Recipe: Chicken-Barley Soup with Herbs and Egg Noodles

Forgot to take a photo of the dish!

Chicken-Barley Soup with Herbs and Egg Noodles
Food and Wine Magazine, Jan 2017, p. 91
4 stars

Nice, hearty winter dish that is really easy to make (not much to it), but just takes time to cook (over 1.5 hr) so we made it over the weekend.  I rated it 4 stars and not 5 because it's not a wow-knock-you-off-your-rocker-i'd-serve-this-to-guests kind of dish, but it was a good, solid, healthy dish that has been great for leftovers.

Ingredients:  chicken legs, leeks, celery, mixed mushrooms, garlic, thyme, chicken stock or broth, pearled barley, egg noodles, lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper, chopped parsley or tarragon

Tips:

• Used more celery than was called for
• Used chicken thighs instead of legs
• Parsley or tarragon is definitely a nice addition/garnish

Recipe: Celery Root Bisque with Walnut-Parsley Gremolata

Celery Root Bisque with Walnut-Parsley Gremolata
Food and Wine Magazine, Nov 2016, p. 132
3.5 stars

This recipe was fine but needs a little work because the soup was a bit too watery;  however, it had good flavor.  The walnut-parsley gremolata was surprisingly delicious and a necessary addition.

Ingredients:  celery root, leek, chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, chicken stock or broth, walnuts, parsley, heavy cream, garlic, butter, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper

Tips:

• Add a couple of small potatoes next time to thicken up the soup.
• Add croutons to the top for extra crunch!

Recipe: Apple Gingerbread Cake With Cream

In the springform pan before flipping it on to the baking sheet

Voila!

Apple Gingerbread Cake With Cream
Bon Appetit Magazine, Oct 2016, p.100
4.5 stars

This recipe is not for a beginner baker, and it's not a quick recipe.  Not hard, just a lot of steps and takes some time!

It's a really nice fall/winter dessert that's a bit on the sweet side primarily because of the caramel.  With vanilla bean ice cream on the side, it's perfect for a apple-gingerbread lover.

Ingredients:  unsalted butter, light brown sugar, lady apples, flour, baking powder, kosher salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, dark molasses, pure maple syrup, eggs, fresh ginger, baking soda, heavy cream

Tips:

• Cooked the apples all at once in a large skillet vs. in 2 batches.
• Sliced the apples differently than how Bon Appetit sliced them.
• Baked for 47 min.
• Next time, will cut the salt to just 1 tsp.  Each bite is a little on the salty side.  

Recipe: Haricots Verts Salad with Crispy Potato Chips

Haricots Verts Salad with Crispy Potato Chips
Food and Wine Magazine, Nov 2016
4 stars

I loved this dish, but blog contributor 'the grandcruman' was not a fan since this had a strong vinegar-Dijon mustard flavor.  So note: you must like that flavor profile in order to like this dish.  This dish does not lack flavor for sure!

In short, this is a haricots verts (or green bean) dish with crispy potatoes on top and a shallot/Champagne vinegar/Dijon mustard with parsley vinaigrette.

Ingredients:  baby Yukon Gold potatoes, haricots verts, thyme, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper, shallot, Champagne vinegar, Dijon mustard, parsley

Tips:

• Used green beans instead of haricots verts.
• The potatoes stuck to the aluminum foil.  We'd suggest slicing them thicker next time and not using aluminum foil on the baking sheet.
• This makes a lot of dressing.  For 2 lbs of haricots verts, make just 3/4 or less of the dressing.

Recipe: Vietnamese Chicken Soup with Rice

Vietnamese Chicken Soup with Rice
Bon Appetit Magazine, Oct 2016, p. 12
5+ stars

This is one of the best dishes we've ever made -- super flavorful and a restaurant quality dish.  The recipe was in the r.s.v.p. section of Bon Appetit magazine where people request (sometimes beg for!) recipes for dishes they've had at a restaurant.  This one is from Elizabeth Street Cafe in Austin which I've dined at and enjoyed.

This will be a "go-to" recipe for us.  It's very easy; you just need to have all ingredients on hand.  AND. . .  it doesn't require hours to cook.  We've tried making flavorful broths (like for pho) before, and this one was simple and packed a punch of flavor with all of the ingredients.

