Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm not real big on, what I term, Hallmark commercialized holidays. My Hubbers and I long ago quit buying elaborate gifts for Valentine's Day. He used to send me yellow roses (my favorite) but they aren't as fun to receive when you're the one paying the Visa bill afterwards! We don't go out to dinner (the restaurants are too busy!), preferring to stay in and enjoy a nice meal alone. As the holiday falls during our busy time at work this night in has become a nice respite from the rush and stress of tax season. My Hubbers has a movie picked out for our evening, as well as a nice bottle of wine. I have two filet mignons in the fridge and a lobster tail.  I made lemon curd last night that will go into our dessert. We are looking forward to our quiet evening. We have vowed not to say one word that involves tax returns!

As we are both working today, I set our table last night.  I snuck out of the office yesterday morning and ran to the flower mart and got some beautiful red roses. I don't think there is a restaurant in town that will have a prettier table!

Though we don't buy each other gifts, we do make sure to get gifts for our grandchildren.  They were delivered earlier in the week. Books, games, cupcake supplies, new ballet clothes. We love and spoil our sweethearts! (I finished the tutu bag the night before, it's hard to squeeze in sewing time during tax season!)

My Hubbers gave me my Valentine's card this morning. The card said that often we get so wrapped up in our busy lives that we take for granted those we love, don't tell them we love them often enough. So if this Hallmark holiday means that people stop and reflect on those they cherish the most, then perhaps it's not a bad commercial holiday after all!

Mushroom Marsala Pasta Bake

As I've said before, in my life there are four seasons of the year...spring, summer, fall and tax season. I'm knee-deep in tax season; the 12-hour plus days, 7 days a week grind is in full swing. We're not home much, I don't cook much.  At the office we take turns bringing in lunches, so we tend to eat decent lunches and light to non-existent dinners.  I think my sole venture in the kitchen this past week has been to make bacon & eggs.  The other night for dinner I had popcorn and some Valentines M&M's (have you tried the cherry flavor?  Oh, yum!) Martha Stewart would be so disappointed in me! I do have plans to cook my Hubbers a nice Valentines dinner so I've not totally fallen off the bandwagon!

A few weeks ago, I made this pasta dish.  I love Marsala chicken so this recipe caught my eye. The original recipe didn't call for chicken but I added it, along with some extra Marsala wine (more is always better, right?) We enjoyed it and had plenty for lunch the next day.

Mushrom Marsala Pasta Bake

1/2 pound pasta of you choice, such as a ziti or twisty shape
2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 pounds fresh mushroom, sliced
1 small yellow onion, halved and sliced thin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup dry Marsala wine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups  stock or broth (chicken, vegetable or mushroom)
1/2 cup  finely grated parmesan cheese
4 ounces mozzarella, cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cook the pasta: Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, about 1 to 2 minutes before perfect doneness. Drain and set aside.

Heat oven: To 400 degrees.

Cook the chicken: Season chicken pieces with salt, pepper and other seasoning, if desired (I used Italian seasoning). Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to sauté pan. Cook chicken, until no longer pink. Set aside.

Make the sauce: Reheat your empty pasta pot over high heat. Add oil and once it is hot, add mushrooms and cook until they’ve begun to brown and glisten, but have not yet released their liquid. Reduce heat to medium-high, add onions, salt and pepper and saute together until the liquid the mushrooms give off is evaporated. Add Marsala and cook mixture, stirring, until it has almost or fully evaporated (depending on your preference). Add butter, stir until melted. Add flour, and stir until all has been dampened and absorbed. Add stock, a very small splash at a time, stirring the whole time with a spoon. Make sure each splash has been fully mixed into the butter/flour/mushroom mixture, scraping from the bottom of the pan and all around, before adding the next splash. Repeat until all stock has been added. Let mixture simmer together for 2 minutes, stirring frequently; the sauce will thicken. Remove pan from heat.

Assemble and bake dish: Stir in chicken, half the parmesan, all of the mozzarella and two tablespoons of the parsley until evenly mixed. Transfer this mixture to a 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle the top with remaining parmesan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until edges of pasta are golden brown and irresistible. Sprinkle with reserved parsley and serve hot.

Recipe adapted from The Smitten Kitchen.

