My new cookbooks.

I love that my friends know me and give such thoughtful gifts. For Christmas I received two new cookbooks that I am very excited about.

Bon Apetit Desserts was put together by the magazine's Editor-In-Chief Barbara Fairchild. It truly is a great reference book with 500 pages of every classic recipe that you can imagine and then some. This will keep me reaching for my cookbooks rather than running to the internet when I think to myself "Wait a minute...how much sugar is in pate brisee?" Cooking through this thing could give someone an education nearly as good as going to pastry school.

Also, to make sure I stay healthy while eating all the yummy desserts, I have Northwest Essentials by Gregory Atkinson. Obviously, the focus is on eating local food produced here in the Pacific Northwest. Mushrooms, apples, salmon, berries, mussels...and did you know hazelnuts are grown here? This one will definitely inspire me to hit the farmers markets when they come back in the late spring. I already made the chanterelle and potato gratin, and it was fantastic! (if a little liquidy, but that's nothing that can't be fixed)

Have You Seen This?

If you must save your budget and not buy totally organic, the USDA put this list out a while back of the produce that was left with the most- and the least- pesticide residue after washing. You can print this and stick it in your purse or wallet.

Nice Use of "Nom Noms"

For your Christmas enjoyment...

www.allculinaryschools.com has a very festive, very informative "Brief History of Christmas Cookies."

If theres one thing I learned.

At pastry school, like most schools I'm sure, we learned our trade by taking our projects apart into separate components. Also, like mastering other talents, my trade can be broken down into a few basic skills that are repeated. Once one understands these elements, the idea of baking and creating amazing pastries is much less daunting.

Is that confusing? Let me give you an example: Boston cream pie is my husband's favorite cake. It consists of layers of vanilla cake, vanilla pastry cream, whipped cream, and chocolate ganache. Each of these ingredients can be combined differently and slightly altered to make other delicious desserts:

Vanilla pastry cream = vanilla pudding or cream puff filling

Whipped cream = easy topping for pie, fruit, or hot chocolate

Chocolate ganache = chocolate truffles or tart filling

Vanilla cake = the base for marble cake, strawberry shortcake, pineapple upsidedown cake, etc...

My point is this- everything gets used and reused to make endless varieties of desserts. Not only is this economical, but it's time saving in a kitchen.

For this very reason I love this cookie recipe from Southern Living that I got from a friend. It starts with the "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie," which alone is good enough. To make it even better, it has variations that start with the same basic cookie dough which include anything from peanut butter to oatmeal raisin.

Last night when I baked some, I split the raw dough in half. To part I added basic chocolate chips, and the other I put in coconut and white chocolate.

You don't have to stick to only the suggestions in this recipe, either. Try using your own ideas!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate morsels

Preparation

Beat butter and sugars at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.

Combine flour, soda, and salt in a small bowl; gradually add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in morsels. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake at 350° for 8 to 14 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies: Decrease salt to 1/2 teaspoon. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter with butter and sugars. Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons. Proceed as directed. (Dough will look a little moist.)

Oatmeal-Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies: Reduce flour to 2 cups. Add 1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats to dry ingredients and 1 cup raisins with morsels. Proceed as directed.

Pecan-Chocolate Chip Cookies: Add 1 1/2 cups chopped, toasted pecans with morsels. Proceed as directed.

Almond-Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies: Reduce morsels to 1 cup. Add 1/2 cup slivered toasted almonds and 1 cup almond toffee bits. Proceed as directed.

Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies: Substitute 1 (12-ounce) package dark chocolate morsels for semisweet chocolate morsels. Proceed as directed.

Chunky Cherry-Double Chip Cookies: Microwave 1 tablespoon water and 1/2 cup dried cherries in a glass bowl at HIGH 30 seconds, stirring once. Let stand 10 minutes. Substitute 1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chunks for morsels. Add 1 cup white chocolate morsels, 1/3 cup slivered toasted almonds, and cherries with chocolate chunks. Proceed as directed.

