Ivy Barr Snow Balls

Mom will need to put in the comments how she knew Ivy Barr. I think she worked at the ad agency with her and Robert? Ivy may no longer be with us, but she lives on in the hearts of the Azars in the form of tasty little white messy crack balls. I think this recipe is WAY better than similar imposters.

1 cup soft butter (presumably unsalted, but the original is non-specific)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour (presumably all-purpose, see above)

1/2 – 1 cup very finely chopped pecans

1 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the flour a little at a time. Add the vanilla and nuts. Roll into small balls. Bake at 350 degrees until light brown. Roll in powdered sugar while warm.

Beef Stew

Barb asked for this recipe, and it’s a good time to capture it for posterity. As with so many recipes, it’s nothing unique, however it IS a mashup of many recipes I’ve read and tried before.

3 lbs beef, cut into 2-inch cubes (Use what’s on sale. You can use fattier, tougher cuts because you cook it a long time, but I used London Broil because it was on sale and it turned out well.)

1/2 – 1 cup chopped leeks

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup celery, including tops if possible

1 box reduced sodium broth (chicken or beef)

2 bay leaves

1 bag baby carrots (use a whole or a part bag, depending on how much you like carrots)

6 medium size red potatoes (or more)

Optional: frozen or fresh corn, frozen peas, 1 chopped tomato (or 1/2 can petite diced)

Olive oil for browning

Celery seed, salt*, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, basil, tarragon

In a large dutch oven, brown the beef in batches on fairly high heat until it is very brown, scraping the bottom periodically to loosen brown bits. Near the end of cooking each batch, sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, and cayenne. Set aside.

When all the meat is browned, reduce heat to medium low. Add a little butter if necessary, and then saute the leeks for a few minutes, until just beginning to get tender. Add the broth to the pot, scraping the bottom to loosen all brown bits.  Return the meat to the pot. Add the celery, bay leaves, 1/2 tsp celery seed, 1/2 tsp basil, and a pinch of tarragon. If you are adding tomato, add it now.

Cover and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours, stirring periodically**. You want a continuous simmer, but not a rolling boil. Season to taste. Remember that the potatoes and carrots will absorb a good bit of salt.

Add the carrot and onion, making sure they are submerged. Add water or more broth if needed to cover. Simmer 15 minutes.

Add the potatoes (potatoes should be cut into approx 2-inch pieces), again making sure they are submerged. Simmer until potatoes are done. Add optional peas and corn at this time. If you are eating the stew immediately, simmer until they are warm. If you are saving it for later, take advantage of the precipitous temperature drop of the frozen vegetables, removing from heat.

If you want thicker broth/gravy, you have two options. Remove everything but the broth from the pot and then reduce the gravy. OR stir some cornstarch into a couple of tablespoons of cold water and then add that to the broth.

*I frequently substitute Pollo y Tomate bullion (in the Mexican section of the store) for salt. It’s just as salty and has nice chicken and tomato flavors. Try this with rice sometime.

**Alternatively, you can stick the covered dutch oven in the oven on about 325 degrees IF there are no meltable handles on it. I have not tried this method.

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Julianne asked for her grandmother’s Oatmeal Lace Cookie recipe. Her grandmother (Anne) always baked a BUNCH of cookies at Christmas, and she always made lots of Oatmeal Lace. You can take melted chocolate and “glue” two cookies together, but Anne always served ‘em straight up.

1 egg (beaten)
1 cup sugar
1 cup quick oatmeal

1/2 cup melted butter
2 T flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
Thoroughly mix all ingredients. Drop by demitasse spoon onto cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. Allow about 3″ between cookies, because they spread. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Watch them closely. Cool, then pull from foil.
Alternatively, while they’re still warm, you can pull them off and roll them into tubes, but again, that’s not how Anne, um, rolled.

