Lori, Author at Fake Food Free

Gifts for the Food Lover 9: DonateFruit.com

December 10, 2010

I was reading through some magazines over the Thanksgiving Holiday and came across this great gift idea. I love it when I see programs or organizations that work to donate fresh foods to food banks. Amidst the boxed and canned processed items, it is nice to know that those in need can have the opportunity to benefit from fresh fruit.

Donatefruit.com is a way for shoppers to purchase fruit and give to a food bank at the same time. For every pound of fruit shoppers purchase, Naumes Fruit Gifts will donate a pound of fruit to a food bank through their Give a Gift, Feed the Need Program™.

Now, I have not purchased from this company myself, but when I came across the project in the magazine I felt that it was such a great cause that I should share the word.

If you have any fruit-lovers on your list, what a great way to give a gift and help get fresh produce to the hungry.

Russian Tea Cakes: International Blogger Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange!

December 7, 2010

Our holiday cookie recipe exchange is in full swing! There are 19 participants and by December 15th each will have made and posted about a cookie recipe received from a fellow food blogger. Shortly after the 15th Adrienne and I will have a summary post with links to all the great cookie recipes so everyone can enjoy the results.

Today, I’m happy to be posting the recipe I received. It comes from Jason of Ancient Fire Wine Blog. Along with this recipe for Russian Tea Cakes, Jason sent along a story about how this recipe came to be a regular on his family’s holiday table. I enjoyed the story so I decided not to paraphrase it for you.

Jason writes:

These are my absolute favorite cookie my Mom always makes at Christmas. They never last long, mostly because of me. I called her to ask for the recipe this week and she told me the story of how she came by it, a story had never heard. When she was a little girl her Mom used to take her and her brothers across the street to a church that held lots of neighborhood activities including potlucks, etc. These cookies would be there from time to time. She recalls being there one day by herself (she can’t recall why or how) and that someone had made the Russian Tea Cakes again.
These were her favorites too so you can imagine how excited she would have been anytime she found them. She enjoyed a few, much like I would if they were just sitting around, but this time she asked around and found the person who made them. She proudly came home with the recipe which she has now been making for 50+ years around Christmas. I believe she was overwhelmed with joy that I called to ask for this recipe. I didn’t realize how meaningful the cookies were to her and I feel so good for having done so.

These cookies hold a bit of a special place in my heart as well. In my family we called them Mexican Wedding Cakes. My grandmother never had a Christmas Eve holiday cookie tray without these cookies on it. She passed away a couple years ago while we were living in Brazil so I fondly remember every way she made our holiday party special. It is foods and memories like these that never fail to bring a smile to my heart.

I didn’t alter the recipe that was sent to me. The specific ingredients I used included unsalted butter, unbleached all-purpose flour and pecans.

I hope you enjoy them as much as Jason and I do!

Russian Tea Cakes
Recipe from Jason of Ancient Fire Wine Blog

1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts
Additional confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter, vanilla and 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar. Add salt, nuts and flour to creamed mixture. Form dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place balls on an ungreased baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Watch the cookies closely so they don’t get too brown on the bottom.

Cool for 5 minutes and then roll in confectioners’ sugar. After they cool or before you serve, roll in confectioners’ sugar again. Makes about 4 dozen (I rolled mine big so I got a little over 2 dozen).

Holiday Baking – Oh Nuts Giveaway

December 5, 2010

Remember back in the summer when I received that great package of nuts and dried cherries from Oh Nuts?

I used them to make Cherry Lemon Pistachio Scones and Chocolate Cashew Shortbread. Both are great for the holiday season.

Well, Oh Nuts has given me the opportunity to share the love so I’m giving away a $25 gift certificate to a lucky winner.

There are 3 ways you can enter. Please leave a comment for each of the things you do so that your efforts will be counted when I select the random winner.

Entries (via comments) will be accepted through midnight EST on December 14, 2010. I’ll announce the winner by December 15, 2010. I’ll need to reach you if you win, so only entries with a valid email address so will be counted.