Coconut-Macadamia Chunk Cookies: Substitute 1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chunks for morsels. Add 1 cup white chocolate morsels, 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, and 1/2 cup macadamia nuts with chocolate chunks. Proceed as directed.

Cats morphing into croissants

You may be getting tired of these nonsensical posts, but I just can't help it. Not when The Daily Wh.at has a post like this:

"If someone ever asks you to describe the Internet to them in four words look them straight in the eye and say 'cats morphing into croissants. The Internet is cats morphing into croissants.' Then walk away."

And since this is a pastry chef/ culinary school/ baking/ foodie blog, I shall leave you with a recipe. And since I am not patient enough to make croissants at home, here is a fantastic and fun (fantastically fun!) beignet recipe to make. Mmmmm....

Married to the Baker

Hello, I thought I would take this opportunity to stow away an entry on this blog. It's something I've been thinking about for quite a while, but just didn't get around to it.

You see, I have been reading my wife's entries in this blog for the past few years and like you have enjoyed reading about her forays into all different types of dishes and deserts. However, I thought you all wouldn't mind a break, and hopefully a bit of humor...

So what is it like being married to a baker and general food lover? Well, here is what Naka's adventures in cooking have meant to me:

Culinary School:

The baking assignments in school always resulted in a box full of pastries, bread, cookies, fill in the blank coming home on one or more nights each week. This seemed great at first, but after gaining 20 lbs. I decided that taking the "assignments" to work to share was the best strategy.

Planting a Garden:

Great idea, and aesthetically pleasing. What is less understood is how physically taxing it is to get all of the soil for a 2' by 8' from a local hardware store into our trunk and then out and up the hill to our back yard.

Baking for things like wedding showers and brunches:

This usually produces reject baking items or scraps that a spouse can munch on. However, the prime stuff is left in plain sight to tempt you while at the same time you know you can't have any of the good stuff. Bittersweet :)

Experimenting with new recipes

9 times out of 10, this is pure goodness. Being able to come home to a variety of dinners keeps a hungry spouse like me happy. I also like variety in food and enjoy almost every type of food, so this is a real benefit.

Having a wife understand what good food is and wanting to buy the best quality:

Special cheeses
Organic, free range, grass fed, etc.

=EXPENSIVE

Well, that's it for me. Enjoy the blog...

Flower Shower Power

Even though I am not currently working in any kind of pastry or baking job, I am- and forever will be- happy I went to pastry school. I had the opportunity to make the above cupcakes for a baby shower last weekend.

I have so much fun doing this stuff.

And I'm starting to sense a theme. Baby showers + flowers.

Remember these?

{Two other baby showers I baked flowery cupcakes for.}

That's me and the adorable Christi from flora+domus, who did the other 90% of the work for the shower.

Book review: Baby Cakes

I try....I try very hard. Baby Cakes was the first of my first experiments with gluten free, dairy free baking. Here is what has stood out to me so far:

~ I had to spend $50 on various flours, and other new baking ingredients. I thought this would keep me stocked for a long time, but no. I have already run out of many pantry items and need to restock. This is an expensive endeavor.

~The first recipe I tried was the chocolate chip blondies. I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty good. The next recipe I tried was for chocolate chip cookies. They tasted just like the blondies. As did the vanilla cake....

~I realized that all the recipes taste the same because the author uses predominantly coconut oil in every recipe. She then tries to mask it by several tablespoons of vanilla extract (which is also expensive, and I have used it all up as well).

~I then noticed that all the recipes- from cookies to brownies to scones- have the same texture. I'm assuming this is because these treats are lacking in what is supposed to give baked goods texture- gluten. Everything is very light, and slightly fall apart-y. This is great for a cake, but not for a cookie.

