FIVE MOST POPULAR POSTS OF 2013

We wish you all a very HAPPY and HEALTHY 2014!!

 

The five most popular posts on Coleen's Recipes in 2013 were:

 

 

SUPER MOIST CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

 

 

SUPER EASY VELVEETA MAC and CHEESE

 

 

CROCKPOT SPICY PORK AND PINTOS

 

 

BEST PUMPKIN BARS EVER

 

 

SIX MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

 

 

 

Thank you very much for visiting

my recipe blog this year!!



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Merry Christmas

 

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FIVE STAR CARAMEL CORN

If you are looking for a last minute gift idea that is super easy to make and even more easy to "consume mass quantities" (as the Coneheads would say); you have to try this caramel corn recipe from the cooks over at Table for Seven. I've tried a lot of caramel corn recipes over the years, and this is BY FAR the best one EVER!!  As a matter of fact, picky-picky husband and I ate the entire batch in one evening, we just couldn't leave it alone!!

1 bag of microwave popcorn (see note)

1 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown)

1/4 cup Karo corn syrup (the clear kind)

2 teaspoons molasses

1/2 cup butter cut into cubes

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 250° and lightly spray a large baking sheet (with sides) with vegetable spray, set aside.

In a sauce pan, bring the brown sugar, corn syrup, molasses, butter and salt to a simmer. Cook and stir until this mixture reaches 250° on a candy thermometer (it takes about 5 minutes).

While the mixture is simmering, pop the bag of popcorn in the microwave then spread it out on the prepared baking sheet and let it sit in the preheated oven to stay warm.

When the caramel mixture reaches 250°, remove it from the heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla.  Stir until very well mixed (it will get just a little foamy).

Pour over the popped corn and stir to coat. Bake coated popcorn in the 250° oven for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

After it has baked one hour, turn it out onto some waxed paper and let it cool (doesn't take long). Once it is completely cool, break apart any larger pieces and store in an airtight container (or Ziploc bag).

NOTE: I used one bag of lightly salted microwave popcorn. Personally, I don't think I would use the heavy butter flavored variety, although I'm sure it would work.

NOTE: Let the candy coated spoons/utensils sit in a cup of hot water for a little while and the candy will dissolve and wash off easily.

NOTE: Make sure the baking sheet that you use has sides. I used my roaster pan and it worked well.  You just want the sides to be tall enough that, when you stir the caramel corn you won't lose any over the edge.

NOTE: Be careful while you are stirring this caramel sauce so you don't get it on your skin (it is dangerously hot).

Once you turn the finished caramel corn out onto waxed paper, it cools down very quickly.

NOTE: The final caramel corn is lightly crunchy and not at all sticky as long as you keep it in an airtight container.

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SUPER EASY CREAM PUFFS

If you are looking for something super simple, yet impressive enough to WOW your dinner guests over the holidays, I suggest you make these cream puffs.  They are SUPER easy to make, SUPER economical and SUPER fun to serve.

 

 

1/2 cup butter (cubed)(no substitutions)
1 cup water

Bring the water and cubed butter to a boil (just until the butter melts). While it's still boiling, add one cup of flour (all at once) and stir with a sturdy spoon until the mixture turns into a thick "glob" (it just takes a few seconds).

 

Remove from heat and put "the glob" in your stand mixer. Mix on medium speed while you add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

 

Mix on high for a couple of minutes or so, just to cool off the dough a little.

With the mixer still running, add four eggs, ONE AT A TIME, beating well in between each egg. The final dough will be quite sticky.

Either grease your cookie sheet or line with parchment paper (I like to use parchment paper) and place spoonfuls of this mixture (about the size of a golf ball?) on the prepared cookie sheet, making sure they are about 3-4 inches apart since, as they bake, they will puff up a lot.

Put in a PRE-HEATED 400°F oven and immediately turn the oven DOWN TO 350°F. Bake for one hour. 

When you take them out of the oven, poke a small hole in the side of the baked cream puff to let steam escape. I have forgotten to poke that hole before and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference. 

Cool completely on a wire rack.

They come out of the oven

LIGHTER THAN AIR!!

 

To serve, cut in half and fill with sweetened whipped cream or berries and whipped cream or pudding, or ice cream or anything your family likes.



