You ever have a recipe that sounds like a surefire winner? I mean, it won’t change your life or anything but it sounds it would be really good, something nice to have on a week night. That’s how I felt about this pork and edamame dish. A sort of stew-y slightly hearty mess to drape over rice and yum, there you go.

Only that isn’t how it worked out. I put some of the blame on myself for using pork escalopes instead of the pork shoulder the recipe calls for. (In hindsight, I could see the potential of porky, fatty goodness infusing the whole deal with a heretofore unhad crispness.) But the rest of the blame lies solely on the fact it was dreadfully dull. Don’t get me wrong, we love dousing things in sriracha, but sriracha should have been used as an accompaniment, not as last-minute oh-now-it-tastes-decent flavoring.

Ah bien, you live and learn. And then you write about it to all your friends and a handful of strangers.

Edamame with Pork, Tomatoes and Cilantro

2 tbl. extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, chopped or 3 scallions, chopped

1 tbl. minced garlic

1 lb. pork shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

2 tsp. chopped fresh marjoram, oregano or rosemary, OR 1 tsp. thyme leaves

1 1/2 cups chopped ripe tomato (canned are fine, drained or not)

2 cups edamame, fresh or frozen and thawed

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Put oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 3 minutes. Remove and add pork chunks; cook, stirring, until crisp, 5 to 10 minutes. Halfway through, add herbs and continue to cook.

Add tomato and cook at a gentle bubble until tomatoes begin to break apart, about 10 minutes. Stir in edamame and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until edamame are tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, stir in cilantro and serve, preferably over a bed of basmati rice.

Oh, I so owe Gomez.

Actually, I owe all of you. I don’t know what happened to me; it isn’t as though I quit baking, cooking, reading about cooking/baking, eating out and taking pictures of cooking/baking. Damn loss of momentum!

Anyway, I promise to be better if you promise to come back and check the blog a couple times a week because I guarantee you that there will be three new posts a week (mostly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). And to celebrate the return of my attention to said blog, let me tell you about berry season here in Quebec. It’s B-A-N-A-N-A-S, y’all.*

Matt and I have been up to our ears in strawberries (fraises), raspberries (framboises) and blueberries (bluets). With the blueberries alone, I have made muffins, coffee cake and gelato. YES, GELATO. This week I rummaged through one of my favorite cookbooks/food memoirs and tried out an amazing pound cake.

You know how most pound cakes, despite their deliciousness, don’t have that amazing tight crumb? They fall apart on you, or are a bit dry? I can assure you that this one does not; in fact, I can assure you that it is so insanely moist, you’ll wonder if you’ve just been eating terrible pound cakes your entire life. And in high berry season, it’s perfect to bring to barbecues.

So here you go, Gomez and my other gentle readers, a berry pound cake from me to you. It may not be Valentine’s day but it is truly from the heart.

*yeah, I quoted Gwen Stefani. Wanna fight about it?

Blueberry-Raspberry Pound Cake

courtesy of Molly Wizenberg

2 cups plus 8 tbl. cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

5 large eggs

1 2/3 cups sugar

2 1/2 sticks (10 oz.) unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature

2 tbl. kirsch (I subbed cassis because it was what I had)

1 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried well

1 cup raspberries, rinsed and dried well

Set an oven rack to the middle position, and preheat the oven to 300F. Butter a standard-sized 9-cup Bundt pan and dust it with flour, shaking out any excess. (If your pan is nonstick, you can get away with a simple coating of cooking spray, no flour needed.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups plus 6 tablespoons flour, the baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a food processor, blend the eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow, about 1 minute. Add the butter and kirsch, and blend until the mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. If the mixture looks curdled, don’t worry. Add the dry ingredients and process just to combine. Do not overmix. The butter should be thick and very smooth.

In a large bowl, toss the berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Pour the batter  over the berries, and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold to combine, taking care that all the flour is absorbed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly across the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake’s center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours.

Transfer the cake to a rack, and cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Carefully invert the cake out of the pan onto the rack, and cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Welcome to the 200th entry, y’all.

