Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Cinnamon Rolls

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Alisa

RECIPE UPDATED! I made some changes and they’re even better, now! Go make these, QUICK!

For the South Plains Fair this year, I decided to enter the cinnamon roll category, if for no other reason than to de-throne my friend, Rod from his previous win in the category. A little healthy rivalry makes everything more fun and I KNOW his are amazing. But in the night, right before drifting off, I came up with what I figured would be a wonderful way to make the filling for the cinnamon rolls and the icing. The dough, I figured, could be altered to fit in with the rest. So I got kind of excited to embark on the process and after killing the yeast in my dough from boiling hot butter in the first round, I ended up with a good second batch of dough and proceeded with the plan! I think the secret to anything truly delicious in a baked good is butter. And I figure everyone knows, but in case you don’t, browned butter is the goodness of butter x 1,000,000. So at every turn, I turned the butter into browned butter and I formed a paste with the filling instead of doing the traditional method of smearing on a lot of butter and then dumping sugar and cinnamon, which, when rolled up and cut, inevitably dumps out a little on your cutting board.

The paste. was. genius. I’m not even going to act humble about this. I browned the butter with two vanilla beans that were split (holy mother that was a great smell) and once browned, I combined the sugar and a little less cinnamon than the original recipe called for and formed this amazing smelling liquid that I let firm up in the fridge a bit so that it would harden up enough to be spread like jam instead of being liquid. It made the filling so incredibly easy to get perfectly uniform so that each cinnamon roll had exactly the same amount of filling.

And then…The Icing. I’m definitely not one of those people who says something is “too sweet” when it comes to desserts. Desserts are supposed to be sweet. However, the traditional powdered sugar and milk icings for cinnamon rolls can be just SUGAR and nothing else and I thought a cream cheese icing would be too strong a flavor for the delicate brown butter and vanilla beans. So I used heavy cream, milk, powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste (so it would be pretty and flecked) and THEN I gradually added tiny pinches of kosher salt and stirred after each addition, until the edge of the sweetness was taken off and it was perfect. I will henceforth salt all my icings. Just a bit – it MATTERS! I was amazed at how good these turned out and….

TA-DA! Blue Ribbon! I was quite giddy!

And then sad, because my husbands absolutely perfect bread didn’t place and my thoughts were that it was too sophisticated and the fair is a veritable sugar bomb. I think it just depends on what you respect when it comes to traditional bread, and Matt is a purest. 4 or 5 ingredients at the most. This guy is the most amazing baker I know! Anyone can make a good bread if it’s slathered in sugar and butter, but only a true baker can make a bread SING with only 4 ingredients.
These were our submissions – Matt submitted his biscuits, baguette and traditional boule. All perfect and the best I’ve tried, but sometimes in a sea of bundt cakes and chocolate sugar loaves, plain bread doesn’t get noticed. A shame, really.

Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Cream Icing
makes about 16 rolls, depending on how thick you slice them

For the Dough:

1 cup whole milk
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (bread machine yeast
1/4 cup sugar
4 TBS unsalted butter, browned and cooled
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 3/4 cups AP flour
3/4 tsp salt

For the Filling:
12 TBS unsalted butter, browned with two split vanilla beans
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 TBS cinnamon

For the Icing:
1 heaping cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2-3 TBS whole milk
a few pinches of kosher salt

Make your Filling first! Brown the butter in a large, stainless steel skillet (non stick you can’t see the butter browning) with the split vanilla beans, mushing them around as they warm up to release their seeds. Once browned, remove from heat and stir in your sugar until fully incorporated. Then add in the cinnamon, stirring to combine. You can do this a day in advance – you want this paste to be slightly firmed up so put it in the fridge and stir it once in a while until it’s the consistency of wet sand.

For the dough: brown your butter on the stove by swirling it around in the pan over medium heat until solids begin to form at the bottom and it’s giving off a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and place in a medium bowl and let it cool for a few minutes. Once cooled (about 5 minutes), add the milk, the egg yolks and vanilla paste. Whisk to combine. Then whisk in the yeast.
Whisk the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk mixture. Mix on low speed with a dough hook until thick and slightly sticky. Knead on medium speed until the dough gathers around the hook, adding up to 2 more tablespoons of flour to get a nice, smooth texture. Don’t beat it to death.

