Tried and True — Ginger Pumpkin Tart

November 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
GingerPumpkinTart-Final
I remem­ber my first Thanks­giv­ing that I decided to cook. Remem­ber, this was dur­ing the ages where I thought a kitchen was there for dec­o­ra­tion, not uti­liza­tion. I bought a pie (yes, one of those frozen ones) and I burnt it beyond recog­ni­tion. I was crushed. I have made no secret of my lack of cook­ing skills way back when and, look­ing back on that inci­dent, if I could tell my twenty-something self to stop beat­ing myself up over it, I would.

Nor­mally, for the hol­i­days, I make a dessert that doesn’t take me back to the burnt frozen pie days and it turns out okay. How­ever, pump­kin pie – oh heck no. I didn’t want to dare try it. That was until I saw an episode of 5 Ingre­di­ent Fix and Claire Robin­son made this Gin­ger Pump­kin Tart that was SO sim­ple, it is offi­cially going in my tried and true arse­nal. The key is the crushed gin­ger­snaps – so much fla­vor in that sim­ple crust.  I added a bit of pump­kin pie spice to the fill­ing, topped the final prod­uct with a touch of Cruzan laced whipped cream and it was the per­fect end­ing to a hol­i­day meal.

So, the next time you decide that time is not on your side and you don’t have time to make a pump­kin pie from scratch, think twice, pull out this recipe and give it a shot. This recipe will have you bak­ing in stilet­tos in no time.

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Filed Under: Baking In Stilettos, Claire Robinson, Desserts, Holiday, Recipe, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , , ,

Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival Is Just Around The Corner

September 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
NYCWFF2011Logo

NYCWFF2011Logo 300x152 Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival Is Just Around The Corner

I was look­ing at my cal­en­dar the other day and noticed that the Food Net­work New York City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val is com­ing up fast. I seri­ously don’t know where the time went. One minute we were at SOBE, the next the Atlantic City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val sip­ping on some Bour­bon Cider cock­tails and now I have some seri­ous wardrobe plan­ning for NYCWFF. There’s some­thing about being in New York City dur­ing the crisp fall months – it’s pure magic from the minute you arrive.

Food Net­work New York City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val   kicks off Sep­tem­ber 29, 2011 through Octo­ber 2, 2011 and is one of my favorite events for fall. We’re talk­ing social­iz­ing with fel­low food­ies, learn­ing tips and tricks from Food Network/Cooking Chan­nel chefs, amaz­ing nib­bles and sips and some seri­ously cool expe­ri­ences.  Last year was two jam packed days of demos, pan­els, milling through the enor­mous Grand Tast­ing tent, a mas­ter cook­ing class with Alex Guar­naschelli, Chelsea Mar­ket shop­ping (oh the cook­books I brought home – my poor book­shelf!).  Not to men­tion, I quickly learned the 10 Com­mand­ments for attend­ing NYCWFF which I will be fol­low­ing reli­giously!   NYCWFF was one of my high­lights of 2010.

There are still tick­ets on sale for the 2011 NYCWFF and this time they are hold­ing the demos at the Tast­ing Tents instead of indi­vid­ual venues.  Basi­cally, you get to attend the demos, sam­ple var­i­ous dishes and cock­tails all for one low price. Check out the lineup for Sunday’s demos at the Grand Tasting: Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Sunny Ander­son, Anne Bur­rell, Anthony Bour­dain, and on and on and on. Yes, I know – it’s the price of a pair of Tory Burch flats but trust me when I say it’s WELL WORTH IT!

Plus, only at NYCWFF will you get to go bowl­ing with Chef Anne Bur­rell, tour the Chelsea Mar­ket after dark with Emeril, nosh on stone crab from Miami’s George’s Stone Crab with Claire Robin­son, cock­tails and caviar with the Cook­ing Channel’s Debi Mazar and Gabriele Cor­cos and no Food Net­work fes­ti­val would be com­plete with the Neelys’ brunch.

OK – so with that said, who’s going? It’s going to be an amaz­ing time – Lee Schrager and Food Net­work throw one heck of a party with mem­o­ries that will last a lifetime!

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Filed Under: Alex Guarnaschelli, Anthony Bourdain, Bobby Flay, Claire Robinson, Cooking Channel, Culinary Events, Emeril, Food Network, Sunny Anderson, The Neelys, Travel Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Tried and True: Baked Shroom Rice

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
BakedShroomRice-Final
Rice and I are far from strangers. The Sous Pug’s new home-cooked diet requires that he have quite a bit of rice daily and I’m con­stantly cook­ing it. It got to be where I finally gave in and invested in a rice cooker Tried and True: Baked Shroom Rice to make life a bit eas­ier than stand­ing over a stove and pos­si­bly burn­ing it (not that I’ve EVER done that *cough cough*).

