Turkey Gumbo

After Thanksgiving, we went to Jeff's house and had amazing leftover turkey gumbo. Pat & Eleanor had given us the turkey carcass from our own feast, so Claire and I were inspired to try it. The recipe we made was ENORMOUS but good. You will almost CERTAINLY want to alter the amount of stuff in this.

Ingredients

• 1/2c oil or leftover bacon grease or something similar
• 1/2c all purpose flour
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded, chopped
• 4 celery ribs, chopped
• 8 cloves worth of garlic
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 1/4c white vermouth
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes with juice
• 4-6ish cups turkey stock with turkey
• 1 package (?) andouille sausage (I think about 1 lb), cut into 1/2" slices
• 1 16-ounce packages sliced frozen okra
• 1 lb peeled (tail off) de-veined shrimp.
• Salt to taste
• Gumbo filé to taste

So, it's important to note before you start that we made the turkey stock as follows: chop up the turkey carcass and place in a slow-cooker. Cover with water, and leave for about 24 hours. Fish out any bones. DONE.

In a huge pot, add the grease / oil. Heat until quite hot, then add the flour. Stir around this paste, cooking over medium heat, for about 5 minutes. If you use oil, at least, it's supposed to turn reddish-brown through this process. Ours started out that color, so who knows. Anyway, add the onions, peppers, and celery. Cook until everything is quite soft - about 20 minutes. Then add the garlic and cayenne and cook another couple minutes. Then add the vermouth, thyme, and bay leaves. Turn to high heat and cook for a minute, before you add the tomato, stock, and sausage. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, then add the okra and simmer for another 10 minutes. Finally add the shrimp and cook until just fully opaque (3-5 minutes). Salt to taste (ours needed quite a lot).

Serve.

Thoughts: Great flavor. Claire and I agree that we could have used more turkey - we could have had more, but we ate a lot of the turkey before we tried this. I think the amount of shrimp and sausage was good, though. We agree that the flavor was great.

Disaster Index: 1/10, but it made so much we'll be eating it for like 2 weeks.

Tres Leches Bread Pudding

This recipe requires you to do a little math. I recommend you check out the original bread pudding recipe I posted here to get an idea of how bread pudding works. I tweaked the bake time for this. The main difference is that I replaced some milk with evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

Ingredients

• Stale bread, torn or cut into smallish (1" or 1.5" pieces) - bagels work, too
• Eggs
• Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Evaporated Milk
• Whole Milk
• Vanilla
• Sugar
• salt

Preheat oven to 375. Add bread into a casserole pan. Now you have to make the custard. You need the following ratios: 4oz dairy (which is 1/2c milk), 1 egg, .5tsp vanilla, 2tsp sugar. So, for example, one can of sweetened condensed milk is about 15oz. Evaporated milk comes in 5oz cans. That's 20oz total. Add another 1/2c milk, and you have 24oz., so you add 6 eggs, 4tbsp sugar, 3tsp vanilla. Add a pinch of salt, too. If this math is too hard, just do:

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated
• 1/2c milk
• 6 eggs
• 4tbsp sugar
• 3tsp vanilla
• 1/2tsp salt

Anyway, whisk those ingredients together thoroughly and pour over the bread. You want it to be pretty well soaked. Here's the secret. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then pack down the bread with a spatula or something similar. Let it go another 5 minutes or so and pack down again. You want the bread packed quite densely and quite soaked in custard.

Cover the pan in tin foil. Bake for 30 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for another 15 minutes. Make sure it's set (you want it to look slightly damp, but not "wet" - it's a custard, so it shouldn't be completely dry.) Let sit 10 minutes.

While that's baking, you can make the brandy sauce. You can kind of add your own flavors to this, too. Do what seems right. Rum might be good.

• 1c sugar
• 2/3c water
• 1/3c brandy
• 2tbsp grand marnier
• vanilla bean or cinnamon stick, if you have it (or similar)

To a pan, add 1c sugar and about 2/3c water and vanilla / cinnamon (if using). Boil over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 or 10 minutes? Then take it off the heat and add the brandy and grand marnier.

When the bread pudding is done sitting for 10 minutes, poke holes in it with a chopstick or fork or something. Pour the brandy sauce over the top and serve with whipped cream.

Thoughts: I think I've done something really smart here. Judging by the reaction, this was something of a hit. I only regret that when I put the bread pudding together, I didn't poke holes in the bread pudding and pour the sauce over - I more or less put it on individual servings. I think that in the future I want the brandy sauce to really soak into the dessert. Also, I had so much bread that I needed a LOT of whole milk. I used only 1 can of the sweetened condensed milk and 1 can of evaporated milk, but I could have doubled that and used less whole milk - this would have given it a stronger "tres leches" flavor. But I think we have a winner.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

When we made this, we added the sugar too early, and it took FOREVER to whip the egg whites. The instructions include the CORRECT method.

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites (which is a scant 1/2 cup) (Claire hates it when I call it albumin, but really it's hilarious)
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/4tsp cream of tartar
• 2tsp vanilla
• 1c superfine sugar
• 12oz good chocolate chips
• 1/2c nuts optional (we didn't use 'em)

Preheat the oven to 200*, if you think that kind of thing is important.

In a bowl, combine the egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla, and beat until it forms soft peaks. Then add the sugar and beat until it forms stiff peaks. Our problem was that we misinterpreted what "soft peaks" means, so we under-whipped before we added the sugar.

Anyway, roughly chop the chocolate chips (and nuts, if using), and fold those in.

Spoon the "batter" onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet (about 1 to 1.5tbsp per cookie) and bake (yes, at 200*) for about 2 hours, until "lightly golden".

