Update: Camera Battery Found!
Fear not!
Oven Love will be back in action starting tomorrow. Look forward to some tasty desserts for this week’s challenges (You Want Pies with That? and Tuesdays with Dorie).
Nick and I did have a super-delicious recipe tonight, though. I was feeling a little french, and Nick just likes meat, so I picked Steak Frites. There was a great recipe in Cooking Light (see link below) that I served with a side of sauteed spinach. The only changes I would make are these:
-Because of my miniature (almost Easy Bake, really) oven, I can only bake one pan of goodies at a time. This goes for fries as well, so if you’re only doing one pan of fries, reduce the cooking time to about 30 minutes instead of 40.
-We like our meat about medium, and the cook time on the steak was not near long enough. We added about 3 more minutes per side.
Though I didn’t take the picture below, the resemblance to my frites is uncanny! Bon appetite!
(image swiped from cookinglight.com)
Find the recipe here.
Photo Drama!
I’ve misplaced my spare camera battery/charger, and all of the camera batteries are dead.
I plan to search the house today. Bear with me and I’ll be back up soon!
My New Blog
Just a little announcement: I’ve started a new blog.
I’ve decided to become part of the 101 Things in 1001 Days Project.
Click over and check it out!
Chicken Showdown: Panko vs. Tortilla Chips
As every month comes to an end, so does our food budget here at the Herr household. Usually, that just means I have a bunch of ingredients that I don’t have any plans for, and Nick and I throw something together on a whim. Last night, we had a few chicken breasts and a taste for one of our favorites: Panko-Crusted Chicken Bites (Nick prefers “nuggets”). This is the only recipe I’ve made more than once since we’ve moved to Dayton, so clearly, we’re fans of it.
But as I was gathering ingredients, trouble arose. Not enough panko. I wasn’t about to quit on the recipe, so I came up with an alternative: tortilla chips. Nick crushed them up with some good old fashioned elbow grease and we were good to go. The idea seemed pretty genius, and we were excited to find out if we’d like the new version as much as the old one.
Above are the classic panko-crusted bites. They have a great texture: a defined coating of panko, but not too crispy. Great with barbecue sauce (Nick) or ketchup (me).
Pictured here are the tortilla chip bites. These came out with the nice salty flavor of the chip, but were a little too crunchy for our tastes. It’s a great concept, but next time, I think I’ll try them on a full-sized chicken breast. There seemed to be too much chip and not enough chicken – a good tip might be to put them in the food processor instead of crushing by hand. I think they’d be great with some fresh salsa (Nick) or guacamole (me).
So in the end, the originals won out, but that’s partly because we need to perfect the new version. When it blossoms into a new recipe, I’ll be sure to post.
*Find the recipe here.
Daring Bakers: Regrets
I can’t tell you how much I wanted to make the Buche de Noel for the December Daring Bakers challenge. I was so looking forward to it.
But things got busy. And I got sick. And the recipe took multiple days. By the time December 30 arrived, I had run out of time.
My regrets, DB friends! Check out all of the other Daring Bakers’ blogs here.
Tuesdays with Dorie: (Not so) Tall and Creamy Cheesecake
This week’s TWD pick was Tall and Creamy Cheesecake, chosen by the lovely Anne at Anne Strawberry. Two reasons I didn’t actually make a full-sized cheesecake:
1. Nick bought me a set of very cute mini springform pans for Christmas and I wanted to try them out.
2. We do not need a full-sized cheesecake sitting around the house. The holidays have not been kind to my waistline!
The recipe was pretty straightforward. I made 1/2 of the recipe, which turned out three mini-cheesecakes. I shortened the baking time from 90 minutes to about 45, and then left them in the oven to cool for about 30 minutes. I went the all sour cream route (instead of adding heavy cream) and used lower fat ingredients (light sour cream, light cream cheese, light butter for the crust, etc).
Nick and I just had a little taste, and they live up to the name- the creamy part, at least! And it doesn’t even taste low-fat. Please comment if you want my specific ingredient changes!
*Find the recipe here.
