Ratatouille

Ratatouille - serves 4 (from the Better Homes and Gardens 15th edition Cookbook)

Ingredients:

1/2 chopped onion (medium)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil or olive oil

3 cups cubed, peeled eggplant

1 medium zucchini or yellow squash, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices (1 1/2 cups)

1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes (2 medium) or one 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

3/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper (1 medium)

3 tablespoons chicken broth, vegetable broth, or dry white wine0

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil or oregano

Instructions:

1.  In large skillet, cook onion and garlic in hot oil over medium heat until onion is tender.

2.  Stir in eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet pepper, chicken broth, salt and black pepper.

3.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 10 minutes (or until vegetables are tender).

4.  Uncover and cook about 5 more minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Stir occasionally.

5.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

6.  Stir in basil or oregano just before serving.

7.  Enjoy.

Mark's Notes:

The kids and I were watching Ratatouille the other night.  After the movie, Abby asked if I could make Ratatouille for dinner.  So, I found a recipe.  This recipe is the Better Homes and Gardens recipe.  Trish and I went shopping for all the ingredients.  This is my first time making this recipe, so we kept it simple.  For the ingredients, we used the following:

Frozen chopped onions from the freezer section

Frozen chopped green peppers from the freezer section

Pre-cut yellow squash and zucchini from the refrigerated section (I used both)

I used the chicken broth

For the tomatoes, garlic, basil, and oregano, we found a 14.5 canned diced tomatoes seasoned with garlic, basil, and oregano, and so I did not add the garlic at the beginning or the basil at the end. These ingredients got added with the can of diced tomatoes.

We bought fresh eggplant

This is my first time working with fresh eggplant.  I washed it.  Cut the skin off.  Kept cutting it lengthwise until I had 1 inch strips. Then I cut those into little 1 inch cubes.  

Mark's Mistakes:

I put the onions in the skillet with no vegetable oil.  I quickly realized my mistake, took the onions out, put in the oil, heated the oil for awhile, then added the onions and proceeded.

I did not drain the 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes.  I just dumped the whole can in.  I didn't read the instructions carefully enough.

Then my worst mistake was instead of adding in 3 tablespoons of chicken broth, I added the entire can of chicken broth.  

As a result, it took longer than 15 minutes for all the juices to boil off.  It actually took closer to 25 minutes.  I didn't think much of the extra time to boil off the liquid until I started typing up the recipe for this blog, and then I realized my mistake.  It was still delicious.

End Results:

I liked it.  Trish loved it.  Miriam said she liked it even though she only took 4 bites and then claimed to be full from an earlier Nutella snack.  Abby took a few bites and said it was okay and proceeded to eat some chicken nuggets.

This is the first time I have ever made Ratatouille.  It is also the first time I have ever had Ratatouille.  I thought it was delicious.  Very much like a vegetable stew.  It did fill me up but I think this would be a better lunch rather than a dinner.  Trish thought it would make an excellent side for a larger meal.

This dish made the house smell so wonderful.  

I have lots of leftover vegetables.  I'll make this again fairly soon and pack this for my lunches.  I'll also remember to take a picture of it so that I can add a picture to this blog.

Miriam is watching the movie Ratatouille as I type this.  I need to get the soundtrack to this movie as there are some songs from Disney Pixar Ratatouille that would make wonderful additions to my cooking playlist.

Also, Abby and I are both working are way through Rosetta Stone's French language course.  

Banana Bread - Honey and Apple Sauce

Banana Bread - Honey and Apple Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar free applesauce

3/4 cup honey (or 1/2 cup honey - see Mark's Notes)

2 eggs, beaten

3 mashed overripe bananas

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.  In large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt

3.  In medium bowl, mix honey with applesauce

4.  Stir in eggs and bananas with honey and applesauce until well blended

5.  Stir banana-honey mixture into the flour mixture - just to moisten

6.  Lightly grease 9x5 inch loaf pan

7.  Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes - or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (see Mark's Notes)

8.  Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes

9.  Enjoy

Here is the original website and recipe:

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/sweet-bread/banana-bread-with-honey-and-applesauce.html

Mark's Story:

This is a recipe that Trish sent me that she wanted me to try as it is almost sugar free as in there is no extra added sugar.  Most banana bread recipes call for anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 1/4 cup sugar.  This recipe replaces the sugar with honey and applesauce.

