Spork or Foon?

Lots'o Halloween Desserts

 

 

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

FASTEST POST EVER.

I made all of this stuff last night after going out with a few friends.  So you can imagine how that went.

Note to all bakers: Don't try baking lots of food for a party after a night out with friends. You won't get anything done.

I woke up at 5 am to finish start baking.  It took 6 hours. Plus, we're moving out of our apartment. Today was a bit crazy. It is only noon. Now I have to drive to Long Island. Holla.

 

Spice Cookies with Dulce De Leche Filling

 

Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies

Do-It-Yourself White Chocolate Lollipops! Thanks Wilton!

Martha Stewart's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie!  Chocolate Crust Recipe care of Martha Stewart (scroll down). Pumpkin Pie recipe care of Joy of Baking.

I also have the coolest skull cake that I will photograph later.  Gotta run!

Top Chef with Teanna - Season Six, Episode 9, Part 2 - Pressed Chicken with Calamari Noodles

I have to keep this one short and sweet - Jack and I are moving (AGAIN) this week to our permanent apartment! 

Here is the winning restaurant wars dish from restaurant Revolt(ing). Michael Voltaggio made a Pressed Chicken with Calamari Noodles.

Let's talk about the brilliance that is Michael Voltaggio. Michael is so brilliant, that in this past Wednesday's episode, his dish prompted Natalie Portman to ask "Who is his dealer and is he accepting new clients?" Toby Young is kicking himself for not thinking of something so witty. 

But that is an episode that I will discuss with next week's dish. And there is a lot to discuss... like the uncomfortable innuendos that were being thrown around the table about a prick. It was... odd.

Here's what I changed:  You know with any Voltaggio dish, you're going to be doing some crazy stuff.  Like putting frozen calamari steaks through a meat press.  I couldn't find calamari steaks, so I just got the largest pieces of calamari that I could find and cut them into noodles with a pairing knife.  No freezing required. Secondly, I do not have an immersion circulator, so I just poached the chicken in 2 cups of chicken stock, extra garlic and thyme, and added a lemon slice to really bring out the flavor.  I then followed the rest of the instructions for the chicken by pressing a large frying pan on top of them and then crisping the skin when they were ready to serve.

The broth was delicious and reminded me a lot of the Cardamom Tomato broth that Kevin and Jennifer made in a previous episode.  Michael's broth wasn't as sweet, as there was no sugar, but the sweet, licorice flavor of fennel and the citrusy lemongrass added the perfect flavor profile to this dish. 

Although the recipe is challenging, it is definitely adaptable to the home kitchen if you put your mind to it.  Click herehttp://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/pressed-chicken-with-calamari-noodles-tomato-confit-and-fennel-salad for the recipe. 

Oh, and here is a real picture of the other dish that Kevin and Jennifer made a few weeks back.  I had to replace the crappy iPhone photo.

Whole Wheat Apple Chai-Spiced Muffins

Tuesdays with Dorie will be "Teanna Does Wednesdays with Dorie" this week!  I was a bit delayed in making the dessert (read: I still haven't made it yet), but will make it tomorrow to post!  I apologize for any inconvenience! 

I saw these muffins on a blogger friend's page. Tracey, of Tracey's Culinary Adventures, had an apple theme on her blog this past week, and when I saw these muffins, I jumped out of my chair and made them.  

I'm not kidding. At 12:30 in the morning on Monday morning, I started baking these whole wheat muffins. There is nothing better than seeing a recipe that you love and knowing you have all of the ingredients to make it.  And then on top of having all of the ingredients, having the will to make it at that very moment. That's a compelling recipe.

Honestly, food bloggers, or anyone who loves to cook for that matter, how many times do you see a recipe and bookmark/dog ear/email it to yourself/rip out the page, swearing that you'll make it at a later date and time.  And how often do you actually make that dish?

Exactly. 

This is a recipe that is simple and straightforward and packs a great punch.  Tracey saw this recipe on the King Arthur Flour blog (a site I never read, but checked out when I saw this recipe and now realize what I've been missing)

I made some changes to the recipe, but not many.  I didn't have white whole wheat flour on hand, so I used regular whole wheat flour, and I added my favorite spice - McCormick Gourmet's Chai Spice.  I usually don't often use premade spice blends (like pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice) because for some reason, actually measuring the out ginger, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, etc, etc etc makes me feel like a more accomplished cook/baker, but I make an exception with this spice. 

