Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd

My roommates officially think I'm crazy.

I'm currently living in an Airbnb with two close friends for the summer while we transition apartments. The previous Airbnb was super cute, but the kitchen was lacking: a hot plate, mini fridge, and a toaster oven were all we had to work with for two weeks. This second place at least has a full kitchen and boasts around 20 different pots and skillets; but oddly at the same time, it has almost no other kitchen tools. And so the improvising begins.

The other day I made a delicious jar of homemade lemon curd--gold, I tell you!--and obviously, I had to make something worthy of spreading such a delicacy on.

Enter, ricotta pancakes. Light, tender, melt-in-your-mouth good. An ideal vessel for lemon curd.

I had all the ingredients except ricotta, which I promptly bought. That night, lying in bed dreaming about the pancakes, I suddenly panicked. What makes the pancakes so light and tender? Whipped egg whites. And not simply whipped, but whipped to stiff peaks. Oh no.

No stand mixer. No handheld blender. Not even a whisk.

The next evening, I assessed the kitchen situation. I would have to whisk the egg whites by hand...with a fork. And with a blender bottle insert held with tongs. Oi.

I separated the eggs, let them come to room temperature, and added cream of tartar to give myself as much of an advantage as possible.

Then I began to whip. And whip. And whip.

It was hard work, but I did see progress. After 10 minutes, the egg whites were not only frothy, but starting to gain some volume.

And then they didn't. They started to deflate. That was when I realized that the back of the fork was hitting the egg whites and deflating the poor, delicate things!

I switched to the blender bottle-tong contraption. Definitely not ideal. But after 20 more minutes of whipping as fast and hard as I could, switching hands when needed, I had soft peaks! Good enough for me--it was 80º in the kitchen, with no AC.

From there it was smooth sailing, and I cooked up a whole pile of pancakes to eat in the following mornings. I was relieved they tasted good after all that hard work!

If you're interested in these recipes, here are the ones I used (I highly recommend NOT whipping the egg whites by hand haha):

Ricotta Pancakes from Food 52

https://food52.com/recipes/24533-cottage-cheese-pancakes-with-creme-fraiche-and-seasonal-fruit

Lemon Curd from Sally's Baking Addiction

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/how-to-make-lemon-curd/

Egg Casserole

This recipe may seem pretty average and unexciting...but let me tell you, there is nothing boring about the flavor at all! Somehow, the simple ingredients of eggs, milk, cheese, bread, meat and a few flavorings all come together to create something delicious.

We've been making this casserole for years at home, but recently, I paired it down to a single-serving to fit in my mini cast iron skillet. Perfect, since it's just me here! It was ooey-gooey, cheesy, and delicious, and I burned my tongue about a million times because turns out 350º cast iron is a great insulator and I had no patience. But you should do this immediately. It was SO cute and fun and delicious. No sharing with other people or my future self required!

Sausage Egg Casserole
Serves: 3-5

6 slices white bread, cubed
1 lb. bulk pork sausage
1 cup shredded cheese (sharp, Swiss, or mixed)
6 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups milk
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of pepper

dash of nutmeg


Brown sausage in frying pan; drain grease. Place bread on bottom of greased 9x13 pan or baking dish. Sprinkle on sausage next, followed by cheese. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over.
Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Bake 350°F for 45-50 min.


Customizations:
-Replace sausage with cubed ham
-Change up the cheese (eg. mozzarella, smoked gouda, swiss, pepper jack)
-Add chopped vegetables (just sauté in oil before adding to casserole to make them a little softer)
-Refrigerating for at least a few hours is recommended, but if you are short on time, you can put it straight into the oven.
-Single-serve: I think I made 1/3 or maybe 1/4 of the recipe, which was a big serving but I most definitely devoured it all myself.

Soft Pretzels Buns and Sugar & Spice Pretzel Bites

It's like the last 9 months up until now was practice for being quarantined. As a freelancer and an introvert, I spent a lot of time at home (where I live alone), so I had a daily routine down, learned how to fill up my time, and how to (more or less) motivate myself to be productive.

Now, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, I get to put all of those skills to good use. Although relatively little has changed in my life compared to other people's lives, quarantine still sucks. There's less work, less freedom, less social time, and as time goes on, a growing feeling of apprehension.

I've found that for me, apart from being active and facetiming with friends and family, one of the best ways of dealing with, well, everything, is baking. So the other night I had a friend over, and we had a baking and bingo night. On the menu: sloppy joes on soft pretzel buns, and sweet and spicy pretzel bites.

The pretzel dough is a relatively quick yeast dough, although it is very hands-on as there are a number of steps involved. Keep in mind that not only are these pretzels delicious, so you'll want to eat all of them as soon as you make them, but you should eat all of them immediately because they taste best fresh!

