Halloween Dog Parade

I know, I know. Another non-food related post. I'm sorry, but this one is just to good to sit on any longer. If there's one thing I love more than cooking, it's animals...and animals in cute costumes. This morning was the Halloween parade for Tails in the City, a cute little dog store right on my block. Last year I stumbled upon it (how could I not, it's literally right outside my front door), but this year I knew it was coming and brought my camera.

There were the usual spooky costumes: a devil and a bat. And of course pumpkins.



Sniff party!



A shark, some flowers, a princess (?), and some Bears fans.



A ballerina dog...I don't know how she felt about that leotard.



Food dogs! Hot dogs, an ear of corn, a bunch of grapes...and a farmers market.



This guy kept trying to shake his cape off.



PUPPIES! A ladybug bulldog, and a Robin Hood yellow lab.


Plain pug.



And, in my opinion, the three most creative costumes. A jockey:



Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in a little jail suit with a tiny wig, and a "For Sale: Senate Seat" sign.



And...Lady Gaga.

Images of Fall

It's Friday! And I've got some fantastic photos of fall, foliage, and farmers market. That's an alliteration. See, I do remember things I learned in high school!




No recipes today. I did make a mushroom stock last night that I'll share with you next week, but for now I just want to share these photos.




I actually had time to spend at the market this week, inside of my usual quick break from work to grab things for dinner. It was so nice to wander around and really take everything in.




Only one more week of markets left this year. Sniffle.



I really don't get tired of fall. Winter - I'm over it after New Years. Summer - I'm always sad to see it go, but tired of the hot weather. Fall could stick around forever and it would be fine with me.

Cranberry Orange Scones

Scones often get a bad rap. They have a reputation of being similar to a hockey puck. Too dense, too sweet, too buttery...the list of grievances goes on. I've had some bad scones in my day. And some good ones. I saw a recipe in the New York Times for classic scones, along with a corresponding article by Mark Bittman which begins by saying that scones in the U.S. (vs. those in England) are often weighed down by too many extra ingredients like fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc. He appreciates a simple, light scone. As do I. I thought - I need to make these. So I did. But...I did the unthinkable and added extras.



I know, I know. It's against everything the article says. As you may know, I like cranberry orange things. Cranberries are in season! Only a couple farmers markets left! I had to seize the day! Besides, I have all winter to hibernate in my apartment and make plain scones with a side of butter and jam. Here's the original recipe. And, with my additions:

2 cups cake flour, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream, more for brushing
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons orange zest
1 pint cranberries

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the flour, salt, baking powder and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.



Add the egg and cream to form a slightly sticky dough. Add the orange juice and zest, and just mix until incorporated. The dough should start to form a big ball in the food processor. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour, but very little; it should still stick a little to your hands. Remove dough from food processor and put into a mixing bowl. Mix the cranberries into the dough gently with your hands until spread evenly throughout.



Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and press it into a 3/4-inch-thick circle and cut into 2-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter or glass, or cut into 8 equal triangles.




Put the scones on an ungreased baking sheet. If you made circles, gently reshape the leftover dough and cut again. Brush the top of each scone with a bit of cream and sprinkle with a little of the remaining sugar.



Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the scones are a beautiful golden brown. Serve immediately.



I think I ended up baking them for closer to 13 minutes. The original recipe yields 8-10 scones, so since I ended up with 8 they were a little bigger.



Light, fluffy, and tart. I used a lot of cranberries. You could easily use less than a pint and be fine. Half or 3/4 would do it. But, I like a lot. Just make sure you do a good job of incorporating them into the dough so you don't end up with some very cranberry-ish scones, and some less cranberry-ish.

Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard, and Garlicky Bread Crumbs

And anchovies. The New York Times didn't include anchovies in the title of this dish, but they're in there...important to mention since they're probably a deal-breaker for some people.



I used rainbow chard instead of regular Swiss chard, and it made the dish look so vibrant and pretty. The red leaves colored the onions red, too. All the ingredients are in season right now - the chard, garlic, and onion all came from the farmers market. Pasta, bread crumbs, and anchovies were from the store. And best of all, this dish incorporates a whole pound of dark, leafy greens.