Simple Lemon-Butter Asparagus

I don’t consider this a “recipe” per se; it’s just how I cook asparagus. however, they have a more complicated version over at culinate, and I wanted to capture my version because I’m really not sure the extra trouble is worth it. The simple version focuses on the pure flavor of a single ingredient, with the other flavors present simply to enhance it. Try them both and see what you think.
http://www.culinate.com/recipes/collections/Culinate+Kitchen/Side+Dishes/Asparagus+with+Lemon+Vinaigrette

1 small bunch of asparagus (I use only the tiny kind…can’t stand the big ones!)
1/2 to 1 TB Butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar (you may not need this)

Bend each piece of asparagus until it snaps, to remove the tough end. I don’t believe in bending one and then cutting them all!
Heat a small amount of water to boiling in a pan large enough for the asparagus to spread out. Add the asparagus and toss with tongs nearly constantly for about 1 minute. Test a spear for doneness. They will continue cooking for a bit and you are definitely going for a crispy texture! As soon as you decide they’re done, drain them quickly and add the butter. Remove from heat, tossing as the butter melts and you sprinkle on the salt and lemon juice. If there was a lot of bitterness in the one you tasted, sprinkle on the sugar as well. That’s it!

Note: asparagus is a flower, and you should treat it as such while storing it. Trim a small amount off the stem end and stand the bunch upright in a small vase or large glass in the refrigerator.

You are the best Thai chef in town

How, you say? Simply by heading over the Thai Chilli on Briarcliff! Go have lunch, and before you leave, buy several packets of frozen Curry in a Hurry. Yep, they sell their crack in pre-mixed, frozen baggies. Flavors include green curry, masaman curry, and panang curry. I haven’t tried the green yet, but the masaman and panang are exceptional.

Just take leftover chicken, beef, or pork, or maybe saute boneless, skinless breasts, add veggies, then dump in the sauce. Serve over pasta or rice. It could not possibly be easier. And, as much of a carnivore as I am, I actuall caught myself thinking “this would be even better without the meat” one night while eating a Thai Chilli-assisted melange of snow peas, red pepper, and broccoli.

Maybe I’ll eventually find the courage to attempt from-scratch Thai cooking one day…or maybe not! Maybe I’ll just keep heading over to Thai Chilli.

Spinach, Red Pepper, and Leek Ravioli

I have been enjoying inventing some vegetaran dishes for a very health-conscious friend who has temporarily displaced from his home. I try to minimize dairy and anything artificial (but it’s not easy!).

1/3 cup finely chopped red pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped carrot

3/4 cup chopped leeks

2 cups coarsely chopped spinach

1 tsp butter or olive oil

2 TB tzaziki dip (or 1 tb yogurt, 1 tb sour cream, 1 scant tsp lemon juice, and 1 tsp chopped cucumber…work with whatever you have)

2 Tb parmesan cheese (grated)

1 egg, divided

dash of salt, pepper, fennel seed (thanks Thomas for the suggestion), and honey

2 Tb chopped fresh basil and flat-leaf parsley

Store bought wonton wrappers

Heat a pan to medium high, add the butter or oil, then the carrots. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add the leeks and peppers for a minute or two, then the spinach for another minute. Your goal here is to get a little carmelization but to retain the fresh, crisp quality of the raw veggies.

In a food processor, combine the egg yolk, tzaziki, vegetable mixture, parmesan cheese, herbs, and spices. Pulse to create a puree that has a lot of small chunks of vegetables (not a true puree).

Have a seat and turn on something interesting on TV (unless you have a buddy over for a leisurly conversation). Assembing the ravioli is not hard, but it can be tedious.

Take the egg white and combine it with a couple of teaspoons of water. If you have  cooking brush (or clean tiny paintbrush) use it; if not, use a finger. Lay a single wonton wrapper on a clean surface and paint all four edges with the egg dip. Place a teaspon of the filling in the center, then pick up two opposite corners. You want the filling to stay in the middle while you close the edges (making a triangular ravioli), using the egg wash as adhesive.

Your goals are: no air bubbles, no filling escaping along the sides (if you are using too much filling, it will escape and the ravioli will pop during cooking; ratchet that back), thorougly connected edges.

I lay these on a Pam-coated piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. This makes a couple dozen ravioli. You can freeze these flat on the cookie sheet, then bag ‘em in ziplocs for future use. If you want to use them fresh, cover them carefully in plastic wrap or they’ll dry out.

Cooking:

Bring salted water to a rapid boil, then add the ravioli (gently!). The water should stop boiling as a result of adding the ravioli. Decrease the heat to medium and very gently simmer the ravioli until the pasta is al dente (a couple of minutes).

Coat the ravioli with the sauce of your choice. Let the veggies be the star! Maybe combine a little heavy cream with some high-quality parmesano-reggiano, or briefly saute fresh chopped tomatoes, basil, and garlic.

