What I Really Think

We had our first snow day on Friday and I promised Chris, if it snowed, I'd make him Cinnamon Biscotti. And I kept my promise. This recipe originally came from Cooking Light but I modified it with the addition of Cinnamon chips and because I don't use margarine and didn't feel like melting butter, I used canola oil.

Okay - shhh...don't tell anyone, but I forgot to post this last night, so my last day of February entry will be post dated. Anyway though, I was in a minor baking frenzy yesterday and thought I would return to Dolce Italiano for inspiration for last night's dessert. I had found almond flour a while ago in a local market, so decided to make the Almond Fingers.

Almond Fingers photo by Becky

It's Purim today (well, I'm pretty sure it's today or tonight and tomorrow, I'm on vacation, so I've lost a bit of time). Anyway, Purim is a Jewish holiday, like many other Jewish holidays, that we celebrate, in that, the reason we're celebrating is someone tried to wipe us from the face of the earth, they failed, let's eat. Well, Purim is a little different because in addition to eating we drink for this one too (like Passover where we must have four glasses of wine), for Purim, if memory serves, we're supposed to get so blasted, we can't say, recognize or something the name of the villain in the story, Hamen.

This week for our Sunday Slow Bakers, Deborah chose Sicilian Pistachio Bars. Like the other recipes, this one came from Gina DePalma's Dolce Italiano.

Normally, with pistachios, the hardest part of the recipe for me, is finding unsalted, shelled pistachios but I lucked out and found them at Whole Foods last week. The second hardest part is not eating them before I actually use them in the recipe. While I made it to the recipe with pistachios in tact, I can't say as much for the leftovers.

It's pretty warm here right now - in the seventies - but the calendar says October, the leaves are changing and starting to fall, and for me that means fall. Along with that, it means fall flavors. Nothing says fall like apples, so this hit on all cylendars.

I was going to make this dish last night because I needed something that I could cook based upon what I had in the house (I had a pork tenderloin in the freezer, apples in the fridge and the first apple cider of the season too) because I didn't know if Chris was going to get the food shopping done before dinner or not. Then it turned out that Sammi's friend was sleeping over, and Chris could get to the market, so we opted for something safe last night (hamburgers) and to make this tonight, with the now defrosted pork tenderloin.

As far as the Sweet Potatoes, well, I bought a whole bunch at the farm market Friday afternoon (they scream fall to me too) and we always have maple syrup around, so that was a no brainer.

Pork Medalions with Double Apple Sauce and Maple Sweet Potatoes

This week Chris brought home lemongrass from our CSA. Of couse, I had no idea what to do with it but luckily they provided several recipes and this is the one I decided to make.

A 1.5C serving comes in at two points. This is a really refreshing soup, I think due to the inclusion of the lemongrass. Definitely refreshing enough to enjoy as a summer soup too.

Ingredients

1 fresh lemongrass stalk, root end trimmed and 1 or 2 outer layers discarded
1 large onion, chopped
1T olive oil (originally called for 2T butter and 2T olive oil)
1 3/4 pounds kabocha or butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1- inch pieces ( 4 cups)
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen com kernels (10 ounces; from 2 to 3 ears)
5 cups water (I used 4C chicken broth and 1C water to give a little richness)
Garnish: cilantro leaves (I forgot this but it would have been good)

Preparation
Cut off and discard top of lemongrass, leaving a 6-inch stalk, then smash stalk with side of a large heavy knife.
Cook lemongrass, onion and 1t salt in oil in a heavy medium pot over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 10 minutes. Add squash, com, water, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and discard lemongrass.

Puree soup in 3 or batches in a blender until very smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), straining each batch as blended through a fine-mesh sieve into a large heatproof bowl, pressing hard on and then discarding solids. Season with salt and pepper and reheat if necessary.

I'm trying to use my bread machine more (c'mon let's face it, who doesn't like warm bread, baked fresh daily?). So I started searching around for Cooking Light bread machine recipes, and I found this one.

