Al Dente

Junior League Cookbooks are Family Friendly, Local, and Charitable

Do you have a favorite Junior League cookbook? I have many from various cities around the country. Unfortunately, I’m hard pressed to name one as a favorite. 

Indeed, these books are true American treasure troves not only because they raise funds for much needed community projects, but also because they feature the best from local cooks, families, farmers, chefs, and purveyors. 

Another reason why I like these cookbooks is because the recipes have often stood the test of time in their hometowns. How could a dish fail if it’s been served at countless potlucks, community barbecues, and civic meetings long before it was submitted for publication?  Afterall,  isn’t it the grassroots crowds who are often the toughest critics?

Even though I’m stumped for naming just one cookbook, I will offer a recipe from one of the volumes I use most frequently—San Francisco Encore by the Junior League of San Francisco. Published in 1986, this  volume doesn’t have a single photograph but it does have some wonderful sketches by Earl Thollander, who was also an illustrator for Gourmet Magazine when I was there years ago.

About three years ago, I decided to try the Butter-Almond Cake recipe for Thanksgiving. I love almond paste, and the recipe looked so easy. I was hosting the in laws and wanted something a little different. I wanted something more classic than trendy. This hit the mark perfectly. I've made it many times since.

Butter-Almond Cake

From San Francisco Encore by the Junior League of San Francisco

5 ounces (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup almond paste, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
Grated zest of 1 orange
2/3 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Generously grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.
2. Cream the butter until light. Slowly add the almond paste, mix well.  Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated before adding another. Stir in the orange zest.
3. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into the butter mixture. Top with almonds.
4. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Turn out onto a rack and continue cooling.

Note: I've made this in a French tart pan and served it with fresh berries and cream for an even more impressive classic presentation!

--Melissa A. Trainer

Chocolate Marshmallow Pizza

In an effort to combine three guilty pleasures into one superguiltypleasure, I give you the chocolate marshmallow pizza pictured below, compliments of thisiswhyyourefat.com (yep, the site's name says it all). Gross or so, so good?

 

--AndreaLeigh

An Apple with a Split Personality

This is no Photoshop job--it's the real thing--an apple chimera.

Ken Morrish of England pulled this gem off his apple tree thinking someone had painted it. Turns out that this half-green, half-red Golden Delicious is a genetic mutant. The red side is slightly sweeter than the green half.

Via BuzzFeed, via Mail Online.

--Spanno

Perfectly Imperfect Pecan Pralines: The Flaw Makes the Sweet

Do you ever start, for reasons you can’t pin down, dreaming about particular food? I certainly do. For example A, out of nowhere the other Tuesday I started thinking about pralines. Though it traces back to an almond treat created in the 17th century by the cook of a French industrialist, the praline as I envision it comes out of Louisiana and contains pecans, and has a little chew to it. Luckily, when I started going from thinking about pralines to seriously craving them (and this is the normal path in this situation I believe), I found the following recipe from Salty Sweets: Delectable Desserts and Tempting Treats with a Sublime Kiss of Salt by Christie Matheson, which is an awfully fun and handy book for those that aren’t afraid to have a hint of savory in their dessert-y treats. The author says about these pralines that, “This simple version, spiked with a little bourbon, is my favorite. Making pralines becomes incredibly easy when you skip the step of trying to form them into perfect 2 1/2-inch rounds, like they do in the South, but instead spread the whole mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet and break it up into bites once it’s cool.”

Makes 25 to 30 good-size pieces

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons molasses
1 1/2 tablespoons bourbon (or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)
1 cup lightly toasted pecan halves

Directions:
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium-size saucepan, combine the sugar, cream, butter, salt, molasses, and bourbon and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. After it starts to boil, boil for another 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool just until the mixture stops bubbling completely. Add the pecan halves and stir them in well, then quickly pour the mixture onto the baking sheet and spread it out as much as you can. (It will get thick quickly while you’re doing this--so this is the time to remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect!)

4. Let cool completely, then break the praline up into bite-size pieces (you get to decide what “bite-size” means…and snack on the little shards that don’t measure up).

Recipe from Salty Sweets: Delectable Desserts and Tempting Treats with a Sublime Kiss of Salt by Christie Matheson. Copyright 2009, Harvard Common Press. Photo by Joyce Oudkerk Pool.

Arancini: Another Reason to Move to Italy

Every time I think of moving to Italy (which is, honestly, once a day at the least and once an hour on the average) I realize that I’d never be able to come back. Not because I wouldn’t miss everyone at the Al Dente HQ, but because I would eat so much when there that I wouldn’t be able to get out of a door. Okay, that’s somewhat of a joke, but really, I keep discovering new Italian favorites that I think I might just over-indulge in if there all the time. For example, arancini, the tasty and resourceful creation named after the orange that uses leftover risotto in a delicious fashion, mixing it with cheese and other ingredients and then frying it (this recipe on About.com is for mushroom arancini, for example, but many have various meats as well) into a ball--sometimes a very round ball, and sometimes a little pointed as in the below. Absolutely yummy, and again, one of those dishes that I haven’t found quite right yet anywhere outside of Italy, where I had them for the first time about 4 months ago. Though I’d be happy to hear about worthy members of the species anyone has had outside of Italy, I’ve now added arancini to my list of edible reasons why I should, really, move to Italy.

