Happy Birthday, to me!

Well, yesterday at least.

As much as I adore going out to eat (which I did plenty of during my little vacation home), cooking one of my favorite things for my own birthday sounded just as satisfying, so that’s exactly what I did. Few things please me more than big ol’ bowl of pasta with really really good sauce, and that’s what this is.  One of the best damn bolognese I’ve ever tasted (if I do say so myself).

This sauce is called Sunday Bolognese because it’s an all day, hover-over-your-stove affair. Once you kick things into gear, you better be ready to stir the sauce every 20 minutes for over 3 hours, and that doesn’t include the 90 minutes of prep and pre-cooking before that. To some, that’s a horrible way to spend your birthday. To me, it was perfect. I coddled and loved this sauce into perfection, and was so proud to present it in front of 6 guests at a lovely dinner outside on our patio, it was like a birthday gift to myself. Thick and velvety and just so layered with flavor and texture,  it’s just damn good.

Serve it with some great garlic bread and if you’re really lucky, finish with some fabulous birthday hummingbird cake. (I was very, very lucky).

—

Sunday Bolognese

My version of bolognese is based on Lidia Bastianich’s two Sunday bolognese – combining her two varieties ricetta tradizionale and ricetta antica – made with broth and milk respectively. I use part milk and part broth with a heavy tomato-paste base and some canned tomatoes to get a nice balance of richness and flavor.  Also, this recipe makes a ton of sauce, but all you have to do is refrigerate it, scrape off the fat, and freeze it for future use. Deeeeeelish!

Makes 3 quarts sauce, well suited for 2-3 lbs of pasta.

Based on the recipe from Lidia’s Family Table.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 lbs ground pork
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 6 oz. pancetta, chopped
• 5 large garlic cloves
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled, chopped
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 6 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 6 cups whole milk, divided, warmed
• ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 large dry bay leaves
• 2 cups crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups low-sodium beef broth, warmed
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lbs. rigatoni pasta, cooked

Directions

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Post tags: favorite, italian, meat, pasta

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Happy Birthday, jonesing for… !

One year ago today I started my blog and it’s been nothing but fun since.  This whole thing began after encouragement from friends since I enjoyed taking pictures of whatever I was cooking, and liked typing up a few words about it as well. I’ve had so much fun sharing my love of cooking and recipes, and nothing makes me happier than hearing my friends and total strangers have been inspired to cook from recipes I post.

And I have something even bigger to celebrate than my blog’s anniversary. I’m so excited to announce I’ve just accepted a position as the new Test Kitchen Assistant for a national food magazine! I’ll be testing recipes, assisting food styling, grocery shopping, and working in the test kitchen for a living – a.k.a. my dream job! Words cannot express how excited and blessed I feel to be able to do what I love for a living as young as I am. Getting out from behind a desk and back into the kitchen means the world to me, so now it’s really time to celebrate!

So to celebrate, I wanted to bake a cake – a very special cake. In a way, this entire post, blog, and really my career, is dedicated to my oldest sister, DeAnna. She honestly is the biggest reason I pursued cooking – admiring her life as a pastry chef when she was younger and always being enchanted with whatever she was baking or making. This bundt cake is one of the earliest food memories I have of being impressed with food, thinking the black and white drizzle was so fancy, the cake shape so odd, the entire thing just being special. So I wanted to go back to my roots with this one.

Unfortunately neither D nor my mom could find the recipe. They both tore their kitchens apart looking for it to no avail, which seemed almost poetic in a way. I got to just create my own version, which is exactly what I like to do here. So I took a simple chocolate bundt cake recipe and oomphed it up, adding coffee and buttermilk, using a chocolate ganache drizzle instead of melted semi-sweet chips, and I had to stay true to the white chocolate drizzle – even though I’m not a huge fan, you can’t get that stunning white color with anything else, and since the cake isn’t overly sweet, it balances out.

So thank you to my readers, family, and friends for a wonderful year! I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store!

—

Black and White Bundt Cake

Makes at least 16 servings (depending on how you slice it).

Based on my sister’s recipe with froufrou flourish from Food & Wine.

