Weekend Party

So I have been crazy busy with Philadelphia Singers, church, and teaching, so cooking and blogging has taken a back seat. Jason and I decided to have people over this weekend to hang out. I wanted to make my favorite foods, comfort foods: broccoli and Stilton soup, rosemary fried chicken, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, queso, and bean pie. Jason made some really great deserts Guinness chocolate bacon cupcakes and cream puffs.

So the soup tastes awesome, but there were several time that night where people opened the pot to get more and someone would comment "did someone fart". Yeah it is a little smelly, but boy it is good!!

Broccoli and Stilton Soup
serves 4

12 ounces broccoli
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion chopped
1 leek, white part only
1 small potato, cut into chunks
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (I used veggie stock since some of our friends are vegetarians)
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons heavy cream
4 ounces Stilton cheese, rind removed, crumbled
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Break the broccoli into flowerets, discard any tough stems. Set aside 2 small flowerets to garnish the finished dish.

2. Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onion and leek and fry until soft but not colored. Add the broccoli and potato, and pour in the stock. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

3. Leave the soup to cool slightly. Pour into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the rinsed pan. (Honestly I just used my stick blender and did not strain and it turned out just fine!)

4. Add milk and heavy cream to the pan. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Reheat slowly, At the last minute add the cheese, stirring until it just melts: Do not boil.

5. Meanwhile, blanch the reserved broccoli flowerets and cut them vertically into thin slices. Ladle the soup into warm bowls and garnish with the sliced broccoli and generous grinding of black pepper.

Red and Black Bean Pies
serves 8
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 bunches scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cans (15oz each) pinto beans and black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup water
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes in juice
1 tube (16oz) plain prepared polenta, patted dry
1 packed cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoons hot sauce
1 1/2 cups coarsely shredded pepper jack cheese (6oz)
salsa (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large saucepan , heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat; add white part of scallions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until softened, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes with juice, and 1/2 cup water. As you bring to boil, mash about 1/4 of the beans with the back of a spoon against side of the pan to release starch. Reduce to a simmer; cook until mixture has thickened, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, brush pie plates with 1/2 Tablespoons oil. Slice polenta crosswise into 16 rounds; place 8 rounds into each pie plate.

3. Remove mixture from heat. Stir in green parts of scallions, cilantro, and hot sauce; season with salt and pepper. Spoon bean mixture into pie plates over the polenta rounds.

4. Bake at 400 degrees 15-20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Christmas Cookies

OK.... While I'm on a roll here... I might as well add a long overdue post about Christmas Cookies. This year, the combination of Veronica being out of state (in Louisiana) and a well timed weekend snow storm, meant that I had two full days of baking prior to Christmas. I anticipated the snowstorm, not by shopping for bread, milk and eggs, but for butter, sugar and eggs. Except that I went through two pounds of butter on day 1 and had to brave the drifts to walk the four blocks to the grocery store for another two pounds of butter for day 2 (and some cocoa powder and other items).

Two days of baking. Eight batches of cookies.

Here's the list:

Pecan Sandies from Smitten Kitchen
---Love these! Really great texture and flavor
Chocolate Espresso Sandwich Cookies from Joy the Baker
---Not particularly espresso-y, but amazing! Not very sweet. Like oreos without the chemicals.
Salted Chocolate Vanilla Bean Cookies from Joy the Baker
---I'm not sure if I like the chocolate or vanilla side better. Mine weren't as attractive as Joy's but they were delicious.
Chocolate Toffee Cookies from Smitten Kitchen
---Super chocolatey and nice chewy texture.
Linzer Cookies from Martha Stewart
---A bit frustrating, but delicious and festive. Cookies soften quickly once the jam is put between them (about a day)
Sugar Crusted Ginger Chewies from Joy the Baker
---Chewy and gingery, but not astonishing
Cowboy Cookies from Martha Stewart
---Ok. Crispier than I like. Great way to use up miscellaneous items in pantry (chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, etc.)
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Abby Sweets
---After making peanut butter cookies with a friend last year that ended up more like peanut butter pancakes, I looked around A LOT before finding these. They were GREAT!

All of these were good. The Cowboy Cookies and Ginger Chewies were probably my least favorite, but only because by comparison they weren't as stellar as the others. They were still really good.

The cookies that I most WANTED to make but DIDN'T: Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies from Joy the Baker and Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies from Noble Pig. Maybe next year.