Remove the dough and shape into a ball. Butter the mixing bowl and return the dough to the bowl, turning to coat in the butter. Cover with a towel and put it in a warmish place (like on your dryer) for a couple hours until doubled in size. This is a pretty slow-rising dough. Don’t lose hope.

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to a shape of about 10″ x 16″ (about 1/4″ thick all around). Now comes the fun part! Spread your filling all over the dough with an offset spatula until completely covered, leaving about 1/4″ all around clean for ease of rolling up the dough. Starting on the long side, roll the dough up tight and then slice about 1.5″ slices and arrange them on a buttered, double lined rimmed baking sheet (if you don’t have one, you can always stack pans together to form a double wall) and cover with loose plastic wrap and set in that same warm place to rise about an hour until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 325 and bake about 30 minutes, until golden brown (mine were done in about 28 min). Cool in the pan 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the icing by adding the cream to the sugar in a bowl and whisking till smooth. Then add the vanilla and milk until a nice, smooth texture is achieved. Then, little by little, tasting along the way, add pinches of salt till it tastes right. I can’t really tell you how much I added. Probably two and a half pinches! Stir till fully incorporated and pour over the rolls!

Enjoy!

Cherry Almond Scones

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Alisa

Dear goodness, I love a good scone. Some people think they are too dry or would prefer a muffin, instead. Cake is cake so there’s really no comparing it with a muffin. Scones are meant to be enjoyed warm, with a sliver of cold butter and a hot cup of coffee or tea. How very English. Their merit of being on the verge of dry is that they pair well with butter and a warm drink. And like their fluffy muffin-cousins, the varieties are endless. I love a savory scone with cheddar and onion just as much as a sweet variety. These particular scones have a magical pairing – almond and cherries! I bought some hippie soap this weekend with that combination and I didn’t intend to buy soap if I hadn’t smelled it, but there it was, cherry almond soap, screaming, “I’M SO COMFORTING! INHALE ME WHILE YOU DRIVE HOME!” And so I did. And it was a really great car ride.

When I received my copy of King Arthur Flour magazine, one of the first scone mixes inside was cherry almond. I knew I had to make these on my own, instead of waiting on a mix to arrive on my doorstep. So, I looked up the nearest recipe online and adapted it to be more almondy (there really is never enough almond-flavored things in the world) and got to baking! They turned out soft on the inside and crispy on the outside – perfect! I want to make them again, soon, and figure out a way to make them a little more cherry, too. Perhaps a swirl of homemade cherry preserves in the dough! They’re really great as is, though – just don’t forget the (real) butter!

Happy Beginning of the Week!

Cherry Almond Scones*
makes 8-10 scones, depending on the cut

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into pea size pieces
1 cup dried cherries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1/2 cup milk with a tsp of vanilla and a tsp of almond extract mixed in!

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add in the butter and rub with your fingers into the dry ingredients until a coarse meal forms. Add in the cherries and almonds. Add the milk and extracts and combine it into the butter flour mixture.

Form the dough into a 1-inch thick disk and cut it into 8 rounds with a biscuit cutter (You can really cut them however you like.) Transfer the scones to a greased cookie sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 17 to 18 minutes, turning the pan halfway through.

*Adapted from Anne Burrell

The Homegrown B.L.T. with a recipe for amazing mayo!

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Alisa

Every year we look forward to this. An entirely home-grown (or made) BLT! When we are fortunate enough to have a tomato crop, as we were this summer, the homemade BLT is the first thing in our minds to make. So when the tomatoes started looking like this:

…we knew it was time to assemble the ultimate sandwich. Matt cures pork belly and then smokes it in our electric smoker, I made the mayo, Matt made the bread and we grew the tomatoes, but sadly had no lettuce this year. So other than the lettuce, this was entirely from scratch! And what a good feeling. I think this is kind of like remembering how good the food was on vacation – most of the goodness came from the setting or the mood, or the fact that you didn’t have to cook. Similarly with this sandwich, the ingredients are certainly wonderful, but part of the joy is knowing that we worked for each component (minus the lettuce). We thoroughly enjoyed this sandwich and this moment and Olive deconstructed hers, discarded the impostor (lettuce) and ate the rest. She’s adoring these tomatoes, and I absolutely get giddy knowing that she likes tomatoes and that her first taste of tomatoes (besides tomato sauces) was out of our yard! She won’t remember, but I know we will.

