Eroica

Im not sure about the name of this wine. Eroica means “heroic” in Italian referring I think to the symphony Beethoven dedicated to Napoleon. However Chateau Saint Michelle being in Washington I dont understand the reasoning behind the name at all.

What I do know is I love this wine. In fact Ive yet to have a less than stellar wine from Chateau St. Michelle. A couple years ago I visited their vineyard and liked every single thing on the tasting list. Its a shame more of their wines dont make it to Madison because they are out of this world. Their Rieslings especially stand out in my mind so I was excited when I sent the fella out on a wine run and he came back with the Eroica. I really hate to brag but I do have the best boyfriend ever.

I threw together Berry and Rosemary Chicken Thighs and some asparagus for dinner to pair with the wine. It worked out well. The sweetness of the jam in the food played off the sweet, spicy wine nicely. And the asparagus brought out some tart green undertones. The only problem with this wine is it is additively sweet, almost to the point of being cloying. Its really more of a dessert wine, better enjoyed alone to get the full effect. Just watch out for the sugar headache it left us both with afterwards. It has a powerful 12 percent alcohol content and it isnt joking around.

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Flourless Pizza Crust

The fella has been missing pizza just a teeny bit.

It used to be his Tuesday night ritual to buy the cheapest most unspeakable frozen pizza to eat while doing the geeky things he does on Tuesdays with his friends while I work. Apparently its called gaming or something. Everyone has their flaws so I try to pretend this one doesnt exist by refusing to understand it.

Some people juggle geese. Some people sit around pretending to be demons and necromancers while playing with tiny painted figures. Some people decide to cook highly complicated meals 7 days a week and then freak out at random intervals about it being too difficult. If the person is worth it you grin and bear their silly hobbies and soldier on. Really Im more concerned about his ability to have eaten those cardboard pizzas for so long.

After several months of being unable to slather gluttony rounds of dough with mounds of cheese hes been getting punchy. We drive by pizza places and he starts to drool. At night he would mumble the name of his lost mistress, pizza. Any mention of the word would cause him to go wide in the eyes and tap his veins begging for a fix.

Okay so it wasnt quite that bad. There were times that he looked at me however and I couldnt tell whether he was imaging that I was a pizza he was about to eat or if he was wondering how he could back out of this diet before losing his cheese loving mind. It was time to find a way to make this man a pizza.

Enter almond flour and all the wonderful things that can be made out of it. Weve been on a bit of a kick with it lately, satisfying cravings all over the place by using it. So it was only natural that about this time I stumbled upon a nut flour pizza crust recipe. And lo the heavens opened and the fella said “woo flipping hoo” when I sent him the link letting him know pizza was imminent.

When the faithful night of pizza making arrived we were both bouncing with excitement. Then we started making the crust mixture and got a bit concerned. It was really runny and didnt look like any crust Id ever made before. It didnt seem like it was thick enough to not run all over the pan. And how was this wet mess going to solidify enough to put toppings on it in just 5 minutes of baking? We were seconds away from thawing something from the freezer as we watched the crust do a whole lot of nothing in the oven.



Miraculously I pulled it from the oven and it was a nice firm crust like texture. We let it cool to firm up a bit more and started throwing toppings on it. It withstood being covered in sauce and veggies so things were looking good. I pre-sauted the vegetables assuming the vegetables wouldnt have enough time to cook on such a delicate crust and was right. Unless you like raw veggies on your pizza, cook them to your preferred level of doneness before this goes back in for round two. Topped with some sundried tomatoes and Havarti and we were drooling as hard as the dog does while we cook.

This was fabulous! It looked and smelled and had the texture of pizza. It doesnt taste like the real thing exactly but its a great fake out. The only problem is you really need to oil whatever surface youre baking this on or it will never let go of the pan. We spent a lot of time dislodging our pizza before being able to eat it.

Im sure this will become a regular fixture on our menus. That sound you hear is the fella sighing with relief. His favorite food is a possibility again.

Flourless Pizza Crust

3 eggs
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 tablespoon oil
1/ 2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 salt
6 ounces ground almonds
1 teaspoon vinegar

Preheat the oven to 360. Line a round pizza pan with baking parchment, make on a silcone tray or oil your pan VERY well. This crust will stick like crazy.

