Award Time!

The darling Miss Marie recently awarded me the Excellent Blog award which I wish to pass on. It also reminded me that the creative Olga at Mango & Tomato gave me the Arte Y Pico a little while ago. Many many thanks to you both. I love reading both of these blogs for their beautiful photography and great food. Here's how I am spreading the love:

I am giving the Excellent Blog Award to the following:
Diana at Diana Takes a Bite - this girl gets out more than most people I know in LA and still has time to cook on her own too. I don't know how she does it, but if she isn't already working at Bon Appetit, then she should be for her excellent writing.

Tony at Music Bleep - not only is Tony one of my best friends, but he writes this most amazing music blog. You may notice that I link to Tony's site a lot and that is because I can't go a day without listening to something musical and amazing and Tony's knowledge of what is new and hot continues to amaze me.

I'm giving the Arte Y Pico to these peeps:

Heather at Diary of a Fanatic Foodie - Heather is always making yummy things and taking delicious pictures of them. Plus, she recently sent me a package in the mail full of some delicious food stuffs that I have already started to put to good use.

Dawn at Vanilla Sugar - Dawn kills me with her kicked up desserts. Everything she makes is gorgeous and makes my mouth water. Her flavor combinations are beyond amazing!


Hope you are all having a spectacular Monday and please go vote tomorrow (if you haven't already)!

Popcorn with Salted Caramel

Last week I got a wonderful package in the mail. I love food blogging!!! The fabulous Heather at Diary of a Fanatic Foodie sent me some treats for participating in her purple food event to raise awareness for victims of domestic violence. Included in my box of treats was a bag of Paloma Roja Red Popcorn. I have never popped corn that wasn't in a bag so I was kind of nervous, but it was really fun and now I want to pop all my corn in a skillet. That sounded a little dirty, huh? I thought it would be nice to pair the popcorn with a salted caramel, and it turns out...I was right. The salty sweet caramel was so good with the light popcorn. I do think that I would try this again (maybe for the holidays), but maybe make this into popcorn balls. Doesn't that sound fun?

Now for my random off-subject rant of the day...I hope you all get out there and vote tomorrow! I mailed in my absentee early last week! This a food blog and not a political one, but I think it is important that everyone votes and let's their voice be heard. My parents lived here for 16 years before they were able to have that right and it is not one to be taken lightly. If you are in California, I strongly urge you to vote yes on Prop 2 and a loud HELL NO on Props 4 and 8. Don't discriminate and take away people's rights!

Popcorn with Salted Caramel
(Caramel from Tyler Florence)

For the popcorn:
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
2 tablespoons canola oil

For the salted caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 stick butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt

To make the popcorn:
Preheat the oil in a heavy skillet or pan. Add 4 kernels of corn. When those kernels pop, add the rest of the cup of corn. Cover, shake pan frequently. When popping slows, let steam escape and remove from heat.

To make the caramel:
Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Once the sugar has dissolved and the caramel reaches a dark amber stage, add butter and salt and swirl to combine. Remove from heat and drizzle over the popcorn.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I'm back! Hope you all enjoyed yesterday's post from JenFinn. If you're reading this now, the Blogger gods are smiling at me and have let me schedule my post while I do something highly embarrassing this morning which I may or may not tell you about in the coming weeks. I spent the majority of the day yesterday in bed. I wasn't sick, I just overindulged the night before and decided to have a lazy Saturday, but I don't feel so bad about it since I had cooked a whole spread for Halloween. Here's one of the treats I made for my friends. Whoopie pies have been popping up all over the food blogosphere and of course pumpkin whoopie pies are especially popular right now. These are really easy to make and my friend Tony helped frost them while I got everything else together (thanks honey!). These seemed to go over really well...or else my friends were lying to me. I only made a couple of changes to the original recipe. I used a little less sugar in the cookies and frosting and added a few dashes of cinnamon to the frosting and a little more to the cookies. Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. I look forward to bringing you some more treats from the Halloween gathering over the next few days.


Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
(From Sweets By Sarah)

For the cookies:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

For the filling:

6 tablespoons butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottoms of your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, powder, soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for 30 seconds. Decrease the speed to low and mix in the sour cream and pumpkin until just combined. Add the flour mixture and blend until it is incorporated. Drop tablespoons of batter three inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. The batter is thick enough to hold its mound shape on the sheets.

Bake cookies for about 12 minutes, or until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cookies comes out clean. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting:
Put the butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a large bowl and with an electric mixer, beat on medium for about 1 minute until the mixture is smooth and thoroughly combined. Decrease the speed to low and add the powdered sugar in 2 additions and add the cinnamon. Beat until it is incorporated and the frosting is smooth.

Use a thin metal spatula to spread a slightly rounded tablespoon of icing over the flat bottoms of half of the cooled cookies. Press the flat bottoms of the remaining cookies on the cream cheese frosting. Chill until the frosting is firm, about 30 minutes.


Me with some queens at the WeHo Carnivale:

Tony scaring a cute little boy:

Roast Butternut Squash Soup with Apples and Garam Masala

Ladies and gentleman hope you all had a lovely Halloween. Due to Esi laying in bed all day, we are interrupting our regular programming to welcome the lovely and talented guest blogger JenFinn. For her first entry she made Butternut Squash Soup with Apples and Garam Masala and paired it with Walnut Sour Cherry Crackers (which this host helped with...kind of). And now, a round of applause.


Roast Butternut Squash Soup with Apples and Garam Masala
(From Cooking Light November 2008)

Yield: 10 servings (of about 3/4 cup)

8 cups (1-in)cubed peeled butternut squash (about 2 medium)
3 tbsp canola oil, divided
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/4 tsp garam masala (I found it in the spice aisle at a major grocery store)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
4 cups Braeburn apple (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 cups water
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp half-and-half


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine squash, 2 tbsp oil, syrup, garam masala, salt and pepper. Arrange squash mixture on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. (I didn't have a jelly-roll pan, so I used a cookie sheet and that was fine). Bake at 400 for 45 min or until squash is tender.

Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots to pan; saute 2 min or until tender. Stir in apple; saute 4 min or until tender. Stir in wine; cook 1 min. Stir in squash mixture, 3 cups water, and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook 3 min.

Place half of squash mixture in a blender. Remove center piece of lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Strain mixture through a sieve into a bowl; discard solids. Repeat procedure with remaining squash mixture. Stir in half-and-half.


Thoughts: The result is a beautiful, velvety and very filling fall soup. The apples add a delightful sweetness and thick texture.

Walnut Sour Cherry Crackers

Makes about 72 pieces

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup spelt flour or whole wheat flour
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dried sour cherries
1/4 cup flax seeds

In bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, spelt flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir in butter and honey; stir in buttermilk. Add walnuts, cherries and flax seeds; stir to combine. Scrape into greased 9-by-5 inch loaf pan, smoothing top.

Bake in 375 degree oven until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and let cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until semi-solid, about 2 hours. (Make ahead: Overwrap in foil and freeze for up to 10 days, partially thaw to continue.)

With a serrated knife, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices. Cut in half crosswise and arrange on 2 baking sheets. Bake in top and bottom thirds of 300 degree oven, rotating and switching pans and turning crackers over halfway through, until browned and crisp, about 30 minutes. Let cool on pans on rack. (Make ahead: Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.)

Notes: I couldn't find flax seeds, so I used, upon the lovely Esi's recommendation, raw pepitas. That turned out well. I've been known to spend 8-10 bucks on a pack of gourmet crackers before, so this is a *much* cheaper way of indulging my cracker obsession!! I imagine if you lightly spray the sliced crackers with cooking spray and then sprinkle some rock sugar over them before popping them in the oven, you can turn them into a sweeter dessert cracker. Also, I was pretty liberal with the cherries... the more the better!!

