Pear-Raspberry Pie

There's something about a pie. It's homey. Nostalgic. Comforting. The cozy interior of Hoosier Mama Pie Company is tiny: a couple of tables and chairs, an old sea-foam green dresser serving as a checkout counter, and a display case full of pie. But it's where I want to go when my spirits need lifting. I made my husband take me there after some careless knife handling necessitated a trip to the emergency room a few years ago. I sat there with my mom, sharing buttery pie and hot coffee after I found out I had lost a baby, only 8 weeks into my first pregnancy, almost exactly two years ago.

Paula Haney's new cookbook, The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie, is a veritable encyclopedia of pie knowledge. Step-by-step photos of important, hard-to-describe processes (pie crust, anyone?), funny stories, and page after page of fantastic recipes. Pear-raspberry was the first one to jump out at me, because the window for both fruits at the farmers market is happening right now. I know it won't come as a shock to you that I love to cook, and that time in the kitchen is relaxing and very rewarding for me, but making a pie is a special sort of culinary meditation. Mix the dough. Wait. Roll out the dough and shape it into a crust. Peel and slice the fruit. Toss. Wait. Bake for a long time. Wait. Wait. Slice and eat. It's almost a full day from start to finish, and so worth it. Every step is magic. And then, of course, there's pie for breakfast the next day: one of the highest pleasures in this life.



Pear-Raspberry Pie

from The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie



Make sure to use soft, really ripe pears. I didn't, and while the flavor was still amazing, the pears were a little crunchy. This recipe is printed as is from the cookbook. I'm not going to print any other recipes from this book, and I'm not including the crust recipe, because I think you should just go buy it. It's awesome. Go.

1 9-inch double-crust pie dough (preferably from page 24 of the cookbook linked above)
5 cups ripe pears, peeled, cored, and chopped into bite-size pieces
2 cups raspberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch kosher salt

Place the pears, raspberries, and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Do not mix. Place the sugar, cornstarch, ginger, and salt in a small bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the fruit, until most of the mixture is absorbed. Take care not to break up the raspberries. Sprinkle Crust Dust (a mixture of equal parts flour and sugar, designed to absorb some of the fruit juice and ensure a not-soggy bottom crust) into the empty pie shell. Pile the fruit into the shell and smooth the top with a spatula. Finish the pie with a lattice top, and freeze for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the lattice with Pie Wash (equal parts cream and whole milk) - be amazed at how easily you can brush a slightly frozen pie crust without smashing it - and sprinkle liberally with coarse-grained sugar. Bake for 60-80 minutes, rotating 180 degrees every 20 minutes, until the crust is dark golden brown and the juices are bubbling thickly. Cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.

Orange Cardamom Cookies

A few months ago, I received some Barnes and Noble gift cards. I briefly considered buying a Nook, thinking that it would be easier to use an e-reader while taking care of a baby, and that it would be nice not to have to go to the library in order to pick up something to read.

It's almost like I forgot who I am!



I have always loved libraries and used bookstores. Truly, they are some of my favorite places in the world. I love the musty smell, the cozy cluttered feeling, the sheer feeling of possibility! What will I find around the next corner? What adventures lie between the covers of that well-worn volume? I find the whole situation very romantic.

Did you know that only an estimated 3% of Americans actually use the public library system? That is a shockingly low number. It's like people don't realize that it's completely free, and super convenient! Especially in a large city like Chicago, there's almost always a library within walking distance, and if the closest branch doesn't have the title you're looking for, you can request it online. They send it to the branch of your choice, notify you by e-mail when it's ready, and you just go pick it up! So easy! So completely free, too.



Whether my trip to the library is just another stop in a day full of errands, or the destination of a morning walk with my girl, I usually don't just beeline it to the holds shelf, get my requested books, and head out. I usually take at least a few minutes to take a peek at new arrivals, or browse for fiction I might not have heard of anywhere else. I don't always find something, but sometimes I find little gems like this book, Maman's Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen, by Donia Bijan. I'm honestly not that far into it yet (true to form, I'm in the middle of several books at a time), but the first few chapters have been delightful. I love memoirs where each chapter is accompanied by a recipe or two. It's as if the author is using the food to tell the story, which just makes sense. Food is so tangled in all of our stories.



