Chocolate Cherry Almond Biscotti

Let me start right off the bat by simply saying this: this might be my favorite cookie ever. I love all the tried and true favorites - a good, thick, chewy chocolate chip cookie; a soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie; a crisp and delicate sugar cookie; and Newman-O's and Girl Scout Samoas and Thin Mints are oh-so-good. But this cookie fulfills all my favorite things I like about sweets in one go: chocolate, of course, preferably dark; sweet-tart and chewy dried cherries for a little bright-tart flavor, and texture; almonds and almond flavoring, because I'm a sucker for sweet almond treats; cardamom, since I adore it but I find it's rarely used in Western foods; and the fact that these are just sweet enough, but not too sweet. Put those all together, and make it into a cookie that's easy and not at all fussy, and you have a winner.

The base is also really versatile - chocolate, cherry, and almonds with a little cardamom is my personal favorite. But you could use cranberries, white chocolate, and pistachios; a little orange zest and anise seed; really, whatever you like. These last ones I drizzled with a little milk chocolate for a cookie exchange, and you can dip half in chocolate for a nice presentation if you like. But usually, I just make (and eat) these plain.

If you decide to make this with dried cherries, and you have a Trader Joe's nearby, I strongly encourage you to stop there and seek out their dried Montmorency cherries. I've tried various dried cherries, packaged and in bulk bins, but they are usually too sweet and mushy (and occassionally rotten, yuck). I've bought countless bags of the TJ's ones over the year, and they are by far the best AND most reasonably priced of the lot, with the best sweet-tart flavor and chewy texture.

Chocolate Cherry Almond Biscotti

1 1/4 sticks of butter (10 TB)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 TB vanilla
2-3 drops almond extract (optional)
1/4 tsp ground cardamom seed (optional)
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup toasted almond slivers (or other nut such as hazelnut pieces)
1/2 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/2 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips, or chunks from a bar
2 TB coarse/raw sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

With a whisk, mix together flour, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large bowl in the microwave on medium heat. When melted, mix in sugar, vanilla, extracts and spices. Add eggs one at a time and whisk until thoroughly blended. Gradually stir in the flour mixture. When blended, mix in remaining ingredients with a wooden spoon (nuts, cherries and chocolate chips).

Separate dough into halves. On a large cookie sheet, shape two long, flat rectangles the length of the sheet. Don't worry about greasing the pan or flouring your hands, the dough won't stick. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake for about 25 minutes or until light to medium golden brown.

Remove cookies from the oven and let cool one hour. When cooled, cut 1/2 inch thick pieces. They are fully cooked at this stage, and you can enjoy them as a sugar cookie if you like. For traditional crispy biscotti, arrange slices cut side down on the cookie sheet and bake for another 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees. After 15-20 minutes, turn off the oven and let the cookies cool inside for another hour or two.

Makes about 2 dozen.

Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Citrus Cream and Candied Carrot Curls

There's something really cool about getting your own, small, personalized cake. I'm not talking about cupcakes, although those are fine too. But your own small cake, on a dessert plate, maybe with a nice dollop of whipped cream or some glaze dribbling down the sides looking so prettily imperfect.

What a fun way to elevate the homely but honest carrot cake - one of my favorite cakes! - by turning it into a personal dessert. It's easily achieved with oversized muffin tins. Add an unexpected candied carrot curl (surprisingly tasty!) and candied pecan for that extra touch, and drizzle with thick, cinnamony and citrusy mascarpone frosting. The cake, icing, and even the candying are surprisingly easy, and can be done while the cake is baking or cooling. Your guests (or maybe just you!) will delight at having their own adorable little cake, and you'll have a showstopper you can be proud to serve for dessert!



For the cake:
3 cups fresh grated carrots (4 large or 6 medium)
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups canola oil
3/4 cup toasted chopped pecans

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease large, 1-cup muffin tins. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt together into a large bowl. I hate traditional sifters and just use a large-ish, fine-mesh strainer - much easier and faster.

With a whisk, beat your eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla together in a separate large bowl.

Stir the carrots into the egg mixture, then with a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture until almost combined. Stir in the nuts.

Pour into large . Bake at 350, for about 20-25 minutes for the size I used, until medium brown and done all the way through. The batter makes extra: I just made 8 additional small cupcakes and baked them for 12 minutes. If you have another large muffin tin (I didn't) you could probably make about 4-5 more cakes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool down all the way, at least 1 hour.

Now, while those are baking, let's make our topping.

