The World's Easiest Cookies

CLN

I have been given this recipe by several people but never really believed that they were good. Well, I finally tried some that a friend made and they are in fact delicious. I made them with natural peanut butter but you can certainly use the trans fat version if you so desire.

1 C peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 egg

Mix it all together and bake at 350 for about 12 min.
How's that for easy?

Raspberry Almond Scones

VEW
Yet another scone concoction that is pretty tasty. Is all honesty, can you really make one that isn't?

1/2 C ground almonds (use a food processor...)
2C all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 t salt
1T baking powder
3T sugar
6T cold, unsalted butter
1 egg
1/2 C whole milk
1/4t almond extract
1t vanilla extract
1 C fresh raspberries tossed with 1 T flour to coat

Preheat oven to 375. Mix dry ingredients together and cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients, then mix into dry ingredients until a dough is formed. Knead a few times to incorporate all the flour. Divide dough in half and flatten into 2 rounds about an inch thick. Press raspberries into one round leaving about 1/2" at the edge. Lay the other round on top pressing down slightly. Press the edges together to seal the berries in. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Cut dough into 8 wedges and lay close together (not quite touching) in a circle. Brush tops with a little milk and top with turbinado sugar. Bake until golden--about 20 minutes.

Cookbook: Braises and stews

CLN

While roaming through William Sonoma I found a great cookbook propped up by the Le Crueset dutch ovens. It may just be that fall is approaching and I start to crave rich and comforting stews and braises but everything in this cookbook looks great. I ,of course, paid full price for it but you can get it used here.

Sage and Cracked Pepper Papardelle with Wild Mushrooms

VEW
I could eat pasta with mushrooms for the rest of my life and be happy.If you’re luke-warm about mushrooms, I think this recipe could convert you to my side. The rich sweetness of the sauce and the fresh earthiness of the pasta is a really great combination.

Pasta recipes vary tremendously as far as the ratio of flour to eggs and the type of flour. I have made many different kinds; I have mixed and rolled by hand, mixed by food processor, kneaded by hand and rolled by pasta roller. It’s all good and leagues better than dried and even the store-bought fresh pastas. The one constant is that you really should knead by hand for a few minutes. It gives you a silkier dough, and if you’re going to go through all the trouble of making pasta from scratch, you should want to get your hands in it! I’ll give you the latest recipe I’ve used, but if you have one you use, make it as directed, just add the sage and pepper to the flour as this recipe states.

2 ¼ C King Arthur brand Perfect Pasta Blend Flour

3 eggs at room temperature
1-2 T water
8-10 fresh sage leaves, minced
Freshly ground black pepper (about ½ t)
Mix the flour, sage and pepper. You can either make a well in the center of the flour mound and add in the eggs, gradullay incorporating the flour as you mix, or if you’re short on time you can do this all in a food processor. Mix in the egg and little bits of the water at a time until the dough just clings together. Knead for at least 3 minutes; 6-10 will yield increasingly better results. Wrap in plastic and set aside to rest for 20 minutes. Alternatively, throw it in the fridge and take it out 20 minutes before you’re ready to use it.
I use an Imperia hand-crank pasta roller to roll out sheet of pasta and then I cut them however I want. To make pappardelle, flour the sheets well and then fold them in half, in half again, in half again etc. until you have a small sheet that is manageable to slice into 1” ribbons with a large knife. Unroll them and lay on a floured towel . If you aren’t going to use your pasta right away, or if you want to store for a few days or even weeks, you can freeze it on a cookie sheet. When ready to cook, just drop in boiling water as you would dried pasta. It will cook in about 3 minutes. (This is very helpful if you end up making more pasta than you can use in one night).

Mushroom sauce
2T unsalted butter
2 large shallots, sliced in ¼” rounds
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb assorted mushrooms, thickly sliced (shitake and baby portobellos are readily available in most stores)
3/4oz dried mushrooms such as porcini or Polish Cépes, soaked in ½ C boiling water for 30 minutes
1/4C dry red wine
1/3 C heavy cream
3T ricotta cheese
¼ Cup finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
1T freshly chopped parsley
Melt the butter in a large frying pan and sautee the shallots and garlic until beginning to carmelize. Deglaze the pan with about ¼ C red wine. Simmer until wine is almost gone, then add the fresh mushrooms. Cover and cook over med-low heat until softened—about 8 minutes. Add in the dried mushrooms with their soaking liquid. (It’s generally a good idea to pour the liquid through a fine mesh sieve to keep any sediment from your dish.) Gently simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure your sauce stays saucey. If you find the pan drying out a bit, turn down the heat and/or partially cover the pan. Pour in the heavy cream and cook for another 5 minutes. Just before serving stir in the ricotta, parmesan cheese and parsley. Gently toss with cooked noodles. Serve with a drizzle of fine extra virgin olive oil and some gray salt. I could die happy…

Swiss Chard and Ricotta Ravioli

VEW

This is a nice mellow recipe and a great way to incorporate Swiss Chard into a meal if you find yourself at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it (like me). A friend of mine who is a great cook made this as written and raved about it. I had extra time on my hands so I made pasta from scratch rather than use the store-bought wrappers the recipe suggests. Homemade pasta will never disappoint you and it really is very easy. It is a bit time consuming until you really get the hang out of, that is the only conceivable argument anyone could have with it. We have been enjoying making pasta for about 9 years now. I remember in the beginning we would make it with friends and we'd end up eating at 10pm. The meals were always fabulous, so it didn't seem to matter. These days the process is much faster, so if you're put off by the time factor, keep going! I will post more later on making fresh pasta as the comfort food season is almost upon us and what is better than pasta?