Dust the tops with powdered sugar or drizzle with chocolate sauce.

VARIATION: If you leave out the sugar and vanilla, these puffs are delicious filled with chicken salad, seafood salad, etc.

 

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Favorite Torte and Cake Recipes

Favorite Torte and Cake Recipes is a lovely homage to 1950's baking, where every woman can, "know the joy of making a perfect cake."

Published in 1951, Favorite Torte and Cake Recipes was published the same year that ConAgra, then the Nebraska Consolidated Mills, bought the rights to Duncan Heinz cake mixes as a way to use more flour. Pillsbury was making a few mixes in the late 40's, but it was the Duncan Heinz brand that pushed boxed cake mix into the American kitchen. Duncan Heinz, a popular food writer at the time, received a penny a box for the use of his name.

Rose Oller Harbaugh knew what readers wanted, having spent years as the manager of the book department at Marshall Field's. Mary Adams was an immagrant who came with her family from Hungary. The cookbook was informatuive, packed with recipes and easy instructions. It featured nifty fifties drawings to accompany the recipes.

Since it is that holiday season and since we love some fruitcake, we were fascinated with this recipe. It is a Hungarian spin on fruitcake.

Hungarian Fruit Layer Cake

3 cups flour

1/4 pound butter

6 tablespoons sugar

1 1/3 cups grated walnuts

2 eggs

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

Sift the flower in a bowl. Cut in the butter thoroughly.

Add sugar, lemon rind, and nuts, and mix well.

Beat eggs until lemon-colored and add to the above mixture.

Mix well and shape into a ball.

Roll dough on floured board with light strokes.

Roll pastry into circular shape about 15 inches in diameter.

Place in buttered torte pan, trimming edges like pie.

Prick dough with fork and bake for few minutes and 375F oven to make firm.

Then fill shell first with Apple Filling, then with Poppyseed Filling, and last with Walnut Torte Filling.

Decorate with strips of remaining pastry.

Brush with egg and sprinkle with nuts.

Bake in 325F oven 1 hour.

A very different take on the traditional fruitcake from a very traditional 50's classic.

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Saving the Season

if there is a preserving book we want it. Like our profound love of French cookbooks, we also covet every preserving book. By now, if you can cook it syrup or douse it in a brine, we have stuffed into canning jars. While most canning books are fine, fun, and full of info, few are comprehensive guides to putting up food. Saving the Season by Kevin West is that comprehensive book.

West grew up in the South and watched his grandmother make jam. Living in California for years, West, was a writer and pretty fine cook. On day he impulsively bought a flat of strawberries and realized that he and his friends could never use them all before they rotted. Holding those strawberries pulled him back to his past, like a powerful sense memory. When he thought of all those years he watched his grandmother make jam, he came to the stark realization that he never really knew how she made the jam. Trying to recreate that flavor, he found recipe after recipe of strawberries covered in sugar, pectin, and boiled. West's reporter side kicked in.

 

He started studying and cooking and cooking and finally blogging. His blog, Saving the Season turned into an opus of the same name. Yes, Saving the Season will explain how to make jam, jelly and pickles, but it does much more. You will also find:

 

Lovely photographs

Recipes for using your canning products

Master canners

Food writers

Fiction writers

Poets

Artists

Road trips

An extensive bibliography

An appendix of fruit varieties

An appendix of peak fruit by months

 

If you have never touched a Ball jar, there is something in this book for you. Ever walked into the kitchen after your friends offer to make margaritias. The drinks were great but there is a huge pile of squeezed lime halves. (you know some of them were not squeezed that well as the drinks went on, so there is a lime juice pooling up.) This is a great recipe to make use of those limes. you don't have to make it right now. Stuff the lime carcasses in a Ziploc bag and wait till the buzz is over.

 

Limeade Syrup

1/2 pound of lime rinds

2 1/2 cups of water

3 cups sugar

10 coriander seeds

2 cloves

2 allspice berries

Two 1/4-inch slices fresh ginger root

Optional: 1 Kaffir lime leaf and 2 inches lemongrass stalk, crushed

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Store in a sealed bottle in the refrigerator for up to 6 months

 

We were thrilled to see that Saving the Season was one of Amazon's Best Cookbooks of 2013. It was clearly one of ours.

