A Boozy Dinner with The Pioneer Woman, by Genevieve Reiner

A Boozy Dinner with The Pioneer Woman

If you're a woman who likes to cook, chances are you've heard of Ree Drummond--a city girl who meets and marries a cattle rancher in Oklahoma, with home-on-the-range adventures ensuing.  She cooks, bakes, home-schools her children and writes about all of it. I've only made one other Pioneer Woman recipe--her buttery, decadent cinnamon rolls--and found this to be a good opportunity to further explore her cooking. For our first foray into Ree Drummond's new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier, my friend and fellow food blogger Shawnie Kelley (of Manges! Mangi!) decided to dive in head first with a meal of three dishes and a cocktail.The theme for dinner number one: recipes with alcohol in them.

To start, we whipped up a batch of frozen Mango Margaritas, pictured above. As far as frozen cocktails go, these were pretty good...but then, it's hard to mess up tequila and fruit.  They're strong...1.5 cups each of  tequila and triple sec, and are also pretty sweet, a situation we preemptively remedied by cutting back on the added sugar.  The lime zest-sugar rim was a nice touch, and helped to balance out the sweetness of the mango.  One change we made: we used frozen mango instead of fresh or jarred.

Well liquefied, we turned to dinner prep itself: Whiskey-Peach Chicken, Pan Fried Kale and Whiskey Glazed Carrots. All of the recipes were easy to make, and Ree does not use a lot of complicated, hard to find ingredients.  In this instance, the peaches were the most challenging find (since they're not in season), but thawed, frozen peaches did the trick and turned out splendidly. (I'd stay away from jarred or canned peaches in syrup).

It's a one pot dish, which is convenient: seared chicken pieces added to sauteed onions, BBQ sauce, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, whiskey, and the peaches.  The whole thing went into a low oven while we worked on our side dishes of sauteed kale and carrots. (Also of note: she says to cook the chicken in the sauce for an hour and a half in the oven...while that does mean you're going to have some seriously fall-off-the-bone chicken, you'd have to really plan ahead with this dish on a weekday night.  We found that a half hour in the oven while we did everything else was more than adequate.) The peach-whiskey sauce was fantastic...the whiskey gave it a nice depth, and the sweetness of the peaches and the tang of the BBQ sauce  played really well together.  We had a lot of sauce (relative to chicken) and saved it for use in other ways. (Over pork chops or tossed with pulled pork?  Tossed with veggies and some hot peppers for a sweet and spicy stir fry?)

The kale recipe is not complicated in the slightest, but for those that have never worked with kale, it's a great place to start.  Ree doesn't suggest stripping the leaves from the tough stems, but that's what we did. The kale would have had to cook too long to soften the stems, and we wanted to keep the leaves bright and al dente. (Oh, and she doesn't call for it, but we added a splash of white wine to the kale...everything else was drunk, we didn't want it to feel left out.)

I think the carrots were my favorite part of the meal: buttery, sweet, and with a rich whiskey aroma and flavor.  Actually, they sort of left the realm of vegetables and moved to the world of candy, which is probably why there were none leftover at the end of the evening.

On the whole, it was a good meal, and we received positive feedback from our gentleman diners.  After reading the whole book yesterday, it's clear that Ree favors bold yet classic flavors, and dishes that are slight tweaks of traditional standards. Some of the recipes seem pretty basic (Caprese salad, rigatoni and meatballs), but if that's how you get your audience to try their hand at a balsamic reduction or make their own pasta sauce from scratch instead of using over-salted, over-sugared jarred stuff, then that's great. I do also like the fact that she has a very brief intro to canning at the end of the book, with recipes for strawberry jam and pickles. As a farm wife with no convenient grocery and what appears to be a nice garden, I'm sure she has a lot of canning recipes and I would have liked to have seen her share a few more.

It's clear that she has a large and loyal fan base out there, and I think it's wonderful that she's encouraging people to do more home cooking. I'm looking forward to exploring a few more of her dishes over the next few weeks (homemade doughnuts!) and sharing what I find. (And check out Shawnie's blog for her reviews!)

Eat The Rainbow!

Eat The Rainbow!

That was a term someone mentioned to me years ago--- "Eat The Rainbow" in an effort to eat healthy and well-rounded. This is my rainbow veggie roast consisting of cauliflower, mini white & red potatoes, carrots, yellow pepper, Brussel sprouts, leeks, purple potatoes... sprinkled with truffle salt, chopped garlic, herbes des Provence & a drizzle of oil.