For the recipes, I will post our mayo recipe and method, which is super easy and totally worth it for the huge flavor you get. I’ve posted Matt’s bread before, which is the bread we used for this (plus an addition of rosemary) and for the tomatoes, well, you’re probably too late to grow them yourself, but if you know someone who has an abundance, beg one off them and grab some good, thick-cut bacon and have yourself a BLT party!

Mayo (made with an immersion blender -might be my most used kitchen tool, next to my knife)

2 egg yolks
1.5 cups light oil like canola. I used a blend of canola and olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard (or even dry would work)
Salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne and paprika for me!

Place the egg yolks in the bottom of a tall, wide cup (immersion blenders come with their own). Place all the other ingredients on top of the egg yolks and stick your immersion blender all the way down to the bottom. Turn it on the lower setting and start graaaaaaaaadddddddduuuuualllllly pulling the immersion blender up toward the surface of the oil. As you pull up, the oil will slowly become incorporated into the egg yolk/spice mixture and in about 45 seconds, you will have perfect mayo! It will keep two weeks in the fridge and I recommend slathering both sides of your bread and searing it on a griddle before assembling your sandwich. Hey, if you only eat a proper BLT once a year, make it a good one.

Espresso Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Alisa

I’m a pretty big fan of the combination of chocolate and cinnamon. They compliment each other so well in baked goods and the combination nearly exudes warmth. This flourless indulgence boasts the rich flavors of espresso, as well. And if there’s anything the first year of motherhood has taught me, it’s that coffee is from the Good Lord. Chocolate is, as well, but coffee has really become a friend in need this year. Together, they have become our go-to desserts. This cake should be enjoyed with coffee if you are into that kind of supreme happiness. The original recipe doesn’t call for cinnamon, but lately I’ve been adding it to just about everything including the fresh whipped cream I made for this cake. I put more cinnamon than I thought I should and it turned out perfect. And then I sprinkled it with cinnamon. Maybe I have a deficiency?

Either way – try this cake. And don’t leave out the whipped cream. It was extra special. Happy weekend and happy baking!

Flourless Espresso Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream*
makes one, 9″ round cake

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for cake pan
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably 70 percent cacao, chopped
6 large eggs, separated, room temperature
1 cup sugar, divided
3 tablespoons instant-espresso powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbs cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides and bottom of a springform pan. Melt butter and chocolate in a glass or other heat proof bowl in the microwave at 30 second increments until melting and stir together to fully melt and incorporate. Set aside.

Beat together egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Add espresso powder, 1 tsp cinnamon and salt; beat until combined, about 1 minute. Add vanilla and melted-chocolate mixture; beat about 1 minute more.

In another bowl, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Increase speed to high; gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Fold into chocolate mixture in 3 batches. Transfer batter to pan and bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cake cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Remove side of pan; transfer cake to a serving plate. Serve whipped cream alongside cake. To make the whipped cream, beat the heavy cream in a mixer on medium-high until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the cinnamon and whip a little longer, but not too long – you want the cream to stay soft, not get clumpy (which happens from too much whipping.) Serve with coffee and be sure and save some for yourself for breakfast tomorrow!

*adapted from Martha Stewart Living

Cinnamon Oatmeal and Yogurt Pancakes

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Alisa

I don’t believe in labeling food as “healthy” or “not healthy.” I believe in good habits and bad habits. I think it’s a bad habit to eat lots of refined sugar and processed junk that lives in a box on a shelf on a daily basis. I think it’s a good habit to enjoy a totally sugar-laden cupcake once or twice a month and really enjoy the cuss out of it. I think it’s a bad habit to eat fast food multiple times a week. I think it’s a good habit to enjoy an amazing cheeseburger and fries on a weekend and have no regrets! I think it’s a bad habit to let kids snack between meals on junk like salty fish shaped crackers and candy posing as “fruit.” I think it’s a good habit to let your kids know what snack food is and that it is to be eaten once in a while and not every day and certainly not in place of a meal. Good habits and bad habits – to heck with worrying about good foods and bad foods or worrying that I’m bad for having refined flour and sugar in the house. If you really believe in the adage of “everything in moderation” you won’t run from these ingredients. You’ll just put them in their time and place.

Because of the awesome blog by Dina Rose that I read on a regular basis, I am coming more and more into the understanding of focusing on conquering habits instead of worrying about the nutrition of each individual meal I cook. I’ve developed a few habits I’m proud of and I’m working on changing the habits I’m not so proud to admit. A bad habit I’m working on is eliminating my “adult right” to snacking throughout the day. I have been bad about this in the past. A piece of chocolate here, a cracker and cheese or seven there…I don’t want Olive to grow up snacking between meals and having her around has really shed light on my bad habits for randomly and mindlessly eating. I’ve been tackling that problem this week and it’s getting easier and easier to wait till the next meal – just like I expect her to learn.