Ingredients

• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped and separated (I really indulged and used Callebaut “Refined” semi-sweet, which is to die for)
• ¾ cup canola oil
• 1¼ cups granulated sugar
• 1 extra-large egg plus 1 egg white
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup strongly brewed fresh coffee, cooled (the bolder the better)
• 1 cup reduced fat buttermilk
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• ½ tablespoon corn syrup
• ½ tablespoon unsalted butter
• 4 ounces white chocolate (I usually loathe white chocolate but Callebaut’s white is actually nice and mild and not too sweet, so I recommend it)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 365° F. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan or your microwave, melt 2 ounces of the chopped chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Pour the chocolate into a medium bowl and let cool until there’s no longer steam rising from it. Whisk in the oil and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the egg and egg white.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture along with ½ cup of the coffee and ½ cup of the buttermilk; whisk until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, coffee and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn it out and let cool completely.
5. While the cake cools, prepare the ganache. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer, but don’t scald it. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes (don’t be afraid to pop it in the fridge for a few minutes if your kitchen is slightly warm).
6. Drizzle the ganache over the cooled cake. Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before adding the white drizzle.
7. In a double boiler, melt the white chocolate until smooth and glossy. I do not recommend doing this in the microwave because white chocolate burns very easily and doesn’t melt like real chocolate (because it isn’t)! Drizzle over the cake artfully and serve slices with a huge glass of cold milk (and maybe a glass of champagne!).

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cake, chocolate, dessert, favorite, high altitude, indulge

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Quick post/Quick Friday dinner time!

I actually made this on Sunday for Easter lunch/dinner, but it also happens to be one of my favorite fast go-to dishes. My sister Valerie is nuts about this goat cheese tart and it’s the number one thing she requests when I’m home and cooking, and it’s easy to understand why. The tart is light and delicate, but also rich and satisfying, making it the perfect dish for brunch, lunch, or dinner. The dressing I threw together since I had leftover dill from the tart and buttermilk from making cinnamon rolls.

I cut time by using a prepared pie crust (which I had leftover from a previous baking adventure), but you can easily just use refrigerated pie crust and roll it out. The rest of the dish comes together in just a few minutes and then it’s just waiting for it to bake, which can be torturous but hey, just treat yourself to a glass of wine (a nice crisp sauvignon blanc is to die for with this dish) and relax. It’s the weekend!

—

Goat Cheese Tart

Based on the recipe from Ina Garten.

Makes 12 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 prepared or store-bought pie crust, at room temperature
• 4 shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 9 ounces soft goat cheese, preferably with herbs
• ¾ cup half-and-half
• 3 extra-large eggs
• ¼ cup chopped fresh herbs (½ cup if you’re not using herb goat cheese, I like basil and dill)
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350° F. Roll out prepared pie dough to fit an 11″ tart pan with a removable bottom (although I have made this with a glass solid tart pan with no problem). Poke the bottom with a few holes, fill with dried beans or pie weights, and bake until slightly golden, about 10 minutes.

2.) While the shell bakes, prepare the filling. In the bowl of a food processor, chop the shallots and garlic until small, but not fine. Heat the tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a small pan, and then saute the shallots and garlic until softened and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

3.) Rinse the bowl of the food processor and add the herbs. Pulse a few times until chopped. Then add the goat cheese, half and half, eggs, ¼ teaspoon salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth.

4.) Assemble the tart. Sprinkle the shallots and garlic over the bottom of the prepared tart shell. Pour the goat cheese mixture over the top and bake until set and the top is slightly browned, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before removing from the tart pan. Serve warm or at room temperature with a nice leafy salad and crisp white wine.

Buttermilk Dill Salad Dressing

This dressing only gets better the next day, so don’t be afraid to double it and save some for the weekend. It thickens and the flavor gets even better the longer it sits.

Ingredients

• ½ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup Greek yogurt or low-fat mayonnaise (whatever you have on hand)
• 1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1.) Whisk together all ingredients, taste for seasoning. Toss with fresh baby spinach and enjoy.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, cheese, favorite, quick friday dinner, spring

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Merry Christmas, everyone!

