chocolate-caramel crackers

Oh yeah.

Really.

Yeah.

Just freaking awesome.

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen (great cooking site, by the way).

I was hoping to find a chocolate dessert for Easter to contrast the walnut-pear cake that I love.

I was thinking cake or pie or tart. Instead I found this.

And it was just what I wanted.

Chocolate caramel crackers, co-opted from Smitten Kitchen.

(I used the matzo version, not the saltines, with sea salt. Perfection.)

Apparently this is not a new recipe. But it was new for me, so I give credit where it was due.

I am not even going to post the recipe here, just my own picture and the link, above.

Go there. Make it. Get addicted.

cool cous cous and edamame

This came to me in a moment of laziness.
I was ready to make dinner Monday night, but did not have the gumption to get myself to the market.
A quick tour of the pantry yielded a box of cous cous. In the freezer I found some precooked soybeans in the pods and a pork tenderloin.
Hmmmm...
Yeah, I can work with these.
I set the pork to thaw in a sink full of cool water then got to thinking about how to make it all work together.

My inspiration was two yummy salad options from the Corner Bakery. At my branch of this chain they have an option of getting a trio sampler of some of the salads. Two that I really like are the ginger and asparagus cous cous with dried cranberries and almonds, as well as a mixture of edamame with asparagus and tomatoes in a tangy Asian-inspired dressing.

Somehow toward the end of my meal they are commingling on the plate so that I get cous cous and edamame together. Which is fine. It tastes pretty good.

So I decided to take what I liked about those salads and combine them, being limited to what I had at home.

Here you have it:

Cool cous cous and edamame
(with toasted almonds)

3 cups cooked plain cous cous, cooled
(for me this was 1 1/3 cup dry cous cous cooked to package directions)

1 cup slivered almonds, toasted in a saute pan until golden brown

1 lb frozen edamame in the pods, cooked and shelled
(should yield about 1 1/4 cups beans)

3 tbsp minced shallot

combine all of the above, stirring or tossing gently to mix

for the dressing

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp ponzu sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp red chili paste, such as Sriracha

combine all of the dressing ingredients, stirring until sugar has dissolved

Pour dressing over cous cous mixture and gently stir or toss to coat.

Enjoy!

If there had been a red pepper in the fridge, I would have diced some of that up and added it for a little more color and flavor. But this was pretty good as is.

I served this on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce.
To make it more of a dinner for the manfriend and me, I added some slices of grilled pork tenderloin.
Since the cous cous dressing had some tang and spice to it already, I kept the meat simple, just marinating it in a mixture of 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 2 tbsp sesame oil.
Then I grilled it.

This was awesome. I like a combination of cool and hot like this.
And the lettuce underneath gave it an extra layer of crunch.

I had leftover cous cous over more lettuce for lunch today. Still good.
And so, so, so easy to make.

Seared scallops in lemon-shallot sauce

Cravings are funny things. Where do they come from? Why one thing and not another?
I get cravings a lot. Popcorn, chocolate, steak, cheese.
They just pop up for no particular reason.
But my recent craving for scallops... That I can blame on "Top Chef."
They have been cooking a lot of scallops on that show this season.
"It'sa notta 'Toppa Scallopsa!' It'sa 'Toppa Chefa!" according to contestant Fabio.

So when I was planning dinner yesterday, I decided to give in to the craving and make a scallop appetizer.

Seared scallops in lemon-shallot sauce

Makes 4 appetizer servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 large scallops
sea salt
pepper
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/3 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped Italian parsley
about 4 small handfuls of baby arugula

Heat oil in a large nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat.
Lightly salt and pepper the scallops on both sides.
Add scallops to pan. To get a good sear and good color on them, do not move the scallops.
After about 2 minutes, turn the scallops over and let the other side sear about 2 minutes.
Remove scallops from pan and place in a covered bowl to keep them warm.
Turn heat down to medium and add butter to melt.
Add shallots and garlic; saute 1 minute.
Add wine and lemon juice, cooking 1-2 minutes until liquid reduces by about half.
Stir in parsley.
Return the scallops to the pan and turn to coat with the sauce.

To serve:
Divide arugula among four plates.
Put two scallops on each plate.
Drizzle sauce over scallops and arugula.
Serve immediately.

This was perfect.
The flavors were all perfectly balanced: just enough lemon, just enough garlic. And the shallots were sweet and not too strong of an onion flavor.

I thought about using mixed baby salad greens, but went with baby arugula for its slight peppery flavor and the fact that it does well when wilted a bit by the warm sauce.

I could eat this all the time.

