NEW SITE + A GAME

Hello Readers!

Let me direct you to my new and improved site! From now on you can view new posts there.

You can click on the link above or else use the following URL:

www.themuffintinpost.wordpress.com

Hurry over because we are playing a game!

Next up: Roasted Peppers . . .

Sardine Dip

I'm a terrible food blog addict, and I realized earlier today that I have yet to offer you a list of my favorite food blogs in order to lure you into complete addiction with me! And really, I'd love a little company so expect a blog-errific round-up soon.

I'll give you a preview today, though, because recently I tested out a David Lebovitz recipe. David Lebovitz is one of my favorite bloggers out there. He takes beautiful photos, and he's truly a professional baker and cook. He also doesn't skimp on the writing side, as sometimes happens in blogs. He's funny and entertaining and talented at blending information with anecdote. Check him out.

I've had my eye on this particular recipe for awhile now. You'll notice - ! - it's the first less than 100% vegetarian recipe on this site, which means that I'm letting you all in on a teensy secret: after giving it up for four years, I now occasionally eat fish. Basically, I was eating dinner with some friends a few months back, and when all of a sudden and for no particular reason, I really wanted one of the shrimp tacos. It was eaten, and my taste buds felt happy. (This is also, incidentally, the same way I originally became a vegetarian - suddenly and for no particular reason). However, don't expect me to be eating anything but fish anytime in the foreseeable future. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll start to post fish dishes more frequently on TMTP.

The second thing you'll notice is that I changed the name of this recipe from the name that David Lebovitz uses. Some people just seem to get the jitters when they hear the word paté. Think about it like this. You've all had crab dip, right? You'd still eat it even if it were called crab paté, wouldn't you? Well, this works the same way. Here paté is just a fancy word for dip. Some of you are also probably running the other way because the idea of eating a sardine makes your stomach turn, and to you all, let me just say that even my none-fishing-eating aunt and grandfather liked this stuff. It's a salty snack food that goes perfectly spread on top of a cracker, alongside a tray of munchies like fresh cheese, sliced peppers, olives, and grapes. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

Sardine Dip

adapted from David Lebovitz

makes 8 servings

Ingredients

-2 cans of sardines, drained (approx. 300g, preferably packaged in water)

-2 green onions (Lebovitz uses shallots)

-1/2 bunch parsley (Lebovitz uses chives)

-big pinch of chile powder

-1 tbsp. butter, room temperature

-2 tbsp. olive oil

-salt and pepper to taste

-freshly squeezed lemon juice (approx. 1/2 - 1 lemon)

Method

in the food processor

Coarsely chop the onions and parsley, and then dump them, along with the drained sardines, chile powder, butter, and olive oil in the processor bowl. If your sardines still have bones, you can leave them in the dip. They are soft and will be easily pulverized. Pulse the ingredients until combined but still chunky. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste, and then pulse a few more times until the seasonings are mixed in and the dip is a little smoother. Then continue to prepare the recipe according to the instructions that follow the "by hand" paragraph.

by hand

Open the sardine cans, drain the fish, and, if the fish are not yet deboned, remove the larger bones (such as the vertebrae) with a fork and paring knife. You probably won't be able to take out all the bones, and that's ok because they are still easy to mash using a fork. Dump the fish into a medium bowl. Finely sliver the green onions, and mince the parsely. Add them to the sardines, along with the chile powder, butter, and olive oil. Mash the mixture with a fork until you achieve your desired texture. Mix in salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste.

Chill the dip for at least 1 hour before eating, but allow it to return to room temperature to serve. The dip keeps - and even improves - for 3 to 4 days when refrigerated in an airtight container.

German Pastry Series: Almond Crescents

I'm a careful eater. I conscientiously eat yoghurt, sunflower seeds, and chopped fruit every morning for breakfast. When I cook for myself, I always steam my vegetables instead of cooking them with oil. I buy whole grain everything. I monitor my protein intake, and I eat things like raisins and prunes for snacks. Basically, I have a lot of annoying food habits, and it takes something really stressful to break my willpower.

When my willpower goes down, though, it usually follows three general paths:

1. Peanut butter

2. Chocolate

3. Any and all baking ingredients

(The only good thing about the above list is that no one ever steals from my peanut butter jar because - since my willpower does not break down along a "sliced bread" path - I eat PB directly off the spoon which I double, triple, quad..*ahem*..dip).

Why am I telling you this? Because these cookies totally stressed me out, and since, as I already mentioned, my broken willpower almost always manifests itself through intense sugar binges, the combination of stress and cookie really does not make for a pretty result. I mean, I ATE. As many chocolate chips as I could stuff in my mouth at once. Chunks of marzipan. Toasted almonds, yes, want! Where's the spatula so I can scrape the bowl? Why not also scrape the melted chocolate? Lick the spatula!

I made a million critical errors during the production of these cookies. For example, when I'm altering a recipe that I plan to blog, measure the flour! Also I ruined the chocolate chips that I melted in the microwave - how is that even possible? I decided, even though I knew that the cookies had a high sugar content and no butter, that I wouldn't grease the baking sheet. Fail! Stick! Spilled almonds, yes; almonds that fell off the cookies, of course, and no, fake Ziploc really doesn't work well for piping melted chocolate. Instead, it leads to chocolate blobs all over your face, table, and chair.

I should have taken a picture for you, but unfortunately that was impossible because my fingers were covered in my melted chocolate failure, and my palms were full of dough that I was stuffing in my face.

(Hang on - peanut butter run - just writing this is stressing me out! Let me just stick that spoon into the dishwasher. . .)

But wait, don't go run for you peanut butter jars just yet! (What's that? You don't binge on PB? Because you really should). I have conveniently fixed up this recipe so that you avoid all of my silly mistakes! More importantly, these cookies were heavenly. I just ate the last one. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Almond Crescents

recipe adapted from here

makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients

-500 grams marzipan (check the package for the weight)

-1 1/3 cups sugar

-1 pinch salt

-3 egg whites

-1 cup flour

-1 cup sliced almonds, coarsely chopped

-butter or shortening for greasing your baking sheet

-3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly butter a cookie sheet.

