There's an App for That: Nerd Cookies 2010

Oh no, I said when Sydney suggested that we get store-bought dough for our iPhone app holiday cookies.  We are NOT half-assing this.
Now, I’m no newb to nerd cookies: last year I made a bajillion completely awesome Falloutcookies with my then-boyfriend.  And after declaring our love for the internet with Hashtag and Retweet Halloween costumes this year, Sydney and I knew we could step it up for the holiday season and bring our A-game. So, I busted out the Joy of Cooking, and flipped to the Rich Roll Cookies. It's the one with the additional stick of butter.

This is an incredibly easy recipe.  You only need butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, and an egg. You do need some equipment, though, and I lost the Kitchen Aid in the divorce (as my mom calls my break-up).  Sydney’s mom had a handheld electric mixer that seemed up to the task.  It wasn’t.  We had about 85% of the flour mixed into the dough when it started to smoke.  We turned it off before it went up like a Christmas tree in a hookah bar, but had to manually mix in the rest of the flour.

Of course, for roll cookies, you’re supposed to have a rolling pin.  Rolling pin, shmolling pin; we used a wine bottle.  Proper kitchen tools are for sissies.
Plus, we had a system.  Always, always have a system.
Being the gentle one, I rolled; being better with sharp objects, Sydney cut them out with the lid of a tea tin.  Once you get these cut out, they bake in ten minutes flat and you’re well on your way.

The next step was decorating.  We got big tubs of white and chocolate store-bought frosting. (Okay, fine, we half-assed a little).  I also had regular and neon food coloring sets.  So, about eight colors total.
Fact: Twitter and Foursquare are not the same blue.  And most of the apps are two-toned.  It’s well worth your time to make several shades of blue: the color is what makes the apps recognizable, and honestly, you’re only going to be so precise with soft, gooey frosting.

For piping, we used plastic sandwich bags. We dropped in a dollop of frosting and snipped a tiny hole in the corner.  What came next was a little intense:
Where’s the [expletive] green frosting!? Sydney demanded.
It's not my [expletive] job to mix your [expletive] frosting! I shot back, smudging chocolate frosting on the white T of the New York Times App.
Sydney flicked me off with a frosted finger.
[Expletive] this [Expletive]! I yelled.  I need a damn massage!
No pain, no gain, I suppose.

And so, we brought the cookies to work to share.  Because that’s the point.  To be nice and stuff.  Watching people eat them was a little bit like watching our children get eaten, though.  We worked really hard on those babies.
The consensus was, however, that they were pretty frickin’ cute, and pretty damn tasty.  (Tasty was a bonus, because our primary focus was being cute.)  But like I said, we don’t screw around when we’re geeking out, holiday style.

Happy Holidays!

Dinner Tonight, Lunch Tomorrow

The first time I tried to make a simple, chunky tomato sauce it turned out strangely sweet, and not quite right.  The second time I tried it, I left the hot oil on the stove while I got distracted on my computer (the internet really does diminish one's ability to focus; did you read that article in the New York Times?) and nearly started a fire.  The third time was closer, but the sauce-to-pasta proportion was off.  The fourth time turned out to be the charm as I succeeded in successfully cranking out a meal without a recipe.  This is a very simple dish, the quality of which highly depends on your ingredients.  And that's good for us newbs because we can control the ingredients; just go to the farmer's market.



All you do for this is heat up some EVOO in your pan.  Watch it because the oil will ignite if you leave it there.  Next add some minced garlic and fry that up for a second.  Then chop up some tomatoes, add those.  At this point, you really just let it hang out.  Adding salt, pepper, and your herbs.  Obviously fresh basil is ideal, but I used dried as I hadn't been to the store.  A touch of thyme is also good.  Then, simmer to desired chunkiness, and cook the pasta when you're ready (try spinach or whole wheat).  Mix it together, top with parmesan or Romano cheese, and you're good to go.  Dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow!

Guest Post! Prosciutto and Peaches

My friend Natalia and her mom Eileen told about this impromptu dish they made with a peach from the farmer's market.  It sounded so good (and easy), I wanted them to share it!

There’s always prosciutto and melon…but, prosciutto and peaches?

I contemplated that combination while strolling through the Central Bethesda Farmer’s Market and thinking of the six or so slices of delicious prosciutto sitting in my refrigerator. Why not? After all, the concept is simple: salty paired with juicy. One succulent peach from the Two Acre Farm vendor and later that afternoon the dish is executed. I topped it off with a few basil leaves (sliced chiffonade style) from my balcony garden. Summer delight!

