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Spiced Parsnip Cake

January 11, 2017 Leave a Comment

Ages ago, Caleb tried a recipe for spiced parsnip cake from a co-worker and it turned out to be a disaster. The house smelled so heavenly, and we were so excited, but at the stated "bake until" time it was underbaked in the middle. Like banana bread, underbaked parsnip cake is hard to spot, the toothpick can come out clean while the middle is still too gooey. Tragically, our experiment was virtually inedible.

After that, we went a long time without considering parsnip cake. But reading through the Food52 Baking cookbook, I stumbled across a recipe from one of their contributors (hardlikearmour) for spiced parsnip cake that looked worthy of another try. We made it for a dinner party and it turned out super well, especially because I knew to watch out for the cooking time.

This is one of those cakes that is easy to whip up whenever you're in the mood for a little dessert. If you have a food processor, your cake will be ready in no time. If you have to hand-grate the parsnips with a little box grater, it might take you a little longer, but that's the hardest step. ...

Healthier Buffalo Chicken Salad with Greek Yogurt Dressing

January 10, 2017 Leave a Comment

I've always thought buffalo sauce was disgusting, until the buffalo chicken dip Jon made shattered all my illusions. Turns out buffalo sauce is simply a vinegar-based cayenne sauce and it doesn't deserve my former categorization of it as only a nightmare smell from late-night wings in a college dorm room. Apparently I'm now a little fixated on buffalo chicken, because I can't seem to stop finding new ways to eat it. I really enjoyed the Dude Diet's take on a healthier buffalo chicken salad with Greek yogurt dressing as the base, diced poached chicken, and a sprinkle of blue cheese on top. If you already have poached (or otherwise cooked) chicken, there's no cook time whatsoever. Poaching the chicken will add about 15 minutes of cook time, but you can make the dressing and chop the vegetables for the salad while it cooks. Even better than poaching chicken? Sous vide the chicken breasts and finish them on the grill.

Take my advice and go easy on the Frank's Red Hot when you first make the dressing, you can always add more. I adapted Serena's recipe for a healthier buffalo chicken salad slightly, using cool chicken rather than warm (because different temperatures within a salad isn't for me) and omitting the carrots, onion, and blue cheese because I dislike carrots and onion in salad and I didn't have any blue cheese. Choose your toppings to suit yourself and enjoy this fabulous healthier buffalo chicken salad!

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Ideas Post 26: Vote for a Recipe

January 7, 2017 4 Comments

Giving up bread and sugar is not as hard as I expected it to be, probably because I ate so much of it throughout November and December that I was ready for massive servings of vegetables as a palate cleanser. Giving up having milk and Splenda with my coffee? Kind of a nightmare, but it's a work in progress.

A couple of new cookbooks arrived over the holidays, including the newest cookbook from the Blender Girl: the Perfect Blend. I'm trying a couple new recipes from there and continuing my Indian food kick with Made in India. Alternatively, the spiced parsnip cake from Food52:Baking is absolutely fabulous and I'm pretty excited for mid-February when I can make it for myself again.

A) Tom Kha from the Perfect Blend

B) Roasted Veggies with Lemon Tarragon Trickle from the Perfect Blend

C) Pistachio and Yogurt Chicken Curry (Pista nu Murghi) from Made in India

D) Spiced Parsnip Cake from Food52 Baking

Chicken and Squash Cacciatore with Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Olives

January 4, 2017 Leave a Comment

I have had mixed results cooking recipes from Jamie Oliver's Everyday Super Foods, as I discussed in my prelude to his Russian chicken salad. Fortunately, his chicken and squash cacciatore, which was the recipe idea winner for this week, turned out to be pretty delicious. I can say that with confidence because I basically ate four bowls of it in a row, and I still was happy to eat more.

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Chicken Hyderabadi

January 2, 2017 Leave a Comment

Chicken Hyderabadi for the typical kitchen took a little work to nail down, but it was so worth it. Creamy, coconutty, and incredibly rich, this spicy Indian chicken curry is actually quite easy to make at home, doesn't require an extensively stocked spice cabinet, requires minimal babysitting, and is exceptionally satisfying.