3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
5 anchovy fillets
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for drizzling
1 yellow onion, halved from stem to root and thinly sliced crosswise
Kosher salt and pepper
1 pound Swiss chard, ribs removed, leaves chopped
1/2 pound whole-wheat pasta, such as fusilli

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add 3 anchovies to the skillet; cook until melted, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute.



Stir in the bread crumbs and toast until golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Wipe the skillet clean and return it to a medium-high heat. Add the oil, the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes.



Chop the remaining 2 anchovies and add them to the skillet. Cook until melted. Add the Swiss chard, a handful at a time, and cook until wilted, about 4 minutes. Cover and keep warm.



Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain well. Toss with the chard mixture and bread crumbs, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil.



I didn't change anything from the NYT recipe except to use rainbow chard instead of regular green Swiss chard, which really doesn't count as a change. Not that I didn't expect this dish to be good - why would I make something if I didn't think it would be good - but I didn't expect it to be THIS good. I made it in the early evening, before going out to dinner, to eat for lunch over the next few days. But when I tasted it, I couldn't stop eating it. The saltiness of the anchovies and the sweetness of the onions work so well together. If you really, really can't stand the thought of anchovies, I would add parmesan cheese or maybe even some pancetta to make up for the lack of a salty ingredient. But I liked the anchovies. This one's a keeper.

Hen of the Woods Mushrooms

My mom, dad, Peter and I were walking through the Division Street farmers market last Saturday, just with the intention of picking up a couple peppers and onions. But then my mom spotted this at the Nichols Farm tent:



A hen of the woods mushroom. That picture doesn't even do justice to how big it was. The mushroom man (complete with a mushroom pin on his flannel shirt) told us that hen of the woods mushrooms taste like veal, and that Charlie Trotter charges an extra $25 to put them on a steak. So we decided to try some and the mushroom man hacked off a chunk for us. He also told us to eat the whole thing, not just the petals.

I also learned (from the internet, not the mushroom man) that hen of the woods get their name because they look the feathers of a hen sitting on a nest. Their season is September and October. And they grow at the base of dead or dying oak trees, and sometimes maple trees. I'd like to know who the first person was that saw one growing on a dead tree and decided they should eat it.

Sadly we didn't get around to trying them while my parents were still in town (we were busy with a trip to A Tavola, a cooking class, and lots of football games), but I did get around to cooking them last night. I did something kind of similar to my chicken with chanterelles recipe, but a little simpler.

I chopped almost the whole thing up, except the end of the stem, and sauteed it in the pan I used to brown the chicken, along with a little butter, 1/4 cup chicken stock, salt and pepper. The whole thing took about 15 minutes.



Once the chicken was done I added the juices from the roasting pan (so don't add too much salt initially because this adds more), and served the mushrooms over the chicken. With a little parsley.



They really did have a richer taste than most mushrooms. Very tender but firm enough to keep their shape, and perfect with just the simple sauce of butter and chicken stock.

Cooking Class at The Chopping Block

Last Christmas we (my dad, sister, and I) gave my mom cooking classes - one with me in Chicago, and one with my sister in Boston. Yesterday we finally, FINALLY got around to doing it!

There were a few different choices at The Chopping Block this weekend, and we decided on "The Basics: Brasserie" class. Here's the menu:

• Bistro Salad with Homemade Croutons
• Steak Au Poivre with Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Vanilla Crème Brûlée
• Skills covered in this class include: Making a Custard Base; Caramelizing Sugar; Poaching Eggs; Making a Warm Vinaigrette; Selecting Beef for Searing; Using Fresh Cracked Spices; Deglazing; Cooking with Alcohol; Making a Pan Sauce; How to Tell When Meat is Done.

Those are some of my favorite dishes, especially the salad - which I didn't know would turn out to be frisée aux lardons. And I was very excited to work on my egg-poaching skills (or lack thereof).



