Regardless of how un-hands-on no-knead bread might be, it still does take some foresight to plan out. When I mentioned above that a no-knead loaf needs a long, slow rise, I’m talking 24-hours. Lahey’s recipe calls for an 18-hour rise, so for those thinking I’m trying to kill you with an extra 6-hours, well, I’ve got your back. 18-hours is an odd length to time-out. When to start making the bread, and then letting it slowly rise, making sure you factor in enough time for the quick second 15-minute rise as well as bake time so that everything can be prepared and ready to eat when your husband steps through the front door ready to get his chow on. (Just to be realistic here, men should give you extra brownie points your house now smells like an angelic bread revival when he steps inside regardless of how “on time” or not your bread might be. But I digress.) 18-hours, whether you work out of the home or in the home can be challenging to time perfectly so I stretched it out, after all, isn’t the long rise where this bread grabs hold of its shekinah glory?

read the rest of goat cheese and caramelized onion no-knead bread on theredspoonblog.com

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I’m one who violently opposes running, who flees from the slightest hint of a juice cleanse, and shuns (by ripping into a thousand shreds) the $5 gym membership flyers that daily plague my mailbox. I refuse to be guilted into any kind of regimen (ice cream of course, the obvious exception). But pie and ice cream and churros have begun their eternal devastation to this body, and right before bathing suit season too. How rude. (If you are the super breed kind of woman who was born a permanent size 2 for your entire life no matter what you intake, I loathe you. Also, if there is such a thing as a metabolism transplant please sign up. Gaining weight is awesome! hehe)

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Unlike the more “traditional” banana cream — the one that involves pudding and wafer cookies, a banana and a pile of cool whip — this pie has five major components that each makes you invest your valuable nap time minutes (read: you will be making your own peanut butter, pastry cream and bourbon caramel, you can do it!). On an everyday basis I would be telling you streamline!, reduce it to one bowl!, substitute with things you already have stocked in your pantry! (peanut butter, I’m talking to you) but in this case, in this rare worth-it-to-spend-a-few-days-slaving moment, I want to tell you to forget it all just this once and do it the long way.

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Besides, the joke was on him. No sooner did he get over his mockery of my family’s blasphemy and shimmy a piece of roasted meat on his plate than he got wide eyed and slightly judgmental that we ate our sacrificial blasphemous heretical lamb with green jello. Green jello! We still chuckle and shake our heads whenever we think about his barbaric sheep meat ignorance — not knowing that lamb is eaten with mint jelly.

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But if you will humor me for a moment and let me be far more dramatic than I am in everyday life, I would like to take this time to talk about how this, this southern deconstructed pot-pie like dish, can change your entire perspective on chicken. You see, this month I realized I only had nine recipes archived under poultry. Nine! And I don’t think I could pass off the impersonation of being vegetarian (ha ha ho ho, yeah right) even when there is an overwhelming dominance of vegetarian options (fifty-four!) categorized for you non-meat lovers. Now most of you following us into our fourth year here at the red spoon will know that I’ve griped and complained over chicken exactly nine times. Each time my opinion shifts as I recognize not all chicken has to be boring or mundane. Each time it gets better. Far better. But I think chicken and dumplings has irrevocably changed my views on chicken being dinner more than nine times in four years. In fact, it could be a weekly routine.

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Thankfully we’re slowly on the mend and hopefully I won’t be down for much longer. But while I am here, lazily in bed trying to ration out my last few aloe-veraed ultra soft puffs and sip my quickly depleting mug of hot tea I thought I would take a moment to tell you about some really great soup. I think tomato soup is something everyone should have in their arsenal of go-to recipes, which is odd because only recently, err when I made it from scratch, did I ever begin to question the sincerity of my former favorite: condensed tomato soup. Yes, I was a lover of the canned tomato soup — the kind that required two things: water and a bowl. It’s what I grew up on, it’s what I was familiar with and when nostalgia and the only frame of reference to base tomato soup upon is what you like and prefer, well, there’s a phrase: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. To me, it was unbroken. It was what I liked. And though my husband violently opposed such beloved affection I was set out to make him love it.

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I could dive right into discussing this cassoulet or we could spend a few minutes catching up on New York City. Right, that’s what I thought. I will start with a quick gush: the city from every angle is just, well, beautiful. I feel like I was fully immersed in the way of true city life. Not only was my life threatened within minutes of landing inside its gates (I took this to mean only one thing, I was being welcomed with open arms), I was also smack dab front and center in Times Square. I know, for us tourists it’s the Mecca of NYC, for you New Yorkers it’s like being dragged to your Great-Grandmother’s house to watch golf and eat horrible ham and mayonnaise sandwiches on stale, gummy white wonder (not) bread — yeah, don’t ask. Basically, The Square is the pits for you Big-Apple-blooded permanents, and you don’t go there…ever. And I get it. I wasn’t too excited myself. I’m a bit of an introvert (my husband says that’s the biggest understatement of my life, but you all wouldn’t agree, right? I can talk type a lot. Sometimes.) and being around crowds makes me claustrophobic. And when I say crowd, I mean three people including myself.

