TWD Rewind: Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

As you may have figured out by now, I am trying to catch up with past Tuesdays with Dorie selections. The Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits were selected back in February by Ashley at Eat Me, Delicious.  She has the recipe on her blog, so head on over and check it out.

 These biscuits were really easy to make and the results were great. They are just slightly sweet and I loved the added crunch of the chopped pecans. They were super tasty topped with butter or honey.  The biscuits were the perfect breakfast for this time of year, with the leaves falling and blanketing the yard.  On mornings like these I want comfort food for breakfast…a bowl of cold cereal & milk just won’t do… 

 

I will definitely be making these biscuits again and maybe even try making some delicious breakfast sandwiches from them. I think the touch of sweetness would be a nice complement to my homemade apple & sage chicken sausage.

Booking Through Thursday: Conditioning

It’s time for the final Book Through Thursday for October. This week’s question is:

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

I try really hard not to break spines of books but there’ve been a few that have been broken— most memorably my copy of A Suitable Boy. That is one thick paperback tome, and the poor book’s spine couldn’t hand up to all that reading of all of its pages, the book pretty much split in half and the cover fell off. After it split in half it made lugging the book to work on the train a lot easier. *shrug*

Otherwise, I don’t even dog-ear my books’ pages as I read them, I always use a bookmark of some sort.  I also never write in books, with the exception of some college text books. If I want to mark a certain passage to go back and re-read, I mark the page with a sticky-note.

How about you? What condition do you leave books in after you’ve read them?

Reads: The Believers

The Believers by Zoe Heller

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of The Believers from the First Look program at Barnes & Noble. The Believers is the latest novel by author Zoe Heller, who also wrote Notes on a Scandal. I read Notes on a Scandal several years ago for a book club and enjoyed the book, so I jumped at the chance to get an early look at her latest work.

The central character in The Believers is Audrey, a British woman who met an American lawyer, Joel Litvinoff,  at a party in the UK in the 1960’s and within a very short time decided to marry him and move to New York. The bulk of the tale takes place in present day New York, where we find Audrey and Joel married with 3 adult children. Audrey and Joel are radical left wing activists. Joel is a a high profile lawyer who frequently defends people that no other lawyer would touch. His latest case is defending an accused terrorist.  Audrey is a monstrously outspoken and difficult woman who is steadfast in her beliefs in the benefits of socialism and that organized religion is bad. The Litvinoff family is very dysfunctional.

On the morning of his opening statement in his terrorist defense case, Joel collapses in court after suffering a stroke. He is taken to the hospital where he remains unconscious. Joel’s stroke causes the other members of his family to question what they believe in and whether it makes them happy or not. One daughter starts exploring the faith of Orthodox Jews, much to her mother’s chagrin. The other daughter is dealing with infertility and a marriage with little affection. The adopted son has his own world of problems with substance abuse. And Audrey is in the center of it all, not being the most supportive and understanding mother.

The Believers was a good read with bits of smart, dry, satirical humor woven throughout. Heller does it great job of satiring the east coast liberal elite. Living in a relatively liberal east coast state myself I found a lot of truth in her jabs.  For example, Audrey thinks of herself as being a socialist and all people being equal, yet she thinks that her maid should be more deferential towards her.  

I enjoyed Heller’s writing and she does an excellent job with developing characters. The Believers was more of a character driven novel than a plot driven one. The narrative alternates between the different family members so that we get a view into each of their lives. Heller expertly describes the dynamics between the members of the dysfunctional Litvinoff clan.

 I recommend this book to fans of dry, satirical humor.

View all my reviews.

TWD: Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes

CHOCOLATE!!!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, on to this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. This week’s recipe was selected by Clara at I Heart Food for Thought (she has a very nice blog theme/skin, if I do say so myself).  Her recipe selection from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking was the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes. Clara has the recipe posted on her blog, so if you want to make these super chocolatey treats, stop by her blog and jot down the recipe.

Instead of using 2 ounces of melted bittersweet chocolate in the batter, I used 1 ounce of bittersweet and 1 ounce of semi-sweet. I had read in the TWD P&Q post how lots of people were saying that the cupcakes turned out too dry, so I knew that I had to keep a watchful eye on these puppies so that I could take them out of the oven at just the right moment.  I ended up cooking them for only 17 minutes instead of the 20 minutes that the recipe called for.

Once the cupcakes had cooled a bit, I filled them with a touch of Marshmallow Fluff. I then glazed them with the chocolate glaze from Dorie’s recipe.  Each was then topped with either Halloween sprinkles or candy corn.

