Bailey's peppermint chocolate cheesecake

based on this, makes one 9" springform and one 9" pie pan

crust:
2.5 c crumbs from cookie parts of 1 box TJ's peppermint Jo-Jos (insides saved)
3 T sugar
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Crush cookie crumbs in small batches in the food processor. Stir in sugar, then stir in melted butter. Press into bottom and sides of pans. Bake for 8 min, and cool before filling with cheesecake.

filling:
5 8-oz packs cream cheese
1.5 c sugar
2 t vanilla
5 eggs
1/2 t salt
1.5 c sour cream
3/4 c Bailey's

Preheat oven to 325F. Put the whisk attachment on the Kitchenaid. Beat cream cheese until smooth, then beat in other ingredients one at a time (eggs a couple at a time). This pretty much fills up the Kitchenaid, so be careful, and scrape down the sides from time to time. When the crusts are cool, divide cheesecake between the pans; both will be very full! Place in the oven on a baking sheet and bake for a good long while (about 1 hr for pie pan, 1 hr 20 min for springform) until browning on top and reasonably set. They will rise tremendously while baking and crack a bit, and some pieces may even fall off the sides---it's quite a sight! Cool on the counter for half an hour, during which time the cheesecakes should collapse back on themselves somewhat, then cover with buttered foil and stick in the fridge to set (overnight if it's bedtime, or presumably one could chill for just an hour or two before topping with ganache).

ganache:
8 oz dark chocolate from TJ's Pound Plus bar
6 cookie insides
1/2 stick butter
1 c cream

Get the cheesecakes out of the fridge and set them on the counter. Chop up chocolate, butter, and minty insides into cubes and put in a large bowl. Bring cream to boil, pour over chocolate, and stir until melted and smooth. Let stand for a few minutes if it seems too hot, then pour over the cheesecakes. Stick in the fridge until serving time. Decorate with more cookie insides and serve for Christmas dessert.

Dad's salmon mousse

from the Silver Palate cookbook

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4 c cold water
1/2 c boiling water
1/2 c mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
1 finely minced shallot (1 T)
1/4 t chili powder
1/4 t sweet paprika
1 t salt
2 T finely chopped dill
2 c finely flaked canned salmon, skins and bones removed (one 15 oz can with bones + one 6 oz can without bones)
1 c heavy cream

Soften the gelatin in the cold water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the boiling water slowly until the gelatin dissolves. Cool to room temperature but un-gelled. Whisk in the mayonnaise, lemon juice, shallot, chili powder, paprika, salt, and dill. If it's still not gelling, refrigerate for a few minutes until the mixture begins to thicken slightly. Fold in the salmon. In a separate bowl, whip the cream, and fold it gently into salmon mixture. Transfer the mixture to a 6- to 8-cup bowl or decorative mold. Cover and put in the fridge overnight. Serve with ciabatta and crackers as an appetizer on Christmas.

Sourdough rye pancakes

1 c rye starter
1 egg
1 T sugar
1/2 c flour
1.5 t baking powder

Mix starter, egg, and sugar well. Mix in flour and baking powder until just combined. Fry in butter until browned and a little crispy. A quick and easy way to use up starter, with the added bonus of having pancakes when you're done.

Fruit and nut rye bread

After dinner, put in your Kitchenaid:

1 c rye starter
1 1/4 c warm water
1 T barley malt syrup
3 c white bread flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1/3 c wheat bran
2 t cherry brandy
1 T salt

Mix together with the dough hook on low or medium-low for 6-8 minutes, then mix in:

zest of one large orange
2 c pecan halves, broken up a bit
3/4 c currants
1 c raisins
1 c craisins

Knead on a floured surface for a few minutes. Put in a greased bowl, cover with a cloth, and put in the oven with a pan of boiling water and the pilot light on overnight.

The next morning, lift the dough onto a floured surface. Cut in half, then cut one half into 16 little pieces for rolls and leave the other half intact for a boule (or whatever combination of loaf sizes you desire). Press the big dough piece into a rectangle, fold in thirds like a letter, press out, then fold in thirds like a letter the other way, to get a cubic loaf. Roll around a bit to round out the corners, then place in a floured metal cake pan. Roll each little dough piece into a little ball, and place on floured parchment paper on a cookie sheet or two. Put pans in the oven, cover with a cloth, and let rise for 6-8 hours.

When you come back from a short day at work, remove loaves from the oven and preheat to 450F. If the bread looks dangerously dry, brush with a bit of oil. When the oven is nice and hot, put in the loaves, lower heat to 400F, and bake for 40 min until top is brown and bottom is not burnt. Mine came out drier than I'd prefer, so adding some oil or butter to the dough would be a good choice in the future.

Sharon's peanut butter slice

These are bar cookies, but a bar cookie is called a "slice" in New Zealand from whence this recipe came, so slice it is. This is technically a half batch, which is far more manageable than a full batch because these are pretty rich. For full batch authenticity, just double everything and put it in a 9x13" pan.

1/2 c peanut butter
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 c corn syrup (Karo)
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1 c flour (can be half whole wheat) (can also add an extra 1/2 c oats)
3/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c chocolate chips (optional: reserve 1/4 c)

Preheat oven to 350F. Make like cookies: cream together wet ingredients (everything up to vanilla), stir in dry ingredients until just combined, stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter in an ungreased 8x8" square pan and bake for 20-25 min until golden. Optional: only add 3/4 of the chocolate chips to the batter, and melt the rest to drizzle on top of baked slice. Cut into little squares and give to a very happy Pat.

Persimmon cake bars

based on this

2 squishy Hachiya persimmons
1.5 t lemon juice (will need 2 T more later, together this was about half a lemon for me)
1 t baking soda

1 egg
1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 T molasses
1 3/4 c flour
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves
1/2 c currants
1 c pecans, chopped
5 cubes crystallized ginger, chopped

1 c powdered sugar
2 T lemon juice
zest from one lemon

Preheat oven to 350F and butter and flour a 9x13" pan.

Cut persimmons in half, scoop out the goopy insides into a small bowl, and mush up with a potato masher. Whisk in 1.5 t lemon and baking soda as it foams up. Let sit for a bit; it will gel up and be pretty cool.

Stir together egg, butter, sugar, and molasses in a large bowl, and combine flour and spices in a pyrex. Add dry ingredients in batches to the wet ingredients, alternating with the persimmon gel. Stir in currants, pecans, and ginger. Spread evenly in the pan and bake for 20 min.

For glaze, stir together powdered sugar, 2 T lemon, and zest. Drizzle or spread on cooled cake.

Eggplant pastitsio

A veggi-fied version of this. Takes as long as two normal dinners, but makes as much food as two normal dinners!

2 T olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 t cinnamon
2 t spicy Italian mix
1 medium-large eggplant, in 1 cm dice
1 t salt
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes, not drained
1/4 c red wine
pepper to taste

1 T olive oil
6 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 arugula, packed

3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T butter
2 T flour
2 c 1% milk (more fat probably equals better)
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 - 3/4 c each small-curd cottage cheese and grated Toscano cheese (1 - 1.5 c crumbled feta would be more authentic)
pepper to taste
2 eggs

16-oz pack fusilli

In a large pot, saute onion with spices until soft. Stir in eggplant and salt and saute for a couple minutes, then stir in tomatoes and wine. Cover and simmer for 45 min, stirring every 5-10 min, then simmer uncovered for another 15 min. Salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in oil until cooked through, then stir in arugula and cook until wilted.

Also meanwhile, melt butter in a saucepan and saute garlic for a couple minutes. Add flour and whisk for a couple minutes. Whisk in milk and cloves until smooth, then whisk constantly while bringing to a boil. Turn down heat to simmer and cook for 7 min, stirring occasionally (mine never really came back to a simmer and didn't thicken much). Whisk in cheese(s) and pepper until relatively smooth and turn off heat. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, then slowly drizzle in cheese sauce while whisking constantly to prevent cooking the eggs.

Preheat oven to 400F. Boil water and cook pasta to al dente. Drain, then add half to the eggplant sauce and half to the cheese sauce. Spread eggplant pasta in the bottom of a 9x13" pan, then distribute mushrooms+arugula over that, then pour cheese pasta over that. Bake for 15 min uncovered, then 15 min covered, then 8 min uncovered, until bubbling and fairly set (the covered time wouldn't be necessary if it wasn't browning too much early on). Serve with the rest of the bottle of red wine.

Holiday rugelach

2/3 c small-curd cottage cheese
2/3 c earth balance, softened
1 1/3 c flour

Mix together thoroughly to form a soft dough. Split into 2 balls, wrap each in plastic wrap, and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

6 candy cane joe-joes (Trader Joe's oreos)
1/3 c white chocolate chips
2 T butter

Remove minty insides from cookie outsides. Put the cookies in the food processor and process into crumbs. Add white chocolate chips and process, then add cookie insides and butter and process some more. The final product should have the consistency of graham cracker crumbs for pie crust, or even a bit more cohesive.

Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment. Remove each ball of dough from the freezer and roll out on a floured surface into a 10" circle. Distribute the filling evenly on the dough circles, pressing the filling into the dough a bit so it'll all stick together. Cut each circle into 12 or 16 wedges, roll each wedge into a cookie (edge to center), and place each cookie on a sheet.

1 egg
1 T milk
pink sprinkles

Beat together egg and milk to make a glaze, and brush on the tops of the cookies. Sprinkle with sprinkles and bake for 25 min.

Pomegranate liqueur, part III

jar of liqueur from day II, undisturbed
6 ft or so clean thin tubing
bowl or two
coffee filters (optional)
cute little bottles with tight-fitting lids (eg from Depot for Creative Reuse)

Move the liqueur jar to someplace at least as high as the kitchen counter, being careful not to shake up the layer of gunk that should have sedimented out. Place a bowl on the ground below the jar, and use the tubing to siphon the nice clear liqueur into the bowl, leaving the gunk in the bottom of the jar (you have to suck some up the tube with your mouth to get it started). Discard any gunk left in the jar. Lester did a great job of only siphoning the good stuff; I decided to run the siphoned liqueur through coffee filters anyway, but I think it didn't do anything, so you can use your judgement. Transfer the liqueur into your cute little bottles, seal tightly, and give to folks for Christmas.

Cinnamon raisin bread

2 t yeast
1 t sugar
2 c warm water
1 egg
1/2 c canola
1/2 c powdered milk
1 c whole wheat flour
3/4 t cinnamon
3/4 t allspice
1.5 t salt
4.5 c bread flour

1 c raisins
3/4 c TJs spiced apple cider
1/2 c brown sugar
3 T butter
1 T marmalade

a bit more butter

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water and let yeast start to bubble. Stir in egg, canola, and powdered milk until well mixed. Stir in whole wheat flour and spices, and knead in bread flour a cup at a time to make a medium dough (not too soft, not too firm). Spray bowl with spray grease, roll the ball of dough around in the bowl to coat, cover with a clean cloth, and put in the oven with a pan of boiling water and the pilot light on for 2 hr until at least doubled.

Meanwhile, combine the filling ingredients in a little saucepan, and simmer for 1.5 hr until cider is reduced from liquidy to caramely. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm (as cool as possible while still spreadable).

Punch the dough to deflate and cut it in half, and butter two loaf pans. Check on the filling; if it's cooled into a solid sticky unspreadable mass, heat it briefly with another tablespoon of butter, stirring until it's workable. Roll out the first half of dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle that's as wide as your loaf pan is long (9") and as long as it can easily stretch (around 18" or a bit longer). Spread half of the filling on the dough, distributing the raisins and caramel as evenly as you can, up to almost the edge of the dough on all sides. Roll up the loaf from one short end to the other, pinch the ends and seams to seal, and place seam-side-down in a loaf pan. Repeat with the other loaf. Cover both loaves with a cloth, put back in the oven with fresh boiling water and the pilot light on, and let rise until the loaves at least fill the pans.

Transfer cloth-covered loaves to counter, remove the pan of water, and preheat the oven to 400F. Brush with a little melted butter and bake for 30 min.

Eggnog cookies

TJs had tasty eggnog cookies for their sample the other day, so I bought the eggnog and made the cookies. Pretty much this; the coffee-for-vanilla substitution was accidental but I like it.

1.5 sticks butter, softened
1 c sugar
1/2 c eggnog
2 egg yolks
1 t coffee extract
2.5 c flour
1 t baking powder
3/4 t each cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom

1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t nutmeg
3-5 t eggnog

Preheat oven to 325F. Cream together butter and sugar, then beat in other wet ingredients, then mix in dry ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased airbake cookie sheets to make about 4 dozen little cookies. Bake for 25 min until barely browning, and transfer immediately to a cooling rack. The next morning, whisk together powdered sugar, nutmeg, and eggnog to make a glaze, and drizzle a bit on each cookie (using the whisk as a drizzling device worked well for me). Let set while working from a coffeeshop for the morning, then bring into work for group meeting in the afternoon.

Cauliflower latkes with beet slaw

Happy Hanukkah! Beets and yogurt substitute deliciously for applesauce and sour cream, but you may want to look up your favorite latke recipe before proceeding with mine.

3 beets
1 carrot
2-3 t lemon juice (or more)
several sprigs dill, chopped

1/2 head cauliflower, broken into florets
5 small potatoes
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
1/2 t celery seeds
1/2 t mustard powder
n eggs and n T flour (what I did was apparently incorrect so I won't lead you astray)
salt and pepper

canola oil
plain greek yogurt

Start the beets boiling and the cauliflower steaming. Meanwhile, grate the potatoes into a large bowl and the carrot into a medium bowl. Add the lemon and dill to the carrot. Mince the shallot and garlic and add it to the potatoes, along with the celery seeds, mustard powder, salt, and pepper. Also add the correct amount of eggs, flour, and whatever else makes latkes stick together. When the cauliflower is very soft, mash it up a bit and add it to the latke mix.

When the beets are soft enough, peel (by rubbing under cold running water), grate, and add to the carrots along with the lemon and dill.

Heat some oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat and fry latkes for several minutes on each side until crispy and browned. If yours fall apart too, don't ask me, go find a Jewish grandmother! Drain on paper towels and keep warm while cooking the rest, eg in a 200F oven. To eat, pile some beet slaw on each latke, and dab some greek yogurt on top.

Pomegranate liqueur, part II

day two of this recipe

results of day one, having waited two weeks

3/4 sugar
3/8 c water

lots of paper towels and coffee filters
a couple bowls and a strainer
one large (eg 1.5 quart = 6 cup) glass jar

Set up a strainer over a bowl. Line it with a paper towel and slowly start pouring the pomegranate stuff through it. When it starts draining slowly, stop pouring, wait for the remaining liquid to go through (and/or squeeze it a bit to help it through), change the paper towel for a fresh one, and continue. When you're down to the seeds and pulp, give it a good squeeze inside the paper towel to remove most of the liquid.

Now move the strainer over another bowl, and repeat the paper towel filtration procedure. Move the strainer back over the first bowl, and filter through coffee filters. You can only add a little bit of pomegranate stuff to each coffee filter, and it takes a long time for it to drain through anyway, so this part took me a couple hours. Luckily, you don't have to be standing there watching it, so you can do other things (make lunch, blog, make the simple syrup by boiling together the sugar and water, etc) and just check on it every couple minutes.

I ended up with 3 2/3 c liquid at the end of all this filtering, which means I lost 1/3 c along the way--not too bad. It's still very cloudy, but I think that's fine. Put the liquid in your big jar, add the (slightly cooled) simple syrup, seal, and put in the pantry to age for a couple weeks. You want just one large jar for this step, and you don't want to disturb it while it's aging, because you want the cloudy particulate matter to sink to the bottom of the jar where it will be easier for you to discard it on day three.

Rosemary garlic ciabatta

most of a head of garlic (about 10 cloves)
1/2 c olive oil
3 T fresh rosemary
2 c sourdough starter
1 c warm water
1 t yeast
1 c semolina + some for sprinkling
2 c + 2.5 c bread flour
1 T kosher salt + some for sprinkling

Peel garlic cloves and crush with the flat blade of a large knife instead of chopping. Put the cloves in a little bowl with oil and rosemary, and let sit while the sponge rises.

To make that sponge, combine starter, water, yeast, semolina, and 2 c flour in a large bowl, and stir vigorously. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warmish place (eg oven with the pilot light on) until doubled in size (I got home 6 hr later and it looked great).

Stir to deflate, then thoroughly stir in the by-now-delicious-smelling oil and its contents. Stir in the salt and remaining 2.5 c flour, and knead for a good while to make a sticky, rope-y dough. Good ways to knead this are to pull fistfuls of dough in circular motions around the bowl, or to pull fistfuls up out of the bowl; both methods should result in visibly nice stretchy glutenous structures. As always with bread, the actual feel of your dough matters more than what you've added; if your dough is stiff enough that you could knead it on a board if you wanted to, squeeze in a few tablespoons (even half a cup) of milk and knead until the texture seems right. Cover again and put back in your warm place until doubled (about 2 hr).

Prepare a baking sheet or two by lining with parchment and sprinkling well with semolina. Punch the dough to deflate and split in half. With each half, scrape it out of the bowl and form into a smooth ball by holding it in the air between your hands and quickly and repeatedly pulling the bottom surface up toward the top. Place each ball top-seam-side down on the semolina, and sprinkle with more semolina and a bit of salt. Place the pan(s) in the oven above a pan of boiling water and let rise until doubled (about 1.5 hr).

Take the loaves out of the oven, move the water pan to the top position and the free rack to the lowest position, and start preheating to 450F. Put the loaves in on the lower rack when it's fully preheated, and turn the heat down to 400F. Bake for 35 min until golden brown all over and kinda sorta hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom. In case they're not cooked through optimally, and as a generally good practice, cool completely (overnight, in paper bags) before slicing. This makes a soft, pungent, and quite tasty bread.

