nwhiker | Entries tagged with recipes

I made a few things for dessert for my bday (Anne-Chloe came over for dinner and we had MIL over for dessert) yesterday.

I found this recipe for Lemon "brownies" and decided to try it.

Made it almost without mods: I used salted butter and reduced the salt by almost nothing and I found the batter too thick so added an extra tablespoon or so of lemon juice. I did use the lemon glaze... or rather a lemon glaze, because, really, who measures for those? Since a lot of the tart comes from there, don't skip it.

Truly excellent. Even Linnea, who does not like citrus flavored things, said they were decent.

1. Linnea's boyfriend is a darling. Really like him.

2. Been meaning to make Welsh Cakes since we got back from Europe but never got around to it, plus, eh, lard, which, just no. So I made this recipe with some modifications for breakfast this morning. My sister and BIL were in town before heading out on an Alaska cruise, and there was Isaac, so a good number of people to try it out on, LOL. Delish.

3. My weight, OTOH. Up several pounds this morning, and tomorrow is going to be worse, since I didn't pay attention to what I was eating today.

I always make two types of cranberry sauce.

One is pretty much the standard recipe from the bag, cranberries, orange, sugar. Always good.

The other is deeper and darker, with a base of reduced Zinfandel wine, and plenty of spices. Different, but also good, and works beautifully with brie for turkey sandwich leftovers.

This year someone recommended Ina Garten's Make-Ahead Cranberry Sauce. When I searched for the recipe I found this aricle: My Family's Resident Canned-Cranberry-Sauce Enthusiast Called Ina Garten's Make-Ahead Version "Breathtaking".

Since I am a great believer in the ability of lemon juice and zest to brighten any dish into wonderfulness, I decided to try it.

And breathtaking it is. Perry stood in disbelief. Dh was wondering what made it so special. Lemon, I think.

But for some reason, it's truly outstanding. I'll still make my Zinfandel version, since it's different enough to not overlap in flavor profile.

And in the meanwhile, I'm watching Perry like a hawk. He was over there with a spoon.

Putting it here so I remember it lol.

I made yam purée the other day, had about 1 cup left over. Today I turned it into brunch: 1 cup of the purée, 2 eggs, a splash of water, 1 small spoonful of brown sugar Splenda, 1/4 cup Kodiak Cake mix, and of course spices.

Total was 2pts for the Kodiak mix, and probably close to 20g protein. It was also a lot of food, I only finished because it was brunch.

But it would be great with sautéed onions as a side for chicken or whatever.

1. September 5th is my own personal shifting point day. While I'd never give up my current life with my wonderful spouse and kids, and it's part of the continuum of my life, September 5th is the day we left New York all those years ago, and my life was upended. That event changed, well, everything. Yes, I gained a language and a culture. I lost my sense of self, my sense of belonging, my sense of deserving to belong. I eventually lost any self-esteem, any sense of self-worth. Those were not good years for me. It's always strange to talk to my siblings... I mean, we all spent, what with leaving for uni, between 10 and 14 years in Tunisia, and it's striking how little time it takes to damage a human being, maybe forever. Anyhow. I don't dwell on the date, but I never miss it. I will never ever forget leaving my grandparents house in Garden City in a cab, grandparents and aunt and cousins followed in their own cars, the stupid red-checked matching dresses my sister and I wore (I refused to ever put that dress on again), JFK, seeing the NYC skyline from the airplane window as we left. Next morning, Iceland. Anyhow.

2. This is where the recipe started: Whipped feta dip with spicy honey. Neither Perry nor Linnea like feta and I'm only moderately fond of it myself. So I modified. Use chèvre rather than feta, skimped on the sour cream, quintupled the garlic (at least five cloves rather than one, LOL). I put in an oven dish and heated it through and then poured the honey mix on top with za'atar. Didn't bother to add the sesame seeds or the chives. Quite good, dh, Linnea, and I all enjoyed it.

3. Today's task was supposed to be de-matting Auri. We have her her Gabapentin, waited a few hours, and started. And... she was having nothing to do with it. So we decided to abandon the project and we'd get her to the vet's, drugged up again, and see what they could do. Then dh and I went to Costco, and while we were gone, the meds took effect, a bit later than expected, and Perry, patient and gentle, OMG, both of those, carefully started to work on her mats. He got about 3/4 done before she woke up enough. That cat has fur that felts itself SO easily. She's still loopy but Perry is done for now (it's stressful and precise work), maybe dh can have a go at her for a bit.

