Tahini Blondies, Halloween style

Mr. Nomad Foodie brought back a big jar of tahini from Israel. What was I going to do with 950g of tahini? There was only so much hummus I could make, so I started searching for recipes. Alas, the carrot tahini muffins were a rare miss from Smitten Kitchen.

I had two potlucks to go to on Halloween. My SIL had given me a big bag of Reese's Pieces that she had bought on clearance. I couldn't bring myself to allow the children to just snack on candy. How to use up the tahini and Reese's Pieces, plus bring something appropriately festive to two parties? Enter this Tahini Blondies recipe from Food52.

I doubled the recipe, but reduced the sugar by 20%, then sprinkled Reese's Pieces and black sesame seeds on top of the batter. It looked perfect as I put the pan into the oven. As I turned to clean up, I realized I'd forgotten to add the flour - no wonder the batter had looked particularly thin! I quickly pulled the pan from the oven, dumped the batter back into a bowl, added the flour, and repeated the decorative process. So the final product was sweeter than expected, with the incorporation of additional Reese's Pieces into the batter. Still, the end result was delicious. 

Here are the measurements that I used for a doubled recipe, which fit perfectly in a 9" x 13" pan:

• 200g APF and 175g whole wheat flour
• 2t salt
• 227g butter
• 300g sugar
• 200g brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2t vanilla bean paste
• 2c tahini

Honey-Oat Pain de Mie (Pullman bread)

I've made this King Arthur's Honey-Pat Pain de Mie twice now, using my brand-new pain de mie pan. The bread on the left is from my first attempt, while the bread on the right is from my second attempt.



The first time I followed the recipe exactly as written. The bread didn't fully rise to the top of the pan, but I think that was due more to my elementary shaping skills and that I could've let the dough have a longer second rise.

The second time I made the bread, I substituted 160g (about 44%) of the APF with whole wheat flour, some of the honey with maple syrup (as I'd run out of honey), 10g (about 15%) of the butter with vegetable oil, and added a few dashes of cinnamon. I also used 230g of water. The bread rose in the refrigerator, because I didn't have enough continuous time at home for it to rise at room temperature.

For next time, I would increase the water - the dough seemed like it could've used more water, and I might have killed off some of the yeast by using boiling water. I thought the oats would protect the yeast in the bowl, but perhaps not, given the lower rise. The second batch still had a fine crumb, and is still quite soft and very tasty. The kids love it.

I might have to buy another pan, because it's so yummy, the loaf disappears quickly!

Overnight Yeasted Waffles with Quinoa

A merger of waffle recipes from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Café and Daniel Shumski's Will It Waffle?

240g APF

1t yeast

1 1/2 T sugar

1/2 t salt

2c milk

1t vanilla

1t almond extract 

6T butter, melted

2 large eggs, separated

1 1/2 c cooked quinoa

It's a recipe that you start the night before, and is quite easy to put together in the morning as you only need to add the eggs and quinoa. Mollie doesn't whip the egg whites, although Daniel does. Folding in whipped egg whites certainly adds to the airiness of the waffle, but can be skipped if you are pressed for time. I added chocolate chips for the kids' waffles.

Creamy Garlic Penne Pasta Recipe

I tried this recipe and while the taste was good, it was a bit too watery.
http://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-garlic-penne-pasta-43023

Review of Dine L.A.: Bettolino Kitchen (Redondo Beach, CA)

Somehow, I was notified that AmEx had a $5 off offer for Dine L.A. restaurant week, so on a whim I checked out the website and realized there were some intriguing menus at restaurants in my area. I thought this would be a great excuse to get my brother and sister-in-law, as new parents, out of their home and eat something nice. So we went to Bettolino Kitchen, a restaurant that I would have never noticed even though I'm in the Riviera Village area often.

The prix fixe menu featured three starters, which we got one of each. SIL thought her Insalata d'Estate - romaine, watermelon, cherry tomatoes, mixed olives, onion sprouts, feta cheese, and lemon dressing, was fresh and good. I thought my brother's Crostone di Funghi e Pecorino - sliced speck and sautéed crimini mushrooms, was excellent. My Zuppa d Piselli - cold mint scented peas, zucchini and yogurt veloute with squash blossom and pea sprouts was delicious, although the pea sprouts, which were long and thin, made eating it with a soup spoon difficult.

Pappardelle con Ragu d'Antica

For the secondi, brother and I both had the Pappardelle con Ragu d'Antica - stewed and shredded duck leg, pine nuts, and tomato sauce while SIL had Salmon al Salmoriglio - petite salmon fillet, herbed cous cous, sauteed zucchini, red bell pepper, eggplant, garlic, fresh oregano & parsley, lemon and extra virgin olive oil. The pappardelle was excellent. Alas, while the eggplant and salmon was good, the cous cous was overly salty and the zucchini perhaps a bit too old as it was bitter.

Salted Caramel Semifreddo

Our waitress presented us with a complimentary Salted Caramel Semifreddo - semi-frozen salted caramel mousse, layered graham crackers, and chocolate sauce, as she had given the wrong order to the chef, increasing wait time for our entrée. I didn't particularly mind the wait time, and I thought it was quite nice of her to proactively offer the semifreddo, but I wish she had done so prior to my ordering of dessert, because we were then too full. The semifreddo was very rich - it's definitely a dish to be shared - and depending on how into the salty-sweet trend you may be, potentially too salty.

Our Peach Melba - poached peach, vanilla gelato, raspberry sauce, almond crumble was pretty decent. We had to deconstruct it because of SIL's newly imposed dietary restrictions, so perhaps we didn't eat it as intended. The peach and gelato were very good, but I thought there was too much almond crumble, which featured semolina.

deconstructed Peach Melba

Overall, I really liked our appetizers and mains. I would go back again for those, but would instead go around the corner and across the street to Desserts by Patrick for some gelato after the meal.

Eat: La Petite Folie (Hyde Park, IL)

Dinner courtesy of the University of Chicago was at La Petite Folie, where the chef-owner is also a alumnus of the school. The restaurant's website shows this menu as a prixe fixe of $38, which would make it an excellent value. I would return to this restaurant before Found.

Spinach tart with arugula - tasty but not memorable

roasted filet of fresh Atlantic salmon with braised wild greens (green Swiss chard, green kale, collard greens, spinach) roasted baby potatoes; citrus herb emulsion - nicely prepared salmon and potatoes, the greens were stand out - I'm still thinking of it today!

Peach tart - tasty, but not memorable

Eat: Little Goat Diner (Chicago, IL)

Dinner on Monday night was courtesy of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College of Chicago and held at Little Goat Diner in Chicago's former meatpacking district. We had appetizers to share, which was a good thing as portions were quite large and the food, being a diner, quite rich. Instead of an entrée, I decided to go with three sides as my main.

Goat Chili - goat flavor was not overpowering, but it was just a bowl of chili.

Corn Elote - very fresh, almost slightly crunchy, corn kernels. A nice contrast to the richness of the goat and tempura mashed potatoes.

Tempura Mashed Potatoes - slaw and crunchy tempura crust contrasts with smooth and rich mashed potatoes.

Crispy shrimp "cocktail" - it was good, but not amazing

Macho nachos - very nice

We also shared fried pickles & onion rings as well as the cake of the day, a chocolate cake. The Moscow mule was highly recommended by our host, but preferring gin, I ordered a Moscow goat instead, which had gin, ginger beer, grapefruit, lime, and was indeed quite delicious.