Yes you can (make homemade marshmallows)

It never fails.  Every time I bring homemade marshmallows to a party people have the same reaction, "You can MAKE marshmallows???"  Yes, you can.  They are actually quite easy and all you need are a few ingredients and a stand mixer. 
Marshmallows are probably my number 1 most requested recipe.  They taste totally different from those rubbery store bought marshmallows.  They are light, soft, pillowy, and sweet.  They melt beautifully, go great in hot chocolate, or are perfect on their own. 
I got the idea to make marshmallows after an episode of "Barefoot Contessa" of course.  She made toasted coconut marshmallows and I couldn't believe how easy she made it seem.  I found the recipe in her book and found all of the ingredients in my pantry.  20 minutes later, I had homemade marshmallows.  My husband (or I) couldn't believe the difference.  What appeared to be a mystery food and one that seemed impossible to duplicate was uncoded and everyone has the ability to make them for themselves. 

This recipe comes from Ina Garten's cookbook, "Barefoot Contessa Family Style" (copyright 2002) on page 211.  The recipe is simply titled "homemade marshmallows"

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
powdered sugar, for dusting

Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.
Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. 
Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degree on a candy thermometer (soft ball)
With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin.
Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 min.
Add the vanilla and mix
With a sieve, generously dust an 8x12 in. nonmetal baking dish with powdered sugar
Pour the marshmallows in the pan and smooth the top (wetting your knife or fingers will make it not stick)
Dust the top with powdered sugar
Let them stand uncovered overnight until they dry out
Cut marshmallows into squares and dust edges with powdered sugar

Pretty simple, don't ya think?  A few words to the wise that I've learned: 

• Water on your fingers or knife will make the marshmallows not stick- however, don't soak your fingers because you don't want your marshmallows wet.
• Powdered sugar makes the marshmallows not stick together, so don't be afraid to use it, but tap the excess off.
• Don't be afraid of the mess!  I was terrified at first seeing all of this white goop on my counter, but it's pure sugar- hot water will clean it up with ease.
• Substitute vanilla for peppermint extract or any other flavoring of extract- however just add 1/4 teaspoon of other extracts because the flavor will overpower the marshmallows.
• Use cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar for a chocolate flavor.
• Wrap the marshmallows tightly in tupperware or a plastic bag and store in the frig to make them last a long time (I've kept mine for a few weeks).
• Put on skewers to roast over an open fire (or hot grill) or use a kitchen blowtorch to toast the marshmallows and eat plain or as S'mores.  Trust me, nothing is better than that.

Sometimes store bought is ok

I've recently been burnt out on cooking.  That happens every once and awhile for me.  I cook day in and day out, but there comes a time when I don't want to step foot in the kitchen.  However, I wasn't going to resort to fast food.  I needed to look elsewhere for a decent and healthy meal.

Ina Garten was the owner of a speciality food store called "Barefoot Contessa" for over 20 years.  They specialized in ready made food that was tasty and easily carried out.  Since I live in St. Louis (a pretty decent size city), I thought why not try take out food from speciality grocery stores or even chain stores?  My first stop is a local grocery store on Kingshighway called Straub's.  I love Straub's for a variety of reasons- they're local, they offer fresh produce, meats, and cheeses, their bakery is awesome, and they carry local products from pizza to cheese to cookies to cake.  They have a "famous chicken salad" and one bite in, you'll realize why it's famous.  It's incredibly simple:  shredded white meat chicken, celery, and a mayo based sauce.  I'm not sure what else is in the sauce because no flavor particularly stands out, but it doesn't have a gloppy mayo taste.  It's so well seasoned that it's just perfect. 

Then, I wanted to sample their cake.  Granted whole cakes and slices are on the expensive side ($4 for a slice and between $10-20 for a small whole cake), they are worth it if you're in the mood for cake, but not in the mood to bake it yourself.  I could pronounce the ingredients and nothing alarmed me (flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, etc) and the cake was moist with lots of flavor.  My favorite is their strawberry shortcake.  I bought one slice one day and went back the next day to buy them out of it.  It is that good.

My other stops included Whole Foods (the chain) and Dierbergs (a grocery store in St. Louis).  While the take out food was good at both of these, they didn't quite compare to Staub's.  I really like the salad bar at Whole Foods because the possibilities are endless.  They offer every kind of veggie you would want on a salad with plenty of main course dishes as well.  They also didn't offer iceberg lettuce- just really good and flavorful types of lettuces.  Dierbergs also has a great salad bar with fewer options.  However, they're cheaper, so that's a plus.  Whole Food's deli is much better than Dierbergs because they offer a range of vegetarian dishes and really healthy foods (lots of veggies) while Dierbergs mainly sticks with fried chicken and mayo based pasta salads.  Again though, Dierbergs is cheaper, but it depends what you value (price over taste and quality).

