Brunch in Chicago

Happy Friday!

Today I am going back to June and my wonderful trip to Chicago to visit my bff! 

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Brunch breakfast whatever, to me it's the best meal of the day! If you couldn't tell by my last post, an egg bake! 

La Pain Quotidien 

French translation The Daily Bread.

Every time I visit Maggie we take a day to go into the city (Chicago) and we like to try and find a new restaurant. This time her Mother in law suggested this amazing bakery and communal table La Pain Quotidien, that only serves the freshest ingredients and all organic! I'm like "we are SO going there Maggie!!" It started out in Brussels just as a bread bakery and communal table, it is now an international chain that serves much more than just bread.

I loved the atmosphere! Homey and rustic.

my go to food_EGGS

It's Thursday already! Man the work week goes by so fast when it's only four days!:) I am liking this week a lot, schedule wise anyway because it is lighter than most. It's nice every once in a while to have some down time in the evenings. I have actually had time to blog:) I am not a fan of the weather we are having though. It was only in the sixties for a couple of days and it felt like fall! SAD Come on hot summer days! 

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On Monday my day off, I finally had time to get groceries and cook for the week! I decided to make an egg bake and Mediterranean quinoa salad. I'm going to share the egg bake recipe with you today. It's easy and I love eggs because they are full of protein and good fats! Add some vegetables and it's a one dish meal. One dish meals are the easiest for taking to work for lunches too.

Egg Bake

Preheat oven to 375

1 green or red bell pepper chopped

1 small white onion chopped

4oz mushrooms chopped

Few hand fulls of baby kale

Saute the pepper and onion until almost done, add the mushrooms and kale continue to cook until the kale is limp and a dark green. Dump this veggie mixture in the bottom of a greased pan, I would say a big pie plate like the one pictured or a square pan.

10 eggs

garlic salt

1 C or so of shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 - 1/2 C Feta cheese

Beat the eggs with a whisk add garlic salt, I never measure this....sorry just dump a bunch in. You can use regular salt too if you want. I love garlic salt in my eggs though. Sprinkle the veggies with half the cheddar cheese, pour egg mixture over the veggies and cheese, sprinkle with the remaining cheddar cheese and feta cheese.  

Bake for 30 min the edges should be golden and the eggs set.

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Rachel

My kitchen

"We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming"

Boo I miss the Olympics and all of the figure skating!

"Pizza"

"Cinnamon Apple Scones"

"Almost No Kneed Bread"

"Chicken gravy and biscuits"

I love to cook and this weekend that is what I did! It was a nice relaxing weekend here at my little apartment! I loved it for a change:) After all the snow I didn't feel like driving anywhere in it if I didn't really have to. All of these recipes are from America's Test Kitchen except for the chicken. That I made up myself! All So. Good. The bread was so easy! Mix it up let it rise for 8 hours and need it 15 times let it rise again and bake it in a dutch oven! It had a moist spongy texture inside and a light crispy crust!

For the pizza I tried something new. Adding fontina cheese with the mozzarella! It gave it a slightly richer creamier taste! Delicious, I will definitely be doing that again! 

I love that I now have a fridge and freezer full of food:) It makes cooking during the week so much easier. I don't know about you but I am not an evening/night person, and when I get home from work and TKD or skating I don't feel like cooking. I want to be done for the day at that point! 

There is something about cooking that makes me feel so accomplished. I'm not sure why that is, but I like it:) What are some of your favorite things to cook or bake?

Ciao,

Rachel 

My Kitchen | Pumpkin Spiced Latte

I am not sure why but this week feels like it is creeping along. I'm not going to complain about it though because most of the time the days fly by way too fast! I feel like I need all of the time I can get for the last minute planning of my trip to Europe anyway! I have no idea what I'm doing! That's part of the adventure though, right? It's a good thing the person I'm going with has been there:)  I am getting so EXCITED! It's sinking in more and more that I am actually going! I have wanted to go for so long I can hardly believe it's going to happen!

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I don't know about you, but I love pumpkin spice lattes, but I'm kinda picky about them too. I really don't like it when they are too sweet and syrupy tasting. So I created my own recipe from looking up other recipes! Mine uses honey instead of sugar. I love honey in my lattes anyway so I figured why not just use it in my psl's too! 

