Breakfast in Baltimore

I've been visiting my parents a bit more frequently these days, since my mother has been having some health issues, and holidays have been around. So I've been doing a fair bit more of my cooking there as well. When visiting my folks in Baltimore, we very often have our main meal of the day sometime in the middle of it - in other words, a nice big Brunch/Lunch! Breakfast foods are a staple here, in part because I don't make them as often for myself when I'm in New York. For example, I never think to make pancakes just for myself - it just feels a bit sad and lonely eating pancakes alone. There are exceptions: the recipe below for Dutch Baby is probably the breakfast food I make most often for myself at my apartment (aside from eggs, of course, because eggs are awesome), because it's easy to make just one serving with relatively little effort, and I always have the ingredients around. But I'd never make Swedish Pancakes (Crêpes) just for myself. Anyways, while I generally don't treat breakfast as the 'most important meal of the day' that it supposedly is, I DO quite enjoy a nice breakfast, even if it's a dinner time. So here are a pair of my favorite breakfast recipes that I have made (with my dad, generally) on recent visits to Baltimore. Both these recipes are just eggs, milk, salt, butter, flour (and a bit of sugar for the crêpes) - it's amazing the difference proportions can make!

Dutch Baby: (serves 3)

3 tbs butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt









This is a 4 ingredient recipe (5, if you include salt), and all you need is an oven, a pan, and an Osterizer. Oh, you don't have an Osterizer? That would be the first mainstream blender ever sold in the United States, but unlike "Xerox-ing", "Osterizing" never really took hold as a household word - so any blender will suite your purposes here. My father estimates that our Osterizer is from somewhere between 1950-1955, so about 60 years old. And it still functions perfectly - let's see your fancy modern blender in 60 years, shall we? But yes, this super simple recipe is fast, easy, and delicious, looks beautiful, and is great for breakfast, brunch, or breakfast-for-dinner.


Preheat oven to 400F. Melt the butter in the pan, wobble the pan around so that the bottom is nicely coated with it. Add ingredients, in order, to the Osterizer, blending as you do so. Pour into pan, and bake for 10-15 minutes, until a loverly, puffy golden brown! And that's it! Eat right away (it starts to deflate a bit if you let it sit) with maple syrup (I always heat mine up prior to serving), or with powdered sugar and lemon, or with a bit of jam. Now note, this serves three quite nicely, and is also really really easy to divide by three. So if you want to scale up or down, it's really easy to do so! When I'm at my apartment, I occasionally make a 1/3 recipe for myself in a circular 8 inch pan, which is about right for one. If you want to make more or less, just change proportions and pan size.

Next, a more complicated but equally (or, dare I say, MORE) delicious breakfast food.

Swedish Pancakes (Crêpes)

3 eggs

1 tbs sugar

1-1/3 tsp salt

175 mL flour (~ a scant 3/4 cup)

500 mL milk (~ a generous 2 cups)

3 tbs butter – for cooking

These are just about ready to flip!

This recipe takes a bit more effort, but is extremely worth it and is wonderfully delicious. When I'm visiting home, we can use the cast iron skillet that my dad owns - we can put it atop of two burners to heat it up. However, you can also make these in a regular non-stick pan - it just harder to get the crepes out if you do it this way, and harder to maneuver around when flipping them.

Mix eggs, sugar, salt, and a little flour to the blender, and blend. Add the rest of milk and flour slowly to thin the mix and blend again, thoroughly. Let sit for a half hour before use (this is not, strictly speaking, required, but it is recommended. I've definitely forgone the half hour and it's turned out fine, though, and cut it down to ten minutes). Use a HOT skillet (the cast iron one mentioned before, or just a nice non-stick pan) thoroughly coated with butter. When we use the skillet, we generally keep a stick of butter in the freezer to keep it from melting, and between each batch we butter the skillet thoroughly with the stick to get a nice, even layer of butter. Pour out the crêpes large and thin - you can actually use some implement to make it more circular or you can tilt the pan, or blow on them in order to shape them a bit better. Watch the crepes carefully, and flip when it is just jelled, (and still has some moisture in the center) - there should be little bubble like features in the centre, see the picture. Let it sit for another minute or two, until the other side is cooked. You should be able to get under it easily with a spatula, and they should be a nice golden brown on both sides.

