Author: Anna

Snow-Capped Macaroons and Mountains

Ever since I made the German chocolate cupcakes for our Noktoberfest party (see post Lederhosen and Lebkuchen), I’ve had an abundance of sweetened shredded coconut in my pantry. Since I’m not usually a fan of coconut and the shredded coconut isn’t a regular pantry staple at our house, I’ve been looking for something else to make with all the leftover coconut besides simply making the German chocolate cupcakes again (which was tempting since they were pretty tasty).

And then I came across these Snow-Capped Macaroons on The Bitten Word made from this Food Network Magazine recipe. The cookies looked simple and delicious, and I already had the coconut so I was ready to go.

Too much coconut

Besides, I was inspired by all the snow we were getting in the Sierras and knew it would mean even more great skiing in the days to come. Jan and I already had a few good cross-country and downhill ski days in, and with all the new snow, I knew there would be plenty more in the future. Making cookies that resembled the snowy peaks seemed like the perfect way to welcome more snow.

To make the cookies, I beat egg whites until frothy, added sugar, chopped almonds, vanilla, salt, and the shredded coconut. Atop my new favorite kitchen tool the Silpat mats, I used a tablespoon to measure out the cookie mounds. Then, after dampening my fingers with water, I formed the mounds into little cones.

I baked the cookies until they started to turn golden brown at the edges. After cooling, I used a double-boiler to make the chocolate glaze, and slowly dripped the glaze over the tops of the cookies. Lastly, I substituted the recipe’s sugar crystals for decorating, and instead used some sea salt crystals sparingly (the reason for this was twofold: I didn’t have sugar crystals and didn’t want to go to the store, and secondly, I tasted the cookie and glaze and thought adding even more sugar would make the cookie overly sweet. Thinking back to a holiday potluck I attended in which one person made surprisingly tasty bars with only Lay’s potato chips and white chocolate chips, I thought these cookies could also benefit from the salty/sweet combination. As I was experimenting, I left half the cookies plan with no salt/decoration, and did the other half topped with a few sea salt crystals. I used friends and family to taste-test the cookies side by side for the next few days, with the salt-topped cookies the clear winner over the plain ones.)

Mountains of snow!

Chewy but with a firm but flexible chocolate crust on the outside, the cookies tasted as good as they looked. Jan described them as tasting like a Mounds candy bar, so I was pleased.

The next day, I took some of the cookies in my backpack for another cross-country skiing adventure. Jan and I departed from the Tamarack Ridge Trailhead, about 10 miles north of Shaver Lake in the Sierra National Forest. Because the snow was fresh, deep and powdery, it wasn’t long before the groomed trail ended, and then after that, not even the snowmobiles could traverse the trails. So, about mid-thigh deep in snow, we made the path that looped back to the trailhead ourselves, and it was certainly a workout. But being out in the forest, hearing only the sounds of snow crunching under our ski poles, the beauty and serenity we were able to experience was worth the work. When I remembered it was time for a snack, the Snow-Capped Macaroons were just the thing to keep us going for the rest of the miles.

Skiing snack time

Snow-capped macaroons

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Ingredients

Cookies

  • 2 large egg whites
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup sliced almond slivers
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Glaze

  • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons corn syrup
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • Sea salt crystals, for decorating

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 F degrees.
  2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
  3. Lightly beat egg whites in a medium bowl until frothy. Stir in sugar, almonds, vanilla and salt, then fold in coconut.
  4. Use a tablespoon to drop batter into mounds 1 inch apart. Dampen hands with water to form into pointed mounds.
  5. Bake until edges are golden brown and the edges look dry, about 16-20 minutes.
  6. let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a baking rack to cool completely.
  7. Make the glaze by using a double-boiler to melt chocolate, corn syrup and butter together.
  8. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the tops of the macaroons, so that it drips down the sides in several directions.
  9. Sprinkle the tops sparingly with sea salt crystals.
  10. Refrigerate until the glaze sets, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight container up to one week. Makes 36 cookies.

A Perfect Paella

I had my first paella when I studied a semester in Spain, but it wasn’t until Jan saw it prepared multiple times on Top Chef that he quickly followed suit and we enjoyed this delicious dish together, many years later.

By now, Jan’s a paella expert, and he’s got his recipe perfected. Because the ingredients are basically mixed together and left to cook, following the proportions of rice and broth are important in creating perfectly cooked rice with a creamy consistency.

