How to Get a NYTimes Wedding Announcement…and Corn Pancake with Blackberry Sauce

10. September 2012 · 48 comments · Categories: Baking, Breakfast, Brunch, cooking, food, life, recipes · Tags: , ,

Corn Pancake with Blackberry Sauce

As I believe I’ve told you before, Nate likes to send me links to recipes he would like me to make, usually from the NYTimes, since he reads that with breakfast every morning.

Speaking of the NYTimes, we just sent in our submission to be in their wedding announcements and/or their Vows section, so cross your fingers!!! That would be totally cool if we got in, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

Corn Pancake with Blackberry Sauce

The Atlantic did some analytics to see what type of people get into the NYTimes announcements most and they came up with:

  • Growing up in Greenwich, Conn. (or a similar moneyed neighborhood) makes you 21 times more likely than the average American to get in
  • Ivy league educations are 100 times more likely
  • Congressional staffers are 75 times more likely
  • Same-sex couples are 74 times more likely
  • Investment banker are 87 times more likely
  • Lawyers at snazzy firms are 974 times more likely (what?! why??)
Corn Pancake with Blackberry Sauce

If you’re wondering what that neon object on the bottom of the photo is, I was totally wearing the tie-dye shirt I made in high school that I now wear as pajamas.

We have one Ivy League education going for us (go Quakers!), but that’s about as far as our qualifications go. I work in finance, but I’m not an investment banker, so I doubt that would work in our favor.

But what I do think we have going for us is two winning smiles and one really big beard! 

Am i right??

It’s too bad I can’t bribe the NY Times with breakfast foods, because if I could, this recipe would surely be a winner. They should know, after all, since they published it.

Corn Pancake with Blackberry Sauce

I made this yummy breakfast for Nate while we were visiting his mom last weekend (hence the nice lighting and granite counter in the photos). Make it now while fresh corn is still in the grocery store!

Puffy Corn Pancake with Blackberry Sauce

From The New York Times

Print this recipe!

Serves 4

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fine cornmeal
5 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup fresh corn kernels (from 1 to 2 ears)
2 cups fresh blackberries
3 tablespoons sugar.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place the butter in the bottom of a 2-quart gratin dish. Place in the oven and cook until butter begins to bubble, 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour and cornmeal. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Whisk in honey, salt and pepper. Stir in the corn. Remove dish from the oven and pour in the batter evenly. Return to the oven and bake until the pancake rises and is dark brown around the edges, 20 to 25 minutes. The center of the pancake should also be golden brown.

While the pancake cooks, make the sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine blackberries and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook until berries are soft and syrupy. Remove from heat and serve warm, spooned over pancake in the gratin dish.

Seriously Good Cookies ‘N Cream Bars

03. September 2012 · 34 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, Dessert, recipes · Tags: , , ,

Cookies and Cream Bars

I know I shouldn’t be tempting you guys more dessert posts after that last doozy. But since my blogging is falling by the wayside, it’s been a week since then…and if you’re living in my household, that cake is long gone!

Cookies and Cream Bars

I also know I shouldn’t be making these desserts when I have 6 weeks left to look lovely in my wedding dress. And now that I’ve had my first fitting I’d really not like to gain any weight!

But I’m sorry I just had to share these. I saw them online thinking they reminded me of “cookies ‘n cream” (even though they were called Oreo Cheesecake Bars), but figuring they wouldn’t really taste like it….but they did!

Cookies and Cream Bars

You can’t taste the cheesecake tang in these as much as just a creamy vanilla filling and they’re CHOCK FULL of oreos- like almost-two-entire-packages-full. And worth every little calorie.

Cookies and Cream Bars

I was afraid to figure out how many calories are actually in these, so I didn’t. Instead I cut myself off a half of a piece each night and savored it…and then sometimes went back for the other half. Oops.

This week i’m only eating salad…let’s hope I fit in my dress!

Luckily LC doesn’t have to fit in a dress for the wedding, because she’s one lazy cat…

Cookies and Cream Bars

From Blissfully Delicious (following her doubling directions) via Annie’s Eats

Print this recipe!

makes 24 bars

For the crust
46 Oreo cookies (almost 2 entire packages including the ones in the cheescake layer)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
24 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4  cup. sour cream, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large egg plus 2 egg yolk
24 Oreo cookies, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F. Line a 9×13 pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Make the crust: place cookies in the bowl of a food processor. Process, pulsing, until the cookies are finely ground. Add in the melted butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs are moistened. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan. Press the crumbs into an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside and prepare the filling while maintaining the oven temperature.

