Au Gratin

Tyler bookmarked this recipe in this month’s Cooking Light and I was skeptical, but it won me over!  I don’t usually eat sweet potatoes or squash because they are so….sweet.  However, drench them in swiss cheese and I’m a big fan!  This recipe took some time to pull together, but it was worth the wait!

Sweet Potato and Butternut Gratin (from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

2  tablespoons  butter

1  ounce  pancetta, chopped

1/4  cup  chopped shallots

2  garlic cloves, minced

1.38  ounces  all-purpose flour, divided (about 5 tablespoons)

1  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme

2  cups  2% reduced-fat milk

3/4  cup  (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

1/8  teaspoon  ground red pepper

1  pound  baking potato, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices

8  ounces  sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices

8  ounces  butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices

Cooking spray

1/3  cup  (1 1/2 ounces) shredded Gruyère cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add pancetta; cook 1 minute. Add shallots and garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Weigh or lightly spoon 1.1 ounces (about 1/4 cup) flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Add to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir in thyme. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk; cook over medium heat until slightly thick (about 3 minutes), stirring constantly. Stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano; cook 3 minutes or until cheese melts. Stir in salt and peppers. Remove from heat.

3. Cook baking potato in boiling water 4 minutes or until almost tender; remove with a slotted spoon. Cook sweet potato in boiling water 4 minutes or until almost tender; remove with a slotted spoon. Cook butternut squash in boiling water 4 minutes or until almost tender; drain. Sprinkle vegetables evenly with remaining 1 tablespoon flour. Arrange potatoes and squash in alternating layers in a broiler-safe 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; spoon sauce over potato mixture. Top with Gruyère. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes.

4. Preheat broiler. Broil 3 minutes or until golden. Let stand 10 minutes.

Homemade Apple Pie…filling

Okay so the filling is homemade, but I long ago gave up on making my own pie crusts, why get myself all frustrated and pissed off when I don’t have to?  Maybe I’ll have it figured out by the time I’m a grandma!  This is Tyler’s second favorite pie (blueberry is his most favorite) and I use his mom’s recipe, which is pretty basic but very delicious!  I took some pictures of the different steps for once to share with you.

not so secret ingredient

I am horrible at peeling whole apples, so I use my apple slicer to slice them into wedges and then peel them from there, fast and *almost* foolproof.

toss in the dry ingredients

lalalalala stir it up….

begin the assembling process!  Butter on top of the apples, don’t forget to do this before you add the top crust (I almost always forget!)

time to up the cute factor, courtesy of Pampered Chef!

lookin good…

whoops, probably should of put the apple cut outs closer to the center…

brushed the top with a bit of milk

ready for baking!  I have this nifty Pampered Chef crust guard I use, it lines up well with my deep dish Pampered Chef pie plate

The finished product, hot and fresh from the oven!

Homemade Apple Pie (family recipe)

Ingredients:

2 nine inch pie crusts
6 cups peeled and sliced granny smith apples
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
dash of salt
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
2 T butter

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2.  Combine apples, and all ingredients except for the butter in a large bowl, stir until apples are coated.
3.  Place first pie crust in the bottom of the pie plate
4.  Add filling.
5.  Cut butter into small piece and sprinkle across the top of the filling.
6.  Place top crust and seal edges.
7.  Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees.
8.  Let cool, then eat!  (with ice cream unless you are a weirdo like my husband!)

sweet potato curry

This dish was a bit too spicy for my taste buds, but Tyler loved it!  It is from the most recent issue of Cooking Light and it’s an interesting use for sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Chicken Curry (from Cooking Light)

 

Ingredients

2  teaspoons  curry powder

1  teaspoon  ground coriander

1  teaspoon  ground turmeric

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1/2  teaspoon  black pepper

1/4  teaspoon  ground red pepper

1  bay leaf

1 1/2  teaspoons  olive oil

1 1/2  pounds  skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/2  cups  vertically sliced onion

1 1/2  teaspoons  minced peeled fresh ginger

2  garlic cloves, minced

1  (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1  (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

2  cups  (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato

3/4  cup  canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2  cup  frozen green peas

1  tablespoon  fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine curry powder, coriander, turmeric, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and bay leaf in a small bowl.

2. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from pan. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Increase heat to medium-high; return chicken to pan. Cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Stir in ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add curry powder mixture; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour. Stir in potato and chickpeas. Cook, uncovered, 30 minutes. Add peas; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice. Discard bay leaf.

 

 

Sugar Cookie Frosting

I absolutely love this sugar cookie recipe, made it for the first time last Christmas and it’s a keeper.  However I’ve been having trouble finding a frosting recipe that

1) contains no shortening or margarine or corn syrup, ingredients I hate using.
2) dries well enough that you can stack the cookies after they are frosted
and
3) tastes good!

So I explored allrecipes.com, which I love because you can sort by highest rating, and found this recipe, with lots of positive reviews and none of the dreaded “bad” ingredients.  Just butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla.  This frosting takes minutes to whip up (as long as the butter has softened) and tastes fabulous.  Perfect for these fun fall cookies I took to class tonight!  I’ll be using this recipe again on Christmas cookies.

Decorator Frosting (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, confectioners’ sugar, and milk until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and food coloring. Spread on or between cookies.

San Francisco: The Cheesy

Well this was deserving of a post all its own!  On our last day in SF we had lunch at Slanted Door and then walked around the Ferry Building, which was not nearly as crowded as it had been on Saturday morning.  We decided to indulge in some bread, cheese, and sweets for our last dinner, and we went from stall to stall until we found what we were looking for.

For bread we picked up two baguettes, one sourdough and one sweet (although they really tasted about the same!) from Acme Bread.  They only take cash, good thing we still had some on us!

Next we headed to Cowgirl Creamery, which we could actually get into on Sunday as opposed to Saturday when it was swarmed with shoppers.  Ya’ll, this place was heaven.  We took a number and waited a couple of minutes for them to call it.  While we waited we picked up a half round of Humboldt Fog cheese, which I’d heard nothing but raves about from my cheese-loving friends.  When it was our turn, we told them what kind of bread we had and he started cutting samples of cheeses he thought would go best with it. We tried a few but in the end, we agreed that Midnight Moon, another much firmer goat cheese, was just what we were looking for.

The Humboldt Fog

The Midnight Moon

The feast.  Yes we ate it in our hotel room on top of a dismantled paper bag, using nothing but our hands and one plastic spoon to form the perfect bites of bread and cheese.

San Francisco: The Sweet

Previously: The Good and The Not as Good

There were many many delicious sweets to be found in San Francisco, here are the ones we sampled:

gelato at Naia in North Beach

divine!  fabulous fabulous gelato!  On the left, vanilla and pumpkin, on the right, chocolate and cherry chocolate chip

Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA

Tyler and I share a love of Jelly Bellies, in particular, the pear flavored ones.  We discovered them in the early days of our dating years and joked about visiting the “mothership”, well, on this vacation we did, and it was so much fun!  And we came home with tons of sweet loot, including lots of belly flops.

Stella’s Pastries in North Beach

Stella’s was recommended to us by our tour guide, who grew up in the area and frequented Stella’s as a child.  Per his recommendation we ordered the sacripantina, fitting as they are “the home of the sacripantina.”  I picked out an assortment of cookies, the macaroon was divine!

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown

This was one of the stops on our city tour, and we got to sample fresh from the oven fortune cookies.  They tasted so good, nothing like the nasty styrofoam ones you get at restaurants!  Sorry for the terrible picture, food photography is tough in a dark alley.

TCHO chocolates

We didn’t make it to the TCHO shop/factory on the bay, but we did pick up some of their chocolates at a market at the Ferry Building.  I remember reading about them on food blogs sometime last year, they are supposedly great for baking.  They are also great when a chocolate craving hits you!

