BB: Tomato Goat Cheese Tart (+ another puff pastry treat)

Another great Barefoot Bloggers recipe . . . this time chosen by Anne. I didn't think I'd love this one, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that I did love it . . . and so did everyone else! If you aren't comfortable with goat cheese . . . get over it . . . try this recipe!


Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart
1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
olive oil
2 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (1 large onion)
3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons dry white wine
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler
4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese
1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

My Directions: Unfold a sheet of puff pastry onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Fold up the edges to make a border/rim. (Use the other sheet for something else - like strawberry shortcake - see below)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat.

Prick the pastry inside the border with a fork and sprinkle with 4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan, staying inside the border.

Place the onion mixture on the pastry, again staying within the border. Crumble goat cheese on top of the onions. Place a slice of tomato on the tart. Brush the tomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper. Finally, scatter remaining Parmesan on each tart.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Serve hot or warm.
The original recipe - and original directions are on the Food Network's website.

Make strawberry shortcakes with leftover puf pastry. Cut puff pastry into strips - lightly brush with olive oil or butter - sprinkle turbinado sugar over top - roll up (think cinnamon roll) - pinch together edges - place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper - bake at 425 degrees until golden brown - top with sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream. (Now fast for the next three days because you ate puff pastry twice in one night . . .)

Nourishing Resolutions

I hope you're not tired of hearing about New Year's Resolutions already, because I have a few to share today. I'm actually posting this to keep myself accountable, not because I think anyone really wants to read it! Kimi, aka the Nourishing Gourmet, is hosting a Nourishing Resolutions Carnival today. I'm always checking out her blog for ideas, so I decided to participate in the carnival and share the link. She has some great tips for implementing goals/resolutions as well as great resources for people looking for healthful, nourishing recipes.





Overall, my main cooking goal is to include more whole, nutrient dense food in our diets - and less processed food. Here are my specific goals:

1. Convert 4 of our favorite recipes to more healthful, nutritious versions.

• Pick 4 easy-enough-for-everyday recipes we enjoy.
• Make ingredient substitutions (such as better fats, more wholesome sweetners, etc.) and alter preparation methods if necessary until we reach the balance of good tasting and good for us.

2. Freeze three days worth of healthy food to help reduce the temptation to go out to eat or cook a frozen pizza when I'm too busy to cook a real meal.

• Choose 3 breakfast recipes, 3 lunch recipes, and 3 dinner recipes that freeze well.
• Devote one Saturday to preparing/cooking and freezing these items.
• Keep an "inventory" list of items on the side of the refrigerator so I will remember they are there to use when I need them.

3. Become more responsible regarding the purchase and utilization of food. Specifically:

• Waste less food. As in eat it, freeze it, preserve it, something . . . so that it will not go bad and have to be thrown away. Keeping an "inventory" list on the fridge and freezer should help. I would also like to begin composting this spring so that even some of my food waste will not truly go to waste.
• Purchase local products when possible.
• Make better use of the produce from my garden. Base our summer meals around what I harvest. Learn to can vegetables and sauces (thank you for the pressure cooker/canner, mother-in-law) so we can utilize produce year-round. Donate or share all the produce that we do not eat (and enlist friends/family/neighbors to pick ripe produce if we're gone for a few days).

4. Work toward some of my random, more far-fetched goals (I have no real plan for accomplishing these, which is why they are "far-fetched"):

• Keep a sourdough starter alive and learn to make sourdough bread.
• Learn to make cultured coolers (like those from Three Stone Hearth we tried while in CA). What is a cultured cooler? According to Three Stone Hearth: [Cultured coolers are] made from filtered water, agave nectar, yogurt whey, a small amount of sea salt, and tasty herbs and flavors such as hibiscus, ginger, antique rose, lemon-lime, or others. These refreshing, tasty drinks are cultured for a period of days and so contain active enzymes and suspended mineral ions and electrolytes. And they are sooo good, especially the lemon flavor!
• Force myself to Eat seafood once a month.
• Make homemade chicken stock and beef stock on a somewhat regular basis. Yes, the Swanson's stock people will miss me . . .
• Braise something once a month (in the beautiful new Dutch -actually French - oven my mom got me!).
• Prepare my lunch (main dish and fruits/veggies) for work the night before, instead of the morning of . . .
• Take better pictures of food for my blog, so the food actually looks appetizing.
• Make a bigger effort to invite friends over for dinner instead of meeting at a restaurant.
• And . . . make homemade mozzarella!