Even though it’s nutritionally useless, I rather like eggplant. Pureed, you have the beginnings of a dip; grilled, it’s very portobello mushroom-like; and here, sauteed with basil, garlic and tomatoes, it makes for a really lovely sort-of pasta sauce. Eggplant is another one of those veggies I am glad to have introduced my husband to. When I use it in a recipe, he likes it and often remarks about how he likes it. That being said, he could do anything he likes to it too and it would be just as tasty. Seriously though, this is very good and fairly easy to make for that vegan/vegetarian in your life.

As you know, I am more a fan of veggies than I am of meat. I love trying out new ones, seeing if I like them or not, or seeing if I may like it better if cooked a different way. Sadly, that is what I am hoping happens with the broccoli rabe (aka rapini). Yes, I am aware that is a fairly bitter vegetable, which why you blanch it or serve with something that compliments the sharp flavor. And I figured you couldn’t go wrong with lots of garlic, crushed red pepper and salt. And sauteed, for God’s sake. Most leafy veggies taste unbelievably good sauteed. Nuh-uh, not broccoli rabe.

Matt and I’s initial impression was that we glad to have tried out a new veggie but right now: NOT FOR US. I will thumb through some treasured cookbooks and see if there’s anything out there that may change my mind. You want an analogy for broccoli rabe? Collards (which I don’t like) and kale (which I do).

I am really glad to have made it to 200 entries. I hope that if you’re out there reading, I’d appreciate if you could leave comments from time to time. So far it feels like speaking to an empty room. In any case, I am glad to have my awesome husband by my side. He’s my guinea pig and my honey bunny.

Eggplant, La Tavernetta Style

2 lb. eggplant of any variety, the smallest you can find

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 cloves garlic, slivered

12 good cherry tomatoes, halved, or a couple of plum tomatoes or medium-size regular tomatoes, cored and chopped

1 cup roughly chopped basil leaves

Cut eggplant into pieces about an inch or two long and no more than half-an-inch wide; each piece should have a bit of skin and a bit of flesh. (If eggplant are small, cut them first into long strips, then cut them crosswise. If large, you may end up discarding or reserving the fleshy, seedy center.)

Put 1/3 cup oil in a skillet over medium heat; a minute later add eggplant. Cook; stirring occasionally, and seasoning with salt and pepper until very soft, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put remaining oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook until it colors slightly. Add tomatoes and about 2/3 of the basil, raise heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is saucy, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

When both sauce and eggplant are done, combine them. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature, or over pasta, garnished with remaining basil.

Broccoli Rabe (Friarielli)

4 tbl. extra virgin olive oil

2 or 3 garlic cloves, peeled and slivered

3 or 4 dried chilies (if you don’t have that, use as much crushed red pepper as you like)

2 lb. broccoli rabe, trimmed of stalks over 1/8 -inch thick, washed and left wet

salt and pepper

Put oil in skillet over medium-low heat and add garlic and chilies. When they sizzle and garlic begins to color, add broccoli rabe all at once.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until broccoli rabe is very tender, 10 to 15 minutes; if stalks are thick, you may have to add a few tablespoons of water to let them cook all the way through but keep this to a minimum. Remove chilies before serving, if you like.

I realize that it’s only the 14th but seriously, I feel so left behind. I bought these really cute cellophane bags with Christmas trees on them at the store so I have visions of me filling them gleefully with cookies and candies but I have yet to decide which recipes I am going to do those with. And guess what? Time’s a-wastin’. I should’ve started doing stuff Saturday but I was so hungry for pancakes—the delightful Matt had his dance card full so no help from that quarter—that I made my own pancakes. THEY TOTALLY SUCKED.

I used a recipe from the sainted Mark Bittman so I have no clue what I did wrong. I suspect that my electric griddle (hee, I love that word, “griddle”) wasn’t hot enough. Anyway, I include it below for sake of symmetry and nothing more. I had better luck with the BLT pizza I whipped for us Saturday night, though. I keep harping on this, my lack of homemade pizza-dough making, but the kind I am getting from the IGA works a treat. Pile some roasted chicken on there, along with bacon, sliced green onions, cubed tomatoes, add shredded cheese and you’ve got a treat. The “L” part? Some nice bitter arugula, which I heart.

One of the things I used to pick up all the time at Whole Foods was their gingerbread. I heart gingerbread big time. When it’s done right, it’s the perfect amount of sweet, the perfect amount of gingery heat with a pleasant moist crumb. For years, I thought about either trying to get the recipe from them or just finding one elsewhere that might give me the same result.

