Proper Sunday afternoon scones & tea

On Sundays, if I don’t have any other plans, I enjoy making some type of quick bread that I can enjoy for an afternoon snack and for breakfast during the early part of the week. While looking for quick bread cookbooks a few months ago, I came across The Best Quick Breads by Beth Hensperger, one of the authors of my favorite slow cooker book series, Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook. I have made several recipes from the Best Quickbreads and like that she includes helpful tips and suggestions, both in an opening chapter and in some of the recipes, when it comes to preparing these types of baked goods.

Today, because I had a cup of plain yogurt I wanted to use up, I decided on their recipe for Buttermilk Cherry Scones. I did some looking online that you can substitute equally plain yogurt for buttermilk in recipes. I also don’t keep dried cherries on hand, but I did have a bag of dried cranberries, one of my favorite ingredients.

The scones came out beautifully, with some nice tang from the yogurt and a sweet and bitter bite from the dried cranberries. This recipe will certainly be a keeper and make-again.

I had my cherry scone alongside a pot of Darjeeling #22 from Adagio tea. I have been getting into tea quite a bit in recent months and placed my first order a few weeks ago from Adagio. I brew my loose tea in a variety of ways and I got my favorite tea infusing pot from Ross, of all places. It’s a Norpro Eclipse teapot and has a little basket for the loose tea. You pour your tea in the pot and let it relax and infuse. In my order from Adagio, I purchased a bag of amber sugar crystals and added a few of those to the bottom of my teapot as I let the tea infuse.

The tea has a definite black tea, light smoky flavor, but is not too overpoweringly strong. It does have a slight aftertaste, but for me this was fine and welcome. The amber sugar crystals married well with the flavors coming from the tea. So I am going back now to my proper Sunday afternoon delight.

Warm Korean food in the cold

Yesterday it was extremely cold here in Philadelphia, but I decided to take a trek to visit a friend in New York and of course, I’m glad I did. I went with her to a great little hole in the wall Korean restaurant in Sunnyside, New York called Natural Tofu. This was my first time having Korean food and this was a nice introduction. After we placed our order, we were given some appetizers while we waited.

Among these appetizers, tiny salty fish, kimchi, marinated zucchini with spices, bean sprouts with spices and seaweed. All were delicious, I especially liked the tiny salty fish.

We originally ordered two dishes, a spicy squid BBQ and Boolkoki, a spicy beef dish, but when the girl sitting next to us got a pancake that looked really good, we ordered the Korean seafood pancake.

The spicy squid BBQ was delicious, tangy and extremely spicy. The squid itself had a nice tender bite to it and mixed well with the spicy sauce. I have not eaten much squid in my life, but this was a delicious way to have it prepared.

Next we had a spicy beef BBQ dish, Boolkoki. It had a toss up of beef, onions, peppers, carrots mixed with a variety of delectable spices.

Finally we had a seafood pancake that seems like something I would like to find a recipe for and attempt making, the other two dishes would require some tinkering around to get just the right mix of spices. It was a nice flat cake with a combination of shrimp, scallions, and other fish added in. It went well with a sesame oil dip we were given on the side.

All dishes went fabulously with a side of tasty sticky rice, that possibly had a dash or two of rice vinegar.

I’m glad to say that there were some leftovers which I will enjoy for lunch today. I’d like to finish off by saying that my hands smelled like spicy Korean BBQ yesterday all day yesterday and still do a little today. That’s a sign of great food, I think. And my apartment will smell like spicy Korean BBQ after I warm up my leftovers for lunch.

Me want meat!

I have made a few attempts in my life to go vegetarian. As you can probably figure from my blog so far, I was not successful and at this point, I think I’ve come to accept that I’m a meat eater. But I have become more picky about where I purchase my meat. I prefer to purchase my meat and fish products from places in Reading Terminal, my favorite place is Martin’s Quality Meat & Sausage, but I also make stops occasionally at Gunta’s Prime Shop and the Amish stand, L. Halteman Family. If I can’t make it to RTM, I try to get to local farmer’s markets or stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. I very rarely get meat from the regular grocery store.

Tonight I picked up a New York strip steak from Martin’s. A few days ago I picked up a couple baking potatoes, for a nice steak and potatoes dinner. Finally, when I decided to pick up some fresh spinach from OK Lee as I stopped there for a few other items. The dinner ended what was a long, generally crazy week.

My favorite method to cook a nice cut of meat like a New York strip steak is on my George Foreman grill. The George Foreman grill does such a fantastic job cooking all cuts of meat and is probably my favorite appliance in the kitchen. I’ve used it to make other items too, like grilled cheese and bacon. So before putting my steak on the grill, I drizzled it with olive oil and sprinkled it with some Penzey’s Chicago Steak Seasoning before putting it on the grill for about 12 minutes to get it well done.

Meanwhile, most times when I make “baked” potatoes, I’m actually microwaving my potato to get it how I want it. So I got a nice big baking potato, poked it a few times with a fork, wrapped it in a paper towel and nuked it for 10 minutes.