Vegan pumpkin pecan risotto

2 pie-type pumpkins, tops sliced off (and reserved) and insides cleaned
2 T earth balance
1/2 red onion, minced
10 crimini mushrooms, stems removed and caps quartered
1 c pecan halves
4 leaves sage, toasted or fried
2 c arborio rice
3/4 c dry white wine
4 c hot broth

Get those pumpkins ready if they aren't already, and start baking them on a baking sheet (lids on) at 350F while you prepare the filling. Saute red onion in earth balance, then add mushrooms and pecans and cook for a few minutes. Crumble sage leaves over the pan and stir in. Stir in the rice and saute for a few minutes, then stir in wine and cook until it's absorbed/evaporated. Divide the filling between the pumpkins, pour enough broth to cover the filling (a bit less than 2 c) into each, and stick them in the oven (lids off). Bake for a long time (1.5-2 hr), checking on the moisture content periodically and adding more broth as needed. Good as is, but would be better with more pepper and maybe some cinnamon or allspice.

Laura's pizza crust

2 c flour
1/2 t yeast
squirt of honey
1/2 t salt
3/4 c warm water
1/4 c olive oil

Combine everything in a bowl and stir to form a dough. Knead in the bowl for a couple minutes. Split into two halves, wrap each half in plastic wrap or a plastic bag, and put in the fridge. Use after as little as half an hour or as long as a couple days.

To make into pizza, preheat the oven to 500F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the parchment, and roll out one ball of the pizza dough on the parchment to cover most of the baking sheet. Top with whatever you fancy (light dry toppings work best) and bake for 10 min until crust and cheese are browning.

Pumpkin and oyster mushroom pizza

one crust worth of Laura's pizza crust

1 T butter
1 shallot, thinly sliced
3 large leaves sage, minced
fist-sized bunch of oyster mushrooms, torn into bite-sized strips
1/4 or less of a small pie-type pumpkin, uncooked
bit of arugula and grated mozzarella

Melt butter in a little cast-iron pan over low heat. Add shallots and sage, and saute until shallots are starting to brown. Add the mushrooms and saute until cooked. Turn off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 500F. Meanwhile (if possible), scrape the seeds and stringy bits out of the inside of the pumpkin, and chop off the peel (this is a nontrivial task). Slice a wedge of pumpkin into very thin slices, enough slices to fit on your pizza. Line a baking sheet with foil, spray the foil with spray grease, lay out the pumpkin slices, and bake for 10 min until starting to cook.

Get out another baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the parchment, and roll out the pizza dough on the parchment to cover most of the baking sheet. Spread the shallots and mushrooms on the crust, then sprinkle with arugula, then loosely tile with pumpkin slices, then sprinkle on the cheese, then grind on a bit of pepper and salt. Bake at 500F for 10 min until crust and cheese are browning.

Pomegranate bulgar salad

1.5 c bulgar
2.5 c broth
juice from one lemon
1/8 t each allspice, cinnamon, chili powder
pods from half a pomegranate
half a bunch each mint and parsley, minced
olive oil, salt, pepper to taste

Put bulgar in a coverable bowl, pour boiling broth over it, cover, and let sit until liquid is absorbed and bulgar is tender (20 min ish). While you're waiting, peel the pomegranate, juice the lemon, and mince the herbs. When the bulgar is ready, stir in everything else. Serve with roasted cauliflower.

Roasted cauliflower and pine nuts

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
1/2 c pine nuts
1 T cumin seeds
1-2 shallot(s), sliced
olive oil to coat, salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. Combine everything in a 9x13 pan and stir to make sure things are sufficiently oiled. Bake, stirring occasionally, until the cauliflower is tender and browning (sorry didn't pay attention to the time). Serve with pomegranate bulgar salad.

Pomegranate liqueur, part I

day one of this recipe

3 pomegranates
2 c vodka
peel from 1 lemon, with minimal white pith

several bowls, a strainer, and jars with lids (eg 3 pint-size canning jars)

Choose a work surface you don't mind getting splashed on, or cover your work surface with plastic cutting boards, and don an apron. Remove the fruity pod parts from the pomegranates, putting the pods in a bowl and discarding the rest. (If desired, set aside a handful or two for putting on/in a cheesecake.)

Put a wire mesh strainer over another bowl, and get out a little bowl or glass with a flattish or rounded bottom. Put one small handful of pods at a time in the strainer, crush them with the little bowl and/or your fingers to get the juice out, and transfer the leftover pulp and (ideally unbroken) seeds to yet another bowl.

Measure how much juice you've caught in the bowl below the strainer; it should be about two cups. Add that much vodka to the juice and stir. Divide the vodka-juice, pulp, and lemon peel evenly between your jars. Cover tightly and stick in the pantry for a couple weeks, swirling occasionally.

to be continued on day two and day three

Pomegranate cheesecake

Preheat the oven to 375F. Get out the 10" springform pan and wrap some foil around the outside to prevent leakage.

crust:
1/4 c pine nuts
5 TJ's cinnamon graham crackers
16 squares (8 large rectangles) other graham crackers
1 t allspice
1/2 stick butter, melted
little bit of honey

Grind up the cookies and nuts in the food processor. Add butter and allspice and process until combined. Press into the bottom and sides of the pan, and drizzle a bit of honey on top.

filling:
2 8oz packs cream cheese, softened
1/2 c ricotta
3 eggs
1/3 c turbinado sugar
3 T lemon juice

Blend until smooth, and pour onto the crust. Knock on the counter a couple times to minimize bubbles. Bake for 45 min until set and lightly browned on top. Cool to room temperature.

topping:
1 c sour cream
2 T plain greek yogurt
1 T white sugar
1 T honey
1-3 t pomegranate juice

Mix together, pour on top of cool cheesecake, and bake at 375F for 12 min. Decorate with additional pomegranate pods, for instance as a pie chart to accompany a Florence Nightingale costume. Cover tightly with foil (or plastic wrap, which seals better but usually sticks to the top of the cheesecake) and put in the fridge for most of the day.

Rye marmalade sconebreads

1/4 c butter
1/4 c honey
1/3 c Charles&Esther's Christmas marmalade
2 c sourdough rye starter
~3 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t each allspice, cardamom, and cinnamon
small handful each chopped craisins and crushed slivered almonds
little bit of milk, little bit of turbinado

Preheat oven to 400F. Microwave butter and honey together in a little dish until butter is softened, then stir in marmalade until the mixture is smooth and not too hot. Put the starter in a bowl and stir the marmalade-butter. Add 2 c of flour+spices and gently stir/knead to make a soft biscuit-scone-type dough, gradually adding the other cup of flour (or as much more or less as you need). Knead in the craisins and almonds. Split into two balls. With each ball, turn onto a floured board, roll or press into a ~9" round, and slice into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on a greased cookie sheet, brush with milk, sprinkle with turbinado, and bake for half an hour.

Vegan molasses moving cookies

1 c earth balance
1/2 c molasses
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 4-oz applesauce cup
1 t vanilla
3.5 c whole wheat flour (possibly more or less, I may have lost count)
1.5 c oats
1 t each baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom
1.5 c chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream wet ingredients together, mix in dry ingredients. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 15 min. Full of tasty sustenance and things I now don't have to pack!

Roasted beets and greens

3 beets, removed from greens
greens from three beets, washed thoroughly and chopped
1 can garbanzos
2 medium firm tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 shallot, sliced
olive oil
salt, pepper, spicy Italian seasoning mix (largely chili flakes and rosemary)

Preheat oven to 375F. Wrap each beet in foil, place the beets on a baking sheet, and place the sheet in the oven. Combine the other ingredients in a 8-9" pan, stirring gently to coat everything with oil without mushing up the tomatoes. Cover the pan loosely with foil and stick it in the oven too. The beets will take about half an hour depending on size and desired level of roastedness; test one periodically by opening up the foil and poking it with a sharp knife. When they're ready, remove from the oven but leave the greens in (you can give them a stir though). Carefully unwrap the foil from the beets and put the beets in a colander in the sink. Running cold water over the beets and your fingers, rub each beet to peel off the skin and any stem bits, and put peeled beets on a cutting board. Slice the beets into circles or semicircles. Take the greens out of the oven and serve some onto plates. Take the plates, beets, and some chevre and a baguette out to the table, and enjoy.