Thoughts: For me, the flavor of these cookies was fantastic, and the texture was amazing. If you cook them at 300 for 25 minutes, they're supposed to be crispy and hollow, but I wanted them to be more ethereal. Though it does make one wonder - could I bake them hollow and then pipe something into them? Maybe worth investigating. I would use a bit less sugar next time - maybe as little as half a cup? Otherwise, I think this was very successful. Claire thinks they're weird. SHE'S THE WEIRD ONE.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Gelato

I'm not sure, maybe we've posted other gelato recipes here before, but this one worked very well, so I'm just going to go ahead and post it.

Ingredients
3c whole milk
3/4c sugar
6 egg yolks
add-ins

Combine 1.5c milk, the sugar, and the egg yolks in a medium-sized sauce pan. Whisk together and cook over low heat until it coats the back of a metal spoon, being careful not to cook the egg. When it's done, take it off the heat and add the rest of the milk (to cool it down rapidly so it halts the cooking). Pour through a fine-mesh sieve (just to be on the safe side). Stir in any add-ins you might have. We had some chocolates that had bloomed a while back, and we chopped them up and stirred them in. You can also add citrus zest, vanilla, cinnamon, whatever. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours. Process in an ice cream machine, then freeze. Makes about a quart of ice cream.

Thoughts: Because this recipe uses whole milk instead of half-and-half or cream, it's a little more solid at freezer temperatures, meaning that you have to let it thaw a minute before you can really serve it. However this comes with the benefit that the flavors really come through. The high fat content of half-and-half or cream tends to mute the flavors you add. Whole milk doesn't have that problem. I would use this recipe again. Other thoughts: maybe in the future I would consider the use of a double-boiler to make the custard base? Just a thought.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Peanut Sauce

I guess I should blog my peanut sauce recipe because it's pretty great. I've been making it forever based loosely on what I read on the internet and based on a type my mother makes. It's a lot of tasting and adjusting seasonings, though, so the amounts here aren't exact.

Ingredients

• 1/2c peanut butter
• 3tbsp soy sauce
• 1tbsp black vinegar
• .5 to 1tsp sriracha
• 1tbsp brown sugar
• 1c water
• 1.5tsp ginger (minced or ground. If you use dried, go for more like .5tsp)
• 1tbsp minced garlic

In a small sauce pan, add the peanut butter and water and cook over medium heat. Whisk together until it forms a sauce. You may need more water - you're looking for something SLIGHTLY thin, because it will cook down. It does an interesting thing where it thickens a lot more than you think it will once the peanut butter is melted.

Once it forms a sauce of the desired consistency, add all the other ingredients, then cook until it reaches the desired thickness. Taste frequently, and adjust the vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar as needed. Be careful with the sriracha - it's not that it's so spicy, it's just that a little goes a long way toward overpowering the flavors of the peanut sauce.

Thoughts: We made this recently to put on broccoli, but it goes well on just about anything. Add scallions or cilantro to taste.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Poached Pears

Okay, I guess I have to blog this.
Ingredients

• 2 firm ripe bosc pears
• 1/4c tawny port
• 3c water
• 1/4c sugar
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 2-4 slices of orange
• whipped cream or ice cream or something?

In a medium-sized saucepan, set the water to boil. In the mean time, peel and quarter the bosc pears, then cut out the stem & seed parts. To the water on the stove, add the port, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add the pears. Take the rounds of orange and place on top of the pears to hold them under the poaching liquid. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the pears are suitably tender.

Take the pears and orange out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Now bring the liquid to a boil and cook down to make a sauce. This took us another 20 minutes or so. RIGHT before it's done, it foams up because it starts to exceed the boiling point of water, I think. This is a sign that most of the water has evaporated and you have something more akin to caramel. Anyway, take it off the stove. Pour over the pears (or over individual servings). Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or whatever.

Thoughts: I would do this again exactly the same way.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Split Pea and Red Lentil Soup

This one was a little odd as recipes go. We borrowed some concepts from a couple recipes. But this turned out awesome.
Ingredients

• 1c split peas
• 1c red lentils
• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 6c chicken stock
• 1c water
• 2tsp smoked spanish paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1.5-2tbsp tomato paste
• 1/3c raisins
• yogurt / blue cheese (optional)

Cook the bacon in the bottom of a heavy soup pan. When it's crispy, remove the bacon and set aside to drain. Pour off the grease if there's too much and add the onions and the bay leaf. Cook until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Then add the split peas and lentils, chicken stock, water, and paprika. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to simmer for 30 minutes. Around 25 minutes, check on it that it isn't sticking (it will tend to do this). When you're done, stir it really well (our stuck a little bit, but some stirring loosed the soup stuck to the bottom of the pot). Add the tomato paste and the raisins, and cook at low heat for another minute or so. Serve with crumbled bacon and yogurt / blue cheese.

Thoughts: We eyeballed the raisin amount, but I think that it could have used more raisins. Start with 1/3 cup and add more as necessary. This was an awesome recipe, if somewhat unusual. Would definitely make again.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Char Siu Bao

This started as a pretty basic bao zi recipe, but we kind of went overboard with the filling.
Ingredients

• Filling
• 2lbs pork shoulder
• soy sauce
• sriracha
• black vinegar
• ginger
• garlic
• brown sugar
• scallions
• salt and pepper to taste
• Dough
• 1tbsp yeast
• 4c flour
• 1c water
• 2tbsp sugar
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp baking powder

So for the filling, you place the pork shoulder in a crock pot. Add some of all the other ingredients except scallions and salt until it looks right. You just need something for the meat to marinate in that will give it some flavor, though most of that actually comes later. Anyway, turn the crock pot on low and cook for 10-12 hours (overnight).

When you come back to it, use a slotted spoon / tongs to fish out all the pork shoulder (it should be falling apart at this point) into a bowl. Place that bowl in the fridge. Place all the remaining liquid into another bowl (we use a pyrex liquid measuring cup, actually), and place that bowl in the fridge. When it's cooled, all the fat should congeal on the top, so you can scoop it off with a spoon (for later use?).