This Week

Sorry, nothing exciting and new to post today. I made two things over the weekend - and neither were blog-worthy (cheesy hashbrown potato casserole for a bonfire/Mizzou football watch party on Saturday night and "oven fried" chicken tenders Sunday night).

However, I am looking forward to cooking some good stuff this week:
Saffron risotto with butternut squash (Barefoot Bloggers)
Pumpkin frozen custard
Green-packed stir fry
Shoulder tender steak

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I'm going to be working on "harvest food" - portable things Ken can eat in the combine during the evening (or quick-fix things I can make when he gets home late).

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Now that October is here, I feel like I MUST bake some pumpkin-flavored treats. I have got to move this up on my priority list so I can stop obsessing over thinking about pumpkin treats!

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Speaking of pumpkin treats, I saw Pumpkin Spice Kiss Chocolate Brownies on Annie's Eats recently, but I cannot find Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses around here! Fortunately, I do have all the ingredients for Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies, as seen on How to Eat a Cupcake.

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Although I didn't do much cooking this weekend, I did pick up the October issues of Southern Living and Cook's Country, and got Williams Sonoma's Cake (thanks, Mom!) as well as Super Natural Cooking, by Heidi Swanson. I can't wait to try some of Heidi's healthful, delicious-looking recipes. Now, online to order mesquite flour.

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Zingerman's Guide to Good Eatingcame in the mail today. Thank goodness for Amazon.com and Half.com! I like Amazon - a huge selection and fast shipping . . . but I can get a lot of good books, cookbooks, and audiobooks from Half.com for under $2 each (not including shipping).
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Finally, I'm working on a package for Blogging by Mail!

My kind of history

History wasn't one of my favorite subjects in school; I think it is one of those things you develop a greater appreciation for as you get older (although I'm still not into watching The History Channel). Food history, however, is really interesting to me. As much as I like trying new recipes, I'm also interested in learning about the history of food and meals. Some historical foods suit me better than others (for example, I love heirloom tomatoes but I can't get very excited about eating liver).

In addition to heirloom tomatoes, another thing I love is cookbooks. This summer, just before our anniversary, Ken and I went to an estate sale near our home. I think he was interested in a pressure washer, but I was drawn to the boxes of old cookbooks. I started looking through some of them while they were selling items I wasn't interested in . . . and found a few I thought were really cool. However, it was a really hot day and I had a lot of things on my weekend to-do list . . . so Ken took me home (empty handed) and he returned to the sale. He stayed there for quite a while, so I thought he would buy the pressure washer - but instead, he came home with 2 boxes of old cookbooks! He waited around for them to sell long after the pressure washer had sold. In the hot, humid August weather. Isn't he nice?

The boxes were filled with lots of community cookbooks (from churches, daycares, 4-H clubs, flower societies, etc.), plus a few hardcover books. Here are two of my favorites - the Culinary Arts Institute's Encyclopedic Cookbook and the White House Cookbook.


The White House Cookbook is a reprint of the original 1887 Edition - the recipes are in a different format than recipes we see today. They don't list the ingredients; ingredients are incorporated into the directions instead. Both cookbooks also have monthly menu plans (you can tell I intended to post this in September!):

(Culinary Arts Cookbok's September Dinner Menus)

(The White House Cookbook's September menus)

Healthy Chocolate Cake?

Would you believe me if I told you this cake was good for you? Well, believe it - it is GOOD for you. Not just a little better than your average chocolate cake - actually good for you (and after the sugar-high inducing Sweet 100 in the last post, good-for-you is much needed around here)!

First, let me give you the background on this cake. It is made from a mix from Wellness Bakeries (as is the "ganache"). It was a sample my boss got at work; I was tasked with baking it and bringing it in for a taste test.

