Whisk It Good

This "Puddings and Creams" section of the "Everyday Dolci" chapter is my weakness. Two recipes in, and I'm in love. Chocolate Zabaglione was the final straw.

May I first point out that a pudding or cream with such a complex name seems like a daunting task. But fear not, we have Giada on our side. And her recipes are "everyday" meaning they are simple and that anyone can do them. Myself included.

I started by simmering some fat-free evaporated milk (in place of whipping cream as usual) and learned, again, that fat-free foods do not function the same as whole fat ones. Though not as big a failure as attempting to brown light butter, the evaporated milk separated a little bit and I had to whisk it to get it back together.

After removing the milk from the heat, I stirred in some chocolate chips until the mixture was completely smooth. Next, I filled a pot with about two inches of water and brought it to a simmer. As it heated, I put four egg yolks, sugar, cooking wine, and a pinch of salt into a glass bowl that I placed over the water. Next, I whisked.

I whisked for approximately four minutes. Or at least I think it was about that amount of time. When I started whisking, I realized that the clock on the microwave had not been set, and my cell phone was in my bedroom, so there was no other way to keep track of time. I could have stopped once the mixture came to 160 degrees, but yes, I do not have a thermometer. So i counted to 240-Mississippi. Like I true college kid, I always find a way to make due.

The mixture became thicker which was promising. This was the step that could really make or break it all. I removed this from the heat then folded in the chocolate mixture. It became what you see drizzled over my frozen strawberries above.

The final product was probably not as thick as it typically would be considering I used fat-free milk in place of full-fat cream, but it was still to die for. The salt in the cream gave it a sweet and salty contrast (which I LOVE!) and the tart strawberries added another dimension of taste.

Gina Neeley says that "cute girls don't lick the bowl." Well then call me a brute, because I certainly did without any hesitation. I was in the comfort of my own room though, so I didn't look like a total animal.

And there you have it, cycle EIGHT through the book! I now have an announcement to make. I will be cooking again tomorrow night starting from the first chapter, but then instead of moving on to another sauce, on Friday, I will be making the next dessert. It requires Chocolate Zabaglione so I made enough today for that recipe and don't think I should keep it refrigerated until I come around to the last chapter again. I know, I'm going against my own self-imposed rules, but I still feel weird going out of the order that I set out to accomplish this project.

Anyhow, I will see you again tomorrow night when I start cycle nine!!

Turkey For You, And Turkey For Me...

Turkey is one of those meats that I wish we ate more often than Thanksgiving. I'm a huge fan of Thanksgiving, and I'm glad that Jenny-O has started selling those turkey tenderloins that are pre-marinated so we can eat turkey more often. I never thought, however, to use turkey in a meatball. It almost seems blasphemous. But sometimes, blasphemy can be a good thing.

Tonight I made another "Everyday Tomato Sauce" from the "Everyday Sauces" chapter. The recipe was Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce. At first, I felt a little gypped out of a new sauce recipe. After all, the tomato sauce is just marinara sauce so the only new part of the recipe was the meatballs which are not a sauce. But really, does it matter? I got to make something new and that's what really counts.

Luckily, I had the exact amount of marinara sauce needed frozen in the freezer for this recipe. I didn't have to take time to make it last night which, though I enjoy doing it, was a nice break. I had made my Mimi's recipe for meatballs this past summer so I had some idea of what I was doing, but of course those were traditional meatballs made with regular ground beef and boatloads of cheese (they're delicious, but I'm still working on perfecting them).

I started with some bread crumbs, parsley, an egg white, skim milk, Romano cheese, salt and pepper. Yes, the recipe did call for whole eggs and whole milk, but why spoil a perfectly healthy dish with unnecessary fat? I whisked this together with a fork until it was as evenly combined as possible. Next, I added the ground turkey and basically mushed it all together with my hands. That is the most fun part about making meatballs, it is literally hands on, and you get to play with food :)

As all this was going on, I had the toaster oven preheating at 400. I then formed the meat mixture into bite-sized meatballs and placed them on my tray sprayed with EVOO. They cooked for about 18 minutes. The recipe wanted me to fry them of course, but when have I ever fried anything? As they cooked, I warmed up the marinara sauce and added a little tomato paste to thicken it up.

Once the meatballs were done, it was time for the moment of truth. One of the pitfalls of baking is that you don't know if you were successful until the food is done cooking. The tension caused by this is heightened when the food that is cooking is poultry and simply cannot be rare. I broke open one of the bigger meatballs, and they were thankfully cooked all the way through. I tossed them in the marinara sauce and sprinkled some more Romano on top.

I was a little scared that the meatballs would be totally dry and just fall apart since I eliminated a lot of the fat. I even bought 93/7 ground turkey rather than using the dark meat suggested by Giada (not only do I not like dark meat, I also didn't see any at the grocery store). To my surprise, the meatballs had the perfect amount of moisture! The flavor wasn't quite as bold as a ground beef meatball, but I think the cheese and parsley complimented the subtle turkey taste.

Overall, definitely a good dish for when you're craving meatballs, but not craving the guilt of eating too many of the traditional kind. I was able to have seven of these babies :)

That's it for tonight, tomorrow will be something COMPLETELY new to me, so come visit then!