Put the sauce sans fat in a sauce pan and proceed to cook down, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about 50-75%. Once reduced, adjust the salt. Now pour the sauce over the pork that's in the fridge. Add chopped scallions (about 3 big ones, or to taste), and toss the filling. It could be done at this point if you want OR you can chop the filling into little centimeter chunks if you prefer. Either way is fine.

Now you make the dough. Combine all the ingredients and stir together, then turn out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 5 minutes (or just do it all in a kitchenaid / cuisinart). Oil the dough lightly (we used sesame oil) in the bowl, cover, and let rise for 2-3 hours. When rise is complete, divide dough in half. Take each half and roll / drag it into a 14-18" log. Using a knife, divide the log into 8 pieces. flatten each piece into a 4-5" diameter circle. Put about 2tbsp of the meat filling into the dough and fold up the sides, clasping them at the top. This is important: place each bao zi on an individual square of waxed paper or parchment paper (or cabbage leaf or SOMETHING) as you finish them.

Repeat this exercise with the other half of the dough. If you have leftover filling, bonus - use it in an omelette or something. Anyway, set the bao zi to rise for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, set up your steamer, either a steamer basket or a rice cooker with steaming tray or whatever you use. We actually use both. Once risen, steam bao zi for about 15 minutes (you can go 20 and it doesn't hurt 'em, though). Enjoy!

Thoughts:

• Dan: "I think we've done something really smart here."
• Claire: "A+++. Would eat again."

Disaster Index: 1/10

Homemade Sauerkraut

Whoo! You know you want it.

Ingredients

• some green cabbage
• some salt
• some water
• jars

There's not much to this recipe. Slice as much cabbage as will fit in your jars/containers. Into an empty jar, put in one handful of cabbage, followed by one tsp kosher salt, followed by one handful cabbage, etc. until the jar is full. Fill it with water. Make sure that the cabbage is all beneath the water's surface.
Seal jars and keep on counter (or in a cabinet, away from the light) for 1.5 weeks. Then put in the fridge. Then eat.
You can add 1tsp of caraway seeds to make "Bavarian-style" sauerkraut. We haven't tried ours yet.

Thoughts: Well, looking over the original recipe that we took this from, I noticed that we may not have followed it QUITE right. I think you're supposed to let the kraut ferment for much longer than we did (one recipe says 5-6 weeks! Not 1.5 weeks!). But our stuff is great and salty and crunchy and it goes awesome on reubens. But it might not be real sauerkraut? It might just be pickled cabbage right now. So we're going to try again and actually follow the recipe and see if it yields more proper-looking sauerkraut. Stay tuned. But this stuff is delicious on its own. I just eat it out of the jar. NOM NOM KRAUT.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Cashew Brittle

We make it look easy.
Ingredients

• 1/2c granulated sugar
• 1/4c light corn syrup
• 1/8c water
• 1/8tsp salt
• 1/2c cashews, broken up
• 1/2tsp baking soda
• 1tbsp butter

BE SURE TO MEASURE EVERYTHING OUT AHEAD OF TIME and have it ready to go. A lot of the steps here have to be done pretty quickly - it's not a problem, but if you are busy measuring things out, you'll be too slow. Also have a pan with parchment paper waiting nearby before you start.

To a small saucepan, add the sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once sugar is dissolved (or the mixture starts to get bubbly), add the cashews. Continue stirring until the mixture reaches 300 degrees (the hard crack stage). We used a digital thermometer - a candy thermometer is best, though.

When it reaches that hot, add the butter and baking soda (we had them both sitting in a measuring cup by the side and just dumped them in all at once) and stir vigorously until the butter is melted. Spread mixture across the parchment paper (with a spatula) as best you can. Let it cool, then break into pieces.

Thoughts: This was so easy - we were both surprised. Claire says the cashew flavor wasn't very strong, and that we should break up the cashews into smaller pieces. Maybe we can sprinkle them with salt? Claire suggests we could sprinkle the top when we spread it out. Or just add more at the beginning, I guess.

A lot of recipes say not to stir vigorously the whole way through - why didn't ours seize up?

Disaster Index: 1/10

Thousand Island Dressing

Oh my God we're SO BEHIND but this recipe is easy to blog so I'm doing it. We'll get to the other stuff eventually.

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 3 tbsp dill pickle juice (we used the brine from our home-made pickles because it's BETTER THAN STORE-BOUGHT YEAH)
• 1 hard-boiled, pickled egg, chopped (other recipes just call for a normal hard-boiled egg, but guess what? We had jalapeno pickled eggs in our fridge because we're awesome like that. If you don't have a pickled egg of your own, a normal one will do)
• 1/2 tsp white onion powder (but 1 tbsp finely grated onion would also work. We just didn't have any)
• 1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
  

Mix everything together and refrigerate it. Put it on your reubens.

Thoughts: Easy and good. We might add more spices to it next time. I don't know -- like cumin? Or dried dill? Some recipes call for green olives, which would be AWESOME. We might also chop up some pickles and put them in. The texture of ours was a little thin. How do you thicken it? Hm. Maybe if we substitute chopped pickles for the pickle juice, this would solve our problem. WE'LL REPORT BACK.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Pumpkin Soup with Mole Sauce

This was kind of made up, but it worked.

Ingredients

• Soup
• 1 small pumpkin, peeled, insides scooped, chopped
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 4c chicken stock
• pepper
• a couple of small, hot peppers, chopped
• Mole Sauce 
• pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin
• one onion, chopped
• garlic
• about 1tbsp dutch processed cocoa
• 1/4c raisins
• 1/4tsp cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne, ancho chili powder, oregano, anise seed
• 2 dried chilies, seeds included
• 1-2 tomatoes (in our case, actually, about 3tbsp tomato paste)
• 1c chicken stock
• salt to taste
• water as necessary
• Some honey (optional - I like my mole a little sweeter)
• olive oil

First, scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin. Peel and chop the pumpkin. Toss with olive oil and some pepper and roast for about 30 minutes at 350, until soft.

