Inspired In Seattle

You get more bees with Honey and Lavender CupcakesJ

On a recent trip to Seattle I discovered the wonderful flavor that is lavender. It was in everything; my tea, my ice cream and my cupcakes. I was in love with the delicate smell and flavor of that little purple flower. It was on that trip that I decided that lavender was an ingredient worth experimenting with and that my first experiment would be making lavender honey cupcakes inspired by my newly found favorite ice cream flavor.

Great city!

I realize that this is a recipe better suited for the welcoming sunshine and flowers of spring, however it took me a while to find the necessary key ingredient, lavender.

Recipe adapted from Jessie's Kitchen Chronicles

Basic Cupcake Mix  (12-15 cupcakes)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened


1 cup sugar


2 eggs


2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1/2 teaspoon red and 1/2 teaspoon blue food coloring ( color can be adjusted to your liking) 


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


1/2 teaspoon baking powder


1/4 teaspoon salt


2 1/2 tablespoons dried lavender buds
 from Penzey’s (this amount creates a very strong lavender flavor so use according to your taste)

2/3 cup cold milk

The Frosting


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened


8 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar
 (you can also adjust this according to your taste)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract


2 tablespoons honey, plus a little extra for drizzle

..and let the magic begin.

1. I think baking is easier and less stressful when everything you need is measured out and ready to go, your choice. On that note it is always good to have your oven ready so before you begin to gather your ingredients preheat the oven to 350 F and line your muffin tins with cupcake liners. 

2.  Cream the softened butter and sugar together either with a hand mixer or in the bowl of an electric mixer. Once the ingredients are creamed together add the eggs one at a time making sure that each egg is beaten into the mixture before adding the next. So in the famous lyrics of Michael Jackson you’re gonna “beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it…”

 

3. Stir in the vanilla and food coloring (real vanilla extract although pricier tastes much better).

4. Now that the wet ingredients have been combined it is time to put together the dry ingredients. Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Chop the dried lavender into small pieces and stir into the flour mixture. I put my lavender in a little bowl and used my herb scissors to cut the buds up into tiny pieces.

5. Almost there…J Now combine the flour mixture with the creamed butter and sugar mixture and stir in the COLD milk.

6. Whatever your method may be, get that batter into the lined muffin tins and bake for 18-24 minutes (21 minutes worked well for me). To make sure the cupcake is done insert a toothpick/fork/fondue fork into the center of the cupcake and if it is finished baking it will come out clean. Let the little cakes from heaven cool in the tins for 5 to 10 minutes then remove to cool completely.

7. In the meantime you can make the frosting by mixing the butter and cream cheese together. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and mix on low. Once the frosting is smooth and creamy add in the vanilla extract and honey.

8. The frosting is now ready to complete this delight and how you would like to present the frosting on the cupcake is up to you, however don’t forget to add that finishing touch and lightly drizzle a little honey on top of each of the frosted cupcakes.

Delish!

Drink Pick – Coffee, black! It really complimented the sweetness of these little treats. We like the Finca Suiza, El Salvador from Magpie Coffee Roasters. You can also check them out on Facebook

Music Pick - Phoenix...nuff said:)

Enjoy!

Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Marsala Wine Sauce

We had tried gnocchi on several occasions, including in Italy and supposedly in fine Italian dining establishments, however it was never light, fluffy or really that great. We decided to try a restaurant called Bravo, in Kalamazoo and give the gnocchi one more try. Once again I had been lied to, it was not good, it was deliciously and utterly amazing, love at first bite and in that very moment I made it my life’s destiny to replicate it. After many laborious tries at perfecting this recipe, I think I’ve finally done it.

Gnocchi

4 medium Idaho baking potatoes

1 whole extra large egg, beaten

1 T freshly grated parmesan cheese ( I add more instead of adding salt)

1/4 t white pepper

1/8 t fresh grated nutmeg

1 cup all purpose flour- plus more for when rolling the dough

Chicken Breast – This task, fellow novices, is to find and use your best cooking method to get juicy chicken breast.  Grill it, saute it, roast it. Then post what you found and how well it worked. We will try out your method and post the best!