When I first glanced through this recipe, it seemed really simple. Then it won the recipe vote back in December, I read through it a second time, and realized it was much more complicated than I first thought. To start with, it calls for browning then poaching a whole chicken in a pressure cooker to three whistles. I had a few immediate concerns about this procedure. Firstly, I don't know that many people who own a pressure cooker. Secondly, I own two pressure cookers (a 8-qt Presto and an instant pot), neither of which give discrete whistles to be used for timing. I googled pressure cooker three whistles and the most practical advice was to ignore the whistle concept and use a timer. Third, since the header advises making this dish ahead of time to give the flavors time to develop, I wasn't convinced pressure cooking was even a logical choice. It saves an hour of cooking time, true, but you can be doing something else during that hour and pressure cookers still aren't very common here. With those primary concerns in mind, my goal for testing the chicken Hyderabadi from Five Morsels of Love was to try following the recipe as closely as possible and then, if it was worth repeating, come up with an alternate method for people who don't own pressure cookers.

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BAKED Ultimate Birthday Cake

January 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Happy 2017! I made us this marvelous vanilla sprinkles cake from Baked Occasions to celebrate.

The glorious BAKED Ultimate Birthday Cake graces the cover of Baked Occasions and is another example of Matt and Renato's genius for taking favorite desserts to a higher level.

We were not a funfetti birthday cake household when I was growing up. In grade school, I was always jealous of the other kids whose parents made them the magically delicious, incredibly sweet funfetti cake fresh from a box. I especially loved the Rainbow Chip frosting. Even now that I've reached independent adulthood and can make my own birthday cake, I've never made a funfetti cake from scratch (or from a box). I guess we're still not a funfetti birthday cake family......

Ideas Post 25: Vote for a Recipe (and a Happy New Year!)

December 31, 2016 3 Comments

Goodbye 2016! I've been blogging for a little more than one year, and I think I'm muddling along a little better with each passing year. So thanks for stopping by, reading, commenting, sharing, and a great first full year for my little blog.

I am joining the multitudes committing to a food reset for the new year. As great as baking all fall and winter was, I probably ate more cookies than strictly necessary. It turns out when a cookie recipe turns out really well, I eat more than a few... go figure. I've been wanting to try the Whole30 plan for a while, probably for all of 2016. No dairy, no grains (or pseudograins), no legumes, no alcohol, no sugar (real or artificial). For 30 days. It never seemed like I had a 30 day block of time without some major travel or eating commitment, but 2017 is a great reason to stop avoiding and start giving my sweet tooth a break. Bonus if I drink less coffee because I don't like it without milk and Splenda.

So, what does that mean for my blog? Not much change, except that the ideas posts will include one sweet recipe offering, coming from archived idea posts (or things I've already tried). The three savory recipe ideas are likely to be Whole30 compliant, but don't be dissuaded. There are multiple recipes on my blog already that are Whole30 compliant, they just weren't labelled as such. I'll include modifications or additions for people interested in having a little something more.

A) Roasted Squash Laksa Bake with Chicken, Lemongrass, and Peanuts from Everyday Super Food

B) Chicken and Squash Cacciatore with Mushrooms and Tomatoes from Everyday Super Food

C) Citrus and Za'atar Chicken from Sirocco

D) Chocolate Oat Bars from Vanilla Bean Baking Book

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhni)

December 30, 2016 1 Comment

Butter Chicken

A lot of people are resistant to the idea of making Indian food at home. It involves too many ingredients, too much forethought, a different oven, uncommon spices, and/or a lot of prep time. Butter chicken from the Food of India is the recipe to prove everyone wrong. Maybe you don't regularly keep garam masala or cardamom in your pantry, but both spices are relatively inexpensive and available at your local supermarket. There's no long tempering of spices involved and no more marinating than you might expect in any other chicken recipe. The yogurt keeps the chicken tender throughout the hour-long bake time and the flavor is complex but mild enough to appeal to a wide audience of eaters.