I think I found a keeper. I searched Smitten Kitchen (of course) and Deb has the gingerbread recipe from Gramercy Tavern. I’ve made it twice in the past two days. It’s what I’ve been looking for; it owes a lot of its rich depth to the oatmeal stout the recipe calls for. Seriously, don’t substitute it…besides, you get to drink the leftover stout you didn’t use.

Also: this recipes works well in smaller loaves, just keep an eye on it to make sure there’s no burning.

But wait, there’s more! Yesterday’s fancypants breakfast was migas with tomato-chipotle coulis. But you know me, I made some minor adjustments.

Bad Mexican that I am, I used—gulp!—tortilla chips instead of freshly fried tortilla chips. I can explain! I have a couple of huge bags of them in the pantry and decided to use them up.

Also, I increased the heat of the coulis by using a whole chipotle in adobo. By the way, what do you guys do with your leftover chipotles? I don’t want to waste them but I don’t have anything coming up where I need them. Can I freeze them?

So: I am a busy bee. But not too busy to keep you guys informed.

Everyday Pancakes
Adapted from Mark Bittman, New York Times 12/20/06

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar, optional
2 eggs
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter (optional), plus unmelted butter for cooking, or use neutral oil.

1. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs into 1 1/2 cups milk, then stir in 2 tablespoons melted cooled butter, if using it. Gently stir this mixture into dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten flour; don’t worry about a few lumps. If batter seems thick, add a little more milk.

2. Place a teaspoon or 2 of butter or oil on griddle or skillet. When butter foam subsides or oil shimmers, ladle batter onto griddle or skillet, making pancakes of any size you like. Adjust heat as necessary; usually, first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Flip pancakes after bubbles rise to surface and bottoms brown, after 2 to 4 minutes.

3. Cook until second side is lightly browned. Serve, or hold on an ovenproof plate in a 200-degree oven for up to 15 minutes.

Gramercy Tavern’s Gingerbread
Claudia Fleming

1 cup oatmeal stout or Guinness Stout
1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cardamom
3 large eggs
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Accompaniment: Unsweetened whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter bundt pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess. (She is not kidding about this. I used a nonstick pan with a butter/flour spray and still lost a chunk of cake. I will be more generous next time.)

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda, then cool to room temperature.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in oil, then molasses mixture. Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan and rap pan sharply on counter to eliminate air bubbles. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs adhering, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Serve cake, dusted with confectioners sugar, with whipped cream.

Do ahead: This gingerbread is better if made a day ahead. It will keep 3 days, covered, at room temperature. I am sure it will keep well-wrapped in the freezer even longer.

Sue Torres’ Migas (Mexican-Style Breakfast)
Adapted from Sueños Restaurant, NYC

Tomato-Chipotle Coulis

2 large, round tomatoes or best available
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 white or Spanish onion, minced (Torres says the white onion is more commonly used in Mexico)
1 chipotle en adobo, from a can (I used half of one and thought it had a plenty-big kick, you can always start with a quarter and add more if desired)
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Puree all of the above in a blender jar. Heat a sauce pan over high heat. Add oil to coat. Once the oil it hot, add the sauce. Cook for 15 minutes or so and season to taste.

Demonstration tip: Torres said that if you ever end up with a sauce too spicy, you can add a splash of cream to cool it off.

Migas
2 links Mexican or Spanish chorizo, removed from casing, diced or coarsely chopped
4 tablespoons oil (a mixture of corn and olive oil works best)
8 eggs, lightly beaten
20 corn tortilla chips, preferably fresh
Fresh cilantro for garnish

First, cook the chorizo. Heat a medium-sized stainless steel saucepan over medium-high heat and add two tablespoons of oil. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring frequently, until the chorizo is golden and cooked through, about ten minutes. Add the eggs and after a minute, the chips. Use a wooden spoon to crush the chips as you stir to cook the eggs. Cook for about five minutes (mine took less) or until almost cooked through.Remove from heat.

[Deb note: I'm a stickler about not overcooking/drying out scrambled eggs -- blech -- and always remove them from the heat while they still look a little damp; they continue cooking in their residual heat even once plated.]