In a medium bowl or in the bowl of your standing mixer, mix together the marzipan, sugar, salt, and egg whites until the ingredients are thoroughly combined and the dough is soft. Then slowly add the flour a tablespoon at a time. The dough will still be sticky, just less so, at the end.

Then you'll need to shape the cookies. To do this use either piping tools - a heavy pastry bag and a 1/2-in-wide piping tube - or else a heavy duty Ziploc bag with a 1/2-in-wide whole cut in one corner. Fold over the top of the bag, and put a large scoop of dough inside. You don't want to overload the bag because it could burst or squirt out the top, but you also need enough dough to create enough tension to be able to pipe at all. Unfold the bag, and twist the top tightly. Pipe crescent-shaped snakes of dough that are about 2 1/2 inches long, spacing them 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet. Check the above picture to see what the unbaked dough snakes should look like.

Now pour your coarsely chopped almonds into a bowl, and, using your fingers, press almond chunks into the tops of the cookies. Make sure they are firmly embedded into the dough or else they may fall off. Bake the cookies for 12 to 17 minutes until they are lightly browned. After I severely underbaked the first dozen, my cookies took about 16 minutes to finish.

Once the cookies have baked, remove them from the oven, and let them cool about 75%. Then transfer them to a wire wrack or another surface to cool completely. You'll be adding chocolate to the tops next so it may be helpful to put your cookies in the fridge until just before you add chocolate.

In order to decorate the tops with chocolate, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, and give them a stir. You can then either dips the ends of the cookies into the chocolate or you can use the tines of a fork or the end of a spoon to drizzle threads of chocolate over the tops of the crescents. I opted for method two, and, post-chocolate explosion, my cookies turned out beautifully. Return your cookies to the fridge to cool for at least 1/2 hour before serving.

Excellent with tea, coffee, or ice cream.

German Pastry Series: Plum Cake

I'm back with round number two of the German pastries! Want to see the wreckage from the baking? Not a great picture, but it gives you an idea.

If you're an avid food blog reader like me, you might have read Smitten Kitchen's post on plum kuchen a few weeks back. Problem is, though her kuchen looks fab it is also totally unlike I anything I ever saw in Berlin. I'm not sure if her recipe is really that different, but I'm certain I never saw plums arranged that way on any Berlin cake slice - and let me tell you, boy did I ever see a lot of plum cake. Journalistic integrity, however, does make me pause to confess: I think Smitten Kitchen's plum kuchen is brighter and prettier than most of the German versions I saw. As for the taste, I really can't say because I'm going for authenticity here, and as such, I shopped around for a plum cake recipe that seemed a bit closer to what I saw.

Now I said I would be honest about my reviews of the recipes I chose for this series. The plum cake was indeed tasty. I also had really ripe and sweet plums working for me. (At $4 a pound they better have been good)! Actually, I think I could just make and eat a whole pan of baked plums alone. In the cake itself the contrast of the tangy lemon in the bread combined with the sweet fruity top worked well. This cake isn't too heavy either. It's light enough even to eat for a breakfast if you want a little splurge.

However. The cake could have been a bit thicker and a bit more moist. To correct that I have two suggestions. 1) Stir in 1/2 cup buttermilk to the recipe and 2) serve this cake with vanilla yoghurt or vanilla ice cream. If you're really going for fluffy, you can also stir in a beaten egg white instead of or along with the buttermilk.

Also make sure you eat this cake the day you make it because, as with all cakes with fruity tops, it's likely to get soggy by the second day.

With those updates, I think you'll love this cake.

Plum Cake

recipe adapted from here

Ingredients

-1/2 cup lukewarm milk

-1/2 tsp. sugar

-2 tbsp. yeast

-2 cups flour

-1/4 lb. (1 stick) unsalted butter

-2 tbsp. sugar

-1/4 tsp. salt

-3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

-zest of one lemon

-plums, de-stoned, enough to cover a 9x13-in. glass pan when sliced

-a couple of tablespoons of extra butter

plus, if desired

-1/2 cup buttermilk

-1 egg white, beaten until stiff peaks form

-vanilla yoghurt or ice cream for serving

Method

Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in 1/2 tsp. sugar. Add the yeast, and stir. Let the mixture foam for about five minutes. (If the yeast doesn't foam, start over). In another bowl, medium-sized, measure out your flour, and then crumble the butter into it with your fingers. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work the mixture into crumbs. You can also use a food processor; mine was full of streusel at the time. Then add the 2 tbsp. sugar, the salt, egg yolks, lemon, and combine either with a fork, a mixer/beater, or a food processor. Now you can add the buttermilk if desired, and if you want to add the beaten egg white as well, fold this in as the last step. The dough will be slightly stiff.

Pull out a 9x13-in glass pan, and spread the dough into it, leaving a 1/2-in space between the dough and the edge of the pan. Since the dough is quite buttery, you probably won't need to grease and flour your pan. Cover the pan with a dish towel, and allow it to rise for 1/2 hour.

Just before the dough has finished rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then wash, de-stone, and slice the plums into wedges. After the dough has risen, arrange the plum slice on top of the cake. If you want it to look authentic, follow the pattern I used in this picture. Using the extra tablespoons of butter, place some small pats of butter on top of the plums.

Then bake the cake for approximately 25 minutes, until the plums have become soft, and the dough is lightly browned. If the plums look dry, that's ok. They'll taste great. After you remove the cake from the oven, chill it until it is at room temperature. If you want to be really German, serve the cake by cutting it into squares and arranging them on a large plate. Make sure to put a bowl of yoghurt beside the sliced cake for those who want a little creamy taste to complement the fruit.

