Monthly Archives

February 2016

Dinner

Coq au Vin – Kat’s New and Improved Version

Coq au Vin is my favorite food on earth, hands down. This is also one of the best recipes that I make. A little background: when I started falling in love with cooking again (no, I was not always a recipe junkie, though food has always been an important part of my life), I fell in love with Julia. Yes, that Julia. I think that a lot of women admire her for the fact that she was just an ordinary woman who picked up cooking later in life and became one of the most influential cooks of an entire culture. So I made her Coq au vin recipe. Coq au Vin is a very old concept — like back from the Romans — but her recipe was straight forward. I have made variations on her it for 5 years now, each time changing it until I have come up with what I consider perfection. I have learned a lot about cooking since I started — like knowing you shouldn’t add all the wine at once otherwise all the tanins end up ruining the dish, or by adding ground dried porcini, the umami flavor is boosted (doesn’t make it taste more mushroom-y). Anyway, I love this recipe. Be forewarned: it takes a minimum of 3 hours. You can stop just before the rue-making stage though, if you need to divide the effort over 2 days.
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Candy, Sweet Snacks

Sea Salt Almond Butter Buckeyes

I’ve never been much of a fan of peanut butter. Well, of like a PB+J sandwich. It’s good in baking and cooking, and I definitely like Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, but just peanut butter…. eh, take it or leave it. Almond butter. Cashew butter. Even Walnut butter (though it is hard to find). Those I prefer more. At any rate, I thought I would make buckeyes, but thought I would put a twist on them and made them with almond butter instead. And sea salt. Love sea salt!
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Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks

Apple Fritter Bread

I love apple fritters, but there are two major issues with them: 1. often they are lacking in the apples and 2. fried food. Well, fried food could almost be acceptable, except that when I fry stuff at home, it is always a major production. And then there is the matter of what to do with the oil. So instead, I made this Apple Fritter Bread. It’s got tons of apples, is probably healthier because it is just baked, but yet it is still buttery, light and fluffy. And it is really easy to make so no worries there. Breakfast on a Sunday morning.
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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cinnamon Chip Cookies

I apparently am still enthralled with cinnamon chips. It started in the fall — apparently autumn is a cinnamon season when I could even still find cinnamon chips in the shops — but now that I have a huge stash of them, I am trying out all sorts of things. To wit, these spicy chocolate cookies with cinnamon chips. They smelled amazing whilst baking and taste even more amazing. A bit spicy (with chili powder in the almost-brownie like batter) and lots of cinnamon. Yum.
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