Banana Apple Bread

Banana Apple Bread - January 10, 2010

I should probably stop pretending that I'm on baking hiatus in January since this is the second time I've broken it. But I had a good excuse - I mean reason - this time. Every Sunday I go to church and meet my parents for lunch and I usually bring them something I've baked. Last Sunday, being dutifully on baking hiatus, I hadn't brought anything so I was caught off guard when my dad said, "no cookies?" Now, he was fine that I hadn't made anything, especially since they still had some of the orange pound cake I'd made them for New Year's. But I don't like not having something if he expected something. I wasn't going to get caught flat-footed again.

Baking for my parents can be a tricky proposition. They don't like anything too sweet (that lets out caramel-related baked goods as well as a major portion of what I make) and they're not especially fond of chocolate baked goods (they'll enjoy a box of Godiva chocolates but chocolate chip cookies or brownies? Not so much). So I normally go for something like lemon bars, orange cake, banana bread, snickerdoodles and/or white chocolate macadamia coconut cookies. This time around, I decided to try this recipe for Banana Apple Bread from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy. I'd made a few recipes from her book already and they had all turned out pretty well. This recipe was no exception.

It takes a little more prep than the average banana bread recipe since you had to chop up the apples and caramelize them, squeeze the orange juice and mash the bananas. But even that wasn't too hard or time consuming. I managed to get this made up before church this morning and had it baking while I worked out. I made them into 4 mini loaves instead of 1 big loaf so they baked in about 40 minutes (my workout was 36 minutes long so that worked out well). Normally I'm not a big fan of mixing fruit flavors but I actually liked the chunks of apples in the banana bread. The texture was soft and moist and it's something a little different from the norm.

Mom's Banana Apple Bread from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy

For the apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ½” pieces
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Banana Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoon (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups very ripe mashed bananas (2 to 3)

1. Position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lightly butter and flour a 1 ½-quart loaf pan.
2. To make the apples: Preheat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and brown sugar and heat until bubbling. Add the apples and cinnamon and sauté until golden and tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. To make the banana bread: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. In a small bowl, combine the orange juice and vanilla.
6. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the orange juice mixture, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each flour addition. Stir in the mashed bananas until combined. Then stir in the reserved apples.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool further.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. The banana bread keeps well wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 3 days. For longer storage, freeze well wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for up to 3 weeks. Defrost still wrapped at room temperate.

Skinny Scampi

Skinny Scampi - made January 6, 2010 from The Most Decadent Diet Ever by Devin Alexander

I love shrimp so I was predisposed to like this dish even just by reading the recipe. And it didn't disappoint. Ironically, I don't usually eat scampi just because of the high butter content and I normally prefer butter in baked goods or on a warm piece of bread rather than on something savory like shrimp or lobster. But the recipe seemed really easy to make and it was. The important thing is to prep your ingredients and that was probably the most time-consuming part. I'm actually an expert at peeling and deveining shrimp since that was one of the few things I could do to help my mom when she cooked so that was no big deal. But I'm certainly not fast at it. Although the recipe says to leave the tails on, I took them off while I was peeling the shrimp. I was peeling them anyway and my hands were already messy so why not? I don't like having to take the tails off of cooked shrimp while I'm eating them - it only slows me down :).

Once you turn the pan on, putting together this dish goes really, really fast so it's important to have your mise en place fully ready. I had bought a wine opener (the good kind since I doubted my strength in yanking a cork out of a bottle with just a corkscrew) so I had the white wine ready and I used the last of my mom's organic lemons to squeeze the lemon juice. Cooking the shrimp and putting together the sauce took almost no time and you end up with a delicious dish. This is another entree I could serve up to company as well as eat without rice - for you low carbers, this easily goes on a salad for a healthy, low-calorie meal.

