Cream Cheese Danish

Growing up we didn’t do a lot of eating out. I’m sure it was for financial reasons but we just thought my parents were being mean. It never failed - on the way home from church we would ask, ‘Hey Dad, can we go out to lunch today?’ He would say 'Sure! We’re going to that restaurant at 25 Brookside.' That was our address. Bummer.

I remember getting super excited when he would give in and we would get to forgo Sunday lunch at home and actually go to a Chinese place instead, which hardly ever happened.
Now, I’m not knocking my mother’s cooking. She is a wonderful cook. But you know when you’re a kid going out to eat was so much fun. At least it was for us. And honestly it still is.

Another thing was that my mother pretty much made everything we ate. I don’t remember very many things in the house that were “ready made” or boxed and all you had to do was add water or something. That just wasn’t the way we did it.
But there was this one thing that my dad would bring home every once in a while. It was one of the few exceptions. It was a cream cheese danish. Holy Cream Cheese Goodness! I absolutely loved it! And he loved it too. I can’t remember the name of it but it came in a long white box with a window cut out of the top. Man it was so good!! Even now when I see them in the store I can’t help but smile. I can remember sitting at our little kitchen table with him watching as he’d cut he and I a piece, heat it in the microwave and then we’d have our danish and chat about whatever.
It never occurred to me to try and make them myself. That is until I saw the Barefoot Contessa make a similar version of my beloved cheese danish. I made sure to print it out and put it in my ridiculous pile of Must Cook One Day recipes. I chose to give it shot for a Spring Brunch I had. The taste is similar but so much better. And the best part is, it’s also one of the easiest things in the world to make. And I love that.
I neglected to take pictures of the ingredients or the mixing process because I’m a dork.

Cream Cheese Danish
Adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for



Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife.

Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares.

Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash.

Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.

Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.

Honey Walnut Butter + Blackberry Butter

Something I’ve learned over the years in regards to entertaining – making yourself miserable or stressed out over extravagant details is never going to create an atmosphere of enjoyment or make people have more fun. In all honesty, they probably won’t ever even notice whatever it is that you spent hours on and if they do, they’ll never appreciate it enough to make your stress justified. Did I mention that I learned this the hard way?
If you keep things simple and add a few thoughtful touches here and there, you will be amazed at how much more you actually enjoy your own party. One of those thoughtful touches would be compound butter or flavored butter.
It’s not one of those things you think about doing but when you do it’s always a delicious addition. It’s also stupid easy. Like, my four year old niece could do it easy.
Room temperature butter + flavoring of choice + a little stir action = compound butter. Boring old butter has now become a delicious and delightful little something that people will remember.
Honey Walnut Butter

1 stick butter, room temperature
¼ cup honey
¼ cup chopped walnuts

Mix all ingredients together until combined
Let sit out at room temperature 30 minutes before serving

Blackberry Butter

1 stick butter, room temperature
¼ cup blackberry jam

Mix all ingredients together until combined
Let sit out at room temperature 30 minutes before serving

Buttermilk Biscuits

I proudly consider myself to be a true southern woman. I’ve got the southern draw, I make killer sweet tea, I never leave the house without earrings on, I know the importance of prayer, my sense of family is rock solid, the kitchen is my happy place, I’m optimistic about almost everything, my beliefs are strong, I speak my mind and I plan on spanking my kids. My Momma raised me right! And I think most everyone who knows me would agree I’m a southern gal (and maybe now some think I’m a child beater.)

In any case, I feel like in all my going through life parading around like I’ve got this Woman of the South thing down, like I’m some mix of Paula Deen and Suzanne Sugerbaker, I’ve been keeping a deep dark secret that I just recently admitted to. Even though it didn’t stir up much of a fuss, people close to me were actually very shocked and surprised.

Until about a month ago, I had never made homemade biscuits. Never even tried. I feel like such an imposter! I mean, both my grandmothers made them, my mother made them. Heck, even my best friend who hardly ever cooks has made them. Why not me? How come I never tried? How could I have possibly skipped over this on the “Things You Must Do In Order To Be in the Southern Woman’s Club”? And how did I slip through the cracks? How did no one know? I guess we’ll never know.