Marsala Wine Sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup onion, diced

1-tablespoon garlic, chopped

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup Marsala wine

1 1/2 cups beef stock

Heavy cream to taste (optional for the health conscious)

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. While the oven is pre-heating, prepare 4 russet potatoes with skin on by rinsing, stabbing with fork to create holes to release steam, rubbing in a bit of light tasting olive oil and sprinkling with sea salt. Bake the potatoes for about 40 minutes.  You want them to actually be a little less done then you would for a normal baked potato. Do not over bake; you do not want these to be mushy! While the potatoes are baking you can prep the ingredients needed for your chicken breast and Marsala Wine SauceJ

2. When potatoes are cool enough to handle (or using rubber kitchen gloves if you are impatient like us), cut potatoes in half with a sharp knife.  Remove the skin of the potato half and then grate each potato using a cheese grater.  Grate it directly into a large bowl.  You can also use a ricer if you have one.  We don’t.  So cheese grater it is.  Make sure no big pieces of potato fall in.

3. Now you can let the grated potatoes cool.  Take this time to cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  You are going to put your rolled and cut gnocchi on here eventually.  Also prepare a flat, clean and spacious surface (we used a large wooden cutting board) by lightly coating it with flour.

4. Add spices, Parmesan cheese, and egg to the mixture. Gradually add the cup of flour, mixing all the ingredients by hand.  The key to mixing the dough is using a really light touch.  Really light. You want the mixture to just barley come together. Keep adding flour until you can form it into a ball. If the dough does not want to form into a ball (this has happened to us) angrily yell at the dough.  If that does not work, you can add a little bit of water to help it come together.

5. Now cut the ball into quarters with a knife.  Remove one quarter and bring it to flat, clean, flour coated surface.  Cover the remaining dough with a moist paper towel. Roll out the quarter of the dough with your hands on the floured surface.  If it is sticking to you, get a bit of the flour on your hands.  Keep on rolling until the string of dough is about roughly ¾ of an inch thick.  Then cut the string into pieces that are about one inch long.  Put all the pieces on your parchment paper covered baking sheet. 

You can do fancy things with your pieces here.  You can press them with a fork on each side to create fun ridges that also help catch the sauce.  We put enough sauce on them in the recipe (and really every recipe), that we don’t think it is necessary.  

6. Repeat the process with all of the quarters of dough. When you are out of dough, put the cookie sheet in the freezer.  Hmmm…step one probably should have been clean out your freezer so you can fit a whole cookie tray in there.  Sorry.  You’ve been meaning to clean that thing out anyway.  We’re helping you.  Sort of.

7.  Fill a medium size frying pan with about ½ inch of vegetable or other mild tasting oil.  Heat this pan on medium high heat – don’t burn it, but hot.  (This is to cook the gnocchi.  If you want, you can simply sauté them in much less oil or butter, but we like to fry things.)

8. We are going to start the Marsala wine sauce.  If you have not cooked your chicken, this is probably a good time to start it as the sauce takes about 20 minutes.  Heat up a large heavy saucepan on the stove.  When hot, add three tablespoons of olive oil.  Then add the onion, garlic, and mushroom to the pan.  Sauté until the mushrooms are tender.

9.  Add the three tablespoons of flour to the sauce. Cook for about one more minute mixing the flour around in the pan.  Deglaze with the Marsala wine (deglaze = add all the wine and make sure that you scrape all that good stuff off the bottom of the pan).  Add the beef broth and let simmer until the flavors are well blended.  You can add your cream at anytime during the process now.  We put in about two tablespoons.

10.  As soon as you are done add everything to the sauce, you can pull those gnocchi out of the freezer and start frying them.  Like everything else you fry, you want them to be a light golden brown.  Flip them and brown the other side and place them on a cooling rack or in a colander with paper towel in it.  You can cook them in batches that are about the size of the portion you want per plate. You can freeze any left over gnocchi and use them anytime!  You can just throw them in the hot oil or sauté them just like we are doing now. 