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Ideas Post 24: Vote for a Recipe

December 26, 2016 1 Comment

Happy holidays and merry belated recipe vote day 🙂 I took the last couple of days off from the Internet and spent the entire time cooking and eating with family, which was pretty glorious. It does mean I missed posting on Saturday again, but now I have plenty of tested recipes to post about, if I can stop cooking and start writing some of them up!

This weekend I conned people into two days of Indian for lunch, mostly out of the Food of India, with the final iteration of the recipe for chicken hyderabadi tested. We had fantastic, very boozy fig blondies from Ovenly for dessert and I'll be making a fig and fennel bread today from Bread Illustrated.

Obviously, it's already Monday, so recipe voting should close by Wednesday and I'll post the same day or the very next.

A) Butter Chicken from Food of India

B) Butternut Squash Coconut Soup with Miso and Lime from Vegetable Literacy

C) Boozy Fig Blondies from Ovenly

D) Fig and Fennel Bread from Bread Illustrated

Ideas Post 23: Vote for a Recipe

December 18, 2016 3 Comments

I haven't posted last week's winning recipe from ideas 22 yet or even written a post to explain why, so what am I doing posting about a fresh set of ideas?

Well, let me apologize for my tardiness. I did make the chicken hyderabadi, but the recipe as published needed to be reworked and retested prior to posting. I meant to say so, but I kept hoping to get to the retest sooner. I'm close to finished with the modified recipes for chicken hyderabadi and sweet orange focaccia now, so keep an eye out for those soon....

In the meantime, I offer four new ideas to vote on. This time, I've already made them all, so there's no chance I'll find myself trying to divine the intention of the author while wanting to strangle the editor. Yesterday I got to spend the whole day cooking with a friend in advance of a dinner party, and almost all of the savory dishes we made came from a cookbook I've fallen pretty hard for: Modern Potluck. For the sweet ideas of the week, there's a lovely and simple mash-up of vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book and Ovenly, respectively, as well as some hot fudge rugelach from Cookie Love that taste exactly like my memories of rugelach growing up.

A) Polenta Stuffed with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe from Modern Potluck

B) Chinese Chicken Salad from Modern Potluck

C) Vanilla Bean Cake with Vanilla Buttercream from Vanilla Bean Baking Book and Ovenly

D) Hot Fudge Rugelach from Cookie Love

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Orange Pineapple Walnut Fruitcake

December 18, 2016 2 Comments

Wait wait... don't go. What if I called this orange pineapple rum cake? Tropical cake?

It's difficult to think of another cake that so many people are negative towards. I'm not sure I know anyone who's a big fan of fruitcake. I certainly didn't grow up in a fruitcake-for-the-holidays house, although my dad always liked a good rum or whiskey cake. I told a couple people I was making fruitcake for my holiday dinner party and they said, so what other desserts are you baking?

I didn't have high hopes for this orange pineapple walnut fruitcake from Baked Occasions. Virtually every single ingredient category I object to in desserts is in this week's Baked Sunday Mornings selection. Chopped nuts and dried fruit chunks mar the beautiful texture of cake (and brownies and cookies), while a heavy dose of rum can blow out all the other flavors. But, as with all the Baked desserts, my misgivings were unfounded and I actually liked it. Not enough to remake exactly the same recipe, but enough to indulge in a slice or two and consider making it again with just the rum.

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Silky Roasted Bell Pepper Sauce with Pasta, Zucchini, and Basil Ribbons

December 11, 2016 2 Comments

Caleb was the one to stumble across Thug Kitchen's website, and he liked their irreverent approach to healthier cooking enough to buy me their first cookbook.

It's a vegan cookbook, but it's not the kind of vegan cookbook trying to fake people into thinking they're eating non-vegan. Thug Kitchen focuses on preparing vegetables, legumes, pasta, etc with a lot more flavor and care than they're frequently granted. If you're not eating vegan, maybe you know some people who can't eat dairy, maybe you're looking for some great vegetable-focused side dishes, or maybe you're participating in Meatless Mondays.... the Thug Kitchen cookbook is here to help you (unless profanity offends you, in which case, stay far away)....

