Easy Pear Tart

Posted: December 31, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Sorry for my lack of posting! I’ve been having WAY too much fun at home with my family this Christmas. I adapted this recipe from one I found originally on the Food Network website. The original recipe used fresh pears. This one uses canned pears, as I decided to make this last minute on Christmas morning as a Christmas surprise for my parents. They were at church in the morning and I had stayed home to bake the Zucchini Crown Bread recipe for Christmas lunch. They had something like five cans of pears in syrup in the pantry so I thought: “Why not?” I really loved the way the crust turned out in this recipe. I’m not always a huge fan of pies because I don’t like the way sometimes the crust can turn really dry. This crust was thick and moist and added something to the tart rather than just seeming like a vessel holding the tart goodness. I think I actually liked the dough more than the filling! Go figure. Anyway, Jake and I were responsible for Christmas day lunch. He made a pork loin and mashed potatoes. I made the zucchini crown bread, green bean salad, gravy from the pork loin drippings, and this pear tart. My brother even helped us by providing the flour we needed to make all this stuff. I’ve never seen my mother run out of flour EVER so checking to make sure she had enough the day before didn’t seem important. However when I woke up that morning there was only about a cup of flour in the cupboard. I immediately texted my brother and asked him to hurry up and get to the house and bring all his flour with him. There was no way I was going to go to the store on Christmas Day. I don’t even think they should be open…people should be home with their families. So I refuse to go anywhere but a gas station on Christmas Day. Anyway, thankfully my brother showed up 2 hours later with the flour and I could continue with my cooking. It all turned out to be a huge success.

Easy Pear Tart
for the crust:
1/2 cup whole-grain pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons lowfat buttermilk
3 tablespoons ice water

for the filling:
2-3 cans of pears, in fourths
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

for the glaze:
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon boiling water

1. To prepare the crust, in a medium bowl whisk together the whole-wheat pastry flour, all- purpose flour, granulated sugar and salt.
2. Add the butter and using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until you get a pebbly, course texture.
3. In a small bowl combine the buttermilk and ice water.
4. Using a fork, gradually mix the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture.
5. Pat the dough into a 4-inch round and wrap in plastic wrap.
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, and prepare the filling.
8. In a large bowl toss the pear slices with the lemon juice.
9. Sprinkle in the cornstarch, brown sugar and cinnamon and toss until the pears are evenly coated. Set aside.
10. On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a large circle about nine inches in diameter.
11. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and draping the dough over the rolling pin, transfer to the prepared baking sheet. If the dough breaks at all patch it up with your fingers.
12. Arrange the pears in a mound in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border.
13. Fold the border over the filling. It will only cover the pears partially and does not need to be even.
14. Bake the tart for 15 minutes, and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, keeping the tart in the oven all the while, and bake for another 40 minutes, until the pears are tender and the crust is golden brown.
15. In a small bowl stir together the honey and boiling water to make a glaze.
16. When the tart is done remove it from the oven and brush the honey glaze all over the top of the fruit and crust.
17. Transfer to a plate to cool slightly. Cut into 6 wedges and serve warm or a room temperature.

---

Zucchini Crown Bread

Posted: December 15, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

I’ve been eyeing this bread in the “Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking” cookbook since the summer. I had it tabbed with a daisy post-it note that said “Jake” (in other words, “Make this when Jake is back home”) but hadn’t tried the recipe until today. Jake helped me mold the dough into balls and he was a great water pourer as well. We did make a few changes. As many of my friends know, we’re leaving this Sunday to go to Ohio for a bit for Christmas. It’s the first time everyone in my family–with the exception of my mom and dad–will meet Jake. It should be a lot of fun. Anyway, we’ve been trying to use up all our perishable stuff before we leave. So although the original recipe calls for parmesan cheese, we used mozzarella instead. It was already in our fridge and parmesan was not.

Also, as you can tell from the photos, somehow we ended up with 2 extra dough balls. I do not know how this happened. I thought I was counting out 8 and apparently I had 9. I don’t own a bread pan so I was using a 9-inch pie plate instead and I could only fit 7 of the dough balls in there. Luckily I have 2 ovenproof bowls that I use for Vegetarian French Onion Soup or Rum Baked Bananas that were the perfect size for the 2 dough balls. So they got their own little oven homes and they turned out lovely. They didn’t make it very long. Jake and I split and devoured one as soon as it was not as hot, then Jake gave me the puppy dog “But I want another!” look and we split the second one too. Now he’s at home drooling over the intact zucchini crown and I’m at work. He keeps sending me text messages about how it looks so good and he wants to eat it, but I forbade him to touch it before I left because I want to be there when we break into it to see how well it cuts when totally cooled. I highly recommend this recipe, with the parmesan or the mozzarella, as I’m sure both of them are good. This is a great addition to your holiday table because it looks so fun and I’d rather eat this than plain old dinner rolls. I’m just hoping the house still smells like baking bread when I get home from work tonight!

