Barefoot in the Kitchen

I woke up this morning after a long night of indulgence. The Huz and I decided to go out to dinner and then watch a scary movie at home. We went to Tony di Napoli’s, which is one of the first places The Huz took me when we started dating and I visited him in NYC. I remember I was so awe struck by the Big Apple and the craziness of the city streets. We went into this crazy bustling restaurant and The Huz happily took charge. Just like that first time, we ordered the mussels fra diavolo, with extra bread to soak up the incredible sauce. I swear, between our appetizer and entree we probably each had 6-8 cloves of garlic!

As we sipped our bottle of pinot noir, we nibbled on our entree and side dish. I divided my plate in half – half penne with vodka sauce and mushrooms, half sauteed broccoli with garlic and olive oil. I knew I’d eaten far too much, but we sat for a bit and decided to indulge in dessert – tiramisu! This tiramisu was not for the faint of heart – lots of liqueur and oodles of flavor! We took most of our entree and side dish home, just to save room for this.

As I’m sure you can imagine, after all that heavy, indulgent, delicious food, I needed to eat some food that I’d made myself. This is what the kitchen looked like to start:

First up, I made Turkey Chili, with a tasty twist! Last Fall, I made a double batch of this chili to serve to my family when they visited for Thanksgiving. This time, I decided to play with the Cooks Illustrated recipe a bit and I added my own twist – 1/4 c. coconut milk, 2 T. dark chocolate and 1 tsp. cinnamon. YUM!!

Some of the ingredients:

All the veggies sauteing in the dutch oven:

You’ll have to wait for a picture of the finished product, but trust me when I tell you it was incredible. It was especially delicious with a maple cornmeal biscuit!

I can’t reveal the recipe for these biscuits because it’s going to appear in the wonderful Happy Herbivore cookbook that is currently in the works. Can I just say how excited I am to be testing recipes for the lovely and talented Lindsay? This one, the second recipes I’ve tested, was a winner – quick, easy, healthy, and delicious!

My only regret this weekend was that I didn’t get out to run. Between the rainy Saturday and the wine headache I had this morning (shame on me for not drinking enough water yesterday. Two glasses of wine shouldn’t make my head pound!), I’ve done some walking around the ‘hood, but that’s it. Hopefully this means I’ll have some more great weekday runs though. Last week, I had the super speedy 5k followed by a fast 4 miles, and two more good runs as well. Even if I run slowly this week, I’m just glad to be running for fun again!!

What Has Chocolate, Zucchini and Goat Cheese?

The Huz is a good and decent man. He loves animals and his family and he’s been known to shed a tear or two during a good sports movie. Since the Huz is such a great guy, I really wanted to knock his socks off when he presented me with a culinary challenge. We had a 1lb tube of goat cheese languishing in the refrigerator, destined for no meal in particular, and when I asked what I could make for dinner one night, he said, “a goat cheese dessert.” Whether or not he was serious, I’ll never know. He certainly  won’t admit it if he’d been kidding because I truly outdid myself this time.

With the challenge laid down, I had a mere 20 minutes to find a recipe before needing to take Bodhi out for his evening constitutional. Not willing to wander the internets aimlessly, I went straight to one of my favorite baking blogs: Bakerella. And, as expected, Ms. Bakerella did not disappoint:

Double Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes filled with Chocolate Ganache and Topped with Creamy Goat Cheese Frosting

from Bakerella, 10/19/08

Double Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa, natural unsweetened
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup skim milk, room temperature (original recipe called for whole milk, but I only had skim on hand)
1 cup shredded zucchini
4 oz. Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate bar, chopped in chunks (original recipe called for Valrhona)

1. Preheat oven to 350º F
2. Line cupcake trays with 18 baking cups.
3. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
4. Cream butter with a mixer in a large bowl. Add sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla one at a time, mixing well with each addition.
5. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour)
6. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chunks until combined.
7. Fill baking cups 2/3 full and place in oven immediately.

8. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Creamy Goat Cheese Frosting

5 oz. goat cheese (original recipe called for Ile de France brand goat cheese)
3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Sift sugar and set aside.
2. Beat the goat cheese, cream cheese and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until creamy.
3. Gradually add the sugar, mixing and scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl in between additions.

Chocolate Ganache

2 oz. Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate bar, chopped in chunks
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1. Place chocolate and whipping cream in the microwave. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Blend thoroughly.
2. Add sugar and stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour ganache into a small plastic squeeze bottle or cake decorating bag with metal tip.

To assemble:

• Insert opening of squeeze bottle or decorating bag halfway into cupcake center and squeeze ganache until you see it start to surface.

• Then, spread creamy goat cheese frosting on top with a knife or small offset spatula.
• Use any leftover semi-sweet chocolate pieces to sprinkle on top of cupcakes.

The only words The Huz could offer when he tasted these cupcakes were “Mmmmm” and “Oooh” so I think it’s safe to say he enjoyed them. I hope you do too. And thanks again to Bakerella (the Huz thanks you too!)!!