 

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The Kinfolk Table

Let's get this out of the way. There are two kinds of people: The people that will LOVE this cookbook and the people that will HATE this cookbook. It is easy to be polarized.

 

Nathan Williams is the editor of the widely popular magazine, Kinfolk.

LOVERS: The magazine's goal is to "offer an alternative idea of entertaining -- casual, intentional, and meaningful."

HATERS: Kinfolk entertaining is tortured, pretentious and devoid of people.

LOVERS: Nathan Williams is a world traveler, collecting recipes.

HATERS: If your world is Portland, Brooklyn, Copenhagen, and the English countryside.

 

LOVERS: The recipes are simple and elegant.

HATERS: The recipes are tedious and don't work.

 

We read dozens of reviews of this book. The glowing reviews all said the book was gorgeous and published a slew of pictures. They waxed poetic about the food, but no one had actually made any of the recipes. The only actual review of the book we could find came from Felicia Sullivan in Medium. She was not a fan.

What do we think?

LOVE IT: If you have ever picked up or for that matter, seen a copy of Kinfolk, you cannot miss it. It is visually arresting. There are few publication out there that one can spot at 100 feet. They love white walls and wooden tables and roasted chicken and so do we. They don't care about immersion circulators or stick blenders or matched china. It is beautiful and we want it for that reason, alone!

 

HATE IT: We love our white walls and wooden table, but we would spend an entire day setting up these photos. They are not just thrown together, they are highly curated. For all the talk of "gatherings" and "community" the photos are hauntingly devoid of people. Most people are alone. The "simple" food is reminiscent of hippie cookbooks from the 1970's. So, in bringing "entertaining" to a new generation, they seemed to have brought mama's old commune coobooks with them.

 

Here's a lentil salad.

Citrus Lentil Salad

1 cup dried green lentils, picked over

6 scallions, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine or apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon or orange

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Rinse the lentils under cold running water in a fine-mesh sieve until the water runs clear. Place the lentils in a medium saucepan and add enough cold water to cover by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Drain the lentils and return them to the pot. Add enough cold water to cover by 3 inches. Remove and discard any lentil shells that rise to the top, then drain once again.

Place the lentils in a large bowl and add the scallions, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, zest, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let the salad rest for at least 20 minutes to allow the flavors to combine. Serve. The salad can be stored,refrigerated, in an airtight container, for up to two days.

The Kinfolk Table is an aspirational cookbook. You aspire to lovely blonde and African children. You aspire to copper pots and a house filled with books. You aspire to poached salmon and steamed cod. You aspire to tattoos and bearded boyfriends in Portland or Brooklyn.

Right now I am sitting at my reclaimed wood table, staring at my stark white wall, drinking coffee, alone. I aspire to the pages of Kinfolk, but I am not going to get dressed or clean off the table for the photo shoot!

 

 

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MELT IN YOUR MOUTH SHORTBREAD COOKIES

'Tis the season for Christmas cookies, and this is one of our favorites. Simple ingredients, simple instructions; you can make them as festive (or simple) as you want and they are still "melt in your mouth" delicious. Try these classic shortbread cookies for the holidays.

 

SHORTBREAD COOKIES

 

1 cup room temperature butter (no substitutions)

1/2  cup brown sugar (packed tight into measuring cup)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

 

In a large stand mixer (using paddle beater), beat the butter, vanilla and brown sugar (on high) for five minutes (scrape down the bowl sides half way through).

 

After 5 minutes, add the flour (one cup at a time) and beat until very well mixed and the cookie dough comes away from the sides of

the bowl.

 

Roll the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least a couple hours (I like to chill overnight).

 

When you are ready to bake these cookies, roll the log in sprinkles or finely chopped nuts, pressing them in with your hands just a little.

 

Using a thin bladed knife, slice the cookie log into 1/4" slices and place on an UNGREASED cookie sheet.  Bake in a pre-heated 325° oven for 20-25 minutes or until edges of the cookies JUST START to change color. My electric oven takes 23 minutes.

 

Remove from cookie sheet and cool on bakers rack.  These cookies do NOT spread out when you bake them, so you can really place them close together on the baking sheet.