Now, you can just eat these like this, and they'll be wonderful. Dad and I generally have them with maple syrup, though my mother always is sure to comment when we do this that it's not the FRENCH thing to do. The 'French' thing to do is to have them with some sugar and a dash of lemon juice - this is how my mom eats them. But there are a lot of other ways you serve this base recipe that are also delicious! For example, once you've got the crepes flipped and mostly cooked, you can put a filling in the middle and fold the crepe in half, cooking it a little longer to warm the filling. If you want to make a more savory meal of it, you can use ham and cheese as a filling, letting it sit on the pan so the cheese melts. Or if you want to stick to the sweet side of things, honey and apples. Or just honey. Or berries and fresh whipped cream. Or chocolate chips (letting them melt a bit!) with bananas. Or PB&J. Or just the jam, or just the peanut butter. Or Nutella. Or go all out and make Crêpes Suzette with a grande marniere orange sauce and vanilla ice cream on the side! The point is, there are many amazing ways you can serve them, and it can be a lot fun to experiment. Bon Appétit!

Cooking for One

My junior and senior year of college, I was in a cooking rotation with two other people: Benson and his roommate, Abe. I'd sometimes eat with the other girls in my house, but my schedule was such that it was more similar to Benson and Abe's schedules (the other two science majors) then it was to the 4 other people residing in my house. So we'd in general grocery shop together and plan meals together, and every third day or so I'd cook. It cut costs, we almost never had leftovers or eat the same thing twice, we all had different recipe banks to go to so things changed up regularly, and on days you cooked, we had deal that you didn't have to do the dishes (Ah, dishes, my old nemesis - I dream of future days when I will have a dishwasher!). The three of us enjoyed each others cooking and meals, but when it came to basic snacks, we had very different tastes. As I've said in previous posts, I really like salt. I tend to salt my foods a little more than others I cook with might - I don't get complaints, in general, I'm just a little heavy handed. And when I want something to snack on, well, I want it to be salty! Popcorn, crackers, pretzels, or whatever. I attribute this to the fact that my parents had a "cracker jar" rather than a "cookie jar" to raid when I was hungry as a child. Abe, on the other hand, was sweet: he had a constant supply of Skittles, Starbursts, soda, and similar. And finally, there was Benson. As salt is to salty and sugar is to sweet, MSG is to umami (savory). Benson is Chinese-American, grew up in San Francisco, and the snacks of HIS choice were the wasabi-coated peas, the shrimp flavored crackers, and, for lack of better description, the crunchy MSG-coated string beans. We joked that we needed a bitter and a sour person to add to our group - but alas, never managed to complete the set. So in addition to the salt and sugar lying around, we also had a shaker of MSG to add to our soups and stir fries for added taste. I rather grew to appreciate it, and still have a shaker around my kitchen, and I certainly don't have a fear of MSG. Such fears, I think, are overhyped - it's really the rare person who reacts badly to it, and it's NOT that bad for you, any more then a bit of salt or a bit of sugar is. In excess, well, sure, but again, so are salt and sugar.

As I've stated before, now that I'm in grad school I generally just cook for myself when I'm in my apartment. When I have a roommate (and I'm currently in between roommates) I will offer food if they're around, but for the most part, food is made just for me. This tends to cut certain dishes out of my repetoire - one's that are just too massive and that I'd have to eat for a week, or foods that would leave me with a lot of leftover fresh vegetables which would spoil before I could eat it all (I almost never buy lettuce, lest I be forced to have salad EVERY DAY until it's gone). One such dish was a regular in college - Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic. I'm a huge fan of garlic in general, and a whole chicken is great for when you have a group of people. Usually some people like white meat, and some like dark, so you can generally get the part of the bird you are most fond of (DARK MEAT!). And when you were through, you'd have a chicken carcass and some bones and scraps, which were easy to toss in a bag in the freezer to save for making stock later. In fact, my bone bag was rather a running joke in my college house; it was clearly labeled "Jen's Bones" and the idea was that not only did I make chicken (and turkey, and duck) soup, but  that I was keeping other sorts of bones as well. Our apartment mate Kaila lived in constant terror that we were all trying to fatten her up for "Kaila Soup" (which as you can see that we've still not made, as evidenced by her recent visit!).

Anyway, I've not made Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic in several years at this point. But a few weeks ago, I ran into a sale on cornish game hens at the grocery store. Now, these are small birds, not even 2 lbs, so it occurred to me that it was about the right size for me to make for myself, with a few leftovers. And that a cornish hen could probably be cooked in anyway that a full sized bird could be cooked, just by changing the cooking time a bit. So I bought two. One is currently in my freezer, but for the other I used a recipe I found online which is practically identical to my recipe, but using a game hen instead of a chicken, here.



 Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic
1 cornish game hen (or more usually, a whole chicken!)
30+ cloves of garlic (roughly 1.5 heads)
3 tbs olive oil
1/3 cup chicken stock (or 1 cup for a whole chicken)
1/3 cup white wine (1 cup for a whole chicken)
1 lemon, quartered
salt, pepper, rosemary (preferably, but not necessarily, fresh)



The recipe itself is simple. Rub the bird with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and rosemary. You can also mince a clove or two of garlic and rub the bird with that as well. Put a quarter of a lemon and some seasoning into the cavity of the bird (along with the organs, if it came with them... delicious liver, neck, heart, and giblets! I actually quite enjoy these parts, though some people do not.). Then put the bird in a roasting pan, and toss the garlic all around it.

While I peeled the garlic, you don't actually need to - I've made it before without doing so, and if you cut off the bottom before cooking the garlic, you can just squeeze it once it's cooked and it pops out the end. But I actually find it kind of relaxing to peel garlic once in a while, so I went for it anyway - it's easier to eat that way! It doesn't make a huge difference either way. And if I'm being honest, I didn't use 30 cloves of garlic - I only had 27 available, alas! But I think that's close enough, don't you?

Next, baked your game hen at 425F for 25 minutes. Mix the wine and chicken stock, and after those 25 minutes, turn down the heat to 350F, pour the liquid over the bird, and cook for another 35, basting every 10 minutes or so. For a full chicken, well, it depends on the weight, but I'd do a similar temperature changing so you can get the crisp skin. But it will then be much longer baking in the second part, because... size. Once your bird is cooked (judging by a meat thermometer, and when the juices run clear when you cut it), you can remove it from the oven and carve it up to serve. For the game hen, this meant that I cut it in half lengthwise with my kitchen shears and ate half of it, saving the rest for the next days' lunch. Half a game hen was just about the right amount for one, especially with veggies for a side. For a chicken, obviously, carve it like you would any other chicken.

You can just use the juices as a sauce, at this point, but I wanted something a little thicker and saucier, so I strained out the garlic and other particulates and cooked it down a bit in a sauce pan. I thought it needed a little more flavor, so I added a little bit of salt, msg, lemon juice (a few drops) and apple cider vinegar to brighten it up a bit! I've read numerous places that adding a bit of acidity can really improve a dish, and it turned out very nicely here, especially considering I improvised the additions! So overall, I would call this a very successful adaptation, and I would happily get game hen as a replacement for whole chicken again in the future. Since cooking for one can be a bit aggravating at times, it's always nice to find a good way to moderate my serving sizes and open up my repertoire a bit!

When life gives you lemons... make limoncello!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love
lemonade. You will seldom see my fridge free of lemonade during the summer; and if it is, it's because I just finished drinking a batch of it. My favorite brand is Simply Lemonade - they primarily are Simply Orange, with orange juice, but I think their lemonade is just spectacular, with just the right balance of sweet and sour. But of course, buying a $4 thing of lemonade every week seems a bit excessive, especially when it's extremely simple and easy to make lemonade on your own, and lemons are 3 for $1.


Homemade Lemonade:
9 c. water (ish)
1.5 cups sugar (ish)
5 lemons (or so) (~1 cup lemon juice)
honey, lime juice to taste

I have a 2.5 Quart pitcher, which I fill most of the way up with HOT water (doesn't have to be boiling, but you want the sugar to dissolve into it.) Honestly, I don't measure it out, but it's probably about 9 cups worth of water. Add a cup (or a cup and a half if you like it sweeter) of sugar and STIR. You want that sugar to dissolve fully. If it's not hot enough, you'll have to pour it into a pot and heat it up. This gives your lemonade a nice smooth taste. No graininess! For flavor, I like to add a dash of honey as well, gives it a nice richness.

Let your water cool a bit, then squeeze 5 lemons - switch in a lime or two as well, if you'd like a bit of variety - into the pitcher, and stir again. This should amount to about a cup of lemon juice, give or take, depending on the juiciness and size of the lemons. If you are serving for company, you might want to squeeze into a bowl first, sift out the seeds and the pulp, then pour it it. I like the pulp, so I just toss all the squeezings in and spit out the occasional seed when I drink the stuff. TASTE TASTE TASTE as you make it, to make sure the sweetness and tartness levels are right for YOU. If its not, add more lemon juice, lime juice, honey, sugar, whatever you think it needs. Stick it in the fridge and let chill. Poof! Delicious lemonade. And POOF! A bunch of lemon rinds, which for years went to waste in my kitchen until I learned the error of my ways.

A few years back, my boyfriend and I drove down the coast of California between his home in San Francisco and his school in Santa Barbara. We took our time, stopping to see friends, going camping, and spending a few days in a great B&B in Monteray. The proprietress there had a big, 10 gallon container of homemade limoncello for guests to drink at their leasure, which she was constantly making new batches of because it was so popular. This stuff was fantastic. We couldn't get enough, and finally begged how she made it.

