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I know what boys like, I know what guys want . . .

...well, not really. But, I am dedicating the month of June on the blog to MEN! That's right....it's time for:

Desserts for Dudes!

We do a lot of cute around here and I thought the month of Fathers' Day was the perfect time to go macho and honor our dads, husbands, sons, brothers, uncles with sugar. On the blog and twitter, I asked what your dad's favorite dessert is. Turns out, dads have a lot of favorites. But, there was a winner.....PIE, and not just any pie, pecan pie!

This recipe I cut out of a magazine years ago. There isn't a magazine name at the bottom, but just "October/November 2004." I knew I was hanging on to this baby for a reason!

Caramel Pecan Pie
{adapted from unknown magazine 2004 :)}

crust:
1 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 c. cake flour
1 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
6 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 TBSP shortening, chilled
3-4 TBSP ice water

filling:
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 & 1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. water
1 TBSP corn syrup
2 & 1/2 c. pecan halves
2 tsp. vanilla


Line a baking sheet with parchment. Place pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, pulse the flours, sugar and salt until combined. Add the butter and cold shortening; pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized clumps. Add 3 TBSP water and pulse until a dough just begins to form. Add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time if needed.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12" circle. Place in a 10" (9" is ok) pie tin. Trim and flute the edges. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes, or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 375. Line the crust with foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake in the lower half of the oven 15 minutes; remove foil and beans and bake an additional 20 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

For the filling, heat the cream and 2 TBSP butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When butter melts and the mixture is hot, remove from heat and cover to keep warm.

Combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat, without stirring, until sugar dissolves.

Dip a pastry brush in water. Uncover the pan and brush the sides with the wet pastry brush to brush down any stray sugar crystals. Increase heat to med-high and boil until sugar becomes a golden brown (about 5 minutes).

Remove from heat. Slowly add the cream, the mixture WILL bubble up, and stir until the boiling stops and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the pecans and vanilla.

Let sit 15 minutes (I forgot to do this...oh, no! This may be why mine was a little runny.)

Pour into baked crust and let sit at least 3 hours until cooled and set. (You can stick in the the fridge once cooled.)


Now, *I* thought a brown sugar whipped cream would be delicious with this. Mr. E assured me that ice cream is much more manly, soooooooo, top this pie with ice cream.
If you don't have time to (or interest in) making ice cream, let me suggest Haagen-Dazs 5-ingredient ice cream, Vanilla Bean. I am not a big fan of plain ol' vanilla ice cream. This ice cream, though, with its flecks of vanilla bean, I could eat in one sitting. It's creamy, vanilla-y and decadent! Trust me.


The pie is delicious...the caramel with the pecans all tucked into a buttery crust...but I'll admit, it is a bit soupy. Now, Mr. E assures me this is not a problem...it tastes good and that's what counts. Hey, it's Desserts for Dudes, who am I to argue?

Well, I hope during this month, you'll see one of your dude's favorite desserts! We'll be back to pink and sprinkles next month, not to worry. :)

{Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a 2nd piece of pie to eat!}

And, thank you, thank you to MutheringHeight who helped in the naming of this month! Duuude, you rock!
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Tuesdays At The Table - Grilled BBQ Pizza

Happy Tuesday, ladies!  I hope you all got to enjoy a nice long weekend with family and friends.  I was lucky enough to see a few of my favorite soldiers - and say "thank you" in person this weekend for their service.  So many of you put up fabulous posts about Memorial Day! Way to go!  :-)

I know we have a few weeks before we are technically into Summer...but in my mind, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the season.  That means - TIME TO GRILL!!!

Lovely Yellow Ribbons

Grilled BBQ Pizza

1 cup pre-cooked chicken chunks/strips
1 ready made pizza crust
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup BBQ sauce

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil grate. Roll out prepared pizza dough to a size that will fit your grill. Place on grill for 5 minutes, or to desired doneness, and flip over. Now add the BBQ sauce, cheese, chicken and onion.  Cover the grill and allow to cook over high heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

 

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A Yard Sale, A Trip To The ER and A House Update

Phew, day one of the Memorial Day weekend was exhausting!! 

