the farmer who comes into Manly for the organic market every couple of weeks. Lamb here is fantastic especially straight from the farmer. I wrestle a little with the virtues of eating meat and lamb and veal are tough ones for me, but they are delicious. There is a lovely farm stand that comes into the market every week with the best mushrooms. I always buy a big paper bag full of the assorted ones and find a new way to enjoy them. At home in the states, Meijer almost always has a good fancy blend in 8 or 10 ounce packages (maybe called gourmet? been too long to remember acurately). One of the commercial markets makes a good fresh ricotta, but the packaged brands are perfectly fine for this dish. As they say in Australia, the mushrooms are the star of this dish. But fresh ricotta is very nice. Try it if you haven't already. This is an adaptation from Saveur magazine and it's just excellent. Easy, quick and very tasty. I have made it once with and once without the walnuts. If I'm serving a little meat alongside, the walnuts seem a bit much and I leave them out. I did get some really gorgeous walnuts at the market, but they are so good they are best eaten out of hand or with cheese.</div>
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Mushroom and Ricotta Pasta</div>
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6 T unsalted butter</div>
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2 lb. mixed mushrooms, such as chanterelles, cremini, hen of the woods, oyster, and porcini, cut into bite-size pieces (if you just have a nice box of baby bellas/creminis that's fine too)</div>
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1 tbsp. roughly chopped fresh thyme, plus more for garnish</div>
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6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed</div>
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Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste</div>
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1 lb. pasta (pappardelle, linguini or even medium shapes whatever you like)</div>
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1 cup ricotta, fresh if you can find it</div>
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½ cup toasted walnut pieces, optional</div>
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Melt butter in a large skillet and cook mushrooms (possibly in batches if your skillet is not big enough for 2 pounds to cook without being crowded), 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, garlic, salt and pepper about 10-15 minutes stirring often until mushrooms are tender and golden. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (use at least 1 T of kosher salt in the water for the tastiest pasta). Cook pasta as directed until al dente, but before draining ladle out 1 C of the pasta water into a measuring cup to use in the sauce. Drain the pasta and toss in a large bowl with the ricotta and 1/2 C of the reserved pasta water to combine. Use a little more pasta water if needed for the right consistency (fresh ricotta can be a bit thinner and need less water than packaged ricotta). Gently toss in the cooked mushrooms. Garnish with a little more fresh thyme and the toasted walnuts, if desired. </div>
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Serves 4-6 people</div>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-39349434123372171462015-03-28T17:08:00.003-04:002015-03-28T18:10:29.807-04:00success at last: mini German pancakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Finally gaining some momentum in my not so favorite Australian apartment kitchen. I'm starting to get the hang of baking with my tiny little oven. Fairly certain I need to buy an oven thermometer (one in celsius)*. And pretty sure I need at least the Aussie version of my immersion blender with the beaker, bowl and whisk. The food processor I bought off gumtree (like Craig's List) is too big for small jobs (and also unhappily, not very powerful). Oh, I miss all my tools from home. The motors would die sad deaths here with the different current, so they are all living in someone else's kitchens while I am away. <br />
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My baking failures have possibly as much to do with hand creaming butter and sugar as they do with the giant eggs I was buying. But after a 0 for 3 start on baking, I have turned the corner and built up some arm strength. Greg's been away and I'm good at hauling things home on my bike and on foot, but I had to draw the line on small appliances. Just a luxury that could wait. Groceries (still learning to buy less to carry less), table lamp (yep, missed the delivery and I had to carry that big box home by the beach which was lovely and funny), new Birkenstocks (yes, they are ugly but supremely functional at the beach), print leggings (right, I do not need more leggings but the ones here are so much lighter and well, they are prints so they are, you know, cuter) and a new bikini (yes, bikini, I am telling you no one cares here and they are just easier to layer) can all find their way home. But small appliances, no. So I've creamed butter and sugar until light and fluffy with a wooden spoon and whisked egg whites into meringue all by my own power and the baking success ratio is now evened up with 3 wins. March Madness I tell you.</div>
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Here's a super quick recipe that you can whip up for breakfast now, but it's probably dinner time where you are and sunrise here. You have what you need and if you have a blender, that luxury kitchen item, you are golden. Maybe you've made a Dutch baby pancake before in a big 9 x 13 pan where it puffs high in the oven and immediately falls when you take it out. This is the same idea, but little individual serving pancakes get all cute and puffy in muffin tins and then fall leaving a well you can fill however you see fit. You could go savory with a little cheese and cooked bacon or sausage and some fresh herbs or a chutney. Or you could be me and go sweet with jams and or nutella. Pretty sure kids would find this whole process fun. </div>
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Blend away and be thankful for your well-stocked kitchen, but if you have to use a whisk like me you'll be fine. You can also easily half this recipe. I did. Better fresh than to have leftovers. If you do, just freeze them right away so they don't get too heavy. </div>
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Mini German Pancakes</div>
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1 cup milk (skim is fine)</div>
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6 eggs</div>
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1/2 C flour</div>
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1/2 C whole wheat flour (all white flour is fine too)</div>
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2 tsp honey (optional, especially if you are filling with savory things)</div>
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1/2 tsp vanilla </div>
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1/2 tsp salt</div>
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1/4 C melted butter</div>
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powdered sugar</div>
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jams, nutella or whatever for fillings</div>
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Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray. </div>
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In a blender (or vigorously with a whisk), blend together the milk, eggs, flour (s), honey (if using), vanilla and salt pulsing until the batter is smooth and without lumps (scrape sides with motor off, as necessary). Add melted butter slowly, blending until incorporated. Pour batter into muffin cups a little more than half full. Bake at 400 degrees until puffy and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Make sure you peek to see how cool and puffy they look before you open the door and they start to fall. Carefully turn them out of the tins and dust them with powdered sugar (if going the sweet route). Fill and serve while warm. </div>
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Makes 16-18 in a standard size muffin tin</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-z0sSDmZD4_yin2aiF2zv0RPsqpaZnTzMrJM80JTaGggZohGFrFfMma4H4kgHt8rWYfIKQrftK62LoEuvUP6m5kpCGow_23YbV7FCDbPAicqIEkOvh03UlZzofeZ0U4TdWf_-htjp3I4/s1600/IMG_0889.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-z0sSDmZD4_yin2aiF2zv0RPsqpaZnTzMrJM80JTaGggZohGFrFfMma4H4kgHt8rWYfIKQrftK62LoEuvUP6m5kpCGow_23YbV7FCDbPAicqIEkOvh03UlZzofeZ0U4TdWf_-htjp3I4/s1600/IMG_0889.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the old-fashioned way and the ingredients </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">whisking away</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tins filled</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">super puffy half batch</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl06iVTvB_guSdwUI5w-7pACMLf1_Et1PXl4HeiS3fZzYKQxq-ofRrGM1sra8VjX8FjXd4_5YL0HFrL1YVTDwvW0xGOFi3hi3J4j4w7ipZfDpYv-ntrOXryniz7CmNkzGq1ZNo-QoRusk/s1600/IMG_0893.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl06iVTvB_guSdwUI5w-7pACMLf1_Et1PXl4HeiS3fZzYKQxq-ofRrGM1sra8VjX8FjXd4_5YL0HFrL1YVTDwvW0xGOFi3hi3J4j4w7ipZfDpYv-ntrOXryniz7CmNkzGq1ZNo-QoRusk/s1600/IMG_0893.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHUcbn7Uv9n1auj95fJbvJd3-r6rzBsu-MX9fgAYBJ1RLDluVXyOEUnOlmKJR8Ba3vLGl7qpD4ARjp1gMMbfA6orsmlk3Sb0mdNSCv-dhLyp21ILZQV9VqHsyW8ehN7m4dBGU9vcsMalY/s1600/IMG_0898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHUcbn7Uv9n1auj95fJbvJd3-r6rzBsu-MX9fgAYBJ1RLDluVXyOEUnOlmKJR8Ba3vLGl7qpD4ARjp1gMMbfA6orsmlk3Sb0mdNSCv-dhLyp21ILZQV9VqHsyW8ehN7m4dBGU9vcsMalY/s1600/IMG_0898.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dusted with powdered sugar (note the little pool of melted butter, nothing wrong with that)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">filled, yum</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">breakfast with a view</td></tr>
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*credit Steve Flood of Australian reality television My Kitchen Rules (aka MKR) fame for the oven thermometer tip. Greg texted me he was in the same barber shop in Manly and I hopped on my bike to get this shot and as it turns out, to have a nice long chat about the show, our kitchens and baking. I hope Steve and Will win this season, but if Steve was not telling in case you want to know. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZGO2Q_PHBeJ5EQ4IXPuTtVB3z5ZkV2YIlreO36W65xogIAemxQIOF3LwFVQ5C8q5zm5GOCkfB3cbVs6xYdqUAAvmR9ur4cJZsU2sFa8fXTbmos1MV5evxZ7CrZDJtr0pF8Jhy_vfSgE/s1600/IMG_1181.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZGO2Q_PHBeJ5EQ4IXPuTtVB3z5ZkV2YIlreO36W65xogIAemxQIOF3LwFVQ5C8q5zm5GOCkfB3cbVs6xYdqUAAvmR9ur4cJZsU2sFa8fXTbmos1MV5evxZ7CrZDJtr0pF8Jhy_vfSgE/s1600/IMG_1181.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MKR's Steve Flood (Brit, but Manly local now just like me)</td></tr>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-59571723082976534812015-03-10T22:29:00.000-04:002015-03-10T22:29:19.676-04:00adopting a new kitchen: corn fritters with roasted tomatoes for brunch<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF7_udU5DxSe1JZrrq9lPMb7B5NPYT4xwV_yvwU4KXWQ7lP0yo5M750lKfpPnSn1reZhrdrP4Swg3E6BDb2qXeHsTuS8P9EL1rkZJPztcQpf5-DM79FL1DunQpBVpeMq3mxUVMgqJ5pnE/s1600/P1302215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF7_udU5DxSe1JZrrq9lPMb7B5NPYT4xwV_yvwU4KXWQ7lP0yo5M750lKfpPnSn1reZhrdrP4Swg3E6BDb2qXeHsTuS8P9EL1rkZJPztcQpf5-DM79FL1DunQpBVpeMq3mxUVMgqJ5pnE/s1600/P1302215.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">mediocre at best corn fritter photo from my old iPhone 4S, <br />please note I made these for dinner, not brunch (hence the red wine)</td></tr>
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"I write a cooking blog", I say when I'm meeting people during the expat adventure in Australia. "Well, it's been on hiatus. But I'm ready to get back to it", is what I usually say as the conversation continues. We're pretty settled now. Greg's in the middle of more than 3 weeks out of the country. So I'm really out of excuses. </div>
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I did manage to blow up our microwave/oven thing last week. Big bang, the whole apartment without power. But the repair man came today. Nice guy (of course, everyone's been super nice here). He asked how I was employed here. "Oh, my husband's employed, I'm just here enjoying life, but I do have a working visa and could get a job". He said, "No, if you don't have to, you should just enjoy life. Enjoying life should be your job". I'd have to agree with him there. It's easy to enjoy life living on the ocean between two beautiful beaches. I'm writing a <a href="https://blueskiesexpat.wordpress.com/">blog</a> all about the parts of living abroad that do not involve cooking (well, that will probably sneak in there too). Please follow "BlueSkies Abroad" too if you are so inclined. </div>