Meanwhile, toast the pumpkin seeds in a pan with some olive oil until lightly toasted. Add onions and saute until translucent. Throw in the garlic and cook until fragrant. Put the onion, garlic, and pumpkin seeds in a blender with all the other ingredients, and blend until mostly smooth. At this point, I put the sauce on the stove and boiled for 15 minutes or so with some extra water, but I don't know if this is necessary? Anyway, press through a sieve into a bowl. Season to taste. DONE WITH MOLE.

The soup is so easy, it hardly counts as cooking. Add the pumpkin, apples, stock, and peppers to a pot. Cook until the apples are soft (about 20 minutes?) and blend (we used an immersion blender). Season to taste.

Serve soup with mole drizzled on top.

Thoughts: The soup was easy, but the mole took a while. Next time I would use almonds instead of pumpkin seeds, since I failed to hull the pumpkin seeds, I guess, and they were very tough. Anyway, the flavor combination worked, which I think we were all a little surprised about, since this was completely made up. But awesome! Claire says "interesting texture on the soup" - it's true, it was pretty thick, but velvety.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Borscht

Even Claire likes it!
Ingredients

• 4 beets, cut to matchsticks (ish)
• 1 russet potato, cubed
• 2½c green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 5c beef stock
• garlic
• splash of red wine vinegar
• about ¼c chopped fresh dill, optional

Put the onions in a stock pot with some olive oil and saute until translucent. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Then add the remaining vegetables. Cook, stirring frequently, for something like 5 minutes. Deglaze with the stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-25 minutes, until veg are tender. Using an immersion blender, partly blend the soup (to taste). add the dill and splash of vinegar. Serve with optional plain yogurt or sour cream.

Thoughts: This was our first successful attempt to make borscht. It was great! Even Claire liked it, and she doesn't like beets. Future versions might include trying to get a meatier flavor from the stock. Not sure about this yet. Hm.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Ginger Beer

OK, fine, I'll post something.

I made ginger beer. Ingredients include:

• about 1" ginger, finely grated
• juice of a lime
• 3oz simple syrup
• 6oz water
• 6 more oz cold water
• a pinch (like 1/16tsp) yeast

In a saucepan, heat the lime juice, simple syrup, ginger, and 6oz water to boiling. Simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, clean out some vessel to put the ginger beer in. I used empty soda bottles, cleaned with warm, soapy water. When the ginger mixture is done boiling, strain through a fine meshed strainer (or cheesecloth, or paper towel, or coffee filter) into another sterile container. Add the 6oz cold water, then pour into the bottle (when it's no longer hot enough to melt the plastic). Add the yeast. Screw the cap on VERY tightly and shake. Leave on the counter for about 36-48 hours, returning to shake periodically. Be careful, though, because that stuff gets carbonated. When it's carbonated enough, put it in the fridge.

Thoughts: I didn't know you can make your own ginger beer. We have to try this with other stuff, like adding spices to the boiling syrup mixture to impart other interesting flavors. I should probably get glass bottles for a more sterile/professional method of bottling, but it's expensive. The fizz that you get from this method isn't like your standard coca-cola carbonation - the bubbles are much smaller. It has a great texture and flavor.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Piadinas

Inspired by a post on The Kitchn, but we made some modifications.
Ingredients

• 2 c flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• about 2tbsp olive oil
• water until it holds together right

Mix the dry ingredients. Add oil, then add water and mix until it holds together into a dough. Don't overwork. Let it rest for about 30 minutes. Then divide into two balls and roll very thin (1/8") on a well-floured counter. Put on a hot griddle. Add fillings (I think we did ham, cheese, arugula, maybe other stuff) and serve (as a sandwich or as a wrap)

Thoughts: This was pretty easy. It wasn't anything terribly special, but this would be a pretty good way to make a sort of grilled flatbread/pizza for larger groups on short notice. I think that we could stand to add more herbs into the dough, as well. There are possibilities here.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Tapenade 2

Ingredients

• About 2c pitted black olives
• About 2tbsp capers
• About 1tsp garlic powder
• about 2tsp anchovy paste
• 2tbsp olive oil
• about 1tbsp dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

As you can tell, this is a very scientific recipe. I'm including it because it was slightly different from our previous tapenade, but just as successful. Anyway, just throw everything in a cuisinart and blend with olive oil drizzling in. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Thoughts: This was pretty great. Very successful. I don't have much to say about it.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Biscuits

Ingredients
This is actually Alton Brown's grandmother's biscuit recipe.

• 2 cups flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450.
In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.
Cut the butter into the dry ingredients and then pinch with your fingers like you would with scones.
Add buttermilk and mix until just combined. Dough should be sticky.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and fold over onto itself a few times to make sure all the flour etc. is incorporated.
Press into a 1-inch thick round.
Use a 2" biscuit cutter (we used a 2" heart-shaped cookie cutter, which worked ok) and push straight down through the dough. Do not use a glass or a jar or whatever. The cutting surface should be very thin. Otherwise you'll squish the dough, and you don't want that.
Place biscuits on a baking sheet.
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on the top, 15 minutes.

