November 2008 Archives

I appear to have a thing for caramelized onions. I've never made focaccia before so I just sort of winged it. I used my favorite pizza dough recipepizza dough recipe and mixed in some chopped rosemary and caramelized onions. After I rolled it out I sprinkled it with some shredded Gruyère and a few more rosemary leaves. Baked on a cookie sheet at 400°F for about 20 minutes, until it was lightly browned. I heated up some extra virgin olive oil with sliced garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper for dipping. That and a spinach salad was a nice, light dinner.

Although it was good, I would have done a couple things differently. To start, I didn't mix in the onions until after the dough had risen. I would have if I had wanted to wait another hour for it to be finished, but I was being impatient. So, instead I tried to knead them in later, and I wasn't as successful as I'd hoped to be. Not that it really affected the flavor at all.

The other thing I would have done is brush it with garlic infused olive oil and sprinkle with some coarse salt before baking. That way I could forgo the dipping oil.

I made a test batch of these to see if I should include them in my christmas cookie rotation. I'm happy to say they passed! The recipe is from One Smart Cookie, which is a collection of cookies, squares, brownies, etc, with less fat. I like the cookbook, but last year I tried making a couple of the recipes for christmas and I ended up dumping them in the trash. Of course, I was mostly to blame, because I made some modifications without testing out the original recipe first. Big mistake.

These are definitely not low-fat, but compared to regular pecan pie squares they are a slightly better alternative. I used chopped pecans instead of halves because when I went shopping for ingredients the pecan halves were sold out. I like them this way though.


» Recipe for Pecan Pie Squares

This is an old family favorite. The recipe came from my grandmother and she used to make these cookies all the time. Whenever we went to visit she would have a tin of them waiting for us. They're similar to gingersnaps, but they're soft and chewy. Perfect for the holidays.

» Recipe for Molasses Sugar Cookies» Recipe for Molasses Sugar Cookies

I'd never made a quiche before this. My mom used to make them every so often and I wasn't too fond of them. The egg, bacon, and onion combination didn't sit right with me.

This one is completely different. Sweet caramelized onions, sharp Gruyère, vibrant green flecks of wilted spinach. Together they are absolutely marvelous.

This is based on a recipe from Simply Recipes. I lightened it up a bit and tried to make it a little healthier. To start, the crust is made with white whole wheat flour. I had half and half leftover from the parsnip soup so I used that instead of heavy cream, replaced one of the eggs with 2 egg whites, and cut the amount of cheese by about half. I also threw in about half a bag of spinach.


» Recipe for Caramelized Onion & Spinach Quiche

I made this soup last winter, shortly after it was published on Design*Sponge, and fell in love with it. Parsnips are something I don't normally buy, and I remember being put off by them as a kid. Really, anything that wasn't "normal" I generally turned up my nose at. My mom would try to sneak them into beef stew, along with the carrots and potatoes, and just knowing that she was trying to pull one over on us made me refuse to eat them.



I'm happy to say I've changed quite a bit since then. Now I'm eager to try new things. I'm all about variety these days.

Last time I made the soup I pureed it in my blender, but recently it started shedding dark flakes and I'm not exactly sure what they are, so I'm not using it anymore. Instead I tried using my hand mixer to blend the soup up right in the pot. It wasn't very thorough and there are still little chunks swimming around in the soup. I'm hoping to get a hand blender for christmas.

» Recipe for Lotta Anderson's Parsnip Soup

It's bound to happen once in a while, right? A total dud. The worst part was that I was really hungry, so the bowl-full I did have was forced down.

It was bland, the greens were over-cooked, and the chicken was dry. I added more salt and pepper, but that just made it taste like salt and pepper.

Here's the recipe anyway, just to remind me what not to do next time.


» Recipe for Dijon Chicken Soup

This pork was delicious. The risotto was lacking something, and I didn't really like the vegetable stock I used (Imagine brand organic vegetable cooking stock). I bet it would have been much better with a combination of homemade brothhomemade broth and apple cider. I really wanted it to be sweeter. I was hoping the sweetness of the squash would come through, but I think the stock overpowered it. I was also thinking that raisins would be a good addition.

I found the recipe for the brine here. It made the pork nice and juicy. The apples and the risotto were pure improvisations.


» Recipe for Pork and Apples with Butternut Risotto

This pizza was delicious. Sweet butternut squash and caramelized onions, topped with creamy goat cheese - what's not to love? It's definitely not a quick meal, but the roasting and caramelizing is well worth it.

This is one for the recipe archiverecipe archive.

» Recipe for Pizza with Roasted Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onions, Sage & Goat Cheese» Recipe for Pizza with Roasted Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onions, Sage & Goat Cheese