Zucchini Crown Bread
1 pound zucchini, coarsely grated
salt
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 cup freshly grated mozzarella
ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
lukewarm water, to mix
milk, to glaze
sesame seeds, to garnish

1. Place the zucchini in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let it drain for 30 minutes then pat dry (or grate it right before going to bed and let it sit, covered, in the sink overnight).
2. Mix the flour, yeast, and cheese together. Season with black pepper.
3. Stir in the oil and zucchiniand add enough lukewarm water to give you a good firm dough.
4. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s smooth.
5. Return the dough to the mixing bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place.
6. Meanwhile, grease and line a 9-inch round baking pan.
7. Preheat the oven to 400F.
8. When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out of the bowl. Punch it down and knead lightly.
9. Break into 8 balls, rolling each one and placing it in the tin with one ball in the very middle and the others positioned around it.
10. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
11. Let it rise again, then bake for 25 minutes or till golden brown.
12. Cool slightly in the pan, then turn out the bread to cool more.

---

Leftover Rice Soup

Posted: December 12, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Looking for something to do with your leftover rice from dinner the night before? This is my own personal favorite option. If I’m making this for Jake I use chicken stock. If I’m making this for me I use veggie stock. It’s delicious either way. Of course, this is the perfect soup for experimentation. I’m sure some corn kernels would be killer in here. And I’ve often thought of adding halved olives, though I haven’t tried it yet. It’s been chilly here (for Tucson) and we’ve had the heat on the past few mornings to warm up the house. Jake was sitting at the kitchen table (his favorite place, and mine) doing his homework and complaining about how cold he was. It was about lunch time and there was a whole tub full of rice leftover from dinner the night before, so I decided to make this to warm him up.

I made it extra brothy so he’d have something lovely to sip. This soup is especially easy and quick because the rice is leftover, therefore it’s already been made. Huge time saver. Another one of my favorite tricks as of late has been freezing spinach in the bag. When we see a sale on spinach we’ll sometimes get 2-4 bags of it. But we can’t use it that fast. So I’ve been keeping one bag fresh in the fridge for us to pick at while the other bags get shoved in the freezer. I love this method. This really only works when you’re buying the bags of spinach that are supposedly pre-washed. The spinach becomes frozen crunchy little pieces that are PERFECT for just dumping into soups or other dishes in which you don’t expect them to hold their shape. However, I wouldn’t try washing them after this as they become soggy very quickly. The trick is to take the bags out of the freezer at the last moment when you need them so they don’t have time to become soggy and instead go in there easily and crisply without any pieces sticking in the bags. If you feel uncomfortable relying on companies to wash the spinach for you (a legitimate concern) then do it yourself as soon as you get home and bag it up in quart-sized zip bags yourself for freezing.

Leftover Rice Soup
4 cups chicken or veggie stock
1-3 cups leftover rice
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1-2 cups spinach
mozzarella or parmesan cheese, to serve (optional)

1. Bring the chicken or veggie stock to a boil in a medium saucepan.
2. Add rice, salt and pepper, parsley and Italian seasoning. Stir well.
3. Let it simmer 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally so rice doesn’t stick.
4. Add the spinach and cook an additional 2-3 minutes till spinach is wilted.
5. Serve piping hot on a winter’s day, perhaps topped by a little mozzarella or parmesan cheese.

---

Baked Butternut Squash with Chipotle Caramel Sauce

Posted: December 9, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

A few days ago I was teasing my followers on Facebook with a baked butternut squash recipe that I was attempting. This is that recipe, and I am really happy with how it turned out, especially the caramel sauce. You must be warned though, as this is not a recipe for the faint of heart. Not only is there a terrifying amount of sugar and butter in this recipe, there’s also a good amount of chipotle powder. I have to tell you right now that I LOVE the chipotle caramel sauce. I was skeptical at first but was like: “Yea, I’m doing this no matter what.” This is going to be a regular thing for me from now on. At first taste you don’t get the chipotle, then towards the tail end of your taste as it is about to slip off your tongue and into your esophagus, you catch the musk and the bite of it along with the caramel. It is so lovely that I have no words to describe it adequately. You will just have to try it yourself. Jake is also pretty happy with the way it came out and luckily there was enough leftover for him to put on his coffee ice cream. I also had a bowl of coffee ice cream with this chipotle caramel sauce and it was absolutely fabulous. In fact, I think there’s a tiny bit of both leftover in the fridge that are just begging to be eaten up when I get home tonight.

