Steamed Mussels

Philadelphia has some great restaurants, but some of the best places are tiny, seemingly hole-in-the-wall joints. Monk's Cafe serves amazing Belgian beer, mussels, sandwiches, etc. And while I was living in the Art Museum neighborhood of Philly, a sister restaurant opened up half a block from my apartment, called Belgian Cafe. Belgian and Monk's are the best for unique beers, mussels, and a casual atmosphere. Both of these places have provided us with tons of inspiration for cooking mussels!

Jim and I were looking for a simple weeknight dinner to watch during the Olympics so we decided on mussels. I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home from work and picked up a bag of fresh Maine mussels, asparagus, and crusty bread. This time around, we tried a new version of mussels, and they turned out to be delicious as usual.

Ingredients:

1 bag of mussels (small-sized mussels are the best)

3 strips turkey bacon

1 bottle of beer (preferably something Belgian)

3 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 onion, diced

handful of blue cheese

Directions:

Cook bacon and set aside. Clean and de-beard mussels if necessary. In a large pot, pour in beer and bring to a boil. Set steamer in bottom of pot. Add in garlic, onion, and mussels. Cover pot and steam until mussels open, about 5 minutes. Discard any that do not open. Poor mussels, onion, garlic, and liquid from pot into a serving bowl. Top with crumbled, crispy bacon and blue cheese.

Chicken Marsala

With the leftover Marsala wine from the Tiramisu cupcakes, I decided to look up Chicken Marsala recipes. I never realized how simple it was to make Chicken Marsala. I found an Emeril Lagasse recipe that turned out to be incredibly delicious. Since Jim is still learning to love mushrooms, I used mushrooms that I knew he definitely liked - baby portobellos and shiitake. We served this over whole wheat spaghetti. Try this one for sure!

Valentine's Day - Part 2

I debated for a while about what to make for Valentine's Day dessert. I thought about the obvious choice - red velvet cake/cupcakes, creme brulee, and a fancy cheese platter. I looked through my Cupcakes cookbook and decided on Tiramisu cupcakes. This was not a difficult recipe, but it did take a lot of time because of the many steps. Overall, these were very light and delicious. However, there was a salt aftertaste that I could not pinpoint. It wasn't overwhelming, but I was - and still am - perplexed.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. cake flour, sifted

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

1/4 c. milk

1 vanilla bean, cut length-wise, seeds scraped and reserved

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature

1 c. sugar

Coffee-Marsala syrup (recipe follows)

Mascarpone Frosting (recipe follows)

Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until minutes, and let stand about 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla bean pod.

2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale, and yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

3. Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 c. batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, about three-quarters full. Bake until centers are completely set and edges are slightly golden brown, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

5. Brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup (recipe below) and allow cupcakes to absorb liquid, about 30 minutes. Dollop frosting (recipe below) onto cupcakes, and generously dust with cocoa powder just before serving.

Coffee-Marsala Syrup

Ingredients:

1/3 c. plus 1 tbsp. freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)

1 oz. marsala

1/4 c. sugar

Stir together coffee, marsala, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool.

Mascarpone Frosting (this is extremely delicious!)

Ingredients:

1 c. heavy cream

8 oz. mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1/2 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer on medium, speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream unto mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Valentine's Day - Part 1

Although Valentine's Day is a highly commercialized holiday, my husband and I like to use it as an excuse to eat something super delicious. We decided to stay in and go with a surf and turf theme.

Jim found a steak recipe that he wanted to try while watching Discovery Health: A LYON in the Kitchen. Jim did an amazing job cooking this steak, and as he so proudly explained to me, he even achieved "sexy grill marks." We will definitely be making this recipe again!

On the surf side, I wanted to make a crab cake recipe that I had been eyeing up for as long as I owned the cookbook, Ted Allen's The Food You Want to Eat.

