Heavenly

If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.
– Robert Browning

Today, I pulled all of these ripe tomatoes from our tomato plants:

(There’s a sixth one hiding under there somewhere.)  What to do with my bounty?  David, despite being the primary caretaker of the tomatoes, does not like them (except in ketchup and tomato sauce), so the tomato-eating duties fall to me.  What a shame.

I decided to make what is probably my all-time favorite food, one that takes me back to my time in Spain in high school and college, and one that could almost not be any easier: pa amb tomàquet (in Catalan) or pan con tomate (in Spanish) or tomato bread (in English – duh).

Here’s all you need: a baguette or peasant bread, some tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper.  That’s it.

Here’s how you do it:

Slice the baguette in half lengthwise (or slice the peasant bread in thick slices). (P.S. This baguette was still warm from Panera’s oven when I cut into it this afternoon.  Don’t be jealous.)

Slice a tomato in half (not lengthwise – you want the top to be one half and the bottom to be the other half) like this:

Then take one half of the tomato and rub it – firmly – over one side of the cut baguette.  Repeat with other tomato half and other baguette half.  Don’t be afraid to really squeeze the tomato – you want all of its insides on your bread.  Depending on how juicy your tomatoes are, you may need more than one for this step.

Then, if you want (and I did, since this tomato was so fresh), slice up the mutilated tomato and eat it!

Next, drizzle some olive oil over each side of the bread – for this size slices, I used about a teaspoon per slice.

Finally, sprinkle some salt (and pepper if you like – fresh ground is best, but powdered will do) on each slice.

If you try this, an optional step is to toast the bread (or put it under the broiler for a few minutes until it’s crusty) and then rub raw garlic over it before the tomato step.  I like it that way as well, but I’m really more of a purist when it comes to this.  Also, be careful – a little bit of raw garlic on the toasted bread goes a loooong way.

Then eat.  I will not be responsible for any swooning, drooling, fainting, etc, that may occur upon your first taste of this little bit of heaven.  I added some thick slices of Swiss cheese on the side (not really what we would have in Spain, but still a great addition), and a little bit of Sangria because, why not?

Cheater

The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.
– from Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

I’m cheating a little again, because it’s 9:30, and I’m in the middle of making dinner, and I’m still exhausted from yesterday.

I’m making chicken and dumplings for the first time ever, which is taking longer than I expected, and I’m nervous David won’t like it.  He’s a good sport and tries anything I make, but I can always tell when he doesn’t like something (and he always answers truthfully if I ask him).  And although I know it’s not personal, it makes me feel bad when he doesn’t like it, because I only want to take care of him, and food is one way I do that.  I’m working on this – I know he won’t starve if he doesn’t eat what I make, and we don’t always have to like the same things, and it’s not a reflection on my skills as a cook.  I’m a work in progress.

Anyway, back to the cheating.  Please enjoy the following pictures of me and some of my favorite people:

Me and Karen last summer – she’s thinner now and I’m heavier!

Me and Aimee somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 years ago at a Sister Hazel show.  This is still one of my favorite pictures of us.

Me and Nate in Atlantic City, before our dad’s band played at House of Blues (he’s wearing orange because it’s my dad’s favorite color).

This was the Princess’s third birthday.  Now that I look at it again, they both looking like they might be squirming to get away from me, but I promise, they are actually laughing!

Me and David in September at my friend’s wedding on Long Island (I was a bridesmaid).

I saved this in the middle while we ate dinner – success!  David liked it quite a bit, and though I thought the seasoning needs some work, it’s definitely a keeper (but probably more for fall and winter)!

Sunday, SUNday, SUNDAY

Sunday is a golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Only 11 days to go – after today – til the end of NaBloPoMo.  I won’t lie, this is hard work.  But it’s been nice getting back into the habit of writing again.

Today was a good day.  My mom was here overnight with her Little Sister.  They spent the day in D.C. yesterday and met us for dinner tlast night.  This morning we all went to breakfast, and then they headed back into the District to go to the aquarium.  I went to the pool and swam laps and then laid out for a while. On the way to the pool, I saw a little boy, no more than four, running crazily down the sidewalk laughing, and he was wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.  Made me smile.

