Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

These days I have very little time for cooking. Most of my time is taken up with stuff like this:

But the other night I was having a serious craving for dessert, so I did some Googling for a quick peanut butter cookie recipe, and found this one.

So easy! I mixed together my peanut butter, sugar, and an egg.

And scooped out the cookies onto a cookie sheet.

I made mine a little big, so they took about twice the amount of time as the recipe called for.

And then I smooshed in some Hershey Kisses, because that pushes peanut butter cookies over the edge into complete deliciousness.

These weren't the best peanut butter cookies I've ever have, but for the short amount of time it took they were perfect. And even tastier on the second and third days!

Peach Ice Cream

I've blogged about my Strawberry Ice Cream before, and I love the recipe because it's super adaptable to other fruits.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a ton of peaches from Costco and they just weren't great. Good flavor, but the consistency wasn't fabulous and they were ripening way too quickly. So I chopped them up and tossed them in the freezer to deal with later.

To make the ice cream, I just let them soften for 10 or 15 minutes and then threw them in the food processor. Once they were mostly processed I added in a mixture of cream and sugar (about a cup of cream and 2/3 cup of sugar, though it definitely depends on the type and amount of fruit.)

Ten minutes later, voila, we have peach ice cream.

So good. And it's going fast.

Finally Cooking Again...

I'm 37 weeks pregnant now, but had a burst of energy yesterday. Between mowing the lawn, weeding, and going grocery shopping, I also decided that I wanted a delicious home-cooked meal. I opened up Sarah Foster's Casual Cooking to see what inspired me, and was instantly drawn to "Skewered Thai Chicken Thighs with Spicy Peanut Sauce" (page 150.)

I don't cook with thighs very often, and they're a little difficult -- the fat isn't as easy to cut off the thigh as it is off the breast. I did my best and left them to soak in a delicious Thai marinade in my fridge for several hours. I had to alternate just one ingredient -- I didn't have tamarind sauce, but I found a jar of spicy Thai curry paste at the back of my pantry and tossed that in instead.

Meanwhile, I put together the "Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce." It need's to be said that I adore peanut sauce. I'll order chicken satay at a Thai restaurant just for the little bowl of peanut sauce and the delicious cucumber salad they often pair it with. I could tell from all the delicious ingredients going into this one, like ginger and honey and soy sauce, that this was going to be a winner.

And of course I didn't take any after pictures. We slapped the chicken on the grill, made it all delicious, and dipped it generously in peanut sauce. I was a happy camper. Next time I'll use chicken breasts, just because I'm more comfortable with them, but I'd be happy for there to be a next time.

I served the chicken with Sarah Foster's "Classic Cucumber Salad" (p. 212), which was nice and light and delicious. We have plenty of leftovers since our guests don't like cilantro, which was chopped in there along with vinegar, olive oil, and lime juice. So, more for us.

And finally, since all dinners should be served with dessert, I made Sarah Foster's "Fluffy Dark Chocolate Mousse" (p. 225). And it was the first time I've gotten to use my double-boiler, so that's fun.

I over-beat my egg whites, which made this mousse a little grainy, but the flavor was good. I'd make it again but be a little bit more careful about my timing.

So, there we go. Four recipes out of Sarah Foster's book. Hopefully this energy will continue for the next few weeks.

Dixie Peanut Brittle

Matt's Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts event at Duke Homestead resulted in a lot of extra peanuts, and I wanted to use some of them up. Luckily, he also brought home a little pamphlet from Virginia-Carolina Peanut Promotions entitled "All About Cooking Peanuts."

My mom was in town, and together we roasted and shelled a ton of peanuts.

And then followed these directions:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups raw shelled peanuts, skins on
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons baking soda

In a heavy saucepan heat sugar, syrup, water and salt to a rolling boil. Add peanuts. Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly. Cook to hard crack stage (300 to 310 degrees Fahrenheit).*

Add butter, then baking soda. Beat rapidly and pour onto a buttered surface spreading to 1/4-inch thickness. When cool break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

*In the absence of a candy thermometer, test for hard crack stage by dropping a tiny bit of syrup into ice water (let it thread from a spoon into the water). When the threads are brittle (not pliable) it has reached the hard crack stage.

----------------------------

I don't have a candy thermometer, so we had to follow the dropping the syrup into water way.

Unfortunately, we didn't quite reach the hard crack stage. 

The flavors are delicious, but it's more the consistency of a peanut taffy than a brittle. If you're looking for something delicious to get stuck in your teeth, this is the recipe for you.

Sutlac (p. 463)

Sutlac is Turkish Rice Pudding, and it's the last of the desserts I need to tackle in The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. The reason it's the last one is that rice pudding gives me the heebie jeebies. Rice? In pudding? Gross. The truth is I've never tried rice pudding before because I have an aversion to the mere idea of it.

But here we go. Rice pudding. From Turkey.

First off, a tip for you. If you need to heat a quart of milk, and you have a one quart saucepan, that's not the appropriate one to use.