The concept of the dish is simple, and yet it makes for a sophisticated presentation. I’m always wowed by the aroma, the deep yellow color of the rice, and the abundance of seafood that seems to always be spilling over the pan.

We’ve seen special paella pans marketed to chefs at cookware shops, but a large sauté pan with a lid will do the job equally well. We start by browning the chicken in the pan, removing, and browning onions, garlic and bell peppers. The rice is added, then the chicken stock, and placed in the oven to cook. After about 20 minutes, the chicken is added back on top of the rice, along with the other meat and seafood desired. We cook this another 10-15 minutes in the oven, then add the shellfish and pop back into the oven until they open up.

Step one, choose your pan and brown the chicken
Remove chicken, brown peppers, garlic and onions, then add rice
Add broth, and then into the oven
Getting close!
After the addition of the colorful clams

We like to serve the paella family style so we can ooh and ahh over the contents of the big colorful pan. Serve along with a simple salad, with bread and butter on the side.


Jan’s Easy Paella

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Info

Serves 4

Cook + prep time: 1 hour

*Saffron is an essential ingredient in this dish.  It seems expensive but it goes a long way since you don’t have to use too much of it. It can be found at Whole Foods, World Market or online on Amazon.

Ingredients

  • ½ pound boneless chicken thighs or breast pieces
  • ½ pound large raw peeled shrimp
  • 1 hot link (cut into ¼” pieces)
  • 1 pound thawed frozen clams (I buy frozen pre-cooked clams found in most mega mart’s fish department)
  • 1 medium onion (medium dice)
  • 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
  • 1 small red bell pepper
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 12 oz. long grained rice
  • 3 cups chicken stock
  • 1 pinch saffron*
  • Salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Heat olive oil in a oven safe sauté pan with lid.
  3. Season chicken with salt and pepper and sauté.
  4. Remove chicken from pan and set aside, and in the same pan, sauté onions, garlic and bell peppers.
  5. Add rice and sauté until translucent.
  6. In a separate dish, warm chicken stock and add the saffron to the warm chicken stock. Pour over rice and bring to a boil.
  7. Cover and place in oven for 20 minutes.
  8. Add shrimp, cooked chicken and hot link pieces to pan and cook in the oven, (covered) for another 10-15 minutes.
  9. Add clams and cook in the oven uncovered until clams have opened (approximately 5 minutes).

Blueberry-Cream Cheese Dumplings

Since Jan and I both love a good sale, sometimes we come home with a lot of a certain ingredient. Because it was such a good deal, right? This week it was blueberries, and after deciding on French toast topped with blueberries for breakfast, I pondered what my next blueberry dish should be. And then the answer literally fell right in front of me. Opening up the refrigerator to get the butter for frying my French toast, out tumbled a package of light cream cheese. Continue reading →

Devilishly Disco Eggs

The other day, I heard that deviled eggs were, like, so seventies. But, as they’ve recently made their first appearance in our house, they’re new to me. And I’d say pretty tasty too.

But do deviled eggs really need updating from this retro-dish status? Can’t we just leave a classic dish alone? When it comes to fashion trends, I always say, if you wore it the first time it was in style, you’re excluded from wearing it when it comes back. Phew! I’m saved from side ponytails and scruchy socks. And since I wasn’t around in the seventies to eat deviled eggs during their heyday, I think I’m ok to make them now.

I made a batch as an appetizer and modernized them my own way, by slicing the eggs in half with the wavy slicer used to give vegetable slices a corrugated appearance. Voila! Sufficiently 2010. And when one of my dinner guests who hails from the South described the dish as Southern—not seventies—I had a new way to think about deviled eggs.

I added horseradish to mine for some kick, and also tried out another technique picked up from the Food Network: impromptu piping bag. I put the egg filling in a plastic bag, cut the end, and was able to create clean-looking deviled eggs! (Which is definitely an improvement over my usual messy spoon technique.)