I made these cookies on a snowy afternoon last week, and as they cooled I brewed a pot of black tea with crushed cardamom pods; it was a fragrant and comforting treat. The cookies have a buttery, crumbly texture, aren't too sweet, and are just lightly kissed with cardamom. I hope you'll give them a try!

Orange Cardamom Cookies

adapted from Maman's Homesick Pie

 

Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened slightly
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
grated zest of 2 oranges
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until white and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and blend well, another minute or so. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg yolk and orange zest, and blend well again. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cardamom and poppy seeds and fold in, mixing until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead a few times to bring it together. Divide the dough in half and shape the halves into 8- to 10-inch-long logs. Wrap the logs in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment. Using a sharp knife, slice the logs into 1/2-inch-thick rounds, and arrange them 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until slightly golden on the edges.

Radicchio Almond Carrot Cake with Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream + Life Lessons from Childbirth

This weekend I was able to slip away for a couple of hours to take a spin class, my first real workout since Anne was born. As I settled into the bike seat and started pedaling, my brain started whining even louder than the deafening music in the studio. After about 20 minutes of "Ugh, this is terrible. It hurts. I forgot how uncomfortable these bike seats are. Ow, my legs! I hate this! It's only been TEN minutes? I'll never survive!" this thought finally occurred to me:

Lady, you had a BABY 10 weeks ago. Without drugs. This is NOTHING.

After that, I had a lot more fun.



A couple of months before Anne was due, we took a birth preparation class called Birthing From Within (I highly recommend it: if you're in the Chicago area, look up Holly. If not, the book is great, too!). Little did I know how much the lessons learned in that class, and from my own experience of birth, would come in so handy in other areas of my life.

Life Lesson #1: You can do anything for one minute (or one hour, or one day...).

Especially helpful during labor, when there are regularly spaced intervals of pain and rest, is the thought that each contraction will only last for 60-90 seconds, and that at the most, labor only lasts for one to two days. That's it! I have used this one so often, to help me when I had a difficult day of nursing, when I was completely exhausted, to get through 10 days away from home in December (not easy with a newborn!). When something is challenging or painful, the knowledge that it won't be that way forever is very freeing.

Life Lesson #2: Coping with pain through detached awareness + refocused energy.

Ow, it hurts! There's not much power in that, is there? What if you notice and try to describe it? Where is the center of the pain? Where are the edges? In our first week at home, I was exhausted, and it felt like I was on a never-ending hamster wheel of waking, sleeping, nursing, and changing diapers. When you can't count on a full night of sleep anymore, your day no longer starts at 6am and ends at 10pm. So where are the boundaries? It helped me so much to start thinking of my days as a 24-hour block that reset at 7am. That way, if it had been a rough night, we got to start over. And if it was a great night, I wasn't tempted to skip taking a nap while Anne did, because I was preparing for the unknown night ahead. It made a huge difference, and all I did was change how I thought about the day.

Life Lesson #3: A huge effort and a lot of pain yield great rewards.

This is not news, and needs no explaining, but I'll say it anyway: childbirth hurts. A lot. But after it's over you have a baby, and a crazy amount of happy hormones. Caring for a newborn is an immense effort, but you get to snuggle them (!), and after about 6 weeks, THEY SMILE AT YOU (!!). Breastfeeding can be a challenge, but it is an amazing, miraculous food for your baby, and helps you to lose baby weight! Spinning might be a little uncomfortable, but in taking care of my body, I get to provide an example to my baby of how to care for her body, and I stay healthy so that I'll be around for more of her life!

Life Lesson #4: When it's over, let it go. Savor moments of rest.

After each contraction, there is a rest. Time without pain, without work. During the rest, you can freak out ("I can't do this for much longer! That one hurt so much! What if the next one is worse?) or you can let it go. If you let it go, you take advantage of the rest, and you're better able to handle what comes next, whatever it is. If the last 10 weeks are any indicator, I'll probably never be able to predict what's next again, so I'm doing my best to just live in each moment fully. And this moment, right here? There's a lot to savor.



Radicchio Almond Carrot Cake with Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream
adapted from Dolci, by Francine Segan

Slightly bitter radicchio in a sweet cake; an apt metaphor for motherhood.



