Peanut butter Banana Swirl Dog Treats

These beautiful dog treats are deceptively simple to make. All you need  is a little time and a couple of hungry good dogs. These treats are 2 simple doughs, one banana one peanut butter, rolled together and sliced. The recipe calls for freezing the dough once it’s rolled to make it easier to slice. I was going to do that, but I decided to chill them wrapped in cellophane overnight. That worked just fine. I was a little worried that the separate colors wouldn’t show up as well as I wanted, but as you can see… they came out beautiful. These are so pretty, I gave many of them away as gifts to friends with dogs, but with Frank and George coming back from awesome dog camp at the end of the week, it may be time to give them another go! My boys loved them!

I am reprinting the recipe here, but I suggest you head over to the site where the recipe originated, there are many other treat recipes there of you to try.

Good Girl Swirl Treats

Dough One:
4 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup cornmeal
1-1/3 cups water
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg

Dough Two:
4 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup banana, mashed
1 egg
1-1/4 cups water
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 Tbs molasses
2 Tbs cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C).
Combine all Dough One ingredients and mix thoroughly. Knead on a lightly floured surface. Set aside.
Combine all Dough Two ingredients and mix thoroughly. Knead on a lightly floured surface.
Roll each dough separately to a 1/8 inch thickness, into rectangles. Lightly brush a little water over the top of the light-colored dough.
Place the darker colored dough on top, then roll up like a jelly roll.
Wrap the roll in plastic and chill in the freezer for one hour. Cut the roll into 1/4 inch slices. Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.
Bake for one hour.

sausage and cheese no knead pizza

EVERYONE loves pizza. I love pizza. And as you know, recently I have learned to bake bread. If you have been here before you know the bread baking technique that I am crazy about right now is the no- knead technique. It’s too easy , it feels like “cheating”. This simple recipe requires an overnight fermentation.You can read all about it here and here.

Well, another miracle has happened pardners! Jim Lehey has a pizza dough recipe, a no-knead  pizza dough! And I’m here to tell you it’s just as wonderful as the no knead bread, maybe even better. Why is it better you may ask? Because it makes you a superhero. Of course, if you’ve got company over and you’re making pizza with homemade dough you’re already a superstar! But when you and your guests bite in to this pizza dough your friends will be your friends for ever! It is simply, AMAZING!

Now don’t worry, it’s just as easy to make as Jim’s bread. Just mix the dough the day ahead let it sit on the counter overnight, then get ready to take a trip to awesome pizza town! (Keep in mind this dough can’t be frozen and used later. But it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days.) The recipe makes enough for 6 medium sized pizzas, but I made even smaller pizzas so i could experiment with toppings and techniques.

Here are a few pointers:

• Definitely use a pizza stone if you have one. I have found that this transforms any pizza into something edible. Yes, even frozen pizza.
• Keep your dough on top of  a generous amount of polenta cornmeal while you’re working with it.
• Use an upside down cookie sheet as my pizza peel/ working surface, with the addition of polenta it slides right off onto the stone.
• Gently pull your dough into shape instead of using a rolling pin. The fermentation creates these wonderful gas bubbles that a rolling pin will squish.
• Don’t overuse your  toppings. Definitely use less than you think you need because once that pizza starts cooking- you don’t want the crust to get overdone while you’re waiting on your toppings to cook and cheese to melt.

I like to use Heidi Swanson’s recipe for five-minute tomato sauce, I just cook it longer than 5 min. so that it gets thicker.  If you have a favorite pizza sauce definitely use that one. I made several different kinds of pizza, and they all came out delicious. What I love about this crust is the way that it bubbles, just like pizza dough is supposed to!  You can see here in this photograph how one of the bubbles grew really really tall and sort of looks like a volcano to me! A pizza volcano!  Move over chocolate fountain! There’s a new sheriff in town!

Pizza Volcano

Darla’s Salsa!

Earlier this month I made several salsas in honor of cinco de mayo. I mentioned my own salsa recipe and my intention to post it here for you.  Summer is coming before you know it and this is a nice little recipe to have in your back pocket when you need to take something to the party. Honestly, this is very much my go-to snack on a regular basis. It’s a rare day that I can’t find this salsa in my fridge. It’s very easy to prepare and you get to decide how hot you want it to be.

