Food Lush

Raspberry Buttercream Icing

by Jen L.

A lot of you will pass out when you read this next sentence. I am not a fan of traditional buttercream icing. I know, it's practically a sin. How could I be this southern and not like something with "butter" in the title? In my defense, if I mess with the traditional recipe a bit, I usually end up with something pretty delicious.

My family just returned from three -- count 'em, three -- weeks away visiting family. I couldn't wait to get back to my kitchen. I'd already planned to do some baking today, but my son hurried the process along. Around 9:30 a.m., he came to me and requested a vanilla cake with pink icing. Off to the kitchen I went.

I chose my traditional vanilla cake with pudding in the mix recipe and a bundt pan as my baking vessel. While that baked, my son and I got to work on the icing. Buttercream is easy. It's basically just butter and confectioner's sugar. My kitchen is a little more bare than usual, so I used one stick of unsalted and one stick of salted butter. It tasted fine in the finished product. To make this version, I used a 6-ounce container of fresh raspberries. We pureed them in the food processor, then I squished the pulp through a strainer to get rid of the seeds.  (If you know about my texture issues, you won't be surprised that seeing nothing but seeds in the strainer almost made me hurl.  Ahem.) My son tasted it halfway through the mixing process and declared, "It needs vanilla." He was so right.  Next time, I may even sneak a little almond extract in there. The result is a very creamy, slightly tart icing that is the most beautiful shade of pink.

Here's the recipe, if you'd like to give it a try!  I think it would be divine on a chocolate cake.

RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM ICING

• 3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks at room temperature)
• 1 cup fresh (or thawed from frozen) raspberries
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a food processor, puree raspberries until fairly liquified.  If desired, strain to eliminate the seeds. Place butter, half the sugar, and raspberry puree into a large mixing bowl.  Mix on low speed until well-blended.  Add the other half of the sugar and the vanilla extract. Increase speed to medium.  Mix until very well-blended and slightly fluffy.  The icing will have a different consistency due to the fruit juices.  It will spread normally, though.  Frost cooled cake and devour.

It's a little melty because SOMEONE couldn't wait for it to cool all the way!

Brined Chicken – Heaven on a Grill

By Julie

We eat a lot of chicken, and I am always on the lookout for new chicken recipes. My cut of choice is a skinless, boneless breast, due to its versatility and easy storage (yes, that’s important, just go with it). But we also grill a whole bunch as well, and the SBC just doesn’t hold up so well under that kind of cooking. I can only manage so many lemon pepper chicken breasts before I want to scream.

I will also admit that I am not terribly skilled with the grill, and very often, meat turned out dry and tasteless. I’m working on it, under the tutelage of Master Griller, er, my dad. He is truly fantastic, my friends, a grill savant. His barbecue is the best in the world, and I will happily ask him to work his magic if you come visit me. (Sadly, I can only seek to learn his technique as he will not share his sauce/glaze recipe with me, as I am a girl. Some traditions are concrete.)

Anyway. Some years back during a Food Network binge, I watched Sunny Anderson brine some bone-in chicken pieces before grilling, so I thought I’d give it a try. Her recipe consists of water, salt, sugar, and lemons, as seen here. I can tell you I’ve used this concept many times over, never exactly following the proportions, and it turned out great every single time. It’s juicy and flavorful and perfect.

This is the method to my madness. I fill my largest bowl with water (leaving room for the chicken), and mix in table salt about a half a cup at a time until the salt won’t dissolve anymore (approximately – go with your gut here). Then I add in a few tablespoons of sugar and pour in lemon juice (perhaps a half a cup or slightly more, depending on how much lemon flavor I want to come through). I dump in the chicken. I tend to use hind quarters, but any cut, particularly bone-in, will do. Then let it soak -the longer, the better.

The last trick to remember is to grill the chicken low and slow. This will reduce flame up and let the chicken cook evenly and thoroughly without the outside burning or drying out.

My whole family loves this chicken. And that’s saying something since my kids typically don’t eat chicken that isn’t in nugget form. This is truly a winner winner chicken dinner. (Yeah, I went there. But don’t let it stop you from trying the brine.)

(Photo from: Me. Apologies for the "well-seasoned" grill.)

Childhood Summer Food Memories

By Nora    

When I was little, and through my early teens, I would spend at least a few weeks every summer in Norway with my mom, who was born there. Those weeks were spent at our family cottage an hour or so north of Oslo, and yes, it was as idyllic as it sounds. The cottage is perched up on a hill and overlooks a huge lake, where I used to swim and fish for trout with my grandpa. 