Set up four plates for serving. Ladle some coulis in the bottom of each dish, top with some of the egg mixture and sprinkle with the cilantro. Serve immediately.

Well, I screwed the pooch on that one, didn’t I? Ah well, I don’t feel so bad; I made it all the way through last year so maybe next year I can set that bar high again.

Anyway, I was in quite a grump Saturday afternoon. There was no explicable reason; sometimes I just get that way. Matt suggested that maybe we should go out to dinner.

We went to this restaurant downtown—Le Kilimanjaro—that we thought was Tibetan but was, in fact, Haitian/African.

It was…okay. The soup starter was a bit oversalted and generic for my taste, so I couldn’t see what made it African OR Haitian. The samosas were these teeny-tiny turnovers stuffed with minced beef which Matt liked better than I. What I dug was the spicy dressing on the salad. And while I know my French is far from perfect, even my husband had a difficult time translating the menu. I wanted something vegetarian so I ordered “mafe’”.

It was more or less like a peanutty-spicy curry with huge chunks of green peppers, onions and some other veggies I couldn’t identify. It was quite good with the soup of too-sticky rice. I got more of that salad I had earlier with the dressing; it was all good until the end of my fork picked up a huge chunk of frozen (ice and everything!) lettuce. I just put my fork down at that point. Matt had something called griots (which we have since learned is pork medallions) with some odd dirty-looking rice and plaintains. He too got frozen lettuce but it didn’t bother him. All said, it was very mediocre yet affordable meal. If someone asked me for an ethnic resto recommendation, I would not be able to give it here.

On the other hand, I finally got to go to King Hall. Holy crap, that bar is awesome! It reminds me of a combination of bars from Atlanta and New Orleans. I look forward to exploring their beer menu.

I have been busy in the kitchen, y’all. With the thermometer inching its way down with what seems like every day, I am happy to spend time in the kitchen where it’s warm.

One thing I did achieve with my culinary delights is finding a crab cake recipe that Matt didn’t immediately spit out. Perhaps in central Canada, seafood is strange and foreign because that is the only reason I can figure for it (I grew up along the Florida Panhandle where we know seafood).

And as though we didn’t have enough sweets in the house or anything else to bring, I made sweet potato-chocolate bars for a lovely dinner party last night. It occurred to me on the drive over that I could’ve probably used canned pumpkin and saved myself a time-consuming step, but then I seem to always do things the hard way.

I think what I liked best about these was how the sweetness of the chocolate was tempered by the sweet potato. After all, when you use semisweet chocolate, you pretty much taste nothing but sugar. Another bonus: graham cracker crust!

Oooh, before I forget: the recipe calls for a baking time of 25 minutes; I found that I had to bake mine an additional 20 minutes to get center nice and set, your mileage may vary.

As I’ve chronicled previously, I like to have one weekend morning where I make something slightly fancy and/or involved for breakfast. I realize that this takes away from Matt’s yearning to cook more on weekend (Kitchen Dominatrix is me) so I try not to step on too many toes. Once again, I cull from Smitten Kitchen’s compendium of breakfast recipes. This time, in the form of a crisp. As Deb says in her entry, she reduced the amount of sugar so you can eat this crisp with plain yogurt. Not me, I just ate the crisp itself.

I want to say that the crisp turned out perfect and that all was well in Crispland. Well, that would be a flat-out lie. I do battle with my oven constantly. And I cannot get that oven to obey despite the fact it has a damned thermometer in it. I honestly think it runs too hot no matter what temperature I set it on for baking. Also, it tilts slightly so anything baking in the oven will have its far edge burned. Mostly what I do is set the timer for half the baking time so I check on said item in oven. If it looks like it’s getting too brown, I cover it with parchment. I should have done so with the crisp but more’s the folly with me.

Listen: it didn’t ruin it. I was lax and should have checked more. But it did ruin my plans of giving leftover crisp to our neighbors.

Potato Chip Crab Cakes

1 egg

2 to 3 tbl. reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 tbl. Dijon mustard

1 lb. fresh jumbo lump crab meat, drained

3/4 cup crushed baked potato chips, about 3 oz.

In a bowl, beat egg. Add 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and mustard and stir to combine. Add crab meat and chips and gently stir of combine.  If mixture isn’t holding together, add additional mayonnaise. Do not overwork the crab, as it breaks into pieces easily. Form into 6 patties and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. The patties will become firmer upon refrigeration.

