Thanks everyone for participating in the McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Giveaway contest.  It has by far been the most successful contest I’ve had on my blog to date.  If you didn’t win, please don’t be sad – there will be a few more contests coming up in the near future.  If you’d like, I can package up some of the extra snow here in New Jersey and ship it to you as a consolation prize.

Before I mention the winners of this contest, I’d like to talk about two quick things:

1. If you like baking or looking at baked goods on the interwebz, my friend Jill’s new blog, I Blog What I Bake, is up and running.  Her first post is about a Chocolate Snowball Cake.  I bet if you’re super nice to her that she will send you one.
2. If you like Pinkberry, then you should checkout this link.  Buy one yogurt, get one free. And honestly, who doesn’t like Pinkberry.

Okay, thanks for being such good listeners.  Here are the two winners of the McCormick & Schmick’s gift certificates.  If your name is called, please email me at matt@iblogwhatieat.com.

• Miss Kimberly Dowd
• Miss Willa Yeh

Whether you hate or love Valentine’s Day (the holiday, not the movie), it really doesn’t matter.  I’ve learned from experience that if you’re a guy with a significant other, you better arrange something for that stupid holiday or be ready to face some unpleasant consequences.

What’s that?  You’re like me and didn’t plan anything because you quit your job for an awesome start-up company and you have no idea when the next time is that you’ll be getting paid?  Well, whatever your reason for slacking is (and I’m sure it’s something good), let me try to help you out.

Liz over at Fleishman-Hillard was kind enough to hook us up with two separate $25 dollar gift certificates for McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood to give away.  Winning this time will be easy.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post and your name will be entered one time.  If you RT my Tweet on Twitter about this post, your name will be entered an additional time.  If you link to this contest on a Facebook wall (any way, I don’t care who it belongs to) or Google Buzz it and let me know, then I’ll enter your name an additional time as well.  If you mention it on your own blog or website, then I’ll enter your name an additional 3 times.  I’ll randomly pick two names at the end of the day tomorrow.

If you’re interested, here is some information regarding McCormick & Schmick’s Valentine’s Day Weekend special that I promised to include:

This year, make McCormick & Schmick’s your one stop shop for dinner, flowers and personalized notes – all in one place! McCormick & Schmick’s is offering an “above and beyond” service to any guest who makes a reservation for Valentine’s Day. Here’s how:

• The restaurant can provide roses to be delivered to the guests table upon their arrival for dinner. Prices and exact flower arrangements vary by location, but each restaurant will be offering roses in some way. Guests will be able to have the cost included on their dinner bill or billed separately.
• Additionally, McCormick & Schmick’s will be offering guests an opportunity to have a special personalized message included on their dinner menu or a personalized note card on the table.
• This special menu and offer will be available from Friday, February 12 to Sunday, February 14th.

Set the Mood
Pan Fried Oysters Rockefeller
Style On a bed of anise-flavored creamy spinach, glazed with hollandaise
8.95

Create The Perfect Pair
Soup or Mixed Green Salad
~
Choose Filet Mignon or Lobster Tail
and
Choose a Crab Cake, Grilled Filet of Salmon or Skewer of Shrimp
~
Seasonal Vegetables
29.95

Delectable Desserts
Sweetheart’s Crème Brulée
Chocolate Silk Pie
6.95 each

Good luck and Happy Valentine’s Day!

The iblog crew decided that it was finally time for us to suck it up and do a dumpling crawl through NYC’s Chinatown in hopes of finding the best dumplings in New York.  In case you are curious, the eaters of this crawl were: Margaret, Eric, Yin, Weffen, Steve, and Paul.

What did we judge them on?  The dumplings were judged on three things: the wrapper, inside filling, and overall freshness.  While obviously the whole process is a bit subjective, we were all able to come to an absolute conclusion of which dumplings were the best and which were the worst.  You could argue the ones in the middle, but what’s the point – just go eat the good ones.

The following (in alphabetical order) are the 9 dumpling houses / restaurants in Chinatown that we went to on our dumpling crawl.  As was the case with the cupcakes, this list may be amended in the near future to include any places we may have missed.  If you know of a places that we NEED to go to, please leave a note in the comments section or send me a message.