Crispy oven-fried crab cakes

Ingredients: (I halved this recipe)

1 lb. jumbo lump crab meat

1/4 c. mayonnaise

1 large egg, beaten

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 small scallions coarsely chopped (about 2 tbsps.)
2 heaping tbsps. chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 tsp. Old Bay or Paprika
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
1/4 c. coarsely processed fresh bread crumbs (dense, country-style loaf preferably)
3 c. cornflakes

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the crab meat, mayonnaise, egg, mustard, scallions, parsley, Old Bay or paprika, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Stir gently with a fork to combine. Gently stir in the bread crumbs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Process the cornflakes to coarse crumbs in a food processor and dump onto a plate. Form about 1/3 c. of the chilled crab mixture into a 3-inch cake. Gently dredge the cake in the cornflakes, turning over and completely covering the crab cakes. Continue forming the rest of the crab cakes and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes.

The whole dinner was remarkably easy and extremely delicious! We will be making both of these recipes again. Happy Valentine's Day!

Comfort Food!

With the massive amount of snow we received AGAIN, I decided to make a pot of homemade spaghetti gravy and meatballs. (And yes, it's called "gravy" in my family - if it's made with meat, then it's a gravy!) This is an old family recipe that has been passed down the generations, so I'm going to continue to keep it an in-family recipe. However, I will tell you the ingredients of the meatballs, which in my biased opinion, are the BEST anywhere! (My husband agrees.)

My meatballs contain ground beef, a couple beaten eggs, white bread, salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic. The key to these meatballs is browning the outsides and then allowing them to fully cook in the simmering pot of spaghetti gravy. My biggest pet peeve with most restaurants' meatballs is that they are not up to par. I don't know how to explain it, but they are always.... what's the word?... I guess SLIMY is the only word I can use to describe them. Yuck, no thanks!

With the start of the Olympics, my husband and I decided to have a comfort food-style TV dinner: meatball sandwiches on crusty bread (from Liscio's Bakery), topped with mozzarella and a sprinkling of locatelli cheese. Yum!

What do you view as comfort food?

Buffalo Chicken Sausage Pizza

I am normally not a huge fan of buffalo flavorings. I do not like buffalo wings (gasp!) or anything smothered in that sauce. I prefer to eat the celery and blue cheese dressing that sits on the side of the plate. However, at the grocery store, I noticed they had a chicken sausage with buffalo flavoring. I decided to break from the mold and try it. I knew my husband would be happy since he LOVES wings.

I did not have a recipe in mind, so I just threw together a few ingredients that I thought would compliment the buffalo flavor.

Ingredients:

Pizza crust (I cheated and used a store-bought whole wheat crust)

Buffalo chicken sausage, 1 1/2 links, casings removed, crumbled

6 oz. Mozzarella cheese (depends on the size of your crust)

1 handful Crumbly blue cheese

1-2 tbsp. Frank's Red Hot Sauce

1/4 c. diced onion

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush pizza crust with olive oil and sprinkle garlic powder. Bake for 2-3 minutes (this helped us achieve an extra crispy crust.) Toss chicken sausage with the hot sauce. Remove crust from oven and layer toppings: mozzarella, chicken sausage, blue cheese, more mozzarella, and lastly onion. Allow to cook to your liking. We like crispy pizza so ours cooked for about 12 minutes on the oven rack directly - the cheese was bubbling and the onions had browned.

This was an easy weeknight meal with a perfect balance of heat, salt, and creamy-ness. Enjoy!

Snow Day Snickerdoodles

The South NJ/ Philly area has gotten a lot of snow recently, and my husband and I have become pros at hunkering down and enjoying the weather, despite the road conditions. Yesterday's snowfall totalled just around 17" for us, so we prepared the day before with the essentials - ingredients for guacamole, wine, whiskey, and something to bake - Snickerdoodles! These have turned into my FAVORITE cookie, and although I misplaced my favorite recipe (my friend, Ellie's recipe), I did find one that is very comparable.

In addition to my husband's help, I always have a steady sous chef in the kitchen. Meet Faolan (means 'wolf' in old Gaelic) enjoying the snow!

With family close by, snow days have turned into family gatherings. My mother- and father-in-law hosted this time around, and we served white chicken chili, beef stew, and many other wonderful things. I brought the Snickerdoodles!

Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1.5 c. all purpose flour
4 tbsp. sugar
1.5 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1 c. sugar, baking soda, and cream or tartar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well blended. Beat in as much flour you can with the mixer, and stir in remaining. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375. Combine the 4 tbsp. sugar and 1.5 tsp. cinnamon. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Place balls of dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.