A good habit I really love is cooking a bit more indulgently on the weekends. This Saturday it was just us girls as Matt was somewhere in the Colorado wilderness hiking and eating freeze dried gravy. I love not camping. So for breakfast, before Olive woke up, I looked up a recipe for yogurt pancakes and modified the one I found to have cinnamon, oatmeal and a splash of sweetened milk I had in the fridge from the tres leches cakes I made a couple weeks ago. It was the best stack of pancakes I’ve ever made. They were wonderful. These pancakes are by no means “healthy” in that you should eat them all the time, but they are filled with good ingredients and that just adds a bonus to getting to dig into a stack of pancakes on a weekend. I topped them with banana slices and a bit of my favorite syrup – dark amber agave nectar (tastes like caramel) – and they were awesome. And filling. I threw the leftovers in the toaster this morning before church and they were magical all over again. Three cheers for refined flour weekends and learning good habits!

Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes
made about 8, 3 inch pancakes

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
2 tbs melted butter
2 tbs milk or heavy cream or evaporated milk (I had leftover tres leches concoction in my fridge)

Heat a griddle or a non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Combine all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Then, in a separate bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and whip up the eggs in the mixture until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and blend with a fork until fully incorporated. Spray the skillet with spray oil with each batch of pancakes and cook till browned on both edges, 2-3 minutes per side.

Serve with sliced bananas or peanut butter and syrup – whatever makes you happy!

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Blue Cheese Slaw

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Alisa

In the Palmer house, we like to do things from scratch. Sometimes we even go so far as to make the contraption that makes the food (thank you, Alton Brown). But I would say our current favorite food-past time is eating a dish at a restaurant and saying, “I bet we could make a better version of this at home” and then going home and trying it out. One of our favorite restaurants here in town is Crafthouse Gastropub. They always have good brews on tap and they have a creative menu and generally execute things pretty well. Matt was really excited to try their buffalo chicken sandwich and had been anticipating it for a long time, but it fell kinda short when we finally had it. Maybe it was because we had this idea in our heads of what it would be and it wasn’t that way – sometimes you can really cheat a restaurant by doing this. The slaw was really wet and ran down his arm and pooled onto the plate. The chicken wasn’t “buffalo” enough and was also too big, so it was really hard to eat. It was a good enough sandwich for what it was, but we said then and there that we’d try this one at home.

So we did. And it was tremendous. We used the recipe for the fried chicken sandwich from Serious Eats and I think they really have a perfect process. Using chicken thighs instead of the breast makes for a smaller patty and a more flavorful one, and it’s easier to eat. We used our very favorite buffalo sauce and Matt thickened it with a bit of roux and it worked perfectly. We didn’t want the drippy situation and making the sauce thicker like buffalo gravy – if you will – was the right move. Matt found a slaw recipe online from a girl who really knows her stuff, Carla Hall from Top Chef, that had celery and blue cheese. What is more perfect with buffalo chicken than blue cheese and celery? Then, we totally cheated and bought a nice jar of ranch dressing and mixed in some chunky blue cheese crumbles for the sauce. And to finish everything off, Matt made outrageous potato rolls for the buns. It was, by every definition, the perfect chicken sandwich. Right size, right proportions, right flavor – right on.

I’ll post our thickened buffalo sauce recipe below, as well as Matt’s potato rolls. There’s a lot of components to this sandwich, but you can improvise on pretty much all of it if you want. I’d highly recommend keeping the fried chicken thigh the same, though. I can’t imagine how to improve it.

The Perfect Buffalo Sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons Frank’s hot sauce
6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium saucepan over low to medium heat until well combined and heated through. To thicken, like we did for our sandwiches, take two tablespoons of unsalted softened butter in a small dish and add about two tablespoons of flour to form into a paste (an uncooked roux). Throw this little ball of buttery flour into your buffalo sauce and whisk until fully incorporated and thickened. We dunked each crispy chicken patty into the buffalo sauce before assembling our sandwiches.