My aunt was talking about a recipe in the NYT the other day, that combined roasted veggies and feta. She mentioned broccolini, but I haven't been able to find that this week.

Dinner a few nights ago:

Roast broccoli.
Roast little tomatoes, halved.
Roast thin sliced lemons.
--> All this happened at 425F on a sheet pan.
Boil pasta.
Broil slices of feta for a few minutes, I added the veggies to the side to warm them back up a bit, since they were done before the spaghetti.
Toss veggies, some chopped mint, and some chopped sage with the pasta and a tiny bit of olive oil, add broiled feta on top.

It was really good and really easy. Dh and Linnea refused to eat the thin slices of roasted lemon, but they added a nice flavour to the whole dish. Perry did not touch the dish at all, and instead made cacio e pepe with his spaghetti. I didn't have any fresh oregano or thyme, or I'd have used those. Any fresh herb would be good.

Anyhow.

I made a Smitten Kitchen recipe the other day: Summer Squash Pizza.

It was delish. Seriously good.

I had to use cheddar and a bit of parm because I was out of gruyère and officially at that point not allowed to go get any, and I did add a big pinch of cayenne. Aside from that, I had it as it and it is one of the simplest most delish recipes I've ever made.

Highly recommend. I mean... I was making my shopping list and asked dh and the kids if we needed anything and everyone pretty much said "Zucchini!"

I was able to send my MIL home with some cookies and some vanilla cake.

Because, OMG, I've finally found a worthwhile and good vanilla cake recipe.

I have several fancy ones, the ones I use for birthday cakes, and they're great. They also usually involve sour cream, buttermilk, whipping egg whites etc.

So I've been looking for a good, basic vanilla cake recipe (I have one for chocolate cake, if anyone wants it, holler).

It's still not exactly what I'm looking for, and I think I'll experiment with a bit less baking powder but it's really good and really really easy:

Golden Vanilla Cake.

I want to try one more from the site before I declare this my go-to vanilla cake, but I'm pretty close!

I'm also searching for a molasses cookie recipe. When I was a kid, we'd spend every other summer with my mom's Aunt Irene in Nova Scotia. Aunt Irene made wonderful molasses cookies, and my mom got the recipe. And of course, over the years, lost it (she's really good at losing recipes. There were three that I wanted from my childhood, she's lost all three, sigh...). These cookies were not like the standard soft and chewy molasses cookies with the crackled tops, they were harder/crispier. As in, if they baked too long, they were hard at rocks. I consider this a plus, btw. Anyhow, I've been looking, and langed on two recipes, both from The Maritimes, so I'll be making both to see if they're close enough. The first one is pretty close, except too soft. I'm leaving the cookies out, maybe they'll harden overnight! :)

First of all... if you can stand Chef John at Foodwishes.com? This recipe for Chinese barbecue pork is so good. Not as good as some of the better restaurants I've had it at, but certainly better than many of the lesser places. I made it in the oven. Make sure the meat is of equal thickness, we had some bits that were overdone, but still, excellent. Made for a nice dinner with rice and veggies, and good with raman the next day! It'll show up one more time in fried rice on Tuesday.

Monday: chili cheese dogs with lo chili, roasted zucchini.

Tuesday: fried rice with leftover pork.

Wednesday: roasted chicken breast, potatoes, Brussels sprouts.

Thursday: roast beef sandwiches with salad.

Friday: chicken piccata, egg noodles, roasted broccoli.

Saturday: turkey meatball heroes (made those this week too. Linnea really liked!)

Sunday: polenta with fried egg and garlicky spinach.

In other boring news, like every year, February allergies are kicking my sorry ass. Despite pollen counts that are "low" it happens every year at about this time. I suspect Western Red Cedar. Thanks to

camelsamba, I have drops that help with the eye itchies, but ugh on the scratchy throat, running nose, and sneezies. Gah, February!

I finally have my to-list and menus blank template in a Word doc, so I can print 'em out every week, rather than finding a ruler and drawing them all over! It won't make getting stuff done any easier, but it'll help me make sure I a) plan menus and b) keep track of the crap that needs doing and keeping track of.

Anyhow, menus. Still recovering from the holidays from a leftovers standpoint!

Monday: onions and bacon puff pastry tart with fruit. Puff pastry comes in two sheets, this is the second!

Tuesday: leftovers...

Wednesday: pasta with tomato sauce, maybe some meat.

Thursday: roasted chicken sausage, potatoes, onions.

Friday: couscous with chicken breast and carrots (btw, this was the initial recipe from way back when. I've modified it.

