It’s moving day here at Chow Bella. I (unfortunately) no longer live in Italy, therefore I decided to create a new blog, one that is more well-suit to my life nowadays.
New blog: Stir/Crazy
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Happy snacking!
Things teachers get excited about:
Through the course of my preparations for my first year of teaching, I’ve learned many things. The most important of all my newly developed skills is the ability to forage for supplies. As in, if you are walking down the hall and see something semi-usable that does not seem to have a current owner, you grab it. Then you hide it. Because somehow, somewhere down the line, you’ll need it.
My most recent acquisitions include the aforementioned binder, some scissors, a stack of old National Geographic magazines, and 4-5 previously used (but only 25% filled) notebooks. Don’t ask me where I hid them. I’ll never tell.
I currently have my eye on some hanging wall pocket folders, but that heist is going to require some premeditation, strategizing, and possibly a wig.
Definitely a wig.
After a long day in the Blackboard Jungle, sometimes cookies are a non-negotiable necessity. You try to talk yourself out of it. You eyeball the carrots in your fridge and contemplate what your life would be like if you were the kind of person that could find those a satisfactory alternative. You look wistfully at your skinny jeans, banished to the Shame Corner in your closet. You spy, with your little eye, your yoga pants, so friendly and stretchy, ask the Muffin Top Gods for forgiveness, and reach for the measuring cup.
You solemnly do ab workouts the entire time the cookies are in the oven.
These are chewy and delicious and the chocolate chips add a little extra punch of sweetness. You could also add nuts, or, if you have no shred of decency and morals whatsoever, throw some raisins in.
Recipe for Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (adapted from The Pioneer Woman)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet (or line with parchment paper) and set aside.
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in thirds, combining after every addition.
Add oats and chocolate chips and stir to combine.
Drop cookie dough by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet, approximately 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until edges are golden-brown.
This is the pinnacle of healthy indulgence. The crown jewel of Things That Taste Sinful But Aren’t. Step aside, FroYo, and surrender your throne. You were only ever a vehicle for cheesecake bites and Reese’s peanut butter cups anyways.
Everybody is all about quinoa lately, and if you aren’t, you need to be. Not only is it delicious and versatile, it’s a complete protein! It contains all nine amino acids that the human diet requires. Once upon a sophomore year, I would have been able to recite AND draw out all of those chemical structures. Now I just munch on them.
I happened to have Rainbow Quinoa on hand (hence the pretty colors), but any type will work. Before you cook quinoa, you want to be sure to give it a good rinse, otherwise the end product might have a strange, bitter taste. The general formula for cooking quinoa involves a 2 : 1 ratio of liquid : quinoa, and typically takes about 15-20 minutes. Cooking it in chicken stock (or any other kind of stock) is nice because of the added flavor boost, so what I typically do is use water and add half a bouillon cube to the pot.
Bouillon is not spelled at all how I expected.
Another important lesson I’ve learned is that you should always chop way too much baby spinach, because when you wilt it down, it will all disappear and you’ll be sad about it. Just wildly overestimate how much you’ll need, because too much spinach is never a bad thing. Also, I used both white onions and green onions for these cakes, but you can use whatever kind you like.
I served these with a really quick and equally healthy sauce made from greek yogurt, lemon juice, and dill. So fresh and so good. (Good.)
I lightly pan-fried these, but next time I’m going to try making them even healthier by baking them. Then I’m going to make them way less healthy by putting them in a burger bun and putting some avocado on top. Or in a pita pocket with tzatziki and onions and tomatoes. The possibilities are endless.
Recipe for Spinach Quinoa Cakes (adapted from Panini Happy)
In a skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, and spinach, and cook until spinach is wilted and onions are soft. Transfer mixture to a medium-sized bowl.
To the mixture, add quinoa, dill, salt, bread crumbs, eggs, and goat cheese crumbles. Gently combine all ingredients.
Add 2 Tbsp. olive oil to the skillet (it may be necessary to rinse the skillet from the previous use), and heat oil at medium heat. Once oil is hot, drop the quinoa mixture in and flatten to form cakes of desired size and thickness.
Allow cakes to cook on one side for 1-2 min before flipping. Once cakes are golden-brown on both sides, remove from pan. Serve cakes hot, with lemon dill dipping sauce.