Family cottage.

View from the cottage.

I remember nights where the sun would never fully go down below the horizon, and evenings spent watching Dynasty (with Norwegian subtitles) on the small black-and-white TV with my grandpa next to me in his rocking chair, and waking up first thing in the morning to the sounds of my grandmother preparing breakfast in the tiny kitchen outside my room. Breakfast was usually a soft boiled egg (fresh from a nearby farm, of course), and whole grain bread with sweet butter. There were also any number of other strange options available at our breakfast table. Usually pickled herring, thinly sliced salted meats, lingonberry jam, and goat cheese (the hard brown kind, not the soft white kind we're used to seeing in recipes these days). While this was definitely a far cry from the cereal and milk I was used to at home, it always felt so important and significant to start the day out with my family this way. My grandpa would always make a big show of putting the herring on his buttered bread, and relishing eating it while I made faces of disgust. After his meal, he would down a full glass of buttermilk and lick his lips. To this day I don't know how he could stomach that combination of foods, but he lived to be 93 and was active and healthy until the day he died. So there's something to be said for pickled herring and buttermilk for breakfast, is all I'm saying.

Right after breakfast, we would usually head outside with blue plastic buckets in hand, and start picking fruit to make into jam or juice---plums from the plum trees, and currants and raspberries from the abundant bushes on the hillside. By lunchtime, our fingers and mouths were stained from the fruit, and the full buckets covered the table as we started prepping jars and bottles for cooking the preserves.

Another thing we grew at the cottage were sugar snap peas, and I used to grab them right off the vine and crunch crunch crunch until most of them were gone. I think the only reason my grandparents kept growing them was for my benefit, because I don't remember eating them any other way than directly from the garden. To this day, I can't eat a sugar snap pea without imagining myself standing surrounded by the vines (taller than me at the time) and knowing they were mine for the taking.

My fondest and most strong food memory by far, were the raspberries. For dessert almost every night, my grandmother would put a bunch of raspberries in a bowl, cover them with heavy cream, and sprinkle them with sugar. So simple, so fresh, and sublimely delicious. To this day,no dessert i've ever eaten can compare to the taste of the tart berries soaked in the smooth, sweet cream. The fact that I had picked them myself only made them taste better. And then there's the raspberry jam. I really have no words to explain how much that jam means to me. It's more than a food memory; it's a taste that can bring me to tears. I have never, nor will I ever, taste anything that means more to me. I rarely get to eat it now---when my aunt or cousin come to visit (which they are this summer!) they sometimes bring me a jar or two, but it's really unique to being in Norway, at the cottage. And I wouldn't even try to reproduce it here, even though it's really just raspberries and sugar, because it would NOT be the same. I can't explain why, it just wouldn't.

The last time I was at the cottage was in the early fall of 2007, when I took my husband to Norway to show him where I spent my summers as a kid. My grandfather had passed away the previous year, and it was so bittersweet to be back, but without him there. The jam tasted the same though, and the plum trees were still producing, and so there was comfort there for me through that food, which kept growing year after year, always welcoming me back.

(Me, with plums, 2007. The photo was taken by my tall husband, who took the photo uphill from me. That's why I look like I have super short legs (although to be fair, I AM only 5'2")

Recipe Round-Up

By Nicole

Check out some of the most enticing recipes posted around the web this week. They look delicious and are surely worthy of a whirl in your kitchen and mine.

Sausage Pepper and Onion Enchiladas with Beer-Cheese Sauce by The Small Boston Kitchen

Mexican Popcorn by Shutterbean

Peach Cobbler Scones by Joy the Baker

Corn, Tomato and Asparagus Salad by Hungry Girl Por Vida

Roasted Tomatoes with Ricotta and Mint by Inspired Taste

Beer and Pretzel Cupcakes by Bakers Royale

Baked Croissant Cinnamon French Toast by Pinch of Yum

Orecchiette with Garlic Scapes, Ricotta and Gremolata by Herbivoracious

Zucchini Fritters

by Maura

Last year I was a member of a CSA from which I received many, many zucchini every week. Will and I ate roasted zucchini until we turned a little green. Truth be told, I still have a little bit of a zucchini hangover. I still buy it at the store, though, because it is an easy and economical vegetable. Last week I was perusing the contents of my refrigerator and saw three large zucchini that needed to be used ASAP. Naturally, I turned to the internet and to my Twitter friends to get some suggestions. Nicole suggested zucchini fritters, which lead me to this recipe and these gorgeous and tasty goodies, which I served along side roasted salmon.