11.  Place gnocchi in a pasta bowl and pour sauce over the top.  This is about as complicated as our recipes will ever get, but totally worth it.  Enjoy! 

I am soo good.  

Music pick of the day:  Edgar Summertyme  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDJXSMv19oE&feature=plcp

Drink pairing: Bell's Kalamazoo Stout (we drove all the way to Iowa to get our Bell's fix.  Worth it.

Quinoa...need I say more?

We could probably all benefit from some healthy fare in our diets but the question is how to make it not taste healthy and bland, which health food can often be accused of. So, we picked a food that will taste as good as the ingredients it gets to roll around with, Quinoa.

*Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa with Lemon Dressing (4-6)

- 1 Cup quinoa, rinsed ( I did not rinse it the first time I made this, it was still good)

- 2 Tsp. of lemon zest

- 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled (Ooo, a rogue health recipe, I actually use 1/2    Tbsp of butter and add more olive oil)

- 1 Tbsp. of olive oil

- 1Tsp. of sugar

- 1/2 Tsp of salt

- 1/4 Tsp of pepper

- 1 (14oz) can of black beans, rinsed and drained

- 2 Medium tomatoes, diced

- 4 Scallions, chopped

- 1/4 Cup chopped cilantro

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add quinoa and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes.

2. In the meantime combine lemon zest, juice, butter, olive oil, sugar, salt and  pepper and wisk, wisk, wisk. Set aside and make it wait!

3. Drain the quinoa, reduce the heat to low and cook, covered until fluffy, about 5 minutes (The two times I made this I only covered and continued to cook once because the other time it was already fluffy after boiling…use your judgment)

4. Remove from heat and toss with dressing and then let it roll around with the remaining ingredients.

Oooo, saucy!

5. Done and done! Serve hot, at room temperature or even coldJ 

I'm getting healthier, I can just feel it!

This wonderful concoction was adapted from a recipe found from The Kitchn.
                                 Drink Pick: June Bug Riesling 

* This dish goes wonderfully with the Grilled Wild Caught Sockeye Salmon with Chili Lime sauce! 

Grilled Wild Caught Sockeye Salmon with Chili-Lime Sauce

This one is fairly new to our repetoire, but it is amazing so we have already had it a few times.  We use wild caught sockeye salmon.  Why you ask?  You didn't ask...hmm...well, I'll just tell you.  Wild caught salmon is better for you and it helps the fishermen up in Alaska.  I know a couple of these hardened Alaskan fisher people and they will literally hunt you down and spray you with bear mace if they hear that you even considered buying farm raised.  At least that is what I assume, I don't cross them.  Now, why sockeye salmon?  Because for this particular recipe it just holds together a lot better.  It is more firm than other salmon and thus you can put it directly on the grill without losing half of your fish through the grate.  No fish basket needed.  If you hate salmon or really like bear mace, you can use swordfish instead.  Or you can use any fish and put it in a handy fish basket.

This recipe was adapted from a book called Quick and Easy Thai by Nancie McDermott.  This book is the best set of Thai recipes that I have found anywhere.  You should purchase this book here:  http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Easy-Thai-Everyday-Recipes/dp/0811837319

Cast of Characters
Fish - Ingredients
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds of wild caught sockeye salmon (I prefer a single filet)

Sauce - Ingredients
1/4 cup of fish sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon finely chopped serrano chilies
1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro (optional)

For the fish:

Using you mortar and pestal (or you can throw these ingredients in a food processor), combine garlic, cilantro, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar salt pepper and oil.  Grind this until it is a smooth paste.  (Author's note:  First time with fish sauce?  It is supposed to smell like that.  It will taste good.  Just gotta trust us on this one.)

 Put your fish filets in a gallon size ziplock bag and dump the paste in with the fish.  Close the bag and massage the paste into the fish, coating completely.  Leave this to marinate for at least 20-30 minutes.  I have kept it as long as 2 hours.  I would not recommend longer than about a day, however.

