Get Thee to the Picklery

I thought I was making that word up, but no, a Picklery is a real thing! And yes, by real thing I mean a small business that, in spite of all efforts to induce profitability will only rise to prominence (The Prominent Pickle! I've named my Picklery!) as an cautionary tale told to cocksure entrepreneurs: "Yes, but Great Aunt Katie also took Econ 101 and that didn't prevent her from becoming homeless following the inevitable dissolution of The Prominent Pickle."

Anyhoo, I was at the farmers market last weekend and they had gorgeous Kirby cukes so I came home, settled on a recipe from Food and Wine, doctoring it just slightly to use Apple Cider Vinegar, and made us some fine pickles. The following day I used the same recipe with haricots verts and carrots, both equally delightful. And yes, Virginia, they do need to be haricots, not your garden variety green bean. For one, les haricots fit perfectly into a pint sized jar. Two, it's like getting all long things in Tetris - they fit together snugly with, like, no wasted space.

This week I was back at the market, and spent the afternoon cleaning and trimming haricots, carrots and pickles.

Here's that recipe:

Quick Spicy Pickles
Print recipe only here

YOU WILL NEED
Stuff to pickle:
4-5 Kirby cucumbers, washed and quartered
8 oz haricots verts, cleaned (I like leaving the tails)
7 carrots, peeled, washed, quartered and trimmed to fit pint jars
1 quart sized canning jar
2 pint sized canning jars

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup white vinegar
3 T Kosher salt
2 T white sugar
2 T coriander seeds
2 cups water
2-3 red chilis, washed and halved
7-8 garlic cloves, smashed gently
10-12 dill sprigs, rinsed and trimmed

METHOD
Combine vinegars, sugar and salt and place in sun to heat until sugar and salt dissolve.
Prep and trim all veg.
Place one red chili half into each jar. More if you really want to feel the heat.
Add 2-3 cloves garlic to the Quart jar and 1-2 cloves to each pint jar
Add coriander seeds to vinegar and stir
Pack veggies into jars
Pour vinegar over veg until covers completely
Cover and refrigerate 24 hours.

Note: the carrots take 48 hours to be good.

Keeps up to one month.

Read Full Post

My Kind of Bar

There are several wonderful things about Sundays. One is having time to cook a few things for the week. The other is The Good Wife, a show that ensnared me with its legalese and fantastic supporting cast. Elsbeth Tascoini! Meryl Streep's doppleganger daughter! That dude who ended up on Downton Abbey! Eli Farking Gold! They resurrected Denny from Shondaland to smile his Denny smile at Alicia and Kalinda made thigh high boots workplace appropriate. The only possible upside of the series coming to an end is that Logan Huntzberger will be have time off to visit Stars Hollow.

Anyhoo, during the week I have to be very organized in order to eat and cook well, and so Sundays usually involve a fair amount of gathering and prepping. I've been trying to eat smaller meals  - and more of them. Since I cannot possible prepare that many meals in day I wind up turning to the Kind bar 1-2 times a week to fill in as a mini meal.  I'm a big fan of the Kind bar, especially their line of 5g of sugar ones. But I had a sneaking suspicion I could create my own without too much effort. So today I did.

I used the recipe creator at Livestrong to try and get the bars to be in line with the nutrition on a standard Kind bar and got pretty close. In my sophomore effort I intend to try to boost the protein. You can add other ingredients as you like. I think pumpkin seeds would be a nice addition.

Here's that recipe:

Pinch Bar
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats
3/4 cup whole raw almonds
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup unsweetened flake coconut
1/4 cup dried sour cherries, chopped
2 T bittersweet chocolate chips, chopped
4 T natural peanut butter
3 T honey

METHOD
Preheat over to 350. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving several inches overhanging on the sides.

On one baking pan, place the almonds and toast for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and reserve until cooled.

On a separate pan, toss the oats, coconut, and sunflower seeds for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

In a small saucepan over low heat, stir the peanut butter and honey together until it softens and is smooth.

Roughly chop the sour cherries and chocolate chips and transfer to a medium sized mixing bowl.
Roughly chop the almonds, leaving them mostly whole. Add all dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and toss to combine. Add the peanut butter mixture and stir well to combine. Press the mixture into the prepared pan, using a glass or bottom of a measuring cup to pack it down well. Refrigerate about 15-30 minutes. Remove from fridge and cut into 16 bars. Store covered in fridge for several weeks.

Read Full Post

Not Quite Winging It

I was a terrible waitress. It's due to the same reasons why I'd have made a terrible line cook: I don't work well under pressure. I like to show up early and methodically work through my list. Pastry always suited me well in that regard. Cooks in the sweet kitchen show up early and work until the line cooks gradually take over all your counter space, usually around 3pm. Jockeying for work space is an everyday battle in professional kitchens. It's common occurrence to step away from your station for a moment and return to find your neighbor has casually installed half his mise en place right up against your cutting board (cutting boards being the mark of territory on the line, and respecting a 3-inch easement around your neighbor's cutting board is just common courtesy).