Potato Buns*
makes 8 sandwich-sized buns

1 russet potato (big enough to make 1/2 cup mashed potato), peeled and chopped
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp. honey or agave nectar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk, warmed
1 1/8 tsp. instant yeast
1/4 cup reserved potato water
2 1/2 – 3 cups bread flour
2 tbs salted butter, melted, for brushing the buns

Boil potato until tender. Drain cooking water, reserving 1/4 cup for use in the rolls. Finely mash the potato and measure out 1/2 cup. Let cool to nearly room temperature.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the mashed potato, butter, honey, salt and egg. Mix together on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Combine the yeast with the warm milk and reserved potato water, and pour into the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Gradually add the flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Switch to the dough hook attachment on knead on low speed for 5 minutes, adding more flour if necessary to achieve a soft dough that is slightly tacky but not sticky. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 60-90 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Turn the down out onto a lightly floured surface and punch it down. Separate into 8 equal pieces and shape into buns. Place the buns on the prepared baking sheet, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Brush each bun with melted butter. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise again until the rolls have grown into each other, about 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until golden. We started checking the buns for doneness around 12 minutes. Serve warm.

*recipe adapted from Annies-Eats where we made bigger rolls, left out the sugar and brushed with butter instead of dusting with flour to make extra soft buns.

Coffee Can Bread

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Alisa

I love this bread. It’s definitely a bread meant for soup, butter, honey, a fried egg on top – something it can soak up. It’s dense, smells like gingerbread and it bakes in an old coffee can. How much more nostalgic or delightful can this get? We first made this recipe to accompany homemade clam chowder. Both recipes came out of arguably the best issue of Bon Appetit in years – the November 2012 issue. That issue had several recipes we’ve made countless times, AND an interview with Nick Offerman, a.k.a Ron Swanson. Best issue ever.

This is called Boston Brown Bread. It’s a classic recipe in New England and is typically made to go with clam chowder. I love that it makes two loaves. I can freeze one right out of the oven, or give it away. I think this time, it will travel with us this weekend to go see our friends, Matt and Anna in Dallas, who JUST found out they are having a baby GIRL in January. We are so excited to go spend some time with our culinary soul mates and best friends.

So, call your nearest neighbor who you might suspect keeps everything and ask if they have any old coffee cans you can use. I did exactly that with my friend, Ann, and she delivered. 🙂 One more thing that makes me happy when I make this bread – I think of Ann!

Have a wonderful weekend and bake something memorable!

Coffee Can Bread
makes two loaves

A few tablespoons of butter
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rye flour (this is the important one to not substitute – I think you could sub AP flour for the wheat and it would be just fine, but the rye imparts an important flavor to the bread)
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

2 – empty, clean coffee cans, 11-13 ounces

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut two 6″ squares of foil. Coat insides of the cans and one side of each piece of foil with butter. Stir milk and brown sugar and salt in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is just warmed (don’t boil). Whisk whole wheat flour and the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add milk mixture, whisking until smooth. Divide batter between cans and smooth tops. (note! if the cans still have a lip rim, simply take your can opener to the top and it will cut that lip right off).

Cover cans with foil, butter side down. Secure foil with kitchen twine. Place cans foil side up in a deep roasting pan or heavy, shallow pot. Pour very hot water into pan to come about 2-3″ up the side of the cans.

Bake until a skewer inserted through the foil into the center of each loaf comes out clean, about 1.5 hours. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edges of the cans. invert to release loaves onto a cooling rack. Let cool for 20 minutes before slicing. Serve with soft, salted butter and rejoice.

This is great salted butter. We buy unsalted for baking, but for eating, salted is the way to go!

Soft-Scrambled Eggs

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Alisa

Everyone wants to be known for something. We all strive to be important in some way and to matter to more than just ourselves. Some of us get little snippets of fame from the jobs we do or the opinions we have or maybe from how cute our red-headed children happen to be. Most of this attention is fleeting – it can last a day, an online minute or maybe as much as a year before the new wears off. A good friend once put it so well, regarding our need for others’ acceptance: “You’re only as good as your last performance.” This is a shockingly true statement that I would venture most of us, at one time or another in our lives, have felt.