In a large, lightly oiled skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium-high heat, add the crab cakes and cook undisturbed until the bottoms are golden brown. Flip once and cook until bottoms turn golden brown and cakes are cooked through.

Sweet Potato Chocolate Bars

from “Every Day’s A Party” by Emeril Lagasse (Morrow, 1999)

1 1/2 lbs. medium-size sweet potatoes

1 tbl. vegetable oil

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

3 cups milk

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 cups pecan pieces

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

8 oz. semisweet chocolate morsels

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Rub the sweet potatoes with the vegetable oil and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake until fork-tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and let cool, then peel and mash in a large bowl.

Add to the mashed potatoes the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla, eggs, and 2 1/2 cups of the milk and mix well. Set aside.

Lower the oven temperature to 350.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and pecan pieces in a food processor and process for about 1 minute, to make a fine meal. With the motor running, gradually pour the melted butter through the feed tube and process for about 1 minute. Transfer the crumb mixture to a 13×18-inch baking pan and, using your fingers, firmly press the crumbs evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Pour the sweet potato mixture into the crust and spread evenly with a rubber spatula.

Put the chocolate morsels and the remaining 1/2 cup of milk in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Spoon the chocolate in three rows, about 2 inches apart, lengthwise over the sweet potato mixture. Then, with a knife, make a zigzag pattern to marbleize  the chocolate and the sweet potato mixture.

Bake until the edges are browned and the filling is set, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. To serve, cut into bars.

Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp

from Smitten Kitchen

3 pounds of whatever apples, or mix of apples, you like to bake with, peeled, cored and cut into medium chunks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup flour
2 cups oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened, as you wish; I used unsweetened)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix apple chunks with lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and pinch of salt in a 9×13-inch baking dish until apples are evenly coated. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the honey. Stir in the flour, oats, almonds, coconut and another pinch of salt until clumps form. Sprinkle evenly over the apple mixture and bake in the oven for about 45 to 55 minutes, or until the apples are softened and bubbly. Should the granola brown before you wish it to, cover the baking dish carefully with foil for all but the last few minutes of baking time, when removing the foil will help the granola recrisp. Cool to room temperature and then stash in the fridge to eat with your morning yogurt.

Yesterday….well, yesterday was not my best cooking/baking day. I have to remind myself—constantly, it seems—that they can’t all be winners, but man, do I ever take it hard.

For example: this whole-wheat molasses bread. I think the mistake with it was my expectations; I figured that it would be more bready, not so quick-bready.

I mean, it actually turned out okay, it just wasn’t the bread I thought it was going to be. Slathered with jam or clotted cream, though, my husband and I won’t care what it was supposed to be.

Which leads me to this sad sad place I call Taterfail. If you know me, you are aware that certain obsessions, culinary or otherwise, grip me for a mad time and don’t let go. And when I had a recipe for homemade tater tots….I think you can see where this is going.

First off, it is not as easy as it looks on paper.

My food processor worked a treat shredding then chopping said potatoes but things started to go wrong from there. The recipe asks that you mix in the salt with the raw taters and let it sit for about 5 minutes. So you let it sit, tip out collected juices expelled due to the introduction of salt, squeeze the tater bits (by the way, there is no way to make this less messy) and then form. You then freeze the “tots” for about half an hour harden them up and fry. Wait, wait, sorry, after you squeeze the taters of their excess starch and water, you sprinkle them with cornstarch, which theoretically allows them to hold their shape. THEORETICALLY.

Well…I added the amount of cornstarch called for, mixed it in and grabbed a handful of tater. Now the recipe says to close your hand tight with potato mixture in it and when you release, it should hold together enough to form a tot. And…it sort of did. “Hmm,” says I, “it couldn’t hurt to add a bit more cornstarch, now could it?” OH YES, IT CAN. Add to that, I’ve never deep-fried anything at home in my life, ruined a brand-new candy/fry thermometer whilst heating up a pot of oil, thus blowing out the glass bottom, ruining a large batch of oil…oh, dammit, Ore-Ida, Uncle, Uncle! Wisely, my husband stepped in, decided we could shallow-fry them in a skillet. As you can see, the first batch were “ew.”