Saturday: chicken tikka masala (Costco!) naan, roasted cauliflower.

Sunday: mushroom bourguignon (Smitten Kitchen, but I've made something very similar), either egg noodles (Linnea's vote) or polenta (mine), we'll see what we're up for that evening.

I'm back on Weight Watchers, so my breakfasts and lunches are all pretty much the same, or variations on a theme.

And I need to find something for lunch on Wednesday. I'm attending a lunch with a candidate for the professors job opening, and I'd rather skip the pizza and/or high end sandwiches (which are usually loaded with mayo so I don't eat them anyone), chips, and cookies. I'll be better off if I bring my own lunch.

I'm making one of my favourite cakes this evening. Perry is down with two other guys from the crew team, they have a regatta tomorrow. I'm making a cake. But I'm changing it from loaf to Bundt pan. I fucking hope this works.

Dinner is going to be a chicken pot pie from Costco. I had delusions about cooking, but Perry warned me that both kids coming are picky, and prefer their food very bland... One of them is his roommate.

Anyhow, just because....

Cranberry Orange Pound Cake

This Cranberry Orange Pound Cake is so moist and is perfect for the winter and holiday season!

Ingredients
• 1 cup butter
• 1¾ cups sugar
• 2 Tablespoons orange zest
• 3 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2½ cups fresh cranberries
• 2½ cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

ORANGE GLAZE
• 1½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon orange juice
• 1 Tablespoon orange zest
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and orange zest together for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat an addition minute per egg.
4. Add vanilla and mix in.
5. In a separate large bowl, mix and combine dry ingredients together.
6. Add dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/orange zest/egg mixture. Fold in cranberries.
7. Grease and flour either 2 large bread pans or 3 small bread pans.
8. Pour batter and bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 min.
9. Let loaves cool and pour glaze over them.

ORANGE GLAZE
1. Whisk glaze ingredients together until smooth.

Notes: 1h10min in Bundt pan. Did not come out clean after 10 minutes cooling.

I usually don't bother with the glaze, nobody in my family is overly fond of glazes and they're messy.

I freeze cranberries in 2.5 cup batches for this one. I love cranberries, they're so tart and so bright!

ETA: didn't quite come out of the pan clean, but it seems to have cooked fine. I'll try again, letting it cool for a bit longer.

Easy lazy dinner: Top Ramen, with BtB instead of the packet. A pre-cooked pork skewer from Costco. Hard boiled egg from Costco. Left over green beans. A tablespoon of Francis Lam 's ginger scallion sauce. Yum.

I said I was going to start posting again in October. I didn't say I was going to start with boring menus. I have been writing them up for a while, and trying to keep paper copies, but really, online works better in many way.

Things are difficult. My big eater has left, AC is living with the dipshit, and while Linnea is rowing and eating, she still doesn't eat as much. Which means leftovers. Or making less. I'm working on the latter while often ending up with too much of the former.

Anyhow.

Monday: chicken asada with onions and tortillas.

Tuesday: leftovers.

Wednesday: strata with sausage, shallots, and apples.

Thursday: salade nicoise, with vinaigrette potato salad, green beans, tomatoes, capers, olives, and tuna or cooked chicken depending... or rather tuna for dh, and perhaps Linnea, and maybe cooked chicken or nothing for me.

Friday: sausages with mash.

Saturday: chicken shawarma with naan.

Sunday: muffuletta on ciabatta rolls.

I guess family is coming here for Thanksgiving (or at least my mom, aunt, and sister are, brother and family can't make it, wah) so I want to make sure I have an empty freezer for that. And I found a trove of Aidell's chicken sausages, three different kinds. Still perfectly good, I must have just bought twice without noticing. At Costco. Heh. Anyhow I need to clear some of the out and Linnea likes them, so eh, twice a week won't kill anyone.

A note about the chicken shawarma. I've been buying it from Trader Joe's, and it's seriously good. It's a cinche on the grill, and had a great balance of spices and spiciness. I highly recommended it.

One thing I want to make again soon is the focaccia I made last July. It requires 24 hours, but it was wonderful to make and eat and the kids loved it. I just have to figure how to plan it in to make for a Saturday evening when Perry will be home.

Oooh. I think I'll try to take a few minutes to update on his first impressions of university! Or maybe tomorrow.

I just made the best focaccia I have ever made. Seriously good, great taste AND texture. Bubbly and chewy with a crisp crust.

This recipe: From Bon Appetit.

I did not have regular yeast so I used bread machine yeast.

