The BEST buttercream

I love my buttercream recipe. This isn't the "fancy" buttery one (aka Swiss meringue or Italian meringue), but the one that reminds me more like the yummy grocery store-type frosting, but with better ingredients. Fortunately my good friend Sheri happens to agree with me. Check out her recent post for details (ps - go overboard on the vanilla, more vanilla can only make things taste that much better). Thanks for the love, Sheri!

(and while you're at it, spend some time checking out her blog - everything this woman does looks and tastes amazing - I'm perpetually in awe)

Ok, so I didn't go to the Cookbook Conference.... aka Ricotta Meatballs

Nemo happened - is that what the storm was called? School was cancelled on the first day of the conference and it all went downhill from there. But luckily I was able to give my free ticket to another friend who did get to go, so at least someone was able to take advantage of my freebie.

But that's not why I'm writing - I came to post a link to a recipe which is the first of its kind in my house - a recipe that was eaten and enjoyed (ok, enjoyed is pushing it), a recipe that was consumed with little complaint by all five human members of my family. A gigantic feat.

Ricotta Meatballs, adapted from SheKnows.com

• 1 pound ground beef (use the best fatty stuff you can find - 85% is good) (you can also experiment with 1/2 beef, 1/2 turkey, pork or any combo of the three)


• 1 large egg


• 2 cups ricotta cheese (whole milk or skim)


• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (we used 1/2 Parm, 1/2 Locatelli because that's what we had around)


• Salt and pepper to taste


• 1 tablespoon flour (note: I JUST noticed that the original recipe called for this, I spaced on adding it when I made and they turned out just fine - add if you want/if you remember)
  
  
• Optional: 1 pinch of fennel seeds (rub together in your hands to break them up a bit before adding)

Mix together meat, egg, ricotta, Parmesan, one teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, fennel and flour (if using/if you remember) in a large bowl until well combined. I think this is where using your hands works best. Shape meat mixture into one-inch balls - I think this is easiest to do with a cookie or ice cream scoop - it's less messy and all the balls are the same size.

The original recipe then says to fry them in a pan with some oil until they're almost completely cooked through, then add some sauce (homemade or jarred - my favorite is Rao's, I stock up when it's on sale) and simmer until they're no longer pink in the middle, about another 30 minutes.

I decided to bake them on a cookie sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven for approx 20-30 minutes, a la my friend Jenny. It gets a little messy so best to stick them on a piece of parchment or foil. Once they're done, you can serve them as is, stick them in a little simmering sauce or put in a plate/tray in a single layer and freeze. Once they're solid, take off the tray and put in a freezer bag for later. We never got to the freezing part - all 36+ meatballs were consumed over the next couple days.

This would be a perfect place for me to post some instagram photos of the whole family enjoying (consuming) the meatballs, but I was so stunned it was happening that I completely forgot to take any. Will be making again soon and will try to remember to take some photos. I promise.

Cookie Project!

For the past month, I've been given the task of making cookies for the weekly meeting at my husband's office. It's been fun experimenting with new recipes, and getting the chance to make old favorites, like these.

Last week I made these - Brown Butter, Brown Sugar Cookies. Simple, without the addition of chips, pretzels, or any salty/sweet combo I've been playing around with lately, but just as delicious.

Brown Butter, Brown Sugar Cookies

adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

for rolling:
1/4 c. (1 3/4 oz) granulated sugar
1/4 c. (1 3/4 oz) light brown sugar

1 3/4 c. (12 1/4 oz) light brown sugar
2 c. + 2 T (10 2/3 oz) AP flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
14 T (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 or 3 large baking sheets with parchment. With your hands, mix together 1/4 c. brown and white sugar in a shallow dish or bowl.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Brown 10 T of the butter in a skillet. (This site provides a great how-to). Pour the butter into a large bowl and add the remaining 4 T of butter, stir until melted. Let sit for 15 minutes or until it comes to room temp.

