Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

These cookies are the best peanut butter cookies I've ever had. Whereas so many other peanut butter cookies tend to be dry, these are moist and delectable. I tend to make these to take to parties, and normally it's all I can do to keep my husband from eating all of them before we get to our destination. I think the original recipe is from a Hershey's cookbook, but I'm not certain. You're supposed to make a huge roll of dough and make can-sized cookies, but I just make regular-sized cookies and skip the log step. I use Skippy... not sure how they would turn out with natural peanut butter. Makes about 30 cookies.

J'adore: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups quartered mini peanut butter cups

Directions:
Cream peanut butter and butter with a mixer or in a food processor. Add sugar, baking powder, and baking soda, and blend again. Add egg and vanilla, and blend again. Blend in flour slowly until just mixed. Stir in peanut butter cups, cover, and refrigerate for approx. 1 hour.

Form cookies into patties of desired size, and place on cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. The trick with these cookies is not to cook them for a minute too long! They have to be just starting to lightly brown to be prefect. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the trays before transferring to a cookie rack.

Thanksgiving Staple and Side

Mollie Katzen's Spinach Ricotta Cheese Pie has been a favorite in my family for as long as I can remember. I always requested it for my birthday, my cousin always requested it for Thanksgiving and Christmas, my husband drops not-so-subtle hints every time it's been a while since I've made it, even a co-worker's mother demanded the recipe for days on end until I finally wrote it down for her. In short, it's one of the best savory pies I've ever had, and it has become a Thanksgiving tradition in our family. The recipe is from the original Moosewood Cookbook but was sadly omitted from the new edition. As usual, changes have been made over time. I'm also including a recipe for a side that I LOVE. The original recipe comes from a story I heard on NPR last year.

Je ne peux pas vivre sans: Spinach Ricotta Cheese Pie

Ingredients:
1 pie shell (I use a store-bought deep-dish shell to save on time. Feel free to make your own!)

1.5 packages of chopped frozen spinach
1 small onion
1 pint ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh, frozen, or dried basil (fresh is always best)

sour cream

Directions:
Steam spinach and drain thoroughly. Be sure to press out all excess water or you'll have a watery pie. Dice onion and saute in olive oil. Combine spinach, onion, ricotta, eggs, salt, cheddar, and basil in a mixing bowl. If you're afraid that the spinach is still too watery you can add a tablespoon of flour. Spread mixture evenly in pie shell. Spread sour cream over the top of the spinach mixture. You can use as much or as little sour cream as you want. I prefer to use a lot and spread it to the edges-- it's my favorite part of the pie. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.


J'adore: Wild Rice Stuffing

Ingredients:
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup wild rice*
1/4 cup dried cranberries (or other dried berry)
1/2 cup walnuts
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a pot, bring the vegetable broth to a boil and add the rice. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed and rice is tender (about 30 mins). Add cranberries, walnuts, salt and pepper to taste, and serve. Can be served inside a cooked acorn squash.

*I use half wild rice, half Brown Rice Medley from Trader Joe's, which has brown rice, black barley, and daikon radish seeds.

Potatoes All Rotten (Potatoes au Gratin)

I have no idea why, but for whatever reason we've always called potatoes au gratin "potatoes all rotten." It makes them sound less than appealing but a lot less snooty! They're a favorite of my potato-head hubby. I probably make them different every time, but here's the gist of the recipe.

J'adore: Potatoes all Rotten (aka Potatoes au Gratin)

Ingredients:
Potatoes (maybe 6-10 medium-sized potatoes; I like to use red bliss)
1.5 Tbs margarine/butter (I use a combination of the two)
1 Tbs flour
1 cup half & half, cream, or milk (works best with at least some cream content... i.e. I wouldn't make it with skim)
1.5 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt to taste

Directions:
Peel and slice the potatoes. Place all potato slices into a pot and cover with cold water. Add a little salt to the water, and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes approx. 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are slightly tender.