Usually I will just hang on my husbands arm and have him pull me through the ocean of walking blobs around me as I choke on all the people (read: like all of them) smoking, but this trip, my anniversary trip, I was all on my own. I’m not going to call out my husband here because now that it’s all over I had a fantastic time (hair cut, I’m talking about you) and well, he’s a pretty great guy so I can’t complain about anything, but this trip was actually a business trip I tagged along on because it fell on a pretty big milestone of ours. Five years, I mean, that’s a pretty big deal. So he conferenced it up during the day, while I hit the streets becoming, what I like to think of as, a true New Yorker. I mean, I had it down. I brought my walking shoes and I bobbed and weaved my way in and out of people, I ignored the stop signals in cross walks and I had my iphone ear buds in rockin’ out to my top 50 secluding myself to my own world of instagram and google maps, because heck, I had no idea how to get around. I even hailed my own cab. I’m legit now.

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It’s teetering on the edge of being chocolate yet has such little cocoa it’s as if it is clinging to its vanilla roots with every ounce of flour only to be dyed the most vibrant shade of red. I’m getting the impression whoever came up with red velvet was a very fickle person. No, but seriously, what is the point of red velvet? I just don’t understand. If it is not loved for its strong, decided flavor camp, which it has none, is it the velvety, soft texture? Surely we all know, this is not the only or best cake with such a wonderful plush interior. If that’s not it, perhaps its loyal following is due simply to its color, something you definitely will not hear me complain about — but does that really have anything to do with the cake at all? Why not just dye a really good chocolate cake red, or your favorite orange cake (blood orange anyone?) red.

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I’m starting with chocolate pudding — a little obsession of my husbands. He’s a big lover of the snack packs and in my somewhat pretentious disdain for the one-noted goop filled cartons I let him grab them without the faintest thought of making it for him myself. I’m not a big chocolate lover to begin with (surely I must be damaged) and pudding, frankly, is just not that wow-ing to make me change my mind on chocolate or the fact that pudding is boring. It reminds me of school lunches and a childhood bereft of excellent chocolate goods, my own damaged fault I’m sure. But here I am, trying to be a thoughtful un-standard-male-like girl and wife and it struck me that I could make him something so much greater and deeper and intense than the instant packages we very rarely bring home.

read the rest of creamy chocolate pudding on theredspoonblog.com

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So this year I took a cue from my husband and stopped being so, err male, and decided to treat him to a Super Bowl party, that, umm, is not being hosted by yours truly. I guess what I mean to say is, I will send him off to a party with a humble offering of man food (read: meatball subs scaled to single servings (read: meat (read: manly chest pound and war cry))) while I stay home and wait out the Idon’tknowhowlongafootballgameis time by doing something more my speed: making a snack for our get away travels. Or organizing my closet while imagining it contains walk-in space. Or picking up the 391 toys strewn across the house. Or, just maybe, I will sneak over to the game and steal a few snacks sliders. That’s how I roll.

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If you keep up with any of the recipes on these pages, then you’ll know brown butter is placed on a very high pedestal in my kitchen life. In fact, I’d say it is one of the first cooking techniques, and arguably one of the easiest, every cook and baker alike should know. There are a variety of ways to go about browning butter (i.e. butter pieces vs. sticks of butter, skillet vs. sauce pan, swirling vs. whisking) and really any of them will get your butter a deep, nutty, golden amber brown eliminating the guess work behind which method to approach. I’ve browned butter every which way, but this way, the way below, is my favorite.

Start by cutting your butter roughly into tablespoon sized amounts (I find it melts more quickly and more evenly than leaving the sticks whole, though both ways work just fine), place the pieces in a skillet (it has more surface area than a saucepan, thus equaling more browned bits) and place the skillet over medium heat. There is no need to use a non-stick skillet. Actually, if you have a stick-skillet or a pot without a dark coating it will be easier to see when your butter browns which is important since there is such a short amount of time between brown butter and burnt butter.

Melt the butter and let it cook. There will be a lot of gurgling and popping, sputtering and crackling and foaming too. This is all ok. In fact it’s good. The butter is getting ready to do its brown thing.

