I used a candy thermometer and didn't fail!

Yes, shockingly enough, I made a recipe that involved using a candy thermometer and it worked! If there's one thing that I've had nearly zero success with, it's candy. I once tried making a nut brittle and ended up with a sugar brick. It was bad enough to have failed miserably, but to add insult to injury, there was also the annoying factor of the wasted money from all those nuts encased in the sugar brick that subsequently got thrown into the trash. Heck, I didn't even have success with making caramel apples - the caramel slid off - and I wasn't even making my own caramel!

This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (Yes, I still have this out from the library - I keep renewing it!) When I first decided to make this recipe, I didn't realize I'd need a candy thermometer or I likely would have chickened out. Having already started on the recipe, however, I bravely forged ahead and gave it a try. These bars are a cross between a granola bar, a Rice Krispie Treat and a s'more. Unlike a Rice Krispie Treat, they involve a little more than simply melting butter and marshmallows together and that's where the candy thermometer comes in. Sugar, butter, water and corn syrup are brought to a temperature of 250º - between the soft and hard stages - to form a sweet slightly chewy, slightly crunchy "glue" that holds the bars together.

S'more Granola Bars

In addition to rice cereal, these bars have toasted oats, giving the bars a added flavor and texture and also serving to keep these bars from being quite as sweet as some of these treats tend to be. To give them a s'more-like appeal, marshmallows and chocolate chips are baked onto the top. I only had 9x3-inch pans and instead of using 2 pans for these bars, as suggested by the recipe, I opted to make one pan, producing a nice, thick bar. Since I had less surface area than if I had baked them in two pans, I used less marshmallows and chocolate chips on the top.

We enjoyed these bars very much - they are nicely chewy and not overly sweet - but I couldn't help but think we should have gone the extra step and added chopped, toasted almonds, essentially turning them into Rocky Road Granola Bars.

Delicious sauce for fish!

About 2 years ago, a CLBB member recommended a great sounding recipe for tuna from Bon Appetit magazine. I stumbled upon it the other day and decided to finally give it a try.

Wow. This sauce is delicious. While some reviewers felt the flavors did not meld well together - lime, soy and cream -we liked it very much. It was one of those dishes where a different flavor tended to stand out with each bite - sometimes the cream spoke to me, sometimes it was the lime. It goes together quite quickly and if you are lucky enough to have someone else cooking the fish for you while you do the sauce, you can get this dish on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Pan-Seared Salmon with Ginger-Shiitake Cream Sauce

We used salmon in place of tuna and cooked the salmon on the grill, taking full advantage of the warmer weather while we can. I also used 1/2 cup skim milk in place of a 1/2 cup of the cream, not so much for dietary reasons, but because my husband had been enjoying a little too much of the cream in his coffee this week. Sometimes you have to literally hide ingredients around here for fear that they won't be around when you need them! I'd probably make the substitution again - there was still plenty of flavor and I was happier knowing there was a little less fat in this dish. I also cut the butter down to 2 tablespoons and would consider dropping it to one tablespoon in the future.

Some reviewers also found this to be too salty - we used unsalted butter and low-sodium soy sauce and did not have this problem. I did feel, however, that perhaps we could have used a little less soy and/or lime juice so that the flavor of the cream and the shiitake mushrooms could shine through a little more. As we enjoyed the sauce last night, we commented that this dish would probably also work nicely with chicken and maybe even pork.

Cooking Light - July 2007

Well, if I can't even keep up with my "to try" lists, what hope do I have of making any of the recipes? In any case, I like having these lists on my blog when I'm stuck for what to make for dinner, so here's my belated list for July.. ..............

Coconut Curried Pork, Snow Pea, and Mango Stir-Fry
Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard, and Fontina Cheese Strata
Smoked Cheddar-Stuffed Mushrooms
Zucchini, Sausage, and Feta Casserole
Hoisin and Lime-Marinated Grilled Chicken
Spinach Salad with Grilled Red Onion Rings and Sesame Vinaigrette
Chana Masala
Memphis Barbecue Sauce
Kansas City Barbecue Sauce
Kansas City Dry Rub
Spicy Southwestern Chicken Sandwiches
Morning Glory Muffins
Chicken Chilaquiles
Spiced Tilapia with Roasted Pepper-Tomatillo Sauce (not online)

Italian Meatball Burgers

This recipe is one off my "to try" list for the August issue of Cooking Light. Putting an Italian spin on a plain old ground beef burger, this burger calls for a bit of Italian sausage mixed in, along with a few other herbs and spices. The good, old American stand-bys of ketchup and American cheese are replaced with marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella.

