When you find a recipe for a giant peanut butter cup you make it!

It was Tom's birthday this past week.  If we have an party for his birthday I'm usually put to work to make a dessert of his choice.  I had to veto a few things he chose because he thought it would be funny to find the most complicated recipes possible.  He finally agreed to have something with chocolate and that he could serve with ice cream.  Bon Appetit came to the rescue yet again!  I came across an article that said "How to Make a Peanut Butter Cup the Size of a Pizza".  That was enough for me.  Based on Tom and the crowd we were having over I knew this would go over very well!  

Here is the recipe!  Recipe is also below.  I will walk through some of my own edits!  

Ingredients

Chocolate Crust
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer cookies, finely ground
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Peanut Butter Filling
1 cup creamy, unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup honey or confectioners sugar, depending on your preference
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Topping
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips, melted

Special Equipment
9-inch fluted tart pan with removable base
Preparation

Chocolate Crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in large bowl until well combined. Pat mixture into tart pan, pressing firmly into bottom and up sides. Bake until crust fragrant, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on wire rack.

Peanut Butter Filling
Mix peanut butter, sugar, and salt in bowl until completely combined.

Assembly
Spoon filling into crust and smooth into an even layer. Make sure there’s enough room at the top for the chocolate. Melt chocolate chips carefully over a double boiler or in a microwaveable bowl until smooth. Pour over peanut butter and fill to seal at the edges. Swirl top until perfectly smooth and set to cool and solidify. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead and stored in refrigerator.

So here are a few things that I learned.  Chocolate wafers just don't exist in Richmond, VA!  Ok that is probably not true but I actually made two crusts over two days because the first set of wafers I bought did not work!  I ended up finding thin chocolate cookies at Whole Foods that worked better than the cookies they call wafers (mini sandwiches with creme in middle).  Also, when you are cooking the crust I found that even though I pushed up on the side of the tart pan it still cooked down off the side...watch carefully and most likely you won't need 10 minutes!  FYI - I used the confectioners sugar in the peanut butter that gives a similar taste to peanut butter cups.

Lastly, I put in the fridge about 45 minutes before we planned to serve and then took out for 10 minutes prior to cutting!  It was perfect!  If you like cold Reese's Peanut Butter cups I suggest you do the same thing!  Finished product is below!  We served with ice cream!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!!!  Thanks for the compromise on the easier dessert!

Roasted fresh figs!

A coworker of mine was kind enough to bring in some fresh figs from her fig tree!  The first time she gave Tom and I them we let them spoil. I vowed to not let that happen again. A few days later she left me some more...but the challenge was that Tom was traveling!  So off to google I go!  My first thought was figs and cheese so just needed to decide how to prepare. I found that figs are very versatile and you can roast, bake, or stuff!  I decided on roast!  I found this recipe.

Roasted Figs Recipe
(serves 2-4)

Ingredients
a dozen fresh figs
1 tablespoon olive oil2 tablespoons honey
freshly ground pepper (optional)
salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F. Trim the stems off the figs and cut in half. Place them in a casserole dish cut side up. Drizzle with honey, olive oil, and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Put in oven and roast for 15-20 minutes. Until soft and starting to caramelize.

I followed the recipe and then served as an appetizer with some of my favorite cheeses!

                                 

Seafood day

I know that you've seen a ton of pictures of oysters and clams on here, yes, we really like to eat them.  This picture was more about the mignonette ... I mixed some sparkling wine with ground ginger to make a surprisingly light and fun mignonette that mixed well with both the briny oysters and the fresh clams.  Might be a little over powering if you're drinking muscadet or champagne, but with an ice-cold martini it was perfect!

For the main course I created a layered dish consisting of sauteed kale, white beans with a tomato sauce and a grilled piece of grouper.  The kale provided a nice consistency underneath the white beans and with the fish, almost like pasta without the extra carbs.

A new take on chilaquiles

I decided to have a little fun with this dinner, starting with an american style dish and then following up with my take on a Mexican classic.

To start, I baked/broiled up a batch of bacon wrapped scallops.  I have found these in the frozen section at Whole Foods, and they are great.  They are packaged with 8 on a cedar plank and you just put them right onto the grill or into the oven.  I have found that allowing them to defrost is preferable because they will cook a little more quickly and therefore not get rubbery ... even frozen though they turn out pretty well.  I served them up with sweet chili and sriracha to provide a sweet and spicy kick.

For the main course I decided to have some fun and put a bit of a spin on a Mexican classic ... Chilaquiles.

To make the sauce I mixed up the following:

1 can Tomato sauce (14.5 oz)
1 can Pato spicy tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic pepper
1 tsp salt
2 corn tortillas (Cut into small strips)

I cooked this over medium heat until it was warm and well mixed together.  I removed from heat and covered.

While the sauce was cooking, I cut 5 corn tortillas into strips and heated up a pan of oil.  I fried the strips in batches until all were crispy and then removed and put on a paper towel to drain off the excess oil.

