Cake, Batter, and Bowl

Roasted Yellow Pepper and Leek Soup

October 5, 2009

The first thing I always do when I’m planning a vacation is figure out where to eat. In fact, I would say our days tend be structured by what activities are around the restaurants we want to visit! I had more difficultly than usual planning our NYC trip because my mom is a bit of a picky eater and the city is just so large, but my mom was a great sport and we made our way successfully all around the city on the subway. I can’t fit all the yumminess of NYC in one post, so I’m just going to focus on the restaurants we visited in this post and feature all the sweet treats we sampled in the next one!

We spent our first night in the city dining at Craft. I was actually a bit nervous about visiting Craft because I am a huge Top Chef fan and didn’t want to be disappointed by Tom Colicchio’s flagship restaurant, but I shouldn’t have worried because both the food and unpretentious service were wonderful! I convinced my mom that we should start with the octopus appetizer, and I was completely tickled when she actually admitted she enjoyed it (it was the best octopus I’ve ever had!). Meals are served family style at Craft so while I had the braised short ribs (which were so tender that they were served with a spoon!) and my mom had the duck, we shared an arugula and lemon salad, gnocchi, zucchini, and a mix of oyster, baby shiitake, hen of the woods, and trompette royale mushrooms – yum! We just had an ice cream and sorbet sampler for dessert since we were so stuffed and I would return just for the amazing raspberry sorbet! The cute surprise at the end of the night was that the hostess handed us super moist zucchini muffins to enjoy for breakfast the next morning!

The next morning we were still stuffed from dinner, but we put on our game faces and took a long walk to make room for pizza! A visit to NYC would not be complete without sampling the best pizza the city has to offer, so when I came across Scott’s Pizza Tours, I immediately signed us up. Scott is a super enthusiastic pizza historian. We rode a huge yellow school bus through Manhattan and Brooklyn and visited four pizzerias, where we learned about the history of pizza and ovens, and got to sample a slice of pie at each stop. Our favorite place was Luzzo’s, but don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself! I would highly, highly recommend this tour for any pizza loving foodie!

Over the last couple of days we relaxed in Central park, spent a few hours wandering through the MoMA, visited Times Square and hummed along at the fun Broadway muscial Mama Mia, chowed down on dirty water hot dogs, and enjoyed a feast of lobster egg rolls, tuna tartare spring rolls, twice cooked long beans, sweet and crispy jumbo shrimp, and roast duck and noodles at Buddakan. We sure packed a lot into a few short days! I was definitely in food blogger mode when I saw Warhol’s famous Campbell’s soup series in the MoMA and immediately knew it would be the perfect picture for a blog post about soup, which brings me to today’s recipe.

I was craving a nice light and healthy veggie soup when I returned home and that decided roasted yellow peppers should be the star. This is a very light soup because I didn’t use any cream or milk, but it’s still very smooth because I thickened it by adding some butternut squash!

Roasted Yellow Pepper and Leek Soup
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
4 yellow peppers, seeded and cut into fourths
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks (white and light green parts only), chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 12-ounce package frozen cooked butternut squash, thawed
4 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven broiler. Place peppers skin side up on a greased cookie sheet and broil for 15 to 20 minutes or until outsides are black and charred. Cool at room temperature for 10 minutes or until cool to touch. Remove blackened skins and roughly chop roasted peppers.

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large stockpot and sauté leeks and carrots until soft. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute. Add roasted peppers, butternut squash, chicken stock, and salt, and use an immersion blender to puree until smooth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Garnish each bowl with parmesan cheese. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 176 calories, 5.8g fat, 7.1g fiber, 5.9g protein per serving
Cost: $1.93 per serving

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Pie

October 1, 2009

I can’t believe almost a week has gone by since my last post! I just got back from an extended weekend trip to NYC with my mom and we were enjoying the city so much that I didn’t quite get around to posting this recipe while we were there. We’ve been meaning to take this trip for a few years now and had an amazing time. I can’t wait to go through my pictures and post a little recap of all the foodie spots we visited!

