MIA

I am in New York, eating all sorts of foods I plan on recreating when I get back to an actual kitchen.  Like CRONUTS dear god in heaven.  I miss writing.  I miss cooking.  Kitchen update: farm sink INSTALLED and countertops DOWN.  It's getting there, people!  Be back sooooon...

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Buffalo Deviled Eggs

Buffalo sauce.  Will you marry me?  I promise to love you forever and I'll always be true, unless brown sugar bacon tempts me and in that case, LATER.  

My friends and I share a love of buffalo anything.  So when I came across a recipe for deviled eggs, I decided to make them for an afternoon pool party.  We were ALL pleased.  They took no time to assemble, and I even got all fancy and piped the yolk mixture into the egg whites using a plain old freezer bag with the end snipped.  You've got to get a little fancy when you're proposing to a sauce, after all.  Recipe here. 

Baked Spaghetti Squash with Summer Vegetables

I am iPhone blogging.  Is that ghetto or desperate or totally awesome?  I can't decide.  All I know is, I MISS MY KITCHEN!!  *Sigh*  Well, as we all exercise patience in awaiting the Royal Baby's name (yup, capital B) (also I think it should be Simba) I suppose I can keep waiting nicely too.  In the meantime, make this easy side dish:

Bake a spaghetti squash for roughly 30 minutes at 350.  Slice in half and remove seeds.  Shred the "spaghetti" with a fork and place in bowl.  Set aside.  Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add diced summer squash (yellow and green varieties) and chopped tomatoes.  Sauté for 5 minutes.  Add some frozen corn and cook for another minute or so.  Toss in spaghetti squash and season with salt and pepper.  Place everything in a greased baking pan and top with queso fresco (or feta) and bake for 20 minutes at 350.  Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and red pepper flakes (optional).  YUM.  Maybe they should name the baby Yum?

Speedy Strawberry Ice Cream

It's hot.  It's hot everywhere.  The country is on fire.  The mosquitos are having a field day.  I moved away from the Midwest 10 years ago and haven't had a mosquito bite until this summer.  What, is, going, ON Southern California?!?  I wake up every morning with bites in the most god forsaken places.  Like, the tip of my toe????  Or this morning... in between two fingers.  Thanks for that mosquito.  It's hot.  And no one wants to cook.  So when a friend sent me this recipe for a quick and easy strawberry ice cream, I knew it was something I had to share with you people.  My method doesn't even require an ice cream maker!  Just a quick stir every hour or so in front of the freezer, which is where you want to be anywhere, isn't it?  FREEZE TO DEATH MOSQUITOS!

p.s. This ice cream is creamy, refreshing and delicious.    

Speedy Strawberry Ice Cream

Makes 1 1/2 quarts

Source: Star Tribune

(Printable Recipe)

1 lb. strawberry - washed, trimmed and halved (or quartered if strawberries are big)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/3 cup heavy cream

1 T lime zest  

Place strawberries, sugar, cream and lime zest in a blender.  Blend until well combined.  Transfer mixture to a freezer-safe bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer.  Stir with spatula, scraping down sides, every hour until ice cream reaches desired consistency - usually about 4 hours later.

Crispy Artichoke Hearts

I ate a ridiculously good appetizer over the weekend - which was creamy burrata cheese served with crispy artichoke hearts.  Simple, but the different textures and flavors were incredible.  While I don't know how to make my own burrata (one day... one day I will have cows and churn butter), I did figure out how to make crispy artichokes and it was stupid easy.  Buy a can or jar of artichoke hearts, drain them, heat about 1/2 inch olive oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat, add artichokes and pan fry! I left them in for a couple of minutes per side.  Using a slotted spoon, I removed them onto a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkled them with sea salt.  Eat these plain or with burrata or over a salad or... you tell me.  The possibilities are endless.  Hope you enjoyed your weekends, Internet friends!

Crispy Smoked Salmon Toast

I finished my last post by telling you people that I am a genius.  I lied to your faces.  The truth is, I am one of the biggest idiots I know.  Last weekend, I went to the same baby shower twice.  Saturday morning, got all dressed up, got my daughter all dressed up, braved the 405 for 45 minutes, showed up at the restaurant only to find out the baby shower was Sunday, not Saturday.  The maitre'd even offered me a glass of champagne on the house because he felt so embarrassed for me.  The valet guys were SO thrilled to park my car only to fetch it 30 seconds later.  My daughter ABSOLUTELY LOVED the drive back home.  See?  Monster idiot.  

