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Priscilla Tsai
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Dessert / Breakfast This cake tastes like fall
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 3:22 PM
What does fall taste like? It tastes like apples and spice, and everything nice. Which is exactly what this Double Apple Bundt Cake is.
This recipe comes from my Baking: From My Home to Yours book by Dorie Greenspan. It's called "double" apple because it calls for both fresh grated apples and apple butter.
Each slice of cake is moist and dense, studded with raisins and chopped pecans. Though it contains no carrots, a few people commented that it tastes similar to carrot cake.
The cake is easy to make, but like all bundt cakes, it takes 50 minutes or so to bake. You have the option to glaze the finished cake with a simple confectioner's sugar and lemon juice glaze, but I thought the cake was plenty sweet by itself. It beautify it though, I just dusted it with just a tad of confectioner's sugar.
Serve it for breakfast or dessert. Or both. It makes for a good snack too.
I made a few edits to the recipe: I used whole wheat flour for half of the flour content. I also used cranberry apple butter instead of regular apple butter because that's all Trader Joe's had. The cranberry flavor wasn't noticeable. It turned the batter a bit pink, but the color was gone after baking. You can find the original recipe below (as well as nutrition facts).
Friday, October 15, 2010
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Dessert Piped butter cookies
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 4:07 PM
These cookies are the result of a bout of procrastination.
When I don't feel like doing something, I'll skirt the duty and bake instead.
I made these piped butter cookies last weekend when I was supposed to be doing something else. Inspired by the bag of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies I had been eating all week, I decided to make my own.
The dough is simple to make, but the it is a major pain in the butt to pipe out because it's so stiff. Use a heavy-duty piping bag for this because my Zip-Lock bag busted half way though.
I made "S" shaped swirl cookies with a small star tip, as well as rosettes with a 1M tip. Remember, the larger the piping tip, the easier it will be to pipe out.
You can leave them plain after baking, spread the bottom with melted chocolate, or you double them up and sandwich them together with some melted chocolate.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Side Dish / Dinner Dinner: Gorgonzola Penne with Shrimp ... and a salad
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 4:59 PM
This Gorgonzola Penne with Chicken dish won $25,000 in a recipe contest through Taste of Home. $25K? Dang.
Since it was deemed worthy of the hefty monetary prize, I had to try it.
I'm not a big fan of chunks of chicken in my pasta, so I subbed in shrimp instead. The prep was simple and the cooking was easy. I'd say it turned out pretty freakin' tasty. Even my lactose-intolerant friend scarfed it down, knowing full well what the consequences would be.
Penne pasta and shrimp are tossed with in pungent Gorgonzola cream sauce, made of cream, white wine, sage, and garlic. Thanks to the addition of the light orange shrimp, the dish wasn't completely a monochromatic and bland white.
Here's my version:
Lacking greens, the rich and creamy pasta pairs well with a fresh salad with tart flavors. I made an Spinach Apple Salad to go with it. You can do it too. It's easy! Just a cup of diced apple, a few raisins, chopped red onion, and spinach. Toss it with a simple dressing, and voila:
Read on to get the recipes...
Friday, October 8, 2010
Priscilla Tsai Deep Dish Spinach and Smoked Salmon Pie
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 12:11 PM
Ina Garten's new cookbook How Easy is That? is being released Oct. 26 and I'm kinda excited. I love her recipes to bits.
Here I've adapted one of her recipes, Spinach in Puff Pastry, into a thick spinach and smoked salmon pie. The original dish is chock full of spinach in a cheesy mixture, wrapped up in a flat puff pastry envelope.
I gained inspiration to create this pie, a spin on her recipe, after a visit to Trader Joe's a few days ago. They were sampling some spinach, feta and salmon puff pastry appetizers in the back (where the free mini cups of coffee are) which were simple and surprisingly tasty. Using that same spinach/feta/salmon combo, I turned Ina's Spinach in Puff Pastry into a deep dish pie and incorporated feta cheese (instead of Parmesan) and added a layer of smoked salmon.
I think I've found a dinner winner.
As the pie bakes, the puff pastry will turn a golden brown and the butter will bubble, filling your house with the delicious aroma of butter. It is to die for.
(Yeah, I feel slightly guilty for using two sheets of puff pastry to make dinner, but since I didn't make the puff pastry myself, I didn't see the butter that went into making it, so I guess it's ok ...)
Anyway, try this Deep Dish Spinach and Smoked Salmon Pie because it really is delicious. And it's pretty too.
Each slice of pie has a crispy bite since the spinach filling is entirely encased in flaky pastry ... heck, we can probably call it Spinach en Croute. The smoked salmon adds a depth of flavor without being overwhelmingly fishy, and the feta adds plenty of salt, which makes the dish highly flavorful.
When you cut it into neat slices, you can see gorgeous, colorful layers.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Breakfast Let's call these donuts "don't-nuts"
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 1:57 PM
Seems like donuts are all the rage on the blogosphere nowadays. After seeing a plethora of posts on apple cider donuts, caramel donuts, baked cinnamon donuts and more, I caved and purchased a donut pan to make baked donuts.
The pan arrived in the mail with a recipe for Spiced Donuts on the back of the packaging. I decided to give it a whirl figuring that if the recipe is featured on the product packaging, it's gotta be good, right?
Wrong.
These donuts are a big "don't."