Claire Robin­son made a dish recently on 5 Ingre­di­ent Fix – Baked Shroom Rice – and she promised that it was pretty much fool­proof. She was not kid­ding – it is offi­cially a Tried & True recipe in this house­hold. And, even bet­ter – after a few short steps, I could just toss it in the oven and the oven would do the heavy lift­ing.  Basi­cally fix it and for­get it – LOVE! Plus – with only five ingre­di­ents, I had mostly every­thing already in my pantry.

So, when you are look­ing for some­thing other than plain ol’ rice, why not give Baked Shroom Rice a try . Your fam­ily won’t even know how easy it is to pre­pare which leaves you with time for a great cock­tail – per­haps a lit­tle Bour­bon Cider Twist action?

Tried and True: Baked Shroom Rice
Print
Recipe type: Side Dish
Author: Adapted from Claire Robin­son
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 4–6
Ingre­di­ents
  • 2 table­spoons unsalted butter
  • 8 ounces of baby porta­bello mush­rooms, sliced (Claire sug­gested Shi­takes but I often have porta­bel­los on hand)
  • 2 cloves gar­lic, minced
  • 1 cup long grain white rice
  • Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
  • 2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Direc­tions
  1. Pre­heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In an oven­proof saucepan, melt the but­ter over medium-high heat.
  3. When the foam sub­sides, add the mush­rooms and saute until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.
  4. Add the gar­lic, mak­ing sure to not burn it – about 1 minute.
  5. Add the rice to the mush­room gar­lic mix­ture and stir to coat, mak­ing sure that the rice is toasted.
  6. Sea­son with salt and pepper.
  7. Add the chicken stock and deglaze the pan. Bring to a oil.
  8. Cover with a lid and cook on the mid­dle rack in the oven until all the liq­uid is absorbed and the rice is ten­der, 17 to 20 minutes.
  9. Remove from the oven and let stand, cov­ered, 5 minutes.
  10. Fluff with a fork and serve.
Google Recipe View Micro­for­mat­ting by Easy Recipe

 

Gather the Ingredients

BakedShroomRice Ingredients 300x199 Tried and True: Baked Shroom Rice

In the words of  Julia Child – Don’t Crowd The Mushrooms

BakedShroomRice Mushrooms 300x199 Tried and True: Baked Shroom Rice

Now – how easy was that?

BakedShroomRice Final 300x199 Tried and True: Baked Shroom Rice

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Filed Under: Claire Robinson, Recipe, Side Dish, Sous Pug, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , ,

Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

February 4, 2011 By 3 Comments

Remind me to give that Punx­sutawney Phil a big kiss one day – the ground­hog has promised us an early spring and I, along with much of the North­east, would be thrilled to kick Ol’ Man Win­ter outta here and look for­ward to sun, flow­ers, cock­tails on the Bour­bon Blue deck and the promise of green grass instead of this “snert” aka dirty snow. Plus, with spring comes base­ball sea­son and, as a Phillies fan, that always makes me happy. So, again with the happy thoughts for this week’s Fab Fri­day as we spot­light some beau­ties that have us all a-twitter.

1. Brian Atwood has hit it out of the park yet again with the Maniac, this time in one of my favorite metallics – Rose Gold. Vic­to­ria Beck­ham had sent her run­way mod­els wear­ing these dur­ing her last show and when I saw the pho­tos, I about stopped in my tracks. These stilet­tos are one of my lust items for Spring ’11.

2. I tend to stick with brands I love and this Laguiole Cheese Knife Set from Anthro­polo­gie is a must for my kitchen. Func­tional and fab­u­lous! Plus, I adore the bright col­ors – more “spring-like”, no?

3. These vin­tage kitchen scales from NapaStyle are retro and would look per­fect in today’s coun­try style kitchen or in the pages of the next issue of “Where Women Cook“

4. 5 Ingre­di­ent Fix: Easy, Ele­gant, and Irre­sistible Recipes Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition by Claire Robin­son is another one of those cook­books that I won­der what I ever did with­out. The recipes are pretty sim­ple, the fla­vors are out of this world and if you aren’t watch­ing Claire Robinson’s show on Food Net­work, c’mon – you must give it a shot.

5. One place I’m super stoked to check out in Man­ayunk is The Spi­ral Book­case. I adore books and there is some­thing to be said about find­ing a gen­tly used copy of a book I haven’t read in for­ever – whether it’s a cook­book that is from way back when or a really good novel. When you are in Man­ayunk, drop in and say hello – and don’t be sur­prised if you see me millin’ about, after all, their next door neigh­bor is a local cof­fee spot – Mugshots.