Puddin's and Creams

In the words of Buddy the Elf, "I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!!" What you see above is to die for. And soooooo simple. Allow me to explain.

As suggested by the title of this post, we are now in the "Everyday Creams and Puddings" section of the "Everyday Dolci" chapter. Honestly, how can you NOT be excited about that (well, maybe because YOU don't actually get to eat it, and I do). Tonight, I made Affogato. Don't be fooled by the tricky name. According to Giada, this is the Italian version of a hot fudge sundae. In my opinion, it's the adult hot fudge sundae. No, it does not contain alcohol of any sort, it contains COFFEE!!

Here it goes. Giada's recipe asks you to make your own homemade whipped cream. I opted for the healthy version and bought some Cool Whip Free (you are not surprised by this). Next, you boil some water, then dissolve one tablespoon of espresso powder in it. Considering I was only making one serving of this, I microwaved two tablespoons of water rather than boiling it. I was a little concerned about buying espresso powder (you'd be surprised about what you CAN'T find in stores around here), but luckily, my campus just got a Starbucks. A Starbucks that sells Via! Did I mention that it accepts the $1000 of declining balance that I need to use up before the end of the semester?

I dissolved the Via into the water and made it quite strong (I absolutely love strong coffee). I then poured the coffee over some chocolate ice cream. No, this was not regular chocolate ice cream or chocolate gelato as suggested (if I knew where to find gelato around here, believe me, I would've splurged), it was Perry's Fat Free No Sugar Added chocolate ice cream.

You may be thinking "that diet crap doesn't taste anything like the real stuff." Well, you are wrong. This ice cream is just as good as any full fat kind, and you know what? I can eat more of it without feeling guilty. What's not to love?

I topped this off with my Cool Whip Free and dug right in. You know that song "Just One Look" by Doris Troy? I swear that was playing as I took a bite. This. Is. AWESOME! It's like a mocha, but better especially since it's somewhat healthy. I never thought to pour coffee over ice cream. It's just so obvious. Obvious and delicious.

So that's it. That is Affogato. Easy, right? Come back tomorrow night when I take on another easy appetizer in a new section of the chapter, and start my EIGHTH cycle through the book!

Shameless plug: Check out my side project music blog! http://thesoulkitchenmusic.blogspot.com/

A Day Late...

...but not a dollar short. I actually made my recipe last night, but due to a few missteps after eating it, and then a night of fun, I wasn't able to update until today.

I made another dish from "Everyday Contorni" last night called Herb-Roasted Root Vegetables. It was basically what I make as a side dish to my meals every night. Super easy, simple, and probably not nearly as interesting as what followed it. But I'll go over it anyway.

I started by preheating the toaster oven to 400 degrees and covering the tray with foil as usual. I then cut up some carrots, Brussels sprouts, and a sweet potato. The recipe called for parsnips as well, but it turns out that both Wal-Mart and Hannaford didn't have any at all. It would've made my search a little easier if I had known what a parsnip looked like, but I didn't. And I still don't.

I sprayed down the veggies with some EVOO and added some dried oregano and basil. I also chopped some fresh rosemary and threw that it with some salt and pepper. I then placed them evenly on the tray and allowed them to roast for about 35 minutes (stirring them occasionally).

Yup, that's all there was to it. an easy side dish (or big veggie meal) for any night of the week. Did I mention that the potatoes were actually cooked through this time? Anyhow, before taking on this recipe, I was invited over to my best friend's house for dinner. I explained to her that I was scheduled (yes, I do schedule when I make these recipes) to cook for the blog tonight and told her I would be over after. She was having a rough couple of days and wanted to make some comfort food, so I thought why not bring her something comforting for dessert?

I had two overly ripe bananas in my kitchen and decided that my semi-famous banana bread would be the way to go. However, I would need to use the actual oven upstairs, and the recipe takes over an hour to bake. I had a "brilliant" idea as I usually do, but this time it got me a one-way ticket on the fail boat.

I made my banana bread batter and poured a bit of it into my little ramekins (see Individual Vegetarian Lasagna pictures). Once my veggies were done, I placed the ramekins in the toaster oven...without turning down the temperature. It was at 400, but my banana bread needed to be at 325. Having it higher would just cook it faster, right? I was so very, very wrong. It turns out they put oven temperatures on recipes for a reason.

When one of the mini breads appeared to be nice and brown on the top, I removed it from the oven and let it sit. Honestly, it looked completely done, but when I flipped it out onto a plate, it went EVERYWHERE. The very top of it was bread-like, but the rest was just raw batter. At this point, I was more than a hour late to my best friend's, and decided to nix the whole idea. I even threw out the extra batter (after indulging in some, of course. I have no will power around raw batter).

I went over to my friend's, talked for awhile, tried some okra for the first time in the gumbo she made, and played the Game of Things. I highly recommend it.

So that was my night! I won't be cooking for the next couple of days. Sunday is the Super Bowl meaning I'll be making some dips, and then hopefully Tuesday I'll be back at it. Come back soon!