…and without a KitchenAid mixer, electric beater, or even a mechanical eggbeater. Yep, it is possible to whip up egg whites by hand, just be prepared to put in a little elbow grease.

After making lemon-lime curd with 5 egg yolks, I couldn’t let those egg whites go to waste, and meringues sounded lovely. So I pulled out the whisk, and started to work. Let me tell you, it is quite a bit of work to beat egg whites by hand, but I think it was worth it. The meringues turned out light and airy and a mere five egg whites turned into two full cookie sheets of meringues. My oven temperature needs a little perfecting, as they browned just a little more than I would have liked (se picture below), but they got eaten up quickly anyway. My husband was a big fan, especially since gluten-free cookies like meringues are the only cookies can eat.

As usual, I pulled together a recipe from various sources around food blogs. Instead of the usual vanilla, I opted for a little almond extract, which turned out to be a good choice. And you know, there’s all sorts of fancy techniques out there, like straining the egg whites, aging the egg whites in a bowl in the fridge, rubbing the bowl with a lemon, squirting the meringues out of a pastry bag, and I skipped all of them, and these turned out just fine. (And to tell you the truth, I even just eyeballed the sugar, so I’m estimating the measurement here. I really recommend just using your judgment, especially when it’s not crucial to the chemistry of the recipe, as there’s no better way to hone your skills in the kitchen, or at least to end up with food YOU want to eat.)

Meringues

• 6 Egg Whites
• 1/2 C. Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Almond or Vanilla extract

Start by whipping the egg whites. If you do this by hand, be prepared to whisk for about 20-30 minutes. I’m not sure how long it will take in a mixer, but whip until they are stiff. I found that if I stopped whisking, the egg whites began to separate out again, so I really had to keep going. Add the sugar and flavoring and keep beating or whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Spoon (or pipe) onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat (or parchment paper), and bake in a low oven (220 degrees) for an hour and a half or more, until the meringues have dried out.

For more traditional, pure white meringues, this recipe looks good. Let me know if you try it!

The basic ingredients, eggs, butter, sugar, lemon, will spoil without the preservatives added to supermarket-bound varieties.

When choosing a recipe, I came across several that asked for whole eggs, and several just egg yolks. All used plenty of butter and sugar, and both juice and zest of lemons. As I had lemons, limes, AND and orange on my counter, I went with the zest from all three, and juice from the first two only. The orange juice didn’t seem tart enough. Also, as lemon curd is a British phenomenon, most of the recipes out there are in metric measurements. Mostly out of the sheer laziness of not wanting to convert from metric, I went with Alton Brown’s recipe, with some variations from various other sources.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it!

Lemon-Lime (and Orange) Curd

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/3 C. sour citrus juice, plus zest
• 1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Mix egg yolks, sugar, and citrus juice and zest in a blender. When combined, pour mixture into a small pan and heat over low heat, whisking constantly, until it turns light yellow and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and whisk in the pats of butter one at a time. Throw it in a clean jar and cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap directly touching the curd.

Voila! Delicious stuff that I don’t know what to do with!

I’ve been dreaming of country-living, growing vegetables, and putting up food for the winter, so when I read Molly of Orangette’s description of all the pickles she and her husband made to serve at their wedding, I couldn’t resist.

There are lots of different types of pickles, from fresh pickles that stay in the fridge, the vinegared type that will stay good in your pantry for years. (Just this Christmas, we got to enjoy a last jar of my Grandmother’s famous sweet pickles. My Grandmother passed away several years ago, and it was lovely remember her with a taste of something she made herself. That’s not too morbid, is it?)

Anyways, I got in the mood to make some pickles, put up food for the winter, prepare for the cold season, and all of that. Then I realized it’s already the middle of winter, and I live in California, where we can get fresh vegetables all year, right down the street at the best Farmer’s Market in the area… but I still love the IDEA of putting up food to last the winter, or at least to last while things are out of season, which does happen even here in California. And besides, that sweet/sour pickley taste sounded awfully good!

Deb at Smitten Kitchen had recently posted a recipe for pickled carrot sticks. And then, the day I was pickle-obsessed, Elise at Simply Recipes posted a recipe for pickled red onions, so the fates were conspiring towards pickles, and I listened.