Make the filling: add the cream cheese to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in the sugar until well combined. Blend in the sour cream, vanilla and salt. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks on medium-high speed until incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed. Stir in the chopped cookies with a rubber spatula.

Pour the cheesecake batter over the prepared crust, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cheesecake is set around the edges but slightly wobbly in the center. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool about an hour to room temperature. Cover the pan and refrigerate until well chilled, about 3 hours or overnight.

To cut the bars, pull the cake from the pan by lifting the foil up out of the pan. Place on a cutting board, peel away the foil, and slice into bars. Clean the knife blade between each slice to keep the edges neat. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Cat-Approved Citrus Swordfish over Arugula

19. August 2012 · 32 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, Dinner, food, life, recipes · Tags: , ,

Citrus Swordfish

Nate and I were down in PA last weekend, where I was working on more wedding-day crafts. I made the signs for the back of our chairs and they turned out exactly how I wanted! I used some more of the old fence I had found that I used for the signs. I’m going to post a whole bunch of pics with tutorials after the wedding.

Speaking of which, I can’t believe I’m getting married in 9 weeks. It’s totally crazy. I think maybe it’s starting to feel more real. I still have a bunch more stuff to do.

Citrus Swordfish

Nate and I are writing our own vows and I’m not sure I love what I have so far. I know Nate’s going to totally steal the show on this…he’s much funnier than I am. He claims that his vows are going to make our guests both laugh and cry. My goal is just to make Nate get a little teary-eyed since he claims he isn’t going to.

Obviously with the wedding fast approaching, I’ve been trying to cook pretty healthy. In fact, I had my first dress fitting on Tuesday!!! Anyway, I think that Nate and I don’t eat enough fish so when I saw some frozen swordfish filets at Trader Joes, I decided to get them. I’ve never cooked with Swordfish before. I think that I thought it was dry and that I didn’t like it.

I learned that I actually don’t mind Swordfish, although parts of it were a bit too fishy tasting. I also discovered that L.C. likes it…or at least she thinks she does judging by the way she photobombed my pics!

Citrus Swordfish

Citrus Swordfish

I tried to stop her but when she reaches out her little arm to try to grab things, it’s just so cute that I can’t yell at her. Nate says I’m not strict enough with her. But look at that little face!!!

Citrus Swordfish

Citrus Swordfish over Arugula

Adapted from Emeril 

Print this recipe!

serves 6-8

Ingredients
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 oranges
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
4 (6-ounce) swordfish fillets
6 cups arugula

Segment (supreme) the two oranges, squeezing out and saving all the juice that remains after removing the segments. Set the segments aside and put the juice in a medium bowl.

To the bowl of juice, add the rice wine vinegar and Dijon, season with salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Drizzle in the 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a slow and steady stream to properly emulsify the vinaigrette. Add the chopped basil and set aside as you prepare the rest of the dish.

Turn on broiler and set oven rack about 6 inches from flame.

Season each swordfish fillet with salt and pepper. Brush with the remaining olive oil and place on the broiler pan. Cook for 6 minutes minutes, turn over, salt, pepper and oil, and cook another 6 minutes or until cooked thru. Remove the swordfish.

In a large bowl, combine the baby greens, and 1/3 cup of the vinaigrette. Toss to combine and divide the salad among the 4 plates with the swordfish. Top each fillet with a few orange segments. Drizzle a bit of the remaining vinaigrette over each swordfish fillet and serve immediately.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

09. August 2012 · 38 comments · Categories: Baking, Cake, cooking, Dessert, food, life, recipes · Tags: , ,

Whole Wheat Cookie CakeSo I’ve still been busy taking care of a bunch of stuff for the wedding. The invitations arrived last weekend and I spent about 6 hours assembling and stuffing them. I’d like to say Nate helped. In his defense, he was working on his wedding video…and I’m a bit of a control freak so I probably would have ended up yelling at him anyway :)

Whole Wheat Cookie Cake2

After my last few healthy posts, I figured you guys might be itching for something a little bad. While this recipe may fool you with “whole wheat” in the name, It has a decent amount of butter and chocolate.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its benefits. The whole wheat flour and coconut add a little fiber. And really, you should indulge now and then anyway.

Whole Wheat Cookie Cake3

Nate was lacking on desserts in the apartment so I thought I’d do something nice. This is a cinch to mix up and will bake up in no time.

I was extremely sad that I didn’t have a little vanilla ice cream to eat with this when it was warm from the oven. But even so, it was outstanding- dense, gooey, everything you’d want in a giant cookie cake!

