Warm Goat Cheese Salad

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Because it is St Patty's Day I thought I'd post something "green"....and can you believe it, it's NOT a dessert but rather a delicious salad.  Perfect to have on St. Pat's Day. This recipe makes a large serving for 1 person so do not hesitate to double it if you wish to serve more than one person.

Warm Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients:

For the goat cheese toast:

1-2 pieces of good fresh bread (I choose a nice French Bread)

extra virgin olive oil

3 oz. of goat cheese

For the salad:

1/2 tsp red wine or sherry vinegar

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp Dijon mustard

a good pinch of coarse salt

2 cups of torn green lettuce leaves, washed and dried

FRESH ground pepper

1/4 cup walnut halves, toasted (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler and set oven rack in the middle of oven.

2. Brush bread with just enough olive oil to moisten it.  Gently spread goat cheese on bread (don't spread too thin).  Broil on a baking sheet in the oven until the cheese is soft, warmed through and lightly browned.  This doesn't take long (maybe 3-4 minutes) so don't walk too far away from the oven.

3. While the toasts are baking, make vinaigrette.  With a fork stir together vinegar, olive oil, mustard and salt all together.

4. Toss lettuce in with the vinaigrette and pile on a plate. Grind FRESH pepper over the top and then rest the warm goat cheese toast over salad.  Scatter walnuts on top, if using.

I discovered this fabulous little salad as I was reading David Lebovitz's book, The Sweet Life in Paris.  I suggest everyone who has gone to Paris, worships Paris, has family in Paris, dreams of going to Paris or has simply just flown over Paris to go out and treat themselves to this book.  It is full of wonderful humor, delicious recipes and a great out-look of what it means to live in Paris.  I am serious......go get this book!

Happy Warm Goat Cheese Salad making!

~avril :-)

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Mmmmmmmmm so good.  This weekend was a rainy weekend - perfect for making bread.....Cinnamon Raisin Bread at that!  Jolie (my daughter) and I had so much fun making this recipe together.  Not only did she get to roll out the dough but as you can see above, she got to sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture and then raisins ontop of the dough. Lots of fun....yummy fun.

Peek-a-boo! This is one of my favorite parts of making bread - discovering that it has risen.  It's a beautiful beautiful thing.  As you see from the picture above this recipe makes 3 loaves of bread which is great - 1 or 2 to keep and the 3rd to give away.  It's a lovely thing!

I discovered this recipe from one of my newest cook-books, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I can't say enough about this book.  Easy to follow recipes along with a wealth of information for baking bread.  I highly recommend it.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups lukewarm water

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packs)

1 1/2 tbsp Kosher salt

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup raisins (more if needed)

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water)

Butter or neutral-tasting oil for greasing pans

Directions:

1. Mix the yeast, salt and sugar with the lukewarm water and buttermilk in a large bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid bowl and this worked fine)

2. Mix in the flour using either a spoon or the dough hook of your Kitchen Aid mixer.  If you are not using a mixer, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3. Cover with a clean dish towel and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top) - this takes approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise or it can be refrigerated in a lidded (not airtight) container and used over the next 7 days. 

5. Grease your loaf pans and set aside.

6. Dust work surface with flour along with a 1 1/2 lb piece (cantelope size) of the dough and the rolling pin.

7.  Roll out into a 8x16-inch rectangle about 1/4-inch thick.

8. With a pastry brush cover surface of dough with egg wash.  Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle 1/3 of the mixture over dough evenly.  Do the same with the raisins.

9. Starting from the short side, roll up dough "jelly-roll" style.  Pinch the edges and ends together, tucking the ends under.

10. Place loaf seam side down in prepared pan.  Allow to rest 40 minutes (if you are using refrigerated dough allow 1 hour and 40 minutes of rest time).

11.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

12. Bake for 35-40 minutes

13. Remove from pan and cool completely before slicing.

**I know this is a ton of steps but they are so easy and well worth it in the end I promise you that!

Happy Raisin Cinnamon Bread baking!

I had to include one last picture for it includes my cat, Lucy in the background.  Love her! :-)

Lemon Bars

I don't know about you but I LOVE anything with lemons.....especially when it is sweet.... (BIG surprise!).  These bars are very easy to make and taste even better as time goes on.  I recommend that you wait at least 12 hours/overnight before you cut into these little delites (take note there is nothing "light" about these bars as far as calories/fat is concerned - :-).

Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 stick butter (unsalted), melted

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp flour

2 eggs

3 tbsp lemon juice (I used 2 Meyer lemons, regular lemons are fine too)

2 tsp lemon zest

powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup flour, powdered sugar and salt.  Stir in the melted butter and then press into a greased 8x8 pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes (just until the crust becomes light brown).

3. Reduce oven temp. to 300 degrees F

4. In a medium bowl, mix together granulated sugar, 2 tbsp flour, eggs, lemon juice and zest.  Pour this lemon mixture over the crust and bake for 20-25 minutes (until set).

5. Lightly dust with powdered sugar and cool completely. Store in refrigerator.  Again, take note that these bars taste best after cooling overnight in the refrigerator.

Happy Lemon Bar baking!

Note: This recipe was discovered on Sugarcrafter's blog - don't you just love her name!?! Be sure to check out her blog. :-)

Strawberry Bread

What could be better than Strawberry Bread (well, maybe Cherry Bread....:-)!?!?

When I came upon this recipe from the Countrygirl Cooks! blog I knew I had to make it....and I was soooo glad I did! Not only does it make a super yummy quick bread but it makes 2 (possibly even 3) loaves of bread.  One to keep and one to give away.  I love those kind of recipes.