So far, this cookbook has been a really good investment. I know of a few people who already have it and have recommended other recipes in the book for me to try. I've had a couple of people also tell me they're going to buy the book based on what I've posted so I'm very pleased about that. Definitely don't just rely on what I'm posting as there are many other recipes in the book that look good as well. I doubt I'll be able to try them all or blog about all of them so don't miss out.

Skinny Scampi

1 ¼ pounds medium (31-40 count) shrimp, peeled (tails left on) and deveined
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
Black pepper
6 garlic cloves, minced (about 2 ½ tablespoons)
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons light butter (stick, not tub)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

1. Toss the shrimp with the olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste in a medium bowl.
2. Place a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, put in half of the shrimp. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they are just pink on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes. Add half of the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until the shrimp are lightly browned on the outside and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a platter and cover to keep hot. Repeat with the remaining shrimp and garlic. Add them to the platter and cover.
3. Add the wine and lemon juice to the pan. When the liquid is reduced by half, 1 to 2 minutes, turn the heat to low and add the butter and 1 tablespoon parsley. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the butter is melted completely, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Spoon the sauce over the shrimp and toss well, then garnish with the remaining parsley. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Baby Brownies aka Dulce de Leche Brownies

Baby Brownies - made January 5, 2010, from The Silver Palate Basics Cookbook

Okay, so I wasn't going to be baking in January. Too many people "dieting" or having new year's resolutions to eat healthier and cut out sweets. Or so I thought. I underestimated the fact that I work mostly with men who don't care so much about that kind of stuff. I had a few people ask me if I'd made anything or what I was baking lately. Hey, I can take a hint. Plus I had meetings today where I normally bring something and I would've hated to disappoint anyone if they expected it and I showed up empty handed. And actually, let's face it - I'm weak. Despite burning out on baking over the holidays, after a 5-day hiatus from it, I suddenly didn't seem to mind baking again. Maybe I just needed a respite from cooking, lol.

This recipe was given to me by Jim, one of the VPs I work with. Jim made them last month and gave our group some so I knew ahead of time they were good. So it wasn't like I needed to make them myself, right? Apparently, I'm also a control freak and I wanted to try the recipe for myself. When Jim had us try this the first time, I had an end piece and a middle piece. I always like the middles because they're the most moist. I ate the middle piece first and it was just all yummy, fudgy, chocolatey goodness. When I ate the end piece, it was good too and still moist but not as moist as the middle piece and before I even looked at the recipe, I guessed there was chocolate syrup in it. And I was right. At the time, the only chocolate syrup I knew of was the Hershey's brand and Jim said he used the Hershey's Special Dark syrup. I'm more of a hot fudge person myself and the syrup didn't detract from the brownies and likely helped them be so moist and fudgy. But I wondered if I could make them so that you can't really taste the syrup.

I wanted to know if there were more high end chocolate syrups out there beyond Hershey's and, at Jim's suggestion, I posted that question on Yahoo! Answers. Someone replied and suggested Trader Joe's Midnight Moo chocolate syrup. Okay, c'mon, for that name alone, you have to try it. So I bought a bottle and that's what I used to make the brownie batter. However, being me, I also put my own spin on it. I still had almost half a jar of dulce de leche from the Fantasy Bars I'd made a few weeks ago so I covered the bottom of the baking pan with half the brownie batter, dropped dollops of the dulce de leche over it then covered it all with the remaining brownie batter. I didn't swirl the dulce de leche in or try to spread it thin. I wanted it completely covered because if you bake it with the dulce de leche exposed, the dulce de leche bubbles up during baking and will become chewy when it cools. I don't want chewy, I wanted creamy and for that, the dulce de leche has to be covered and sandwiched within the brownie.

Just stare at the picture. Can you see how fudgy and moist it is? There are no chemical leaveners in the recipe (no baking powder or baking soda) and you don't beat a lot of air into it so it's just a rich, moist, fudgy brownie - perfect. The dulce de leche adds a sweet, caramel-like flavor and even more moistness to it so don't underbake it by too much. I turned off the oven after 30 minutes then let the baking pan sit in there for another 5 minutes before I took it out. As the recipe says, cut these into small pieces as they're pretty rich.

