Ok, it’s been, seriously, how long??  Well, we have minimal excuses, aside from one of us being pretty busy baking a baby in her oven, while the other half of this little blog, me, has been lost in the drone of work/life for months.  Luckily a recent trip to Italy awoke my palate.   It also helps that with the fall air creeping into New England, my nesting is off the charts. Maybe I am vicariously nesting for my knocked-up sis.  These recent happenings have reminded me that lovingly preparing a meal and gathering around it, preferably with lots of wine, is my favorite way to be with the people I love. 

Since returning from beautiful Italia, I have dusted off The Art of Simple Cooking by Alice Waters.  I am sure I am not the first to pore over her cookbooks, taking note of each suggestion like an eager student. Alice (can I call you that, Alice?), is a gifted teacher.  She takes a basic recipe, like a roasted chicken, and guides you along each step from when to season it (days in advance if possible) to the intimate details of how the leg of this roasted guy should wiggle to know that its done.  You never feel like you are winging it when she is writing the recipe. 

Can you tell how much I love her right now??  Like a bible, her book rests on my bedside table…..I end each day with a nightcap of Alice.  I am finding that I cannot stop talking about her book, something my friends and family can attest to.  I am like a preacher from the pulpit, wanting to spread the gospel of Alice Waters , in the hopes that others will join my in my zealotry.

Which brings me to her apple tart, which is the real origin of my obsession.  This is a simply perfect, PERFECT! recipe.  But before I share this amazingness with you, I have to advise that this dough needs to rest at least four hours.  On my first try, I overeagerly pulled the dough out of the fridge at about 3 hours, thinking it would be like a pie dough, and it was very tasty when baked, but super-high maintenance in rolling out and moving to the baking sheet.  I recently made this tart for the second time, in as many weeks, and spread a thin layer of apricot jam to the tart before adding the apples, this took it up a notch, but it’s still perfect either way.  The only other word of advice is maybe add a few tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to the apples as you are peeling them which gives just a little tartness to the whole event.

Be prepared for a mind-blowing experience. 

Apple Tart- Alice Waters- The art of simple food

Sweet Tart Dough- Pate Sucree

Beat together until creamy:

8 tablespoons room temperature butter (1 stick)

1/3 cup of sugar

Add and mix until completely combined:

            ¼ teaspoon salt

            ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

            1 egg yolk-should be room temp

Fold into mixture (I think best by hand at this point)

            1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

Mix well, stirring and folding, until there are no dry patches.  Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic, then flatten into a disc, which will make it easier for rolling out later. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight until firm.

Preheat oven to 400.

Peel, core and slice about ¼ inch thick:

            3 lbs apples- Alice suggests Sierra Beauty, Pippin, Granny Smith…I used Ida Red which are tart and crisp for the first tart and Gala for the second, which are a little sweeter. 

 Roll out into a 14-inch circle:

            One 10-ounce disk of tart dough- make sure that the dough is at room temp before you start rolling it out, you should be able to drag your finger across the plastic wrapped dough and make an indent(thanks Amanda!).  If its too hard….you may feel homicidal toward the dough.  

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Let it firm up in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so.  Take it out of the refrigerator and lay apple slices end to end in a circle around the circumference, leaving 1 ½ inch border.  Arrange the remaining apples slices with the circle in tight, overlapping concentric circles.  The apples should be about 1 ½ inches thick.

Fold the dough border over the apples.  Melt:

            3 tablespoons butter

Brush the folded dough border generously with butter and then pat the tops of the apples with the rest.  Sprinkle the crust with:

            2 tablespoons of sugar

Sprinkle the apples with:

            2-3 tablespoons of sugar

Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 45-55 minutes, until the crust is golden brown on the bottom.  Slide off the pan and cool on a rack. 

Wow! Where does the effing time go? One minute, it’s February and you’re writing about kale in your Snuggie, the next it is nearly April, you have a TAN (a teeny one), and the daylight lasts until 7 p.m.-plus. Well, we’ve missed you BIK friends, and we hope you haven’t totally ditched us in favor of more frequent posters. Life has been a bit, shall we say, complicated? Add to that a laptop that took a bath followed by a monthlong nap, and you have a recipe for blog ignoredness. Sorry, little blog.

