I want to post a few great recipes I’ve used in the last few weeks. This weekend, I don’t have to go to work so I plan on trying out some more new recipes, especially from my new cookbook Everyday Greens by Anne Sommerville the chef of a famous vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco.
I made Thea’s fantastic caramel corn tonight. It was easy, a little messy, but very delicious. Everything (from the popping of the popcorn to the melting of the caramel) was done in my trusty Dutch oven (and a big metal mixing bowl and a cookie sheet).
For Ben’s birthday, I made him a delicious chocolate cake with Dutch pressed cocoa powder I bought at the Blommer chocolate factory across the street. I bought a 9″ springform cake pan from Bed, Bath and Beyond just for this project. Here is the recipe I got from foodnetwork.com:
Ingredients
- Butter and flour, for spring form pan
- 2 cups pastry flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 11/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup plus 2 ounces buttermilk
- 1/2 cup plus 2 ounces brewed coffee
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Special equipment: 9-inch springform pan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt 3 times, set aside. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition.
Combine the buttermilk, coffee and vanilla extract.
Mix in 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then half the wet ingredients. Repeat with the remaining dry and wet ingredients, finishing with dry. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 1 hour, until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. remove the cake from the pan after 15 minutes. Cool completely.
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Previously, Ben and I purchased several pounds of beautiful red potatoes and some fresh thyme and oregano. I typed in those ingredients in the recipe search on allrecipes.com and came up with this awesome recipe. I tweaked it a bit and everything turned out perfectly. The key is baking the potatoes in the oven for 50 minutes, which makes the potatoes super-crispy and delicious.
- 10 small red potatoes, peel yucky parts and cut into quarters
- 1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, toss potato wedges with oil. Arrange in a single layer in a roasting pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. Bake for 30 more minutes, or until golden brown.
