Fall-Time Favorites

Hi, all!

So, as you are all aware (and I’m sure most of you probably aren’t pleased), Fall is right around the corner and I couldn’t be any more excited.

While many people sulk because Fall means end-of-summer-almost-winter, I’m in my element. I love Fall activities. But even more-so, I love Fall baking! Apples are in season and all of the fun flavors become available. (For those who didn’t know, I’m an extreme pumpkin fan). That being said, I’m warning you all now that most of my posts from this point until the Holidays will primarily revolve around baked goods.

However, I’m very curious to know: what Fall flavors are your favorite? I usually tend to stick to pumpkin and apple ANYTHING, but I want to experiment with different flavors this year; so your help will be greatly appreciated!

Yes, I’m aware that it is still summer…I just like to plan ahead :).

Homemade Sopressata (Italian Salami)

Before I moved to Rhode Island, I was only familiar with a couple of different Italian salamis: pepperoni, Genoa and one that my grandfather called “hard, smoked salami.” To this day I don’t think he’s revealed its actual name. When I moved, however, I was introduced to capicola and sopressata. Because I have a TERRIBLE time pronouncing them correctly, I joke and call them cap-a-ho and souporsalad. But I digress.

John and I have been talking for a long time about learning to make our own sausages and salamis; so last week, I looked up a recipe for homemade sopressata…and today we tried it out.

We ground 7 pounds of pork and started the curing process by adding the following spices:

• 1 tbsp. ground black pepper
• 2 tsp. ground white pepper
• 1 tbsp. non-iodized salt, finely ground
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 cup of grappa vinegar

The rest can be summed up by this brief video. (Yes, I’m in my comfy clothes…don’t judge me).

We have to let the salamis hang in a cool, well-ventilated room for 1-2 weeks and then in a warm, well-ventilated room for 2-3 months. It was certainly a messy experience; but well worth it, I think!

Birthday Lemon Bars

Lemon & Powdered Sugar birthday bars

My cousin’s been living with me and John for about four months now. He attends New England Tech and had to move up here from North Carolina, so we opened up a room for him while he figures out the area and finds a nice place for himself that he can afford.

Today’s his birthday, so I decided to make him lemon bars in place of a birthday cake. He loves lemon anything, so I thought this would be perfect. It’s also a very easy recipe.

You’ll need:

• 1 cup of softened butter
• 2 cups of granulated sugar, divided
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs

Step 1:

In a medium bowl, mix together 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and the butter. Once combined, press onto the bottom of an un-greased 13×9 baking pan.

Step 2:

In a 350 F degree oven, bake the crust for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is a nice golden brown.

Step 3:

Whisk together the remaining sugar (1 1/2 cups), flour (1/4 cup), eggs and lemon juice. Pour this mixture over the cooked crust and spread evenly over the top.

Step 4:

Bake again for another 20 minutes. Add powdered sugar once the bars are cool.

 

I’m not a big fan of lemon desserts, so I will not be partaking in these, but John and my cousin seem pleased.

Homemade Mexican Chorizo

If you could have experienced the smells coming from my kitchen, you’d die.

I’ve decided that I want to embark on the homemade sausages adventure. We spend so much money each week on pre-made sausages that it’s almost a sin – and I find that my stores tend to carry packaged meats in a variety of cuts for a cheaper price. In the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to take a stab at homemade chorizo first.

(I’m also a fan of Portuguese chorico – which is smoked and not as spicy…I might make that in the near future as well).

Of course, I had no idea what I would even need; so I consulted my good friend Google and stumbled upon the blog “La Cocina de Leslie” in which I found a nice recipe for Mexican chorizo that didn’t seem too intimidating.

It called for:

• 2 dried guajillo chilies ( we ended up using Pazilla chiles, since we couldn’t find guajillos in our local market)
• 2 dried ancho chilies
• 2 to 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 pound ground pork (with at least 20% fat)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• !/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

John and I are the spice family. We have a copious amount of spices in our kitchen from our various adventures over the past year. The only thing we needed to make a trip out to the store for, were the chiles and ground pork. I tried to follow her recipe as closely as possible despite having different chiles.

Step 1:

Toast the chiles in a dry skillet for 10 seconds on each side. Once toasted, add enough water to cover the chiles. Bring the water to a boil, then shut off the heat. Allow the chiles to soak in the water for twenty minutes. This re-hydrates them and gets them nice and tender.

Here you can see the chiles have softened from the liquid.

Step 2:

In a blender combine the chiles, onion, garlic and 2 tablespoons of the cider vinegar. (You should have seen me at this point. I was practically bawling my eyes out thanks to good ol’ Mr. Onion…) You want the mixture to come out resembling the texture of ketchup. While Leslie says to add more vinegar or water to the mixture to help it reach this consistency, I chose to use the liquid that the chiles sat in. This gave the mixture deeper flavor.