By Eileen Pelayo
Photo by Natalia Pelayo

Summer Spiedini

So this is an old Italian family recipe, but not from my family.  Well, it's from my mom's childhood, and although her Italian father made all kinds of good food, she ate these spiedinis at the home of a family she babysat for.  My mom then adapted the recipe and made it for me when I was little.  Now, whenever I go home to visit, I always ask for spiedinis.  I have never made them on my own because it requires a specific cut of meat, and buying meat thoroughly confuses me, so I avoid it.

Anyway, if you've never had a spiedini, it's a thin piece of steak rolled around a breadcrumb-parsley mixture.  What you want is top round steaks cut into thin slices.  My mom says sometimes they're labeled as breakfast steaks.  You then cut these into 2" x 4" rectangles.  For the mixture, you'll need a chopped onion, a lot of fresh parsley, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic, and a 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs.  First, saute the onion in olive oil, then add the garlic, then the herbs.  Save the breadcrumbs for last, because they can burn.  About a tablespoon of the mixture gets rolled in each slice of meat.  You then skewer them, and grill them for five minutes per side.

*Pro Tip: Use your broiler in the winter.

Brie^3 = St. André Cheese

The first time I had brie was back in the fifth grade.  I was taking weekly French classes in preparation for a trip to Paris as part of an exchange program.  Every week we tasted a new cheese, and we were to write down and remember our favorites so we'd know what we liked when we got to France.  I remember writing (in an unnecessarily full sentence) "I like Brie cheese."

In any case, today I had brie's older and more sexually experienced cousin, St. André.  St. André is a soft, rich, triple-crème cheese from Heaven, Hell, or France, depending on how you look at it.  Trying to cook with it would be downright disrespectful, so top your St. André with a dollop of jam or honey and call it dessert.  I'm not sure how the nutrition facts compare to ice cream, but like High Fructose Corn Syrup and Say Yes to the Dress, SA is fine in moderation.

Ooh la la!

Baby's First Dinner Party

Guys, I've taken a very big step in the development of my womanhood.  I (co)hosted my very first dinner party!  My friend Sydney was housesitting for a friend all month, and to return the favor, he green-lighted a girls' night at his place.  Now, Sydney calls me her "domestic role model," so needless to say I laughed when she suggested we have a party with food. "I'll make the drinks!" she piped, her mind already on sangria. Shrugging it off, I agreed to make dinner.  As the party neared, however, I panicked. Reading MarthaStewart.com with great fervor, I was inspired by a grilled white pizza with arugula.  It reminded me of a similar pizza at one of my favorite DC restauraunts, Cafe Deluxe.  It was simple and summery, which was important because Sydney had already sent out an invitation declaring the dress code to be sundresses.

Before you get too excited, though, I'll tell you I didn't actually grill the pizza like Martha said.  I packed up my pizza stone and peel in a grand effort to finally master it.  (I realized that last time I just didn't heat the stone long enough or at a high enough temperature beforehand.)  I didn't do the toppings exactly like Martha either because I thought it might be fun for everyone to make their own pizza.  I tried hard to keep the toppings unconventional and creative, though.  In addition to Martha's suggested fontina and arugula, I got different colored bell peppers, fresh basil, goat cheese (huge hit), prosciutto, salami, and I even sliced up a sweet potato.  No one was terribly excited about the sweet potato, but that actually tasted pretty good, too.  For the crust and sauce (which we only used on some pizzas) Sydney and I went to our favorite neighborhood Italian deli, Vace.  They make everything there (even pasta!) so we just got a bunch of homemade dough, plus the imported meat.

All in all, this meal was a success.  The food was good, the company was good, and the whole ordeal was surprisingly stress-free.  I'm definitely feeling more confident after completing this rite of passage.  All I need now is a big-girl job, and I'll be a real woman!

Read more about Sydney, and her reviews of DC's best happy hours on her blog, The Bottomless Mimosa.

