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Scenes From Easter

April 13th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

Hello, hello! I hope that, if you celebrated it, you had a Happy Easter! For my husband and I, it was filled with lots of food and family!

Since I got the new camera a few months ago, I can’t help snapping away at everything. The little decorations that appear on the Easter table at home were no exception.

I always love my mom’s Easter table setup and place settings. We typically do Easter brunch instead of dinner.

She made a tasty new grape punch this year. In the past we’ve had mimosas or smoothies.

We have some really neat Ukrainian style eggs that have been in the family for years.

They’ve been hollowed out and are very delicate. I believe they were decorated by my aunt and cousin, who are both very talented at it.

I also learned that the family cat, Emma, loves to pose.

She wouldn’t stop rolling around and showing off in the sun patch.

Easter is not complete without the kielbasa.

When we moved to Virginia years ago, we eagerly embraced the southern tradition of ham biscuits. The biscuits are brushed with stone ground mustard; they’re my favorite.

After Easter brunch it’s time for Easter baskets.

We finished off with a sneak peak at the baby bird that hatched in the wreath on my parents’ front door.

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Food Photography – Perils of Life as a Chocolate Bunny

April 8th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

Hope you enjoy my recreation of a favorite Snorg Tee in celebration of Easter this coming weekend. This one has always cracked me up, and I don’t mind a little cruelty to chocolate bunnies (mwhahah)!

They were very good models.. Mmmmm!

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Spinach and Mushroom Pizza with Mom's Marinara Sauce

April 6th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

Groan – It’s hard to write this post when I’m still so full from dinner… four hours later! But if I had it to do over again, I’m sure I’d still wind up eating way too much.

My husband, Morgan, and I got back into town yesterday evening from a few long and difficult days. Thanks to everyone who sent good thoughts our way.

Getting back into the swing of things, my cooking/baking wish for the next week is that I’ll avoid baking at least until Easter because I indulged in way too many delicious and fattening things at northern bakeries (ever had Checkerboard Cake? We bought some after my dad exclaimed that he used to enjoy it from time to time while growing up. I had never had it before, and now you can bet I’ll be trying to make it soon).

So today was mostly comprised of cleaning up the apartment, organizing for the week, grocery shopping and decompressing. The weather was gorgeous, and Morgan and I decided to pick up some pizza dough from the nearby Italian Store (I’ve mentioned here before that they have outstanding dough).

We bought ingredients for a spinach and mushroom pizza, but this time we made the sauce from scratch using my mom’s excellent marinara sauce recipe. It’s recently become an obsession of ours to make this sauce for spaghetti, chicken, pizza and anything that could possibly use marinara sauce.

I have to say this is our finest pizza yet. Making this sauce from scratch is so easy and probably less expensive than buying ready made sauce. We have leftover sauce, so we keep it in an air-tight container in the fridge; it should keep for the week. The spinach was also a great addition and doesn’t call a lot of attention to itself.

I’ll also repeat myself and say how you really need to find a local (non-chain) pizza shop in your area and try to buy a bag of dough. Waiting to try making your own pizza is just depriving yourself of some of the best pizza you’ll ever have!

Spinach and Mushroom Pizza

1 16 oz bag of pizza dough
1 cup freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
1 package frozen spinach, cooked according to package instructions
1/2 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
flour, to sprinkle on work surface

Heather-Ghost Baker’s Mom’s Marinara Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 to 1 small onion, finely chopped
1 16 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
3/4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon salt

For sauce – Add olive oil to a medium saucepan set to medium temperature. Add garlic and onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook for 30 minutes, until mixture is thickened. Stir occasionally. Makes about 3 cups of sauce.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 525 F and cook spinach according to package instructions in a small saucepan. Saute sliced mushrooms in a separate small pan for 2 to 3 minutes.

