Muhammara

I love all things Mezze. If you don't know what Mezze is, basically, Mezze is a compilation of small dishes served in the Middle East or Mediterranean that is served during lunch or dinner as an appetizer. Some things that are typically served in a Mezze are hummus, grape leaves, tabouleh, baba ganoush, lebni, halloumi cheese, olives and my favorite ever: muhammara! I mean, I must really love Mezze because I named my dog 'Baba Ganoush!'


It's kind of impossible to make a complete Mezze platter for myself since I would be the only one eating it and could not possibly eat it for all meals of the day for a month! My plan has been to cook one mezze dish per every two weeks, that way I can have mini Mezzes for myself and not let anything go to waste. This week, I made Muhammara. It is love. It's literally the simplest thing to whiz together in a food processor and once you've arranged all of the ingredients in front of you, it takes a second to make.


Muhummara + warm whole white pita = snack heaven! Slightly sweet, slightly savory and smoky; delicious.

Muhammara

Yields: about 3 cups

1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, toasted

2 roasted red bell peppers (freshly roasted or 3 jarred)

1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped

1 tbsn. fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup finely ground unseasoned dry breadcrumbs

2 tbsn. pomegranate molasses

1 tbsn. ground cumin

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

Finely chop the walnuts in a food processor but be careful not to pulse them into a paste. They should be the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. Add the bell pepper, onion and lemon juice and pulse until the peppers are finely chopped. Add the breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses, sugar, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper. Pulse once to blend. Gradually add the oil, blending until the mixture resembles a very coarse puree. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Granny Smith & Gouda Salad

You know, sometimes you give and you give and you get nothing back. I've come to accept that it's just a part of life. You've heard of that anecdote, "Life's not fair," right? Well, it's true. Sometimes life can hand you a bucket full of sunshine and other times you want to stuff yourself into a closet and never come out. Yeast makes me feel that way sometimes...

The last couple months, with all the free time I've been having, I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge: yeast (well maybe not a bit, more like a mound). First, it was Jim Lahey's groundbreaking no-knead bread. Did I mention I met the guy while at his bakery in New York? Yep, it was amazing and he was incredibly kind and witty. Even though the bread was incredibly easy, I still managed to mangle it a little by over baking it. Hmph!

Next, it was lion house rolls. Upon first meeting, it charmed me with its warm buttery bliss. But, the next day it dried out like a river in the summer. Dry, dry, dry. Tears were shed. Anywho, then it was on to this epic 7 grain bread that received more than merry reviews from the plenty of folk at Allrecipes. It came out beautifully yeasted, nice and toasty brown on top but the flavor was less than satisfactory. After all this... I have come to the conclusion that yeast and I are not friends. No siree. 

After all of that mess, I've decided to take a break from yeast for a while. It was necessary. During this break, whaddaya know? Life brought me something delicious, addicting and all kinds of good. The dressing is my favorite part; slightly tangy and just a bit creamy. This salad is filled to the brim, but don't let the crowd of ingredients scare you! They all fit together wonderfully. 

It was funny, as I was shooting the salad, I noticed so many other things in my garden that exhibited the same color palette as the salad. It was awesome. Please enjoy!

Granny Smith & Gouda Salad
Yields: about 4 - 6 servings
Original recipe here.


For the green apple vinaigrette:
1/2 Granny Smith apple, cored and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice
1 tbsn. Dijon mustard
3 tbsn. honey
3 tbsn. minced shallot
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2/3 cup vegetable oil


For the salad:
8 oz. smoked gouda, cut into matchsticks or cubed

1 large granny smith apple, cored and thinly sliced

1 red delicious apple, cored and thinly sliced

2 celery stalks, thinly sliced diagonally 

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 cup candied walnuts
10 oz. fresh baby spinach (I used baby greens), about 8 lightly packed cups
salt and pepper, to taste
*smoked turkey can be added for a heartier salad