They came out like donut-shaped muffins. Bread-like and slightly rubbery, they didn't even have a cinnamony spiced flavor. Perhaps if I had dunked them in melted butter and then rolled them in cinnamon sugar after baking like these donut muffins, they would have tasted better.
At least they looked attractive.
I won't post the recipe because I don't want to subject you to the temptation to make these, seeing how rainbow-colored and cute they are, you might not be able to resist.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Side Dish Super simple Blue Ribbon-Worthy Chili
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 1:00 AM
Chilly weather calls for chili.
I like my chili basic – just beans and meat. No bell peppers, cheese, nachos, corn meal, celery, beer or anything else please. Here's an exceptionally easy recipe for some blue ribbon-worthy simple chili.
The meat and onions are browned on the stove top first before being added to the remaining ingredients in a crock pot. Just set that pot on low and let it simmer for 1 to 6 hours. The longer it sits, the better it gets.
The chili turns out thick and chunky. With such a short list of ingredients, you'll be surprised how flavorful (and spicy) it is. No thin, tomato soupy chili here, that's for sure.
Blue Ribbon-Worthy Chili
Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 clove minced garlic
2 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1 (8 ounce) jar Pace Picante Sauce (I used "hot")
1 packet chili or taco seasoning mix
1 (15 ounce) can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Directions
In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the ground beef, onion and half of the seasoning mix. Saute for 10 minutes, or until meat is browned and onion is tender. Drain grease.
Add the meat mixture, along with the ground black pepper, garlic, tomato sauce, picante sauce, the rest of the seasoning mix and kidney beans to crock pot. Mix well, simmer on low for at least an hour. (I let mine simmer for 5 hours)
Monday, September 27, 2010
Smorgasbord / Priscilla Tsai Look what came in the mail
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 5:25 PM
My donut pan arrived!
Uh. oh.
Be ready for some baked donut recipes to come ...
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / Dessert Pink cupcakes for the birthday girl
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Our CL Operations Editor Kim Lawson celebrated her birthday yesterday sans cake. Whaaaaaaat? That's unacceptable!
Today we are celebrating with cupcakes in the office. The birthday girl requested chocolate cupcakes, so here we have chocolate cupcakes filled with creamy ganache, and topped with a girly pink buttercream frosting. The chocolate cupcake recipe is the same one I used for the Mint Oreo Cupcakes I made back in June.
To pipe the flower-like pattern of frosting, I used a Wilton teardrop tip.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai Homemade Lara Bars
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 3:23 PM
* Warning: This may be the ugliest food I've ever made for this blog.
After discovering Lara Bars a few days ago, I've been obsessed. Most of the Lara Bars only have three ingredients or so and contain no preservatives. And they are gluten free. It's amazing!
Unlike other energy bars that try to pass themselves off as "all natural" and "healthy," these don't contain those ingredients that you can't pronounce, added sugar, or grain fillers. They definitely have that "healthy" taste, but if you like that kind of food, you'll like these bars. Each has roughly 200 calories.
The only ingredients listed for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Lara Bar are dates, cashews, and chocolate chips (yes, I know, chocolate chips do contain more ingredients within).
At $1.29 a pop from Trader Joe's, these bars aren't cheap. But with only 3 ingredients, how hard could it be to make yourself? I went on a mission to make my own.
I researched homemade Lara Bars on other blogs and came up with my own conglomeration. It took me two tries though. Who knew dates would be so hard to find? On my first attempt, I tried using prunes instead of dates because I was too lazy to search for dates. Big mistake. The bars turned out pretty nasty. Think prune juice. (See photo below)
For my second attempt, off to Trader Joe's I went in search of dates. Their Medjool dates cost $4.49 per 16 oz. package and can be found in the "wet grocery" section.
Here's my second attempt:
Much better! I split the dough into two batches and added two blocks of chopped dark chocolate to one, to make the Chocolate Chip Cooke Dough flavor bar. The plain dough tastes like the Cashew Cookie bar.
To form each bar, I weighed out 1.75 oz of dough and patted it between plastic wrap.
I've crunched the numbers and figured out each bar has about 224 calories (without chocolate). It's not low cal, but it's it's got healthy fats and will give you energy. Now I've got a stash of bars in my fridge ready to go whenever I am.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Smorgasbord / Priscilla Tsai The Pioneer Woman really does it this time
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 3:44 PM
I read Ree Drummond's blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks! almost every day. Most of her recipes are hearty foods, perfect for her family's ranching lifestyle out in the country. The food isn't dainty, but that's not what you expect from her.
Ree specializes in dishing up items that are flavorful, fatty, and rich. Mini meatball sandwiches, pastas with thick creamy sauces, chocolate sheet cakes, and the like.
I enjoy looking at the beautiful photos of her dishes oozing with butter and sauces, and delightful desserts full of sugar. I live vicariously through those photos, since my conscience never (or rarely) lets me indulge in making such caloric, sinful foods.
Well, today, she's really done it. She's packed in more butter than I ever thought possible. Today's recipe truly horrifies me.
It's called "The Bread" and it only has two ingredients. Can you guess?
Yep... bread ... and butter. Lots of it. One entire stick for each half loaf. Shut. Your. Mouth! Check it out here. I'm still in shock.
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Eat This: Poppy’s Bagel with Lox and Cream Cheese
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Checking in at Heist Brewery 1
NoDa brewpub offers good variety in its libations