Roasted at 450 for about 25 minutes. Gauge the timing based on the thickness of the slices and the amount of vegetables.

FINISH: Grate Parmesan cheese or squeeze some lemon over top when finished cooking, but I tend to drizzle another VERY light-handed dose of herbed-olive oil before serving.

Coconut Cake, from Saveur Magazine

Credit: Todd Coleman

Coconut Cake

Fresh coconut and its sweet water are the keys to this cake, passed down from SAVEUR associate food editor Ben Mims' grandmother, Jane Newson. A handy rotary coconut grater produces snow-like coconut flakes, but a hand grater works well, too. This recipe first appeared in our March 2012 issue, with Ben Mims' story Sweet Southern Dreams.

SERVES 10–12

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE:
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pans, sifted
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
5 eggs

FOR THE FROSTING:
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup fresh coconut water
3 cups freshly grated coconut

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Butter and flour two 9″ cake pans, and set aside. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Whisk together buttermilk and vanilla in a bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, alternately add dry ingredients in 3 batches and wet ingredients in 2 batches. Increase speed to high, and beat until batter is smooth, about 5 seconds. Divide batter between prepared pans, and smooth top with a rubber spatula; drop pans lightly on a counter to expel large air bubbles. Bake cakes until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cakes cool for 20 minutes in pans; invert onto wire racks, and let cool. Using a serrated knife, halve each cake horizontally, producing four layers; set aside.

2. Make the frosting: Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, and beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks form; turn mixer off. Bring sugar, syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup tap water to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar; attach a candy thermometer to side of pan, and cook, without stirring, until thermometer reads 250°, 4–5 minutes. Turn mixer to medium speed, and very slowly drizzle hot syrup into beating egg whites. Add vanilla, and increase speed to high; beat until meringue forms stiff peaks and is slightly warm to the touch, about 3 minutes.

3. To assemble, place one layer on a cake stand, drizzle with 3 tbsp. coconut water, spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup grated coconut; top with another cake, drizzle with 3 tbsp. coconut water, spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup coconut. Place another cake over frosting, drizzle with 3 tbsp. coconut water, spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting, and sprinkle with 12 cup coconut; top with remaining cake and drizzle with remaining coconut water. Cover top and sides with remaining frosting, and cover outside of cake with remaining coconut, pressing it lightly to adhere; chill cake to firm frosting. Serve chilled or at room temperature. 

America's Test Kitchen, from thekitchn.com

If you have never watched America's Test Kitchen and enjoy home-cooking, then you are missing out on a great show. More than three dozen test cooks, editors, food scientists, and tasters sample recipes over and over, tweaking even the slightest of nuance until the dish is just right. The kitchen, located outside of Boston in Brookline, is where they develop recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine. The following is one of my favorite posts from the Test Kitchen's blog.... Not to mention, I'm salivating over their 3,000 volume cookbook library.

A Tour of America's Test KitchenPROFESSIONAL KITCHEN TOUR

Name: America's Test Kitchen
Location: Brookline, MA
Size: 2,500 square feet

If you didn't know it was there, you'd never assume an authority on recipe testing and development was housed in a simple brick building surrounded by condos and coffee shops. Like its popular magazines, America's Test Kitchen doesn't look flashy, but inside it is buzzing with energy and expertise. I took a peek behind the cameras to see how a typical day runs at the culinary nerve center responsible for two TV shows, two magazines, a handful of websites, and countless cookbooks.

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It's fitting that you enter America's Test Kitchen in the library. The 3,000+ cookbooks on-hand is where each ultimate recipe begins. Julia Collin Davidson, executive food editor for the cookbook division and a familiar face to viewers of America's Test Kitchen Live, descends the spiral staircase from the office level to take me on a tour of the space. And like each test cook, we start with the books.

Each recipe for Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, the cookbooks, and the TV shows begins with research. That includes the library here in the test kitchen, as well as online and trips to restaurants and bakeries. The cook picks 5 different recipes to test and taste side by side. Editors and cooks weigh in on the differences between each approach and what they're ultimately looking to achieve, and by the end of the process, there's the framework for the new recipe. It can take weeks to perfect the final version, and snippets of each stage are visible on any given day at America's Test Kitchen.

I arrive shortly after the groceries, and I watch the interns swiftly break down the piles of produce and after double-checking the order list on their clipboards, transport them to each cook's dry and cold storage areas. There's a photo shoot going on in the small kitchen (if you can call a kitchen with 8 wall ovens small). The test cooks start to arrive from a meeting and soon enough, the sizzle of oil and rhythmic tapping of knives fills the air. Working on recipes for either Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, the book team, or the photo team (finalized recipes being prepared to be shot), everyone works solo. That is, until there's a tasting.

