Appologies

I'm sorry that I haven't been as frequent with my posts this past week. I'm headed to Florida on Saturday and I have a lot to do before my husband and I will be anywhere near ready to leave.
In the meantime, here are some pictures from a barbeque fest I recently hosted for a friend's birthday. Basically, we picked up some BBQ sauce from Blue Ribbon in West Newton and grilled some chicken breasts. We then shredded the breasts and poured in the BBQ sauce and left the whole thing to marinate for a couple of hours. This was a really great way to do homemade BBQ for a bunch of people. I also made cornbread, salad, green beans with butter and the drink for the evening was fresh lemonaid with vodka. I highly recommend this menu if you have a bunch of peole since it was easy to do and easy to make into a buffet style meal. I wish I had gotten a picture of the full spread it looked awesome.

I leave you with a picture of the three different BBQs complete with sauce until I have a chance to post about the spice cake I made for this event.

Stuff to Eat in the Suburbs: Newton—Taste Coffee House

Word of mouth is what brought this Bostonist to Taste Coffee House, while running errands in Newton. Taste is raved about by foodies and locals alike—and for good reason. Their pastries and breads are all local, hailing from Iggy’s in West Cambridge, and everything else on the menu is made in-house from the finest ingredients. Above all else, Taste is dedicated to brewing delicious coffee, which means that they only brew quality beans from local roasters such as George Howell and Barismo. The owner, twenty-four year old Nikolas Krankl, is also the barista—and a fine one he is too. He recently placed 2nd in the Northeast Regional Barista Competition a fact that is proudly displayed in a bright homemade sign behind the barista station.

In addition to good food and great coffee, Taste offers customers a comfortable, down-to-earth atmosphere. Absent are the disinterested baristas and annoyed customers that plague other coffee shops. At Taste, everyone seems truly happy to be there. Upon entering, you find your eyes drawn to the chalkboard wall menu boasting everything from breakfast to crepes and sandwiches. Then, of course, there’s the coffee. The small coffee menu is behind the bar, and can sometimes be a little difficult to see or read while standing in line. However, don’t be deterred. Taste is definitely the kind of place where, if you want it, you can probably get it, whether or not it’s on the menu. Small tables and chairs invite customers to take a load off while they wait, enjoy their coffee and a bite, or just sit and hang out with a laptop or a friend. Despite their limited space, Taste encourages customers to make themselves at home by offering a small collection of board games. If all of this wasn’t enough to make Taste a favorite, the shop also serves beer and wine! And what about the coffee, you ask? Well, the latte that this Bostonist sampled was both artistic and delicious, and the iced mocha was the perfect blend of coffee and chocolate—not too sweet and not the slightest bit bitter. We will definitely be going back to enjoy a fantastic cup of Joe with friends soon.

Original posted on the Bostonist.

Chili Take 2 : White Chili

Now, I have been wanting to try this one for years and I've never gotten around to it. All of the pictures I have seen have just made me drool though, so I was determined to give it a try. For this one I didn't follow a specific recipe, there are some aspects of the Kerrygold recipe in there as well as some others that I found. Mostly, if I liked the idea I put it in there. My biggest problem, it wouldn't thicken, so I ended up taking a trick from one of the premade chili kits I had and added a packet of masa ( or corn flour) this stuff worked perfectly and I ended up with a nice thick chili that was colorful and delicious.

Three bean Chicken chili


1 lb. chicken breast, cubed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
1 yellow pepper diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 small can of mild green chiles (with liquid)
1 can Great Northern beans, drained
1 can navy beans
1 can cannaleni beans
28 oz chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
green tobasco for kick


Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan. Sauté the onion, garlic, celery, and pepper together. When onions and celery are soft, add the chicken and sauté for a few minutes. Pour in the beans, broth, and chilis. Bring the contents to boil and season to taste with salt and pepper and add the rest of the seasonings. If it is not thickening, use a tablespoon of Masa (corn flour).Reduce to simmer and cook for 45 minutes until the liquid thickens to desired consistency. Serve with jack cheese and tortilla chips or fritos.

Stuff to Eat in the Suburbs: Wellesley — Susu Bakery

Wellesley isn’t exactly what people think of when they are looking for a suburban food destination. The perception is that it’s difficult to get to by car or T, the people tend to be a little on the snobby side, it’s a dry town, and well, everything is really expensive. But this Bostonist has found a few gems that are well worth the trek out to Wellesley, and Susu bakery is one of them. Tucked away in a corner of Wellesley center, Susu is a sophisticated bakery with an elegant flare. Their delightful dining room boasts large tables with big comfortable chairs and booths, perfect for a lunch with the

girls or a quiet moment to yourself. Their lunch menu is simple but covers most of the basics with soup, salad, quiche, and sandwiches. Their chicken salad is particularly fine and will have you craving more about a week after your first taste, but come early, as they do run out of it. Despite the delicious lunch fare, the real attraction here is the baked goods.

This Bostonist considers herself something of a cupcake expert. She’s tried cupcakes from establishments all over town, and from Sweet to the South End Buttery, all have been disappointing. All, that is, except Susu. Here, the chocolate cupcakes are just the right balance of chocolate and sweet. They are neither so dry that they crumble nor so moist that they are sticky. The vanilla cupcakes are equally noteworthy - light and fluffy with just the right amount of vanilla, not overpowering. The cupcake feels like it might float away. In a world of mediocre frostings, Susu’s stands high above them all. The chocolate is a perfect balance of sugar and cocoa, and the vanilla has a wonderfully smooth texture and a taste that will have you straining not to lick it right off the top of the cupcake. And if you’re a coconut lover, you owe it to yourself to try one of the coconut cupcakes. All of these delicious little treasures translate into full cakes flawlessly, and cute decorations on cupcakes become elegantly designed cake masterpieces when translated to full size.