As my steak and potato cooked, I rinsed my spinach and sauteed it with some olive oil, crushed garlic and kosher salt.

See below my Friday night meat dinner, I couldn’t finish it all, but it was delicious. I put the potato in a small bowl and mashed it with some plain old butter and salt.

The mom with the best duck confit with broccoli rabe

I loved the show Friends and this episode came to mind as I got ready to post this blog:

At the end of the work day today, I decided I was in the mood for some kind of seafood for dinner tonight. I had a tube of polenta in my pantry that’s set to expire next week and I was trying to think of some kind of dish that would incorporate that. Of course, as my mental meal planning plan came along, the polenta ended up being phased out.

As I starting packing up for the walk to Reading Terminal Market after work, I decided that scallops would be low maintenance enough for my mood tonight and I haven’t had scallops in ages. I love them, but I never get around to putting something together with them. I ended up putting together a dish similar to what I’ve made before, though with different techniques and seasonings.

I picked up some bay scallops from the John Yi Fish Market, which is generally my fish market of choice in Reading Terminal Market. I then proceeded to one of my other favorite stands in the Market, The Spice Terminal for some general pantry restocking: some nice olive oil, some red wine vinegar for salad dressing and a jar of artichoke hearts. As I started heading to the exit, I quickly decided that some broccoli rabe would be a nice accompaniment to my scallops. I stopped in good ol’, usually mobbed Iovine’s. One of the things I always enjoy about Reading Terminal is chatting with strangers about their foodstuffs. An older woman was next to me trying to identify the leafy green she was picking up. It was just spinach, but I found my broccoli rabe right next to it and she said how she thinks broccoli rabe is way too bitter for her taste. I gave her some quick cooking suggestions, just saying that if you saute it with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes, you can mellow out the bitterness and it tastes great. I don’t know if she’ll follow my suggestions, but I liked giving it.

So I came home to put together my very makeshift dinner. First, I put some pasta water on to boil up some spaghetti noodles. Meanwhile, I coated my skillet with some good olive oil. In a small bowl, I tossed my bay scallops with some kosher salt, Shallot Pepper from Penzey’s, French Tarragon from Penzey’s, a small teaspoon of garlic paste from Trader Joe’s and a small handful of Cento plain breadcrumbs. I waited for my olive oil to start shimmering and threw the scallops in to brown. As they browned, I cut up and washed my broccoli rabe.

When the scallops were finished, I put them aside in a small bowl. I put some water in deeper saute pan and wilted my broccoli rabe. After it was wilted enough, I drained the broccoli rabe in a colander and coated that saute pan with some more olive oil. I added the broccoli rabe and sauted it with the olive oil, some garlic paste, kosher salt and red pepper flakes. I finished it all off by tossing the scallops and sauteed broccoli rabe with the spaghetti.

Below is a picture of my finished product. It was delicious, very healthy and very easy to put together.

We call it gravy.

I am half Italian and in most Italian kitchens, tomato based pasta sauces are referred to as gravy, not sauce. I don’t make gravy very often, maybe 3-4 times a year. It’s usually when I’m really craving pasta and don’t feel like using a jarred pasta sauce. Yes, I occasionally use jarred pasta sauce and when I do, it’s never crap like Ragu or Prego. I like Classico, Barilla, Bertolli and of course pasta sauces sold at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

But today I wanted fresh gravy. I never follow a recipe for my gravy, I just throw in what I consider my required ingredients. I always use a base of canned crushed tomatoes. I’m never picky about my brand, but canned require much less work than chopping up fresh tomatoes and you’re always guaranteed nice tomatoes. Today I used 2 cans of Cento.

When I make gravy, I like using my slow cooker so I can let all the seasonings marry nicely together. This time I changed my seasonings up slightly. At the recommendation of a friend, I recently bought
crushed garlic from Trader Joe’s. It is a fantastic product, by the way.With this, I roasted about a teaspoon of this with some olive oil in a frying pan before adding it into my gravy. Besides that, I added the following seasonings, mostly Penzey’s brand products: onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes and marjoram.

Along with my seasonings, I sometimes like to add some meat into my sauce. This week since I knew I would be making gravy this weekend, I stopped at my favorite meat place in Reading Terminal Market, Martin’s Quality Meats & Sausages and picked up some of their hot Italian sausage, which is always fantastic and spicy, just how I like it. With the sausage, I usually cut it into small pieces, and brown it in a skillet before adding it to my gravy. I like how the flavors from the sausage add to the gravy.

I decided this time too to make meatballs. I rarely make meatballs, I think when I’ve made them before I follow a recipe from my red Betty Crocker cookbook. Today I followed a recipe from Joy of Cooking for Italian meatballs. I used ground beef from Martin’s to make up my meatballs. They smelled fabulous by the time they finished and I plopped them into my gravy.

