In The Making : Caramelized Onion Mac & Cheese

It's been so long, I really don't know what to say. Perhaps only that this blog post has been a long time in the making. It's been far too long, I realize. Here it is, nearing the 2 o'clock hour (in the middle of the night, or early morning, however you want to look at it) and I type away. Determined. I can't fathom that months have passed without a word. A recipe. A photograph.

Life. It has a funny way of speeding up and passing you by. Wedding planning, deaths in the family, birthdays, a newborn, math exams and swimming the waters of my favorite lake on a nearly daily basis have gobbled up what has now quickly become a fast fading summer. Life gets the better of us at times, without our even realizing it, and that's what has happened to me. But, here I am, ready to return, for good. I will be finished with school next week, leaving me plenty of free time to finish planning my October wedding and blog. I truly plan to make up for my absence. 

 Only days after my 26th birthday, I feel it necessary to mark my return with a personal favorite. If I were hooked up to the electric chair tomorrow, this dish (in just about any form) would be on my last meal list.  Macaroni and cheese, it's always been a favorite. The mere mention has angels singing, heavenly light shining down, and my tastebuds wagging. There is something so simple yet unbeatable about pasta bathing in a silky, gooey, cheese sauce.

I'm always attracted to mac and cheese on a menu. If it's there, I generally have no choice but to order it. So it's fair to say that I've had quite a bit of macaroni and cheese in my day, and unfortunately rarely am I impressed with what I'm served. Restaurants have a hard time getting it right, often serving up oily, bland, or dry versions of this beloved dish of mine. Then a few months ago it happened, I met one of the ultimate mac and cheese matches at a new bistro here in Bellingham. The base was a white smoked gouda (which I'm not a general fan of, but boy did it work here), penne pasta, perfectly dark caramelized onion (I could eat caramelized onions all day long), and local bacon. They got it right, simply and straightforwardly. The flavor combination was not only spot on, but the texture was perfection, gooey, sticky, and silky. A bowl of stovetop mac and cheese perfection. The bistro was open for less than a year, then one day, on my way to treat myself to a bowl of said macaroni and cheese, there on the door hung a small craft paper sign, a goodbye letter. A few weeks have passed since that sad day, and the cravings finally hit me. So I picked up the same ingredients and set out to quell my thirst for the Bistros macaroni and cheese.

Perfection. Extra gooey sauce poured over perfectly al dente noodles, tossed with a large vat of caramelized onion and slow roasted salty bacon. My fork and I went a little nuts. But boy, was it worth the full belly ache and weight gain!

Caramelized Onion & Bacon 
Macaroni & Cheese 

Ingredients

2 onions
1/2 stick butter
1 Tablespoon evoo
-
6 slices of the best bacon you can get your hands on
-
1 cup smoked gouda
2 cups gruyere
1 cup sharp cheddar
1/2 cup parmesan/ramano/or pecorino
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour
4 cups warm milk
14 1/2 oz penne pasta (cooked al dente)

Directions

1. First caramelize your onions. Halve or quarter your onions and cut into thin slices. Melt 1/2 stick butter and olive oil in a medium size, high sided skillet over medium high heat. Add onions, cook 5 minutes until slightly translucent, add salt and pepper (a pinch of cayenne for a kick) then reduce heat to very low. Cook for at least an hour, stirring occasionally, until onions are a gorgeous deep amber color. Remove onions from skillet and set aside.
2. Fry your bacon to your preference in the same skillet. Remove and place on paper towel to cool. Once it's cooled chop or tear into bite sized pieces.
3. To this very same skillet (imagine all that good bacon, caramelized onion flavor in there!) over medium/low heat, add 3 Tablespoons of butter and melt. Once butter has melted add the flour and cook together for at least one minute, you want to cook off the flour a bit so your sauce doesn't taste of it. Slowly whisk in your milk, I do about a cup at a time. Be sure to whisk well. After each addition let this mixture bubble and thicken (can take up to 5-10 minutes as you near the end). If need be add a bit more milk, you don't want this sauce to be oh-so thick because you'll be adding a lot of cheese which will naturally thicken it up.
4. Once you've got a slightly thick, silky bechamel, remove skillet from heat and whisk in cheeses, a few cups at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth.
5. With a wooden spoon, fold in your cooked pasta, then onions, and finally cooked bacon.
6. Try to resist eating the whole vat.

Expect to see a lot more of me my friends!

What To Do : Biscuits

The last time we spoke, it was of biscuits. Buttery, flakey, downright dreamy biscuits. 

