I first started making these when I was in Madison. They were a huge hit and there was a stretch there when I was making a batch a week! I haven’t really made them since, but thought I’d roll them out again for the CCS. Once again, they got rave reviews. Seriously, such an easy treat to make – you should try it!

This is my version of the recipe, which I adapted from an All Recipes find (which you can access via this link).

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar**
1/2 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa**
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

** If you can’t find the Ghirardelli ground chocolate (it’s in a gold can) then you can use 2/3 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa. This is what the original recipe called for. The conversion I did wasn’t exactly what the Ghirardelli folks suggest, but it’s close enough. There’s just 1/12 a cup of sugar more in my version than the original.

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened cocoa and baking powder. Beat for 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in flour by hand. Mix in chocolate and chocolate chips. Cover dough, and chill for about 10 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Divide dough into two parts and place each part on the lined cookie sheet. Lightly moisten your hands with water, and form/shape each part into approximately 9 inch loaf. Flatten the loaves to about a 1 to 1 1/2 inch height. If the dough starts to stick to your hands, re-wet them just a bit.

3. Bake for about 23-26 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool for one hour.

4. When completely cool, cut each loaf into 1/2 inch wide diagonal slices. Store in airtight container.

Note: This yields a softer biscotti. If you want a more traditional crunchy/cripsy biscotty, after cooling for an hour and slicing the loaves, place slices on an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake at 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C) for 9 minutes. Turn cookies over, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

I went looking for a baked chicken recipe today and remembered that Paula Deen had one of her sons on her show demonstrating how to make BBQ chicken in the oven. I used the Deen Brothers’ recipe as a starting point and added a few modifications. I then found a recipe for whipped sweet potatoes (by Tyler Florence) to make as a side dish. I made a few small adjustments again, including mashing the potatoes instead of pureeing them since I don’t have a food processor. Both dishes came out great and will definitely be added to the repertoire!

Here are the versions that I made. Hope you like them!

Easy Oven Baked BBQ Chicken, adapted from the Deen Brothers recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
zest of 1/2 of an orange (use the other half for the potatoes below!)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (barely noticeable – add more if you like heat)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces; or 1 pkg each chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all ingredients except the chicken. Reserve 1/2 cup of the barbeque sauce; set aside. Place chicken in large glass baking dish. Add remaining sauce from the bowl to baking dish, turning chicken to coat.

2. Bake chicken 45 to 55 minutes or until cooked through, basting with the reserved 1/4 cup sauce after 20 minutes and remaining 1/4 cup sauce after an additional 20 minutes (after it has been in there for 40 minutes). Remove from oven and let stand for 3-5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Mashed (not Whipped) Sweet Potatoes, adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe

INGREDIENTS

4 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream + 1 cup half and half (use less liquid f your potatoes are medium sized)
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 orange, zested
2 packed tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put them in a roasting pan and roast for 45 minutes – 1 hour until they are very soft. Remove the pan from the oven.

2. In a small sauce pot, over low heat, heat the cream and half and half with the bay leaves, then keep warm until ready to puree potatoes. Discard the bay leaves before adding to potatoes.

3. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Season with salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest, and brown sugar. Mash them a bit with potato masher. Add 1/2 of cream mixture and 1 tablespoon of butter, stir well to incorporate. Add remaining cream mixture in installments, stirring well after each addition, until desired consistency is reached.

Today was a great day – I used two different dutch ovens to create two different braised dishes. MMMMM. The first one was a small batch of kare-kare, a Filipino peanut stew that I’ve written up before. The other was a batch of Pork Asado, which braises pork in a soy sauce and brown sugar liquid. A great day for Filipino cooking in this house, that’s for sure! Here’s the recipe for the asado:

Pork Asado, Filipino Style

INGREDIENTS

1 pkg country style pork ribs, with bone (my pkg from the farm had 4 big ribs)
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 large cloves garlic, smashed and skins removed
salt and pepper
cold water
~4 tbsp soy sauce (I actually used 4 packets of sauce from chinese restaurant takeout)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 to 1/3 cup dark brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Season one side of ribs with salt and pepper. Heat oil in dutch oven over medium low heat. Add garlic to infuse oil; remove after it starts to smell good but before it starts burning. Set aside to add it back in later. Raise heat to medium high. When dutch oven is heated, add ribs, seasoned side down, to sear. Season top side with salt and pepper. Cook about 2 min until meat releases easily from bottom of pot, flip and sear other side for 2 min.