German Pastry Series: Mohnkuchen

I've told you about German pastries before. I've even been a terrible friend by showing you photos but leaving you no recipe. All of your poor folks left to live vicariously through pictures. I know, I know. Life just isn't fair.

But today I'm here to bring a little bit of equality to the world, provided you've got on your baker's hat!

As a mentioned before, I returned to the US just in time to celebrate my grandmother's birthday, and we kicked off the event this past Friday with some early morning baking. I chose three German pastry recipes to test, all chosen for different reasons. The recipes were obtained from the internet - not without some searching - because none of my cookbooks had recipes for the pastries I selected. I'll tell you how our baking went and how the recipes turned out, but don't worry, I'll let you know when I have suggestions to improve the recipe.

We started this week with Mohnkuchen, my absolute favorite German pastry ever. Mohn, for the non-German speakers like me, is poppy seed. Kuchen is cake. So do the math: Mohn + Kuchen = Poppy Seed Cake. Forget the typical American poppy seed recipe, the lemon poppy seed cake (not that I'm bashing it because it's certainly tasty), but this poppy seed mixture combines a sweet shortbread with a thick layer of the seeds, which have been swirled in all sorts of goodies. Topped with streusel, mohnkuchen is fabulous, a total show-stealer. You'll eat the whole thing in minutes, your guests will love you, please - make - this - immediately.

Mohnkuchen is a good tea pastry, and it makes a nice party cake too. If you're looking for an enormous sheet cake to serve 35 people, you might want to look elsewhere, but this is perfect for about 8 to 10. Umm, if you don't eat it all first.

Mohnkuchen

recipe from here

serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

for the dough

-1 cup sugar

-1 cup margarine (note: I used butter-flavored Crisco)

-1 egg

-4 cups flour

-1/2 cup evaporated milk

-2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

for the filling

-1/3 cup. cream of wheat

-2 1/2 cups water

-1 cup sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla

-1 tbsp. butter

-1 cup poppy seeds

-1 egg

for the streusel

-1 cup butter

-1 1/2 cup sugar

-2 cups flour

-2 tbsp. evaporated milk

Method

Making the dough is easy. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until lumps form. I have a small food processor so I had to do this in batches. Then press into a 10-in. springform pan. I didn't use all of the dough here because I didn't want a super thick crust. My dough was about 1-in. thick. Feel free to make yours thicker. [If you have leftover dough, make it into shortbread by pressing it into a springform pan, and baking it on 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned and quite firm]. Set the pan aside while you start the mohn filling.

For the filling, pour the water into a saucepan, and prepare the cream of wheat, using that water, according to the directions on the box. Once the cream of wheat is soft and has thickened, remove from the heat. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, butter, and poppy seeds. The sugar should dissolve since the cream of wheat is warm. Stick the bowl in the fridge - without adding the egg. You'll want to chill the mixture before adding the egg so that you don't end up with mohn filling + scrambled eggs.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

While you're waiting for the filling to cool down, make the streusel. It's also as easy as the crust! Wash your food processor, and then put all the streusel ingredients into it. Pulse until lumpy (but not doughy).

By now the filling should have cooled off. It doesn't need to be cold, but make sure the heat has reduced enough that the egg won't cook. Add the egg, and mix well.

Now pour all of the filling over the crust. Then sprinkle the streusel over the filling, covering the entire filling, creating about a 3/4 to 1-in. thick streusel topping. I also had leftover streusel.

Bake it! The mohnkuchen will take about 1 hour to bake. The streusel should be lightly browned, and the pastry will be quite firm. After the baking, chill the pastry until cool. During this time, it will firm up even more. After it has chilled, remove the springform ring, and set the pastry on a cake plate. The pastry will now be completely delicious and beautiful!

Guest Post - Pasta Raphael

Remember my sister's Guest Blog Number One? Well today I'm introducing you to another guest blogger. This time, though, you've met this woman before. Her recipes have been featured numerous times, and I know you've all been waiting for another. I asked both of the guest bloggers to prepare their posts awhile back so this entry has been on deck for a couple of weeks now. Now as you're rushing to make the best of all the last of the summer produce, today's recipe is perfectly timed. So before you begin pulling out your shopping bags, let me introduce you to my mother, who will having you reaching for those ripe tomatoes and the fresh basil here in the last days of the season. From here on out it's in her words.

The title banner of this blog states that it is written by ex college students. Let's just get this out in the open right away. As Lindsay's mom, I must confess that I am more an ex, ex...maybe even another ex...college student. So how great is it that my daughter invtes me to guest blog? I will also confess, that I think (hope?) it is from me that Lindsay gets her foodie tendencies, and her healthy eating habits. (All that hand-ground organic baby food paid off!) I have often shared with Lindsay that for me, food is about much more than just satisfying our physical needs; it is about relationship. In our family, life in all of its glorious ordinariness has often taken place around the kitchen island. My own mother taught me to cook early in life by assigning me the task of planning and preparing a couple of meals a month for our family. For those of you out there who are flaming feminists as is my daughter...never fear! In my egalitarian family, this task fell to both boys and girls. As a result, my brother is a good cook as well, although his repertoire is somewhat different from mine. So Lindsay and her siblings may not have been born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but they were definitely born with a wooden spoon in one hand and a wire whisk in the other. Lindsay has mixed, stirred, and experimented in the kitchen with me ever since.

For those of us in the three-digit temperatures of Texas, this pasta is de rigueur for those long, lazy days of summer! Paired with a crisp, tender mesclun salad and some rosemary onion focaccia bread, it is the perfect al fresco dining after the sun has set, the stars have come out, and the temperature has dropped into double digits. It is also an impressive picnic option. Just pack away in a beautiful jar, throw it in a cooler along with a fruit salad of those lucious summer fruits--think strawberries, bluberries, blackberries, watermelon, and peaches--and head for the nearest source of water. Makes me long for the beach!

