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A bunch of our friends met for dinner at the Pier 70 Café last night. It was a picture perfect night, not too hot and with a beautiful sunset. This has become a summer tradition for us and it’s nice because in addition to our own gang, we always bump into more friends whenever we go there. It’s a great place to take the kids; they have a nice kids menu, and after eating they can run around on the pier while the adults have a drink and grab a bite to eat. The café specializes in burgers and fries. Dessert is not their specialty, and their sweet offerings are quite limited. Give me an outdoor event with friends and what do I immediately think? Dessert! Since we had a fairly big crowd, I thought about making these bar cookies, but I always enjoy trying new recipes so I found this one on Tastespotting. Everyone that tried them last night really liked them. Several friends had seconds which is always a good sign. In my opinion, it’s hard to go wrong with a combination of brownies and cookie dough. I love the fact that the cookie dough layer is made sans eggs since it’s not cooked. I had one tiny bit of trouble with the recipe, but it worked out fine in the end. I tried to melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave, but for some reason the chocolate seized. I expected to pull the bowl out of the microwave with the chips nicely melted. What I pulled out was completely different. The chocolate had almost hardened, even with the butter mixed into it. Not sure what happened to it, so I dumped it in a pan, added a little water (excellent suggestion from my husband) and melted it on the stove. With the addition of a little water, the chocolate melted nicely. If you’re looking for a brownie recipe with a twist, try these. They’re delicious. After doing some research, I think I figured out why my chips didn’t melt. They got too hot. Apparently when chocolate gets too hot, it seizes. I should have used the “melt” setting on the microwave and stirred the chocolate more frequently. I was in a rush to leave last night, so I threw the chips and butter in the microwave on full power for 60 seconds, thinking I’d have nicely melted chocolate at the end… There’s definitely a reason for the “melt” setting on a microwave, and for the fact that it takes a bit longer. Now I know for next time.
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One of my sons had a friend sleep over the other night. He’s a huge fan of my baking, so I knew I had to make something really good for breakfast. I decided on Cinnamon Bun Loaf. Doesn’t that sound good? Well it wasn’t. In fact it was a TOTAL BUST! I couldn’t believe it; I had to throw the whole thing away. I actually should have known better since the batter contained yeast, and never once in my life have I successfully cooked with yeast. Each and every time I’ve tried it a disaster has ensued, and this time was no exception. The bread smelled great when it was cooking, but the batter never rose, and as a result I ended up with this dense, seemingly undercooked slab of disgustion. I know that’s not a word, but my husband uses it all the time to describe anything utterly gross and it makes me laugh. Well, so much for my baking failure. Thankfully it was quickly followed by a baking success. I made a batch of sugar donut muffins and all was right with the world. I had renewed faith in my baking ability and the kids enjoyed them. Actually I should qualify that - two kids enjoyed them. Our guest and one of my sons. One of my other sons took one bite, smiled, then looked at the muffin, noticed an infinitesmal speck of fresh nutmeg and promptly rejected the rest of the muffin. “What’s this brown stuff in the muffin?”, he demanded. Now my eyes are pretty good and I could barely see the speck of nutmeg, but I guess his eyes are better than mine because the rest of his muffin was met with flat-out rejection. Once he made his proclamation, two other boys jumped on the bandwagon and rejected theirs as well. This is what I live with everyday. It’s crazy. Who rejects a warm, fresh muffin whose top is rolled in sugar? Only someone insane and it looks like I produced three of them. The directions call for rolling the entire muffin in sugar. I thought that was a little too over the top, so I just decided to cover the muffin tops in sugar. They were plenty sweet for me. I’ll definitely make these again.
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My friend Nancy told me that she made a batch of these last week and I’ve been craving one ever since. Let me tell you, they were a BIG hit with the boys. I gave each of the boys a half of one after school today and they were definitely happy campers. I didn’t use my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe to make these. When I use my regular recipe, I typically store the cookies in the freezer and they get really hard - a bit too hard for ice cream sandwiches. I knew I needed a recipe that made softer, chewier cookies. I stumbled upon this one and the cookies are definitely chewier than the ones that I typically make. My husband just admitted that he likes this cookie recipe more than my regular one! I didn’t make my own ice cream for this recipe. I bought a half-gallon of vanilla. Next time I plan to try to make my own ice cream. I have an ice cream maker that has been sitting dormant for a while so it’s about time I used it again! This recipe comes from a site called AllRecipes.com. I followed the directions and ended up with a batch of delicious, chewy cookies. I stuck some vanilla ice cream between two of them then rolled the sandwich in mini chocolate chips. Yum! A perfect summer treat.
