New take on shake'n'bake

I think Shake'n'Bake still exists though I would be willing to bet it has so much sodium and unpronounceable ingredients that it is very uncouth to make it for your family. Well fear not you can update your shake'n'bake and pronounce everything in it. Not to mention you can get dinner on the table in 45 minutes with minimal cleanup. Other bonus of this recipe is that it is even better cold the next day. I found this on my Epicurious iPhone App. You can also find it on the website epicurious.com where you'll  find recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines. 

Deviled Chicken Drumsticks

12 chicken drumsticks (2 1/2 to 3 pounds total)

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

3/4 tsp cayenne

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F with rack in upper third

I take the skin off the drumsticks before I coat them so they are a little healthier. Pat the drumsticks to dry a little. Put the dijon mustard into a large ziploc bag with the drumsticks and shake until evenly coated. 

Mix panko, cheese and cayenne together. Melt the butter and toss with the panko and cheese. 

Dredge each mustard coated drumstick in the mixture and set on a buttered jelly roll pan/cookie sheet. Make sure you use a pan that is large enough so the drumsticks aren't crowded.

Roast until browned and cooked all the way through, about 30 minutes.
As mentioned these are great made a day before or eaten right out of the oven.  If you looked at the recipe on the website you can see other suggestions people have tried such as changing the mustard, using turkey strips or chicken tenders.

Ferry Plaza Seafood

We have been filling our weekend with fun errands and good food. What qualifies as fun a fun errand? Lately, it usually has to do with shopping for the honeymoon! This week it was a beach hat and lunch at the Ferry Building. We were going to eat at Gott's Diner but we didn't plan well and got to the ferry building at noon. Noon on a Tuesday means crazy lunch line.  We walked around to the back of the building and stumbled on Ferry Plaza Seafood. 

We both had a cup of Ute's unique clam chowder. The unique part is that it is half new england and half manhattan. Making it this really nice light red and giving it a thickness but not overly filing. It was delicious and next time I will have a bowl instead. 

I also had a roasted shrimp Caesar Salad. The shrimp had some great flavor from the seasoning. Not too spicy but definitely a little kick. 

It was a gorgeous day in San Francisco yesterday but the waitress was kind enough to offer a blanket if I was cold. I should have said yes just to see if she was serious. Just what kind of blanket does a seafood restaurant give you? Does it fit the theme and look like something out of L.L. Bean? 

We couldn't believe people were standing in line at Gott's when there are some many great things to eat at the Ferry Building. What are some of your favorites?

True stories of a girl scout

I was in the girl scouts for a few years in elementary school. I walked the bridge to go from brownies to girl scouts. I got chigger bites all over my legs while earning a history merit badge in a unkempt graveyard. I learned that being a cookie salesman wasn't so much about the number of doors you knocked on but more about how many people your parents worked with.  I went to girl scout camp for two years where I learned the finer points of singing campfire songs, how to roast a proper marshmallow and how not to pee my pants from laughing. Sadly, I never mastered that last one. I also learned that being honest and having integrity can cost you a place in the bake-off. I baked my favorite cake for the bake-off, lightning cake. My mom has always been more of a cook than a baker but her go to cake was always so good it seemed like the perfect cake to make for the competition. It isn't named lightning cake because it is flashy. It is lightning cake because you can bake it fast as lightning.
While it is quick to make my mom never put much decoration on it aside from a dusting of powder sugar. So when I made it for the cake bake-off I decided to enter it into the taste category not presentation. Since that was the case I don't know whey we decided to decorate it. The competition was either close to valentines day or a heart was the easiest thing to do because we decorated it with a heart. My mom cut out a heart stencil the size of the cake and we held it in place and poured red sugar sprinkles over the top. When we lifted off the stencil there was a perfect heart on top of this pretty yellow cake. I proudly walked my cake across two yards to the troop leaders house to be judged. I remember being so nervous when I had to go upstairs and talk about my cake. After they talked to all of us they called me back in and the nerves were worse. No one else got called back in why were they calling me in? Did I do something wrong? I was a worrywart even at a young age. When I got back in front of them they asked me if I was sure I wanted to enter my cake in the taste category because if I wanted to change it to decoration I could do that but I had to decide now. Since the decoration wasn't my idea and my mom actually did it all it didn't seem right for me to enter in decoration since I hadn't done the work. I was also a very honest rule-following child. I declined and proudly went downstairs to await the results. When we all came back upstairs I found out that I didn't win anything. Later they told me if I switched to the other category I would have won first place because they had never seen that technique done so well. Oh well, I might never be known for my beautiful baked goods but they are always tasty and made with a lot of heart.