Pasta Raphael

Ingredients

-4 lbs. ripe meaty tomatoes
-2 jars (6 oz.) marinated artichokes
-1/2 cup best olive oil
-2 cups coarsely chipped yellow onions
-4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
-1 chopped chopped fresh basil
-1/2 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano (can use dried)
-1/2 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
-1 small dried red pepper, finely crushed
-1 tsp. salt
-freshly ground pepper to taste
-1/2 cup shredded imported Romano cheese

-your favorite pasta noodles*

Method

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop tomatoes into the water a few at a time. Scald for 10 seconds, then remove from the water with a slotted spoon.Transfer the tomatoes to a bowl of ice water. Drain toatoes and slip off the skins. Cut crosswise into halves, squeeze out seeds and juice, and chop coarsely. Reserve.

Drain artichokes, and reserve marinade.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, and saute onions, garlic, basil, oregano, parsley and red peper over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add fresh cracked pepper. Add tomatoes to the sauce. Season with about 1 teaspoon salt, and simmer uncovered over medium heat for 1 hour.

After the sauce has simmered, add reserved artichoke marinade, and simmer, stirring often for another 30 minutes.

Stir in artichoke meat, and continue to simmer until sauce is rich and thick--another 20 minutes or so. Stir in Romano cheese, taste, and correct seasonings. Serve over your favorite pasta, garnished with extra shredded Romano cheese.

*If you can get it, fresh pasta is worth the expense and trouble, but frozen is an acceptable substitute--much better than dried!

Napa Cabbage Sesame Salad

We're back!

And it's been too long! Have I lost all of my devoted readership? Let me tell you what's up been keeping me from you.

1. A research project for my summer university

2. 2 goodbye parties for said university

3. Pizza consumed during the goodbyes

4. 1 week of cleaning out the fridge

and

5. 12 hours of tasteless, sandy airplane food + 14 hours of overpriced airport food

However, ladies and gents, now that I'm back to on dry ground, I've got no more reasons not to blog and my "to bake" list has increased by a few too many recipes. I'm visiting family in Texas, which means that I'll also have plenty of ingredients to work with. We've got some birthdays (i.e. cakes!) coming up around here, plus isn't Labor Day the best day to make really make good use of all that summer produce?

Over the next week I have another special guest joining us for a blog (did you see TMTP's first guest blog?) and I also have a short mini-series coming up. On top of that I'm planning to review a few foods and restaurants that I've tried recently.

Let me first share one of the recipes with which I was welcomed back to the Lonestar State.* We had this recipe just last night when my aunt came over for dinner. We wanted something light and fresh, and considering that it's August here in the Lonestar State,* it's really too much to ask that we heat up the house with the oven or the stove. My mom originally got this recipe from a restaurant in the Texas Hill Country, and she's since adapted it to make it even better. Napa Cabbage Sesame Salad can really be played with, and I'll offer some tips here. You can make a budget variety, a protein-boosted variety, a carnivorous variety, etc.

Napa Cabbage Sesame Salad

Ingredients

I'm giving the basic ingredients here. See below the recipe method for variations.

for the salad

1 head shredded Napa cabbage

2 oz. toasted nuts

2 oz. toasted sesame seeds

2 packages Ramen noodles

for the vinaigrette dressing

6 oz. peanut oil (that's about 3/4 cup)

6 oz. rice wine vinegar

1 oz. honey

2 oz. sesame oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Prepare the salad and nuts. Shred/slice the cabbage, and put it into a large bowl. Toast the nuts and sesame seeds. [Don't know how? Check out this handy chart! Sesame seeds should be toasted at 275 degrees for about 5 minutes. Make sure to give both the seeds and the nuts a few stirs during the toasting process]. Allow them to cool afterward, and put them in a medium bowl. Open the Ramen noodles. Toss the seasoning packages - you won't need them. Crumble the dry noodles into the nuts, and combine.

Make the vinaigrette. Find a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Pour all of the ingredients into it, and shake vigorously to combine. Open the jar, and season with salt and pepper.

Put together the salad. Pour the vinaigrette over the cabbage, and then add the nuts and noodles as well. Toss the salad very well, and then taste and adjust salt and pepper if necessary. This salad is good right away because the ramen will still be crunchy, but it's also good a day later because the cabbage will have become tangy and sweet after absorbing all of the vinaigrette. The cabbage will become a bit droopy though so if you're planning to serve to a group, make the salad the same day you'll be eating it.

Variations:

-Try different types of nuts: I've used cashews, pine nuts, pepitas/pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. Go with sunflower seeds if you're on a budget, pine nuts if you want a classier salad, cashews if you want the nut to really absorb the dressing.

-Vary the vinegar and oil. Wok oil is a spicier sub for sesame oil, and it's a good combination with pepitas. Red wine vinegar and sherry vinegar make tarter replacements for rice wine vinegar.

-Want to make this into a meal? The original recipe called for adding strips of baked or pan-fried chicken. I add spicy soy strips to my salad. You can also add stir-fried tofu chunks. Serve with rice.

-Add a few more veggies. Water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, or slightly sauteed oyster or enoki mushrooms would be great additions.

*I don't really call it that.

Candy Sensation + Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

Any candy fans out there? I haven't yet blogged about candy, but at the behest of a friend, I'd like to introduce you to Germany's newest candy sensation:

Fresh Cola Mentos

That's right, people, Mentos has finally acknowledged in flavor form that the coolest thing about their candy is that it creates an explosion when dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke. Now you can not only wow your friends at the party with a sick Mentos/Coke show, but then you can top it all off by whipping out a roll of Fresh Cola Mentos when they're still speechless from your performance. Trust me, you'll have them coming in droves.

Now, who's going to write Mentos to tell them to start producing these in the US? Dear candy-loving friends, pull out your pens and paper and take one for the team.

