Kale Chips

Posted on February 21, 2011 by dishing1

Hello Everybody! Hope you are all doing well! First off, thank you to everyone who sponsored me for the polar plunge yesterday. The polar plunge is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics in which people donate for to someone to jump into a hole cut in the ice covering Lake Monona. It was an amazing experience and surprisingly not as horrifying as I thought it would be. There were about 6 of us jumping together and it happened so quickly that one minute I was standing on the platform and the next I was doggie paddling to the wooden steps 10 feet away to get out of the lake. The coldest part immediately after we got out as we were running to the “hot” tubs back on dry land. Though I wonder if my fellow jumpers wearing a little less than me (one in a Speedo and one in a bikini) felt the same…

Today’s recipe is kale chips! I know I promised Hot and Spicy Cheese Bread to some of you but I am still trying to find a good recipe to try out. I know kale chips sounds weird and maybe a bit too healthy but they are delicious and simple. These chips are something that my lab mate (the one with the red hair!) introduced me to this fall and are perfect for satisfying a crispy salty craving while still being kind to my waistline. You can pick up a bunch of kale from the grocery store and even if it begins to wilt this recipe will still work because the oven will continue to dry out the kale until it is nice and crunchy. Continue reading →

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Bagels!!!

Posted on February 7, 2011 by dishing1

Hey All.  Right now I am trying to avoid breaking something as the Packers keep scoring on the Steelers.  It has been challenging to be a Vikings fan in Madison these last few weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.  Oh well…maybe next year.  Either way, to distract myself for a bit I thought I should write up another post.  Today’s post is BAGELS!  After the pretzel rolls turned out so well I started to get motivated to make my own bagels.  After stressing out for awhile about trying to reproduce a New York bagel, getting the proper texture, a crunchier crust on the outside with a soft and airy inside, I just decided to make some.  I have to say that they might not have been “New York” bagels but they were pretty darn good.  The bagels were especially tasty right out of the oven with a healthy amount of cream cheese. Continue reading →

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Vanilla Nut Bars

Posted on February 3, 2011 by dishing1

Hey All, there was a blizzard here in Madison overnight!  We got about 15 inches of snow but that wasn’t the worst part of the blizzard…the wind gusts blew the snow around creating huge snow drifts.  On my walk into the department I waded through knee deep and even sometimes waist deep snow drifts.  Even if the roads are clearing up my car is absolutely buried under snow.  In fact I think the plow for the parking lot pushed all of the snow up against my passenger side door and then under the car.  Since I am kind of stranded at home this evening I thought it would be a good time to write up another post.

This is a recipe for vanilla nut bars and it is adapted from one by Ina Garten.  These are crisp shortbread bars with a chewy addictive nut filling.  Continue reading →

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Fresh Cranberry and Lemon Scones

Posted on February 3, 2011 by dishing1

Greetings Everyone!  Sorry it has been a month since I last posted a new recipe but things have been pretty busy here.  At the beginning of the month I turned 27 so there was about a week of celebration, but my actual birthday was amazing.  Lots of people showed me some love; there was a sushi dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, about 3 rounds of dessert (double chocolate bread, chocolate pudding and cheesecake torte and a vegan mint chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream) and a night full of swing dancing.  After the birthday week I was a little saturated with processed sugar but still managed to get some cooking and baking done.  Now I just need to catch up on all the backlogged posts and hopefully convince someone else to post some recipes too…Lena and Kiki, I am talking to you.

The recipe for today I actually first tried out last August for a friend/lab mate’s PhD. defense.  Her defense was early in the morning so we decided that scones would make a perfect treat!  After scouring through lots of scone recipes I ended up choosing a fresh cranberry and lemon scone recipe from Gourmet.  However, since it was August fresh cranberries were not available yet so I used some frozen ones and added a little bit more flour to soak up the extra water.  A few months later I made the scones again, this time with fresh cranberries and it was crazy good.  It was really incredible the difference that using fresh cranberries made so if you have access to fresh cranberries you have to try them!  Otherwise you can use dried or frozen cranberries.  Each time the scones turned out beautifully and they were soft and moist which is not typical for scones.  This recipe is really simple if you have a food processor but definitely doable if you don’t own one and it is well worth the effort! Continue reading →

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Garlic and Herb Focaccia Bread

Posted on December 31, 2010 by dishing1

Happy Holidays everyone!  In particular I guess Happy New Year!  Sorry it has been a pretty long time since I posted what I was making in Madison but since I had a little time off I decided to write a few more posts up and I haggled Kiki so maybe she will have a post up sometime soon.

After the string of desserts that I have put up I thought it would be good for me to include something else.  Recently, I have had some really amazing Italian meals, pumpkin ravioli (at two different places), orecchiette with sausage and rapini, porcini and salsicca risotto, pappardelle del cacciatore, salsicca rosa and the list goes on.  So being inspired from all these wonderful meals and for some reason having an insatiable craving for Italian food, I decided that I would try out some recipes.  Most recently, I tried out making a very basic focaccia bread and penne pasta with sausage (go figure from the list of dishes I chose to order) and broccoli and mushrooms in a pinot grigio cream sauce.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the pasta, but since my Italian craving is still going strong I will probably be making some more fairly soon.  However, I did take pictures of the focaccia bread. Continue reading →

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