• Dumplings (Finest Dumpling Restaurant) – 25B Henry Street (near Catherine), New York, NY
• Excellent Dumpling House – 111 Lafayette Street (near Canal), New York, NY
  
• Fried Dumpling House – 106 Mosco Street (near Mulberry), New York, NY
  
• Fu Zhou Cuisine – 118 Eldridge Street (near Broome), New York, NY
• Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling – 144 E Broadway (near Pike), New York, NY
  
• China North Dumpling – 27a Essex St. (near Hester), New York, NY
  
• Prosperity Dumpling House – 46 Eldridge Street (near Hester), New York, NY
• Tasty Dumpling House – 54 Mulberry Street (near Bayard), New York, NY
• Vanessa’s Dumplings (Dumpling House) – 118 Eldridge Street (near Broome), New York, NY

Here it is – the list of the best dumplings in New York (NYC), as per our NYC Dumpling Crawl, in reverse order:

#9 – Dumplings (Finest Dumpling Restaurant) - “the only thing worse than bad dumplings is no dumplings – Paul”

During the dumpling crawl I used the Notes app on my iPhone to take down notes at each Dumpling shop we went to trying to capture everyone’s immediate reactions and gather their feedback.  The only thing that I wrote down for Dumpling is ‘WTF’.

While it’s quite possible that the dumplings at Dumplings weren’t the worst of the worst, the lady that was working there was ridiculously rude.  We originally ordered one plate of fried dumplings and another of boiled dumplings.  As shown below, she obviously decided she didn’t want to boil any new dumplings for us and gave us a plate of pork buns instead.  Then Yin (who speaks Chinese) tried to order another plate of boiled dumplings a few minutes later.  The lady refused to make them for her saying that she didn’t have any left, even though it was quite clear there were plenty.  Lame.

In terms of where Dumplings falls in the rankings,Paul said it best when he said, “the only thing worse than bad dumplings is no dumplings.”  In case you were curious, the fried dumplings we did get weren’t very good either.  They were stuck together and the texture of the wrapper overwhelmed the filling.

fried dumplings at Dumplings (Finest Dumpling Restaurant) on Henry Street

China North Dumpling on Essex Street in NYC

#8 – China North Dumpling - “these dumplings taste like sh*t – Weffen”

I think that quote from Weffen says it all.

Honestly, I think that China North Dumpling was the most disappointing to me.  I read quite a few reviews on the Internet that made this place seem like it was some sort of hidden gem on the outskirts of Chinatown.  The dumplings there were just terrible though.  The wrappers tasted like paper, the filling was bland, and the boiled dumplings were watery.

fried dumplings at China North Dumpling on Essex Street in NYC

boiled dumplings at China North Dumpling on Essex Street in NYC

Fried Dumpling House on Mosco Street in NYC

#7 – Fried Dumpling House

We quickly discovered that the Fried Dumpling House was true to its name and only served fried dumplings.  The Fried Dumpling House was an interesting little place tucked in a semi-hidden area on Mosco Street in Chinatown.  While the dumplings there were average, the ladies working there were quite nice.

I’m not sure if the pictures below adequately show it, but the dumplings there were a bit overcooked.  Additionally, the wrapper was thicker than you’d expect and was surprisingly greasy.  As for the dumpling filling, it felt as if something was missing that left you feeling unfulfilled.  Margaret voiced that she disliked this place while Weffen felt it was middle tier at best.

lots of fried dumplings and pork buns at Fried Dumpling House on Mosco Street in NYC

close-up of the fried dumplings at Fried Dumpling House on Mosco Street in NYC

close-up of the boiled dumplings at Fried Dumpling House on Mosco Street in NYC

#6 – Fu Zhou Cuisine

Fu Zhou Cuisine was an interesting experience.

Not one of the employees there spoke English, which made ordering a not-so-great experience.  In the end we ended up with some dumplings, though they weren’t exactly what we were hoping for.

Fu Zhou’s dumplings had a nice, thin wrapper and a fresh inside filling.  I don’t know if you care, but Paul said that he detected that Fu Zhou uses a bit too much MSG which turned him off of their dumplings. To me the dumplings were decent overall, so we decided that placing them sixth on this list is fair.

Fu Zhou Cuisine on Eldridge Street in NYC

boiled dumplings at Fu Zhou Cuisine on Eldridge Street in NYC

#5 – Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling

Out of the 9 places that we tried during this dumpling crawl, Lan Zhou had the most mixed reviews.  While Yin said their dumplings were just “okay” and that it was their noodles that were amazing, Paul and Weffen felt as if the dumplings were better than a lot of the other places.

Lan Zhou’s dumplings had a nice thin wrapper and a tasty inside filling.  A couple people complained, however, that the inside filling was a bit too salty for their tastes.  Lan Zhou gets extra props for having a tastier sauce.

Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling on E Broadway (near Pike), New York, NY

sign outside Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling

Paul fixing up some fried dumplings at Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling

fried dumplings at Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling

#4 – Excellent Dumpling House

The dumplings at the Excellent Dumpling House were the definitive middle of the road dumplings.  While the majority of those involved said that the fried dumplings were decent, the other dumplings that we ordered there were just edible.