I'm thinking about waitressing because earlier I called up my memory of how the cooks at Rockwell's used to make Buffalo sauce for wings. Rockwell's was a strip mall, casual dining place in the same vein as Chotchkie's, a/k/a the place where Jennifer Anniston worked in Office Space. Rockwell's produced mainstream American junk meals (wings, hamburgers, fries, salad with creamy dressing, pasta with creamy sauce, that kind of stuff). I worked there the summer after I graduated college, and thank goodness, since I am going to make chicken wings this weekend, and I want them to be as awesome as the ones they made there.

I had Buffalo wings for the first time - thankfully! - in Buffalo, NY, the city from which they originated. I was there in high school with a few friends and a teacher for a student government conference or something. All I remember from that weekend was the thrill of flying somewhere with friends, and the dive bar where Mr. Jones took us for wings. Oh, and we played Name that Tune in the rental car, and the freshman kicked everyone's butt. I remember that too.

My estimation of what makes wings so perfectly delicious is that 1) they are fried, and 2) they are subsequently slathered in butter. I didn't want to deep fry them for two reasons: 1) hello, totally unhealthy and 2) I don't have the right pan. That left broiling as the only option. This is what you do to prep the wings:

Step 1: Preheat broiler
Step 2: Cut the wings into three parts, discarding the wing tips
Step 3: Toss the wings with 1-2 tablespoons canola oil and transfer to a baking sheet
Step 4: Broil 6 min on each side, turning them midway
Step 5: Mix together The Sauce
Step 6: Toss the broiled wings in the sauce. Serve with celery and blue cheese dressing

To come up with the recipe for The Sauce, I jogged my memory of what the cooks did at Rockwell's. One of the guys showed me how he made the giant pot of sauce. It involved many, many bottles of Tabasco and Frank's Red Hot, and pounds of butter. To reproduce the recipe, I determined the ratio of the two hot sauces by the bottle size: the bottle of Tabasco is 5 ounces and the bottle of Franks's is 12 ounces. The restaurant was using industrial sized bottles, but the Frank's bottles were definitely bigger. I settled on a 2:1 ratio of Frank's to Tabasco and really like the flavor.  Here's that recipe:

Pinch Buffalo Wing Sauce
Print recipe only here

Generously sauces one dozen whole wings (24 pieces once the wings are cut)

INGREDIENTS
12 whole chicken wings (you will cut them)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt **reduce the salt to a pinch if using salted butter**
2 tablespoons Tabasco
1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot

METHOD
Add all the ingredients to a small pot and swirl over a low to medium heat just until the butter is melted. Toss with the broiled wings once cooked through, or on top of anything you want.

Read Full Post

Yes, Virginia, There is a Way to Make Kettle Corn Without Burning the Sugar

I don't want to spoil any surprises, so I can't reveal much about what's coming out of the Pinch kitchen this holiday season. I haven't made too many cookies yet - just a batch of apricot Rugelach. I've had a hankering for those Coconut Macaroons and suspect those will get turned out soon. The younger bakers are trying to master Tara's 3D Christmas Tree Cookies and the French classic, Buche du Noel. We made a gorgeous buche several years ago - meringue mushrooms and all - and I don't seem to have captured a photo.

What I can tell you is that we've revamped the kettle corn recipe to make it completely fool proof and way tastier. Making kettle corn is tricky because recipes generally advise you to pop the corn in sugar and sugar likes to burn at high temps. It's difficult to keep the temp high enough to pop all the kernels and low enough to keep the sugar from caramelizing. Several years ago, while standing in line at Garrett's Popcorn, I watched as the popcorn monkey tossed plain popcorn with caramel and tucked the idea away. A few weeks ago I tried out different methods of adding the sugar to already popped corn to come up with the best result. Here it is:

New and Improved Kettle Corn
Print recipe only here

Serves 1 to 4, depending on degree of self-discipline

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
3 T canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 T water
1 t salt (or salt to taste)

METHOD
Set out a serving bowl and oven mitts. Measure sugar and water into a small saucepan. Warm over medium high heat, swirling until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Turn off heat and reserve.

Set a large stainless steel pot - one you have a cover for - over a medium high flame and add the canola oil. After a minute, add the popcorn kernels and cover. Once the popcorn is popping vigorously, lower heat slightly and stay close. As soon as the popcorn has finished popping, lift the cover and quickly pour the sugar syrup over the popcorn. Working quickly, replace the cover and pick up the entire pot, and shake to distribute the syrup, taking care to keep the cover in place. You could also try to stir the sugar syrup in, but I find this method tends to break up the popcorn.

Pour the coated corn into your serving bowl and add salt. Serve and enjoy!

Read Full Post

Scrumptious Homemade Caramel Apples

I am a big fan of caramel. As a kid I had a love-hate relationship with Wrapples, the discs of caramel that are meant to be wrapped around your apple. They're really hard to get right, and the caramel is not even all that good. I loved the idea but hated how it was impossible to produce a gorgeous caramel apple with them.

