little wheel cookies - extremely simple

A few months ago I made some mini cookies for a truck-themed kid's party and they were so quick and easy that I wanted to share them!

I am terribly un-talented when it comes to designing and decorating cookies (but still I try...) so my basic tenet is the simpler the better. What is simpler than a round cookie cutter, a ring of black royal icing, then a criss-cross of gray or white icing in the center??? I had some silver luster dust that we painted onto the gray spokes and voila (please note, NOT WALLA!!!!!!)!

The size was perfect for tiny hands too. I heard they were a hit. Yay!

Granola addiction

This is just the best granola I've ever tasted.

Delicious. Even more delicious when topped with unsweetened Greek yogurt and farmer's market strawberries. And of course I will need more for peach season, which is starting any... minute... now.

breakfast at the office. how good is my life??

I'm posting the recipe as written on Orangette, one of my favorite blogs (although she writes way too rarely these days - turns out having an infant really slows down your posting frequency...). I didn't have sunflower seeds on hand so I subbed some walnuts or cashews or something. The first 2 times I made it I didn't have coconut chips and I did add a handful of coconut flakes. This time I picked up coconut chips from Trader Joe's and it was heaven in a bowl. So now, for this granola alone (though I bet it would make some good coconut candy), I have created myself a nuts.com account and picked up some bulk sunflower seeds as well.

Another note: Please heed the 300F temperature. I've burnt a batch of this, and though I was able to rescue about 2/3 of it, 350F is too hot for this granola!

Olive Oil and Maple Granola

from Orangette, adapted by Molly Wizenberg from Nekisia Davis, Early Bird Foods, and Food 52

Yield: 7 cups

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds
1 cup raw hulled sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut chips
1 1/4 cup raw pecans, whole or chopped
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B
1/2 cup olive oil
Dried cherries, optional (I don't add these)

Preheat the oven to 300F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, seeds and nuts, sugar, and salt. Stir to mix. Add the maple syrup and olive oil and stir until well combined. Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven and season with more salt to taste. Cool completely on a wire rack. If you'd like, stir in some dried cherries. Store in an airtight container. Will keep at room temperature up to one month.

Taco seasoning

Tacos/nachos are just the best 'can't figure out what to do for dinner and it's getting later and later and I'm sooo hungry' meal. We virtually always have the fixins on hand (chips and cheese and salsa and whatever we have in the fridge, ranging from pickled jalapenos to caramelized onions to sour cream to homemade guacamole to roasted red peppers), and if we don't have ground beef we've got marinated chicken or steak from Trader Joe's or even, on one delightful occasion, duck confit. Usually it's ground beef, and I always keep some home-mixed taco seasoning at the ready.

Here's my favorite taco seasoning recipe. I found it in a Google search for 'best taco seasoning', of course. I cut back on the salt a bit but otherwise it was perfect. It's enough for a pound of ground beef - I quadruple the recipe and store it on the countertop.

Taco Seasoning

adapted from this recipe

1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne

Combine all the ingredients. :)

Brown a pound of ground beef, drain the fat, add 2 Tbsp of seasoning and 3/4 cup of water and simmer till the water's mostly cooked off. Then create your own taco or nacho bliss with chips or tacos and... really, I can't even pretend there's a recipe for tacos or nachos...

And yes, I do keep my spices in a variety of adorable little jars and bins. And yes, they are labeled with a label-maker on specially-ordered clear label tape. Some of the jars sit on the countertop. The others are in a spice rack built by the wonderful Mr Leaven, and they are alphabetized. It all makes me very happy.

Ultrasound cookies, take 2

I brought special ultrasound cookies to our clinic Christmas party!

TwD: Buttermilk crumb muffins

The holiday season is upon us. This means, for many folks, less time for baking, so the November Tuesdays with Dorie recipes are pretty simple. These buttermilk crumb muffins were easy to mix up and were very tasty for breakfast. Not so beautiful, perhaps, but very good. Even with cooking spray in the nonstick muffin tins, however, many of them still clung to the tin and I have about 6 muffin-tops (ok, 7, if you count the large one I got from eating stuff like this).