3 Ways to Enter

Go to the Oh Nuts Christmas Gift Baskets or Hanukkah Gifts page. Let me know in the comments which you like most by leaving the name of the item along with the url.

Check out the Oh Nuts Facebook Page. Post the url and name of your fave gift from the pages above. Please post “I am here via Fake Food Free” for the comment to qualify.

Follow @ohnuts on Twitter. Tweet about the contest using “Win a free Hanukkah Gift from http://bit.ly/6nIsCi Follow @ohnuts & Retweet to enter” or “Win a free Christmas Gift from http://bit.ly/dUpizt Follow @ohnuts & Retweet to enter “

Remember: Leave a comment for each of the 3 things that you do.

Disclosure: Oh Nuts is providing this gift certificate to one winner at random, free of charge. I was under no obligation to blog about this contest. By offering this to my readers, I also received a gift certificate from Oh Nuts.

Whole Wheat Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

December 2, 2010

I rarely bake with solely whole wheat flour. I think you probably know why. Who wants to sit down to a glass of milk and a hockey puck?

I love the complex flavor of whole wheat flour, but when it comes to cookies it leaves a lot to be desired regarding texture. That was until I came across the Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe in Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce.

These cookies call for only whole wheat flour. I was skeptical, but I decided to give them a try. I changed them up a bit adding two kinds of chocolate and dried cranberries for some festive color.

Wow, who knew a whole wheat cookie could be so great! Honestly, I’d prefer these over a traditional white flour cookie. They are that good!

It takes a bit of effort to get them to spread well. I scooped the dough out by the heaping tablespoon and then gently flattened them just a bit to help them out. If you do that, you’ll end up with big, beautiful, whole grain cookies.

Whole Wheat Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Adapted from Chocolate Chip Cookies, Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup dark chocolate chips
½ cup white chocolate chips
¾ cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.

Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet, adding a little at a time, just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and cranberries. Scoop by the tablespoon and place on a baking sheet pan.

Bake for 16 to 20 minutes until the cookies are evenly baked and slightly browned. Remove from the oven, cool cookies on a wire rack. Makes about 24 large cookies.

Gifts for the Food Lover 10: Teavana Chai and German Rock Sugar

December 1, 2010

I’ve been seeing a lot of gift lists on my favorite food blogs lately and I love reading through them. There are so many things I’ve never come across before and I end up with all kinds of new ideas.

Since I’ve come across lots of great things this year myself, I thought I’d put together my own list. So from now through Christmas I’ll be interspersing a few posts to highlight some of my favorite food-related items including books.

The first is something my husband and I found during a recent trip to Florida for a family wedding. We were killing time in the Florida Mall in Orlando while waiting to pick up family from the airport. As we walked by Teavana the white tea they were sampling caught our eye.

We tried it and were intrigued by the flavor. It was mildly fruity, slightly sweet with the warm spices of chai. We found out later that it was a mix of the Samurai Chai Mate and the White Ayurvedic Chai.

We rarely try something like this and simply have to buy some, but this was an exception. I think we surprised ourselves that we liked it since we are usually fans of Chinese green and black teas with no additional flavors or spices. This tea was just too unique to pass up. Not only in flavor, but also in the look. It was full of pieces of coconut and whole spices.

After settling on the tea, I started talking with the sales clerk about the sugar they used to sweeten the tea. She said that they used a very small amount of German Rock Sugar to release some of the aromatic flavors in the tea.

Of course with my interest in different types of sugars, I had to ask more about German Rock Sugar. This was the first I had ever heard of it. The sales clerk said that it was an unrefined sugar that just barely sweetened the tea. She was right about its sweetness. It has a wonderful flavor, which is why we bought some to compliment our newly purchased tea.