Here's the recipe:

http://www.stillwatersgroup.com/recipes/baby_brownies.htm

Just add the dulce de leche on your own if you wish but it's certainly excellent without it too.

Fettuccine Alfredo

The most I’ve been managing to do is cook every other day. At first I thought I’d cook a bunch of stuff over the weekend and just have leftovers during the week when I’m back to work. It sounded like a good plan. Unfortunately, that only works if I could actually discipline myself to cook all weekend. Which I didn’t do this past weekend. Instead I found a killer sale at Banana Republic and got a pedicure on Saturday, went to church and out to lunch with my parents on Sunday and helped my mom drag their dead Christmas tree out for the recyclers. Watched the first 2 movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy while I dusted off a big Mary Engelbreit cross stitch project I’d started months ago and never really worked on in 2009. Even read a couple of books too. But spending time on the cooking thing? Not so much.

But I’ve decided that’s just as well because one of my problems in the past with learning/not learning how to cook is I was all gung ho about it in the beginning, bought a bunch of ingredients and made a bunch of stuff, some of which turned out, some of which didn’t. And after that first week, I’d completely lose interest in doing it again and back to Costco I’d go for the already-roasted rotisserie chicken for $4.99. This time, I’m trying to make it different. Like dieting or saving for a big financial goal, you have to keep at it if you want results. Consistency is best. It’s easy to take off a few pounds when you’re sick of sugar and feeling fat from holiday eating. But it’s taking it off and keeping it off in the long run that really matters and that only comes about with consistency and perseverance. Same thing with cooking or any other meaningful goal you want to achieve. It’s probably better for me to cook every other day and do it over the long haul instead of loading up the first couple of weeks and losing interest in it all over again once I burned out sufficiently from it.

Before I start on tonight’s cooking experiment, an update on the mac and cheese and the chicken piccata I’d made already. Had the mac and cheese for breakfast this morning – yeah, it’s a weird breakfast but I’ve also been known to eat breakfast food for dinner so I see nothing wrong with dinner food for breakfast. I’m an equal opportunity, doesn’t-matter-what-time-of-day eater. Even aside from the fact that I didn’t have egg beaters on hand and couldn’t fry my usual faux scrambled eggs for breakfast. Besides, I had a lot of the mac and cheese leftovers since I’d made the dish twice so I have to eat it sometime. You definitely don’t want to reheat this too much. Since I had the leftovers portioned out in individual-sized portions in the freezer, I had to heat it up. It got a bit rubbery as I heated it too long. So go easy on the reheating. I think this dish tastes best when eaten immediately after cooking and isn’t ideal as a make-enough-to-have-leftovers kind of dish.

The Chicken Piccata on the other hand was just as good as when I first made it. I’m really pleased with this recipe and how it turned out. Normally when something has a sauce to it, I love to eat it with rice (hey, after all, I’m Asian). But in trying to eat better, I actually had today’s portion on a bed of salad greens. I heated up the chicken piccata first then dumped it over the salad greens. I never eat salad with dressing but the lemon sauce made a perfect “dressing” for the salad. Good stuff. This recipe alone was worth getting the cookbook.

Now onto the Fettuccine Alfredo. This is also from the Most Decadent Diet Ever by Devin Alexander – can you tell once I glom onto a cookbook, I try as many recipes from it as possible? In this case it’s partly because there seem to be a lot of good recipes that are to my taste and my skill level in cooking. And partly because I have over 200 cookbooks and all but 4 or 5 of them are baking books, not cooking books, so I don’t have a big pool to choose from if I want to make “real food”. The original name for this recipe is actually Fettu-skinny Alfredo because it’s supposed to be made with lowfat Parmesan cheese and nonfat half-and-half. I had the nonfat half-and-half but they didn’t have reduced-fat Parmesan cheese at Trader Joe’s so I went with the regular version even if it meant it’s not as low-cal, low-fat as the recipe intended. I also bought the Parmesan cheese already shredded. Yeah, how lazy am I? But grating cheese is a pain and there’s not that much of a price difference between the block of Parmesan and the grated fresh Parmesan in a bag, at least not in the amounts I needed. The extra buck is worth my time. I added chicken breast chunks to the dish for the added protein. Plus I got to use my new meat mallet again and whacked the chicken breasts into tender thinness again so that was fun. Anything to liven up a Monday night.

