Inaugural Panini Party

Since my friend Alison was housebound last Friday with a bum foot, I went over to her house to make paninis with her roommates Amanda and Andrew. I brought my dog Rusty along for the fun too. He didn’t get to enjoy paninis, but I think he is now thoroughly traumatized by our visit to Chat Roulette. Although he did meet a cute pup from West Hollywood during our adventure.

I’m getting off topic…back to paninis. We chose to make mushroom fontina paninis. I purchased baby bella and cremini mushrooms from Trader Joe’s along with some shallots, french rolls, baby spinach, sweet potato fries, garlic fries, and chocolate bonbons for dessert. I also got some red zinfandel from Cline Cellars (also at Trader Joe’s).

To make the delectable melted sandwiches, we first sauteed the shallots in butter over medium heat and then added the mushrooms and about a tablespoon of tarragon. We cooked the mushroom/shallot mixture until softened. We brushed melted butter on the top and bottom half of the french rolls and then put a layer of fontina cheese slices on the bottom half of the roll. The cheese was covered in the mushroom mixture, followed by a layer of baby spinach and then some more fontina cheese. The sandwiches then went in the panini press at medium heat for about 7 or 8 minutes. The rolls were thick, so the cooking time was a little longer for these guys.

When I first took my fancy Breville panini press out of the box I thought, this isn’t much different from the George Foreman grill I purchased a couple years ago and I suddenly felt buyer’s remorse (even though it was a Birthday gift from my family - thank you FAMILY!). After our inaugural panini Friday, I know the panini press was well worth the purchase and I hope this becomes a weekly tradition. Melted, buttery goodness.

Epic Easter Feast

I had fifteen people over for brunch on Easter and made a feast. I love cooking big meals for my friends, but I think I’m going to be resting for a while after this one. It sent me on an unhealthy food jelly-bean bender from which I’m recovering.

Not much to say other than I will be making the french toast casserole again. Definitely a winner. I’ll let the menu to the rest of the talking.

French Toast Casserole — via Foodnetwork.com from Paula Dean. Butter, butter, butter.

Vegetable Frittata with Asparagus Salad — The frittata was loosely based on a couple recipes, but basically, zucchini, asparagus, shallots and grated asiago cheese. Got the recipe for the asparagus salad on foodnetwork.com.

Bacon and Cheddar Frittata with Rosemary — The boyfriend manned this one and from what I hear, it was delicious.

Sweet and Spicy Potatoes — Had this dish for the first time at a friend’s brunch a couple years ago and had to make it myself. Tons of seasoning with sweet potatoes, roasted at over 400 for at least 45 minutes. YUM!

Breakfast Herb Potatoes — Regular potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh parsley and rosemary. Classic perfection.

Banana Crunch Muffins —An Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) recipe from www.foodnetwork.com. I will be making these again and I have two bananas that are ready for it!

Amish Friendship Bread — Got my starter from Katie and the bread turned out delicious! More like a pound cake than a fluffy, airy loaf, and went perfectly with the next item.

Strawberry Butter — I made this to go with the croissants that Andrew brought along with the Amish Bread and Banana Crunch muffins. It was a big hit, but thankfully I made enough for leftovers. Got the recipe from my Heidi Swanson book, but basically just use room temperature butter (or maybe a little bit warmer) and combine with strawberry preserves. After the two were combined, I put the butter in red ramekins and refrigerated overnight.

Carrot Cake & Lemon Cake Cupcakes — Refer to my last post to see recipes and close-up photos of these.

In addition to my creations, my roommates made tasty looking bacon and sausage, others brought, cheesy grits, colored eggs, croissants, fruit salad, key lime pie, cinnamon rolls, ham/pineapple/cherry skewers, Bloody Mary mix and of course champagne and fresh squeezed orange juice for mimosas.

Easter Cupcakes

I plan on writing about Easter brunch, but let’s skip to dessert first. I made cupcakes of the carrot and lemon variety. I used my standard carrot cake recipe and then (since the lemons in the backyard were begging to be zested) I made a new lemon cupcake recipe. Both had cream cheese icing on top.

Carrot (adapted from Bon Appetit 1994 via Epicurious):
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups finely grated peeled carrots (about 1 pound)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and vegetable oil in bowl until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into sugar and oil mixture. Stir in carrots.
Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, about 25 minutes.