 

--A.J. Rathbun

Bar Snacks: Japanese Arare

Instead of traditional bars snacks, why not surprise your next guests, whether expected or not, with something other than a bowl of chips with that glass of wine?

Arare or Japanese rice crackers make a great alternative. With a bag or two of arare in the cupboard, you're ready to entertain at a moment's notice. Some people stock their favorite arare, but I like to serve a variety. Their shapes, textures and flavors are so unusual. 

See if you can pick out Nori (seaweed) wrapped arare, twisted Yakko arare, flower-shaped Sakura arare and of course, those ubiquitous Wasabi peas.

If you're an arare fan, what are your favorites?

--Tracy Schneider

A Big Canner, the Right Canning Tools, and Black Forest Preserves

I can admit it: I’m lucky. If not in every single aspect of life (I’ve never flipped a coin twenty times and had it come up all heads, for example) at least in the fact that I have a giant Rainer cherry tree in my backyard. It delivers a host of the slightly sweet, usually yellow-reddish delights each year in early summer, and the birds and I split them up--they get the ones way up high and I get the more easily reachable fruits. There are always enough that I partial them out, some for snacking, some for soaking in bourbon, and some for making into jam or jellies. In the past, I’ve always gone for just straight cherry jam, but this year I decided to branch out and tried a recipe for Black Forest Preserves, adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preservation. As you’ll see below, this recipe mixes up cherries with the normal sugar, plus a little bit of chocolate and amaretto for an end result that’s out of this world, especially good with cream cheese and crackers or mixed in with vanilla ice cream. Before getting started though, I had to get my tools together, which means bringing out my large Columbian Home 33-quart jar canner, which is black enamel on steel. It’s quite a monster, and usually I use it for larger batches of everything from jam to tomato sauce to canned red peppers, but since it comes with a sure-fitting rack, it worked for this slightly smaller batch of preserves.

As you can see in the above picture, I also opened up my Back to Basics canning tool kit. It includes a jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter (the crucial tool for removing lids and bands from boiling water), a canning funnel, kitchen tongs, and a jar wrench. I’ve found that if I keep all these helpful tools together in the box when done using them, I never have a problem finding them when I need them. The fact that they’re highlighted in a nice bright red does make it shame to box them up and not show them, but if you knew how fast I could lose something in my kitchen cabinets, you’d understand.

A couple hints about these preserves: I used 4 cups of cherries when 3 were suggested, and chopped them a little less, and all came out fine, and I used Di Saronno amaretto and it added just the right amount of flavor. It makes about 7 half pints, and the results were luscious, pretty and tasty.

Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 cups pitted and roughly chopper Rainer cherries
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 three ounce packages liquid pectin
4 Tablespoons Di Saronno amaretto

Directions:
1. Prepare canner, jars, and lids in a boiling water bath for at least 10 minutes.

2. In a bowl, combine sugar and cocoa. Stir well.

3. In a large saucepan, combine cherries and lemon juice. Stir in cocoa mixture. Over high heat, stirring constantly, cook until it reaches a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.

4. Stir in pectin. Bring back to a boil and boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in amaretto. Remove from heat and skim off foam if needed.

5. Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving approximately 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles if needed, wipe rim, and then center the lid on the jar. Screw bands on tight.

6. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil, and then process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, and then remove jars. Place them on a flat surface until set.

--A.J. Rathbun

Deep Fried Butter & Other Fair Fare

If you're a fan of anything deep fried, you're probably well aware of the plethora of crispy, artery-clogging treats to be had at state fairs. Texas, naturally, takes the cake. At the upcoming state fair of Texas (September 25 to October 18), you can delight in deep fried peaches & cream, fried peanut-butter cup macaroons, country fried pork chips, fried butter (yep, just butter), and my personal favorite, deep fried pecan pie (see below). Anyone heading to the fair to indulge? Let us know your favorite fried find!

 

--AndreaLeigh

Pizza on a Stick

Here's a clever and fun way to get your kids their daily dose of pizza without having to resort to bags of those disgusting Totino's pizza nugget things.

For the recipe and more drool-inducing pictures, visit the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day blog.

--Spanno

Friday Links for Food Lovers, Plus Foodista's Top Food Reads

It's Friday again! Here are a few tasty links the Al Dente editors obsessed about this week:

• Find that endless summer with these s'mores cookies.
• Mad Men link of the week: Foodista crawls the web for food befitting the maddest of Mad Men fans.
• Our friends the Lee Bros. do all the hard work for us--check out their article on America's best barbecue joints.
• Calling all bacon photographers! Don't miss the Official Bacon Photo Contest!
• Speaking of bacon, don't miss 100 Ways to Use a Strip of Bacon over on Endless Simmer.
• Send kids back to school with these homemade Cranberry Coconut Granola Bars.
• One more thing we bet you never thought to make at home: English muffins! They look divine!
• Sweets to swoon over--Lottie + Doof's dreamy Chocolate Caramel Tart:

Photo courtesy of Lottie + Doof.

While you're out and about, reading up on food news, don't miss the Foodista's top 10 food reads, including:

1. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
2. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn
3. Heat by Bill Buford

Hop on over to Foodista to view the full list!

Did I miss a not-to-be-missed foodie link from this past week? Add a comment or tweet at me!

Have a great weekend!

--KitchenMaus