For the cake:

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar + extra for sprinkling
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour (sometimes called almond meal)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground cinnamon
2 carrots, grated (about 1 cup)
1 small head radicchio, finely chopped (about 2 cups)

For the whipped cream:

8 ounces mascarpone
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and butter and flour a 9-inch round pan. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until light yellow. Add flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, butter, carrots and radicchio and mix on low until well-combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden and crackly, and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

While the cake cools, combine mascarpone, cream, sugar, and orange zest and juice, and whip until well-combined and fluffy. Serve alongside the cooled cake, or spread decoratively over the top.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's a ceiling fan in our dining room, which connects to our kitchen. It is Anne's new best friend. I sit her in her little bouncy chair underneath it and she stares contentedly at it, smiling and cooing. Between that set-up and wearing her in the sling, I can get a fair amount of stuff done! As a new mom, it's amazing the tiny things that can make me feel like a rock star. "Not only did I just mix these cookies and get them in the oven, I cleaned up my kitchen before the baby needed me!" Totally worthy of high fives. Timing errands so that the baby goes in the car seat full and sleepy, takes a nap, wakes up happy and isn't hungry until you're back at home? Oh my gosh, that lady deserves some sort of medal.



I have had my eye on this cookbook for a long time, and I got it as a Christmas gift! It is already even better than I thought it would be! To tell you the truth, I really love the recipe that's on the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag - it has never failed me. These cookies are a complete departure from those. I love the nutty flavor of the whole-wheat flour, and the crumbly texture it gives the cookies. The kosher salt gives an extra crunch and a little extra sparkle. Adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla and dark instead of light brown sugar lends a sophisticated depth. The cookies really are best straight from the oven, or later that day (as Kim says in the book), so I would suggest you do as I did: bake a pan or two when you make the dough, and then refrigerate the rest of the dough (already formed into balls) to be baked throughout the week as you want them. They are fantastic with a cup of coffee for breakfast.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce



3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and toss together with a fork. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugars, and mix on low until well-blended, about two minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until well-blended. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Scoop dough into balls about 3 tablespoons in size, roll slightly between your palms, and place about 3 inches apart on the prepared pan. Bake 16-20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time, until cookies are evenly browned. Slide the parchment and cookies onto the counter to cool.

Cranberry Ginger Scones

Well, hello, and happy Wednesday! There is someone I would like for you to meet. The newest addition to the Coppertop family arrived on November 9, and after one whole month of blissful, exhausting, amazing time together, our little Anne is ready to say hello.

 

As you can imagine, things are a little different in my kitchen right now. I'm glad that I compulsively grocery-shopped in the weeks leading up to Anne's arrival, because having a stocked-to-the-gills freezer, fridge and pantry has helped me throw together a lot of quick meals. Baking is at a minimum for now, although we are starting to settle into a groove which allows me a little more freedom. I'm hoping I'll have time for at least one batch of Christmas cookies.

I feel more like myself than I ever have in my life; more fulfilled, more happy, more comfortable in my skin. I am living out my vocation. It is harder than I thought, requires more of me than I expected, and is infinitely more rewarding than I had dreamed. At times I just stare at my girl and marvel that she is mine. What a spectacular Christmas gift!



Cranberry Ginger Scones

3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup buttermilk or kefir

Optional glaze:
1 tablespoon heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Cut the butter into small pieces and use your fingers or two knives to work it into the dry ingredients, until the mixture resembles fresh bread crumbs. Add the crystallized ginger, cranberries, and buttermilk or kefir, and stir together until just combined. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly twelve times. Pat the dough into a circle about 1/2 inch thick.  For the glaze, stir together the cream and sugar in a small bowl and brush over the top. Cut the dough into 12 pie-shaped wedges and place about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake about 12 minutes, until tops are golden. Serve hot.

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

I'm not sure what I love most about the pre-baby maternity leave that I'm currently enjoying. Is it the fact that I can go run errands around 10am, when there is no traffic, and no line at the grocery store?  Is it the daily baking?  The freedom to see friends for two-hour lunches, and to take naps?  The couple of hours a day spent knitting and watching TV? The fact that I have energy at the end of the day to make a nice dinner and eat with my husband? I don't know, it's all been lovely. Absolutely lovely.