Ideas Post 22: Vote for a Recipe

December 10, 2016 6 Comments

When I was in San Francisco a few months ago I found time to stop by the great Omnivore Books and browsed my way through their terrific cookbook collection. Once I discovered they would ship for a flat fee, meaning I wouldn't have to lug the books onto my plane and I wouldn't be paying CA sales tax, I couldn't help buying two of the cookbooks that had caught my eye: Divine Food and Five Morsels of Love. Both books are a little different relative to your typical cookbook. Divine Food includes fascinating descriptions of the gastronomical traditions, contemporary cuisine, and regional specialties in Israel and Pakistan. Five Morsels of Love is one of the most visually stunning cookbooks I've ever come across, by a woman determined to complete her late grandmother's unfinished cookbook, despite the granddaughter never having cooked before.

In addition to these two brilliant books, a co-worker of mine gifted me with a loan of one of his favorite cookbooks, and I have been too busy cooking from it to return it. A Taste of the Orient was published in 1987, compiling recipes from across Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, China, India, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, and the Philippines. There are a lot of recipes in here I've never seen in other cookbooks on the region, so it's been a lot of fun flipping through.

In honor of these lovely books, I'm offering six recipe ideas this week. Please vote (by Monday) for your favorites, and don't limit yourself to just one... I'll try to get through at least 2-3 this week.

A) Sweet Focaccia with Oranges from Divine Food

B) Citrus Poppy Seed Strudel from Divine Food

C) Thin Korean Pancakes (Bindae Duk) from a Taste of the Orient

D) Chicken and Spiced Vegetables (Sayur Kari Daging Ayam) from a Taste of the Orient

E) Hyderabadi Chicken Curry (Dum Ka Murgh) from Five Morsels of Love

F) Omelette Pulusu (Spiced Omelette Curry) from Five Morsels of Love

Peanut Butter Cookies {gluten & lactose-free}

December 9, 2016 2 Comments

Last year was my first year at a new company, and to share the holiday spirit I decided to do a "12 days of cookies" at work. While several 5 am wake-up calls left me questioning my sanity, these peanut butter cookies from Ovenly were a spectacular success. What drew me to them originally was their minimal ingredient list - 5 ingredients, including vanilla and salt! - and their suitability for two good friends who can't eat gluten or lactose. They also happen to be the perfect peanut butter cookies: dense yet tender, richly peanut butter-y, chewy inside, with exactly the right amount of crispness on the exterior. Ovenly's peanut butter cookies were so highly-praised (and so ludicrously simple to make) that I made them again this year for my 2nd annual "12 days of cookies"....

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Sugar Cookies

December 7, 2016 3 Comments

These soft, pillowy chocolate sugar cookies from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book are the second recipe of Sarah's I've posted here, following the resounding success of her orange-cranberry Bundt cake. I've now baked seven of the recipes from VBBB; the orange-cranberry Bundt, pumpkin pound cake, chocolate oat bars, coffee blondies, blackberry-white chocolate cake, olive oil sugar cookies with pistachios and lemon glaze, and these chocolate sugar cookies. My pants might not fit as well as I'd like them too, but it's a small price to pay for all this deliciousness.

Chocolate sugar cookies

My entire office smelled like rich hot cocoa the day I brought these chocolate sugar cookies into work. They're an intense, dark chocolate-y cookie, sure to please even the pickiest chocolate lover. Even though cocoa powder is the sole source of chocolate flavor, they don't have any hint of a cocoa powder taste. Given the amount of butter in these and the impact of the cocoa powder, the flavors of each matter a lot for the final cookie. I didn't spring for luxury butter, simply Land of Lakes or a butter of similar caliber will work here. (This is not a sponsored post (obviously), they just make a good butter...unlike Shoprite). Similarly, I used a random European cocoa powder, not Hershey's.

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Peppermint Ice Cream with Homemade Hot Fudge

December 4, 2016 2 Comments

Before writing anything about this weekend's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, I want to say that it is possible to make ice cream, any ice cream, without an ice cream machine. So don't write off this lovely pink peppermint ice cream with homemade hot fudge sauce if you don't have one. Cool? Cool.

