Warm Coffee Cake

One of favorite foods growing up was when my Mom would make Bisquick Coffee Cake.  I love Bisquick.  I know it is made up of edible polymers and enzymes and such, but it is such a helper.  I’ve made so many dishes over the years that include Bisquick, and it is always good (except for that one time when I cooked the dumplings in the soup too long and it came out looking like the gruel that Oliver Twist would have turned down [tasted like it too]).

Making the Bisquick Coffee Cake is about as simple as can be, and while I don’t have the pictures of Sofia and I making it, here is a picture of the finished product along with the recipe.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of the the Bisquick site:

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

prep time: 10 minutes

cooking time: 35 minutes

makes: 6 servings

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup Original Bisquick® mix

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons firm butter

Coffee Cake

2 cups Original Bisquick® mix

2/3 cup milk or water

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 egg

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Grease bottom and side of 9-inch round pan with shortening or cooking spray. In small bowl, mix 1/3 cup Bisquick mix, the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter, using fork or pastry blender, until mixture is crumbly; set aside.
2. In medium bowl, stir all coffee cake ingredients until blended. Spread in pan. Sprinkle with topping.
3. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool.

2011 – a new leaf

Wow.  I’ve been absent but here’s what is new.  Twins.  Make that three children under 3 in my house and it is a wonder that we get anything done, let alone a blog.  In fact I am typing this with one hand because I have one boy fighting sleep in my other arm.

 

M posts are going to be more realistic from now on.  Some will be downright boring but you”ll get a sense of what kind of time we don”t have to devote to the interesting cooking we were used to “pre-children.”

 

Thanks for sticking around.

 

Jamie

 

 

Been absent – finally back

This summer we spent working on our kitchen.  When we bought our house, the kitchen was one of the things that I knew was going to be a problem spot.  We had to buy a fridge and stove, but the layout wasn’t safe.  Knowing that a little-one was going to be running through, we had to move where the stove was (as you enter the kitchen from dining room and hallway – a great way to have pots knocked over).  We upgraded the electrical in the house.  There was no exhaust fan in the kitchen,  so that was on the list.

Fast forward through the summer, and we have a dishwasher, exhaust fan, base AND wall cabinets and a new butcher block counter on the cooking wall.  While the rest of the kitchen is still as it was when we moved in, with the ‘built-on-site’ cabinets from 1950, we know that it is only a matter of time before we bring out the sledgehammers and take that out too.

Finally I have room that stand in front of my stove and look in my oven.  Finally I can put a pot down next to the stove after I take it off of a burner.  Finally I can move the different aromas out of the kitchen.  Finally I can find out where the hot spots are in oven.  Finally I can breathe.

Since this phase of the project has finished (last Sunday), I’ve already whipped up three batches of cookies and a mean chicken soup.

Looking forward to this weekend and finally getting back to cooking and sharing.

empty canvas. love the pegboard – a la Julia Child. Couldn’t live without it. Can’t imagine where we would put all of our pans !

after living in house for a month – first iteration of the kitchen, with the stove near the hallway, and the fridge on the east wall.

before we put the base cabinets in, we used a parsons table and microwave stand to give us the idea. Too cluttered for our own taste. shows a version of what we were going to do…

it might not look like much, but the wire rack is gone, the kitchen is open, everything has its place in the cabinets. Looking forward to breaking a hole in the wall to the dining room.

Herbs

Last year, our herbs were glorious.  As much as we like to cook and create in the kitchen, we enjoy gardening too.  We were lucky to have such a harvest last year, from our two little 4×4 gardens.  And considering how much we ignored them, they were quite good to us.

These pictures are the last cutting before the first frost in late October of last year, and then subsequently drying in the oven at its lowest setting.

Here’s hoping to a similar harvest this year.

First Grilling

first posted 6/4/09

Last night we christened our ‘almost completed deck’ with its first grilling.

We are still missing our railings and stair treads, but since the grill is on the deck, that’s good enough for us !

After work, I went a couple of doors down and bought three swordfish steaks from Yankee Lobster.  I hadn’t been there before (I don’t have a good reason).  Clean shop, nice selection.  I was asked how far I had to travel and when I told that I only had to go twenty minutes (hoping for no traffic on the Pike), he went in the back and brought out a bag of fresh ice that he placed in the sack with my steaks.  Thoughtful and kind, and definitely the kind of thing that will bring me back again (and tell others too!).

Once home, I simply took the steaks (which smelled of the sea, nothing fishy about them) and sprinkled them with kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and a drizzling of olive oil.  Into the fridge until grilling time.

I quickly made up a pot of cous cous and then set it aside until dinner.

Grape tomatoes (bought) and some fresh Greek Oregano from the garden, kosher salt, pepper and olive oil went into a bowl and was tossed.  I added some whole (pitted, so not completely whole) kalamata olives, and let that marinate and mingle until the grill was going.

I created a small pan for the grill, out of non-stick aluminum foil.  I put it on the grill and poured the tomato/olive mixture into it.  It started sizzling immediately, so I let it do its thing.  It just sounded like it was going to be good. These were the first thing on the grill, and the last thing off.  I will say – the tomatoes didn’t burst, but rather slowly gave off their liquid, thus concentrating the sweetness and the flavors of the tomatoes.  They caramelized into lovely large ruby jewels.  The olives did their best to keep up with the tomatoes, but they just got crunchy bits here and there.  We were a big fan of this, and will definitely do it again.  Heck, it could be a side dish all on its own.