See? Ketchup!

Step 3:

Add the chile mixture and all of your spices to the pork at this point and mix well.

**NOTE: If you are combining by hand, make sure you only use one hand. Using both will alter the temperature of the meat and could cause it to spoil on you**

If it weren’t for the fact this could make you sick, I’d eat it like this!

Step 4:

Let the mixture sit overnight in the refrigerator. This allows all of the flavors to marry.

Step 5:

When ready to serve, saute in a greased pan and enjoy!

Hot and delicious!

Wait until you see what I decided to use mine in ;). Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Traditional Tiramisu

You know, I never realized how spoiled I am.

The weather was gorgeous earlier in the week, so John and I decided to take advantage of it by traveling to Federal Hill in Providence to explore the Italian Markets. I’ve been stressing with finals so he thought it would be a nice break to go walk around and see what the markets had to offer. Of course, I welcomed the break :).

Federal Hill Center.

Now, I realize that I’m very late to the party; but I recently discovered a splendid YouTube channel called “Laura in the Kitchen” hosted by Laura Vitale. We’ve been watching at least ten episodes a day. She makes traditional and modified versions of classic dishes from Italy, France and the U.S. I’m not a promoter or anything, but you should check her out if you’re feeling like trying something new. (Her cupcakes looks AWESOME! Anyway…)

On her site, I found a recipe for tiramisu – which I love; so I decided to give it a try. Luckily for me, I was in the perfect area to get the ingredients. John and I explored all the shops, but did our shopping at Tony’s Colonial. There we bought:

Anchovies! Not for Tiramisu, but still delicious

and

Ladyfingers. You want the hard ones for this recipe, not the soft.

We also bought Marscapone cheese, heavy cream and unsweetened cocoa powder. John and his family are espresso drinkers, so I didn’t need to buy that, but it’s necessary to soak the ladyfingers. Speaking of espresso…..we also stopped for cappuccino!!

mmmmmmm

On to business. Here’s what you’ll need for tiramisu:

All the ingredients

• Ladyfingers
• 1 1/2 cups cooled espresso
• 1 16oz tub of marscapone
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• She used rum in her recipe, but we didn’t have any on hand so we omitted it

Step 1: Whip the heavy cream in a large bowl and let chill in the fridge.

Step 2: In another large bowl, cream together the mascarpone, vanilla and sugar. Once combined,  fold the whipped cream into mascarpone mixture one half at a time.

Step 3: Add espresso (and rum if you’re using it) to a good-sized bowl and set aside. Also have a 9 x 9 baking pan and your ladyfingers and cocoa ready.

Step 4: Dip each ladyfinger into the coffee mixture and lay in the bottom of your pan until the bottom is covered.

Step 5: Pour half of the mascarpone and cream mixture over the first layer of the espresso soaked ladyfingers and spread it evenly. Sift 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder over the cream once it’s spread.

Step 6: Lay one more layer of soaked ladyfingers and repeat step 5 – using the last of the marscapone mixture and cocoa.

Unfortunately, you can’t dig right in. You have to let this chill for at least 3-4 hours before serving.

Yeeeah buddy

There you have it! Laura Vitale’s Tiramisu. I’m thinking next time, I’m going to try to use strong coffee instead of espresso, as I found the taste to be too strong – though everyone else seemed to disagree ;). Stop by and check Laura’s site and YouTube channel out and TRY THIS RECIPE!!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts for the Win!!

I’m a big kid when it comes to Pop Tarts. I love them; and I never seem to have them as much as I would like. Well, maybe I should be more specific. I don’t love all Pop Tarts – I’m a huge fan of the Frosted Blueberry and the Frosted S’Mores flavors. Strawberry is acceptable but don’t give me that mixed berry mumbo-jumbo, You can keep that.

When I went grocery shopping the other day, I walked by the Pop Tart display as I usually do and instead of fighting the urge to ignore them and move on (I know they’re not the healthiest breakfast treat), something caught my eye that I couldn’t pass up.

Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Pop Tarts.

Nope. Your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are chocolate peanut butter Pop Tarts.This is, like, my ultimate flavor combo. It doesn’t get any better… unless this flavor also happened to make an acceptable wine, but I highly doubt it.

Laugh if you want, but I actually did some research on these; mainly because I wanted to find out if these were a permanent Pop Tart fixture or another limited time deal. According to the Pop Tarts website, these are not part of the limited edition flavors, which means I can enjoy them on the regular. They also come in a more standard flavor with a peanut butter crust instead of the chocolate fudge. But that’s just like a tease.

The flavors are very subtle, which  is nice. They’re not too heavy or thick – which is a risk you run with peanut butter. But, believe it or not, I’m not a fan of toasting my Pop Tarts. I like ’em plain. So if any of you try these toasted, let me know what you think!