When I was living in UCSF housing, I managed to score several things for really cheap from other students/postdocs who were moving out. My PS3, Caleb's Nespresso, my Nespresso, my couch, my bed frame, my floor-length mirror, and... an old Krups ice cream maker. Some lovely person sold it to me for $5 dollars, and in the last two-ish years, I haven't used it once. I wasn't actually sure that it worked or how it worked, since it came without the manual and the girl hadn't used it herself. More importantly, I love ice cream, and will eat unreasonable amounts of it if A) it's good ice cream and B) in my freezer. So it seemed like maybe making ice cream for myself was something I ought to avoid. But as luck would have it, this Sunday's Baked challenge was this pink peppermint ice cream with homemade hot fudge sauce from Baked Occasions. So once again, this lovely group of people forced me into new territory, and as usual, I'm glad they did.

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Ideas Post 21: Vote for a Recipe

December 3, 2016 2 Comments

Yikes, it has been such a long time since I posted to my blog! A whole two weeks and my last post wasn't even an actual recipe, just the previous ideas post. I even skipped the usual Saturday ideas post last weekend. Sorry Internet. I did an awful lot of work on my vacation, so I didn't want to spend any extra time on my computer. I received multiple suggestions from family members for recipes that need to go onto the blog... those kind of count as idea votes for the Thanksgiving week, right? They even total four. My aunt's amazing crab cakes, Tom Kha Gai from David Thompson's Thai Food, rainbow chard from Ad Hoc at Home (with my cousin-in-law's goat cheese addition), and a delicious chickpea kale curry ... coming soon!

I'm slowly climbing out of a mountain of work and it's the start of my "traditional" 12 days of Christmas cookies at work next week, so expect to see a lot of cookies. They make excellent hostess gifts, party favors, thank-you presents, and of course, afternoon snacks. Even nutritionists love cookies (my downstairs neighbor and college roommate being examples A and B).

This week, I'm testing recipes from Anthony Bourdain's latest (wildly illustrated) cookbook, Appetites, and baking more deliciousness from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book.

A) Cast-Iron Grilled Chicken from Appetites

B) Kuching-style Laksa from Appetites

C) Chocolate Sugar Cookies from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book

D) Olive Oil Sugar Cookies with Pistachios and Lemon Glaze from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book

Potato Rosemary Bread

November 30, 2016 1 Comment

Lucky Peach Presents Power Vegetables: Turbocharged Recipes for Vegetables with Guts... what does that even mean? To begin with, Lucky Peach is a foodie magazine, brain-child of the one and only irreverent powerchef David Chang and powerhouse former restaurant critic Peter Meehan. After establishing the magazine, the label has gone on to publish subject-based cookbooks, like 101 Easy Asian Recipes, the Wurst of Lucky Peach, and now, Power Vegetables. In the intro, Peter writes that this cookbook is supposed to be

"98% fun and 2% stupid. I wanted something [...] yelling WE ARE GOING TO EAT VEGETABLES AND THEY ARE GOING TO BE AWESOME"

Cleverly, he also sets up some ground rules up-front: no frying, no subrecipes, no pasta recipes, no egg-on-it recipes, no grain bowls, fruits are vegetables, no meat but fish and dairy are ok. I love it when cookbook intros give these "rules of engagement" and the why behind them, so, okay, so far so good... Cool concept cookbook, how's the food?

This potato rosemary bread recipe that I picked isn't exactly what I expected to find in here, honestly - I wasn't thinking about bread in the context of vegetables. But, it is excellent and just as idiotproof as promised in the subheading text....

Ideas Post 20: Vote for a Recipe

November 20, 2016 2 Comments

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, partially because it's mostly about bringing family and friends together, and partially because I get to make all of the things. Did you know I fill notebook pages with doodles about what I want to be cooking? Truly, I have six notepads to go through plus random pieces of paper scattered all over my living room, from moments when I absolutely had to record what I wanted to make next. There aren't enough meals in my lifetime, probably, for me to cook all the things I'd like to make. But Thanksgiving is one day when reckless abandon with number and variety of foodstuffs plus gluttony are both permitted. This year, we're traveling to family and everyone's helping out with the dinner. So maybe I don't get to make all the things, but together we'll make way too much food and have fun sharing it all.

