Show Some Love: Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab & Chocolate Fondue

I have a confession to make. I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. Sure, I have a taste for conversation hearts like everyone else, but other than that I'm just not into it. Where does all this scroogy cynicism come from? Well, in my mind, Valentine's Day might as well change it's name to Anxiety Day, based off my angst ridden collage of Valentine memories.  Memories of early grade school crisis's of choosing the perfect Garfield valentine for my crush,  awful Valentine's dances in high school (which really only served the purpose of confirming, yes, yes, I'm breaking up with him),  getting sent roses in college from that stalkerish guy in history class,  that jerk who forgot about Valentine's Day, all the way to those anti-Valentine's Day man bashing sessions you have with your girlfriends (they only leave you feeling like the pettier sex, because once again you've wasted your entire evening talking about them). And what about worst of all when you are just starting to date someone and V Day rears it's ugly head? You look everywhere but you just can't find a card that says " I might like you a little bit, but I'm not crazy in love with you yet, so don't go getting any ideas." Hallmark doesn't make that one, but they really should. Then when you are in a relationship those dreaded Valentine's Days spent at work where your heart jumps a little every time the UPS guy walks in? And you told your man, not to waste his money on flowers, they die, etc, etc, but you didn't mean it, did you? (Men, we never really mean that. Seriously we don't.) Then the Valentine's day you realize you have your good man because he sent you the perfect bouquet of non-roses in your favorite flower color, with no trace of baby's breath in sight, and it was just slightly (but significantly) bigger than all the other girl's bouquets? Then it hits you that you have spent your whole entire day waiting to be sad, mad, happy, or worst of all disappointed. All in the name of love and chocolates?? What other holiday causes so much turmoil, make-ups and break-ups?(The holidays you spend too much time with your family don't count....) Do you see how awful my attitude is? Atrocious. Just terrible.

At least it was until the other day. The other day I was helping my 3 year old stuff her cute "Disney Princess" valentines when she asked me "Mommy, what is Valentine's Day?" I was about to launch into the history of St.Valentine, the Emperor Claudius and Victorian greeting cards, but instead I told her "Valentines Day is a day where we tell the people we love, we love them." In that moment, I knew what I just said wasn't the normally contrived answer used to placate my curious child, it was the truth. I started thinking of the good Valentine memories, like when my dad used to bring my little sister and I teddy bears and flowers, making us feel so very special. Life has come full circle and now and I have two little girls of my own and the opportunity to show them that same love. I started thinking about the past Valentine's Days spent with my husband, and all the future ones to look forward to. I thought about the fact that while the main gift may change, he can always be counted on to bring home a good bottle of red wine and some dark chocolate. Now who wouldn't want to be able to circle a date on the calendar every year and say to themselves "today I am going to get some wine and chocolate!" I mean, that is pretty cool right?

The truth is Valentine's Day is about love and the celebration of that love. Your "true love", your dog, your grandbabies, your best friend, it doesn't matter who is on the receiving end of that love, the point is you are just supposed to show them love. You can show them that love with cut out paper hearts, two dozen roses, or simply by telling them. The only point is to express your love, the vehicle in which you do it in really doesn't matter. Sometimes it seems like there is hardly enough love to make the world go round, so WHY NOT celebrate a day that is specifically designed to be about love?  I have given myself a major attitude adjustment. Now give yourself one too. Go spread the love.

Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab with Fresh Herbs & Lemon
Serves 2
This recipe is so delicious! I always make this during Dungeness Crab season (December-March) for either birthdays or Valentines Day.

