Easy Weeknight Spaghetti with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Almonds

I got a reminder from a new follower that I needed to update my blog. Here's a recipe that I tried out last night which is really quick for a weeknight meal. I made it extra garlicky to ward off vampires. Never have gotten into the whole Twilight thing. It's from the latest Food and Wine magazine. I had everything and it was calling my name. As usual I had to fiddle with it.

I had 1/2 of a garlic clove laying around so when I put the slice of bread in the food processor to make crumbs I threw it in.

1/2 garlic clove
1 slice bread cup fresh bread crumbs (I used the multigrain bread I had on hand)
In a skillet, toast the bread crumbs in 2 tablespoons of the oil, stirring, until golden. Transfer the crumbs to a plate; season with salt and pepper.

1/2 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (3 ounces)

1/3 cup roasted almonds (I like the sliced ones from Trader Joes)
1 large garlic clove
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
In a food processor, pulse the tomatoes, almonds and garlic. Add 1/4 cup of the oil and puree. Season with salt and pepper.

Salt and freshly ground pepper
12 ounces spaghetti
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/4 cup grated parmesan (the cheap stuff in the green can works great with this)
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. In the pot, toss the pasta with the pesto, reserved cooking water and remaining 2 tablespoons of oil until the sauce clings to the pasta. Transfer the pasta to bowls, sprinkle with the bread crumbs, parmesan and parsley and drizzle with olive oil. Serve.

The breadcrumbs add a great crunch and the extra garlic added a nice flavor.

Note: I used panko breadcrumbs I had on hand for the leftovers. Huge crunch and they browned to a much prettier toasty tan. I'll use those next time.

Blueberry Apple Dessert Bars

I made a good dessert bar tonight using ingredients I happened to have on hand. It all started when I found some frozen cookie dough leftover from Christmas. There were fresh blueberries but not enough to do much with so I added some apple. The homemade cookie dough made a great crust for a dessert bar. Unfortunately I kept sampling them. Here is the recipe:

2 Cups sugar cookie dough
1 cup fresh blueberries
1apple peeled cored and sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 Tb flour
2 Tb butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with foil. Pat one cup of cookie dough in the bottom of the pan. Mix blueberries, apples, sugar, cinnamon, ginger. Spread bluberry mixture over cookie dough. Sprinkle flour over fruit mixture. Dot with butter. Break up remaining dough and scatter it over the fruit. Bake at 350° until golden, about 20 minutes. At about tne minutes sprinkle the almonds over the bars.

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon as a Summery Dinner

I am reading Julia Child's biography An Appetite for Life. She sounds like a very cool lady and I can see why the Julie and Julia writer felt such an affinity. Who knew she was from a rich family that lived in Pasadena? She really struggled with cooking when she started. No one of her class thought cooking was a worthwile thing to learn - they had cooks. I watched her shows in the 70s when I lived in Boston and thought that's where she was from. My nephew saw her in the market he worked at in Cambridge but that's the closest I ever came to meeting her. This book reminded me that I have Volume One Mastering the Art of French Cooking and of the Boef Bourguignonne recipe I bought it for.

It was 108 here when I decided to make this. Not exactly a warm weather dish, but I made it in the crock pot so I wasn't slaving over a hot stove. I don't know of Julia Child's opinion of crock pots but I know she didn't like pressure cookers. I like crockpots. They're like having a wife who makes dinner for you.

I tweaked the recipe a tad with a bit of roux at the end to make the sauce a bit thicker.

Boeuf Bourguignonne:

6 ounces bacon
1 Tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil
3 pounds lean stewing beef , cut into 2-inch cubes
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. flour
3 cups full-bodied, young red wine , such as a Chianti
2 to 3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
1/2 tsp. thyme
Crumbled bay leaf
Blanched bacon rind

1 pound quartered fresh mushrooms , sautéed in butter (and little onions if you have them)

Parsley sprigs



Directions
Cut bacon into lardons (sticks, 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Sauté the bacon over moderate heat in a large skillet for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.

Dry the stewing beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.

Add the beef and bacon to the crockpot and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set crockpot on low.

Stir in the wine, and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 6 hours. It should never boil. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.
Here's where I cheated a bit and added a tablespoon of roux to thicken it. (I hope Julia Child is not turning over in her grave.)

For immediate serving: Return the beef to the sauce. Distribute the cooked mushrooms over the meat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles, or rice, and decorated with parsley. I found some lovely paparadelle at Trader Joe's which I buttered and used as the base.

For later serving: When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

"Bon Appetit!"

See what I did there? Julia Child used to end her program with that. :)

6 Things I learned about Julia Child

10. She was 6'2"

9. She didn't start cooking until she was 32

8. She was in the OSS - precursor of the CIA during WWII

7. She hated the "Food Police"

6. She had a great sense of humour

5. Her husband was questioned by the FBI during the McCarthy Era.

6. Dan Akroyd's SNL piece was based on an acutal incident.

Here is the video of her that my sister and I saw at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum back in the 70s. She's making Primordial Soup. Julia at her best

Fall Cupcake Challenge

A local cupcakery is having a contest for fall cupcake recipes. I like spicecake, applecrisp and anything made with brown sugar so I came up with this recipe. My dad was my guinea pig. He has no cupcake pans at his house so I used actual cups to bake in. They turned out pretty yummy.

Apple Crisp Spice Cupcake with Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting.

Ingredients:

Cake
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Apple Crisp Filling
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups apples - peeled, cored and chopped into ½ inch pieces
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Mix apples, cinnamon and sugar together.
Combine brown sugar, oats, flour with melted butter until crumbly.

Brown Sugar Buttercream
3 large egg whites
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons

Preparation:
Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Cream butter in a mixing bowl; add brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Beat at high speed of an electric mixer for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl often. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk, mixing at lowest speed just until smooth.
Pour batter into lined cupcake pans. Take a spoonful of apple mixture making a depression in batter so that the apples sit in middle. Sprinkle apples with the oat mixture. Bake at 350° 15 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on rack for 5 minutes, turn out of pans onto racks to cool completely. Frost lightly with dollop, or a piped rosette, of buttercream,.
Frosting:
In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, whisk together egg whites, sugar, and salt. Cook, whisking constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch. Transfer to the clean bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy and cooled, about 15 minutes. Raise speed to high; beat until stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, until fully incorporated.

Pam's Perfect Coffee Cake

Imagine a cold morning camping at the beach. Wouldn't a piece of warm coffee cake be a wonderful gift? That's the gift my fellow campers and I recieved last weekend. It was good to eat and good to warm your hands by.




















I have been looking for a good coffee cake recipe for years. Every one I've attempted wound up dry and boring. Pam's was moist and delicious. I attribute it to the buttermilk. Everyone was like bees around honey when she brought this out.

Coffee Cake

1 Cup Crisco
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 C Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon of Each - Baking Powder and Baking Soda

Combine Crisco, Sugar, Eggs, Buttermilk and Vanilla til mixed.

Add Flour, salt, B Powder and B Soda til mixed.

Filling and Topping

2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 C Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
1 Cup Chopped Walnuts
2 TB Melted Butter

Pour half of the cake batter in a 9x13 pan Then sprinkle with half the filling.

Then pour the rest of the cake batter and sprinkle with the rest of the filling.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 - 40 minutes.