Mini Maple Walnut Cupcakes and Caponatina

One of the best things about being an adult is getting to eat dessert before dinner without having to worry about anyone saying I'm going to spoil my appetite :P! So I'm posting the dessert before the meal ;). I found this recipe in a cheap cupcake cookbook I purchased at the pharmacy last weekend. It had such cute, delicious pictures, I assumed the recipes would be just as pleasing. Well, the mini cupcakes I made didn't turn out badly, I was just disappointed that they lacked flavor and spice. I followed the recipe for apple streusel cupcakes, but I was bummed when the crumbly part melted into the cupcake batter while it baked. I'm sure I didn't measure the topping properly, I can't imagine it was entirely the recipe's fault. When I discovered that the crumble had dissolved into the batter, I'd only used a little less than half of the topping. I didn't want to throw the rest away, so I figured I'd go ahead and make an interesting frosting with the remaining crumble. These are the ingredients that went into the crumble, followed by the ingredients I used to turn it into a frosting! I should call these Frankenstein cupcakes, because I used so many strange ingredients to make a frosting that would bring these tiny desserts to life!

Topping
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 TBSP butter

To end up with the frosting I made, you'll need to divide that recipe in half then add the following ingredients to the mix. I didn't measure, I just kept adding things until I ended up with something frosting-like in texture :) <---I know it sounds really silly, but somehow it worked and folks at work even said they were delicious! Sometimes I remind myself of Amelia-Bedelia in the kitchen! (I was a big fan of hers as a kiddo, in all honesty, I could never be as fabulous as she is :D):

Frosting with Topping
1 -2 TBSP heavy cream
a few tablespoons brown sugar
1-2 TBSP maple syrup
a few more sprinkles of cinnamon
about a cup of powdered sugar

and as for the cupcake recipe (you might want to add a few extra spices, I think I should've used apple pie spice with these)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup apple sauce
4 TBSP butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup self-rising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

bake at 350 for about 12 minutes (for mini cupcakes)

As you can see, these cupcakes aren't exactly healthy. Just staring at the list of ingredients is making one of my molars hurt, can you feel a cavity developing ;)? Now that we've all had our sugar rush for the day, let's move on to dinner...

So my new friend Michele said it was ok to post the yummy Caponatina recipe she shared with me! I made this hearty Italian dish to go along with the chicken picatta I made for dinner this past weekend. It was the first time I tried both eggplant and caponatina. I was so happy to discover that it wasn't too difficult to make, despite its complex flavor. I divided the following recipe in half and didn't bother storing it in a jar because I had a feeling my husband and I would devour it in just two days -- I was right!

oops, I forgot to unpeel the eggplant! Can you believe I just noticed?! :D

Grandma Rose’s Caponatina Sicilian Style
2 lb unpeeled eggplant, cut into 1” cubes
½ cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
3 ½ oz. tomato paste
1 cup water
1 lb green olives, salted and pitted
2 oz jar of capers, unsalted and drained
salt and pepper to taste
1 heaping tsp. sugar
¼ cup wine vinegar

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and celery, cook until almost tender. Remove onions and celery and place in a bowl. In same skillet, sauté eggplant until light brown. Remove. In same pan, over med flame, cook tomato paste and water, stir until dissolved. Add olives, eggplant, capers, onion, celery, salt and pepper. Mix well. Bring to a boil over high flame. Lower flame and simmer for 5 minutes. Add sugar and vinegar. Stir and cook for ½ minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Makes 2 quarts. Sterilize jars before using. Cover tightly.
Keeps in refrigerator for 6 weeks.

I found the chicken picatta recipe in a magazine I received in the mail last week! It's called Cuisine At Home, it isn't sold in stores yet; it was a free gift I received most likely for subscribing to 3 other foodie magazines. It's really great because it offers pictures along with step-by-step instructions, and some other fun cooking tips. The recipe called for 4 chicken cutlets, but I only had 5 drumsticks so I improvised a little :).

Instructions:
Well, they say you should sprinkle the cutlets with salt and pepper then lightly cover them in flour. But just a few pages away from this recipe in the same magazine was a short article that convinced me I needed to first dip the chicken in a mix of egg whites and corn starch THEN roll them in flour (I used whole-grain, it gave it a heartier flavor) seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and a bit of parsley. It was something new I wanted to try, so I went ahead and tried it on the chicken. I was happy with the results.

