Monthly Archives: March 2011

Thoughts On Kathy Can Cook Turning One

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Last week was my blogiversary.  And I just let it pass with no fanfare.  I realize that I don’t blog as often as I, or you, my readers, would like me too.  I’m working on that.  Kinda.  But I just wanted to use my blogiversary to say thanks. 

I started this blog after much thought about grad school as a way to determine if food was an obsession (absolutely) or just a passing fad (totally sticking with it, this love of food and I are permanant).  I wanted to make sure sinking 40k into my love of food would be a wise decision.  I did not expect to make friends and find such a network of support. When I started this blog I was also lonely – to a fault, I was scared of the big crowds of this city and missed my small hometown with it’s big blueberry fields and few people.  I wanted the safety of friends around me all the time. I started this blog when I had like 3 people I saw on a regular basis (coworkers discluded) and I was debating moving because I was so unhappy.

Then I went to a Boston Local Food Festival meeting where I met Michelle, Robin and Jon and realized that Boston had an amazing and supportive food community.  I went from knowing virtually no one, to being able to chat all day (probably to my detriment and BF’s irritation) about food, culture, news, and whatever else I thought of.  My eyes were opened.  I’ve spent the past year cooking a lot, putting on more butter weight than I should, meeting simply stunning people, and learning from all of you, commentors, bloggers and friends.  I’ve started swapping canned goods with people (most notably Brian and a debacle involving nearly-missing Blood-Orange Curd).

So thanks Boston Food Community, for giving me a reason to keep blogging and to stick around.  Thanks for reintroducing me to a city that is now firmly home, where I get together for cookie swaps, brunches and bake dates with friends.  Where bananagrams is played ALL. THE. TIME.  And where spring now means I have another birthday to celebrate (my own and Kathy Can Cook’s), which means more cake and another reason to eat out.  I appreciate everything this community gives me – from support on bad days to photography lessons.  You’ve all made me a better and less fearful person.

Now I think I need a cupcake, or at least a cookie.

Squash and Apple Soup

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I know that the winter squash obsession has passed for most people, but I’m still obsessed.  The sugars in those hardy winter squash are really coming into their own right now, making the squash really shine and work so well with whatever you want to add to it!  I like my squash soup with a fall fruit (in this case, apples) because I feel like it really fills out the flavors and lightens the heavier squash components.  I don’t roast my squash for soup; I feel like it takes too much time and I can just cook it down in water (or stock if you’ve got some laying around), keeping all of those delicious juices right in the soup pot.  I also feel like it leads to a smoother soup.  It also has the added bonus of NOT burning my hands, which is “handy” (yes, I went there – don’t judge me).

My dining companions (also known as BF and Big Sis) and I enjoyed this soup with sandwiches of baguette, salami, and brie, which were out of this world and were a fantastic accompaniment.

Squash soup isn’t one of those soups I remember eating as a child; it wasn’t even on my radar until I became obsessed with sunshine squash and soup a couple of years ago.  Such bright, cheerful little squash need to be soup.  They are vibrant and they have a fantastic flavor.  But I could be biased.  Also, I bought the one I used for this soup at an adorable honor system farm stand with a drop box for the money!  I love honor system stands in general, but one where I can stand in a little mud and pick out my favorite squash from the pile – those are the best.

Squash-Apple Soup
1 Medium Winter Squash (I like sunshine squash but butternut or hubbard will work too) (1 1/2-2 lb) peeled, cored, and cut into 1” cubes
1 Asian Pear (Pear-Apple) peeled, cored, and cut into 1” cubes
1 Macintosh Apple (Cortland will also work but a tart apple is key) peeled, cored, and cut into 1” cubes
1-2 tsp Garam Masala seasoning (to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
4-6 Cups Water or stock
Sour Cream/Creme Fraiche/Mascarpone Cheese/Greek Yogurt (for garnish, optional)