Thoughts: These were easy to make and pretty good. We did a half batch and cooked them for 15 minutes and it was too much -- they were dark gold and a little dry. Luckily, the cure for this is to eat them with gravy, which just makes everyone happy.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Black Bean and Espresso Chili

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 large, dried, hot pepper (we don't know what kind. It was in a bag of miscellaneous dried hot peppers)
  
• 1/8 cup instant espresso powder
• 1 tbsp cayenne powder
• 1 tbsp ancho chili powder
• 1/8 cup ground cumin
• 1/8 cup dried oregano leaves
• 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/6 cup honey
• lots of garlic
• 1lb dried black beans
  
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1/4 lb ground beef
  
• salt
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Do a quick soak on the black beans, and then also let them sit for several hours. You'll see why.
Heat oil in large, thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until onions are tender.
Mix in espresso powder, chili powders, cumin, and oregano. Cook 1 minute.
Add tomatoes, honey, and the dried pepper.
Bring to a simmer, and let cook for 10 minutes.
Add beans, stock, beef, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until the mixture thickens. Sorry, you'll have to stir constantly. Theoretically, this should take 30 minutes.
Before you eat this, you'll probably need to remove the dried pepper skins. You don't want to eat that.
Eat the rest.

Thoughts: this didn't really go well at all. The worst part was that I guess we didn't soak the black beans ahead of time enough. Like, we soaked them for 8 hours, which is the recommended time, but even after three hours of cooking the chili, they weren't soft. I'm not sure how to prevent this in the future. I guess what we recommended above (a quick soak followed by a normal soak) would be a good place to start. Also, it was just a pain in the ass to cook. If you don't stir it 24/7, it sticks to the bottom of your pan. But you can't really stir it 24/7 because the tomato sauce spits all over you. Seriously, our stove looked like a war zone. Dan thought the flavor was good, but I was just so disappointed by the texture of the beans that I don't even care. Next time, I think we'll try doing it in the slow cooker or something. AND I couldn't really taste the espresso powder, which was supposed to be the most exciting thing about this recipe. Dan says he would make it again with a slow-cooker. I would rather just find a new recipe. I don't know. It's pretty good with cornbread though.

Disaster Index: 4.5/10

Tres Leches

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 whole eggs
• 1 cup sugar, divided into 1/4 and 3/4 cups
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cups milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 can sweetened, condensed milk
• 1/4 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease a 9x13 " baking pan.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.
Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks with 3/4 of the cup of sugar until the yolks are pale yellow.
Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over the flour mixture and mix to combine.
Beat egg white on high until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Whites should be stiff.
Fold egg white mixture into the batter. Be gentle.
Pour into the pan.
Bake for 35-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from baking dish and transfer to another dish with a rim/ridge.
Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream together. When the cake is cool, pierce cake with fork all over. Pour the milk mixture slowly over the cake. If you like a wetter tres leches cake, use all the milks. If you like a slightly drier one, reserve 1 cup of the milk.
Allow cake to absorb milks for 30 minutes. Eat.
You should top this with whipped cream, also.

Thoughts: Fucking amazing. That is all.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Fennel and Greens Soup

Sometimes you just can't have enough soup. That time is all the time.

Ingredients

• olive oil
• salt and pepper
  
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 lb mixed leafy greens (kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, collards, whatever)
• 6 cups stock
• oz spinach
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• garnish of dill or fennel

Heat oil and butter and add salt, fennel, onion, and pepper. Cook until the vegetables are slightly browned, 7-8 minutes. Everything should be soft.
Add leafy greens (no spinach yet) and stock to the pot and simmer, uncovered, until greens are tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted (maybe 1 minute).
Puree the soup in your blender or by using a stick blender. Return to heat and add the heavy cream and lemon juice. Heat on low until desired temperature.
Also good with Parmesan cheese.

Thoughts: Delicious, but I can't get enough vegetable soup. This is my favorite style of soup -- cook everything, blend it, return to heat and add dairy. It's a pretty simply formula, and one that yields awesome soup every time. I don't think Dan is nearly as crazy about soup as I am, so he probably wouldn't give this a 1, but it was pretty much a 1. I'll give it a 2 just to prevent arguments.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Wow.

Ingredients

• .75c dry black beans
• 4 strips of bacon, chopped finely
• 1 smallish onion, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4tsp thyme
• 6c chicken stock
• .25c cilantro, chopped
• 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 dried chili pepper, MOST of the seeds removed, ground in a mortar & pestle

Cover the black beans with 3 inches of cold water and let sit for about 8 hours.  Drain the water and rinse the beans.

In a soup pot, place the bacon and cook until crispy.  Then add the onion and pepper and the spices.  Cook until the onion is translucent and add the beans, stock, and the chicken thighs.  Stir well, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pot.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for like 2 hours.  After one of those hours has elapsed, remove the chicken using tongs or a slotted spoon and shred using two forks, then return them to the soup.  After about 2 hours, the beans should be very tender.  Add the cilantro.  Serve.

Thoughts: Not only was this amazing - one of our best soups yet - it pretty much left the entire floor of our building smelling awesome.  The chicken was a last minute innovation designed to use up leftovers before we left town, and shredding it seemed like a really easy way to deal with the stuff being too frozen to cut.  Claire declared that all the chicken in our soups should be prepared this way in the future.  Anyway, not much can be said about this soup.  It was awesome.  Maybe next time I'll use 2 chilies.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

• neutral oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• 2 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 c red lentils
• 8 c chicken stock
• 2 c chicken, cooked (optional)
• 1c chopped cilantro (optional)
• 1 can coconut milk
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1c basmati rice, cooked

At some point while you're making the soup, you can cook the rice: wash 1c of rice, then put it in a pot with 1.25c water.  Bring to a boil, then cover and set to very low heat and cook for about 8 minutes.  Then turn off the heat and let it sit (covered) for another 10 minutes at least.

To make the soup, heat a little oil in a pot, then add the onions and carrots.  When the onions are getting translucent, add the garlic and all the other spices (including the bay leaves) and cook for a minute.  Then add the red lentils and toss to coat.  Then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice and coconut milk, then blend until smooth (we used a stick blender).  Stir in the cooked chicken and cilantro and correct seasoning (we had to add more spices and salt).  To serve, put rice in a bowl and pour soup over the rice.