To plate I divided the fried strips between the two plates and then topped them with a generous portion of the tomato mixture.

Traditional chilaquiles are topped with fried egg or pulled chicken ... I went a little different route here topping mine with: two poached eggs, two strips of fresh mexican cheese (habanero from our local farmers market) and some chopped avocado.  Give this a try and enjoy!

Quick weeknight fish pasta

Some nights just feel like a pasta night ... sometimes it's cold and pasta feels like the thing to warm you up, other times you just need a carb load and occasionally you just don't know what else to do with a nice piece of fish.

For this dinner I cooked up a nice batch of my quick pasta sauce (Pomi crushed tomatoes, garlic, red onion, salt & pepper) while I cooked up a batch of noodles.  I broiled a piece of snapper and cooked up some sauteed asperagus.  Once the fish was done, I plated: first the noodles, then the fish and finally topped with fresh sauce.  Start to finish, 20 minutes ... a great weeknight dinner.

Grilled, roasted and broiled ... that's the recipe for a good dinner

The star of this dinner was a bone in ribeye, but before we got to that I had a couple of starters that I put out there.  I pan roasted some Shishito peppers (a sweet Japanese pepper) with a little bit of olive oil and coarse sea salt.  In addition, Shells had found a mini cantaloupe at the farmers market that was calling out to be wrapped in prosciutto.  I used a melon baller to scoop out the cantaloupe and then cut strips of prosciutto in half and rolled a melon ball in each one.  Yep, the cantaloupe was better with the prosciutto!

In the meantime, I decided to get rolling on the steak.  Despite the fact that I love my steaks rare, with a ribeye you need to cook it a bit more to ensure that the marbling breaks down and imparts all it's flavor to the beef.  I started by letting the steak come to room temperature and then adding it's little black dress (salt and pepper).  I started cooking the steak on the grill over medium high heat ... given that my steak was about 1.5" thick I cooked it for about 6 minutes and then rotated it one quarter turn and cooked it for another 5 minutes.  I flipped the steak over and cooked it for 5 minutes before removing it to a plate and covering it with a light kitchen towel (note that the steak will release juices).

I let the steak rest for about ten minutes (while preheating the broiler, with the grill tray I was planning to cook the steak on inside) and then moved it to the cutting board.

I used a sharp fillet knife to slice the steak into chunks (moving from the bone to the edge) so that the steak remains attached to the bone, but is otherwise in slices.








Once the broiler was preheated, I used a spatula to transfer the steak from the cutting board to the hot tray that I had in the oven while it was preheating.  I added a slab of butter (about 1/4 inch chunk of a butter slab like Plugra ... would be two 1/4 chunks of standard butter) and into the oven it went.


I let the steak cook in the broiler for about 10 minutes until the top had a nice crispy char to it and the butter was completed melted.  I removed the steak from the broiler and put it back on to the cutting board.  I plated the starch (Israeli couscous) and veggies and then sliced off pieces of the steak from the bone and added them to the plating.  The final product looks like this ... enjoy!

An extremely versatile batter bread!

So it seems I'm all about batter bread right now.  As much as I love to make my french baguettes they are very time consuming which is hard to commit to during the summer months!  We started with the corn meal batter bread which was fantastic...but I was looking for something with more flavor.  We had a ton of fresh rosemary so I decided to do a google search for rosemary bread.

I found a recipe sponsored by King Arthur flour (which I personally love for my bread making).  Here is the link to the site with the recipe.  The recipe is listed below as well.

Ingredients
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 cup semolina flour
1/4 cup buttermilk powder
1/4 cup Vermont cheese powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh or dried rosemary, snipped into small pieces
1 cup grated Asiago cheese or sharp cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup for garnish
1/3 cup fresh parsley, cilantro, or green onion, finely chopped
1 cup olives, drained and chopped (black, green, or a combination)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large eggs

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan, or smaller pans of your choice (see tip at right).
2) Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl until well blended.
3) Toss in the cheese, herbs or onion, and olives.
4) In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, oil, and eggs until foamy.
5) Stir the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture.
6) Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup grated cheese.
7) Bake the bread for 55 to 60 minutes (30 to 35 for mini loaves), until a tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove it from the oven, and after 10 minutes turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool.
Yield: one 9" x 5" loaf.

Fresh Rosemary Goodness

Bread Batter

So I have made this twice so far.  I have still not found Vermont Cheese Powder and have just put in a bit of extra cheese.  At some point I will get some but from what I found on line you could substitute with Mac & Cheese powder.  

For the first loaf I chose, rosemary cheddar cheese, parsley, and green olives.  The second time we decided to test the versatility and only put in rosemary and roasted garlic (roughly chopped).  Both loaves were awesome..the garlic one was especially good and went well for dinner!  

This bread is hearty so would be great for the fall and winter months.  I actually made in 4 small mini loaf pans and it was perfect for storing and sharing with co workers!

Happy Baking!

Finished Product

Finished Product