I’ve been dreaming about cookie dough a lot lately and I think the only thing better than eating cookie dough straight out of the bowl is enjoying it in a dessert! This is a really easy no bake recipe that comes together in no time, but is just incredible with the perfect ratio of cookie dough to ice cream. This is one of my go to dessert recipes when we have people over because it’s a huge crowd pleaser. I love the pie with mint chocolate chip ice cream (which I’m sort of sad is now always natural and no longer the bright green color I enjoyed during my childhood!), but feel free to substitute your favorite ice cream flavor.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Pie
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1 6-ounce Oreo pie crust
3 cups mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened
1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed

Directions:
To prepare the edible egg-free cookie dough, mix butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl until creamy; add milk and vanilla and mix until well blended. Gradually mix in flour and salt; stir in mini chocolate chips.

Spread edible chocolate chip cookie dough evenly in the bottom of the Oreo crust. Place heaping spoonfuls of ice cream on top of cookie dough. Lightly press and smooth top with back of spoon. Freeze pie 2 hours or until firm.

To serve, set pie out at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften and cut into 8 wedges. Garnish each piece with warmed hot fudge ice cream topping. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 376 calories, 13.7g fat, 2.1g fiber, 4.3g protein per serving
Cost: $0.69 per serving

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Roasted Butternut Squash, Prosciutto, and Sage Quiche

September 25, 2009

I secretly enjoy checking out wedding registries and seeing what makes couples tick. Are they more excited about the monogrammed towels and fine china or the obscure kitchen gadgets and fancy knife sets? I’m sure you can guess which category we fell into! I was recently browsing through my good friend Emily’s wedding registry to send her a shower gift. Emily is a great cook (her hummus is seriously the best I’ve ever had!), and while I know people want everything on their registries, I still had a great time carefully selecting the kitchen items I thought she would enjoy and use most often.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to her shower because it was being held in Chicago (but we are super excited to go to the wedding in November!), but browsing through her registry made me wonder what they were serving at the shower. That’s just how my mind is wired! I hope they were serving something like this quiche, which I think would be perfect for a fall brunch shower. It’s gourmet enough to serve to company because it’s stuffed with prosciutto, fresh sage, and roasted butternut squash – yum! I’ll definitely be making this again.

Roasted Butternut Squash, Prosciutto, and Sage Quiche
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 leek (white and light green parts only), chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 eggs
2 cups milk
4 slices chopped prosciutto (1/2 cup)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 10-inch pie crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place squash on a greased cookie sheet and drizzle evenly with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bake squash for 25-30 minutes at 400˚F or until tender. Lower oven heat to 350˚F.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and saute leeks for 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute one additional minute.

Beat eggs and milk in a large bowl until well mixed. Mix in butternut squash, leeks, prosciutto, cheese, sage, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Line a 10-inch pie pan with prepared pie crust; pour in quiche mixture. Bake at 350˚F for 45 to 60 minutes, or until set. Cool slightly and cut into 8 wedges. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 330 calories, 20.4g fat, 2.0g fiber, 14.1g protein per serving
Cost: $0.91 per serving

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Avocado Crab Cakes with Crushed Plantain Chips

September 20, 2009

Dear disappointing Boston restaurant,

My hubby and I can rarely resist ordering crab cakes when we eat out, and I was really looking forward to trying your twist on our favorite appetizer during our recent visit to your restaurant. So, you can imagine our disappointment when we couldn’t see or taste the crab in the 4 bites of our $15 appetizer. Perhaps you should rename this dish to something more appropriate, like tasteless fried breadcrumbs?

Although we won’t be frequenting your establishment again (the meal did not get any better as it progressed), I do have to thank you for inspiring me to make my own crab cakes at home for the first time. Crab cakes are something I’ve been hesitant to try putting together myself, because I was nervous about ruining the expensive lump crabmeat. But after our horrible experience at your restaurant, I realized that I couldn’t do any worse than your chef, so I went ahead and splurged on the one pound $15 tub of fresh lump crabmeat from Costco. I used avocado in place of mayo and crushed plantain chips instead of breadcrumbs, and served the cakes over black beans, mango, and red peppers – yum! They were just as good as any restaurant version I’ve had and I made 3 huge dinner-sized portions for the fraction of the price they would cost at a restaurant! So thank you for pushing me to step outside my comfort zone in the kitchen!