So what do you do with those biscuits? Sure you could go nuts a la Pine State and pile your biscuits high with a fried egg, some bacon, melting cheddar, fried chicken and homemade sausage gravy, but here at home I opted for something slightly different, and far less laborious. 

This breakfast biscuit was made for the fiance. Before work he craves for food that's simple, quick and flavorful. The biscuits came together quickly with ingredients I had in my cupboard. I roasted a whole jalapeno over our cooktop, sliced it in half and set it atop a gooey fried egg (just as we like em, the runnier the yolk, the better) and a hand formed fried chicken sausage pattie. For good measure, I slathered the inside of each biscuit with soft salted butter kissed with a touch of lavender honey. Sweet, salty, spicy and scrumptious, four of my favorite s-words!

The best way to use up your biscuits in my book? Breakfast sandwiches. Anyway you make them, whatever you throw in em', I promise you, they'll be delicious.

Biscuit Bliss

Biscuits are serious business for some. Very serious business. I've read ongoing debates about the right ingredients, methods, as well as various tips and tricks. As a girl growing up in the Northwest and in a Norwegian household, I rarely caught sight of a biscuit,  let alone baked one. Regardless of what was normally on the table as a kid, I've become an avid southern food fan. It's comfort food to the hilt, just my kind of poison. My love of southern cuisine has given way to a curiosity about the highly revered, seemingly simple (but not so much so), southern born biscuit.

A recent trip to Portland (Oregon, of all places) only hightend my interest in baking up my very own batch of perfect biscuits. Breakfast at Pine State Biscuits is as close to a religious food experience as one can get. I spared no artery or fat cell at Pine State, ordering up what was both the most delicious and highly caloric plate ever placed in front of me. The Reggie Deluxe. Pine States famous (and by far the most perfect biscuit specimen I've ever had the pleasure to taste) stuffed with a giant piece of boneless white meat incredibly crispy and perfectly seasoned fried chicken, cheddar cheese, freshly fried bacon, an egg, and wait for it. . . sausage gravy. Let's recap - biscuit, fried chicken, bacon, cheese, egg, sausage gravy. And. I. ate. every. bite. The guy sitting next to me waned to his dining partner that he could never justify eating fried chicken for breakfast, and thus couldn't bring himself to order the The Reggie. I shot him a slight look of disgust and aiming to convey the one word that jumped into my head upon his confession, 'pussy', as I slowly relished every bite. Is it something you should eat every Saturday morning? Well, no. But at least once (twice, three, or perhaps twenty plus times) in your lifetime? Do I even have to answer that for you?

Upon my return home I searched, endlessly, for Pine States biscuit recipe, my version of the biscuit holy grail.  I turned up empty handed. For a moment, I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I found an article on Oprah's website for The Reggie. As I waited for the page to load I thought 'if these boys gave their biscuit recipe to anyone, it's Oprah', I believe that woman has the power to break, or buy anyone. So imagine my disappointment when the recipe was simply a list of ingredients, a blueprint if you will, the recipe suggested using a buttermilk biscuit, but hell if they were going to give you their recipe. Perhaps Oprah is not as powerful as I once thought? After some additional internet research, including reading multiple discussion boards regarding Pine States guarded biscuit recipe and hoping desperately to run across some jilted ex-employee serving up the recipe goods, and still failing to find anything remotely close to a recipe I gave up. Lucky for me I didn't give up on making biscuits, I gave up on Pine's recipe. 

These biscuits have the high rise I like mixed with a soft denseness, a touch of sweet mixed with plenty of savory goodness. The best biscuit I've ever made and my new go-to biscuit. It may not be yours, depending on your biscuit I.Q. this biscuit may not be your cup of tea. But for a newbie to the biscuit baking game, I loved these.

Close to Perfection Biscuits

via Home Based Mom

Ingredients: 

Preheat oven to 400 F

4 cups flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup cold, cold butter

16 oz sour cream

3-5 teaspoons water 

Directions: 

1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment.

2. Add pads of butter and pulse until you butter is the texture of pebbles in your flour mixture.

3. Add sour cream and water and pulse until just mixed. 

4. Dust a board or your counter with a bit of flour, turn dough onto surface, and knead very gently just to incorporate a dough (being careful not to heat the butter with your hands). 

5. Role dough to 1 - 1 1/2 inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter (or drinking glass, rim dipped in a bit of flour). Place evenly spaced on silpat or prepared baking sheet. 

6. Bake in heated oven for 14-17 minutes.

7. Remove from oven and cool slightly. 

Delicious warm out of the oven, with salted butter & plenty of sweet amber honey.

