Weekly Dish

When I got married, one of the most thoughtful gifts I received was from a family friend with whom I happened to be working at the time. During our time as co-workers, Beth apparently noticed my insatiable passion for muffins, and for my office shower, she brought me a very cute basket, packed with a muffin tin, brightly colored dish cloths, and a little cookbook called Muffins, A to Z. Today, the cloths are faded and worn, and I’ve made almost every muffin recipe in the book. Every time I mix up a new batch of batter, I can’t help but think about sweet Beth who paid such careful attention to my love of these small breakfast wonders.

I really love all kinds of muffins–sweet, savory, fruit, chocolate, light, dense–you name it, and I’ve tried it. I have some old favorites that I return to, of course, but I’m always on the lookout for new ideas. When my sweet friend Rorie of Milk & Honey posted a scone recipe using Meyer lemons and cranberries several weeks ago, I knew I wanted to hi-jack that flavor combination for muffins.

The lemon flavor is clean and light, not too overpowering, and the cranberries add a nice zip to every other bite. The texture is cake-like and moist, as I prefer my muffins, due to the combination of butter and buttermilk for the fat and liquid content.

Perfect for an end-of-winter Saturday morning. In fact, I think I’ll make them again tomorrow.

Lemon-Cranberry Muffins

NOTE: I tried these again with orange zest and juice substituted for the lemon and grated nutmeg for the almond extract with good results!

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
Zest of 2 Meyer lemons, about 1 T.
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
6 T. butter
2 large eggs
1/4 t. almond extract
Juice of 1 Meyer lemon, about 1/4 cup
1 cup dried, fresh, or frozen cranberries (I used dried)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and grease your muffin pan. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Melt the butter and whisk together quickly with the buttermilk (it helps if the buttermilk is not ice cold); whisk in the eggs. Add the almond extract and lemon juice and stir to blend. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry by adding all at once, folding together until just blended (overmixing will make a tough muffin.) Fold in the cranberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 18-22 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Since the Paper Chef competition, I have proclaimed the southern Louisiana Autumn officially here. No matter that it got just a teeny bit warmer that is usual for a crisp, cool season today–the air has that fall edge to it now, and I refuse to go back to wearing flip flops and pretending like the season isn’t changing.

It is with that spirit that I approached the rest of this week’s menu. One of the first meals I love to make when it cools off is a hearty soup with homemade bread. Traditional Wisconsin cheese soup is made any number of ways with varying vegetables and spices, but the key ingredient is good cheddar cheese. I combined that idea with French Onion soup and made some cheesy bread to go with it. I used leftover zucchini in the bread to give it some extra texture, but I’m not going to list that in the recipe because all the zucchini did was make the bread mushy–I won’t do that again. The jalapenos were a good choice, though; they give the bread just the right amount of spice and combine with the basil to lend a hint of freshness.

The soup was delicious fall fare–rich and savory and chock full of onions and cheddar cheese. When I was a kid, I spent weeks of the summer at my Aunt Emily’s house. She fed me terribly decadent food–Butterfingers by the fistful–and I have this vivid memory of sitting at her kitchen counter with a bowlful of melted cheddar cheese for breakfast. Also as a kid, I loved to order French Onion soup at restaurants because they brought it to you with this huge layer of cheese on top. This soup is my attempt to merge those two memories. It’s quick and easy too (back to the daily grind for me, alas!)

Here are the recipes:

Spicy Beer Bread

This recipe is very similar to the Cheese and Beer Bread in Better Homes and Gardens

2 1/2 cups flour

1 T. sugar

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. Kosher salt

1 T. freshly chopped basil leaves

12 ounces beer

6 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

1 or 2 jalapenos, chopped (and seeded if you don’t like things too spicy)

Preheat the oven to 375. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, including the basil. Mix in the beer, cheese, and pepper, and stir until just combined. Pour into a greased bread pan. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the outside is beginning to crisp and brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cheesy French Onion Soup

2 large sweet yellow onions (Vidalia if you can get them), chopped

1 T. butter

1 T. olive oil

Dash cayenne pepper

1/2 t. Kosher salt

14 1/2 ounces chicken broth

12 ounces beer (I used Abita Golden)

Good cheddar cheese, grated

Heat the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, and cook until brown and tender, about 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and add the liquids. Stir in the cheese (this quantity is really up to you, depending on how cheesy you want your soup. I used about 6 ounces) until it melts. Simmer over low until the bread finishes baking. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a sprinkle of paprika (I was a little heavy-handed with mine, as you can see from the photo!) Happy Fall!