Sincerely,
A Boston food blogger

Avocado Crab Cakes with Crushed Plantain Chips
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 green onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound lump crabmeat
1/4 cup mashed avocado
1/2 cup crushed plantain chips
1 egg, beaten
1 lime
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 15.5-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 mango, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped

Directions:
Heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and sauté onions for 2 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute.

In medium bowl, mix together the lump crabmeat, onions, avocado, plantain chips, egg, juice of half the lime, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Shape mixture into 6 crab cakes.

Meanwhile, mix black beans, mango, red pepper, juice of the remaining half of the lime, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet. Add 3 crab cakes and cook until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and 3 crab cakes. Serve crab cakes over the black bean, mango, and red pepper mix. Makes 3 large servings.

Nutrition: 514 calories, 22.1g fat, 14.6g fiber, 24.4g protein per serving
Cost: $6.17 per serving

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Mini Sweet Potato Cheesecakes

September 16, 2009

My loaded sweet potato skins were featured on the Glamour Magazine Health and Fitness blog yesterday, how cool is that? Ever since I started my blog, I feel like I always have something to look forward to in my inbox, whether it’s an email update about a comment, a question from a reader, or a cool opportunity like this one! So thank you for making food blogging so much fun!

So, I promised to tell you what I did with the extra sweet potato flesh I had after making the sweet potato skins. I knew I wanted to make a dessert. My first thought was to make a sweet potato cheesecake since I had some leftover cream cheese in the fridge, and I really wanted to do little mini layered cheesecakes, because they are just so cute! So, I mixed ginger snap crumbs with the mashed sweet potatoes and topped them with a creamy cheesecake layer mixed with pumpkin pie spice and crunchy pecans. I baked them in muffin cups, since I still haven’t gotten my hands on real mini cheesecake pan. They turned out really well, but I need to stop talking about that pan and just order it!

Mini Sweet Potato Cheesecakes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Mix mashed sweet potatoes, crushed gingersnap cookies, and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Line two muffin pans with cupcake wrappers and evenly spoon sweet potato mixture into 16 cups. Bake at 350˚F for 25 to 30 minutes or until set. Push down sweet potato layer with a spoon and cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl until smooth. Evenly spoon cream cheese mixture over the cooled sweet potato layer and top with chopped pecans. Bake at 350˚F for 28 to 32 minutes or until cheesecake layer is set. Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes and then cool in the fridge for an hour, or until chilled. Carefully remove cupcake wrappers from each mini cheesecake. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 256 calories, 16.7g fat, 2.7g fiber, 4.6g protein per serving
Cost: $0.54 per serving

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Loaded Sweet Potato Skins

September 12, 2009

Football season is finally here! Ok, so I admit I actually only know this because I saw a game on while I was browsing through the tv channels on the elliptical at the gym. I’m not actually a huge football fan, and much to my brother’s horror, I’ve never tailgated at a college football game (I went to a small division three college where we sat on the grass to watch football games), but I can be convinced to watch a bit if it means I have the excuse to whip up some football season munchies!

I decided to make these loaded sweet potato skins last night to enjoy with our gin and tonics. I topped the crispy sweet potato skins with a black bean sauce, cheddar cheese, and turkey bacon. These were really tasty and I used the leftover mashed insides of the sweet potatoes for another treat that will be up in my next post!

Loaded Sweet Potato Skins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
4 sweet potatoes, scrubbed
6 pieces turkey bacon, sliced into small pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
Juice of half a lime
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Poke holes in the sweet potatoes and bake for an hour at 400˚F or until soft. Allow sweet potatoes to cool slightly and then cut them into quarters. Scoop out some of the insides of the sweet potatoes, leaving a 1/2-inch shell.

