179. Maple Apricot Granola (p. 626)

After I made the Oatmeal Coconut Raspberry Bars, I had a lot of old-fashioned oats leftover, and I was looking for something to do with them. Since I haven't cooked much from the Breakfast and Brunch chapter yet, I decided to make this recipe.

The hardest part about this recipe was gathering all of the ingredients. Some of the components, like the aforementioned oats, and and some green pumpkin seeds (leftover from the Green Bean Salad with Pumpkin Seed Dressing), I already had on hand. For the rest of the ingredients, I went to the bulk aisle at Whole Foods. I bagged up a little scoop of flax seeds, a big bag of sliced almonds, some unroasted, unsalted hulled sunflowers seeds, some dried apricots and crystallized ginger.

The rest of the recipe is really easy. Just whiz up the flax seeds in a spice grinder, and mix them with the oats, almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. Next, I added some canola oil, pure maple syrup, and a little salt. I spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets and put them in the oven for about a half-hour. About halfway through the cooking time, I stirred the granola and switched the position of the pans. While it cooked, the kitchen was filled with a great toasty, maple-y aroma. I was getting hungry already. I took the granola out of the oven, and while it cooled, I chopped up the dried apricots and the crystallized ginger and then mixed it in with the granola.

This was delicious granola. It was crunchy, chewy, sweet, but not too sweet. The Book says that the ginger is optional, but I couldn't imagine this granola without it's sparkling spicy kick. The maple flavor is subtle and a nice change of pace. We enjoyed this on yogurt (dairy- and soy-free coconut milk yogurt for my wife) for breakfast or a snack. Excellent. It was so easy, that I'll definitely try it again, and next time, I'll mix it up. Maybe I'll use dried cranberries instead of the apricots. I'll use walnuts or pecans instead of the almonds. The variations are pretty much endless.

This recipe makes a lot of granola, about ten cups. The Book says that it can be frozen, so I divided it into two large zip-top bags. One to eat now, and one to go in the freezer for later.

Date Cooked: July 11, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: B+

139. Matzo Brei (p. 630)

A few months ago, I read Ruth Reichl's book Garlic and Sapphires. It's the story of Ruth's time as the restaurant critic at The New York Times. Like a lot of people, I've fantasized about being a food critic, but as Ruth's book shows, it's not as glamorous as it seems. Sure, you get to eat out at fancy restaurants like Le Cirque and Daniel (and somebody else pays for it!), but eating out almost every night means that you miss a lot of meals with your kids. And as a new father who usually gets home after my son is asleep, I understand how difficult that can be. There's a touching scene in the book when Ruth gets home after a lousy meal at a highfaluten restaurant, and for some reason, her son is still up. She whips up a batch of Matzo Brei and has, what I think she might agree was the best meal that she wrote about in the book.

Ever since I read that book, I've been looking forward to making this recipe. I had some matzos leftover from the Haroseth that I made, so, last Saturday, I decided to make this for breakfast. First, I broke up a matzo into a sieve. (The Book calls for four, but I was only making half of the recipe, and my matzos were huge, about 7 inches square, so I couldn't see using two of them for one person.) I ran some cold water over the pieces to moisten them just a bit. Then I put the pieces in a bowl and added a couple of eggs and some salt and mixed it up with a fork. I heated a generous amount of butter in a pan and then added the egg and matzo mixture and cooked for a few minutes.

Now, as you can see from the picture above, this is not the prettiest thing that I've cooked so far in The Project, and I wasn't too impressed after the first bite. But, as I kept eating, I liked it more and more. The eggs were tender and buttery and the matzo gave it some substance and a nice crispiness.

Speaking of Ruth Reichl, her new book, Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way, was published last week. The description on Amazon calls it "a clear-eyed, openhearted investigation of her mother’s life" drawing from her mother’s letters and diaries. Ruth sometimes talks about her mother, and her cooking, in her letters from the editor in Gourmet, so I feel like I already have a little bit of a sense of what Ruth's mother was like. I'm looking forward to reading the book and getting to know her better. Ruth's going on a book tour to promote the book, and it'll be bringing her to a few cities in my neck of the woods. I'm hoping to make it to one of the events, and who knows, maybe I can even convince her to sign my copy of The Gourmet Cookbook.