I think both have great dessert choices.  I'm a fan of Dierberg's cake and they offer probably at least 5-10 different kinds a cake a day.  Whole Food's desserts are also quite good with my favorite being the vegan chocolate chip cookie (remember that just because it's vegan doesn't mean lower fat/calories- it has the exact same amount of calories as a regular cookie).

Anyway, I'm still new at this take out food concept so I'm still exploring my choices.  Next I think I will sample the smaller local joints across various neighborhoods in the city.  That sounds like fun.

The new kitchen

So, the new kitchen isn't a whole lot bigger than the old one, but it's a lot better!  We recently moved from an apartment to a home and I was hoping to find a place with a huge modern kitchen.  Needless to say, that's not realistic for a home in the city with our budget, so I had to make some compromises.  It's still a gallery kitchen, but there's a ton more room.  I couldn't get the whole kitchen in this picture, so it is bigger than it appears.  I welcomed back a full size refrigerator, stove, and bigger sink.  I'm also thankful that I have a working dishwasher that doesn't leak.  I was able to take my fancy cooking equipment out of storage and actually include it in my cabinets and I have plenty of work space to roll out dough.  What's best is that more than 1 person can cook in this kitchen and not bump into each other! 

However, it needs major updating (as you can tell, the cabinets are back from the 80s) but it works and I'm very happy with it.  What's better is that we have a separate dining room and I can entertain large parties again!  In short, this kitchen is a thousand times better than the old and I'm loving it!

Ina inspired

This dish is a take on one of Ina's awesome recipes.  She has a recipe called "Summer Garden Pasta" in the Barefoot Contessa book "At Home" on page 121.  It's a non-cook tomato sauce with tons of basil and parmesan cheese over thin pasta.  She featured it on a recent episode of her show and I thought it looked fantastic and had to make it.  It's definitely a summer dish though because that's when the tomatoes and basil are at their peaks.  However, the day I wanted to make it, I wanted more flavor and more veggies included.  So, I changed the recipe by adding more ingredients and baked it so the tomatoes were roasted and caramelized.  In short, it was excellent.  I'm sure that hers is wonderful too, but I just changed it to make it my own. 

The trick with this dish is that the pasta should marinate in the sauce for at least 4-6 hours.  It totally changes the flavor of the pasta and infuses it with so much flavor that my husband was amazed that pasta could taste like this.  Prepare it early in the day and bake it off just before serving.  You won't be disappointed.
(serves 2-4)
1 small onion, diced
1-2 cups portabello mushrooms, sliced
4-6 large cloves of garlic, minced (I like things really garlicky, so I added 6, but you can less if you want)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (more if your pasta is dry)
2 pints cherry tomatoes, cut in half
16 large leaves of basil, julienned
crushed red pepper
salt/pepper to taste
1/2 pound angel hair pasta
parmesan cheese

Heat a medium skillet to medium high, add onion cook until softened and slightly browned
Add mushrooms and cook until just softened
Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds until the garlic is not raw
Turn heat off and stir in olive oil, tomatoes, basil, crushed red pepper (as much as you like), salt, and pepper to taste
Stir together and set aside
Cook pasta until al dente (do not overcook)
Add pasta to sauce and toss
Allow mixture to marinate for 4-6 hours (however, if you don't have time, either marinate it as long as you can or not at all)
Add mixture to over proof glass dish and sprinkle the top generously with parmesan cheese
Bake at 400 for about 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and the pasta is browned
Serve with extra parmesan cheese and enjoy!

What's better to follow up this pretty elegant meal than with a rice crispy treat?  For some reason, I'm making tons of variations of rice crispy treats using various cereals, mix ins, marshmallows, and candies.  This time I used Peanut Butter Captain Crunch cereal, chocolate marshmallows, Reese's Pieces, and M&Ms.  They were quite tasty and a good end to a great meal. 