However, I redeemed myself a little by recreating one of the appetizers they passed around at the real baby shower on Sunday: smoked salmon atop creme fraiche and crispy toast.  I ate an entire plate (but justified it in my head by pretending it was one plate over TWO baby showers).  This morning I whipped it together in 5 minutes: easy, impressive, delicious...

Cut sourdough toast into squares or rounds.  Heat a small amount of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Saute bread until it browns on both sides, being careful not to burn.    

Top with a dollop of creme fraiche (or sour cream, even cream cheese would be good), smoked salmon (lox) and chopped chives.  

Fudge Brownie Cookies

The other day, as I was sitting there thinking about chocolate and butter, I thought... if you can make cookies with cake batter, then why can't you make them with brownie mix??  I think brilliant, deep, intellectual thoughts.  So off to the store I went in search of brownie mix.  And then I made deeply rich, chocolaty cookies with a fudgy interior and a crusty, brownie-like exterior.  Did I mention the gooey chocolate chunks?  I'm a genius.    

Fudge Brownie Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

Printable Recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp brewed coffee, cooled

1 3/4 cup fudge brownie mix

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 pkg. semi sweet (or dark) chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, whisk together brownie mix, flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In a larger bowl, mix together butter and brown sugar.  Add egg, vanilla and coffee and mix.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients.  Add chocolate chips and stir.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased (or parchment lined) baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  

...making cookies next to my entire-waffle-eating 10 month-old.

Rice A Roni Salad

First of all, let me apologize for the lack of posting.  If you're new to this blog, then you are unaware that we are completely remodeling our kitchen.  With that, and summer traveling, it's been difficult to find the time to cook and obsessively bake like I'm used to doing.  But, I promise to wow you with some Fudge Brownie Cookies and maybe homemade ice cream (flavor ideas? anyone?) later on this week.  Thank you for being patient.  I am in love with you.

Ok on to business... I am from the Midwest, where anything can qualify as a "salad."  Fruit + Jello?  Salad.  Macaroni + Lunch Meat?  Salad.  Rice A Roni + red pepper, green onion, water chestnuts, artichoke hearts and mayo?  Salad.  While I'm not really a fan of the former two, the latter is delicious.  A great, easy side for a summer BBQ.  And you can pretend you're dieting by eating SALAD.

Prepare Chicken flavored Rice A Roni as directed on box.  Let cool.  In a large bowl, add 1 diced red pepper, 3 chopped green onion stalks, 1 can sliced water chestnuts (roughly chopped), and half a can of artichoke hearts (also roughly chopped).  Add half of the juice from the artichoke hearts and 1/2 cup mayo.  Stir in Rice A Roni, and season to taste.  I like to add some red pepper flakes as well.  

Light(ish) Onion Dip

Are you able to avoid chips and onion dip at a party?  How?  How do you do that?  Are you a human being?  Do you have taste buds?  Teach me.  Learn me the ways to STEP AWAY FROM THIS STUFF.  If I see it, I'm like "chip, dip, bite, chip, dip, bite" for 32 minutes straight.  And then I'm like, "ugggghhhhh fullllllllll."  But, it's fine, I've accepted my absurd love of food and I'm never going to change my ways.  What I can alter, however, is the amount of calories my favorite snacks have.  A light(ish) onion dip with greek yogurt and low-fat sour cream!  Tastes exactly the same as the full-fat all sour cream version.  And makes me feel less like a cow.  Try it!!    

Light(ish) French Onion Dip

Printable Recipe

8 oz. Greek yogurt

8 oz. low-fat sour cream

1 pkg. onion soup mix

Combine all in a bowl, stir and serve.  With reduced-fat Ruffles, of course.  

SD on TODAY

Thanks for the nice comments on my SECOND (what?!) Today Show appearance.  It's such a fun, surreal experience to be a tiny part of a show I've watched since I was a kid.  For your informations, I wasn't trying to scold Mr. Roker for touching the bacon.  Would I ever scold anyone for touching bacon???  No, I was yelling at Carson who was touching the hot pan with his fingers, and they just happened to zoom in on Al at the same moment.  Oh, the silly magic of television.  

In case you missed the segment, you can view it here (and my first appearance here).

We are back from NY, we are back from DC, and I will try to cook something ASAP.