Swordfish went on to the grill right after the tomatoes and olives.  Four minutes on their first side.  While waiting for the fish, I took slivered almonds and started toasting them in a pan.  Just wanted to knock the raw taste and waxy mouth feel off of them.  Back out on the grill, flipped the fish, and back in to toss the almonds.

Once ready, I took the swordfish off the grill and plated – cous cous with the tomato/olive mix on top, with a shaving of fresh parmigiana on top.  Then the swordfish on the side and toasted almonds on top of the swordfish, and we were ready to go.  We each squeezed a little lemon on the fish and took our bites.  The fish was juicy, and had such a subtle flavor, it was divine.  We hadn’t cooked swordfish in over two years, as Karin was pregnant and couldn’t eat it.  This was a nice way to come back to it.

We paired the meal with a chilled bottle of Starwood Sauvignon Blanc.  Like almost all Sauv Blancs that we drink, this came from the Marlborough region of New Zealand.

The mark of a great meal  -  we didn’t talk for the first half of dinner as we moaned and smiled our way through.

A nice way to kick off summer, fish, grilling and our deck.

“Fast Food” for us

first posted 6/14/09

Sometimes when I come home from work, kiss the baby and Karin, play for a little while, and then start to think about dinner…sometimes I don’t have the energy for a more elaborate supper. Sometimes, I just want it to be easier.

This is my “cheating” type dinner.  And I’ll be honest with you – it is so easy, I am often embarrassed when it comes out like it did the other night. So good I want somehow get my head in the pan afterwards.

I have a supply of chicken breast fillets in the freezer, just for occasions like this.

For this specific dinner, I took two cloves of elephant garlic, slivered them, and put them in a pan with some olive oil. Right when they started to lightly brown, I squeezed in about a tablespoon of anchovy paste. I stirred it in, and then poured in a large can of Italian tomatoes. While that was starting to warm, I took a couple of handfuls of country-style olives, and rough chopped them, and tossed them in as well. On top of that, I put 6 chicken breast fillets in, and covered it, turned it to low, and left the room.

This is the type of dinner that requires almost no work after that. I try to remember to go in and flip the chicken, move them from the bottom to the top, etc, but even if you don’t, it is still going to taste good.

Thursday I didn’t have any side to go with it, but usually a cous cous, or rice or even fresh pasta is a great accompaniment.

All we had was a fresh baguette, so I sliced them on the bias to get more surface area, and put three on the plate, with chicken on top, and then juices and olive/tomato mixture on top of that.

I realize that this is just a form of braising, but it is such a life-saver for us – it allows us to eat well when we need “fast food.” Instead of a box of “who knows what” we can make dinner while we catching up on our days.

It might not be pretty, but the chicken is juicy, the flavors are bright, and the cleanup is minimal.

Grilled teriyaki salmon and Israeli cous cous salad

Yesterday we decided that we needed to grill for dinner.  Both of us realized that with the impending “week of rain” that will start tomorrow, we needed to be outside as much as we could.  For me, that meant coming straight home after work, uncovering and starting up the grill, and cooking outside.    Dinner would be simple  -  grilled salmon and a cous cous salad.

The cous cous salad was adapted from Giada De Laurentiis “Israeli Couscous with Apples, Cranberries and Herbs” and was simple as could be.  I had watched one of her shows during one of the few half hour stretches of nothingness.  I was drawn to the salad for a few reasons – I’ve been putting Craisins on my salads lately, and I like the punch of sweet and tart that it adds; I’ve been meaning to try Israeli cous cous at home; and cooking with Granny Smith apples is just fun.

I cooked the cous cous according to the package, and while that was simmering, I went to the garden and picked some oregano and rosemary. Once washed and dried, I rough chopped the herbs and put them in a bowl.  Next I started toasting the slivered almonds, slowly as to not burn them (like last time !).

Next I put together the easy vinaigrette minus the maple syrup (had none in the house): olive oil, cider vinegar, salt and pepper.  Whisked it until emulsified, and put it aside.  Drained the cous cous and put it in the bowl.  Next, I diced the apple into large-ish sized chunks, and in they went.  A handful of Craisins went in next.  Finally, the almonds went in the bowl.  Tossed lightly and then drizzled the vinaigrette over.  A quick taste to make sure it was ok, and I’m serious when I tell you this – I wanted to take a big spoon and the bowl and hide in the closet so Karin couldn’t find me, and eat it all.

Self-restraint, however, took over, and I kept it so that Karin could have some as well.

Once this was done, I took the salmon that Karin had been marinating all day, and put it on the hot grill, searing one side, and then slowly cooking the other.   I would like to say that we made the marinade, but this is one of those days where we used Soy Vay.  Love the Soy Vay.  In this case, love the “Soy Vay Island Teriyaki.”   Three pieces of salmon hung out in it all day long waiting for me to come home and grill em up !

The stars were aligned and the salmon grilled up perfectly.  A couple of times I thought of “salmon candy” as some of the edges had caramelized nicely, were slightly crunchy, and a little sweet.  Reminded me briefly of salmon skin, my favorite when making sushi.

Back to dinner – the salmon and the salad went together nicely.    The sweet tart of the apples and the Craisins were a nice accompaniment to the moist salmon steaks.

Karin paired her dinner with a “Polka Dot” Riesling that we were given recently.  I washed mine down with a Sierra Nevada Summerfest – which worked nicely as well.

All in all, a big thumbs up, and we can’t wait to do it again.

Cheers