Thanksgiving at my house was great! I had so much fun and I made so much food. One of my favorite side dishes was a great vegetable side. This dish was roasted - I love the flavor that roasting imparts on vegetables. I have even roasted vegetables that seemingly no one (but me) likes with great success. Brussel sprouts, broccoli, and turnip take on a wonderful flavor when roasted. The other thing I enjoy about roasting is the texture that the vegetables get. Here is a great recipe - it got the seal of approval from my family. I hope you enjoy it too!
Lemon-Roasted Green Beans with Marcona Almonds (from Bon Appetit) Makes 8 servings
Ingredients
vegetable spray
2 pounds of green beans, trimmed
1 onion, peeled, cut into 8 wedges
6 large fresh marjoram sprigs
2 Tbls. extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse kosher salt
1 Tbls. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. (packed) freshly grated lemon peel
1/2 cup coarsely chopped Marcona almonds or regular roasted almonds
Position 1 rack in the top third and 1 rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Spray 2 large rimmed baking sheets with nonstick spray. Combine green beans, onion wedges, and marjoram in large bowl. Drizzle with oil, then sprinkly with coarse salt and pepper. Toss; divide between prepared sheets.
Roast vegetables 15 minutes. Reverse sheets. Continue to roast until beans are tender and beginning to brown in spots, about 10 minutes longer.
People have been asking when are there going to be new videos, well I have an answer. Here’s the first new video in a long time. I hope you enjoy it. This one is for my friend Mike over at www.tvfoodfan.com.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for buttermilk biscuits!
It’s that time of year again, the holidays are fast approaching. In an effort to get myself ahead of the curve I have been testing out new recipes for my very first family Thanksgiving at my place. Most years we go to my Mom and Dad’s but this year everyone is coming down to my place. The thing that I am always most concerned with is dessert. As Ina always says, “people may forget the dinner, but they always remember dessert”. What Thanksgiving meal is complete without a delicious pumpkin pie. (Well, I may still have to do the pumpkin flan just for my dad, but everyone else may want pumpkin pie) This new recipe is easy and delicious. So whether you make a crust from scratch or buy a store bought one (I won’t tell anyone) this is an excellent filling for it. I am also including a recipe for crust after the filling recipe if you need one.(I like Alton Brown’s recipe - see below)
Maple Pumpkin Pie
1 pie shell (see below for recipe)
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves (if you don’t like cloves feel free to leave them out)
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare and roll out crust.
For filling, in a bowl combine the pumpkin, sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add eggs; whisk until combined. Stir in milk gently.
Pour filling into pie crust. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 25 to 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.
Alton’s Pie Crust Recipe
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter, chilled
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) lard, chilled
6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup ice water, in spritz bottle
Place butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes. When ready to use, remove and cut both into small pieces.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until texture looks mealy. Add lard and pulse another 3 to 4 times. Remove lid of food processor and spritz surface of mixture thoroughly with water. Replace lid and pulse 5 times. Add more water and pulse again until mixture holds together when squeezed. Place mixture in large zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Good luck with your desserts - if you want more suggestions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment below.
I just adore fall, especially anything to do with squash or pumpkin. These pumpkin scones are delicious and fun to make. Here’s my take on pumpkin scones.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
6 Tbls. sugar
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
6 Tbls. cold butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
6 Tbls. heavy cream
1 large egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices in large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, but butter into dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, heavy cream, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a disk.
Pat out the dough on a floured surface and form into circle about 1 inch thick. Using pizza cutter slice the dough into triangles. Place on non-stick baking sheet.
Bake for 14-16 minutes. Scones will turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
These scones are delicious with a powdered sugar glaze. Here’s a quick list of ingredients for that…
1 cup powdered sugar
3-4 Tbls. whole milk
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
pinch ginger
pinch ground cloves
Mix together and drizzle over scones (once they have cooled slightly).
I don’t know about you, but I eat a lot of salad. I mean a lot! I have been trying to revamp my weekly vegetable salads. Now that fall is here I decided to come with a couple of salads that work well with comfort foods. The Mixed Greens salad I had last night was delicious, it’s a pretty common one you find in restaurants, but most people don’t make at home. I have had this salad with regular walnuts and candied walnuts, the candied walnuts make all the difference. The truth be told goat cheese works fabulously with anything sweet, the sweetness cuts right through the sharpness of the cheese. The walnuts are pretty easy to make - I used Martha Stewart’s recipe for them. Here’s the link if you are interested in making your own. You can make this salad in a variety of ways - with plain walnuts, candied walnuts, cranberries, pears, no pears, goat cheese, blue cheese. As with any recipe it’s best to make it to suit your own tastes. I used a simple balsamic dressing, but I have seen variations that include lemon dressing, etc. The only suggestion I have is to be a little adventurous, you may be surprised by what you find the flavors you thought you might not like are the ones you love the most.
Have you been wondering what to get the foodie in your life? I have the answer - how about a cookbook autographed by their favorite celebrity chef. The latest catalog for Sur La Table has not one, not two, but four famous chefs’ signed cookbooks. On page 6 - it’s the hero of Italian food, Mario Batali. Get his latest cookbook, Mario Italiano signed. Or if Mario isn’t your fancy, then check out Italian cooking’s sweetheart, Giada De Laurentiis, latest Everyday Pasta on page 12. Don’t care for Italian food? How about some really great Mexican food from none other than Rick Bayless. You can find ordering information for Rick Bayless on page 14. Looking for something more exotic then check out Hassan M’souli’s Moroccan Modern on page 35.