2. Add enough water to cover the ribs. Add garlic from before, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Cover and reduce heat to low; simmer for 1.5 – 2 hours until meat is tender and falling off the bone. Taste sauce when almost ready to serve; if you want it sweeter, just add a bit more brown sugar.

Serve with prepared rice, slices of tomato, and a teeny bit of fish sauce (if you dare!). Enjoy!

My mom brought me a 3+ pound frozen pork loin when they came up for Easter (Let me explain. No, wait, it is too long. Let me sum up: they were moving and needed to clean out their freezer.), and when Mike came home with some fresh Honeycrisp apples, I went looking for a good pork roast recipe.

Of course, a few days later, we decided to use the apples for caramel apple sundaes… so I decided to try to take the pork in a different direction: towards a Cuban style roast, to be eaten for dinner and with enough leftovers for Cuban sandwiches (soon to be a follow up post, for sure).

I tried this recipe (from the BBC of all places), and it turned out great! I also served it with some lightly buttered gnocchi from the grocer’s freezer. The only change I’d make would be to make some gravy to pour over everything before serving… otherwise, this is a keeper!

Cuban Roast Pork
Copied from the BBC website; click here to get to the original post

Ingredients

3 lbs boneless centre pork loin roast, with skin on
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons dried oregano
The juice of two oranges, one lemon and one lime, mixed together
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup Spanish olive oil

Method

1. Mash the garlic and salt together with a pestle and mortar. Add the dried oregano, onion and fruit juice to the mix and stir thoroughly.

2. Heat the oil in small saucepan, add the mix to the oil and whisk.

3. Pierce pork roast as many times as you can with a sharp knife or fork.

4. Pour garlic mixture (save a little for roasting) over the pork, cover the meat and leave it to stand in the refrigerator for two to three hours.

5. To cook: Preheat oven to 450°F.

6. Place the pork skin side up in an open roasting pan.

7. Place pan in oven and reduce temperature to 350°F.

8. Occasionally baste the remaining marinade over the roast while it cooks. It takes about one and a half hours for a three-pound roast to cook.

I held off as long as I could, but I finally had to include my dissertation in the name of one of my dishes. Today was one of those great writing days… you know, the ones where you think that banging your head on the keyboard will produce better results than you staring at the screen, rewriting the same paragraph 10 times. Gotta love it.

In order to feel like the day wasn’t a total waste, I decided to multitask and make some beef and lentil soup for dinner. Since I had a full afternoon of pulling my hair out writing and theorizing ahead of me, I figured it would be great to let some soup stock simmer away at the same time. So, I pulled out some soup bones from Anderson Farm (which had quite a bit of meat on them), made a slow simmering stock for 5 hours, took the bones out, shredded the beef, and added carrots, celery, tomatoes, and lentils. Served with a great piece of bread, this meal is definitely a winner. (And definitely the most productive thing I did all day.)

Here’s the recipe!

The “I’m so sick (of my dissertation)” Beef and Lentil Soup

INGREDIENTS

(for the stock)
3+ lbs beef soup bones (meaty if possible, if not, get some chuck roast)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
inner leafy core (or 3 ribs) of celery, chopped
3 medium carrots, halved
3 quarts water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp sage

(for the soup)
1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes (or roast your own, or just add fresh, chopped ones), slightly drained
1 cup dry lentils, soaked and rinsed
1 tbsp oregano
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds/bite sized pieces
3 ribs celery, chopped into bite sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste

crusty bread and butter

DIRECTIONS

1. For the stock: Heat oil over medium heat in a large dutch oven (at least 5.5 quarts). Add onion, cook 2 min. Add garlic, celery, and carrots, cook 2 more min, stirring frequently. Add soup bones; lightly sear if they have meat. (If using chuck roast, add now, sear lightly.) Pour water over all, add salt, pepper, and spices. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to maintain simmer. Skim off scum and fat as needed; simmer for at least 3 hours, longer if you have time. Make sure meat is tender.

When the stock is simmering, this would be a good time to soak your lentils in cold water. If you think of it later, drain them and add new water to rinse again. I soaked mine the entire time the stock was cooking.

