Madras Margarita

Here's one more guest post recipe from my friend Karen who blogs at Karen's Kitchen Stories. You should go check out her blog - she's got lots of fantastic stuff and her photos are lovely. Or follow her on Facebook. Go see all the great goodies she posts about!

This Madras Margarita was inspired by the Madras Mimosa that is served by our favorite Sunday breakfast spot. Their mimosa is mixed with orange and cranberry juice, and has a lovely pink/orange color.

The restaurant sits right on the water and most of the tables are outdoors. The place is wildly popular, and people will wait up to two hours to get a table. I'm pretty sure people are willing to wait because they can buy full bottles of sparkling wine, pitchers of orange juice and cranberry juice, and stacks of plastic cups to take out onto the patio waiting area. It pretty much turns into a party. Thank goodness the leisurely breakfasts that follow are delicious and filling!

There also is a madras cocktail, which consists of vodka, orange, and cranberry juice, rumored to have been invented by Smirnoff Vodka in the 1970s, and named after the preppy plaid fabric.

Long story short, I thought I'd try making a madras margarita. I also added lime juice, and a bit of frozen lemonade concentrate, which i keep in the freezer. Result? This margarita is really tasty. If you don't have any lemonade concentrate, you can substitute agave, sweet and sour, or simple syrup. You can serve it on the rocks or straight up, with or without salt. In the interest of science, you really need to try all of the variations.

Cheers!

Madras Margarita

2 ounces silver tequila
1/2 ounce orange liqueur
1 ounce fresh squeezed orange juice
3/4 ounces cranberry juice
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp frozen lemonade concentrate
Half slice of orange and lime

Add all of the ingredients to an ice filled cocktail shaker and shake or stir until very cold.

Pour into an ice filled double old fashioned glass or into a chilled martini glass.

Garnish with the orange and lime slices.

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Buddha's Hand Citron Feta Yogurt Dip

This three ingredient savory dip is delightful with chopped vegetables or crackers. Decorate the Buddha's Hand to make it even spookier for Halloween!

Disclosure: Melissa's Produce sent me the Buddha's Hand Citron to play with.

Thanks for having me over, Donna! No no, please don't go to any bother--let me take care of you. I brought a snack to share with you and your readers today and I'll do my own introduction.

Hi Donna's readers! I write Farm Fresh Feasts where I provide practical support for local eating. I share recipes using ingredients from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, the farmer's market, my garden and volunteers from the rogue compost bins. To help other folks like me use all those local veggies, I've created a Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient--including more than 50 recipes on the Kohlrabi page alone--shared from other bloggers on the web. Stumped by farm share produce? Check it out--you're sure to find something for every eating style.

While I was exploring Cookistry I found oodles of Halloween treats. From Donna's interview with Nadia G filled with spooky party treats, to her Chocolate Bats, Coffin Cookies, Cuddly Monster Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes, and GingerBoo House--Donna has a bountiful spread of Halloween goodies here.

I'm going to add another one!

When Melissa's Produce sent me a box of #FreakyFruits last year I was amazed at the weirdness of nature and inspired in the kitchen. The Buddha's Hand citron looked like a suitably spooky item to use for an upcoming Halloween party.

Since I'm always looking for more Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks (for my Pinterest boards) I wanted a savory appetizer. I thought of the lemon feta dip that my mom discovered at my local grocery store and decided to try my own version. Since there are only 3 ingredients it's easy to play around and add more yogurt if you want a creamier dip, or more feta if you're looking for a saltier tang. This is a little thinner than the store's version and we like it a lot.

Note: we particularly like this dip with Wheat Thins because the slightly sweet cracker is a nice combination with the tangy feta. It's also good with sliced veggies and pretzels.

Buddha's Hand Citron Feta Yogurt Dip

Ingredients

• zest from 1 Buddha's Hand citron (or lemon)
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup plain yogurt (I prefer a thick Greek style yogurt)
• dippers (see Note above)

Instructions

1. If you're planning to display the top half of the Buddha's Hand in the center of your dip, cut the citron in half and zest only the base. You'll need about 2 to 3 tablespoons of zest.
2. Combine the zest, feta and yogurt in a food processor, pulsing until well-blended.
3. Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 8 hours.
4. Taste, and see if you'd like a creamier dip (add more yogurt) or more feta.
5. Add the upper part of the Buddha's Hand just before serving.

Disclosure--Melissa's Produce sent me the Buddha's Hand Citron along with a bunch of other #FreakyFruits.

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Tomato and Onion Flatbread

Hey, look, I'm back to blogging. Well, not really.

This recipe is a guest post from my friend Karen who blogs at Karen's Kitchen Stories. You should go check out her blog - she's got lots of fantastic stuff and her photos are lovely. Or follow her on Facebook. Yes, you should do that, too.

This tomato and onion flatbread is so easy to make, and is amazingly thin and crispy. When you pull it out of the oven, you can hear it crackle.

What I love about this flatbread is that you get the joy of eating pizza without all of the extra calories. The flatbread is light and thin, and the topping is simply tomatoes and onions. Veggies! It’s almost health food, right?

I’ve made this in advance, reheated it on a hot baking stone, and served it as an appetizer. We’ve also had leftovers for breakfast! Last night, we had it as a side to baked salmon, along with a salad. It’s really versatile.