~Even though everything came out of the oven fairly the same, they did not all go in that way. I find this odd, because each recipe has very different ingredients. This brings me to my next point. In pastry school, we learned how to develop our own recipes based on basic quantities and ratios. For example, a cookie or cake usually has X amount of flour, Y amount of leavener, and Z amount of liquid. Even an avid baker can begin to recognize patterns in recipes, such as cookies commonly having two eggs and a teaspoon of baking soda. I noticed no pattern whatsoever in this book. One muffin recipe might use brown rice flour and potato starch, while another calls for spelt and 2 tablespoons of hot water. Even the sweeteners varied from evaporated cain juice to agave nectar to regular sugar. I can only guess that each recipe must have been developed by sheer trial and error. It felt more like chemistry to me than baking.

~All in all, the one recipe so far that I would make even if I didn't have to was the raspberry scones (I used blueberries). They were the closest to the texture of what I'm used to, and the coconut oil flavor actually worked with it

~Oh, one more thing: I noticed that if I freeze the cookies they almost taste normal.

On Father's Day

I know Father's day is yet a week away, but I am getting you started early so that you have time to go grocery shopping. To me, this dish is the perfect father's day meal. Then again, my dad's favorite food is chicken and dumplings. Still, it's simple, hearty, and straightforward- like the universal father should be. Also, it requires the perfect amount of work to be a "special occasion" meal, but not so much work that you get really stressed out and end up snarling and yelling at the the person of honor by the time you are ready to serve it.

I can't remember if I have shared this recipe with you before...at any rate, it's good enough to share with you again. Also, I realised that it has been quite some time since I shared with you a good, solid, savory dish. The recipe might look daunting, but there are lots of steps you can do ahead so that on Father's day you actually have time to celebrate with whatever father (or fathers) you would like to spend time with. All you need to actually do the same day is make the biscuits.

Chicken Stew With Biscuits

from the Barefoot Contessa
nocoupons

• 3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots (4 carrots), blanched for 2 minutes
• 1 10-ounce package frozen peas (2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen small whole onions
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

For the biscuits:

nocoupons

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into large dice. You will have 4 to 6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions, and parsley. Mix well. Place the stew in a 10 x 13 x 2-inch oval or rectangular baking dish. Place the baking dish on a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper. Bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the biscuits. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Add the half-and-half and combine on low speed. Mix in the parsley. Dump the dough out on a well-floured board and, with a rolling pin, roll out to 3/8-inch thick. Cut out twelve circles with a 2 1/2-inch round cutter.

Remove the stew from the oven and arrange the biscuits on top of the filling. Brush them with egg wash, and return the dish to the oven. Bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the biscuits are brown and the stew is bubbly.

Note: To make in advance, refrigerate the chicken stew and biscuits separately. Bake the stew for 25 minutes, then place the biscuits on top, and bake for another 30 minutes, until done.

The Way to Throw a Dinner Party

Something great about living in Seattle for the past four and a half years has been our "home group" that we attend every Sunday evening. From the very start of our marriage, Raj and I have been getting together with a few other families every week for dinner and Bible study. Each week we rotate houses, and everyone takes turns cooking and hosting. So basically, every few weeks I am responsible for throwing a dinner party.

Currently, there are about eight or ten people that come on a regular basis, but in the past there has been as many as sixteen people to cook for in my little kitchen. When I began hosting, it would take me all day to cook, my kitchen would be a mess, and I would spend hours cleaning after. As the years went by, though, I became a very seasoned dinner party thrower. I figured out what kinds of recipes are best for big groups (ones with lots of do ahead steps), and which are not (for example, Indian dinner is definitely not a low stress menu, nor is a salad nicoise good to make for a lot of people).

Sunday was our day, and it was quite simple and delicious. I made the mexican lasagna I told you about the other day, assembling it on Saturday so there was no cleanup the following day. I marinated some chicken strips, grilled them, and then let Trader Joe's do the rest. Sure, I could have sliced pineapple and mango myself, made my own guacamole, and washed and cut up my own salad greens, but with places like TJ's who are fresh and reasonably priced why not outsource a few chores, am I right?

So now that you know how easy it is, go throw your own dinner party!