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I've resisted adopting my new home's kitchen as my own. Our apartment is lovely, the location leaves us in wonder and awe on a daily basis. But, our apartment is tired. All the gorgeous kitchens I've seen, but I did not get one. Small price to pay for the view. The flat grey laminate countertops are stained and the seams are sealed with the ugliest, bumpiest, caulk job ever. The stainless steel backsplash is scratched, the cabinets worn leaving sawdust on the floor, the floor never looks clean. It's got to be the German in me (I'm half German), but it just never seems clean and it's been hard for me to spend much time in there. Ah, but now it's pretty much my dirt which is a little easier to handle mentally (we all have our challenges). We have a cute little barbecue so I've been grilling, tossing salads and just avoiding the kitchen. I am three for three on baking fails which is an all-time record. Everything has been flat. I clearly need to buy some kind of mixer because I have yet to achieve light and fluffy by hand. The eggs are giant and the yolks are very rich and orange and everything tastes to "eggy". Greg would really roll his eyes at that, but I think the eggs are part of the problem. Anyway, despite my efforts I can't post a good recipe yet for flourless macadamia brownies or mixed berry ricotta muffins, two of my big and expensive fails. </div>
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<br />Then there is the whole opposite season thing. It's actually fall here now, but the produce is still says summer. Which is delightful. But while you are thawing out and still enjoying comfort foods, I'm eating avocado toast and salads. But enough of the excuses. I do cook. I do eat. There has to be something here. We'll wind back to the nice kitchen I had in the charming Airbnb I stayed in before we found our apartment. The hosts have become friends which is a delightful turn of events. Anyway, she has a very well-stocked and equipped kitchen and a good cookbook selection. I stumbled upon brunch at a rather famous Sydney restaurant when I lived in the CBD (the city, our first apartment stop), "bill's". I enjoyed their corn fritters with roasted tomatoes and was so happy to find the "bill's Sydney Food" cookbook on the shelves of the Airbnb. It's still a few months away from Indiana corn (cherish it, Australian's don't do corn nearly as well), but when it's in season give this recipe a try. Serve it with greens, avocado (or guacamole) and bacon (if your brunch is not complete without bacon). Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt would be nice dolloped on top too. The roasted tomatoes are good even with standard grocery tomatoes, in fact it's a good way to use less than high season tomatoes. Fritters are a common brunch food and brunch is a big deal in Sydney. Food is a big deal in Sydney. Good news all around for me. </div>
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Corn Fritters with Roasted Tomatoes</div>
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1 C all purpose flour</div>
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1 tsp baking powder</div>
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1/4 tsp salt</div>
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1/2 tsp paprika (smoked is a nice twist)</div>
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1 T sugar</div>
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1/2 C milk (skim is fine)</div>
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2 C fresh corn kernels</div>
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1/2 C red pepper, cut in small dice</div>
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1/2 C scallions, sliced</div>
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1/4 C chopped cilantro (leaves only) or a combination of cilantro and flat leaf parsley </div>
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4 T canola or other neutral vegetable oil</div>
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Roasted Tomatoes</div>
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4 medium ripe tomatoes (Romas or Campari or whatever you have), halved lengthwise</div>
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2 T olive oil</div>
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kosher salt</div>
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freshly ground pepper</div>
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Start the roasted tomatoes first by heating the oven to 350 degrees and tossing the tomatoes with the olive oil and 1/2 tsp of salt and a few good grinds of pepper. Spread the tomato halves on a baking sheet lined with parchment (or on a seasoned stoneware pan, but the parchment trick is good for fast clean-up). Roast in the oven until caramelized and brown, about 40 minutes.</div>
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Make the fritters by first whisking together the flour, baking powder, salt, paprika and sugar. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Whisk together the milk and eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the well and whisk together with the flour mixture until lump free. </div>
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Place the corn, red pepper, scallions and cilantro (and parsley, if using) in a mixing bowl and add just enough batter to bind them. In my case, since I didn't actually measure my corn and red pepper, I used all of the batter and all was well. </div>
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Heat about 2 T of oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Drop about 2 T of batter per fritter into the hot pan and cook for 2-4 minutes until golden on the bottom and then flip to cook the other side another couple of minutes. Transfer to a serving plate and keep warm while cooking the remaining fritters. </div>
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To serve, put a handful of greens on each plate (if desired), stack two fritters on the greens and top with a couple of roasted tomatoes. Add some diced avocado or a good serving of guacamole and a couple of pieces of bacon , if desired. Serve with some sour cream or plain Greek yogurt on the table and if you're inviting Greg, get out the hot sauce too. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8Nk9NkSy75nmkbI1mnPDjpwvv_0sLThYzG6erKzyGNPV0qh1dUJ9EHq1qZENw5nrMs5xLSkb_hzdMaqsUC6tYMP_vtN36GmEDBnGfEA5659S4WmxvAWtUJ91AIOnDXioF9CdfmrNMMU/s1600/P1302206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8Nk9NkSy75nmkbI1mnPDjpwvv_0sLThYzG6erKzyGNPV0qh1dUJ9EHq1qZENw5nrMs5xLSkb_hzdMaqsUC6tYMP_vtN36GmEDBnGfEA5659S4WmxvAWtUJ91AIOnDXioF9CdfmrNMMU/s1600/P1302206.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">vegetables, herbs, wine and the Aus Open on my iPad (photos from January 30th)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dry ingredients and wet ingredients side by side in front of borrowed cookbook</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJ78IHuCd_4Bki8io0pOZHt1H34a3JPS2TCyNi8ujIr-icP43R78z7iegq-IfL9A7mlPkn3WCgc9C12sn2OkqDyblbFNn2lr8N_4erSDFpkOEYrys3itRmFVII8LITlaeKxRqwT06PRQ/s1600/P1302208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJ78IHuCd_4Bki8io0pOZHt1H34a3JPS2TCyNi8ujIr-icP43R78z7iegq-IfL9A7mlPkn3WCgc9C12sn2OkqDyblbFNn2lr8N_4erSDFpkOEYrys3itRmFVII8LITlaeKxRqwT06PRQ/s1600/P1302208.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">batter all nice and smooth in the prettier Airbnb kitchen</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNRUeBRhs9VIIAhq89K8wEYo4cNvU37Lrccwva5T1hxYGMjBOfnlAoplYtBceNZmge6GHRnmozUJnRil6gc-fP_aaxnX9c6udFqevnYdBkl3H10NoIbgIVZHA8o_kuB_VBSwOZVwisHHw/s1600/P1302210.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNRUeBRhs9VIIAhq89K8wEYo4cNvU37Lrccwva5T1hxYGMjBOfnlAoplYtBceNZmge6GHRnmozUJnRil6gc-fP_aaxnX9c6udFqevnYdBkl3H10NoIbgIVZHA8o_kuB_VBSwOZVwisHHw/s1600/P1302210.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">fritter batter ready</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7po48FSD71kq7JUtgmxr0GqP3maT5r4Buin5oqQoQALz34ltB-KI7aaMrBM4oKx2yoEXyQvUL0VvrVR9U0k3_l2zRGz4kFtRrlHAFpkdN_Wme5AOf3eOBD1TsV9B0d1e1C760lYNrAnc/s1600/P1302211.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7po48FSD71kq7JUtgmxr0GqP3maT5r4Buin5oqQoQALz34ltB-KI7aaMrBM4oKx2yoEXyQvUL0VvrVR9U0k3_l2zRGz4kFtRrlHAFpkdN_Wme5AOf3eOBD1TsV9B0d1e1C760lYNrAnc/s1600/P1302211.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">first flip</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wuZ7dspjByd58tNhqT-cd3RWBcQhg3VovJ1ZRUeocZGTu0po-mucTnbtqztNF32wd5RDNQMjlFLqbdVkTcoKnWuMIJmpc_335rQ5JdZt7Yh9RLQ8PqXJPwOmRzPczdtV4963nsj9KG0/s1600/P1302214.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wuZ7dspjByd58tNhqT-cd3RWBcQhg3VovJ1ZRUeocZGTu0po-mucTnbtqztNF32wd5RDNQMjlFLqbdVkTcoKnWuMIJmpc_335rQ5JdZt7Yh9RLQ8PqXJPwOmRzPczdtV4963nsj9KG0/s1600/P1302214.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">waiting for the others</td></tr>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-223365661757697062015-01-10T22:17:00.002-05:002015-01-10T22:17:46.212-05:00first expat post: Kale Salad with "Pumpkin" and Pomegranate<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8MeKrulCge9BNhnLNjq1wHtBVjQWwXasnb6r5-8nBgC7sfg8PYCuFGuBit6kxxl3N5g0NacSUZSSbonAvUNQ1_2c0IvCkuhFHK6jnyKqcz4qfhFNpN0PX-R5jt9vq-vsEBqCra1dbj8I/s1600/PC281772.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8MeKrulCge9BNhnLNjq1wHtBVjQWwXasnb6r5-8nBgC7sfg8PYCuFGuBit6kxxl3N5g0NacSUZSSbonAvUNQ1_2c0IvCkuhFHK6jnyKqcz4qfhFNpN0PX-R5jt9vq-vsEBqCra1dbj8I/s1600/PC281772.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sydney the koala on the move (yes, I was just this close to her) at Taronga Zoo<br />because how can your first post from Australia not include a koala?</td></tr>
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Time to jump back in to the blogosphere. Greg and I landed in Australia one month ago today. Let's start with how very strange it feels to fly almost as far as you can go on a one-way ticket. How different it is to live in the city (for now). How hard it is for me to be very dependent on Greg, even after or especially after, 30 years of marriage. He drives, he has the smart phone not dependent on wifi and then of course he is one of the handful of people on this whole continent who can call me by name. Think about that, twenty two million people and I'm on a first name basis with about six of them and two were our neighbors across the street in Carmel (that is also a very crazy thing). <br />
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We are in a corporate apartment in the CBD (Central Business District) facing the south west corner of Hyde Park. (Quick fact, it's super tricky having the Pacific Ocean on the EAST side of the country). Great place to start, but it's time to move out into a rental house out in the northern beach towns. Time to be reunited with our stuff that's finally cleared customs from the air shipment. Almost time to place the few pieces of American furniture we shipped overseas in a new home. Time to dig in somewhere and expand the circle. Unfortunately, there's basically no where to go. The one dream house we found was not yet listed and was so dreamy someone offered the owners a crazy amount of money to buy it instead of rent it and they took it. The few homes actually on the market get snatched up quickly or there is a reason they are still available. So we're (or more correctly I'm) about to move to another corporate housing situation (Greg will be in China for the next two weeks so it's me and a van-sized taxi), but this one will be close to the area we'd like to live so I can start to connect with yoga, tennis and maybe even a little work. We'll wait out the rental shortage and hope the dream home pops up soon. All for downsizing, but a one or two-bedroom high-rise apartment was never really the plan. <br />
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I'd hoped to start posting from some gorgeous kitchen with an ocean breeze and a good view, but that could be a while . This furnished apartment up above the trees where the giant bats like to fly (giant, but there are no bugs so that's okay with me-plus Stellaluna was one of my favorite children's books and I think bats have cute little fuzzy heads and little cat-like ears so I'm not afraid) is where we'll start.<br />
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Most likely this blog will branch off into two blogs. One about cooking and a new one about travel and expat life. There are words I need to write, things I need to remember and places I'd like to share so that might mean two blogs or you'll have to wade through a lot of stories before a recipe is written.<br />
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Australians love good fresh food and with the exception of ridiculously good chips (fries) and schnitzel, they're pretty strong in healthy choices. Okay, the wood-fired pizzas and gelato are pretty outstanding too. All in moderation. Most serving sizes are smaller than the states which is brilliant. And if you do have leftovers or order take-away they package it in plastic containers with tight lids you can reuse (plus a little charge which is completely reasonable). Some of the best food is served in what we'd call gastropubs, but here all pubs are called hotels (no lodging). Most are on a corner. Most corners have one. Greg will probably never like the service. You walk up to the bar, order your drinks and food and then take a number to your table. Generally they then deliver the food to you (you carry your own drinks). Sometimes you get a little light up thing and you then go retrieve your food and to me this is ridiculous. We were a few drinks in by the time we had to carry our food back on trays down stairs. That has to result in the occasional schnitzel drop. But when you are done, no one comes around and asks if you want dessert or another drink and you've already paid (no tipping, servers make $26AUS an hour) so you are free to just get up and go. Kind of nice. Bookings (reservations) are essential at table service restaurants and we have so many booking stories that's a whole post on it's own. <br />