6 ounces unsalted butter (divided into 4 oz and 2 oz pieces)
1/4 cup good olive oil
Habenero hot sauce to taste (I use a tablespoon)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tablespoons shallots, minced
2 cooked, cleaned Dungeness crabs*
6 Tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped (I used tarragon and parsley, but you could use thyme, cilantro, arugula)
1 Large lemon, juiced and zested
3/4 cup Riesling, Gewurztraminer, or Champagne
Salt & pepper

* Buy the freshest crab possible, preferably live, have the fishmonger kill and back crabs for you. Cook within 4 hours. To cook, boil in salted water for 17 minutes. Drain in colander. If buying crab already cooked, make sure crabs are not missing any legs, as this is a sign crabs are not fresh. The crabs with the biggest legs have the most meat.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Rinse crabs. Crack the legs from the cooked crab and section the breasts. Melt 4 ounces of the unsalted butter and the olive oil over medium heat in a large ovenproof saute pan or deep skillet. Add garlic and shallots and saute until translucent, about 2 minutes. Stir in hot sauce to taste.  Add crabs, season with salt and pepper and stir, sauteing for another minute or two. Add 4 tablespoons of the chopped herbs and half of the lemon zest. Stir.

Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 10-12 minutes. (Stir once halfway through.) Remove pan from oven and transfer crab to a big platter. Cover crab and keep warm. Put saute pan back over medium heat and add lemon juice and Riesling. Increase the heat to medium high and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce by half (about 4 minutes). Stir in 2 ounces reserved butter. Pour sauce over crabs and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of herbs and rest of lemon zest. Serve immediately with sourdough bread!


Chocolate Fondue

8 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate (60% cacao) (Try Trader Joe's chocolate baking disks)
1 Cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon Cabernet, Syrah, or Zinfandel

Dipping ideas:
Strawberries
Bananas
Brownies
Pound Cake
Cheesecake

In a medium saucepan, over medium low heat melt chocolate, butter, and cream. Stir until smooth. Add wine and stir again. Transfer to a fondue pot with a flame going underneath. Serve with dipping items, enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day! Don't worry, it's cranberry juice!

French Apple Tart

I made my first apple pie as a sophomore in high school for my crush at the time, Aaron. I worked diligently all day making this humongous apple pie with the fancy lattice work and everything. My motivation was based on the philosophy that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I still believe this rule with 2 exceptions: one, food is the way to any person's heart, not just a man; and two, the food needs to actually be good for the rule to work. I never even tasted that first apple pie, and the relationship went nowhere, so I can only conclude that the pie was a dud, but that turned out to be a good thing because the guy was a dud too.

Nevertheless, I stayed far away from any kind of pie making and anything to do with apples for quite some time. I was in truth intimidated by apples, I thought you needed one of those fancy Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer tools. I thought wrong. All you need for baking apples is a vegetable peeler and a melon baller. Peel apple, cut in half, take out core with melon baller, slice , done. This is a great method when working with pears as well!

I use apple butter on this tart, which is widely available this time of year. I buy mine at this wonderful little cafe, thats food probably deserves it's own post! If you don't have any apple butter, try reducing some apple cider, and topping the apples with that. This tart will make your house smell so so good, be sure to serve a la mode and I think you will have a sure fire path to anyones heart, whomever that may be!

French Apple Tart
Serves 6-8

Tools: One 8 or 9 inch tart, quiche, or creme brulee pan

Pastry

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and diced
1/4 cup ice water

Note: Instead you could use a 1/2 sheet premade puff pastry, but only do this if tart is going to be eaten all in the same day. Roll out puff pastry into tart pan and proceed to the apple step!

Place flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in small bits and looks like little peas. With the processor running, pour in the ice water and pulse until dough is combined. Place dough onto a floured surface and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a hour and up to one day.

Apple Topping

2 green apples, such as Gravenstein or Granny Smith
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced into small pieces.
1/4 cup apple butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line your tart pan with parchment paper. Roll the dough into a circle. Dough may be sticky, if so just keep adding a little flour until dough is manageable. Place dough in the tart pan and using a knife, trim the edges. Refrigerate prepared dough until ready to use.


