Veal Stew with Potato Dumplings

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There's just nothing better on a freezy day than a loaf of bread in the oven and a pot of stew on the stove. This is what days off were made for.

I had some veal stew meat in the freezer that needed using up so I looked through a few old magazines and found a great recipe in Saveur. Instead of the regular ol' noodles or potatoes, it called for potato dumplings! It sounded like just what I wanted to make - and I didn't have to leave the house for anything. A very important consideration when it's cold outside.

This was another case of just a few ingredients creating big flavor. The slow simmer concentrated the flavors of the stew, making for a rich dish without a lot of extraneous spices. The dumplings added a pleasant change from the traditional egg noodles or potato cubes. I could see this happening, again.

My slightly-larger-than-golf-ball-dumplings cooked up to tennis ball size. They worked perfectly, but if you want 'em smaller, make them smaller than golf balls to begin with.

Veal Stew with Potato Dumplings

Stew:

  • 1 lb veal stew meat
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp fresh-ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 4 carrots, cut into 1" pieces
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 12 oz. mushrooms, sliced
  • 4 cups beef broth

Dumplings:

  • 1 lb potatoes
  • 3/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp dill
  • 1 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Stew:

Combine flour and spices. Add veal pieces to flour mixture and toss to evenly coat. Heat 2 tbsp butter in a large braising pot over medium heat. Brown veal on all sides.

Add remaining butter to pot and stir in carrots, onion, and mushrooms. Cook vegetables until onions are slightly translucent.

Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until veal is very tender and broth is thickened, about 2 hours.

Dumplings:

Place whole, unpeeled potatoes in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with a knife, 30 or so minutes. Drain potatoes and let
cool until they are easily handled.

Peel potatoes, then mash into a large bowl. Add bread crumbs, egg yolks, milk, dill, salt, and pepper. knead together using your hands until mixture is just combined.

Form dough into golf ball-sized dumplings. Place flour in bowl and evenly coat dumplings with a thin layer.

Boil dumplings in salted water until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

To serve, place dumplings in bowls and top with a generous portion of stew.

 

The stew just simmered away, concentrating flavors.

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And the dumplings just kept growing... They were good, though. Like mashed potato balls.

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It was definitely a hit. Nonna ate every bit of her dinner. Well... except the mushrooms.


Walnut Raisin Bread

I have been baking bread for more years than I care to admit to. From the thousands upon thousands of loaves I baked on the USS Ranger, to the tons of pizza dough I made at Pirro's, the free-spirited years at Tahoe, or the hotel kitchens where I would jump in to make a thousand un petit pain for some banquet or another to pumpkin rolls at Thanksgiving, I've baked a lot of bread. I've baked Artisan Breads in 5 minutes, I've made Julia Child's Pain Francais - all 907 convoluted steps. I've made a majority of the breads in two of my most favorite cook books - Carol Field's The Italian Baker and James Beard's Beard on Bread. I read them like other people read novels, dreaming up different dishes to serve with them - and sometimes even following through on them...

You could say I like bread.

And this particular bread has become a favorite.  Besides being ridiculously easy to make - it's foolproof! This is my third batch in 2 weeks - made slightly different each time - and they have all been great.

This time around I decided to make a walnut raisin version.  It came out stupendous and really - could not have been easier. I keep the starter in the 'fridge at all times, now, because I want to be able to make another loaf at any given moment.

Walnut Raisin Bread

starter

  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup water 110°
  • 1 3/4 cups flour

Sprinkle yeast into the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in flour. Cover bowl with clean towel and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days.

dough

  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup water 110°
  • 1 cup starter
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup rye flour
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Sprinkle yeast into water in mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve. Add starter, flours, and salt.

Mix on low speed with dough hook for about 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Add raisins and walnuts and continue mixing another 5 or so minutes.Knead by hand for a minute or two on a lightly-floured surface to make sure the nuts and raisins are evenly distributed.. Place the dough into a clean bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.

Let rise until doubled - up to 2 hours. Punch dough down and let rest for about 10 minutes before forming the loaf.

Shape the dough into a cylindrical loaf and place on a bread peel generously coated with coarse cornmeal. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise again until doubled - about an hour.

Preheat oven with baking stone to 425°.