Guinness Stout Ginger Cake

I'm catching up on posting a bit... I made this recipe last month... maybe I'll make it back to Christmas cookies next, but this one is definitely needs some attention. I love ginger. Ginger beer, ginger bread, candied ginger... I also like dark beers... and this recipe combines those two into a really satisfying cake. I think the molasses is the other key ingredient here. It adds just the right sweetness with a bit of bitterness.

I came across the Noble Pig blog back at Thanksgiving when I was looking for a make-ahead gravy recipe, because I know that we were having a smoked turkey, but I still wanted regular turkey gravy for the stuffing, potatoes, etc. I now check her blog a few times a week when I can, and this Guinness Stout Ginger Cake said "bake me" from the moment that I saw it. Of course, one of the great parts of this recipe is that it calls for 1 cup of Guinness, leaving the rest for the baker. Perfect. I may not have pictures of this one, but Cathy always has great pictures, so you can check out her photos on Noble Pig.

Make sure you read the notes on this one. As she suggests, for my size loaf pan, mine made a loaf AND a mini loaf. It also took about 10 minutes longer and was still perfectly moist and without falling in the middle.

Scones

I feel a bit guilty about posting this recipe because I can't remember where it came from. I'm all about giving credit where it's due, but instead of bookmarking this recipe, I put it into an MS Word file in 2008 and didn't type in the url. (I'm also feeling guilty about not having pictures for this post (or my last or my next), but I'm a horrible photographer anyway, so you're really not missing that much... even though these and the chocoflan both looked beautiful).

I love these scones... and these scones make my love our pastry blender... that little tool with curved wires that blends butter into flour like magic and makes making these managable in the morning WHILE drinking my first cup of coffee. I think that I first made these during the summer when we were part of the CSA at Greensgrow Farms... an amazing urban farm that is about a five minute drive from our house. I'm remembering raspberries, though it may have been blueberries that inspired my first attempt at these. I've since made them with chocolate chips and cinnamon chips as well. They're delicious and turn out perfectly every time.

Yesterday, I made these for Veronica to take to her morning rehearsal. Well... I made these for me, too. I'm not completely selfless. This was the second time that I've made these with cinnamon chips, called Cinnamon Flav-R Bites from King Arthur Flour. When I saw these online, I KNEW they would be perfect in these scones. They're dry and crunchy, so I measure out the milk for the recipe and add 1/4 c. of the chips to soak while I blend the other ingredients together (in a moister batter, I think they could just sit for a few minutes after being mixed into the recipe). Yesterday, I also made a batch with chocolate chips (chopped up a bit) AND chopped pecans. I'm not sure why I hadn't put pecans in them before. It was Veronica's suggestion and they turned out great. You can really throw in anything. With fruit additions, they're best eaten in the first day or two as the moisture from the fruit softens the scone over time.

Also, I've tried these with just all-purpose flour once or twice when I ran out of whole wheat flour. They're still good, but the whole wheat flour really adds a nice nutty note. Also, the turbinado sugar is great in them and especially on top. I love the extra crunch.


Scones

Preheat oven to 500 degrees (preheat pan as well).

Sift together:
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar, preferably turbinado

Cut in:
1/4 cup very cold butter

Lightly toss in:
1 cup frozen raspberries (or blueberries or chocolate chips)

Moisten with (don’t overmix):
1 partially beaten egg
1/2 cup milk

Round up on a floured surface.
Knead very lightly.
Pat out to about 1/2 inch thick.

Brush with:
2-3 Tbs of milk

Sprinkle with:
1 Tbs sugar

Cut into wedges. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

Chocoflan

So, Veronica and I were sitting on the couch last saturday morning, eating breakfast (waffles, I think) and watching the Food Network as we got ready to face the day. There's a fairly new show called "Mexican Made Easy." The food so far looks easy and tasty, and last saturday, she made Chocoflan. It looked a little bit kitschy, to be truthful, but like a SERIOUSLY good idea. Chocolate cake and flan! Yeah! Exactly! Chocolate cake. And flan. And.... crazy easy.

The cake gets mixed with a stand mixer and dumped into a bundt pan. The flan get mixed up in a blender and gets dumped on top of the cake batter in the bundt pan. While it's in the oven and you're washing the dishes, the cake and the flan trade places, putting the flan on the bottom and the cake on the top, so that when inverted, the flan sits gracefully atop the chocolatey cake. Seriously! Why am I only learning about this now? Totally easy, completely delicious.

SNOW DAY!!

Yesterday Philadelphia got the most snow at one time since the blizzard of 1996. With 28.5 inches of snow on the ground we had two friend who were stranded in Philadelphia over for breakfast. Jason made his great yeast waffles and I made Paula Deen's cheese grits! It was a great day, beautiful snow, good friends, and good food!!!!