Kristin, Heather and I had a yard sale at Heather's house.  I have to say - we had a good set-up!  Heather has a great yard and we had a pretty consistent flow of people stopping in to check out our stuff. I had more fun hanging out with the girls than anything else...but selling stuff was pretty fun too.  :-)  We all have enough left (and I know we'll accumulate more!), that I think I'll host the next yard sale!

The single cruddy thing about the yard sale?  A woman who spent over an hour poking and prodding everything managed to somehow steal the web cam I was selling!!  How rude!  It was priced cheap...just buy the darn thing!

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Kristin and I moved along to visit Grandma after the yard sale.  We got there right in time to call 911.  She wasn't breathing quite right and was complaining of chest and leg pain - primarily on her left side.  Poor thing had only been out of the hospital about 24 hours from her last episode of chest pain.  At 87 years old - I think we all expect that she have some problems.  But I feel so bad for her!  She's been in the hospital three times in the last month!  Knock on wood the doctors figure out how to really help her this time.

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To end on a bright note - my house update!  Things are moving right along.  YAY!!  I had the home inspection last Sunday and it went pretty well.  There are definitely things that will need to be addressed...but no home is absolutely perfect, and most have a list of repairs to be made.

Thursday morning I applied for my home loan.  And think I killed a few trees in the process.  I know, I know.  If I want dead trees, wait until closing!  Friday morning, my fabulous real estate agent's hubby came all the way to my place of work so I could sign the P&S.  What a great guy.  :-)

All that's left now is waiting!  Waiting for the loan to be approved; the seller's bank to approve the short sale; wait for my closing date.


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Easy Weeknight Dinners

... or "Variations on the theme of Roast Chicken and Tinned Peas"


I know it's been a while since I've blogged about something that I've actually cooked. Yes, I know the name of my blog is Sarah Cooks, not "Sarah Bakes Cookies", "Sarah Goes to Bars", "Sarah Goes to Restaurants". Although they all make compelling titles, don't you think? In fact, just yesterday I was reminded that I haven't done a cooking-related post since the meaty goodness of early April. Time to remedy that!

Since I've moved out, I've been cooking more, and looking through my recent photos it seems we've been going through a huge peas-and-chicken phase!

I've gotten obsessed with these French tinned peas/beans, below:


They're about $3.50 at Leo's supermarket, and I don't know what they do to the peas - the ingredients are just "peas, water and salt" - but they are absolutely delicious! We've been eating them with everything.

So, without further ado, let's have a look at some quick and easy weeknight dinners that I've been cooking.

Mackerel with Mushy Peas


I bought a beautiful, super-fresh greasy mackerel at the fishmongers, and it was only $2.50. Bargain! I filleted it myself (rather messily, as you can see!), then dusted them in seasoned flour and fried them in a lightly oiled non-stick pan. For the mushy peas, I did a simplified version of Nigella's upmarket mushy peas. I heated up a tin of the D'aucy peas in a small saucepan with a touch of garlic, and then mashed them up with a touch of cream. Easy, cheap and full of healthy omega-3's.


Sirloin with Peas and Onions

My dad gave us a couple of excess sirloin steaks he'd bought, which became the basis for the following meal.


Quite simple - I sliced up an onion and cooked the slices on a low heat until soft and golden, fried the steaks, and heated up a tin of the flageolet beans. Ta-dah!



Spatchcocked Chicken and More


Although I love a proper roast chicken, like the one you can see at the top of this post, they do take quite a while to cook. (About 90 minutes depending on the weight). Lately I've been getting into the spatchcocked chicken in a big way - just flip the bird upside down, cut away the backbone, flip the bird over and squish it flat. Well, I make it sound easy, but it takes a bit of practise to get it right. It also helps if you have a super-sharp knife.

And may I present to you...


I got a Wüsthof carving knife set a few months back with my credit card points, and it came in this kick-ass container! Looking at the knife, I didn't think it would be sharp, but boy, was I wrong! It's an awesome knife - it cuts through semi frozen chicken bones like butter. *Love*

Once the chicken is flattened, it only takes 45 minutes to cook in a hot oven. Easy! I usually squeeze lemon juice over, maybe some thyme, and chuck a few garlic cloves in too.

We served the chicken with the following accompaniments:

Creamy mushrooms with a touch of chilli.

Cubes of crispy roast potatoes with garlic.

