One is based on something I had in Florence that the cafe in question called a "cappuccino freddo". The other is basically frappuccino. I should note: if you are in Florence, be aware that not every cafe has a cappuccino freddo. I asked for it at one place and they gave me something I did not want.
Anyway, for both, you first need cold-brewed coffee. Just combine coffee grounds and cold water in a jar at a ratio of about 1:4. It's a lot of coffee grounds. Seal the jar and shake vigorously. Set it on the counter for about 12-24 hours. I come by and give it a shake every now and again during that time, but it's probably not necessary. At the end of that time, strain it through a coffee filter (or in our case, a sieve with a paper towel) into another jar. Refrigerate.
Cappuccino Freddo
Put some coffee in a cup. Put the same amount of milk in a milk frothing device (I have this thing that's basically a french press that froths the milk by pushing it through the little strainer...). Add about two teaspoons sugar or brown sugar (more or less depending on your tastes) to the milk and stir until it's more or less dissolved. Froth the milk and pour over the coffee. Enjoy.
Frappuccino
Mix 1 part coffee to 3 parts milk (depending on the strength of your brew it could be more or less). Add sugar to taste - about 2 tbsp for 4 cups of liquid is close to the ratio we used.
Thoughts: Cold-brew coffee is different from normal coffee. As I understand it, different aeromatic compounds are released at different temperatures. Cold-brew yields something with very strong coffee notes without much bitterness. It's perfect for cold coffee drinks.
The drinks are great. I really like the cappuccino freddo, personally, because there's just a lot going on there with so few ingredients. The difference in sweetness between the frothy milk and the coffee makes it very enjoyable to drink. Claire likes the frappuccino, by contrast. We make it a little less sweet than the store-bought stuff, and we can use skim milk. So it's healthier, less cloying, and WAY cheaper.
Disaster Indeces: 1/10 all around.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sausage and Swiss Chard Lasagna
Ingredients
Brown the sausage over medium-low heat until it's pretty cooked through. Add the garlic, tomatoes, dried basil, dried oregano, and 1.5 tsp salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. You can add some water to it if it gets too thick. Remove from heat.
Boil some pasta water in a large pot and cook the lasagna noodles in batches.
In the meantime, saute the onions over medium-high heat until almost translucent.
While you're sauteing the onions, prepare the Swiss chard. This is how you do it:
remove the stalks from the leaves and chop the stalks into smallish pieces. Chiffonade the leaves.
When the onions are almost translucent, add the stalks of the Swiss chard. Cover and cook for around 8 minutes, or until the stalks are tender, stirring occasionally. When tender, remove the onion/chard mix from the heat and set aside.
Take the chard leaves and add them to a smallish pot with the 6 oz. of frozen spinach (which you need to thaw ahead of time. Do it now if you haven't yet.). Cook the chard leaves and spinach, covered, over low heat. Add a few tablespoons of water to facilitate wilting. Cook for 5 minutes, or until wilted. Remove from heat and mix with the onion/chard mixture.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta, mozzarella, eggs, fresh basil, dried parsley, Parmesan, and some salt. Mix thoroughly. When the onion/chard/spinach mixture has cooled a little, add it into the cheese mixture and mix thoroughly.
Wash the summer squash and chop off the ends. Slice length-wise into sheets and grill until softened.
Now assemble the lasagna:
Coat the bottom of a glass lasagna with olive oil.
Put as many noodles as you'd like on the bottom. Put a layer of tomato/sausage mix on the noodles. Then add a layer of yellow squash. Then add a layer of the cheese/vegetable mixture. Then more noodles, then more tomato sauce, then more squash, then more cheese/vegetables, and then a final layer of noodles. On top of that we drizzled some olive oil and then the chevre.
Put in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Thoughts: Delicious. We based this loosely on a recipe we found online, and then added all sorts of stuff (swiss chard, spinach, yellow squash, chevre, onions, fresh basil). The flavor was fantastic. Maybe it was the sausage, maybe it was the swiss chard, maybe it was the yellow squash, but either way, it was fantastic. We didn't have as much tomato sauce as I would have liked, so we didn't get to put a layer of tomato sauce on top of the whole concoction. So next time I would have added another can of tomatos or something. I don't know. Fantastic.