Whisk the first five ingredients together in a bowl until frothy and starting to thicken slightly.

Beat in the ground nuts and vinegar and spread onto the baking parchment in an even, thin layer. It will be like thick batter, not a sticky dough. It doesnt look anything like pizza crust at this point but dont worry.

Bake for 5 minutes until just firm but not colored. Leave crust to cool a little before spreading your chosen toppings on and re-baking until the edge of the pizza base is golden brown and the cheese melted. Youll want to pre-cook any vegetables you plan on putting on this pizza in order to soften them, they wont have much time to cook before the crust is ready to be removed from the oven.

Original recipe from Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried blog.

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Spicy Goat Cheese Dip

Since Im fessing up to my astronomical failures as a cook allow me to confess to another ridiculous thing I cannot manage to succeed at.  Nachos.  You heard me correctly.  Melted cheese and tasty fixings over chips.  Couldnt be simpler, right?  Anyone can do that.  Yeah anyone except me it would seem.  Having never attempted to make them before I thought the broiler would be the way to go.  30 seconds later I was waving out the fire on my organic blue corn chips.  Another dinner ruined.

In my defense nachos were never something we ate in my house growing up.   And the horrible alien cheese sauce drenched corn chips at the fair or the mall arent nachos those are just wrong.  So I dont have a food memory of this dish to lead me to create a long forgotten favorite recipe.  All I had was a strange craving for cheesy corn chips after eating a quick meal at the Great Dane (a locally famous brew pub with good beer and a gluten free menu) and being mocked by the monster nacho plate being eating by people at a neighboring table.

Giving up cheese in Wisconsin is like giving up on snow in the Arctic, it just isnt possible.  It is everywhere and it knows where to find you when you least expect it.  Once you stop eating it you suddenly notice how prevalent cheese is.  Where as you once thought phrases like "cheesehead" or "the cheese state" are just cute metaphorical terms of endearment we use to talk about the area, you know now that the place literally is made of dairy and you cant escape seeing it.

Ive gotten pretty good at ignoring all the amazing cheese this town has to offer and hardly mind that everyone around me makes yummy noises while nibbling on their latest gourmet cheese discovery at parties.  But everyone once in a while as I happily eat my bunless burger and salad a little rodent somewhere in my head will start screaming "Cheese!"  I try to ignore it but it gets more specific, "Ooey gooey sinful cheese drenched macaroni and cheese hot and fresh out of the oven!"  Then things go down hill into something along the lines of "Nachos! Nachos! Nachos! Nachos! Nachos!"  Until the part of my brain that hasnt been taken over by gerbils riffles my brain to find a solution that will make the cheese obsessed brain animals happy and not make me sick.  Anyone who read my vegan mac and cheese post knows that it is no small order to fill.

Thankfully I have a very understanding fella who is no longer surprised that the woman he lives with occasionally (okay on a very regular basis, shut up) goes crazy and insists that directly after lunch we must go to Whole Foods so I can look into making nachos immediately.  It probably helps that he usually benefits from my moments of madness by being rewarded with delicious food for the low low price of doing my endless dishes.

So the only way I could see this nacho thing going down was to indulge in goat cheese which I allow myself every couple of weeks because it doesnt seem to negatively effect me too much and lets face it I need some sort of cheese or I really will snap in the face of all this temptation.  However the goat cheese dribbled chips burst into flame because nachos under the broiler probably wasnt my greatest idea ever.  The cheese sauce I salvaged off of the wreckage on the other hand was amazing!  So whereas I cannot suggest asking me to ever making you something as simple as nacho I can tell you that this accidental goat cheese creation is a great dip.

Now world please do tell me how in the hell does one make nachos?

Spicy Goat Cheese Dip

1 5-ounce log goat cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream or coconut milk
1-2 chipotle peppers, chopped
1-2 teaspoons adobe sauce from chipotle peppers
1 jalapeno, finely chopped


Place goat cheese in a oven safe bowl.  Heat for 20 seconds or so until it becomes soft and easily mixable.  Add heavy cream or coconut milk until the cheese is the constancy you like, you might not need all the liquid depending on the goat cheese youre using.  Stir in the chipotle, adobe sauce and jalapeno until well combined.  Place in oven at about 375 degrees until cheese begins to brown on top.  Serve warm with good quality corn chips.