I tossed in my cinnamon stick and lemon zest, walked a way for a second, and the whole thing overflowed. I dumped it into a 2 quart sauce pan instead (note to self: do this first next time) and kept it just below boiling for about half an hour. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of lemon zest in the overflow, but I had to deal with it.

While the milk was heating, I cooked the rice in water with a little bit of salt.

Once both the milk and the rice were ready, I combined them (straining out the cinnamon stick and remaining lemon zest -- plus the film that developed on top of the milk, gross) and added in a paste of water, flour, and corn starch.

And then I stirred for 10 minutes solid, which was boring. Luckily I had my current favorite show, Masterchef, playing on Hulu on the counter. Pour in some sugar and stir for another 15 minutes. I attempted to clean up the spilled hot milk and zest from the stove at the same time, and proceeded in making more of a mess. 

While the pudding was still warm, I poured it into individual cups.

And then topped with chopped pistachios before digging in.

Here's what I discovered: rice pudding isn't gross, it's actually good! I was worried that I'd have to force people to come over to eat the other 7 servings of pudding, but now I'm not even sure that I'm willing to share. Except with my husband, but only because I think he doesn't like rice pudding, either. We'll see tonight if he gives it a chance.

lemon -- $.79 (only needed the zest)

milk -- $2.00

pistachios -- $1.70

Total Cost of Sutlac: $4.49

($.56 per serving)

Guilt Free Desserts

I've had a major sweet tooth for the last couple of months, and seem to want ice cream all the time, so I've been on the lookout for some ways to satisfy my dessert-y desires without packing on the pounds.

I saw this recipe for White Chocolate Strawberry Popsicles on Better Than Burger's blog last week, and just needed to pick up a box of pudding to make it work.

I blended up my strawberries,

Made my pudding:

And assembled and froze the treats:

These were good, but the frozen strawberries really need to have a little sugar added to them to make it feel like a dessert. Next time I'll jazz up the strawberry part with some kind of sweetener and maybe a little lime juice. So, not perfect, but still a feasible dessert option!

The other recipe I've been loving lately is this Banana Ice Cream which has only one ingredient -- bananas. Somehow it's still sweet and creamy and completely refreshing!

And easy to make, to boot -- you just freeze bananas and then toss them in your food processor.

They get crumbly at first, but then become totally smooth and ice cream like.

I want this in my freezer all summer long.

Any other suggestions out there for some easy and guilt free recipes to quench my sweet tooth?

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This time last year I entered Duke Homestead's first annual pie making competition at their Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts event. I didn't blog about my actual pie last year, but I made a Sour Cream Apple Pie and came in 3rd in the competition.

This year, I made this recipe for Grandma's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. My mom grew rhubarb in our garden growing up, and would make strawberry rhubarb compote for us in the summer, smothered with whipped cream and served piping hot. I loved it, and hoped the pie would have the same great flavors.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but used a little less sugar, butter instead of shortening, and corn starch instead of tapioca. It looked delicious even before i had mixed the pie filling ingredients together.

I always have trouble with my pie crusts, but this one came together pretty easily. I assembled the pie and did a little decoration on top to make it pretty. My pies are always slightly unattractive because I have no clue how to crimp the edges. Do you need a special tool for that?

Anyway, despite the edges, it looked pretty and smelled amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste it, because the whole pie needed to go to Duke Homestead for judging, and by the time I stood in line to buy a piece of my own pie back after the judging, it was all gone. Sad, but true. People told me it was really good.

I was hoping for some improvement this year, but once again I came in third. Alas.

Walnut Cake with Mastic (p. 457)

I've never cooked with mastic before, and it took me a little while to track down. It's the resin of a bush and looks like crystal meth. (I've been watching a lot of Breaking Bad, otherwise I would have no clue what meth looks like.)

I finally found this at local restaurant/grocery store Neomonde, so it was time to make this cake to bring to a 4th of July cookout

The first step is to make a mastic-flavored olive oil, which is simply crushed mastic rocks dissolved into olive oil. I cooked them in a sauté pan for just a few minutes, until the mastic had disappeared, and then set it aside to cool.

Then it's just regular types of cake ingredients -- baking soda, baking powder, flour, and salt are mixed together for the dry ingredients, and eggs are separated for the wet. The egg yolks are beaten with some sugar before adding in the mastic flavored oil as well as plain yogurt. The egg whites are beaten until super fluffy, and more sugar is added in with this. Fold all the wet and dry ingredients together, as well as very finely chopped (actually, I used my food processor for this step) toasted walnuts.  

The dough comes together looking incredibly fluffy and delicious.

Pour all the batter into a lightly greased and floured cake pan and cook for about an hour.

Mine came out looking beautiful but fell once I turned away for a moment. Luckily, blueberries and powdered sugar can make anything pretty.

And whipped cream helps, too!  

This was light and tasty, and really more like a sweetened bread than a cake. My friend Sarah likened it to banana bread without the bananas, but in a good way. It's a nice healthy-tasting dessert variety.

mastic -- $5.99

yogurt -- $1.67

eggs -- $1.79 (with half left)

walnuts -- $6.99 (with about 3/4 of the bag remaining)

Total Cost of Walnut Cake with Mastic: $16.44

($1.37 per serving)

Torrijas (p. 462)

Torrijas are Spanish Sweet French Toast with Citrus Syrup and, despite being in the dessert section of the cookbook, Matt and I had them for breakfast this morning. Perhaps not the most 4th of July-like recipe, but still something special for my favorite holiday of the year.

