Oui, Chef

Breakfast Cookies That Will Make Your Kids Think You've Gone Crazy!

 

 

Hey Dad, what's in the container on the counter?

Oh, those are some breakfast cookies I made today.

Say what?  Did you just say breakfast cookies?

Yeah, I thought they'd be great for a breakfast on the fly, they're sort of like a portable bowl of oatmeal.

Shut Up!

No really, they're loaded with grains and nuts and dried fruit, just like a bowl of oatmeal.

So you're telling me that tomorrow morning I can eat cookies for breakfast?

Uh...yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying.

SHUT UP!

Hey relax, will you.  

How come I never hear you get this excited when I offer you a bowl of oatmeal?

Oh....and stop saying shut up or I'm giving your cookies to Muppet!

Almost Teddies Apple Cake and an OXO Egg Beater Giveaway!

A few weeks back I had the good fortune to attend the Boston book launching party for the The Food52 Cookbook .  My friend Emily (fiveandspice for all you Food52ers) and her husband hosted a pot-luck gathering where each guest made a dish from the book to bring, it was great fun and a delicious afternoon.  As you might imagine from a gathering of such food fanatics, we brought way more food than we needed for the gang assembled.  In fact, as the afternoon wore on I started to get a little concerned that we had not properly paced ourselves and would be unable to have a go at the beautiful desserts decorating the sideboard in their dining room.

A lesser group would have called it a day I’m sure, what with the sheer volume of savory tarts, salads, dips, breads, and charcuterie that we all consumed.  Many would have slipped into a food coma and curled up in the corner for a little snooze, but not this stalwart group.  No, the siren’s song of cakes and cookies took care of that, and as we emptied the last bottle of wine, our hostess took her leave and retired to the kitchen to gather things for dessert.

Pomegranate Pork with Gingered Kale

Happy New Year Everyone!

This recipe was inspired by one I found in a Whole Foods magazine recently.  I was excited to play with it last week not only because of its lovely green and red holiday appearance (the greens look a bit like a Christmas tree, don't you think?), but because kale and pork are always welcome guests at our table.  I love recipes that offer a simple sauce to accompany pork because let's face it, plain pork tenderloin is a yawn.  As for the kale, it is so versatile and SO GOOD for you, it is something I'm trying to incorporate into our diet more and more.  So much so that I'm thinking about a kale based new year's resolution.

Apple and Cranberry Crisp

HA....we're on a roll now.  This tasty treat turned out to be the perfect foil for a 1/2 used jar of Trader Joe's  Apple Butter hogging space in our fridge, and as easy as that the inventory of our refrigerator condiment museum took another hit.  Perhaps we should craft a song for the occasion...."50 bottles of condiments in the fridge, 50 bottle of condiments....you take 1 out, and put it to use, 49 bottles of condiments in the fridge"  Ugh, with 47 bottles left, this could take a while.....

Rugelach

These rugelach are a terrific cookie to add to your holiday dessert platter, though we like them so much we serve them year-round.  Rugelach generally come in one of two forms, either shaped like a crescent roll, or prepared the way we have here, like a strudel.  I've always liked them this way because it's easier to get a thicker layer of filling using this shape (hey....who are you calling a pig?), but if you prefer the look, or dough to filling ratio of the crescent shape, then by all means roll them that way.

Plum and Ginger Jam

A couple weeks back my wife bought some lovely looking plums at the farmer's market, they looked so meautiful in their little wooden panier.  Sadly, they didn't taste nearly as good as they looked.  Actually, to be fair, they tasted just fine, it was their texture that was all kinda funky.

Now, I am not a big fan of plums, love prunes, but fresh plums....not so much.  

Not sure why, but plums (with the exception of the Mirabelle's that I fell in love with in France) have never done much for me.  That said, if we've got some nice fresh ones in the fridge I'll be a good little soldier and eat them.

Unless, of course, they have a mealy-nasty texture that makes me want to gag.  If that's the case I'm not touching the buggers.  Not surprisingly, everyone else in the family felt the same way about the poor little fellas, and they sat forlornly in their cute woven basket for about a week before I finally decided that I had to make a project out of them or throw them away.

Cherry Clafoutis

I had never had a clafoutis before living in France, but once I had my first bite, I couldn't get enough of them.  Perhaps my favorite was one made with golden Mirabelle Plums, which are fabulous little things that are a bit tough to find here, but are found EVERYWHERE in France during their short harvest season which runs from July to mid-September.

Passion Fruit - Basil Ice Pops

Ice pops are among the easiest things you can make with your kids, and are a perfect treat to enjoy during these dog days of summer.  They are also incredibly versatile, offering those with a creative bent ample opportunity to design a custom pop of just about any flavor combination you can imagine.  Muppet and I had fun the other night making these pops with ingredients we had on-hand, but all the while she was dreaming up a kiwi-strawberry combo that we'll be making next.

Peach and Blueberry Crumble with Tarragon

I found some delicious, locally grown peaches at the market the other day, and they looked so good in their cute little wooden box that I had to buy them.  There were about 12 of them in the crate and were still a bit hard when I bought them so I left them on the counter to continue ripening for a couple of days.  When they seemed to have softened enough, my wife and I cut into one for a lunchtime dessert and were thrilled with how great they were, so juicy and very sweet.

Of course, the problem with peaches (and most fresh fruit for that matter) is that once they attain their peak of freshness, they begin a quick downhill sprint to the land of rot.  If we only had one or two to snarf down in a hurry I wouldn't have worried much, but with a ten or so peaches left, and most of our clan off at various camps this week, I was afraid we'd lose all the lovelies to our ever present summer battalion of fruit flies, before we had a chance to enjoy them.

Cherry Hand Pies

It seems that over the past year whenever we had guests that offered to make a pre-dinner nibble to have with cocktails, they decided to craft something using frozen puff pastry dough.  Given that each of these folks brought a fresh box of pastry sheets with them, and used only half a box to make their appetizer, we recently discovered that we had 83 half used boxes of puff pastry in our freezer (no wonder we're running out of room there).

As I was starting to panic, wondering what the #@*& we were going to do with that many pastry sheets, my wife found this simple but delicious recipe in our latest issue of Bon Appetit.  This recipe is for little cherry pies, using a combination of fresh and dried fruit, but any type of fruit would work.  Beware though, if you're using a really juicy fruit you may need to up the amount of cornstarch used in order to guarantee a nice thick filling for your pies.  I'm thinking fresh apples and dried cranberries would be lovely, or how about peanut butter with a fresh strawberry compote, or dare I say, Nutella with some orange marmalade?  Oohhhh.....