For cinco de mayo I grilled the onions and roasted the peppers. As a general rule I usually boil the peppers before using them, but I like the roasted flavor very much, I will utilize that technique more often. Also, I usually make one can batches and mix them together in the pan to cook- most blenders wont hold the volume of two cans of tomatoes and still mix nicely.

Darla’s Salsa

2 large cans of whole tomatoes, drained (yes, canned. they are more consistent in flavor)
1 yellow onion
several sprigs of cilantro
jalapeno or serrano peppers to taste (boiled or roasted)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
salt and black pepper to taste

Place the tomatoes, onion, peppers, cilantro salt and black pepper into the blender.
Blend.
Heat olive oil in a pan until almost smoking. Add salsa to scald. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Salsa will keep as is in the fridge for about a week.
Enjoy!

the stinking rose

I love garlic! I love to eat garlic in everything! Don’t you?

It’s one of my favorite ingredients, but it’s also one of the most perplexing to me. Every time I use garlic I have feelings of guilt. (I use a garlic press. I don’t mince by hand). Every time I use garlic it burns in the pan. Every time I use garlic I either use too much, or not enough. Every time I use garlic I’m tortured.

As most of you who are here know, I am participating in a year-long scholarship with America’s Test Kitchen’s Online Cooking School. While poking around on the website- I was on their blog and ran across an article about garlic. I love garlic. (Did I say that already?) This was an article about how to use garlic properly. (“Making the Most of Garlic”) One of the things I love about ATK Online Cooking School is that the information is broken down so simply, the photographs and videos cover it so thoroughly, I (seriously) have a profound learning experience every time I’m there.

For example the garlic. Here’s the instruction as they present it: start it slow, get it small, always cook it. Really? Really! 3 very simple phrases mean so much! Of course the blog goes on to give a short couple of paragraphs about what each instruction means.  Really it’s broken down so simply, even I can remember! So now I roast my garlic in the oven or toast in a dry skillet . IF I am not cooking it properly by “starting it slow! ”

So check it out! Head over to America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School and sign up for a free 14 day trial. Why not? It’s FREE! Check out the cooking school lessons, check out the blog for sure! And see what you can learn. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned!  For Example…    THIS:

Roasted Garlic via America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Blog

Slice the top 1/2 inch from the garlic head(s) you intend on roasting.
Place the garlic in a piece of foil with a long drizzle of olive oil.
Make a packet with the foil around the garlic and oil.
Place the packet of garlic into a 425° oven.
Roast the garlic in the packet for about 45 min. When the garlic is cool, you are able now to squeeze it out and use it as a spread on toast (for before dinner) or you can use it in many recipes that call for garlic. Also to note, the olive oil that the garlic is roasted in tastes divine. Consider draining the oil into a small container and keeping it in the refrigerator to use. You can use it in salad dressings or mix it with herbs  for a bread dipping delicious treat. The roasted garlic will keep a few days in the fridge. Enjoy!

Yoga friends: I’d appreciate a little throat chakra energy today, this will help.

Food friends: Look at this cool video, feel what happens when you listen to it for about 3 minutes! Neat-o!

