Saturday, April 11, 2009

Triple Threat Raspberry Sauce

Well, no surprises here: I've made another Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa) recipe. And, as usual, it's fabulous. This time, I made Ina's Triple Threat Raspberry Sauce to top my homemade Lemon Angel Food Cake (you guessed it, another Ina recipe!). You see, every year on Easter SAturday, my parents have a big dinner at their house for my mom's side of the family. This used to be the big dinner at my grandma's house, but after a stroke or two, she wasn't up to having company, and we were a little scared of the idea of her cooking unsupervised. Not to be funny about it -- it wasn't a funny situation, but at the same time, there are moments with anyone suffering with Alzheimer's when you're either going to cry or laugh. In my case, I preferred to laugh (with grandma, not at her, of course).

Anyway, this dinner has been at my parents' house for quite a while by this time, so the routine is fairly established: we will have ham and turkey from the Honey-Baked Ham store. Dad will make his special baked macaroni and cheese (which Adam really likes), and there will be other sides as well, at least one of which is (hopefully) my Mom's jello casserole (I know it sounds gross, but believe me, it's amazing!). Anyway, this year we are also having mom's spinach salad (delish!) with homemade French dressing (yum!).

In previous years, my folks have really only experimented in the dessert department: some years my dad will make coconut cream pie from scratch (amazing) or his lemon raspberry layered pie (also darned good). The year Adam and I got engaged my mother went a little crazy and made chick cakes out of giant chocolate muffins. They were very good, but also very big and I needed a nap after eating all that!

This year my parents have put me in charge of the dessert, so the pressure was on. There are lots of froofy desserts that I would love to take, simply because they're impressive: pavlovas, meringues, that sort of thing. But since I've never attempted any of those things before, I figured I would stick with an old standard: lemon angel food cake. I've blogged about that before, so I won't repeat myself here. But this time, however, I'm serving the cake with triple threat raspberry sauce. The sauce is thick and luxurious and sweet, but tart at the same time. I always think lemon and raspberry are two very complimentary ingredients, so hopefully tonight's dinner will be a success. I'll be adding post-dinner thoughts, comments, etc. later tonight. For now, here's the recipe...

Triple Threat Raspberry Sauce

4 half pints of raspberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 12 oz. jar of seedless raspberry jam
2 tablespoons Framboise

Directions:
Combine two half pints of the raspberries, sugar, and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 4 minutes. **The raspberries will start to break down as the sauce comes together.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the jar of raspberry jam and the Framboise. Pour the heated raspberry mixture over the top. Pulse until smooth.

Pour the pureed sauce through a colander to remove some of the seeds. Add the last two half pints of raspberries to the sauce and stir to combine. Chill for at least two hours (preferably overnight) and serve over angel food cake, ice cream, etc.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Philly Cheese Steak Wraps

One of the highlights of my week is when the teachers I eat lunch with order out on Fridays. We frequently get food from Donzo's, a local restaurant/bar, and my favorite is the Philly cheese steak wrap. Today I was at the grocery store picking up a few things for dinner at my parents' house on Saturday (more on that in an upcoming post) and decided to see if I could make my own cheese steaks. So I quickly reversed course back through the grocery store and picked up a couple bell peppers (red and yellow), some sirloin steaks, and a package of whole grain garden vegetable wraps. I was very excited, especially since my husband had his master's class tonight and would be hungry when he got home.

When I got home I quickly got out my laptop and logged on to foodnetwork.com. I was eager to see what sort of spices, etc. I could add to the cheese steaks to really maximize the taste. What I found was a lot of information about how to properly caramelize onions and peppers (very helpful, but not exactly what I was after), and very little information about flavoring steaks for sandwiches. With very little to work with, I finally shrugged and decided to do my own thing (which has worked out...okay in the past). I quickly dug through my spice drawer and pulled on the onion and garlic powders and, after some hesitation, the marjoram. I also grabbed a can of beef broth from a nearby drawer and a large bowl. Working quickly I mixed my marinade and sliced the sirloin, stirring the steak into the marinade and then setting it aside. Next I got to work on caramelizing my onions and bell peppers, which takes quite a while, as I was about to find out...I also realized that I was quickly running out of both burners and skillets to put on them! Never fear! After the onions and peppers had cooked down in their separate skillets for about half an hour, I combined them into one skillet, and prepared to cook the steak strips in the newly emptied skillet.

