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Walnut Toffee Triangles (freezeable, portable holiday deliciousness)

20 Nov

When Marianne called me the other day to start some holiday baking I thought “What!?! Already!?! It’s too early!” But Marianne is a woman who knows what she’s about in the kitchen; she will have a full house on Thanksgiving and has no time to mess around. 

Even though it seemed like madness, I knew there had to be a method behind it.

And of course there was. Like I said, Marianne doesn’t mess about.

These Walnut Toffee Triangles were pretty easy to make (we did two batches in the oven at the same time; one tray for me and one for her), have a taste and texture reminiscent of baklava without the gooiness or Spanish turrón without the jaw-breaking stickiness. One batch gives you 4 dozen pretty and sophisticated little cookies AND they freeze beautifully, so if you pack them right, you can just pull a few out of the freezer anytime you need a rich dessert. And they are rich, just one or two will satisfy that need for a little something naughty with your coffee (or in my case, tea)!

So, if you are a busy, busy person (and who isn’t these days?), these triangles give you a lot of return for the time investment. And when you bake with friends, well, it’s that much better, isn’t it? Bring on the holidays!!!!

Walnut Toffee Triangles

(you need an electric mixer for this one)

Crust

½ Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

½ Cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

1.5 Cups unsifted all-purpose flour

Topping

1 Cup packed light brown sugar

½ Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

¼ Cup honey

½ Cup light cream

4 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line bottom and sides of a 13x9x2 baking pan with aluminum foil, extending the ends of the foil beyond the two short pan sides.

Crust: In a medium bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Beat in sugar and egg yolk until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, beat in flour until mixture is smooth. (We didn’t find much difference between a worked dough and a less worked dough, so it’s up to you). Press mixture evenly into bottom of prepared baking pan. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Topping: While crust is baking, in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine sugar, butter and honey; heat until butter is melted. Bring to boil; let boil three minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in light cream and walnuts. Pour mixture evenly over prepared crust. Return to oven. Continue to bake for 19-21 minutes or until top is bubbling.

Cool completely in pan over wire rack. Lift foil by short sides and transfer bar to cutting board. Invert onto wire rack; carefully remove foil. Reinvert bar onto cutting board. Cut crosswise into ten equal strips. Cut each strip crosswise diagonally into five equal triangles (4 dozen cookies).

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Ahead of the Holidays: Simple Clean and Green Kitchen Tips (from ewg.org)

15 Nov

I sometimes avoid reading suggestions on greening my kitchen — or indeed, my life — because they make it seem like everything I touch, clean or consume is bad for me and my family. The cumulative terror, frustration and exasperation (as well as the time, energy and money suck) is just overwhelming and often results in paralysis rather than action.

Having said that, the Environmental Working Group does have some good suggestions, backed up by research, and spooned out in easily-digested, non-toxic (haha) portions that are not so bad going down.

In honor of the impending holidays (and, apparently, in honor of a new fund-raising deal they have with amazon – brace yourself for some product placement) Environmental Working Group has posted tips for a safer, more environmentally friendly kitchen. It is short, sweet and fairly easily incorporated into your life.

Hope you find them useful!

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Crispy Oven-Fried Sweet Potatoes (new and improved)

12 Nov

If I couldn’t oven-fry sweet potatoes, I probably wouldn’t eat them at all. I find them too sweet, too mushy, too cloying and too dense to fall in love with when they are roasted or baked or steamed or boiled. Argue with me all you want (better yet, send recipes!) but that’s really how I felt about them, until oven fries changed my whole perspective.

Let’s face it, fried foods taste good, no matter what. I mean, how could clams EVER be a kid’s menu item if they weren’t breaded and fried? Leandro won’t even look at them raw, but coat them in crumbs and plunge them in a deep fryer and watch them disappear! Don’t even get me started with French fries…crispy outside, creamy inside, the perfect vehicle for ketchup…Lord have mercy. Fried foods, if not fundamentally good, are fundamentally delicious. Continue reading →

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Long Island Turkey (and egg) Source: Makinajian Poultry Farm

10 Nov

This one is for my homies: my readers here on Long Island. All the rest, rest assured that once I fix the weird photo upload problem that is cramping my blogging style, I will have a bunch of new recipes to share!