What I do know is that my first attempt, though not a total failure, definitely didn’t go off without some issues (and a little drama.) And this second try turned out much better and even made me happy dance happy. I think by the time I make them a few more times they will be absolutely perfect.
I searched and searched for the perfect biscuit recipe. But when it came down to it I basically just took 2 recipes and sort of made them one. Please note that I doubled this recipe since I was feeding a crowd. And also note, if you find the dough too moist just add a little more flour.

Basic Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups self rising flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold
3 tablespoons shortening, very cold
3/4 cup buttermilk (approx)

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Cut butter and shortening into the flour w/ pastry cutter.

Add buttermilk and stir just until all dry ingredients are incorporated.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and gently knead or fold over itself 4-5 times.

Folding creates multiple layers of dough and fat, giving rise to a tender, fluffy biscuit.

Pat or roll to ¾” thick; cut with a round biscuit cutter.

Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Brush with melted butter fresh from the oven.

Mini Spinach and Cheese Frittatas

I’ve never been one to get overly excited about miniature or petite food. I understand the cute factor but at times I feel that in all the effort to make it small, flavor gets lost. However, I was completely defenseless against this particular method of making and serving a frittata. Cute as they may be. There was no doubt about it, it just made perfect sense. Especially when serving a crowd.
If’ you’re not familiar with what a frittata is or how it differs from an omelet, let me explain. An omelet is folded around your filling of choice. A frittata has your filling of choice mixed in. Some frittatas are baked, like the ones I made here and some are cooked stovetop and then covered to allow the top to cook and firm up. Although I’ve made frittatas stovetop, I always end up throwing them in the oven to continue cooking because I usually need the burner space to cook other things.

The possibilities for fillings are absolutely endless. I’m actually planning to make them again this weekend with a more Mexican type vibe with peppers, onions, jalapenos and maybe tomatoes. You could also put a more upscale spin on them with parmesan, asparagus and mushroom or smoked salmon and arugula. And for a more hearty (or manly) option you could always make it a meaty frittata with ham, sausage or bacon. Delish!
Regardless of what you choose to toss into the mix, I can assure you that they will be amazing (and cute).

Mini Spinach and Cheese Frittatas
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
Nonstick vegetable oil cooking spray
12 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 cup shredded chedar cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray 2 mini muffin tins (each with 24 cups) with nonstick spray.

Whisk the eggs, pepper, and salt in a large bowl to blend well. Stir in the spinach and cheese.

Fill prepared muffin cups almost to the top with the egg mixture.

Bake until the egg mixture puffs and is just set in the center, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula, loosen the frittatas from the muffin cups and slide the frittatas onto a platter.

Serve immediately.

Baked Gruyere Cheese Grits

Let’s talk about grits people! Being a southern woman, grits are a staple and that’s all there is to it. In fact, I often feel sorry for the *cough* Northerners who ‘just don’t get grits’. But I get them and I love them. So when I began planning a Spring Brunch menu it was a given that some sort of grits would be on it.

I was attempting to be as resourceful as possible and use up as many already in the pantry/fridge ingredients as I could. It just so happened that I had purchased a block of gruyere cheese for a Grown Up Macaroni and Cheese that never found it’s way to being made so I figured what better time then now to use it. I do have to warn you, gruyere cheese is definitely one of the stinky cheeses. At least in my opinion. But the flavor! Oh the nutty, delicious flavor! I swear it is the most perfect way to accessorize a grit.

And I promise after you have one bite, the slight odor will be long forgotten. It’s sort of like having a boyfriend with smelly feet but he’s also the best kisser ever. Some things are easy to get over!

Baked Gruyere Cheese Grits
Adapted from Southern Living, April 2011

Ingredients
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 cups uncooked quick-cooking grits
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Gruyere cheese
1/2 cup butter*

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring first 3 ingredients and 4 cups water to a boil in a Dutch oven over high heat; whisk in grits, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until thickened.
Remove from heat, and stir in Gruyere and butter.
Bake for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

*Um, YES that much butter!

Welcome Back Spring!

I have a confession to make. Ok, fine. I actually have two confessions to make. First, I would love to pawn off on you the idea that the last nine months have been filled with things that are excusable when it comes to my lengthy absence.

