Food

Stuff that tastes good.

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iPad Brownies

This is a pan of cream cheese brownies right out of the oven.  I have never met a pan of brownies that I didn’t like.  What made these different is not the addition of cream cheese or any special chocolate.  What made these different is that this is the first time I found a baking recipe on an application from my iPad and used the iPad throughout the process to make the brownies similar to how I would have used a cookbook.  Just like it has for regular books, the iPad has brought cookbooks into  the digital tablet era. While I still like the look and feel of a book and a cookbook, a digital recipe is nice especially if you are looking for something to make in a quick fashion.  That’s the story of these brownies….I needed to make a fast dessert for dinner with friends.  Join me as I make these cream cheese brownies for my dinner party: 

Ingredients:

  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
  • 1 cup plus two tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 4 ounces room-temperature bar cream cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter.  Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides.  Butter paper, and set pan aside.  In a small bowl, whisk 1 cup flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  Place 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter and chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan.

 Add 1 1/4 cups sugar; mix to combine.  Add 3 eggs, and mix to combine.  Add flour and cocoa mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix).

Prepare cream-cheese mixture:  Whisk bar cream cheese with 2 tablespoons room-temperature butter.  Whisk in 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.

Alternately spoon chocolate batter and cream-cheese mixture into pan; with the tip of a paring knife, swirl to marble.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes.  Cool in pan for 30 minutes.  Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper).  On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

Needless to say, my friends devoured the brownies.  Quick, fast, easy, delicious.  The way a recipe should be.  Try this recipe and also investigate the different baking and cooking applications available for the iPad.  Do you have a favorite quick dessert recipe you would like to share with us on Acorns On Glen?

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Meatball Mania With Sauce

This is how to make real Italian meatballs based on a recipe from a real Italian grandmother.  It wasn’t a simple task.  There are no measuring cups or spoons utilized.  There is no recipe filed away in a drawer.  It’s all done from memory and how much something weighs in the palm of her hand.  This recipe comes from the memory of a real Italian grandmother.  A Brooklyn Italian grandmother–the best kind.  She has been making these meatballs most of her life.  It is second nature to her.  She can quickly prepare this meal until I asked her if I could tag along and take pictures, write the ingredients and steps down in recipe format, measure in cups and spoons and then post the recipe here on Acorns On Glen.  Not only is the finished product delicious (I ate seven), it also illustrates a way to wear rings and bracelets while making meatballs and not get them dirty.  Go figure!  We made the meatballs and sauce at the same time, so be prepared to jump back and forth between the meatball and sauce sections.  If you follow our steps below, you will be fine….and also be named an honorary Brooklyn Italian grandmother for the day.  See how we made them:

Ingredients for the Meatballs:

  • 2 pounds of ground sirloin
  • 1/4 cup of Italian parsley, chopped (Brooklyn Italian grandma alert–it has to be Italian parsley; no curly allowed)
  • 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup of grated Pecorino cheese (we used a lightly smoked Pecorino cheese that we bought from a local cheese shop)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the Sauce:

  • 1 large or 2 regular hot Italian sausages, cut into 2 inch pieces (you can use sweet Italian sausage if you prefer.  We bought our sausages from the local butcher)
  • 1 35-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 35-ounce can of plum tomatoes in juice
  • 1 can of tomato paste
  • 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 3/4 cup of chopped onions
  • 1 cup of torn basil leaves (you can add more if you would like, to taste)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil for the meat, plus 3 tablespoons for the sauce

Begin by mincing the garlic cloves for the meatballs.  Garlic is a key ingredient and some people like it finely minced, while others like it a little more course.  You decide according to your taste. 

  Jewelry optional!

In a large bowl, add the ground sirloin and eggs.  Crack eggs in a bowl one at a time to make sure they are good and don’t contain any shell and then add to the meat.

Add the chopped Italian parsley, bread crumbs, grated cheese, milk and salt and pepper to meat and egg mixture.  Now get your hands in there and mix all ingredients until well combined.  Don’t mix too much after ingredients are combined as you want lighter meatballs and too much mixing will make them too heavy.  Less is best.

 Insert fingers to the top of your rings.

After the mixture is combined, heat the 1/4 cup olive oil from the sauce recipe in a large skillet.  When it is heated, add the sausage pieces and brown them well.  When the sausages are well browned, put them on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

In the sausage flavored olive oil, let’s start cooking the meatballs.  With your hands, take the meatball mixture and form a meatball into a size that fits in the palm of your hand.  Have a bowl or glass of water nearby to dip your fingers into when you start to notice that the meat mixture is sticking to your fingers/palm.

See a piece of parsley on the finger right above the ring, but nothing on the ring?