This crust is a great vehicle for lots of toppings. Once you get it stretched out onto the half sheet pan, you can choose any toppings you like.

Honestly, I think pizza and flatbread should be its own food group.

One note: Be sure to keep an eye out for any puffing up of the dough as it bakes. While I’ve made this flatbread many times, this time the flatbread rose up about 6 inches in the middle in the first five minutes of baking (eek!), so I stabbed in in the middle with a fork to flatten it out. It worked out fine!

Tomato and Onion Flatbread
Inspired by Jim Lahey’s My Bread

For the crust:
250 grams (about 1 3/4 cups plus) bread flour
5 grams (1 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
2.5 grams (3/8 teaspoon) salt
1.5 grams (generous 3/8 teaspoon) sugar
150 grams (2/3 cup) room temperature water
Extra virgin olive oil

For the topping:
14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup thinly sliced white or yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers

Mix the dough ingredients in a large bowl with your hands, spoon, or dough whisk. The dough should be fairly stiff. I added an extra tablespoon of water.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 2 hours, until more than doubled.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. If you have a baking stone, place it on the middle rack.

Drizzle olive oil onto a half sheet pan.

Take the dough and stretch it lengthwise onto the pan. Let it relax.

While it is relaxing, using a strainer, drain the diced tomatoes, reserving the liquid.

Using a blender, hand blender, or food processor, mix the tomatoes, 3/4 cup of the reserved tomato juice, olive oil, and salt. Set aside.

Continue to press and stretch the dough until it nearly fills the sheet pan. Pinch together any breaks in the dough.

Ladle the tomato sauce over the entirety of the dough.

Sprinkle with the onions and crushed red peppers.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are slightly charred. Using tongs, pull the pizza onto a cutting board.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

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Marshmallow Brownies #Choctoberfest

This is a guest post from my friend Brandy from the blog A Teaspoon of Goodness. Go visit her blog and check her out on Facebook, too!

Brownies are always delicious, but this marshmallow brownie recipe is a perfect choice for kids who love marshmallow treats.

Whether you serve regular or miniature brownies, this is a delicious special ooey and gooey treat that kids will be begging for as a dessert.

Adults will love them too, with the rocky road flavor appeal it provides. You can even dress it up some with graham cracker crumbs if you want a s'mores flavor.

These brownies will quickly become favorites for your entire family, whether you make them with or without the optional nuts!

When you need to grease your baking pan in any recipe that requires melted butter, a simple trick is to place the butter into your pan and put into the oven while it is heating.

Remove the pan once the butter has melted (don't let it brown or burn!), and then mix the butter into the sugar and cocoa in this recipe - or pour out and reserve the butter if you're making a different recipe..

This post is part of #Choctoberfest with Imperial Sugar where a bunch of food bloggers have joined together to post about chocolate all week. The sponsors provided products for a giveaway (which is now over), and they also sent me products to work with. Since this is a guest post, no products were provided for this particular recipe.

Marshmallow Brownies 
A simple brownie recipe is made even better when you add in the classic marshmallow treat.
Recipe by Brandy Olsen-Meyers from A Teaspoon of Goodness.

When you make this, start with sifting together your sugar and cocoa. Since cocoa tends to clump together, this is the best way to make sure it blends well with other ingredients. You'll add the rest of your wet ingredients and finally mix in the flour, salt and nuts until just blended. Then pour into a pan and top with marshmallows.

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup melted butter
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 chopped nuts (optional)
18 large marshmallows, cut into small pieces

Grease a 9x13-inch square baking pan (or use the butter-melting tip, above). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugar and cocoa, then stir in butter.

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.

Add flour, salt and nuts (if you're using them) and mix just until blended. Fold in the marshmallow pieces.

Transfer to your baking pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 mins or until set.

Check out the recipes from all the participating bloggers. I think you'll love them!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Baileys Ice Cream - a guest post at Cravings of a Lunatic #BoozyDesserts

Ah, Baileys Irish Cream ... how I love you. It's such a lovely dessert cocktail, all on its own. Chill and serve.

But ... I can't leave a good thing alone, so I churned some Baileys into a batch of ice cream.

And then I used MORE Baileys to make a caramel sauce.

Yes, I'm wild and crazy.

And then, because I have no decency, I sent the whole shebang over to Kim at Cravings of a Lunatic to use as a guest post.

Well, okay, I didn't email her the actual ice cream. Just words and photos.

So, gawk at this photo of the caramel sauce. Ooooh, thick caramel sauce, ready for drizzling. Or for eating right off the spoon. We don't want to talk about how many times I did that.

And then take a closer look at this ice cream layered with caramel. Pretty ice cream, flavored with Baileys, along with a deeper-flavored caramel with Baileys. It's a match made in ... uh ... a glass.

And then when you're done gawking, go visit Kim for the recipe. Because I know you want to make it!

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Classic Snacks: Combos

Casey Barber is the editor of Good. Food. Stories., and a freelance food writer and recipe developer whose work has appeared in Gourmet Live, ReadyMade, Better Homes & Gardens, iVillage, Serious Eats, and other print/online publications. She can often be found making a huge mess in her New Jersey kitchen, heading into New York to buy yet another cake stand at Fishs Eddy, or plotting her next trip home to Pittsburgh for a Primanti's sandwich.