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In our states life we almost never ate out. When we are in our rental home, we'll certainly eat out less but it's been a bit of a sabbatical for both of us this first month. Greg's work schedule is interesting with his plant in China starting work 3 hours behind Australia and his plant in India 5 1/2 hours behind (fun facts: China has one time zone and India's time zones are on the half hour). Generally he does his US work in the morning or very late at night and his Asia people are mid-day. Travel starts tomorrow again so the working sabbatical is about to be over for him. Sara arrived one week after we did and stayed for most of the three weeks of her winter break. Kelly arrived one week after Sara and had ten days here. Perfect timing for the transition. So much easier with them here even if it was the warmest and least Christmas-y Christmas. The rare times we are all together are the best. That's another post too. So we ate out a lot while we were all on holiday. And we've been out and about this week too because I'll be all on my own for the next two weeks and well, it's fun trying it all. <br />
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Let's get to some food. Australians call all what we call winter squash varieties "pumpkin". You might see "butternut pumpkin", but generally it's just "pumpkin". Sara and I were a little perplexed at first, but we figured it out and started roasted our butternut pumpkin and ordering wood-fired pizzas and salads and pastas with pumpkin without trepidation. A lovely ferry ride away (except on a holiday Sunday when it was like Bangladesh at the ferry wharf) is Watsons Bay which feels just like a Caribbean island is home to Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel Beach Club (right, a restaurant/pub but it actually does have lodging). All the beautiful people settle in for drinks, food and Dj music in the sun and under umbrellas off just off the beach. And then Greg and I show up and slightly raise the mean age which is generally 26 (sometimes it feels like a city made up entirely of trust-fund kids). Anyway, you'll keep seeing Facebook and Instagram posts from Watsons Bay. We watched this salad cruise by as people who ordered it picked it up and brought it to their tables (so weird, that). Then we went home and made it ourselves. And forgot to take pictures. So I'll show you a few pictures of Watsons Bay and one of our favorite places to grab a drink.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdh9ksZ6T4cvB4X4q4fbqgxyTocyC-tYVWIwDwL52l6ZPkvdoCDOSNt1aWhLuGx9Jt4zfDBM50zmP8F399gmFkueEwyPzESML9h45q40aaTKG-tW5j9U87tXisN9anCeYFDFbHwkxWBeY/s1600/P9051334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdh9ksZ6T4cvB4X4q4fbqgxyTocyC-tYVWIwDwL52l6ZPkvdoCDOSNt1aWhLuGx9Jt4zfDBM50zmP8F399gmFkueEwyPzESML9h45q40aaTKG-tW5j9U87tXisN9anCeYFDFbHwkxWBeY/s1600/P9051334.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watsons Bay back in August (spring) during our first visit to Sydney</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK37i47ILQQojmmlCYnEh-IZAjdcBWLYwGuksRjrEZdBqLCZMlEpKPwmZwefuzJR4sgePQWxNcvJICWyp2OjN7RcjQEDvA_tMeWMg5NL6whitBKHl9f35VOeJlQ6F8udpFExLsWQryfFc/s1600/IMG_1215.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK37i47ILQQojmmlCYnEh-IZAjdcBWLYwGuksRjrEZdBqLCZMlEpKPwmZwefuzJR4sgePQWxNcvJICWyp2OjN7RcjQEDvA_tMeWMg5NL6whitBKHl9f35VOeJlQ6F8udpFExLsWQryfFc/s1600/IMG_1215.jpeg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greg at the club</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTa0SmgovILjYa-n3zZ0vb5uRj2nYuhUcYXRUbDM5JHqtrb2ieqKIJ-ur0wUGJYcy88abxy2nmNcSkxU0-l_ae7hztOar5jJWY_jCwN88AI1LZJZ_0DKVSaCbklNBtxNtgNXAWUeP0oPA/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTa0SmgovILjYa-n3zZ0vb5uRj2nYuhUcYXRUbDM5JHqtrb2ieqKIJ-ur0wUGJYcy88abxy2nmNcSkxU0-l_ae7hztOar5jJWY_jCwN88AI1LZJZ_0DKVSaCbklNBtxNtgNXAWUeP0oPA/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg.jpeg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the beautiful people and me</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3tPDuta7P6pxmkRkv1A_FTxWa8vpjYsm5QuGUn6q6J5TsYwYC59obkxj2YH-SfJhlnlpISdkAP0kXyS_A-14hmpPvE8JMCoqGpyk6lLRcBZ4WpD_SnWjde3qNpONDgy-Xp-MnYvwXQDI/s1600/P9051330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3tPDuta7P6pxmkRkv1A_FTxWa8vpjYsm5QuGUn6q6J5TsYwYC59obkxj2YH-SfJhlnlpISdkAP0kXyS_A-14hmpPvE8JMCoqGpyk6lLRcBZ4WpD_SnWjde3qNpONDgy-Xp-MnYvwXQDI/s1600/P9051330.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the beach club on a quiet day in August</td></tr>
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A few thoughts on kale. It's super trendy, but my body and maybe yours can only handle kale in moderation. Generally the curly varieties are easier to digest than the lacinto/dinosaur/flat varieties which to me have the look of something easier to break down. If you can buy kale from a grower at a market, ask them which varieties are easier to digest. They'll know. You can have too much of a good thing. Always remove the leaves from the tough stem. Dress your kale with lemon juice and work it through with your hands before you toss it with other ingredients. Lemon juice breaks down the kale (just like lemon or lime juice "cooks" seafood in ceviche) and makes it more digestible. <br />
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If you've never dealt with a fresh pomegranate this<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lH47Oorrdk"> video</a> from Jamie Oliver's cooking skills series will show you how. You can always just substitute in dried cranberries too. <br />
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If you want to make it even more filling, cook some quinoa in chicken or vegetable broth, fluff and cool to whatever temperature you'd like. You can toss the kale with warm quinoa and warm squash and it will further soften your kale. <br />
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<br />
Kale Salad with Pumpkin and Pomegranate<br />
<br />
one bunch kale, washed, dried, tough stems removed<br />
one lemon<br />
one butternut "pumpkin" squash, peeled, and cut into 1/2 to 1-inch cubes<br />
olive oil<br />
kosher salt<br />
freshly ground pepper<br />
one or two pomegranates, seeded (or buy the refrigerated tubs of pomegranate ariels)<br />
2 T balsamic vinegar (pomegranate balsamic would be nice)<br />
1 T honey<br />
pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or pine nuts, toasted<br />
crumbled feta or goat cheese or shaved Parmesan<br />
<br />
Toss the juice of one lemon with the washed and torn kale working the lemon juice into the leaves. Set aside for at least 20 minutes. It's fine on the counter for longer. <br />
<br />
Toss your butternut squash with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, 1/2 to 1 tsp kosher salt and generous grinds of pepper. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet or in a baking pan. Roast your squash in a very hot oven (400-450 degrees) for about 20 minutes, turning a couple of times until brown and a bit caramelized. Let cool at least a bit. <br />
<br />
While the oven is still warm put your desired seeds on a tray and toast lightly in the warm oven for maybe 10 minutes. Do not burn.<br />
<br />
Toss the kale, squash, and pomegranate with the balsamic and honey. Add a little more olive oil if needed. Taste for salt and pepper. Toss in the toasted nuts and your desired seeds just before serving. <br />
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-14903613284163987422014-10-21T14:38:00.001-04:002014-10-21T14:38:58.081-04:00nothing makes a house smell better than baking: pumpkin oatmeal cookies with apple cider frosting (or filling)Limbo land stretches on. Thank goodness for a week away at the beach. Sara and I had absolutely perfect weather for her final college fall break. We were continually amazed at being warm all hours of the day, hot in the afternoon and super comfortable out on the sandbars in the warm October waters of the gulf. Gorgeous. Nice tan. Well fed, but not too well fed (glided right by the Publix key lime pie which is legendary, but a lot of pie for one person since it's not a Sara thing). And hilarious times with the in-laws who made it down at the end of our trip (it is their place after all). Greg Face Timed with us every morning and evening (which are exact opposites in China) and that's always fun. I'm sure the kids are not nearly as amazed by Face Time as we are and heaven knows our parents find it even more hard to imagine. Greg and I have spent so much time chatting on Face Time that I know the landmarks of his usual weekend walks through Shanghai. We're over half way through two months on opposite sides of the world. Let me tell you, we're about done with it. We can't wait to get to Sydney! But, we're still waiting. Lots of good activity on the house in the last week. Keep the good thoughts coming.<br />
<br />All the house activity has kept my cooking and baking for one to a bare minimum. Who wants to buy a house that smells like roasted cauliflower? But seriously, I have a really pretty cauliflower and I am eating for dinner tonight if it takes a day or two to air the house out. The weather is getting more mild here as the week goes on and Rio loves the windows open. But people always want to buy a house that smells like baked goods so I baked these cookies last weekend and today I'm baking Smitten Kitchen's chocolate babka (can't move all my ingredients so say good bye to my luscious bulk French chocolate plus I've always wanted to bake a babka just to say it). <br />
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After yoga one morning in Broad Ripple I stopped by Locally Grown Gardens (go) to ogle at all the Laguiole cutlery (current obsession which incidentally is the only thing I found in Sydney that costs the same as it does here so I'm being good and only bought one little condiment spoon at LGG) and peruse all of their gourmet groceries and fresh produce. Now that the farmer's markets are all wrapped up here on the north side this is my go-to for local. I splurged on a crisp and sweet half gallon of apple cider so I looked for some baked good to use cider and pumpkin (another pantry find).<br />
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Found a couple of recipes for soft pumpkin oatmeal cookies and one used boiled cider in the filling for little cream pies. It also used a cup of butter and not much spice so I substituted some Greek yogurt and upped the spices. If you have pumpkin pie spice, just use 2 tsp or so of that in place of all the spices I have listed. I've never bought pumpkin pie spice as a blend and every time I make something pumpkin I'm looking up a substitution and making my own. This is totally fine since I always have all the spices, but it would be way easier to buy the blend. I also replaced some white flour with wheat flour because you can't tell the difference and it's incrementally better for you (plus, I have wheat flour to use up before I move). I did make a few into the little cookie sandwiches, but the others I just frosted because they are pretty big cookies to start let alone to double and fill with cream. The cookies are pretty yummy without frosting or filling too. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXrtv9ksgtZBrbRG9kyn0joY4Mk7J3ytBblsMKXdCEiJMrByPMQ7GwCCKkX8ep6kNVU4hl2xlVAdKAPTE-1JzTOKOh230AaxgC5fdMDAsDhVhCmw5g_Zdo21yRGn5qDS-ZNXLxCkSvAA/s1600/PA211460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXrtv9ksgtZBrbRG9kyn0joY4Mk7J3ytBblsMKXdCEiJMrByPMQ7GwCCKkX8ep6kNVU4hl2xlVAdKAPTE-1JzTOKOh230AaxgC5fdMDAsDhVhCmw5g_Zdo21yRGn5qDS-ZNXLxCkSvAA/s1600/PA211460.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">get your pumpkin spice and cider fix</td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
Cookies<br />
<br />
1 C all purpose flour<br />
3/4 C whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)<br />
1 3/4 C old-fashioned rolled oats<br />
1 tsp baking soda<br />
1/2 tsp kosher salt<br />
2 tsp cinnamon<br />
1/2 tsp ginger<br />
1/2 tsp nutmeg<br />
1/4 tsp allspice<br />
1/4 tsp ground cloves<br />
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened<br />
1/2 C sugar<br />
3/4 C light or dark brown sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
1/4 C maple syrup<br />
1/2 C plain Greek yogurt<br />
3/4 C pumpkin<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
<br />
Frosting (or Filling)<br />
4 T unsalted butter, softened<br />
4 oz. light cream cheese, softened<br />
3 T apple cider syrup (1/3 C cider boiled down-see below)<br />
1 tsp cinnamon<br />
2 T flour (optional)<br />
1 1/2 C confectioner's sugar<br />
<br />
Cider Syrup<br />
1/3 C apple cider<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. <br />
In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, oats, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. Set aside. <br />
In a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer, beat together butter and sugars until pale and fluffy. <br />
Beat in the egg followed by the syrup, yogurt, pumpkin and vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients (or they will fly out of the bowl and get you and your counters) and mix until well combined. <br />
Drop a big heaping spoonful of dough (about 2 T) onto the parchment lined sheets about 2-inches apart (they spread, but not crazy). Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until edges are golden brown but centers are still a little soft. Transfer to cooling racks and cool completely before frosting or filling (or eat them warm, they're pretty delicious with milk, coffee or tea).<br />
<br />
