Slow-Cooked Pork Chops

Slow-Cooked Pork Chops - made December 31, 2012 from My Daily Moment

Another "real food" recipe.  Yes, I'm still trying to feed myself at home.  I don't usually cook with pork very much, mostly because I'm inept at it and pork chops can toughen up easily (well, they do when I get hold of them).  But I figure you can't go wrong throwing them in a crock pot since all you need to do is let them cook long enough to get tender.  Which is pretty much what this recipe is.  The beauty of it is you can prep and pan sear them in a few minutes then throw them in the slow cooker for the rest of the day and forget about it.  That's my kind of cooking.

After my brush with dry chicken breasts, I also wanted something with a little bit of sauce and this delivered.  This didn't get too soupy since you only put in the one can of soup and no water but the sauce wasn't thick either.  I cooked it on high for almost 6 hours, until the chops were fork tender.  Taste-wise, I don't think I'd win any culinary blue ribbons but this turned out pretty well.  It was a tiny bit salty for me but otherwise good.  I also added sprigs of rosemary to the crock pot.  The original recipe didn't call for it but I have a healthy, thriving, ever-growing rosemary plant and I figure I'd better be using it as much as possible.  Especially since even after I cut off half a dozen sprigs, the plant looked as bushy as it ever was.

6 lean pork chops
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons oil
1 10-oz can chicken and rice soup

Coat pork chops in mixture of flour, salt, dry mustard, and garlic powder and brown in oil in skillet. Place browned pork chops in crock-pot. Add can of soup. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 1/2 hours.

Lemon Chicken

Lemon Chicken - made December 30, 2012 from Juju Good News

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2013!  Try to stay a little longer than 2012 did because that girl just whipped on by.

It's that time of year when I temporarily switch over from dessert recipes to "real food" recipes.  It's partly because I've been baking so much over the holidays that yes, even I burn out on baking and sugar.  Don't worry, that particular insanity really does pass (give me another day week or so).  In the meantime, I still have to eat and as part of every new year, I make a concerted effort to cook for myself and stop eating out or getting takeout for my sustenance.  Actually, I've been getting better at cooking for myself (not necessarily the results, just the act of cooking) and as has been the theme with real food recipes this year, pinterest provides a lot of possibilities.

Case in point is this one I found on pinterest from Juju Good News.  This is a healthy rendition of Lemon Chicken where the main ingredient really is lemon.  I still have a bunch of lemons from my mom's lemon tree and she keeps asking if I need more.  Since I'm not baking, I decided to repurpose the lemons to a savory dish in an attempt to use up the bounty.  Plus, my friend Hongpei gave me a rosemary plant for Christmas so this had the added bonus of using a fresh herb I already had.  If you make the recipe as is, this is a pretty healthy choice, even healthier if you leave off the butter.  I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and had half a piece over a bed of salad greens (squirt of lemon as the dressing) for my dinner.  I know, I know, you think someone's hacked my blog and this couldn't possibly be me.  Would it help if I said I followed up that singularly healthy dinner with a chocolate chip cookie baked in a ramekin and topped with vanilla ice cream?  See, it really is me.

In any case, if you make this recipe, I don't advise using chicken breasts.  As I've discovered (more than once but I keep forgetting), they dry out too easily.  I baked mine a trifle too long so yup, they were a bit dry.  There isn't much "sauce" although the lemon does permeate the chicken nicely, especially considering I marinated it overnight.  So stick with the thighs or drumsticks per the original recipe.

However, all is not lost if you do end up with sauceless, slightly dry chicken.  I searched for and found this recipe for Lemon Sauce - bonus that it used up more lemons.  I may have to stock up on lemons after all the next time I go to my mom's.  This sauce is reminiscent of the sauce for lemon chicken in Chinese restaurants and is also thick, thanks to the cornstarch.  Don't be afraid to go big on the lemons - you want that nice lemon flavor.

2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2-4 lbs. of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or drumsticks (I used chicken breasts)
2-3 tablespoons melted butter
Thinly sliced lemons, for garnished

1. Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper in a large zipper-lock plastic bag. Seal the bag and shake well to blend. Place the chicken pieces in the bag with the marinade, pressing out excess air and sealing once more. Refrigerate and let marinate for 2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and transfer to a baking dish, skin-side up, reserving the leftover marinade. Brush the top of each piece of chicken with melted butter.

3. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the skins are crispy and well-browned. Halfway through baking, pour the remaining marinade over the chicken pieces in the baking dish. Once fully baked, cover loosely with foil and let rest 10 minutes before serving. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with lemon slices and serve.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - made December 15, 2012 from Bake or Break

This is the last new dessert recipe I tried before Christmas and I'm sneaking it in before 2012 ends.  The picture of this cake from Bake or Break looked really good but it was the write up that led me to try this recipe because the author mentioned Billy's Bakery in Manhattan and their banana cake.  The last time I was in Manhattan, I actually had the banana cake from Billy's Bakery and it was fantastic.  Light, fluffy and moist.  Almost as good as my favorite banana cake from Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos, CA.  So of course I had to try this recipe.

Sadly, though, my efforts missed the mark.  I don't know whether I didn't mix the batter enough or beat enough air into it or whether I didn't bake it long enough but mine didn't have the fluffy texture I was hoping for.  The taste was good but this was too dense which points to one of the errors I probably made above.  Back to my quest to find a banana cake similar to Icing on the Cake.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large ripe bananas
1/4 cup milk

Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons chopped toasted nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, oil, and sugar. Beat in eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, mash bananas with milk. Set aside.
4.  Gradually mix half of dry ingredients into butter mixture. Mix in bananas. Mix in remaining dry ingredients. Pour cake batter into prepared baking pan.
5. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack. 
6. To make the frosting: Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and vanilla.  Reduce speed and gradually add confectioners’ sugar. Spread frosting on cake. Sprinkle with nuts if desired.

Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies - made December 17, 2012 from A Tender Crumb

I've been out of town for the holidays and put up a few pre-written posts while I was gone but now I'm back and just in time.  It's National Chocolate Day!  I'm woefully inadequately informed on important foodie days like that (Chocolate Day!!) so I'm caught a little unprepared with some kind of decadent chocolate dessert.  So this chocolate chip cookie recipe will have to be the stand-in. 

I made the dough before Christmas in preparation for a couple of get togethers and a few holiday gifts.  As I've mentioned earlier, every time I have plans to see my friend Todd whose favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies, I have an excuse to try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I've had this pinned for awhile waiting for one of those Todd occasions.  I made the dough and had it chilling overnight but then got the email that one of our mutual friends had to cancel the dinner so we postponed it until next month.  Same thing happened last time I was supposed to meet with Todd.   Fortunately, chocolate chip cookies are universally welcomed by most of my friends so I had no problem finding other recipients for them for my baking gifts (sorry, Todd).

This was a pretty good recipe, although, to my jaded taste buds, it's always best 10 minutes out of the oven when it's still warm, the edges are crisp and the chips are melt-y.  Once it cooled to room temperature, it was somewhat like your average chocolate chip cookie.  Still good but I have to give the nod to Averie's chocolate chips and chunks cookies as being better at room temp. I did not have pastry flour so I used half all-purpose and half cake flour as a substitute.  Someday I do want to try it with pastry flour though and see how it turns out.

1 pound unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour (I used half all-purpose/half cake flour)
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Guittard milk chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (unless you're freezing the cookies first). Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Reduce speed to low and add flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.
5. Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart (or scoop into dough balls and freeze for several hours or overnight).
6. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies.
7. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Truffle Brownies

Truffle Brownies - made December 15, 2012 from The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti

Merry Christmas Eve!

I borrowed this book from the library during my virtuous phase of borrowing baking books instead of buying them.  So far the phase is holding.  It helps that I copied the recipes I was most interested in before I returned the book.  This is one of them.  And it lives up to its name because it's definitely a truffle in brownie form.  If you like fudgy brownies, this is one slight step beyond that. If you like the dense creamy filling of dark chocolate truffles, try this recipe.  Use the highest quality unsweetened chocolate you can afford (Scharffenberger comes to mind) because that makes or breaks this brownie.  It's pure chocolate.  The recipe says to cut into 16 squares but I recommend treating it like fudge and cutting the pieces smaller.  To offset the richness, you can also sprinkle toffee bits on top or swirl it with caramel but I went for the pure unadulterated chocolate version.  Suffice it to say, with my sweet tooth gone AWOL, one small piece was sufficient for me.  Don't overbake or you won't get the creamy, fudgy texture.

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

¾ cup all-purpose unbleached flour

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Large pinch kosher salt

1.     Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Melt the chocolate and butter in the top half of a double boiler over simmering water.  Stir and scrape the sides occasionally with the rubber spatula until the chocolate is smooth and evenly melted.  Let cool to room temperature.