If none of these chefs catch your fancy, then you can always get a copy of one of Ina Garten’s cookbooks signed by going to her website www.barefootcontessa.com. I personally love Ina Garten and the price for an autographed book isn’t much more than a normal one.
Today was a big baking day. Three types of muffins. I love baking large batches of goods and freeze them for later use. Muffins and quick breads are prefect for freezing. I like to take the frozen muffins or bread and let them defrost in the fridge overnight. It’s great to have something to go to if I need something for a quick breakfast. I told you about a new cookbook I just picked up - Baking from Dorie Greenspan, well today’s recipes came from that book. I have to say all the recipes I have tried so far are fabulous!
Here’s Dorie’s recipe for Pumpkin Muffins - Yummy!
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground allspice
1 stick (8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup moist, plump golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
About 1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds, for topping (optional)
Preheat oven to 400° F. Center a rack in the oven. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft. Add both the sugars and continue to beat until light and smooth. One by one, add the eggs, beating for a minute after the eggs are incorporated, then beat in the vanilla. Lower the mixer speed and mix in the pumpkin and buttermilk. With the mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients in a steady stream, mixing only until the disappear. To avoid overmixing, you can stop the machine early and stir any remaining dry ingredients into the batter using a rubber spatula. Stir in the raisins and nuts. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle a few sunflower seeds over the top of each muffin.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove each one from its mold and finish cooling on the rack.
One of my absolute favorite vegetables in the world is the potato. I love potatoes - mashed, fried, baked, smashed, I will take any of them. My favorite of all potatoes is the humble little red skin potato. I find these potatoes are great for smashing (what I like to call the lazy woman’s mashed potato) and for roasting in the oven. Here’s a quick and easy recipe to make oven roasted potatoes (in this case home fries, but these can be also chunked and roasted that way too). The options are endless with these little babies - add any spices you like, Italian seasoning, chili powder, red pepper flakes, rosemary, etc.
Oven Home Fries
3 large red potatoes washed and cut into half moons
Enough oil to coat them
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
mustard or ketchup for serving (I prefer mustard with my home fries)
Preheat oven to 425°. Place cut potatoes into bowl coat with olive oil and seasonings, toss to distribute the seasonings. Pour the potatoes out onto sprayed cookie sheet. Allow the potatoes to roast for 15 minutes, flip and roast for another 10 minutes. The potatoes should be golden brown.
The week before last I posted a recipe for pizza dough without photos. I thought you might like to see it as a step by step process, so here it is as a photo tour.
This is what the yeast (2 1/4 tsp.) looks like when it is first poured into the bowl with 1/4 cup warm water (90° to 100° - you don’t want to go much over 100 or under 90 or the yeast won’t activate) and a tsp. of honey.
After 10 minutes of proofing the yeast should bubble up, like this photo shows. When the yeast is activated - pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Add the rest of the water 3/4 cup (warm water), 3 Tbls. of olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups of flour. Turn mixer on and slowly add 1/2 tsp. salt. You don’t want to add the salt to the yeast mixture without the flour because salt retards the growth of yeast. Turn mixer on low speed until dough starts to come together.
The dough should start to look like this. Once you have a nice dough ball formed turn mixer to 4 setting. You will see the dough may stick to the sides of the mixer, add only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking (usually about 3/4 cup). Keep mixer on for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes your dough should look like this. You should be able to press the dough gently and it should rebound. Take the dough of the dough hook and place on lightly floured counter or board.
Knead the dough a couple of times until it feels elastic and smooth. Place the kneaded dough face down into a bowl lightly greased with olive oil. Flip the dough over and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 1 1/2 hours, it will double in size.
It will go from this to….
This! Punch down the dough and divide in two. You can either use the dough immediately, or refrigerator for a couple of hours, or freeze for a couple of weeks. Happy Pizza Baking!
I know I promised the butternut squash penne recipe today, but I figured with the Super Bowl coming up in a few weeks I should give you some recipes you might use for the big game. A few years back I picked up this great little cookbook called Flavors by Pamela Morgan. I have really enjoyed this book. Pamela makes great desserts, breakfasts, salads, entrees, and even drinks. One of my favorite drinks is her Mango Lemonade. I love to make this drink, add a little fizzy water, and serve it up in margarita glasses rimmed with sugar.(It’s a really great little mock-tail) You could even turn it into a cocktail, like Pamela suggest, by adding vodka or tequila. So here’s the recipe:
Mango Lemonade (from Pamela Morgan’s Flavors)
2 large mangoes, about 2 pounds total
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (from about 6 medium lemons)
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbls. sugar
Fresh mint sprigs, as optional garnish
Peel, pit, an chop the mangoes. In a food processor, puree the mango, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the work bowl. There should be about 2 cups puree.
In a pitcher, combine the mango puree, water, lemon juice and sugar: stir well to dissolve. Cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 5 hours and preferably overnight.
Taste and add additional sugar if desired. Pour the lemonade over ice in tall glasses. Garnish with mint if desired and serve immediately. Makes 7 cups - serves 4 to 6.
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