Date Cooked: April 18, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: B+

92. Spinach and Cheese Strata (655)

Every year, my father-in-law cooks a great big beef roast for Christmas dinner ... a Roast Beast, if you will. For my semi-veg wife, this always poses a bit of a problem, which we solve by bringing a vegetarian entree for the buffet table.

In the past, she's made a delicious strata from Cooking Light, and she was in the mood for it again. But since the dessert I chose to make for Christmas wasn't coming from The Book (more on that in a minute), I offered to make this recipe so that I wouldn't let a cooking opportunity pass without ticking a recipe off toward The Project.

Strata is essentially a savory bread pudding, and while it's usually served for brunch (it's in The Book's "Breakfast and Brunch" chapter), it can be substantial enough to be a main course in a vegeterian lunch or dinner. This recipe, in my opinion, is equally at home in either setting.

The recipe is pretty easy to make. It can (and, in fact, probably should) be made ahead of time. First, I cooked some chopped onions in some butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg until they were soft. Then I stirred in some chopped frozen spinach, which had been thawed and squeezed (sqouzen?) to get out the extra moisture. I set that aside for a moment while I spread a layer of bread cubes on a buttered baking dish. I topped the bread with a third of the spinach mixture and some grated Gruyère and Parmigiano-Reggiano. The Book says to "layer" the ingredients in the baking dish. (The name "strata" even suggests layers.) However, while I followed this instruction as best as I could, there were no clearly discernable "layers" in my strata. Instead, the ingredients were, what I would call, "evenly distributed." Then I whisked together some eggs (and by "some," I mean nine!), milk, salt, pepper and Dijon mustard. I poured this over the strata, wrapped it tightly with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for a long winter's nap. On Christmas morning, I baked the strata, wrapped it up in foil and took it to my in-laws' for dinner.

This was a delicious dish. It was savory and flavorful. Spinach and nutmeg are best friends, and the Dijon mustard added some depth to the flavors. It was cheesy and buttery - rich without being overwhelming. Although intended as a vegetarian main course option, I enjoyed it as a side dish with the roast - it kind of reminded me of a Yorkshire Pudding, or at least served a similar purpose.

Now, I'll tell you about the other thing that I made for Christmas, but that I can't get any credit for toward The Project. As I was flipping through The Book looking for something to make for dessert for Christmas, this recipe for tiramisu caught my eye. I told my mother-in-law that I was making it, and she was thrilled (it's a favorite of hers), and I really began to get my heart set on having it for dessert. Well, as the week went on and I kept reading and re-reading the recipe, I became more and more concerned about the uncooked eggs in the recipe. With a pregnant wife, and several small children and some elderly people at Christmas dinner, even a small risk of salmonella poisoning was unacceptable. So, I had two options, either deep-six the tiramisu, or find some alternative to raw eggs. I opted to stay the course and find a work-around. Egg Beaters weren't an option because the recipe calls for both the egg whites and the yolks. For a minute, I was encouraged to read about pasteurized-in-the-shell eggs on the Internets. But after calling every grocery store I could think of and turning up empty, I learned that the distribution of these eggs is very limited due to poor sales. Then I looked into pasteurizing eggs at home. It looked promising, but in the end I chickened out (we're talking about my pregnant wife's health here), and I opted for this egg-free version of tiramisu from Cooking Light instead. It was good, but I'm sure The Book's version was better.

All of this got me to thinking, there are several recipes in The Book that call for raw or undercooked eggs. What's a home cook (who actually cares about the health and well-being of the people he's feeding) to do when faced with a recipe calling for uncooked eggs? I know that the risk of salmonella is low, but it's real enough to give me pause. What do you do? Please share your ideas and suggestions in the comments.

Date Cooked: December 24-25, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Rating: A-

91. Cranberry Coffee Cake (p. 643)

This is the last of the posts about "things I cooked when my family came over for a holiday brunch."

This recipe* is a basic sweet, tender cake with a surprise inside. Rather than distributing whole cranberries throughout the batter as you might expect, this cake has two layers of sweetend chopped cranberries in between layers of cake batter.

First, I put some fresh cranberries and sugar in the food processor and whizzed it until the berries were very finely chopped (but not pureed). I put the berries in a sieve to drain while I made the cake batter. Then I spread about a third of the batter into a loaf pan, next I spread half of the cranberries on top of that, followed by another layer of batter, berries and more batter.