Disaster Index:1/10
- 1 lb Italian sausage (casings removed), chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced or chopped or whatever
- 1 can tomatoes (14.5 oz) - we used "fire roasted," which worked really well
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 10-12 lasagna noodles
- 1 16-oz package of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 container ricotta cheese (1.75 cups)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp dried parsley
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 ozs chevre cheese (we used herb & garlic chevre)
- 1/4 fresh basil, shredded
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 (large) bunch swiss chard, bottom inch of stalks removed
- 1 yellow summer squash
- 6 oz frozen spinach
Brown the sausage over medium-low heat until it's pretty cooked through. Add the garlic, tomatoes, dried basil, dried oregano, and 1.5 tsp salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. You can add some water to it if it gets too thick. Remove from heat.
Boil some pasta water in a large pot and cook the lasagna noodles in batches.
In the meantime, saute the onions over medium-high heat until almost translucent.
While you're sauteing the onions, prepare the Swiss chard. This is how you do it:
remove the stalks from the leaves and chop the stalks into smallish pieces. Chiffonade the leaves.
When the onions are almost translucent, add the stalks of the Swiss chard. Cover and cook for around 8 minutes, or until the stalks are tender, stirring occasionally. When tender, remove the onion/chard mix from the heat and set aside.
Take the chard leaves and add them to a smallish pot with the 6 oz. of frozen spinach (which you need to thaw ahead of time. Do it now if you haven't yet.). Cook the chard leaves and spinach, covered, over low heat. Add a few tablespoons of water to facilitate wilting. Cook for 5 minutes, or until wilted. Remove from heat and mix with the onion/chard mixture.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta, mozzarella, eggs, fresh basil, dried parsley, Parmesan, and some salt. Mix thoroughly. When the onion/chard/spinach mixture has cooled a little, add it into the cheese mixture and mix thoroughly.
Wash the summer squash and chop off the ends. Slice length-wise into sheets and grill until softened.
Now assemble the lasagna:
Coat the bottom of a glass lasagna with olive oil.
Put as many noodles as you'd like on the bottom. Put a layer of tomato/sausage mix on the noodles. Then add a layer of yellow squash. Then add a layer of the cheese/vegetable mixture. Then more noodles, then more tomato sauce, then more squash, then more cheese/vegetables, and then a final layer of noodles. On top of that we drizzled some olive oil and then the chevre.
Put in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes.
Thoughts: Delicious. We based this loosely on a recipe we found online, and then added all sorts of stuff (swiss chard, spinach, yellow squash, chevre, onions, fresh basil). The flavor was fantastic. Maybe it was the sausage, maybe it was the swiss chard, maybe it was the yellow squash, but either way, it was fantastic. We didn't have as much tomato sauce as I would have liked, so we didn't get to put a layer of tomato sauce on top of the whole concoction. So next time I would have added another can of tomatos or something. I don't know. Fantastic.
Disaster Index:1/10
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Blueberry-cranberry bars
Ingredients
In a medium bowl, mix the cup of sugar, the flour, and the baking powder together. Mix in the salt (and lemon zest, if you have it). Cut the butter into small chunks. Little by little, add the chunks to the dry ingredients and squish them with your fingers (this technique also used to make Scottish scones ) so that the butter gradually incorporates into the flour mixture. This may take a while. Do it until all the butter is mixed in and the mixture has the texture of wet sand.
Dough should be pretty crumbly. There's a LOT of butter in here.
Take half of the mixture and spread it on the bottom of your glass pan (we used 9"x 13"). Tamp it down as well as you can.
In another bowl, stir the cornstarch, lemon juice, and sugar together. Gently add the blueberries and the cranberries (I usually chop the cranberries in half because it makes them more manageable to eat. But you can probably put them in whole if you'd like). Stir to combine.
Spoon the fruit mixture over the crust in the pan.
Sprinkle the other half of the dough over the top, crumble fashion.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Eat.