Lemon (from OurBestBites.com):

1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) of REAL butter3 c. cake flour (no substitutions here—you really need the lightness of cake flour)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 c. sugar

5 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest of 2 lemons (just zest the other lemons before you squeeze them)

1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners (I used yellow, although white would also be cute).In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes. Don’t go skimping here—you want the mixture to be almost white and super fluffy. This is absolutely essential to the outcome of the cake.While butter and sugar are mixing, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside. After butter and sugar have mixed sufficiently, With the mixer running, add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Beat in vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest.With mixer on low speed, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until fully incorporated.Using a standard cookie scoop, place about 2 scoops of batter into each muffin cup. Fill these almost to the top—due to the final texture (again, think super-moist and light pound cake), these cupcakes won’t have a nice, curvy crown, but that’s okay—no one will ever know or care.Bake about 20-25 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. You don’t want to overbake these even a bit, or they’ll start to lose their delicious moisture. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Frosting
4 cups powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

26.2

It is Los Angeles Marathon Eve and I am up baking. My boyfriend is running the 25th Anniversary race from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier. I am now wishing that I stuck with my training all year so I could run as well, but I’ll just have to live vicariously through him.

I don’t know if he told me he was running the LA marathon or if I saw the recipe for these cookies first, but I knew I wanted to make them as soon as I saw the post (surprise, surprise, it is one from 101 Cookbooks). Heidi Swanson calls these Marathon cookies because she baked them for her husband’s 2nd marathon. I was intrigued by the addition of white beans to cookies. Anise is not a favorite flavor of mine, so I subbed that with Cardamon. I thought rolling the cookies in almonds would go better than sesame seeds with the Cardamon flavor.

When I went to get the Marathon Cookies recipe, I saw that Heidi had a link to another “healthy cookie” recipe. I thought I’d try those too, just in case the Marathon ones didn’t turn out as planned and you know…who needs sleep? Nikki’s Healthy Cookies are a must try. SO DELICIOUS and practically guilt free. Although after 26.2, you can eat whatever you want.

If you’re watching the marathon in LA, be sure to cheer for the people in the Homeboy Industries t-shirts. My favorite runner will be among them.

Corned Beef & Cabbage Alts

Since my veg-head status keeps me from celebrating my Irish heritage with corned beef and cabbage (and just cabbage doesn’t sound as appealing) I had to find some green alternatives for yesterday’s holiday.

I’ve been eying 101 Cookbooks broccoli and cheddar cheese soup and I conveniently had a head of broccoli leftover from my CSA delivery (can’t wait for next Tuesday’s installment!). Purchased some Cabot extra sharp cheddar, fingerling potatoes and some fresh bread (for a garlic bread side) and I had the rest of the ingredients at home.

Roman had some red potatoes that he mashed up with some lemon zest, butter, milk, pepper and our green ingredient…pesto!
Made the garlic bread with butter, garlic, Parmesan cheese, dried marjoram and shredded mozzarella cheese.

Everything was delicious and I got my fill of green. Happy St. Patrick’s Day indeed.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Big Body!

To celebrate Valentine’s Day Roman and I had banana pancakes with macademia nuts and coconut with smoothies and french press coffee. I used a recipe from my Heidi Swanson Vegetarian 1.0 cookbook and made a couple alterations. The pancakes were delicious!

Our smoothies had fresh strawberries, fresh squeezed orange juice, coconut pineapple ice cream and raspberry yogurt. Roman got me an immersion blender for my birthday and lets just say, I’ll be making a lot of smoothies. Hopefully as good as the one this morning.

Banana-Macademia Pancakes:

In a large bowl, combine: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda, 1/3 cup sugar, pinch of salt, 1 t. nutmeg

To the dry ingredients, add: 2 cups buttermilk, 2 large eggs slightly beaten, 2 T. unsalted butter melted, 1 big handful of sweetened shredded coconut, 1 big handful of macadamia nuts, crushed, 3 ripe bananas

Stir all the ingredients together until they are just combined. It’s okay if the batter is a bit lumpy. Don’t overmix.

Heat a skillet or pan to medium-hot and brush with a little bit of butter. Pour 1/2 cup batter onto the pan and cook until the pancake bottom is a deep golden color, flip and repeat. Top with maple syrup, chocolate pieces and strawberries.

Toppings aren’t necessary, the pancakes would be great with just syrup or butter, but indulgence was necessary for Valentine’s Day.

LUNCH for Lunch

My lunches at work have consisted of three ingredients as of late: whole grain bread, peanut butter and jelly. While PB&J remains one of my favorite sandwiches, sometimes it is good to get out of the office pantry and meet a friend for lunch outside of the office.

LUNCH just opened up on Main Street in Culver City and they were offering Sony employees a 10% discount, so my friend and I decided to try it out. It was a great one to try, and I'll definitely go back. On my next visit, I'll have to find out if they will make their meaty sandwiches sans meat, but for my innagural visit: grilled cheese.

I went with the additional tomato and brie variety for $1 but normally you get cheddar melted on white sourdough with a side of fruit, vegetables or chips for $7. Pretty darn good. I satisfied my craving for sweets after my sandwich with three of their cookies. I got peanut butter, double chocolate and chocolate chip. The cookies were just how I like them...crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

The waitstaff was friendly, the atmosphere comfortable and my friend and I wolfed down our sandwiches in no time.

I'll be having PB&J all next week, but look forward to my next visit to LUNCH.