Prepare the syrup by pouring the cider in a small non-reactive pan and heating it to a rolling boil, stirring. Reduce heat to simmer for about 15-20 minutes, stirring often until reduced but before it turns hard (you could end up with almost a solid so watch the cider). <br />
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Prepare the filling by beating together the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in the cider syrup (mine was a little warm and all was well), cinnamon, flour (if using, it did thicken the mixture nicely but it seems pretty optional) and add the confectioner's sugar slowly so it does not make a gigantic powdery mess. Beat until smooth. Adjust with more confectioner's sugar if necessary for desired spreading consistency. <br />
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Spread a nice layer of frosting on each cookie top or spread on one cookie bottom and top with another cookie for a little cream pie.<br />
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Serve immediately or refrigerate in a covered container to store. <br />
<br />
Makes about 2 dozen cookies or 12 cream pies. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NUS9BI38rjSl44U_UeY6z0os2ZnGeYZEBf7fTNlG0K6IdHc-OfQ7ECnjStL4-rLMjlFsGRHQhkQzoVijI6YNANz0ze8nZcL_uaEUHDUPkD7aZcanKu1icgqSIShJYtptX3ID_gucslg/s1600/PA171443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NUS9BI38rjSl44U_UeY6z0os2ZnGeYZEBf7fTNlG0K6IdHc-OfQ7ECnjStL4-rLMjlFsGRHQhkQzoVijI6YNANz0ze8nZcL_uaEUHDUPkD7aZcanKu1icgqSIShJYtptX3ID_gucslg/s1600/PA171443.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ingredients</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-yyH7nmmoAXi2a82bnCOzMGsnp1cFbEh405U3WTnjQf9JqCFsTOaS6YBNo9HUKMHUA5d4q2Of3MYe_TJ5peWJ738zCruRGQ2SflW1Lu22ynGeztZQiIBCKqeQoG6ghDitStWwJE532dE/s1600/PA171444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-yyH7nmmoAXi2a82bnCOzMGsnp1cFbEh405U3WTnjQf9JqCFsTOaS6YBNo9HUKMHUA5d4q2Of3MYe_TJ5peWJ738zCruRGQ2SflW1Lu22ynGeztZQiIBCKqeQoG6ghDitStWwJE532dE/s1600/PA171444.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dry ingredients (that's freshly grated nutmeg all across the top)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41stnNxhmgmrVHOKS_9axrPJLS0GrzQEKakldJXxfyd6ZPVIXMkzzdmol2MQw2-An0cicQ77bAIXGTAoXLej51I9KoLQ647bfQ94kst7_JswGUoke-0LRcpN_q0T297JUDrumju9bbSI/s1600/PA171445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41stnNxhmgmrVHOKS_9axrPJLS0GrzQEKakldJXxfyd6ZPVIXMkzzdmol2MQw2-An0cicQ77bAIXGTAoXLej51I9KoLQ647bfQ94kst7_JswGUoke-0LRcpN_q0T297JUDrumju9bbSI/s1600/PA171445.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">creamed butter and sugars</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz76z_XmkayHiJd4Pbp5-S4WdKLhHrmyxp4bYO3RVq2spMU2ktrMlv9NBfcvNF07jNSHII6g3naK1DeEbeqUUWhIH3eh5E30Jga7qK9DM2vbRFzv80lcObWg5FJF3KIrpu-5sLeWA4lHQ/s1600/PA171446.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz76z_XmkayHiJd4Pbp5-S4WdKLhHrmyxp4bYO3RVq2spMU2ktrMlv9NBfcvNF07jNSHII6g3naK1DeEbeqUUWhIH3eh5E30Jga7qK9DM2vbRFzv80lcObWg5FJF3KIrpu-5sLeWA4lHQ/s1600/PA171446.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">eggs, yogurt, vanilla and maple syrup in and pumpkin is next</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIIiu00XqqLcgngtA9xRa3sl1qoaFUaxnR-0gcDri7bXxYUmVfUhQvPo-6W2ozAXatU5aZN0_6EwBnLCUY48QjXW-ZUqfWTH0UCWc3R-sn92tz1Stuc5Caw_xs1O717-glCAm8k5wzYRs/s1600/PA171447.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIIiu00XqqLcgngtA9xRa3sl1qoaFUaxnR-0gcDri7bXxYUmVfUhQvPo-6W2ozAXatU5aZN0_6EwBnLCUY48QjXW-ZUqfWTH0UCWc3R-sn92tz1Stuc5Caw_xs1O717-glCAm8k5wzYRs/s1600/PA171447.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dry ingredients ready to incorporate</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcK7FSAxoFyE4XC6b4qciybu9bwt16NIiKth0Pjx11r41hv0SgszOtlMoOn9fqdwipbTgzqA7f9f6LkNuOreHRbrouCWkDJad5w2YH2NRY0BVMrT1dr7kKLUL6AIB_5K6Xg5b4qnXiZY/s1600/PA171448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcK7FSAxoFyE4XC6b4qciybu9bwt16NIiKth0Pjx11r41hv0SgszOtlMoOn9fqdwipbTgzqA7f9f6LkNuOreHRbrouCWkDJad5w2YH2NRY0BVMrT1dr7kKLUL6AIB_5K6Xg5b4qnXiZY/s1600/PA171448.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dough try not to eat all of it (pumpkin is tastier cooked)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVZHjva0YuGMUhI6gqzEEhBqucMmecxmGYf-ih7nqQ9t4FPNpupKEhFFr32zb1vr1VMb2Wi9-GNWd5jJvbae9IrcgnpF_X0p2_2ThCAEpu19r8Rj0IrntasnEiszbGKSzOqa23XbGgFs/s1600/PA171452.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVZHjva0YuGMUhI6gqzEEhBqucMmecxmGYf-ih7nqQ9t4FPNpupKEhFFr32zb1vr1VMb2Wi9-GNWd5jJvbae9IrcgnpF_X0p2_2ThCAEpu19r8Rj0IrntasnEiszbGKSzOqa23XbGgFs/s1600/PA171452.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cookies cooling, nice and soft</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCV82SpdO_wnyP6lSPIfRFyIMkIEghyo_aBLWW8dOeyL1hWKG5HwJgXce013Vbl7KZQ5XP4HS9hZbFBF5QoPHWB-HtQ0L0L4-EhIeLMPYyey_Z2tPWR7Gof5j-mjr6CUXkGbm0YoYe3I/s1600/PA171454.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCV82SpdO_wnyP6lSPIfRFyIMkIEghyo_aBLWW8dOeyL1hWKG5HwJgXce013Vbl7KZQ5XP4HS9hZbFBF5QoPHWB-HtQ0L0L4-EhIeLMPYyey_Z2tPWR7Gof5j-mjr6CUXkGbm0YoYe3I/s1600/PA171454.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">filling or frosting however you like it</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXrtv9ksgtZBrbRG9kyn0joY4Mk7J3ytBblsMKXdCEiJMrByPMQ7GwCCKkX8ep6kNVU4hl2xlVAdKAPTE-1JzTOKOh230AaxgC5fdMDAsDhVhCmw5g_Zdo21yRGn5qDS-ZNXLxCkSvAA/s1600/PA211460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXrtv9ksgtZBrbRG9kyn0joY4Mk7J3ytBblsMKXdCEiJMrByPMQ7GwCCKkX8ep6kNVU4hl2xlVAdKAPTE-1JzTOKOh230AaxgC5fdMDAsDhVhCmw5g_Zdo21yRGn5qDS-ZNXLxCkSvAA/s1600/PA211460.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cream pies or frosted cookies</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-36110222578252543442014-09-25T17:59:00.000-04:002014-09-25T18:15:50.320-04:00downtown week: butternut squash with lemon truffle yogurt sauceStill living life in limbo. Should be on my way to Sydney, but instead back in Carmel waiting fairly impatiently for our pretty family home to sell. Trying optimism this week (tried it last week and we had a good weekend of legitimate potential buyers). So that's all I'm going to say about the move.<br />
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To get out of my head, I went to church. I think I forget that I no longer work Sundays (or any other day for that matter). The good thing about church, it's always ready for you to remember how much better your week starts when you spend an hour being mindful of all of your blessings. After the service I got to give my favorite minister a big hug and she got to tell me how much they needed help at two Habitat for Humanity houses they are building. Perfect. So I got up early Friday and Saturday and got nice and covered in dirt, sawdust, caulk, paint and sweat for two full days. I love hard work with tangible results. And I love the work of Habitat. We are building for a very sweet Sudanese refugee and his family and a cute old single man (who works night shifts so you really have to keep an eye on him on the precarious jobsite). I'm going back downtown for three more days later this week. Can't wait. <br />
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Since it was downtown week for me it was only suitable that after my t-shirt and jeans dirt fests on Friday and Saturday that I showed up in head to toe all white for a fancy pitch-in dinner party outdoors on the circle in the shadows of the Soldiers and Sailors monument Sunday night. The symphony quintet played. The white table cloths and white balloons floated a bit in the cool breeze and it was all quite lovely. My dear friend Amanda whose actual job is to know everything happening in downtown Indy invited me and our little group grew to ten eclectic people all in white and all bearing really delicious food. I baked a pretty apple crostata or galette if that's what you like to call a free form rustic pie baked without a pie plate. And I roasted two big butternut squash to toss with lemon truffle vinaigrette, Greek yogurt and chives. One of my absolute favorite dishes. One I couldn't believe I had yet to post. So this brings me to actually sitting down and writing for the first time in forever. All my new downtown friends heard all about my blog and they'll be looking for this and so I best get on it and write it up. Since I swore it was already posted, I'm short pictures. I'll add some in shortly because I have one more butternut squash and it really wants to be this dish. <br />
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You can buy the very user-friendly cubed butternut squash at Costco or Trader Joe's, the little tiny cubed frozen butternut squash from Whole Foods works too (but it's pretty smushy when roasted) or you can buy a whole butternut squash and cut it up yourself. Buy a butternut squash that's mostly a nice thick long neck because that's where the peel and cube flesh is (the bulb shaped base of the squash is mostly seeds). Cut off the bulb with a very sturdy sharp knife so you can stand up the neck and then use that knife to cut off the hard rind in vertical strips. It's not that hard, but be careful. I'm not going to drop a smiley face and tell you it's super easy. It takes a sturdy knife and some muscle. Lay it down and cut it in half vertically. Then slice it horizontally and cut each slice into cubes. </div>
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This is an adaptation of a recipe from one of my favorite restaurants and cookbooks, Lemonade. White truffle oil is a luxury. Some of us are super lucky and we have very special friends who hand deliver bottles of white truffle oil from Italy. If you aren't quite as lucky, consider a small bottle. It's so silky and a little adds so much to just about anything. My stash is getting repackaged in a nalgene bottle and pretending to be hair oil so I can smuggle it into Australia. Shhh. Don't tell. </div>
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Butternut Squash with Lemon Truffle Yogurt Sauce</div>
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1 butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cubed or 3 cups pre-cut cubes</div>
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3 T olive oil</div>
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kosher salt</div>
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freshly ground pepper</div>
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1 tsp white truffle oil</div>
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1/2 C lemon truffle vinaigrette (see below)</div>
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1/2 C plain Greek yogurt (2% works nicely)</div>
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1/4 C freshly chopped chives</div>
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Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the cut squash with the olive oil, 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until golden and tender, 20-25 minutes stirring once or twice. Transfer the roasted squash to a big bowl and allow to cool. </div>
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Stir together the vinaigrette, yogurt and chives and pour over cooled squash. Toss to coat and serve at room temperature or chilled. </div>
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Lemon Truffle Vinaigrette</div>
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2 lemons, juiced</div>
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3/4 C canola oil</div>
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2 T olive oil</div>
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1 tsp kosher salt</div>
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1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper</div>
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In a small bowl, measuring cup or jar, whisk together to blend and emulsify. Leftover vinaigrette can be covered and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week.</div>
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Here's a selfie from Yelp's Blanc Affaire</div>
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***I'll get you some squash pictures ASAP</div>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-21448716062186766112014-07-22T19:24:00.002-04:002014-07-22T19:24:48.619-04:00Celebrity goat cheese: tomato tart (and smashed potatoes too)Let's talk goat cheese. I love a good artisan goat cheese like Capriole Farms from southern Indiana, but I'm on my second buy of the Celebrity goat cheese trio from Costco and you should grab some too while it's available. You know how good things mysteriously and maddeningly come and go from Costco. There are three flavors: garlic and fine herb, Mediterranean and chipotle. It's not that they are so unusual, but when I go beyond serving them for a little gracious living with wine and crackers then I have a blog post waiting to be written. <br />
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Use flavored goat cheese in grilled cheese with good summer tomatoes, fresh basil and some great multi grain or ciabatta loaf or go all out and get a good foccacia. I'm telling you, go to Amelia's bakery stand at the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market. Or grill or bake some cheese toasties with a little olive oil brushed on both sides and a good spread of goat cheese melted on top served with a salad. Crumble some into your salad with a light vinaigrette or just good olive oil and a nice wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Add some to your mac and cheese along with some cheddar, I'm thinking the chipotle in some mac would be fabulous. <br />
