Stockholm, Part I

And now... another travel post! Our whirlwind tour of a small area of Sweden was very nice, and we hope to see more of the country during a future visit.

This photo was taken from the café in the Nobel Museum, through the window onto the square. Many interesting displays there taught us about prize winners in science, literature, and peace. Though small, the contents were comprehensive and meaningful.

We found the food in Stockholm to be outstanding. Prices were more along New York City lines with the exchange rate, and we splurged a few times while electing bargains other days. These meatballs and lignonberries were served at the Vasa Museum, both of which every tourist should experience (unless you are vegetarian, in which case Hermitage in Old Town provides a superb meat free buffet for a reasonable price). The restored ship in the Vasa Museum is tremendous and interesting.

We took hundreds of photos of the local scenery, including church spires, cobblestone alleys, ships in the harbor, and the animals at Skansen park. Stay tuned for another post, and in the mean time, I leave you with a table for two, complete with the ubiquitous candles we saw, glimmering in the early darkness.

Cheesecake Brownie Cupcakes

I’ve been making cheesecake for many years, and have loved experimenting with different types of crust (graham crackers, small round wafers for cheesecake cupcakes, crushed chocolate crème sandwich cookies, etc.) and fillings- baked, no-bake, with pumpkin, with chocolate, and on and on! 

I’ve found that large group event attendees prefer cupcake sized desserts instead of large slices of cheesecake, so I decided to combine two recipes from my trusty Philadelphia Cream Cheese cookbook of 1989. The brownie cheesecake recipe was an old friend, with notes scribbled in my handwriting about adjusting the ingredients to make a 9x13 pan instead of a round springform. Ditto the cupcake version…for a dozen, be sure to double the recipe, and so forth. 

Here’s what I used; you go ahead and adjust for your needs:

One 10.25 oz package of brownie mix, prepared according to the package directions will yield 17 cupcakes if you put 1/8 cup batter into each paper liner. That results in a decent layer of brownie as the crust. Feel free to use the entire batter for 12 thicker brownie cheesecakes, but you’ll have less space for cheesecake batter.

While the brownie layer is baking at 350 for 12 minutes (!), prepare my adaptation of the recipe: beat together two 8 oz. packages of reduced fat cream cheese, between 1/3 to ½ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, one egg, and ¼ cup egg substitute.

Pour ¼ cup cheesecake batter over the brownie layer, then microwave 1 cup of any type of chocolate pieces for one minute.  Stir the partially melted chocolate and microwave again for about 30 seconds as needed, for melted and smooth chocolate.

Stir ½ teaspoon of melted chocolate into the unbaked cheesecake batter, then bake them for 30 minutes. I used white chocolate chunks, but would recommend for visual appeal and flavor that you use chocolate chips or chocolate/ peanut butter/ butterscotch chips.

Flowers

I plan on using these photos to create cards, but haven’t printed them out yet. As snow is starting to fall in some parts, here is a sunny reminder of summer months. 

As much as I like large bouquets which include roses and other elegant blooms from time to time, these small bunches from a local farm are so cheerful and friendly. 

They lasted a few days and put a smile on my face each time I passed one of the petite arrangements. 

I added a few new flowering plants to the garden for next spring and summer, with hopes for bright colors to supplement all the green. Meanwhile, the leaves are falling, in “tree showers”, as Mr. Spice calls them. 

Scalloped Potatoes with Thyme, Rosemary, and Oregano

I’ve wanted to try a recipe from Pioneer Woman for a long time, so I was glad to have two pounds of potatoes on hand from the farm share, and find this stupendous posting:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/04/scalloped-potatoes-and-ham/

As usual, I modified the ingredients slightly, but would recommend that you try the original version for full flavor! Since I don’t have a vegetable slicer, I hand cut the potatoes, and boiled the slices for a few minutes to tenderize them. 

Here’s my version: I didn’t have any ham (leftover or otherwise), but next time would substitute bacon - a freezer staple - in the absence of ham, for additional flavor. Slice 2 lbs potatoes, boil in water for a few minutes. Sautee an onion in oil or butter for a few minutes, add one clove minced garlic, add 2 cups whole milk. When milk is warm, add ¼ cup flour and stir to blend in. Add 1 – 1 ½ cups grated cheese, turn off heat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper,  rosemary, thyme, and oregano. I had freshly dried herbs, so didn’t measure the amount of leaves I pulled from the sprigs (probably about ¼ teaspoon each, but more is fine).