I baked the cake for the full cooking time and tested it with a toothpick, which came out clean. I suppose that I should know better by now, but, I believed that it was fully cooked. I let it cool and sliced it. Darn! The middle layer of batter was totally uncooked. The same thing happened to Teena when she made this coffee cake. She suspected that the frozen cranberries she used gave off too much liquid, preventing the center from cooking. Well, I used fresh berries and got the same result. Maybe the cranberries make a heat-proof zone in the center of the cake. Kind of like a Bermuda Triangle of temperature?

Well, I served the coffee cake to my family anyway. They have to love me even if I serve them raw coffee cake, right? The cooked part was delicious: the cake was light and sweet and the cranberries were tart and bright. It was really pretty, too. The bright red stripes in the center of the cake and the covering of powdered sugar "snow" gave it a really nice holiday look.

Date Cooked: December 13, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Rating: B-

* This recipe isn't on epicurious.com.

89. Tomato, Garlic, and Potato Frittata (p. 632)

I made this recipe for the holiday brunch I hosted for my family before Christmas. A frittata seemed like a good way to make eggs for a crowd, and this dish was savory and delicious.

First, I cooked some garlic in oil. The Book calls for four cloves, sliced, but since I was afraid that this could be a bit too garlicy for a group that included a child and a few older folks, I used two cloves, minced. Next, I cooked some diced, peeled potatoes with the garlic and oil until they got nicely browned. Then, I took the potatoes out of the pan, and added some grape tomatoes, cooking them just until the skins started to split. Back in with the potatoes and some salt and pepper. Then, I poured some beaten eggs over the vegetables. I let it cook for a while, covered for part of the time. Next, I put some grated parmesan on top and put it under the broiler to brown on top.

The finished frittata was very good. The potatoes gave it some nice texture, and the garlic and cooked tomatoes gave it a nice flavor. It was a big hit on the brunch buffet.

Date Cooked: December 14, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Rating: B

88. Vanilla-Brown Sugar Syrup (p. 646)

For almost as long as I can remember, "syrup" meant one thing ... Aunt Jemima. What can I say, it's good. But after listening to my wife tell me for the umpteenth time, "that's not real food," I switched to pure Vermont maple syrup. It's really all you need to make pancakes or French toast complete.

So, I'm sure you won't fault me when I say that the only reason I made this recipe* to go with my Baked French Toast was to check off another recipe toward The Project. But I'm glad I made it. It was easy and tasty. All I did was boil together some dark brown sugar, water and butter until it was thick and syrupy. At the very end, I added a bit of lemon juice and vanilla extract. The flavor of this syrup was good. Very sweet, with a subtle vanilla flavor (could have been stronger). The consistency was just right, too. I stirred the leftovers into plain oatmeal, and that was good, too.

Honestly, I don't think I'll make this again unless I'm having a pancake emergency (don't laugh, they happen) and don't have any Vermont maple syrup on hand.

Date Cooked: December 13, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: B

87. Baked French Toast (p. 650)

We usually spend Christmas day with my wife's family. This year, my sister came up with the great idea of doing Christmas a little early with my side of the family. So, a little more than a week before Christmas, I had my grandparents and my sister and her family over for a holiday brunch.

On the menu: this recipe for Baked French Toash served with Vanilla-Brown Sugar Syrup, Tomato, Garlic and Potato Frittata, Homemade Sausage Patties, and Cranberry Coffee Cake. These other dishes will be the subject of the next few posts, but first, the French Toast.

This recipe is tailor-made for brunch for a crowd. I assembled it the night before, stashed it in the refrigerator overnight so the bread could soak up the custard, and then I popped it in the oven a while before my guests arrived. I started by slicing a loaf of soft Italian bread from the supermarket bakery into twelve one-inch slices. (The Book didn't tell me to, but I cut the slices in half so that they'd fit better in the baking dish.) I buttered the bread and arranged them in the baking dish. I whisked together some eggs, milk and salt and poured it over the bread. The bread needs to soak for at least an hour, but overnight is fine, too. Just before baking, I sprinkled a generous amount of sugar over the bread.

The French toast got a bit toastier than I would have liked, but even though the picture above makes it look like it was burned, it wasn't. Everyone really liked this French Toast. It was crispy, buttery and not-too-eggy. I would absolutely make this again if I were making breakfast for a group.

On a personal note, I'm overjoyed to announce the birth of my son, Jack, born yesterday afternoon. He's a big guy - 9 pounds, 3 ounces - and he's sure to have a big appetite. I'm looking forward to cooking all sorts of tasty treats for him, but in the meantime, I'm going to savor every minute of babyhood. (For some reason, Blogger isn't cooperating with me, and not letting me post a picture. Take my word for it, he's just about the handsomest baby ever!)