Since then I’ve been trying to seek out an exact definition and source of German Rock Sugar. A simple Google search repeatedly leads you back to the Teavana site. After digging a little deeper I did find a bit about its origin – East Frisia in the far Northwest Corner of Germany.

germanFoods.org states:

The traditional preparation of East Frisian tea is a well-defined ritual: First a piece of rock candy sugar called Kluntjes is placed in…cups… The freshly brewed hot tea is then poured on top of the sugar… The rock sugar will melt slowly which allows multiple cups to be sweetened with the same piece.

Learning the term Kluntjes led me to search for that specifically, which taught me that Kluntje – Kandis translates to rock candy (or something similar) in English. Another site I found did say that it was unprocessed and unrefined and I haven’t found any information on the actual process. A look at the Kölner website tells me that the type we bought from Teavana most closely resembles Kölner Krusten Kandis.

So I may not have learned all I wanted to about German Rock Sugar, but I definitely know a bit more than I did. And, of course, I’ve discovered a new type of sugar to experiment with!

If you have some tea lovers on your list, this blend would make a great gift. You can throw in some of the sugar with a history lesson to make the gift even more interesting and sweet.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

November 26, 2010

Psst.

Is it safe yet?

Is it safe to officially break the holiday posts?!

I always feel a bit sorry for Thanksgiving. It’s sad when you walk into a store in mid-November and the one table of ceramic turkeys and pumpkin spiced candles is tucked in a far corner. Meanwhile the rest of the store is plastered with snowflakes, stockings and Santa.

I like to give Thanksgiving the respect it deserves, but once it is over bring on the red and green holiday season! Bring on the cookies, snowflakes, penguins and polar bears!

My husband and I were in Panera recently and he pointed out some festively packaged chocolate crinkle cookies. I’ve seen recipes for them before, but I’ve never gotten around to making them. Instead of buying one, I decided this year I would do just that.

The ones we saw were chocolate-peppermint, but I didn’t have any peppermint extract or fresh mint so I went with classic chocolate. I found a recipe for Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies posted on Leite Culinaria last year. I made changes in the sugars and flours and omitted the ginger to create my own crinkle cookie. I decided not to use white whole wheat flour in this recipe, but I did select an unbleached white flour.

These cookies are a cross between a cookie and brownie. I like the addition of the extra chocolate pieces because it gives you a little extra something in each bite.

The dough was more like a batter after I mixed it up and I got a little worried that it wouldn’t turn out like a cookie. After it sat in the fridge, however, it firmed up and I could easily roll the dough into balls.

I learned very quickly that the secret to making these cookies crinkle is to roll them heavily in powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar) to the point where it looks like way too much. The first sheet I baked off I used too little and the white dusting quickly melted away into the cookie as it cooled. I rolled the cookies more heavily the second time and they turned out beautifully.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Adapted from Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies as posted on Leite Culinaria

¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur’s)
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
6 oz dark chocolate chips, chopped (I used Ghirardelli 60% baking chips)
¾ cup Demerara sugar
¼ cup muscovado sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Confectioners’ sugar

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Place the butter and 3 oz of the chopped chocolate in a microwave-proof bowl. Microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Allow the chocolate to cool for a few minutes.

Stir the Demerara and muscovado sugar into to the melted chocolate and butter. Add the eggs and mix well until they are combined. Stir in the vanilla and remaining chopped chocolate. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients until combined. Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Place about a ½ cup of powdered sugar in a shallow bowl or on a plate. (You will likely need more as you work your way through the dough.)

Roll the dough into balls. You can make the balls about 1 ½ inch balls or larger for big cookies, about 2 ½ inches. I did a mix of both. Roll the cookies heavily in powdered sugar and place at least 2 inches apart on your baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the cookies spread and crack and the center of the cookies is firm.

Allow to cool on the cookie sheet 1 to 2 minutes and transfer to a baking rack to cool completely. The cookies will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container, but are prettiest when served within 1 day of baking. Makes 24 to 36 cookies, depending on the size.

On an unrelated note, anyone else out there use Google and feel like it kills the resolution of your pictures? Once I get them in the post, they aren’t sharp anymore. I’m trying not to reduce the resolution too much before uploading them, but it isn’t helping. Anyone have any tips?