These cupcakes were dense but moist and super chocolatey!  They are definitely a one-at-a-time deal since I found them to be rich and filling. I think that if I tried to shovel them into my stomach one after another that I would quickly get a tummy ache. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing.  I really liked them, but I think I will be the office hero and bring them in for the guys to enjoy.

TWD Rewind: Brown-Sugar Apple Cheesecake

More of me catching up with past TWD recipes… This time I am going with the brown-sugar apple cheesecake which was selected back on February 12th by Jaime at Good Eats N Sweet Treats.  She has the recipe posted so stop by her blog to see the details of how to make the cheesecake.

I have NEVER made a cheesecake before. But, there has to be a first time for everything, right?  So, I bravely ventured forth into unexplored territory. I had heard horror stories about cheesecakes that cracked too much on the top or didn’t set correctly.  I figure I was never going to learn if I never tried, so why not??  If it fell apart I could always just throw it in a big bowl and call it a trifle, right?

The cheesecake turned out beautifully. I glazed the top with apple jelly and made the crust out of graham cracker crumbs. Next time, I think I will cut the apples into smaller chunks (instead of just cutting the apples into eigths).  It was a tasty and creamy fall dessert. I liked that the texture wasn’t as firm and dense as a New York Cheesecake.

Sunday Salon: Have Book, Will Travel

Earlier this week I hopped on a plane to spend a few days in Washington DC for work. I always way overestimate how much I will read on a flight and end up bringing an extra book that I don’t even touch. But, I fear that the one time I don’t bring a back-up book that will be the time where my flight gets delayed for several hours. Then I might run out of stuff to read!  Of course, most airports have shops to buy books but I would feel guilty about those 100+ books sitting back at home unread.

For this trip, I brought The Believers by Zoe Heller and as a back up The Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner.  I got about 80% of the way through The Believers. I did most of my reading on the plane, my agenda in DC was too packed to squeeze in much reading timeThe Emperors of Chocolate didn’t see the light of day until after I got back home. I started reading it a couple of days ago and am now about 1/3 of the way through it. But, its an evil book that makes me crave chocolate. So, it may be a blessing that I didn’t get to it in DC since there was a Godiva shop on the ground floor of my hotel.

Do you read a lot when you travel? Are you good at estimating how much you will read on a trip?

Reads: Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

 rating: 4 out of 5

Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors. I read my first novel by him four or five years ago and it was pretty much love at first sight. Since then I’ve read 6 or so more of his books and enjoyed each of them. Murakami’s writing ropes me in from pretty much the first page. I always get completely lost in the story, which is always unique and dreamlike.

The hero of the novel is Kafka Tamura, a 15 year old runaway from Tokoyo. Kafka is a loner who has a deeper relationship with books than he does with other people (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).  Kafka’s father, a famous sculptor, makes an Oedipal prophecy about his son: Kafka will kill his father and sleep with his mother. Kafka’s mother abandoned him when he was only 4 years old and took his older sister with her. Kafka hasn’t seen his mother or sister since.  The book starts as Kafka flees his home and makes his way to the island of Shikoku where he creates a new routine of spending his days reading in a private library.

The chapters of the book alternate between 1st person accounts told from Kafka’s point of view and 3rd person accounts about Nakata, an old man who can talk with cats. As a boy, during World War II, Nakata collapsed while on a school outing and lost much of his mental capacity. Now, as an elderly man, Nakata lives on subsidies from the government and makes some extra cash by using his cat-talking skills to work as a for-hire cat finder.

The pages of Kafka on the Shore are filled with strange events and encounters.  The stories of Kafka, Nakata, and the other characters meld together more and more as the story continues. I how effortlessly Murakami weaves cultural references into his books. Other authors who try this often end up sounding forced or cheesy. Murakami can drop in music, food, or movie references in a way that seems to be part of the story versus the author trying to sound hip & modern. 

I highly recommend this book!  (and all other Murakami ones as well) Kafka on the Shore may not be my favorite Murakami book but it was still a great read.

Kafka on the Shore won the World Fantasy Award in 2006. This book counts towards both the 1% well-read challenge and the Book Awards II Challenge.

Cookie Carnival: Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

 

 Okay, so I totally ignored the “mini” part of this recipe. I wasn’t in the mood for mini. I wanted a nice full-bodied whoopie pie that I could stuff my face with.  After all, it is starting to get quite chilly out and I need to start adding a nice layer of fat to protect myself from the cold.  That’s a fat layer on top of the one that is already there. 