When sauce is just about done, flour a cookie sheet and roll out dough to a 16 inch circle. Drizzle olive oil over the dough. When sauce is done, pour and smooth sauce over pizza dough, followed by spinach, mushrooms and cheese.

Transfer cookie sheet to oven and cook for approximately 11 minutes (we use a pizza stone, so we preheat the oven with the pizza stone in the oven, then carefully transfer the uncooked pizza to the heated stone. It takes two of us to transfer the pizza without letting it fall apart, so proceed with caution if you go this route).

Let pizza cool for 2-3 minutes. Slice and serve!

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Kitchen Tips – What the heck does "picked over" mean?

April 4th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

If you’re working with lentils or other beans, you may sometimes notice that the instructions say, “rinse and pick over.”

The first time I encountered this I was baffled. I thought, “What am I picking over? Is there something bad in here?” Everything looked fine to me!

Sometimes in beans or lentils you might sometimes find a few little rocks that managed to sneak their way in. I know, it sounds crazy. I’ve actually never encountered one yet; I’ll have to ask the Chef Edwin, the lentil guru himself, how frequently this occurs.

While rinsing or after rinsing, try spreading out the lentils or beans, feel them and look at them. If you see something that looks off, just throw it away. The rest of the batch should be fine. You don’t need to be nervous about it, but do take a look – just thinking about biting down on a rock makes me cringe!

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Cinnacrumb Cake

April 2nd, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

Hello, folks. I’m not feeling too chatty at the moment. Sadly my grandmother (my dad’s mom) passed away earlier this week. She lived a long life (over 90 years) and thankfully did not experience a debilitating and drawn out illness. My husband and I will be heading up north for the funeral and to be with family, so I’ll be unable to answer your comments and questions for a few days. You will, of course, have Chef Edwin available to answer all your DinnerCakes needs.

In times of stress I’m grateful that I can turn to baking to relax me; I can get into the rhythm and let stress (usually) melt away. I was able to squeeze in a crumb cake this week, inspired by a beautiful “big crumb coffee cake” found on Smitten Kitchen.

The Smitten recipe calls for a rhubarb filling that frankly made me a little nervous. I decided to replace it with a Cinnabon/cinnamon roll filling which worked out really well. It kept the cake moist (I’ve known some crumb cakes to be sadly dry) and gave it a little depth of flavor. I use the past tense because the cake is now gone.

Cinnacrumb Cake

For the cake and big crumb recipe, please see Smitten Kitchen.

Leave out the rhubarb filling and replace it with the following –
Cinnabon/cinnamon roll filling
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
dash allspice
1 tablespoon ground pecans

Follow Smitten’s instructions for the cake. Pour half the batter into a prepared 8-inch-square baking pan (I lined mine with parchment paper). Combine the cinnamon filling ingredients and sprinkle over the batter and try to spread it out evenly. Using a toothpick, marble the cinnamon mixture into the batter. Finish by pouring the rest of the batter on top and sprinkle with crumbs in large chunks.

On my cake, the cinnamon mixture bubbled up over top of the crumbs a little bit in one corner. I was fine with this, but if it will bother you then you may want to cut the cinnamon filling in half.

Bake for about 50 minutes on 325F; a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

Enjoy.

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Salty & Sweet – Chocolate Cookies with Pistachios

March 31st, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

If you put a variety pack of cookies in front of me, 95% of the time I would not choose an all chocolate cookie. This may be surprising, but I gave up on chocolate cookies after several attempts where I couldn’t even taste the chocolate.

I thought up this recipe one night while lying in bed, after one of my battles with black bean brownies. I was thinking about other ways to use black beans instead of flour and agave syrup instead of sugar. I was also thinking about a batch of Tastespotting photos I’d oogled recently that boasted salty and sweet desserts.

The recipe below is a little different from what I’d originally planned (no black beans and no agave… it’s probably for the best!), but it turned out exactly the way I was hoping it would. What’s the difference? For starters, I greatly prefer the taste of baked goods made with unsweetened cocoa instead of melted chocolate. It captures the taste of the chocolate more and it makes the final product less dense.