Dust loaf with flour and then make three parallel slashes across the top. Slide dough onto stone and bake for about 1 hour.

Replenish starter with about 3/4 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.

Form the dough into a loaf and let rise until doubled.

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Dust with flour and make three parallel slashes.

 

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Slather with butter and eat!

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Repeat.

I really would love to encourage folks to take the time to bake a loaf of bread. I know some folks have gotten discouraged because their bread doesn't come out like Wonder Bread or stuff from a bakery. Commercial bakeries are using dough conditioners and a myriad of chemicals and stuff to make every loaf identical.

You're not doing that at home and you shouldn't want your bread to taste store-bought, anyway. The reason you make it at home is so it doesn't taste store-bought! Really. Think about it.

There are a lot of bread recipes right here to get you started.

Bake a loaf. You'll be glad you did!

 

 


Molasses Chews

Okay... So maybe I've been going about this cookie contest wrong. Maybe a simple perfect cookie is the way to go. And this is most definitely a simple perfect cookie!

I was cleaning the baking cabinet the other day - everyone has a baking cabinet, right?!? - and while cleaning the molasses and honey jars that were glued to the shelf, a chewy molasses cookie came to mind.  Since I have a free day off, today, and it's a zillion degrees below zero outside, I thought it a perfect day for experimenting!

I just reworked an old cookie recipe I've had forever - adding some brown sugar and rolling them in demerara sugar before baking.

They're crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Good flavor but not overpowering.

I think they're contenders!

Molasses Chews

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 stick butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 375°.

Mix egg, butter, molasses, and sugars. Blend flour, baking soda, and spices together. Mix wet and dry ingredients just to combine.

Scoop out walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll into balls. Roll in sugar and place on parchment-lined baking sheets about 2" apart.

Bake cookies until cookies are puffed and cracked - about 10 minutes.

Cool and enjoy!

This is a cookie that you don't want to incorporate a lot of air into, so melting the butter instead of creaming it and mixing just until everything is incorporated works best. You don't even need to dirty the mixer - it can all be done by hand.

And if you don't have demerara sugar, roll them in granulated. It will still work.

Now... if you really do want to take them over the top, you can always make a ginger cream filling - or a lemon cream - and turn them into sandwich cookies!

I'm leaving them alone, for today and enjoying their outrageous simplicity!

 


Orecchiette al Tonno

Orecchiette al Tonno

Orecchiette al Tonno

 

My clever ruse worked. And, it worked even better than I had hoped!

I was looking through an old issue of La Cucina Italiana yesterday and found a recipe for orecchiette with a tuna sauce I had somehow missed. It was a simple recipe and just by reading the ingredients I knew it would be a hit.

I showed the recipe to Victor and he said he would make fresh orecchiette!  The plan was working very well...

This morning, he said he would actually make the whole dinner!  Ya gotta love a man who can cook. I happily said go for it and set out to make a loaf of crusty bread as my contribution - smiling, knowing I was in for a treat for dinner.

I tell ya - this one is a winner times two! The pasta is stellar and the sauce is out of this world. And all of it is simple to do. The pasta took a little bit of time to make, but it was done in about 30 minutes.  The sauce took no time, at all.

We all cleaned our plates - I sopped up every last drop with buttered slabs of crusty bread. It was a sacrifice I gladly made.

Orecchiette al Tonno

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 anchovy fillets
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
  • 1 6oz can tomato paste
  • 1 pound fresh orecchiette (dried, if you must)
  • 1 (5-ounce) can high-quality tuna in olive oil, drained
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In a large skillet, combine oil, anchovies, garlic and half of the parsley. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up anchovies until fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add tomato paste and 3/4 cup water; bring just to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook about 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook pasta until just tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain pasta (reserving 1/2 cup cooking water) and transfer to skillet with sauce; add remaining parsley, tuna and generous grinding of pepper.

Cook over high heat, tossing to coat pasta with sauce, and adding as much of the pasta cooking liquid you need to moisten, as desired. Add S&P, as desired and top with freshly-grated cheese.

You can use a store-bough orecchiette, if you really have to, but this is pretty stellar - and really easy to make.