My Kitchen | Hearty Fall Stew

The perfect fall dinner in my mind is something warm and hearty! I had been craving this stew since September when I first felt the weather change! I was finally able to make it last week and thought I had to share it because it's so darn good! I found the recipe on Pinterest but I tweeked it, like I do most recipes. I also have a much easier way of cooking the squash than the original recipe! I think so anyway. Unless someone knows how to peel and dice an un-cooked squash easily...Here is my version!

Hearty Fall Stew
Ingrediants:
1 1/2 lb. Acorn squash, seeded & cut into 1/8th 
4 cups chicken broth
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs 
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 Red pepper chopped
1 Zucchini chopped and/or summer squash chopped
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 pinch of ground cloves
1 can (14 oz) fire roasted diced tomatoes
1/3 cup uncooked quinoa 
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Cut the squash in half remove the seeds and cut each half into quaters. Bring the chicken broth to a simmer and add the cut squash, cover letting it cook until tender but still firm. Remove four of the pieces of squash and cook the remaining squash until they are well done. Once the squash is done cooking and cooled scoop it out of the skin and dice the firm squash into cubes, and smash the well done squash into a puree.

2. Add your chicken to the chicken broth  cover and let cook through, about 15min. Remove the chicken and sest aside to cool. After they have cooled shred them with a fork or your fingers.

3. While the chicken is cooking. In a saute pan saute your onion, peppers, and other veggies if you desire in olive oil. Add salt to the saute pan. After they have cooked through add your garlic, oregano, nutmeg, cloves, until fragrent, add tomatoes and pureed squash to the pan.

4. When the chicken is done add the quinoa to the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and let cook for about 5 to 10 min. Add the sauted veggies, let the quinoa finish cooking it will be tranlucet. Add diced squash, and chicken to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I let it cook for a while with all of the ingrediants together, so the flavors come together.

This stew with some homemade french bread (that I posted a couple weeks ago) is soooo good on a cool fall day!

Enjoy!

~ Rachel 

My Kitchen | French Bread

Believe it or not I am finally going to post the french bread recipe my mom gave me. The one that the dough can be in the fridge for up to 4 days! As I sit with my box of kleenex and glass of ice cold ginger kombucha tea. It's another gorgeous fall day out and I'm sitting in my apt. I want to be on a long bike ride! But this cold must go away in two days! I can hardly wait to be on my way to Chicago! The bride called me screaming with excitement today! I love her, seriously! Sisters at heart!

 DO NOT freak out that it's long. It's only because there are different mixing methods! In case you don't have a mixer or what I like to use, a Cuisinart. Don't be a kitchen sissy! OK:) Bread is so easy especially this recipe!

The Recipe!

5 1/3 C unbleached bread flour

2 t. salt or 1 T. coarse kosher salt

2 1/4 t. instant yeast

2 C. lukewarm water 

My kitchen | Basil

Friday the 13th 2013! What? Is that double bad luck because it's 2013? Hmm it's a good thing I'm not supersticious!   

I can hardly believe that it is Friday already! Where did this week go? Time goes too fast, I want it so slow down!!! It ended up being a good week though, it had a rough start but that was my own fault;)  

 I love this time of year for all of the fresh vegetables and herbs from the garden! From my parents garden that is, I live in an apartment. I think one of my favorite herbs is BASIL! A few weekends ago while at home I made a big batch of basil pesto!   

 

 You can do so much with basil pesto I love it. Put it on pasta the obvious, put it on pizza, make a pesto mayo sauce for a dilicious chicken sandwich! I also love it on halibut with some bread crumbs sprinked on top! 

Recently I have made basil pesto pizza with roasted veggies on it zuccchini onion and fresh tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, mascarpone, and parmesan cheese. I ran out of cheese when I made this pizza and I didn't want to make a run to the store so I used what I had. I think that was one of the yummiest pizza's I've made! 

The other dish that I have made with it ;ately is a pasta with roasted zucchini, egg plant, carmalized onion and some chicken! I LOVE basil pesto can you tell?!!

Here's the recipe:

2C fresh basil leaves (I blanched mine so they would keep their green color)

1/4C grated Parmesan cheese

1/2C olive oil

2T pine nuts or walnuts

3 garlic cloves finely minced. (I put mine in the cuisinart whole)

1t salt

Put it all in a food precessor, (I used a cuisinart) and process it until it's smooth! I quadrupled the recipe and put it into dixie cups to freeze. It makes having basil pesto so easy and quick!