Mark's Notes:

After baking this for 65 minutes, I had to leave my loaf in the oven for another 20 minutes for it to cook all the way through.

Also, the honey flavor was almost overpowering.  I would suggest trying just 1/2 cup of honey.

The only other suggestion that I have is to make two smaller loaves rather than 1 large loaf and adjust cooking times accordingly.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Cook's Illustrated Whole Wheat Pancakes

This recipe will make about eight 3 inch pancakes and serve 3-4.
(Perfect for two adults and two kids)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg, separated
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (optional) or
1/2 cup blueberries (optional)

Instructions:
1.  Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl
2.  Pour buttermilk and milk into a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup
3.  Whisk in egg white into the milk mix
4.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter
5.  Mix egg yolk with melted butter
6.  Stir egg yolk/butter into the milk mixture
7.  Dump wet ingredients (all in the 2 cup Pyrex cup) into the dry ingredients.
8.  Whisk until just mixed
9.  Add dark chocolate chips or blueberries (optional)
10.  Heat griddle or large skillet over medium heat.  Brush griddle or skillet with oil.
11.  When a few drops of water sizzle on pan, it is ready to pour the batter on.
12.  Pour batter, about 1/4 cup, at a time onto griddle.
13.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes or when top surface begins to bubble and bottom of pancakes are brown.  
14.  Flip pancakes and cook until other side is brown - about 1 to 2 minutes.

Mark's Notes
This has become a popular item on our Saturday morning family breakfast that I always make.  The kids prefer the chocolate chip pancakes to the blueberries.  The original Cook's Illustrated recipe did not say anything about adding blueberries or chocolate chips.  I have just added that as an optional ingredient.

One mistake that I commonly make that does not appear to have much consequence is that I confuse the baking powder for the baking soda and use 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.  I have the entire recipe memorized except I can never remember which of the two gets 1/2 teaspoon and which gets 1/4 teaspoon.  

According to Cook's Illustrated the baking soda gives the pancakes a 'coarser crumb' and makes the pancakes 'light and tender', and the baking powder helps with the rise.

This recipe is perfect for our family of 4.  If you want more pancakes just double the recipe.  I've done that before when we've had guests over, wanted leftovers, or if everyone was hungry.

Remember if you do not have buttermilk readily available do one of the following:
1.  Use yogurt.  In this case 3/4 cup buttermilk is replaced with 3/4 cup yogurt.
2.  Mix milk with lemon juice.  In this case, mix 3/4 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let sit for five minutes.  Pancakes won't turn out as thick, but it does work.

I prefer the yogurt substitute and have used that many many times.

I almost lost my printout for this recipe, and so when I found, it I decided to add it to my blog.

I have also slightly changed my blog.  I added a search option to my blog.  This will help me (and whoever else comes to my blog) to look for a recipe within my blog.  I am still learning about blogs too.

Cook's Illustrated Pumpkin Pie

Cook's Illustrated Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

Single Crust Pie Dough (make your own or buy one from the store)

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup drained candied yams

3/4 cup sugar (see Mark's notes - I suggest reducing to 1/2 cup or 1/4 cup sugar)

1/4 cup maple syrup (see Mark's notes - I suggest reducing to 1/8 cup maple syrup)

2 teaspoons fresh ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions:

Single Crust Pie Dough:

For the pie dough, I don't include a recipe for a pie dough - lots of good recipes out there.  I buy one from the store - Pillsbury Pie Dough.