 

 

 

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

I'm a sucker for specialty pans.  I don't think I want to know how many fancy Bundt pans I have, cheesecake pans, tart pans. I even have pans that make a cake in cupcake and beehive shapes. It's a sickness, I'm telling you, and so far I've not found a support group to help get me out of this.  My only recourse is to not open the various kitchen catalogs I get and to stay out of Williams Sonoma. While in the labor & delivery waiting room last month, waiting on the birth of my grandson, I was perusing the mail I had brought from home. In the mail was a Williams Sonoma catalog.  In a moment of weakness I opened it.  Immediately I saw this cake pan. To make matters worse, there is a Williams Sonoma in Bakersfield where we were.  The next day I went "just to look".  All I have to say for myself is that this is the only thing I bought. But, I love it and am not feeling too guilty about it, even though I did have to do some cabinet rearranging to make everything fit!

It is a cute pan to have on hand for Valentine's Day. Fresh fruit, pudding or cream can be added to the center opening for an even prettier presentation. It really is cute. I told you I had a cake pan problem! 

I've used the cake pan twice, both times making this Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt cake. It's moist, it's rich, it's very chocolaty and best served with a glass of cold milk (although Zinfandel wine and chocolate go quite nicely together, too!) The first time I made it I glazed it with a chocolate ganache.  The second time I added a cup of chocolate chips to the batter and sprinkled confectioners' sugar on it.  It is a rich cake so I liked the second option the best.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

1 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I use Dutch processed from Penzey's spices)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350 degrees. Butter and flour (or use baking spray) a 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, salt, and water and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring, just until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking soda.  Add half of the melted butter mixture and whisk until completely blended.  The mixture will be thick. Add the remaining butter mixture and whisk until combined.  Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until completely blended. Whisk in the sour cream and the vanilla extract.  Whisk until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips, if using.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto a rack. Let cool completely before sifting confectioners' sugar over the top.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

After 33 years of marriage my husband occasionally gets irritated with me (ok, maybe it's more than occasionally!) One of his irritations is that I get bored with cooking the same things.  I like to try new foods, techniques, variations of a familiar recipe or new recipes.  He likes the tried and true and likes some things on a regular rotation. The other night he requested cream of broccoli soup. My first thought was that I had made it a few months ago. But I played good wife that night and made it for him.  I must admit our dinner was good. 

This is a great soup, very creamy as the name implies. I like the addition of the cream, it makes for a thicker, richer soup, but if you're counting calories whole milk can easily be substituted. Sometimes I will add some shredded cheddar cheese before serving or some crumbled bacon. It's an easy and quick soup to put together, I don't know why I don't make it more often (but don't tell my husband I said that!)

I have an immersion blender and use it to puree the soup. I have had many hot soup/blender blow ups in my kitchen and the immersion blender is a nice remedy for that problem! We like our soup a little chunky so I don't blend it to a smooth puree.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cups chicken broth
8 cups broccoli florets
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium-sized stock pot, and saute onion and celery until tender. Add broccoli and broth, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour back into stock pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.

In small saucepan, over medium-heat melt 3 tablespoons butter, stir in flour and add milk/cream (or substitute with 2 cups half & half). Stir until thick and bubbly, and add to soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Lemon Cream Puffs

Mom has been making cream puffs for as long as I can remember.  Lately, they have become a Christmas Eve staple with her grandchildren often requesting them.  Flaky pastry, filled with cream, topped with chocolate or powdered sugar.  What's not to like, right? 

 After the recent tea I hosted I found myself with leftover lemon curd.  It's so good, that I never want to waste any! I make a crepe cake that has a lemon curd/whipped cream filling in it so decided to do something similar with cream puffs.  I whipped a cup of heavy whipping cream, then folded in about 1 1/2 cups lemon curd. After filling the cream puffs, I sprinkled them with confectioners' sugar.  They were very good!

Mom has an old cookbook she got when she was a young bride.  It was put out by Fluffo shortening and is called Creative Cooking Made Easy: The Golden Fluffo Cookbook.  I think it's the most dog-eared and stained cookbook in her vast collection.  This cream puff recipe comes from that book.  I love the description in the cookbook.  Fluffo melts so quickly, blends so easily that six minutes only from saucepan to oven is all the time needed to make the simple cooked paste known in France as pate a chou, or cream puff paste. But even the pastry-making experts in France cannot make a cream puff more golden, fragile or crisply tender than one made with Golden Fluffo. Golden Fluffo hasn't been produced in many, many years so Mom now uses regular shortening for this recipe.

