Profiteroles at Last!

Some of you may know that I have been suffering for months under the heavy weight of a cream puff.

Chris made these a few months ago and they were perfect. PERFECT. Light, airy, slightly sweet, puffs of air in your mouth. And anything he can do, I can do better, right?

Wrong.

This was followed by three months of experimenting and three months of hockey pucks. Flat, nasty discs of dough that refused to puff up no matter what. I blamed the recipe. I blamed the oven. I blamed the lack of fresh eggs and creamery butter. But at the end of the day, I had only myself to blame.

Last Sunday, I took my last try and behold - perfection. The key here is NO SHENANIGANS - follow Martha Stewart's exact instructions or prepare the backyard ice rink for action. Even Julia Child's recipe for these falls flat. I wish you luck.

Profiteroles
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food
This is for two people - makes about 6-7 large profiteroles. Recipe doubles/triples easily.

You will need:
1/2 cup water
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 425. Bring water, butter and sugar to a boil. Immediately remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour for two minutes until pulling away from sides of pan and forming a tight glob. *If using a nonstick pan, transfer to a glass/plastic/nonreactive bowl RIGHT NOW. Let cool for two minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely after each addition. This may take another two minutes per egg. Patience, darling. Batter should be sticky and stiff.

Transfer to a folded zip-top bag and zip to close. Cut the corner of one end and pipe puffs onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 mins until puffed and golden brown. Fill with ice cream, lemon curd, whipped cream...what have you!

Et voila!

Dinner Out Tonight: Lisa's Pizzeria

Just to note: some friends and I ate at Lisa's Pizzeria in Tewksbury, MA this Friday. All was well until this horrifying event:

Look closer...THERE'S A STAPLE IN MY SALAD. Tewksbury Board of Health, prepare to swoop in. Gross.

Breakfast This Morning: French Toast Casserole

Exact transcript of a phone conversation my Mom and I had at about 9:30 this morning.

Me: Chris had a rough studying day yesterday so I'm making him a surprise breakfast. You'll never guess what.
Mom: Ooo, what?
Me: Well, I was cruising the Day Old Bake at Market Basket yesterday...
Mom: Oh my goodness did you see the cinnamon swirl brioche?! I just made french toast with it this morning. It was delicious!

You know what they say about apples and trees...I bought the chocolate swirl brioche only because I didn't see the cinnamon until my second pass around the cart. Please note here that my Mom and I live in DIFFERENT STATES. Bizarre that we ended up with the same delicious breakfast!

This is a two-day recipe that requires a bit of advanced planning. It's worth it.


French Toast Casserole
Serves 3-4
Adapted from 'Cover and Bake: Best of Cook's Illustrated.'

1 loaf day-old brioche, french bread, challah, baguette (whatever they have in the Day Old) sliced into 1/2 in slices.
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup half and half
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping:
1/2 stick butter, softened (not melted)
1 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (I used oatmeal because I had no nuts...pecans would be better!)

Heat the oven to 325. Arrange the bread in one layer on a baking sheet and toast for 25 mins until golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x9 baking pan. Layer the dried bread in two layers, packing in the corners.
Whisk the eggs, milk, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla, and spices in a large bowl. Pour evenly over the bread. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap, pressing down for full absorption. Refrigerate 8-24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Combine the butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and nuts with a rubber spatula. Smooth over bread mixture. Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet to avoid a giant mess. Bake until puffed and golden, 55-60 mins. Cool for 10 mins before serving.

Remember...my improvised topping was not so successful. Oatmeal and chocolate chips did not pecans replace. Ye be warned!

Dinner Tonight: Cheeseburger Pie

I have a very clear memory of my mother making something like this when I was very young. I remember it involved beef, corn, and Bisquick. I of course developed a serious craving for this while my mother was away on vacation and incommunicado, so I had to make due with creating my own version:

Filling:
1lb ground beef (85-90%)
Rainbow peppers, sliced*
Onions, sliced*
1 can tomato paste
A few shakes garlic powder and cumin
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Topping:
1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 can corn

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cook and drain beef. Add peppers and onions and cook until soft. Add tomato paste, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Spoon into a round pie plate (Pyrex glass plate is perfect).

In a seperate bowl, combine all topping ingredients and stir until no lumps remain. Pour over beef mixture. Bake 35-40 mins or until topping is browned and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

No pictures to post of this because it's GONE! DELICIOUS! Chris approved!

*I am an obsessive do-aheader. I like to buy discounted produce, bring it home, slice it and freeze it. I always keep bags of sliced green, red, yellow and orange peppers mixed with sliced onions in my freezer. The ratios aren't always equal but it's usually 1/2 of each pepper mixed with 1/2 an onion. Most veggies freeze beautifully - right now I'm sitting on corn, peppers, zucchini/summer squash, and tomatoes. When I'm ready to cook, pull out the bag and go! Weeknight dinner accomplished.