When I first read the title of this recipe I assumed that the cake part of the whoopie pie would be the pumpkin part… nope, I was wrong… these pumpkin whoopie pies have the traditional small devil food cakes but instead of a vanilla cream, they have a spiced pumpkin cream sandwiched between them.

The whoopie pies were easy to make. With my generously sized dollops of batter I ended up with  a total of 10 assembled whoopie pies. My husband thought that they weren’t quite sweet enough. I was intrigued by the filling but thought that it could have used more oomph.

 

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

          

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE COOKIES

    * 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

    * 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

    * 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

    * 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

    * 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

    * 1/4 cup vegetable shortening

    * 1/2 cup granulated sugar

    * 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar

    * 1 large egg

    * 1 cup whole milk

    * 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FOR THE FILLING

    * 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

    * 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

    * 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

    * 1/4 cup canned solid pack pumpkin

    * Pinch of cinnamon

    * Pinch of nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

   1. Prepare cookies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

   2. Place butter, shortening, and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in half the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla. Mix in remaining flour mixture.

   3. Drop about 2 teaspoons dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool 10 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets and transfer to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely.

   4. Prepare filling: In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together cream cheese, butter and confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whip until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary.

   5. Pipe or spoon about 2 teaspoons filling on the flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping the flat sides down.

 

Eats: Toast

Toast
121 Nantasket Ave
Hull, MA 02045

781-925-5221

website: http://www.toasthull.com/

Toast is a store-front restaurant located in the ground floor of the Horizons condo complex directly across the street from Nantasket Beach. You can see the ocean from through the large windows at the front of the restaurant. The vibe is casual, bright and family friendly. There are about 10 tables plus 5 or 6 stools at a counter. Toast is open for breakfast and lunch Tuesdays through Sundays. They take credit cards so don’t worry about having to remember to drag your sleepy head to an ATM before getting your morning coffee fix.

The breakfast menu’s offerings average around $7 per entree. There are a selection of omelets, egg sandwiches, pancakes and other dishes. We order two of the options from under the Toast Specialties heading. The “burnt toast” ($6.50) is creme brulee battered french toast with caramelized sugar. Four thick slices of french toast were served sprinkled with powdered sugar. The french toast had a sweet crackly thin crust of sugar giving it that creme brulee feel. The french toast is served with real maple syrup, so bonus points to Toast for not forcing us to use the imitation stuff.

 ”The white omelet” ($8.50)  is an egg white omelet with chicken sausage, spinach, and jalapeno jack cheese. The omelet comes with hash brown potatoes and your choice of toast. For a place named Toast, they fittingly have a nice selection to chose from for toast: English muffin, dark or marble rye, sourdough, multi-grain, whole wheat, raisin pecan, white, or Texas toast.  I went with the sourdough toast, since it’s one of my favorites. The has browns were the shredded potato variety and were a hit with us. They were fried up to just the right level of crispiness. The omelet itself was very flavorful and packed with chunks of juicy chicken sausage. My only complaint might be that there was a bit too much cheese in the omelet for my taste. I usually love cheese, so maybe I wasn’t in a super cheesy mood that morning.

 

Service is on the slow side on Sundays since the place fills up and they can only push so much food out of the small kitchen at a time. We had to wait about half an hour between ordering our food and it arriving in front of us.  For me it was worth the wait, but my husband might take some convincing!

Cooking: Quick Hungarian Beef & Potato Soup

Since fall is definitely in the air, I decided to make a quick soup one weeknight for dinner. This recipe is based on one from Food & Wine magazine. I kicked up the spices a notch.  The soup was really quick and easy to make thanks to using ground beef instead of regular beef.

The caraway seeds, paprika, red pepper, and marjoram melded into a flavorful hearty soup. It was great served with a nice loaf of crusty bread to soak up the broth.

I will be making this soup again really soon, it was simle to make and the end result was flavorful and made a satisfying meal on its own (no need for a 2nd course!).

 

Quick Hungarian Beef and Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
3 large Russet (or other boiling) potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 1/4 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 cups canned low sodium beef broth or homemade stock
3 cups water

DIRECTIONS

1. Set a large pot over moderate heat. Add the ground beef and cook, stirring to break it up, until the meat no longer pink, about 2 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat to moderately low. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, about 10 minutes. Stir inthe flour. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
3. Add the potatoes, paprika, ground red pepper, marjoram, caraway seeds, salt, tomato paste, broth, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.