She didn't really have a recipe, she said, because limoncello was so simple. Mix lemons and vodka, let it sit, then add sugar and water to taste and let it sit some more. The hardest part was peeling the 50 lemons or so that went into each huge batch. So, naturally, upon returning home, I made a decision. Every time I make lemonade, I immediately peel the lemons into a little bag which I stick in my freezer. It's not so bad just doing a small batch of 5 or so lemons at a time. Not only does this give me an excuse to make more lemonade than ever, but I also get a great new alcoholic treat which is great to drink straight, with seltzer, or over vanilla ice cream. And yet, it still isn't quite as good as the stuff we had there.... I'm still experimenting, though!

One summer's worth of lemonade gives me more than enough peels to make limoncello for me AND for Christmas presents to various friends. If I had to guess, I'd say 10-12 lemons or so (or 2 batches of lemonade) are probably enough for one batch of limoncello. You want to be sure to peel the lemons such that you don't get a lot of the white stuff (the pith) on the peel - you just want the outer yellow part. Its fine if a little gets in, but if too much does you'll get a bitter taste to your drink.


My initial recipe I got from the excellent blog, Limoncello Quest, where I fully recommend you going to for advice when you make your own limoncello. Now, since then, I've been experimenting with proportions. At the moment, I'm leaning towards:

1) in process: vodka/lemon mix
2) finished: pure white sugar limoncello
3) finished: brown sugar mix limoncello

Limoncello:
one 750 mL bottle of vodka
~1 heaping cup of lemon peels - probably more like 1 1/4
3 cups water
1 1/4 cups white sugar

The process is very simple: put lemons peels into the vodka. (Note that you need a larger bottle than the one the vodka came in, since the lemons clearly add a volume. Not to mention it's hard to get lemon peels in and out of narrow bottle necks, which you'll need to do. I use the one-liter glass bottles from miscellaneous juices.) Let sit for 30-45 days, the longer the better. After that time, heat your water to boiling, and add the sugar, stirring so it dissolves. Let cool, then stir in the vodka/lemon peel mixture. Pour this mix back into bottles (now you will now need more wide-necked bottles, since you've added the extra volume from sugar water!) and let sit another 30-45 days. If you want to cut the time short, I'd cut the FIRST sitting time a little, not the second, since that second rest period really smooths out the taste. Finally, filter the lemon peels and particulates out of the mix by pouring it through cheesecloth or other filters. Bottle, then drink to your liver's content! If you really want to go nuts, you can take the vodka/sugar soaked lemon peels, sprinkle some sugar on them, and munch on them for a tart snack. Or dip them in chocolate and eat them that way... I've done both, and both are tasty, but honestly, most of the lemon peels at this point end up in the bin.

After staining out the lemon peels, I set up a
cheesecloth/funnel filtration system, putting
one cup of limoncello through the cloth
at a time.

Now, I currently have 3 batches of Limoncello: One is still in progress, a lemon/vodka mix that has been sitting for almost 2 months (I've been busy, and need to do the second part soon); one that I've just completed processing; and one that I finished months ago (but that is being depleted fast...).

The brownish, cloudy limoncello is what happens if you realize you are almost of white sugar, and decide to play with the flavoring by using brown sugar rather then going out to the store at 11:30 at night. For this batch, I used a cup of white sugar and 1/3 cup of brown (in 3 cups of water). The sample that I tasted was just as good as the white sugar limoncello, with an interesting, caramel-y undertone. Quite delicious. But I'm not as enthused about giving it away for Christmas - it's just not as nice looking as the pure white sugar one. I may actually run it through some fine coffee filters to see if it helps the look of the drink - cheesecloth just didn't quite cut it, even if it got the big particulates out. We shall see.

By far the most difference comes from playing with the sugar water mix. I tend to prefer a little tarter, which goes well on vanilla ice cream, but the sweeter stuff has its place as a dessert aparatif. It's really a matter of taste, and therefore that is my suggestion: TASTE TASTE TASTE your limoncello as you slowly add in the sugar water, until you are happy with it. THEN bottle and let it rest again. Of course, by varying the amount of water you use, you also choose how diluted your vodka is going to be, and thus how strong your final batch will be, so you can play with that as well.

So, if I add some sugar water to the last bottle of limoncello over the weekend, it should be fine to give away for Christmas. And if I filter the brown sugar mix again through coffee filters, that should ALSO make fine Christmas presents - with enough left over to last me until the next batch! A very good use of leftover lemon peels that would otherwise go into the trash, don't you think?