Anywho, although spring is knocking loudly at both our doors (please let it be so!), us seasonal eating types are still mostly stuck with winter veggies. A recent trip to my farmers market on a warm day yielded more of the same: squash, sweet potato and kale. Luckily, on that same day, I stumbled upon something totally fresh, a recipe for butternut squash flatbread. This is just the thing – lighter than many squash recipes, perfectly suited for enjoying al fresco with a glass of wine and a salad. I could not believe how tasty this recipe is – the squash melts into the pizza in a way that is almost cheeselike (I didn’t try it, but I think vegans could just skip the cheddar, maybe drizzle on extra olive oil, and never miss a thing). Cut into small pieces, it would make a great appetizer, and you could probably improve it even further by using a heated pizza stone for a super crisp crust. I am usually too lazy for all that.

I made this with a whole-wheat version of my fave pizza crust recipe ever in Deborah Madison’s excellent book Local Flavors. You can use whatever works for you. I’ve increased the olive oil in the crust a bit, which I think improves the texture. If you make the dough a day ahead and chill overnight, the crust is even more flavorful. Just give it an hour or so at room temp to warm up. The recipe makes enough for two pizzas (double the toppings if you want, or chill/freeze for a future pizza adventure). The pizza recipe is basically the same as the original, although I made it with dried rosemary instead of fresh thyme, and I used two cups of cheese because I am naughty like that. Do whatever you like. The toppings are loosely measured because there is really no way to screw this up.

Butternut squash pizza with whole-wheat crust

Pizza barely adapted from Real Simple, crust adapted from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison

Crust:

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 ¼ cups warm water (about 100-115 degrees F)

Pinch sugar

Teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

Toppings:

Half a medium butternut squash, sliced thinly

Several handfuls of pine nuts (about 1/3 cup)

1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed

Half a red onion, sliced thinly

Drizzle olive oil (1-2 tablespoons, to taste)

2 cups cheddar cheese

Couple pinches salt

Make dough: Stir together yeast, sugar and one cup all-purpose flour, and let sit at least 20-25 minutes, until puffy and bubbly. Stir in olive oil, salt and remaining flour, then turn onto a floured board. Knead about five minutes, or until smooth and elastic, adding as little flour as possible to keep from sticking. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place. Let rise about an hour, or until doubled in bulk, then chill overnight if preparing ahead, or proceed with recipe.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Stretch dough over hands, to form a thin crust, placing on oiled baking sheet when it gets too large to handle. Use fingertips to continue stretching dough into desired shape and size. I’m into rectangular pizza, so I use a jellyroll pan.

Toss together squash, onions, pine nuts and olive oil. Scatter across dough, then sprinkle with salt and rosemary. Layer on cheese and toss in the oven until melted, bubbly and browning along the edges of the crust. Transfer to a cooling rack so you don’t have soggy pizza, and enjoy. Happy early spring!

Around bitchinkitchen, we like to enjoy a little indulgence from time to time. A few too many adult beverages, a little too much dessert, CHEESE. We try not to stress too much about it as long as we’re eating heathfully most of the time. To us, that means lots of vegetables, whole grains and fruits. But in winter, that kind of eating can also mean shipping delicate greens and berries across the country or even further. You might as well spoon a giant blob of fossil fuels into your bowl. Yum!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, that way of thinking has spawned the locavore movement, which is closely tied with Slow Food (which also encompasses the social aspects of cooking and eating together). The thinking, broadly, is that eating locally grown and minimally processed foods is better for people, communities and ecosystems. Us BIK gals are fans because we heart Planet Earth, but also because it’s the handiest thing ever to run out and grab a sprig of rosemary from your garden rather than getting all cute and going to the grocery store for a box to whip up some herb scrambled eggs. We like any task that can be accomplished while wearing (also cute) PJs.

