Peanut Butter Lover and A Sense of Deja Vu (Have I Said Something Like That Before?)

Even though I feel absolutely confident in the normalcy of my obsession with peanut-butter, it is always a little bit nice to receive the occasional reminder that other people share in my sentiments. I am not alone. Who doesn't like to hear that once in awhile? Today's reminder of not-aloneness comes to us care of NPR's Kitchen Window.

Let it be known that before I saw this recipe, I was innocently lying in bed on a Sunday morning with my feet tucked up underneath me. I think there was a cup of coffee on my bedside table. The fan I remember. That was definitely on, pointed directly at my face. It was enjoyable, but not so enjoyable that I didn't get up and make these cookies immediately upon reading this article. Motivation!


Basic Peanut Butter Cookies:

You Will Need:

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (more is always better)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
A little cinnamon and sugar (to taste)

To Make:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in one bowl. Cold cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes, then cream it with the peanut butter and sugar. Beat the vanilla and the egg into this mixture. Resist the urge to eat ALL of the batter in this stage. Now stir in the flour bit by bit, making sure it is well-blended as you go. The dough should be very pliable now. Tear out chunks and roll them between your palms to form small balls.

For the next part, I combined equal parts cinnamon and sugar with a dash of sea salt in a small dish. I then rolled each of the dough balls through this mixture until thoroughly coated. This lends a dash of snickerdoodle to your peanut butter cookie, which (if it's your thing) I highly recommend.

Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet, and lightly smash them with the tines of the fork. This will give them that distinctive peanut butter cookie aesthetic. Bake for approximately ten minutes (a little less to leave them chewy...which I like. A lot.)

Suggestions for consumption:
*With lots of dairy product on hand to wash down with.
*Crumbled over freshly whipped cream.
*On either side of a huge, cold scoop of ice cream (ice-cream sandwich)!
*Straight

I Want Some-More-Sa (Samosa)

I'm not lying when I say that I first picked up these pea's because I loved the way the cans looked. All clean lines and so absolutely classic! Just look at them! And on sale...? Done. I bought five cans, took them home, and proudly displayed them on my pantry shelves - a mother hen preening over her culinary brood. It took me three or four days to even begin pondering appropriate recipes, as fully satisfied merely to gaze upon them as I was.

But what to make with peas that did not include carrots (visions of my youth and "healthy dinners," microwaved, eaten in front of fuzzily rendered cartoons on public television)? The answer: samosas. Thank you, Gourmet.com. Even with factors like "excellent taste" set aside , this is a totally satisfying recipe to make. It just involves a very gratifying amount of handling: folding, prodding, stirring, tucking, rolling, etc. Afterward you'll feel universally accomplished...you might even be faintly perspiring. And when it comes time to actually eat, you'll known that you've truly earned it. You went for it; you rolled up your sleeves and really dug into it! Congratulations, you!

It must go without saying that these are my favorite kinds of recipes (see also: pizza dough pounding, ice-cream making, whip-cream whipping, anything involving bread dough). Perfect for unwinding after a long, long (long, long) day.



Phyllo-Wrapped Potato Samosas, courtesy of Gourmet.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 lb Yukon Gold or boiling potatoes
1 large onion, chopped (2 3/4 cups)
1 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice blend)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
12 (17- by 12-inch) phyllo sheets, thawed if frozen
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

To Make:

Peel potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Put in a medium saucepan with 1 tsp salt and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Simmer until tender, about 15 minutes, then drain in a colander.
Cook onion, spices, and 3/4 tsp salt in oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Add potatoes and peas and cook, stirring, 3 minutes, then remove from heat and cool slightly.
Preheat oven to 375°F with racks in upper and lower thirds.
Cover stack of phyllo sheets with plastic wrap and a damp kitchen towel. Keeping remaining phyllo covered and working quickly, place 1 sheet on work surface. Gently brush with some butter, then lay a second sheet on top and brush with butter. Cut crosswise into 4 strips. Put 2 tablespoons filling near one corner of 1 strip and fold corner of phyllo over to enclose filling and form a triangle. Continue folding strip, maintaining triangle shape. Put samosa, seam side down, on baking sheet. Make 3 more triangles in same manner. Repeat with remaining phyllo and filling. Generously brush both sides of each samosa with butter and bake, turning samosas over halfway through and switching position of sheets, until golden and crisp all over, about 25 minutes total. Cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

perhaps an explanation?

Do you notice how this seasonal-food-map of the United States has New York City listed as being 'dormant' in the winter time? Perhaps my months of February and March simply fell victim to the happenstance of my geography and that explains why I've been void for weeks.