I don’t know how, but the middle of a dumpling came out onto the plate while Weffen was eating.  Yin took one look at it and said that it was Americanized.  You can interpret that however you’d like.  To me, this place is somewhere between a C+ and a B-.

Excellent Dumpling House on Lafayette Street, New York, NY

fried dumplings at Excellent Dumpling House on Lafayette Street, New York, NY

seafood dumpling soup at Excellent Dumpling House

soup dumplings at Excellent Dumpling House

#3 – Vanessa’s Dumplings (Dumpling House)

The night before the planned event, the dumpling crawlers and I decided to take a trip down to Chinatown and try out Vanessa’s Dumplings.  As you can see below, we ended up ordering some dumplings and a few additional items.  While we’re obviously only judging their dumplings in this post, I thought I’d include the other pictures in case you were interested in eating there.

The dumplings at Vanessa’s were good, just not jump out of your seat fantastic.  I personally thought that the filling was good, however, the dumpling wrapper was just meh.  A bit too thick maybe.

Just a warning – Vanessa’s Dumplings gets very busy at night, and it’s quite difficult to land a table if you want to stay there to eat.  Also, be sure to keep your belongings close to you.  Paul had his bag stolen from him while he was eating there.

Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House) on Eldridge Street, New York, NY

food order from Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House)

cucumbers from Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House)

bok choy from Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House)

pork buns from Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House)

pork wonton soup from Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House)

dumplings from Vanessa's Dumplings (Dumpling House)

#2 – Tasty Dumpling House

Tasty Dumpling House is a really close number two.  Their dumplings were generously filled and were freshly prepared when we arrived.  The only critique of the dumplings at the Tasty Dumpling House was that the wrapper of the boiled dumplings was a bit thick.  The fried dumplings at this restaurant were outstanding though.

It’s worth noting that the Tasty Dumpling House had a fairly more extensive menu of choices than some of the other dumpling joints.  If you’re going out to eat with someone who is picky, this place might be a good location for you.

Tasty Dumpling House on Mulberry Street, New York, NY

fried dumplings from Tasty Dumpling House

boiled dumplings from Tasty Dumpling House

#1 – Prosperity Dumpling House

I’m not sure what these people put in their dumplings, but Prosperity Dumpling House had by far the best dumplings out of the 9 places we went to during this crawl.  What surprised me the most was that there weren’t even any dissenting opinions.  Literally everyone who went and made it through to the end agreed that Prosperity Dumpling House was the best.  I have to thank NYC Girl Uninterrupted for blogging about Prosperity Dumpling House first and letting us know about its existence.  Not surprisingly, she ranked it as the best dumpling house as well.

If you’re ever in Chinatown, be sure to make it a priority to hit up Prosperity Dumpling House on Eldridge Street.  Their dumplings are fresh with a delicious filling and feature a nice thin wrapper that doesn’t dull the dumpling’s taste.  Even if you’re on a diet, you should at least try one of the fried ones.

Prosperity Dumpling House on Eldridge Street, New York, NY

fried dumplings from Prosperity Dumpling House

boiled dumplings from Prosperity Dumpling House

Having a food blog definitely has its perks sometimes.  After hearing about this blog, my favorite new friend Genna generously offered to talk to her friends at US Wellness Meats and have them send over some meat.  In order to make things interesting we (Margaret, Eric, Yin, Steve, and I) decided to buy some meat equivalents (steaks, filet mignon, rib eye, ribs) at Whole Foods Market and have a blind taste test.

Before we get into the results of our taste test, here’s a little more about US Wellness Meats:

US Wellness Meats was founded by lifelong farmer John Wood.  Starting in 1997 John began raising animals on 100% forage diet and proved that tender and exquisite-tasting beef, lamb, bison, goat, and diary products can be produced simply by mimicking how buffalo grazed in North America for centuries.

In 1997, they harvested their first animal. Grass-fed from start to finish, it had been raised with all the principles of holistic land management and sustainability. And it was delicious. Even better, lab tests showed that the meat was high in all kinds of nutrients: omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin E, CLA, and other nutrients that just don’t show up in grain-fed, feedlot cattle.

In 2000, US Wellness Meats as we now know it was born. Today, the company is a thriving family-owned business still run by its founding families. Their grass-fed beef is recognized for its exceptional taste, quality and health benefits by chefs, health experts, professional athletes, and many others. In addition, US Wellness Meats has joined with like-minded small family farms across the country to expand its offerings to include grass-fed lamb, bison, and goat, as well as grass-fed butter and cheese, free-range poultry, honey, organic nuts, and other wellness products.