Over the last year, I’ve worked through the book, The Divine Conspiracy. It has flipped my world upside down. Or maybe, finally, right-side up. I’d recommend it to anyone searching for something they can’t quite put their finger on. One of the main points early on in the book is that we have this need to matter and to be unique and special because we were specifically designed to be that way. We were designed by an infinitely unique and powerful creator who made us to be just like Him. So, it’s not bad to strive to be noticed. It’s just futile to strive for the approval of our peers – of anyone but the One who created us to be His unique treasures in the first place. And as we all know, most of our days are spent in search of approval, recognition or acceptance from people online. People we never see and from a strange sea of online crowds who are simply going about their day trying to be noticed, too. It’s futile. At times, I want to unplug from it all and just be important to my family and my very small circle of friends with whom I physically see on a regular basis. It would be so much simpler to be special and to matter to just 20 people instead of trying to impress 200.

How on earth is this post going to be about scrambled eggs?! Well, through my first year as a new mother, I really picked up the baton of cooking for my family. I have embraced it with the foreknowledge that the recipes I cook now will be the stories and the comfort food Olive talks about when she’s in college, missing home cooked meals. This is how I have come to matter (in my eyes) to my world. I cook. I provide food for Matt and Olive and occasionally friends and when I am lucky, family as well. I usually cook new things, new recipes, Pinterest inspirations, but there are a few dishes that I can make whether I’m sleepy or not, paying attention to measurements or holding a kid on my hip. Soft scrambled eggs is one of these recipes. They are actually more of a skill than you might think. But with a little extra effort and attention, these eggs will blow your mind. We’ve all had the over-cooked rubbery eggs on breakfast buffets the world over. These, by contrast, are super creamy, soft, flavorful (not sulfury) and are mind-blowing on top of a piece of buttered toast. It’s the ultimate comfort breakfast food. I have had people remark about these eggs like, “What on earth did you put in these?! Cheese? Cream?” Nope. Salt and Pepper! And a tablespoon of butter. That’s it.

I’ll be really detailed in the recipe so that you, too, can learn to do these right. They just require a little more whisking and a little less heat than you’re probably used to. I hope they become part of your weekly recipe repertoire and I hope that you really enjoy at least one recipe you make on a regular basis. It could be chocolate chip cookies or banana pancakes or even a simple roasted chicken. But if you find something that you enjoy doing and you do it enough times to do it well, you will be an instant local-celebrity in the eyes of the people sitting around your table. And that, for me, is becoming more than enough. It’s good to matter to at least a few people in this life and I can think of no more worthwhile group of people than family.

Soft Scrambled Eggs
4 eggs serves two people

4 large eggs
about a teaspoon of kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper
1 tbs of unsalted butter. If you use a butter substitute, I can’t help you

First, get your butter in a medium saucepan (like a good pan for soup) and turn on the heat to 3 or 4. Seems low, but this is one of the tricks. My stove’s lucky number is 4. Yours might be hotter so adjust as you see fit.

While the butter is melting, crack the eggs into a big measuring cup and season with the salt and pepper like this:

Then, whisk whisk whisk until they are forming bubbles. Like this:

By this point, your butter should nearly be on its way to getting frothy in the hot pan. Pour in your eggs and start whisking. I use a flat whisk (you can kinda see it in the pic) and it’s so excellent for getting into the edges of the pan. Whisk almost constantly, occasionally lifting the pan away from the heat and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan, fully incorporating the eggs as they cook so that you maintain a very small curd, like cottage cheese sized bits of egg. Continue doing this; on the heat, off the heat, on the heat, off the heat, until your eggs are nearly looking done, and more on the side of creamy, but no traces of whites remain. Your eggs will look underdone to you if you’ve never done this method before. But trust me, if the whites are all gone and you have a super creamy consistency, you are ready to eat. Get the eggs out of the pan immediately into a bowl and serve at once. This morning I put some leftover pesto, which became my own green eggs and ham and it was a breakfast fit for a king. Or a toddler. 🙂

The pesto WILL be a future blog post. It’s the best I’ve ever had and it came from an Italian grandmother so you know it has to be legit.

Chicken Fricassee, Deconstructed

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Alisa

Chicken Fricassee was one of the first meat dishes I made for Olive when she was a baby, just starting out on solids. (The first meat she had was homemade beef ragu – I kinda threw the rule books out when it came to feeding her and I haven’t regretted it a single day.) I made the dish from that month’s Martha Stewart Magazine and took a little bit of each component and blended it up with a little extra chicken stock. Olive consume it with a great fury. The flavors are so simple and so rich – it truly is a comfort food dish. And if you think it’s “fancy” because it has a French name, fear not – it’s basically a chicken pot pie without the pie. All those amazingly comforting flavors of chicken soup, thyme, carrots, peas, cream gravy, butter – they’re all there. You serve it over rice or pasta and revel in the comfort. It’s not difficult and it tastes like pure love.