Whip It Good : Whipped Cream Cake

I'm not a well planned food blogger. I'm not one to make Easter candy, or Valentines dessert, or Halloween cookies weeks before hand just so I can blog about them. That probably makes me kind of a lame food blogger at times, since rarely can you count on me for fabulous ideas before the respective holiday arrives. And although I may lack in planning strategies when it comes to blogging, my hope is that my posts give you some great ideas, recipes you want to make, and food you want to eat any time of the year. Case in point. My easter dessert. What we ate on easter, not before. In fact, I whipped this cake up, start to finish, in less than 40 minutes. A cake worthy of baking spring, summer, fall or winter. 

This cake is a recipe of Rose Levy Beranbaum's from the book Rose's Heavenly Cakes. My original easter dessert plan was to serve vanilla bean pavlova's with stewed rhubarb, lemon curd, strawberries, and freshly whipped cream. But you see, my mother was coming over to our house for easter dinner, and if you are anything like me, when the mother is coming over cleaning the house takes on a whole new meaning. I cleaned. And cleaned. In fact I cleaned all day. And still, if probably wasn't 'mom clean'. The ham was set to go in at 4:30, and by the time I'd finished cleaning it was 3:00. I had run out of time for a proper pavlova and I desperately needed a plan b. A quick to make, quick to bake plan b that could be served with the same accompainments planned for pavlova. . . Rose came to the rescue.

Sure it looks like a bundt cake, but it's better. No butter here, can you imagine? A cake without butter? The heavy cream more than makes up for it. Whipped to a frenzy, mixed with standard cake ingredients like vanilla, eggs, and flour, the resulting batter is light, creamy, and quite unique. The best part of all? It took only 25-30 minutes to bake, half the time of any bundt cake I've ever made. Perfection in a pinch. This cake was light in texture, just sweet enough, and the perfect vehicle for all sorts of tasty toppings (kind of like the cake version of vanilla ice cream in a sundae). So the next time you run out of time for dessert, or  are craving a quick sweet fix that packs a pretty punch, please consider Rose's whipped cream cake. Surely, wonderful any time of the year.

Rose's Whipped Cream Cake 

Ingredients: 

2 1/4 Cups Cake Flour or 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons Baking powder
3/4 teaspoons Salt
1 1/2 cups Heavy cream, cold
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Superfine sugar

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 375 F

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk beater, whip the cream, starting on low speed, gradually raising the speed to medium-high as it thickens, until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla just until lightly combined. On medium-high speed, gradually beat the egg mixture into the whipped cream. The mixture will thicken into mayonnaise consistency (unless high-butterfat cream is used). Gradually beat in the sugar. It should take about 30 seconds to incorporate it. [Here's a slight change in how I now incorporate the flour thanks to both Marie Wolf and Hector Wong commenting on the difficulty with a rubber or silicone spatula] Detach the bowl and whisk beater from the stand.

3. Add half the flour mixture to the cream mixture and, with the whisk attachment stir and fold in the flour until most of it disappears. Add the rest of the flour mixture and continue folding and mixing until all traces of flour have disappeared. Using a silicone spatula or spoon, scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Run a small metal spatula or dull knife blade through the batter to prevent large air bubbles, avoiding the bottom of the pan. Smooth the surface evenly with a small metal spatula.

4. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted between the tube and the side comes out completely clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cake should start to shrink from the sides of the pan only after removal from the oven.

5. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. With a small metal spatula, loosen the top edges of the cake and invert the cake onto a wire rack that has been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Cool completely.

Unconverted : Banana Bread

A dear friend of mine, I like to call her Reaux, fellow food lover, gourmet cooking groupie, and overall soul sister, often searches for recipes by typing 'the worlds best _____' into her favorite search engine.  Now understand, the girl doesn't choose the first recipe that pops up. She's got a keen eye for ingredients and directions, scouring numerous versions of the top recipes before landing on (or combining a few to create) a final recipe. She generally uses this method for classics; chocolate cake, cookies, coq au vin, etc. Since she always seems to knock it out of the park doing this, I decided to implement her search process for banana bread. Primarily because I don't like it, and therefore know very little about it. Yes, you read that correctly, I'm not fond of banana bread and understandably so have never really had a desire to make it. Dare I say this in the food world, but, banana bread is boring, kind of ugly and tastes far too much like, well, bananas! Thus, my lack of interest in whipping up a loaf. That was until I somehow wasted yet another batch of bananas. Positive I wasn't ok with throwing them away I knew I had to come up with a plan b. My solution? Banana bread of course. Simple and quick, with a list of ingredients (including the bordering on rotten bananas) I already had on hand. Regardless of my general feelings towards the stuff, I knew it was the route I was destined to take to save my browning bananas. I realized that if I was going to voluntarily make banana bread, for the first time, and possibly the last, ever, I needed to give it the best shot I could. Thus Reaux's search tactics came into play.