I first met Casey at the very first Blog n Bake sponsored by King Arthur Flour. I've kept a watchful eye on my fellow bakers and was very pleased to see she had a cookbook being published (Classic Snacks Made From Scratch), and thrilled to get her over here on Cookistry to talk about her book.

Casey pondered: Did you ever have rules about what you ate as a kid? I don't mean the rules about how much of your broccoli your parents forced you to choke down before you could leave the table (for the record, this was never a problem for my tastebuds) or how much ketchup, cheese sauce, or other condiment needed to be applied to said vegetables before you could stomach an otherwise unappealing food. I'm talking about the rules about when and how food should be eaten.

I never considered myself a picky eater, but the term "OCD" may have been invented for the litany of laws I applied to my edibles. There were certain foods that could only be consumed on certain occasions—Corn Nuts, for example, were my special treat on family road trips, a tradition I maintain to this day. Canned chicken noodle soup was originally reserved for school lunches, at which point it needed to be contained in a special brown Thermos, but in college, my late-night study snack of choice became a powdered cream of chicken soup packet reheated in a special oversized cappuccino mug just like the ones they drank from on Friends.

Just as specific and freakish as my standards for when food could be eaten were my rules for how to eat my snacks. Everyone's got an Oreo ritual, right? Mine was to scrape off the filling, then save the (superior, in my eyes) cookie halves for eating one after the other. I applied a similar policy to Nip-Chee crackers and Nutter Butters: filling always comes first.

When faced with the prospect of developing a homemade Combos recipe for my cookbook, Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, I was faced with a dilemma: there was virtually no way to make a true cylindrical pretzel shape without high-tech equipment, and as we all know, the ONLY way to eat a Combo is to crack the pretzel lengthwise with your teeth, lick the nacho cheese filling out, then eat both pretzel halves. Right? That's how we all do it!…. OK, then.

Though most of the recipes in the book were fueled by nostalgia, and I worked diligently to hew as closely to the look and flavor of each original snack and treat as possible, Combos posed a challenge to all my rules. The closest and best solution I could devise, thanks to the help of fellow snack obsessive Amber Bracegirdle, was to make teeny pretzel rings that could be filled post-baking with homemade nacho cheese. Because of their small size and shape, there was only one way to eat these Combos: in one bite.

Surprise, surprise. The ground didn't crumble beneath my feet and swallow me whole when I was forced to deviate from my food-eating rules. In fact, I'll wager that a Combo tastes—wait for it—even better when eaten whole, as nature and Mars Corporation intended, with pretzel and cheese in one salty, crunchy, tangy package. The homemade Combos take a little more effort than pulling them out of a crinkly foil package, but they'll disappear just as quickly as the bagged bites do.

Combos
adapted from Classic Snacks Made from Scratch
YIELD: about 3 dozen filled pretzels
TOTAL TIME: 3 hours, including dough rising time

CHEESE FILLING

3 ounces (about 3/4 cup) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 ounce (about 1/4 cup) crumbled feta cheese
2 teaspoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

PRETZELS
1 1/2 cups (6 3/8 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast (not active dry or rapid-rise)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup warm water

POACHING LIQUID
4 cups (1 quart) water
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

TOPPING
1 large egg whisked with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
1 tablespoon pretzel salt or coarse sea salt

MAKE THE CHEESE FILLING:
Blend the cheeses, cream, sugar, salt, mustard powder, and garlic powder in a food processor until a smooth paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate, covered, while you make the pretzels.

MAKE THE PRETZELS:
Stir the flour, brown sugar, yeast, and salt together in a large bowl, then stir in the warm water until a shaggy dough forms. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. The dough should feel smooth and satiny.

Spritz a large, clean bowl with cooking spray or grease lightly with vegetable oil and place the dough inside. Spritz or grease a piece of plastic wrap and cover the bowl. Let the dough rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Transfer the dough to a clean, unfloured work surface and press into a rough 8-inch square. Slice the rectangle into 8 strips that are each 1 inch wide. Stretch each strip slightly to 12 inches in length and cut into pieces a little more than 1 inch long. (You should get 10 to 11 pieces from each strip.)

Roll each dough piece into a thin rope (no more than 1/8 inch thick) and twist it into a ring (like a small bagel or oversized Cheerio) approximately 1 inch in diameter. Make sure the ring’s center hole is fairly large, since you’ll be stuffing it with cheese once it’s been baked. Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat until all the dough has been turned into rings.

Freeze the rings for 1 hour.

POACH AND BAKE:
Preheat the oven to 375˚F and prepare the poaching liquid. Bring the 4 cups water to a simmer in a large, wide saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the baking soda and brown sugar and stir until dissolved. The water will foam slightly.

Gently drop the rings into the simmering water, a few at a time, and poach for 10 seconds. Remove using a slotted spoon or metal skimmer and return the rings to the baking sheets. If any of the pretzel holes have closed up, stretch them gently to reopen (you’ll need to fill these holes with cheese, so make sure they’re fairly wide).

Brush the poached pretzels with the egg wash and sprinkle with the pretzel salt or sea salt. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the pretzels are fully hardened, dark brown, and glossy. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

FILL THE PRETZELS:
Scoop a small amount of chilled cheese filling onto a mini spatula and swipe it across the flat (bottom) side of a cooled pretzel so that it presses through the hole. Repeat to fill all the pretzels.

Combos are best eaten the day they’re made: after a night in the refrigerator, they tend to get soggy.

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Cookistry Likes Cookies!