Candied topping:
1 carrot
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Handul of pecan halves

For the icing:
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, plus more for thinning
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 TB orange juice
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 TB confectioner's sugar (or to taste)

For the candied curls, use a vegetable peeler and create small carrot peels - maybe 1/4" thin and a few inches long. In a small saucepan, mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Add in your carrot peels and simmer until they darken and become translucent, about 15 minutes. Remove and place on parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet. When cool enough to handle, but still warm and pliable, make little decorative shapes and curls, and set them aside. They should harden up a little; if not, place them in a low oven (about 200 degrees) and let them dry out for 15 minutes or so. If they stick to the paper, put them in the freezer for a few minutes and they'll pop right off. Use the rest of the sugar mixture in the bottom of the pan and cover your pecan halves with the caramel (use parchment or silicone like you did with the carrot curls).

To make the icing: Simply whip all ingredients together until thick and combined. Adjust lemon juice and sugar as you like. Now, thin back out with heavy cream a TB at a time until you achieve a thick, but pourable consistency. Pour over your cooled little cakes (I invert the cakes and pour over the bottoms), garnish with the candied carrot and a candied pecan.

Dinner at Tilth

It takes me a while to get around to trying fine dining places. When the weekend rolls around, often all I want is something comfortable, and with a really good IPA on tap. Something you don't typically find at fine dining. Well, after hearing so much about Tilth, we finally decided to get over there and give it a go. I had high expectations, but even so, this place still totally blew me out of the water. What a gem!

Let's begin - first, it's along the main strip in the uber-cute neighborhood of Wallingford, which I lived in when I went to college and have a total soft spot for. It's in a renovated house, and it's a little noisy, a little cozy, but once the food arrives, you won't care.

Our friendly and attentive (but not pushy) waiter recommended splitting 6 of the small courses between the two of us, which I found fantastic, because I love splitting small plates! I can't comment about the wine, because I don't order wine much when I go out, but the food was fantastic.

The recurring theme I found at Tilth is that all the food tasted like the ingredients, but clean, and elevated. Often, I'll try food and think "this is delicious, but it's because of cream or butter". The food at Tilth just tasted like the ingredients, as delicious and pure as they can be, without obvious hints of added fat. Everything was perfectly seasoned for my palette, too - nothing was overseasoned or underseasoned, it was all perfect, which was a first for me. Finally, everything was plated beautifully.

First course: Smoked yogurt flan with mustard greens and bacon. WOW. They make their own yogurt, then strain it til it's thick, then cold-smoke it, which sounds so strange yet amazingly delicious - thick, rich, creamy, a clean milky flavor, smokey, delicious. I loved it, the hubby said it was a little gritty, and it wasn't perfectly smooth, but the flavor was so spot-on, I didn't mind. The mustard greens were fantastic - perfectly cooked, a little bitter but not too bitter, and a little smokey and crispy from the wondrous crispy bacon bits. Fantastic.

Next: two fish courses. First was a seared tuna with chive spaetzle and carrot puree. The fish was cooked perfectly - seared on one side, raw on the other, lovely. But the carrot puree stole the show - it tasted like pure, delicious sweet carrots, it didn't taste like it had a lot of butter, oil, or cream added to make it good, but it tasted better than carrots have any right to be. It was the best thing on the plate. Along side was another dish - sous-vide halibut with sea beans - the halibut was so tender and moist, and the sea beans were new for me. I'd always wanted to try them, and they were milder in flavor than I expected, more like a typical bean (I was expecting something a little seaweed tasting), but sauteed til crisp-tender and a little browned in spots. Lovely!

Next was spring risotto with peas and lemon. I don't know what to say about this except it was perfect - so light and lemony, with amazingly fresh peas that were lightly cooked, and still crunchy in the middle. I tipped the bowl to get every last drop. I had no shame.

Our penultimate course was seared hangar steak with a quail egg and frissee. It was great, perfectly cooked steak, nicely cooked quail egg - sous vide, I believe. I wasn't as blown away as by the other dishes, but it was definitely tasty, perfectly plated and seasoned, and solid.

Our final course were the mini duck burgers. Unfortunately, I didn't really care for this dish. I love duck - LOVE it - but the patties were seared on the outside, rare on the inside (which is fine, duck should be medium rare), but the texture was too soft. The brioche buns, while they looked lovely, didn't do anything for me. The flavor was a little off, and too bland - overall, I didn't care for it, and I didn't finish my burgers. Which was a shame, because everything was 5 star up until this point.