2. For the soup: After stock is done, remove meat and veggies, and strain the stock with a fine grained colander (or through cheesecloth if you’re really fancy… I don’t do this but some do). Pour anywhere from 8-10 cups of stock back into pot; freeze any excess for another time. Wait until meat is cool enough to handle, separate and shred. Add back into stock. Add lentils, tomatoes, and oregano, place over medium to medium high heat until boiling. Cover and reduce heat to maintain simmer, about 40 min (longer if you want thicker soup). Add carrots and celery, simmer another 15-20 minutes until veggies are tender.

Serve with crusty bread and butter… mmmmmm! Great for when you’re sick, or just when you’re sick of something (like a dissertation!).

Congrats to one of my graduating students, Eric, and his bride to be, Andrea, on their upcoming wedding! Sadly, we won’t be able to raise glasses to them in person, but we’ll be there in sprit – that’s for sure.

Although we couldn’t put together a custom spice box for the happy couple, we were able to send them a “Spicy Wedding” gift box from Penzeys – and of course, and a link to this blog. Best wishes for a life full of love and laughter, you two!

In honor of their wedding next month, I will dedicate my recipe for Fish Tacos (which I first sampled at Texas Tubbs Taco Palace, which I hope they’ll visit sometime) to the bride and groom. So, without further ado…

A&E’s Fish Tacos

INGREDIENTS:

~1.5 lbs white fish fillets or nuggets (cod, tilapia, or catfish)
1 tsp Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning or Penzey’s Cajun seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
~2-4 tbsp canola oil for pan frying, if needed

1 pkg whole wheat tortillas
1 pkg broccoli slaw
1/4 cup cole slaw dressing
shredded cheese

chips, salsa, and guacamole

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut fish fillets into nuggets or strips if necessary. Sprinkle with creole/cajun seasoning and garlic powder, toss with hands. Pour cornmeal into separate bowl. Add fish pieces and toss to coat.

2a. If using a convection oven, line rack with foil, perforate, and spray with non-stick spray. Arrange fish in one layer. Bake at ~400 degrees for ~25 minutes (check after 20) until fish is cooked through and at the desired crispiness.

2b. If pan frying, heat oil over medium high heat. Add fish in batches, making sure pieces aren’t touching. Depending on thickness, cook for anywhere from 3-4 min per side. When done, move to paper towel to drain.

3. Toss broccoli slaw in cole slaw dressing. Serve a few pieces of fish with slaw and cheese in a tortilla. Pair with chips, salsa, and guacamole, and enjoy!

I was searching for an oven fried chicken recipe, since I defrosted a pre-cut chicken on Thursday but wasn’t able to use it until today. After looking at several recipes online, I noticed that there were a few decision points – whether or not to marinade in buttermilk, what to coat the chicken with (flour, corn flake crumbs, or process your own crispx and bagel chips?), and how to season it. I wanted to make it healthy, too, so I removed the skin from the chicken and used whole wheat bread crumbs for part of the coating. Here is my attempt, and it turned out pretty well – just in time for tonight’s Final Four!

Gina’s Final Four Crispy Oven Fried Chicken

Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut up into 10 pcs (breast cut into two parts, each with bone)
1 pint buttermilk
1 1/4 cup cornflake crumbs
2/3 cup whole wheat dry bread crumbs
2 tsp Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
non-stick spray (preferably canola oil)

Directions:

1. Remove skin from chicken. Place in 8×8 glass dish and pour buttermilk over pieces. Shimmy chicken around to make sure all of it is covered. Marinade for at least 1 hour or overnight in refrigerator.

2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a wire cooling rack on a baking sheet with sides (such as a jelly roll pan) that can catch juices. Spray wire rack liberally with non-stick spray.

3. Take chicken out fridge. Mix corn flake crumbs, bread crumbs, and seasoning in shallow dish or plate for breading. Take one piece of chicken out of buttermilk, and let the buttermilk drip off. Dredge chicken in crumb mixture, place on prepared wire rack. Repeat with remaining chicken. When all chicken is on wire rack, spray chicken with non-stick cooking spray.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out of oven, flip chicken over, spray again with non-stick cooking spray, and bake for another 20 minutes or until juices run clear.

Enjoy!

