Chocolate Strawberry Pavlova

If you're looking for an impressive dessert that's a little something different, look no further. I have made one of Nigella's dessert recipes before, but wasn't 100% pleased with the results. This time, I could not have been happier. This Chocolate Strawberry Pavlova was rich and sweet, yet light and fruity. An amazing treat that works for any occasion.

I made this for my in-laws' tenth wedding anniversary. There were seven of us and we ended up with one giant piece left over - this would easily serve ten if you cut it properly.

Chocolate Strawberry Pavlova
adapted from Nigella Lawson

For the Meringue

6 large egg whites
2 c. superfine sugar  (**see note**)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped


For the Topping

2 c. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. superfine sugar
2 c. sliced strawberries 
1 oz. bittersweet chocolate

**Please note: I don't have superfine sugar in my pantry and I wasn't about to buy any. You don't need to either. Put regular old granulated sugar in your food processor or blender and whir for about 30 seconds (until it's super fine).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Use a pencil to trace a 9-inch- cake tin on the paper. Flip the paper over so your meringue doesn't touch the pencil marks.




Beat the egg whites with a mixer until satiny peaks form, and then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. 

Sift the cocoa into the bowl, then add the vinegar and chopped chocolate over the egg whites.

Gently fold everything with a rubber spatula until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed in.

Plop the meringue into the center of the parchment circle. Yummy!

Shape the meringue into a disc using a butterknife or offset spatula.

Lick the spatula clean. Mmmm hmmmm!

Place in the oven, and immediately turn the temperature down to 300 degrees and cook for 60-75 minutes.

When it's ready, it should look crisp and dry on top, but when you prod the center you should feel the promise of squidginess beneath your fingers.(This is word-for-word Nigella's direction - I love it!)

Open the oven door, turn off the oven, and let the meringue cool completely.

Move the meringue onto your serving plate.

Whip the cream and vanilla until soft peaks start to form. Add the sugar and whip to combine.

Spread the whipped cream on the meringue and top with the strawberries. My lovely sister-in-law Leah is allergic to strawberries, so I left a section of the pavlova free for her.

Use a vegetable peeler to shave curls of chocolate over the pavlova.

Happy Anniversary to two of my favorite people!

Happy Easter!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful for the past week, so I put off making my Easter dessert until the last minute.  I'm glad I did, because I ended up also making a birthday cake for Andrew's Aunt Sammy. 

When I saw the recipe for Nigella's Fairy Cakes on "Once Upon a Plate", I knew I had to try them.  My one issue with the recipe was that Mari didn't explain how to get the cupcakes flat and iced as perfectly as hers were.  I winged it and they came out okay.  Mari's icing must have been much thicker than mine, because my cupcakes soaked up a lot of the liquid and were not as perfectly smooth as hers were.  The blue ones came out best, and they were all delicious, so no one really minded.

I added 3/4 cup cocoa powder to one batch of the Fairy Cake recipe and baked it in an 8" cake pan.  Then, using an idea I saw on the back of the Easter M&M's bag, I cut the cake in half and turned it into a butterfly.  I used Mari's easy buttercream recipe, tinted it pink, and decorated with sprinkles and M&M's.  I used candied citrus peel as antennae.  Sammy was really happy with her cake, and it tasted fantastic!

Meatballs Stroganoff & Notes on Freezer Meals

It's been a very busy week, as I've been trying to put together some freezer meals to bring to family.  What's been saving my sanity is that I've been making a double recipe of each meal - we eat one for dinner and then I freeze the other portion.  I've done two chicken pot pies (one for dinner tonight), and tomorrow will be a double batch of homemade macaroni and cheese. 

I also made a lasagne this afternoon as a bonus freezer meal.  Yum!

In the midst of all these classic comfort foods that I've made a million times, I wanted to try a new one.  Something I'd never made, but that I couldn't mess up too badly, since I wanted to eat it for dinner and then give it away to other people.  Man, did I hit the jackpot with this recipe! 