After, I came home and watched the end of the British Open with David – what a heartbreaker for Tom Watson.  Then the Tigers game was on, so we watched that, though I fell asleep for a bit towards the end.  The Tigers fell to the Evil Empire while I napped.  Boo.  By the time I woke up, it was nearly time for the Braves game, but I had to go grocery shopping, so David paused the game for me (ahh, the magic of TiVo).  Worked out well for him, since he was in the middle of a golf game on Wii.

I went to the store and stocked up on lots of goodies.  I’m really trying to get myself back under control food-wise, so I bought plenty of fruits and veggies and stuff to make and freeze for lunches during the week.  When I got home, I started cooking three meals at once – two for lunches, and our dinner for tonight.  It was a little crazy there for a while, but I managed to get everything done, and the last dish is in the oven as we speak.  It makes me feel good to know that I’ve made it possible for me to be successful this week by planning ahead and taking the time to get things prepared.  I’ve been wildly off program as far as Weight Watchers in concerned over the last year (which may be the subject of its own post here soon), so I’m trying to slowly get myself back into the right mindset.

We had dinner – pork chops a la Emeril, one of our favorites – and a salad with fresh cucumber from our balcony garden.  Yum.  Now we’re relaxing, finishing up Season 3 of the Sopranos (we broke down and bought the complete season a few weeks ago at CostCo – we had a coupon for $50 off!).  All in all, a nice end to a nice, relaxing weekend.

Tuna Noodle Memories

In the childhood memories of every good cook, there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot, and a mom.
– Barbara Costikyan

When I came home from work today, the foyer of my building smelled like tuna casserole, which reminded me of a funny story.

When Nate and I were kids — probably 8 and 10 or so — we asked our parents if we could make dinner for them.  They agreed, and we made them promise not to come in the kitchen while we cooked.  We decided on tuna noodle casserole, which our mom had made us plenty of times before.

So we set about crafting our casserole: egg noodles, tuna (of course), peas (I think), something to make it creamy (cream of mushroom soup, maybe?), and — just for good measure — a dollop of peanut butter.  I kid you not.

We put the whole concoction in the oven to bake and proudly served it up to our parents a little while later.  They dug in, and all of a sudden: Crunch.  Crunch.  Crunch.

We didn’t know we were supposed to cook the noodles first.

To my parents’ credit, they both cleaned their plates, and we laugh about it to this day.

Now Make This!

I was 32 when I started cooking.  Up until then, I just ate.
– Julia Child

I made these pork chops Sunday night for dinner, because it’s kind of an involved recipe and I had the time.  It turns out, David’s not a big fan of mustard – which I should have guessed because the only condiments I’ve ever seen him eat are ketchup and barbeque sauce – so I’ve been having leftovers for lunch every day this week.  I don’t mind, though; the more I eat them, the more I love them.  Maybe I should send David out of town for the weekend so I can make them again!

I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (which I LOVE), who got it from Cook’s Illustrated – the original SK post is here.  My comments appear in brackets.

Crunchy Baked Pork Chops
Cook’s Illustrated

Serves 4

Cook’s Illustrated notes: This recipe was developed using natural pork, but enhanced pork (injected with a salt solution) will work as well. If using enhanced pork, eliminate the brining in step 1. The bread crumb mixture can be prepared through step 2 up to 3 days in advance. The breaded chops can be frozen for up to 1 week. They don’t need to be thawed before baking; simply increase the cooking time in step 5 to 35 to 40 minutes.

Ingredients

• Table salt

• 4 boneless center-cut pork chops, 6 to 8 ounces each, 3/4 to 1 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat [I used 5, 3/4-inch chops]

• 4 slices hearty white sandwich bread, torn into 1-inch pieces [I used 5 slices of regular old honey wheat store-brand sandwich bread and had just enough to cover the 5 chops]

• 1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons) [I couldn't find shallot in the store Sunday, so I used regular yellow onion]

• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• Ground black pepper

• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese [Deb from SK would die, but I used the Kraft stuff]

• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves [I used dried, whatever the conversion on the bottle said]

• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves [ditto]