Miette Patisserie at the Ferry Building

The adorable displays and cute little sweets were calling to me from Miette, so we bought a few treats for our last night in San Francisco.  Madeleines and macarons, in vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, and rose flavors.  These were great, but would of been best fresh.

Kara’s Cupcakes at Ghiradelli Square

We had no ghiradelli chocolate on this trip, I just didn’t see the point when you  can buy it in the check out line at Walmart.  However, my friend wheezer monkey highly recommended Kara’s Cupcakes at the square and holy cow, these were yum!  So while lots of tourists popped in to Ghiradelli for overpriced hot fudge sundaes, we dined on pricey but oh so worth it cupcakes from Kara’s, chocolate raspberry and vanilla coconut.  The coconut BLEW MY MIND.

So there you have it folks, sugar overload in San Francisco, worth every cavity

San Francisco: The Not as Good

So none of our meals in San Francisco were bad by any means, but a few were disappointing or just sub par.  But I photographed them and tried to make them look pretty!

In N Out Burger at the Wharf

We were so hungry when we first arrived at our hotel, so we walked a couple of blocks and stumbled into In N Out, one place we had been planning on trying.  It was crowded and the tables had not been cleaned all day, but what do you expect in the most touristy section of SF?  I could deal with all of that but the burgers just weren’t that great.  I was shocked, as I’d heard nothing but raves and Tyler and I both agreed that they didn’t taste much different than a McDonald’s burger, the patties were just so thin.  However, our tour guide told us a couple of days later that the In N Out’s in N. California do not hold a candle to those in Southern California, so we have to reserve final judgement until we try them there I suppose!  For now I remain a loyal fan of Five Guys, the East Coast burger

Cafe Pescatore, attached to The Tuscan Inn.

On the busiest day of our vacation we had spent the morning in Fairfield at the Jelly Belly Factory, the afternoon at Muir Woods, and had a limited amount of time to grab a bite to eat before our night tour of Alcatraz.  So we decided to eat at Cafe Pescatore, the very nice looking restaurant/cafe attached to our hotel.  We figured we’d have some good seafood and be on our way.  We both found our dishes underwhelming.  Tyler had gnocchi with tiger prawns and I had crab ravioli.  The ravioli was very thin with minimal filling, and the tomato cream sauce was more like a soup.  In fact in splashed on my blouse no matter how careful I tried to be as I ate (and I wasn’t about to wear my napkin as a bib…).  For almost $20 per plate we expected more, however the dishes just fell flat.

Steps of Rome Caffe in North Beach

We heard some of the other guests at our hotel saying good things about Steps of Rome in North Beach and restaurants were filling up on Saturday night so we grabbed a table on the patio just before things really started hopping.  Our service was only so-so, we were only given one menu as they had run out of them, which was inconvenient but not the end of the world.  The flop was our appetizer.  The homemade cheese was stringy, ohhhhh so stringy, and the flavor just was not good.  But our main dishes were great, I had pumpkin ravioli in a delicious white cheese sauce and Tyler had some kind of vegetable pasta mixture.  Plus it was an affordable meal and we left with full stomachs, so in the end, it was fine, I just don’t think I’ll ever be brave enough to try homemade cheese again!

the questionable appetizer plate:

the great entrees that redeemed the meal:

So three meals out of eight were less than fabulous, but not bad, it could of been much worse!

San Francisco: The Good

Tyler and I recently took a long weekend trip to San Francisco, here are some of the best meals we had:

Calzone’s in North Beach

we picked this restaurant randomly after walking around North Beach and checking out menus.  They had an open table on the patio and the food we saw on the plates of diners out there looked delicious, so we settled in for a great meal.  Great food, great people watching.  Loved the oval shaped tables facing outwards so people didn’t bump into us.

drinks: reisling

appetizer: bruschetta-garlic pesto toasted baguette topped with chopped fresh tomatoes and drizzled with basil oil
comments: not the best bruschetta we’ve ever had, but very tasty, loved the pesto.