How it turned out:
So even though it wasn’t with the low-fat Parmesan cheese, I’m hoping that didn’t alter the intended flavor or calorie count by that much. If it did, then I’m glad I worked out this morning. The sauce was good although next time I would do two things differently with this recipe. One, I would use angel hair pasta instead of fettuccine noodles. Much as I like fettuccine alfredo in general, I don't like big noodles. They're too heavy and you're busy eating so much noodle that sometimes the taste of the sauce gets lost. I think this would be much better with angel hair pasta or spaghettini noodles. Second, I would stop garnishing with parsley. It was optional and I didn't have to but since I had a bunch of parsley (literally, 1 bunch) that I bought for the other recipes, it seemed a shame not to use them. But after I tried it, I decided the recipe stands on its own and doesn't need the parsley. Otherwise, if you like pasta with alfredo sauce, this is definitely a good alternative to the calorie-laden versions.

Fettu-Skinny Alfredo - made January 4, 2010, from The Most Decadent Diet Ever by Devin Alexander

9 ounces dried fettucine
2 ½ teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons fat-free half-and-half
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons grated reduced-fat Parmesan, divided
½ teaspoon garlic powder, or more to taste
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste
3 tablespoons light butter (stick, not tub)
Chopped fresh parsley, optional

1. Cook fettuccine according to package directions.
2. Mix the flour with just enough half-and-half to form a paste in a medium bowl. Slowly add the remaining half-and-half, stirring to remove any lumps.
3. Place a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Put in the half-and-half mixture, ½ cup Parmesan, the garlic powder and salt to taste. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is as thick as gravy, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the butter until it melts and is well incorporated. Toss in the cooked fettuccine. If the sauce still needs to thicken slightly, continue to toss the fettuccine until the sauce thickens. Divide the fettuccine among 4 pasta bowls or dinner plates. Top each with 1 ½ teaspoons of the remaining Parmesan and a sprinkling of parsley, if desired. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata - January 2, 2010

This is going to be one of those times where you can laugh at my cooking attempts. I wanted to try this recipe for Chicken Piccata (also from The Most Decadent Diet Ever by Devin Alexander) because it seemed like another straightforward dish to make. It looked a little more involved than the Mac and Cheese recipe and I had to get a meat mallet for it but I was game to give it a try.

First, I pounded the chicken breasts as directed in the recipe. I've never pounded anything with a meat mallet before but I was impressed that it actually worked! Only thing is the recipe says to pound to an even 1/4" thickness but that seemed a little thin to me. I know it's to make the chicken tender and that's how thin chicken piccata is supposed to be but I'm not a fan of something that thin. So I cheated and only pounded to about 1/3" to 1/2" thickness. The chicken breasts I'd started with were pretty thick so it took some whacking to even get to that level of thinness. And the breasts definitely spread in size.

Second, I set up the rest of the ingredients into my mise en place. Only to run into a snag with the wine (this is the part where you can laugh at me). I don't drink but I'm not opposed to cooking with alcohol and I did buy a bottle of dry white wine at Trader Joe's because that's what the recipe called for. But if you don't drink, you know what you don't have in your house? Yep, that's right - a wine opener. Which I realized as I was getting the ingredients ready and ended up staring blankly at the wine bottle and the cork firmly ensconced in the neck. I didn't want to give up on the recipe and postpone making it since I'd already whacked the chicken breasts into submission and squeezed fresh lemon juice from the lemons from my mom's tree. So I forged ahead and used more chicken broth in place of the wine. I also didn't have capers because when I went grocery shopping, I couldn't find them, had no idea where to look and couldn't find anyone in the store who knew where they were either. Other than those 2 liberties, I followed the recipe as directed.