Dinner Tonight: Quesadilla Pie

I figured that while I was posting Pie-Dinner recipes, I'd have to throw this one in. Sometimes Chris gets a look in his eye and I just know...it's Quesadilla Pie night.

You will need:

Filling:
1 12-inch tortilla
A pile of cooked and chopped chicken*
1/4-1/2 cup pepperchini peppers, chopped
1 can corn
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
(Recipe calls for 1 tsp fresh cilantro but I think it tastes like soap.)

Topping:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine all filling ingredients. Place tortilla in greased pie plate. Dump filling mixture on top of tortilla. Combine topping ingredients until they are the consistency of pancake batter. Pour over filling. Bake 25-30 mins until nicely browned.

Serve with hot sauce (Chris) or ketchup (me). Heaven.

* I tend to buy chicken on sale and freeze. I do all sorts of stuff with it. Sometimes if I have to get rid of some, I'll just roast it for about 25 mins in a 400F oven and then store it in the fridge. I chop that up into this recipe, or chicken salad, or tacos...use your imagination. The freezer is your friend!

Dinner Tonight: Beans and Rice!

*Note: I have had the honor of working with students and adults from many cultures that all claim to have 'the best' rice and beans. The recipe below is assigned to no ethnic group, but it is a combination of many recipes that have been sent my way. So thank you to my Puerto Rican, Dominican, Haitian, Carribean, Ethiopian and Colombian influences! This is truly American beans and rice.

Also, remember that Chris and I both HATE onions. If you like more, do it. But gross.

Start by cubing one of the following: a) a link of kielbasa, b) a link of turkey kielbasa, or c) a full package of AlFresco Chipotle Chorizo chicken sausages. Brown meat in a heavy-bottomed dutch oven, about 10 minutes. Remove meat to another plate and pour 1-2 tsp of olive oil into the pan.

Sweat 1 onion and 1 green pepper, chopped fine, in the oil/brown bits. When translucent, add 2 cloves of garlic, smooshed. Brown gently and then add 2 cups chicken broth and a bay leaf (and crushed red pepper to your liking). Bring to a boil and add 1 cup rinsed white rice. Cook rice until tender, 20 minutes.

In the meantime, drain one can red and one can black beans. Stir meat back into rice. Gently fold in beans and pour in enough water to just cover the mixture. Simmer on low as long as you want. It gets better the longer it sits!

Depending on my mood, I serve this either with salad or with cornbread. Choose wisely. This freezes well, too. Chris has a tendency to bring this to work and come home saying, "Everyone wants to know how you make that!" In my opinion, it's all about cooking the onions...gross.

Dinner Tonight: Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Mashed and Peas

Tonight's dinner was Trader Joe's Apple and Cranberry stuffed chicken breasts. Delicious! They also make one that has olives in it that Chris is dying to try, but I hate olives, so he'll just have to keep on wondering.

So, step one is go to the meat section and buy them. Bake for 45 mins in a 400 oven or until they come out to be 155-160 degrees. These are nearly flawless - I keep them on hand for rushed nights like tonight.

On the side, I made a banner meal - mashed potatoes! We almost never have them but I had a real craving tonight. I use 2 medium sized Yukon Gold or Red potatoes, cut in quarters and boiled. Once they are fork tender, I cover the bottom of the pan with milk (or half and half, oink) and a tablespoon sized pat of butter. I let the spuds cook in the milk until the butter melts, then add a tablespoon of sour cream. Salt, pepper, and smoosh 'em up! Delicious. My stepmom also taught me the awesome trick of slowly re-heating cold potatoes with hot milk - something I think is lost on the microwave generation. Works every time!

We had peas as a veggie, and we learned tonight that Penny LOVES peas when I dropped a bunch of them on the floor. Peas, carrots...what else will this dog eat?!

Tomorrow night: Beans and rice! Get pumped!

Dinner Out Tonight: Jimmy's Steer House

We had a tough Monday, and Chris convinced me that we should go out to dinner. After trying to hit up a little local place, only to find it closed on Mondays, we tried a restaurant that I've made fun of many times but never patronized: Jimmy's Steer House.