Recipe for Lemon Dill dipping sauce
Combine all ingredients and refrigerate sauce until ready to serve.
My list of recent achievements:
Having done all of that, I feel as though I’m teetering dangerously on the verge of Growing Up, and one good Swiffering session is all it will take to push me over to the other side.
(I previously viewed the Swiffer as a means to push my possessions around on the floor. I now PICK THINGS UP before I Swiff.)
Surely someone who has matured to the point of no longer viewing the floor as an extra shelf can manage the added responsibility of, say, blogging more often? I think so. That is why I am resolving to blog once a week, instead of the pretty solid once-every-six-months pattern I’ve adopted. I now have my own kitchen (small, but allllll mine), and I have cookbooks, and the World Wide Interweb. I am going to come at you once a week with something delicious. It may not be fancy. It may be something as simple as grilled cheese with caramelized onions (a complete revelation, go try it). But it will be shared right here every single week. And if I can keep this up for the entire school year, next summer I will treat myself to a fancy new camera lens. And a damn cupcake.
See you soon!
Now look upon these adorable spice labels.
These little magnetic jars are great, they stick right on the fridge, leaving you with more countertop and cabinet space for your two types of peanut butter and myriad of different hot sauces. I got them from my parents’ basement, a veritable treasure trove of housewares, but I’m pretty sure you can get them at Bed, Bath and Beyond too.
Yes, one of the jars is missing a label. It’s driving me crazy. I have to go.
I think this is the first time that I have been apart from my mom on Mother’s Day in my entire 23 years as a daughter. I wish that I could be home right now, making my mom some delicious brunch, and spending the day together having fun, watching movies, and probably cleaning out my dresser drawers (I WILL GET TO IT, MOTHER).
But although I can’t actually be there, I can use this blog post to talk about all of the things that make my mom awesome.
Let’s talk about how, even if I were at home right now, it would be impossible to arrange a Mother’s Day surprise that would be nearly as elaborate and well-executed as the surprises that she puts together for us every Christmas, birthday, Valentine’s Day, or any other celebratory occasion. This is the lady who BROKE INTO my apartment on my 21st birthday (while I was in class), covered everything in streamers and confetti and left Diet Coke, chocolate pizza, and an assortment of mini liquor bottles on my desk. Slightly amazing.
There is one very upsetting thing about my mother, though. You know that omniscience that is granted to mothers to allow them to know things that the rest of us just can’t? My mother’s got it in spades. The lady is ALWAYS RIGHT. Even if it takes me 6 years to realize it (looking at you, ugly prom dress), she is always, always right. And it only took me 23 years to figure it out.
Her resumé includes raising two daughters who, in addition to being a little stubborn, a little melodramatic, and a little crazy, are also incredibly photogenic.
This blog is actually the perfect place to talk about my mom (and I do mention her frequently), because she is really the one who taught me how to cook and bake. She makes the most delicious food you will ever eat, and I hope I can one day do the same, and make it look as easy as she does. She’s always the voice of reason when it comes to eating well and being healthy, advocating for everything in moderation and depriving yourself of nothing. Everything I know (and lots of things I don’t know!) about food and love come from her, and I wish that I could be home right now, watching her scowl and surreptitiously remove some of the butter from whatever dough/batter I’m in the process of making.
I love you Mom also give me the Reporter Bag you never use it.
I spent 5 minutes trying to think of a shorter name for these bars (and, consequently, for this blog post). At the end, I couldn’t bring myself to leave anything out, and I decided that these bars are worthy of a 53-letter name. (Yes, I counted.) (No, I did not count carefully, so it might not actually be 53.)
These little monsters are going to become a regular occurrence in my life (jk Mom, never again) because they are THAT GOOD. I know this, because most of them were gone in about 12 minutes. And there were only two of us.
The first bit of magic is the browned butter. If you melt butter and let it stay on the heat for a little while, it starts to take on this beautiful amber-brown color, and suddenly the whole apartment is filled with this crazy, nutty smell that signals the imminent arrival of something delicious. You do have to babysit the butter though, because it will go from brown to burnt very quickly, and then it’s no good.