I have to say I really like how this turned out. I actually managed to cook the chicken breasts to the right desired doneness and they were tender. Best of all, I really liked the sauce. Sometimes chicken piccata is too lemony or seemingly nothing more than chicken with lemon juice but not in this case. The sauce was creamy and had just the right amount of lemon flavor. I don't know how it would taste with wine like in the original recipe but even with just the chicken broth in the sauce, it was very tasty. This is something I could easily make for company so I'm pretty happy about that - a recipe I not only like but can actually cook!

Chicken Piccata from The Most Decadent Diet Ever by Devin Alexander

2 ½ tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, divided
¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
¼ teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Four 4-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts, visible fat removed
¼ cup fat-free half-and-half
2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons light butter (stick, not tub), divided, room temperature
½ cup canned fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth, plus more if needed
1/3 cup dry white wine
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons capers, drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Combine 1 ½ tablespoons of the flour with ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and the garlic powder on a dinner plate. Use a fork or your fingers to mix well.
2. Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels to ensure that they are as dry as possible. Place them between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper on a flat work surface. Use the flat side of a meat mallet to pound them to an even ¼-inch thickness. Dip one breast at a time into the flour mixture to coat on all sides. Shake off any excess and transfer the breasts, to a clean plate, side by side (don’t pile them on top of each other).
3. Put the remaining 1 tablespoon flour in a small, deep bowl. Whisk in enough half-and-half to form a paste. Then continue whisking in the remaining half-and-half until well combined. Set aside.
4. Place a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, put in 2 teaspoons butter. Spread it to cover the bottom of the skillet and immediately add the chicken breasts, side by side. Cook until golden brown on both sides and no longer pink inside (if they’re browning too much, turn the heat down), about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a platter and tent it with foil to keep warm.
5. Add the chicken broth, wine, lemon juice, and garlic to the skillet. When the liquid is reduced by half, 1 to 2 minutes (the alcohol should be burned off), turn the heat to low. Whisk in the half-and-half mixture until well combined. Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth and the butter is completely melted. If the sauce is too thin, continue whisking until it thickens slightly. If it’s too thick, add more chicken broth, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it reaches the consistency of a gravy. Stir in the capers. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the sauce evenly over the chicken. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

Nutritional info: 1 serving = 1 chicken breast with 2 to 2 ½ tablespoons sauce: 206 calories, 28 g protein, 8 g carbs, 5 g fat

Mac & Cheese, Attempt #2

Okay, I gave this another try based on Devin's comments about what might've gone wrong the first time with the stringy cheese and the bland flavor. I followed the recipe to the letter except 1) I only did a scant cup of elbow macaroni, in case I had too much pasta last time and there wasn't enough sauce for the dish which could've led to the blandness problem and 2) I was super careful not to overheat/overcook the cheese sauce. When I heated the milk/flour mixture and the cheese, I had the burner on low and was stirring the sauce as the cheese melted. At first everything looked okay but then the liquid started to separate from the cheese. In baking (with butter), that's usually a sign that the mixture is getting too hot. The cheese wasn't completely melted yet and I'd been whisking all along so I didn't think it was too hot. Just in case, I took the pot off the heat and whisked until the cheese had completely melted in the residual heat. The sauce looked good and was creamy. It definitely wasn't as stringy as before. I added the elbow macaroni and kielbasa and stirred it all up. It certainly looked better/more "saucy" than my previous attempt a couple of days ago. I could taste more of the salt so it wasn't as bland.