• 1/4 cup plus 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

• 3 large egg whites

• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard [I had just enough of this for 5 chops]

• Lemon wedges [I did not use lemon at all]

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Dissolve 1/4 cup salt in 1 quart water in medium container or gallon-sized zipper-lock bag. Submerge chops, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes. Rinse chops under cold water and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

2. Meanwhile, pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground, about eight 1-second pulses (you should have about 3 1/2 cups crumbs). Transfer crumbs to rimmed baking sheet and add shallot, garlic, oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss until crumbs are evenly coated with oil. Bake until deep golden brown and dry, about 15 minutes, stirring twice during baking time. [For me, 15 minutes was just a tiny bit too long, considering they get baked again on the chops - I'd have settled for 12 minutes] (Increase oven temp to 425.) Cool to room temperature. Toss crumbs with Parmesan, thyme, and parsley.

3. Place 1/4 cup flour in pie plate. In second pie plate, whisk egg whites and mustard until combined; add remaining 6 tablespoons flour and whisk until almost smooth, with pea-sized lumps remaining. [This was very thick for me; in the picture of this step on SK, it appears her mixture was a little thinner, so maybe I didn't measure the flour carefully.  In any event, I had to scrape some off the chops before breading them.]

4. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Spray wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and place in rimmed baking sheet. Season chops with pepper. Dredge 1 pork chop in flour; shake off excess. Using tongs, coat with egg mixture; let excess drip off. Coat all sides of chop with bread crumb mixture, pressing gently so that thick layer of crumbs adheres to chop. Transfer breaded chop to wire rack. Repeat with remaining 3 chops.

5. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chops registers 150 degrees, 17 to 25 minutes. Let rest on rack 5 minutes before serving with lemon wedges. [Mine took approximately 20 minutes]

This was so good!  I hope you try it!

Everyone Needs Goals

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.  I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them.
– Louisa May Alcott

Karen and I have nothing on this lady. 

Don’t even talk to Jean Scardina about all the Christmas shopping and baking you have to do. She will humble you with the hand-knitted dog sweaters she made for her daughter’s rat terriers, gingerbread houses and marzipan figurines of Santa’s workshop she makes as decorations — oh, and the 6,000 cookies she bakes as gifts.

Wow.  What else can you say?

Cookies, Again

I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.
– Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

As promised, here’s the recipe for my favorite of the cookies Karen and I made last weekend:

Peppermint Candy Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1 c. butter (no substitutes), softened

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. crushed candy canes or other peppermint candies

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 c. corn starch

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Mix butter, sugar, crushed candy, and vanilla thoroughly using an electric mixer.  Gradually blend in flour and corn starch.

Form dough into 1-inch balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Gently press down on each cookie to flatten using fingers or bottom of a glass dipped in sugar (to prevent sticking).

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bottoms begin to brown.  Cool on pan for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.  Ice if desired (see below).

Icing (this is the recipe we used, not the one that came with the cookie recipe – halve this and you’ll still have more than enough)

1 c. powdered sugar

3/4 tbsp. butter, very soft

1 tsp. vanilla

2-4 tbsp. milk, depending on consistency (if too thin, add more sugar; if too thick, add more milk)

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.  Drizzle cookies with frosting and top with crushed peppermint candy, if desired (When I make these again, I’m going to skip the frosting step – it’s good, but I think they’d be perfect plain).

We had our work Christmas party today.  There was a bake-off as part of the festivities, so I attempted the Death by Caramel bars that I was considering as part of cookie weekend.  I couldn’t find dulce de leche in the grocery store, and I didn’t have time to go to the Latin grocery store, so I attempted to make my own by melting caramels with cream.

The recipe calls for the dulce de leche to be dolloped on top of the batter in the pan and then swirled into it to create pockets of caramel, which, in theory sounds heavenly.  The batter was pretty thick, though, and I’m not sure much of anything could have been swirled into it, and if it could be, it wasn’t this stuff I cooked up.  I ended up with a layer of caramel sauce on the top that just cooked with the rest of the batter and didn’t come out gooey at all.