Interested in learning more about them?  I’ve found their FAQ page to be quite informative, and they have a sporadically updated blog and Twitter account:

• US Wellness Meats FAQ
• US Wellness Meats Twitter
• US Wellness Meats blog

Okay – as fun as it is to plug US Wellness Meats while at the same time creating the perfect post to dominate their own organic search ranking, let’s get to the fun stuff.

First off, I need to admit something… we’re idiots.  As I mentioned at the top somewhat lengthy post, we went to Whole Foods with the intent of buying the meat equivalents of what US Wellness Meats sent us. While we were able to buy matching filet mignon at Whole Foods, we accidentally purchased pork ribs instead of beef ribs.  Sadly, because of this goof up, the only thing that we could have a real blind taste test with to compare the two companies was the filet mignon steaks.

How were those ribs anyway?
Quite honestly, the ribs from both US Wellness Meats and Whole Foods were terrific.  Even though we knew that the ribs would taste a different since one was pork and the other beef, we still tried to perform an unscientific taste test.  While the pork ribs seemed to be a bit more natural for me to be eating (I don’t really order beef ribs when I go out to eat), I really felt like the BBQ sauce that the US Wellness Meats beef ribs came in put them over the top.  Moreover, the ribs from US Wellness Meats were meatier and everyone agreed that they were deliciously tender.

How about those beef sticks, chicken, and walnuts?
As you can see from the pictures below, US Wellness Meats sent us a few extra items in addition to the steak.  The beef sticks were decent, though I must warn you not to microwave them, as it kinda makes them taste a little weird.  We didn’t cook the chicken, but I can only imagine that their all-natural chicken would be better than those other chickens clucking around all hopped up on steroids and cornfeed.  Lastly, those 100% organic Totally Nutz walnuts were just about as good as organic nuts could be… even I enjoyed them.

Blind taste test, US Wellness Meats Vs. Whole Foods Market – best steak (filet mignon)
Now I’ll be the first to admit that we may have run our blind taste test as unscientifically as possible, however, I firmly stand by the conclusion that we came to in the end.  How did we run this taste test to find out which company has the best steak?  Simply by having Eric and Margaret assign letters to the two different steaks (steak A and steak B), cutting it up, and hand-feeding it to Steve and myself as we closed our eyes.  Like I said, real scientific.

Regardless of our method, both Steve and I both came to the same conclusion – the filet mignon from US Wellness Meats was noticeably more juicy, flavorful, and just overall more tasty than the equivalent piece of steak from Whole Foods. While I was originally a bit skeptical of the whole “grass-fed” cattle talk, I’m now a converted believer that grass-fed animals are that much more delicious than their grain-fed, feedlot brethren.

I honestly didn’t mean for this blogpost to end up as a commercial for US Wellness Meats, but the darn meat was just so good.  I suggest you go to their online store and try it yourself… and don’t forget to invite me over.

Thank you letter - U.S. Wellness Meats

filet mignon from U.S. Wellness Meats

uncooked filet mignon - U.S. Wellness Meats

beef sticks from U.S. Wellness Meats

beef short ribs from U.S. Wellness Meats

ground chicken from U.S. Wellness Meats

Totally Nutz Walnuts from U.S. Wellness Meats

Whole Foods Market - Chelsea, NYC

Whole Foods Market - filet mignon

Rib eye steak from Whole Foods Market

pork ribs from Whole Foods Market in Chelsea, NY

Whole Foods Market chicken sausage

preparing the rib eye steaks to be cooked

rib eye steaks being cooked

U.S. Wellness Meats ribs and Whole Foods Market ribs

U.S. Wellness Meats and Whole Foods Market filet mignon steaks cooking

filet mignon steaks almost finished cooking

US Wellness Meats and Whole Foods Market filet mignons cooked

a US Wellness Meats and Whole Foods Market meat party

Here’s a bonus video of our steaks sizzling:

Happy MLK Day everyone!

It’s Jill, and I am back with some sugar. Figured you all needed a break from Matt’s artery clogging extravaganza. (I will definitely be making that Crab Mac-n-Cheese).  This will be my last guest post on this blog.  Hopefully after this I will have my own iBlog site and you can come visit me there.

Today I bring you Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies.  These were Eric’s idea…thank you Eric. On that note, I do take requests. If there is something you want to see, let me know and I’ll put it on the list.  These cookies are pretty simple to make, so even if you aren’t a seasoned baker you should have no problem here. You can also substitute the chocolate chips and walnuts with anything you want. Raisins, dried cranberries…you get the point.

