Sunday Morning Breakfast

Sunday mornings call for pancakes. I myself am not even a huge breakfast fan but pancakes have a special place reserved for them in my stomach. My craving for pancakes today was different than usual, I knew I wanted something with extra flavor instead of plain-old classic buttermilk pancakes. When I stumbled upon Bobby Flay's recipe for Cinnamon Mascarpone Pancakes with Warm Morello Cherries and Hazelnuts, two words stuck out; cinnamon and mascarpone. Now don't get me wrong, the cherries and hazelnuts sounded wonderful but seeing as I had neither on hand, I needed to improvise. After all, part of being a good cook is knowing how to improvise.
I ended up not having to improvise too much for this recipe as I have for some in the past. The only changes I really made was subbing lemon zest for the orange zest it called for, amping up the cinnamon, and using maple syrup instead of making my own cherry syrup with hazelnuts. The results?

Absolutely delicious.

The interesting thing about these pancakes is not only do they have mascarpone in the batter, but mascarpone is the finishing touch to these little beauties. The mascarpone is sweetened with a little powdered sugar and makes a wonderful substitute for whipped cream, I actually prefer it. The mascarpone is creamy like whipped cream but smooth and rich so it melts over the top just like butter. I would almost say the dollop of sweetened mascarpone on top is actually my favorite part.

The recipe for my take on the pancakes can be found on my allrecipes page. I hope you enjoy these bright and spicy pancakes as much as I do!

-Madison

Customizable Cheesecake

New York Style Cheesecake, the epitome of a simplistically wonderful dessert. It is one that I love to make and one that I most certainly love to devour. Don't we all?

So yesterday when we had people over for dinner I decided to surprise them with dessert. My dessert of choice was of course cheesecake. Now this recipe is not good, it is the best. Lucky for you I am willing to share this wonderful New York Style Cheesecake recipe on my allrecipes page. I will note that is important to serve this cheesecake really cold otherwise it just doesn't taste as good. Making it several hours in advance, even the day before would be a rather smart choice.

Back to my story, cheesecake can go a million different ways. Since not everyone likes the same things, I made this cheesecake "customizable" by making a cheesecake toppings bar. I bought an array of candies, some dessert syrup toppings, and made a raspberry sauce. 

Like this cheesecake needs to be cold, this cheesecake also needs raspberry sauce. It is so easy to make too, there is no point in leaving it off the menu. Merely throw some frozen raspberries, let's say a cup, in a pot over medium heat, with about a teaspoon of lemon zest, a couple tablespoons of sugar (sweeten it to your liking), and a teaspoon or two of water. Bring it to boil and let it get nice and syrupy, let it cool, and then store it in the fridge so it gets beautifully cold too.

The cheesecake was lovely and everyone thought being able to throw whatever they wanted on it was great. I have to admit it was a pretty darn good looking dessert too. 

-Madison

Homemade Pasta

Pasta is delicious in all shapes and sizes, it is the Italians gift to the world. I have never met a person who was not a fan and it is also a crowd pleaser. Yet one type of pasta stands out above all the rest and is hands down the tastiest around. This pasta is homemade pasta. 

I have made pasta multiple times before and whether it be spaghetti, fettucini, or even ravioli (stuffed with an incredible roasted mushroom mixture and topped with a mushroom cream sauce), it is always heaven upon my taste buds. Last night I made some pasta and went the fettucini route. When it was ready, I then topped it with a delicious bolognese sauce, recipe courtesy of Ina Garten. While the sauce was incredibly wonderful, the real show stopper here was still the pasta, so here is how you make the dough...

The general rule of thumb when figuring out how much to make is one egg per person and then one cup of flour for every two eggs. So basically since I was feeding six people including myself, I used six eggs and three cups of flour. 

The flour, that has been seasoned with salt, goes into either the bowl of the stand mixer so you can use the dough hook attachment or onto the counter so you can knead by hand. When you have chosen your method, make a well in the center and crack in your eggs.

I also add in a splash of olive oil for flavor. 

Now the old-school Italians do this next step, well actually this whole process, by hand. I have done it this way but I have gradually learned that the less pasta dough stuck on my fingers, the more I enjoy my pasta.

Using a fork or your hands, begin incorporating the flour into the eggs. 

If it seems too dry, add a little bit of water at a time until moistened.

