Japanese Style Creamy Sesame Dressing

One of the things I think I fell in love with the hardest about Japanese cooking when I lived there was sesame flavoring in sauces. This is one of my very favorite sesame based things. It's great on all manner of green vegetables, cooked or raw, and any salad with Asian style ingredients.

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RECIPE: Japanese Sesame Dressing (Just One Cookbook)

Frozen Mango Margarita

Made because I missed the taste of fresh fruit in March (it is cold and snowy for nearly half the year where I live) and we are sheltering in place and we were looking for ways to start cleaning out our freezer and liquor cabinet. This ticked all the boxes.

Notes:

• We used El Jimador silver tequila because I felt like aged tequila might not be the best for mixing into sweet fruity drinks. I am still learning how I like tequila, so you might prefer a different kind.
• It may be too thick to blend; add additional ingredients to your personal preference. I really liked an extra bit of sour (lime juice) and sweet (simple syrup). You can add water, but if you add too much it will water down the drink and it won't have the sweet-tart contrast that makes it so tasty.

Verdict: Absolute heaven. It's fruity and sweet and sour, and the smooth creamy texture of the frozen mango really makes it for me. This will be my go-to recipe for frozen margaritas, and I'm hoping to try it with other sweet frozen fruits in the future (like strawberries!)

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RECIPE:

Frozen Mango Margarita

adapted from House of Yumm

Serves 1

1 1/2 oz tequila

1 cup frozen mango chunks

1/2 cup ice

2 tbsp simple syrup 

3/4 oz triple sec or orange liqueur

Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 tbsp)

If you do not already have simple syrup: mix equal volumes of sugar and water in a saucepan (1/2 cup of each will make enough for about 6 margaritas), heat over high heat while stirring until all the sugar is dissolved, then remove from heat and let cool.

Place frozen mango and ice in a blender, then add rest of ingredients, and blend until smooth. If it is too thick to blend, you can add a couple tablespoons of water, or additional liquid ingredients to your personal preference (lime juice or triple sec for me).

Holiday Bakeathon 2019

Our sixth holiday baking day together! We were all kind of tired but things still moved along nicely.

Left: marshmallow, right: cream cheese icing

Gingerbread cookies this year were conspicuously Untitled Goose Game themed.

*honk*

Left: gingerbread; Right: chocolate biscotti

We all have a fancy stand mixer now so we had to take the below video because we can. And for internet points.

*Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries plays*

RECIPES

• Spicy Gingerbread Cookies (Smitten Kitchen) -- our old standby. I never get tired of how they taste with cream cheese frosting, and we keep coming up with new and/or funny ways to decorate them.
• Chocolate Caramel Crackers (Smitten Kitchen) -- chosen because both Sarah and I were eyeing it for several years but hadn't made it yet. We used matzo and added sliced almonds on top. Pretty easy to make, makes a lot, and tastes great. I made a second batch for my work holiday party because I missed it after my portion was gone and we had enough leftover ingredients to make it again. Definitely keeping this recipe around. I'd love to try it with saltine crackers. *Update: I tried it with saltines and very slightly prefer the matzo crackers because they're less crumbly.
• Cream Cheese Frosting -- for the gingerbread.
• Cinnamon-Sugar Rugelach -- a perennial favorite. Made a second batch because my husband was sad when they were gone (they are his favorite cookie) and I'm glad I did because I got to introduce my sister to them.
• Double Chocolate Biscotti (MyRecipes) -- we added dried cherries and pistachios and I really liked them this way.
• Homemade Marshmallows (Alton Brown) -- another perennial favorite. I wanted to put peppermint in them but Sarah said no. :P
• Linzer Torte (Maida Heatter via Smitten Kitchen) -- my big error for the day was accidentally baking it on too high a temperature. The outside got very very dark, a shade before burnt, which is very sad when you spend all that time shaping dough into a lattice and making it look pretty. (This recipe takes two hours of active work to make by myself.) Make sure you turn your oven down for the final long bake. I made a small (5 inch) heart shaped one out of the leftover dough that I did not burn, and that one turned out really cute! If you decide to make it a non-standard shape, make sure you have a pan or mold to keep the bottom crust's shape while it bakes. The sides of my bottom crust started collapsing once it got warm in the oven, but an aluminum foil mold helped. Once the bottom crust was parbaked and solidified, it held its shape and I didn't need the foil barriers anymore. I redeemed myself by making a second batch that DID turn out really well, half for my parents (my dad liked it but my mom is seemingly impossible to impress) and half for Christmas Day dinner with my neighbor's family.