3.     In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined, then whisk in the melted chocolate.  Add the flour, vanilla, and salt, and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth and evenly combined.  Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the baking spatula, preferably an offset spatula.

4.     Bake the brownies for 20 minutes and check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle.  When it comes out a little fudgy, not quite clean, the brownies are done.  If they’re a little too wet, bake 5 minutes longer and check again.

5.     Let the brownies cool in the pan, then cut into 16 squares.

Fudgy Nutella Cookies with Sea Salt

Fudgy Nutella Cookies with Sea Salt - made December 15, 2012 from Ambitious Kitchen

I kept seeing this cookie recipe in the blogosphere and like any good baking sheeple, I wanted to try it.  Funny thing is, I'm indifferent to Nutella.  I like baking with it (as evidenced by the hefty two-pack I keep buying at Costco) but I don't go into raptures over it.  I've never eaten it right out of the jar and I don't spread it on bread or eat it "straight".  I just bake with it.  I'm the same way with peanut butter.  However, if you are a nutella fan, you might like to try these cookies since nutella is the star ingredient.  It's pretty much nutella fudge in cookie form.  I like the salty sprinkles since it offset the sweetness of the cookie.

I've been baking so much lately that I think I'm starting to lose my sweet tooth.  As in, sweets do not send me into raptures right now.  Which is a little worrisome if you're a baker.  I'm hoping this will pass.  Because by definition, temporary insanity is supposed to be temporary, right?

1 cup nutella
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup flour + 1 tablespoon
coarse sea salt for sprinkling (I used fleur de sel)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all ingredients besides salt in a large bowl with electric mixer until well combined. Place dough in freezer for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes roll dough into approximately 1-inch balls, place on ungreased baking sheet at least two inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes until cookies are set, then very carefully transfer to a wire rack. Generously sprinkle with sea salt.

Snickerdoodle Biscoff Cookie Cups

Snickerdoodle Biscoff Cookie Cups - made December 15, 2012 from Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Last Saturday was my first full day back from my business trip last week and after I had heard about the shooting at Sandy Hook.  One of my coping mechanisms in life is to bake so, not surprisingly, I pretty much spent all that day baking.  I needed gifts for church friends the next day and for care packages I was mailing out so it was a good way to channel my efforts into something positive.  Like many other bloggers, today, I'm dedicating this post to the 20 children and 6 adults who died in that tragedy - they will always be remembered and loved.

I've been meaning to try this recipe from Sweet as Sugar Cookies for awhile.  I like snickerdoodles and I like biscoff flavor so it seemed like a good combination.  Plus, like thumbprint cookies, cookie cups are little and cute and perfect in care packages when you're giving away several different kinds of cookies but don't want to overwhelm your recipients with too much.  I made these as part of the goodie bags for church friends and was very pleased with how they turned out.  The snickerdoodle cookie itself is good enough to be a standalone cookie in case you don't want to make it as a cookie cup.  I skipped the step to drizzle white chocolate over it as it was a cold day when I made these and it's tricky to work with white chocolate which freezes up and sets quickly in cold temps.  Plus, okay, I didn't have good white chocolate to use for melting when I made these. 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Biscoff Cream Cheese Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons creamy Biscoff spread
1/2 cup powdered sugar

melted white chocolate (for drizzling - I skipped this step)

For the cookie cups: Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Form the dough into 1 Tbsp. balls and roll in the cinnamon-sugar. Place balls of dough in greased mini muffin tins and bake at 350F for about 13-15 min. until a toothpick comes out clean. While still warm, make a little dent in the center of each cup with a small spoon or your finger (you may have to scoop out a little of each cookie - eat the scraps and enjoy). Chill the tins in the fridge for at least 30 min. before removing the cookies.

For the frosting: Beat the cream cheese with the Biscoff spread until combined. Beat in the powdered sugar until fluffy.

Pipe the frosting into the cookie cups. Drizzle with the melted white chocolate. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

Corn Pudding

Corn Pudding - made December 15, 2012 from allrecipes.com

First day of holiday vacation!  Or at least it will be as soon as I take one more meeting this morning (that's how we take "vacation" in high tech).  Then I need to catch up on a slew of backlogged blog posts this coming week. 

I first heard of corn pudding from my online fitness board and I found a similar recipe on allrecipes.com, except I substituted butter for margarine.  (I'm not sure I'm physically capable of buying margarine since it goes against every baking fiber of my being.)  I like corn though so I thought I'd try this recipe. It's really easy to mix together and I had some sour cream on the cusp of expiring that I needed to use in a hurry.

