For father's day

For the biggest peanut/peanut brittle/peanut butter - loving person I know, my dad, I made some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies this morning. These cookies are a cross between chocolate chip cookies and classic peanut butter criscross cookies. The peanut butter adds a slightly sandy texture to these crunchy-crispy soft-in-the-middle cookies. A healthy dose of chocolate chips thrown into the batter gives these cookies some gooey goodness. I know they weren't made for me, but I ate some anyway. I love these!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

* 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), softened
* 1/4 cup of brown sugar
* 1/4 cup of white sugar
* 1/2 cup of peanut butter (I used creamy)
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 egg
* 1 1/4 cup of flour
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. In a large mixer, cream butter, peanut putter, sugars and vanilla. Add the egg and mix until light & fluffy. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt - mix thoroughly. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, stirring continuously. Add chocolate chips and combine. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough on the baking sheet and press the center of the cookie with a fork. Bake for 10-11 minutes.

For a pic, see "For the Love of Cooking's" post of the same cookies at:
http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/05/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Zucchini-Pineapple Quick Bread

In the newest edition of Cooking Light, the "make-over" recipe featured is for Zucchini-Pineapple Quick Bread. The new and improved recipe cut down the amount of fat and calories significantly. Just reading the short blurb about the bread made me want to try it. Reviewers said that they liked the low-fat version better than the original. Could that really be true? Were they lying??

Well, I've made the recipe, and it's really good! I never tried the orignal, but I'd say that if someone served this to me, I would have no idea it was low fat because it tastes just that good. I give it a big thumbs up.

It's an easy recipe. Here are the players.

Just add the zucchini in with the rest of the batter.

Pre-oven bread. I halved the recipe to only make one loaf- the full recipe makes two.

Soooooooo moist and tasty. I think I love it more than banana bread.

Zucchini-Pineapple Quick Bread

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour (about 13 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 1/2 medium zucchini)
2/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup egg substitute
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (8-ounce) cans crushed pineapple in juice, drained
Baking spray with flour

1. Preheat oven to 325°.

2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, salt, and next 3 ingredients (through ground cinnamon) in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

3. Beat eggs with a mixer at medium speed until foamy. Add sugar, zucchini, oil, egg substitute, and vanilla, beating until well blended. Add zucchini mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in pineapple. Spoon batter into 2 (9 x 5-inch) loaf pans coated with baking spray. Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield: 2 loaves, 14 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)

CALORIES 167 (32% from fat); FAT 5.9g (sat 0.5g,mono 3.3g,poly 1.7g); PROTEIN 2.4g; CHOLESTEROL 15mg; CALCIUM 16mg; SODIUM 151mg; FIBER 0.7g; IRON 0.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 26.5g

Cooking Light, JUNE 2008

MLF's Polenta Casserole

Polenta casserole with spicy Italian sausage, homemade tomato sauce and thick slices of mozzerella.

This is MLF's famed dish. He's been raving about it for months now. He claims it is one of his favorite foods in the world. Finally I was able to try it for myself last week when he decided to cook me dinner after my trip back from Chicago. It's pretty darn good (even though I made a very simliar recipe long ago), but I'd say this is even better because as you know, food always tastes better when others prepare it for you! And because this is SPECIAL polenta. By SPECIAL, I mean that this elusive polenta cornmeal was sought after for over 1.5 hours and at many groc stores. Poor MLF didn't realize that polenta was made with cornmeal! After scouring every grocery store shelf in Charlotte and enlisting the help of clueless store employees for this "polenta" stuff, he realized he could use cornmeal. Note that Harris Teeter employees!

Gingersnap Cookies

These cookies are crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle. A roll through some demerara gives them sparkle and crunch. I stashed a large chocolate chip at the center of some cookies as a surprise!