Fresh Orecchiette

  • 2 cups semolina flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2/3 cup water

On counter, whisk together flour and salt. Mound flour mixture, then form a well in center. Slowly pour 2/3 cup warm water into the well, whisking with a fork to incorporate flour from inside rim. Continue until liquid is absorbed and a rough cohesive dough forms, then knead, scraping as you go, until dough forms a mostly complete mass.

Knead 8 to 10 minutes more to form a smooth dough.

Divide dough into 6 pieces; wrap all but 1 piece in plastic wrap. On a clean work surface roll unwrapped dough into a 1/3-inch-diameter rope. Cut rope into 1/3-inch-long pieces.

With the side of your thumb, gently but firmly press 1 piece to just flatten into a coin-like shape, then simultaneously gently but firmly press and drag the coin to create a small lip. Flip the coin over your forefinger to create the small “ear” shape, with the inner surface now on the outside.

Transfer orecchiette to a lightly floured baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces and dough.

Making fresh pasta really isn't as difficult as you think - and the results are so worth the trouble (says the guy who never has to make it because Victor always comes through...)

But if your house doesn't have a Victor, grab a kid - or spouse - and have a bit of fun-together-time in the kitchen!

It really is worth it.

Oh... and here's the bread I made...

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My only change from the last time I made it was switching out 1/4 cup white for whole wheat flour. I still used the 1/3 cup rye flour.

Enjoy.

 

 


Butter Rum Caramel Florentines

I decided to try another cookie after seeing a recipe posted from Smitten Kitchen by my friend Vanessa for an Egg Nog Florentine. She had talked about making the egg nog into a creme brulee. I thought caramel of some sort would be fun for the cookie contest...

I set to work...

It's funny how my idea of good changes. Had someone offered me one of these cookies I would have raved about how good they are. Critiquing them for a cookie contest has me looking at them totally differently. I liked the cookie - I didn't like my caramel filling.

The cookie itself is pretty straightforward. Nicely chewy-crisp with a pretty good pecan flavor, although just a tad greasy, even after blotting with paper towels. Not really unusual for a Florentine, but I noticed it. The filling was more like a cake frosting - just not what I was looking for. I also think toasting the pecans a bit might help.

I took the basic recipe that was posted and tried reworking it with a bit of caramel. While the original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of rum, I added a mere teaspoonful and it was overpowering. I added more caramel to counteract, which necessitated more powdered sugar, which is why the filling was more of a frosting - and still not caramelly enough!

It's definitely not a bad cookie by any stretch of the imagination. But it's not an award-winner. I think an actual caramel would be better - or maybe a chocolate caramel.

I think I shall play a bit more in the kitchen this weekend...


Macadamia Lemon Cookies with Blueberry Creme

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We're having a cookie contest at work next month so I thought I had better start getting prepared. There's some tough competition in that place!

We bake a ton of cookies every year, but trying to come up with one cookie for a contest can be rather daunting. It needs to be slightly over-the-top.

I've actually been thinking about this concept for a while since getting the idea from a cookie I saw in La Cucina Italiana and finally decided to give it a try, tonight. I think with a couple of little tweaks, it's a winner!

The cookie is lemon and macadamia nut. It has a bright, crisp flavor on its own, but paired with the blueberry creme filling and a dunk of white chocolate, it shoots right up to the top of the class. I know it had both of us calling for more!

You should make the filling first, since it really needs to refrigerate a couple of hours before putting everything together.

Macadamia Lemon Cookies with Blueberry Creme

filling:

  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

cookies:

  • 1/3 cup macadamia nuts, finely ground
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 large egg white
  • Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

topping:

  • 6oz white chocolate
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil

filling:

In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and 2 tbsp water. Bring to a boil, then cook, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Stir in butter until melted and combined. Use an immersion blender or transfer to a blender and purée until smooth. Place in a heatproof medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, lemon juice and cornstarch.

Add water to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Set bowl with blueberry purée over but not touching water. Slowly whisk egg mixture into purée.  Keep whisking until filling is smooth and thickened. Cover and chill until thick - at least 2 hours or overnight.

cookies:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Cream sugar and butter.  Add nuts, flour, salt, egg white, and zest; blend until a soft dough forms.

Form dough into 1-inch balls and place 2" apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten balls to 1/4 inch thick. Bake cookies until lightly golden on bottom, about 12 minutes. Cool cookies completely.

