Am…musings

After a work week of Luna bars for breakfast, I like to have something special on the weekends. Homemade whole wheat pancakes have been the standby lately, but I wasn’t in the mood this morning. Then inspiration struck … I had 11 ears of THE best corn ever in my fridge, so I headed to Google for a fresh corn muffin recipe.

I found several that were all fairly similar. How’s a girl to pick? I went with the blog with the best name … Smitten Kitchen. The post actually shared the recipe of another food writer and cookbook author … Dorie Greenspan. I won’t repost the entire recipe here because you can find it on Smitten Kitchen’s Corniest Corn Muffin post, but I will tell you it was fantastic. Of course, the fact that my muffins were studded with my super-fresh, day-old corn probably helped, but I will definitely use this recipe again even if I don’t have that amazing corn on hand.

One note, I don’t typically keep buttermilk in the fridge so I tried substituting 1 Tbsp. white vinegar and enough milk to make a cup (let it sit a few minutes) … worked just fine.

I had a client event this morning (a cool client event including the Gateway Arch, the president of Major League Baseball and Bill DeWitt Jr. and III from the Cardinals. Any baseball/history lovers out there? You should make a trip to the Arch to check out their great new exhibit: Baseball’s Gateway to the West.).

But I digress … my coworker and I were starved after the event and headed to lunch. While we waited for our orders, we perused a few free publications. An article in Sauce Magazine caught my eye. It was about a local farm that sells corn only on the day it’s picked.

After a nap, I decided to make the trek to Illinois to hit one of Keller Farms’ four stands. The drive was about 40 minutes after I got a little lost, but it was absolutely, positively worth it.

I was stuffed after lunch so I skipped dinner, but decided about an hour ago to boil up one of the dozen ears I bought for $4.50 (cash only! I never have any so I had to give them about half in change I’d been saving for meters.). The corn was incredibly tender and tasty. And I can’t wait to grill up a few ears tomorrow … my preferred method of corn on the cob preparation. What’s yours?

I used to like bacon as a kid (along with all sorts of other terrible artery-clogging things like Velveeta and fatty steak). Then, my dad had a heart attack at 38 and things like bacon were off the daily Morris menu. I’ve been on my own for a while, but bacon was one of those things on my “not worth the calories and fat” list (the two big exceptions to this rule are the BLT at Crown Candy Kitchen in North St. Louis and my neighbor Marsha’s bagel breakfast sandwich – both are amazing!).

Crown Candy BLT By IronStef @Flickr

I think I’m in the minority on this bacon thing. Several people I follow on Twitter regularly mention bacon, which always amazes me. I also have a few friends that are official Facebook fans of bacon. In fact, there are more than 250,000 fans of bacon on Facebook and nearly 300,000 fans of bacon butty (a bacon sandwich in the UK).

Because I thought I might have an overnight guest last weekend, I bought some bacon, which seemed like a required part of a good manly breakfast (I’m all concerned about serving this particular guy too many girly dishes for some reason). He ended up not feeling well so the package of bacon was still in my fridge when I was scrounging for something for dinner recently.

I chose a (decidedly girly) asparagus omelet and bacon. As a test run for an eventual overnight stay , I even cooked it on the stove instead of the somewhat healthier method of in the microwave (too girly). It smelled wonderful and I was totally jazzed. Then I took a bite. It was ok, but I decided I’ve been right … not necessarily worth the calories and fat. I also think I really do like it better in the microwave. Of course, I’ll have to sacrifice myself for breakfast for the guy.

We’re belatedly celebrating my neighbor and friend Marsha’s birthday with an old fashioned Good Friday fish fry. I had some Vanilla Buttercream Frosting left (a triple batch was too much for the cupcakes) so I offered to make dessert.

I thought a chocolate cake would be nice with the frosting, but knew I wouldn’t have enough for the entire cake so I’d planned to make another batch. Then I noticed some gorgeous strawberries on sale at the grocery store and figured I could probably make something work with them. I also bought a chocolate bar and made shavings with my vegetable peeler.

The result is stunning (if I may say so myself ) …

The trick is Pampered Chef’s Easy Accent Decorator, which really is super easy to use. The hardest part of the whole thing was shaving the chocolate and honestly, the cake looked good enough without them that I almost didn’t use them.

One of the simplest recipes I have is my favorite. It’s my grandma’s recipe for cucumber salad. I’m making it tonight because we’re having Easter dinner this Saturday due to some scheduling conflicts next weekend. I’ve made cucumbers every Easter since my grandma passed away and my aunt was unceremoniously stripped of the duty a few years later when the cucumbers were so salty they were inedible.

I call the recipe simple not necessarily because it’s uncomplicated, but because it requires no real measuring and only two ingredients, minus the most basic spices – salt and pepper.

Although none are difficult, there are a few steps:
First, peel and slice cucumbers (I prefer the seedless English variety). I slice them in the food processor, which makes amazingly quick and pretty work of it … much to my delight (I guess it’s the simple pleasures in life).

Then, according to grandma, grab a handful of cucumbers, throw each handful in a bowl and salt them before adding the next handful. And … here’s where the psychoanalysis comes in. As a 9-year-old kid, I made dinner for the first time. It was potato soup, and after a few bites my dad jokingly likened it to wallpaper paste. It wasn’t necessarily a lie, but probably not the best thing to say to a girl who was proud of her first attempt at real cooking. I was crushed and poured over the recipe to figure out where I’d gone wrong. Ever since … while not necessarily anal about most things … I’ve been a meticulous cook. So … I layer the cucumbers carefully in the bowl, salting between layers to make sure they are evenly salted and perfect.