Clean technique

Zesty deviled eggs

Print recipe

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 green onion stick, diced
  • 1 teaspoon horseradish
  • 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Paprika

Directions

  1. Hard boil eggs in a pot. My trick for perfectly cooked eggs: place the eggs with a dash of salt in the pan, with enough water to cover the eggs. Cover with the lid and place over high heat until the water is boiling. Remove pot from the heat and let sit, covered, for 20 minutes. Uncover, pour out water into the sink, and allow cool water to run through the pot for several minutes to cool the eggs. Remove the shells right away, otherwise they will stick to the eggs and be much more difficult to remove.
  2. Slice eggs in half, remove the yolks and place in a medium-sized bowl.
  3. To egg yolks, add mayonnaise, mustard, green onions, horseradish, salt and pepper, and combine.
  4. Use a spoon or piping bag to return the mixture to the cavity of the egg whites.
  5. Arrange on a plate and sprinkle with paprika.

Turkey Tamales on Taste Fresno

Turkey tamales worth shouting about

Back in June I wrote about making tamales with my dad (Time for tamales) and my reticence to tackle making them on my own. I’m pleased to report that over Thanksgiving break Jan and I finally made them ourselves without an expert looking on! After cooking all afternoon and into the evening, wondering how they would turn out, we tasted and they were a success! Read about the process in my first guest blog for Taste Fresno here: Thankful for Turkey Tamales.

One Year Ago: Reminiscing on the Vantastic Voyage

 

Last November, Jan and I (and our dog Benny) embarked on a month-long cross-country road trip in a van Jan converted into a mini RV. It was the trip of a lifetime—we experienced new things, places, activities, sights and tastes. We lived out of our van and stayed mostly in campgrounds of the national parks. We ate at restaurants and with some friends we visited along the way, but mostly we visited unfamiliar grocery stores and Jan cooked our meals on our wonderful Weber Baby Q.

Our route started in a clockwise direction from Fresno, CA.  A total of 5,341 miles were driven. We returned home the day before Thanksgiving with many good memories and hundreds of photographs.

At camp in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Pizza bread made on the grill
Potato, egg and bacon skillet in Arches National Park, Utah

Fast forward a few months after our return, the trip had a big part in the formation of this blog. Being on the road boiled life down to the simplest things: being with family, enjoying good food, and experiencing new things. When you’re on the road and living out of a van, there isn’t room for much else. Even now that we’re at home, these things remain important to us, which is probably how they transformed themselves into the focus of Our Life in Meals.

Bacon for breakfast in Zion National Park, Utah
Brussels sprouts in the skillet, sausage, and bacon-wrapped pork chops

A discussion of the trip came up recently, as Jan and I stared out our front window and at the van, agreeing that we needed to take another trip with it, and soon. But before we could do that, some reminiscing on the Vantastic Voyage was in order. Here are some highlights in photos:

Barbecued bison for dinner

The plan: In 2004 I drove with a girl friend from San Francisco to Boston in five days. Ever since then, I’d wanted to do another road trip, but this time, taking time to visit all the places off the interstates I’d missed. For a while, I’d thought the best vacation would be to rent an RV and hit the road for a month. I told Jan about my crazy idea and he was game.

Stopping to pick apples outside of Zion National Park, Utah

The van: I started researching RV rentals but found the cost to be ridiculous. Nearly $100 per night plus $.32 per mile in addition to gas for the thing? Jan and I decided a better option would be to purchase a used van to use for the trip, then sell it afterwards. This became Jan’s project. He found a 2002 Dodge Ram Van and proceeded to build the best mini RV I’d ever seen. We did check out the Sportsmobile factory in Fresno to copy their best ideas for a tiny fraction of the cost of the 4×4 Sportsmobiles.

Night before departure, the van is coming together
In the van with the essentials: solar-powered mobile kitchen, bedroom complete with mini blinds, Benny's bed, and barbecue

The trip: I’m a planner. Jan hates having a plan. I acquiesced to the idea that nothing about the trip would be planned except that our turnaround point was going to be the Jack Daniel’s factory in Kentucky, and we had a month to get there and back. We’d just drive and take in the country at our own pace.

Following the laws of the land -- different for each of the seven states!

Of course there were some bumps along the way. We didn’t make it cross country. After driving about a third of the way to the other coast, we realized we’d be driving all day and night while seeing nothing if we were going to make it there and back within a month. Despite the fact that Jan never got to Lynchburg, we did make it one of the best vacations we’ve ever had.