Four Generations of Minestra

So, the dreaded winter cold visited our house last week and all of us fell victim.

In an effort to make us all feel better, I decided to learn my father’s recipe for Minestra (Min-est) – a feel-good soup of ham-based meats and greens. It was the best idea I ever had. It’s quite an expensive soup to make. My dad’s version requires pepperoni (2 smaller sticks or 1 large), hot Italian turkey sausage (1 package), smoked ham-hock, a daisy ham, escarole (3 heads), cabbage (1 head), salt and pepper.

There’s not much to it!

My dad would always make it around Superbowl time. It’s the perfect winter soup; and since there aren’t any additional flavors aside from the meat and greens, it pleases pretty much everyone. I’m not a ham eater – although I am a pepperoni fan – but the broth and greens are the best comfort food I can think of. The thing about this soup is that it’s also time-consuming. I’ll share the recipe with you, but you need to promise that when you make this for you and your family, you keep in mind that this particular recipe has been handed down four generations. I’m the fifth; and I will be teaching it to my kids…if I decide to have them. If you don’t like the finished product, I can only apologize and say that you’re missing out; this soup is by far one of my favorites. But, I’m sure there are ways you can play around with it and make it your own as well.

Step One – The Prep:

Take the pepperoni and sausage and cut into 1/4-inch slices. (This is just my rough estimate. You can go as thick or thin as you please. Just remember it’s going to be cooking for a few hours so don’t make it too thick or thin as it may not cook properly.)

Cut the daisy ham into chunks. The ham-hocks you can leave whole. My dad usually uses one large (and I mean LARGE) one. I was unable to find sizable ham-hocks at my store, so I settled for a package of four small ones. They are what really flavor the broth.

As for the greens, cut them down into larger-scale bite-sized chunks. Because these will wilt down, you don’t want to cut them too small. I just gave the greens a good ol’ rustic chop with my knife and called it a day. Once they’re cut, soak them in cold water to clean them. They will stay in the water bath until you’re ready for them.

Step Two – Making the Stock and Cooking the Meat

These two steps are done at the same time, which is quite convenient.

Add all of the meats – the sliced sausage and pepperoni, the daisy ham chunks and the ham-hocks to the stock pot. Cover the meats with water. MAKE SURE YOU PUT ENOUGH WATER THAT THE MEAT IS COMPLETELY SUBMERGED AND THERE IS ABOUT AN INCH TO TWO INCHES OF WATER ABOVE THE MEAT. This is important. Some water will evaporate and you don’t want anything to dry out.

Boil the snots out of the meat until the ham-hocks are are tender and start to fall apart. By this point, you will want to take the ham-hocks from the pot and remove the bones and fat. Once cleaned, the meat can go back into the pot and rejoin his friends.

This step usually takes just over an hour.

Step Three – Add the Greens

Once the meat is all cooked and the bones and fat are removed, it’s time to add the greens; which have been soaking in their water bath. Drain the greens as well as you can and start adding them to the pot. Once all the greens are in, add a palm-full of salt and a generous sprinkle of black pepper. Yes, the meats are quite salty, but you also want to season the greens. Nothing worse than greens that have no taste…

Cover the pot and let boil until the greens are wilted and cooked through. You want them soft but not falling apart. When I made this, it took about two hours for all of the greens to cook through.

That’s it! The entire process takes anywhere from three to four hours but it is so worth it! The broth takes on a nice smoky flavor from all of the ham and the pepperoni and black pepper give it a nice kick – without making it super spicy. This is the kind of soup that you can feel warm your whole body.

So. Good.

This recipe will leave you with enough soup for four adults and plenty of leftovers (assuming you don’t all eat it at once).

Please, enjoy.

Mantou = New Comfort Food

This could easily be the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten…..and that’s saying something.

John and I have made a habit of shopping at our local Asian supermarket. It’s the perfect place to get all the ingredients we use when we feel like cooking Korean and it just so happens to also carry some products that we’d find at our local supermarket at half to quarter the price. During our most recent trip, we were feeling pretty daring and bought what looked like a Taiwanese version of frozen cinnamon buns. The only English on the package read “Two-colored mantou (chocolate).” Chocolate is always a good, safe bet, right?

With most frozen Asian foods, the best way to prepare them is by steaming them; so that’s exactly what we did. We let them steam for approximately 12 minutes. Cooked mantou, or plain bun, looks very similar to a steamed dumpling: their round or oval in shape, smooth and the dough takes on a nice shine. Honestly, it looks like it’s either made of plastic or something you would see in an anime movie….

Looks like it’s made of plastic, right?

I’ll admit, if the package didn’t say chocolate on it in plain English, I wouldn’t have been convinced; but it did smell slightly of cocoa and I’m a sucker for anything doughy so I dug right in….