(photo source: Baked Zucchini Fritters (Kolokithokeftedes) by Souvlaki for the Soul)

These fritters were perfect: crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle and speckled with salty bits of feta cheese. Initially hesitant because I do not own a food processor, my old school box grater was surprisingly efficient in grating the zucchini and the recipe came together easily. I estimated the amounts of ingredients since the original recipe uses metric measurements. The original recipe is also gluten free. I don't have almond flour, so I used panko, which worked out quite well. I paired the fritters with a sauce of sour cream, Greek yogurt and lemon juice, but they tasted so good I didn't eat the sauce on them.

We ate these two nights in a row, they were so delicious. I also think they would make great appetizers or party food. Hope you enjoy!

Odds and Ends and A Lemongingeraid

by Caitlin

Hi friends. I've got a few odds and ends for you today.

First, thanks so much for your great comments on my last couple of posts. It was fun to hear about your own camping/tubing snacks and traditions. I also love reading the comments on my post about my grandmother. I don't always know where those posts come from, but they tend to hit me out of the blue. I also don't know why Gram specifically seems to inspire so many food memories, but my guess is that it's exactly because we've always had a special relationship, she's still around, still her same old self, and yet she's aging, and sometimes that's really hard. It makes me nostalgic. It somehow helps to share the nostalgia.

On that note, I always appreciate your comments here. I'm not always great about responding to them, but I read every single one and always appreciate when someone takes the time to stop and write something in response to what I've written. I love having that interaction with you, so thank you for that.

Second, Zach and I have gone on our big trip to Napa and San Francisco and we ate and drank so many wonderful things I hardly know where to start to tell you about it. I will, though, for the highlights at least. But it's not going to be today. Which brings me to my next point.

Third, you may remember how I've had some chronic sinus problems going on. Well, I had surgery for it. Yesterday. (It's Wednesday as I write this.) (This post brought to you by post-op pain meds YAYYY!) Thus, I don't have a lot of substance to offer you, but I will tell you a couple of things I've been enjoying lately. And since I'm going to be laid up in bed for a few days, would you do me a kind favor and do the same? Tell me what you're enjoying lately. Or even what you're looking forward to enjoying over the summer. Or something you once enjoyed or possibly might enjoy sometime. You know, that sort of thing. Or just your favorite color. Like that.

1.) So, one of my current challenges is hydration. I normally drink a ton of water but for some reason I can't seem to get enough post-op. I CAN tell you that ice water has never tasted so good, but I'm also looking for something with flavor to keep it interesting. Today I combined peach lemonade with Gosling's Ginger beer and it was GLORIOUS. Longtime readers may recall that I am a huge fan of ginger. Gosling's makes the best Ginger Beer, in my opinion, and I highly recommend it for a very fresh, spicy ginger flavor. It's made with high-fructose corn syrup, which I'm not crazy about but meh. Sometimes I'm just feeling absolutely WILD, you know? Just so completely WILD. #cornsyrup

 

Photo from scojuice.com

This is the lemonade I used. It is pretty delicious. Wait until Whole Foods has it on sale for $1 per bottle and stock up.

When making this drink I got to use my favorite Keep It Fizzy trick which made me feel slightly giddy. I could blame that on the vicodin but that would be disingenuous.

2) Talenti Gelato.

Photo from southfloridagourmet.com

Specifically, Sea Salt Caramel gelato by Talenti Gelato. It's made of unicorn tears. And also tiny chocolate-caramel cups which I was not expecting and which I thought would ruin the plain old sea salt caramel I was looking for but now I don't know how I can live without them. The only thing that upsets me about this gelato is that it was on sale at the store and I didn't buy more. You should go buy some right now.

So, that's it. That's all I got. What's new with you, friends? Entertain me while I'm laid up in bed? Please? Your hair sure looks nice today.

Dinner: A Love Story, Cookbook Review + Giveaway

Editor's Note: We have a treat today! Sara, a lovely Style Lush writer, is reviewing one of her favorite cookbooks for us -- and if you read to the end, there's a chance for you can win your very own copy!