Overall, this was the closest thing I've had to a perfect meal. It was truly lovely, and I can't wait to go back once the menu changes again, and try more of Hines' amazingly creations. Seattle is lucky to have this little gem. I would recommend in a heartbeat!

Baby Artichokes with Bread Crumbs and Almonds

I love fresh artichokes. I've grown up eating the giant thistles, steamed until tender, dipping the meaty ends of the leaves into melted butter and scraping off the good stuff. And the choke is the best part, I would carefully scrape the fuzzy center off the choke, so as not to waste any. They were always such a treat!

So when I saw a giant package of baby artichokes at Trader Joe's, I couldn't resist. I had never had baby artichokes before, I had no idea what I would do with them, or even exactly how you prepared them, but I took them home anyway.

So after poking around for recipes, and not finding too many, I decided to wing it. A crunchy topping sounded like a good idea, so I grabbed some old bread I'd stashed in the freezer. I was actually going to use pine nuts, but it seems I was out, so I subbed in blanched almonds - which turned out to be a great idea! And of course, lemon has to go in there somewhere. It all turned out really good - and very simple.

Baby Artichokes with Bread Crumbs and Almonds

1 TB butter
3 TB bread crumbs
2 TB almonds, coarsely ground or finely chopped
1/2 tsp finely grated and chopped lemon zest
large pinch salt

2 lbs baby artichokes
1 TB olive oil
large pinch salt
several turns fresh ground pepper

First, prep your baby artichokes. Tear off the outer leaves until you get to tender yellow leaves in the middle. Cut off the top third of the artichoke, and the stem. If large, quarter or halve, if very small, leave whole. Drop them into a large bowl of acidulated water (add TB lemon juice or white vinegar) after cutting to prevent browning.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, melt butter. When foam subsides, add bread crumbs and almonds and cook, stirring frequently, until toasted and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Turn off heat, add in the zest and a large pinch of salt, mix, remove from pan and set aside.

In the same skillet, add the olive oil. Add the artichokes and cook over medium heat for about 5-6 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water, and let water cook off, another several minutes. Test for doneness, and season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Artichokes should be tender, but still have a bit of a bite. Plate, and top with the breadcrumbs.

Asian-inspired Turkey Burgers with Cabbage Slaw

It's always really nice when you throw some things together in a clean-out-the-fridge kind of moment, mostly hoping for something simply edible, and you end up with something so delicious, you make it again and again. Tonight was one of those nights. I'd had some gai-lan (Chinese broccoli, which is sooooo good) languishing in the fridge. Half of a sad cucumber. An old half-head of cabbage. I knew I needed to use these up, so an a-ha moment came on - I had some hamburger buns and some ground turkey in the fridge that I had randomly picked up but hadn't had any plans for - what about turkey burgers with a cabbage-cucumber-cilantro slaw?

I threw a couple of my favorite Asian condiments, plus ginger and green onion, into my basic turkey burger recipe and was exceptionally pleased. They had a ton of flavor, and were so moist and tender! And these had no cheese, but you won't mind. Slap these on a whole-wheat bun, and you have a super-lean and healthy burger that tastes great. These will definitely go into standard rotation.

For the slaw:
1 cup shredded cabbage (I used purple, but you can use green)
3 TB cucumber, seeded and peeled, julienned or sliced thin
2 TB cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce or tamari

For the burgers:
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
2-3 TB milk
1 egg, beaten
2 TB soy sauce or tamari
2 TB oyster sauce
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2 green onions, white and light parts only, minced
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 lb ground turkey
pinch each of salt and pepper
Canola oil

Mayonnaise
Sriracha
Burger buns

Directions:
In a large bowl, soak the bread crumbs in the milk. You could also skip the milk and soak the bread crumbs in the soy sauce.

While bread crumbs are soaking, toss ingredients for cabbage slaw.

Once breadcrumbs are softened, mix in rest of ingredients, handling as little as possible. Form into 4 burgers.

In a nonstick skillet, heat 1 tsp canola oil over medium heat. Drop in the burgers, and cook until bottoms are dark brown and burgers appear cooked halfway up the side, about 4-5 minutes. Flip, cook over medium for 2-3 minutes, reduce heat to low, and cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serve on burger buns with a dollop of sriracha mayo (I use about 1 part sriracha to 4 parts mayo) and 1/4 cup of the cabbage slaw.

Steak and Arugula Salad

Hooray for summer! That means wonderful fresh fruit and veggies, and lots of salads. I love salads, they're fresh and crisp, and you can throw in whatever you've got, and you've got a pretty good chance of it coming out good for little time and effort. Bonus 1: lots of veggies, so lots of vitamins, it's good for you. Bonus 2: no to little cooking! And when it's over 80 degrees inside, because there is no A/C in Seattle, that counts for a lot.