Thoughts: Delicious. And VERY buttery. Next time I would probably use 1.5 sticks of butter and see how it goes. I don't think it really needed 2 whole sticks. The original recipe called for just blueberries, but I thought the cranberries were a nice addition - they lend a little tiny bit of tang that is quite refreshing. I would store them in the fridge, but I would also take them out and let them warm up a little before eating them (maybe 10-15 minutes?), because the flavors really come out when the bars are a little warmer. Dan says "good ratio of berries to crust" and "fantastic flavor." Plus they were super easy to make. I like that the same dough is used for the crust and the topping. This is not always the case.
Disaster Index: 1/10
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 cups white flour
- 2 sticks of butter, chilled
- 1 egg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- juice from one lemon (and zest, if you have it. We didn't)
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 4 tsp cornstarch
In a medium bowl, mix the cup of sugar, the flour, and the baking powder together. Mix in the salt (and lemon zest, if you have it). Cut the butter into small chunks. Little by little, add the chunks to the dry ingredients and squish them with your fingers (this technique also used to make Scottish scones ) so that the butter gradually incorporates into the flour mixture. This may take a while. Do it until all the butter is mixed in and the mixture has the texture of wet sand.
Dough should be pretty crumbly. There's a LOT of butter in here.
Take half of the mixture and spread it on the bottom of your glass pan (we used 9"x 13"). Tamp it down as well as you can.
In another bowl, stir the cornstarch, lemon juice, and sugar together. Gently add the blueberries and the cranberries (I usually chop the cranberries in half because it makes them more manageable to eat. But you can probably put them in whole if you'd like). Stir to combine.
Spoon the fruit mixture over the crust in the pan.
Sprinkle the other half of the dough over the top, crumble fashion.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Eat.
Thoughts: Delicious. And VERY buttery. Next time I would probably use 1.5 sticks of butter and see how it goes. I don't think it really needed 2 whole sticks. The original recipe called for just blueberries, but I thought the cranberries were a nice addition - they lend a little tiny bit of tang that is quite refreshing. I would store them in the fridge, but I would also take them out and let them warm up a little before eating them (maybe 10-15 minutes?), because the flavors really come out when the bars are a little warmer. Dan says "good ratio of berries to crust" and "fantastic flavor." Plus they were super easy to make. I like that the same dough is used for the crust and the topping. This is not always the case.
Disaster Index: 1/10
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Cowboy Cookies
Ingredients
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating until well mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Add a few tbsp of water if necessary.
Spoon onto a cookie sheet in approximately 1.5 tbsp portions. Bake until done - in our oven about 20 minutes.
Thoughts: Delicious. This recipe was based on one we found on food network, but we modified it slightly to fit what we had/needed to use up and what we wanted. It worked wonderfully, although the bake time is quite long. If you take them out at the right time, though, they're perfectly chewy, not dry at all. Nice texture, too. Not much to say except that they're really great. Wouldn't do a thing differently next time.
Disaster index: 1/10
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1/2c vegetable oil
- 1c granulated sugar
- 1c dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract (or 1/2tsp of double strength)
- 2c whole wheat flour
- 1tsp baking soda
- 3/4tsp salt
- 1/2tsp baking powder
- 2c rolled oats
- 1/2c golden raisins, plumped in some boiling water for 5 minutes and drained.
- 1c chocolate chips
- 3/4c coconut
- 3/4tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating until well mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Add a few tbsp of water if necessary.
Spoon onto a cookie sheet in approximately 1.5 tbsp portions. Bake until done - in our oven about 20 minutes.
Thoughts: Delicious. This recipe was based on one we found on food network, but we modified it slightly to fit what we had/needed to use up and what we wanted. It worked wonderfully, although the bake time is quite long. If you take them out at the right time, though, they're perfectly chewy, not dry at all. Nice texture, too. Not much to say except that they're really great. Wouldn't do a thing differently next time.
Disaster index: 1/10
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Cranberry Orange Scones
Ingredients
Line a large sheet with parchment or wax paper.
In a food processor, pulse the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter together until it resembles a coarse meal. Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, toss the chopped cranberries together with the 3 tbsp sugar until thoroughly coated. Stir into flour mixture.
In another small bowl, beat together the egg and egg yolk. Stir in the milk and the orange extract. Add the whole mess into the flour/cranberry mixture and work together with your hands until well-incorporated.