***

By Sara

I can’t believe I am going to admit this on a foodie site but for a long time I never cared much for cooking. I know! It seemed silly to worry about cooking when it was just me and when I was first married, my husband and I would spend many leisurely hours at restaurants paying someone else to make us delicious meals. I figured I probably wasn’t very good at cooking since I didn’t know how to look in the fridge and pantry and just “whip something up.”

Then the first baby came along and did you know that at some point babies want to eat food aside from milk? That was news to me. Strangely, this little baby couldn’t cook for himself so it was up to me to do it for him. I still managed to do as little cooking as possible in his first couple years and my husband and I subsisted on a steady diet of whatever could be thrown together in ten minutes. We ate a lot of pasta.

Then something slowly started to change. We had a second baby last fall and suddenly it dawned on me that we had a family to feed. These people required sustenance and nourishment and someone to grocery shop for them. To say it took a decade to get me on board with cooking wouldn’t be an exaggeration … at all. So I started to seek out cooking blogs, recipe blogs, and family blogs -- anywhere I could find ways to make cooking for my family easy and fun for all of us. I needed guidance and someone to tell me what to do or how to do it. I began experimenting in the kitchen, well, as much experimenting as I could do with a three year old and newborn hanging on my person at all times. Through some trial and error I discovered that I didn’t totally suck at cooking. In fact, I was actually pretty decent at it. It quickly became incredibly important to me that I make cooking dinner a priority and, here is the summit of the proverbial mountain, eat it together.

Around last October I came across the epitome of cooking blogs. The queen of simple recipe blogs. The high priestess of family dinner … and no, I am NOT talking about that woman out on the ranch with the show on TV. I’m talking about Dinner: A Love Story. Jenny Rosenstrach, a former editor for Cookie magazine and Real Simple, authors this refreshing, witty, and friendly blog about her mission to bring families back to the dinner table. Her tagline says it all “it all begins at the family table.” BAM. Yes, it does.

(Photo from goodreads.com)

Not only does Jenny write this endearing blog but she also just wrote a cookbook, also titled Dinner: A Love Story! Wait, in all honesty, it’s not just a cookbook. It’s a family book. It’s her love story about her family and about finding joy in feeding her family as often as possible. There are no overarching platitudes about how your children will grow up to be drug smugglers if you don’t feed them farm fresh dinners and eat together every single night. Instead she writes a lyrical memoir about what eating together as a family means to her, interspersed with simple recipes for dinners at all stages of life. There are recipes for the newly adult living on their own for the first time.

There are recipes for young families where the thought of standing over the stove for an hour while also entertaining the under-three set makes you want to pack your bags for Aruba … alone. And there are recipes for families with growing children who have the ability (not necessarily the inclination, however) to sit still and enjoy a meal with their parents.

Jenny has written this book for all of us, wherever we are in our family lives. You don’t have to be an incredible chef to execute her dishes. They’re simple, fresh and very few include what she calls “page turners”( i.e. ingredients that just make a recipe seem insurmountable). As a loyal reader of the blog, I’ve been making a number of her recipes for a while now and was excited to see some wonderful new ones in the book.

My confidence in the kitchen has grown and our family dinner future looks so much brighter because of Dinner: A Love Story.

Do YOU want the chance to bring your family closer together over the dinner table? How about your very own copy of Dinner: A Love Story?

The rules & guidelines:

• To enter: Leave a comment answering the question: My favorite family meal is ______.
• Giveaway ends: Tuesday, 7/3, at 11:59 p.m. EST. 
• Who can enter?: Anyone!
• Other notes: One comment per person, the winner will be selected by random.org and announced on the site by 7/9.

Good luck!

***

Thanks to Sara for the incredible review and to the publisher (HarperCollins) for providing a review copy.

Cooking tips and tricks

by Elsha

Just wanted to share some of my favorite cooking tips!

1) You can test if an egg is still good by putting it in a pan of cold water. If the egg sinks it's good, if it floats it's not.

2) Learn your oven's hot spots by filling a cookie sheet (or two if your oven will hold two side by side) with bread slices. Bake the bread for a few minutes at 350^o and then see which pieces are darker than the others. Most ovens are hotter toward the back, but the difference is more prounounced in some.

3) It's easier to slice meat if it's still partially frozen.

4) Add a splash of vinegar to your water before poaching eggs. It will help the eggs hold their shape while they cook.