Baked Butternut Squash with Chipotle Caramel Sauce
for the squash:
1 butternut squash, halved with seeds removed
2-3 tablespoons unsalted, sweet cream butter, plus more for greasing the cookie sheet
1-2 teaspoons chipotle powder

for the sauce:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons chipotle powder

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease a cookie sheet with butter.
2. Slather the fleshy side of your squash with butter and sprinkle your desired amount of chipotle powder on top.
3. Place the squash on the cookie sheet flesh side down. Put into the oven for 45 minutes, or till tender.
4. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan, mixing well. Do this OFF the heat.
5. Turn the heat to low or medium and let the sugar dissolve. Do not stir.
6. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up to medium or medium high till it caramelizes. This can take between 5 and 10 minutes. Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn. Do not stir.
7. Once the sugar has caramelized, turn off the heat. Add the cream slowly. It will bubble dangerously.
8. Add the chipotle powder. Simmer the caramel over low heat stirring constantly until the caramel dissolves and the sauce turns smooth.
9. Take the caramel sauce off the heat and let it cool and thicken.
10. Either eat the caramel sauce over the butternut squash slices or remove the flesh of the butternut squash and pour the caramel sauce over individual servings.

---

Chai Coffee

Posted: December 8, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

This recipe is dedicated to Brad Bacchus, who was trying to do this at his pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. I found a recipe for you Brad. I made a big ol’ batch of this and drank half hot and chilled the other half, just to see which I liked better. As Tucson is currently rather chilly (for Tucson, that is) I liked the hot stuff better than the cold. This recipe was okay and I might make it again here and there, but Jake thought the tastes were too extreme and I would agree with that. Although this wasn’t terrible, I don’t think it’ll be something I make ALL the time. However, I think part of this reason might be that I used almond milk instead of regular milk…which we didn’t have in the house at the time. Next time I’ll make it with regular milk like the recipe says. Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t. I think this is one of those times when it matters. Anyway, this is a good place to start and I’ll personally keep tweaking it till I love it.

Chilled Chai Coffee
3 cups cold water
5 nickel-sized thin slices peeled fresh ginger
12 cloves
one 3-4 inch cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 teaspoon anise seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons finely ground coffee, such as Colombian
1 cup milk
2-3 tablespoons sugar
2-3 tablespoons honey

1. Put the water, ginger, cloves, broken cinnamon stick, anise and cardamom in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the coffee grinds. Let them steep 5 minutes.
4. Line a fine-mesh sieve with a double layer of paper towels and set it over a 2-cup or larger measuring cup with a spout.
5. Pour the steeped coffee through the sieve to remove the spices and grounds.
6. Rinse the saucepan to remove any grounds left in the pan and wipe it dry.
7. Return the strained coffee to the saucepan and stir in the milk and 2 tablespoons each of sugar and honey. If you want it sweeter, add more sugar and honey. But remember that they should be used in equal proportions.
8. Set the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring coffee just to a boil, then remove it from the heat.
9. If drinking hot, then serve immediately. If not, pour the coffee back into the measuring cup and chill. Serve later in glasses over ice.

---

Vanilla Shortbread Sandwiches with Orange Buttercream

Posted: December 7, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Monday was National Cookie Day, according to my bloggin’ buddies Greg and Katherine over at Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide. So I pulled out one of my favorite places to find cookie recipes: the Better Homes and Gardens 100 Best Cookies issue. Keep your eyes peeled for this one, kids. I bought it about a year ago around the holiday season in the supermarket line. It was not an impulse buy. I bet I looked at it in line for about a month’s worth of grocery trips wishing for it but telling myself I didn’t need it before finally breaking down and purchasing it. This one is a gem. I mean…100 cookie recipes for $5? It doesn’t get much better than that. And every recipe I have tried from it so far has been super tasty. If you see it, don’t think, just buy. It’s okay.

Anyway, this particular recipe has been bookmarked for a long time but I’ve never gotten around to making it because we do not eat that many sweets in our house. We’d rather have a bag of chips and salsa. Or a big bowl of popcorn. Yum. These were super tasty and they were small, just about bite-sized and, in my opinion, perfect to go alongside tea or coffee. Though the picture makes them look big (I felt the need for a close-up to catch the icing), I’d say they were about the size of little matchbooks that everyone and their brother used to give out when everyone was smoking like a chimney but now are rarely seen anywhere. The recipe calls for you to make them into sandwiches. However, we felt that the icing made so much that we had enough to just top them individually. We were worried that globbing it on and then trying to sandwich them would end in catastrophe. Jake was nice enough to help me with frosting the cookies so I had a fellow to consult with. I think he was just happy to be doing something other than homework. These were perfect for us as the recipe didn’t make a TON of cookies. It was the perfect amount for 2 people. And I’m only slightly ashamed to tell you that we polished these off in a little over 24 hours. Try it out for yourself the next time National Cookie Day comes around…if you think you can wait that long (and I know you can’t).

