kale and chevre pesto.

After a few days of false springtime, we're back to woolly layers and high winds. So this evening, for a cozy dinner, I made this simple recipe that I noticed on 101 Cookbooks back in the fall. It couldn't be much easier; plus, it's a great basil-pesto alternative as well as a wonderful option for using kale. I made very few changes to the original here: adjusted the oil, added a little lemon zest, topped with pine nuts; I might also add a handful of pine nuts to the sauce before pureeing it next time, just for fun. Accompanied by a few slices of baguette and followed by a rich stout (excellent choice, J.), this kept the chill away.

[And, let's be honest, I was looking an excuse to break out my brand new pasta bowls! I just retired the plates I bought for my senior year dorm apartment and made the switch to all-white dinnerware. Glorious. These bowls are restaurant-sized - in other words, so huge that they fit in neither my cabinets nor my dishwasher. I love them.]


Kale and Chevre Pesto
from 101 Cookbooks

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and trimmed
2 large or 4 small shallots, peeled and trimmed
1 small bunch of kale (1/2 lb. or 8 oz.), stalks removed, washed well
1/4 c. olive oil (*the original calls for 1/3 c. - I liked a slightly thicker consistency)
1/3 c. (2 oz.) chevre
~2 tbsp. cooking water
lemon zest/juice
fresh thyme

1. Bring large pot of water to boil. Salt generously, then add garlic and shallots. Boil for 2-3 mins., then stir in kale and cook for another 10 secs. (Don't overcook!) Quickly fish the kale, garlic, and shallots out of the water and into food processor.

2. Puree the kale mixture and chevre, then with motor running, add oil and water (1 tbsp. at a time, to thin the sauce if necessary). Season with salt and pepper and the zest of 1/2 a lemon, if you wish. (I liked this for brightening the flavor. The original recommends a squeeze of lemon juice, which works too.)

3. Cook pasta according to instructions, then drain and toss with sauce. Add a few pinches of fresh thyme (about 4 stalks, stripped) and a sprinkling of pine nuts to serve.

Serves 4-6.

ginger pear upside-down cake.

I bookmarked this recipe so long ago that I can't remember how I got to it; originally from the Macrina Bakery & Café Cookbook, this cake is delicious.

Darkly sweet from the molasses and brown sugar, it's rich without being cloying - the perfect complement to the cinnamon and pears on top. I had just one problem with this recipe: overflow. The instructions said that the pan would be full, which it definitely was. About 15 minutes into baking, I started to smell burnt molasses and raced into the kitchen to find cake batter spilling over into my oven. Oops. I slid a baking sheet onto the lower rack, opened my windows, and followed my practiced routine of standing on the arm of my chair and fanning vigorously with the Illustrated Blake in front of my smoke detector. Next time, I'll just leave out some of the batter to save my oven and to avoid chipping away at this to get it out of the pan:


I also managed, while I was peeling the ginger, to flip it out of my hands - it ricocheted off the wall and shot under the oven. (Not to worry, I didn't try to retrieve and reuse it.) This was a very eventful baking experience, but I'm already looking forward to having this cake again!

Ginger Pear Upside-Down Cake
originally from Macrina Bakery & Café Cookbook, via Seattlest, via who-knows-where, adapted slightly

Topping:
2 tbsp. butter, room temp.
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 med. ripe pears, peeled, cored, and cut into sixths

Batter:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 tbsp. peeled, grated ginger
3 large eggs
2/3 c. molasses
3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. buttermilk


1. Preheat oven to 325F. Butter a 9" springform pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

2. Make topping: combine 2 tbsp. butter, 1/3 c. brown sugar, and cinnamon in small saucepan. Cook over med. heat for about a minute, then pour into springform pan and spread evenly over parchment. Arrange pears in circles as tightly as possible. (I cut a few extras in half and used them to fill in the center.)

3. Make batter: cut butter into pieces and cream with brown sugar on med. speed for 3-5 mins. Add grated ginger and beat 1 min. more, then scrape down sides. Add eggs one at a time, beating on low speed until combined. Slowly pour in molasses and beat until fully incorporated.

4. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to batter in increments, beginning and ending with flour. Do not overmix. Scrape down bowl and stir gently with rubber spatula, then pour carefully into prepared pan.

5. Bake for 1 h 45 mins., until knife comes out clean. Let cool for 10 mins. on wire rack, then cover top with upside-down plate, release sides, and flip cake onto plate. Lift away base, peel off parchment, and let cool for 30 mins. Serve warm or at room temp.

dress(er)ing up the kitchen.

Friends, for the first time in two and a half years, I have ...

a SILVERWARE DRAWER.