Bridget Edwards, author of Decorating Cookies and blogger at Bake at 350 answered some questions about her interest in ... (oh, yum!) COOKIES!

When did you get interested in baking and decorating cookies? 

In 2000, I left my job managing a retail store for the artist Mary Engelbreit to be a stay-at-home mom. The company always gave us these beautiful cookies-on-a-stick at our company meetings...and I was going to MISS those cookies. I set out to learn to make them.

What's your favorite cookie to make? 

I love making any type of rolled, cut-out cookie....sugar cookies, gingerbread, you name it. Something about the rolling and cutting is relaxing to me. I feel the same way about kneading bread.

What's your favorite cookie to eat?

Oh, a warm chocolate chip cookie...hands down.

When did you realize that cookie decorating would be a good subject for a book?

When I started my blog (Bake at 350) in 2007, I wanted to teach people how to create decorated cookies; it's easier than you might think. I knew if I could learn to do it, anyone could...it just needed to be presented in an easy-to-follow fashion. A book was always in the back of my mind, and luckily a wonderful publisher (Lark Crafts) with the same vision contacted me.

Were there any funny stories that related to writing/publishing/promoting the book?

Well, I think back to the six days that the photographer was in my kitchen, taking the step-by-step pictures. He really got to know cookie decorating well. On the plus side, he was able to eat them as we went along.

What's your favorite cookie in the book? Why?

That's tough...they're all my favorite for different reasons. As we're heading into Valentine's Day, my favorite is the Heart Robot. As a mom of a boy, I always feel like they get the short end of the stick on Valentine's Day...everything is so pink and girly. The robot is full of love, and also perfect for boys!

Are you planning a sequel?

We're in the process of coming up with ideas for book two. I couldn't be more excited! :)

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Quinoa Beet Salad and a Q&A with cookbook author Marika Blossfeldt

Marika Blossfeldt is the author of Essential Nourishment. Not only is she sharing her insights about the book - AND a recipe - but there's also a giveaway of three copies the book!

Q. What prompted you to write your first cookbook?

A. In 1995 I was very lucky to find a dilapidated, yet beautiful old farm called Polli Talu (meaning Polli’s farm) in my native country Estonia. It had always been my dream to live in the countryside, and buying this farm was a first step to living my dream.

Now, what would a dancer, choreographer, now yoga teacher do in the countryside? Well, I envisioned restoring the farm and transforming it into an international center for the visual, performing and healing arts. That took several summers of hard work – but in 1999 we opened the doors to the dance studio and began with our first events: a Reiki seminar, a yoga intensive and our first guest artist arrived to take up residency.
With the years we added an art studio, housed in the former stable and a writer’s studio, housed in the sauna building.

Now approaching its 15th season, summers are packed with inspiring workshops, rejuvenating retreats and lovely guests. Being in a rural area of Estonia, I was faced with the necessity of feeding my guests. First I simply followed my gut feeling (no pun intended), which is not such a bad thing at all, as it turns out with scientific research to back it: we actually have a second brain in the belly.

Intuitively I felt inspired to feed my guests simple wholesome meals made from natural ingredients. I remember thinking, if I make porridge for breakfast – at least they will get one serving of whole grains per day. And that seemed reassuring at the time. And, by the way, it is still our traditional breakfast fare at the farm.

Our guests really enjoyed the food I made and frequently asked me: so when are you going to write a cookbook? I put it off for many years, as I thought: surely this means a lot of work and will be very costly on top of it – which, as a self-published author now speaking from experience, really is true.

Comes 2004 and I decide that maybe it’s time to get some nutritional education, so that I’d be equipped to feed my guests balanced and nutrient-dense delicious meals. In my winter home, then NYC, a catalogue from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition arrives in my mailbox; I take one look and know, this is the school I want to go to.

Fast forward to 2007 - I have since graduated and become a health coach – back at the farm I am sitting around the dining table with the women in my week-long Passion, Purpose and Pleasure Wellness Retreat and the question comes up again: so when will you write your cookbook? My niece Ave is one of the participants and she looks at me and says: let’s do it and I look at her and say – OK – let’s do it! And thus she became the producer for the book and I the writer and artistic director.

Q What kind of a cookbook is it?

A Essential Nourishment is a beautifully designed cookbook and nutrition guide fusing an appreciation for the sensual pleasures of natural food with a common-sense approach to nourishment.

Each whole food recipe is easy to recreate and accompanied by a sensuous full-page photograph - taken at Polli's farm, an exquisitely serene environment. What I am trying to do, is seduce my readers to eat healthy.

Potentially life changing, Essential Nourishment is an inspiring, concise and very practical holistic lifestyle companion, weaving together food, art and the joy of living a healthy and fulfilling life with gentle, easy to implement suggestions for balanced eating, abundant energy and genuine well-being.

In Essential Nourishment, I share tips for eating well naturally without sacrificing taste and pleasure. My book makes it easy to:

• eat more foods that come straight from Mother Earth
• find and choose locally grown and raised food · cook meals at home with ease
• reduce your intake of factory-made, processed food
• learn to savor naturally sweet foods
• cut back on refined sugar and flour without giving up flavor
• incorporate healthful oils and fats into your diet
• avoid refined and hydrogenated oils
• enjoy plenty of pure water

By following my gentle guidelines, you will notice your body humming with joy and good vibrations.

