TWD: Summer Fruit Galette

If you are a faithful follower of Tuesdays with Dorie then I'm sure you have already seen a ton of galettes this week. My reasons are legitimate and I do apologize for being late. It is really hard to get settled again after moving. Of course, life doesn't ever slow down enough for you to make a major move without feeling some stress. I have dealt with too much stress recently and though I wish I could say life is going to slow down it just isn't going to slow down right now.

I did manage to make this delicious treat on time. I had a lot of trouble with my crust this time. I was rushing and just didn't take the time to let it rest enough. Thankfully, this is supposed to be rustic and not pretty so all worked out in the end.

I had a rough time blanching the peaches. I think they may have been a little too ripe. But no worries, Dorie's 8 peaches is more than enough to fill the galette. I paired the peaches with some homemade red raspberry jam. It was amazing!

Thank you to Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs for selecting such a fabulous treat for a very stressful week!


And as promised...pictures of my new kitchen!

TWD: Coming to a Blog Near You...

Tomorrow! Sorry, I'm falling asleep trying to type. Please come back to see my summer fruit galette and pictures of my new kitchen!

TWD: Chocolate Pudding

The bowl says "Somebunny needs a treat" and somebunny ate one! I did take a picture with the bowl full however, my pictures were just bad.

This week's recipe was selected by Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen. I was super excited to make this recipe for a couple of reasons.
1. My husband loves pudding.
2. I have never made pudding before and I've been wanting to make it from scratch (see #1).
3. I am in the process of moving and this looked easy.

Well, I can tell you that this is super easy. Having never made pudding before I wasn't sure how complicated the process was going to be. Dorie's instructions say to use a food processor however, I don't have one big enough. I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the whisk attachment and it came out perfect.

The pudding was amazing. I will be making this again!

If you need a visual of the pudding, check out the blogroll at TWD. Thanks Melissa!


P.S. I won't be around for next week. This weekend is the big move and I don't anticipate my kitchen to be up and running by Tuesday. When I return, I will have pictures of my new kitchen, its bigger and better. I can't wait!!

TWD: Double Crusted Blueberry Pie

I'm am posting this super fast because I'm heading out the door for a business trip. This week's recipe was chosen for us by Amy of South in Your Mouth. The original recipe was for a blueberry pie and though I've recently learned to almost like eating cooked fruit, cooked blueberries are still a problem for me. I know I'm weird I can't help it. And my husband does not like blueberries at all.

Fighting the urge to skip this week's recipe all together, I remembered a bag of frozen raspberries left over from our mixed cobbler a couple weeks ago. The crust came together very easily for me which I was surprised by since I have never made pie crust before. Dorie's explanation and tips lead me all the way to a fabulous flaky and buttery crust. I did forget to put the breadcrumbs at the bottom of the pie but mine came out great anyway. I loved this pie. The crust was amazing and the fruit was sweet with a zing of lemon! Another winner in my book!

For actual blueberry pies, check out our blogroll at TWD.

TWD: Apple Cheddar Scones

I can't believe its July already and its another Tuesday. My summer has been a whirlwind of activity and it sure isn't going to calm down in the near future. I was super excited about this week's recipe. I have never made scones before but I love them so I was excited to try them on my own. The best things about TWD are learning new things, new techniques, new flavors, meeting new people and stepping outside of my comfort zone.

These scones came together very easily. Though the dough is super sticky, they are worth all the mess. The cornmeal was a little odd to me but it added another layer of texture that really worked great.



Since I had never made scones before I wanted to try a variety of flavors. Trying to stay within budget and use what was in my pantry I settled on milk chocolate chips and dried cherries. I loved the apple cheddar combination; sweet and salty is one of my favorites. I opted for fresh granny smith apples instead of dried apples and it worked perfectly. The chocolate scone and the cherry scone were also great but missing a little something. Next time I'll try the combo together or add another flavor to tie them in. The chocolate was a tiny bit dry. The cherry scone was also the same way but I didn't put enough cherries in either.