If you only have a bit of time and need a delicious cake give this one a try.

Lightning Cake

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
milk
1tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Melt butter and put in a measuring cup and let cool while you mix other ingredients. (I just melt my butter in the microwave in a Pyrex measuring cup)
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Add two eggs to the butter in the measuring cup. Add milk to the measuring cup until the measuring cup reads 1 cup. Add vanilla. Pour into dry ingredients and beat or whisk until smooth. Pour batter into a greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes.
Let cool and dust with powder sugar and serve.

We served ours tonight strawberry shortcake style.

What is your favorite cake? Do you have some favorite girl scout (or boy scout) memories?

pesto and garlic shrimp

One of the best parts about getting married is my recipe collection is growing and my stats are improving. Like a baseball team we have a starting lineup of meals and sometimes the starters don't perform as well as the rookies and we have to give the rookies a shot, and every once in a while a starter gets Wally Pipped. 

Wally Pipp played first base for the New York Yankees, posting a career .282 average and was the first Yankee to win the home run crown in 1916. On June 2, 1925, Pipp was removed from the Yankees starting lineup and replaced with Lou Gehrig to shake up the slumping ball club. This was the beginning of Gehrig's 2,130 consecutive game streak and the end of Pipp's time in New York, he was traded to Cincinnati that same season.

This is the Iron Horse of recipes, easy to make and so delicious it has made the starting lineup every week and so far its batting a thousand. Even better is that if you double it you can make something else with pesto later in the week or freeze some for next week.  This recipe came from one of my sisters-in-law. 

Pesto

1 ½ cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves
½ cup pine nuts toasted
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
6 garlic cloves
¼  cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

Garlic Shrimp
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves minced
About 20 large shrimp peeled and deveined
Fresh Parmesan for garnish

Put pine nuts, basil, garlic, and cheese into the Cuisinart. Pulse a few time to get everything chopped up. Slowly add the olive oil through the feeder tube. I do this while still pulsing to get it mixed in properly. If it is too thick add a little more olive oil. Though I have found if you are tossing with garlic shrimp there is some extra olive oil in the pan and that seems to do the trick. 

My favorite thing about pesto is the color. It looks spring in a bowl. Once you have the consistency you want season with salt and pepper and lemon juice and set aside while you cook the shrimp

Heat the olive oil in a pan and toss the shrimp and garlic into the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes or until the shrimp are almost cooked through and the garlic is tender. Toss your pesto with the shrimp and finish cooking. *Hint: don't leave in the pan too long or your cheese will start melting and stick to the pan.

Toss everything with the pasta. If you save 1/2 cup of the water from cooking the pasta you can add to moisten the sauce so it will coat the pasta evenly. Sprinkle with cheese and serve. 

While this recipe has enough garlic to keep a vampire, or your date, away it is certain to put whoever eats it in the clean plate club. The recipe is supposed to feed 8 but I can't image sharing it with more than 4.

What recipes are in your starting lineup? What recipes have you had handed down from family?

Good Enough for Violet Beauregard

Just in case you didn't get the reference, Violet Beauregard is a character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that chews Blueberry gum and fills up with juice. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 1971 version, is one of my favorite movies. Don't get me wrong I love the new Tim Burton version but nothing beats what you loved as a kid. That goes for the original Star Wars too, before they added scenes and E.T. before they took out "penis breath"and changed the guns to walkie talkies. Wow this is quickly turning into a completely different post than I set out to write. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is my lead into a post about the best blueberry quick bread. Hard to say where my mom got the recipe for this one but based on one of the ingredients I think a 1970's issue of Better Homes and Gardens might be a good guess. That same surprising ingredient is also used in my mother-in-laws carrot cake, so who knows. Wherever these recipes came from they are both delicious because of one tiny little canned good. When I heard about the carrot cake being the best ever I knew it would be good but kind of figured every son must love their mom's carrot cake and maybe they do but he is right, it is amazing. A lot of that has to do with it being so moist. I couldn't figure it out when I ate it but when I got the recipe from one of his sisters it all became suddenly clear.

Crushed Pineapple! I knew it the minute I read it because my mom's blueberry bread was always so good and it also has crushed pineapple. It seems to give it a sweet taste without being overpowering and it makes the finished product really moist. I could be wrong and maybe there is some other science behind it but I would try any recipe with crushed pineapple as an ingredient. As a matter of fact if anyone has any they want to share we would be happy to have them at our house. 

If you want to try a recipe for yourself here is the blueberry quick bread that I loved growing up.