Q Would you like to share a story from the making of your book?

A I love telling the story behind the cover image for the book. You know how sometimes (really most times) you have a very clear vision of what you would like something to look like and when you get around to making it, be it a painting or a photo, it looks so different from the image in your head? Not so with the cover shot.

From the time when I first started working on my farm, I remember taking out the old dining table and kitchen chairs to be able to enjoy a meal outside in the summer time – one of my favorite things to do – especially since I grew up in an apartment building without a garden. Everything tastes so much better in fresh air! It struck me how different a real table with chairs looked in the grass as opposed to the look of garden furniture. Something about that I just totally loved.

So when the time came to conjure up an enchanting cover shot, I remembered that image and envisioned a table setting in the middle of a wild meadow with tall grasses and dandelions. The table was set for a small dinner party with wine glasses and a vase filled with flowers. Since my book is all about natural foods, as close to Mother Nature as possible, I wanted to arrange whole uncooked foods on the table.

I imagined myself standing behind the table ready to greet my guests. I wanted the horizon to be above my head, so that I would be totally immersed in the green meadow. We found the perfect spot; we knew that the light would be best in the evening, when the sun would be golden and shining from just the right direction. We set everything up – careful not to disturb the dandelions that where past bloom and had turned into fluffy white balls of delicate tiny seed parachutes. Then I came on the stage.

What I did not expect where the thousands of mosquitoes that immediately attacked me. It was so bad that I could not think straight anymore. I did my best to look relaxed and happy, but truly, it was torture. I couldn’t wait for the shoot to be over, hoping that there would be at least one photo where my face doesn’t look like I am going mad.

And then the amazing thing happened. Out of the blue my cat came and decided to join us in the meadow. She went for the chair on the left, hopped on it and sat, dreamily looking into the distance. We took one more shot and that was the perfect picture. When I looked at it later on the computer screen I couldn’t believe my eyes. The photo was exactly how I had imagined, the feeling, the light, the composition and the icing on the cake was my beautiful kitty, perfectly poised, sweet and serene.

Q Would you like to share a recipe from your book?

A I would love to. There is one recipe that has become my signature recipe. It is a quinoa beet salad, easy to make, refreshingly delicious, looks gorgeous thanks to the intense color of the beets and can be enjoyed by vegans and gluten and lactose intolerant persons as well.

Quinoa Beet Salad
serves 6

Salad:
2 medium beets, tops removed, whole
2 cups (480 ml) water
1 cup (240 ml) quinoa, rinsed
2 pinches salt
1 bulb fennel, cut into small cubes
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 handful chopped basil plus a few leaves

Dressing:
juice of 1 to 2 lemons
4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Place the whole, unpeeled beets into a pot, add water to cover and boil until soft, about 40 to 60 minutes.

In a separate pot, bring the 2 cups (480 ml) of water to a boil and add the quinoa and salt. Bring to a second boil, then reduce the heat to its lowest setting and simmer, covered and untouched, for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Spread the cooked quinoa on a large plate to cool.

When the beets are soft, douse them in cold water until cool, then peel and cut them into small cubes.

Combine the cooked quinoa and beets in a bowl and add the fennel, scallions and chopped basil.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a glass jar. There should be about twice as much lemon juice as oil. Close the lid and shake to mix.

Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Let the salad marinate for at least ½ hour.

Just before serving, toss gently and adjust lemon juice and seasoning if necessary.

Garnish with basil leaves and serve with a green salad.

The Essential Nourishment GIVEAWAY

Three lucky participants will win a copy of ESSENTIAL NOURISHMENT.

We’ll mail your book for free to anywhere in the world.

To win a copy of Essential Nourishment, simply follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Go to the book’s FB page www.facebook.com/EssentialNourishment and click “Like” 
2. Find the GIVE AWAY post and click “Share” 
3. Share it on your wall.

Hurry – offer ends January 20, 2013

Want to know more about the book?

Check out the book trailer on YouTube.

Essential Nourishment is on Facebook
Polli Talu is on Facebook
Marika is on Twitter

You can find Marika on her website
The Polli Talu has a blog

You can purchase Essential Nourishment at:
Marika's site
Amazon

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Rabbit in Red Wine Sauce (Lapin au Vin Rouge)

Guest post  by S.J. Perry
The Arrogant Chef

One of my all-time favourite foods is rabbit. When I was young, I remember coming home from school in the winter and seeing a number of dead rabbits at the entrance to our house. Normally this would have been a terrible sight except that I knew that my father would soon turn this into a culinary delight.

This is somewhat of a French-Canadian take on rabbit. Of course back then it was always wild rabbit but today farmed rabbit is available in many specialty markets.

Farmed rabbit has an excellent mild flavour, very similar to chicken some say, but I believe it has a taste all of its own. Once people get over the fact that they are eating rabbit most would agree that it is far superior to chicken, in both taste and texture. The following recipe is a combination of my father's with a few ingredients from other recipes that I have tasted. I guarantee you will love it. (Just forget it is rabbit.)

Lapin au Vin Rouge (Rabbit in Red Wine)

2 1/2 pound rabbit, cut into pieces.
100 grams black olives, stoned
2 medium sized onions
2 large cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
9 fl ounces of red wine
1 tin (14 ounces) of peeled tomatoes
4 Tablespoons of oil
60 grams (2 ounces) butter
250 grams mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoons of sugar
salt and pepper

Peel and finely slice the onions. Crush the cloves of garlic, unpeeled. Puree the tomatoes and season generously with the sugar.

