Cape Cod Chopped Salad

I made this salad for a Christmas party I went to and it was a big hit. Decided to make it at home since the dressing is very easy and I have most of these items in my pantry.

The secret to this salad is BACON. I'm firmly in the Bacon Makes It Better club and bacon definitely makes salad better hands down.
The other secret is that maple syrup and orange juice tastes good together. I've never been an orange juice in the morning type of girl, but man, the combination sweet sour in the dressing is really nice.

So let's get all the salad ingredients together:


I didn't have bacon today, but I did have some pancetta. Same difference, right?


I was also supposed to use Granny Smith, but I had Fuji. Oh wells.


While the pancetta is frying up, I'm going to make the dressing. Here are the ingredients:

Note: you are supposed to use orange zest, but Joel ate the last orange the other day and I didn't realize it. Quickly substituted with some lemon zest.

Mix the dressing together. I used Ina's "good" olive oil, Olio Santo. It's kind of greenish, so that isn't all my camera's fault.


Pancetta is done. Oh man, I'm really excited for this salad now!


Before, this salad was just a mix of cheese, nuts, lettuce and salty meat.


Now, it is art. Art in a bowl that might be a tad too small for its contents. I tossed this verrry carefully.




The review:
How can this miss? It's a really good dressing. I can't say enough about it. You can pretty much throw anything you want into this salad and it would taste soooo good. I might try mandarin oranges or chicken next time. Absolutely delicious.

Baked Potatoes with Yogurt and Sour Cream

I think the title pretty much says it all. There is really not very much to this recipe. Instead of lumping a load of sour cream on a baked potato, Ina makes a sort of dressing using half sour cream and half greek yogurt.

I only discovered greek yogurt a few years ago. I didn't grow up eating yogurt and never really cared for it all that much as an adult. It wasn't really difficult to avoid since I am also lactose intolerant. It gave me a decent excuse not to eat yogurt despite its health benefits. But then I had some greek yogurt and in the words of the Fresh Prince, "my life got flipped, turned upside down." No! Not in that kind of way where you go live with your millionaire aunt and uncle doing the Carleton dance. But I am pretty sure they have greek yogurt in Bel Air.


We need to bring back Alfonso Ribeiro back to TV, people.

Anyway, here is the mise:


You say potato... I say poTAto. Forget it. Nobody says poTAto. Ignore my dirty oven. I know I have to Easy-Off that shizz.

Ina says to put the potatoes directly on the rack. So I did. I wonder if it makes a difference. I was going to put it in an old pie pan. She also didn't say to fork them, but I did anyway. I don't know if I needed to, but I'd rather not risk potato explosion.

Mix the yogurt, sour cream, chives and S&P together.


Seriously. That is it. EASY. Yay!


The Review:
Pretty good. It was pretty much as I expected. The greek yogurt gives the dressing a slight tang, which is nice, but I can see how some people might not like it. It's actually kind of a plain potato. I under-salted mine, and didn't put anything else on it besides the dressing. Usually I like the whole butter, salt, bacon bits, fully loaded she-bang. I would make the dressing again, but add more stuff to the potato to 'turn up the volume.'

Another Ina book!

Rejoice! Ina's new cookbook is out!

Here it is on Amazon It's called Barefoot Contessa: How Easy is That?

Fabulous! Double fabulous that I will get it for 40% off at Williams-Sonoma!

We Interrupt This Blog To Bring You Cupcakes

I know this isn't a Barefoot Contessa recipe, but I made creme brulee cupcakes for Joel's birthday. I KNOW! I am awesome!

But the reason I decided to post this was because this is my first attempt using fondant!

Now, I'm actually not a big fan of fondant. Sure, it makes cakes look gorgeous, but let's face it: It tastes like stale marshmallow creme mixed with chewing gum. It's just weird stuff and I usually peel it off and don't eat it. BUT, that doesn't mean that I am opposed to trying it out and playing with it for a bit.

I decided to make Joel some Super Mario themed cupcakes. Just because I saw these and thought they were ridonkulously cute. I was going to try the Pacman cupcakes, but read online that black fondant was difficult to make and didn't really taste good, so that plan was scrapped.

Here are my cupcakes!







Aren't they cute? I'm actually really proud of them. I don't think it was bad for my first time at all. Of course, it is nothing compared to Hello Naomi's cupcakes, but she is a professional. :) I'm particularly proud of my Mario and Princess Peach. I was never very good at drawing or art, so my free hand copy was pretty good. Best of all, they tasted really good! I hollowed out the cupcakes and filled the center with the caramel meringue frosting that is gluing the fondant to the cupcake. All in all, it was fun, but soooo time consuming. Not to mention labor intensive. I hand mixed about 9 different fondant colors!! My hands were sooo sore the next day!

Back to buttercream and our regularly scheduled programming.

Mashed Butternut Squash

I know I haven't updated in ages after promising to do so. Typical. Not that I haven't been cooking or cooking Ina dishes, or anything like that! This time I was just too lazy to document it.