That's right. Actually, the drawer is only part of my new-and-improved kitchen space. You see, my first kitchen, in Brookline, was rather cozy. That's ok, I thought; surely this will be the smallest kitchen I'll ever have. Nope. Somehow, I managed to downsize into a kitchen that isn't even its own room (it runs along a wall) and whose only counterspace is that on top of the dishwasher. Few cabinets. No drawers. There is room, thankfully, for a large industrial metal rack that houses the majority of my kitchen supplies, but that has been at capacity for a while and does nothing to provide prep space. Argh.

After months of creatively - and often precariously - balancing mixing bowls on the corner of the sink, plunking hot trays of cookies down on a trivet in the middle of the floor, and rolling out pie crusts on my coffee table, I snapped. Though the kitchen is tiny, the whole living room is in fact relatively spacious, and I had a large expanse of empty floor going unused. (Except as, you know, cookie-cooling space.) So I started to hunt for a dresser that would serve as a sort of island and give me some storage and work space; I figured that I would find a basic bedroom dresser, slap a coat of paint on it, and quickly have a not-perfect-but-workable solution. Hardly surprisingly, however, I became, well, very invested in this project. Last October, I found this dresser at a local used furniture shop:


Perfect! Made for a kitchen, cabinets as well as drawers, solid as could be, and cheaper than anything at IKEA. Sold. Plus, I love a project.

Thus began about two solid months of sanding, applying wood putty, and sanding some more. (Extremely therapeutic, as a side benefit.) The dresser, while exactly what I was looking for in terms of size and lines, wasn't in great shape and had a chipped paint job (the original, I think) accented by gloppy gold paint.


After I sanded the whole thing down and smoothed it out, I was ready to paint. (I had the whole dresser propped up on bricks to make the process easier.) I wanted a pop of color that didn't take over the room, so I chose this leafy green (Behr Ultra "Mojito"), with "Milk" for the carved accents. I chose a latex-based paint-and-primer-in-one, so three coats later, I had a green dresser. I did the accents mostly by hand (after the tedium of taping got to me) with an artists' brush, followed by a wet paper towel. Boy, was THAT a lot of fun.


I loved the original hardware, so I went through a bottle of Brasso cleaning it up, while still retaining the vintage patina. One of the cabinet pulls was missing, though, so after a fruitless hunt for a matching vintage piece, I found two close-enough-to-blend knobs at Home Depot and replaced both.


Since I didn't want to lose anything over the back of the dresser, I had a piece of basic baseboard molding cut to its length, painted it, and screwed it onto the back. (Me holding a 63" strip of molding in place with a hip, a screw in one hand and an electric drill in the other, must have been a graceful sight.) I think it works quite nicely. Then I coated the whole dresser with Polycrilic, a latex-based polyurethane (not as messy or smelly as oil-based), so the paint wouldn't get tacky and peel off.


With some colorful little numbered jars (holding Maldon salt, kosher salt, sea salt, and table salt - ahh, the organizational pleasure) and a gorgeous big cutting board from my brother (thanks, Ry!), the dresser was complete. In addition to the silverware drawer, I really like my new spice drawer: it has built-in dividers and so seemed perfect for that purpose. AND I have counterspace. And more storage space. And a convenient place for people to gather around while I'm cooking. Whee!


And now, onto the next project...

catching up.

Happy holidays! Yesterday we had our first non-flurry snow of the season here in Philadelphia. So, naturally, I bundled up and hurried outside to wander around happily in the flakes.
Now it really feels like Christmas is just around the corner. (As in, a week from tomorrow. Yikes.) The last month has flown by; between reading and grading, family time and friend time, I never got around to posting some of the yummy recipes I've tried. And the longer the backlog got, the more daunting catching up became. So I'm listing them, with some photos and links, in order to share a few things from the past several weeks.

J.'s Birthday Dinner
Gougères (from Barefoot in Paris)

Red Velvet Cake

Woody Allen Movie Night
Chocolate Ricotta Cupcakes

D.'s Now-Famous Cornish Game Hen Dinner

Dinner in its full glory.

M.'s onion tart. Yum.

Apple Tart Cake

Thanksgiving
Cheddar Leek Muffins

comfort pasta.

I've been on a baking kick recently - following minute directions with the belief that doing so will lead to something delicious is soothing to me. But there's been some cooking too, like this pasta that is well-suited to plentiful farmers' market greens and crisp fall evenings. I loved the combination of the chard, olives, feta, and garlic; it also made great leftovers because the flavors had a chance to meld.