Heat the oil in a sauté pan. Add half the butter and brown the rabbit, onions, garlic, and olives over very low heat. Then increase the heat and add the wine. Turn the rabbit pieces all the time until the wine has completely evaporated. Pour in the tomato puree, add the bay leaf, season with salt and pepper and cover the pan with a lid. Cook for 1 hour over a low heat.

While the rabbit cooks wash and wipe the mushrooms and cut them into thin strips. Put the remaining butter in the frying pan and sauté the mushrooms until golden brown and then season with salt and pepper and transfer them into the sauté pan together with their cooking fat.

After 1 hour check whether the rabbit is cooked. It should be tender and the meat should easily come off the bone. Then reduce the sauce, until desired thickness.

Pour the contents of the sauté pan into a dish and serve at once.

Enjoy!

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Inside the Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook

If you read this blog, I'm guessing that you like cookbooks. Am I right? Maybe you collect them. Maybe you hoard them. You might even read them like novels.

Have you ever wondered about the people who wrote the cookbooks that you love so much? About what inspired them? About what frustrated them?

Well then, I've got a deal for you. I've rounded up some cookbook authors, and I'll be featuring them here. Some will be guest posts, some will be Q&A, some authors might be very familiar to you, and I'm hoping to introduce you to some new authors and new cookbooks as well.

The first authors I'm featuring are Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin, authors of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook. I wrote about it - twice - quite a while back, but now you  get to hear directly from the authors.

Dining Like Draper: 
How The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook Came to Be

If you grew up near New York City in the 1960s, as we did, you know Mad Men, though filmed largely in Los Angeles, evokes 1960s Manhattan with arresting accuracy. Everything feels right about it: from the furniture and the narrow neckties to the restaurants and the food. And Mad Men drew us in for another reason: it evoked the adult world our parents inhabited and which we only glimpsed through a child’s eyes. Mad Men was a window into their lives. We don’t think their world was quite as dark as Don and Rogers, but it wasn’t Leave it to Beaver, either.

Judy has written several cookbooks pairing food with literature, so it wasn’t a huge stretch to see why she was so curious about the food and drink in Mad Men. How did Sardi’s prepare the Hearts of Palm Salad that we see Don Draper order for Bobbi Barrett? Was it still on the menu? How would Don make an Old Fashioned? What would the staff at Sterling Cooper be drinking after hours at P.J. Clarke’s? Did Keen’s Chophouse still prepare its Caesar Salad tableside and, if so, was the recipe still the same?

Many assume our book is simply a 1960s cookbook and ask if our book has recipes for jello mold or tuna noodle casserole. Our goal wasn’t to write a ‘60s cookbook, but to create a cookbook true to Mad Men with recipes for food and drink that appear in Mad Men or are mentioned or were served at the restaurants depicted in the show. And every recipe had to authentic to the times. Each recipe in our book ties into a specific scene in Mad Men.

Historical context was also important to us. For example, why all the Mai Tais? The quick answer is that with the recent addition of Hawaii to the Union, Americans were fascinated with Polynesian culture, including the food and drink. This was the era of the Tiki restaurants such as Trader Vic’s serving up Americanized versions of Polynesian foods. Why the many French restaurants? Julia Child had just burst on the scene and was popularizing the French cuisine in her new book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And America’s royalty, President and Mrs. Kennedy, were so fond of French food they hired a French chef as their White House chef. For Mad Men fans who are also foodies, we thought this kind of gastronomic history would enhance their appreciation of Mad Men and the pinpoint accuracy of its recreation of 1960s New York.

Our first step in creating The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook was to note every item of food and every restaurant seen or mentioned in the show from Spam to ham, from caviar to Chicken Kiev; from absinthe and crème de menthe to Canadian Club whisky and Smirnoff’s vodka; from Keens Chophouse (now Keens Steakhouse) and the Forum of the Twelve Caesars (now defunct) to Barbetta and the Grand Central Oyster Bar.

Our next step was to obtain as many recipes as possible from the restaurants, bars and hotels featured in the show that are still operating today. If the recipe had changed over the years, as it had, for example, for the Grand Central Oyster Bar’s Oysters Rockefeller, we wanted the recipe for the version served in 1962, when Roger and Don dined there. Sometimes a concoction we were looking for had long since been extinct. The Beverly Hills Hotel hasn’t served a Royal Hawaiian cocktail in decades, but since Pete Campbell sips one poolside on a visit to L.A. we wanted the privilege of tasting one, too, and the Beverly Hills Hotel was able to oblige, though they had to dig deep to find the recipe.

Next we pored over hundreds of period cookbooks, magazines, and advertisements (after all, Mad Men is about the advertising industry), not only for recipes, but to learn about the dining and culinary trends of the era. We also looked for cookbooks the characters might have used, or those we saw on their kitchen counters in Mad Men. When Joan Harris (formerly Holloway) made that crown roast in her tiny kitchen to serve at a dinner party, we turned to The Small Kitchen Cookbook by Nina Mortellito (Walker and Company, 1964) for a recipe. When Pete Campbell asks his new wife to make rib eye in the pan, we thought a logical cookbook selection for Trudy cooking for her “ad man” would have been The Madison Avenue Cookbook by Alan Koehler (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962).