It probably would also make a very nice main dish to make extra sauce and a couple more scallops each and serve it all, including the arugula, over a bed of angel hair pasta.

I have made scallops before, but this is the best preparation I have tried as far as ease and taste go.

Shortcut chicken and rice soup

I love soups of all sorts.
And when I take the time to make soup, I usually make a big pot so I can have leftovers.
Then I put those leftovers in single serving portions in zip-top bags and put them in the freezer.

My trick for this is to freeze the bags flat. Then once they are frozen, I can stand them up or stack them or whatever. It makes them easier to fit in the freezer than misshapen frozen lumps in bags and seems to take less space than using several small bowls.

You can see what I mean HERE. The picture was from a cooking frenzy last year about this time.

So, to get back on track, my soup project this time was chicken and rice with veggies and a hint of lemon.

I have made the chicken soup from scratch in the past, starting with the chicken and roasting it and cooking down the bones for stock. So much work.

These days, I love a good shortcut.

So I used a cooked chicken from Whole Foods. It was a smoked chicken, so it gave the soup an extra layer of flavor, though a regular roasted or rotisserie chicken also works well.

I also used pre-shredded carrots from Trader Joe's and the low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth from Trader Joe's.

Oh, and in most of these recipes, when I say salt, I am using a fine-flake sea salt or kosher salt. And pepper is fresh ground black pepper.


Shortcut chicken and rice soup

3 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
10 ounce package shredded carrots (3-4 carrots depending on size if you get whole carrots)
2 cups celery, thinly sliced
1 cup white wine such as chardonnay
8 cups chicken broth (I like Trader Joe's low-fat, low-sodium, gluten-free)
1 whole, cooked chicken, meat removed from bones, roughly chopped (4 cups roasted chicken)
2-4 tbsp lemon juice, depending on your taste
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
3/4 cup arborio rice
salt and pepper

Heat oil or butter in a large stock pot over medium-high heat, adding onion, carrots and celery.
Add dash of salt and a couple grinds of pepper.
Cook with lid on for about 5 minutes until veggies soften, stirring and making sure they are cooking, but not really browning.
Add wine and cook another 5 minutes.
Add broth, chicken and lemon juice and cook until hot.
Add cilantro and arborio rice plus salt and pepper to taste.
Cook 20-30 minutes or until rice is done.

So I like lemon. A lot. I tried to temper that and make sure this soup was not too lemony. I think 4 tbsp is a good amount of lemon juice. But if you are not so big on the lemon, add 2 tbsp, taste it and add more until it has the amount of lemon that you like.

I also really like cilantro, but I know some people don't.
This would work well with Italian parsley as a substitute.

Same with the rice. I had arborio, which is normally used in risotto. So I used arborio.
Pretty much any rice would do. But I tend to like a sturdier rice like arborio. I think it stands up better to being cooked, frozen and reheated.
Or use some orzo pasta.

I like to cook the rice right in the soup instead of cooking it separately and adding it later because the starch in the rice helps thicken the broth a little.
So you end up with a brothy soup that is not thin. And it is packed with stuff.
Every bite has chicken and veggies.

Oh, and I got nine 1.5 cup servings out of this.

Cookies with cranberries, white chocolate and macadamias

from left: white chocolate-cranberry-macadamia, oatmeal fruit bars,
chocolate with walnuts and peanut butter chips

So a few days before Christmas I decided to go with my baking frenzy.

I've already posted about the oatmeal-pecan shortbread and the oatmeal fruit bars.


I also made another version of these super chocolatey cookies, but instead of chocolate chips in the chocolate cookies, I used peanut butter chips in the chocolate cookies. Just a straight substitution.



Finally, the fourth cookie variety was this:

I opted for the small cookies.

Cookies with cranberries, white chocolate and macadamias

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup golden brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted salted macadamia nuts


Heat oven to 350.


Sift first 3 ingredients in medium bowl.


Use electric mixer to beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add brown and white sugars; beat until blended.


Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Then beat in vanilla.


Add dry ingredients, beating until just blended.


Gently stir in cranberries, white chocolate chips and nuts.

For larger cookies, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, 2 1/2 inches apart. For smaller cookies, drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto sheets, 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until just golden, about 18 minutes for large cookies and about 15 minutes for small cookies. Cool.


After a full day of cleaning and baking, I was able to get the dough for these made that night, but I did not bake them until the next morning. The dough had hardened up a lot in the fridge, so I let it sit out of the fridge for about 30 minutes then baked them.


The dough can be made and stored in the fridge in an airtight container for two days or in the freezer for up to two weeks.