Thoughts: When we first made the recipe, I tasted it before we added the coconut milk and thought that the flavor was fantastic.  The coconut milk really muted the spices, so we needed to add a lot more.  But it was quite good.  It might be nice to only PARTIALLY blend this but leave some of the lentils whole for texture.  Even so, this was quite good.

Disaster Index: 1/10

King Cake II

We didn't have great luck with our last king cake.  This is a creative twist on the original idea, and it worked really well.

Ingredients

• Dough
• .75c milk
• 2tbsp butter
• 2.25tsp yeast
• .25c sugar
• 1 egg
• .75tsp salt
• .25tsp nutmeg
• 2-3c flour
• Filling
• .5c brown sugar
• 1.5tsp cinnamon
• .25c flour
• .25c raisins
• .25c butter, melted

In a pan, bring the milk to a boil, stirring often.  Remove from heat and add the butter.  In a kitchenaid (or just a big bowl, I guess) add the dry ingredients for the dough along with the egg.  Start the mixer and add the milk / butter mixture.  Let it knead a lot, then adjust the flour ratio so that you get a SLIGHTLY sticky dough.  Form the dough into a ball and coat lightly with oil.  Set it in a bowl in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, make the filling.  Get ready for this: mix the filling ingredients together.  DONE.

Preheat the oven to 375.  When the dough is done rising, roll it out on a well floured surface until it's about 11" x 16" (eyeball it).  You want a big rectangle.  Spread the filling over it evenly - I needed to use my fingers - then roll it up like you're making cinnamon rolls.  Actually, if you're using an almond, this is a great time to hide it.  Now place the bread on a cookie sheet (on parchment paper) and connect the ends together to make a big doughnut.  Slash 1/2" cuts in the top at 1" intervals (eyeball it again).  Bake for 30 minutes.  Frost with butter cream frosting.  Awesome.

Thoughts: This was great.  The whole "cinnamon roll" aspect was awesome.  The only bad thing was that it was kind of dry.  I think that in the future I would use neutral oil instead of butter and not use any eggs (or just the yolk).  However I would definitely make this again.  The frosting really saved this from being TOO dry.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Shirred Eggs

Easy and delicious.

Ingredients

• Eggs
• Cheese of some kind (we used Chevre)
• Salt and Pepper
• Milk
• Bacon or other meat product, optional
• Ramekins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Put some PAM in a ramekin.  Cook bacon (if you're using it) until it's crispy, then chop it up.  Put some in the ramekin.  Crack one egg into the ramekin.  Put in more bacon.  Put in another egg and any more bacon.  Then add some salt and pepper and put in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, until the edges are looking cooked but the top isn't done.  If you're only making one egg, this takes 5-8 minutes.

Take the egg out and add the cheese.  The original recipe added about a tablespoon of milk to the top, but we didn't have great luck with this.  Put the eggs back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes for two eggs or another 5-8 for one egg, until they're cooked but the yolk is still runny.

Serve with toast.

Thoughts: The original recipe has you add milk in the middle.  This worked the first time, but the second time it just left us with watery eggs.  It was also tricky getting the timing right so the yolks were still runny, but by the third time we made it we were getting it right.  This was pretty great.  I will make this regularly.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Couscous with Fennel

and other vegetables?

Ingredients

• 1 large fennel bulb, cubed
• 2c chicken broth
• 1c water
• 2c couscous
• 2x zucchini, chopped
• 1c grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2c raisins
• carrots?

In a pan, add oil and the fennel, zucchini, and any other vegetables that you want to have in your couscous.  I can't remember what we put in.  Once the fennel is tender (about 8 minutes), add the broth, water, and raisins.  Bring to a boil, then  stir in the couscous.  Remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes until the couscous has absorbed the water.  Add grape tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.

Thoughts: We first made this with just the fennel and found it lacking, so we added all the other vegetables and the raisins.  I think it turned out really well, though I believe Claire wasn't as fond of it.  This has less to do with the quality of the recipe and more to do with her distrust of couscous.  This was incredibly easy and really good.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cream of Broccoli and Kale Soup

Ingredients

• 2 medium bunches of broccoli, florets removed and cut into smallish pieces
• 2-3c Kale, roughly chopped
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp neutral oil
• salt
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped or minced or smashed
• 1tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4c dry white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1c chicken stock
• 2c vegetable stock
• 1/2c whole milk

Combine broccoli, kale, and onion with oil and some salt in a soup pot and saute over medium heat for about 8-10 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds.  Then add in the flour and toss around evenly, cooking for about a minute.  Add the wine and bay leaf and cook until the wine is absorbed - about a minute - then add the stock.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf and blend everything together in a blender.  Return to the pot and add the whole milk.  Correct seasoning.  Le voila.

Thoughts: Good flavor, but we agreed that we could have used the soup to be pureed a little smoother.  I dunno - it was pretty standard, really.  We weren't blown away by this recipe.  How should we add more flavor in the future?  Anyway, unobjectionable.  Just nothing to write home about.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Caesar Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 3/4 tsp jarred garlic (or garlic paste, if you want to be fancy)
• 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp anchovy paste (or 6 anchovy fillets, minced finely and mashed with a fork)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 5 tbsp canola oil
• 5 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup parmesan

In a large bowl, combine the garlic and lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes (this takes some of the harshness out of the garlic).
Whisk together Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, and egg yolks into the garlic/lemon mixture.
While whisking constantly, drizzle the oils in. Whisk until fully emulsified.
Add the parmesan cheese. Add pepper to taste.

Thoughts: This was awesome. I wanted to make my own because I cannot get enough of anchovies and I'm tired to going out to restaurants and ordering caesar salad and then leaving. SO. That's about it. Enjoy.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Buttercream-cheese frosting

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 1/4 package of cream cheese/neufchatel, softened
• 1.3 cups powdered sugar
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 tbsp milk

In your Kitchenaid/hands, cream together the butter and cream cheese until completely combined.
Add the sugar (make sure the machine is turned off while you're adding it, and when you turn it back on, make sure it's on the lowest setting. Otherwise you will have a disaster on your hands).
Mix until combined. Add the salt, vanilla, and milk, one at a time.
If the frosting is too loose for your needs, add more sugar. You can't go wrong.