Add the 1 3/4 c. brown sugar and stir until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until it just comes together (I ended up using my favorite mixing utensil, my hands, to mix everything together).

Using a cookie scoop, or tablespoons, scoop out balls of dough and rool in the sugar mixture to coat evenly. Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Baking the cookies in a preheated oven until the edges are set and are just beginning to brown, about 12 to 14 minutes. The cookies will look slightly raw between the cracks, don't worry - they'll continue cooking a bit once they're out of the oven.

Let rest on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then slide the cookies and parchment paper off the pan onto the counter. Use a spatula or offset spatula to remove.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie scoop. Eat in abundance or share with your friends - you made them, it's your choice! :)

Next up - Crisp Rice/Marshmallow cookies. They're too much!

The Kitchn is right, these really are the best sugar cutout cookies ever!

The name of The Kitchn's blog post says it all.  These cookies are delicious and better yet, they completely hold their shape after they're baked, so the gingerbread people you cut out don't end up looking like piles of mush after baking. The combo of lemon zest, almond and vanilla extracts is perfect - thought it would be too much, but it blends together really nicely.  I made one change - I replaced about 1/2 the white flour with white whole wheat flour. Not necessary at all, but it made me feel like they were healthier and therefor I could eat more:)

I've recommended other sugar cookie/cutout recipes in the past, but this is IT!  Throw away all of your other recipes and use this one. You won't be sorry. 

What to do with loads of zucchini???

This weekend we were gifted a bunch of giant zucchini, almost 15 pounds in total. This was three of the six we received - I'm slowly making my way through them.

I love zucchini bread, so went to my new favorite baking cookbook, The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book - I picked up a galley of it at a book convention a couple of years ago. I love ATK recipes because they do all the trial-and-error work for you, and each recipe includes weight measurements in addition to the standard volume measurements. Sometimes I think the steps the take to make the "perfect" brownie, cookie or bread are a little over the top, but for the most part, it's been the first place I go to to get ideas.

Here's the recipe, with my additions/changes/notes in bold.

Zucchini Bread (from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book)

makes 1 8-inch loaf (I doubled recipe and used a bundt pan)
(Small zucchini have smaller, drier seeds than large zucchini and are preferred in this recipe. If you are using a large zucchini, cut each zucchini in half length-wise and use a spoon to scrape out and discard the seeds before shredding.) In my opinion, it's not worth using a lot pretty little small zucchini to make bread (great ideas below for using small/pretty zucchini). The whole purpose of making zucchini bread, IMHO, is to use up lots of big, overgrown, otherwise mealy zucchini! So yes, definitely slice in 1/2 in scrape out the seeds, and weigh what you have after doing it. My 4lb friend was 2lbs after I did that.

2 small zucchini (1 pound), ends trimmed
2 cups (10 oz.) all-purpose flour (I used 5 oz. ap flour, 5 oz. white whole wheat flour)
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground allspice
1/2 t. salt (I use iodized table salt for baking, not kosher)
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) white sugar
6 T. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/4 c. whole or low-fat plain yogurt
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup (2 oz.) toasted pecans or walnuts (I skipped these)

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees (I use a convection oven set to 325). Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (I doubled the recipe and used a well buttered and floured bundt pan). Shred the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater (I used the shredder attachment on my food processor). Squeeze the shredded zucchini between several layers of paper towels to absorb excess moisture (this seemed like a giant mess to me, and had better luck squeezing out the zucchini liquid using a large clean dish towel).

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt and lemon juice together until smooth. Gently fold in the zucchini. Add the egg/zucchini mixture to the flour with a rubber spatula until just combined, don't overmix. Fold in the nuts.

3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 1 hour, rotating the pan halfway through baking. (This is where I get into trouble giving recipes to friends. I don't time anything, ever. It's done when it looks done. I know my bundt pan was in for over an hour, and the top didn't jiggle when I touched it. A cake tester also came out clean, and the cake was very slightly starting to come away from the sides of the pan - that's when I knew it was done).

4. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool for 1 hour before serving. (I know you're supposed to wait for it to cool, but we couldn't help it, and dug into the cake as soon as we could handle it).

I highly recommend this recipe - I think it has a yummier texture compared to a bread made with oil. It's very sweet, so you could probably cut back a bit on the sugar as well. Enjoy!

I also asked my Facebook friends for suggestions and got a lot of great responses. Here's a sampling:

from Gretel, zucchini fritters:
"You could make fritters. Grate zucchini with cheese grater, sprinkle with salt, let sit 10 minutes, squeeze out excess liquid, mix with minced onion, Ginger and cilantro or other good stuff. Add some arrowroot or flour. Then pan fry spoonfulls. Good with a spicy tomato-based sauce."

from Erica, fresh zucchini salad:
"last night we had a really delicious zucchini salad (friends also have an abundance in their garden). slice raw zucchini really thin, grate pecorino, add salt, pepper and a bit of chili powder and then dress with fresh lemon juice and olive oil. it was soooo good. lots of cheese helps."
(this would be amazing with lots of pretty small-ish zucchini, can't wait to try it)

from Dana, zucchini muffins:
"Mix with wooden spoon: 6 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 T. cinnamon, 3 tsp.baking powder, 2 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. salt. Make well. Add: 4 eggs, 1 cup oil, 1 tsp. vanilla, 20 oz can crushed pineapple (not drained), 4 cups shredded/drained/skin-on zucchini, 2 cups raisins, 1 cup chopped nuts (optional). Stir well. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. Yield: 4-6 dozen. Muffins freeze well. "

from Gabrielle, simply grilled zucchini:
"It's really good grilled - just salt, pepper and olive oil."

from Chris, Bread and Bake:
"Cut the zucchini into 1/2 inch round pieces. Beat an egg. Get 2 cups of Italian bread crumbs, one cup of flour. Salt and pepper. One cup of Parmesan cheese. Do not use that Kraft grated topping crap. Get a nice piece of Parmigiana and grate it. Grate the cheese, mix it with the 2 cups of bread crumbs, add salt and pepper to the mix. This mixture should be in one bowl. Put the flour in another. The beaten egg in a third. Take the piece of zucchini, flour it, egg it, bread it. stick it in the oven-- 350 until golden brown. --bingo."

from Amy, delicious zucchini-ness:
"diced tomatoes, diced zucchini, corn off the cob, all sauteed with onions in olive oil and then at the end throw a handful of breadcrumbs and a handful of parm and let the bottom crust up. delish with grilled steak or tossed with pasta. (be sure to add the fresh herbs of your choice.)"

Any other ideas? Let me know!

Update: I promised myself I'd stop posting about zucchini on my facebook page, so I'll post here instead!

I just made a delicious and easy zucchini soup. I made it up as I went along so all these measurements are approximate.

1 T. olive oil
1/2 T. unsalted butter
1/2 medium white onion
1 clove minced garlic (I used 1 cube frozen minced garlic)
1 1/2 lbs. zucchini (scrape out the seeds first if it's a big one), slice in 1/4 inch pieces, quartering if necessary, don't peel it
1/2 medium white potato (peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1 c. chicken stock
3-4 sprigs flat parsley
salt & pepper

Using a 3 to 5 quart sauce pan, melt butter in oil over medium heat, saute onions until translucent, don't brown them. Add garlic, stir for another minute and then add potatoes, zucchini and chicken stock (stock should keep veggies from sticking to the bottom, but shouldn't cover them completely). Bring to a low boil, cover and then simmer on low heat until veggies are soft, about 25 minutes.

Give the soup a couple of minutes to cool, toss in the parsley, then transfer to a blender to puree. Better yet, use a stick blender if you have one. This one is great! Season with salt and pepper - totally deliciousness. Tastes like you added a cup of heavy cream. Enjoy!