Roasted Eggplant Dip

I need to share a quick and zippy recipe for New Years Eve or anytime you want to serve something delicious. If you guessed this is a Martha recipe you'd be wrong but close, Barefoot Contessa. The first time I had this I thought I would die and quickly became obsessed with eggplants but that's another story. Anyway the moral is this is universally loved and adored so make it today and serve it to your friends to show them how much you love and adore them.

Start with these bad boys.

Oh and be sure to add some garlic which I did at the last minute. Oops.

Roast 'em up.

Until they look like this.

Zip 'em through the food processor with two heaping tablespoons of tomato paste.

I told you this was easy. I enjoy it with a whole wheat pita that is soft not in chip form. A girlfriend of mine has tossed this with warm pasta and I imagine that is unbelievably good. 

Roasted Eggplant Dip

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa 

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile, chop eggplants, peppers, onion, and garlic. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper in a 9 x 13 pan. Roast for 45 minutes stirring once. 

Cool for 10-15 minutes then pulse in food processor with tomato paste until desired chunkiness.

Serve with chips or pitas. 

Enjoy! 

 

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies & Fabric Update

I love any excuse to bake and luckily the holidays provide me with the perfect excuse. Recently I baked up some delicious Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. These things are killer and taste like brownies only better. Seriously. I've never given someone a chocolate crinkle cookie and not had them fall over and die in front of me because they loved them so much.

These require no butter and instead call for oil which is a little easier for me since that means I don't need to remember to take the butter out of the fridge and bring to room temperature. Does anyone else have that problem? Every. single. time. I have this problem. Anywho basically no planning for room temperature butter necessary. You do need to plan time for the batter to cool in the fridge before rolling out so some planning is necessary. Ugh!

Scroll to the bottom for the recipe.

Thanks everyone on your input for the chair. Great news, we've decided which fabric! So initially, both J and I leaned toward Option A, the damask print, because it was neutral and still fun. But upon further inspection I decided that this would be more difficult for a few reasons. One, the white is slightly see-through and I feared I'd need to put white muslin or some craziness under the fabric. Since I am an expert reupholster have never done this before I thought that added difficulty seemed stupid. Also, I have dreams of buffalo check in my life and I feared the damask would clash with this.

Look at how dreamy these prints I stole from pinterest.com are...

I love the idea of curtains from buffalo check. Maybe when I don't have a wall of windows to wrestle with in my life I'll sew me up some. 

This throw blanket is perfect in a large buffalo print. 

These chairs kill me. If I was reupholstering this shaped chair for sure I would use that fabric.

So in the meantime I would settle for a red buffalo check pillow for Christmas on the chair. For that reason I decided against the damask.

We have plans of buying a new couch soon-ish. My plan is to buy a white or tan couch - crazy I know - but I will make sure the fabrics are washable. Since I plan to stay so neutral with the couch we landed on Option B.

I'm a little delusional and hope this pattern will be a bit more forgiving during the reupholster. Since, I'm generally underestimate the effort necessary for most projects that's probably a bit naive but that's where I like to live. bwhaahaha. Added bonus! JoAnn Fabrics is selling this at 40% off the regular price and I just got a coupon for 20% my purchase including sale items - SCORE! So hopefully I can land this fabric for a steal.

As promised the recipe. I end up just googling this

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

·       1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

·       2 cups white sugar

·       1/2 cup vegetable oil

·       4 eggs

·       2 teaspoons vanilla extract

·       2 cups all-purpose flour

·       2 teaspoons baking powder

·       1/2 teaspoon salt

·       1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

      Directions

     

     Mix together cocoa powder, white sugar, and oil in medium bowl until combined. Beat eggs in one at a time and then add the vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt then slowly mix into cocoa mixture. 

    Cover dough and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or better yet over night. When the dough is cooled form into small balls and roll in confectioners' sugar. Be sure to be generous with the powdered sugar, more is more people. 

   

     Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. I like mine just cooked so they melt in your mouth but feel free to bake for 12 minutes. Let cookies rest of pan for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rake otherwise they are too soft and will break. 

    Enjoy!