**Tuesdays with Dorie is a group of bloggers baking through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Christmas Morning Treats: Ebelskivers
Christmas morning comes with lots of treats. Many of them are gifts, but some of them are edible. This year, I turned one of my gifts into a tasty breakfast treat!
One of the gifts I received from my husband this year was an Ebelskiver pan. Before this year, I had heard of ebelskivers, but didn’t know much about them. After beginning work at Williams Sonoma, I found that they are very popular (they’ve been selling out all season!). If you’re not familiar, ebelskivers are little filled pancakes – check out the pan here!
The great thing about ebelskivers is that you can fill them with anything. We went a little crazy, trying just about everything that was in my mom’s fridge/pantry. Here are some suggestions:
-Jelly (with and without peanut butter)
-Chocolate Chips
-Pie Filling
-Sweetened cream cheese with dried fruit/nuts
-Fruit (apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, etc.)
-Nutella
Filled Pancakes
(from the Williams Sonoma Kitchen)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
4 tbs unsalted butter, melted, plus more for cooking
fillings (see above)
1. In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In another small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk and the melted butter. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined. The batter will be lumpy.
2. In another bowl, using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high until stiff but not dry peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. Using a spatula, gently stir whites into the batter in two additions.
3. Put 1/4 tsp butter into each well of the Ebelskiver pan. Set over medium heat and heat until butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 tbs batter into each well. Pout 1 tsp of filling into the center of each pancake and top with 1 tbs batter. Cook until the bottoms are golden brownn and crisp, 3-4 minutes.
4. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crisp, about 2 minutes more. Transfer to a plate, repeat with the remaining batter and serve.
*Click here for more ebelskiver recipes from Williams Sonoma.
Birthday Excuses
There has been/will be a lack of posting for the next few days.
The holidays are crazy enough on their own, but today also brings with it my 22nd birthday. Rather than spending the day online, coming up with some clever post about birthday cake or something, I am going to enjoy it with the people I love. That goes for the rest of the holidays, too – I’ll give a full recap after the dust settles.
Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers!
Winter Flavors: Apple Juice Pork with Squash and Golden Raisins
For the last few months, I’ve been hearing about a small chain of grocery stores in Dayton called Dorothy Lane Markets. A week or two ago, I headed over to check it out. My friends had praised DLM for their great cuts of meat, so it sounded like a perfect place to get the pork for this recipe. The verdict?
The pork was great, but the prices were not. DLM is similar in feel to Whole Foods, but also carries some of the basic, processed American brands we all love. Best of both worlds, right? You’d think.. but with today’s food prices rising every day, I couldn’t justify doing a two-week shopping trip at DLM when I could get a lot of the same products elsewhere. I think it’s a lovely place to get food for a special occasion, maybe a dinner for two.. but I won’t be a regular.
As for this recipe, it was a hit in the Herr house. Nick loves the combination of fruit and meat (who doesn’t?) and I was intrigued by the squash component. It’s an almost one-pot dish (you have to removed the pork after searing and finish it in the oven) where the flavors of apple, butternut squash, onion and golden raisins get to meld together. The sauce was sweet and tart, creating a nice balanced flavor.
Find the recipe here.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Buttery Jam Cookies
This week’s TWD recipe, Buttery Jam Cookies, was chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl. On her blog post today, she said she picked the recipe because it was quick, easy and had some of her favorite ingredients. Thanks, Heather, for picking something that we could all enjoy during the holidays without too much trouble! I took these to a holiday party last night to share with a few friends. (I’m sure the party pictures will be up soon over at AWMB!)
A lot of TWDers said that the cookies didn’t spread, but mine spread quite nicely. I liked the buttery taste of the cookies and the biscuit-like consistency. I omitted the ginger in the recipe, simply because I didn’t have any. I also used the apricot jam that Dorie suggested, and did minimal mixing- I think that helped them to spread out.
Out of the three December TWD cookie recipes, this is my second favorite. I liked the sugar cookies best, and the linzers were a hit, but not my personal favorite. These fall somewhere in between. I’m sure there will be plenty more holiday treats to come!
*Find the recipe here.
**Tuesdays with Dorie is a group of bloggers baking through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.