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I had some nice little purple and yukon gold potatoes from the farm stand, boiled them in salted water until they were fork tender and then drained them. Leaving them in your saucepan add some goat cheese and a little chicken or vegetable broth and smash it all together. In the hot pan the cheese will melt and it's going to take every bit of willpower for you not to finish the whole pot. Sure my potatoes were a little funky and purple but the chipotle goat cheese made them crazy good. <br />
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I found this tomato tart recipe in a cookbook review in USA Today or the WSJ or the New York Times when I had gleefully grabbed all three papers from the Delta Sky Club traveling with Greg to Charleston for the Fourth. I love newspapers. I love the indulgence of all the papers in one sitting. Plus I got to read these in first class because my husband is smart enough to give me a turn at an upgrade if he's on the same flight. The recipe would be perfectly good with plain goat cheese, but the garlic and herb was pretty darn tasty. I totally splurged on this recipe and bought a really nice all butter frozen puff pastry sheet from Whole Foods for more than double the cost of the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets. While I was at it, I bought really nice fresh house made ricotta from WF too. Soooo much better than the grocery version. Might have to learn to make my own which I read all the time about being super easy. I grow lots of basil and I had gorgeous tomatoes from the farm stand too. I served this for a little Monday night dinner party with Dave and Maureen. Whenever Greg is actually in town we have to keep the party going since it's a rare occasion and will be getting much rarer pretty soon. I also made a terrific grilled skirt steak salad with marinated and grilled onions, roasted poblanos, red wine oregano vinaigrette and feta. That post is next. Not bad dining for a Monday. <br />
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Tomato Tart<br />
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flour for rolling pastry<br />
one 7-8 ounce sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed but still cold per package directions (thaw in refrigerator 2-3 hours) <br />
2 T olive oil, divided<br />
1 C ricotta cheese, drained if fresh<br />
4 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled (I used Celebrity Herbs and Garlic from Costco trio pack, but plain would be just fine)<br />
2 large eggs<br />
1/4 C fresh chopped basil leaves (a good bunch)<br />
3/4 tsp kosher salt<br />
freshly ground pepper<br />
3 medium to large ripe local tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds and drained on towels<br />
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.<br />
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Lightly flour parchment and roll dough into a 10 x 15 inch rectangle. With the tines of a fork flat or blade of a small knife, press indentations or cut slits part of the way through the dough about 1 inch from edges all the way around the rectangle. Prick the center of the rectangle all over with tines of a fork on end to keep the center from rising as high as the sides of the dough rectangle. Brush the inside of the rectangle with 1 T of the olive oil.<br />
In a medium bowl, combine ricotta and goat cheeses with the eggs, fresh basil, 1/2 tsp of the kosher salt and 1/4 tsp or more of freshly ground pepper. Spread the cheese mixture evenly over the center of the rectangle all the way to the edge of the 1" border. Top with tomato slices (when I lifted mine from the paper towels, the seeds stayed on the towels which is way easier than coring and seeding the tomatoes), overlapping them a bit. Drizzle with remaining 1 T of olive oil and lightly sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of kosher or flaky (Maldon) salt across the top. <br />
Bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and the filling is set. <br />
Cut into squares and serve warm. Serves 6-8. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSp1gzN6BdBdSKgh9-hwscYEmD4nRVWFo18dfEe5SzpLEHCOaFgQD4gDK6S9lI1bZUBsOsvA54yuf6xIXteW4-2qhhQS8N-Tjk8N45xGQ9wAYtfp-XArj9D2RUElmrjTGwBee-FWlQhjg/s1600/IMG_5072.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSp1gzN6BdBdSKgh9-hwscYEmD4nRVWFo18dfEe5SzpLEHCOaFgQD4gDK6S9lI1bZUBsOsvA54yuf6xIXteW4-2qhhQS8N-Tjk8N45xGQ9wAYtfp-XArj9D2RUElmrjTGwBee-FWlQhjg/s1600/IMG_5072.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tart before baking</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">after baking, with my filling spilling all over but in a good way</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-85271884240479010762014-07-15T18:08:00.000-04:002014-07-15T18:17:16.951-04:00salad assignment? Graham's Party Salad Greg's new VP of Asia gig brings "the band back together" as he is working for Charlie for the third time (for the third company) in the past 16 years. This happy alliance took us to Detroit (well, Rochester), Cleveland (Hudson) and Kansas City (never actually moved there, but one very good husband commuted there for 7 years, who knew it would go that long?). And now we're off to Australia as soon as all the stars are aligned and all the logistics fall into place. Some of our best friends come from what I think of as "the team", the guys that have worked and moved with Greg some since the TDK days 20 some years ago. Most of them have also been regulars on Greg's annual fishing trip to the boundary waters of Canada. So many stories, weddings, race weekends, parties and good times with the team. One of the team members, Graham, happens to also be a great cook and made this salad one night for a big steak dinner party at his house which appears to be 13 years ago because the recipe is printed from an e-mail sent to me at an e-mail address I don't even remember as mine. Geez. <br />
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This is a salad for a party. It's big and universally liked. Graham's original recipe uses mayonnaise and it's a well-established fact that I do not knowingly eat mayonnaise (and my mayo radar is always on) unless I love you a lot and you feed it to me and then I'll try a bite of your salad because I love you and you were unaware of my rules. Thankfully, Greek yogurt works just as well. The herbs used to flavor the dressing can be from your pantry shelves or your herb garden in season. You can use whatever vegetables you like. Graham sliced his bell peppers in big, pretty rings and I always try to do that too because they look amazing. Mushrooms are great in this salad but honestly, I forgot that and did not buy any for the salad I made this weekend (because why would you actually review a recipe before you go to the market?). The original recipe calls for layering your salad vegetables in your serving bowl, topping it with a layer of feta and then spreading the dressing evenly across the top. The bowl is covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated 4-24 hours and then tossed with the croutons just before serving. I usually just layer it all up and keep the dressing in a jar or covered bowl but both methods work just fine. </div>
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Graham's Party Salad</div>
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Dressing</div>
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1 C plain Greek yogurt (fat free or 2%)</div>
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3-5 cloves garlic, minced</div>
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1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese </div>
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1/4 C red wine vinegar </div>
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1/2 C lemon juice</div>
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1/4-1/2 C olive oil (start with 1/4 and add more to get your desired creaminess)</div>
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3-5 shakes of hot sauce (I used about 1/2 tsp Cholula)</div>
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1/2 tsp kosher salt</div>
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1 tsp freshly ground pepper</div>
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1 T tamari (reduced sodium soy sauce)</div>
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1/2-1 tsp dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary) OR small handfuls of fresh herbs, chopped fine</div>
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(I know that's a lot of approximations, but you can't really do it wrong with fresh and with dried just start with 1/2 to 1 tsp of each and all a little more to taste).</div>
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Salad</div>
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three heads romaine lettuce, core removed, tough outer leaves removed, torn in pieces, washed and spun dry (love little gem if you can find it because those heads have no dark and tough leaves, I get mine at Costco or Meijer)</div>
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two bell peppers cored and cut in big rings</div>
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two to three tomatoes cut in pieces or sliced OR a box or two of cherry tomatoes, halved</div>
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sweet red onion, thinly sliced</div>
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one 10-oz. box sliced mushrooms</div>
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1 C or more of crumbled feta cheese</div>
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one package nice whole grain garlic and herb croutons</div>
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Whisk all dressing ingredients to blend and if making ahead, pour dressing into a mason jar or other pourable container and refrigerate to dress the salad before serving.</div>
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Layer salad ingredients in a very large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate if not serving right away. Toss with dressing, feta and croutons and serve immediately. </div>
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Serves 15-18 easily. Can be topped with grilled chicken, <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2013/10/the-new-cookbook-is-here-grilled-flank.html">grilled skirt steak</a> or cooked shrimp for an entree and omnivore version. If you cut the recipe in half, don't reduce all of the seasonings by half maybe just a bit less of everything you whisk into the yogurt, Parmesan, red wine and olive oil. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2tGU5MwKWKCaimIxQvAhKOuMMiR8krxG-cs3cAXnanAgvRLhWjP7i3fnWTifuCmMhVsiSS_q2zRsS-D-N2-IFSZFMdULWcdK6Zoe-0ENBn5wo-X9XVBjbc2TtpRbVqJJLRmHKaviDPE/s1600/P7120916.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2tGU5MwKWKCaimIxQvAhKOuMMiR8krxG-cs3cAXnanAgvRLhWjP7i3fnWTifuCmMhVsiSS_q2zRsS-D-N2-IFSZFMdULWcdK6Zoe-0ENBn5wo-X9XVBjbc2TtpRbVqJJLRmHKaviDPE/s1600/P7120916.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">dressing ingredients</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKBKn33uMP5CYxs3s6wqGJjbe1u1iBcW8hF0r1SuIJzTtpdysD-2DVtkx9JE7ppDT0GC9wEhF8hPZbiYAtbTJxRmbmA4OOrDiyVcT4N4TIPJu3oFwir5eIvl3gDgD0Ilvbf3LYaFdyoY/s1600/P7120917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKBKn33uMP5CYxs3s6wqGJjbe1u1iBcW8hF0r1SuIJzTtpdysD-2DVtkx9JE7ppDT0GC9wEhF8hPZbiYAtbTJxRmbmA4OOrDiyVcT4N4TIPJu3oFwir5eIvl3gDgD0Ilvbf3LYaFdyoY/s1600/P7120917.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">before whisking</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNgsFtzipf7BX6YP4iWV9kDMy4VG7qKKRGx34iGooiTFZdYZwpirZeTgX3pN8Pi0BL2vuoFPR__byPbgHQoYIZjyLgnCS-w8Z-QBG_YF2tBwRF67wx2vlfGgPbRoeK6OPqm12weasVv-o/s1600/P7120918.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNgsFtzipf7BX6YP4iWV9kDMy4VG7qKKRGx34iGooiTFZdYZwpirZeTgX3pN8Pi0BL2vuoFPR__byPbgHQoYIZjyLgnCS-w8Z-QBG_YF2tBwRF67wx2vlfGgPbRoeK6OPqm12weasVv-o/s1600/P7120918.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">creamy and ready to chill or dress</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXcQDUzWWkgUQcYBNwlfuYF9kxjH01rCmnYnktdknB5zGIYfWNlpEd7mcDFRVLR5nJOn488wsDOS9J3OnbwBgdWPXQ68TFEbNOLH-2SbQOUQ3UJd0rX4rPA8cxIU2tkWU-rGu0flnXxQ/s1600/P7120920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXcQDUzWWkgUQcYBNwlfuYF9kxjH01rCmnYnktdknB5zGIYfWNlpEd7mcDFRVLR5nJOn488wsDOS9J3OnbwBgdWPXQ68TFEbNOLH-2SbQOUQ3UJd0rX4rPA8cxIU2tkWU-rGu0flnXxQ/s1600/P7120920.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">pepper rings, onion slices, tomato pieces and romaine (it's hiding under there)</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTruVVnvSreKZKVWBUhDrD4Pdllthynfa63HqMKGwqi5EMrAFJiCPpjA5KH_NHCFw3HK35Vna_5Vk0rNo_gI9Zc-kHCH3NoWl2bGr5yJ4l1vYJFEAwktx3DJvq5SDWBhALGSqR-qikCPI/s1600/P7120921.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTruVVnvSreKZKVWBUhDrD4Pdllthynfa63HqMKGwqi5EMrAFJiCPpjA5KH_NHCFw3HK35Vna_5Vk0rNo_gI9Zc-kHCH3NoWl2bGr5yJ4l1vYJFEAwktx3DJvq5SDWBhALGSqR-qikCPI/s1600/P7120921.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">ready to cover and chill without dressing</td></tr>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-56741627261918853092014-06-28T12:43:00.000-04:002014-06-28T12:43:57.885-04:00rainy summer days: (blueberry) brown sugar oat muffinsRainy day at home and rainy day at Wimbledon. After an early and damp visit to the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market and the weekend errands, I am ready to settle in and watch tennis even if they are playing only on Centre Court (i.e., the only covered one). At some point today I absolutely have to work on something or anything organizational and move related, but not apparently right now. So this is the beauty of the laptop, I can camp out in front of the television AND still get something done. Fighting a bit of a cold so a little slacking is probably good. I need to plan a menu for dinner with neighbors Tuesday night with special guests from Australia. Because the world is crazy like that, Becki and Dave who lived across the street here in Indiana moved to Sydney last year for an international assignment. So we'll have lots of food and wine and lots to discuss. Here's what I'm planning so far: <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2013/10/the-new-cookbook-is-here-grilled-flank.html">grilled skirt steak with house made steak sauce</a>, <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2013/09/yolo-fomo-summer-of-fun-summer-corn.html">summer corn salad with avocado and chimichurri vinaigrette</a> and <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2011/08/balance-or-lack-thereof-amazing-creme.html">creme brûlée cheesecake</a>. Solid foundation. Pondering appetizers. <br />