Was it worth it, after all the trouble and complications? Not really. The excess cornstarch made the tots taste weird and, well, starchy. I mean, I’m glad I tried but this is a food I’ll gladly leave to pros.

Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread

oil or butter for greasing pan

1 2/3 cups buttermilk or plain yogurt

2 1/2 cups (about 12 oz.) whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup molasses

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8×4-inch or 9×5-inch loaf pan, preferably nonstick.

Mix together dry ingredients. Stir molasses into buttermilk. Stir liquid into dry ingredients (just enough to combine) then pour into loaf pan. Bake until firm and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 45 minutes to an hour. Cool on rack for 15 minutes before removing from pan.

Basic Potato Bites (aka Tater Tots)

3 to 4 large baking potatoes, peeled

1 heaping tsp. salt

1 tbl. granulated onion (optional)

2 to 3 tbl. cornstarch.

vegetable oil, for frying

Shred the potatoes into a large mixing bowl using the shredder attachment on your food processor. You should end up with 4 to 5 cups of potato shreds. Fill the bowl with water and rinse, changing the water 3 or 4 times until the water runs clear. Drain the shreds. Fit your food processor with a blade and pulse the shreds, in small batches, to chop them. Place the chopped bits on a sheet pan in a pile and add the salt and optional onion, and work this seasoning in with your fingers. Spread the bits out on the sheet pan and let rest for 5 minutes. Tip out any juices that have collected in the pan. Squeeze the bits, in handfuls, over the sink to rid them of additional moisture. Spread the cornstarch over the potatoes and work it in with your fingers. A handful of the mixture should hold its shape when squeezed in your hand.

Line a sheet with wax paper. Form the tots with gentle pressure in your hands (you’ll get the hang of it quickly). Line them on the sheet pan. When finished, place the pan in the freezer and freeze for 30 minutes, just until the surface has hardened.

Fry the tots submerged in oil heated to 375 degrees. If they stick to the bottom, let them brown before gently scraping them free with a steel spatula. Remove when golden brown—about 4 minutes.

Oh, how I keep telling myself that not every dish is a winner. Point of fact: this one. Perhaps freshly shelled chestnuts would have made a difference, perhaps not.

Seriously, I was so disappointed in this one.

The LSC and I were back in Montreal this past weekend. There was a comic convention which really was the saddest little con you ever did see. Somehow it was sadder that Lou Ferrigno was there. Still, I got to meet a couple more of my husband’s friends. As a prize for being a good sport, the LSC took me to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which we both loved. I must profess I only wanted to see because of Bill Hader, but the bonus of Neil Patrick Harris and Bruce Campbell made it worth more than the price of admission.

In my continuing quest for decent Mexican food up here in the Great White North, we ate at Manana Saturday night. Every time we’ve stayed on the Plateau, we’ve walked by and I’ve been quite intrigued. Doing diligent research at our hotel—Anne Ma Soeur Anne, equally a rocking place but more on that later—the LSC pulled up a taqueria that sounded very promising but after heading towards where it was supposed to be, we discovered that it was no more. As visions of chorizo tacos spiraled away to nothing, we agreed to Manana as a second choice. (It was my first, actually, but never mind.) Manana is admittedly a bit cliche with its bright prints, extremely loud salsa music and Frida Kahlo pictures on the walls (which I loved, so there) but it was warm and cozy. After a long day of seeing the sad nerds with their sad costumes, it was time for booze. And oddly, I wasn’t the one to suggest it!

Ah, fresh strawberry margaritas. My only gripe? They were frozen. Still, they were laden with tequila and sometimes that keeps the bad things at bay.

The spouse had the table d’hote (which essentially means he ordered the fixed price meal) and his starter was this interesting eggplant gratin. I am not entirely sure what this has to do with Mexican cuisine but from what I tasted of it, it was all right. A bit unusual but all right. Actually now that I think about this dish more, the more I am confused by it. Anyone care to shed any potential light on this?

I had the “quesadillas del queso”; that’s an oxymoron, morons (not you, whomever wrote the menu).

And the LSC had some sort of chicken dish whose name we have both forgotten. He liked it well enough but said, “This was okay but I think you could make better Mexican food.” Was that a challenge?