Tyler ate:  Roasted Fulton Valley Chicken, broccolini and zucchini mashed potatoes.
comments: chicken was kinda dry, broccolini was so-so, but zucchini mashed potatoes were PERFECTION.

Julia ate:  Arugula salad with artichokes, garbanzo beans, oven-roasted tomatoes, Humboldt Fog goat cheese in lemon oil.
comments: great salad, could of used more artichokes and tomatoes, goat cheese was out of this world, needed more dressing as the salad was a bit dry.

Babs Delta Diner in Suisun City

We went to Fairfield, CA to visit the Jelly Belly Factory and stopped in nearby Suisun City for lunch.  There weren’t a lot of options for restaurants but Babs was hoppin’ so we decided to try it out.  We waited about 5 minutes for a table and after ordering our food came quickly.  This place has been around for about 30 years and they have standard diner food, but everything looked good, not too greasy.

Tyler ate: a Reuben sandwich

Julia ate: corned beef and swiss sandwich

comments: both of these sandwiches were great!  Thick pieces of corned beef made them hearty and the perfect lunch on a busy day.  So glad we stumbled upon this place!

Mijita’s Cocina Mexicana at the Ferry Building

This was one of my favorite meals on the trip, but I am a lover of Mexican food, Tyler is not as big of a fan.  We wandered the Ferry Building looking for a good lunch spot, so many great options but Tyler caved to my insistance that we try Mijitas.  We were both happy!  Small but dynamic menu, fast service, and DELICIOUS FOOD!

we drank: strawberry juice
comments: sadly not as good as it looked, didn’t have much of a punch to it, but it didn’t taste bad by any means.

appetizer: guacamole with chips
comments: great guacamole!  excellent flavor, couldn’t  get enough of it!  Only complaint was that the chips were a bit burnt.

Tyler & Julia ate: 4 different kinds of tacos, including:

carnitas-

carne asada-

pescado (deep fried mahi-mahi)-

vegetariano-

comments: the vegetarian taco was nothing special, but the other three were fantastic!  Tyler’s favorite was the steak, my favorite was surprisingly the pork (and I don’t usually care for pork!)

The Slanted Door at the Ferry Building

This restaurant was the only one we made reservations at, as we chose to not over-plan this trip like we have for prior vacations.  Everyone recommends this restaurant, and for good reason, the food is outstanding!  We made lunch reservations because 1) it’s cheaper and 2) it was all that was available by the time we got around to making reservations the week of our trip.

we drank: fresh squeezed lemonade and phoenix bird tea, sorry, no pictures!

appetizer: crispy imperial rolls
comments: these kick PF Chang’s lettuce wraps in the ASS.  And I LOVE those lettuce wraps.

Tyler ate: north Vietnamese style halibut with vermicelli noodles, fresh dill, and pineapple-anchovy sauce
comments: absolutely fantastic, great balance of flavors, not too “fishy” despite the halibut and anchovy.

Julia ate: niman ranch flank steak with fresh ginger over rice noodles with roasted peanuts
comments: everything about this dish was wonderful, but the beef took the cake!

Wrapping Up: none of the meals on our trip were bad per se, but these are the ones that stand out as truly great, restaurants we would dine at again and again if we lived in the SF area.  The best part (besides our happy tastebuds) was that we did not spend over $65  total (including 15-20% tip) on any single one of these meals!  Our hotel had a wine hour from 4-6 pm so we had a couple of (free!) glasses of wine there before heading out for dinner, saving us money on drinks!  That left some money for some fabulous sweets at various bakeries and gelaterias, which I will blog about in the coming days!

Spicy Thai

Tyler picked this recipe out of the latest Cooking Light.  If you haven’t checked out CL recently you should.  Last month they launched their new design, with a photo of EVERY recipe.  It is fantastic.  Many more recipes than before, and less of the travel/exercise/beauty filler they were using so much of before.  This noodle dish was delicious but SPICY.  I had to take a big drink of milk between every bite.  So next time we’ll probably cut back on the chili-garlic paste  This was our first time using rice noodles and they were yummy, however a little expensive, a cheaper substitute would be linguine or another flat pasta.

