Whew, Where to Start

I started writing this post almost a week ago. I'm just going to throw it out there before this gets even more embarrassing.

The past couple of weekends have been all about cooking. The weeks have been all about writing (and a crappy but necessary work project). There's no "where I've been" post in two weeks now because I haven't been anywhere; I've been writing. That's good. I hope. Though it is making me cranky when I get pulled away from it to do other things, and I am consumed with worry that I am going to finish my outline far shy of the wordcount I want. I am discarding a fair amount of the alpha text as I rewrite. We shall see.

On to the food. I still need to type up some recipes, but I can at least get the links out of the way. I did indeed make chicken vindaloo, and it was awesome, very close to restaurant quality. I think next time I will use thighs on the bone, and I suspect that will make them ever closer. To go with it were Penang Pickled Vegetables, or as close as I could get with what I had on hand. Those were also very good. So was the Salmon Chipotle Chowder (as you can see, it was a spicy weekend!). I would make all of these again without hesitating.

The soup project has gone off the rails a bit, even though I got some pretty new bowls from Crate & Barrel. I may get back on track this weekend, but we shall see.

And a few more photos, to catch me up. I am a bad 365er; I have missed many days now, but I'm trying.

365 #23 Yet another view of Boston. I wanted to get the shadows, but I was talking to a co-worker and missed the time.

365 #24 Buying spree at Harvard Book Store

365 #25 Cheddar-Chive Bread via Dorie Greenspan - it rocks

365 #26 Dinosaurs

365 #27 New C&B bowls

365 #28 Days getting longer

365 #29 Miriam 4 months

365 #29 The trees can tell

365 #30 Public discussion on art restoration in the Red Line

365 #31 Mussel shell in a snowbank on First St., Cambridge. I have no idea.

Two Sweet Breakfast Treats

And yes, I have to dig out my digital camera, which is currently lurking somewhere at the bottom of my purse. I am just not good at the photo aspect of blogging.

Anyway, a couple of recently tried recipes that I wanted to make a note of.

Cranberry Lemon Muffins
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp lemon extract (opt)
2 eggs
1/2 c buttermilk
2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
2 c cranberries, thawed if frozen, chopped in half
Demera sugar for topping, opt.

1. Preheat oven to 350. 
2. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. 
3. Add egss, buttermilk, 2 tbsp lemon juice mixed with lemon extract (if using). Batter will curdle. 
4. Add 2 c flour through lemon zest. 
5. Carefully stir in cranberries. 
6. Divide batter among muffin tins. Sprinkle top with Demera sugar. 
7. Bake 20-25 minutes.

I think this is probably good recipe, but I messed up by making them in jumbo muffin tins. I am used to quickbread-type muffins, and these are extremely delicate, cake-style -- most of them did not survive depanning. Next time I will use normal tins and liners, just in case, and there will be a next time, because these are quite good, worthy of any breakfast bread basket.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Scones

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup (or more) whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Position rack in top third of oven. 
2. Mix flour, 1 cup sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, lemon peel, and salt in processor. 
3. Add butter and cut in, using on/off turns, until mixture resembles coarse meal. 
4. Whisk egg and lemon juice in medium bowl to blend. Add to flour mixture. Using on/off turns, process until moist clumps form. 
5. Add 1/3 cup milk. Using on/off turns, process just until dough comes together, adding more milk if dough seems dry. 
6. Using floured hands, gather dough into ball. Flatten into 8-inch round. Cut round into 8 wedges. 
7. Transfer scones to large baking sheet; brush with milk. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
8. Bake until scones are golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. 
9. Transfer to rack and cool. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

This is an old one I clipped out of a Bon Appetit about a thousand years ago and had only made once for some reason. I didn't add enough milk at first, and then I ended up overworking them a bit. I definitely need practice on my scone-making, but they're excellent. More of an afternoon tea thing than breakfast maybe, because they are relatively sweet.

Iced Mini Pumpkin Loaves with Molasses

Found this recipe on Cookie Madness, and I guess I was in the mood to make something with pumpkin. So I did. Mine were not as pretty as these, but the office maw devoured them in no time flat. They are very moist, scrumptious, and make your kitchen smell like Christmas.

Yum.