Blackberry Cranberry Sauce with Cinnamon

November 23, 2010

I’m always looking for ways to use the berries I collect all summer and store in the freezer. This cranberry sauce combines frozen blackberries for a Thanksgiving side dish that has a little taste of summer and fall!

It wasn’t my original intention to bombard you with cranberries during this special Thanksgiving week, but I do love them. This past Saturday we were able to catch Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. Not just any Throwdown, mind you, but the episode where he took on none other than the Pioneer Woman in a competition of Thanksgiving Feasts!

Did you happen to catch it? I thought it was so much fun!

In the episode, Bobby made a cranberry sauce that also included blackberries. Until I saw it, I had never really thought of adding another berry to my favorite Thanksgiving condiment. Orange or orange zest is always my go-to addition, but I thought the blackberry flavor was too brilliant to pass up.

Lucky me, I still had some blackberries from my Dad’s garden in the freezer.

This cranberry sauce could not be easier. I used demerara sugar to sweeten it and bumped up the amount a bit just because the variety of blackberries I used and the cranberries are tart. Once it thickened, I stirred in some vanilla to add a little something extra and then some cinnamon to spice it up. The pecans are optional of course, but they give the sauce a little something extra in appearance, taste and texture.

Blackberry Cranberry Sauce with Cinnamon

Makes: 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

1 cup fresh or defrosted cranberries
1 cup fresh or defrosted blackberries
¾ cup demerara sugar
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp pecans, chopped

Prep

Combine the berries in a saucepan and add the sugar and water. Cook on medium-high heat to a boil. Continue to boil hard for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently and then constantly as it thickens. (The sauce will thicken by boiling and also when it cools.)

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.

Allow to cool to the temperature you desire. I like my cranberry sauce warm. Transfer to the serving dish and top with pecans.

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Cranberry Oat Bars

November 21, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving week!

There will be plenty of cooking going on in a few days, but I had to start in on the celebrating this weekend by pulling out some cranberries!

Thanksgiving would not be complete without cranberries for me. It is one fruit that I really missed while we were living in Brazil despite my access to a tropical fruit wonderland at the time. I just really missed that tart, tangy flavor that only belongs to the cranberry.

I eat dried cranberries almost every day and I stock up on the fresh during this time of year keeping them in the freezer until I’m ready to make a recipe like this one.

I’ve made these oat bars before, substituting different fruits. The original is made with blueberries and it came from Bryant’s Blueberries, a farm just outside of Louisville, KY. I’ve modified it over time using whole grain flours and a variety of sugars.

You can use just about any berry with these as well as peaches. This time of year, the cranberry is perfect. These bars are sweet enough for dessert, but wholesome enough for breakfast.

Cranberry Oat Bars
Adapted from Blueberry Oat Bars, Bryant’s Blueberries

1 ¾ cups old fashioned oats
1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
¾ cup muscovado sugar
½ cup walnuts, chopped
½ tsp baking soda
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups fresh or defrosted cranberries
½ to ¾ cup demerara sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp arrow root powder
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine the oats, flour, muscovado sugar, nuts and baking soda. Pour in the melted butter and stir to mix well. You should have a moist, but crumbly mixture. Reserve about ¾ cup of the mixture.

Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Press the remaining oat mixture into the baking dish. Spread it evenly and press it firmly into the pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

In a sauce pan combine the cranberries, ½ cup of sugar (add more if you want it sweeter) and water. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered for about 2 minutes. Stir to break up the berries.

Stir together the arrow root, lemon juice and water to make a paste. Add the paste to the cranberries and stir until the fruit is thickened. Remove from heat.

Spread the fruit over the oat crust leaving just about a ¼ inch edge on all sides. Crumble the reserved topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the edges of the crust begin to brown. Cool the pan on a wire rack. Once cooled completely, cut into bars. Makes 15 bars.