Thoughts: This is actually sort of hard to do in a Kitchenaid because the powdered sugar keeps climbing up the sides of the bowl and not incorporating into the frosting, so you have to keep scraping down the sides. But otherwise, totes awesome. I like the addition of salt, actually. Dan says he might have wanted it less sweet. If you want a frosting that's less sweet, just add less sugar and take out the milk and the stiffness should work out.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Waldorf Astoria Hundred-dollar Chocolate Cake

We found this in Dan's family cookbook (it's his mother's recipe)and made it for his birthday. Totally awesome y'all.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup mayonnaise
  
• 2 tsp vanilla.

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Make sure the cocoa chunks are mostly dissolved. We used a square Pyrex baking dish (8x8).
Bake for 45 minutes (original recipe says 35 but it took us way longer -- maybe our oven runs cold?).
Top with buttercream-cheese frosting.

Thoughts: This is super easy. It literally could not be easier. And it's really moist (maybe it's the mayonnaise?). I don't usually like chocolate cake because it gets so dry, but this one did not. On the other hand, it was sort of crumbly. But who cares?

Disaster Index: 1/10

Slow-Cooker Beef Biryani

Worked pretty well, but we need to work on the timing - when do you add the cauliflower?
Ingredients

• 2½ lb beef chuck, cut into 1" to 1½" cubes
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4tbsp fennel seeds
• 1tsp cumin
• 1tsp cardamom
• 3tsp coriander
• ½tsp turmeric
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1" lobe of ginger, minced
• 1c yogurt
• 1c water
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• ½c raisins (golden, preferably)
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped roughly
• 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
• basmati rice (about 2.4c), washed

To a sauté pan, add onion, beef, fennel, cumin, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and some oil.  Cook over medium heat until the beef is browned - about 10 minutes.  Add everything to a slow cooker along with the cinnamon stick, yogurt, and water.  Stir well to coat, then turn on low.  In one hour, add the carrots.  In another two hours from the addition of the carrots, add the cauliflower.  In 3-5 more hours from the addition of the cauliflower, fish everything out with a slotted spoon and toss with the raisins.  Measure the amount of liquid you have left in the slow cooker.  We had 3 cups.  To a rice cooker, add 1 cup of rice and 2tsp salt for every 1.25c liquid.  Add the liquid and cook until the rice is done.  Toss with beef and vegetables.  Serve.

Thoughts: The cauliflower was actually way overdone, so don't do it quite like we say above.  Probably the beef should cook about 8 hours total, the carrots about 6 hours, the cauliflower about 3.  Also, we should have salted the beef & vegetable mixture (maybe 1.5tsp salt) and added LESS salt to the rice (about 1tsp per cup of rice).  Claire disagrees about the rice.  I would have added a few more raisins, too.

Overall, I think this wasn't our best Biryani ever, but the beef was very tender, so that was good.  Cooking with a slow cooker is fun, but we're still really new to it.  We liked taking the drippings from the slow-cooker and doing the rice with that.  I also wouldn't add the yogurt next time, probably.  Claire suggests doing the yogurt but not the water.

We might toast the spices in oil first the next time, too.

This was easy, though, so we'll probably work with it a little.

Disaster Index: 3/10, but we'll try it again

Noodle Kugel

I don't know when the last time I had kugel was, but it was a LONG time ago.  This is a little... interesting?
Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1½c cottage cheese
• 1c sour cream
• ¾c sugar
• 2¼c whole milk
• ¾c raisins
• 6tbsp butter, melted
• 1tsp lemon zest
• ½tsp orange extract
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp salt
• 18oz egg noodles
• 1c coarsely crushed corn flakes
• 2tbsp butter, melted
• 2tbsp cinnamon

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, sugar, milk, raisins, butter, zest, extracts, and salt.  Set a pot of water to boil, and cook the egg noodles until quite al dente - about 7 minutes.  Drain the noodles thoroughly, then add them to the custard mixture.  Cover and let sit for at least an hour, checking on them and stirring after about a half hour.  Preheat the oven to 350.  When the oven is hot, pour the mixture into a 9x13" casserole dish.  In a separate bowl, combine the corn flakes, butter, and cinnamon.  Sprinkle liberally over the kugel.  Bake about 40 minutes.  Then take it out, let cool about 5 to 10 minutes, and serve.

Thoughts: We weren't really sure what to expect.  Kugel is a little unusual as dishes go, since it's like a sweet pasta casserole.  We liked it, though I'm not sure we added enough salt (I think we did 1tsp instead of 1 tbsp).  I'm not sure I'd make it again in this quantity.  Still, this tasted quite authentic, and I went back for seconds.  I call this a win.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Hong Shao Dofu

I don't know - this recipe seems to be missing a lot.

Ingredients

• 1 pack extra firm tofu, drained (i.e. press some of the water out) and chopped.
• 2tbsp peanut oil
• 2" of ginger, sliced
• 10 scallions, chopped
• 1/4c rice wine vinegar
• 5tbsp soy sauce
• 1c mushrooms, chopped (I'm guessing here)
• 2c tatsoi, chopped
• 1tsp salt
• 2c water
• 3tbsp sugar

Heat peanut oil in a large pot and add the ginger and scallions.  Stir fry for a few seconds, then add the tofu, mushrooms, and tatsoi.  Stir fry for another minute, then add the rice wine.  Stir fry a little longer, then add soy sauce until it's cooked down.  Then add the salt and water.  Bring to a boil, then until the liquid is reduced completely.  It'll take about an hour, depending on the pot.  Then add the sugar (or SOME sugar, anyway - maybe not 3tbsp?).