So, that brings us back to healthful eating. What to do in winter when all you crave is salad? Well, we took a page from Barbara Kingsolver’s fantastic book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and from Body + Soul magazine, and looked to winter greens for a hearty, tasty salad. You may not be lucky enough to find these at a farmer’s market at this time of year (but probably they are coming soon), but this is the season for good-for-you cold-weather greens like kale, Swiss chard and other winter veggies, and you can find them at any old grocery store. The key to making them salad ready is slicing them into thin ribbons and pairing with a bit of sweetness (apples, maple syrup and honey-toasted sunflower seeds in this case) and drizzling on a dressing with just a bit of bite.

I had already been thinking about winter salads thanks to Kingsolver’s book but didn’t take the plunge until I came across this recipe in Body + Soul. I made some tweaks because I find raw Brussels sprouts pretty unappealing, and I wanted more sweetness to balance the pungency of the mustard and the intensity of the greens. I served this to some friends, and to our genuine surprise, we all really liked it. I tweaked it a bit more and now like has turned to full-on love. It’s crunchy and fresh and just what I wanted after a week of too many sweets. Also, if I do say so myself, this salad is beautiful to look at. You can put it together ahead of time and just top with the sunflower seeds and dressing right before serving. Leave any excess dry – you can eat it for several days for lunches as long as you haven’t added the dressing.

Food for thought before you dive in: If you feel the urge to blanch all the greens, I beg you, resist! I tried it, and the kale and Swiss chard become irreparably rubbery. Silly me, I thought I could blanch and then dry the greens, and they would be salad-ready but, well, cooked. No, it totally doesn’t work that way. However, I think that approach does work well with the Brussels sprouts, so I did it. If raw cabbage is your thing, just chop the sprouts and use them uncooked.

One last thing – julienning is a chopping technique that basically means you slice something into narrow ribbons. It is mostly for texture and appearance. It that is too high-maintenance (especially with the apples), just chop however you like. This recipe is meant to be e-a-s-y, so don’t let a little thing like fancy chopping deter you. The only important thing for this salad is that the pieces be small. Even a happy kale convert like me can’t stomach a giant leaf in one bite.

Cold-weather salad with honey-toasted sunflower seeds

Adapted from Body + Soul magazine

Serves 6-8

Salad

1 pound Brussels sprouts

5 leaves kale

5 leaves Swiss chard

2 red-skinned apples, finely julienned (I liked Fuji apples for this), tossed with a couple teaspoons of lemon juice to prevent browning

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 pinches salt

Dressing

1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard

Juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Two tablespoons cold-pressed sunflower oil (or whatever you have handy)

¾ teaspoons salt

Make salad: Stem and finely slice Brussels sprouts into ribbons. Do the same with kale and chard, but do not mix with Brussels sprouts. Blanch Brussels sprouts in salted, boiling water for 4 minutes, then immerse in cold water to cool. Strain, and run through a salad spinner to dry shredded sprouts. Arrange chopped kale and Swiss chard on a platter, then scatter with dried Brussels sprouts. Scatter apple ribbons on top. Salad can be chilled at this point until time to serve.

Make sunflower seeds: Warm nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil, then stir in nuts. Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until nuts begin to brown and become fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to heatproof plate or pan and let cook. Break apart if necessary into small chunks and scatter over salad.

Make dressing: Whisk together mustard, lemon juice, syrup, sunflower oil and salt. Drizzle over salad when ready to serve.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and because we at BIK love our readers, we made you a cupcake recipe!  You can make these baby cakes for your very own babycakes or anyone else you love (such as your gals at BIK!).  It started as a plan to replicate this recipe from Martha Stewart Living and morphed into Orange-Almond Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream, with the icing swiped from a Gourmet macaroon recipe.  This cupcake recipe takes its flavor from almonds and orange zest, making a delicately scented, totally delicious cake.  The ground almonds enrich the batter and the orange adds a fresh, fruity note. (You can leave the ground almonds out, just bump the flour back up to 1½ cups).

