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.

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.

Strawberry Fields

I had to post and brag about the wonderful produce we've been enjoying lately. So far this summer I've had gorgeous, juicy peaches and nectarines, as well as kiwis and magoes. But perhaps my all-time favorite fruit, and most recent purchase were strawberries.

These particular berries were Driscoll Organic berries. As we all know, organic produce is often more expensive than other produce. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the non-organic berries were almost a dollar more expensive than these little gems. Score one for me!

I also must confess that I did absolutely nothing to these berries except to wash them, blot them dry gently, and eat them! Delicious!

My Ace of Cakes Episode

This past year our school stopped sponsoring seasonal sports banquets, and instead each team was responsible for organizing their own. At the very end of the year (we procrastinate), Adam was finally able to schedule and hold the basketball team banquet. I will gladly take full credit for the banquet: I called the caterer, reserved the school's courtyard, and...made the cake.

Let me pause and digress here: I'm addicted to watching the Food Network, and one of my favorite shows to catch in the evening is Ace of Cakes. I love to watch the cast members of the show push the envelope in terms of creativity with food. When watching Food Network, I often want to jump up and start cooking whatever is currently on the screen. Perhaps that was the origin of my recent...shall we say, delusions of grandeur?

Here's what happened:

As I said, I made the cake for the banquet and knew going in that it would have to be a fairly big cake (in total I made 4 9x13 sheet cakes and smooshed (technical term) them together). Now, since this needed to be done quickly, I caved and used cake mixes to save time, as well as store bought icing. Still, I began baking the day before the banquet at 3:30pm and was about finished at 8pm. As I pulled the last sheet cake from the oven, the glass Pyrex dish slipped from my hands. Despite my best efforts to save the pan (which was a toasty 350 degrees at the time of the incident), the pan fell from my hands, bounced off the door of my oven, and crashed to the floor (naturally, all of this seemed to happen in slow motion). Even today, nearly two months later, I can't remember exactly what I did in the moment of silence that followed the shattering of the pan. I do remember that in the process of cleaning up the mess I employed an omelet spatula given to us as a wedding present (thanks, Aunt Kathy!). As I flipped broken glass-embedded cake into the trash, I noticed my husband bent over a particularly large piece of cake. As I watched in horror, he scooped up some cake and ATE IT!! That was it! It was getting late, I was going to have to go back to the store, not just for another cake mix, but also to find another PAN to bake in, and the cake wasn't going to get iced until the next day. Irritably I told my husband (whom I love more than life itself), "So help me, if you swallow glass and cut your own throat, I will not be the one to drive you to the hospital!" After that melodramatic rant, I flung myself crying into my car and drove to Walmart for cake mix and a pan.

Needless to say, things weren't as bad as they seemed. I came home and finished baking, apologized for yelling at the hubby (who was quite understanding about the whole incident, really), and even got a couple hours of sleep.

The next day I approached the cake with a new caffeine-spiked optimism. As I said, I was inspired by Ace of Cakes. With that in mind, and sipping from the largest cup of coffee Starbucks would sell me, I cut into the cake, shaping it into a basketball jersey. And it didn't look too shabby, if I do say so myself. Next I iced the cake with white icing and then, since nothing bad had happened yet, took a stab at dying icing. With the recently dyed-red icing, I added trim to the jersey, as well as a number. Finally, just as Adam was trying to load the car and head to the banquet, I added the final detail: a tiny Nike Swoosh in the lower righthand corner. Barring minor decrepancies, I had recreated in cake one of my husband's team's home game jerseys.

It looked great and the cake was delicious. People asked me, "Will you make this again next year?" Ummm....no. I don't think I would survive another incident like this. But like I said, the cake looked pretty good in the end (in spite of all the bumps -- and crashes -- along the way).

Flying Gorillas

Birthdays when I was in college were always a challenge. You see, since my birthday is in early December, it always seemed to fall on the first day of final exams or on the day before exams. In other words, my birthday was at a time when no one had the time or the inclination to celebrate. The Christmas after my 21st birthday my parents and I were shopping at the St. Louis Galleria and stopped for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. A Flying Gorilla at the Cheesecake Factory is a banana and chocolate daquiri and it was the first alcoholic drink I ever had with my parents. I think I chose to get that particular drink because it had an interesting name more than any other reason. You may have noticed from my post titles that I enjoy interesting names! =]

For the past several days my husband has been requesting that I come up with a recipe for banana chocolate chip muffins. I don't know why he suddenly began to crave that particular combination, but it works out well, since I can name that creation a Flying Gorilla. I did some recipe research online, everything from asking my friend Emily (of The View From the Thirty-Second Floor) to epicurious and foodnetwork.com. Finally, I chose to use a recipe from Tyler Florence and adapt it slightly. Overall, I was very pleased with the results. Below is the recipe from Tyler's Ultimate. Any changes I made are noted in parentheses.