These cookies are slightly crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. The chocolate chips makes them unmistakably dark and chocolatey, and the pistachios add just a hint of saltiness. The instant coffee deepens the chocolate flavor without being particularly noticeable.

I had to take these to work the day after I made them because it quickly became clear that I couldn’t handle having them in the apartment. Whoops?

Salty & Sweet – Chocolate Cookies with Pistachios

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/8 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour
2 ounces unsweetened cocoa (I used Ghirardelli)
1/8 (granulated) instant coffee
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (again, I used Ghirardelli)
1/2 cup pistachio kernels

Preheat oven to 375F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, cocoa, instant coffee, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer using a paddle attachment (or using electric beaters if you don’t have a stand mixer), combine butter and sugars. When combined, add eggs one at a time. Slowly beat in the flour mixture, adding the milk at the halfway point. Stir in pistachios and chocolate chips. The mixture will resemble thick brownie batter.

Scoop batter using a tablespoon measuring spoon and, with the assistance of another spoon, drop rounded balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

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Chicken and Black Beans with Avocado Salsa

March 27th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

My husband and I have been feeling a little lazy lately about cooking. We’ve both been busy, and on days when you’re just drained it’s not only hard to cook, but it’s likely that your kitchen may not be stocked with fresh options.

On this particular day I knew we didn’t have anything in the fridge. We had some chicken in the freezer, but we try not to defrost chicken in the microwave if we can help it (and I haven’t yet tried Edwin’s ice bath method).

I went to the grocery store after work and picked up some chicken breast (that I didn’t have to defrost). On my way to the cash register I spotted some avocados. I don’t think avocados are in season, and I know that they’re high in fat, but at that moment I just wanted some avocados!

For my calorie conscious friends, listen, avocados are good in moderation!

As I was walking home, I still had no idea what I was going to do with my small avocado and chicken. I thought about making chicken sandwiches with slices of avocado on top, but I knew I didn’t have buns. I decided on a citrusy, guacamole-like salsa over baked chicken and black beans. What an awesome change to spice up our typical routine! This dish is light but filling. The lime juice gives it a lot of zip, and it’s not very spicy.

Chicken and Black Beans with Avocado Salsa

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can black beans

For the Chicken Marinade
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sweetened lime juice
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
dash cayenne

For the Avocado Salsa
1 small Haas avocado, peeled and sliced
1 chili, minced with seeds removed (or 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon sweetened lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
dash black pepper
dash cayenne

Cut chicken breasts in half longways and marinate in olive oil, sweetened lime juice, chile powder and cayenne for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375F and bake for approximately 15 minutes. Cut into the middle of the thickest piece to ensure the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

While chicken is baking, warm black beans in a small sauce pan on the stove.

Peel and slice avocado and place in a medium size bowl. Add minced chili or red pepper flakes, sweetened lime juice, salt, minced garlic, black pepper and cayenne. Mash avocado with the back of a fork while combining ingredients. Don’t mash too much, you want the salsa to be chunky.

Spoon black beans onto a plate and follow with cooked chicken breast. Spoon avocado salsa over the chicken and serve!

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Food Photography – The Story of My Mom's Birthday Cake

March 25th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

Well, I promised an update on how my mom’s birthday cake turned out, and here it is! I made a cranberry-lemon pound cake with lemon curd filling and Italian meringue lemon buttercream frosting.

The cake and buttercream are from, my favorite, CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch, and the lemon curd is from Martha Stewart (the CakeLove lemon curd recipe called for more egg yolks and butter than any living thing should ever ingest).

I was very pleased with how everything turned out and how it fit together. With a little help from Wilton’s 10-inch cake circles, my layers sliced and stacked without any difficulty.