Once the browned-butter cookie dough is made, half of it is pressed into the pan, and that’s when good decision-making and rational thought go out the window. Because that’s when the whole thing gets covered in Nutella. Then the rest of the cookie dough gets pressed on top of the Nutella layer, sprinkled with sea salt, and baked. The salt on top is a perfect balance for the sugar-overload going on underneath it. You won’t be sorry.
Whatever you do, don’t do this while you wait for your cookie bars to bake…
Unless you are in the thick of final projects and papers, and in that case, you deserve a treat while you wait for your other treat to bake.
At least you worked it off by going to the gym exactly zero times in the past 2 weeks!
As you can see, a lot of my chocolate chips ended up melting into the cookie dough, rather than retaining their chippy integrity. This happened because the dough was still a little warm after the addition of the browned butter, causing the chips to start to melt on contact. This can be easily fixed by letting the dough cool for a little bit before throwing the chocolate chips in. The only reason I point this out is because the chips that didn’t melt into the dough re-hardened when the bars cooled, which added a nice little crunch to the otherwise soft and gooey texture.
Even if all your chips melt, this is still going to be the best thing you’ve ever tasted.
Salty Brown Butter Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Recipe
Preheat the oven to 325°, and grease an 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ baking pan.
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and continue cooking until amber flecks begin to appear, and butter takes on a rich, brown color. Remove from heat and transfer browned butter to a large mixing bowl.
Combine the browned butter with the brown sugar and white sugar. Cream the mixture using an electric hand (or stand) mixer until pale and smooth.
Add eggs and vanilla, and combine thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and combine thoroughly (either using the mixer or by hand).
Allow the mixture to cool completely, then add the chocolate chips.
Press half of the cookie dough into the greased pan. Spread a layer of Nutella (the amount is up to you!) evenly over the cookie dough.
Press the remaining cookie dough on top of the Nutella layer, then sprinkle with sea salt. (Again, the amount here is up to you, but I recommend not being too shy about it!)
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean (except for a possible Nutella smear!). Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!
Spring is coming, even if I have to drag it here by its teeth. For a dinner party tonight, I had to make a dessert that would be easy to eat, without the fuss of slicing and plating and other tasks that delay consumption. I landed on petit fours – they’re basically tiny, bite-sized layer cakes, and they are fun to decorate and easy to eat. In keeping with the impending season, I chose lemon curd and blackberry preserves as the fillings, to give these little nuggets a kick of citrus-y, fruity freshness.
p.s. The colors in that picture are not enhanced. They really are that obnoxiously neon.
I’m not entirely sure why I bothered to take an “ingredients picture” if I was only going to include half of the ingredients in it, but it happened, and I think we should all try to move on. The diet Pepsi has nothing to do with the recipe, but it fueled me through the whole messy process, so it deserves a cameo in this post. And I forgot to remove it before I took the picture. Frazzled.
These are total cheater’s petit fours, as I used frozen Sara Lee butter pound cake rather than making my own cake. Judge not, this lets you skip one giant step in this multi-step process. Also – and I was surprised at this – the cake itself is actually delicious! Plus, if you start working with it right out of the freezer, it will be much easier to slice up. Of course, if you insist on being a baking rockstar and making your own cake, you can just freeze it yourself before working on it. I’m not trying to tell you how to life your life.
While the cake is still frozen, slice off the edges and even it up so that you are left with a nice, smooth, symmetrical block. Save the scraps! They make a yummy little snack to munch on while you are baking. Or afterwards, with some coffee or some ice cream or whatever you want!
The term “petit four” means “small oven” in French. Originally, petit fours were baked in coal-fired brick ovens as they cooled, to take advantage of the residual heat. They can be sweet or savory. I’m not entirely sure what the distinction between petit fours and canapés is, as both seem to refer to small appetizers that must be consumed en masse in order to feel anywhere near satiated. And then there are amuse-bouches, (translation: mouth amusers). I think generally “canapé” is used to refer to a savory appetizer, and amuse-bouches fall into this category as well. The term “petit four”, conversely, is usually applied to tiny little desserts. Somebody please straighten me out if I have this all wrong. Regardless of what these are called, we clearly have the French to thank for them (and for the resultant confusion regarding terminology).
Before making these, I recommend laying out newspapers or wax paper all over your work surface – the icing will drip everywhere, and this will cut down the clean-up process substantially. The frosting is basically royal icing, so keep that in mind when selecting your fillings – something with a little tang or tartness will help balance out the sweetness of the coating.