Many of you have made caramel apples with those Kraft caramels. My memory of those is the labor involved in unwrapping all those little squares. And Kraft caramel is not the tastiest - nothing like a Werther's or a Sugar Daddy. Mmmm. Sugar Daddies have sweetened many a road trip. They last for miles!

This year I decided to do things the right way and I made a potful of glossy caramel for my daughter's halloween party. Well, I made it twice to get it exactly right, but it was really pretty easy. Honestly, the hardest part was the sticks. I used wooden dowels leftover from my wedding cake making days (dowels support the layers). I cut them down to size and sharpened them. You need something longer and sturdier than your average popsicle stick. Maybe a craft store sells something suitable. Anyhoo, here's that recipe:

Caramel Apples
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
10 Granny Smith apples
1 cup butter
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
14 ounces (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
decorative toppings

METHOD
Insert wooden sticks through the tops of the apples so that the stick is about 3/4 the way in the apple. Set on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk in sauce pan over medium high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for about 25 minutes*. Keep close by after about 20 minutes so that it doesn't start to burn. When the caramel looks dark and thick, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Allow to cool slightly. (You can also do this part in advance and pick up the dipping later in the day. When you resume for dipping, just gently reheat the caramel, adding a tablespoon of water at a time if it's too thick.)

Dip the apples into the caramel at an angle, rotating them to coat the entire apple. Lift the apple to let the caramel drip off of the bottom, scraping excess off the bottom of the apple back into the pot.

Line the apples up on a greased wax paper. If desired, decorate the apples with sprinkles, nuts, or other toppings before they dry completely. If you want to put them in candy bags you will need to let them sit and air dry for about 30-45 minutes.


* UPDATE: If you have a candy thermometer, use it and let the caramel cool until it reaches 235 or so, then remove from heat.

Read Full Post

The Thing I'd Be Most Embarrassed to Serve You

I've been making these silly things once or twice a year for like 10 years. It's basically a food-based rice crispy treat, made with peanut butter (the food part), sugar (the treat part) and a combination of crispy rice and corn flakes (the crispy part). Essentially, it's like making your own chewy cereal bar, with enough peanut butter to hold you over until your next meal. I'm sort of surprised we haven't outgrown them.

Quick sidebar:  sometimes when I type C-R-I-S-P-Y there's a typo and it comes out C-R-I-P-S-Y, which sounds  like the sort of like a disease you might hear about on Downton Abbey:

COUSIN ISOBEL
The Cripsy will surely kill him if we don't act soon.

DOWAGER COUNTESS
Cripsy? From the look of things, the gentleman has broken his neck and is already dead.

Anyhoo, I don't make these sweet little snacks unless we're going somewhere. I used to make them for our spring thaw camping trips to Moab. We'd go every year for a few days when the ground in Telluride still had a couple of feet of snow and the temps in Moab were a pleasant 70 to 80. Peanut Butter Smackerels are totally pedestrian, but make for an excellent little hold-over snack. Here they are:

Peanut Butter Smackerels
Print recipe only here

Makes 4-5 dozen one-inch square pieces

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups unprocessed peanut butter*
2 cups crisp rice cereal
4 cups corn flakes
2 t vanilla
pinch salt

METHOD
In a medium-large mixing bowl, combine cereals and salt. Crunch and smash with your hands so the flakes are broken down into smaller pieces.

In a a medium saucepan, combine sugar and corn syrup. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat and add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir well to combine. Pour over cereals and stir.

Transfer to the prepared baking pan and press down, using a piece of waxed or parchment paper, to distribute evenly. Refrigerate or let cool at room temperature for an hour or so. Turn out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch wide strips. Cut into one-inch squares. Can be stored in a ziploc bag or covered container at room temperature, or in the fridge, but they're really hard to chew when cold.


* If you use a processed PB (Jif, Skippy, etc) make sure to cut the amount of sugar in half, down to 1/4 cup.

Read Full Post

Things You Like if You Like Sugar: Caramel Corn

We have dinked around with various recipes for Caramel Corn over the years, mostly in an effort to reduce the amount of butter that goes into the caramel. And therein lies the rub: caramel is sugar and butter. You cannot so much reduce it. This is how I ended up becoming a fan of kettle corn:  you get the sweet and salty and no butter.

Anyway,  I decided yesterday was the right time to try a David Lebovitz recipe for Caramel Corn. It was that witching hour of late afternoon (otherwise known as tea time) when the weary, the down-trodden, those with hope but not expectation, circle the kitchen in earnest pursuit of a little smackerel of something.

There has arisen a demand for transparency regarding food prepared in-house. The table where my children convene to complete homework and assault one another over rights to the laptop is right outside the kitchen. When I pass them to enter the kitchen they turn on me (I'm sure I'm not the first mom to honestly appreciate being ganged up on since it affords my children the rare moment to side with one another) with questions, then complaints, about what I'm intending to cook. Yesterday was different. When "Caramel Corn" was announced there was a moment where Likelihood of Truth was considered, then a scramble of chairs and legs to be on hand to help.