I will definitely be making these again. Thank you to Karina from The Floured Apron for this week's selection. And don't forget to visit the blogroll at Tuesdays with Dorie for more fabulous scones.

TWD: Mixed Berry Cobbler

This week our TWD host was Beth from Our Sweet Life. She chose a perfect summer dessert. However, Dorie threw in a twist! A mixed berry cobbler with frozen berries. I have to say I was surprised when Dorie recommended them. Fresh berries were an option if we so chose but I'm a picky eater sometimes. I don't like cooked fruit. I'm a texture eater and for those of you who share that with me, you understand what I mean. There are certain foods that I just can't eat based on texture. I make one exception when it comes to cooked fruit, my grandma's apple pie. Other than that, if the fruit is cooked and mushy I won't eat it.

Enough about my eating issues because this week's recipe changed that for me. I found frozen berries at Target and for what I considered to be inexpensive. I chose a bag each of mixed berries, raspberries and blackberries. Once cooked, these berries did not lose their structure. They were not mushy! I couldn't believe it.

The recipe came together very quickly. On the recommendation from fellow bakers who baked before me this week, I added cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla to the crust for flavor. It was perfect. My husband loved the crust too.

I was tempted to skip out this week but I'm really glad I pushed myself to try something new. To see more fabulous looking cobblers visit our TWD blogroll.

TWD: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

To say that I was nervous about this week's recipe is an understatement. I was terrified! Pate a choux??? I couldn't even pronounce it. However, Caroline of A Consuming Passion chose this recipe with that very thought in mind. Trying something new.


Putting my best foot forward I started this week's recipe. I chose to make 1/4 of the recipe just in case I did manage to pull it off I didn't want dozens of cream puffs around for me to eat. I actually didn't have any trouble with the pastry. It cooked nicely. I followed other recommendations to let it cool a bit before adding the egg and that worked great. I piped out 7 little éclairs and a mini cream puff. I didn't think about the baking time before I put them in so I ended up cooking mine at 425 for 15 minutes and they were done. They did come out slightly lopsided though.


My vanilla pastry cream did not come together quite so easily. I am still not exactly sure what went wrong. I tempered the eggs, I'm pretty sure I brought it to a boil and cooked it a bit longer. It looked like a pastry cream at this point. Then, I let it cool for 5 minutes before adding the butter like Dorie says and that's when it turned into scrambled eggs. It didn't taste bad but the texture was not creamy at all. I think I must have overcooked the cream. I'm not one to be defeated so I will try this again but I ran out of time for this week.

I didn't use Dorie's chocolate glaze recipe. I was going to but tried to take a shortcut by putting it in the microwave and I burned it. I just melted some milk chocolate chips with a little milk and then dipped the éclairs in.

My husband enjoyed the éclairs and I'm glad I attempted this recipe. To see much more fabulous looking cream puffs and the original cream puff ring, please visit our TWD blogroll.

MasterBaker: Vanilla

I realize that this post is way overdue and I don't really have an excuse. Well, I do but I'm sure you don't really want to hear them. However, since the roundup still isn't posted I figured I still had time. That and I really loved this recipe. And although it is posted very late, I did make this on time!

The master baker ingredient was vanilla and since I had never used real vanilla beans before I wanted to give it a try. I've heard rave reviews about vanilla beans. Someday I will become adventurous enough to make my own vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Vanilla is one of my favorite flavors.


I decided to make vanilla bean angel food cake with a fruit salsa. I didn't have a very much success with the angel food cake. I have a mini-bundt cake pan with designs on the top. You can see in the picture above how well that turned out.


Since, I don't have a regular sized bundt pan, I put the remaining batter in my springform pan. It certainly didn't rise very much. It ended up being a dense little cake. I learned that angel food cake can only be made in a regular size bundt cake pan.

Despite the appearance, it tasted fantastic!! And the fruit salsa on top was amazing!!


Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake
Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 (2-inch) piece vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 cup sifted cake flour (about 4 ounces)
12 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice


Directions
Preheat oven to 325°.

Place 3/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, and add seeds to sugar; discard bean. Work the vanilla seeds into sugar with fingers until well combined.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and sugar mixture, stirring with a whisk to combine.

Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form. Add remaining 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Beat in juice. Sift flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time; fold in after each addition.

Spoon the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Invert pan; cool completely. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula. Invert cake onto plate.

Fruit Salsa
Source: Cooks Illustrated via All Things Mimi

Ingredients
2 T. apple jelly
2 T. light brown sugar
1/4 c. orange juice
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and minced
2 granny smith apples, cored, peeled and chopped fine
1 pint strawberries, hulled and chopped fine
3 kiwis peeled and chopped fine

Directions
Whisk jelly, brown sugar, orange juice and chile together in a large bowl. Add apples, strawberries and kiwi and toss to coat.

VTV: Freestyle=Eggplant

This week's vegetable was up to us! Since I missed eggplant week I thought I would go back and revisit that vegetable.

Eggplant is something I don't really remember eating as a child. I think my mom stuck to the basic in order to please 5 children.

One of my favorite ways to eat eggplant is parmigiana style. I found this recipe while watching a Tyler Florence episode in which he searched the world for eggplant dishes. He visited a charming woman in Sicily, Anna Tasca Lanza. I decided to give it a try. It is fantastic! I chose to grill the eggplant instead of frying them so I felt like it was a healthy version of eggplant parmigiana.



Involtine di Melanzane con Capelli d'Angelo
Recipe courtesy Anna Tasca Lanza via foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
3 eggplants
2 cups olive oil, to fry the eggplants
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Pinch sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 fresh basil leaves, roughly shredded
1/4 pound angel hair pasta, or spaghetti
1 cup tomato sauce, or passata
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons caciocavallo cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut off the bottoms and stems of the eggplants. Peel them using a vegetable peeler and slice them into 1/2-inch slices.

In a heavy bottomed pan heat some olive oil and fry the eggplant slices for about 4 to 5 minutes (if you prefer a healthier version of the dish, you can grill the eggplants). Place the cooked slices on some paper towels to drain any excess oil.

In a large bowl combine the butter, freshly grated Parmesan, and salt, to taste. Add the roughly shredded fresh basil leaves.

Place the angel hair pasta or spaghetti into a pan of boiling water, bring back to the boil and cook until al dente. Drain.

Add the cooked pasta into the big bowl with the butter mixture and combine.

Take a small portion of the pasta and place it on top of an eggplant slice. Roll the eggplant around the pasta and place it in an oven-proof dish. Repeat this process with all the eggplants slices.

Pour some pureed tomato sauce, or passata, over the eggplant rolls. Place slices of cacioavallo on the top. Finally cover the dish with more freshly grated Parmesan.

Place the dish in oven for around 20 minutes, or until sauce is bubbly.

Yields 4 to 6 servings.



Side Note: Does anyone know how to make the VTV logo smaller for my sidebar??

TWD: La Palette's Strawberry Tart

Super apologies for my lateness!!! My excuses are as follows...

Thursday through Tuesday's temperatures exceeded 95 degrees in NYC.
Only the bedroom of my apartment has A/C (I actually put the tart dough into the pans in my bedroom using a TV tray)
Thus, you can conclude I am a dedicated TWD baker for turning on my oven in these conditions.


I had grand ideas for these little tarts! One day soon (I hope) I will execute my ideas. For now, I bring the original recipe with strawberry jam and strawberries (my favorite, so far) and black raspberry jam with raspberries (a little too sweet). I loved the tart (and so did my husband!) even though mine wasn't crumbly because the butter was melting as I was cutting it into the dry ingredients!


In conclusion, I am very happy I braved the heat to turn on my oven because these tarts were fabulous!

Thank you to Marie from A Year From Oak Cottage for hosting this week!
See other amazing tarts on the TWD blogroll.

TWD...

This week's recipe is coming, I promise! Come back tomorrow evening, please :)

TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

My husband's rehearsals are often where I send my baked goods so they don't stay in the house for us to eat. This week was perfect because they were having dinner together in between rehearsal and their show so I offered to bring dessert. I, of course, was running a bit late so the brownies were barely out of the oven before I had to leave. I figured I would just have to settle for cell phone pictures. My husband posed for me while eating a brownie. Check him out at the bottom. Luckily, the group is small so I was able to bring a couple home and got a good picture.