Italian Meatball Burgers

I ended up using regular Italian sausage in place of turkey sausage as I have not yet found a turkey sausage that I'm thrilled with here. This upped the fat content a bit, of course, but certainly didn't hurt the flavor. Though I would have loved to use fresh mozzarella, we chose to use up some provolone we already had on hand and, of course, we used a bit of homemade marinara in place of store-bought.

These burgers were a hit with everyone at the table. I think it's a great way to get that Italian sausage flavor without all of the fat that isn't so great. At the same time, it the sausage flavoring isn't so overwhelming that you forget you're eating a hamburger either.

These go together very easily, making for a quick dinner that offers a little more than the average burger. We made and cooked up all 6 burgers and used the leftovers for a yummy lunch the next day.

Another Birthday Dinner

My youngest turned 10 - double digits! - this past Thursday, and as is tradition, had control of the menu for his birthday dinner. Not only was this dinner perhaps MORE fattening than my oldest son's birthday dinner, it was, um, rather beige.

For dinner we had Classic Macaroni and Cheese, with a side of fried apples. No veggies. But it was HIS dinner, so I didn't push. I guess I have to be happy that they eat most of the healthful stuff I put in front of them, even if they don't go so far as to run for veggies when given the power to choose for themselves.

The birthday dessert - Coconut Cream Pie. I have no idea where this request came from. To my knowledge, DS has never even tried coconut cream pie, so I have no idea why he'd request it for his special dessert. Still, I admired his adventurousness, even if I wasn't terribly excited about making it - I wasn't sure if I liked coconut cream pie either.

Coconut Cream Pie

Turns out, we both like coconut cream pie! I chose a recipe from Cook's Illustrated - usually a safe choice when it comes to picking a recipe out of the blue. I gave DS the choice of a regular pie dough crust or a cookie/graham cracker crust - he chose the latter. This pie starts out with a cookie crust from a most unexpected source - animal crackers. I made sure to get the "real" animal crackers as some of the knock-offs out there have very little flavor.

The base is a pastry cream comprised primarily of coconut milk (the real thing, no going low-fat for this one), milk and egg yolks. The resulting pastry cream is delicious - I couldn't stop tasting it. The coconut cream is topped off with a mound of fresh whipped cream. Getting the right consistency with whipped cream has always been a challenge for me. I'm always afraid of it being a bit too soft and I tend to whip it a little too long - whipped cream can go from a little soft to overly whipped in a matter of a few seconds - taking the whipped cream from nice and smooth to slightly pocked-looking. Seems I haven't learned my lesson because once again, I took it a little too far this time. But no worries - it still tasted delicious. I'm actually not a big fan of fresh whipped cream, but the addition of vanilla to this whipped cream must have been just what I was missing because I really enjoyed it.

I have to say that I wasn't a big fan of the animal cracker crust. It gave the crust a citrusy tang something that should work well with coconut, but I found it distracting. I think that a graham cracker-macadamia nut crust would be just the thing - something a little savory and nutty to balance the sweet.

So there you have it. Yet another addition of the interesting, odd and fattening menus my kids come up with for their birthday dinners.

Cooking Light - August 2007

I haven't posted a Cooking Light "to try" list since the May issue! I'll try to get caught up, but first, here's one for the current issue. Most of August's recipes can be found on the Cooking Light website. It's a pretty long list and two of the recipes are on my list to make this week.....

• Quinoa, Corn, and Tomato Salad with Chive-Infused Oil
• Southwestern Turkey-Cheddar Burgers with Grilled Onions
• Barley Risotto with Summer Vegetables
• Ginger-Carrot Muffins
• Charred Summer Vegetables
• Oven-Roasted Tomato and Chevre Bruschetta
• Corn and Fingerling Potato Chowder with Applewood-Smoked Bacon
• Sate Burgers
• Korean Barbecue Burgers
• Italian Meatball Burgers My Review!
• Bacon, Arugula, and Shrimp Salad
• Miso-Marinated Skirt Steak
• Asian Chicken Slaw
• Ginger, Beef, and Green Bean Stir-Fry
• Fresh Corn Tart with Chipotle Cream
• Salmon with Cucumber Salad and Dill Sauce
• Indian-Spiced Potato Cakes
• Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce, Asparagus and Peas (recipe not listed on website)

That should do it for this issue. I hope to get June and July up there too. Kind of late, but I do like to keep track of what recipes catch my eye.....