Italian Oil Cookies

First, thanks everyone for weighing in on the fabric choices yesterday. Keep your opinions coming. I'm am stalling because A. upholstery fabric is not cheap and B. I've never reupholstered anything so I'm not sure how difficult a swap would be. Anyway, more on the chair later. Today is all about cookies!

Have you ever heard of Italian Oil Cookies? If you are from central New York then the answer is most certainly yes. If not, then it's less likely so but you should because these are delicious! These cookies have always been a Christmas treat in my family.  I remember helping my Italian grandmother and other times my mother to make these treats. My mother prefers to cut out various shapes a la sugar cookies and I prefer not to spend all day baking these and roll them into balls.

These cookies are sometimes called anise cookies because that is the flavoring most often used but I've used almond flavoring and that proves to be glorious as well. However, I generally stick to anise because that's the traditional flavor. Outside of these cookies I hate black licorice flavoring but this cookie is different and have a perfect hint of anise.

One other note about these beauties. They make a whole lot, I mean a truck-load if you follow my recipe. People, my grandmother was the youngest of 11 children and lots of local families were in the same boat. So if when they wanted to make cookies to share with the other church families a large quantity was needed. These days unless your last name is Duggar you probably are more accustomed to making cookies that yield somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 dozen. There's good news, you can share these with your friends and they will love you forever. Or you can just half the recipe and your friends will be sad.

Italian Oil Cookies
Yield 8-10 dozen

Ingredients
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 Tablespoon salt
6 cups flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon anise extract
6 tablespoons baking powder

Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons of milk
6 drops food coloring

Directions

Beat the eggs until they are smooth then add oil and milk and beat for 3 more minutes. Add sugar, salt, anise, 1 cup of flour, and 1 tablespoon baking powder and mix. Gradually add remaining flour and baking powder, 1 cup and 1 tablespoon, at a time. After each addition mix until just combined. The dough is very sticky so chill for at least a couple hours or overnight to make it easier to work with.

Roll into small balls or roll and cut into shapes as desired. Bake in 400 degree oven for 8 minutes. The bottoms of the cookies should be just a shade darker than the tops (brown is over cooked).

After the cookies have cooled dip into icing. I eye-balled the amounts but mix powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk until you reach desired consistency add more sugar for thicker or more milk for thinner icing. Feel free to add food coloring for fun. Finally, after you have iced the cookies be sure to sprinkle with nonpareil sprinkles.

Enjoy!  

Wingback Chair - the fabric vote

What a wonderful and lazy Sunday it's been for me. I hope you are all tucked in and enjoying the last full weekend before Christmas. I am not done with my shopping, crafting, or wrapping however, I opted for a low-key day. Let me say, I'm totally energized for the week because of that decision. That and my two day work work so there's that.

The one thing I did manage to accomplish today was pick out some fabric choices with the help of dear girl friends. Actually, earlier in the week other girl friends of mine helped me pick out some choices and then today the new crew helped me round out my choices. People, it takes a village.

I need your help. I've narrowed my choices to three and Jo Ann's Fabric allows you to rent out large samples to see what looks best.  I need your help to figure out which look you like best. Joel and I are both leaning toward one but we can be swayed. (Check out this post for what we're working with). 

Choice A. 

Choice B.

Choice C.

Leave a note in the comment section and let me know what you think. 

Also, this week is going to be a busy one and chocked full of posts so stay tuned. I have at least two cookie recipes to share and a few other meals. Plus the conclusion of my Christmas crafts. Oh my! It's going to be fun. 

Ok back to lounging....

Italian Wedding Soup

Have you ever been to a wedding where this soup was served? Oddly enough, I never have been served Italian Wedding Soup at a wedding. Even still I love this soup and most often finding myself cracking open a can of Progressive's version of the soup. It's not bad in a pinch but it really isn't that great either.

Since I am a self-appointed Martha-Stewart-Recipe-Taster it should come as no surprise that I use her Light Italian Wedding Soup Recipe. The biggest change I made was the type of ground turkey used, she recommends 93% fat free ground turkey which of course includes dark meet and I used 99% ground turkey and found it absolutely delicious and very tender. The other change I made was I used kale instead of escarole because I wanted to.