I purchased a bag of quinoa at the local grocery store about three months ago, and I finally got around to making some last week. I followed the recipe for “basic quinoa” on the bag, but added a few extras to spice it up. I served it with some quick and easy pork chops and applesauce – yum!

Italian-flavored Quinoa (keen-wah)

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, rinsed 2 times
2 cups chicken or veggie broth
2 roma tomatoes, diced small
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/3 tsp black pepper

Directions:
After rinsing quinoa with water, add all ingredients to medium-sized pot. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed by grains, about 10-15 minutes.

Easy Herbed Pork Chops

Ingredients:
4-6 boneless thin cut pork chops
2 tsp olive oil
italian seasoning
garlic powder
black pepper
about 1/4-1/3 cup water or chicken stock

Directions:
Heat oil in pan over high heat until it starts to smoke. Pat pork chops dry with paper towel. Add light coating of each spice over pork chops. Carefully place spice side down in prepared pan to sear. Spice other side lightly. When chops are seared on first side (1-2 min, depending on thickness), flip over and sear on other side (1-2 min).

Lower heat to medium. Add about 1/4 cup water or chicken stock and let chops simmer for 7-10 minutes until done.

This is one of our weeknight meals, because it’s super quick and easy. Actually, the toughest part is probably trying to think about the quantities in the recipe… they are approximations only!

Easy Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tsp dried oregano
3 tsp dried basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black peper

Directions:
1. Cut chicken into large pieces of equal thickness; or, cover chicken with plastic wrap and pound with heavy rolling pin to flatten to uniform thickness.

2. In 8×8 glass baking dish or pie dish, mix remaining ingredients with whisk to make marinade. Place chicken in marinade, poking each piece all over with a fork. Let sit in marinade anywhere from 10 min – 3 hours, turning once.

3. Heat skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add chicken. Sear on each side, and then add rest of marinade. Lower heat to medium low and simmer chicken until cooked, about 5-10 minutes for 3/4 in thick pieces. (If pan becomes totally dry, then add a little water to prevent chicken from burning.)

Serve with your favorite veggies (we like corn or green beans) and your favorite carb (we like low-sodium stove top stuffing or brown rice). Enjoy!

I am about to hit the road for another week of work travel, so I thought I’d cook up some meals to leave in the fridge for Mike. I asked him what he wanted, and he requested pulled pork. Lately, I’ve been making a dutch oven version of the Svarovsky staple, since our slow cooker was on the fritz. This version I think has a more interesting flavor anyway, since I now do a dry rub on the pork before putting it in the oven.

The trick to this recipe is having a big, heavy cast iron dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid that can stand up to 300 degrees in the oven. Also, do NOT use pork loin. The slow cooking just makes it tough, since there’s not enough marbled fat in it.

Dutch Oven Pulled Pork

Ingredients

3.5 – 5 lb pork shoulder (Boston Butt) roast, bone in if possible
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp granulated garlic
1.5 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 tbsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (start with 1/8 tsp if you don’t tolerate heat)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 cup chicken stock or broth
2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce, plus extra to taste
prepared coleslaw
hamburger buns

Directions

1. Pat roast dry with paper towel. Tie with string.

2. Mix brown sugar, white sugar, garlic,  paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Rub on roast. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 250-275 degrees (higher temp if you have a bigger roast). Heat oil in large dutch oven and saute onions over medium heat. Add 1 cup chicken stock and deglaze pan.

**Edited to add: Last night (hi Abby and Joe!) I made a 6 lb roast, at 235 degrees for 7 hours. Pretty good combination. If you’re going for longer periods of time – you can even roast overnight! – try setting the temperature to 225.

4. Place roast after 30 minute standing period in dutch oven. Cover and place in preheated oven. Cook for 6 hours or until internal temperature is 170 degrees.

5. Remove from oven carefully as dutch oven will be hot. Open cover away from face to release steam. Using tongs, pull out roast and place on plate. Skim off fat from roasting liquid. Leave 2/3 cup to 1 cup worth of roasting liquid in dutch oven, but reserve the rest. Add two cups of barbecue sauce and stir – it will thin out a bit.

6. When roast is cool enough to handle, shred it with two forks and discard bones. Place shredded pork back into thinned barbecue sauce. Stir. If mixture is too soupy, add more BBQ sauce. If it is too thick, add some of reserved roasting liquid. Serve on hamburger buns with prepared coleslaw and enjoy!