Oh My Gourd



Pumpkin Petits Pots


I realize I posted a pumpkin pie recipe about a month ago. It is a delicious variation on the classic, a recipe I get many requests for and one I do think everyone should try at some point. These adorable little pots of creamy pumpkin are quite tasty too though, and deserve an attempt as well.

Charlotte's Other Side

White Chocolate Spider Web

I still feel bad about jumping the gun and bypassing Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and anything else that is celebrated before New Year's Eve. Well, I did start early with some pumpkin pie, so that should count I guess.

Actually, I am a bit under the weather right now (allergies or something more) and although the soup I threw together in a stuffed up, fog tonight was delicious and hit the spot, I didn't have it in me to photograph or write about. I am deciding, instead, to post a "recipe" from my Tuesday afternoon "cooking" group.

Bake My Day



Chocolate Layer Brownies


When I first became aware of her rags-to-riches story, her drive and ambition to feed her family and turn a love for baking and cooking into a career, I bought Paula Deen's The Lady & Son's Savannah Country Cookbook. The small, spiral-bound book is a collection of family recipes, as well as those also served in her Savannah restaurant of the same name, The Lady & Sons. I used it for a few recipes (I do love pictures though and there are none, so truthfully, I really did not flip through it that often), but it wasn't until my friend Tracy was looking over my cookbook collection one day and exclaimed that her favorite brownie recipe was by Paula Deen, I think from her Southern Cooking Bible. Not only her favorite recipe, she continued, but the easiest. I would now have to add the tastiest and most asked for, after making these brownies for more celebrations, potlucks, birthday parties and holidays than I could ever recall.

The recipe uses three large Symphony candy bars to create the milk chocolate layer in the middle. I still get a kick out of watching other grocery store customers looking over my healthy, pretty clean round-up of food items at the register... until they spy the brilliant, silver foil of these huge, king-size candy bars perched on top of, say, the quinoa or maybe a bag of lentils. Such big, questioning eyes, oh my. You know though, if this was my thing, my vice of sorts, I think it would be far better than a six-pack of Bud or a carton of cigarettes, no?

In a Nutshell

Pumpkin Pie with Hazelnuts

The first time I made and tested this pie recipe was after Thanksgiving day a few years ago, when the pie I originally made just didn't have the spunk (or, let's be honest, taste) my family or I was looking for. I kept going between a few recipes, finally ended up using the best of two, along with reviews and comments, and it was just OK. Really, it was nothing special.

This version though, the one I made a few days later when everyone could tolerate food and pie again, got the "oohs" and "ahhs" that I had originally hoped for. My parents were willing taste-testers, but were also probably set on having only a few bites. Instead, it was forkfulls of smooth, airy pumpkin filling, spread on top of a suprising layer of creamy ground hazelnuts, housed in a crispy, pastry crust, one after another. According to both, it was, "So light! So smooth!" and "This would have been perfect on Thanksgiving!"  Yea. Thanks guys.

Pantry Party

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I sometimes say that my very organized pantry and refrigerator are probably just ways to over compensate for the many unorganized areas of my life. Well, if that is actually true, so be it, because I could just rearrange and stare at my perfectly placed and staggered assortment of jars and canisters for hours. Pale pink lentils here, large swirly, spotted beans there...its a beautiful sight. There is actually one productive aspect of all this time spent behind the pantry door and its that I'm always well-aware of what I have or what I need.

Although not much of a baker, two items I still try to always have on hand (and are quite pleasing to the eye, in fact, as I scan and scan and scan...) are homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar.

I do some actual baking with the vanilla beans, but also really enjoy using the leftover and remaining fresh beans to make homemade vanilla extract or infuse some store-bought white granulated sugar. I use small glass bottles (small port, dessert or sauternes wine bottles are perfect) and corks I have laying around, and end up with attractive bottles of vanilla extract, ready to use in a few weeks. A mason jar filled with sugar is just as simple, and will be scented and ready to go within just a few days. Use it whenever white sugar is called for, as the subtle hint and nudge of vanilla will compliment most baked goods or treats (think shortbread, sugar or butter cookies, custards, pound cake or just a sprinkling over tarts or pies)

These also make thoughtful, inexpensive gifts for the baker in your life, or maybe the baker you want in your life.