 

 

SPRINKLES?

 

NO SPRINKLES?

 

Just make sure you have a

tall glass of milk!!

 

 





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The Little Book of Home Preserving

Preserving books are another of our weaknesses. Really, if you know how to make jam, you really don't need a cookbook. If you don't know how to make jam the vast number of books explaining how to make jam can be daunting. What's a cook to do?

Here's an idea. Grab a copy of The Little Book of Home Preserving by Rebecca Gagnon. It has everything one needs to know about canning a some interesting spins for those of you who can every week. It is the best of both worlds. Yes, it is a little book, but don't let its size fool you. Just because you can slip it into your pocket, might just be a good thing. Ever gone away for the summer and needed to find a reicpe? This book is perfect to toss into your hamper and take on the road.

The recipes are fresh; familiar with a zippy spin. Try the Kumquat-Habanero Marmelade. How about Jicama Apple Cumin Kraut? Or the Citrus Chai Ground Cherry Preserves. She calmly explains that preserving is not always a precise endeavor and she wallks the reader through the vexing variations that occur while canning.

We just love a good shrub, and this one will definitely be on our list.

Elderberry Drinking Vinegar

2 pounds ripe elderberries

1 quart raw apple cider vinegar (such as Braggs)

4 to 6 cups granulated sugar

1. Separate the tiny elderberries from their stems. (An easy way to do this is to place them in the freezer for a half hour and then comb through them with a sterilized, wide-toothed comb.)

2. Place the elderberries in a large glass bowl, crush them gently with a masher, and cover them with the vinegar. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and store somewhere at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 1 week.

3. Strain the vinegar out of the elderberries into a large bowl, using a fine mesh sieve. Press gently on the berries to help them release all of their remaining juices. The vinegar will be a beautiful purple color.

4. Measure the vinegar and pour into a preserving pot. For every 1 cup of vinegar, add 3/4 to 1 cup of granulated sugar. Over very low heat, stir the vinegar until the sugar melts. (Keeping the vinegar well below the boiling point helps it to remain "raw" and healthful.) Once the sugar is fully dissolved, turn off the heat and remove the pot.

5. Sterilize the jars.

6. Let the drinking vinegar cool completely before storing in sterilized airtight glass bottles or canning jars at room temperature, where it will remain good for one year. To enjoy, pour 2 tablespoons in the bottom of a glass, and top with seltzer or still water.

If you are looking for a niftly stocking stuffer this Christmas,The Little Book of Home Preserving is just the ticket. You can read more from Rebecca Gagnon at her popular blog, CakeWalk.

 

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Mast Brothers Cookbook

When you look up "hipster" in the dictionary you will find a picture of the Mast Brothers.  They may be the original hipsters, though I am sure there is someone else ready to claim the title.

So here's the story:  Two young boys from Iowa leave to find fortune in the big city.  Tired of working for other people, they look for a creative outlet. They ask a simple question. Where does chocolate come from?  In their spare time they roasted chocolate in there tiny apartment.  They crack the beans by hand and wrapped them in fine papers. The rest is history.

OK, maybe not "history" but surly a moment in hipster history.  The Mast Brothers become obsessed. They immerse themselves in all things chocolate.  The ask more questions.  Why is there no bean-to-bar chocolate available?  How do we get from bean to bar?  Where do we find the folks that grow cacao beans?  After answering these questions, they began selling bars at farmer's markets.

Then one day, while visiting New York, pastry chefs at the French Laundry bought Mast Brothers chocolate.  They were ecstatic and raved to Thomas Keller but it takes more than that to impress Keller.

Keller thought the chefs had found another pair of artisans working at home.  Yes it was good, but could they sustain it.  By the time Keller paid the boys a visit, they had a small factory.  The Midwestern farm boys were strapping, over six feet tall, bearded, looking more like lumberjacks than chocolatiers.
They were no dilettantes, they were the real deal.

And now, they have a cookbook.  Clearly, if you make tons of chocolate, you eat tons of chocolate.  If you eat tons of chocolate, you have good  ideas about how to use that chocolate. The Mast Brothers know how to use their chocolate.