We celebrate the happiest day of the year with plenty of red meat, traditional English sides, and a froufrou dessert I always like to tackle. Usually I make a cranberry upside down cake, but this year I wanted to try something different so I made a spin on a pear tatin, which was scrumptious to say the least. Plus chruscikis, cookies, hot apple cider, Holiday blend from The Roasterie and plenty of Usinger’s during the day.

Have a holly jolly holiday! I’ll be off in my food coma now, surrounded by DVDs and my family, but here’s a nice large selection of photos from our holiday. Enjoy! (recipes at the bottom if you’d like to scroll past!)

One of my biggest holiday indulgences.

Soooo good and sooo bad.

Yes, I am INCREDIBLY anal retentive, okay?

I was incredibly blessed and lucky to win one of the gourmet giveaways from Serious Eats…

An AMAZING $70 smoked ham from D’Artagnan – the best gourmet grocer in the world!

I am very excited about my ham. We’re going to serve it on New Year’s Day with black eyed peas and yeast rolls.. mmm..

Christmas morning breakfast!

Oh man, cranberries. Cranberries.

Zest!

Mmm smells so good.

Tart and sweet and so so so delicious.

Addictive.

I think it’s enough for 4…

Prime rib and roasted root veggies (oh mannnn)…

Yorkshire puddings and cranberry sauce.

All set.

Working my way through…

Pears. Don’t worry if they’re a bit banged up – it’s what’s inside that counts!

All sliced and laid out.

Mmmm caramel.

Sticky sweet.

Time to invert! Check out my gorgeous apron – a wonderful gift from my oldest friend in the world, Meagan Ferguson, who sewed it herself! FIERCE!

Flip!

And if you’re lucky, it doesn’t stick!

Ohhhh soooo goood.

Begging for vanilla ice cream!

One missing…

A la mode.

—

Prime Rib with Horseradish Crust

Based on Tyler Florence’s recipe here.

Ingredients

• 1 3-rib prime rib beef roast, anywhere from 6-8 pounds
• 5 garlic cloves, smashed, plus 2 whole heads garlic sliced in half vertically
• ½ cup prepared horseradish
• ½ cup sea salt
• ¼ cup freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 5 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 red onions, peeled, ends removed and quartered
• 6-7 baby white potatoes, scrubbed
  

Directions

1.) Preheat your oven to 350° F with the rack set in the bottom third of the oven.

2.) In a small bowl mash together the garlic, horseradish, salt, pepper, and olive oil to make a paste. Massage the paste generously over the entire roast. Lay the beef in a large roasting pan (or jelly roll pan, whatever will fit and can collect the juices) with the bone side down. (The ribs act as a natural roasting rack.)

3.) Toss the vegetables with a 3-count of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, and then scatter the vegetables and halved garlic around the meat. Put the pan in the oven and roast the beef for about 1½ to 2½ hours for medium-rare (or approximately 20 minutes per pound). Check the internal temperature of the roast in several places with an instant-read thermometer; it should register 125° F for medium-rare.

4.) Remove the beef to a carving board and let it rest for 20 minutes, covered loosely with aluminum foi. The internal temperature of the meat will continue to rise by about 10 degrees. Remove the vegetables and set aside. Pour the pan juices into a fat separator or small bowl and set aside to allow the fat and beef juices to separate. Pour off and discard the fat to use in Yorkshire puddings!

Horseradish-Chive Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup prepared horseradish
• 2 TBL chopped chives
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  

Directions

1.) Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Taste for seasoning. Can be made up to 2 days in advance.

The Best Cranberry Sauce EVER

Ingredients

• 6 cups fresh cranberries, picked clean and rinsed
• 1 cup full bodied red wine (like a pinot noir)
• 1½ cups sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 TBL orange or clementine zest

Directions

1.) Simmer the wine, sugar, salt, and cinnamon stick in a non-reactive pot for about 1 minute until the sugar completely dissolves.

2.) Add the cranberries and bring to a rapid simmer, and let cook until they begin to pop – about 3-5 minutes.

3.) Once cooked, take off the burner and stir in the orange zest. Cool completely and refrigerate before serving.

Can be made up to a week in advance, but remove the cinnamon stick before storing.

Pear Cake Tatin

Based on Ina Garten’s Apple Tatin here.