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

VEW

The perennial question of what to do with the abundance of in-season tomatoes is upon us. Here are a few good recipes that I have made this week.

Rustic Tomato Tart. You can use purchased pie crust or puff pastry to make such a tart, which is what I do in a pinch but I don’t love them. Homemade is definitely the way to go if you have the time (you can use a basic pate brisee recipe like this). While you can use just about any cheese that suits your fancy, I have had great success with Brie, Fontina and goat cheese. You can add in any combo of fresh herbs that floats your boat as well. I like the pepperiness of thyme to offset the sweetness of basil, but really, anything goes with tomatoes and cheese right?

1 recipe tart dough (see above)

variety of fresh tomatoes, sliced in 1/2" slices

variety of fresh chopped herbs

Parmesan cheese

Your choice of cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375. line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Roll dough into a circle and transfer to parchment. Sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan and put in the oven for about 8 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden (not brown!). Remove and layer tomato slices in concentric circles leaving about 1 inch of dough at the edges. Sprinkle with herbs. Top with cheese. Gently fold the edges of the dough inward, pleating as you go to form a rustic looking tart. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.

The finished product

Roasted Tomatoes with Herbed Goat Cheese and Lavash Crackers
This past weekend the number of tomatoes gracing my countertops slowly threatening to go bad were causing me a fair amount of stress. So I cut up a bunch of the Garden Peach variety that is growing like mad in my garden and tossed them in a pan with salt and olive oil and roasted them at 350 until they were soft and carmelized. At this point my husband announced that he would like to make the appetizer, so we ran out to our garden in the pouring rain and cut some chives, oregano, parsely, thyme and basil and came in sopping, but triumphant. My willing sous-chef finely diced the herbs and mixed them into about 4 oz of goat cheese with a little cracked pepper and then dropped mounds over the roasted tomatoes. We served it with some homemade lavash crackers and voila!

Shrimp Tikka with Mango Chutney, Coriander and Cilantro Flatbreads with Raita

VEW

This is FANTASTIC. So good, so fast. It is perfect as written, but when I want to make it even faster, I skip the skewering/grilling of the shrimp and just throw the whole batch in a frying pan and cook it up.

The flatbreads (pictured above) are so tasty and easy! I have made them one at a time in a frying pan, but tonight I made the whole batch at once on my griddle and they were great. Please try this if you have even a small affinity for Indian food. It is one of my favorites.
Oh, one more thing. I am usually die-hard about making everything homemade, but as good mangoes are generally hard to find where I live, I have used a mango chutney that a local farm makes instead of making my own and the recipe doesn’t suffer one bit. Enjoy!

Avocado-Feta Salsa

CLN
I am a self-proclaimed queen of dips and this one is a favorite. I recently brought this to a party where is was promptly devoured by my neighbor.

2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
1/4 C. finely chopped red onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. fresh parsley
1 T. fresh oregano
1 T. olive oil
1 T. red or white wine vinegar
4 oz. feta cheese, coarsely crumbled

Combine all but the feta and gently stir. Add in feta and cover and chill for up to 6 hrs. Serve with pita or tortilla chips.

Curried Zucchini Soup

CLN

I have been getting my fair share of zucchini lately from my farm but unfortunately, my husband is not as fond of it as I am. I started making this recipe and even my husband enjoys it now. I tried freezing it with moderate success. The taste wasn't compromised but the texture was a bit. I have served it with a variety of things including: frittatas, salads, sandwiches and grilled bread with cheese melted on top ....enjoy!

Eggplant

VEW

Eggplant: (n.) A vegetable that inspires apathy, boredom and even fear as it begins to show up in increasingly larger quantities in my farm share.

This is one thing I haven't loved seeing in my farm share basket. There are some people who can make eggplant taste good, even interesting, but I am not one of them. I usually find it bland and soggy at best. Tonight as I trolled the crisper for ideas for dinner, I had 3 white eggplants glaring at me at if to say, are you really going to let us go the way of that first batch of Swiss chard?

No, I decided, I am not. I will conquer you! Of course this conquering was occurring right around 5pm with 2 children getting more ornery by the minute, desperately needing something to eat. So I tried this recipe for Rigatoni with Eggplant, Tomato and Ricotta despite the fact that it sounded utterly bland.

I was wrong.

It was actually quite tasty. My uber-finicky eaters even ate it. Go figure. I made it as written using a white eggplant and I used linguine because it's what I had. It worked just fine. If I were to make it again, I would toss it with freshly made pasta, and perhaps toss in a mixture of fresh herbs in addition to the basil that is called for. If you give it a try, note that the recipe is for 2 and didn't make much, so you may want to double it.