Now I get to play the waiting game and wait for my gravy. Tonight I’m putting it over some plain spaghetti from Barilla. Alongside it, I have some leftover Pain Rustique from the Metropolitan bakery. It’ll be a nice dinner before I go back to the insanity of work tomorrow.

Pancakes pancakes pancakes

I don’t always make a nice breakfast on the weekend, it always depends on what my plans are. If I’m rushing out, I just have some type of baked good and tea or coffee. That’s my typical weekday breakfast too for the most part, sadly.

But this was a nice, long weekend and yesterday I had time to make batter for pancakes that would last me all three days of the weekend. I always use the plain recipe from The Joy of Cooking and add something extra to spice it up. This time I added a generous sprinkle of Penzey’s Pumpkin Pie Spice. This tasted great, a nice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and other flavors made for fun, interesting pancakes.

As with many of my food preferences, I am very much a snob when it comes to maple syrup. I will not use supermarket brands like Aunt Jemima since they all contain high fructose corn syrup as their first or second ingredient. I like maple flavoring and do not like that artificial sweetness from high fructose corn syrup overpowering the syrup. I was out of my Trader Joe’s maple syrup, so I decided to face the crowds this week at Reading Terminal Market. Reading Terminal, as you will see, is one of my favorite places to shop for groceries. I ended up getting some fantastic maple syrup from one of my favorite Amish vendors, L. Halteman Family, who also carries the honey I love.

So, pure maple syrup + homemade pancakes + bacon (nothing special about the bacon, just Shoprite brand) = yummy weekend breakfast.

And for credit’s sake, this syrup is from Shiloh Sugarbush in Ulysses, PA. They have no website, but I imagine they’re a small family company.

My aunt’s shortbread

My Aunt Lisa is a fabulous cook and for Christmas, she brought over what I thought was the best shortbread I’ve ever had. I usually don’t get too crazy about shortbread, I’ve never made it. I always remember the Girl Scout Trefoils being the ones I didn’t care about and thought were boring and uninteresting. Remember those cookies?

I think they are the reason I’ve never really eaten or cared to bake shortbread. But I had to get Lisa’s recipe to try it out on my own. I’m not sure where she got her recipe, but she does have a fancy ceramic shortbread mold. I started looking into them and, apparently, shortbread pans and molds are pretty pricey, ranging from $30-$40. But the recipe lent itself well to a 8×8 square baking pan.  Here is the basic recipe from Lisa:

Classic Shortbread
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar (unsifted)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour (unsifted)

Cream the butter until it is light.  Cream in the powdered sugar, then the vanilla.  Now work in the flour.  Knead the dough on an unfloured board until nice and smooth.  Spray the shortbread pan very lightly with a non-stick vegetable oil spray.  Firmly press the dough into the shortbread pan.  Prick the entire surface with a fork and bake at 325 F for about 30-35 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Let the shortbread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before you loosen the edges with a knife and flip the pan over onto a wooden cutting board.  If the shortbread does not come right out, tap one edge of the pan.  Cut the shortbread into serving pieces while it is still warm.

When I made the first batch, I was worried that the batter seemed really crumbly and kind of dry. I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out, but it came out really, really well. It didn’t look too pretty after I broke the pieces apart, but it tasted fabulous and had a nice, crumbly texture.

After I was confident the first batch came out well, I went on to try a batch with finely ground hazelnuts, almond extract and a touch of almond oil, baked in a tart pan with a removable bottom. This one was adventurous, only because some of the butter was melting from out of the bottom of the pan and to the bottom of my oven, causing some sizzling fun. I remedied that by putting a cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch anything that dripped. These came out really well and tasted fabulous.

My final batch was in the square baking pan again, but adding orange extract and some dried orange peel.

Here are some pictures of my finished products:

Why I Cook

I am starting this blog as a way to get myself writing again and to share my journey through the world of food and cooking.

I am not a chef by trade, but really enjoy cooking and baking both as a hobby and a way to let myself be creative. Cooking is something I have pretty much done since I moved out on my own about 8 years ago. I have tried all kinds of cuisines, recipes and explored a wide array of techniques. The biggest reason I cook now? I like knowing what’s going into my food. I do my best to avoid processed foods. Lean Cuisine and most prepared meals in the regular supermarket creep me out, all having so many chemicals that I don’t like putting into my body. Besides that, they taste pretty horrible. When I cook, I can control my ingredients and make my food to suit my taste.

Since I live alone, I have the luxury of just worrying about what I like, not what someone else likes. I recently moved to an apartment with an actual kitchen and nice dining space, so I have been playing hostess more often. Also more recently, I have been doing much more baking. I am unsatisfied with my current work situation and have found that something about baking helps relieve my stress and distracts me from thinking about it. It’s a kind of therapy for me.

In my blog, I will discuss a variety of topics relating to food: recipes, restaurant reviews, product reviews, where I go to buy certain ingredients, cookbook reviews.