Peel and core apples. Slice the apples into half moons about 1/4 inch thick. Place apple slices overlapping in diagonal rows, until the pastry is completely covered. Sprinkle with the sugar and dot with the butter. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour until the pastry and apples start to brown, rotating once. When the tart is done, heat up the apple butter and brush over apples. Serve warm with ice cream! I recommend Haagen Dazs Dolce De Leche!

Tailgate Food

My favorite time of year is fall for many reasons, from pumpkin patches to that first cozy fire but a major one is that it is college football season. I love watching most sports but there is nothing so familiar and yet so unpredictable as a college football game. Even if your team is having a down year, it is so rejuvenating to pack up your ice chest and head down to the game amongst all your flag waving people. (Beaver Fans on I-5). You feel hopeful and excited as you near your Alma mater, and absolutely can't wait to park & open that cooler! Be sure to make lots, you'll want to share and you'll also need some nourishment as you sit in game day traffic. You might even want to double the cupcake recipe, either for a celebratory dessert or to drown your sorrows afterward. I am not sure what can be more comforting than peanut butter & chocolate. Be sure to pack something equally satisfying to wash it down with, game days can make you unusually thirsty!

For the cupcakes use your favorite chocolate cake recipe, the richer the better!

Peanut Butter Frosting
Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa

1 Cup powdered sugar
1 Cup creamy peanut butter (I like Jif)
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 Teaspoon Kosher salt
1/3 Cup heavy cream

Beat powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in a bowl with an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until creamy. Add the heavy cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth, about 2 minutes.

My girlfriend used to make these sandwiches up for what we called the after after party. For when the hot food is gone, but you need a little snack. On a croissant they also look elegant enough for a buffet, I have made them for baby showers and birthday parties. To make the celery more tender and less stringy, peel the outer layer before chopping There isn't really any measurement to the chicken filling, just make as little or as much as you need! Make the filling a day ahead to let the flavor develop! My sister claims she doesn't like pickles, but when I made these and left them in the fridge overnight, they we gone the next morning!

Croissant Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Croissants
Sliced Swiss cheese
Dill pickles , chopped
Celery, chopped
Roasted chicken, chopped (Roast your own, or use a store bought rotisserie chicken)
Mayonnaise
Ranch dressing (preferably homemade , if not use Hidden Valley)
Salt
Lots & lots of pepper!

Mix chicken with equal parts pickles and celery. Then mix in equal parts ranch and mayo until desired consistency. Season with salt and lots of pepper. Put in Tupperware to sit overnight so the flavors can develop! When ready to assemble, cut croissant in half horizontally. Place chicken salad mixture on bottom of croissant. Place half a slice of Swiss cheese on top. Place top of croissant down making a sandwich, cut in half!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know, two dessert posts in a row! With this summer heat, we've really been eating very simple, grilled meats and veggies, light pastas, that sort of thing. The only reason I have turned on my oven is to bake, I like to think no matter how hot, most people would, in the name of chocolate....

In the heat of summer I like to mix this cookie dough up at night and then bake them first thing in the morning, before it gets too hot. After making the best cookies ever, I am also now a firm believer in the refrigerated dough method. This cookie recipe is for a small batch of cookies, if you want more, just double it. I like the fact that this recipe only makes a small batch, with only 2 adults in the house, we really don't need to be consuming 3 dozen cookies, and if they were there, well, we would!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 18 2-inch cookies

2 Sticks (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 Cup peanut butter
1 Large or XL Egg
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 Cup semisweet chocolate chips

With a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add peanut butter and mix until well combined. Add in egg, stir well, then vanilla also stirring well! Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a spoon, drop little scoops of dough on parchment. Press down on the centers slightly to flatten a little with the spoon. Bake for 13 minutes or until golden brown. When done, remove cookies and place parchment paper with cookies on wire rack to cool.