I started baking treats because I loved the idea of bringing a little edible gift to the nurses in the maternity ward at the hospital - a little bribe for quality care can't hurt, right? And then I thought, why stop there? So after I had a dozen chocolate chip cookies and eight cheesecake-marbled brownies chilling out in the freezer, I just kept going! I had a couple of past-prime bananas on the counter, so I made crackly banana bread, and stashed most of it in the freezer pre-sliced. Then some everything cookies, which I just realized I've never told you about. I will, I promise. Then on to roasted pear and chocolate chunk scones, frozen unbaked for a warm breakfast treat in December or January. I have elaborate visions of myself all calm, holding my newborn baby girl, pouring coffee and pulling freshly baked scones out of the oven for a friend who came over for breakfast. Who knows if that's anywhere close to reality, but I have high hopes. And I just made it a million times easier for myself, since the only thing I'll actually have to do is turn on the oven and put the scones in. Perfect!



I've also been doing what I can to prepare for life after baby. There's only so much you can read about childbirth, breastfeeding, and newborn care before the words start swimming before your eyes and you worry about how you're ever going to remember it all, so yesterday I headed over to the library and picked up some fiction. I've also been thinking about how isolated new moms (actually, moms in general) can become in our culture, and seeking out ways to prevent myself from feeling that way all winter long. There used to be so much community for raising babies; women banded together and all pitched in where they could. In a city this size, I know that feelings of isolation are easy to come by, but with so many people so close, there's really no reason for that. Enter the "village" of the 21st century, Meetup.com. I've already found 2 or 3 promising communities of women with small kids who I'm really excited to connect with. They host playdates and book clubs, meet for coffee and walks, and from what I can tell, generally support each other.  I look forward to meeting some new friends.



I love it when fresh cranberries reappear at the supermarket; it feels like the holiday season has arrived! Here are some other ways I love to use them:

Roasted Cranberry-Apple Sauce
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries

Cranberry Orange Muffins

adapted from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plain whole milk yogurt
1 pound bag fresh whole cranberries, rinsed and picked over for mushy ones
zest of 1 orange
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two standard muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the yogurt and dry ingredients in 3 alternating additions, ending with yogurt, mixing on low until combined. Use a spatula to fold in cranberries, orange zest, and pecans. Scoop generous amounts of batter into each muffin cup (you have to really fill them for them to get that rounded, puffy muffin top). Sprinkle the tops with a bit of sugar, if desired, and bake about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for a minute or two, and then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Yield: about 18-20 standard-size muffins, or half as many jumbo muffins, or a mix of the two (I got 12 standard and 4 jumbo from my batch).

Pumpkin Bread with Maple-Walnut Streusel

Nesting is funny. It seems to take different forms for different people. A friend of mine dusted all the baseboards in their house. Deb from Smitten Kitchen made brownies. My mom decided it was high time she move an entire giant pile of firewood from one side of the garage to the other. So far, I have been knitting up a storm, getting a jump on Christmas gifts (WHAT?! You think I should wait until I have a tiny human who depends on me for her every need to start making and buying gifts?), finishing up the painting projects in our new condo (apparently I can't imagine bringing my baby home to a bedroom without a purple accent wall), and listening to Christmas music (I know, I know). I've also noticed that every time I go to the grocery store, I wander around looking for things to stock up on, you know, in case this is the last time I ever get to go to the grocery store.

I had thought that I would be extremely annoyed to have the presidential election coincide with the end of my pregnancy, but it turns out it's a pretty entertaining race (did you see the debate last night? I thought they were going to start throwing punches!), and it's not too shabby to have them tell me on the news every morning exactly how many more days there are until my due date, which is one day after the election. I plan on voting unless I am in labor - luckily I only have to walk (waddle?) half a block to my polling place.

This recipe is oh-so-similar to the one I posted last year, but with enough of a difference that I wanted to post it here anyway. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread with Maple-Walnut Streusel

1 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup melted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup milk
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree

For the streusel:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup brown sugar
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons real maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour two standard loaf pans.  Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In another bowl, stir together butter, sugar, eggs, milk, pumpkin puree, dates and walnuts.  Add to dry ingredients and fold together, taking care not to over mix.  Divide evenly between loaf pans. Toss the streusel ingredients together in a small bowl with a fork and sprinkle evenly over both loaves. Bake 50-65 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Yield: two loaves

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts with Brown Butter Glaze

A couple of Saturdays ago, we found ourselves facing a crisp fall day that had absolutely nothing planned in it! Days like these have been pretty much nonexistent in our lives lately, so I decided this would be the perfect day to find an orchard and go apple-picking! The problem with wanting to do such a quintessential fall activity is, if you happen to live in the middle of a big city, you might have to drive a couple of hours each way to get your u-pick fix. Unfortunately, we still haven't completely recovered from our travel marathon month of August (we drove over 2,000 miles), so we decided to strip the experience down to bare bones: fresh apples, of course, and (almost) more importantly, warm doughnuts.