It bears repeating here that I hate 99% of restaurants. This never fails to drive Chris crazy. He can stroll in anywhere, order a plate of wings and a PBR, and be a happy camper. I, on the other hand, have a bizarre list of requirements for every restaurant that we visit:

1) It shouldn't be a chain.
2) It shouldn't have a 'theme'
3) You shouldn't be embarassed to order off the menu - aka, their entree choices are in English (who speaks Italian or French anymore??) and they aren't named something weird, like Big Bertha Bagarella's Mozzarella Burger.
4) It should have a parking lot. Street parking is unacceptable.
5) It shouldn't have common snacks where people can put their nasty germs - aka popcorn in a giant machine at the front. Gross.

And seriously, that's just five rules. I'm sure there are more. And there are exceptions to all of these rules, of course. I like some chains quite a bit, like All-American Joe's and Not Your Average Joe's (include my love of Trader Joe's and we might be onto something, here). I've asserted in the past that my favorite restaurant of all time is Kelly's Roast Beef. So all my time scoffing at the funny name of 'Jimmy's Steer House' felt well spent, knowing I would never eat there.

Rewind to us, sitting in the parking lot, saying, "Well, it's the only other restaurant besides IHOP that's open." We went in. The ambiance was great, our server was attentive and nice, and the food - the food! Chris had salmon and I had baked stuffed scrod. Both were delicious, and the scrod was stuffed with crabmeat as well as bread crumbs and vegetables. A great night out for two - my apologies to the unfortunately named Jimmy's Steer House. I'll be back.

Dinner Tonight: Chicken Chili

Dinner Tonight...was gross.

Sometimes there are nights when you juuuust have to clean stuff out of the fridge. I did that on Sunday. Basically typed all the things I had to use or lose into the 'ingredients' section of allrecipes.com and came up with this weird chicken chili recipe. But it had five stars! And five star recipes are usually great!

The first issue was that I forgot about it on Monday. Left the slow cooker insert in the fridge, went to work, oops, rotisserie chicken night. Last night, I took the defrosted chicken thighs and covered it in 1.5 jars of salsa and a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes. This morning, I put the slow cooker on Low for 8 hours and went about my day. I came home and dumped a can of corn and a can of red beans into it and let her rip for three hours. I shredded the chicken and thought hey, this might be crazy enough to work.

We topped it with avocado and cheese. It was...okay. Chris kept saying that it tasted like the filling for something and he's probably right. Coming to a burrito near you, my dear.

I do have to admit that I have a natural aversion to salsa, however. So maybe you'd like it?

Dinner Tonight: Short Rib Ragu

As part of my blog facelift plan, I'm starting a 'Dinner Tonight' recipe post section. A few nights a week, I'll post what we had for dinner along with recipes and grocery tips. One of my recent goals has been learning to cook for two and it's actually been disturbingly successful both for our appetites, wallets, and waistlines.

Tonight's menu was Short Rib Ragu with Pappardelle. This recipe started in a popular cooking magazine that I get monthly but as usual I made some changes and doubled the vegetables. The former-jailbird proprieter of this magazine apparently hates to eat her veggies.

This dish is a favorite as it just gets better the longer it sits.

Short Rib Ragu for Two
 You will need: 1 slow cooker, 1.5-2 lbs of beef short ribs (about 3 ribs), 3-4 carrots, 3-4 ribs celery, 1/2 an onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, a 28-oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes, and 1/2 pound of papardelle pasta.

In a heavy saucepan (the kind with sides), heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil until shimmering. Sear short ribs over medium heat, 2-3 minutes per side, until browned on all sides. Remove ribs to slow cooker.

While short ribs are searing, chop carrot, celery and onion in that order if you don't want everything to taste like onions. Place in pan when short ribs are removed. Cook until softened, 10-12 mins, stirring to deglaze. If they start to stick, reduce heat and deglaze with water or a splash of red wine. Add garlic at very end and stir in before adding tomatoes.

Add tomatoes to softened veggie mixture and cook 15 minutes, covered, over low heat. I sprinkle on a great Bouquet Garni herb mixture here from Penzy's Spices. You could use oregano and basil to your taste.

Once this mixture is hot, carefully pour over ribs in slow cooker. Cook on low 6 hours. Serve over cooked papardelle with parmesan cheese if you like it. Bon appetite!

(Notes: Short ribs can be hard to find. I had a grocery store 'butcher' once tell me that he only had boneless ones - that makes no sense. My local Market Basket seems to be the only place to carry them. Papardelle can be tricky to locate, too - I use Trader Joe's. Chris and I share a mutual hatred of all things onion. If you like onions, feel free to use a whole one. I've used crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and jarred tomato sauce in this recipe - all worked. The only thing that didn't work was whole tomates and even that wasn't bad when you smooshed them up. I like to make this the night before and refrigerate it overnight in my slow cooker insert, then fire it up before I leave for work in the morning. This recipe is borderline unsinkable and delicious!)