It has come to my attention recently that there literally dozens of foods that I was too stubborn to try growing up that have now been elevated to weekly staple status in my kitchen. When I think about how long I went without enjoying delicious ingredients like avocados, sweet potatoes, artichokes, and even mushrooms I get so annoyed with myself. Tastes definitely change as you age, and things you found intimidating that you labeled “icky” at the age of 7 might actually be quite amazing if you give them another try now.

Peaches were another item on my perpetual “do not eat” list. I had cultivated a completely absurd notion that peaches were disgusting when I was a kid (essentially this means that they weren’t bananas and therefore I wouldn’t touch them) so I never bothered buying them. Ever. I actually think I finally realized that peaches were pretty awesome after CK’s grandmother served some to me cut-up as a side dish at breakfast a few years ago. Initially I was just trying to be polite when I ate them, but then a little light bulb went off in my head and I thought, “Oh my God. These are scrumptious!” And promptly shoveled some more into my face.

In addition, If I’d never learned that I liked peaches I wouldn’t have bought this hilarious peach with a beak last summer at Russell Orchards on the way home from Crane Beach in Ipswich. It’s seriously one of my favorite photos ever (even though I took it on the iPhone). So have you had any food awakenings over the years? I can’t be the only former plain pizza eating Miss Priss on the block.

PS: This muffin recipe is excellent, but you don’t have to take my word for it.  CK’s co-workers called them “Re-dunk-u-lous.”

Fresh Peach and Oat Muffins
Originally published in Muffins and Other Morning Bakes by Linda Collister
Makes 12 muffins

1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
12 oz. almost ripe peaches, rinsed, pitted, and flesh cut into large chunks

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Put the rolled oats and the buttermilk in a large bowl and let soak for 10 minutes. Add the lightly beaten egg, melted butter or vegetable oil, and sugar and mix well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices onto the soaked oat mixture and stir briefly. Quickly fold in the chopped peaches. Do not beat or over mix; the batter should look slightly streaky. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan, filling each cup about two-thirds full.

Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 1 minute, then turn out onto a wire rack. Eat warm, immediately or within 24 hours. When thoroughly cooled, the muffins can be wrapped then frozen for up to 1 month.

This dish is a perfect example of why everyone has urged and pleaded with us our whole lives to read through a recipe in its entirety before starting to recreate it.  It’s really not just something your mother says to wind you up or question your cooking abilities.  Case in point, these ricotta pancakes that almost made me quit cooking for good.  No sympathy please.  It was my own fault.

I had just finished making that Mojito Pound Cake, and I really should have gone in the other room and passed out on the couch in self-satisfied exhaustion, but I’d been staring at a highly stylized image of golden fluffy pancakes sprinkled with plump summer berries for several weeks now and I desperately wanted to know what they tasted like.   Plus it was only 10:00 AM.  I could make two recipes in one morning, right?  Not so much apparently.

My first error in judgment occurred when I decided to use the last of my so-called “grammy eggs” in hopes of achieving the ultimate in vibrant yellow coloring.  I separated the yolks from the whites and promptly tossed the whites down the sink.  I was happily mixing my way through the first step and moving onto step two when it dawned on me.  The egg whites were part of the recipe!  I frantically read through the rest of the instructions getting more annoyed by the second.  Then I cracked three more eggs and threw the yolks down the sink.  At this point I’d wasted a total of three eggs for this recipe and I wasn’t even close to being done.  CK sat at the kitchen table staring at me warily, I glared back and he put on his headphones.

The rest of the construction went without incident.  I whipped the whites into peaks and folded them into the bright and sunny batter.  I ladled the correct amount onto my readied pan and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  But apparently not long enough because my pancake promptly broke in half and made a complete mess of its sister pancake when I attempted a gentle flipping motion.  Then I had a hissy fit, because when frustrated in the kitchen I tend to revert to my kindergarten level coping skills.   After listening to me curse out our breakfast, CK saw fit to relieve me of my cooking duties.  I sat off to the side pouting while he patiently cooked the remainder of the pancakes.  Let’s just say he’s had more than a little practice as my “kitchen closer.”

The pancakes ended up being very fluffy and light and the citrus coated berries and powdered sugar were great on top, but I would never make these again unless I had one of those large grill pans that fits over two burners.  I just don’t have the patience to cook two pancakes at a time in a medium skillet for 10 minutes.  Next, time I think I’d rather have a handful of Dunkin Donut Munchkins and call it a day.

Ricotta-Lemon Pancakes (originally published in Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Healthful Cooking).
Serves 4 (Note: If they don’t stick to the pan).