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Season: Pomegranates peak from September to January.

Purchase: Pomegranates that feel heavy for their size and are hard when pressed.

Avoid: Pomegranates that are cracked, bruised or have soft spots.

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I’m just gonna say it, pomegranates are weird. They’re odd looking, have seeds instead of juicy flesh and most of them look like they’ve been dropped one too many times. That being said, they are delicious. Their little ruby red seeds burst in your mouth with a punch of flavor, and luckily are easy to crack into despite their daunting appearance.

To get started find the bottom of the pomegranate. It will be the side with the knobby protrusion. Using a chef’s knife slice off just the very tip of the pomegranate being careful to not cut into the seeds.

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Perhaps it’s a bit silly, then again I was six and this would send me into a fit of giggles, but it is an unwavering law in  my family, passed down from generation to generation, that applesauce is naked until dressed in cinnamon. Restaurants, grocery stores, they never get it right. My great grandmother always toted around a small canister of cinnamon wedged in her purse that unfortunately needed to be pulled out to save the despairingly speckle-sparse white pureed applesauce served to us during lunches out. If my family is snobby about anything it’s the fact that applesauce is not applesauce until there is a healthy, thick cinnamon jacket. Cinnamon was made for applesauce. Applesauce was made for cinnamon. It’s simple. Those are the facts.

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After our gleeful spinach introduction followed by pea introduction I decided green beans would be next. Green beans were perhaps the one green vegetable I knew would be hastily eaten without a single complaint, but the thought of mushy green beans sounded, in a word, bleh. I’m finding baby is not at all a texture eater (like his mama). Or at least, he is not yet. He puts just about everything in his mouth (shoe soles watch out, you’re the current favorite) and though green beans cooked until slush sounds unappetizing to me, he, I’m sure would have no problem with it.

But here’s the thing. I have a problem (in the words of my husband) to make sure that he likes, loves and enjoys every single food I offer up to his tummy god. It’s not a ego thing, where I need him to like my food. Just a thing of, I don’t want him to be a picky eater. I don’t want him to be like me (and some of my friends) who only eat three vegetables: potatoes, pasta and cheese. I don’t want to have “eat your vegetables or else” ultimatums. My childhood had enough for the next three generation’s lifetimes.

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After our brief introduction to orange vegetables, we moved right along into green vegetables. This phase was the one I was most anxious about. I haven’t met too many kids, let alone babies, who like and tolerate green food things. It is usually spit back out, along with gagging attempts followed with absolute refusal to open the intake valve. Plus, as most of you know, I’m twenty three and still green averse, so what hope really did my kid have? That’s why I wanted to make it interesting, or at least attempt to slightly mask the flavors. We attempted spinach first and I threw in some caramelized leeks. I know, we kind of jumped ship and went straight to a stage two food, but I was sure I’d be trying to coax determined tight lips open.

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Unfortunately all of my frozen baby food was ruined in the derecho last weekend and I have yet to make up some yummy compotes. We’ve been surviving off of organic gerber food, which I’m finding the baby does not enjoy with any kind of enthusiasm. After all, none of it tastes like jam, like this does, and I would be completely put out if I was fed some conglomeration of whole wheat pasta and harvest vegetables instead of sweet summer berry medleys too. Once we get back from the beach I will be whipping up a ton of new sauces and purees — I’m beginning to dread the thought because the backlog I still have to share with you isn’t even close to being done. I guess to take the pressure off, I will just share the recipes. You wouldn’t be too terribly upset, would you? The only thing missing will be me, rambling up a storm, and really, it won’t be missed, let’s not kid ourselves. So for now, I give you the best smelling and wonderfully jammy strawberry rhubarb sauce. It’s all the rage around these gums and company.

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In my long list of food combinations I wanted to feed my kid (the very first thing I made after seeing the second line show up on the knocked up stick, ya know, priorities), strawberry rhubarb was always at the top. Luckily for us, he began food right as it was coming in season and I made some, froze it and saved it until we were ready to start introducing the second stage of goo. Cherries, didn’t make the cut. They’re expensive, a lot of work for such little reward, and honestly there are so many better fruits out there. Well, needless to say, me and what my husband refers to as my “besetting sin” (am I the only one who gets suddenly greedy after seeing bright, fresh, wonderful smelling produce at the farmer’s market and get, errr, carried away and bring home far more than any two normal people could possibly eat?) got the better of me and I slew home a bundle of cherries and didn’t use nearly as many as I thought I would need.

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Season: Corn peaks from May to September.