A little advice, before you start, double check to make sure you have all the ingredients  necessary on hand. I was about to launch into making these and realized I didn’t have brown sugar and had to run to the grocery store at 10pm in the freezing cold. I made it just minutes before the store closed.

RECIPE
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 sticks of unsalted butter softened to room temperature
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons whole milk
2 Teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups oats (quick cook, not instant, like Quaker Oats)
1 11.5 oz. bag of milk chocolate chips (I prefer Ghiradelli)
1 1/2  cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 11 minutes (this really depends on your oven, so keep an eye on them and adjust the time accordingly)

Ingredients to make oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies

Here is everything you will need.  I use the beaters up until it’s time to add the flour and then use the wooden spoon after that.

dry ingredients for oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies

In bowl number 1 combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. In bowl number 2 beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar together until it reaches the consistency you see in the picture above.  It’s best to cut the butter up into cubes before beating, it just makes it easier to blend it all together. But if you like things to be unnecessarily difficult, by all means put the sticks in whole.

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookie ingredient mix

Next, beat the eggs, milk and vanilla extract into the butter mixture until smooth and well combined. Now say goodbye to the electric beaters and get your wooden spoon.

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookie ingredient mix

Stir the flour, in three parts, into the butter mixture. If you dump it all in at once it makes a horrible mess and it’s hard to get it all nice and combined.

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies - adding oatmeal

After the flour is all nice and incorporated you can start adding all the fun stuff.

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies - adding chocolate chips

This is what your cookie dough will look like once the oatmeal, chips and walnuts have been folded in.

baking sheet for oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies

Now it’s time to get your cookies into the oven.  I always line my sheet with a Silpat when I am making cookies. Use this and your cookies and other baked goods will NEVER stick to the sheet. Not to mention it makes clean up much easier. You can get one of these at Williams-Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond, Chef Central etc.

placed on baking sheet - oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies

Roll the dough into balls and place on the sheet. You should be able to fit 12 cookies per sheet. This recipe makes approximately 30 cookies.

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies cooling

Once the cookies are out of the oven let them cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then gently move them over to a cooling rack to cool completely.

plate of oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies packaged nice and pretty

oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies with milk for Santa

This batch of cookies got mailed out to a few people, hence the pretty packaging you see above.  Hopefully they will post some nice comments here once they have received them.  Once again, thank for reading! I hope you all come visit my blog once it’s up and running. Matt will keep you posted.

these girls will do anything for money, even eat cookies

As promised, I’m back again with another recipe from one of my recent cooking adventures.  As you can tell from the title, today we will be learning how to make crab mac n’ cheese.  If you decide you want to give this a shot, my only advice is that you don’t skimp on the cheese.  Don’t be lazy – buy some fresh Gruyere and cheddar and grate it yourself.

Here are the ingredients that you’ll need in order to make some tasty crab mac and cheese:

• 1 pound dried macaroni
• 2 cups of grated Gruyere cheese
• 1 cup of grated white cheddar
• half cup of grated Parmesan
• half cup of bread crumbs
• quarter cup of butter, quarter cup of flour, and 2.25 cups of whole milk to make the bechamel
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• 1 pound of fresh lump crab meat

Step 1 – preparation
Take the time to grate all of your cheeses.  Don’t forget to throw on a large pot of salted water to boil. While you’re waiting for it to boil, you can also butter up your baking dish.  Cook your pasta as directed and then drain it over the sink.  Then run the pasta through cold water a couple of times. Turn on the oven to preheat at 375 degrees.

Step 2 – the making of the bechamel
Melt your butter in a pan over medium heat.  Don’t be an idiot and let it burn or you’ll have to start over.  Start whisking in your flour and wait until the mixture starts turning a beige color.  Slowly add in your milk and continue whisking until it begins to boil.  Lower the heat and throw in some salt and pepper according to your tastes.  Grab a beer and let that simmer on the stove for about 17 minutes while stirring occasionally.  The bechamel is done once it starts to thicken up.

Step 3 – making the cheese sauce
Once your bechamel is ready, slowly stir in one cup of Gruyere, one cup of white cheddar, and one half cup of Parmesan cheese.  Keep stirring until it’s nice and thick.

Step 4 – preparing for the oven
In a large bowl, mix together your macaroni and cheese sauce.  If you want, you can through in some more salt and pepper.  The last step is to slowly mix in your lump crab meat – be gentle, crabs are both fragile and delicious.  Carefully transfer your crab mac & cheese into your baking pan and spread the remaining cup of Gruyere over top.  Throw a little butter in the microwave and mix it together with the breadcrumbs before liberally tossing them on top.  Place the dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Step 5 – eat
I like to pair my mac and cheese with stewed tomatoes, so I recommend you simply buy a can of stewed tomatoes and heat it up on the stove while the mac & cheese bakes.