Post-dinner was pints at a favorite microbrasserie, L’amere Boire, a nice stroll to our room and a night’s sleep on the comfiest hotel mattress I have ever encountered. They give you fresh croissants in the morning (the hotel, not the mattress)! Also, our hotel was next to a jazz bar so I got lulled to sleep by “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” a favorite song, so: bonus!

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Chestnuts

1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil

1/2 cup shelled chestnuts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used canned and peeled chestnuts)

salt to taste

1 pound shredded cabbage

1 clove garlic, sliced, plus 1 tbl. minced garlic

about 12 large shrimp, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 tbl. minced or grated fresh ginger

2 tbl. soy sauce

1/4 cup chopped scallion

2 tsp. dark sesame oil

Heat a third of the peanut oil in a large skillet. Add chestnuts to pan, along with a pinch of salt, and cook over high heat until they begin to brown and slightly crisp. Remove and set aside.

Add another third of the oil, followed by the cabbage and the slice garlic; cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the cabbage begins to brown. Add about 1/4 cup water and continue cooking for another 3 or 4 minutes, until cabbage has softened.  Remove and set aside.

Add remaining oil to pan, then add shrimp, minced garlic, ginger and a little more salt; cook until shrimp is just pink.

Return chestnuts and cabbage to pan, along with a couple more tablespoons of water and the soy sauce. Cook, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pan. Add scallions, drizzle with sesame oil and serve.

Yesterday was what a rainy weekend afternoon should be made of: the LSC and I catching Inglorious Basterds at a Maison Du Cinema matinee, really excellent beers at Siboire (which has become, unofficially, my most favorite place to drink in Sherbrooke) and then homemade BBQ chicken pizza at home. Despite the onset of a headache for the hubby—something he has attributed to lack of sufficient caffeine—it was a great day. Would that all weekends were as easygoing.

One of my favorite very-very-bad-for-you treats when I was a kid were those cinnamon rolls (or even better, the orange ones) from Pillsbury. My mom, while an ace pancake maker, and my dad, Jack, an accomplished omelette cook, were not of the baking-sweet-rolls-from-scratch school. Of course, I didn’t know nor care at the time, because frankly, I was too preoccupied with stuffing my mouth with cinnamon rolls.

You can’t blame me for having understood that cinnamon rolls come from tubes or from brightly colored kiosks in malls. When you’re trying to raise two girls and make ends meet, then I think it’s pretty easy to let my folks off the hook. And now that I am a grown-up, I can totally stop making tube rolls and make real ones. Of course, that means making something like bread dough…which I haven’t been entirely successful at.

The final say from my husband can’t really be said because he had a happy mouth full of cinnamon roll at the time. I can say for myself that I think these turned out okay, but the dough did not proof anywhere near as much as it should have. I probably should’ve checked on the liveliness of my yeast or had a paddle attachment or something because I did everything by hand. They were quite edible—and slathered in cream cheese icing, how could they not be?—but not the bounciness and tenderness I come to expect from cinnamon rolls.

A word to the wise: these suckers take a long time to make. Two hours of proofing, plus 45 minutes for the second proof. I started these around 7:30 am and we didn’t get to tuck into them until close to 11.

The goods (i.e., the recipe) come from the combined awesomeness of Smitten Kitchen and Orangette. Oh, yeast-based doughs, how I will conquer you one day!

Cinnamon Swirl Buns with Cream Cheese Glaze
Adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s recipe in Bon Appetit, March 2008

Dough
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/4 teaspoons rapid-rise or instant yeast (from 1 envelope yeast)
1 teaspoon salt
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Filling
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt

Glaze
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For dough: Combine milk and butter in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high until butter melts and mixture is just warmed to 120°F to 130°F, about 30 to 45 seconds. Pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Beat on low speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add additional 2 1/2 cups flour. Beat on low until flour is absorbed and dough is sticky, scraping down sides of bowl. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls until dough begins to form ball and pulls away from sides of bowl. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. (You may also use a KitchenAid’s dough hook for this process.) Form into ball.

Lightly oil large bowl with nonstick spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

For filling: Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt in medium bowl.

Press down dough. Transfer to floured work surface. Roll out to 15×11-inch rectangle. Spread butter over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle cinnamon mixture evenly over butter. Starting at the longer side, roll dough into log, pinching gently to keep it rolled up. With seam side down, trim ends straight if they are uneven (we baked them in a ramekin, incapable of discarding such deliciousness) cut remaining dough crosswise with thin sharp knife (a good serrated worked well here) into 18 equal slices (each about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide).