I used French feta at the suggestion of the Nice Cheese Man (or rather, one of the Nice Cheese Men) at DiBruno's; it's creamier than Greek feta and melted into the pasta beautifully. Because I was having such fun at the cheese counter, I also got some Cabra La Mancha (a semi-firm goat's milk cheese from Firefly Farms with, according to its label, a "tart flavor up front and a lightly meaty, savory finish") to go with sourdough bread and a mammoth Asian pear, sliced thinly, to start with. All in all, a very satisfying meal for three very tired grad students.




Spaghetti with Chard and Olives
from Gourmet (Nov. 2008), via SmittenKitchen

1/3 c. olive oil
1 head garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise
1 med. onion, finely chopped
2 lb. Swiss chard, stems and center ribs finely chopped and leaves coarsely chopped separately (*The original calls for green chard; I used rainbow and loved the color and taste.)
1/2 c. water
1 lb. spaghetti
1/2 c. Kalamata olives, slivered
6 oz. feta, crumbled (1 1/2 c.)

[Serves 4-6]


1. Heat oil in heavy skillet until it shimmers, then cook garlic, stirring, until golden - about 3 mins. (I got sidetracked and let my garlic chips get a bit too brown. Oops.) Use slotted spoon to transfer garlic to plate lined with paper towels.

2. In oil that remains in skillet, cook onion until softened, stirring occasionally, 3-5 mins.

3. Stir chard stems and water into onions; add salt and pepper. Cook, covered, over med. heat about 5 mins., until almost tender. Stir in chard leaves, cover, and cook about 5 mins. more, until stems and leaves are tender. (*I find a pair of tongs very helpful for stirring bulky greens like this.)

4. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente. Reserve 1 c. cooking water and drain spaghetti. (*I forgot this step. The greens mixture created its own liquid, though, so it didn't seem to matter that much.)

5. Toss spaghetti with chard mixture, olives [and 1/2 c. cooking water]. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve topped with garlic chips and feta.

halloween treats.

I tend to get a lot more excited about holidays like Christmas than I do for Halloween. I didn't dress up this year; after last year's Joan Holloway, nothing seemed quite as fun. However, a handful of us did band together to brave a 70s-scary-movies night, featuring Carrie and The Omen. Good friends, good beer, good snarky commentary on the movies. Plus, a good excuse to try a few new recipes: applesauce cupcakes and molasses cookies with lemon glaze. And though these treats weren't spooky, they were autumnally yummy.

Applesauce Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
from SmittenKitchen, adapted slightly


This recipe is actually for a 9" square cake; because I a) don't own a square cake pan and b) thought cupcakes would be fun, that's what I did. The recipe makes about 14 cupcakes, and there's plenty of frosting for all of them.

I'm a little bit addicted to making applesauce at the moment, so this was the perfect use for a jar. Plus, this cake is quite delicious.

For the cake:
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 c. packed light brown sugar (*the original calls for 1 c.; I found 3/4 sufficient)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
zest of 1/2 lemon

For the frosting:
5 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F; line cupcake pan with paper liners. (*This cake is quite moist, so I used paper inside foil liners to avoid sogginess.)

Make cake:
2. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.

3. With an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla at high speed until fluffy, about 2-3 mins. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add applesauce and zest and beat until combined.

4. At low speed, add flour mixture until just combined. The batter will look curdled, but that's ok.

5. Distribute batter into cupcake tins, filling about 3/4 full. (You'll have some left over; bake the rest after the first batch is done.) Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 mins. Cool on wire rack.

Make frosting:
6. Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla mixture at high speed until fluffy. Sift confectioners' sugar and cinnamon on top, then beat at medium speed until incorporated. Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes.



Chewy Molasses Cookies with Lemon Glaze
from TheKitchn


Yum. I really liked the combination of the dark molasses cookies with the tart lemon glaze. The recipe makes about 3-4 dozen (sometimes I get overly enthusiastic and end up with larger cookies) and they last fairly well for a handful of days, which is nice.

For the cookies:
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. dark molasses
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed (*the original calls for 1 c.)
1 egg
2-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
granulated sugar, for rolling

For the glaze:
2 lemons, juiced (about 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice)
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1 c. confectioners' sugar

Make the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. With a stand mixer, beat butter, oil, molasses, and brown sugar until lightened and fluffy. Then beat in egg until smooth, then add the grated ginger.

3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices; add to butter mixture and mix at low speed until combined. The dough will be quite soft; turn it out onto plastic wrap and wrap it tightly, then refrigerate for at least an hour. (*The original recipe says to refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour. I had the dough in the freezer for 45 mins. and it was still quite soft in the middle, almost unmanageable.)