Local, Fresh and (pretty much) Organic: We’ve been getting our eggs and Thanksgiving (and sometimes Christmas) birds from Makinajian Poultry Farm in Huntington for a number of years now. We didn’t discover them by ourselves; once we joined C.S.A. – first at Sophia Garden and now at Restoration Farm – eggs and Thanksgiving turkeys were optional shares. It’s a good thing, as a drive to their farm in Huntington is kind of a hike for us to do on a regular basis – 30-40 minutes from our house. It’s a nice place to go though – farm animals in the front yard, coops out the back and a sweet country-style store…Worth a visit!

The eggs and poultry, while not certified organic, are organically raised – no hormones, no antibiotics, cage free, and I believe they also get organic feed. Importantly, it’s all fresh – the organic eggs you buy in the supermarket can be weeks old (the USDA says eggs are fresh 45 days after being laid), while these are farm to table.

If you want a turkey for Thanksgiving, you should order it now! Click the link or here’s the number: 631-368-9320. And don’t forget to bring your order number when you pick up; it’s troublesome for them to find your order when the line to pick up is out the door…

I usually order extra turkey necks for the gravy and often pick up one of their homemade pies (still warm!) while I’m there. They also have organic produce…pretty much anything you might have forgotten to pick up for the Big Eat. Note: I do brine the bird overnight for extra tenderness and flavor and will probably do it again this year. I’ll let you know all about it!

 

 

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Fruit Fly Problem? I’m Your Venus (Flytrap)

6 Nov

This is a quick celebratory post– I don’t have those annoying little fruit flies anymore!

You know the ones I’m talking about, that gather around ripening (or overripe) fruits and vegetables and are  hard to eliminate.They are at their height in late summer and fall when the harvest is good.

Well thank you Abu, Padushi and Leandro! The grands took the little guy to a local nursery for the Halloween display and came home with a “Little Pot of Horrors” – a Venus Flytrap. It wasn’t our first, but the last one we had was outside and expired due to some sort of neglect or storm and didn’t make a dent in the mosquito problem. This one, however, lit a bulb in my head. I set it by the stove where the buggers were gathering and voila! No chemicals, no additional clean-up and NO FRUIT FLIES.

Notice fruit fly in central flower!

Apparently another low tech way to do it is to stick a paper funnel into a jar baited with cider vinegar, but the Venus Flytrap worked for me and is cute, besides. Of course, tracking and cleaning out the breeding spot is a good idea and prevention (keep very ripe stuff clean and inaccessible) is helpful.

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Halloween Party Snacks for Kids (adaptable to any holiday)

3 Nov

My friends greeted the news with gasps. With disbelief. With wide-eyed incredulity.

Yes, it was true. I actually bought a loaf of sliced white bread last week, smeared it with variations of cream cheese, jelly and butter and served it to my son. I also bought cupcake mix from a box AND, horror of all horrors, two tubs of pre-made icing with all manner of indecipherable ingredients written on the side by the (seriously?) “nutrition” information. I had my reasons. And I have no regrets.

Halloween is Leandro’s favorite, number one, most-anticipated holiday, so we invited a few of his beastie besties for a Halloween get-together on the Sunday afternoon before Halloween. Between goody bag decorating, scavenger hunts, and cupcake decorating, I felt like I had the activities covered, but it was a challenge to make good-looking seasonal stuff that would impress the moms, be attractive to the kids and still fit with my food values.

In the end, I kind of compromised my values, but two out of three…well you know the song…and, thanks to bat, pumpkin and ghost cookie cutters, I felt pretty cool in the end.