Although mixed in there are such things as a new boyfriend turned ex-boyfriend, job situation change, and quite a few nights spent in the kitchen cooking up deliciousness that will never see the light of this here blog because sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to capture everything on film, when it comes down to it I just found myself in a good old fashioned rut. And not even an “I don’t want to cook another thing” kind of rut. Like I said, I've been cooking. Just not blogging. Honestly, I've been slacking. And it was a nice little break. But now I’m back and I can’t tell you how ready I am to get things back on the regular!

Upon contemplating my return and tossing around some “comeback recipe” ideas with a friend, it was suggested that I should do a recipe that welcomed in Spring. Maybe even a little something bigger than I would normally do for a regular, everyday post. And I just so happened to agree with her. So I decided to host a Spring Brunch for my girlfriends on Saturday.

I picked most of my recipes after seeing an article in Southern Living that made me perk up and say, 'That’s it!'. I used their outline of recipes as a starting point and then of course I changed it to suit my style, on-hand ingredients, and preference. Not to mention, I wanted to choose things that had a certain ease about them and that wouldn’t send me over the edge screaming “Ok, I get it! I’m not Martha Stewart!!”.

Which brings me to my second confession. Better known as Biscuit Breakdown 2011. I’m a planner and list maker extraordinaire. (Seriously, it may be an illness of some sort). So naturally I had my entire brunch menu planned, typed, and timed out to a tee. Because of this it is completely beyond me as to why I would have fallen behind schedule. I had even made sure to choose recipes that would be simple to prepare and baked at the same temperature. Regardless of the reason, I ran behind and before I knew it I had 20 minutes until my guests were to arrive and I hadn’t yet made the biscuits. Let me repeat that - 20 minutes before Party Time and I. Had. Not. Made. The. Biscuits. Not to mention,this would be my very first attempt at making them.

My friend, who lovingly came over to assist me that morning, could see the gradual unraveling like a ticking bomb and tried her very best to console, encourage, help and support me in the most “don’t poke the bear” way possible. To be honest it was all a blur from there. All I remember is going back and forth in the kitchen sweating, throwing eggs into muffin tins (the product being cute little mini frittatas), putting flour and butter into a bowl only to throw it in the trash and exclaim 'We’re just not going to have biscuits!' But then I remembered that I made the all too amazing flavored butters that had to go on the unmade biscuits. So I begin to make them again only to then look at the clock with 10 minutes left and yell halfway through that 'Nope, there just wont be any biscuits! Screw it!'

After successfully being talked off the Crazy Biscuit Lady Ledge, I finally mixed, patted, cut out and baked the biscuits just in time. And although they didn’t rise like I had hoped they would, I am still so happy that I made them and they even tasted pretty darn good!

So what’s the second confession? When it comes to my love of cooking and entertaining, I can sometimes turn into a complete psycho. There, I said it. It’s out there.

Thankfully the end product was a lovely, beautiful and delicious brunch with some pretty amazing friends who made yummy noises throughout the entire morning. And in the end isn’t it really all about the yummy noises?

Brunch Menu

Orange Glazed Ham

Buttermilk Biscuits
(with Honey Walnut and Blackberry Butter)

Baked Gruyere Cheese Grits

Mini Spinach & Cheese Frittatas

Cream Cheese Danishes

Brown Sugar Yogurt with Fresh Fruit

Monday, July 12, 2010

Roasted Spicy Mustard Potatoes

I think it’s possible that one of God’s greatest creations just might have to be, in my opinion, the potato. As much as I love so many other vegetables, nothing ever quite compares for me. Crispy, stuffed, creamed, mashed, smashed, roasted, hashed, au gratined, boiled, scalloped – yes please!

Far too often we fall back on the basic baked potato. Although it’s one of my favorite standbys, there is so much more that can be done to bring some oomph to it. To add some spice and flavor and make it stand up and say “yeah, you just thought I was the quiet little side dish.”

I can regularly be found cutting potatoes into quarters, drizzling with olive oil and tossing with some fresh herbs and garlic before roasting in the oven. Well this spicy mustard method could be considered its big sister.

There’s just enough heat to make you pay attention without being overwhelming and the mustard lends a certain depth of flavor that is very unique. I did make a change here or there but they were minimal.

Roasted Spicy Mustard Potatoes

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds small red potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Spray a shallow roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray three times to coat well; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the mustard, olive oil, paprika, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne.

Pierce potatoes with a fork several times; add to mustard mixture and toss to coat.

Place in prepared pan. bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until tender.

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