On a well-floured surface, and using well-floured hands, pat the dough into a 1" thickness. You'll probably have to add more flour. I swear, I had to add like, 2 more cups of flour to make this not sticky. Using a cookie cutter about 2" diameter, cut the dough out into rounds.
Place rounds on the cookie sheet and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.
Eat.
Thoughts: These came out a little flat (topologically, not flavor-wise). I'm not sure why -- maybe add some leavening? I don't know. I think these could have used more cranberry and more orange extract. Also, it was a great idea to use fresh cranberries; they add a really nice tartness that you can't get with dried cranberries. I'm wondering if we can use our griddle scone recipe as a base, and still add blueberries or cranberries. Would they cook sufficiently on the griddle? Stay tuned. Daniel really liked the texture. I wish they had been a little more fluffy and puffy, but what can you do?
Disaster Index: 3/10
Update: We tried the suggestions in "thoughts", using the Scottish scones as a base and using both blueberries AND cranberries. Much improved. 1/10. Would bake again.
- 2.5 cups flour
- 1/2 cup sugar (plus 3 tbsp, if using fresh cranberries, which you should be doing)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
- 1.25 cups chopped fresh cranberries (or dried, if you must)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tsp orange extract
Line a large sheet with parchment or wax paper.
In a food processor, pulse the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter together until it resembles a coarse meal. Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, toss the chopped cranberries together with the 3 tbsp sugar until thoroughly coated. Stir into flour mixture.
In another small bowl, beat together the egg and egg yolk. Stir in the milk and the orange extract. Add the whole mess into the flour/cranberry mixture and work together with your hands until well-incorporated.
On a well-floured surface, and using well-floured hands, pat the dough into a 1" thickness. You'll probably have to add more flour. I swear, I had to add like, 2 more cups of flour to make this not sticky. Using a cookie cutter about 2" diameter, cut the dough out into rounds.
Place rounds on the cookie sheet and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.
Eat.
Thoughts: These came out a little flat (topologically, not flavor-wise). I'm not sure why -- maybe add some leavening? I don't know. I think these could have used more cranberry and more orange extract. Also, it was a great idea to use fresh cranberries; they add a really nice tartness that you can't get with dried cranberries. I'm wondering if we can use our griddle scone recipe as a base, and still add blueberries or cranberries. Would they cook sufficiently on the griddle? Stay tuned. Daniel really liked the texture. I wish they had been a little more fluffy and puffy, but what can you do?
Disaster Index: 3/10
Update: We tried the suggestions in "thoughts", using the Scottish scones as a base and using both blueberries AND cranberries. Much improved. 1/10. Would bake again.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Brioche
Yes.
Ingredients
Mix together the dough ingredients (including the lavender) but exclude the chocolate chips. When it's starting to come together, turn it out onto a WELL floured counter and knead for about 5 minutes. Put it back into a bowl and toss together with some olive oil. Cover and set in a warm, humid place to rise (a microwave with a cup of boiling water makes a great rising chamber). Rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Take out the dough and punch down. Divide into twelfths (I cut it in half twice to get fourths, and then divided each of those fourths in three to get twelfths). For each ball of dough, press your thumbs into one side and pull taught the other side (so you get a nice rounded surface), folding the edges into the center. Once one side is nice and taught, take a few chocolate chips (8-12) and put them together on the non-taught side. Pull the dough from the edges of the disc and pinch over the chocolate. The idea is basically to have a nice round ball enclosing a pouch of chocolate chips. The bottom of the dough (the non-taught side) doesn't need to look pretty.
Do this with each ball of dough and set on a baking sheet. Cover with a towel to rise for another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 while you wait. Also, mix together all the glaze ingredients.
When the final rise is done, brush each bun with the glaze. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until nice and golden brown on top.
Thoughts: Claire was unsure about the olive oil, but I really liked the interesting flavor it imparted. Maybe - MAYBE next time we'll use a neutral oil. The chocolate we used was Guittard, and it was pretty great. Very vanilla-y, which complemented the aromatic qualities of the lavender and olive oil. The original recipe used only 1tsp of yeast and had an initial rise of 12-20 hours. I'll be honest - I think I like my way better. Anyway, these were JUST delicious. They don't require anything else. Just eat them plain. As a note: the recipe says to reheat them you should bake them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Sounds kind of excessive to me, but we might find out.