Making s'mores outside of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Best burger I've eaten in my life: barbecued by Jan outside of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
It wasn't just us focused on food: The guide at Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park, Nevada, called these cave formations "bacon"
Jan assured me more calories were burned in colder temperatures, hence bacon for breakfast daily was not only OK, but necessary

Did we last a month? No. We thought about celebrating Thanksgiving in Las Vegas and slowly making our way back home for the remainder of November, but decided a bigger, better adventure would probably be hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner at home (which we ended up doing, very successfully). Besides, after all the great food we’d eaten along the way, the all-you-can-eat buffet was a bit anticlimactic.

At the Mirage in Las Vegas

Did we get ever mad at each other living in such close quarters? Yes. I really don’t need to say much besides: men, women, and directions. They do not mix well. But then again, if you don’t really plan where you’re going, you can’t ever be lost, right?

The navigator

Would we do it again? Yes. When you sit back and let the road take you where it wants to take you, some fun discoveries are made along the way. For example, Super Wal-Marts were our savior. With grocieries (including bison steaks in Utah!), camping supplies, and a McDonald’s all rolled into one, I changed my standards for what made a good town—if it had a Super Wal-Mart in it, it was a happening and awesome place. After driving for miles and miles and seeing not much besides the desert, the glow of its neon sign became a welcome sight.

Another lesson learned? Throw out the guidebook. I’d scan it on the way to our next destination, excited to see Site A, Museum B, and Restaurant C, only to be disappointed. We’d just happened by the places the ONE day they happened to be closed, or the author made something out to be different than it really was. The best discoveries were the accidental ones, the places we stumbled upon, and the meals we threw together.

Notice the snow behind the Baby Q: Camping in the snow in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Fajitas at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
At the Coors Factory in Golden Colorado, they give you lots of free beer!

One year later, we still have the van. We want to go on one more trip with it before letting it find a new home. Of course, Jan’s got big plans for his next vehicle project. He says four-wheel-drive is required. The only thing on my list is a GPS.

Lederhosen and Lebkuchen

It only started to feel like autumn in Fresno about two weeks ago, and we’ve still got 70 degree days, so it seems only fitting to wait for fall to celebrate Oktoberfest. Since Jan and I knew our attempts at authenticity would just end up as kitschy misrepresentations, we just decided to embrace the silliness and host an Oktoberfest party in November, which we dubbed “Noktoberfest.”

The theme was completed with the perfect outfits – I went to the Halloween store the day after Halloween to score 50 percent off on a costume simply named “Gretchen.” For Jan, we found him some plaid shorts and green suspenders, to which I sewed on ribbon with a heart and flowers pattern, along with a horizontally sewn thick green ribbon to complete the Lederhosen look. And some of my good sport friends joined in the chance to get another wearing out of a former halloween costume.

Pouring Jägermeister, of course

On the menu were sauerkraut potatoes and German sausages. To round out the meal with a good dessert, I decided on German chocolate cupcakes (which I learned weren’t actually from Germany, but instead popularized by a man from England named Sam German. Since we’d already given up on any authenticity with our outfits, this discovery only seemed to fit into the theme perfectly).

Potatoes with sauerkraut, cabbage, sausage, and dark rye bread
German chocolate cupcakes

I also thought it would be fun activity to decorate our own Lebkuchen during the party, which are decorated gingerbread hearts that can be worn during Oktoberfest celebrations. (And yes, I am the nerd who printed out the Wikipedia article and placed it at the decorating table along with some StockFood.com pictures for inspiration.)

I’d never made gingerbread before, so I looked up recipes and settled on one from Paula Deen, to which I made a few modifications. Since I love the lemon flavored Swedish Anna’s Thins, I added some lemon zest to my batter to try and get a bit of that flavor. And since I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out, I did a test run of the cookie dough the weekend before, baking only about five cookies. They were great, so to save myself some time in the next week when I knew I’d be busy, I wrapped the dough in saran wrap, placed it in a zip top bag, and put it in the freezer.

The night before the party, when I was ready to make the cookies, I thawed the dough by placing in under a bowl of running water for about 20 minutes. On a heavily-floured board I used a rolling pin to roll out the cookies to about 1/8” thick. I used a heart shaped cookie cutter, and even though it was smaller than the pictures of Lebkuchen I’d seen online, I figured it would do. I took apart a Bic pen, rinsed the pen body, and used that to make two holes where the string would go in order for us to wear our cookies.

I tested out using my new Silpat silicone mat for the first time, baked the cookies for 10 minutes, and they came out perfectly, sliding off the mat with ease. After cooking on a wire rack, I set them aside for the next day.