But I'll be honest - it still wasn't as creamy as I had hoped. I'm going to blame the low-fat Cabot light cheddar cheese. While attempt #2 wasn't as stringy, the pasta with cheese sauce did clump a little once it was cool and this time, there was a little bit of liquid separating from the cheese again. That didn't happen with the first batch so not sure what's up with that. In general, this recipe was okay and I certainly don't mind having it for lunches next week when I go back to work. Not sure I would make it as a "company" dinner though. On the plus side, I really appreciated how easy this was to make. This is easily something I could throw together after work instead of just microwaving the nearest frozen dinner. I'm even glad I "failed" the first time and thank you, Devin, for your comment and tips on how to make it properly. I learn more from my failures than I do with successes. Biggest takeaway for me with this recipe and with using the Cabot light cheddar cheese was not to overheat it because it will get stringy.

Mac and Cheese with Polish Sausage

True to my intentions to learn how to cook, I started off today with a fairly simple recipe: Mac and Cheese with Polish Sausage from The Most Decadent Diet Ever by Devin Alexander. I figure you can't go wrong with pasta and there were few enough ingredients that the recipe wasn't intimidating. But, like all my past cooking attempts, I did have to go into a bit of a production before I started cooking.

For one thing, I had to go buy ingredients since I literally had none of them in the house. So off to Trader Joe's I went. Fortunately, Devin Alexander also seems to be a TJ's disciple and I was able to find all the ingredients easily enough. I even planned ahead to the next several recipes I'd be cooking from her book and stocked up on those too - imagine that. Then I had to invest in a few cooking gadgets/utensils I don't have so a few simple recipes added up to more $$s than any person could reasonably expect. However, I'm trying not to be a flash in the pan (haha) with this cooking thing so I'm looking on these purchases as an investment and that I won't automatically be defaulting to TJ's ready-made Chicken Tikka Masala so quickly. I even bought a meat mallet for an upcoming Chicken Piccata recipe and I envision using it on future occasions, you know - on meat.

Anyway, back to the Mac and Cheese. This was easy enough even for my limited cooking skills. The biggest pain was grating the block of light cheddar cheese but even that wasn't a big deal. The cheese melted easily enough in the pot but once I had everything mixed up and was portioning it out into single serving sizes, the cheese seemed rather stringy. And cleaning up the pot was a huge pain in the arse since the cheese didn't really want to come off. That's what you get with low-fat cheese, I guess. As for the dish itself, it tasted okay. The kielbasa added nice flavor to it but overall, this dish was pretty bland. And I followed the recipe faithfully so for once, it wasn't me or my screw up. I think I'll add a bit more salt and some pepper to the rest of the servings to try to liven it up. I've already said I have bland taste buds so when even I find something bland, you know it's really bland.

4 ounces extra-lean kielbasa or smoked turkey sausage (3 grams of fat or less per 2-ounce serving)
1 cup dried elbow macaroni
2 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup fat-free milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 ½ ounces (1 ¾ cups) finely shredded Cabot’s 75% Light Cheddar cheese or your favorite low-fat Cheddar

1. Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a full boil.
2. Cut the sausage into ¼-inch-thick slices.
3. Add the macaroni and the sausage to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the macaroni is cooked al dente, about 5 minutes. (It should still have a bit of bite to it.) Drain.
4. Meanwhile, mix the flour with just enough milk to form a paste in a small bowl. Slowly add the remaining milk, stirring as you do, making sure to remove any lumps. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat. Pour the milk mixture into the saucepan. Stir in the salt. Add the cheese and continue to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the cheese is completely melted and the mixture starts to thicken. When the mixture is almost smooth, stir in the cooked macaroni and sausage until it is well incorporated. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Old-Fashioned Glazed Orange Cake

This is the last thing I've baked in 2009 and will be the last thing before my baking hiatus for the month of January. The original name was Old-Fashioned Glazed Lemon Cake from In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley but I swapped out the lemons for oranges to make an orange cake with an orange glaze. The original recipe is below with lemons but you can easily substitute oranges. Or try the original with lemons as that's good too.

