A last minute smoothie

Blueberry & Buttermilk Falls Drink
Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Copyright 2001

1 cup buttermilk
½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries I used frozen
2 teaspoons sugar or pure maple syrup, or to taste you might not even need this if your berries are sweet

Purée the ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. I used my stick blender.

Serves 1. 167 calories, 8 g protein, 2.3 g fat, 30 g carbs, 7.9 mg chol, 242.7 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
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I've been wanting to make buttermilk ice cream for the longest time but I just haven't gotten around to it. It seems as if there's never room in my freezer for the freezer bowl of my ice cream machine. This smoothie gave me a little preview of the flavor of buttermilk ice cream and I liked it, I liked it a lot. I wasn't sure what to expect. I use buttermilk quite a bit but I don't drink it straight. This smoothie just had a hint of tang from the buttermilk and I don't think I would have realized I was drinking buttermilk if I hadn't made the smoothie myself. I'll definitely try this again, with other fruits too.

I usually stick to low or no-calorie beverages (coffee, tea, seltzer, water and the occasional diet soda) but I might have started something with this smoothie. I can see myself making a lot of these.

Whew! I almost thought I was going to have to skip posting a recipe today. I planned on making blueberry muffins last weekend but I never got around to it and I didn't feel like making them anymore. I didn't really have time to devote to a new recipe and I don't have any posts on stand-by but luckily I found this simple recipe, which happens to be a winner too.

Blast From The Past: Hot Muffulettas from October 2005. I love those sandwiches. I've made them several times. This recipe is from the cookbook I'm giving away to one lucky winner this month.

Question of the Day: Do you drink smoothies? Do you make them at home?

Waffles, waffles and more waffles

Out-of-This-World Waffles
The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook Copyright 1999

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons sugar I used 2-3 tablespoons
2 large eggs, beaten
2 ½ cups milk
¾ cup vegetable oil

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine eggs, milk, and oil; add to flour mixture, stirring with a wire whisk just until dry ingredients are moistened. Cook in preheated, oiled waffle iron until golden.

Yield: 22 4-inch waffles
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These were really, really good waffles but I wouldn't want to get into the habit of making these all of the time, since they use only white flour and a lot of oil. Although this recipe really did make at least 22 waffles. I wasn't even done making them when I took this picture.

I added a smidgen more sugar because I like waffles a bit sweet so I could skip the syrup. That's probably not fair because I ate one waffle plain and my husband will eat the only 20-something waffles with syrup but, hey, I'm the cook.

Blast From The Past: Baked Chicken With Honey And Mustard from May 2006. We had this last night. It's very good.

Question of the Day: When was the last time that you ate a waffle?

Roasted potatoes with a little something extra

Balsamic Roasted New Potatoes
The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook Copyright 1999

1 tablespoons olive oil or butter I used a little of both
2 pounds new potatoes, unpeeled and quartered
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme I used a lesser amount of dried thyme
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary I used a lesser amount of dried rosemary
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Heat oil in large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and next 4 ingredients. Toss. Remove skillet from heat; place in oven. (I transfered the potatoes to a roasting pan since I don't have an ovenproof skillet big enough for 2 pounds of potatoes.) Roast potatoes, uncovered, at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Add vinegar, and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, uncovered, 6 more minutes. Serve immediately.
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Roasted new potatoes are good just about any way you make them but the balsamic vinegar added a really nice touch, if you happen to be a fan of balsamic vinegar, which I am. Ever since I found a great balsamic vinegar, I love using it whenever I can. I wish I could recommend the brand but it's a store brand, from Weis Market if you happen to live near one here in PA.

This is my contributions to Sweetnick's ARF Tuesday. Potatoes have many nutritional benefits and roasting them this way ensures that you get all the fiber, which is located mostly in the skin.

I apologize for what has been and will be an uninspired week but I have cleaning and cooking to do for my son's birthday party this weekend and I'm really not making any new recipes for that. I'm looking forward to next week when I can finally relax. My 'holiday rush' doesn't really end until after my son's birthday.

Blast From The Past: Balsamic Chicken from January 2006. Gosh, has it been a year already since I made that? I need to make that again.

Question of the Day: When did you last eat potatoes? How were they prepared?

The bread making continues

Italian Bread (New York Style)
Easy Bread Machine Recipes Copyright 1997

7/8 C water
2 ¼ C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 T whole wheat flour or rye I used rye
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar or honey I used brown sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 T olive oil I used canola oil
1 ½ tsp yeast rapid rise - use 25% more for regular active dry yeast
cornmeal for baking sheet

Topping:
egg wash (1 egg beater with 2 T water)
sesame seeds for top I omitted these

1. Put all ingredients except the topping in the machine, and set it on the dough cycle. When the beeper sounds, remove the dough from the pan and put it into a bowl in the refrigerator to chill and rest for about 15 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough to a 10x14 inch oblong; then fold the long sides over into a log-shaped loaf. Pinch the seams and ends closed.
3. On a baking sheet. sprinkle cornmeal. Set the loaf on it, seam-side down. Sprinkle water on top. Let it rise in a warm place until nearly doubled in bulk.
4. Brush with egg wash made of 1 egg with 2 tablespoons of water. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds. With a sharp knife, make 4 diagonal cuts, about ¼ inch deep, across the top.
5. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden. During the last 5 minutes, spray water into the oven.