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups cups granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup more for coating
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup molasses
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Heat oven to 375° F. Cream the butter and 1 3/4 cups sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. Lower to medium and add the eggs, molasses, vinegar, and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and pepper. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Beat until incorporated. Fold in the crystallized ginger. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions (it will be sticky). Place each portion on a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a 12-inch log, 2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill for 1 hour. Slice each log into disks, 1/2 inch thick. Dredge in the remaining sugar. Place on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake until crinkly around the edges, about 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Yield: Makes 6 dozenCALORIES 73 (18% from fat); FAT 1g (sat 1g); PROTEIN 1mg; CHOLESTEROL 9mg; CALCIUM 8mg; SODIUM 72mg; FIBER 0g; CARBOHYDRATE 14g; IRON 1mg

Real Simple, MAY 2005

Lemon Strawberry Layer Cake

Lemon Strawberry Layer Cake

Scrumptious! This cake is a modified version of 'Nathan's Lemon Cake' from Cooking Light. The original was supposed to make 16 servings, so I halved it and made the cake in 6'' ramekins. 4 of us managed to polish off the supposed 8 servings in about 10 minutes! The frosting is tangy and rich, matching perfectly with the lemony moist cake. I doubt that 16 servings would have posed much of a challenge--next time I'm making full-size.

Ingredients

object2="> Cake:
object2="> Cooking spray
object2=">2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
object2=">2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
object2=">1 teaspoon baking powder
object2=">1/2 teaspoon baking soda
object2=">1/2 teaspoon salt
object2=">1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
object2=">1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
object2=">3 large eggs
object2=">1 cup nonfat buttermilk
object2=">2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind
object2=">2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare cake, coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms of pans with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray. Dust pans with 2 tablespoons flour, and set aside.

3. Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

4. Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and nonfat buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon rind and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

5. Pour batter into prepared pans; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack; remove wax paper from cake layers.

6. To prepare icing, combine powdered sugar and the remaining ingredients (except lemon rind strips) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread half of icing on top of cake. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining half of icing over top of cake. Garnish with lemon rind strips, if desired. Store cake loosely covered in the refrigerator.

Yield

16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 317(27% from fat); FAT 9.5g (sat 5.6g,mono 2.6g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 3.6g; CHOLESTEROL 56mg; CALCIUM 52mg; SODIUM 165mg; FIBER 0.6g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 55.7g

Nathan Coulon , Cooking Light, MAY 2008

Pawts dee kreem

What's better together than chocolate and cream? Amy and I, of course!

Tonight we got together to make the NYT's recipe for Pots de Creme. PDC, which is pronunced: poh duh KREHM, is a creamy, custardy French dessert. Each portion is baked in an individual little ramekin. Basically anything and everything rich and creamy gets melted together and then baked in a water bath. This recipe calls for dark delicious bittersweet chocolate. I like my chocolate like I like my guys - dark and rich.

HA. Just kidding!! ... not.

We made the pots tonight and now they have to get their beauty rest in the refrigerator overnight before we can taste them tomorrow. I'm betting they'll be awesome!

Extra-Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Crème

Time: 55 minutes, plus chilling

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Crème fraîche or whipped cream, for serving.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a heavy saucepan, bring cream and milk to a boil. Remove from heat; whisk in chopped chocolate until smooth.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the yolks, sugar and salt. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot chocolate into yolks. Strain through a very fine mesh sieve into a large measuring cup or bowl.

3. Divide mixture among 2- to 4-ounce espresso cups or small ramekins. Set filled cups in a large roasting pan that has been positioned on center rack of oven. Add hot tap water to pan, halfway up sides of cups. Cover pan with foil; use a fork to prick holes in foil.

4. Bake until edges are lightly set (lifting foil to check) but center is still jiggly — it will set as it cools — 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer cups to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving with crème fraîche or whipped cream.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Triple Bean Salad

Beans, beans, the musical fruit...

This extremely easy recipe is from a issue of Better Homes and Garden. The recipe requires just a few ingredients and needs some marinating time. Apparently the author of this recipe won $200 or something for it. It's good...but not $$$ good! This cool and light salad makes a good side dish to summer's grilled meat entrees.

Ingredients:
2 cups frozen sween soybeans (edamame) [I used lima beans]
1 15-oz. can kidney beans
1 15-oz. can garbanzo beans
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. finely shredded lime peel
1/4 cup lime juice

Direction:
Rinse and drain the canned beans. Combine with beans, edamame, onion and cilantro.
Whisk together oil, lime peel, lime juice and 1/2 tsp. salt. Pour over bean mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Stir will before serving.

Makes 10 servings.