This week’s menu is the one I fixed after the hurricane, so it represents a new start (at least in my refrigerator, which had to be completely purged). We came back from staying with friends in Mississippi to a city where groceries were hard to come by (at least that’s what we’d been told). So, I sent David to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and this is what we ended up with: chicken, chicken, and chicken again. So, if you find yourself with a whole bunch of chicken and you don’t know what to do with it, this week’s menu is for you. With just a few other purchases, you’ll have a week’s worth of meals at your fingertips (even if they are all, well, chicken).

For this first one, David grilled all but 4 breasts, and I used the leftover grilled chicken for the Strawberry-Goat Cheese Salad and the Pesto Chicken Salad. I made the focaccia bread and mayonnaise for these sandwiches; the mayonnaise I divided in half: one half for tonight, and one half for the pesto chicken salad. Now, I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the balsamic mayonnaise, as I am particular about the use of both balsamic vinegar and mayonnaise. My Aunt Prissy forbids the use of store-bought mayonnaise in anything but comeback sauce, and I don’t like the taste or texture of the congealed, eerily white store-bought stuff.

The focaccia bread, I like with lots and lots of rosemary. But strangely, when I went out to cut some sprigs from my favorite evergreen herb–from the plants my husband gave me as GIFT, mind you–I discovered that they were all, well, dead. My idea was to leave them in their pot because they seemed so happy there, but no, my expert gardener husband just had to try to put them in the ground. Thanks, David, thanks a lot. (Do you sense the bitterness?) I had to use the sprigs in my window I’d been trying to root, which only amounted to about a tablespoon. If you make it, please use as much rosemary as you can get your hands on (and don’t let David anywhere near your rosemary plants).

My sister-in-law, Hannah (that’s her below on our trip this summer to Napa Valley), emailed me the recipe for these yummy sandwiches; the original recipe comes from Jane and Michael Stern’s Southern California Cooking from the Cottage: Casual Cuisine from Old La Jolla’s Favorite Beachside Bungalow, reprinted in The Splendid Table’s e-newsletter, The Weeknight Kitchen. Here’s my version:

Grilled Chicken Breasts

4 pounds chicken
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 T. honey
Combine all liquid ingredients and pour over chicken breasts; salt and pepper well. Marinate at least a few hours, preferably overnight. Grill the chicken over a medium flame for a total of 12 minutes, turning every 2-4 minutes to prevent the honey from burning. Baste as you turn it.

Tomato-Basil Relish
This is best after it’s marinated for several hours, so I make it when I marinate the chicken.

3 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 T. chopped basil
2 t. olive oil
1/2 t. Kosher salt
Cracked black pepper
Combine and refrigerate.

Focaccia Bread with Rosemary

1 pkg. yeast
1 t. sugar
2 cups warm water
5 cups flour (I used a combination of all-purpose and bread flour because I only had 3 cups of all-purpose in the house)
2 t. salt
2 T. olive oil
4 T. chopped rosemary (or more)