This year, we’ve enjoyed chronicling the food and drink from each episode of Season 5 of Mad Men on our blog, from the vegetable cutlets served at Ratner’s Deli, where Paul Kinsey and Harry Crane meet for a meal, to the beef bourguignon Megan cooks up for Don, to products Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is pitching such as Heinz Baked Beans and Cool Whip.

As Mad Men’s sixth season approaches, we look forward to renewing our pursuit inside the kitchens, bars, and restaurants of Mad Men.

—JUDY GELMAN AND PETER ZHEUTLIN

You can buy The Official Mad Men Cookbook on Amazon

For more about the book and the authors:

Website:  http://www.unofficialmadmencookbook.com/
Blog: http://unofficialmadmencookbook.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unofficialmadmencookbook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DineLikeDraper
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dinelikedraper/
Gift Guide:  http://www.unofficialmadmencookbook.com/HolidayGiftGuide.htm

Thanks to Judy and Peter for guest posting on my blog!

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Carrot and Applesauce Cake - and an interesting mixing method

Guest post  by Frank Shin
Life Moves Pretty Fast

I recently got a new Vitamix Blender. Given that I already own a stick blender, and a decent mixer, I never would have purchased one, but, while looking through my Air Miles reward options the other day, I came upon the Vitamix. On a whim, I clicked OK, and received the new blender about a week later (really impressive shipping time, Air Miles!)

Being a guy, I was naturally sucked in by it's car-like features. "Powerful 2-Peak Horsepower Motor" that propels the blade tip "to speeds up to 240 miles per hour"! It had a "Radial cooling fan and thermal protection system". The blades are "laser-cut, stainless steel hammermill". The 64 ounce container is "BPA free Eastmann Triton Copolyester". (Not sure what that means, exactly, but it sounds so damn good.)

I swear, it sounded like I was getting a new car, so I do hand it to whoever does the marketing for these guys. And I was getting for "free"!

Anyway, I am impressed with how well it blends everything, from ice, to frozen fruit, to hard vegetables, to nuts, to whatever. I would highly endorse one, if you can get over the price. Here's something I made with Liv today, using the blender. You could easily grate the carrots and sub in applesauce if you don't have a high powered monster like this. Enjoy.

Carrot and Applesauce Cake 
(Adapted from the Vitamix Create Recipes Book)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup White Whole Wheat Flour (I like King Arthur)
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Egg Whites
2 apples, quartered ( I just left in the seeds)
2 medium carrots

Instructions

Heat Oven to 350 F and spray Loaf Pan with cooking spray

Whisk together flours, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon

Pour egg whites, apples and carrots into Vitamix Blender.

Crank Blender up to 10 and tamp down ingredients for about 30 seconds to liquify everything.

Fold wet ingredients into dry.

Pour mixture into loaf pan

Bake for about 25 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out cleanly.

We iced ours with a little icing sugar glaze, but it also tastes great on its own.
Let me know how this turns out for you!

    

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Stupendously Simple Beef

Guest Post by Maurita Plouff

There are lazy days, and then there are busy days. A lazy day might be rainy or gloomy, with a bit of chill in the air - a perfect day to snuggle in a favorite chair with a quilt, a book, and a mug of tea. A busy day takes me out of the house for hour after hour, working,  running errands or involved with some important project. 

This is the perfect supper for either day. In fact, I like to cook as much of this as my oven will hold, because the uses of the leftovers are so fabulous.

Stupendously Simple Beef

beef chuck roast, 2-3 inches thick

salt

freshly ground pepper

Looks simple, right? Oh, it is. Heat your oven to 250˚ F. That's not a typo: two hundred fifty degrees. Get as many chuck roasts as you like. Put them in one, or more, baking dishes or low roasting pans, so that they fit snugly, all in one layer. If you have a lot of roasts, use multiple pans. I find that two average chuck roasts fit well in a 9x13 Pyrex baking dish. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Cover the pans with foil (no, it doesn't matter whether shiny side is in or out) and stick 'em in the oven. Bake, blissfully unattended, for about 5 hours.

At the end of the cooking time, the beef will be thoroughly browned on top, and will be fork tender and ready to fall apart. Carefully remove the beef to a carving board, and let it rest, covered with foil while you deal with the liquid. Pour off all the liquid - there will be a surprising amount! - into a fat separator, and let stand 10 minutes or so. At this point you can pour off the fat, and use the liquid to make gravy (if you like). If you're cooking ahead, you can just pour all of it into a storage vessel, refrigerate it, and lift off the solidified fat from the top the next day.

Now here's the best part about this beef: how to use it! Of course there's a delicious pot roast dinner (I like mine with gravy, mashed potatoes, and veggies of the season). But if you've made extra, think of all the great things you can do with the meat! Some ideas are listed here, but I'm sure you'll come up with your own great plans:

Shredded, season as you prefer, put in beef tacos

Shredded or chunked, mix with your favorite barbeque sauce

Chunked, in beef vegetable soup (with or without barley) - use the de-fatted liquid in here! Amazingly good.

In pot roast sandwiches

Pot roast hash (use some of that liquid, plus cream and ketchup)

    

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Samoa Shortbread

Guest post by the Food Floozie!

It's November now ... I can hardly believe it. I'm behind on my holiday baking.