1.  Line pie plate with dough and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

2.  Line chilled pie dough with double layer of aluminum.

3.  Place pie weights on aluminum

4.  Bake on rimmed baking sheet for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

5.  Remove weights and foil.

6.  Continue to bake crust for another 4 to 7 minutes longer

7.  Transfer pie plate and baking sheet to wire rack.

Filling:

1.  Whisk cream, milk, eggs, yolk, and vanilla together in a bowl.

2.  Set this aside.

3.  In a large saucepan, mix together pumpkin puree, yams, sugar, maple syrup, ginger, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

4.  Simmer in large saucepan and stir continuously for 15-20 minutes.  Mash yams on side if necessary.

5.  Mixture should be thick and shiny.

6.  Remove saucepan from heat.

7.  Whisk in cream mixture from step 1.  Whisk until fully incorporated.

8.  Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl.  

9.  Use back of ladle or spatula to press solids through the strainer.

10.  Whisk mixture.

11.  Pour mixture into warm prepared pie crust.

12.  Place pie plate on rimmed baking sheet.

13.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

14.  Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake for another 20 to 35 minutes.

15.  Edges of pie should be set and center should read 175 degrees with a baking thermometer.  (center of pie should look firm and possible jiggle a little).

16.  Let pie cool on wire rack for about 4 hours.
17.  Enjoy!

Mark's Notes:

First of all, I don't make my own pie crusts.  I use Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts.  It's a great time saver.  Second, Cook's Illustrated recipe for Foolproof Pie Crusts uses vodka.  I never have vodka in the house.  I don't cook with alcohol.  Also, any time alcohol is used in baking, it doesn't completely evaporate or bake away.  There is always about 5 percent of the alcohol left when baking with alcohol.  Just any FYI.  There are lots of great pie crust recipes out there.  I imagine any of them will do just fine for this recipe.  So, I did not share Cook's Illustrated Foolproof Single-Crust Pie Dough.  If you're interested, check it out yourself, and yes, you will need vodka.

After making this and trying it, I thought it turned out incredibly sweet.  The addition of yams was a nice touch; however, 3 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup makes this quite sweet.  Not overwhelmingly sweet but too sweet for me.  That is why I suggest reducing the amount of sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup or even 1/4 cup sugar and cutting the maple syrup from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup.  The 1/4 cup maple syrup was definitely noticeable.  My taste buds should be feasting on the pumpkin and perhaps the yams - not the sugar and maple syrup.

Mark's Mishaps:

Well, I tried to make this particular pumpkin pie while also cooking dinner for my family which was a simple meal of turkey burgers; however, multi-tasking cooking for me in the kitchen is difficult to impossible.  Nothing got burned but I came close to spilling lots of stuff.  I should make that a rule - only cook/bake one thing at a time.  Make dinner, then dessert.  The only other worthy note is that this pie took four hours to cool.  It was ready to try at 11pm. My wife and I split a piece and thought it was really good.  With that, this recipe would be better prepared on a late Saturday morning after breakfast or perhaps an early Sunday afternoon after lunch.

Robert, Francisco J. “Revisiting Pumpkin Pie”
Cook's Illustrated Revolutionary Recipes

P.S.
I added a song to my cooking playlist - Bang Bang by David Sanborn.  Very fun song.  Check it out.  Enjoy.

Cook's Illustrated The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie (made better by me, Mark)

Cook's Illustrated The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie (made more perfect by me, Mark)

Recipe makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or 1/ 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips - see Mark's Notes at the end).

3/4 cup pecans or walnuts toasted and chopped (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, then set aside.

2.  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

3.  Whisk flour and baking soda in medium bowl, then set aside.

4.  Melt 10 tablespoons butter in 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat.

5.  Continue cooking and swirling butter constantly until butter is dark golden brown with nutty aroma (1 to 3 minutes).

6.  Transfer browned butter to large heatproof container.

7.  Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir until completely melted.

8.  Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to melted butter.

9.  Whisk until fully incorporated.

10.  Add egg and egg yolk.

11.  Whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining - about 30 seconds.

12.  Let sit for 3 minutes.

13.  Repeat steps 11 and 12 two more times - (whisk for 30 seconds, sit for 3 minutes, whisk for 30 seconds, and sit for 3 minutes).