4. Pour about 1/2 c. granulated sugar into a shallow bowl. When the dough is firm enough to handle, divide it into four parts. Divide the first part into 12 walnut-sized chunks and roll each into a ball, rolling the balls in sugar before placing them on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat for the second quarter of dough.

5. Bake for 12 mins., rotating the sheets halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool 5 mins., then transfer cookies to wire rack and repeat rolling and baking process for the rest of the dough.

Make the glaze:
6. When the cookies are cool, whisk together the lemon juice and sugars. Dribble over the cookies with a fork or a pastry brush; let glaze cool and dry until hard.

pumpkin pie pop tarts.

I've been basking in the fall weather; the return of crisp mornings and wool scarves puts me in the mood for afternoon walks, pumpkin beer, pumpkin anything, candy corn, butternut squash, and crafty projects. (I'm working on one now and have the sandpaper scrapes to prove it. You'll see it soon.) So when these Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts came up recently on Joy the Baker, they jumped straight to the top of my to-try list.


The weather also propels me into high stock-up-for-winter mode, which means I've been making my very own applesauce for the first time. I've been making it for years with my mom in the same creaky food mill; after I received one of my very own last year for Christmas, I decided to stock up on my own supply. I used about 9 pounds of apples from my favorite market stand: mostly Cortlands, with a few each of Granny Smith, Gala, Jonahgold, Empire, Mac, Golden Delicious, and Fuji. Quartered, they cook cook down with a bit of water in a big pot, then go through the food mill to remove skins, seeds, and stems, then get flavored with the juice of a lemon, about a tablespoon of sugar, and several generous shakes of cinnamon. And that's it! So delicious-smelling! So addictively satisfying! I've made two batches so far.


But I digress. I decided to break out the pop tarts for a pre-Mad Men-season finale dinner last weekend. J. made pasta all'amatriciana (spicy! yummy!), M. made roasted butternut squash, and Viola guarded the wine.


The pop tarts were quite good and, as a bonus, they travel very well. Joy the Baker's original recipe calls for a maple glaze, but I was afraid of sickening sweetness. (Also not a huge fan of maple-flavored things.) As it turns out, these tarts are quite rich enough on their own. I might serve them with a bit of whipped cream, flavored with almond extract, maybe, or vanilla ice cream for something decadent. I found it a bit fiddly to roll out the dough into rectangles of a certain size, in part because of my lack of patience/counter space; I might use a circular cookie cutter (I know, pop tart sacrilege!) next time to avoid the hassle. I did like the pretty crimped edges I got from using my pastry cutter. Overall, these were rich, autumny, and cute to look at. If I were grading them, they'd receive a distinguished pass in all four categories. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, congratulations. If you do, well, I'm sorry. Make these. They're a good procrastination tool.)



Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts
adapted from Joy the Baker

Crust:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

Filling:
3/4 c. pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. brown sugar (*The original calls for 1/3 c. white sugar.)

Make crust:
1. In food processor, pulse flour, sugar, and salt until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture is coarsely blended, with no butter larger than a small pea.

2. In small bowl, whisk together egg and milk. Add mixture all at once to flour mixture and pulse until combined and mixture comes together into a ball. (You could also do these two steps with a bowl and your fingers or a pastry cutter.)

3. Lightly flour clean countertop; turn out dough and knead a few times until it comes together. Divide dough in two and wrap each flattened ball in plastic wrap; refrigerate for about 30 mins.

Make filling:
4. In small saucepan, heat pumpkin and spices just until spices are fragrant. (*Really, you could probably omit this step.) Remove from heat and place pumpkin mixture in med. bowl. Whisk in egg, sugar, and salt. Put in fridge while you roll out the dough.

Assemble tarts:
5. On well-floured work surface, pat one ball of dough into 3x5" rectangle, then roll it out to about 1/8" thickness. You should have a rectangle slightly larger than 9x12"; trim edges with a pizza or pastry wheel to 9x12" exactly. Then cut each side into 3 sections, creating 9 rectangles. Place these in the fridge while you roll out the other ball of dough in the same way.

6. Brush one set of 9 rectangles with beaten egg. (This forms a glue for the top layer.) Spoon about 1 tbsp. of filling onto the middle of each rectangle; spread slightly. Top with another dough rectangle and crimp edges closed with a floured fork. Use fork to create vent holes in top of tart.

7. Preheat oven to 350F; let tarts rest in fridge while oven heats. Bake for 25-30 mins., until golden brown on top. Remove tarts from pan and let cool on wire rack. [Glaze optional; recipe here.]