Delicious Food And Beverage fan-Healthy Care And Tips

One day I felt like baking, but didn't want to run to the store to buy any ingredients. I found this recipe for chocolate spice cookies, and I had just enough chocolate in the house to make a half batch.

The great thing about this recipe is that it's made entirely in the food processor, which means less dishes to wash. The dough is flavored with ground almonds, cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate and allspice.

This is a slice and bake cookie, so the rolls of dough need to chill for a while before they're ready to bake. I added a sliced almond to the top of each cookie to make them more attractive.
I really liked the cookies - the cocoa and chocolate contribute a rich, complex flavor, and the allspice makes these unique. I put half of the dough in the freezer for another day, so I'll be baking these the next time I need another chocolate fix.

I had a chicken in the freezer and was looking for something interesting to do with it. I know that it's not exactly the season to be cooking with apple cider, but trust me here. This apple cider brined chicken is great any time of the year.

The brine ensures a moist end product, and the cider adds just a touch of spice and sweetness. The recipe called for removing the skin partway through cooking time, but that sounded like a lot of mess and hassle, so I left the skin on. The sugar in the cider made for very crisp and browned skin, so I'm glad I didn't remove it.

I think this would also be great on the grill, I would suggest cooking it over indirect heat to prevent burning.

There are not many foods simpler than a quesadilla. Tortillas, cheese, heat, eat. Of course there are many variations on the basic version, and I think my favorite happens to be the addition of poblano rajas. Poblano rajas is a mixture of roasted poblano chiles, onion, garlic and Mexican oregano. I adapted this recipe from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen.

The recipe starts with poblano peppers. These peppers are pretty mild, but there is some heat packed into the seeds and veins, so take caution when removing those. The peppers are roasted until blackened, peeled, and cut into thin strips.
The onions and garlic are cooked separately in a pan. I like to use a red onion in this recipe because it adds a hint of sweetness.
After the onions and garlic are cooked, the pepper strips are added. The whole mixture is seasoned with salt, pepper and mexican oregano. I keep both Mexican and Mediterranean oregano on hand. If you don’t have Mexican oregano, you can substitute a different variety, but the flavor won’t be exactly the same.

I pulled this recipe out of Everyday Food magazine a few years ago, and I haven't made another cornbread recipe since. I find that sometimes cornbread can be dry - not these muffins. They're actually called cornbread puddings because they come out so moist.

The recipe starts out with typical cornbread ingredients - flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.

The dry ingredients are mixed with an egg and sour cream. The sour cream adds all the moisture, there's no butter involved. I use light sour cream, it works just fine. A generous amount of corn kernels are also stirred into the batter.

This cake recipe has been in my family for a long time. I can’t believe it took me 2 and a half years to write about it – maybe because it’s not the most photogenic of dishes. However, it tastes amazing, I always have all the ingredients in my pantry, and the whole recipe only contains 3 tablespoons of fat. How can you go wrong with that?

So where does the pudding come from? A thick layer of cocoa powder and brown sugar goes on top of the cake batter. Next, a few cups of boiling water are poured over the whole thing.



When the cake bakes, the base layer of batter rises to the top to create a cake topping and the pudding sauce ends up on the bottom.

Brownie pudding cake
Serves 4-6

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 3/4 cups boiling water
powdered sugar, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch square baking dish or round souffle dish. Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and 1/3 cup cocoa in medium bowl. Add milk, butter and vanilla, stir until just blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared dish.

Combine brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa in small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over batter. Pour boiling water over entire mixture; do not stir.

Bake 35 to 38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the top layer comes out clean. Cool at least 10 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

I chose this recipe because the colorful picture caught my eye, and it sounded like a fun flavor combination. To get started, I prepared the marinade for the shrimp, which is a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, curry powder and cayenne. I put the shrimp into the marinade and got to work on the rice.

The rice is cooked in coconut milk and water – I went with brown basmati rice, which worked perfectly. After the rice is cooked, it gets tossed with diced mango, red pepper and shredded carrot.
The rice is finished off with lime juice and a combination of fresh herbs – green onion, cilantro and parsley. I know it sounds like a lot of ingredients, but you can cut everything up in advance and simply toss with the rice before serving. I also think you could get away with skipping one or two of the herbs if need be.

The shrimp get threaded onto skewers and grilled. They cook through very quickly, so keep a close eye on them.
For serving, the shrimp skewers are placed on a bed of the mango rice. The slight spiciness of the shrimp goes really well with the sweetness of the mango. I loved the tropical flavors in this dish.

As soon as spring hits, I keep an eye out for fresh morels at the market. I was lucky enough to find some really nice ones a few weeks ago. I took a cue from Sunday Suppers at Lucques and combined the morels with white asparagus and fava beans to make a delicious spring vegetable dish. The original recipe uses ramps, but I couldn’t find any when I made this, so I used the fava beans instead.

There’s not much that's better than fresh morels with butter. The asparagus and fava beans complemented the morels nicely. I served this over polenta as a main course, but it would also work well as a side dish.

I pulled this recipe out of one of my cookbooks because I thought it looked like an interesting way to serve chicken. I had every intention of (mostly) following the recipe, but my plans changed. That day, my mom brought me a large container of snow pea shoots and some oyster mushrooms. At that point, it didn’t make any sense for me to go out and buy the vegetables specified in the recipe, so I used the pea shoots and oyster mushrooms instead.

The vegetables are cooked with chicken and tossed with soba noodles. A soy and sake based sauce completes the dish. I don’t cook with soba noodles that often, but I should; they cook quickly and have a great texture.

Although I strayed from the recipe, I think the original combination of broccoli, button mushrooms and red peppers would also be great in this dish.