Spicy Pepitas

Happy Halloween!! I was hoping to bring you a lovely pumpkin seed brittle, but after two failed attempts I came to a conclusion...I suck at brittle making. Halloween is one of my most favorite days of the year. Mostly because I love going down to West Hollywood and seeing the crazy costumes that people come up with. I am never that creative and usually don't think about what I am going to wear until the day of the event so I love seeing how much effort people put in to their outfits. I am having a little gathering of people at my house tonight (don't call it a party) to have some cocktails and nibbles before we head up to the WeHo Carnivale. It should be a blast and I am sure I will have more to tell you (and hopefully pictures to share). Over the next few days I will be featuring recipes that I made for my gathering (I told you not to call it a party!), and this is the first. As I mentioned, I failed miserably at making brittle. The first time I think my problem was not cooking the mixture long enough in the second part of the procedure. The second time, my mistake was letting the mixture get too dry. I didn't want to try it again (mostly because I was running out of sugar by this point) so I found this spicy pepitas recipe to use instead. Mine took a little longer than the suggested 5 minutes (more like 10), but they were really simple and tasty. Hope you all have a fabulous day and evening and enjoy your tricks...and treats!

Spicy Pepitas
(From Food Network)

2 cups Pepitas (raw hulled green pumpkin seeds)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground Ancho chiles or chili powder
2 teaspoons lime juice


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Spread on a baking sheet and bake 5-10 minutes, or until puffed and golden, shaking the pan once or twice. Serve

Proof that I suck at candy making:

Sesame-Garlic Soba Noodles with a Fried Egg

Sometimes when I get home from work I am not hungry at all. Other times, I am so hungry I can eat the entire contents of my fridge in one sitting (or an entire cheesecake). In order to prevent me gaining a hundred pounds in one sitting, I like to look for quick meals to prepare for a weeknight. I recently saw this recipe on The Kitchn and new I had to try it immediately. I am not the hugest fan of ginger, but I recently decided not to completely rule it out of recipes so I bought a little hunk at the farmers market. I cooked my egg a lot less done than I normally like, but the yolk actually ended up being really good with the soba and created kind of a sauce. In fact, this was so good that I wanted to make more right after I finished the plate, but I consoled myself with some cheesecake instead. I am definitely going to try this again with either more vegetables or some chicken.

Sesame-Garlic Soba Noodles
(From The Kitchn)

1 cup soba noodles - about 1.5 ounces dry
1 Tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
2 green onions, thinly sliced (reserve some for garnish)
1 egg
Extra salt

Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add the soba noodles. Cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and transfer to serving dish. Meanwhile, in a small pan over medium heat and add the sesame oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes, and sauté until fragrant, about thirty seconds to one minute. Remove from heat and stir in the soy sauce. Pour this sauce over the noodles, add the green onion, and toss until the noodles are evenly coated. Set the same small pan you just used back over medium-high heat. Crack an egg into the pan, being careful not to break the yolk. When the whites have set, use a spatula to gently but swiftly flip the egg over. Cook for a minute or two until the whites are completely cooked but the yolk is still liquid. Slide the egg on top of the noodles, garnish with green onion. Serve immediately