Stuffed summer squash

3 medium heirloom tomatoes, cubed
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, minced
1/2 bunch chard, stems minced and leaves chopped
1 large portabella, finely chopped
2/3 c + 2 c rice, precooked
1/4 t each cumin, allspice, cinnamon, sage
3 oz chevre, forked out of the pack
salt and pepper to taste
3 round summer squash (but I could have filled another 1 or 2)
1/3 c red wine

Start simmering the tomatoes in a large pot. In a frying pan, saute the garlic, onion, and chard stems in a bit of oil. Add the leaves, cook until wilted, then turn off the heat. Add portabella, 2/3 c rice, cheese, and spices, and stir to combine. Slice the tops off the summer squash and scrape out the soft seedy part of the insides with a spoon. Fill with filling. Mince some of the less seedy inside bits and add to the tomatoes with the wine, and bring to a simmer. Place the squash (open side up) in the pot, loosely cover, and simmer until the squash are cooked through (about 20 min). Snack on any extra filling while you wait for the squash to cook. When the squash are ready, transfer them to plates. Stir the rest of the rice, and some salt and pepper, into the tomato sauce, and cook briefly. Divide the tomato-rice side dish between plates and serve.

Hot toddy birthday cake

pretty much exactly this

1/2 stick butter
1/4 c flour
1/4 t salt
1 c milk
1/3 c fresh lemon juice (one lemon plus a bit)
grated lemon zest of one lemon
2.5 oz bourbon
3 eggs, separated
3 T honey
1/3 c sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Microwave the butter in a little bowl and let cool for a bit. Use the wrapper to butter a casserole dish. Stir together flour and salt in a large bowl. Combine milk, lemon juice and zest, and whiskey in the 2-cup pyrex; the milk will curdle but it seemed to be fine. When the butter is warm but not hot, stir in the honey and egg yolks (putting the whites in a large bowl). Stir the milk and honey mixtures into the flour. Beat the egg whites until frothy, and keep beating gradually add the sugar, until the surface is glossy and it forms stiff peaks. Stir a bit of whites into the batter to lighten, then fold in the rest. Pour the batter into the buttered dish. Make a water bath by putting the cake dish in a 9x13 pan and putting some hot water in the pan. Bake for 45 min until puffy, golden brown, and cooked through (mine was browned but not at all cooked through after 30 min; cover with foil in that case). Take out of the water bath to cool, and eat when warm.

Happy birthday Lester!

Variety fritters

1/2 head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 can garbanzos, drained
~2 c Laura's leftover roasted garlic & rosemary mashed potatoes (no recipe, sorry!)
3 T flour + a bit more
pepper and/or other seasonings to taste
enough canola oil for frying

Steam cauliflower until tender. While it's steaming, dump the can of garbanzos into a mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher, leaving some chunks. When the cauliflower is ready, dump it in the bowl and mash it up a bit too. Add the mashed potatoes, 3 T flour, and pepper (and any other seasonings you fancy if your mashed potatoes didn't start out as exciting as Laura's) and mash together.

Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a heavy frying pan, and put a bit of flour on a little plate. When the oil is nice and hot, form three (or your pan's capacity) 2 by 1/2 inch patties, dip them in the flour on both sides (helps with browning), and gently put in the hot oil. Fry until brown on each side, pressing down with the spatula on each side to help with browning. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate while you fry the rest.

Okra cornbread pie

based on this





Preheat oven to 400F, and get out a 9-10" springform pan and the food processor.

filling:
generous amount of oil
1 large sweet potato, diced
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 c chopped okra
handful baby arugula
1 T cornmeal
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oil in a large frying pan on medium-high. Add sweet potato cubes and fry for a while on medium until done on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. Lift the sweet potato out of the pan and into a mixing bowl, leaving the hot oil in the pan. Add garlic and onion to the oil, then the okra, then the cornmeal, then the arugula, sauteing on medium for several minutes between additions. Keep cooking until the okra is done and the arugula is wilted, then transfer everything to the mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

crust:
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt
6 T stick cold butter, sliced
1/2 c small-curd cottage cheese
2 T milk

Combine dry ingredients and butter in the food processor, and process until the butter is incorporated. Add wet ingredients a few T at a time, processing in between, until the dough is firm and sticky.

to finish:
>1 c grated cheddar
2 medium heirloom tomatoes, sliced

Press the crust dough onto the bottom and sides of the springform. Pour the filling into the pan and top with half the cheese. Densely tile the top with tomato slices, then top with the other half of the cheese. Bake at 400F for 35 minutes, until the crust is done and the cheese and exposed veggies are nicely browned.

Possible modifications: add a layer of tomatoes and cheese in the middle of the filling; add some herbs or lemon or vinegar to the filling; crack a couple eggs on top before adding the last round of cheese.

Shakshuka

possibly not the most traditional version, but what I felt like for lunch

some garbanzo olive oil (reserved from this)
a few shakes of paprika
1 large crimini mushroom, chopped
1/2 red pepper, diced
1.5 good-sized heirloom tomatoes, diced
salt and pepper
2 eggs, or portions thereof reserved from various steps of making challah

Heat oil in a small frying pan. Saute mushroom, red pepper, and paprika. Add tomatoes and simmer until they start to get saucy, stirring and squishing large tomato bits with your wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the eggs on top and keep simmering, stirring gently around the edges, until the eggs are poached. Eat with challah.

Sourdough Rosh Hashanah challah

based on the La Brea sourdough book

morning 1, make the sponge:
1.5 c boiling water
pinch saffron
1 4-oz-single-serving-cup applesauce (very handy for baking since I never get through a whole jar)
1.5 c white bread flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c starter

Pour boiling water over saffron and let cool until it will warm up the starter but not kill it. Stir together all ingredients in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave on the counter until evening.

evening 1, make the dough:
3 whole eggs + 2 yolks, stirred together a little bit
1 packet active dry yeast
3 T canola oil
1 T barley malt syrup
1/4 c sugar
1 T salt
4-6 c white bread flour (book says 2 c bread flour + 1 c semolina + 1 c durum)

Add everything except the flour to the sponge and stir to combine. Add 3-4 c flour a cup or two at a time, stirring and/or kneading in the bowl until the dough is heavy and coherent. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for several minutes, incorporating quarter or half cups of flour judiciously, until the dough is pliable and smooth (but stodgier and less tight than a good just-white-bread dough), and still slightly sticky. Spray-grease the largest bowl that will fit in your fridge and put the ball of dough in it, turning the dough to coat all sides. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, let sit on the counter to get some extra warm-time if your house is on the cool side, then put in the fridge overnight.

morning 2, shape and bake:
2 parchment-lined, semolina-dusted baking sheets
2 egg yolks + <1 T water, stirred together

Remove the dough from the fridge as soon as you can drag yourself out of bed; the dough should have about doubled in size. Dump the dough onto a floured surface, cover with a cloth, and go back to bed until the dough warms up to closer to room temperature. Cut the dough into three equal-sized pieces for each loaf you want to make. You probably want two big loaves, so cut the dough into six equal pieces. I made one huge round double-decker loaf, i.e. half the dough on the bottom (3 pieces each 1/6 of the dough) and a quarter of the dough on top (3 pieces each 1/12 of the dough), and two small loaves with the rest (2 x 3 pieces each 1/24 of the dough). Cover the pieces of dough with the cloth, and let rest until they've warmed up a bit more and are nice and stretchy.

Roll each piece into a good-sized rope--it needs to be rather long and thin for round braided loaves, but shorter and fatter for normal braided loaves. Line up three matching pieces of dough parallel and close to one another. Starting in the middle and working toward each end, braid the three strands together. For straight loaves, braid up to the ends, and smush the ends together into a rounded tip. For round loaves, leave little tails at each end, curve one end to the other to form a loop, and smush each tail on one end into a matching tail on the other end; if the side you're looking at after this smushing looks a bit odd, flip it over and the other side may magically be more aesthetically pleasing.

Place each loaf onto a semolina-ed spot on a baking sheet, making sure to leave plenty of room between loaves. If you're making a double-decker loaf, put the smaller top-layer braid on top of the larger bottom-layer braid now. Cover with a cloth again and let rise. Now is a good time to start preheating the oven to 450F, and for extra warmth you can put the baking sheets on top of the stove, or on top of large level pots on top of the stove if your stove gets extra-hot spots when the oven is on.

When the bread is about doubled and the oven is toasty, brush the top and sides of each loaf with the egg wash. Put the baking sheets in the oven (on racks in the middle but with enough room between for rising), turn the oven down to 400F, and spritz the sides of the oven with water if you have a spritz bottle handy. After 15 minutes, check for uneven browning and rotate the baking sheets. Bake for 10-20 more minutes, shorter for smaller loaves and longer for larger loaves, until evenly browned on the sides, top, and bottom, and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom.

Cool on a cooling rack for a bit, but start eating pretty much as soon as you want. If you've reserved the egg whites and have some egg yolk left over, make shakshuka and eat some challah with it. If it's Rosh Hashanah, eat a round loaf with apples and honey and friends.

Tomato season lunch

1 good-sized heirloom tomato, cubed
1 avocado, cubed
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cubed
1/4 red pepper, squared
couple T chopped fresh mint and cilantro
drizzle of garbanzo olive oil (reserved from this)
1 capful lemon juice
salt and pepper

Place veggies and herbs in a tupperware, drizzle with oil and lemon, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Gently invert a few times to mix. Stop by La Farine on the way to work and pick up a petit pain and whatever sweet thing that catches your eye. Eat salad and bread for lunch, eat sweet thing whenever you want it.