The little white bread sandwiches looked very cute once Leandro and I used the cookie cutters on them. And Pam had given me a recipe that became the recipe below: apple party dip with baked tortilla chips — also given the cookie cutter treatment (you can call it overkill, but we had fun and Leandro was totally engaged in the prep).

Pam’s cool serving idea for a spooky “Witch’s Brew”

Pam also made a “witch’s brew” of hot apple cider, cranberry juice and cinnamon – hope to get that recipe soon — and other folks brought even more cupcakes and brownies…Thanks everyone! And I made some devilled eggs (how could you not?) with olive slices and capers for eyeball effect….It was a lot of fun! (P.S. Thanks to my dad, Pedro, for rescuing the pictures from a wormhole in the alternate universe that is my computer)

Apple Pie Party Dip and Tortilla Chips

(this tastes quite like apple pie…without the fuss of crust or lengthy baking)

Dip

2 Cups apples, peeled, cored and diced

1.5 tsp lemon juice

2 heaping tsp light brown sugar

¼ tsp cinnamon

2 generous tsp lingonberry preserves (can be substituted with apricot, blueberry, etc)

Combine all dip ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until chilled (may be made several hours ahead).

Chips:

5-6 large (8”) burrito-style flour tortillas (fajita-style are too hard for cookie cutters and little hands)

2 Tbs butter, melted

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbs light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using cookie cutters, cut tortillas into desired shapes, or simply cut into pizza-style slices. Arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool before serving.

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Flex-Mex Shredded Chicken (one step, one pot) and easy red beans

29 Oct

I had about two pounds of boneless chicken breast defrosted and one of Leandro’s besties and his mom coming over for a congenial play date and dinner. I have the habit of fussing in the kitchen when they come over, as Amanda is an appreciative eater who likes to try new stuff. For the kids I usually make macaroni and cheese (from a box that — try not to roll your eyes — purports to be organic. Is this the foodie equivalent of ordering a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a diet Coke?)

This time, I wanted to be able to do more sitting and talking than mucking about with pots and pans. I don’t want my guests to be speaking to my back as I stir something on the stove and I just didn’t feel like making a second meal for the kids. I hate doing that, actually, but end up there more than I like to admit.

So this recipe — which I adapted from others I have done or read — was perfect. Just bung everything into a pot and a half hour later you have tasty, crowd-pleasing goodness that you can pile onto other Mexican-infused ingredients. On this occasion I made quick quesadillas with red beans (another one pot dish, see below) and Cheddar and Dominican white cheese which Leandro, Amanda and I ate, accompanied with avocado, cilantro and red onion. The revelation was Lucas, a bit more of a picky eater, who tasted the quesadilla (both the all-cheese just-in-case one and a chicken one) which by itself would’ve been cool, but who ended up loving the chicken on its own and eating several servings!

And yes, I sat – we all sat down to dinner together, in fact — and I didn’t fuss! Hurray!

Mexican-Style Shredded Chicken

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts

½ Cup onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 stock cube and four cups of water OR four cups of your favorite chicken stock

1 chipotle pepper in adobo, minced, seeds removed (1 pepper was not very spicy; play with this proportion according to your taste)

Place all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer for at least 20 minutes until chicken is thoroughly cooked. If you have time, you can cook it longer for more tenderness. Remove from heat and remove chicken from any remaining liquid. Allow to cool, shred, and serve – hot or cold — in your favorite Mexican-style recipes (quesadillas, tacos, with rice, on salads). Flavor affinities include avocado, lime, cilantro, kidney beans.

Easy Red Kidney Beans

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbs minced onion

1 half stock cube

1 tsp oregano

1/4-1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable juice (less water for drier beans)

1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp chopped cilantro

Saute onion in olive oil until tender. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 15 minutes until flavors are incorporated.

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See My Article in Edible East End magazine

26 Oct

As regular readers know, I am a member of Restoration Farm CSA. This month you can read my article about the farm, On Good Land: Restoration Farm, in Edible East End magazine, either by clicking here, or by picking up a copy if you live in Eastern Long Island.