Ice Bath Brownies

The greater part of seven years ago, I was out on my own for the first time, and learning how to cook by myself. My kitchen was carpeted (horrible I know, I know!) One evening while pulling my mastered specialty of Gouda stuffed chicken breasts courtesy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook out of the oven, I accidentally set the glass baking dish on a burner I had forgotten to turn off. In less than 5 seconds, there was a loud popping sound and glass shards and Gouda stuffed chicken were everywhere, including that lovely carpet. Luckily no one was in the kitchen at the time, and I considered it a lesson learned, and vowed to never do something like that again.

Time passed, I learned to be more careful and during the next 7 years, exploding glass didn‘t occur in my now un-carpeted kitchen again, until last week that is.... In a previous post I mentioned my brownie recipe disaster. Now the recipe itself was not disastrous, but the baking methods of a tired mama were. This specific brownie recipe calls for the brownies to be placed directly in an ice bath after coming out of a 400 degree oven. Due to the whole ice bath thing, the brownies need to be baked in a tin pan, and I unfortunately baked them in a glass pan. Well what happens when you put a 400 degree glass pan into an ice bath? Um, it uh, explodes and you end up with soaking wet brownies and little pieces of glass all over your kitchen! Using a glass pan is not recommended! PLEASE WHEN MAKING THESE BROWNIES USE A METAL PAN! If you use a metal pan, these brownies will come out moist, fudgy, and decadent, the way they did the next time I attempted to make them. The ice bath method creates a brownie that is crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside, equalling brownie perfection! These brownies would taste even better if you added walnuts, I did not because the hubby is a not a walnut fan. Next time I make them I think I will use walnuts, and then I can have them all to myself……

When choosing a chocolate for this recipe, use something decent, like Ghirardelli. Don’t be tempted to buy the Bakers chocolate because it is cheaper, it tastes cheaper too!

Ice Bath Brownies
Makes 16 2-inch brownies

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 ¼ Cups sugar
¼ Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Large eggs
½ Cup all-purpose flour
2/3 Cup walnuts (optional)

1 8-inch square metal pan, lined along the bottom and sides with parchment paper or tin foil.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Position the rack in the lower third of the oven.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan or double boiler. When the mixture is melted and smooth, remove from heat. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the flour and beat with a spoon until the batter in smooth and glossy. The batter is ready when it starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Stir in the nuts. Spread the batter into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes or just until the brownies start to pull away from the sides of the pan. The center of the brownies will still be gooey when tested with a toothpick. While the brownies are baking, prepare and ice bath. Fill a large baking pan or roasting pan with ice cubes and water until about ¾ inches deep. When the brownies are ready, remove pan from the oven and set immediately in the ice bath. Be careful not to splash any water on the brownies. Cool the brownies in the ice bath, and then cut and serve!

Ode to Strawberries Part 3: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

This last Sunday we picked up our first CSA box of the season and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. We received a nice assortment of fruits and vegetables and even a potted plant. Picking up the box is also kind of exciting, because you don’t really know what you are going to get. It reminded me of the feeling I used to get as a little kid buying one of those “mystery” goody bags at the toy store, and then eagerly ripping open the bag to see just what treasures it held. One of the treasures this week were 2 pints of fresh, red strawberries. But like anything in life, along with the treasures also come the challenges. This weeks challenge was the rhubarb. I have never cooked with rhubarb, and really know very little about it. What I did know was that it needs to be cooked for awhile, and that it supposedly goes well with strawberries. Looking at the rhubarb itself was a bit daunting. Raw rhubarb basically looks like a big fuschia celery stick. I toyed with the idea of making some sort of jam, cake, or crisp but ultimately decided on this crumble. I also toyed with the idea of not using the rhubarb at all, but that would be wasteful and I promised myself that if we purchased the CSA box this summer I would utilize every last piece of produce, so I made the crumble. And I am so glad I did! This crumble was very simple to prepare, smelled great while baking and came out of the oven, gooey, sweet and well, crumbly. This crumble topping is super versatile and I can’t wait to use it again in a month or so when raspberries and blackberries are in season!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