Mediterranean eggplant spread

1 large eggplant
1 shallot, minced
1 T garbanzo olive oil (reserved from this)
1/2 t paprika
2 t lemon juice
couple T each chopped fresh mint, cilantro, and dill
1/2 c plain nonfat Greek yogurt
salt and pepper

Roast the eggplant at 400F on a foil-covered baking sheet until very squishy. Let cool, peel off the skin, and chop/smush the insides a little bit. In a smallish frying pan, saute the shallot and paprika in the oil for a few minutes. Add the eggplant and cook on low for several minutes, stirring and smushing any clumps with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is smooth and not liquidy. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, adjusting the balance to taste. Stick in the fridge for a few minutes to set, and serve on fresh bagels with heirloom tomato and cucumber slices.

Roasted garbanzos and chard

half of this, makes two dinners and two lunches

roast the garbanzos:
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed with the side of a large knife
1-2 shallots, sliced
2 bay leaves
1/2 t fennel seeds
a bit more than 1/2 c olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients in a glass 9"x5" loaf pan, cover with foil, and roast for 45 min until the garlic is done. Drain, reserving the oil and discarding the bay leaves.

while the garbanzos are roasting, cook the chard:
1 T olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 bay leaf
1-2 shallots, sliced
1 bunch chard, stems and leaves chopped
1 cube not-chicken bouillon in 1 c hot water
pepper

Cook garlic, bay leaf, and shallot in oil until the shallots are tender. Add half the chard, stir for a few minutes until wilted, then repeat with the other half. Add broth and pepper, cover, and cook until chard is done. Drain, discarding the liquid and the bay leaves.

put it all together:
Combine garbanzos and chard in the chard pot with 2 T reserved garbanzo oil; heat if needed. Add more reserved oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve with quinoa. Save the leftover oil and use it in lots of things!

Sourdough egg bagels

based on the La Brea Bakery sourdough book, which I highly recommend



1.5 c cool water
1.5 c sourdough starter
1 packet active dry yeast
2 egg yolks (or zero for plain bagels, or I'd add more next time for eggier bagels)
1/4 c = 4 T sugar
2 T barley malt syrup
6 T nonfat milk powder
1 T salt
~6 c white bread flour + 6 t vital wheat gluten (or use high-gluten flour if you have it)

Kitchenaid, semolina flour, parchment paper, baking sheets, pot for boiling water

Get out the Kitchenaid and put on the dough hook. Dump all the wet ingredients plus 4 c gluten-enriched flour into the bowl and mix on low to combine, slowly adding the rest of the flour. When the dough looks combined, turn up the speed to medium and mix for several minutes or until the dough is pretty much climbing out of the bowl.

When the Kitchenaid can do no more, turn the dough out onto a clean *not floured* surface and knead firmly for several more minutes. By the time you're done kneading, the dough should be firm, smooth, and supple, and will begin to feel slightly moist on the surface. You want as much gluten development as you can get, so the more kneading the better. Roll the dough into a smooth sphere, cover with a cloth, and let sit on the board for 10 min. Cut into 18 equal-sized pieces, roll each into a little ball, cover with the cloth again, and let sit for 15 min.

Prepare two baking sheets by lining with parchment and sprinkling the parchment with semolina. With each little ball of dough, roll it on the unfloured board into a rope of uniform thickness, about the length of the spread of your hand (thumb-tip to pinky-tip) or a bit longer. Gently hold one end between your thumb and the base of your pointer finger, and loop the rest around the back of your hand and onto your palm; the two ends should overlap by an inch or two on your palm. With the dough looped around your hand, seal the ends together by lightly rolling them between your palm and the board until the whole bagel is of uniform thickness. Take the bagel off your hand and place it on the prepared baking sheets, keeping at least an inch between bagels. Cover each baking sheet with a cloth and put in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, take out of the fridge and let warm up a bit. Start preheating the oven at 450F and start boiling several inches of water in a large pot. When the water is fully boiling, gently remove three bagels from the sheets and drop them into the water. They should float; mine didn't, which means they were too cold and/or not risen enough, but maybe it's just fine because they turned out beautifully. If floating, hold them under the surface for 10 seconds, then let float for 10 seconds; if sinking, detach from the bottom after a couple seconds, then let boil for about 20 seconds. Sprinkle more semolina on the parchment while the bagels are boiling. Lift each bagel out of the water with a slotted implement and place onto a re-semolina-ed spot on the parchment. Let the water return to a boil and repeat with the rest of the bagels. Turn the oven down to 400F and bake for 20-25 min until golden brown, rotating the sheets half-way through and moving up or down in the oven to control the browning on the bottom. (You can roast an eggplant for this at the same time!) Transfer to cooling racks, eat when warm or room temperature, and store the rest in a plastic bag.

Jill's sourdough coffee cake

as seen at Jill's blog

Preheat oven to 375F and butter an 8" or 9" pan.

Stir together to make cake batter, and scoop into pan:
1 c fed sourdough starter (thanks Jill!)
1/3 c oil
1 egg
1 cup flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground cardamom
1/2 t cloves

Rub together with your fingers to make topping, and sprinkle on top:
1/4 c cold butter cut into small pieces
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c chopped walnuts
1/3 c oats
1/2 t cinnamon

Bake for about 35 minutes.

French green lentil salad (or soup)

8 c water
1 or 2 cubes not-chicken bouillon
1 T oil
2 c French green lentils
2 large spring onion bulbs, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 crimini mushrooms, chopped
3 oz spinach, chopped
2 c Israeli couscous
>2 T lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water, bouillon, and oil to boil. Add lentils, onion, and garlic, and simmer for a bit. Add mushrooms and simmer until the lentils are pretty much done. Add spinach and Israeli couscous, and simmer until the Israeli couscous is done. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice. I usually make this as a soup--just add more water. Add some feta to make it richer and less vegan.

Chapathis and parathas

the full menu: chapathi, paratha, bhindi, baigan bharta, rice



from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking
This is for 4 chapathis and 2 parathas for 2 hungry people; multiply as you wish.

2/3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c all-purpose white flour
1/2 t salt
1 T melted butter (or ghee, if you're more awesome than me)
slightly less than 1/3 c warm (wrist-temp) water
melted butter for brushing

Sift together flours into a bowl and mix in the salt. Drizzle in the melted butter and mix with your fingertips as for biscuits. Pour in the half the water, mixing with your fingers as you go, until it forms a cohesive blob. Continue to knead and slowly add more water as needed to form a nice pliable dough. Knead for a few more minutes. When you're happy with the smoothness and pliableness, swirl the ball of dough in the residual melted butter, then cover and let rest in a warm/hot place for 45 min.

Sprinkle a little bit of flour on a clean work surface. Knead the dough for a minute, cut it in half, and cut each half into one big piece (just over a third) and two small pieces (just under a third). Make big pieces into parathas: roll out into a 6" circle, brush the top with melted butter, fold in half, brush with butter again, fold in half again, and roll out into a 6" triangle. Make the small pieces into chapathis: just roll out into a 6" circle.

Preheat two cast-iron frying pans on medium and brush one with butter. After a few minutes when the pans are hot, fry the chapathis in the dry pan and the parathas in the buttered pan, flipping when the bottom side gets brown spots and the top is puffing. Wrap in a towel while cooking the rest.

Baigan bharta

from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

1 eggplant
1 T oil (or ghee)
1 hot chili, sans seeds, minced
1/8 t asafetida
1 t cumin seeds
1 t coriander
1 t salt
a few torn-up leaves of mint (which is all I had, but more mint plus some cilantro would be better)
1/3 c yogurt

Put the eggplant on a baking sheet at roast at 350F-400F for 45 min until very squishy. Slice in half and scoop out the pulp, discarding the seedier bits. Mash up a bit. Fry chili, asafetida, and cumin seeds in hot but not smoking oil, until the cumin seeds darken. Add eggplant, coriander, and salt, and cook until the mixture is thick and liquid is reduced. Let cool for a few minutes, then stir in the yogurt, garam masala, and mint.

Bhindi

KD's base, Lester's interpretation

150g (half of a) onion, sliced
1 t cumin seeds
1/8 t tumeric
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 finger chilis, deseeded and minced
1" piece ginger, peeled and minced
3 good-sized tasty tomatoes
1/2 t salt, or to taste
300g okra, trimmed and chopped in half
1 t garam masala
some freshly-chopped cilantro

Fry onion in some oil on medium until it starts to turn brown. Add cumin seeds and continue frying until they brown and pop. Add tumeric and turn the heat down to lowish. Add garlic-chili-ginger (GCG, as they say) and stir as it simmers gently. After 30 sec to a minute ish, add tomatoes and salt and increase the heat. Simmer and stir, letting liquid reduce. You can add any veggies you want at this point, but we're adding okra, which has been meanwhile frying in a separate pan in a bit of oil until brown. Add that okra and simmer for 10-15 min. Stir in garam masala and cilantro.

