What goes well with split pea soup?

When my SO and I moved into our apartment in August, along with a beautiful view, pool table in the lobby, and gorgeous rooftop deck, we also gained two fabulous neighbors - Kadi and Ryan.

Over the past few months, we've developed a kind of neighborly relationship that quite frequently revolves around food.  

Kadi loves to bake (especially when she is stressed) and I love to cook.

Ryan and my SO love to eat.

Neighbor match made in heaven!!

One fine snowy day this week, the four of us found ourselves ensconced in our respective apartments holing up from the cold.  They had ingredients for split pea soup and were willing to share, but I wanted to contribute to the meal as well.

After polling the gentlemen on what they thought would go well with the soup, we agreed upon biscuits. 

Unfortunately, when I first typed biscuits into the search bar, the results were overwhelmingly recipes for buttermilk biscuits.  

Buttermilk in this stomach?  No way!  

Finally, I found a very basic recipe on The Non-Dairy Queen and with a few minor modifications created a delicious accompaniment for the split pea soup.

Buttery Biscuits

Approximate servings: 12

Equipment:

Pastry blender or mixer (unless you're super strong and can blend cold butter with flour by hand)

Bowl

Silpat or other floured flat surface to roll out dough

Rolling pin (I didn't have one and patted the dough flat, but it would have been handy!)

2 - 3 inch pastry cutter (I used the rim of a wine glass)

Cooking spray

Baking sheet

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring the Silpat

1 Tb. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

2/3 cup rice milk or soy milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and spray baking sheet with cooking spray.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or mix on low-medium speed until the dough is crumbly. Add milk and blend until combined and dough forms into a soft ball.  

Place the dough on the floured Silpat and roll out with a rolling pin or pat down by hand until dough is approximately 3/4 inch thick.  Cut out circles using the pastry cutter and place on the greased baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they are lightly brown on top.

Serve warm with butter!

Possibly suggestions to tweak this recipe:

- None!!  But I would suggest using leftover biscuits by toasting them and serving them with jam and butter for breakfast.

My breakfast :)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Now, my dad's birthday is actually Nov. 5th... So you may be wondering why I'm posting 20 days late.  Here's the deal:  I have a few dishes I want to put up on here, but that were actually made a few weeks ago.  I promise I'll catch up to my day to day cooking soon.

Back to my story...

It's dad's birthday.  School is closed due to a power outage (yes, a power outage).  I have some free time.

But what do I make?  Dad doesn't like cake...

Aha!  Julia Child never fails me, but there are so many choices.

Finally, I settle on a Clafouti aux Poires: easy to make, I have tons of pears from my CSA box ripening on my counter, and doesn't contain a lot of sugar.

Julia Child's Clafouti aux Poires
Approximate servings: 6-8

Equipment:
Blender or mixer
A 7 to 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish or pyrex pie plate about 1 1/2 inches deep (I used a Le Creuset skillet)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk
3 eggs
1 Tb vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour (scooped and leveled)
3 cups peeled, cored, and sliced ripe pears (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 lbs. pears)
1/4 cup sweet white wine, kirsch, or cognac

Let pears stand for 1 hour in wine, kirsch, or cognac, and sugar.  Substitute this liquid for part of the milk called for in the batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the rest of the ingredients in the blender or mixer in the order in which they are listed.  Cover and blend at top speed for 1 minute.

Pour 1/4 inch layer of batter in the baking dish or pie plate.  Set over moderate heat for a minute or two, so a film of batter sets in the bottom of the dish.  Remove from heat and spread the pears out in the pan.  Pour the remainder of the batter over the pears and smooth the surface.

Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for approximately an hour.  You can tell the clafouti is done when you can poke a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

I love this recipe because of its simplicity.  Everyone enjoyed it, including my youngest sister who generally tends to appreciate sweeter desserts.

Possible suggestions to tweak this recipe:

- Next time I'll try rice or soy milk to see if it affects the flavor. If it doesn't, then this would be a fabulous non-dairy recipe!

The beginning of a love affair...

After moving out of my parents house and in with my older sister a few years ago, I developed a passion for cooking. The discovery of lactose intolerance at the ripe ol' age of 23 only motivated me to further hone my skills; insuring that despite my inability to process lactose, I could continue to eat tasty, flavorful food.

Cheese was probably the most difficult dairy product to give up, though milk was also a challenge. Particularly when I went through a 3 month detoxing period. During that time I wasn't allowed to eat anything that had even been processed in the same plant as dairy products.

Grocery shopping was a nightmare.

Slowly over time, I found ways to accommodate my new dietary restriction. I allowed (and still do) myself to "cheat" every now and again. But of course, around the holidays it was more now than again.

Now I continue to try to adapt recipes to make them dairy-free enough to satisfy my stomach and tasty enough to feed to my significant other who loves all that is dairy.

When he surprised me the other day with my very own, brand new, RED Kitchenaide mixer, I knew I had to make the inaugural culinary concoction a good one.

He suggested I make cinnamon rolls; a pastry he had been craving for quite some time.  Cinnamon rolls seemed like a good choice, particularly as they carry such fond memories for me...

My family used to celebrate Santa Lucia Day to honor our Swedish heritage.  On the morning of Dec. 16th, my oldest sister would put on a crown of greenery with (fake) candles attached.  My younger sister and I were the star girls and we assisted in carrying up coffee and cinnamon buns to my parents, while singing the Santa Lucia song along the way.  Then the three of us would pile on my parents bed and eat breakfast with them.  I'm not exactly sure how this tradition started, but I'm pretty sure my parents enjoyed being served breakfast in bed!

Now, cinnamon rolls, as we all know, contain not only milk in the dough, but typically a form of dairy (such as cream cheese) in the frosting as well. Finding an easily adaptable recipe required a bit of research.

I started by searching for dairy-free recipes online, but as is typically the case, my search continually provided me with gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan options.

I'm not vegan. I love meat. And for some weird reason, apparently (according to my doctor) I can still process butter.

Ultimately, I decided to go with a regular recipe (i.e. one that contains dairy) and simply substituted rice milk.

I used this Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll recipe from Food.com and ended up with these:

My entire apartment smelled delicious while these rolls were baking in the oven.  The sweet scent of cinnamon wafted through the air.  When I took my first ooey, gooey bite a few moments after extracting them from the oven, it was one of pure sensory delight.

I opted not to have frosting on mine, after a semi-disastrous attempt at using rice milk and powdered sugar (rice milk is too watery).  But my SO made a small batch using milk, butter, and powdered sugar:

Yum!!

Possible suggestions to tweak this recipe:
 - Brushing butter across the top for added color and flavor
 - Finding a non-dairy frosting, though the plain rolls were tasty on their own!