It's called pound cake because you gain at least a pound eating it

I made a pound cake yesterday. This pound cake, to be exact. It was fabulous. (The picture above is not the cake I actually made, but mine looked just like this.)

If you look though the ingredients, you'll quickly understand why it was fabulous:
-six eggs
-3 cups of sugar
-one brick of cream cheese
-3 (!!!) sticks of butter

Did your thighs suddenly gain a pound just by reading that? Mine did.

I did adapt the recipe just a little bit. Because Steve and I love lemon pound cake, I added the juice of half a large lemon and the zest of the entire lemon to the batter. I also reduced the vanilla to only one teaspoon and left out the almond extract because, well, I don't have any. This made the cake subtly lemon. Next time, I'll add the juice of the entire lemon along with the zest for more lemon flavor. I'd also like to make the strawberry coulis next time and add some fresh mint to it.

The recipe writer also recommends only using Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese. I used Trader Joe's and I probably couldn't tell you the difference. I don't think this is a recipe where I could use less fat - the cake needs the moisture and richness provided by the fat and eggs.

The hallmark of pound cake is the crusty, cracked top and this recipe produced that beautifully. In fact, it's my favorite part of the cake. I also must take this moment to give a shout of thanks to the person at PAM cooking sprays that thought up the spray made especially for baking. They are a genius. It's a dream spray. I used it instead of buttering and flouring the bundt pan. It's much easier, less messy, and it's never let me down. Nothing sticks to this stuff. I know baking purists will give me a hard time for using this stuff, but I really like it and see no reason why I shouldn't use it. It also smells like cake batter. Yum.

I cut the cake in half - it makes a huge amount for just the two of us - and put one half in the freezer, tightly wrapped in three layers of Saran wrap and one layer of foil. I can't wait to have a reason to thaw it out!

That curiously named dish, the quiche

A week or so ago, quiche was somehow mentioned on tv, an article, or maybe it even came up in our conversation. I'm not really sure. But Steve thought a quiche would be a nice change of pace and I agreed. I haven't made a quiche since . . . um, ever. But it couldn't be that hard since it's basically an egg pie. Which is my new name for quiche - egg pie.

I looked up quiche in my bright shiny green copy of The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh. Two recipes were offered - one for quiche with caraway and leeks (hey! I actually have both of those ingredients!) and one with chiles, bacon, and green onion (and double hey! I have two out of three of these!). I let Steve pick which one to make. Guess which one he went for?

Yes, the one with the bacon, of course.

The recipe in the cookbooks says to cut corners by using a frozen or refrigerated pie crust. Since I have a very good pie crust recipe, I went ahead an made my own. I did eliminate just a bit of the sugar so it wasn't too sweet for this savory pie. I skipped all the instructions regarding the crust except for the par-baking for five minutes.

The rest of the recipe I made as directed and it turned out really well. I could have used a little bit more spice as the green chiles were even more mild than usual it seemed. Next time I might add a bit of chili powder or cayenne.

Bacon and green chile quiche
From The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh

6 servings (or eight in our case)

1 refrigerated pie crust, room temp
8 bacon slices
1 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups half and half (or milk, as I used)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Unfold crust. Using fingertips, press together any tears. Press crust into 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish. (My dish isn't a deep dish, but all of the filling just barely fit.) Press foil onto crust to hold shape. Bake five minutes. Remove from oven; remove foil. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Cook bacon in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat (or microwave, like I did) until brown and crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. (After it cools) crumble bacon. Sprinkle bacon, then chiles and green onions over crust. Mix Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar cheese and sprinkle over. Whisk eggs, half and half, and salt in medium bowl to blend; pour mixture into crust.

Bake quiche until knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let quiche stand (to set) about five minutes. Cut quiche into wedges and serve.

This is not written to be a low-fat recipe but it could easily be adapted so some of the fat is cut out. Such as using milk rather than half and half, low fat cheese (which I usually don't like but I bet it would work in this), and microwaving the bacon. The pie crust also has quite a bit of butter, but when it comes to pie crust, I think the butter needs to stay. Many quiches are crust-free, so this may also work without it.

Enjoy your egg pie!

Bonny Doon Vineyard - My latest shipment has arrived!

I'm a member of the Bonny Doon DEWN wine club. A week or so ago, I received a new DEWN shipment. I love BD wines because they are relatively affordable, extremely drinkable, and feature grapes that are not highly produced here in the US making them different. This is not a vineyard that does your typical California Chard or Cab Sav.

