Author: Sadie

Green and Loving It

Sadie3 Comments

I’ll tell you a secret.  I love a green vegetable.  My two favorite green vegetables are probably broccoli and green beans.  The topic at hand today is the green bean.  The key with the green bean in my mind is that they are cooked but still crunchy.  I’m not a fan of the mushy green beans that are either cooked to death or canned.  A couple years ago I took inspiration from a few different recipes that I saw from various sources and started making a fabulous green bean dish.  This dish has since become a staple at important eating occasions in my family, including a spot at the most important eating occasion: Thanksgiving.

If I were you, I would give this recipe a test run in the next couple of months and you might be convinced to replace a side dish at your own Thanksgiving feast.

Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Almonds

Serves 4, scale up as needed

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbs butter (or I used bacon fat this past time)
  • 1 medium onion sliced in half or quarter moons (white or yellow)
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 lb of raw green beans
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds
  • seasoning to taste

Method

  1. Heat a medium sized frying pan on low heat.  Melt butter in pan.  Add sliced onion, then minced garlic.  Allow to cook on low heat until the onion caramelizes and turns a nice brown color.  About 30-45 minutes.
  2. When the onions are close to done, blanch the green beans.  This is done by adding them to boiling water, allow to cook for 4-5 minutes, then transfer beans to an ice bath (bowl with ice water and room for the beans).  The transfer to the ice water will stop the cooking process and leave the beans crunchy.
  3. Meanwhile, give your sliced almonds a quick toast over low heat in a pan on the stove.  This should only take a few minutes, don’t let them get too brown!
  4. When you feel you have reached a good level of caramelization with the onions, add the green beens and almonds to the onions and mix them up.  Give it a sample and season to taste.  Then enjoy!

Five Things

Sadie1 Comment

I’m watching on the tube this fall.

1. Heart of Dixie.  I love it.  It’s my inner 16 year old I think because it’s basically on par with the WB dramas I grew up with: Gilmore Girls, Dawson’s, Felicity.  I can’t say that every episode is a home run, but I’m emotionally invested in the characters at this point so I have to watch it.  Catch on Tuesday’s on the CW.

the good life: feet up, watching my Hart of Dixie

2. Flipping Out.  Bravo gets me every time.  I’ve been following this show since the beginning and I love the mix of the design work and workplace drama.  I can’t wait for Jennie to get married in this week’s episode.  It’s on Tuesdays on Bravo.

3. Modern Family.  I’m late to the party on this one, but I’m starting to appreciate it.  It’s funny!  It’s on ABC, but I always forget which day!

4. The Mindy Project.  I wasn’t sure about this one at first and I don’t think I find all of the characters very plausible, but it’s slowly growing on me.  I like some of the leads and I see some interesting love interests developing.  It’s on Fox on Tuesdays after New Girl.

5. The New Girl.  We’ve had this conversation already, it’s hilarious.  It’s on Fox on Tuesdays.

Now I would appreciate if the playoff baseball and presidential debates would stop interrupting my prime time programming!

What shows do you love this fall?

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Sadie2 Comments

When it comes to cookie recipes, one thing I have yet to fully master is the aspect of a recipe that makes the cookies chewy or crispy, cakey or crunchy.  I realize that it is likely a combination of ingredients that determines these factors, but it perplexes me.  I often have attempted recipes that claim “chewy” but come out crunchy.  Is it my fault, or the recipe’s fault?

I think it’s a combination of the two.  From my limited experience I would assume that a combination of the fat choice (butter, oil, shortening) along with the number of eggs, has a large effect on the texture of a cookie.  More eggs would be more cakey, and the softer the fat, the softer the cookie.  I’ve even heard that using melted butter rather than typical room temperature butter, will make cookies softer.  Also over-mixing the batter leads to developing too much gluten, which leads to harder cookies.

All this being said I tried a “chewy” oatmeal cookie recipe from Martha, because if there’s one type of cookie that I love to be “chewy,” it’s an oatmeal cookie.  Her original recipe only called for dried cherries, but I swapped those out for chocolate chunks, walnuts, and craisons.  While not quite as chewy as one of those classic large oatmeal cookies at a local bakery, I think this recipe lives up to the chewy title.

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Yields about 40 cookies depending on size, adapted from a Martha Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup AP Flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup craisons
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chunks
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Combine flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.  Set aside.
  3. Use an electric mixer to beat together butter, brown sugar, and honey until fluffy.
  4. Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour mixture in gradually.
  5. Add in oats, chocolate, craisons, and walnuts.  Mix until just combined, try not to over mix.
  6. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out equal cookie dough balls about 2 tablespoons each.  Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.  Allow to cool completely.