These complex fragrant spices of the chai spice work so well with the robust cinnamon (in my opinion, you can never have too much cinnamon) and the crisp gala apples become soft and sweet once baked and are finished with the slight tang of buttermilk to create a wonderful breakfast muffin.  

I've listed my ingredient changes, but head over to Tracey's blog to see the entire recipe! 

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour

1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon chai spice

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup buttermilk

2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Top Chef with Teanna - Season Six, Episode 9, Part 1 - Pear Pithivier

Finally the time has come for the beloved Top Chef restaurant wars.  This is the point in the season where the top 8 chefs form two teams and build a restaurant empire for an evening to impress the judges. Or, in this case, the Top 5 or (arguably) 6 chefs pair up with two chefs that make you wonder why they weren't eliminated weeks ago leaving room for much more talented chefs to create dishes in the kitchen. 

Luckily, one of said chefs did prepare the most popular dish of the evening: this pear pithivier.  Yes, the controversial, inferiority-complex suffering Robin prepared this fantastical (yes, fantastical) dessert.  Now, I don't mean to be mean about Robin. But we all know that Robin doesn't belong there anymore. Robin knows she doesn't belong there which is why I say she suffers from an inferiority complex: because her knowledge of the fact that she shouldn't be there constantly has her being over defensive and snappy. Although I'd snap Michael Voltaggio's finger off if he ever stuck it in my face the way he did hers after she cursed at him. But his arrogance is another story that can be seen in the hilarious montage of an interview where Michael talks about his level-headedness and leadership skills in the kitchen interspersed with clips of Michael being an annoying, obnoxious, cocky pain-in-the-ass. But he is a damn talented annoying, cocky, pain-in-the-ass, and for that, I cannot be mad at him. 

I did make the dish that Michael made that won him the challenge - Pressed Chicken with Calamari Noodles - which was amazing and I will post Wednesday, but I have to say, this dish was the star of the dinner.  

I had actually made homemade puff pastry for the first time from scratch and have yet to blog about it. I will shortly, but I'll just say that making puff pastry from scratch reminds me why I should never eat puff pastry: because it will turn my body into a butter factory. As in, I'll be a giant stick of Land O'Lakes walking the streets of Manhattan.  But this dessert made me forget all of that.  A delicious, intensely almond frangiapane is given a little kick by adding crystallized ginger and is layered with thinly sliced, butter- poached pears and enrobed in a light and flaky puff pastry crust. It is served with "intense vanilla ice cream" (I just thought it was funny that Eli described the ice cream as "intense") and a crisp almond brittle. Robin served this dish with an Elderflower syrup, but since I don't have any access to elderflower syrup, I made some homemade caramel and infused it with some rose water. The rich caramel worked perfectly with the light, rose-flavored water and was a perfect finish to the dish. 

Maybe Robin does deserve to be there after all.

No. No. I don't think so.  But this gives her a gold star in my book. 

Click here for the recipe.

Top Chef with Teanna - Season 6, Episode 8 - Pork Leg Pate

HOLLA!

I'm back! With a shiny new camera!  I am the proud new owner of a Nikon D3000, which is basically the replacement camera for the now defunct Nikon D40, but sounds so much cooler because there are more 0's in the name. 

But I am in love.  I don't know much about cameras, but I do know that it is faster, takes better photos in less light, and IS NOT BROKEN, which was the problem with my last camera. 

On another note, I swear I'll be a better blogger. I haven't been consistent, I haven't been keeping in touch with my favorite bloggers, I haven't been on Twitter, and I miss the community! When things calm down a bit, I'll be back with a vengeance! For now, I still love everyone so much! 

But on to bigger and better things.  Mainly, Kevin Gillespie and Pork. This week's challenge had the cheftestants cooking pork for the famed Charlie Palmer.  And of course, the winner of the challenge was Kevin, who is not only extremely talented, but in love with the other white meat - so much so that he has a pork tattoo adorning his arm, which he happily showed the judges.  Luckily, it wasn't adorning another part of his body (because, frankly, if you're going to have a tattoo of a pig, you may as well go all out and get it tattooed on your backside).