So here are the rest of the instructions:
Sautee in 2 TBSP oil (they suggest veg oil, I used olive) then once the chicken pieces are browned on all sides, set them aside. In the same pan that you used to lightly fry the chicken, add 1/4-1/2 cup white wine (depending on how much chicken you're using) and 2 minced garlic cloves. Then add 1/2 cup chicken broth, 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice, 2 TBSP butter, and 1 TBSP fresh capers. I wanted a thicker sauce, so I added a bit of flour to the mix. Since I used chicken drumsticks instead of cutlets, I went ahead and placed a few lemon slices in an oven-safe platter, then set the drumsticks on top of the slices. I then poured the "sauce" on top of each lightly fried chicken drumstick. Because I accidentally got a little more caper juice in the sauce than I wanted :D, I drizzled a bit of honey on top of the chicken before placing it in the oven to bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes. If you're using cutlets, you can go ahead and continue cooking the chicken in the pan with the sauce until it's no longer pink. Though pink is one of my favorite colors, it's not very flattering on chicken ;).

Cupcakes and Biscuits: A Carb Lover's Heaven :)

(This week's dish for "Traveling the World One Plate at A Time" is Italian. A friend let me use a recipe from her significant other's grandmother's collection, but I want to make sure it's ok to put the recipe on here first...so I probably won't be posting the dish until later this week :)

I kind of went crazy with baking this weekend...I think it's because I secretly wish I had 60 batches of cookies to bake, but now that I've jumped over that hurdle without skinning my knees too badly (there were a few accidents, but I survived them!), I have a greater desire to bake than I did before the cookie baking task was assigned to me. My husband is very happy with that, even if I do turn the kitchen into a floury disaster zone every now and then. Thankfully, I had success with Celine's (Have Cake, Will Travel) Lemon Rolls with Rosewater Filling recipe. Though I couldn't get ahold of any rosewater (I gave them a vanilla twist instead), they were still a delicious and comfort-foody dessert that hit the spot. I've never even thought of making anything other than cinnamon rolls, so it was refreshing coming across this lemony recipe. She also has a recipe for pumpkin rolls posted that I plan on making later this week, how delicious!

Saturday night, after watching the very cute movie, Ratatouille (it's such a sweet movie -- Remy reminded me so much of my witty guinea pig, Yoshi!) I decided to bake up a batch of strawberry cupcakes. Now, these are not your ordinary strawberry cupcakes, they're much more than that! With strawberry filling hidden in the center to surprise you after the first bite, and a moussy frosting that's light but fruity and flavorful, any cupcake fan will fall for these yummy and appropriately pink sweet treats. You'd never guess they were dairy and egg free -- these vegan cupcakes are close to perfect...but the frosting is kind of hard to work with, particularly if you don't have much experience working with vegan butter (aka margarine that's hydrogenated oil-free). I'm quite inexperienced! Now here's where I start making a mess of the kitchen and get frustrated as a result of my ignorance :). (Whenever I start feeling like I've made a major mistake in the kitchen, the thought of throwing my failed "creations" away really disturbs me. Yes, if it tastes horrible, I throw it out, but even that bothers me. I have this idea that food turns into money as soon as it hits the trash bag. I hate wasting!)

This is what I discovered after making a few mistakes:

1. I added way too much batter to the cake pans, and sadly, these little cupcakes sink in the middle when that happens. Next time, I'll follow the cupcake rule (usually I just make huge cupcakes that rise easily -- can't do that with these)!

2. It's best to refrigerate the frosting over night. Vegan butter melts very quickly at room temperature. Also, next time I'll refrigerate the cupcakes as soon as they're frosted!

3. These cupcakes darken quite a bit as they bake, so next time I'll be sure to check on them more ofen; they don't take 20 minutes like the instructions say (more like 15).

I decided to take a break from the cupcakes after I realized that I was getting more frosting on myself than on their sunken tops.