And without further ado, here's one of my favorite cookie recipes.

Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

recipe from my mother

yields 3 1/2 dozen if you make golf ball-sized dough balls

Ingredients

-1 cup flour

-1/2 cup sugar

-1/2 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-1/2 cup butter or butter-flavored shortening*

-1 egg

-1/4 tsp. vanilla

-3/4 cup rolled oats

-1/4 cup chopped nuts, optional

-extra sugar for dipping, optional

Method

One bowl recipe! Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix together your dry ingredients, and then add the liquids and combine. Roll the dough into balls. (I always use my hands instead of spoons). Dip the tops of the balls in sugar if desired. Place the dough onto a cookie sheet or pizza stone, and bake for 8-10 minutes. 8 minutes yields slightly chewer cookies; 10 minute-cookies will be crispy. I prefer these crispy.

*Butter-flavored shortening generally is a good substitute for butter in cookies. It's not any healthier, but it's much cheaper. It tastes the same or better when used in most cookies. I wouldn't, however, use it is a butter sub in brownies, cakes, or quick breads though. Thanks to my sister's friends for scientifically verifying the aptness of this substitution. They did a whole experiment!

Eggplant Marmalade

I don't really like eggplant. In fact I really used to hate it. Mushy pulp with slippery seeds - not for me. However, as a vegetarian, people seem to think that 1) eggplant is always a perfect substitute for meat and 2) that I love eggplant. As such, I've made it a recent mission to figure out how I can actually adopt a little affection for this vegetable.

There are two ways that I've had it and enjoyed it. First, if you've never had Saad's baba ganoush, then you are missing out on one of the main reasons that pita was invented. It's smoky and creamy, the absolute perfect combination of tahini and eggplant. Second, once I fried Indian eggplant - also good, but one can't eat fried eggplant everyday. Other than that, I've rejected all of my grilled, steamed, sauteed, and lasagna'ed eggplant attempts. So after a visit to the Turkish market last Friday, I find myself once again with a rather large eggplant sitting in my fridge. What to do? I'll admit, this baby almost became baba ganoush after a tempting offer of tahini from a friend, but I had no lemon juice. The thought of slicing it made me think of all the tough and bitter eggplant I've ever had. Not happening.

Then I stumbled upon this eggplant marmalade recipe, which I altered using a few different vegetables and cooking techniques. This, my friends, is eggplant heaven. In a only a few steps, you can transform baked eggplant into pasta sauce, sandwich filling, vegetable dish heaven! Also, added bonus - it's a budget recipe!

I've got a lot more eggplant experimenting to do, but for now, I bring you eggplant marmalade, my first real e-plant success. For tips on how to use it and how much to make, see the text below the recipe.

Eggplant Marmalade

yields about 1 cup, depending on the size of your vegetables

Ingredients

-1 large eggplant

-1 medium yellow onion, diced

-1/3 cup black olives, coarsely chopped

-2 medium tomatoes

-approx. 2 tbsp. olive oil

-3 cloves of garlic, minced

-salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once the oven is hot, place the eggplant on a cookie sheet, and bake until soft and collapsed. (In order to prevent messiness, you can line your cookie sheet with foil). The baking took me about one hour. Once you've finished baking the eggplant, remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes. Then slice the eggplant, and scoop out all the flesh with a spoon. In a bowl, mash the eggplant with a fork. Don't worry if it's still stringy, you will cook it down in a moment. Set the eggplant aside.

Bring a medium pot of water to boil on the stove. Score the tomatoes with an "x," and drop them into the water. Cook the tomatoes for about 3 minutes. Then remove them from the water, plunge them under a cold faucet, and peel the skins off. Cut the tomatoes into 1-in chunks, and let them drain in a colander. Meanwhile, dice the onion, and saute it in a medium saucepan for about 5 minutes in a glug of hot olive oil. (You'll want to have a little more oil on hand to mix in later). While you are cooking the onions, dump out the water you boiled the tomatoes in, and return the tomatoes to this same pot. Cook them over a low heat with a dribble of olive oil. Stir them frequently. You'll want to cook out most of the liquid from the tomatoes. Add a dash of salt to speed up the process.

In the other pot, after the onions have browned for a few minutes, reduce the heat to med-low, and add the eggplant, the olives, and the minced garlic. Stir and begin to reduce the liquid content. At this point, you can change the consistency of the mixture. Add more water if you want it juicier, or cook longer if you prefer it to be thicker. I added about 1/3 cup of water. Season the eggplant with salt and pepper, and continue cooking. I cooked the eggplant for about 15 minutes. Just before you have achieved the desired liquid content, add the tomatoes (which should contain little juice by this point) to the eggplant, and combine. Remove the pot from the heat, correct the seasonings, dribble a little more olive oil over the marmalade, and give in a last stir. My eggplant required a good deal of both salt and pepper.

Suggested Uses

-Chill the eggplant for a few hours, and eat it cold in pita, with some sliced cheese, bell peppers, and lettuce as a healthy sandwich.

-Double (or triple) the recipe, and serve it hot over pasta. I would suggest using a shell- or tube-shaped pasta which will "catch" more of the sauce. You may also want to increase the onion or tomato content.

-Serve it for breakfast with a poached egg on top.

-I haven't tried this, but I suspect that it would also be tasty with some spicy peppers and maybe a tablespoon or two of good-quality vinegar mixed in. Serve with a soft cheese and crackers for a snack.