This is a quick and easy soup. I made it on a week night in less than 45 minutes. Here's how I did it.

Roll out the cute little meatballs. This photo doesn't give you a sense of proportion but they are small. I would estimate they are 1/3 the size of a normal meatball. These are really simple just an egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and parmesan.

Next up, dice and saute up onion, celery, and carrots in a little EVOO to soften.

Add in the liquids and meatballs. Then lightly simmer the meat-a-balls.

Finally, the kale. How beautiful is that? I love this stuff. A few minutes and it's nicely wilted into the soup.

Obviously, this is best served with parmesan on top. Really, what isn't? I want to make this all over again immediately I loved this soup!

Italian Wedding Soup
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 pound ground turkey, 99 percent lean

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large egg, lightly beaten

½ cup plain dried breadcrumbs, I used whole wheat

¼ cup grated parmesan as well as more for serving

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

2 cans (14 ½ oz. each) reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 cans (14 ½ oz. each) diced tomatoes in juice

3-4 cups chopped kale

Directions

Combine ground turkey, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and parmesan in a bowl. Use hands to combine but do not over work the meat. Roll into small meatballs use about a tablespoon of meat per ball. 

In a stock pot or dutch oven heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until vegetables are soft for about 8 minutes.  

Add the chicken broth and tomatoes and increase heat to bring to a light simmer. Add the meatballs. Cook until the meatballs rise to the surface which takes about 5 minutes. 

Finally, add the kale and stir and allow to wilt about 3 minutes. 

Serve topped with parmesan. 

Enjoy!  

Sugar Pumpkin Rigatoni

Great news everyone, Joel and I signed up for a winter CSA. If you are like me you may think this means root vegetables and potatoes for three months. Surprise of all surprises there is actually much more variety. For example, this week (week two) we received a bok choy, collard greens, carrots, potatoes, boston lettuce, rutabaga, kohlrabi, and leeks. It's actually a lot of food to keep up on even if we decide to freeze things there's just two of us. For sure we get our money's worth and it keeps us out of restaurants because of the amount of veggies we get. That's not a bad thing.

Previously, we had a few sugar pumpkins kicking around. If you're not sure what a sugar pumpkin is they look like this.

They are the little guys and they aren't just for decoration. I will say, they take a little effort to peal and deseed but I found their sweetness well worth the effort. As you might imagine I had a recipe that I was itching to try out.

via pinterest

Three guesses who authored the original recipe. A. Cooking Light, B. Barefoot Contessa, C. Martha Stewart.

Did you choose C? Then you'd be correct. My girl Martha does it again. It's super simple just roast some sugar pumpkin, onion, and sage. Toss with rigatoni and goat cheese and voila.

As you can see, my version turned out identical to Ms. Stewarts. Well it tastes amazing and really that is what counts. I must have roasted the pumpkin longer than she did because it really melted into the mixture. I sort of like my melded together version.

Rigatoni with Roasted Pumpkin and Goat Cheese
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Serves 5-6

2 sugar pumpkins
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion or 2 shallots
fresh sage
salt and pepper
1/2 lb rigatoni
5 oz. goat cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Peel and deseed the pumpkins. Dice in large chunks and chop onion into large chunks. Spread onto baking sheet and mix with olive oil, salt and pepper, and several sage leaves. Roast for 45 minutes tossing half way through.

In a large pot bring water to a rolling boil and salt the water. Cook rigatoni until el dente, the back of your package should give a suggested time.

Toss warm rigatoni, warm pumpkin roast in a bowl with crumbled goat cheese. Salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies

I've been absent, MIA, AWOL. You get the picture. I had some technical problems with my computer but I'm happy to say I'm back up and running. How much did you miss me? Scale of 1-10...10! I knew it.

you like me. 

you really like me. 

I thought tis the season and all of that so I could post a series of cookie recipes.  Here's the thing, I love all cookies, 

I don't discriminate. 

I especially love bar cookies because they are so easy and require so few steps. Score! I realize these peanut butter and jelly bars are not traditional Christmas cookies but believe me people won't care. Also, stay tuned I have a few Christmas cookies in the queue. 

