Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

With three days before Christmas, while the southern plains are pummeled with snow storms, Chicago enjoys a strange mild winter with temperatures in the mid 40s with no precipitations! As much as I enjoy a white Christmas, and believe me, we have quite a bit of those in Chicago, I also appreciate spending time in the kitchen, baking, instead of shoveling snow.

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© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, BBA, BBA-Challenge, Bread, Bread Baker's Apprentice, celebration bread, chicago, Christmas, cranberry, gabi bucataru, holiday, kitchen, Mamaliga, panettone, Peter Reinhart, pinchmysalt.com, Romania, Thanksgiving, Timisoara, walnut

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Please leave a comment and let me know if you cooked this Crepes Recipe and if you liked it!

© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Alton Brown, chicago, clatite, cooking, Crêpe, Food, French cuisine, gabi bucataru, kitchen, Mamaliga, Recipe, Recipes, Romania, videosongs

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Pawpaw Fruit

Shrubs, flowers, ornamental trees of all sorts,  are very common to find in a usual suburban backyard but a Pawpaw tree? That’s what you will find if you come to our backyard (actually two of them).

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© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: annona, atemoya, cherimoya, chicago, custard apple, fruit, fruit trees, jakfruit, NPR, paw paw, pawpaw, pawpaw fruit, pond apple, rollinia, soursop, sugar apple

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Day One - sponge, starter feeding and grains

For those of you lucky dogs and ducks that inherited a piece of my multi-million dollar sourdough starter, here is the first blog post in the series discussing how to actually bake a sourdough bread that will gain back your spouse’s respect, as your kids and friends would bow in front of you and address you as “Your Royal Majesty”. This series is a remastered version of the original Sourdough Chronicles I wrote a while ago.

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© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: artisan bread, baking, BBA, biga, Bread, Bread Baker's Apprentice, Peter Reinhart, Poolish, sourdough, sponge, starter, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, yeast

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Alton Brown and a nervous Gabi

Many of you are aware by know of my obsession with Alton Brown’s Good Eats food network show. It is possibly because of my affinity to science, cooking, film making and… geeky-ness. The Good Eats show captures all these in a fascinating way, so each episode is a new load of knowledge, history tips and tricks, and a wonderful recipe that makes sense — unlike other food shows where the star just slaps you with a recipe and that’s it.

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Post tags: Alton Brown, book tour, food network, Good Eats

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Godiva Caramel Pecan Coffee Tiramisu

Look, I understand that everyone who puts his or her hand on a Godiva’s Pumpkin Spice and Caramel Pecan Bark coffee should instantly think of brewing it and drinking it as fresh or in a beverage of sorts. But why not trying these coffee blends in a dessert recipe like Tiramisu, and sipping freshly brewed along with it?

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© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dessert, foodbuzz, godiva, Godiva Caramel Pecan Bark Coffee, godiva coffee, italian dessert, Pumpkin Spice, tiramisu

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I am also a musician, and like to improvise on my guitar when we are getting together with a couple folks for a jam-session. This recipe will give you the freedom of doing just that… culinarily speaking (don’t use this dish to play music, it might get awkward).  It’s my Mother-in-Law’s Stir Fry recipe that was posted on one of those church Cookbook collections. It beats a lot of recipes out there, and I can vouch for it since I am making it every other week! The secret is in the garlic, of course. Read on, good people…

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© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chinese, chineze, dinner, fast, stir fry, vegetables, wok

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Sun Dried Tomato & Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast

Looks like I’ve been having my fill of BBQ this summer. Every Friday I pull it out and start improvising with whatever I have at hand that day. So the other day I opened an almost empty, un-inspiring fridge, to discover that I sill have a couple frozen chicken breasts, cream and blue cheese, olives, lemons, parsley and garlic and butter. “Garlic and butter!” I thought to myself… I am saved!

The Art of Slitting

Use this recipe as a guideline for stuffed chicken breasts. You can use whatever you have available to stuff, from spinach to pesto, dried fruit (like figs or apricots), artichoke hearts or asparagus tips. If it comes down to anything that you might have to pay attention to is how to slit the breast to make a nice pocket without ripping it.

The way I found it works is by placing the breast half horizontally on a cutting board and making an incision on the plumpier side of the breast not wider than say 1 inch then carefully making the inside pocket wider, working with the tip of your knife, going as close as possible to the edges without ripping.Once you stuff the breast, seal it with a wooden toothpick and off you go!

The ones here were stuffed with a mix of cream, Parmesan, blue cheese butter and garlic mix, sun dried tomato halves, olives and parsley

I marinated my stuffed chicken breasts in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, parsley and garlic for about 1 hour before they went on a hot charcoal grill. There I had to babysit them pretty often by turning every 5 minutes or so, I got a nice crust and color.

So, really, try your hand at this — you will impress yourself and those around you!

© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: barbecue, BBQ, blue cheese, butter, chicken, cream cheese, fast dinners, garlic, healthy, olive oil, parmesan, Parmigiano Romano, parsley, stuffed chicken breast, summer, sun dried tomatoes

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You know that fall is approaching when you start baking. Lately the temperature in Chicago was more baking-friendly so I thought it was time for another BBA Challenge dust-off here with a delicious Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche.

This is a protein-intense bread, surely because of the cheese overdrive content but worth making it again… annually. No, really I would make it more often but it requires attention and time. I really liked the asiago cheese in it because it gives an assertive taste, but you can simply substitute it for any other cheese from that same family (like Parmesan or Pecorino Romano).

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© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: artizan bread, baking, BBA, BBA-Challenge, Bread, Bread Baker's Apprentice, bread baking, bread recipes, breads, kitchen, Mamaliga, miche, miche recipes, Peter Reinhart, pinch my salt, pinchmysalt.com, roasted onion asiago miche, Soups, sourdough, The Bread Baker's Apprentice

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Newtons Fruit Thins

Look, how can say NO to a chance of reviewing a cookie (or more)? And how can you relax better than sitting down on a summer afternoon, with a bag of Newton Fruit Thins, a real espresso, and a laptop ready for the review? It doesn’t happen often so might as well dig in… Literally.

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Read the rest of Newtons Fruit Thins Review (403 words)

© Gabi for Mamaliga, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brown sugar, cookies, foodbuzz, fruit, healthy, nabisco, newtons, reviews, snack, tastemaker program, thins

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