This has to be one of the easiest Top Chef recipes I have tried to date.  The ingredients only cost me about $15 for 1/3 of the recipe for the pork, star anise, mushrooms, cherries, and heavy cream. I only ended up getting ground pork instead of pork and fat back (um?) and had to get canned cherries instead of fresh.  Additionally, I subbed almond flour for hazelnut flour, because that is what I had on hand. I learned that quatre epices is a spice mix used mainly in France and the Middle East, but is just a fancy way of saying "2 tablespoons ground black pepper, or a combination of 1/2 tablespoon white and 2-1/2 tablespoons black pepper, 2 tablespoons ground cloves, 2 tablespoons ground nutmeg, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon." 

The recipe took a total of 20 minutes to throw together, even though there are three different segments.  Each part of this recipe was delicious on its own, ESPECIALLY the mushroom mixture, which was absolutely glorious. Almond flour was cooked in a mixture of butter and canola oil (I didn't have 1 pound of pork fat on hand, unfortunately) and used to saute a mixture of mushrooms.  The mushrooms are then tossed in a homemade mayonnaise and sprinkled with parsley. The mixture of earthy, nutty mushrooms, textural almond flour, creamy mayonnaise and lemony parsley is pure perfection.  

The pork terrine was firm, tender, and wonderfully spiced with the quatre epices. And finally, cherries, although canned, took very well to the pickling process and were the key to bringing this dish together. 

When Jack tasted the dish, he loved it so much, he didn't even have time to do his happy dance. Huge score in my book.  Although I do miss that dance.

Click here for the recipe.

Duo of Kobe Beef with Creamy Polenta

I prepared this over the summer as part of my Top Chef with Teanna series from Season 1, but never got around to blogging about it before the new season picked up.  But it really is a phenomenal dish, and although I had to use a flash (it was dark by the time we served it), it still is deserving of a post. 

This is a dish from season winner Harold, from the Season 1 Finale episode. Lorraine Bracco was a guest judge, and the chef's were asked to prepare a five-course dinner and pair wines from her vineyard with their dishes. This episode was at the height of Sopranos fame, although it was around that time when David Chase was doing very odd storylines where Tony Soprano did peyote in the dessert with some girl, which is not very mafia-like to me and forever changed the way "Don't Stop Believin'" was viewed forever. 

The beef was incredibly tender, and the two different textures of the short ribs and strip loin worked perfectly with one another.  The polenta was rich and creamy, but filled with butter and cheese, so I only had a bite, lest I wanted to gain five pounds just from my side dish.  

Funny side note:  I made this dish for our weekly dinners with our friends Chris and Chelsea while we were all living in DC.  Chelsea and I were talking in the kitchen as I was preparing the polenta, and I was so embarrassed when I threw in an entire stick of butter and a whole container of mascarpone cheese. No one should have to witness that.  If I'm going to eat that much butter, I'd rather not know about it. 

Luckily, the dish was a huge hit, regardless of the butter.  Tom Colicchio said in his blog post on the episode that this dish was lick the plate good.  And it was.  Hands down, this was one of my favorite dishes from the season (although I liked everything from that season, unlike this season).  It was very simple dish to make, and one that didn't require me to be in the kitchen for hours. 

Oh, and ere is an example of the poorly written Top Chef recipes from seasons past. Luckily, they have changed this and made much more comprehensive recipes.

Duo of Kobe Beef by Harold Dieterle courtesy of Top Chef

Ingredients
5 lbs. Kobe Short Ribs
2 qts. Red Wine 
1 qt. Chicken Stock 
2 qts. Veal Stock (I subbed beef stock)
2 pc Onions 
1 pc Celery 
5 pc Fresh Tomatoes 
1 cup White Polenta 
2 cups Milk 
1 cup Cream 
½ cup Butter 
½ cup Mascarpone Cheese 
2 oz. Morels 
2 oz. Asparagus Tips Blanched 
4 oz. Butter 
20 oz. Kobe Strip Loin 

Assembly:
Sear the Ribs in a Braising pot till golden brown. Add the vegetables and caramelize.  Add the red wine and reduce by ½. Then add the stocks and cover. Braise for 4 hours or until fork tender.  Remove the bones, portion into 3 inch cubes. Strain the reduced sauce and place the short rib cubes back in the sauce. 

In a sauce pot heat the cream and milk. Whisk in the white polenta. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Constantly stirring to avoid lumps. Add the butter and the mascarpone. Season generously. 

Heat the butter in a sauce pot, add a little drop of water and emulsifies. Place the morel and poach. Add the asparagus at the last second and season. 