Oooooh. My mouth is watering just looking at this little guy. You know it's going to be good with the Barefoot Contessa authored this recipe. She's the Paula Dean of the north. Get the butter! 

First, I start by doing what all good cookie recipe starts with creaming the butter and sugar. 

Yummo. This is also the start to many a frostings. 

Add in the delicious peanut butter. 

I could stop here and lick the bowl. I have problems people. 

Add some eggs.

Finally, add the dry ingredients. Mix until crumbly. 

Now the fun part. Roll up your sleeves and press the 2/3 of the cookie dough into a cake pan. 

pat, pat, pat

get in there

Now open a jar of jelly, any will do, and empty it. 

It sounds something like a sluuurp. Delicious. 

Spread it around

Crumble the remaining cookie dough on top. 

Do you see why I love bar cookies so much. So fast and easy. Now with all the free time I had on my hands from not needing to roll and cut dough and not to mention the switching the pans out every 10 minutes or so, I had about an hour to bask in my genius. Err, I mean watch Toddlers and Tiaras or Alaska State Troopers or Extreme Couponing. People, don't judge my choices. 

Back to the cookies. A reminder of the delicious end result. 

I really hope you enjoy these as much as I do and share them with them friends. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1½ cups sugar 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I halved her original recipe because I found it too peanut buttery) 
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1½ teaspoons kosher salt 
1½ cups raspberry jam or other jam (18 ounces) 
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar until it is a light yellow color. Add eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter and mix. 

Sift dry ingredients. I find doing this over parchment paper makes it easy to dump into the mixer because of how flexible the paper is compared to sifting into a bowl. 

Slowly add the sifted dry ingredients on a low speed into mixer. Mix until just combined. 

Pat 2/3 of the dough mixture into greased 9x13 inch pan. I use the left over butter wrappers to grease the pan with the remaining butter on the paper. Spread the jelly over the pan evenly. Crumble and drop the remaining dough over top. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts if you would like but I typically omit this step. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool and enjoy! 

Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

What was your favorite part of Thanksgiving? I love so much about T-day that it's hard to choose. First, the Macy's Day Parade I love love love this. You should know, I was the president of the marching band in high school. Yes, I was that cool. People, I LOVE a marching band. Don't get me started. When I lived in Boston one time my friend and I were wandering around one weekend and I heard the familiar cadence of a marching band and immediately we were on the hunt from the source of this sweet sound. As my good friend Gretchen says, "I've always been this cool." I like me.

Ok back to the best parts of Thanksgiving. Obviously, visiting with friends and family. Oh, and the wine needed to participate in said visit. I kid, I kid. But seriously, get some white wine in the fridge before I come over. Pinot Gris please or a dry Riesling.

The other thing I love is the food. Homemade cranberry sauce, I die. Stuffing, shut your mouth I love this stuff. You all know Joel's favorite part is the quick bread.

True story, my mother's dog ate the pumpkin loaf. this year in a covert operation. Joel was sad. End of story.

Anyway, the best part of Thanksgiving in my world. The dessert! As you all know, I love pumpkin and pie is the obvious choice. But, pumpkin pie is dense and a little too much. A few years ago I rolled out this Barefoot Contessa Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart recipe and loved it to the moon and back. So this year I dusted it off and did it again. Add some freshly whipped cream and you can die and go to heaven.

It's the holiday and it's a rule that your whipped cream is 2/3 the volume as your dessert. It's a rule, look it up.

This is such a delicious dessert and a fun take on the more traditional pumpkin pie. The banana adds a depth and interest and the mousse's light and airy texture is perfect. I prefer this to regular pumpkin pie. Also, graham cracker crust. Enough said. It's amazing. Ina know's what she's doing. I did tweek it ever so slightly, less sugar and fat free half and half. At the end of the day if you're going to make a mousse you have to first have whipped cream and you have to use heavy cream. There's no way around it. It's well worth the calories so just do it.

Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa
Serves 10

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (14 whole crackers)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup fat free half-and-half
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 extra-large egg yolks
• 1 package (2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
• 1 ripe banana, finely mashed
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/2 cup cold heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter in a bowl. Then press into a tart pan. Bake pan for 10 minutes in oven and then set aside to cool. 

