Archive for Super Easy Recipe!
Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad
Apparently I’ve been doing alot of cooking with vino- and vino is a good thing… And there’s never too much of a good thing!
Weather here in LA has been warming up finally and warm weather makes me seriously crave salads. I threw this salad together earlier this week and thought it was so beautiful and tasty I just had to share it with you. I obviously eat lots of sweets, which makes it so important for me to pay close attention to what I am eating in every other meal. This was filling and satisfying and super healthy. So here’s my Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad recipe.
Ingredients:
-1 lb. thin cut boneless chicken breasts
-1 cup red wine
-1 cup chicken stock
-1/2 cup water
-2 tablespoons dried sage
-2 cups red leaf lettuce- rinsed, dried and chopped
-1/2 cup grape tomatoes
-1 tablespoon goat cheese
-salt and pepper
-Balsamic Vinaigrette, or your fav. salad dressing.
Directions: Combine wine, chicken stock, water and sage in pan- bring to a boil. Salt and pepper the chicken then add to pan. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook chicken 7 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan and let rest a couple minutes. Combine lettuce, tomato and goat cheese. Toss in dressing. Slice chicken and top the salad. Salt and pepper to taste! Done!
So easy, so tasty, so healthy! Enjoy!
Happy Baking and Poaching!
-Kristy
Scones and Jam!
This past Thursday night I had another cooking date with my good friend Minh. This time around, I got to do a little baking and teaching. Minh had approached me for some help with creating a gift basket for a friend who was recently engaged. She was including lots of teas, curd and other exciting treats in the basket and wanted to include some jam and scones- a couple things I am well versed in!
We decided to use this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Scones. So there’s a good chance it might have been the 2 bottles of wine we working on, but we made 3 batches- 1 was fab, 2 were alright. The flavor was great in all three batches, but we struggled a bit with the shape and consistency. After thinking about it further yesterday with a non-wine influenced brain, here are a few changes I would make to the recipe: 1. Increase the flour from 2 cups to 2 and a half cups to improve the consistency of the dough– I found it to be a bit too flimsy at times. 2. Add the juice from 1/2 a lemon to increase the lemony flavor. 3. Use fresh, clean and dry raspberries- we used frozen which created far more liquid than we anticipated.
Despite needing a few tweeks, this is a pretty kick-ass scone recipe. My BF and I gobbled up the rest of the busted looking leftovers in just a couple days- which was both a good thing and bad thing! They were, as I said before, super delish and tasty- the combo of the lemon and raspberry was lovely. But having two for breakfast yesterday and today may have been a bit too much! Good thing I did an hour long cardio work out today… and have another scheduled in tomorrow!
Onto the jam- I love jam- my new Cali plates on my car actually say “Jam.” and, I kid you not, I did not request it- it was just a stroke of luck. Anyways, once I started making Jam I realized it was alot easier than I anticipated. I use a recipe that was provided to me by Lisa Baker Morgan, the Chef and owner of Ciao Yummy. Combine 1lb. fruit, 10 oz sugar (I like to use a little less) and 2 tbs lemon juice in a bowl and set in the fridge over night. The next day, add your pectin, and boil down until the jam hold it shape and does not spread on a frozen plate. And Done! So Easy!
We made 3 batches of jam along with the 3 batches of scones- Bruise-Berry Jam (Blackberry and blueberry), Strawberry, and Raspberry-Strawberry. They were beautful! The color of homemade jam is so vibrant and stunning. On top of that, they were obvi super tasty and sooo much better than store bought.
Minh called me this AM to tell me what a huge hit her gift bakset was, which I was super happy to hear. Homemade gift such as these, I think are the most thoughtful and, pardon my nerdiness here, so extra special. I would love to hear about some of the homemade gift some of you readers have given to friends and family- or if you have a fantasticly creative idea, post that as well!
Happing Baking and Jamming!
-Kristy
Pot… opps… type-o… Port Brownies!
Although I should be in the kitchen 
making another 100 cookies- I am having a lazy evening and thought a little blogging would be a good idea.
Back in Feb. my boyfriend and I took a trip to South Lake Tahoe, CA for a relaxing weekend away. My BF hit the slopes while I found the spa and a a few wineries. While doing a tasting a the Picchetti Winery Tasting Room, I fell in love with their dessert Port Wine. The fantastic gentleman behind the counter doing the pouring described how his wife adds the port wine to brownies to make a fab. dessert— OMG she is a genius!