This is one of my favorite salads. It's a snap to put together, and it's got steak and crispy shallots, 2 man-pleasing ingredients. It's budget-conscious since it stretches a steak -- you only need about 4 oz per person. It's pretty simple, so don't skip the crispy shallots, they really add a lot of dimension to the dish.

I'm giving approximate amounts - this is salad, after all - feel free to tweak as you like.

Steak and Arugula Salad

5-6 cups of arugula - you can sub spinach, but arugula has that great peppery bite
8 oz steak - sirloin, flat iron, flank and new york are all good cuts for this
1 cup heirloom or cherry tomatoes, chopped or halved
1/2 cup blanched green beans (optional)
1/2 cup shallots, thinly sliced
3 TB olive oil
1 TB balsamic vinegar
2 oz Parmesan or Romano, shaved
salt, pepper, and olive oil

Let your steak come to room temp. Salt and pepper generously, then grill or pan fry til medium rare. Set aside and let rest.

Meanwhile, cook shallots in a nonstick pan with a little olive oil, over medium heat til crispy.

Mix your olive oil and balsamic vinegar with salt and pepper to taste. Toss with the arugula, beans (if using), and tomatoes. Top with 4 oz sliced steak, crispy shallots, and shaved cheese. Serve with a few thin slices of toasted baguette. Enjoy!

Serves 2.

Summer Bounty Hash

I think this is my favorite summer meal. I might declare something else my favorite later on, but for right now, this is it. Light and loaded with sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, delicate fingerlings and herbs, a little bit of crispy bacon for texture and salty pork goodness if you like, and an egg to round it out, it brings together some of the best of summer in one easy, but super delicious, dish.



Summer Hash
2 slices of thick cut bacon (I like Hempler's or Nueske's - optional)
2 shallots, sliced
1/2 lb fingerling potatoes (or other waxy potato), cut into 1/2" cubes
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup fresh corn, scraped from 2 cobs,
1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
1/4 tsp fresh thyme
1 TB fresh basil, chopped
1 large or 2 medium heirloom tomatoes, chopped
Shaved Parmigiano cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large nonstick skillet, cook 2 pieces of bacon over medium heat until crispy. Chop and set aside.

In the fat, cook the shallots until softened, a few minutes. Add the potatoes and broth, and simmer for about 8 minutes, or until potatoes are almost cooked. Add the corn, thyme, and paprika, and simmer until potatoes are tender and corn is cooked, about another 10 minutes, until most of the liquid is evaporated. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with a topping of fresh basil, tomatoes, and crispy bacon. Top with a little shaved cheese if you like. Slip a fried or poached egg on top for a lovely rounded meal.

If you're vegetarian, you can easily lose the bacon - the smoked Spanish paprika will give a nice smoky flavor.

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Semifreddo with Caramel Sauce

This is such a snap to put together, and has a luscious taste of vanilla and brown sugar. It has all the components of ice cream - egg yolks and cream - but none of the cooling and churning. Plus, my ice cream always seems to turn out icy if not immediately consumed - this stayed nice and creamy. I highly suggest chilling the serving plates - this stuff melts quickly, and it will buy you time to serve to your guests, or at least keep your own serving from melting before you're halfway done.

For something that's even richer than ice cream, it has an amazingly light and fluffy texture.



Whisky Caramel Sauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/8 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 TB whisky

In a heavy medium saucepan, cook the sugar over low heat, stirring occassionally, until melted and golden. Stop stirring, and swirl until sugar is dark golden brown.

Carefully add liquids - caramel will steam, bubble up, and harden. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until hardened caramel melts. Pour into bowl and let cool. Can be made ahead of time, refrigerated, and gently rewarmed at serving (mixture will firm up quite a bit).

Brown Sugar Semifreddo
4 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/3 cups whipping cream

In a double boiler over low heat, whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla until thickened and 140 degrees. Whisk for 3 minutes more, just to kill off any nasties. Set aside in ice bath to cool. In another bowl, whip the cream.

Fold in about 1/2 cup of the whipping cream to the egg mixture to lighten, then fold the egg mixture into the rest of the whipped cream. Pour into a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 8 hours or overnight. Slice with a large knife, working quickly, this stuff melts fast. Plate onto a chilled plate, drizzle with caramel sauce and sprinkle with pecan pralines, if you like.