I was slicing up some cucumbers this morning when my knife slipped and sunk into my middle finger right below the nail. It more surprised me than hurt, but boy did the little cut bleed like crazy! Thankfully it wasn’t so bad and I was able to continue breaking down the cukes. The spears are now soaking in the brine, you can see them in the background of this picture.

I’ll have homemade dill pickles in about a month! Totally worth a little blood loss.

Went to a BBQ at a friend’s place yesterday and that’s when it really hit me: It’s summer! I can hardly believe it’s almost July . . . no idea where this year went so far! Makes me think I better get back to cooking ASAP, before all the fresh ingredients disappear with the changing seasons . . .

I’m kind of cheating with this “daily photo” because it was taken about a month ago, but the burger at Landmarc was so good that I really wanted to write about it. If you’re a New Yorker, I’m sure you’ve had more than one “discussion” about what the best burger in NYC is. And if you’re a New Yorker like me, your discussion probably also included breaking burgers down into categories and naming your favorite for each category! In my mind, burgers are split up into “restaurant style” burgers and “regular” burgers — the main difference being the size and style of the patty. “Regular” burgers are what you get at Corner Bistro or Shake Shack, whereas “restaurant” burgers are like this one from Landmarc or my personal top-ranked “restaurant” burger, the one at the Standard Grill.

I’d heard great things about the Landmarc burger and am here to say that they’re all deserved. In fact, the whole restaurant impressed me, from the excellent Bloody Mary to the attentive service to the gorgeous modern-yet-rustic interior that features metal, wood, and glass (pretty much my favorite style of decor for a restaurant). If you’re in Tribeca and hankering for a juicy burger you can’t go wrong with Landmarc!

I don’t always buy Food & Wine magazine but every time I get a new issue I wonder just why I don’t subscribe to it! Every issue has at least one recipe I just have to try and they do a particularly good job of covering gadgets and tools-of-the-trade. This issue is no different.

Butternut Squash Wontons

• Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cabbage and Pine Nuts – I’m actually not a huge fan of raw cabbage but everything else in this salad sounds so good that I just have to try it.
• Cider Vinegar-Braised Chicken Thighs – I love cider vinegar and chicken thighs are so affordable!
• Butternut Squash and Sage Wontons – I have a package of wonton skins in the freezer that’s been begging to be used for a while . . .
• Spiced Lentils with Mushrooms and Greens
• Pappardelle with Duck Ragu
• Seared Tuna Steaks with Citrusy Soy Sauce – to make the next time I find tuna steaks on sale
• Crisp Sushi-Rice Cakes – an Asian twist on the Italian rice balls I’ve been making my whole life

Sorry for the blog silence AGAIN, folks! I took an impromptu trip to Brazil and have been down here enjoying the sun for the last few weeks. I didn’t forget about you though: I’ve been cooking! And taking pictures! But the internet connection down here is about as good as my first modem was in 1995 so there’s no way I can upload them . . . so for now just imagine the delicious cheesecake topped with curls of chocolate, ok? I promise to post the recipe and some others I’ve been working on when I return.

In the meantime, have you noticed that Pinch My Salt has been back? If you don’t read her blog, go check it out! She’s the brains behind the BBA Challenge and the reason I got so into baking bread. Her blog and photos are awesome!

I’m off to go have the last slice of cheesecake and plan my menu for the coming week . . . luckily my parents don’t mind if I take over the kitchen while I’m here . . .

Some of you wonderful readers may already know that I’m on a diet.  I started the South Beach Diet about 4 weeks ago and thus far I’ve lost about 12 pounds.  Even more amazingly, I managed to not eat a single one of these cinnamon buns.  They were delicious, according to my audience.   Sometimes I find it just more enjoyable to cook for those who will really enjoy the dish.

A few weekends ago, Tom, my roommate Drew and I went to the grocery store to pick up brunch ingredients.  I saw Drew contemplating the vacuum sealed canister of cinnamon bun dough and I just couldn’t let him pick those up.  Why have him buy those cinnamon buns when I can make them for him?  This was going to be my first attempt at cinnamon buns, so I was ready for an adventure

First, I had to find the right recipe to go with.  I ended up modifying one that I found on Epicurious.

Like most other bread recipes, this requires some yeast.  Here’s my yeast fermenting nicely.

Look how it's so creamy and bubbly!

Then I mix it with flour, vegetable oil, and salt and after kneading, I cover it in plastic and let it rise for about an hour.

Now, here’s where I start to deviate from the recipe.  Actually, at this point, I don’t even know if I really followed any recipe, but just made the filling the way I thought it ought to be made.  First, I melt butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon on the stove top.

If I wanted to be really unhealthy and kind of gross, I would take a spoon and dig in.

Okay, so here is the slightly complicated part:  the rolling.  I don’t have a massive cutting board, so what I did instead was lay out a large sheet of wax paper on my stainless steel island and placed my dough there.  I had to flatten the dough out into a nice rectangle, so I took out my handy-dandy rolling pin that has Santa Clauses on the handles.  I got it on sale at Target after Christmas for 99 cents.  What a deal!  Anyway, I think my rolled out dough turned out pretty nice.  Make sure you flour the paper well before you start rolling!

Then I spread out most of the the cinnamon sugar glaze across the dough.

Seeing this makes me think, mmmm, cinnamon pizza!  Maybe I’ll try that another time.  Anyway, I didn’t flour my wax paper enough, so when it came time to roll the thing, my dough kept sticking to the paper!  I had to use a butter knife to make sure it didn’t break.  In the end in worked out though.  I cut the roll into 8 pieces and arranged them in the baking pan.