Heat a sauté pan with oil and season the Strip loin heavily. Pan roast the beef on both side and place in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven baste with butter and cook till med rare. Rest beef for 4 minutes and slice 
into 2 oz. pieces.

Top Chef with Teanna: Season 6, Episode 7 - Kobe Beef with Tomato-Cardomon Broth, Petit Bok Choy and Asian Pear

After some missteps with the last few Top Chef Recipes, it looks like I am back on track with this one, because this dish was GOOD.  Really, really good. Sweet, complex, flavorful, and filled with a vast mixture of ingredients that, when combined into one dish, brought together a delightful variety of flavors and textures.  

And the dish was invented by my two favorites: Kevin and Jennifer.

Sure, I love the Voltaggio brother's, too, but one of them has a Michelin star. That is like asking Tiger Woods to play golf against... me.  Ok, maybe not me, but someone who golfs a lot, like... Justin Timberlake.

I'm reaching here. It's early and I know nothing about golf. 

When I first looked at the ingredient list, I almost fainted.  All in total, there are roughly 30 ingredients required for this dish. And there are a lot of steps.  And some hard-to-find ingredients.  The main protein for the dish was a Kobe Beef skirt steak, but unfortunately, I was unable to find Kobe beef, so I had to stick with plain old skirt steak. Secondly, the dish called for sambal, a southeast Asian condiment that seems to come in several different variations that can either be spicy or sweet. Obviously I could not find this. 

Other than the extensive ingredient list and many steps, this recipe is actually quite easy to make.  Plum tomatoes are combined with ginger, garlic, star anise, fennel, cardomom, shallots, beef scraps, chicken stock and sugar to make the most incredible broth.  And when I say incredible, I mean I-want-to-drink-it-by-the-glass, which is probably the reason Jennifer won the challenge (the broth was her creation).

I marinated the strip steak in hoisin sauce, ginger, garlic, cilantro, basil, soy sauce, molasses, and orange juice. I wanted to drink that marinade after the meat was sitting in it as well, but I'm sure that would have been dangerous. 

Finally, a salad was made by blanching and shocking baby bok choy, grilling an Asian pear and cutting it into batons, shaving fennel, and supreming mandarin oranges (I had to use clementines) and tossing it in a lime-fennel vinaigrette.

Although time consuming, the dish is not very challenging and comes with a huge payoff.  

Click here for the recipe. 

On a different note, I'm very upset with the person that was sent home this week. Sure, said person annoyed me a little bit on the show, but really, that person is a far better chef than some of the remaining chefs. There is always one chef who goes home way too early (Remember Tre from Season 3? Heartbreaker.), but it always stinks. 

Allspice Crumb Muffins Pt. 2

Here is the photo, since I obviously dont know how to post from my iPhone.

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins and How Best Buy Gives Me Heart Palpitations

This is the first time blogging from My iPhone, so please forgive any mass of errors or words like "mr" instead of "me". Three weeks and still no camera. I called the place where my camera was sent for repairs and the informed me that it was sent back to the store ten days prior. Oh, reaaaallllllly??? Why did no one call me to let me know, I wondered. I called the store ready to give them a stern talking to. But my plans were foiled when they informed me that they couldn't fix my camera but would give me a new one. Holla. I arrived at the local Best Buy and headed right to the Geek Squad. I happily asked for my new merchandise. I then find out that Nikon stopped manufacturing the D40 and so I would have to buy a new, more expensive camera. I was not prepared for this. I did not have my game face on. I was tired. My body craved its morning coffee. And to make matters worse, the girl helping me was pregnant. I couldn't argue with a pregnant girl. That's like hitting someone with glasses on. So I politely negotiated the terms of my refund. Best Buy would refund me the cost of the camera - $500 - but not the two-year insurance plan I only bought 5 months ago. I asked in a most convivial manner to please at least prorate the insurance for the remainder of the two years. In the nicest way possible, I told her that "It is not my problem if there was a manufacturing defect, therefore, I should not lose $70 for it." Nice as I tried to be, my blood was boiling. Log story short, an hour later I walked away with a $580 gift card, refunding me for the camera, tax, and insurance. As Johnny Drama from Entourage would say: Victory! Until I checked my initial Best Buy credit card statement today and saw that I paid $600 for the camera and not $500. So more polite fighting awaits me. We Italians call the heart pains that I am suffering from "acita". And I could write some more bad Italians words to describe Best Buy but I will refrain. But I could write some fantastic words about these muffins, chosen by one of my favorite bloggers on earth, Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table. Her site is filled with photos of her gorgeous family (who are also very accomplished swimmers! Swimming is hard!) sampling her fantastic dishes. These allspice crumb muffins were among my top five items to bake from Dorie's book, and they did not disappoint. The muffins are light, yet deliciously moist, and frangrantly spiced with allspice and McCormick's chai spice (my own addition) and given a bright note by orange zest (again, my substitution for lemon) and are topped with a delicious allspice crumble. My crumble, however, baked right into my muffins. I have to admit, I am not a good crumble maker, and this happens to me every. Single. Time. If I had a baking resume, it would say "Does Not Do Crumble.". Making crumble gives me almost as much acita as Best Buy. Regardless, these are a fantastic fall muffins chosen by a fantastic blogger. Check out Kayte's site for the recipe and the rest of TWD for some more muffins while I go talk through a tight smile to get the rest of the money that is owed to me. Maybe if I bring them some muffins...