The light autumnal spicing of cinnamon and nutmeg were perfect for the colder days, at last (though this is Houston, so next week might be in the 90s again), and I really enjoyed the crunchy sugar-flour-shortening crumble on top. I'll be making these again soon, next time with cupcake liners.

To see others' muffins and for the recipe, check out the blog of this week's host, easier than pie.

Smoked salmon hors d'oeuvres

Farmer's market goat cheese and microgreens with home-cured salmon and a squeeze of lime on Wheat Thins. I was lazy and used store-bought Wheat thins - did make some last month but haven't repeated the fun yet.

Trying to love eggplant

I don't know if anyone is born an eggplant person. I know I wasn't. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr Leaven wasn't. It's not my first choice, but I'll enjoy an eggplant parmigiana or some baba ghanoush from time to time. Mr Leaven won't.

I've given them a few tries over the past few years of culinary experimentation, and the results have been edible if not my favorite dishes in the world. Mr Leaven begrudgingly eats as little as possible of his eggplant-based dinners, then grills him up somethin' meaty and calls it a good night.

Last year, when I acquired a lovely cookbook called Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, I was excited to try the gorgeous cover recipe (who wouldn't, after seeing this photo?). I bought a couple of eggplants and set to work on the rather simple recipe. The results were beautiful, almost as lovely as the cover photo. They were also absolutely inedible. The note I put in my cookbook says, 'I roasted at 200F for, like, 12 hours [recipe suggests 35-40 minutes] and then at 350F for another 30 minutes. And then it was blecch.' We dumped most of it into the garbage. Mr Leaven nodded sagely - this only confirmed his belief that eggplants are the Devil's spawn.

Since then, I've read reviewers of Plenty singing the glories of this recipe, enough that I tried it again this month, on a night when there was marinated steak ready as a backup. This time, I chose slender Japanese eggplant from the farmer's market, hoping the Texas-sized ones we used last time were the problem. Plus, this time I waited till pomegranates were in season - last year I had to sub blackberries. And you know what? It was delicious. I cleaned my plate. Then I attacked the almost-uneaten plate of Mr Leaven. Oh well. He enjoyed his steak.

I'm going to make eggplant puree one of Little Leaven's first meals so maybe I'll have someone to share this stuff with eventually.

Eggplant with buttermilk sauce

from Plenty

2 large and long eggplants
1/3 c olive oil
1 1/2 tsp lemon thyme leaves, plus a few whole sprigs to garnish
Maldon sea salt and black pepper
1 pomegranate
1 tsp za'atar

Sauce
9 Tbsp buttermilk
1/2 c Greek yogurt
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, plus a drizzle to finish
1 small garlic clove, crushed
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 200F. Cut the eggplants in half lengthways, cutting straight through the green stalk (the stalk is for the look; don't eat it). Use a small sharp knife to make three or four parallel incisions in the cut side of each eggplant half, without cutting through to the skin. Repeat at a 45-degree angle to get a diamond-shaped pattern.

Place the eggplant halves, cut-side up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush them with olive oil - keep on brushing until all the oil has been absorbed by the flesh. Sprinkle with the lemon thyme leaves and some salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, at which point the flesh should be soft, flavorful and nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool down completely.

While the eggplants are in the oven, cut the pomegranate into two horizontally. Hold one half over a bowl, with the cut side against your palm, and use the back of a wooden spoon or a rolling pin to gently knock on the pomegranate skin. Continue beating with increasing power until the seeds start coming out naturally and falling through your fingers into the bowl. Once all are there, sift through the seeds to remove any bits of white skin or membrane [my note: while this technique is terrific for getting out the pomegranate seeds, I do recommend clearing a wide space around your bowl - my cookbook is speckled with little magenta dots from preparing this recipe].

To make the sauce, whisk together all of the ingredients. Taste for seasoning, then keep cold until needed.

To serve, spoon plenty of buttermilk sauce over the eggplant halved without covering the stalks. Sprinkle za'atar and plenty of pomegranate seeds on top and garnish with lemon thyme. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil.

BTW - don't get me wrong, when it comes to food preferences I'm the crazy picky one. I can certainly live with an eggplant-averse partner!