Frozen Peaches: Not too Bad

Pop Quiz! What's the difference between a crisp and a cobbler?  A crisp has an oatmeal topping, and a cobbler has a more of a pastry top!  I've made apple crisp plenty of times (well, twice) before, but I hadn't thought about the difference between the two desserts until last weekend, when Nick made us Paula Deen's Peach Cobbler.  For this I got six peaches from the grocery store, and waited about two days for them to ripen.  Peaches are tricky because they're only delicious for about a day.  And I do feel confident in knowing when peaches are ripe.  So, I cut them open when I felt the time was right, and much to my dismay, they were disgusting.  Browning and mealy and...ugh.  Horrified, I concluded that peaches are not in season.  So, I picked up a couple bags of frozen peaches the next day. One stick of butter, and a 1.5 cups of self-rising flour (just all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt) later, we had a decent cobbler.  If anything, it was heavy on the crust.  Nick and I talked about  maybe next time shifting the pastry-fruit ratio to the healthier side with more fruit.  In addition to going lighter on the topping, we could use other fruits to make several different desserts this summer.  Perhaps even blackberry-peach...

Egg-in-a-Hole

Ahhhh, Springtime! What better time than this to reevaluate your New Years Resolutions and fry up the most delicious and nutritious symbol of life and rebirth?  An Egg-in-a-Hole is an egg cooked in the middle of a piece of toast, and it makes a lot of practical sense. If you're going to have a fried egg, you're going to make toast, and you're going to try to eat them together. With one hand on the fork, and one hand on the toast, it's a balancing act. (Unless you eat your food in sections, which is the wrong way to eat.)  And so, along comes the Egg-in-a-Hole, the most properly proportioned breakfast there is.  My mom used to make me an EiaH when I was little, and I realized recently that I don't necessarily need to be a child or have a child to have this self-contained breakfast in my life.

The first step is to cut out the hole in your slice of bread.  I remember my mom doing this with the rim of a water glass, though personally I just use a knife.  Next you heat up the frying pan, hit it with your nonstick agent of choice, and lay down the toast-ring. Then crack an egg in the center. Give it a few, then flip.  PRO TIP:  Don't overdo it.  Keep the center soft.  That's really the point of having the toast there, for the yolk.  You can give the center a light tap with your finger while it's in the frying pan to see how it's doing.  Oh, and you can cook the little toast-center in the side of the pan to have some bonus toast.

Zingerman's Balsamic Video Contest

What is the opposite of my cooking?  Zingerman's, of course!  I entered a contest on their website, for which I made a video about balsamic vinegar.  Check it out!

Fancy! Asparagus Risotto

So, I found a recipe for Asparagus Risotto in Food Network Magazine. I'm not the type of person to tear recipes out of magazines, but I recently had some good butternut squash risotto at Cafe Deluxe that put me in a risotto mood.  I already had asparagus in the fridge, so I went out and got a box or arborio rice.   I knew what arborio rice was because I used it once last year to make the world's worst rice pudding.  I may not be eating well, but at least I'm learning. Anyway, the risotto was interesting.  You basically make a broth—asparagus broth in this case—and slowly add it to the rice, stirring constantly.  It's just a lot of stirring. Other ingredients include asparagus (obviously), white wine, lemon juice and zest, butter, parmesan cheese, and thyme.  It turned out pretty good, actually.  The butter was relatively minimal, and I thought it tasted fattier than it actually was.  The only bad thing about this was eating it leftover the next day.  It just got sort of sticky.  So, of course, this was the last taste I had, deeming it a throwaway recipe.  Oh well!  At least I got the idea of risotto, and I don't think I'll be afraid to try a different one in the future.

Sweet Potato "Fries"

Sweet Potato Fries are the only thing I can consistently make successfully.  Well, technically they're not "fries" in the traditional sense.  They're roasted sweet potatoes cut into fry shapes.  They're still good, though.  And although it's not ideal to have culinary repertoire as limited as mine, I'm glad sweet potato fries are in my book.  I love them because they're a classic with a little twist and more vitamins.  SPFs are also always seasonal.  They have that winter squash sort of feel in the colder months, but at the same time, you can have them with a hotdog or burger in the summer.  Simultaneously all-American and special, SPFs are my all-time favorite side.  (Unless you count macaroni and cheese, though I personally consider that a main dish.)  So how does one make this scrumptious side, perfect to pair with the protein of your choice?  Well, first wash and peel your sweet potatoes.  Cut them into petit obelisks and pop them in a bowl so you can properly coat them with olive oil.  (Or, if you think you're awesome, go ahead and put them directly onto your parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet.)  Next, S+P them.  Generously.  Now, for the bonus: sprinkle on some cinnamon or allspice or maple syrup or whatever you have in that flavor family.  Spread them out in a single layer on your cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 400° for 15 minutes on each side.  And yes, I got this time and temp from Sandra Lee.  What are you going to do about it?