Chai Spiced Bread with Pumpkin Butter

I think Top Chef was on hiatus last week for some unknown reason.  That, or my DVR went on hiatus, but I am going to believe the former.  So that means no Top Chef post this week.  Instead, I'm posting some bread.  Some nice bread that doesn't have 8,000 ingredients that doesn't take all day to make.  Holla for hiatuses.

Talk about a fall dessert in a bread. Earthy, sweet pumpkin is flavored with the delicious and complex flavors of cinnamon, ginger, star anise, black pepper and cloves from the chai tea.  The bread is unbelievably moist, and incredibly versatile, as I also made a healthy version with applesauce, which was equally as moist and delicious, but a little more dense. The smells that wafted through my apartment when this bread was baking were heavenly.  It was as if fall was sucked from the air outside and found a home in my apartment for the hour that the bread cooked in the oven. 

This bread comes together so quickly... which I guess why it must be considered a quick bread. And I am apparently Captain Obvious. Reporting to duty.

I made some pumpkin butter to pair with the bread.  I have never tried or tasted pumpkin butter, or apple butter for that matter, so I really wasn't sure what the ingredients were or what the consistency would be like.  I found a great recipe on Smitten Kitchen's website and went forward with my butter making conquest.

Oddly enough (to me), it did not turn to butter.  The consistency was more like a very thick applesauce. I was confused but it was delicious, so I decided to go with it.  It was sweet and creamy and wonderfully spiced, and the best part was that there was actually no butter so I wouldn't feel bad about eating it.  By the spoonful.

When Jack got home from work, I handed him a piece of bread slathered with the pumpkin butter.  He took a bite and looked at me quizzically. 

"This isn't butter." he said, accusingly.

"Yeah, I know. It's pumpkin butter.  It's pumpkin..."  I attempted to find a better way to explain it to him. "...butter."  Attempt failed. "But is it good?"  I asked, hopefully.

"Well, yeah it's good, but it's false advertising.  If this were called a pumpkin spread, I wouldn't have been expecting butter." Now he's Captain Obvious.

I let it go.  Yes, he had a point, but I didn't want him to, as the British say, "Piss on me fireworks."  The bread is wonderfully moist and flavorful, the spread butter smooth and spicy.  A perfect match.

Like bread and butter.

Check out Smitten Kitchen for the Pumpkin Butter Recipe.

Chai Spiced Pumpkin Bread: adapted from A Bowl of Mush

To make the healthy version of this bread, substitute the butter for 1/2 cup applesauce.  Also, I found that the healthier version took longer to cook, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
(makes 1 loaf)

1/2 cup butter (softened) (***or 1/2 cup applesauce)

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 can of pumpkin puree

2 black tea bags steeped in 1/4 cup hot milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon Chai Spice (optional.  The McCormick brand sells this at the supermarket.)

pinch of black pepper

pinch of all spice

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Fold in the pumpkin puree and the milky tea (make sure the tea has completely cooled before adding).  Set aside

In another bowl mix together the all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add the spices and whisk to incorporate.

Add the flour mixture into the pumpkin mix and gently fold until just combined.  Pour the mixture into the loaf pan. 

Bake for 55-60 minutes at 350F (for the healthier version, you may need to bake longer, up to 1 hour and 20 minutes. If you don't want the bread to brown any more, tent some aluminum foil over the top.)