Chocolate salted caramels by Toni

Once upon a time Toni made some chocolate caramels...and things went badly wrong but luckily then there was a second attempt:
no candy thermometer, but hopefully no glass in the caramels either.

Ingredients:
1 cup of heavy cream
5 oz dark chocolate
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp dark corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1.5 tbsp butter

Bring the heavy cream to the boil, add chocolate and let it melt for a minute, then stir until everything is melted and remove form heat.
Bring all the sugary items plus salt to the boil. Let it go dark golden brown, which should take about 10 minutes. This will also require quite a bit of stirring. Then slowly add the chocolate cream mix. Don't be afraid the steaming and bubbling is normal. Boil all this on medium heat for about 15 minutes with constant stirring so it doesn't burn. If you had a thermometer (unlike me, because I broke it with my previous attempt) the mixture should reach a core temperature of 255F or 125C.
Then add the little bits of butter wait till they are melted and then pour the entire mixture into a 8x8 inch dish lined with parchment paper. Don't be tempted to scrape the left overs from the pan out! Let it cool for 10 minutes and then sprinkle with coarse salt.
Everything should cool thoroughly for about 2 hours then, little squares can be cut, which can then be wrapped into wax/grease proof paper.
Et voila some salted chocolate caramels ready to be served.

Lester's coffee & walnut cupcakes

cupcakes:
1 cup earth balance or butter
1 2/3 c brown sugar
3 eggs
1 c chopped walnuts
[1 1/4 c all-purpose flour + 1 T baking powder] OR [1 1/4 c self-rising flour + 1.5 t baking powder]
2 T Camp coffee chicory essence

Preheat oven to 325F and check your cupcake liner stash. Cream together earth balance and sugar, then beat in eggs. Combine flour, baking powder, and walnuts in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and Camp coffee to batter, stir to combine. Scoop into at least a dozen lined cupcake tins; I got 14 big cupcakes. Bake for about 25 min and cool before decorating.

frosting:
3/4 c earth balance
3.5 c powdered sugar
1 T milk
1 T Camp coffee
walnut bits for decorating

Beat together until your desired combination of light, fluffy, creamy, etc is achieved, adding tiny amounts of powdered sugar or milk to tune the texture. Pipe (with a bona fide pastry bag!) onto cupcakes and top with walnut quarters.

Veggie paella with shrimp

bit of olive oil
1 red onion, cut into thin wedges
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1/2 pack TJ's soy chorizo
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 long yellow summer squash, cut into semicircles
2 little tomatoes, diced
1 handful green beans, trimmed and halved
1 dozen frozen artichoke quarters
1.5 c arborio rice
2/3 c white wine
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 pinch saffron in 2.5 c hot broth
enough shrimp to loosely tile the top of your pan

Preheat oven to 400F. In wide oven-safe frying pan, saute onion and garlic in oil. Add chorizo and cook for a few minutes. Add veggies and saute briefly, then add rice and saute for a few minutes. Add wine and lemon and cook off. Arrange everything how you want it now, because you won't be stirring it after this! Pour on broth, 1/2 c ish at a time, and simmer on medium-high until the rice is almost done (about 15 min). Arrange shrimp on top and transfer to oven. Bake for 6 min, until the rest of the liquid is absorbed, the shrimp and rice are done, and the veggies on top are a bit browned around the edges. Serve with baguette and more white wine. There's supposed to be a crispy but not charred crust on the bottom, and you're supposed to eat it and enjoy.

Red onion and apple chutney

1/2 c apple cider vinegar
2/3 c packed brown sugar
2 Braeburn apples, peeled and chopped (2.5 c)
1 red onion, minced (1 c)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1" piece ginger, minced
1/4 t chili flakes, minced
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t cardamom
1/2 t soy sauce

Simmer together vinegar and sugar to dissolve. Add the other ingredients and simmer for 45 min, covering the pot except when you're stirring and mashing at the apples (which should be every few minutes). If the apples are cooking faster than the liquid is reducing, leave the lid off for a bit. Makes 2 cups. This is delicious in a variety of contexts, but was designed to go in stuffed Japanese yams.

Stuffed Japanese yams

per 7 yams (or per yam half):
7 (half) Japanese yams with a good aspect ratio for stuffing
1-2 oz (1 spoonful) chevre (eg Redwood Hill)
1.5 Tb (a little) melted butter
1/2 t (a tiny bit) soy sauce
4-5 oz (2 spoonfuls) crumbled Bulgarian sheeps-milk feta from Berkeley Bowl
2/3 c (1 spoonful) red onion-apple chutney

To pre-roast: Preheat oven to 450F. Wash yams and roast on a foil-covered baking sheet for 35-45 min, until they give just a little bit when squeezed, turning over halfway through. Let cool for an hour or two, then cut in half crosswise and scoop out the middles into a little bowl. Mash the middles a bit with the chevre.

To assemble: Melt butter and soy sauce together in a little bowl. Brush the inside of each yam half with soy-butter (1&2), squish a bit of feta into the bottom of each well (3), add a spoonful of chutney (4), top with another bit of feta (5), and cover with mashed middles, smoothing the top to seal the insides in (6). Wrap in foil and roast at 450F for another 30 min (or grill!). Cool until holdable, then eat like a burrito or ice cream cone, peeling back the skin as you go (or not).



You'll probably have some middles left over, so you should eat them with some more chutney and feta, or just by themselves.

PS A couplet said by Anna accidentally during testing and noticed by Lester:
There's two with chevre and two with feta;
The question now is, which kind is better?

Mint brownies

based on these, incorporating the comments

brownies:
1.5 sticks butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
1.5 c sugar
3/4 c flour
1/2 c chocolate cookie crumbs
1 t vanilla
1.5 t mint syrup
1/2 t salt
a little more butter and some cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Melt butter and chocolate together in a small saucepan until smooth, then let cool. Beat together sugar and eggs until fluffy. Mix in all the other ingredients (except the last bit for the pan). Butter a 9x13" pan and dust with cocoa powder (great idea Jill!). Pour the batter into the pan, bake for 20 min until toothpick comes out almost clean, and cool for 10-20 min.

mint frosting:
3 c powdered sugar
3/4 stick butter, softened
3 T milk
1.5 t mint syrup

Beat together until creamy, and spread over warm brownies. Put in the fridge for an hour to set.

chocolate ganache:
1/2 stick butter
8 oz dark chocolate (18 squares of TJ's pound plus)
2 T milk

Melt together until smooth, cool for 5 min, spread over brownies, and stick back in the fridge until ready to serve.

Trivial TJ's dinner 2: queso-less-dillas

2 tortillas (I like thicker flour ones for this, eg TJ's handmade)
spread: TJ's spicy black bean dip (by the salsas) or hummus
greens: spinach and/or arugula
thinly sliced veggies: usually mushroom, but pretty much anything would work
can also put in chevre (goes with hummus) or avocado (goes with anything, of course)

Start heating a large heavy-bottomed frying pan on medium. Spread with your spread of choice, assemble with other fillings, and cook in ungreased pan until the tortillas are toasty and the veggies are semi-cooked. Clearly trivial; the main point of posting this is to say how good the spicy black bean dip is, and how cheese is pretty unnecessary if everything else is flavorful.

Trivial TJ's dinner 1: pizza

TJ's spicy spinach pizza (above the prepared sandwiches) (keep in the freezer indefinitely)

topping options:
greens (spinach, arugula, basil, etc)
thinly sliced veggies (tomato, mushroom, bell pepper, etc)
mozzarella cheese
grated parmesean or similar (I keep a little pregrated tupperware in the freezer for such situations)
salt, pepper, herbs

Take a pizza crust out of the freezer, peel off the waxed paper, and toast in the toaster oven to defrost. Prepare assorted toppings. Put toppings on crust (greens then veggies then cheese) and toast again. Cut into quarters and eat. So easy, and tastes like food! One pizza is enough for a not-starving person.

Mexican-style veggies

fajitas, burritos, something

1 T oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1.5 t cumin
1/2 t chili powder
salt to taste
1 can black beans
1 red bell pepper, cut into shortish strips
2 long summer squash or zucchini, cut into thin semicircles
2 handfuls green beans, ends removed and cut in half
both halves of a lime
grated cheddar, cubed avocado, warm tortillas

Cook onion and sweet potato in oil on medium-high for a good long while, stirring occasionally and covering the pot occasionally, until onion is light brown and sweet potato is mostly done. Reduce heat to medium low, then add spices+juice of half a lime+beans, then red pepper+squash, then green beans, cooking for a few minutes between each addition. Serve on tortillas with cheese, avocado, and wedges of the other half a lime.

