Random Urge to Bake Results in Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

I really wanted to bake something. Something easy. Enter the one bowl, no mixer, peanut butter cookies. These are also gluten free, for those who are hunting gluten free desserts.
The thing about these not having any flour shoring them up is that the cross-hatching that was so defined going into the oven just kind of melted away without the structural integrity of the flour.

Pre-baking

Does not effect flavor, does effect classic look. End result a solid but not amazing batch of cookies (my bar for amazing is very, very high).

Peanut Butter Pancake Cookies

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again? Probably not. My slot for best GF peanut butter cookies is filled by these Peanut Butter Tahini Cookies which are also very easy, but have way more depth of flavor.

My Big Fat Greek Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is one those things that every time I make it I wonder why I don't make it more often. This is no exception. It's a solid example of Greek flavors in classic chicken salad form. The technique is stir a dressing, chop everything and toss together. Why do I not do this more? I seriously don't know why I don't think of it.

Chop All The Things!

Greek Chicken Salad

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again? If I remember, yes!

Dry, Dry, Dry! (Crispy Chickpeas)

The last time I tried to roast chickpeas I discovered that if they are not dry before cooking they will explode off the pan and ricochet around the inside of the oven. So when this recipe recommends making sure that are really, really dry before going into the oven I reacted with the paranoia born of experience and followed the instructions to the letter. Nothing went firing around the oven like little chickpea bullets this time! Tossed with sumac and bit of cayenne they are pretty good, and do get tagged as healthy snack.

Crispy Chickpeas

They stayed on the pan! <relief>

Difficulty Level: Easy
Will It Get Made Again? Maybe, due to the long drying/cooking time these require more time investment than ideal for a small batch snack. Whether they get repeated probably depends on how much I like them in the kale salad most of them are destined for.

Potluck Food: Bourbon Bread Pudding Edition

Freshly Grated Nutmeg

Every once in awhile my office throws a potluck. The most popular theme by far is Southern BBQ, this was the third time it got set up. Ribs, potato salad, shrimp pie, corn on the cob... and Bourbon Bread Pudding for dessert.
I used dried cherries for the fruit that gets soaked in bourbon and challah for the bread base. Confession: This is the first time a recipe called for freshly grated nutmeg that I actually went and got whole nutmeg and grated it; surprising easy to grate! It takes me longer to grate ginger or zest a lemon.

A Shot of Spiced Custard Milk 

For the custard you actually end up pulling out 2 cups of liquid that don't get soaked into the bread. Alton recommends just drinking the concoction. I tried a shot, it wasn't bad (it won't replace a good cocktail in my heart though).

The end result came out with a nicely textured custard and fruit that retained some of the zing from the bourbon. Potluck crowd approved.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Maybe. This is a special occasion dish, if I have an event that calls for a bread pudding I would absolutely use this as an example. Realistically, that won't happen very often.

Bourbon Bread Pudding

In Praise of Browned Butter (Brown on Blonde)

The last time I made blondies I made the mistake of trying one of "healthy" recipes. It was a peanut butter chick pea blend where the peanut butter was supposed to be flavor. They were horrible, one of the few things I've ever tossed out as inedible due to their weird flavor and nasty texture. Fortunately, Alton's blondies are a different matter.

Look for the caramelizing "browned" butter bits and breathe in the nutty scent.

I first fell in love with browned butter thanks to Smitten Kitchen and highly recommend it to anyone looking for easy ways to kick something up to the next level. So I was intrigued when I saw that he starts his blondies by toasting the nuts in browned butter (this smells amazing by the way). I will totally use this trick again if I'm making anything that calls for both nuts and browned butter. 

Do not make these if you're trying to limit your sugar intake, I think this is most brown sugar I've ever used in a non-toffee recipe. Do try the serving suggestion with a nice cold glass of almond milk, it's lovely.

Blondie with Almond Milk, Mmmmm

Difficulty Level: Medium

Will It Get Made Again? Yes, these a good non-chocolate bar and have been loved by everyone I've fed them to. 

Father's Day Mushroom Stroganoff

My father loves mushrooms, so Mushroom Stroganoff seemed like good thing to make for Father's Day*. Alton maintains in the intro for this dish that the Russian's love mushrooms and the earthy flavor of the goat cheese is Russian in character. I can't comment on that, since my expertise in Russian food is limited. I do know that Russian peasant food, like peasant food everywhere, is cheap. This is not cheap; portobello mushrooms are one of the more expensive varieties in my neighborhood so let's call it the aristocratic stroganoff.

Stroganoff

Reducing Mushrooms

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Not likely. It's perfectly good, but not especially impressive. With the ingredient price tag I want greatness to make it repeatable.

*My father isn't especially invested in Father's Day as holiday, but he appreciated dinner and considered this perfectly good as well.