This Caramel Corn was pretty much wonderful, and one step removed from a recipe I posted a couple of years ago.  We followed DL's directions verbatim for the syrup but parted with him on popcorn popping method. We make a lot of popcorn and take the advice of no man on how to pop it.  One thing I'm looking forward to this summer is figuring out the best way to dry an ear of corn. We were splurging on dried ears at the Green City Market once in a while last summer. At home, we'd stick one in a paper lunch bag in the microwave where, after a few minutes of zapping, it would produce a small mountain of popped corn - way more than I would assume was a single serving and yet how could one ear of corn not be a single serving?

Caramel Corn 
Adapted from David Lebovitz (who adapted it from Epicurious)

YOU WILL NEED
A candy thermometer

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter
1½ cups packed brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
OPTIONAL: 1 cup salted peanuts, or toasted almonds, pecans, or cashews.

METHOD
Add oil and popcorn kernels to a large pot and set over medium high heat. When the kernels start to pop, lower the heat a bit and stay close. It will take about 3-4 minutes for all the kernels to pop. Listen for when popping slows down, then turn off the flame. Remove from heat and uncover. Transfer to a large bowl.

Alternately, skip all that and pop 1/2 cup kernels in an air popper.

Spray a large mixing spoon and baking sheet with baking release or coat with butter. Set aside.

Melt butter in a 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt and stir to combine. Set a candy thermometer inside the pot. Bring to a boil and allow to boil without stirring until syrup registers 300 degrees F on thermometer, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat.

Using a wooden spoon or a heatproof spatula, stir vanilla and baking soda into the syrup, then quickly pour over popcorn in the mixing bowl. Gently toss the popcorn with the buttered spoon until it is evenly coated.

Transfer to the sheet pan and allow to cool.

Here you have a choice: While still warm, form into popcorn balls. Or, allow to cool completely, then break into small clumps.

Read Full Post

Aequalitate, Veritas et Citrus

The beginning of the citrus season is one of my favorite things about the tide between Thanksgiving and trimming the Christmas tree. Some people like to move from one holiday right to the next. I prefer when time moves more slowly. Sure, we bring out the advent calendar and some greens for our planters outside, but we've also set out in-shell nuts and big bowls of Cuties or satsumas. The dark afternoons are a lovely time for candles and jazz. In the ten days before Christmas and for the twelve days post we are pretty festive. But for now it's more about the pure change of season.

Citrus are not created equal. The individual varieties have not gotten the marketing blitz or branding that the apple enjoys. More than that though, it's the supply of sub-par citrus that surprises me. A generic clementine (and most tangerines) generally amounts to a sour mouthful of pulp waiting to sit stagnant in your gut and make you bloated. To be fair, even a perfect Cutie clementine will act similarly but will first skip merrily down your throat and make you forget all your troubles for at least five minutes post-mastication. Even the lowly lemon can disappoint, especially when you were counting on one to be juicy but the whole weight of it was in the skin.

Some citrus truths:

1. A good satsuma is hard to come by in Chicago. I used to get great ones when we lived in the Pacific Northwest. Not so much anymore. Whole Foods has them sometimes but they're not dependably excellent.
2. Cuties are the best clementine. Nothing Compares 2 Cuties.
3. Florida should stop sending forth its nasty grapefruit. They could use the the crop for bocce.
4. Ruby Red grapefruit from Texas is the only grapefruit worth eating. Last year the best foodie gift of Christmas (or perhaps tied with the case of Dave's Albacore Tuna) was a generous box of deep red Rubies from Bell's Farm. They were just perfect.
5. What's the best way to pick citrus? Weight and smell. Generally, it's heft you're looking for. A higher water weight generally means a more succulent piece of fruit. Get comfortable smelling your produce. If it smells delicious it's not going to disappoint. If it smells bland move on.


Finally, don't let another winter pass you by without trying something new. Not sure what to do with a Blood orange or a Meyer lemon? Start simply: Squeeze blood oranges and serve the juice or make a cocktail. Make a Meyer lemon curd and serve alongside a simple cake. It's citrus season! Enjoy it.

Read Full Post

Nuts!

Thanksgiving is nigh and I am bound for the nuthouse. Nuts are a fabulous snack. Throughout the winter we keep a supply of in-shell nuts in a pewter bowl, along with a small fleet of nutcrackers. I'm still a little twitchy about the hand-pinching metal nutcrackers that tormented me during my youth. The perennial favorite remains the olive wood screw-type model I tucked in my younger daughter's stocking one year.

The nuthouse is, in this case, Treasure Island or Whole foods, where I can purchase in-shell nuts in bulk bins, not bags. Bulk is preferable to bags because I like to control the number of Brazil nuts that go into the mix. Brazil nuts are cool to look at but they are super fatty and really hard to crack. They taste a lot like an over-sized macadamia nut. They actually have less total fat than the macadamia but the breakdown of fats is less favorable in the Brazil. Where 3.5 ounces of macadamias have 74 total fat grams, 10 of those grams are saturated, 60 are monounsaturated and 4 are polyunsaturated. The same weight of Brazil nuts has 66 grams of fat, about 17 of which are saturated, 27 of which are monounsaturated and 22 are polyunsaturated.