Ingredients:  dried kombu, chicken thighs, ginger, star anise pods, cinnamon stick, whole cloves, chicken stock or broth, glutinous (sticky) rice or sushi rice, fish sauce, light brown sugar, scallion, jalapeno, cilantro, white onion

Tips/Additions:

• Added a garlic glove to the broth
• Added red pepper flakes to the broth
• Topped it with white pepper
• As you can see, I love jalapenos so topped mine with quite a few -- top it to taste!

Enjoy!

Recipe: Mexican Baked Eggs

Messy plating, but hey, it was delicious!

Mexican Baked Eggs
Food and Wine Magazine, Jun 2016, p. 52
5 stars

Talk about easy and quick dish to make for a weeknight meal.  We amped it up by adding a few ingredients -- see tips below.

I'm all about flavor, and this had it -- just see the ingredients.

Ingredients:  eggs, poblanos, garlic, cherry tomatoes, tomato sauce, queso fresco, cilantro, jalapeno, dried oregano, olive oil

Tips:

• Added chorizo
• Added red pepper
• Topped it with sliced avocado and radishes
• Add salt to taste

Documentary: Food Matters

The documentary Forks Over Knives changed how we eat forever.  In short, it discussed how a plant-based diet can cure all kinds of ailments and how dairy and meat are shown to have a strong correlation to cancer.  After watching that documentary, we started eating a LOT less meat and switched from regular milk to almond milk.

Last night, we watched Food Matters on Netflix, and it also is changing forever how we eat in a big way.  The documentary is less than an hour and a half and will change your life and health.  If you're reading this, I highly recommend watching it -- get the documentary from your library or buy it from Amazon or watch it on the Food Matters site.

Like Forks Over Knives, Food Matters touts the benefits of eating a plant-based, RAW vegetable diet but also provides research support about the huge benefits of taking vitamins -- and how people with chronic diseases and even cancer have self-healed by changing their diet and taking vitamins.  What's crazy is that when I was in high school, I remember my Anatomy & Physiology teacher telling me that her friend's cancer disappeared after taking high doses of vitamin C.  This documentary has all the research and support for that.

Here is more about the documentary:  Food Matters

My biggest takeaways:

• We need to eat 51% (raw) vegetables during each meal for better wellness and health.  It's definitely going to be hard for us to eat raw vegetables during each meal, but I think if we can get to a mix of 51%+ raw and cooked veggies.
• Your body is powerful and is made to self-heal, but it can only self-heal if it is nourished with all the vitamins it needs to fight off disease.
• Nutrition therapy works but the government has suppressed it and the research findings (just like they did with the sugar industry -- watch the documentary Sugar Coated) because of powerful pharmaceutical lobbyists. You will get mad at the government and the pharma companies after watching the documentary.
• You really are what you eat.

Recipe: Chocolate S'more Pie

Chocolate S'more Pie
Gourmet Magazine, Nov 2006
5 stars

Was looking for a dessert to take over to our friends' house and found this recipe we'd saved (10 years ago!) from the now defunct Gourmet Magazine.

The pie was a hit!  We were so excited to eat it, I neglected to take a photo of it.  Will update this blog post with a photo the next time I make it which will probably be soon.

It wasn't too sweet, and I think the pie was actually even better the next day after putting it in the fridge overnight.

Tips/Notes/My Modifications:

• Used a mix of 72% chocolate and 60% chips
• Took a while for the marshmallow topping to whip up and triple in volume
• Make sure to chill the pie (chocolate cream filling in the pie crust) and put the marshmallow topping directly on the pie.  We made the marshmallow topping in advance and put it in a container where the topping set and was hard to spread on the pie).
• Enjoy with your closest friends!

Recipe: Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Noodles (Jap Chae)

Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Noodles (Jap Chae)
Food and Wine Magazine, Jul 2016, p. 80
5 stars

My new favorite super healthy, vegetarian Asian dish!

Jap chae is a traditional Korean dish made with sweet potato noodles.  You might be thinking, sweet potato noodles?!?  Honestly, you would never guess that the noodles were made of the root vegetable since they taste and have the texture of a rice/glass noodle which you could substitute.

This recipe takes a bunch of ingredients, mainly vegetables.