So here’s the scoop, take your fav. brownie recipe (or box brownie) and substitute in the port wine for whatever liquid is required the recipe- bake as directed and you’re done! The flavor definitely changes to a more sophisticated, rich chocolate. Its such a simple, and great way to change up a typical dessert to something a bit more exciting. Give them a try! Let me know how you like them!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Merry Christmas!… I mean Belated Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I know, it’s a little late, but better late than never! I am really excited to share my Christmas Day meal with you. Usually my boyfriend and I make the big trip across the country back to Boston to spend the holidays with our family. This year we decided to stay here in LA and I was super pumped to make my first big Christmas dinner. Even though it was just Matt and I, I made a 6 pound Prime Rib Roast, with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Sauteed Asparagus. Dessert was one of Matt’s traditions, A Classic Apple Pie. But before I dive into the roast, check out my tree! It was perfect— short, fat and plump! And sparkled with White, Gold and Silver Ornaments!
Onto the roast. I did my research prior to making my decision on how to make a roast. There are so many different ways to cook and prep them. Slow roast on low heat, cook it fast on high heat, or even cook them in a clay pot in your oven (yes, my sister tried this method!) I found this recipe here by Ida (Barefoot Contessa) that got rave reviews on FoodNetwork.com. Since this was my first, I stuck to the recipe instead of making any significant alteration. This was a high heat- fast cookin’ recipe, so before I did anything, I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed my oven to make sure I would not get any smoke or fire from the 500 degree oven. Scrubbing your oven is a must prior to cooking anything at such a high heat!
So I rub her (the roast of course!) down well with lots of salt, pepper and fresh crushed garlic, put her in a glass pan and into the oven she goes. The first 30 minutes or so was no issue. She was cooking up well and I had no smoke… awesome! Then a little bit of smoke billowed from the oven… no need to worry, I must have just missed a spot… okay time to turn the oven down… fab.. smoke stopped… and she looks beautiful! Fab! 45 minutes later I up the heat again to 450… and oh god… the smoke… it wouldn’t stop! I had 2 fans going, had to temporarily take out my smoke detectors, open all the windows in our little LA apt and smoke was just seeping out of every crevice of the oven possible… there I as panicking that I was about to set my kitchen on fire and I just couldn’t figure out what had happened or where all this smoke was coming from!
After a frantic 30 minutes, the roasts internal temp finally hit 145 degree and she could come out a rest. That’s when I found the smoke culprit… my glass roasting pan had cracked through the center and all the wonderfully tasty drippings were slowing flowing there way to bottom of my newly cleaned oven. Bummer! Luckily I did not burn down my kitchen and was able to save what was left of the drippings in the pan for a delicious gravy! And, I learned a valuable lesson— never use a glass roasting pan with an oven heated to 500 degrees!
Despite a smoky mis-hap, the roast was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!! (Had a bit of a smokey flavor too!) The whole meal was fab! I was super full after one serving— but my BF went back for seconds and thirds (and going back for more is always a good thing!) My first Christmas Dinner= A tasty success!
Dessert, as I mentioned above, was a traditional apple pie. Believe it or not, I am not a huge pie fan. I like it from time to time, but I’ll take a layer cake over a pie any day. My BF, on the other hand is the complete opposite of me. He could eat pie for every meal and not even give a cake a second glance. For him its not a Christmas without a pie- so I stuck to apple. (I have to say his mom make a kick-ass apple pie, so I have some kind of idea why he likes it so much!) I have to admit I cheated a little bit too… usually I would have made my dough for the crust from scratch, but as I was more concerned with the success of my prime rib, I bought the Pillsbury Ready Made Pie Dough. I prepped the pie earlier in the day, that way when we were ready for dessert, I could pop it in and we could have warm pie fresh from the oven—mmmm— that’s the kinds of pie I like! I made it a bit festive too by using Christmas Tree Cookie Cutter on top for ventilation, instead of just scoring with a knife. I love adding those little touches to make food a bit more exciting!
Anyway… we ate pie (which was gone in under a 24 hours!), drank Hot Totties and fell asleep by 7:30 on the couch watching a Christmas Story… It was a perfect LA Christmas!
Hope all your holidays were wonderful and bright!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Cranberry Cake Encore!
Let me begin this post with sharing the first few conversations I had this morning as I walked into work…
Conversation 1
Nurse: Hey! I heard about your cake!