I opened my fridge this morning and, to my surprise, the frosting was the perfect texture! I took a bite of one of the poorly frosted cupcakes and they were delicious -- I even ate one (and a half) before breakfast :). Thanks to my husband who suggested that I let the frosting cool in the fridge over night, these cupcakes were saved :). Oooh, and as he was keeping me company in the kitchen (watching me turn into someone resembling the Pillsbury Doughboy's sister, because I was getting covered in the powdered sugar I was using to try to thicken the frosting) he surprised me with a gift :)! He ordered me a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and My Sweet Vegan! I'm looking forward to baking some very tasty cupcakes with the help of these two fantastic books that my sweet husband ordered me.

So if you'd like to make a batch of these tasty cupcakes, you can click here for the recipe.

If this entry is entitled Carb Lover's Heaven, it should have at least 2 carby recipes, right? So here it is...

Well, I came across another recipe online this weekend that I didn't have much luck with... I've been trying to find a great biscuit recipe that isn't loaded with butter and shortening. I still haven't found one worth holding on to. Sadly, I had to throw away the biscuits from the about.com recipe I used (I could literally taste the baking powder, the after-taste was even worse). Thankfully, I had enough energy left over afterward to make another batch. This time, I was determined to create my own recipe. I remembered that a dumpling recipe I used in the past called for canola oil, so I thought I just might be able to use that very ingredient in the biscuit recipe I'd be putting together. It worked! I did use some butter, just enough to give the biscuits a buttery taste... here's the recipe for these low-in-saturated-fat biscuits :).

Lightly Buttered Buttermilk Biscuits

2 to 2 1/4 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup buttermilk
3 to 3 1/2 TBSP melted butter
¼ cup canola oil
¼ tsp salt

1 TBSP butter, for brushing

Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Remove biscuits from oven, use about 1 tbsp of butter to brush on all the biscuits. Bake for 5-7 more minutes at 350, until golden.

These taste great right out of the oven with a bit of honey or jam. Store them in a plastic container and they'll be ready for you to eat the next morning with breakfast. I bet homemade gravy would taste really good with these too!

Too Many Cookies to Count!

*Please note that the name of the cookie in bold and underlined signifies a link to the recipe

So I'm down to 1 more batch of cookies - chocolate meringues! I've been putting them off because, to be honest, I'm so worried about messing them up! This will be my first time making meringues...but I keep telling myself I should just go for it, get it over with - I've already baked 59 batches of cookies in less than a month (I was assigned a project to bake 60 batches of cookies and photograph them for our online cookbook, in case you're wondering why I'd even attempt such a crazy task), I should have some faith in my experience!

Just a few days ago I had to make a lemon curd for a cookie/treat. I was so happy that it didn't turn into scrambled eggs! Strangely, the last step in this cookie (they're actually bars) recipe that called for lemon curd required me to bake the curd for 10 minutes, that seemed kind of odd to me. I was afraid the eggs would start to curdle in the oven and destroy the smoothness of the curd. I was right! Thankfully, with a few minor repairs, the lemony dessert was saved...only thing is, after I photographed the one square for the online cookbook, I threw the rest away. For some reason, the thought of eating a dessert that was creamy because of egg yolks that turned into lemony scrambled eggs in the oven somewhat disturbed my taste buds. My husband, the courageous eater that he is, asked to try the small piece I saved...he said it was tasty! Ooh, I felt so bad for dumping the rest in the trash, that's what I get for not trying the strange yellow concoction first! Do any of you know if a curd is supposed to go in the oven? If it should get baked, then why did mine start resembling scrambled eggs after just 10 minutes? I imagine I did something wrong, but I'm still kind of lost as to where I made the mistake :). I'd appreciate any tips you all might have to offer!

I have to say that I really enjoyed baking all these cookies, even if my tummy didn't actually enjoy the results as much as my taste buds did...all that butter certainly did make the cookies delicious, but there is a reason why I don't use such large amounts every time I bake!

There are a few cookie recipes that stand out because of their unique ingredients and fun texture. I'd have to say my favorite cookies of the bunch were the whole wheat raspberry bars. Imagine homemade, preservative free fig newtons but with raspberry jam in the middle. Oh, I also made fig newtons, and I actually had a bit of energy left over to make the fig jam (it was so fun and easy, I didn't know jamming was so simple!), they were yummy but I prefer raspberries over figs :).


My husband's favorite "cookies" were the pecan pie bars. These are really amazing, they're just like the pie but a lot easier to make. I even divided the recipe in half, used less eggs, and altered the crust's recipe and it still came out well. I like this recipe because it's flexible and a lot easier to make than an actual pecan pie. I'll definitely make these in the future.

pecan pie bars

The cranberry and white chocolate cookies were also really amazing. They're basically an oatmeal cookie with white chocolate chips and cranberries.