Look how sexy that salmon is.  

For the sauce:
Combine fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and garlic in a small bowl.  Stir well until all sugar dissolves.  Sprinkle in the finely chopped chiles (you can take out the seeds before mincing if you want the flavor with less spice) and cilantro.



To cook the fish:
Preheat you grill to med-high (about 425 degrees if you have a thermometer).  Brush the grill with a bit of oil.  I almost burned my face off because I had too much oil on my brush.  Don't do that.  A little will do.  Place fish skin side down onto the grill (or you can use a fish basket if you are worried about it falling apart - but it may not brown quite as nicely).  I put diagonal slashes across the skin side of the fish about every three inches to help the fish cook evenly, but this is not really necessary.

  Cook until deliciously browned, about 5 minutes.

What deliciously browned skin looks like.

CAREFULLY flip the fish over. I use a metal spatula to gently loosen all the edges and ensure the fish is free then I grab one side of the fish with tongs.  Flip it over so the skin side is up.  5 more minutes or until thickest part of the fish is easily flaked with a fork. 

See!  No flaking apart.  Sockeye!

 Remove to plate and let rest for a minute.  You can garnish with lime wedges and cilantro and spoon the sauce onto the fish as you eat.  This a great served with white rice, but even better served with the Quinoa Salad (the good stuff in the picture, which we will have a recipe up for soon)!

Music Pick: Stereo Lab : Dots and Loops  

Drink Pick: June Bug Riesling - Not overly sweet and a good balance for the heat of fish.

  

The AWARD WINNING Chili-less Chili Burger

Back in the day when we were younger and going to school in Reno we would have cook-offs with our friends. That is how this delicious burger was created and how it became “AWARD WINNING.” So award winning really means I beat a few friends in the back yard...but it is a pretty good burger anyway. After facing the most worthy of adversaries, the Chili-less Chili Burger continues to satisfy appetites from the West Coast all the way to the Midwest 7 years later.

The Cast of Characters:

-1 tsp Tapatio

-1/2 tsp ground coriander seed

-1/4 tsp onion powder

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-2 tsp cumin seed

-1Tbsp+1 tsp of ground cumin

-1Tbsp chili powder

-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

-Coarse black pepper

-Sea salt

-1Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

-Homeade salsa and guacamole (see previous recipes August 2012)

-Mayonnaise to taste

-Sliced onion

-Lettuce (baby greens work well)

-American cheese (optional)

-1lb of beef  85/15

-1 package of hamburger buns

Since everyone else was late they didn't
get to be in the picture!

1. Combine Tapatio, ground coriander seed, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin seed, ground cumin, chili powder, Worcestershire and cayenne pepper with ground beef. Combine with hands until evenly distributed.

Work it...

 

2. Form the patties; the thickness will determine the amount of people you can feed, along with cook time and everything else that is important within this recipe. We usually form patties that are about 1/2 in thick and very wide because they do shrink-up during grilling. 

3. To toast or not to toast your bun, that is the questions…it’s really up to you. The AWARD WINNING recipe toasts their buns FYI. If you would like to toast your bun on the grill brush lightly with olive oil beforehand for that extra bit of crunch. 

4. Pre-heat the grill to 375 degrees, while the grill is pre-heating, cover the patties with sea salt and coarse ground pepper and pat into the meat, seriously cover it; this locks in the juice.

5.  Throw em’ on the grill. Once the patties are close to being done, about 3 minutes each side for medium (depending on whether you like it rare, medium or well) that is the time to add the cheese.

6. Now it’s time to build a burger…an AWARD WINNING burger mind you. Therefore how we do it includes putting mayonnaise on the bottom bun, burger, guacamole, onion, lettuce and the homemade salsa. Enjoy…if you want to stray, that is your decision but remember one thing, it will not be an AWARD WINNING BurgerJ 

Music pick,  Lykke Li. Drink pick, St. Lupulin EPA, Odell Brewing Co.