om namah shivaya

~~~~~~~push play and listen while you read!!~~~~~~~

Trust me Darlings when I tell you these things:

• I know that Yuri Buenaventura is not from Mexico
• I am aware that Columbia and Mexico are not the same place
• This fantastic song is not about eating- but is about dancing!

I am okay with all those things, because I have the Mojo that lets me see how all these are totally interconnected. Let me enlighten you:

• Cinco de Mayo is a celebration associated with Mexican Independence from French occupation.
• Columbian Yuri lives in and is loved by France!
• I feel the exact same way about these salsas as Yuri sings in this song about the dance!
  (I don t speak spanish but from what I can glean from various online translators, Salsa makes your sad soul forget because it is simple and different, it is the rhythm that gives life. This is exactly how I feel about these salsa recipes.

It all started on cuatro de Mayo. AKA as Star Wars Day. (Makes me giggle every time.) I decided I wanted to have homemade tortillas. As it usually is when I decide to make something in the kitchen I am obsessed with the idea until I’ve done it.

So homemade tortillas. From scratch. Real tortillas. I knew I could buy a product in the local Kroger called Maseca, mix it with water and make tortillas. But I also knew that there was an even FRESHER way to do it. THAT was the one I wanted. I started researching this and found out I could buy fresh masa masa fresca). Masa is what tortillas are made of. It’s a major process as you can see in the video… tweeted to me by none other than the texmex man himself @robbwalsh. I often go to twitter to get pro tips from the pros themselves. Twitter is CRAZY cool like that. I can not tell you how many amazing SMART chefs have responded to my very beginner questions via twitter.
(Actually I COULD tell you, but I am not a name dropper. *As a side note, I also do not kiss and tell- just incase Sting is reading. ** Another side note-sorry to my darling husband. But he knows Sting is my one exception… I digress)

Robb Walsh was kind enough to respond to my tweet about masa very quickly and I found out it was even easier than mixing with water. I can buy pre-made masa dough ready to be rolled and cooked at many of my local mexican grocers. WHAT? This really felt like cheating to me until I watched the video he sent.

You can see from that  video it’s not likely I will have access to the corn nor the grinder to make my own masa- so I bought some. It was easy to work with. After my first 30 ugly ones and some cursing my “white girl” birth I was finally able to make them look pretty good!

*** Please see the update  at the end of this post as well as a video about shaping and cooing tortillas at at home ***

The tortillas were small, but they tasted like heaven! I bought 3 pounds of masa fresca!!  That’s a bunch of tortillas friends. I needed something to do with them. (besides eat them as fast as possible) Enchiladas sounded good  and easy right???

Homemade enchiladas are easy, but it takes about a million steps to get there…

Step One: Grill peppers and onions for salsas.

Step Two: roast garlic and tomatillos (not shown)

Step three: Make the red enchilada sauce .

Step Four: Make “Cooked tomatillo Salsa” by Mark Bittman

Step Five: Poach Chicken in chicken broth and onion.

Step Six: Make a Million tortillas

Step Seven: Assemble enchiladas according to Martha Stewart.

Step Eight: Make my own salsa recipe for chips and dipping. (to be published later)

Step Nine: Have Beer

Step Ten: Enjoy red enchilada

Step 10 again: enjoy green enchilada

This was a fun and delicious day. I intended to make nachos and puffy tacos but I ran out of steam before I ran out of steps. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed this delicious meal! Try some of these salsas for your summer celebrations! Salsa!

Step Eleven: Have another beer!

UPDATE  *** SPECIAL MENTION***

I could DIE!
I, in my haste to get this “out” failed to mention my inspiration early early early on!!!
Sweet Lilli Uribe!   Lilli came to my rescue on Facebook. She answered my call out for help and encouraged me to try. Also Lilli linked to this BEAUTIFUL video. It was so inspiring! Please watch this if you want to see how tortillas are shaped and made with love by hand. Her tip on flipping the tortilla is essential to it’s proper cooking. Love and SALSA!

six-week old vanilla extract

It’s easy. It’s lazy. It’s hippie-cool-home-made-ricotta-join the commune- artisan- small-batch amazing. All you need is vodka and vanilla beans. Vanilla beans are where the money is in this concoction. The beans are very easily found on the internet (start with Amazon of course) in bulk at a fraction of the price you pay at the spice store, or the grocery store.  For extraction you want to get “grade B” beans. Let me show you why.

Here are two grades of vanilla beans. You can see the grade B bean is drier, the grade A bean is oiler. For extract- oily is not as desirable. If you were making vanilla sugar- the oiler bean would be better to coat the sugar. (yes, I did make vanilla sugar too) An oily bean in extract will cause an oil slick. The grade B bean will absorb the vodka better and more readily release it’s goodness.