Per serving, this cake has:

• Fewer grams of sugar than a quarter of an apple
• More protein than a scrambled egg
• More antioxidant power than 6 cups of blueberries
• More fiber than a bowl of bran flakes
• Fewer calories than a serving of yogurt

Sounds healthy, right? Now to the really important part - how did it taste? I'll start by saying - it's really good! But it does make a difference at which point you find out it is a "healthy" chocolate cake. If you tasted it before finding out, you'd probably think it was okay - maybe not the richest or most flavorful chocolate cake ever, but not too bad. If you knew it was healthy before you tasted it, you would be amazed how good it tastes, especially considering the nutritional benefits.

So why am I bragging about this healthy cake? I'm not sure - I guess it just surprises me that a piece of cake that is better for me than yogurt, bran flakes, an egg, an apple, and blueberries actually tastes good! I'm not an affiliate of Wellness Bakeries. In fact, I've never met or talked to the Wellness Bakeries people; I'm definitely not getting any credit for telling you about this cake. It's just interesting. Somewhere on the Wellness Bakeries website, I read that they are developing more mixes, including gluten free.

I hope we will start carrying it at work (healthy chocolate cake would be a great finish to a grass-fed steak dinner, no?).

The Sweet 100

You may have seen "The Omnivore's 100" on food blogs recently - providing people the opportunity to share whether or not they have tried anything from a Big Mac to heirloom tomatoes to snake . . . interesting, but not really my cup of tea.
However, I saw "The Sweet 100" on fellow Barefoot Blogger Audrey's food from books, and I thought maybe it would be fun . . . like Audrey, I'm a fan of lists. So here goes:

Items I have tried are in bold
Items I would not try have been crossed out

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar (the first pie I ever made was apple and sharp cheddar!)
5. Beignet (at Jazz in Columbia; does it count if it's not in New Orleans?)
6. Baklava
7. Black and white cookie
8. Seven Layer Bar (aka Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars) (coconut=no)
9. Fried Fruit pie
10. Kringle
11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut (Krispy Kreme, yum!)
12. Scone with clotted cream (scone, yes . . . clotted cream, no)
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
14. Halvah
15. Macarons
16. Banana pudding with nilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls") (tried this at a tea place on Broadway in Columbia . . . it was weird, and the place is no longer in business)
18. Dixie Cup (I have probably eaten a dessert out of a Dixie Cup, but nothing called a Dixie Cup!)
19. Rice Krispie treats
20. Alfajores (sounds good)
21. Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies (Thin Mint is my favorite flavor)
24. Moon cake ($10 to $50 for a cake with a "slightly oily" filling made from salted duck eggs?)
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska (perhaps I'll make this when Sarah Palin becomes the first female VP)
27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. Nanaimo bar (according to wikipedia, a wafer crumb-based layer, topped by a layer of light custard or vanilla butter icing, which is covered in chocolate made from melted chocolate squares . . . why have I not heard of this before???)
29. Baba au rhum
30. King Cake
31. Sachertorte
32. Pavlova (courtesy of the Egg Council)
33. Tres Leches Cake
34. Trifle
35. Shoofly Pie
36. Key Lime Pie
37. Panna Cotta (on the Very Berry Wine Trail in Hermann)
38. New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon / mille-fueille
40. Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
41. Anzac biscuits (I'd try them if made without coconut)
42. Pizzelle
43. Kolaches (these are on my to-make list)
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas (Portuguese yeast dough, fried and coated in sugar)
46. Moon Pie
47. Dutch baby
48. Boston Cream Pie
49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
50. Pralines
51. Gooey butter cake (Should I blame my St Louis friends or Paula Deen?)
52. Rusks ("hard, dry biscuit or twice-baked bread" - no thanks!)
53. Daifuku (sounds strange)
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop (Best from the Cupcakery in St Louis)
56. Crème brûlée (Mom and I learned to make crème brûlée at Main Street Kitchen)
57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake) (A fried twinkie at the NWSS in Denver and fried oreos at last year's Taste of Palmyra)
58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
59. Jelly Roll
60. Pop Tarts
61. Charlotte Russe
62. An "upside down" dessert (such as Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. Jell-O from a mold
65. Black forest cake (Oh yeah - I had forgotten - this was the groom's cake at Nick and Kaci's wedding in Texas; I should have done a whole post about their wedding - among other good things, they had Dublin Dr. Pepper)
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie) (why bother?)
67. Kulfi (an Indian milk-based frozen dessert)
68. Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. Stollen
71. Angel Food Cake
72. Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
76. Pain au chocolat
77. A piece of Gingerbread House (Dad and I used to make Gingerbread houses for Christmas)
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli (At D'Agostino's . . . another Columbia place that bit the dust)
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse
82. Petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. Hamenstashen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci (what?)
89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
90. Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake (thank you, Cracker Barrel)
92. Gateau Basque
93. S'mores
94. Figgy Pudding
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. Joe Froggers
97. Sables
98. Millionaire's Shortbread (this recipe looks good!)
99. Animal crackers
100. Basbousa