To make the dressing, combine all of the ingredients except the oil in a food processor and whiz until well combined. With the food processor still running, slowly drizzle in the oil until slightly emulsified and combined, set aside in the refrigerator until use. To make the salad, toss the gouda, green apple, celery and onion in a large bowl with enough vinaigrette to coat lighly. Toss the spinach in another large bowl with enough vinaigrette to coat lightly. Season the spinach to taste with salt and pepper. Arrange the spinach on top of each plate. Top with some of the gouda-green apple mixture, then sprinkle with some tomatoes and walnuts. Lastly, arrange the red apple slices around the salad and serve.

Olive Oil Granola

As a baker, you get a lot of praise, because well, you make things that people love and then that love transfers over to you. Nice huh? Well with that said, sometimes I feel like a cheat. Most of the time I use recipes rather than making things of my own doing because baking is a science and one that I haven't particularly mastered yet. I know, I know!

It makes me sad to say I do not whisk these ideas up in my own head and I nod my head in shame when people say, "I love YOUR recipe." Well, thanks but no thanks because it's not my recipe, but that's fine by me too because the joy of spreading good recipes is a reward all in itself. My favorite kind of recipes are the ones you can change to your liking, that way I can feel like the recipe has just a little bit of me in it.

For example, this olive oil granola. I don't even know the path this granola took to find me but the last hand off was Shannalee of Food Loves Writing and boy I'm glad I was next in line for this one! I don't usually eat granola often. Granola bars? Yes. Oatmeal? Yes. Regular ole' granola? No. After reading Shannalee's awesome blog post on this beauty, I knew I had to make it. Well, I did and guess what? I simply love it. Wholesome and filled with all kinds of customizable goodness. Add/ subtract/ change what you'd like, and even with all that math, you still end up with some good eats!

Olive OIl Granola

Yields: about 5 cups

Adapted from here.

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup almonds, roughly chopped

1 cup coconut flakes

1/4 cup flax seeds

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

heaping 1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

heaping 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 300 F. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, flax, coconut, maple syrup, olive oil, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. Spread mixture on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer (use parchment paper or a silpat to make it easier to transfer the mixture later). Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and toasted. Transfer granola to a large bowl and add apricots and cherries, tossing to combine.

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Weird name isn't it? This cookie recipe comes from an urban myth, it's quite an interesting story actually, it's quite lengthy, but you can read about it here. These cookies are stuffed with two kinds of chocolate, nuts and blended oatmeal which make it quite extraordinary! Make sure to under bake them so they stay nice and moist and pair them with a cold glass of milk. Perfection!

Milk & Cookies. A classic combination.

All dressed up!

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Yields: about 30

Original recipe can be found here.

Printable Recipe

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups oatmeal, blended

6 oz. chocolate chips

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 2 oz. Hershey's bar, grated

1 egg

1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cups chopped nuts, of your choice

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add egg and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, grated Hershey's and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and flatten slightly with fingertips. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 F.

Attack of the cookies!

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

Alas, school has commenced once again... and I'm back to salads and sandwiches for the rest of my living days. But hey, I'm not complaining, especially since my salads will be topped and my sandwiches filled with this glorious chicken salad. Nobody does it like Smitten Kitchen. I've made this chicken salad pretty often, but I guess never gotten around to blogging about it. I really shouldn't have waited to share this one because it is in one word: AMAZING. It probably also has the power to cure the world of AIDS, end world hunger, and bring peace to this world. Ok... maybe not but it really is delicious. I slightly adapted it to fit the current state of my pantry because it really is moldable to what you have on hand. It's yummy with walnuts or pecans, with any vinegar you have on hand, and I often make it with way less mayonnaise for health's sake.

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

Yields: 4 - 6 servings

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen, original recipe can be found here.

Printable Recipe

4 cups of cubed (1/2 inch) chicken, about 1 3/4 lbs.

