americastestkitchen:

We’ve got the secrets to Southern-Style Skillet Cornbread.

Do you have a famous cornbread recipe?

Psst—CR, check this out. 

Met up with Olivia tonight.

I got a fancy promotion this week, so I’ve been buying a few fancy things like this fancy $8 ravioli press from Italy.

I’ve come to realize that I love getting new cookbooks so much that I’m just going to start buying them for myself from time to time. Last week I bought one that has been on my wish list since I discovered it on Erin’s bookshelf months ago: Plenty, by Diana Henry.

I’m home sick today, and wanted to make a comfort food lunch that still felt healthy. Here it is! I’d never had goat cheese until about a year ago, and now I can’t get enough. Luckily, this cookbook seems to use it a lot.

Beet, goat cheese, and caper pizza
(adapted from Diana Henry’s Plenty)

Pizza dough (CR’s recipe)

• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp yeast
• salt
• 2/3 cup white flour
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

Pizza toppings

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 large red onions, very thinly sliced
• 10 thyme sprigs
• 4 oz of goat cheese, in chunks
• 4 small beets 
• 3 tsp capers, rinsed

Throw the pizza dough ingredients into the bread machine on the dough setting. Wrap each beet in foil and roast in oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Once finished, use a towel to rub off the skins, and chop.

For the other toppings, heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onions. Turn them in the oil, add 1 tbsp water, cover, place over very low heat, and sweat for 15 minutes. Add the thyme and set aside.

Roll out the dough and top with the onions, cheese, and beets. Season and drizzle with oil. Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes, sprinkling with capers 5 minutes before the end. Serve immediately.

Cream of Wheat for lunch? Nope, Heidi Swanson’s delicious cauliflower soup, made by the sweetest husband.

Heidi Swanson’s Cauliflower Soup 
(based on the recipe from Super Natural Every Day)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• salt
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut into tiny cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 3 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
• 12 ounces cauliflower, cut into small florets
• 2/3 cup cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard (most of the flavor comes from this, so use a delicious one)
• Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir in the shallots, onion, and a big pinch of salt.  Sauté until the onions soften, a couple of minutes.  Stir in the potato, cover, and cook for about 4 minutes, just long enough for the pieces to soften up a bit.  Uncover, stir in the garlic, then the broth.  Bring to a boil, taste to make sure the potatoes are tender, and if they are, stir in the cauliflower. Cook, covered, for about 3 to 5 minutes, just until the cauliflower is tender throughout.

Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender.  Stir in half the Cheddar cheese and the mustard.  Add more broth or water if you feel the need to thin the soup at all.  Taste and add more salt, if needed.  Serve sprinkled with the remaining cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

We have been making the same soups over and over lately, so I appreciated Heidi Swanson’s recent greatest hit blog post about “soups worth making”.

Tonight we tried the Pumpkin and Rice soup, and it’s an instant classic. We used butternut squash instead of pumpkin.

Squash and Rice Soup Recipe
(from Heidi Swanson’s Pumpkin and Rice Soup)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 1 jalepeno pepper, seeds and all, chopped
• salt
• 1 butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoons vegetable bouillon 
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon crushed rosemary
• cooked brown rice, warm

In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion, shallot, and pepper and a couple big pinches of salt. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes, then add the squash and 6 cups of vegetable broth, Bring just to a simmer and cook until squash is completely tender throughout, about 15 minutes. Note that the time it takes will differ between different squash/pumpkin varietals. Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender until smooth.

Lemon Ginger Rosemary Butter: Melt 1/4 cup unsalted butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, long enough to let the butter start to brown a bit. Remove from heat and immediately stir in rosemary, zest of one lemon, grated ginger, and a good pinch of salt. Pour into soup.

Serve soup over a scoop of brown rice.

Today we scheduled our dream Sunday which started with yoga (for me) and running (for CR), continued with brunch at Dean Street, then making and eating brownies, finishing the last two episodes of Breaking Bad, making and eating pesto pizza, then watching the Walking Dead and drinking collard green juice.

The brownies were the most delicious brownies that I’ve probably ever eaten, and are so rich that we are already completely satiated, and I’m bringing the rest to work for my coworkers to eat tomorrow.

Brownies
(from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home)

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces chocolate chips
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a metal or glass 9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.

Melt half the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Put the remaining butter in a medium bowl. Pour the melted butter over the bowl of butter and stir to melt the butter. The butter should look creamy, with small bits of unmelted butter, and be at room temperature.

Using an electric mixer, mix together the eggs and sugar on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until thick and very pale. Mix in the vanilla. On low speed, add about one-third of the dry ingredients, then add one-third of the butter, and continue alternating the remaining flour and butter. Add the chocolate and mix to combine. (The batter can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.)

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a cake tester or wooden skewer poked into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Cool in the pan until the brownie is just a bit warmer than room temperature.

Run a knife around the edges of the pan, and invert the brownie onto a cutting board. Cut into 12 rectangles. Dust the tops with powdered sugar just before serving.

Makes 12 brownies that are so rich that you won’t be able to eat more than two.

Late night whole-chicken sorting. 

In memory of Miriam, who we have missed for almost exactly one year, and who taught us about the glory of homemade pasta, we made and enjoyed some lovely DIY ravioli tonight.

Tonight I made Valentine’s chocolates for the first time since 2009.

Coming up on 5 years of having this blog, I like being able to go back and look at old posts. When I made these in 2009, I was blissfully unconcerned that Wilton candy melts contain partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, and was getting ready to move in with CR.