Meanwhile, place bacon in a medium skillet over medium high heat and cook 7 minutes or until crispy. Drain bacon on paper towels. To make the black bean sauce, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in the same skillet over medium heat and sauté onion for 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and sauté an additional minute. Place onion mixture, black beans, lime juice, cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Mix remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a small bowl and use a pastry brush to coat both sides of each potato skin with olive oil. Bake potato skins on a large greased cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 400˚F. Flip potato skins over and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until skins are crispy. Evenly top crispy potato skins with black bean sauce, shredded cheese, and turkey bacon. Bake 2 to 3 minutes at 400˚F or until cheese is melted. Makes 16 loaded sweet potato skins (8 servings).

Nutrition: 258 calories, 12.2g fat, 6.4g fiber, 10.6g protein per serving
Cost: $0.85 per serving

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BBQ Rice Balls Stuffed with Cheddar Cheese

September 8, 2009

I have a problem – I can’t stop stuffing things with cheese! I recently saw arancini (Italian rice balls) filled with cheese on Lisa is Cooking and Brown Eyed Baker, and immediately started drooling. Of course, I wanted to add my own little twist, so I drew inspiration from a yummy rice dish I had in New Orleans a few months ago that featured shredded pork and kicked up BBQ sauce.

I mixed brown rice with eggs, BBQ sauce, turkey bacon, and panko, and then used the mixture to encase little chunks of cheddar cheese. Then I carefully coated the rice balls with more panko so they would be crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside after I baked them. We both really enjoyed these little bites, and I managed to convince myself that they were healthy since I used brown rice and turkey bacon and baked them instead of frying them… Thanks to Lisa and Michelle for the inspiration!

BBQ Rice Balls Stuffed with Cheddar Cheese
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked brown rice
4 slices cooked turkey bacon, chopped
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
2 eggs
2 cups panko
3 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 20 small cubes

Directions:
Mix rice, turkey bacon, BBQ sauce, eggs, and 1 cup panko in a medium bowl.

Encase each of the cubes of cheese with the rice mixture, shape into balls, and roll in the remaining cup of panko. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Place sheet in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400˚F. Bake balls at 400˚F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 5 servings (of 4 balls each).

Nutrition: 389 calories, 11.2g fat, 3.2g fiber, 14.8g protein per serving
Cost: $0.75 per serving

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Cannoli Chips

September 4, 2009

Thanks so much to everyone for the bday wishes! We’re continuing the celebration this weekend by going out for dinner and on a little shopping spree! There’s something about the seasons changing that makes me want to buy a whole new wardrobe.

It feels like summer is almost over, but a few weeks ago during the hottest weekend of the year, my baby brother drove up to visit us after a business trip in NYC! It was his first time in Boston, so we went on a Duck Boat tour and checked out parts of the Freedom Trail, harbor, and Harvard Square. Two of the highlights were visiting the Harpoon Brewery (where they let you sample as many kinds of beer that you’d like on tap for free!) and indulging in a delicious Italian feast in the North End. After dinner we decided to have a throwdown and bought cannolis from both Mike’s Pastry and Modern Pastry, which have a bit of a rivalry. The ricotta filling is sweeter at Modern and the shells are more crispy because they fill them as you order them. But, the cannolis at Mike’s are double the size for the same price and are covered in more chocolate, which is always a good thing! In the end, I voted for Modern, Richard voted for Mike’s, and Apolinaras couldn’t pick a favorite, so it was a tie. The moral of the story is that you really can’t go wrong with either choice!

I was inspired by our cannoli battle to make these cute little cannoli chips! I decided to use pita chips as the base since they’re so crispy, and then topped them with sweetened ricotta cheese and mini chocolate chips. Not quite as good as the real thing, of course, but a very satisfying treat that comes together quickly and is perfect for using up that last bit of ricotta at the bottom of the tub! I suggest making the entire batch of ricotta at once and then topping just the chips you’re going to eat that day so they don’t get soggy.

Cannoli Chips
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
24 pita chips
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Spread 1 tablespoon of ricotta mixture onto each pita chip and sprinkle mini chocolate chips evenly on top. Makes 24 cannoli chips (4 servings).

Nutrition: 309 calories, 14.3g fat, 1.1g fiber, 13.5g protein per serving
Cost: $0.73 per serving

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