Archive for November, 2009

There are a few ways to guarantee I’ll make a recipe:
1. Give it a creative name that piques my interest.
2. Show me a pretty picture of the dish. (I’m a visual person. You can’t convince me a dish tastes good if it ain’t pretty.)
3. Nag me about it so much that I’ll make it just so you’ll stop.

I’ve always been intrigued with recipe names so #1 is exactly why I’m munching on a Cowboy Cookie as I sit here and write. (#1 is also the reason I’m going to have to grab the keyboard air can and clean my laptop in a few minutes.) But “cowboy cookies?”

Two different pictures come to mind when I hear “cowboy:”
- Dust, jeans, boots, horse, truck, and a hat.
- A mediocre football team from that city up north. America’s team? Please.

Given the fact that there isn’t a ground-up Stetson or a Silverado emblem in the dough and the recipe doesn’t call for a teaspoon of Tony Romo’s post-interception tears, I don’t really know what makes a cookie a “Cowboy cookie.”

I saw a reference to “souped-up oatmeal cookie” and you won’t see me take the cookie out of my mouth long enough to argue with that. Think Chocolate Chip Cookie marries Oatmeal Cookie… and then the oatmeal cookie tries to change the CCC by secretly getting rid of his chocolate chips in a garage sale and replacing them with cranberries. Or… something like that.

Point is, these aren’t quite “normal” cookies and aren’t quite your standard oatmeal cookie. But they are darn good. I’m hoping the recipients agree, though I wouldn’t have my feelings hurt if they said “No thanks,” and handed them straight back to me. Just in case that doesn’t happen, I’m gonna stash a dozen back for us. After all, oatmeal is the ultimate healthy breakfast food

Cowboy Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries and White Chocolate
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I actually used extra-light extra-virgin olive oil)
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 rounded cup dried cranberries
8 oz white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.

Cream butter, oil, and sugars until smooth on med-high speed. Beat in eggs one at a time and add vanilla. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until well blended. Add in oats, dried cranberries, and white chocolate, mixing until evenly distributed.

Scoop dough onto lined baking sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are golden and centers are set. Cool cookies on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Yields ~3.5 dozen
Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Fried chicken and chicken fried steak always held the prime spot on mom’s weekly menu: Sunday dinner. And since I grew up a little country, I’m talking about “lunch” when I say “Sunday dinner.”

We grew up eating breakfast, lunch, and supper. After church on Sunday afternoon, we had Sunday dinner and watched football. Grandma always called her mid-day meal dinner. She also uses country-isms like “pert near” for almost. Are we there yet? “Pert near!” I think my absolute favorite is “d’rectly” instead of soon (directly without the “extra” i). “Well be over there d’rectly.”

Sometimes, I slip up and reveal my countrier side and get the crazy look when I say supper. “Ice box” is another one that will get me the “you’re definitely from Texas” look.

Chicken fried steak is most decidedly a “Sunday dinner” kind of meal. It’s a labor of breaded love drowned in creamy gravy. When your family of 2.5 is starving and the Colts game is paused until dinner is on the table, it can feel like it takes forty forevers to heat that oil. And not unlike even the simplest dishes that I make, it also seems to get a bunch of dishes dirty. But the bonus is that if I’m gonna make a mess like that, I’m gonna make enough for both Sunday dinner and supper.

They key to good fried anything is the breading. Seasoned, thick, and crunchy is preferred when we’re talking about chicken fried steak. There are as many breading techniques as there are edible items that you can bread – just check out your local county and state fairs!

I used to let things sit in buttermilk overnight for frying but then switched to an instant gratification not-quite-sour-cream marinade of heavy cream and vinegar. It’s thicker than buttermilk and it only takes a few minutes. It also clings really well to the meat and holds on to a lot of flour. Frying produces a tasty and crunchy breading.

Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy
For the steak:
Vegetable oil
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp Tobasco
4 cube steaks
1 1/2 cup flour
Fresh-ground black pepper
2 tsp Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning

For the gravy:
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp pan drippings
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
Salt
Fresh-ground black pepper

Make the chicken fried steak: Heat ~1-inch vegetable oil in a cast iron pan/dutch oven to 350.

Place steaks in a shallow dish. Stir cream, vinegar, and Tobasco in a small bowl until just combined (it can thicken rather quickly – and it’s okay if it does). Pour over steaks. Move steaks around a bit with your tongs to ensure that you coat the bottom.

In a separate shallow dish, combine flour, a generous amount of fresh-ground black pepper, and Tony Cachere’s and mix well.

When the oil is ready, transfer one steak at a time from the “wet pan” to the “dry pan.” Dredge in flour, ensuring complete coverage, shake off any excess flour, and place on a plate. Repeat for as many steaks as you can fit in your frying pan.

Transfer steaks to the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes. Flip and fry until breading is golden brown. Remove from the pan and place on a rack sitting over a baking dish (I put paper towels under the rack for easier clean up). Serve topped with a generous ladle of cream gravy.

Make the gravy: Add butter and pan drippings to a 2qt sauce pan over medium heat. When melted and bubbly, add flour, salt, and a generous amount of fresh-ground pepper. Stir until the roux turns light brown. Stream in milk, whisking continuously. Cook to a boil and remove from heat.

Yields 4 servings

I had a slice of cake before dinner.
I had a slice of cake after dinner.
I also had a slice of cake for lunch.

Being a grown-up doesn’t always suck

One of my favorite baked goodies that we used to sell at my parents’ bakery was a Cream Cheese Cranberry Cake. I’ve also been thinking about the sour cream pound cake, but when it comes to baked goods, rule is that we have to eat what’s here before making something else. So maybe tomorrow?

What do I love about this cake? The cranberries. And the cake. The cake part is moist and a tad on the heavy side, as it should be with all that butter and cream cheese. Right after you turn it out of the pan to cool, it has this kind of chewy, sugary crust.

This goes away when you let it rest overnight covered like you’re supposed to. But I like to cut off any uneven parts from the bottom and eat them right away. Because quality assurance is the most important part of baking. I also like to serve it with a spoonful of sweetened whipped cream with just a hint of vanilla.

The cranberries offer a tart contrast to the cake. Raspberries also work nicely. If I could only get my hands on some superbly fresh blackberries like the ones that used to grow along our fence line as kids…

Cream Cheese Cranberry Cake
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, tossed with 1 Tbsp flour
Whipped cream, optional

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray, coating well.

Beat butter and cream cheese until combined. Add sugar and turn mixer to med-high and cream for 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time until combined. Add lemon juice and zest, almond extract, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Turn mixer to low and add salt. Add the cake flour in two batches. Fold in the cranberries.

Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake 60-70 minutes, until the cake has browned and a skewer inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs attached. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a rack and cool completely. Cover tightly overnight (I put it in on a cake plate and cover with a glass dome) and enjoy the next day. (You can certainly eat it the same day but it gets better with an overnight resting period.)

Yields: 1 bundt cake, 8-12 servings depending on slice size