For the Love of Food

A Short Finals Study Break:

 "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast? said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.

Soft Boiled Eggs

Ingredients:
Eggs (they work best if they are NOT fresh)
Salt
Bread for dipping

Directions:
The eggs should be left out until they are at room temperature. (Leave them out for at least 30 minutes beforehand.)
Fill the pan with enough water to cover the eggs, plus a little more. Add a teaspoon of salt. Bring the water to a boil without the eggs.
Once the water is boiling, carefully lower the eggs into the pan using a spoon. When the water reaches boiling point again, reduce the head to the lowest setting so that it is simmering.
If you are using large eggs, cook the eggs for approximately 4 minutes for a runny yolk and 6 minutes for a medium yolk.
If you are using medium eggs, reduce these times by one minute.
Remove the eggs from the water and run them under cold running water to stop the eggs from cooking.
Place the eggs in the eggcup with the smaller end at the bottom. Crack the shell and peel away the top. Dig in with a teaspoon (adding salt if desired).

My dad and I love soft boiled eggs. He introduced them to me when I was young and they remain, to this day, one of my favorite breakfast foods. Sometimes, the simple pleasures are the best. I can't think of a better way to start off my morning.

Breakfast or Dinner?

Last quarter, I kept away from pasta. Pasta has always been my thing, so I wanted to branch out and see if I could go a quarter with barely making any. Plus, if I make a good pasta, I will want to prepare and eat the whole pound in one sitting…not a good thing. This quarter, pasta is looking more and more appealing again, so I’m following my desires and adding a fair amount of pastas to my menu. I saw this one on my favorite food blog a while ago and instantly wanted it! It’s very simple and combines some of my favorite flavors—eggs, bacon, pasta and parmesan! What more could I want in my dinner?

Spaghetti with Bacon, Eggs and Parmesan
Adapted from Noble Pig, originally from Real Simple

Ingredients:
1 Pound of spaghetti
12 Pieces of bacon
4 Eggs
1 Cup parmesan
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a pot of water with a splash of olive oil and a few teaspoons of salt. Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions. I am not usually a big spaghetti fan unless it's paired with a great red sauce but in this case, spaghetti seemed like the right direction to go and it turns out it was. The thickness and texture of the spaghetti just seems right with the crunchy bacon and the egg. Before you drain the pasta, reserve 1/2 cup of the water. Don’t forget!
Cook the bacon in a skillet on medium-high, until crispy. Don’t cook it till it’s too crunchy and dried out. Drain the bacon on paper towels and then chop it up into small pieces.

Mix the spaghetti with the bacon, 3/4 cup of the parmesan, salt, pepper and reserved water.

Divide the pasta into 4 bowls and top with the extra parmesan and the eggs.

This pasta was a new twist on breakfast for dinner. Eggs, bacon and….pasta? It might look a little weird, but it really is an amazing dish. Simple ingredients, easy preparation, great taste!

Experimenting with Polenta

I remember falling in love with Polenta the first time I tried it. Something about Polenta is just so different from any other dish. I think its flavor is one of the most comforting flavors out there. Until now, I’ve always just bought it in the prepared logs and fried it and topped it with a sauce (Usually, a spinach and cheese sauce! Mmmm). However, I’ve been wanting for a while to try to make Polenta from the dried cornmeal. Since it’s been cold around Davis lately, I decided that it was a perfect week to make one of my favorite comfort foods.

Parmesan Polenta with Eggs and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
For the Polenta:
Salt
1 Cup instant Polenta (this will yield leftover Polenta which can be used in my next recipe)
3/4 Cup Parmesan
4 Tablespoons butter
For the Tomato Sauce and Eggs:
Olive oil
1 Onion
3 Cloves of garlic
15 Ounce can of Italian tomatoes or diced tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped basil
4 eggs