You can certainly try either way.

After they’re all in the bowl, stick them in the fridge, where they will “sweat” a good deal of their liquid.

After two to three hours, take handfuls out of the bowl and squeeze them over the sink to get as much liquid out as possible.

Throw them in a bowl (no anal-ness required for this step) and cover them with vinegar – plain old white vinegar, which I buy by the gallon because I also like to clean with it.

Top with pepper, stir and refrigerate. I usually do this a day or two in advance, which grandma’s recipe doesn’t call for, but I think it creates better flavors. And my dad … who complained about my first cooking foray … doesn’t like cucumbers so he won’t be enjoying this masterpiece.

I’m enjoying a relaxing stay at a B&B in New Hope, Pa. My aunt’s sister owns the quaint B&B and the fam is here to celebrate Christmas. This morning we ate the yummiest breakfast, which she typically serves to guests on the weekends. I’ve had a similar French toast casserole, but the challah and cream cheese make this one even more delicious. It would be perfect for a brunch or special breakfast.

FRENCH TOAST SOUFFLÉ

2 10-ounce loaves challah bread
16 eggs
6 cups milk
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tub spreadable cream cheese

Topping:
4 Tablespoons butter, cubed
6 Tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cut bread length wise two times. Spread with cream cheese. Cube bread. Place bread cubes in two greased 11X9 baking dishes.

Beat eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla, pour over bread.

Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for eight hours or overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.

Dot with butter.

Combine sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle over top.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Let stand for five minutes. Serve with maple syrup.

Those of you looking for a tipsy tale will have to wait for some other time. This is another Christmas cookie update. I added a totally addictive recipe with a great name into the mix, courtesy of my cousin in Dallas.

White Trash
8 cups Rice Chex
8 cups Cheerios (regular or Honey Nut)
8 cups Honeycomb
8 cups small pretzel twists
2 cups walnuts or pecans (optional)
Three 20 oz. packages white almond bark

Combine dry ingredients in a LARGE bowl or two.
Melt almond bark (in double boiler, microwave or combo of both if you don’t have a large enough container).
Pour melted bark over dry ingredients and stir until well coated.
Poor coated ingredients onto wax paper.
Let harden and then break into large chunks.

This is also the last installment of the 2008 Busy Girl’s Christmas Baking Guide. I did wimp out and made the last two batches normally instead of in bars. I figured I’d pushed my luck enough with the successful sugar cookie experiment. Last night was the debut of the “cookie shots” … crumbled sugar cookie scraps, Bailey’s, homemade whipped cream. The verdict: plain Bailey’s may have been better, but much less fun and festive … and isn’t that what the season is all about!

In an effort to save time, I’m experimenting with my Christmas cookies. Bar cookies are my time-saving solution … mix them, press them in the pan, bake for 30ish minutes, cut and eat. No dropping by rounded spoonfuls and baking countless trays at 8-minute intervals.

Bar oatmeal and chocolate chip aren’t out of the ordinary. Although I drizzle the oatmeals with white icing. And I found a crazy Pampered Chef recipe with chopped candy bars on top of the chocolate chip cookies that I just made and they look yummy.

Where I’m getting a little crazy … I’m rolling out the sugar cookies and baking them in one big piece. Then, I’m cutting them with cookie cutters in the pan after they’re baked and still piping hot. I’m not sure this will work, but my inspiration is the ornament-shaped sugar cookies I usually make in the normal way, but then I make a hole in each one with a drinking straw after they are baked and that works great … almost better than regular cutting because they have a nice, crisp edge.

I’m also trying peanut butter blossoms (the peanut butter cookie with the Kiss on top) in the bar pan. I’m really worried about this one working, but figure what the heck.

My plan if they don’t work? Cookie shots … the sugars with drizzled icing and the peanut butters with the Kisses. All the hip restaurants are serving desserts in shot glasses so I’ll play it off as creative and trendy.

My cousin made this dessert for Thanksgiving. It was so unbelievably yummy and incredibly simple, I knew I had to have the recipe. I whipped it up, along with some homemade whipped cream, for my office holiday party last night and it was a huge hit.

• 4 cups frozen blackberries (I used a berry blend from Costco and I like the blackberries much better. I imagine frozen peaches or cherries would be good too.)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 Tbsp. butter (1/2 stick), melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place frozen blackberries in a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish and sprinkle with lemon juice (a deep, round casserole dish also works; double the recipe for a 9X13 pan).

Stir egg, sugar and flour in a medium bowl until mixture resembles course meal (I did this in my stand mixer, which was quick and easy.).

Sprinkle mixture over fruit and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly (I added 10 minutes or so for the double batch); let stand for 10 minutes.

Serve warm with Cool Whip or whipped cream, if desired.

As the holidays approach, I start keeping an eye on the dairy case. If you like eggnog, but avoid it because of the calories, cholesterol and fat, I’ve got two words for you … soy nog.

½ c. eggnog
Calories 230
Fat 12 g
Sat. Fat. 7 g
Cholesterol 65 mg
Total Carb. 28 g

½ c. Silk Soymilk Nog
Calories 90
Fat 2 g
Sat. Fat. 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Total Carb. 15 g

Eggnog purist may not love it, but the flavor and creaminess make me happy … and it’s been so long since I’ve had the real thing I don’t really remember what I’m missing. As with many beverages, it’s pretty much empty calories, but it’s great as an occasional treat during the holiday season. Oddly, I’m enjoying a glass now with some edamame. It’s a soy-tastic day for me!