So far, the two cookies that stand out for their interesting ingredients are the pistachio cookies and rolled maple sugar cookies. The pistachio cookie recipe calls for crushed cereal - it adds a fresh crunch to the cookies. From now on, I plan on keeping at least one box of plain corn cereal around for baking cookies, it's such a cool ingredient. As for the rolled maple sugar cookie recipe, I tweaked it a bit; I didn't have maple sugar, so I used brown sugar and added 1 tbsp of maple syrup to the dough. I also couldn't find any oat flour so I used all-purpose (next time I think I'll use wheat, I discovered it gives cookies a deeper flavor). I'm not a fan of shortening, so I substituted it with butter.

pistachio cookies

If you'd like to make your own candy bar at home, I suggest you try out this recipe for congo bars. Though I only had one bite, so that my gut wouldn't attack me later, it was a savory one. These were a hit at work! Congo bars are a great alternative to rice krispy treats; they're just as easy to make but 10x more savory.

congo bars

Oh, then there's the kolachke recipe, the "my favorite cookie" recipe (that's basically a chocolate chip cookie packed with delicious nuts), and the oh-so healthy survival cookies...but I'll share those later! I plan on making some of these cookies again, but if I can get away with it, I'd like to see if I can use less butter the second time around :).

Traveling the World, One Plate at A Time: Escalivada and Pollo A La Española

This weekend, our taste buds decided to take a trip to Spain. Using our kitchen as a vehicle for getting there, we discovered we didn't need a plane! So, a few hours ago, Jose and I put together two dishes that brought us closer to the Mediterranean than we've ever been. Our passport was a refrigerator full of delicious Spanish vegetables and ingredients, all of which we purchased earlier today at one of our favorite grocery stores, Central Market. We decided, instead of going out to eat on the weekends, we'd spend some time together in the kitchen preparing delicious, hearty meals that would give our very uneducated palates a greater appreciation for the world's many colorful flavors. It's a win-win situation: we get to spend more time together, and we actually end up saving money in the process! Even if you're on a budget, you can still travel; the kitchen is an amazing teleporter, you don't even have to ask Scotty to beam you up!

This week's dishes were Escalivada and Pollo A La Española, two very vegetable-loaded meals that will leave you feeling full and satisfied. I found these recipes in an old cookbook my husband purchased awhile ago, it's called Spanish: Over 150 Mouthwatering Step-By-Step Recipes by Pepita Aris. The chicken recipe gives the cook the option to use bacon lardons or pancetta; we thought it'd be fun to use pancetta since we've never tried it. We're so glad we did! Unlike bacon, it has a very mild, almost sweet flavor that enhanced the entire meal's flavor without taking the spotlight away from the rest of the dish. I didn't imagine it'd be this tasty! It is pretty fatty, but it actually seemed less fatty than bacon. I simmered the pancetta veggie sauce with the chicken for almost an hour. As a result, the often-dry boneless, skinless chicken breast pieces I normally use came out moist and full of flavor, even when eaten without the sauce (I didn't eat too much of the pancetta, but I noticed I still picked-up it's flavor in the chicken and I think it definitely contributed to its moistness).

So here are the ingredients for both dishes :)
Escalivada (this recipe makes enough for about 8 people, so I divided it in half and I still have leftovers for tomorrow)

2-3 zucchini
1 large fennel bulb
1 Spanish Onion
2 red bell peppers
1 butternut squash
6 whole garlic cloves
5 TBSP olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
pinch of crushed cumin seeds
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 medium tomatoes
salt and ground black pepper

Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes

Before turning on the oven, I suggest steaming the butternut squash. It didn't bake in the time it was supposed to, though all the other veggies were already soft and crisp on top. If I had to do it again, I'd bake it for 20 minutes at 375 or steam it for the same amount of time. Then I'd let it cool so that I could cut it into cubes and remove the skin. All the other vegetables get sliced long-ways; the tomatoes should be chopped, the garlic smashed (the skin stays on). The veggies need to be placed in a large-enough platter so that they're all level and not piled up too high. Basically, everything gets baked together, except for the tomatoes (those don't get added in until the rest of the veggies bake). The olive oil and lemon juice serve as a dressing for the veggies. The veggies get drizzled with olive oil/lemon juice right before the cumin gets sprinkled between the thyme sprigs and veggies. All these aromatic ingredient bake for 25 minutes. After these 25 minutes are over, remove the veggies from the oven and mix-in the chopped tomatoes, then bake all the veggies for another 15 minutes.