Taking a page from wedding cakes, I brushed the cupcakes with melted orange marmalade before icing them, but I really wish I had thought to use amaretto instead. Doesn’t that sound naughty? I think you should definitely do that! And the jam makes spreading the icing a little more of a pain in the arse, but I think amaretto would not because the cake would absorb it more readily. But do whatever you like. The marmalade was delicious and totally worth doing.

About the icing: It is a little high-maintenance.  The BIK gals know a thing or two about high-maintenance, and we wholeheartedly believe it is not a bad thing.  Now, you could surely throw any old icing on here and it would be fine.  BUT – if you were to learn only one high-maintenance confection technique in the whole world, I think I would recommend this one.  It’s a Swiss buttercream, and it’s not technically difficult, just more time consuming than tossing a little butter and powdered sugar together.  The way it works is you basically make a meringue that looks an awful lot like Fluff (go, Fluffernutters!). It’s heated over simmering water to dissolve the sugar.  Then, you beat butter in slowly until it all comes together in a silky, luscious mound. If you’re wary of salmonella, I guess you should be wary of this recipe, as the egg whites are heated but not enough to kill all the shady stuff.  A number of icings use egg whites in various ways.  If you’ve ever made Italian buttercream, that is a close relative of Swiss buttercream.

Why go to all that trouble?  This is restaurant icing — the silky, buttery confection that makes bakery cakes special. It’s smooth, not-too-sweet and totally addictive. Luckily, the recipe makes more than you need for the cupcakes. It freezes well, but I advise just keeping it in the fridge and spreading on graham crackers whenever the mood strikes (aka: all the time).  You don’t even really need a cupcake, just make up a bowl, grab a spoon and snuggle up with “When Harry Met Sally.”  That’s actually kind of my ideal Valentine’s Day.  But, if you’d like to whip up a proper dessert, make the cupcakes, too, sprinkle with almonds, and brace yourself for the flood of marriage proposals.  Happy V-Day, loves!

Orange-Almond Cupcakes

Loosely adapted from Martha Stewart Living

½ stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

½ teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Zest of one orange, finely grated

1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup ground almonds (processed in food processor until sandy)

½ cup whole milk (use skim if you like)

½ cup orange marmalade melted, or amaretto (about 1/3 cup)

Heat oven to 350. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In small bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and ground almonds. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy and well combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, extracts and orange zest. Beat in flour mixture, then milk, stopping when well combined. Divide batter among muffin cups and bake 15-17 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Brush with marmalade or amaretto, letting liquid soak into cakes for a few minutes, then spread with Almond Buttercream Icing.

Almond Buttercream Icing

Hardly at all adapted from Gourmet, but with notes and encouragement from BIK

2 large egg whites

½ cup granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

½ cup sliced almonds

Place clean bowl from electric mixer over a pot of barely simmering water, whatever size pot works with your bowl.  Don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.  If you do not have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer, just prepare for a workout.  Also, if using a hand mixer, use beaters, not whisk attachment.  In bowl over simmering water, whisk whites, sugar and salt without stopping until mixture is quite warm and sugar is dissolved. It should look white and frothy.

Place bowl in mixer and beat with whisk attachment (only if using stand mixer) and whip at medium-high speed until cooled and whites hold stiff, glossy peaks. This can take a long time, so don’t give up. You’re getting close when it gets thick, sticky and shiny. It looks a lot like paint. Keep going.

Once you’ve achieved stiff peaks (this took me a good 10 minutes), add butter one piece at a time. The mixture will probably break and look grainy, but keep going. Beat well after each addition, and after the last of the butter is added. Add extracts and keep going. Don’t stop beating (except to scrape down the bowl) until it comes back together and makes a smooth, spreadable icing. It’ll all be worthwhile. Then spread it on the cupcakes, sprinkle with almonds and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

OK, BIK friends, I’m sure we can all agree that pretty much anything (questionable company, food, work, you-know-what) is better after a few glasses of wine. But you know what is not better? Lemon cake. I found out the hard way, trying to squeeze one more recipe into a day jam-packed with work, socializing, exercise (we’ve been eating a LOT, after all – these recipes require numerous trials, people!) and other stuff. Other tipsy people dance on tables. I bake lemon cake.