Cream Puffs

1/4 cup shortening
1 cup water
1 cup less 1 tablespoon sifted flour
4 large eggs

Put shortening and water in a small saucepan and stir over high heat until shortening is melted and liquid is boiling rapidly.  Add flour all at once, raise saucepan a few inches above heat, and stir briskly.  The paste will come away from the sides of the pan and form a smooth ball in center. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds longer.  Remove saucepan from heat, break an egg into the pate and beat vigorously until paste becomes smooth and fluffy.  Break in other eggs, one at a time, and beat vigorously after each addition until paste is smooth and glossy.  Drop paste from a tablespoon into large mounds 2 inches apart on baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes; reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 20 minutes longer. Cool puffs, split them horizontally two thirds of the way through and fill them with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored to taste, or with any of the cream pie fillings or ice cream.

Friday Nights

When my first-born was around six months old my Dad began picking him up on Friday nights. Saturday morning, on the way to work, he would be dropped off at our home again.  In between those hours, there were special meals, TV shows watched, popcorn and soda, and, mostly, a strong bond being formed between grandparents and grandson.  A few years later little sister arrived and she was included in Friday nights.  Some Friday nights they would both go.  Sometimes they would alternate.  This would continue until high school, when Friday nights became the night of playing football and cheerleading. My children enjoy a wonderful relationship with their grandparents and I know part of it is because of their Friday night tradition.

My husband and I have carried on the tradition. We have the youngest granddaughter almost every Friday.  Sometimes we are lucky enough to have one of the older granddaughters, too.  Recently, we had two for our overnight visit.  At ages 6 & 4, they can relate to each other quite well.  We went for a scooter ride/walk around the neighborhood, made cupcakes, watched a movie (Cars).  Papa made them a fort in the living room to sleep in.  The next morning I made Mickey Mouse pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. There was not one argument, just lots of playing, hugging and laughing.

My newest grandchild lives about four hours away.  Once he's a little older (and I get through tax season), I plan on spending one Friday night a month down south.  His parents can have a date night and I can have some special time with him.

I so look forward to Friday nights. I know that children grow up in a blink of an eye and there will come a time when my grandchildren's social life will take priority over spending time with their grandparents. In the meantime, this night of love and fun is one I greatly cherish.

"Classic" Cream Scones

One of my duties as hostess of our annual family tea party is to bake scones. I serve scones with homemade lemon curd and strawberry jam.  The scone course is my Mom's favorite part of the tea.  I don't know if she likes the scones or curd more but she always looks forward to this tea time treat!

Scones are basically a sweet biscuit.  They have a nice flaky texture and are a great accompaniment to tea.  They can be made in all shapes and sizes, and include whatever "add-ins" sound good.  As we have so many other food options at our tea, including the lemon curd and jam, we prefer our scones plain.

For our "Let It Snow"-themed tea I used a snowflake cookie cutter to make these scones. I brushed them with water and sprinkled with baking sugar for a little sparkle.

The day after our tea found me done with chores, ready to relax, do a little reading, and with some leftover lemon curd. I baked a batch of scones, brewed a pot of tea and had a little quiet time. Such a nice treat!

"Classic" Cream Scones

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh grated lemon peel to the dry ingredients as a great way to have lemon with your tea!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 cup (heavy) whipping cream
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup currants or raisins (optional)
1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon water for glaze (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and distribute them over the flour mixture. With a pastry blender or two knives used scissors fashion, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. In a small bowl, stir together the cream, egg, and vanilla. Add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and stir until combined. Stir in the currants or raisins, if desired.

With lightly floured hands, pat the dough into a 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured cutting board. Using a floured 2 1/2-inch-diameter round biscuit cutter or a glass (or a cookie cutter), cut out rounds from the dough and place them on the prepared baking sheet. (Alternately, the round can be cut into wedges.  Do not separate the wedges until after baking). Gather the scraps together and repeat until all the dough is used. Lightly brush the tops of the scones with the egg mixture, if desired.  Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Serve warm or cool completely and store in an airtight container.