In one corner of the kitchen, the book team is testing variables for beans: mainly, the difference salt makes in the soaking water. Not sure what they decided, but both dishes of black beans were creamy, and the salty spice from the chorizo definitely had me devouring my portions.

On the opposite end, the cooks are pitting sautéed Brussels sprouts against each other. The battle between shredded and halved has a no-contest winner for me, but everything at America's Test Kitchen is put to a vote.

In a space that heralds the scientific approach toward cooking, it's surprising that it also feels a little magical. It surely seems to take a bit of the supernatural to keep it all running. Kitchen director Erin McMurrer assures me it's all in the organization.

Prepping and tasting Brussels sprouts two ways. Before publication, Cook's Illustrated recipes are tested an average of 65 times by test cooks, and then by 150 readers.

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7 Questions for Kitchen Director Erin McMurrer

What is your favorite thing about the test kitchen?
We have everything at our fingertips. There's over 300 tools that we've tested, so we have the best of the best, from small appliances to large. If you've ever worked in a restaurant kitchen, it's bare bones, you're tag-teaming, switching off using this or that. Here, we have enough for everyone, and it allows us to do our job better.

What gets the most use?
We have 33 ovens in the kitchen, 53 burners, and 3 microwaves, and they see a lot of action. For small appliances, the stand mixers, food processors, and blenders.

What, if anything, would you change about the kitchen?
Our biggest challenge is space. With so many people working here, the number of ingredients that come through, and the amount of equipment testings we do, space is always at a premium. Storage space, specifically. We have to have double of everything, some for photo shoots and the rest for general use. A room for just photo equipment would be great. And a dedicated grilling area. We currently grill in the back alley, so we have to bring the grills in and out, and it's a lot of wear and tear on them. We grill year round, so even in bad weather, someone still has to be out there grilling. A protected area with covered storage for the equipment would be ideal.

I was talking to some of the test cooks and interns, and everyone is working on something different! About how many recipes are being developed and tested over the course of a day?
We have around 40 test cooks and interns who work in the kitchen, and everyone is working on one or two recipes for either Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, the book team, or the photo shoot team. It could be anywhere from 40-60 recipes each day.

Is working in the test kitchen closer to a restaurant kitchen or a home kitchen?
Oh, definitely a home kitchen. Everything we do, we are approximating for the home cook. There were considerations when the kitchen was being designed because it's also a TV studio and a photo studio, but each station is its own mini-kitchen with a cooktop, oven, counter space, and sink nearby. So it's like 8 home kitchens in our big kitchen.

You do a lot of equipment testing. What's the process like for that?
It starts with a category. If we're testing sauce pans, is it 4-quart or 2.5-quart? Everything has to be nationally available, so Lisa [McManus, senior editor in charge of equipment testing] and her team narrow it down and order them in. Then as many tests as make sense happen. If it's pots and pans, they'll get dropped, oven mitts will get set on fire, rice cookers will run for long periods of time. And whatever wins, we stock and actually use here in the test kitchen. It's a way to monitor how they hold up long-term, and if there's an issue, we can revisit the test.

Are you loving anything in particular at the moment?
I just participated in the vegetable peeler equipment test. I loved our old winner, theMessermeister, but the Kuhn Rikon Y-peeler is amazing. Carbon steel blade, under $5. I've been using it non-stop.

• See three more kitchen tips from Erin: 3 Space-Saving Lessons for Home Cooks from America's Test Kitchen

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America's Test Kitchen, By the Numbers:

• Ovens: 33 (DCS by Fisher & Paykel)
• Burners: 53
• Microwaves: 3
• Faucets & sinks: 8 (Kohler)
• Refrigerators: 20
• Freezers: 10
• Dishwashers: 2
• Walk-in: 1
• Grills: 15 (mix of gas & charcoal)
• Cabinets & drawers: 500
• Cookbooks: 3,000

Annual
• Grocery bill: $523,000
• Flour: 2,400 pounds
• Sugar: 1,900 pounds
• Garlic: 240 pounds
• Bacon: 480 pounds
• Dish soap: 60 gallons

Weekly
• People working in the kitchen: 40
• Beef: 50 pounds
• Chicken: 100 pounds
• Milk: 10 gallons
• Eggs: 15 dozen

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More About America's Test Kitchen:
• America's Test Kitchen
• America's Test Kitchen Feed

Related:
• Ready to Melt: How to Make American Cheese
• Recipe Review: The Cook's Illustrated Vodka Pie Crust
• Questions for Kimball: How Can I Cut a Cook's Illustrated Recipe?