Why lemon cake? Well, it was our Nana’s birthday last week and it’s her recipe.* And she is awesome, as is her lemon cake. If Nana had a computer and knew what this whole interwebs thing was all about, we like to think she would be a BIK kind of gal (although we would surely hear a word or two about our potty mouths). She is smart, sassy and loves to bake. She always has something sweet to plop in front of us when we visit, and it’s often her beautiful and easy English lemon cake. It’s interesting enough to make someone feel special, yet basic enough that you can toss it together in no time. It’s a rich, sweet cake, sort of like a pound cake, drizzled with a tart lemon glaze. Addictive.

So, about my tipsy version. I’m still not sure what I did wrong. Several things, probably. But it yielded completely flat, unphotogenic, crispy (not burnt, just literally crispy … ?), dense, etc. … lemon cake. Anyway, because I love you THAT much, I made another one. Make this for breakfast, to bring to a potluck, to serve for dessert, to eat in your bed while watching trashy TV, anything! If you’re feeling lazy, I can respect that – I won’t make you feel guilty about not using fresh lemon juice. I have a green and yellow bottle in my fridge, too. But I do hope you use the lemon zest in the topping. That’s where the real tartness comes from, and it’s sooooooo nice to balance out the cake’s richness.

*Actually we don’t know where the recipe comes from besides Nana’s recipe box. If this looks like something you have seen, please let us know so we can credit the source.

Nana’s English Lemon Cake

Cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup milk

Glaze:

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

3 teaspoons lemon zest

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking powder. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until pale and smooth. You can use an electric mixer, although I have also done this by hand successfully. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in about one-third of dry ingredients, then beat in half the milk (don’t get all crazy with measuring, just alternate dry and wet ingredients). Repeat until all milk and dry ingredients have been incorporated. Pour into pan and place in oven. Bake about 70 minutes, or until tester inserted into center comes out clean.

While cake is baking, stir together sugar, lemon juice and zest over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until syrup simmers and sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

When cake is finished, leave it in the pan and pour syrup over hot cake slowly. Let cake cool in pan (for maximum glaze absorption). This cake is best at room temperature.

As I’ve mentioned, I try to eat virtuously every now and then, so I have a pantry full of stuff like flax seeds, wheat germ and quinoa. And green tea. LOTS of unused green tea. The virtues of green tea are well known even if not fully understood (and in some cases not fully substantiated): Its antioxidants may help fight disease, possibly assist with weight loss and cholesterol management, etc. Good stuff. Read more here and here. *

But the taste … well if you love it good for you. I don’t, so I must hide it in something else.

Heh heh. OK, this isn’t about ice cream (but isn’t it always about ice cream??) Anyway, I was tooling away on the Stairmaster the other day, reading my Body + Soul magazine, and came across this little gem.

Green tea, concealed with spices and fruit. Brilliant! I was, of course, nervous about the quantity of green tea because 1. Ick! And 2. I had tea bags and could not see myself cutting open enough tea bags to yield a third of a cup. Eventually I ditched the loose-tea approach out of pure laziness. It turns out, it’s just fine and saves a step to just use the tea in the bags. And it saves you the inevitable floating chunks that loose tea leaves behind. I would proceed with caution if you want to use more than four bags (which using my tea bags yielded less than 1/8 cup of leaves) because the apple flavor is delicate and easily masked by the tea. To compensate somewhat for the vastly reduced tea quantity, I lengthened the steeping time a bit.

You could go a little wild with other stuff in small quantities … I considered adding a slice of fresh ginger, maybe a handful of fresh cranberries for color and a little flavor. If you love green tea and have some loose, maybe try the original recipe linked above. Otherwise, for a warm, spicy beverage that tastes a little like green tea but much better, try the one below. Seriously, I’m making it again tonight, and this time it’s purely voluntary.

