EATS: Oatmeal Rum Crasin Cookies

2 sticks butter Softened
1/4 Cup Splenda for baking (Or 1/2 Cup White Sugar)
3/4 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 Cup plus 2 TBS Rum (I like Myers Dark)
1/4 Cup boiling water
1 1/2 Cup Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
3 Cups rolled oats
1 Cup Crasins ( I use two handfuls or so, so this is a guess)


Place Crasins in a heat poof bowl, cover with 1/4 cup rum and 1/4 cup boiling water - cover bowl and allow to steep for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat butter and sugar and Splenda (if using) together until smooth and fluffy and there are no lumps of butter

Add eggs and beat until combined.

Add 2 TBS rum and beat.

Sift together flour and baking soda and mix until well combined.

Drain crasins, add crasins and oats and mix until combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet. (I use a small ice cream style scoop) Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned all around.

Move to cooling rack to cool.

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Note - Sometimes I make the dough the night before.  Then what I do is make the dough balls and put them into a plastic storage container overnight.  Then leave on counter for about an hour before baking.  This way it warms up faster and it's already measured out and you are not fightign with a big mass of hard dough.

These would probably be excellent with Walnuts - I'll have to try a version that way.

EATS: Gluten Free Coconut Macaroons

I altered my regular recipe because a friend has celiac and I wanted them to be able to enjoy at least one of my cookies.  These are a bit stickier than my regular recipe, but I have been told they are delicious.

7oz (half a can) Low fat Condensed Milk

1 egg white ( or 1/4 cup liquid egg whites)

1/4 cup Flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 - 14oz package Coconut (5 1/3 cups)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Line a baking sheet with parchment

In a medium bowl whisk together with a fork Condensed Milk and Egg whites.  When combined add flour, baking powder and vanilla, whisk until smooth.  Scrape down side and be sure it is well combined.

Add Coconut and with a fork, mix until well combine, use the fork to break up any coconut lumps.

I use a 1/2 oz scooper, but basically drop by rounded tablespoon fulls onto parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown around the edges.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

READS: The Sweet Life in Paris

Author: David Lebovitz

In many ways this is a case of Lost in Translation, where Davidthrows caution to the wind and embarks on a journey to do that which he has always wanted - live and work in Paris.  He arrives and has to learn not only the joie de vivre, but also the basic rules of living in Paris.

We follow this renown chef through his trials and tribulations of trying to cook in a Paris postage stamp sized flat (he has to wash his pots in the bathtub) and navigate the rules for French society.  Who new you had shave and get dressed just to take out the garbage?

This is another memoir cum cookbook, interlaced with all kinds of yummy delicacies you will be itching to try out.  David includes not only variations on the recipes, but also a fine list of shops at the end at which one can purchase the required ingredients or equipment (provided you can remember to greet the shop keeper and navigate the complex French shopping culture.

I personally enjoyed his attempts to muddle through the healthcare system.

C'est la vie et Bon Appetite!

EATS: Easy Coconut Macaroons

Honestly, I don't eat coconut - it's a texture thing - but I have been told that these are yummy by many, many people who like Coconut Macaroons (including my mother)  Enjoy!

7oz (half a can) Low fat Condensed Milk
1 egg white ( or 1/4 cup liquid egg whites)
1/4 cup Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 - 14oz package Coconut (5 1/3 cups)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Line a baking sheet with parchment

In a medium bowl whisk together with a fork Condensed Milk and Egg whites.  When combined add flour, baking powder and vanilla, whisk until smooth.  Scrape down side and be sure it is well combined.

Add Coconut and with a fork, mix until well combine, use the fork to break up any coconut lumps.

I use a 1/2 oz scooper, but basically drop by rounded tablespoon fulls onto parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown around the edges.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 24 macaroons.

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Disclaimer: I do not actually measure the condensed milk or the vanilla, I have always eyeballed it, but you make it your way experimentation can be a good learning experience.

EATS: Lower Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Met me preface this with I am a crunchy cookie girl.  In general I do not like soft cookies.  The memories I have of childhood include nice crunchy cookies - which is probably why I need lower fat cookies today.

These have a great taste and a nice texture.

This was a bit of a gamble when I tried them, but they were yummy (although soft) this is your basic Nestle (tm)   Toll-house Cookie recipe with a couple of substitutions.

1 stick butter, softened
4oz Fage 0% Yogurt
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking
1 tsp vanilla (although I tend to just eyeball it - you can use a bit more to balance the yogurt)
1 egg
1 egg white
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup bittersweet Chocolate Chips (I use Nestle)

With an electric mixer blend butter, yogurt, sugar and Splenda until you have no lumps of butter.  add egg, egg white and vanilla and blend.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.