Spread half the cookie bottoms with blueberry creme. Sandwich with remaining cookies.

topping:

Place white chocolate in double boiler. Add 1 tbsp oil and slowly melt, stirring occasionally.

Freeze cookies on sheet pan about 10 minutes and then dip half of each cookie in white chocolate.

I'm heading into the kitchen for another...

 


Ann's Seafood Cottage Pie

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Our friend Ann sent Victor a recipe yesterday for her famous Fish Pie. One look at the recipe and I knew I was making it tonight!

It's a really simple concept and really simple to put together. I could have used a teensy-bit larger casserole... I really tried to keep it small, but... The secret, of course, is no matter what the size of the casserole - place it on a sheet pan.

Ann's recipe assumes you know how to make a basic white sauce and make mashed potatoes. Staightforward cooking at its finest!

Of course she doesn't have a recipe, but here are the basics:

Fish Pie

A couple pounds of fish, a variety. Try some white fish, a few shrimp, and that salmon that is way past its use by date, is in the freezer looking odder every moment.

Thaw fish and cut into nice hunks, layer in the bottom of a greased whatever. I use a corning ware casserole.

Make about a cup of medium white sauce, flavored with sauted onion, tarragon, or whatever fresh herbs you might have. Herbes de Provence is a good choice, or maybe some dill. salt and pepper to taste.

Oh, and a grating of nutmeg, just because I always put it in a white sauce .

Add a couple of cups of frozen veggies or whatever leftover cooked veggies you have in the fridge. I used mixed vegetables.

Now while all this was going on, you were boiling potatoes, however many it will take to cover the top. I mashed them with butter and milk. Maybe add a beaten egg.

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. Place under the broiler for a minute if the top isn't browned enough for you.

I used Alaskan cod and langostino tonight, along with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. Herbes de Provence, and ppotatoes mashed with a bit of butter and sour cream.

It was awesome. Even Nonna cleaned her plate! And there's enough left over for Victor and Nonna to have for lunch!

We will definitely be making this one, again!


Sourdough Country Bread

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A mid-week day off is unusual for me, so I thought I'd take advantage of it with a loaf of fresh bread. I had made a starter the other day and, while I could have let it go another 24 hours, it was ready.

I really do love homemade bread. There is just nothing as satisfying as the bread-making process - the kneading of the dough... knowing instinctively when it is just right and ready for that first rise... The smell wafting through the house as it bakes and fighting the urge to slice off a hunk and slather it with butter while still hot from the oven. I have to admit that I rely more on the mixer kneading than I do myself, nowadays, but it's still a lot of touching and feeling and knowing when it's ready.

I haven't made this particular bread in a while. It's a sourdough, but more of a country French than a San Francisco style. It has a really deep, crunchy crust and a tight, fine crumb. It's made for sopping up soups and stews.

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It's a white flour bread but I put just a tad bit of rye flour to add a bit of texture and flavor. You can make it with all white or add a bit of your favorite non-white flour. Just don't add too much.

Sourdough Country Bread

starter

  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup water 110°
  • 1 3/4 cups flour

Sprinkle yeast into the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in flour. Cover bowl with clean towel and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days.

dough

  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup water 110°
  • 1 cup starter
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup rye flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt

Sprinkle yeast into water in mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve. Add starter, flours, and salt.

Mix on low speed with dough hook for about 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Knead by hand for a minute or two on a lightly-floured surface. Place the dough into a clean bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.

Let rise until doubled - up to 2 hours. Punch dough down and let rest for about 10 minutes before forming the loaf.

Shape the dough into a round loaf and place on a bread peel generously coated with coarse cornmeal. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise again until doubled - about an hour.

Preheat oven with baking stone to 425°.

Dust loaf with flour and then make three parallel slashes across the top and three more across. Slide dough onto stone and bake for about 1 hour.

It's flour, water, salt, and yeast - the most basic bread ingredients there are - but they combine to make a stellar loaf.

Have fun with it, experiment, switch out some of the flours for others. Shape it into a longer loaf.  No matter how you do it, it's gonna be great.


Pork Loin with Oranges

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Victor and I both get emails from Italian magazines and every now and again, a recipe comes through that actually sounds promising.