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So that and this post are my sitting and tennis viewing work for the day.</div>
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On my way out the door for my early market run, I grabbed a blueberry brown sugar oat muffin from the freezer. I baked them earlier this week and passed them around during a visit to lulu to hug some friends and pick up some hemming. I adapted this recipe from "flour, too" by Joanne Chang of the fresh and delightful flour cafes in Boston. Her recipe is for cherry muffins, but any fruit in season would work. I had an extra basket of blueberries, so there you go. She uses creme fraiche, I used greek yogurt. She uses whole milk, I used buttermilk and some vanilla to mellow it out. Mainly because that's what I had on hand plus my options were better nutritionally. The original recipe calls for preparing the batter and letting it rest in the refrigerator 8 hours or overnight. I just baked mine straight away and they were fantastic, but it is a nice option to get up in the morning and just scoop batter and bake so you have warm muffins for breakfast. I'll try it sometime and let you know if there is any difference in texture or height. Maybe I'll try rhubarb from last week's market trip. <br />
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I'll take some process photos next time, but here's the end result in all it's glory.</div>
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(Blueberry) Brown Sugar Oat Muffins</div>
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3 1/2 C rolled oats (not instant, I like Bob's Red Mill in a big bag)</div>
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1 1/4 C greek yogurt (nonfat was just fine)</div>
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1 C lowfat buttermilk</div>
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1/2 C unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I had very soft butter at room temperature)</div>
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2 large eggs</div>
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1 tsp vanilla</div>
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1/2 C sugar (I like superfine)</div>
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3/4 C packed brown sugar</div>
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1 1/2 C blueberries (or fresh pitted cherries, diced apple, diced peaches, diced pears, cranberries....)</div>
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1 1/4 C white whole-wheat flour (or whole wheat flour)</div>
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2 tsp baking powder</div>
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1/2 tsp baking soda</div>
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1 tsp kosher salt</div>
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brown sugar-oat topping</div>
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1/4 C rolled oats</div>
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3 T brown sugar</div>
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1/4 tsp cinnamon</div>
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In a large bowl, stir together oats, yogurt, buttermilk and butter until combined. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs together and pour into the oat mixture. Stir in the vanilla, sugar, brown sugar and fruit until well-combined. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, powder, soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and fold until just combined. Cover and refrigerate batter for 8 hours or overnight if you like, completely optional. </div>
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To bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the muffin tin cups with paper liners and then coat liberally with non-stick cooking spray. Scoop the batter into the prepared cup until full (very full to get the muffin crown). Make the topping by stirring together the oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinke the topping evenly offer the muffins. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until golden brown and the tops spring back when pressed. If you start to smell muffin-y goodness at 35 or 40 minutes, quickly check your muffins and remove from the oven if done. Maybe your tins are smaller or your oven is hotter, but you want a nice moist muffin. Cool in tin a wire rack for 20 minutes before turning out to cool completely (or eat them warm). </div>
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12 muffins</div>
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-29631563911883973672014-06-27T12:45:00.001-04:002016-09-28T23:52:46.214-04:00and I'm back: salted chocolate chunk cookiesApril, May, June almost all passed by during my blog hiatus. So many thoughts unwritten, so many recipes tried and undocumented but the end of my lulu run and the beginning of my resumed position as relocation coordinator and a few technical difficulties necessitated a break from blogging. Our very clean and very loved house is on the market just waiting for the one right family to come through the door. Greg is happily busy in his new job as Vice President of WAVE spending most of his time at his plant in Shanghai and adjusting to the 24/7 life of working on the other side of the planet. His email to our actual paid relocation coordinator describing his adjustment as "drinking from a fire house" fairly sums that up. We're both very excited about all the possibilities over the next three years on our international assignment in Sydney, but we're both experiencing all the emotions that leaving much of of the good life we've spent 30 years building behind will stir up. Today I told him we'll just make that life portable. <br />
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This is my first post on my very first laptop, a beautiful MacBook Air, which should be super exciting for you too, because it means I can post while watching Wimbledon (doing that now, c'mon Venus), porch sitting with wine (that could be a whole new interesting twist) and from wherever I might be over the next months and years. Bear with me as I have yet to accomplish the big data transfer that will save my iMac and enable me to open iPhoto again without fear. Photos might be a bit scarce for a bit. My IT department, aka Sara, and I are contemplating updating the look of blueskiesandlime.com and possibly migrating over to the visually superior WordPress format. Possibilities.....<br />
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Last night some of my awesome tennis team mates came over after our match and we hung out in the kitchen eating snacks and drinking wine. I have no one else to feed right now, so I brought out this and that for everyone to try and eventually busted out the Cuisinart and did a little demo on white chocolate pretzel peanut butter making. I really need to teach cooking classes some day, for now please just enjoy the 263 food posts here and feel free to shoot me questions. I had one bag of salted chocolate chunk cookies left in the freezer and everyone wanted the recipe so this is where we will start. This post was sitting in the draft file just waiting for me to come back. <br />
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Sara was home for three weeks so you know there was baking going on. Hands down, the best new recipe was from Bon Appetit for salted chocolate chunk cookies. Even Tammy, who makes her famously good chocolate chip cookies, wanted the recipe. High praise, indeed. I was out of brown sugar (well, not out but somehow got some moisture in my canister and all my brown sugar turned into a cylindrical brick) plus I kept forgetting to put it on my shopping list in "notes" on my phone (and we all know that nothing happens if it isn't written down, nothing) so we used turbinado sugar. That probably gave the cookies a little extra texture since it doesn't cream down like superfine or brown sugar. Note there are three different sugars in this cookie. I've only ever used powdered sugar in our Christmas cookie dough. Seems to work nicely here. I did have both dark and milk chocolate in my pantry and it was the good stuff: Callebaut from France via Whole Foods. WF sells nice big chunks of Callebaut chocolate for $7.99 a pound. Buy some. And of course I had Maldon salt flakes to finish the cookies. If you don't want to commit to a whole $10 little box of salt, come over and I'll give you a little bit of my stash. Probably not moving the salt to Australia. This recipe just makes 24 cookies which is probably a good thing. Enough to share and enough to get your fill, but if it made 5-dozen you would have to freeze them or hide them because you would inevitably eat them all. <br />
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Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies<br />
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1 1/2 C all-purpose flour<br />
1 tsp baking powder<br />
1/2 tsp kosher salt<br />
1/4 tsp baking soda<br />
1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature<br />
3/4 C turbinado sugar or packed light brown sugar<br />
1/2 C sugar (I use superfine)<br />
1/4 C powdered sugar<br />
2 egg yolks (save the whites for meringues or an egg-white omelet)<br />
1 egg<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
8 ounces semisweet, dark or milk chocolate coarsely chopped<br />
Maldon or other flaky sea salt<br />
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, kosher salt and baking soda in a medium bowl, set aside. Cream together the butter, turbinado/brown sugar, sugar and powdered sugar until light and fluffy (3 minutes or so). Add egg yolks, egg and vanilla and beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy (4-5 minutes), occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture (or you'll have a flour dust storm) and mix just until blended. Fold in the chopped chocolate by hand with a spatula. <br />
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Scoop out rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing the cookies about 1-inch apart. Our dough was very soft, but the cookies turned out fine. Lightly sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the flaky sea salt. Bake until just golden around the edges, rotating the sheets about halfway through, about 10-12 minutes. The cookies will firm up as they cool. Cool for a couple of minutes on the sheets then transfer to wire racks to ostensibly cool completely, but I know you are going to eat a few while they are hot. Why else do you bake? (Answer, to eat the dough which is why you may only end up with 20 cookies instead of 24). <br />
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Note that I made this again using all the various sugars and the cookies were still delightful, just a little pale compared to the first batch where I was out of white sugar. Since I baked just for me, I divided the cookies into quart ziploc bags of 4 or 5 cookies and stuck them in the freezer. I pull one out every now and then and eat it basically frozen and this is a darn fine cookie cold.<br />
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Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-74874483762767935602014-05-06T13:52:00.002-04:002014-05-06T13:52:55.242-04:00Pick me! Zoobilation Twitter Team food blogger? Yes, please!The posting hiatus continues as it's all my two hands on-deck prepping our gorgeous family home for sale by the end of the month before our move to Sydney, Australia in the fall. Eeeeeee! So many words, so many recipes (busy, but you still have to eat and we are hosting all the parties to enjoy all the company before we are on the other side of the globe) and it's all just going to have to wait until June. <div>
But in the meantime, I'm in a little twitter battle today with formidable (and appreciably younger) competition to be the Zoobilation twitter team food blogger at the hottest (and not just literally because it's in mid June) soiree of the season. Cross your fingers and I'll keep warming up my thumbs for the twitter war!</div>
Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-81883973712549485902014-03-08T13:52:00.002-05:002014-03-08T13:52:30.627-05:00buttermilk love: Chocolate Brownie Pound CakeI used to subscribe to all kinds of magazines when I had that great hour or two in the afternoon before the girls got home from school and I scheduled reading and nap time for myself. Please sense the wistfulness in that last sentence. Good times. But today I only subscribe to Fine Cooking (totally worth the annual $29), Yoga Journal (not renewing, but it's been a good read) and Oprah (after so many years you would think I would be impressively self-improved). In a moment of hunger and weakness I picked up a Bon Appetit (probably subscribed to BA for 10 years, but so much content is available on Epicurious it seemed frivolous) because the cover had short rib pot pies and there was a feature on buttermilk. Good enough justification that particular day in the grocery checkout. I use buttermilk all the time in my kitchen. My buttermilk brined oven fried chicken has evolved with the purchase of the Lemonade cookbook and is just amazing. Ridiculously moist and tender. I should probably share that with you soon. Buttermilk is awesome in smashed or mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes. Fresh buttermilk ranch is not nearly as tricky as it sounds and tastes so much better than store bought. I also love to bake with buttermilk to lighten up cakes and muffins. It's a miracle ingredient. It's not expensive, you can buy it in small quantities, it freezes well if you are super thrifty and it's got a decent refrigerated shelf life. That becomes important when you are feeding only one or two people. Amazing how little I could shop for empty nester hood. Note the "could". Hard adjustment. <br />
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This week after having to go 36 hours without solid food (routine maintenance over 50) and being sedated, of course I came home and started cooking and baking. Don't worry, I eventually grabbed a down blanket, my iPad, the Apple TV and the cats and crashed into a Friday Night Lights marathon. The day before I voraciously read the Bon Appetit magazine (reading about food when you can't eat is incredibly appealing to me). I chose a quick little chocolate pound cake recipe and made a few adjustments. Whenever I make chocolate cakes the best part by far is cleaning up the bowl and the paddle. I'm not even a huge chocolate fan. But brownie, Texas Sheet Cake and this pound cake batter are just completely irresistible. I'm sure a whole serving of this cake was consumed in raw form. This cake uses coconut oil which I buy at Trader Joe's or the 365 brand at Whole Foods. I'm not paleo (obviously), but the coconut oil has it charms. Still can't sell me on it's widespread use. Too many years of the nutritionists warning us off all tropical oils. But in this recipe it's delightful. This recipe also uses butter and buttermilk so there are three fat sources (well probably 5 because there is also cocoa powder and there are 3 eggs involved). The three eggs are what makes this so rich and brownie like. I'm not going to tell you this is health food, but it's better than the average brownie or cake. At least you can pick your poison here. Maybe you are in the real butter camp, or the coconut oil camp or the low fat buttermilk camp. If you can't pledge allegiance to one over the other, in this case you do not have to make a decision. Me? I'm just for whole foods. If you've been reading, you know that. I'm blessed with a decent metabolism. I've got cardio and strength training routinely in my schedule. And I just believe life is too short to skip dessert. So this little pound cake baked in a loaf pan really just tastes like a very tall brownie. This one is topped with unsweetened natural coconut flakes and coarse sugar, but you could throw some chocolate, peanut butter or whatever chips or nuts in or on it. Or just leave it plain. A super tall brownie really doesn't need embellishment. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cake before oven, after this my day got a little hazy post sedation and recovery</td></tr>
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Chocolate Brownie Pound Cake<br />
<br />
3/4 C white whole wheat flour<br />
3/4 C almond meal (you can use 1 1/2 C all purpose flour instead of these two flour/meal choices)<br />
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder<br />
1 tsp kosher salt<br />
3/4 tsp baking powder<br />
2 T King Arthur Flour Cake Enhancer, very optional but helpful<br />
1/4 C unsalted butter, softened<br />
1/2 C coconut oil, melted<br />
1 1/4 C sugar<br />
3 large eggs<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
2/3 C buttermilk<br />
1/4 C unsweetened natural coconut flakes (bulk section at Whole Foods)<br />
1 T coarse sugar<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. <br />
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, meal, cocoa, salt, baking powder and cake enhancer if using. <br />
Using a mixer, beat coconut oil, butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (at least 5 minutes). Taste it. Ha, don't. But I always do because you know they fed me butter and sugar sandwiches when I was a toddler (times have changed). Add eggs, one at a time beating well between additions. Beat until mixture is light and volume is increased, another 5 minutes or so. Beat in vanilla.<br />
With the mixer speed low, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk starting and ending with dry ingredients just until all is incorporated. However this works out for you is fine, just don't beat it too long. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with coconut flakes and some coarse sugar, if desired. Bake at 325 for 70-80 minutes until a tester comes out clean. You may need to loosely tent the cake with foil after a bit if the top is browning too fast. Let cake cool on a rack about 20 minutes before turning out and flipping right side up to finish cooling. Tempting to eat this warm, but let it cool or it will break into pieces if you cut it when it's warm. You can always pop it in the microwave. <br />
Keep cake tightly wrapped and store on the counter for up to 5 days. Bet this would freeze beautifully too. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWwB0Xy0SOAF0N-qgdj3fMICI214lNCXaZ4F-ObGW5AoEHrzG1F3eZFSoD_uYQh_x0LB4NAwqcjbHbw3jrFGnjUOvecKFNBF_H5IdRzUoeOgS0ErqNdL_alWNUpP5ZSIrEYnDUpF1z4Y/s1600/P3040874.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWwB0Xy0SOAF0N-qgdj3fMICI214lNCXaZ4F-ObGW5AoEHrzG1F3eZFSoD_uYQh_x0LB4NAwqcjbHbw3jrFGnjUOvecKFNBF_H5IdRzUoeOgS0ErqNdL_alWNUpP5ZSIrEYnDUpF1z4Y/s1600/P3040874.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ingredients</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxLhiQ_k1ljg57wj3ZjlDdn28fir5Zp52m0eO5xlf_8IZRGk8Qg-Yk6rmjh1QOBr-9guhcUDGDQhzoPMSpE0veEWzuhBh6hsjPCxJpBF2aNQqlyhjYXK_73baFCKh-qMe2SWKcRnc_PjI/s1600/P3040875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxLhiQ_k1ljg57wj3ZjlDdn28fir5Zp52m0eO5xlf_8IZRGk8Qg-Yk6rmjh1QOBr-9guhcUDGDQhzoPMSpE0veEWzuhBh6hsjPCxJpBF2aNQqlyhjYXK_73baFCKh-qMe2SWKcRnc_PjI/s1600/P3040875.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yummy batter that I didn't eat raw in my loaf pan</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnPd2xOvmOYbZmQlXADn2eFHKCaul4FcT9E9gioqBFyw_Je322tafX09wfDds-PLQr4EW8pbHzUxoNH-OwdA7iObWO9HNOzQmzFjWct-bOhacpcTPKBNzZ22ASn3UuOmk1P0UsvB_4Sws/s1600/P3040876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnPd2xOvmOYbZmQlXADn2eFHKCaul4FcT9E9gioqBFyw_Je322tafX09wfDds-PLQr4EW8pbHzUxoNH-OwdA7iObWO9HNOzQmzFjWct-bOhacpcTPKBNzZ22ASn3UuOmk1P0UsvB_4Sws/s1600/P3040876.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">coconut and sugar sprinkled before oven<br />I'll make it again and give you a pretty slice picture</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-24051240656024039382014-03-04T17:56:00.002-05:002014-03-04T17:56:07.065-05:00more sunny salads: Carrot, Avocado and Orange California SaladThis salad just has to be called a California salad. All the ingredients would be fresh and local for my Kelly in LA almost year-round. It's another salad that just tastes sunny. And truly this just seems like something I'd order in LA. Greg was home when I made it at lunch the other day and remarked that it was all the things I love. True. He loved it too, by the way. I've seen a few similar recipes out on the interwebs, but I think my spin is fantastic. Give yourself time to roast the carrots and have them cool a bit. It's great cold, but if you make a nice big bowl of it, it's pretty terrific a little warm too. Serve it on arugula or baby greens if you'd like. Grilled shrimp would be a lovely addition too.<br />
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Trader Joe's had the best rainbow carrots around the holidays, and I'm hoping I'll see them around again soon: red, orange and yellow. They'll be some of the first vegetables at the local (read cold-weather) farmer's markets which won't be too long now. Any nice carrots will do. If you buy them in young bunches, leave about a half-inch of the green tops on just because. I had nice organic carrots without tops and just cut them into baby carrot size. Oranges are awesome this time of year. I used blood oranges because I love them. Cara cara oranges are another favorite with their pretty dark pink segments (and you can get nice big bags of them at Costco). Buy oranges (all varieties) that seem heavy for their size. That seems hard to judge, but pick up a few and you'll get the hang of it. Light ones are dried out, heavy ones are juicy. You really should cut off the membranes, but that is ridiculously time consuming and I always waste too much orange, so just peel them and pull apart the segments unless you really want to overachieve. Always keep avocados in your house. Ripen them on your counters and when they are soft to a gentle push, put them in the fridge and they'll be just fine for 4-5 days. Throw them in your salads, in your smoothies, on your sandwiches or burgers and on your whole grain toast. One of the great joys of life. <br />
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Carrot, Avocado and Orange California Salad<br />
<br />
4 cloves garlic<br />
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt or Maldon salt (fancy flaky sea salt)<br />
1 tsp cumin<br />
1 tsp coriander<br />
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes<br />
1/4 C olive oil, divided<br />
1 1/2 pounds young carrots, scrubbed (with 1/2 inch green tops left on or trimmed, your call)<br />
1/2 C vegetable broth or water (optional)<br />
3 tennis-ball sized oranges<br />
2 avocados<br />
juice of half-whole lemon (to taste)<br />
handful of cleaned and trimmed cilantro leaves<br />
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste<br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Crush the garlic cloves with the handle of your knife and slip off the peels. Mince the garlic together with the salt to almost make a paste. Pour 3 T of olive oil on a baking sheet/pan and add the garlic/salt paste, carrots, cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes. Toss to generously coat the carrots and spread them evenly over the pan. Roast the carrots for about 20 minutes, stirring them once or twice. Add the vegetable broth or water, stir and continue roasting another 15-20 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the carrots are nicely browned. You can skip the liquid and extra roasting, just make sure your carrots are toothsomely tender after the first 15-20 minutes or give them another 10-15 minutes as needed. Two-stepping with broth adds a little flavor and helps the carrots to be tender. Set aside to cool slightly.<br />
<br />
Peel and segment your oranges. If you have any juice on your cutting board add it with the segments to your serving bowl. Halve your avocados, remove the pits and slice in the skin about the same width as your carrots. Run a spoon under the flesh and scoop your slices out into your serving bowl. Scrape your carrots and their roasting spices off your baking sheet and into the serving bowl. Squeeze half a lemon over top. Add another tablespoon of olive oil as desired. Gently toss and taste for lemon, salt and pepper. Garnish with cilantro.<br />
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Serve on arugula or mixed greens if desired. Toss in grilled shrimp if you're feeling extra flush. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">roasted carrots and spices</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sliced avocado and segmented oranges added to the bowl</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOY8w-b8fqZJKsSQp7lXkALFU3ZDT6km2ywtmTPi4P-3MVSvBY0U7gN1ehLIGgt0S5o0RacIDi_y72kADKDnr7YL9JcpXS9dZzEAxCIhPyjRX8jKcqy6wfKHsNjPXMBeyW7Bi_w7DU80/s1600/P2190846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOY8w-b8fqZJKsSQp7lXkALFU3ZDT6km2ywtmTPi4P-3MVSvBY0U7gN1ehLIGgt0S5o0RacIDi_y72kADKDnr7YL9JcpXS9dZzEAxCIhPyjRX8jKcqy6wfKHsNjPXMBeyW7Bi_w7DU80/s1600/P2190846.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tossed, dressed and garnished</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-30757077835492924472014-02-20T18:02:00.000-05:002014-02-20T18:02:06.278-05:00bright food: snow pea "spaghetti", corn and creamy lemon dressingThis whole vegetable odyssey is filling the refrigerator with so many good things for meals at home or on the go. I love the glass containers with the snap on plastic lids. So easy to find what I need in the refrigerator and they get so clean. So aesthetically appealing. Costco sells a big set of them for under $25, interesting assortments are always on the shelves at Homegoods (a place I shop maybe quarterly, but I they are reliably available at discount prices). Another little obsession is Weck canning glass jars with the clip-on flat lids. I have lots of little single-serve sizes and a few little jars. Love them. They are available at <a href="http://www.crateandbarrel.com/weck-canning-jars/f43034">Crate and Barrel</a> and West Elm. I have kind of a thing against plastic containers. Wet plastic containers out of the dishwasher, specifically. I have no idea why, but they irritate me. I pack my lunch or dinner for work almost always and my bag is ridiculously heavy from glass containers and a shift's worth of liquids (big fan of the <a href="https://www.lovebottle.net/">Love bottles</a> for water because they stay cold, maybe my <a href="http://www.mysigg.com/category/steelworks">Sigg thermos</a> with tea, maybe a Vitaminwater Zero, maybe a Zevia Ginger Ale - our water at the store is warm and tastes like poison to me, again I will admit to quirkiness). There are a lot of little shopping links in there. Enjoy. <br />