Only my thoughts for you today

As I grew from a teenager into adulthood, I became unintentionally inclined to the domestic arts. Cooking is the obvious interest, but I also found myself drawn to sewing, decorating, child rearing, and general house keeping. Which is why I am sort of embarrassed to say outright that I know jack nothin' about gardening.

It comes as no big surprise to anyone in this city of outdoorsy tree huggers that Seattle is full of people who just luuuurve gardening- and we're talking obsessively tending to the outsides of their homes. Frankly, and maybe it's the southern Californian in me, I am not inspired to do anything that's going to force me outside when it's 45 and raining.

However...

On those very special days like today, when for some reason we are getting a 70 degree sunny day break from our usually dreary weather, I open my drapes to view my back yard and I'm ashamed of myself. I told Raj that we are those neighbors- you know the ones- with the horridly weedy, dirty yard full of dead plants. And a fire pit full of rain water (that, I might add, we've only used once in our three years in this house). So since I have some free time today I am planning on cleaning up a bit. I'vee already thrown away our soggy remnants of what was once a doormat, a dead basil plant, old charcoal from our grill, and five or six broken flower pots.

Once everything is cleaned up, I think I might entertain the idea of growing some vegetables, which are things that I know grow fantastic here in the northwest. I sometimes feel that it's my duty as a self proclaimed food snob to know how to grow some things. From what I've heard, it's very satisfying to pick and eat your home grown food. Not to mention super healthy. And if I can get good at it, I will be one step closer to my dream of buying a rural plot of land and living like the Laura Ingalls Little House on the Prairie family except with electricity, plumbing, and heating. And the internet.

So if I start this project I will be certain to take you along with me on my journey. No promises yet, though, I'm still weighing the pros and cons.

Fast and easy...

...seems to be what my life is all about right now. Except the easy part.


Sometimes I really miss the days of pastry school, when I could go in and just get lost in learning about becoming a pastry chef. No quotas, no customers. Just 5 hours of baking and experimenting, tasting... What a wonderful time it was indeed.

But life is not pastry school, and sometimes things need to be done fast.

So to make this fast....I looove this Mexican Casserole. All the flavors are there, and it can be different depending on what salsa or beans you use. The recipe calls for pinto, but sometimes I use black. Also, I like to add some shredded chicken on occasion for protein.

Here you are:

Mexican Lasagna
Serves 4.

• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 4 scallions, coarsely chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 10 ounces fresh baby spinach
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1 (15.5 ounces) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup prepared salsa (mild or medium)
• 8 ounces pepper Jack cheese, grated (about 2 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a food processor, combine cilantro, scallions, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper with as much spinach as will fit; pulse, adding remaining spinach in batches, until coarsely chopped.
2. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Lay 4 tortillas in bottom of dish (they will overlap slightly). Layer with half of beans, salsa, spinach mixture, and cheese; repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with cheese and pressing in gently.
3. Cover dish with foil; place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes; remove foil, and continue baking until golden, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool 5 to 10 minutes.
   

Waaay Over the Top

Ok, so when I gave you the recipe for my very favorite frittata, I mentioned that I like to serve it with berries. BUT I DIDN'T MEAN WITH BERRIES ON TOP!!! Look closely at the picture above. Why, yes, that is a berry and bacon garnish you see!

What better month than this to say that I think Better Homes and Gardens has taken brunch a little too far? Allow me to give you their Bread Pudding Quiche with Berries and Bacon. Oh, and did the title forget to mention that it's made with a cinnamon swirly buttery crumb crust? Or that the filling is more cinnamon swirl bread with gruyere, onions, and HAM? Yup...

And let me tell you, I love all the things listed above. But dear, dear BHG, I also love smoked salmon and chocolate, and you don't see me making smoked salmon truffles! My point here is that I am all for innovation and mixing flavors, but this is entirely too much. Basically, I think this dish is what happens when you are too lazy to use more than one serving platter.

Better Homes and Gardens, please, for the love of all that is tasty, stick to your dried flower boquets and teddy bear decor and skip the food experiments. Thanks.