Simply Elegant Dessert

Panna Cotta? What's that?

Panna Cotta is an absolutely delicious Italian dessert. It is a bit like mousse, but I think is even better. It is so simple to make. I usually make a vanilla bean panna cotta, but you can easily change the flavorings to suit what you like. I like it as vanilla though because it is an excellent backdrop to adorn with any fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 tsp gelatin
3 TBL cold water
1 vanilla bean, split

1. put water in a small bowl. Sprinkle with the gelatin slowly so it absorbs. Do not stir, and let sit for at least 5 minutes.
2. scald milk and cream with vanilla in it to infuse the milk with the vanilla flavor.
3. microwave gelatin for 5 seconds! do not overheat, it will destroy the gelatin. If it isn't liquid microwave it for 5 seconds again.
4. strain milk to remove the outside of the bean, it should be smooth but have the vanilla speckles. add the gelatin. keep stirring over a bowl of ice so that the temperature starts to come down. The mixture must be partially set before you put it in the mold in order for the vanilla beans to not all sink to the bottom.
5. pour into molds. You can either make one big panna cotta, or personal sized ones. Refrigerate until it is set, you can even freeze them to work faster. Once they are set in the molds you can warm up the outside of the molds with you hands to extract the panna cottas.

I hope you enjoy!

Something new for Me

I love APRONS. It's a byproduct of my love for clothes and love for food. ANTHROPOLOGIE has some of the most adorable aprons you'll ever see, for a pretty reasonable price. But after months of thinking about it...


Today I made an Apron. It was surprisingly easy, I've just been so scared to make one for a while because believe me, I am no SEAMSTRESS. I love it!

My favorite parts, the pockets, the hemp ricrac, the wide waistband and the pleats.

WHAT are you SCARED to do? WHAT do you think is OVER YOUR HEAD? Because there is a good chance you are UNDERESTIMATING yourself.

Thirty in Thirty

I recently heard of a man who ran 50 marathons in fifty days. My sister's idea seems less daunting. 30 blogs in 30 days. She has started this with her blog (plaidsandprints.blogspot.com), so for anyone who needs a creative outlet, or a few quick ideas or hints, now is a good time to check her out.

So here is day one of my thirty.

INTERNATIONAL COOKING sometimes seems overwhelming. You decide to make something and then REALIZE you can't even PRONOUNCE some of the spices, let alone have them in your pantry. But international food is AMAZING. There is so much you might not even REALIZE you are missing. Last night we had GREEK night.

Menu:

Grilled Chicken with a LEMON vinaigrette
SPANAKOPITA
Cucumber TZATZIKI Salad
and for dessert:

Apple Toffee BAKLAVA

YUMMY! And honestly it was all so easy. My tip of the day:

COOKING AROUND THE WORLD FOR DUMMIES

That's right. We even used this book as a textbook in my international cooking class. It is excellent, has great recipes and really breaks things down well. I'm a bit of a SNOB though, so mine is wrapped in brown paper, because it is a bit embarrassing to have a dummies book.

So now there's no excuse.

I am feeling INDIA later this week, but likely a QUICK TRIP to ITALY first.

So the QUESTION is WHERE are you going this week?

Chicken and Waffles

Okay so little change in format. 6 menus a week is proving to be too much work, especcially if I want to give the recipes the proper attention. So I will start posting recipes in smaller quanities, but I think they will be better recipes.

Chicken and Waffles

You may or may not've heard of the southern favorite but John and I were very intrigued when we saw it on Bobby Flay's Throwdown on food network. I decided to take a different approach to it as I am far from a deep south girl. So here is a south-west version of a new classic.
Ingredients:
chicken tenders
chipotle in adobo
buttermilk
check waffle recipe for ingredients
1 red pepper
maynaisse
basil
tomato paste

Fried Chicken:
We used tenders. It made it easier to eat with the whole meal.
Marinate the tenders in buttermilk and adobo sauce, enough to cover. Do this overnight if possible. Mix salt and pepper into flour and take tenders from buttermilk into flour and get a thick coating. Two ways: I like to put it back in the buttermilk at this point and double dredge. It makes a thicker crust but tends to come off easier. John thinks it is more classic and better with just one dredging, so you decide. Deep fry in a cast iron skillet if possible, it takes very little time.

Cornbread Waffles:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CRISPY-CORNMEAL-BACON-WAFFLES-109154

These are absolutely delicious, we loved them!

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
Roast red pepper. If you have never done this, don't be scared, it's easy. The easiest way is to broil them. You put it under the broiler whole. When the skin on top starts to get blistery and black turn the pepper until the whole thing looks like that. Take out of over and put in bowl and cover tightly to steam the pepper. Five minutes later remove the pepper and the skin should just peel off. Cut in half and remove seeds. Put in blender and add, 1 small chipotle, 1 TB tomato paste, 1/2 cup basil, 1/4 cup mayonaisse. Blend and add buttermilk. Continue to add buttermilk until the flavor is mellow enough for you. Add salt, pepper and chili powder.

Put waffle on a plate. Add honey butter. Put chicken on top and smother in sauce. Serve.
It may seem weird, but try it anyway!

It's been a while!

Alright Annie here is a quick rundown on leeks.

I absolutely love leeks. They are great if you think onions are too potent. Onions make my mom sick so sh usually uses shallots instead but I like leeks as alternative better because size wise its a little easier, more cost effective and has a really great flavor.

To use a leek:

Cut off the bottom 1/2-1 inch and the top, like you would with a green onion. Then cut length wise along the whole thing so the you just have 2 long half moons. take off the outside layer. Only take off what is too gross that cannot be cleaned, it shouldnt be much. Then dunk in water to get all the dirt out from between the layers. Then use as you would an onion.

One way I love leeks:

When you want a crunch on top of steak, or salad but don't want to deep fry onions. Deep fry leeks without any batter until crispy then salt right away. Delicious!