~ Rachel   

"It is a truth......

universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Jane Austen.

 The view from the endless bridge, inside the Gunthrie! I had no idea the theatre was in such a beautiful area of Minneapolis!

This year for my Mom's birthday I got her tickets the see Pride and Prejudice at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis! Neither one of us had been to the Guthrie, we were pretty excited for this experience and it did not dissappoint! It started off with a delicious meal at Spoonriver a yummy and healthy restaurant. All the food was locally grown, organic and grass fed meats! My kind of restaurant! The play was excellent, I was so impressed with the actors, in character and into their roles, their facial expressions alone were great! I loved every minute of it! I definitely want to go back to this theatre in the futer!

~ Rachel

Snapshots from Duluth #2

Some more beautiful shots from our fun day trip to Duluth!

Happy Independence Day {1}

It feels as if I was in another time zone this past week, even though I didn't leave Minnesota! My sweet best friend for LIFE Maggie came to Minnesota for the week! I can hardly believe that it was her third year coming for a summer visit! I love traditions, especially when they are this fun! More to come on her visit later=)

First things first!

Independence day! Here are some shots from the day!

 My sisters delicious chicken quesadillas!

 My parents backyard is paradise in the summer! That's right a little piece of paradise in a small town most people have never heard of!

   God Bless America!
~Rachel

Let's Cook

I am finally getting to posting some of those yummy recipes I've been telling you all about! These recipes are from Father Leo's Cook Book "Grace Before Meals"  My parents and I were able to see him in person last summer when he made the recipe I am going to share with you today! He was captivating and it was seriously none stop laughter! Not only is he a Priest and an amazing chef but he's hilarious too! So full of personality! He was on Iron Chef America as well, and won! So obviously he's an amazing chef!

Meatball's In Creamy Vodka Sauce

Meatballs

2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t salt and pepper

2 eggs

1/4 C Italian bread crumbs

2 T soy sauce

1 C all purpose flour

4 T olive oil

Use your hands to combine ground beef, onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, eggs, bread crumbs, and soy sauce in a bowl. Shape into meatballs about the size of golf balls. Roll them in flour and shake off excess. 

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet and add meatballs. Cook until brown on all sides. Set aside to cool. You can also freeze the meatballs at this point! Which is super nice because a whole batch was too much for me so I froze half of them. They were just as delicious after being frozen!

Here my Mom used the vodka sauce over chicken breasts.

Creamy Vodka Sauce

1 T. olive oil

2 garlic cloves minced

1 medium sized white onion minced

2 T fresh parsley, chopped

32 OZ tomato sauce

1 6 OZ can tomato paste

1 C heavy whipping cream

1/2 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

3 pinches red pepper flakes

1/2 C vodka

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. saute garlic onion and parsley until onion becomes translucent. Add tomato sauce tomato paste and heavy whipping cream. stir well. Add salt black pepper red pepper flakes and finally the vodka. Continue to stir and let simmer for 2 to 3 min. or until the smell of alcohol is not as strong. 

I made the vodka sauce exactly to the recipe the first time and found it to be a little heavy for my taste. The second time that I made it instead of 32 OZ of tomato sauce I used 1 14.5 OZ can of tomato sauce, 1 14.5 OZ can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, and 3 fresh roma tomatoes along with the 6 OZ can of tomato paste. It was I thought much better and lighter than with just all tomato sauce. These recipes are easy to make and they don't take all that long either!

Bon Appetite! 

~Rachel

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

As promised the recipe for the amazing Mousse cake! It is so worth making it! You'll love it! Also I would recommend using Lindt Chocolate! It's the best!

Serves 12 to 16

This recipe requires a springform pan at least 3 inches high. It is imperative that each layer is made in sequential order. Cool the base completely before topping it with the middle layer. We recommend Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar for the base and middle layers; our other recommended brand of chocolate, Callebaut Intense Dark L-60-40NV, may be used, but it will produce drier, slightly less sweet results. Our preferred brand of white chocolate is Guittard Choc-Au-Lait White Chips. For best results, chill the mixer bowl before whipping the heavy cream. The entire cake can be made through step 8 and refrigerated up to a day in advance; leave it out at room temperature for up to 45 minutes before releasing it from the cake pan and serving. For neater slices, use a cheese wire or dip your knife in hot water before cutting each slice.