For this recipe, you will need a special doughnut pan. You can usually snag one in the kitchen section of TJ Maxx, or you can order one online. Alternatively, you could definitely bake these in muffin tins (or mini muffin tins!), but then... they wouldn't be doughnuts, now would they? And let's just be real, please: a baked doughnut would never beat a fried one in a contest, but it's a lot less hassle (and a lot less blatantly indulgent).

Happy fall!!

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts
adapted from shutterbean.com

makes 6

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons milk
1/4-1/2 teaspoon mace (or a little more nutmeg)
1/2 cup pecan halves (optional)

Coat a doughnut pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Preheat oven to 325. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together pumpkin, brown sugar, egg, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk to combine.

Scoop the batter into a large freezer bag, snip off a corner of the bag, and pipe the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 13-16 minutes, until donuts spring back when lightly touched.  Cool in the pan for 3 minutes, and then turn onto a rack to cool completely.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and cook, swirling constantly to keep from burning, until it turns golden and smells toasty and amazing. Add the butter to a small bowl with the powdered sugar, mace or nutmeg, and milk, and whisk together, adding more milk if necessary to achieve the right consistency. Toast the pecan halves in a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing frequently, until fragrant. Chop roughly.

When the doughnuts are completely cooled, dip each one into the glaze, allowing it to drip off, and sprinkle toasted pecans on top. Enjoy!

Toasted Oat + Brown Butter Banana Muffins

I feel a little bad to be giving you this recipe right now. I feel bad because if you're living anywhere near where I'm living, you're in the middle of a relentless heat wave and you think that baking (or really doing anything but sitting in the air conditioning or swimming in a pool) sounds like an absolutely awful idea. And I feel bad because no matter how hot it is, when you hear the words "toasted oat and brown butter banana muffins with pecans," if you're like me, you will preheat the oven. C'est la vie.

My suggestion? Make them early in the morning when it's only like 80 degrees instead of 100. Then after they cool, freeze them, and you can have home-baked treats for days. Of course, if you'd rather not bake muffins, here are some things you might consider adding to your holiday menu this week: Heat Wave Salad, Grilled Chard Salad, or Blueberry Tart!



My parents are coming down from Michigan to celebrate America's birthday with us this week, and I have five lovely days in a row off of work. Bring on the pool time! Here's what we've got planned: fireworks on the beach, grilled flank steak, a trip to the Daley Plaza farmers' market (there will be 6 hands that can hold bags of local produce - how will I keep myself from over-buying?!), grilled shrimp and jicama salad, strawberry-hibiscus granita, an outdoor concert and picnic dinner in Grant Park, corn on the cob, and banana pudding. Most of all, we will enjoy each others' company while drinking cold things and moving as little as possible.

Enjoy your 4th of July! And stay cool, dudes.



Toasted Oat + Brown Butter Banana Muffins

Makes 6 large muffins, 12 standard-size muffins, or one standard 8x4 loaf pan.

6 ounces (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
3 medium bananas, mashed
1 cup toasted pecan halves, chopped (reserve one half per muffin to decorate the top)
3/4 cup toasted old-fashioned rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, swirling regularly. The butter will start to sputter and pop. This is good news. Keep swirling the skillet periodically so that the butter browns evenly. When it starts to smell toasty and looks barely brown, pour it into a bowl and set aside to cool. Be very careful - it goes from delightfully brown to burned very quickly.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, yogurt, and mashed bananas, and set aside. In a medium skillet, toast the pecan halves over medium-low heat until they are fragrant, about 5-10 minutes, tossing regularly. In the same skillet, toast the oats until fragrant, about 2 minutes, tossing regularly.  Add the chopped pecans and oats to the flour mixture.