No promises about making a Wednesday post out of this week's recipe vote - it might be a little delayed or delayed until the following week. But it will get posted, and that's what counts, right? With the success of the orange-cranberry Bundt cake, I'm on a Vanilla Bean Baking Book kick, but Power Vegetables and Red Rooster look fabulous for savory foods.

A) Braised Chocolate Swirl Bread from Vanilla Bean Baking Book

B) Rosemary Potato Bread from Lucky Peach Presents Power Vegetables

C) Pear-Apple Hard Cider Pie from Vanilla Bean Baking Book

D) Lemon Chicken with Green Harissa and Roasted Eggplant Puree from the Red Rooster Cookbook

Please vote by Monday!

Orange-Cranberry Bundt Cake

November 16, 2016 1 Comment

This orange-cranberry Bundt cake from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book is so refreshingly tart and light, I highly recommend making it the next time you make dessert! I brought it into group meeting this morning and people went crazy for it. Ordinarily everyone's pretty gracious about whatever I bring in, but this cake was different. Several people asked for seconds.... large slices of seconds. Even though a slice feels hefty on a plate, the cake itself isn't heavy at all. It's easy to eat several slices throughout the day (I know because I did). The power trio of cranberries (I used frozen), lemon juice, and orange zest/juice/liqueur results in an extraordinarily bright-tasting cake. By itself the cake is not very sweet, so although the glaze is quite sweet, together they work perfectly.

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Ideas Post 19: Vote for a Recipe

November 12, 2016 2 Comments

It's almost Thanksgiving so probably I should be testing not just seasonal recipes, but specifically ones that might be good enough to wind up on a holiday table. Right?

Except... I just got a few new cookbooks, including the gorgeous Vanilla Bean Baking Book, and honestly I only want to make desserts. Many desserts. Maybe some salad to balance it out?

A) Olive Oil Sugar Cookies with Pistachios and Lemon Glaze from Vanilla Bean Baking Book.

B) Chocolate Oat Bars from Vanilla Bean Baking Book.

C) Orange-Cranberry Bundt Cake from Vanilla Bean Baking Book.

D) Nasi Goreng from The Paleo Chef (not Paleo? neither am I, but this version looks tasty. And if you use regular rice instead of cauliflower rice, it's just a tasty Balinese fried rice)

E) Crispy Rice Salad (Fried brown rice with lemongrass, mint, cucumber, and ginger) from Sqirl

What? That's five options and none of them involve salad? Apparently when I typed salad I really meant fried rice.

Thanks for helping me decide what to eat this week!

Healthier Buffalo Chicken Dip

November 10, 2016 Leave a Comment

After a crowd-filled morning in Manhattan, my friend's husband decided to make this buffalo chicken dip for part of our late lunch. It blew my mind. The ingredients seem a little weird (to me, at least) and I don't even like buffalo chicken wings. But this dip - I could not stop eating it. I knew Caleb would love it too, especially since the best "crackers" to serve it with are Fritos Scoops. I was not wrong and this recipe has been in heavy rotation whenever we have people over (or go somewhere I can use the oven).

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Thai Chicken Meatballs with Spicy Soy Glaze

November 10, 2016 1 Comment

I was browsing the cookbook section of my local Barnes and Nobles the other day, like you do, and noticed an intriguingly titled cookbook. The Dude Diet: clean(ish) food for people who like to eat dirty. A big plate of nachos graced the cover. It seemed like the kind of book I could cook for a certain someone from (unlike my recent fling with Middle Eastern cookbooks, which hasn't been received enthusiastically). Curious, I started flipping through and discovered a new favorite cookbook in the process.

Yet another blog success story, the Dude Diet was born when Serena Wolf's boyfriend discovered the scale wasn't actually broken... There are plenty of cookbooks out there with slimmed-down versions of everyone's favorite recipes, but many of them sacrifice flavor, visual appeal, crunch, or something else to get there. Everything I've made from The Dude Diet has been absolutely delicious, with an added bonus that it's also health(ish).
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