8 Days Later, "Quick" Preserved Lemons

When Alton Brown named his preserved lemons recipe, I really think he should have gone with "Easy" rather than "Quick". This is a really easy recipe, sliced lemons and salt are the entire ingredient list. However, you will need to factor the 8 day curing time into whatever you want to use them for.

Day 1

Day 4 (Flip Over)

Difficulty Level: Easy

Will It Get Made Again? To be determined once they've been used in the lemonade and the kale salad...

Day 8

Sort of Raw Overnight Coconut Oats

I've been seeing recipes for overnight oatmeal float around Pinterest as a wonder food for several years now but never tried it before. When I was explaining how the concept works to my grandfather the thing that startled him was "you don't cook the oatmeal!?" Nope, this is cold soaked oatmeal, I'm pretty sure the ingredient list doesn't qualify it as a "raw" recipe but there is zero heat in the cooking process. You weigh everything out, mix it in a jar, shake it up and let it sit overnight in the fridge. The hardest part is measuring tiny amounts in grams (2 grams chia seeds, 3 grams flax meal).

Before Cold Soaking

After Cold Soaking 

I figured an extra gram of an ingredient would be fine. I wasn't sure how I'd like it going in, but it worked out really well. The oats retain their shape and soak up the coconut & almond milks in the recipe for a nice texture and the healthy add-ins (chia seeds & flax meal) blend into the background. As the prospect of too many hot summer days stretches out before me, cold oatmeal is looking better and better.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Will It Get Made Again? Yes, this is one of those recipes that you thank yourself for making when you open the fridge the in the morning and realize it's there. 

Reasons Why I'm Not Making More Breakfast Carbonara

Every once and awhile every cook makes something that just does not work. For me, the Breakfast Carbonara was one of those dishes. This is Alton's attempt to lighten the classic carbonara a little using things like whole wheat pasta and encouraging people to carbo load at the beginning of the day rather than the end. I tried it several months back when I first got my copy of EveryDayCook. Never making that again.
I'll pick the top three things that did not work for me here. First, whole wheat pasta. This is not the dish that will convert people into loving whole wheat pasta. Carbonara is a pretty indulgent dish and the toothsome pasta tastes off for it. It reminds me of people trying to convince pork eaters that vegetarian bacon is just as good as the original. Lies.
Second, orange peal. I have discovered through this recipe that while I like lemon in pasta dishes the orange in this one that is meant to evoke fresh squeezed OJ does not combine in a way I like.
Last but not least, bacon. Specifically, there is No Bacon. The bacon gets subbed for breakfast sausage!? I tried it. No. This is a book that contains a recipe for Lacquered Bacon so I know it's not that Alton hates bacon. He just decided to invent a baconless carbonara.

Just for the hell of it I decided to make something else to go with this post. A diffrent lightened take on carbonara, Spaghetti Squash Carbonara. Also not as good as the real thing, but not the disaster described above.

Squash Carbonara, better than whole wheat.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? No, life is too short.

Hardcore Baking: Oatmeal Banana Bread Edition

Whenever I describe baking as hardcore that means that either a basic component(s) has to be made from scratch, it's super futzy/time consuming to construct, or all of the above. In this case to make Alton's Oatmeal Banana Bread you start by toasting oats and grinding them into oat flour. As long as you have a food processor it's not that difficult (it adds about 20 minutes to the overall time to make, almost all of that as baking time), but it moves this away from all the quick breads that don't require this kind of prep step.

Toasted Oats

Homemade Oat Flour

Most of this recipe is measured in grams. The butter is supposed to be 112 grams. I fudged that to 113  grams on principle. 

It could have just said "Stick of butter"

I wasn't sure how this would compare with the Brown Butter Banana Bread that has been my go to recipe when in need of banana bread in recent years. The answer is that this is a heartier, noticeably oaty flavored (the toasted oats really come through) version of the banana bread concept. It won't have a long lifespan before being completely consumed.

Crumbly when warm.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Probably, it's kind of a coin toss between this and the Brown Butter Banana Bread linked to above. This has a heartier feel, that has a sweeter edge. They'd actually be interesting to pit against one another in a taste off.

"Enchilasagna" or "Lasagnalada" or "Dinner Followed By Lunch(es)"

I normally wouldn't tackle something with more than 1 hour of prep/cooking time on a weeknight. However, I was out of sandwich bread and not in the mood to defrost something for lunch tomorrow. Which means I needed to either cook something that would make leftovers or pay someone else to cook for me. This time I went with cook something that would make dinner and a bunch of leftovers. Enter the Enchilasagna, a casserole loaded with cheese and spiced tomato sauce layered in between corn tortillas.

It did the job.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Will It Get Made Again? Meh, probably not. The Enchilasagna is tasty but not amazing and I already have a version of Mexican Lasagna in my rotation from Martha Stewart. In this case I favor Martha's version; it's loaded with a tasty spinach & cilantro pesto layer and is faster to make with less clean up than Alton's version.