Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca

The dreary days of winter make me crave comfort food.  To me, that means pasta.  I happily realized that one of my cookbooks is the perfect solution: 365 Ways To Cook Pasta (that's an Amazon link, although this version appears to be out of print).  Well, let's start with recipe number one, shall we?

Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca

Spaghetti a la Puttanesca is tonight's Italian specialty.  The name has something to do with Italian whores and there are a lot of urban legends about how this name came about.  My favorite is that it's such a quick and easy dish to make that women in this profession could enjoy a meal between clients.  This goes right along with my New Year's resolution to drink more wine.  Pinot Grigio is a perfect accompaniment.  My other resolutions are to listen to more music, burn more candles, and do more crossword puzzles.  So far, success!

I have to break recipe tradition right off the bat because I don't eat anchovies or capers.  This is my version of the recipe, but if you enjoy those things then by all means add some.  The black olives tripped me up a little - the regular grocery store didn't have what's in the recipe so I used pitted Kalamata olives and chopped them.  Delicious! 

Local highlights: Just the garlic today, from the Urban Farm and Feed store.  Not many fresh ingredients in this one, but that makes it easy to put together any time of the year. 

Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
3 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1 can (1 lb 12 oz) Italian-style peeled tomatoes (do not drain) or 3 diced whole tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped, pitted, salt-cured black olives
1 tsp crushed dried red pepper, or to taste
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
2 Tbsp chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
Salt to taste
1 lb spaghetti

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oil in large skillet, stove on Medium-ish.  Add garlic and cook for about a minute (don't let it brown).
2. Stir in can of tomatoes, olives, red pepper, oregano, and black pepper.  Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. While sauce is simmering, boil water and cook spaghetti noodles until al dente.
4. Stir parsley into sauce and simmer for 2 minutes.  Add salt to taste.
5. Toss pasta with sauce and serve with crusty bread and white wine.

Holiday Porter Cake, Hobbit-Style

Holiday Porter Cake

A recent watching of The Hobbit reminded me how much I love the Lord of the Rings movies.  A couple of Christmases ago I decided to watch all of the extended versions in a row... and not just the movies, but also a Hobbit-style feast to go along with them.  Hobbit culture is all about food - growing it, preparing it, preserving it, and especially eating it.  Heck yes!

Tolkien wrote a passage describing the delicacies that abound in Bilbo's many pantries, and it was from this that I pulled inspiration.  I made scones and jam, an apple tart, drank herbal tea and dark beer (um, not at the same time), and generally reveled in spending the entire day watching movies from the kitchen.  My favorite discovery was this Victorian-Style recipe for Porter Cake, originally from a website called Historical Foods that has since been taken down - I am happy to discover that the full collection is once again available at Recipe Wise: Food In The Hobbit.  Victorian Era recipes are not the easiest sets of instructions to cook from, so I updated it to US measurements and swapped out some ingredients to be more Utah-local.  Did you know that golden currants are a native Utah plant?  You can pick them up fresh at the farmers markets in the summer.  Or plant some!

Winter is the perfect time to use dried and preserved fruits, to make up for the lack of fresh ones available.  Technically, this is a fruit cake.  Before you run screaming, this dark and hearty cake bears zero resemblance to the travesties that are filled with candied neon things. Once you try this, you will never refer to those things as fruitcakes again. 

If, while you are baking one of many Porter Cakes, the last of the baking powder goes into waffle batter, do not go ahead and make the cake without it.  Baking powder is very important.  But eat the delicious waffles first. 

Local highlights:
King's Peak Porter - Uinta Brewery - Did you know that this brewery is solar- and wind- powered?
Black Cherry Mediterranean Market - Where I found the wonderful golden raisins, currants, and dates.  This is a lovely local market full of international specialty goods. Check them out!