Mushroom gnocchi

2 cloves garlic
4 small spring onion bulbs
1 not-too-hot chili pepper
1.5 TJ packs crimini mushrooms
1-2 T madiera
pinch bouillon in 1/4 hot water
1-2 handfuls arugula
2-3 T cream
handful grated asiago
salt and pepper to taste
1 pack gnocchi

Mince garlic, onion, and chili, and saute in a large pot with some olive oil. Thinly slice mushrooms (stems on and skin off, if you're Toni), add to the pot, and saute. (Start boiling water for the gnocchi at this point; cook gnocchi in a separate pot.) Add madiera and bouillon to the mushrooms, simmer until liquid is reduced and/or absorbed. Stir in arugula and cook until wilted. Stir in cream, cheese, and seasonings, then stir in gnocchi (which should be done by now). This is more filling than it appears, or at least more filling than we expected.

Mint simple syrup

Simmer together for 20 min:
1 c water
1 c sugar
3/4 c packed spearmint leaves

Let cool, pour into a glass jar (squishing all the syrup out of the mint leaves and discarding them), and store in fridge. To be used in mint juleps and mojitos, in place of mint extract in baked goods, etc.

Tiramisu

Remember to make this 12-24 hr before serving.

12 oz mascarpone (340 g)
1/2 t vanilla
3 good fresh eggs, separated
2 T + 3 T sugar
2/3 c whipping cream
2/3 c strong coffee (better yet, espresso)
1/3 c milk
2 oz booze (I generally use rum or Kahlua, but this time I tried rum + Drambuie)
~3 dozen ladyfingers, storebought and/or homemade

In a large bowl, stir together mascarpone and vanilla until smooth. Add egg yolks (putting whites in a medium bowl), 2 T sugar, and a splash of booze, and stir until smooth and pale. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, add 3 T sugar, and beat until stiff glossy peaks form. Fold the whites into the mascarpone. Whip the whipping cream and also fold into the rest of the creamy things.

In a flat-bottomed bowl large enough to fit your ladyfingers, combine coffee, milk, and a couple more splashes of booze. Dip ladyfingers in coffee-booze and arrange them in the bottom of a 9x9 glass pan. Pour half the creamy deliciousness over the ladyfingers. Repeat with another layer of ladyfingers and the rest of the creamy deliciousness; this should fill the pan just about to the rim. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving. At serving time, scoop into pretty little bowls or glasses and dust with cocoa powder.

Ladyfingers

Neither Berkeley Bowl nor Trader Joe's had ladyfingers, and I'd rather try making my own than go all the way to Andronico's. Thus, an attempt based on http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Soft-Lady-Fingers-350260. They taste good but turned out spongier and tougher than store-bought ones; cake flour instead of all-purpose might help with that.

5 eggs
1/2 c + 1.5 T sugar
7/8 c flour
parchment paper for the pans

Preheat oven to 400F.

Separate eggs, putting yolks in the larger bowl. With electric mixer, beat yolks with 1/2 c sugar for many minutes until it's very pale yellow and forms thick ribbons as it drips off the mixer. By hand, gradually stir in the flour.

Wash beaters, and whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly pour in 1.5 T sugar and beat until stiff glossy peaks form. Stir a third of the whites into the dough to lighten, then gently but thoroughly fold in the rest.

Scoop into a ziploc with the tip snipped off (or a pastry bag if you're better-equipped than I am) and pipe ladyfinger-sized strips of batter onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Turn oven down to 350F and bake for 6-9 min until pale gold. Remove from parchment to cooling racks after a few minutes.

English muffins

a combination of http://www.shesimmers.com/2009/03/homemade-english-muffins-complete-with.html and http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/recipe-for-authentic-english-muffins-with-natural-nooks-and-crannies/

Dissolve together and cool:
3/4 c powdered skim milk
2 T sugar
1.5 t salt
1.5 T earth balance
1.5 c hot water

Combine and let sit for a few minutes:
1 packet yeast
1/2 c warm water

also need:
3.5 c flour
1.5 t baking soda
cornmeal
cast-iron pan(s)

Add yeast mixture to milk mixture. Put 2 c flour in a large bowl, stir in liquids, and stir in another 1.5 c of flour. Stir with determination for a couple minutes until smooth, cohesive, viscous, and even slightly glutinously stringy--snotty, really. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 6 hr (or overnight) at warmish room temperature.

Cover a plate with cornmeal. With a plastic spoon or spatula, stir dough to deflate and homogenize. Scoop muffin-sized blobs of dough, the right number to fit in your pan(s), onto the cornmeal plate. Preheat the pan(s) on just-above-low. Carefully transfer blobs to pan, cornmeal-side down, using a slotted spoon or just your fingers--pulling up and kind of folding over the edges of the blob to create more cornmealed surface on the sides helps. While the first side is browning, put more blobs on the cornmeal, adding more cornmeal if needed. Flip when the first side is brown and remove to a cooling rack when the second side is brown, 5-15 min per side depending on pan temperature. Repeat with the rest of the muffin blobs.

When cool, split open with a fork or fingertips and toast. Eat with butter and jam for breakfast, as a burger bun for dinner, etc.

Roasted eggplant&things and potatoes

for veggies:
1 eggplant, peel and brown bruised bits cut off
2 green UFO-shaped summer squash
1/2 head cauliflower
5 cloves garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c old red wine that's been in the fridge for a couple weeks
rosemary pulled off 3-4" of stem
4 medium-small farmer's market tomatoes, quartered
generous salt and pepper

Cut non-tomato veggies into bite-sized pieces and put in a large bowl with garlic. Mix oil, wine, and rosemary in a small bowl, pour over the veggies, and toss well. Dump into a 9x13 pan, gently stir in tomatoes, and sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Roast at 400F for 40 min, stirring occasionally.

for potatoes:
5 3" fingerling potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 T olive oil
rosemary pulled off 1-2" of stem
more salt and pepper

Combine potatoes and dressing in a loaf pan. Roast at 400F for 40 min, chuffing (vigorously shaking to soften up the potatoes' interior) partway through.

Serve with Israeli couscous with arugula, bread and Boursin, Toni's fennel and dumpling soup, and red wine. Yep, my house is pretty great.

Rugelach

dough:
6 oz cream cheese
1.5 sticks butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 c sugar
2 c flour
1/4 t cardamom

Combine cream cheese and butter in food processor, and process until smooth-ish (the ease of achieving smoothness may depend on the size of your starting butter pieces and the frequency with which you scrape down the sides of the bowl). Add sugar, process. Add flour and cardamom, process briefly. Scoop out 4 equal blobs of dough onto 4 equal-sized pieces of plastic wrap, fold the plastic wrap over each piece, and squish the dough into discs. Put in the freezer for 1/2 - 1 hr until well chilled.

filling:
3/4 c walnut pieces
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/2 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon

While the dough is chilling, wash the food processor then get it dirty again by processing together the filling ingredients until they form something between a grit and a paste.

to assemble:
flour for the board
parchment paper on baking sheets
optional spreads, eg orange marmalade, blackberry sauce, nutella
1 egg + 1 T milk, beaten together

Preheat oven to 350F. Working with one piece of dough at a time, remove the dough from the freezer a few minutes before rolling it out. Flour a work surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough into a 8-10" circle, turning dough over frequently and reflouring as needed to prevent sticking. (Now might be a good time to take out the next piece of dough.) Spread with spread (if using) and cover with a quarter of the filling, making sure to get both almost to the edge of the circle. Cut into 12 wedges with a sharp little knife. Starting at the wide end, roll up each wedge, and place it on a parchment-covered baking sheet. If the filling is falling out around the edges, press it into the dough a bit. (Also, note me stressing the parchment-covered nature of the baking sheets.) Repeat with the other pieces of dough. Brush with a thin layer of the egg wash and bake for 20 min.

Guacamole

Mash together:
2 avocados
a few medium-small farmer's market tomatoes, diced
1 spring onion, bulb minced and green part sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, minced
salt to taste

Of course one could also add lime juice, cilantro, or other sources of excitement, but this worked quite well enough.

Not quite Lester's artichoke pasta

olive oil
1 shallot, minced
spoonful pesto or minced garlic
1 can TJ's artichoke hearts
1/3 c white wine
1 c shelled farmer's market peas
2 handfuls arugula
1 package long flat pasta (fettuccine, pappardelle, etc)
grated asiago, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, to taste

In a largish pot/pan saute shallot and pesto in oil; simultaneously boil water for pasta. When the pasta is ready to go in the pot, add the artichokes and wine to the shallots. Mash up the artichokes while sauteing. When the pasta is almost done, mix veggies, cheese, and seasonings into the artichoke pan. Drain pasta, add it to the artichokes, incorporate as thoroughly as possible. Serve with the rest of the wine and more cheese.