Add flour mixture to wet mixture in thirds stirring completely between additions.  When fully combined, stir in chocolate chips.

Using a 1/2 oz ice cream scoop, drop measured scoopfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 11-14 minutes until golden brown.  If not using a convection oven, rotate tray after first 6 minutes.

Makes about 40, 3 WW-PP cookies.

EATS: Coq a Vin

A little history . . .
Coq a Vin was orginally created to address how to deal with a rooster who is past his prime.  So basically is it designed for an old, tough chicken - this does not work well with white meat - unless you don't plan on cooking it long, which means you loose the long cooked taste - so just use dark meat.  Unless you can get a really old chicken from your local farmer.

3-4 slices bacon, cut into dice
6-8 Chicken Thighs (or legs and thighs)
1 large onion - diced
2 Packages button or baby bella mushrooms, quartered
8 cloves garlic
6 carrots cut into 1-2 inch pieces
1-2 TBS flour (optional)
1-2 TBS butter (optional)
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups red wine - something you like to drink - I used Malbec
Salt
Pepper
Herbes de Provence - or 5 fresh thyme branches
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Serve with Egg Noodles or biscuits
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Add Chicken stock and 1 cup of wine to crock pot, set on low.

Remove excess fat from chicken, but leave skin attached - pat dry. Salt & pepper and dust with Flour, removing excess. Set aside.

Cook bacon over medium heat in a frying pan until crispy.
Remove bacon to paper towel to drain, pour off excessive oil into bowl and retain, but leave enough to coat the pan.

Increase heat to medium-high.

Fry chicken thighs skin side down in pan 3 - 4 pieces at a time until brown - about 3-5 minutes per side. Add more oil before second batch if needed.
Set aside when done.

Add carrots to pan, cook until lightly browned, add to crock pot.

Check oil level in pan and add additional to coat bottom. Add onions to pan, cook for about 5 minutes, add garlic to pan.  When onions are brown, add to crock pot.

Check oil level in pan and add additional (or butter)  to coat bottom. Add half the mushrooms and cook until brown.  Add to Crock pot.

Check oil level in pan and add additional (or butter)  to coat bottom. Add the other half of the mushrooms and cook until brown.  Add to Crock pot.

Nestle browned chicken in crock pot - add the remaining red wine just to cover the chicken - note this may vary do to the size of your crock pot. If you need more liquid you can use either chicken stock or wine, but don't let the chicken swim this is not a soup.

Add Herbes de Provence or thyme.

Cook for 6 -8 hours on low.

Serve over Egg noodles or with biscuits.

EATS: Court Avenue Brewery, Des Moines, IA

aka CABCO  http://www.courtavebrew.com/

What's not to like about a place that crafts it's own beer.

Although this gem is in the popular Court District, it was full of locals the Sunday night before Labor Day I strolled in looking for good eats and a brew.  I was not disappointed.

The ceiling over the bar is full of the mugs from the Mug Club, and I am sure if I lived in Des Moines I'd have one myself.

CABCo is located in the Saddlery Building built in 1881 - nothing like a historic building put to good use to make me interested to begin with.

They have an diverse / fusiony choice of pub grub and you are sure to find something you will like - I recommend the CABCo Sandy.

I took home a "beer is food" T-shirt.

Special thanks to Mike and Brenda or Des Moines for making me feel welcome in their home town, hope your next trip to NYC is as fun as your last one.

READS: The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook

Not sure how exactly I started on this kick of reading memoirs that were punctuated by recipes, but here I am with another.  Best known as Gertrude Stein's companion and immortalized in Stein's "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" in this case Alice is writing herself.

Through their travels together,  their time in occupied France during the war and through visits many famous friends, we follow the tales of Gertrude and Alice and then conveniently what they had for lunch.

Unlike some books, this is not a recipe book and you'd be hard pressed to create one of the buttery sugary confections she details to make your mouth water - but it sure would be fun trying if your arteries would survive it.

What have we really learned?  That Gertrude was not the only writer in the relationship and that the hassish brownies are not the best recipe in the book.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alice_B._Toklas_Cookbook

READS: A Tiger is the Kitchen A Memoir of Food and Family

Author: Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Major themes in this book are family, friends, food and travel - which makes it right up my alley.

Cheryl, a writer in NY living a very NY life, heard the food of her childhood in Singapore calling to her.   That is definitely farther than when the frozen fudge pops call me from the freezer, or even when I hear the bubble tea calling from the tea shop.