They’re both quite lovely. Not to be eaten in large quantities, but to add a little zing to the side of a meal, or quick bit right out of the fridge, these are both fantastic. We’ve enjoyed both in numerous salads, and the pickled onion made a tasty addition to a bowl of hummus.

Here they are…

Deb’s pickled carrot sticks call for dill seed, but also list dill weed as a subsititute, so not having the seed on hand, I used a healthy dose of the dill we dried from our CSA in the fall.

Pickled Carrot Sticks
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Some carrots, a pound would be good, cut into sticks
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup cider or plain vinegar (the former makes a sweeter, milder brine)
1/4 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
1 1/2 tablespoons dried dill weed
1 1/2 tablespoons salt

Place carrots in a heatproof bowl. Bring remaining ingredients to a boil in saucepan, then reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Pour pickling liquid over carrots and cool, uncovered. Chill carrots, covered, at least 1 day for flavors to develop.

Carrots keep, chilled in an airtight container, 1 month.

The brine makes such a lovely vinegary aroma in the house, although it can make you cough if you breath in too deeply.

On to the onions…
Some other recipes I found called for blanching and rinsing the red onions several times. This one doesn’t, and while I’m sure that technique is worth the effort, I was interested in trying a quicker recipe, and it turned out quite well I think, without all that extra boiling and cooling and such.

Also, Elise’s pickled red onions call for cloves, and bay leaves, which I didn’t have on hand, so I went with a star anise, and some ground cinnamon, which I thought worked just fine. She also lists a variety of other spices which will work well, such as “fresh ginger slices, allspice berries, oregano, garlic, cumin seeds, mustard seeds,” so feel free to experiment.

Pickled Red Onions
adapted from Simply Recipes

2 medium or 1 large red onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 C. white vinegar
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 T. ground cinnamon
1 star anise
a few peppercorns

Blanch red onions in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in colander.
While the water is heating in step 1, in a separate saucepan combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add blanched, drained onions to the vinegar mixture. Simmer for 1 minute.
Transfer to a glass jar. Allow to stand until cooled. Will keep several weeks refrigerated.

This picture, by the way, is both jars after we’ve been eating from them for a couple weeks.
(You can also see that we like to reuse our jars, AND that I haven’t put that Christmas pine cone away yet.)

I never really get an urge to make banana bread, or a craving for the taste of it; it’s always some overripe bananas that need to get used that remind me to make things banana-related. This Friday there were quite a few bananas left over from my office’s biweekly fruit delivery, and I hate to let good food go to waste, especially if it was shipped across continents to get to me, so I grabbed a few to bring home for baking.

I was looking around for something a little different than the standard banana bread with walnuts, and I came across this recipe at Molly Wizenberg’s Orangette. Chocolate Chips and Crystalized Ginger were just the thing!

Unfortunately, my oven may run a little cool, or I should have just poked it to check for doneness like the recipe told me to do, but either way the center came out a bit doughy, which isn’t really what you want in a quick bread. In my youth I licked as much blueberry muffin mix off a wooden spoon as the next kid, but it’s somehow WAY less appealing in the middle of your slice of banana bread than it was scraped out of the bowl as a kid. (If you look closely at the photo, you may see the mushy spot near the center.) So, sadly, I threw away the middle slices of this loaf, after spending the evening picking at the crusty edges. The ends provided a couple delicious pieces each.

I used the crystalized ginger from Trader Joe’s, and since I don’t keep milk at my house, some almond milk in place of the milk. I also used Toll House mini chocolate chips, which were very nice. I also pretty much always use salted butter, I just don’t taste the difference in baking, but I hate it when I accidentaly buter my bread with unsalted butter, yuck.

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Crystalized Ginger

1 C. sugar
1 large egg
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ripe medium-size bananas
3 T. milk (or soy milk, or almond milk)
2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
1 C. chocolate chips
1/4 -1/2 C. small chunks of candied ginger, to taste
½ C. chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with butter or cooking spray, and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar, egg, and butter.
In a separate bowl, mash bananas; then mix with milk.
In another separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three parts, alternating with banana-milk mixture in two parts, stirring by hand until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, ginger, and optional nuts.

