Roasted Eggplant with Goat Cheese

People have been passing germs around the office for the last month and despite taking vitamins and drinking more orange juice then I can ever remember, I finally succumbed to the cold this past weekend and have been miserable ever since. The worst part is that all I want to do is sleep, but as soon as I lie down, I start to cough. So instead of resting I've been jamming, working on forgotten sewing projects, cleaning and drinking tea by the gallon. I guess I'm not capable of curing up on the couch in front of the TV for very long.



Also, because if this cold I have also had almost no appetite and absolutely no desire to go grocery shopping, so dinners have consisted of odds and ends around my pantry and fridge. That's not nearly as sad as it sounds though because according to my sister, a person can live for a month on what's in my kitchen when I say I have no food.



I'd pinned this recipe from The Kitchn a while back and finding one lonely eggplant in my fridge and a tiny wedge of leftover goat cheese, I mixed what I had and waited while the oven did it's job. Since I'd halved the recipe, but kept all the spices and garlic at their original amounts, the flavors were stronger, but I loved it. It was warm and comforting and made for a quick and simple meal served over steamed rice. Just goes to show that you don't absolutely have to follow a recipe to the letter to end up with a delicious dinner (and I'm hoping the extra garlic helps me kick this stupid cold...I'm not good at being sick!). And tomorrow, I think I'll make soup out of the giant butternut squash my coworker gave me from her garden. Who knows? It might be another week before I have to go grocery shopping again.



Roasted Eggplant with Goat Cheese for Two
Adapted heavily from The Kitchn, partially because I don't like cilantro and mostly because I didn't have smoked almonds.

1 large eggplants
Kosher salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lemon, about 2 tablespoons
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 ounce goat cheese, crumbled and divided
Steamed rice (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 400°F. Cube the eggplant into 1-inch pieces and put in a large bowl. Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and set aside while making the marinade.
2. Whisk together the olive oil, cider vinegar, honey, smoked paprika, and cumin. Dab away any extra water that has beaded up on the eggplant and toss with the marinade. Stir in the garlic. Spread the eggplant on a large baking sheet, lined with parchment and slide onto a rack placed in the center of the oven. Roast at 400°F for 40 minutes, or until very tender and slightly browned. Stir it halfway through to make sure it browns evenly. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.
3. Whisk together the lemon juice, soy sauce and most of the goat cheese (reserve a little to garnish). Return the eggplant to the bowl and toss with the lemon juice mixture.
4. Serve on it's own or over steamed rice. Go back for seconds.

Irish Cream Brownies

The alternate title to this post should be "Cleaning out the liquor cabinet" because these brownies really and truly live up to their name. These are not "Hint of Irish Cream" or "Touch of Irish Cream" or "There was a bottle of Irish Cream in the kitchen when I was making these and therefore might possibly have absorbed some by osmosis". These are most definitely "Hey, I'z gots Irish Cream and might get you drunk. Let's hang out!" brownies.



A year or two ago I hosted an all-out Halloween party at which one of the things I did was re-label all the bottles in my liquor cabinet with creepy cool labels and it has stayed that way ever since. Mostly because I get a kick out of pulling out a bottle labeled "Contaminated Blood" when I make margaritas, or "Vampire's Kiss" when I make martinis. It has been a while since the party though and slowly my cabinet has regained it's upstanding (boring) constitution, however in the very back there was a giant handle of Irish Cream still labeled "Ye Olde Spider Venom" and I'd decided that it was time for it to go.



I have a favorite brownie recipe that I've been making off and on ever since I'd discovered it, and in addition to churning out incredibly dense, moist, flavorful brownies, it easily absorbs a large quantity of liquid of your choosing, making it perfectly adaptable. Originally I had made it with a concentrated glug of Guinness, and really the only difference this time around was that I replaced the 1.25 cups of beer with 1.25 cups of Irish Cream. That's right, I said 1.25 cups of Irish Cream for a single batch! And they came out amazing! So click on the link above (or here) if you have some extra booze lying around and you want to give these a try. They travel great and are perfect for sharing.Oh yeah, and if you eat the whole batch they might get you drunk :D

Plum Jam Bars

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind in the kitchen. I've been re-organizing everything and putting away the things I don't use very often, but as soon as I got one box into storage I got an order that sent me right back into the basement to pull everything back out again. I've had a wedding cake, a grooms cake, three birthday cakes (one almost as big as the birthday kid herself), and 201 jars of blackberry wine jam! I'll definitely tell you all about all of this as soon as I catch my breath and sort through the hastily taken pictures, but today I want to share with you a super simple, everyday recipe in case your life is just as hectic as mine and you're craving a bit of sweetness.



Plum Jam Bars
Adapted very slightly from Munchkin Munchies

2 cups flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
3 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups butter, melted
1 1/2 cups plum jam (or any jam you like)
1 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Line with parchment and lightly grease a 9-inch square pan.

2. Combine all ingredients except jam and almond extract. Pat half of the mixture into prepared pan. Mix jam and almond extract. Spread over oat mixture. Pat other half of oat mixture on top.

3. Bake 40-45 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely and cut into bars. Don't forget to share!

Pink Lemon Cupcakes

Today's post comes to you compliments of the fact that I can't actually raise my arms higher than the keyboard. Last week has been a whirlwind of activity including work, showing an out-of-town guest around the city, more work, running after my amazing sister as she did the Chicago Triathlon (to take pictures, of course, no way am I doing THAT anytime soon), and helping move a friend's parents halfway across town. It is not an understatement when I say that everything hurts. For example, did you know that the muscles in your fingers could be sore? I surely didn't. Somewhere in that insanity I had also found time to make two dozen lemon cupcakes for a bridal shower for a friend at work.