Me: What cake?
Nurse: Some Cranberry Cake??… Girl I heard it was good!
Me: Oh, Right! It was a cranberry upside down cake… yeah everybody seemed to like it.
Nurse: Yeah! So are you going to make it again?
Me: Maybe!
Conversation 2… 30 seconds later…
HouseKeeper: Krystal (she calls me that!) I heard your cake was gooood!
Me: They cranberry one?
HouseKeeper: Yeah, that one!
Me: That’s what I’ve heard too! Guess I’ll have to make it again.
Conversation 3… 5 seconds later…
Tech: Kristy you’re cake was gooood!
Me: I’m so glad you liked it!
Tech: Thanks for saving me that last piece!
Me: No Problem! It was gobbled up pretty fast!
Conversation 4… a few minutes later…
My Boss: Kristy I heard about your cake!
Me: Really? Ha.. the entire unit has apparently been talking about it!
My Boss: Yes, yes the Cranberry one. It sounds so good! I think I’ll sign you up to bring that in next week for the Holiday Pot Luck.
Me: Oh it was good! And, I’ve beat you to the punch… I’ve already signed up to bring that cake!
My Boss: Oh great! I really want to try it! And, could you bring me the recipe?
Me: For sure!
Someone has been spreading rumors about my cakes! (Good thing they are all good rumors!) What a wonderful greeting I received this morning about a cake I made a week ago… yes a week ago and people are still talking about it… and yes it was delightful! It was Cranberry Upside Down Cake which was featured in the November Issue of Cooking Light! I wish I could say the pic to the left is my own, but its not… although my cake looked just a beautiful, the pic on my phone just would not do it justice… so this is the photo from Cooking Light.
This cake was easy to make. I ended up by making it twice in one night– because I dropped the first one in the oven– it was horrible— I was in tears out of seeing my cake in a big old mess, while my boyfriend was in tears from laughing so hard… Anyways, good thing I made it in a cinch. It was 3 simple steps— 1. make the brown sugar cranberry topping, 2. make the batter and 3. bake…. so check out the recipe by clicking here and bake it for yourself!
On to the taste… Amazing! The cake it self was super light, fluffy and sweet which so nicely complimented the tart sweetness of the cranberries. I think the only thing I will do differently next time around is make some sweet whipped cream to top the cake with. I love things extra sweet and I think the whipped cream would have added that extra yummy-ness I was seeking. This beauty of a dessert is really perfect for the holiday season and I highly, highly recommend giving it a try… clearly it’s a crowd pleaser!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Lets Make Whoopie!
One of the desserts I made for my Thanksgiving Dinner was Pumpkin Whoopie Pies! Whoopie pies are kind of a big deal in the North East. They consist of a chocolate cake like cookie arranged in sandwiches with a creaming whipped vanilla filling. OMG Delish! Since it was Thanksgiving, it seemed only appropriate to make Pumpkin flavored Whoopie Pies!
I’ve never made Whoopie Pies before, so I decided to stick with a recipe, which you can check out by clicking here. (FYI- I don’t like baking with apple sauce, so I substituted in sour cream!) The recipe was super easy and uber tasty. To make the dessert a bit more festive, I baked the pies in my pumpkin cake pan from Wilton (got it at Joanne Fabric after Halloween 50% off! awesome!) The pies were filled with a cream cheese filling which I piped in with a fancy piping tip. Once they were assembled, I finished them with green white chocolate leaves on top (a simple chocolate leaf mold will do!) which I attached with a little frosting. Didn’t these little handheld treats come out adorable?!?! They were a big hit at Thanksgiving, not only because of how cute they are, but because of how tasty they were! I will so make these again! I kind of can’t wait!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Some good info on Flour!
So I had to travel the end of this, hence my delay in posting, but one great things about traveling is that I get caught up on all my well over due magazine reading. For my flights, I took the latest Glamour, In Style, Cooking Light and Martha Stewart. I’ve already made it through almost all of them and I am only on day 2 out of 6 in my trip!
Anyways, onto the important stuff. In the ‘Ask Martha’ section of the November Martha Stewart Living, Martha explains the difference between all-purpose flour, cake flour and bread flour. This is really vital information for all semi-professional bakers! Here are some of the basics…
- All Purpose Flour- It’s ‘All Purpose’ because it works great for cookies, cakes, bread, crusts, etc. It has enough protein to keep a layer cake strong yet fluffy, but not enough to make it too heavy (FYI- the amount of protein in the flour is what causes a baked delight to be sturdy or soft… the more protein the tougher, less protein softer.)