Turn batter into loaf pan, smoothing top with the back of a spoon, and bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes; then remove bread from pan and cool on a wire rack

As usual, I modified the recipe in a few ways, you can find the original here (alas, Kingsolver and her family didn’t seem to get a picture either in the dim winter light). I halved the recipe since it was just for my husband and myself, and I didn’t fancy poached eggs going into the refrigerator for leftovers. I also used what I had on hand, such as dinosaur kale, and, I hate to admit, a little ketchup in lieu of dried tomatoes. The result, however, was outstanding; healthy, flavorful, low-fat, and very filling. I highly recommend trying your OWN version of this recipe.

Eggs in a Nest

2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves of garlic, smashed with the flat of a large knife
2 carrotts, sliced into rounds
1 bunch kale or other dark cooking green, washed and chopped
1/4 C. or so of water
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs

Saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil in a large skillet or pot until translucent. Add carrots, and continue to saute for a few more minutes. Add kale, and enough water to have a little bit of liquid pooling on the bottom of the pan. Cover. When the greens are soft, make 4 depressions in the vegetable mixture for the eggs. If there is not enough liquid to poach the eggs, add a little more water. Drop eggs in each depression, being careful not to crack the yolks. Cover until eggs are done to your liking, 3-5 minutes.

I made chicken noodle soup with homemade stock last weekend, and man, it was delicious, but I never got a good photo.

OK, OK, I did get one photo, it’s the soup in a jar, photographed in evening fluorescent kitchen light:

…but that’s not very appetizing, is it? Please, just use your imagination to picture a lovely steaming bowl of soup, perhaps a sprig of parsley, mmmm…

So anyways, we started by roasting a whole chicken on Friday night, boiled the carcass down into stock on Saturday night (see my post on Chicken Stock), and then made soup from some of the stock on Sunday.

This is one of my favorite ways to make chicken noodle soup, but of course, all manner of veggies and herbs could be substituted, based on whatever you have on hand. Oh, and I used gluten-free pasta for the noodles, but any noodle will work fine.

Chicken Noodle Soup

• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 medium onion, large dice
• 2 carrots, sliced into rounds
• 2 ribs celery, large dice
• 1-2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
• 1 can yellow corn
• Herbs, I like thyme and rosemary, fresh or dried
• 3-4 oz. dry spaghetti, broken into thirds
• Salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients except spaghetti to pot and simmer for about half an hour. After half an hour, add spaghetti and cook until noodles are soft.

A few notes: My homemade stock is exceptionally thick and rich (think jello), so I use about 2 cups of it, with about 4 cups of water. I roasted this particular chicken with chunks of garlic under the skin and sprigs of rosemary tucked inside, which infused the stock with both of those flavors, so I didn’t need to add either to the soup.

I was invited to my first Cookie Party this year. What fun! Everyone brings 5 dozen of one kind of cookie, and leaves with a giant tupperware container filled with a cornucopia of cookie variety. The only danger for me is my drive to try a bit of everything.

I wanted to make something that I could count on no one else bringing, so I paged through my grandma’s old recipe book. As soon as turned to the potato chip cookies, I knew this would be the one. There’s something special about the combination of salty and sweet. My mom used to put salty peanuts on our ice cream sundaes to the same effect. Chocolate-covered pretzels have the same yummy combination.

Potato chip cookies remind me of the 50s, when jello was a reasonable ingredient for a salad, and cool whip could constitute most of a pie. These cookies translate well to the modern day however. The cookie is crumbly, a bit like shortbread, with the salty potato chip bits and the toasted pecans to add a bit of crunch. Definitely one of my favorite cookies.

Potato Chip Cookies

1 1/2 C. butter
1 C. sugar
2 egg yolks
2 C. crushed potato chips
3 C. flour
1 C. chopped toasted pecans
1 t. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar well. Mix in each of the rest of the ingredients in order. Drop by teaspoons on greased cookie sheets. Press each cookie once with a fork dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

When I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, I just knew I had to make it for Thanksgiving. The first time I had brown butter sauce at a fancy restaurant, I was hooked. The flavor of good brown butter sauce is, in my opinion, one of the best flavors there is.