Ingredients:  Korean-style noodles (jap chae), shrimp, garlic, red onion, carrots, broccolini, red Swiss chard, oyster mushrooms, sugar snap peas, peas, scallion, black sesame seeds, egg, mirin, soy sauce, vegetable oil, toasted sesame oil, white sesame seeds, sugar, salt

Tips/Things I Modified:

• Make sure not to overcook the noodles!
• Left out the shrimp
• Added tofu
• Stirred in the egg instead of making the strips of egg
• Used kale instead of red Swiss chard
• Added sriracha to taste at the table

Recipe: Spinach Souffle with Shallots and Smoked Gouda Cheese

Spinach Souffle with Shallots and Smoked Gouda Cheese
Epicurious.com
3.7 stars

I found this recipe in my recipe binder -- I'd printed it back in 2011 but hadn't made this souffle.  Don't know why.  I pulled the recipe and was honestly not 100% optimistic on how it was going to turn out.  I've made other souffles before, but the steps were different, and I wasn't sure if the shallots, spinach and smoked gouda were going to complement each other well.

Overall, it turned out pretty good.  The souffles didn't rise as high as other recipes that I've made, and the texture was not as light and airy as I would've liked, but flavor-wise, it was delicious.

10 ingredients:  milk, butter, flour, eggs, shallots, spinach, smoked Gouda cheese, nutmeg, salt, pepper

Tips/What I did:

• Made half the recipe which yielded 3 large individual portion ramekins
• Instead of frozen spinach, sauteed fresh spinach and then drained off the water and chopped it up
• Used onion instead of shallots because, well, I forgot to buy shallots

I'd make a spinach/shallot/smoked gouda souffle again, but perhaps use another souffle recipe's steps.  Will update this blog post with tips when I make it next time.

Recipe: Instant Chocolate Cake (5 min Chocolate Cake when you're craving cake at 8pm)

Instant Chocolate Cake

Food Network

5 stars!!!

I often crave dessert after dinner and we'll have nothing, no dessert at all, in the house!  Sometimes we'll go out to get dessert, but last week I didn't want to go anywhere.  It was 8pm, and I just wanted to sit on the couch and hang out after a long day at work.  I thought about looking at UberEats or Postmates to see if I could get dessert delivered but instead. . . 

Instant Chocolate Cake recipe to the rescue.

8 ingredients, 2 minutes in the microwave.  Voila.  Dessert enough for 2 people!

See link above to the simple recipe from the Food Network.

Ingredients are things we almost always have in the house:  flour, sugar, cocoa powder, egg, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, salt.

The cake has a bit of a souffle-like texture which I loved.  I'd seen e-mails and Facebook posts about 'microwave mug cakes' and turned my nose up at those recipes.  Not anymore.  This is my 'in a pinch' chocolate cake recipe that I'm filing away.  Next time:  I'm adding chocolate chips (and maybe some peppermint extract) and pouring a chocolate ganache on top.  

Recipe: Spaghettini with Warm Bacon-Mushroom Vinaigrette

Spaghettini with Warm Bacon-Mushroom Vinaigrette
Food and Wine Magazine, Oct 2016, p. 120
4 stars

This was the cover recipe on the Oct 2016 issue of Food and Wine Magazine.  Nice dish that calls for only 9 ingredients excluding salt and pepper.

Ingredients:  spaghettini, bacon, onion, mixed mushrooms, garlic, balsamic vinegar, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt, pepper, basil

It's a pretty quick weeknight meal.  When serving, make sure each portion gets enough mushrooms and bacon.  The bacon adds the umami to the dish and helps the dish come together.  Without the bacon, it would be bland!

Tips/What We Did:

• Used regular spaghetti
• Left out the white truffle oil

Recipe: Alton Brown's Chicken Parmesan Balls

Alton Brown's Chicken Parmesan Balls
The Today Show (link above)
4.5 stars

I was watching the Today Show last week.  Alton Brown was on showing how to make his Chicken Parmesan Balls -- I had to make them after watching the clip.

Great recipe that we'll definitely make again.  This could be served with pasta, but we decided on bread.

We didn't make the herb oil but I'm sure that adds a whole other dimension to the balls.  (I guess he doesn't call them meatballs since the recipe doesn't use red meat?)  Also, we made our own spaghetti sauce recipe.

The chicken parmesan balls themselves only had 11 ingredients:  panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, ground chicken, egg, oil, dried basil, garlic powder, dried parsley, dried oregano, Kosher salt and mozzarella cheese.

For an alternative to 'red' meatballs, this was great!

