Sunday, July 26, 2009

Pasta Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette

We grilled tonight (as you can plainly see). We couldn't decide what to grill, so we grilled a little of everything. If you look closely at the back of the picture, you can see the grilled tilapia. This was our first experience grilling fish and I was a little worried we'd be scraping umm..."blackened" fish off the grill by the end. I should have had more faith in hubby's grilling skills; as well as in my prep skills. I doused the filets liberally in olive oil and rubbed it in well. Then I used some Pampered Chef Sweet and Smoky Barbeque rub on the fish. I love this rub and it goes particularly well with fish. The fish was absolutely delicioius! Perfection! Major props to me (and hubby!). =] As you can see from the picture, we also had burgers and hot dogs. Hubby does a great hamburger -- I season the patties with salt and pepper and while they are grilling he bastes them periodically with barbeque sauce. The hot dogs are Hebrew National. I love their slogan ("No Ifs, Ands, or Butts!") and their dogs are yummy too!
But for me, the highlight of dinner was the pasta salad I made. I didn't really have much of an idea of what I was going to make to begin with. I knew I wanted to make something healthy that would provide plenty of left-overs for lunch this coming week. So I wandered the grocery store and picked out some veggies, all familiar favorites: a red pepper, a cucumber, a pint of grape tomatoes, and a handful of green onions. My plan was starting to come together. When I got home I boiled about 1 1/2 cups of Barilla Piccolini pasta. While that was boiling, I chopped my veggies (I meant to take a picture, but forgot). Finally, with about 2 minutes to go until the pasta was ready (I should have done this first), I started to make my vinaigrette. I was basically just throwing things together, but it turned out so well that I may never buy salad dressing again!
Homemade Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley (I would have used fresh, but forgot to pick some up, so I improvised)
Blend all ingredients on low in a blender, then with the motor running, stream in olive oil until desired consistency is reached. I used about 1/2 cup (guesstimate) and my vinaigrette was VERY thick.
I drained my pasta, then dumped in into a large bowl and covered it with about half the vinaigrette and tossed (so the sauce could soak into the warm pasta), then added all the chopped veggies. Finally I poured the rest of the vinaigrette over the top and tossed the whole thing well.
This is the first recipe I ever created (although I'm terribly afraid that it isn't that original), and it was wonderful. The vinaigrette tasted very similar to a caesar dressing, almost as though it had parmesan cheese in it. I'm not sure what combination of ingredients did that, but it was a fortuitous coincidence.
This would be a great, simple salad to take to a picnic or potluck because it can sit at room temperature., for hours, if necessary. I plan to make this again and often! You should too! =]


Multigrain English Muffins

This weekend marked the second recipe that Emily and I chose to make and blog about together. This week, Emily chose the recipe: Multigrain English Muffins. I was excited to make these since I enjoyed Emily's multigrain bread recipe. Interestingly, the weekend we chose to make the muffins was also the weekend that my husband and I redecorated our guest bedroom. Although I guess I can't technically say we *redecorated*, since that implies that the room was decorated before. And being used for storage and generally looking like a dump isn't exactly what I'd call the latest in interior design. So, where was I? Oh, yes, we were decorating, and the last thing we had to do was hang the curtains. No problem, right? Ha -- that just shows you know nothing about me!

I started the muffins early and then left them to rise for the first time while hubby and I tackled the curtains. The curtains were ironed and hung with the maximum amount of trauma and cursing, and then I returned to check on the dough. It was supposed to rise for an hour and "double in size." Ummm...I was willing to swear under oath that the stuff hadn't moved. Huh. Around this time, Emily texted me. Her dough wasn't rising either. Okay, now, I wasn't looking forward to making and baking multigrain hockey pucks, but it was comforting to know that it wasn't necessarily my fault. After a series of texts, we agreed to leave the dough to rise for another hour. Then, regardless of how it looked, we would roll the muffins out and cut them out. I was still apprehensive, but hey, at least we had a plan.


As you can clearly see from the pictures, despite my fears, things turned out very well. The dough didn't rise nearly as much as the original recipe claimed. Overall, the muffins were very good. I've eaten them with butter and jam, used them as hamburger buns, and had them toasted with scrambled eggs. I plan to make these again, and soon! Thanks to Emily for a great recipe.