Grease 9x13 baking pan and layer the potatoes and milk/cheese mixture. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Next time I’ll use more garlic and herbs. I made mushroom soup the next day, and put leftover scalloped potatoes into the soup- yummy!

Cooking Class Photos

I’ve taken a bunch of cooking classes, and have yet to prepare the majority of those recipes at home, despite good intentions. It’s been fun learning about new spices and techniques, and messing around with the camera during class has yielded some nice results (I think).

These bowls of spices include some in their natural form. Compare to a rack of containers in the technical school kitchen for the students to use during the day.

I don’t usually have a pile of eggplants to photograph…

Or bunches of lemons and limes! I haven't taken the time to experiment with the new camera- that's still on the to-do list...

I’ve been on the road – planes, trains, and busses, and will soon have more travel posts. Gathered some new material (literally) at my Mom’s to try new card-making techniques, thanks to the inspiration I received from others earlier this year, so stay tuned!

Eggplant Tomato Sauce with Oregano and Basil

A few posts ago, I mentioned an abundance of tomatoes and searched for recipes to use them up before the next farm share arrived. During the winter months, I usually make pasta sauce with a packet of spice mix and a can of tomato paste, but there’s no reason to do that in the summer with so much fresh produce available. I started with this recipe, and swapped out what I had on hand.

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10960-eggplant-pepper-tomato-sauce

Here’s my version of the ingredients and instructions: sautee in olive oil one chopped tomato, one green pepper (from our own garden!), three cloves garlic, one chopped white eggplant, five chopped tomatoes, a handful of fresh basil (cut with kitchen shears), and two sprigs of fresh oregano. Salt and pepper to taste.

I suspect the eggplant would have tasted better if I’d prepared it according to the original recipe, but time was short after work, and this way was fine. “Next time” I’ll pre-cook the eggplant in larger slices so it’s nice and tender, then make the rest of the sauce.

Here you see soy crumbles and shredded cheese, making a nutritious and tasty meal over whole wheat pasta. Endorsed by Mr. Spice asking for seconds!

Nutmeg and Cinnamon Carrot Bread

This week, I considered renaming “Through the Spice Rack” to “Peach, Tomato, Carrot”, but the latter isn’t as catchy. Or how about “Farm Share Recipes”? I’m elbow deep in fruits and vegetables, and have several new recipes in the queue to try out. One was a total disaster, and entirely my fault, when I substituted way too many healthy ingredients – so I’ll remake that one with the original recipe before sharing.

I modified this Carrot Bread recipe only slightly, but will still share the entire recipe with my changes. The blog post title simply recognizes the spices already in the bread/recipe.

http://www.food.com/recipe/whole-wheat-zucchini-or-carrot-bread-325250

Blend 1/4 cup oil with 1/4 cup applesauce; add ¼ cup honey, ¼ cup brown sugar (mix in); add 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, ½ tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. baking soda, ½ tsp. salt, 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon, and ½ tsp. nutmeg. Once everything is blended, stir in 1 ½ cups shredded carrots or 1 ½ cups shredded zucchini. Stir in 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour. Add ½ cup nuts (optional) and ½ cup raisins (optional). Bake in 9” loaf pan at 350 for 45 – 60 minutes.

Taking photos of some recipes is a challenge. For example, I made indian pudding for the first time, but it’s not attractive to look at and I didn’t want to decorate it nicely with ice cream and whipped cream just for the photo. Don’t get me wrong, it tastes great with those additions, but we’ve stopped stocking those items at home to reduce the temptation to finish them off rather quickly. So no photo of the plain pudding (brown), and the early steps of the carrot bread were equally unglamorous.

I did not reduce the amount of sugar/honey called for in the original recipe. I found this bread to be good but very healthy. I didn’t want to add frosting made out of confectioner’s sugar- that was the whole point of making a bread instead of a cake or muffin, but I did want a bit of interesting flavor and/or moisture to round out this bread. I enjoyed a slice with flavored fat free yogurt instead of frosting! Next time I would add either chocolate chips, pineapple, or a touch more sugar to the recipe.

Due to less than stellar photo quality for the carrot bread, here is a bonus on our "save the watermelon" campaign. As you can see, the neighborhood squirrels or rabbits helped themselves to the young watermelons (completely decimated melon not shown). A plastic colander with a guard statue may save the last one for us to enjoy in a few weeks! Stay tuned...