…Posts Tagged ‘Smitten Kitchen’…

Spinach and Chickpea Crostini

Okay, I think this is the last of my chickpea recipes for a while so hold tight. (I’m sick of them. Bleh) However, I would like to say, that I am making a real dent in eating things in my pantry Double woot!

We had a potluck at work so I searched the internets for a simple, healthy, vegetarian, and CHEAP dish that wouldn’t taste simple, healthy, vegetarian, and cheap Enter: Smitten Kitchen. I swear, I can never go wrong with Deb’s recipes.

I used her spinach and chickpeas recipe thinking it would be easy since they are basic ingredients, but finding paprika ended up being quite a challenge. I finally found it at a tea and spice store on the Upper West Side.

I made some modifications, so here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bag of spinach (baby spinach works, too)
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 baguette, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put sliced baguette on baking pan and brush with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Place a large saucepan over medium heat and half the olive oil. When it is hot, add garlic and cook until nutty brown. Then add the spinach with a pinch of salt (in batches, if necessary) and stir well. Remove when the leaves are just tender, drain in a colander and set aside. A lot of moisture may come out so you can just throw that away.

Add other half of the olive oil to the pan, heating over medium heat, and add the chickpeas and tomato sauce. Throw in the cumin, red pepper flakes, and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

If the consistency is a little thick, add some water. Add the spinach and cook until it is hot. Check for seasoning and serve with paprika on top, or on crostini.

Dunzo!

This is a great appetizer but can also be made as a side to a protein dish.

Buckeyes

I’ve been thinking about Buckeyes ever since I went to Florida a couple months ago (I actually first had it in Ohio where the treat originated). The ones I had in Florida were vegan and amazingly delicious and light, so I wasn’t prepared to make them exactly the same but I did find a Smitten Kitchen recipe for it.

It includes cream cheese and while it adds an extra dimension of tang, I thought it kind of threw the Buckeye off a little. I don’t think I would add it the next time I make it but I wonder how that would affect the texture of it. I also did not temper the chocolate, which I regretted because otherwise it’s just a thin little coat of chocolate.

I did add salt though, which was definitely a necessary addition. They were delicious and decadent and it’s taken everything in me not to eat more than 1 in a sitting.

I followed the recipe so I won’t repost it here.

I have to say, this recipe was actually really easy to make. The most time-consuming part is rolling the dough into balls.

I got tired of making it look like buckeyes (which isn’t an eye of a buck, as I had thought) so I ended up just coating the whole thing in chocolate – making it more of a bon bon than truffle People who aren’t from the midwest don’t really care if it looks like a buckeye or not, I imagine.

Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

Meanwhile, I’m going to try to make a lighter version of it – maybe I’ll even vegan-ize it

Heart Attack Cake

After my slightly disastrous cake-making attempt a few months ago, I decided to give it another go, but using a much simpler recipe. I searched online to find recipes that have pretty basic ingredients and landed at one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Her double chocolate layer cake looked delicious but I had been wanting to try Eat, Live, Run‘s Italian Brown Sugar Buttercream frosting so I made that to go with it.

I baked this for Adam’s birthday and lovingly called it “Heart Attack Cake” because of the three sticks of butter in the frosting. But trust me, it’s worth it.

I won’t repost the recipes here since I didn’t alter it in any way, but I will say, I only used 2 1/4 cups of sugar for the chocolate cake. Here are some pictures to salivate over…

Make sure to use the whisk attachment when making the frosting. When I bake, I use the paddle to cream the butter so I mistakenly used that to make the frosting but after it didn’t come together for over 5 minutes, I figured out that I needed to whisk it instead.

I actually made the cake and frosting a few days before serving so I wrapped the cake up in three layers of Saran Wrap and put the frosting in a plastic Tupperware. When you’re ready to serve, just defrost the cake overnight in the fridge and pop the frosting in the microwave for about 30 seconds or less. It’s easily spreadable when it’s a bit softer.

I can’t tell you how delicious and EASY it was to make this! This recipe is definitely a winner and the cake and frosting went beautifully together. I got a thumbs up from my Dad, who is VERY picky about his cakes. He said, “Even I think it’s good, so it must be good.”

We also had a typical exchange the other day, I thought I’d share:

Me: Oh! You hung up the picture I drew in Middle School!

Dad: Yeah, it’s very good.

Me: It’s upside down.

Dad: Are you sure? I don’t think so…

Me: Yeah, it’s Marvin the Martian and it’s upside down.

Dad: squints at picture …oh.

More cake pictures!!!

This is a really good first-time cake recipe so if you have a special occasion, give it a try! Next time, I’m going to try to decorate it all nicely

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