did you just say bacon?

It seems that Matt and I have practically lived off of bacon lately. In October, we bought 5 pounds of bacon from one of our favorite farmer's market meat vendors. After having their surprisingly smoky, thick, and fatty bacon, any other bacon is somewhat unsatisfying.

Here are a couple of recipes we've made lately. I didn't feel like typing them tonight, so you have the links.

pan roasted fingerling potatoes with bacon and crispy sage

This potato dish was very tasty, made with sage leftover from Thanksgiving dinner and the last local fingerling potatoes of the season. On the sandwich, a sweet and tangy caramelized onion thyme jam.

chocolate chip pecan bacon cookies

The cookies were a really nice sweet/salty combination. You might not know that bacon was the salty element--it had a texture somewhat like toffee. Matt used the thin cookie recipe, though I'm sure the thick ones would be great as well. I'd like to try some of the other recipes at the NPR site too.

more sweets

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I have been very busy preparing for and getting through my first week of teaching first grade. I thought I'd take a breather and make a post.

I've recently discovered that I can actually handle some amount of baking without inviting catastrophe. Anxious to try out my try out my newly realized skills, last weekend before school started I tried out another recipe for baked goods from Silver Screen Suppers. I made Norwegian ice skater-turned-actress Sonja Henie's Scandinavian cookies. They were so good, they just made me want to visit Scandinavia even more.

Sonja Henie's Scandinavian cookies

Much like the banana shortbread cookies I made earlier this summer, these cookies were buttery, crumbly, and subtly sweet. They will definitely be a repeat recipe. The instructions only specified that I use chopped nuts and jelly, so I chose pecans and homemade raspberry jam, which both turned out to be great choices.

Check out the excellent sugar-free raspberry jam and strawberry preserve recipes that I used this summer.

mmmmmmm

I'm very tired today, so I don't have much to say about these except that they are so delicious, moist, and help you get your veggies. Oh--and they look so pretty on a sea-foam-green platter! The recipe is a combination of one from the Penzey's catalog and one from my mother-in-law. We have a couple dozen frozen so we can enjoy them year-round. You can also grate and freeze raw zucchini, and could use that to make these during the winter. Enjoy!

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. white vinegar
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups finely diced or grated zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips
chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside. Beat butter, oil, and sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, and sour milk mixture and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cocoa, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and stir by hand. Stir in the zucchini and 1/2 of the chocolate chips.

Place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (or grease a 9x13 pan if you prefer a whole cake). Fill each liner with batter 2/3 of the way. Sprinkle the batter with the rest of the chocolate chips and the nuts (if using). Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly and the cake springs back to the touch (but avoid the chocolate chips!). Let cool, then remove cupcakes from pan.

what is it?

When I learned that the Silver Screen Suppers blogger needed recipe testers for her Hollywood stars' recipes, I jumped on the chance to try them out. I requested several recipes, and the first one I made was Fred MacMurray's Chocolate Fudge Upside Down Cake. This cake was especially great because Mr. MacMurray hails from my in-laws' hometown of Beaverdam, Wisconsin. Not only did I feel a swell of state pride as I whipped up the cake, it also turned out to be quite delicious.

So....here it is!


It definitely tasted better than it looked. If I make it again, I will certainly choose a more suitable platter than my grandma's cake keeper--one with sides to catch all the drippy chocolate sauce that ran off the cake and onto my counter. Who knew that a "chocolate fudge" cake would actually be doused in chocolate? Ha. The top of the cake (which became the bottom) is also covered in chopped walnuts, but we thought we might try pecans or peanuts another time.


Check out the Silver Screen Suppers blog and the upcoming cookbook that will feature this recipe.

class & cookies

These 1961 photos just ooze class. They seem to have been taken during a Martini & Rossi-sponsored cocktail party. I want to go to there.


Also, a friend asked for the recipe to make these banana shortbread cookies from an earlier post.
So, here it is!
Banana Shortbread

2 1/2 cups whole grain pastry flour (I always just use all-purpose flour.)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large very ripe banana, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I always skip these.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer, until creamy. Add the banana and vanilla extract, beating until just incorporated. Add the flour mixture and beat just until well blended. Stir in the nuts (if using).

The right way to do it:
Divide the dough into quarters. Press one-quarter of the dough into an 8-inch circle on a large baking sheet. Using the dull side of a knife blade, score the dough, creating an outline of 12 pie-shaped wedges. Repeat with a second quarter of the dough on the same baking sheet. Shape the remaining quarters of dough on another large baking sheet.

The way I do it:
Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet. Use a fork, dipped in flour or sugar, to squash the dough, first in one direction, then in the other direction, making a criss-cross.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the shortbread is lightly browned and has risen. Place on racks to cool and cut into wedges (if applicable).

I love them with strawberry slices and vanilla ice cream, but they'd also be great with chocolate ice cream. I've also played around with putting bits of chocolate in the batter. Try chocolate chips!

recipe from Simply Organic by Jesse Ziff Cool
all photos from Ana Lee, except the last one by me