Flying Gorillas

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half whole wheat flour and half A/P)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (I used a 6 oz. bag of walnuts and chopped them roughly)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins. (I used paper muffin liners -- easier clean-up.)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes (I whipped all four bananas, at hubby's request). Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway (I used a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop to get even muffins).

Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out (this was a good idea -- I'll do this with other muffins, brownies, etc. in the future).

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes (these were ready after 18 minutes in my oven). Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These are delicious and I can't wait to have one for breakfast tomorrow.

Bake While the Sun Shines

I'm sitting here at my kitchen table typing happily, pausing often to look out my lovely big bay window into the front yard. The sun is shining, my geraniums are blooming brightly, robins are hopping about after worms, and I'm listening to some of my favorite music (thank you,Project Playlist). Even better, there's currently a zero percent chance of rain (quite a switch -- it's been so rainy here that you'd think we were living in Seattle instead of the St. Louis-area). Since it's bright and sunny out, with very low humidity and lower temperatures overall, I figured this was a good day to get the baking bug out of my system. For quite a while, I've been meaning to bake another loaf of multigrain bread (recipe in my post, "Making Bread, Breaking Bread"). And then, the other day my friend Emily posted in her blog ("The View From the Thirty-Second Floor") about baking homemade chocolate pretzels....

Clearly I was overdue for an afternoon of me-time in the kitchen with a couple new recipes and my laptop playing all my favorite tunes (currently playing: Billy Joel's Uptown Girl -- classic!). I started the afternoon by getting out all the ingredients for the chocolate pretzels. As I arranged ingredients around my stand mixer, I noticed a portion of the recipe I had failed to pay any attention to...the butter and egg needed to come to room temperature! (I know that's a "well, duh" moment, but I totally forgot about it, okay?) Anyway, I quickly rearranged my baking schedule and started with the multigrain whole wheat bread. That way, the dough could rest while I prepared the chocolate pretzel dough.

The multigrain bread has fast become a favorite of mine, as its exterior is crusty and crumbly and it's interior is hearty, but soft and slightly chewy. As a bread, it's so versatile too! I love using it to make toast for breakfast, but it's also incredible with sliced turkey or ham as a sandwich for lunch, or even with a dab of peanut butter for a quick snack. If summer temperatures didn't prevent me, I would probably bake a loaf every week. Unfortunately, running my oven for almost an hour in a July heat wave is a recipe for heat stroke!

I'm also trying a new recipe today: chocolate pretzels. I got the recipe for these from Emily's blog as well (what can I say, she has great ideas). Her recipe, however, originated with The Smitten Kitchen, a blog that I have begun to follow as well. Smitten makes so many appealing treats, including homemade marshmallows and homemade graham crackers (used in what I can only assume were the ultimate s'mores). I have to say, you have to admire, and slightly fear, a pregnant woman who voluntarily makes s'mores from scratch in order to enjoy really good s'mores. Me, I always assumed that ANY s'more was a good s'more! But I obviously have much to learn!

I'll definitely be trying to make homemade marshmallows, etc. once. We'll see how traumatic they actually are. According to Smitten Kitchen, there's an excellent chance for me to end up wearing much of the marshmallow concoction. And while I will stipulate to the inherently messy nature of s'mores, I don't think I'd enjoy wearing them (or their individual components).

I'm sure I'll try many of the Smitten Kitchen recipes in the coming months, especially ones that don't require baking. I'm also planning to make lots of ice creams this summer (surely you remember how excited I was about my ice cream maker?!) =]


For now, my oven is preheated, and it's time to bake the bread. Another hour till the pretzel dough is ready......as Ahhr-nold would say, "I'll be back." =]

[Time Elapsed: 5 hours]


Okay, so after a really long break (and a trip to Border's for coffee and browsing), I came home and started rolling out my chocolate pretzels. After the first one broke for about the fifth time, I was ready to throw a chunk of the dough. Long story short, I made half a batch and will worry about the rest of the dough tomorrow. Or not.

For those of you who are feeling adventurous, here's the recipe:

Chocolate Pretzels

1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour (I used King Arthur White/Wheat Flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk (for brushing)
Rock sugar (for sprinkling)

Place butter into mixing bowl. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add sugars and beat for 2 minutes until butter and sugar is well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in melted chocolate and cocoa powder. Add flour, salt and baking powder. Do not over mix. Dough will pull away from sides and form a ball in the bottom of the bowl.

Remove dough from bowl. Form into a long rectangle. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. Remove dough from fridge. Cut into 20 equal chunk portions. Roll each section into a long snake, about 10 inches long. Form dough into a circle and then twist twice at the bottom. Fold ends over to form a pretzel shape. Place on a baking sheet. Brush with egg yolk and then sprinkle with rock sugar.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Pretzels will just start to harden. Transfer to a cooling rack. Do not store until completely cool.