Spiced apple green tea

Adapted from Body + Soul magazine

1 Granny Smith apple, finely chopped

4 cups water

1 cinnamon stick

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

4 strips orange zest (use a vegetable peeler for this)

2 tablespoons honey

Four bags green tea

Stir together apple, water, spices, zest and honey in a saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for two minutes. Turn off heat and allow to steep 15 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer over tea bags, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible and let steep two minutes. Resist the urge to swirl tea bags and squeeze all the liquid out of them, as this can make the tea quite strong and mask the other flavors. Remove tea bags and reheat if necessary. Drop in a couple apple slices to garnish, if you like, and enjoy.

*Full disclosure: We’re both science gals, but not experts on health and nutrition. When we talk about nutrition on BIK, it’ll be from a relatively conservative point of view using trusted non-peer-reviewed sources. We’d love to go to the nutrition journals and read all about this stuff and give you our most informed, most unbiased opinion, but we got no time! We try to be skeptical of whatever we read, eat as many whole foods as possible and enjoy most things in moderation.

Alright, gang, I am not going to beat around the bush. Historically speaking, I’ve had an ambivalent relationship with pears.  I have always felt like it’s way too hard to get a decent pear; usually they are mushy, mealy or way too hard.  But seriously, when I have scouted a ripe one, after slurping the pear juice while trying to keep the pear from jumping out of my hands like live trout, I am usually left feeling like, meh, why did I work so hard for a whole-lotta NO flavor?

So, this fall when some friends added pear cognac, actually Belle de Brillet to be specific, to a dangerously yummy drink I was pleasantly surprised!  The drink was delightful and really tasted pear-y.  As a side note Belle de Brillet is some sweetass, tasty nectar that you should totally enjoy. I think there are something like 40 pears crammed into one tiny bottle, but get ready to pay some big $$, as its almost 50 bucks for 750 ml.  Drinking aside, this cognac reminded me that although sometimes hard to find, pears can have a light, delicate flavor that I shouldn’t just write off.  Also, if I am keeping it upfront, which I try to do, I AM a pear!  I’ve got some curve on my lower half…so, why am I such a hater?  OK, so what I am really trying to say is I’m committed to embracing pears in all their curvy, fleshy, round-bottom goodness.

This leads me to a beautiful dessert I made last weekend.  Its from Gourmet, found on epicurious, wait for it….wait….oh yess….Caramelized Upside-Down Pear Tart.  It’s a rustic tart that is literally baked in a frying pan. Baking can’t get much more rustic than that. The recipe instructs you to heat butter and sugar in a large pan, then arrange the halved and cored pears in the pan, sprinkle some cinnamon and wait for the sugar to become all golden, bubbly and perfect!  Then you tuck your round, curvy pears under a pastry dough blanket of sorts, then bake.  After baking, the trickiest part is flipping the tart over, so I did my best by channeling Julia: I strapped on some courage and flipped my tart pretty nicely.

My only comments on this recipe are 1: resist any urges to overspice the pears with cloves, nutmeg and other wintertime flavors, they are perfect simply bathed in butter and sugar, and 2: you may only need to let your pears caramelize for less than 10 minutes, depending on your stove and how well your pan holds heat.

If you enjoy pears, pear shapes or curves in general, take this tart for a spin:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Carmelized-Upside-Down-Pear-Tart-108779

Good morning, sunshine! It’s Monday, a new week, another chance for a fresh, healthy start.

But, first … more confessions. 1: I have been known to eat ice cream/potato chips/cheese/some combo of the three for dinner. 2. I am a health nut. I know, I am a deeply confused woman. But I really try to pull my crap together sometimes, and this is one of those times (I recycle a New Year’s resolution to eat more fruits and veggies most years). Thus, smoothie time.

If you’re not big smoothie drinker, I highly recommend at least trying smoothies on for size for several reasons. They’re easy, they are super good for you (fiber, antioxidants, calcium, protein) and they are tasty, even for a sweets-scarfing gal like me.

Did I mention easy? You don’t even need a recipe. There are a million out there, and we will surely try some in the future, but I like the kitchen-sink approach following a basic, flexible formula. This makes enough for two nice portions, although I usually drink it all myself in a desperate attempt to offset all those ice cream dinners. Here’s the thinking behind the formula. If you just want the recipe, skip to below.