Thoughts: This was missing a lot of good flavors.  The original recipe was for Hong Shao Rou (specifically, pork belly), which would have been really flavorful.  So I wonder if the recipe doesn't kind of depend on there being pork belly.  The tatsoi was our own addition, and I'm not sure I would recommend that, either.  Mushrooms were our idea, too, but I think that probably improved the recipe.  Either way, this was definitely one of our less successful dishes.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Rosh Hashana Challah

We noticed we didn't have even ONE challah recipe up.  If you leave out the raisins (and just braid it like normal) this is practically the same as my father's recipe for the best challah ever, I think.

Ingredients

• 1c warm water
• 2.25tsp yeast
• 1tsp sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 egg white
• 3tbsp oil
• 1/3c honey
• 4 to 4.5c flour
• 1.5tsp salt
• about 1/2c raisins, plumped in boiling water
• poppy seeds

In a mixing bowl (or, in our case, in the bowl of your kitchenaid) add the water, yeast, and sugar and stir.  Let that sit for 10 minutes or so to proof and make sure the yeast isn't dead.  Now add the yolks, oil, honey, and salt and about 2c of flour.  Using the dough hook (or your hands or whatever) mix to combine, then add flour by the half cup until the dough pulls away from the sides after kneading for a few minutes.  We wound up using about 4c of flour total.  You'll have to scrape the sides of the bowl down with a spatula a few times.

Now set the dough aside to rise in a warm and humid environment until doubled, about 2 hours.  Make sure you give it the full rise.  When it's done, either braid as usual or, for Rosh Hashana, divide the dough in half.  Working with one half at a time, roll the dough out (on a well floured surface) into a long strip - about 24" long by 6-8" wide.  Lay half the raisins along the middle of the strip.  Working on a long side of the strip, roll the dough up into a single long snake with the raisins trapped in the middle.  Pinch the ends of the dough shut and fold the long strip into a U shape, then twist the two dangling arms together.  It will look kind of like a cruller, I guess?  Do the same with the other piece of dough and the rest of the raisins.  Now place the two twists in a pie pan.  You want to arrange them like two interlocking C's - the idea is to have the bulky fold in the center and the tails twisting around in the same direction.  Like a yin-yang, if that makes more sense.

Set the dough back in a humid environment to rise for another hour.  Just before the hour is up, preheat the oven to 350.  Mix the egg white with some water (about 1:1) and whisk together.  When the hour is up and the oven preheated, brush the challah with the egg wash and sprinkle liberally with poppy seeds.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until it's done (and sounds slightly hollow when tapped, etc).

Thoughts: the dough was very easy to work with.  Despite using the kitchenaid and kneading the hell out of the dough, the gluten really relaxed.  I think this may have to do with two things: 1) we mixed all the wet ingredients before adding the flour.  This meant that the fat was allowed to coat the flour particles when it was mixed together, so less gluten was allowed to develop.  2) we let it rise for a full 2 hours rather than just an hour or whatever, so that probably helped.  Arranging the dough was actually pretty easy.  The final texture was perfectly cakey, and the flavor was fantastic.  This was wildly successful.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Baked Doughnuts

Cribbed from 101 Recipes Blog, but don't let that fool you.  As doughnuts, these were terrible.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3c warm milk
• 2.25tsp yeast
• 2tbsp butter
• 2/3c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4.5c flour
• 1tsp salt
• nutmeg

In bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, nutmeg, sugar, and yeast.  Add the eggs, melted butter, and some of the milk without stirring.  Begin to bring the dough together, stirring, adding more milk as needed to get a soft dough.  You want it to be just a little more hydrated than you'd think - it's easier to add more flour later than to add more liquid if you didn't start with enough, in my experience.  Knead the dough for 5 minutes or so.

Cover the dough and let it rise for an hour.  Preheat oven to 475.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, punch down, and roll out to about 1/2" thick.  With a doughnut cutter, cut out doughnuts and place them on baking sheets.  Or cut out circles with a cookie cutter and punch a hole in them with your fingers.  But once you're done, cover and let rise for 45 minutes to an hour.

When they're done, toss the doughnuts into the oven for 8-10 minutes.  Take them out when they're a little underdone?

Thoughts: These were just like bread.  There wasn't any cakeyness, and I guess that's to be expected from a recipe that is basically a bread dough.  These did not make good doughnuts at all, though they made excellent bread pudding later.

Disaster Index: 5/10

Cream of Red Bell Pepper Soup

Maybe we can get back into the swing of things here.

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs red bell peppers
• 2tbsp shallot or red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1tsp dried thyme
• 3c chicken stock
• 1/2c half and half
• 1tsp red wine vinegar
• 1tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/8tsp cayenne
• Parmesan, salt, pepper to serve

Over a gas stove (or under a broiler), char the skin off of the red bell peppers until they're really blackened.  Put them in a paper bag as you finish them and close the paper bag - let them sit in the humid environment for about 10 minutes to sweat.  Then take them out and rinse them in the sink under cool water - the skin should come off pretty easily.  Use a butter knife to scrape off any extra that doesn't just flake off.

In a pot, add the shallot and onion and saute in olive oil until the onion is translucent.  Add the garlic and thyme and sautee another 30 seconds, then add the peppers and the chicken stock.  Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes.  Then blend everything together until smooth (we used an immersion blender).

Return the soup to the heat and add the half-and-half, vinegar, and cayenne.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with parmesan.

Thoughts: We didn't have the recipe for red pepper soup we ate at Sally's because we forgot it.  So we did this, and it was actually pretty good.  We both liked it, though there wasn't as much going on here in terms of different textures and flavors - it was a little one note.  But it was a good note.  I can see making this again, particularly because it's so easy.

Disaster Index: 1/10