Directions:
Start the water boiling for the Polenta. When it comes to a boil, add the salt and the Polenta. Stir continuously until it thickens. This should take about 3 minutes. Once it has thickened, add the butter and let it melt. Then add the Parmesan.
Meanwhile, heat up the olive oil in a large skillet and chop the onions. Add the chopped onions to the oil and then mince in the garlic. Once the onions start to soften, add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let it all come together for about 5 minutes then add the basil.
Move the tomato mixture to one side of the large pan and then crack the eggs onto the empty side of the pan, without breaking the yolks. Top with salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Check the eggs every few minutes until the yolk is the consistency that you like. I like mine to be runny but for all of the whites to be well cooked (covering it with a lid helps ensure that the whites won't be runny).
Once all of the components are ready, spoon some Polenta into a bowl and top with the tomatoes and a couple eggs and extra parmesan if you want.
Take the leftover Polenta from and place it into a greased 8x8 pan. Place in the refrigerator over night to allow it to set up for future use.

A perfect meal for a cold, rainy day! I made this for my friend, Melanie, while we were "studying". Much better than reading a textbook. Much better.

Rosemary and Parmesan Polenta Chips
I saw Giada make these on the Food Network a few years ago and I have wanted to make them ever since. I searched for the recipe, but with no luck, so I decided to just experiment a bit on my own.

Ingredients:
Left over Polenta (You could make Polenta just for this purpose if you don’t want to make the previous dish. Just follow the directions on the back of the bag to make the Polenta and then put it in a pan and chill it till it is set.)
Olive oil
Rosemary to taste
Freshly grated parmesan to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Take the left over Polenta and gently turn it out of the pan. You may need to urge it a bit by taking a spatula or a knife along the edges. Cut the Polenta up into 2cm x 1.5 inch pieces…approximately. Heat up enough oil in a pan so that it will cover the Polenta slices. To place the Polenta strips in the oil, place them onto a spatula and then lower them into the oil. There is a lot of moisture in Polenta so it will spit out a lot of hot oil. A thorough clean up will be necessary afterward. Let the Polenta strips fry for about five minutes or until they start to become golden brown. When they are ready, take them out and place them on a paper towel to drain some of the oil. Top with rosemary, parmesan, salt and pepper while the Polenta is still hot. Continue frying in batches until all of the Polenta is used.

My roommates and I could not stop eating these! I could barely make them as fast as we were devouring them. They are reminiscent of french fries but so much better! Experiment with the toppings to find what flavors work for you.

A Simple Holiday Meal

Christmas Eve was a hectic day in my house! My mom and I spent the vast majority of the day baking cookies and wrapping presents. When it came time to think about dinner, we realized we hadn’t planned out our Christmas Eve menu like we usually do. A busy day, mixed with our lack of preparation led us to throw together a quick meal of whatever we had in the fridge. Despite the way it came about, our Christmas Eve dinner turned out to be simple and scrumptious.

Herb Frittatas Topped with Home Style Potatoes and Goat Cheese

Ingredients:
For the Potatoes:
8 Small red potatoes cut into small cubes
1/3 Cup olive oil
4 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 Small onion chopped
For the Frittatas:
8 Eggs
4 Tablespoons of a mixture of basil, thyme, marjoram and oregano finely chopped
6 Tablespoons goat cheese
6 Tablespoons milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil
For the Topping:
Goat Cheese

Directions:
First, get the potatoes going. Place them in a microwave safe bowl and toss them with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the microwave until the potatoes start to soften but aren’t falling apart. I set my microwave to the potato setting and set it to two potatoes. This starts them cooking a lot faster than on the stove. Drain the potatoes.
Melt the butter in a skillet at medium-high and add the onion and rosemary. Cook for a few minutes and then add the potatoes. Let the potatoes sit without tossing or stirring them for at least five minutes. This will allow them to brown. Keep them in the skillet, tossing them every five minutes until all of the potatoes have been browned.
Meanwhile, mix together the eggs, herbs, goat cheese, milk, salt and pepper for the frittatas. Heat a small, oiled skillet to medium high. Pour in about 1/3 cup of the frittata mixture into the small skillet and make sure it covers the whole skillet. The mixture will begin to set and when it does, flip it over to cook the other side. Transfer to a plate and keep it in a warm oven. Repeat until all of the mixture is used up.
To serve, top a frittata with the potatoes and then crumble some goat cheese over top.