Multigrain English Muffins (Recipe Copied From The View From the Thirty-Second Floor):
Ingredients:
adapted from Martha Stewart, June 2009
Makes 13 muffins

1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
2 3/4 cups white/wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tablespoon course salt
1/4 cup flax seeds
3/4 cup milk

Combine warm water, honey, yeast and butter in the bottom of your mixer. Let stand for 5 minutes or until foamy. Make sure the dough smells like yeast or is foamy. You want to make sure you activate the yeast. Combine the flour, wheat germ, salt and flax seeds in a separate bowl. With the dough hook attachment, turn your mixer on and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk. Mixture will form a ball. Let the mixer run for about 5 minutes to knead the dough. (You can knead the dough by hand if you don't have a stand mixer)

Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead just a few times. Put the dough into a bowl brushed lightly with oil so that the dough doesn't stick. Turn the oven on warm and put the bowl on top of your oven, cover with a dish towel and let rise for 2 hours. The dough will not rise much, so don't panic. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead for 1 minute. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to 1/2 inch thick. Use a 3 inch ring cutter to form 13 dough rounds. Place the muffins onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Cover the muffins with a dish towel and let rise again, for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Place English Muffins on the skillet in batches. Cook the muffin for 7 minutes on each side. The muffin will brown - don't let it burn. Take muffins off once they are cooked on both sides. Cool. Serve immediately or put in the freezer and take them out one at a time as needed.




Monday, July 6, 2009

Homemade Oreo Cookies


** Just before the tip popped off my piping bag.

**My iced cappucchino made it into this picture! =] Oh, and that red tea kettle? It was a wedding present from Emily of T.V.F.T.T.S.F. fame! =]


Ahh...the ice cream scooper. One of my favorite multi-taskers.



Recently my friend Emily (of The View From the Thirty-Second Floor) and I have started a blog project that was originally suggested by my husband. In the spirit of the Tuesdays with Dorie group, Emily and I are going to jointly choose a recipe, make it (she in Chicago, and I down St. Louis way), and then blog about it. This way, we can both try new recipes, something I know we both want to do more often. As our inaugural recipe, we chose the Homemade Oreo Cookie recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Now, as some of you are probably aware, I consider myself something of an Oreo lover (an Oreo fiend is how my husband once described it). So I was highly skeptical about achieving an authentic Oreo taste. Here's how things went down:
I came home from teaching summer school today, grabbed a quick lunch with the hubbie, and then sent him off to open gym so that I could have the kitchen to myself (being married to a basketball coach is so convenient sometimes). The cookie dough came together very quickly, although I was surprised that the dry ingredients were mixed together before adding the wet ones (that's pretty much backwards from every other cookie recipe I've ever made). According to the directions, rounded teaspoons of dough were to be spaced 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. How fortunate that I had a tiny ice cream scoop to use to scoop up and drop the dough. I can't emphasize what a great time-saving measure this is. Plus, the cookies were tiny enough that lots could fit on a single cookie sheet, so I got them all baked in two batches
(even more awesome!). While the cookies were baking, I mixed up the cream center for the cookies. According to Smitten's directions, she piped the icing centers on the cookies and it was easy as could be (she noted that having to ice the cookies individually would be an "unholy p.i.t.a." -- I couldn't agree more). Dutifully following directions, I got out, assembled, and filled my piping bag...and promptly squeezed the tip right out the end of it! Note: for future reference, use a Ziploc bag, snip off the corner, then throw it away and be done with it.
Overall, this was a fairly easy recipe to complete, leaving me plenty of time afterward to clean up the kitchen and even (seriously!) clean and redecorate my spare bedroom (I promise I'm not making that up.) before hubbie got home.
I excercised some serious self-restraint and didn't even sample thecookies until hubbie could join me. Together we each ate a cookie. Here are my first impressions, uncensored:
"Umm...the cookies are chewy. I've NEVER eaten a CHEWY Oreo."
"Hey, the creamy center tastes just like the center of an Oreo. I rock!"

"Dang, this thing just sucked all the moisture out of my mouth. Need. Milk. NOW!"

Overall, these are pretty tasty, but, at least in my mind, can't hold a candle to a real Oreo. Of course, there is an unexpected up-side to this recipe. As my husband pointed out, these are undoubtedly better for you than an actual Oreo. But is healthy eating really the reason we eat Oreos?? =]

Homemade Oreo Cookies

For the chocolate wafers:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter

1 large egg

For the filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

Recipe Note (This is from Smitten Kitchen's original posting):
Let’s talk about the sugar for a minute, shall we? This is a sweet cookie. A good, sweet cookie. Yet, if you think of an actual Oreos, the wafers are fairly un-sweet and actually on the slightly salty side, which contrasts with the super-sweetness of the filling bringing harmony, happiness, yada yada. If you want your cookie closer to that original, you can take out a full half-cup of the sugar. If you want to make the cookie by itself, go ahead and use the full amount.
Note: I plan to make these cookies again to use for ice cream sandwich cookies.