Alice Waters' Baked Goat Cheese with Salad

Wow.
Goat cheese is already major wow factor.
But baked goat cheese marinated in olive oil and thyme and rolled in bread crumbs and more thyme? OMFG WOW. I want to eat it all day every day. Cheeeeeeeeese in my mouth now.
On top of the magicalness that is the goat cheese, add perfectly ripe huge chunks of HEIRLOOM TOMATOES, refreshing cucumber, and red leaf lettuce to the meal AND hunks of super buttery, garlicky toasted baguette and you might just get the best meal ever.

Okay, now my stomach is growling and there's drool running down my chin. Damn it, I hate it when that happens.

Alice Waters' Baked Goat Cheese with Salad (Epic!)

4 rounds of fresh goat cheese, each about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick
3/4 cup virgin olive oil, plus oil for greasing the baking dish
4 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried, plus 1 additional teaspoon dried thyme for blending with bread crumbs
1 cup fine, fresh bread crumbs
1 quart lettuce leaves cut into bitesize pieces (use such greens as arugula, red leaf lettuce and so on)

This is the official recipe, however I didn't use these measurements. I just eyeballed everything to my liking. I of course used Janet's salad dressing recipe, which went perfectly with the cheese.

Preparation
1.Place the rounds of goat cheese in a flat dish and add onequarter cup of the oil. Add the thyme sprigs or sprinkle with one teaspoon dried thyme. Let stand eight hours or longer.
2.Blend the remaining teaspoon dried thyme with the bread crumbs and set aside.
3.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4.Remove the cheese rounds and coat them all over with the breadcrumb-and-thyme mixture. Put them in an oiled baking dish and place in the oven. Bake six to 10 minutes or until cheese is lightly bubbling and golden.
5.Serve the cheese on warm plates surrounded by garlic toast slices. Serve with the salad.

SO MUCH YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, no picture. Devoured it too quickly.

Grilled Steak & Gorgonzola Salad

We've been having some amazingly unusual warm weather here in Seattle for weeks now. Whenever it's hot in the evening time I find it hard to sit over the stove and cook, or have the oven running for too long. In my tiny kitchen the temperature rises and heats up in an instant. So, this type of weather is simply perfect for fresh, crisp salads (especially since tomatoes are in season right now)! I really can't get enough of them! The beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, and purples of the heirloom tomatoes - so sweet and so juicy. Salads are just the perfect way to gobble up endless tomatoes.
So far this week Eric and I have made a grilled steak and gorgonzola salad with farmers market cucumber and heirloom tomatoes. Eric grilled up the marinated steak on our little Coleman camping grill and he cooked it to perfection! I didn't use a recipe for this salad, just threw in what I thought would be a good combination of flavors. Definitely will be making this again and again!

Grilled Steak & Gorgonzola Salad

grilled skirt steak, sliced
cucumber, chopped
heirloom tomatoes, chopped into big hunks
red onion, thinly sliced
gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

Dressing:
(courtesy of Eric's stepmom, Janet)
2 parts olive oil
1 part balsamic vinegar
mustard (dijon works well, I used sweet & hot)
anchovy paste




Tonight I'm making an Alice Water's Goat Cheese Salad recipe that Janet recommended to me! I can't wait!

Donut Peaches and (Makeshift) Peach Cobbler

Peaches are in season, and I picked up some amazing looking donut and yellow peaches at the Ballard Farmer's market last Sunday. They might honestly be the best peaches I've ever eaten in my life. So sweet and perfect - one bite and the juices are running down my chin and fingers. This is love.


(photo cred. Cook Almost Anything)

Alright, about this so-called "makeshift peach cobbler" stuff...bet you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about. It's an unbelievably fast/deliciously sweet, juicy, crumbly, crispy super YUM-O peach dessert that I made twice in one week. Maybe two nights in a row. Who's keeping track, anyway? All I know for sure is that I could eat this every day for all three meals and I'd be fine.

"Peach Cobbler"
(Joy the Baker)

1 ripe peach
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice a peach in half and remove the pit. With a small spoon, scoop out the the dark red pit center, creating just a bit more room for the crumble topping.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt, coconut, and almonds. Add butter and, with your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients. Quickly break up the butter until it is well combined. Some of the butter bits will be the size of oat flakes, others will be the size of small peas.

Place peach halves, cut side up, in a small, oven-safe dish. Top each peach half with a generous portion of crumble topping. Heap it on!

Bake for 20 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or cold milk. Peaches are best served warm from the oven.

Brown Butter Banana Strawberry Bread

I love baking bread. I adore bananas in desserts. Strawberries are in season, and completely irresistable. And who can say no to the insanely good smell of browned butter sizzling in a pan?
When I found this bread recipe on Joy the Baker's blog, there was no doubt in mind I had to make it, and as soon as possible. Who would've ever thought of adding strawberries to banana bread? Not me. Delicious. Genius. SO YUM.
Thank you, Joy. You are a goddess in my mind.

Brown Butter Banana Strawberry Bread
(inspired by The Amateur Gourmet)

6 ounces unsalted butter, melted and browned to just over 1/2 cup of butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain yogurt (any fat content) or buttermilk
1 1/4 cup mashed banana (from about 3 medium bananas)
1/2 cup diced strawberries plus 1 strawberry very thinly sliced, for topping

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Butter will begin to foam and crackle as it melts. When the crackling subsides, the butter will begin to brown. Swirl the pan as the butter cooks. When the butter browns and begins to smell nutty, remove the pan from the flame and transfer the butter to a small bowl. Taking the butter out of the hot saucepan will stop the butter from overcooking and burning. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla extract, and yogurt or buttermilk. Whisk in the mashed bananas. When butter has cooled, whisk in the browned butter.

Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients. Fold together, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to reveal any hidden pockets of flour. Fold in the diced strawberries. Fold together ingredients, but try not to over stir.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and top with thinly sliced strawberries.


Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for 15 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Birthday Cake = French Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache and Raspberry Compote

This year was dad's 60th birthday, so we decided to do something extra fun and special. We rented a cabin by Mt. Baker and spent the weekend relaxing and having fun in a beautiful place. Because it was such a special birthday, I wanted an extra special cake that I knew dad would absolutely LOVE. Dark chocolate and raspberries immediately popped into my head as a must. I had just finished reading David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris, which included a mouth-watering french chocolate cake recipe. Made with dark chocolate, it's meant to be smaller, denser, and much richer in flavor. How could I resist? I thought it would look beautiful with an equally rich ganache and drizzled with a sweet/tart rasberry compote. The result was perfect - the cake was a hit and most important of all, dad LOVED IT! I love a success.

French Chocolate Cake
(courtesy of David Lebovitz)
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temp, separated
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line loaf pan or cake pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water, heat the chocolate and butter together just until melted and smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in half the sugar, then the egg yolks, and flour.
Using an electric mixer or a whisk, begin whipping the egg whites with the salt. Keep whipping until they start to form soft, droopy peaks. Gradually whip in the remaining sugar until the whites are smooth and hold their shape when the whisk is lifted.
Use a rubber spatula to fold one-third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining egg whites just until the mixture is smooth and no visible white streaks remain.
Scrape the batter into pan, smooth on top, and bake for about 35 minutes, just until the cake feels slightly firm in the center. Do not overbake. Let cool in the pan before serving.

Chocolate Ganache
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)
1/4 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a small bowl. Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan. Pour cream evenly over chocolate. Let stand for one minute to soften, then stir until smooth. If frosting is too loose to spread, let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.

Raspberry Compote
2 pints raspberries
1 -2 tablespoon water
Sugar to sweeten

Allow to boil in saucepan until desired thickness.

Strawberry Rhubarb Shortcakes

When I was in third grade, my parents announced to my brother and I that we were moving for the first time. I don't remember this news being very tragic to me at the time; although when it comes to my younger years my memory is a bit blurry. Sioux Falls, South Dakota would become our new home for only about 18 short months. If it weren't for the extreme weather, I'd say Sioux Falls truly had it going on: great neighbors, amazing friends, community swimming pool, bike paths, and most importantly, an epic big blue house.

Justin and I had our own unique rooms, with different colored carpet, built in cabinetry with space for a television, window seats, etc. Our bathroom was big and had TWO sinks, so we didn't have to share; we were in heaven. We were thrilled about all of us, but I can honestly say we were probably most excited over the laundry shoot. I don't know why a nine and ten year old thought a laundry shoot was so enthralling, but we truly did find it fantastic!
While the inside of the house was something to write home about, the backyard looked like something out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine: a patio, flowers upon flowers upon flowers, trees, a huge open grassy area, and a cute little garden. What more could you ask for, really?
If my memory serves me correctly, the two vegetables we yielded the most from were green beans (of course I would remember those) and rhubarb. This is where my love and appreciation for rhubarb all started. Mom would use it from the garden and make strawberry rhubarb pies, and still to this day that it my favorite kind of pie.
After eating Cupcake Royale's cupcake of the month, I felt inspired to use rhubarb, and knew I could find it local and organic at the Ballard Farmer's market. Low and behold, I found some amazing looking "strawberry rhubarb" and I also bought a pint of fresh strawberries then went to work to find the perfect recipe.



I decided on a Strawberry Rhubarb Shortcake recipe from Bon Appetit, which consists of baking homemade sweet biscuits and a strawberry rhubarb compote. I also bought whipping cream and whipped it up myself, sweetening it using pure vanilla extract for topping.

Strawberry Rhubarb Shortcakes:

Compote
4 cups 3/4-inch-thick slices fresh rhubarb (about 1 1/2 pounds)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons strawberry preserves
1 teaspoon minced orange peel
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1-pint basket strawberries, hulled, thickly sliced

Combine first 5 ingredients in heavy large saucepan or Dutch oven. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until rhubarb is tender but some pieces remain intact, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add allspice. Cool completely. Stir in strawberries. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.


Biscuits
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons minced orange peel (orange part only)
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Combine first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter and cut in using pastry blender or rub with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cream and stir until dough comes together.

Turn out dough onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 6 turns. Flatten dough to 3/4-inch-thick round. Cut out rounds using 2 3/4-inch-diameter plain or scalloped cookie cutter. Gather dough scraps and shape into 3/4-inch-thick round. Cut out additional dough rounds.

Transfer rounds to heavy large ungreased baking sheet. Bake until biscuits are puffed and golden, about 23 minutes. Transfer biscuits to rack and cool slightly.

I cut the biscuits in half and warmed them in the microwave for 25 seconds, then spooned the cold compote on top and a dollop of whipped cream.
This truly is an incredible dessert.



PS. Please resist the urge right now to laugh/judge/scoff at my "whipped" cream. I know it looks pathetic, but this was after it sat a day in my fridge AND I only whipped for like 5 hours BY HAND in the first place. Sheesh.