Lemonade for Grown-Ups

As many of you know, I'm nearing a landmark birthday (16! how did you know?!) While I don't necessarily feel older, I have definitely made the switch from quantity to quality when it comes to drinks. My neighborhood has many fancysmancy bars and I've been making the rounds this summer sampling different drinks, and trying to make my own version at home...

Whiskey Lemonade

Bourbon! I'm drinking Knob Creek these days
Lemonade (go for the regular, or made it fancy with flavors like peach or mango!)
A handful of blackberries
A splash of seltzer

Mix, stir, enjoy!

Summer Panzanella

Panzanella is Italian bread salad. It’s super easy to make, infinitely adaptable, and downright delicious. Usually it’s made with slightly stale bread, but you can also use crusty bread. I actually made it in my office (check the awesome low watt institutional lighting!) with ingredients from the farmer’s market. 

Here's what's in mine:

Ciabatta roll

1 medium tomato

2 peaches

5ish basil leaves

a handful of arugula (not always in panzanella, but I wanted a more salad-y experience)

oil and vinegar, or your favorite dressing

salt and pepper.

Rip the bread and dice the tomatoes and peaches into bite size pieces. Chop and add the basil leaves. Mix together with the rest of the ingredients and serve. Note: Don’t be afraid to salt those tomatoes; salt will bring out the natural sweetness of the delicious summer tomatoes!

Here’s the other thing that’s cool: I spent less than $5 on the major ingredients! I’m always looking for cheap, easy, and healthy lunches, so I challenged myself to try to spend less than $5. Ciabatta with $1, the tomato was $1.35 (I sprung for heirloom), 2 peaches were $.45, I only spent a quarter on basil, and $.95 on arugula. Total = $4! (Tim, check my math.)

Goat Cheese Soufflé

I am not a great cook. I don’t have the intuition for what a dish needs to make it better (my solution is always chipotle sauce or truffle oil, both picked up from L). But I can follow instructions like nobody’s business, and I have a few impressive dishes in my arsenal, like this goat cheese soufflé. It combines several of my favorite things: goat cheese, ramekins, and yelling at my friends to eat their food at a specific moment (you wouldn’t want the soufflé to fall before you get credit for it!). The problem is that I can never keep my mouth shut and let people assume I cook like this all the time. I always let the cat out of the bag that I ate frozen peas the night before. (Actually, much like I’m doing with this post.)

Makes 4 servings with 2 ramekins per person

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

4 eggs

4 oz soft goat cheese (You can also use some Gruyere and/or Parmesan cheese, just keep the total quantity to 4 oz)

Finely grated Parmesan cheese

Fresh thyme

Cayenne

Salt

Black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit.

Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.

Stir in 3 tablespoons flour and cook for 2 minutes until it starts to thicken – keep stirring and don’t let it burn.

Add a couple tablespoons of milk, whisk until it bubbles and thickens, then repeat until you’ve added 1 cup of milk total. It should get pretty thick each time, especially in the beginning it’s nearly paste. Make sure it’s not sticking to the bottom and burning.

Add salt, fresh ground black pepper, the leaves of 1 sprig of fresh thyme, and a pinch of cayenne (or whatever your favorite spice is).

Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Then take it off the heat and allow it to cool slightly.

Separately from the béchamel sauce you’ve just made, split 4 eggs into whites and yolks. Keep the whites aside (you’ll need them later) and add the yolks to the béchamel.

Add 4 oz soft goat cheese, and a little more salt.

Butter 8 ramekins and sprinkle finely grated Parmesan cheese into them, so the cheese coats the inside of the ramekins.

Whip the egg whites into moist firm peaks. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the soufflé base, then gently fold the rest of the egg whites in with a rubber spatula. Be super gentle – you don’t want to deflate the whites.

Pour the soufflé mixture into your prepared ramekins and bake for 10 minutes until they’ve risen and the tops are golden.

Make all of your guests come into the kitchen and admire your soufflés when you take them out of the oven, because they’re pretty much guaranteed to fall immediately. Don’t worry, though, they still taste great after they’ve fallen.

Adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. Everyone knows the best part about food blogs is the photos, but I’ve never taken pictures of this recipe because the timing is too precarious. Sorry!

Red Skinned Potato Hash

This is my first recipe, because it's the one thing I always have at least once a week, usually for sunday brunch, but often as breakfast for dinner. Who doesn't love that?! The key is keeping your spatula away from the potatoes so they get nice and crispy. I tend to distract myself with other things, i.e. dishes, eggs, reality television...

Ingredients
1 large red potato or 2 smaller ones per person (usually a little less than a pound)
1 shallot per person
a couple tablespoons of olive oil
smoked paprika (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Wash and dry potatoes. I leave the skin on, but you can peel them if you'd like. Cut the potato into bite size cubed pieces. Chop the shallot.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, until liquified but not smoking. Add the potatoes in one layer on the pan. Be careful! And don't worry if it's not perfect, they'll brown eventually. Leave them alone for about 7 minutes until the first side browns. Flip, and add shallots, turning the heat down to medium. Check after another 5 minutes and flip again until brown. After about 15 minutes total cooking time, potatos should be almost done, season to taste.

And enjoy! Good with runny yolk eggs, or just on its own.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Whisk Chronicles, a community cooking blog! This is a place to share recipes, tips, menus, and experiments in the kitchen. Whether you consider yourself a wok master, or you're just getting started understanding mis en place, we can all learn something from each other's cooking adventures, no matter outcome.  I'm also open to sharing food related articles and music that gets you moving in the kitchen.

A few notes/ground rules:
- To have access to the blog, please posts at least two recipes a month. These can be in the same posts or separate posts. For example, share your pasta sauce recipe and garlic bread. Two posts is just the minimum, post as often as you would like!

- All contributors must go through me for access. This is to protect our privacy. If you have been raving about Whisk Chronicles and you know some one who wants to join, let me know!

- Post pictures! Everyone likes them. If you need help getting the posts to look right let me know. I have my html skillz (and Will) to help us out.

- Have fun! Seriously.

Looking forward to many cooking adventures!

Ardently Yours, Chloe