Mix the yeast and sugar together, and sprinkle the mixture over the warm water. Let it stand for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast dissolves. In a mixer, combine the water/yeast with the remaining ingredients with a dough hook until it forms a ball (or something resembling a ball). Remove dough to a floured surface and knead with your hands. (This is my favorite part–I love the feel of the smooth, elastic dough and the smell of the rosemary). Return to mixing bowl, cover, and let it rise for about an hour. Divide the dough into two balls and place in greased cake pans (some people use cookie sheets, but I think the bread stays more moist if you bake it in a pan). Preheat the oven to 475, and let the dough rest in the pans until the oven is heated. Stretch the dough to fit the pans, drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt, and bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 egg
1 T. cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 t. Kosher salt
1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
3/4 cup salad oil (canola or vegetable or a combination), divided
Place all ingredients in the blender, but start with only 1/4 cup of the oil. After the ingredients are blended, with the motor running, add the remaining oil in a very slow, steady stream. The mayonnaise should emulsify, creating a very thick consistency. Remove one half of the mayonnaise from the blender, and reserve for the pesto chicken salad later in the week. Add to the remaining mayo in the blender 2 tablespoons of balsamic mayonnaise and blend just until the vinegar is incorporated.

To assemble the sandwiches: Cut the focaccia loaves into fourths. Slice open one of the fourths, spread liberally with balsamic mayonnaise, add a chicken breast, and top with about 2 tablespoons of the tomato relish. Serve the sandwiches with a green salad, or with chips and the remaining tomato relish.

I love breakfast food. Unfortunately, I am not naturally much of a morning person. So, often when I want eggs and muffins, I have to have them at night, instead of in the morning. My mom used to fix omelets and blueberry muffins for dinner, and so serving traditional breakfast foods when it’s dark outside reminds me of her. She is much better at flipping omelets and getting them to look pretty than I am; my omelets always end up looking a lot like scrambled eggs with other stuff in them. So, to use up leftovers, I like to make frittatas instead. No flipping, and finishing it under the broiler gives the cheese on top a bubbly brown texture that I really like. This one, inspired by my leftover spinach stuffing from the stuffed tomatoes last week, is quick and easy. You can make a frittata with just about anything. The basic recipe is: sauté some vegetables in a heavy oven-proof skillet, top with beaten eggs and cheese, cook until the eggs begin to set around the edges, top with more cheese, and finish under the broiler. The muffins I made to go with the frittata are sweet and crumbly, as good muffins should be. I made them with sugary, crunchy Asian pears from Miller Farms at the Red Stick Market. The frittata cooks quickly, so I prepare the muffins first, and use the time while the muffins are cooking to chop the vegetables and beat the eggs for the frittata.

Pear-Streusel Muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 T. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

½ t. allspice

2 large eggs

½ stick butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk

1 ½ cups chopped pear

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat together the eggs, butter, and buttermilk. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry; stir until just combined. Add the chopped pears and stir to distribute evenly. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin.

For topping:

1 cup chopped walnuts; reserve half to sprinkle on the tops

4 T. flour

4 T. brown sugar

½ stick butter, softened

½ t. cinnamon

Mix all together with your hands until it forms a paste. Top the muffin batter with the streusel topping, and then sprinkle on the reserved walnuts. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the topping is brown and crumbly.

While the muffins are cooking, you can prep your vegetables and get everything ready for the frittata. When the muffins are done, turn the broiler on to preheat.

Spinach-Mushroom Frittata

1 clove garlic, minced

½ yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2-3 T. leftover spinach filling (optional)

1 cup fresh spinach leaves, chopped

4 eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 cup mild grated cheese of your choice (I used Swiss)

Sauté the garlic, onion, and mushrooms over medium-high heat in an oven-proof skillet (I use a cast-iron one) until tender, about 6 minutes. Stir frequently to make sure garlic doesn’t burn. Add the spinach filling and stir to coat the vegetables; cook another minute or two. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and add the spinach leaves, cooking until wilted. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, milk, and feta cheese together; pour over mushrooms and spinach. Salt and pepper well, but don’t stir. Let the eggs cook slowly until the edges begin to set, about 12-15 minutes. Grate cheese on top, and finish under the broiler; watch carefully, as it only takes a minute or two.

One of the great things about this meal is that leftovers can be enjoyed both in the morning and at night! I like to have the muffins with my afternoon coffee, as well.