Also, do fill me in if you know how to make aioli sauce.

Flawed Logic: How I Ruined Shrimp Scampi

Everything is worse when I make it. Part of this is because I'm bad at cooking, part of it is because I think I'm bad at cooking and therefore believe I'm contracting salmonella every time I eat something I've made. I used to think that if I messed up a dinner, I could always try again another time and get it right. The problem with a bad meal, though, is that it takes a while after that to get back in the mood for that particular dish again. So, what was it this time, you ask? Shrimp Scampi.

Now I know there are many interpretations of Shrimp Scampi, but at its simplest, it's pretty damn simple. Which is why I don't know how I managed to ruin it. All I really did was put Shrimp, Olive Oil, Bread Crumbs, Parsley, Garlic, and Lemon Juice in a dish and baked it at 350 for ten minutes. That's what my mom does, and it's always pretty good. With some kind of rice on the side (yellow or basmati). No problem. Except that I wasn't sure how to tell if the shrimp were cooked. I know you're supposed to look at the color, but they were covered in parsley. And honestly, some were a little pinky-grey even before they went in. The texture just seemed a little different somehow, almost harder to cut with the side of my fork...

I didn't die, so I think they were fine. Although I probably won't make this again.

Guest Post! Salmon en Papillote

This next cooking adventure is from my wonderful friend, Jennifer Snyder.  Fearless in the kitchen, Jenn creatively modifies recipes and improvises ingredients.  I always think of her when I'm struggling in my own kitchen, asking myself, "What would Jenn do?"  The answer is usually to not worry about it.

Alton Brown eats salmon every week. Not that I do everything Alton Brown does, but I do take his advice about the benefits of eating salmon. This is one healthy food that is delicious, easy to make, and with some planning, does not break the bank.

After getting a Le Creuset grill pan for my birthday, I have been cooking our fish on it just as my mom showed me. Our recent family favorite has been pairing maple syrup glazed salmon with a sauteed spinach-bacon salad. Today, we were out of spinach, so I figured it was time to get out of our meal rut. I remembered seeing Melissa D'Arabian's "Fish en Papillote" on TV a few weeks ago, and I did my own twist on it today.

I somehow can never follow a recipe (as my husband says, everything is a "creation"!) Instead of the julienned vegetables Melissa suggested, I used sliced carrots and onions. I didn't have a lemon (why do I never have one when I need one?) so I grabbed a clementine from my Cuties basket. After layering the veggies, salmon, and clementine slices on a sheet of aluminum foil, I finished it off with olive oil and a sprinkle of sage and oregano. The little packets (papillotes!) looked so colorful and pretty. I have to say it was one of the easiest recipes I have ever made. Being a new mom, I like recipes that I can pop in the oven and forget about. Today, I had 30 minutes to spare where I didn't have to be attached to the stove.

It was fun to open up the packet and see the transformation. I was nervous about knowing when the fish would be done, but it turned out great. Eating out of the aluminum foil reminded me of the dinners we have on the beach at the cottage. The nice thing about this meal is that any combination of veggies or seasonings would work well, and it's a perfect way to used up what's left in the fridge.

I would definitely make this again. I used to think that salmon was a special treat, but I found a way to make it more affordable. I buy the family packs for a discount, and cut and freeze individual servings. Our meal tonight only cost about $5.00 for the two of us. Not too bad considering all those omega-3's we got out of it!


Find more Jennifer on her blog, Growing and Going.

Never Again: I Hate You, Tilapia

I recently set out to reclaim tilapia.  The first time I made tilapia it was actually pretty good.  I marinated the two filets in a orange-ginger glaze from the grocery store, and I pan-fried them in a skillet on the stove.  For a side, I made rice with chopped red peppers and onions.  Okay.  Since this was a quick and easy night, I decided that the meal would be a reliable go-to.  And so the next time I made it, I was too confident.  First of all I thought I'd try a more ambitious side.  So I made a zucchini gratin from an Ina Garten book.  It seems so obvious now, but creamy, cheesy zucchini really does NOT go with an orange and ginger glazed fish.  Ugh, I shudder just thinking about it.  Really disgusting.  To top things off, I left the tilapia on too long, and had my first overcooked fish.  And, as it turns out, overdone fish is significantly worst than overdone steak or chicken.