Ingredients

• 2 pears of your choice, peeled, cored, and sliced into ¼ inch thick slices
• 6 TBL unsalted butter, plus more to grease the pie dish
• 1¾ cups sugar, divided
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 TBL flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

Directions

1.) Preheat your oven to 350° F with the rack set in the center.

2.) Using at least 2 tablespoons butter, generously grease a 9-inch glass pie plate. Arrange the pears in a decorative, fanning fashion in the plate (this will be facing up when you serve it).

3.) Heat 1 cup of the sugar with 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Swirl (but don’t stir) the pan until the sugar dissolves and eventually caramelizes. You want a warm, rich amber and it should smell nutty, but not burnt. Take it off the heat once you feel it’s there and immediately pour over the pears.

4.) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the 6 tablespoons of butter and ¾ cup sugar until fluffy. Keeping the mixer running on low, add the eggs one at a time, letting them completely mix in before adding the next. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla, then mix until just combined.

5.) Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix until just combined.

6.) Pour the batter over the pear slices and very carefully spread it evenly out. This can be tricky – the pears will stick but you don’t want them to move, so spread slowly and and gently. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool 15 minutes and then invert onto a pedestal or cake plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature with really good vanilla ice cream.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, christmas, favorite, fruit, savory, sidedish, winter

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Here it is. The ultimate. The #1. The quintessential dish that is pure Christmas to me. Chruscikis.

Traditional Polish fried cookies which resemble either a bow-tie or angel’s wings (depending on your heritage/what your grandma says…) which seem simple on the surface, but in the end are some of the messiest, and somewhat labor intensive cookies ever.  Yet they’re worth every drop of splattered oil and puff of powdered sugar that ends up on the floor.

This is probably the oldest recipe we have in our family, which we know goes back to my great-grandma Jean who immigrated to the US when she was about 7 in the late 1800′s, and it probably goes back even farther than that. The ingredients are dead simple (eat your heart out, Martha) and the dough comes together very easily, it’s just all about rolling the dough incredibly thin and working very quickly once you get to the frying part. But they’re just so good warm, I cannot begin to describe it. I mean yes, they are basically fried dough, but come on – we all know how awesome that is.

So Wesolych Swiat! to my fellow Poles, and I hope you all enjoy the  most cherished part of my Polish culinary heritage!

Mommie Dearest on the hunt for the recipe…

Found!

Yellow and white sparkly…

Sticky dough and beaters.

Floured surface.

Rolling…

Cutting…

Shaping…

Bring the top end through the slit and voila! Bow-tie!

Perspective.

Bubbling oil (well over halfway through, thus it being so cloudy).

Fry!

Mmmm, fried.

Ready to dust.

Snow shower!

Dusted.

Gently stored.

Fragile and perfect and Polish.

—

Chruscikis

Based on my great-grandma Jean’s recipe.

Makes about 3 dozen.

The tricky thing about these is you really need to watch your fryer oil temperature. It goes up insanely fast and the cookies will start to cook faster and faster as you work through the batches, so either adjust for temperature or time as you go.

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 4 tsp sugar
• 4 tsp vinegar
• 4 tsp brandy
• 1 cup flour, sifted
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1.) In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks well. Add the sugar, vinegar, brandy, and flour, and beat until well mixed.

2.) In a large pot or dutch oven, pour in enough oil so you have about 3 inches in the pot. Bring it up to a medium-high heat.

3.) While the oil heats, roll out dough on floured board to about 1/10 of an inch (extremely thin, almost as thin as a tortilla).

4.) Cut dough into strips approximately 3 inches long by 1 inch wide. Then cut an inch-long slit in center of strip and pull one end through the slit making a “knot”.

5.) Lay out several sheets of paper towels on a counter or cooling rack. Drop a bit of dough to test the oil temperature. It should bubble and brown in about 60-90 seconds. If ready, drop cookies in 2 at a time into hot oil and brown to very light brown, flipping with tongs. It should take about 30-60 seconds per side. Remove and drain on paper towels.

6.) Once they have cooled for a few minutes, sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar (through a fine mesh strainer) on both sides.

Store in a very airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: christmas, christmas cookies, cookies, dessert, family recipe, favorite, indulge, sweet

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