Mega-Muffin

Hey Fam,

I had a student leave me a very sweet note on my keyboard this morning along with a muffin.  According to her note, the muffin was sugar free.  I realized that it was a total "Mom muffin."  It definitely had oatmeal, applesauce, dried fruit, and nuts in it.  It was really packing a punch.  This girl is the youngest of five, so I feel like her Mom tried to make a mega-muffin for breakfast.  I was happy she shared one with me.  It totally reminded me of those crazy "cookies" that Mom used to make with the sunflower seeds and what not.

Moral of the story, does anyone have a great recipe that they use for things like this?  Any kind of super cookie or muffin type deal?

I haven't been cooking anything new lately - just trying to remember to eat.  Also I haven't had hot water in my house since December 7, so it's difficult to cook.  That should be getting fixed today (though admittedly they've been saying that for awhile).

Hope all is well!
Molly

Sauerkraut!

Happy New Year!
We rang in the new year with, what else? sausage and sauerkraut served with mashed potatoes, followed by peppermint stick ice cream served with flourless chocolate cake.  I had 3 pounds of sauerkraut left, but we invited Dusan and Irena over for dinner, so I changed the proportions, using a full recipe's worth of meat (2 pounds) and rice and a half-recipe worth of sauerkraut (3 pounds).  Honestly, I think it could have used more sauerkraut, but whatever.  It was good, good, good!  Dusan and Irena are great friends to invite for this dish, because they actually really like sauerkraut.  We still had plenty left over, and if I can make it last past tomorrow night, I'm going to freeze it just so that I can enjoy coming home to it some time later this month.

Our version of sausage and sauerkraut is one variation of a dish that is traditional throughout the region.    In Serbia the variation is called sarma, and it's sausage, seasonings, and rice wrapped in fermented cabbage leaves.  (Irena and Dusan approvingly said that my sausage and sauerkraut was really a lot like sarma.)  Aleks and his father have fond memories of Grandma Stanic's sarma.  I had several heads of CSA cabbage sitting in the bottom of my fridge waiting to be turned into sauerkraut, so I decided to try fermenting the cabbage heads whole.  I just cored the cabbages, added a few heads of garlic, then poured some brine (3.5% kosher salt) over top.  I also added some yogurt whey to spike the mixture with the good stuff.  This method has the distinct advantage of being much quicker than shredding and pounding the cabbage.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm a little worried that I messed things up by adding the brine while it was hot, instead of waiting for it to cool.  I know that's traditional for pickling things, but I'm worried I "cooked" the cabbage a bit.  Hopefully it didn't kill all the good bacteria in the cabbages.  At least I had the forethought to wait until the brine cooled before adding my yogurt whey.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

How did everyone else's sauerkraut turn out?  Was it good for New Years?

-Maggie

Tarragon Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Tarragon Vinegar

I have been really enjoying this lately on all of my salads but especially on breakfast or brunch salads. 

This first step is to make tarragon vinegar.  And the first step for that is to grow some tarragon.  Make sure it is French tarragon, not Russian, according to my best sources.  Cut a sprig of tarragon and put it in a jar or bottle of vinegar.  I tried both red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar this year.  So far, I think I like the red wine vinegar best.  For interest, add a clove of garlic and/or a red pepper to the mix.  Let stand until the flavor of the herb is extracted by the  vinegar (maybe 2 weeks, or so), then use like vinegar to make vinaigrette.

For the dressing, I mix tarragon vinegar and olive oil about 50:50 (just by eye), add salt, ground pepper, about 1/4 tsp ground mustard, and about 1/4 tsp garlic salt.  Sometimes I do this in a small serving pitcher and stir up with a fork but it works very well in a jelly jar or other seal-able jar which can be shaken.  That's it; it's great.

If you have a crop of tarragon and some small fancy bottles, a bottle of tarragon vinegar makes a nice present and probably has more visual appeal than my canning jars.

Christmas eating

Who-boy, have we been eating well and plenty lately!  We decided to have a big Christmas Eve dinner this year and then take things easy for Christmas dinner itself.  We invited our friends Irena and Dusan and their two kids, plus Irena's sister over for Christmas Eve dinner.  I wanted to "go all out" and so we planned a menu of

-Arugula and roasted red pepper salad with red onion and a red wine vinegar dressing.  Aleks roasted the peppers on the grill. (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chopped-Arugula-Salad-230965)

- Lamb loin chops with a shallot, garlic, bread crumbs and balsamic vinegar crust held on with mustard and then grilled to perfection! (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rack-of-Lamb-with-Caramelized-Shallot-and-Thyme-Crust-13454 - adapted for our lamb chops)

-Lasagna bolognese - (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lasagne-Bolognese-with-Spinach-351166)  the best lasagna I've ever had.  A bolognese sauce of sauted carrots, onions, and celery with ground beef, cooked down with white wine and milk, a spinach ricotta filling, and homemade pasta.  I subbed in blended cottage cheese for about 1/4-1/3 of the ricotta.

Mila and Will worked together to make the pasta

The extra dough was made into fettuccine.









-Roasted carrots and fennel - one of my favorite side dishes.  A lovely blending of flavors and it takes only about 5 minutes of pret. (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Fennel-and-Baby-Carrots-231805)

- Cranberry eggnog cheesecake with gingersnap crust for dessert.

Oh my goodness - it was good.

Christmas Day breakfast was sausage gravy and biscuits plus coffee and mimosas.

Christmas Day dinner was leftovers from the night before.  Another delicious meal, but we got to take it easy all afternoon.  Perfect!