Using the pretzel roll recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, we split the dough in half. From one half, we shaped six rolls, and from the other half, we made pretzel bites by rolling ropes, cutting them into pieces, and rolling the pieces into little balls.

After boiling, we baked the pretzel rolls per Sally's instructions.

After boiling the pretzel bites, we baked them for 10 minutes, then brushed them with melted butter and rolled them in a half recipe of the sugar mixture before baking for 5 more minutes. Below is the recipe for the sugar & spice topping, and the link for Sally's recipe. Enjoy!

Sugar & Spice Topping

1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs butter, melted

Boil pretzels per Sally's instructions. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven. Brush with melted butter, then roll in sugar & spice mixture. Bake for another 5 minutes.

*Note: This mixture is enough for the full pretzel recipe from Sally. If making half of the dough into rolls and half into pretzel bites, only use half of the sugar & spice topping.

Sally's Pretzel Rolls
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easy-pretzel-rolls/#tasty-recipes-67648

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

This weekend I had a hankering for some pumpkin cheesecake muffins, so I set out to make the perfect fall treat. My high expectations for the first recipe were sadly not met. However, I knew this idea had a ton of potential, so I found a promising new muffin recipe, combined it with my all-time favorite streusel, and crossed my fingers. Some fall magic happened, and I could barely stop myself from eating a second muffin after the first!

The muffins are fairly moist, well spiced, sweet on top, and have a little tang from the cream cheese to balance it out. The tang from the cream cheese plus the sweetness from the cinnamon honey butter are especially good together.

And now excuse me while I nibble a warm muffin and enjoy the first snow of the year.

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Honey Butter

Muffins
12 Tbs (3/4 cup) salted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups flour (can replace a little bit with whole wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Streusel
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbs cold salted butter, cubed
4 oz cream cheese, cut into 16 cubes*

Cinnamon Honey Butter
4 Tbs salted butter, at room temperature
2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with 16-20 paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the eggs, and mix. Add pumpkin and milk; beat until smooth and creamy. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix until just combined; do not over-mix.
3. Make the streusel. Combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add the butter and crumble with your fingers.
4. Divide the batter among the prepared tins. Push 1 cube of cream cheese into each muffin. Sprinkle on the streusel, pressing into the tops of the muffins a little bit. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Make the cinnamon butter. In a small bowl, combine the butter, honey, and cinnamon.
6. Serve smeared with cinnamon butter.

*Cream cheese can be doubled if you like a lot of cream cheese. If you want more of a cheesecake filling, mix together 6 oz room temp cream cheese, 1 egg yolk, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 3 Tbs sugar. I would recommend sticking to the plain cream cheese if you do the cinnamon honey butter, otherwise it will be overwhelmingly sweet.

Muffin and butter recipe from: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/pumpkin-coffee-cake-muffins/

French Onion Soup: The Master Recipe

It's been awhile since I've posted, and life has taken a few turns...

I'm living in New York on my own now, and my favorite part is getting to cook all the time (gotta eat, after all!). To make it even better, my parents surprised me with an Instant Pot, which I've been wanting. It's opened up a whole new world of cooking to me!

The Instant Pot was a little intimidating at first--I imagined hitting the wrong button and the pot exploding from the pressure. But luckily, it's designed better than that (thank you modern technology). Ever since I got it, I've been playing with some new recipes, especially ones that are also cheap and small batch.

Last week I looked at the giant bag of onions in my fridge and knew that it was use them or lose them--I couldn't wait any longer. Not many recipes use up onions like good old French onion soup, so  out came the knife, the onions, and the tears. A few hours later...soup!

I call this recipe the master recipe because it's is based on a bunch of recipes I've seen--it combines them into one set of guidelines so that you can make French Onion Soup based on how you personally like it, and the ingredients and time you have. There are directions for a simple version, but of course, the more time and ingredients you put into it, the better it will taste. Note that fully caramelized onions, beef broth, worcestershire sauce, and gruyere cheese are the most traditional options. Honestly though, it's hard to go wrong as long as you top it with a generous amount of toast and cheese at the end!


French Onion Soup
Serves: 4

Caramelized Onions:
2 lb. sliced onions (yellow, red, sweet, or vidalia)
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbs. butter

Broth:
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 cups water, beef broth, or chicken broth
4-6 slices French or artisan bread, toasted
3/4 cup shredded cheese (gruyere, swiss, mozzarella, provolone, gouda, jarlsberg, emmental, comté)

Optional additions for flavor:
1 bay leaf (step 2)
Sprig of fresh thyme (step 2)
1 - 2 Tbs dry sherry, dry white wine, or red wine (step 3)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (step 4)
Red pepper flakes (step 4)

Stovetop directions:
1. Melt butter in large pot. Add onions, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme. Cook for 10 minutes.
2. Stir onions. Leave 10 minutes, then stir again.
3. Cook onions for 40 more minutes, stirring every 20 minutes. If onions start to stick to pan, add a little water or the wine.
4. When onions are finished caramelizing, add water/broth, salt, pepper, and optional additions.
5. Boil; reduce heat. Simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove bay leaf and thyme. Ladle soup into bowls and top with toast and cheese.