The result was just ok, and I’m disappointed I wasted all of what it cost to make it on something that wasn’t anything special.  I’m willing to try it again if I can find the dulce de leche, but I’ve still got nearly the entire pan of this batch left (it should go without saying that it didn’t win the bake-off).  Boo.

Cookie Extravaganza

I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.
– James Beard

So this:

Turned into all of this:

Six batches of cookies and two batches of fudge, and we did it all in 12 hours.  I’m still exhausted, but it was a great time!

Oh, Karen’s cookies were Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies, Kissy Cookies (the peanut butter ones with the Hershey Kisses on top), and Peppermint Shortbread – I don’t know if that’s the official name of it, but it’s my favorite cookie of the six we made, and I’ll share the recipe if anyone’s interested.

Cookie Madness

If this was adulthood, the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that she could now eat dessert without eating her vegetables.
– from Kinflicks, by Lisa Alther

The great Christmas cookie weekend is upon us again.  Karen is coming next weekend and we are going to bake up a storm, and maybe even make some fudge and/or peppermint bark.  Last year, I had my cookie choices well in hand by this point, but not so this year.  The Kris Kringle cookies were a huge hit last year, so they will be making a return appearance, but beyond that, I’m still undecided.  So, I thought I’d let you know what’s on my radar and see what you all think I should make this year.

First, Death by Caramel bars.  I love caramel, and this sounds so good, but I’m afraid this might be too rich, plus, it’s not really so Christmasy.

Next, Caramelized Sugar Cookies.  These really appeal to me; I bet they’re chewy and buttery and yummy.

How about Chocolate Malted Cookies?  I love Whoppers, and I bet that’s what these taste like, only in cookie form.  Oooh, maybe I could crush up some Whoppers and add them to the batter!  Yum.

Maybe Lemon Sugar Cookies?  I like the idea of a little departure from traditional sugar cookies, and this would satisfy my need to use my cookie cutter collection.

Finally, what about Mint Chippers?  It’s really just a twist on chocolate chip cookies, I suppose, but the mint flavor makes it a little special for the holidays, don’t you think?

At best, I think I can make three kinds of cookies, since Karen will choose several as well, and we want to make fudge or peppermint bark (speaking of which, does anyone have a good recipe for bark?), so which two of those five possibilities do you think sound best?

Thanks for your input!

Wanna Bake a Cake?

“Your good friend has just taken a piece of cake out of the garbage and eaten it.  You will probably need this information when you check me into the Betty Crocker Clinic.”
– Miranda, Sex and the City

Do you like chocolate?  Of course you do.  Unless you’re Karen.  Or unAmerican.  So, do I have the cake for you!  Yes, its base is a boxed mix, but it’s doctored with other stuff that makes it so moist and delicious, you won’t have to admit it to anyone.  I never do.  And it’s called . . .

Too Much Chocolate Cake (from allrecipes.com)

• 1 18.25 oz. box of Devil’s Food Cake mix
• 1 5.9 oz. instant chocolate pudding mix (you cannot use the sugar-free for this – there’s not as much mix in them because, you know, no sugar)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use the mini ones)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.

2.  In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, and warm water (make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl).  Batter will be thick.  Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spoon batter into well-greased 12-cup Bundt pan and smooth out (don’t cheat on the size of the pan – this cake rises quite a bit).

4. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the top is spongy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5.  Cool cake thoroughly in pan before inverting onto serving plate (you can get away with not cooling it all the way; last time I only waited 30 minutes or so because it was getting late and I still needed to glaze it before going to bed).

The original recipe says to dust with powdered sugar.  I’m sure that’s fine, but I prefer . . .

Satiny Chocolate Glaze (also from allrecipes.com)

• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I suppose you could use whatever kind of chocolate you prefer for this part – next time I might try dark chocolate)
• 3 tablespoons butter (the most recent time I made this, I only had unsalted butter, so I added about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of coarse kosher salt, which made for the best salty-sweet taste)
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water, stir chocolate, butter, and corn syrup until smooth and shiny.

2. Stir in vanilla.

3. Drizzle warm glaze over the cake, letting it run down the sides.

Serves however many people you need it to, depending on the size of the slice, of course (I think I served about 16 or so)!

I took this to work this week, and it was gone in no time at all.

You are very welcome.