14.  Mixture should now be thick, smooth, and shiny.

15.  Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour mixture (from step 3) until just combined - about 1 minute.

16.  Stir in chocolate chips (and nuts)

17.  Give dough final stir to ensure there are no flour pockets remaining and ingredients are evenly distributed.

18.  Working with 3 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and space them about two inches apart on prepared sheets.

19.  Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden brown, still puffy, and centers are soft - 10 to 14 minutes.  Rotate sheet halfway through.

20.  Let cookies sit on sheet for five minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

21.  Let cookies cool completely before serving.

22.  Enjoy!

Mark's Notes

1.  I did not use brown sugar.  I used all granulated sugar (Trish is allergic to molasses which is in brown sugar).

2.  I used dark chocolate chips rather than semi-sweet chocolate chips.

3.  I did not use the optional pecans or walnuts.

Mark's Story

This turned out to be an exercise in teamwork.  I asked Abby if she wanted to help me and she said yes.  Then Miriam said she wanted to help too and I told her yes as well.  Then Abby tried to back out of it so she wouldn't have to be around the "annoying younger sister".  I made both of them wash their hands and gave both different assignments for stirring and mixing.  So, both kids helped out and the cookies were really really good.

The only mishap that I have to report on this recipe is that I spilled vanilla extract on my Cook's Illustrated magazine recipe.  I go to clean it up and it took some of the ink with it - still readable though. So, now I have their wonderful recipe for Perfect Chocolate Chips posted here and I made it more perfect with the dark chocolate chips.

I highly recommend looking up the actual article "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies" by Charles Kelsey to read about why this particular process he developed makes the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.  

Kelsey, Charles. “The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie”
Cook's Illustrated Revolutionary Recipes

Blueberry-Peach Cobbler

Blueberry-Peach Cobbler from Cooking Light Day-to-Day Calendar 2013

Ingredients:
5 pounds peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour and 1 1/2 cups flour
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Place peaches in large bowl.
3.  Drizzle with fresh lemon juice and toss.
4.  Add 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons flour and toss to combine.
5.  Spray 13 x 9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray.
6.  Arrange peach mixture in baking dish evenly.
7.  In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and baking powder.  Stir well with whisk.
8.  Place 1/4 cup granulated sugar and butter in a medium bowl and beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about two minutes).
9.  Add eggs, one at a time, to flour mixture, beating well after each addition.
10.   Stir in vanilla extract.
11.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the butter/egg mixture.  Begin and end with flour mixture, beating until just combined.
12.  Stir in blueberries.
13.  Spread batter evenly over mixture.
14.  Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
15.  Place baking dish on foil lined baking sheet in case fruit bubbles over.
16.  Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until topping is golden and filling is bubbly.
17.  Enjoy.

Mark's Notes
At the beginning of the year, I bought a Cooking Light Day Calendar with lots of recipes for lots of different stuff.  It's July and this is the first recipe I've had an opportunity to try.  I other recipes piled up in my collection of recipes I still would like to try.  Reading over this recipe, my first question was what in the world is turbinado sugar.  This is my first time using turbinado sugar.  I did some research on the Internet and it is just a sugar that is less processed than white or brown sugar (some sites claimed it was healthier - I'll need to do more research on that one).

Here is a link to the Cooking Light Day-to-Day 2014 Calendar via Barnes and Nobles.  It's going on my Christmas list.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listing/2689907419221?r=1&cm_mmca2=pla&cm_mmc=GooglePLA-_-Book_5To14-_-Q000000633-_-2689907419221

Purple Monstrosity

Purple Monstrosity

Ingredients:
2 Bananas
1/2 cup Blueberries
1 cup Orange Juice
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions:
1.  Peel and chop bananas
2.  Combine all ingredients in blender
3.  Puree in blender
4.  Enjoy

Mark's Notes:
Last summer, Abby took a "Kids in the Kitchen" class at MSU's Kellogg Center.  This is a recipe from that class.  It's basically a fruit smoothie.  It's called Purple Monstrosity because it turns out quite purple.