Comfort Food

I hate this kind of question, but have you ever been asked what you would eat if you could only have one thing for the rest of your life? For me, there's no hesitation at all. I would totally choose spaghetti and meatballs. Wait, let me add to that - my mom's spaghetti and meatballs. No contest.

I'm a meatball snob. I don't like not knowing how they were prepared, so I rarely eat meatballs outside of my own home. Except, y'know, spaghettios with meatballs. Somehow, those are okay. But they're kind more like cat food than anything else, so they don't really go in the meatball category. Anyway...

I will reveal the family recipe here. It's powerful, so use it wisely. Like, to woo a date. Maybe with some focaccia too. No, wait, save the focaccia. Make straight up italian bread. The following recipe (yes, two recipes!) makes the most beautiful loaf of bread I have ever seen. Not kidding, it looked plastic it was so perfect. I don't care that it's August, make these now. And then report back to me and tell me how it went over.

Amazing Meatballs

(I'm going to assume you have a pot of sauce that's been cooking for a while. If you just want to eat sauce-less meatballs, that's okay too. Oh, also, this recipe makes like, 30 meatballs. So if you don't want that many, feel free to fiddle with the measurements.)

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 lbs ground beef

8 oz. box panko (or bread crumbs. Panko has less salt.)

2 or 3 cloves crushed garlic

2 tsp black pepper

1 cup milk

1/4 fresh, chopped parsley or 2 Tbsp dried

1/4 - 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment or a silpat, set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs well. Add the ground beef, panko, garlic, pepper, parsley, salt, and cheese and mush together with your hands (yep. Best way to do it.). Add milk until desired consistency is reached, you need to be able to roll a golf ball sized piece without it falling apart. Roll into balls (mine were somewhere in between a golf ball and a tennis ball). It doesn't matter how close together they are. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through. Okay. If you are adding these directly to a premade sauce and eating immediately, you need to cook these longer, until the internal temp reaches 160 F, probably around 45 minutes. If you are letting these cook with your sauce for at least an hour, you should be fine taking them out at 20 minutes. I prefer this way, it makes the sauce more flavorful and your meat very tender.

Serve with spaghetti and fresh parmesan cheese.

Italian Bread

from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

2 cups lukewarm water (~100°F)
1 package active dry yeast
5 to 5¾ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2½ teaspoons salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Stir the yeast into ½ cup of the warm water. Let proof as you measure out the dry ingredients.

Combine 5 cups flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the yeast mixture, remaining water and olive oil. Using a dough hook attachment, mix on lowest speed of electric mixer (stir setting on a KitchenAid) until a dough starts to form, adding more flour as needed. Knead on low speed (2 on a KitchenAid) for 7 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and need by hand for 1 to 2 minutes, or until a smooth, firm, elastic dough is formed.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and spray the dough with a thin coating of cooking spray. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to proof in a warm, draft-free place for 1½ hours or until doubled in size.

Remove the plastic wrap, punch down and flatten the rounded dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the dough up tightly, sealing the seam well after each roll. The dough should be elongated and oval-shaped, with tapered and rounded (not pointed) ends.

Preheat the oven lined with a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles to 425°F.

Place the dough on a baker’s peel heavily dusted with flour, or alternately on an inverted baking sheet. Allow the dough to proof, loosely covered with a floured canvas cloth, for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Brush the dough with the egg white and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top. Using a razor blade or sharp knife, slash the dough lengthwise about 1/4-inch deep, keeping the blade at a 45 degree angle.

Spray the dough generously with water from a water bottle and place in the oven on the baking stone. Immediately close the oven and bake for 3 minutes. Open the oven door and spray the dough again with the water bottle. Close the oven door and bake for an additional 3 minutes before spraying the dough for a third time (the spraying of the dough will ensure a crisp golden brown crust).

Bake the dough for a total of 45 minutes, or until a hollow thud is heard when tapping the bottom of the bread. Allow the bread to cool before slicing.

First Date Focaccia

People are always talking about things you shouldn't eat on a first date. Corn on the cob, ribs, garlicky things. I dunno, I've never been on a first dinner date (my relationships have been a bit more offbeat, haha) but it seems like avoiding problem foods would be a lot of work. 

 

Wouldn't it show you're comfortable with that person? Mmm, maybe it's better to make a good first impression (I feel like that's a skill I lack...). Is it okay if you both eat the food in question?  Gah. I propose you cook at home, make some garlicky focaccia and messy spaghetti. That would impress me. And hey, if you get a good night kiss, neither of you will notice the other's breath, right?

Poke poke poke...

This bread and easy and rustic and you can do whatever you want to it. Olives, rosemary, sun dried tomatoes, anything would work. I went with sage and garlic. It tasted great to me, though I'm in this horrible allergy haze right now and my senses are greatly diminished. Hopefully I'll be able to taste it in its full glory tomorrow. 