Anyone who knows me well enough will tell you, I can be pretty darn impatient. Therefore, instead of scouring recipe after recipe a la Reaux, I clicked 'image' search and picked the picture I thought looked most appealing. Here is where I landed. Once I read through the description I figured a guarded long used mom recipe couldn't be bad. And it wasn't. In fact, I may actually go as far to say it was good, the banana bread lovers in my life were going gaga for the stuff. Best of all, it was just out of the oven moist & soft for four days, and it made the house smell amazing. All in all I can't complain, it surely wasn't the worst experience, but unfortunately I remain an unconverted banana bread lover. But if you are, and I bet you are, bake this. Easy, quick, and simple with winning results. Who could ask for more? 

Best I've Ever Tasted Banana Bread

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar & 1/4 cup honey 

(I modified to add the honey, if you don't like it than just use 1 cup sugar)

1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature

3 very ripe medium sized bananas

2 eggs, well beaten

1 1/4 cup ap flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed cream the butter and sugar together for 3-5 minutes until light in color.

2. Add the bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Beat another 2 minutes to incorporate well.

3. In a small separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients.

4. Dump flour mixture into wet mixture and beat on medium speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix here. Seriously.

5. Pour into a prepared loaf pan and bake in your preheated oven for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

6. If I were a banana bread lover I would turn this mother out 5-10 minutes after it comes out, slather a slice with soft salted butter and devour.

Happy Easter.

I hope you had a relaxing, tasty, beautiful Easter Sunday.

x

A Hot Mess : Cornbread Stacked Salad

That's right. This dish is a hot mess and I know it (unlike half the hot messes out there).

Regardless, this is one unique and tasty hot mess. 

Let's jump in so I can explain what you're looking at.

First, you start with a thick(ish) slice of incredibly moist, sweet, sharp cheddar cornbread.

Next, a few large butter lettuce leaves.

Then, a scoop of home pickled red onion.

A sprinkling of fried chicken sausage.

Followed by, a perfectly poached egg.

Drizzled with a homemade spicy, creamy, chive dressing.

All finished off with a sprinkling of cornbread 'sprinkles'. 

Admittedly, I'm not sure this dish is up everyones alley, it was in fact a bit of an experiment. In the end I liked it, liked not Loved (notice the use of a capital L), but it could easily be tweaked. Perhaps substituting the chicken sausage for some deliciously fatty, salty pulled pork (pork and cornbread a natural pair), or the chive dressing for, well, I'm not entirely sure because hollandaise or anything in the same family would end up being far too rich with the cornbread I think. Yet, tweaked it could be. Ultimately, the flavors and textures worked really well. Soft slightly sweet cornbread with bits of sharp cheddar and pops of fresh corn kernels throughout. Crunchy light butter lettuce. Incredibly tangy red onions pickled in cider vinegar with thyme and honey. Salty bits of seasoned chicken sausage. Poached eggs with runny yolks that mixed beautifully with all of the other elements. Finally a creamy, spicy sauce to top it all off. Different, incredibly colorful, and a bit whimisical. A dish whose colors and flavors, for some reason, reminded me of our newly Spring season. All in all,  not bad for a weeknight dinner!

Chive Dressing

1/2 cup creme fraiche
juice from one small lemon
1/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons fresh chive, chopped
1/2 teaspoon your favorite hot sauce
a pinch of cayenne

Directions:

1. In a small bowl whisk creme fraiche and lemon juice together.
2. Place the creme fraiche mixture in a standard jar, add the remaining ingredients, place the lid on the jar and shake vigorously.

Thus far, my favorite cornbread recipe.

Pickled Red Onions
(adapted from a Molly Wizenberg Bon Appetit Recipe)

1 small red onion quartered and sliced very thin (think caramelized onion)
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons honey
1/4 cup sugar
3 sprigs of thyme
pinch of chili pepper flakes

Directions: 

1. Pour cider vinegar, honey, sugar, thyme, and pepper flakes into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat for about 5 minutes (to dissolve honey and sugar).
2. Place onions in a jar.
3. Pour hot brining liquid over onions, cover, and leave at room temperature for 5 minutes. Uncover, and allow the mixture to come to room temperature.
4. Screw lid onto jar, and chill in the refrigerator for up to ten days.