For the Filling:

1 Cup rhubarb, chopped roughly into 1 inch pieces
1 ½ Cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/3 Cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Topping:

1 1/3 Cup flour
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 Teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an 8 x 8 pan, (you could use a 9 inch pan, or a pie pan, I actually used a 10 inch oval gratin dish.) mix the ingredients for the filling together. Your hands work best for this! Spread filling evenly over bottom of pan. In medium bowl, mix together ingredients for the crumble topping until small and large lumps form. (I.e; crumbles). Sprinkle topping generously over filling. Bake in oven until topping is golden brown and bubbly, about 45-50 minutes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Ode to Strawberries Part 1 : Lemon Yogurt Cake with Strawberry Sauce

June marks the start of the strawberry season up here in Oregon. The return of the strawberry really does scream “summer has arrived!“. (If strawberries could scream that is….). The lines outside the booths selling them at the farmers market this morning looked like something out of 1980’s Moscow. (I would have taken a picture but it was way too crowded!) Despite all that wading through the crowd in the heat, it is definitely worth it for a pint or flat of the season’s first strawberries. The different booths offer samples to customers, so you can decide for yourself which farm offers the best berries. The added bonus? Most of the strawberry farms are from Corvallis, so if you wear your Oregon State gear, (which my husband always does) you will probably wind up with a few extra berries!

Fresh berries from the farm really do taste better! They are redder, naturally sweeter, and juicier than the ones at the grocery store, because they get to ripen on the vine before being taken to market. So go and buy some strawberries now while you can, whether it be from your local farmers market, farm, or roadside stand!

Coming home with this bounty of strawberries, I was so excited! Would I make lunch with them? Dessert? Or would I just eat them all plain, straight out of the basket? After calming down from my strawberry euphoria, I realized that I could do all those things and if need be, go back and push through the crowds to buy more.....

I have a confession to make. As much as I have stated in this blog and proclaimed aloud to my family, that I hate baking, I have started to like it. Maybe it is the controlled process, the concentrated measuring, or the gleeful smile on Jon’s face when I pull something sweet out of the oven, but baking has really started to appeal to me. This weekend, I really had an urge to make some sort of lemon cake. The two recipes it came down to were by Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) and Molly Wizenberg (The Orangette). Molly’s French style lemon yogurt cake won out for two reasons: one, her chocolate chip banana bread recipe totally rocks, and two, I read that she met her husband Brandon via this recipe. Um, how romantic is that? So I had to make this cake, and of course I also had to make a strawberry sauce to serve alongside it! The way I make my strawberry sauce is more of a jammy consistency then a refined sauce. If you would like the sauce to be more syrupy, add another ½ cup of sugar, if you don’t want seeds, then pour sauce through a mesh strainer. This cake is wonderful, lemony, and crumbly, without being overly sweet. We found excuses to eat it all weekend, justifying our gluttony by insisting that the strawberry topping somehow made it healthy. I made this cake Saturday afternoon and it was gone by Sunday evening!

Makes 8 Servings

For the Cake:

1 ½ Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2 Teaspoons lemon zest
Pinch of salt
½ Cup plain WHOLE milk yogurt
1 Cup sugar
3 Large eggs
½ Cup vegetable oil

For the Lemon Syrup:

¼ Cup powdered sugar
¼ Cup lemon juice

For the Lemon Icing:

1 Cup powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice

For the Strawberry Sauce:

1 Cup sliced strawberries
¼ Cup sugar
½ Cup water
1 Teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 inch round cake pan with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, grease that too. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt sugar and eggs, stirring to mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the oil and stir well, until it becomes a smooth yellow batter. Pour into the pan. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. (Insert toothpick into center of cake, if toothpick comes out clean, cake is done!) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, using a butter knife along the sides of the pan, invert the cake onto a plate. Remove the parchment paper, and invert the cake back onto the cooling rack. Set the rack on a baking sheet so that it will catch the dripping icing.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon syrup ingredients. Spoon the syrup over the warm cake slowly. Cool cake completely.