This dinner was so easy and was really delicious. It’s such an easy meal to adjust to what’s in your fridge. You can change the cheese or the herbs or do away with potatoes all together and top it with whatever strikes your fancy! Enjoy.

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: cooking is therapy to me, as is writing. After a rough quarter, I’m ready to get back in the swing of things and return to my blog. Sorry for the unexpected hiatus.

I have been longing for winter break for weeks and now that it’s here, there's nothing more I could ask for than to be right where I am, doing exactly what I'm doing! I’ve spent most of my days with my girlfriends, cooking and baking and just being happy to be near them. My friend, Kaelee, stayed with me for a few days and one day we woke up ready to bake! We made a delicious brunch and invited Alyssa over to feast. Later that day, Alyssa, Kaelee, Staecy (and later on, Christina) and I baked from 4PM to 12AM. Kaelee said she wanted something peppermint-y and as Staecy announced, there isn't enough peppermint for other people to use this winter because we took it all to bake 203948 peppermint desserts. Sorry!

Brunch started out with a simple question-"What do you want...eggs or pancakes?"-so then we started brainstorming and things sort of got out of hand...but in a completely delicious sort of way.

Simple Scrambled Eggs

Orange Muffins with an orange glaze (from the back of Trader Joe’s All Purpose Baking mix)

These muffins were so delicious! Way to go Trader Joe's and Kaelee.

Cinnamon-Banana Stuffed French Toast

This was so simple and so tasty. I made French Toast and while I had that going, I melted butter in a skillet and added bananas, cinnamon and sugar. Then I mixed together some cream cheese with sugar until it was smooth. To serve, I topped the French Toast with the cream cheese mixture and the bananas. So delicious! Sorry for the lack of measurements.


Peppermint Crunch Cookies
Recipe From Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
2 Cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup canola oil
4 Ounces 99% unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 Cups granulated sugar
4 Large eggs
2 Teaspoons pure vanilla extract
5 Candy canes-crushed up

Directions:
First combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Combine the oil, chocolate and granulated sugar and blend on medium speed with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla as the mixer is running. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed. Once everything is combined, place the bowl in the freezer for a few hours or over night.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
When the dough has been chilled, roll the dough into 1 inch balls and roll each ball into the crushed candy cane pieces, so that all sides are covered. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared sheets.
Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will set up so even though they don’t look quite ready at 10 minutes, they will stiffen up. If you leave them in longer, the cookies will get too hard.

I tried one of these right after they came out of the oven and I didn’t really like them. The next morning, my friends were eating them and saying how good they were and so I tried another and it was so much better! It’s actually a pretty great recipe for easy holiday cookies. I highly recommend them.

Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from 17 and Baking

The recipe on this blog really gave us a hard time! We didn’t get the meringue to stiffen until the third try. Here is the very adjusted recipe.

Ingredients:
For the Meringue:
3 Large egg whites
1/4 Teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon pure peppermint extract (see extract notes above)
Red gel food coloring
For the Chocolate Ganache:
3/4 Cup heavy cream
4 1/2 Ounce semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions:
Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and peppermint extract together until it is frothy and then slowly add 1/4 cup sugar while still beating the mixture at a high speed until the mixture thickens. To test to see if the meringue has stiffened enough, take the beater out of the mixture and if peaks form and remain standing, it has stiffened enough. If the peaks fall back down into the mixture, it's not ready.
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and dollop spoonfuls of the meringue mixture onto the paper. With a clean paintbrush, paint stripes of food coloring onto the dollops.
Bake for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. They will be crispy but not brown at all. Let them cool.
When the meringues go into the oven, begin making the ganache. Bring the cream to a simmer. Place the finely chopped chocolate in a bowl and when the cream starts steaming, pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for five minutes and then stir the mixture to make sure all of the chocolate is melted and mixed with the cream. Let the mixture sit at room temperature. It will start to thicken and should be the perfect consistency once the meringues are out of the oven and cooled.
Once the meringues are cool, spread ganache onto the bottom of a cookie with a knife and then top with another meringue to make little sandwiches.