Instant Pot Modifications:
Step 1-3: On Sauté mode, melt butter, then caramelize onions for 10 minutes. Add wine, if using, and sauté for 1-2 minutes, stirring.
Step 4-5: Add remaining ingredients and optional additions; pressure cook for 20 minutes on high; natural release (takes about 15 minutes).


Notes:
*If you are short on time: Cover onions and cook on stovetop for 10 minutes until they are tender. After adding broth, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
*Remember, the longer the onions are cooked, the longer the soup simmers, and the more flavorings you add, the better it will taste.
*Beef broth tastes best, but water or chicken broth are fine as well. Water is only recommended to use if you are fully caramelizing the onions, otherwise flavor will be majorly lacking.

Peppermint Pretzel Marshmallow Fudge

I'm sure you already know that I'm a chocoholic. The richer the chocolate, the better. But until now, I've never made fudge...in fact, I rarely get the chance to eat it! *gasp*
When I see fudge in shops—you know, those giant blocks of homemade fudge in all kinds of flavors—my eyes get wide and I hang around, hoping for a sample.
When I see fudge at parties, I go straight for it, ignoring any casualties which may be an effect of my extreme focus on that fudge.

But now I have made my very own, very chocolatey, very Christmasy fudge. It's good. So good that I cut it into unusually small pieces so that I can eat two (or more) pieces with less guilt.

This fudge is perfect for Christmas. And yes, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Maddie—isn't Christmas over?"

Yes, yes it is. But you see, I made this fudge on Christmas Eve. Then I had to wait all the way until Christmas Day to take pictures and eat it (torture), and since then, I haven't had time to write about it. I've had cats to feed, games to play, babies to babysit...you get the picture.
But so what? It's still December, so I can still justify eating and blogging about this oh-so-yummy fudge. Plus—peppermint is always a good thing, right? Yes? Then make this fudge!

As you can probably tell from the pictures and the name (yes, I know it's a bit of a mouthful, but no ingredient here should be understated), this fudge has peppermint, pretzels, and marshmallows in it.
The peppermint pieces are what make this fudge perfect for Christmas. The sweet little chunks pair perfectly with the chocolate, complimenting the chocolate's richness with its bright flavor—the two were made to be together.
The pretzels bring a crunchiness that balances out the smoothness of the chocolate and the ooey-gooeyness of the marshmallows, and a saltiness that calms the intense burst of sugar from (again) the marshmallows and the chocolate.
The marshmallows take this fudge over the top. Not only are they sprinkled throughout the fudge, but they are METLED INTO IT. So yeah, the marshmallows make the fudge extra sweet and extra good, reminding me of hot chocolate (another winter thing that I am in love with); marshmallows are the essential gooey factor.

One more thing—I think that you will be happy to know that there is not one, but two peppermint-pretzel-marshmallow layers. Yum.


Peppermint Pretzel Marshmallow Fudge
Recipe from: http://joythebaker.com/2014/12/peppermint-pretzel-marshmallow-fudge/

Garlic Parmesan Kale Chips

Today, it's -12ºF, feels like -36ºF. Just in case you're wondering how us midwesterners are faring. Luckily, school is cancelled, so I get to stay home and play in the kitchen.

The other day I bought some kale, planning on eating it in salads. When I looked in the fridge, I didn't like my dressing options, so I ended up coating the leaves in strawberry jam to take away the bitterness. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad tasting--but it did kinda defeat the point of kale. Today, I decided to experiment with the rest of the kale. It turned out great, so I now present to you...garlic parmesan kale chips!

As these were baking, everyone (I'm currently staying with a friend at her parents' house) wondered what the nice smell was. But when I pulled kale chips out of the oven, Emmie was not happy that it was just a flavored "bush." But it's a healthy bush, I reminded her! That did not help.

In the end, I'm the only one that liked the chips. But honestly, what's not to like? They're lightly crispy, quite garlicky, and very healthy. I literally ate half the pan before I had to force myself to put the rest in a box for later!

So, you'll just have to decide yourself. Are you team nasty bush or tasty bush?

Garlic Parmesan Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper

Fresh or dried parmesan, grated

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a jelly roll pan with tin foil.
Wash, dry, and de-stem the kale; rip into 1-inch sized pieces. Pour a little olive oil over the kale, and mix with hands until all of the kale is lightly coated. Do not drench.
Spread kale evenly in one layer over the pan. Sprinkle on garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. If using fresh parmesan, sprinkle it on now. If using dried parmesan, sprinkle on after removing from oven.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until slightly crispy. Do not let brown.