1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup 1-percent milk
3 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Kosher salt
Pinch of cream of tartar
4 cups mixed berries such as whole blueberries and raspberries or trimmed and sliced strawberries
1 Tablespoon fresh Lemon juice
1 teaspoon canola oil
1-2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Preheat over to 250 F (120 C)

Place the ricotta in a large bowl. Add the milk, egg yolks, and granulated sugar and whisk together until blended. Add the flour, lemon zest, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and using a rubber spatula, fold until just blended.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg whites and the cream of tartar and, using a whisk or a handheld electric mixer set on medium speed, beat until soft peaks form. Using the rubber spatula, carefully fold the beaten whites into the ricotta mixture just until blended.

In a bowl, combine the berries and lemon juice and stir gently to blend. Set aside.

Place a large nonstick griddle or frying pan with low sloping sides over medium heat until hot enough for a drop of water to sizzle and then immediately evaporate. Brush the surface with a thin film of canola oil. For each pancake, ladle a scant 1/3 cup batter onto the hot surface. Reduce the heat to a medium-low and cook until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pancakes and the bottoms are lightly browned, 4-5 minutes. Carefully turn and cook until the other sides are lightly browned, 2-3 minutes longer. Transfer to an ovenproof platter and place in the oven to keep warm; do not cover the pancakes or they will get soggy. Repeat with the remaining batter. You will have enough batter to make 12 pancakes, each about 3 inches in diameter.

Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust the warm pancakes generously with confectioners’ sugar to taste. Serve the pancakes with the berries on the side.

CK and I are really enjoying our weekly Boston Organics deliveries. We even purchased a cooler to leave in the lobby for the nice delivery man to transfer our yummy fruits and veggies into for safe keeping until one of us wanders home from work.  I had to revive my lettuce a few too many times before I realized…oh duh…maybe this stuff needs a better home than a green plastic tote for eight hours.

So all in all it’s going very well.  Except for the avocados.  Over the last five weeks I’ve thrown out five avocados.  How horrible is that!  I feel guilty every time I have to toss the poor guys into the trash, but I just haven’t been able to think of a anything to do with them other than possibly make guacamole.  The thing is…I sort of hate guacamole and until Sunday morning I sort of disliked avocados.  I’d eat it if you put it in front of me, or you wrapped it up in sushi, but I’d never go out of my way to buy or use them.  But then CK shared a post on Google Reader about making Avocado Toast, and our friend Anna chimed in with a resounding email response of, “This is totes my favorite snack!!!!”  It appeared imminent that avocado and I would be forced to meet once again, and meet we did — spread on warm toast with a simple concoction of spices. It was a phenomenally good time!  From now on I promise that CK and I will be fighting over the avocados in our house and I vow to never throw one out ever again.

Avocado Toast (Based on Dani’s original recipe at Messy Cookin via Projectionist)
Makes 3 slices of delicious avocado topped bread

1 avocado
3 slices of bread (Note: I used Arnold Country White.  When I’m “bad” I’m very very bad).
Red Pepper Flakes
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Olive Oil

Toast the bread.  Slice the avocado in half, remove the flesh and place into a small bowl.  Mash the avocado with a fork and spread onto the toasted bread.

Sprinkle the toast with Red Pepper Flakes, salt and pepper, and drizzle lightly with olive oil.

French Toast - The Haiku

What else can I say
To quote Heiress P. Hilton:
My French Toast is HOT

French Toast with Rum Bananas (originally published by Dave Lieberman)

4 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pinches ground cinnamon
4 (1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick) slices brioche, challah, cinnamon raisin bread or any moist and fluffy bread you like
2 tablespoons butter
Orange-Rum Bananas, recipe follows

Beat the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl until well blended. Pour the egg mixture into a baking pan large enough to give you room to turn and soak the bread. (A 13 by 9-inch pan works well).  Lay the bread slices in the egg mixture and let them soak, turning them several times, until the bread has soaked up all the egg. Turn them gently so they don’t break apart on you.

Heat the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. When it starts to bubble, lay the soaked bread in the pan. Cook, turning once, until the bread is nicely browned and the egg in the center of each slice is cooked through, about 12 minutes. Serve warm with the Orange-Rum Bananas.

Note: If your skillet isn’t large enough to hold all the bread slices at once, cook them in batches. Before you start your first batch, preheat your oven to 200 degrees F (or “Warm”). Keep the cooked slices warm on a baking sheet in the oven while you cook the rest.