It even has air pockets like a nice loaf of bread would

…AND I LOVED IT. The funny thing is, I can’t tell you why. The flavor was extremely plain and if a loaf of bread and a marshmallow had a baby, that would be the texture. Everyone who tried one in my house hated it except for me. I’m in love.

Homemade Sushi: Attempt One

John and I love sushi. We go out for it at least once a week. For any of you that enjoy it, you know how big of an expense that can be. One day, he and I decided to take a stab at making our own, in an attempt to save some money.

Believe it or not, we were able to get all of our cooking ingredients from our local market. (We went to Whole Foods – not a chain grocery store like Stop & Shop. It was slightly more expensive but not by much…we knew we would get exactly what we were looking for there).

We bought:

• Sushi-grade Salmon
• Sushi-grade Tuna
• Imitation crab sticks
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Sushi rice
• Nori Seaweed
• Tobiko (small fish eggs for added texture)
• Pickled Ginger

Our fish of choice

John has had experience rolling sushi, as he owns an as-needed catering company – aside from his entertainment business. (He’s only really busy catering around the Holidays). But this was my first attempt at the process. Actually, it’s more like a procedure. Everything has to be precise or else the roll will fall apart on you.

Of course, the first step in the process was cooking the sushi rice. Sushi rice is slightly different in that cooks differently so it can maintain that sticky texture. You can try using other rice, but it won’t hold together as well. Once the rice was cooked and cooled, we began assembling our rolls.

**Disclaimer: if you want to try rolling your own sushi, make sure you dampen your hands with a little water or sesame oil. If you don’t, you’ll have a nice new pair of rice gloves for the winter :). It’s sticky stuff!**

Sushi rice and Nori
Keep a little space of seaweed uncovered so you have something to adhere the other end to.

You can buy sushi rolling kits almost anywhere. My aunt got me and my sister one for Christmas last year. It comes with  a bamboo mat that is used for rolling and forming the sushi. Unfortunately, I’m not the one who has it; so we used plastic wrap instead.It didn’t come out as bad as I thought, but the mat definitely would have been easier.

Note to self: steal kit from sister…..

Formed inside-out roll!

I had a hard time assembling the inside-out rolls – the ones where the rice is on the outside. Everything kept falling apart; so I left John in charge of those. I will say, though, that I made a mean looking roll when the seaweed was on the outside!

My handmade Spicy Salmon roll topped with Spicy Mayo

To make some of our rolls spicy, John put together a spicy mayo concoction, which is:

• Mayonnaise
• Sriracha
• Vinegar
• green onions
• and a dash of soy sauce

We made a total of five different rolls. It was a time consuming endeavor, but well worth it.

We’re gluttons, it’s fine.

We figured we spent fifty dollars total on all of the ingredients and was able to get the equivalent of four restaurant meals out of it. Of course, because we’re sushi gluttons, we only got two meals :).  When comparing it to the restaurant we usually visit: we get three rolls, soup and salad for $12 a person (that’s the lunch special); but when making it ourselves we estimated it to be around $5 a person. Not bad if I do say so myself :).

We Like Spike’s

In the words of my darling boyfriend, “You’re not an official Rhode Islander until you’ve had Spike’s Junkyard Dogs.”

I’ve managed to go four months without going. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to go, I guess I’m a bit snooty when it comes to hot dogs. I absolutely love them. I don’t need that fancy cheese and chili topping; just give me a good dog. All of that extra stuff is great, don’t get me wrong, but none of it matters if the hot dog sucks.

A couple of days ago we were driving by one and John just couldn’t take it anymore. So we went…and I’m mighty glad I did. This place is known for having close to 100 different kinds of hot dog. For example: “The German” is an all beef frank topped with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, “The Pizza-Dog” has mozzarella, sauce and pepperoni, etc. All of their hot dogs are home-made and they don’t sell them. Which means if you want them, you can only get them at Spike’s. Sneaky but brilliant business strategy….

John got himself “The Gary-Dog” which had Swiss cheese and bacon. Because I’m so picky, some of the dogs were a bit too intimidating for me. So, I wanted to keep it simple. I got “The Rancher;” topped with ranch sauce (which I love) scallions and tomato.

The Rancher

This hot dog was a win for a couple different reasons: 1. the bread 2. the hot dog.

I can’t stand hot dog buns that get gummy and/or are so dry they fall apart. The buns they use at Spike’s are thick and durable torpedo rolls and are a happy medium. The hot dog itself was also superior to most I’ve had. You know how sometimes hot dogs are so thin you can hardly tell it’s there? Not the case here. Just look at the girth.

Now that’s a dog.

The place is somewhat of a dive. At first glance it resembles a greasy fast food place; but what else do you expect from a place that specializes in hot dogs? You can find Spike’s all over the state; just look for the (freaking adorable) English Bulldog.

I’m just glad to know I’m finally official 😉