Olive Bread

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup warm water (105° to 115°)
• 3/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped green olives
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 package dry yeast

My machine requires the ingredients to be entered liquid first (so I did it in the above order). Then I put it on light bread cycle (I have an old machine), and two hours later, I got a loaf of bread.

Olive Bread

Alternatively, you can do this bread without a bread machine by following these directions.

Found this recipe on Cooking Light this morning, Pumpkin Muffins, when searching for something I could make for some friends coming over for coffee (I knew I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry). After reading reviews for the recipe and based upon what I had on hand, I made a few adjustments and came up with this instead.

Pumpkin Muffins (with chocolate chips)

Okay, I know I'm a day late, but through the miracle of back-dating, this post still appears on time. Hey, it's not cheating, it's using my resources.

Anyway, I wanted to make these yesterday but ran out of time. I wanted to make them yesterday because February 5th was World Nutella Day! Yes, a day devoted to the ... well ... devotion of Nutella (who needs Valentine's Day when you have a day devoted to the delicious chocolate hazelnut spread?).

A few years ago, Michelle, over at Bleeding Espresso, and Sara over at Ms. Adventures in Italy started this "affair" and it's been going strong ever since.

So without further delay - let me present you with my contribution to the worship of Nutella!

Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprints

We celebrated our Valentine's dinner an evening early as Chris works tomorrow (though the girls are off from school). We were quite lazy, watching the Olympics (interspersed with House on Bravo) so it was a good thing this meal came together so quickly.

First we started with some caviar that we purchased at Whole Foods earlier in the day. Chris went with the usual blini but in an effort to keep the points down, I opted to use some endive leaves as my "scoop." Yum.

Next up, we moved onto Roasted Lobster Tail with a Ginger Dipping Sauce and some simply roasted brussel sprouts.

Roasted Lobster Tail

Because there's been some interest, I'm sharing my recipe for Corn Bread. Sorry no pictures - it's really my go to version (and yes, it's sweet which may upset some of my southern friends).

1C flour
1C yellow cornmeal
2T sugar
4t baking powder
3/4t salt
2 eggs, beaten
1C Fat Free plain yogurt (or fat free buttermilk, or skim milk)
2T honey
2T canola oil.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Mix all the dry ingredients together with a a fork or a whisk. Add the wet ingredients to dry. Mix just until moist ( Now here's a little trick I do. I measure 1T of the oil, and then 1T of the honey, then repeat. That way, the honey slides right off the measuring spoon - oh and sometimes I use 4T honey instead of 2T honey and 2T sugar).

Pour into a 9x9 or 8x8 baking pan, coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425 for 20 - 25 minutes (it will be a bit toasty brown on the top - make sure a toothpick in the middle comes out clean).

That's it - at 16 servings, they're 2 points each, 12 servings equals 3 points each and 9 servings are 4 points each.

Having a glut of cucumbers from our garden ... did I tell you the cucumber story? No? Okay, I'll digress for a moment. Every year we plant a small garden, mostly herbs, some grape tomatoes, and a zucchini or cucumber plant or two. I only plant one or two of those suckers because they grow like weeds, driving out everything else. You have to buy them in a pack of four though at our garden place. Well, this year, Chris did the planting, and I forgot to tell him only plant one or two cucumber plants, but yep, he planted all four, so we're eating cucumbers all the time!

So anyway, with a glut of cucumbers that had to be used before my next trip, and a desire not to do any canning, I found this recipe. It was great too because I had some potatoes left from our CSA - I love when I can use up a lot of produce in a recipe that's also freezable! Plus, other than a lot of chopping - this was very easy to put together.

We had this as a starter last night and it's delicious. I'm freezing the rest today (it will keep up to a month in the freezer but you'll have to puree the soup again before serving), and considering serving it at Rosh Hashanah. Hope you like it as much as we did.

Cucumber-Buttermilk Vichyssoise