Brown Sugar Topping on Porter Cake

Holiday Porter Cake (Hobbit Fruitcake)
Makes 1 cake

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup dried currants
3/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup chopped dates
1/3 cup applesauce (or zest and juice of one medium orange)
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups Porter beer (a bottle minus a couple of sips)

3 eggs, beaten
2 2/3 cup white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground mace

Topping (both optional)
About 1/8 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sliced almonds


DIRECTIONS
1.  Preheat oven to 320 degrees F.
2.  Prepare a cake pan (a 9" round spring-form pan or a 9" square baking dish works well, whatever you cook brownies in is probably good) - line with parchment paper, including the sides.  This helps the cake retain moisture.  Note: parchment paper is *not* the same as wax paper. 
3.  Put the butter, dried fruit, zest, apricot juice, sugar and porter in a large saucepan. Bring it slowly to a boil, stirring until the butter has dissolved, then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.  (It's okay to put the mixture in the fridge overnight at this point if needed)

4. Stir the beaten eggs into the hot fruit mixture.
5. Add in the flour, baking powder, and spices, and mix well. 
6. Pour the thick batter into prepared pan and smooth out the top to distribute evenly.  Sprinkle brown sugar and/or almonds over the top and press the almonds slightly into the batter.
7.  Bake at 320 for 75 to 90 minutes.  Use the toothpick test to determine done-ness (toothpick will come out clean when it's done).  If the top browns too fast, cover it with foil for the rest of the baking time.

Holiday Orange Cranberry Bread

What a wonderful time of year to bake for friends, family, coworkers, everybody!  This festive bread makes use of the cranberries and oranges that are abundant during winter, and no yeast which means no rising time.  Just mix and bake!  

Holiday Orange Cranberry Bread

I'll keep it short and sweet today; so many holiday things to get done!  The original recipe came from a Christmas card from a friend in junior high who must have known that I'd learn how to cook someday.  If any of you have kids in your lives I encourage you to include them in your kitchen, share recipes with them, and have them practice counting and measuring and mixing.

I made an extra loaf using applesauce from my canning spree this past fall, so I can enjoy both the cranberry goodness and my local ingredients.  

Local ingredient highlights this time are the basics:
Eggs - Clifford Farm
Flour - Lehi Roller Mills
Applesauce, homemade and canned this fall!


Holiday Orange Cranberry Bread

INGREDIENTS
Makes 1 loaf

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
10 Tbsp orange juice (juice of 2-3 oranges) OR 10 Tbsp applesauce
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup cranberries (thawed)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare a loaf pan (parchment paper or grease the bottom only).
Slice all cranberries in half.
In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients.
Add all wet ingredients except cranberries and mix until everything is moistened.
Gently fold in cranberries.
Pour dough into prepared loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes; use the toothpick test.
Let cool for at least 5 minutes in the pan, then finish cooling on a rack or plate.  This bread does not slice well while hot so let it cool completely before slicing.

Toothpick test: Stick a toothpick into the center and pull it out.  If it comes out with any dough on it, bake the bread for another 5-10 minutes.  If it comes out completely clean, the bread is done.  If it comes out with cranberry on it, get a new toothpick and poke it into a different place. 

Slices of fresh orange cranberry bread, ready for breakfast!

Honey Gingersnap Cookies

This year I joined the Third Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!  I'd never done something like this before and loved it!  What is a cookie swap?  Well, a bunch of people bake cookies, send them to other people, and everybody donates money to Cookies For Kids Cancer.  It's a win/win/win ending in cookies!  How could I not be a part of that?  Over $14,000 was raised this year and I already look forward to next year.  Here's what I made!

Honey Gingersnap Cookies

Before I get to the recipe, thanks to my fellow bloggers who sent me cookies!  These were delicious and I definitely recommend checking out their blogs and recipes.

Alma Cucina - Apricot Almond Birds Nest Cookies
Cupcakes and Kale Chips - Oatmeal Cashew White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Kitchenette Blog - Salted Toffee Crunch Cookies

Honey Gingersnaps on the cooling rack

My cookie choice had to be something new to me, and you all know how much I love new recipes.  I wanted something to represent Utah, which is the Beehive State, so honey cookies were the obvious choice.  I hunted for the perfect recipe that would be crunchy outside, soft inside but not cake-like, and come out beautiful.  What I really wanted was gingersnaps but with honey... then it dawned on me that I ought to make gingersnaps, with honey.  Sometimes answers are so simple if we be quiet and listen to the universe. 

One of my favorite recipe books is a short collection of cookie recipes by Better Homes & Gardens that I've had for longer than I can remember.  I love opening it up and staring at the photos.  One of those photos was the inspiration for this recipe - the photo turned out to be a completely unrelated recipe, but it guided me to what I wanted!