Wild Mushroom Mac and Cheese

November 17, 2010

It seems to be the battle of the carbs in our kitchen lately. I’m trying hard to keep my carb selections smart as I clean up my diet before we enjoy a Jamaica vacation filled with unlimited food and rum in just a few short weeks. Meanwhile, my husband will be running a challenging trail marathon the first weekend of December.

Now, you see my dilemma. Him – lots of carbs and calories in general. Me – not needing so many of either at this specific time of the year.

Over last weekend I came to the conclusion that he could use some mac and cheese, and I’ve been craving it. So I struck a deal with my craving – use whole grain, healthy ingredients, and quality ingredients with lots of flavor. I also paired it up with a side of broccoli, cauliflower and bok choy sautéed in virgin coconut oil.

I had some wild mushrooms left over from the Marx Foods Mushroom Recipe Challenge so I decided to use up the Lobster Mushrooms (my new favorite) and Matsutake. This turned out to be a great flavor combo with the sharp cheddar and sweet smoked Swiss cheese.

Now, I will admit. This isn’t a gooey, cheesy mac and cheese which I often prefer. It is more of a casserole, but it has definitely taken care of the craving and the “carbs wanted” sign around here.

Wild Mushroom Mac and Cheese

2 oz dried wild mushrooms
1 box (~14 oz.) whole wheat pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp white whole wheat flour
2 cups milk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, finely shredded
¼ cup smoked Swiss, finely shredded
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp butter

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with 2 cups boiling water. Allow to soak for at least 20 minutes. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Squeeze mushrooms and pat dry. Chop. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and browned. Set aside.

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour to create a roux. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk vigorously to avoid any clumps. Continue to cook and stir until the milk thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Reserve about 2 tbsp of cheese and stir the rest into the milk until melted. Stir in the mushrooms and onions, then salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a casserole dish with butter. Melt the 1 tbsp of butter and combine it with the bread crumbs for a topping.

Combine the pasta with the cheese sauce, stir well. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish. Top with the reserved cheese and bread crumbs. Cover the baking dish with a lid or foil, and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the covering and bake for an additional 5 minutes until the toppings are browned. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Bourbon Sweet Potato Waffles with Maple Cinnamon Butter

November 14, 2010

Towards the end of last week we were able to catch up on the DVR. One show we’ve been anxiously awaiting was the recent Iron Chef America episode on the Food Network. While I didn’t intend to keep with the theme of my last post, the secret ingredient just happened to be bourbon!

Since I still have some sweet potatoes from my Dad’s garden in the kitchen, I perked up when I saw that Iron Chef Cat Cora was roasting some sweet potatoes for one of her dishes. The final creation was a bourbon sweet potato waffle.

Can you guess what I made for Sunday breakfast this weekend?

I used a combo of whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour and maple syrup to make a hearty, slightly sweet waffle. A little nutmeg and cinnamon in the batter gave it a mild holiday flavor.

I decided to top it off with a simple, sweet butter made with cinnamon and maple syrup. If you add the butter when the waffles are warm, it will melt down into a cinnamon sauce and you won’t need any additional syrup at all.

Bourbon Sweet Potato Waffles

Makes: 6 to 8 waffles

Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk (any variety)
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tbsp bourbon
¼ cup mashed sweet potato

Prep

Preheat your waffle iron and melt the two tablespoons of butter. This will be used to brush on the iron before cooking the waffles.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla, maple syrup and bourbon. Whisk in the sweet potato vigorously to break up any clumps.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring gently to incorporate. Once the batter is mixed, brush butter on the waffle iron and pour by ¼ to 1/3 cup portions onto the hot waffle iron. Cook about 3 to 4 minutes, until the waffled is puffed and slightly browned. Makes 6 to 8 waffles. Top with maple cinnamon butter when warm. (recipe below)

Maple Cinnamon Butter

Makes: About 1/4 cup

Ingredients

½ stick unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp maple syrup
¾ tsp ground cinnamon

Prep

Stir all ingredients together until combined. You can also use a small food processor to blend the ingredients. Add more cinnamon or syrup to taste if desired. Makes about ¼ cup.