I really enjoyed making these brownies! I love the way the top crackled and the fruit...oh, it was just fabulous. I am not a drinker of any kind but on occasion I enjoy a good beverage. My favorite drink is an amaretto sour. What can I say, I like the sweet drinks. That said, the only alcohol in my pantry is amaretto. I paired that with dried cherries and lets just say that I should have doubled that part of the recipe for all the cherries I ate before I mixed them in! I didn't get a flame when I tried to ignite the cherries. I think I burned off the alcohol too quickly.

Thank you to Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook for a wonderful selection! Check out the TWD blogroll for more fabulous looking brownies!

French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) I didn't chose this option
1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden I made my own option here and used dried cherries
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum There is no rum in my pantry but there was amaretto!
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped I used semi-sweet chocolate
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

My Month of May

I can't believe how fast the month of May has flown by. Jake and I had a super crazy and super fun month. With our schedule, I did very little cooking and when I did cook it was our favorite go-to recipes. I also missed another Tuesday. This week's recipe was Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. Madam Chow was our host. Check out her blog as well as the TWD blog to see the wonderful goodies that were made. I will be making this in the future and I will be returning next week!

Now for a slide show of the fun things we did this month...

Mother's Day weekend we traveled back to Syracuse for oodles of celebrations.
My sister-in-law's bridal shower. We were slightly hesitant about the weather but in the end bad weather held off and we had a beautiful day!


The day of the shower was also my mother-in-law's birthday! It was a milestone birthday for her but a lady never reveals her age! Isn't she beautiful :)

On the same day (yup, 3 events in one day!) my own mom graduated from Syracuse University with her bachelor's degree. She went back to school a couple years ago and she has worked very hard. I'm so proud of her!
I couldn't be at the actual ceremony because of the shower so my husband made sure she didn't take her gown off so I could see her and we could take a picture together as soon as she got home!




Through all the celebrations I managed to sneak in a baseball game to see my little brother in action!


And a weekend back to Syracuse wouldn't be complete without spending time with my sister and my niece! Aren't they beautiful!



The following weekend we had visitors back in NYC. My best friend and her husband made NYC a stop during their vacation. We had a great time.


Taken from the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) with the Empire State building in the back.



Memorial Day weekend we traveled back to Syracuse again!!
The celebration this weekend was the marriage of our wonderful, Beth and her now husband Mike. Jake and Beth (#2) taught at the same school together and co-produced two musicals during their time at the school. And, no Jake is not standing on the wrong side, he was a bridesman. Congrats, Beth and Mike!


We also got a chance to spend time with some other very close friends!
This is us with Colin, son of our friends Sam and Tim. Look at that face!



This is the whole gang minus Sam and Colin (it was his bed time!)


The Lovelies, friends since high school and beyond.


And more time with Braelyn...she loves her Uncle Jake!

TWD: Quintuple Chocolate Brownies

Its Tuesday again!!

I just want to apologize if you came last week looking for a Florida Pie. It just didn't come together for me last week. Our host was Dianne of Dianne's Dishes. Please go check out her Florida Pie!

This week's recipe was actually Madeleines chosen by Tara of Smells Like Home. At some point I will attempt to make these but I couldn't justify another pan for this week's recipe. Also, in preparation for moving this summer, we are trying to be frugal with our budget. Therefore, when the option was presented to chose a recipe from the list of completed recipes, I went looking for one to use ingredients already on my shelf. I was successful!

Apprently, I am a bit addicted to chocolate as I had all five types (or something similar) on my pantry shelf. These brownies were very easy to put together. I thought they were fantastic! As did my husband and friends that were visiting for the weekend. Not a crumb was left behind!