This is how the veggies should be chopped (I love that purple garlic, it's so tasty):


Pollo A La Española (this makes enough for 4)
1 tsp paprika
4 portions of chicken
3 TBSP olive oil
5 oz smoked bacon lardons or diced pancetta
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic olives, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced 1
4 oz can of tomatoes or 1 lb fresh
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
salt and ground black pepper

This dish could be a meal in itself and tastes great with something as simple as white rice. Even if you use chicken breast, they'll still come out moist if you simmer them over a low flame with the pancetta/veggie sauce for a good amount of time. As for the instructions: lightly lather the chicken pieces with paprika, then fry the chicken in 2 TBSP olive oil - cook covered. In another pan, cook the diced pancetta in 1 TBSP olive oil until it starts to get slightly crispy, then add the onion and garlic - mix and cook covered until the onions are soft. Add the green and red bell pepper to the chicken, continue cooking until the chicken is no longer pink. Add the tomatoes and chopped parsley to the pancetta and simmer for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the tomato/pancetta sauce to the chicken; then simmer the ingredients for at least 30 minutes, or until you're ready eat :).

Once all the ingredients simmer together, you'll get something like this...


I highly suggest using the pancetta if you've never tried it! I personally think bacon would be too strong for this dish, but the pancetta is so delicate in flavor and texture that it practically melts in your mouth :)!

Lemon Spice Cake with Ginger Vanilla Frosting

I am so excited, not only because I actually made an edible lemon based cake, but also because I talked to an advisor at Le Cordon Bleu in Boston today! Off and on, for a few years now, I've thought about going to culinary school. When I finally moved out of the dorms and into an apartment a year before graduating college, I couldn't stop cooking...I cooked out of necessity and desire. I love making things. Whether it's painting, drawing, writing poetry, making a card, or putting a fun dinner together, I always find that time goes by oh so fast when I'm doing any of these things.

I can honestly say that I enjoy cooking more than any other hobby, though. I feel like being able to go into a kitchen and whip up a tasty dinner or treat is a real blessing. Not only does it help me appreciate all the beautiful edible things God made from scratch, but cooking, in general, is an art form that I respect because it awakens all the senses. I get to inhale the aroma of the herbs I use to enhance the flavors of the simple foods that are simmering on the stove, I get to stick my hands into the gooey dough that the oven will magically turn into a loaf of bread, I get to play the official household food taster role while I'm cooking - and my taste buds love that...see what I mean? I also love how, no matter what, everyone needs to eat - so as long as there are hungry tummies, I'll be cookin'! That's a pretty long time, but I look forward to every second of it.

I do realize that my knowledge of food is very limited, but I just so happen to have an insatiable hunger to learn more...hence my desire to attend culinary school. I don't plan on being a chef at a 5 star restaurant (at least I don't intend on making a life-long career out of it - though I do plan on working as a chef to pay off the debt I'll aquire during culinary school). Still, some time in the distant future, I'd like to open up a fun and inviting restaurant right here in Austin, one that serves healthy, delicious, and eclectic food at a reasonable price. Food can be pretty and tasty without being pricey, but I haven't learned all the secret tricks of the trade yet!

I know I could probably pick up a few books and teach myself a few things, and I have done that, but I have a desire to know even more...I'd really love to get formally trained. Who knows if I'll end up going to culinary school in Cambridge (Boston) while Jose's attending law school, or here in Austin ( a few years later, when he's establishing his career). Thankfully, I have a loving husband who wants me to pursue my dream; he's been incredibly supportive and is leaving the "when and where" decision up to me, for the most part (we have to see what the financial aid dept has to say...and I'll have to look into those scholarships too!). We're both the type to throw ourselves into our passions/interests, so I have a feeling we have a pretty exciting future ahead of us! Oh, if only money grew on trees - that's the 'minor' setback...but I've learned that I most appreciate the things I have to whole-heartedly work at and patiently wait for :).