For the past couple years, BD has produced a label called Ca' Del Solo Estate Vineyard. According to the label on the bottle, "Ca' del Solo is the frontier outpost of Bonny Doon Vineyard and the moniker of our Monterey County farm on the outskirts of Soledad. We are dedicated to producing wines with a particular emphasis on the expression of terroir, or unique sense of place. We farm our Ca' del Solo Vineyard using Biodynamic practice, with the intent of restoring vital life-forces to our soil and respecting the farm as a complex and self sustaining organism."

Okay, so that's all sort of touchy-feely, but all that touchy-feely-ness results in very nice wines. I love the Albarino that is produced by the Ca' del Solo Vineyard and look forward to receiving my bottle every year. To my delight, my last DEWN shipment contained the 2008 Albarino, and I promptly popped it in the fridge to chill.

Sorry for the blurry photo of my *empty* bottle.

Another thing that makes BD a unique wine producer is that BD also lists the ingredients used to make their Biodynamic wines. Anything that comes into contact with the wine is included in the ingredients. For example, my bottle of 2008 Albarino says, "Ingredients: Biodynamic grapes and sulfur dioxide. In the winemaking process, the following were utilized: indigenous yeast, organic yeast nutrient and bentonite. At the time of bottling, this product contained: 65 ppm total SO2, 20 ppm free SO2." Next time you have a bottle of wine in front of you, check the label for ingredients. You won't find one. Most wines have additives that are supposed to enhance freshness and flavor, but they are never spelled out on the bottle label. It's good to know what you're drinking.

After a proper chilling, I unscrewed the cap (Bonny Doon mostly uses screw caps rather than corks, making them easier and quicker to open and hence, making it quicker to be drinking them), and poured a taste. Yum! Since my wine palate is still learning, I'll quote the label, "This Albarino expresses a beautifully crystalline mineral aspect, great persistence on the palate and a bracingly crisp grapefruit, yuzu and tangerine dream." Whatever. All I know is that it tasted great. Sure I got some sort of fruit flavor, and yes, it was crisp and clean, but yuzu? Mineral? I'm still working to sort those flavors out on my tongue. Who writes wine bottle labels anyway?

So, if you can find them, I highly recommend the Ca' Del Solo Estate Vineyard bottles. I've only had the Albarino and the Muscat (a sweet, but not potently so, white), and for reds the Dolcetto and Nebbiolo.

Since I know at least two readers of this blog, I should also point out that BD now ships to Georgia . . .

Got Carbs?

I was getting caught up on all the food blogs I read, and I copied several recipes for future use. When I finished, I looked over the list of recipes and I noticed that all the recipes shared one thing in common - they were all carbs. Hmmm, it doesn't take a genius to know that I love carbs. Carbs, carbs, and more carbs. I love 'em!

Here are the recipes I copied:

Biscuits
Butternut Squash & Caramelized Onion Galette
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Cream Scones
Migas - actually this doesn't qualify as a carb heavy dish. Ha!
Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Cornbread
Ginger, Lemongrass, and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Peppery Fast Feuilletee Rolls
Maple Pecan Ice Cream
Soft Pretzels

See what I mean? Sweets and breads. My two favorite things. Well, those and bacon. And milk. And cheese. Oh, this could go on.

And no wonder. Carbs come in all shapes, sizes, flavors, varieties, and are "happy" foods. They go with everything and range from easy to make to involved. Sweet or savory carbs are great.

A no carb diet would be my idea of torture. "No I won't tell you anything! Wait, you're going to deny me carbs? Nooooooo! I'll talk, I'll talk!" Besides, a no carb diet is impossible and not healthy. You could avoid carbs by eating eggs and bacon all the time, but then the cholesterol would kill you.

So as I look over this new list of acquired recipes, I know I'll have to make all of those over a good stretch of time. Too much of a good thing can also lead to an overdose.

I'll let you know what I make first. I have suspicion it will be biscuits since I have some leftover buttermilk in the fridge . . .

Brunch at Char No. 4, revisit

This morning, I met with Susan K. and Reka at Char No. 4 for brunch. Steve and I have been to Char a couple times for the morning meal, but Reka and Susan have only had the pleasure of dinner there. It was high time that they also experienced brunch and the (in)famous bacon cheddar grits that I adore.

Char fills up around 11AM, so we were sure to get there before that in order to secure a booth. Only parties more than two will get seated at booths, and there are only about six booths, so be prepared to wait for one. Char has a patio out back, but until the weather turns warmer, it's still closed.