Spray two 9-inch square glass baking dishes (an 8-inch square metal pan worked just fine, too) with nonstick spray. Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be almost no space between rolls). Cover baking dishes with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, 40 to 45 minutes, though yours, like mine, may take longer. Don’t skimp on the double-rising time.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake rolls until tops are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and invert immediately onto rack. Cool 10 minutes. Turn rolls right side up.

For glaze: Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth. Spread glaze on rolls. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note: These buns were best the day they were baked. The second day, they were on the tough side. If you anticipate wanting them over a few days, glaze them to order, heating the buns beforehand to soften them up.

I must apologize right off the bat for not having a picture of Saturday night’s finished dish. It wasn’t until I was uploading pictures for the entry that I realized that I hadn’t taken a single one of the Mediterranean Shrimp pasta dish. I wish I could blame  it on the excess of wine but that came later. It was more likely that I got self-conscious as I sometimes tend to do. Honestly, I don’t have to explain why I take pictures of food half the time but nonetheless, the slight embarrassment remains.

I almost forgot that heirloom tomato season is upon us but thankfully I married a man who hadn’t.

The gorgeous little babies I marinated (macerated?) in a mix of capers, balsamic and olive oil for about an hour in the fridge. Then I let them get to room temperature again—a refrigerated tomato is a tasteless tomato—before tossing them with some red-leafed lettuce. Quite a crowd pleaser.

Again, so sorry I don’t have pic of the finished shrimp dish. Trust me, you’ll just have to make it. It too went over like gangbusters at our Saturday night dinner party and actually made for yummy leftovers for me today.

Because of a wasted Sunday, the LSC and I had to wait until this morning to have the baked french toast I found off Smitten Kitchen. I realize that the top looks too dark but I often have trouble with the freaking oven. My husband thinks that having a oven thermometer is like a magic device but all it tells me is that my oven runs too cold or too hot. I have to constantly keep an eye on things or they may burn.

*sigh* I could have done better with this recipe. Kept an eye on it, for starters. It was good but not as transcendent as I was hoping. Still, it’ll make an excellent breakfast regardless tomorrow morning.

Mediterranean Shrimp

8 oz. orzo pasta (I used a box of corkscrews)

1 tsp. olive oil

1 medium thinly sliced red onion

1 medium thinly sliced red bell pepper

1 medium thinly sliced fresh zucchini

1 lb. shelled and deveined shrimp

1/4 chopped fresh dill

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

3 oz. crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup sliced black olives (the good kind not the kind in a can)

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Cook 4 minutes or until softened. Stir in zucchini and cook 2 minutes or until almost tender. Stir in shrimp, dill and black pepper. Cover and cook 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size of shrimp, until cooked through. Spoon over pasta, sprinkle with cheese and olives, and serve.

Boozy Baked French Toast

from Smitten Kitchen

1 loaf supermarket Challah bread in 1-inch slices, no need for the super-fancy stuff here
3 cups whole milk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Your choice of flavorings: I use 3 tablespoons Bailey’s and 3 tablespoons Cointreau, but Frangelico (hazelnut), Chambord (raspberry), Creme de Cassis (black currant) Grand Marnier or just a teaspoon or two of vanilla or almond extract can do the trick. You can bump up a citrus flavor with a teaspoon of zest, add a half-cup of chopped nuts such as almond slivers or pecans between layers or on top or a similar amount of raisins or other dried fruits.

1. Generously grease a 9×13-inch baking dish with salted (my choice) or unsalted butter.
2. Arrange bread in two tightly-packed layers in the pan. I always cut one slice into smaller pieces to fill in gaps, especially when using braided Challah. If using a thinner-sliced bread, you might wish for more layers, though I find that over three, even baking can be difficult. If you are using any fillings of fruit or nuts, this is the time to get them between the layers or sprinkled atop.
3. Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, salt and booze or flavorings of your choice and pour over the bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
4. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The bread will absorb all of the milk custard while you sleep.
5. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until puffed and golden. This will take longer if you have additional layers.
6. Cut into generous squares and serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, powdered sugar or all of the above.

Serves 6 as main course.