Budget Tricks - Poached Egg in a Cup

As the header above this blog title reveals, I am indeed an ex-college student. Though all of this seems to imply that I have earned a university diploma, suffered through microeconomics lectures with 250 people, and consumed one too many coffees in the library café, the real issue here is that I am now living off my own nickel. And this economy isn't throwing anyone a bone. I'm pretty good at budgeting, generally. I know what I spend, when I spend it, and how much I'm willing to shell out for each purchase. For example, when it comes to produce, I buy only what's in season, and I often shop at markets, which tend to have fruits and vegetables that are not only cheaper, but also more fresh. Because I'm a vegetarian and I have a somewhat insane addiction to raisins and peanuts - did I mention that I'm also weird? - I make a special trip to buy these items in bulk. When it comes to whole grains, tea, and salt, I'm always willing to pay a little extra for quality. [I have a whole system worked out for the purchasing of clothing as well. I almost always buy from the super clearance section, and I'm a huge fan of thrift stores. Running shoes though? I refuse to sacrifice my feet and knees to the pavement. I used to buy cheap sneakers, and my poor toes were so blistered everyday that they looked like they'd been run over by a car tire, which, had I not been so frugal, might also have led to additional purchases of bandages and tape. But I digress. Also, you'll probably never want to read about food if I continue discussing my feet].

Back to the issue at hand, I find that I'm happiest in the kitchen when I'm able to merge healthy eating, maximum flavor, and wallet-friendly shopping. Some of the ways I do this I mentioned above - making smart and seasonal purchases, taking an extra walk to go to the more reasonably priced store, but I also try to come up with creative uses for everyday foods. In this department, I have more than a few tricks up my sleeve. One of my very favorites, however, is to deploy the egg as not a mere addition to a meal, but as a protein-boosting, creamy sauce that replaces other sauces that are more expensive as well as high in sodium, sugar, and preservatives. There are a million ways to cook an egg (and I'm only exaggerating a little), but I've found that as a condiment, the poached egg works well. You'll have a soft and fleshy white that, when ladeled over your food, will break open so that the milky yolk can being used for dipping. The poached egg can be eaten over steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, toast, skillet corn, couscous, salmon, you name it. In particular, I like to have it at lunch with a bowl of warm salsa, a fresh jalapeño, and a tortilla. Add some refried beans and you've got yourself a five-minute taco.

Which brings me to the "in a cup" part of the poaching. Poaching an egg can be a daunting task. It's a little tricky to slide the egg into hot water without letting the white go everywhere and create a stringy soup rather than a nicely rounded lump. If you get the poaching right, you'll come up with a beautifully-shaped egg, but I've found that when I'm cooking for myself, I almost always favor speed and convenience over presentation. Hence the poaching in a cup. Easy, fast, and versatile. Do it at home.

Poached Egg in a Cup

this recipe is for one egg

Ingredients

-water

-egg(s)

-salt and pepper to taste

-any other seasonings you like on your eggs, coordinate this part with whatever you're planning to serve with the egg

Method

Pour a couple of inches of water into a small pot. Over the stove, bring the water almost to the point of boiling. Once bubbles gather around the sides and bottom of the pot, reduce the heat to medium. In the meantime, crack an egg into a mug or a ramekin (or another dish that can withstand heat). Don't stir the egg - you do not want to break up the yolk. Top the egg with salt, pepper, and seasonings. Just after you have reduced the heat of the water, set the ramekin into the pot. You'll want the water to reach the level of the top of the egg, but you don't want any water to get into the ramekin itself. From here on, cooking time depends on how hot your water is. You'll want to remove the egg as soon as the white becomes opaque. This generally takes me about 2 minutes. Make sure when you remove the ramekin to use tongs or a towel because it will be quite hot. As soon as you've removed the egg from the heat, carefully slide it from the ramekin onto whatever you're serving it with. I ate mine with sauteed cauliflower, tomatoes, and feta. The egg won't stay warm long so eat it right away.* I break the egg into bits and often use bread or veggies to sop up the yolk.

*I hear the you can reheat a poached egg by placing it back into the hot water for a minute or so, but I've never tried this myself.

Apfelkuchen

I have a little confession to make about today's post: I'm letting you into the gloriously tempting world of divine German pastries, complete with drool provocation via my digital cam, and I'm not even offering you a recipe.

Dear readers, I am sorry.

Honestly, for my non-Germany-based readers, you really should be kicking yourselves for not being in The Land of Many Bakeries. If you could only see the endlessly delicious street corners, the bakeries filled with treats of all shapes, creams and custards and glazed fruits and chocolate. Oh, the chocolate. The best thing about it all is that everyone here loves sweets. We all know how positively annoying it is to be in a place where you feel like the lone non-dieter, the only person who really, really must have a treat at least once a day. When you feel like the Santa Claus on Christmas Eve compared to the stick-thin rabbits surrounding you? Well, you will never, ever feel that way in Germany. Bring on the butter and sugar, folks, we're having a party! Or maybe not a party, we just need a little mid-morning pick-me-up. That's the spirit.

I've tried to be responsible to my stomach, but thus far, I've tasted Mohnschnecke, Apfelkuchen, Macarons (yes, I know that they are French), hazelnut ice cream, raspberry ice cream, butter cookies, almond croissants, Ritter Sport chocolate, cappuccino-flavored chocolate, waffle cookies, rhubarb squares - what, not stomach-conscious you say? What about the Sephardic orange cake? That's healthy, right?

I'm dying to make a few of these recipes. Unfortunately, as I've mentioned a few (too many) times, I'm a bit short on baking hours so you can expect plenty of experimentation mid-September. For now let's begin with a few words on this pictured Apfelkuchen. What you see here is the most typical German apple cake. It's baked in a sheet and cut into large rectangles. The bottom layer is a light yellow cake - thicker than pound but heavier than angel food. Second, there's a creamy layer, topped with thinly sliced peeled apples. Last, you've got crumbly streusel to round out the cake's textural variation. When I first purchased this cake, I had the option of buying it with a glazed top in place of the streusel, but my hitherto unacknowledged streusel affinity won out, and I succumbed to buttery bliss.