This is a cake that doesn't require much patience! It bakes in 15 minutes, a few minutes more or less, and tastes like it took hours to make! I love how a few spices and sprinkles of this and that can make a huge difference in the flavor of a baked good. Here's the list of ingredients and very brief prep instructions :)...because I've already written such a lengthy entry!

Lemon Spice Cake
3 Cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 large eggs
2/3 c nonfat milk
1/8 cup honey
1/2 cup canola oil
2.5 tsp pure lemon extract
1/4 c apple sauce

All of these ingredients eventually come together. If you're like me and try to get away with using one bowl, first add all the dry ingredients, including the leaveners...then make a little whole in the middle of the flour mix, and add the wet ingredients right before you fold everything together.

Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes in 2 round nine inch pans

I shaved off the poofy part of the cake, the little dome on top. It tastes pretty good without frosting...but if you want a light glaze-like frosting...here's a simple recipe:

Ginger Vanilla Frosting
2-3 tsps dried egg white (I get the one in the can, it's great for creating a solid finish)
4 TBSP butter
1 TBSP vegan shortening
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TBSP freshly grated ginger (fresh is best with ginger :)
3 TBSP water

This recipe can be easily tweaked. If you want it less watery, add more powdered sugar. Want a bit more flavor? Add a tsp of lemon extract. This makes a very thin layer of frosting; I prefer tasting more cake than frosting. If you'd like a thicker layer of frosting, just double the recipe and it'll yield enough to create a traditionally frosted cake :). To dress-up the cake a little, I added a few sprinkles of grated ginger on top, a slice of lemon, a mint leaf, and also a few pistachios for color. Happy Baking!

Traveling the World, One Plate at A Time: Kotopita (Greek Chicken Pie)

Before I write about my next fun plan for this blog, I'd like to begin this entry by giving a special thanks to Heather of Sweet Sins 2 Share. As a result of her kindness, my Berry Vanilla Cake is now featured on TasteSpotting :). She sent me a comment a few days ago letting me know that she submitted the cake. I thought it was such a nice surprise, but I had to laugh a little at the discovery, knowing full well that I initially held-off posting that cake on the blog because I thought the picture was somewhat unyummy! To be honest, before posting the cake recipe, both Jose (my husband) and I agreed that it looked like it had some kinda growth on its surface, as in fungus-amongus! Despite the fact that it is a very tasty cake, I didn't think it was a very photogenic one, which is why I was happily surprised when it received so many positive comments :). I'm glad you all like it, and thank you, again, Heather for being so thoughtful. I only hope my little confession didn't disgust anyone...but don't judge a cake by it's frosting, or lack thereof :)!

As for my fun plan for this blog: I hope to start posting at least one new 'world dish' recipe per week, I'll title these entries Traveling the World, One Plate at A Time. Lately, I've been getting bored with eating the same old, same old, and both Jose and I are really interested in trying new flavors and foods. As a result, I've made it a point to try a new dish at least once a week. In the same way that reading a variety of fiction and poetry can play a role improving your writing skills, tasting new foods with rich ingredients can contribute to making you a better cook. So in trying these new foods from around the world, I hope to gain a better understanding of how different spices work together and how I can incorporate these new flavors into my everyday dinners. I guess you can say that I'll be giving a heavy nod to fusion cooking, but in a very informal and laid back way.

Part of what inspired me to start this new foodie adventure was last week's Caribbean stew. Until that meal, I'd never had sweet potato in a dish that wasn't sweet. I loved how the sweetness brought out the flavor of the other familiar vegetables in a way that made them taste new to me. So this week Jose and I decided to go Greek. If you're interpreting that in the literal sense, he could totally pull it off much better than I ever could - with his head of curls and greco-roman profile, he looks just like a little philosopher :). Funny thing is, he studied philosophy as an undergrad...and you know what philosophia means? Lover of Wisdom...and he is just that...he loves me, I am Sophia (my name means wisdom in Greek). It's oh so cheesy but true :)!

This is a picture I had fun with, and if you check out his blog profile you can see an unedited one...see what I mean :D!


