Clams & Garlic Sauce

Adapted from Scott Ure's recipe on Allrecipe.com

150 small clams in shell, scrubbed, clean, and de-sanded

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

8 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp lemon grass (use a rasp to grate it)

1 tbsp fresh ginger (use the same rasp to grate)

1 1/2 cups of white wine (i used a pinot grigio because i had it on hand)

6 tablespoons butter (unsalted)

1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley (i'd stick with italian parsley as opposed to regular parsley...italian parsley has this wonderful lemony taste to it!)

In a large pot heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic & ginger and saute until fragrant. I don't know why but I chose to add the lemon grass last. No reason. Just because I felt like it.

Moving right along, add the wine and boil until it is reduced by 1/2 it's original volume.

Add clams, cover, and steam until the clams partially open. Add butter, cover and cook until most of all the clams have opened. discard any that do not open. sprinkle with parsley (and cilantro if so desired). You can throw this over pasta or just sop up the juices with some french bread!

newest chocolate-chocolate chunk cookies

as promised, here's my take on the recipe. try to use the best ingredients possible when making this recipe...it really helps!

1- 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (i used Valrhona unsweeted available at surfas in culver city)
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup fimrly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tbl mil
8 squares (8 oz) semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 cup toffee bits (use Heath)

adjust oven racks to divide oven into thirds. preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie with parchment paper. Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa together; set aside.

Beat butter in mixer bowl until softened. Beat in vanilla and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and milk. With mixer at low speed, add dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate and toffee. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, no more than six on each sheet. With fork dipped in water, flatten tops slightly to 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake 2 sheets at a time 14 to 15 minutes, switching position of pans halfway through, until lightly browned but still soft. Let cookies stand on sheets 1 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes 32 cookies.

Paula Deen's Five Layer Bar

the easiest thing in the world to make!!!

Five Layer Bar Mix:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butterscotch morsels
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into bottom of a 9 by 13-inch baking dish.

Sprinkle remaining ingredients of mix over crumb mixture.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over the layers.

Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into bars.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookie

This recipe has been stolen from GDL without permission or just cause:

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 ounces English toffee candy, finely chopped (recommended: Heath or Skor)
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and chopped
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Line 2 heavy baking sheets with parchment paper. Finely chop the oats in a food processor. Transfer the oats to a medium bowl. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the toffee, hazelnuts, and chocolate chips.

For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto sheet, spacing 1 inch apart (do not flatten dough). Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will flatten slightly), about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. (The cookies can be prepared 1 day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.)

Crab Risotto

4 cups LOW SALT Chicken Broth (about 2 cans)
2 Tbs unsalted butter
3/4 cup finely diced onions
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
2/3 cups parmesan
salt & pepper to taste

Add:
1 1/2 cup King crab
1 bunch asparagus, chopped
pinch saffron

Heat 4 cups of broth in saucepan.

Melt butter in saute pan. Add onions, mix until translucent. Add Asparagus to cook (remove after cooked...just a few minutes). Add Rice, mixing constantly just until it begins to toast. Add wine and stir until the wine has reduced. While stirring constantly add 1/2 cup of broth at a time until absorbed. Add back the asparagus, king crab, pinch saffron towards the end while continuing to mix the risotto. mix in parmesan. salt & pepper to taste.

Pear Squares

ok, so Ron dated this girl that I wasn't too crazy about. Ok, actually...i just didn't like her (sorry ron). One thing that i think everyone agreed upon was the fact that this girl could BAKE. she made the most amazing things. Two things off the top of my head that I like to use from her are the caramel popcorn cereal and her pear square recipe.

Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
CRUST
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup walnuts (i used pecans)
3/4 cup flour

FILLING
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/s tsp vanilla
1 can of pears
sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350.

CRUST:
blend butter, sugar, vanilla. Mix in nuts & flour. Press into 8 x 8 pan. Bake for 10 miutes at 350.

FILLING:
blend together cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla. spread mixture onto the baked crust. slice can of pears on mixture, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
bake 25 - 30 minutes in 375 degree oven.

cool and refrigerate.

Thanksgiving - Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

So I baked a lot of stuff for Thanksgiving. The best two recipes were the pumpking bread and one other, which i will share on a separate post.

I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com, submitted by Laurie Bennett. My nephew liked this one so much that I gave them a whole loaf to eat. It's like a pumpkin pie in bread form...super moist, too!

Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

1.) Preheat oen to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans

2.) In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans

3.) Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated over. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (i did it just before this point to retain its moistness).