Pumpkin-applesauce bread pudding

1 loaf Metropolis Baking Company golden duram bread (challah or other slightly sweet white bread will work too), preferably stale
3 eggs
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c molasses
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c pumpkin butter
1 c cream
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cardamom
2/3 c currants

Cut the bread into as many 1-inch cubes as will fit in a 8x8 or 9x9 square baking dish. If the bread isn't stale, let it dry on the counter for a while, or put the cubes in a warm (~250 F) oven for a while (I did the latter). Mix everything else together. Combine the liquid and the bread cubes, making sure the cubes get coated and the currants get distributed. Put in a buttered pan and bake at 350 F for 30-45 min or until the liquid is nowhere runny (baking took longer than I expected, your mileage may vary).

Top with fresh whipped cream or other tasty substance of your choice. Adding some apple slices or cubes would work well too, or some chopped nuts.

Mushroom parsnip mini pies

butter for sauteing
2 onions, thinly sliced
3 parsnips, grated
lots of assorted exciting mushrooms, coarsely chopped, and knowledge
about how long they take to cook
1/2 c bouillon
1/2 c port
a goodly quantity of pepper
8 oz gruyere, grated
handful fresh dill, minced
puff pastry, either storebought or by hand, eg youtube

Caramelize onions. Add parsnips, cook until soft, transfer to bowl.
Saute the mushrooms, add the bouillon and port, simmer for a while.
Pepper to taste. Mix the mushrooms, cheese, and dill into the
parsnips. Preheat the oven to 500F. Cut the puff pastry into ~30
squares that are the right size to line your cupcake pan with the
corners sticking up; do so. Fill each pie and fold the corners loosely
over the top. Put in oven, turn oven down to 400F, bake for ~30 min
until browned.

Boysenvelvet cupcakes

2 baskets boysenberries, washed, squished, and strained to make juice
1 stick butter, softened
1.25 c white sugar
2 eggs
.25 c cocoa powder
2 c flour, sifted
1 tsp salt
.5 c plain yogurt
.25 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Butter pans for 24 regular-size cupcakes and preheat the oven to 350F. In a big bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together. Beat in the eggs until very fluffy. In a little bowl, mix .5 c boysenberry juice with the cocoa powder until homogenous, and beat into the butter &etc. In another little bowl, mix the yogurt, milk, and vanilla together to break up any clumps of yogurt. To the batter stir in half the flour/salt, then the yogurt &etc, then the rest of the flour. In a third little bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar, and gently but thoroughly stir into the batter. Spoon into cupcake tins and bake for 15 min. Let cool in the pan for a bit, then gently run a knife around the edges and gently transfer to cooling racks. Store in tupperware lined with wax paper. Gently gently gently, these are rather fragile (I think they could use a little more flour in fact).

To decorate, maybe stir a little more boysenberry juice into some creme fraiche and dollop on top. Maybe top the dollop with whole raspberries or a little less-squished chunk of boysenberry.

Walnut Wolfish bread

• Fry 2-3 c chopped walnuts in earth balance with a handful of brown sugar
• Dissolve 2 packets yeast in 2 c warm water and a bit of earth balance
• Put 3.5 c white flour, 1 c wheat flour, 1 c wheat bran, and 0.5 c milk powder in a bowl
• Add liquid, mix, knead
• Add walnuts, knead
• Add 1-2 tsp salt, knead
• Rise in bowl
• Form into 2 loaves
• Rise on baking sheet dusted in cornmeal
• Bake at 400 for 30 min on the bottom rack, with a dish of water on the top rack
  

Two-day white bread

from Uncle John's Original Bread Book

night before:
1 packet yeast
2 c lukewarm watter
3 c white bread flour

Mix together all ingredients. Stir well but don't need to knead. Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place overnight.

day of:
2 c milk, scalded
2 T butter
0.25 c sugar
4 t salt
yeseterday's sponge
4-8 c white bread flour

Stir together butter, sugar, and salt into the hot milk, cool to lukewarm. Add liquid to the sponge (the stuff from last night) and stir to mix. Add flour gradually until you have a dough you're happy with (recipe calls for 4 more cups of flour, I added at least 8 and it was still on the sticky side). Knead lots. Put in greased bowl covered with cloth in warm place, rise until doubled. (This rise was a bit slow for me, probably because the house was cold.) Punch down and scoop out onto a floured surface. Cut into the number of pieces you want. With each piece, pick it up by one end and slap it against the surface a few times, then gently form into a ball and let rest for 10 min. Elongate to the length of your loaf pan, roll the sides under a bit, and place in the greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise (this rise took about an hour). Bake at 400-425 for 45 min, rotating the pans if your oven is as cramped as mine. Brush the tops with butter. Serve to your friends, or toast and eat for breakfast with cinnamon sugar and rooibos tea.

Rula's bulgar with two beans

1 T olive oil
1 onion
1 c bulgar
1 T garlic
2.5 c stock
.25 t cinnamon
.25 t allspice
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1 T tomato paste
1 15oz can black beans
1 15oz can garbanzos
2-3 diced tomatoes
8oz feta
.5 c herbs (mint, oregano, parsley)
lemon juice

Cook onion in oil. Add bulgar, toast 5 min. Add garlic, cook. Add everything up to and including beans, bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat, cook 15 min until bulgar is tender. Add fresh things. Eat and rejoice.

Blueberry brunch challah, with variations

1 bag Trader Joe's dried blueberries (alternate filling: chopped walnuts)
1 stick butter
1/2 cup or more honey or brown sugar (preferably honey, but brown sugar works too)
2 eggs
1 cup milk and/or water (this may be an underestimate)
2 packets yeast
2 cups whole wheat flour and/or 1 cup oats
4-8 cups white bread flour
some cardamom or other spices of choice
2 tsp salt
a bit more brown sugar and butter
2 pie pans

Put butter in a microwavable bowl. If using honey, put it in too. If
using oats, put them in too along with some extra liquid. If both
loaves will be blueberry, put the blueberries in too. Microwave until
butter is melted and/or oats are at least partly cooked. Add eggs,
milk/water, and brown sugar (if you didn't use honey), mix well, and
cool to a nice lukewarm temperature that will make the yeast happy.
Look at the bowl you're using and decide if it's big enough to hold
the flour too; transfer the goop to a larger bowl if not.

Sprinkle on yeast and wait a few minutes for it to proof. Add the
flour(s), spices if you want, and salt. (You don't want a stiff dough,
so don't add too much flour to start out with.) Mix to form a soft but
not sticky dough and knead for several minutes until the dough is
pliable. If you want to make one loaf blueberry and one loaf something
else (eg walnut), cut the dough in half and knead
a couple handfuls of blueberries into one half and a couple handfuls
of whatever else into the other half. Lightly oil one (or two)
bowl(s), form dough into ball(s), put the ball(s) into the bowl(s),
and turn the ball(s) over to coat with oil on all sides. Cover and let
rise in a warm place until doubled, 1-2 hr.

Prepare the pans by buttering and sprinkling with brown sugar, as for
cinnamon rolls.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. If the dough isn't
already divided in half, cut it in half. Slap each half on the surface
a couple times to deflate. For each half: cut into three equal-sized
pieces. Elongate each piece into a 1.5-2 foot long, ~1 inch diameter
rope. Some blueberries will be falling out; this is fine. Lay the
three strands side by side and braid, starting in the middle and
working toward each end (this makes for a more symmetrical braid).
Gather up any blueberries that have fallen out and sprinkle them in
the prepared pan. Loosely coil the braid around itself to form a
circle almost as big as the pan, and place it in the prepared pan.
Cover and let rise in a warm place.

Preheat the oven to 400 F (hotter or cooler ok). Bake 25-45 minutes
until nicely browned and otherwise done. If they brown too fast, cover
with foil while they finish baking. Brush the tops with butter if you
want, and cool in the pan. Tear off chunks and eat them!

Certain and various biscuits

Biscuits—what Uncle John's Original Bread Book says
1 Tb baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 c normal flour
4 Tb butter
1 c milk

Biscuits—what the bag of self-rising flour we happened to have says
1/2 tsp baking soda
2.5 c self-rising flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 c butter
3/4–1 c buttermilk

Biscuits—a good variation/combination of the two
1 Tb baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 c normal flour
2 c self-rising flour
1 stick butter
1 c plain yogurt
1 c milk

In all cases: mix dry ingredients, cut in cold butter, stir in
milk-like substance, knead gently and fold over a few times, cut into
biscuits, bake on ungreased sheet at 450F for 10–15 min, serve warm to
your friends.

Laura's blueberry buckle

topping:
1/3 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tb cold butter in small pieces

• Rub together until crumbly.

batter:
1 c flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
some cardamom for good measure
1/2 sugar
1/4 c shortening
1 egg
1/3 c milk

• Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl.
• In a large bowl, cream the sugar and shortening, then add the egg.
• Add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk.

to assemble:
>2 c blueberries
whipped cream

• Butter 8" square pan. (If you want some to bring to work and some to leave at home, make a 1.5x batch, and put some in an 8" pan and some in a loaf pan.)
• Spread batter in pan, sprinkle with blueberries (all parts of the pan should be ~2 berries deep), sprinkle with topping.
• Bake at 350F for 40 min. Serve with whipped cream.