That said -- recipes coming soon!

happy easter

sorry that i've been gone

the spice of life

"Cardamom will solve all problems," I said to my co-worker on Thursday afternoon, not in jest. "Cardamom can do it!" is my new mantra. Not only is it a spice favored globally in dishes both sweet and savory, but it's also a medicinal supplement capable of combatting everything from gum disease to lung infection. Cardamom also, conveniently enough, tastes really good, with its success in a dish being akin to its ultimate subtly. It never overpowers and always enhances, the perfect bridesmaid if there ever was one. I now turn to cardamon as the finishing touch for any dish deemed lacking 'just that something'. As a result, the spice has made a cameo appearance in a wild variety of my most recent recipes, most notably some chocolate covered sugar cookies (coming soon) and these: rosemary cheddar biscuits.



The recipe was originally inspired by Kristin at Our Kitchen Sink, who wrote of some plain cream biscuits featured in Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food. The biscuits made by this recipe are perfect, period. I added the fresh rosemary on a whim because I had it, followed shortly by the cheddar and ever essential cardamom. The result was a product I demand that every single person reading this post (you know who you are--all four of you) make immediately. Please!

You Will Need:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbls cardamom
6 tbls cold butter, cut into pieces
2 tbls fresh rosemary, chopped roughly
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, finely grated
3/4 cups heavy cream

To Make:

Preheat the oven to 400F. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cardamom in a large bowl: Sift gently. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender until the mixture forms doughy balls about the size of small peas. Add the rosemary and the cheddar cheese. Mix. Set aside 1 tbls of the heavy cream. Sti the remainder into the flour/cheese mixture, stirring with a fork until it all begins to hold together. Lightly knead the dough a few times, turning it over in the bowl, then roll it onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough until it is about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into circles/hearts/cowboy hats (whatever your heart desires) until all the dough has been used. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and lightly brush the tops with the leftover cream. Bake for 17 minutes until totally, absolutely, purely delicious. Enjoy immediately.











Warning: consumption of heart-shaped biscuits may result in overt displays of adorable affection:

packages that care & banana bread

(photo by Julia F.)

I know a girl named Julia and she takes care of me. In college, the front porch of her apartment would suffer the regular collisions of my bike tire as I catapulted myself through her front door and unceremoniously into the middle of whatever she was doing. She was a master of the "Oh Cassie" eye-roll-and-sigh combination.....you know the one. It was a simultaneous acceptance of and preparation for whatever disaster I was about to inadvertantly wreak upon the normal and manageable rhythm of her life. ( If you know me, you perform it on a twice a day basis at LEAST. )

But Julia was the best at it, so it goes without saying that I owe her one. She recently moved to Kansas City and I decided that I would craft her the ultimate-special-wonderful-care-package-of-joy. Inspiration came by way of the million years old Moosewood Cookbook that has been the cornerstone of my cooking since I was too small to even see above the countertop. I knew as soon as I saw this:



that i had found the magical, integral centerpiece to my care package. Oh, Moosewood. How I love thee.

Moosewood Cookbook Banana Bread

FIRST:

1.5 cups melted butter
1 3/4 cup brown sugar (or 1 1/2 cups honey)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Grated rind of 1 orange

TO MAKE: Beat these ingredients in large bowl, beginning with sugar or honey and butter, add eggs one-at-a-time. Add remaining ingredients, and beat until light in color.

NEXT:

2 cups whole wheat flower
2 cups white flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups well-mashed , ripe banana
soaked in
1 cup strong, black coffee

TO MAKE:

Add flour mixture and banana stuff alternately to the butter mixture, beginning
and ending with flour (flour-banana-flour-banana-flour). After each addition mix gently to combine, but do not beat
or otherwise overmix--this toughens and dries a cake. Add nuts and raisins last if you want them. Generously butter 2
loaf pans and sprinkle with sesame seeds (they'll stick to the butter). Divide batter and bake at 350 F. for 40-50
minutes or until done. Cool 10 minutes in the pan then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

all the world an oyster

I'm not minding this winter so much. Last year things were a little bleak, I got a little sad, etc. Not this year! Not for me. There ain't no cure for the summertime blues, but there is a very, very tried and true cure for seasonal depression: soup (or stew, in this case). The purest distillation of sweet comforts.

Oyster-Mushroom & Split Pea "Stew"

You Will Need:

1/2 pound oyster mushrooms
1 cup split peas
2-3 cups stock
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 tbs olive oil
Salt/Pepper To Taste

To Make: Warm the tablespoon of olive oil over med-high heat and then throw in the onion and mushrooms--cook them up for just a few minutes until they start to smell real good and brown at the edges. Remove from heat. Bring splits peas and stock to a boil in a large pot, then simmer. Let cook for about ten minutes, then add carrot, onion, and mushrooms. Let the whole concoction simmer while you taste and balance the flavors, add salt and pepper as you see fit. Cook, cook, cook. Eat, eat, eat.

(Ideally, this recipe would be pureed prior to adding the mushroom, but I am unfortunately lacking such equipment in my current situation.)





It's so pretty! How could I resist it?