Orange-Rum Bananas :
2 tablespoons rum
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 large bananas sliced thinly on an angle

Heat rum, sugar, butter and orange juice in a large skillet until the butter is melted. Add the bananas. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower the heat so the sauce is bubbling gently. Cook until the bananas are softened, about 4 minutes.

Guess who’s back, back again!

Erin and I have a weekend morning tradition of starting off nice and slow with some sort of breakfast and a freshly pressed cup of coffee. As much as we’d like to take credit for starting this trend in our home, it really was something I “borrowed” from elsewhere.

I have a lot of family in Connecticut, and one of the places I love to visit while there is Uncle Bob and Aunt Leslie’s house near the shore. Occasionally I would stay over, and in the mornings, they would have a big pot of French press coffee off to the side in their kitchen all ready to go. I was always impressed by the flavor of the coffee, and this was just about the time that I became more interested in coffee and coffee drinks, thanks to the Starbucks near my work. It wouldn’t be long before I decided to start brewing my own.

When it came time to start really making coffee at home for Erin and myself, there was really no other choice but to get a French press.

The Press

In deciding to go the French press route, I was already partial to Bodum’s Chambord line, specifically the Chambord 8-Cup model. The 8-Cup model is 32 ounces, and makes 4 US Cups, or 2 CK and Erin “Weekend” Cups of coffee. While I haven’t tried too many other French Press variants, I am a huge fan of the glass models, as opposed to something like the all-metal variety, which I feel cools the coffee down too quickly for my tastes.

The Coffee

Once you’ve decided on a press, the next logical portion of the coffee brewing experience is, of course, the beans. Rule number one when it comes to coffee is to make sure your coffee is fresh. This can mean as little as buying freshly ground coffee beans from a shop like Starbucks or Peet’s to as much as roasting and grinding your own beans. I like to take the middle ground and buy freshly roasted beans from Peet’s (we’re currently enjoying their Anniversary Blend) and grind them up right before brewing.

The Grinder

I’ll admit I haven’t spent as much time in picking out a grinder as I probably should have - This will undoubtedly change once I start inevitably dabbling in espresso and espresso drinks. For now I am content with the Braun KSM2 grinder, which definitely gets the job done, and was even capable of doing a fine grind of espresso beans for Erin’s infamous Flourless Chocolate Cake.

The Process

After many rounds of trial and error, my basic process for making coffee in the 8-cup press is as follows:

1. Bring a kettle of cold water to a whistle, and then let it sit while preparing the rest.
2. Put 5 Bodum Scoops of coffee beans (translates roughly to 8 Tablespoons) into the grinder.
3. Grind for approximately 8 seconds, or a medium-coarse ground.
4. Take the grounds out and pour them into the press.
5. Pour the hot water from the kettle over the grounds, filling to the top (in the Chambord, you can pour to the metal ring near the top), Then stir in the grounds so they mix with the water.
6. Let sit for 4 minutes (I usually last about 2, so 2-4 minutes will definitely suffice).
7. Plunge the top in and pour into mugs.

Let us know what you think of the recipe and be sure to share your own coffee secrets!

My love of potatoes knows no bounds. I’m especially fond of breakfast potatoes. This morning when I woke up and started rummaging around in the refrigerator for something to eat on this bright Sunday morning I was instantly drawn to last nights leftover casserole of scalloped potatoes, zucchini, red peppers and ham. “Eat me Erin! Eat me Erin,” it seemed to call from under its snug Press’n-Seal cover. I somehow managed to resist the cheesy temptation momentarily before I moved on to another, slightly more morning appropriate option. I decided to make sweetly spiced sweet potato latkes and bake them. Baking was the ultimate concession as yesterday morning I shamelessly coaxed CK into picking up a box of munchkins for us to snack on all day.

These latkes are thicker than the baked russet potato version that I made previously, and much more hash-brown like in consistency. Don’t forget to top them with your favorite condiments. I prefer sour cream, light of course — sticking with the whole donut guilt theme, but apple sauce or a fruity yogurt would also be a great addition.

Peel & Prep	Grate (the Easy Way)
Combine Potatoes & Spices	Drop by 1/3-Cupfuls
Flatten	Sweet Potato Latkes on Parade

Baked Sweet Potato Latkes (based on the recipe originally published in Women’s Health Magazine)
Makes 12 Latkes

2 pounds grated sweet potatoes
1 medium onion, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray or use a silpat.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Drop by 1/3-cupfuls onto cookie sheet. Flatten with spatula.

Bake for 25 minutes; flip and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Serve with light sour cream and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.