Date Cooked: December 13 & 14, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: A-

48. Ruth's Pancakes (p. 645)

To be honest, I was a little intimidated by this recipe.* After all, it comes from Ruth Reichl, the Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet, and my tour guide on this crazy quest of mine. What if I messed them up? Or worse, what if I didn't like them? How could I go on with The Project? How could I face Ms. Reichl if I ever get the chance to meet her? Well, thankfully, the crisis was averted. The pancakes came out great, and they were amazing.

In the interest of full disclosure, this recipe calls for a whole stick of butter (pause here while my wife winces), resulting in some very rich pancakes. But in the recipe's defense, The Book says that these pancakes are to be reserved for those times when "you need to pull out all the stops for an Extremely Special Breakfast." (The emphasis in this quote is The Book's, not mine. I'm not sure what an "Extremely Special Breakfast" is, but for me cooking breakfast for Ruth Reichl might be an example.)

One thing that was unexpected, and a little cool, about this recipe was that the greater-than-usual amount of baking powder called for (four teaspoons), caused the batter to start to rise while it was still in the mixing bowl, even before it got to the skillet. The result is a pancake that, while rich, was still light and airy.

I also appreciated The Book's suggestion of putting the pancakes into a 200-degree oven as they come off the skillet to keep them warm until they're all done and everyone's ready to eat. This is one of those brilliantly simple ideas that make you say, "Why didn't I think of that?" Now, my wife and I can both eat hot pancakes at the same time.

These pancakes were excellent. They were buttery (how could they not be!), crispy, fluffy, and they didn't need anything more than a little pure Vermont maple syrup to finish them off. Curiously, unlike other recipes in The Book, which say that the recipe "Serves 4 to 6," this recipe says that it "Makes about 8 pancakes." Could the reason for this be that if two people just happen to eat all eight pancakes between them (and I'm not saying that that's what my wife and I did), they won't feel like pigs for eating an entire recipe that "Serves 12"?

I think that for a typical, no-frills Sunday-morning breakfast, I'll stick to my stand-by, Joy of Cooking pancake recipe. But the next time I have an "Extremely Special Breakfast," (stop by any time, Ms. Reichl, you're always welcome!), this will be the recipe I'll use.

Date Cooked: August 31, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: B+

*This recipe isn't on epicurious.com.

11. Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake (p. 643)

Well, it was bound to happen, and it will happen again. I've had my first Project disaster. But, even so, it wasn't a total failure, as you can see from the picture to the left.

This recipe seems easy enough. It starts out with a basic cake batter (creaming butter and sugar, beating in eggs and dry ingredients, etc.), with a lot of blueberries folded in at the end.

The batter is spread into a shallow baking dish and topped with the almond-egg-white-sugar topping.


This is the "before" picture. Isn't it pretty? Then it is baked for "50 minutes to 1 hour." (Ah, those cooking times again! The Book, my oven, and I are all still getting to know each other.) At 50 minutes, I tested the cake with a toothpick. Not done yet. I put it in for another five minutes. The toothpick came out clean enough, and anyway, the almond topping was starting to get a little overcooked, so I called it.



Here's the "after" picture. Isn't it pretty? The Book says to let it cool in the pan on a rack for ten minutes, and then invert it to remove it from the pan, and then invert it again on the rack to cool completely. Well, that's when the trouble came.







Here's the "aftermath" picture. Oh, the humanity! Despite the outward appearance and the clean toothpick, there was a big blob of undercooked batter in the middle. The cake cracked and split in two just like an earthquake, except it happened in slow motion. The Book's blurb about this recipe suggest trying this coffee cake if you're thinking of muffins, but you want to "avoid the bother of muffin tins." I wonder if I had used muffin tins, if it would have cooked all the way through. Now, I'm willing to take at least part of the blame for this since I didn't monitor my oven temperature throughout the cooking.

Anyway, this "disaster" wasn't too bad after all. Most of the cake was edible, and the part that was edible was delicious! The cake is sweet and moist, and very blueberry-y. I don't think that you could get more blueberries in this cake if you tried. The almond topping gave the cake a nice toasty-ness and crunch.

Date Cooked: June 29, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Rating: A- (points off for poor execution)