That's the spread at the end of the class. We cooked for about 2 hours, and then got to enjoy our lunch.

Here's the salad. One of my absolute favorite dishes is (I should say "was") the frisée aux lardons from Le Gamin. I can't post a link to it...because it's closed. Brings a tear to my eye. Le Gamin was this tiny little French restaurant in New York, on Houston between MacDougal and Sullivan. They had rotisserie chicken roasting right outside their front door on the sidewalk in this outdoor rotisserie cabinet thing, with potatoes lining the bottom soaking up all the chicken drippings. The best chicken I've ever had. Amazing ratatouille, and a wonderful frisée salad with bacon and a poached egg.



And I successfully poached an egg. Actually, I successfully poached 4 or 5 eggs. Hopefully I'll be able to do it again at home.

We made steak with a pan sauce of cognac, cream, butter, mustard, and chicken stock. And garlic mashed potatoes.



Last but not least, crème brûlée. The custard was very easy to make, and right before we ate them we got to use the blowtorch.



I lit my napkin on fire. Oops. It was so, so good. There's few things more satisfying than taking that first crack into a crème brûlée.



Sorry the pictures aren't great, they were all taken with my phone. I'll post the recipes for each dish once I successfully recreate them at home. The class was fun and really easy, there were only 12 of us (the maximum for the kitchen we were in) so it wasn't a big, crazy group. There are several other classes they offer that look like fun so hopefully I'll return to try another one.

Vegetable Lasagna

It's Friday. Oh man. I'm too tired to think of anything witty to say. It's my 7th day of work in a row, and I'm ready to get this show on the road so I can have a few days off. So...today I present to you - veggie lasagna!

This is pretty much identical to my meat lasagna recipe. Except this time I used a little less cheese. I didn't measure it, but after looking back at the first recipe I know I definitely didn't use a cup and a half of ricotta. Probably a cup. So a little less pesto too.



Sauce:
olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 oz. can chopped Italian tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 cup hot water
1 Tbl oregano
1/4 cup red wine

1 small zucchini, diced
1 small yellow squash, diced
1 small eggplant, diced
1 pint cremini mushrooms (or equal amount portobello), sliced
1 package lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
4 Tbl pesto

If your lasagna noodles require boiling, set a large pot of water to heat up while you prepare the sauce and veal.

Get the sauce going first - this can simmer while you do everything else. In a medium saucepan heat up some olive oil and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the red wine and let the alcohol reduce for a couple minutes. Add the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and water. Stir until smooth. Add the oregano and let simmer.

Heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and some salt and pepper. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften. Add mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes or so until vegetables are completely cooked.

Boil your lasagna noodles. I didn't have to cook my noodles, but some recipes say to lay cooked noodles on a damp kitchen towel to keep them from sticking to each other. You could also drain them and add some cold water to the pot to keep them from sticking, and from continuing to cook in the hot water. Just make sure to pat them dry before layering into the baking dish.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the ricotta and pesto in a bowl. Add a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the baking dish, to keep your first layer of noodles from sticking. Add a layer of noodles, not overlapping. Next spread some of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle mozzarella, then parmesan, then some of the vegetables, and lastly spoon some sauce over everything. Then start over - noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, vegetables, sauce. Keep layering until the dish is full and you've used all your ingredients. For the top layer I did just noodles, then sauce and the cheeses on the top. Lightly cover with foil and cook about 35 minutes. Take the foil off and put under the broiler for just a couple minutes at the end, to brown the cheese on the top. **If your baking dish is really full to the top, put a layer of foil under it in the oven to prevent any spillover from dripping onto the oven.




Look at all those layers of cheesy vegetable goodness. Oooo yum, I'm so glad I have some left for lunch today.

Sauteed Kale

With garlic! And bacon. Just whisper the word bacon, and it's still a very healthy vegetable side dish. Not to get all nutritional and scientific on you, but you know those ANDI score signs they have hanging around Whole Foods? It's some sort of ranking about which foods are healthiest for you. And kale is #1. First place! Obviously it makes me feel nice and healthy to eat my leafy greens, but even better to know that I'm eating the champion of vegetables.