Daring Bakers October Challenge: Pizza Like a Pizzaiolo

For the second month in a row, the Daring Bakers have a savory challenge. I'm not complaining though! Well, it didn't have to be savory, but that is what I decided to go with. This was brought to us by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums and was chosen by Sher of What Did You Eat before she suddenly passed away in July. Rosa wanted to stay true to Sher's desires so she picked the pizza dough recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This is actually the recipe I tried last month, but at the time, I cut out about half the steps. This time I did all the steps (Kind of). One of the rules was that we had to get a picture of ourselves tossing the pizza so a couple of weekends ago, my dear friend agreed to let me come over and make pizza and photograph me doing it. The other rule was that we had to have some kind of sauce. I am not a saucy pizza kind of gal so this was actually a little difficult for me to come up with a combination that I would enjoy and still be different from other pizzas I have had recently. At first I thought I would do some kind of garlic oil with a few herbs, but I remembered I had some pomegranates so I thought they would be interesting on the pizza. Once at the store, my friend suggested that maybe a pomegranate reduction would be good so I picked up some juice. This was the idea that inspired the pomegranate sauce for the chicken and waffles. I also got some fresh mozzarella. I like arugula on pizza so I decided to add that and then at the last minute I thought of adding the prosciutto because I really like the combination of arugula and prosciutto on pizza. We ended up making this combination of pizza two different ways. The first time, I tossed the dough (rather unsuccessfully) and then topped it with the mozzarella. Baked that for about five minutes and then layered on the rest of the toppings. This was the prettier pizza. The second pizza I rolled out. We brushed it with olive oil, then a little of the pomegranate syrup and then we added the mozzarella. We baked this for a few minutes and then added the prosciutto and arugula and baked it for another two or three minutes. Then we topped it with more of the syrup. This was the tastier (and messier) pizza. In both cases, the dough didn't get quite as crispy as I wanted, but it was ok. Both were delicious with my favorite part of each being the salty prosciutto with juicy bites of pomegranate seeds. I have a lot of dough left over since I made the full recipe and I am looking forward to making several more pizzas in the coming months...but without the hole-y dough tossing. To get the dough recipe visit Rosa's site and to see if the other Daring Bakers pizzas didn't end up on the floor (or with big holes in the middle), visit the blogroll.





Toppings

Extra-virgin olive oil
Pomegranate syrup (recipe below)
Fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
Baby arugula
Prosciutto, sliced
Pomegranate seeds from one POM Wonderful pomegranate


Pomegranate Syrup

8 ounces POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 or 2 springs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon sugar
Dash each of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan combine the pomegranate juice, balsamic vinegar, thyme and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let the mixture reduce by 3/4 and then add the sugar. Simmer until thickened and the sauce can coat the back of a spoon.

Blushing Pom Holiday Cheesecake

As I mentioned the other day, the nice people at POM Wonderful sent me a case of juice. I have some whole pomegranates around my house and I have some cool recipes planned, but I am going to try and spread them out so as not to overload you lovely people that read my blog with pom recipes. After doing some recipe searching on the POM Wonderful site, I settled on this cheesecake as one of the recipes I wanted to try. I have never made my own cheesecake before and lately, I have been seeing some really cool cheesecake recipes in the blogosphere so I have had a little craving for it. This is really easy to make. It takes a bit of time with the chilling so I am glad I saved it for a weekend project. I greatly reduced the original recipe to make 2 mini cakes. I could not get enough of this cake though. I felt a little like Rachel and Chandler in that episode of Friends when they steal the neighbor's cheesecake. Lucky for me, I didn't have to eat cheesecake off the floor. I had a couple of cracks in one of my cakes, but I was able to cover it up nicely with the glaze. The title says that this is a holiday cheesecake, but it is ideal for anytime you have a cheesecake craving.

By the way, are you watching Gossip Girl this season?? It's so good and I can't wait for next week's episode. Last night featured music from pop darling Robyn. My friend Tony got to meet her over the weekend and you can read all about it here.


Blushing POM Holiday Cheesecake
(Adapted from Pom Wonderful)

Makes 1 9-inch cake (Or 2 4.5-inch cakes in my case)

For the Crust:
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
5 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt

For the glaze:
6 tablespoons pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Garnish (optional)
Pomegranate arils
Mint leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

To make the crust:
Stir together crumbs, sugar and butter until moistened. Press evenly into bottom of two 4.5 inch spring form pans or one 9 inch baking dish.

