Roasted Carrots (Ina Garten) by Barbara

My version of Ina Garten's roasted carrots recipe ...
along with roasted potatoes and reheated roasted chicken 

Recently, Ina Garten was interviewed on Julia Louis Dreyfus's wonderful new podcast, Wiser Than Me.  

It is a great series.  She talks to older women (like me ) about their lives and aging.  It is funny and touching.  I have really enjoyed every episode.  Season one started with Jane Fonda and ended with Carol Burnett.  The new season has had interviews of Sally Field, Bonnie Rait, Beverly Johnson, Ina Garten and Billie Jean King so far.  

Julia kept raving about roasted carrots and learning how to roast them from Ina. 

So, I had to look up Ina's recipe...and I found it in her first cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, from 1999.  

I had a partial bag of carrots from previous meals, but I didn't have fresh dill, so I used dried. And I roasted mine at 350 degrees.  

Tom absolutely loved them.

---Barbara

Roasted Carrots

(adapted from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

Serves 4

6 to 8 large carrots, scraped and ends trimmed

olive oil

salt and pepper

dried dill

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the carrots into large chunks, about 2 inches long.  Cut them on the diagonal if you want them to look like Ina's.  Add them to a bowl.  Toss with lots of olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper, and dried dill.

Spread the carrots out in a single layer on the roasting pan.  

Place in the oven, on the bottom rack, and roast until fully cooked and charred on the bottom, about 45 minutes.  

How easy is that?

B

Slow-roasted Red Potatoes by Barbara

Scumptious

A lemony Worcestershire sauce marinade from the Bourbon Beef Stew and slow-roasting the potatoes at 300 degrees, face down, combined to make scrumptious potatoes that were browned on the edges and creamy soft in the center.  

I don't like to waste anything so it was a good decision to reuse the marinade and slow-roasting the potatoes along side the main event.  

Will definitely make these potatoes again.  

---Barbara

Slow Roasted Red Potatoes

Makes 2 pounds

2 pounds of small red potatoes, washed and cut in half

2 T. olive oil

1/2 t. sugar

1/2 lemon, squeezed

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1/8 t. garlic powder

1/8 t. onion powder

1/8 t. dried French thyme

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Oil a small baking sheet with 1 T. olive oil, and sprinkle salt on the surface.

In a bowl, combine 1 T. oil, sugar, lemon, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  

Cut the potatoes in half.  Add them to the marinade.

Toss and let them sit for 5 minutes.

Line them up, face down, on the cookie sheet.

Discard the marinade.

Sprinkle them with salt and freshly ground pepper, the garlic powder, onion powder and French thyme across their red backs.

Roast on the bottom shelf of the oven for 50 minutes to an hour.

Flip one over and make sure the edges are browning.  If not, let them roast longer.

B

French Onion Soup (from Bourbon Beef Stew) by Barbara

Perfect for a cold and rainy Spring day

Saved the rich, dark broth from the Bourbon Beef Stew to make this delicious onion soup.  Tom prefers it without the Gruyere cheese because "it's too stringy."  I like the nuttiness of the Gruyere.

I am definitely going to make both the Bourbon Beef Stew  and this French Onion Soup again. 

---Barbara

French Onion Soup

Serves 4 for dinner or 8 as a first course

3-4 cups of leftover broth from Bourbon Pot Roast (fat removed)

5 - 6 onions, cut into crescents

1 T. butter

pinch of salt

1 quart (4 cups) culinary beef stock

1 ounce per serving of Gruyere cheese, grated

4 baguette slices or Carr's water crackers per serving

In a 3-quart pot with cover, melt 1 T. butter, then add the sliced onions, turn the heat on low, cover and let them steam for 5 minutes to get them going.  Remove cover and set aside.  Stir every 10 minutes or so until they caramelize, i.e., turn a deep caramel color but are not browned.  It will take 50 minutes to an hour.  

If the pan gets dry, then you could add a little more butter.

Add a pinch of salt to the onions when they are done.

Add the the leftover broth, and an additional quart (4 cups) of culinary beef broth.

Bring to a simmer, cover and let the flavors mingle for 20 minutes or so.

Two options for the next step:

1) You can make traditional French Onion soup, by ladling hot soup into broiler-proof bowls (on a broiler-proof pan), then floating slices of baguette on top, and piling on loads of Gruyere, and broiling until golden brown.  

Or, 2) you can make a short-cut version by ladling hot soup into bowls, then floating some water crackers on top, then some Gruyere cheese.  

The residual heat will melt the cheese.

Tom prefers his without cheese, and likes to use oyster crackers instead of water crackers.  

B

Cinnamon Petite Palmiers by Barbara

Sunday Morning Treats

To make cinnamon versions of the easy Petite Palmiers, just sprinkle a heavy amount of cinnamon on the inner layer before you roll them up.

I prefer to use Vietnamese cinnamon, but any ground cinnamon will do.  

Bake as you normally would.

The regular Petite Palmier recipe can be found here.  

---Barbara

Gingerbread Muffins by Barbara

Warm Gingerbread Spices 

I have been trying to make hermits, which are an old-fashioned bar cookie.  Failed at least three times so far. They come out as hard and dry as cardboard.  So, I decided to do what I know how to do --- which is make muffins --- but use the flavors and raisins associated with hermits.  Luckily, I still had two little packets of spice mixes from the spice advent calendar my sister, Christine, sent to us last December.  But you can easily make your own spice mix, as indicated below.