I used coconut extract in the frosting, but almond extract, or even mint extract (depending on the fillings) would work well too!
Recipe for Lemon Blackberry Petit Fours
Prepare the lemon curd and let it cool (you can speed this up by putting the bowl of lemon curd in an ice bath).
Remove the pound cakes from the freezer and trim all edges and sides (including the top) until they are two smooth blocks. Slice each block into 3 layers (like you would to make a layer cake).
On top of two of the layers, spread a layer of lemon curd (amount of lemon curd is up to you, but don’t use too much or the petit fours won’t hold together as well). On another two cake layers, spread the blackberry preserves.
Stack each cake so that their is a layer with blackberry preserves, topped with a layer with lemon curd, topped with the final layer. You may need to trim the sides again to make sure they are perfectly even.
Slice each cake into squares – mine were about 1″ squares, but you can do whatever size you like.
Put all the squares back in the freezer until you are ready to frost them (this will keep them from falling apart while frosting).
Frosting:
Set up a double-boiler, or a heatproof bowl balanced over a saucepan of simmering water. Put all the ingredients in the bowl, and stir to combine. Bring the frosting up to a lukewarm temperature, so that it is “liquid-y” enough to easily coat the cakes.
Set up a cooling rack with newspaper/wax paper underneath to catch all the drippings from the frosting.
Remove the cake squares from the freezer and dip each one into the frosting, then set on the cooling rack. The icing will take 5-10 minutes to solidify. Once the icing is solid, you can remove the cakes from the cooling rack and place them on a serving platter. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Enjoy!
Guess who’s back…back again…
I’ve been cooking up a storm on this beautiful Easter Sunday, and as I lie here on the couch, stuffed full of delicious food, I figure I may as well do something productive (but not that productive) and bloggaboutit. I broke out my Heavy Fancy Camera for the first time in months, and I’m here to share the fruits (de mer) of my labor.
This soup is creamy. It’s spicy. It’s shrimpy. I can’t even talk about it.
I learned something important about myself today. I have a lot of kitchen-stress. If I’m preparing more than one dish (and today I was preparing three), I become a crazy person, and probably a bad friend. I smack people with spatulas if they put on music that I don’t like. I run with scissors. I use bad words. I use good words badly. I basically break all the rules of kindergarten.
The recipe for this soup originally called for only green onions (scallions). Unstoppable maverick that I am, I used both green onions and regular white onions. We’ve temporarily left the strictly regimented world of baking, and stepped into the free-will realm of cooking. Anything goes. Winter is coming.
The cool thing about this soup is that, if you want a broth-y soup rather than a creamy soup (looking at you, Mom), you can skip the roux and half-n-half entirely, and just use the vegetable stock as the base. When I proposed this idea to my friend and fellow Easter feaster, I was greeted with a pained look and a plaintive gesture towards the butter and cream. Either way, you won’t be sorry.
This is me madly whisking half-and-half into a rapidly browning roux. Calm down, lady.
If you feel fancy, you can set aside a few shrimp to sauté with a little butter and cajun seasoning, to use as a garnish. Or just throw them all right into the soup and call it a day.
Recipe for Cajun Shrimp and Artichoke Soup (adapted from eRecipecards.blogspot.com)
In a medium saucepan, combine vegetable stock, onions (green and white), artichokes, and cajun seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
In a separate saucepan, make a roux by melting the butter and blending it with the flour – this will result in a thick, pasty consistency. Once the flour is fully blended, add the half-and half and whisk it together with the roux until completely incorporated.
Once the half-and-half mixture has thickened slightly, add it to the saucepan with the vegetable stock, and stir to combine. Allow the soup to continue simmering for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Add the shrimp to the soup and continue cooking for approximately 3-4 minutes, or until shrimp are pink and curled up.
Note: do NOT add the shrimp until you are ready to serve the soup, as shrimp cook very quickly, and will begin to overcook if left for too long.
Add additional salt or cajun seasoning to taste, and enjoy!
The last time I did this (all the way back in July), I had just moved to New York City and I was consuming alarming amounts of pastries. Fast forward 5 months, and I’m doing much the same thing. But now at least I’m baking them first.