(Images: Tara Bellucci)

Millet Cookies, by Cookistry

And another by Donna Currie, at Cookistry. I love shortbread cookies, of which these remind me.

Millet Cookies

I had some left over millet from my Marx Foods contest, so I decided to make some cookies. These are flaky, much like those bits of left over pie crust that you save and bake for a little treat. You do that, don't you?

The millet adds a little extra texture and a slight nuttiness to the cookies.

1 cup cooked millet
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter - one chilled, one frozen

Put the millet, flour, sugar. salt, and almond extract in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.

Cut the chilled butter into about 8 pieces and add it to the food processor. Pulse until the mixture is like sand.

Cut the frozen butter into about 8 chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse until the dough comes together in a ball. There will be random bits that aren't part of the ball, but most of it should be a cohesive dough. There should be distinct bits of butter in the dough, just like when you make pie crust.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough form it into a disk, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes - longer is fine.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Flour your work surface. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch, then fold in thirds, like a letter. Roll again to the same thickness and fold in thirds in the other direction. You should have something that is roughly rectangular. Roll again to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife cut the dough into squares about 1-2 inches across, depending on how big you want your cookies to be.

Place the squared on you prepared baking sheets. You don't need to leave a lot of room between them - they'll puff up rather than spreading sideways.

Bake at 375 degrees until the cookies begin to brown - you'll see it more on the bottom than on the top - about 15 minutes. Remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Avocado Mayo, by Cookistry

A fellow Emeril cookbook blogger- Donna Currie- writes a wonderful blog called Cookistry, which I follow pretty closely. She is adventurous in the kitchen, tweaks recipes in new and usual ways, concocting some very interesting dishes. I have been on an avocado odyssey lately, so her recipe for avocado mayonnaise caught my eye.

Avocado Mayo

As you might expect, I read a lot of stuff about food. And sometimes I don't remember exactly where I read it. Or exactly what I read.

Lately, I've been on a bit of a avocado binge, and I recalled reading somewherethat it's possible to use avocado instead of egg yolks to make something like mayonnaise.

Avocado works in mayonnaise because it has the right properties to make a stable emulsion with oil, and you end up with a thick, creamy product like mayonnaise for sandwiches, salad dressings, or whatever else you'd use mayo for.

Photo: Cooki

So I started experimenting. And yes, it works. It doesn't taste exactly like mayonnaise because avocado has more flavor than an egg yolk. But if you like avocado, that's not a problem. And it's a light green color, unlike the creamy yellowish white of mayonnaise.

Who would want such a thing? Well, some people are allergic to eggs. And when it comes to home made mayonnaise, some folks are squeamish about raw egg yolks, or they have health reasons for avoiding them. It's also a good mayonnaise substitute for vegans or for vegetarians who avoid eggs.

And it's also really good for avocado lovers. Because you get that nice creaminess of mayonnaise, along with the flavor of avocado - but a little more subtle than if you just mashed an avocado on your sandwich.

You know how avocados turn brown after they're cut? Well, this mayonnaise doesn't turn brown - or at least it hasn't after several days in my refrigerator. So you don't have to worry about making exactly as much as you need, since it will store well for at least a few days.

You can make more than this recipe calls for, no problem. You can also make less. But if you don't have enough avocado to start with, it won't catch on the blender blades and you'll spend a lot of time fishing around to make sure it's all blended.

Avocado Mayonnaise

Photo: Cookistry

Flesh of 1 avocado
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
6 tablespoons mild-flavored vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water (or as needed)

Put the avocado in your blender and add the lemon or lime juice. blend until it's smooth. You can also use a stick blender or food processor. Since this is a small amount, you might need to cajole the avocado a bit to blend - some might get stuck under the blades of the blender, and you'll need to use a small spatula to make sure it's smooth. Add the salt.

With the blender running add the oil slowly, stopping the blender as needed to scrape down the blender and make sure it's all combining. Depending on how you plan on using the mayonnaise, you might want to thin it a bit. Add water, as needed, until it is the texture you prefer.

This mayonnaise makes a great salad dressing as-is, or add herbs, a little more citrus, or other flavors that you'd add to your favorite creamy dressing.

If you want something with less avocado flavor, simply add more oil and more water. Adding more oil will make it thicker, so you will need the extra water to thin it out.