In the mean time, add margarine/butter to a small sauce pan. Melt on low heat. When butter/margarine is melted, add flour and stir continually to make roux. When roux has started to thicken, add cream/half & half/milk (I use a combination of half & half and 1% milk), and continue stirring. Continue to heat on low, stirring constantly. Add shredded cheese a little at a time, and continue stirring. If mixture gets too thick, add a little milk to thin it. Add a little salt if desired. The consistency should be both a little thick and a little runny.

Drain off the potatoes and place in an oven-safe dish. Pour roux over potatoes. Nudge the potatoes around a little so that the roux coats all of the potatoes evenly. Place a lid on the dish and bake at 350°F for approximately 35 minutes.

Potato Leek Soup

Leeks are probably one of my favorite vegetables. This year I tried growing them in my vegetable garden and was thrilled with my success. The only thing is when you have a hundred of them (and they don't keep well) you have to think of good ways to use a bunch of them up in one recipe. Potato leek soup fits the bill. The trick is to save some of the potato chunks to add in after pureeing.

J'adore: Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, pressed or minced
3 leeks, white and light green parts chopped
3 cups potatoes, chopped (I used 1 baking potato, 3 small red potatoes, and 2 Yukon gold potatoes)
2 quarts vegetable broth
olive oil (no more than 1 tsp.)
thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Saute garlic, onion, leeks, and potatoes in olive oil in a large pot. When onions and leeks look transparent add vegetable broth and some salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and allow to cook until potatoes are tender. Add fresh or dried thyme to taste (I think I used around 6 sprigs from the garden.) Once potatoes are tender, turn the heat off and ladle half of the soup into a blender. Puree. With a slotted spoon scoop some of the remaining potatoes and leeks out of the pot and set aside. Blend the remaining broth and return all pureed soup as well as potato and leek chunks to the pot. (You may have to do some finagling here; I poured the first batch from the blender into a storage container until I had finished blending the rest of the soup from the pot.) Turn heat back on and add salt and pepper to taste.

*Cream, half & half, or milk can be added for a creamier consistency. I intended to add half & half but didn't find that the soup actually needed it.

Vegetable Barley Soup

A little over a year ago I had one of the most amazing soups I've ever tasted. It was vegetable barley soup. I couldn't get enough of it. Sadly, when I asked for the recipe I was informed that it was much too complicated to pare down for a family-sized portion. Sadder still, the restaurant was in our hotel in the Swiss Alps. Since then I have been searching high and low for a vegetable barley soup recipe. I've looked through all of my recipe books, searched epicurious and vegetariantimes.com, crawled the interwebs at large, and still haven't been able to find something that resembled that amazing soup. I finally decided to give it a shot on my own. It's not the same; not even comparable, really, but it's husband approved and pretty tasty. (I do have to admit that I drew ideas from The Papaya Chronicles and The Vegetarian Table: France)

J'aime: Vegetable Barley Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup pearled barley
1 small onion, chopped
1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts chopped
1 medium potato, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 or 5 celery stalks, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2 quarts vegetable broth
approx. 2 tsp. white balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Directions:
Pour the barley into a medium-sized sauce pot. Turn the burner on low, and lightly toast the barley stirring constantly. When barley starts to smell toasted (approx. 3-5 mins.) remove from burner and transfer into a strainer. Rinse barley under water to remove any unwanted soil or dust particles. Return to pot and add 2 cups of water. Add a dash of salt, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to simmer for approx. 30-40 minutes.

Dice onion, leeks, carrots, celery, and potato and add to a large pot. Add minced/pressed garlic and a dash of olive oil. Turn heat to low and saute vegetables until onions and leeks are translucent. Add vegetable broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to simmer.

Once barley appears fluffy and cooked, drain if necessary, and add to the soup. Continue to allow soup to simmer. Add a dash or two of white balsamic vinegar as well as salt and pepper to taste.