When the butter has cooled, add it to the banana-egg mixture, and whisk to incorporate. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together until all the flour is moistened - be careful not to overmix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, slightly smooth the tops, and place one whole pecan half in the center of each muffin. Bake for 25-30 minutes (for large muffins), until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly (about 10 minutes) in the pan, remove, and serve warm with butter or cream cheese.

Estimated cooking times for different pans: standard muffins: 20-25 minutes, standard loaf: 45-60 minutes.

Orange Sweet Rolls

Ever since our crazy heat wave in March, I've been just waiting for the warm weather to return. It's not that it's even been that cold, but those couple weeks of summer-ish heat ruined my tolerance for a normal cool and rainy April. I want to wear dresses (without tights!), ride my bike, have a picnic, walk around in the sunshine during my lunch break, and shop at the farmers market! Speaking of which, the Green City Market comes out to play again starting this Saturday, May 5! I can barely contain my excitement.

That first trip to the market tends to be a little disappointing, though. I'm trying to manage my expectations. Green onions and garlic scapes, probably. Maybe asparagus. Is it too much to hope for a few shimmering pink stalks of rhubarb?! Rhubarb makes my heart go pitter-pat.

The warm weather seems to be creeping back, too! This morning, my walk to work was cool and pleasant. The forecast this week is in the 70's and 80's with a chance of thunderstorms every day. I'll take it!



My mom has made these orange rolls every Easter since I can remember. When I moved out and wasn't able to come home for Easter, I learned to make them for my friends. The rolls are a rich yeasted sweet dough, brushed with butter and sprinkled with a mixture of sweetened, flaked coconut, sugar, and orange zest. They are then rolled into crescents and baked, and then doused in a bubbling sauce of butter, sour cream, sugar, and orange juice which seeps into each one, making it sticky and irresistible. I highly recommend that you make them for your mama for Mother's Day (May 13! Don't forget!).

If you're scared of baking with yeast, go read this post first.

Put the dough together (details in the recipe below), and let it rise once, then divide in half and roll them into a 10- to 12-inch circle. Brush with melted butter:



This is my sister. She was visiting for Easter. She's good at sprinkling coconut. Isn't she pretty?



Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut into 12 wedges, and roll up.



Line 'em up in the pan, cover and allow to rise about an hour, or until you feel that you cannot wait any longer...



While they're baking, make the glaze, and as soon as they come out, pour it over and sprinkle with more coconut. Make some coffee, too, while you're at it. Start with two rolls on your plate. I dare you to eat only two. This Easter, I think I ate six. At least.



Sticky, sweet, buttery, citrusy BLISS!



Orange Sweet Rolls

For the rolls:
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) dry active yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
scant 3 cups flour

For the filling:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
2 tablespoons grated orange zest

For the glaze:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Dissolve yeast in water and allow to sit until foamy. In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and sour cream. Mix in yeast mixture. Add flour, starting with about 2 1/2 cups, and mixing in more as needed. The dough should be smooth and not sticky. Cover and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free area for two hours.

Coat a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray. Knead dough 15 times and divide in half. Combine sugar, coconut, and orange zest in a small bowl and toss together. Roll one half into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle with half of coconut mixture. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut into 12 wedges. Roll up like croissants, starting at the wide edge, and line up in 3 rows in prepared pan. Repeat with other half of dough and filling. Cover rolls and allow to rise about an hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until rolls are puffed and golden. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, sour cream, orange juice, and butter over medium heat. Stir until melted and smooth, bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Pour glaze evenly over hot rolls, and sprinkle with coconut. Serve hot or at room temperature.

No-Knead Pizza Dough

This is the pizza dough to end all pizza doughs. It involves no kneading, no rising (only resting), no special equipment. While baking, it blisters and bubbles, and comes out crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. It is nothing short of perfect.



This dough is like an automatic party. Instructions: Prepare dough one day ahead. Add a few friends, a bottle of wine, and small bowls of toppings. Let each person create their own pizza, and let the fun begin!



No-Knead Pizza Dough 
adapted from Bon Appetit

7 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

Whisk flour, sea salt and yeast together in a medium bowl. With a wooden spoon, gradually stir in 3 cups of water until well incorporated. Use your hands to form dough into a rough ball, and transfer to a large clean bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 18 hours in a warm, draft-free area, until it is more than doubled and the surface is covered in tiny bubbles. Turn dough onto a floured work surface and shape it into a rectangle, then cut into six pieces. Working with one piece at a time, fold the corners in toward the center, flip it seam side down, and gently shape into a ball. Transfer to a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, and then cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for an hour. (You can also put it in the refrigerator at this point, and it will keep for 3 days. Remove from the refrigerator and allow to rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours before continuing.)