Tomorrow, New Year's Day, I'm headed to my parents for lunch to celebrate the new year with them and some of my mom's relatives. Most Filipinos, especially (cough) the older generation, don't care for sweets. No chocolate, no sugar, nothing overtly sweet at all. So I settled on a citrus cake as a safe bet that hopefully they won't consider too sweet. I like this cake because it has a nice tender crumb but also the texture of a good pound cake. The orange flavor blends nicely with the butter flavor and the glaze, with bits of orange zest, tops it nicely. I like to take about half the glaze and cover the cake with it while it's still a little warm (not hot). The glaze melts into the cake without sliding off too much. Then once it's completely cool, I cover it with the rest of the glaze. The first layer of glaze that somewhat melted into the cake gives it added moisture and flavor into the cake - yum.

Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
Grated zest of 2 large lemons
Juice of 1 large lemon (about 2 ½ tablespoons)

Glaze
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, well sifted
Finely grated zest of 1 large or 2 small lemons
Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 ½ tablespoons)

Additional unsalted butter, at room temperature, for greasing the pan

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F. Grease a 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside. Using a wooden spoon, or the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Don’t overmix; just fold gently until the batter looks well blended. Fold in the lemon zest and juice.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, and the cake has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.
4. For the glaze: in a medium-sized bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sifted sugar and the combined zest and lemon juice, alternating one then the other, until a creamy, pourable consistency is achieved.
5. In cake onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Spoon the glaze over hot cake and allow to cool completely before cutting. Best the day it is made, it will keep fairly well, in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

A cooking blog?

It's no secret that I can't cook. People assume that because I can bake, that I can cook. That's like saying because I can drive a car, that I can also ride a motorcycle and drive an 18-wheeler. Um, no. Actually, I shouldn't say I can't cook. Does being able to boil water for pasta and heating things in the microwave count? Truth is, I've never bothered to learn how to really cook and to become good at it. In today's world of convenience food, I've skated this far in life without learning how to do more than the basics. I don't eat fast food anymore and haven't for years (try reading Fast Food Nation and watching SuperSize Me in the same timeframe and see if you walk into a McDonalds or Burger King ever again) but places like Trader Joe's and Costco were made for cooking simpletons like me and they do all the work. Open package, remove any overtly plastic-y or metal things and put in microwave. Voila, dinner. Don't knock TJ's Chicken Tikka Masala until you've tried it. Even comes with basmati rice.

I also have bland taste buds and am a picky eater so all those ingredients in a recipe, half of which I don't eat most of the time, just don't inspire me to cook. The times when I've attempted it, I left out the ingredients I don't eat and ended up with some strange (and usually tasteless) concoctions. However, we're coming up on a new year and while I shy away from all things to do with "New Year's Resolutions" as seemingly too fleeting to be any good, it's easier to feel motivated to try to hone my cooking skills once again.

Actually, the real crux of the matter is, I don't bake in January. Too many people (plus me) are on a diet or trying to eat healthier and I don't want to sabotage their efforts (or mine). So if I can't bake, I need to do something. Might as well try to learn how to cook....again. I don't aspire to be a Julia Child or even to become a great cook. I just want to be able to put together some decent meals without it being a production. I can whip up almost any baking recipe with just the ingredients in my pantry and refrigerator but for a simple recipe of "real food", I will literally have to write down all the ingredients needed that I don't have (likely all of them), go make a special grocery shopping trip, and in some cases, figure out if I need to buy whatever pan(s) are needed or if I can make do with what I have. I do have pots and pans (more or less) but the only one I really use is my small frying pan since I can make scrambled eggs. Oh, and a pot for boiling water for pasta. All the other stuff I gathered over the years in my previous and aborted attempts to learn how to cook so I have a hodgepodge of cookware, none of which are really top quality since I wasn't going to invest in something I know won't capture my attention for very long.

