Beef Brisket (another easy recipe)

I had some people over for a mini celebration.  I didn't have much time to cook, so I made beef brisket.  This recipe is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  Most of the cooking time is unattended which is great!  So you can paint your nails, clean your house, take a nap or have a PC (parent consult) meeting with A's behavioral supervisors like I did. 

Braised Beef Brisket

recipe from Mark Bittman

1 tablespoon neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, or extra virgin olive oil (optional)
1 whole beef brisket, about 5 pounds
Salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter or more oil
2 cups chopped onion
3 tablespoons tomato paste or 1 large ripe tomato, cored and chopped (peeled and seeded if you have time)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock or water

Directions:

Heat the oven to 325°F (you can also cook this brisket on top of the stove if you like). If you choose to brown the brisket first, heat a large pot with a lid or a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When hot, add the oil, swirl it around, then add the beef. Sear it for about 5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and transfer to a platter.

Wipe out the pan with paper towels and return it to the stove; turn the heat to medium and add the butter. When it foams, add the onion and cook, stirring, until golden and soft, at least 10 minutes. Add some salt and pepper, then stir in the tomato paste or tomato and the garlic. Return the meat to the pan, add the stock, and cover.

Cook over low heat or in the oven, turning the meat about every 30 minutes, until tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. If the sauce seems too thin, allow the meat to rest on a platter for a few minutes while you boil the liquid down over high heat, scraping the bottom of a pan with a wooden spoon, until it thickens somewhat. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. Slice the meat, return it to the sauce, and serve.

Yield: Makes: 10 or more servings
Time: About 3 hours, largely unattended

Mini Donut Muffins

Happy Friday!

I love donuts and the reviews on this recipe were pretty good.  Well, they were more like cakey muffins, not cakey donuts.  It's a good alternative (I mean baking rather than frying in the kitchen)  I guess.  I prefer my donuts fried :) 

Ready to be powdered with some sugar!

Donut Muffins  

(from Downtown Bakery and Creamery)

12 oz. (24 Tbs.) unsalted butter, warmed to room temperature

1-3/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 lb. 11 oz. (6 cups) all-purpose flour

1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1-3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1-2/3 cups milk

1/4 cup buttermilk

For cinnamon/sugar donuts:

4 oz. (8 Tbs.) unsalted butter; more as needed

1 cup sugar

1 Tbs. ground cinnamon

For powdered sugar donuts:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

To make the muffins

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

In a stand mixer or a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just mixed in. 

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. 

In another bowl, combine the milk and buttermilk. 

With a wooden spoon, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix in a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don't overmix. 

Grease and flour a standard-size muffin tin. Scoop enough batter into each tin so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup.  Bake the muffins until firm to the touch, 20-25 min.  

**I used my mini muffin pans and baked them for about 10-12 minutes. 

For cinnamon sugar donuts

Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.  While the muffins are still slightly warm brush with melted butter and then roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.

For powdered donuts

Roll the muffin in powdered sugar. 

Cream Cheese Lemon Cookies

Random Wednesday post....

I was gardening yesterday and decided to yank...yes yank some lemons off of my tree. 

Starting some new mint plants by cutting off some sprigs and sticking them in water.  Roots will grow in about a week.

Have you tried Jones coffee?

I made these cookies a while ago but never posted them. 

Before they went into the oven.

Cream Cheese Lemon Cookies

recipe by Martha Stewart

3 Cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

3 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest

2 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F.

1.  In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2.  In the kitchen aid (any mixer will work fine) bowl, put the butter and cream cheese with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until creamy.  Add the sugar and mix.  Then add the egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest and mix well.  Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients.  Mix well.

3.  Add the dough into a pastry bag with a ribbed French tip (Martha suggests Ateco 865.  You can use any size).  Then pipe out in any shape you like.  Martha pipes hers into a bow.  I thought it was too much work so I made mine into a fat S.  You can even pipe straight lines.  Space the cookie dough about 1 inch apart.

4.  Bake for about 12 minutes or until they are golden brown on the bottom.  Cool on a wire rack then sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Milk Chocolate Cookies

Monday Monday....I hope everyone had a good weekend.  We just relaxed at home since A has been under the weather these days. 

We are officially counting down...4 and a half weeks of school left!

This mornings breakfast.  Coffee, cara cara orange, and GP's cookie (I made them for Mother's Day and they were a hit with all the mothers.  When I told them it was made with barley flour the cookies all disappeared.)

Milk Chocolate Cookies

Bad picture!  I forgot to take another picture of these cookies.

