Comfort Foods and Indulgences

cake.choc.zucchi.duo_.jpgFriday’s I clean out my fridge.  I had about two cups of both cream cheese frosting and butter cream frosting left over. Rarely do I throw food away, but there are those times that something just cannot be saved.  In the past, I have found myself whipping up a soba salad to avoid getting rid of a few cucumbers, almost yucky tomatoes can be turned into fresh, roasted salsa or bacon hash, and zucchini inevitable becomes a cake.  Upon cleaning out the fridge, I did in fact have two zucchini’s that needed some attention. The light bulb went off and a chocolate zucchini loaf with cream cheese frosting was born.

This cake was delicious.  It will become my go to cake when I need something in a quick pinch. 

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cake.cinnamon.dorie3_.jpg I am damned if I do and I am damned if I don’t!  The husband does complain at times about the “fresh baked” treats that adorn our kitchen counter(no one else seems to complain…).  And when I do take a break from endless hours in the kitchen, and there is nothing under the glass dome, he sighs, makes a comment, and pouts.

This past Friday night was one of those occassions.  We had just finished a lovely Friday night dinner of roasted salmon with homemade teriyaki sauce, baked brown rice, and sauteed zucchini.  No dessert.  I did, however, have frozen cookie doughs in the freezer, but that wouldn’t do.  Although it wasn’t what he wanted, the kids talked him in to a Pinkberry run.  I was perfectly happy with my mini yogurt with fresh berries, but I knew that baking was going to be part of the weekend agenda.

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bacon-bbq-oysters"The BBQ oysters were inspired by cookouts I’d have down in New Orleans. My friends and I would pull oysters out of the Gulf, crack them open and throw them on beach fires, and add all kinds of different sauces. Then, when I brought the recipe up to New York, I also was making this BBQ bacon sandwich. I thought, these two would be great together, so I combined the BBQ with the bacon and with the oysters." - Chef Paul Gerard, Exchange Alley, NYC

Oyster Barbecue Sauce:

1 bunch fresh thyme
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh chilies
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/8 cup tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon pimenton…smoked paprika
Freshly ground black pepper

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ihop1The first article I ever wrote for One for the Table was about how I came to love IHOP as a child, abandoned it as I got older, and rediscovered it much later. I’m still bereft that they took my beloved corn meal pancakes off the menu a few years ago, but when I got an email recently about their All-You-Can-Eat-Pancakes promotion from January 2nd to February 9th, I headed over to that iconic blue roof in Encino.

I did not intend to eat all I could, nor even the 10 pancakes required to compete in the Player Standings. Thankfully, that means that I will not be eligible to win free pancakes for a year. So rather than ordering the buttermilk pancakes required for having my plate refilled again and again, I decided to try two meals I’d never had before. (I ate less than half of each…honest.) First, I ordered the strawberry-banana pancakes, which were spoiled by the goopy, faux strawberry-flavor glaze. Then I got a Belgian waffle, which was perfect - crispy, light and delicious.

If the 39 days of the All-You-Can-Eat-Pancakes season aren’t enough to keep you satisfied, this year IHOP has upped the ante by introducing the first IHOP Pancake Bowl, in which the top 10 high-scorers in the Player Standings from each participating region will compete locally during Super Bowl weekend to see who can eat the most pancakes. He who wins (could a “she” possibly win?) will get a $500 IHOP gift card.

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dairy-free-scones-coolingI’ve steered clear of biscuit-making ever since I mixed up a crumbly mess of dry ingredients with butter and buttermilk years ago. The end result, inedible hockey pucks, came after a very frustrating baking experience. The wanna-be biscuits wound up in the garbage. That was when I decided I just didn’t need to ever, ever be making biscuits. And that’s why, when Katie Novotny, owner of St. Paul Classic Cookie Co. said that scones are simply a biscuit, I got nervous.

Katie Novotny offered to show members of my Bemidji Cookbook Club how to make the perfect scone. We gathered in her bitty bakery with an enormous menu of sweet treats in the south St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul on a recent Friday morning.

She sliced small chunks of butter into a bowl holding her measured dry ingredients, emphasizing the fact the butter must be well-chilled. I use the same technique when I make my favorite recipe for scones — the ones I plop onto a baking sheet using a measuring cup. That technique keeps my hands off the dough, convincing me that I am making scones, not biscuits.

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