I mention fat math because sometimes people think that just because something grows on a tree it's a good idea to shovel it down the gullet. 10 grams of saturated fat is the very low end of a daily limit for many people, so macadamias are probably sort of a health hazard, even with their glorious ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat. The thing with nuts is to not go overboard. Really. Keep it to a few at a time. This is why the in-shell variety is so great - all that cracking and hand-pinching slows you down.

In-shell nuts are a winter tradition I'll never break. For parties or gatherings where a cocktail assortment is just the thing I have a new recipe.  I made bowls of roasted nuts for a party this summer and stashed them around like a 50s housewife would stash ashtrays. They were an enormous hit. I adapted a recipe from the ever-reliable Martha Stewart's Hors D'oevres Handbook. This is what I did:

Cocktail Roasted Nuts
Makes 3 cups

INGREDIENTS
1 cup each raw almonds, cashews and pecan halves
2 t canola oil
2 t kosher salt
1 T packed brown sugar, or maple sugar
1/8  t cayenne

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350. Place nuts in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast for 6-8 minutes or until fragrant.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the remaining ingredients. When the nuts are done roasting, add them the bowl and toss to coat. Allow to cool briefly before adding to serving bowls. They are great warm. Reheat if you like for about 5 minutes at 300.

Read Full Post

We have no bananas today

I made banana muffins today for the first time in a long time. Muffins get made when we have spotty nanas, the super sweet freckled ones. In our local banana republic we eat bananas the minute they are ripe, and sometimes a day earlier. We've been on a banana kick lately, consuming them as soon as they come into the house. And so, no muffins.

I am a big fan of the banana and most of its kinfolk. In fact the only banana I ever met that I disliked was the Runts banana.  A box of Runts has way too many bananas in it, contributing to the candy's poor scores in public recognition and approval. But we were talking about the muffins...

Oh! One more thing. I heard this very interesting/slightly alarmist report on NPR about how the global supply of bananas could go kaput in the not-too-distant future. The reason: some kind of a banana-eating disease is lumbering through Southeast Asia and Australia snacking on the very type of bananas - Cavendish - that are imported to the rest of the world. I was probably supposed to get all fired up over this news, but I'm going to take sides with science and capitalism here. Bananas are the #1 selling fruit in the US. Someone will figure out something to meet that demand.

Back to the muffins. I used to make these with whole wheat flour but they were just not as light or scrumptious. Now I use a combination of organic all purpose flour and wheat germ. Here's that recipe:

Banana Muffins
Print recipe only here

Makes one dozen muffins

INGREDIENTS
3 bananas
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1/4 c wheat germ
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup toasted pecans

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 (or 300 convection). Lightly spray a muffin tin with baking release. If you plan to add pecans, toast them in the preheated oven for about 5 minutes, then cool.

In a medium to large mixing bowl (or bowl of stand mixer) mash the bananas. Add yogurt, eggs, sugar, oil and extract and mix well to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt. Whisk well to combine. Add to the wet ingredients and mix gently until just combined. Roughly chop the pecans and add them to the batter.

Scoop into the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the sides of the muffins pull away from the pan, the tops are golden and firm. Cool slightly. Store in a covered container at room temperature.

Further nonsense: Go Bananas!

Read Full Post

Best Baked Chips

The resident females in my house just plain like to nibble. This behavior is mitigated through rules governing acceptable hours of engagement (not prior to 11am; not in the hour preceding any anticipated meal; not after dinner; not when we might incur a lecture from the resident Snack Policeman).

Snacks fall into two categories: sweet or salty. We are currently in possession of a dwindling supply that began with no less than 14 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. (Some, to be fair, will be gifted to a lucky relative with a March birthday.) I don't take it for granted that we have been lucky enough to elude the diseases - cancer, obesity, diabetes - that preclude cookie noshing. You can't do much to a cookie to make it healthier and still taste like like something you'd care to consume. But chips differ in this regard. And awhile back that determined I would only purchase baked chips.

Not long ago most baked chips were akin to munching a thin salty bit of nothing. Flavor was indicated on the package but not so much contained within. But chips have improved. Trader Joe's makes a remarkably good baked tortilla chip. Ditto for their Baked Salt and Vinegar chips (which may or may not be produced on the same line as Kettle Chips Baked Salt and Vinegar potato chips, which are equally good and often available at TJ and regularly at Whole Foods). But our all time fave is presently WF's 365 house brand of Sour Cream and Onion baked potato chips. They are super yum. I've been tucking them into my daughter's lunch boxes in those waxed paper bags I didn't invent fast enough. The BBQ ones are pretty good, too. But we like the SC&O ones better.

The simple fact is that while cookies might make the world a better place, chips are a second class snack. Love them, I do, but they usually contain far too much salt and a unhealthy dose of overheated, overused oil. It's really the overusing of the oil that gets me. And you're not going to suffer that when eating baked chips. If you purchase chips, consider replacing them with any of these.