Ok...Ok...so I'll get back to the dish. Kotopita is like a Greek chicken pot pie that kind of reminds me of a quiche, but not; it's really in a category all its own, a very tasty category. Here's the recipe...many details, I know, but I'm trying to get a little more specific when it comes to cooking instructions, because they can really make or break the recipe :). I'd also like to mention that I was inspired by a few recipes, including this one. I found a few others that included vegetables like leeks, but I didn't have any at home and I didn't want to add any veggies that would take away from the theme of the dish. I'll definitely use leeks next time, though, they're one of my favorite veggies.

Kotopita
1 1/2 pounds chicken thigh
1 tsp fresh chopped mint
1 tsp fresh chopped marjoram
¼-1/2 cup flour
2 1/2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP dehydrated bell peppers (red and green)
Pepper
Garlic salt
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
¼-1/2 cup kefalotyri cheese
3 eggs lightly scrambled
1 ½ cups chicken broth
¼ cup warm water
8 sheets of filo dough
3 large handfuls of spinach
1 small can black olives (2.25 oz)
½ large sweet onion, sliced

Sprinkle chicken thigh with pepper and garlic salt, cook covered with glass lid over low-medium flame in about 2 TBSP olive oil. Once the chicken is cooked, add 3 large handfuls of cleaned spinach and olives (with olive juice) to the chicken drippings/olive oil. Cook for about 2 minutes. Set chicken/vegetables aside in a separate bowl but keep drippings in the pan. After the chicken cools, cut it into bite-size pieces.

Add ¼ cup water to the drippings in the pan, along with the 1 ½ cups chicken broth (I buy the already prepared organic one in a box, it's a great thing to have on-hand!); also add the 2 ½ TBSP butter. Slowly add the flour while stirring broth mixture as it cooks over a low flame. Once the mixture thickens and there aren’t any flour lumps, turn off the flame and add the dehydrated bell peppers, onion slivers, nutmeg, and allspice. Allow the now-sauce to cool (it can still be warm, just not hot).

When the sauce is cool, add the cheese and 3 eggs (mix the eggs in the pan with the sauce). Line pie pan with 6 sheets of filo dough; add the chicken/veggies, then pour the sauce on top – mix the pie contents.

To avoid wasting filo dough, fold the excess filo dough that’s hanging off the pie pan edges over the pie contents (chicken/veggies/sauce). Use the last two sheets of filo dough to create a dome over the pie; tuck the excess filo dough under the pie. You can now either add some of the sauce that might still be in the pan to the filo pie cover, or brush on an egg white. Create 3 medium-sized slits over the pie.

Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Allow to cool for five minutes, then cut and serve! After making this, you'll definitely be hungry, and it smells heavenly!

Neapolitan Cupcakes

So baking 60 different cookie recipes in 23 days isn't really as bad as it sounds, but it is pretty exhausting! I've learned so much about baking cookies, like how very important it is to give cookies their "space" on a baking sheet, which is at least 2 inches apart when the dough has 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder/soda. Here's another discovery (well, it's more like validation for my previous baking-with-butter claims), sometimes you really don't need to use 1 1/2 sticks of butter when baking 2 dozen cookies.

I know I've posted a few cookie recipes on the blog that call for as little as 2 TBSP of butter, but it seems that I can even cut down on the butter when I'm not making up the recipe; I'll still have a buttery-enough ball of cookie dough afterward. Most of the time, cookie dough needs to be chilled for so long because of the large amounts of butter that make it slippery and difficult to work with. I've found that decreasing the butter amount by up to 30-50% can make the baking process go a lot faster...and speed matters when you have less than a month to bake more cookies than you've ever eaten or even seen in your life!

After baking 20 batches, I think I have a pretty good "feel" for cookie dough, literally and figuratively, so now it's a lot easier to add the butter a few spoonfuls at a time until I get the right texture - even if the amount I end up with is significantly less than what the recipe calls for. Oh, but enough about cookies! (After the cookie extravaganza comes to an end, I will definitely post the best cookie recipes out of the 60 I baked.)

Let's talk about cupcakes! I had a fantastic cupcake at a Vegan bakery here in Austin a few weeks ago, it was a heavenly strawberry shortcupcake from Dhaba Joy! I think it's the best cupcake I've ever had, which definitely says a lot considering there weren't any eggs or sticks of butter in this sweet treat. That weekend, I put together my own fun neapolitan cupcake recipe. It has a strawberry vanilla cream frosting and a vanilla with strawberries AND chocolate cakey center. I used a basic plain cupcake recipe from Key Ingredient as my template, then I added in a few special ingredients to create the two different batters that gave these cupcakes colorful and flavorful pizazz.

