I have no idea where this recipe originated. There are a couple of variations out there. This is the one I made. Upped the amount of lemon juice slightly in the glaze.
If you’re thinking these will come out like lemon squares, you’re in for a disappointment.
They’re very much like a light non-chocolaty lemon flavored brownie. Light and tart and delicious. Easy to do too
Posted in baking
After experiencing a 30 degree drop in temperature, I was jonesing for some comfort food. I took some inspiration from my Pinterest recipe board and decided to make “the Hot Brit grilled cheese sandwich.” BTW, add “hot brit” to things you probably shouldn’t Google (at least by itself. Adding “grilled cheese” was much more successful).
Very basic recipe from Chow. Bread, some extra sharp cheddar, and some store bought mango chutney. I used two cast iron frying pans. One to fry and one to weight the sandwich down. About 5 minutes total. I’d advise a sharp or extra sharp cheddar as it nicely complements the sweetness of the chutney.
I served it with some roasted brussels sprouts and cauliflower from the hot foods bar at Wegmans. Yummy.
Posted in recipes
Another pop culture post (I’ll get back to the cooking soon, I swear!). My current obsession is Game of Thrones. It’s medieval politics, sex, and violence with a soupçon of fantasy throne in. Really good acting, high production values, and a compelling story. I’m hooked.
Season 3 is airing. Don’t click or read any more if you’d rather not be spoiled.
This gem of a scene encapsulates what I love so much about this show.
Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) is holding a meeting of the Small Council. There’s a king who could attend if he wanted, but he doesn’t generally. These are the people who make the decisions in his name. For nearly two minutes, there’s no dialogue. Who wants to sit where; how each person gets to where they are sitting; and why they want to sit where tells us everything we need to know.
It’s been awhile since I posted about anything other than food, so let me switch gears for a little bit. Awhile back, a colleague recommended a TV movie to me called Shooting the Past by Stephen Poliakoff. I put it on my Netflix queue where it remained for sometime. A week or so ago, it finally made its way to my home.
Marilyn, (Lindsay Duncan) is in charge of a photo archive (10 million photos) that is owned by a company. The company has let them to their own devices for years but has recently been sold to American businessman Liam Cunningham (now playing Davos Seaworth on the excellent Game of Thrones). Unbeknownst to her, he’s been writing her colleague who handles the business end of stuff, Oswald (Timothy Spall) that the best photos of the collection are to be sold and the rest of it destroyed. Oswald has not shared this info with any of the archive’s employees so they’re totally unprepared for the news.
Now it’s up to her to try and convince him that the collection needs to be kept intact. This is part 1 of a really great scene :
This is quite a remarkable story and a remarkable movie. While some of the archive employees are exaggerated, I have met people somewhat like them in the library world before. Cunningham’s character is not a monster. He’s a decent enough man who has done the appropriate thing and is now flung into a situation not of his own making.
I am also very familiar with the central crux of the dilemma faced by the archive. Marilyn is told by others that the contents of the archive are mostly duplicated elsewhere. The argument she needs to make is a difficult one. Why does this collection need to remain intact? Through a series of “stories” that Marilyn has the chance to tell, she manages to make her case.
Timothy Spall is slightly over-the-top, but everyone else gives wonderful performances. The music, the direction, the writing, the amazing images, all make this really worth the time to hunt it down. (Hint, hint, it appears to be on YouTube)
Posted in movies
I am not the biggest fan of chocolate cake. Yeah, I know I’m weird. But I was looking for a dessert to make for a dinner party and came across this recipe for a Fallen Chocolate Cake in Bon Appetit.
After it cools, you top it with a mixture of mascarpone and whipped cream. Initially I thought this was overkill. It’s an incredibly rich cake to begin with and now you add not just whipped cream but also mascarpone? In the end though, the mascarpone really works. I think it helps balance it all out somehow.
Things I would do differently next time: spend a little more effort hunting down bittersweet chocolate with a higher cacao content; bake it slightly longer so that it would properly crack; possibly add some raspberries for a little color and some lightness.
Posted in Uncategorized
So awhile back, I made my own mustard from scratch.
As promised here is a really awesome turkey sandwich made with said mustard.
Bakery roll slathered in the mustard, roast turkey breast, my friend’s homemade cranberry sauce, swiss cheese, fresh spinach.
To die for.
Posted in recipes
On reading an issue of Bon Appetit, I stumbled across a page by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer with ideas for homemade holiday gifts. There were two that caught my eye: Hirsheimer’s Hot and Sweet Mustard and Better Than Nutella. The ingredients were accessible and I liked the idea.
But since this is me, there was of course a catch with both of them.
As those who know me personally will attest, I have a tendency to become far too ambitious and a tendency to panic. This can make for interesting times in the kitchen.
I wasn’t sure about the mustard recipe. At the time there were no reviews and well, I like my mustard a bit grainier. I did a lot of internet searching (let’s just say there are many many kind of mustard and many many ways to make them) and came up finally with this one: Hard Cider Mustard.
First there was the hunt for black mustard seeds. 1 Penzeys, 3 Indian grocery stores, 1 specialty gourmet store later, I ended up ordering these online.
Then I attempted to make it. Most mustards take seeds and/or mustard powder and apple cider vinegar. This recipe called for you to soak the seeds and powder in apple cider vinegar/hard apple cider for 24 hours. I did that. I probably measured wrong because when it came time to put the mixture in the food processor, it looked way too liquidy. But I said to myself, “hey just trust the recipe.” I still don’t know if it was the recipe, mismeasuring, or my food processor that was at fault. All I know is that I pressed the on button, turned my back to clean up my workspace, and BAM! Liquid pungent smelling stuff ran down the sides of the food processor.
Now part of the reason you want to make your own mustard in the first place has to do with the fact that the store bought stuff is on the weak side smell and taste wise. Nothing says Christmas by the intense aroma of mustard seeds and powder soaked in apple cider vinegar all over the floor, your food processor and your counter. Add to which my food processor has these kind of decorative grooves on the sides (that involved an hour with a toothpick cleaning that out).
Freaking out at this point, I turned to the original inspiration for this idea and said, what the heck. Let’s try it. 15-20 minutes start to jars.
And it was utterly fabulous. My only regret is that I don’t have a canner and the stuff is good for about 2 months. I followed the Hirsheimer recipe exactly and I heartily recommend it. Easy peasy.
Now let’s talk about the homemade Nutella. First off: even better than the store bought kind. We’re talking FAB. And once you get past the part that messed me up, a fairly simple recipe. Also, I was able to make the BEST TURKEY SANDWICH EVER. Details on that will be forthcoming.
I have never worked with hazelnuts before. Here’s the thing. If you make this, go out of your way to find some without skins. Because the seemingly innocuous phrase in the recipe “if nuts have skins, rub them in a kitchen towel to remove” was an exercise in frustration and laundry (I went through 4 kitchen towels trying to get the skins off).
Posted in recipes