These cookies are soft inside, crispy outside, and absolute perfection with a glass of cold milk or hot coffee.   Rolling them in sugar is what gives them the pretty texture  This is a basic gingersnap recipe with honey in place of the molasses.  They disappear quickly so you might want to double the batch. This is a great last-minute recipe if you want to make cookies but don't have time to let butter soften - no butter! 

Honey Gingersnap cookies

Local ingredients:
Neighborhood Beekeeping for the honey
Lehi Roller Mills for the flour
Real Salt for the salt

Also thanks to OXO, a sponsor of the cookie swap, who sent me bright colorful silicone spatulas that have been a great addition to my kitchen.







Utah Honey Gingersnaps
Makes about 3 dozen


INGREDIENTS
2 cups white flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
~
3/4 cup olive oil or other light tasting oil
1 cup brown sugar1/4 cup honey
1 egg, lightly beaten
Extra sugar for rolling cookies in

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and spices)
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, honey, and egg.
3. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
4. Preheat oven to 375 and prepare cookie sheet (cover in aluminum foil or parchment paper to prevent sticking).
5. Using a Tablespoon as a scoop and leveling off each one, make a pile of little ball-ish shapes.
6. Roll each of the little shapes into a ball.  Roll in granulated sugar, place on a cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.  Give each cookie a bit of space, they spread out some.  A dozen at a time in the oven works well.
7.  Bake for 11 minutes.  Cool on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes then move to baking rack to finish cooling. 

Apple Custard Pie with Walnut Crust

Sometimes unexpected things happen in the kitchen.  Plans go awry.  I don't always double check my ingredients or recipe timing, and this can lead to happy things like making this pie.  My original plan was to make a cinnamon apple cheesecake for a pie contest.  Partway through this I noticed the instruction line about chilling overnight... oops.  Well, I signed up for making a pie, and a pie I shall make. Apples are the fruit of the season, and I like to shake things up a bit from the traditional apple pie.  

Apple Custard Pie with Walnut Crust and Cinnamon Glaze

Of course things can get a little too crazy in the kitchen for me when I try to bake two things at once, especially when the recipes are similar... my husband came to the rescue to help me out and so far so good with the two pies.  Might as well finish the second one too, right?  (Now we have cheesecake for breakfast mmmmm)  The original recipe didn't make enough glaze to cover the apples so I bumped up the ingredients there to make what I put on this pie.  People seemed disappointed that it isn't caramel, but the cinnamon-cider glaze is so good and I think caramel would overwhelm the delicate custard.  The glaze cooks up very quickly so do not take your eyes off of it while the heat is on.  Okay I did mine on medium not low... what can I say, it was one of those days. 

Local ingredients of the day:
Cameo apples from the Urban Farm & Feed store
Apple cider from Farnsworth Family Farms
Eggs from Clifford Family Farm

Also thanks to the Wasatch Cooperative Market and Salt Lake Culinary Center for hosting the pie contest for inspiration!

No, I didn't win, but I had a lot of fun and was very pleased with how this came out.  I've always wanted to be good enough at baking to be able to enter a contest and feel good about it! 


Apple Custard Pie with Walnut Crust
Pie adapted from Eagle Brand (Sweetened Condensed Milk).

CRUST
1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
3 tablespoons butter 
2 tablespoons white sugar

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Press the nut mixture firmly into bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate. 

Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for about 10 minutes, or until the edge is golden brown. Cool.

PIE INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups sour cream 
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk 
1/4 cup apple cider
1 large egg 
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
3-4 medium apples, cored, pared and thinly sliced 
2 tablespoons butter

Apple Cinnamon Glaze:  
1/2 cup apple cider
4 teaspoons cornstarch 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1.  In small bowl, beat sour cream, sweetened condensed milk, apple juice, egg, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust. Bake 30 minutes or until set. Cool.

2.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook apples in butter until tender yet crisp. Arrange the prettiest slices on top of pie.  Eat the other slices. 

3.  Combine apple juice, cornstarch and cinnamon in small saucepan. Over low heat, cook and stir until boiling. Boil for 1 minute. Keep a very close eye on this, it can burn easily. 