Quintuple Chocolate Brownies
Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours
Photo: my kitchen

Ingredients

For the Brownies:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semisweet chocolate chips)
2 tablespoons strong coffee (I omitted)
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 ounces premium quality milk chocolate, chopped into chips, or 1 cup store bought milk chocolate chips (I used some leftover Easter candy-Gertrude Hawk candy bars!-1 milk chocolate with almonds bar and 1 dark chocolate bar)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used a mixture of pecans, walnuts and the almonds from the candy bar)

For the Glaze:
6 ounces premium quality white chocolate, finely chopped or 1 cup store bought white chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy cream
(I poured in a splash of raspberry syrup)

Getting Ready
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9-inch (I used and 8-inch) square baking pan with foil, butter the foil and place the pan on a baking sheet.
Sift together the flour, cocoa and salt.

To Make the Brownies
Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and add, in the following order, the butter, the two chocolates and the coffee. Keeping the pan over low heat, warm just until the butter and chocolates are melted-you don't want the ingredients to get so hot they separate, so keep an eye on the bowl. Stir gently, and when the mixture is smooth, set it aside for 5 minutes.
Using a whisk or a rubber spatula, beat the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Don't beat too vigorously-you don't want to add air to the batter-and don't be concerned about graininess. Next, stir in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. You should have a smooth, glossy batter. If you're not already using a rubber spatula, switch to one now and gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. Finally, stir in the milk chocolate chips and the nuts. Scrap the batter into the pan.
Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out streaked but not thickly coated. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the brownies rest undisturbed for at least 30 minutes. (You can wait longer, if you'd like.)
Turn the brownies out onto a rack, peel away the foil and place it under another rack-the foil becomes the drip catcher for the glaze. Invert the brownies onto the rack and let cool completely.

To Make the Glaze
Put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate. Wait 30 seconds, then, using a rubber spatula, gently stir until the chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth.
Hold a longer metal icing spatula in one hand and the bowl of glaze in the other. Pour the glaze onto the center of the brownies and using the spatula to nudge it evenly over the surface. Don't worry if it dribbles over the edges, you can trim the sides later (or not). Refrigerate the brownies for about 20 minutes to dry the glaze.
Cut into 16 squares, each roughly 2 1/4 inches on a side.

Serving
Serve straight up-whipped cream or ice cream is unnecessary with these. Well, a little ice cream is nice-why not?

Storing
The brownies can be put back into their baking pan, wrapping (without touching the glaze) and kept at room temperature for about 3 days or frozen-glaze and all-for up to 2 months.

TWD: Peanut Butter Torte

This week's TWD recipe was chosen by Elizabeth at Ugg Smell Food. Thank you to Elizabeth for selecting a great recipe.

I have to say I was very excited about making this. Of course, the name alone had me trying to think of where I was going to send this baked good. There was no way that the hubs and I were going to eat this by ourselves. My husband later stated, "I would eat the whole thing by myself in one sitting." A very reliable TWD source calculated that the whole torte is 208 WW points!! That left me with only 1 person who could afford to eat 208 WW points and probably not gain a single pound. I will update with reviews later as he doesn't know its coming to his house yet!

In the end I didn't love this recipe. Yes, I would probably make it again but with a few modifications. You see, my husband became very impatient on Sunday while I was making this and even before I started. At one point towards the end, he stood with his hands on his hips asking, "Can't we eat it YET?!" So, he was my kitchen assistant for this recipe.

He chose to for us to use crunchy peanut butter (I would have preferred smooth) and had I been making it alone I would have omitted the espresso powder because I don't like coffee. Truth be told I couldn't taste it in the end which honestly surprised me. The recipe uses bittersweet chocolate for the ganache and I thought it was a little too bitter. The whole torte was just a little too rich for me. However, I am not sorry I made it and neither is my husband!

Check out the other tortes at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Peanut Butter Torte

Ingredients

1 1/4 c. finely chopped salted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder (or finely ground instant coffee)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender (I think I ended up using a total of 30 cookies)
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 1/2 c. heavy cream
1 1/4 c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 c salted peanut butter – crunchy or smooth (not natural; I use Skippy)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Getting ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Toss ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chops together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Put the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Crape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you have one, or continue with the hand mixer, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, ¼ cup of the chopped peanuts and the milk.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To Finish the Torte:

Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.

Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and , working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.

When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Storing: Well covered, the torte will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 days; just make sure to keep it away from foods with strong odors.

VTV: Asparagus

This week's Vindicate the Vegetable is Asparagus! This happens to already be one of our favorites. I don't remember always liking asparagus or maybe I'd never had the opportunity to try it until a couple years ago. It grows wild on my grandma's farm. She steamed it for dinner one night and with some cheese on top, I was hooked. I still love to eat it that way.

Recently, I saw on one of the many blogs I read that someone had roasted asparagus in the oven. This is my new favorite way to eat it. We spray the pan with cooking spray, salt and pepper the asparagus and cook until fork tender.

So, I was excited for this week to find something new to do with asparagus. I found a weight watchers pasta recipe and adapted it. This came out amazing and will most certainly be seen again in my kitchen.

I doubled the sauce part of the recipe and thought it came out great. I also just roasted the asparagus and added it into the pasta with the cream sauce. If you stick to the original weight watchers recipe this recipe makes 6 servings and each serving is only 6 points. Obviously, doubling the cream part and adding asparagus changes that. But, I still felt like it was a healthy meal.


Pasta and Asparagus with Creamy Spinach Sauce
Source: Weight Watchers Recipes (my changes in blue)
Photo: my kitchen


Ingredients

1 lb pasta (penne or ziti) I used a long curly spaghetti like pasta
1 lb fresh spinach, stemmed
1 cup low fat cottage cheese 2 cups
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup
1/4 cup low fat milk 1/2 cup
1 pinch ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon
1-2 garlic cloves (optional) 2 cloves
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 lb roasted asparagus

Preparation
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Add the spinach and 1 tablespoon salt; cook for about 1 minute.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove the spinach (reserve the water for the pasta) and transfer it to a bowl of cold water.
4. Drain and squeeze dry the spinach.
5. Chop it coarsely.
6. Bring the spinach water back to a boil. Meanwhile, in food processor fitted with steel blade, mince the garlic (if using).
7. Add the cottage cheese and blend until fairly smooth.
8. Add the cooked spinach and milk, and blend until smooth.
9. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a shallow serving bowl.
10. Add the pasta to the boiling water, stirring to prevent sticking.
11. Cook the pasta until just tender (about 10 minutes or according to the instructions); drain well.
12. Add the pasta to the bowl with the spinach sauce and asparagus, and toss to coat.
13. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and toss again.
14. Serve hot.

Gilled Chicken Caesar Pizza

When Jake and I were dating we used to have movie night. It was one night during the week dedicated to us. On occasion we would shift the night for a commitment but if we could help it, Thursday nights were spent usually having dinner and watching a movie. Ultimately it was quality time for the 2 of us. Now that we're married, we still plan a special date night but since we now live together we feel like we get a lot of quality time together.

This past week presented itself with a need for a special night. One of our movie nights included Jake making Grilled Pizza. We loved it then and haven't made it since. We thought we would try to recreate since we can't remember where the recipe came from.

Grilled Chicken Caesar Pizza
source: us
photo: our kitchen


Ingredients

Pizza dough
Caesar dressing (recipe to follow)
2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
mozzarella cheese
romaine lettuce
tomotos
cucumbers


Directions

Roll out pizza dough on a well floured surface. Carefully move pizza dough to the rack of a grill. Note: if using an inside grill pan on the stove, be sure to ventilate the area very well as the excess flour from the pizza dough will burn quickly.
Grill the dough on both sides. You'll know when its done by the grill marks but it only takes a few minutes on each side.
Once the dough is done, move to a baking sheet.
Spread on a layer of Caesar dressing. Top with chopped chicken and mozzarella cheese.
Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted.
Top with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and additional Caesar dressing.
Enjoy!


We wanted to make our own Caesar dressing for this meal and let me just say, I will never buy Caesar dressing again. This is amazing!!

Caesar Dressing
source: cooks.com

1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon milk

Mix all ingredients together and shake or whisk until well blended.