It’s a gorgeous magazine – Edible Communities family of magazines just won a James Beard Award for Publication of The Year 2011  — so I am quite pleased to be a part of what they do. If you do go and have a look, please comment on the article, as I believe that will encourage the publisher to continue recognizing and supporting good food efforts in my overpopulated part of NY!

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Adriana’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts (Autumnal Awesome)

24 Oct

If you’ve never seen Brussels sprouts in the fields, you really should try to get a look. Now is the time; they reach their peak in November and December (which is why so many of us have them at our Thanksgiving table) and so may very well be growing at your nearest farm right now. They look like tropical ornamental succulents – a thick stem studded with  green bulbs and topped with lush foliage — and you’d never-ever think of them as something as pedestrian as cabbage. But mini-cabbages are exactly what they are (Brassica oleracea, Gemmifera).

Before cooking (we also did roasted asparagus)

I didn’t like them as a kid – the old sulfurous smelly thing that kids are ever-so sensitive to – but I adore them as an adult. Here at mine we usually do some sort of boil with lemon and such for Turkey Day (more about that in November), but when Adriana told me she was going to roast hers for our recent playdate/sleepover, I got really excited. Adri is a fantastic cook who likes simple but stylish meat and veg and I always learn a lot from her. Like me she is a single mom working full time, so like me, she has had to streamline the production of good meals. That is not a bad thing; it keeps you very focused on the quality of the ingredients, because you don’t have the time nor energy to make up for cruddy produce or take fancy steps.

And since the kids keep each other busy while we are mucking about in the kitchen and having a glass of wine, it is always a fun time.

So, here are Adriana’s oven-roasted Brussels sprouts. They were so easy, so fab, great with steak…you know I’ll be doing these a lot for the next couple of months!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts by Adriana

2 pints Brussels sprouts*, outer leaves removed and halved lengthwise

Liberal grindings of salt and pepper

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

8 sage leaves, cut into narrow ribbons

Leaves from one long sprig of rosemary

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place Brussels sprouts in a single layer in an oven dish (with sides). Sprinkle liberally with the salt and pepper (preferably from a grinder). Toss thoroughly with olive oil and herbs and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes, or until you have nice crispiness on the edges of the sprouts. Serve, finishing with sea salt if desired.

*When buying Brussels sprouts, look for tight bulbs that are bright green and bottom stems that are smooth and clean. In this recipe, any leaves that fall off during cooking tend to get nice and crispy, like chips!

 

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Not the healthiest snack/meal, but when it’s this fast and includes cheese, who cares?

21 Oct

Sometimes there is just no time to do things right, so you have to do them as best you can. That is the inspiration for this go-to snack/meal. This cracker and cheese snack (which Leandro calls mini-pizzas) can be done in the toaster oven or microwave in just minutes — or even seconds — and are manageable, handy meals for the car on those mornings when we are running behind. Which is often.

I happened to make it for myself this afternoon —  in the little bit of time between regular work and pre-K and Leandro’s escuelita de español when I was starving and he was happy with apples and pears. So I went the extra step of sliced tomato – seeing as I had a surprise ripe one from our backyard vines that, no, I haven’t taken down yet and Leandro still won’t eat them. I don’t often add anything to it; most of the time it’s just cheese on WASA crackers melted for 15-20 seconds in the nuke machine and we head out the door. But the tomato was really good and made it seem less of a lame snack and more of a meal.

Melty Crackers and Cheese

4 WASA Crisp’n light 7 grain crackerbreads

2 oz your preferred block cheese, sliced to fit on the WASA breads

1 medium small tomato or half a large one, sliced to fit on the WASA breads

Pinch salt

Pinch sugar

Put oven on broil

Place cheese slices on crisp bread, followed by tomato slices. Sprinkle with salt and sugar and broil on aluminum foil for 3-4 minutes. Eat up!

For simpler ones, skip the tomato, salt and sugar and just heat on a plate in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

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