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Anyway, this recipe is not in the Lemonade cookbook, but they make a version with cojita cheese (not easy to find in Indy) and I was pretty sure I could make a satisfactory version with the lemon vinaigrette I made for the<a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2014/02/treat-yourself-israeli-couscous-exotic.html"> Israeli Couscous with Exotic Mushrooms and Lemon TruffleVinaigrette</a>. The truffle oil is not necessary here, so if you don't have that bottle of liquid gold you're fine. This is another very bright tasting dish. We had a thaw the other day and finally cleared off the grill to make burgers. We had oven salt and pepper fries and this yummy dish instead of a salad. Good trade. It's kept nicely for 3 days in the refrigerator. You could easily double it for a party or picnic (might need to warm up a bit for real first). <br />
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Snow Pea "Spaghetti", Corn, and Creamy Lemon Dressing<br />
<br />
2 C snow pea pods, sliced lengthwise into thin "spaghetti-like" strips<br />
1 C frozen sweet corn, thawed (summer sweet corn, cooked and cut from the cob will be awesome too)<br />
1/4 C <a href="http://www.blueskiesandlime.com/2014/02/treat-yourself-israeli-couscous-exotic.html">lemon truffle vinaigrette</a><br />
1/4 C plain Greek yogurt (nonfat was fine)<br />
1/4 C feta cheese, crumbled<br />
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper to taste<br />
<br />
Slice the snow pea pods into spaghetti-like strips (use a nice sharp knife and cut into the thinnest strips you can). Thaw the sweet corn (or if it's in-season, cook your sweet corn however you like and cut it off the cob (2 ears). Make the lemon vinaigrette. Stir the yogurt into the vinaigrette until well blended. Toss the snow pea strips, corn, dressing and cheese together. Taste for seasoning. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">slicing snow pea pods</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">nice blurry picture of the vinaigrette and yogurt</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdiMsUGm1fWhkAX2jCOchCkkDMca7Ysz4nQ633sbXvzkCy_Vj4g8OZnnwUL_pa0i2I-Nj2wUT5rgEGzBUHhDxB_GDrmhb46Jv25PqeAN2l4GWYiPY4U5wyfUokTuYCPtsIVEBHj4VCi8/s1600/P2180836.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdiMsUGm1fWhkAX2jCOchCkkDMca7Ysz4nQ633sbXvzkCy_Vj4g8OZnnwUL_pa0i2I-Nj2wUT5rgEGzBUHhDxB_GDrmhb46Jv25PqeAN2l4GWYiPY4U5wyfUokTuYCPtsIVEBHj4VCi8/s1600/P2180836.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ready to toss</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyv0nAk3YXb9P_8bt5npRLvPvz2UPdytaLXBhm0QRATBG0HG6t2lNm3wBPj2Jln5sWXKkVR3XPd0gGDTsgF4LaQdOamaTVZLsgFApkA1SVkf_0ktyUlZvcA9gcJVw8kfUiDks332-CaMc/s1600/P2180837.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyv0nAk3YXb9P_8bt5npRLvPvz2UPdytaLXBhm0QRATBG0HG6t2lNm3wBPj2Jln5sWXKkVR3XPd0gGDTsgF4LaQdOamaTVZLsgFApkA1SVkf_0ktyUlZvcA9gcJVw8kfUiDks332-CaMc/s1600/P2180837.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">almost done</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic4cJhLIH0NAeArJ53y4lM9Uz8AiXGKCXuVwIVglNyUIFE1cNpJGmqZ-vMizMmsjeSfy_9VL89_Ee0KYq9AjVTw9mLx8Vc1Naf5huF5qRkczO1TcSsSM3fr7DeAIZCALtPN4R-n3hTG5E/s1600/P2180838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic4cJhLIH0NAeArJ53y4lM9Uz8AiXGKCXuVwIVglNyUIFE1cNpJGmqZ-vMizMmsjeSfy_9VL89_Ee0KYq9AjVTw9mLx8Vc1Naf5huF5qRkczO1TcSsSM3fr7DeAIZCALtPN4R-n3hTG5E/s1600/P2180838.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">feta tossed in</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1672568546637350559.post-79826352309864087702014-02-17T16:51:00.002-05:002014-02-17T16:51:45.274-05:00Back on the roll: Farro, Spaghetti Squash and Pomegranate VinaigretteAfter the brief cherry dessert interruption (hope you tried it) we will get this rolling again with amazing, not that complicated but certainly not the usual dish number 2 from Lemonade in LA. We could just jump right into it, but what fun would that be? None. <br />
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It's sleeting outside which has totally broken my cross-country skiing streak. Days on days of snow and adventures over my trails, trails left by the two other skiers in my neighborhood, unplowed streets and trails I blazed through at least a foot and a half of snow. Do you know I live in Central Indiana? We do not get snow like this, but I wish we did. I may be the only one. I love to shovel. I love to work hard outside and get all warm inside. I love snowflakes on my face and wind-burn on my cheeks. I love this all because it's almost all optional. I work in the mall. I have a nice big warm home. I have plenty to eat. Rio, our older cat loves to sit in the windowsills and sniff through the screens. I love to indulge him and open the window for a few minutes. We both stick our faces in the window to feel and smell the bracing cold air. And then we close the window because eventually the heating bill comes and that will take all the fun out of a little open window time. <br />
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So the recipe for this dish is another one that is served room temperature or cold and right now with the sleet tapping on my windows, it seems a little out of season. But it tastes light and bright and is nutritionally very sound. It makes a great lunch dish. So different. You'll need spaghetti squash which is easy to find in the winter (and don't be a squash snob, it's delightful here). Farro is a trendy ancient grain that looks a lot like barley crossed with wheat berries to me (similarly nutty in taste too). Trader Joe's sells it in a nice small bag. Unlike the giant bag of quinoa from Costco that's lasted me a year (still trying to like it more). Dried cranberries brighten up the dish nicely. I upped the quantity in my version. Pomegranate juice is pricey, but you just need a little bottle. It's super tasty and good for you, though so buy a medium bottle for cost savings and add a splash to a beverage. <br />
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The cookbook I have adapted this recipe from notes you can omit the vinaigrette and toss the warm farro and squash together with the other ingredients and a pat of butter for a warm dish. Gonna try it and let you know. Have a feeling there are a few more cold days left this winter. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5Sl-o0S_0c3TCvuQuBKVC039aPpn2t7D40XrG-v4NE7xYoTkJRiOgERbmPDWPlHFcuhZI6n8OTAuktdLfjBO4fZ2sShDdvGIsjSKTCeQ8AprxBM5CToSxylI5jxXqMlTVlPARwqG1UA/s1600/P2100822.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5Sl-o0S_0c3TCvuQuBKVC039aPpn2t7D40XrG-v4NE7xYoTkJRiOgERbmPDWPlHFcuhZI6n8OTAuktdLfjBO4fZ2sShDdvGIsjSKTCeQ8AprxBM5CToSxylI5jxXqMlTVlPARwqG1UA/s1600/P2100822.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Farro, Spaghetti Squash and Pomegranate Vinaigrette<br />
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1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeds removed (scoop them out with a big strong spoon)<br />
2 T olive oil<br />
kosher salt<br />
freshly ground pepper<br />
1 C farro<br />
1//4 C fresh Italian/flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped<br />
1/2 C dried cranberries<br />
1/2 C Pomegranate Vinaigrette<br />
1/4 C crumbled feta or goat cheese<br />
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Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle the cut side of the spaghetti squash halves with the olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Place cut-side down on a baking sheet (I usually roast things right-side up, but this worked great). Roast until you can pull strands easily with a fork, about 45 minutes (the skin will be nice and browned). Pull out the squash flesh with a fork and and place in a mixing bowl to cool. <br />
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Cook the faro by brining a 2 quart pot of water (with 1 heaping tsp of kosher salt added) to a boil. Add the farro, stir and reduce heat to medium low. Cover the pan and simmer until the farro is tender and the grains have split open or about 20-25 minutes. Drain and cool (in the colander is fine). <br />
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Make the vinaigrette. Add the farro to the squash along with the parsley, dried cranberries and feta. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and taste for salt and pepper. Toss before serving. <br />
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Pomegranate Vinaigrette<br />
1 C pomegranate juice<br />
1/4 C honey or agave nectar<br />
1/2 shallot. peeled and minced<br />
2 cloves garlic, minced<br />
2 T red wine vinegar<br />
juice of one lemon<br />
1/4 C or more of olive oil<br />
kosher or coarse salt<br />
freshly ground pepper<br />
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Pour the pomegranate juice into a non-reactive saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Add the honey or agave and gently simmer until the juice has reduced to 1/4-1/2 C and is thick and syrupy (about 10-15 minutes). Set aside to cool. <br />
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In a small bowl or jar, combine the pomegranate syrup, shallot, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. Shake of whisk to blend. Season lightly with salt and pepper to taste. Start with 1/4 C olive oil and add more if you like the taste or appearance better. I was fine with the smaller quantity. Extra vinaigrette keeps in the refrigerator for about a week. <br />
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Serves 8-10<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVU4FV41toc6fzNF8SIGyHz4eKW2ArLzDxnU3x5Nirk9dpGrMv07G3pkw8aF9v777DQGJOk-iPZf2cxzXuJsBgL3RATnzpS1yzDlIyGhLK82lfy1bDzfC7yHEHQ9_hedHtTFIcOAGWWsE/s1600/P2100811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVU4FV41toc6fzNF8SIGyHz4eKW2ArLzDxnU3x5Nirk9dpGrMv07G3pkw8aF9v777DQGJOk-iPZf2cxzXuJsBgL3RATnzpS1yzDlIyGhLK82lfy1bDzfC7yHEHQ9_hedHtTFIcOAGWWsE/s1600/P2100811.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ingredients</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3VeeYmA7AAaRU7p8Lv7XUjR8bhoBLj68nRjiaUqiO4sxnam2uajJK7g1AdVk7j-0Qjh0_sT0-yr7kNkhzXQttyggg1fWSrjw20mV3OSRHHM9bdGNoB6mt9n5eMGBw3zVqRU0C4bYSCM/s1600/P2100812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3VeeYmA7AAaRU7p8Lv7XUjR8bhoBLj68nRjiaUqiO4sxnam2uajJK7g1AdVk7j-0Qjh0_sT0-yr7kNkhzXQttyggg1fWSrjw20mV3OSRHHM9bdGNoB6mt9n5eMGBw3zVqRU0C4bYSCM/s1600/P2100812.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">squash ready to roast</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ENYArbGAcvzsPzMBBw0-10Z2XE7RLxHkJ5bywUV7stL63Uo9yXJJreeAXKGZ4DIMulCWfCGXYK5UEBhOYyrEiSixUFKDPRVahEnGTBZyd_9CL9cdrpPtdRiIsAnSZhWtUSdOVjzWUpk/s1600/P2100818.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ENYArbGAcvzsPzMBBw0-10Z2XE7RLxHkJ5bywUV7stL63Uo9yXJJreeAXKGZ4DIMulCWfCGXYK5UEBhOYyrEiSixUFKDPRVahEnGTBZyd_9CL9cdrpPtdRiIsAnSZhWtUSdOVjzWUpk/s1600/P2100818.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">roasted and fork tender</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFd8SsEYBgAXZYn-OLOVvC9cpsI3wAVQe8BkgO0DzCaFT5iF-skeKMhutGaN86csEhmZpRu3Adx5We4sX9OwxdPmsgfUCwTGm9wfA0VQuh5mBbsLBvJrj1ZtP6215iKD2q5QdmoQZtOQ/s1600/P2100819.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFd8SsEYBgAXZYn-OLOVvC9cpsI3wAVQe8BkgO0DzCaFT5iF-skeKMhutGaN86csEhmZpRu3Adx5We4sX9OwxdPmsgfUCwTGm9wfA0VQuh5mBbsLBvJrj1ZtP6215iKD2q5QdmoQZtOQ/s1600/P2100819.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pomegranate syrup in the making</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGF2ljLnnTaarLBxco_gZXzOD2LtD_mvCtotAi-feIxFCIBaPOg3ECKsdPv4-9ZMkmn9izWMnH8nzexe2O-DJSPaPzlJiYiLdUvESn-lKK3pV3VH3DhlrI7R9KYD80qzfiBOf8YEVie0A/s1600/P2100820.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGF2ljLnnTaarLBxco_gZXzOD2LtD_mvCtotAi-feIxFCIBaPOg3ECKsdPv4-9ZMkmn9izWMnH8nzexe2O-DJSPaPzlJiYiLdUvESn-lKK3pV3VH3DhlrI7R9KYD80qzfiBOf8YEVie0A/s1600/P2100820.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ready to toss</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOib8QzF3uNrCywhtyCWKQz5Zit0j5cTMFaU0yrnG3ovk7HheGLo1k9fmmMm64hFhghP1Ew6dzCHEfAnmN1ej13zyEo47Y9wt-DrI1qc0tK6Y1WA6UTr0j43HTsL7H45qG88Fi_8WrcWk/s1600/P2100821.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOib8QzF3uNrCywhtyCWKQz5Zit0j5cTMFaU0yrnG3ovk7HheGLo1k9fmmMm64hFhghP1Ew6dzCHEfAnmN1ej13zyEo47Y9wt-DrI1qc0tK6Y1WA6UTr0j43HTsL7H45qG88Fi_8WrcWk/s1600/P2100821.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">now we have vinaigrette and feta in the photo</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfuH9PHefA_eejTJsT9z7KtzypdrOoHNs3hl8hiS3l288FY3TF5SVN0gLT1TGDAaZ9KywCgRSRDfQ2ORtBolU2Q3KlMUYmfY5ZLj8hC2bpGbk70eQbGcwqscbBHENM-eFMiqcJAZT4YNI/s1600/P2100822.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfuH9PHefA_eejTJsT9z7KtzypdrOoHNs3hl8hiS3l288FY3TF5SVN0gLT1TGDAaZ9KywCgRSRDfQ2ORtBolU2Q3KlMUYmfY5ZLj8hC2bpGbk70eQbGcwqscbBHENM-eFMiqcJAZT4YNI/s1600/P2100822.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ta-da!</td></tr>
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<br />Kristin Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00774421064654342108noreply@blogger.com0