Thursday, October 21, 2010

Oatmeal Chocolate Pecan Cookies


Because I needed something to snack on while studying, and because I apparently didn't get enough sweets at Thanksgiving, I made these amazing cookies.


Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2 cups chopped pecans
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest (optional)
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment. Beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about three minutes. Stir in eggs, one at a time.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips.

Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

More Squash


I love squash, but I don't like it sweetened and I don't like it cooked down into mush. Happily this recipe is neither of those things: it's spicy and tangy, and the roasting gives it a nice crisp edge. Delicious.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Chile-Lime Vinaigrette
I halved the original recipe and made some adjustments. This will make 2-4 side servings, depending on how big you think a serving is.

1 (1 1/2 – to 1 3/4-lb) acorn squash
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 450°F. Halve squash lengthwise, then cut off and discard stem ends. Scoop out seeds and cut squash lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide wedges. Toss squash with black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon oil in a bowl, then arrange, cut sides down, in 2 large shallow baking pans. Roast squash, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until squash is tender and undersides of wedges are golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes.

While squash roasts, mince garlic and mash to a paste with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Whisk in lime juice, jalapeno (to taste), cilantro, and remaining 2 tbsp oil until combined. Transfer squash, browned sides up, to a platter and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Homemade Pizza


This pizza is so easy and so good, I may never bother ordering in again. I can't wait to try this crust with other toppings (spinach, ricotta and red peppers, anyone?)

Really Simple Pizza Dough
Makes enough for one medium thin crust pizza. Double it if you like your pizza thick and bready.

1 1/2 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball. Knead it for just a minute or two.

Lightly oil the bowl, put the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap or a towel and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.

Dump it back on the floured counter and gently press the air out of the dough. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under the plastic wrap or towel for 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature. Roll out the pizza, toss on whatever topping and seasonings you like and bake.

Onion Pizza
I didn't use onion jam because I didn't have any, but i will definitely make the effort to go pick some up next time. Not only does it sound like the most delicious thing ever, but I bet it would help to stick the toppings on a little better, too.

1 fresh pizza dough
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used Gouda)
5-6 fresh sage leaves (I used about 1/4-1/2 tsp ground)
1/4-1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved or quartered
1-2 tablespoons onion marmalade
Salt and pepper to taste

Roll out the dough fairly thin and put it on a pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover the dough with cheese, spread the onion all over, dribble some cream over it, season it with salt and pepper then toss on the olives, sage and some globs of onion jam.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes at 450ºF.

Pumpkin-Orange Bread

I'm back! Although I may have seemed to disappear off the face of the earth these past few weeks, exams are done now and I have the time to tell you all about the delicious things I've been making. Starting with this pumpkin bread:

This was one of the most aggravating recipes I have ever made, mostly because it was in metric and I don't have a scale, so I had to use the internet to convert all the measurements into cups and spoons. But also because the recipe says that it will make one 9x5 loaf of bread, and as you can see from the picture, it makes a lot more than that. So as I was adding ingredients and watching my biggest bread bowl nearly start to overflow, I was convinced that I had converted incorrectly and was going to end up with a great deal of inedible slop.

Happily when I opened the oven an hour later, I found a delicious moist bread waiting for me inside. The end.

Orange Pumpkin Loaf

1 large orange
125 grams butter (1/2 cup)
445 grams white sugar (2 ¼ cups, or 2 cups packed brown sugar)
3 eggs
410 grams canned pumpkin (I used a large can of pumpkin - possibly 425 ml)
130 ml water (1/2 cup)
415 grams all-purpose flour (3 ¼ cups)
8 grams baking soda (2 tsp)
4 grams baking powder (1 tsp)
8 grams salt (1/2 tsp)
2 grams cinnamon (1 tsp)
2 grams cloves (1 tsp)
100 grams walnuts


Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Grease 3 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Cut a whole orange into wedges and remove seeds. In a food processor or blender, pulse the orange (peel and all) until pur
éed.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the pumpkin, water, and the orange purée. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Stir into batter just until moistened. Mix in nuts. Pour into the prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Corn Salsa

 2 Cups Frozen corn
2 tbsp Seeded minced Jalapeno Chile
1/2 cups Red Bell Pepper, Cut into small dice
2 tsp Cilantro
1/4 cups Red Onion, Cut into small dice
pinch of salt
pinch of ground Black Pepper
1 tomato, seeded cut into medium dice (about 3/4 cups)
1 small can V-8 Juice (about 1/2 cups)



In a dry fry-pan toast the corn over medium heat until lightly browned.
Mix the corn with all the other ingredients in a small bowl. Hold at room temperature for at least an hour before serving.