Thai Rice Noodles with Chicken (from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

1/4  cup  fresh lime juice, divided
2  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
8  ounces  1/2-inch-thick rice noodles
1  tablespoon  brown sugar
1  tablespoon  water
1  tablespoon  fish sauce
1  tablespoon  low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2  teaspoons  fresh chile paste with garlic (such as sambal oelek)
1/4  teaspoon  salt, divided
4  teaspoons  canola oil, divided
3  tablespoons  thinly diagonally sliced green onions
1  teaspoon  grated peeled fresh ginger
1  teaspoon  minced garlic
1/2  cup  torn fresh basil
1/4  cup  very thinly sliced lemongrass (tough outer stalks removed) our store didn’t carry this so we omitted it
1/4  cup  very thinly vertically sliced shallots

Directions:

1. Combine 2 tablespoons juice and chicken in a bowl. Let stand 15 minutes.

2. Soak noodles in hot water 15 minutes or until somewhat soft but still slightly chewy. Drain well.

3. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons juice, sugar, and next 4 ingredients (through chile paste). Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt.

4. Heat a large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Remove chicken from juice; discard juice. Add chicken to pan; stir-fry 4 minutes or until done. Transfer to large bowl; sprinkle with remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan. Add green onions, ginger, and garlic; stir-fry 45 seconds or just until golden and fragrant. Add noodles; cook 30 seconds, tossing well. Stir in sugar mixture. Add chicken; cook 30 seconds. Place 1 1/4 cups noodle mixture on each of 4 plates. Top each with 2 tablespoons basil, 1 tablespoon lemongrass, and 1 tablespoon shallots.

• 1/4  cup  fresh lime juice, divided
  2  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
  8  ounces  1/2-inch-thick rice noodles
  1  tablespoon  brown sugar
  1  tablespoon  water
  1  tablespoon  fish sauce
  1  tablespoon  low-sodium soy sauce
  1 1/2  teaspoons  fresh chile paste with garlic (such as sambal oelek)
  1/4  teaspoon  salt, divided
  4  teaspoons  canola oil, divided
  3  tablespoons  thinly diagonally sliced green onions
  1  teaspoon  grated peeled fresh ginger
  1  teaspoon  minced garlic
  1/2  cup  torn fresh basil
  1/4  cup  very thinly sliced lemongrass (tough outer stalks removed)
  1/4  cup  very thinly vertically sliced shallots

Jerk Chicken Skewers

Another great recipe from the Weber grilling cookbook!

Jerk Chicken Skewers with Honey Lime Cream (from Weber’s Way to Grill)

Paste:

1 habanera or Scotch chile pepper – I used a jalapeno – didn’t have anything else
1 cup tightly packed fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 scallions, white and light green parts, roughly chopped
6 medium garlic cloves
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp ground allspice
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Sauce:

½ cup sour cream
½ tsp finely grated lime zest
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp honey
¼ tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Wear rubber gloves when seeding and chopping the chile. Remove the seeds and put the rest of the chile in the food processor with the rest of the paste ingredients and process until smooth.

Trim the chicken of any fat and remove the tenders. Cut the chicken lengthwise into even strips ½ to ¾ strips. I bought chicken tenders as they were on sale.

Place the chicken onto a large resalable bag and spoon in the paste. Work the paste into the chicken, press out the air in the bag, and seal tightly. Place in the refrigerator and let marinate for 2-3 hours.

In a small bowl whisk the sauce ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let the sauce stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving. Prepare the grill for direct heating over high heat.

Wearing rubber or plastic gloves, thread the chicken strips onto the skewers, being sure to keep each skewer well within the flesh of the chicken. If you don’t have rubber gloves, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after this step.

Brush the cooking grates clean. Gill the skewers over direct high heat with the lid closed as much as possible until the meat is firm and the juices run clear – 6-8 minutes, turning once or twice. Serve warm with sauce.