Fresh Sweet Corn Chowder and CI Drop Biscuits

Friday was about 55 degrees and raining out. I took half of the day off so that I could get a few things done, one of them being a visit to the farmer's market that didn't have to be rushed, but given the weather we hurried anyway. I had already loaded up at Kendall Square on Thursday, so I didn't find myself getting much. There is still corn, though it won't be around much longer, and I have been meaning to make something with it other than straight up on the cob. I picked up a half dozen ears, some beets and garlic, some eggs and ground beef from Shady Pine.

I have been craving bacon lately, and my searching turns up this recipe from a site called grouprecipes.com, with which I am not familiar. This is light, straightforward, and on the sweet side. In a brain-dead moment I used chicken stock at the end rather than milk, but it tasted very good regardless, just less, er, like a chowder.

I'll re-learn how to cook one of these days, I guess.

4 ears sweet corn, husks removed

4 slices bacon

½ medium onion, finely diced

1 medium baking potato, peeled and cut into small dices

dash of dried thyme

salt and black pepper

1 cup milk or half-and-half

1. Remove corn kernels from cob by running a sharp knife from top to bottom of cob – rotate cob, cutting kernels off all sides.
2. Use a spoon to run down the sides of the stripped cobs to extract as much of the "milk" as possible from the cob, letting the milk fall into the corn kernels. For soup stock, break the stripped corn cobs into thirds and place in a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water.
3. Bring to a boil; reduce to simmer and cook cobs for 20 minutes. Remove cobs from pot and strain the liquid – you should have about 2 cups of corn stock.
4. In a medium saucepan, cook bacon until crisp; drain bacon and crumble into small pieces.
5. Remove bacon, leaving 1 tablespoon bacon grease in pan (if you don’t use the bacon, add 1 tablespoon butter to pan).
6. Saute onions in grease (or butter) until translucent, about 5 minutes.
7. Add the diced potato, corn kernels and any "milk" that you extracted from the cob, 2 cups corn stock, thyme, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Bring to a simmer; cook, partially covered, skimming any foam as necessary, until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
9. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed.
10. Add milk or half-and-half.
11. Heat through (don’t boil).
12. Serve, topping each bowl with some crumbled bacon.

With the soup we had a green salad, and I made drop biscuits. Since the whole idea was to make something new, I went looking for a recipe instead of turning to one I had already used.

Unlike a lot of people I know, I am not a big fan of Cooks Illustrated. I actually find their attitude kind of irritating, and I don't normally want an entire page of backstory on how they found their idea of the perfect recipe for X. But these are really good biscuits, light and flaky, and incredibly easy to make, so I will give them this one. Grudgingly.

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes), plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475°F. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.
2. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Using greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high). Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.
3. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Three-Cheese Drop Biscuits

I made these to go along with the soup, and alone of the week's experiments, I will probably make these again. They are quick and easy enough to put together on a weeknight, and pretty darn tasty to boot. I would advise watching the amount of liquid carefully -- my biscuits spread out a great deal -- but even if they come out a bit flat they're perfectly yummy.

Three-Cheese Drop Biscuits

Cinnamon Scones

A rare treat yesterday, in the form of a visit from our friends the Cs. We had last seen them just about a year ago, so it was nice to spend a couple of hours catching up. For brunch I made a strata, which I ended up not liking much, and the scones, which I did:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter - cut into pieces
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 375.

In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the dough is crumbly. Fold in the cinnamon chips. Add the buttermilk and stir lightly until the dough comes together to form a ball. Don't overwork the dough.

On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a large circle about 2 inches thick. Cut the dough into wedges with a knife; do not separate the wedges. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Transfer dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 22 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.

After cooling, separate wedges with a serrated knife.

makes 8 scones
source: WW Recipe Review Board

Golden Pumpkin Walnut Loaf

I've been meaning to make this for weeks now. Well, on Sunday JJ took a morning nap (those are unpredictable) so I went ahead and put this quick bread together. It's easy enough to make, though mine tend to turn out rather flat--I think that next time, I'll try a slightly smaller pan and see if I can get a shapelier loaf. Since I was bringing this to the office, I doubled the recipe (might as well not leave a half can of pumpkin sitting around) and made half with, half without nuts. I leave the raisins out entirely, as I'm not a fan.

Golden Pumpkin-Walnut Loaf
From Cooking Light

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through mace) in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.

Combine sugars and eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add pumpkin, oil, and vanilla; stir well. Add raisins and nuts; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack, and remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.