My second thought, after the streusel vs. glaze debate, was that the cake layer was too thick compared to the custard-cream layer. I might have thought differently had the cake been of the thicker pound variety, but this cake looked like it only functioned as a serving platter for the cream. Bite number one, however, proved to me that I judged too soon. The cream is shockingly sweet - thick and milky, and in fact, it needs to be cut by the light texture of the cake. The streusel gives the whole cake a necessary crunch, making each bite a play of moist and dry, slippery and chewable, buttery and fruity.

I offer two primary suggestions for this pastry. Most importantly, the thickness of both apples and streusel layers should be increased, as both were slightly overwhelmed by the cream. Next, the butter content in the streusel should also be upped. When I test an apfelkuchen recipe in September, I'll make sure to create a cake with slightly better ratios. On the other hand, I'm sure that the apple cake recipes vary from bakery to bakery here.

Besides this complaint, all I can really say is that oh my, do Germans know their pastries.

Oh, and to those of you who are celebrating Tish'a b'Av, hurry and buy your cake before the fast begins!

Guest Post - Ooey, Gooey Bars

I know I just posted a recipe called "Ooey, Gooey Brownies," but I'll admit to a little recipe name pilfering. Truth be told, I stole the name for those brownies from this dessert. These are the original Ooey, Gooey cake squares. By now all of you readers know that I am in Berlin, Germany, where I find myself swept up in all sorts of activities (not the least of which is eating a lot of tasty treats). As such, my family is helping me keep up the blog during my stay here. Today I introduce you to Chelsea, my lovely sister - who has a blog of her own, which you should all check out - the writer for The MuffinTin Post's very first guest blog! Chelsea presents one of her favorite desserts, an easy one to whip up for last-minute guests.

From here on out, Chelsea's takin' the reins.

"I love not only making but also eating Ooey Gooey Bars! These are a great dessert for any occasion and definitely a huge hit when I take them places! These are GREAT with a glass of milk and even with fruit like strawberries or blueberries on top! I you love them as much as I do.

Here is what to do:

1 package yellow cake mix
1/4 cup butter
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 in. cake pan. Mix together melted butter, cake mix, and egg. Spread into the pan.

1 lb. powdered sugar
2 eggs
8 oz. cream cheese

Beat sugar, eggs, and cream cheese together. Spread the mixture over the cake mix, creating two layers.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. You don't want to bake the bars until the are totally dried out. Bake the top layer just enough that it becomes glazed. You'll want the top layer to be ooey and gooey. Let the bars cool for about 15 minutes before cutting them to serve.

Try not to eat the whole pan yourself . . .

Quinoa with Fruit

I think I'm overworking myself a bit. I spend three hours per day in class, plus several hours of planned appointments/excursions/tours after that. I study Hebrew every morning for at least an hour. I try to run as often as possible. I've started impromptu German lessons two to three times per week, unfortunately held from 9pm to 12am. Then there's reading and writing for class each day. And on top of all of that, I'm supposed to get out and see Berlin as much as possible!

Doing all of these activities leaves me with little sleep each night, and for better or for worse, coffee just doesn't cut it in the morning. I need something energizing and nutritious to get me through the day. I've never been able to skip breakfast - I eat it even in the most dire of circumstances - but now my breakfast standards have been boosted up a notch. I need whole grains and protein! However, being in Berlin, my breakfasts are also a food experiment. I've tried different kinds of yogurt, berries, muesli, and juice, and I've found that even far away from my standard products, breakfast here is still my favorite meal of the day. There is one breakfast, though, that I can't get here. Hailing from the Andean region of South America, quinoa, the US food industry's latest and greatest new import item, is a unique and deliciously simply grain.

The word quinoa comes from the Peruvian indigenous language Quechua, and in eating the tiny granules, you are actually consuming small seeds of the quinoa bush. Quinoa is similar to couscous, but it had a thin fibrous strand surrounding the kernel. Nutritionally, quinoa beats most of its competitors. It has about 12% protein, but not only that, it in fact provides a complete protein since it contains all 9 essential amino acids. It is a good source of fiber, magnesium, and iron, and it is gluten-free. As an added bonus, it's also kosher for Passover because it wasn't know about when these dietary restrictions were made!

Quinoa can be eaten all sorts of ways: as an accompanying dish with vegetables and some olive oil, in soup, as a pepper or tomato stuffing, or alone. However, as I said earlier, I've been searching for hearty breakfasts, and quinoa fits the bill. Here's an experimental quinoa breakfast I tried. It's the simplest of recipes, but it will keep you going until noon!

Quinoa with Fruit

Ingredients

1 part quinoa

2 parts water

hefty pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp. of sugar per cup of quinoa

handful of dried fruit, chopped

Method

Rinse the quinoa using a fine sieve. This is important because many brands of quinoa currently imported are not thoroughly washed. Then bring the water to boil in a saucepan. Once the water is boiling, add the quinoa, and boil for 2 minutes. Then reduce the water to a simmer, and add the salt and sugar, stirring well. Cook the quinoa until almost soft. This should take about 12 minutes. In the remaining few minutes, add the dried fruit. Then finish cooking. When the quinoa is finished, the strand surrounding the kernel will have detached from the seed itself. The quinoa will also have expanded, similarly to couscous. I like my quinoa with a slight bit of crunch so I generally undercook it by a few minutes. Drain off excess water, and serve the dish immediately.

A Proper German Meal

Today I bring you the first proper German meal I have prepared in Berlin. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been a little starved for a real dinner since I've been here. Today, my first free day since the beginning of my study program, I decided to rectify the situation with a little trip to the store. Actually, I went to four stores. First, I went to Bio Company to buy a special tofu product. (More about that later). Then I went to Kaiser's, where I bought non-produce items like yogurt, bread, and crushed tomatoes. Afterward, I stopped at a produce stand for fruits and vegetables, and finally I headed to a Turkish shop that sells nuts and dried fruit. 

[An aside: I must add that I have at long last found a local store that sells dried carob! I've been looking for a year now! I consider this no small accomplishment since I generally go out of my way to find and purchase dried fruit.]