Vanilla Shortbread Sandwiches with Orange Buttercream
for the cookies:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter

for the Orange Buttercream:
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 teaspoons additional milk

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.
2. In a large bowl stir together flour and granulated sugar.
3. Cut in butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until the mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling.
4. Knead until smooth. Form into a ball.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into an 8×6 inch rectangle.
6. Using a fluted pastry wheel or a pizza cutter, cut into twenty-four 2×1 inch rectangles.
7. Places rectangles 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake 18-20 minutes or till edges are firm.
9. Cool on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
10. In a large bowl, beat softened butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.
11. Add powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, orange peel and vanilla extract.
12. Beat until smooth.
13. Beat in 1 cup additional powdered sugar and 2-3 teaspoons additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, to make a filling of piping consistency.
14. Pipe or spread Orange Buttercream on bottoms of half of the cookies.
15. Top with the remaining cookies, bottom sides down. Makes 12 sandwich cookies.

---

White Russian with Coffee

Posted: December 4, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

A while ago you saw me post this recipe for Black Russians with Coffee from Betty Rosbottom’s cookbook on the blog. Well, right below that recipe on the page is one for White Russians with Coffee. It’s basically the same recipe except you add in heavy whipping cream. We had another productive day today and figured we’d have another little treat. Remembering how heavy the vodka was the last time we made this (we prefer slightly less in our drink), I added more coffee liqueur and less vodka. The recipe you see below is as it appeared in the cookbook though. I trust that as alcohol-consenting adults you can all adjust according to your own tastes. The thing that made this drink for me was the heavy whipping cream. I have never had a White Russian before, but this has converted me. The heavy cream made this so sweet and lovely. I’ll probably always opt for this one rather than the Black Russian from now on.



White Russian with Coffee
coarsely crushed ice
1/4 cup vodka
2 tablespoons Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
3-4 tablespoons chilled or room temperature brewed coffee
1 tablespoon heavy or whipping cream

1. Fill a short 8-10 ounce old-fashioned glass with ice.
2. Pour the vodka and coffee liqueur over the ice and stir.
3. Add 3 tablespoons coffee to the glass and stir.
4. Taste and, if you prefer a stronger coffee flavor, stir in the additional tablespoon of coffee.
5. Add the cream and swirl or stir to blend.

---

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

Posted: December 3, 2011 | Author: onewomaninaricefield | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

I’ve been curious about making vegan mac and cheese for a long time now. I didn’t want to use any of the cheese substitutes made out of soy that are out there. I wanted to see how vegans manipulated their flavors to make something that tasted similar to macaroni and cheese. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by this. Is it exactly like mac and cheese? No, not really. But it IS tasty and cheesy tasting without containing any animal products whatsoever. And that is amazing enough, don’t you think?

There are thousands of vegan mac and cheese recipes out there so choosing one was difficult. I hadn’t been to the store in a while, so I was looking for one that sounded true to the idea of mac and cheese which also contained ingredients I had at the ready in my home. I found one I felt I could trust here at the blog “Vegan Spoonful.” In the end, what convinced me of this recipe was that it a) used ingredients I had at home already, b) is written by a gal committed to being vegan and raising her family vegan and c) it was kid tested and approved which is highly desirable in a mac and cheese recipe. Now, there are still a TON of mac and cheese recipes out there that are different from this one and I definitely want to try a bunch more of them. But this was a great start. Now remember to check out the link above for the original recipe. I Erin-ed up this one with a few of my favorite additives: chili powder, paprika and cilantro, as you’ll see below. I was so hungry when I made this that I didn’t bother baking it, I just ate it plain. That’s what happens when you wait till the last minute to make dinner. Next time I’ll definitely try this recipe baked. Also remember you can be liberal with your turmeric. The more you add in the yellower and “cheesier” your mac and cheese will look. I suggest starting with the measurement below and adding more in till you’re satisfied, which is what I did.

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese
2 1/2 cups uncooked whole wheat elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
3 cups plain non-dairy milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
1 teaspoon paprika (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro OR 2 teaspoons dried cilantro

1. Prepare macaroni noodles. Drain and rinse with cool water, and set aside.
2. While noodles are cooking, melt Earth Balance in a large sauce pan over medium heat.
3. Add flour and turmeric and stir quickly until combined.
4. Add non-dairy milk, all at once, and stir with a wire whisk until no lumps remain. Continue stirring with a wooden spoon until thickened and bubbly. Cook for 1 minute more and then remove from heat.
5. Add nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika and cilantro and whisk until smooth and creamy.
6. Add cooked macaroni noodles to the sauce and mix well.

---