Apple Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk (we used whole; you don't have to)
• 1 egg
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup chopped apple

Preheat oven to 400.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Fold in the chopped apples.
Grease a muffin tin. Put the batter into the muffin tins.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Eat.

Thoughts: I think our oven cooks pretty cool, so we actually baked these for like, 35 minutes before the toothpick came out clean. They were pretty dense - possibly because we used whole milk instead of skim. The batter was more like a bread dough than muffin batter, but they came out really nicely. They didn't rise much either, despite the 2 tsp of baking powder. But I'd still rate them very highly.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Panettone

A first attempt at an Italian Christmas bread. Still not as good as my father's. This recipe has weird measurements because it's scaled down...

Ingredients

• 1 28oz tomato can, cleaned and empty.
  
• 4/3c flour
  
• 1/3c raisins (preferably a mixture of dark and light)
  
• 1.5tsp yeast
  
• 1/6c lukewarm water plus a little
  
• 1/3 stick of butter
  
• 1 egg
  
• a little less than 2tbsp sugar (1/9c, to be exact)
  
• 1/3tsp salt
  
• 1/3tsp vanilla (YOU figure out how to measure this)
  
• 1/2tsp anise seed
  
• zest of one orange
  

Combine everything in a bowl. Stir together with a spatula and add a little flour until the consistency is a really sticky dough (still a little wet). Force it into the WELL GREASED tomato can and set to rise for about 1.5 hours. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Take it out and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes, then invert the can to turn it out. Usually served in wedges, but I like just the round slices you get by doing it cross-wise.

Thoughts: Claire was skeptical but she really liked it. I didn't have candied citron (which is normally an ingredient) and I used only dark raisins. Also could have used some anise extract. Generally it was quite good. It comes out KIND OF like Swedish limpa bread, but much lighter. We're probably going to try this recipe again eventually, but not until I finish the panettone my father made for me when I was last in Janesville.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - getting there. Worth repeating.

Deep-Fried Cornish Game Hens

Yes, we deep-fried Cornish game hens. What?
Ingredients

• Cornish game hens (we used 2)
  
• a lot of canola oil
  
• tongs galore
  

There is nothing more harrowing than trying to deep fry Cornish game hens. First thaw the suckers. Then wash them off with water and pat as completely dry as you can, inside and out. Let them sit out for an hour (yes, really). Toward the end of the hour, begin to heat the oil to 350 degrees. You want 1) enough oil to come up about 2-3 inches from the bottom of the pot and 2) not enough oil that it will bubble over when you put the chicken in.

Oil heated, add the chicken. Use tongs or something. Two pair make it easier. Cook it until it's golden brown, turning occasionally to get all the sides. It'll take about 12 minutes. I recommend trying to let it sit for at least 4 minutes on each side without messing with it too much.

Pull the thing out and place it on a wire rack to drain the oil out. Pat dry if need be. Now is a good time to start scrubbing the grease off of everything in your kitchen.

Thoughts: in a word, terrifying. Otherwise, I have to say that while it turned out OK, I wouldn't deep fry again. The done-ness was great, and it was NOT dry at all, but neither was it really flavorful. Next time we try to make it we'll rub it down with herbs and bake it. Advantage to that approach is you don't have to risk horrendous disfigurement or death to eat a chicken.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Caramelized Rice Pudding

From Martha Stewart
Ingredients

• 1.5c whole milk plus 3/8c (eyeball it)
  
• 1/4c medium grain white rice
  
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/8c white sugar + 2 tbsp or so
  
• 1/8tsp salt
  
• 1 egg yolk
  
• raisins
  
• some cinnamon (again, eyeball it)
  

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the rice in 1.5c milk in a saucepan with some raisins (as much as you like). Once the rice has absorbed most of the liquid (15-20 min?) remove from heat. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 3/8c milk, 1/8c sugar, the salt, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Pour it into the rice mixture, stirring constantly. Return it to heat and bring to a simmer. Divide it between two ramekins. Place them on a casserole pan or bread pan and add about an inch of boiling water to the pan with them (to kinda steam them as they cook) and bake about 15 minutes. Let them cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle the tops with sugar, and caramelize using a kitchen torch (or a broiler if you don't have one... we actually use a wind-proof lighter. Seriously.)

Thoughts: I really liked this a lot. Claire liked it "for what it was" but says that it was too rich that she didn't like the caramelized sugar on top. If she made it in the future, it would include more skim milk (less whole) and no caramelized sugar. I guess I was expecting it to be rich so I really enjoyed what I got.

Disaster Index: 1/10. But Claire probably wouldn't do it again. I, however, definitely would.