And that was the last of the cookies.

Though I did also make a chocolate-rum cake on the 25th for Christmas dinner's dessert.

It may be a while before I bake again!

Chile verde with potatoes

For years on Christmas Eve, if I didn't have to work, I have cooked some sort of fish dish.
I am not sure why that is. It is just something I have done.
Maybe because I know on Christmas Day I will get meat, meat and more meat.

But this year I was craving chile of some sort.

Instead of my usual tomato-based bean chile with ground beef, I decided on a chile verde: pork cooked in a green sauce of roasted tomatillos and peppers. I added the potatoes to bulk it up and because that is how my dad liked to make it.

It was an excellent choice and was even better as leftovers once the flavors had time to really meld. It also freezes well. I did several single serving portions in zipper bags that I can pull out of the freezer as needed.

Chile verde with potatoes

4 pounds pork, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-inch cubes

2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
flour for dredging
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 white onions, diced

2 Anaheim or Poblano chiles
2-3 jalapenos
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds tomatillos
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
about 1 cup cilantro leaves, cleaned and chopped (I like cilantro, so I had more and added it to taste)
4 cups chicken stock

2-3 large russet potatoes

Garnish with:

extra chopped cilantro

grated cheese (I used queso blanco)

lime wedges if you like that sort of thing

Serve with:

your favorite tortillas and/or rice

Pork shoulder works well in this. I could not find that this time, so I used a boneless pork roast and cut it into cubes.

Remove outer husks from tomatillos. Wash and dry tomatillos and peppers.

Place tomatillos and peppers on a baking sheet and broil, turning every few minutes, until they are roasted on all sides and skin starts to bubble and split. Let cool and set aside.

Season pork cubes with salt and pepper then dredge with flour.

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat.

Brown pork in small batches, on all sides.

As batches of pork are done, transfer from skillet with slotted spoon into a large stock pot.

Continue until all the pork is cooked and in the stock pot. You may need to add a little oil to the skillet depending on how many batches you have to cook.

While the pork is cooking, dice the tomatillos and set aside in a bowl with the juices.

Dice Anaheim/Poblano peppers and set aside.

Also cut jalapenos in half, discard seeds and ribs, then mince, add to set aside Anaheim/Poblanos. (I wear plastic gloves when dealing with chiles, even when they are cooked. Just to be safe. That chile residue stays on the hands a while and can burn, especially if you touch your eyes.)

Once the pork is all cooked and in stock pot, add onions to the skillet and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Add peppers and cook 3-4 minutes, then add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes.

Transfer the onions and peppers to the stock pot with the meat.

Add chopped tomatillos, dried herbs and cilantro to the meat.

Pour in chicken stock just to cover the meat.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat then reduce to a simmer.

Cook for about 2 hours uncovered or until the pork is fork tender.

When pork has been cooking for about 2 hours, peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes.

Add potatoes to the pork and cook another 30-45 minutes or until potato pieces are tender.
Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Garnish with cilantro, cheese, etc. Enjoy.

Oatmeal-fruit bars

These are a favorite treat all year long. This was the first time I made them as a Christmas cookie, and they were a big hit at work.

Lucky for me I did not take the whole pan to the office yesterday.

I will be bringing some of these to my aunt's tomorrow for Christmas dinner.

Oatmeal-fruit bars

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup butter

10 ounces of your favorite fruit preserve

(I used Knott's brand seedless blackberry)

Heat oven to 350.

In a large bowl combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, baking soda.

Cut in butter and mix until it forms coarse crumbs.

For me, the best way to do this is to use my hands.

But that might just be me.

Firmly press about half, maybe slightly more, of the flour-sugar-oat mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 pan.

Heat fruit preserve in microwave for about a minute or until softened but not hot so that it is easily spreadable.

Spread softened fruit preserves over first flour-sugar-oat layer, but not quite all the way to the edges. Leave about 1/8 inch at the edge. This will help keep the fruit from seeping to the edge and sticking to the pan during baking.

Sprinkle remaining flour-sugar-oat mix over top of preserves and gently press it down.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top gets golden brown and crispy.

Cool in pan then cut into squares to serve. If they stick a little, just run a butter knife around the edges. They usually come up OK with minimal sticking.

For cookie bars, this is best to cool completely before cutting. It needs a little time to set up.

But I have served it warm with vanilla ice cream, kind of like a fruit crumble or crisp.

For the cookie plate that I took to work, I cut these fairly small. Just about two little bites.

This time I used blackberry preserves. I have also made them with marionberry and peach. And I wonder how they would be with marmalade.

I may have to try that next time.