The recipe makes one loaf. I made two loaves since I have a dual bread machine which can make two 1 lb loaves at once. The book also has a version of this recipe for larger machines.
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I made these for my son's birthday party (for family - not kids) coming up this Saturday. I wrapped them well and stuck them in the freezer. I'm going to make garlic bread so I figured covering it in garlic butter would hide any imperfections if it wasn't that great. I only got to taste a dime size piece of it, that stuck to the pan and I think this bread is going to be pretty good. I'm more familiar with Italian bread than I am with the classic baguette so I could judge this recipe a little better than the baguette recipe. This bread does seem to have the proper texture and flavor that I would expect. I have to learn to be more thorough with my egg wash but I'm think I'm getting the hang of this bread thing.

Normally I would wait until I got a good taste of something to blog about it but I'm desperate today. I didn't get a chance to make anything else this weekend.

So I thought this would be a good time to fulfill Randi's request to see where I keep my cookbooks. This is my collection - the whole shebang, minus the Ugly Binder which really needs to be reorganized after a nasty fall.

The shelf is 5 feet tall and 39 inches wide. I wish I had the luxury of ordering them by subject, author, or anyway other my heart desires but instead I just have them organized so that they fit and so that the shelves don't bend under the weight (it's just a cheapy, laminate bookcase). Because of outlets, thermostats and light switches, the only place I could fit the bookcase was in one corner of my spare room so I had to do some funky manuevers to get the entire shelf in the picture. The angle's a bit odd.

It's not the most impressive collection but it gets bigger all of the time. So far I've blogged about recipes from 141 books, a handful of which were library books. I can't remember how many books I had last time I counted, maybe 175 or 200? And I've acquired a few more since then.

Blast From The Past: Garlic Bread from October 2005. I guess I was desperate for something to post about that day too!

Question of the Day: Do you collect anything, cookbooks or otherwise? Where do you store your collection?

My first Rachael Ray recipe

Hamburger and Onion Stuffed Bread
Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats Copyright 2005

1 baguette (day-old is fine)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground beef
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Dijon or spicy brown mustard, to dress the bread
4 slices deli Swiss cheese, folded to cover the bread or 6 ounces Gouda or smoked Gouda, sliced to fit the bread I used Swiss
Chopped fresh chives or flat-leaf parsely, for garnish I omitted this

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Crisp the bread in the low oven, split lengthwise, then cut in half again to make 4 bread boats and hollow out the bread. I used 1 1/2 baguettes and made 6 boats. Switch the broiler on.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the EVOO. Add the meat, season liberally with salt and pepper, and brown and crumble it, 3 minutes. Add the onions and cook for 10 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add the Worcestershire and remove from the heat.

Spread a little Dijon or spicy brown mustard across the bottoms of the breads. Fill with the meat and onions and top the filled breads with the cheese. Melt the cheese under the broiler and garnish with the chives or parsley.
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Yes, this is what I needed the baguettes for. I'd have to say it was worth baking my own baguettes. I really liked these stuffed breads, as simple as they seem. I loved the toasted, crunchy, chewy bread and the simple toppings enhanced it without overpowering it. The mustard was pretty key - if you don't like mustard, I put something else with a bit of zip on the bread. This recipe is very basic but she offers more involved versions of stuffed bread too. I just love the concept. I thought they were a nice change of pace from hamburgers or sloppy joes.

I picked this recipe because it was the simplest one in the book. I don't know what it is about Rachael Ray's recipes but they seem complicated to me. It's one thing to watch her whip something up on her show - it looks simple. But when I see the recipes printed out, my head starts spinning. Maybe it's all the fresh and sometimes unique ingredients (which is great but sometimes pricey) or the fact that her recipes are usually for entire meals and designed to be cooked as a meal (the directions jump from one thing to the next and back so it's hard to separate the elements of the meal if you don't want to make the entire meal).

The recipes are all designed with her usual 30-minute constraint and the methods aren't complicated so it's perplexing why so many of them seem like a lot of trouble to me. I really don't think they are - this is just my initial perception when flipping through this book (and also her other books in the local library). When I'm faced with a cookbook like this, I find it helps to go through the book page by page and list every recipe that I would ever possibly want to make. That forces me to look at the recipes more closely and I usually come up with a good list of recipes that I can refer to without wading through the entire book again.

I have to say this about Rachael Ray - her recipes, at least the ones in this cookbook (I can't vouch for the others), are somewhat unique. I love Paula Deen but her recipes are not exactly original. A good percentage of them probably appeared on a product package at one time or another. Giada DeLaurentis is wonderful too but her cooking is pretty standard fare for the most part. RR manages to offer recipes that are different, yet still very appealing. I want to eat most of her recipes, I'm just a bit overwhelmed by the thought of gathering all of the ingredients and preparing them myself.

One thing that bugs me is that many of the recipes are variations of a main recipe and she will just tell you to omit this, add that, etc. My brain is too scattered to absorb that kind of information. She doesn't include many pictures either but otherwise, I'm happy to own my first Rachael Ray cookbook.

Blast From The Past: Sour Cream Cake from my son's birthday a year ago. I think I'm going to use the same recipe this year. We're having a family party next weekend.

Question of the Day: Rachael Ray - Yay or nay?