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Filed Under: Bourbon Blue, Claire Robinson, Cookbook, Cool Products, Fab Friday, Fashion, Favorite Things, NapaStyle, Philly, Shopping In Stilettos Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Save The Date: Nigella Lawson’s KITCHEN To Be Released

September 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Nigella Lawson KITCHEN

NL NigellaKitchen 227x300 Save The Date: Nigella Lawsons KITCHEN To Be Released 

You can always tell when the hol­i­days are fast approach­ing because there is a whole trea­sure trove of cook­books slated for release.   Between Claire Robin­son Save The Date: Nigella Lawsons KITCHEN To Be Released, Tyler Flo­rence, Save The Date: Nigella Lawsons KITCHEN To Be Released Michael Chiarello Save The Date: Nigella Lawsons KITCHEN To Be Released, Daisy Mar­tinez Save The Date: Nigella Lawsons KITCHEN To Be Released, and the much adored Bare­foot Con­tessa Save The Date: Nigella Lawsons KITCHEN To Be Released - my book­shelf is going to be rather full.  

How­ever, I have to say, in terms of pri­or­ity Nigella Lawson’s new cookbook, ”KITCHEN” is on my pre-order list.  It’s slated for release on Octo­ber 12, 2010 and I’m guess­ing between her  cook­book and Ina Garten’s, those will be two of the most gifted for the hol­i­day season.

What new cook­books are you look­ing for­ward to check­ing out?

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Filed Under: Barefoot Contessa, Claire Robinson, Cookbook, Daisy Martinez, Food Network, Nigella Lawson, Tyler Florence Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pumpkin Seed Cherry Trail Mix-More Addictive Than Pistachios

January 20, 2010 By 6 Comments
PumpkinDriedCherryTrailMixIngredients.jpg

One of my favorite must watch tv shows is NCIS and it never fails that when USA Net­work is show­ing a marathon, I always get sucked in.  What can I say, I think Gibbs (Mark Har­mon) is hilar­i­ous and you know how I am about my crime dra­mas.  One of the quotes that the USA Net­work always shows is Abby telling Gibbs that some­thing is “more addic­tive than pis­ta­chios.  Well, have you ever eaten just one pis­ta­chio?”

Well, I have to warn you that this Pump­kin Seed Cherry Trail Mix from Food Network’s Claire Robin­son is way more addic­tive than pis­ta­chios.  Not only is it healthy for you but you will find your­self graz­ing through­out the day on it.  It’s super sim­ple to make and I’m sure much health­ier than, oh, let’s say a bag of Dori­tos.  I added some dried cran­ber­ries I had lying in the pantry which was a nice switch from the cherries.

Now let’s see how long this super tall jar lasts in this household…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pump­kin Seed Dried Cherry & Cran­berry Trail Mix

Recipe cour­tesy of Claire Robin­son, Food Network

Ingre­di­ents

  • 2 cups baby pump­kin seeds (pepitas)
  • 1 cup sliv­ered almonds
  • 3/4 cup raw sun­flower seeds
  • 6 table­spoons pure Grade B maple syrup
  • Coarse salt
  • 1 cup dried cherries
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Direc­tions

Pre­heat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line 2 bak­ing sheets with parch­ment paper or sil­i­cone bak­ing mats.

In a large bowl, toss the pump­kin seeds, almonds, and sun­flower seeds and the syrup until evenly coated. Spread the nuts and seeds out, in an even sin­gle layer, on the lined bak­ing sheets and sea­son with salt to taste. Bake the nuts, stir­ring sev­eral times with spat­ula or wooden spoon, until just golden, about 20 minutes.

Cool the nuts com­pletely on the pan, then add the cher­ries and cran­ber­ries and toss to com­bine. Store cooled trail mix in an air­tight con­tainer at room temperature.

Lin­ing Up The Ingredients….

PumpkinDriedCherryTrailMixIngredients thumb Pumpkin Seed Cherry Trail Mix More Addictive Than Pistachios

Thank God for Sil­pat!  Every­one Into The Pool…

PumpkinDriedCherryTrailMixBowl thumb Pumpkin Seed Cherry Trail Mix More Addictive Than Pistachios

Mix, Mix, Mix

PumpkinDriedCherryTrailMixFinal thumb Pumpkin Seed Cherry Trail Mix More Addictive Than Pistachios

Store In Air­tight Con­tainer, Prefer­ably With Com­bi­na­tion Lock… All Mine!

PumpkinDriedCherryTrailMixStorage thumb Pumpkin Seed Cherry Trail Mix More Addictive Than Pistachios

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Filed Under: Claire Robinson, Food Network, Recipe, Tried and True, TV Tagged With: , , , ,

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