The Strawberry Top
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup strawberry puree (fresh, blended strawberries)
2 TBSP strawberry jam

The Chocolate Bottom
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 TBSP applesauce (makes the cupcakes super moist!)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

Bake time 10-12 minutes at 350

I used mini muffin pans to make these little cupcakes. The chocolate and strawberry batters were prepared in separate bowls; I made sure to add the dry ingredients first and then fold in the wet ingredients. The nice thing about this batter is that it's thick, so when you pour the chocolate layer, then the strawberry/vanilla layer, they don't mix. One thing I found: it's best to add a little more strawberry/vanilla than chococlate batter, since the chocolate has a stronger taste. After the cupcakes baked and cooled for about 30 minutes, I decorated them with frosting.

As for the frosting, here are the ingredients (I don't have precise measurements for this part)
I used about
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 stick vegan shortening (non-hydrogenated)
1/2 TBSP strawberry jam
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp dried egg white powder
and enough powdered sugar to thicken the frosting at room temp.

These cupcakes taste great cold. Stick them in the fridge for a couple of hours and you'll find that they really do resemble the neapolitan ice cream they were inspired by!

Ohh...in case you're wonderin', this little cupcake picture features one from my first batch (I initially made a chocolate top, but I later found that the ones with the chocolate on the bottom tasted much better!).

Very Tasty Caribbean Stew and Jerk Tilapia

One of the best parts about cooking is that you can take a handful of random ingredients that are actually good for you, cook them with a few interesting spices and sauces, then you end up with something colorful, tasty, and healthy. Last week at work, my friend brought in a bowl of wonderful stew, it was from a recipe that her father initially introduced her to. She gave me some to try so that I'd know how to describe it on the Key Ingredient blog. Right after the first spoonful, I was convinced that this was a stew I definitely needed to make, asap!

This hearty meal was inspired by Moosewood's Caribbean Stew. The recipe is delicious as is, my friend Heather just added a few more veggies - I pretty much did the same. In my opinion, the more veggies, the better! This is a vegetarian stew that's filling as is, but it can also be served with rice or jerk tofu. I loved the idea of the jerk tofu, but I recently purchased some fish that needed a marinade; I thought the spicy/sweetness of the jerk would complement the tilapia quite well, and it did.

Because I wanted a baked and breaded fish, I mixed a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs with a tablespoon of melted butter and created a topping for the fish that also included some of the marinade. The end result was a flavorful meal without the fishy flavor, but I think next time, to preserve the light flavor of the fish, I'll just marinade then bake the tilapia in the jerk sauce. Though I only added half the amount of chili in both recipes, it was still spicy enough to be considered tasty.

If you want to give your taste buds a wake-up call, the stew and jerk recipes will do the trick. As for the stew, its spiciness wanes against the sweet potato's natural honey-like taste and the kale's deep earthy flavor. What's more, together, the cilantro and lemon add an herby freshness while the onions give the already rich broth an even fuller flavor. This stew is mouth-watering, to say the least, and your body will definitely thank you for eating such a healthy meal! The jerk sauce/marinade has a sweet and spicy flavor that even smells great, thanks to the freshly grated ginger that's like heaven for the olfactory glands. If you can't already tell, I'm a huge fan of this soupy stew. If it were a musician, I'd definitely make it a point to get its autograph.

The Jerk recipe will make enough marinade for about 3-4 small fish, I marinated the fish for about 2.5 hours before popping them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 425. Jose and I decided to take our fish and stew outside and make a picnic out of our dinner; the weather was beautiful and the meal was the perfect end to a fun-filled day spent at Wimberly and in the kitchen baking. (This month I'm baking 60 different batches of cookies for a little project I was assigned at work. My last day is the 23rd of April, so I'll be busy baking for the next few weeks! I can just see the Doughboy planning an invasion in the name of sweets, just like last time!)

Speaking of the little guy, look who I saw tagged and behind bars at Wimberley Market Days early this Saturday morning! It's a very old Doughboy, an antique! But I decided I couldn't deal with anymore tricks, so I had to leave him there for someone else to adopt!