BAKEATHONS PAST

• 2018
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• 2014

Winter Squash and Mushroom Goulash with Spaetzle

This recipe comes to me from Sophie, someone my husband and his band became acquainted with when they had a joint metal music and burlesque show in Vienna during their recent tour in Europe. She and her significant other put them up for the night and made them this really delicious dinner. I did not attend this particular show of theirs because I was not in Europe yet, but my husband raved about how good this meal was. She gave him a basic recipe, which did not include precise amounts for most things but she described the process in great detail so that I might be able to make something similar. It sounds like she makes this mostly by feel, which is a good sign. Sophie's recipe originally comes from her grandfather. :)

The below is what I have put together based on her description and looking at other goulash recipes.

Notes:

• The finished consistency should be like a cream soup. I ended up mixing about 1 tbsp all purpose flour with 1 tbsp water and then mixing that into the soup toward the end, letting it cook for about 5 minutes to cook away the flour taste.
• I recommend kabocha/buttercup squash because I like its flavor but you can also use butternut or red kuri squash.
• Hungarian hot paprika paste (Erős Pista) is a solidly medium-spicy red pepper paste. If you don't like spicy food, you can use Édes Anna (mild paprika paste) instead, or a mix of both. I used 1/2 tbsp of each because I had them both, and it was about as spicy as I would want it to be for my mild-end-of-medium spice tolerance.
• The spaetzle pictured above were the very first I ever made in my entire life and I realize now the "dough" should have been a little more like a batter (mine was thick enough to cut off individual distinct pieces). I have not personally tried the methods I write below but I plan to when I make spaetzle again.

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RECIPE:

Winter Squash and Mushroom Goulash with Spaetzle
adapted from Sophie and her grandfather, and methods from Frau Lutz and Food Wishes
Serves 4

Goulash
1.25 lb (575 g) kabocha or other winter squash (about 1/2 large squash, about 2 1/2 cups peeled and chopped)
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped (about 6 oz/170 g)
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz (230 g) white button mushrooms, halved
1 bell pepper, any color you like, chopped
1 tbsp hot paprika paste (Erős Pista), or to taste
4 cups (1 L) vegetable stock
1 tbsp all-purpose flour mixed with 1 tbsp water (to thicken, if needed)
Sour cream, for serving

Spaetzle
250 g all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
50 ml water (or more as needed)

Prepare squash: Heat oven to 400°F. Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Peel squash if desired and cut into 1-inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl until well coated. Spread in a single layer onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Place in oven. Roast for about 25 minutes or until the pieces can easily be pierced with a fork and are beginning to brown. While squash is roasting, prepare goulash. When squash is done, remove from oven and set aside.

Make goulash: Heat butter in a saucepan or soup pot on medium heat. When butter melts and foams, add garlic and onion and saute until translucent. Add mushrooms and bell peppers, and continue to saute, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms and peppers have softened, about 7-10 minutes. Add stock and hot paprika paste, and mix until paprika paste has been incorporated. Raise heat to high and let the pot come to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add squash cubes to the pot and mix gently to combine. Simmer for at least 30 minutes (more time will not hurt) uncovered over low to medium heat. While goulash simmers, prepare spaetzle. If needed, add flour mixed with water to thicken and let simmer for several minutes after adding.

Make spaetzle: Fill a wide pot with about 3 inches of water and place on the stove over high heat to boil. Put flour in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center and add eggs and water. Mix with a whisk or fork until all the flour is incorporated and smooth. It will be a thick batter. If you have a spaetzle press and know what to do with it this would be a great time to use it, but if not you can use a cutting board and knife, or a grater with 1/4 inch holes and a large spoon. If you're using a board and knife, it should be able to pile and hold its shape for a short time. If you're using a grater, the batter should be thick enough to not drip through the holes until you push it through. Boil until the spaetzle float to the top, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon to drain off the water, and place in a dry bowl.