Pea and mint salad. This is just like Nigella's pea, avocado and mint salad from How to Eat, but without the avocado. Unlike the peas in the rest of this post, these ones are not from a tin, but frozen ones. They peas are cooked, then steeped in a dressing of olive oil, vinegar and chopped mint. Delicious.

I don't normally cook this much on a weeknight, but for this particular meal, we were having a friend over for dinner. It only took an hour and 15 minutes to make everything from start to finish. Not a bad effort, I think!


Lebanese-style Charcoal chicken with Mash and Gravy and Peas

Yes, it looks like a meal you could get at Red Rooster. But it tasted better!

This is another spatchcocked chicken, but with a different marinade. I made it after work one day when I'd been obsessing over the stickily-roasted chickens you get at the Lebanese or Greek suburban charcoal chicken shops.

After some mobile-phone googling, I came up with this recipe. I boiled some garlic cloves in their skins until soft, drained them, skinned them, and mashed them up with a fork. I added lemon juice, olive oil, dried oregano, a pinch of cinnamon and some cumin.

I rubbed that all over a spatchcocked chicken, and shoved it in the oven for 45 minutes. (Ideally you'd do this the night before and let the chicken marinate overnight).


Because I was feeling rather industrious, I whipped up an onion-marsala gravy to go with.


Delicious. The chicken was very juicy, and stickily burnished on the outside. I was very happy with it, and would definitely make it again!


Pasta with Leftover Pan Juices


As you can see in the above picture of the spatchcocked chicken, there were a lot of pan juices. Rather than let them go to waste, I scraped them into a little bowl, and refrigerated them for the next day. Roast chicken pan juices make a fabulous, intense pasta sauce. (I got this idea from How to Eat as well).

Check out how gelatinous it is!

You scrape off the excess fat and let it melt in a pan. Add some cooked pasta, and any leftover chicken meat. (I had quite a bit). Heat it all up, sprinkle over some parsley and you are done! A tasty, easy and cheap weeknight meal.
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Kiddo in the Kitchen: Chocolate Mint Icebox Cake


I wanted to put this in the post title, but it was too long: "5-ingredient, no-bake, Chocolate Mint Icebox Cake!"

Kiddo picked this recipe from my collection of Everyday Food magazines. Everyday Food is a wonderful little magazine from Martha Stewart. If you've never picked up a copy, you might want to. Unlike some of the more complicated ones in MS Living, Everyday Food is filled with EASY recipes. I had to stop subscribing after a few years because there were so many recipes I wanted to try...I couldn't take any more!


This recipe seems too simple...and like it can't be all that good. Wafers, cream? That's it? Well, once assembled, the wafers soak up that cream and become cakey and soft. Plus, it looks really cool once you cut into it.

Chocolate Mint Icebox Cake
{adapted from Everyday Food}


1 & 3/4 c. heavy cream
3/4 tsp mint extract
1/4 c. sugar
1 (9 oz.) pkg. chocolate wafers
1/3 c. mini chocolate chips


Beat the heavy cream, extract & sugar until stiff peaks form.


Spread about 1 teaspoon of cream on each wafer and form stacks on a plate.


{This would have gone a lot quicker had 5/6ths of the wafers not been cracked. Ahem, chocolate wafer packagers.}



Line a serving platter with two side-by-side sheets of wax paper. (You'll pull these out later.) Lay the stacks horizontally along the seam, pressing gently to form a log.


With an offset spatula, cover the log with the remaining cream. Refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.


Before serving, gently pull wax paper from under the cake. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Slice cake diagonally with a serrated knife.


Kiddo gives this an 8.5....a perfect cold, minty treat for after tossing the football in the backyard.
{You can still see ours in the background.} :)

I'm linking this up to Tidymom's I'm Lovin' It Party. Have you been? Lots of great ideas and goodies are linked up every Friday!

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Teacher Gift Ideas . . . Works For Me Wednesday

Around here, school is still in session for one more week. What has always worked for us? Well, cookies for teachers, of course.

Besides your child's homeroom teacher, let's not forget....
  • coach
  • music
  • Sunday school
  • scout leaders
  • private lessons
  • tutors
  • the list goes on and on...
And every teacher doesn't have to get a dozen...or even 6! I think a decorated cookie tied with a pretty ribbon and thank you note is perfectly sweet.