Simply the Best Bruschetta I've Ever Had

This recipe comes from my local farmer's market. Each week the market provides recipes that feature something for sale and in season that week. Once I sampled the bruschetta, I was addicted. It's very easy to make, just a little time consuming with all of the chopping. I tend to like my chunks pretty small, so it may take less time if you prefer larger pieces of tomato, mozzarella, etc. One thing I have noticed, though, is that a lot of the flavor depends on the variety of garlic used. We get our garlic from the market, our CSA, or from Trader Joe's, and it tends to be good and flavorful. Last summer I bought some garlic at the super market at the shore and the bruschetta wasn't nearly as good. For this recipe both the marinated mozzarella and the jarred sun dried tomatoes come from Trader Joe's. I'm sure that you could just as easily use dry sun dried tomatoes, but I prefer to use these. For more recipes, and to view this original recipe, check out the Glenside Farmer's Market's web page.

J'adore: Sun dried Tomato Mozzarella Bruschetta

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato, finely diced
1 pint grape tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced and diced
1/2 container (approx. 8oz.) marinated mozzarella balls, finely diced

Directions:
Chop and dice all ingredients accordingly. Combine all ingredients and add sea salt to taste. Serve on toasted French bread.

Zucchini Bread Variations

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If life gives you zucchini, make zucchini bread. I've heard stories about towns where people sneak zucchini into each others' mailboxes, leave them on car seats, and pretty much have all out zucchini warfare. A student of mine has told me (on more than one occasion) that he can no longer stomach zucchini after his mother planted it in the garden one summer. I laughed at all of these stories, because I love zucchini, and, honestly, how bad could one little plant be? I suppose I learned my lesson when one weekend I had little zucchini and the next I had green clubs.

Our old neighbor, Sarah, once made us some zucchini bread, and I loved it. Luckily she gave us the recipe before she moved. The more I talked about zucchini and zucchini bread, the more people kept telling me about the different recipes they had. Who knew there could be so many variations? The best thing about zucchini bread, aside from its delicious flavor, is that it freezes well. In the summer I like it plain, but in the winter I like it slightly toasted with a little cream cheese. In any case, here are a few of the recipes I've tried:

J'aime: Vermont Summer Muffins

This recipe is originally from one of the Moosewood cookbooks. Although they're called muffins, they're really more like muffin-shaped biscuits. Scott has been eating these right out of the fridge and prefers them to the sweeter zucchini breads. I like mine warmed up in the toaster oven with a little butter. Makes about 20 muffins.

Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached white flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup grated zucchini
3 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
2-3 Tbs. chopped scallions
1 Tbs. chopped fresh dill

2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Sift all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add cheese, zucchini, scallions, and herbs, and toss lightly to mix.
4. In another bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the buttermilk and melted butter.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the large bowl and stir enough to blend.
6. Spoon batter into buttered muffin tins, filling about 3/4 full.
7. Bake for 30-35 mins. or until golden.


J'adore: Laura's Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips and Pecans

This recipe came to me thanks to Facebook. An old friend from high school sent me her favorite recipe when she saw that I was making zucchini bread. The original recipe is from An Endless Harvest. Laura suggested adding chocolate chips to the batter. The recipe calls for pecans, but Scott is not a big fan of nuts in breads or cookies, so I made two mini loaves with plain batter and three with chocolate chips and pecan pieces. This has been my favorite recipe so far, and I like that you can sub apple sauce for the oil. Makes 5 mini loaves.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (or 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup apple sauce)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. grated lemon peel
2 tsp. lemon juice
3 cups grated zucchini (with skin)

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
1. Grease and flour 5 mini loaf pans or two regular sized loaf pans.
2. Sift all dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a smaller bowl beat eggs slightly. Add oil (or apple sauce and oil), vanilla, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Beat briefly.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir.
5. Add zucchini and stir to blend evenly.
6. Add pecans and chocolate chips, if desired.
7. Batter will be thick and should be spooned into loaf pans. Fill pans approx. 3/4 full.
8. Bake at 325°F for approx. 45 mins. to 1 hr. depending on the size of the loaf pans. Bread should be golden on the top, and a knife should come out clean when inserted into the bread.