Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way

Being in the house for several days you get kind of stir crazy... Today I baked for the dogs. Wanted to share the recipe for our canine family members... its easy and fun to cook the Three Dog Bakery Way:

Biscotti Bites

2 1/2 cups of flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 TB canola oil

6 TB honey

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla

1/4 cup chopped unsalted peanuts or sunflower seeds

Preheat the over to 350 and grease a baking sheet with nonstick vege spray

Stir together the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and set aside

In a separate bowl whisk together the canola oil and honey until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla, stirring to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to form a smooth dough. Mix in the nuts.

Divide the dough in half and form each half into a ball then roll to a log about 4"wide by 12"

Place logs on the baking sheet and bake 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Transfer logs to a cutting board and cool 5 minutes.

Slice each log at a 45 degree angle about 1/2 inch thick. Place the slices on the baking sheet and bake for an additional 10 minutes to dry out the biscotti. Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely.

Store in airtight container for up to 1 week (don't worry they won't last that long) or wrap well and freeze for up to 2 months.

Hunkered Down for the Snow

As you already know we have been hit with a ridiculous amount of snow and today was truly a blizzard. We have made a lot of homemade soup so I wanted to share one of my favorites that I put together for our annual family ski trip (which we are missing this year).

Turkey Vege Soup

1 lb ground turkey

1 can fire roasted tomatoes (do not drain)

1 quart of broth (beef or vege)

1 onion sliced thin

1 package sliced mushrooms

carrots (cut any way you like them)

1 zucchini cut into cubes

2 cloves garlic

small amount of olive oil

any other veges you might like to add

2 bay leaves

thyme to taste

salt and pepper

brown the ground turkey in a small amount of olive oil and in a large soup pot

when brown, add the tomatoes and some of the broth

add the onions and garlic; cook for a few minutes

add all the other ingredients

check to be sure you have enough liquid; if not add some water

cook slowly for about 2 hours

enjoy!!

Super Bowl Hoosier Pie

Go Colts! Hoosier Pie
Adapted from the heirloom recipe at Turkey Creek Lane

2 tbsp. flour
1/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. dark brown sugar (or, if you ran out of brown sugar like me, sub the remaining with turbinado sugar)

1-2 tbsp. butter

1 egg yolk
1 1/2 c. whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp.-ish freshly grated nutmeg (or cinnamon, if preferred)

1 pre-made pie-shell (homemade or store-bought)

1 carton blueberries, for Colts horseshoe (optional)

1. Pre-heat oven to 410 degrees Farenheit. Mix together the first three ingredients and spread on the bottom of the pie crust.
2. Dot the flour & sugar mixture with the butter.
3. Mix together the next four ingredients in a bowl and then pour over the sugar/flour mixture and dotted butter. You may have more wet filling than you need. Fill it nearly to the top. Give the whole thing a few stirs, to incorporate.
4. If desired, use the left over egg white to glaze the crust edge for a pretty shine.
5. Put pie in the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 410 degrees, then turn the oven down and bake for an additional 45 minutes. The pie filling should be bubbly and jiggly, don't pull it out too late or it won't set. My wonky, cold oven added about 13 minutes to the baking time.
6. Let the pie fully set, then use the blueberries to create your decorative horseshoe.
7. Root for the Colts!

New Year's Day meal

I am soooo excited... this year Stacy and Brian sent us the cookbook from Insalata's and I got a wonderful new all clad soup pot from Greg... so tomorrow it's Papa's Shrimp Bisque for dinner. I'm also making a wonderful Neapolitan Calamari and Shrimp Salad thanks to Giada. It looks terrific and reminds us of our wonderful trip to Amalfi. So I will post pics tomorrow if it turns out well.

New Year's Eve

I've never been able to get too excited about celebrating the New Year. I guess I'm not so much into the party scene. We've had a few good ones in the neighborhood... one year it was a toga party and another year it was a pajama party... yes we were supposed to come in our PJs. Going out in the neighborhood is pretty good because you don't have to deal with traffic and crazy drivers. But I'm not too much of a drinker and its hard to stay up until midnight when you get up at 5:00 a.m. every day! This year though we have the perfect plan... we are going to a 4:30 movie (It's Complicated) with good friends and then going next door for a special dinner at the Greystone Grill. Not even sure I'll last until midnight but I am so looking forward to the low key evening! Happy New Years to all who read this... Hope yours is as enjoyable as ours will be.

Christmas in Baltimore 2009

Christmas was very fun this year. Having Gabe home was special but we did miss the rest of the clan... We made an awesome pork loin cooked in 8 cups of kosher salt with spices... it cooked really slowly. After it was done we had to break open the salt casing to get out the roast. It was delicious.
We paired it with a lovely buttery Chardonay, roasted carrots, parsnips, and fingerling potatoes, and a wonderful carmelized roasted onion grantine that was to die for. I hope the pictures do it justice. For dessert we had mini buche du noel and a pear tart that was sooooo good...

Merry Christmas

It's been a great Christmas so far - stockings, presents, movies and soon enough, dinner. As per tradition, we're doing a prime rib roast.

Another tradition in my family is the Christmas Eve meal - cracked dungeness crab, sourdough bread and a good Monterey Jack cheese. Last night we added a few more cheeses to the rotation (Brillat-Savarin, an aged Australian cheddar, and young Spanish Mahon), made fresh fruit salad for dessert and may have enjoyed a super yummy rose Champagne (yes, I'm taking the french approach to pregnancy, in which women don't have to be persecuted for the odd glass of wine they drink).

But the coolest part of the dinner were the two dipping sauces we concocted for the crab (in addition to some melted butter). One was a mayo spiked with Old Bay and the other was a homemade cocktail sauce. The cocktail sauce was so good, I'm going to share it here. The next time you're having some chilled crab or shrimp, make this up from scratch (in a few minutes) and impress the hell out of your friends.

Cocktail Sauce
by Noah, adapted from Joy of Cooking

1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 c. horseradish
1 tsp. jalapeno hot sauce
1 tsp. chipotle hot sauce
zest of one lemon
salt & pepper, to taste