Read Full Post

The Trick to Making Crisp Caramel Corn

Popcorn has been a favorite afterschool snack since I was a kid. It might be the first thing I learned to cook. We had an old aluminum pot, probably about 2 quart capacity. I knew precisely how much oil to add to the pot without measuring it, and how many kernels should cover the bottom of the pot to ensure that when most of the kernels were popped the cover would lift off the pot, floating like a crowd surfer over an inch or two of popcorn.
(Learn steps, tips, and warnings for crowd surfing.)

In my own kitchen I have a dedicated popcorn pot. It’s huge - like 10 quart capacity. I was probably hungry when I bought it. To serve regular, salted popcorn to my popcorn-loving family of four, I cover the bottom of the pot with canola oil, heat it over medium-high heat for a minute or so, then add 1 cup of kernels. Cover and let nature run its course. When popping slows, remove the lid quickly (moisture and excess oil from the popped corn will have accumulated on the lid), dump the popcorn into a big bowl and salt generously. Kurt recommends Morton’s popcorn salt - a finer salt. I have some but still kinda prefer my salt-shaker of Redmond Real Salt.

Caramel corn is a different bird. When I was a kid we made it every once in a while, using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking, molasses and butter. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but nothing to write home about. When my daughter was researching Cracker Jack, which made its debut at Chicago’s first World’s Fair in 1893, we made a batch from a recipe another parent found online. This one called for brown sugar instead of molasses (an improvement, to be sure). It was better than both regular Cracker Jack and my childhood version. What made it better than Cracker Jack was the butter, and what made it better than the Joy of Cooking recipe, in addition to the molasses/brown sugar substitution, was that after sousing the corn with caramel, you bake it on a sheetpan in the oven. The final result was crispier and snappier. And it’s good for a few days, if you can keep your mitts off it that long.


Caramel Corn
Print recipe only here

YOU WILL NEED
Popcorn
Candy thermometer
Sheet pan

INGREDIENTS
2 T canola oil
½ cup popcorn kernels
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon baking soda

METHOD
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add popcorn. Shake pan occasionally as corn pops. Keep over the heat until popping slows down.

Empty popped corn into a large bowl. Add salt and flip to distribute evenly. Transfer to a baking sheet.

Heat oven to 250.

Partially melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add brown sugar, corn syrup and baking soda and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until mixture reaches 235 on a candy thermometer, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over popcorn, stirring with a heat-resistant spatula or buttered spoon. Work quickly to spread it evenly.

Bake popcorn for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes to continue coating uniformly. Remove pan from oven; cool on a wire rack or a cool cook top. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then break apart any clumps of popcorn using your hands or two teaspoons.

Still hungry? Try Kettle Corn!

Read Full Post

What I'm Excited to Eat This Week

Photo courtesy Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

It's not tuna fish...

I'm surly about tuna right now. It's something of a staple in our home. It's something of a staple when we travel. When we were abroad last summer I took along one of those jazzy neoprene lunch totes so we could picnic. I love picnicking, especially when travelling. For one, eating out gets tiresome. Two, checking out local food markets is fun tourism. Three, sitting in a park in the shade or sun - and the inevitable short siesta that follows - is awesome.

We enjoyed several memorable picnics last summer. Gyros in Hyde Park, boulangerie baguettes at Place de Vosges, proscuitto cotto, olives and ciabatta in Corniglia. Almost every other lunch featured small cans of solid tuna packed in olive oil. It was something of a revelation, and very easy picnic food. Simply drain the oil and eat. The oil softened the tuna much the way mayo would were we preparing it at home. Trouble is, I got hooked on it and had not been able to source a comparable product stateside.

Sure, there's a $6 can at Whole Foods, but that's not what I'm looking for. Our summer tuna was a pretty generic item. Coop, the Italian super-coop grocery store, carries it under their own label.

I've got tuna on the brain because last week I was preparing for a dinner party and made stops at all my favorite grocers, checking the canned isle just one more time. Nothing. The only thing that came close was at Treasure Island, but we already tried it and it wasn't the same.

Thanks to an email alert from the NY Times, I've got something to be excited about this week. It's pickles. The kind only I - in my house - love. They're more like cucumber than pickle, with no dill and a short marinating time. I can't be sure they'll be as good as the ones at Wild Ginger in Seattle, but they do look promising, don't they?

Wanna try them too? Check out the recipe for Quick Sweet and Sour Cucumber Pickles here.

Read Full Post

Candied Pecans for Fall Salads and, Let's Be Honest, Snacking

I'm spending a cool, quiet fall afternoon with a cup of tea (Irish Breakfast, plus a splash of milk and honey), a candle (Autumn Promanade), and a oven filled with pecans. If the calendar or weather report doesn't herald autumn's advent then the scents in my kitchen surely do.