My mom arrived just as I was putting the finishing touches on the cake decor; I didn’t even have time to change out of my fat squirrel t-shirt… I hope it gives you a good laugh!

I was especially happy with the decorations. Remember I told you that I actually drew specs? My mom loves the ocean, so I wanted to use a few sea shells as tastefully as possible.

She also likes hydrangea, which I think happen to look very beautiful even when they’re fake.

I did unfortunately learn that I don’t care for lemon curd at all… not even a little bit. I scraped it off easily enough on my slice and enjoyed the rest.

It was extremely rich – one slice and you’re set for life! Next time I think I’ll try something a little lighter. You really don’t want to know just how many sticks of butter and individual eggs were sacrificed in the making of this cake… really, it’s better this way.

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Warm and Satisfying Sweet Potato Biscuits

March 23rd, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

Most summers, my family tries to sneak in at least a brief vacation to Nags Heads, NC. Though Nags Head is gradually becoming more built up, luckily some things haven’t changed.

Our favorite and most consistent restaurant is Kelly’s Restaurant and Tavern in the Outer Banks; if you haven’t been then you’re really missing something special. It’s a nicer establishment than most (ie, expensive), but it’s well worth the expense. Usually when we go I always order the flounder, but it’s incredibly difficult to restrain myself from filling up on their signature Sweet Potato Biscuits.

These biscuits aren’t beauty pageant winners – they stay fairly flat and don’t rise in the oven. They aren’t the light, flaky, buttery kind, in fact they’re quite dense and heavy. What makes them so great? They smell heavenly, they’re very unique, they’re filled with sweet potatoes which are actually good for you and they stick to the roof of your mouth. Yum!

Kelly’s will give you the Sweet Potato Biscuit recipe if you ask for it, but you’ll be surprised to learn that they’re made using Bisquick. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I prefer making it all from scratch – which really isn’t much more difficult and you’ll likely have all of the ingredients already on hand.

I read a few different biscuit recipes to come up with a combination of ingredients that I thought could replace the Bisquick while maintaining the great taste I’m used to. I made these Friday night, just in time for the series finale of Battlestar Galactica (if you happened to watch this, what did you think? my husband joked, “the moral of 4 seasons: robots will probably kill you”). We scarfed a few of these down until our stomaches hurt (hey, I warned you they were dense). These are best enjoyed warm.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 pound sweet potatoes (approximately 2 sweet potatoes)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup milk (I used skim)
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Peel sweet potatoes, then cut into 2 inch pieces and boil until there is very little resistance when pierced with a fork. Mash sweet potatoes using a masher or the back of a fork. Add all remaining ingredients and mix well.

Using two spoons, drop biscuit mixture onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet; biscuits should be approximately 2 1/2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.

Bake for 16-18 minutes. The moistness of the mixture makes it so that these biscuits do not rise much. Keep an eye on them so that they don’t overcook. Biscuits are ready when they have set and they are slightly firm to the touch.

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen biscuits.

Note: Be sure that these are completely cooled before putting them away, if there are any left. Do not store in an airtight container because the tops will get “sticky.”

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Kitchen Tips – Beating Egg Whites

March 21st, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

My biggest pet peeve with cookbooks is when they throw around undefined terminology, leave too much to the imagination and have no photos accompanying recipes.

If you’re relatively new to baking and a recipe advises you to beat egg whites until they’re “stiff white peaks,” you may find yourself wondering what in the world this means.

First separate the egg whites from the yolks. Let the whites get to about room temperature, or at least not quite as cold. For best results, you will need the assistance of an electric mixer or stand mixer – your arms likely don’t have the stamina!

With your electric or stand mixer, beat the egg whites on high speed with a whisk attachment for several minutes. Do not rush the process. You’ll know you have “stiff white peaks” when the egg whites resemble marshmallow fluff. Your egg whites should also triple in volume. Follow your recipe instructions when adding other ingredients such as sugar.

Patience and beating at high speed is key!

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