Whole Wheat Cookie Cake4

I can’t take credit for this recipe. I got it off the site Bran Appetit. The recipe below makes a couple very small changes.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Print this recipe!

VERY slightly adapted from Bran Appetit

Serves 16 (if you can stand to only eat a small piece)

8 oz. butter, softened, plus 2 Tbsp for buttering your pan
1 and 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan.

Dump the 8 oz. of butter into a large bowl (stand mixer or other big bowl) and pour in the brown sugar and sugar. Beat together for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs, one at a time, to the butter and sugar mixture.

Pour the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl and mix into the butter.

Once the dough has come together, add the chocolate chips and coconut and beat the mixture for another minute until the chips are mixed into the dough.

Dump your dough into your pan and press into an even layer.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean (or a little wet).

Let the cookie rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

 

That time Nate deleted my food photos.

22. July 2012 · 49 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, crafts, food, life, recipes, Savory · Tags: , , , ,

I don’t want our wedding to look like anyone else’s. Is that so much to ask? I don’t think so.

I really want to make a statement on the tables and so I decided a while back that I wanted the napkin to have a pretty print on it. Do you know how hard it is to find printed rental napkins in my color scheme that are exactly what I want? Harder than it should. Actually, impossible.

Anyway, I finally convinced my mom that I could find a fabric cheap enough that we could get napkins made for the same price as renting would be…AND we could keep some and sell the rest after.

This way I got a gorgeous fabric that was exactly what I wanted, and no one else could  possible have it!

But in my fruitless search for the perfect napkin and tablecloth, I came across this one and showed it to Nate:

source

Have I mentioned that Nate LOVES dinosaurs?

This was the IM conversation that ensued:

Nate:  oh my god
MAKE THOSE THE TABLE CLOTHS
me:  we could do it just for our table
tell you what
we’ll make our first child’s bday a dino theme
Nate:  obviously
im gonna groom them
to become a paleontologist
me:  haha
Nate:  and then they will create the first real jurassic park
me:  as long as they make enough money to support their folks
Nate: well if my son/daughter creates the first real jurassic park that will be our family business
i’ll work there
and with any luck, at a ripe old age, be eaten by a dinosaur
by far the way i want to go

So there you have it. Nate’s chosen way to go is death by dinosaur. Probably not a bad way, in fact, assuming there isn’t too much chewing involved.

That also solves the mystery of who on earth would rent dinosaur tablecloths. But luckily Nate is not involved in making wedding-related decor decisions, or it would be a dino-themed wedding…and he’d probably serve these ribs.

These aren’t dinosaur ribs, but they’d certainly go with a paleontology-themed event. And I can’t say I’d be upset if someone served them to me.

Unfortunately, the only photo I have to prove I made these ribs is one from my iphone, since Nate somehow deleted the others before I got them off the camera.

We, unfortunately, don’t have a grill, but this is better than ribs you could ever make on a grill. Yeah, take that, grill!

You give them a quick boil beforehand and then shove them in the oven for an hour and a half.

I’m a fan of saucy, succulent meat. I know this is definitely possible on the grill, but I hate dry things. These ribs get braised in the oven, mixing with the homemade tangy bbq sauce you add, creating their own, absolutely delicious sauce. I could eat it with a spoon.

Even if you have a grill, you NEED to make these this summer.

I served it up with some baked beans and corn on the cob. Felt like summer for sure!

Too bad the caterer doesn’t offer them….

Oh and here’s another photo for you since I don’t have any more of the ribs. Here’s the ring bearer pillow I made for the wedding :)

burlap ring pillow

 

Saucy Country-Style Oven Ribs

from Gourmet 

Print this recipe!

serves 6-8

4 lb boneless country-style pork ribs
1 large onion, finely chopped (2 cups)
4 garlic cloves, minced (2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups ketchup (12 oz)
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons drained bottled horseradish
1 teaspoon black pepper
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Put ribs in a 6- to 8-quart pot and cover with water by two inches. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, skimming froth, 30 minutes (I only cook for 15 and it’s completely fine).

Meanwhile, cook onion and garlic in oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes.

Drain pork in a colander and pat dry, then arrange in 1 layer using tongs in a 13- by 9-inch baking dish. Pour sauce over pork to coat evenly, then cover dish tightly with foil.

Bake 1 hour, then remove foil and carefully turn pork over with tongs and cook, uncovered, until very tender, about 30 minutes. Skim fat from sauce if desired.

(**note that I don’t normally cut the ribs apart before cooking as in the above pic, but that’s how this particular batch came. Usually I put the whole rack in the pan in one long piece, only cutting off the ribs that don’t fit the length and putting them along the side)

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