But cupcakes aren’t the only thing you’ll find at Susu. Their scones, cookies, and brownies are also well worth the trip. This Bostonist even had a passion fruit tart topped with meringue once that was such a perfect balance of sweet, tart, and fluffy meringue that she has never looked at passion fruit the same way.

While pricey, this is Wellesley - Susu is well worth the trip and the expense for the hig h quality of baked good with elegant attention to detail. This will remain a favorite of this Bostonist for a long time to come.

Chili round 1 vegetarian chili

I know this is not the best picture but come on, its vegetarian chili

I admit it, I've always been intimidated by chili. My mom made a pretty good one, my Stepmother makes a great one and mine has always fallen short. So, in honor of my friend Ron, this Friday I set out to make a decent chili. I had three different types in mind. A vegetarian chili, for my veggie friends, a white chili, and a regular kidney and black bean chili. Thanks to foodgawker and tastespotting I had plenty of recipes to choose from so I took the ingredient list of the five recipes I thought most promising and I set out for the stores. First hurdle, the chilis. In recipes, people label their chilis things like hatch chilis and medium/ small mild chilis or chipolte chilis are bandied about with little regard in most chili recipes.

The problem with this.... the grocery stores, even the nice specialty ones, label their chilis, chilis. That's it, sometimes their green or occasionally jalapeno, but other than that a girl is on her own. Now, I'm not a big spice fan but I figure that there is a reason that chili's typically go into these things. As a woman who used to shun Mushrooms and has since discovered their usefulness as flavor enhancers (though I still think texturally they are vile) I made a decision to stick with the chilis. However, in light of the overwhelming plethora of options I have to say I chickened out and went for the little ortega cans that said mild on them. Still, you gotta admire me sticking to my principals right. :)

Anyway on to the chili. This exercise started out very precise. I began with the vegetarian chili, my closest veggie friend is a picky eater and not a big spice woman herself so I wanted to make sure that I took great care with this one and made it right. Hence, the starting chili. I measured everything very precisely, and made sure that all of the ingredients were chopped very finely. I added them according to directions and I even bougth fake meat for her.
Well, the veggie chili turned out very well, thank you very much and I am a general veggie hater. I even added the fake meat and, you know what. It didn't really taste like anything but it sure texured like ground beef.

Here's the recipe:

• 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp (40 L) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• two 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• two 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• one 28-oz (794 mL) can diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp (30 mL) tomato paste
• 1/4 cup salsa, mild
  
• 2 Tbsp
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) cumin
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dried oregano
• one package of fake ground meat of your choice
  

Instructions

1. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the oil and onion. Saute for 3 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
2. Add the carrots, red pepper and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add the black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, tomato pasta, salsa, chili powder, cumin, oregano and basil. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the carrots are cooked.
4. Add the package of fake meat. Serve.

Easter

This Easter we went to my friend Pam's house, which was great because I didn't have to make dinner. Instead I got to volunteer for dessert. The request from my host was " something fruity". So I decided to give a strawberry tart a try. (I also made cupcakes because there were going to be kiddies there.) I found this recipe on Tastespotting and I was astounded at how easy it was.

The first major hurdle; I didn't have a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom, I only had an 11 inch one. On my first try I figured, what's the difference, but the tart shell ended up coming out really thin, so the second try I made a double batch ( not easy in a standard cuisinart) and pushed as much as I thought necessary, the rest of the dough I pressed into little tart shells just to see if it would work, it did. The next problem was the cooking time, at 350 degrees, it needed 20 minutes, 25 burned it.

I have to say I have never worked with Mascarpone cheese before and I really enjoyed it I will definitely be trying to find more places to incorporate this newfound ingredient into my life. I even took the filling and tweaked it for another purpose (more on that in another post).

The only other problem that I encountered was my strawberries. They were distinctly out of season, and thus too tart and watery. The solution? Powered sugar tapped through a sieve over the berries before they were placed on the tart.

I made the crust the night before and let it sit out so that it would be ready for topping when I got up the next morning and it worked out really well. I highly recommend this dessert for dinner parties or any social gathering really. It is really easy to make and looks absolutely lovely.

• 3/4 cup sliced almonds

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

• 2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

• 8 ounces mascarpone cheese

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 cups fresh raspberries or strawberries

Preheat oven to 350F. In a food processor, pulse almonds and granulated sugar until finely ground, being careful to stop before they turn into nut butter. Add flour and salt and pulse to blend. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. With motor running, add egg, egg yolk, and almond extract and whirl until dough comes together. It will be sticky but that's ok.

Press dough evenly into the bottom (not the sides) of a 10-in. tart pan with removable rim. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then remove rim. You can let this sit overnight to cool and it will be fine in the morning.

IMelt chocolate in the top of a double boiler, stir in 2 tbsp. cream. Spread chocolate on crust and let cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat remaining 1/2 cup cream to firm peaks ( no worries if you over beat it it'll still be fine). Beat in mascarpone, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Spread on chocolate-coated crust. Arrange strawberries on top. Serve tart immediately or cover with plastic wrap and chill up to overnight

Original recipe found on Berkley Cooking.

C is for cookie

I know I should be making cookies shaped like bunnies, chicks or easter eggs at this time of year, and that might come later on this week, but all I really want is a chocolate chip cookie. So last night after I made dinner and settled my husband in with his video game I did just that. These aren't particularly inventive, heck they aren't even my usual recipe, just good old nestle toll house chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes its best to just stick to the basics. More baking adventures this weekend as I prepare for Easter at my friend's parents house.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups Nestle chocolate chips

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each additionand and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.