To prepare the filling set up a double boiler with a sauce pan with an inch of simmering water and a heat proof bowl on top. Heat the half and half, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This took me about 10 minutes. In a small bowl whisk egg yolks and then temper with the hot pumpkin mixture. To do this, add a small amount of the hot filling into the eggs and stir to help gently raise the egg's temperature and avoid scrambling eggs. Once tempered add yolks to the double boiler. Heat for 5 minutes or until the filling start to thicken. 

In a small bowl dissolve the gelatin in a 1/4 cup of cold water. Add the orange zest and banana to gelatin. Combine with pumpkin mixture and allow time to cool. 

Mix the heavy cream and sugar with hand mixer until soft peaks form. This takes a few minutes. Gently fold the whipped cream into cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour mixture into crust. Cool in refrigerator for a few hours or over night.

Serve with mounds of freshly whipped cream. 

Enjoy! 

Post-Thanksgiving Recovery Meal

I'm taking a break from decorating for Christmas (read: procrastinating) and it currently looks like a bomb went off in my apartment. Isn't that always the way? Two weeks ago I went to an information session at Pottery Barn on decorating for the holidays and now I'm trying to recall the advice and set up my decorations like a professional. Ahem, you can guess how that's going. So, I thought this is the best time to pop in to a share a fabulous recipe I made pre-Thanksgiving but would be a nice and light post-turkey day meal.

Surprise of all surprises I did not find this in Martha Stewart or Cooking Light's recipe arsenal. It's a  Real Simple recipe that I tweeked and added some green veggies to since it was lacking in this one area. It's a super easy vegetable salmon bake and here's the final product.

It is a fast and easy dinner which makes it a contender for a weekday meal. I know some people *cough* attempt 90 minute meals *cough* during the week. ahem. So now that I've confessed I want to tell you all I'm a reformed woman and am attempting more reasonable meals during the week. Of course my problem is I do not often read the recipe all the way through. Doh! Don't be like me. 

Back to the salmon bake all I did was roast, at 400 degrees, the potatoes, brussel sprouts, and mushrooms tossed in a tablespoon of olive oil and salt and pepper for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes softened. 

Next up plop on the salmon. 

Plop, it's a real cooking term. Look it up. 

Oh be sure to salt and pepper your salmon, unless of course you enjoy bland food. 

The final step is to pour some lemon, dijon mustard, and apple cider quick vinaigrette on top. 

This will get you over the post-Thanksgiving food hang over. Check out the Real Simple website for their version.

Christmas crafts are coming

This week is the beginning of the holiday season and so I have so many DIY projects up my sleeve so I'm going to preview a couple. First thing you should know about me and crafts...they generally aren't my thing. However, between pinterest and blogs that I read I decided to give crafts a second look.

Earlier this year I decided I wanted to learn how to sew so that one day I could use my powers to make pillows and window treatments. Who says I don't dream big? As luck would have it my mother had an extra (read: 30 year old machine) that she wasn't using because she had a shiny new machine. Fabulous!

I found what looked to be fairly simple and signed up the woman who birthed me to come out and help, oh and teach me about sewing. It's the cutest fabric key chain holder. As is usually the case, I underestimated how long this "little" project would take. At the end of the day, we had cut, iron, fused, and begun to sew some of the beginnings together. Here's the finished prototype.

My mother the hand model. Later this week I will be finishing the project. Stay tuned for the step by step.

Another Christmas project I have under way, as of yesterday after a quick trip to Michaels for supplies, is this Pottery Barn hack.

Source: Pottery Barn

If it turns out well I may make a second for a girl friend of mine (who never reads my blog so it would remain a surprise). 

The other project I want to share is the chair I have big plans to reupholster.

Clearly this is not a Christmas gift but I figure if I put it on the internet it will give me the kick to get this project moving and fast! This is clearly a bit more ambitious. But this baby was a steal and in amazing shape albeit a bit dated. First things first, I need to pick up the new fabric. Also, the wood needs to be reconditioned. Finally, the big project. Should be exciting.

What projects do you all have under way for the holiday?