Want your own Sweet 100? All you have to do is:
1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten!
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat.
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.

2009 Taste Trends

This week, Specialty Food Magazine released "The Most Important Flavor Trends of 2009." One interesting portion of the article was a little sidebar of "30 to Watch" - spices and fruits "that will be gaining influence in 2009."

How many of these are you familiar with?


Spices
Cardamom
Curry
Garam masala
Lemongrass
Tumeric
Saffron
Saigon cinnamon
Shiso
Star anise
Za'atar


Fruits
Acerola
Blood oranges
Camu camu
Cherimoya
Coconut
Cupuacu
Guanabana
Guava
Jackfruit
Kalamansi
Kumquats
Lulo
Passionfruit
Pineapple
Pomelo
Prickly pear
Sudachi
Tangelos
Tangerines
Yuzu


I included wikipedia links for all the things I wasn't familiar with (how did we survive before Wikipedia?); as you can tell, my knowledge of exotic fruits is pretty limited! It would probably be a challenge (to say the least) to find these items in rural Missouri . . .

101

Please accept my apologies in advance - this is a long post!

I have tons of recipes flagged in cookbooks and magazines . . . a few months ago I decided to make a "priority" list of recipes I want to try. This is my 101st post, which seemed like a good opportunity to share the list of my top 101 recipes/items to make. I'm sharing this with you for two reasons:

1) to get feedback on my recipe "wishlist" - especially in the "misc. items" category - if you have a great recipe for any of these items, I would be grateful if you would share it; and
2) to help me stay organized - it is easier for me to find this list on my blog than it would be if I printed it out and filed it somewhere.

101 Things to Make:

Recipes from The Pastry Queen
1. Hill Country Peach Cobbler
2. Apple Smoked Bacon & Cheddar Scones
3. Peach Kolaches
4. Tuxedo Cake 8/27/08
5. Texas Pecan Pie Bars
6. Apple-Almond Chicken Salad with homemade mayonnaise
7. Brie & Brisket Quesadillas
8. Chicken Pot Pies 12/08
9. Pretty-in-Pink Shortbread Pigs 9/26/08
10. Bananas Foster Shortcake

Cookbook, Blog & Magazine Recipes, part 1
11. Buttermilk Frozen Custard with Bourbon-Roasted Peaches and Brown Sugar Walnuts - Visions of Sugar Plum 8/23/09
12. Cinnamon Toast Ice Cream - Epicurious
13. Braised Beef Cheeks - Gourmet
14. French Onion Soup - Thomas Keller’s Bouchon
15. Almond Cake - Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert
16. Gianduja Roulade - Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert
17. Cheddar-Polenta Biscuits with Ham Salad -Food and Wine, 2006
18. Warm Pumpkin Cake - Food and Wine, 2006
19. Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding - Paula Deen Celebrates! (Yes, this may be a little over-the-top, but seriously - doesn't it sound interesting?)
20. Butterscotch Bars with Brown Sugar Meringue Topping - Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters

Recipes from Cooking Light
21. Lemon Basil Sorbet
22. Asparagus, Ham, and Fontina Bread Pudding
23. Pork Saltimbocca with Polenta
24. Buttered Sweet Potato Knot Rolls
25. Citrus Cream Cheese Pull-Aparts
26. Lemonade Layer Cake
27. Baked Sesame Chicken Noodles
28. Peach-Glazed Barbecue Pork Chops and Peaches
29. Gruyere, Arugula, and Prosciutto-Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Caramelized Shallot Sauce 5/13/09
30. Mocha Latte Freeze

Recipes from The Silver Palate
31. Green Lasagna
32. Pheasant with Leek & Pecan Stuffing 12/3/08
33. Avocado and Ham Salad
34. Brioche
35. Apple Walnut Cake with Apple Cider Glaze
36. Hummus
37. Swiss Potato Gratin
38. Marinated Beef Salad
39. Crisp Roasted Asparagus with Gremolata 8/27/08
40. Pasta Primavera Gregory

Family Recipes
41. Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Grandma Margaret
42. Spritz cookies, Grandma Margaret
43. Corn (to freeze), Ken’s family (Mom, Aunt and Grandma)
44. Deviled Eggs, Grandma Helen
45. Chocolate Chess Pie, Dad 11/08
46. Jambalaya, Aunt Nancy
47. Chicken Enchiladas, Mom
48. Georgia Peaches and Cream, Mom
49. Sugar cut out cookies, my Mother-in-Law
50. Homemade mayonnaise, Dad

Recipes I have flagged in Bon Appetit/Gourmet Magazine
51. Hot Milk Cakes with Strawberries and Cream
52. Quinoa with Black Beans and Cilantro 9/24/08
53. Chocolate Cake with Fleur de Sel Caramel Filling
54. Fried Mozzarella with Arugula and Prosciutto
55. Coffee-Marinated Grilled Pork
56. Farmer’s Market Salad with Spiced Goat Cheese Rounds
57. Basil Lemonade
58. Banana and Mango Spring Rolls with Chocolate Ganache
59. Spiced Banana Ice Cream
60. Beef and Avocado Finger Sandwiches

Misc. things to make (no recipe source yet)
61. Biscuits
62. Rice (I have problems cooking rice!)
63. Miso soup
64. Toffee
65. Crepes
66. Popovers
67. Quesadillas
68. Rosemary bread (like Twainland Cheesecake used to make)
69. White chicken chili
70. Pizza dough
71. Yeast rolls
72. Homemade donuts 5/25/09
73. Chicken or beef pot pie 3/5/09
74. Chocolate crème brulee
75. Fresh, homemade pasta
76. Mole sauce
77. Gnocchi
78. Marshmallows
79. Batter bread
80. Panna cotta 12/31/08
81. Thin Mint cookies (a replica of Girl Scout Thin Mints)
82. Palmiers
83. Beef Wellington - 8/27/08
84. Caramel corn
85. Brown sugar mojito
86. Pulled pork
87. French baguette
88. Sun-dried tomatoes (or maybe oven-dried)
89. Homemade beef stock

Cookbook, Blog & Magazine Recipes, part two
90. Creamy Chicken-Apple Chili, Everyday with Rachael Ray
91. Chocolate Flank Steak with Pineapple Salsa – Paula Deen’s Chocolate Celebration
92. Freeze-Ahead Lasagna Primavera – Everyday Food
93. The Barefoot Contessa’s Guacamole Salad
94. Hot Buttered Popcorn Bread – A Passion for Baking
95. White and Dark Chocolate Bread – A Passion for Baking
96. Stacked Crepe Cake – A Passion for Baking
97. Pheasant Ravioli with Rosemary Jus - Silver Spoon
98. Roasted Ricotta Roma Tomatoes – The Pioneer Woman Cooks 8/27/08
99. Portobello Lasagna Rollups with Tomato Sauce – The Food You Crave
100. Turkey Roulade with Apple Cider Gravy – The Food You Crave
101. Chocolate Gelato – Baking with Agave Nectar

Thanks for enduring this long post - let me know if you have experience with any of these recipes - or suggestions for any of the items I do not yet have a recipe for!