Ready for baking
Cooling on a wire rack
Couldn't squeeze "Oktoberfest" onto a cookie, so settled for polka dots

When it came time for the party, we laid out our spread of German, English (the German Chocolate Cake Cupcakes), and Czech food. Our Czech additions were the open-faced sandwiches called chlebíčky (kleb-eech-keh), which we included not only because they’re a part of every holiday celebration in our family, but the Czech Republic does share a border with Germany, so considering all the other themed items, wasn’t too far of a stretch.

Chlebicky = Czech open faced sandwiches

 

And even though I felt silly for asking my guests to decorate their own gingerbread jewelry only minutes after welcoming them into our home, it seemed that the Lebkuchen hearts were a hit. Suddenly, there was a plate of cookies with icing drying, just waiting to be worn. Later, I looked across the room to see one guest playfully (or hungrily?) taking a bite out of her date’s heart necklace. Everyone was joyful, and I had one guess to why: we had the best of both worlds, transported back to being a kid wearing candy necklaces and playing with our food, but with a cold beer in hand.

Lebkuchen hearts: inspiration and execution

Homemade Hummus

Certain dishes hold an almost legendary status. Everyone probably has a different one that their grandmother, friend, or family member makes. They’ve shared their recipe with you, and yet, your attempts at recreating the original never quite turn out like they should. For me, this recipe has been hummus.

A few years ago, my dad got hummus down to an art. I’d only had restaurant and store-bought versions until he decided he was going to find out the secret behind great hummus. He found it – garlic, and it didn’t take long for us all to start chopping up carrot sticks and pita bread to enjoy it with. Soon, everyone was asking him to make up a batch for parties, bring some over as an appetizer, etc. He even bought a bulk package of these cute little disposable containers to put the hummus in he was giving so much away. And with it, he included the simple recipe on a yellow post-it note each time.

But it didn’t seem to make any difference. I tried to make it on my own, but it never turned out the same. Instead, I’d go over to visit and wait around until he suggested making some for me to take home.

Usually, this method sufficed, but with my dad on vacation, I couldn’t wait any longer for my hummus. I had to give it one last shot. This time, I followed the recipe like I thought I had before. And to my surprise it came out great!

I realized what had been happening in all those other attempts: I’d balked at the sheer volume of garlic in the recipe, and made my own modifications without really realizing it. This time, I squeezed the cloves of fresh garlic through the garlic press one at a time, and threw them all in. (I was desperate for some good hummus!)

The surprise result? It turned out just like dad’s famous hummus. He always swore that the secret was the garlic, but I think I was holding back, afraid of overdoing it. The garlic is needed to add some bite to the earthy flavor of the garbanzo beans and tahini (a paste of ground sesame seeds, available at Mediterranean food markets). And the addition of the sumac (another Mediterranean spice) gives it a rich, authentic flavor.

I got out some crunchy pita chips to enjoy the result: smiles served up with some serious garlic breath.

Dad’s famous hummus

print recipe

Ingredients:
  • 16 oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon tahini
  • 1/4 teaspoon sumac
 
Directions:
  1. Drain and rinse garbanzo beans in a colander.
  2. Use a garlic press to crush the garlic cloves.
  3. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Girls Gone Camping

I recently got a valuable lesson reinforced to me: girls can do anything! Ok, well, I suppose I knew that already, but when it came to camping in the woods, I wasn’t convinced until a friend said she wanted to forgo the traditional bachelorette party in favor of a girl’s camping weekend. I love camping, and go whenever I get the opportunity, but could us girls do it on our own? Would we want to?

I campaigned to the girls, citing the best part of camping was having the guys do everything for us, set up the tents, make the fire, scare away bears, etc. Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Czech Ptacky

At home, the experimentation continues with sous vide, but thankfully on other nights, there’s been a stark contrast to the new age cooking techniques. We’ve been bringing back old world flavors. Jan has been working for some time to recreate some traditional favorites his Grandma used to make for him in the Czech Republic when he was small. The latest, and one of my new favorites in addition to the fried cheese (link here) is Ptacky.

Ptáčky (pronounced tach-key) is Czech for bird because the brightly colored sausage, pickle and mustard stuffed inside a piece of flattened beef resembles a bird, even though there is no bird in it. Once rolled, the beef is tied and cooked like a stew. Continue reading →