As everything finished cooking, I took a moment to inhale deeply and appreciate how wonderful my kitchen smelled. I would venture to say that cooking onions is one of the most underappreciated smells....now stop laughing at me. =] Anyway, the steak was tender, the onions and peppers were perfectly caramelized and the cheese melted over the top of it all was creamy and delicious. Overall, this was a great meal; something that I would describe as simple, but time consuming (mainly because of the amount of time required to caramelize stuff without burning it to a crisp).

Philly Cheese Steak Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. sirloin steak, sliced thinly
2 large Spanish onions
2 large bell peppers (one red and one yellow)
1 package whole grain tortilla wraps
1 can beef broth
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Mozzarella cheese

Directions: Thinly slice the steak into long strips. Place in a bowl and pour a can of beef broth over the meat. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, garlic and onion powder, and marjoram. Stir to mix marinade and thoroughly cover the meat. Set aside. Next halve the onions and slice them thinly. While doing this, melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. As you add the onions to the skillet, separate the slices with your fingers in ensure even cooking. Next, slice the bell peppers into thin strips (note: the thinner the better!). Melt 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and about 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil in a smaller skillet and add the peppers. Cook both the onions and peppers over medium-low heat, stirring often. Caramelized onions and peppers will need to cook down for anywhere from 30-40 minutes...like I said, this is pretty simple, but still time consuming.

Once the onions and peppers have begun to caramelize, combine them into one skillet and use the emptied skillet to cook the steak strips (I added just enough olive oil back to the pan to *very* thinly coat the bottom). Enough of the marinade sticks to the steak to deglaze the skillet, which is a nice bonus in the flavor department. As the steak strips finished cooking (I would say mine were somewhere between medium and medium-well) I removed them to a paper towel-covered plate to drain any extra olive oil away. Finally, after the steak strips finished cooking I added the remaining marinade to the skillet and cooked it down into a thick and flavorful au jus (which I carefully poured it a small bowl and promptly left sitting on the countertop while Adam and I headed downstairs with our plates to watch Survivor while we ate -- oops). Anyway, here's how it all came together: I took one of the wraps and loaded it with steak strips, covered them with the caramelized onions and peppers, and then topped it with some shredded mozzarella cheese. I stuck the whole thing into the toaster oven to melt the cheese and then wrapped it up and ate every last bite! It was delicious; the marinade was slightly spicy and and cheese was oozy. What a great meal, and one that I'll definitely be making again. Oh! And Adam, who scoffs at the use of whole grain wraps, ate his cheese steak on a whole wheat hoagie roll and said that it was "pretty good." Which, for anyone who doesn't know my husband, is high praise indeed! =]

Monday, April 6, 2009

If Life Gives You Lemons...Make Lemon Fusilli

I'm starting to get a little antsy. We've had some very nice weather recently. Weather appropriate for spring. Warm, sunny days. Days that remind you that barbeques, gardening, and CARDINALS BASEBALL are just around the corner.

And then you wake up on April 6th to light snowfall and freezing wind. What a hoot! Someone needs to tell nature that April Fool's Day was 5 days ago, so no more screwing with us, please.

But I've already caught the warm weather bug and have been thinking a lot about warm weather foods. All week long I've been particularly craving grilled burgers (I haven't craved cheese burgers this bad since college when I lived with 20 other girls who nearly fainted at the very thought of eating red meat.). So today after a much-needed haircut I stopped by the grocery store on the way home and picked up everything I would need to make burgers and all the fixings. In this instance, the "fixings" were green beans (for the hubbie) and the ingredients of lemon fusilli.