Here are some ideas (click the links for more details):


Number 2 pencil cookies


Kid-decorated cookies. {Kiddo made these for his 1st grade teacher....they are still some of my favorites.}


For a very POPular Teacher cookies....you may remember these from earlier this month. The link to that adorable bag topper is in the post.


Thanks for BEEing a great teacher!


What teacher wouldn't love a bouquet of roses?


Cocktails, anyone? Wait...maybe that's not so appropriate. Teachers can give these to EACH OTHER!


We Are THAT Family (who just happens to be my next-door neighbor) hosts Works For Me Wednesday. Click on over for more tips....and see We Are THAT Family's beautiful new blog makeover!
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David Lebovitz' Chocolate Chip Cookies


So, you may remember I received some pretty funky cookbooks for my birthday last month. I'm still deciding what to cook first from the Japanese ones - it's all just too pretty! - but there was no such indecision when it came to David Lebovitz' new one, Ready for Dessert. I haven't even read all of the book yet, but I knew that his chocolate chip cookies would have to be first thing I made. (Although technically these are second recipe I've made - I made his cheesecake brownies last year in July after he published the recipe on his blog). He's also posted up a cute video where he makes these cookies, and feeds them to unsuspecting Parisians, who, surprise surprise, think they're fabulous.

His cookies are quite similar to The Rock's chocolate chip cookies (minus the oats), and my favourite chocolate chip cookies.


David does have a few tips though, to make his cookies extra-special. He suggests that you don't overmix the butter and sugars, so that the mixture doesn't become aerated, as this will make the cookies spread when you bake them! The recipe calls for a mix of white and light brown sugars. I didn't have any light brown sugar, so I substituted a rich dark muscovado sugar.

He also suggests using a chopped bar of chocolate instead of chocolate chips. Chips are designed to hold their shape, and chopped chocolate will give you more melty goodness. I used a couple of bars of Lindt Excellence 50% cocoa dark chocolate. I quite like the 50% dark chocolate - it gives intensity without harsh bitterness.

Finally, the dough should rest for 24-hours in the fridge. Unfortunately, I did not have the patience for a whole 24 hours - I just left the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours until it was firm enough to slice.



They only take about 9 minutes to bake, at whcih time they will be golden brown and smelling delicious! They were quite soft on the tray, but firmed up as they cooled down. From the below photo, I can see that the cookies did spread a little, but not too much.


These were a-mazing! They're soft and chewy like a Mrs. Fields cookie, with a slight crunch around the edges. I was worried the dark muscovado sugar might be a little too dark, but it gave the cookies a wonderful caramelly flavour that complimented the walnuts perfectly. (You know, like that maple walnut flavour combo). I also loved how melty the chocolate was. Very decadent. I ate an insane amount the day I baked them, but after that common sense took over and we packed the rest up to take to work.

These will definitely be my go-to basic choc-chip cookie recipe from now on.
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Tuesdays At The Table - Tortellini Salad With Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

Happy Tuesday!!  My weekend was action-packed, but fun.  I hope yours was too.  :-)  More on all the house hunting hoopla tomorrow!

Lovely Yellow Ribbons

It's almost Memorial Day.  How did that happen?!?!  To me - that signifies the beginning of summer, the fun of cook-outs, the beach and Cape traffic in my way on Friday afternoons.  :-)  It also means more salads.  Green, leafy salads and potato salad and caprese salad...and this salad too.

Tortellini Salad With Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing


1/2 pound Tortellini, frozen (or dried), cheese filled
1 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Garlic, minced
2 teaspoon Basil, chopped
1/4 cup Sun-dried tomatoes, re-hydrated and pureed
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated

Cook the pasta according to the package directions then drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside. Place the tomatoes in a bowl and cover with hot water. Allow to soak for 20 minutes. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of water and place in a food processor. Puree. Whisk together the mayonnaise, basil, garlic, and pureed tomatoes. Toss in the pasta. Chill at least 2 hours. Garnish with Parmesan before serving.

*Note: this is my base recipe.  However, I tend to double it, then instead of all the mayo - add some ranch dressing and/or sour cream.  Add some shrimp or left over chicken for a yummy entree.*
 
What's cooking in your kitchen?
 




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