So, in a Charlie Brown football move, I thought I'd make a good tilapia, canceling out the bad one, and reclaiming it for the future.  No such luck.  This time I got a plain rice pilaf in a box at the store for a quick side.  The whole meal was just...beige.  It needed just a little bit of vegetable so badly.  Marinating longer probably would have also helped the overall flavor.  Plus, it was the third tilapia in a matter of months; I'm sick of it.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.  This really may have been the last supper.

Pizza Part II: Bruschetta Revenge

Though I would consider my first pizza attempt a failure, I used the leftover ingredients to make myself a delicious lunch the next day.  Rather than dealing with the dough and stone again, I used a baguette.  First I sliced the French bread, then I topped it with sliced tomatoes and goat cheese.  Next I drizzled olive oil and dried oregano on top, and I baked these in the oven for perhaps ten minutes.  This bruschetta was one of my best lunches.  Luckily my grocery store has a fantastic cheese section, so all I really needed was a few simple ingredients to pull the dish together.

Soggy Pizza Party

For Christmas, I got Nick—well, us—a baking stone and peel.  Though he's made pizza from scratch before, I started us off this time with a ball of dough from the grocery store.  So, I put the stone in the oven and heated it to about 400 degrees.  On the counter, I rolled out the dough on the peel, and topped it with sliced tomatoes (no sauce), sliced mozzarella cheese, goat cheese, fresh basil, dried oregano, and drizzled olive oil.  It looked really pretty and delicious.  So, I shimmied the thing onto the stone, and cooked it for...well, I'm not sure.  I obsessively opened and closed the oven every five minutes or so, thinking I was going to burn it.  Ultimately, I don't think I set the oven temperature high enough (and, of course, I let heat out every time I checked it).  The pizza was strangely moist on top, the dough soggy.  I probably could have left it in longer, but that didn't seem to be the main problem.  Did it make a difference that I sliced the mozzarella cheese instead of shredding it? I'm still not sure what happened, and I'm apprehensive about trying the whole thing again.  I have to say it wasn't the worst thing in the world, though, because the goat cheese I got (imported!) was so, so good.

Sugar Cookie Extravaganza: Nerd Treats, and Lopsided Holiday Tree

I've never really been into sugar cookies.  They're too plain, too unwaveringly sweet.  But, I've always failed to see the point of a chocolate-less cookie anyway.  Peanut butter cookies make me thirsty, snickerdoodles are boring,  molasses cookies really gross me out, and shortbread only tastes good when topped with Nutella.   Anyway, this holiday season, I finally warmed up to the sugar cookie.  They're so simple to make, even I aced them, and they're easily moldable and made into decorative creations worthy of your Sandra-Lee-style tablescapes.   This year, I did two very different sugar cookie projects that were both quite delicious.

I found my recipe in The Joy of Cooking.  My mom hates that book, citing that it "has recipes for rabbit and stuff you'd never make,"  but it does have a whole section on roll cookies, with several recipes and tips (like using powdered sugar instead of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin).  No matter what book you use, though, making sugar cookies is easy.  It's mostly butter, with a few other ingredients like flour and sugar.  Give it a spin in the Kitchen Aid, and then chill discs of dough in the fridge until they're firm enough to roll out and create shapes.

This actually all began when my boyfriend Nick wanted to bring Christmas cookies to his office at Bethesda Softworks.  He had an idea to make them look like the Vault Boy, a character from the studio's signature game, Fallout.  To create the shape, we basically modified a ginger bread boy cookie cutter.  (The hardest part was to find one with long enough arms) and then further molded the resulting doughy cut out.  We worked on these all night.  It took a while to nail down the process, but once we got on a roll, we cranked out quite a few.  Nick chronicled the whole thing on Bethesda's blog, and we also got featured on Gizmodo.

Because I wasn't sure how far my dough was going to take us, I made several double batches.  We were driving back home to Michigan the next day, so I packed my lunchbox full of dough-discs and hoped they'd stay cool in the trunk  for nine hours.  When I got home, my mom pulled out some snowflake cookie cutters she'd bought years ago.  She saw someone on TV stack the different sized snowflakes to make a Christmas tree.  So, we had another project.  Ultimately, the frosting stuck  the cookies together so severely, that it was impossible to pull off an entire cookie.  You had to sort of crack off a corner.  Not practical, or particularly aesthetically pleasing, but it tasted all right.  Though I probably wouldn't do that particular project again—or the Vault Boy one since I don't really like video games, hah—I could see the possibilities for next time, and I would absolutely do sugar cookies again.