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I found these beautiful squash at our local farmer’s market last Thursday (picture below). I had never seen a squash like this before. They were like a cross between zucchini and yellow summer squash. Aren’t they pretty? I saw them sitting there and couldn’t pass them up. I have since learned that they’re called zephyr squash. I subscribe to a blog called 101 Cookbooks. It’s a beautiful blog with lots of very healthy vegetarian recipes. I recently received this soup recipe and filed it away as something to try. When I saw the beautiful squash, I knew I had to try the soup recipe. I usually like hearty soups when the weather starts to get cold. Despite the fact that it’s June in NYC, we’ve had damp, cold weather for the last month, so it was perfect weather for soup-making. The soup is easy to make and I love all of the fresh ingredients in it. I also love the fact that you throw the squash and potatoes in unpeeled. My mother always tells me that all of the vitamins are in the skin! You can make this soup as spicy (or not) as you like by varying the amount of red pepper flakes that you throw into it. You can also vary the strength of the rosemary flavor by varying the length of time that the rosemary cooks. I removed the rosemary after the soup had boiled for a few minutes, and mine has a nice, subtle rosemary flavor. I used 2 lbs. of squash (as opposed to the 1 1/2 pounds that the recipe calls for) because that was what I had on hand. My husband really liked this soup. I’ll try it again when the zucchini becomes really plentiful at the end of the summer, or if I see any more beautiful squash at our farmer’s market.
It was a rainy day today and one of my sons is sick so I was stuck in the house with him and three overripe bananas. I’m always on the lookout for new banana recipes and I found this one on a blog called Technicolor Kitchen. It is really good. The caramel on top is incredible. I thought two of my boys would certainly enjoy the cake and I wasn’t sure about the other two. One of them doesn’t like caramel and the other doesn’t like bananas, but lo and behold, all four of them loved it. When I told the one that doesn’t like bananas that he just ate a slice of banana caramel cake he said,”Oh, well, I kind of liked it.” I pointed out that he just said it was delicious. Cute guilty smile. I didn’t have any ground cloves, so I left them out, and the boys don’t like nuts in cake so I left them out too. The cake is still delicious. I used freshly ground nutmeg, which I highly recommend. I don’t even think it resembles the ground nutmeg you buy in the jar. No comparison. I buy whole nutmeg and grind it using a microplane grater. Try grating nutmeg yourself and you’ll never go back. I made one more change to the recipe. I didn’t have a bar of dark chocolate so I used chocolate chips. I don’t want to forget to tell you how moist this cake is. It’s really moist and scrumptious.
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It’s a rainy day here in NYC; it seems like it has been raining forever. I can’t remember a rainier spring. I was going to say summer because I always think of June being the summer, but since tomorrow is the summer solstice, today is still technically spring. To top off the rainy day, one of my sons is sick so we’re stuck in the house. When I’m stuck inside, I love to cook. I made a Big Dutch Baby for the boys for breakfast, I then made a banana caramel cake which is cooling (if it’s good, I’ll post the recipe later), and I made this tuna salad for my own lunch. This salad was really tasty. It’s a nice twist on your traditional tuna salad. I love the sweet/salty combination. It’s definitely worth a try if you’re looking for something a little different. You can use this salad as a sandwich filling, or eat it straight from the plate as I did.
I love corn salads and I love bean salads, so for me this salad is heaven! Like most great recipes that I find, I’ve made it twice within the last couple of days, and I’ve had three helpings this afternoon alone. The vinaigrette makes the salad taste so fresh which I attribute to the lime juice, the zest and the mango. The original recipe calls for 1 tsp. cumin. The first time I made this it was a group effort. We had some friends over for dinner, so we all made the salad together. I was the quarterback and I totally forgot to tell my friend who was in charge of the dressing that cumin was needed. Let me tell you, the salad was delicious without it. If you’re not a cumin fan, leave it out. When I made the salad today, I added 1/4 tsp. cumin because truth be told, I’m not a huge cumin fan. I like it in moderation and 1/4 tsp. was perfect. I could taste it in the dressing, but it wasn’t overwhelming. If you really love cumin, I’d add a whole teaspoon. I was lucky to have found this recipe when I did becasue several days ago I received a box of Harry and David’s mangos that needed to be eaten. Every year my sister-in-law gives me the BEST Christmas gift. I get a 12-month subscription to Harry and David’s Fruit of the Month Club. I get a box of perfectly ripe, flawless fruit each month which the boys and I gobble up. If you’re ever seeking a gift for someone who has everything, and you don’t mind spending a little money, send some Harry and David’s fruit. You won’t be disappointed. Since it’s the beginning of June in NY, we don’t have fresh corn yet, so I used frozen corn and it was delicious. I’ll try fresh corn this summer and let you know how it is.