Greek meets Italian

In an effort to combine 2 of my favorites, Greek salad and anti pasti, I made a Greek meets Italian dinner last night that was quite tasty.  I just took some of the classic ingredients found in both and combined them and made a simple lemon dressing that completed the meal.  However, I didn't measure anything (except for the dressing) so I don't have exact measurements to share.  This is a recipe though that one can't screw up and you just put as much or as little of each ingredient that you like.  For example, I love tomatoes, so I used a lot of them.  If you don't like them as much, use less.  Anyway, here's the recipe (or general idea):

red onion (about 1/2 of a large one), sliced into thin half rings
mushrooms (any variety), sliced
cucumber, chopped
tomatoes, chopped
turkey pepperoni
artichoke hearts (I cheated and used a can of them), coarsely chopped
fresh green beans, blanched
olives
capers
basil
mint
crushed red pepper
arugula
feta

For the lemon dressing:
juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
olive oil (1/4 cup)
generous splash of red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

You can do this salad 2 ways:  warm or cold.  I prepared it warm last night and I heated up a skillet to medium high heat and added the onion
Cook onion until just softened
Add mushrooms and cook until just softened
Add the next 9 ingredients (from the cucumber through the mint)
Cook on low heat just until everything is heated through
Add dressing and toss together (it shouldn't be hot and the veggies shouldn't be cooked through- it should just be warm)

Put generous amount of arugula on each plate and top with mixture
Top with crushed red pepper and feta (be generous)

For the cold version:  Just combine all ingredients in a bowl, toss with dressing, serve, and enjoy!

This is an excellent meal for a vegetarian (minus the pepperoni) and is quite filling. 

The best part- the cake

Part 2 of dad's bbq meal:  the cake.  For the last couple of years, I've been in charge of the cake.  I've always made a big "tada!" cake because there's a lot of people to feed and I like the challenge of making something extravagant.  Last year I made a tiered chocolate/raspberry cake with layers of homemade raspberry sauce and ganche in between each layer, topped with raspberry ganache.  This year, I made a cake that I've wanting to make for years.  I found the recipe from BonAppetit magazine in May 2009.  I've looked at it many times, read it over and over, and tried to find an occasion to make it.  I figured that dad's birthday was perfect since the cake is huge and it would challenge me. 

The cake is called "Mile High Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream" and the they're not lying.  It was a 6 layer cake, filled with vanilla buttercream in between each layer, and topped with ganache.  The cake is impressive looking because you see each layer- the ganache just drips down the sides of the cake- it doesn't cover it.  Here are the pics:

Even though the cake might look impressive, it really wasn't hard to make.  The cake was an incredibly moist and very chocolaty cake.  I made 3 8-inch layer cakes, cooled them, and cut them in half.  However, the buttercream was a little trickier, but not much.  I made a sugar syrup that I boiled to the soft ball stage, whipped egg whites, vanilla, and sugar, and very slowly poured the sugar syrup into the meringue.  After that cooled, I added softened butter one tablespoon at a time and whipped until smooth.  Then, I applied the buttercream to the layers of cake and stacked (no buttercream on the top though).  Finally, I poured ganache (a mix of milk and bittersweet chocolate and cream) over the top, and I ended up with a very tall and delicious cake. 

Is it embarrassing to admit that practically the whole cake was gone by the time we were done?? (there were 12 people!).  The only thing that made it better was my parent's homemade cherry crisp ice cream that complimented it very well (or vice versa). 

So, pressure is on- what cake do I make next year??? (Yes, I'm already thinking about it)

Dad's annual bbq

My dad's birthday is July 3, so we always have a big bbq to celebrate.  The theme is always the same, but the food varies year to year.  This year, we prepare salmon, brats, and pork steak on the grill, corn on the cob, caprese salad, and I made a middle eastern vegetable pasta salad. 

This was the caprese salad that I assembled for the party.  Ina taught me that the most important thing in assembling this sort of salad is to make sure that everything is about the same size- the tomato, mozzarella, and basil leaf should all fit together so the person always has a bite with a little bit of everything.  Overall, it's always a hit.

This was the middle eastern vegetable pasta salad that I also prepared.  The recipe is from Ina's cookbook, "How Easy is That?" on page 101.  This was an incredibly healthy, satisfying, and tasty salad made with tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers, parsley, mint, basil, feta cheese, and chickpeas with a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette.  Ina doesn't put pasta in hers, but I added cous cous and the pasta just soaked in all of that flavor from the veggies and dressing. Very good and I'll be making it again. 

Who could have asked for a better day or setting- we swam all afternoon, cooked, ate, talked, enjoyed each other's company, and ended the night with sparklers.  Another successful birthday for dad.