Once upon a time, my main focus in cooking was building layer-upon-layer of flavor and texture - more in the style of classic French, I guess. While I still enjoy that, the focus is becoming more and more a few good ingredients, and letting them speak for themselves - more in the style of rustic French or Italian. Simpler foods from a simpler time.

This recipe - from Italy magazine - is about as simple and basic as one can get, but the flavors really jump out at you. The sweet orange, the rich rosemary, and the salty capacola all play off the pork requiring no other ingredients other than a sprinkling of black pepper. It's one of those genius recipes. I'm thinking I may make this again when I can get some good blood oranges. It may even be something fun to make when we're in Sicily in May. The creative juices are flowing...

This particular dish was way more food than a family of three can eat in one sitting, so the rest became another simple meal with just a few ingredients.

Orange Pork Loin

  • 2 lb pork loin
  • 2 oz capicola or other thin-sliced dry-cred Italian meat
  • 2 oranges
  • 2 tbsp rosemary
  • 8 oz red wine

Slice one orange and juice the other.

Make deep incisions into the pork loin and place one slice of capicola, one slice of orange, and a couple of rosemary leaves in each cut. Use kitchen twine to tie up the pork and place in a braising pan with lid.

Add a cup of red wine, the juice of the orange, and sprinkle with black pepper. Cover and bake for 1 hour at 375° . Remove lid and cook another 10 minutes.

Serve the cooking liquid over the meat.

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It took about 10  minutes of prep and the rest of the time was unattended cooking in the oven - but it tasted like I had been cooking away all day. A definite keeper!

I cooked it in a 30-year old Le Creuset braiser. The beauty of Le Creuset is you buy it once - for life. Like our old Calphalon and inherited Corningware. All of it will outlive us and never go out of style - no matter what the shopkeepers want us to believe.

 


Cinnamon Rolls

Hot, fresh, light-as-a-feather cinnamon rolls for breakfast. What could be better?!?

Many moons ago - as in living-in-Tahoe-in-the-'70s-many-moons-ago - I had a sweet dough recipe that was pretty fool-proof. Granted, this was Tahoe in the '70s and we were smoking so much pot that any recollections can be viewed as suspect, but I did make some good cinnamon rolls back then.  Actually, cinnamon raisin rolls... It's slowly coming back to me... I remember making them once in a while as a breakfast special at The Old Post Office when I cooked there - and they were an inevitable part of our fabulous Sunday Brunches at home.

That recipe faded away and over the years I tended to go back to my earliest days of baking and make convoluted 196-step-all-day-in-the-kitchen Danish.  They are absolutely fabulous and are worth every step and moment it takes to make them - but sometimes I just want something a bit simpler.

And last night on Facebook, Ruth posted a recipe that could well have been that recipe from 1976.

I didn't quite realize it at the time that it would be so similar - I was caught up with the fact she had said the dough came together easily and rolled out like a dream.  And, that she was switching them out to make a savory garlic and sun-dried tomato version. I like that kind of versatility! But biting into one this morning brought back a lot of fond, mimosa-addled memories. Tahoe in the '70s. Ya should have been there...

The basic recipe is easy and quick to put together. It's a single-rise dough, so depending upon your weather and temperature, you can have fresh danish in a couple of hours - or, in 30 minutes if you make the dough before you go to bed.

The recipe Ruth found from Sally's Baking Addiction calls for rapid-rise yeast. I generally avoid the rapid-rise because I like a slower, more complex rise for my baked goods. It's a personal preference - nothing more. Basic active dry yeast requires liquid to activate it - the 'proofing' step - while rapid-rise can be mixed straight into the dry ingredients.

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 envelope active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 2  1/2 tbsp butter
  • 1 large egg

Cinnamon Sugar

  • 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp milk

Directions:

Mix yeast and sugar in mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup warm water (110°). Allow to proof while getting other ingredients together.

Melt milk and butter together and cool to no more than 110°.

Add flour, salt, milk mixture, and egg to mixing bowl. Blend on low speed until flour is incorporated. Knead about 4 minutes. Cover bowl and let dough rest for 10 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and allows the flour to fully-incorporate the liquid.