After my tour of German food vending establishments, I returned home to my small apartment in Kreuzberg, went for a run on Karl Marx Boulevard, and then fired up my stove to prepare a German Abendessen.

The Menu

Tofu bratwurst with onions

Purple cabbage sauerkraut

Green salad with quark dressing

Rye bread

The salad dressing is a typical German sauce, but I was experimenting so the recipe is still in the works. I'll have it to you shortly. First, let's take a look at tofu-wurst preparation.

Ingredients

Tofu bratwurst or the real thang of course

Water

1/2 tbsp. of oil (enough to very lightly coat a pan)

Onions, make as much as you want

Salt to taste

Method

If the tofu bratwurst has a casing, prick it several times with a fork before you begin cooking. Places the bratwurst in a skillet, and add enough water to the skillet so that the water comes up halfway on the side of the tofu. Bring the water to a light simmer, and cover the skillet. Depending on the size of the tofu, you will need to simmer it for some time. I had small bratwursts, and I cooked mine for about 20 minutes. Standard size should take about 30 minutes. The tofu will absorb some of the water and expand in size. Do not boil - only simmer - the water throughout this period. After the tofu has expanded, drain the water from the pan, and turn up the heat to med-high. Add just enough oil to the pan to coat the bottom. (I used just a few drops of oil). Pan-fry the bratwurst by letting it brown on one side and then rolling it to the other side. I rolled the bratwurst around in the pan so that all sides would be crispy. About halfway through this process, add the onions, along with the salt. Pan-frying will take 5 to 10 minutes. After the tofu is nicely browned, remove it and the onions from the skillet. Serve while still warm.

Since in Germany, I haven't yet had time to make homemade sauerkraut - which I prefer - so after I finished my tofu-wurst, I opened a big bottle of red cabbage sauerkraut that I bought a few days ago. No, that's a lie. I re-opened the bottle. I have, in fact, been eating this stuff for every meal since I bought the bottle. I've actually even been spooning it out of the jar for a little snack mid-day. It's that good. However, although I've been eating it cold, directly from the fridge, I wanted to warm it up for this dinner. I warmed it in the same pan in which I cooked the tofu. 

To serve the whole meal, I nestled my tofu-wurst into two mounds of onions and kraut. Then I broke of a piece of hearty German rye bread, and I made up a huge green salad with that soon-to-be-published quark dressing. 

 

Mango and Summer Vegetable Salad

Since I've arrived in Berlin, I've had exactly zero hours to cook. Sure, I made a quick egg and tomato sandwich this morning and a feta salad last night, but it's nothing worth the blog. (It would be a little insulting to your intelligence to write an egg sandwich recipe here, no?) So I'll be filling in with a few recipes from home and some Berlin food recipes until I have more time (when?) to cook. 

Traveling on a tight budget and eating in restaurants for a few days on end can put ya in the mood for veggies, and I have certainly been in the mood for veggies. Yesterday I made my second or third trip to the Berlin grocery store to purchase 3 bell peppers (just over 1 Euro for all three!), scallions, tomatoes, beets (essential I tell you), etc. I've been craving and craving and craving more vegetables to make up for their lacking in my diet. I had salads for lunch and dinner yesterday. Vegetable soup for dinner tonight. The aforementioned cucumber, tomato, egg sandwich for lunch today. So tonight I bring you a salad a made about a month ago back in a Texas kitchen. Enjoy with these ingredients or put your own spin on it. 

Mango and Summer Vegetable Salad

makes a side salad for 3 or 4

Ingredients 

1 diced mango

2 ears of corn, kernels cut off cob

2 ripe tomatoes, diced

2 yellow squashes, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

as much fresh spinach as you want (I used a large handful)

1 can black beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed or 1 cup dried black beans, cooked, then rinsed and cooled, optional

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. red wine vinegar

drizzle olive oil or sunflower oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Combine the all veggies and beans except the spinach in a salad bowl. Add more veggies if you prefer. In a small bowl, whip together the mustard, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Pour over the veggies, and allow the salad to sit for about 5 minutes. I almost always let vinaigrettes sit on my salads for a few minutes so that the vegetables absorbs the tangy flavor. Then toss in the spinach and any additional ingredients you might like. (Blueberries, anyone? Sliced grapes? Crumbled bleu cheese or an avocado?) Pull out your summer lemonade, grill up some portobellos, chicken breasts, or bratwurst, depending on your diet, and enjoy summer!

Ooey, Gooey Brownies

But before we get on with those recipes previewed, let's take a look at the best brownie recipe ever. You've tasted a thick, dry, cakey brownie before, right? The kind that makes you think it should have been a bad cupcake instead? Or maybe you've had the bitter brownie, reminiscent of those packaged brownies with tasteless nut bits from the vending machine? And then there is everyone's favorite: the burnt brownie. The hardened, crispy brownie-gone-wrong. Don't kid yourself, you know you've had a bad brownie.

This brownie can fix all of that. Thanks to the wonderful folks back home, I've been provided with a photo and the typed recipe. This brownie, passed down at some point from a family friend, is of the thin, two-layered sort. The top layer is crispy, but the second it hits your tongue it melts in your mouth. The bottom layer is rich and fudgey, exactly what you want when you're craving chocolate goodness. You MUST make these brownies.

Ooey, Gooey Brownies

recipe from a family friend

Ingredients

2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cocoa

2 sticks partially melted butter

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9x13 airbake pan. If you do not have an airbake pan, any pan will work - but airbake is preferable. 

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the sugar and cocoa. Set aside. In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Then add the sugar mixture to the egg mixture, and mix on a high speed (or stir quickly by hand) until the mix changes color. The batter will become noticeably lighter. After that, add the flour and salt, and combine well.

Spread the batter into the pan evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Do not overbake! Remove from the oven, and allow the brownies to cool for about 10 minutes. Then eat!