I had to pay attention as I mixed the magic elixer for my pecans - I usually just pour in a little of this and a splash of that. If you've never made them before, I recommend that technique - just use my recipe as a guideline. These are really nice with a little kick - hence the cayenne. If you don't believe me, then just add the tiniest pinch. It'll still be a nice seasoning and you won't get any heat.

You can store them in an airtight container for up to a month, I would think. They are so tasty that they never last that long. They are truly delightful scattered on fall salads, especially the Pinch House Salad with pear and Gorgonzola, and the Warm Goat Cheese on Mixed Greens.

Candied Pecans
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
2 cups pecan halves
3-4 T maple syrup
2 t canola oil
1/4 t cinnamon
pinch kosher salt
pinch cayenne (I like a generous pinch!)

METHOD
Preheat oven to 275.

Combine syrup, oil and spices in a small mixing bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Add pecans and, using a flexible spatula, toss well to coat. Use the spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so that the syrup coats the nuts and not the bowl.

Transfer to a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes, stirring a few times during roasting time.

Let cool completely, then transfer to an airtight glass storage container.

Read Full Post

Oh, joy! I got a new woodpecker for my camera!

Rosemary Raisin Bread, pictured above, is a winter favorite of mine. We used to make it at Campagne for service in the Cafe. We served it toasted with apricot jam, which I still enjoy. I'm partial to Bonne Maman preserves. The goods are great and the empty jars are useful around the kitchen. One lives near my stovetop as a kosher salt cellar.

I often gift these loaves at Christmastime, usually with a pot of preserves too. The loaf above made it out to New York, stashed in my checked baggage alongside three dense chocolate tortes for my dad's birthday party. Good thing TSA didn't get the munchies.

A special thanks to Grandma Doris for noticing some missing information on the recipe. How cool that my Grandma not only reads my blog, but cooks from it?!? I added baking times to the recipe link for clarification.

I'm back home now, psyched to play with my new camera and make another round of Christmas cookies. Christmas baking was limited this year because I got strep throat right before Christmas. Upside of getting strep throat: made me feel like a kid again. A whiny, feeling oh-so-sorry-for-herself because she had to miss the cookie exchanges and Third Annual Peninsula Chocolate Bar Extravaganza, kind of kid, but a kid just the same.

Anyway, home, psyched and strep-free, I'm also really looking forward to overusing my annual Trading Places greeting of Happy New Year! over the next few days. Hope yours is especially merry.

Read Full Post

Nuts: The holiday slow food

The New York Times sort of beat me to it on this post. I scribbled a post on nuts in early December and forgot about it until reading this.

Ah well.

My take on nuts goes more with the gorgeous photo they ran, shown here at left (now is a good time to credit the photo to Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times). But where the Times delved into the health benefits of nuts, my thoughts were on the old world/slow food beauty of the nut still in its shell.

We always have nuts around. Of the already-been-shelled variety, almonds, plain and smoked, and peanuts (GORP is a favorite household snack) are in steady supply. There's always a small tin of nuts in my glove box. A handful of nuts has gotten my children (by “my children” I mean me) through many an episode of food anxiety.*

In the summer we eat a lot of peanuts in the shell - either at Wrigley or at home watching the game on WGN. Sunflower seeds, also in the shell, are a summer snack when we’re camping or on a road trip. But it’s the holiday nuts that I get really excited about. Each year, right around November 1, I pull down a pewter challis from its perch on the shelf above my cookbooks and fill it with mixed nuts - walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, and brazil nuts - all in their pretty shells. We have a growing fleet of nutcrackers. My favorite is a wooden screw turning one that I got my daughter out of a Montessori catalog.

Maybe it’s the excitement of the season, but something about cracking my own nuts and enjoying no more than five or six of them in one sitting makes for a delightful seasonal tradition. And this is what slow food is really all about - slowing down, enjoying our food more. It’s not about munching a handful of nuts between frenzied errands around town. And yes, by "munching" I meant "shoveling into one's mouth."

Slow down this season. Enjoy your food, whatever it may be.


*food anxiety - [food ang-zahy-i-tee] -noun
1. Distress or psychic tension caused by fear of one’s next meal not coming quickly enough.

Read Full Post

On the Importance of a Freshly Baked Cookie

There is no substitute. Yesterday's cookie is just not worth eating. All the love is lost. The folks at Nestle know this and have addressed it by packaging cookie dough in refrigerated tubs and rolls in supermarkets. All we have to do is take them out of the equation to produce fully homemade cookies (with no preservatives).

It’s elementary, dears. Just make a batch of your favorite cookie dough. Take half the dough and plop it only a long piece of plastic wrap. Wrap it up loosely and roll it into a log. Repeat with remaining cookie dough. I usually refrigerate one log and freeze the other. When you want a cookie, simply slice off a round of dough and bake in a preheated oven. I crank them out in my beloved toaster oven (where baking times are faster) and tuck them into my kids lunches.

Homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Logs
Print recipe only here

YOU WILL NEED:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1 ½ cups AP flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips

METHOD:
Cream butter in mixer with paddle attachment for 3-4 minutes. Add sugars and cream well for about five minutes, scraping bowl a couple of times. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in well between additions. Add vanilla.

Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Add to butter and mix in slowly. Add oats and chocolate chips and mix just to combine.

Form into logs as described above and refrigerate or freeze. Bake for 6-8 minutes in a preheated 350° oven. Remove and cool to room temperature before wrapping or bagging.

Read Full Post

On the Supremacy of Kettle Corn

The first time I ate kettle corn was in Telluride, Colorado. It was at one of the town park concerts, possibly Widespread Panic, the year a monsoon hit about three songs into the first set causing flooding, the ruin of many a Birkenstock, and the cancellation of the show (WP generously entertained everyone with three sets and an encore the following night).

Anyway, the popcorn was awesome - with a perfect sweet and salty crust. I've been tinkering with it at home ever since and have settled on a recipe replicated all over the internets.

We've always had a dedicated popcorn pot (we also have an electric popper but I don't care much for the popcorn it produces). I got our present one at Target, I think. It's just a stainless steel stock pot - about 10 quarts. It's way bigger than we need it to be (look for something around 6 quarts if you decide to become a popcorn fanatic like me) but we REALLY like popcorn. I make regular stove top popcorn with just canola oil and a lot of salt (cover the bottom of the pot with oil, add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of popcorn kernels, pop over medium/medium-high heat, dump into a large serving bowl and douse generously with table salt). But for a better treat, try this:

Kettle Corn
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
* 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 1 t salt

METHOD
Have ready a serving bowl and two oven mitts or potholders. Add the sugar, salt and oil to a large pot (mine is a stainless steel stockpot that is used only for popping corn) and place over medium heat. When the sugar is dissolved (after 2 minutes or so) add the popcorn. When the popcorn begins to pop, begin to shake the pot without stopping until the popping slows (this prevents the sugar from burning). Once the popping has slowed remove from the heat and transfer kettle corn into serving bowl. Enjoy!

Read Full Post

Raspberry Breakfast Bars

It was 89° yesterday in Chicago. It was 44° this morning at 7am. That sad fact, coupled with a return to school following a leisurely long weekend, told me that I needed to show my kids some extra love this morning. They were ecstatic I chose to show it in the form of Raspberry Breakfast Bars.

These lack nutritional value entirely, and are perhaps better suited to a tea time or midday snack. All the same, I often make them in the morning for afternoon consumption only to have half the pan devoured right out of the oven.

You can make these pretty quickly. Having streusel on hand in your freezer definitely helps.


Raspberry Breakfast Bars
Print recipe only here

For the crust:
Preheat oven to 350°

Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with canola spray

Melt:
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter

In a small mixing bowl combine:
• 2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• Pinch salt

Add butter to dry ingredients and stir with a fork to combine.

Press the mixture into the baking pan evenly. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden.

Remove from oven and spread a layer of raspberry jam on the crust (I probably use about ¼ cup or a bit more).

Top with about ½ cup streusel and return to the oven for about 15 minutes or until the jam bubbles up and the streusel is golden brown.

Streusel:
Combine in a mixer with the paddle attachment:
• 1 ¼ cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup oats
• 1 T cinnamon
• ½ t salt
• ½ t nutmeg

Add and mix gently for 2-3 minutes until just combined:
• ¼ cup (½ stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed

To use, press a handful in your palm and squeeze together to form clumps. Scatter clumps over surface of muffins, pies, tarts and the like.

Streusel keeps well in the fridge and in the freezer indefinitely. Be sure that it’s well covered to protect it from absorbing odors.

Read Full Post

Cookie Monster, Yoda, and Afternoon Tea

Big snacker, I am.

I recently stopped eating cookies in the afternoon. This sounds easier than it was. The kids are out of school at about 3:30 and in need of a snack. I had been joining them in a cookie here, a cookie there and was both shocked and appalled to notice I had gained weight. I find this particular balance hard to achieve: life is simultaneously too short to not eat cookies AND too short to have unrest about my appearance (or taken further, to not be in good physical condition). Self-control takes strength, but exercising it makes me stronger. And I’m stronger now than I was a year ago.

Hot tea works like a Jedi mind trick on me. Instead of waiting for Cookie Monster to hop on my shoulder and bellow, “Cookies! Great big cookies, son of gun!” I have a cup of Irish Breakfast tea. A little milk, a little honey, a little caffeine, and that warm slosh of liquid in my belly gets me right through to dinner (assuming I’ve eaten sensibly in the hours preceding).

Afternoon tea is the best thing that came out of the empire. The British Empire, that is. The best thing that came out of the Galactic Empire was Vader’s helmet. Surely Palpatine needs to be fitted for one of those. That dude is not aging gracefully.

Here’s my five favorite supermarket teas:
1. Twinings Irish Breakfast.
2. Tazo Honeybush
3. Sportea. This is made by a Colorado company. It's somewhat unlikely you’ll find it everywhere (so I provided the link).
4. Tazo Zen
5. Tazo China Green

Read Full Post