1 bunch kale
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices bacon
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
salt and pepper

Rinse kale, cut ribs out and slice leaves into strips or smaller pieces. In a large skillet with high sides cook bacon until crisp. Let bacon cool on a plate with a paper towel. Pour out bacon grease except 1-2 tablespoons. Cook garlic in the pan until light brown, just about a minute. Add kale to the pan and slowly mix with tongs until all wilted, about 3 minutes.



Add chicken stock, and cover with a lid but with room to let steam out. Let cook for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan, mix with crumbled bacon, and lightly salt and pepper.

Salted Caramels

I was all ready. I read the recipe several times over. I read all of the comments. I put the laptop on the kitchen bar so I had I could quickly reference the directions. I bought a candy thermometer. I found some nice French butter. I even measured everything out in advance and had it ready to go. I actually put on an APRON.


And then...I ended up with this. Hard as a rock.



Seriously, I still don't know what went wrong. I mean...I do know what went wrong, but I was at a loss. The recipe I was following said to let the caramel get up to 310 degrees. Which I did. I watched the thermometer like a hawk. Maybe I let it rise a couple degrees above 310, but nothing drastic. So I made the caramel again. The same day, right after the failure of the first batch. Rarely do I immediately try something again if it doesn't work out, but I was really determined to figure this out. And I got the same exact result. A solid bar of caramel hard enough to pull the fillings out of my teeth (but that didn't stop me from trying to eat it).



I noticed the packaging on the thermometer had a list of various types of candies, and caramel was listed at 245 degrees. I checked some other recipes, and they all said 245. So why this one said 310...I really don't know. Many of the comments were from readers who tried and succeeded with the 310 degrees. I so wanted to be one of them, but it just wasn't happening. Some of the other recipes I checked out called for adding water, so I figured - if I'm going to try this a third time, I need to change it up.

This recipe is from Ina Garten. I will preface this by saying two things. First, the caramels didn't turn out perfect but pretty close, and a tremendous improvement over my first two attempts. Second, I noticed after the fact that one of the comments corrected some measurements in the recipe - this person had also watched the episode when she made these and wrote that it should be 1 1/2 cups sugar (instead of 1/2 cup), and 1 cup of cream (instead of 1 1/2 cups). While I haven't yet tested the recipe with these measurements they sound about right based on the fact that I couldn't get the sugar mixture dark enough (needed more sugar), and the finished product was a little light in color (too much cream).

So with that being said, I'm still sharing my experience with the not-so-perfect-but-edible-and-very-delicious caramels. This is the recipe exactly as I made it - Ina's recipe (with "incorrect" measurements), and a couple very small changes I made.

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan (or loaf pan) with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over 2 sides. You can also use an 8-inch square silicone baking pan coated with cooking spray.

In a deep saucepan (6 inches diameter by 4 1/2 inches deep) combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil until the caramel is a warm golden brown color. Don't stir - just swirl the pan to mix. Watch carefully, as it will burn quickly at the end!

In the meantime, bring the cream, butter, and 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel to a simmer in a small pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat, set aside and keep warm.

When the caramelized sugar is the right color, slowly add the cream mixture to the caramel - it will boil up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Very carefully (it's hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan, let cool for a few minutes and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Refrigerate until firm.

When the caramels are cool, use the parchment paper to pry the sheet from the pan (or carefully flip the silicone pan inside out) onto a cutting board. Starting at 1 end, roll the caramel up tightly until you've rolled up a quarter of the sheet. Cut the sheet across and then roll the second quarter tightly. You will have 4 logs. Sprinkle the logs lightly with fleur de sel, cut each log into about 10-12 pieces. Cut parchment papers into 4-inch squares and wrap each caramel in a paper, twisting the ends. Store in the refrigerator or at room temperature.



The end product was a little softer than what I was imagining, but the taste was great. I've been storing them in the fridge to keep them a little harder. Once I get the recipe perfected, these will be a great gift around the holidays. I'll write another post when I try them again with the new measurements.