recipe – Page 17 – AT-AT Everywhere

Thomas Keller’s “Ad Hoc at Home” Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alex, Lingie, and I made the trek up to the Pacific Northwest back in December to visit our beloved Andrew. The four of us, being the laid back yet eccentric group that we are, decided that the first bullet point on our itinerary was for us all to cook a meal together. Nothing else was planned til less than week before our departure date.

Here’s what we came up with!

Andrew's Salmon Prep — Andrew’s Salmon Prep

Andrew taught us how to do a pan-fried salmon, and Lingie helped prep. We liked the recipe so much, we made it again the next night.

Ain't Nobody Got THYME Fo Dat... — Ain’t Nobody Got THYME Fo Dat…

Andrew also made a linguini vongole with bacon lardons.

We all contributed to a salad consisting of julienne pink lady apples, grated pecorino, and candied walnuts all topped with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Salad with Grated Pecorino, Julienned Pink Lady Apples, and Candied Walnuts

At the request of our gracious host, I made a batch of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc Chocolate Chip Cookies in Andrew’s oven, which had convection capabilities at the flip of a switch (which I used, obvi). I live quite an exciting life. Alex helped me with the cookies.

I liked these cookies because they used two kinds of dark chocolate, so they weren’t too sweet (which is my issue with most chocolate chip cookies).

However, if I made these again, I would use the organic chocolate I’ve recently discovered at Trader Joe’s. It’s deliciously 85% dark and cocoa buttery smooth. It’s also quite bitter… like me! You are what you eat, right?

Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home" Chocolate Chip Cookies — Thomas Keller’s “Ad Hoc at Home” Chocolate Chip Cookies

We paired the cookies hot out of the oven with pints (yes, PINTS) of Ben and Jerry’s “Pistachio Pistachio” ice cream, and I used the dust remnants of the chocolate I chopped to sprinkle over the ice cream.

Not going to lie – pistachio and dark chocolate were made to be together. The beauty of pistachio ice cream with any form of dark chocolate (bars, warm cake, cookies, anything!) brings me tears of joy every time.

This recipe was also my inspiration for what I ended up baking yesterday in preparation for Valentine’s Day… which I probably won’t post about for another 3 months at this rate. More to come on that front!

Ingredients – Notice the Seattle Specialty Dark Chocolate!

Pan-Fried Salmon with Sauteed Swiss Chard

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Chicken Sausage and Brussels Sprouts (Dinner à la Trader Joe’s)

I love Trader Joe’s. I have lived walking distance from aforementioned lover ever since I finished college. It’s the perfect place for people who don’t have time to cook, don’t know how to cook, and/or don’t want to cook. They have lovely niche items, as well as your every day staples – all at great prices. There are a handful of items that I now purchase exclusively from Trader Joe’s not just due to their great prices and bountiful array of healthy options, but also because I’ve found that the TJ brand just tastes better than competitive brands (i.e., sun-dried tomatoes, butternut squash ravioli, beets, dark chocolate, almond butter, etc.).

Nothing hurts my soul more than a market-meanderer. Those people set up camp in the aisles with no purpose other than to double the time my trip to the store is supposed to take. They walk right in front of me and then stop to add nothing to their cart, staring longingly at the cheese puffs. I can be pretty patient with situations like these, but after waiting longer than what’s fair, I always intercede the wretched chicken stock-blocker with an “Excuse me, can I get by? PS – don’t buy the cheese puffs. You are fat.” Okay, maybe that last part is just what goes through my head.

One mistake you never want to make is to go to a grocery store before you’ve eaten dinner without a list or idea of what you want to eat. You’ll end up buying way too much stuff and be one of those aisle-cloggers I so detest. I did exactly this last week (sans aisle-clogging), and decided to try to make my hoard somehow work.

I wanted to make something with the TJ butternut squash triangoli (super low in fat and calories for what it is, btw) and brussels sprouts. But what? I ‘ve paired bacon with brussels sprouts many a time, so I decided to try it with chicken sausage. However, chicken sausage generally isn’t as sweet as bacon and I didn’t want to get something as sweet as a chicken apple sausage which would compete with the sweetness of the triangoli. Being obsessed with the California sun-dried tomatoes from Trader Joe’s as it is, I got a package of those and then went with the sun-dried tomato chicken sausage.

Ingredients - all from TJ's — Ingredients – all from TJ’s

Cooking the brussels sprouts in the chicken sausage grease (I know – it sounds so gross) gave the otherwise pretty bitter brussels some great flavor.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts, Onions, and Garlic

Here’s my original “recipe”.