Twice-baked potatoes with blue cheese

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed, and pierced several times with a fork
  
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 3 tbsp plain yoghurt (just play it by ear)
  
• salt and pepper
• blue cheese
  

Preheat oven to 400.
In the meantime, put the potatoes on a plate and put them in the microwave (MAKE SURE YOU'VE PIERCED THEM SEVERAL TIMES WITH A FORK). Microwave them on high for 10 minutes, or until they're cooked (sometimes it takes longer).
Meanwhile, in a medium-sized bowl, mix chives, butter, and parsley.
When potatoes are done, let them cool a little (not TOO much), then cut them open and scoop the potato out of the skins. Add the hot potato to the bowl and begin mixing. The potato should melt the butter during this process.
When you have a pretty good mash going on, start adding yogurt. Add until it attains the texture that you desire. I think we used about 3 tbsp. We didn't measure it.
Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Fill 2 ramekins with the potato mixture. Fill pretty close to the top. Then take your blue cheese and crumble it over the top of the potatoes. Again, however much you want to use. We actually mixed more in once we took them out of the oven.
Anyway, bake them in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the blue cheese on top is bubbling.

Thoughts: This was super easy to make and super filling. The only bad part for you is the butter and the blue cheese. Sweet potatoes are pretty much the healthiest thing you can eat. So yeah, we were pretty pleased with this.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cake in 5 minutes

In a mug, no less. In the microwave, no less.
Ingredients

• 4tbsp flour
  
• 4tbsp sugar
  
• 2tbsp dutch process cocoa
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee (optional - really adds to the chocolate flavor)
  
• 1 egg
  
• 3tbsp milk
  
• 3tbsp vegetable oil
  
• 3tbsp chocolate chips
  
• 1/2 vanilla or orange or almond extract
  

This is for serious. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and instant coffee in a microwavable mug. Stir (with a fork or something) and then add the egg. Stir until you get kind of a paste. Doesn't have to be perfectly combined. Add the remaining ingredients except for the chocolate chips, and stir until well combined. Add the chips and stir.

Microwave on high for 3 minutes (for a 1000W microwave) or a little longer otherwise (more on this in a sec). Serve with vanilla ice cream and a staggering sense of unreality.

Thoughts: I figured "heck, why not? If it doesn't work, I'm only wasting one egg." And it turned out. Pros: took five minutes. Pretty great flavor (really). VERY fluffy texture. Cons: A little on the dry side and a little rubbery. This may have to do with three things: 1) I didn't actually use chocolate chips when I made this recipe. They would have added a lot, I think, but I didn't have any. (The original recipe also suggested chopping up bits of candy bar if you don't have chips... I think they meant chocolate bars, but could you use a snickers bar? I PERSONALLY think this would probably be utterly disgusting, but I thought the cake would be too, until I tried it). 2) I didn't add vanilla / orange / almond extract. This, again, was a suggestion in the original recipe, but I didn't want to waste a precious commodity on what I thought would probably be a failed attempt at cake. The added liquid might have helped to keep the cake a LITTLE more moist. 3) I think the cake could have been microwaved just a LITTLE less. About half-way through the cooking, the cake rises above the lip of the mug (about an inch in my case). DON'T BE AFRAID OF THIS - it will go back down and not spill anywhere. The thing is, I think I probably could have turned off the microwave when it fell back to the level of the mug. But I let it keep going the full 3 minutes, and it was a TOUCH on the rubbery side after it started to cool. I bet that if you turn it off 20-30 seconds sooner, it'll be much moister.

Disaster Index: 3/10 - COULD ACHIEVE GREATNESS with a few minor tweaks. Problem is, it's probably tough to control minor tweaks like that. It's tough to play by ear with a microwave. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.

Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage and Escarole

Ingredients

• 1 and 2/3 cups lentils, rinsed well
• 5 cups water
• 3.5 cups chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb sweet Italian sausage links, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
• 2 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 lb escarole, rinsed and chopped (4 cups)
• 1-2 tbsp red-wine vinegar

Simmer lentils, water, stock, bay leaves, and half of the garlic in soup pot, uncovered, for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a pot of medium-high heat until it simmers. Add sausage and brown for 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to another vessel. Keep the sausage oil in the pan.
Reduce heat to medium and add carrots, onion, celery, remaining garlic, salt, pepper, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Stir in tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.
Add sausage and lentils and cook for 3-5 minutes, until lentils are tender.
Stir in escarole and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in vinegar.

Thoughts: Delicious. The sausage was absolutely fantastic. I think we actually cooked it with some Marsala wine. But I can't remember. Meh. When you make this recipe, you might as well throw some in there anyway. There's no reason not to add alcohol to any dish you make.
Anyway, this was fantastic. I might even add more sausage.

Disaster Index: 2/10