Milk Chocolate Cookies

by Martha Stewart

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

8 ounces good-quality milk chocolate (4 ounces coarsely chopped and 4 ounces cut into ¼-inch chunks) *

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  
  
In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.   

Melt 4 ounces of coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.

Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium speed until combined.  Add the flour mixture and mix until combined.  Add in the milk chocolate chunks.

Using a 1 ½ inch ice cream scoop, drop cookies onto a baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake until the cookies are flat and the surfaces crack, approximately 15 minutes*.  

Let cool on a wire rack.  Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.  

***Notes:  I used semi sweet chocolate chips since I was out of milk chocolate.   

Also, I baked my cookies for about 9 minutes.  Since the cookies are dark it may be hard to tell when are they done.  You can test bake one cookie and see how many minutes it takes and then make sure you set the timer for each batch!

Surf and Sand Resort

My younger sister took my older sister and I out for a late Mother's Day dinner!  We headed out to Splashes at the Surf and Sand in Laguna Beach.  It was so much fun! 

Splashes is right on the water. 

sun setting

calamari..those red pickled jalapenos were delish

manila clams

scallops with citrus & avocado sauce served with farro risotto

wild striped bass with sesame vinaigrette

sunset again

Thanks J!  Sisters are the best!

Caprese Salad

I had to repost this because it simply disappeared.  So strange.

Another easy recipe!

All you need are some tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, basil, olive oil, salt & pepper.  I like to eat it with slices of baguette while listening to...

or

hehehe....

Mother's Day

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  For Mother's Day we headed out to the Getty Villa. 
The day was overcast, but once we arrived at the Getty Villa, it cleared up.

View from the balcony.

Beautiful water lilles

I really enjoyed the Villa especially the herb garden (I was enjoying it so much I forgot to take pictures of it).  You can tell from my pictures that it wasn't crowded at all. 

Then off to a bbq dinner at E's cousin's house.  

Korean  bbq & hot links!

Korean pancakes (bindaeduk)

On Sunday, some of us moms went to Buster's Coffee in South Pasadena for some coffee & sweets.

Lalo's Famous Cookies

Happy Friday!!!!

I tried this recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow's (aka GP...well that's what Mario Batali calls her) new cookbook. 

I bought my raw whole almonds at Whole Foods.  I was so surprised that they were only 3.49 a pound!  GP also suggests to pulse the nuts for 2 seconds ten times.  Next time, I think I will pulverize them a bit more.

Canola oil and maple syrup.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of oil & maple syrup each.  I only made half the recipe that's why I only have 1/2 a cup each in the picture.

The dough was crumbly a little hard to work with because it kept falling apart when shaping the cookies.

I used my Tablespoon (measuring) spoon to shape them and then used the backside of the 1/4 spoon to make the indentations.

Final product!

Lalo's Famous Cookies
From My Father's Daughter, by Gwyneth Paltrow

Ingredients:

4 cups barley flour (can be found at Whole Foods.  They did not have it at my local Sprouts store)
3 cups raw whole almonds crushed in a food processor (about ten 2-second pulses...like I mentioned above, I think I will pulse them more next time)
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
1 cup real Vermont maple syrup
Your favorite jam (I used strawberry) 

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients except for jam together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Form into tablespoonful balls and space them evenly on cookie sheets. Using your index finger, make an indent in each cookie. Fill each indent with a small spoonful of jam. Bake until cookies are evenly browned, about 15-20 minutes. Cool before eating. 

 Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  Hope you guys have wonderful weekend!

Easy Peasy Baked Tortilla Chips

I had a pile of corn tortillas left over from dinner last week.  Usually, I throw them  back in the fridge and then eventually forget about them.  This time I decided to make tortilla chips.  It's super easy.   Preheat the oven to 350.  Then brush a little olive oil on each side of the tortilla.  Cut them into wedges like below.  Line them up on a sheet pan and sprinkle with salt.

Bake until nice and brown about 13-15 minutes.  Enjoy with your favorite salsa.  

My favorite salsa is ...

Can be found at Sprouts or Whole Foods.  I can drink this stuff.

These days, word has gotten around about my IEP and how I am able to get services for A without a lawyer.  Some moms have approached me asking me for help and advice.   Yesterday, I met with 4 moms all of them live in my district and are Korean.   Boy, does my Korean suck. 

I can't believe it's already May!

I've also been trying to squeeze some gardening in....

My sunflowers

Have you tried these mini cones from Trader Joe's?  I got them for A.  It's the perfect size and yummy too!

Reading about and missing Tartine...