At this point, you actually have to cover the pan and let the dough rise some more.  This whole task isn’t very difficult, it just takes a long time.  I’m sure it seemed like days to my Southern roommate Drew who was aching to put one in his mouth already.  In the time that I let the dough rise some more, I saved some of my cinnamon sugar glaze and added some chopped pecans into it.  This is going to be the topping.

Again, if I wanted to be really unhealthy and kind of gross, I would eat this with a spoon.

And finally, time to top the cinnamon rolls with this glaze and they’re ready to bake!  I think I overbaked them slightly, but I’m still happy with the result.  Despite my diet, I did have a bite and I thought they were a liiiiiiittle dry, but still delicious.  I could have made an icing to go with it, but after seeing the amount of butter and sugar that went into the buns, I decided against it.

Overall, I don’t know if these are going to make it into my regular baking repertoire.   Actually, besides the occasional cookie or pizza dough, I really don’t have a regular baking repertoire.  I’d probably make this if I were hosting a brunch, but given how incredibly unhealthy they are, cinnamon buns are definitely going into the “make on special occasions” category.

Here’s the recipe!  Modified slightly from the Bon Appetite 1999 recipe from the Pecan Street Bakery.

Cinnamon buns with pecans

• 3/4 cup of warm water
• 1/2 cup of white sugar plus 3 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 envelope of dry active yeast.
• 2 tsp of vegetable oil
• 1/2 a tsp of salt
• 1 3/4 cup of bread flour
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 tbl of cinnamon
• 1 cup of chopped pecans

Combine  warm water and 3 tbl of sugar in large bowl. Stir in the yeast until it’s bubbly and foamy.  Mix in vegetable oil and salt.  Add the flour in small increments and knead until you have an elasticky dough.  Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover it with plastic and a towel.  Let the dough rise in a warm it’s doubled in size.

After about 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 325.  heat the butter, sugars, and cinnamon on low heat in a pan.

When the dough is ready (it should take about an hour), roll it out on a flat surface that’s well-floured so it doesn’t stick.  Don’t punch the dough down, because it will need to rise more later!  When you have a nice rectangle (see the picture above), spread the cinnamon-sugar-butter mixture on the roll, saving about 1/4 of the mixture

Roll the dough length-wise like a jelly roll.  Make sure it doesn’t break.  This is why you need a well-floured surface.  Once it’s rolled up, cut it into 6-8 pieces and place in a deep pan.  If you put them on a flat baking pan, the sugar mixture will run over and make a mess in your oven.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap to let the rolls rise some more.

While that’s rising, chop the pecans.  I like to use the food processor.  After it’s chopped up, add it to the rest of the sugar mixture that still in the pan and let the pecans get nice and gooey with the sugar mixture.

After the rolls have risen for about 20-30 minutes, spoon the pecan mixture on top of each roll.   Place the pan in the oven and let them bake for 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy!

I’ve got Basil!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, kind of. At the moment I have a few baby basil sprouts, but it’s a start!

I found these adorable veggie-in-a-bag things at Crate & Barrel a few weeks ago and immediately scooped up the basil and the tomato. Even though I am the worst plant-grower in history and have left a trail of dead plants in my wake, I am so in love with the idea of growing my own herbs that I just had to give this a shot. And how easy is this version of an herb garden!?!? Cut open the bag, put the included seeds in the included dirt, water, and wait! Even I was able to do it!

I wonder how much longer it’ll be until I can actually eat any of the fruits of my “labor” . . .

Oh, and I’ll have you know that I did this BEFORE this article about the White House veggie garden came out in the NY Times. I’m not always 3-months behind a trend! Really!

Every April Fool’s I always think to myself, “this is the year I’m going to come up with the perfect prank, the perfect blend of funny/mean” . . . and every year I can’t come up with anything that’s funny without being too cruel, so I always end up doing nothing and hoping to come up with the PERFECT thing by the time next April rolls around.

This year I went through the same thing again, but then I read about April Food Day on Kitchenography and it hit me: THIS is the perfect way to mark the day, not with some silly prank I might immediately regret!

It’s an incredibly simple idea with a huge potential impact. Those of us who’re doing OK, even in this economy, could easily contribute a little bit to help everyone else get through this downturn.

I’ve already donated. Won’t you donate, too?

I’m stealing a minute between tasks at work to post a quick update . . .

My birthday presents arrived!

That’s a fine start to any cookbook collection, wouldn’t you say? I’ve actually already started dabbling in some of the recipes, and started making notes and plans for the ones I want to try in the future. Aparently I now read cookbooks instead of knitting books for entertainment . . . I guess it was bound to happen, given what I’ve been spending the majority of my free time doing lately!

This is the Whole Grain Ciabatta recipe from King Arthur’s Flour (surprised? hope not!). It did puff nearly as much as their photo shows, but it still came out pretty good. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to get the seeds to mix in evenly though, they seemed to be comped into certain parts of the bread, leaving other parts completely bare of seeds . . . which, incidentally, worked out quite well for us because Adam doesn’t really like seeds in his bread.

I’ve noticed my bread lately hasn’t been rising that much, and I’m trying to work backwards to figure out why. First I thought the oven temperature wasn’t right, but the thermometer has proven otherwise. Now I’m wondering if my kneading is to blame — am I doing it too much, too little? The no-knead breads I made for Thanksgiving turned out the same as always, so that leads me to believe that it really is the kneading. Anyone got any other ideas? I know my yeast is good because the bread rises during the two rises before baking, the problem is with “oven spring” technically . . . thanks in advance for any tips you might have to share!