To serve: Place your desired amount of spaetzle into a soup bowl and ladle the goulash onto the top.

Apple Cider Caramels

I love me some apple cider in the fall, but the smallest size it comes in is often a half gallon, and because there are only two of us in the house and we have taken to drinking less juice in recent years, sometimes I end up with a large amount of cider that I need to use up before it spoils.

look how shiny it is!

Enter apple cider caramels. I saw these on Smitten Kitchen earlier this year and loved everything about them, and I just so happened to have a bunch of apple cider to use up so I gave them a try!

Notes:

• Definitely make sure to get apple cider (the cloudy kind with sediment on the bottom that must stay cold) and not apple juice. Mine was pasteurized and worked just fine, but I think the fresh-from-the-farm stuff would taste even better. If it has to stay refrigerated, that's a good sign.
• I reduced the apple cider a few days before I actually made the caramels because I started without having all the ingredients to make it (whoops). The reduced apple cider keeps great in the refrigerator. It's thicker when it's cold but it easily loosens once you put it back on the heat.
• My candy thermometer does not have exact temperature markings when it gets to the different ball stages range (weird) so I cooked it to what was marked on my thermometer as "firm ball" stage, which I think is technically just under the 252 degrees F that the recipe tells you to cook it to and it turned out fine. I would probably even make them a tiny bit softer next time.
• My 8x8" pan of caramel ended up about 3/8 in thick, for an idea of how much it makes. I cut them smaller than the 1x1 inch that the recipe suggests. I cut my pan into 6 rows (~1.25 in wide) and cut those into about 1/2 inch pieces (13-15 pieces per row), making about 78-90 pieces total.

Verdict: Way easier to eat than a caramel apple for sure. The cinnamon coated salt bits mixed throughout were better than I imagined they'd be. The cinnamon + salt are the flavors that I associate with the crust of an apple pie. They are apple pie in caramel form. I would definitely make these again.

On a related note, I tasted the reduced apple cider all by itself and it tastes like the best apple candy, sour and very distinctly natural apple. I have heard of people using it instead of maple syrup for pancakes and/or waffles and I am excited by this idea.

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RECIPE: Apple Cider Caramels

Mushrooms with Garlic and Sherry

I'm not the biggest fan of mushrooms but my husband is. I tried this recipe because I had a bunch of them I needed to use up quickly, and the one type of mushrooms I do kind of get excited about are the garlic mushrooms at the Renaissance faire. I wanted to make a fancier version of those. I liked these reasonably well but he LOVED them.

Notes:

• To make this dish vegetarian, you can use vegetable stock instead of beef stock. Mushroom stock would be particularly appropriate.
• I used about 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and still found it a little too spicy for my liking, but I'm decidedly not a fan of spicy heat with my mushrooms. I will probably leave it out from future batches.
• If you don't have sherry, a dry white wine would also work.
• Someone in the original recipe's comments mentioned wanting to add thyme and I rather like that idea.

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RECIPE:

Mushrooms with Garlic and Sherry
adapted very slightly from Leite's Culinaria
Serves 4

2 tbsp (1 oz) butter
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lb (~450 g) button or other mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1 tbsp (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp (30 ml) Fino, Amontillado, or Manzanilla sherry
3/4 cup (180 ml) beef or vegetable stock
1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, for garnish

Place a skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Add butter. When the butter is melted, add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds), then add mushrooms. Cook for approximately 7-10 minutes, or until they release their liquid and begin to brown. Add lemon juice, sherry, stock, and pepper flakes (if using) and stir briefly to mix. Bring the pan to a boil, then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer uncovered until the liquid has reduced significantly and become syrupy, about 10 minutes. Add salt and black pepper, and sprinkle parsley on top.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

One day a year in the early summer, my mom woke us up at the crack of dawn to drive to a farm and pick strawberries with her. It had to be early morning, before the fields got too crowded and the sun got too hot. She did give us the choice to stay home but I always went because even at 6 years old, the occasional getting up with the sun made me feel good. Everything is quiet and peaceful and golden, especially in the countryside. You feel like you're getting a head start on the day. I still remember the very first time I went. A couple of my mom's friends came too, and she gave me an ice cream pail with a handle and a hole cut in the top to put my strawberries in.