1 cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped (walnuts are good also)

1 celery rib, diced

2 tbsn. finely diced shallot

1 cup dried cranberries

1/3 - 2/3 cup of mayonnaise, depending on your preference

3 tbsn. red wine vinegar

2 tbsn. fresh chopped tarragon or herb of your choice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

All of the ingredients before mixing:

Toss all ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. Enjoy on top of some leafy greens or some nice, crusty bread. Enjoy!

The finished product:

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

The bananas at my house are regularly thrown into the garbage. We buy them, we forget about them, they start to turn a hideous brown color, then we remember their presence and quickly discard them into the trash. It makes me sad to waste so much food all of the time so I decided that it was time to make a change... and that change came in the form of Banana bread! 

Banana bread is by far the best way to use up uneaten and overripe bananas. It makes the perfect breakfast with a nice cup of coffee and is great because the bananas keep the bread so moist. I even burned mine a little and it tasted as if nothing had gone awry at all - that's the beauty of it all. And P.S., another way to save your bananas from the dumps is to freeze them. If you know you won't be eating them, just slice them and put them in your freezer for quick smoothies!

Banana Bread with Walnut Coffee Crumble

Yields: 1 loaf, serves 8 - 10

modified from Over the Hill and On a Roll

For the cake:

3 - 4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 extra yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups of flour

For the crumble:

1/2 cup walnuts, plus extra

2 tbsn. brown sugar

2 tbsn. flour

2 tbsn. cold butter

1 tsp. instant coffee

1/4 tsp cinnamon

powdered sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 350 F. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the mashed bananas, then the baking soda, salt, and flour. Only mix until combined, if you over mix the bread will be tough. Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan.

In a food processor, mix 1/2 cup of walnuts, brown sugar, flour, cold butter, and instant coffee. Pulse until the mixture starts to come together and form little pea-sized crumbles. Top the batter with the crumble, then sprinkle on the cinnamon. If desired, you can add some roughly chopped walnuts for extra crunch. Bake until a inserted toothpick comes out clean or until nice and golden brown, about 50 - 60 minutes. Once done, let cool completely, slice and enjoy with a nice cup of hot coffee!

P.S. Try Laura's fantastic version done with pecans, you can find it here.

Homemade Holiday Gifts

For a simple and super addictive holiday treat to your friends and family this year, try chocolate drizzled golden grahams! Kinda weird, I know, but one day as I was strolling through the vast amount of serve-yourself barrels at Sprouts the other day I came across these little munchies. I had a small sample and then wouldn't you know it, a couple minutes later, I found myself filling a bag up to bring home. My sister and I always make little snacks to give out for Christmas and I immediately knew I would be making these this year. They're super simple and a total crowd pleaser. And in addition, we added some of our annual goodies: chocolate covered pretzels. But this year we wanted to change things up a little so we sprinkled chopped nuts all over them. I really wonder why we hadn't thought of this earlier. TO DIE FOR, really though, I'm gouging my eyes out as I'm typing.

Chocolate Drizzled Golden Grahams:

Yields: Enough for 8 - 10

1 box of Golden Grahams

1 12 oz. bag of semi - sweet chocolate

In a double boiler melt the chocolate. On a cookie sheet, spread out a single layer of the golden grahams. Once semi - cooled but still melted, pour into a normal ziplock bag and push it to one edge on the bag. Snip the corner of the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the layer of golden grahams. Repeat. Let cool until the chocolate hardens. Bag up for gifts and enjoy!

Nutty Crunchy Chocolate Covered Pretzels:

Yields: Enough for 8 - 10

1 medium bag of salted pretzels

1 12 oz. bag of semi - sweet chocolate

1 cup of walnuts (pecans or almonds would also be fine), chopped 

Over a double boiler melt the chocolate. Using a butter knife spread the chocolate on the pretzel (it doesn't matter how messy it looks). Repeat. Before the chocolate hardens, sprinkle the chopped nuts all over. Let cool completely, bag, and enjoy!