Winter. Still comfort food days and nothing is more comforting than Blueberry Coffee Cake. This one has a big punch of lemon, which makes it bright and clean.
Monthly Archives
January 2015
So, I am headed to a Housewarming Party this weekend, and never one to show up empty handed, I am making a few snack food type things. First up are these Grissini-Style Cracker Sticks. I made 5 different kinds, which is a bit overboard (who, me?): Toasted Sesame Seed, Poppy Seed, Mixed Herb, Dried Garlic and Plain. If you think that they look a little dark on the ends, that is intentional and is caused by the egg white wash. While these will be served with a dip of some sort, they would also go great as croutons for salad or soup.
These are Lemon Bars. Well, to be more precise, they are Olive Oil Sea Salt Meyer Lemon Bars with Rosemary. In my infinite search to “do something different” (I think that they call that “intensify the depth of flavor” in the recipe development biz), I decided to add some fruity and bright olive oil to the curd, finely chop some fresh rosemary and put it in the shortbread and then add just a touch of sea salt to the sprinkle on top (with the powdered sugar). Result: the most intense and flavorful lemon bars you’ll ever taste. Seriously.
Every week I make something that can be eaten “out of hand” (i.e. cookies, brownies, etc), but this week was a bit of an uninspired week, and somehow I wasn’t ready to bake something this afternoon, so just ended up making something with ingredients that I had in the house. Ended up being these Apricot White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, with Toasted Pine Nuts. Still good for a snack on on a cold January.
What did you have for lunch? Here in my kitchen, it was leftover Chili. It may never win a Chili Cookoff, but it is pretty yummy. I think that most people I know use ground beef (or a combination of ground beef and ground pork) when they make chili. I use sirloin or flank / skirt steak and dice it myself with a knife or if I am making a lot, I pulse it a few times with the food processor. Also, I use andoille sausage for some extra kick. Is this “True American Chili”? (whatever that is) I don’t know. But this is (one of) my Chili recipes and it’s yummy.