Different Cheeses from Mexico

Sometimes I can't remember the difference between the various common Mexican cheeses.  For my quick reference, I took a photo of the image above from Bon Appetit Magazine - p. 104 from the Feb 2016 issue.  I found the descriptions super helpful!

Recipe: Sour Cream and Scallion Drop Biscuits

Sour Cream and Scallion Drop Biscuits
Bon Appetit Magazine, Feb 2016, p. 27
5 stars

Can I just say YUM?!

These are now my favorite biscuits that I've ever made.  They're so flavorful and moist.  It might sound odd to put scallions in them, but that's what differentiates them and gives them a unique flavor.  Definitely something I'd made for guests.

It doesn't take very long to prep the 9 ingredients.

Ingredients:  all-purpose flour, melted butter, scallions, sour cream, baking powder, kosher salt, sugar, baking soda, hot paprika.

Tip:

• The biggest tip is to bake them longer than the 12-15 min that's called for in the recipe.  Make sure the tops of the biscuits get brown (don't get fooled by the paprika that is also reddish brown), and make sure the bottoms get a little brown as well.  It took me about double the bake time.

Recipe: Barley with Walnuts and Bacon

Barley with Walnuts and Bacon
Food and Wine Magazine, p. 44
3.5 stars

We made this dish because, frankly, we had all of the ingredients in the house and needed dinner!  It's a solid, flavorful and filling dish -- more of a "peasant" dish than something gourmet that I'd serve to friends.

Also, it's quite easy to make with only 9 ingredients.  As noted in the recipe (see link above), this is a very hearty grain dish which can stand alone or be an accompaniment to a dish like roast chicken.

Ingredients:  pearled barley, bacon, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, chicken broth, toasted walnuts, extra-virgin olive oil

Tips:

• Added thyme and red pepper as well as some salt
• Next time, we'll try farro instead of barley

Recipe: Kale-and-Shitake Fried Rice

Kale-and-Shitake Fried Rice
Food and Wine Magazine, Feb 2016, p.94
5 stars

Love, love, loved this dish.  This is going in our Asian dish rotation.  It's basically a somewhat healthy 'fried' rice especially if you follow my tips below. . . and it's easy to make!  Just a little bit of chopping of vegetables.

Ingredients:  shitake mushrooms, kale, white rice, eggs, ginger, garlic, scallions, rice wine vinegar, oyster sauce, Kosher salt, vegetable oil

What we changed in the recipe:

• Used half the oil
• Used baby bella mushrooms instead of shitake since the shitake didn't look fresh in the store
• Used triple the amount of kale
• Used freshly-cooked basmati rice
• Added red pepper
• Added ground pork sausage (cooked it separately and added it to the top)
• Added sriracha to taste at the table

Recipe: NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted on Bakelikeachamp.com
4.5 stars

I'm on the quest to test and find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I've tried out recipes including Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, Cook's Country, and of course the Tollhouse recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag.

This NY Times recipe was really good, a solid recipe.  However, it requires refrigerating the dough for 24 or up to 72 hours, so this is not for those who have issues with immediate gratification.  Must plan ahead with this recipe!

Interestingly, this recipe uses bread flour;  and I like the use of chocolate chunks and the touch of sea salt flakes on top.

My favorite recipe so far; however, is still the Cook's Country recipe that requires browning the butter which gives the cookies a nice depth of flavor.  I just realized I haven't blogged about that recipe so. . .  looks like I'll need to make those cookies again and post about it!  Who wants some chocolate chip cookies?

Drink Recipe: Peach Rosemary Gin & Tonic Cocktail

Peach Rosemary Gin & Tonic Cocktail
My recipe
5 stars

Fill a glass with ice and add:

• 1.5 oz gin
• 0.5 oz peach liqueur
• Top off with tonic
• Add a squeeze of lime
• Add a few peach wedges
• Stir with a fresh sprig of rosemary

Recipe: Pork & Spinach Noodles

Pork & Spinach Noodles
Food and Wine Magazine, Jun 2016, p. 50
4 stars

Talk about a quick weeknight dinner that is healthy and quick to make.  The ingredients are items we almost always have in our fridge.

Ingredients:  spaghetti, ground pork, spinach garlic, ginger, canola oil, Asian fish sauce, lime juice, basil, salt, pepper

Tips:

• Used udon noodles instead of spaghetti
• Used ground bison instead of pork
• Added firm tofu that we seared in a separate pan
• Doubled the amount of spinach
• Added sriracha to taste at the table