Ingredients:

1 package Trader Joe’s Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Sausage, sliced
3 cloves garlic*, minced
1 small Vidalia (sweet) onion*, diced
1 bag of Trader Joe’s brussels sprouts (16-oz), halved
1 tbsp Trader Giotto’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning
Handful of Trader Joe’s California Sun-Dried Tomatoes – Julienne Cut
1 package Trader Giotto’s Butternut Squash Triangoli, cooked
Grated parmesan cheese* (optional)

*also purchased from Trader Joe’s

Directions:

Heat a nonstick skillet to medium-high heat. Slice and cook sausage til brown. Transfer sausage to a plate covered wtih a paper towel, without losing any of the drippings. There won’t be very much as it is.
Heat olive oil in the same skillet, and cook the onion and garlic until the onions become soft, scraping up the bits of the sausage drippings that have now browned. Add about 4-6 turns of the Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning.
Add brussels sprouts and cook until slightly softened but crunchy, about 10-15 minutes.
While the brussels sprouts are cooking, prepare the triangoli according to package directions.
Toss everything together, add some the sun-dried tomatoes and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
EAT.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Chicken Sausage and Brussels Sprouts

I like dishes that combine sweet and salty, so this might be a bit off the beaten path but I’ve really enjoyed it. Hopefully you can too!

P.S. This post is not sponsored by Trader Joe’s. I just love them.

Pan-Fried Brussels Sprouts, Onions, and Garlic

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Chicken Sausage and Brussels Sprouts (Dinner à la Trader Joe’s)

Earl Grey Tea Shortbread Cookies (And Holiday Preview)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Shit got real this past weekend. As of yesterday, I am proud to say that I have completed the Holiday Bake-A-Thon 2012 (*inserts shameless plugs from 2011, 2010, and 2009 here*). I may churn out a couple more things before the year is over, but will do so leisurely (versus the stressful, intense 14 hours of baking I conquered this past weekend). I decided on a tea theme for this year’s holiday homemade gifting, as I have really been enjoying a warm cup of Earl Grey on afternoons where a low-cal pick-me-up was needed. I mean, who doesn’t love Earl Grey? Even Captain Picard does! The smell is intoxicating!

Andrew graciously and unknowingly was my guinea pig for this new recipe I wanted to try out, since his 50th birthday was conveniently a month before Christmas. I found the recipe on Taste Space but had to convert several of the ingredients from grams to teaspoons/cups, most of which didn’t come out into whole measurements. I had to eyeball ingredients once we got into the decimal range, which is why I wanted to test this out before jumping right in to make these as gifts.

I think they turned out ok! They are much lighter and airy in texture (almost wafer-like?) than your average shortbread cookie – less buttery, too, which I like. Rolling the dough logs in sugar before slicing the cookies added a nice little extra crunch to the cookie, but I found that those coming from the dough that I dabbed in water prior to rolling in the sugar had too thick of a sugar “crust”. The moisture from the cold dough is enough to get sugar to stick to it, leaving just the right amount of sugar around the edges of the cookies, in my opinion! The flavors are also very delicate, and they smell amazing thanks to the bergamot in the tea. The orange zest balances the bitterness of the tea, too.

Here’s the recipe with the converted ingredients!

Ingredients (converted to US measurements):

1/2 C + 2 TBSP powdered sugar1 C butter
0.6 TSP salt (1/2 TSP + pinch works!)
0.6 TSP vanilla extract
1 egg, room temperature
1.585 C all-purpose flour (1 C + slightly heaping 1/2 C)
3/4 TSP baking powder
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 small lime
1 TSP crushed earl grey tea leaves
1/2 C coarse sugar

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt, vanilla and zests and continue beating.

2. Add egg, scraping down the sides of the bowl afterward.

3. Add tea leaves and mix together.

4. Sift together flour and baking powder and add to the mix. Blend dry ingredients into wet, only until just combined.

5. Transfer dough to a table dusted with flour and lightly shape into a tube shape. Divide into 4 pieces and roll each piece into 1-1/2 inch diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper and chill in fridge for an hour (or longer).

6. When ready to bake, dab logs with a bit of water and roll in coarse sugar.

7. Slice logs with knife (I used my Chef’s knife) into 1/4-inch slices.

8. Bake on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper or a silpat at 360F for ~12 minutes, or until a light golden colour.

Waking up at practically dawn to see Les Mis again, and then lots of cooking to do! Off to bed!

Naked citrus fruits and battered tea leaves

Halloween Mummy Cupcakes

In honor of Halloween, I made these mummy cupcakes to bring in to work today. They’re just chocolate cupcakes with a frosted mummy “face”.

I tried my hand at using a frosting tip for the first time, but the seemingly intuitive ziploc baggie method was a complete disaster. Luckily, I found this YouTube tutorial for How to Make an Icing Bag using parchment paper and it really helped!

As you can see, some of my mummy cupcakes look like they got TP’d instead.

Since we’re on the topic of sweets, I had to post this video a coworker of mine sent to me last summer. Kirstin Lepore, you are a genius! Happy Halloween, everyone!