Meatballs Stroganoff is an easy and delicious meal you can put together any night of the week.  Make the meatballs in advance so you can pull them out of the freezer the day you're ready to make them - I made 3 pounds of meatballs, rolled them very small, and ended up with about 110 meatballs.  If you don't have a tried and true meatball recipe, click here to borrow mine!  The recipe below is NOT doubled - it's for a single batch of Stroganoff.

Meatballs Stroganoff
adapted from SparkPeople

1.5 lb. meatballs - about 50

2 tbsp. butter
2 small onions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz. beef broth
1 tbs. lemon juice
3 tbs. AP flour
8 oz. low-fat sour cream
16 oz. "no yolks" egg noodles - cooked and set aside

Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add onions and garlic, cook until translucent. 

To the pan, add all but 3 tbsp. of the beef broth and the lemon juice and bring to a boil.

 In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and the reserved broth until smooth.

Turn the heat down to low.  Whisking vigorously, stream in the flour/broth mixture.  Raise the heat back up and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. 

Add the meatballs to the pan to heat them through.  Cover saucepan and cook on medium heat for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Turn the heat off and let stand for a few minutes, then stir in the sour cream.  Serve over the cooked egg noodles.

Look at all this creamy sauce!

Hello little meatballs!

All right, I'm done now. 

This is a delicious, comforting meal that your family will thank you for.  To give it as a freezer meal, I packed about 50 small meatballs into a plastic container, smothered them in the sauce, and froze it.  The plastic container will be joined by a bag of egg noodles when I give it to someone else.

Snacks for Dinner - A Kid Friendly Version

I love making snacks for dinner.  Or appetizers for dinner.  Basically you make a bunch of "picky" dishes and then eat a little of this, a little of that...until you're stuffed!  Andrew and I were baby-sitting his cousins for a weekend, and we decided to do our own version of "snacks for dinner".  I had to make things that were kid friendly and that I could find in their house, so that narrowed down my choices big time.  But you know me, I love to sort through a fridge and pantry and see what I can come up with.  I have to say, this time wasn't particularly inspired, and it certainly wasn't culinary genius, but it made the kids happy and was relatively well-balanced, so...that's good enough for me!

The photo above is Andrew's cousin Luke, waiting patiently for me to take a picture so he can dig in.

Luke told me he loves to cook, so I had him help me was and then carefully cut the vegetables for our little crudite platter.  In the fridge, we found carrots, celery, half a red pepper, and two halves of cucumbers.

In the freezer, I found chicken tenders, cheesy garlic bread, and in the fridge, hot dogs.  We cut everything up into pieces we could grab with our hands, though we did end up using forks.

Here's our spread!  I added a bowl of pretzels and colorful bowls for the condiments.  We also made a frozen pizza for the boys, since they eat like horses.  :)

It may not have been the healthiest meal, but we worked with what we had to put it together, and everyone was happy with the results! 

Tiramisu

It's been quite a while since I did a post where I share step-by-step photo instructions.  Tiramisu seemed like the perfect opportunity to remedy that fact.  My sister Jenna is in town for a few days, and she wanted to cook together, so I planned several fun recipes for us to try.  We spent a couple hours at West Side Market yesterday choosing the perfect ingredients, then got to work in the kitchen.

This tiramisu is absolutely delicious.  Light and airy, it's neither soggy nor heavy as other versions can be.  I skipped the brandy/liqueur, so there's no alcoholic bite either.  I would recommend increasing the amount of espresso syrup used so that the tiramisu isn't dry - the recipe below reflects my changes.



Tiramisu
adapted from Heavenly Tiramisu

espresso syrup
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. strong espresso

mascarpone cream
1 c. heavy cream
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
16 oz. mascarpone cheese, softened

1/2 lb. savoiardi (ladyfingers) - about 28 cookies

cocoa powder


for the syrup

Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Remove from the heat and stir in espresso.  Pour into a shallow dish and set aside to cool.



for the mascarpone cream

Whip the cream until soft peaks begin to form, then with the mixer running, slowly add in the vanilla and sugar.  Scrape whipped cream into a separate bowl, set aside.