Meanwhile, combine strawberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Let cool.

In a small bowl, combine the lemon icing ingredients. Make sure to mix well so the sugar is completely dissolved. Spoon the icing over the cake. Let sit about 1 hour. Serve cake with strawberry sauce.

Cookies for Mama

My mother is a cookie fiend. Now before you go picturing a 500 pound woman, think again. She is annoyingly skinny. She passed the cookie fiendishness down to my little sister and I (still waiting on the annoyingly skinny part!) When she and my sis come to visit from California, we usually go through dozens of cookies. We have been known once or twice to special order chocolate dipped shortbread and drive 40 minutes out of the way for a COOKIE. So with their impending arrival this weekend I wanted to make a very special batch of cookies, a batch that could also masquerade as a Mother’s Day gift. I knew there was nothing my mama would like more….

I am not going to take any credit for this recipe, not for improvising and not even for finding it. Many food blog readers have probably ran across this recipe by now, since it was published by David Leite in the New York Times last July. The recipe kept popping up with rave reviews everywhere, so I just knew I had to make them, because they were going to be oh so good. I really feel like the biggest secret to this recipe is the dough refrigeration time, Leite does an excellent job explaining the reasons for this in his NYT article. For his original recipe, click here. For a good adaptation click here. And for a gluten free version click here. I used the Orangette’s version. The only thing I did different was I used all purpose unbleached flour and all purpose bleached flour instead of the cake flour & bread flour. I also just used Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips 60% cacao. I tried the 1st batch with sea salt on top, like the original recipe, but my family requested that the next batches be left salt free. They liked them better without the sea salt! In case you’re wondering I did make these myself, not the baker in the family (aka, Jon). The hardest part of this recipe? Leaving the cookie dough sitting in the fridge UNEATEN for 36 hours before baking!

They turned out delicious! These are the perfect cookies: big, chewy, soft, sweet, salty, and oh so chocolaty! By Sunday morning there were only 2 left. I probably would drive 40 minutes out of my way for these cookies….Thank God I can just make them at home.

Banana Bread with Valrhona Chocolate

So I just recently bought Molly Wizenberg’s book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table and have been trying out her recipes. Albeit slowly, with only a few chapters a day. (It is hard to get in a lot of reading time with a 1 year old….) Her book is wonderful, not only the recipes, but the stories she tells about the recipes, just make you want to run out and cook the food she is talking about. I have already cried at least 3 times (but in a good appreciating life and love kind of way) and I am not even halfway done with the book….

The recipes that I have so far attempted are her Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Crystallized Ginger and Bouchon Au Thon (Basically tuna soufflés.)Well, not just I , but we. Jon has become the unofficial Markum family baker. I don’t like baking. I am a walking contradiction in that I am not a very good rule follower but I am also Type A. So baking does not suit me, when baking you have to follow the recipe precisely or it will not come out perfect or even close. The Type A in me can not stand for things to come out of the oven deflated and sad, undercooked/overcooked, etc. When you are cooking, you have the freedom to improvise, add a little of this, a little of that, and your dish more often then not, comes out not only edible, but even sometimes rather improved from the original version. You also have to have a lot of patience to be a good baker, a virtue I am not blessed with…. So Jon has become the baker in the family. He has a lot of patience, (He married me didn’t he?) and he is very good at making exact measurements (the cost engineer in him, I think.) He also doesn’t act too annoyed when I hover over him while he is baking, trying to make sure he is doing it right (The type A in me…) and asking annoying questions like “Are you sure you used the right amount of vanilla? Are you sure?”. So Wednesday night, he made us this banana bread (I did try to help by chopping the chocolate and not hovering too much) and it turned out delicious. I had not just one, but two slices. Make this banana bread. Better yet, have someone make it for you, it tastes sweeter that way….