To make the filling:
In a large mixer bowl beat cream cheese and sugar on medium speed of electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs, milk, vanilla and salt just until blended. Pour over crust in pan; spread evenly.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 20 to 25 minutes more, until cake is firm at sides and soft-set (jiggles slightly) in the center. Do not over-bake.

Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for up to 2 hours, then cover and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours before serving. (Refrigerate cake for up to 1 week.)

To make the topping:
In saucepan combine juice with sugar and cornstarch. Bring to boil; reduce heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Cool slightly; spread glaze over cake.

Sprinkle arils on top; garnish with mint leaves if desired.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

I discovered this dish last year and often think about making it again, but it has taken me a while. After the chicken and waffle madness, I was looking for something a little lighter to close out the weekend with (probably didn't help that I consumed half a cheesecake after it, but more on that tomorrow). This is a really quick and easy dish to throw together. I couldn't find my can of tomatoes (I guess they magically disappeared) so I just used a few fresh Roma tomatoes that I had planned on roasting. Yes, I am still roasting tomatoes and soon I will be using them in recipes. This is so good with a nice kick from the red pepper flakes. I forgot the garlic and it still turned out great. It is an absolute must to serve this with some crusty bread to sop up the amazing juices.



Shrimp Fra Diavolo
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional as needed
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil plus 1 to 2 teaspoons
1/2 medium onion, sliced
7 ounces diced tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine
Dash dried oregano
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

Toss the shrimp in a medium bowl with 1 teaspoon of salt and red pepper flakes. Heat the 2 teaspoons oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and saute for about a minute, toss, and continue cooking until just cooked through, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a large plate; set aside.

Add the onion to the same skillet, adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil to the pan, if necessary, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices, wine, and oregano. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Return the shrimp and any accumulated juices to the tomato mixture; toss to coat, and cook for about a minute so the flavors meld together. Stir in the parsley and basil. Season with more salt, to taste, and serve.

Chicken and Waffles

Even though I have lived in LA for quite some time, I have never been to Roscoe's and had their chicken and waffles. Last weekend, Raul and I got the bright idea that we should make breakfast this weekend. We traded recipes all week and finally on Friday we settled on chicken and waffles. It took a while to find a waffle that we both liked and finally we settled on one of Emeril's recipe for waffles. I decided to serve my portion with a pomegranate syrup that I had experimented with last weekend. The generous people at Pom Wonderful sent me a whole bunch of juice so I used some for the syrup. For the fried chicken we just cut a couple of chicken breasts into strips, marinated them in some buttermilk and then coated them with some seasoned flour before tossing them in the deep fryer. Despite running in to a couple of complications (Raul doesn't have baking powder and we ran out of eggs so we had to make Jen pick a couple up), this turned out to be a really great meal that we devoured before settling in to a marathon of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A hot Saturday with good friends, good food, and good wine, what could be better?


Chicken and Waffles

Waffles
(Adapted from Emeril Lagasse)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon, cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nonstick cooking spray, optional

Chicken:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into strips
Buttermilk for coating the chicken
Kosher salt and black pepper
All-purpose flour
Paprika
Garlic salt
Cayenne pepper

Pomegranate Syrup
8 ounces pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

To make the waffles:
Preheat a waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Into a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved and eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture to the egg-milk mixture and whisk just until blended. Do not overmix.

In a third bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter, being careful not to overmix.

Coat the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray, if required, and pour enough batter in the iron to just cover the waffle grid. Close and cook as per the manufacturer’s instructions until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. (Do not open the waffle iron for at least 1 minute.) Repeat with the remaining batter.


To make the chicken:
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Lay the seasoned chicken in a medium bowl and cover with enough buttermilk to coat all of the chicken. Let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a large skillet or deep fryer to 350 degrees.

Pour flour onto a plate, season the flour with garlic salt, paprika, cayenne, and black pepper to taste. Toss the chicken in the flour to coat all of the pieces.

Fry the chicken for 6-8 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.