I didn't really like strawberries at first, but I did like to pick them. I used to roll them in sugar before eating them because I found them too sour. I didn't like jam either, though I did love the look of the bright red jam my mom made inside their little glass jars, much brighter colored than the store bought strawberry or grape jam. I was a little sad when she put it in the freezer because it never looked quite as clear and pretty after. I was a peanut butter sandwich girl for a long time. I cried when I received my siblings' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by mistake. Sometimes I ate them anyway.

As I got a little older and started to eat strawberries without a hefty coating of sugar, one morning I was making peanut butter toast for breakfast and decided to try Mom's strawberry jam on a corner of the toast of my own free will.  It converted me, just like that. I couldn't believe it. It was exactly how I wanted strawberries to taste when I was little. It took me a while to get used to it mixed with peanut butter, but it is to this day my favorite jam in the entire world. I started paying attention to how she made it, and started making my own once I found myself as an adult with an abundance of strawberries. Since then I've graduated to making jam with other freshly picked fruit, especially raspberries (which my parents love!) and sour cherries when I can get them, but strawberries are particularly easy to prepare because you don't need to remove seeds or pits.

I love freezer jam for three major reasons:

• First, you barely cook the fruit, which means it tastes more like the fresh fruit you made it out of. I am grossed out by cooked strawberries in most applications, so this is a very good thing for me. You can also keep the fruit more whole (I like large pieces of fruit in my jam).
• Second, you can make it with less sugar than you'd find in a store bought jam, which I think also helps with making it taste more like the fresh fruit (most store bought jam is too sweet for me).
• Third, it tends to set softer than traditional jam so it is easier to spread and doesn't look as gelatinous. This was a huge sticking point for me as a kid because I don't like the texture of a gelatinous thing that has been vigorously mixed after setting. (Oddly specific, I know.)

Notes:

• This is the recipe from inside the box of reduced sugar pectin and I can confirm this is the one my mother also used.
• Use the freshest, highest quality fruit you can find. I'm not gonna tell you how to live your life, but I generally don't bother with making homemade jam unless I can get freshly picked in-season fruit that I grew myself, picked myself from a farm, or bought directly from the producer at a farm market.
• You can use frozen strawberries that have been thawed. Just make sure they aren't too watery and are not freezer burned.
• This recipe requires pectin specially prepared for use in reduced sugar recipes. It comes in a pink box.
• Accurate measurements are very important for this recipe.
• Make sure your jars are VERY CLEAN before putting the jam inside.
• *As long as the jam doesn't grow mold, it's safe to eat for longer than 3 weeks kept in the fridge (we regularly used to keep the same jar in the fridge for 2-3 months). I've also eaten it after it's been frozen for several years and though the quality degrades a little bit, it's still delicious.

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RECIPE:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

from Sure-Jell

Makes about 7 cups

2 lb or 2 quarts fresh or frozen and thawed strawberries, enough to make 4 cups crushed fruit
1 box (1.75 oz, 49g) Sure Jell Less or No Sugar Recipes Fruit Pectin (pink box)
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water

Make sure your jars or other containers are clean and dry before beginning.

Prepare fruit: If using fresh: Rinse strawberries in cool water, then drain. Remove stem, leaves, and hull from each berry and cut in half. For fresh or frozen: Place berries in a clean mixing bowl. Mash berries with a potato masher, leaving some large pieces. You should end up with 4 cups; measure with a dry measuring cup to be sure, and if you have any extra, reserve it for another use.

Make jam: Place exactly 3 cups of sugar and entire packet of pectin in a saucepan and stir gently until thoroughly combined. Add 1 cup water. Place on stove over medium-high heat and whisk until thoroughly mixed and sugar is dissolved. Continue to stir constantly while letting it come to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Working quickly, stir in crushed strawberries until thoroughly incorporated. Ladle the jam into clean canning jars, leaving at least 1/2 inch space at the top. Let stand with lids off to cool to room temperature, then put the lids on and let stand at room temperature for another 24 hours. The jam can be eaten immediately, stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks*, or in the freezer for up to 1 year*.