Add the meatballs to the oil and cook until well browned.  Remove them from the skillet and place them with the sausage on the plate lined with paper towels.  Remember that they will continue to cook all the way through later in the process when they are added to the sauce.

Now let’s move to completing the sauce.  Begin by mincing the 6 other cloves of garlic and chopping the onions.

Wearing a ring while chopping onions will not make you cry during the chopping process (not true)!

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot.  When heated, add the garlic and onion and saute until onion is translucent.  Add the tomato paste and cook until the paste gets very dark in color.  At that time, add the two cans of crushed and plum tomatoes and stir to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Now add the sausage pieces and browned meatballs and simmer on the stove on medium to medium low heat for about an hour ensuring that the meatballs are cooked all the way through.

Prepare the pasta of your choice (we used 2 pounds of linguine). 

 Notice that the ring is clean and not caked with meat or sauce.  Excellent execution!

Add the torn basil leaves to the sauce and let them cook down into the sauce.  Ladle the sauce over the pasta and make sure to put lots of meatballs and sausage on top and enjoy.  Grate more Pecorino over the top if you would like.  How easy was that?  Real Italian meatballs with gravy.  Thanks to our Brooklyn Italian grandma.  We will be bringing her back into the kitchen in the future.  She makes more than meatballs and sauce.  What Italian recipes would you like to see from our Brooklyn Italian grandma?

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Seed Catalogs Galore

This is where the seeds for my 2011 garden will come from this year.  These are the finalists out of many.  I have read most of the ones that were sent to me and the ones above offer what I feel I am looking for the most in seeds that I will buy and use to grow food for us to eat.  It is amazing that so many seed catalogs exist.  As a new gardener here on Glen Road, I have to say that a lot of trees go into the production of all the seed catalogs that are sent out over the fall and winter months.  Here’s hoping that most gardeners are also fans of recycling!  When I say I am a new gardener, I really mean that I’m a gardener who took a very long break.  My first gardening stint ended years ago when I left home to go to college and started back up when I moved to Connecticut and finally built a raised bed garden in 2010.  So not so much a new gardener, but more of a gardener that took a very long break from 18 years old to 47 years old. 

My parents and my grandmother were very big gardeners.  My parents moved from a small farm town with a big garden into a bigger city, but they still have a nice size garden that they tend to even to this day.  So, needless to say, I got into gardening from a very early age and being in the garden is one of my earliest memories.  I remember being very young and digging up horseradish and grinding it with my grandma on the picnic table in the backyard.  I remember joining the 4-H organization for gardening and winning a blue ribbon at the fair.  I also remember crying when my father ordered my brother and I out on a Saturday morning to weed the garden.

Trivia Challenge:  Do you remember what the 4 H’s stand for in the 4-H emblem? 

Garden seeds were also one of my earliest entrepreneurial endeavors.  Back in Iowa, 10-year-old kids like me at the time could request a box of seeds from the Burpee Seed Company and then work to sell them to friends, family and neighbors.  In those days, the seeds weren’t sold for much and my profit margin was slim.  At the end of the spring selling season, you put your unsold seeds and your proceeds for seed packages sold  (less your profit) into an envelope and sent it back to Burpee.  I remember the box showing up at the post office and my heart pounding.  Inside were the usual seed suspects,: beans, cucumbers, lettuce, zinnias, spinach, to name a few.  I would then harass any adult I ran into to buy seeds.  I harassed adults to buy seeds that didn’t even have a garden.  Some people were forthright and said “NO, GO HOME NOW BEFORE I CALL YOUR MOTHER!” and others were very kind and bought four or five packets.  Knowing how bad I wanted to have a little money, I mainly remember my parents and grandma buying most of the leftovers and planting them in their own gardens.  I’m still waiting for Burpee to contact me and give me my “Seed Salesman of the Year” award.   

In looking for seeds for the 2011 garden, I made a very short list of what I was looking for in the companies I would use to buy seeds for the new growing season.  Here is that initial list (in bold type) lifted from a little journal I keep.  The journal is not like any diary of secret thoughts and loves lost, but more a journal of things I write down to remember later when I have the time to research and investigate.  My memory is sometimes a little cloudy these days!  Here is what I wrote:

  1. Seed companies I use should tell me that they have adopted the “Safe Seed Pledge”.  I have read a lot about genetically modified seeds.  I personally do not feel that a seed produced outside of normal reproductive methods is one that I want to plant, grow and eventually eat.  I can’t find any proof that they are good for us.  I can’t find any proof that they are bad for us.  So until I find out one way or the other, I don’t want them in my garden.  The “Safe Seed Pledge” tells me that the seed company is one that does not knowingly buy or sell genetically modified seeds. 
  2. Seed companies I use should offer a large selection of organic seeds and be able to provide a copy of their organic product verification form.  I most closely associate the term organic to be one that symbolizes that no chemicals were used in the raising and harvesting of the seeds I am using.  Chemicals are not good for the environment and not good for me.  I am sure there is much more to the term organic, but I always think about the non-use of chemicals.  I don’t want seeds that aren’t organic because I don’t want the chemicals inside of me or in the environment that I live in here in Connecticut.
  3. Seed companies I use should give me detailed explanations on how to sow the seeds and what I should do and expect during their growing season.  I am a perfectionist, which is not something I am particularly proud of in my life, but is something that I need to confess and accept.  I want my garden to look great and produce to the best of its ability.  I think that the plants are my babies and I want to do what is right for them.  I could spend hours doing research on the internet, but who has the time.  I want a company that spells it out for me in a concise manner.  God forbid that I should do something wrong!

So you have seen the finalists in the picture above.  Now it is time to announce the winner for seed catalog to use the most for Glen Road’s 2011 garden.  The winner is…..

Johnny’s Selected Seeds!  You can find them at www.johnnyseeds.com.  Johnny’s Selected Seeds is a privately held, employee-owned seed producer and merchant headquartered in Winslow, Maine.  The company was established in 1973 by Founder and Chairman Rob Johnston, Jr.  Johnny’s mission is helping families, friends and communities to feed one another by providing superior seeds, tools, information and service.  Their products include vegetable seeds, medicinal and culinary herb seeds, flower seeds, cover crops, farm seed and pasture mixes, fruit plants and seeds, and high quality, problem-solving tools and supplies. They carry sizes ranging from small to large to suit the needs of home gardeners and small growers as well as retailers and wholesalers.  Johnny’s Selected Seeds also meets my three criteria in a big way.  They adhere to the “Safe Seed Pledge”.  They offer a wide variety of organic seed and have the proper certificates.  The also give great “how to” information for this perfectionist.  I have placed the bulk of my order with them and will share my goodies with you when they arrive. 

Here’s hoping for a great 2011 garden here in Connecticut.  I hope you will be with me every step of the way.  I’m looking at the raised bed garden I built right now through the window and it is still covered in snow.  Can anything grow there this spring and summer?  Let’s hope so.  It all starts with the right seeds.  Do you have any seed or gardening advice that you want to share with the “new again” gardener here on Acorns On Glen?

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One Great Ribeye Steak

This is one great steak.  Last week, all of us here at Acorns On Glen made a delicious Spring Risotto and then shared the recipe.  At the same time we made the risotto, we also tried an Emeril Lagasse steak recipe that guaranteed an end result that is as good or better than a real steakhouse ribeye.  It was beyond fantasic!  Using the Emeril’s seasoning, some great ribeyes from our butcher, the butter topping and a combination of grilling and roasting made for one delicious night of eating.  We used a grill pan on top of the stove for the grilling part and then our convection oven for the roasting part.  As you know, I am not a big citrus fan in the cooking I do.  The compound butter recipe called for some lemon juice, but I omitted it.  If you like, you can put one tablespoon back in the recipe.  If you are a steak lover (and I think most of us are), you have to try this “to die for” recipe.

For the steak:

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup Emeril’s Original Essence (available at most supermarkets…I got mine at Stop & Shop)
  • 4 (20- to 22-ounce) bone-in dry-aged rib-eye steaks
  • 4 (1/2-inch-thick) slices Maitre D’Hotel Butter (below)
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

In a small bowl, whisk together oil and Emeril’s Original Essence to combine. Rub oil mixture all over steaks and place in a shallow dish. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Bring steaks to room temperature 30 minutes before ready to cook.

Preheat a grill pan to medium-high heat. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place steaks on grill pan. Cook, turning once, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer steaks to a large ovenproof skillet or baking sheet with a wire rack inserted into it; transfer to oven and roast until internal temperature of steaks reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove steaks from oven and set temperature to broil.

Place a slice of butter on each steak; transfer steaks to broiler and broil until butter just starts to melt, 20 to 30 seconds. Serve immediately, garnished with parsley.

For the Maitre D’Hotel Butter:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I always use Italian flat)
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor; process to combine.  I just put softened butter in a bowl and mixed it together with a fork.  I didn’t think it was necessary to dirty the food processor.

Transfer mixture to the center of a large sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper; form a log about 1 1/2 inches thick. Fold the wrap over the butter and gently roll to form a smooth cylinder; twist ends to seal.

Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. Butter can be frozen for up to 1 month.

Doctors tell us that eating steak everyday is probably not the greatest thing for your health.  Everything in moderation, right?  So when you do allow yourself the treat of steak, try this recipe.  You won’t be sorry.  What is your favorite recipe that you can share with us at Acorns On Glen?