That’s all for now.  Next up – homemade dumplings.  Enjoy your crab mac & cheese!

Ingredients for crab mac and cheese sans the crab meat

making bechamel - melt the butter, whisk with flour, and add milk

time to grate some cheese

plate full of grated Gruyere

stir the Gruyere, cheddar, and Parmesan into the bechamel

you'll need a solid pound of pasta

mix together the pasta, crab meat, and cheese sauce in a large bowl

butter your baking pan

toss your crab mac and cheese into your dish

liberally spread breadcrumbs mixed with butter on top

fresh baked crab mac & cheese

side dish of stewed tomatoes

sauteed string beans

plateful of crab mac & cheese topped with stewed tomatoes

crab mac & cheese fan

i am still domestic.

Hello all.  Sorry for the long delay between posts.  Lots of things were going on between my last post and now… Christmas, New Years, me leaving Mercedes to work at Simande full time… Thank goodness Jill was there to pick up the blog slack and teach you all a few things about baking. You’re in luck if you liked what she was preaching, as she will have her own baking blog up and running quite soon.

Anyway, today I will teach you how to make some damn fine fried chicken, courtesy of Alton Brown. This fried chicken is so good that I personally guarantee that it will help you gain 10 pounds.  You’re welcome, fatty.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to assemble:

• lots of chicken
• flour
• 2 cups of buttermilk to marinate the chicken.  mmm buttermilk chicken.
• lots of vegetable shortening for frying
• 2 tablespoons of kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons of paprika
• 2 tablespoons of garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper

Step 1 – how to make tender chicken that even a fat person will love
Carefully place your chicken in a plastic container and then bury it in buttermilk.  Cover it up and stick it in the fridge overnight.  **this step makes your chicken awesome**

Step 2 – preparing to fry
Start heating up your frying pan on the stove and melt enough shortening so that it comes up to 1/8 inch on all sides.  Heat that fat up to be exactly 325 degrees.  No more, no less.

Step 3 – the dry mix
Combine the paprika, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper in a bowl and mix it together.  Fill a separate bowl with flour.

Step 4 – making the chicken
Remove your buttermilked chicken from the fridge and start draining.  Take each piece separately and liberally apply the dry mix.  Next dredge that sucker in flour and shake off the excess.  Place the chicken skin side down in the frying pan and cook until its golden brown on both sides.  Alton says this will be approximately 10-12 minutes on each side, assuming you’re at exactly 325 degrees.  You’ll know the chicken is properly cooked when its internal temperature is 180 degrees.  Don’t screw this up or everyone will get sick and hate you.

Step 5 – eat
Drain the chicken immediately after removing it from the pan.  Don’t try to be resourceful and use paper towels or brown paper bags to dry.  Be a man and drain your chicken on a rack over a sheet pan.

You’re ready to eat now.  Enjoy!

chicken + buttermilk + covered container + 24 hours = omgpop

mix salt, paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and liberally apply to the buttermilk chicken

fry that badboy until its internal temp is 180 degrees. don't stop at 179 degrees or you'll get sick.

keep checking its temperature and make sure you don't overcook it

drain the chicken - Alton says not to use a paper towel

i am so domestic.

It’s Jill. I’m back. Again.  I hope you aren’t sick of me yet. Matt  has tasked me with keeping his site alive while he drowns himself in work. Although, I am told he may have a new post for you later this weekend. Something about chicken that is better than sex. We’ll see.

Today I bring you a Lemon Yogurt Cake with Mascarpone Cream. Like most of my recipes, this one is a hybrid. The cake part comes from Ina Garten, otherwise known to all you Food Network junkies as The Barefoot Contessa. I love her. She is one of the only good reasons to still watch the Food Network. But I digress. The mascarpone cream I just made up to make the dessert sound more fancy (I was serving it at Christmas dinner the first time I made it). Ina puts a glaze on her cake. I didn’t want to, so I did the cream instead.  That is one of the fun parts of cooking and baking.  You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to as long as you find a viable substitution.

Oh, if you wondering what “mascarpone” is, think of it as an Italian cream cheese.  Another note for the cake - The recipe calls for whole milk yogurt. If you are looking to cut out some fat you can use non-fat or low-fat yogurt, but know that it will change the texture of the cake.  It still tastes great, but it’s just more spongy and less, um, cakey.  Here is the recipe:

CAKE
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra- large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 good sized lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 50 minutes.