Place the mascarpone cheese into the mixer and whip until light and fluffy.  This will make it much easier to fold into the whipped cream. 


See how light and fluffy it is?  Much easier to work with than the original consistency, which is similar to cream cheese.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the whipped cheese.  I like to add the cream in two batches so I can get it as fully incorporated as possible without losing all the air.

I love a good assembly line, and this is a great excuse to set one up.  Set out a shallow 2-quart baking dish.  Next to it, set your shallow container of espresso syrup, and next to that, a pile of ladyfingers.

Dip each ladyfinger in the espresso syrup, flip to coat the other side, then arrange in the baking dish.

Top the layer of ladyfingers with half the mascarpone cream.

Repeat the process of dunking the ladyfingers and arranging them.  Top with the remaining half of the mascarpone cream.

Using the end of a wooden spoon, poke holes in the top mascarpone layer.

Spoon the remaining espresso syrup into the holes so it can soak down into the dessert.  Yum!

Smooth the top of the tiramisu so the holes no longer show.  Look how pretty!

I was afraid that plastic wrap would destroy the smoothness of the top layer, so I used a larger baking dish as a cover.  Refrigerate the tiramisu up to 24 hours before serving.

When you're ready to serve. slice into squares and sprinkle with cocoa powder.  This is a fabulous dessert that comes together relatively easily.  Though there are several steps, two people can put this together in no time with impressive (and delicious!) results.

Buttermilk Invasion

I am working on a post about roasting a turkey breast, but in the meantime, I wanted to fill you in on the current events in my kitchen.  I found myself blessed with an abundance of buttermilk this week.  Ann (my husband's wonderful stepmom) gave me almost a whole half gallon of the stuff on Sunday.  So it was my job to find amazing ways to use it.

As it stands, here's the lineup:

Buttermilk Bathed Pork Chops
Buttermilk Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting
Buttermilk Scones (possibly with chocolate chips and/or chocolate glaze)

That's a whole lotta buttermilk kids.  The only other time I can remember doing anything with the stuff was when I made that fabulous Buttermilk Quick Bread and when I made The Best Pancakes with Grandma.

Here's the quick bread for you to drool over while I get buttermilk-happy tonight!

The Ugliest Cake Ever

It started out innocently enough.  I decided at the last minute that I wanted to bake my husband a birthday cake.  No big deal, right?  Well, then some stipulations were made.  I had just made a chocolate-peanut butter dessert three days ago, so I wanted to avoid that combo, which happens to be Andrew's favorite.  It had to be cake (I don't know why!) so I didn't make gingerbread men (his second favorite).  And it had to be something I had in my pantry, since it was snowing like crazy and I didn't want to go to the store, and it was already the day of his birthday when I decided to make the cake.  Let's just say...all these stipulations?  They're the stuff disasters are made of.

I had a Triple Fudge cake mix, so I decided to start there.  After searching around on the Betty Crocker website for a while, I found this recipe.  A layer of cake, then fudge, then more cake?  Yes please!  The only difference I made was that I forgot to reserve one cup of the crumbly cake mix, instead mixing it all together with the applesauce and eggs.  This worked out okay, though if I had created the crumbly layer, I wouldn't have tried to make a layered cake, and none of the following would have happened.

I cut the cake in half while it was still in the 13x9.  My intention was to stack it on a cake stand and make a square layered cake.  When I put the first half on the cake stand, it was a little too large, and it broke.  For some inexplicable reason, I tried the other half, and wouldn't you know, being the same size as the first half, it broke too.  So there I was with four broken pieces of a cake that I had just made.

After some consideration, I opted to cut the two larger pieces into circles, and the two smaller pieces into half circles.  I stacked the three circles on top of one another, then made this icing and poured it over the top.  It was delicious...but ugly.  Like, really ugly.  This is definitely the most hideous cake I have ever made.