I start my dough in the stand mixer and once it's combined I bring in the dough hook to knead it a little. Then I scoop it all out onto a floured surface and do the rest by hand. 

This is a super important step and quite a great stress reducer. Knead the dough until you merely cannot knead anymore! 

Then when it is no longer sticky and has a smooth surface, spray some plastic wrap with non-stick spray (I use the olive oil kind) and throw it in the fridge to rest for a few hours. 

When you're ready to cook, cut the dough into at least four sections and begin rolling it out with either a pasta roller or a rolling pin. I happen to have the luxury of a pasta roller stand mixer attachment and it is quite helpful with this task.

When the pasta is all rolled out you have the freedom to go whichever route you want! I suggest ravioli, it's my personal favorite. Keep in mind when cooking it in a pot of boiling salted water, fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried and will probably be ready in about two minutes. Enjoy!

-Madison

The Perfect "Panini"

There are certain dishes that you'll never forget. Flavors attribute to memories and from time to time you'll look back on something you ate and develop a craving for that hit-the-spot meal. One of my dishes that I constantly crave is from the Mosquito Cafe in Galveston, Texas. I was in Galveston for a few days on vacation and after trying the Mosquito Cafe's "Turkey Divinity" sandwich once, I was hooked. I made sure to get another one before I went back home to Austin but that second sandwich doesn't hold someone over for two years. So today when I was thinking about the layers of garlic-herb mayo, bacon, turkey, brie, and green apples all sitting upon a luscious french baguette, I decided it was time to make myself one. 

It was simple to make and really doesn't require a recipe. I used probably about a half cup of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of chives, parsley, tarragon, and garlic to make a batch of garlic-herb mayonnaise and that became the base layer of my "Turkey Divinity". Don't worry, I definitely did not put all of that mayonnaise on my sandwich. I just made a lot to last me the rest of the week!

Next on the sandwich came a piece or two of some hickory smoked bacon that I cooked in the same pan I planned to grill my sandwich in. Why? Because I made multiple unhealthy choices when making this sandwich and one of them was to use rendered bacon fat instead of butter to get my bread nice and golden. 

On top of the bacon was a layer of Boar's Head turkey from the deli at my grocery store, not pre-packaged sandwich meat. This sandwich deserves nothing but quality ingredients. 

That is why after the turkey came some julienned (Julienne is a knife cut for those who don't know) green apples, whose bright crispness cut through the heaviness of the meat and mayonnaise. Guess what? That is not all the bright crispness of the apple cut through, the final ingredient to be stacked on the french baguette was another of french origin, brie. Oh brie, how beautifully creamy and delicious it is. It is my favorite cheese by far and certainly makes the sandwich what it is. I used a decent amount of brie, like I said I love it but every ingredient proportion is up to who is eating it. That is why there is no recipe, it's up to you!

For those of you who questioned why I have the word "panini" in quotation marks in the title of the post, it is because I don't have a panini press. So, my "panini" is a sandwich I put on a grill pan and smoosh down with a hot, heavy cast iron skillet. It comes out like a panini but I can't quite call it one, it really is a smooshed sandwich. 

What a beautiful smooshed sandwich it is. It made a perfect lunch and I highly recommend it to try. Did I mention how easy it is to make?

-Madison

Chimichurri

Balancing being a high school student and having a part time job has been a little harder lately,  sorry for the lack of posts. Thursday night I had time to cook myself dinner but the rest of the evening was spent doing homework. The good news is the dinner was DELICIOUS.
I was at school pondering what I would do for dinner that night. My mom was going to dinner with friends and my dad was out of town so it needed to be something simple but better than a sandwich or fast food. I did a little idea searching and found Bon Appétit's article for 10 marinade recipes to use with chicken, steak, and seafood. A lot of the recipes included herbs so I went to the one that used a lot of the stuff in my garden. I halved the recipe, especially since my herb plants have barely even started growing, and went to work on a chimichurri marinade.
It's a simple marinade that begins with garlic and shallots (when is that ever a bad combination?) that sit in red wine vinegar for ten minutes so they can infuse their flavorful goodness. While the garlic and shallots do a little marinade of their own, it's time to chop some herbs; cilantro, oregano (I grow Greek), and parsley. I chopped my herbs by hand but when I make this again, I am definitely going for the food processor. You want this done fast because it has to actually marinade for a while. I was hungry so I only marinated my chicken, which I halved and then cut on a bias into little fajita stye bites, for about an hour and a half. The recipe says three hours to overnight but it still turned out packed with flavor.
Sorry for the lack of prepping pictures but I did start taking some when I started cooking. Except, there are no pictures of the raw chicken being cooked because that sight is never very pretty.
However, here is the finished product:

Like most delicious things, it was cooked in a cast iron skillet. It may not look so appealing but it was SO yummy. I thinned out some sour cream with lime juice and that was a beautiful combination with the chicken. Sadly my house was lacking both tortillas and lettuce so I could not make a taco or a salad. Both of those options would be delicious though!

Since I was lacking anything to go with chicken, I rummaged through my fridge and found a head of broccoli and a lemon. What I made next was pure taste bud heaven. 

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Roasted Broccoli Salad. Something I came up with when trying to use up some broccoli. 

I tossed some broccoli that has been cut into florets with a little bit olive oil, lemon zest, and salt and pepper before roasting it. While it cooks, I make a lemon-garlic vinaigrette. When the broccoli cools from roaring hot to warm, I toss it in the vinaigrette and then devour. 

A fresh glass of iced tea with lots of lemon and fresh mint from my garden was the perfect accompaniment for a simple night. 

Quick tip: I personally am not a huge fan of sweetened tea but for those who are, simple syrups are a quick and easy way to sweeten tea up. Add equal parts sugar and water to a pot on the stove and stir it over some heat till the sugar dissolves. A simple syrup is a beautiful canvas to get creative with simply by steeping some flavor additives (herbs, citrus zest, spices, almost anything) while it cools. 

It was another hodge podge of a dinner but when it's delicious, who cares?

-Madison

An Unplanned Dinner

There are some nights where you're tired, hungry, and determined to eat whatever sounds delicious, even if it seems a bit random. Saturday night was sort of like that for my mom and I. I had been at work for the majority of the day and came home to only leave again in order to make a trip to Lowe's and the grocery store. Luckily, I managed to find all the herbs I needed at both stores so that was a successful part of the evening. I even threw in a roma tomato plant, but back to our dinner. I knew walking into the grocery store that I was going to make something from my new cookbook, Plenty (read more about it here). I chose a really beautiful dish, Roasted Butternut Squash with Sweet Spices, Lime, and Green Chili. I made a few alterations to the dish but I will talk more about that later. Continuing on with the grocery shopping, my mom requested guacamole so the ingredients for that went into the cart too. The last element of the meal was tilapia, which my mom was craving along with a heavy dose of lemon juice to go with it. 

When we got home we began cooking, starting with guacamole. Well really I made it and my mom stood by anxiously waiting to dive into the finished product. She was right to be anxious, as I am not one to brag but I do make the world's best guacamole. That is honestly the only thing I make that I boast about. This particular recipe for guacamole comes from Alton Brown. I must seriously thank him for this brilliance because I have yet to devour guacamole that touches this one.

Cilantro made its way into every dish
but it's prominent in this guacamole.

Guacamole in the making

Once I finished our appetizer, I moved on to my butternut squash. When making it, I did make a few changes to the recipe. My version of the dish is available on my allrecipes page. Yotam Ottolenghi's version calls for cardamom and allspice, which sounded amazing but I'm not sure if anyone realizes this but cardamom is SUPER expensive. This is why instead of buying it at the grocery store, I went along with the flavors of my guacamole and subbed in cumin and cayenne.

The squash gets a spice rub before roasted,
so much flavor in such a simple dish!

The only other change I made was my choice to leave out the green chili. I couldn't handle any more spice, the cayenne was already enough. My mom and I agreed, after cleaning the plate, that the final result was very tasty and actually quite pretty. 

I love the vibrant green against the natural orange of the butternut squash. It always dazzles me how beautiful food naturally is, along with how tasty it can be! This dish was no exception and we gobbled it right up. This was definitely a promising start to tackling this cookbook. 

Yet the dish was not the last part of the meal! My mom even made something. Remember the tilapia I mentioned earlier? She baked it with some lemon and garlic, we even threw a little left over cilantro on top. It was quite good and wonderfully simple. 

See all that liquid? I told you she likes lemon juice.