I'm not quite sure what I expected and I have to admit, I couldn't tell if I liked this or not on my first try.  It's not quite creamy like a regular pudding and not quite gritty like cornbread but some cross in between.  I thought it might improve with age versus trying when first out of the oven so I let it sit a day and went back for another taste test the next day.  Truthfully?  I still don't know what to think about it.  It's "okay" but just not to my taste.  I think I'd rather have corn on the cob, grilled and slathered with butter.  Oh (TMI alert) and you probably should never use sour cream on the "cusp" of expiration.  Because there's a chance the one I used might've jumped the shark already and hence why I've been down with a stomach virus this past week.  Ugh.  I always used to joke I'm a good stomach flu (or self-inflicted food poisoning) away from a size 2.  It's only funny until it happens.  Erk.  Total upside though is I can get into my skinny jeans in time for Christmas.  Always a silver lining.

1 15.25-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1 15-ounce can cream-style corn
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 8.5-ounce package dry cornbread mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the whole kernel corn, cream style corn, butter, sour cream, and corn bread mix. Pour into the prepared casserole dish.
3. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Orange Butter Cookies

Orange Butter Cookies - made December 8, 2012 from The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti

As I bake my holiday gifts this year, I like to provide a variety of different cookies with different flavors.  Sometimes I like to do something fancy and sometimes just something simple but good.  This cookie falls into the latter category.  I'd never made it before so I did a test run and tried it out on my parents.  One recipe only made 9 cookies so if you have more than 2-3 orange lovers, you might want to double or triple the recipe.  Because this is a really good cookie.  It's dense, orange-y and chewy.  It doesn't spread very much (I also froze the dough and baked it on a convection setting) and I loved both the taste and the texture. It's like a chewy butter cookie flavored with oranges. The picture below doesn't do it justice as it looks raw but it really isn't, just dense, moist and chewy. (Hey, even my skinny mom ate two).

1 medium navel orange

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg yolk

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour

1.     Zest the rind of the orange, then cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl – you’ll need 1 ½ teaspoons of the juice).

2.     In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth.  Add the orange zest, 1 ½ teaspoons of the juice, the yolk, vanilla and salt and stir until combined.

3.     Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and mix until everything is combined and comes together into a dough.

4.     Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface, gather together with your hands, and divide into 2 pieces.  Sprinkle one of the pieces with flour and roll it with your hands into a 6-inch evenly thick log.  Repeat with the second piece of dough.  Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm.  (The dough can be kept in the fridge for 2 days or frozen for 2 months.)

5.     Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.

6.     Slice the logs into ½”-thick large coins and arrange on the parchment-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

7.     Put 2 racks in the upper and lower thirds of the preheated oven.  Bake until the cookies are golden brown, about 13 minutes.  Rotate pans if necessary to brown evenly.  Let cool completely.

Cola Cake - Cracker Barrel Style

Cola Cake: Cracker Barrel Style - made December 8, 2012 from Food.com

Slight underbaking problem again

We don't have a Cracker Barrel in my area (that I know of) so I've never eaten there but I've heard about them from friends and they seem to enjoy a lot of comfort food from there.  I found this recipe on pinterest and it looked fairly simple and what I needed to add to my holiday baking gifts since I like giving a variety of different baked goods in one gift pack.  This is similar in concept to the Root Beer Bundt Cake from Baked with the cocoa powder and the soda.  I think this came out a little sweet for me though.  The  texture was moist and fluffy which I like in my cakes but the addition of the cola frosting put the sweetness factor on the higher end.  I think this would be better with a darker chocolate frosting without the cola.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
1 cup cola, beverage
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
9 tablespoons cola, this should be the remaining cola left in a 12oz can
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine flour, granulated sugar and baking soda in mixing bowl. 
3. In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup butter, 5 tablespoons cocoa and 1 cup cola beverage to boiling. (whisk together as it melts).   Pour over the flour mixture and whisk thoroughly. 
4. Add buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.  Pour into prepared 9x13 pan. Bake for 40 minutes. 
5. During last 10 minutes of baking prepare frosting: place 4 cups confectioners' sugar in a mixing bowl.  In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder and 9 tablespoons cola beverage. Whisk together. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat, stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Pour over 4 cups confectioners' sugar.  Mix well with a whisk. 
6. Remove cake from oven.
7. Slowly pour warm coco-cola frosting over cake. Let cake cool for about an hour before cutting into it.