Purchase: Cobs that look and feel moist and plump and are firm to the touch with bright green husks and golden- brown tassels. The kernels should be tight, fat and shiny. The silk of the corn should be slightly sticky and look glossy, stiff and moist.

Avoid: Dried or dark colored silk or discolored husks.

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I’ve completely thrown seasonal cooking to the wind when it comes to baby food. To be honest, it was an inner struggle for weeks leading up to my decision. We’re all about seasonal food – simply put, it tastes far superior to hot house multi-continent shipped produce. That being said, I also wanted to give Henry a wider variety of foods, and hopefully instill in him a like, enjoyment and glee for all food. Though summer time seems to contain the most abundant in-season produce selection there was something in me that really wanted him to try everything. I didn’t want to create a picky kid. I am picky enough for this entire household. He shall not steal my crown.

Of course the toddler years are right ahead of us and I hear these walking tornadoes can be absolutely in love with peas and carrots at lunch and thumb their noses at them during dinner. It scares me. I’m not the kind of mom who will spend an hour fixing dinner, place it in front of my kid, he refuses to eat, and then spend another hour fixing something else to entice his enormous appetite. It’s just not going to happen. I really dislike doing dishes.

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Season: Spinach is available year round in supermarkets, though best during winter and spring months.

Varieties: There are two main varieties: curly (savoy spinach) and flat-leaf. Flat-leaf spinach can be broad and round, or pointed; the young leaves (baby spinach) are tender and delicate.

Purchase: If buying in bunches, look for bright green, unwilted, crisp leaves with undamaged stems. If buying pre-packaged, look for small, dry leaves that look crisp and bright green.

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Season: Though found year-round in supermarkets, raspberries peak late spring through summer.

Varieties: Besides red raspberries there are black raspberries and yellow raspberries, their flavor being similar to regular red raspberries.

Purchase: Choose deeply-colored raspberries with hollow centers that are plump, firm and fragrant. read the rest of raspberries on theredspoonblog.com

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Season: Spring onions peak from May to June.

Purchase: Look for bright, fresh greens that extend from the root end. Roots should be crisp and firm.

Avoid: Avoid onions with wilting, discolored, slimy, or decaying tops or roots with soft spots or brown spots.

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Season: Eureka and Lisbon lemons are available year-round in supermarkets. Meyer lemons peak in winter and spring.

Varieties: The two most common lemon varieties are the Lisbon and Eureka. Both are almost identical in size and shape, being oblong, having vivid yellow skin and acidic, juicy flesh. Meyer lemons are more sweet, with a thin, yellow-orange skin, have fabulously full flavor, and yield a high amount of juice.

Purchase: Choose lemons with firm, glossy yellow, unblemished skin and feel heavy for their size. The skin should be taut and thin and should give slightly when pressed.

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Season: Artichokes peak in spring from March to May, though can usually be found year round at your local supermarket.

Purchase: Look for artichokes that are firm with tight green leaves and are heavy for their size. The best test for freshness is to rub their leaves together to check for a squeaky sound.

Avoid: Avoid artichokes with dried, split leaves, leaves that appear to be opening, or leaves with heavy browning.

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Season: Cherries, having a very short season, are available and peak between June and August.

Purchase: Buy cherries with the stalk still on and make sure they have been kept cool as their flavor deteriorates when exposed to warmth.

Avoid: Do not pick cherries that are blemished or have soft, wrinkled, spotted or burst patches. Instead choose ones that are firm, shiny and large with green stems.

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If you are like me, then you tend to bring home baskets full of produce when the two of you can only eat an armful at most. But it’s so pretty! It’s red and shiny! This entire bushel is flawless, we must buy! It smells so good, I can’t leave without 3 pounds! Perhaps you have said this too? Convincing yourself your better half that the 5 different varieties of tomatoes were absolutely necessary, and that you could not survive without them. Yes, that is where I live in summer. The farmer’s market, the produce section at Whole Foods, the produce stands on the side of rural roads. Just smelling the sweet earthiness of produce sends me into a tizzy sometimes, and well, when your budget is suddenly threatened because, hey, I decided we needed $50 worth of cherries today means you may find yourself on the other end of a harsh look, or disapproving head shake from the man taking care of the bills.

Even with the constant whining explanations of we only get this for 3 months, and then nothing! Just boring squash and collards and dried out peppers until next summer, we must eat now! doesn’t mean he will actually then applaud you for bringing home the overwhelming bounty you seem to haul in every week. So, in order to make it more cost effective, to make the summer’s best stay with us until next summer, and so we don’t get produce lust every June because we have been without it for far too long, we freeze. We freeze our produce booty and eat it all year long until next summer, when we can stock up a little more, without over killing it because hey, I’ve had great blackberries during February so it’s not as much of a shock when I see their delicious black beaded balls sitting in front of me in June.

read the rest of how to freeze summer produce on theredspoonblog.com

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Season: Radishes are available year round, but peak from April to July.