This recipe is adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table. We didn’t have any crystallized ginger, so we didn’t use it. Instead of chocolate chips we used semisweet Valrhona chocolate. Valrhona chocolate is amazing, perfect for baking, and also makes excellent chocolate chip cookies. (Now I finally discovered the secret to the chocolate chip cookies they serve at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in NW Portland and can quit trekking up there all the time and just make my own, or um, more like have Jon make me some!)You see it is all about the chocolate! I strongly suggest using Valrhona if you can find it. I found it at Trader Joe’s. This bread tastes great warm or cold and can even be frozen and enjoyed at a later date. Jon enjoys a slice in the morning with a cup of coffee!

6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
¾ Cup Sugar
¾ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¾ Cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips or 5 Ounces Chopped Valrhona Chocolate
2 Large Eggs
1 ½ Cups Mashed Bananas (About 3 Large Ripe Bananas)
¼ Cup Stirred Whole Milk Plain Yogurt (not low fat or nonfat)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make sure rack is positioned in the center. Grease standard size loaf pan with cooking spray or butter. In a small bowl, microwave the butter until just melted. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate and whisk well to combine. Set aside. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla and mix well. Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides as needed until just combined. Be careful not over mix. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.

Bake until the loaf is a deep golden brown, about 50 minutes to an hour. Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack and then tip it out of the pan onto the rack. Cool completely before slicing. If freezing, Molly suggests to wrap in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil to keep out frost!

Note: Don't be afraid to add more chocolate! It depends how sweet you want it but on average I always add a another handful of chopped chocolate or chips!

Sofia enjoying a slice!

The Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes....Oh the Decadence!

My family has been battling the stomach flu this week. I haven’t felt like cooking or eating much at all. After being sick, I really wanted, no needed , something good to eat, something good being something chocolate. After all I needed nourishment. Besides I am pretty sure my recent health kick of no chocolate, no soda , no French fries, etc is the reason I got sick in the first place. Cutting out all that made my body go into shock and hurt my immune system of this I am convinced. So I needed to make something that would rejuvenate me and make me like food again. While lying on my sick couch I was watching an episode of the Barefoot Contessa and when she started making these, I just knew I would have to make them too.

I looked the recipe up online and got a little scared of the reviews. They were so varied, ranging from 5 star excellent to 1 star, a few reviewers actually called them “disgusting”. This was scary to me, I mean I have never had a disgusting cupcake. Even the cupcakes that are old and crusty or have that fake confetti frosting from the grocery store bakery are still kind of good……but being a lover of all things ganache, I decided to try these out, hoping that the 1 star reviewers were wrong…..and they were! These cupcakes turned out great! They were dense and chocolaty almost more like a brownie. The perfect treat that I needed after a week lacking in the food department but full of baby puke; not to mention the 2 hours spent Friday morning trying to fix my computer with the Dell technician over in India. After frustrating communication breakdowns, my computer is finally fixed and I am thinking these cupcakes are well deserved.

Makes 12 Cupcakes or 1 8-inch Cake

1/4 # Unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Cup sugar
4 Extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 (16 oz) can chocolate syrup (recommended: Hershey's)
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 Cup all-purpose flour
½ Tsp instant coffee or espresso powder

For Ganache:
1/2 Cup heavy cream
8 oz Semisweet chocolate chips
¼ tsp Instant coffee powder

Line muffin pans with 12 paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Do all of this on low. Don't overbeat, or the cupcakes will be tough. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, fill to almost full because these cupcakes don’t rise very much .Bake for 30 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Don't overbake! Let the cupcakes cool thoroughly in the pan.

For the ganache, cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water (or you can just do it a small pot like I did, just pay close attention to it!) until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

Dip the top of each cupcake in the ganache. Need I say more? Go eat them!!

There will be extra ganache leftover so save it to dip some fresh fruit in!