Strawberry Bread

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups canola oil

3 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

2  (16 oz) containers of sweetened, frozen sliced strawberries in juice (thawed)

Mix in a large mixing bowl eggs, sugar and oil.  Mix until thoroughly combined (it will be a beautiful yellow mixture).

Add to above mixture the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Mix just until well combined.  The mixture will be nice and thick at this point.

Dump in both containers of strawberries (juice and all) into the mixing bowl.  Gently mix well until fully combined.

Pour into 2 (possibly 3 depending on size of pan) well greased pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in to the middle comes out clean. 

Allow to cool for at least 1 hour (if not more) before you remove the bread from the pan.

Happy Baking! :-)

Coffee Toffee Bars

A wonderful recipe for having something sweet with a nice cup of hot tea with a friend. Above you will see the cast of characters that make up this recipe. Aren't they sweet! :-)

Coffee Toffee Bars

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. almond extract (if you don't like almond you can easily subsitute vanilla or coffee extract in it's place)

 1 tbsp instant coffee (add up to 2 tbsp for more flavor)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semisweet)

Cream together butter and brown sugar.  Blend in the almond extract (or vanilla or coffee), baking powder and salt.  Add flour....this will make a stiff dough. Press mixture into a well-greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips on top.  Gently push chocolate chips into dough.  Bake @ 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.

*I found this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen blog (guess what the name of the member's name was that posted this recipe? - "nhsweetcherry"!!! Can you believe it?!?....not only is she from NH like ME but she has "cherry" in her member name!!!!! :-)

**I thought that these bars tasted even better the next day...the flavors of the almond and the coffee were wonderful.

Raspberry Meyer Lemon Pancakes

Over this past weekend I was able to shop at one of my very favorite stores....Trader Joe's.  I was in heaven - yes, I was in absolute heaven there.  They have such good/reasonably priced food.  One of my "treasures that I found at TJ's (not to be confused with TJ Maxx) was a delightful little bag of Meyer Lemons.  I knew exactly what I would do with them after bringing them home - I would make Raspberry Meyer Lemon pancakes from a recipe that I discovered on Joy the Baker's blog. This recipe for pancakes is melt- in- your- mouth -DEEEELICIOUS!!!! And Joy's blog is just adorable!  Definitely go check her out.

Raspberry Meyer Lemon Pancakes

8-10 pancakes (enough for 3 people)

zest of 1 Meyer Lemon (if you don't have a Meyer lemon...use a regular one -it will be ok)

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk add just a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice to  the milk before it hits the 1 cup mark to make it = 1 cup)

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup FRESH raspberries (or blueberries ) - in the past I have used frozen berries in this recipe....so if you don't have fresh, frozen are fine.

oil or butter for cooking

In a small bowl combine lemon zest and sugar.  Mix until pale yellow and fragrant.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and melted butter.  Add flour, lemon/sugar mixture, baking powder and soda and salt.  Stir JUST until combined.  The batter may be a little lumpy (you want it this way).  Gently fold in berries. Again, do NOT over stir.

Heat a griddle or pan over medium heat.  Add a tsp of oil or butter and heat through.  Add 2 tbsp's of batter to the pan.  Heat until bubbles form and start to pop.  Carefully flip over and cook through.  Place cooked pancakes on an oven proof plate and let rest in 200 degrees F oven while you fry the rest of the pancakes.

Top with (heated) maple syrup.

ENJOY!!!

The BEST Brownies (made by scratch)

I am serious....this is indeed hands down the BEST brownie recipe made from scratch! The brownies come out to be chewy, fudgy, moist and DELICIOUS. Do yourself a favor and make this recipe ASAP!!! - then eat one (ok maybe two) and freeze the rest or give them away for you will constantly be going back for more....trust me!

I discovered this recipe through Pamela Anderson's cookbook, "The Perfect Recipe".

The BEST Brownies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

4 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

10 Tbsp. unsalted butter (1 stick plus 2 Tbsp)

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

3/4 cup toasted walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts or peanuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350*. Make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven to get optimum heat all around the baking brownies. Spray an 8 x 8 square baking pan with oil then layer with foil or parchment paper (I usued parchment paper) in such a way that you have 2 sides that are longer so that you can easily remove the brownies from the pan after they are baked.

Whisk flour, salt and baking powder all together in a small bowl; set aside.

Melt chocolates and butter in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering (NOT boiling) water. Remove the melted chocolate and butter mixture from the heat and gently whisk in sugar and vanilla. Now add the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Continue to whisk until mixture is completely smooth and glossy (this will take a couple of minutes). At this point you can transfer this lovely mixture to a larger bowl for you will now add the dry ingredients so you want enough room for all of the batter. Whisk in the flour mixture until JUST incorporated ( you DO NOT want to over stir this batter). If using nuts, add now.

Pour batter into prepared pan; bake for 35-45 minutes. You can tell when the brownies are done by inserting a toothpick/cake tester in the middle of the pan and it comes out with wet crumbs. Do NOT over bake these brownies!!!! - if the toothpick comes out clean you have over baked them....and that will just be sad.

Cool brownies in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes and then remove from pan with the "handles" of foil/parchment paper and cool completely for a good 2-3 hours. ONLY cut once ready to serve.

Sooooooooo YUMMY! - serve with some good vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce (serious YUM) or just eat alone....with a nice cup of tea or a tall glass of milk.

Make 16 brownies.

Enjoy! <3