I will totally understand if one of you submits this to Cake Wrecks.  Luckily, the cake was delicious, the frosting was yummy, and we ate almost all of it.  I saved the off-cuts from the circles for snacking!  Anyway, the reason I showed you all this cake is because I promised when I started this blog I would share my disasters.  There haven't been too many lately, save for putting my fingers through the electric mixer, but this was too horrifying not to share!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Happy Friday!

I've never done a "wrap-up" post, but I thought I'd give it a try.  Today is Friday, two days before Valentine's Day, four days before my husband's birthday, five days before my birthday, and seven days before my mommy comes to visit!  Lots of exciting things happening in the next week for us!

I will try to post regularly over the next week - I have a lot of delicious things to share, from panini to pasta, plus a fish chowder that will knock your socks off!

In the meantime, here's what I'm up to.  Tonight, we'll be watching the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I love the Olympics - the athleticism, the national pride, watching the whole world come together on the Olympic stage - it's certainly an eventful two weeks!  I think it's pretty neat that the symbol you see above is Ilaanaq - the Inuit word for friend.  For dinner tonight, I'm attempting Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon - wish me luck!

On Valentine's Day, Andrew and I always spend the evening at home.  Rather than fighting the crowds and paying inflated restaurant prices, we make a nice meal and cuddle on the couch with a glass of wine.  Last year, I made a beautiful spread for Valentine's Day, and I'm planning something similar this year.  I typically don't set the table with candles and centerpieces, but for V-Day, I'll make an exception.

 

For dinner I'll be making Chicken Piccata and Garbage Bag Caesar Salad.  Not too fancy, but definitely delicious!

Earlier in the week, I made these fantastic Banana Carrot Walnut Muffins again, and they are just as good as I remembered them.  This is a great way to use up old bananas (or old carrots!) before they go bad.  Last time I made these, I mentioned that the muffins could have been bigger.  This time, I made a double batch and filled the muffin cups much higher.  I got a total of 22 big muffins from the double batch, when last time, I got 18 very small muffins from the single batch.  The good news is, one muffin is definitely enough for breakfast.  The bad news is, Andrew really likes these and has eaten 3 muffins a day since I made them.  Time to throw the rest in the freezer! 

Hope you enjoyed this little synopsis of my week!  I'll do my best to post more delicious recipes and marginally decent photos as soon as I can.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Restaurant Review: B Spot

I'm a big fan of Michael Symon - you may know him as the first winner of The Next Iron Chef, but he was a well-known and well-loved member of the Cleveland food scene long before his Food Network fame.  His restaurants Lola and Lolita revitalized downtown Cleveland, with the new Lola setting the stage for 4th Street to evolve into a hub of the city's nightlife.  Since Andrew and I currently live about 20 minutes outside of Cleveland, we have personally enjoyed 4th Street's vibrant atmosphere and have also had the pleasure of eating at Lola.

Recently, I enjoyed Michael Symon's newest restaurant - B Spot - a burger joint with a twist.  Check out their menu to get the full concept.  This was a fun place for a girls lunch - Ann, Auntie Judy, and I enjoyed a welcome respite from shopping to refuel with some fantastic food.

All the food is a la carte - you order your burger separately from your sides - which worked out great for us, as we could barely finish what we ordered as it was!  Ann, a mushroom lover, opted for the "Shroomage" - a burger piled with portabellas, blue cheese, caramelized onions, and more!  Auntie Judy chose the very safe yet very delicious "Cheeseburger", and I opted for a Cleveland favorite - the "Chili & Cheese Brat".  I'm usually not one for bratwurst, especially piled with stuff, but for some reason, this really appealed to me that day.  Of course, I skipped the roll, as meat on bread is still a no-no for me in most situations.  As it was, I couldn't finish the brat, so I can't imagine what would have happened if I tried to eat the bun! 