Sage and Garlic Focaccia

adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4  cups  boiling water
• 4  tablespoons  chopped sage, divided
• 1  tablespoon  honey
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1  package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1 1/4  cups semolina flour ( you can use all normal flour if you don't have this)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4  cup  olive oil, divided
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• Cooking spray
• 1  teaspoon  water
• 1  large egg yolk
• 1  teaspoon  sea salt or kosher salt
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped

Directions:

1. In a two glass measuring cup, combine boiling water, 2 teaspoons sage, honey, and minced garlic; cool to 100° to 110°. Pour mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle yeast over the mixture; let stand 5 minutes. Add flour, 2 tablespoons oil, and 1 teaspoon salt to the mixture. Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If dough is sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until smooth.
2. Transfer dough to a well oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Punch dough down. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and pat dough into a 14 x 12-inch rectangle on the prepared baking sheet. Cover and let rise 20 minutes or until doubled in size.
3. Preheat oven to 350º.
4. In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon olive oil, water, and egg yolk; set aside. Uncover dough. Make indentations in top of dough using handle of a wooden spoon or your fingertips. Brush egg mixture over dough. You don’t need to use all of the egg and oil mixture on top of the dough; spread enough to coat the top, and discard any extra. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with remaining sage, sea salt, and chopped garlic.
5. Bake at 350° for 22-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.

Rainbow Cookie Comfort

Readers, it's been one of those draining sort of days. Not like I've done anything physically exhausting, but my head is just tired. To get my mind off of things, I made rainbow cookies, a labor intensive but rewarding process. 

Mixer, I love you. 

For the majority of my life, these cookies were a treat that could be procured only when visiting relatives in New York. Sometimes, relatives would mail them or bring some when they visited, and those days were extra awesome. 

Okay, so once upon a time, my mom made a raffle basket for some school function. Oddly enough, she won her basket back. Thinking she would probably just give it to someone else as a gift, she put it aside for later. On a whim, she flipped through the cookie book from the basket, and lo and behold, stumbled across a recipe for "Italian Tricolors". Also know as Rainbow Cookies. So we kept the book. And lived happily ever after. 

The special ingredient in these cookies is almond paste, or I guess you could call it marzipan. It's kind of expensive, but it gives them their signature taste and moist, cake-y texture. It's worth it for a special occasion. They're supposed to look like the Italian flag but they're kinda just Christmasy. So the timing is perfect for you to make some. 

Hm...so many cookies...know anyone who may want some? 

Rainbow Cookies

Ingredients

• 7 ounces almond paste
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
•  3/4 cup butter, slightly softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, Sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 15 drops green food coloring
• 15 drops red food coloring
• 2/3 cup raspberry preserves (pressed through a sieve to get rid of the seeds. You can also use apricot, that's easier. You just want the end result to be smooth.)
• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

Directions

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
2. 
   
   Grease 3 8"x8" metal baking pans. After greasing, line the bottoms of the pans with wax paper, smoothing the paper down onto the pan. Grease the tops of the wax paper and then flour the pans. Put aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, Beat together on medium-high speed the Almond Paste, Sugar, Almond Extract and butter until well blended. (there might be some small lumps of Almond Paste remaining and that's fine.).
4. Reduce speed to medium and beat in the eggs one at a time until blended. Reduce speed to low and then add the flour and salt slowly to the mixture until combined.
5. Take two small bowls and add 1 rounded cup of batter into each bowl. (there should be another rounded cup of batter still in the original mixing bowl.). Add 15 drops of red food color to one bowl and 15 drops of green food color to the other. Stir each bowl until evenly blended with color.
6. Spoon the untinted batter into one pan. With the back of a spoon, spread batter evenly (layer will be about 1/4 inch thick). Repear with red batter in second pan and green batter in remaining pan.
7. Bake until set and toothpick inserted in center of layers comes out clean. 10-12 minutes. Cool in pans on wire rack about 1/2 hour. Cake should be cool to the touch.
   1. 
      
      Lay a piece of wax paper on a flat surface that will be able to fit in refrigerator. Or garage if it's cold like it is here. Take the green layer and flip over pan onto wax paper. Gently pull off the wax paper. Spread 1/3 cup of raspberry preserves onto the green layer.
   2. 
      
      Take the untinted layer and remove from pan. Place it onto the green layer with the wax paper side up. Press down gently and then remove the wax paper.Spread remaining 1/3 cup of Apricot preserves onto the untinted layer. Take the remaining red layer and remove from pan and place upon the white layer again with the wax paper side up. Press down gently and remove the wax paper.
   3. In a 1 quart saucepan (or uh, the microwave), heat chocolate and shortening over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted.Spread melted chocolate mixture on top of the red layer evenly. Do not put mixture on sides.
   4. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, at least 1 hour. (at this point, if you want, you can cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days before serving).
   5. To serve, with a large sharp knife, trim about 1/4 inch from the edges. Cut the stacked layers into 6 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 6 pieces. You will get 36 square cookies from this. Keep in the fridge!