4.  Drizzle over cooked apples. Serve warm or chilled. 

Roasted Chicken with Winter Vegetables

It's time to get practicing on roasting birds to get ready for Thanksgiving.  Chickens use the same method and make a beautiful presentation so if you aren't feeling quite up to par on your turkey skills, these are a great way to gain that confidence.  Go ahead, volunteer to do the turkey this year!

Get fresh whole chickens so you don't have to deal with the thawing. The veggies are a "whatever is on hand" sort of thing, so if you have onions (quartered), squash (small chunks), apples (halved or quartered), or small carrots available those would be delicious with these flavors too.  I happened to have a bottle of Apple Beer handy so I used that and it tied everything together.  Roasting the veggies with the chicken means only one dish to clean afterwards and no mashed potatoes needed as a side dish.  Bonus: Save the chicken carcass to make stock and freeze it!  Chicken stock gives many holiday dishes that extra oomph of flavor and it's always better when homemade. 

As always, thanks go to my local farmers for many of these ingredients - chicken, yams, potatoes, tomatoes, salt (woot for Salt Lake!), rosemary, and parsley. 


Photo coming soon. 

Roasted Chicken with Winter Vegetables

INGREDIENTS
Whole Chicken, raw (5-6 lbs)
2-4 Yams / Sweet Potatoes
2 Tomatoes (optional)
1-2 Potatoes
1/2 cup beer (or other liquid such as apple juice or water)
4-5 Tbsp Salt
Ground Pepper
1 tsp Rosemary
Sprinkle of Garlic Powder
Sprinkle of Parsley Flakes
Big sprinkle of Oregano

DIRECTIONS
1. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
2. Put the chicken into a roasting pan and pour the salt over it, getting salt on as much of the bird as possible.  It seems like too much but it isn't.  This is the secret to perfect skin and moist meat!
3. Let sit out on the counter for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut the veggies into large chunks, about twice bite-size.  Pre-heat oven to 425.  Arrange veggies around chicken in roasting pan.
4.  Sprinkle herbs and spices over chicken and veggies.
5.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 375 for one hour or until the chicken juices run clear and the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.  (Use a meat thermometer to be certain, and take it out as soon as it reaches this - hotter just makes it overcooked)
6.  Arrange on a platter and serve with pride!

Incubator Farm Support

I'm going to write about something different today, and that's where all of this beautiful food comes from.  Farms!  All over the country there is a movement happening, right now, toward locally grown and healthy food, unprocessed, unpackaged, just good old fashioned food.  That food is lovingly provided by farmers who feel the call to work the earth, plant seeds, harvest fruits and vegetables, and get them to local markets for us all to purchase and enjoy.

Have you ever thought about what it takes to be a farmer?  Getting started is tough - available land is much larger than a beginning farmer can afford or work, there is a big investment in tools and training, and farming as a business requires a strong network of relationships that beginning farmers just don't have.  It's daunting enough that the majority of farmers now are at retirement age.  Ten years from now, where will all of that beautiful delicious produce come from, if new farmers don't step up?

The solution to this is to support incubator farms, places where beginning farmers can use land to learn the ropes, have a shared set of tools and equipment with other farmers to reduce the financial burden of a startup, and take educational workshops on farming and business practices to allow them to really make a living off the land.  As the farmers gain the necessary experience they can move on to larger parcels of land and feel confident in their markets, expanding their businesses and purchasing their own land.

The Green Urban Lunchbox, a project of the Community Foundation of Utah,  is starting an incubator farm in Layton, UT (just outside Salt Lake City) on an old orchard.  Those of you not familiar with the Salt Lake area may not know that this is excellent farming land.  This 37-acre future farm is beautiful and ready to be leased in small parcels to new farmers wanting to get started in commercial agriculture.  The organization will provide training on farming skills, best practices, and networking with local restaurants and markets, and bring together the people who will grow food for the Salt Lake area for the next generation.  All they need now is tools, and this is what they are soliciting donations for.  Can you help?  Check out the video on Razoo (it's like Kickstarter for nonprofits) and please chip in if you can.  Every donation brings new farmers closer to their dreams and this parcel of land closer to being worked by loving hands to produce food.  

Please click here for the donation link and the video!