Blueberry Quick Bread

Makes 2 loaves of bread or approx. 24 muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit 

grease 2 9x5 loaf pans or grease 2 muffin tins

2/3 cup butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 cup crushed pineapple 

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Tblsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

2 cups blueberries 

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Add pineapple, lemon juice, and vanilla and mix. Stir in dry ingredients alternating with milk.  Fold in blueberries and nuts (if using).

 Fold the berries in gently so you don't break the skin. If you do no big deal some of them will break when they cook. It will just tint the bread a little blue, but it will still taste delicious.

Divide batter evenly between two loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.  Adjust cooking time if making muffins. Usually about half the time but check it at about 10 minutes to be sure.

banana bread turned cookie

Yummy!!! This is my new favorite cookie. Really how can you go wrong when you basically make a banana bread recipe in cookie format and add chocolate. People have added chocolate to banana bread for years so that really isn't new, but cookie form was an exciting twist.

We found the recipe in Martha Stewart's Cookies Cookbook. Based on how many of the recipes I have used out of this book I would have to highly recommend it. If anyone is looking for a gift for me I would love to have the companion cupcake book too.

So the recipe we are currently talking about is Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies on page 170. (or you can find it at the bottom of this post). A little birdie told me that my soon-to-be father-in-law is a fan of all baked goodies with banana in the name. Since his birthday was this past Sunday and I had some ready to use bananas I decided to finally make him these cookies. I wasn't really sure how they would turn out but it seemed like it couldn't go too bad just based on the title. So I sent a text ahead to my partner in crime to set out some butter and when I got home I got to work. Upon reading the ingredients I saw that I was suppose to have all purpose and whole wheat flour. Now I have a fairly well stocked pantry but I am not at whole wheat flour level yet. My general rule on ingredients I don't have is if the recipe doesn't explain why it is a benefit I scrap it and use what I have. So I went with only all purpose flour on this one.  I also scrapped Martha's suggestion that I toast the walnuts because I didn't see that instruction until I was already at this point in the process.

.

This was a little late for me to pull out a cookie sheet, toast some walnuts, let them cool and then mix them in. I don't have that kind of patience once I am seconds away from the gratification of putting them in the oven.  So on we went with plain old chopped walnuts. Trust me there were no complaints on either front when they came out of the oven looking like this. 

His dad got the cookies today and I am told they were a hit with him as well. This will be a common cookie in our house and we may even mail some more if Tom and I can control ourselves and not eat them all first. As promised the recipe is below.

Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I didn't have this so just add 1/2cup more of all-purpose)

1 teaspoon coarse salt (i used Morton's regular salt)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (I only had dark so that is what went in)

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about one large banana)

1 cup old-fashioned oats

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/4-inch chunks (I used 2/3 a bag of nestle morsels)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (about 2 ounces), toasted. (if you want to toast them go for it but plain was just as yummy)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together both flours, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

2. Put butter and both sugars in to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until plea and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chunks and walnuts. 

3. Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 12 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for 2 days. * 

This made 2 dozen cookies. 

*Just make the cookies the same way you would chocolate chip cookies. I didn't use parchment I just went with ungreased cookie sheets and everything came out fine. I also skipped rotating halfway through but I know my oven and never rotate. Airtight containers for 2 days is a suggestion. If they last longer than 2 days in your house I am betting they will still be fine and tasty.

What shortcuts do you take in your home kitchen baking from a recipe?

Take me out to the ball game

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack...

We met on October 11, 2010. The day the SF Giants beat the Atlanta Braves to advance to the National League Champion Series. It was merely convenience that we met during that game. I was at home all set to eat some dinner and quietly watch the baseball game and Monday night football. Until a friend called and said I should come out cause he had a friend I should meet. I threw on a Giants T-shirt and headed for the sports bar my friend and I always met at and the rest is...you guessed it, history.

Taken 4 days before we met the first night the Giants beat Atlanta. 

While we both love baseball we don't both love the same team. I love the SF Giants and he is a San Diego Padres fan. So that during the first 4 weeks of dating he had to watch me celebrate a Giants World Series, a world series his team could have just as easily been playing in if the Giants hadn't beat them the last game of the season, says a lot about what a sweet guy he is.

For Christmas I got him a 4 pack of tickets to the Padres even though we live in San Francisco. Thursday is opening day and our first of four. We will be sitting in the warm sunshine root root rooting for the home team.

I will be rooting for the Dodgers to lose more than for the Padres to win but that is really six of one, half a dozen of another. Either way as long as it ends in celebration fireworks everyone will go home happy on Thursday night.  

Let's Go GIANTS!!!  Who will you be rooting for this weekend?