But on this day, I am feeling sort of Fall-ish, even though its August. It's a chilly August day. I'm dying for some Fall! Pumpkin Spice Latte, apple fritters and scarves. FALL.

I had this butternut squash I bought, intending to make risotto with it, but instead I decided to make this mashed butternut squash recipe since it sounded so good.

Here is the mise en place:


Not too many ingredients. But note how it includes butter. Ahhh...

Squash, meet my Shun. Prepare to die.


Now, that I've dismembered my squash, it is time to roast it.... alive!!!11!!


Okay, this is a really weird, grim road I've gone down. Back to squash just being squash. Here's the roasted squash.


Now, Ina's instructions are to blitz the squash in a food processor. I'm going to do as told, but honestly, the squash is so tender that you can easily mash it with ricer, or a potato masher. I'm guessing that the food processor will make it more into a puree than a mash. I've added in the half and half and seasonings.


And here's the mash. So far so good.


Keeping it warm while I prep the rest of dinner. Man, that is really orange! What happened to the white balance on my camera? Damn my counter for making everything avocado!


The review:
Excellent. I thought the mash might be a little grainy or lumpy since it was in the processor, but it wasn't. It was really smooth and nice. You almost don't need the brown sugar since the squash itself it kind of sweet, but it does caramelize the squash and helps it to brown up. I would definitely make this again since it was easy. I could also see this becoming a really good start to a twice-baked squash recipe. So good.

Twofer: Easy Cheese Danish and Omelet for Two

It's no secret that my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Why? Well, it's a meal that's comprised of all my favorite things: fresh, hot baked goods, cheese, bacon, lovely jams, potatoes, butter, coffee beverages and even STEAK sometimes! I didn't even mention asparagus with hollandaise or maple sausage patties until now. If it really wasn't for Joel, I'd probably have pancakes for dinner once a week, foregoing all vegetables and justifying my carb-fest by eating some strawberries, rolling my eyes and saying, "Whatttt? It's fruit."

Sometimes I like to make a "breakfast at dinner" meal. It's easy to throw together and when I make an accompanying salad, I feel oddly French and superior. "Look at moi! I am making zee elegant menu du jour that is tres jolie!" Even though, I'm only making, you know, scrambled eggs.

The mood to make a breakfast dinner struck me the other day and I turned to Ina for suggestions. The omelet for two and easy cheese danish seemed like the perfect, and decadent option.

First up, here's the mise en place for the cheese danish:

I'm going to take a moment here to shout out Trader Joe's puff pastry. It is AWESOME. There are two sheets in the box, and unlike the other brands, you don't need to unfold it, so there aren't any creases. I've found quite a few uses for it so far and always keep it on hand since I can whip up some delicious cheese straws quickly when company comes over. Highly recommended.

So, first we make the filling. Cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth:


add lemon zest and vanilla.


Mix together until the filling is smooth. I didn't want to take out my hand mixer so I did it by hand. It would be smoother with a mixer, but mine was pretty smooth anyhow.


Spoon the filling on the puff pastry and pinch the opposing corners together. This puff pastry square is slightly smaller than the Pepperidge Farm one, so there was actually way too much filling. Since I didn't want to waste it, I tried to spoon in as much as I could. As you can see, my danishes are bulging dangerously.


The recipe calls for placing the danishes in the refrigerator to firm up a bit. In the meantime, I will start the omelet for two. Here is the mise:

What's that in the middle? Is it... bacon??

Yes it is. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. A moment, please.


My, my. What to do with that bacon fat. Fry some potatoes in it of course!


While the potatoes finish cooking, whisk the eggs and milk together with seasonings. Oh yeah, and put the danish in the oven to bake!


Yay! Potato and bacon bowl. Seriously, I could stop right here and be happy.


Here we go... omelet time. Now, in this recipe you only cook the omelet on the stove until the bottom sets. Then you pop it into the oven to finish.


Here is the omelet straight out of the oven!


Ditto with the danish. As you can see, my danish exploded open due to the amount of filling. Don't worry. Totally worth it.


Easy Cheese Danish


The result: Fantastic of course. How can you really go wrong? the danish was really easy to make and very tasty. The filling wasn't too sweet or too cheesy. It was light and eggy. I would definitely make this again, but I might chop the zest a little finer next time. It wasn't a big deal or anything, but I personally would just like it a little finer. The omelet was delish. It looks like a huge thing, but I actually only used one potato and three strips of bacon with the 5 eggs for two people, so it probably ended up the same size as a restaurant omelet. I can see making lots of variations on this recipe since it came together so quickly. Maybe some sausage and cheese or spinach with the potatoes. It's more a method of cooking instead of the actual ingredients. Joel loved everything, so there's hope yet that the all breakfast all the time diet could work out. ^-^ Overall, this was a very pleasant meal and we had leftover danish for the next morning. Fabulous!

New Ina book!

Ina has a new book called Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics.

Yay! I love it when Ina has new cookbooks since it gives me new food to try and experiement with. I picked up my beautiful copy today and will check out the fabulous new recipes tonight. Otherwise, I think I'll try Ina's apple crostata this weekend!