It was hard to give up the grits this morning but I wanted to try something else. Besides, I knew Steve was going to get them and Susan was getting a side order of them, and I knew I wouldn't go without them!

I tried the biscuit with sausage gravy, house-made sage sausage, and sunny-side up egg. Yeah, it's pretty heave on the fat. And the cholesterol. And the sodium, no doubt, but it was also heavy on flavor. Delicious, savory flavor.

The biscuits at Char are one of my least favorite things because I think they could do them better, but coated with gravy and an egg, the biscuit passed muster for me. The sausage was subtly sage-y and even thought it didn't have the consistency of a breakfast link, it was quite fine.

Reka tried Char's take on eggs Benedict, but as it was made with the same sausage gravy as I had, she missed the classic tang of Hollandaise. The smoked ham was very good.

Susan K. had the buttermilk pancakes which were obviously made with a ton of butter, or at least griddled generously in it. They outside edge of pancakes was the best part - crispy toasty.

We ordered sides of aforementioned grits, bacon, and roasted potatoes. The potatoes were new to me, and I quite loved them. They were flavorful and cut small enough so that the entire outside could crisp up. I'm not always a fan of home fries, but these were some of the best I've had.

I love that Char is so close to home. It's a real gem of a place that consistently serves quality, careful, decedent, and pleasing food. I've been there half a dozen times now and I'm never disappointed.

Except with the coffee. We don't care for the coffee. It's a little strong and always tastes just a little burned.

Other than that, this place is stellar and I love eating here. Figures - it's owned by a Texan!

A new week night recipe

On Saturday, I tried a new recipe from my April 2009 issue of Bon Appetit - Tagliatelle with baby vegetables and lemon-Parmesan sauce. Ooh, we really liked this.

The ingredients are pretty basic - pasta, veggies, cheese. How can you go wrong? Not at all, apparently. I loved this because it was so fresh tasting, simple, and satisfying. The prep time is minimal - I could get most of the prep work done while the pasta was cooking.

Here are my notes on the recipe:

"1 8.8-ounce package of egg & spinach tagliatelle blend or egg fettuccine" - I used Trader Joe's Lemon & Pepper pappardelle instead and I loved the results. The extra lemon and pepper just intensified the flavors in a good way.

"8 ounces baby zucchini, trimmed, halved lengthwise" - I cut mine again for even thinner slices

"8 ounces frozen tiny green beans (3 cups), thawed" - or not thawed as I did and it still turned out fine, but I added the beans when I started cooking the other veggies

"Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and zucchini" - and frozen beans if you didn't have time to thaw them

"Saute until zucchini is tender, about 8 minutes." - Okay, so we found we wanted more salt and kept adding it. The zucchini also didn't cook to a tenderness we liked in 8 minutes, despite having sliced them thinner than directed. So you'll have to salt and figure out the zucchini as you go so it's what you like.

Despite the cream, this is a very light dinner. We really liked this and will certainly make it again.

St. Patrick's Day feast

I had been looking forward to our St. Patrick's Day dinner for a couple weeks before the holiday actually rolled around. Here is what we had on the menu:

Soda bread with golden raisins and caraway
Colcannon soup
Irish bangers and mash
Peas
gravy
Guinness

I took care of the bread and the soup in the morning. The bread is really the easiest thing I've ever baked. Even easier than those salted chocolate & cranberry cookies. Basically, all the wet ingredients get combined. All the dry ingredients get combined. Then add the wet to the dry. Then stir in the raisins and caraway. Pour the whole thing into a greased oven-safe skillet, and voila, 35 minutes later, delicious soda bread. No chopping, no dicing, no fussy directions to follow, just some simple measuring of basic ingredients. Easy peasy.

The soup is also easy if you cut a few prep corners like I did - ahem, thank you Trader Joe's for shredded cabbage and trimmed leeks. I first made colcannon last year for the Harcourt Pot-Luck-O-the-Irish lunch. It's also the only time I've made it until this year. It's a good soup - cabbage, onions, rendered bacon fat, potatoes, a dash of cream, chicken broth, and leeks.

The bangers we bought at Paisanos meat market. They carry all sorts of craft made sausages - bangers, Chorizo, Italian, venison, turkey, and more. Steve browned up the links and then used the drippings to make the gravy, which only improved a day later.

We had a really nice dinner both that night and the next. Hope all of you had something good too. Alas, no pictures. Sorry.