I guessed at the ingredients and quantities based on experience.  Fresh ginger gives them extra flavor. 

They turned out pretty well!  Just baked them a little too long... and next time I would increase the amount of raisins.  

---Barbara

Gingerbread Muffins

Makes 12 medium-sized muffins

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 t. sea salt

1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

at least 3 t. gingerbread spices, a mix of

    cinnamon - 1 t. heaping

    cloves - 1/4 t.

    nutmeg - 1/4 t.

    anise or cardamon - 1/4 t. (optional)

    ground ginger - 1 t. heaping

1 cup soft fresh raisins (next time 1.5 cups)

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 c. fresh, soft dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 c. molasses

2 T. grated fresh ginger

1 stick (8 T.) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2 c. whole milk

baking spray

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl, mix the dry ingredients together:  flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and spices. Add the raisins and toss them until they are coated.  This will help keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.

In another larger bowl, whisk together the eggs and soft brown sugar until smooth.  Add the molasses and grated ginger then whisk together.  Mix in the melted butter.

Switch to a spatula, then a little at a time, add the flour mixture.  

Then add the milk, which will loosen it up into a batter.  

Spray a muffin tin with baking spray.  

Divide the batter evenly into 12 muffin cups.  I used an ice cream scoop.  Sometimes I use a 1/4 measuring cup to do the job.

Bake in the oven for 18 minutes.  (Start checking at 15 minutes.)

Let sit for 15 minutes, before removing them from the pan, to cool on a wire rack.

Best eaten warm.

They freeze well.

To reheat, place in a low temperature oven or toaster oven set at 250 degrees until warmed through.

B

Solar Eclipse Brownies by Lauren

They were excellent!

Our granddaughter, Lauren, decided to make brownies for the solar eclipse.  We were visiting them in Buffalo, New York.  They were located dead center in the path of totality.   

 

She found this recipe on Sally’s Baking Recipes, a website she told me her mom uses for reliable recipes. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/seriously-fudgy-homemade-brownies/

But, she got waylaid midway through, to go to the park with us to view the solar eclipse, and had to put the bowl in the fridge.  

It was amazing. Even though we had clouds. The world turned completely dark from 3:18 to 3:22 pm.  

After the eclipse I served as her assistant baker. The first issue was the stiffness of the batter... from being in the fridge. We tried warming it up from the residual heat of the oven but that did not work …then, eventually, she said, "Let’s try 15 seconds in the microwave."  And that was perfect. I could then stir in the flour and cocoa powder she was measuring out. For the flour,  she said she learned at school (8th grade) how to spoon and level it.  We decided to cut the cocoa powder in half.  The batter was already over to top in chocolate-y-ness.  Then she decided to sprinkle the remaining chocolate pieces and some additional chocolate chips on top, which was a nice touch.

Everyone raved about them. 

---Barbara 

 

Lauren’s Solar Eclipse Fudgy Brownies 

(adapted from Sally’s Baking Recipes)

Makes a 9x13 pan of 18 brownies

• 1.5 sticks (12 T. ) unsalted butter (if you use salted butter, then cut back on the salt)
• 4-ounce semi-sweet Ghiradelli chocolate bar, coarsely chopped and divided
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 t. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Ghiradelli dutch-process cocoa 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled 
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (cut back, if using salted butter)
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips to sprinkle on top

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease/spray a 9x13 inch pan with baking spray.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine the butter and half of the chopped chocolate, that would be 2 ounces.  Melt in 30-second increments, whisking after each, until completely smooth.  

Add the sugar, and whisk until combined.

Then add the room temperature eggs and the 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and whisk them in.  

Shake the batter off the whisk and switch to a spatula.

Gradually, add the cocoa powder, flour, and salt, if using.  Fold it all together.  Batter will be very thick. 

Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate and the chocolate chips, saving a handful to sprinkle on top. 

Don't leave any pockets of white flour.  Mix until completely smooth and uniformly brown.

Spread evenly into prepared pan.  Smooth out the top.  

Sprinkle the top with the handful of chopped chocolate and chocolate chips. 

Bake for 30 minutes until set.  Do not over bake or they will be dry.

Let cool completely before cutting into squares using a sharp metal spatula. 

---Lauren & Grammy

Avocado Dip by Barbara

Made this creamy avocado dip yesterday for snacks while we watched the Final Four basketball games of March Madness. It is similar to guacamole but relies on mayonnaise to make it “dippable” and pantry items to make it easy to pull together. 

—- Barbara 

Avocado Dip

Makes 1.5 cups

1 very ripe avocado, at room temperature 

salt

1/3 of a lime, to squeeze

1/4 t. granulated onion powder 

1/8 t. granulated garlic powder 

1/2 t. dried cilantro 

1-2 t. Light Hellman’s mayonnaise 

Halve the avocado. Remove the pit. Sprinkle both halves with salt. Use a paring knife and cut the flesh of both halves lengthwise then crosswise. Use a spoon and scoop into your serving bowl. 

Squeeze lime juice on top. Use top 1/3 of a lime. 

Use a fork and mash the avocado a little bit to insure the lime juice coats it all over. 

Sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder, cilantro and a little more salt. 

Add a heaping teaspoon of mayo and mix until smooth but leave a few chunks for texture. 

If needed add a little more mayonnaise to make it dippable but don’t go overboard. If your avocado is ripe enough, it should become very smooth when you mix it together. 

B