The recipe is pretty straight forward. There is plenty of debate online about how many beans per cup to use. I have combed through most of it for you dear readers, and I have found a minimum of 6 beans per cup of vodka will give your best results. Anything less is just flavored vodka. (this is also a great idea.. but I digress) So do the math. Get a bottle of vodka, see how many ounces you have. Gather your beans. Split the beans and cut them into thirds. Place the beans in the vodka. Shake the bottle a couple of times and put in a dark place. I keep mine in my heart. Not really, just seeing if you are awake.    I keep mine the coat closet under the stairs. Once a week or so, give the bottle a few shakes, maybe sniff it to see how it’s doing. After two months it will be ready to use. You can strain it and put it into smaller bottles if you wish. If you do, add a bean or 2 into the smaller bottle, to keep the goodness going. (no need to split this bean, just cut it to fit the container. Splitting this bean could get  unwanted debris in your recipes.)

sexy vanilla beans, giving up the good stuff

Vanilla extract only improves with age. Keep your big bottle going. As you use your extract add more vodka to the “mother” bottle and add a few new beans occasionally. They say it’ll keep for years, as this is a method of preservation. I love that… Legacy vanilla extract!

]]> http://darlacooks.com/2012/04/30/legacy-vanilla-extract/feed/ 16 yogadarla SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC SONY DSC http://darlacooks.com/2012/04/24/homemade-ricotta/ http://darlacooks.com/2012/04/24/homemade-ricotta/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:01:03 +0000 darla http://darlacooks.com/?p=1402 ]]>

homemade ricotta shown with my homemade olive bread

Making “ricotta” type cheese at home is so easy I am ashamed for ever buying it- I certainly won’t buy it again. Think about it, if I am at the store and I need ricotta I’ll just buy some cream and make it myself. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. “Darla’s turning into some whacky -hippie-amish-earth-mother-dairy elitist.”
Yes I am, yes, I certainly am. (why not black IS so slimming and tie-dye is so fun!)

Anyway it’s exactly three ingredients (plus salt) and easy as… pie. (I hope!)  I have made it twice. Once with champagne vinegar, and once with Meyer lemon juice and white wine vinegar combination.  The acid is what makes the milk curdle into … curds. I found the all vinegar version to be firmer and more curdy- the lemon juice version less curdy but a nice subtle lemony flavor. Meyer lemons have less acid that vinegar or even regular lemons for that matter- but I am obsessed with them. This is just another sneaky way for me try them out.

Home Made Ricotta ( Inspired by Ina Garten’s Recipe)

4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 tea-spoon kosher salt
2 table spoons of white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon juice

Mix the cream and milk with the salt, bring to a real boil. Turn off the heat. Add vinegar/lemon juice. stir. Wait one minute and then spoon into a cheese cloth lined sieve sitting over a bowl. Drain the cheese for as long as you wish up to a couple of hours, or over night in the fridge. Viola!  Ricotta/ farmer’s cheese. (you can drink the whey left in the bowl or give it to your dogs as a treat poured over their kibble)

I LOVE to eat this on bread, fruit and I will use it to make pasta dishes if there is any left. I tend to revisit it many times in the day.  It’s deelish warm when you first make it- it’s deelish cold too. A spoonful here, a spoonful there…. you get the idea I am sure.  ;-)

Try this easy peasy recipe. You will be very very happy you did and be well on your way to being a dairy snob.

** UPDATE **
If  you use the vinegar only use 3TBS total vinegar. (this is the original recipe from Barefoot Contessa) I cut the vinegar and doubled the remaining acid amount since I was using Meyer Lemon juice.

I think my weakest spot in the kitchen is my knife skills. Knife skills effect everything! My chopping shame haunts me daily. The way the food cooks is affected by how it’s cut, the final look of the dish and presentation suffer. The importance of cutting things uniformly can’t be overstated. (Great.) I’m not afraid to bake a cake but I’m embarrassed by my salads!

And of course the way life goes is the thing that we are most likely to avoid is that thing the universe puts directly in front of us to address. When I started my cooler than cool America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School blogger scholarship -before I dove into Apple Pies at Bridget’s suggestion, I started with cooking fundamentals. And there was–right in front of me knife skills!

I watched the video instructions a couple of times and decided that my knives were not ready for me. (procrastination?) So I called Precision Sharpening here in Houston and had them come over and sharpen all of my knives and talk to me about how to take care of them. I’d already looked at the cooking school’s blog regarding knives and sharpening also had communicated with the author about it, but I thought I would start with a professional sharpen and vow to take care of them properly from now on.

So, with my newly sharpened knives and my wonderful laptop in the kitchen on the counter I got started on my skills, and I give this to you my before and after.

Chop an Onion:

before

after

Dice a carrot:

before

after

Mince garlic:

I never minced garlic, I always used a press.

after: minced by hand

Chop parsley:

before

after

Also included are the instructions on how to cut on a bias, but that’s pretty easy peasy. My before and after were the same.

There it is. Knife skills. I’m not done with these by any stretch. I know that these skills are ongoing, and I shall challenge myself to use these new skills in my everyday cooking. Practice makes perfect (or at least better) and these techniques transfer to many other veggies. Soon my shameful salads will be works of art!

from left: olive oil cracker, oatmeal diamonds, polenta cheese animal crackers, sesame crackers. seedy flat crisp. cheddar poppy seed cracker.

from top left: olive peasant bread, nice little oatmeal bread, nearly no knead white, nearly no knead white with polenta