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Our sons finished their first little league season this past weekend and this was our week to bring snack. Since it was the last game, I decided to make cupcakes. Originally I wanted to make buttercream frosting and color it maroon, with “Congratulations Novas!” piped on each one in yellow. Maroon and yellow were our team colors. Well, in my usual way, I made the cupcakes on Friday night and left them for our babysitter to pull out of the oven. I was too tired to launch into frosting on Friday night when we got home, so I left it until Saturday morning. My grandmother is rolling over in her grave as I write this. She was always telling me to plan ahead, which I still haven’t learned to do… Our game was at 10:30, but the boys had to be there at 10:15 for a warm-up. At 9am I decide that it’s really time to think about frosting the cupcakes. I wasn’t sure how many drops of food coloring and which colors I’d need to make a nice maroon-colored frosting, so I decided to forget it. Since it was so close to departure time I couldn’t afford to destroy a batch of frosting by messing up the color. I decided to make chocolate frosting instead, and in lieu of writing on each cupcake, I asked my husband (have I told you how wonderful he is?) if he would make little flags for each one. I had never made chocolate frosting before, and boy was I lucky that this recipe was good. Like I said, I didn’t really have time to make a second batch if the first one wasn’t good. I turned to my go-to cookbook: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I knew Mark wouldn’t let me down, and he didn’t. If you’re wondering why I didn’t just buy a can of frosting, it’s because of the trans fats. I really like the taste of frosting in a can, but I refuse to buy it as long as it contains trans fats, and they all do. It’s surprising in this day and age that a product can still be on the shelves containing trans fats, but somehow they haven’t figured out how to get them out of frosting. The recipe calls for cream or milk. I used cream and the frosting was delicious, so I recommend it.
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My cousin Danielle visited us this past weekend. She comes to NYC every month or so to take a course in Integrative Nutrition. The lectures sound fascinating. It’s all about health and wellness, so I decided to try to make something light and healthy for dinner, and this was it. It was incredible! I’ll definitely make it again. The flavors blended perfectly, and boy was it full of flavor. When I made the recipe I didn’t have chicken breasts on the bone, but I did have frozen Perdue boneless chicken breasts from Costco in the freezer. In lieu of the two breasts on the bone, I used three frozen boneless chicken breasts. I defrosted them in the microwave, then cooked them in a grill pan with a little bit of olive oil. They were the perfect substitution and a lot easier than cooking chicken breasts on the bone, then pulling the meat off the bone. You can also use a rotisserie chicken so you don’t have to cook the meat at all. If you are not familiar with bulgur wheat, it’s a quick cooking form of whole wheat that has been cleaned, parboiled, dried and ground. It’s more nutritious than rice or couscous because it’s high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. It also has a mild nutty flavor. When I bought mine, I found it in the Goya section of my grocery store quite close to the bags and cans of Goya beans. As the directions suggest, the flavors in this dish definitely improve as it sits. I thought it was delicious when it was freshly made, but almost better the next day after it sat overnight in the refrigerator. It’s a great leftover for lunch. I plan to make this quite a bit this summer.
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We had a potluck event at the boys’ school tonight and first grade families were responsible for bringing an international appetizer or side dish. I spent a lot of time looking for recipes this afternoon, but didn’t find anything that piqued my interest. Last week, I made this recipe for our book club meeting and everyone loved it, so I decided to make it again. It’s hardly international, but the shrimp was inhaled at the book club meeting, and it went very quickly tonight as well. Once I got to the event tonght, I put a toothpick in each shrimp so they were easy to pick up. Both times I made this, I received many compliments about how well I cooked the shrimp (and also about how good the shrimp tasted). If you follow the recipe instructions exactly, your shrimp should also be perfectly cooked. I’ve made many a rubbery shrimp in my day, but this recipe created perfect shrimp both times. It was incredibly easy and very, very quick. If you’re ever asked to bring an appetizer to an event, I recommend trying this recipe. Here’s another one that’s really good too. I served this as an appetizer/hors d’oeuvre, but I’d also serve it as an entree over rice with a vegetable or a salad on the side. I hope you like it.
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