- Bread Flour: To make this as simple as possible… it has more protein… so its harder and stronger.
- Cake Flour: Again, to make this super simple… has less protein making it light and soft lending for a perfect cake consistency.
Hope you find this bit of info helpful! If any of you want the inside scoop on how to make your own cake flour at home, check out Joy the Baker’s Blog in my Blog Roll for some simple how-to info, or click here!
Will do my best to post again over the weekend! If not I will have lots to catch everybody up on when I get back on Wednesday!
Happy Baking and Traveling!
-Kristy
Freshly Made French Baguettes!
I have recently become obsessed with the idea of making my own bread. I think this is one of my I-need-to-eat-healthier-yet-is-a-great-way-to-bake-without-the-guilt techniques. What I have enjoyed best about my recent bread baking ventures is that I know exactly what is going into each loaf I bake… yeast, water, flour, salt and egg. Wow, you can’t get much more natural than that! I also have found the kneading of the dough to be super therapeutic. I swear its an awesome way to release tension and stress! I have felt such a sense of relief afterward the kneading! Not only do I get delicious bread… but I also gained a coping technique! (Okay— we all know that is the nerdy therapist coming out in my, but I just couldn’t resist!)
What a Beautiful Baguette! So the recipe I have been using can be found in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano (I’m almost done reading the book! I can’t wait to share my thoughts about it with you!) All of the recipes included in the book are easy, tasty and healthy. I have made Guiliano’s baguette recipe twice so far and have been really impressed with the outcome, especially for my first attempt at a traditional rising bread. My first baguettes were a bit dense. I was so excited to get them in the oven so I could try a bite that I didn’t let them rise long enough. The second time around my apt was super warm from the hot SoCal sun, so the rising was no issue at all and the bread was much fluffier. (Baking Tip: To speed up and enhance the rising process of your bread doughs, set your bread dough in a higher place in your kitchen… on a high shelf or on top of your fridge… heat rises so any way you can elevate your dough will help your dough rise as well!)
Let me tell you… freshly made bread straight from your oven makes your kitchen smell delightful and makes your belly super happy! Each time I made the baguettes I could barely wait till it was cool enough to take a bite… and each time it was awesome, despite the slight burning sensation! I have had these baguettes with every meal… at breakfast with freshly made jam, at lunch with my salad and as a great addition to fav. meal Chicken Picatta. Mmm… if only I hadn’t eaten it all up already I would be munching on some right now… guess I will have to make another batch later today!
So I could keep on babbling about how awesome this bread is, but I will refrain and just provide the fabulous recipe below! Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
French Baguettes
Recipe By: Mireille Guiliano
Source: French Women Don’t Get Fat, 2005, Borzoi Book Published by Alfred A. Knopf, p. 198-199
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 cups warm water
- 4-5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 egg
Directions
- Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Stir well with fork and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Combine flour and salt. Add yeast mixture, remaining 1 1/2 cups water and mix until dough it sticky enough to kneed. Kneed on lightly floured board until dough is sticky and smooth (I found this to take about 10 minutes). Put dough in bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise at room temp. until dough doubles in volume, about 1 hours.
- Punch down dough and dive into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a baguette shape and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Let rise again until doubled (again, I found this to be about an hour).
- Preheat oven to 450. Put 2 cups warm water in seperate pan and place in oven to provide moisture while bread is baking. Brush dough with 1 beaten egg combined with 1 tablespoon cold water. Score loaves diagonally and bake for 15 minutes. Lower temp to 400 and bake additional 5-10 minutes or until golden.
- Let cool, slice and enjoy! (Baking Tip: Store your bread in the fridge to help it last! Since it has no preservatives, it will mold quicker if left out and uncovered!)
Amish Friendship Bread Update!
1. I must apologize for my delay in making posts. My parents are in visiting for 8 days from Boston so I am a bit preoccupied! Posts may be somewhat infrequent this week, but I assure you I will make it up to you… as long as I survive these 8 days! Does anyone else stress over parental visits?!?!