I confess, I adore chocolate.  I also admit that I am not a fan overly sweet chocolate.  I adore chocolate in savory dishes.  I make a winter spice rub with cocoa that makes wonderful chicken and baked squash.  I make squab with a stuffing infused with bits of chocolate.  My favorite bread is made with a chocolate stout and studded with chunks of chocolate.

The average chocolate cookbook has tons to cakes and cookies but few savory elements.   The Mast Brothers Cookbook has the requisite brownies and cakes, but there is a section of savory recipes that make this cookbook special.  Try this vinaigrette.

Cocoa Balsamic Vinaigrette

fresh rosemary                 1/2 sprig
cacao nibs                        1 tablespoon
cocoa powder                   2 teaspoons
sea salt                             2 teaspoons
black pepper                    1 teaspoon
balsamic vinegar              1/4 cup
honey                               2 teaspoons
extra virgin olive oil          1 cup

1. remove rosemary leaves from stem and roughly chop.
2. combine rosemary leaves,nibs, cocoa powder,salt,and pepper and grind in a mortar and pestle.
3. place  ground ingredients in a medium bowl.
4. Add balsamic vinegar and honey and whiskey.
5. Slowly add olive oil while whisking quickly to emulsify.
6. Store in a mason jar in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Who says you can't have your salad and eat chocolate, too?   If there is choco-holic in your house, this is the perfect gift.

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BRANDY SNAPS

If you want to impress your guests, make some of these Brandy Snaps for them. They look so elegant and they are definitely not something you see on every dessert tray.

A hard candy shell filled with sweetened whipped cream...do I have your attention yet?  Pretty fool proof if you follow my extra tips below printed in RED, AND you can make them days in advance and fill them just before your guests arrive. 

BRANDY SNAPS

 

 

 

 

Brandy Snaps are basically a crisp, sweet, lacy, candy shell that you can fill with sweetened whipped cream or your favorite mousse.

They look very hard to make, but it is an illusion; they are pretty easy if you pay attention to the tips below in RED.

2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white corn syrup
1/4 cup butter  (I used only 3 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons brandy (or) 1 teaspoon vanilla (I used rum extract)
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Since this whole process goes VERY fast, it is best to have everything ready before you start cooking the above ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 350° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (important). These candy shells REALLY spread as they cook, so only plan on making six of them on each cookie sheet.

Mix the sugar, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. STIR over medium heat until the mixture is good and bubbling, then remove from heat and stir in the flour and flavoring.

Drop one measuring teaspoon (per candy shell) of the cooked mixture onto the parchment paper. This will spread out into a circle about 4" in diameter as it bakes for about 6 to 7 minutes, but watch them very carefully after six minutes, as they can go from caramel colored to DARK very fast. It sounds tricky, but it isn't.

My candy circles were fairly pale in color until they hit the 6 minute mark in my electric oven, but they were a beautiful light caramel color at 6 1/2 minutes.

When they have turned a nice light caramel color, remove from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for about 30 seconds. If they look a little oily, LIGHTLY dab them with a paper towel.

Use a pointed knife and lift the edge of the candy circle up a little so that you can grab it with your fingers (be careful, this is VERY  hot). One at a time, quickly roll the candy circle around the handle of a wooden spoon (they will cool almost immediately and hold their shape).

Once you form it around the spoon handle, it will instantly be cool enough to slide the candy tube off of the handle, and it's done!! 

If the other candies get too "hard" to roll, put them back in the oven for 30 seconds or so (but that shouldn't be a problem, as they stay fairly pliable as long as they are on the hot cookie sheet), they only become rigid once they cool off.

 

I didn't use a spoon handle, I used some metal cannoli tubes I have and they worked perfectly (no need to grease the spoon handle).

Keep the cooled candy tubes in an air tight container until you are ready to serve them. Fill them with sweetened whipped cream (the candy tubes can be filled up to about an hour before serving).

Don't be scared off by any of my "warnings' about this recipe, it may sound complicated, but it really is pretty easy and I hope you try it.

NOTE: I substituted rum extract for the vanilla, the candy tasted like butterscotch. I think ANY extract would work.

NOTE: You don't have to fill these with whipped cream. Almost any mousse like whipped filling would work wonderfully.

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