Given the responsibility for Thanksgiving dessert, my mind started wandering into the realm of pumpkins and apples and spices and pies. But in the name of appeasing a picky cousin, I turned away from these happy autumn treats and steered towards an even happier star ingredient: chocolate.
It took all of 30 seconds for me to settle on these dangerous little cakes – I’ve made the recipe several times before and it has never failed to make people continue reaching for more bites even when there is simply no more real estate available in their stomachs.
I’m happy to say that this time was no different, and even after a delicious dinner (during which unspeakable amounts of mashed potatoes were consumed), no one could turn down at least a few bites of dessert.
This dessert starts by melting chocolate and butter together. Don’t worry if you don’t own a double-boiler, any heat-proof bowl placed over a saucepan filled with boiling water will work. The basic idea is that the chocolate/butter shouldn’t come into direct contact with the heat source.
I’m slowly trying to get into the habit of baking and taking pictures again, but time is becoming an increasingly rare and precious commodity in my life. I begin to fear I’m turning into an adult.
In the name of staving off adulthood, dinner tonight will be Diet Coke and jellybeans.
Molten Chocolate Cakes recipe (adapted from Joy of Baking)
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Prepare 8 individual ramekins by buttering the bottom and sides. Set aside.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water). Once the mixture is completely melted and smooth, set aside to cool.
Using an electric mixer or hand mixer, beat the egg yolks and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla stir until blended.
Combine the chocolate mixture and the egg yolk mixture in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
Using a rubber spatula, incorporate egg whites into the chocolate mixture GENTLY – do not overmix or this will deflate the batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the ramekins. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the outside of the cakes are done but the insides/middle remain a little wobbly. If you want less “lava” in the middle, bake the cakes a few minutes longer.
Remove from oven and let rest for a minute or two. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, or just by themselves.
Makes 8 individual ramekins.
New URL: chowbellanyc.wordpress.com
It has been a while. Last time I was here, I was lamenting about leaving Rome and never seeing the Pantheon again and missing out on all that delicious pizza. Well, it’s about 4 months later and nothing has changed. Except that I just moved to New York City!!! I’m here to get my Masters degree so that I can get a job so that I can be a real person so that I can fund my pizza/pasta/cannoli addiction.
Speaking of cannoli…
What better place to bridge the gap between Rome and NYC than Little Italy? Now really just a few blocks on Mulberry St., Little Italy is packed with restaurants, bakeries, gelaterias, and knockoff handbag stores. All of this is located dangerously close to where I live, perfect for when I get hit with a big wave of Romesickness. I haven’t really started to try out the restaurants yet, but dessert is really more important anyways, right?
I first came to Ferrara years ago with my family, and we haven’t stopped talking about it since. My mom remembers the soft pignoli cookies, my dad remembers the long line, and I remember the cannoli. A crispy, flaky outer shell that is just dying to crumble itself all over your clothing, filled with a sweet ricotta filling studded with mini chocolate chips. Yes, please.
Lest you think Ferrara’s is a one-trick pony, the display case is filled with all kinds of treats. A girl can get overwhelmed when confronted with these kinds of choices! Who can possibly choose??
Not me. Luckily, almost every dessert is available in a mini size, allowing for the creation of a small sampler box, in the event you should find yourself as flustered and torn as I was. The sales ladies are very nice, and extremely patient when you are trying to decided between a regular or chocolate-dipped mini cannolo (get both, obviously). In addition to those, I ordered a mini Napoleon (redundant?), a strawberry tart, and a mini eclair.
I came home, took one bite of each, stuck the box in the fridge, and repeated the sequence each day until they were all gone.
The cannoli were excellent, and I think I’m partial to the chocolate-dipped one because…well…it was dipped in chocolate. The eclair and strawberry tart were both filled with delicious pastry cream, and I would order either again.
For me though, the most delicious was the Napoleon. The flaky layers of pastry are such a perfect contrast to the creamy filling, and the sweet glaze on top complements the whole thing perfectly, and I’d like another, please.
If you’re ever in Little Italy, be sure to stop by and try something! If you do it now, you’ll sweat off any consumed calories just by walking 3-4 blocks. Fa caldo, friends.
Ferrara Bakery and Café
195 Grand St.
New York, NY 10013
(212) 226-6150
chow bella 