2. Amish Friendship Bread is AMAZING!
So I got up early on Friday morning to make sure I have a enough time to run to the store to pick up the few bread ingredients I needed, bake it and deliver my bags of bread batter to 3 friends. I barely made it to work in time, but it was 100% worth the rush. Once you mix up the dough you dust 2 bread pans with cinnamon sugar, poor in the batter then top with more of the cinnamon sugar. That alone, should have given me the first clue about how amazing this bread was going to. It had to bake for an hour… and it was seriously an agonizingly long hour. My little apartment smelled like a cinnamon bun bakery… it was awesome. Finally they came out of the oven with the gorgeous sugary crust steaming with the sweetest most delicious smell in the world!
I could barley wait the additional 10 minutes for the bread to cool so I could take it out of the pan and snag a little bite. I was probably a bit too eager getting it out of the pan because a couple little pieces broke off, but I had no issue gobbling those right up! OMG… it was just like a cinnamon bun, but in a bread and warm and not sticky… it was seriously delish! It took A TON of self control not to keep breaking off more pieces!
In the idea of friendship, I decided to share my two loafs of bread. I saved one to give to my parents to enjoy for their week visit and the other I brought into work. The loaf I brought into work disappeared in about .02 seconds! To be honest I felt a little badly about that… another staff member had brought in a pound cake that was not moving…I had placed my bread next to the cake in the primary nurses station and as I said, it was gone in seconds! oh well… I can’t help having an awesome reputation at work for making awesome baked goods! BTW…I’ll get my parents review on the bread later this morning!
I really enjoyed making this bread, and wanted to figure out a way to share it with all of you. Since it ’s maybe a bit impossible to send each of you some of the Amish Friendship Bread Starter mixture, I googled the recipes, which you can access by clicking here. One you have your starter made, you can use the recipe I used to complete the bread. To read and print them, click here! So start up a new batch for yourself and you friends!
I thought this whole idea of Amish Friendship bread was really the cutest thing ever. It was the first time I had heard of it and really got so much joy from the experience. I hope my friends that I passed the bags of started dough along too will enjoy it as much as I did. Its really simple and easy, and I think kids could have alot of fun with it too. It’s seriously heavenly! Hope you enjoy making it (and eating it!) as well!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
A Wonderful Event at Surfas!
Last Friday I went to a talk and event at Surfas, a wonderful kitchen store/cafe/teaching kitchen. Lisa Baker Morgan, a personal chef and owner of catering company Ciao Yummy presented on Halloween Treats featuring incredible in-season eats. Lisa was a wonderful presenter. She was knowledgeable, funny, engaging and made it clear what a great chef she was. I couldn’t believe I forgot my camera, but the pic to the left was taken with my phone… not bad but just please note how cute and festive she made the teaching kitchen at Surfas!
Before I delve into the awesome recipes Lisa presented, I first need to let you know what a seriously inspiring person she is. During her talk, she let on to that fact that she was a runner. When I later checked out her website, I learned she runs marathons, is a single mother of two and runs her own catering and event planning business. AMAZING! In addition, Lisa was a lawyer in her past, but later went back to culinary school and made a huge but very exciting career change. That was especially appealing to me since I have recently begun my project, Will Bake For Tuition and am essentially considering a career change myself. In Addition, Lisa is all about making healthy choices, eating all natural and passing along these healthy eating tips to others. As much as I eat sweets, eating as natural and healthy as I can is super important to me as well. I totally love Lisa’s eating philosophy and am totally in aww of her all accomplishments since I am new to the culinary world.
So on to her delightful recipes. What I liked so much about the treats she presented was that she steered away from using the typical candy corn garnish or pumpkin-shaped-what-not. All of her treats featured the seasons best ingredients, but had an spooky Halloween undertone. One treat she presented was Ghoulish Puff Pastry Fingers… Pistachio puff pastry dough, stuffed with sugared dates with a pistachio ‘finger nail.’ So super cute and sooo delicious! There was also an delicious apple souffle and a robust pumpkin soup with a cream cheese spider web garnish. Lisa also made one hearty dish which was an apple braised pork shoulder which was so flavorful and moist. We got to try everything, plus some extras she had available like brownie cookies and curry macaroons! OMG everything she made was seriously tasty. I was super impressed with everything she made and if I ever need a catered event I would not hesitate in the least to give use her service! She also made me feel comfortable trying all these recipes… many of them used techniques that were new to me but she made the seem so simple. They are all on my to-try list over the next couple weeks!
This was my first talk at Surfas, and since it was such as wonderful experience, I know I will be making an effort to check more of them out! If you are in the LA area, this is a total must for any foodie! For more info on Lisa and her company, click here!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