Mascarpone Cream
1 8oz container of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Ingredients to make Lemon Yogurt Cake

Here is basically everything you will need. Notice, there are no electric beaters. Your main mixing tool for this cake will be a whisk. You want to use electric beaters, fine, but you will have a brick and not a cake.

standard loaf pan to make Lemon Yogurt Cake

Grease, line the bottom with parchment paper and flour a standard loaf pan. As I mentioned with the chocolate espresso cake, if you don’t do this your cake will not come out of the pan. Promise.

Dry and wet ingredients seperated for cake

In bowl number one sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In bowl number two, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Then, SLOWLY whisk bowl number one into bowl number two until well incorporated.

Mixing the ingredients for Lemon Yogurt Cake

Once bowls one and two have been introduced to each other and are good and combined, FOLD the vegetable oil into the batter using a rubber spatula until it’s all incorporated and the oil no longer looks separate from the batter.

Put the Lemon Yogurt Cake in the oven

Okay, now carefully pour the batter into the prepared pan and stick it in the oven for 50 minutes.  Stick a toothpick in the middle of the cake to test for doneness. Now, while the cake is baking away…

freshly squeezed lemon juice in a small saucepan

It is time to make the syrup that you will pour over the cake. More on that later. For now, combine 1/3 cup of sugar with 1/3 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook on medium heat until the sugar is melted and the liquid is clear. Set aside. DO NOT use that lemon juice crap in a bottle. Freshly squeezed only. No substitutions here, it tastes gross.

letting your lemon yogurt cake cool

Once the cake is done let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then carefully turn it out onto a cooling rack that has been placed over tin foil or a baking sheet.

pouring lemon mixture onto the cake

WHILE THE CAKE IS STILL WARM, pour the lemon sugar mixture all over it so the cake completely absorbs it. The let the cake cool completely.

shiny lemon yogurt cake cooling

After you have poured the syrup onto the cake it will look all shiny. While this cools, it is time to make the mascarpone cream.

ingredients to make mascarpone cream

Here is all you will need for the cream. You even get to use electric beaters. Lucky you.

Mascarpone Cream finished

Combine the mascarpone cheese, heavy whipping cream, confectioners sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until it’s a nice thick consistency. Don’t over-beat or you will something that more resembles butter than cream.

Lemon Yogurt Cake with Mascarpone Cream

And there you have it! Once the cake is cooled, slice and serve alongside the cream and enjoy!

Thanks everyone for reading! I will be back again next week…cookies are on the agenda.

**update**

freshly baked lemon yogurt cake delivered to our office - delicious!

Hello everyone, it’s Jill again. Matt has been too busy with work to blog so I am doing another post to keep you all well sugared and entertained. As promised in my last post, I am doing something chocolate this time around. I’ve had some free time on my hands lately and decided to experiment. I used a few chocolate cake recipes, took the bits I liked and added a few things of my own to create the one here. If you like coffee and chocolate you will LOVE this cake. Actually, my husband doesn’t even like coffee (sinful I know), and he loves this cake. This is an image heavy post, and I apologize for the photo quality…one day I will buy a better camera and learn how to use it properly.

My word of advice today is DON’T BAKE DISTRACTED! I had a baking debacle at the end of this because my thoughts were elsewhere and I wasn’t paying attention. This is why you will not see an image of the cake fully iced and looking pretty. If you must know, I put the top layer of the cake on upside down and gravity took over very quicky and broke it into four pieces. I used the frosting as mortar and got the thing back together. It tasted great, but was not the most attractive confection.

DRY INGREDIENTS
2 cups white granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used dark chocolate cocoa powder for the cake)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

WET INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup boiling hot brewed coffee

FROSTING
1 stick butter
2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used regular, not dark, powder for the frosting)
4-6 cups of powdered sugar
1/3 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of instant espresso mixed with 5 tablespoons of hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Here is pretty much everything you will need to make the cake. Electric beaters are welcome this time.

butter and flour pans for Chocolate Espresso Cake

First things first. Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. This will ensure your cakes actually come out of the pans. Nothing will unleash a string of obscenities faster than stuck cakes.

dry ingredients for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Next, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl.

Mixing ingredients for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on the medium speed of electric mixer. Once everything is combined it will look like the picture above. Resist the urge to stick you finger into the batter.

add boiling coffee for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Slowly stir, not beat, the boiling coffee into the batter. Stir until well incorporated. The batter will look very thin, don’t worry it’s supposed to look that way.

put ingredients in bowls for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared pans. Place in the oven that has been heated to 350 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake to test for doneness. It will come out clean if they are ready.