5) A slice of bread placed in a package of hardened brown sugar will soften it again. 

Do you have any favorite tricks?

Lemon Brownies with White Chocolate Glaze

By Ariel

I pinned this recipe awhile back and kept meaning to make them. Lemon brownies? Sounds slightly sacrilegious to me. I followed the "brownie" recipe exactly, but deviated from the glaze, opting for a white chocolate chip and lemon juice combination (about 1/2 cup melted chips beaten with 1 Tbs. lemon juice and 1 tsp. lemon zest). I spread one thin layer of the white chocolate on the brownies after baking, let them cool, then did one more layer. While the second layer was settingm I sprinkled shredded coconut on top. The result was a nice hint of chocolate to offset the citrus. I'm really glad I went the white chocolate route, because these are LEMONY.

I apologize for the sub-par photo, when I went to grab my camera I realized the batteries were dead. Oops! They would be a great little dessert for a summer party and sprinkling a little coconut on top gives them a bit of a meringue kick. 

These are different than other lemon squares/bars/what have you because there's no crust of any sort to them...I don't like crust. (I know! What's wrong with me?) I've made lemon bars before but I'm always a little put off by the crumbly crust. These are more brownie than pie/bars and so they are easy finger food rather than something you need to serve with something daunting like a plate of a fork. I'm planning a luau-type party later this summer and I think I'm going to serve these little guys in small squares on mini cupcake papers. Again, I am really glad I used some chocolate rather than more lemon, I think it would have been too sour/overpowering. 

They remind me a bit of a kind of cookie my grandma used to make, which was a nice surprise. That had a crust, though. Now that I've made my confession, what popular treat or food do you secretly dislike?

Ray Bradbury's Peach Kuchen

By Tara C.

I love to go to used bookstores and look for old and quirky cookbooks. One such find is The Great American Writers’ Cookbook, edited by Dean Faulkner Wells.

This book is a compilation of recipes provided by the authors themselves or a family member. As I scan through this cookbook, I am envisioning a book club dinner party featuring Norman Mailer’s Stuffed Mushrooms, Erma Bombeck’s Taco Salad, Hunter S. Thompson’s Open Face Cigarette Special Hot and Cold Sandwich with Artichoke Appetizer, and William F. Buckley Jr.’s Supply-Side Economics Fudge (best title, EVER, I think). But that will have to wait. Today I am interested in Ray Bradbury. As you may know, the author of The Martian Chronicles and Farenheit 451 passed away earlier this month. Why not pay homage with a favorite recipe?

His introduction is priceless: 

I wish I could think of something fabulous, but then as soon as I say that, I realize that I have a recipe that has been around our house for 25 years, and is incredible. Try this on your watering gums! Ray Bradbury's Peach Kuchen, by God! Stupendous stuff. Better than wine, popcorn, sex, cocaine, and memories of W.C. Fields!

I’m starting to think I’ve been under-selling my own recipes. And surely I can't be the only one who had to Google W.C. FieIds? I feel almost obligated to make something this steeped in hyperbole.

The result is very tasty. The custard topping topping is delicious with slightly tarte peaches. I recommend eating it warm.

Thank you, Ray Bradbury, for your enduring classics, for your ideas that provoked, challenged and entertained, and for the indelible mark you left on the literary world. I for one won’t underestimate your Peach Kuchen. My watering gums thank you, too. I think a slice would go well with a good book.

(photo from: me)

Ray Bradbury's Peach Kuchen
Recipe from: The Great American Writers' Cookbook, edited by Dean Faulkner Wells

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter or margarine (I used butter)
12 peach halves, fresh or canned or 2 pkg frozen slices (I used frozen slices)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 egg yolks
1 cup heavy or sour cream (I used heavy cream)

Start your oven at 400F or moderately hot and get out an 8-inch square pan. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar together in a mixing bowl.

Cut in butter or margarine with two knives or a pastry blender under mixture looks like a coarse cornmeal. Pat an even layer of this crumbly pastry over bottom and halfway up the sides of baking pan. Use your hands and press firmly until it holds.

Skin fresh peaches and cut in half; drain canned; thaw and drain frozen peaches. Arrange peaches over bottom pastry neatly and sprinkle with a mixture of remaining sugar and cinnamon. Bake 15 minutes, then pour a mixture of slightly beaten egg yolks and heavy or sour cream over the top. Bake 30 minutes longer. Serve warm or cold to 6.