I wanted to make the recipe gluten-free, as well as remedy the problems that Deb reported with the recipe, mostly that there was more sauce than there should have been. To achieve those two things I decided to replace the flour with cornstarch, and to reduce the amount of broth, as well as watch the broth as I added it to make sure it thickened the way I wanted it to. I also just got lazy about the chestnuts, and didn’t use the fresh ones I’d bought, but tried out a can of French chestnuts in water, to see how they worked out. Also, Whole Foods was out of shallots the night before Thanksgiving, so I tried Cipollini onions.

The result was quite good. I overdid the cornstarch a little, resulting in a the brown butter flavor getting a bit obscured, and the canned chestnuts were OK, but I’d go to the effort of prepping the fresh ones next time. The Cipollini onions were perfect, and the brown butter flavor was oh so delicious.

See the last couple of posts for a picture of the Thanksgiving meal on the plate.

Here’s the recipe, as I made it.

2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
4 T. butter
2 very thinly sliced cipollini onions
1 T. cornstarch, mixed with a few T. warm stock
1-1 1/2 C. hot chicken or vegetable stock
2 T. lemon juice
Ground black pepper
1/4 t. nutmeg
1 C. roasted, peeled chestnuts, broken into pieces.

Bring 4 cups salted water to a boil, add brussels sprouts and cook 10 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water. Drain again.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a 3-quart saucepan. Add cipollini onions and cook over medium heat, stirring, until light brown. Pour contents of pan through a fine strainer into a dish, pressing to remove as much butter as possible from the onions. Place onions on paper towel to drain. Return butter to saucepan.

If serving immediately, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place saucepan over medium heat and cook until butter has a nutty aroma and is turning brown. Whisk in cornstarch and water mixture and cook until mixture is light brown. Whisk in stock and cook until sauce has thickened. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, and nutmeg. Add chestnuts and brussels sprouts, folding ingredients together.

Transfer to an 8-cup baking dish. Scatter onions on top. Bake about 15 minutes. Serve.

If you hadn’t guessed by now, I’m a big fan of salty pork products, like bacon, ham, and especially prosciutto. We were at a fancy holiday party last weekend where they served this dish, and I thought it was a great idea. Incredibly simple and delicious. I tried it at home, and it lived up to my expectations.

There’s really no recipe, just take a look at the picture.

I drizzled my asparagus with just a little olive oil before wrapping to help the prosciutto stick, baked for about 10 minutes in a 425 oven, and squeezed half a lemon over the whole thing after baking.

Doesn’t that make your mouth water?

You can see the Sweet Rice Flour from Trader Joe’s, as well as the Mushroom Broth, that made this recipe a snap to make.

Sweet Rice Flour actually works much like regular flour, added slowly to melted butter, it makes something resembling a roux, which then makes a nice thick delicious sauce as liquid is added. I’m not a purist about the roux step, so I go ahead and sprinkle the flour right on the sauteing mushrooms. It works fine.

You could use a wide variety of mushrooms for this gravy, it all depends how much mushroom flavor you want. White button mushrooms are going to give you a fairly simple gravy without too much mushroom flavor, while the more flavorful varieties (oysters, chanterelles, shitakes, porcinis) will of course make a much more mushroomy, and even meaty tasting gravy. I used a pack of Royal Trumpets, and a pack of a type that I think was called Velvet Pelliopini, but I’m not sure. The closest I can find on line is called Flammulina velutipes, and seems to look similar, but what do I know. They tasted mighty good.

Mushroom Gravy (gluten-free)

4 T Butter
1 1/2 C Diced Mushrooms
1 t Italian Herb Mix
3-4 T Sweet Rice Flour
1 1/2 C Mushroom Broth

Saute the mushrooms in the butter with the herbs. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the mushrooms are nice and soft, sprinkle in the sweet rice flour, one Tablespoon at a time. Allow the flour to fully soak in to the butter before adding more flour. When you have a thick flour butter mixture surrounding the mushrooms, add the broth, a little at a time, allowing it to cook and begin to thicken before adding the next half cup.

That’s it! Easy-peasy.