I’ve made that Martha Stewart version several times, but for this recipe, I worked out of the Bonne Femme cookbook and decided to deconstruct it because Olive is able to eat each component just chopped up small, but not big enough to tackle chicken still on the bone. So I cooked the chicken, shredded it after it had cooled, and then assembled, garnishing with the pan gravy at the very end for an easy to eat version that everyone really loved.

Deconstructed Chicken Fricassee*
serves 4

2.5-3 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken parts (legs, thighs, breasts, whatever – I used the whole chicken in pieces)
salt and pepper
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 a white onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine (or more chicken broth, if you don’t have any)
1 bay leaf
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 x 2″ sticks
1/2 cup frozen pearl onions
2 tbs unsalted butter
2 tbs AP flour
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk
2 tbs chopped fresh tarragon
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Pat the chicken pieces dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet or stock pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides, 10-15 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and drain off all but a tbs of fat from the pan.

Add the onion to the pan and cook briefly, stirring, until fragrant. Add the chicken broth and wine, stirring to loosen any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan. Add the bay leaf and bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Then, scatter the carrots and pearl onions around the chicken; cover and simmer until the chicken is done (internal temp should register 170 on an instant read thermometer), about 15 minutes more.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken and vegetables to a large bowl; cover with foil to keep warm. Discard the bay leaf. Pour the pan juices into a measuring cup and set aside. Melt the butter in the pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour with a wire whisk to make a smooth paste. Cook and stir for one minute. Slowly add the pan juices back to the pan, stirring with a wire whisk until smooth. Cook the mixture until it boils and thickens, then continue to cook for one minute more. Whisk in enough milk to make a sauce of the desired consistency and bring to a simmer. Stir in the tarragon, parsley and lemon juice.

I then shredded up the chicken by hand, scattered an equal amount into each bowl over a heap of rice, arranged the vegetables on top of the chicken and then spooned my pan sauce over everything and cracked a lot of black pepper on top of that! There’s something magical about fresh black pepper and a rich chicken dish. It’s just perfect.

Enjoy!

*adapted from the Bonne Femme cookbook, which is perfect

Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Alisa

Happy Wednesday. I got to spend today baking in the kitchen with one of my favorite people in the world, Becky McGrew. We baked something truly decadent and crazy rich, but that will be a post for another day. 🙂 Today is more practical. At the beginning of the week, I have such gusto for cooking my meals. I go to the store on Sunday nights and buy my grocery list for meals to get me through at least Wednesday night (I don’t like to buy more than that, lest things go bad in the fridge, waiting to be cooked.) Thursday morning is usually winding down and trying to find a use for my many leftovers. It’s good to have a few recipes you can always rely on to be great and interesting in the middle of the week. Recipes that aren’t hard, aren’t boring and make you feel glad you didn’t just give up and go out to dinner.

This is a perfect mid-week meal because it gets you over the hump in the week and gives you amazing leftovers. Such a rich, sweet and savory glaze on this chicken pairs perfect with a few light sides like stir-fried snap peas or roasted brussels sprouts with fish sauce vinaigrette.

Honey Soy Glazed Chicken*

12 chicken legs (or other parts, but I’d definitely use chicken on the bone)
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons neutral oil (not olive)
2 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup honey
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Wash and dry and lightly salt and pepper the chicken and place in a 9X13-inch pan.

Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Toss chicken in the sauce and then arrange, skin-side down in the baking pan. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove pan, turn chicken over, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes. Remove pan and turn chicken over once more. Turn the oven down to 375ºF and bake for an additional 15 minutes. My chicken didn’t get as glazed as the original recipe appears, so I took matters into my own hands and placed the chicken on a serving platter and tented it with foil to keep warm and then put the sauce on the stove in a medium saucepan and let it reduce by half until really syrupy. BEST DECISION EVER. I then took a ladle of the syrup and added it to rice as an accompaniment. BEST DECISION EVER. I think you could add the reduced soy glaze to just about anything and it would be…the best decision ever. Totally delictable, dresses up any sad chicken, any sad side dish. Would be great tossed with roasted broccoli for a stir-fry. Geez, the possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

*recipe adapted from Alaxandra Cooks

The Family Meal

we eat together

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Chicken Fricassee, Deconstructed

Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken

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