It was a hodge podge of a dinner but it was filling and it satisfied our cravings. Considering we were just cooking for the two of us we had a nice night. Besides any night with my guacamole is a good night. 

Just kidding! Kind of.

-Madison

Hopdoddy Burger Bar

There's no doubt that any Austinite reading this blog has heard of Hopdoddy's. It is one of the best burger places in the city and that is why, even though I've been there multiple times, I felt the need to blog about it. The food is delicious, they make everything in house, and they always have one-of-a-kind burger and milkshake specials. The only bad part about going to any of their locations is the insane line that you wait in to order your food. The wait is worth it, especially if you order a milkshake made from their homemade ice cream.
Almost as soon as you sit down at the table, milkshakes are brought to the table, in order to hold you over as you wait for the mouth-watering burgers to be brought as well. The milkshakes we ordered? A staple of the menu, Caramel and Sea Salt, as well as the special, Almond Joy.

The Caramel and Sea Salt was a delectable treat but the Almond Joy was a nutty-chocolate-coconut goodness rival that I happily sipped on throughout the meal. 

I didn't sip on it too much at first because I had to make sure there was room in my stomach for the Truffle Fries. Now let me tell you that I have had many truffle fries, I simply adore them, but no truffle fries touch these. Except maybe the Black Truffle Pommes Frites from Second Bar+Kitchen on Congress but that restaurant is a whole another review. Back to Hopdoddy's fries, where they arrive coated in parmesan with a side of truffle aioli to dip them in. 

I could make a whole meal of the fries alone, as I'm sure most people could, but the burgers are the show stoppers. 

I chose a Primetime burger, my usual favorite, probably because it has a smear of truffle aioli on it. While I love the truffle aioli, it also comes with brie (extra brie for me), arugula, caramelized onions, and steak sauce. The caramelized onions with ooey-gooey melted brie on top make the burger the most magnificent burger of all burgers. It is ever so juicy and the beef melts in your mouth when you take a bite.

 The other burger we got, the Goodnight, I myself seriously considered ordering but sadly did not get to taste. It consists of Tillamook cheddar, hickory BBQ sauce, caramelized onions, sliced jalapeños, and "sassy sauce". What sassy sauce is, I have no clue, but from how fast the burger was eaten I can tell it was delicious. 

All in all it was a great dinner, as it usually is. If you live in the Austin, Dallas, or Scottsdale, Arizona areas, I highly suggest you get a Hopdoddy's burger soon. 

-Madison

Rosemary, Parsley, and Thyme, Oh My!

Fresh herbs are some of my favorite things in the world. They are so simplistically beautiful and contain an uncanny amount of natural flavor. The only thing better than having fresh herbs on hand, like say from the grocery store, is having them right in your own back yard.
This April makes my third year of growing herbs and each year my garden expands more and more. I grow my herbs in pots because I find it simpler than digging holes in the ground and because I like to keep the herbs separated. Pus, pots can be pretty. I would like to be able to say that I keep my herbs going year round but the funky weather here in Texas makes it hard for me to keep them past December. So this year when it came time to buy a new batch of herbs I decided to sit down and make a list of everything I wanted to grow. I not only picked which herbs to grow this year but I also did a little research on how to grow all the different plants, especially my new herbs. Hopefully I actually yield some good results from all my research.
After my trip to the outdoor section of two different hardware stores, I was sorely disappointed to not have found all the herbs on my list. Sadly, I am going to have make a second trip there this weekend to see if they got another shipment, but for now, here's what I got:

• Rosemary
• Sweet Basil
• Lemon Thyme
• Greek Oregano
• Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley
• Dill
• Cilantro  

Rosemary, thyme, parsley, and basil are always staples to have on hand and I highly recommend growing them. I managed to get all of these but thyme on first trip so I will be on a mad hunt for it during my next trip to the hardware store. I planted cilantro so it will be interesting to see how long it lasts. It is so delicious but so hard to grow here in the heat of Texas. While I have it, I look forward to making some pretty great guacamole with it. In addition to thyme, I also plan on grabbing sweet mint, tarragon, and chives to grow. Wish me luck with my herbs!
-Madison

Rosemary

Sweet Basil

Dill

Greek Oregano

Lemon Thyme

Cilantro and Buck 

I forgot to mention my Jalapeño plant I'm growing for my Dad.
Bella likes it too. 

The herbs.