I don't do much shopping for gifts - my son Jeremy, who's 21, obviously receives presents. My boyfriend will receive something for Chrismakkuh, since each of us celebrates both Christmas and Chanukkah. That's pretty much it.

Everyone else gets cookies.

So I start my baking early, in order to have enough to go 'round for family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, mail carriers, condo maintenance workers ... and, of course, lil' ol' me. Gotta be vigilant about quality control, right???

And shortbread cookies are just about my favorites. Whether I make simple old-fashioned treats, or stir in some candied ginger or grated citrus peel, or add cocoa to make a chocolate dough ... well, there are countless variations.  Shortbread cookies freeze and defrost well, which makes them practical.

But most of all, they're just rich, buttery, crumbly, and delicious!

Samoa Shortbread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening, softened

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached flour

5 Girl Scouts Samoas cookies, chopped

Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease a 9"x9" baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening; mix in egg, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract.  Stir in flour until mixture is crumbly, then press dough into prepared pan.  Sprinkle chopped cookies over the top of the dough, and press in lightly.

Bake for 40 minutes, until edges of cookies are golden. Let cool completely.

Trim 1/2" from all edges, reserving the trimmings as your reward for baking. Cut the remaining block of shortbread into 4 columns, then across into 6 rows.

Makes 24 cookies.

    

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Lemon Rice Soup: A Different Take on Comfort

Guest Post by Charles Turnipseed

Charles is a prolific and amazing cook but his current passion is his cat rescue work. Please take some time to read his blog, Purrfect Cat Rescue.

A recent post by fellow guest blogger Pavlov also took on the topic of comfort food. I find the subject interesting since what comforts one person is not necessarily what comforts another, but there is usually some common ground. Weeknight dinners from your childhood, holiday meals, that roadside diner that makes gravy by the vat, Grandma's kitchen—this is where the talk often turns when the subject is comfort food. The conversations also gravitate towards the meals of fall and winter: macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, goulash, biscuits with gravy—rich substantial fare.

This is where I always get all controversial.

A perfect tomato is one of my greatest comforts. Toast smeared with freshly made jam. Toast smeared with avocado. Berries. Fresh herbs in everything. Homemade Ranch dressing on a wedge of iceberg. Homemade Green Goddess tossed with Bibb lettuce. A pie or tart bursting with nectarines and plums. Clearly, summer is my season of comfort. I hadn’t really considered it before sitting down to write this, but despite my finding comfort in different foods from that of a lot of people, the reasons behind it are probably the same.

I didn’t grow up in a family of serious cooks—aside from special occasions and holidays, there were a lot of convenience foods and shortcuts. But during summer when produce was plentiful and fresh, and the days lasted longer, we cooked “from scratch” a lot. Thinking back to Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Memorial Day, and all the other spring and summer holidays past, I realize how well we ate and how those foods are still a big part of me. These simpler, lighter foods illicit a similar response in me as would a pot of steaming stew for someone who grew up with harsh New England winters.

I do make and enjoy food with more heft and complexity—hearty soups and stews, slowly cooked tomato sauces, meatloaf and shepherd’s pie, but when my soul needs comforting I am more likely to close my eyes and dream of a summer BBQ, a bowl of berries with cream, or a wedge of watermelon.

The recipe that follows is a good middle ground between the more conventional take on comfort food and my own: it’s filling, warm, and nourishing, but lemon rind and juice make it sparkle with a spring-time freshness, and with winter not that long off, I find the promise of spring a true comfort.

Lemon Rice Soup
(inspired by the classic Greek recipe with some liberties taken)

This is one of those recipes that—despite being really good—is easily thrown together after a long day. If you’re really pressed for time, you can skip the sauté of onions, they add a little sweetness to balance the lemon but the soup is fine without them. Whether or not to add the chicken is up to you; I rarely do, but for those who feel they need some meat to “make it a meal” go right ahead.

And finally, you can beat the eggs in one two ways—white and yolks separated, or as one. The latter results in a creamy but thin broth, and the former creates a frothy soup, almost like a savory zabaglione.

1 large white or yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil
½ cup starchy rice, such as Arborio or Calrose
1 bay leaf
1 quart chicken broth, additional as needed
The grated rind of 1 lemon and the juice of two
2 eggs, separated
1 cup of cooked, cubed or shredded chicken breast (optional)
Salt
Unsalted butter (optional)
Freshly ground pepper

Heat the butter or oil in a large saucepan and add the onions; cook, covered, over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until they become translucent and tender with bits of golden here and there. Add the rice and bay leaves and cook, stirring, until the rice takes on a chalky
look. Add the broth and lemon rind; bring to a simmer, lower the heat so it gently bubbles and cook, covered, until the rice is barely tender (this can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes depending on the rice you use).

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until they are thick and fluffy but don’t quite hold soft peaks, beat in the yolks and half the lemon juice. Set aside.

When the rice is ready, raise the heat and bring it to a near boil then remove from the heat. Add the chicken to the soup if you are using it. Whisking all the time, slowly add about 1 ½ cups of the hot soup to the beaten eggs. Gradually pour the mixture back into the pot, stirring as you do. Taste for lemon juice, adding in as much of the balance as you like, then check for salt.

Serve right away with a pepper grinder at the table, and, if you like, a little slip of butter on each serving. The soup is fine as is, but lemon and butter really like each other.

Makes two generous or four small servings.

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