Tonight we made beef wellingtons, which we had originally planned for Christmas dinner.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-Wellingtons-with-Gorgonzola-14632

We didn't spring for the filet mignon, but got some NY strip instead.  Sauted a shallot with some garlic, added some sherry and mushrooms and cooked until it was time for Suzie's bath.  I seared the beef, then wrapped it in puff pastry with the mushrooms and some gorgonzola.  Seriously 10 min of work, but oh my god, was it good!  I chopped my mushrooms up into tiny pieces, since I don't like mushrooms, and it worked out great - I still got to enjoy the flavor without having that feeling of eating mushrooms.  We served it with a salad and fresh bread - gratuitous perhaps, but it was fresh homemade bread... Leftover pecan pie for dessert.

Molly heads back to Tucson tomorrow and from there on to PA and it's time for us to get back to normal eating.  I'm looking forward to 10 bean soup made with turkey broth from Thanksgiving at some point in the next few days, and sausage and sauerkraut for New Year's.  We're heading up to LA with Irena and Dusan + kids and meeting up with Brandon Kelly (who married us) and his new wife Alyssa for what I'm sure will be another delicious, but likely simpler and lighter, meal.  I'm planning on taking fresh bread, since as far as I can tell any meal that involves fresh homemade bread is a good one.

We feel incredibly lucky to have such beautiful food and wonderful people with whom we get to share it.

-Maggie

Christmas Breakfast

December 24, 2012

Sunflower Sprouts

I know we're a day early but we're planning to be on the road tomorrow morning and breakfast this morning just kind of morphed into a pretty fancy meal.  I was picking our first batch of (sort of) successful sunflower sprouts and Jo decided to make sweet potato fries.  We were thinking of poached eggs and at the same time were trying to empty perishables out of the 'fridge.  A recent convert to poached eggs, Jo has been experimenting with poached eggs on X, also usually termed "X eggs Benedict" (tho' we generally don't use Hollandaise sauce).  She decided to try poached egg on spinach and feta, which Mom chose also.  She also offered another recent invention, "College Student Eggs Bene", essentially an inverted tuna melt (cheese on the bottom) covered in Sriracha hot sauce and topped with a poached egg, which I went for.

Radish Sprouts Coming Along

Meanwhile, the morning was cold , 24 degrees, with a hard frost.  I went out to the garden and picked a double handful of frost covered baby beet greens then assembled a salad of a little bit of left over leaf lettuce, the remainder of the spinach, baby beet greens, sunflower sprouts, sliced white mushrooms, and half a can of black olives left in the 'fridge, topped with some new radish sprouts which are just coming along.  Served it with the new fave, tarragon vinaigrette.   So, Christmas Eve Day with a breakfast salad including three fresh picked home grown ingredients.

Slava dinner

Happy Winter Solstice!  Our Slava (Serbian patron saint day.) was officially Wednesday (the Stanics lucked out and got St. Nicolas, Dec 19th on the Serbian calendar), but we're not having our party until tomorrow (Sat).  We go a bit all-out for Slava, aka, Aleks refuses to say "no" to anything, in the Serbian spirit of overfeeding anyone who comes to the house all day long.  It's really the one party that we actually host, instead of having as a potluck, each year.

The current menu includes:

Beef round tip roast - approximately 1 lb/person - and there will be 20 people here, 6 of them children
Caramelized onion, butternut squash, and goat cheese tarts
Three cheese scalloped potatoes
Bulgur with apricots and other dried fruit, and probably nuts
Cranberry apple sauce
Coley Ward's kale salad - the one with all the ginger that he brought to Thanksgiving last year
Pecan pies

Mmm, mmm.  Wish us luck getting it all cooked tomorrow!

-Maggie

Sticky Buns

I'll be honest, these aren't the sticky buns that Mom always made. This is a recipe that Maggie sent me a few years ago, and I've been making them ever since. They always turn out pretty incredibly in my humble opinion. I love the lemon zest in the buns! You can't skip that. Enjoy!

Sticky Buns

6 1/2 Tbsp (3.25 oz) granulated sugar
1 tsp (.25 oz) salt
5 1/2 Tbsp (2.75 oz) shortening or unsalted butter or margarine (I use butter)
1 large (1.65 oz) egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp (.1 oz) grated zest of 1 lemon 
3 1/2 c (16 oz) unbleached bread or all-purpose flour
2 tsp (.22 oz) instant yeast
1 1/8 c to 1 1/4 c (9 to 10 oz) whole milk or buttermilk OR 3 Tbsp (1oz) powdered milk and 1 cup (8 oz) water
1/2 c (4 oz) cinnamon sugar (6 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar plus 1 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon)
 
Caramel Glaze for Sticky Buns
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb unsalted butter
1/2 c corn syrup
1 tsp lemon, orange, or vanilla extract (I always use vanilla)

For Sticky Buns

Cream the butter, salt, and sugar.   Mix in egg and lemon zest.  Beat in flour, yeast, and milk and beat or knead until dough is tacky, but not sticky, has an internal temp of 77-81 degrees, and passes the windowpane test (hold a small piece of dough up, and gently stretch it.  It should become very thin and translucent without breaking.)  Let dough rise in an oiled bowl, covered with an oiled piece of plastic wrap until it doubles in size - approximately 2 hours.  Punch dough down, role into a rectangle 12 X 14 inches sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll up and slice.  

For glaze

Beat together all ingredients until light and fluffy. Spread in the bottom of a 9X13 inch pan.  

Assembly 
Place cinnamon roles on top of glaze, and cover with oiled plastic wrap.  Let rise at room temp for 75-90 minutes (or let rise, then place in refrigerator overnight.  Let sit out for an hour before baking.)  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack.

Happy baking,

Molly