Drunk Blondies

One of my favourite bloggers is Adam Roberts of The Amateur Gourmet, primarily because he makes me laugh and has a unique food voice.  If he stuffs up, he isn't afraid to say so - and I love that.  I am also secretly envious of the cool places that he has lived (New York City and now L.A.), and love reading about his life there.  However, I have been rather remiss in reading his blog lately due to the behind-the-scenes craziness of my existence, so it had been ages since I visited until the other day, just by chance, I thought of his blog and took a look.

Kaboom!  Up front and centre was a post on some Drunk Blondies that Adam had made from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook.  And I just knew that I had to make them.  And make them I did, subbing walnuts for pecans and Glenfiddich for Bourbon.  The results of my labours are pictured at the top of this post.  Gorgeous, huh?  And super easy - no mixmaster required.  I couldn't really taste the whiskey, but that didn't matter a jot (even though the word "drunk" was what caught my eye in the first place).

I would love to buy this cookbook too, but I have to stop buying baking books - I think I have hundreds of them now, even though I try to limit myself to something a little different from the norm.

Thanks to Adam for posting this great recipe and for bringing this cookbook to my attention.  Now perhaps I should go and make some of Adam's bourbon caramel sauce .... 

FFwD - Endives, apples and grapes

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Endives, Apples and Grapes- or in my case, Radicchio, Apples and Grapes, because endives are nowhere to be found in my neck of the woods, and some research showed that radicchio, also known as Italian chicory, would have a similar flavour to endives (also known as Belgian chicory). Eww, and on that count, I think they are right - I found the radicchio unbearably bitter.

The dish looks pretty in the pan:

 
and I liked the apples and grapes, but I could not abide those bitter leaves.  I have three serves left - I suspect I will be dressing this heavily to cover up the bitterness. The radicchio, at $2.50 for a head, was not cheap (sought out at David Jones Foodhall, as Coles could not oblige)  - I am glad that I only bought one.

To see what the other FFwD participants thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the website.

Daring Bakers - Empanada Gallega

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

Despite all the exclamation marks, this recipe was OK, but not exciting.   I filled my empanadas, made with wholewheat flour dough, with pie apple mixed with cinnamon and a little sugar:

The end result was probably a little healthier than I would have liked.  Maybe I would have liked this better if I had used a savoury filling.  However, as it was, I was uninspired by the end result.

To see what other Daring Bakers made, visit the slide show when it's the 27th on the East Coast of America.

WWDH - Spinach and ricotta pasta bake

 

It's not that easy being green;
Having to spend each day the colour of the leaves.
(from Bein' Green by Joe Raposo)

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe from Off the Shelf  is Spinach and Ricotta Pasta Bake, chosen by Margaret of Tea and Scones.

I only made a half recipe so that as a solo diner, I wasn't eating this for the rest of the year. (I got six serves out of half, so I am not sure how Donna got six serves out of double that - they must have been very generous serves!) However, I used up all the (baby) spinach that came in the bag, as it wasn't cheap, and it seems that this may have been a little enthusiastic, as I seem to have a very high ratio of spinach to everything else in my pasta bake.

No matter - this was absolutely delicious, and a nice change from what I would usually make.  It is creamy without being rich, and has all the goodness of spinach and dairy.

To see what Margaret,  Kayte and Chaya thought of this dish, visit their blogs.

FFwD - Chicken Basquaise

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Chicken Basquaise.  This is a Mediterranean style (rather than French) chicken dish with capsicums (peppers) - lots of them!

The resulting dish has a rather hot flavour to it, so if spicy is not your thing, don't venture here.  I quite enjoyed it it, with the piperade (capsicum mix) forming a lovely sauce for the rice. 

Also be warned - if you are time poor, don't attempt this, because all the chopping and cooking and simmering and browning takes some time - you need probably a good two hours to make this dish.  I had to make this one night and eat it another night, as it was too late by the time it finished cooking for me to eat it that night.

Here's the chicken in the pot so you can identify that under all that stuff, there is definitely chicken there:

To see what the other FFwD members thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the website.

WWDH - Thai Caramelised Pork Salad

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Thai Caramelised Pork Salad, chosen by Kayte.

I loved the pork component with its sweet and spicy flavours, but the undressed salad did not impress me.

To see what the others thought of this salad, visit Kayte, Margaret and Chaya.

BWJ - Whole Wheat Bread

For Baking with Julia this week, we were asked to put on our bread baking boots to make Whole Wheat Bread, with our hosts being Michelle of Vegie Num Nums and Teresa of The Family That Bakes Together.


I was initially a little unexcited about this recipe, as I am not what you would call "a bread person".  However, this bread pleasantly surprised me - it was soft and light and delicious, not heavy and chewy like some of the home bread recipes I have tried.  I made this bread to the recipe, except that I left out the malt extract.

I liked this bread toasted, I liked it sliced fresh off the loaf with peanut butter - I just liked it.  Which is saying a lot, as I really am not a bread person.

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought of this Whole Wheat Bread, visit the LYL section of the website.