Chocolate Espresso Cake

Here is what the cakes should look like when they come out of the oven. Let them cool in the pans for about 15 minutes and then carefully turn them out onto your counter or cooling racks and let them cool completely. Oh, and remember to remove the parchment paper from the bottom of the cakes. No one wants to bite into that.

Now, onto the frosting.

melt butter for frosting for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Melt the stick of butter in a small pan over medium heat.  Once melted add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth and glossy. See picture below.

frosting for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Combine the instant espresso and hot water in a small bowl and then add to the butter/cocoa mixture. Pour this into either a metal or glass bowl and beat in the vanilla.

beat frosting for Chocolate Espresso Cake

Beat in a cup of confectioners sugar at a time, alternating with the milk. Use a low speed on the beaters or you and your kitchen will end up covered in a fine white powder. Keep adding the confectioners sugar until you get the consistency seen in the above picture. It needs to be stiff but spreadable.

icing the Chocolate Espresso Cake

Time to frost! I put parchment paper down on the cake stand to keep the cake stand clean.  Use just enough frosting to create a thin layer.  Don’t make it thick goopy layer. The only purpose of frosting here is to keep the layers held together.  Add the top layer, flat side down, and continue to frost the rest of the cake.

Chocolate Espresso Cake

The completed cake. This is the one angle I could get that didn’t show the Frankenstein job I did on the top of the cake. This very moist cake. If yours comes out dry, I have no idea what you did wrong.

Recipe for Decadent Chocolate Espresso Cake

Thanks again everyone for checking this out!  Enjoy the cake, I’ll be back soon.

Happy New Year!

Greetings iblog empire! My name is Jill and I will be commandeering the site from Matt for a post.  You should all know that I am a blogging virgin. I have never blogged a thing in all my days.  However, after giving Matt the runaround for the last few weeks I am finally blogging what I bake.  I’m kinda a baking fanatic and I spend many hours covered in flour, sugar and various forms of sticky dough.  (As a result, I also spend LOTS of hours in the gym) Matt has been on the receiving end of many of my baking experiments, and I’m pretty confident that he would say they have largely been a success. Well, with the exception of a lemon meringue incident, but we won’t discuss that now.

ANYWAY, onto to what I am blogging about today; Pumpkin Cognac Muffins. I figured it’s a good seasonal choice and who doesn’t like a little liquor with (or in) their dessert?  I should mention that Matt hates anything with pumpkin and was not happy when these came into the office. But he was a brave soul and did take and swallow one bite. Kudos Matt.  This came from a dear friend of mine (thanks Vanessa!) who passed along the recipe with the instruction to play with it. And so I did.  I didn’t change too much from the original recipe, but I think the revisions turned out tasty.

Before I get into the photos and instructions I have one word of advice for this recipe (you could also consider it a warning or a threat) Do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES use a stand mixer or hand-held beaters. If you do, I will find you.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

3 1/3 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

WET INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup vegetable oil
4 Eggs (room temperature is best)
2/3 cups cognac (I used Hennessey)
2 cups canned PURE pumpkin (do not use the canned pumpkin with the spices already mixed in)

ADD: 1 bag of dried cranberries

DRIZZLE: 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar and 1 tablespoon of cognac

Heat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 30 minutes. Makes approx. 30 muffins

Everything you will need

Here is a quick shot of everything you will need for the muffins. If you don’t have a wooden spoon, use a spatula or any other kind of spoon. Just avoid anything electric.

Dry

First, sift all of the dry ingredients together into a large bowl.

Wet

Next, add the wet ingredients into the dry.

Yum

Yay Hennessy!

Everything Mixed

Carefully, with a wooden spoon, mix all of the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined. If you over mix you will have HORRIBLE muffins. So be slow and gentle. Once the wet is mixed in fold in the dried cranberries. Now you are ready to pour them into the muffin trays! Feel free to drink as much of the Hennessy as you would like during this process.

Batter

Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way full. Overfilling will make a mess.  So don’t overfill unless you are one of those people who love  to spend Saturdays scraping burnt bits off the bottom of the oven.

Fresh out of the oven

Once out of the oven, let them cool in the tray for about 10 minutes. After that, pop them out of the tray and let them completely cool on the counter.

Iced

Once the muffins have completely cooled, mix the confectioners sugar and cognac together in a small bowl until it reaches drizzling consistency and have at it.  Sorry, this is crappy picture. Once this is done they are ready to eat.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my post and will now frantically run to your kitchens and make these kick a** muffins. If you are like Matt and hate all things pumpkin, I’ll be back with something chocolate next time.