What emerges is a tale of someone finding themselves and learning more about the family that helped shape her.  Traveling back to Singapore, Cheryl is determined to learn how to cook the foods of her childhood from those who cooked them for her - her grandmother and her aunties.  The question is, has she realized how precious those recipes are in enough time to learn them while grandmother can still teach?  It is a lesson for everyone about the value of traditions and the value of people in your life.  You can be our own person, without losing sight of where you come from.  This is a familiar message delivered deliciously though the recipes Cheryl is learning.

In Rent they ask "how do you measure a year in the life?" Cheryl is learning to measure the value of time with family as she learns to unmeasure while cooking.

agak-agak - Read the book and you will understand.

See also Cheryl's blog: http://atigerinthekitchen.com/

READS: Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams

Yesterday, June 24, 2011 was the 100th anniversary of  Hiram Bingham's rediscovery of Machu Picchu.  I stumbled across this book while browsing through the tables at a large chain bookstore and made a note to download it to my Nook.   I did not realize at the time that I would be reading the book through the anniversary.


It is a great read, at once both travelogue and history lesson and Mark Adams recounts his desire to retrace Bingham's 1911 route, but having not camped in years and even that was in the back yard.  I have to imagine that I would be pretty much in the same (unfit) shape if I took off on an adventure like this.  It is the kind of thing I dream of.


Bingham may have been the model on which Indiana Jones was built, he was a Yale professor, not an archaeologist.   Today he would be considered a thief and a grave robber, although the concept of stealing artifacts from "savage, uncivilized" people was not yet a crime.


For all his errors, Bingham did bring Machu Picchu back to the rest of the world.  After all, it as never really lost, the Peruvians knew where it was, some people were even living there when Bingham arrived.


National Geographic had it's first issue that covered only one story when Bingham's story ran complete with many, many photos he had taken along his travels.


See stunning 1911 versus current photos


If you like travel, history and a guy who can laugh at himself - read this book.

EATS: Francesco Vini, Florence, Italy

Loved this place I found completely by accident when I was in Florence.
http://www.francescovini.com/

I was wandered around Santa Croce and literally stumbled on this restaurant that stated that they offered typical Tuscan dishes and were located in one of the oldest buildings in Florence, over some very interesting ruins of a roman amphitheater.

Since my first night in Florence was my birthday i opted for a safe order of prosciutto with melon followed by ravioli in a butter sage sauce.  The melon was out of this world and the most spectacular shade of deep orange.  Light and tender, the ravioli was melt in your mouth good.

My last night there I joined a couple I had met the second night (yes I ate all three nights in the same place - you would too) and we ordered the steak Florentine.  The couple was from Houston, good American steak country and they were totally impressed with the meal, so much so that they actually said out loud that the steak was better than Texas. 

Oh, so the middle night I opted for papparadelle with wild boar ragu - yum, yum, yum.  The carnivore in me had a fabulous time in Florence for sure.

Wine, oh yes, the wine was wonderful and the staff was very helpful in helping choose a local wine that complimented the meal.

You don't have to eat there everyday like I did, but next time you are in Florence I highly recommend it.

EATS: Oklahoma: Ted's Cafe Escondido

Mexican:
I ate at both Oklahoma City and Broken Arrow locations.  Fresh made flour tortillas, yummy selection and then there is a Atomic Salsa - I won't be doing that again, but if you are brave (and can handle habeneros).
The Oklahoma City location was recommended by the hotel, and I was excited at finding Ted's again when i got to Broken Arrow.  Some of the best Tex-mex I have had (and i have had a lot).
http://www.tedscafe.com/

READS: "A Singular Woman" - Author: Janny Scott

Frequently listed as "a white woman from Kansas" or "an anthropologist" and often more a footnote than a person, President Obama's mother Stanley Ann Dunham was a facinating woman.  Whether you agree with her parenting techniques or not, her child IS the President.

See NPRs take on it:
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/03/135840068/the-singular-woman-who-raised-barack-obama

Book Love

I felt it was appropriate to start this blog with a commentary on books.
I LOVE BOOKS.
I love the way they feel
I love the colorful covers
I love the words inside
I love the places they take me too

I mention all of this, because I am in the process of trying to whiddle down the large wall of books in my living room.  This is a painful and tortuous experience for me, even though the books will go to the library.  How to decide what to keep and what to give away?

The purchase of an eBook reader this year ( I have the NOOK) has made it easier for me to carry large quantities of books for the joy of reading, but it lacks the tactile pleasure of paper. (I will say I do read faster on the NOOK - go figure)

As a kid, I remember the joy of going to the library to borrow books, having my own library card.  Summer Book club, winning scratch and sniff stickers - dating myself or sure.

Then there are all the books I LOVE that I will read over and over again.

Let's just say, that when it comes to purging my life of books in my collection I have an almost visceral reaction - and just keep reminding myself that I purging means I am not turning into a hoarder.