We opted to share two sides - the "Lola Fries" and the simple "Chips".  Let me tell you, the parmesan fondue that came with those chips?  I could roll around in it and lick it off myself.  It's that good.  Seriously.  The picture above somehow manages to capture all the food we ate - my brat is in front, the sides are in the middle, "Shroomage" is off to the left, and the Cheeseburger is in the background.

The piece de resistance of this meal was by far the Bad **s Shakes.  Ann drove, and she insisted that Judy and I could get a little tipsy since, after all, it was already 2 in the afternoon and we didn't have to drive anywhere, so why not?  She didn't have to twist our arms too hard - we both got one!  Auntie Judy opted for the Chocolate Banana Marshmallow Shake with Dark Rum.  It tasted like those bananas you wrap in foil with chocolate chips and marshmallows, then stick in the campfire, only WAY better!  We even got that little "char" taste, because the marshmallows were torched so they were toasty.  See?

I opted for the extremely enticing Vanilla Bean Apple Pie Bacon Shake with Bourbon.  That's right people.  Vanilla Bean + Apple Pie + BACON.  I swear, that milkshake gave me super powers.  (Maybe that was the bourbon?)


B-Spot is a fun place to go for lunch - the decor is awesome, the food is fantastic, the service was good, and it's a nice way to experience Mike Symon's vision without paying big bucks at one of his other restarants.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things!

Julie Andrews might have been happy with doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles, but me, I like food.  And things having to do with food.  I got a bunch of great foodie Christmas gifts this year, some that I asked for, some that were surprises, and I wanted to share my haul with the blogosphere.

A staple in my family is panettone, an Italian bread/cake that's made with dried fruits.  If you buy it in the grocery store or at a department store, you often pay upwards of $8 a loaf for it.  But if you buy it at the Christmas Tree Shops, you can get it for half that price...which of course, means you can get two!

My sister Jenna picked out a beautiful granite cutting board for Andrew and I.  It's found a place of honor next to the stove, and I love that I can quickly chop ingredients, rest a hot pot or a dirty spoon, or toss a steaming hot noodle on it to cool quickly. 

Andrew got me two awesome Silpats, fresh from France (well, via Amazon)!  I am so excited to use them for baking - talk about a great gift!  Nonnie found Madagascar vanilla beans - I was on the last one of my stash, so that was perfect timing!

Here's a collection of some of my other favorite gifts.  The white bottle with the yellow label is Lemon Verbena Sugar from the Village Herb Shop.  I'm looking forward to making sugar cookies with lemon zest and this sugar in them.  The gold labeled bottle (sorry about that crazy reflection, by the way!) is full of whole nutmegs that Nonnie and my mom found for my stocking.  You can see those vanilla bean vials again - hey, I'm pretty psyched about them, you can't blame me for posting two photos, can you? 

The "herb-savor" is a great product that I spotted in Real Simple magazine.  You can buy it from prepara - Ann got one for me and one for herself because she thought it was so cool.  She was right - it rocks!  It's an upright container that fits into a base which has a water well.  You change out the water the way you would with fresh flowers, and it keeps your herbs fresh, watered, and protected.  I've been storing flat leaf parsley in it; so far we're at seven days, and it still looks as fresh as the day I brought it home.

Though this isn't truly a "foodie" gift, I was thrilled to receive these stacking bins from SunCast (looks like Home Depot has the best price right now).  I love that you can open each bin while they're stacked on top of one another, and the bright primary colors are cheerful and fun.  Ann got these for us and we put them to use immediately.  Our town doesn't do pick-up recycling, but having grown up in the Northeast, recycling is a no-brainer for us.  We save our recyclables and bring them to a recycling center every few weeks, so this is a great way to keep them organized.

Since this post is titled "My Favorite Things", I feel the need to add a couple pet photos.

Finn reminds you to bundle up - we do live in the Snow Belt, after all!

 

 

And Evin says, "take these ornaments down, it's JANUARY!"

Did you get foodie gifts for the holidays?  What was your favorite new "toy"?  Anything still on your wish list?