The syrup part takes the longest, so I started that first, combining fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice.

Add in brandy, Cointreau, sugar, and orange zest in a small sauce pan, and cook down into a thick liquid.

Meanwhile, I also had a sauce pan on the stove of milk, a cinnamon stick, and lemon zest. This cooked on a much lower temperature, just to thicken and allow the milk to absorb the flavors of lemon and cinnamon.

For my bread I used Challah, but you could use any crusty white bread.

Once sliced, lay these out flat in a rectangular dish and pour the heated milk mixture (minus the aromatics) over the bread to soak for several minutes.

From here on, you cook this just like french toast. Dip each milky slice into beaten egg and put in a heated skillet with a little olive oil. Cook on each side until done.

 Then serve, with the citrus syrup.

This is much sweeter than normal French toast, but a great spin on it. The Challah bread cooked beautifully and added its own flavor to the dish. I served this with bacon to have a little savory addition to the meal, and we had a lovely 4th of July breakfast. Even if I never make this recipe again, I think from now on  I'll make my French toast extra special by pouring the heated, flavored milk mixture over the bread to sit aside for a few minutes before cooking. 

oranges -- $1.58

brandy -- $5.99 (tons left)

lemon -- $.57

Total Cost of Torrijas: $8.14

($2.71 per serving)

Turkish Apricots Stuffed with Sweet, Thick Yogurt (p. 449)

This is so delicious! So easy! Why don't we eat this every night?!

Seriously, make this. It's lovely. Here's how:

Plump the apricots by putting them in a pot with water until it comes to a boil, then simmer.

Drain the apricots, reserving some of the liquid. Use the reserved liquid and combine with sugar to make a sort of syrup. Add the apricots back into the mixture and cook until they're extremely soft. Remove them again but save the syrup.

When they're cool enough, open the apricots and stuff them with a combination of thick yogurt mixed with sugar.

Close them up, like whoopie pies, the recipe says. Whoopie pies? I love whoopie pies!

Sprinkle the tops with some chopped pistachio.

And drizzle the reserved syrup back over them.

Yum. These make me happy.

pistachios -- $1.70 (3/4 of the bag left for a snack at work tomorrow!)

apricots -- $8.04 (about 1/4 are left)

Total Cost of Turkish Apricots Stuffed with Sweet, Thick Yogurt: $9.74

Karydopita Nistisimi (p. 458)

This strangely named recipe is a Lenten Walnut Cake from Greece, which is topped with an apricot sauce, and smells pretty delicious, both while baking and also when topped with the heated fruits.

That said, the recipe didn't come together quite as I had expected. The first step was easy enough -- I made a sort of caramelized syrup from sugar, honey, water, and fresh lemon juice. Heat this over the stove until it has condensed into a thick syrup, and then stick it in the refrigerator to chill until the rest of the cake is prepared.

The cake itself proved less easy; I combined the traditional cake ingredients -- flour, sugar, and baking powder, and added in cinnamon and cloves. Since this is a lenten recipe, it doesn't have eggs, so instead a combination of olive oil, orange juice, and brandy mixed with baking soda make up for the liquid ingredients.

Next in are chopped walnuts, bread crumbs, and orange zest (actually I used clementine zest -- that counts, right?), and then pour the batter into a spring form pan.

There was nowhere near enough batter to fill the pan to a normal level -- I only had about an inch of batter at the bottom of the pan.

I cooked it for about half the time the recipe called for -- 30 minutes -- and it was definitely ready to be taken out by then. My syrup hadn't really chilled in that amount of time, so I couldn't really pour it over the cake. I scraped it out of the bowl and onto the cake in a sort of unkempt fashion.

The apricot topping is just apricot jam melted over the stove with a little bit of water, and then poured over the entire cake.

This is delicious, but also incredibly difficult to eat. The layer of syrup underneath the apricot made a sticky hard mess that is difficult to cut and gets stuck in your teeth. Delicious, yes, but next time I might leave that layer out.

lemon -- $.69

walnuts -- $2.97

apricot jelly -- $3.50

Total Cost of Karydopita Nistisimi: $7.17

($.90 per serving)

Torta di Polenta Gialla (p. 454)

Also known as Cornmeal Cake, or, the best Mediterranean cake we've had so far. Seriously, this is super delicious. Probably because it's full of butter and and sugar, just like a real cake!

The base of the cake is butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks all together. Stir in freshly squeezed orange juice and finely ground nuts - the recipe calls for almonds but I only had walnuts on hand. Alternate between mixing in whipped egg whites and the dry ingredients -- flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and some corn starch.

Bake for about 30 minutes and serve!

This was delicious. It's sweet and soft and has a nice little crunch from the nuts. I loved it, Matt loved it, and my coworkers loved it.

Best of all, I had all the ingredients!

Total Cost of Torta di Polenta Gialla: Free!