While the dough is resting, place a pizza stone on a rack in the top third of the oven, and preheat it as hot as it will go (about 550 degrees) for about an hour.

Working with one dough ball at a time, dust with flour and transfer to a floured surface. Gently shape into a 10- to 12-inch disk. Transfer disk to a pizza peel or rimless baking sheet that has been lightly dusted with flour. Increase the oven heat to broil. Top the pizza with your desired toppings and use quick back-and-forth motions to slide it onto the pizza stone. Don't overload with toppings; it becomes hard to move. Broil for 5-7 minutes, rotating halfway through to prevent burning. Remove when the bottom is crisp and golden and the top is blistered. Slice and serve!

Favorite topping combinations:

-Barbecue sauce, diced chicken breast, cheddar or co-jack cheese, and bacon
-Fresh tomato, onion, and bacon, with shredded mozzarella
-Olive oil, lemon zest, and Parmesan, topped with arugula after baking
-Caramelized onion, balsamic-glazed mushroom, and Gorgonzola

Crispy Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies

I'd like to think that most of the time, I'm a pretty un-selfish cook. I try to accommodate the needs and preferences of the people who will share in what I'm making. If I'm having people over and one of the party is vegetarian or lactose-intolerant, I cook a meal that will satisfy everyone while staying within the high-maintenance (kidding!) person's parameters. I do this daily when I'm just cooking for two; I hide greens by chopping them up or blending them into sweet berry smoothies, I leave out the mustard, and I rarely cook seafood. I even leave the nuts out of cookies. Most of the time.

Sometimes you just need to make something for yourself! You need to put tons of roughly chopped nuts and cocoa nibs in the cookies, and bake them until they're super-crispy. Because that's how you like them. And you deserve perfect cookies.

These are my perfect cookies. Sweet, crunchy, and packed with goodies. So good that I couldn't stop eating the dough. And I even shared them.

But I made them for me.



Crispy Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from Joy the Baker

I encourage you to leave out or add in whatever you want to make these into your perfect cookies. Toasted coconut, white chocolate and macadamias? Yes! Dried cherries, pecans and chocolate chips? Heck yeah! This recipe just begs to be customized. Go crazy; these are for YOU.

1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/2 cup cocoa nibs
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment or spray lightly with cooking spray.

Cream the butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating about one minute after each addition, until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and add to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the flour is incorporated. Remove bowl from the mixer stand, and fold in oats, walnuts, cocoa nibs, and chocolate chips using a rubber spatula.

Drop cookies by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, and bake 12-15 minutes (for crispy cookies, a little less time for chewy), until golden. Allow to cool for 1 minute on the sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

Yield: about 6 dozen small-ish cookies.

Russian Tea Cakes

This Saturday morning, I woke to one of the most lovely things you can see the week before Christmas: a light dusting of snow falling merrily from the sky.  I promptly donned my boots, coat, and obnoxious drug store Santa hat, grabbed a ladder, and went out to the front of the building to put up a few twinkly lights.



Our Christmas decorations went up a little at time this year.  After Thanksgiving, I brought up the box from the basement, and we've just been taking a few things out and putting them up around the house when we have spare moments.  The advent wreath was first.  Then a funny little snowman who counts down the days until Christmas.  We got a tree, and then a few days later, decorated it with lights.  A few days after that, we finally got around to the ornaments.  It's been really nice.





Russian tea cakes are my all-time favorite Christmas cookie.  The instant hit of sweetness when you bite through the outer layer of powdered sugar, the tender, crumbly cookie, the crunchy walnuts.  They are practically perfect in every way.




Russian Tea Cakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons powdered sugar (plus 1 cup extra for rolling)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on low until well incorporated.  Scoop a tablespoon of dough at a time, roll it into a ball between your palms.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes, until cookies are just set and barely beginning to brown on the bottom edges.  Remove from oven, allow to cool 2 minutes on the pan and roll in powdered sugar while still hot.  Cool completely.

Yield: about 3 dozen cookies

Note: In an airtight container, these keep well for at least a week.  They have never lasted that long in our house.