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Chicken Piccata Two Ways

At this point chicken piccata is probably like a gin and tonic, no one really needs a recipe for it, at some point it just became a part of the collective conscious. Just to be a brat not only am I going to post about it even though everyone and their dog knows how to make it, Im going to go ahead and post two recipes for it.

This is all Giada De Laurentiis fault. I just dont get the big deal about her, she doesnt cook anything super special it is all head slappingly easy and involves way too much butter. And this is coming from someone on the cream and butter diet, as so many of my friends have dubbed it. This is how most people probably feel about Rachel Ray, I realize. Which is fine. More thirty minute meals for me and more needlessly butter clogged arteries for them.

I was willing to give her a try though so on a low maintenance cooking night I pulled up her version of chicken piccata and followed it to the letter. The fella made pea pods with sesame seeds. We then sat and looked at the lake of butter on our plates for a while. Six tablespoons of butter and five tablespoons oil for two chicken breasts? It was ridiculous and didnt add anything to the dish. We certainly couldnt taste the lemon or capers, not to mention the peas pods as everything was overwhelmed by the barrage of butter. The leftover were not good. It was a chicken breast in butter sludge, I wasnt impressed.

This didnt make me want to try any more of Giada De Laurentiis recipes. What it did make me want to do is make my own version of the same recipe which is much lower in fat and higher in flavor. Its something that came out of a cookbook of my mothers that Ive played with over the years to the point that I have the portions down to the way that the flavors seem perfect to me. Obviously Id suggest making my lemony slightly salty version if the chicken piccata mood strikes you so thats the one Im posting here. Hunt for Giada De Laurentiis recipe at your own risk or if youre looking for an excuse to eat a stick of butter but feel guilty just chewing on it straight out of the fridge.

My Chicken Piccata

4 chicken breasts, pounded flat
2 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup white wine
1 glove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers
2 tablespoons butter
fresh lemon slices

Pound chicken breasts flat then season with salt and pepper. Over medium heat add oil to a skillet. Saute the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and pour excess fat from pan.

Deglaze pan with wine, then add garlic, cooking until slightly brown and the liquid is reduced to half. Add broth, lemon juice, and capers.

Return chicken to the pan and cook for one minute on each side or until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to plates for serving.

Finish liquid in pan by adding butter and lemon slices. Warm until butter is melted and sauce is creamy then pour over chicken breasts.

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Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds

The end of CSA season meant Ive had seemingly one of every kind of squash in existence sitting in my kitchen waiting for me to be inspired to do something with them. Then the chef brought over a couple more squash just to mock me the other day. At that point there was no point in delaying it any longer, I took a knife to every squash in the kitchen and roasted them. This will force me to find something to do with their various roasted flesh as every time I open the fridge there they are tempting me. Tonight I simply warmed the acorn squash in some butter in a frying pan and was very happy with it.

However Im very much my mothers daughter (no worries, I mean it in a good way mom) and the thought of all those squash seeds going to waste was unthinkable, I had to do something with them. Ive never made roasted squash seeds before so it was fun to grab the first spice that came to me out of the spice cupboard. Cinnamon with salt sounded divine and it was. I was very pleasantly surprised with the results and made this same combination twice since then.

Even better than the cinnamony seeds themselves is that they are awesome in a salad. Ive been hooked on throwing them in mixed greens and spinach with feta cheese and a vinaigrette of olive oil and fig vinegar. Its tastes way too good to be that simple.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds
olive oil
salt
cinnamon

Reserve however many seeds you get from pumpkins and other random squashes you have around for cooking. Toss the slimy pits from around the seeds. Rinse the seeds then spread them over a baking sheet.

Heat oven to 350. Put just enough oil over the seeds so that they are coated. Sprinkle with salt and cinnamon to suit your taste.

Bake for 20 minutes or until well toasted.

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