The lemon fusilli recipe comes from Ina Garten's Barefoot at Home cookbook (or in this case, foodnetwork.com). On her show, Ina serves the fusilli as a main dish at a lunch for a friend, but I chose to use it as a side dish. Even as a kid I liked all the fun sides that went along with a barbeque: deviled eggs, pasta or potato salad (or both!), baked beans, etc. But lately, in an effort to be healthier, I've been trying to avoid eating an excessive amount of carbs (and it's hard...I love my carbs!). So this pasta dish seemed like a more reasonable alternative, both because it includes a lot of veggies, and because I deliberately made it a side, instead of a main dish. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the fact that since Ina served this as a main dish, the portions of ingredients were main-dish portions. Thus I find myself with oodles of pasta salad left over. But that was the only real down side. So if any of you out there in Readerville are interested in a carb-o-licious meal, you know where to find me!

P.S. This would probably have worked out much better if I had halved all the ingredients.

Lemon Fusilli

(This is the recipe as published by Ina Garten. My alterations are discussed at the end.)


Ingredients:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (2 cloves)
2 cups heavy cream
3 lemons
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch broccoli
1 pound dried fusilli pasta
1/2 pound baby arugula (or 2 bunches of common arugula, leaves cut in thirds)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the garlic, and cook for 60 seconds. Add the cream, the zest from 2 lemons, the juice of 2 lemons, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until it starts to thicken.

Meanwhile, cut the broccoli in florets and discard the stem. Cook the florets in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain the broccoli and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the pasta, and cook according to the directions on the package, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the pasta in a colander and place it back into the pot. Immediately add the cream mixture and cook it over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, until most of the sauce has been absorbed in the pasta. Pour the hot pasta into a large bowl, add the arugula, Parmesan, tomatoes, and cooked broccoli. Cut the last lemon in half lengthwise, slice it 1/4-inch thick crosswise, and add it to the pasta. Toss well, season to taste, and serve hot.

My Alterations:
*Note: I seem to have lost my ability to follow directions, as I accidentally omitted the parmesan cheese (no way I would intentionally leave cheese out of anything). I also failed to put in the arugula, for the simple reason that I forgot to purchase some. Maybe next time...or maybe not, it was *really* good today just the way it was.

I didn't cook the pasta and the sauce together. I simply dumped the pasta, broccoli, and tomatoes into a big (huge, really) bowl and poured the sauce over it before tossing. I also added about half a red onion, which I would probably not do again. I thought it would add some nice heat and instead it was just a little too...oniony. Also, in the future I think the sauce could use a little more garlic, as that taste got lost in the lemony-ness. I also used Barilli's new mini fusilli pasta, which only needs to cook for about 7 minutes.

Overall, this was really good and I think it will become a favorite with a few...tweeks. =]

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Being an Ambassador for the Republic of Tea


As some of you may know, I'm a high school English teacher. This year, in my ongoing efforts to make my classroom more comfortable and spacious (ha), I rearranged the furniture and brought in a small coffee pot. Although it's small, the pot is digital and comes with a timed brewing feature, so I set it to begin brewing about 10 minutes before I arrive at school in the morning. I can't begin to explain how comforting it is to walk into my classroom and smell freshly brewed coffee. It's like having my very own coffee house (I keep the milk and a selection of creamers in the mini fridge behind my desk). =]


Lately, though, I have been using my coffee pot to brew tea and have served it hot or cold depending on the weather. Although I dearly love plain old black tea (Lipton, please), I have discovered how good some of the flavored teas are, particularly those from the Republic of Tea collection. I originally found these teas at St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera to all you non-St. Louisans). Since then I have seen the brand in a variety of specialty shops, but sadly, not in any local grocery stores.


My favorite of all these is the ginger peach tea. I have tried other peach teas and none are as flavorful or aromatic as this one. It purports itself as being able to boost one's longevity. I'm always up for something that will help me live longer/better! ;]


Anyway, the best way I have found to brew Ginger Peach tea is to run water through my coffee maker and drop a single tea bag into the coffee pot. The tea can steep for a few minutes and then I pour it into my favorite mug and sip the morning away. Inevitably I find myself brewing multiple cups per day, which is when the decaf version of this tea comes in handy. Recently, as the weather has gotten a bit warmer (and the boilers in the school continue to churn at full power), I have been craving a cool drink. I brew my tea as always, but then stash it in my mini fridge until it is cool enough to be refreshing. Hot or cold, it's delicious!
More on other favorite teas in future posts!