I hadn't actually had time to go grocery shopping in weeks, so the fact that these cupcakes came out with all my substitutions and tweaks is actually a bit of a miracle, but they came out great, tender and just the right combination of tart and sweet, and were devoured by my coworkers in just a few minutes.



Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction
Cupcakes:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
lemon zest from two lemons
1/4 cup lemon juice, from the two lemons you zested
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
8 Tbsps (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (or lemon oil if you have it)

Frosting:
2 - 8oz packages cream cheese, at room temp
8 Tbsps (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 lb confectioners’ sugar (or to taste)
2 tsps vanilla extract
juice of one lemon

Cupcakes:
1. Center a rack in the oven to 350F. Prepare two cupcake tins by using liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Whisk together the milk, lemon juice and egg whites in a separate bowl.
4. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer or another large bowl and thoroughly mash it up with a whisk until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Use the same whisk from steps 2 and 3. No need to dirty more stuff. Add the butter and, working with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. It will clump up at first, but will soften and gain volume the more you beat it.
5. Add in the extracts and one third of the flour mixture and beat on medium speed just until combined. Beat in half of the wet mixture, then another third of the dry, the rest of the wet, and finally the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. I like to stop the machine for each addition and stir the mixture in by hand for a few seconds first to avoid wearing half of it when I turn the machine back on.
6. Finally, give the batter a 30 second beating to ensure that there are no lumps left and scoop/pipe the batter into the cupcake tins, filling each well 2/3 full.
7. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Frosting:
1. Using a mixer, blend the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated.
3. Mix in vanilla, lemon juice and any food coloring, if using, and beat until smooth.
4. Taste the frosting and add more confectioners' sugar if you like your frosting thicker or sweeter.
5. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes, and enjoy!

Note: They keep well in the fridge in a tightly sealed container and taste even better on the second day.

Browned Butter Blueberry Tarts

A few months ago I finally got around to reading a book that's been on my bookshelf for, well for a ridiculously long amount of time considering it was a non-fiction book about baking. I had picked it up for $1 at a used book store and it had a giant sticker over the author's name, so I didn't pay too much attention to it. The book was Confections of a Closet Master Baker (and I guess it has now been re-published under a new title for some reason: My Life from Scratch, but from I can tell only the cover image and title changed). Anyways, the author's name is Gesine Bullock-Prado, which still didn't ring any bells until a good long way into the book at which time a lightbulb went on over my head: that's Sandra Bullock's sister! Huh. That's kind of cool. What was even more awesome about the book was the easygoing writing style, the not-sugar-coated stories (despite the high volume of actual sugar involved), and surprisingly the wonderful recipes included in the book. I have quite a few of them bookmarked for future experimentation, but as is my nature I had piled that book back onto the great big pile of things I still need to do and promptly forgot about it again for way too long.



A little while ago I had decided to clean out my freezer and among all the other odds and ends I had found some leftover tart dough from a quiche I had made for Mother's day. Apparently it keeps extremely well if wrapped up tightly and stored in the back of the freezer. I had a pint of blueberries sitting in the fridge (there were two but I hoovered up the first one like popcorn) and all I needed was a recipe to put the two together. I did a quick search and found Dessert First Girl's blog, with a....book review for Gesine Bullock-Prado's cookbook: Pie It Forward! Her post was about the blueberry brown butter tarts from the book and they looked and sounded like just what I was looking for, so I used my crust scraps, whipped up her tart filling and made mini tartlets that I grabbed straight from the oven, tossed into a box and brought with me to an impromptu family brunch. I believe one comment was "This is the best thing I've ever put into my mouth!" I'll chalk that up as a success and Gesine's book is now back at the top of my todo pile.



Browned Butter Blueberry Tarts
Recipe adapted from Gesine Bullock-Prado via Dessert First Girl  
For the crust I used the leftovers from here, but you are also welcome to make the crust from Dessert Girl's post.

Filling:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (30 g) flour
1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter
1 pint (340 g) blueberries

Crust:
- If you're using up dough leftovers like I was, let the dough defrost in the fridge overnight. Flour the counter and roll out the dough to about 1/4" thickness. Cut out circles of dough to fit into mini tart pans, press it in and dock the bottom with a fork. Let the prepared pans rest in the fridge or freezer for 15-20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350F. (Otherwise just use your own crust and pre-bake it like I did).
- Fill your tart pans with parchment paper (I like to crumple it up so that it fits into the pans better) and pie weights/beans/rice and pre-bake for 15 minutes or just until the bottoms no longer look wet. In the mean time, make your filling.

Filling:
- Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk together.
- Sift flour over the mixture and carefully fold in.
- Place butter in a medium saucepan and melt over medium-high heat until melted. Continue cooking until butter has lightly browned and begins to smell nutty. Keep a careful eye on it because once it starts browning it can burn really quickly and become unusable. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
- Pour browned butter into egg mixture and whisk to combine.
- Divide blueberries among the tart tins. Pour the butter mixture over the berries until they are just covered.
- Bake tarts for 20-25 to minutes, until the top crust is browned and filling is bubbly.
- Let it cool completely before removing from the tart tins or you'll end up burning your hands. Ask me how I know that.