Purchase: Choose radishes with bright green fresh looking tops, which indicate freshness.

Avoid: Growth cracks, browning or wrinkling. The skins should be firm and smooth.

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Season: Rhubarb peaks between April and June.

Varieties: Stalks can range in color from pink and red to green; color is not an indicator of maturity although generally the red stalks are sweeter.

Purchase: Rhubarb dries out quickly and becomes flaccid, so look for thin stalks that are firm and upright.

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Dutch processed cocoa is mild in flavor and reddish-brown in color. It is treated with an alkali to neutralizes it’s acidity and will not react with baking soda. Instead it must be used in recipes calling for baking powder, unless there are other acidic ingredients (like buttermilk) being used.

For more information, David Lebovitz has comprised a FAQ about natural and dutch process cocoa powders. You can find the answers to questions like “Can I use cocoa powders interchangeably in recipes?” or “What is the best brand of cocoa powder?” over here.

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Because I like doing this the hard way, because I am not satisfied with the canned pureed pumpkins, and because I’m me, I decided to make pumpkin puree. It was a long, arduous journey going from small cutesy pumpkin to pureed mash, my hands screaming in agony from chopping and slicing virtually impenetrable walls of pumpkin. The thought of how long the canned variety sits on the super market’s shelf every year waiting for Thanksgiving season to bring in hoards of grabby pumpkin mongers to descend upon it’s easy, simple, uncomplicated addition to recipes was alarming. Can you really justify the purchase of years old pumpkin puree when you can bring home bag-fulls of pumpkins for next to nothing? One batch of fresh puree was all it took to help me realize, those cans are a life-saver. It took an incredible amount of strength and time to make this, but for those like me here are the steps to your own battle with the gourd:

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Forgot to stick your butter on the counter to soften? Perhaps you just don’t feel like waiting before you start your cookies – I mean, it is that time after all, I need my warm, gooey triple chocolate cookies. When running short on time (or patience) don’t be tempted to throw your butter in the microwave to get a quick 30-second softening session. The heat from the microwave will cause the butter to heat unevenly and can tend to over-soften or even melt the butter in places. Instead, throw your butter into a ziplock bag and submerge it in a bowl of cold tap water. (Not ice water, which will prevent softening, yet not lukewarm or hot water which will have the same effect as the microwave.) It will take about 5 – 10 minutes for your butter to become soft and pliable and ready for use.

You can also use this technique on other cold ingredients that need to be brought to room temperature such as cream cheese.

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There are about as many techniques for hard-boiling eggs as there are recipes for them. I use the American’s Test Kitchen’s fool-proof method which I have found to be, indeed, fool-proof. The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled as long as you use a pot large enough to hold the eggs in a single layer, covered by an inch of water.

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Artichokes can be scary. But that’s why I’m here, to take the scary out of scary. Er, never mind. Really, I needed some artichokes and I couldn’t justify buying canned artichoke hearts when fresh ones are bursting through the produce section. So I gulped, took a big breath, squeezed my eyes shut and reluctantly bought a few artichokes. And it’s true, there is a lot of waste when it comes to fresh artichokes, and a lot of prep work. We just have to accept it and move on, because fresh food is always better than canned or frozen food.

There are a few things you should know before getting into the dirty business of de-choking and artichoke. These babies turn brown faster than you can blink. If you are needing artichokes for a salad or something where their green color is pivotal to your presentation, then you will want to have some lemons on hand. Just like when preparing apples and avocados, rub the juice from a lemon wedge over your artichoke as you work. You can also keep the parts of the artichoke you are not preparing submerged in lemon water to prevent the browning process.

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Now if parchment paper is so great why keep wax paper around? Wax paper is great for use in the microwave. Since microwaves are not strong enough to heat the paper to the point of smoking and melting it can be used to prevent spills and splatters. This makes it more functional than plastic wrap which can melt from the heat and, of course, it is safer than aluminum foil which should never be used in a microwave.

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A few months ago my mom gave me her treasured cast iron skillet — not any cast iron skillet, but a very special cast iron skillet. It belonged to my Great-Great Grandmother, and has been passed down mother-to-daughter for four generations, so this baby has been around for a while. When I received this piece of history, let’s just say it had seen better days. So if you have a cast iron skillet that is really old or been stuffed in the cabinet for so long that it looks like an ancient artifact, here are a few quick how-to’s to get that skillet back to its former glory.

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