These came out so delicious! We learned that if you leave the sandwiches with the ganache filling for too long, the meringues will absorb the moisture from the ganache and they will be a gooey mess! Good to know. So only prepare the amount of sandwiches that will be eaten at that time. Save the rest of the meringues and the ganache separately—the meringues in an airtight container at room temperature and the ganache in the refrigerator.


Peppermint Patties
Adapted from Erin Cooks

This was so much fun to make! I’d never made candies before, besides peppermint bark, so it just felt really cool to be making peppermint patties.

Ingredients:
For the Peppermint Dough:
1 Egg white
4 Cups powdered sugar plus 1-2 cups for kneading and rolling
1/3 Cup light corn syrup
1 Teaspoon peppermint extract
Cornstarch for dusting
For the Chocolate Shell:
24 Ounces semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tablespoons of shortening (This is optional and I would suggest not using it. All it does is make the chocolate more glossy and considering shortening is ridiculously disgusting, it’s just not worth it.)

Directions:
Beat the egg white with an electric mixer until it is frothy.
Slowly add the powdered sugar while still blending. This will be really, really dry and messy. Think about it-one egg white for 4 cups of powdered sugar! That's a pretty ridiculous wet to dry ratio. The powdered sugar will be everywhere.
Add the corn syrup and 1/2 tsp of the peppermint extract and knead it together until the dough is smooth. Add more powdered sugar until it isn’t sticky.
Dust a flat surface and a rolling pin heavily with cornstarch. Roll out the dough until it is 1/4-1/6 inch thick.
Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into whatever shapes you want. After cutting out the shapes, take the extra dough around the edges and knead it back together and roll it out and cut more shapes. Repeat until there isn’t enough dough left. Place all of the shapes onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Let them sit in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes.
Melt the chocolate chips, the other 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract and the shortening, if you want, in a double boiler over medium heat. Once it’s smooth, turn the heat to low.
To coat the dough shapes with chocolate, it works best to place the shapes on a fork-they will be stiff from being refrigerated-and dip the fork and dough into the chocolate until the shape is completely covered. Lift the dough out, still on the fork, and let the excess chocolate drip off and then set of the lined cookie sheet. This makes a complete mess but is still a lot of fun
Chill the patties for at least 30 minutes on the cookie sheets, in the fridge. Store in containers in the freezer-they taste the best when they’re really cold.

Whew! What a day! A lot of love and a lot of baking. It's good to be back home and it's good to be back in the blogging world! Happy holidays everyone.

Using My Bread

I made a lot of sandwiches this week with my loaf of homemade bread. Here are a few.

Croque Madame 
Adapted from Kiss My Spatula
 
Ingredients:
2 Slices homemade bread
4 Ounces cheese (I used cheddar because it was what I had on hand)
A few slices of good quality ham
Butter
1 Garlic clove, sliced in half
1 Egg
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Butter the bread and cover with cheese and ham on the butter-free side. Cover with the other slice of bread, butter side out. Grill in a Panini-maker-type-appliance or on a skillet until both sides are golden brown and the cheese is melted.
Meanwhile, make an egg either basted, sunny side up or fried. I like mine basted because the yolk is still runny but there’s no gooey white part left. To do this, crack your egg in a greased skillet without breaking the yolk. Season the egg with salt and pepper and add a few tablespoons of water to the skillet and cover with a lid for a few minutes till there is a white film covering the yolk but the yolk is still runny.
By this time, the sandwich should be ready. Take it off the grill and rub the garlic over the warm bread on both sides. Top with the egg and enjoy.

Cheddar and Apple Sandwich
Adapted from Real Simple

Ingredients:
2 Slices homemade bread
Spicy-brown mustard
Thinly sliced cheddar
Several pieces of thinly sliced green apple

Directions:
Spread the mustard on the slices of bread and top with the remaining ingredients and sandwich between the slices of bread.

Another variation of this sandwich is to use a bit of sour cream instead of mustard and then to grill it in a Panini press or on a skillet. This way was so good. I was inspired by a crepe that I get from Crepeville that has cheddar, green apples, sour cream and nutmeg. I didn’t add nutmeg to this sandwich but it would probably be delicious!