INGREDIENTS

Bottom Layer

• 6tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, plus extra for greasing pan
• 7ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (see note)
• 3/4teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 1 1/2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4large eggs, separated
•  Pinch table salt
• 1/3cup packed (about 2 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar, crumbled with fingers to remove lumps

Middle Layer

• 2tablespoons cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
• 5tablespoons hot water
• 7ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (see note)
• 1 1/2cups cold heavy cream
• 1tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/8teaspoon table salt

Top Layer

• 3/4teaspoon powdered gelatin
• 1tablespoon water
• 6ounces white chocolate chips (see note)
• 1 1/2cups cold heavy cream
•  Shaved chocolate or cocoa powder for serving, optional (see note)

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. FOR THE BOTTOM LAYER: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of 91/2-inch springform pan. Melt butter, chocolate, and espresso powder in large heatproof bowl set over saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat and cool mixture slightly, about 5 minutes. Whisk in vanilla and egg yolks; set aside.
• 2. In stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and salt at medium speed until frothy, about 30 seconds. Add half of brown sugar and beat until combined, about 15 seconds. Add remaining brown sugar and beat at high speed until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, about 1 minute longer, scraping down sides halfway through. Using whisk, fold one-third of beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture to lighten. Using rubber spatula, fold in remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain. Carefully transfer batter to prepared springform pan, gently smoothing top with offset spatula.
• 3. Bake until cake has risen, is firm around edges, and center has just set but is still soft (center of cake will spring back after pressing gently with finger), 13 to 18 minutes. Transfer cake to wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour. (Cake will collapse as it cools.) Do not remove cake from pan.
• 4. FOR THE MIDDLE LAYER: Combine cocoa powder and hot water in small bowl; set aside. Melt chocolate in large heatproof bowl set over saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly, 2 to 5 minutes.
• 5. In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream, granulated sugar, and salt at medium speed until mixture begins to thicken, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, 15 to 60 seconds.
• 6. Whisk cocoa powder mixture into melted chocolate until smooth. Using whisk, fold one-third of whipped cream into chocolate mixture to lighten. Using rubber spatula, fold in remaining whipped cream until no white streaks remain. Spoon mousse into springform pan over cooled cake and gently tap pan on counter 3 times to remove any large air bubbles; gently smooth top with offset spatula. Wipe inside edge of pan with damp cloth to remove any drips. Refrigerate cake at least 15 minutes while preparing top layer.
• 7. FOR THE TOP LAYER: In small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water; let stand at least 5 minutes. Place white chocolate in medium bowl. Bring ½ cup cream to simmer in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from heat; add gelatin mixture and stir until fully dissolved. Pour cream mixture over white chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, about 30 seconds. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, 5 to 8 minutes (mixture will thicken slightly).
• 8. In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip remaining cup cream at medium speed until it begins to thicken, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, 15 to 60 seconds. Using whisk, fold one-third of whipped cream into white chocolate mixture to lighten. Using rubber spatula, fold remaining whipped cream into white chocolate mixture until no white streaks remain. Spoon white chocolate mousse into pan over middle layer. Smooth top with offset spatula. Return cake to refrigerator and chill until set, at least 2½ hours.
• 9. TO SERVE: If using, garnish top of cake with chocolate curls or dust with cocoa. Run thin knife between cake and side of springform pan; remove side of pan. Run cleaned knife along outside of cake to smooth sides. Cut into slices and serve.
  Courtesy of America's Test Kitchen

Rolling Pins and Griddles

Let the holiday baking begin! This past weekend my Mom and I made Lefse for Thanksgiving and Christmas! We started making lefse when I was a teenager. My Grandma taught us how. It always reminds us of her and we reminisce about when she was over and we made lefse! It makes me miss her. Her and I would go back and forth with teasing and always had a good laugh!   

Rolling it is the hardest part! I never even attempted it! I left it to the expert, my mother:)

It was a fun afternoon with my Mom! 

I can't wait to start baking Christmas cookies now!

Do you have any fun baking traditions for the upcoming holidays?