My base is always a banana. On the riper side is best so the fruit purees very smoothly and contributes sweetness. But any banana that isn’t green will work fine.

Next is yogurt. If plain, I’ll also drizzle in a tablespoon of honey. Silken tofu plus honey is a great replacement to make a vegan drink. If you want an all-fruit smoothie or one that’s a little thinner, skip the yogurt. One note: I often have plain Greek yogurt around. If I’m using that in my smoothie, I drop the quantity to ¼ cup because it is super thick and tangy. If I have conventional yogurt, especially if it’s flavored, I use ½ cup – which is 6 oz., the amount in a single-serving carton.

Frozen fruit: I view ice cubes as wasted space in a smoothie, but I do like a frosty drink, so I use frozen berries. If you disagree, more power to you, although the addition of water in any form will dilute the flavor, so go easy. Whatever you have in the freezer is fine: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, sliced peaches, cherries, I have used them all. My current fave is 1 cup of raspberries plus 1/3 cup blueberries.

Kitchen-sink stuff: You can stop with bananas, berries, yogurt and juice, or go wild. Recently, I had some leftover cranberry sauce so I added that to a blueberry smoothie. YUM. Sometimes I add half a peach and some fresh ginger to a raspberry smoothie. Plums, pears, anything works. If it gets too thick with the extra stuff, add more juice.

Juice, 1-2 cups: OK, if you’re type-A like the BIK gals, you may wish for a strict recipe, but the amount of juice depends on personal preference. I use 1½ cups. If you like a thick smoothie, use less – just enough juice to make everything come together (it will thin out as the fruit melts). If you want it lighter, add more. I use orange juice because I always have it, but I have also used cranberry cocktail with good results. Mango nectar comes to mind as something I need to get my hands on for smoothie-ing ASAP.

Basic smoothie: serves one to two.

1 ripe banana

¼ to ½ cup yogurt, see above (if using plain, add 1 Tbsp. honey)

1 1/3 cups frozen berries or other fruit chunks such as mango, pineapple or peaches

1 to 2 cups juice (I use 1½ cups orange juice)

Toss everything into a blender and blend until smooth, adding more juice if needed to make drink come together smoothly. Enjoy!

Confession: We at BIK are former vegetarians. Actually one of us still is kind of vegetarian (don’t ask – existential crisis in progress). So, although we’re working on a chicken post, smoked pork, etc., many of the recipes we try will probably lean toward the veggie-centric. We love lentils, white beans, tofu and other vegetarian staples.

But don’t leave us yet, bacon-lovers. The best thing about cooking vegetarian is it forces you to rethink the composition of the plate (meat-potatoes-veggies), which opens up a whole new world of cooking. Deborah Madison is a master at this. She was also one of the early advocates of seasonal and local cooking, yet another way of thinking that pushes cooks of all stripes to be more creative.

Hence, this tasty dish from Madison: It’s basically cheese toast topped with a sauté of onions and Brussels sprouts. Wait!! Don’t close the window yet, this is really special! Here’s why: smoked paprika. If you’ve never cooked with it, wow, you should start, like, now. It adds a lush warmth to pretty much anything: scrambled eggs, quesadillas, a sauté of peppers and onions, simple beans and rice In fact, I find it can stand in for bacon in some dishes, adding a similar smoky richness without the fat.

I made the recipe exactly as it was printed in Food & Wine and wouldn’t change a thing. It’s a great lunch or would make a nice dinner with a salad alongside. The topping reheats well for a second go-round. Good thing, because I am in love with this recipe. I used a pretty burly whole-grain bread and it was a good fit, but you could go for something else if you like. Smoked paprika used to be hard to find, but now is available in many well-stocked grocery stores or online, such as here.

I would avoid substituting with a regular sweet or hot paprika, as the smokiness is really what makes this special. The other key is ensuring you salt the sauté – just keep tasting it until you get it right. It really brings out the sweetness of the veggies. Enjoy!