One word of warning: the dough sits in the fridge for 8h min, after a few hours of rising, so it's most easily and make today for tomorrow recipe. I left it a bit under 24 hours, and it was fine.

Just getting a few meals planned out and shopped for. Nothing exciting, I'm sleep deprived and not feeling very ambitious to say the least.

Wednesday: poached chicken, steamed broccoli, white rice, ginger-scallion sauce (*)

Thursday: pork tenderloin, green beans, potato salad with vineaigrette

Friday: chicken, pasta, roasted broccoli

Saturday: chili with cornbread

Sunday: couscous with chicken and carrots

(*) If you've never had it... Francis Lam's Ginger and Scallion Sauce is in.cre.di.ble. I saw the recipe a few years ago on Salon, and made it, and I didn't quite eat it with a spoon. I made it a few times after that, but then, for whatever reason, forgot about it. Someone reminded me last week, so I made it yesterday, and it's pretty much as delicious as I remember. FWIW, I bought grapeseed oil from TJ's and used that.

I posted this a few months back: Seekh Kabobs. It was a bit soft to actually grill, but we all liked the taste.

I had frozen some of the leftover (raw) meat, and made it tonight with some mods:

Sauté an onion until softened
Sauté the meat with the onion

Remove 3/4 of the meat, set aside.

Add 1.5 cups rice, saut&ecute for a few minutes, add 3 cups water and a blob of BtB Chicken.

Cook until rice is done, about 20 minutes, put meat back in.

Cook a bag of spinach, drain slightly, add the spinach into the rice/meat mixture.

Twas delicious. I think one could also add the spinach at the last minute, as the rice was cooking, but I forgot until the rice was done, so I just cooked it separately. I'd also add more spinach but one bag is all I had on hand.

ETA: it clearly smelled good. I took leftovers to school with me, and three of my fellow grad students were sniffing and wanting the recipe. :-)

OMG. Delicious. This recipe arrived in my email from Penzey's today and I decided to try it.

My mods are in blue.

Seekh Kabobs

If you don’t feel like fussing with skewers, the mixture would also make great burgers.

1 1/4 lbs. fresh ground beef (80/20 is a good mix); frozen doesn’t work as well2 tsp.

CAYENNE PEPPER About 1/2 tsp

2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. GROUND CORIANDER

1 tsp. POWDERED GINGER

1/4 tsp. GROUND ALLSPICE

1/2 tsp. PENZEYS PEPPER

2 tsp. GROUND CUMIN

1/4 tsp. GROUND CLOVES

1/4 tsp. PENZEYS CINNAMON

1/2 tsp. GROUND CARDAMOM

2 1/2 TB. garlic paste

2 TB. ginger paste

2 TB. roasted chickpea powder (this is helpful for keeping the kabobs from falling apart; use 1 TB. all-purpose flour if you can’t find chickpea powder) Flour, heh.

2 TB. lemon juice

1/2 Cup oil I used about 1/4 cup at most

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the oil. Mix well with your hands. Refrigerate for 21/2-3 hours. Add the oil and mix well. Roll the meat into small, round meatballs. Thread each meatball through a skewer. Dip your hands in water to prevent sticking, and flatten the meatballs in a thin layer around each skewer. Grill over low heat, turning the skewers at least once, after about 5 minutes, until the meat turns to brown on both sides. Don’t overcook or they will not be as deliciously tender.
I'm glad we decided to make these on a "veggie grate", because they were incredibly soft and felt apart. Next time I'll just make patties and not bother with the skewers

I cannot imagine using that much cayenne for that amount of meat. I used about 1/4 of what they suggest, and it's quite spicy but the flavours of the other spices still come through something I'm not sure would happen with four times the amount of cayenne.

I served it with rice pilaf (Trader Joe's, doctored up a bit), but it would be wonderful in a wrap with lettuce and yogurt sauce.

There is still something missing compared to the ones I've eaten at various restaurants, but I can't figure out what it is yet. I think next time I'll skip the cayenne entirely to see if I can better evaluate the balance of spices.

Anyhow, if anyone else got this recipe, I highly recommend it!

It's straight, give or take spicing, from the Penzey's catalog. I did go to the website and didn't find it linked, so I'm typing it in, with my minute changes.

Note that Penzey's, always a bunch of suckers :) for a cooking/kindness/happiness angle, has some wonderful stories on their site about four of the couples who challenged Wisconsin's marriage laws and eventually won. As one of the people commenting on the story said, "I didn’t think a spice catalog would ever make me cry, but yours did, and it wasn’t from the onions! When I read “kindness works” in your catalog, I thought “how nice”, but I wondered if you meant what you said, and if you really meant “all people”, and if you really meant to be as inclusive as you sounded. The reason I wondered is that often “nice people” and “kind people” think of themselves as inclusive but are not."