New Foodie Blog in the ’sphere

My friend Thomas has launched a cool new blog, http://thecookinghusband.com/

This looks fun. Check it out!

Puppy Chow, per request, quick and dirty

6 cups chex, any flavor
1 stick butter, into which you melt 1/2 bag chocolate morsels. The
orig recipe may have been more, but I usually don’t use as much as
they say.
Add to butter/chocolate 1 cup peanut butter. I use chunky, but you can
do whatever.

gently fold the chex into the hot mess, trying not to crush the chex.
Dump it all into a (clean garbage bag
Add 1 box (!) confectioners sugar and shake, shake, shake

Voila. Puppy chow.
Kate + 8 calls it something different (I H8 K8)

The Week of Altogether Too Much Pumpkin Bread

I just wanted to make pumpkin bread. I didn’t think that was all that much to ask. But the first recipe I cooked, and virtually all the recipes I found online, called for copious amounts of oil. Which resulted in a heavy crumb and (natch) an oily flavor.

There are lots of lovely Pumpkin Bar recipes that don’t suffer these problems, but they are by nature very flaky and delicate — not suited for bread. I was really looking for something sturdy enough to ship out to CA to James’ mom and sister. Bars weren’t going to cut it.

I gave up on the internet and took inspiration from a longtime family favorite, which I knew to be freezable and shippable for the holidays: Triple Chocolate Cake, a mix-based pound cake recipe that includes pudding, mini chips, and (optionally) bourbon.

The 1.0 version of Pumpkin Crack was alcohol-free, because I didn’t have any in the house and couldn’t find anybody to borrow it from and it was late. It was still too heavy and gooey, although tasters agreed that it was amazing. (Except Cooper, who doesn’t like nuts, butterscotch, or bourbon.) Although later iterations did include alcohol, you can still make it alcohol-free by substituting more of any of the wet ingredients for the alcohol. More complicated discussion follows the recipe, but you can just go with the following and you’ll be fine.

Pumpkin Crack v 2.0:

1 spice cake mix

1 small box vanilla instant pudding

2 eggs and 3 egg whites

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup bourbon

1 15-oz can pumpkin

1/2 cup butterscotch chips plus 1/2 cup pecans or walnut pieces, processed in a food processor until just chopped up

Mix all ingredients except butterscotch chips and nuts. Fold chips and nuts into batter.

Grease 2 9 x 5″ loaf pans and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar. Divide batter between the two pans and sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar.

Pour batter into pans and bake for 45 minutes in 357-degree oven (check periodically, b/c I was watching House and forgot to look at the time).

Cool on racks for 10 minutes before removing. You should really cool these completely before wrapping, to avoid a wet, gooey surface (thanks to Jeff at work for reminding me of that!).

Other thoughts:

*There was also 1/2 tsp almond extract in the one I did last night. I couldn’t really taste it but it may have been contributing a little something to the flavor.

*The butterscotch chips really want to turn to paste in the food processor. I am going to try freezing them first when I bake version 2.5. While I’m talking about the butterscotch, I should point out that the goal here was NOT to have it taste like butterscotch. In fact, people have some difficulty identifying it, which was my intent when I decided to grind them up a little. The chips, not the people.

*I wanted a little more of a bite from the bourbon flavor. For 2.5 I am going to use 1 cup bourbon and zero sour cream. I suspect you can use any combination of the two, as long as it totals 1 cup.

*If I don’t burn out (and I probably will), I may try this with yellow cake mix and some combination of pumpkin pie spices of my own creation.

Old School Vegetable Casserole

My idea of vegetable is a steamed perfect broccoli spear or group of asparaguses or green beans, in the nude. But sometimes you have to make a casserole. This recipe was originally “Connossieur Casserole” from Southern Living. Not being able to find it, I made it from memory, therefore it’s mine.

2 cans french cut green beans, drained

1 cup frozen corn (preferably shoepeg)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

8 oz sour cream

4 oz mayo

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup chopped onions

1 TB hot sauce

Mix everything together and dump into a greased casserole dish. Cook for 30 mins on 350. Top with 1 sleeve Ritz cracker crumbs + 1 stick melted butter, mixed together (if you want healthy, look at the first sentence of this blog). Continue cooking 15 minutes or until whatever else you’re making is ready. It’s delicious and horrible for you. Maybe you could eat it with some grilled chicken. It’s actually low-carb, so maybe that’s your excuse.