Vanilla Extract
(adapted from Food & Wine magazine)

*1 1/2- 2 cups vodka
*Up to 10 split vanilla beans (I prefer bourbon Madagascar vanilla beans from Olive Nation)

Place the vanilla beans in a tall bottle or jar and cover with the vodka. Cover with up to 1/2 cup more vodka if necessary. Cork or seal and store in a cool, dark spot. Shake every so often. After about six weeks, when dark and fragrant, the extract is ready to use.

Vanilla Sugar
(adapted from The Paris Cookbook, by Patricia Wells)

* 4 cups sugar
* Up to 4 fresh or 4 split and used vanilla beans

Pour the sugar into a large jar or airtight container. Push and pack the vanilla beans down into the sugar. Cover and let vanilla infuse the sugar for a few days, or up to a week. Continue to replenish as the sugar is used, and add or replace vanilla beans every few months.

Home Slice



Union Square Cafe's Blueberry Pie

Most of the time I prefer cooking to baking. I enjoy the freedom of not really being all that accurate or precise (mostly becuase neither of these words could describe me, ever). Spoon-pouring and leveling, exact measurements and to-the-second baking times... sometimes that is just no fun. 

This pie, adapted from Emily Isaac of the Union Square Cafe in New York City, is actually one of the few desserts I enjoy following each and every step to make. From the way the berries begin to glisten like gemstones as they are heated through and their juices begin to flow, to slicing into the deep beautiful blue stained crust from the berries having bubbled up and over, this is a treat worthy of the little accuracy and steps involved. The consistency and texture of the filling is very smooth due to the heating through of the berries in the beginning, and the taste is delicate and not overly sweet. Its a comforting, homey treat, even if you never did get this at home.

A few notes:

I usually save the juice drained from the berries after cooling in a colander over a bowl. Reduced down, or not even, the excess juice makes a fantastic blueberry syrup for pancakes, to drizzle on breads or cakes, or even in yogurt or over ice cream. I was in Alaska a few years ago and my friend's father served me the most tender steak (reindeer, I think?) with a blueberry sauce, at their family-owned restaurant. The combination of tender meat and juicy, sweet sauce seemed to be made for one another... so perhaps this sauce could accompany your next meaty dinner. Please let me know what you come up with!

Also, sometimes I clean up after several steps, or sometimes I use every dish I own and create quite a hurricane in my small kitchen. This dish may require a few bowls (depending on how far ahead you read or plan). At first glance, or pour, of the simmered berries, it looks like they will somehow stain everything they touch. They stain nothing. I know this firsthand after unsuccessfully using the blueberry juice to dye my Easter eggs last year. The color was the exact opposite of appetizing and came off on my hands. Definitly a no-go for my attempt at local, organic (and somewhat recycled?) easter egg dye.

Union Square Cafe's Blueberry Pie

*2 quarts blueberries
*2 c. sugar + 1 Tbsp. (I use a vanilla sugar I make and always have on hand)
*zest and juice of one large lemon
*5 oz. cornstarch
*pinch salt
*1 whole egg, beaten + 1 Tbsp. water
*1 12 inch pie crust (see recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Rinse the berries and place in a medium pot with one cup of the sugar. Cook over medium heat for five minutes, stirring, until juices begin to flow. Remove from heat.

Strain berries in a colander set over a bowl and let cool. Transfer berries to a pie dish or shallow bowl and toss in one cup sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, cornstarch and salt. Allow the berries to macerate for ten minutes.

Roll out dough to a 12 inch circle and place on top of berries. Trim the edges and crimp with your fingers or a fork. Brush the top with egg and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let cool.

Pie Crust

*2/3 c. flor
*pinch salt
*1 Tbsp. sugar
*6 Tbsp. chilled butter (or 4 Tbsp butter + 2 Tbsp lard or crisco for an extra crispy crust)
*1 1/2 Tbsp ice cold water

Pulse flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Drop in 1/2 inch pieces of butter until entire mixture is of pea-size consistency. Add water in droplets while running and run until the dough is pulled together and a ball is formed in the food processor. No kneading is necessary. Wrap the ball of dough in Saran wrap and chill for half an hour before rolling out for use. Great to make ahead and freeze.