Disaster Index: 1/10
Ingredients
- 2tbsp honey
- 2.25tsp yeast
- 1c whole milk
- 4tbsp olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 2tsp salt
- about 4.5c flour, plus or minus.
- 2tbsp lavender
- Chocolate chips
- Glaze:
- 1 egg yolk
- 1tbsp milk
- 1tbsp sugar
- 1 egg yolk
Mix together the dough ingredients (including the lavender) but exclude the chocolate chips. When it's starting to come together, turn it out onto a WELL floured counter and knead for about 5 minutes. Put it back into a bowl and toss together with some olive oil. Cover and set in a warm, humid place to rise (a microwave with a cup of boiling water makes a great rising chamber). Rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Take out the dough and punch down. Divide into twelfths (I cut it in half twice to get fourths, and then divided each of those fourths in three to get twelfths). For each ball of dough, press your thumbs into one side and pull taught the other side (so you get a nice rounded surface), folding the edges into the center. Once one side is nice and taught, take a few chocolate chips (8-12) and put them together on the non-taught side. Pull the dough from the edges of the disc and pinch over the chocolate. The idea is basically to have a nice round ball enclosing a pouch of chocolate chips. The bottom of the dough (the non-taught side) doesn't need to look pretty.
Do this with each ball of dough and set on a baking sheet. Cover with a towel to rise for another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 while you wait. Also, mix together all the glaze ingredients.
When the final rise is done, brush each bun with the glaze. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until nice and golden brown on top.
Thoughts: Claire was unsure about the olive oil, but I really liked the interesting flavor it imparted. Maybe - MAYBE next time we'll use a neutral oil. The chocolate we used was Guittard, and it was pretty great. Very vanilla-y, which complemented the aromatic qualities of the lavender and olive oil. The original recipe used only 1tsp of yeast and had an initial rise of 12-20 hours. I'll be honest - I think I like my way better. Anyway, these were JUST delicious. They don't require anything else. Just eat them plain. As a note: the recipe says to reheat them you should bake them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Sounds kind of excessive to me, but we might find out.
Disaster Index: 1/10
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Dirty Rice
Ingredients
Meanwhile, saute the garlic, onion, and green pepper in the vegetable oil until soft (15 minutes). Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and cayenne. Mix well.
Add this mixture to the cooked rice. Stir.
Cook the meat together in another pan and then add it into the rice.
Turn heat to low, and cook for another 10 minutes. Eat.
Thoughts: This was pretty delicious. In retrospect, the rice was a little more mushy than I like - we cooked it according to the directions in the recipe, rather than using our own failsafe method, which usually yields less mushy rice. So in the future, we will use that method, and then rather than adding the various ingredients into the rice and stirring over and over again, we're just going to cook the vegetables and meet together, and then put it all in with the rice at the last minute. This will also decrease the mushiness of the rice. I thought that the rice: stuff ratio was a little off. I would have preferred more stuff to rice. Also, this recipe can feed like, 12 people, so we'll also halve the recipe next time we make it.
Disaster Index: 2/10
- 2 cups extra long grain rice
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1.5 cups diced white onion
- 1 cup diced green pepper
- vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 hot sausage, chopped and quartered
- 1/4 lb ground pork
- 1 bunch green onion, chopped
Meanwhile, saute the garlic, onion, and green pepper in the vegetable oil until soft (15 minutes). Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and cayenne. Mix well.
Add this mixture to the cooked rice. Stir.
Cook the meat together in another pan and then add it into the rice.
Turn heat to low, and cook for another 10 minutes. Eat.
Thoughts: This was pretty delicious. In retrospect, the rice was a little more mushy than I like - we cooked it according to the directions in the recipe, rather than using our own failsafe method, which usually yields less mushy rice. So in the future, we will use that method, and then rather than adding the various ingredients into the rice and stirring over and over again, we're just going to cook the vegetables and meet together, and then put it all in with the rice at the last minute. This will also decrease the mushiness of the rice. I thought that the rice: stuff ratio was a little off. I would have preferred more stuff to rice. Also, this recipe can feed like, 12 people, so we'll also halve the recipe next time we make it.
Disaster Index: 2/10
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