On a lightly-floured counter, roll the dough to an 8" x 14" rectangle. Spread with the soft butter and then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. (Add chopped walnuts and/or plumped raisins, if desired.) Tightly roll and slice into 12 rolls.

Place in greased 9" pan and allow to rise until doubled - about 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Place pan in oven and bake about 30-35 minutes, or until nicely-browned.

Allow to cool slightly and then apply glaze.

To make glaze:

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Drizzle over warm rolls.

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Right out of the oven before the glaze.

I made these in a 10" springform pan. I rolled them out, formed them, and placed them in the pan and then covered it with a kitchen towel before heading off to bed.

This morning I preheated the oven and baked them off. The recipe called for a 375° oven but without thinking, I preheated to 350°.   I think my old Tahoe recipe was 350° and I just went on auto-pilot. They came out perfect at that temperature without having to worry about over-browning.

They are feathery-light and can definitely be reworked to suit your gastronomic desires. I'll be adding plumped raisins, for sure, next time around - and probably walnuts.

So thank you, Ruth, for yet another fantastic culinary idea. Think of the fun we could have if we did this for a living...


Pasta alla Norcina

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I decided to get a subscription to Cooks Illustrated - again. I've had an on-again/off-again love affair with them for years.  I generally like their recipes, but they can annoy the hell out of me with their three pages of how they got there. I really really enjoy the science behind food - it's why I used to really like Alton Brown before he became Mr Food Network Whatever He Is - but sometimes the path they take to get to a place completely changes the dish they wanted to make over to the point that it no longer even resembles its former self.

And then, they come up with something that is genuinely great - like this pasta dish. I've never had the original so I don't have anything to compare it to, but this is pretty darned good. Even Nonna cleaned her plate.

The premise is browning the sausage in a large patty instead of crumbling it up - to keep it from drying out but still getting some nice browned bits. In theory, it succeeded, but I think cooking it crumbled but just not cooking it all the way through would also work - and be a bit easier. Next time.

Regardless, it was a hit. It makes a ton, so Victor and Nonna had it for lunch, today, as well.  I think it would be good with some asparagus tips cooked in the sauce, as well...

Pasta alla Norcina

adapted from Cooks Illustrated magazine

  • Kosher salt and pepper
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 4 ounces ground pork
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 1/4 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 8 ounces cremini mushrooms
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 lb orecchiette
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 2 oz Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
  • 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Grease small dinner plate with oil. Dissolve 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp baking soda in 2 tsp water in medium bowl. Add pork and fold gently to combine; let stand for 10 minutes.

Add 1 tsp garlic, 3/4 tsp rosemary, nutmeg, and 3/4 tsp pepper to pork and stir and smear with rubber spatula until well combined and tacky - about 10-15 seconds. Transfer pork mixture to greased plate and form into a 6" patty.

Pulse mushrooms in food processor until finely chopped, 10 to 12 pulses.

Heat 2 tsp oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork patty and cook without moving it until bottom is browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip patty and continue to cook until second side is well browned, 1 to 2 minutes longer (center of patty will be raw). Remove pan from heat, transfer sausage to cutting board, and roughly chop into 1/8- to 1/4-inch pieces. Transfer sausage to bowl and add cream; set aside.

Cook orecchiette according to package instructions. Reserve a cup of cooking water, then drain pasta.

While pasta cooks, add 1 tbsp oil to skillet and heat. Add mushrooms and a pinch salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in remaining remaining garlic and 1/2 tsp rosemary. Stir in wine, scraping up any browned bits, and cook until completely evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in sausage-cream mixture and about 1/2 cup reserved cooking water and simmer until meat is no longer pink.

Remove pan from heat and stir in Pecorino until smooth.

Add sauce, parsley, and lemon juice to pasta and toss well to coat. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Add additional pasta water if desired to thin sauce.

Enjoy!

 


Brownies

 

 

Sometimes I want dessert but really don't feel like spending six hours in the kitchen creating a culinary Mona Lisa. That's when a boxed brownie mix, a jar of caramel sauce, and a bag of candied pecans come in handy.

  • Bake brownies.
  • Heat caramel sauce.
  • Stir in pecans.
  • Spoon sauce over brownie.
  • Eat.

And it tasted even better than it looks.