So. Recipe. My comments in purple.

Molasses Cut-Out Cookies Gingerbread Cut-out Cookies

1 Cup butter
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/3 Cup dark molasses
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp powdered ginger I'm pretty sure I x4 that, and then some!
1/8 tsp nutmeg Probably doubled.
1/8 tsp cinnamon Probably doubled as well
Large pinch of allspice.

I didn't quite measure the amounts of spices that I added, and I adjusted by taste. I always add a sprinkle of allspice and I'm wary of cloves, but any combination of those spices mentioned is probably great.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy; gradually add the sugar. Blend in the molasses, flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix well. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in waxed paper. Chill for several hours. I was out of wax paper, and it was easy to roll between two pieces of plastic wrap. It did not need to be chilled at all, though it was easier to work with slightly chilled. Several hours was too long, I had to let it sit for a long time.

Preheat oven to 350F. Remove 1 package of dough from the refrigerator at a time See above. Roll the dough very thin and cut with desire cookie cutters. I went a bit thicker than "very thin, probably 4mm or so.. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 8-10 minutes. Greased cookie sheets? I. Don't. Think. So. Parchment paper. Watch closely as thin cookies tend to overcook in no time. Cool. Frost and decorate as desired.

The cookies aren't very sweet, and since I was adding royal icing frosting, that was fine, but if planning on eating plain, they might benefit from a sprinkling of sugar or some such. The dough was wonderful to work with, even right from the mixer, parchment paper was perfect. Greased cookie sheets. I do boggle at that. I haven't greased a cookie sheet in.... Humm... Since I had the money to buy parchment paper, so probably grad school!

Prep time: 30 minutes plus chilling time.
Baking time: 8-10 minutes per sheet
Yield: 4.5-5 doxen depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

I'll have an extra teenager on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings! I'll double my pizza dough recipe, I think....

Rotisserie chickens usually last three meals, four if I make stock then stew with the carcass, which I might or might not do here.

Monday:
Leftovers

Tuesday:
Grilled salmon, roasted potatoes, veggies, rhubarb cake

Wednesday:
Pizza!

Thursday:
Rotisserie chicken, pasta, and broccoli

Friday:
Vietnamese spring rolls with leftover chicken, mint, etc

Saturday:
Tortilla casserole with leftover chicken, olives.. veggie

Sunday: My birthday! :-) Salt and pepper potato chips, this tart, seriously modified, grilled steak and green onions on homemade Kaiser rolls.

My mom will be visiting from tomorrow though Saturday, which of course means that there will be bags of chips all over the place. Rhetorical question: How can she eat so much junk food and stay so thin? I just wish I didn't have to be around it all week.

Anyhow, menus for the week. I'm not feeling very inspired.

I, as of yet, don't have a recipe for the Chinese bbq pork. Yeah, I can google, but if anyone has tried a recipe and liked it, I'd love a link!

I'm nervous about the jerk chicken. I make my own blend of jerk spices, and I lost the post-it with the proportions at some point. I'll be experimenting again, I suppose.

Monday:
Leftovers

Tuesday:
Jerk chicken with yams and sauteed spinach

Wednesday:
Chinese bbq pork with white rice, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce

Thursday:
AC Middle School Graduation and Reception. No dinner planned.

Friday:
Chicken samosas with curried cauliflower and carrots

Saturday:
Asian Noodles with Pan-Seared Flank Steak

Sunday:
Frittata (mushrooms and chicken Italian sausage)

Navigation

May 2025

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

My writing

Fanfic

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

Heavily Modified Style Inspired By

Base style: Heads Up by momijizuakmori
Theme: A Brighter View by zaluzianskya and skylark_photos

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated 30 Jun 2025 19:32

Stumbling Through Adulthood

With Insomnia

Entries tagged with recipes

Lemony recipe

Three things for Sunday

Cranberry sauce

WW recipe stuff

Three things for Sunday

Yummy dinner

Recipe

Good. Cake. Recipe.

Menus 10Feb-16Feb

Menus 6Jan-12Jan

Baking.

Yummy dinner.

A menus post, with some other stuff.

Mmmmm.... focaccia

Menus, menus, menus

Recipe update/mod

Yummy recipe

Recipe: Gingerbread Cookies.

Menus for the week

Menus this week.