Put squash and apples into a large pot and add just enough water/stock until it comes to the top of the squash/apples but doesn’t cover them.  Heat the pan over med-low heat and let it simmer, stirring occassionally until the squash is soft (15-20 mins).  When the squash has begun to fall apart, add the spices and stir well to fully incorporate them.  Taste the soup – add additional spices as you like.  Allow the soup to simmer for another 10-15 minutes for the flavors to come together.  You can serve the soup chunky if you like texture, or you can use an immersion blender/food processor/blender to make it velvety smooth.  Serve in large bowls with a dollop of your cream of choice (my favorite is Greek yogurt, preferably Cabot).

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

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Mmm cheesecake.  It’s creamy, it’s sweet without being cloying, and it’s delicious.  Always.  So when a friend came to work lamenting the “oreo cheesecake” she had gotten at Mike’s, saying that it was merely chocolate cake with some wierd creamcheese filling, I started plotting these little delights.  She lamented the Mike’s cheesecake in August or so and I made her these in November; enough time for her to totally forget about that disappointment 🙂

Ingredients

My first challenge for these was to determine just what exactly I was going to do for the cupcakes and as Twitter was alive with Joanne Chang’s Flour cookbook and it seemed to be THE cookbook everyone was using. I determined that I needed to make her oreos.  So I found the recipe on Boston.com thanks to Joanne Chang herself directing me to it (super thanks!).  And started plotting.  I had a vision of cheesecake with a full oreo base, until I realized that making all those oreos was just way more work than I was willing to put in ;P
So I just made the cookies, sans filling, and put them in my mini-cheesecake pan as crust.  They were delicious, and will definately be made this way again!

The cheesecake was a breeze, after a quick phone call to my mom (the bible of all cooking questions and head-full of random and mostly useful information), I had a cheesecake recipe that worked with what I had in my pantry/fridge.  I was giddy.  I started cooking on Sunday around 1pm.  I finished cooking around 8pm.  I was exhausted, but it was worth it.  Homemade Oreos, dark chocolate cheesecake, vanilla cheesecake, dark chocolate cheesecake.  Delicious.  And perfect.  My coworkers certainly thought so!

Oreo Cheesecake
Note: I’ve made a lot of cheesecake.  This one is very simple.  Try it.  If you want to make a full-sized cheesecake follow all of the directions below but replace the oreo cookie with a cookie crumb crust and  bake the cakes for an additional 10-15 minutes.  Also, I used the Flour recipe for my oreo cookies in the bottom of the cheesecake.  I baked the cookies according to the recipe, did not fill them, then cut them to size and dropped them into my mini spring-form pan.

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1-8oz pkg cream cheese, full-fat, softened to room temp
1 1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream, separated
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit.  Melt the chocolate chips over low heat.  Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until creamy.  Add 1/2 cup of the Greek yogurt or sour cream and the eggs to the cream cheese-sugar mixture.  Beat this until smooth.  Pour 1/3 of the cheesecake batter into another bowl and add the vanilla to this bowl.  Mix well.  Add the melted chocolate to the larger quantity of cheesecake batter (roughly 2/3 of the whole batter).  Mix well.  In a mini-spring-form pan (or a cupcake tin lined with paper cups) drop the cheesecake batter over the homemade oreo cookies, alternating chocolate-vanilla-chocolate for an oreo look. Pouring your batter gently over the back of a spoon (to disperse it, like making a layered cocktail) will keep the layers from blending together.  Put the cheesecakes in the oven.  While the cheesecakes cook, combine the rest of the yogurt/sour cream (1 cup) and the 2 tbs of brown sugar to make a glaze. Remove the cheesecake from the oven (about 10 minutes into baking) and glaze them with the yogurt/brown sugar mixture.  Return the cheesecakes to the oven for another 15-20 minutes, until they are light golden brown.  Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely; overnight or at least 6 hrs is ideal.  Serve them to someone who loves sweets, they’ll be over the moon about them.  I swear it.