This time, however, I've learned enough to set realistic goals. I'm only going to make simple dishes that don't require massive amounts of ingredients or lots of chopping and slicing (I suck at that too). Preferably food I can pack into containers and bring to work for lunch so they have to take kindly to being reheated. I can microwave with the best of them.

So, this baking blog will temporarily be hijacked by my cooking attempts - come along for the ride. At best, you can laugh at my efforts :).

Before I inflict that torture on you though, I have another recipe to share from a real cook - my mom. This is for Minced Chicken with Lettuce Leaves or Mushu Chicken as we call it in my family. It's my niece Lauren's favorite dish that my mom makes. Whenever the girls are in town, Lauren asks for Mushu Chicken and my mom makes it for her (c'mon, have to feed the grandchildren and all). I don't know where she got the original recipe so I can't cite the source here. All I've got is a well-used recipe card. Incidentally, this is exactly the type of recipe I'm talking about that's my Waterloo - too many ingredients and too much chopping, slicing and dicing. But it's really tasty - enjoy.

Minced Chicken with Lettuce Leaves

1 head lettuce

6 dried Chinese black mushrooms

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

5 boned, skinned chicken thighs

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil

2 green onions

One 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, minced

3/4 cup minced water chestnuts

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water

Salt

Freshly ground white pepper

1. Separate the lettuce leaves, wash dry, wrap in a cloth and chill for at least 1 hour.

2. Cover the dried mushrooms with warm water and let stand for 2 hours. Drain and squeeze water, discard stems, mince and reserve.

3. Toast sesame seeds until golden.

4. Mince chicken thighs and reserve.

5. In a small bowl, combine oyster sauce, soy sauce, sherry and sugar. Stir well and reserve.

6. Heat wok over high heat, add vegetable oil and quickly swirl surface of pan. Add minced chicken, green onions, and ginger. Stir fry 2 minutes over high heat.

7. Add water chestnuts and mushrooms, stir fry for 2 minutes.

8. Add sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, oyster sauce mixture and cornstarch mixture. Stir fry until well blended and slightly thickened, 1 or 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chicken Adobo

Few dishes epitomize Filipino cooking like adobo. It's a vinegar-and-garlic-based dish and can be made with pork ribs or chicken. My mom has made adobo throughout the years and never seemed to follow a recipe but her adobo always came out really well and is one of our family staples. This last time, she showed me an actual recipe (huzzah!) that she had been using lately as we all really liked that version of adobo. It was a recipe she'd cut out of the newspaper but it turns out it was from a Filipino cookbook a friend had given me a couple of years ago - Memories of Philippine Kitchens: Stories and Recipes from Far and Near by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. Which, of course, I'd never cooked from since I'm just not a cook but I liked reading the cultural tidbits associated with the different recipes. But now I have an actual recipe to post! This recipe calls for using baby back ribs but my mom made it with chicken. She cut up a whole one and used all the parts except for the back of the chicken as she said that had too much fat.

Baby Back Ribs Adobo (but with chicken)

1 cup organic apple cider vinegar (preferably aged in wood)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 small bay leaves
1 or 2 large jalapeno chiles, left whole
1 side of baby back ribs (about 2 pounds), cut up into individual or 2-rib portions)
2 teaspoons rock salt
6 garlic gloves, peeled
2 teaspoons Tellicherry peppercorns
Steamed rice, for serving

1. In small bowl, combine vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves and jalapeno. Arrange ribs in baking pan and season with salt.
2. Using a mortar and pestle, gently pound garlic cloves and peppercorns until they are combined and coarsely ground. Rub spices into the pork. Pour vinegar mixture over ribs, turning meat to coat evenly with the liquid. Cover pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
3. When you’re ready to cook ribs, transfer ribs and marinade to large, heavy saucepan. Bring mixture to boil, then reduce heat, cover and cook until meat is tender and falling off the bone.